#also sorry if the lingo in this one is a little weird

[hypewinter]

Since it's canon that he can jump into technology ala SSSS/Gridman, Danny takes advantage of that ability to do his homework at superspeed. And destroy viruses as part of a money making scheme

Please forgive me as I steer this towards a more selfish Danny but imagine if after a while Danny starts making viruses himself in order to destroy them. Given his secret leg up, he far outpaced his competitors in terms of speed, efficiency, and most importantly, price. The problem was Danny was a little too good at this side job of his. Not only did he get rid of viruses but he also fortified the systems he was hired to fix, creating a bunch of systems now immune to any malware on the block..... And subsequently putting Danny out of a job. So being the dumb teen that he is he comes up with a plan.

Danny partners up with a semi reformed Technus to create mutated malware that would only be able to be defeated by physically fighting them within the program (ie something only Danny was capable of). But in typical Saturday cartoon hijinks, these new viruses and the like mutate out of control and start doing a lot of actual damage. Considering there's just one Danny and a lot of malware running rampant, he has no choice but to get help.

Coincidentally, Oracle had been tracking this weird surge in new mutant malware for a while now. She was working on figuring out their source when a digital teen shows up on her computer screen asking for help. One explanation later and Oracle is PISSED to say the least but she agrees to help. She also calls up some other tech savvy heroes to come help too. All of which Danny pulls into the system via their screen.

A tongue lashing the likes of which would even put Jazz to shame awaits Danny when all of this is over but for now, he gets to fight within a virtual landscape alongside some of his idols. Which is a definite win in his book.

[rakurairagnarok]

I dedicate this story to my good friend and writing buddy @idesofrevolution. Merry Christmas buddy and please PLEASE Enjoy. Happy holidays to everyone and Happy TF's.

A Green Christmas

`What!!`

Ryan screamed at the news.

You sighed.

´I have no choice, my family has to move, and I have to go as well, I don´t have any accommodation here.´

Ryan grumbled. `Bro... you can´t leave me man... you´re my best bud.´

You grimaced. Your friend had been acting weird lately. You used to be super close, and you honestly still are, but your interests had began to shift. You used to play games, watch cartoons and study together, but lately Ryan had become absent from you life. He had been ´busy´ with other things but his grades had been plummeting and he had picked up smoking. Ryan had no idea you knew this, but you had seen the pictures from your classmates. His wardrobe had changed too. Before he would wear shirts and khakis, now its oversized shirts and hoodies. He started wearing contacts as well, which, to be honest, was a great look for him, he looked very handsome without glasses. His lingo had switched as well. No more academic jargon. Just simple sentences, which almost always had at least one bro in them.

`Look Ryan, I really am sorry, but I just can´t make this work´

Your family was moving, and while you were a college student, who by all accounts should have received some form of scholarship due to your amazing grades, you never did. The truth however, was that you wanted to move. The alienating feeling you got from your former best friend broke something in you, and you had to put some distance between eachother. You could easily apply for the on-campus dormitories but you just couldn`t bear staying near the now almost stranger.

`Look you´d better go, I want to be home before Christmas and I still have a lot of packing to do.'

Ryan sighed and left. After closing the door behind him, You let out a grunt.

"Why does it have to be this way! What happend to him?"

Reluctantly you began packing. Your father would come and get you and your things on Christmas eve, so you had your work cut out for you. You were currently staying Ryan, but this had always been a temporary solution. Ryan's landlord didn't want two friends staying together only couples or families. Ryan had become quite open to you about his sexuality. He had told you he was bisexual and that he could always tell the landlord the two of you were dating, but you had declined. You had a hard enough time not getting picked on. If word would get out that you two were dating, you would not be able to survive. What Ryan didn't know is that you were in fact also bisexual. You really liked girls but men really were where you got your satisfaction. From porn that is, because you were still a virgin. You grew up in a strict Christian household, with a Father from the south. Your parents would never approve and they were the reason you didn't have to work, so coming out was never an option.

A loud knock shook you from your deep train of thought. You opened the door and Ryan was standing right there, smiling.

"Steven, can we talk bro?"

"Ryan, I told you. I need to pack for..."

"Please, just for a little while."

"...Fine..."

Ryan walked in and sat down on your bed.

"Look man... I've been thinking... I need to be honest with you about something."

You looked at your former best friend with confusion. He had been so dominant and confident these last few weeks, and all of a sudden he looked shy and insecure.

"I... I picked up smoking... and... not just cigarettes. Weed too"

You sighed.

"I know Ryan, I have seen you. Don't worry, it's whatever... Your body, your choice."

Ryan smiled.

"Yeah for reallll broo but, I wanted to ask you a favor."

"What is it?" You asked, slightly impatient.

"Come sit down first" Ryan had this shit eating grin on his face, his perfect white teeth on display. Wait that doesn't sound right. he had braces right?

Because you took so long, Ryan grabbed your arm and pulled you onto the bed, right next to him.

"What the hell man!" You exclaimed.

He quickly wraps an arm around your shoulders, his musky scent drilling into your nose, and holds something up to your face.

"I really, really want to smoke this with you man. Like dying wish and shit."

You look down and see a blunt in between his fingers.

"I don't smoke Ryan, you know this" You point out.

" Just one hit bro, that's all, I won't tell anyone, you don't have to smoke any more, just humor me with this man."

You took a deep breath and wanted to decline, but then something clicked.

"You know what. Sure."

Ryan's grin widened. 'Let's fucking go bro!!!" He quickly grabbed a lighter, and lit the blunt.

He took the first hit, blowing the smoke right into your face, the fumes invading your nose and throat, leaving you gasping for air.

"Sorry there bro, just wanted to give you a little taste."

"I'm only taking one hit bro... fuck" Your eyes widen not only did you just curse, something which you rarely do, you also just used bro in your sentence. Hoping he didn't notice you hold out your hand to take the blunt.

Ryan, who's grinning from ear to ear, hands you the blunt, and you quickly take a hit. You deeply inhale, feeling the smoke fill your lungs and the weed invade your brain. A single hit, and you can almost feel your brain stopping.

"W...whaaat the fuuuuuck" You mumble. Your jaw slacks a bit as the smoke escapes from your lips.

"You gonna take that hit or not bro?" Ryan asked with a sly grin on his face.

"Huh didn't I just?'' You asked confused.

"Bro are you already tripping? I just blew some smoke in your face man, thats all. Now come on bro, you promised."

You took a hit, taking a deep breath, feeling the smoke fill your lungs, and your whole body. Slowly blowing out you feel constricted. You look down to see your buttoned up shirt bulging. You tug on it a bit, and it flies open, revealing a chiseled abdomen and two meaty pecs.

"Brooo wat the fahk' You mumble. "My chest is so big... what the hell"

"Yeah bro I know right. I love that strain. Made me who I am today" Ryan smirks as he takes off his hoodie showing his massive arms and chest.

You look in awe as he stretches a bit, his smooth torso , and bulging muscles on display. He drops his sweats, showing off a massive bulge in his white briefs as he looks at you and smirks.

"Wanna take another hit bro?"

Before he even finished his sentence the blunt was back in your mouth, filling you up with even more smoke. You look down and begin to giggle as you bounce your growing pecs.

"Huhuhu broo they are so bigg... what the shit..." You say as a familiar musk begins radiating from your growing body.

Ryan smiles back.

"Yeah bro you're getting so fuckin huge. You're so hot"

You look at him with a flushed face.

"What... did you say?"

"You're hot. You look amazing."

"Thanks..." You can't help but blush, seeing as he himself is a fucking model.

"You're really hot yourself" You say with a beetred face

Ryan stops smiling and looks at you. He sits down and looks you in the eyes.

"I don't want you to go Stevey. I love you..."

Your eyes widen at the words, and before you know it, his lips get pressed against yours. Before you can react he pushes his tongue into your mouth, and a torrent of smoke follows suit. It's almost as if hes blowing you up, and it feels that way too, Your muscles getting bigger, your mind hazier, and your dick... well...

You manage to push away and look at him.

"Ry... I ... "

"yeah?"

"I think... no ... I know... I love you too man"

Ryan signature shit eating grin flies back onto his face.

"Fuck yeah bro!!"

A sheepish smile creeps onto your face as you grab the blunt from his fingers, taking a massive hit before grabbing his neck and blowing the smoke into his mouth.

"You're so sexy." You say as he blows the smoke back into your face.

"What about you then, such a fucking cute stud you are"

The two of you continue laughing, finishing the blunt before crawling into each others arms.

You text your dad that he doesn't have to come get you anymore, as you will be staying with your boyfriend, and promptly block him afterwards.

You nuzzled up to your boyfriends pit and took a deep breath. It smelled amazing and it bricked you up knowing you smell the same.

This will be a pretty special Christmas.

__________________________________________________________

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!! Feel free to send in some asks or order something at Rakurai Inc.!!!

[waitingonher]

h.o.o. characters & their icks

characters: percy jackson, annabeth chase, jason grace, piper mclean, leo valdez, frank zhang, & hazel levesque

content warning: slight cursing

word count: 853

author's note: idk if some of these are necessarily icks? but 😆

percy jackson

percy thinks he’s sooooo cool for growing up in nyc 😒😒

he’d say some new york specific lingo and would be all like “oh hah sorry, i forgot you aren’t from new york.” 

it is not that serious percy. 

somehow he always finds ways to relate things back to new york. you could be talking about a weird homeless person outside a convenience store, and he’d be like “well i’ve seen worse in new york.” 

percy lost his metrocard one time, but you guys needed to take the subway somewhere so he tried to act so nonchalant about hopping over the turnstiles. 

“oh yeah, i do it all the time. i’m basically a pro.” 

then, he went to jump over it only for his foot to get caught. he face planted onto the floor. when percy got up, he tried to act like he didn’t care, but you could see the embarrassment in his eyes. 

not his best moment! 

annabeth chase

in her own way, annabeth lowkey mansplains a lot 😭😭

she doesn’t mean to, but whenever she explains certain concepts or ideas, she comes off as super condescending. 

it could be the most niche subject ever, and she’d be peeved when you don’t know anything about it. i’m sorry i don’t know shit about a random philosopher who died hundreds of years ago 😒 

(i’d let annabeth mansplain to me any day of the year) 

jason grace

if no one orders for him, jason’s go-to are chicken tenders and fries. it’s not that he’s picky, it’s just that he’s so accustomed to ordering it, that he simply forgets he can order other things.

it’s as if his eyes just ignore everything else on the menu and only look for chicken tenders and fries. like, it’s okay to eat something other than that… 😕

when he orders at restaurants, the waiter always gives him the strangest looks. because why is a 6’0 athletic-looking teenager in here ordering chicken tenders off the kids menu. 

speaking of kids menus, jason treats the little activities on them so, so seriously. not to say that the activities aren’t fun, but he’s oddly obsessed over them. he gets genuinely upset when food or drink splatters gets on it because he likes taking them home?? jason please tell us why these little word searches and connect-the-dots matters so much to you. 

piper mclean

piper always claims that animals love her. (they do not) 

whenever she encounters wildlife, she’d start calling it over just for it to run away from her. “oh no, i think you scared it off” is her excuse 90% of the times. 

i know for a fact it wasn’t me. it was definitely you and your bad excuse for a squirrel call. 

she’s also convinced she can charmspeak animals too. last time she tried, the cat ended up smacking her across the face. 

when will piper learn 💔

leo valdez 

to all the leo lovers out there…i’m sorry to say that he’d have that little mustache after he drinks anything. he’s always rocking that milk mustache!!

after a long day of working in bunker 9, you’ll see him walking around camp with a bright red stain above his lip. you won’t even have to ask him to know that he was drinking fruit punch gatorade.

leo even gets that little stache with water?? it’s not as prevalent, but it’s definitely there. if he’s under the right lighting, you can see his top lip just glistening. 

you always have to remind him to wipe his mouth after taking a sip of anything. but it’s just as worse when he wipes his mouth because he uses the back of his hand or his sleeve…

if you go through his closet, there’s a high chance that you’ll find some of his shirts with different colored stains at the bottom of the sleeves. someone get leo some napkins please! 

frank zhang

whenever frank wears flipflops, his toes always hang over the edge of them. the worst part is that he really does not see an issue with it. he thinks it’s fine because “it’s just loungewear.” 

yes it may just be loungewear, but i promise you that no one wants to see your toes hanging out like that.

even if someone buys him a bigger size, he’d still find a way to have his toes over the edge. 

at this point, everyone just thinks that frank finds it comfortable so they don’t say anything anymore.

hazel levesque

hazel’s the type to enter those random instagram giveaways… 

she’d tag you in the comments and would text you asking you if you could follow the account and tag five people too. 

please hazel, you’re not gonna win that $300 amazon giftcard or that new laptop. give it up!! 

somehow she finds so many different giveaways?? you’re always tagged at least once a week. it’s gotten to the point where she’s entered so many giveaways, that people start recognizing her username. they feel genuine pity for her because why is @horselover1217 entering a giveaway for the third time this week.

[subarashiihibi]

my thing about izaya is that he's so strange and weird and i love that so much. i didn't want to ramble too much in the notes of that poor person's post but i find the way he speaks and the words he chooses so interesting so let me ramble a little bit. this may or may not even be coherent so bear with me here im just going to speak my thoughts.

ok this got really fucking long and all over the 0place so im putting this under a read more sorry.

so i have volume 9 of the novel in both english and japanese. i only have two novels in japanese and that is this one and yuuyake wo. so i'm pretty crazy about this izaya speech analysis shit. anyways i was rereading thru the jp ver the other day just to compare it to the eng and i kinda realized that like.

a lot of people you can separate their speech in either formal and informal speech right? someone like shizuo speaks really informally and uses a lot of rough, dragged-out versions of words and stuff (しゃーねえ vs しょうがない) and then someone like shinra who speaks in a ton of yojijukugo and generally sounds like a nerd emoji gijinka.

izaya on the other hand rly... doesn't fit in either? i mean sure he sounds like another nerd emoji gijinka but it's kinda different. it's not so much the words he speaks but rather the intonation and his tone...

and he has his moments where he speaks pretty seriously and whatnot of course, but in general he just... doesn't sound very human when he speaks? i don't know if that's a conscious effort or not. is it his attempts at distancing himself from his own individual humanity? or is it just because he's a weird guy? i dunno. but it's interesting nonetheless.

one thing i will note though is that despite his somewhat inhuman speech patterns, it's also pretty...dramatic? to the extent where it's really exaggerated but also very cute and charming. (this part is important.)

i think a lot of what makes izaya's speech so weirdly inhuman is because he doesn't really use a lot of slang or similar lingo that people his age would typically use. i know mikado said in the novels that he doesn't really try to fit in with his age group's fashion sense either so it makes sense but still. he's like an old hag it's so funny. and it's because of that that when he says stuff like 'i don't get all hot and heavy over headless women' or whatever he said to celty it's really amusing to me because like... why is the strange man saying this?💀

another example i kinda giggled about on my twitter when i read it it's not even crazy and i sound corny and cheesy and stupid but theres this scene in vol 9 where izaya messages celty for business and hold on let me just put it as a quote.

he sounds so old saying 'video game' like 😭 idk it's just funny cause he barely even knows anything abt games like bro knows nothing im crying

in the jp hes like 「…ゲーム中なのかい？」 and then when celty tries to explain herself he says 「何を言ってるのか、良く解らないんだけど」 and im rly bad at tling parts of sentences and stuff but just know that the way he words it makes it sound like this gif to me

i love both versions i think the original jp makes him sound like hes so lost and confused (hence why pw gif cause lord that man always looks lost LMFAOOOO) and then eng tl just blunt ass "I don't know what you're talking about." makes him sound like full on hag 😭😭😭

OMFG WAIT I HAVE TO MENTION THIS FUCKING SCENE WITH SHINRA ITS SO FUNNY.

first i think it's funny the translation has izaya say fuck here cause he very rarely swears and i did read this one thing about how he only swears when his mask slips so to me this is like genuine bewilderment that he cant even hide LOL. second why is he so excited to hear about 'whatever sexual fetish' shinra has im crying he's so damn nosy . okay but this is not the funniest part let me add that now.

???

ehy the hell is izaya orihara talking about foot fetishes???😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 im crying bruh i was so flabbergasted when i read this i was like WHAT did he just say? he says it in the jp ver too which just makes it even funnier. this goes back to what i said earlier but i always get so amused when izaya has something to say about sex or whatever cause he's so fucking weird and unsettling why does he know that

(i mean i also get so hard i nearly pass out thinking about izaya tlaking about sex but thats probably just a thing with my heart condition and stuff)

oh also another scene i think is really cute and amusing and funny is back when shinra was first still trying to get izaya to form the bio club w him.

1. shinra is funny as fuck in this scene but also izaya's "Hmm. Can I punch you?" made me havbe a good laugh. in the jp he says 「んー。殴ってもいいのかな？」 which is pretty much the same thing just with the intonation of like 'hmmmmmmmmm should i hit u or not...' sorry like i said im just bad w explaining this stuff. but i felt the need to point it out not cause im one of those annoying ppl who praise the original jp ver and reject translations and localizations i just think it's important for izaya specifically cause i love him and i want to analyze his speech patterns as best as i can.

i was going thru the novel just now for other stuff i wanted to mention and i forgot abt this part but it's so funny.

'Let's not get hasty. Type calmly, please.' its not even funny or nothing i just find it so amusinf whenever he talks like that💀 i will say though the english translation kind of makes him sound more weird and inhuman than the original. that line in the original was basically just him telling her she needs to calm down enough to at least type properly LOL. idk if im just being nitpicky cause this is izaya tho so feel free to ignore that. fwiw i like the eng tl bc while it's a different intonation than the original japanese ver i think if he did speak english it would probably sound smth like that anyways.

this too made me laugh like ??? seriously he is really nosy when it comes to people's intimate affairs. in the jp ver he calls them an 'intimate couple' which just is like .. ok bro💀

does anyone else see my vision of izaya getting cucked by celty (does it count as cucking when celtys the one dating shinra) while he looks sad and pathetic and miserable that he never decided to shoot his shot w shinra back in the day

if i were commenting on the actual stuff going on in this scene rn this post would be a lot olonger and even more terribly all over the place so im just gonna focus on how i think it's funny izaya says 'easy, man...' this is like one of the only times his words are somewhat natural and sound like smth you would hear someone else say. in the jp ver it's 「おいおい…」 which is somewhat less out of left field in terms of coming from izaya but still it's pretty surprisingly normal. i have to wonder if in that moment he's too worried about shinra to care about keeping up appearances.

this is just random and me making fun of izaya as usual but why the hell does he weigh himself after his showers💀💀💀 it's cute and endearing and only adds to his strong gap moe but still... it's strange...

speaking of cute things this is from a volume i forget but he says this one phrase a couple of times and it is just both really cute and also kind of idk... saddening. one of the times i can remember he says it is when namie was making fun of him or something and he replies 'Don't tease me. I'm only human.' or something along those lines and it's like . hm. ok.

i think it's cute he says 'dont tease me' a few times cause eughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (trying to ward off severe brain damaged incoherent thoughts) but 'im only human' is like... are you really? even after you try so hard to escape your own humanity and individual self so much... im going to try and give my thoughts on it here but this is just based off my hc that izaya has bpd so yanno. im basing a lot oif this on my own experiences sorry. i do that a lot. (gestures over to all the posts i make abt fob/mychem fan izaya)

when it comes to just straight up acknowledging his humanity izaya has no problems with this because 'sure, i'm human. isn't that obvious?' is probably something along the lines of what he thinks. it's easy for him to just say that because it's just that. it's just words. it holds no real meaning and shows no true insight into how he actually perceives himself. but when it comes to actually having to come face to face with his own humanity and the fact that yes, he is only human, it's a lot more difficult because now it's out of his control. i wonder also if he has problems with perceiving his own self.

i say this a lot but i truly do believe izaya is so so so beautiful and i love him so much. also i just saw a funny post on twitter so i wanna say this here idk if yall know this but izayas actually a latina hes got chismosavirus❤ ok thats all i have to say sorry for rambling so much

[p-wrryyy-mordial-soup]

Hiiii :3 heres my pack of losers (my x-rank team) because i needed ghost to actually have a team :]. heres a link to all my splatoons on toyhouse

seperate refrences, little blurbs about them and color alts where they all share eachothers colors below the thang v enjoy my word vomit idk how to write character stuff out teehee

sorry his ref is a year old and rushed for artfight </3 also the age is wrong i think i changed it to 23

he's from around where the deepsea metro is/was. had to leave because of unstable surroundings from an unknown to him cause. he's best friends with Rust and her kids, im gonna be honest i haven't actually thought through how they met and ive just realized this oops. since he spent most of his life underground and now lives in the splatlands he gets sunburnt way too frequently to not be covered up constantly, though he wears thing like tank tops and shorts during splatfest since those mostly occur during the night.

He met wisteria and ember first and then 72. they didnt apoint him as leader nor do they really care to have one but he's the tallest so everyone assumes its him. he's the most softspoken out of the 4 of them but thats a really low bar, he has a hard time making decisions but once he does he will die on that hill

(since its not on his ref like the other three)

72 escaped the metro before agent 8 went through it, he had found a memcake that was dropped after a test giving him just a clear enough mind to think for himself some. he ended up finding his way out after a while of accumulating a couple more memcakes, barely any where his though so hes walking around with memories that aren't his. It also took him a while to get used to the fact he isnt a soldier nor a test subject anymore. If he saw another sanitized mollusk he'd probably hide or run away </3.

72 met Ghost while after wandering around the area for a while, and ended up crashing in his car the whole time on ghosts way back to the splatlands (he thought 72 was like, drunk or something since he was tumbling around and seemed to be not the most coherent). he doesnt blink or breath unless hes actively thinking about it :[.

he had a hard time discerning things for a while but hes gotten better, at first he thought ember was just a weird octoling because she wears the old octoling goggles. we beat the evil soap with friendship in this house!!!

personality wise hes pretty hyper and cheerful which isnt usually your first thought upon seeing a zombie, forgot his age but hes an adult, he was encouraged to pick his own birthday :]

I have the least down for him at the moment, there will be more on her prommy </3 she's 21

She's a callie superfan with a vulgar sense of humor, usually the one who purposefully makes other players angry. born and raised in the splatlands she knows all the places to hide and get you lost in.

he's been friends with ember the longest, they where online friends until ember moved to splatsville. was introduced to ghost and 72 later by ember, he likes to antagonize 72 (think sibling antagonizing, theyre both in on it). down to fist fight you in the back of a waffle house

Originally from the inkopolis outskirts, they're 31

Ember's both a video game and turf/anarchy streamer, she has camera in their goggles for the latter. bad habit of talking in twitch/internet lingo outside of streaming. Once she has eyes on something its nearly impossible to get her to do something else. Very friendly outside fighting, will give you nice words and a pat on the back after a game whether they won or not.

met ghost while playing turf war in a random que, he was, in her words, "a bit to intense to be playing in turf" and told him after the game that he should try out anarchy, he was scared of it since he was new to the area. they ended up teaming up and playing a couple games together, later inviting wisteria and eventually 72.

theres def more to these guys but it will take me a long time to get the words in my head to cooperate 🙏im better at answering specific questions about things then coming up with what to write myself

have some color alts :3

[britt-kageryuu]

Donnie is doing a little Q&A just nothing about his wip game. He's slowly spinning in his gamer chair model dressed in his oversized purple hoodie, black tech pants, his mask with charms, and boots. Chat is allowed to enter questions, but there's a somewhat strict filter in place. Shelldon is reading them off, but they're also showing up on a prompter.

[Who came up with the idea for you guys to be VTubers?]

"Well to tell you the truth, this isn't my first time being a Youtuber. My old account was private because looking back some of those videos were pretty cringey. Anywho on my and Blues birthday Mandarin gave me the idea to restart as a VTuber. If only because it was a something we could both work on." Donnie stops to bring up a set of images. "These are the prototype models that Mandarin had put together. We worked together to rework them to be usable with some programs I started to make for our custom setups."

[Does this mean Mandarin is the models Momma?]

Donnie reread the question before searching what that meant. Once he found it, his model got an odd look. "Okay, I now know in the VTuber lingo a Momma is the artist who makes the model, and the 'Daddy' is the one who does the rigging. Please do not refer to me and Mandarin as the Models Mom and Dad, Please." His model shudders, and he shakes his head. "That is not really a thought I want in my mind since we are infact Siblings. That just sounds very weird."

[Do you have an Oshi? Are you a fan of other VTubers?]

Donnie returns to spinning in his chair as he answers, "I am sorry to inform you that I haven't followed any other VTubers. There is no real reason as to why. I just haven't given myself time to look into other VTubers, since I have quite a bit of work to do outside of GB, and being on camera for you guys."

[Happy Pride! Do you have any labels?]

Donnie stops spinning, "Are you new here? If so welcome, if not, how have you missed some of these details? And yes, Happy Pride." Donnie then toggles on a set of pride pins onto his oversized hoodie. "I am Nonbinary, but don't mind masculine pronouns used for me. I am also Asexual, and fairly DemiRomantic. Before you ask, the others can tell you themselves, so don't ask." Back to spin~~

[You guys ever going to a convention?]

"Oh, well we have gone to some conventions recently, just not as our VTurtles! group. We went to a few that had alot of Sci-Fi focus, and had some of our favorite actors as guests of honor." There is now a large amount of spam in the chat. What's, where's and when's all around.

"Well, like Blue said before. If we told you we'd be there, you might try to track us down. We have talked about sending out messages the next time we go to a Con and leave special stuff for you guys to find, but we want to get some permission to do this at a Con before we accidentally get banned." This caused another wave of chaos in the chat, and alot of anticipation.

"Hey Dad, Uncle Mandarin wants you give you a heads up, he's bringing you a bento since you missed lunch." Shelldon announces.

Donnie stops spinning, and looks at the time, "Well, I guess we'll have to change things up a bit. I don't want to be eating on stream, so let me see if I can switch off with someone for a few minutes." He quickly types up a message, and mutes his mic. Not to forget he closes the question submissions.

There is a slight pause when Mikey leans into frame with a purple bento box in hand, and the stream was put into the BRB screen.

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

Masterpost

[fulltacs]

Fuck it… I’m here to call bullshit. Namely re: @/dmnkid ‘s claims of service.

I’m here to debunk some stuff since she makes it too easy. Sorry for length. Absolutely no pressure to post this of course as I respect all you’ve done already and get if you’d want to distance yourself from it.

Let’s start with her alleged MOS shall we? As of 2015 in America, women are able to try out for all combat roles without restriction. Dmnkid has said she’s been in for a decade or so, originally enlisting at 17 and that when she first entered, this was not the case.

She claims to:

A) be a member of the 75th rangers regiment, a highly competitive light infantry/special forces orientated MOS in which the first females only successfully graduated in 2015. The nature of ranger school makes it unlikely that you’d be able to enter straight off civie street and would have to have experience in an adjacent position (eg. MP officer, or like, the only female captain in the rangers, an infantry officer. Two positions that take a year or two at least to achieve)

B) have deployed on at least one combat operation to a hot zone. The US army rangers have not deployed with a woman since 2018/2019. That individual graduated ranger school soon after the roles came open to women.

She also suggested that her first stint in the army was one that required her to learn a second language which is most likely a HUMINT/cryptological linguist MOS (at least those are the names we give that role in my country) and that kind of service would be very unlikely to qualify her for the ranger school due to the combat heavy nature of its teachings.

Already a lot of things don’t line up. But little details I’d like to pick at, namely the use of lingo that seemed forced at best and cringeworthy and fake ass details.

If you call your fellow soldiers, sorry ‘soliders’, comrades unironically, you’d be laughed off base. Throwing in little bits of slang like ‘chair force’ randomly don’t qualify you especially when it’s pretty obvious you don’t understand the appropriate context to use them.

No, you wouldn’t be living purely off rations on an operation. The army hires chefs, it’s a full job on its own that people go to training for. If you ever actually serve you’d know that and would’ve eaten their food pretty frequently. If you’re special operations aligned, it’s unlikely you’d be free to share rations with the locals anyway (who probably rightfully are suspicious af of you) as your employment and presence in country is supposed to not attract attention. Sorry to burst your little white (?) saviour bubble.

2/5 not the worst Tom Clancy rip off I’ve ever read but still pretty shit.

Thing is, these guys keep mentioning that their concerns lay with how barracks bunny fics discredit or disrespect women that have or are serving. That’s fair, they’re allowed to feel that way as long as they don’t actively police anyone but their argument immediately falls short the second they create these fake personas and do stupid shit under them. Truth is, your enemy is rape culture, not people writing fanfic that is so disconnected from reality you could ignore.

These guys are single handedly doing a disservice to the women in the army, USMC etc by continually lying and doing weird things in the name of their fake service. You’re allowed to have gripes about how vets are treated and misinformation about the military but you’re doing nothing by sending anon hate to yourselves and should someone be dumb enough to target a genuine individual over the entire fucked up complex, you’ve created a boy who cried wolf scenario. Nice work.

@/dmnkid best of luck on your planned ‘military hiatus’. The proper word is exercise or operation btw <3

(Sorry this got long, love from the anon that wrote yesterday about her using genuine servicewoman’s suffering for her little Mary sue backstory lol)

YOU ICON!

-there’s maybe 100 female rangers that graduated from ranger school and who’s to say if they’re all active lmao. crazy odds! we have actual celebrities amongst us! first, one of soooo few marine gunners. what’s the next blog gonna be, one of SEVEN active female green berets?

-amongst the lingo criticisms, overuse of “civilian”. now you just sound like a fucking psychopathic Chr*s Kyl3 type. and I know the usage of that word was one of my gripes with the codslut blog, but she just can’t seem to figure out how to apply it correctly… 🤔

-“military hiatus” is something a South Korean boy band takes when they’re up for mandatory service. American forces use different verbiage, nice catch!

-and oh my god yes THE ENEMY IS RAPE CULTURE!!!

[shmowder]

Aaaaaa we get a snippet! How did I get so lucky? 😍 I was thinking they would be like the BG3 ones, simply a list of three kinks for each character, so that made my day and I'm wide-eyed with anticipation for the others when they're ready <3

Listen, I never thought I'd be into the toxic masculinity or daddy kink before... but for Yulia, I could be convinced. Without a whole lot of difficulty. Because I have the willpower and conviction of a lamb. Or something. And because of your writing! I will never get tired of praising your writing and its ability to make me feel things. I understand the Minthara comparison now. Bonus points for using the phrase "clutch their pearls" which makes me smile every time I see it :D

-

I've finally begun Patho Classic! So my first impressions are 1) Your impulse to stand around and look at the cows is very relatable 2) WHAT is this voice acting. Artemy has a British accent? "Don't you go all bossy on me, clever clogs." ???????? I know I'll get over it but it's really funny to me at the moment and I'm a little scared to hear what everyone else sounds like.

Thanks again for all the tips you wrote out earlier. I looked them over again and I have the maps printed out and ready to go. I'm only in the very beginning, just spoke to Notkin, Bad Grief, and the Olgimskys but it is just me or are there a lot fewer trash cans and dumpsters to loot than in P2? Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

-

I know you said you wish you could get requests out faster, so here's some reassurance that you're doing wonderfully. You can only do what you can with the energy that you have. I was glad to see that you're not pushing yourself too hard by coming back here, and that writing helps. Wishing you the best ❤️

🐿️ anon

Kfhowjd the fun of P1 is discovering all the secrets stumble upon the obnoxious useful details the devs left your way and just gasp because oh god they really did that and you never noticed until now?? this could've saved you so much money/time!!

So I'll resist my urge to spoil you on every shortcut and secret mechanic that will make your life a little easier.

Trust me, it's so much fun to figure out on your own. You'll feel so smart and proud of yourself afterwards no matter how late it happens, because I sure did.

Honestly, the infamouse "pathologic long boring walks" don't even register with me anymore.

This is just the norm now, like I'm weirded out by other games where things are so close by?? What do you mean I don't have to go across the town at least thrice to finish one quest with mediocre rewards? Let me enjoy the scenery in peace while occasionally parkouring to evade the sentient plague clouds hurdling towards me!

I also used the time to curse the last person who spoke to me in the quest for treating me like their courier pigeon. Oh, the colourful names I've called each and every single leader in this town, the titles I've bestowed upon Alexander Cuckburov for being a gaint tree branch wedged into my urethra.

Also, oh man, do people love giving Daniil pistols, got two out of Alexander and one out of Andrey for FREE. didn't even have to scam the men like in the haruspex route, I just asked, and they handed them to me– you should never underestimate the powers of a well-dressed twink huh.

I hope you enjoy the game! and yeah the voice acting and accent choices are hilarious, I think it's more of a localisation creative choice? Because Artemy speaks in a British accent but uses Australian lingo and "mate" a lot. While Daniil speaks in an american accent but uses British lingo and phrases so much, he says "bloody" an unbelievable amount.

You'll witness Artemy use the word yapping in canon lore, that's fun.

So many things are hilarious, so much more cursing and abrasive language. Andrey tells you all about how last night orgy was disgusting, a couple npcs call Aglaya a bitch, Bad Grief uses cunt a couple times. There are so many funny instances that put P2 "oh sorry for my bad language" scene to shame.

Casual misogyny also, from your humble protagonists and other characters. If you think Yulia was mild mannered in P2 then just wait until you get to the scene where she literally talks shit about ALL the other women in the town to Daniil mere minutes after meeting him.

Daniil doesn't quote latin as much in P1, which is funny. It means it was an active choice to make him more obnoxious in P2.

One last thing, get into the habit of leaving stuff, especially herbs, in your lair drawer because the Haruspex has massive inventory management problems.

-

ochwixjwjdnd Thank you for your praise <333 it means a lot. I like how different characters like Minthara and Yulia could still have a kink in common yet approach it in different ways?

Minthara is more possessive with it, emphasis on the toxic part. The "masculinity" is basically drow femininity in her culture, which is why it comes so naturally to her. It's women who are expected to be dominated and in control.

Yulia, meanwhile, is someone who lives in a society where women are expected to be docile and submissive. A time period when wearing pants was seen as an outrageous act, borderline heresy. Even Aglaya, the most powerful woman, if not the person–in the whole town, still abides to the dress code, a modest long dress.

The town, especially the Kains, might have encouraged a "progressive no rules" style of living but that just translated to "dress slutier and still abide to gender roles" rather than deviate from social norms.

In P1 that is only made more important by the fact she is the ONLY woman character who wears pants in the entire town if not the entire game. P1 clearly being set in an older time period since in P2 you get more technology and progressive views as more and more women are seen wearing pants.

Not to mention her extremely short hair, she didn't have a bun in P1, only a pixie cut. P1 Yulia was a setting stone, unapologetically being herself in a town that burned women for being "demons" Her identity as butch as a whole wasn't noted in the Wikipedia for nothing. It was a different time. What seems normal and average to us now would've been seen as outrageous and drastic to that time period.

So a kink like that definitely hits a special spot in her brain where she is just done with society expectations. If people are horrified of her for what she is, then she might as well play on it and get some pleasure?

If they keep calling her a man for her clothes then why not go the whole way? She'll bed women and men alike and have them address her as sir, as daddy, as a husband.

Yulia is a gentlewoman still. She might not sit with her legs spreading like Andrey, but she'd love to have a pretty thing like you over her lap just as much as any man would.

And it adds a cheeky meaning to her idle dialogue phrase "A woman's nerves can only take so much" As she remains unaffected and collected in the face of great catastrophe.

Minthara would be want you to still refer to her with "Ma'am" and feminine terms while calling her strap a cock.

Yulia would rather you call her your daddy, use more masculine terms, albeit on the elegant side. She's never sleezy. She'd act like the perfect Victorian era husband, hold you by the waist, open the door for you, and have you underneath her in bed.

But she is no Daniil. She is still a fatalist at heart. Her home tends to be a mess. She tends to overthink and get lost in her own mind. She's an avid smoker and prefers to observe rather than take risks.

Things that are deemed "masculine" traits are just normal human traits in reality, anyone could develop them and Yulia refuses to be forced into a mould for femininity.

A world where the human experience is labeled as masculine and femininity is a constant performance, Yulia won't trim her edges and won't cover her blemished. She is a woman despite it all no matter what anyone says, she proudly owns her identity as she makes a joke out of these imaginary gender rules by playing around with masculine terms.

If you want a modern equivalent, think of modern butch lesbians who use He/Him pronouns and take testosterone. How other people feel like they have the right to police them or get outraged at them for... being themselves? Stupid people yes but they sadly make the majority.

That's how severe it is for her to wear pants and sport a manly short haircut as a noble aristocrat woman in the P1 time period.

-

If I wanted to explore the "toxic" part of the "toxic masculinity," then I see her using weapnised incompetence to get out of doing things she doesn't want whilst mansplaining things to you.

Deliberately using convoluted phrases and big words to make you pause and have to mull over her every sentence to make you feel smaller and less intelligent, so you'll just give up and agree with her.

See? Let your husband do the thinking. It's her job, after all. You just look pretty and go wash the dishes while she enjoys her drink.

She doesn't argue, that's the thing, she wins argument before the start by immediately conceading. She makes you feel like you're the one being emotional and overly sensitive, like you're the hysterical dramatic one that's yelling as she remains calm and civil.

It makes you feel bad even if you were in the right, Yulia knows that and it's why she does it, why she apologises immediately one sentence into the argument so you never get the chance to actually vent your frustration.

So she can claim you're simply too hormonal for your own good, that you need a strong logical masculine figure to keep you in check from your own emotions, and that happened to be her.

Basically, recycling that era's misogyny to use against you.

-

I'm too ambitious for my own good when it comes to projects. I have the perfect vision and I want to make it come true, its like I can clearly picture how I want each piece of writing to be, all the scenes to plan and all the characters to include.

Afterwards, it's actually time to act and work, and I exhaust all my energy while barely reaching 10% completion on my perfect vision, my magnum opus so far away.

This cycle repeats each time. I've learned to cut my losses and lower my requirements and standards a lot for what should be published or not. To set realistic expectations to what I could achieve.

Because in theory, I could make this vision into a reality, I have the skills and passion. But in practice? I don't have the energy, time or motivation since I know no matter how much I pour into it, only me and like 15 people total who care about patho x reader will ever ever see my post, only 7 will like it and only one or two will comment.

I looked over my bg3 fetish post and thought "pfft, I bet I can make this even better and bigger!" And I did.... for like 4 characters total before I burned out because damn.

It's so easy to talk about one character, study them and dissect them under a microscope, I could spin endless tales about Yulia or any single character from one prompt.

But. It's harder talking about multiple, especially when it's bordering double-digit territory. I have to switch prospective, get into different characters' mindsets, and keep track of their history and traits. It's headache inducing

It's like the difference between baking one big cake and baking many cupcakes, each with different flavours and difference recipes.

By the end you do get the same amount of cake technically but by god is the second one so much more exhausting.

That birthday post sucked the life out of me. I had to "educated guess" my way into what each character could possibly bring time after time after time and the result while satisfying and rich in essence, still remained a very condescended read, a short drabble.

A lot of times I cut Rubin last minute from healers requests because I gave my all spoons to Artemy and Daniil's part and now I have a headache and the idea of having to put myself into any new character's shoes makes me feel like throwing up.

Like a CPU capping the more tabs and programs you have open, Please god have mercy.

What makes this whole process more insulting is the fact there is no high after the pain to tank on yk? I know I'm throwing my writing to the ocean the second I post it, it will sink immediately to the seafloor and be lost forever.

60% of my notes rn are about the two memes I posted... two days ago while 25% is about memes I posted months ago, 10% is about my character study and 5% is about my x character writing.

SO I CAN'T EVEN GET ADDICTED. I can't even fuel my creative process with the dopamine of clicks and numbers going up! WAKE UP SQUIRREL ANON IT'S JUST ME AND YOU AND LIKE 2 OTHER NAMED ANONS PLUS 5 OTHER LURKERS IN HERE.

It's a labour of love. Each piece chips a piece of my soul with it. Yes, even the Oyun CBT snippet, which will get posted eventually.

I get nothing from this. I just genuinely really want it to exist so badly. It sucks to make, and it sucks to post, and it sucks to watch flop! But it's... god, for a moment in time, it's beautiful when I reread it after weeks and get hit directly in the heart by my own creation.

And sometimes, it's cathartic to make. Exhausting in a good way? Like the exhaustion after a good swim, the soreness after a party, the relief after finally throwing up as all the built-up despair from the dreadfull anticipation fizzles out.

And I still make mistakes and it's not perfect but it's mine. I'm still learning! I still discover new words to add to my vocabulary and then microdose into my works. New Idoms and descriptive phrases, I pause and think after every sentence to try and see if I could've phrases it better, If there are more fitting adjectives.

Yet typos still pass me by and at times I'm 90% certain I've posted literal gibberish and there is no way this collection of vaguely connected sentences actually tell a story.

But I still post it all the same because I've spent effort on it dammit. Burned or not you'll eat the damn cake! Plus after going to sleep and actually having a decent meal, I'm pleasantly surprised that I haven't shat the writing bed yet by posting gibberish and these words are actually coherent my god.

It's so easy to give into intuition after a while, to fall into a slump and sink deeper into your comfort zone of art. Creativity is a skill you train and with time you can put your brain on auto pilot while making art.

But that is a slippery slope my friend, getting too comfortable floating on the soothing ocean waves is as dangerous as flying directly into the sun. Next thing you know you're stuck in a tar pit at the deep oceanfloor after closing your eyes for a minute.

And the unkown becomes frightening again, and your ego is brittle and fragile, and you took your readers for granted and now you must humble yourself otherwise life and time will do it for you.

I fear the second to last part the most, taking my readers for granted. Taking every like, comment and anon for granted. I make it a point to thank each person who has ever commented on any of my fics on AO3, likewise I still thank people for their kind words and time on here no matter how redundant I sound.

You learn to not forget, to appreciate everything because nothing is ever mundane. We're real people, real humans interacting and sparing moments of our lives for each other. It's so easy to look at a "Great work!" comment notification on a screen and forget a whole person is behind it on the other end. To forgo the forest for the trees.

Which I'm thankful for your presence here, I'm thankful for the time you take to write down these asks, and I'm grateful for your sweet words because I rarely remember to offer them to myself.

I hope you enjoy p1! please do tell me about all the funny moments or interesting things you encounter. For me I'm on day 3 of the Bachelor playthrough and I'm realising how much of an easier life Daniil has in comparison to Artemy.

[alitgblog]

Finally got a chance to play volume 2! Not too bad imo but they've definitely had stronger openings to the season

first off, no new hair/clothes (except maybe one sleepwear option) and that's a shame because we could benefit from some better stuff

so the speed dating sucked. Like I understand Finn and Hamish are locked right now but to not talk to them at all sucks. Finn at least has Kat as an excuse but Hamish straight up just avoids MC and I'm like why???

Also just to nitpick but like you can go on a mini date with Natasha after Finn's thing, but technically it eats up into Henri's time, which doesn't make sense because his date was the correct amount of time, and with the placement of it, it would be so easy to just pretend it was eating up into MC's date with Finn that already got cut short by Kat? I'm just confused by the logistics here.

And the three LI's info dump on you and I understand what they're doing here and it's because their routes will merge so gotta get all the unique stuff that actually makes you like a character out now. But oh in another world I can imagine these talks getting drawn out over time and you get to see Chen try to prove he's changed and mature like he says but sometimes falters, and that Henri becomes the mature dad friend of the group, etc.

I will say I'm enjoying the triangle between Chen, Henri, and MC though bc usually the loyal route OG guys always feel independent of each other and don't really interact in the beginning. Like S8, if MC flirts with Oakley then Jin and Jack don't really do anything about it. Like I'm enjoying Henri being a little jealous.

Then there's the "Kat kiss gate" which, I need fusebox to stop calling every minor miscommunication a -gate. Like I'm all in for a bit irl but EVERY season and EVERY problem does not warrant this lingo I'm sorry.

It also isn't as romantic as they're making it out to be, like Henri saying he couldn't stop thinking about MC with Chen so he kisses Kat is weird behavior and I know it'd be the same if Henri and Chen were swapped, but it feels so out of place for Henri to be acting that way. Like I said, Chen claiming to be a reformed player could work with this because he hasn't let go of all his player ways, but I just don't see it with Henri.

Hide and seek is very odd as a love island game but sure it worked well enough. The individual moments with each islander is nice enough, but nothing really stands out for me. It's just pleasant.

every now and then the dialogue is great though like MC saying "a kiss? on love island? no way" and also I made my MC be a little messy this episode (which I'm going to pretend is warranted bc she seemed to jump in too fast with Stefan her last season so I'm just letting the pendulum swing the other way) by kissing Henri after finding him and her calling it a "post date peck, since that's your thing" is so funny, I love her.

Then the girls hide and Finn finds MC but they don't talk?? come back, plssssssss. like I think we should start to get to know him by this point because I'm pretty sure he's going to be an LI, so start building the groundwork now if he's a slow burn. Personally, I think they should let us couple with Finn soon and then you can get like two or three volumes of Kat being sparky and backhanded about it before she gets dumped and then have that be the end of that. Like I know I wasn't on board fully with an all Stars season before, but now I'm like,,, well why are we not talking to the all stars?

The night under the stars thing was cute, and then they used it as an excuse to be like "MC, while you were gone there was drama and you need to pay 17 gems to find out" pshhhh

is that a euphemism or....

I was going to say we didn't get a lot of memorable Hamish moments this volume but then the breakfast scene happens, and first off, I love everyone giving Natasha nicknames but especially Natasha and Hamish's friendship and he calls her Nat Nat. Then also "you went on a date with a dog" had me dying. And then "she wanted to date my best friend" made me sad so uh he better get that character arc and backstoey where we learn he's overcompensating for feeling like second best all the time and MC encourages him to chill out just a little on the cockiness

that being said, I do think they've toned down his disgustingness although he's still cringe. it sometimes feels staler than s6 but then also at times not as over the top as s6, but it feels like he's got less screen time too, so I'm not sure what to make of that. I'm intrigued about his route but I can't say I'll go for it, and for me that especially depends on what Stefan is gonna be like

Because MC shares a Stefan story and he seems sweet like in my head he's on the shy side (which is great bc the other guys rn are all pretty confident guys) but he caught MC's attention and is like head over heels for her, but then post love island was just an absolute wreck. I'm just curious how fusebox is gonna drop the ball, like is it gonna be right away or....?

but I am getting fusebox trying to redo ex in the villa vibes this season yall are right 😬

I also wish the second chance romance plot somehow went to Finn though, like I'm hoping somebody's gonna write the fanfic where S5 MC is the main character this season instead.

I thought the twist that MC and Chen were going on a date but with other people instead was very fun tbh

and the ex thing, OK so Stefan next right? the timing feels right I thought maybe they were gonna stretch that out too long

so I didn't think it was that bad this volume. I can see why everyone's growing bored of it though, like you can see they're preparing to merge routes and the first half of the volume is mostly just about Finn and Kat (again), there's more Stefan talk, some of the characters are getting stale, etc. But I haven't gotten particularly angry at it yet (minus the pay for info things again but thats every season), so I'm gonna keep a little but of hope ig

[dyrewrites]

@scifimagpie Answering this way because things got long.

A lot of the cyberpunk elements are largely in the background, they're part of the setting but not really a focus of the story. There's tech, of a chunky 90s futuristic variety, and lingo, that would also belong in the 90s, and the part of the city the MCs live in is a smog-choked hole due to the wealthy class building up and abandoning it and big corporations working to keep it forgotten.

However, these are set dressing at the moment or, in Delmas' case, character building.

The over-arching plot, at least of this first book, is focused on what shouldn't be rather than what is. There's something weird in the blood, there's something weird in the magic, and it will lead to something weird in the city and the people.

There will be more of the city later, and more of the technology, and more of the class imbalance and a greater peek at how absolutely dreadful having what is essential a mob in corporate suits running a society is.

It just isn't the focus right now, as I haven't gotten to that bit yet. Right now I'm on the "who are these idiots and why should I care" portion of the story, which has lead into "what's going on and why should they care", we are not yet at "what are they going to do about it and what's everyone else doing about it".

So there will be more cyberpunk elements, and some detective work actually, as they'll be going on a little romp around the city to figure stuff out.

This is part one in a planned trilogy too and, while they take place many many years apart, there are a lot of elements that remain. One of which is the dystopian setting, though it is only this and the next that can be classified as cyberpunk. And, if I'm honest, the next is more-so as it has hackers and thieves in its main cast, stealing sunlight. But as everyone in Pale Blood is connected to an ever-present 'net' in a city run by the ultra-rich, it seemed a fitting genre for it too.

I am sorry that got so long, but I hope you enjoy the lead up to the actual cyberpunk of it all.

[prettybluelites]

Thoughts: The Innkeeper

Ahhhhh here we go, part 3 of 3. I'll do the new episodes next week once I've had time to digest. Ugh, I can't believe I have to wait until I get home from work tomorrow to watch, what the actual fuck? Anyway!

That little lick of flame to open is kind of elegant, I like it

"Soul Reaper" makes me laugh because I can just imagine that guy being like, "Yeah, I'm a reaper of souls but also...I've got soul" and it's doubly terrible.

Just watching Zheng in action and thinking about "Every pirate captain captains pirates differently"

I really love Stede's crew lined up and watching as they approach the Revenge, I think they all look suitably shellshocked and I think they're all at least a little bit thinking of it like Jim was when they were talking to Archie, a place where their lives meant something

Stede scaling the side of the ship, not wasting a thought on something as trivial as a rope ladder

One moment to survey the devastation and then back to action

"Guys, hi!" Like there's nothing amiss about the scene he just walked in on. Never change.

"I thought you'd be taller" is such a great callback

"He retired" belongs in the Treacherous Liars Hall of Fame. And "If you don't want to work anymore, you can just give up, I guess," is another early favorite for best line delivery of the Season

Love Zheng's face when she says "Leather. And B.O."

When I watched the trailer and I saw the bits that had this blue saturation to them I called a dream/vision situation and I guess I wasn't far off. Everything about the way this is shot is gorgeous.

My sis: "Why is there a pig?" I think since it's a dream (-ish) it's one of those things where the brain just tries to plug in something, I don't think Ruthie has any real significance but I would love to hear thoughts if anyone has any. It did remind me a little of the bit in "Cold Mountain" where Inman meets the goat woman who cares for him for a time. Like, some mysterious hermits have goats, some have pigs. *shrug*

I think i want to start a band and call it the Coolin' Bevvies

Better name for a band than Shit Tits, anyway

Jim and Olu forever, even if not as a capital-c Couple, even if only as best friends they tell stuff to

The way Con's voice trembles when says "I dared to mention your fuckin' name" - masterful

Stede seems to be realizing that for everything he's coming to understand about Ed and about pirating there's still a whole world of stuff he needs to learn.

Okay, dumb question, is Ed's shirt black or is it purple? Or is it legit changing from shot to shot? Or is it just the...the filter or whatever they used here? (Sorry, I don't know the lingo) whatever, I love it, sometimes his hair even has a purple cast to it, so cool.

Aw, Stede, listen to you, talking it through

When Ed starts flashing back in reaction to Hornigold going at him and there's that one tiny burst of Izzy laughing at him - oh god, that's such a gut punch

Gravy Basket would also be a great name for a band

In all seriousness, Taika is so good in this whole scene

I really like Olu defining a friend as "someone I'd like to see grow old"

Lol every time at "This one has a smell" because yes, chamomile has a smell and it is weird

"I never said that"/"You say that all the time" - another hilarious callback/inversion

Between multiple viewings of both this episode and the trailer, I've seen this bit with Black Pete and the crossbow probably dozens of times and I still laugh out loud every time

Madeleine Sami is gorgeous, just sayin'

I think...Izzy's trying. That's all I'm gonna say for right now. I think he's trying.

"I hate you. I've always hated your guts." Oh, all my insides clenched. Oh Ed.

And then...and then. I don't even know where to start about this whole sequence. I loved it the first time I watched it, and I sobbed (always a good indicator in my book, I think Stede saying "I messed all of this up" is what really touches me off) and I think I've loved it more every time I've watched it. It's beautiful and perfect and sweet and just the right amount of dramatic and just the right amount of...silly, which doesn't mean I'm selling it short or diminishing it in any way, I mean silly in the best possible way. And the way they smile at each other when they're finally face to face? And the way Ed leans in? That's it, going to watch again....

I was too young (and too American, probably) to have really gotten into Kate Bush in her heyday, I knew "Running Up that Hill," and her album "The Red Shoes" got played a little on the radio around here when it was out, but I honestly don't think I knew "This Woman's Work" until recently. I now love it just by virtue of it being so perfect in this scene. The ethereal-ness of it and the way it builds with the action, or the action builds with the song - I can't think of something that would have been better.

The way Stede kind of steels himself before taking the towel off Ed's face

And the way Ed's fingers immediately close around Stede's

If I'm that far in my feels after 3 episodes what is the rest of the season going to do to me??

Thanks for reading, if you're still here! Everybody enjoy episodes 4 and 5!

[bandofchimeras]

hey dude, sorry not trying to be an ass w this but I saw u had a post where in the tags you used delusional and narcissist as pretty derogatory insults towards the govt. Bashing the government is good and great but using terms that we (at least currently) need to describe mental illness (and definitely associate with it!)... in ways like that... its ableist and dehumanizing and leads to more abuse, even if it feels innocent, because if everyone who's a narc or who's delusional is dangerous....that's everyone w/ npd, or a schizospec disorder, or any other things.

Sorry this is long, and again, not trying to be rude! Just wanted to inform you and ask that you maybe be a little more careful with word choice in the future :)

hey anon, yeah thanks for your concern. I do understand the movement to change language usage around mental illness and destigmatize. And it is well intentioned.

Unfortunately, narcissistic and delusional are still pretty generally derogatory words. A person with NPD may not cause harm simply by virtue of having the diagnosis but we all agree narcissism itself isn't a fun cool trait to have. Delusions are obscurations of reality.

We still say manic, depressed, obsessive, etc in both outright negative ways and descriptive but not morally loaded ways. to me it's just part of language, and the ethics of most derogatory language does depend on who's using it.

I'm absolutely behind not calling everyone who sucks a narcissist. and would like people to stop saying "I'm being OCD" or "that's so bipolar," "he's a schizo" and so on. The "delulu" trend online is weird and fetishizes mentally ill people.

For context: I am a person with a narcissistic tendency, due to my childhood. My life has been a long train of psych symptoms... delusions of grandeur, maladaptive daydreaming, hallucinations, psychosis, derealization, depersonalization, dissociative identity states. psychology is one of my longest hyperfixations simply because I needed to understand my experience. it's been helpful and unhelpful in different ways. Pathologization is a phenomen that can't be understood separately from language, culture, history, and violence.

And yet I don't really have a problem with calling things crazy, insane, or batshit. in fact I find power in redefining and playing with these terms. I've been called crazy in a demeaning, invalidating way. And yeah, I'm a lil crizazy, a bit unhinged one might say. But if a motherfucker calls me crazy to invaldiate my argument, I instantly know they've lost. They're being weak, and abusive. It will also piss me the fuck off. I may want to show them what "crazy" looks like. The better angels of my nature will whisper "keep your head."

With the movement to neutralize mental health terms, what's always confused me is the understanding of language itself. I experience words autistically - they have multiple overlapping meanings all the time. Words are like composite images composed of billions of instances of use, fluttering and evolving as they are spoken and written. Vernacular is messy, sputtering and ever changing. Therefore words carry a multitude of connotations. When different people say them in different contexts you can see and hear different implications.

So, I really don't care if a dude at work says "that's fuckin insane bro" ...to a gnarly kickflip. Or a devastating news article. Insane delineates the magnitude of his emotion. It's out of bounds. Something normies and straights would try to contain, institutionalize, label. Christ, that's juicy. It's why I adore skater boy lingo and teen slang. It's careless and crunchy.

English itself, especially corporate and institutional English, can be a strict, bland, and often abusive language. My fellow autistic homies tend to enjoy a rousing jaunt down into the annals of historical parlance for our everyday linguistic transactions because it's fucking boring, the clinical way we are expected to speak here and now.

So therefore: thanks for your message calling attention to my words and their impact.

There are deeper better more poetic words to call the government and frankly I believe the best ones might be found in other languages.

All in all, you're right that "narcissistic" and "delusional" are not the most accurate, potent words to describe the US government. How to convey the twisted, detached from reality, spirit of that entity best in language, though, I need to expand the lexicon. Maybe using these words is cheap. Maybe it covers over the intentionality and corruption at play.

So I'm going to open this up to some language play - and ask you, anon, and anyone else what words can we find to convey the negative meaning of delusional (detached from truth) and narcissistic (inverted and self concerned to the point of dysfunction), in English? or in another language?

I hope you can take this in good faith not as a deflection but really engaging with your ask.

Being language corrected can trigger my harshest defenses. I can feel in my body all the times someone has punished, invalidated, dismissed something I've said because of using "uncivil" or foul or imperfect language. In general, trying to conform to correct ideological forms of language is like, major wretched, dude.

Hell my dorky ass disingenuous nerd of a brother yesterday called a message I sent the family group chat about Palestine "blasphemous" because I said " my god" and used it as an excuse to delete every impassioned exchange we had so the "children wouldn't see," - him be racist, cough. can't make this shit up.

But that's my background. Catholicism is a mental illness. (Sorry in advance to all mental illness havers for associating you with Catholics)

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Infinite River

Photo: Doug Coombe

Infinite River is what happens when four veterans of the Detroit underground find themselves with a little extra time on their hands. Coming together during pandemic times, Gretchen Gonzales Davidson (Slumber Party, Universal Indians), Joey Mazzola (Sponge, Detroit Cobras), Warn Defever (His Name Is Alive) and Steve Nistor (Sparks, Daniel Lanois) let the music start to flow, using guitar, harmonium, tanpura and percussion to create a sound that’s equal parts arcing, droning and shimmering. “Their brand of drift is especially soothing and sublime,” Bryon Hayes wrote of their debut album Prequel, calling it “the perfect prescription for the current zeitgeist.” And the good news about that is: with at least two more full-lengths on the way (Space Mirror is due next, on August 18th), there’s enough to go around for everyone.

Speaking of spreading the love, guitarist Gonzales Davidson does some of that below with a list of some of her favorite music, much of which you’re sure to hear traces of in Infinite River’s sound.

Funkadelic — Maggot Brain

Funkadelic’s first few are just mind-blowing but this one… this one with the opening monologue and then that sundown-on-an-eclipsing-universe guitar solo. Just… damn.

Seventh Sons — 4am at Frank’s

I could put many ESP releases on this list: Godz 2, Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity, Cromagnon…. all make the world we drive through a little more chaotic and knowing. But Seventh Sons…this record shatters so many music genres in a true celebration of life. It is a crazy record. It is a perfect record.

The Flaming Lips — American Head

I have loved the Flaming Lips for a long, long time and admire their ability to keep releasing incredible music after all these years. This newest one is full of beautifully catchy melodies wrapped up in what seems to be dark, autobiographical subject matter… there is some heartbreaking stuff on here. And yet the music rises above and provides an epic experience.

Can — Tago Mago

Nothing much to say about perfection. Tago Mago is perfection. How the hell did anyone ever create something of this beauty? Just the first few tracks alone…those drums on “Paperhouse” — those drums that define Krautrock– FUUHHHHHKKKK — and then going right into “Mushroom”… taking off to Venus with a beat that is almost impossible to define. I love putting Tago Mago on the car stereo when trekking through the desert, watching the world around me turn alien.

The Dead C — The White House

How can I say it more clearly: yes, this is the album from Dead C that brought all of their weirdness together beautifully however, anything Michael Morley touches… one of the main Dead C members… is worth a deep gander. His new record, in the guise of the band Gate… is brilliant as well. I remember when Universal Indians opened for the Dead C in Detroit, and thinking — life could not get better. Galen, Aaron Dilloway’s band, was also opening, and it was so funny because Justin Allen, another Galen member, was grounded that night so they had to play without him. Anyway, The Dead C has been one of my favorites since the 1990s.

Simon Finn — Pass the Distance

The ultimate in stream-of-consciousness freaky folk music, Simon Finn’s Pass The Distance is a beautiful train ride through an enhanced artistic mind.

And a couple songs to consider for your listening pleasure…

Loren Mazzacane Connors — “Haunted House”

LMC has crafted such a unique guitar style, that he is sometimes overlooked in the grander discussion of life-after-John-Fahey. But don’t let that stop you from digging into his genius. “Haunted House” is his dark, sultry beautiful version of the blues… oh damn that slide guitar and his whispered vocals. Gives me chills every time.

Dino Valente — “Children of the Sun”

The rough life of Dino Valente, the original singer for Quicksilver Messenger Service who was thrown in jail for pot possession (oh sorry…FLOWER possession…should use the new lingo) right as the band was taking off. He would end up getting released and playing with them again. But it is his solo record that I love the most… with the songs of tough knowledge bleeding everywhere. This song is devastating. How does he produce an operatic tragedy in the confines of a song with just a guitar and vocals? WE ARE ALL CHILDREN OF THE SUN!

William Onyeabor — “Atomic Bomb”

I love the crazed funk that William lays down. “Body and Soul” is another great track of his… worth listening to… but “Atomic Bomb” — what the HELL is that sound he is putting together? It is not of this time… yet not of the time it came from. Did Randy Newman get sucked into an effects pedal? How much acid is in the water in Onyeabor’s Nigerian homeland? I mean… how did he make this groovy sound? I listen to it… I take it in… I love it… I get down… wayyyyyy down… and I have no idea how it exists.

[nx-communicato]

ToLoveHerUnconditionallyAnOathHeSwore;

NowHeart&HonorBrokenBothEverMore…

********************************************

* 4b*4h4** : 48241748 •§• 424574514 : 42487814

* 0.5¢ : 21o9o (90210)

* D***d : 2442 : P*a : 224 •§• 2974 : 2274

* 42487814 2274 21o9o 81182417

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To be honest… I’m really kinda hoping this turns into more of a step-daughter thing and less of an incestual thing…🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏… like hopefully you were from the 12941427-213427529 line prior to P*tri*1* Coven… sorry, 629h1i2, (half-/step-)-sister to 8r**ke.

‘5734’ 5288325 (ie. Havoc ~ which is what you were brought in to wreak… and did with such flair and aplomb that I am to this day still wholly enchanted by you! 😍 Also, for fun, $umr*ll = $ummer-assault = $ummersault = “Take off ~4, I’m gonna steamroll you ~4!” (Strange Brew – a perfect analogy for a vexing Canadian party girl/enforcer!) …still 😍🥰!

* N***** P** A******** ¿?

********************************************

…with the blood of V1king in his veins

{…as an addendum: I know it’s a little weird that I typically write as if in correspondence with ‘424574514’, when it is far more likely that the market I am reaching is 8unt*r, my Momp, 8r8k*, D2d2, or the entire island population of HonnaLee instead; but it maintains a continuity in my writing, provides me with a target for whom to direct my narrative, and prevents a lot of unnecessary dragosplanatory side-dialogues like this one here in particular… for those who are not familiar with the terminology, dragosplanatory (drogonating, dragonspokating, dragooning, drakuspanking, draxplanations, deragotory remarks, dragulit, et al.) are used as a way of enlightening the audience when one does not think that they’re as literarily simpatico with the linguistic interadministrations of he who shall henceforth be referenced as the author or said narrator of such works, quite similar to what others may have heard in relative terms to the jargon, lingo or cant of “man-splaining” but with one key difference here being that there is no separation or bias based on the gender of the listener or in this case, reader (as you can see we too can be haughty or “woq’d-up y’all” to heighten the presentation and awareness of our views on civil equality).}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

19864 the Eye of Horus •§• and finds his own tale instead Ouru’80208’…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As another example of just how wildly unstoppable the juggernaut of my hope is, I have been secretly harboring a tale wherein this all magically resolves and you surprise me popping out of nowhere to whisk me away like a fairytale princess to go celebrate Pancake Day with you in NoLo… as with you may be the only way I would want to celebrate Shrove Tuesday. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

[beepboop358]

Hey <3 I hope you're doing great and that your midterms went well :)

I just had a question, since you're studying cinema (if I remember correctly?), do you have classes about movie analyses that help you to analyse movies & shows such as Stranger Things? What's your favourite thing to study?

And also, I had a question about camera angles and shots in ST, Idk if you study this kind of thing as well, but I thought I might as well ask.

- Do you think the way M!leven kisses are framed is intentionally uncomfortable? And if so, why is it?

Because I told my friend that I didn't like to watch Mlven kisses because something felt weird, and they told me it was only because I disliked Mlven, which is a fair answer XD but still, I wanted to ask you about your thoughts on Mlven shots. And ST shots in general. Like, comparing to Joyce/Bob, I feel like Mlven kiss scenes are awkward, but I can't say why in terms of techniques, so maybe you have more ideas?

I'm sorry if this is a weird ask aha

Anyway, have a good day/night <3

Hello bestie ♥️ Thank you! I hope you're doing great too <3!! Not a weird ask at all!

Yes! We have to take a few classes that focus just on how to analyze movies! Those classes are like the foundation for everything else, so they have to be taken first, during your first year of school, before you can move on to higher level classes cuz you gotta learn the basics and all the lingo first hehe 🙃 Those film analysis classes are packed full of information and cover a ton of stuff like shot types, camera angles, mise-en-scene (which is any kind of background detail like the sets, costumes, etc), editing styles, acting mannerisms, and then why its used and what it is supposed to convey to the audience. One time I wrote a 5 page essay for one of those classes on a 30 minute clip from a movie because there was just so much to talk about in it 😂

Okay enough of my blabbering LOL. To answer your question, I think a lot of why it feels so awkward is because of Millie & Finn's acting, because they're really good at their jobs, but I think the shots and angles used in those scenes, are picked to amplify the awkwardness.

Like in the opening season 3 kiss, the first time both Mike & El are shown in the frame, it's a Medium Close-up (MCU), because we see Mike and El from the chest up.

Close ups (of any kind) are usually only used when you want to emphasize something important, so their using a MCU here to emphasize the awkwardness of this kiss, which we see in Finn and Millie's performances. In addition to that, this shot type puts us pretty close to their faces, and makes us focus on their kissing, and how awkward it is LOL.

Now we gotta talk camera movement (and little more about shot types lol). Once the pan stops, and Mike is in frame, we can very slightly see the camera move in a little bit, towards their faces, and we get pretty close to a flat out Close Up (CU), which is just the character's head (but the shot changes before we get there). This kind of movement is called a dolly, different from a zoom in. Here the dolly movement is emphasizing everything about how awkward this kiss is. We just get closer to the couple, like too close, LOL, and all you can focus on is the awkwardness coming from Finn and Millie's performance, in addition to it just feeling awkward because the camera is so close to them kissing LOL.

The camera doesn't stop moving until Mike breaks the kiss, from the pan to the dolly in. So we kind of get this sense of something building, we're expecting something. We get that building sense while it pans over the stuff in El's room, and we get the "reveal" of Mike and EL kissing, but that sense keeps building as it moves forward closer into Mike & El's faces as they kiss, to amplify the awkwardness, but also gives us the sense of building towards a peak and the shot is about to change (and shots should typically reflect plot details/characters feelings), which is when Mike breaks away...*wink wink* LOL

During the end of the pan and the dolly in, we can see Mike take El's hands off this body. He doesn't want her to touch him, he's uncomfortable with it. His movement, plus the dolly in, add to that sense of building, that we are approaching a "peak". The camera movement here reflects Mike's "threshold" for kissing El, as the "peak" of the building effect the movement creates. He just can't do it anymore, because he's gay XD, so he breaks away and starts singing.

Then the camera movement is static (no movement) from there on out, and we just see a pretty standard shot reverse shot sequence, which is just cutting back and forth between 2 shots (like a 1,2,1,2,1,2 kind of pattern).

Both of these are over the shoulder (OTS) shots, but I don't think those contribute to the awkwardness here.

This was probably longer than you wanted, but thanks for the ask! I hope you're having a wonderful day!! 💜

[bogleech]

Awful Hospital Question: Are stuff like Gel Channels/Gels and such things that you have an internal logic for in awful hospital, or are they just Weird Concept Things people mention?

They're both! And it's a thing that's important to me so I have long thoughts about it! I like to keep the "otherworldly" terminology mostly consistent, so you can glean some facts about these phenomena (for instance that gels are a thing you can trade with some entities, but sometimes that's bad) while also leaving them ambiguous even to me personally, and even gradually altering or phasing out some of the lingo as if the rules governing the setting actually evolve or mutate behind the scenes, and its inhabitants roll with it or don't even realize it.

In some cases I did come up with some "explanations" I haven't put into the comic yet, but I also deliberately came up with other, directly conflicting explanations that I want to consider equally canon. I might've posted this before (I have a bad memory and a disorder guys sorry) but sometimes when I make "alien dialog" I think of how Gozer the Traveler is described by the demon Vince Clortho in the original Ghostbusters:

This dialog is "nonsense" in that it makes up a bunch of words that had no known meaning or context to the audience, but with little crumbs of implied context that keep it from being empty randomness. Specifying "a large and moving Torb" for instance implies that a "Torb" is something that doesn't normally move. "Giant Sloar" tells us that a Sloar is usually not huge, but "roasting" in its "depths" is still mentioned like it's a facet of a regular-size Sloar, and I REJECT newer media that reveals a Sloar to be a big reptilian monster because honestly these words do not sound like they'd refer to just a "creature" as we understand the concept. The wording also implies that there was some sort of irony or poetic justice when this happened to "Shubs" and "Zulls," so we can also infer that those entities used regular-size Sloars to roast other entities, who must've been pretty tired of it by that point. And of course this whole spiel is actually about the entity that ultimately manifests as one of the most famous things in the movie:

It's very important to me that the "technobabble" still foreshadow some kind of payoff at some point, even without actually explaining all its terms. I don't want people to HAVE to analyze any of it to understand the plot, but when people do pay attention to it I want them to eventually feel rewarded for doing so. I actually write all gibberish-sounding dialog pretty carefully, including creatures that seem to spout "random" phrases! Anyway for everyone else, this is about my webcomic that starts here, as well as some short stories I've written in the same canon.