#also looking at my friends if u point out the visual similarities of all the characters i tagged excluding 1 i will maul u

[sailorgrams]

Tagged by: @mistercrowbar

rules: make a poll with five of your all time favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. see which character is everyone's favorite!

why when I am asked this do I forget every character I've ever liked lmao

Tagging: @greedkinggreaser @3d-dragon @risto-licious @smartys @saevits

If u want :]a

[bairnsidhe]

Hairpins, Safety Pins, and Blue Bracelets.

I know there have been mixed feelings about the recent suggestion from (mostly white women) librals to wear blue friendship bracelets to indicate one did not vote for the Carrot-Color Con-man.

I have heard from those who find it offensive, too little and too late, a form of performative virtue signaling, or an overly political "cosplay of activism". These voices are valid and I respect them. I know many of those blue bracelets will mean nothing but following a trend.

I have also listened to those who really do want some way to tangibly label people who can be resources for at-risk people. Both those who want to offer said service and those who think they may need it. These voices are also valuable, and a visual marker of willingness and ability to lend aid is a good thing. The turban of a Sikh comes to mind as an example.

So how do we balance wanting signals and not wanting to mix them with performative fads?

My friends, I have good news! At-risk subcultures and their allies have been doing similar shit for years. Most of these do not look cutesy or #AestheticGoals, they've been around for ages standing the test of time as the communities that use them weather crisis and catastrophe alike. They're largely non-partisan, having nothing to do with a specific person or administration but instead being about offering safety and acceptance. And they're cheap as shit to get.

Meet the Safety Pin!

During the emergence of punk rock in the late 1970s, safety pins became a big part of the subculture's aesthetic, often for practical reasons (all those ripped jeans gotta stay on somehow!)

Punk as a subculture is very deeply political, with a strong lean towards fighting for the disenfranchised and against oppressors. As a result it is not surprising that at some point, a single safety pin worn conspicuously became a symbol of safety and support for those who need it.

This breached containment into the mainstream in 2016 to combat the rise in racist and xenophobic speech and violence, and at the time got many of the same criticism the bracelets are getting. However, I remember learning as a child in Ye Olden Days to seek a single safety pin on a shirt or strung onto a necklace if I needed help in an alt space. It definitely worked then and could, I believe, work again if we return to the very action oriented definition of safety and support used in the subculture that created it.

Wear the Safety Pin if you can commit yourself to combating threats and providing actionable or tangible support.

Meet the Hairpin!

Not to be confused with their younger cousin the Bobby Pin (diagram above from HumblebeeAndMe.com) the hairpin is a loose U shaped pin that holds hair beautifully, but with little security, and may drop out of your hair if you aren't careful.

A "hairpin drop" on the other hand, is a very very old slang term for giving a subtle hint to a person that you are not straight/cis, to determine if the other person is safe to be out to. Just as a fallen hairpin is small and easily discarded, hairpin drops were easily covered over if the test was failed.

After the Stonewall Riots were dubbed "The hairpin drop heard round the world", some queer activists took on literal hairpins as an emblem. While not as common in the last few decades, it could easily be rivived as a more subtle queer pride, and the large gap in popular use would add a layer of smokescreen for those not invested in Queer history.

Wear or display the Hairpin if you are or actively work to protect LGBT+ people

Again, I am not saying not to wear the blue bracelets if you want to. Widespread symbols have their place. I am merely suggesting these as alternatives that may feel more authentic or safer to wear.

[narrators-journal]

Scotty doesn't know

This is an Ao3 ask, and I tried to really improve my writing with this one. Really up the emersion on the smut segment bc they've been feeling kinda sparce and short. Hope u all enjoy as well!

Senku Ishigami wasn’t your brother. If anything, he was a distant, distant ancestor that had been petrified long before your village had come about. Yet, in the short time he had been living with Chrome at the edge of your home, the two of you had grown remarkably close. To the point that Gen Asagiri, a beautiful, charming man that had befriended Senku to the point of betrayal, jokingly called you the leek-haired scientist’s sister.

Yet, at the same time that he joked about your bond with the scientist, and how your interest in scientific and modern things, or any visual similarity you may possibly share with the scientist ‘proved it’, whatever itwas, he seemed to simultaneously take the percieved connection seriously. Judging from how he dodged all of your attempts to seduce or court him.

”Gen, do you think I’m attractive?” You asked as you followed the scientist through the cloud-dimmed forest to fetch material for Senku. “Yes, I think you’re quite cute, why?” He hummed back, glancing over at you while you kept calm and picked a leaf from a passed bush, “Because, I’ve been trying to get your attention for days now, and you’ve never taken the invitation.” You said bluntly, and the mentalist let out a squeak at your to-the-point words. “Ah, yeah, I’ve noticed that…” He admitted, though his gorgeous blue eyes didn’t meet yours as you reached the cave you had been looking for. “So, do you like me? Why are you hesitating if you think I’m cute? I’m of age, I promise.” You assured, but he shook his head as he began to scan the walls and floor for the complex-named material your ‘brother’ wanted.

And, since the modern man didn’t respond, you turned your own attention to gathering materials. Though, you threw the odd glance at him to make sure he knew that you still expected an answer as the two of you went deeper into the cavern. Until, finally, he sighed and stood up from material gathering to come over to you. “Okay, you got me, I like you. I simply hesitated because of how close you are with Senku. He’s rather fond of you in a brotherly sense, and I’m his friend. It’s rather frowned upon from a modern sense for me to date you.” He explained, which, made you scowl. “You do realize I’m a grown woman, right? Senku’s my friend, but he’s not actually my brother. He holds no form of power over me or my partner choices.” You argued, which made the magician chuckle. The man pausing to listen to the beginnings of soft rainfall at the mouth of the cave before he hummed, “Well, you’ve got me there. What exactly do you want to do about it though?” He asked, his tone rather amused, maybe by your confidence, or gutsy admissions.

And, as you stood there, in the somewhat damp darkness of the cave, with a bag of materials in one hand. You began to feel the first flames of embarrassment creep into your cheeks. This time, it was Gen who gave you an expectant look, which made you squirm. Not only in embarrassment, but also from the first tendrils of excitement that bloomed. After all, he seemed to be giving his own invitation. And no one was around to know…

In place of a verbal answer, you acted upon an impulsive decision. Stepping forward and tossing aside your bag of materials before kissing the odd-haired man to get a squeak of surprise out of him. Yet, despite his shock, he didn’t pull away, and instead leaned into your kiss.

And, Gen’s lips were more wonderful than you had ever thought to dream. He tasted like the colas Senku paid him with, and all you could do was let the magician take the lead. Not that you minded. In fact, you all but melted into Gen like butter over a hot pancake, and if that wasn’t enough to do it, the brush of his hands over your hips and up your sides turned you into putty.

So, when you felt the brush of his nimble hands over your skin, you took the green light and slipped your hands beneath his coat. In turn, the magician slid his hands beneath your dress to send shivers through your body that weren’t from the chill of the cave’s air.

Not that the cool air of the damp cavern, or the patter of rain outside registered to you, all that you felt was the warmth of his skin and the zips of arousing electricity when his skilled lips moved from your mouth, to your jaw, to your throat. Only pausing so he could hum, “We should probably stop for now. You’re basically Senku’s sister, and, y’know, we’re in a cave.” But, you shook your head, your body pressed against his, and your fingers tangled in his dual-toned hair in case he attempted to pull away. “No, please don’t. Senku doesn’t have to know, and we can be quick in case someone comes looking. It’s fine.” You argued, able to feel Gen smile against your burning skin at your words before he kissed the crook of your neck and teased, “My~ Sounds like you’re quite eager to sleep with me. I’m flattered~” Which, made you chuckle, breathless from your thundering heart and fluttering belly. Yet, he didn’t argue the point further beyond that. Instead, he gave you another, more heated kiss that you did your best to match the passion of. Even when the magician slipped his tongue into your mouth and drank down the moan you gave.

However, he didn’t give your eager cunt the attention you ached for. Even when you whined and ground your soaked pussy against his leg, all he did was hike up the thick material of your dress to massage your plump breasts and pinch and tease your nipples. Which, still stoked the lustful fire that rippled over your skin, but did little to soothe the agonizing ache of need in your panties. “Gen…” You whined, your hands fumbling to find his arm to try and push it further down your body to make your desires as clear as possible. Yet, all the magician did was pull you into yet another quick kiss and pull away from you completely despite your whimpers.

Though, your complaints quickly went quiet when the gorgeous man shifted his pants down to release his erection to the cool air before tugging at the fabric of your own underwear. So, you used the coarse stone of the cavern wall for support as you kicked the fabric of your underwear into the darkness of the cavern. “Can I suck your dick?” You asked, and Gen’s eyebrows rose at your question, “Wow, you really do have a crush on me, huh?” He chuckled, and you would’ve felt your cheeks flare with a burst of heat at that, but with how fast your blood already zipped in your veins, it was indistinguishable as he continued. “No, not this time at least,” Which, had your preverbial ears perked, “This time?” you asked, those few words laced with excitement that seemed to trickle into your blood to mingle with the arousal like the rain you could still hear echoing in the cavern softly. “Yes, this time,” he hummed, but you were kept from further questioning by yet another quick kiss as the man hoisted you up to pin you against the cold stone of the cave wall. Ending the conversation entirely with a simple, “But that’s if we don’t get caught by Senku.”

You nodded as a shudder crawled over your skin at the slight brush of Gen’s erection against your drooling pussy. The warmth of him contrasted sharply with the chill of the cave’s air and fanned the flames yet again to make you squirm and whine once more.

So, with the rush of fresh need in your blood, you didn’t complain about the lack of a chance to savor your lover’s touches further. The feeling of his cock as it pushed into you was all you cared about at that point. Even if his movements were slow, you moaned loudly with each inch that slid into you. By the time Gen began to thrust into you, your thoughts had simmered down to little more than incoherent strings of pleasure that bubbled and swirled in your mind. You were simply left to pant and rely on the chill of the cavern around you to keep you from floating off too soon.

After all, while you could understand the lack of time you and Gen had to thoroughly explore eachother’s bodies in the cavern, you didn’t want to rushthatmuch. You still wanted to enjoy the feeling of your crush’s cock as it slid in and out of you with lewd squelches and waves of friction that twisted your belly into knots.

Yet, all you could do to relieve the itch for more was moan and arch your back to press as much of your body as you could into Gen. Though, the magician did do his best to litter your neck with feather-light kisses, or nip at your sweetspot as he moved, it never felt like enough to quench the raging fire in your skin.

All you could do was try and let the burning heat of pleasure roll over you. Clawing into Gen’s shoulders for some form of an anchor amidst the waves of bliss each of his deep thrusts sent rippling through you. Moans, meanwhile, all but tumbled from your lips like a waterfall and mixed with his moans and the rythmic slap of his hips against yours in the damp air of the cave. Soon joined by muttered curses from both you, and the magician. ”Shit...I think I’m close…” Gen warned, his voice husky and breathless against your throat, which, earned a responding whine from you. The only words that could be formed through the flurry of friction and pleasure.

Though, thankfully, you didn’t need to say anything to the man for him to get the message, because when the friction fiseemed to finally get to him, he knew to pull out without a word. So, instead of being pumped full of warm cum, Gen’s load splattered onto your belly with a louder groan.

Afterwards, you both were spent. Moments slipped by with little beyond puffs of breaths and the distant patter of rain on the stone walls of the cave. Though, once you and Gen had your breath back, conversation was still left for later. Your focus went back to material gathering, then the trek back to the village before the rain grew more intense. Yet, you decided to still hold onto that hope for ‘next time’.

[guzhufuren]

hello hello not expecting u to 100% tell but also w he re do u find incorrect/text posts for ur meme gifs they are always so funny and on point(+if its by pinterest what do u even look it up as??) do have a good day week and job ur v funny and cool<33

hi darling!! thank you so much 🥺 my poor heart almost gave out on these compliments! yeah, it's no trouble, i can tell you how i find them!! basically i'm a professional tumblr diver but i'm gonna explain techniques in a more detailed way

technique 1. gold miners

you see a cool fun text post on your dash that has less than 5000 notes; you go in the tags and scroll to the very beginning of reblog chains; there you will find the people who somehow always find the best freshly birthed text posts; choose the people who tagged it as some variation of "#text post", "#txt" or they tagged it as "#x-character-core/coded" or even better, they tagged it as their oc - go to their blog and look through that tag, usually you will find a treasure mine of text posts; if all the posts you immediately see are well known and you saw them all over your dash already, then go back and start diving on the next person's blog through the tags and keep doing it until you are out of tagger rebloggers; when you find good text posts you gotta screenshot them (try to think ahead - maybe there is a show coming out in the near future that will fit this text post)

visual example: i always have various non-popular text posts in my queue that i will dive in later when i have the time. like these

technique 2. oc and character tags again

you find a post that perfectly fits your blorbos but it has much more than 5000 notes so it's impossible to check all the rebloggers - that's fine, once again go in the notes for blog diving; start from the top and find specifically someone who tagged this post as their oc or their favourite character - that's your new source; go through the tag and it will certainly have text posts/tweets that fit your blorbo as well

visual example: i found this post for Pete and his poor burnt balls, one day i'm gonna go through it to see other people's blorbos who have suffered in a similar way, and i'm sure there will be lots of petecore stuff on their blogs

technique 3. porn blogs are your best friend when it comes to mature tv shows

find one, just one, good funny very sexual text post and go in the tags for to see which mature bloggers reblogged it using a tagging system; it can be them categorising it as "#text post" or similar, it can be them sorting posts by kink so pay attention to tags like "#petplay" "#collars" and etc, you will be able to find lots of funny sexy posts the deeper you search through their tags

visual example: see, this post has only 1500 notes, so when i will go in the tags of it i will find approximately 10-15 people who tagged it well enough for me to scroll through their tagged reblogs and find other good stuff

technique 4. when you are done with any of techniques explained above, choose best blogs to follow

while you dive in random tumblr users' blogs you will for sure stumble upon blogs that reblog amazing rare text posts; follow them and see what other gems they can bring to your dash in the future

other tips for people who make text post memes

- THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE! make sure the text screenshot that you placed on a picture/gif is large enough to be readable both on mobile and on web. check it on every gadget. i have really bad vision and squinting my eyes at the phone makes my head hurt, so i never look at memes that i can't read right away without zooming in. make them easily readable!!

- choose one style of screenshots of the text posts. it can be web screenshots, it can be mobile browser tumblr screenshots, if can be tumblr app screenshots. choose one and stick to it always, it will make your memes look neat. i always make screenshots of text posts on the tumblr app, then i put them all on a 750 pixel wide canvas, scale them down to 360 pixel width and copy paste them to 540 pixel wide pictures of blorbos. so we get something like this:

have fun, please write me again if anything i explained is confusing, i'm not great with words <333

[secriden]

anon🕵️ - I'm one of those that hinted towards joondunk shows based on your love for 🐕‍🦺 fort :p

tutoryim are also a pretty visual cp to look for and firstkhao in the eclipse (only friends might be too intense if you are starting in bl). It's lovely to see your enthusiasm ☺️

feel free to post unhinged dunk moments because we rarely get them compiled unlike 🥑

for both firstkhao & joongdunk the bts are a must watch!

alsjdflasjdf OMG ANON YOU WERE RIGHT!?!?! I really want to make a post about all of joong and fort's similarities because like throughout this whole process i keep feeling like i was re-discovering joong because there's SO MUCH crossover and clearly i have a Type because it took nearly nothing for me to fall in head over heels for joong. *u* but there's so much??! the eyebrows, the eye crinkle smiles, the sunshine golden retriever disposition, the way they are overwhelmed by the cuteness of their respective partners, the way they're both engaging with alternative creative pursuits, the way they're both incredibly hard working and have such drive, the way they both melt when their partners give in/turn it back on them. i've so many FEELINGS about them rn.

tutoryim: i really really liked them in cutie pie. in fact they were the only couple i really... connected with?? so its was sad they were so minor. i tried to watch BOTW but grew frustrated with it before i could finish it. i plan to go back to it at some point with re-adjusted expectations because it definitely didn't live up to its potential but the visuals are <3

i'm excited to see firstkhao in THK!! i've been meaning to check out The Eclipse but just haven't cuz i don't have the time. but i'm also not sure i really want to watch yet another "school" series unless its for a cp i'm already invested in the way i am with joongdunk. so i may go back and watch it after THK.

wait, ok, what does the avocado emoji mean??? *confused* hahaha i need to find that one of dunk coping a feel of joong cuz it was so random and unnecessary. xD

also, bts of what? HA? *u*

🕵️‍♀️ - my hc for dk is that he gives spoiled young master vibes used to bat his eyelashes and joong is capital W whipped for him. based on the bts they seem to share the unhinged sense of humour bc dunk often baits him into it. i can't even imagine when they were matched as a cp. For joong to be introduced to this very pretty funny young man and dunk getting a handsome protective (he is so respectful of him particularly in regards to physical stuff) cp i wouldn't be surprised if other gmmtv actors/actresses would have wanted to pair with either of them, even now 😂🤣

just confirming dk = dunk? my brain went seventeen's main vocalist??? xD

ohhhhhh is he from a wealthy family?? tbh its so funny to me how many thai bl actors are just... from rich families because it means they could do anything and chose to make out with other pretty boys for their careers and that's so incredibly valid and i love it (yes, i am mostly thinking of mile).

honestly joong is so SO whipped for him. i am transfixed by that story of joong calling dunk before they were confirmed cp and being all "do you think we'll be put together? i hope we'll be put together" like he was so committed so fast ugh!!

and ohhhh i haven't seen anything much yet about joong being protective of dunk, but it wouldn't surprise me. he has the vibe. do you remember which interview/post it's from??

lol everything i've seen about gmmtv seems like all the actors just love everyone else a ton. like wasn't there this thing about gun atthaphan kissing another of the gmmtv boys (not his cp partner) and the internet going batshit crazy about it? xD so the vibe seems to be love all round and its very sweet. *u*

[maythearo]

You know what? Spiderman!Jamil is an amazing idea

Can you imagine the reaction he makes the moment he gets bitten? Where was he? When did he get bit? There's so many questions that would be fun to think of!

You know how in the first Spiderverse movie, there is the scene where Miles could physically hear his own thoughts in the form of comic word boxes/bubbles? It'd be really fun to imagine something like that with him since a lot of the time he's thinking to himself

How long does he keep it away from Kalim? Does he manage to hide it from him very long? What kind of Super Embarrassing Spiderman Moment does he end up having with somebody when he first got bitten?

How would his spidersuit look like? Maybe something similar to Gwen is what I think, maybe with accents of a snake? Yknow kinda like how Miguel has his whole "vampire spider" stuff.

Okay this ask feels like more that I'm interviewing you but I would love to hear more thoughts you have on this because I'm on a post-watching-atsv surge

These are great questions!!! I'm in the same hype about atsv as you, and my thoughts on it are also running wild AKSJAKDNWKSBAK I'M HAVING SO MUCH FUN

The toughest point to think of is how in the world he would get bit. I was rewatching the first movie that had Tobey Maguire, and there's just no way Jamil would willingly go to a school trip to a laboratory full of genetically modified spiders and insects or things of the sort 😭 I'll gladly listen to any ideas of how you think the bite would happen. I got no clue.

But when it does happen, obviously he would freak out upon seeing the spider/realizing he got bitten. Frantically wiping off wherever he felt the spider had crawled on him like "EW EW EW EW EW EW" he's devastated. That's the worst thing that could ever happen to him.

Whenever he starts feeling weird after the bite he immediately connects the dots and thinks he's going to die, nobody has ever seen him so nervous.

I'm making up a whole movie plot here, but hear me out. The only reason he doesn't immediately call a doctor is because he has an important basketball game to attend to, and his team needs him. That's where the super embarrassing spiderman moment comes in. He takes the ball and it doesn't want to let go. Struggle in front of the entire stadium, and he kinda had to quit the match since he cannot use his hands and the team ended up losing

The speech bubbles.. so many speech bubbles. Jamil tends to keep all his thoughts to himself so his inner monologue is filled with those. Visually very cool! He got more comic speech bubbles than any other spiderman out there fr

He's probably someone who would hide his powers and secret identity pretty well. Kalim wouldn't really suspect of anything, but he's not THAT oblivious as to not notice something weird is going on with his friend. He just doesn't push to get the truth out of him because Jamil's business is his own. Kalim's sure that if there's something he doesn't want to talk about it, he's doing it for a good reason (this was proven to not be true before, and he should absolutely worry about any secrets Jamil keeps away from most, but I digress). But if the truth's ever revealed, he wouldn't be so surprised, just react with an "oh yeah that makes sense 👍 I've never seen you and spiderman in the same room"

I got to add something you didn't ask anon, but the canon events ran through my mind and I'm making up on the spot what they would be for the friendly(-ish) neighborhood Spider Viper 🤔 it's mostly so tragic though, because the major canon events that have to happen to every spider person are: losing their best friend, losing a father figure (to teach that with great power comes great responsibility 💪), and also get a love interest (I volunteer btw)

I'm looking through the cast of twst and contemplating who's going to be the unfortunate soul for Jamil's uncle Ben, but I'm not 100% sure! What do you think?

Lastly, those are awesome ideas for a spider suit! I'm making something up as we speak, but for some reason I momentarily forgor how to draw and everything I'm coming up with don't look right 😭 I'll get over it soon enough though

[womanexile]

found this on gaylor subreddit lmao

""" Credit: u/CentralPark212

Note: I’m not going to say “possibly” or “allegedly” for every sentence cause it’s long enough. All those sentiments are implied throughout cause obvi this is only for discussion, I’m not stating anything as fact, just answering the points above. This is my response/interpretation/what I saw during this time, etc. take it or leave it.

From a fan that was HEAVILY online during this time and had a front row seat to the shitshow on numerous levels…

“I’m yours but you’re not mine” could be on how she found out news afterwards. 1D went touring shortly after the crazy NYC whirlwind of in your face “Haylor” and H was seen kissing an older model which is also the spin for the angrier tracks

“Can’t pretend it’s platonic” could be H too as she felt embarrassed by the end and because of the spectacle, she “can’t even pretend it was platonic.” Also, NTWDT has other H references like his hair, his turn to a rock-inspired edge, etc.

Acid rock/yacht - the yacht and conversations bit specifically reference the infamous pics of “the breakup” of her leaving the vacay on a boat (also the blue dress on a boat IION line) and the (older) people that were on the new years trip H was shmoozing with. Richard Branson & other exec type people, very much older ppl. It was a “he knows everyone and is connecting/networking with other people they met and she’s just there” kind of trip which led to the breakup

Suburban legends - it wouldn’t have been friends, she’s basically admitting she never had that intention/went after it

School themes is H related too as 1D had the whole preppy school uniform matchy thing going on at the time

Wonderland/AliceIW- he’s from Cheshire, people used to talk about his smile a lot, all the pap attention, green eyes, rabbit hole (popular/common knowledge expression, just a more creative way to say/link it) and “don’t rush” cause that’s exactly what it was, all of the heavy public scrutiny (which wouldn’t be possible with a secret relationship), etc.

Necklace - T was seen wearing either H’s or a similar paper plane necklace during this, his tattoo, “two paper airplanes flying,” her dancers with the flying paper planes/visuals during 1989 tour, etc.

All the searching lyrics in like 3 diff songs could be her perspective of “you’re looking for what we had” cause during/after T there was a time where it felt like every 2 minutes H was being linked to someone new.

Also there’s more but I wanted to keep it to what was mentioned by OP.

"""

These people need to be studied. No matter how much evidence is presented to disprove them they twist it into their narrative.

[slimepuparibaba]

Dear SlimePupAribaba,

Hello. My friend is a big fan of your Stars and Asters Genshin AU fic and he says he's happy to see your work in ao3. How your bullet points and fast pacing makes it easier to understand the differences and readers can visualize the story flow in their own minds, etc etc (his words, not mine).

I'm writing so my friend can ask your permission to write an au work based on your au. His intention is to make his own take on the Genshin Impact "fate changing and going haywire" au, with your work serving as a source of (heavy)inspiration. He'll give credit to you as the source inspiration.

He said that you've been putting effort to your AUs for years and respects it. So he wants your input if whether you mind him writing an AU similar to yours, only with differences like the prolouge, key characters, etc. Please let us know whether you have specific preferences or concerns with this request as we appreciate any of your thoughts on this matter.

Also if you're wondering why I'm asking and not my friend is because he's shy as heck. Like, hermit shy. He doesn't submit his work to any platform, it's just a hobby. But if one day he decides to publish it on ao3, he wants to already have your permission first (which might be a very, very long time I believe).

Thank you for taking the time to consider our request. We look forward to hearing from you.

Also here's hoping that he doesn't find out I called him hermit shy here or he'd kill my butt

*spits out drink*

Holy hell someone wants to do a twist on my shit?!

Um... HELL YES?

LISTEN, THIS IS A PSA.

IF ANY OF U LIKE MY AUS ENOUGH TO WANNA DO UR OWN TWIST OR MINI-AU BASED ON MY AU, PLZ DO IT AND LET ME KNOW. I WANNA SEE SO BAD YOU HAVE NO CLUE

it genuinely makes me happy to know there are ppl that feel inspired to make stuff based on the weird brainrot i come up with ;;w;;

By all means, give your friend my blessing and if he ever does do anything with it lmk cuz i wanna see it

[ultramaga]

I'd say the 3.5" floppy was when computing became mainstream. Personal computers existed for a long time at around the price of a car. Then they crashed.

I don't know anyone who had an 8" at home. 5 1/4 was used for the models that were expensive for a normal household. My introduction was through a friend of the family who was a computer programmer, and whose equipment was paid for by the company. I saw some later at various places, but the few people I knew of who had them at home were definitely better off. Maybe they were relatively cheaper overseas. By the end of the 1980s, 5¼-inch disks had been superseded by 3½-inch disks.

And what else happened at around that time? Home internet. In fact, I'm pretty sure icons themselves came in at that time. There's no point having a symbol for a 5 1/4 when most of the save functions will be done either on a command line or something similar, and when the word processors came in, there was no standardisation anyway.

I think this was the first word processor I used. Not fun. Microsoft changed all that. So did Apple. Suddenly the same icons used in word processor would appear in a database. I can remember using the Amiga while most PC systems were using a CLI.

Notice the icon top right? It doesn't mean save.

Have a look at Windows 1.0. This was a bit of a flop. I never saw much point in Windows until 3.1, when it blew everyone away.

And there's the 3.5". So my theory is that by the time windows based systems were taking off, the 5 1/4 was on the way out, the 3.5 was taking over and the home internet was becoming mainstream.

This article points out that the 3.5 was actually around for a very long time.

"the format held out far longer than anyone expected, regularly shipping in PCs up until the mid-2000s" I can tell you sometimes the operating system manufacturers would release their product on 3.5".

I was flabbergasted when I bought OS2/WARP and found out it was on floppy. No, they didn't warn me, certainly didn't install it for me, and it was NO REFUNDS. I think I bought it over the phone, along with a desktop from a shop in Parramatta. It was cheap, I was poor, and back then I had no idea that shops would be willing to burn the customers in exchange for a quick buck. After that time, I have always preferred being able to walk in and inspect before buying - but it is impossible nowadays. The install would often fail halfway through. Start again. One time I had the tech support guy on the phone with me for hours, because my hardware was supposed to be supported but it clearly wasn't. I gave up on that OS and it failed as a competitor to windows, perhaps because windows was being sold on CD. Oooh, Windows 95 was also sometimes sold on 3.5. I'd forgotten about that.

So there you are. Icons were around earlier but they only really took off with the Apple 1.0.

But I don't really remember seeing them used at home. And look at the drive it was using.

I think my first exposure to Macs was maybe 88? So I think of them as being pretty late; maybe they were more common in the US/Europe. But that was back in 84, and the snazzy 3.5 was quite prominent. I was already familiar with that sort of a computer - I think I must have already been using an amiga 500 at home, and started ahead of most students in being able to use the system. Whereas I had a lot of friends who were still using a command line interface.

The Amiga 500 was a lot cheaper, and it showed, but under better management it could have been a real competitor to IBM/Microsoft. It was affordable for most families. That was mind-blowing. And the interface was a hell of a lot friendlier than the IBM clones had available. MS-DOS dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995.

Windows 3.1, made generally available on March 1, 1992.

So basically everyone else had a GUI by that time. IBM Clones were more business machines than anything else, but with 3.1, computing was starting to get to the point where granny could do it. Windows 95, and microsoft office, changed everything I would say, and pretty much crushed all opposition. We still technically have Apple computers, but they pretty much exist to be an expensive toy now. And of course, the consoles have taken over in gaming, and mobile computing continues to erode the very concept of the desktop, with top down pressure to get rid of the very idea of owning a computer or an application, and just have people rent computing power and stream the results. At some point, I expect neural interfaces will take over. Embedded interfaces are weirdly popular in business already, I am told. And then I expect the current generation of iconography to disappear. But until then, the icons we know are largely there because of one woman working for Apple, and the save icon in particular is there because one form of technology was just so damned useful... and used long after it shouldn't have been for those bloody operating system installs....

TiL (click to go to the thread, which probably has more interesting tidbits I missed).

Bonus:

[againstme]

🎧 🎧 :)

hiiiiiiiii :3 ! gonna do 3 songs from my spotify wrapped of 2023, w lyrics i like and why! sowwy i'm a day late but thanks for sending an ask :P

oh hell yeah. i love hedwig and the angry inch. first time i watched this movie i was wayyyyyyy too high and barely comprehended anything, except for the visuals from this song, and wig in a box. basically, watch the movie. so good, so trans, i love it. u have to experience it if you havent. anyways, lyrics. this song is based off of the symposium by plato. that is obviously quite a long and dense read, but the song is loosely based on it, in a non euro-centric retelling of the story. i love the gender, if that makes sense, lol.

And there were three sexes then One that looked like two men Glued up back to back Called the children of the sun And similar in shape and girth Were the children of the earth They looked like two girls Rolled up in one And the children of the moon Were like a fork shoved on a spoon They were part sun, part earth Part daughter, part son

i love bayside. i feel like they're so underrated. such divorce songs, though. i love divorce songs. and their guitars are incredible.

I don't know where to go I don't know if this thing's still working My heart's not beating anymore And I don't know if I bleed Test it out just to see Cuz the best that I can hope to be Is strong enough to leave

i know this song is definitely about divorce/an ending relationship, but while reading these lyrics, i'm relating these ones in particular to being in residential treatment right now. i really don't know where to go, i don't know if treatment is where i'm supposed to be. i'm slowly feeling like i'm running out of steam, but the only, and best thing that i can do, is try to keep going.

oof, yeah this song hits. i've been into it since maybe my sophomore year, but i think i've started to relate to it more as i've grown older and my relationships have changed.

i've always had a hard time making friends. i was never the one with a large friend group, that was always my brother's thing. so i really only had like one, or maybe a handful, of people that i kind of felt like i could talk to, on a semi-regular basis, but i'd never have them over to my house, or vice-versa. so i didn't really feel like we were truly friends, at least to me. it felt like the other friends were more friends with each other than they were with me. which was really just my life, up to that point.

i think partially due to my doubts about the integrity of the friendships, but also due to distance and time, we all drifted apart. and i kind of felt like i failed at the whole "making friends" thing, for a bit, as i watched the friendships that i thought were going to last for a while dwindle and fizzle out.

anyways, like the lyrics say, i did resolve to make new friends. i liked my old ones, but i feel like i fucked up, and when moving to a new place and being introduced to a new group of people, it was what felt like my one and only opportunity to try the whole having friends, especially having a friend group, thing again. and it worked, this time.

Is there anyone here I know? I look around the room, Whatever, I let it go.

I resolve to make new friends, I liked my old ones, But I fucked up, so I'll start again.

What's the worst that could happen?

okie yeah those are the three chase songie songs u get. with the classic long winded chase commentary of me basically just word vomiting all over my keyboard. i'm avoiding doing my chore of cleaning the dining room right now and i'm doing this instead because it's more fun.

so thank u for the distraction. i'm gonna play this song on guitar now and, reluctantly, clean the dining room.

<3

[rainparadefromhell]

s4 "quick" review.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!

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.

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this is probably the best piece of television i have ever seen. this is why i am so in love with writing and characters and storylines and imagination and creativity and my god do the duffer brothers have all those things. i am actually in awe.

some things that i LOVED that come to mind :

- literally loved every new character?? except jason, is that even his name he can rot why was he in every corner with the satanic shit giving me a migraine smh, eddie is the loml, rip chrissy she was cute and more importantnly steve FINALLY made a new friend his age yay!!!

- steve harrington is gonna do one thing every season and that is be steve harrington aka slay every and any one and he is the best character blabla u already know. also him fucking tearing that bat creature apart was so hot for no reason

- dustin!!!!!????! CARRIED this season. always loved him but his humor really stood out to me this season, gaten acted his ass off

- lucas and that little speech telling max he is always there for her? he has my heart

- sadie oscar when?

- i was screaming "WILLIAM!!" at any mike and will scene. idk why the government name jumped out of me buuuut oh my god i felt so bad bc he is clearly in love w mike and i don't think it's reciprocated....i do think mike knows bc some of them scenes were so awkward but cute i love will

- loved seeing jonathan be so fun (i mean he was high most of the time but still lolol)

- robin????? kiss??? me???? oh MY GOD, her steve and dustin were my absolute favorites, everything she says is comedic gold

- VECNA'S ORIGIN STORY FUCKING DUFFER BROTHERS PLEASE SPARE SOME TALENT. no but i was screaming "he's number one!!!!" when he tricked el. the actor is so talented and his monologue was perfectly evil without being corny. i LOVED them fleshing out the villains more and the whole 1920s victor creel storyline with that beautiful house and the clocks and everything was so stunning visually???

- THE FUCKING SPECIAL EFFECTS CGI WHATEVER THE FUCK WHEN VECNA WOULD BREAK PPLS BONES IT LOOKED SO FUCKING CREEPY AND AWFUL AND SADISTIC AND AMAZING R U KIDDING ME????? this just put ST on another level. the way that that genuinely freaked me out so much with their jaws hanging and missing eyes??? it was truly horror this season.

- hopper and the russian prison guard fighting the demogorgon actually had me on the edge of my seat, it was amazing!! also joyce saving the day by pushing random buttons is such a joyce thing to do lol.

- imma need a written note from netflix and the duffer brothers that my girl el will live a nice, calm and comfortable life in an isolated cabin somewhere after all of this on my desk by monday bc tf?? millie was just flexing her talent bc she was crying and in pain like 90% of the season so far. chefs kiss as always

- dr. br*nner is the biggest piece of shit i have ever seen and if we ever cross paths he is catching these hands. bitch.

things i didn't like :

- there is seriously just one big thing and that is nancy and steve. i love both characters and steve is prob my favorite even but my god do they just not fit at all....nancy and jonathan are both calm and very similar and i just wanted steve to thrive whether by himself or with a new girl. the show made a point that nancy never really loved him and now suddenly it's true love? give me a break, they barely interacted in ages. it just seemed like they didn't know what to do so they used them for cheap drama even though the nancy and jonathan long distance issues were, in my opinion, enough and completely valid and relatable. also emotional cheating isn't cute.

- wanted to see more of mike. a lot of people don't like him but i do. feels like the show doesn't know what to do with him sometimes though.

and that's it. bc the season was basically perfect in my eyes. 10/10

i was, as i'm sure many people as well worried that ST would decline in quality after season 3, hell even 2. but s4 just proved me the fuck wrong. it is absolutely my favorite season so far. i know we are getting a s5 but this makes me want at least 5 more!!!!! but i do trust the duffer brothers to end everything on a high note. but i just cannot wrap my mind over how good this season was??? everything just clicked with el's backstory in the lab and vecna's origin story they REALLY thought everything through and it SHOWS.

this is what tv should be. just pure talent and a thought out idea. and of course an incredible cast. what a delight. i am filled with serotonin. congrats to everyone involved in making this season from the creators to the cast & crew. we will be talking about s4 of stranger things for a looooooong time you best believe.

in short I FUCKING LOVE ART!!!!!!!

[bestworstcase]

So, what about Jaune? Is Pyrrha showing up again? Who was that Knight and was that purple horned thing the Jabberwocky or the God of Darkness?

SHRILLS

okay. fuck, ok

bear with me my brain is melting rn but—ok ok arkos is ozlem and jaune is salem, right? we’ve all grokked this??

the key difference between jaune and salem is that when pyrrha died, jaune had friends who held onto him and refused to let go, refused to let him stay in the deep black pit of self-loathing and helpless grieving anger that he slid into after losing pyrrha—salem was alone but jaune wasn’t, and that’s what saved him.

& jaune fell last. nobody on team rwby knows that he’s in the junkyard of the cosmos with them. assuming the girls find each other pretty quickly but don’t find jaune, they won’t even know to look for him—meaning, given that he is sir not appearing in this trailer, it is entirely within the realm of possibility that jaune spends a significant portion of volume nine ALONE with the guilt and anguish he feels over his role in penny’s death, his identity as a healer and protector wholly shattered—the identity quite literally defined by his journey of healing after pyrrha’s death!—by a mercy killing he was forced into by the cruelty and selfishness of entities so powerful he simply could not defend himself against them. [see also: the shattering of jaune’s aura by cinder’s hand.]

what im getting at here is: penny’s death was jaune’s extinction of humankind, and just like salem he is alone this time

i feel like everyone and their dog has pointed out the visual similarities between jaune’s armor and the armor worn by the knight in the trailer and it’s true that the cuirass at least looks pretty goddamn exactly like his but you know where where MY head immediately went?—here:

😐

this would not be the first time rwby drew direct visual parallels between jaune and salem but if the knight IS jaune, or connected to him in some way, then it’s by far the most blatant example—and

i think i’ve probably mentioned before the possibility of jaune, specifically, doing something in v9 that pisses off the gods and triggers a premature return? a jaune spiraling hard whilst isolated in void wonderland feels like a jaune with the capacity to do that in spades. even under the idealest of circumstances i think jaune could probably piss off the gods enough for them to decide genocide 2 electric boogaloo is the way to handle it because, lord, it’s not like their threshold for what constitutes unacceptably human behavior is particularly HIGH—but these are not ideal circumstances and we’ve already seen how jaune gets when he’s unhinged by grief. he screamed incoherently at cinder with the specific intention of baiting her into taking her sweet time murdering him so that she wouldn’t hurt his friends. like

its the same picture

ALSO, “What is WRONG with you? How can you be so broken inside? To take so many lives—and then come here and rub it in our faces like it’s something to be proud of! All with that damned smile on your face! I’m going to make you pay for what you did! Do you hear me?!”

…u feel me?

so all of this is very interesting for the volume i also am giving high odds of dropping a bomb or two about salem herself; it’s a suckers bet that we’re getting SOME kind of major lore reveal in v9—if only to answer the obvious question of what the hell the ever after actually is lmao—and any new information about the gods, about magic, or about salem has the potential to recontextualize everything we know now in a major way. seemingly plonking jaune into his own little arc (ahaha) isolated from everyone else—everyone who knows and loves him!—in combination with that is a very tantalizing choice.

as for THIS guy:

purple and horns says god of darkness; grey/white/metal animalistic mask evokes the white fang’s schtick of wearing masks that resemble the grimm. beige/yellowish stripes and physical body say… not the god of darkness, or at least not the god of darkness as he was in lost fable. he might be a new monster altogether—rwby’s jabberwock is a definite possibility—or we might be on the cusp of learning that the god of animals actually does exist and is in fact a distinct entity from the brother gods, which would be something of a surprise but not wholly unexpected in light of the talking animals situation?

but [insert conspiracy guy gif here] what i’m mulling presently is the possibility that this IS the god of darkness, but—changed somehow. realer, in a way? in the sense that he’s not this infinitely powerful blob of ethereal power sculpted into the shape of a person or a dragon however he pleases, he’s this… thing.

which is the possibility i like best because it—maybe—would tie in VERY well with what i’ve been thinking about with regards to the narrative endgame and like, what might have gone down between the brothers after they left remnant, because at this point i feel 50/50 about whether they stuck around each other after they fucked off or if they went their separate ways and have been doing… whatever it is that they do when they’re not slaughtering the human race lmao. and there’s the question of the relics, too, of whether the gods mightn’t have weakened or changed themselves in some way in making them. ooor—given the yellowish stripes here—maybe they took a crack at an ozma-like fusion and it’s going… poorly for them.

(another possibility i’ve been chewing on for a while—long before the trailer dropped—is that salem might have gone realm-hopping herself at some time or another, and the kids might be stumbling across her footprints, so to speak. which if true also raises the question of did whether there mightn’t be a nasty experiment of hers wandering around in the ever after, too)

but the bit of the trailer that’s really devouring my brain rn is—well, this (trailer screenshot color-corrected based on later frames to remove the dark fade) WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE

RWBY!!!!?

we don’t—the thing is—god i cannot fucking believe this never occurred to me before but we don’t actually know that all the daughters died that night. it’s heavily implied, but only implied, and the lost fable is an episode that lives and dies on implication and missing information and—HELLO?? i feel like ive been slapped

who is she

(almost certainly she’s—alyx or whomever alyx-the-fictional-character is based on, or in some other way connected to ‘the girl who fell through the world’—& i’d bet good money that skirt girl is the one narrating the trailer. but WHO IS SHE WHY IS SHE HERE!!!)

(given that this is rwby and given the general thrust of the character arc original, oz-books ozma goes through i am also not going to rule out the possibility that skirt girl literally IS ozma somehow which is also a possibility i am going to be laying awake at night thinking about)

my brain is ROTTING

in conclusion i think jaune is going to trigger the apocalypse

[rainbowsky]

RBS I hope this doesn't annoy you and get you mad. I'm gonna have to disagree w/u on the pic in WYB's post. twitter: /GusuLan8125 /status/ 1414904424275660806 It's not WYB. The jaw doesn't match. WYB has moles on his neck. he has a wider neck & more prominent adam's apple. It's not him. I'm not saying it's XZ (I am saying it looks like him)!! But it's not WYB.

Do I come across as someone who gets angry when people disagree with me? Especially when it comes to candy - something I’m almost entirely uninvested in? 🤔

I think the only thing we can say for absolute certain about this photo is that DD is clowning us all. I think he's well aware that this is the sort of thing that drives fans crazy, and I think that gremlin is intentionally messing with everyone. Maybe it's his response to the whole finger debate.

Since this is one of those things that people are determined to obsess over, let’s take a bit of a closer look.

I shake my head when I see posts where people take photos of DD where his neck is thicker or shorter and his adam's apple is more prominent, and claim it can't possibly be DD because, "Just compare."

Fake, fan fiction, CPN.

Photos Are Inherently Misleading

There are so many factors contributing to how someone's neck and jawline appear, including lighting, angle, weight & bloating, breathing and swallowing (especially when it comes to the adam's apple), the moisture level on the skin affecting the reaction of light. And that's not to mention the camera - whether it was video or still, quality of the camera, size of the lens, camera settings, etc. Optical illusions and visual cues involving clothing and hair can also have an impact on people's perceptions.

Let’s Look at the Evidence

The fact that DD has been beefed up for so long means fans have become used to seeing a thicker neck and rounder jawline on DD, but that's not how he's always appeared. If you browse through pictures of DD it's easy to find many that show a jaw, neckline and lips similar to the photo.

Fans are always making a big deal about how prominent DD’s adam’s apple is and try to use that as evidence this can’t possibly be him, but there are dozens of examples of photos where his adam’s apple isn’t prominent at all.

There is also the issue of the moles, which has been the subject of much debate. The thing is, people - including your Twitter friend, Anon - are always more than happy to point out where they feel there’s a mole missing from the base of DD’s neck in the photo (I feel pretty confident that mole would be covered by the collar of his shirt), but always conveniently ignore the fact that the prominent mole under GG’s jawline - which couldn’t possibly be covered by the shirt - is completely missing from the photo.

My entire point being - cherry-picking images that ‘make a case’ is easy to do. It’s easy to find photos where DD’s jawline or adam’s apple or mouth or whatever, don’t match the photo. It’s equally easy to find photos where they do.

But I get it, people want to buy this candy. It’s a popular one. Let me help you out, Anon.

Making a Stronger Case

There are a couple of features of this photo that I think point to the possibility of it being GG. I’ve never seen anyone discuss them, but they’re both more convincing to me than the stuff I see making the rounds on Twitter.

The Corner of the Mouth and Chin

GG's mouth tends to dimple in at the corners below the lower lips in a way that DD’s doesn’t, even when he’s making a pouty face. The shape of the chin and corner of the mouth look a bit more GG than DD. You can see the shadows in the corners of the mouth are deeper, and there’s a bit of a bulge between the dip of the chin and the corner of the mouth that I haven’t seen as prominently on any of DD’s photos. GG’s chin is also longer than DD’s.

DD’s mouth doesn’t have those same shadows at the corners. However, it does have a similar shape to the one in the photo under debate, especially if you compare it with this photo.

The Arm and Hand

Whenever anyone debates this photo, they’re always looking at the final shot of the jawline and shoulders. No one ever bothers to look at the entire photo. If you recall from the video, Anon, the photo starts much lower and pans upward, finally settling on the jaw and shoulders. However, the arm and hand are captured in the full photo.

The fact that people focus only on the jawline is a shame for those who really want to eat this candy, because it’s easier to argue that the arm and hand look more GG than DD. GG has proportionally smaller arms and hands than DD, and if you look at the full photo - whether a trick of the angle, foreshortening or whatever - the arm and hand look smaller that what I’d expect if I was looking at a photo of DD. I’m still not convinced, but if you want low hanging fruit, look no further.

“Rainbowsky has a point. Look at this arm.”

“But Lao Xiao, it could just be the camera angle.”

Sugar-free Diets Are Totally Legit

Here’s the thing about candies, Anon: everyone gets to choose their own diet here. No one is under any obligation to believe a candy. Different people will have different takes on things, and that’s fine. Everyone gets to pick and choose what they like and what bores them to tears. If the candy makes you happy, enjoy! If it’s not to your taste, move on to something that is.

Like I said before, I’m almost entirely uninvested in this type of candy. I couldn’t possibly care less whether this photo is DD or GG. I really couldn’t. If it’s GG, well, that’s cute. If it’s DD, well - nice one DD! You successfully trolled all the BXG. Neither of those possibilities in any way impact my life or my perspective as a turtle.

As I said last week, my only interest in any particular candy is in whether tells me anything new about GGDD. This candy is a perfect example of something that doesn’t give me any new information at all. Whether the photo is GG or DD, I already knew that DD likes to mess with turtles. I already knew he likes to reference GG in his posts. I already knew that. This doesn’t tell me anything new.

Verdict

The photo perfectly captures DD’s ability to clown BXG, regardless of who it depicts.

The thing I find most interesting about it is how something that was posted a month and a half ago is still generating this much debate. DD is hilarious. I’ve got zero doubt in my mind he did this intentionally. BXG are all his little kittens that he can ‘hook’ with such toys and trinkets as this, keeping them occupied for hours. 😸

[becomewings]

The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>

     BTS Universe Story Highlights, pt. 1 / 4

» pt. 2

Introduction

BTS Universe Story, a mobile game published by Netmarble, was released on September 24, 2020. While the majority of the app is essentially a sandbox and engine for users to create their own interactive stories, it also includes official and canon BU content. The first eight segments were introduced between the release date and December 2020, gathered under the title The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>.

“I’m Fine” is half of the I’m Fine/Save Me ambigram introduced in the Love Yourself era. Notably, all of the BU content available in the game so far falls between events of the webtoon Save Me (also called HYYH0 in its logo) and The Notes 1—chronologically, that is, while bearing in mind that time resets to the morning of 11 April Year 22 whenever SeokJin fails to avert a tragedy among his six friends. I want to assure anyone who is unable to play the game that you are not missing any new, major plot beats from the overall BU narrative. Instead, the stories provide more insight into the motivations and consequences of SeokJin’s decisions in the earlier time loops, as well as more depth to individual characters and their circumstances.

The goal of this guide is to summarize each of the eight stories and highlight noteworthy details, especially if they are not yet present in other BU media. Within each story (which I often refer to as an arc, due to their character-focused nature), episodes must be played successively, but the stories themselves can be played in any order. I will present them over a series of posts in the order they are listed under the <I’M FINE> heading. The Prologue and NamJoon’s arc are free to play; the rest are paid content. Please note that due to the app’s Terms & Conditions, I will not include in-game footage here. The images in this guide are sourced from the official trailers/videos and the live action MVs as appropriate.

Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD

This guide contains major spoilers and includes references to other BU media

Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission

Game Mechanic

Before diving into the summaries, I would like to address the primary mechanic of the game: the user’s control of character choices at designated moments in the stories. It’s a primary marketing point that the player can influence the progression of the narrative, with a frequent in-app tip also declaring, “stories’ endings can vary depending on your choices.” The latter is not strictly true—and it cannot be true due to the structure of the game. Choices are presented within most (not all) episodes, but each episode is an isolated unit: episode 2 provides the same content regardless of what you choose in episode 1. Since the consequences of your decisions are not cumulative, each episode reaches the same ending, and each decision inevitably rejoins the “main” story path (effectively reducing the script size).

So what is the point of this mechanic? While the system is not nearly as complex as what major platform titles are capable of nowadays (I suspect due in large part to the story creation portion of the game), it does foster a sense of interaction with the narrative that isn’t present in static visual media like comics or film. The episodes with choices also have incentive for replay to discover the impact of changing a character’s dialogue or action. Sometimes the differences between the outcomes are inconsequential, but other times you unearth new details, interactions, or memories that are missing in the other path.

I say this partially in reaction to all of the comments and tweets I read for the game trailers and even Smeraldo Book twitter’s choose-your-own-adventure style teasers with The Notes 2 excerpts released last summer. Many users expressed excitement, through words or memes, about finally being able to give the boys the happy ending they deserved. I don’t fault anyone for wanting that happy ending—I wish for it, too. But no matter what the rather overzealous marketing has claimed, I don’t believe that the canon ending of BU is ever meant to be in the audience’s control. But I do feel that this mechanism fits the BU narrative. It echoes the “countless loops” SeokJin has experienced in an effort to save his friends, the choices he must make at every crossroad, and the butterfly effect those actions have on all of their lives. I think it is reasonable to interpret the simple branching paths in the game as alternatives SeokJin has explored across multiple loops in his struggle to find the “right” way forward. I’d love to hear if you have theories of your own!

Prologue

The prologue is a brief episode introducing SeokJin’s repeated struggle and failure to save his friends. He wakes up yet again in his bed on 11 April Year 22, the beginning of the time loop. After reflecting on the tragedies that keep befalling the others, SeokJin realizes that he has only tried to fix the problems he can see. He wonders: “Have I tried to understand the root of my friends’ misfortunes? How much do I really know about my friends? Maybe I was never brave enough to confront their real scars and the worlds they’ve been living in. But I need to do it. Because it may be the key to saving them all.”

How to Offer a Hand

In this story, SeokJin attempts to prevent NamJoon’s arrest after he gets in a fight with a rude customer at Naeri Gas Station, his place of work. The first episode opens on the night of 11 April Year 22 with NamJoon curling his fists, glaring as crumpled bills lie untouched on the pavement. (The money looks similar to the shot from the I Need U MV.) SeokJin reaches for his shoulder, but NamJoon shrugs him off and strides away to punch the customer who deliberately dropped the bills for him to pick up. The gas station owner runs over at the customer’s furious shouts and orders NamJoon to apologize. He refuses, and police officers soon arrive and charge him with assault. No one listens to SeokJin’s protests that the customer started it first. The man sneers as NamJoon enters the police car. “Do you even have money for a settlement? Hey, you’re done for.” NamJoon is sentenced to prison again, and SeokJin hears glass shattering before the loop resets.

Rising from his bed on the morning of 11 April, SeokJin reflects on his failed efforts so far. He has hit the customer’s car, called for NamJoon in the middle of the incident, and stopped the fight himself, the latter of which caused his friends to avoid him later. The fight has even escalated; the details are unspecified, but the audience is provided an ominous shot of SeokJin speaking to a police officer alone at the scene. NamJoon is not the kind of person who would normally respond to that kind of provocation with his fists. SeokJin realizes that he cannot merely stop the fight but must discover and fix the true cause of it.

With this in mind, SeokJin heads to Naeri Gas Station during the day and tries to engage NamJoon. This is their first time meeting since they both returned to Songju, although SeokJin has experienced it in many loops already. “It’s been a while,” he greets (as he does at the end of the Blood Sweat & Tears Japanese version MV). Before SeokJin can dig deeper in their conversation, NamJoon is called away by his boss. SeokJin enters the small employee break room which serves as NamJoon’s living space when he’s not at the container, hoping to find some clues about his friend’s life. SeokJin locates something bundled in newspapers. If the player chooses to open it, he sees a strange shard of glass inside that may belong to a car or motorcycle headlight. He continues on, finding the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan and a notebook. SeokJin hesitates over the invasion of privacy but decides to read it since he needs all the information that he can gather. The journal entries detail NamJoon’s daily life since returning to Songju: his work at the gas station isn’t too bad despite the occasional rude customer; he purchased a book and hopes to get more in the future; he picked up a second job at a wedding hall to help catch up on bills; his brother NamHyeon got in trouble again, leading to more expenses; and his dad’s health has worsened, with hospital bills after an emergency surgery rising to levels that the family cannot afford. SeokJin knew that NamJoon was the de facto head of household due to his father’s illness but was unaware that it was to this degree. He feels sorry for NamJoon yet is also impressed by his maturity, for NamJoon never writes how difficult his situation is.

NamJoon arrives and asks what SeokJin is doing in the room. If the player chooses to answer “reading” instead of “just sitting there,” SeokJin privately observes that the conversation flows more easily when they talk about books. NamJoon says he must leave and declines when SeokJin offers to wait for him there. SeokJin knocks over a pile of books along with money and receipts as he stands. He thinks it is unusual that NamJoon picks up the books before the money. The books seem to be more than a hobby to NamJoon, holding special meaning. Walking to his car, SeokJin wonders if it is pride or determination not to falter that keeps NamJoon from journaling his grievances. He realizes that money is a constant source of frustration and misery to NamJoon, and that’s why he can’t stomach being insulted over the customer’s dropped money. SeokJin’s new plan is to prevent NamJoon from picking up the money. He also calls Palgok County Hospital and offers to pay the patient bill for NamJoon’s father. Anticipating that NamJoon will be angry if he finds out, SeokJin says the payer is Songho Foundation.

That night, SeokJin returns to the gas station with the excuse that he forgot to fill up earlier. The luxury car arrives with a honk, and NamJoon hurries over to assist. He shakes with anger when the customer drops the money on the ground. “Why aren’t you picking it up? You don’t want it? What’s with that look? Pretty arrogant for a part-timer, aren’t you?” goads the customer. SeokJin intervenes. Whether the player chooses to have him advise NamJoon not to pick it up or to order the customer to pick it up himself, the end result is the same. SeokJin asks the customer, “Why are you harassing a pitiful part-timer?” The customer drives away, and something about NamJoon seems off. His face is expressionless, not mad or humiliated. “SeokJin, you…” He stops. “Never mind. Thank you for your help.” The words sound difficult for him to speak.

SeokJin believes that he has saved NamJoon, although this ending feels sloppy. He continues on in the loop to rescue JungKook and later YoonGi, but uneasiness plagues him. Though he meant to help NamJoon with his actions, SeokJin wonders if he hurt him instead. On 5 May Year 22, he returns to the gas station and follows NamJoon when he leaves work early. NamJoon enters a bookstore, and SeokJin sneaks in after him to watch from afar. He overhears employees talking about NamJoon, worrying that he might dirty the pages of the book he’s perusing. NamJoon is too absorbed in the book to notice one of them calling for his attention. SeokJin recalls a memory from their school days when he found NamJoon reading alone in their classroom hideout: he asked why NamJoon read so diligently, and his friend explained that he found it comforting to empty his thoughts of everything else while focused on the book. In the present, SeokJin wonders how he forgot how much books mean to NamJoon. He sacrifices some of his food and transportation budget to afford them, but they enable him “to endure the weight of the world he’s forced to bear on his shoulders.” After realizing this, SeokJin wants to apologize for carelessly sympathizing with the reality that NamJoon has weathered alone.

The next episode is from NamJoon’s perspective, revealing his excitement over being able to purchase a book for the first time in two months. He wants to buy two but can only afford one. The employee at the register sighs and asks why he leafed through a book he wasn’t going to buy. NamJoon apologizes, and she mutters, “So dirty.” He notices his reflection, clothes worn and smelling of gasoline, and realizes she’s talking about him, not the book. He tries to shake off these depressing thoughts, but he is still not accustomed to this treatment despite experiencing it regularly at work. As NamJoon begins to exit the store, the security alarm goes off. The employees demand to check his bag despite his insistence that he didn’t steal anything. Their certainty of his theft angers him. NamJoon allows them to look through his bag, and they are suspicious of the like-new book in it which he brought from home. One begins to call the police until SeokJin appears, vouching for NamJoon by saying he saw everything. The employees accept that the alarm malfunctioned and excuse their suspicions as a mistake.

Outside, SeokJin asks NamJoon if he is all right. NamJoon is thankful but wonders how SeokJin materialized right when he needed him. “How’d you find me here?” he asks aloud. SeokJin explains that he happened to notice him while walking through the neighborhood. NamJoon wonders if it’s because they said goodbye on a weird note last time. He thanks him and turns to leave. SeokJin calls after him. “I’m sorry. I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you that day at the gas station. It was a mistake to have called you pitiful. If my rash actions hurt you, I’m really sorry.” NamJoon accepts his apology, believing it to be sincere, and says that things would have turned out a lot worse if SeokJin had not intervened. Thunder rolls overhead, and NamJoon uses the impending rain as his excuse to depart. He declines SeokJin’s offer of a ride and runs home, feeling his friend’s eyes on him.

Before he can settle down to read at home, NamJoon receives a call from his cheerful mother. She thanks him for paying off the entire hospital bill. NamJoon is perplexed and asks what’s on the receipt, since he didn’t pay it. His mother wants to leave it be, but he insists that they investigate so they don’t get in trouble or sued. She reads that the Songho Foundation is credited as the payer. NamJoon calls the hospital, introducing himself as the guardian for Kim YoungMin, but they can’t transfer him to the administrative department at this time. Disappointed, he looks up the foundation’s website, unable to recall why it sounds familiar. He wonders why a scholarship foundation in the city would get involved with him. Spotting photos of a recent launch ceremony on the site, he recognizes a few people: Songju High School’s principal, the familiar-looking face of the foundation’s chairman, and SeokJin. First, NamJoon forces a laugh, and then it’s difficult for him to breathe. He thinks that SeokJin really had pitied him at that moment. The only thing keeping NamJoon going is the idea of getting through life on his own strength. Why does he have to live like this?

The last episode opens on 5 May back in SeokJin’s perspective. He is confident now that he has saved NamJoon, although it occurs to him that a better alternative may have been to simply pick up the money himself instead of stepping forward. (This decision is enacted in a later loop and depicted in the Euphoria MV.) While reflecting on what comes next to save his other friends, he receives a text from NamJoon. “What’s your account number? I’ll pay you back for the hospital bills. I don’t need your help. I’ll handle my concerns on my own.” Heart sinking, SeokJin wonders how he found out. With a sense of foreboding, he tries calling NamJoon, but no one answers. SeokJin texts him back, pretending that he doesn’t understand, and tells NamJoon to call him. SeokJin’s second attempt connects while he’s gathering his car keys to visit the container. “That’s enough. Just send the account number over text,” NamJoon instructs. SeokJin coaxes him to talk for a moment, and NamJoon asks flatly, “Are you going to apologize again?” SeokJin attempts to salvage the situation, but his friend turns cold when he insists that NamJoon is misunderstanding and that he just wanted to help. “So, why? Why are you helping me?! Yeah, you’re always a good person. You’ve done nothing wrong and I’m the one misunderstanding.” SeokJin apologizes again. NamJoon refuses his request to meet in person. “No, I thought maybe there was a reason for everything you did… But I guess I misconstrued it. I’ll pay you back, so I’d prefer if you stopped contacting me.” Long after the call ends, SeokJin stands holding his phone, feeling that the glass is going to break at any moment. He wants to believe that it’s not over, but hope is slipping through his fingertips.

The episode finishes in NamJoon’s perspective. On 8 May and 9 May, he accepts part-time delivery work and reflects on his three jobs. Whenever he thinks he’s at his breaking point, he focuses on his new goal of returning SeokJin’s money. On 10 May, NamJoon wakes up to his buzzing phone and is called in to work. On a scooter, he passes by a bus stop and notices graffiti. (This is the same bus stop, with matching graffiti, that appears in the Highlight Reel.) Mesmerized, he wonders if it’s TaeHyung’s. As soon as NamJoon looks up, the scooter’s brake fails, and he crashes. The shattered glass on the cold pavement reminds him of the headlight shard and the kid who looked like TaeHyung. (So the piece of glass SeokJin saw in April was really a memento NamJoon retrieved from the scene of the crash in the mountain town, where the delivery boy whom he privately called TaeHyung died. This event is described in NamJoon’s 17 December Year 21 entry in The Notes 1.) NamJoon’s vision grows blurry, and the distant sound of an ambulance doesn’t come any closer.

The arc concludes there, but it obviously marks another reset for SeokJin. It is interesting to note that in this failed loop, NamJoon suffers the same fate that he narrowly avoided in the snowy mountain town before returning to Songju.

Please stay tuned for the next Highlights post featuring JungKook and YoonGi!

[kakyoinryoko]

i know u only mentioned this a few days ago but i would like to hear about ur future kakyoin lore

ok i am finally answering this <3

let me start out by saying many months ago i made a post about part 4 kakyoin that is still pretty much in line with what i think so that covers a good portion of it. also these screenshots from dm conversations w a couple friends. (you’re gonna have to click through them i don’t wanna put a huge trail of images on this post. and they’re old screenshots so i can’t really go back and just paste the plain text. really sorry about this.)

these conversations mostly revolved around his relationship to jotaro, though, so outside of that, i think he would go on to become a visual artist, and the speedwagon foundation has the pull to make sure he becomes successful enough to survive on that. i know artist is a pretty common headcanon for him because he does that painting once (and then literally never makes any art again) so it feels a little bland to me honestly but i’m just too obsessed with the idea of him trying to create evil art that is subject to being banned in some states to give it up. kakyoin would make a walk-around art exhibit that’s a bunch of sharp metal spikes hanging precariously from the ceiling by thin clear wires or something. kakyoin would make sculptures of horrors beyond human comprehension. i don’t know. it’s fun to me. a little.

also i am quite enamored with the idea of him going missing on purpose again for a few months. maybe even a year or two. sometime around his mid 20s he is just like hmm i think i will fake my death 💖 and he does. he eventually comes back though because jotaro suspects he is still alive and starts looking for him because of course he would do anything to give himself another responsibility to keep himself away from home. which ruins the fun for kakyoin. he doesn’t want to see jotaro he wants him dead. sad

eventually after he starts talking to jotaro again or whatever i think he and jolyne would come to be good friends especially once she’s around stocean age. i like to think he and holly and jolyne are all three besties and they go out and get their nails done together and do brunch every month or something. quite insane of me but honestly jolyne and kakyoin’s relationship as friends/family is potentially one of the most interesting in the series to me but i literally made it up it does not exist. this is funny of me. i’m having fun. the stone free/hierophant similarities are just too great i NEED them to get along i need them to know each other. and i have to do everything myself.

beyond that i think he starts dressing like an old lady i say this all the time. he dresses like a grandma and a grandpa simultaneously. he dresses like his own mother. he dresses like frog and toad. etc. one little idea i like is that he gets one grey streak in the front of his bangs around his mid 30s (joestar proximity stress) but never really goes grey aside from that one place. also i think his hair is naturally brown but he maybe dyes the grey streak red like old times. i think i’m getting to the point of talking about excessive useless details so i will stop here. thank u for your patience i am sorry i took days to respond

[flowerslut]

S / T

OOF—I’m super picky with what I read AND write, so strap in for these answers lmao

S: Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

typically what I write and what I read are fairly similar all across the board with the exception being: I’ll usually give a well-written fic a solid chance even if it’s about something I typically can’t fucking stand (crossover fic/modern aus/etc)

BUT!!! no matter the fandom no matter the pairing I can not get ENOUGH of canon divergent stories and fix-it fics. I love when I can read a story where an author took one look at canon, picked a point in the story, and then took the story in a different direction than canon did. as someone who has Big Qualms with the source material of their last few fandoms and the way canon has gone, I’m obsessed with canon-divergent fic. fuck! me! up! also as I writer I usually default to this setting when brainstorming fanfics. it’s how call of the night was born, it’s how changing skies was born, pocket full of stones, swallow your sleep—most of my Big Projects are born from me squinting at canon, going *taylor tomlinson voice* “okay, not this,” then throwing a dart at the canon timeline and diverging from there.

honorable mentions go to hurt/comfort stories, dark fic, and any sort of “enemies-to-lovers” variation. they don’t even need to start off as enemies. they can even be “friends to lovers to enemies to friends”. it doesn’t even matter. show me some ups and downs besties! show me just WHY these character can’t avoid each other within the story 🤩 more shoutouts to slow burn and all other forms of angsty fic. chefs kiss baby

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

I have and will ALWAYS despise with every ounce of my being, love triangles. I fucking hate them. I hated it in twilight, I hated it in the hunger games, I hated the fake version we got of it in naruto, and I hate it in fic. no exceptions.

now, I DO allow one-sided infatuation with a member of the pairing (for example: if jacob’s crush on bella would have remained one sided I would have had a much more enjoyable time reading All Of Eclipse And BD) but as long as it’s made apparent that the infatuation ain’t going to effect the main pairing in any stupid way i.e. one member of the ship is like “oh maybe I DO feel something oh woe is me!” then I can tolerate it. that doesn’t mean I don’t love a little spicy drama initiated by a third party who may or may not feel some type of way about one member of the pairing. but once that line from A to B morphs into a proper triangle and includes a C? i’m out. your fic better be fucking spectacular if I’m going to keep reading it

(honorable mention here goes to @volturialice for getting me to accept the canon that is demetri’s obsession w alice. if u need to know more, go ask her to elaborate. bc that’s some good fuckin good.)

I also will not read under any circumstance:

cheating fics

A/B/O

self-insert or y/n fic

any fic where the characters are being tortured just to be tortured. like if you’re going to put your characters through it there better be a fucking reason. show me the plot, you assholes

tropes that I strongly dislike but will read if the writing is good enough or if I trust the author enough:

modern aus

OOC characters (like, I’m reading about these characters because I like them. if you’re writing them out of character—or even, god forbid, just fucking suck at characterizing them—then I’m not interested lmao)

crossover fic

if your writing is too purple. sorry, I’m here for plot and dialogue. get to the point already

again. I’m….. very picky about what I like! if you enjoy any of these listed above, hell yeah! keep rocking! it’s just absolutely not for me lmfao. also while trying to remember fic trope names I came across this awesome tier-maker and made this great visual representation of how I feel about certain popular fic tropes. here’s to hoping mobile doesn’t eat the quality of this: