#but its the same amount of work either way. maybe even more since you can't send asks from that sideblog

[tredispade]

i keep waffling about it and i'm driving myself crazy about it. but i think i will delete soleil's old sideblog and keep him here. i very much want to be more active with him. i just had a hard time deciding on where he should be since the sideblog is still there.

and... possibly, eventually, have all my muses on one blog again. like, if i'm super inactive on a particular character in 6 months from now, then i'm just gonna move them. so far, seph is probably gonna stay as is. he's very strong. cloud and reno are... in consideration.

[schoolhater]

god. its really frustrating the way internet virality works. everyone who sees success can only do so at the expense of others.

both shahed and shaima+mohammed (wafaa's siblings) were the initial targets of the recent wave of scam allegations, yet only shahed's gofundme was spread and received support as a result. maybe this is because and shaima and mohammed are slightly older, more traditional people who can't work the internet as well, maybe because they were less willing to share the intimate details of their pain online. maybe it's plain luck. either way its pretty shitty that only one person received the proper support after all that abuse, and that everyone else is being ignored.

since shahed reached her goal i want to redirect all of our righteous anger and empathy toward some of the other palestinians who were primarily targeted by this hate campaign. many of the campaigns on this list are stagnating in the amount of donations they recieve, despite the amount of attention they've received lately. of course, everyone here is vetted by either 90-ghost or el-shab-hussein:

shaima and mohammed @wafans-blog, who was accused of being a scam for having the same organizer as shahed, even though that is very common with gofundmes. [verification]

mahmoud balousha @helpfamily, who was targeted by one of the biggest blogs on this website and likened to a porn account. [verification]

amira alanqar @amira-world , who was targeted by some arrogant bitch who thought they knew better than actual palestinians how to vet a fundraiser and who also claimed that there was no point in donating to palestinians because evacuations are uncommon. [verification]

basel ayyad @basel-1995, whose posting habits were scrutinized to an inhuman degree as an excuse to dehumanize him. [verification] (he has been vetted twice!)

basel's cousin fadi ayyad. [verification]

heba al anqar @heba-baker, who was accused of being part of a belgian botnet because of her surname. [verification]

ahmed and abdulrahman al-nabih @ahmedalnabeeh11, who were accused of scamming for having relatives with chronic illnesses during a genocide. [verification]

and of course:

omar saad, ahmed @/90-ghost's brother, who is still in khan yunis with his family. ahmed, our sole vetter for a while, has gone through immeasurable abuse in the past week and we all owe it to him as people who have benefited from his labor to take one burden off his shoulders. [verification]

tagging for reach,, i'm sure you understand i am desperate

@timetravellingkitty @meaganfoster @briarhips @mazzikah @mahoushojoe 

@rhubarbspring @schoolhater @pcktknife @transmutationisms @sawasawako 

@feluka @terroristiraqi @irhabiya @commissions4aid-international @wellwaterhysteria 

@deepspaceboytoy @post-brahminism @junglejim4322 @kibumkim @neechees 

@mangocheesecakes @kyra45-helping-others @marnota @7bitter @tortiefrancis 

@toiletpotato @fromjannah @omegaversereloaded @vague-humanoid @criptochecca 

@aristotels @komsomolka @neptunerings @riding-with-the-wild-hunt @heritageposts 

@ot3 @amygdalae @ankle-beez @communistchilchuck @dykesbat 

@watermotif @stuckinapril @violentrevolution @mavigator @lacecap 

@socalgal @chilewithcarnage @ghelgheli @sayruq @northgazaupdates2

[hollersparrow]

why the fuck was all might allowed to be a teacher. he's teaching at what is widely regarded as the best school in the country, particularly for heroes, but also just in general from what i understand. there is no way in HELL that a school like that would let a person who is uncertified and has no higher education to teach, regardless of how famous they are or how much pressure the hpsc put on the school or even how eclectic and eccentric the school/its teaching styles are. there is simply no fucking way.

at most he'd be allowed to be a guest in some of the hero classes to provide additional feedback, etc etc. he probably couldn't even do administrative work as that generally requires either ample teaching experience or some level of training/school to do as a job.

also, i don't care how much nedzu loves chaos, he also loves his job and wants to protect/care for his students. he would not just skip over all might's lack of ability for this, no way no how; he would expect him to follow the rules set up to ensure that the teachers are equipped to handle the position and to teach the students

semi-related to the above, it is a personal headcanon of mine that many of the UA teachers are not as popular or as widely regarded as other heroes BECAUSE THEY HAD TO GET A TEACHING DEGREE. many of them worked as heroes or sidekicks to gain field experience but did so while also attending university to get an undergraduate degree AT THE LEAST. then, depending on the person, they either went straight into a teaching assistantship or continued working as a hero for a few more years to get more experience. however, many of them weren't able to reach higher levels of notoriety simply because they didn't have the time or the energy to market themselves and they ALSO didn't have a need to, as they were working towards a different goal.

for some, especially those in the support course (i'm thinking powerloader but i'm sure there's others), i could see there being waivers like many schools offer for folks teaching a trade (at least in the US). if you've worked in a trade for long enough, you might only need to get your teaching license which is usually not as long as getting a degree since your work experience shows that you know what you're doing. so i could see some of the teachers for support courses or even business courses being hired through a similar process.

i also think that most of the teachers don't work as heroes during the school year. i think that they keep active hero licenses and are able to be called on at any time (i could also see staff wide training/sparring being a part of this), but that they generally are taken off the roster. there are definitely some exceptions to this, like aizawa who's quirk is super valuable and who is also insanely willing to sacrifice himself and his health to help others (he needs therapy and some sessions on how to set boundaries). i think yamada is also an outlier with his radio show, although i think that started while he was getting his teaching degree and was working for the university's radio channel and he just decided to keep up with it. however, everyone else just teaches and then picks up freelance work during the summers (also see them only being on 10 month contracts or an equivalent type of work schedule).

i also know next to nothing about the requirements for teaching in japan, so take most of this with a grain of salt. but, at the same time, i think bits and pieces of this are probably universal.

it should probably also be mentioned that i really like bnha for the potential and the amount of room left for fanfic and the fandom to play around in the sandbox that is the world that Horikoshi Kōhei has created but i literally can not finish the manga or the anime. i have tried. multiple times. and i can't get past the sports festival for either of them. so maybe this gets better explained or something or maybe my standpoints on the characters are a little off.

[kassymalone]

A Little Rant about Fun

Remember fun?

Remember when you could do things just because they were fun?

It keeps coming to mind recently, and it's starting to drive me nuts.

I've always done things with my hands - I used to do art before uni destroyed my love and confidence, I write things, I cross stitch, I make models, and I do these things because I enjoy them. Unfortunately I've come to hate talking to people about my hobbies because the almost always have the same response - 'what do you do with that?'

Do I sell on Etsy? No I fucking don't, this pattern took me 15 hours to finish, do you know how much I would have to charge for it?

Do I do freelance writing? No I fucking don't, why would I want a second soul-crushing job on top of my first soul-crushing job?

Why don't I actually get published instead of wasting my time with fanfiction so I can actually make some money off it? WHY DON'T YOU DO IT IF ITS SO FUCKING EASY

I've been thinking of making a quilt recently, with patches of all my favourite things, but I don't want to talk to anyone about it because I can already hear them asking 'and what are you going to do with it? Is this your practice one before you sell them? No, don't do it that way, that's the wrong way, no-one will like it!'

(Don't get me started on the 'you're doing it wrong' crowd, gatekeepers are a different rant.)

JUST LET ME DO THINGS. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO MAKE MONEY. I know we're in a cost of living crisis right now, but I've been hearing this shit since I was a teenager, twenty fucking years ago! I still remember being talked out of singing lessons when I had a little extra money because 'what would I do with it?' Well fuck, my fat ass was never going to be the next Adele, but maybe I could have just had fun doing something I enjoy, but better?!

ON A RELATED NOTE!

You know what disproportionately annoys me? When people call the Nintendo Switch a 'toy' as if it's a bad thing. Like... yes? It's a toy? I play games on it?

'But the frame rate!', 'But the graphics!', 'But it can't run XX game!' WHO FUCKING CARES.

Yes, the xbox and playstation can connect to netflix and play blue rays and cook you dinner and raise your children, but they also cost a months rent and have all these bells and whistles to distract you from the fact that they JUST FUCKING TOYS. There's nothing either of them can do that I can't do on my PC, better and cheaper, and not have to turn on five different peripherals to make it work.

'But 4K!', 'But you can see the character follicles in this new game!', 'But the horses testicles react to the weather!'

Are you not having fun? Are you not enjoying playing your game? Never once have I been in the middle of a game and thought 'I'd be enjoying this more if it had more pixels.' I'm not even against other consoles, use whatever you prefer - if you like modern real-to life graphics then more power to you, but the amount of people who act like it actually matters somehow is concerning...

Yes, the switch hardware is behind what the xbox and playstation can do... but its a toy. Nintendo has never forgotten that it makes toys, and that's why I like it. It sits on my table, connects to my other monitor. I listen to long form youtube videos while I play TOTK. If I'm feeling sassy, I play it handheld.

My niece has one. We play Pokémon together and I let her win battles because the point is to be fun.

WHICH BRINGS ME BACK TO MY POINT!

FUCK the grindset 'but how can I monetise every possible second?' bullshit, FUCK the 'taking this thing that should be fun way too seriously' bullshit.

LET PEOPLE DO THINGS JUST BECUASE THEY'RE FUN.

LET THINGS THAT ARE SUPPOSED TO BE FUN BE FUN.

And now I've used the word 'fun' so much it's lost all meaning.

Much like fun itself.

[youphoriaot7]

He hasn't seen Roier awake in nearly a week. The two keep managing to just barely miss each other, one crawling into bed mere hours after the other has already started to warm the sheets. They haven't managed to wake up at the same time, either: the amount of times Cellbit has awoken to an empty bedside this week is unmatched.

But there is a call to the main square today, and nearly everyone is there. It isn't until they've been standing around for a few minutes that the thought truly works its way up from the depths of Cellbit's mind: cadê o guapito?

Moments later, a united buzzing on their communicators fills the air, a note from an unknown number telling them to "follow the lights." Mouse cries out, pointing towards a nearby trail of torches, and Cellbit quickly bolts after her, eager to keep an eye out ahead of everyone in case of danger.

Familiar shouts from just behind him catch his ear, and his face melts into a grin as he glances over his shoulder. "¡Guapito!"

"Gatinho!" comes the easy reply, Roier locked sword to sword with a straggler zombie. Cellbit can only pause for a moment to watch as his husband slices the arm of the zombie clean off. He swings the sword in a wide arc, twirling it around his wrist to bring it back bladefirst as he shoves it into the zombie's torso.

He always was the better fighter. 

The pull of the blade out isn't quite as clean as it usually is, Roier's hands seeming to shake a bit with the force, but before Cellbit can mention anything, Mouse is exclaiming from behind him. He smiles instead, shaking his head as he sets one foot on the staircase. "Ven aqui, vamos!"

"¡Sí, sí, sí—vamos!" He can hear Roier's quick steps behind him as they barrel up the stairs, quickly arriving at a small landing built into the hill. Mouse is already up there, scratching her head in bewilderment as she stares at the trail of torches that have simply…stopped. Dead ended against the wall.

The ledge starts to fill out with people behind them and Cellbit quickly moves aside, scanning the crowd for the familiar face he knows so well. Eventually, he manages to spot the classic flash of red and moves forward, catching the corner of Roier's hoodie and tugging him over. 

"Óla, guapito," he smiles, though the expression fades the moment his husband looks up.

Roier looks exhausted. The circles under his eyes are as dark as coal, and so deep that for a moment, Cellbit wondered if he hadn't been punched. He seems somewhat paler than usual, and it looks as though he hasn't showered in days, judging by his unruly hair. 

"...hey, ¿qué pasó?" he asks quickly, hands finding purchase against Roier's forearms, even as the younger man tries to take a step back. "You alright?"

"Nada, nada, ¡bien!" Roier responds, a bit too quickly—and he won't meet Cellbit's eyes. "Estoy bien."

It's not convincing, even despite his bedraggled state. "...certo?" Cellbit presses, but Roier just shakes his head, tugging his arms away.

"Sí, sí, estoy bien."

There's a loud shout of triumph from over by the wall, making them both jump, and Cellbit casts one last look in his husband's direction. "...we'll talk about this later, okay?"

Roier nods, throwing him a small, half-hearted smile. "Claro." Before either of them can say more, they're swept into the rush of excited people, but for the rest of the night, Cellbit can't help keeping one eye on his husband. Something's wrong, whether he's willing to admit it or not, and he is determined not to head to sleep tonight without figuring out what's going on.

— — — — — — — — — —

Fuck.

He already knew he couldn't hide from Cellbit forever. This discussion had been coming for a while, ever since the kids had vanished, really. (Died.) But with all the excitement around the new islander, and the way he'd managed to postpone it further by showing Cellbit around his newest construction, he had been hoping maybe the other man had forgotten.

But Cellbit wasn't the head of the Ordo for no reason, and Roier was definitely not the best at lying to his husband. (Plus, his current appearance made it really, really fucking obvious—even Forever had stopped him the other day; he'd only just managed to escape the other man's questions.)

But now, outside of the hospital with nothing but air between them, as Cellbit rests an arm on his shoulder—now, Roier realizes, there's nowhere to run.

"Still no news on the kids?" Cellbit asks softly. He already knows the answer.

Roier shakes his head anyway. "I think they're dead, Cellbit."

Cellbit freezes for a few seconds, his arm slipping off of Roier's shoulder. Moments later, he lets out a small laugh, gently punching Roier's bicep as he shakes his head. "Callaté, pendejo. Não é verdade."

Roier watches him step away, taking a deep breath before letting it out in a rushed sigh. "Listen, Cellbit—you wanna know what's going on? I'll tell you."

Cellbit glances back at him, sharp eyes fixed on his own. He inclines his head to indicate he's listening, reaching a hand out to take Roier's own. 

"I'm tired, Cellbit." There's a lot more weight behind the words than Roier really intended to give them, but, well. He's in it now. Might as well go all in. "I'm tired of not being able to sleep. I'm tired of lying awake in bed all night, staring at the wall, thinking about where the children could be. I'm tired of feeling alone. The kids have been gone for so long, Cellbo, so fucking long—and I don't think they're coming back."

Cellbit's face softens, an expression Roier hates to see slowly overtaking his features. It's not pity, per se—and thank the lord for that—it seems more…guilty. It's guilt.

Ay, mierda.

"...we can't give up on them, guapito," Cellbit murmurs. "If we give up on them, then who will go after them?"

Roier nods, staring at the ground. "I know. We said it was up to us to find them." He does not tell Cellbit that there may not be anything for them to find.

"Exatamente." Cellbit sighs, running his other hand through his hair as he shakes his head. "And I'm sorry I haven't been around, okay? I've been so caught up in the work at the Ordo that I haven't really…paid much attention to anything else—"

"No se preocupe." It's Roier's turn to shake his head. "I know you've been busy." He grins. "It's not like the work ever stops, so how could you?"

Cellbit doesn't return the smile. Instead, he takes Roier's other hand, staring down at their interlocked fingers. "I know you, Roier," he says softly, rubbing his thumb over Roier's ring. "I know you hide your sorrow with jokes and giggles. I know you try to be the ray of light, always try to make others laugh." He swallows hard, glancing up to meet Roier's eyes. "But I know you, and I know you're sad."

Roier takes a deep breath, trying to swallow around the lump in his throat as he nods. Cellbit's gaze holds his own for as long as he can take it before he has to pull away. They say eyes are the windows to the soul, but Cellbit simply feels like he's pulling Roier's out for the world to see. And he trusts Cellbit with it, to be clear—but this isn't the privacy of the castle, and Roier feels horribly…vulnerable out in the open like this. 

Then, Cellbit opens his arms, and Roier tumbles into them. The other man's grip is tight, and Roier's chest shudders as he takes a deep breath. "I miss them," he whispers. "I miss Richarlyson. I miss Leonarda." He swallows the end of his sentence. I miss Bobby.

"Eu sei." Cellbit presses a gentle kiss to the top of his head, ignoring the leftover building dust stuck in his hair and smoothing pieces down with one hand. "I do, too." And Roier doesn't have to look at him to hear the way his own heart is breaking.

"We're going to find them, guapito," he continues firmly. "We're going to keep looking; I know they're here somewhere."

"Yeah," Roier mutters, "somewhere dead."

Cellbit ignores him. "This is all leading up to something, I can feel it." He squeezes Roier tightly. 

Roier sighs. "Yeah, leading up to them telling us they're dead," he repeats flatly. 

Cellbit finally pulls away, shaking his head. "Eu não acho, guapito," he says softly, "I really don't think so." Roier meets his eyes, watching him for a moment.

He recognizes that look. Not hope, the emotion he's watched drain from so many people's eyes the past few weeks. Not hope at all, no—this is the same look that Bad had in his eyes a few days ago, when Roier had almost the exact same conversation with him. It's the same look Foolish had when Roier had broached the topic of Leo's disappearance with him. It's the same expression he's felt on his own face before, when he had journeyed thousands of miles away from home…only to be told that his son was dead.

It's happened before. Roier knows how the Federation works, at this point. They get your hopes up, just so they can dash them all at once and bring you to your lowest point. 

He is not going to let them break him again. 

But Cellbit doesn't understand. Bad doesn't know. Foolish has never lost a child. They still have hope—desperate hope, but hope nonetheless. Just a single thread that they're left clinging to, before they shatter completely. Just like Roier did. Just like Roier is. Once again.

And he can't bring himself to be the one to cut that thread. 

Silently, he squeezes Cellbit's fingers, giving him a slow nod. "Okay," he murmurs, trying to muster up a smile. 

It's not very convincing, and Cellbit sighs. "We'll get them back. We have to."

"Sí." His response is quiet, without much hope. Roier takes a deep breath, clearing his throat. "Okay. Well, um…I'm gonna go get some rest, yeah? I haven't slept very well the past few days, so…" He shrugs. "I could probably use it."

Cellbit nods, kissing the top of his hand. "Okay. Look, I'm here if you need me, okay?" He smiles slightly. "If you need a hug or something, just message me. Eu estarei lá."

At that, Roier is finally able to crack a smile, the irony of his own phrase being tossed right back at him like a lifeline enough to ease a small weight off his shoulders. "I will." He squeezes Cellbit's hand one last time before finally letting go, waving over his shoulder. "Hasta pronto, gatinho. Wake me up when this is over?"

It's just a simple line—a half-joke, really—but Cellbit's smile turns sad, and he nods. "Prometo."

[ask-spoilt-pizza-au]

First up, Pepperman and The Vigilante!

(( Why both at once? Cause they're constantly together anyway, it'd be a shame to split them apart.

More or less I wanted to lean into the personalities they have already, but to crank em up a bit.

They're two of the five strongest creations in the tower, as well as close friends of P. his leads them both to be rather simply manipulated by him, especially given how gradual it was.

-

Pepperman is a loud and proud figure, constantly boasting about his mastery of the arts and his determination and perseverance to never half-ass any of his creations was there for everyone to see.

Thus, P started taking advantage of that.

P would constantly commission Pepperman. At first it was in reasonable quantities, maybe a painting every so often, maybe a little statuette here and there. But the amount and speed that P started demanding became absurd.

Pepperman deep down could tell that he was accepting more work than he can handle, but his pride wouldn't listen. He kept staying up longer and longer to finish the pieces, to the point where if you were to ask, he probably wouldn't even remember the last time he painted or even sketched for himself. Or when he last slept.

That's the state our protagonists would hind him in; very very overworked.

Rather unfinished first encounter with Pepperman^ (Check alt text if anything is hard to understand)

And here's a bunch of miscellaneous art of him (explanations in alt):

-

Vigilante is a serious and gruff fellow who puts his farm and the people he cares about before himself. He used to be a Vigilante until he got promoted to the Sheriff not too long ago. Now he just wears the name cause he's used to it. No outlaw can escape his wrath, as he's very handy with a gun and loves practicing using it in sparring matches.

This is where P ruins that for him.

P used to just have fun little matches with Vigi, fighting fair and often allowing him to win as just a thanks for spending time with him. But, as time went on, it became relentless.

P would constantly attempt to catch Vigi off-guard to "test his reflexes", not quite to the point of keeping him awake, but rather just making him paranoid and fearful of each minute he's awake. His hand was constantly on the trigger of his gun to feel at least a little in control. And P doesn't go easy on him either. He's left actual dents and errors in the cheese, wounds that shouldn't even be possible.

But Vigilante doesn't know how to stop it. If he were to say stop, he'd be angering his boss and more importantly friend. He cares about the time they've spent together, but knows at the same time that this is becoming far too much for him to handle.

And that's how you meet him, high-strung, worried about disappointing P.

I never finished the intro to him, but it would've taken place not along after Pepperman's. In fact, in the same room, like, canonically like ten minutes apart. He'd go in there to discuss about getting ready for P's big event and just casually reveal to Peppibow about them being a clone, which would lead to quite a bit of tension as well as the proper in color introduction to P.

Misc art of Vigi:

-

Their relationship would be up in the air. They were gonna be written as friends, but could be read as whatever the reader wants.

Vigilante would often drag Phil (as he calls Pepperman, since it's his real name), to Noisette's Cafe as a way to relax whenever he was pushing himself too hard.

Pepperman would be there to hear Vigi discuss his situation and give advice, which more or less fell on deaf ears, but were appreciated nonetheless.

They've been friends as long as they can remember, to the point that they can't even remember ever meeting, just that they always knew eachother.

Comic of Vigilante pulling Phil away from his work to take a break^ (I was gonna originally make a better digital version but haven't gotten to it)

First refs of them^

Bonus info:

Pepperman's final design doesn't have a bow, since its colors would've been decided by askers. Thus it would've been added after the votes were in.

Vigi was originally gonna have a cheese pattern bow that would work similar to the patterns do in Chowder.

All of Fun Farm is Vigilante's farm.

Pepperman would be on the spectrum.

I forgot that Pepperman's small form exited while making him, so he has nothing to do with that.

Vigilante was planned to die in one of the drafts after revealing to Peppibow that they're a clone, as P had specifically told Vigi and the other bosses not to do that, and thus gets angered. P would pop his hand through a portal, crush the life out of him and then drag him away, leaving Pepperman and everyone else in the room horrified. And that was one of planned introductions to P. I decided against it, as Vigi didn't really do anything to deserve that fate and plus it would've been rather anti-climactic in general.

[misc-obeyme]

This was amusing to me so I feel like sharing it, CC lol I hope you don't mind the newspaper I'm about to print out here :P

So, I've recently read a couple of smut mangas and seen the titles of others while I was at it.

When I first began playing Obey Me in 2019, I thought that the titles of the mangas Levi talked about were crazy and MUST be exaggerated for comical purposes. Even during my #? replay last year I still thought, 'no way the silliness and these long-ass titles are legit in the real world.'

I wasn't curious to delve deeper or research to check whether or not the aspects I deemed to be attempts at comedy were like that in reality, so I ignored it in belief that it's a part of the humour.

Man was I wrong.

Because lo and behold, this many years later I suddenly get image recommendations from mostly smut manga on my dashboard even though I've never interacted with similar posts or accounts before maybe because I used to play 'What in "Hell" is Bad?' or perhaps I was probably just destined to find a silly answer I never looked for. Anyways, I end up liking a portion of what I see and reading the corresponding mangas as a result—only to then make the hilarious discovery that certain titles can indeed be insane in both content (many are as weird as hell) and length (how much longer can one title get?)

After that I wondered why such standards get applied to manga titles and did an immensely brief, fraction-of-a-minute skim on the information: the titles help make the mangas stand out in the saturated market, give readers a sort of 'summary' on what the manga is about, and higher the chances of anime adaptation. There was also something about how title choices will eventually run out since there are so many mangas out there, so longer titles take the cake.

Well...as a writer I thought, 'I could never.' I mean, though I know it's not the same thing at all and this a completely different scenario, I can't so much as imagine choosing for my fics such a lengthy and weird not-in-a-good-way (in my opinion) title.

No offense intended to anyone, of course, but here's the thing: the manga world is a world on its own, with its own themes and norms.

As such, while some titles may be entertaining to read, as writers there are certain things/words that don't tickle our fancy or match our linguistical preferences, so our 'writer side' doesn't deem them satisfying in general or fit for our work in specific, if that makes sense, and we hence can't bear to choose them for or include them in the fics we write. It's almost like I mentally shudder at the thought of titling my writings with a manga-style sentence or a near mini-paragraph lol

I tend to suck at expressing my thoughts, but since you're a writer yourself I suppose you get what I mean, CC?

Now I babbled a lot and announced my belated discovery, I'll see myself out :P

You know quite honestly my favorite thing about those titles is coming up with some whenever I write Levi in a fic. Like it's clearly just for humor and there is no story attached to it, but they can be fun to come up with.

HOWEVER, titles in general are the absolute worst. I find them very difficult because it's like you want something that embodies what the story is about, but you also don't want anything too cheesy? I don't know, I always struggle with the feeling that my titles are cheesy lol.

It's always I either don't come up with anything and post the fic sans title, something comes to me like a bolt of lightning out of the blue, OR I spend untold amounts of time agonizing over it before finally picking a single word.

But I have read about the trend of naming manga with basically an entire sentence. I think it's a little silly to suggest that all the titles will eventually be taken. There are so many words and word combinations in any given language that I think you could have them all be a two word titles and not end up with repeats.

Though this kind of thing tends to be dictated more by the market and how well things sell rather than how much sense they make. If manga publishing companies are seeing a spike in sales due to manga's with a sentence for a title, then they're going to keep on doing that.

Anyway, I think I do understand what you mean! Titles are tricky and if I can avoid coming up with one, I often will lol.

[retropobor]

I feel strongly as if I should make some original content on this blog, but I don't have any as of late, so I'm just gonna throw my thoughts out here relating to the blog (consider this a weather update)

to get things out of the way, I have decided to work on a little pixel art project which should be out sooner or later. And by little I mean its canvas is the exact same size as my previous largest single piece pixel art project: the mantis dragon

and this thing is ancient (for those of you who want a good dating system for my art, the lack of outlines means that this thing's pretty damn old, this one specifically dating back to a little over a year ago, although I just added the signature so it can't get stolen)

That aside the other main topic I wanted to touch on is the little side of the deltaverse I kinda found myself in. It feels like a lot of stuff is going on, but who am I to say. One big shot I know barely anything about took a break indefinitely then returned, only for another big shot, and good friend of mine @mrchaosman to also take a break (I cannot stress enough I wish you the best and care for you, mate). There was a massive tournament put on by @grimmdeltarune (RIP Mie, neither gone nor forgotten [I was happy to participate in it nonetheless]) and probably so many other things that went under my radar. It's just all interesting to watch. I've always been fascinated by ecosystems, either natural or human, but that's a separate tangent. Right now I feel like I exist on some sort of outer rim of the system, but I want to be more central. Maybe not Winterer, l0cal_hooligan or whatever other big shot you want to name central/famous, but just more of a somebody than I am right now. Issues are

1: I only have parallels to bring to the table, and considering I barely can even produce content (better yet well thought out content) for it, Idk if that's enough

2: I don't know how much attention I can (or really want to) give Deltarune. The game means a lot to me, don't get me wrong, but when you have the steam library of alexandria, a full on dnd campaign, and

it kinda cuts down on the amount of attention you can give to deltarune

3: I don't know how. It's been forever since I've actually made a friend, and like half the friends I currently have are born out of coincidence (granted half my friend group is my dnd group, and how I got them is an entire story and a half, but my point still stands even when not counting my dnd group), and I don't know how to start a conversation. If I can get into a conversation, I'm flawless, but starting one is a whole different topic.

Last but not least the datapack. I still want to work on it, but working on the next "session" (I feel as though adventure would better fit it due to its sheer size) for my dnd campaign has taken up just about all my time. Once I finish up with it, I should have plenty of free time to do some more work. No clue what I'll make but I know I want to make something.

Anyways yeah, those are some of my disjointed thoughts piled into this nonsensical tangent of a post. Thanks for reading through.

[nowoyas]

thinking about noya's timeskip and trying to figure out why, exactly, I don't particularly like it

the thing is that I don't think traveling doesn't suit him, necessarily. he's a (sonic the hedgehog voice) Guy That Loves Adventure! 👍 and wants to experience challenges and new things endlessly. but, I mean... there's too many questions.

the first, biggest issue I have: Noya cannot afford this.

Karasuno is not a rich school. They have, available, one bus for sports stuff for all their clubs. The team has to go out of its way to fund trips of any kind. They get where they get to from a combination of hard work and luck. Sure, Noya chose Karasuno not strictly because of money -- "it was close to my house", "the girls' uniforms are hot", and "I wanted to wear the style of boys' uniform that Karasuno has" are his three leading reasons for coming to Karasuno. You could probably argue, too, that there's an element of challenge involved--he keeps playing volleyball even at Karasuno with no coach, a rotating door of advisors (Takeda being in his first year of advising for the club), and the newly negative reputation that Karasuno has cultivated as a fallen powerhouse -- and maybe there's the academic element of "Noya is choosing to go to high school but isn't exactly cut out for Elite Rich Kid School With Horses and Fancy Buses and Navigation Signs On Campus" both in terms of personality and the fact that he's not academically-minded. But to me, Noya choosing Karasuno also implies that he doesn't come from a well-off family with the kind of money needed to suddenly decide "I graduated high school, time to travel the world with no clear source of income". He's got three older sisters, lives in a multigenerational household ("Compared with children in middle-income families, children from low-income families were more likely to coreside with their grandparents than to live far from them..."), and what little we do know about his grandfather only tells us that 1. he wears hawaiian shirts casually and traditional Japanese clothing on New Year's and 2. according to the Best Order Popularity Poll in 2020 (as referenced here), he’s an alumni at Chidoriyama middle school--notably, the only character in the "senior team" lineup who doesn't have a high school listed. Sure, maybe Furudate just knew that Mineo went to the same middle school that Noya ended up going to and didn't think that far ahead, but Furudate can also tell us how many siblings every single character has and how many are older/younger. This reads to me as an intentional choice: Mineo didn't go to high school, and hasn't left Miyagi since middle school.

All this reads to me as: Noya does not come from a rich family. I'll admit that I headcanon him as having a single mom and them being basically just well-off enough to be comfortable (or at least unaware of being poor a la my experience growing up, where in hindsight it's really obvious that we were poor but in the moment I just didn't know how hard my mother was working to keep us afloat), but even setting aside the single mom headcanon for these purposes, the evidence to me points to a generally lower-income family. In other words, unless Noya literally won the lottery, his family can't afford to bankroll him world traveling to Italy to go spearfishing and running to Egypt. Sure, it's possible that the Nishinoyas had college funds for their kids, and Noya's traveling on his college fund instead of going to college, but I think if he's coming from that kind of background he's less likely to go the "American who used to bully the poor kids for off-brand shoes taking a gap year" route and more likely to either funnel that money to his sisters (if they choose to go to college) or otherwise supporting the family. And sure, you can travel a decent amount if you're middle-class, but that's more like... upper-middle class, maybe center-middle class, and Noya's family reads to me as lower-middle class at the absolute highest.

given what we know and can extrapolate about Noya's background and family, I think Noya's working something out, but I don't think he's traveling unless it's like, once or twice a year and continuing to live with his family the rest of the time. it's more likely he's found part-time work, like cashiering or waiting tables, and spends the rest of his time thrill-seeking.

honestly, I do like Noya continuing to play volleyball, even if he hasn't gone pro. and I think under specific circumstances, he might choose to go pro--he has the skill and love of the game for it, and what he's lacking is more likely the day-to-day discipline required of professional athletes to maintain their bodies.

so this is what I would like to propose:

terror of the neighborhood association and its youngest member, recent high school grad nishinoya yuu. he's working part time. he rides into the city to wait tables. he's ten years younger than everyone else on the neighborhood association team, and nearly twenty centimeters shorter than the next shortest member. ukai can never stop bleaching his hair blond not even because he has a Look™ now, but because regular constant exposure to high school graduate Nishinoya Yuu is giving him grey hairs in his thirties. he works out and plays volleyball because it's fun. sometimes he helps out at Karasuno practices and for the two years after he graduates, he intimidates the shit out of his underclassman libero, not even on purpose. he's not officially a coach or anything, but he helps out a lot, especially if, for some reason, Ukai is sick or can't come to practice (eg. helping Ukai Senior with his continuing medical issues). he saves as much as he can to visit places like Italy and rent spearfishing equipment there, or see the pyramids in Egypt, or eat shit surfing in Hawaii for a week, and maybe he's not on the road or in the air as much as he'd like, but he's happy. I think, like Mineo, he can be happy anywhere.

[sasubaeuchithot]

I was reading one of the comments on chapter 13 that essentially praised you for how the username YoungAndOverIntelligent was very accurate because your intelligence shows in your writing and I was nodding along saying DAMN STRAIGHT (might not be able to claim the title of no1 Sasuke glazer cuz that's naruto's job, but trust and believe I AM the no1 kh glazer, I will fight anyone who tries to disagree I fear 🤷‍♀️) and then I read your response and.

oh.

HOW DID I MISS THE ACRONYM NO OH MY GOD I CAN'T STOP LAUGHING I'VE BEEN SOOOOO BAMBOOZLED DAMN ITTTTTT THAT'S TOO GOOD UGH

Even in your inside joke of a username there exists humour indicative of high level smarts 😔

Okay but on a more serious note, I genuinely have to once more thank you for sharing your work with us.

I've sent an insane amount of Asks to you these past few weeks; at least, insane considering how rarely I generally send Asks, and how you're the only person I've sent more than two to.

Fanfiction has been a pivotal part of my life for as long as I can remember myself, and I find that it's an incredible way to, among other things, express your love for a piece of media, to make friends with people in the same community and give back to the fandom, to practice and hone your writing, and most importantly, to have fun.

It's very soothing to have a comfort read that perfectly encapsulates my thoughts and feelings on these characters and on the world that Kishi has carefully crafted but, in the same breath, basically wasted, in a fandom that I feel like so often misunderstands the point.

There are many fandoms I've been in, thousands of fics I've read, millions and millions of words consumed in the past three-four years, and hundreds of literary works (both fanfiction and not) that have, in some way or another, left their mark on me.

But Kizuna Hikari has always stood out to me the most. Maybe that sounds unbelievable. Out of all the beautifully written works I've read (the number of those is actually astronomical), I'd still pick kh over every single one of the works that have ever pierced my soul?

Yes. I can't put it into words, exactly, but there's a feeling that engulfs me every time I think about it that is so unique in its warmth.

Both because I especially love Naruto, multiple flaws and all, and because this story hits every mark that it's aiming for dead-on.

Not very many stories can achieve that.

Most fanfiction, no matter how gorgeous, or well-written, or enthralling, or in character, feels like fanfiction. This of course doesn't have any effect on how much I love it; the vast majority of the time, I long for that exact feeling of a fanmade work infused with copious amounts of the author's love and passion for their creation. It doesn't matter that it's fanfiction.

But there's a degree of believability in kh that brings about a different type of comfort.

Naruto's ending sucked. It makes me miserable to think about it. The Naruto fandom, for a fandom that insists on the show's greatness, collectively misses the point of an alarming amount of the story's arcs, characters, and overall essence in a way that has me seriously concerned for the world's media literacy.

But kh is so concentrated on, and deeply rooted in, the realistic depiction of a differing outcome and the consistently in-character portrayal of Naruto and Sasuke and their simple, but still incredibly complicated, relationship, without either of their ideals and convictions taking the backseat in the name of conventional romance; romance that also just doesn't fit these characters.

It's been three years since I first read it, and it continues to be equally wholly satisfying, and provides me with what I initially didn't even know was the idyllic, fleshed out exploration of the events following that final battle that I needed.

It also helps that I relate to/crave and ache for the, in my eyes, inherently queer type of love/attraction that exists between your Naruto and Sasuke way more than that of any other romantic love story that I've ever known.

In other words, the meticulous planning, loving effort, and skillful writing that make up your story have bewitched me, body and soul.

Wow, this took a direction I couldn't have foreseen. I only started this rant to whine about missing the YAOI acronym

okay you've turned me into an embarrassing jelly goop of a person on the floor over here 😭 I've trained myself to be good at taking compliments but this is making me blush and squirm because it is so beautiful and kind and like do I deserve this???? (yes i do, i keep telling myself, because I believe your sincerity but even my therapy trained brain is too flustered to work correctly 😭😭😭)

but lmaaaoooooooo i love when people fall for my username. the height of humor to me is making people think I'm pretentious but really my brain is just a twelve year old giggling at the word "sex"

[gentlehue]

hiii i’ve been in a bit of a follower slump lately iwl and i was wondering as a girl who’s seen it all what would u recommend to get more followers?

hi lovely!!! first of all thank u very much for using my slogan got very excited when i saw it LMAO second !! i just wanna preface this by saying the main reason i have the amount of followers i have on this blog is because i ran a fanfic blog april-july so a lot of mine came from there 😭 however i still did gain quite a following in the short amount of time i was over there (its currently at 779!) so i def have tips on this below the cut 😚 just felt like id be lying if i didnt mention the above even tho its sort of irrelevant LMAO 😭 anw here are your secrets from a girl who's seen it all on gaining a following ₊˚⊹♡

post consistently!!

pretty self explanatory, but if you'd like more followers the easiest way to get them is to be consistent w posting ☺️ on my fanfic blog, id post 1-2 times a day when it just started out !!! however thats too much i just didnt have a life outside of studying or blogging LMAO you dont have to post every day, but like dont post once a month either because you wont get many followers that way (unless youre extremely lucky 🤔) maybe aim for 2-3 times a week or whatever fits your schedule best :)

when you post, make sure your post shows up in the tumblr tags!

i've seen SO MANY PEOPLE fall victim to the stupid tumblr tagging system so ive made it my mission to speak on it whenever i can. for some reason, when you first make your blog tumblr has your visibility settings default to you not showing up in the tags or searches at all 😭 so before you post, make sure they look like the ones below!

(keep the last one on or else tumblr will feed ur posts to an ai 😭)

to check if you're showing up in the tags, click on one of the tags you've tagged your post as and toggle the search to "latest" instead of "top" !! if its there that means it worked ☺️

still not showing up in the tags?

if you're not showing up in the tags, then its either because your blog is still pretty new (in which case you'd just have to keep interacting w things on tumblr until they decide you're not a robot) or because you're shadowbanned 😣 some signs of being shadowbanned are you cant dm people on here, you can't tag people & people won't get any notifs from you when you answer their asks!! if that's the case then all you can do is contact tumblr staff n hope for the best 😬 also def triple check your visibility settings because they CHANGED MINE W OUT TELLING ME ONCE and im still mad about it 😣 also sometimes it'll just take a little while for posts to show up in the tags 💘

bonus tip: make sure the most important tags are the first five ones you use, since those are the ones that your post is most likely to show up in!! save your personal tags for last bonus tip (2): make sure to post when the americans are online LMAO ive noticed whenever i post later in the day my time (when the us wakes up) i tend to get more interaction since a large chunk of the people on here live in the us/north america/that area in general

2. interact with other people's posts

specifically people who post the same things as you / you share interests with / you just think are cool!!! people on here are SO friendly so chances are you'll gain many friends while posting! interacting with other people's posts will have them checking out your blog which will result in more traction which will result in more followers since they'd be reblogging your stuff onto their blogs and their followers would check your blog out:) also because if tumblr notices there are similarities between your blog and another's it'll recommend your stuff to people who follow the other blog so!! interaction is very good:) also because making friends is always fun anw 😋

3. be patient & don't get obsessive over it!

fun fact i've been on this app since covid started back in march 2020 and ive had MANY blogs on here from the ages of 11-13 LOL but when i was younger id def get a lot more obsessive ab the followers 😭 i'd compare myself to a lot of the other blogs on here too n wish i had that much interaction n wtv and i just wasn't having fun cz all i'd think ab is the followers 😭 would make n delete blogs as soon as interaction would drop n it just made things worse so def just enjoy the journey or wtv!! (also if u believe in manifestation which i personally do - staying in the state of wishing for followers will keep u in that state of wishing!!!! you've got to start practicing gratefulness & being happy about where u are and the journey ahead for more good things to happen ✨)

thats basically the gist of it imo 🤔 sorry if u expected smth more LOL i hope this helped tho!! xx 💘

[lexa-gui]

I can't believe I'm finally done! I had a blast making this video, it's been my baby for ages. It's my take on a more darkish continuation of canon. Mind the TW in the video description! This video gets a lot darker than its canon basis.

Here's a thorough explanation of everything in the vid (also TW for attempted suicide):

So! Basically, I kept canon the same here, except for a couple of things. Merlin doesn't age physically (unlike what we see in the show's ending) and Kilgharrah gets replaced with a GoT dragon xd (what can I say the VFX are much cooler). Whenever you see bearded merlin though, that's an older post-Arthur merlin. And the video jumps back and forward a bit.

It starts with an older post-Camelot Merlin (00:05) (during the witch burnings), and then there's a clip that's supposed to be earlier on when Gwen is still alive and queen (00:15) (after Arthur's death though). It's a battle/invasion that I'll leave open for interpretation because I didn't think through it a lot xd, but it can't be in Camelot (the city) itself obviously, because of the sea. I'm thinking they went to a coastal fortress to defend themselves against the invading Saxons.

Then we have more battles (00:23) (I'm thinking the one in season 4, where Merlin calls on Kilgharrah, since he's supposed to die in season 5).

Then we have some visuals for the great purge (00:33).

I leant on a couple of fan theories: that Merlin is magic itself made flesh and blood, and that his birth was a direct result of the great purge (that is to say, because such a great amount of magic was snuffed out suddenly, it concentrated and poured itself into merlin -- basically balance, and magic being this immutable force that can't be created or destroyed, only transformed and passed on).

Then we get to see Merlin through the ages, until the present day (01:10), struggling with his immortality. There's a callback to Camelot and the witch hunts (01:25), and then we get Camlann! Where he called on Kilgarrah this time! (01:36) It is intercut with a later post-canon scene, where Guinevere has been captured by some warlord or another at some point (01:45). Leon goes to Merlin for help and rescues her (this is not long after Arthur's death, which is why Merlin still looks like he does in canon).

At (01:56) we get Camlann again.

Then we have Merlin losing Gwen and Leon to the years (02:01), and we see the impact of being alone throughout eternity on his psyche. We get some nightmares (02:19), mostly centred on Arthur (because they'd absolutely be -- #merthurforlife).

There's Merlin talking down some soldiers going after him during the witch hunts (02:36). In (02:43) we see Merlin in Avalon lake (now I'll be honest here, my intention wasn't to put Merlin on the isle, since I'm not sure if it's even supposed to be accessible xd but I couldn't find a way to put him on the other margin, so let's just assume all is well xd).

We get Merlin in present-day (02:44), still chasing breadcrumbs (and maybe even starting to doubt his sanity a little bit? -- see "Was King Arthur a real person?").

And then,,,, the attempted suicides (02:49). Because you can't tell me a person with Merlin's behemoth amount of trauma wouldn't develop a major depression after lifetimes of waiting around alone -- not even knowing quite what he's waiting for or if it'll ever happen). Aaaaaaand (03:06) Merlin has maybe lost it a little bit. I think he tries to venture into necromancy and some,,,, not-great stuff (magic-wise).

But we catch a glimpse of Arthur at (03:19) so either it worked or... well, you decide.

Also at (03:11), we have a painting of Gwen in the background of Buckingham palace. It was commissioned by Merlin sometime during the renaissance period (does not mean that the painting itself is renaissance style). He made sure it found its way into the royal treasuries and it is displayed to this day, so it would probably have been the work of a famous artist. (In reality, it is a very beautiful portrait by Thérèse Schwartze that I have edited to feature Angel Coulby).

[spinningbuster98]

So!

Killing Metroids to proceed!

I used to absolutely hate this, being one of the main reasons for my dislike of this game, mainly due to hoe repetitive killing around 40 of these things is

Nowadays I....dislike it less but I'm sure not crazy about it, though that's mostly because I got used to it thanks to playing the games various times over the years

The main issue isn't so much the repetitiveness of it, it's the simple fact that....these fights suck man XD

The alphas are basic so ok whatever

The Gammas are a problem, they're basically bigger and tougher Alphas. The issue is both with their numbers and with the kinds of places you have to fight them in

None of these Metroids has much in the way of actual real attacks, rather they limit themselves to ramming into you nonstop, which is already pretty annoying, especially with Samus' clunky movement....but often the game will ask you to fight these things in very tight rooms where dodging them is pretty much impossible

Or maybe you'll have to fight them while inside of a tall vertical shaft, over tiny platforms, where you'll inevitably fall and offscreen them, forcing you to jump back up because they won't follow you, only for them to attack you from offscreen and knock you back down

Then there's the Zetas which are more obnoxious

And then finally the Omegas where, if you're not aware of their hidden weakness in their backs, you'll have to pump an absolute SHIT load of missiles just to bring one of them down, pretty much forcing you to either grind enemies for missile ammo or drag your ass all the way back to the nearest missile recharge station, assuming you even remember where it was given that, y'know, there's no map and everywhere still looks samey

None of these fights is fun.

Not a single one

They're annoying at best, aggravating at worst. And it should be noted that boss fights are usually the weakest part of most pre-Mercurysteam Metroid games (with semi exceptions such as Fusion, Prime 2 and 3), Metroid 1 itself sucked in this regard but that game only had 3 bosses, this one has over 40! And when one of the game's core gameplay elements is so unfun then that brings down the whole thing

Say what you want about Samus Returns but I will always defend how that game at least made the Metroids interesting to fight. Yeah sure a couple of Gammas run away to other rooms and that's stupid but it's still better than some of the more awkward fights in the original

This is one area where not even AM2R managed to improve, given that its idea of improving a bunch of bosses that were annoying because they only rammed into you nonstop....is to have them ram into you even MORE aggressively but with stricter hitboxes and in even more annoying circumstances (fyi: fighting Gamma Metroids in the dark is not very fun)

Related to this topic I've seen people liken Metroid II to a sort of proto-survival horror.

Y'know there's the creepy atmosphere but also the way save stations are used: you save the game in between sections of you going on Metroid hunts, having your health and resources diminished a little after each fight, thus creating tension because if you die then it's back to the last save point. The same people who have this opinion harshly criticize Samus Returns for being more generous with pickups, save stations and even having genuine checkpoints before bosses (even though by that logic AM2R should also be criticised since that game is also far more generous with pickups than the original and has save stations straight up fully recharge EVERYTHING, but y'know that's a perfect game so I can't complain I guess)

I...can see this point of view and it almost works...

But there's two issues with this

Firstly what gives classic survival horror games such as Classic Resident Evil their gameplay tension is resource management: the fact that your resources, from ammo to health items, are strictly limited, you can carry only a limited amount and what you find in the world doesn't respawn so you have to be careful

Well not only does Metroid II literally give you expansions to your health and missiles of course, but restocking is by no means hard and I'm not talking about the recharge stations: if you're ever in a pinch you can always grind enemies for health and ammo. This is a 100% viable strategy, in fact it's MORE viable than in Metroid 1 because not only are enemies here easier to kill they always drop the same kinds of pickups: specific enemies drop only small healths, others only large healths etc

Once you know this then the tension switches from "Oh god I need to be careful otherwise I'll lose tons of progress between sessions!" to "Oh god I need to be careful otherwise I'll lose tons of time grinding myself to efficiency!", which doesn't really speak of a real horror-like tension

But above all else: the source of this game's tension is not exactly good design so to speak

Because the main danger to your health, the main thing that's gonna waste your resources....are Metroid battles

And like I said: they suck

The source of this gameplay-related tension is 40 something badly designed boss fights

All the other regular enemies here are pretty weak and are mostly just nucances that are goung to slighty widdle down you're health mostly due to the screencrunch making you slam into them from off screen

And before anyone says that it's justified for this game to have unremarkable boss fights, since it's a gameboy game well....

Why make a game where you're forced to fight 40 badly designed bosses if you knew that the gameboy's limitations wouldn't allow you to make anything better?

Again: the game often plays against its own limitations rather than within them

[lumpsbumpsandwhumps]

I personally use "creepy/intimate whumper" like "ATM machine": a single full phrase that may be a little redundant but catches people who don't know the M already means Machine, so to speak (though I think "intimate" is the more useful of the two words since a lot of horror is "creepy" in a lot of ways that Aren't That, and some whump at the intersection of the venn diagram with horror can be those too).

Or maybe it's more like "naan bread"? Some people just use creepy, some other people they've never met just say intimate, someone reads both their works by chance and figures whatever *they* go on to write is something both those (seemingly, but probably not really) separate audiences would like. Bread a la India, creepy a la intimate.

"Yandere", however, I think very much has romantic connotations. I'm sure it's occasionally used elsewhere, but I wouldn't personally unless that's the precedent I want to promise I'm following (I don't...want people to read my distinctly parental/teacher-flavored whumper as romantic, for example. you can say "it's already fucked up, what's the harm, we're all freaks here" all you like, but it's less that and more wanting my boundaries to be respected - which seems to be the case with many people who harp on their work not being viewed as A Sex Thing even if you the reader are turned on by it - it's projecting an *intention* they *do not have*, and then often subsequently insisting that they're "just in denial" or "lying" when they clarify that intention, which is ABSOLUTELY crossing a boundary).

Vibes-wise also I feel there's a sense of scope to it? Like when I hear "yandere" I imagine a focus on the initial meeting and/or "falling in love" (whether or not it's romantic), the stalking/obsession before you get to Kidnapping Classic or full-scale murder (if ever), the victim/"love interest" having time or at least a chance to interact with people the yandere sees as rivals for their affection before (again, if) they decide that can't be allowed to continue...like if the story starts and they're already in captivity I wouldn't call it yandere unless it's romantic.

TLDR I think creepy vs intimate is somewhere between convergent game of telephone and concentric circles on a venn diagram (with "intimate" encompassing well enough what people tend to mean), but "yandere" is at least arguably its own circle. Probably nested inside both "creepy" and "intimate", but not including all of what either of those means.

See, I dunno, in my beautiful smooth brain I still just can't grasp the difference between yandere and intimate whumper (since we all seem to be in agreement that creepy/intimate whumper are close enough to the same thing). To me, they're both the same vibe of "some kind of attraction being forced onto whumpee that also causes physical/emotional distress", which is then a catchall for romantic, platonic, and/or sexual interest that a whumper might have. Yandere I would say has the broader scope of what type of attraction it could be, whereas intimate whumper is romantic/sexual (not platonic).

But I've also been into yandere for years so I'm used to all the flavors it comes in, like familial love or romantic love or protective/obsessive love or best friend love -- it's just any kind of love sickness, not necessarily romantic 100% of the time (although that's typically the majority). People who aren't into the yandere scene probably assume that's the only vibe it comes in though, so I can see why they would think that's exclusively where it falls and don't consider it to align with other tags. Similar to how some yanderes can be soft and sweet with their darling, while others can still be just as cruel and painful, which is where the "intimate whumper" falls into place.

Anyways for the most part I'm pretty sure we're in agreement that there's a good amount of overlap between the three tags (:

[golbrocklovely]

You’d figure if he really had the answer to great editing that they would be winning editing and cinematography awards but they’re not. They’re always nominated for simply being a duo. They have single camera usage with low quality sound because you can never hear when they type “listen”, weird unfinished cuts, grainy imagery at times, no drone footage, reused stock footage, loud score music, over the top jump scares, rushed scenes that seem misplaced. Nowhere in that will he get nominates for any award at any film festival. And for someone who claims to love editing because he has many times on snap, xplrclub, twitter, he sure struggles with it a lot almost as if he DOESNT know what hes doing. I like their content but his insistence in micromanaging aggravates me and reminds me of Shmelton Shmastee.

If he wants it to be an apprenticeship like you said, make that into a xplrclub contest win, get an exclusive one on one class on editing with Sam Golbach. Doing this to already professionals is such a slap in the face. And we thought the notes he showed on his snap story last time were bad but 20pgs!!! The apprentice caption worried me because usually apprenticeships aren’t paid or paid after a certain amount of hours. They’ve never said how much it pays, if its remote, if they provide benefits, if this is entry level or advanced yet he’s already dictating their work? Other creators do list everything out there, i’ve seen postings for some streamers and even youtubers on industry websites.

He better not try to sale this as another money grab because i see people in the fandom always convincing them to film and sale everything they touch and i can very easily see his ego get inflated by this.

something that i have always noticed, especially when snc are in a time crunch, is that's when they try to pull out all the stops and do something new with their editing. and it now makes so much more sense to me when i realize that all of the weird edits usually boil down to sam and his…. ideas lol

that's not to say that colby is some fantastic editor. god knows he has his fuck ups too.

either way, i think the thing that pisses me off most about all of this is just that both of their parts are crucial to the editing process, but sam is the one that bitches about it the most and makes it seem as if he is doing all of it at once. like his part is complicated, i have no doubt it is, but clearly if he is constantly running into the issue that a) he can't train someone to do what he does or b) it is taking so long to find an editor…. maybe the issue is him, and not the crazy genius work he is doing lol

and hilariously that you mention mr. L10 bc me and @xplrvibes were saying the same thing sksksk

and while i do keep saying that at this point they should just hire a fan to edit their content, i'm only really saying that out of convenience and not bc i think it would be the best idea out there. turning it into a contest might end up badly, and also using a fan could actually become a shit show bc you would have to make sure they are trustworthy enough to not leak anything or freak out at the mere amount of interactions they would have to have with snc. also god knows this fandom would throw some form of a hissy fit about a fan winning a chance to be their editor…. it would just be messy.

however, if there was a "fan" out there that had at least some background knowledge of after effects, then that might be their best bet. it would make more sense to hire someone that knows the program but isn't really an editor since clearly sam doesn't want someone that has their own style of editing and will just copy what he does.

and they probably hide all of the details away just so they can weed out the fans that probably applied for the sake of wanting to talk to snc or whatever weird bs. realistically, it would probably be remote, possibly entry level or a bit above (depending on how much prior experience they are looking for) and little to no benefits. maybe i'm wrong tho, so don't take my word for it lol

as for his 20 pages, i would pay a solid dollar to read whatever shit he wrote out. but highkey i don't think anyone in the fandom will ever see those 20 pages unless snc plan to hire them. but please, sage samuel, tell me of the ways to edit your finest spooky videos. i must know how you do it lmaooo

[otakween]

Head Start at Birth - Ch. 21-30

The mediocrity continues! I feel like I've read newspaper funnies with higher stakes than this plot. Nothing bad ever really happens to the main characters and they always look/act pristine. The character writing is giving Mary Sue/Gary Stu vibes. I wonder if I would like this back in middle school or if I'd have enough brain cells to recognize its blandness?

Ch. 21

Lilia figures out a way to use magic without any magic energy (thanks to Toma). So now she's fulfilled her goal of allowing Elrich to use magic.

I'm not really emotionally invested at all at this point btw. Everything is so bland (especially Elrich who is just like "perfect boyfriend") that how could I be?

Ch. 22

It feels kind of lazy that the bird gets a cool human form and the dragon just gets to be blue!Lilia :/

More random plot happenings...this time the King is under attack and they're asking Lilia to help. Again with the "chosen one" BS.

Ch. 23

I feel like they totally ripped off the "butler attacks with steak knives" thing from Black Butler. Can't get nothin' past a veteran weeb!

Weirdly I feel like this manga could benefit from more characters. Yeslar and Reslar (Lilia's dragon and bird companions) get way too much screentime. They're so boring lol

Ch. 24

Just when I complain about Lilia's spirits they introduce...even more spirits! Why did they just reveal that Toma had spirits outta nowhere like that?

Reslar freaking out at the faerie seemed a little overblown and out of character (what little character Reslar has). I think Lilia and Elrich should have scolded her instead of just distracting her :/

Ch. 25

I gotta admit, the Sage title is pretty badass. And it looks like she gets access to some fancy library/archive? Hell yeah.

I had the though of "instead of pursuing the invention of the camera via magic why doesn't she just try recreating the non-magical engineering it takes to develop a camera?" But then I was like...wait...I have no idea how a camera works. Also, she was just an otaku in her previous life so she wouldn't have that knowledge either.

Elrich seemed low key jealous that his fiance is more impressive than him. Hopefully those feelings don't turn ugly. (Who am I kidding? This manga has no stakes whatsoever).

Lilia's new ribbons are suuuper cute. As I've said before, this manga at least has eye candy if nothing else.

Ch. 26

Can't decide if this chapter was wholesome or creepy. All these old men freaking out over Lilia with grandfatherly love. I guess it's just not a dynamic you see very often lol

Again we have the whole "MC is the super special chosen one who is smarter than everyone in their new world" vibes 😑

While I relate to Lilia being somewhat introverted, I do think she could have been a little nicer to the sages after they invited her so many times. It also felt weird to me that she didn't have the "wait, maybe this could further my research" revelation sooner.

Ch. 27

The age gap relationship stuff combined with the ultra girly aesthetic is kinda giving me UsagixMamoru from Sailor Moon. Not saying that makes it okay, just that this is pretty common with shoujo I guess.

"I like to carry you" is creepy (AKA she's so young you can carry her, dude >:/) but also...I wish I could be carried places lol. Seems really nice.

Lilia's "I should rely on others more" revelation is good, especially since it goes against the aforementioned "OP MC is better than everyone" vibes. I much rather her see her working with the community than just dominating everyone.

Ch. 28

Woah this one was so short? (Yet it cost the same amount, go figure -_-)

I almost thought there was another time skip since Isaac looked so mature, but nope! Zac is a cool nickname for the name Isaac

Suuuuper contrived miscommunication cliche -sigh- weak

Ch. 29

Okay, not gonna lie, that was pretty romantic. She's still too young to be smooching him though lol. (The "become my family" line got me. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing 😭)

Lilia unlocks some kind of new teleport power and they make it all ominous for whatever reason?

King is sus. I wonder if he's going to try and swoop in and have someone else marry Lilia?

Ch. 30

I was completely wrong about the king, they just keep doing these ominous cliff hangers that amount to nothing. It's pretty frustrating.

Lol back to this manga being absolutely zero stakes. They threatened to take Elrich away but were then like "sike, he doesn't have to go!" This is very "makes it easy" story telling.

They had a "The End" fake out...wish it was real.

The writing keeps pointing out how young Lilia is and how it's weird she's engaged to be married (actually married as of this chapter). If you think it's so weird, why did you write it!? No one is forcing you to write about a married 9 year old! -sigh-