#also internet has a pretty explosive temper

[redwinterroses]

You hit the nail on the head with the ageism in the mcyt community. It's so frustrating to feel like I'm being pushed out of fandom spaces for being over the age of 18 because I'm not shocked that this CC had kids or this CC is 40. I'm not even old! I'm 26!

I get that there are a lot of younger viewers now (which is great! new fans are amazing!) but it seems that many don't realise that for most CC's that this is just a job and a job most have been doing for years now.

Like the absolute boom that happened with the dsmp doesn't happen very often, especially with CC's that young. It was an explosion in a bottle which makes people forget that all the other CC's that have been building up their audience for years are also going to be older.

Anyways that's my rant. I don't know, I'm probably just a grumpy old fart now and feel like shaking my fist a kids to get of my lawn lol

*gestures at all the above* Thank you for continuing to smack that nail head-on.

I'm not comfortable explicitly stating my age on the internet -- but I'm old enough to not be comfortable explicitly stating my age on the internet. I don't even have it on my Facebook. (I'm old enough to have a Facebook. XD)

But I only got into Minecraft in the last two years, only started watching mcyt in the last year or so, and only joined the fandom proper in JUNE. I didn't grow up with this stuff -- I fell in love with it as an adult. It's not a kids-only thing.

(Heck, I'd make the argument that video games in general are equally-if-not-more aimed at adults than children but that's a rant for another day.)

So you have people like me, who came to this thing as adults, and you have adults who have been in this realm for decades, and you have people who are fans who have been playing video games their whole lives and Minecraft for at least ten years... And yet somehow it's shocking to the point of viral posts that not everyone in this fandom is under 18? I just don't get it.

And I do understand WHY the fanbase tends to be young -- if only purely because kids have more time than adults to indulge these hobbies. My (much) younger brother is still young enough that he can get done with school and play games for hours before dinner or bed. I've got to fit it in between two jobs and all the other things that come with being an adult. I get that. I get that the Hermitcraft fanbase has a pretty young baseline because they're family friendly and parents are cool with their kids watching the hermits.

But the exclusionist nature of "this isn't normal" every time someone realizes their fave isn't their peer is wild to me and some days I just get my old lady temper up over it. XD

[sleepywriter84]

From the Beginning Part 4

Daryl Dixon x Reader

Chapter 4: Preparation

Word Count: 2396

Authors note: Sorry for being gone for awhile. I had to prepare for Hurricane Ian and I lost access to the internet for quite a while. But I’m back now. I’m planning on uploading another chapter later today! Also sorry if this chapter is formatted weirdly I had to upload it from my phone.

-

Bright. As she opens her eyes, she takes in the rising sun that began to peer into the R.V. Grunting, she pushes herself up and stretches. Standing up she walks over to the front door, pushing herself out of the car.

“Good mornin,” Shane greets her, walking past the R.V. with a bucket of water, “Cleaning up station is over here if ya want to follow”.

Nodding her head, she goes after the male, stopping when he drops the bucket down to the ground.

“So here you can use this washcloth, it's communal which is gross I know, but it’s only for ya face. When Glenn gets back later we can talk about what you can do to contribute here. For now just get used to it all, okay?”

“Got it. Thank you,” she responds, taking the washcloth that Shane was holding out to her.

Dipping the piece of cloth into the bucket, she sighs as cold water runs down her face. After thoroughly using the towel to wipe her entire face, she places it back into the bucket. Turning around, she sees food being dished out over by the fire, the same place it was yesterday.

Walking over, she picks up a bowl off of the floor and hands it over to Carol, who was dishing the food out. Offering a small smile towards the girl, Carol hands the bowl back after putting two scoops of what looked like porridge into it.

Moving away from the R.V. she sits down on the ground, slowly sipping at the hot mush. Her peace however, is disrupted once Merle walks into the campsite.

“There she is, the lady of the hour” he barks.

Walking over to where she sat, he took the bowl of food out of her hands before loudly slurping it.

“We’re given her more handouts huh? She hasn’t done a damn thing for us, and you’re just letting her take take take. Well, missy, that’s not how this fucking works. You ‘ave to earn what you take' ' Merle speaks between eating.

“C’mon now you don’t have to be like that” a man she wasn’t introduced to last night, speaks out, walking over from the wash station.

“You think I’m going to listen to you. You’re the last person I’d ever listen to. The bitch here has to earn her keep. Her Chinese friend is, why not her?”

“She just woke up from a bad concussion, she needs a minute to adjust. Like Shane said, she’ll earn her keep once she’s better” the stranger defends.

“It don’t seem like she’s unconscious anymore, seems to me she’s good to start workin. That’s all I got to say” Merle replies, walking over to Carol and holding out the bowl.

“You already ate” she whispers, hesitating to pour more food in his bowl.

“Fill me up woman. I haven’t eaten my share, only what got took”.

Diverting her attention, she looks over to the man who was trying to defend her.

“Sorry about that, he’s got a temper. The names T-Dog, I heard you woke up last night, sorry I wasn’t there, I headed to bed right after Shane told ya I helped find ya” he introduces himself, holding out a hand for her to shake.

“It’s alright. Thank you for standing up for me, I appreciate it, though he kind of has a point. I did drain your resources, and haven’t offered anything back”.

“Hey, that’s not your fault. You were in pretty rough shape back there. Shane and I were out skimming the woods to see if anymore of those things were nearby, and we found you and your friend. He was holding a rock covered in guts, you were up against a tree, dried blood all over ya head. We actually thought he had killed you, but he explained how when they bombed the city you got caught up in it, and the force of the explosion made you bash your head pretty bad on a rock. We were surprised he even got you that far into the forest, he your boyfriend?”

“No, no, just a friend. We worked almost every shift together at a pizza parlor in a shopping center in Atlanta. He’s like a brother. He’s all I have left right now”.

“Well he should be back this afternoon, so try not to worry” T-Dog offers, patting her on the back and walking off.

As the hours drag on, she just sits in the same place, right the R.V. Her eyes are trained on the very spot that Shane says Glenn should appear in. When lunch was served, she refused to eat anything. And when water was offered to her by Lori, she refused that too. Merle happily took her servings, making a point to enjoy what was supposed to be hers. She disagreed with the way Merle was going about it, but she did agree that she shouldn’t take anything else until she gives back. These people have been together since the start of it all two weeks ago. They found each other and learned to work together to survive. She was a stranger. Someone who wasn’t a part of the group, who was just luckily brought in.

While she was in her head, she almost missed the blue baseball cap that was coming up over the hill. Halting in her thoughts, she stands up and begins to jog over to where Glenn was approaching.

“It’s good to see you awake” he calls out, shrugging off two full bags of stuff onto Shane's car.

Instead of responding, she starts to run a bit faster until she's right next to him. She then throws her hands over Glenn’s frame, hugging him tight to her body.

“I didn’t know where you were,” she whispers, grasping at the back of neck.

“I’m here. I had to go out and replace what they used to help you, I couldn’t let you die”.

“Thank you”.

Peeling herself off of him, she pats him on the back before turning over to Shane. Shane starts to shuffle through the bags, looking a bit surprised with what Glenn brought back.

“You brought a lot more than I asked. A lot of food too, how the hell did you find all this?”

“I know my way around the city, I wanted to also show my thanks for you guys helping her and taking us in,” Glenn explains before digging into his back pockets and holding something out to her, “I found this too. It isn’t yours, but I thought I’d replace it since it kind of got exploded”.

Holding her hands out, she takes the electronic device that he was holding out to her. It was a light blue walkman, it looked almost identical to the one she had before people started eating each other. Even though it was a simple gesture, it meant a lot to her. The old walkman she had was one of the only things she had ever gotten for herself. Most of her money went towards taking care of her family, she never spent any of it on herself. However, there was this one day. She just turned 18, and she had just graduated high school. She was at the pizza parlor working a double. It was just a normal day. Glenn was trying to convince her to spend a little money on herself, trying to hand her his tips for the day, telling her to buy something nice. She wouldn’t take the money though. On their way home that day, Glenn and her had parted ways. She was exhausted and she just wanted to go home and fall asleep. But something in one of the windows in the small shopping center caught her eye.

It was a simple vintage shop, and inside it was a bunch of old fashioned items. For some reason, she felt drawn to it, especially the tiny cassette tape labeled Purple Rain that sat on top of a bin that was filled with cassette tapes. Walking in, she picked up the tape, letting her fingers roll softly over the circles that contained the tape. It wasn’t that expensive, she reasoned, so she walked up to the counter to buy it. She would bring it to work and show Glenn, keeping her promise that she would buy herself something (even though that promise was made just to make him shut up about it).

As the cashier rang her up, they asked if she had a device to play the tape. Shaking her head, she said she just could afford the tape, that it would just be a nice trinket to have. To her surprise however, the lady pulled out a blue walkman.

“I’m sorry I can’t afford that. I’ll just take the cassette” she explains, raising her voice just a bit, thinking the cashier didn’t hear her the first time.

“I know what you said, but you’re the girl at City’s Pizza right? I see you there all the time, for the past three years. You always walk by this shop after work and stop and look around right? All your money goes to your family, at least that’s what Donnie, Brandon’s son says”.

“That’s not really your business” she whispers, holding the three dollars and 21 cents that she owed.

It wasn’t a secret. Everyone in the neighborhood knew that it was her job to raise her siblings and take care of her mom. At first only the people who were around her all the time knew about her predicament. But when she got caught buying coke for her mom, and got arrested, it seemed that everyone knew when she had gotten out.

Glenn was the one who bailed her, luckily getting the officer who caught her in the act to understand why she was doing it. The whole drive home from the station was silent. It was only when they arrived at her house did Glenn speak up, and felt like she just had to tell him it all.

“I know, I know. Sorry, just please take it, no ones gonna buy it anyway, it’s not gonna be missed” the cashier calls out breaking her from her train of thought.

Cautiously she grabs the blue walkman and cassette tape, trading her money for the objects.

“Thank you” she whispers, staring at the small device in her hands.

On her way home that day, she played the tape she had bought, and instantly fell in love. It was hers, the only thing she ever had all to herself, and she cherished it. The fact that Glenn remembered, made her heart swell up. She never thought she could make friends, never really had the time for it, but Glenn was always there. He was family.

“Glenn its beautiful, are you sure?”

“Of course, got it just for you” he smiles, patting her on the back.

Just in time to ruin the moment, Merle comes stumbling through the camp out to where she was standing with Shane and Glenn.

“Great, he’s back. Now can we discuss what princess is gonna do here to help out, or are we gonna boot her like we should”.

“Quiet down, you see all this shit Merle, it’s more than you’ve ever brought in. So quit your whinin and leave her be” Shane calls out, hitting the truck of his car to make a point.

“Nah. You may be the leader here, but you ain’t gonna talk to me like that. Y’all eat fresh meat because of me and my baby brother, so you ain’t got any argument there. Little lady needs to push her weight. You said we wait till he’s back, well he is, so let's discuss” Merle shouts, spitting on the ground and walking closer.

“It’s fine. Let’s just get this over with” she says to Shane, nodding her head towards him.

“Okay. Okay. So you wanna talk about pulling weight. There’s a clothes shop in Atlanta on the map we haven’t explored yet. Last time we heard, Atlanta was bombed and swarmed, but it’s been silent. We’re running out of cloth and there's grocery stores nearby we could loot for more food. I want a team out there early in the morning” Shane explains pulling out a map and walking over to the hood of his car.

Laying out the map for everyone to see. He points to the areas around the heart of Atlanta.

“What do you say? You alright to go. You won’t be by yourself, it’ll be a big chunk of us that go”

“Yeah, I got it” she agrees.

“Okay, so lets talk numbers. Merle you’re going with, Glenn if you want you got a spot too” Shane starts nodding towards the black haired man.

“Who else will be going with us?” Glenn asks, turning around to look at the rest of the group that was roaming around the camp grounds.

“Lori and Carol aren’t going, they’re needed here. Ed should stay too, he’d probably just get violent. T-Dog probably wouldn’t be opposed we can ask him. Andrea has been itchin to get her hand on a gun and go out there, so she’ll agree. Anyone else?”

“I’ll go too” the woman who was introduced a while back as Jacqui answers, walking towards the small meeting.

“Alright, so we got our team. You all will head out right before sunrise. You’ll make it to the city in the mornin and you’ll be expected to head back two hours before the sunsets, that way you get out of there right when it gets dark out. Any questions?” Shane asks, leaning against the hood of the car.

“Nope. Glad little lady is gonna be there with me” Merle barks walking away.

“Don’t worry about him. You’ll be surrounded by people, he isn’t going to touch you” Jacqui offers, hands being put on the girls shoulders.

“I’m not worried. Just happy he doesn’t have an excuse to steal my food anymore” she mutters.

The rest of the evening goes by smoothly. Glenn and her claim a small piece of land where they set up sleeping bags. When dinner rolls by she finally gets to eat, though Merle is watching her like a hawk. After she finishes her bowl, she heads back towards her sleeping bag, settling in for the night.

Taglist: @superflannel

[victoriareyloficlists]

26 January 2021 Additions to Reylo Work Environment

These fics have been added to the Enemies-to-Lovers list located here.

Boss/Employee Relationship

The Elevator by someonesbeenhere (AO3 2020  Rated M Complete, 6 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Hard working Tech Support Rey is working late one evening when she gets stuck in a broken elevator with a complete stranger. He manages to distract terrified Rey through some rather promiscuous means. Unfortunately for Rey, her seductive saviour isn’t a random from another department but none other than the CEO of the First Order company, Ben Solo himself.) Fears Must Be Faced For Growth To Take Place by CariadRose (AO3 2020  Rated M Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: “She couldn’t (shouldn’t?) fantasise about her boss, even if he did make her heart explode every time he made eye contact. Bosses were off limits, it was a rule right? You don’t date your friends exes, you don’t date your siblings friends and you definitely don’t date your boss. No matter how much you want to.”) inconceivable by tothefoolswhodream (AO3 2020  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Hux notices that Ben is more reasonable in company meetings when Rey is there as well. Hux starts planning things. Shenanigans ensue.) Getting Personal by Erulisse17 (AO3 2018  Rated T Complete, 15 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Kylo keeps scaring away personal assistants until Hux hires one that isn't afraid of him. Not only is Rey not scared of him, she is ruthlessly efficient, refuses to put up with his nonsense, and disconcertingly pretty. And also seems to genuinely want to help him, which clearly means she's up to something. Right?) Off the cuff by Blueyedgurl (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 4 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Poe gets Ben a stripper for closing a business deal. Ben reluctantly takes part to not waste Poe's money. The stripper hand cuffs him and robs him of clothes and money. Rey heads back to the office late night and finds her hot boss cuffed to the office chair in nothing but his tie.) Variance by Stargazer1116 (AO3 2018  Rated T Complete, 23 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey is heartbroken when she learns her temporary visa is expiring...and is mortified when her office crush. Kylo Ren, catches her crying about it. He is a partner in Skywalker & Associates law firm where she is an assistant. One thing leads to another...and what started as a simple solution for each of their problems turns into something much...much more. Together they wade through their deep scars to love.) Trouble for Thanksgiving by Biekewieke (AO3 2019  Rated E Complete, 40 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey Kenobi's temporary work visa is about to expire. She needs her boss' signature on her renewal application to get the extension she desperately wants and needs. Only her boss, the infamous Ben Solo, is an asshole. He's notoriously difficult and she knows this firsthand. Nevertheless, she needs his signature on those papers if she wants to avoid being deported by the end of the year... So when Rey tells her about her looming deportation, he finds a way to bend the situation to suit his own needs. Except, for the first time in his adult life, things don't go exactly as planned when he takes her home for the holidays...) I'd Find You and I'd Choose you by JGoose13 (AO3 2020  Rated M Complete, 6 Chapters, Reincarnation AU, Quick Synopsis: wife, fostered her for a time as a child. In order to keep their legacy and light alive, Rey moves in. As she begins to pick through the life of this couple, Rey makes a shocking discovery in the attic. What's worse? The discovery involves her boss, Ben Solo, a man she absolutely abhors.) What a difference a day makes by whateveriguess (AO3 2020  Rated T Complete, 6 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben is endlessly grumpy, exacting in his criticism, and irritable. And more than anything else, he's exhausted. Rey is too much. She's too brave, too intent on having her new colleagues like her, and she cares too much. (Brought to you by plotting, Internet articles with shady science, and the company Slack).) Chef's (Uns)Table by TheAlchemistsDaughter (AO3 2019  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Kylo Ren is a high-powered chef with an explosive temper. Nevertheless, Rey likes him. To get him to come out of the kitchen, she and her friends try to wind him up. When someone asks for ketchup, it works a little too well.) Strictly Business by WinglessOne (AO3 2019  Rated E Complete, 11 Chapters, The Proposal Film AU, Quick Synopsis: Working for a nationally recognizable magazine is a huge honor, one that Ben Solo doesn't take lightly. His boss, Rey Erso, would be the first to agree and is thoroughly comfortable with her status as editor-in-chief. When her visa status is denied, she'll do anything to stay in the United States and avoid being deported back to England. Even if that means forcing her assistant to marry her.) Go And Catch A Falling Star Chapter 50 by Ayearandaday (AO3 2020  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben needs to get married in order to get full ownership of his company. Rey learns about her boss' predicament and offers a helping hand.) Silent Night by avidvampirehunter (AO3 2019  Rated M Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben Solo, one of the higher-ups at First Order Insurance, has spent roughly one year dreading the inevitable—falling for Rey Kenobi, one of his most mysterious and alluring employees. Little does he know that Rey herself has been fighting the same temptations, nor that she may be losing the will to even try. When he ends up drawing her name for the annual Secret Santa gift exchange, the merciless hand of fate pushes them together through the storm raging outside—and in their hearts.) more everything by caisha (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: He was arrogant, condescending, and an asshole. And he didn't have a mark on his wrist.) Believe it or not by P_Dunton (AO3 2018  Rated E Complete, 8 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Everyone can see their soulmates when they sleep. Except for Rey Niima. When she closes her eyes, there’s never anyone there. Most say this happens when the other soul partner doesn’t sleep. After years and years of this, Rey has given up on ever finding her other half. Ben Solo is an angry, bitter shell of a man. He tries to stay awake as long as he can, using whatever means possible to avoid dreams. Because his soulmate is dead.)

Coworkers

Kindle Love by spacewitchase (AO3 2020  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey is secretly smitten with Ben. It’s a big blow when she hears that he just got ‘Tinder’ and is really enjoying it. Only he doesn’t have Tinder; what he’s really enjoying is reading books on his new Kindle (and he has a secret crush on Rey).) Let me Dream, Let me Stay by Melusine11 (AO3 2018  Rated E Complete, 12 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey has kept up a charade of a non-existant boyfriend for two years and now that Rose and Finn are getting married, she needs someone to pretend to be said boyfriend, enter her coworker Ben.) It's All I Can Do To Leave You Alone by TazWren (AO3 2019  Rated T Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben Solo is determined to figure out who is breaking into his office and arranging his action figures into explicit positions.) caught in the headlights by jeeno2 (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey Johnson forgets to wear a bra to work. Fortunately, nobody notices. (Except for Ben Solo.)) Fight, Flight, or F____ by Blueyedgurl (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey gets a dildo advent calendar for office secret santa. Ben is absolutely panicking, his chance with the cute girl is absolutely toast. Poe would be mad that Ben took the wrong wrapped gift from the counter this morning but he can always buy Finn a new one and this is hilarious.) Let's Meet Under the Mistletoe by GreyForceUser (ReyandKyloforever) (AO3 2018  Rated E Complete, 7 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey Johnson and Ben Solo do not get along. Their first meeting was less than impressive. A change in circumstances forces Rey and Ben to work together to stage a huge black-tie Christmas party in a ridiculously short period of time. Only time will tell if they can stand each other long enough to pull it off or if the whole thing will crash and burn.) No Chance, No Way by AttackoftheDarkCurses (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 7 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Just as Rey's decided to give up on love, she gets partnered to co-write Valentine's themed articles with the office grump, who... maybe isn't such a grump.) (won’t you let me) walk you home from school by somethingdifferent (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 32 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Ben, a counselor in the upper school at the legendary Alliance Academy, keeps finding himself interacting with the lower school art teacher, Rey. He definitely doesn’t like it. ) the theory of dance by blessedreylo (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Hogwarts AU, Quick Synopsis: Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Rey Niima and Potions Professor Ben Solo are always at each others throats in the corridors of Hogwarts. Headmaster Kenobi has seen enough, and is making them teach a dance class to students in preparation for the Yule Ball. Can these professors learn to get along or will their rivalry turn into another kind of passion?) A Reylo Christmas by Biekewieke (AO3 2018  Rated E Complete, 8 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: So when Leia Organa asks her Personal Assistant Rey to join her on a family vacation in Mon Torri for the holidays and highlights a big bonus, what is she to do? Only catch... Leia's son is coming along... Ben Solo is the enfant terrible of the family. Broody, sullen and with a huge chip on his shoulder, the young man is notoriously difficult.) Lessons in Attraction by AttackoftheDarkCurses, thebuildingsnotonfire (AO3 2018  Rated E Complete, 12 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Notorious rivals Ben and Rey teach at Alderaan High. They're constantly bickering and driving their coworkers and students crazy. The only solution is to set them up together, right?) Hear Me Out by vuas (AO3 2020  Rated E Complete, 2 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Rey’s coworker Ben has an unusual side gig. He records audio erotica.)

Client Relationship

Magic Touch by KyloTrashForever (AO3 2019  Rated E Complete, One-Shot, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: In which Rey is going through a dry spell, and she’s the only one who doesn’t realize Ben wasn’t hired to help her end it.) Say It With Feeling by amybeegood (AO3 2018  Rated E Complete, 18 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: Meet Rey, the Maid/Escort who really needs a solid day job and Ben, the reclusive, virgin billionaire who doesn't have a clue about real life or how to hire household help.) Bespoke by fettuccine_alfreylo (AO3 2019  Rated E Complete, 12 Chapters, Modern AU, Quick Synopsis: When new stylist Rey Jackson receives a request to dress the hottest (and most unfashionable) new actor in Hollywood, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. Mentally AND physically. Because Ben Solo is freaking massive.)

[kewltie]

vigilante!deku and pro-hero ground zero who keeps teaming up despite one of them operating outside of the law & how everyone is obsessed w/ them bc they got ahem explosive chemistry between them so ppl ship them together but the problem arise in the form of ground zero's lovely & sweet husband midoriya izuku. god, imagine THE HIJINKS AND HILARITY bc on one hand they see how gz is stupidly happy in his relationship w/ his quirkless husband but he and the vigilante deku are like ????? kickass partners, constantly compete to who nab the villain first, and bicker like an old married couple and the internet EATS THAT SHIT UP bc two famous faces who constantly have amazing chemistry make a great shipping fodder... but they kinda have to ignore/push aside gz's husband bc that's destroy their *fantasy* and beside midoriya is booooring compare to deku.

the thing is gz's fanbase is split b/t those who ship him w/ deku and those who stays firm and loyal to gz's husband bc LIKE LEAVE YOUR SHIPPING OUT OF AN ACTUAL RELATIONSHIP OKKK GZ AIN'T NO CHEATER. flame wars/wank break out plenty among the fanbases over this love triangle bs. hardcore fans convince that gz & deku are pining for each other or like deku is in love w/ a married man & made a tragedy out of it. THERE'S NUMEROUS FAN THEORIES FLOATING AROUND ABOUT how gz & deku are meant to be and this is just an epic love story of starred cross lovers.

there are more deku & gz shippers>>>>> than actual gz & his husband supporters bc the deku & gz's epic love story sounds so much more exciting and cooler than gz just having a normal loving relationship with his sweet husband bc ya know ppl like drama and epic pining and tragedy. and beside many ppl can't wrap their head around the idea of gz ever settling for someone so... normal like midoriya. who is not only quirkless but does boring thing like just everyday daily task of being a doting househusband like, that's not exciting as actual fighting villains. so most ppl despair over the great romance of deku & gz that could def be happening but if only midoriya izuku never existed >:||||, never realizing deku & izuku are one and the same and that katsuki knows his husband dons his vigilante mask part-time and that he is ever confused and annoyed w/ ppl either thinking he's a cheater for betraying his husband or STILL A coward for not breaking up with his husband already and be w/ his one true love deku.

it's hilarity all around bc this love triangle is SUCH NONSENSE AND DOESN'T EXIST.

in the false love triangle, izuku's civilian identity is just a normal househusband of the infamous ground zero. he is SUPER supportive of his hubby, playing an active part of the zero fandom so the biggest zero's stans are livid by the idea of zero cheating on sweet izuku lol. they LOVE IZUKU bc he is so good to their favorite hero and he just keep feeding them zero contents nonstop!! always keeping them updated on zero by taking pics of katsuki napping w/ their dog or making breakfast, and just random everyday anecdotes of their daily life together. the hero ground zero is super private but izuku is active on sns (it's izuku networking for info in his vigilantism) so when he's updating on his life which also INCLUDES katsuki bc they're a package deal. so yea katsuki is famous but izuku is a known entity too if a bit basic!!!

which make it hilarious bc izuku is so normal and nerdy (fighting internet trolls to defend zero's honor) vs the notorious and brilliant vigilante!deku and ppl are like,,, too bad zero is married bc his relationship w/ deku is so much more interesting and exciting!!! LMAO when in reality bakudeku are TERRIBLY DOMESTIC it's just when they're out on the field it's HIGH OCTONE, FIGHTING CRIMES, ANDRELINE, AND YEA everything seems more hotter and explosive but at the end of the day bakudeku take off their suit and mask to go on a walk with their dog. also, ever since katsuki's meteoric rise to one of the best heroes of his gen ppl had seen his explosive quirk AND personality and they can't imagine that he would like,,, get married right OUT OF U.A. and settle down w/ some basic civilian w/ no quirk or hell even a job.

katsuki's notorious personality is one of his selling points bc he doesn't confirm to the 'model' hero so ppl flock to him bc he's wild, hot temper, and dynamic so THEY CANT COMPROMISE HOW HE HAS SUCH A NORMAL DOMESTIC LIFE so izuku is just a footnote in katsuki's history. most of his casual fans eat up his hellraiser reputation and desperately ignored izuku's existence like THEY AREN'T MARRIED. they would ship him w/ other heroes and his peers rather bc at least they're HEROES and in the same line which make them waaaay more interesting than izuku. putting katsuki up with todoroki or kirishima might make a tantalizing fantasy but compare to how katsuki would hold izuku's hand when they're out or help him bathe their dog it's--really incomparable. his core fanbase knows that izuku is the real deal no matter what anyone think.

so 3/4 of the zero fandom go on pretending izuku doesn't exist while the rest just continues supporting izuku and katsuki's sweet relationship UNTIL deku arrives on the scene and the fandom flips it shit. deku & zero got such crazy and hot dynamic that they EAT THAT SHIT UP. deku is on the wrong side of the law but he fights for what's right!! he works extremely well w/ zero whenever they team up and most of all HE CHALLENGES ZERO, they clash a lot on how to deal with villains or just petty arguments that SCREAM OLD MARRIED COUPLE... which true lol.

FINALLY, at last the zero fandom has one stable ship they can cling to bc deku was here to stay. the deku & zero's hot-cold dynamic makes such an interesting 'love' story for the fans bc vigilante & pro hero, diff views, deku's secret identity, their personality clashing etc. not just the fans though, many of the media latch on to the zero & deku's story right away bc they're young and hot and those kind of seedy scandalou stories sell even though,,, ZERO IS MARRIED!!!! LOL /O\ zero's core fans are pretty fucking pissed bc they're supportive of izuku. some hates the idea of deku getting b/t their fav couple, but most of them try really REALLY hard to ignore the explosive chemsitry of deku & zero bc sometimes when they're bantering midst of a battle they sound affectionate... and uh fond?? but!! zero is devoted to izuku!!??

the zero fandom is at war w/ each other bc of the whole zero & deku vs zero & izuku thing while izuku just thinks it's hilarious bc at the end of the day he knows they go home to each other and nobody else as katsuki QUIETLY FUMES bc he get accused of being a cheater lol

[haznerdz]

I have a fear

Fandom, especially on here, has made me afraid of a lot of things. Negative, explosive reactions to things not going the way we expect is the main one.

And I fear that we all are already setting our hopes, dreams, and expectations too high already! I’m including myself, but I feel like I’m pretty pragmatic about my obsessions. Like, we all want the Mandalorian to keep that baby with him throughout the whole season, we want to see Mando-dad! But I really feel like this baby-yoda thing isn’t going to be there the whole season. 

I’m afraid that the Mandalorian is going to give up the baby, either actually going through with the bounty or just giving it to someone else who can look after and care for the baby, and the internet is going to lose its shit. They’re going to be fucking pissed because Baby isn’t in the rest of the season. And I’m just gearing up for the hate-train. I want everyone to have those great expectations, have fun postulating and coming up with wild theories and imagining where the story might wander, but also, just temper your expectations for a show that is eight episodes and varying degrees of length. Have fun, but don’t expect it to follow your wildest hopes and dreams! Thoughts?

[bluesfm]

(  park  chaeyoung  ,  twenty two  ,  &  cisfemale  )  who  ?  these  days  ,  it’s  all  about    blue hyong,  who  comes  from    los  angeles  &  ca    and  is  making  headlines  as  a    singer    .    she   currently  has  a  fan  count  of  42k    ,  no  thanks  to  the  rumors  of  them  being  inflexible  !  but  ,  on  the  other  hand  ,  their  most  devout  fans  say  they’re  actually    imaginative    .  last  i  heard  ,  they  caused  quite  a  buzz  when    she   publicly   dissed    her  new   record    label  and   the   misogynistic  treatment   she  was   receiving   from   their  reps  !  it’s  no  wonder  they  remind  me  of    long   rants   in  the  notes  app   being  posted   to  her   twitter  account  ,  empty  bottles   of  wine  laying  at   recording   studios’   floors   &  notebooks   upon  notebooks   filled  with   lyrics   she  might   never  use   but   refuses   to   let   go  of   .  

well hello human friends !! n also hello to the non human friends too , wassup . i’m angie a  dumb  noodle  from  the  middle  of  the  south  american  jungle  , and i’m here to introduce yall to this mess i call blue  who’s  a muse i have had  for yrs now n carry w/ me wherever i go , with some minimal changes but she’s still the  same  messy  bitch  on the  inside  don’t  worry  folks !  so   i  will   provide  u w/  some  background  info  on   her  n  some   possible connections  under   the  cut . issa  lil messy  but  we’ve   been  away  for  a while   pls  bear  w me

blue  is  the  only  daughter  to  a  couple   of  south  korean  immigrants  that  came  to   america  when  they  were  in  their  very  early  20s  n  already  expecting  blue  in  order  to  chase  the  american  dream  n  create  a  better  life  for  themselves  n  their  family  .  their  life  was  pretty  hard  for  a  big  part  of  blue’s  childhood  ,  while  they  were  both  studying  n  working  odd  jobs  to  pay  for  their  education  all  the while  taking  care  of  a child .  so  blue  didnt  have  the  best  childhood  ,  not  that  her parents  were  bad  or  anything  they  just  didnt  have  time  for  her  . nowadays  ,  they  are  a  lot  more  comfortable  in  life  ,  since  her  dad  became  a  lawyer  n  her  mom  is  a  nurse  ,  but  they  definitely  didnt  have  an  easy  beginning  .

ok  so  maybe  bc  they  werent  present  durant  most  of  her  childhood  they  didnt  notice  a  lol  of  signs  that  might  have  made  things  a  lot  easier  for  them  ,  bc  by  the  time  they  were  available  to  emotionally  be  there  , during  her  early  teenage  years ,  blue  was  already  kinda  a  mess . she  had  grown  up  w  very  lil  structure  n  refused  the  rules  they  tried  to  instill  on  her  n  was  already  used  to  doing  things  her  own  way  .  that  lead  to  a  lot  of  conflict  between  them  ,  since  they  expected  her  to  study  hard  n  do  well  for  herself  in  a  nine to fiver  when  she  was  already  sure  art  was  the  only  way  to  go  n  while  she  did  ok  ,  she  definitely  wasn’t  as  good  as  her parents  expected  her  to  be .

so  ...  u  know   her  teenage  yrs  were  basic  girl  angsty  she  fought  a  lot  w  her  parents  n  rebelled  frequently  n  ran  away  from  home  like  ...  weekly  ,  but  she  never  rly  had  any  real  hardships  .  life  was  reasonably  good  but  she  always  had  something  to  complain  abt  ...  just  as  she  liked

[  MENTAL  ILLNESS  TW  ]

but  then  she  reached  her  late  teens    they  all  realized  there  was  something  going  on  other   than  the  usual  teenage  angst  she  displayed  all the time  when  she  had  her  first  manic  episode  .   her  parents  thought  it was  a  “  blue  thing  “  at  first  bc  she  was  usually  a  very  impulsive  person  n  she  rly  didn’t  have  a  habit  of  thinking  before  acting  on  her  impulses  ,   but  her  mom  quickly  noticed  the  signs  of  a  manic  episode  when  she  realized  how  aggitated  n   restless  she  was  , specially  when  blue  described  an   hallucination  she  seemed  to  be  having  .   they  took  her  to  a  psychiatrist  ,  she  was  admitted  to  a  hospital  n  diagnosed  w  type 1  bipolar  disorder  n  very  quickly  medicated .  while  the  medication  brought  her  out  of  her  episode  ,  n  she  was  allowed  to  go  home  after  her  mood  seemed  to stabilize  ,   blue  also  noticed  it  stunted  her  severely  emotionally  n  decided  (  against  medical  n  parental  advice  [  pls  dont  do  it  fam  !!  take  ur  meds  ]  )  to  quit  her  medication  ,  falling  into  her  first  major  depressive  episode  a  few  weeks  afterwards  . n  for  abt  four  years  she’s  been  living  w  her  disorder  ,  n  she  doesn’t  medicate  at  all  .  she’s  super  open  abt  her struggles  n  she  has  a  Lot  of  them  ,  specially  w  how  much  drugs  n  alcohol  she  consumes  .   i  never  said  she  was  smart  yall  .

[  END  OF  TW  ]

ok  so  as  u  probably  assume  ,   blue  is  an  emotional  mess  .  she  has  a   very  chaotic  personality  ,  n  most  of it  isnt  even  from  her  illness or  anything  she  just  is  a  very  chaotic  person  in  general  ?  she  is   one  of  those  artsy  ppl  who  forgets  to  wash  her  own  clothes  so  she  ends  up  wearing  the  same  dress for  like  ,  3 days .  she’s  super  outspoken  n  outgoing  n  rly easy  at  making  friends  if  u  can  get  past  the  dumbass energy  she  exudes 24/7  ?  but  yes  just  a  very  outgoing  person  n  a  outright  mess  most  of  the  time  .  she  is  also  soooo stubborn  u  will  never  get  her  to  change  her  mind  abt  smth  she  believes  to  be  right  about  in  any  way  .  u  just  cant  .  she  loves  a  good  time  n  loves  partying  n  is  the  lack  of  impulse  Queen  soo if  u  got  any  bad  ideas  she  is  the  one   u  should  go  for  if  u  need  any  company  .  also .... so dramatic  .  she  makes  a  big  deal  of  everything  n  has  0  apologies  abt  that  .  just  catch  her  crying  over  high  school  musical  3  or  smth  like  that  .

but  yea  on  the  bad  side  tho  ,  blue  takes  up  n  gives  up  on  projects  so  easily  n  she  can  be  super  fickle  abt  things  in  general  .  like  ,  she  will  defend  an  idea  for  7  hours  but  2  days  later  she’s  already  onto  smth  else  n  doesnt  even  remember  being  so  obsessive  abt  that  other  thing  ?  a  mess .  is  also  Quite  abrasive  ?  if  she  thinks  ur  acting  dumb  shes  not  gonna  be  scared  to  call u  out  on  it  .  can  also  have a  Reaally  explosive  temper  .  not  usually  but  specially  during  manic  episodes  she  can  be  quite  easy  to  annoy  ngl  .  is  very  unreliable  ,  especially  if ur not  too  close  ..  tbh  that  is  something  connected  to  her  disorder  .  when  she’s  on  a  manic  episode  ,  she  will be  too busy  planning  things  she  will  never  get  around  to  doing  or  painting  her  entire  house  or  spending  3  days  awake  n  drunk  writing  17  songs  by  herself  .  n  during  her  depression  is  very  hard  to  get  her  to  do  anything  n  even  if  she  feels  terrible  , she  rly  cant be  an  available  friend  .

in  regards  to  her  sexuality  ,  she’s  an  open  bisexual  and   also  is  a  crazy  romantic  n  falls  so  hard  for  literally  no  reason .  but  like  ...  doesnt  have  the  healthiest  mentality  for  relationships  ?  not  like  in  a  toxic  way  but  she  will usually  give  145%  of  herself  at  all times  n  honestly  believes  all  of  the  ppl  she  falls  for  are  the one (1)  just  wants  to  make  things  work  no  matter  what  .  she’s  v  impulsive  w/  meeting  n  falling  for  ppl  tho  so  things  dont  rly  end  up  working  n  she  always  ends  up  heartbroken  over it  .  Well  .  At least she’s  trying  right  ?

in regards  to  her  career  n  art  , she’s  posted  youtube  covers  n  original  songs  for  a  couple  years  and  gathered a  decent  following  ?  she  wasnt  huge  or  anything  but  she  did  get  a  record  deal  w  an  actual  big  label  out  of  it  a  few  months  ago  .  blue  was  pretty  happy  abt  it  but  then  when  the  recording  process  started  she  realized  they  werent  treating  her  as she  thought  she  deserved  at  all  ?  which  resulted  on her  taking  her  thoughts  to  some  reps  of  the  label  n  when  she  didn’t  feel  any  difference  in  the  way  she  was  being  treated  she  took  it  to  the public  ?  which  definitely  caused  quite a  sitr  bc  she  wasn’t  a  huge  name  but  she  was  big  enough  ?  so  now  she’s  in  some  considerable  trouble  w  her  label  but  Also  more  famous  than  ever  so  they  are  choosing  not  to  bury  her  for  now  ?  she’s  in  some  definite  trouble  though  so  it’ll  be  fun  to  see  what  happens  next  n  what  her  moves  will be  ?  spoiler  alert :  it’ll prob  be  smth  dumb.

i  still have  so  much  to  say  but  i’m  so lazy  wow .  dont  start  ur  intros  so  close  to opening  time  folks  thats  my  tip  as  an  old  internet  auntie  .  OK SO  ONTO  SOME  CONNECTIONS  NOW  

some label  mates  who  she  may  or  may  not  get  along  with  ?

hookups !!  she  prob  has  a  few  she  regrets  too   bc  who  doesnt  am i  right

best  friends !!  ppl  who  actually  support  her  n  she  loves  w  no restrictions  just  love  all  around  friends

exes </3  not  gonna  lie  i  have  some  sad  ideas  abt  this  one

good  influence  bc  blue  is  a  mess she  needs  one  of  those  pls  someone  slap  her  head  n  make  her  drink  some  water

a  fling  she  has  feelings  for  but  may  not  be  requited  ...  i  like  my  romantic  connections  to  be  angsty  did yall  notice

artistic  soulmate  !!  someone  her  artistic  bitch  side  just  vibes  with  ?  could  be  a  songwriter  or  singer or  anything  tbh

some   indecisive  romantic   shit where blue rly  knows  sh’s  too messy  n  this  person  is too amazing ?  but  they still  have  feels  so   ... now  what ?

this is  p  mcuh  it ??  it  has  taken so long  to  finish  this  i  hate  myself  but  HEY  if  u  like  blue  or  dislike  her  u  should  hit  me  up  so  we  can  come  up  w  some  plot  ideas  ?  i wish  i  had  a  quirky  goodbye  idea  but  my  brain  has  just  quit  working  guys  so  u  get  nothing  from  me  other than  a  good  old  fashioned goodbye  thanks  for ur  attention  i  love u

[ceffythesquirrel]

Post Apocalyptic Sander's Sides AU

Hello! This is inspired off of @sidespart amazing art of Logan and Robot!Roman. Check notes for navigation (Poor princey.) I'm sure @sidespart had a completely different idea when they were creating that art piece, so this is just my take. If they ever do anything more with that universe, just know that this is completely separate and...yeah. XD

Warnings: Lots of death mention (nothing graphic), minor character death, explosions, terrorist attacks, let me know if theres anything else!

Roman - Backstory

M29-Ro-man was created a couple years before the apocalypse by a robotics genius. The dude just took a bunch of parts from the scrap yard, cleaned them up, put him together, and programmed him to be Roman.

He was just sitting in his garage lifeless for the longest time because he was one of the few robots with emotions that existed and the creator didn't really want him stolen or known about yet. Also he was solar powered and any contact with the sun would bring him to life.

Decided to give him as a gift to a friend/Broadway star who needed a personal companion to rehearse lines with on a daily basis. Thus the robotics genius programmed Roman with everything a robot should probably not be programmed with. He had emotions, the ability to learn and gather information, and the ability to adapt through different situations and circumstances.

When the Broadway star received Roman he acted like a human with a metallic body and an off switch. He couldnt physically feel since he had no skin. The creator also mentioned to the Broadway star that he was a little too boisterous and wasnt sure how to fix it, but once meeting Roman, he didnt mind at all.

Roman instantly took to the theatre atmosphere. He was told what to do, how to help his human companion, and practice with him.

When Roman was not on duty, he was constantly watching Broadway show after Broadway show, acting them out on his own. He would always study the one his human was performing in to the T so he could help him get his lines accurate.

So they were both pretty good friends. Roman had never experienced that robots under humans rascism until way later. He experienced it when he got fitted for a prince outfit, because the Broadway star thought he'd like it, (which Roman very much did.)

Roman can also sword fight he found out. Not because he taught himself, but part of a fencing bot's mainframe was welded inside of him.

Roman believes all other robots are stupid after seeing none that act like him. He knew he was special and had a tendency to act like it.

It all changed when the first terrorist attack of WWIII happened. Of course it happened at Broadway. There was a bombing causing most of the building to collapse.

Lots of people died including his human Broadway star friend. But, Roman would never know what had happened to him. When the bomb exploded, the roof of the room he was in collapsed and debris switched Roman off rendering him useless for a couple of hours.

This is where he meets Logan.

Logan - Backstory

He was an average kid with an average family. He had no siblings and was often left to his own devices. Its not that he didn't try to make friends, its just he wasn't that good with social cues. Some say he may have been autistic, but no one knows for certain.

He has always loved robots growing up, and wanted to be someone who worked with robots. Unfortunately, the robot industry was already deep into the golden age and it was a very competitive field.

Giving up on that dream, he went with chemical engineering instead. He still had a heart for robots though, and would always watch them work whenever he could.

He was under the belief that robots should stay machines and not advance into anything else. So when he saw the world's first emotion robot he voted and protested against it with every fibre of his being.

He read the book "I am, Robot" (book about Robots taking over the world) so it makes sense why he didn't like the idea.

He graduated as valedictorian of his class and went on to become a theoretical chemist. Not what he had planned to do, but it was interesting nevertheless.

He was in a research group of 11 other scientists who were working to develop the world's first force field. It was when they succeeded that it all went to hell.

They were presenting their work at the world fair in New York when the bombing on broadway happened. It was utter chaos as other attacks ripped through the city and people ran for their lives.

Logan acted on impulse rushing people to safety while staying a safe distance with his colleagues, until an explosion split them apart.

Because one of the scientists had a feeling this was going to happen she made the other 11 make a plan b so their work wouldn't be stolen. Of the twelve, six split up the force field plans.

Logan was one of those six and was running with the three hard drives that contained all the equations for it. In his lab coat mind you, that he forgot would make him a target. So he was running from chopper fire and was able to hide behind a building and dive under rubble.

He had no idea where anyone was or if anyone was still alive since it seemed WI-Fi and internet was down all across the world. Even television was having problems.

He was shaking with fear as chaos continued to reign outside so he went further deep into the rubble to seek some sort of shelter if he could and wait out the storm.

He took a wrong step and fell a story into the exact room Roman was in.

He saw the unique looking robot, covered in debris and was more scared of it than anything. Maybe it was another trap or a bomb, but after it didnt move for awhile Logan's curiousity got the better of him and moved it out from under the pile and get a better look at it.

It was dressed like a prince, and had a sword. Some robot.

When Logan switched it on his life changed.

Hardship to Friendship

Basically the exchange went like this: Roman sprung to action with his sword. Logan shrieked and fell over from surprise. He was already scared of what was going on outside and this did not help. Roman called out Logan on his nerdy appearance and his so-called want to steal an amazing robot like him. "Over my dead body Isaac Snoopin'!" And Logan is just too terrified for any of this so he just faints.

Roman is more confused than anything, but the impact of a bomb over head tells him something is definitely wrong. His eyes widen as he remembers his human friend and is about to go find him, when the conscious he had developed told him he shouldn't leave the scientist behind no matter how much he wanted to. Especially if he was an enemy, and in sword fighting you never take your eyes off your enemy.

So he picked up Logan like a rag doll and began searching through the ruined structure for the stage.

It was a tragic scene when he got there however. No one was alive and he couldn't tell anyone apart it was that bad. Another bomb could be heard hitting the ground nearby. Roman had never felt this amount of sorrow before so he just kind of sat on the ground rocking with his knees to his chest with sadness not exactly sure how to process the emotion, since he couldn't cry.

Logan came around about an hour later and Roman was still repeatedly doing the same movements. When the prince-robot saw Logan begin to wake up he drew his sword at him.

"YOU DID THIS!" "Wh-what?! Me!?"

"Who else could have accomplished this feat but a scientist?! You murderer!" Logan began trying to explain that he's just one person and could never pull off something this massive.

As they argued, the ceiling of the room they were in began to collapse and they dove for cover in the nick of time.

Just cue the whole scene where they are running together for their lives through the crumbling hallways somewhat screaming, somewhat Roman yelling at Logan, and somewhat Logan getting frustrated at this almost human who is blaming him for the ruining of his theatre and death of his beloved friend. Logan was in the same predicament since he didnt know if anyone he knew was alive.

Logan does take it too far when he says "This is why your kind should never have emotions!"

Roman had a temper so he wasn't thinking when he took his sword and swiped it across Logan's face. Cue Roman realizing he is capable of hurting others and shrinking back. This is not the robot he wanted to be.

"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for." Logan was more suprised that the sword had only nicked him in the cheek and not got him in the throat or anything.

The place they are in begins to collapse right after that too and Logan shoves Roman out of the way with a "You're forgiven!" when the floor begins to crumble underneath them.

The rest of it is just them talking/ introducing themselves with just a little more civility and trying to find a way out of the building. They finally do, but it caves in. Roman helps push with Logan and finds out he is soooooo much stronger than a regular human. He clears the way so easily that Logan's actually jealous of the robot.

So now they are running through the city above ground away from the commotion and start their journey as fugitives in an apocalyptic world. Logan doesn't know why Roman is sticking with him and frankly Roman doesn't either, but the robot has no other place to go. Also Logan is a scientist and Roman is still suspicious that he wants to take him apart and study him. Which isn't completely wrong but Logan is more preoccupied with running for his life right now.

They first run to Logan's apartment a couple blocks down while the chaos is still happening around them. He grabs items from his house like he's evacuating and changes from his lab coat into more casual clothes, still keeping the hard drives with him.

Logan and Roman barely escape from the place before a bomb destroys the complex behind them. Logan gets tired quickly as they run through the traffic, since he didnt really work out. So Roman just picks him and his bags up with ease and sprints off with the speed of two cheetahs combined.

That was the story of how the two unlikely friends met. Logan eventually tries to contact his other colleagues only to find out that only three of them were left, not including himself. Each of them held a piece to the force field, but the blueprints of the actual structure were lost somewhere. Roman and Logan had parted ways for a little while so Logan could go meet up with the other scientists, but found out it was a trap just to get the three hard drives he had. His other colleagues were dead when he got there.

Roman had went to find his orginal creator, but there was no sign of him anywhere. So he returned to Logan and busted him out of the trap and they went on the run again.

From there on, the duo became inseparable even if they did seem like they were at odds half the time. They were soon joined by others who found sanctity and friendship within their tribe of misfits.

Emile Picani: The Ex Vice President of the fallen United States that everyone loved more than the actual president. He had signed a secret deal with the illuminati but when New York got attacked he said "Screw it" and ran.

Virgil: A 21-year-old boy with unexplainable psychic powers the government had locked up for experimentation. He's a techie and is good at technology and hacking stuff.

Patton: An alien disguised as a human who might have accidently contributed to Virgil's psychic powers. He loves everything about Earth, except the violence and bad stuff.

Remy: A defective clone who knew he was more than just a science experiment.

Nathaniel: An ex-security officer who just wants to survive the apocalypse and the people he's with sure seem to know what they are doing.

Thomas: An old friend of Logan's with the safe house they all camp out at sometimes. He is the one with all the money and supplies they need to stock up on.

There is so much more I could do for this AU. If you want me to do Patton and Virgil's meeting or backstories let me know. I'm sorry this got so long. I just love this AU now. Again credit to the artist who made that amazing piece sidespart and hope you all enjoy!

[douxreviews]

Supernatural - ‘Moriah’ Review

"Writers lie."

Holy wow. Pun intended.

Did they just make God the ultimate final season bad guy? Did they really? How meta is that?

Before I get into the heavy stuff, let's start with the funny. That explosion of harmful truth at the facial recognition company was classic comic Supernatural from beginning to end – from the stolen yogurt to the stapler queen to the President's deal with Crowley. After all of the recent grimdark, I most certainly did not expect such hilarity to ensue. "I'm Dean Winchester and I'm looking for the Devil's son. This badge is fake." Liar Liar on steroids.

And I totally did not expect Chuck to show up, even after the set-up of Castiel's prayer not that long ago. At first I thought this was a good thing, of course, because Chuck showing up is usually a good thing. Not this time.

Yes, we've been told over and over that Chuck is all about the storytelling. He's the one that writes paperback books in his underwear. It's funny (interesting, not funny ha-ha) how Dean, Sam and Castiel had pretty much had it with Chuck, all at the same time. Note their exasperated expressions as Chuck did everything he could to sell his new magical plot twist gun that could kill anything but would also kill the one who pulled the trigger. Everyone remember the Colt?

But what gave me chills was when they were all in the cemetery ("Swan Song," anyone?), Dean was standing over a kneeling Jack with that gun in his hand, and Chuck had this absorbed little grin on his face. As I said in the opener, holy wow. The Winchesters aren't real people to Chuck, after all. They're just characters in his favorite show. We sort of knew that, without really considering the implications. Archangel Michael told us that Chuck tosses worlds away like failed versions of a book, and he wasn't lying. How about that.

God is their showrunner. He has literally been playing with Dean and Sam their entire lives. They're chess pieces to him, and nothing more. Chuck actually offered to bring back Mary if Dean killed Jack, like, sacrifice your knight and pawn, I'll give you back your queen. When Dean refused to kill Jack and Sam (understandably) lost his temper and shot Chuck with the magic gun, that was it. His squirrels were fighting back. How dare they.

Story's over. Welcome to the End. That final scene as the darkness fell, the monsters rose from hell and the dead from their graves was set to the song, "God Was Never on Your Side." I thought this conflict over Jack would blast Dean and Castiel apart, with Sam in the middle, but instead, this episode ended with the three of them back to back to back, ready to fight off the dead together. So at least there's that.

With the last season approaching, I've been thinking lately that the perfect end for the series would be for Dean and Sam to knock on Mary's white door and join their parents in their special heaven (there'll be peace when you are done). But is Heaven even a thing any more? Will it still exist when the series ends?

If this world of Supernatural isn't what we've been led to believe, what about the Empty? That last shot of Jack was with Billie and the Black Cloud of Lucifer (was that Lucifer?) who made the creepiest smiley face at Jack. Does Billie have the answer to all of this? We've been told that Death can reap God. Can she?

Bits:

— Title musings and various names: "Moriah" is the place where Abraham was supposed to sacrifice Isaac, like Dean was supposed to sacrifice Jack. That cemetery looked a lot like the apocalyptic season five finale. Chuck wanted to name the gun Hammurabi, or The Equalizer. And Amara is in Reno playing Keno.

— Mirror Universe, the name of the facial recognition software company, was just about perfect: a reminder of all of Chuck's discarded universes, as well as all of the alternate universe characters we've been meeting these days.

— Note that Jack was never a threat to Chuck. Jack also didn't kill his grandmother.

— Castiel was thinking that Lucifer's cage might contain Jack. That's actually a pretty good solution.

— Yet another mention of souls. Why is Chuck powerless to change or restore them? Must be important.

— Poor Celine Dion. She's the punchline of a joke, much like Barry Manilow.

— I loved how Chuck critiqued season seven with the Leviathans and season twelve with the British Men of Letters.

— "God Was Never on Your Side" is by Motorhead. Last week, Dean, Sam and Castiel were agents Kilmister, Clarke and Taylor.

— The reference to Crowley and the universe of squirrels reminded me of Moose and Squirrel. Is Crowley in the Empty, too?

— Rob Benedict's credit was at the end. Gold acting stars for Mr. Benedict, by the way. Or possibly "God acting stars." Playing God isn't exactly easy, especially when he's become such a complicated character.

Quotes, the Mostly Chuck edition:

Dean: "Nerds." Sam: "Takes one to know one." Dean: "What?" Sam: "You. Come on, man. You're always calling me a geek, but you know every word to every Led Zeppelin song backwards and forwards, you can discuss in detail every major rock drummer between '67 and '84 and… you watch Jeopardy every night." Dean: "Yeah, okay. But I'm nothing like this gaggle of Zuckerbergs."

Dean: "I'm Dean Winchester and I'm looking for the Devil's son. This badge is fake." That made me laugh like a loon.

Female newscaster: "In what was supposed to be a speech on farming subsidies, the president instead spent more than two hours disclosing his entire tax history, his deep ties to Russia and North Korea, and the, quote, demon deal he made with someone called Crowley. Back to you, Chet. Chet?" Male newscaster: (looks directly at her) "I love you. I have always loved you."

Dean: "When people can't lie, the internet gets real quiet."

Chuck: "I'm a writer. Lying's kind of what we do."

Dean: (to Chuck) "Where the hell have you been?" Dean may be the only person I can think of who can look God in the eye and say something like that.

Chuck: "So! How's things? Okay, look, I get it. I'm the deus from the machina, and you have questions."

Sam: "Where have you been?" Chuck: "It's hard to explain. Everywhere and nowhere. Edge of the universe and beyond. And I saw Springsteen on Broadway. Man's a genius."

Newcaster: "… and it's been confirmed: the Queen of England is, in fact, a lizard." What episode is that from? I can't remember!

Chuck: "Look, the point is, the kid did all that with two words. What's next? He sneezes, and whoops, there goes India?"

Chuck: "Ugh. Billie. I liked the old Death better. He was all about fried pickles and tickle porn. This new Death, she's always sticking her scythe where it doesn't belong." Echoing the fans again.

Sam: "So how many are there? How many other worlds or universes or realities, or whatever?" Chuck: "I don't know. Kinda lost count. Most of them are boring, one's in reverse, in one there's no yellow, one of them's just all squirrels." I'm thinking a world without shrimp.

Sam: "Do you watch us? When you're not here, are you watching us?" Chuck: "Yeah. (Sam gasps) I mean, you're my favorite show."

I could write a few more pages about this episode, but I think I'm done for now. And I am totally impressed. Four out of four squirrels, and what did you guys think?

Billie Doux has been reviewing Supernatural for so long that Dean and Sam Winchester feel like old friends. Courageous, adventurous, gorgeous old friends.

[nofliight]

FULL NAME.  Pit MEANING. Pit - ‘a hole in the ground’. Nah, it’s actually inspired by the name of the mythical cherub, Cupid - ‘Pit’ sounds better than ‘Pid’, doesn’t it? NICKNAME.  Pitty, Pitty-pat, Angel Face, Hole in the ground, etc.  GENDER.  Male HEIGHT.  5′2″ AGE.  late 30s ZODIAC. Saggitarius - fittingly enough. SPOKEN LANGUAGES. English, Greek

𝐩𝐡𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 !

HAIR COLOUR. brown EYE COLOUR.  blue SKIN TONE. Fairly pale, but lightly tanned. darker than in canon, at least. BODY TYPE. Small, but more muscular than it looks. You won’t see much muscle on his arms, but he does have well-defined abs. Don’t ask about his oversized Hands and Feet ACCENT. N/A, don’t have it in me to put thought into this one VOICE. Anthony Del Rio is a God and I would trade that voice for Nothing

DOMINANT HAND.  Left-handed! Because I’m left-handed, fuck you and fuck canon. POSTURE.  Pit stands tall and proud, meant to look ready for anything! He’s surprisingly grounded, so he genuinely does tend to be standing Tall and Proud whenever he can. SCARS. Only a few dinges, since Palutena can heal most wounds. TATTOOS.  n/a MOST NOTICEABLE FEATURE(S). The wings. Definitely the wings.

𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 !

PLACE OF “BIRTH”. Skyworld HOMETOWN.  Angel Land BIRTH WEIGHT.  He was a frail angel from the very beginning - he was barely 10 pounds when he was brought to life. Angels are all light, even the big and muscular ones, but that’s small even by angelic standards! BIRTH HEIGHT.   Small boi. Small. MANNER OF BIRTH.  I still have to work on my hcs for Centurion “birth” so I’ll get back to you on that. FIRST WORDS.  "I’m ready to serve you, Lady Palutena!” Yeah, angels aren’t really born wordless. SIBLINGS. n/a PARENTS.  n/a PARENT INVOLVEMENT. n/a

𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 !

OCCUPATION. Captain of Palutena’s royal guard - protector of humanity, whenever he can be. CURRENT RESIDENCE.  Skyworld - or the Smash mansion, failing that. CLOSE FRIENDS.  His bond with Palutena is absolutely unbreakable, as to be expected of an angel - but he’s vowed to stand by her to the very end. He’s also grown to care for his dark doppelganger, and he even has a soft spot for Viridi, even if they don’t really have the option of being proper friends at the moment. RELATIONSHIP STATUS.  Single. Would really like to change that. FINANCIAL STATUS.  All finances are hearts he spends in Skyworld. Given the training he does, he’s doing fine. DRIVER’S LICENSE. Don’t need a license to drive vehicles designed by the Gods. CRIMINAL RECORD. None! Surprising, considering he’s not well-liked by the general pantheon. VICES.  He bottles up his negative emotions and more cynical views in favor of always holding a positive attitude. He isn’t as open as he acts, and he’s a lot more aware of how cruel the world truly is than he admits. He’d rather be seen as an idealistic kind-hearted sweetheart who believes in everyone than someone who thinks that everyone is pretty equally terrible.

𝐬𝐞𝐱 & 𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 !

SEXUAL ORIENTATION. Heterosexual ROMANTIC ORIENTATION.  Heteroromantic PREFERRED EMOTIONAL ROLE.  submissive       |       dominant |       switch PREFERRED SEXUAL ROLE.  submissive       |       dominant       |       switch LIBIDO.  He does have one - he’s not scared of Palutena reading his thoughts for nothing. He would very, very much like to know what the act is like - but given it’s such an impure craving that sort of thing is for an angel (combined with no one actually teaching him much about it, it’s not exactly necessary teaching in angel anatomy), he’s content to keep it ( and his internet history ) to himself. TURN ON’S. TURN OFF’S.

RELATIONSHIP TENDENCIES.  Pit in a relationship is... awkward, but well-meaning. More than anything, he’ll value his partner’s happiness over anybody’s, and he’s willing to hold his lover up as high as he needs to to make their day. He’s very touch-starved and melts into just about any form of affection, and he can get snuggly once he’s used to the relationship. Scratch his head, hold his hands, he’s yours.

𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐨𝐮𝐬 !

CHARACTER’S THEME SONG. this one, obviously. or that one he and palutena sing about being upbeat, but i can’t find that anywhere HOBBIES TO PASS TIME.  Learning to read, video games, listening to stories about his favorite heroes, talking to friends MENTAL ILLNESSES.  N/A PHYSICAL ILLNESSES.  Underdeveloped wings LEFT OR RIGHT BRAINED. Left-brained.

PHOBIAS.   Monophobia. He does have a growing discomfort toward uncontrolled fire and explosions as well - Not quite pyrophobia, but it’s there.

SELF CONFIDENCE LEVEL.  Pretty high, even when he has to force it. He has to believe in himself - he’s serving Lady Palutena’s guard, after all, he’ll never doubt himself again! At least nowadays, he normally tends to mean it. VULNERABILITIES. He’s somewhat dimwitted, and mostwhat gullible. He’s also very easy to loosen up and lower his emotional guard, and he relies on company and connections to keep himself going, even if only just Palutena’s. Though his spirit is hard to break, enough power can certainly give him a bad time. He also has a temper - albeit a rather controlled one. Plus, around pretty women when they’re trying to get him flustered or embarrassed... god help him.

TAGGED BY: Stole it!

TAGGING: Steal it!!

[sandwichpress]

Data Objects Day 11

Today we did a lot and very little at the same time, so this post might be another long one.

I say that as we tested the prototypes we created over the weekends, collected data by asking questions and discussing what we should do next.

First thing, we tested Zhe’s prototypes, which focused more on the fillings. All I can say about that is that the results we’re a little bit surprising.

Zhe’s prototypes mostly focused on the flavor and we learned a couple of things. We were kind of surprised that there was no real reaction to what we thought was the worst filling, the meatball. In fact the person we gave it to, Regy said it felt and tasted like cake. And the rest of the results were pretty similar. We thought we would get a reaction to mustard inside chocolate; a combination I find pretty foul. Again, we didn’t get any sort of reaction. People just went “Oh, there’s mustard”. If anything, cinnamon was the filling that was the least surprising. It’s was kind of unpleasant but nothing that got people to react greatly to it.

With these findings we discovered a couple things:

First of all was that the white chocolate itself tended to overpower things, so in the next prototype we might use milk chocolate to see how it turns out.

Second is that we definitely need to find out how think the walls of the chocolates need to be. Too thick and we can’t place enough filling inside, too thin and the walls collapse. I’m thinking that ice molds don’t make that great of a chocolate mold, since Zhe said she ruined hers making the chocolates.

In the image above, the little diagram was an idea of mine to try to get a even cavity for the filling of the chocolates. It may or may not work, it’ll probably need testing. However, Krishner (I’m not sure how to spell his name, sorry) recommended that we we just fill our molds with chocolate and then turn them upside down over the melted chocolate in order to create the cavities. So we’ll also have to try that. He also gave us some nice tips on how to temper chocolate, especially without a thermometer! Nice! Something that I was worrying about in my previous post that I don’t have to worry about any more!

The second batch of prototypes we tested were mine, which were focused more on texture and “construction?” (no idea how to word this). For this we mostly did internal testing, seeing how the different placements of the filling affected the texture. 

Chris did 2 tests with other groups however, giving them a white chocolate mixed and the one with the chocolate button center. According to him people hesitated to eat them, either because they looked a bit sketchy or they didn’t know what was in them. This pretty much lined up with our tests of the Zhe’s prototypes, people generally avoided the chocolates with visible black dots, malformed chocolates, etc. We also observed that the anticipation whether they got a “good” one or a “bad” one also got people pretty excited/nervous. An effect we were kind of expecting, though I am not entirely sure if that is what we want entirely.

For pretty much the rest of the day we discussed how we want to map our data and how we want to use the results of our prototypes. Someone had the idea (I cannot remember who) to add different types of fillings based on the event. We were kind of stuck with HIV/AIDS, so we decided to go around and ask people what they thought “the flavour of AIDS” would be. Now that I look back on it’s probably a bit embarrassing, maybe even a bit insensitive to ask that kind of question to somebody. Nevertheless we’re got some results from our question, and we also seem to have gotten the attention of Yvonne.

From this point on we pretty much had a conversation with Charles and Yvonne about our project. We showed them some of my prototypes and had a big discussion bout how we want to map our data and gave us some ideas that we could potentially work with.

Even with that simple prototype they suggested that we could potentially even use the wrap to affect the user experience, for example the silicone vs paper. Or even using the appearance of the chocolate, something that we had noticed earlier.

Charles told us to search up “body part cake” just as an example of having something look terrible, but actually taste nice. (It’s apparently an internet fad, where you make the cake look like a human body part but it tastes nice, like a normal cake). Using black death as an example we thought of using a burnt pretzel filling (because it’s black, burnt and tastes awful) and while the chocolate is cooling we inject a custard hot sauce to create pustules, making the chocolate look like it has the plague. (The custard filling was decided upon because I thought the pustules looked like they had custard in them; gross, I know)

We were also trying to mess around with flavors and fillings, and something that Charles and Yvonne suggested to us was that having all of these fillings may not be a good idea as the average person might not know what the baseline might be. They wouldn’t know how bad something is compared to something else. They also recommended we do some research on how people perceive flavor, as some people might like spicy more compared to sour. I think this point is valid as we had tests subjects that liked the mustard inside the chocolate, so this is very likely worth looking in to.

With all of this in mind, we split our data in to 3 groups. We would have reduced our data set by removing the wars, but they comprised the majority of our data (6/10, go figure). The 3 groups were

wars (poprocks as filling, maybe mixed with something else, popping supposed to represent violence and explosions)

Plague of Justinian & Black Death (Plagues in general, will have the pretzel thing)

Other Diseases (Not quite sure about what we’ll do with this one, going with the feedback we received they’ll probably be filled with pigs blood, mould from blue cheese or pure aloe vera.

We’re also thinking of how exactly we’re mapping the data to the chocolate. Chris thinks we should use an amount, so a certain measurement = a certain amount of people. I think that we should make it percentage based. How we are exactly going to do things is a discussion we are going to have tomorrow.

[ferociousqueak]

A-Z Alli (if that's too many then just all the letters in THRESHER MAW)

A: Aptitude1. what are your oc’s natural abilities, things they’ve been doing since young?Alli had a natural affinity for solving puzzles, whether those puzzles areequations, computer programs, or physical pieces that need to fit together. Inparticular, she’s always enjoyed breaking puzzles after she figures them out.She’s figured out a program? Good. Now it’s time to hack it and make it dosomething else :P

2. what activitieshave they participated in?She’s never really been one for clubs or team sports, but she really doeslove dancing. Before deciding on a career in the Alliance, Alli was seriousabout pursuing a career in biotic dancing.

3. what abilities dothey have that they’ve worked for?Alli has had to work very hard to control and hone her biotics. For ahuman, she’s fairly advanced, but she always compared her skill to asari, whichwas the only time when she wasn’t at the head of her class. And we can’t havethat now can we :P

4. what things arethey bad at?She’s bad at lying and keeping her temper in check.

5. what is their mostimpressive talent?That depends. She considers hermost impressive talent to be that she mastered the Singularity as a teenager.Other people consider her most impressive talent to be her ability to thinkquickly and strategically.

The rest is under the cut because this got, um, long.

B: Basics1. what is their hair color?Her natural hair color is a dark red, but she starts dying it black whenshe’s a teenager and keeps it that way until she’s resurrected by Cerberus. Shekeeps her natural hair color mostly because she doesn’t have the opportunity tochange it while chasing Collectors and then fighting Reapers.

2. what is their eyecolor?She has light green eyes, much like Hannah’s :P

3. how tall are they?5��8”

4. how old are they?In Family Resemblance, she’s currently 13.

5. how much do theyweigh?It fluctuates, but right now she’s about a buck ten, sopping wet. Don’tworry though. She’ll gain weight as she gets older and learns to eat enough tokeep her biotics satisfied.

C: Comfort1. how do they sit in a chair?She usually sits with one leg curled under her or one leg pulled up to herchest.

2. in what positiondo they sleep?Usually just on her side.

3. what is theirideal comfort day?Wake up late, make a big breakfast, go for a nice long run, take a hotbath, and settle in for a marathon of action vids.

4. what is theirmajor comfort food? why?She could put away an entire mac and cheese casserole all by herself if shewants to. It’s hot. It’s cheesy. It’s loaded with carbs. And it’s one of thefew dishes that her mom was ever able to make without burning.

5. who is the best atcomforting them when down?Dess is surprisingly good at comforting her when she’s a kid/teenager. Asan adult, she finds Garrus’s simple presence to be calming and comforting.

D: Decoration1. how would they decorate a house if they had one under their name?Alli isn’t much of a decorator, so other than furniture that she’d probablyjust pick up at a consignment store, a few bookcases, and maybe a few flowervases scattered around, she wouldn’t think to add much. As long as the floorplan is open and airy, with plenty of windows to let in real sunlight, she’shappy.

2. how would theydecorate their child’s room?Spaceships! She’s gotta do something with all those model ships :P

3. how do theydecorate their own room?The Alliance has decorated her living spaces her entire adult life, so it’snot really something she actively thinks about. After the Reaper War, though, Ithink she experiments with different colors, eventually settling on light greenand dark brown—they feel like living colors to her.

4. what type ofclothes and accessories do they wear?Fancy clothes never felt like they fit right to Alli, so if she’s not inher BDUs or fatigues, she’s usually in comfortable clothes—yoga pants, tanktops, sports bras, leggings, oversized shirts, etc.

5. do they likemakeup/nail/beauty trends?She rarely goes out with at least a little eye makeup and maybe some nudelipstick. She doesn’t use a lot of bold colors or dramatic effects, but sheappreciates them on other people.

E: ExternalPersonality1. does the way they do things portray their internal personality?Alli couldn’t hide her personality if she tried. Even when she’s “undercover” as Allison Gunn, she has trouble not being Commander Shepard.

2. do they do things thatconform to the norm?While I wouldn’t say Alli flaunts norms, she excels at the things she putsher mind to.

3. do they followtrends or do their own thing?She follows orders with single-minded focus, and she gets the job done theway no one else can.

4. are theyup-to-date on the internet fads?She’s up to date with the latest Blasto movies, but mostly only becausethey rip off her life so unapologetically. And she loves it.

5. do they portraytheir personality intentionally or let people figure it out on their own?She’s crafted a persona that works well in front of the camera, but shekind of had to. When people start calling you things like “butcher,” you have alot of ground to make up, image-wise. In her personal life, though, she letsher actions speak for themselves. The people who are worth keeping around willjudge her on her own merits, not on a manicured exterior that suits them.

F: Fun1. what do they do for fun?Apart from building model ships, she likes to dismantle old omni-tools andput pieces back together that make them better than anything you can find onthe market.

2. what is theirideal party?Alli isn’t much for loud parties and crowds, so she’d much rather have agathering of a few close friends where they can let their hair down andrelax/be silly/get a little tipsy. Basically, the party they have at Anderson’sapartment on the Citadel is her ideal party :P

3. who would theyhave the most fun with?Garrus is the easy answer here because she feels like she could be aroundhim in total silence for hours and still feel at ease. Their stress-reliefregimen isn’t too bad either :P But other than him, she enjoys herself aroundTali because they’re both tech geeks and Tali’s excitement and nerdery is infectious.

4. can they have funwhile conforming to rules?Sure, but it’s way more fun to break rules :P

5. do they go out alot?Not especially.

G: Gorgeous1. what is their most attractive external feature?She’s especially fond of her shoulders and thighs. They’re the result of alot of work and she’ll take every opportunity to show them off.

2. what is the mostattractive part of their personality?She values her own tenacity. No matter what, she never gives up. That way,either she wins, or eventually it won’t be her problem anymore.

3. what benefits comewith being their friend?I mean, she’s Commander Shepard, so a spectacular explosion can’t be faraway. And if you missed the last one, just give it five minutes.

4. what parts of themdo they like and dislike?She doesn’t like that she doesn’t know how to say no, and she wishes shecould put down her sense of responsibility, just once, and not feel guiltyabout it.

5. what parts ofothers do they envy?I don’t know if it’s envy necessarily, but she admires people who are kindand wishes she could be more like them. Seeing how hard Liara became after twoyears was distressing to Alli, and she took great pleasure in taking her angerout on the Shadow Broker.

H: Heat1. do they rather a hot or cold room?If Alli could live in a freezer, she would.

2. do they prefersummer or winter?She doesn’t develop a preference for seasons until she’s an adult, so shedoesn’t have a lot of nostalgia tied to snowball fights or cannon-balling intoa pool. As a matter of practicality, she prefers winter because you can alwaysadd another layer, but there are only so many you can take off.

3. do they like thesnow?She thinks it’s pretty, but she’s never played in it.

4. do they have afavorite summer activity?Growing up in space means no real connection to summer-exclusiveactivities. If she wants to go swimming, she can at any time, any day.

5. do they have afavorite winter activity?Winter has kind of the same issue as summer: seasons don’t matter in space.

I: In-the-closet1. what is their sexuality?She’s bisexual.

2. have they everquestioned their sexuality?Not really. Her first crush is on an asari, she dates a couple humans (oneman, one woman) in her 20s, she’ll have a brief flirtation with Kaidan up untilVirmire, and eventually she’ll settle down with Garrus. If she’s interested ina person, she’s interested. Not much call for questioning her own interests.

3. have they everquestioned their gender?It’s never occurred to her to question it.

4. would/was theirfamily be okay with them being LGBT?Well, her mother is also bisexual so no real resistance there. I like tothink by the 2100s that all the hand-wringing over sexuality and gendered willhave calmed down a bit. Not having to worry about an unsupportive family is agift I will always give to my characters.

5. how long would/didit take for them to come out?About as long as it took for her to finally get up the gumption to ask outher crush and then tell her mom about it :P I don’t think she ever says “hey,Mom, I’m bi,” but it’s not a necessary clarification either.

J: Joy1. what makes them happy?A quiet day to herself to read, fiddle with gadgets, or just be lazy wouldmake her feel right as rain.

2. who makes themhappy?Garrus always makes her happy, even when he’s just in the same room withher doing his own thing. She’s also very fond of Dess and enjoys spending timewith her as she grows older.

3. are there anysongs that bring them joy?Many.

4. are they happyoften?Unfortunately, no.

5. what brings themthe most joy in the world?Executing a perfect biotic combo. The concussion always puts a smile on herface :P

K: Kill1. have they ever thought about suicide?Nothing beyond occasional ideation. She’s never actually suicidal.

2. have they everthought about homicide?I think we’re well past thinking about homicide at this point.

3. if they could killanyone without punishment, would they? who?Kai Leng. Which she absolutely does when she gets the chance.

4. who would missthem if they died?I have a whole fic of how Hannah reacts to learning that Alli dies. It was actuallypretty hard to write. Alli has a plenty of people who love her and would missher like crazy.

5. who would be happythey died, anyone?I’m sure Udina wouldn’t shed any tears, and TIM would probably have acelebration glass of bourbon.

L: Lemons1. what is their favorite fruit?She doesn’t get a lot of fresh fruit on the Citadel, but when she has theluxury of being picky, she loves watermelon.

2. what is theirleast favorite fruit?Durian. Always durian.

3. are there anyfoods they hate?She’s not a very picky eater. Except when it comes to durian.

4. do they have anyfood intolerances?Nope. She takes after Hannah in having very few allergies.

5. what is theirfavorite food?Bagels with lots of cream cheese.

M: Maternal1. would they want a daughter or a son?She doesn’t have a preference, but she’s not sure she’s suited to be a goodparent. Good parents don’t have body counts in their past.

2. how many childrendo they want?In the very unlikely situation that she would become a parent, she’d cap itat one, maybe two so the other one wouldn’t be so lonely.

3. would they be agood parent?She’d be a much better parent than she gives herself credit for.

4. what would theyname a son? what would they name a daughter?She’d probably name a son Michael and a daughter Emily.

5. would they adopt?She’d be much more amenable to the idea of adopting than going throughwhatever wild medical experiments it would take for her to carry a half-human,half-turian baby.

N: Never Have I Ever1. what would they never do?They would never betray a loved one. She’d rather die first.

2. what have theynever done that they want to do?She wants to learn how to surf. Maybe when she retires to somewhere warmand tropical with Garrus, she’ll take it up.

3. is there anythingthey absolutely can’t believe people do?She’s seen a lot of shit, so it’s hard for her to surprised by what peopledo anymore.

4. what is the mostembarrassing thing they’ve done?Falling through the fish tank at the sushi place on the Citadel is prettyhigh up there. And no one will let it go. Come on, guys!

5. have they doneanything they thought they’d never do?After what happened to Admiral Kuhoko, she was pretty sure she’d never beon the same side as Cerberus, however temporary.

O: Optimism1. are they optimistic or pessimistic?She’s a realist. Don’t tell her the odds—she already knows them.

2. are they openlyoptimistic, throwing it on others?She’ll encourage others to feel optimistic, even if she doesn’t genuinelyfeel it herself. She can be pretty convincing.

3. are they good atgiving advice?Once you get most of your squad killed in a really nasty squall withbatarian pirates, you tend not to dole out advice to others.

4. is there anyone intheir life that throws optimism on them?Her mom and Dess are great sources of optimism, especially when she startsto despair.

5. were they alwaysoptimistic?She hasn’t been optimistic since her dad did come home one day.

P: Personality1. what is their best personality trait?She’s tenacious as hell and will give a krogan a run for their money whenit comes to sheer will power.

2. what is theirworst personality trait?She can be just a wee bit intransigent and occasionally obtuse.

3. what of theirpersonality do others love?She’s loyal and loving and they know they can rely on her to have theirbacks.

4. what of theirpersonality do others envy?No one can tell her know and she doesn’t suffer fools lightly.

5. do they hateanything about their personality/about other’s personalities?She wishes she were kinder. She misses a softness about herself that shethinks she lost a long time ago.

Q: Questions1. do they ask for help?Not nearly as often as she should.

2. do they askquestions in class?Much to the chagrin of her teachers.

3. do they answerquestions that make them a little uncomfortable?Depends on the severity of discomfort, but generally, yes.

4. do they ask weirdquestions?If she thinks of a question, she asks it. She tries not to take anythingfor granted.

5. are they curious?Much to her mother’s chagrin.

R: Rules1. do they follow rules?When it’s convenient and she’s not bored.

2. would they be astrict or laid-back parent?She’d be strict in some ways (usually when it’s a matter of safety) butmostly laid back.

3. have they everbeen consequenced for breaking a rule?LOLOLOLOLOL! Yeah a couple times.

4. have they brokenany rules they now regret breaking?She will very much regret hacking into the video feed of Hannah’s hardsuit.

5. do they find anyrules they/others follow absolutely ridiculous?She thinks of rules in general as guidelines and finds it perplexing whyanyone would adhere to them so strictly.

S: Streets1. are they street-smart?She has pretty good situational awareness, but in the sense that she knowsthe culture and mores of the street, no she’s not street-smart. But she cantake a cue from the people around her and get by if she needs to.

2. would they givemoney to someone on the streets?Absolutely.

3. have they evergotten in a fight on the streets?Well, there was this one time in London…

4. has anythinghappened to them on the streets?Space is pretty far from the streets, and she grew up in a good part of herward on the Citadel. Something happening to her on the streets was always onlya remote possibility.

5. are they cautiouswhen out?Always.

T: Truth1. are they honest?Mostly. If a white lie is more convenient or an innocuous omission expeditesher purpose, she’ll go for it. But she tries to be honest whenever possible.

2. can they tell ifsomeone is lying?Yes, she’s very good at picking up other people’s tells.

3. is it obvious whenthey’re lying?Not always. She would’ve given Gil a run for his money if they’d everplayed poker together.

4. have they liedabout anything they regret lying about?Alli keeps her biotics a secret for a long time because she doesn’t want tobe separated from her family and sent to live somewhere far away. While sheknows why she keeps her biotics to herself, it can be a lot for a kid to carry.And she is still a kid.

5. have they toldtruths that have been spread against their will?Gerald threatened it, but Alli’s friends persuaded him it was not in his bestinterest to do so. Later, Alli’s problem is more that not enough people arespreading the truth and are instead spreading lies about her.

U: Underdog1. have they been bullied?Yes. Things do not go well for Gerald.

2. have they bulliedanyone?No. She can’t stand a bully and will not put someone else through what she’sbeen through.

3. have they beenphysically attacked by a bully?No. Gerald preferred to use his words and violate her privacy to make herfeel unsafe, but he never physically attached her.

4. have they everbeen doubted?LOL! Yes.

5. have theysurprised people with being good at something?She’s surprised a few asari with her biotic skills.

V: Vomit1. do they vomit often?Other than having the occasional flu, no. She’s drunk herself sick a coupleof times and didn’t care for the experience.

2. do they get lots ofstomach aches?As a teenager, she gets anxiety stomach aches all the time. She learns tomanage her anxiety better as an adult so they’re not a big deal anymore.

3. are they good atcomforting someone ill?She’s better at it than she gives herself credit for. She tends to think ofherself as a no-fuss kind of person, but if someone she cares about needscomforting while they’re sick, she’s pretty good and helping them out.

4. what do they likeas far as comfort goes?She likes physical closeness, an entire tub of ice cream, and maybe a tripto the gun range.

5. do they burp, cough,or hiccup most when nauseated? when vomiting?When she’s nauseated, she swallows a lot. When she’s actually sick, shecoughs.

W: Water1. do they drink enough water?LOL! No.

2. have they learnedto swim?Yes.

3. do they like toswim?It’s a good form of exercise, but that’s about the extent of what shethinks about swimming.

4. can they dive?Yes, and her biotics help her there :P

5. can they swimwithout holding their nose?Yep. Are there people who can’t?

X: Xylophone1. what is their favorite genre of music?If it’s good, it’s good. She likes music without lyrics when she’s workingor exercising, but other than that, she doesn’t much prefer one genre of musicover another.

2. do they have afavorite song?It changes. Usually she’ll hear a song she likes, put it on repeat about6,000 times, and then forget about it for a couple years.

3. do they have afavorite band/artist/singer?She’s a magpie when it comes to music and is really terrible at rememberingwho sings/plays what, even if she really likes the music. Except Expel 10. Andshe only remembers them because she had to when she was trying to lure Morinthinto the open.

4. can they singwell?She’s not bad, but she also never really had an interest in singing.

5. can they rap?LOL! No.

Y: You1. how old were you when you created them?2…8? Fuck, and I’m 32 now. I really need to move this story along.

2. what inspired youto create them?I wanted to have a Shepard who was the Butcher, and I wanted to diveheadfirst into what kind of influences would shape her into that kind ofperson. Hannah and Michael developed from there, with Hannah being kind of theParagon influence Michael being the Renegade.

3. were theydifferent when they were first created?She’s different both from how she started (a carefree toddler who justwants to play) and from how she will be (the Savior of the Galaxy). And shestill has a lot of changing to do in the meantime too.

4. do you enjoywriting them more than other characters?Alli is a young teenager in Family Resemblance right now, so what I likeabout writing her is that she’s kind of a catharsis for all the awkwardness andanxiety I went through when I was her age. I wouldn’t say I enjoy itnecessarily, but it’s a good exercise.

5. what’s yourfavorite thing about them?For all her anxieties, she’s tenacious as hell and is capable of way morethan she thinks she is. I look forward to her figuring that out for herself.

Z: Zebra1. what’s their favorite animal?From everything she’s read, she really like North American opossums.

2. do they likeanimals?In theory, yeah. Her knowledge of animals is limited to whatever she’s ableto read. Other than her goldfish that died when she was a kid, she doesn’tinteract a lot with animals until she goes to Earth to train—and during ICT,not a few of those animals considered her part of the lunch menu.

3. cats or dogs?Dogs for their exuberance, and cats for their low maintenance.

4. what’s their dreampet?A guinea pig. She would like nothing more than to set up a city of tubesfor it to run around in.

5. do they have anypets at the moment?Where we are in Family Resemblance, no. Though eventually she’ll keep fishand a hamster.

[fox-thoughts]

Story Time

This one is from a few years back, and doesn’t involve me being a dick in MP, for once. No, it’s something far more sinister.

Some time May or early June 2009, I was at a friend’s house for their birthday party. Well, two friends really. Twins. By this time, I had managed to infiltrate what would become my Highschool group. Pretty much everyone there was a year or two older than me. I was a freshman in highschool, the twins were sophomores, and I think the subject of this story was a Junior. 

So, we’re sitting in a room playing pass the controller Resident Evil 4. By this point, I had developed a bit of a grudge against the Junior in this story from other things. He spent a lot of his time playing card and tabletop games, and kicking peoples’ asses with strategies fresh from the internet, acting all high and mighty, yadda yadda. I still don’t like this guy, even now.

Anyway, his turn to play comes around, and it’s that one part where you’re in a safe room, approaching an area with a slit in the wall for shooting things, and a bunch of wooden bridges and platforms. I think it’s where you get your first rifle. Anyway, he’s rocking it, clears everything no problem, and then he goes to loot.

Having spent most of his gaming “career” on tabletops and card games, he was asking for a bit of help where things were, and what things did. Guy had impeccable aim, just no game-sense. So, I decide to see if I could pull a fast one. 

“Hey, go knife that red barrel over there.” “Why? I could just shoot it. It’s safer that way.” “It also wastes ammo. There’s a gem in there if you go knife it.” “Okay.”

Most people here will know exactly what happens when you hit a red barrel, let alone do so from melee range. This man... was not so lucky. It blew up in his face, and everyone else in the room had a good giggle. This included myself, the twins, and two or three more friends. 

I don’t think he has forgiven me for it, yet. But at least now he hates me as much as I hate him. 

Merry Christmas, and may your fun be as explosive as a new gamer’s temper on discovering the secrets of the red barrels.

[selfsaving]

AISLINN  INFO  DROP   !

language

she  was  born  in  southern  ireland  and  has  spent  most  of  her  life  in  southern  ireland.  her  accent  is  definitely  southern  irish.

she  went  to  a  gaelscoil  primary  school ;  a  school  where  the  primary  language  is  GAELIC.

irish  gaelic  is  technically  her  first  language  but  she  is  totally  bilingual.  she  spoke  +  was  spoken  to  in  gaelic  until  her  ma  died ,  then  english  when  they  moved  in  with  trish.  the  other  schools  she  has  attended  were  a  mixture  of  irish  and  english  speaking.

as  soon  as  she  was  prescribed  hearing  aids ,  her  pa  was  extremely  keen  for  the  two  of  them  to  learn  sign  language     (   he  himself  is  hard  of  hearing  in  one  ear  but  never  learnt   ).     since  she  was  six ,  the  two  of  them  have  taken  free  isl  classes  and  are  both  fluent.  aislinn  has  also  taught  herself  the  alphabet  in  bsl  and  asl ,  as  well  as  some  other  basic  phrases.  but  she  can  sign  and  read  her  alphabets  REALLY  FAST.  like ,  often  too  fast  for  fluent  speakers  to  read  and  they’ll  have  to  ask  her  to  slow  down.

she  and  her  pa  talk  to  each  other  in  equal  measures  gaelic ,  english  and  isl  depending  on  the  situation.  there’s  not  one  she  prefers  over  the  others.

autism  /  ocd

aislinn  was  diagnosed  with  autism  when  she  was  six.  she  went  to  school  a  little  later  than  most  children  and  had  trouble  from  the  start.  disrupting  classes ;  fighting  with  other  children.

she  struggles  to  understand  other  people  her  age ,  mostly.  feels  separated  from  those  around  her  because  her  background   &   lifestyle  is  so  different.  she’s  always  struggled  to  make  friends.

BUT  if  she  sees  something  similar  to  herself  in  another ,  she  will  latch  onto  them  very  quickly.  likes  the  idea  of  being  part  of  a  group  of  outcasts.

she  has  a  very  bad  temper.  long  fuse ,  but  big  explosion.  she’ll  either  totally  shut  down ;  usually  ball  herself  up  in  a  corner  and  refuse  to  talk ,  or  she  lashes  out.  she  has  been  in  a  lot  of  fights  at  schools     (   that  she  always  lost   ).     only  ever  with  other  kids  though ;  she  isn’t  afraid  to  SCREAM  at  adults  when  she  thinks  they’re  wrong.

she  also  has  ocd  which  was  diagnosed  when  she  was  13.  HOWEVER  she  took  this  to  mean  that  because  she  has  ocd ,  she  is  not  autistic.  she’s  never  embraced  her  autism     (   having  spent  several  years  of  her  childhood  being  told  by  the  female  role  model  in  her  household  that  it  made  her  stupid  and  the  school  attitude  that  ‘ autistic  kids  are  trouble  kids ’   ) ;     instead  insisting  that  her  ocd  is  what’s  ‘ broken  her  brain ’.  she  has   !!!     a  lot  of  internalised  hate  over  her  neurodivergence  >:(

she  is  hypersensitive  to  touch  +  sound.  especially  shrill  noises.

sound :

when  she  first  went  to  school ,  she  found  the  noise  level  of  other  children  extremely  difficult  to  cope  with     (   even  when  she  was  older  it  sometimes  can  cause  panic  attacks   ).

her  hearing  loss  was  pretty  much  a  direct  result  of  this.  to  make  things  QUIETER  she  would  fill  up  her  ears  with  crayons ;  glue ;  anything.  they  got  very  badly  infected  as  a  result.

she  has  mild  hearing  loss  in  her  left  ear     (   can  hear  normal  voice  level  just  fine ;  cannot  hear  softer  /  distant  sounds   )     and  moderate  /  severe  hearing  loss  in  her  right     (   loud  sounds  like  traffic  are  extremely  muffled   ).

she  has  been  prescribed  and  given  hearing  aids  multiple  times  but  does  not  like  wearing  them  ——  prefers  it  to  be  quiet.  wears  the  right  one  maybe  50%  of  the  time  and  ONLY  EVER  wears  the  left  one  alone  in  the  car  with  dad     (   takes  both  out  when  she’s  angry  with  him   ).

touch :

she  loves  to  touch  other  people.  always  shakes  hands  in  greeting     (   and  is  uncomfortable  if  people  don’t  want  to   ) ,     loves  to  touch  others’  hair  or  sit  with  knees  touching.

she  also  touches  everything  in  supermarkets  and  other  big  shops  ——  especially  if  it  looks  soft.  her  fingers  /  hands  aren’t  actually  super  sensitive  so  she  finds  it  a  comforting  reality.

she  finds  uncomfortable  clothing  awful  and  has  always  hated  school  uniform  and  would  often  scratch  herself  to  bleeding  around  her  neck ,  stomach  and  on  her  arms.

her  dad  used  to  find  her  ‘ fairy ’  shells  /  flowers  /  stones  that  would  give  her  ‘ magic  protection ’  and  stop  her  scratching     (   it’s  something�� her  ma  started ;  gave  her  a  seashell  necklace  made  by  fairies  that  would  always  keep  her  safe   ).     and ...  they  actually  worked ,  to  an  extent.  didn’t  make  it  any  more  comfortable ,  but  eased  the  obsessive  need  to  scratch  a  little.

she  still  wears  quite  a  lot  of  them  as  necklaces.  cant  stand  bracelets ,  or  more  than  one  ring  per  hand ,  but  is  always  wearing  at  LEAST  four  necklaces     (   in  even  numbers   ).

nearly  all  her  clothing  she’s  either  had  for  a  very  long  time  or  she  gets  second  hand.  her  clothes  have  to  be  pre - worn  and  SOFT.  shoes  and  socks  are  exceptions.

she  suffers  from  trichotillomania  ——  the  obsessive  need  to  pull  out  her  hair.  it  started  when  she  was  around  10 ,  partly  from  the  anxiety  of  moving  schools  and  everything  changing.

she’s  kept  her  hair  very  SHORT  since  then ;  between  shoulder  length  and     (   a  couple  of  times   )     totally  shaved.  it’s  probably  the  thing  her  pa  struggles  most  to  help  her  with.

things  they’ve  done  to  try  and  combat  it  include :  she  always  has  a  teddy  bear  or  soft  toy  that’s  FLUFFY  so  she  can  tear  that  out  instead ;  getting  out  every  couple  of  hours  on  long  journeys  to  tear  up  handfuls  of  grass ;  keeping  her  hair  braided  or  full  of  clips  /  flowers  /  other  things  she  can  fiddle  with ;  letting  her  shave  her  hair  instead  of  pulling  it     (   and  also  then  it’s  not  a  sensory  issue  around  her  neck  /  face   ).

the  one  that’s  been  MOST  SUCCESSFUL  is  to  keep  her  hair  dyed.  she’s  been  doing  it  since  she  was  12  and  has  been  just  about  every  colour  under  the  sun.  it  helps  in  a  couple  of  ways :  firstly ,  because  she  really  likes  the  look  and  idea  of  it ,  so  tries  her  hardest  to  keep  it  intact.  secondly  because  she  often  doesn’t  REALISE  she’s  pulling  out  hair ,  but  when  it’s  pink  or  blue  it’s  easier  to  notice  when  her  hands  are  full  of  it  and  she  can  stop.

gender

y’all ...  aislinn  is  18  years  old  and  super  confused  in  general  about  both  her  gender  and  her  sexuality.  she’s  has  fairly  limited  interaction  with  people  her  own  age  and  very  little  experience  on  the  internet.  she  also  lives  in  southern  ireland.  some  of  her  views  and  knowledge  is  skewed  and  misinformed.  she’s  had  very  few  female  role  models  and  even  fewer  queer  ones.

nearly  everything  she  knows  about  sex ,  gender ,  and  sexuality  is  what  she  can  talk  about  with  her  dad     (   they’re  best  friends  they  talk  about  anything  and  everything  openly   ).     he  is  surprisingly  well  educated  about  all  of  the  above ,  but  still  she’s  nowhere  near  as  knowledgeable  as  an  ordinary  british  18  year  old  would  be.

she  doesn’t  experience  dysphoria  but  something  doesn’t  feel  quite  RIGHT  inside  her.  she’s  not  sure  if  that’s  because  of  her  gender ,  or  her  neurodivergence ,  or  anything  else ,  but  the  only  way  she  can  think  of  to  figure  that  out  is  to  try  out  labels.

the  one  good  thing  about  moving  around  a  lot  is  she’s  had  a  lot  of  opportunities  to  restart  with  a  NEW  identity.  she’s  tried  using  they  /  them  pronouns ,  she’s  spent  a  couple  of  months  with  a  buzz - cut  going  by  ‘ jack ’  and  using  he  /  him ,  she’s  tried  calling  herself  non - binary  and  given  up  very  quickly  trying  out  other  pronouns     (   unable  to  cope  with  the  frustration  of  people  refusing  to  use  them   ).     but  none  of  them  felt  any  BETTER  than  she   /  her.

it’s  not  really  that  she  feels  like  she’s  anything  instead  of  female ;  there’s  nothing  that  feels  more  right ,  she  just  doesn’t  really  feel  CONNECTED  to  being  a  girl.

at  the  moment  she  uses  she  /  her  pronouns  and  the  label  demigirl.  she’s  not  totally  sure  about  it ,  but  she  finds  it  helpful  to  use  a  bunch  of  different  labels  until  she  finds  the  right  one  rather  than  wait  and  remain  label - less  until  she’s  TOTALLY  sure.

sexuality  +  sexual  experiences

y’all  guessed  it  she’s  pretty  confused  abt  this  too   !

what  she  is  most  certain  about  is  that  she  is  a  lesbian.  she’s  done  sexual  stuff  with  a  guy  once  and  Did  Not  Enjoy.  she’s  never  found  a  guy  attractive ;  she’s  not  had  a  crush  on  a  guy.

asexuality  is  something  she’s  felt  comfortable  labelling  herself  with  for  a  couple  of  years ,  but  she’s  still  not  totally  sure  if  she  actually  IS  asexual  because ,  like ...  she  does  feel  like  she  is  sexually  attracted  to  some  women.  thing  is  that  it’s  only  celebs     (   and  almost  excusively  much  older  women  as  well   ) ;     she’s  never  even  had  a  crush  on  someone  she’s  known  in  real  life.  so  while  the  idea  of  doing  sexual  stuff  with  a  hot  celeb  seems  appealing ,  she  hasn’t  enjoyed  any  of  her  real  life  sexual  experiences  so  it’s  like.  is  this  false  hope   ??     has  she  just  had  bad  experiences  or  is  she  actually  asexual   ???

which  is  the  reason  she  calls  herself  ‘ quoiromantic ’.  finds  it  difficult  to  distinguish  between  platonic ,  romantic ,  and  sexual  attraction.  honestly  tldr  is  she’s  muddled  about  this  and  while  she  doesn’t  know  What  she’s  feeling ,  it’s  nice  to  have  a  label  that  fits  her  confusion.

unsurprisingly ,  she  is  a  virgin.  she’s  had  a  handful  of  sexual  experiences  of  various  sorts     (   a  few  with  guys ;  mostly  with  female - presenting  people   )     +  a  couple  more  teen  kisses  outside  of  that ,  but  she’s  never  had  a  relationship  and  never  been  any  further.

she  is  still  questioning  and  that’s  ok.  she  thinks  she’s  a  lesbian  but  still  kisses  boys  sometimes.  she  thinks  she’s  ace  but  still  is  vaguely  sexually  active.  she’s  not  sure ,  so  she’s  still  experimenting.  and  that’s  all  ok  ok   !!!

random

it’s  pronounced  ‘ ASH - LING ’.

she  is  an  excellent  swimmer  and  can  hold  her  breath  for  nearly  two  minutes.

she  ‘ ran  away ’  quite  a  lot  as  a  little  kid  but  only  ever  to  mcdonalds.  it  would  only  ever  end  in  pa  coming  to  find  her  and  them  eating  chips   &   carrot  sticks  on  the  walk  home.

her  parents  weren’t  married  when  she  was  born     (   mostly  because  they  didn’t  have  the  money  to   ).     they  got  married  when  she  was  nearly  four  years  old.

she  loves  dogs.  hates  cats.  the  feeling  seems  to  be  mutual  with  each.

she  grew  up  with  a  german  shepherd  called  walter  who  was  her  ma’s  originally.  they  left  him  at  a  shelter  when  she  +  pa  ran  away ,  knowing  they  wouldn’t  be  able  to  look  after  him.

they  do  have  a  dog  now   !     his  name  is  romeo     (   ROO  for  short   ) ,     he’s  bright  white  and  85%  floof.  he  likes  to  sit  in  aislinn’s  lap  while  they’re  driving.

they  nearly  ran  him  over  when  he  sprinted  into  the  road  out  of  the  fog.  they  took  him  to  the  nearest  village  and  they  said  he  didn’t  belong  to  anyone  there  ——  he’d  been  living  off  rabbits  and  scraps  from  the  shepherd.  they  were  going  to  take  him  to  a  shelter  at  first  but  at  the  sight  of  him  sitting  up  in  the  back  seat ,  watching  the  landscape  pass  out  of  the  window ,  aislinn  burst  into  tears  at  the  idea  of  leaving  him.  he’s  been  driving  around  with  them  ever  since.  aislinn  is  100%  certain  he’s  a  ghost  or  an  ancient  god  or  something.

his  bark  is  actually  pretty  much  the  only  loud  noise  that  doesn’t  affect  her.  it’s  that  deep ,  sort  of  quiet  ‘ BOOF ’  that  big  dogs  do  and  it’s  probably  her  favourite  sound  on  the  whole  earth.

[lj-writes]

Finn the trickster hero

Finn is a lot of things--a military genius, a conscientious objector, a crack shot, an iconoclast--but beyond the realm of military and politics he also has mythological qualities in embodying certain archetypes, and to me the most prominent is that of the trickster.

Trickster figures are recognizable by distinguishing traits such as solving problems by wit and resourcefulness, actions that upset the social order, humor, crossing boundaries between realms, and physical transformation. Finn’s story contains all of these and more, with the effect that he plays the trickster’s role, a bearer of the unexpected and an agent of change.

A trickster is first and foremost defined by, well, trickery. Some tricksters are conspicuously lacking in physical force, such as Jacob in the Old Testament of the Bible in contrast to his stronger brother Esau. Some are depicted as smaller, weaker animals compared to their adversaries, such as Reynard the Fox in Western European fables in comparison to the wolf Isengrim, or Bre’r Rabbit of the Southern United States in comparison with Bre’r Fox. Other times martial prowess simply isn’t a big part of their story, such as Coyote of the Crow and Plains tribes’ mythologies and Prometheus in Greek mythology. Rather than physical force the trickster often uses some flaw in their opponent, such as vanity or cruelty, to get out of a tight situation or win the prize in a situation where they are at a disadvantage.

This is true of Finn, who made and executed a plan to steal a TIE fighter and rescue a Resistance pilot from under the First Order’s nose. In doing so he ingeniously exploited a flaw in the First Order’s organization by claiming it was Kylo Ren who wanted the prisoner--Ren, who reports directly to Snoke and is not a part of the strict military hierarchy that Hux so prizes, who has his own agenda and will act for it rather than his given orders, as he demonstrated more than once in The Force Awakens.

If Finn had tried to claim the prisoner transfer order had come from Hux or Phasma he may well have been required to verify the command, given that both these figures operate within the standard military system. But Ren? Who was going to question him and risk his explosive temper, short of Hux or Snoke himself?

In other words, Finn used the personal and organizational failings of his oppressors to brilliant effect in planning and executing his escape, and this planning made it possible for him and Poe to reach the TIE fighter without a single shot fired. Once they flew the TIE and hit a (literal) snag shots were fired indeed, in a sequence I have analyzed at length. A confrontation was inevitable at some point anyway, but it was due to Finn’s clever subterfuge that he and Poe were able to get so far without attracting deadly attention. This is itself a significant achievement that may have saved their lives when they were seriously outnumbered and Poe had endured physical and mental torture.

Finn also uses a subtle trick on the Resistance but of a different sort, which I will discuss near the end in the section about the trickster as communicator.

A characteristic of tricksters related to their trickery is humor. Trickster stories are replete with wit and fun, like Bre’r Rabbit laughing behind his hand as he begs Bre’r Fox not to throw him in the brier patch, or the Yoruba trickster god Eshu breaking his penis while using it for a bridge. (All I’m saying is, never, ever question Eshu’s dedication to infrastructure.) They are not adverse to being the butt of the joke, either, as when Anansi the spider, a beloved trickster figure of West Africa and the Caribbean, failed to hoard all the wisdom in the world and ended up dispersing it instead.

A few trickster stories are dark and frightening--no, I’m pretty sure the broken penis doesn’t count--usually when the forces of order and hierarchy catch up to the trickster and mete out torment as punishment, most notably with the Norse Loki and the Greek Prometheus. Even then, however, the trickster has a long and laughter-filled streak before they’re caught.

John Boyega made it clear in an interview that he explicitly went for humor when he auditioned for Finn, and the character correspondingly has a lot of funny moments in The Force Awakens. In fact, some of Finn’s tensest moments are also his funniest, as when he pleads with BB-8 to tell him the location of the Resistance base, or when he helps an injured Chewbacca who is in pain and lashing out violently.

[Image: Chewbacca has gripped Finn by the throat and pulled him close]

The trickster’s humor has a larger basis in his subversion of social norms, the way he upends the social expectations placed on him. The trickster’s stories are a surprise because they invert the prevailing power structure: the weak triumph over the strong with fast talk and wits, laughing at the high-and-mighty all the while. In this way the relative weakness, trickery, and humor of the trickster all act together to turn the tables on the strong and oppressive.

You can see this with Finn throughout The Force Awakens in the way he defies expectations of his role as a Stormtrooper. I mean, Stormtroopers don’t care about anyone or anything except the mission, right?

[Image: Finn bends over a dying Slip]

Stormtroopers follow orders without question.

[Image: Finn lowers his blaster, unable to shoot the prisoners]

They don’t think and act independently. They don’t go out of their way to help people. They respect their superiors no matter what. They- well, you get the idea. Finn takes every idea about Stormtroopers and turns it on its head. Heck, the guy can even shoot!

This upsetting of the social order means that tricksters are necessarily agents of change. They smash the status quo and bring not only laughter and fun but also insights into life and new ways of being. 

As quite a few fans have rightly pointed out, nothing in The Force Awakens would have happened without Finn. The awakening of his conscience and his resulting determination to get away from the First Order, both of them unexpected and indeed unthinkable developments that threw the First Order brass into confusion, were the catalysts for all the major events of the movie--Poe’s escape, Rey and BB-8’s departure from Jakku, and the destruction of Starkiller Base. He was not the only mover and shaker in these events but he provided the spark, the first push.

Such changes are a crossing over from one state of being to another, and indeed it is a common trait of tricksters to cross boundaries, both in the external world and sometimes in their own selves by changing gender and shape.

In the former capacity as a boundary crosser the trickster brings gifts from another world, such as the celestial or underground regions, to the earthly realm. This is the case with such figures as the Rainbow Crow, from the myth of the Lenni Lenape tribe of the Northeast United States, who flew up to the heavens to bring back the gift of fire; Coyote of the South Plains in the United States who released the buffalo from Humpback’s enclosure onto the earth; and Anansi of the Ashante people of Ghana, who bargained with the god Nyame to bring stories to the world.

In the latter capacity as a shapechanger the trickster changes their own shape and identity, again flitting around and between boundaries except this time within themselves and their relationship to the world. The aforementioned South Plains Coyote changes first into a bird and then a dog to release the buffalo. Loki of Norse myth is another famous example who frequently changed his race, gender, and species in stories.

Finn is both a boundary crosser and a shapechanger who went from the servitude with the First Order to freedom, bringing the Order’s secrets and his inside knowledge to the cause of fighting it. He also changes his identity and literal shape in the process, going from a Stormtrooper to a purported Resistance fighter to a traumatized fugitive to an actual Resistance fighter, though one who fights alongside the Resistance rather than giving himself fully to them. We even get a beautiful metaphorical scene of his transformation in a desert, reminiscent of Moses from the Old Testament after he himself fled from a genocidal, enslaving regime:

[Image: Finn walks through the desert, pieces of discarded Stormtrooper gear marking his path]

The ability to cross boundaries also means that the trickster is a communicator. Whether the boundary in question lies between socially expected behavior and unexpected/prohibited behavior, between states of being, between worlds, between identities, or between people, the trickster navigates these boundaries, shows that they are more porous than at first sight, brings goods from one side to another, and creates change through exchange across these divisions.

This communicator aspect is very explicit in the Yoruba god Eshu (Legba in the Fon tribe), a god of languages and information, and the Ashante god Anansi, a god of knowledge and stories. There is a story about Eshu that he walked on the boundary between the fields of two friends while wearing a hat that was black on one side and red on another. The friends quarrelled about what color the man’s hat was, only to to have Eshu intervene to show them the trick in the hat and tell them off for not putting him first in their dealings with each other.

I understood this story, besides being a wonderful example of trickster humor, to be an emphasis on the importance of communication in relationships. If you don’t try to see the other person’s point of view and open yourself to the possibility of transcending your own narrow perspective, you’re inevitably going to have misunderstandings and fights. Also remember, when the internet has a collective freakout over the color of a dress or a sneaker, that’s Eshu totally playing us.

[Image: A statue of Eshu]

Comparing Finn to a god of language and communication may seem paradoxical, given that the character is only shown speaking Basic and is not presented as multilingual, being unable to speak Shyriiwook or Binary in contrast to Rey who understands these and more. In fact Finn’s lines make a point to emphasize his lack of knowledge (”You can understand that thing?” “I don’t speak that.” “What’d he say?”).

What interests me, however, is just how effectively Finn communicated with Chewie and BB-8 despite his inability to understand their languages. Think about it: He successfully saved Chewie’s life, reasoning with him despite the language barrier (a boundary, to put it another way) and faced with a much larger and stronger being who was getting violent from pain and fear. Finn also convinced a Resistance droid to reveal the location of their secret base with the same linguistic difficulty--and this, right after revealing to said droid that he was not actually Resistance.

The levels of empathy and trustworthiness it took for Finn to work with and talk to these beings under these extraordinary circumstances are simply phenomenal. These incidents demonstrate that Finn is an extremely effective communicator even when he is hindered by language. He crosses the boundaries of interpersonal mistrust and caution on a level that goes deeper than words.

In their capacity as communicators tricksters may also use and manipulate language, especially in situations where they experience a disadvantage in power. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. called this act Signifyin’ after the Signifying Monkey, which he treats as an equivalent to the Yoruba god Eshu. The Signifying Monkey uses the power of figurative language to outwit Lion, his oppressor, something Gates compared to dismantling the master’s house using the master’s tools, repurposing the quote of activist and writer Audre Lorde that “the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.”

We watch Finn engage in this careful use of speech when he talks the Resistance into letting him onto the mission to Starkiller Base. When Han asks him whether he can disable the shields around the base, Finn replies:

“I can disable the shields. But I have to be there, on the planet.”

When Han asks him again later on the base, of course, Finn freely admits he doesn’t know how to disable the shields; he was just there to get Rey.

Notice, however, that Finn did not lie outright as he did when he told Poe’s guards that Ren wanted the prisoner or when he told Rey he was with the Resistance. Finn’s words can be interpreted as, “I can disable the shields [by figuring out how when I get there]. But I have to be there, on the planet [so I can see the situation for myself and make a plan].” In this sense this statement is not factually incorrect per se, rather an expression of confidence spoken with the certainty of fact.

Finn knew, however, that saying he definitely can disable the shields in response to Han’s question would be taken as saying yes, he knew how to disable the shields. He was, if not lying, deliberately misleading the Resistance here by exploiting a gap between the literal meaning of his words and the understanding of them in context.

Just to be 100% clear, I don’t blame Finn for this deception one bit. He did in fact find a way to disable the shields and it’s not like the Resistance had any better options, so anyone who wants to hold this conversation against him can fuck off. He employed this trick not out of malice but because he was trying to overcome a disadvantage: If he wasn’t seen as someone who could contribute, he wouldn’t be able to go on the mission with Han and Chewie, and his strengths in having worked on the base and his considerable tactical smarts might be dismissed in a newcomer and stranger. The Resistance may not have been his oppressors but he had just met them, and it’s not a stretch to say his trust of authority in general was running low after his experiences with the First Order.

So what does Finn’s role as a trickster hero mean for the future of his story? For one thing, I believe he will continue to bring about profound change to a galaxy far, far away in whatever capacity he is in--whether as a Jedi, a badass Resistance fighter, a leader in the renewed Republic, or, my favorite possibility, the leader of a Stormtrooper uprising.

Another thing we can infer about his character is that he won’t get complacent. The Republic (Old and New), the Jedi Order, even the Rebel Alliance at points became set in their ways and a hindrance to progress and justice. Finn as a trickster can keep subverting expectations and changing course so that any organization he leads or influences can keep its actual goals in sight instead of blundering forward out of sheer inertia.

Finn’s ability as a communicator, the way he resonates with people on an emotional level, and his commanding grasp over language and story also open exciting possibilities for his character. Remember how beautifully he told his truth to Rey? Imagine his story inspiring thousands. Millions. Imagine him setting people’s spirits across the galaxy on fire with his inspiring speeches, as Anansi the Spider did in American Gods, urging them to fight, to reach out and grasp justice in their hands.

We have in Finn a character who constantly renews himself and the world around him, who upends power structures, and keeps us laughing all the while. Life with a trickster is never dull, and if used correctly the character of Finn will keep us guessing, keep us interested, and keep us inspired. That’s what being a trickster hero is all about.

[todonintendos]

Top 5 Best and Worst Breath of the Wild Shrines

Breath of the Wild is, without any doubts, the Zelda game that takes the longest to fully complete, and part of the reason for this are the 120 shrines spread across the map. Most of those shrines offer different challenges where many different gameplay techniques must be used in order to reach the end, and I say most because this also includes the blessing shrines, which are pretty much free but are harder to get to or require a shrine quest, which I’ll talk about in another list. After having completed Breath of the Wild, I have enough experience to make a final list of the Top 5 Best and Worst shrines in the game, based on originality, length and design, so here it starts!

#5 (Best) - Synched Swing || Mogg Latan Shrine

One thing that I really appreciate of puzzles is when they allow the players to solve it in different ways, and this shrine is the one that does it in the best way possible. It starts with two small jumps that you can perform with ease, but the next one is too far away. Since it’s a swing, you can just use Magnesis or Stasis to make it move back and forth. After using two arrows to lower a gate, here comes the most interesting part of the shrine: the spikey balls. I initially solved this part by making each ball swing for a bit, then using stasis to move forward, but most people seem to prefer using Magnesis to stick it to the ceiling. Finally, there are a few metal platforms that you need to move in order to create a staircase, but has a golden rupee hiding below, so beating this shrine, which is among the most challenging ones of the game in a good way, not only gives you satisfaction, but also quite a bit of money.

#5 (Worst) - Tempered Power || Mirro Shaz Shrine

Welcome to the shrine that was meant to be hated by nature. At first, it doesn’t look really bad. You just hit a ball to a hole in a golf-like manner, solve a very short puzzle and there’s the end. But the real challenge comes when you skip the goal and advance further. Now welcome to the ultimate, weapon-breaking and rage-inducing challenge. Almost perfect precission is required to hit the ball in the perfect angle and strength. Once you figure out moving the ball a bit backwards makes it easier, you get your well-deserved price. Were you expecting a diamond, a golden rupee or even a shooting star? Nope, you get a Great Ancient Core, which is rare, but easily obtainable compared to other items.

#4 (Best) - Fateful Stars || Keo Ruug Shrine

Before you light your torches or call the FBI, let me clear thing up. I liked this shrine unlike most of the Internet, but that’s because y’all probably gave up way too early on figuring it out, when the answer was right in front of you all this time. You just need to watch the four constellations drawn in the walls in front of each row of holes, and count how many of each kinds are drawn in the big panel at the back of the room. Takes a while to figure out, but feels good to do. As a former Layton player, this shrine really reminded me of a puzzle something you’d find there. Also there’s a second one if you want to get a knight’s claymore, if you didn’t get fed up before that is.

#4 (Worst) - Two Bombs || Sho Dantu Shrine

And after putting a heavily hated shrine among the best ones, here comes a fan-favoruties among my most hated ones! Call it biased, but I’m putting this one here because I thought I was doing the final room the wrong way the entire time. The actual solution is making both bombs fly together, moving to one of the elevators, detonating the square one when it lands in the middle, and finally detonating the other one when it flies over the switch. Seems easy, but my problem was the sphere bomb. I could never hit the switch properly, mostly because of the small window of time you’ve got and because the camera wasn’t behaving really nicely, and after wasting a few minutes trying alternate solutions, I finally did it by doing the first thing that came to my mind. Clever puzzle, I admit, but a little bit sketchy.

#3 (Best) - Wind Guide || Kah Okeo Shrine

You better bring a Korok Leaf to this one, because you’re definitely going to need it. As the name implies, wind is the main element you need to master in this shrine by riding platforms or moving floating exploding barrels to the correct spots. Despite the fact that wind works in the opposite way on this shrine, it’s still a very clever mechanic that isn’t used anywhere else in Normal mode. Also, all of the barrel sections can be skipped if you have explosive bombs, but it’s up to you whether you want to solve it the fast way or not. The last area seems like a mess of platforms, barrels, wind currents and elevators, but it’s pretty fun to explore and find all of the hidden chests, one of which contains the key needed to get to the end. Also, there are a few cute small guardians for you to kill, in case this shrine seemed to unexciting to you.

#3 (Worst) - Impeccable Timing || Shoda Sah Shrine

Just imagine all of the potential this one could have had, but Nintendo missed. You need to put balls into cannons and release them at the correct time so they land in the hole, which is big and not easy to miss. One of the puzzles contains the key, and the other contains five ice arrows, a price that matches the level of excitement of this shrine. To make it even easier, you can stop the vertical moving platforms using stasis. If you happen to miss five hits, you need to use Cryonis to slowly recover the balls, but I don’t think that’ll ever happen considering how ridiculously easy this one is. I’d have loved this one if it was longer and more challenging.

#2 (Best) - Blue Flame || Kaam Ya’Tak Shrine

The fanbase has mixed opinions regarding this shrine. Some love it, some hate it. As you can tell I’m one of those people from the first kind, and for a reason. This shrine revolves around the mechanic of passing fire from one torch to another, so you’d better bring some arrows, since the game gives you a wooden torch at the very beginning to help you out. The thing is, you won’t find any alternate solutions to this one because the fire you need to work with is the blue one, not the regular one. That one is below and hurts a bit more. As you progress through the shrine, the puzzles become more and more challenging, and kind of teaches you that you can light normal arrows up if there’s a fire nearby (don’t throw the torch away, it doesn’t work!). There are also water nozzles to annoy you that you will need to deactivate using stasis, and two infamous moving platforms near the end where both of the two techniques mentioned before need to be applied. The shrine ends with a few small guardians and a circular spin attack, because why not. It’s one of the longest and most challenging shrines and that’s why I love it so much.

#2 (Worst) - Five Flames || Rucco Maag Shrine

There are two ways of solving this: the frustrating way and the cheap way. And guess which one is the intented way. Exactly: the frustrating one. You need to rotate a cube in one of its three axes at a time in order to light up all of the torches on it, being careful not to light one off using water. The minimum amount of moves needed is nine, which means one wrong move already screws the optimal solution. But fire arrows exist for a reason, right? This shrine would’ve been better if the flames were blue, and if the controls were a little bit less quirky, because the arrows on the switches may often be misleading.

#1 (Best) - Trial of Power || Kaam Ya’tak Shrine

Now this is how all shrines should have been like. This one is also one of the longest shrines in the game, but the puzzles and the layout of the shrine itself are the most original ones by far. The main mechanic is the use of stasis and giant boulders that you can’t touch if they’re moving, no matter their speed. There’s also small guardians, but who cares when you got a section where you need to burn a wooden platform to make a boulder fall, another one where you have to use stasis to prevent a platform from tilting, and another one where both of the two previosuly mentioned things need to be done at once in order to advance. This is one of those shrines that you never want to end, each puzzle is different and requires different skills to beat, and I believe this is the only shrine that achieves this, to the point where there’s even a part where motion controls need to be used in a very simple way, yet satisfying. There’s also a platform to jump very high at the very end, what else do you need in a shrine?

#1 (Worst) - Drifting || Hila Rao Shrine

The name of this shrine truly suits its content, because it is Hilaraously easy. You just need to cross three small rivers, and there are even platforms to help you in case you have no idea what Cryonis is. For the final one, just stand on a platform and use a bomb or one of the five unneeded explosive barrels floating around to break the cracked wall and that’s it. Shrine done. Free orb. This may be the easiest shrine of the entire game, not counting the blessing ones, and not in a good way.

And that’s my opinion! Tweet me if you agree or disagree. We can meet up to discuss or fight merciless depending on your intentions. See you on the next Breath of the Wild list!

NEXT LIST: Top 5 Best and Worst Shrine Quests

[myteenangstbullshithasabodycount]

Atreyu vs From First To Last

It’s the vicious screamo feud everyone’s talking about. Here’s how it all kicked off.  [transcript under the cut]

    When From First To Last set out on a US tour supporting Atreyu this Autumn, the two bands were firm friends. They seemed like perfect tourmates, both rising to the top of the screamo pack with their similarly intense, dark-hued anthems. They even shared the same manager, and the tour seemed set for success.      Fans were left stunned, then, when From First To Last left the tour amid a war of vicious words. A post on their website bitterly complained of being “kicked off” the tour, claiming, “If we were allowed to be on the rest of the tour we would be.”  Atreyu responded in disbelief, frontman Alex Varkatzas slamming the Orlando, Florida band as “cocky” and “in it for the money”. In a scene where camaraderie is so highly valued, the storm escalating around the two bands was explosive.      The root of the problem goes back to the Warped Tour. From First To Last were forced to drop out of the festival a few dates in because of vocalist Sonny Moore’s escalating throat problems. After undergoing surgery on his throat and resting for the remainder of the summer, the band assumed he was well enough to handle screaming duties again. But by the time the Atreyu tour reached Philadelphia on October 24, 14 days into the 2-date run, Moore tore a vocal chord and was advised by a doctor to completely rest his voice immediately for fear of causing irreversible damage.     “I didn’t recover enough in time,” says Moore. “At the time I was so depressed and bummed out about my voice. I was upset because I let a lot of people down but I didn’t care what we were doing at that point.”     Rather than immediately dropping out, the rest of the band suggested continuing with Craig Owens of Chiodos, also on the tour, handling vocal duties, and Sonny just playing guitar. It’s here, it seems, that the confusion and acrimony began. FFTL apparently expected to be paid the same amount as they would have been with their frontman appearing.     “FFTL were difficult,” explains Varkatzas. “Matt [Good, guitarist] one night poured water in our monitors. Another night he freaked out and kicked one of our guitar rigs. Tha’ts pretty fucked up- but we didn’t do anything about it. Then Sonny, who’s a good guy, comes and tells us he needs to rest his voice. We’re sympathetic dudes and we don’t want to send anyone home so we offer them x amount to stay on the tour- a generous offer. They decided to leave anyway and then they posted on their webpage that they were kicked off the tour and they did everything they could to stay, which is not true. They were on a really expensive bus, they had stage props, were renting lights, renting space in our semi for their gear and they didn’t want to get rid of any of that. It was all about money.”      So, while rumors of a lawsuit from FFTL flew- although both parties now say that no legal action is going to be taken [Varkatzas: I can think of a couple better ways to settle this”]- relations between the two bands completely broke down, FFTL claiming to have been kicked off, Atreyu accusing them of greed. The only person so far stayed out of the fight is Moore, who was preoccupied with his medical problems- a planned UK support slot with Lostprophets has also been cancelled.      “I was kind of on the other end of things so I wasn’t too in the loop,” he says. “I guess MySpace bulletins were posted and things were said that kind of riled each other. It’s just miscommunication. If you read something on the internet, you can’t picture how they’re saying it. It just got out of context. There’s no malicious intent, there’s no fight, everything’s chill.”      Tim Smith, who manages both Atreyu and From First To Last, strikes a similarly reconciliatory note. In an email to Kerrang!, he explained, “The bands have had a rough few weeks, and this has been very trying for both of them. Hopefully, time will heal those wounds and allow both these bands to continue doing what they do- making music.”     For Varkatzas, though, its clear that tempers are still frayed.     “Fuck FFTL except for Sonny,” he states,”They’re not true to themselves, their music or their fans. FFTL fans will hate us because of this and its fine- we know we did the right thing and if anyone’s got anything to say about it they can say it to my face.”