#al's sh/tposts

[radioconstructed]

⌖ WENT ON A HOT DATE (+ FOOT REVEAL)

[windblooms]

so i did some digging on the 1.4 windblume preview page after seeing this tweet – and lookie here, childe’s abs in hd, as officially drawn by mhy. 

[pianistwriter80]

ugh imagine canterlot wedding arc but with sambucky 😫 like...the underlying angst??? misunderstanding – ???

[peapod20001]

This is what happens when u wanna draw gay sh!t at 11:00 pm :P

[fullmetalanalyst]

Royai and Edwin Parallelism

Choice and Worth

[EPISODE 2] Riza tells Winry she can call her by her first name instead of her rank. Despite her friendly approach, Winry seems to judge Riza for being a soldier. 

Winry condemns the military for attempting to take Ed and Al away from her, just like what it did to her parents.  Riza, however, tells her the choice is still theirs.

And here comes my favorite part. Roy and Riza lectures Ed and Winry about choice and moving forwards into life-- on separate but simultaneous occasions.

How is it that they have similar ideals about it? It’s because they speak from experience. In fact, when Winry asks Riza why she joined the military, Riza tells her it’s because she has someone she wants to protect. 

Just look at Riza’s small smile. And Roy? He came in as if it was all on cue.

[FMAB SPECIAL EPISODE 02] In a similar scenario, Riza tells Winry she was not forced to make that choice. It was her own.

However, she told a different reason to the person she wanted to protect.

(yeah it’s lengthy again please click keep reading if you want to read more!)

[EPISODE 30 & 54]

It was evident in her actions that Riza entrusts Roy the secrets of Flame Alchemy. She’s letting him guard her back, and even joins the military to support his goal. 

Interestingly, Roy still calls her by her last name in this scene. In the Japanese dub, he calls her “Hawkeye” as a formal pronoun that means ‘You’.

However, she never tells Roy directly that he’s the reason why she joined the military. She only told Roy that it was for the well-being of the people, which was his goal as well.

Scarred by the aftermath of the war, she asks Roy a favor: to burn the secrets of Flame Alchemy. She once again told him that she trusts him to protect her back from people who would become another Flame Alchemist.

Another interesting fact: this was the last time Riza calls him by his last name.

Riza puts the blame on herself for allowing so many lives to perish just by choosing to trust Roy. She must have felt worthless* that she caused him so much pain. Roy, on the other hand, feels the same. He was the one who led her to this path with his idealistic goal. To make matters worse, she wanted him to burn her back. 

[Heavily implied off-screen scene] Roy burnt her back. Riza felt free from the burden her Father placed upon her. She must have felt like she came back from the dead*. But they probably both felt they are indebted to each other. They feel unworthy to even speak of each other’s names. 

As many people left the military after Ishvalan war (I think this was mentioned in FMA 2003), Roy must have told Riza he’s not forcing her to continue working in the military. It’s still her own free choice. Whether or not she stands up on her own two feet or not.  Hence, the root of their simultaneous speech in [EPISODE 2].

Once they return to Eastern HQ, Riza approaches Roy and informs him of her decision.

It’s that same “muddy path” metaphor from [EPISODE 2]

[EPISODE 3 - onwards] Just as Riza and Roy got each other’s backs, Ed and Winry help each other stand up with their feet. Ed was given automail arm and legs by Winry (and Pinako). Just like Riza, it was the most that Winry can do to support Ed’s goal: to bring back their bodies. (We know how important Winry’s automail are). 

He even tells Rose to stand up and move forward [E3]

When Rose met Winry, she thanks her for giving Ed his arm and leg. [E44]

Even in the end, Ed decides to keep his leg. A symbolism of how much he relies on Winry for him to stand up and run to reach his ambitions. (there’s a separate post I found that shows how big of an influence Winry was to Ed in his decision to choose humanity over alchemy right here)

[EPISODE 11]

Ed also helped Winry stand up in several occasions. When Winry got tired from helping Dominique’s niece from giving birth, she asks Ed to help her stand up.

[EPISODE 23-24]

Most importantly, when Winry found out it was Scar who killed her parents, she was tempted to take on revenge. Ed saved her from taking the path of vengeance**. Winry cried after attempting to take revenge on Scar. Ed was there to help her stand up. He even promised that the next time Winry cries, it will be tears of joy. He tells her she doesn’t have the hands to kill. Her hands are meant to help people (just as how much she helped him).

[EPISODE 24] 

Ed thought of what he told to Winry when Riza lends her gun to him. Al reacts by saying it’s a tool to kill. Riza corrects him and says it’s for protection. 

[EPISODE 30]

When Ed told Riza he felt worthless for not understanding Winry’s feelings (on how much she wanted revenge), Riza tells him quite an answer. 

It was based from experience yet again. “You can only worry about [being worthless for someone] because *you came back alive” (similar to [Heavily implied off-screen scene])

Riza sees protection (her reason for joining the military) as love.

[EPISODE 54] Riza saved Roy from taking the path of vengeance, just like how Ed saved Winry.

BONUS: Hayate leaps over Edward. 

“It’s fine it happens A LOT” but it only happened twice.

Riza comes into the picture. Riza, a daughter who became her father’s research experiment.

Sounds familiar?

I hope you all enjoyed it! Please do tell me what you think it’ll really mean a lot to me! Other FMA Blogs: Royai blog: @royriza FMA sh*tposts: @hawkeyebullets  Main blog: @meridianheroine​

[ghostofaminaanima]

I got tagged by the amazing @nightlocktime and I am taggin for this one: @king-al @lena-blue-28 @somerandomtransboy . An ask game about your account:

1. Why did you choose your url? I tried to be fancy with it back then: my fake online name is Amina Heemeg, which is an anagram for 'secret name' in Dutch, and I use it for any site I don't want to give my personal information to. 'Anima' is Soul in Latin(?) and I liked the way these words look together. Then the 'ghost of' part because an online life is basically a ghost life. Therefore: ghost of the fake soul...yup.

2. Any sideblogs? Yes, I still have 5 I never use. One I created so I could send stuff to myself.

3. How long have you been on tumblr? I checked it just yesterday and I've been here since August 2015. There was one blog I had been following before without an account: @eyesofwitt . I googled their blog to see what they'd posted, like a little weirdo. They haven't posted since 2019 but that don't matter :)

4. Do you have a queue tag? I use queue a lot but I never tag for it. I never understood tagging for a queue, but maybe I'm just unorganized :p

5. Why did you start your blog? Oh dang, that was for a very specific reason: A. So I could like posts from the blogs I'd been following without an own blog. B. I wanted to make a moodboard about a story that had been stuck in my head all summer and I disliked Pinterest. In the end, I never did write that story, but I got a cool blog on this crazy site in return.

6. Why did you choose your icon? My icon are my Marino Moss balls against a backlight. I wanted one of my own pictures for my icon.

7. Why did you choose your header? It's an edited picture of a campfire with our scouting group. Idk I just like the colour green :p

8. What’s your post with the most notes? It's funnily some sketch I made for a comparatively small fandom, Ranger's Apprentice. It has +500 notes.

9. How many mutuals do you have? I have no idea, a handful? Maybe? Some of them have not logged on in quite a while.

10. How many followers do you have? 156. I had to do another bot clean recently, but there are also a lot of dead blogs on there I imagine.

11. How many people do you follow? 107.

12. Have you ever made a sh*tpost? Yes. I will not elaborate. :p

13. How often do you use tumblr? Every day. It's the only platform of social media I consistently use.

14. Did you ever have a fight with another blog? Not that I recall. A friend of mine did start a fight in my name with another blog when they reposted my art on Instagram without credit. I was mainly laughing because it was one of my older pieces and I couldn't believe someone actually thought it was good enough to repost/steal it. The Instagram account didn't take the post down and I asked my friend to desist her crusade too. I imagine it's still there.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog” posts? Varies. There are definitely things important to share, yet I also agree that Tumblr isn't always the most safe site to get your information from. Also: it's also a way for people escape from the shitty world.

16. Do you like tag games? Sure!

17. Do you like ask games? I barely do them, but I like them.

18. Which mutual do you think is famous? There are eight 'Big name' fandom blogs in my mutual list that have great fanfics, meta and gif sets out there.

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? I'm a sucker for compliments so anyone who's ever liked my work, know that I'm silently in love with you from a distance :p

[kidcataldo]

I was tagged by @ghostofaminaanima for this ask meme and I nominate whoever follows me, or whoever sees this, that wants to do this, if they want to:

1. Why did you choose your url? This is a complicated story. king-al is a reference to my fanfic name, Alonso King of Naples, which is reference to a character from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. I don’t really like Shakespeare that much but I have a mannequin head named Alonso (after the character) because I got the mannequin when I was reading The Tempest for school. In short, I named myself after my mannequin head, Alonso who is a king. It’s weird.

2. Any sideblogs? I’ve got two. One dedicated to british royals @thewindsorway and the other is a Jaime x Brienne fan blog but I hardly go on it so I’m not even going to bother tagging it.

3. How long have you been on tumblr? I joined October 2014.

4. Do you have a queue tag? I rarely even use the queue, so I don’t even got a tag for it. The tagging system on here isn’t even that great I noticed. 

5. Why did you start your blog? I kept seeing a bunch of tumblr posts on other platforms and thought I’d join and see what all the fuss was about. When I started googling tumblr post memes is when I finally decided to just make an account.

6. Why did you choose your icon? The pic just looks nice. Idk who it is, even, but I like the aesthetic of it.

7. Why did you choose your header? I didn’t really have anything that matched my icon when I changed it, so I just decided to put a pic of Bruce. Can’t go wrong with Bruce.

8. What’s your post with the most notes? I posted this severus snape tweet where he’s criticizing Kylo Ren for looking like him or something. It got about 1000+ notes during the height of the star wars craze. Honestly, not that funny looking back. 

9. How many mutuals do you have? A few, but not a whole lot. Always up for meeting new people on here.

10. How many followers do you have? 608, but idk how many of them are bots. I try to get them when I see them, but sometimes they slip past me.

11. How many people do you follow? I folow 99 people, but always down to follow more.

12. Have you ever made a sh*tpost? I’m sure.

13. How often do you use tumblr? Everyday. At this point it’s an addiction.

14. Did you ever have a fight with another blog? When I was new to tumblr, I was a bit chaotic. I think I even bragged about being in my first tumblr fight. Disgusting. No longer that person, but I have had a few people in my asks with that same type of energy. I usually ignore them these days. Tumblr fights/wars are super unnecessary. Don’t like something someone says? Ignore them and/or block them, simple as that.

15. How do you feel about “you need to reblog” posts? Hate them. Despise them. Absolutely loathe them. I will go out of my way not to reblog it if someone tells me I need to reblog something. If it’s something really important, then I’ll find a different more informative post to reblog.

16. Do you like tag games? Yeah, they’re all right.

17. Do you like ask games? Yes, but I prefer doing character ask memes. I do them a lot on my own just because it helps me develop a character.

18. Which mutual do you think is famous? idk, a lot of them have famous people as their icon. How do I not know they’re actually those people?

19. Do you have a crush on a mutual? They’re all very cute.

[cameronmcclure]

Social Media as a Tool for Terrorism? The Christchurch Massacre

On the 15th of March 2019, a white supremacist by the name of Brenton Tarrant killed 51 Muslim worshippers at two different mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Although it is sadly not the first time we have heard of such attacks, this time, it was different. For those wondering why, the power of the internet enabled the perpetrator to live-stream the massacre, with only a Facebook account and a Go-Pro head camera mounted on his helmet. A tool previously used to simulate child-abuse, suicide and murder was allowed to play out in its entirety (McLaughlin, 2019). The tactic forced the social media site, along with YouTube and many others to scramble to stop the harrowing footage of what could be mistake as a ‘first-person shooter’ video-game flooding the web. Media coverage surrounding the killings was widespread, especially when dealing with the actual video of the attack and it’s circulation. Facebook were said to have dealt with 1.5 million uploads of the footage in 24-hours, and claimed to have caught 1.2 million before they made their way into users feeds (although that still left 300,000 copies on the loose). Youtube was on the receiving end of a torrent of video uploads. Chief product officer, Neal Mohan took the decision to override the content moderations systems, attempting to block out as many as possible.

A snapshot from the alleged video of the attack, showing the shooter as he enters the first mosque in the massacre. (News.au, 2019)

In response to the circulation of the footage online, many countries are reviewing their social media laws, with Australia announcing that it wants legislation to prevent people from live-streaming violent crime and ‘weaponising social media’ (Al-Jazeera, 2019). It will be the first country in the world to penalise social media giants with prison time and millions of dollars in time if similar material is not removed promptly. 

Just as Tarrant is about to start the massacre, he chillingly says “Remember lads, subscribe to PewDiePie”, a phrase made popular by the Swedish YouTuber, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg. He was later forced to comment on the issue, condemning the attacks and said he was “absolutely sickened” by the mention of his name in the video (Cuthbertson, 2019). Tarrant’s nod to  meme culture is a frightening reminder of how deeply rooted in society digital media have become. Tarrant played on this, knowing that the best way for his extremist rhetoric to spread across the internet and reach as many people as possible was not only by sharing it through a variety of platforms- Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and various file sharing sites-but also through memes.  

One of the many promotional posters urging PewDiePie fans to subscribe to keep his channel  the most popular on YouTube, with over 95 million subscribers (Roblox, 2019).

Before the killings, he uploaded his manifesto to 8chan saying “I have provided links to my writings below. Please do your part by spreading my message, making memes, and sh*tposting as you usually do”.

In this sad and shocking example, social media has been used alongside the killing of innocents to spread fear and hatred... and what better way to spread it than through the internet. As Brian Jenkins famously declared in 1974, “terrorism is theatre”, and social media played a key role in projecting appalling acts such as this one to as wide an audience as possible.

468 words

References:

[windblooms]

blog hiatus.

est april 2021 – mid-june 2021?

hi :jazz hands: guess who's throwing in the towel (temporarily). will be talking a bit more bluntly than usual, so please excuse my brevity.

it's probably apparent to most of you guys that i haven't been posting as much writing recently, despite making blog surveys left and right. admittedly, i've been tired since around ,, january? im not sure if it's "senior burnout" (im a senior in american high school), or if the amount of "sad" (thanks @ spotify mobile for creating that filter tag in my saved songs library) songs that i listen to have finally osmosis'd into my mood. i say these jokingly, but i know that it's something else entirely that isn't the most. how to put it. uplifting thing to talk about and i'll try to keep it vague, even though some would say that this is "my" blog and i should have the freedom to discuss what i want.

tldr: i need to sort things out, and that means redirecting what energy i have left to figuring out my problems.

some housekeeping so you don't have to scroll down:

around three days after this is posted, i'll be logging out of tumblr until around mid-june. will probably log in once every two weeks just to check things out. no posts will be on queue – if i get asks of any kind during the time period that im on hiatus, i most likely won't answer,,, but if you want to talk with me, im always available on discord, and i can give you my id if you'd like to talk – please send a tumblr message though and tell me who you are, so i know it's you.

about (ongoing) commissions: i will still finish commissions that are in discussion and have been paid for. if we talked through tumblr dms about them, then i will still respond over tumblr. as of the time this is posted, requests and commissions will officially close.

long text below.

i do appreciate the asks ive received about characters, weapons, and other topics. i always smile when i see anons that i recognize, or when my mutuals tagging me in tag games. hell, even when someone reblogs my writing, and i get to see their tags (the one thing tumblr has done that's nice lol). sometimes i wake up in the middle of the night, and the first thing i do is scroll through my blog activity to see if ive gotten any more asks, if someone's screaming in the tags about one of my posts, or just to look for followrs i recognize. all of these things remind me that . . . im not just "here", i guess, that people like what i do and want to be around/talk to me.

it's a feeling that ive been struggling with for a long time. and im frustrated with myself – it's irritating to have the same thoughts every day, to be self-sabatoging. and while maybe an option could instead be that i invest myself in my blog more, be more productive in that sense and take control of something that makes me happy, i. will be a slave to college board soon (ap exams), need to finalize my college decisions.

maybe it's an excuse to pause writing earlier: instead of posting until mid-april, i choose to stop now, a month before those exams and graduation. hell, subconsciously, it probably is an excuse. and that's what sucks about this scenario. i can't even readily trust my own feelings, or be sure of myself.

thank you. thank you to everyone who has visited my blog, for any amount of time. you've all given me to opportunity to try and grow, figure out more about myself and how to be with others. just a shot at doing something ive wanted to do for years, to find what enjoyment i can garner.

summer. god, if you asked my mutuals what i complain about, it's when summer will come. well, now, it's now a little over a month away for me. of course, this year it might be different with covid (i say this, but we all know about those americans), but summer is summer, and recently, the time of year i associate with personal contentment. hopefully, for me, and what summer means to all of you, will also be a better time.

[windblooms]

hi im alive!! i think?

after taking the past month off (and coming back a month earlier than anticipated), i’m honestly not sure what to do.  i’ve talked with a few mutuals about starting over - that meaning, moving to a new account to write.  i’ve also debated just revamping my profile entirely, like deleting old works that don’t sit right.  just ;; contemplating for now, i guess.

hopefully everyone’s been doing all right!  i’ll be here to shuffle through things and just,, mull over what to do.

[windblooms]

dragonspine theorycraft [spoilers]

if you’ve finished all registered dragonspine quests so far/reached the skyfrost nail and have climbed to the top, you can conclude that the nail fell from celestia, the floating island of the archons – the cutscene implies as much when it puts celestia in your view.  but to supplement. . .

you can see that the nail is ornately designed.  at the top right of the nail, you can also see frills with golden accents.

this is the log-in screen for genshin.  you can see those same frills (at the top and base) on these pillars.  i don’t mean to imply that the skyfrost nail is the same, because it’s evident that their designs differ – but these frills are central to design of the archons.  you can also see them at the bottom of the statues of the seven.

this might just be me, but the blue glow from the statues of the seven seem similar to the blue crystals embedded in the skyfrost nail.

bonus paimon observation:

paimon has the same frills that accent the statues.  most already speculated this, but she’s most probably connected to celestia and the archons.

[windblooms]

do y’all want dainsleif content by any chance or

[windblooms]

hey hey how’re we feeling about vamp xiao and his first time drinking from reader

[windblooms]

hi erm ,,, honestly i don't know if im coming back to write any time soon or not. account has been pretty much nonexistent for the past two weeks ,,, have got lots of requests to finish. headspace has been getting better though,,, just though i should give at least some sort of explanation as to why im inactive currently. really want to come back . . . but it's more than a bit difficult to. thank you for those who keep reading my stuff and engage with my blog (◍•ᴗ•◍)✧* i'll see if i can work up the energy to come back.

[windblooms]

one of the biggest serotonin boosts i got this week was from my environmental science teacher grinning while showing us pictures of his dog and saying "and he knows he's a handsome boy :)"

[windblooms]

legitimately who expected childe rerun holy