#but it was fun event and experience to participate in! everyone did such great work!!!

[yyuangss]

INAZUMA COMMISSIONS ( DILUC RAGNVINDR )

summary ! in an attempt to give diluc the best present for secret santa, you spend some time to know more about him. though, the dawn winery owner has some unique tastes.

tags ! diluc ragnvindr x fem reader, fluff

word count ! 5.2k

note: hello hello @umgatochamadopercyval !! i got you for the @2023gisecretsanta event 🫶 i got a little carried away so i’m very sorry for the word length 😭 either way, i hope you enjoy it MWAH <3 i had a lot of fun writing this for you !!

When Barbara approached you asking if you’d like to be part of her Secret Santa event, you immediately agreed. She said she was going around inviting people she knew would be interested in participating.

You asked her who else had decided to participate in the event and she named a few others. Lisa, Kaeya, Sucrose, Venti, a few sisters from the Cathedral, Eury, Donna. All people you knew well since they constantly came to Good Hunter and you spoke to them while they waited for their food.

Barbara said she was still asking people to join. So once she had an even number, she’d go down a list and have them pick out a paper to see who their Secret Santa was. Everyone would get a month to find the gifts. Then, the gifts would be revealed at a Christmas party she was working on.

Nearly a week and a half after that, Barbara came rushing over to Good Hunter with a small bag in her hand. She was her usual cheerful self and more now since the Secret Santa event she planned out.

“(Y/N)! Do you have a moment?” Barbara asked, waving and standing near the side of the stall. She had been waiting to see when it would be available. Her smile showed just how excited she was.

“Give a second!” You said, smiling as well. After taking the current order and the customer went to sit down at one of the tables, Barbara approached. She showed off the small brown bag and you knew what she was hinting at. “How many people did you get to join?” You asked, making sure to wipe your hands clean.

“I got thirty people!” She said, holding the bag open. The number made your eyebrows raise. Barbara was very serious about this. You peered inside the bag. Small red and green sheets of paper were mixed together. The amount was smaller than what Barbara had said so you assumed she already went to some of the people.

You reached in, grabbing one of the slips at the bottom of the bag and pulled out a red slip. Barbara closed the bag once you got your person. She made sure the strings on the bag were tight so nothing would fall out.

“Could you check it to make sure you didn’t pull your own name?” She asked. You nodded your head.

“Of course!” You said, opening the slip of paper. You wondered whose name you ended up getting out of the bag. It would make shopping and searching for someone’s gift a fun experience. Hopefully it was Lisa. There were several new books you wanted to get for her and replace a few worn out books in her library. That was until you read the name of the person who would give you the most trouble searching for a gift.

Your smile faded slightly. In black ink, Barbara had written Diluc’s name on your slip. Her star and balloon drawn decorations on the paper made it more exciting than it actually was. Of all thirty people who decided to participate, you were the unlucky one stuck with Diluc. He wasn’t a bad person but you didn’t really know enough about him.

“Nope. Didn’t get my own name.” You said to Barbara, folding the paper in half again.

“Great! Thank you again for joining!” She exclaimed happily. “Remember not to tell anyone and you have a month from now.”

She waved before heading off. She needed to catch the rest of the people and hopefully finish this by the end of the day. As she sped towards the building of the Knights, you stared at her cursive handwriting.

The red haired male came into your mind. What were you going to get Diluc for Christmas? He was a reserved character. You couldn’t name a single thing he liked except grape juice. And there wasn’t anything else that stood out about him that would remind you of him.

For example, if it were Klee, you could have gotten her a new book bag or matching hats for her and Dodoco. Sucrose would be happy to get a new chemistry set. She definitely needed one after breaking a few beakers. Whereas Diluc… Nothing.

You started to think about certain gifts. Candles were a good option if that didn’t scream, ‘I don’t know you’. He never wore accessories. No rings, necklaces, or bracelets. Perhaps he didn’t like them but a hairpin from Liyue would be worth the trip. You let out a frustrated sigh, scratching the back of your head.

Was there anyone who knew what he liked that you could ask them?

Well, there were a few people. Now that you think about it, asking them probably isn’t a good idea either. Donna was off the table. You aren’t sure how far her title as a fan of Diluc’s went. And you also didn’t know if Barbara had asked her to be part of the event. That means Donna would definitely get jealous since you got the person she wanted.

Next was Kaeya. Asking him was fifty—fifty. He was rather sneaky and playful. Definitely the type of person to come up with a lie so you’d gift Diluc something he hated all because Kaeya wanted to mess with him. Or maybe you’d get the lucky half and he would be kind enough to actually say something his brother likes.

Then the people who worked for Diluc were also not a good choice. For one, you didn’t know them well enough to know if they’d keep this a secret. Two, they probably didn’t know Diluc well enough to tell you what he liked or disliked the most.

You were already stressed out, even if you had an entire month. You carefully stuffed the slip of paper into the front pocket of your apron. Thankfully, you were going on your break soon. You tapped your fingers on the countertop as you thought of what to do.

The worst idea yet came to your mind. You were just going to have to ask Diluc himself. You can't blurt out and reveal you got him for the Secret Santa event. Since your conversations with him are very brief, in order to do this, it needs to be in the most discreet manner possible. That way, it won’t make him get suspicious of you.

“Diluc!” He heard his name being called. Instinctively, he looked over at the tavern entrance after passing a customer their drink. He saw you approaching the bar while smiling at him. “How are you?”

“(Y/N).” Diluc gave a curt nod and picked up an empty glass cup. You sat down on a stool, watching him clean the area for you with a wet rag. “It’s good to see you. I’m doing fine. I assume your shift has ended?” He motioned to your uniform. You occasionally came to Angel’s Share when you were off the clock. It was just to relax for a few minutes and socialize before heading home for the day.

“I’m on my break right now.” You said. You scouted the first floor to see who was here. The floor was nearly deserted, only consisting of the tavern’s usual customers. You turned back to Diluc, thinking about the slip with his name on it in your pocket. “What about you? Are you leaving soon?”

“No. I may be here all day.” Diluc said. You needed to make this worth the while. No way were you leaving the city to go all the way to the winery. “Charles wasn’t feeling well.”

He finished wiping down the counter and threw the rag over his shoulder. He didn’t have his coat on since the tavern was relatively warm. The weather outside was getting colder as the days went on.

“What can I get for you?” He asked.

“A berry and mint burst.” It was what you normally got whenever you paid a visit.

As Diluc grabbed one of the glasses to make your drink, you thought this would be a good time to ease into the conversation. He seemed concentrated on making your drink so he probably might not be too responsive. Either way, you needed to try.

“I feel like we don’t talk a lot.” You said, as Diluc poured the light blue liquid into the cup. He let out a confused hum at your statement and set the bottle back down. He stepped away from the counter, searching for the remaining ingredients that belonged in your drink.

“And what do you mean by that?” He sounded as intimidating and serious as he always did.

“We don’t talk a lot.” You said. He carefully pushed your drink in your direction. “I think we’re more acquaintances than friends. Don’t you?” You grabbed your drink in one hand.

Diluc rested on the counter as he narrowed his eyes at you. His gaze seemed to be studying you instead of being mad at something you said. The guy sitting next to you left a few Mora on the countertop and left the tavern. He also left behind two cups to be picked up and cleaned.

“I say the same, yes.” Diluc said, scooping the Mora on the wooden counter.

His responses are repeats of what you say. It makes it feel like he’s simply not interested in having a conversation. Plus, he is always seen with an uninterested expression. His personality is nowhere near Kaeya’s.

Getting Diluc to talk is harder than you thought. At this point, you wanted to be straightforward and admit what you were truly here for.

“What’s your favorite thing about yourself?” You suddenly asked. Too strong of a question. He would figure out what your intentions were by it. Diluc raised an eyebrow as he dried one of the cups with a different rag than the one from earlier.

“What’s my favorite thing about myself?” He repeated your question. He glanced down at the cup before turning around. He sorted it out with the stack of cups used by tavern customers. You heard him say the question again but much lower this time. Eventually, he crossed his arms, staring at the wall before giving his answer. “I love my long, luscious and luxurious red hair.”

“Wait— What?” You sputtered.

“I answered your question. My favorite thing about myself is my hair.” Diluc faced you. He had his normal stoic expression. Was he telling the truth or poorly executing a joke? You squint your eyes. Diluc’s hair was well taken care of. Out of all his features, his hair and the color of it stood out the most. The length of it also suited him. Diluc with short hair was like a nightmare. Maybe because he never wore it in any other style except his ponytail. “Is that not something I can say?”

“No, no,” You said, taking a sip from your drink. The minty taste made your eyes water. “I didn’t expect you to say that. I thought you would have said your eyes. Your hair is really pretty.”

He managed to make his hair look like silk. There had been times you were tempted to touch it. As you put your cup back on the wooden counter, you thought of your next question.

“How do you get your hair to look like that?” You placed your chin on the palm of your hand. Whatever routine he said, you might need to start using it.

“Slime condensate.” Diluc petted the tips of his hair. Your expression changed to one of disbelief. “It needs to be the thick hydro slimes from Inazuma. I like to get them from Watatsumi Island since the area is surrounded by water.”

You had to take some time to process what he said. The infamous Dawn Winery owner put slime in his hair to keep it “luscious” and “luxurious” at all times. You had never heard of anyone putting slime in their hair. You scratched the top of your head. Whenever Diluc said something new about himself, the idea of giving him a gift for this event seemed impossible.

That wasn’t the only time you went to Angel’s Share. You went back for an entire week, trying to pry information out of Diluc. There needed to be one thing he liked and was willing to share with you. The only problem with that was to have him stop talking about his hair.

“I love my hair color. Did you know it’s natural?”

“It’s so hard to keep it this soft. If the slime isn’t from Inazuma, my hair gets all tangled.”

“Cut it? No, I’d never cut it. I’ve been growing it out since I was a child. My father’s hair was exactly like mine.”

You didn’t take him as the narcissist type or the kind of person to be full of himself.

Your last hope at getting him a gift was what he used for his hair. Diluc let you know what the process to get the slime condensate was. He said it is called an extraction. It was harmless to the slimes. In order for this to happen, he or someone else would grab hold of a slime. As this is going on, the other person will begin to pluck out condensate from under the bottom part.

You weren’t going to make it to Inazuma and return to Mondstadt in time for the party.

Sara went with you to find Herta and ask her to send your commission over to Inazuma. She was a little skeptical at how overly specific but she said with enough Mora, someone over there would be willing to take up the challenge.

That was two weeks ago. The party was in a week from now. You started to panic. Did no one take up your commission? You asked Lumine to take an impromptu trip to Liyue and see what items you could find.

She agreed. The Honorary Knight protected you along the way. Thankfully, there weren’t any monsters that attacked you on your trip. Liyue had rarer beauties that cost a lot more. In the end, it was going to be worth it. You found the gift after hours of searching. This was reserved only if the condensate didn’t make it to Mondstadt on time.

“Pardon me,” A tall, unknown man approached since there wasn’t a line. You could tell he was from another region. He had a box underneath his arm. His white, puffy coat covered his entire body. The hood he had on covered the majority of his blue hair. With good reason. The cold weather this year was entirely different. At least you were near the fire. “My name is Kamisato Ayato. I’m looking for a lady by the name of (Y/N). She requested a commission in Inazuma.”

“That’s me.” You said.

“Ah, wonderful. This makes it all the much easier.” He placed the box on top of the counter. The gloves he was currently wearing were white while the inside had a sort of dark purple lining. He removed the hood from over his head, settling his hands on top of the mysterious box. “The person who did your commission told me to be very careful with it. He said he went out of his way to make it the very best.”

“Did you come all this way just to deliver it yourself?” You felt a little guilty but Ayato let out a chuckle.

“No, no. I’m the leader of the Yashiro Commission.” He waved his hand, “I’m in Mondstadt for the holidays. I thought it was a good idea to bring over your commission. That way you wouldn’t have to wait too long.” He patted the box before insisting you take it.

You pulled the box over, noticing how heavy it was.

“Anyway, everything has already been paid for on our end.” Ayato said, adjusting his coat. “I was also told to pass on a message to you. If you had any more… Specific commissions to be done in Inazuma, simply request for Arataki Itto. He’s more than willing to help.”

That must have been the guy who did your commission. You hope to meet him in person one day to thank him over and over for what he did.

“Thank you very much.” You flashed Ayato a smile. He did the same in return, “Enjoy your holidays and your stay in Mondstadt!”

“Thank you,” He bowed his head, “The same goes to you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way.”

As soon as Ayato was gone, you decided it was a good idea to open the box. Your jaw dropped at the contents. It was a lot more than you had asked for. Considering what was given, you had definitely underpaid this Itto guy. Either he was a perfectionist or he was extremely reckless.

The jars of slime were actually much bigger than you expected. Maybe you should have been specific on that as well. How many hydro slimes on Watatsumi Island had to undergo an extraction to get all this condensate? Even though Diluc said the extraction process is not harmful for the slimes and they’re constantly growing, you’re starting to feel bad for them.

At least it arrived at a good time before the party. With the slime condensate here, your gift for Diluc was ready. But you had both items. There wasn’t any point in keeping the second gift for yourself. Maybe it would give you a hint on what Diluc likes. Hopefully next year, Donna was the one stuck with him instead of you.

The party was being hosted at Angel’s Share. It was closed for the holiday and with his permission, Diluc allowed Barbara to have the party there. So long as she prepared all the decorations and food. He didn’t mind making the drinks since it would allow him to keep a better eye on Venti.

When you arrived, the ongoing scene was a bit of a mess. Barbara was apologizing profusely to someone. You recognized one of them. Ayato, the man from the other day. He laughed loudly when he noticed Barbara beginning to tear up. Next to him was a girl who had similar features. She chuckled softly when Ayato hugged Barbara and reassured her everything was fine. The girl had to be related to him.

“You’re here.” You heard Diluc’s voice. He had been at the bar but spotted you as soon as you came through the door. His eyes landed on the gift you were holding. “If you’d like, you can leave that over there. Barbara said we’ll open the gifts after eating and once everyone is here.” Diluc motioned to a round table in a corner. Several of the partygoers left their gifts either on the table or on the floor. Some were big, others small. You were curious to find out which one was meant for you.

“Okay, thanks.” You went over to the table and placed the gift next to one that was the same size. You weren’t about to carry that around all night. The glass jars were too heavy for that.

After you put your gift with the rest, you decided to join the rest of the crowd.

You found out that Kamisato Ayato was Diluc’s closest friend. He and his sister, Ayaka, came to Mondstadt to celebrate the holiday with Diluc. Last year, he was the one who went to Inazuma to visit the siblings. Barbara was apologizing because she didn’t know they would be here. And if she did, she’d prepare a gift so that neither would feel left out. They let her know it was an unforeseen event and she had no reason to apologize.

Bennett and Fischl were the last to arrive. Afterwards, Barbara asked everyone to come to the first floor and get their gifts so she could explain the rules. You placed yours underneath your chair. Jean sat next to you, keeping hers on her lap and making small talk about who she guessed you had.

The table in the corner was soon empty. Whoever went first, the person who received the gift would go next. So on and so on until all gifts were exchanged.

Donna decided to start the chain off. For an odd reason, she had two gifts. You all gave each other the same knowing look. One gift was meant for her Secret Santa and the other was obviously meant for Diluc. If anything, you were already aware she had selected a better choice in present for him. Except Barbara didn’t let her give it to him right away and told her to wait until everything was over.

She had Bennett. From Bennett, it went over to Klee. He had gifted the little girl a new backpack and a tiny one for Dodoco. Klee’s gift went to Razor. He might have been the happiest one from the night. Eventually the chain went around to Albedo who had just opened his gift from Lisa.

“For my Secret Santa, I got (Y/N).” Albedo handed you a wrapped box.

It had candy canes all over the paper and a giant bow on the top. You heard some rustling inside. You tore the wrapping paper off the sides. Removing it fully, you opened the box and your eyes widened in astonishment. Albedo had carefully packaged two glass cloches beside each other. They contained flowers sprouting on the inside. He went as far as adding grass to the base and making it seem like a small garden.

“I managed to find a way to preserve cecilias and glaze lilies.” He explained and helped you take one of them out to show everyone else. “I remember you said they’re your favorite flowers. These will never die even if you take the glass off of them. And you won’t need to water them either.”

“Thank you so much, Albedo!” You said, opening up one arm to give him a hug. He reciprocated the action. “And I love how you painted butterflies on the glass domes!”

“Actually, they’re called cloches.” Ayato corrected from across the room, making your attention go from Albedo to him. Ayaka ended up smacking his knee with her fan. The entire room let out a collective laugh at the two siblings bickering.

Your eyes drifted over to Diluc who sat next to the Kamisato siblings. It seemed like he already knew he was going to be next. Both of his hands are on his lap, waiting to get his gift. He was staring at you intently and tapping his gloved hand against his thigh. You set Albedo’s gift next to your chair with extra care.

“My gift is to Diluc.” You said. You slid out the wrapped box from underneath your chair. You had both your hands holding the bottom side of the box. Watching your step, you made your way to the other side of the room where Diluc was.

“Ah, this should be interesting.” Ayato said with a grin on his face. He shifted in his chair, body leaning towards his friend. He seemed more interested in the gift than the person who was receiving it.

“It’s heavy.” You said, nervously. You gently handed it over to Diluc.

“Thank you.” He took it in his arms and placed it on the floor between his feet. Ayato moved his chair closer to get a better view of what your gift to his best friend would be. Diluc waited until you sat back down in your chair. He began to unwrap the ribbon you’d tied around the entire box. He pulled on one edge of the lace, allowing it to unravel on its own.

After that was over, he lifted off the top of the box. You watched anxiously to see his reaction to your gift. When Diluc saw what was inside, a small smirk came on his lips. Meanwhile, Ayato scrunched up his eyebrows at the peculiar choice. He realized what the items were and why exactly your commission had been such a weird request.

Diluc kept the lid on his lap. He crouched over in his chair and pulled out one of the seven items inside.

In his hands, Diluc held a glass jar filled to the top with slime condensate. There wasn't only one in there. You had asked for a minimum of three jars in your commission and sent over enough Mora for their troubles. But, being the nice person he was, Itto decided to get you a total of—

“Six jars of slime condensate.” Diluc held it up in the air as if he was examining it. You started to feel a little embarrassed when he spun it around and showed it off the rest of the crowd. They each side eyed each other, wondering what kind of present that was. You actively avoided their gazes as they questioned your choice. Why did he have to start off with the worst gift? “I’m assuming they come from Watatsumi Island?” He said in a slight teasing tone.

Diluc’s lips twitched upwards when he glanced over at you. He shook the jar a little, the slime bouncing around. It clinked against the other jars as he carefully set it back into the gift box. Next, he moved onto the second gift. Right beside all of the six jars was a dark red jewelry box. It had a geo symbol carved on the top which Diluc knew you got it from Liyue.

He placed it on his lap and cautiously opened it since he wasn’t sure of what was inside. Inside, the box had a black velvety texture. It had two separate sections. Ayato heard his friend let out a small snicker before composing himself and turning it around for the remaining partygoers to see.

“It’s a matching hairbrush and a hair comb.” Diluc said.

Both the brush and comb were designed to be the same. They had been marbleized with red and gold. What stood out the most was the hair comb. The accessory had been made to resemble a phoenix. Its wings were outstretched and the beak pointed upwards. If placed in the hair correctly, it was supposed to give off the illusion the phoenix was flying.

“Oh, how beautiful.” Ayaka silently complimented.

The jewelry box closed with a snap and Diluc set it beside the six jars of slime condensate. He closed the lid of his gift and a wide smile spread on his face. For some reason, you felt like he found this entire situation hilarious.

“Thank you, (Y/N). I’m especially grateful for the slime.” He said. Diluc cleared his throat right after and the smile disappeared. He ended up picking up his gift and announced who his Secret Santa was. “My gift is to Sucrose.”

The remaining gifts were passed around until everyone had opened their gifts. They were all thoughtful and generous.

Everyone loved their gifts and it was perfect for their personalities. Yet, your eyes kept looking over at Diluc’s present. He had to be lying. The party continued as normal. People broke off into their separate groups, ate the remaining leftovers and treats, and played a few games. The gifts, held dear in everyone’s hearts, were forgotten at the moment.

An hour passed and you thought it would be a good time to leave the party. You put your coat on as well as your gloves. Thankfully, you didn’t live too far from the tavern. There should still be a few guards patrolling the city in case of intruders.

“I’m going to be leaving now.” You said to Barbara while holding your gift from Albedo. You wanted to thank him again only to find out he’d left with Klee a long time ago. The little girl was starting to get sleepy and tried to play it off that she wasn’t tired.

“You are? Aw, I wanted you to stay a little longer!” Barbara said. Diluc overheard your conversation and he had already slipped on his red jacket.

“Allow me to walk you home. I insist.” He said, opening the tavern door. Cold air rushed in causing his cheeks and nose to get rosy. “Barbara, if I don’t return soon and everyone has left, don’t worry about cleaning the mess. Head home as well.” He instructed before leaving the tavern right after you.

The door closed. Diluc fixed his jacket as he began following you.

He only had plans to drop you off at your home safely and return to the tavern. You were both walking in silence. You glanced out the corner of your eye. Diluc’s hands were in his pockets. He had a small smile on his face. It was starting to get to you. The smile had the appearance he knew something and purposely refused to tell you what it was. You exhaled loudly, deciding to confront and get it over with. It would be better for him to be honest.

“You didn’t like your gift… Did you?” You asked, stopping in your tracks. You tilted your head to the side and turned to face him.

“I did like my gift. Why would you ask that question?” He answered.

“Why are you smiling like that then?” You nodded your head. It was really in the most innocent and subconscious manner. Diluc didn’t want you to take it the wrong way so it was a good time to come clean. Especially since the hunt for gifts and the party was over. He left his gift in the tavern, right behind the bar counter so no one would find it.

“I have something to admit.” He said.

Oh. Your eyes widened slightly. You took a step back. Donna was going to be mad.

“I lied to you. I don’t actually use slime condensate in my hair.”

Oh. You narrowed your eyes at the man standing in front of you. Scratch that, you were going to be mad. The smile on Diluc’s face grew a lot more visible.

“What?” You finally spoke up. “You’re joking, right?”

“No. I’m not joking.” He shook his head. Your jaw dropped at the confirmation. “I don’t use it. If anyone does, they must be out of their mind to put that in their hair.”

“So you were faking the entire time?!” You shouted. He had led you to believe his hair was his favorite feature and that he cared for it the most. All those times he complained about running low on slime and he might need to find a replacement before getting his new stash from Inazuma. Pure lies he made on the spot. He was so convincing, you thought all he loved in life was slime condensate. “Diluc, you’re such a jerk!” You would have punched him if you weren’t carrying your gift. He grinned briefly at your weak insult.

“Is it my fault you were terrible at hiding you had me for Secret Santa?” He said. He began to walk again and you sped up to join him. You had to be honest. Your attempts were very pitiful when you spoke with Diluc that entire week. It’s much easier to talk with him at the moment than beforehand. “Though, I like your gift more than Donna’s.”

That’s an accomplishment.

“Are you sure six jars were necessary?”

“Leave me alone.”

[mcytblr-archive]

Early MCYTblr Interviews: kermiekermie

today's interviewee is @kermiekermie, who ran "Friend or Host", was a part of the "Block Men Simps" group chat, and has generally been an active member of MCYTblr for a long time! below is a transcript of the questions and answers.

Q: What was your general experience in MCYTblr? Does anything stand out to you immediately?

A: I think my general experience on mcytblr was pretty positive compared to some peoples. The one thing that really stands out is how young I was- i was 11 when i joined mcytblr in early-mid 2020. That didnt really change the way people treated me aside from the occasional teasing and babying, but I did make it a point to say I didn't want to be treated differently. Mcytblr was not my first time in a fandom space and I knew how to avoid creeps already so I never really had any truly negative experiences, honestly the only annoying things that happened were being banned from discords and blocked by people due to my age (which was completely understandable). The biggest memory I have of mcytblr is of course the Block Men Simps group chat, and the original members of the group chat are really the only tumblr mutuals I still keep up with (snail actually has my snapchat!) I still kind of view them as a sort of family, and they were there for me in what I consider an extremely low point of my life and really helped me take my mind off things. During quarantine, I didnt have any of my irls numbers or socials and my mom had just been diagnosed with breast cancer, so I quite literally NEVER left the house and tumblr was really the only social interaction I got for a solid year. And while that definitely impacted my social development (i still cant start a conversation with someone irl without feeling nauseous and shaky) i'm very grateful I had people to talk to throughout that.

Q: I understand that you were the one who set up "Friend or Host". What was the process of organizing a fandom event like that like?

A: Friend or host . god. Like I said, I was 11-12 throughout the majority of my time on mcytblr, and I had ZERO experience organizing anything and I had very little help from anyone else. I tried to make it work the best I could and got creative, but overall I don't think it was a very big success. Funnily enough, not everyone who participated in FOH knew my age and one of the winners actually blocked me afterwards they found out, which I still giggle about today.

Q: How did Friend or Host go?

A: I don't think FOH necessarily went bad, but if I had a little more help and better organization skills and planned it out further ahead of time, I think it would've gone better. It was still fun and I had a good time either way, but I can admit it was a little messy.

Q: What major events in the fandom do you remember? (Either from the MCYTers themselves or fandom-specific!)

A: Honestly, my memory of my time in the wider mcytblr community isnt all that great and I tend to get timelines a little messed up, but i DO remember being there for the creation of the original dreamceler copypasta. In the BMS group chat we were having our normal conversation and someone oncest got brought up at the same time as dream somehow, and thus Ginger wrote the extremely cursed dreamceler copypasta. This eventually evolved into an entire universe (the dreamceler cinematic universe?) with various different copypastas that eventually had to be archived because of how out of hand it got. Sometimes I still see the copypastas floating around and it kind of freaks me out every time. I also have a veryyyy vivid memory of the time I made the 2020 mcytblr election discord read OmegaNotFound on wattpad (do NOT research. for your own safety) and it was really amusing seeing everyones reactions.

Q: Do you remember any of the "kinnie" blogs?

A: oh MY the kinnie blogs!! i actually have dms with a couple of them plotting little jokes and such and I got involved with them quite often!! i actually ran a justaminx one for a couple days (yikes) and it wasnt really that believeable looking back. me and ginger as well as a couple other mooties loved spamming the ask boxes of them with piss jokes and such, and I feel like we played a pretty big role in how widespread and popular kinnie blogs became.

Q: What was the "Kroger Anon"?

A: oh my dearest kroger anon how I miss you…. I still dont know who the kroger anon actually WAS, but they would send rainbow colored advertising messages about Kroger to various mcytblr blogs at random intervals. Funny thing is, I dont live near any krogers and have never been to one in my life, but the anon messages kinda made me want to go. I miss kroger anon…. kroger anon if youre reading this come home please..

Q: What were common in-jokes in the fandom of that time? (Copypastas, headcanons, rumors, etc)

A: Common in-jokes is a hard one!! like i said earlier, my memory of my time in mcytblr isnt all that great or extensive and I could probably better answer this if I went through my archive but alas, I do not have the patience for that. Obviously we had the good ole tapeworm and pregnancy posts, dreamceler, and various other cursed copypastas and memes. One inside joke between the block men simps gc was "thinkign 👽" which came from a typo snail made that just kind of caught on and we would use every once in a while to giggle at. Other than that, I can't really think of any specific inside jokes.

Q: Is there anything else you remember or would like to talk about?

A: Something I really want to talk about is how much lurking I did!! on the outside I was definitely a normal parasocial mcytblr blog but I lurked on pretty much every corner of the fandom you could really think of. Obviously I have a ton of critblr and other controversial mutuals but I never really openly interacted with that side of mcytblr since it was pretty heavily debated and I am nothing if not conflict avoidant. I also did quite a bit of truthing that no one ever really mentioned which I guess I sort of appreciate. I think being in a fandom that involved actual real people ar that age for that long kind of screwed with me, and ive never really been able to be in a fandom for a piece of actual fiction because theyve just never gotten my interest in the same way, I guess. Even now, i was in grouptwt for quite a while (tgc podcast) and now im active on kpoptwt, which again, both of those fandoms are for actual real people. I dont think its the parasocial aspect either, ive never been super parasocial and have never had a problem criticizing the content creators I watch. Im really grateful for all the people I met on mcytblr, but I think the actual dream smp and the way I engaged with content overall negatively impacted how I interact with things now.

[whatvioletdoes-blog]

Creative energy has left the boat after the LU write-a-thon, but I've gotta say it was the most fun I've had with any sort of creative thing in a while!

It's also the first time back to writing fanfic in quite some time, and might lead to very very soon posting our first LU fanfic...

We last posted any fanfic at all three years ago, and the last time we posted a multi-chapter work was in 2017 on Wattpad for the Danganronpa fandom, so that's gonna be an experience XD

The fic's a modern AU chatfic of the chain (+ Spirit and maybe Linkle) getting brought together by Wind into a Discord server so they can all participate in a Links Fight! (Based on the famous Josh Fight)

Mostly an excuse to put the many quotes we have collected over time into a single fic, and we did get a few more from the event that we'll try to include too!

When we post it we'll probably share it here, but it'll be over on our ao3 (WhatVioletDoes), and here's a little snippet!

Trans Legend and system Four my beloved, you bet we're putting as many fun headcanons as we can in there! It's entirely self-indulgent lol

If any of the people from the event find this: Thank you all so much for how much fun you made the event! Chatting with everyone was amazing, and you all did really great! Can't wait to see the wordcount we'll need to beat next time and cry when we actually have to work on it XD

And the biggest hug and thank you to the mods, who did an amazing job and managed to both run this and participate themselves 💜

Now if you'll excuse me, "I have a sigma to grind set" /quote (from the event!)

[bewitched-bullet]

Hi. I've been trying to follow #a scandal in tumblr but I'm still confused.

I've been following the John/Sherlock blogs for about 18 months or so. And in the beginning of my following, both characters seemed like they were posting as if they were both in 2021-2023 (Rosie when mentioned, was portrayed as 6-7 years old, current events were mentioned, etc.). It was mainly John and Sherlock interacting, mostly cases and domestic life type posts. Which was great. It even was entertaining and fun when Mycroft and Greg joined in, especially when it was related to a case. Mrs. Hudson, Rosie, Molly and Jim weren't as fun, and they posted sporadically and didn't add much to the whole experience.

And in the beginning (of when I started following) both John and Sherlock (characters) acted closer to the canon BBC characters, although with some small changes of course (most likely the mods personalities showing through). But while John continued to post as though he was a middle aged dad, working as a doctor, in love with Sherlock and publicly saying as much, and participating in cases, Sherlock started changing (I'm not sure if regressing is the right word?). Focusing more on drugs, acting shocked and disgusted at any mention of sex/attraction, not knowing what well known common slang meant, fighting with anon asks about absolutely nothing and not interacting as much with anyone except John and Jim. Which contradicted how he acted to start on the blog, as well as the canon character. BBC Sherlock was a drug user but didn't constantly talk about or persue drugs, he said he wasn't interested in sex, but he wasn't naive about it (as the comment to Donovan in the first episode about her knees showed, as well as being well aware of what Irene's activities were and what she was blackmailing the royal with), and he wouldn't have hung out with Jim just because he was bored.

The two blogs seemed to be on different pages (as far as the rp went) and it became confusing to follow. I went from a daily reader to weekly or even longer on occasion. Which bummed me out because I had enjoyed it a lot. But 🤷🏼‍♀️ it's just online fun, right?

I come back after a week or so of not reading, to find the whole "break-up" with Sherlock, making it seem like the whole rp blogs were finished and done. Which seemed really odd after the whole "love confession" from Sherlock that John had pinned for like a month. And also a surprise to not only followers but Sherlock as well.

Then all of the further mod drama blowing up, when as far as I remember, there hadn't been any kind of mod/rl posts before about any conflict between them. I honestly don't remember seeing any posts from the mods on the John/Sherlock blogs, ever. As far as I know, that's pretty normal for rp blogs, at least the few I've ever read. Mod interaction happened by DM/messaging/Discord etc.

I did send a few asks to both characters over the time that I followed, as myself and anonymous at times, but didn't really get super involved. I've never communicated with the characters or mods other than the asks. So it seemed weird that when all of this drama started, I get a message from the John mod, telling me how the other characters mods are trying to destroy his blog, threatening him, trying to turn his followers against him, and how it was ruining their life. Asking me to post support for him. I didn't know what to respond as I didn't and don't have a clue as to what's going on behind the scenes. So I didn't. I really don't understand who is who that is involved in all of this, (blogs/mods, Dump, Greg mod, etc), and not informed enough to "pick a side".

I appreciate that you are trying to clear the confusion up for everyone that enjoyed the blogs, and bring to light any bullying that is going on. I really don't have a dog in the fight, I was just here for the fun, and I don't know enough about either mod to have an opinion on whose the bully.

Just sharing a POV from a casual fan and how extremely weird this whole thing is. 😊

PS I do enjoy your blog and interactions that were on the Sherlock blog before. The puzzles and mysteries were interesting!

Thank you so much for sharing your perspective. I think I started following in…October? Right around the time I broke my back and had nothing else to do but be bed-bound and twiddle my thumbs. I wish I had more knowledge on how tumblr works so I can better assist folks in navigating the search. The best I can suggest, to get chronological order of the journey, is to scroll my page till you hit, I think, March 4th or 5th. And I posted, wtf happened—I was gone over in left field, minding my business and I come back and shit had hit the fan.

That’s when I received my first ask to go back and look, so I went to town on some digging.

And god, it was confusing, sus, and at first just some light observations and criticisms on how to run a role play (am an active DM and I agree with your assessment ). When I created the tab #a scandal in tumblr, it was supposed to be a tongue in cheek reference to the Sherlock Holmes case A Scandal in Belgravia. But then it took a turn and the tag was no longer tongue in cheek.

Anywho, I am sorry that a mod attempted to personally get you to “chose a side.” That had to be a 🤨 moment.

I don’t expect you (or anyone) to enter a dog into the fight (save that puppy), just to simply observe and make an informed decision that best fits you. I certainly don’t expect people to be like me. I may be intelligent but I’m a dummy for willing painting a target on my back. And wouldn’t want anyone else to do this. (Though I do appreciate my dark “acolytes” ™️ by harriett mod)

I’m glad you have enjoyed my small corner of the inter-webs and my little 20 question mysteries. Once this is over, I hope I can make things enjoyable again…after I eat some grass and touch some food.

[miserymermaid]

Well, it's been a great journey...

(This writeup is very late to the party because I've been busy, sorry!)

As of the end of November 2023, SINoALICE has been shut down. Looking back it's wild how fond I had grown for the game in the 3 years I played Global.

The story was very edgy and outrageous at points but I discovered characters who I latched onto and found their motivations interesting. The biggest one (obviously) being The Little Mermaid; her desire to revive her author to make her story even sadder because she believed the tragedy is what made the story beautiful was an interesting character twist. Like, she's not wrong! The story of The Little Mermaid wouldn't be what it is without the tragic ending (well...it would be a Disney movie I guess 🙄). And her constant desire to find delight/beauty in the tragic could be played for both laughs and seriousness. Every time a new class of hers was released on a banner I grinded for it like crazy, and I ended up with a collection of cute Mermaid outfits that I was really proud of!

My second favorite character was Dorothy, a cheery mad scientist with no regards for boundaries or ethics. Whenever Dorothy was added to a story event, you knew you were in for a good time. I really liked her design as well; she had the most outrageous outfits! If I was ever going to cosplay a character from SINoALICE it would probably be her. And of course many of the other characters worked their charm on me and it was fun every time we got to see a new combination of characters interact with each other.

Any time there was a collab event I really enjoyed myself, even if I had no familiarity with many of the IPs being collabed with. I particularly have fond memories of the 'Fishing Star World Tour' collab because of how hard I grinded in order to obtain the eye-popping fishing pole nightmares that were available as raids...I got both of them AND enough to max limit break them! I also couldn't get away without mentioning 'An End to Summer Dreams', the clam-fishing event that introduced the beloved Lammy; it was one of the first medal events that I participated in after I joined and it felt really fun to be part of the Lammy zeitgeist.

And of course, I can't go without shouting out my amazing guild, JellicleCats...what a fun gang to be a part of. We never aimed to be super colo competitive but we did our best, had some really nice victories, and the slimiest losses! Everyone in the guild was so good-natured, making jokes and swapping strategy advice. At the very end I worked my way up to being the top-ranked vanguard of the group and #4 ranked overall; I'm so happy I could work hard and do well by my teammates!

I am not one to play a lot of gachas in general, SINoALICE was definitely my first foray into playing a gacha fairly seriously, but I don't think I could've asked for a better experience. I was a F2P player and proud that I never once felt coerced into making a purchase. Some people may deride me for being proud of that fact, that it means I never gave the game my support, but I believe that a healthy gacha atmosphere crucially depends on making space for people who wish to be F2P without suffering gameplay-wise for it. I supported SINoALICE with my passion, with logging in every day to see what new twist the game would bring, with making good friends.

SINoALICE took up a lot of my time and I won't say I'm a tiny bit glad to be free of the obligation of constantly being on my phone, but I definitely will miss it. Thank you to all the developers who worked on the game to make this bonkers story come true, and thank you to everyone who played and who I ever got a chance to meet throughout the game!

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 5/30/2023

I feel like I worked really hard last week, and yet I don't actually have much to show for it. I guess a lot of it is little stuff that piled up. I mean, I very much do still have a bit pile of dumb little tasks to do, but it's smaller than it was last week. I feel like I've had to do a lot of driving and socializing lately, too, which not only take up time, but wipes me out both before and after.

If you like extra features, I did finish up my go places addenda post last week. I have a lot of ao3 comments to reply to, but aside from that, I guess I'm pretty much done with that one. It gave me a lot of grief while I was writing it, but in the end, I think I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I have some good feelings about the end stages of sitting with it.

Onward and upward!! Sorry if this is old hat to my regular followers, but just to get everyone up to date, the new project is Ductwork, the next part of Heart is a Muscle. The preview summary I slapped on the end of What We Do with Our Hearts reads "Renji tries to not make it a big deal when he gets his long-damaged kidou ducts fixed; Rukia is having none of it. Byakuya would like to be removed from this narrative and yet can't seem to manage it."

I started it about a year ago, immediately finishing Hearts, and knocked out about 7700 words of it at the time. I'm kinda gun-shy, because last summer I really really wanted to finish a little in love and I tried and failed (tried and died, basically), a thing that has not been made better by the fact that people have started sending sad little messages like "i hope you finish this someday..." That being said, I am trying to be more realistic about my capabilities, especially because I have a lot more Mom-duties in the summertime. My goal is to make 20,000 words of progress before I fizzle out this time. I mean, if I do finish it, that would be great! I'm not gonna stop dead if I hit 20k. I do hope to participate in the Bleach Returns event this July, but whether that consists of a small break or a big break, I don't know. We'll see.

So, I already have a significant chunk of the first act done, but I'm having trouble moving forward, because I don't have a great idea of how the second act is gonna go. For now, it's two acts, it's evolving, and I'm letting it. I'm trying to let myself exist in creative mode and have some fun with that. In that vein, I just went ahead and let myself write The Big Scene, the scene that is the entire reason I am writing this fanfic. I wrote 3500 words on it this week. It's not done yet, but I am having fun. I've also been having little bursts of inspiration for scenes that follow and other things I want to do, so overall, I am in a good place. It's nice. This is good.

The overall document length at the moment is 12,617, which means I've done about 5k words since I started working on it, which is a quarter of the way there! That's distinctly Not Bad!!

In other news, I've been increasingly dissatisfied with Google Docs, so I am experimenting with writing this one in Microsoft Word. I don't deal with change well, so for now, I hate it, but I'm figuring out ways to make it more the way I like, and at least it doesn't constantly reload back to the top of the page. I will keep you updated. It's not like I can't just cut and paste it back into the other program, which I would end up doing anyway, because GDocs works pretty well for beta-reading and the AO3 auto-html script is handy.

[umilily]

sometimes i think about how vastly different my life would have likely been if the town i grew up in didn't publish the weights of kids participating in sports events in the local newspaper. (this was on an amateur level, mind you. like, we were all just doing this for fun) i genuinely enjoyed doing martial arts, but it was such an incredibly hostile environment for fat kids (and let's face it most sport clubs are to this day, at least in my personal experience) and for girls. and i was good at it too. but being bullied for my weight during regular training already, why in the world would i subject myself to even more of that when inevitably everyone in my small town would be informed about the exact number i put on the scale on the day of a tournament?? did help either that i was quite tall for my age, so naturally until everyone else caught up heightwise, i'd always be even heavier in comparison. and on the one or two occasions that i let my trainer talk me into competing, i'd end up in a match with someone 5 years older and a head taller than me. you can imagine the outcome. also nevermind the fact that i grew boobs really early as well and surprise surprise there simply was no protective gear to fit them available, so i had to squeeze myself in too small ones until i eventually quit. it feels incredibly ironic when my whole ass family always went on and on about how great doing this sport (allegedly) was for my self-confidence. that might have been true if i had been of average height and weight as a 10 year old. but alas i wasn't, i think in fact nothing else ruined my self-confidence more effectively than that. took me years to even muster enough courage to tell my parents i wanted to quit. i had such a horrible self-image at the time, i feel so sorry for myself looking back at that, because little lily really did not deserve any of that. at the time it just made me insecure and sad, but looking back at it now, i honestly get really mad about it. because there was no way of "doing it right". no matter what you do as an overweight person (and in this case i think it's much worse as a girl), people are going to make fun of you for doing it and will act like they know every goddamn thing better than you do. you're doing sports? yeah, you really should work out more to lose some weight. but of course we're going to be condescending about it the entire time your doing it and not make even the slightest accomodation for you. you want to quit? well, you've always been lazy and you'll see how that works out for you when you get even bigger. i vividly remember that one time, a little bit before christmas i was like 5 minutes late for practise, bc i was baking some cookies and thought it would be nice to bring some with me to give to these people that i've at this point literally known for a decade. so i apologised for being a little late, telling my trainer that they needed a littler longer in the oven than i expected and the only thing he said in reply was just "are you sure that you should be eating these?" i was honestly speechless. and that man genuinely thought he was giving me some good advice and doing me a favour by saying that. like he just immediately assumed as well, that i made a whole bunch of snacks to eat them on my own, literally didn't occur to him they might have been a gift? because yeah of course the fat girl would eat them all.

[bowtiesnmusicals]

Here is my recap of the So Much We Didn’t See (Laryngitis) episode of the podcast.

This episode on May 11 2010.

They had to really rack their brains to remember what happened in the real world the week the episode aired.

They were about to start their first tour.

They were in Phoenix Arizona. It was hot as hell.

It was Kevin’s first time in two gay bars. Jenna went to one of them.

Zach Woodlee and Kevin got invited to a back room at one of them and got to try expensive Tequila. Kevin thought it tasted like lighter fluid.

At one of the clubs it was announced that the cast of glee was there. They ran out of there so quickly. It was Kevin, Chris, Telly, and Megan. Kevin said where’s Chris, get Chris out of here.

Kevin was not closeted to the cast that played the kids. By the time they out to LA Jane Lynch came up to Kevin and said I heard you are a little gay boy. Kevin turned bright red. He didn’t want anyone else to know.

For this tour Phoenix was where they were working out what the show was going to be because there was debate if they would be in character the whole time. During the first show there wasn’t a lot of consistency. Sometimes they would refer to each other by their real names and others by their characters names. Kevin was in his chair the whole time so he was basically always Artie. They didn’t quite know what they were doing yet.

The people running the tour thought it would be like One Direction and everyone would go crazy. They would get respectful applause between numbers and then after the show everyone went crazy. The demographics were way off from what the tour promoters thought it would be because it wasn’t just teens. It was teens, younger children up through grandparents. People reacted like they were watching a theatre show and not a concert. They had to have a meeting to dissect what was going on. They figured out that because they were doing so many skits that it felt more like a theatre show. They added more bits of crowd participation to make it feel more like a concert.

Kevin took it very personally.

It was a new format for a tv show to go on tour. The only thing they had to go off before this was High School Musical which was a different demographic.

May 11 is Cory’s birthday and Jenna’s dad’s birthday. Her mom’s birthday is the same as Lea. Kevin’s mom has the same birthday as Ryan.

The tour was a hit after they figured things out. It’s as an experiment. They filmed at Radio City and we never saw it. Kevin said they have to text Ryan to see if he still has it.

The Fox execs fessed up that it was sort of like a pilot program. If it did well then they would do an even bigger tour the next year.

The #1 song was Nothin’ On You by B.o.B featuring Bruno Mars.

The #1 movie was Iron Man 2 with their future friend Gwyneth Paltrow.

On this day in 2009 the Glee cast attended their season 1 premiere screening event at Santa Monica High School.

Within a year they were selling out Radio City Music Hall in New York.

Kevin said the first tour was fun.

A restaurant was rented out for the cast and crew the day after the Radio City show. They went buck wild dancing on tables.

This episode was special for many reason.

Naya is progressively singing more and more and more in the back 9 episodes of the season. The creative team was starting to recognize how damn good she was at everything.

This episode is a perfect example of what Ryan said about it was so special that they got to spend so much time between scenes and he got to know them. This episode is a product of that. They also had time to bond with one of the directors, Alfonso.

Alfonso has also done a lot of directing for American Horror Story.

Kevin can do a great Alfonso impression. It’s the only one he can do. Well he can do Ryan too.

Zack Weinstein was a very special guest star.

Mike O’Malley and Ashley Fink are also in this episode.

Unfortunately there is no Jessalyn or Jayma in this episode.

The songs in this episode are Jesse’s Girl, Lady Is A Tramp (Kevin didn’t know this was from a Broadway show. He thought it was like a Frank Sinatra song. Jenna said that is fair because they did make it sound like a Frank Sinatra song or cover), The Boy Is Mine, Rose’s Turn, and One (The cover with Mary J. Bilge. Kevin was sad he didn’t get to sing on this song).

Rachel gets laryngitis, Kurt changes his persona to try to impress his dad, and Puck tries to regain his social status by dating Mercedes after shaving his mohawk. Mark was sick of it by this point. It made him super easy to spot out in the real world.

On the waste management sign on the trash can Puck gets thrown into there is a misspelling.

Puck tries to go after Mercedes and says many many offensive things. On the flip side Mark go to be very funny in this episode. It was something we didn’t get to see a lot of and Jenna said he was very funny.

Quinn gives Mercedes a heads up about being more worried about Santana going after Mercedes for going after her man.

Kevin said you need to go watch some bootlegs of the tour especially The Boy Is Mine.

Somehow when they were sitting around between takes they would have their directors/cast chairs in a circle in the middle of the soundstage. At some point Naya started doing a Monica impression which involved a lot of neck movement, neck bobbing, and hair moving. It was an incredible spot on impression. This probably happening during Madonna. Ryan would just appear out of nowhere and ask what they were laughing at and they would tell Naya to do the impression. Kevin said it felt like a coup and they tricked Ryan into doing something they wanted to do. You just have to make Ryan think it’s his idea.

After Naya recorded it she said Adam wouldn’t let her do the full impression. She definitely got a lot of it in there though.

There is a shot where Naya is at the piano and when she leaves she does this neck thing and that was part of the impression she would do for the cast.

Kevin discovered when he was looking this episode up he found that Naya does the full Monica impression on the tour.

Needless to say they were so excited to get to do The Boy Is Mine.

Puck at some point when trying to woo Mercedes says Blacks and Jews have a history of sticking up for each other. Wikipedia says King Martin Luther loved the Jews. He also mentions joining a Black church. It’s so very cringy and inappropriate.

Lea has a thing where she bad sings. Because she has such a phenomenal voice the juxtaposition of her bad singing is so good it’s cringing, off key, and piercing but so freaking funny. They would ask her to do it all the time on set between takes. She had the ability to get just off key enough that you are like oh god. They made her do it for Ryan and he laughed. The face she performs The Climb with is the one she uses when she does her bad singing. It’s like she’s not aware but she knows something is wrong. She did it live because it wasn’t a recordable thing. She has an earwig in her ear and you can see it. It was so she could keep time and keep the track.

She was singing and there was no music. They rest of the cast and to sit it he choir room in silence. They ere all trying to keep it together but it was so hard. Jenna was crying just thinking about it. There is a shot of Kevin before she starts singing and he’s already laughing. He’s doing his frowny face and turned away from her because he knew what was coming.

Lea was like guys you’ve got to stop laughing, I’ve got to get this done because they were making her laugh. The only way for them to not laugh was to make confused faces. Harry’s face was phenomenal. Nothing has ever made Kevin laugh harder then when Lea did her bad singing. Kevin texted her once and asked her do it on her phone for him.

Back to the episode recap. Rachel realizes that some of the glee club isn’t pulling their weight. She bribes Zizes with candy to but the choir room.

Ryan confirmed that Jesse was named Jesse so that Finn could sing Jesse’s Girl. This is Finn’s Don’t Rain On My Parade.

On the second tour the girls had a quick change room under the stage. Somehow along the way it turned into the girls pole dancing and stripping as they changed. Kevin heard about it and he would see them doing full strip tease. This would happen during Jesse’s Girl.

On one of the tours Jenna peed in a bucket.

Jesse’s Girl became an iconic number.

Rachel loses her mind and loses her will to live. She’s told she has to have surgery which is a scary thing when you are a singer.

Finn takes Rachel to see friend Sean Fretthold who is paralyzed. The actor who plays him, Zack, is paralyzed from the waist down.

When Rachel was crying in the scenes with him Lea was really crying.

Alfonso did an amazing job with these scenes.

There was an NPR article on Zack that came out the day the episode aired .He didn’t say anything bad about Kevin but said their should be more opportunities for actors that are disabled.

I’m like Tinkerbelle I need applause to live is probably one of the best lines of the show. It’s so funny.

This is when Finn decides Rachel needs some perspective.

Kevin said they were dressed like a Gap ad during One. This was a Zach Woodlee this is our Gap ad moment.

Poor Alfonso, they tortured this port guy. They could not control themselves during the serious numbers. The more serious it was the more they would laugh. Fix You was the worst. According to Kevin it was embarrassing.

The other thing that is happening in this episode is Kurt.

The assignment of the week is for everyone to find their voice. This gives us a lot of great solos.

Kurt is really threatened by what is going on with Burt and Finn. Burt takes Finn to a lot of sports ball games as Kevin put it.

Sue asks Kurt how does he know he’s gay. Have you ever kissed a boy, have you kissed a girl? That’s the problem with your generation you are obsessed with labels. Say you like show tunes that doesn’t mean you are gay, means your awful. Another funny Sue line.

This leads Kurt to go on a John Mellencamp trip and wearing flannel. Burt just goes with it. Kurt sings Ain’t That America.

The scene where Kurt is making out with Brittany and Burt comes down. Burt says, when you decided you let me know. It’s always so poignant and impactful. The show constantly constantly is going high low. You have Kurt and Brittany being silly and then a very touching grounded scene with Burt. The show is constantly swinging back and forth between those highs and lows. You get those beautiful grounded moments and silly weird moments all in one scene.

This eventually leads to Rose’s Turn. Kevin has pictures of when Kurt’s name was in lights. It was a phenomenal performance. Chris slayed. He was nominated for an Emmy for this performance. He didn’t win but it’s fine he won a Golden Globe.

Burt gets to see him perform this and we get that moment of you don’t need to change who you are to make me love you.

Chris wanted this song so badly. He had been pitching this song so hard. Kevin didn’t know any of this and of course didn’t know the song because he didn’t know Broadway when he started Glee.

It’s an iconic song. It was brilliant and it was amazing he got a sign kind of like Roxy Hart in Chicago. They also changed the lyrics.

Jenna was blown away and so happy for him. Chris was so excited to do it.

They got to watch him do the number. Kevin and Jenna said Chris has never sounded better.

Billy Porter sang it during a commercial break for the Tony’s. It’s unbelievable.

This episode was a lot of Ryan listening and giving everyone what they wanted.

Tartie Takes:

Ouchies/Cringe Moments - Puck referring to Mercedes as black girl several times. Kevin said specifically said when Puck says girl you’ve got more curves then a Nissan ad.

Best Dance Move - Naya head bob for Monica in The Boy Is Mine

Best Song - Kevin: The Boy Is Mine Jenna: Jesse’s Girl

Best Performance by a Prop - Kurt in lights on the stage.

Best Line - Jenna: I’m like Tinkerbelle Finn I need applause to live. Kevin: show you like show tunes doens’t mean your gay it just means your awful and also when she says I checked out of this conversation a minute ago, I have to remind myself to not stop and talk with students. Even when she’s not really in an episode she’s in an episode. She shows up says the greatest shit ever heard and gets the hell out.

The Shit We Found On TikTok:

There is a TikTok that ranks the songs of every episode. For Laryngitis they got the top three correct. They ranked The Climb last. Rose’s Turn is somewhere in the middle. The Boy Is Mine was number 1 on their ranking.

Next week is Dream On…it’s like Wheels part 2. They are both excited to watch it.

[dajaregambler]

HeliosR - Crossed Change ~Waltz of Reminiscence~ - Chapter 11

Translation of chapter 11 of the event ‘Crossed Change ~Waltz of Reminiscence~’ from ‘Helios Rising Heroes’.

Will: Ah~ what a relief… The students responded well and we got the stamp of approval from the teachers too.

Will: Revealing the costumes was a huge success

Faith: The revealing part, sure.

Will: Eh…

Faith: Got stuff on your mind, no? What to do to make sure everyone will join… something like that?

Will: …Ahaha, that’s something only you would pick up on.

Faith: I saw how you handled things earlier.

Faith: But let’s be honest, Will. I get where you’re coming from but you have to stop persuading like that

Faith: Forcing people who aren’t interested to join won’t mean it’ll end up being a good experience, something you should already be aware of, yeah?

Will: …I know.

Will: Because that’s how it was for the prom from before.

Will: All I did was let all kinds of people participate… turning it into a nuisance without meaning to everyone involved…

Faith: ……

---(Flashback)

Student A: Prez! What do we do about these boxes here?

Will: Ah, we put things we need for the day of in these, just leave them in front of the storehouse

Student B: Prez, how’s this for hanging up the posters?

Will: Hmm, maybe they’re a bit too low. Move it a little more up, yeah, just like that! That’s great!

Will: All the preparation will be done in no time thanks to everyone’s help! Let’s keep at it!

Students: Yeah!

-

Faith: (Prepping the equipment should be done with this, I guess.)

Faith: (No issues with testing either, ought to go well for whoever’s performing that day.)

Will: Thank you for your efforts, Faith. How’s progress going over here? Anything that I need to help with?

Faith: I’m good. Finished up everything just now anyway

Will: I see. I made you do all of this on your own though…

Faith: Would’ve just ended up with more work instead if people who don’t know a thing tried to help

Faith: More importantly I’ve made a setlist, brought in the equipment and set it up too, which means I’m dismissed now, yeah?

Will: Yeah. We’ve finished the preparations on our end too, all that’s left are tasks on the day itself.

Faith: But there’s a bunch of flowers in your room, aren’t you busy with crafting something?

Will: Ah, the flowers…. Ahaha, I knew leaving them there would be a hindrance

Will: I’m actually crafting handmade corsages and boutonnieres to give them to people that come to the prom.

Faith: Isn’t that something prom goers have to make themselves?

Will: Yes. But since it takes time to get them ready, I took it upon myself to provide them for everyone.

Faith: Huuh… Good luck, I guess

Will: Yeah, I’ll do my best. And I can’t thank you enough for what you did, you were a huge help.

Faith: No need to thank me. Teacher’s orders after all

Will: …….

Faith: Something wrong, Will?

Will: ….It’ll be the last thing, but I have a request for you on my behalf, may I?

Faith: What now?

Will: In the end, I still want you to come to prom…

Faith: ….I told you I’m not going.

Will: I, of course, remember that. And I’m more than aware that I pushed a load of burdens onto you.

Will: But, I mean, the both of us did our best to make it all work. I’m certain it’ll be fun…

Will: And it’s because we worked so hard that those who were planning to skip are interested too now, they even said they’re looking forward to the day itself.

Will: I’m convinced it’ll be a prom everyone will enjoy. That’s why I want you to--

Faith: Listen, I said that I’m not going, ‘kay?

Faith: Dunno if this is just some kinda hero-like act, but don’t drag me further into it. Something like this is what people call an unwelcome favor, got it.

Will: Ah…. S-sorry. I crossed the line…

Faith: Anyway, I’m just gonna head back to our dorm

Teacher: Don’t you think you can, Beams.

[mirrorballwhoistrying]

I'm doing better, I made it out of September 02.10.2024

I did the pre-testing for the chatbot content early this month as well. It was exhausting but also fulfilling to hear people's stories as well.

On the first day of September, I hosted the first meeting with Hato and Kanika. Wow, it took so, so long for the first meeting to happen. We had a rough plan of what we should do. It was a moment I realized I needed to stop waiting for people to join me to do something. The run club was what I actually wanted to do but I was bursting around and strayed from it.

The next important thing that happened was the sharing session and the pop-up during the waste summit. It happened on the same day! I don't know why I was so free for several months then things just decided to happen simultaneously.

The pop-up was okay I think. We did like the trade-in as a trial. We received more than 10 books but there were some unoriginal books too. It was part of the process I think. I met b May, and it was such a comforting conversation! She gave advice and comfort, especially since being a high academic achiever, meeting rejections at work would be very hard.

Then came the sharing session. I did promote it a lot on Tik Tok and we ended up having 170+ participants during its peak! That's crazy! I think I did okay sharing and during the breakout session, Vanny was busy checking from room to room and I ended up moderating the session instead. It was a great experience and a bit nerve-wracking but I think I did fine! I had the seed of confidence to do something more!

On Monday, we met up with Nexus4youth team. I'm glad to meet this group of friends. we had and I felt so youthful again!

I finished the chatbot content and have already the 9 days in Bangkok!

Boom! There was an opening slot for a proposal to run an event and social media campaign! Kouy Y and I discussed and wanted to apply. I spent the first few days in Bangkok doing that proposal!

For the workshop? It was a story I wrote on another platform, but overall I'm glad to be part of this especially to see how other people in other countries are so open to talking about sexual pleasure and education. I'm just a bit mad at how my teammates are so passive. I'm not sure whether they felt intimidated or what.

Then I moved to a hostel from a 5-star hotel! the drastic change! I went to the sauna again and had fun then I met Suchi. The next day I also met my Thai YSEALI friends. Suchi also took me to meet her friends who are mostly expats living in Bangkok. I'm so glad! She asked me why don't want to move to Bangkok. I think I found the answer now. I want to build something long-lasting in my home country but yes I did take her words into consideration to live less like a main character and connect with people and what I'm trying to do is to create a community in my country.

Then boom! I feel like I lived so many lives in September! I met Kouy Y and had a rough plan for what to do for the rest of the year. Then on September 25th, I received the result that I was selected as an AAS scholar! I was over the moon! That was what I dreamt of and worked so hard for! I told everyone about it!

on the 27th, we had an orientation at IFL and I met so many familiar faces also some people that I didn't want to see. However, it's life so it is what it is.

I went to the pagoda during Pchum and my relatives were all over me. They were happy and supportive then there came an uncle who me I was living my life wrong because I was going to broke when coming back and I should apply for a job in ministry instead.

Well, the lesson here is that, no matter what I do, I'm not going to satisfy everyone. In 100 years, we're all going to die and I'm not going to live my life trying to please everyone!

I thought enough had happened in September but on the last of September, I was attending the EducationUSA Fair. I was talking non-stop from 2-6pm. Many volunteers asked me questions and also some juniors specifically came to see me! That's such an honor! It gave me comfort that this is the life that I want to live. I want to live a life in which I can give what I have instead of just trying to take, take!

That was it! Now I'm on 2nd day of Pchum Ben and my heart is full! I'd like to live the 3 months left in Cambodia as the best that I can!

[ngt48fanshub]

ISSHUN NO HANABI RELAY INTERVIEW - NARA MIHARU

"It Feels Like Seeing a Fragment of Youth"

This is the third installment of the relay interview featuring Miharu Nara, a first-generation member.

Deep Affection for the 10th Single in the 10th Year

Ⓠ How did you feel when you were selected as a member for the single? Miharu: I’m very happy to have been chosen for NGT48's commemorative 10th single. Personally, since it’s the 10th year since I joined, this single has a special meaning for me. I want to do my best to introduce NGT48’s wonderful songs and attract more interest.

Ⓠ What was your first impression of the single "Isshun no Hanabi"? Miharu: Since this song is a collaboration with the Gion Kashiwazaki Festival's grand fireworks display, I felt like I was seeing fireworks in the background. I thought the sound was delicate and I really liked it.

Ⓠ How do you plan to express the outlook of the song? Miharu: I want to express the outlook of the song clearly, just like the fleeting nature of fireworks and the lyrics, to convey what I want to share.

Ⓠ What did you think of the coupling track? Miharu: I’m participating in "Namida ga Kareru Made Soba ni Iru," which is structured to connect songs from first to third-generation members. The lyrics are comforting and deeply touching, making it a truly divine song.

Ⓠ Can you share any memorable episodes related to the 10th single, such as recording or MV shooting? Miharu: With the big theme of "fireworks," the costumes were designed with fireworks in mind, and the choreography also incorporated elements of fireworks. It was impressive how the MV filming felt very beautiful and firework-like. The dance scenes were sprinkled with many "emotional" moments, giving a sense of seeing a fragment of youth.

NGT48 is the Best in Any Era; I Want to Continue Working in Niigata

Ⓠ Can you share any memorable episodes related to the 10th single, such as recording or MV shooting? Miharu: With the big theme of "fireworks," the costumes were designed with fireworks in mind, and the choreography also incorporated elements of fireworks. It was impressive how the MV filming felt very beautiful and firework-like. The dance scenes were sprinkled with many "emotional" moments, giving a sense of seeing a fragment of youth.

Ⓠ What are your favorite things and charming points? Miharu: I love taking walks. Niigata has many great spots for walking, with rivers and the sea nearby, allowing me to relax and enjoy nature. I’m good at being independent and can go to restaurants or anywhere alone. I enjoy using social media and aim to post content that brings smiles to everyone, even though I take a relaxed approach.

Ⓠ What are your dreams and goals for future activities? Miharu: I strongly desire for many people to get to know and love NGT48, just as I have for over 9 years. I believe every era of NGT48 is the best. My goal is for as many people as possible to know and support NGT48. Personally, I want to continue loving and working in Niigata.

Ⓠ What do you find appealing about the NGT48 theater? Miharu: The "Omoide Ippai Kouen" at the NGT48 theater features a setlist exclusively of NGT48 songs, allowing you to fully experience NGT48. We update the songs for different seasons and events, working together to create enjoyable performances. I would be happy if people could visit and feel NGT48 up close.

Ⓠ Can you recommend a spot in Niigata? Miharu: In summer, the "Mizubering" event is held along the Shinano River at Yasuragi-Tei Embankment (Translator note: This is the pathway along the river). It’s a summer event where you can enjoy outdoor air and delicious food with tents and barbecue spots. It’s a great place to enjoy both fun and deliciousness.

Ⓠ Are there any NGT48 members you’re paying special attention to? Miharu: I’d be happy if everyone could pay attention to all NGT48 members, but particularly, the fourth-generation members, who have only been with us for less than a year, have shown vibrant colors in NGT48. I hope you find someone you’re interested in.

Ⓠ What are your favorite TV shows and music? Miharu: I love NGT48’s songs. There are many great songs by various artists, but our own songs are filled with personal meaning and are very important to me.

Ⓠ A message to fans and readers? Miharu: Thank you for reading to the end. NGT48 is active in Niigata, with a diverse range of members from the first to the fourth generation. I’m sure there’s someone among us who will capture your heart. If you’re even a little interested, we’re waiting for you in Niigata! With lots of delicious food, I hope you leave with both your stomach and heart full. Please continue supporting NGT48!

(From The Television web, published 2024/08/20)

[diuwingamesi]

The Journey of Diuwin Game: From Humble Beginnings to a Leading Gaming Platform

What started as a humble idea has grown into one of the most exciting online gaming destinations in the world—welcome to Diuwin Game! Born from a passion for gaming and a commitment to creating unforgettable experiences, Diuwin Game was launched with a clear goal: to deliver thrilling adventures to players everywhere. With a vast library of games and a user-friendly platform, Diuwin Game has become a favorite among gamers who seek both entertainment and immersion. Let’s explore the incredible journey of Diuwin Game and what makes it stand out in the world of online gaming.

The Vision Behind Diuwin Game

The vision for Diuwin Game was simple yet powerful: to bring great entertainment right to your screen. The founders of Diuwin Game understood the universal appeal of gaming. Games have the power to transport us to different worlds, challenge our minds, and provide us with endless hours of fun. With this in mind, Diuwin Game set out to create a platform that would offer a diverse range of games catering to all kinds of players. Whether you enjoy intense action games, brain-teasing puzzles, or casual games to relax, Diuwin Game has something for everyone.

A Journey Fueled by Passion

The journey of Diuwin Game began with a small team of passionate game developers and designers. These individuals shared a love for gaming and a vision for creating a platform that could bring joy to millions. The early days were filled with brainstorming sessions, creative discussions, and countless hours of coding and testing. The team worked tirelessly to build a platform that was not only user-friendly but also filled with exciting content that would keep players engaged.

The hard work paid off. Diuwin Game quickly gained a reputation for offering high-quality games that were both fun and challenging. The platform started attracting players from all over the world who were looking for a new gaming experience. As the community of Diuwin Game players grew, so did the platform itself. The team behind Diuwin Game continued to innovate and expand the library of games, ensuring that there was always something new and exciting for players to discover.

Why Diuwin Game Stands Out

There are several reasons why Diuwin Game has become a preferred choice for gamers:

A Wide Range of Games: One of the biggest draws of Diuwin Game is its extensive library of games. From action-packed adventures to mind-bending puzzles and strategic challenges, Diuwin Game offers a wide variety of genres. This diversity ensures that there is a game for every type of player, no matter their preference or skill level.

User-Friendly Platform: Diuwin Game was designed with the user in mind. The platform is easy to navigate, making it simple for players to find their favorite games. The intuitive interface allows players to quickly browse through the game library, read descriptions, and start playing within seconds.

High-Quality Graphics and Sound: The gaming experience on Diuwin Game is enhanced by high-quality graphics and immersive sound effects. The games are visually stunning, with smooth animations and attention to detail that make gameplay more engaging. The sound effects and background music further elevate the experience, making players feel like they are truly part of the game world.

Regular Updates and New Releases: To keep the gaming experience fresh and exciting, Diuwin Game regularly updates its platform with new games and features. This ensures that players always have something new to look forward to, keeping them engaged and coming back for more.

Community and Social Features: Diuwin Game is more than just a gaming platform; it is a community of gamers. Players can connect with friends, compete in leaderboards, and participate in special events. The social features of Diuwin Game make it a great platform for those who enjoy a sense of community and friendly competition.

[the-golf-blogjw]

Jake Waldrop

Hello, my name is Jake Waldrop. I’m currently attending Florida Gulf Coast University in my third year. Golf is one of and if not by biggest passion, so what did I do, major in it of course! You may be asking to yourself; how on earth do you major in golf?

At this point in time, I been volunteering at The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass every year. I was a standard bearer (the guy walking behind the tour players holding a sign with their score). I thought doing that was such a cool experience and really started make me like golf more and more each year.

My grandpa had played golf his entire life and always tried to get me into it so finally after my baseball injury I picked up a golf club and instantly feel in love it. Golf became addicting. When I first started, I didn’t take it very seriously, which in turn would make it not as fun to go play.

Sophomore year of high school came around and I realized a few of my friends were going to a golf academy every day after school and I thought I should do that as well. So, I began to take it more seriously. I made some of my best friends during this period and we all had a great time and a great love for the game.

During high school, I would play in many tournaments across the state of Florida. I would always work my absolute hardest weeks before a tournament, but, for some reason nothing would ever seem to click when tournament time came around. This would become a pattern. I knew I had the game, I just needed to execute.

I had always dreamed of playing college golf at a D-1 school, but, sadly last was becoming less and less of a reality. I knew golf was a big passion of mine and I didn’t really know what else I wanted to do, until I discovered from a family-friend this smaller school in Southwest Florida, called FGCU. At first when I looked at it on satellite maps, I was amazed at the immense amount golf courses around the area, that really grabbed attention. I went on the school website and saw “PGA Golf Management” I was like what is this?

 I had then figured out I could continue my golf career, maybe not in playing, but coaching, teaching, and growing the game. This was when I knew the only school, I was going to apply to was FGCU. When I got to school, I realized how many playing opportunities we would have within the PGM program.

 The welcome back scramble was the first event I ever played in and man o’ man did I click with everyone. How? Our biggest interest was golf. I would continue to play in many tournaments that semester. It was the same ole’ story I lived out in high school, I knew I had the game, but couldn’t execute when it mattered most.

The next semester I would participate in the Spring Match Play for PGM. I would make it to the semi-final from a bracket of 64 players. This was the best I have felt about my game in a very long time if not ever.

That summer I went on internship to the Chevy Chase Club in the Washington D.C. metro area. There is where I would begin my teaching career as I would coach the “Camp Chevy” summer junior golf camp. I really had worked on make that summer and, man did it feel good when I got back to school.

The fall semester of my sophomore year was where my golf game absolutely thrived. I won my first two golf tournaments ever! I would also qualify for the PGA University Championship in Las Vegas. This was a major accomplishment for me, especially, after all those years of not being able to execute. I finally did.

[themollyzone]

"i'm the dj"

I wanted to write about my DJ experience while it still feels fresh! I am positively zingy after "spinning some tunes" with some buds at the Elsewhere Loft last night. It was a soiree that came together after having a few "we should totally do this" conversations at parties, which turned into an email thread, which turned into a thing that happened in person. Shocking, stunning, unprecedented!

I (obviously) went stir crazy during Covid lockdown and got my ya-yas out by attending virtual DJ streams and vibing with people in zoom rooms. One of the thoughts I had during that time was: when we are allowed to hang out in person again, I would love to throw a party! It took some time (technically I did throw a party last year...a big one...my wedding) but it finally happened. Chris taught me how to rudimentarily mix on his DJ equipment, Laura hooked us up with the Elsewhere billing, everyone brought their friends, I met some And Introducing listeners. I got sweaty on the dance floor and spilled Red Bull all over myself which felt...good.

I also got to put into practice some things that have been important to me in theory, like being very courteous to the venue staff who supported the event. As a Venue Respecter it was fucking cool to be on the talent side of things and see just how much work goes into nightlife. Dozens and dozens of venues in just NYC alone do that shit every NIGHT. Just so people can have some fun!!

Not to sound like a completely pretentious ass hat but uhhh as I continue on my clubbing...journey...one of the sort of philosophical tenets I keep coming back to and sort of tumbling like a gemstone in my brain is this idea of Energy In, Energy Out. Like, no space exists just to entertain you, and you are not a passive vessel of entertainment reception. The Club is not a vacuum. You must participate, you must pay the energy toll! You can of course be set up for success by a swanky venue, good music, high-quality sound, etc. but the surest way to have a great night out is to put in the energy to have a great night out, and then that energy will come back to you. Dance, talk, be friendly, put vibes outward, and you will get all of that in return, and much much more.

I saw a TikTok a while ago where a young woman was making NYC bar recommendations (very common TikTok format...we love a recommendation don't we folks). I can't remember which bar she was talking about, but she dissed a bar for having "no vibes." Now, I have definitely been in bars where the vibes were off. Usually the kind of fake dive bars that have a kitschy aesthetic but are very clean and beers are $8. But I argue you cannot say a bar has "no vibes." My good bitch: you are the vibe. A bar without people in it is just a room that has some beer taps and a long table. If you find yourself constantly looking around where you are and being like, hmph, no vibes, I encourage you to look within yourself and draw those vibes out. Fun is not a hose spraying you from some unknown water source. Fun is more like a river that flows to the ocean which gets evaporated into clouds and then rains over the river. To be clear I have no idea how weather works.

When I was in high school we had this thing called...homeroom. It was 15 minutes after the 2nd period of the day, right before lunch started, and you had the same homeroom every year of high school. I am 99% sure it was just a way for teachers to see if anyone had ditched school that day. There was a lot of sitting, fiddling, and gossiping. If you had a good homeroom teacher, they let you vibe out a little bit. I had an excellent homeroom teacher, Mr. Cox, an English teacher. Sometimes he would put a Phish DVD on the classroom TV, and he let us do huge and loud group card games as well.

I bring this all up to say that when I was a junior, my friend in my homeroom class and I wanted to throw dance parties. If I recall correctly, someone brought in their iPod dock (!!!) and someone else brought party lights and we turned the lights off and boogied. Kids from other homerooms started coming to the dance parties and then we kind of got in trouble and those kids had to go back home(room).

I forgot I had done that for a while and unearthed the memory. A lot of my past life ends up being a breadcrumb trail for stuff I end up doing again in different formats. Being obsessed with recording "songs" on a tape recorder is now podcasting. Being obsessed with music videos is now making music videos. I'm not new to me, it turns out.

[rajakuja]

American food is great, eat well!

The contribution I made for @sodafrog13's At Ease, Soldier Zine in honor of late Rick May, the voice of Soldier TF2.

Check out the full zine in digital form here! (seriously go check the zine, so many amazing people were there making it ❤️)

[literaphobe]

speaking of meet up streams, i never really liked karlnap meet up streams. i’ll be honest and say individually they are the two i watch the least out of dtqk, but i feel like whenever karl is involved in a meet up stream, they feel so impersonal. like the karlnap cooking stream, why was there a camera man? and why was he zooming in and out and shaking it around all the time? george’s solo cooking streams and the snf cooking stream were much more entertaining imo.

i loved all of the qnf irl streams in december, the two of them together are electric and they both know how to balance an entertaining stream whilst maintaining that level of intimacy with the viewers.

i really enjoyed the snf streams too, especially the minecraft one and the cooking stream. i LOVED the qnfnap smoothie stream, where one of Them was the camera man rather than a random person, and it felt kinda like a home video.

i think karl relies way too much on his mr beast connections and experience for streaming, when mr beast is not a streamer. what works for youtube videos doesnt work for streams.

i love the whole . mom and pop store hands on vibe. like heres my mom and pop ranking:

1) dream. started his journey by studying the algorithm. learned coding to make interesting plugins for videos even tho he doesn’t personally do that as much these days. comes up with video ideas, edits all his own main channel videos, heavily involved in lore and writing and has pitched so many ideas, edits other people’s videos too and comes up w ideas for them, trains himself for his content, aka like improving his skills for manhunt and sourcing plus coming up w cool traps and tricks

2) quackity. his youtube channel grew up from ground up since he was a kid he’s heavily involved in the editing process of his own videos aside from subtitling he has gone through so many phases on his channel to keep things fresh as a creator his LORE is all edited and written by him he’s put in the effort to reach out to creators to put together a cohesive entertaining storyline he has his own ideas, he’s great w production and performance

3) george. instrumental to a lot of the coded plugins for his and dream’s videos esp in the early days, takes a lot of pride in his channel even if he isn’t usually the creative driving force behind certain ideas, but stuff like the ‘minecraft but my friend is ___’ idea was found by him and pitched to dream, he also edits his own videos in the event where he doesn’t girlboss dream into it, he is less involved in lore but has done impressive streams w heavy cc involvement and like set up (aka him ‘destroying’ the server and it all going back) and he’s shown good acting skills, he cares about the entertainment value he brings, brainstorms ideas for fun streams etc

4) sapnap. he’s a little more of a does as told guy which is fine because he followed dream here and that’s awesome and i wish i had his life. he’s dedicated def, he puts effort into filming and editing and when they film a video for his channel he’s usually prompt about getting it done and with lore he has the heart he wants to participate and make it more entertaining and he also wants to have a laugh and he is just skilled and that’s impressive always to see

5) karl. im sorry i love you i will free you one day. but maybe u don’t want to be freed. anyway i appreciate karl’s tenacity like he is a fun guy very friendly and ‘everyone is his friend’ vibe he is where he is bc he worked very hard with the stroke of luck he had w mr beast but well the minecraft videos did him no favors. i know he has it in him it just feels like he gets too ambitious so obviously he has to delegate but then when there’s too much delegation it loses some sincerity :( im sorry