#because calling something 'the trace' worked a lot better in the original

[n7punk]

for all the None people who follow me and care about Trace Memory/Another Code (spoiler free I promise): if you're interested in the remaster, I recommend you only get it if you're getting it for the sequel that was never released in America. they changed a lot in Trace Memory (Another Code 1) and this isn't a "new is bad" thing (usually I prefer remasters), this is a "they cut puzzles, 'streamlined' the game, and reworked/removed the best scene in the entire game" kind of thing. the game undoubtedly looks better, but it's also missing some of the hand-drawn art that really added to its story. there are some improvements (the new voice acting is cool to have, especially having it be optional, and the way they implemented the autoplay feature for that is clever. there are some improved scenes they could rework with the benefit of 3D graphics and voice acting), but I don't think it should be your first Trace Memory experience.

if you can't get your hands on the DS line and an emulator isn't working for the puzzles (something I can see - some of them did actually need to be cut just for being janky or more difficult than they needed to be) and this is the only way you can ever experience the first game, I recommend it over not playing the game, I'm just saying it's not the original. from what I can tell they normed the style of the first game with the second, so it's brighter and all the dialogue and non-flashback cutscenes are rendered in game, which loses some of the impact of the stylistic comic panels. I never thought I'd prefer flat art to rendered cut scenes but in a game like this the hand-drawn, kinda gritty art did a LOT and the brightly-rendered 3D models just don't lend themselves to the mystery of all these people's deaths. I am excited to play the second game since, changes or not, this is the only way to experience it in America (like I said, I still recommend Another Code: Recollection if it's the only way you can experience Trace Memory), but I would say the remaster is mostly worth buying for the sequel if you like the original game.

[theavianlady]

...tw? Tw.

TW: Gore, Blood, Injury, uh...Pain and Sadness-

@psychologicalwarclaire

Ha ha! Tis I! I was the anon!

(Cue dramatic exclamations of disbelief)

Ahem. Tis the anniversary of Spider's Web with Strings Attached, and I wanted to make something! Go and read the fic if you haven't already; it's incredible.

Lots of ramblings and other versions under the cut (if anyone wants to see any other parts with or without different lighting and stuff that I didn't include, just let me know; I'm happy to share).

===============================================================

This is the first (almost) completely original thing I've drawn digitally! Poses are really hard for me, so I'm super proud of this. No tracing, only references!

...so. Many. References.

Except for the bricks, which I'm not counting, because bricks are scary. And the chains. I used a brush. Chains are scary too.

I started July 28th, and then spent almost 40 hours across various canvases planning, experimenting, and actually working on this. Not including research. It took me absolutely forever, but I regret nothing.

Except for the fact that I spent over 6 hours just shading bricks. I didn't even draw them! I took a pattern for the grooves from google and filled it with black, (rotated and edited for some variance in their cells), and then did the red lighting and some shadows you can't even really see. For 6 hours.

I tried to draw their spider brooches many times, but I could not get them to look right (especially from a side angle), so I gave up. Let's all just pretend they're there until I come back later. Eventually. Maybe. Oh, and Leo's chains. At the time of posting, I really just want to get this up and posted, so they're not shaded, but again, I might do it later.

I wanted to have this set when they're both in their separate cells, right after Viper was, uh...in the cell with Leo. So, Donnie is all stitched up and healing, while Leo is...not doing great (not certain about the timeline, because I'm paranoid about everything, so it's probably fine). But, I wanted to convey what happened to Donnie, so I drew that weird glowing spine thing to indicate some kind of mystic healing something. I don't even know.

It didn't turn out as well as I wanted it too, but I'm probably biased. Because there was so much gore on Leo's side, Donnie's looked boring. I couldn't figure out how to do the lighting. The values could be better. It could do with more time spent on the shadows. Etc, etc. I'm a perfectionist.

===============================================================

Uh, in order of posting, behold!

1. Big version.

2. Big version without lighting (except on the bricks) or Japanese characters.

3. Close up of magic spine representation thing because I'm proud of it.

4. Close up of gore-covered-Leo because I'm also proud of that. I have never drawn such...messy gore before.

Fun fact, the group of layers all of that was on is called "Bad Stuff".

5. Close up of Donnie's shell stitches without the spine thing, because I worked hard on those. It was also pretty tricky, because I couldn't find any references for large stitched wounds. Only open ones. If anyone knows any good places for references like that, t'would be greatly appreciated.

Also, they don't usually stitch puncture wounds, because it could trap infection, but I feel like with something so large and deep as dragon teeth it would be necessary? So I tried to include those.

But also, would they just stitch the skin in such deep wounds? Is there still a gaping hole under the skin? Do they also stitch muscles with the dissolvable sutures or something? I'm like, going to go to med-school just so I can draw more accurate wounds and stitches and stuff.

6. Close up of Leo without the gore because he's pretty and I'm really proud of the plastron. And the right forearm armour piece. I couldn't get the other ones to look as nice, much to my dismay.

The Japanese characters write out to Omae wa hitoribocchi da, which translates to You are alone. I think. Google Translate says it's You are all alone, but translation services that I trust slightly more, like Reverso.net and ChatGPT (the most reliable of sources, I know) just say You are alone.

Omae is the equivalent of anata, for those familiar with Anata wa hitori janai. They both mean you, but omae is more...condescending, from what I can tell. Informal and rough, often used to express disdain or superiority.

Wa indicates that anata or omae are the subject of the sentence.

Hitori is present in both, meaning alone, though from what I can see, hitoribocchi is more...desolate and painful. It's a more emotional term for being alone.

Janai kind of means is not, or are not, while da is just like...closing the sentence. A firm, declarative ending particle.

I tried to paste the actual Japanese characters from different translation services (I am not fighting with using a keyboard from another language), but Tumblr wouldn't let me. Boo. So, you can all suffer with my English-Japanese. Also, don't trust anything I say. I'm learning Japanese on Duolingo, but I've only just started and it gets way more complicated. So, pretty much anything I just said could be wrong. I just did a lot of research.

If anyone does speak Japanese, and knows a better way to convey this, please tell me. I crave knowledge and accuracy.

I should get like, a personal human translator. No AI or program can truly understand a language like its people. Especially comparing Japanese and English. From what I've learned, there are a lot of words that could be translated many ways, depending on exact feel. It's complicated, and I'm scared to get farther into Duolingo's course.

===============================================================

I also just discovered yesterday that today is also the anniversary of the Rise Movie, so yay! Happy Anniversary to the movie that literally changed my life. And Curly, you're awesome. It's authors like you keeping this fandom alive, so thank you!

[fanfictionalraven]

Reno - Before

Title: Reno - Before

Summary: What actually happened in Reno…

Characters: Reader, Dean Winchester, Reader’s father, Bobby Singer, John Winchester, Sam Winchester,

Word Count: 3,648

Warnings: Mild smut

Author’s Note: This story was originally posted by myself under the account Winchestersgirl92. It was published in 2017. Italics are flashback.

Read Reno here.

“Dad, come on!! I turn 18 in a week!!” You plead, following your father through the den of Bobby’s house. “I can handle myself!!” He sighs as he tosses his gun into his open bag. He turns to face you, gently placing his hands on your shoulders.

“I know you can, Y/N. But I promised your mom I wouldn’t take you out until you were 18. I didn’t get to keep a lot of the promises I made her, let me keep this one,” he says.

“Way to lay on the guilt trip, Dad,” you say, rolling your eyes. He smiles widely and kisses your forehead before turning back to his bag. You sigh, crossing your arms over your chest as you watch him. “Just be careful. You don’t even know this guy.” He lets out a laugh and glances back at you.

“No, but Bobby does and if Bobby trusts him then who am I to argue?” He asks. You frown and nod again, knowing he was right. Bobby had recommended this other hunter when your dad had called him about the case suggesting the two work together. The other hunter had two sons. One was apparently a couple of years older than you and would be going on the hunt as well while the other, a couple years younger than you, would be staying with you and Bobby. The old grump of a man you considered your uncle steps into the room then and smiles over at you.

“Why don’t you go out back and work on your birthday present? Give your old man a little peace,” he suggests. You stick your tongue out at him before turning for the back door. You hear Bobby and your dad laugh and you can’t help but smile as you make your way out to Bobby’s old salvage yard.

Pulling your hair up into a bun, you stride across the yard to the old Mustang waiting on you. You’d been in love with the old car for years and Bobby had made a deal with you. If you were able to get it running, it was all yours. You were close, you knew it. You’d pulled piece after piece from the other cars laying around and Frankensteined the engine back together. The only thing you were missing was a spark plug. One damn little spark plug was all you needed and your dream car would be complete. However, that seemed to be too much to ask.

“Need some help, darlin’?” An unfamiliar voice asks from behind you. You look back to find a young man making his way over to you. You frown at the smirk on his face and roll your eyes, looking back at the engine.

“No thanks,” you tell him. He stops next to you and you cut your eyes over at him. “Look, darlin’. I’ve built this engine myself. Just because I’m a woman –”

“Hey, whoa,” he says, raising his hands slightly. “I never said you couldn’t do it yourself. Just asked if you needed some help.” You watch him for a moment, trying to determine if he’s serious. The smile he’s giving you seems genuine, even if there is a trace of something in his eyes you can’t quite place.

“Sorry,” you mumble. “You one of Winchester’s boys?”

“Dean,” he introduces himself, holding his hand out. You place your hand in his and shake it briefly. “Guess that makes you Y/L/N’s daughter.”

“Y/N, yea. You’re the oldest, right?” You ask. He smiles and nods. “My father better come back alive.”

“Don’t worry, Sweetheart. We know what we’re doing,” he tells you, laughing lightly. You nod slightly, watching him, before you look back at the engine again. “You’re not coming?”

“Dad promised Mom I wouldn’t hunt until I was 18, which is a week from today but he’s not letting up,” you say, leaning in and tightening a bolt. “You wouldn’t happen to have a spark plug for a ’65 Mustang on hand, would you?” You ask, looking up at Dean. He laughs and you smile when he does, noting the way his face lights up.

“You know, I had one in my pocket just this morning and took it out,” he says. You laugh and shake your head, standing back up straight. “You telling me there ain’t one out here?”

“I have turned this yard upside down and I swear there is not a single spark plug left,” you tell him. He nods as he looks around. His eyes land back on you and you see that flash of something in his eyes again.

“Why don’t you buy one?” He asks. You sigh and pick up a rag, wiping your hands off.

“Bobby doesn’t want me to spend any money on it. Period. It’s my birthday present, I just have to get it running without spending a dime,” you tell him. Dean lets out a laugh and shakes his head.

“Sounds like Bobby,” he says. You smile a little and nod.

“Dean!! Come on, we’re getting ready to go,” a man calls from the back door of the house. You both look over and Dean nods, waving his hand slightly in acknowledgement. The two of you make your way back to the house and Dean holds the back door open for you.

“Y/N, this is my dad John and my little brother Sam,” he says, pointing to the other two men in the room. John barely acknowledges you but Sam gives you a smile which you return politely. Your dad holds his arms open and you rush into them quickly. He presses a quick kiss to your temple.

“Be careful,” you tell him, quietly. He nods, letting you go. He smiles at you as he throws his bag over his shoulder, following John towards the door. Dean comes over next to you and pats your shoulder.

“He’ll be fine. I promise,” he reassures you. You smile slightly and nod. He gives you a quick wink before running out the door with his father and yours.

Three days later, the three men return to Bobby’s a little beaten and a little sore but victorious. You’re surprised when you’re just as relieved to see Dean as you are your father. You’re in the middle of cleaning up a particularly nasty cut on Dean’s left calf when he pulls a small box from his pocket and holds it out for you. Without saying a word, you take the box and open it. You look up at Dean quickly and he winks. Breaking into a wide smile, you turn the contents of the box over into your hand. A spark plug.

“Dammit, Y/N!!” Dean groans through gritted teeth. You roll your eyes, swerving to miss another pothole.

“Stop being a baby, Dean. You’re acting like you’ve never been shot before,” you say, smirking over at him. He shoots you a glare.

“This ain’t Speed, Sweetheart. You don’t have to drive like a freakin’ maniac,” he says, looking at the wound on his shoulder. You glance at it too and hide your frown.

Of course you were worried. Dean was your best friend and the only thought scarier than losing him was the thought of losing your dad. The two of you had been working a case in Reno, a poltergeist terrorizing an abandoned hospital. It had left one teenager dead and another seriously injured. Turned out, the old hospital was also the hang out for a local gang who didn’t take too kindly to a couple of strangers on their turf. Dean’s shoulder had gotten clipped when he pushed you out of the way as you both ran from the building.

“Hey,” Dean says, seeing the concern on your face. “I’m good. I’ve had worse, you know that.” That same old something flashes in his eyes.

“I’m not worried about you. I’m worried about the upholstery you’re bleeding all over,” you lie as you pull into the parking lot of your motel. He lets out a laugh and shakes his head as you bring the car to a stop outside your room. You kill the engine and rush from your side of the car to his, reaching to help him as he gets out.

“I’m fine, Y/N. Just open the door,” he tells you. Rushing ahead of him, you unlock and push open the door, allowing him to walk in first. He sits on the edge of one of the beds as you start to dig through your bag. You find your hunter’s first aid kit, a needle, thread, and bandages, then grab the bottle of whiskey from the fridge.

“Do I need to cut that shirt off or can you strip?” You ask, walking over to him. He smirks up at you.

“Never knew you were into that, Y/N,” he says. You shoot a mock glare at him but can’t keep it up, breaking into a smile. He chuckles then starts to pull his good arm out of the shirt. It’s sticky with sweat and blood so you reach to help, pulling it over his head before carefully sliding it off his injured arm. He only winces once and you consider that a major success.

You carefully examine the damage as he takes a long drink from the bottle you’d brought. The bullet had entered his right shoulder and, thankfully, had gone straight through the soft tissue. There didn’t appear to be any bone or nerve damage. It was through-and-through so you wouldn’t be stuck digging a bullet out. A few stitches and Dean should be good as new.

You take the bottle from Dean and “sterilize” the wound earning a pained hiss from your patient. He takes another long drink from the bottle when you return it to him. Squinting, you carefully thread the needle. Dean takes a deep breath then nods, setting his jaw, and you steadily run the needle through his skin, closing up the wound. After the first few stitches, you catch Dean watching you, that something in his eyes once again.

“What?” You ask, watching your hand make another stitch.

“You’re cute when you’re focused,” he says. Your hand hesitates for a moment before continuing with its task. “The way you bite your lip like that-,” you release your bottom lip quickly, not even having realized you were biting it to begin with. “Kinda makes me wanna try.” Your hand slips and you look at him quickly. The look in his eyes sends a shock wave coursing through your body.

Over the past several years, Dean Winchester had looked at you in many ways. He’d looked at you in pride when you’d completed your first successful vampire kill. He’d looked at you in joy when you understood one of his dumb movie references. He’d looked at you in anger when you’d run off to crack a case on your own and nearly gotten killed. He’d looked at you in pain when Sam and John had their last big fight before Sam left for Stanford. He’d looked at you in sorrow when some idiot had broken your heart. He’d looked at you with that same, indescribable something he’d been looking at you with since the day you’d met. But never could you remember a time when Dean Winchester looked at you in pure, unadulterated lust.

Shaking your head, you manage to break eye contact with him and look back at his wound. You notice his eyes leave you as he attempts to pull himself together.

“Stop distracting me, idiot,” you say, trying to laugh off the sudden palpable tension in the air. Dean clears his throat as he looks around the room.

“Sorry I bled all over Roxy,” he says. You let out a laugh and shrug, moving to sit behind him on the bed.

“Payback for that time I bled all over Baby,” you tell him. Your hands quickly start to stitch up the exit wound on the back of his shoulder. Dean glances back at you, trying not to laugh.

“Yea, Dad was pretty pissed about that,” he says. You roll your eyes.

“Your dad is generally pretty pissed about anything that I do,” you say, looking up at him now. His green eyes are watching you and there it is again. Not the lust but the…something.

“He doesn’t like you,” he says plainly. You nod slightly. That was no surprise. You knew John Winchester didn’t like you. You didn’t know why but frankly you didn’t care. “Wanna know why?”

“Why?” You ask. Okay, maybe you cared a little bit. After all, he was your best friend’s father and you’d never done anything to offend him. Not that you could remember anyways. You set the needle and thread aside before picking up the bandaging.

“Says you’re a distraction,” he starts as you carefully wrap his shoulder. “Says I care about you too much and I’m gonna end up getting myself killed for you.”

“You keep trying to take a bullet for me and he’s gonna be right,” you tell him. You finish wrapping the wound and pat his shoulder gently before pushing yourself up from the bed. You feel his eyes on you as you walk across the room, stashing the supplies back in your bag. “You should go get cleaned up.” You hear him stand and make his way across the room. The bathroom door clicks closed and you let out a breath. “Pull yourself together,” you mumble.

It wasn’t the first time you’d seen Dean without his shirt on and to be honest he’d seen you nearly naked before as well. However, it was the first time he’d looked at you like he wanted to rip your clothes off piece by piece. The look in his eyes had left you shaken. Of course you found him attractive, you weren’t blind. But you’d never cross that line for many reasons. Firstly, he was your best friend. You couldn’t stand the thought of jeopardizing the relationship you had with him. But most importantly, you were hunters and hunters couldn’t have relationships, period. Your parents had both been hunters and your mother died trying to protect your father. Dean was already taking bullets for you, you shudder to think what would happen if you were a couple.

“You gonna ask me what I told him?” Dean asks suddenly. You jump, startled, and spin to face him.

“You keep sneaking up on me like that and you’re gonna get shot again,” you tell him. He’s standing just outside the bathroom door, still without a shirt. The blood that had obscured his chest was now gone leaving you with a perfect view of him.

“Well?” He asks. You look at him, confused. “Are you going to ask me what I told Dad or not?” You roll your eyes and sit down on the edge of the bed before starting to take your boots and socks off.

“I imagine you told him that he was right and you should never see me again. That I am a terrible hunter and distraction whose ass you are constantly having to save,” you say, smirking at him slightly. He breaths a laugh then walks over and squats down in front of you. He takes your hands in his and you watch him, curiously. “Dean?” He looks up and…something.

“I told him I was gonna marry you,” he says like it was the most natural thing in the world. You feel your eyes widen and your heart jump into your throat before it quits beating altogether. “I told him that meeting you was the best thing that had ever happened to me. That I don’t care about anybody the way I care about you.” You’re still staring at him, waiting for the punch line. This was obviously a joke; a really cruel joke that you were going to kick his ass for later, but a joke nonetheless. He’s waiting too, waiting for you to say something. You shake your head slightly, trying to gather your thoughts.

“Wh – what are you saying?” You ask him. He looks down at your hands, still held firmly in his.

“I’m saying…we’re in Reno, Nevada. There’s a chapel right across the street. You’re my best friend. Let’s get married,” he says, looking up into your eyes again. And then you do the only thing you can think to do. You kiss him.

You’d imagined this very moment so many times and yet your wildest fantasies could never have prepared you. His lips are soft against yours, just slightly chapped. Dean lets your hands go and slides one of his into your hair as his mouth starts to move against yours. Your hands find his neck, your nails gently scraping at the edge of his hair. You lay back on the bed, pulling him with you. His lips leave yours eliciting a whimper from you at the loss. He chuckles and moves to your neck, kissing, nipping, and gently sucking.

The two of you work in unison, inching slowly up the bed together until your head finds the pillows. Dean’s fingers slip under the edge of the Zeppelin shirt you’d stolen from him. They barely graze your skin before he starts to push it off of you, forcing you to raise up off the mattress slightly. Once your shirt is removed, one of his hands comes to the small of your back, supporting you, while the other works quickly to unhook your bra. He tosses it and lets you fall back onto the pillows.

His eyes meet yours and he holds your gaze as he slowly descends on one of your breasts. You gasp, arching up into him as his mouth works over your nipple. His hand gently kneads your other breast and you’re nearly breathless. He switches after a moment, his eyes never leaving your face. You groan when he nips at the skin and push back on his shoulders, gently.

“You have to stop that,” you tell him. He laughs lightly then comes back up to your lips, kissing you fervently. Your hands slide down his torso and you make quick work of his belt and the button on his jeans. You hear his boots hit the floor just seconds before you manage to get his zipper undone. A few shimmies of his hips and his pants are off. Your hand slips into the front of his boxers and he grunts, his hips bucking instinctively.

“No, no, no. Ladies first, Sweetheart,” he says, sitting up out of your reach. You smile and watch as he slowly, tortuously unbuttons your jeans. You raise your hips and he pulls them down with your underwear in one motion. You feel a heatwave roll through your body as his eyes rake over your naked frame slowly. His eyes meet yours as he climbs back over you and there it is again. Something.

4:13 AM

Time was passing slowly. You knew because you’d watched every minute tick by for the last two hours. Dean had been softly snoring next to you for nearly that entire time, his arm draped across your waist. You were still trying to figure out what had happened. One minute you had been cleaning Dean’s wound the next he was proposing to you. Nothing made any sense.

4:14 AM

You hadn’t exactly given him an answer but you were sure he was probably going to take you kissing him like that as a yes. And, God, did you want to tell him yes. Of course you wanted to marry Dean. He was your best friend and had been for years now. You knew exactly how you felt about him and now you could guess how he felt about you.

4:15 AM

John’s words echoed in your mind. Dean was going to get himself killed for you. You knew it was true. It had been true before any of tonight’s events had taken place. Hell, he’d taken that bullet for you earlier and it wasn’t even the first time. The thought of losing Dean by choice hurt; but, the thought of losing him by death hurt a hell of a lot worse.

4:16 AM

You feel Dean stir behind you and you freeze. He moves closer to you, pressing his still naked body against yours. His snoring resumes and you sigh. This wasn’t going to be easy. It was probably going to be the hardest thing you’d ever have to do. But you needed to be sure that Dean stayed alive and if that meant you couldn’t be in the picture any longer, then so be it.

4:17 AM

You raise his arm up carefully and slip out from under it, replacing your body with a pillow. Quickly and quietly, you make your way around the room, gathering up your clothes. You watch Dean as you get dressed without making a sound. Your boots you leave off so you can slip out the door noiselessly. You steal one last look at the man sleeping in the motel room bed and…

4:18 AM

You walk out of the room, leaving him in your past.

As you get into the car, you catch sight of the wedding chapel across the street that he’d mentioned. For a moment, you can see it. You can see yourself walking down the aisle. You can see Dean smiling at you, willing himself not to cry. You can see the two of you reciting vows and exchanging rings. You can see him carrying you out of the chapel and back across the street for a quick honeymoon. You can see a house and a picket fence. You can see Dean gently caressing your pregnant belly with that same something in his eyes. And in that moment, for the first time in six years, it occurs to you.

Was that something…love?

Read Reno - After here.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Good news, everyone! Alex Horne has chosen to bring back his lip synch skills! You know, the ones in that video of his stand-up that's somehow from 2014, even though it feels like the sort of thing that should be one of those old videos you find of a now-famous comedian performing in like 2007:

Anyway, that Zaltzman interview was fun. I enjoyed that he was wearing full cricket gear, not just messing around with a white shirt. Knee pads. Big mittens. Helmet with face mask. And, yes, carrying the bat. I love the idea of Andy Zaltzman finally getting a big break on TV, at almost 50, and saying he'll only do it if he can drag in an entire cricket uniform. No, no, not just a shirt. All of the gear. And the bat.

This is actually not the first time this week that I've heard these two interact. I decided to prepare for Taskmaster s18 by listening to the previous recordings of Andy Zaltzman with Alex Horne. Andy's done three episodes of Alex's 2013-2014 podcast Alex Horne Breaks The News, and he did one episode of The Horne Section's podcast.

Listening to those four episodes really drove home how many specific similarities there are in Alex and Andy's style of humour. They're not particularly similar overall, but they have a few fairly rare quirks in common, and are usually the only person in a room with those quirks, so it is fun to hear them put those to each other. I cannot wait to see them get to Taskmaster, and Alex tries to measure something in mice and Andy will not be put off in the slightest, will just start explaining why using cats is actually a more standardized system. Andy and Alex are both so big on tracking pointless stats.

All three of Andy's Breaks the News episodes were a lot of fun. Those were actually the 3-5 episodes I've heard of that podcast, as I listened to the two Ray Peacock ones earlier this year and liked those too, I might end up getting into all of that podcast. It's very funny. An excellent vehicle for showing off Alex Horne's quirky humour, and I always like being reminded how much of that humour was there long before Taskmaster.

I like how much of the Taskmaster origins you can trace in general, through Alex Horne's whole career. No More Women/Jockeys and We Need Answers are both Alex showing off his love of random pointless games. Tim Key has talked in interviews about how they used to play the stupidest games they could think of at university. And Breaks the News is Alex Horne making people play a variety of pointless games, which he introduces and scores in absurd ways with full commitment to the bit. I suppose making comedians play short silly games can't be called Alex Horne's invention, as it's the cornerstone of the entire panel show industry, but Alex has a signature way of doing it that's been consistent for twenty years. The way he'll ask the senseless questions with total sincerity. Throwing in unrelated things as though they go together.

Is it possible that Taskmaster rose above all other panel shows in national and international popularity because it's a rare panel show that was made in the image of the showrunner's genuine sense of humour, rather than just a concept based on what's previously worked with famous names attached? I mean obviously it was also a bit of the latter (I don't love the things about Frank Skinner like "used to be a lecturer who married his teenage student", but some things about him are better, such as "is the reason Taskmaster exists because no one else would do the show without a big enough name attached in season 1"), but I feel like it has more of the former than most shows.

Anyway, I'd say that of all the Horne/Zaltzman podcast interactions, the one that makes clearest their odd similarities is the Alex Horne Breaks the News with Andy Zaltzman and Liam Williams:

The above is an absolutely excellent podcast episode, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes any of the three people involved. Andy and Alex go back and forth brilliantly, getting a bit further than usual with their style of "present an absurd scenario but take it seriously", as they keep taking each other's scenarios seriously, which is where I get the idea that Andy will respond to Alex's Taskmaster mice measuring by converting it into cats. Andy Zaltzman is often so awkward on other people's podcasts, there's usually a beat missing where everyone else will be in their rhythm, and then Andy will just throw his weird lie-based joke at what they're doing, and it'll hit a wall, and the others will either find it funny or not, but it's hard for it to go anywhere. But in this episode, Alex is kind of also doing that, they get into their own weird rhythm, and every once in a while Liam Williams will throw one of his deep-voiced baffled cynical statements into the mix, and I think it's a perfect blend. I realize it might not say great things about the diversity of my comedy taste that I believe three straight white Oxbridge-educated men form the perfect podcast episode, but this is pretty much what I want out of comedy.

This exchange, however, is from the episode he did with Brett Goldstein (and Ian Smith as a very funny scorekeeper, it was a sideline role but he stole the show several times from there), and is probably the easiest summary of the sort of thing I'm talking about, when I say Andy Zaltzman's sense of humour is largely based on just... lies:

I love the Zaltzman lies, but it's so hard to find other comedians with whom they can fit into a panel show setting. Alex Horne might just be that guy, I look forward to hearing them go back and forth on Taskmaster.

And one more audio clip for this post:

That's from the end of last week's Bugle episode, with Andy bringing his usual level of smooth self-promotional skills to the plugging portion of the recording. The first of what should be many times that he has to plug his Taskmaster appearance, and I hope every single one is exactly that awkward. I'm also pleased to hear Nish Kumar and Tom Ballard will be the next guests, partly because they're an excellent combination and I don't think they've been on together in about a year, but mainly because those are two people who will not let Andy get away with not acknowledging that he's on Taskmaster now. This will be fun.

[silencingspellsongs]

fuck it, caller time

aka i'm gonna ramble out ideas i've had of future audios i want from him and ppl can take them as writing prompts if they want or we can all work together to beam them psychically into erik's brain over the next 6 months

minors don't interact i get spicy in here oop 🔞 also tw dub-con content in here but if you're into the yandere caller character i feel like you can kind of expect that ‼️

i was originally planning on writing a fic with all these ideas in it but i don't have the time or the spoons for that and so instead of just rotating them in my mind forever and driving myself slowly insane i thought i would just throw them out into the ether because maybe they'll inspire someone else or make someone else insane too teehee 🤭

• sweetie gets home from a long day at work, they're exhausted. they don't have the energy to fuck with making dinner, maybe this is part of a pattern for them where they often neglect themself because they're too tired/it's easier to just go lay down and forget about responsibilities (is this me just working through my own mental health things? yes. yes it is.)

they're curled up on the couch and then there's a knock at the door or their doorbell rings. they get up and answer it and there's a pizza delivery Guy there who seems pretty unfazed by the confused look on their face. he's got an order for them, their usual order in fact, but they tell him they didn't order anything. he pulls out the receipt and double checks the address, tells them it was already paid for and everything. then he notices there's a note in the instructions on the receipt which he reads out to them. "it says 'for my sweetie, you had a long day, eat and get comfortable. i'll call you soon. xoxo"

oblivious to the way sweetie's entire body freezes up, Guy goes on to say something about how nice it is that they have such a caring partner, hands over their order and then leaves. sweetie's phone then starts to ring. they know better than to ignore it and when they answer, caller praises them. tells them to enjoy the food, talks to them about how it's a good thing he's here to take care of them. mentions how watching them neglect their own needs frustrates him but that's why he's here now.

i would imagine that this would maybe start out with that creep feeling of anxiety that his audios give but it does end up mellowing into something of a soothing stress relief type scenario. caller walking sweetie through some self care ideas: making sure they eat up, take a hot shower or a relaxing bubble bath afterwards, maybe they could even use a massage (here's where some spicy references would get thrown in, we all know this guy loses his mind thinking about touching sweetie 🥴) laid out on their bed, body still warm and damp from the water... smelling like their soap, his favorite smell now because it reminds him of them. his hands tracing over their back. firm but warm, digging into the knots in their shoulders. running over every inch of them... exploring, memorizing, claiming. he gets all breathy in that way of his but like always he backs it up. not yet, not tonight.

in the end they're left with the instructions of how to take care of themself the rest of the night and the promise that he's always here to make sure they do it. lots more creepy praise before the call ends.

• i need JEALOUSY. i need possessive, feral, pissed off jealous caller. i need that sort of shit that would make the people that complain about David's jealousy audio's heads explode. i need it to be mean and messy and ANGRY and growly and scary and i need it like oxygen in my lungs.

it could be someone from work, or maybe a neighbor in their apt complex, or maybe it's just some stranger at the grocery store. someone's caught sight of sweetie and is shooting their shot. i think for this scenario, the way i imagine it as an audio, sweetie would be on the phone with said person. some guy is talking them up over the phone, really laying it on thick but not super directly asking them out just yet. moreso laying the ground work for it but it's still pretty obvious he's looking to get into their pants but sweetie is... well sweetie's maybe a little oblivious or maybe they just don't have the self confidence to believe that this guy's actually into them. (we've gotten the idea from the other caller audios that sweetie definitely doesn't think highly of themself so that's where this characterization is coming from btw)

whatever the situation, the sound of another incoming call beeps over the phone (do cell phones even do that anymore? i don't ever call people so i don't know but it's fantasy ok we can just pretend ❤️) and sweetie knows what that "unknown caller" flashing on their screen means. they try to end the conversation with flirty guy but he doesn't take the hint, tries to keep them on the line. sweetie's too much of a pushover to just hang up on someone so they keep trying to walk this conversation to an end point and the call waiting beeping stops when they don't pick up.

big mistake.

and they know it's a big mistake when the call waiting beeping starts up again. and here's where some of the more strange caller audio things can start happening. we still don't know just what this guy is, stealth? demon? offshoot of echo? not sure exactly what kind of supernatural stuff is in his wheelhouse but dealer's choice on what starts to happen when he calls the second time. maybe the call with the flirty guy starts to break up, or hangs up all on its own. maybe sweetie starts to hear the thumps around their house again. whatever it is, it's obvious that the caller wants them to answer him.

sweetie finally picks up the call and oh boy. oh baby. ooooh it's not very nice. caller is furious. in the beginning it would seem that he's pissed at sweetie and they would react accordingly, being afraid of him as they still must be (even if by this point they started to mellow on him like he talks about wanting, how over time they would get used to him and not be so scared.) his tone is sharp and you can almost feel the anger radiating off him just through the sound of his voice when he tells sweetie to get on their bed. now.

caller is like barely holding it together but it quickly becomes obvious that his anger isn't directed at sweetie, he's ranting about the audacity of the other guy for thinking he could take them away from him. this could get many levels of unhinged, talking about hurting the other guy, talking about locking sweetie up away from anyone else who thinks they can have them, just basically all the most delicious yandere freak shit imaginable.

if my prayers were to come true, this scenario would be a spicy one. caller wanting to prove to sweetie that they belong to him. possessive, growly, jealous over-the-phone joi bonus audio. talks of marking them. claiming them. owning them. it's overwhelming but caller is never like explicitly pissed off at sweetie, mostly pissed they didn't just hang up on that other guy. caller is heavy on the praise as he watches them. yeah, this would probably be in the dub-con category given the relationship between caller and sweetie and i understand not everyone is down for that but also it's kind of baked into these two at the core and well ivan's whole thing was dub-con as hell and he got a bonus audio soooo don't like/don't interact and all that jazz.

anyways this ends with caller demanding sweetie to block that guy's number lol

• ok last one i have fleshed out is another kind of idk if nicer is the right word for it considering caller's whole thing but yeah ok it's like a nicer/softer one. something like the first scenario i had where it's moreso to help get sweetie comfortable with the caller, like he wants.

sweetie's asleep. having a nightmare. are we at all surprised if i say they're having a nightmare about the caller? not to keep harping back to ivan (i can't help it, i'm a yandere enjoyer and ivan scratched that itch so right, rip king i know you aren't dead but you're not possessed by a sadism demon anymore so it's basically the same thing 💔) but the vibes are similar to baby 2.0 having ivan nightmares. those sequences were always so good ugh i loved them.

anyways sweetie is having a Bad Time™, hell maybe the nightmare itself isn't centered around caller but maybe in the dream caller is acting as a savior to something else that's scaring them and that fact itself is a little terrifying to them. that's almost juicier, your tormentor becoming your salvation? mmmm

whatever the case, sweetie is pulled from the nightmare by a noise that wakes them up. big surprise, it's their phone ringing at god-only-knows o'clock in the still dark morning. and who else would it be but the person from their dream: their unknown caller.

he's... softer than normal. maybe his own voice has that sleep-gruff quality to it. he tells sweetie that they were thrashing around, must have been a nightmare. he didn't like seeing them distressed. he soothes them a bit, tells them to relax back into bed. maybe there's a glass of water on their bedside table that wasn't there when they first went to bed, ice still floating in it as if it was freshly placed before they woke up.

he talks for a while, letting the sound of his voice help them relax. at some point he asks what their nightmare was about. sweetie tries to deflect, or tries to lie about it hut his voice gets hard for a moment. reminds them of the rules. no lying. they relent and tell caller about it. if it was the dream where something else terrible was happening but caller saved them from it, he would be happy about that. he'd ask them why that made them upset. he's told them before, he'a here to make things better. he's going to fix things for them. sweetie's dream is proof of that, that they're starting to see him in that way.

this would definitely be a sleep aid type scenario. caller talking sweetie back to sleep. i can almost imagine it having that effect like in the first audio where the audio of the call itself has primarily been coming from one side, like if you were talking over the phone. at some point during this, sweetie has rolled over and the phone's pressed between their head and the pillow. their eyes are closed as they start to fall back asleep. then there's that sound of the breathing from the other side, not the huffing ragged breath designed for the creep factor in the first audio but a softer breathing. like sleeping next to a lover. and sweetie falls asleep.

haha ok anyways that was.... A Lot of typing 😅 like i said these are some scenario ideas i've had swimming around in my head over the last 6 months of relistening to the caller's first audio a frankly obscene and concerning amount of times. these ideas are open for anyone who wants to use them as inspiration or prompts, or for building off of in my DMs to make me short circuit lmao whatever tickles your fancy.

all i ask is that if these do inspire something in a fic writer out there that wants to write them, please please pleaaaase tag me so i can read it and go feral about it 🤪

also please other caller enjoyers talk to me this man is in my walls he's haunting me i need solidarity to survive the drought of however long it'll take for us to hear from him again 🥺🥺

[timemajesty]

So, today on November 5th, 10 years ago I made an OC for the game called Super Mario RPG. Ever since then, I've worked on him and poured so much love, sweat, tears, money and even blood into making this OC into what he is today. Not my typical type of post on here, but it's important for me to share just how much Erbin has grown as a character.

Erbin was originally created for the purposes of coping with a lot of awful things that happen in my childhood, but I never had resources or anything to draw him or get art of him, so until around 7 years ago he didn't even have any artwork to his name. I just always had so much written up pieces about him, all this information, all these little stories, and especially a lot of ship fanfics. I made him to ship with Geno, which I know is very basic nowadays, basically everyone ships an OC with Geno, but I don't care for being basic.

His first design, is awful I won't lie, I didn't know what I was doing as a character designer back then. Most of his much older art is so old, I cannot find any traces of the artists who drew a lot of them for me, so I apologize in advance for that.

Art was originally made by someone known as SweetRaccon on Amino.

Gawd, his old design. Back when he had pink hair, a much larger crown, no nose and no ears. He was also really slim back then, and also his story was a lot more different, and not good. I'll be honest and say, I kinda originally wrote him to be a projection of what my abusive ex was, a horrible person who didn't care about others if it meant getting what he wanted and I admit that I don't think that was healthy for me to do, and I've grown and I know now that projecting is okay but if you want an OC to be very much your own thing you probably shouldn't project too much onto them.

This was also the era of which I started becoming more serious with his character, adding more details into his story and giving him actual information, such as an age, a family, stuff like that.

Original art by my boyfriend.

Ah, his second design. It's still not the best but it was better. Back then I had figured out his height, some characteristics to his design and overall fixed some stuff; such as I gave him a nose and ears, and his hair wasn't completely pink, this was also around the same time that FNF was getting popular and everyone and their mothers kept comparing him to the mom from that game, to this day I will never understand that because I just don't see the similarities at all, other than the skin color.

This was probably the time in my life where I started to develop a lot of my bad writing habits, especially my habit of giving up when I feel like something I write isn't perfect; it's kinda an issue and still is to this day, and you can probably understand why I don't post him often because of that. What I will say though is that back then I had fleshed out his story to be less of just "haha he's my ex but as an OC" to "Oh, he's a very troubled and fascinating character who I changed up to not be an abuser." I'll be honest, I regret ever making him anything like my abuser.

Original art by Facade on Discord ( @toastee-roastee )

The current design, the current era.

This is when I started to develop more of his relationship with Geno, instead of Erbin being nothing but a flirty bastard with Geno; he's now someone who had to earn Geno's trust back after Geno had learned about Erbin's affiliation with the Smithy Gang. Which, let's talk about that, I don't talk about his lore enough. So here it is, the definitive and complete story of Erbin's backstory.

Once upon a time, there was a God and a Shadow Siren. They didn't love one another, the God knew he loved someone else but fate kept them apart and forced him to be with this Shadow Siren. When they decided to have a kid to keep the Gods' legacy in tact, they realized they didn't have the time or resources to care for a child. So this God, Culex, decided to give the child to a tyrant, none other than Smithy; who begrudgingly accepted Culex's request and took in baby Erbin, raising him as if he was one of the Smithy Gang members.

It didn't take long for Erbin to start being an annoyance around the Factory, he had known from a young age about how his father abandoned him which made him grow up as a troublemaker. After 30 years of suffering from abuse, burns and scars from machines, and constantly being yelled at...Erbin had enough, that's when Mario and his group of heroes destroyed Smithy, and that's when Erbin took that opportunity to steal Smithy's crown and escape the Weapons World, claiming an abandoned castle deep into the Forest Maze as his home.

It wasn't long before he met one of those heroes, Geno, who had been ordered to take care of any remaining Smithy Gang soldiers that lurked Mario's World, the rest is history.

More art from my boyfriend.

When I tell you this OC means everything to me, I mean it. He's been with me through it all, ever since the start of an abusive relationship with my ex all the way to today, where my life is a lot better and I have an amazing partner and an awesome friend group. To everyone who's been in this journey of helping me make Erbin the character he is today, thank you. You mean just as much as Erbin means to me, which is a lot. I wouldn't be here without this OC and I definitely wouldn't be who I am today without him, he brought me so many memories and I can't wait to make more with him. I may post more for him today, today is his special day.

Oh and it's election day so like, vote for Erbin lmao.

[daughter-of-sapph0]

quick question, what's an era 2 tumblr user? we have eras??

it's sorta something I made up myself. tumblr has gone through various shifts in presentation and tone that dramatically affected how people use the website. honestly idk if anyone besides me actually uses this system, but I'm gonna use it anyway because it's funny

so Era 1 is from the start of tumblr until dashcon. this is where the dashboard had those weird lines on the side of reblogs, was the hight of superwholock, allows editing other people's posts, and was filled the overwhelming prevalence of fandom. back then, tumblr wasn't very mainstream and most people who used it were big nerds (affectionate). so there was a strong sense of community between people who had shared interests.

Era 2 starts after dashcon in summer of 2014. this was a disaster of an event that sorta boosted tumblr's popularity for better or for worse. this is also when I first joined in late 2015 as an undertale blogger originally (my first blog has since been deleted though). this is what I'd call the meme era of tumblr. it's when most of the most popular jokes are from. it's when massive inside jokes and tumblr references started. and it's the time where the most people were active. and it lasted until about late 2018 with the porn ban

Era 3 was kicked off with many users deciding to leave tumblr near the end of 2018 beginning of 2019. tumblr's policy on porn up until then had been "go nuts. show nuts" until it was bought by virison who tried their best to make it "family friendly". the whole thing was handled very poorly ("female presenting nipples") and didn't even get rid of all porn, just porn from sex workers and artists who sold nsfw content to make a living. most of those people left for sites like twitter, and many other sfw artists (and also people who just used tumblr for free porn) left with them. for a while, tumblr was pretty empty. but not entirely. there were still very close knit communities, arguably even closer than Era 1 even. and honestly, this is when tumblr was at its most usable. it was quiet. the only thing that you had to worry about was the occasional porn bot (and staff's growing authoritarianism, but we'll get to that). it's hard to argue when exactly Era 3 ends. I like to say it's when elon musk bought twitter, but I also think it might have started a bit before then. it's more of a slow transition that happened sometime between early and late 2022

Era 4 is the return era. when everyone who went to twitter came crawling back. this was sorta kicked off with staff starting to be more lax with their porn restrictions. but don't think that staff was having a change of heart and suddenly nice. for the longest time, they had been overstepping boundaries and abusing their authority, such as banning mainly Black and leftist users calling them "Russian psyops". it was also around this time that people discovered that there were several terfs on the development team, and that was likely the reason they didn't ban nazis and terfs despite both being in clear violation of the tos. tumblr staff tried to distract from this controversy by adding a bunch of gimmicks. the crabs for April fools, blazing posts, checkmarks, tumblr live. this for some reason actually worked, and a lot of people just forgot or didn't care about staff any more, and it actually brought in a lot of new users. I have no idea how long Era 4 will last. all the Eras have been kicked off with a massive change in how social media operates that becomes more dramic and impactful each time. so short of the us government completely banning tiktok for good, I doubt Era 4 will end any time soon.

sorry this turned mostly into a rant against staff near the end. as you can obviously tell, I'm sorta biased towards Era 2 and 3, as that's when I had the best experiences with tumblr. and a lot of the problems I have with the site today can be traced back to staffs stupid decisions and abuse of power and authority.

but yeah. I hope that makes sense.

[nova-aqua]

THE CRIMSON SOLDIER

���□■□■□■□■■□■□■□■□■ Chapter 01



★★★★★YOUR DEBUT ★★★★★ ■□■□■□■□■■□■□■□■□■

NEW YORK CITY

Y/n remembered so vividly how her mom trained her in the arts of ninjutsu. She didn't know why her mom was so obsessed with her knowing how to protect herself. But maybe just maybe it was just part of tradition. You see originally her and her mother where from Japan but it all changed because her mom kept changing countries. It was like she was keeping a secret from Y/n living in some kind of paranoia. Even though she was confused the e/c eyed girl grew to love traveling with her mom. It was always them against the world. You are probably wondering where is her dad. Well her mom told her he left when he found Y/m/n was pregnant. To bad for him because he is missing on a wonderful family. Right now Y/n was 13 years old and wanted more than moving. She wanted friends and a home with her mother. So she was lucky to persuade her mother on stopping does hectic travels. Her mother decided on living in the United States where there was a state called New York. New York City was there destination were they would be living in a apartment. Living in New York city was quite dangerous for normal people but for them was a piece of cake. Months passed and they got the hang of it. Being able to speak english and other languages was quite resourceful. Right now Y/n was training with her mother in their own dojo which was first another room.

"Hey mom that's not fair you distracted me!" The 13 year old mumbles breathing heavily.

"I have told you a thousand times your enemies will do whatever it takes to win the fight. Fighting is not fair so stop daydreaming and focus on my moves!" Y/m/n yells a little frustrated and her daughter gets annoyed.

"Mother at least let me rest I am only 13 years old remember?" She sits on the mat crossing her legs while attempting a meditation position. Her mom softens her gaze and nods.

"She's right I have been pushing her a lot lately after I found out... something terrible" The woman sits next to her daughter patting her head. "I'm sorry sweet pea now you can go do your own thing I need to work on something" Y/m/n smiles fatigued while her daughter fails to notice her expression. The girl quickly runs off to her room happily.

"Thanks mom! That was a good fight though" She yells from the kitchen opening an ice cream container digging in.

"After all she is still a child" The woman gets up walking to her room with a warm smile in her face. The smile quickly fades when she enters her room. The woman was just trying to live a normal life with her daughter but she couldn't not after what happened in the past.

"Well it's time to investigate some more...after interrogating those useless purple dragons. I suspect there's more evil behind these city... After all I have done to try and flee from any kind of danger. It's time for me to step it up a notch." She looks at herself on the mirror feeling a little dizzy. "Even though my time is running out their is still time to make it right. If I keep training Y/n like that she'll be able to fill my place" The e/c eyed female mumbles while tracing her eye bags.

"Mom do you want to watch some T.V with me?" Y/n knocks on the door softly expecting a 'no' in response knowing well that her mom was busy.

"Sure sweet pea give me a sec I have to change clothes." The old female looks at her training clothes smiling.

"K' mom I'll make some popcorn!" Her daughter skips happily whistling a tune. "Maybe we can watch movies if you are not that busy" She yells because the popcorn was making noise.

"Would she be cut out to be a fighter?... Am I being selfish for taking away her innocence? My girl deserves better a normal life is all she wants.." Y/m/n sighs heavily while putting on her white kimono.

Timeskip Months Later⚔️

"Hey Y/n it's to wake up it's your birthday remember!" The woman chuckles slightly hearing her daughter snore. She enters the room opening the curtains welcoming the sun to her daughter's room.

"Mom I told you to wake me up a little late" She whines getting up while stretching a little.

"If you want to be a ninja you have to be lineant on your sleeping schedule. I told you to sleep at 8pm but I know you were watching (favorite show). Do I have to take away your phone again?" The h/c haired female crosses her arms while Y/n looks at her with her eyes bulging.

"No ma'am I am sorry!" The girl quickly yells then her mom giggles a little.

"Calm down sweet pea I was just kidding. Since it's your birthday I'll let it slide" She watches her daughter relax while her little girl runs to her and hugs her.

"Wow calm down you know I am getting old and you are getting a lot stronger" The female looks at Y/n laughing.

"No way my mother the kunoichi can withstand anything" Her girl smiles but then notices her mother's laughter stop and a sad look appear on her face. "Did I say something wrong?" She asks worried.

"No...not at all"Her mother puts a smile on her face for her daughter's sake. "Come on sweet pea let's celebrate you becoming a kunoichi and your birthday too" Both of them go to the living room while Y/n grabs her mom's hand warily.

Merrily laughs and music were the memories given to her due to her sweet mother. Her presents really shocked the now 14 year old. But what really shocked her more was the crimson ninja clothing her mother had made for her. A red ninja mask covered her entire face except her eyes and nose. She was now a kunoichi no matter what she wore she became one. Y/n wasn't sure why she was to become a kunoichi though. It's 2012 and her clan was not even a clan anymore. Her mother didn't go in depth on why she decided to train her to become a kunoichi. Was it something important? The girl questioned her mother sometimes but didn't get anything out of her. So when her mother suddenly disappeared it became sort of like a mission to find her. Her first kunoichi mission...it really ticked her off.

"Mom...just what were you hiding?" She breaths heavily while rummaging again on her mother's belongings. "Were you disappointed in me too?...Did you leave me just like dad did?" She grabs her head while sliding off her mothers bed. "No....she loved me I just have to find her. She could be in danger and I am over here being a cry baby" Y/n punches the floor angrily. "Just where the heck are you mom!" She breaks the floor a little with all her strength blinded by rage. Something could be seen beneath the broken floor which peaks her curiosity. A leather book could be seen and something shimmering too. The girl grabs a shoe and hits the floor again trying not to make a lot of noise. A Katana handle was then uncovered by Y/n and the book too.

"My mother's Katana..." She mumbles quietly while opening the book. The teen notices her mother's writing and starts to read out loud.

Ｓｅｐｔｅｍｂｅｒ 13 , 2011 "Those purple dragons are no good news but are truly dumb. I would easily wipe them of these streets if I could... There's something out there calling me I can feel it though."

"Purple dragons aren't those some kind of gang?" She states remembering when she heard that name on the streets. Y/n keeps on reading trying to find a clue on her mother's whereabouts.

Ｏｃｔｏｂｅｒ 31 2011

"At first I thought they were some kind of costumes used for that American holiday called Halloween. But they looked so realistic...so I decided to follow them. They looked a lot like the foot clan... I couldn't believe anything that bastard was still alive!"

"Foot clan, what kind of name is that the heck?" Y/n pauses while skimming into the book. "What bastard is she talking about?"

Ｊａｎｕａｒｙ 10, 2012

"Y/n is not ready yet...I must keep on training her. I still need to infiltrate on his lair...I need to see what's his up to and how did he get those soldiers for his clan."

"Was she on a mission? Why was she after that clan?.. I am pretty sure she got caught. I need to find her no matter what." She gets up while the teen grabs the Katana's handle. "But how?...I am just a low ranked kunoichi who hasn't even fought a real fight!" Y/n curses under her breath while looking at the swords gleam.



Hello it's Aqua here I have noticed how there are not a lot of stories with Raphael 2012 version. Or maybe I just read them all lol. But I really did want to try to make my own because I had this idea in my head for a long time. I know this beginning is kinda different but it will get better I promise I just need to change some stuff in order to fit this character into the real show. I am going to try to follow the episodes.

[the-lark-ascending69]

👉👈 hello I'm just a lesbian and I want to hear more about android Robin pretty please

Oh hi!! Thank you for asking, I'm always happy to talk about android Robin! 🥰

Her first owners were Richard and Melissa Buckley. She's a mental health android, meant to keep company and be a positive presence in a patient's everyday life without demanding any kind of emotional labor from them. In this case, I imagine Richard and Melissa are being forced to get an android to help them stop their recreational drug use, or else they risk losing their jobs. They weren't actively cruel to Robin, but they didn't see her as a living, sentient being, so they didn't bother being nice either.

Robin was like a baby, though. Or a little duckling. She decided first thing she saw were her parents. At this point, she was in much better shape than she is in the present, with a few factory errors, yes (her battery and memory were never that good, but they only got worse with time), but she was online, and could instantly know what a "parent" was, what "families" were and how they worked, and she knew she wanted that. So you got Richard and Melissa, who are in their mid fifties at this point, and Robin - a two-year old model, designed to look forever 25, programmed to act inhumanly perfect without traces of anything that could be considered "maturity" or "immaturity", and the imperfect curiosity and naivete of a five year old and you get... the behavior of a very naïve and excitable teenager. It made perfect sense in her mind - Richard could be the dad, Melissa could be the mom, and she could be the daughter.

They got rid of her when her strange functioning became too much for them to handle. They never liked robots anyway - they were these very tree-hugging nature people. Robin insisting on calling them Mom and Dad and demanding love and attention from them simply freaked them out. This was Robin's first experience with heartbreak. She remembers this time fondly, though, because they never physically hurt her, and their house was really nice, and that's where she chose her name. She saw Melissa painting a lot of robins, her favorite bird. She named herself Robin because she thought Melissa would like it (she didn't - she hated it).

Her next owner wasn't bad - in fact, she was the best one she had before meeting Nancy. Her name was Becky, and she was her sister Terry's caregiver. Terry had been in a severe state of catatonia for five years, and she needed constant attention that Becky couldn't give her, so she had Robin act as a full-time nurse whenever she couldn't be there. Becky never spoke to her other than to give her orders, but she wasn't mean - just distant. Robin tried to act friendly and introduce herself, but it was like Becky didn't even hear her. Whenever she wasn't home, Robin enjoyed reading from Becky's library, and she talked to Terry non-stop, even though Terry never said a word. Robin considers Terry her first friend.

It was lonely, but also peaceful and safe.

Eventually, Becky began to grow concerned with Robin's behavior, and sold her to buy another android when she realized she might not be the best one to take care of her sister.

Robin was eventually bought at a far too low price by a gang led by Kali who, uh, they planned to use her as a bomb. They didn't expect her to realize what was going on when they strapped something to her chest and made her walk into a building full of people, but she did, and she ran away.

She was homeless for a few weeks. It was good that she didn't need sleep, food or warmth, but without any documentation and with no address, she couldn't get a job, or do anything, really. She was arrested by the police, who discarded her as trash when they realized she was an android.

Someone found her, took her a repair shop, kinda patched her up and sold her for half her original price. Next time she woke up, she was in Billy Hargrove's room, and the rest is history 🙃

[pants-magic-pants]

✧⊹JARETH BALLROOM COAT⊹✧

[This post is part of a series about constructing Jareth's entire masquerade ball costume. Visit the master post here.]

The Nightmare of the Lace [Part 2 of 2]

In part two, we will explore the decoration of the lace pieces that would be sewn/stitched on top of the velvet of Jareth's ballroom coat. This moment in costume construction was all about peering deeply into exhibit photos, pondering, designing, and stitching beads for countless hours. It took at least a month or two to finish, but it was definitely all worth it. Read more below!

Creating a design -------------------------

Trying to map out what I was seeing in photos was a bit of a challenge. There's a lot going on. What's under there? Is there a point to adding the beads if you can barely see them? And the answer is: yes. Because in photos, their splendor is not captured. In person, they're beautiful, so if you were thinking of forgoing this step for your own costume, or any costume with what you may call "discreet" beading, I ask you to reconsider. They really add a magical dimension to your work.

ANYHOO, I put photos into a program, and tried to draw what was there, and it didn't seem to be anything more complex than random loops and fishhooks, which got a little more deliberate further down, where it was no longer covered by hot glue. Towards those buttons, they start to interact with and frame them.

Photo (c) Yosa Addiss

I’m sure you could come up with all sorts of cool designs that work, and you could get more complex, but me, I basically just made, uhhh… florally fishhooks. Hahaha But I did give them some… hm… some joints, so to speak? They’re a bit branchy. 

The designs were drawn on my original pattern pieces for the lace. I pinned the lace to these, then unpinned where I was working on, so I could work on it, lie it flat, and see which direction I was supposed to be going. An embroidery hoop might've been more ideal, but it wouldn't really work in this situation because I couldn't trace my design on the lace. Maybe thin paper could have gone into something like this, without tearing? But I didn't have one anyway so I just did it the way I did it.

There was less loyalty to my design when it came to the shoulder piece because it was so massive, and a lot of it would be so heavily under beads and jewels, there was no point in making it too specific – there just needed to be something the eye could catch sight of between small windows. 

At a certain point, the designs stop, and I had it marked off where I knew you would not be able to see them anywhere.

Selecting a bead -----------------------

The most obvious choice for something like this would be a kind of seed bead, which come in different sizes. What I chose was a size 11/0, which are only about 2mm wide. Proportions (how big everything looks within its context) matter as much as "objective accuracy", so even if the original had slightly larger beads for this, which I think it did, I also was making a very tiny coat, and definitely doing other math to decide on what size other decorations should be, so for me 11/0 made sense. If the coat itself were bigger, more firmly in the adult size range, a seed bead size of 10/0 or even 8/0 might've worked better.

In the original, there's also something a bit course about them. They may be oblong, like tiny pebbles. You can find seed beads like this, but by the time I realized that, it was too late. I did think mine seemed so very clean and consistent, but *raises hands*

Also, it seems as if they're all black, but I wanted to have a bit of fun, so mine were a mixture of 75% black and 25% dark iridescent. Photos make them seem silvery, but in person they appear faintly blue/green.

Stitching the beads ---------------------------

If you are new to stitching (as I was) and would like to do some for your project, any project, I would suggest learning the back stitching technique, as shown here. It was easy to get the hang of, and you can do curves, not just straight lines. I did anywhere from 1 to 4 beads in a row, caught a single thread of the lace, pulled the needle back towards what I had already stitched, and then stuck it through the last bead again before adding more. At extreme curves, only 1 or 2 could be done at a time, but in places where it was a more continuous trajectory with only a slight curve, I could get away with 4. At 5 beads, things looked a little too straight.

Here are a couple pictures on the journey:

It took a f*&^ng long time to complete this. For things like this, you go into it knowing you'll be chipping away -- you'll spend hours working on something, step back and look at it, and go "oh.. okay... that little part is done. woo---hoo..."

Long-term tedious projects can scare people away, and I understand that, as someone who feels overwhelmed by her thoughts and what she wants to do, often. It was easier to get this part done by pairing it with something else that I could enjoy and that would engage my mind while my hands were busy. So, for a little while, it was my hobby to stitch while listening to Better Call Saul, which I'd seen before, but I'm also a huge Breaking Bad universe fan so revisiting it again and again is a pleasure. I'm sure you could pair your projects with all kinds of stuff: shows, movies, audiobooks, podcasts, youtube channels. I love a good story, but I also love to learn, even just passive learning, having people discussing something interesting in the background while I do whatever it is I'm doing. It becomes a joint hobby (some kind of engaging content + your project) which you can look forward to and appreciate as a ritual.

Moving on, here’s some of the finished pieces before they were added to velvet:

Some trimming was done afterwards, to make the lace's edges look less blocky, especially around the shoulders.

That concludes the seed bead business. But, if you look in front, despite that the lighting is not our friend, you may see that there are extra designs comprised of larger, more raised beads/cabochons. I edited this photo and upped the contrast:

Photo (c) Aria Couture

It’s not clear. My take on it was that they were black, shiny cabochons, so that is what I used. Really basic cheap ones. They seem to be placed in synchrony with the seed beads. Some are in wavy streaks. Other, large ones are stand-alone, but never too close to the buttons. I added these with hot glue before the assembly process.

Voila!

Attaching to the coat -----------------------------

This part was the true hell of the process, as mentioned in the first post about the lace. The plan originally was just to (very carefully, and with buffer fabric between the sewing machine foot and edge of the bead design) combine velvet and lace pieces, at the seam allowances that had been created for them.

However, there was slight distortion and shrinkage of the pieces because of all the bead stitching, and I did not know ahead of time what to do to avoid any issues this may cause. In retrospect, the lace pieces shouldn't have been exact replicas of the velvet pattern pieces... they should have been a teeny, tiny bit larger in all directions, with generous seam allowances. Because I had no foresight about this, it was difficult to attach the lace to the velvet without falling short, or tugging on the velvet in random places where warping had occurred.

Combine that with the impossibility of keeping these two fabrics still, and you have the reason for these posts' names: the nightmare of the lace. It would not stay still, and there was not enough of it.

My solution for this project was to expand some of the lace pieces by sewing more lace onto the edges (dear god it was so silly), and place a non-slippery fabric in between velvet and lace, baste it, sew it, and then cut away the middle fabric, so that it wouldn't go past the seam allowance, effectively hiding it once it was sewn into the garment. *heavy sighing*

Once all the hell of getting these pieces attached to the velvet was past, what I ended up with when it came time for assembly was a standalone collar and two standalone cuffs (velvet + lace). There was the lace shoulder piece by itself, which went in first (since the shoulder seam is one of the first places you start when assembling a coat), and there were the two lapels, which were stitched to the top of the inner facing velvet. 

You see how much that seam allowance struggled?! -->

Those pieces were large and strange-looking, and connecting each part of them in the right order just so was key to the whole coat looking good. Because of the slipperiness of the material, I needed to work downward, so first the top of the inner facing pieces were married with the collar and outer fabric. Then I had to baste-stitch the seam with the zipper inside, turning it back right-side out each stitch to check that there were no hiccups and that the zipper was discreet. The right angle between the front and the tails was another tricky spot, because clipping the lace diagonally was the only way to get it folded into that seam. 

AND THEN, ULTIMATELY, I gave up on sewing the lace into the seam! Folded it around and stitched it inside because it was tugging and slipping and all its usual fuckery.

The last thing that needed to be done to the lace was to stitch it down anywhere else where it would need to lie flat. The lapel lace folded inward in a curve parallel to the lining. The back drips needed three easy stitches. The lace is free-falling past the armpits, but around the waist area it was also tucked back and stitched there. 

It seems as if Jareth’s own coat has windows cut out of the lace in front, near the buttons, but for me, I was so sure that it would have disrupted the delicate balance and caused drooping in random places, that I just forwent it. 

And there you have it! This feels like it was too long, but maybe it’s not because it is really so important to talk about this part. There are a million ways to screw it up, that I myself didn’t always escape from. As always, I hope that was, erm, helpful.

-J 

[genericpuff]

Did you hear about the "do not trace or use my work" update RS has on... I think her Twitter? @hestia-is-ace-pass-it-on knows more about this. I'm just wondering if this is going to affect Lore Rekindled at all since your series is an AU thing?? (I hope not cause I really like Lore Rekindled).

lmao yeah I heard about that, frankly I'm not worried, it's not going to affect Rekindled in the slightest as far as I'm concerned because even the panels that are sourced from S1 LO (like the Persephone looking up at Hades one, the Cerberus one, etc.) are still redrawn by my own hand from the bottom up, I don't directly trace them and I'm not copy + pasting them from LO and just calling it a day. Not to mention (and IDK if Rachel realizes this or not) those kinds of "please don't trace/use my art" warnings are more for people who trace/rip art and pass it off as their own, i.e. deliberate theft. Lore Rekindled is advertised as a fanfic/foe fic/AU project with proper credit given to Smythe and disclaimers that Lore Rekindled is not affiliated with Smythe beyond the original idea and art style that it's aiming to mimic - she can't copyright an art style, the Greek myth inspirations, or the brushes that are used, and there's nothing she can do about people making AU comics.

If she theoretically wanted to put her foot down on Rekindled, she'd have to go after the entirety of the fanfic/fanart community 😂 She has next to no ground to go after any derivative or fan projects inspired by her work, not unless they directly try to impersonate her and/or make a profit with the Lore Olympus name/branding/etc. (hence why there isn't a Patreon for Rekindled). Even the direct edit accounts themselves don't try to pass themselves off as LO or Smythe, they always show the original panel and make it clear in their bio descriptions that the accounts themselves are for LO which is easily sourced as not belonging to them.

One could argue that it's generally bad taste on the grounds of it being rude to edit other people's work, and yeah, that's valid. It casts the presumption that there's something "wrong" with how an artist wants to express themselves and that the edit makes it "better". But, for starters, we all know why these edits exist because LO has gone down in quality and people are having their own fun time trying to restore that original vibe in tribute to Rachel's original version of LO; second, it would be a lot more heinous IMO if LO were still some small series being made by a nobody, but ... it isn't, it's a massive commercial product within its industry and fanwork/foework is par for the course with commercial products; and third, there still isn't any sort of legal ground for Rachel to stand on because those accounts still aren't pretending to be her or her work, if anything they may as well be advertising it.

Plus, a lot of those edit accounts are more like redraw accounts, so many of them may as well be DTIYS prompts rather than direct edits (that's not a bad thing, just a statement of fact) save for a few accounts that deliberately try to mimic the old LO style as much as possible when editing new panels. Those kinds of stylized redraws are legit just fanart.

For many of these accounts, a lot of it's still work they're doing themselves and they're not trying to pass off their edits as legitimate LO products. No one's ripping these panels and re-posting them and going "look what I drew today!" (ex. Love's Divinity did this and a lot of people rightfully called the creator out on it, thankfully it seems like they've learned and moved on from copying directly from LO and other webtoons) they're going "hey, so this is what the webcomic looks like now, and here's what it looks like in my style" or "hey, this is what the webcomic looks like now, but here's what it would possibly look like if it still looked like S1 LO". None of it's meant to be maliciously stealing or impersonation, the pettiest it can get is just people saying "Rachel, your art sucks" which may as well be the only reason she edited that into her bio in the first place.

Like, if this IS aimed at the edit and redraw accounts, she's basically only upset about the panel edits that call out her obviously declining art IMO. Especially considering she's retweeted edit stuff before, many of them being from the anti/ULO community which I don't think she ever even realized ? 😂 But regardless, she shares edit panels a lot so it makes that bio notice come across less as "don't trace or use my work" and more as "don't do edits that make me look bad!!" when she's already doing plenty of work on her own end to make herself look bad 😂

In my personal opinion beyond the legalese... yeah, her work really does suck nowadays. I get how awful working for Webtoons is, I get that Rachel might not even be into drawing LO anymore, I can empathize with her maybe not being able to put in the same amount of emotional investment or time that she was able to put into it back in S1, but every single edit account is pretty sincere in doing it simply because they want to express how they wish it could look if it hadn't dropped in quality.

Phew, that was a lot of words for a very simple question, but rest assured, I'm not really worried it's going to affect Rekindled. 90% of the panels are completely original compositions save for the few panels that are referencing older moments in S1 LO that I brought back for Rekindled's plot, and even those panels are still redrawn from the ground up and given different outcomes (ex. Persephone punching Hades in the face lmao). Probably won't be doing much of that from here on out but more so just because the plot's going to be shifting even further from original S1 LO; but it's def better safe than sorry on my part to just make that 90% into a 100%, I suppose.

As a last point, I don't blame the edit accounts who ARE stepping away from editing panels out of respect. While it might not be a technically legal issue, I can still respect those who still want to respect Rachel's requests and do better as creatives and individuals. Just because something isn't against the law doesn't mean it isn't a cruddy thing to do, and I say that fully as someone who cut their teeth on edit content. We have tons of other ways of expressing ourselves creatively in this fandom than directly editing old panels.

The DTIYS stuff though, I don't think that should be off limits. It's fanart and that's completely fair game IMO especially for someone like Rachel who's creating a commercial piece of work. It comes with the territory. Welcome to being a pro.

[bananonbinary]

the main argument I've heard made wrt the IP thing and AI art is that the AI can only ever combine works from other artists. it has no creative input other than combining works that already exist; which, personally, i would be fine with if it was just being trained on work in the public domain and work from people who consented to be included, but these bots are scraping art from literally everywhere on the web with *very* few opportunities to opt out. even a human artist that's heavily inspired by other creators adds something of their own to the mix, it's kind of impossible *not* to unless you're literally tracing someone else's design, but AI is using art taken from other creators And Nothing Else, which when combined with the fact you can ask it to produce art "in the style of X" gets a lot of artists very mad

that feels like a very esoteric complaint though. how does one measure "creative input," and why does the actual method it uses to create not count? if you can't actually point to a bit of AI art like "thats my OC it clearly lifted that from this painting i did" then it's clearly done SOMETHING transformative. what has it actually stolen? the knowledge that your work exists, somewhere?

as far as i understand it, the main practical reason for "intellectual property" to exist as a legal concept, is to prevent someone from harming someone else's livelihood or reputation by claiming the work as their own. parody and free use are allowed only so far as they are sufficiently different from the source work. but these AIs...don't claim credit for the source works. they don't reproduce the source works anywhere at all. and what they create IS pretty transformative, even if it's in a soulless robot kinda way. it can't really be considered to be "taking away" from sales etc of the original works that exist, because it doesn't actually look like any one of them at all. I think even if I, a human, DID create "here's a collage of tiny pieces of shit i found on deviantart" it would still be considered fair use, but the connection between anything in the data sets and the actual art the AIs produce is much, much more tenuous than that.

I think any way that it could hurt an artist that you could define would also just cover competing artists in general. Even if an AI created a picture of, say, a tree In The Style Of Artist (let's call them Phil), it still wouldn't ACTUALLY be the same as the tree Phil would draw, it would just kinda look similar. and anyone who wanted a tree by Phil would know that this wasn't one, and wasn't worth their time. Phil could draw their own tree, and still sell it, and the AI would only really compete with that among Phil fans if it actually tried to claim that its version WAS by Phil.

This is sort of my main hesitation for the IP argument. we here in fandom spaces exist in a grey area of intellectual property, where EVERYTHING is "in the style of" or "based on" existing properties. if we try to legislate those very conceptual qualities, instead of actual concrete "look this was literally my image it made i published it two years ago," then our spaces will cease to exist.

again, that's not to say there's zero valid complaints about AI art. i definitely see the problem with corporations trying to replace human labor with them because the humans wanted better working conditions. (this is a larger problem imo where any progress in the workplace is stagnated because it will inevitably be used as an excuse to fire people instead of give them less work). and a friend explained to me why it's fairly offensive at the very least to try and bring AI art into what was clearly a space to celebrate the process of making art (eg, contests, writers groups and websites, etc). i just don't think this specific argument is a good path to go down.

[sizebrained]

Movie Night of Big Feels, Part 1

Ben and Hazel do Netflix and Chill (warning it's long).

This happens *just before* the first part of the Rat chapter. Y'know for max level suffering.

CW: Adult themes, language, feelings, and gazing. ANGST AND FLUFF!

***

Ben's final paper assignment was to pick a single movie about King Arthur from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. He had to trace what each movie decided to highlight from the original myth and how different each was, what he thought of it, and a bunch of other stuff proving his brain worked. It made him doubt the point of college, especially since he didn't have to really worry about finding a job for money. He could have watched movies and talk about the differences without sitting in a class. But Hazel seemed to disagree with him. Strenuously.

Hazel had to drag Ben across the finish line to get a passing grade in his Medieval Literature class, at least figuratively. Hazel would, literally, struggle to move one of his fingers at their respective sizes. His whole body would have been ridiculously impossible for her to move, unless she snuck up and scared him to make him jump.

The readings were all dense and hard to follow. Ben insisted that they didn't seem to be in English, despite both the teacher and Hazel's insistence that Beowulf, Chaucer and the other readings were founding pillars for the English language. Just as Dante's Divine Comedy was for contemporary Italian as Hazel pointed out one day when he had objected. It seemed like Italian stuff came up a lot since he had met Hazel even though she was British. Ben's other major challenge with his Medieval Literature course was that it was an in-person class.

Ben hated those if he could avoid them.

Ben hated in-person classes because the other people in those classes whispered or gawked at him all semester. You couldn't really tell how tall someone was on a video call. It got somewhat better over time, but it was still something he noticed. He saw it in the way people looked at him or spoke to him. Or, god forbid, when he had to talk. He was very self-conscious of his voice. But maybe no one liked their own voice.

Hazel and Sam would only let him do one all virtual class a semester. They both agreed with one another that he needed to get out more. He had bought his new place specifically to avoid people and getting out more after his accident.

Ben enjoyed having Hazel in his life. But he enjoyed it less when she agreed with his sister and they double teamed him into doing something he didn't want to do, like going to in-person classes with other people.

Deep down, Ben knew it was for his own good, but he still protested. Despite the gawking and whispers, he did always feel better after he spent time around people. The fact the girls were right annoyed him. Ben at least avoided an in-person exam for his final in Medieval Literature. Instead, he got to write a paper. Ben had tried to coax Hazel into helping him write it. She considered that cheating, and absolutely refused even though it disappointed Ben. "My tutoring because of some shortcoming on your professor's part in a lecture is one thing," Hazel said explaining her objections, "But I am absolutely not going to do your work for you. I have had my education. This is your responsibility." To make really sure, Hazel disappeared for long periods while he was working on it under the deadline. Ben didn't like when she was gone. It made his big modern condo feel empty. He had liked that when he first moved in--that it was empty and quiet.

But without catching glimpses of Hazel on the countertop, or her bookcase, and it was truly hers at this point not his, or best of all on his shoulder or pocket...everything in the place seemed hard and sharp. In a bad way. His place felt hostile and needed her to soften it up.

For someone so small, he always felt like she filled it. It was enough of a difference that Ben resolved to not even joke about asking her to cheat on a paper or exam. He also had no idea where she would go. When he asked, Hazel only offered that she was "Around."

She had spent most of the time Ben was working on his final paper traveling back and forth outside to the old shed. She was taking fresh, human food out to her father and checking in on him.

Even though most of that time was spent in silence or lost in her memories during the trek from the building and back. But she hadn't told Ben about her father still living out in the shed. Her father asked her not to and she wanted to honor his request. So it remained a mystery to him about where she had gone. With a new semester, Hazel did help him select courses rather than go by the rumors of what class was easiest. This she did not feel was cheating in any way. Besides, him picking classes at random based on title or rumors was how he had ended up in Medieval Literature.

When they were going through the course options on his computer, Hazel had suggested he take one for an elective that was titled Myth, Media, and the Staying Power of King Arthur and the Camelot Legend.

He had already read translated parts of Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur in Medieval Literature. Ben was surprised that it seemed familiar but also really different, which was the point of this course. How something changed over time.

She explained this could build upon what he had learned from his Medieval Literature class so it didn't seem like a total waste.

Plus, from the course description, it sounded like he would get to watch a lot of movies for this class. Some even in class, which in Ben's opinion, was the best. He did have to write short papers after each movie, but that didn't seem so bad.

It was even the same professor from his Medieval Literature class. She had been hard but fair. Ben was still amazed he had passed and the professor seemed pleased to notice him again in one of her classes. Although, at his size, it was impossible not to notice him. It definitely had a lot of knights, but there wouldn't be many dragons.

"Unless you count Uther," Hazel said laughing through her bad joke. "Then there's PENdragons. Get it?"

Ben didn't think it was funny. Her jokes were usually terrible. But seeing her laugh at least made him smile.

They sat together now on his large couch as he started the first movie for his final paper. "If you had the 1960's I would have suggested Camelot. They made a film of the broadway show. I actually got to see the show with Mary in New York once..." Hazel said feeling the memory inside. It wasn't pleasant now like it had been once. It felt like it had claws and the sharp points scraped the edges of her heart now. Ben hated musicals. He couldn't get over someone just breaking out into song in the middle of doing something else. He tried imagining that happening during a basketball game, and he couldn't, despite having seen High School Musical when he was younger. He hated those songs. "I'm uh not a fan of musicals. I bet it's in black and white like all the other movies you like." Ben added with some sarcasm woven into his words. "The film version is in color actually...if I remember correctly. The songs are not really proper really songs though, at least not like a good Gilbert and Sullivan. There is one song that I am quite fond of..." Hazel said a little defensively. "Oh what's the song?" Ben asked. He had put an elbow down on the couch arm where she stood, resting his face on his upturned palm. He was actually curious. She had made him curious about lots of things he never would have been before he met her. "If Ever Would I Leave You..." Hazel said flatly.

She wasn't looking at Ben when she said it. It was like she saw something else in the distance that had caught her attention. It was her memory of that show and night again. She felt the sharp claws again. "How does it go?" Ben asked wondering if she was going to break into song too. But he had never heard her sing.

He only sang when he was in the shower sometimes. Hazel had heard him once and asked what had song had so inspired him. He turned bright red and didn't sing in the shower afterwards. Or at least tried to be quieter. "I cannot recall..." Hazel replied still staring in the distance. She was lying. She knew every word. "I can look it up real quick." Ben said pulling out his phone from his shorts to search. She wished he wouldn't, it just made her think of Mary. Hazel was remembering the feel of Mary's lips on her body that night. Ben found a video and lyrics and started reading out loud, "You were right the movie was in color...If ever would I leave you, it wouldn't be in summer. Seeing you in summer I would never go..." Ben stopped feeling awkward. It was a love song. It felt weird to read it to Hazel. "Well...anyway, let's watch our movie." Ben said putting away his phone. Hazel turned towards the television and wiped her eyes swiftly.

For the 70's, Ben decided on Monty Python's Holy Grail.

He had already seen it when the class had watched it together. Ben was surprised how funny it was, even though it was so old. Hazel had never seen it, which was the main reason he picked it. He wanted to watch it with her. He wanted to do everything with her.

At the start of the movie, Ben had set his big popcorn bowl on the edge of the wide couch arm. But then he quickly realized Hazel wouldn't be able to see over it. He didn't want to move it backwards, closer to him, because then he wouldn't be able to see her over it. Ultimately, Ben decided to just put the big bowl in his lap and hand a piece to her when she wanted one.

About a quarter through the movie, he was handing her kernel after kernel in a nonstop loop. Getting annoyed by that, he put a big handful in front of her instead. Hazel thought the movie was hilarious. Maybe it was funnier for her because there was something British about it that Ben didn't notice.

It was so funny that she actually snorted several times. That made Ben laugh more than the movie. Because he spent most of the movie...watching her watch it. Ben had noticed the way he had started looking at Hazel about midway through his last semester. But it wasn't really the way he was looking. His eyes were doing the same thing they had always done.

It was the way he was seeing her. Like it didn't matter that she wasn't even four inches tall, though that was still pretty difficult to ignore.

There was also the tail, but he'd gotten more used to that than he thought. He thought it was cute now. Especially when it occassionally curled around her butt.

When he was closer, he didn't notice her finger sized stature. But that made the feeling he had seeing her get worse. It felt like the start of a panic attack in his lungs that never came.

He felt like he would break out in a sweat if he did it for too long. But, usually, she would back away or find a way to create distance between them. He didn't like when she did it, but he also didn't want to be a jerk. He tried to remind himself how he would feel if their situation was reversed. If he was the one who was only 4 inches tall, and she was his size.

It probably would have been scary, maybe downright terrifying, but he would have wanted her closer. And he wouldn't have pulled away.

Thinking of it now made Ben adjust himself, trying to be discrete, in his spot on the couch. Ben was pretty sure Sam suspected that he was...well that he was looking at her the way he was looking at Hazel. Recently, he glanced at his sister after he had been staring at Hazel. They had just exchanged a few briefs words very close to one another, the way he liked. Sam had noticed. She gave her younger brother a knowing look with one suspiciously raised eyebrow. "I see you babe," was all Sam said smiling at her big little brother.

But it was enough for to Ben feel a creeping embarassment make its way up his spine using each vertebrae like the step on a ladder. After a while, Monty Python's ending credits started rolling up the screen. Hazel wiped her eyes, still laughing, and was fanning her face. "Dear lord, I cannot believe I have been missing out on that film for half a century." She said between laughs. Ben didn't like when Hazel said that kind of thing. He knew she didn't mean to do it, but it reminded him of just how much older she was than him. It seemed impossible. But so did her size.

She looked like she was his age, up close. But she talked and acted like she was from a different century. She was...but it made him feel weird.

She had explained that their lifespans were far far longer than humans. He did the math, begrudgingly. If they lived to be 1000 instead of 100 like a human, if you were lucky, then Hazel would only be two years older comparatively.

But when she mentioned decades or centuries, the conversion didn't stick with him. It made him feel distant from her. He hated that feeling. "I hate when you do that..." Ben said out loud, not realizing he had said it out loud. "Hate what?" Hazel asked. She had stopped her residual laughter now. She was staring up at him with a concerned look.

Shit...Ben thought to himself. *** End Part 1

[officially-other]

hi!! I wanted to ask about your work with dragons! if you're comfortable, could you sort of explain how you view them in context of your spirituality/how you work with them? like are they similar to historic dragons of folklore or are they something else? seeing dragons as spiritual beings is an entirely new thing to me (I'm a pagan, but I don't consider myself a witch) and I'd really love to hear more about it!!! :3

This is a cool question, ty anon! Apologies, this is a pretty long and rambly; I really like talking about dragons, hence the whole entire blog for it :D Feel free to send in another ask if something here isn't clear or I misinterpreted your questions^^

My belief in dragons, if I'm honest, is very UPG/personal experience. Something that, in my experience, anyone who's worked with dragons extensively* will probably tell you "Yeah it's a lot of just working with whatever you learn on your own, no one's beliefs will look the same. It's not something you can really research online or in books much." *I am not nor do I claim to be one of these people. I still feel new to dragon work, although I will acknowledge that if we're counting any time spent with them as "work" I've been doing that for years lol.

All that out of the way; I view them primarily as astral entities. Divinity in a sense, I suppose, although I feel- and I think they feel- like it's laughable to call them "above me." But that's more about my experience of divinity as an ally rather than an authority figure- I don't view any deity as above me, just bigger and different. (Sort of like a human to a small animal of sorts. We're not above them in my opinion, we're not better, but our experience of the world is fundamentally different and we can see things/understand things that they can't.)

WHOOPS philosophy aside; I view them as astral/nonphysical entities, and while the historical mythology is a huge part of my reason for believing in them* it only has so much sway in my practice. I have ADHD that makes research difficult, so most of it is just... what I've felt, seen, and done. I do believe the dragons I work with are the reason for historical mythology, but since they're idividuals, it wouldn't be all that much help anyway. Looking at the whole of America wouldn't tell you shit about me, as a weird comparison. *seeing as just about every culture has a "dragon" of sorts but we can't trace their origin point because they all came up with it independently.

Right now my work with them looks pretty similar to my deity work. I don't do spells or any such thing often, so it's mostly just chatting and enjoying each others presence. I ask for help when I need it, or for insight, but to be honest mostly right now my work with dragons looks like my familiar popping in like "Hey, you should value ur inner child and playfulness should have a place in your spirituality" and popping back out. Mostly I think they're leaving me to settle into my identity as a dragonkin (just in case you're from my main: my soul is that of a dragon/I have past lives as a dragon, it's a whole Thing) before forming a relationship with me. Something about figuring out what being a dragon means to me and what that looks like before seeing what it means to them so I don't assume that my identity has to look like theirs.

[devildevotee]

we feel a little better, so we may be posting again here soon! until then, it'll just be reblogs - but hopefully we'll be in a proper state to post original stuff again soon. ✨

however, there is something we feel obligatory to say. it's been stuck in our chest for a while, and it needs to come out:

if you plan to make us feel inferior or insult us for our struggle to read and gather verified resources, please just pack up and leave.

we know. we know we struggle to trace our beliefs back to texts, and in the wake of books vs experience, we're always going to have our word be treated as lesser no matter how long we have been using experience to study the divine.

i have never claimed to have our posts be treated as gospel; an inarguable truth. it is always at best, a suggestion or an opinion. i have always encouraged people to do their own study through their own experience, not to just take my word for it. i am not anything more important than just some guy, i will never call myself an expert.

that being said, additionally, it does not make us lesser of a person for struggling to read, and it is time that others take that on board. we have read so many things, but we have no idea where they came from because we are disabled and we have terrible memory issues. we know it's difficult to accept claims with no source, but we genuinely cannot help our disability. if you are going to sit back and act high-brow around me, or worse, treat me as undeserving of basic respect for a disability i have, i don't want you here. i won't pretend like i'm going to kiss people's asses because they know how to read and i have struggles with it.

i am still a person, and i still have feelings. i put a lot of effort into what i post, whether it will be seen as a "uwu valid" source or not. the least, the very least i want my followers to do, is to treat me with dignity and to have my time be respected. do not insult my posts. you can disagree with them, sure, but i draw the line at insulting me, my hard work, in the wake of "haha he can't read."

stop that. we're not going to tolerate it anymore.

[smute]

As someone who has covered misinformation through dozens of major news events, I know that people flock to social media during a crisis for many reasons. Maybe it’s because the mainstream news doesn’t feel fast or immediate enough, or because the crisis has put them or someone close to them in harm’s way and they need help. Perhaps they want to see and share and say something that captures the reality of an important moment in time because they don’t know what else to do when the world is on fire. Misinformation and manipulation often spread for the same reasons, slipping into the feeds of those who believe it can’t hurt to share a startling video or gruesome photograph or call for aid, even if they’re not sure of the reliability of the source.

When war goes online, the churn of good and bad information is supercharged by the stakes. While state-sponsored information wars existed well before the invention of the internet, social media has enabled all kinds of propaganda and dangerous falsehoods to rapidly reach millions. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, for example, livestreamers and scammers reposted old videos to TikTok, claiming they showed the latest from the front lines, in order to get views and trick people into donating to fake fundraisers.

Journalists have had a difficult time following up on video-fueled updates about the situation in Gaza circulating on social media because it is extremely dangerous to be reporting in the region right now. Many news outlets have reporters working from Israel to cover the conflict. Correspondents on the ground in Gaza are trying to keep themselves and their families alive during the Israeli bombing campaign in retaliation for the Hamas attack.

[...]

[The SIFT method] is meant to be a quick series of checks that anyone can do in order to decide how much of your attention to give what you’re seeing and whether you feel comfortable sharing a post with others.

The SIFT method breaks down to four steps: “Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, and Trace claims, quotes, and media to the original context.” That “Stop” step can do a lot of work during a major, violent conflict like the Israel-Hamas war. People get engagement on questionable or untrue posts during breaking news by tugging on your emotions and beliefs.

So if a video, photograph, or post about the war seems to confirm everything you’ve ever believed about a topic or makes you immediately furious or hopeful or upset, stop yourself from instantly sharing it.

Then, investigate the source. This can be done pretty quickly. Click on the account sharing the thing you saw and glance at their information and previous posts. You’re not launching a full-scale investigation here. You’re just trying to get a sense of who has ended up in your feed. Next, find better coverage. That means you open up a bunch of tabs. Is this being reported anywhere else by trustworthy news sources? Has this claim been fact-checked? And finally, trace the source. Open up the news article and run a search for a phrase in the quote you’re about to share. See if you can find that image attributed elsewhere, and make sure the captions describe the same thing.

[...]

Online falsehoods need attention and amplification to work. You might not have a big account with a ton of followers, but every reshare matters, both to the circle of people who see your posts online and to the engagement numbers for the original post. Interacting with something on social media — whether a cautious share “in case” it’s true or a repost to point out that something definitely isn’t — signals to the site’s algorithms that you’re interested in that content. In other words, outrage shares are still shares, even if you’re talking about a bad analysis, an unsourced photograph, or an outright lie.