#but first I'll try to do the other libs

[spigo-art]

Wilbur Cross

I swear I'm so normal about this man. Idk what my thing is with bastards played by Joey Richter that disrespect women...

It took me several attempts to get the light right but I'm really happy with how it turned out in the end!

(alt version under the cut)

I thought this might be a good piece to play around with gradient maps a ittle so I did that and here's the result:

This is not previous attempt at doing the ight, just another version I made for fun

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

big question. i'm cis (afab) and my gf is trans (amab) and i'm sorta having a hard time reconciling something. i've been a hard line feminist since i was about 8, by 12 i was a practical library on everything and anything womens lib. i'm spending a lot more time around trans people especially my gf now and i'm sorta struggling to reconcile the trans experience with my feminism. like- i'll see trans women being like "i hate my body :(" "my voice is awful" "i need [x thing to try to pass] ugh" and like my first thought is always "NO! THATS HOW THEY FUCKING GET YOU!!! THE PATRIARCHY WANTS YOU TO HATE YOURSELF SO YOU ENSLAVE YOURSELF TO CAPITALISM AND LIVE IN A CONSTANT STATE OF NEED FOR NEW PRODUCTS TO WARD OFF THE EVER PRESENT SELF HATRED BROUGHT ON YOU BY SOCIETY" and they go "well then how do i pass/transition?" and i honestly don't know and i also don't know how far it goes before its no longer dysphoria but instead the intentional subjugation of women by patriarchy for profit. i wanna help my fellow ladies but i honestly don't know how to like- apply the feminism i was taught as a child to trans women and i want to learn as soon as possible so that i can start doing it like yesterday

hi there,

I'll be honest: if it feels hard to apply the feminism you learned as a kid to your trans friends, that's probably because the feminism you were taught didn't have trans woman in mind.

luckily, the answer to this is something that I consider to be feminism 101: what a woman does with her body is, ultimately, her fucking business.

listen: I agree with you that the beauty industry(TM) is evil. it's misogynistic, it's exploitative, it thrives by making women feel bad enough about themselves to make them spend money on shit they don't need, etc. we all know this.

now, having said that: women who like makeup or wear heels or get laser hair removal or whatever other asinine thing are not my oppressor, nor are they my enemy. dare I say, we have bigger problems.

we also need to consider that many trans women are coming to these choices from a VERY different place than many cis women are. while I think my fellow cis women really benefit from reminders that they're allowed to stop shaving or wearing eyeliner or dieting or whatever, that's because most of us have had those actions forced on us from very young ages and may genuinely need a hand to feel secure breaking out of those behaviors.

the majority of trans women are not coming from a background where they were encouraged to partake in the same personal grooming habits and modes of presentation as cis women; many of them have, in fact, been ostracized, bullied, threatened, and otherwise hurt because of forays into forms of presentation that are considered feminine. no matter how good your intentions may be, approaching your advice indelicately can, unfortunately, make you come across as no different than any transphobe on the street trying to enforce cisnormative societal expectations. it also must be said that, for many trans women, the ability to "pass" is a matter of security - for having their status as women recognized at all, and to avoid harassment and abuse in public spaces. if you live in America, like I do, politicians in power currently have an extremely explicit anti-trans agenda that can make it harrowing to be visible as a trans person, and trans women in particular are frequently targeted for violence.

there are absolutely critiques to be made the way the many trans women are expected to perform hyperfemininity. the notion that someone is duty bound to drastically change their appearance in order to transition at all is itself extremely rooted in cisnormativity, and "passing" is often contingent on being young, thin, able-bodied, reasonably wealthy, and hewing as closely to Eurocentric standards of beauty as possible. that's not awesome! but that's also not the fault of any individual; no trans person asked to be born into a world where gender norms are so narrow and failing to pass can come with a very real risk of physical danger.

also, if I can circle back to this: again, women who participate in aspects of the beauty industry are not our enemies. there are always going to be some number of women who enjoy doing their makeup or like spending time fussing over their little outfits or want breast implants or whatever. some of those women are going to be trans. my official feminist stance on this is that I don't give a shit, because I believe in bodily autonomy even when it involves things I would not do personally and the choices that individual women make about how they want to style their little meat body don't even crack the top 100 things that I'm worried about right now. it's actually kind of vitally important, politically, that trans people be able to safely pursue their preferred gender expression; while it's not particularly revolutionary for a cis woman to go outside all dolled up, whether a trans woman can do that safely is a pretty basic litmus test for how safe a given space is for queer people. it's a ridiculously low bar, and many places will still fail to clear it.

so, yeah, I don't know, dude. be there to talk to your trans girlies if they want to start unpacking some of the pressure they feel to conform to a very rigid idea of womanhood, but whether or not they can walk down the street in your neighborhood safely is a WAY bigger issue than whether they decide to do voice training or not.

if you really want to cut to the root of the insecurity and vulnerability that the beauty industry thrives on exploiting, your time is much better spent working to ensure the trans women in your life feel safe and supported and have a community where they can find support regardless of how they look.

necessary disclaimer I'm a cis girl, any transfemme folks please share your voice here and feel free to clap my ass if I've said something out of line.

[glassprism]

Believe it or not, I have never watched the ALW Phantom of the Opera. So.. Seeing as you are the POTO expert here on Tumblr, what would you say is the best video for me to start with and watch first? I’m open to any English or German recs!

Oh, I doubt I'm the POTO expert on here, but when it comes to bootlegs, I can make some updated recommendations. I'll try not to go nuts and just pick one from each of the major productions.

West End - August 18, 2010: If you can get your hands on this one, this is a nicely filmed video of the original West End production with a great Christine and a Phantom who could have been good were he not actively hampered by the direction. At the time this was released, this was considered a really good quality video; now in the days of 4K boots, it's not, but it's still decent.

West End revival - January 2023: This is probably still one of my favorite videos in recent years - high quality, shot steadily and from the center of the audience, with a really good cast, especially Lucy St Louis as Christine and Matt Blaker as Raoul. It's also a good look at the various changes made to the production.

Broadway - May 17, 2014: There are so many good Broadway videos and casts that I ultimately chose this one for its accessibility and commonality. This was filmed in the first few days of Norm Lewis and Sierra Boggess's run together as the Phantom and Christine on Broadway. As with the West End video above, this video was considered good quality in 2014.

US Tour - April 6, 2006: People always recommend this video for a first time viewing experience and it's not hard to see why. This performance was filmed by two people who divided up the shots beforehand, then edited their videos together so that you get the best possible views together. It was also Gary Mauer (the Phantom) and Elizabeth Southard's (Christine) last show in the tour, and as they are married IRL, their chemistry and energy together are fire.

Vienna - June 30, 1993: This was the last show of the original Vienna production and two of the original cast members (Alexander Goebel as the Phantom and Luzia Nistler as Christine) returned for it. Both are great, especially Goebel's eerily haunting Phantom, and the video is pretty good for something from the 90s. There are also numerous little jokes and ad-libs for the last show. Just watch out for those sudden zooms.

Hamburg - June 30, 2001: Another last show, this one being source #2 of the original Hamburg production. A little shakier in filming but the detail is sharper than the also available source #1 of the same show, with Ian Jon Bourg being a commanding, old school Phantom. This video also includes the after show, particularly the fantastic and emotional mash-up of 'Think of Me' and 'Music of the Night' sung by the whole cast.

Stuttgart - May 23, 2004: Yet another last show, I'm on a roll! Had things worked out, this would have had Ian Jon Bourg again as the Phantom, but he was out on the last day and we got understudy Thomas Schulze instead, who is more bombastic. As with the other last shows, there are tons of jokes and ad-libs, including a famous "third kiss" between the Phantom and Christine.

Essen - April 20, 2006: I went back and forth between this, a similar video of Thomas Borchert, and a video of Uwe Kroger. The video of Borchert is steadier in filming but filmed earlier in the run, and I'm not trying to torture you with Kroger (but do watch him at some point for the entertainment value). This video is shakier and more obstructed, but worth it for the pairing of Ethan Freeman, a Leroux Phantom par excellence, and Anne Gorner. This was also Freeman's last ever as the Phantom, so extra emotional.

Hamburg revival - April 11, 2014: The Hamburg revival had some excellent videos, but I like this one best since it's steady, unobstructed, and doesn't have some unusual coloring or bad frame rates. I also think the cast is interesting: Nicky Wuchinger's Raoul is very strong, David Arnsperger's Phantom feels like he was directly inspired by the likes of Ian Jon Bourg, and Lauri Brons's Christine is just the weirdest.

Oberhausen - March 24, 2016: There's only one video from the Oberhausen production so this was an easy pick! It's technically highlights but it has all the major scenes, and though it's shot from near the front and at a bit of an angle it's HD quality and well filmed. It's also really cool to see perennial Broadway understudy Elizabeth Welch as principal Christine, and in German!

World Tour - January 26, 2014: The most recent World Tour boots all seem to be NFT, so I'm going with this, an oldie but goodie. Brad Little is the longest-running Phantom in the world so far, so it's worth it to see his performance, even if his vocals are much rougher here. Kristi Holden and Anthony Downing also round out the cast nicely.

25th anniversary concert: Not a bootleg but a professionally filmed and officially released proshot of the show's 25th anniversary concert, held at the Royal Albert Hall. This is easily one of the most accessible and viewable versions and you should probably watch this first to get an overall idea of what the show is like before venturing into one of the bootlegs. Given the venue, the concert made some changes to the staging and what-not, but it is 90% accurate to what goes on in the replica anyway.

[kanagenwrites]

So. Tuesday sucked.

We've all had a chance to come down from the "what the fuck" of it all, and we're starting to see the usual circular firing squad. Lots of lib centrists are doing everything they can to throw trans people, minorities, and basically anyone who isn't a finance bro under the bus, as is (very tiresome) tradition after both victories and defeats in the Democratic Party. I will be 42 years old in a few months, so this is far from the first time I've seen it, and sadly, I'm sure it won't be the last. To the lib centrists and those carrying water for them: This never works. Please stop trying it. Trans issues were not a major motivator; I'll get into that below. Sit down, kids, it's time for Auntie Kana's Fireside Dialectics.

One thing I've noticed is that a lot of my followers are significantly younger than me. (Imagine that, an audience that skews young on Tumblr.) A lot of you folks probably haven't been following politics for very long, and you've been able to participate in them for even less time than that. For some of you this is probably your first election as an adult, and it kinda feels like everything blew up in your face, doesn't it? I was about your age for 2000, when the election was nakedly stolen by George W. Bush, and not much older for 2004, when despite his disastrous presidency Bush the Younger rode a wave of 9/11-brained racism to the last popular vote victory the GOP had prior to (likely) this year. So I get it. I really do.

If you're living in the USA you have probably had a subpar education in politics and civics. This is largely by design - education is horrendously underfunded and there is a sustained attack on the ability of teachers to even discuss things like the Civil Rights Movement, the legacy of slavery in the United States, the genocide this country was founded on, and so on and so forth. Economic education isn't much better; you very likely got a short lecture on basic supply and demand and an argument-from-authority that "socialism doesn't work." All this combines to leave a lot of folks totally baffled as to how something like this election happens.

But it's pretty simple. It's just material conditions. That's it. What the media isn't telling you (because there's no profit in it, and the media is nothing but a clickbait engine when they aren't open propagandists) is that there has been a massive anti-incumbent wave of elections across the world. How massive? Japan's LDP, which has held power almost uninterrupted since the establishment of Japan's postwar democracy, managed to lose their recent election.

And why are material conditions so shitty? That's a complicated question, but a lot of it is the fact that we had a lengthy period of low inflation followed by a period of extremely high inflation due to the absolutely botched response to the Covid-19 pandemic. A bag of Doritos used to be 2.50, and now it's like 6 bucks. That's worse than all the inflation (and naked price-gouging, because there's a lot of that going on too) I experienced in my life prior to 2020, squeezed into the space of a year or two. This smacks everyone in the face every time they buy groceries, and while the government and the Federal Reserve were doing everything they could to manage inflation (and understand what a big deal it is for me, the anarcho-communist, to say that the US actually did an extremely fucking good job of doing it, because every other country on Earth had it worse than we did), they did fuck all to actually improve the material conditions people were experiencing. Wages were not keeping up with the cost of living, and price-gouging wasn't being dealt with.

Remember the 600 bucks Joe Biden still owes you? The American electorate sure the fuck does. Invisible backrooms liberal wonkery does not connect, regardless of whether it works or not, but going back on a promise? People remember that shit.

It's a rare incumbent that could win in an environment like this, especially when tied to a track record of doing exactly fucking nothing to actually help people from the perspective of the vast majority of the population. Kamala Harris was not that incumbent. She was a singularly uninspiring candidate who failed to connect with voters so thoroughly that she was on track to lose her home state in the 2020 Democratic primary. Nobody liked her (except a few very eager and very loud fans in the K-Hive), and speaking as someone who lives in California, I am not surprised she ate shit. She was a terrible choice for VP and a terrible choice of successor for Biden, but because Biden('s handlers) insisted on pretending he wasn't obviously declining before our very eyes, Harris, a singularly uninspiring candidate, had three months to build and run a campaign.

And it was still weirdly close.

Now, there's two possibilities: Either she actually ran an amazing campaign and it's incredible that it was even this close, or Trump is just so loathsome that even in a massively anti-incumbent environment he didn't bring anyone new to the table. Given that Trump is on-track to receive less votes this time than he did in 2020, and how many of those votes seem to have been cast for Trump and no one else down-ballot, I think it's more of the latter than the former. Trump brought the usual suspects, while Kamala successfully drove away voters that even Joe fucking Biden and Hillary fucking Clinton were able to bring home. Not on the left, not in minority demographics, but across the board. After all, if things are horrible and you're being promised that "nothing will fundamentally change," (literally an early-presidency quote from Joe Biden, whose agenda Kamala Harris 100% aligned herself with) and keeping in mind that the average American voter is not nearly so plugged into the minutiae and the day to day of politics (as evinced by the sudden peak in google searched for "Did Joe Biden drop out?" on Tuesday), why the fuck would you bother to vote?

Hopefully you have a better idea how we got here now. The question, of course, is where do we go from here? I will probably continue posting about this from time to time, especially if there's interest, but my advice is this:

We are still here. We will be here tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that, and so on. Plan accordingly.

Things will get fucked up. Things will always get fucked up. That is the nature of things no matter who is running the government. Plan accordingly.

Organize. Develop parallel structures of power and assistance, because the government is likely going to be even more useless to directly assist you than it already was. Our greatest strength is each other, and our ability to care for and help one another.

I have been here before. You will be here again. It always feels like it's the worst thing ever to happen. That never really goes away, but your ability to deal with it, to plan around it, to endure it, and to rise up again on the other side of it and say "No, fuck you" is entirely under your control and within your capabilities. And you will get better at it as you do it. And you are not doing it alone. None of us are.

Do not give up. Do not surrender. This isn't the end, or the beginning of the end, or even the end of the beginning: it just is.

Now go watch a video of a cat doing something cute, or read some smut, or whatever gives you joy. You can't take care of others unless you take care of yourself. That's General Order #1: Take care of yourself.

Solidarity, y'all.

[moirindeclermont]

Happy Sunday everyone! Today's prompt for my Polin Kinktober is phonophilia (which is a word I probably invented to describe someone who is into loud noise during S3x. Someone like Colin, to be precise) Enjoy!

It's like Colin could not help himself.

No matter where they are (and what they are not supposing to be doing) he is enthralled by her noises and always wants more. And tonight, tonight he wants her to scream. Even if they are at the Danbury's ball, in the library, only a few rooms dividing them from the ball, and anyone could walk in anytime.

After dancing with Benedict, she went to the lemonade stand. Colin pressed against her the next moment, "I'm not sure I can resist until we can leave," making her feel how hard he was in his pants.

She trembled a bit, make sure no one saw them and then guide him to the library that she discovered in her first year, wandering around the house.

As soon as the door was closed, Colin was on her, lifting her up and pressing her against the door, kissing her roughly.

"I want to hear your pretty moans for me, love. It's all I can think about," as he pressed his hips against her, kissing and biting lightly her neck, as Pen pushed her hands into his hair, pulling slightly, earning a slow noise from him.

"Colin, behind you... Desks"

He turned around, still lifting her from the ground, and walked the shirt distance between the door and the desks, putting her right on the edge of the closest one.

"Keep you skirts up," he said, before kneeling.

He touched her with his fingers at first, the medium finger finding her entrance soon.

"Ooooh," she moaned, trying to stay quiet.

He looked at her. "Don't quiet yourself. If all the people in the other room can hear you, I'll be happy knowing how much you make me crazy," as he lapped her from her entrance to her pearl. She could not resist that, her voice rising in pitch as he played her body like a violin.

It wasn't long that he had two fingers inside her, his thumb working on her pearl, doing that motion that always made her sob and sigh in pleasure.

"Coooooolin," she moaned louder, as her legs started to shake. She went on her forearms to not fall off the edge, and Colin put a hand under her bodice to squeeze her breast, looking at her intently as she falled apart under him.

He didn't waste time, after that.

By now, he knew how to make her go even crazier.

He waited just enough that she wasn't too oversensitive and then thrusted into her with a single motion, setting her up for another devastating release.

Whatever noise escaped her mouth by that point was driven only by pleasure.

He pushed with a rapid but costant pace, as her moans become louder and louder.

She was surely be heard by someone passing in the corridor but she didn't care one bit.

He continued his pace, grasping and touching her whenever possible, as he waited for he perfect moment to make her scream.

When she was close, he changed the angle, not the pace, and added his fingers on her pearl.

She tenses everywhere as she moved with him. "Ohhhhh my good" she screamed at that point, as stars exploded behind her eyelids and they both find their release in each other.

They recuperated their breath slowly, looking into each other eyes and soul, as he kissed her slowly and she squeezed his bum. "That was amazing, Pen," she could only nod, still dizzy.

Her legs were not so stable when he helped her getting down from the desk, and she giggled as she tried to walk.

They went out of the library, the corridor empty thankfully.

He lift her again, carrying her bridal stile.

"Pretend you're sleeping my love, so we can get home."

He walked into the main room with her in his arms, finding Lady Danbury. The lady smiled at him. "Is Mrs. Bridgerton tired?"

"So tired I found her asleep in the library, Lady Danbury. I'll take her home. And thank you for such magnificent party."

She looked at him with knowing eyes.

"I'm sorry Mrs Bridgerton is soo tired. I hears something coming from the library before... I'm sure it must have been the book she was reading, no doubt."

He had the good grace to blush a bit but played the game.

"Absolutely, it was what alerted me as well."

She scolded him with a look, but said nothing more.

When they were back in the carriage he realized Pen was really asleep. He kissed her head, and asked the footman to go slowly to not wake her up.

She was so tiny she could lie on one side of the carriage, and he sat on the same side, her head using his thight as a pillow.

Even hearing her lightly snoring was endearing to him, those days.

[goldfades]

𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧. 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐭𝐡. | delicate au, jack hughes

౨ৎ ─ summary | this takes place in late august of 2023, a little before the njd season started. jack hughes dm's the girl the whole internet thinks he's dating and invites her to a pre-season get-together at his house.

─ word count | 1.9k

─ warnings | anxiety, some flirting? nothing else!

─ taglist | @dancerbailey3 @valluvsu @daisysnhl @dasiysthings @iminlovewithtz11 @literatureluster @lvrzegras @lxvleyzoe @bowen-power @ru-kru @jackhughesily @hearts-for-luke

─ ev's notes | please lmk ur thoughts on this au so far! i, of course, always read ur guys feedback so anything would be very much appreciated.

Accept message request from jhughes (jackhughes)?

jhughes: have you seen twitter? we're trending 🤣 jhughes: looks like i'm your bf now 🤷🏻🤷🏻

libbytf: yeah um i don't even know how that happened😭 libbytf: they're crazy, that's not either of us?

jhughes: it does really look like us though haha 🤣 i don't blame them

libbytf: the more i look the photos the more i disagree lol, i hope they figure it out on their own 😭

jhughes: haha yeah [seen]

jhughes: me and luke are having a pre season party, you should come if ur free jhughes: oh and if leon wants you to hahaha😭

libbytf: when is it? i'll see if i can come and if i'm in town

jhughes: next saturday at our new place

libbytf: i'll let you know!

jhughes: k lmk ( 👍🏻 )

Libby stared down at her screen, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Did she just get asked out?

She received the message later that day and she was surprised that Jack Hughes had messaged her. She wasn't starstruck or anything but he didn't seem like the "dm" type, he looked more like the type to approach you in public.

She shook her head, she didn't even know if he was hitting on her. He probably wasn't even trying to come off that way, he probably just needed more people at his party. And the truth was, after the whole "Josh" thing, she didn't really have anything to do because everyone in the world was seemingly against her. The messy breakup with Josh had left her feeling exposed, as if every aspect of her personal life was now fair game for public scrutiny.

She had been under the spotlight for years now, long before she had even considered the idea of being a singer. Her sister and father were already apart of the "Hollywood" circle, she has seen this kind of stuff before. She's never been apart of the gossip, though - this was the first time she'd been in the spotlight for a bad reason.

Growing up in the shadow of her sister's and father's fame had accustomed her to the entertainment industry and all the drama that came with it. But now, as the fallout from her breakup with Josh engulfed her, Libby found herself thrust into uncharted territory. The barrage of rumors and gossip had stripped away the layers of privacy she had worked so hard to preserve, leaving her feeling vulnerable.

Libby couldn't even turn to her music anymore, she felt like it was no use because the whole internet (and their moms) hated her for no reason other than her relationship, or lack thereof.

She was pulled out of her thoughts as she felt her phone buzz on her bed. She reached for it lazily and opened it, reading the message.

leon 😛 are you down for something this weekend?

Libby typed out a quick response.

libs 🥸 depends

leon 😛 me and some of the team are gonna have a party this weekend to celebrate the start of the season, they told me to bring someone and ur all i have

leon 😛 unless u say no i'll ask someone else

libs 🥸 jack already asked me so sure :)

leon 😛 wait so ur his plus one?

libs 🥸 no bc he's the literal host, he just invited me😭😭

leon 😛 thats weird but okay, can u still be my plus one

libs 🥸 idk if that'll change anything but sure!!

She sighed at her brother's slight stupidity. It sounds like she was going to be going to the party this weekend. As she agreed, Libby couldn't help but feel a twinge of anxiety about attending Jack's party. The thought of facing a bunch of strangers, each with their own preconceived notions about who she was, made her stomach churn.

Before she could turn off her phone, her phone buzzed and she looked at the notification.

jhughes (jackhughes) started following you!

──

"Have you been on Twitter?" Leon spoke up as he drove, his eyes glancing toward Libby before focusing back on the road.

She shrugged, "Yeah. Why?"

"Everyone thinks you're dating Jack, it's kinda funny. Isn't this like, your first time meeting him?" Leon replied with a small laugh, shaking his head.

"It's pretty dumb, isn't it?" Libby replied, her voice tinged with amusement. "Well this is like my second or third time meeting him so it's not like we're strangers but still, we're far from strangers."

"Are you sure about that? He messaged you." Leon joked as he smirked at you as you rolled your eyes. She knew he was joking but a part of her thought that maybe he was flirting with her. But Libby could not even mention that to Leon because it'll make him go crazy, staying quiet was the better option.

"Shut up," Libby mumbled as Leon laughed. "The pictures aren't even us, you know?"

"The guy looks a lot like Jack but not you. It's so funny especially because everyone swears that they know you so well but they can't even tell the difference you and some other person." Leon grinned, clearly enjoying the absurdity of the situation. "Well, I guess the internet just loves drama. Can't blame them for trying to spice things up, it is fun."

"I just hope people figure it out soon," Libby sighed, glancing out of the car window at the passing city lights. "I mean, it's not like I need more rumors right now."

Leon shrugged. "Yeah, I get it. But you know what they say, any publicity is good publicity."

"Yeah at least I'll know my new album will get tons of new streams, thanks to Josh's fangirls."

"You mean dickriders? Jesus, have you seen the comments?" Leon scoffed, making a turn to Jack and Luke's home.

Libby sighed, her shoulders slumping as she leaned back against the car seat. "Yeah, I've seen them. It's like they're just waiting for the opportunity to tear me apart completely, I can't even go on Instagram anymore."

Leon's expression softened with empathy as he reached out to place a comforting hand on Libby's arm. "They're just fucking bored, that's all. They have to tear someone down to feel better. Don't let them get to you."

Libby nodded, grateful for her brother's words of encouragement. "I know, it's just hard sometimes, you know? Feels like I'm constantly under a microscope."

Leon nodded in understanding, his gaze unwavering in its support. "Yeah, I get it. But remember, those comments don't define you. You're so much more than what people say about you."

Libby managed a small smile as they reached Jack's home. The night air was crisp as Libby and Leon made their way towards Jack's home. The distant noise from the party spilled into the quiet neighborhood as they walked towards the entrance.

The home was pretty big but you weren't surprised, they were really good and popular hockey players so of course they had a big home. However, as you walked into their porch, you noticed how clean it was. Not many boys in their twenties kept their homes so clean and organized but Libby was pleasantly surprised at how clean their home was and she hadn't even been inside yet.

Leon gave the door a few knocks before the door opened to reveal Jack, a big grin on his face and a backwards cap on his head. "Leon! You made it!"

"Yeah, and I brought Libs!" Leon grinned back at Jack as his gaze finally fell on Libby, she felt his eyes scan her body before they landed on her eyes once again.

Libby felt a slight flush rise to her cheeks as she met Jack's gaze. His warm smile putting her at ease as she returned it, trying to ignore the flutter of nerves in her stomach.

"Awesome! Come on in, guys." Jack ushered them inside, the sounds of the party becoming more pronounced as they stepped inside.

"There's some chips in the kitchen and you guys can just help yourself to the drinks inside the fridge, just don't drink any of our protein smoothies." Jack side glanced to Leon playfully, in which he responded with a quick fine. "Everyone's in the living room playing pool."

"I'm gonna go get a beer, if y'all don't mind." Leon called out as he headed towards the kitchen, leaving Libby and Jack by the entrance.

As Leon left, Libby shifted her gaze to Jack with a warm smile. There was a brief awkward silence before Jack broke it, "I didn't know that you lived in Jersey."

"Well I don't but ever since Leon's moved here I've been spending every second at his place. I actually live in New York City but it gets a little hectic, I need a break sometimes from... everything." Libby explained as she recalled all the drama from the summer, from everything with Olivia to Josh, it was eventful.

Jack nodded, his expression sympathetic as he listened to Libby's explanation. "I get it. New York can be intense, especially with everything going on."

Libby sighed, feeling a weight lift off her shoulders as she spoke about the challenges she faced. "Yeah, it's been a lot to deal with lately. Sometimes, it's nice to escape to somewhere quieter, you know?"

Jack's gaze softened with understanding. "I get it. I'm sorry by the way, with the whole uh... thing." Jack didn't really want to specify but they both knew as Libby nodded.

Libby gave him a sweet smile but before she could respond, Luke came in wearing a Devils jersey. "Dude I've been looking everywhere for you, there's something wrong with the-" He cut himself as he noticed Libby.

"Hey Luke." Libby greeted the tall curly-head with a grin as he walked over to where Libby was and gave her a side hug as Jack observed.

"Libby! I haven't seen you in a while, how's everything?" Luke asked casually as he pulled back.

"Can't complain." You spoke with a small grin as you looked in between the boys. "You?"

"Very excited for the new season, I don't know if you could tell." Luke chuckled as he looked down at the jersey.

Libby couldn't help but chuckle at Luke's enthusiasm. Even though she's never formally met Jack, her and Luke have a pretty good friendship through Leon. As soon as they met they clicked and now they're practically tied at the hip. "Hmm... I couldn't tell. Go Rangers, right?"

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Whoa, don't you dare step foot in our homes and disrespect us like that. That is a like a slur around here." Jack shook his head playfully as him and Luke exchanged looks before all three of you busted out laughing.

"Sorry, sorry won't happen again!"

"It better not or we're gonna have to kick you out." Luke threatened with a mock-serious expression. "But seriously Jack, the TV isn't working and everyone wants to play Fifa for some reason."

Jack shrugged as he motioned to Libby towards the living room, "I don't even know if we own Fifa..."

They all entered the spacious living room where everyone was. There were some teammates who she recognized and some people she'd never seen before. Jack and Luke ventured off toward the TV, leaving Libby to go stand by the couch. She'd enjoyed the night so far but as she stood there, anxiety began to creep into her stomach.

Everyone here knew somebody and right now the only people she was close with was her brother, Luke and Jack and they were all playing Fifa right now.

"Libs, get a controller we need one more player!" Jack shouted from the coach and waved at her to come over. Libby hesitated for a moment, feeling a familiar pang of anxiety at the thought of joining a group of people she didn't know well. But as she stared back at Jack, she swallowed all her fears and walked over, taking a controller.

As she settled in next to them, Libby felt a sense of normalcy wash over her. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she could just be herself, without the weight of everyone's expectations or the glare of being perceived.

↳ make sure to check out my navigation or masterlist if you enjoyed! any interaction is greatly appreciated !

↳ thank you for reading all the way through, as always ♡

[nobodysdaydreams]

More Hatchetverse Theory: The Reasons Why Hatchetfield Hates Clivesdale (It's Worse Than You Think).

Well my Hatchetverse theories have been taking off so I'm just gonna keep the good times rolling (the hashtag is "#hatchetverse theory"). Read below for an unhinged rant.

So there have already been a fair amount of theories about Clivesdale and why the residents of Hatchetfield hate it so much. I'll start by reviewing one of the most popular theories: that Clivesdale and Hatchetfield mirror the black and white, and that Clivesdale is associated with the "white" while Hatchetfield is associated with the "black".

The evidence is pretty compelling:

Clivesdale is the "sister city" of Hatchetfield. Webby is the sister of the LIB

The townspeople hate Clivesdale with a violent passion, and people have already pointed out that this mirrors Wiggly's hatred of Webby. Meanwhile, the people of Clivesdale don't seem to hate Hatchetfield. They raise the bridge in TGWDLM out of concern, but they don't seem to aggressively dislike Hatchetfield and mourn them when they are gone. This again seems to mimic that attitude Webby and her brothers have with each other.

The names of Clivesdale and Hatchetfield have similar meanings. "Clive" means to "Split or to chop" and "Dale" means "Valley". Hatchets are used to chop things. The towns are literally "split apart". I talk about the names of some of the town's other landmarks here.

The fight between the Clivesdale and Hatchetfield High football teams is emphasized a lot, to the point where the news covers it more than the murders of the teens in NPMD, and warns that a "losing streaks coming", but says that hopefully they can "get them next year". This could signify how the war between the black and white seems to occur in several realities.

Clivesdale and Hatchetfield have other similarities too, like how the Hatchetfield Honey Festival (a cover for an evil cult sacrifice, according to Nightmare Time) parallels the Clivesdale Cherry Festival (which no one is interested in, according to a newspaper prop from the musicals, but that's the Hatchetfield news, so it might be biased reporting).

But even if we assume this theory is true, I don't think the LIB would make the residents hate the town merely because they hate their sister and her town. This is because there are two other potentially terrifying reasons why the LIB would want the citizens of Hatchetfield to hate Clivesdale.

The first, which I haven't seen anyone talk about yet, is that Hatchetfield is an island. To leave it, citizens either need to leave by plane, boat, or bridge. And where does the only bridge off the island lead? Clivesdale. The LIB make the residents hate Clivesdale so that they won't leave Hatchetfield because it likely means they'd have to go through Clivesdale, which many residents say they'd rather die than do. One piece of evidence that supports this theory is the way the LIB try to entice the residents of Hatchetfield to stay in "Drowsytown":

There are many times when the LIB refer to the Black or being under their control as being in "Drowsytown" (and I can make a whole other post about the LIB and sleep/nightmares and Drowsytown symbolism another time). But, this is significant, because when citizens "wake up" from the LIB's control, their followers and the LIB themselves specifically ask them to stay "Down in Drowsytown" (also possibly a metaphor for "Hatchetfield's Downtown", they do sound similar). In Nightmare Time, the sniggles also sing about how they can't leave Drowsytown.

The other reason the LIB want the citizens of Hatchetfield to hate Clivesdale so much is a bit darker, and stems from a combination of Clivesdale being the only way off the island and the deep seated hatred the people of Hatchetfield have for Clivesdale, particularly in NPMD.

I have a separate post on this, but Max Jagerman hates Clivesdale so much that when he dies, he declares that he's going to destroy the whole town Clivesdale, and in "Go Go Nighthawks!", the students declare that they are going to "kill Clivesdale". At first this seems like the usual Clivesdale hate, but then one might consider the facts that Clivesdale is one of Hatchetfield's only links to the outside world, and the LIB seem to have a vested interest in conquering said world.

Thus, when the citizens of Hatchetfield say they hate Clivesdale and are going to destroy everyone there, they are not just referring to the citizens of Clivesdale, or the White/Webby of the "Black and White", but the mainland, the rest of the world, and everyone in it.

Think about it. If the LIB convinced the citizens of Hatchetfield that joining them or doing what they wanted would destroy Clivesdale, most of them would join them in their world domination quest with no questions asked. The LIB also sing in NMPD "why help you with the Jagerman when we could help the world?" which when combined with Max's earlier threat about destroying all of Clivesdale, and the fact the LIB make sure they still have control of Grace at the end of NPMD, seems pretty concerning, because it appears to imply that the LIB would only help the kids with Max if they had the guarantee that they'd still have a way to conquer the world, but again, this is just a theory.

Then there are two other relatively unexplored aspects of the dynamic between Clivesdale and Hatchetfield that we just don't have very much detail on, but I'll share what I got.

The first is the names of their mascots: The Nighthawks and The Chemists (I already made a post about the Sycamore High Timber Wolves).

The "Nighthawks" seems pretty self explanatory, it fits with the whole "Nightmare Time" "Eternal Night" "Black" "Drowsytown" theme quite nicely. Also in NPMD, when singing about Max, the students sing "like a nighthawk he preys" and the nighthawks are called predators.

The "Clivesdale Chemists" is more obviously an odd mascot, but harder to figure out since we don't have much lore on Clivesdale. "Chemists" could mean "Alchemists" could mean "Witches", but it's still unclear what the significance could be there or what the history is between Hatchetfield and Clivesdale and how it mimics the history between Webby and Wiggly. (The Witch in the Web song and Wiggly's repeated statements about hating Webby and wanting "wrath"/"revenge" are the only clues we have on that for now. Also the Cross and Holloway rivalry).

The second is the existence of the Nantucket Bridge.

It provides compelling evidence for the first part of my theory about the LIB using the Clivesdale hate to keep everyone in Hatchetfield/Drowsytown/the Black. If the people of Hatchetfield hate Clivesdale, they won't use the bridge.

I googled the word "Nantucket" and found a few meanings: "island", "far off land" and "sandy, sterile soil tempting no one". Make of that what you will.

It is confirmed in TGWDLM that Clivesdale controls the Nantucket Bridge (or at least half of it), because they raise it when Hatchetfield becomes infected with Pokey's apocalypse. Interestingly, this is the only time they seem to do so and they do so in response to what seems like just reports of a meteor crash into a theater and the occurrence of random flash mobs (not the scariest sounding thing that's ever happened in Hatchetfield so idk).

"Bridge" could also be referring to a gateway to the Black and White from earth, or bridge between the Black and White in general. Keeping along with the word theme, the body of water under the bridge is called the "Nantucket Channel", and the use of the words "Channel" and "Black and White" could refer to television, but that association is a bit more out there than the other ones, which have more evidence.

There are a lot more spin-off rants I could do with this, but I'll leave it here for a while. I hope you enjoy Starkid fandom!

[liquid-bonhomme]

Helpful guide to who the fuck the federal Canadian parties are (since Lily hasn't explained them right):

1. The Conservative Party of Canada (Cons): Canada's only true right-wing party-- though, at least before Pierre Poilievre, Americans would have seen them as closer to Democrats than Republicans. They were conservative in the truer form of the phrase-- no spending money ever or doing anything ever sort of Conservative. Because, small government. Neoliberal. Concerned mostly with starving piblically funding resources and tax cuts. This has taken a dramatic change in a very short period. Poilievre is taking the party in a very MAGA direction-- though, he's kind of still in 2016 MAGA because the Overton window in Canada is still more comparatively liberal. With Anerica being on fire right now, that's still very scary. They historically can't hold the PM spot with a minority because they are almost always the contrarians in The House of Commons fighting the rest.

2. The Liberal Party of Canada (Libs): THIS is the moderate vote in Canada (fight me.) Frankly it's hard to define the Lib's real position because they're the "well, I guess I'll vote for them" party. Their constituents are typically a broad range of people who want the government to be *doing something* other than sitting on their hands all day bitching about spending. Their very limpwristed policy and law changes are what make right-wing Americans clutch their pearls and claim Canada's some kind of sicialist hellscape-- which is hilarious, but. Still, most of Canada's best policies DID come from Lib PMs-- though it's kind of a coin toss depending on the party leader. No, Trudeau is not so widely mocked and scorned because he was a bad PM. More so, he campaigned on some pretty radical changes he never ended up enacting, alienating a massive portion of his voter base, and then pissed off even more people with how he handled the trucker convoy. Leftists because he did deal with it quickly enough, right-wingers because he was forced to take drastic action when he did.

3. The National Democratic Party (NDP): The third largest political party in Canada, and the actual party a good portion of liberal voters actually want to vote for (including me.) Contrary to American perception THEY are Canada's one true properly socialist party. Even then, as it stands now anyway, they're still pretty soft-core socialist. Very inoffensive socialism. Giving a shit about worker's rights, remembering First Nations exist, giving a passing thought to how Healthcare and social services can be improved, being half-way decent to immigrants, being nice to the girls and the gays, etc. Lot of fear mongering that letting them have too many seats in government will bankrupt the country-- which is the stupidest sentiment known to the great white north since they've consistently been on the side of labor, but. Jagmeet Singh is the party leader. He's the other politician everyone calls hot. He posts cringe on social media sometimes to try to meme with the gen zs but otherwise he's pretty alright.

4. The Green Party (No nickname for them, just Green Party.): Honestly, people mostly talk about voting for them as a joke-- but someone must be because they have seats in the house so. Really they are the Green Party, they speak for the trees. Nobody ever expects them to win the PM position so they're broader policies haven't ever really been hashed out, but. It is nice to have someone consistently seated in the house arguing for the environment. They may or may not have been the first party I chose to vote for as a 19 year old, drunk at the poles, not happy with any of my options at the time, but you can't prove anything. Elizabeth May is their party leader. I don't even know what she looks like.

5. Bloc Québécois (Bloc): Okay, the existence, purpose and politics of this party is the hardest to explain to non-Canadians because it's tied to a long and complicated Canadian history and the tension between the Anglophones and the Francohones. Lily, the Anglophone she is, called them a "left-wing" party. They are not. They are French Nationalists. They do want an ethno-state in Quebec. But because the Cons are typically aggressively anglophone in their priorities, even with a French party leader, they beef with them more than the Libs. But the Bloc has had big dramatic beef with every party at one point. The TL;DR of how Bloc came to be is; the English oppressed the French way back when, but Quebec joined Canada to be protected by America taking them over, the promise was that anglophone Canada wouldn't try to culturally assimilate then, they sorta kinda didn't keep that promise, francophones kidnapped and killed politicians, big scuffle, martial law was happening for a hot minute-- Bloc has consistently angled for Quebec to succeed from Canada, but they couldn't economically do so so it's a big drama. Being the grandchild of a French Nationalist on one side and a anglophone white supremacist on the other, I am an unholy combination of two diametrically opposed foes and at birth I took a screenshot. Yves-François Blanchet is the current party leader and he's frankly more willing to play ball with other parties than former leaders were in the past.

[spaceguy44]

2024 US Election Post-mortem

I need to get my thoughts out about the election. I'll split it into a few main parts. (This will be long) 1. Why did Kamala lose/Trump win?

There's 2 main reasons for the result.

1. The biggest thing isn't that Trump gained a lot (he did somewhat), but that Kamala lost hugely. Kamala ran an "strong" but status-quo style center-lib campaign. This was not the right move to capture the electorate in today's America. It hasn't been since 2012. People at every part of the political spectrum have expressed disdain with the way establishment Democrats have run things. People want change! They have since 2008. Obama convinced everyone that he represented change. Hillary lost in 2016 because they didn't get that change after 8 years, and wanted something new no matter what. Biden did a good job in 2020 of being somewhat of a change candidate, but it was really COVID that allowed him to win. I do think Trump would've won in 2020 if it weren't for the pandemic. Kamala had momentum at first because she literally was "change." Biden was hugely unpopular, and people didn't like the return to liberal status quo, even if he did do more than even Obama to bring (domestic) left-wing policies to the forefront imo. Kamala represented hope at first that we could get away from the Biden that everyone hated, and bring in a whole new kind of politics and movement that would take us out of the neoliberal malaise that was the again Biden. What happened in stead was the establishment decided that there was a contingent of Americans that were allergic to left-wing politics, and they need to be captured.

THIS IS THE MAIN POINT OF FAILURE FOR BOTH HILLARY AND KAMALA. I do not believe there is a (large) population that is inherently right-wing, and another that is centrist, and another that is left-wing. I do think there are some that you could never convince one way or another, but it's just impossible that so many people could vote for Obama, and then turn around for Trump if people had some sort of weird internal political compass that they adhered to regardless of policy. No, Trump (and the right more broadly) MADE his base. This is the other reason Trump won.

2. Trump did make some gains, though I believe the right campaign from Harris could've overcome that. I think the Trump gains are more indicative of what Harris lacked. Kamala tried to adjust her campaign to match an electorate. Trump didn't give a fuck. He said what he wanted, and people liked that. They don't care about decorum. They don't care about "unity". They want someone they think will "fight" for them. People saw Kamala bringing in the Cheneys and just saw another neolib that would flake on any conviction to grab a vote. People don't want a policy. People want a candidate with conviction. Trump was also adept at playing on people's fears and insecurities. He MADE them into Trump supporters by playing on those fears. Harris did not try to make Harris supporters by playing on fears (at least enough). She was best with the abortion stuff, but that wasn't the issue that exit polls showed people care about. The top issue was the economy. Yes, "the economy" is objectively doing better if you look at the stats, but people don't feel like it because prices are still high despite the buying power of the dollar recovering (inflation was reduced!). People felt that because corporations kept prices at pre-inflation reduction levels. Harris briefly flirted with price capping, which would be the exact sort of populist policy that directly addresses people's fears/insecurities and breaks from the status quo that could excite a mythical "Harris base" that maybe existed for 2 weeks.

It's the same with immigration. Trump created a "big lie" about the border being in crisis, and played on the truly hurting average middle-American's insecurities. You have a population that is hurting for corporate consolidation destroying small local business, that has been devastated by opioids, and is seeing the towns and culture they grew up with decay and seemingly leave them behind. Are Trump's policies going to uplift them? Hell no! Does he talk to specifically them all and directly address their insecurities though? Absolutely. In stead of addressing these people (these are the ones on the red arrow map that's been going around), she accepted the lie about immigrants and rejected making any radical policy change from the system that threw middle America under the bus.

I should say I am literally living in a small rural city in a deep-red state, so I know what they're saying. These people aren't necessarily bigots. Some are, but I think most think they aren't. I think anyone can be prone to getting caught up in a hate movement if the right buttons are pressed, and Trump deftly presses those buttons. What needed to happen was pressing the right buttons to address their insecurities and fears that doesn't rely on hate and scapegoating. This is what I think Bernie Sanders does well in general polls, but there's too much movement within the Dems to preserve the liberal status quo. That needs to change or, the Dems die. LIBERALISM IS DEAD. We address the fears that made people Trump voters, or democracy dies! Here are 2.5 other smaller reasons: 3. Sexism, Racism, and Religiosity. I will not deny that these do play a part in certain parts of the electorate. However, I don't think they're insurmountable hurdles in a general election. I think Obama's campaign is proof of this. But we shouldn't deny that there are a significant portion that wouldn't vote for Kamala for purely bigotry reasons. Hell, I know some personally. But I do think it is a mistake to blame these for our failures. WE LEARN NOTHING OTHERWISE! 4. Believe it or not, but there's just a lot of people out there that just don't care or avoid politics all together. These people aren't bad or deficient, but they just don't include thinking about politics constantly as a part of their lives. They think about the election for a few days, and then get on with their lives for 4 years and tune out everything. Generally, these people are privileged, though there's also some that have been so hurt by our system and policies, that they tune out in pure nihilism about it all. These people vote on vibes, they vote based on what those they care about support, and many just sit out the whole thing. Voter apathy is definitely a thing, and it hurst especially the left imo. I do believe the majority of people would loath Trump's policies if they actually knew what they entailed, so this apathy only takes away from the left. 5. Kamala did NOT lose due to the Gaza protest. She might have lost a bit of support by not being an empathetic foil to Trump's "glass the whole strip" rhetoric, but I don't think it made a significant difference. And I'm gonna be real with y'all; Tumblr is mostly full of it if they think they can accomplish anything with a protest vote for Gaza. I learned this in 2016. That action won't do anything, and it's too risky when a literal fascist is on the other side of the ballot. Yes, I hate that Kamala did not oppose the current Biden policy of letting genocide happen, but Jill Stein/no vote can't pressure these people in the establishment without hurting their campaign financing. The votes are in, and 3rd party votes would not have saved Kamala.

2. What happens now? What is a 2nd Trump admin like?Maybe this is a bit of copium, but I do think that Trump will still be overall very incompetent and unable to enact the worst of his policies. Terrible things will still happen (and I'll get to that later), but I think some of the catastrophizing is a bit overblown. Let's take the mass deportation policy for example. This would be a horrible campaign on the level of the worst historical genocides. He would need to create an ICE apparatus so large that it would rival the fucking gestapo. Just think of all the agents and infrastructure that would need to be developed to round up ~20million people and transport them to the border and detention facilities. There's no practical way to deport that many people. The logical end point is concentration camps. Yes, we have them already to an extent (I mean the euphemistically named "immigrant detention facilities"), but we don't have anything that could handle "mass deportation." Building the facilities, hiring the agents, buying the buses and trains, and executing the warrants all takes a lot of time and money. None of this goes unnoticed, and it won't go without resistance today. Congress still controls the purse, despite what the supreme court says about Trump's immunity to do whatever he wants. SCOTUS said he can't be prosecuted for committing a crime, not that he can break a constitutional rule. The margins are too thin in the new congress, and I genuinely do not think that he has the political tact to navigate around how much resistance he'll get. My main evidence for this is the border wall. He had all the support he needed within congress and his base to try to "build that wall." The GOP even controlled both branches of congress, and shutdown the government multiple times to try to get his way. They had a majority in the house his first 2 years. It meant nothing! He got a regressive tax cut passed, and that's about it. I know there's a lot of bullshit he can pull to push terrible things through, and he'll have ghoulish cronies that will be the actual brains behind things, but honestly, they're dumb as shit too. They're too evil for their own good. They will eat themselves alive through infighting and liberal resistance before they can start a genocidal campaign on American soil. That's not to say there will be some horrible things. Here's what I do think he'll be able to do: - Ban abortion nationwide either through the Comstock Act or SCOTUS. - Completely fuck up half of our federal institutions that keep us informed and safe (ie. dismantling or gutting of Dept. of Education, EPA, FTC, NSA, HHS, and more). - Allow for more religious integration into our public institutions like schools - Essentially turn our government into an oligarchy (or more of one than it already is) - Reverse gay marriage rights (overturning obergefell) and restricting the rights of LGBTQ+ in the public sector overall. - Exacerbate the Gaza genocide - Let Putin have his way with Ukraine - Royally fuck up the economy with Tariffs - Probably get us into some kind of overseas war - If he survives to the end of his term, I do think that our democracy will be incredibly fucked. Like, I think they'll be able to push through so many bullshit rules that we won't be able to come back unless an actual leftist populist makes huge rounds.

Overall, it's gonna suck, especially if you're LGBT in a red state. I think he'll also continue targeting undocumented migrants, but I doubt he'll be able to put together the infrastructure to genocide them. Yes, Hitler and his regime were incompetent too, but it was really the enabling act post-Reichstag fire that allowed for him to start pushing the policies that would become the holocaust. It was only at that point that he had no more resistance, and could order whatever he wants. We're definite not there yet with Trump.

3. What do we (the left) do now?Honestly, just stay vigilant, be active within your community, make connections (even with Trump voters), and don't give in to the despair. Once you're hopeless, it will only make it easier for them to keep winning. We fight against the fascists until the bitter end. The only endpoint of fascism is self destruction. I am a leftist, but I am not a revolutionary. I think armed action rarely leads to good outcomes, and history shows that. However, if we get a Reichstag fire moment or an enabling act moment, that's not the point to lose hope. If people start turning their neighbors into the gestapo-fied ICE, that's not the point to hide. These represent the time where politics should be abandoned, and an actual violent fight for freedom and liberty should begin. I pray we never come to that point. Hopefully, these next four years will look like a continuation of 2016-2020. We'll have a slow degrading of our rights, but if too many of those we all care about are hurt, we can come together and help to reverse it. I know things are super polarized and we all have our own little bubbles in society, but there comes a breaking point where too many people are hurt, and even the biggest MAGA head will have someone they deeply care about that is very hurt by Trump. This is my hope, though it unfortunately relies on things getting worse first before becoming better. 

[shefightsforall]

Why do most MAGA feel the need to insult the intelligence of the person debating them. It doesn't matter if you're trying to be nice. They will tell you that you're the dumbest person they've ever spoken to, all while using the worst spelling and punctuation you have ever seen.

They say that you're a cancer to society and heavily imply that you should kys, yet they're the ones actively participating in being the most ill-mannered degenerates they can.

Four different people today have told me that I'm a low IQ individual because I'm not a trump supporter. All used different little nicknames just for me. One called me a queer lib, one called me a pink-haired crybaby dem, and the other ones just called me stupid and lazy.

Three out of four had atrocious spelling. The first one who called me a queer lib told me that the education system had failed me. His grammar was by far the worst, ironically.

Quite frankly, I don't care if you think I'm stupid. I'll get a kick out of arguing with you most of the time. But please, for the love of God, use spellcheck!

[hydranomago]

Ad-Live 2022 [Night Session] - Chiba

Premise:  Producer named Jin (Shimazaki) is tasked with ensuring the success of live advertisements, but doesn't have the data to do so.  Blade (Enoki) is a man with a cursed “disease”, whereby his genitals have morphed into a sword. He’s looking for way to cure himself, to get back to his wife ‘Saya’.   Aramaton (Aramaki) is a man dressed in a sheep plush hoodie, who keeps asking if people “remember him”. His intentions are unclear.  Suzumura is the higher-up who checks on them.  Jin must enlist in the help of these two to achieve at least 30% viewership in the advertisement broadcasts, in order to keep the studio in money for making Jin’s favourite anime show about “Magical Galaxy Girl Desuko”, and to prevent the "higher-ups" from killing them.

Official preview video [here]   / Day Session [here]

Some Funny parts & Ending below cut! 

[ KEYS:  E = Enoki Junya / N = Shimazaki Nobunaga / M = Aramaki Yoshihiko (or Mackey) / S = Suzumura Kenichi ]

---- ---- ---- 

M: your name is Omata Blade? (stares intently) 

N: Oi why are you making fun of people's names? 

E: What about you, dressed like that?

M: I was doing nothing outside the studio when I was brought in as an extra. 

E: That's not a costume anyone loiters in... ---- ---- ---- 

(every time E sheathes/unsheathes his “sword”)

N: That's such a good sound! 

---- ---- ---- 

S: (squints at M, E) Actually, what's wrong with you two? 

E: (ad-lib cue) Just as you would imagine. 

S: NEVER IN MY LIFE COULD I IMAGINE SOMETHING LIKE THIS! ESPECIALLY YOU! 

---- ---- ---- 

M: (takes giant spoon prop between legs to match E's "disease") Now that we match, we look like a unit don't we? 

E: (touched) I'm so happy! This is the first time I feel understood! 

(hug and accidentally poke each other with “swords”) 

---- ---- ---- 

S: (tries to style them)

E: Oh lemme try this on. (puts coat over sword) 

(everyone piles on coats excessively to hide E's sword) 

E: No stop! My identity is being erased! 

---- ---- ---- 

(advertising products, E and M have sword fight with their respective *ahem* props)

E: These amazing products can even make music! 

S: (frantic whispering from sidelines, RIP head producer) STOP STOP STOP!

---- ---- ---- 

N: We have to attain 30% viewership to save Desuko's show! 

M, E: Who's Desuko? 

S: (rushes to them) No no no no no! 

N: (simp mode activated) DESUKO IS THE BEST MAGICAL SPACE GALAXY GIRL IN THE UNIVERSE, HOW COULD YOU NOT KNOW?! 

---- ---- ---- 

Just E jabbing at everything with his sword -- including N's face on a poster 

---- ---- ---- 

(Advertisement viewership = 5%)

M: Well, this is kinda mine and E's fault...

E: Yes, we're very sorry for the trouble we've caused.

M: In fact, N did an excellent job portraying the magical girl character!

S: (bursts in) WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING? 5% ONLY?!!! 

M,E: (points to blame N immediately) It's this guy's fault!

---- ---- ---- 

M: (threatening) I’m looking for the person who ate my dear friend Aramaton. 

E: Aren't you "Aramaton"? 

M: No, that's the name of my pet sheep.

E:??????

---- ---- ---- 

N: (enthusing about job) What exactly is  “entertainment”? 

E: It's hurting people for amusement and fun isn't it?  [*Enoki PLS]

---- ---- ---- 

M: (threateningly, holding out picture) Do you recognise this sheep? N: No… E: (stage whispers, innocently) It’s the delicious one!

M: OI. YOU BASTARD. 

---- ---- ---- 

M: (takes out gun for revenge and starts shooting at feet) 

S: (jumping so much for his age) WHY ARE THERE UNLIMITED BULLETS? 

---- ---- ---- 

M: Revenge on N for eating Aramaton is mine! 

E: No, revenge on N for causing this disease is mine! 

M: You think you can dodge my *tama (= bullets) ? 

E: (dramatically unsheathes) I may not have any *tama (= balls) left, but I'll definitely slice yours! 

(Fight like children as the audience laughs wildly)

S: Okay this is actually impressive… Quick! (smacks N) We’ve gotta film this! (starts recording on phone) 

---- ---- ---- 

(audience laughing very loudly, echoing sounds)

M: Goodness, what was that? 

N: It's probably the voice of the universe!

---- ---- ---- 

N: What happened to Aramaton? 

M: (ad-lib cue) Aramaton didn’t pay his rent! Now all my money is gone! N: You’re not avenging Aramaton for love, but for money?! 

---- ---- ---- 

E: I’m going to the toilet. 

M: Eh? How’d you go with (points) that?

E: (accidentally bangs sword against door, monotonous) Ah. N: Isn’t that supposed to be painful???

---- ---- ---- 

N: (during after talk, praises staff for drawing a wonderful poster for the imaginary “Desuko” anime he mentioned) 

M: (praises staff for preparing the props, esp the list of people he killed for revenge and the pot) 

S: The staff are amazing at their preparation, thank you everyone. But what’s most shocking is that (E’s sword)! He even brought it from home! 

---- ---- ---- 

Ending: (The last 10 minutes were honestly so chaotic; they nearly missed the threads of their stories, but made it back in time.) The "higher-ups" are an actual superior alien race, monitoring the humans via TV broadcasting. If the broadcast fails, it proves humanity isn't worth it, and everyone will be killed. Jin is actually an alien who loves anime, and doesn't want to see humanity be destroyed. That's why he's so intent on making TV studios a success. Aramaton is actually the name of Mackey's character's pet sheep. To avenge the death of Aramaton, Mackey kills a list of people who presumable ate Aramaton at a restaurant. But, Jin confesses he recognised Aramaton because the sheep wasn't eaten–it was Jin who abducted Aramaton for an alien experiment. Aramaton is still alive. Blade is not blade. "Saya" is not his wife. Blade IS Saya. Mackey unknowingly killed Saya before this event, and Saya was so revengeful that her soul was absorbed into a male alien vessel. The sword as a disease was also fake. Her main aim is to kill Mackey. Jin is forced to finish the final broadcast, in which he pleads for everyone to forget their grievances and forgive each other, so everyone can move forward. All the characters are moved. Final push comes from a phone call for Blade/Saya: Let all aliens and humans live in peace together.

[brisquad-unit-4402]

infinity thoughts

ok so 🍰 anon asked me about my infinity thoughts and an explanation here but unfortunately i'm american and got access to the song with the official mv release, so when i answered it i was in a post-negibanana haze and unable to comprehend abstract thought. sorry!

so anyways it's such a fire song. easy top 10 nijien songs. i'll be honest and admit i don't pay attention to a lot of niji music, even for some of my oshis, but hear me out. infinity bangs slaps bops jams etc

i'd like to point out the parts that i adore/can explain a bit

imma player imma play my game / imma slayer and i claim the fame

i'd like to imagine this is a double entendre for being a heartthrob AND a #gamer lmao. especially with the tiny internet/vtuber references all throughout

i make the dream that make believe

that should be "make-believe," with a hyphen. never catch 'em slippin

not a lyric but i'd like to formally thank yga for deciding that shu should be wearing a sleeveless hoodie and a turtleneck and a half-off jacket AND an arm garter. that arm garter is carrying everything

not a lyric but also thank you lord for giving sonny a scarf. he looks cozy and i'll be thinking of this factoid later. also the lightning effect in the rain/monster line 💛

we stay young forever

lol i see u anime boy png reference. also the ad libs here are peak. wait hold on classic og lxm fans: shu was the one that did the brr woo right? ...that a callback?

(yes sir)

YES SIR?

YES SIRRRRRRRR

i am not mentally well about an ad lib of all things. i'll be there for him. with open arms. and open legs. and an open mouth

better move that body that the big man gave ya

this is just funny to me. like yea this is what i wanted to hear in my kpop inspired dance song by two anime boys. a line that just barely dodges religion. that's hilarious and i want someone to sample this line specifically for a rap beat

ain't no gravity in my galaxy / we soar like planes, like birds, like angels

i get why they end the lines with "angels" (ethereal, beautiful, a body that the big man has given) but... if it ended with planes... it could be a slant rhyme with sonny's next lines

hundy degrees

also just funny to imagine sonny unironically saying "hundy." i can only see him in my mind's eye saying it when he's putting on the Big Stereotypical Bogan Accent. not so out of character for him now is it

you on your knees

ok wait hol d on hwat the fuck

tell me are you ready for me

ye s

honestly that whole bridge just fucked eternally and again, will not stop thinking about it. what tf are those high notes. knees, huh. the whole theme going on through the entire lyrics where the singers r nonstop but everyone else needs to be prepared/can't go on as long as they can (tehe stamina joke). whatever they were doing with the ascending "are you ready for me." whatever SHU was doing with that high note into the chorus SIR ?

so when this got announced post-ar live i threw the preview into my playlist bc it was just that good, and i always imagined it as one of those radio bumpers. so so so so so happy it was everything i dreamed of and more.

i love negibanana as a duo a lot and i'm glad they were the first to get an encounter, since neither have a original/cover song on their channel yet. especially for sani. he's my oshi but tons of tons of tons of people have expressed he's a very underrated and very talented singer, and if you don't happen to be there for karaokes or his features on other songs (ringo! mogire! beaaaaaam!) then it's easy to sleep on him.

and what can i say about shu that hasn't been said before. his voice is lovely and his high notes shine. negibanana is such a good duo because of their strengths. you can really tell that shu's at his best when he gets to use his falsetto and show off vocal runs, and sonny's energy when he raps is so infectious.

but never forget the goofy bits 💛 shu has no idea how to whisper sexily like "infinity yeaah" in the beginning sounds like a kid trying to learn how to do a death metal scream without waking their parents in the next room 💛 what was the entire verse about your neighbor and the big man who wrote that 💛 every time the pre-chorus hits i wait for the hyphen in make-believe and yet 💛💛💛💛

peak nijien in 2024 experience tbh

[imaginespazzi]

Bestie bestie bestie!

Hello :) Where to even begin after so much time.. I guess first I'll note that my last anon to you is starred below just so we can follow the thread of last convo somewhat (and honestly just wanted to ensure you knew I at one point wrote in over you hiatuses)..

Ok on to more new stuff: Biggest news is Im off to the wifeys motherland (ironic a bit as I believe shes currently playing in my fatherland). I'll report back on food a day drink 😋 ca va?

Yay Liberty, they did it! 🗽Plenty of kudos to the Lynx as well. Was a great series all around. Even if my nerves barely withstood those overtimes & dramatic endings.

Coaching movement in the W continues to make my head spin. OMG the Thibaults are gone, didnt see that coming tbh! I remain seated for all the hirings/happenings to come. And cant believe we're almost to the lottery selection w still so much upheaval in place 🤯

Hope all is well w you despite lifes busyness. Take care

** Hi hi hi bestie! Yes that anon was me ha. I realized after sending that I left of my emoji signature, but was pretty sure youd connect things, given some hyper specific topics ha. Hope life is treating you alright apart from just being busy!

Im personally just relieved that the Libs managed to even things up last night, while still trying to process the 2nd half & OT of game 1 lol. That one was all just absolutely bonkers. Crazy entertaining, even if it hurt my NY supporting heart at the time.

When it comes to the coaching moves, def in agreement that Indy doesnt deserve good things. What do you make of who the Valks named HC? Seems a good hire to me at a quick glance, but Im also leery of anyone who might be involved w the Aces lawsuit ordeal (tbf Im not super well informed on that, but dont believe Ive ever seen her referenced w that stuff). Yeah objectively I dont feel that a (random) late winning run/playoff push, external circumstances w the standings aside, was worth dropping your odds of getting #1/Paige from like 30 to 10 %. Still struggle to understand why they ended up trying to fight the path that established itself early on. Granted kind of unexpected and extreme circumstances, but still, lemons to lemonade if you will. Im not feeling eager for the draw next month..

Honestly it will be interesting now to see/follow any Liz activity while she hits the offseason as college ball starts up soon. Curious to see if any crumbs or reactions come up at all. W those two seeming to be at an avoidance phase, another college wbb couple needs to step up and provide us w some (non toxic) drama to follow over the season ha! Not you tho Pazzi, you stay lovely/wholesome/stable/healthy

One additional GH note - I obvi live for snark, so wanted to share my fav lines from Ch 10

“Won’t somebody please think about the complications” Jana in full menace mode and so funny. "I mean other than the woman you married as well that is" The fact that Azzi will not ever say her name I just love. I also have this idea that Stephie, when older and knows pretty much everything re her parents history, will continue the she who shall not be named thing in support of her mama. (And Im not entirely discounting the possibility of a bit of real time drama w Olivia that wont help w this whole Azzi grudge).

Wishing you a good start to the week!! -☕️ **

Hi hi lovely I missed you <3

Ah babes that must have gotten lost in my sea of asks because I've been so bad about answering them. It's funny how much has change since whenever you sent that thought because the W has become a revolving door of coaching changes.

I really like the Valks HC choice. She's been very effective with the LVAces and I expect that to continue. Same with the recent news we go today of Tyler Marsh with the Sky. I think LVAces coaching staff in general is so strong and them branching off is good for the league and both the Valks and the Sky with these coaches and a little bit of time for player development should eventually be really good. Ultimately the lawsuit is a front office issue and I don't think these two had much to do with it and so until I see issues in their new respective teams, I don't think we can hold it against them.

LIBERTYYYYYYY. So happy for them and of course props to the Lynx. And honestly thank you to both teams for giving us what I think, despite that one foul, is the greatest W finals we've ever had.

THE THIBAULTS ARE GONE. You were one of the first people I thought of when I saw that news. Honestly I have no idea what to think. I really didn't see it coming and as much as I've done a lot of nepo baby this nepo baby that, I don't necessarily know if this is the right choice but I'll wait to see who they appoint as the head coach to really figure out my thoughts.

Lottery in 2 weeks?? What the actual hell? Like y'all we're likely gonna know where Paige is going before we even see Azzi on the court and that's insane to me.

OOOOH I have some CWBB drama if anyone wants it. Did y'all peep Last-Tear's Poa's shady insta caption she deleted? Her and Sam'yah Smith were a thing and streets are saying maybe she cheated?

Pazzi are being wholesome as always. "Silly girl" - what if I jump off a cliff :)

[celaestis1]

20 Questions for fic writers

Thank you for the tag @three-drink-amy @inexplicablymine @myheartalivewrites and @cha-melodius

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

27, which seems somewhat meagre compared to many others!

2. What’s your AO3 total word count?

679,928

3. What fandoms do you write for?

RWRB and Star Wars

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

RWRB Screw Your Courage to the Sticking Place (and forget macbeth is a fucking tragedy)

Star Wars Smoking Hot

Star Wars Stars and Oceans

RWRB Blooming Lovely

Star Wars The Set-Up

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to! I never delete comments from my inbox as it always perks up my self-esteem if I'm flagging. So often though I literally don't have words to reply so it's just 'thank you for reading and commenting!' or ❤❤❤

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Stars and Oceans. Classic post-Order 66 Star Wars featuring a Codywan (fem!Obi) storyline so it's ... pretty bleak. BUT it is also part 1, so part 2 is much less angsty.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Blooming Lovely. Link below.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No? I've had one where someone commented ''I wish you hadn't done xyz" which threw me a bit bc ... dude. The back button's right there.

Oh, tell a lie, I once had someone tell me my female OC was too much of a feminist and they didn't like that. It didn't feel particularly insulting though.

9. Do you write smut, if so what kind?

I love writing smut, and I feel like I have improved so much in recent years. I like most kinds, but not hate-sex or cheating. Don't like reading it and don't think I could write it.

10. Do you write crossovers? If so, what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Hmm, yes and no. I like taking characters out of one universe and transplanting them into another. I have two of these on the go at the moment; a Firstprince Discovery of Witches AU and a Codywan His Dark Materials. But I don't cross the characters over, so Henry and Alex won't be running into Matthew and Diana.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Once, had a fic cross-posted without my permission and I wasn't happy. Thankfully it was taken down immediately once I contacted the person who'd done it. I think they thought they were being nice?

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

@inexplicablymine baby, current WIP, Firstprince, and y'all are NOT ready.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I have regular obsessions with ships! I love, and always will, Firstprince and Codywan. But I'm currently eyeball deep in a Buddie rabbit-hole and absolutely head-over-heels for some Wheel of Time ships too so I don't know if I could ever choose one favourite.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Probably one of my Star Wars ones - there's a Sithywan fic that I have the bare bones of a plot for but so far it feels flimsy to me.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and inner monologues of characters. I like to think I'm good at landing characterisations.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Ad-libbing or ad-hoc writing I struggle with but also conversely plotting? I can have these amazing ideas that usually start with dialogue between two characters and then can't always follow through in creating a narrative around that scene.

Also sometimes I think I rely on a Deus Ex Machina too often.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I'll normally try to just add in the odd word if canon, 'mijo', etc. I try to avoid long sentences unless it's a fictional language anyway (Mando'a) or it can't be avoided. Then I very guiltily use Google translate. For slang I do try and research multiple sources rather than Google though.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Justice League, the DC Animated version which was a very good cartoon actually.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

It probably has to be Blooming Lovely. It's not often I write something totally joyful and angst-free so it felt like an achievement!

tagging @tintagel-or-cockleshells @dumbpeachjuice @cricketnationrise @happiness-of-the-pursuit

[gavillain]

Hi! I love how you play Hades, it’s super accurate! I want to try and protray him correctly myself, but I have trouble with the seedy salesman thing he does, like I have trouble figuring out making him say what and how to say it. His evilness is no problem for me it’s just the salesman thing. Do you have any advice or suggestions… or ideas on how to play his salesman way of talking as accurately as possible?

Thank you so much! :D I'm glad you enjoy my portrayal!

As for any advice, the first thing I'll say is that he IS a difficult character to get the speech patterns right for, and a lot of official Disney writers failed at it and just left things up to James Woods to ad lib his own dialogue. So don't feel bad about not getting it right away. It's a struggle. But it also CAN be done if you work at it. A lot of it is just a matter of practice. I've been roleplaying and writing for Hades since 2008, and even though a lot of people really liked my Hades back when I first started, I definitely feel like I've improved considerably just by virtue of writing him a lot.

And that's really just a question of time, but there are a few tricks I used to help me that you might also find helpful:

Rewatch Hercules and watch all of his episodes of Hercules: the Animated Series and House of Mouse if you haven't already - really pay attention to his dialogue when you do. Getting that voice clear in your head is crucial.

Say his dialogue out loud - he's a very verbal and chatty character whose dialogue is meant to be spoken, so speaking it and doing an impression (even if it's bad) will give you the chance to hear the rhythm.

Start with WHAT you want him to say - think about how he would respond in a general sense without his verbal flourishes. Then once you know the gist of what he's going to say, THEN punch it up and reword it with his unique way of speaking. Treating it like a two-step process will make it easier to write and keep you from feeling overwhelmed not knowing where to start.

Sprinkle in jokes that are topical with what he's saying, but then twist those jokes to be vaguely Greek/ancient mythology related. For example, if he was trying to butter someone up for a deal, you might start with, "You always were a good kid." Then add a quippy joke: "You always were a good kid, looked both ways before crossing the street and everything." Then just that touch of Ancient Greek for flavor: "You always were a good kid, looked both ways before crossing the agora and everything." You can also substitute the Greek flavor for macabre/death related humor.

The other important thing to remember is that Hades is a seedy salesman. A thing that actual seedy salesmen do to seal the deal is throw as much information as possible at you so that you have trouble keeping up and your head starts swimming. Hades talking is like a verbal traffic jam for this reason. He talks fast, he says a lot, and it's usually very "punchy" like point, point, quip, point, quip, point rapid fire one after the other.

So, yeah, that's all I got for ya XD Hope this was somewhat helpful!

[northropi]

So I'm going to be using this more, for real this time.

In an effort to Holy Fucking Shit They're Considering Cisgender A Slur Now What The Fuck, I am soft-leaving Twitter. For real now. What do I mean? I will not post anything "directly."

I'll still like, follow, reply, retweet, whatever, but any media or in-depth text (so like also media) will no longer be natively placed on Twitter.

From now on anything I put on Twitter will be links to other sites.

It also seems inevitable at this point that I will eventually have to leave Twitter entirely because harassment is becoming more frequent.

While I'm not big enough to be readily targeted, bigots are trawling the trending tab to find anyone who comments on a recurring topic and start gnawing them.

I've never been a full "no ethical consumption under capitalism" person, but up until this, I could at least blow Elon's bigotry off as "oh, so we happen to have a bigoted owner on this site, well not gonna pay his ass so I'm fine in the short-term." But this policy, which seems to have gone through, is probably the first time something actively bigoted and not just generic right-lib "hey we should let bigots talk because censorship bad" has been written into the ToS.

To strongarm Cis out of our vocabulary leaves us with no words to describe Cis people exclusively (which is itself a pretty damning reason why it's not a fucking slur, but I don't think at this point that anyone who says they think it is is doing so in good faith). We have to use the word bigots want us to use to describe cis people.

Normal.

And every time we speak it, they'll lick their slimy lips and relish in the implication that, by exclusion, we have admitted we are not.

BlueSky likely will mark the end of Twitter being an even neutral space for vulnerable people in terms of community, though maybe I'm talking out my ass there because I hear some shit about BlueSky too- so sub BlueSky for whatever more solid Twitter-style multipurpose high-throughput platform follows and actually is good if I have to eat those words, I guess.

It, or the hypothetical next thing, will bleed Twitter of users who are, you know, not fucking horrible, and in turn, create a selective pressure that turns Twitter into a decidedly bigot-friendly site. This is the cost of being run by someone who thinks "free speech" should mean taking the wrong answer to the paradox of tolerance, and an idol to rightoids and conspiracy theorists who need that "gifted" Christ-figure and a supposed force of opposition to exist, even if they have to rip their brain in two to characterize that opposition as the establishment while, being conservatives, every single stance they take is pro-establishment.

You people ruined schizoposting, you know that?

Newgrounds will be for images with occasional text updates, this for long but relatively rough posts, Wix for more encyclopedia-style content as I intend to use it in a wiki-like capacity with secondary blog purposes (why not use wiki for that, you ask? because it looked like a lot to learn up front and there seemed to be like twelve different wiki formats, Wordpress/Wix was just easier but might change later).

I'll also aim for some filler on Youtube in the form of just video game clips so I can feed the algorithm a bit and try to be more active in exploiting what free time I have to actually use my mic for voiced stuff including, possibly, short streams, though that begs the question of where I'll be doing those.

As for Tumblr, a friend offered me to help me learn its syntax or whatever you'd even call it in this case to get it formatted. I wouldn't count on it replacing Newgrounds yet and that may be my primary art site from here on out (I've expressed concern about their harsh policy against WIPs and certain modeling programs that might include my VRoid work, but the latter would obviously be fine here and the former can still be posted in a publicly accessible capacity to NG, just not promoted in the art portal- hopefully I get "scouted" there sooner than later but nothing is a dealbreaker yet). The problem ofc is because, well... First off, NSFW. "Oh but you can post-" yes. I know. You can do some lewd stuff and fetish content fine as long as it doesn't hit a particular bar of "non-artistic" nudity. However, a lot of my stuff is raunchy fucking hypercock bellybulging cum cum madness. I can't just fly under that restriction and not need to eventually find another outlet.

Second, I really gotta handle these fucking bots. Not sure how many I have still as I imagine a lot are getting cleaned out by mods, but it seems follower notifs on this site have been going into junk for a while due to sheer frequency.

I'm also thinking about if I have it in me to forgive DeviantArt for their AI debacle, but the site's stance on it is concerning and I fear that there's at best going to be a ton of it flooding the site, which, while acceptable if they hold their promise of being able to opt out future works (remember, the opt-out doesn't apply to any works put up before- you can't un-train a neural network, so fuck that sideways), will be frustrating to interact with. I'm also going to look into ArtStation a bit, I recall them doing something dubious but I'm not sure of the status of it since. I actually already have an account there, for Project G.L.U.T.T.'s demo mostly...