#actually I'm going to make this non-rebloggable

[musical-chick-13]

*puts my head in my hands* The reason that so many of us say, "I don't trust people who say that all men are evil no exceptions you should never interact with any of them for any reason" ISN'T because we are coddling abusive men, it's because we a) don't want to get into bioessentialism territory, and b) are WELL aware of your history of using this rhetoric to blame women who are abused by men because "Well men are horrible, what did she expect, she brought this on herself."

[shipmansflannels]

welcome home, cheater | jackie taylor x reader

oh, hi! well, sorry for promising I was going to post something yesterday but ending up not doing it. I was trying to take some time out of the computer and trying to organize my creativity. so, this is what I could manage to post after a day off. hope it's fine. enjoy! sorry if it's too short, it was actually based on a youtube video I saw a long time ago and I couldn't remember all the details in it. hope you enjoyed it anyway. thanks for all the support, and the rebloggs, and the likes, and the following!

enjoy!

sorry for any grammatical or coherence errors, english is not my first language and I'm trying to improve!

------------------------------------------

welcome home, cheater | jackie taylor x reader

-> prompt: after an embarrassing situation at the mall, jackie has a jealous crisis. <-

warnings: non cannon, no crash, most fem!reader but it works for gender neutral readers too, jealous!jackie, jackie being a girlfaillure, 1996 timeline, mentions of randy walsh, plot twist.

***

She had spent the entire trip back in silence.

It had become an awkward silence in the car and you couldn't help but look at her and make sure everything was okay in the passenger seat, but Jackie hadn't said a word since you left the mall and she hadn't said anything when you were driving home either.

Her parents were on a business trip, and as two teenage girlfriends who did everything in secret, you were taking advantage of those days to be together. But suddenly, everything had become a confusing mess.

Opening and closing the car door with force, Jackie grabbed the bags of clothes that were hers and set off into the house in a hurry, before you could even park the car properly in the Taylor's huge garage.

Picking up your purchases and following her into the house, you threw them on the couch and promised that you would organize it after finding out what was wrong. As you imagined, Jackie had locked herself in her room and was probably listening to loud music on that damn Walkman you had given her for her last birthday.

In fact, if you had known that it would be the cause of all your ruin, you would have thought twice when you saw him in the store window begging to be taken home.

Knocking on the door three times just to be sure, you kept your voice low, hoping she would hear you anyway, over the loud music.

"Jax, can we just talk for a minute?"

There was no response. And instead of insisting, you just pulled the handle, not at all impressed that the door wasn't locked.

"Jackie, I'm serious. What did I do? Could you please talk to me for a second and sort things out?"

She looked at you, clearly listening to you, and with a sigh, she took the Walkman from her ears and threw it back hard, those huge eyes staring into your face. Like a stubborn child, she crossed her arms and sighed again.

“I think I should be the one asking that question,” she whispered, her voice a little firmer than you were usually expecting. Generally, while you had a calmer and more relaxed posture, Jackie was always excited, always outgoing, always talking loudly, as if she was always filled with sugar all over her body.

You frowned. "What the hell does that mean?"

"What did I do wrong, (Y\N)? What did I do wrong for you to leave me so easily, and right in front of my face, for Randy Walsh? What's different about him?”

Once again, you frowned, looking at her. "Jax, I don't get it. What the hell are you talking about?"

She huffed, returned to her normal expression and, with a roll of her eyes, leaned against the headboard. That was the signal she used for you to start a cuddle session on ordinary days, but now, you didn't know if you should join her.

So you just sat on the edge of the bed, still with your eyes fixed on her. "Is there something wrong? You can tell me, I promise I won't explode. You know I hate it when we fight, Jackie."

"You. Randy Walsh. At the video game store. Small talk. That pissed me off."

She explained, in pauses, now avoiding looking at you. Relaxing your expression, you gave an incredulous smile, but waited for her to continue, just to prove your point, and not to interrupt her in the middle of her justification.

"And what's worse, you left me waiting for hours in front of that stupid ice cream shop with my stupid raspberry cone in my hand, with my stupid shopping bags in my hand. Not hours, but…", she counted on her fingers, like if she was trying to remember. "... fifteen minutes, approximately."

You laughed again, scratching the back of your head. And she continued rambling.

"And you two were giggling, and you looked like a fool in love. I wouldn't care if it was a girl or a nice guy, I swear, but Randy Walsh! It's unacceptable, (Y\N)! How many times have you bumped into each other? through the school hallways? Once? Half a minute?”

You looked at her. "Look, love, listen… You got it all wrong."

"And I know I'm freaking out like it's a nightmare, like it's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life - and it really is, but whatever -. It's just… what would you expect me to do? I swear, it made me want to take your car, go home and leave you there alone, just to welcome you with a fucking sign stuck in the living room saying "welcome home, cheater"… But of course I didn't do that, I'm freaking out like it's the worst thing I've ever seen in my life, (Y\N), do you happen to realize what you fucking did? Randy Walsh, really? Are you fucking kidding me?"

You laughed again. "Jackie, please let me explain."

"Ah, now you want to explain? Well, go ahead. Explain yourself."

You sighed, looking at her and thinking exactly how you were going to put each thing into words, regretting it soon after, but knowing that you should move on. Looking straight into her eyes, you decided to start slowly, as you should.

"Do you remember the last day we went shopping? The day we spent at the new game store that opened on floor three and you saw that Nintendo 64 and your eyes lit up? So…", you bit your lip, nervously. "That day when you saw me talking to Randy for the first time, after coming back from practice, I was just trying to see if I could buy one cheaper, since he works at the game store in the other mall and I didn't have money specifically for the Nintendo from that store… And he promised me that he would try to ask his boss for an order, and that he would give me answers later…"

She widened her eyes, following you speaking as if it were the most important thing in the world, and from her reactions, you realized that you had made a mistake, and you realized that she also knew that she had made a mistake in judging you so early.

"Today, we were just passing by the aisle at Randy's game store, so I thought I would try to see if he had gotten the Nintendo yet… He told me yes, that it was on order and should arrive in a few days. And that made me extremely happy, Jackie, because… because it was my gift to you and because it was… well, it was your surprise birthday present."

With another bite on your lip, you laughed softly as you avoided looking at your girlfriend, who had her eyes even wider and her mouth open.

"That-? What-? How-? Oh, my God, babe… I…"

You nodded, laughing again.

"I screwed up, didn't I? I got it wrong and screwed up-"

"No, it's okay, I also overreacted, I should have told you… not told you, but at least given signs."

Jackie pouted regretfully and opened her arms. You fit into them well and breathed in her strawberry scent while ruffling those still wet hair. She whimpered a few times and hid her face in your neck, embarrassed. Her cheeks were too red, almost rosy.

"Shit, I'm so sorry, love. I didn't mean to ruin the surprise," she whispered. "It's just that seeing you and Randy together, I thought-"

"It's okay, Jax, I said it's okay. It was half my fault anyway…"

You shrugged and lifted her face to kiss her slowly. It started with a peck and then turned into a kiss that lasted a few seconds longer. When you pulled away from her, you whispered, touching the white blouse with butterflies sewn on the chest, looking down.

"Listen, I told you that I want to be clear about my feelings, and that I want to make us work, so… if I were cheating on you, which obviously I'm not, I would probably tell you. There's no reason I hide this from you, Jackie. Not even out of shame." You touched her lips with your fingers. "I love you. I wouldn't trade you for anything in this world. I swear to all that is sacred. You are the most incredible girl I have ever met and you are the woman of my life, I have never been so sure of that as I am now. "

She sighed and smiled, making another pout that you couldn't resist kissing, laughing softly and taking a moment to pull away from her.

"Besides, Randy Walsh isn't my type, and I'm not his type either…", you laughed again. "And when I say that, I mean it literally…"

Jackie frowned, her clear eyes emanating curiosity. "What you mean?"

“Jackie…” you shrugged, scratching your forehead. "He is gay."

[myfandomrealitea]

ok I’ll be honest, I was one of the people who approached your safe space post with the mindset “yeah, but…” like, I now whole-heartedly agree that there should absolutely be fandom spaces devoid of real world issues. We all need our spaces to rest and relax. I think I just felt weird about your post because previously ive been in fandom spaces which did operate on the (perfectly fine) rule of ‘no politics’…but ‘politics’ would also include talking about a gay ship or any queer headcannons.

That obviously wasn’t fair to you because you obviously didn’t mean that w/ your post, but I can personally see as to why some people would feel that way if they were in similar fandom spaces. I do still want to reiterate I do agree with your post and I think some of the rebloggers took it…a bit far? Like Jesus Christ some of y’all need to eat a snickers. I also think some of the wording like “bitching about world issues” and “whining about their shitty parents” might’ve thrown me off but that’s not your fault and really a non-issue 🤷🏽‍♀️

you can delete this ask if you want I really won’t mind, I think I can just see as to why there were so many ‘yeah, but…’ rebloggers.

I actually really appreciate asks like this. For a multitude of reasons, but also because it gives really good insight and outer perspective for both me and other people who are aware of or involved in the discussion.

I think what a lot of people don't yet grasp about me is that while I may hold an opposing view to yours (general, not directed), in the vast majority of cases I still very much understand why people would think the way they do and where that thought process comes from and goes.

Its very, very easy to fall into the mindset of thinking that not helping when you have the ability to makes you a bad person or however in/directly causes suffering. Its very easy to be in the mindset of one single individual making a magnitude of difference.

I fully and genuinely understand and comprehend a lot of the points being brought up.

I just don't agree with them and hold a different outlook on those issues.

For example:

Talking about enjoying a queer ship to me is not 'political' in the sense that, personally, if you're a homophobe and upset by generic conversations about queer people, I really could not give a fuck. And if you raise objections to me talking about two dudes kissing, I'm simply going to remove you from my space because clearly it is not beneficial for either of us to share it. And I made it.

Its obviously very very much down to personal discretion to decide where that line is and what that bracket encompasses, but I think the most universal aspect of that safe space post was trying to get people to understand that forcing others to suffer in solidarity isn't activism and that strangers are not obligated to allow you to use them as support and a dumping ground for your needs.

Spreading around videos of people's dead loved ones isn't activism.

Spamming taglines and buzzwords on completely unrelated posts and videos isn't activism.

Relying on complete strangers for emotional and mental support and regulation while dumping vulnerable, graphic, personal information on them is neither safe nor healthy.

People are not obligated to smother or confine their happiness because of your misery. If you're having a bad day you have no right to tell other people they can't be happy in front of you.

A lot of people, mostly white knighters and people of color took the post as "a white privileged pig saying its okay to let racism slide because you want to play your video games" (actual hate mail I received) and that's so laughably and wildly far from the actual basis of the post.

I've had bigots in my servers before. Homophobes or racists who've slipped through the cracks.

You know what happens when they say something homophobic or racist?

They're immediately removed, blocked and reported, and their information is placed in a private document I keep. I issue an apology to the members of the server for their actions, and life goes on.

People are, of course, entitled to take the post as they see fit. They're entitled to their own perspectives and opinions. I'm more than happy to simply focus on the people who have taken support, guidance and solace in the post.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

If someone were to make a tabletop game (rpg or otherwise) about smashing monsters consensually, what would you want to see in it? What would get you to take a look at how it plays? Very open ended question I know, but I’m sure there’s a market for this.

Marked sexual themes because obviously, and I'm putting a break in since I'm more straightforward than usual. And non rebloggable so my friends don't find me mentioning this XD

If a TTRPG, I'd go for something rules-lite to keep the game flowing and fun, like Rapscallion's Vice & Violence: Salacious Sword & Sorcery Adventures for the Uninhibited & Unhinged. Haven't actually played it, but back in college my group did try to make a game like it. And in my experience it just doesn't work as much once the novelty wears off? Fun for a session, but it's a gimmick, and those tend to fizzle fast unless EVERYTHING lines up perfect. Doubly so with one like this, as it's hard to just keep that up that energy the whole time, for EVERYONE to, and to match desires for how the smashing goes. It could work for some specific groups, but I feel like the market for a TTRPG of that isn't anywhere near as large as people think it is. And this is the sort of thing that's up my alley, my first video as an adult was me and my pals reading naruto hentai. My voice went on the internet for the first time by pretending to be Hinata full of dicks, everyone laughing cause I actually shoved something down my throat for more realistic line reads (I always FULLY commit to a bit). So it's not like my group is prudes or something, we would talk about or read or watch shit together without batting an eye last I tried this sorta thing. but playing is a whole different beast.

Now one of those fancy board games could get really interesting, THAT I think has more staying power. A card battler where you're trying to wear opponents out, or a game where you're trying to get (and keep satisfied) a variety of monsters partners, or maybe just a normal board game where you're scoring by...well, scoring. Maybe different monsters are worth different points, or you're trying to fuck as many as possible? Hell, just a board game version of monster prom would work wonderfully! So to answer your question I guess, to draw me in it'd have to be more like a party game. Rules-lite TTRPG based around one-shots and short campaigns, or a board/card game that takes a few hours but commits hard to the theme.

[mahinabi]

hello! i'm hinabi, a colloseum leader at the Pokétopia battle resort in Hoenn. i'm rather new to rotomblr, but i've found myself having way too much time on my hands recently, so... here i am!

i'm mostly a reblogger (which is still important!), but if you have any questions about me, i'd love to answer! my team(s) and more information about me is under the cut.

//PS OOC: this really only has bare minimum information atm, but I'll update it with more info as time goes on. I just wanted to get to posting LMAO. it does also open up for opportunity for other blogs to ask about my pokémon ofc,, please ask 👉👈. "//" before a paragraph means it's out of character, but the first paragraph in a post will usually say it's OOC.

//POTENTIAL TWs:

religion (pokemon religion ofc),,, that's pretty much all I can think of atm

if there's any other common triggers that you find under the cut (or in any of my posts), please let me know and I'll add it here!!

POKÉMON:

other battlers:

pokétopia battlers:

tuna (female appletun)

atlas (male furfrou)

enchilada (male lopunny)

cielo (male surfing mantine)

wellyn (female whimsicott)

flurrie (female shiny alolan ninetales)

non-battlers:

hotaru (male hisuian typhlosion)

daikenki (male hisuian samurott)

piper (female primarina)

ezurye (male hisuian zoroark)

lunette/poofy (shiny galarian rapidash)

asuka (shaymin)

burmy. just burmy. he doesn't have a name

torbie (multi-colored spinda?)

i am a lunalist! just wanted to get that out of the way, if anyone is bothered by that. it's pretty much just the religion following and worshipping lunala. religion in general fascinates me, and i love hearing the little differences between different faiths! i actually want to make a pilgrimage to the Altar of the Moone someday.

important things to know about me:

i was born on Mareyo; a relatively small island region between Alola and Hoenn. it's very similar to Alola climate and geography-wise, but there's lots more water, even inland.

just because of how close Mareyo is to both Alola and Hoenn, i've actually lived in both regions! currently because of my pokétopia job, i live in Hoenn, but for most of my childhood, i lived in Alola.

//OOC Guidelines:

i'm 21. (//OOC, I'm 18)

for better lack of term, i have a shit sleep schedule (my own fault most of the time, not because of my occupation). information on this might change because i passed out while in the middle of writing or something, and it's inaccurate. worse case scenario i sound like i'm going insane

no magic anons for now, until i familiarize myself more with rotomblr. ty pookies

completely fine with eebies interacting

yes to pelipper mail! as long as it's not malicious mail

these guidelines are subject to change!!

[henrysglock]

Dude the fact that you're hating on the byler side of the fandom for speculating on what they're filming in the church is crazy, when you youself have posted such outlandish theories like 'Hopper killed a cat as a teenager' bffr

Dude the fact that you're hating on me on anon is crazy, when I myself post my hate openly and with my name attached.

🚨 Coward Alert! 🚨

Also: Those posts were non-rebloggable. That means you either follow me, or you stalk my blog. I'm not sure which is more embarrassing for you!

Anyway, to actually address what you said:

I didn't say Hopper killed the cat, I said "which of these two (Henry or Hopper) seems more like someone who would be violent towards animals of their own volition" WORKING WITHIN IN THE FRAMEWORK ESTABLISHED BY HOPPER'S TREATMENT OF EL. The line from the Hopper TFS audition tape indicated that he a) hates cats, b) wants to beat the shit out of one, and c) wants to shake the hand of the guy who killed the (at the time) unnamed cat. Which one seems more likely to harm things smaller than him: A guy with that ^^ line, or a kid who looks disturbed and vaguely ill while interacting with a rabbit that broke its leg in a snare? And I wasn't even entirely wrong. I was wrong about Hopper, which I admitted freely, but I was never wrong about Henry. It was a line that existed in a video that was immediately redacted when the other tapes weren't, indicating that it was too close to spoiler territory…and it DID appear in the play! The content of the other videos did not! Funny how that works.

As indicated above, I do my best to make sure my theories always have some kind of factual basis. The byIer theory you're referring to is based in what people want to see happen, not what's actually been presented to them...and that's ALWAYS going to end in disappointment (<- something I have said many times, something that shapes how I do analysis). There was no indication that the church was going to be about byIer, and I said multiple times that the quote on the sign is more about the Creels/Henry's thing with the Mindflayer...Especially since Mike and Will don't have a lick of religious trauma between them, unlike Henry who has a whole ass arc in a church 💀. Lo and behold: red mindscape lights at the church. Vecna. No Finn, iffy on Noah. Who would have thought...who could have guessed...who could have foreseen...........

I don't have the attitude. When I saw TFS and realized the line had been taken out of context, I immediately posted and said "Huh, I was wrong about Hopper. That's a lesson about assumptions." I didn't overdose on copium about it and post "uuuhuhuh it can still happen Hopper can still have been a violent teen". No. I acknowledged that I was wrong in December, and I have since altered my theories accordingly. I let it go. I've also said over and over that all of my theories have a maximum confidence rating of 50/50. Most of them rank in at about 10-15% confidence. It's the academic writer in me that says "post your hypothesis with confidence, and if you're wrong, then retract and try again". I've never been that cocky and self-assured...because it's embarrassing to have acted that way only to be wrong (especially!! when it's something easily disproven, like "the church is all about byler"). If other people, like you, want to ignore my self-awareness and try to make me out as a hypocrite, that's no longer a me problem. That's a you problem. Lol. Lmao, even.

[favoritesegacharacterbracket]

I'm sorry for sending an ask again, but this has gone out of hand. Despite that person apparently claiming to you it was all just "jokes" and me long blocking them and moving on, not interacting with the polls at all, I woke up this morning to my inbox full of abusive messages of all kinds from these people, both in my asks and my replies. If they actually never meant for this to be abusive, they would have told their people to lay off. Instead, I'm being barraged as if I'd committed some kind of heinous crime. Apparently they highlighted one of the asks I replied to in some kind of way too because it keeps getting getting reblogges with abuse as well. I honestly don't know what to do anymore.

I am so, so sorry.

This is NOT OK.

I fear that no matter what I choose, I'll make people angry, and you'll get blamed for it. The only choice that wouldn't upset people is to just treat the poll as normal, but I don't want to reward this sort of behavior.

Then again, they're probably not going to see this post, they probably don't follow me.

By the way, if anyone reading this doesn't believe in treating people they way you'd want to be treated (with the possible except of truly evil people), then unfollow me.

I don't want to disqualify both characters (for the sake of their non-toxic fans)

So I'll ignore the vote, and put them on a team.

[in-newjersey]

So here are my thoughts on my first time seeing a live BMC production!

Making this non-rebloggable, I am not a real theater critic and I do not want to draw any attention to this actual cast on an anonymous blog to strangers on the internet

For starters, casting!

I respect the variety going on here and the degree of diverging from famous character appearance-tropes. Tiny Latino Jeremy who's as fit as a gymnast and can (and does) do acrobatic spin kicks sometimes? Love it. Plus-size butch-esque Brooke? 10/10. Genderfuckery long-haired Michael who gesticulates with a huge fan through most conversations? Hell yeah. Pink-haired Nirvana-grunge-style trans guy Jake? Now we're talking. Christine a head taller than Jeremy? Awesome.

I will not get too into describing actual real people on here much more than that but in general it was wonderful to see a wide range of character-actor types inhabiting these roles. As someone involved in The Fandom, even though I have frequently expounded upon the mutability of character traits per the text, you do still absorb a general idea of what the characters "look" like; so it was a fun twist to have literally none of the performers fall into those tropes.

I will also say - and this is not a read - that I am no longer going to assume I'm too old to play any of these characters, because I guess that's the magic of community theater lol

On to Thoughts, which I will loosely group by characters:

Rich was fucking awesome. Like I was impressed by the singing skill across the board, but this guy fucking killed it at every turn. I looked at my friend I went with after The Squip Song and we both were like OH OK. Rich also wore mostly KISS T-shirts? Like the shitty glam rock band? But yknow, work. Excellent voice (if casting were a little more 'stereotypical,' he probably would be an excellent Michael). Emotionally, he was on the more explosive side while SQUIPped, melting toward just charmingly cute once in 'real Rich Goranski' mode.

The aforementioned Jake was an interesting take on the character. Definitely leaned more into the kind of douchey side of things, but did at least at one point seem genuinely into Christine (although the actor was very much leaning into the interpretation 'yeah he has multiple interests and he honestly likes them all in the moment but gets bored quickly, and that includes girlfriends'). Is that kind of shitty? Yes. Is that a realistic take on what a rich popular 17 year old might be like? Also yes. Nirvana-fan Jake was not a concept I thought of before but I was down for it (though I discovered later on the cast instagram page that the guy playing Jake said that his version of Jake thinks Nirvana is a clothing brand which, like, galaxy-brain take lol).

THE SQUIP!!!!! Actually cycled through Keanu Reeves costumes, which I loved. Started out in Bill & Ted, then Matrix, then POINT BREAK of all things, before landing on a pretty-impressive-for-the-budget version of the light-up circuitry priest robe thing from the Broadway style. He had the hair and beard pretty close to present-day Keanu too, which made him both line up with the resemblance and seem significantly older than the other characters; voice-wise, this guy was clearly a skilled baritone, which meant his delivery on some of the more rock-style songs was a bit unusual, but not bad. This SQUIP was suave at the right parts but did NOT shy away from being scary: the 'take me inside you' part with Brooke during Upgrade was staged very menacingly with regards to how he was physically moving around/behind Jeremy. The Play was delightfully sinister, leaning HARD into the SQUIP as literally puppeteering everyone: saying their lines and moving his hands like marionnettes throughout, keeping things very creepy and villainous.

On the topic of the play, the fight choreography kicked ass. Mr. Reyes's ALL THE WAY TO BROADWAY rant was delivered while he yanked Jeremy off the ground by his shirtfront and then threw him furiously across the stage, genuinely concerning and upsetting to watch (especially as the SQUIP was miming the same actions and lines behind him, obviously in control of Reyes's body) (I literally said 'oh fuck' out loud when it happened and got a Look from the presumably-grandma in the row ahead lol). The fight choreography during Two Player Game Reprise was also solid: the guy playing Jeremy was FIT and did a lot of impressive acrobatic kicks and such, and the person playing Michael being a lot taller and larger worked well with letting him like bounce off, lift him up for spin kicks, etc.

And in general, I respected how much this production was willing to let certain moments be dark. The Play in general was pretty horror-movie-climax; I also respected that the costuming did indeed look like so-so high school mockups of a modern zombie movie. But the whole number was eerie, SQUIPPED character movements and voices became unnervingly smooth and robotic, and positioning the SQUIP as the puppetmaster in the middle, literally moving the characters around, just sold the whole thing wonderfully. Very appropriately leaning into the horror part of horror-comedy.

Similarly, Do You Wanna Hang? was scary. AS IT SHOULD BE. My friend who came with me compared it favorably to the car scene in the movie 8th Grade, where you're just On Edge the whole time you're watching. The actress playing Chloe did a good job with it, that's an uncomfortable thing to portray but she went for it and it paid off in the moment.

Chloe and Brooke had a fun dynamic: the styles of the costuming/performers did add some interesting dimensions. Chloe was, as usual, pink and perfect and feminine, head-cheerleader vibes; Brooke was short haired and dressed a lot more masculine. Brooke had a very earnest sense of vulnerability to her, and excellent comedic timing during Do You Wanna Ride and The Smartphone Hour, as well as just the minor background-acting moments. They leaned pretty hard into the 'Chloe will take things just because Brooke wanted them, because she likes that Brooke is always a little jealous of her, and thinks that that's friendship' and, like the portrayal of Jake: is that a shitty thing to do? Yes. Is that a realistic thing teenagers might do, especially poisoned by toxic ideas about femininity and power? Also yes.

Which is a good spot to add, the ensemble was small (4) but they were serving it. The band appeared to be octogenarian church volunteers (oh, yeah, this was at a church??? Wesleyan Methodists, so the cool liberal branch of American Christianity) so I will say that with what they had, they were making it work. It would have been served well by a second keyboardist and/or guitarist to do the trumpet parts (it was drums, bass, guitar, and piano). One of the ensemble members, a tall goth-femme person with hot pink hair, played the role of the theremin by doing the melodies in remarkable and ethereal bel canto. And honestly, work.

Jenna Rolan was fun: could belt for the gods, had some pretty-intense Crazy Eyes thing going on that really sold the comedic moments and made her appropriately frightening as the Final Boss in the squipped battle at the end, styled like an early 2000s-lesbian-coded-soft-goth best friend archetype. No notes, 11/10.

The actor playing Mr. Heere/Reyes/Stockboy did a fantastic job of making those three seem separate, and as I mentioned above, really made Mr. Reyes come to life in a dynamic way. Sidenote, this production changed all references to Hobby Lobby to Michaels, which I found both funny and appropriate. Fuck Hobby Lobby, we all hate Hobby Lobby.

Back to characterizations, Christine was sweet and straightforward. Not as quirky or dynamic as Stephanie or a lot of other actresses make her, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Very gentle and smooth voice, she just really likes theater and wants someone to like the real her. They went with ballet-style choreography to introduce her during More Than Survive, which is always a wonderful touch for the way the music swells. There were points where I think a little more creative movement or a wider emotional range might have worked well, but the take on the character was consistent.

I am going to keep that positive thread through the next sections: while I might not have agreed with the interpretation through the text, I do respect going in a starkly different direction to how most productions and fans usually take such things.

I have enormous respect for the performer playing Michael for radically making it their own. The cast bios had pronouns, and Michael's performer was they/she/he, which as a fellow they/she/he who would love to play Michael someday was rad to see. They kept the CREEPS shirt and a hoodie with a lot of patches (albeit a black one with red accents), but that was about it. Michael had light-up cat ear headphones and a huge black fan which he used throughout, alternated between baggy sweatpants or just a floor-length hippy skirt, usually high-heel ankle boots, and some kind of green bathrobe thing for The Pants Song? Characterization, again, respect for making such an iconic character so heavily different. This Michael was not....very emotional. He was usually snippy and sarcastic in a very erudite and matter-of-fact way, at pretty much all points in the show. Not a lot of emotional range going on: this is a Michael who is in some combination of 'doesn't give a shit' and 'not going to let this bother me,' which came off....interesting. The chemistry this created with Jeremy was a starkly different one than we usually see. The original productions - and most since, and the majority of fandom depictions - imagines a Michael and Jeremy who, at their core, love each other a lot. However that manifests of course varies, but you Usually get the impression that (even with a little bit of codependence), these two genuinely love each other and spending time together, which makes moments in the show either heartwarming or devastating to see happen between them.

Not these versions of the characters.

Which didn't make it bad, but it did shake things up. This Michael and Jeremy didn't give deep-love-friendship so much as they gave 'we sat next to each other in 1st grade and don't have other friends. so. I guess we're best friends, huh.'

Which is an INTERESTING and somewhat bleaker, but not unrealistic, take on them. That, sadly, summarizes a lot of friendships, especially at that age and with the sort of vacuum of suburbia on your social sphere (nevermind how a lot of society discourages boys from emotional connection with their friends; if anything, the fact that this Michael was definitely queer might suggest that Jeremy even pulled back emotionally because he didn't want to seem gay or give this Michael the wrong idea). It definitely sells Jeremy feeling lonely, even with his best friend hanging around. Two-Player Game came across a LOT better than I was prepared for - I have waxed about how it's a hard number to pull off - not in spite of, but almost because of this. Like, sure, they've played through this game a million times before, they know every beat, they love it like they love each other, right? even though they seem.....kind of bored. Or at least like they're waiting for something else to happen. College? Girlfriend? Different friends? Just wait two years. Whatever.

To get critical, I will say that this dynamic did not really help Michael in the Bathroom. The fight beforehand and the song itself did.....not really lend themselves to a not-very-emotional friendship between them. The singing was perfect, so not faulting that: it's THE big song of the show, so that's a lot of pressure and the performer had a splendid voice, but the snarky-not-caring-that-much attitude didn't quite do it for me - Michael didn't seem sad or upset so much as pissed off, but still fully keeping it together (despite the lyrics saying otherwise). Tonally, the 'wish I'd offed myself instead' just sounded sarcastic ("wow, SORRY I CARED AT ALL, could've just killed myself for all you seem to care" kind of vibes) THAT SAID, it was consistent with the rest of the characterization, so I admire it as a very specific acting choice. There were also characters on stage - presumably outside the bathroom door, listening in - that turned a good portion of MITB into a comedic number; as I have said before, not my personal take on how that should go, but the audience was laughing along with it! So that's the wonderful mutability of theater.

Strangely enough, this actually made Michael and Jeremy's relationship at the end of the story work out just fine? The SQUIP experience kind of sparked a "wow we really do care about each other, huh" realization from both of them. Again, mad respect for taking such a different approach to such a well-worn character relationship.

So, overall, I am very happy I got to see this. Love to support live theater, love to be surprised by a story that I thought I knew pretty well inside and out, came away with plenty to think and talk about. If you can, go support your local community theater!

[utilitycaster]

My head has been spinning recently just thinking about the sort of backlash that Laura and Marisha would get from fans if Imogen and Laudna didn't end up together.

For example, I can imagine them roleplaying a conversation in which one of pair reveals they have a crush on someone else in the party, and the other supports them fully in that endeavour. I can only imagine the people who would say "she looked away when she said that line so she's lying!!!" or "they're just denying their feelings for each other"

C3 is the first campaign I've managed to catch live, so I'm not sure if this sort of shipping happened in C2 or C1. I feel like Beau/Yasha would be most likely to have caused similar reactions, but even then, I don't think I've seen this amount of protectiveness over a ship that is this vague. Marisha and Ashley at least made it clear from e1 that their characters had (at the very least, one-sided) romantic interest.

Hi anon,

I've gotten a few questions to this effect and have declined to answer some because it does feel a bit like borrowing trouble, even though I will fully admit some of my private DMs look not unlike this. So I'm going to try to answer this with as much sensitivity and thoroughness as I can despite a number of frustrations (not with you, to be clear) and let this serve as my answer going forward unless anything drastically changes. I am making it non-rebloggable, under a cut, and will be blocking any clownery.

Let's rip off the bandaid right away: for some reason, and I have my theories but they are unconfirmed at in some cases, rather ungenerous, Marisha and Laura's characters have been heavily shipped in all three campaigns despite a chemistry I would call middling at best. I think the most generous way to put it is that while Ashley was working on Blindspot, they were often the only two women at the table (though one must look a bit askance at how Veth is often ignored as a female character, despite unambiguously being one). So I suspect that a lot of it comes from simply wanting an F/F romance between main cast PCs during Campaign 1 and having no good options, and then...remaining fixated on that particular cast dynamic, despite, as stated before, chemistry that has never particularly impressed me.

I did not watch Campaign 1 live, so I don't know what the discourse was at the time. I did watch Campaign 2 live and your prediction is accurate. The ship that caused similar reactions was actually Beau and Jester; you can still find people who claim it was a "mistake" to pursue Beauyasha instead and that Beauyasha "came out of nowhere" and was "for the straights." You are also entirely correct that people will grasp at the weakest of straws to support a ship, though, in all fairness, this is not remotely limited to femslash shippers but is a general shipping problem. (The worst offender during Campaign 2 for that, in my opinion, were people who shipped Caleb and Jester and who became creepily obsessed with Laura's expressions late in the game; that is also incidentally still the ship that I think has the most parallels to Imogen and Laudna in terms of canon character relationship vs. fanon perceptions.)

I do expect that if Imogen and Laudna do not get together, for whatever reason, there will be considerable denial. We've already seen some misplaced vitriol towards Ashton, and the response among shippers towards Imogen has, as I've pointed out over the past two weeks, been wildly inconsistent and deeply ungenerous in a desperate attempt to twist her actions in favor not just of the ship, but towards a highly specific idea of the ship as soft girlfriends against the cruel world, instead of a complicated codependence with the potential for becoming something more. I and others have also pointed out that the ship has gone from "they are already in love" to "a QPR would also be totally cool" which is rather unkind to QPRs.

I should also acknowledge the elephant in the room. I am well aware that I am probably public enemy number one on the Imogen/Laudna server where they come up with such bon mots as "bone-dry takes". I suspect this is because I genuinely enjoy both Imogen and Laudna as individual characters and write about them a lot, but in doing so, acknowledge the cracks and tension within their relationship. So on some level, even though the ship could absolutely still happen, they've already kind of started with some of the behaviors you mention, which is rather disappointing.

Anyway, I think this is all to say that this is a general problem in shipping across the board that is not confined to Imogen and Laudna nor F/F ships, but because that specific ship is both, as you say, vague, and yet has an extremely popular and extremely narrow fanon interpretation, it's in particular focus this campaign. I think you're correct that there will be backlash should it not happen, though I would be pleasantly surprised and deeply humbled if there is not. Fortunately I have found that Critical Role is fairly impervious to fandom backlash in terms of the decisions they make in-game, because let's face it, people will push back on anything, including such necessary parts of story as "dramatic tension" and "conflict." If you listened to them you would make the world's shittiest story, and because there are frequently multiple conflicting ships, you can't please everyone. I'm here to watch a story, and I do think ships are intrinsically part of character arcs, so if the ships serve the characters, whatever they are, I think it will be a worthwhile endeavor.

[walks-the-ages]

Here's a rebloggable version, since Cryptotheism blocked me, and any one else in the reblogs calling them out for using AI!

Apparently local Tumblr Funnyman can't handle it when people don't find their "jokes" funny when it's at the expense of artists:

[ID: A screenshot of a tumblr post by user cryptotheism , marked green in shinigami eyes, where they have posted AI-generated art of Goku from Dragonball-Z speaking to two men in turbans, with various AI-glitches in the photo, such as a random pumpkin with slashes on the front, Goku only having 4 fingers on one of his hands, and extra turban floating in the background. Cryptotheism has captioned the image "Rabbi Moshe De Leon Discusses Theology With Goku - Coño Culo, 14th century". Below Cryptotheism's original post, a blog, censored for privacy, has responded "Ew this is plagiarism algorithm, not real art". Below, in response, Cryptotheism has responded with "This was painted in the 13th/14th century by celebrated Andalusian artist Coño Culo. It is one of the earliest historical examples we have of Goku interacting with Spaniards." End ID]

Here's the response I posted, which they blocked me for less than an hour after I made it:

This type of post is especially heinous of OP, because using AI "because its funny" is literally a tactic to normalize AI art -- aka, art theft.

"no one was going to be paid to paint this!!!" The replies cry over and over again; "therefore its fine for me to use AI bullshit that steals the work of thousands if not millions of artists to make it, instead of putting any effort into it myself via a simple photo edit, or actually commissioning/requesting it of someone!"

"there's ai databases that are trained only on public domain images!!!!" Okay so why is Goku there? I kinda doubt Goku is in public domain art. That means this scraped art from non-public domain images, and is stealing from fan artists.

It's especially shameful for popular blogs to do it, because you've got people rabidly defending it as a knee jerk reaction.

The fact Cryptotheism had to restrict the replies of the post, because so many people were calling them out for using AI art, and even went as far as editing the original post to be a shitty Dark Souls thing to hide what they'd done-- stealing art for the sake of a joke?

I hope every single person sees this version, and realizes just how low Tumblr Funnymen™ are willing to sink for the sake of a """joke"""

-- even if it means directly contributing to the normalization of artists, writers, voice actors, and more losing their work and livelyhood to AI-generated bullshit.

Because that's what you're doing here. You are actively contributing to the normalization of AI bullshit.

Its literally an alt-right tactic to recruit people via memes and "jokes" for a reason.

If you claim to support artists and writers and actors against losing their jobs to AI, only to turn around and reblog "funny memes" literally made by AI "because no one was going to get paid to paint it", then congrats! You don't actually care about protecting hardworking artists!

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-67922303

https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/midjourney-ai-art-image-generators-lawsuit-1234665579/

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/27/the-current-legal-cases-against-generative-ai-are-just-the-beginning/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ai-stable-diffusion-stability-ai-lawsuit-artists-sue-image-generators/

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66866577

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/famous-artists-trained-ai-generator-viral-list-rcna131995

"I usually hate AI art, but I'm reblogging this because its just too funny!" = "I don't actually care about artists having their work stolen as long as it's palatable enough for my tastes"

Not only did Cryptotheism block me, they're also blocking anyone in the reblogs who points out that their post has been has edited to be a Dark Souls meme, with the replies restricted, because they apparently couldn't stand people in the replies calling them out for the AI and wanted to try to hide it to prevent further backlash:

https://www.tumblr.com/original-post-locator/740713306199818240/tumblr-user-cryptotheism-posted-an-ai-generated?source=share

^ try to find the above post in the notes of the original post, and it will not show up at all, meaning that Cryptotheism also blocked this blog to prevent this from showing up in the notes.

When asked on their blog about why they are using AI art generators when it's widely known (and in this case, they're literally blocking anyone who offers proof) that it harms real world artists, actors, and writers, Cryptotheism continues to double down that it's somehow harmless because it's a joke--

-- when as my original post points out, and other people in the replies and reblogs of the original post (if they're still visible and haven't been blocked as well by the OP) : turning AI art into memes and jokes is literally how AI art is going to be normalized.

In real time, January 2024, Voice Actors are already losing their jobs to AI. Writers and artists were on strikes for months in 2023 to fight to protect their livelyhoods from predatory AI-- (and even then, the Union decided Voice Actors were expendable and didn't consult them when signing a predatory deal that resulted in the current cases of game companies being able to "hire" AI voice actors)

If you knowingly reblog AI Art uncritically simply "because it's funny" or because "no one is going to get paid to do this obscure, wacky art for me", you are literally contributing to art theft and the entitled culture of AI Art Bros, who think because they can't afford to commision someone, and because they're too fucking lazy to draw/edit something themselves, that means they're entitled to stealing the art of anyone who's ever posted on the internet.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/robin-williams-ai-voice-daughter-b2422506.html

Robin Williams' daughter has had to speak up about how people have been using AI to recreate her father's voice after his death from suicide in 2014:

Sunday (2 October), actor Zelda, 34, posted: “I am not an impartial voice in SAG’s fight against AI. “I’ve witnessed for YEARS how many people want to train these models to create/recreate actors who cannot consent, like Dad. “This isn’t theoretical, it is very very real. I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings.” She added: “Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance. “These recreations are, at their very best, a poor facsimile of greater people, but at their worst, a horrendous Frankensteinian monster, cobbled together from the worst bits of everything this industry is, instead of what it should stand for.”

TL;DR:

User Cryptotheism made a "joke post" using an AI-generated image of Goku in a classical painting style, then edited the original post to something completely different and blocked anyone in the reblogs who criticized them for using AI after receiving backlash, and has continued to insist it's just a funny joke and not a big deal that they are normalizing art theft.

[neednothavehappenedtobetrue]

almost made a certified Bad Post, going to start over and try again.

sometimes people ask me "oh, are you still writing?" and I have to redirect my immediate response which is "yes, you can tell because I am not dead."

this would not be a socially appropriate response. but it genuinely feels like if someone was like "oh, you're still into showering? that's cool."

it's so load-bearing for me that I cannot entirely imagine my life without it. I know chronic illness shapes and reshapes people's lives and anything could be taken away from me at any time, but I could not give this up without leaving claw marks deep in it.

it's not like a hobby, it's like bloodletting. and this is sometimes actually a little alienating when it feels like everyone else is interacting with, like, a beloved hobby and I am here oozing blood onto the carpet.

I'm going to make this post non-rebloggable just in case.

[adolin]

I love Cam and Pal and am a CamPal romance truther and it's for that exact specific reason that I hate the sixth with my entire chest. Honestly I think if you're going to make an imperialism or patriarchy argument like people do with Jod (I agree with you on that front, by the way) the sixth is actually the one it'd be easiest to do that with. Like their entire military is dedicated to having children with residents of the shepherd planets and then taking them to be raised in the house. Once saw someone say it wasn't eugenics because they're trying to diversify their gene pool not limit it and I feel like people just don't get that, in canon, they are using their military as a positive eugenics campaign. Also telling someone they can only have kids with two other people because there can't be a drop of relation between them is eugenics. Any attempt to obtain favorable reproductive outcomes through systemic control of who is reproducing and how within an adult population is eugenics! Idk I know this is a stupid hill to die on; it's just something I'm very sensitive to because I'm from the appalachian mountain region in the US, and negative eugenics campaigns from the early 20th century that promoted the stupid cousin-fucking hillbilly narrative about the region people still use today. Also, people don't seem to realize that the enormous social taboo on cousin marriage that exists in western society now is the result of early 20th century eugenics campaigns. This got very off track but I hate the institution of the sixth with an insane and disproportionate passion and honestly would have said "good for her" if BOE killed the oversight body. Also I don't care what authorial intent was to your average non-fandom reader (and I would posit to most fandom readers on first read!) their relationship reads as romantic and at that point intent becomes irrelevant. I needed to make this opinion public but I also need to stay alive so I've dumped it in your ask box. Sorry.

Ship Disk Horse disclaimer: I'm not Appalachian but I do have second cousin marriage very close in my family tree (small town Italy!) and I agree that the incest argument around Cam and Pal is weird. BUT you can't control what people find squicky, and I'm not very fond of the argument "X is actually perfectly okay IRL" to support shipping discourse. I get why you'd take it personally, but that's a super slippery slope IME.

On to the Sixth! I actually think they all employ vat wombs (unless it's for science) and their strategy is to fuck members of other Houses, not the occupied planets. There doesn't seem to be many (or at all) relationships between Houses and non-Houses people.

I don't think we know Enough about the Sixth to say they're unequivocally bad and I'm hesitant to bring up eugenics OR reproductive autonomy, because I don't feel comfortable comparing sff worldbuilding to RL systems of oppression.

That said, the Sixth's commitment to the gene pool thing leaves leaves me very ???? because it seems to be a strategy they have employed for thousands of years with no visible results. The consanguinity tables get narrower. It doesn't seem to give them a "boost" over the other Houses. So why do they stick with it? Gives me a very similar vibe to the Seventh's commitment to their ideal that cancer strengthens a necromancer despite no actual proofs. I think it's just the Sixth's manifestation of the underlying theme that the Houses are basically a zombie civilization, constantly stagnant.

I'm also wondering WTF happened to all those Cohort people when the Sixth seceded. Do they think their friends and families died in the solar flare?

Anyway! I appreciate you sending this ask but I'm going to make it non rebloggable for my sanity :D

[jupitermelichios]

@jughead-is-canonically-aroace (great url btw) asked me to make my additions to this post rebloggable on their own. for reference if anyone wants it, this is a pretty good write up of the whole ongoing situation

~~*~~*~~

Having read the thread, along with a number of other connected threads, there is no reason the believe AO3 is going to go down

(that's not to say you shouldn't back up your own fics, or save copies of other people's fics for personal use, it's always a good idea to have backups)

the linked thread is discussing institutional problems with OTW's Legal and Policy & Abuse committees (although the latter primarily in the ways the thread's author believes they are being negatively impacted by legal)

It's primarily a conversation about the OTW having structural problems and being slow to react/change when needed, but three accusations of specific breaches of the law which could get the OTW into trouble are made:

That the OTW does not retain works PAC identify as containing CSAM/CSEM for the legal minimum period of 90 days

That the OTW suspends rather than deletes the accounts of those identifies as being under 13 so that they can restore the account once the user is over the minimum user age, which is a breach of COPPA

Same as above, but this is a breach of GDPR

None of these could get AO3 taken down, and 2 of them are provably untrue

Systems have confirmed the first point is not true. While works are not retained on the archive for the 90 days, the archive keeps complete back-ups for longer than that, so the work can be restored if needed by the authorities. This is, as rahaeli points out, a pretty inefficient way of handling things, but being inefficient is not a breach of the law

Rahaeli corrects themself in their own thread when they realise that COPPA does not apply to the specific type of non-profit AO3 is, so that's moot

The GDPR point is slightly more complicated. I'm not a lawyer, but I work in the finance industry in the UK handling massive quanities of personal data, so I am required by law to be trained on GDPR.

Email addresses are not automatically personal data under GDPR. They can be, but only if they contain other personal information. So if your email is brony47@gmail, that's not personal data. If it's john.smith@company it is, because it contains your wallet name and employer. So, while it's fairly unlikely when dealing with AO3 accounts belonging to under 13s, especially as school issued emails are basically never wallet names because they just deal with too many people for that to be sustainable, it is technically possible that retaining this info is a breach of GDPR.

However, even if AO3 was found to have breached GDPR, that would not result in the website being taken down with no warning or fics being purged. That's not how any of this works.

AO3 would face fines (I don't actually know how those fines work for non-profits, since they're usually a % of annual turnover - I assume donations would be treated as turnover for the ICO's purposes, but I may be wrong about that).

It's possible that fine could be steep enough that the archive couldn't meet server costs and would ultimately need to shut down, but the ICO do not possess the ability to shut the site down, and AO3 owns its own servers so if the worst happened and the archive shut down, they would have plenty of time to warn people. It would not just vanish, that's not what the ICO does.

(The specific affected account would be need to be deleted, but since it would already be suspended and invisible to users, that would not affect any end-users)

(Also the entire process of it going through the ICO and being debated to get to the point of the fine would probably take at least a year, this is a massive pan-european beauracratic body, it is not famous for its efficiency)

None of this is me saying rahaeli doesn't have valid points, or that reform isn't needed, generally I agree that it is, and I think rahaeli's suggestions about what to change sound reasonable, although I'm not an expert and not on either of the affect teams, so that's just some rando's opinion.

But the this post is not about that, this post is about people worrying about the archive being taken down, and again, that is not what is going on here!

TLDR; back up fics if you want, but AO3 is not in legal trouble, and even if it was, the type of legal trouble being discussed would not result in the entire archive just going down without prior warning

Additionally, since a few people mentioned this in tags and reblogs, AO3 is set up in such a way that there is almost no risk of a griffindor's tower 'mod infighting tanks the website' type situation. No one committee has that power, and the OTW has lost its entire board before now and AO3 continuted to function. (That's actually part of the cause of the problems being discussed, because decentralised power makes it resistant to infighting, but the pay off is that it's slow to change, because it requires a lot of different officers and other volunteers to work together)

[arcplaysgames]

i'm finally up to the hawaii trip and i gotta ask: when Ryuuji's going on about the locals talking about the phantom thieves, does he put a little. i hate that i'm speaking mcelroyese here but does he put a little stank on it to make it clear that he's making fun of how they pronounce it

there is a thing in my next letter to you about how i suspect Mishima is a racist, but i think Ryuuji might be one too, from how he talks about the locals and An. like, neither of them are a level of racist that's socially unacceptable in japan, they're just a level of racist that pisses me off because i have to smile placidly and Be Tolerant at people who say this stuff ALL THE TIME

also, i KNOW i'm projecting but i am SUPER irritated that everyone who was a jerk to An is sucking up to her now that they need her english skills!

(You sent this to my side blog so I hope it's okay to publish, if not lemme know and I'll nuke. I'm gonna make it non-rebloggable just in case anyway.)

sup bro, sorry you reached the worst part of the game. Hawaii, esp if you don't have a romance locked, is horrendous. utterly miserable.

listen, sometimes we gotta use the McElroy-ese because its useful vernacular.

Flipping through my screencaps (which I have still not deleted for some fucking reason) of that awful sequence, I feel like Ryuji was at his most disrespectful and shitty. But some of that probably got lost in translation due to how the localization team had to bend so far to, like.... delineate between Japanese Characters Speaking "Japanese" and Americans Speaking English. It's hilarious, the two women who Ryuji fails to get it off with are speaking in THICK psuedo-Texan accents to make SURE the player understands.

So for me, I didn't get the racist vibes but I don't think I would have picked out vibes since Ryuji and Mishima treat literally everyone so fucking reprehensibly that.... pal, I wouldn't have fucking noticed unless they dropped a slur. They treat everyone like garbage or like someone they might potentially fuck. That's it.

That all said, Ryuji is so happy to thoughtlessly dehumanize people around him and sulks when he's called out about it, so I wouldn't be surprised. It's frankly kind of stunning how he just.... has no redeeming qualities that stand out against all his copious fucking flaws.

For Mishima, MAN. MAAAAAAN. When I think about the scenes in his SLink and that really fucking weird one with Futaba in her SLink, I don't even fucking KNOW. Am eager to see what you pull out of this shit because it's Yikes with and without cultural context imo. I heard he's vaguely based on a right wing weirdo but idk. I find it interesting that the game never seems to outright say Mishima is a good person and often gives the player chances to call him out.

The weirdness around Ann is a constant though, yeah. She herself is such a fucking ray of light, it's always.... interesting how everyone around her (except the player character) treats her like an aberrant of some kind. Given the treatise of the game, I assume part of the point is to show the difficulties of Ann's position and the attitudes towards her and the exoticization? But since they don't.... ultimately do anything about it (and circle backward with the whole Nude Painting arc) and her SLink doesn't say anything about it.... it's just another missed shot, imo.

Honestly, if you can hang on 'til the Royal bonus semester, the only Actually Great writing of the game is there. That's the only place.

[fearforthestorm]

hey friend you definitely shouldnt have pro ship in ur about you! someone might think you like kids or something lmao

hi there! we appreciate the concern, but I feel like what's in our pinned is pretty clear and makes sense:

"we're also anti-censorship/pro-ship in the sense that policing what other people do is a waste of time and not our business."

I'm aware that "pro ship" is a term used to mean many different things, but I feel like leading with "anti-censorship" and elaborating that we don't care to police what other people do is reasonable. we personally don't actually ship anything at all, and don't support pedophilic ships or the like, but also we don't get paid to care about or police what other people ship so we don't care to get involved there, it isn't our job. additionally, having had experience in fandoms where shipping any run of the mill ship (ie, two similarly-aged adult characters who were friends in the canon material) would get you harassed out of the fandom, we like to make it clear that this is a space where that kind of behavior and harassment is not tolerated.

I do hope this makes sense, but we are going to make this non-rebloggable because we don't care for people discoursing on our post. additionally, while we do appreciate that you were polite about this, seeing as we don't know you we'd prefer if you didn't call us "friend" in this casual way. thanks, hope this cleared some things up!

[coupsnim]

izzie don't apologize! if i don't want people to reblog something i make it non rebloggable but honestly i think that's something that needs to be more shared because fans just Forget that these are actual humans and that we shouldn't treat their emotions as a spectacle tbh

yeah I saw that video and opened tumblr to get my mind on something else, but then I saw your post and it's like you just read my mind...

it's also the reason why I couldn't even go through the second episode of in the soop. it just felt wrong? it's okay for them to be vulnerable and it's completely okay for them to show their emotions. as you said, they're human beings and they can't be happy all the time. but their emotions shouldn't be for sale... I'm honestly so tired of seeing idols in tears, sharing such private moments with the whole world. it's their work. when I go to the office, I'm not expected to sit at my desk and write an email describing all my traumas and forward it to all my colleagues. so why should they? why should we know about their private lives? we're not their friends, nor their family. I just don't understand how you can sit there and watch someone cry and decide to share that like it's a simple scene from a kdrama... they're real people, not puppets in a show...