#context it just started in the middle of the episode. for like no reason it was so jarring

[jamiepaige]

Constant Companions Closeup #3: ROT FOR CLOUT

(also on bandcamp and spotify!)

WHAT'S going on guys, welcome back to another Constant Companions Closeup, the show where we take a DEEP DIVE into what makes these tunes tick! Last episode, we went aaaaaall the way there on Not Quite There, and today, we're making that liggity-line go up up up up up with ROT FOR CLOUT featuring VISUALEYES!! Before we get started, remember to SMASH that like button, SLAM subscribe, and FUCK the bell icon. This week's community challenge: leave your credit card info in the comments! Bet you won't!

(*cough*)

---

I check my notifications way too fucking much. It's a habit I'm trying to curb, and to my credit, I am doing better lately, but being chemically predisposed to dopamine deficiencies has done a number on my ability to go five minutes without checking the funny glowing numbers on my phone. Naturally, I also very much seek more validation than I should from the opinions of strangers yadayadayada yeah that's what the song is about but none of that actually has to do with why I started writing this song in the first place.

Have you ever taken a flight with American Airlines?

This was after waking up at 4 in the morning to fly out of Houston thinking I'd be napping on a couch in Ohio by 2 pm at the latest.

I want to make one thing clear here, and that's that I made this bed for myself. Tucked the sheets in and all. You see, on the rare occasions I fly, I normally take Southwest. Southwest does not overbook flights like a lot of other airlines do, so it's a practice I am mostly unfamiliar with. So, when I received a notification on my phone promising genuinely ridiculous amounts of flight credit money in exchange for taking a slightly later flight, I thought - well, shit! That sounds nice!

This is how they trick you. I didn't really realize I'd been tricked until I was on my second flight of the day, sitting in a middle seat at the very back of the plane, heading from Dallas, a city I don't live in, to Washington, DC, a city I was not trying to get to, staring down the barrel of another flight I was destined to get on that had been delayed like two fucking hours.

I became the Joker. All I could do to remain sane was write a song about it. This is how ROT FOR CLOUT came to be.

I guess the moral of the story is this: Don't go to Ohio. And to answer your question,

Yes I am

Not really

No

---

This is a complete sidenote but I want to mention it here: I'm genuinely overjoyed at the amount of people excitedly talking about my songwriting or the intention behind my lyrics. For a long time, it really felt like lyricism was the last thing people cared about from me, while it was always the thing I wanted to take pride in the most... So genuinely, thank you everyone for caring!! Every single fire emoji people have put next to a line I've written has extended my lifespan by multiple years

There's a brief little moment where the song's chords leave the key, doing a really stereotypically jazzy 2-5 movement, and it's one of my favorite parts of the entire song. I'm not really a music theory buff or anything, and I'm certainly not formally trained, but I've always been very passionate about more complicated harmony in otherwise poppy and accessible contexts - bo en's album pale machine really rewrote my brain when I first heard it.

On that note, there are microtones in the vocal melody - During the chorus, some of the rapidly repeated words move up in quarter tones! Possibly the simplest way I could've included microtonality, but I'm genuinely afraid if I learn more than what I already know about it I'll be lost to the darkness.

Obviously, the work of Sasuke Haraguchi was a massive influence on this song, particularly the song Igaku. I think basically everyone on the entire planet has picked up on that at this point, but I do also wanna point out some other songs that were on my mind at the time! (two for three on these posts mentioning louis cole now)

I'd also like to take a moment to spotlight the vocal samples on this! They previously appeared on エビチャーハン!, and they've honestly become some of my favorite samples to throw in things. They're also just a fucking goldmine sincerely

Finally, HUGE thanks to Visualeyes for the delightful synth solo on this!! I had put out a call on Twitter looking for instrumentalists, genuinely originally envisioning a super jazzy piano solo, but their synth playing genuinely brought the whole song together perfectly!

That's about it for this song - though again, if there are any more questions people have, I'd be happy to answer them in the replies to this post or elsewhere!! (*ahem*) THAT'S gonna do it for today's video, folks! Feel free to leave a like, comment, hit the subscribe button for more and click the bell so you don't miss any new videos. Tomorrow? I Wish That I Could Fall. it hurts.

[wolvierinez]

have you guys seen this. you should watch it.

[queerly-autistic]

I've seen some concern about the fact that the BBC has double-billed the last four episodes of Our Flag Means Death and bumped it up later in the schedule - concerns that this means it's not doing well for the BBC - and so I'd just like to allay some of those fears, if possible? To start with, it's important to recognise that the BBC does this all the time. I was in EastEnders fandom for many years, and nonsense schedule changes were a regular annoyance. When I shared OFMD's schedule change with my little group of friends from that fandom, everyone rolled their eyes and went 'oh yeah, typical BBC shenanigans'. As an example: the BBC was really pushing EastEnders last year, they'd been hard-marketing towards the big iconic Christmas episode since February, and then, around comes Christmas, and the BBC inexplicably sticks it on at 10pm (when it's usually broadcast at 7.30pm).

So this isn't unusual. This is extremely common. There's often very little rhyme or reason to the BBC live broadcast scheduling. To try and accurately read between the lines of this is like trying to analyse the written output of a cat walking across a keyboard.

But another big thing to remember is that Our Flag Means Death is a streaming show. The BBC dropped all of the episodes in one go because they know that it's the streaming audience where the show is successful. It's the same with What We Do In The Shadows - we know that the show does well for them, because they keep renewing their contract to show it, but because it does well specifically with a streaming audience the live episode broadcasts are perpetually bumped to a weird time (sometimes one in the morning!!).

The BBC is under contract to do a live broadcast of these shows, but that's not where the audience is. And that's why the episodes get shuffled around or bumped to a late timeslot or double-billed together. Them not necessarily getting spectacular overnight live broadcast ratings is not a big barrier to potential pick-up - streaming numbers is the important metric. And, just yesterday, the BBC dropped a card for the show over the credits of House of Games, a very popular (and mainstream!) afternoon gameshow, asking people to go stream it on iPlayer. if you haven't seen it, I managed to screen-record and post it on Twitter here (subtitles included): https://x.com/QueerlyAutistic/status/1762913455051325888?s=20. This is a really, really good ad to get - a very mainstream slot that potentially brings attention to the show from new audience demographics. The fact that they put an ad-read for the show in this particular slot is more indicative to me of the fact that the show is doing well for the BBC than any predictable shenanigans around live broadcast times. They advertised the 'niche' queer pirate comedy to a very mainstream middle-of-the-day audience! That's not nothing! And the fact that they were specifically advertising it as being on iPlayer - not the live broadcast - indicates to me that that's where it's doing well: that's where they know their audience is, and they don't care about the live broadcast, because the streams are where it's at. The live broadcast is probably just a contractual obligation at this point.

Our Flag Means Death is still regularly listed under 'trending' on the iPlayer website, and the Parrot Analytics for the show in the UK are excellent. And that's what we want. That's what we need to convince streamers. Remember: the YouGov survey about the show specifically asked questions about it in the context of streaming services. Overnight figures are lovely to have, too (so keep tuning in!) but this is a show made to stream. It was all dropped on iPlayer first for a reason; they're specifically pushing it on iPlayer for a reason. And, at the end of the day, it's streamers we're currently trying to convince to pick up the show, not broadcast television networks.

So, don't read too much into it. We're still doing good, UK crew!

[pseudophan]

why is it so normal for people to start tv shows (any type, american sitcom to anime idc whatever) from a specific season in the middle of the series because for some reason the fandom has decided the first few seasons aren't worth it? what's even the point of watching it then. sure it might get better from season 3 onwards, but you're not gonna have any of the context. you won't know the characters. whatever great things happen in season 3 won't hit as well if you don't suffer through the mediocrity of the first two seasons.

sorry i just think if you can't handle sitting through shitty or kinda just average episodes of something in order to get to the really good bits you don't deserve to watch it at all. like literally what is the point of watching a series if you're gonna jump into it halfway through

[fairyniceyeah]

💎 I love my team, I love my crew (Part 1/7)

Title from Super (SEVENTEEN)

Summary: While filming on a small sailing boat a few SVT members start feeling sick - the very contagious norovirus is the most likely reason.

CW: emeto, diarrhea in the context of illness

Sickies: Woozi/Jihoon + Joshua + Minghao + S.Coups/Seungcheol

Caretakers: Wonwoo + Seungkwan + Vernon

💎🐈‍⬛

“Wonwoo-hyung”, a voice called behind the rapper. Wonwoo stopped in his tracks and turned around. 

It had been Seungkwan calling after him, entering the ship’s hallway from the cabin he shared with Woozi, Minghao and Dino. For the next Going Seventeen Episodes they had decided to do a three part sailing experience. Well, it was less sailing and more fun and water-based games in the middle of the open sea. As far as Wonwoo knew, Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Dino were actually swimming at that very moment and Jun and Hoshi had said something about a table tennis match. He himself would be happy to just sit on a recliner and read a book. It was where he actually had been headed before Seungkwan had called him back.

Facing the young vocalist Wonwoo couldn’t help but notice the way Seungkwan was biting his lip in worry and was anxiously playing with the hem of his shirt. He had his legs crossed and leaned against the hall, which struck Wonwoo as very odd.

“What’s wrong, Kwan-ah?”, Wonwoo asked, immediately on alert, striding towards his dongsaeng in three big steps, “are you alright?”

“I’m fine, hyung. Have you seen the hyungs?”, Seungkwan asked, looking down at his flip-flops.

“Uhm, well, I think Cheol-hyung and Hannie-hyung are swimming. I haven’t seen Shua-hyung in some time now”, Wonwoo replied kindly, “is there anything I can help you with?”

“Oh, what the hell”, Seengkwan mumbled, then said louder, “it’s Woozi-hyung. He locked himself in the bathroom. I think he is seasick again.”

That at least explained on two levels why Seungkwan was standing this weirdly and was so fidgety. Wonwoo already felt worried for Jihoon - now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen the vocalist since breakfast and it was after lunch. It wasn’t unusual for some members to skip meals, especially with the heat, but if he truly wasn’t well…

“Why don’t you go use the bathroom in my room?”, Wonwoo suggested, “I’ll go check on Jihoonie.”

“Alright, thanks”, Seungkwan said and hurried towards the room Wonwoo shared with Joshua, Minghao and Seokmin.

With a sigh Wonwoo entered the room Seungkwan had come from. Nobody was inside but he saw the occupied symbol on the bathroom door. He passed the two bunk beds, noticing how Jihoon’s bed sheets were pushed into a ball at the foot of the bed, half-way to falling off. It seemed like the bed’s occupant had been in a rush to leave.

Wonwoo walked over to the bathroom door and rapped against it. He didn’t hear anything from inside and was about to knock again when he received his reply: “Seungkwan, I told you to go away.”

“It’s Wonwoo”, Wonwoo stated, “Kwan-ah is worried about you. Frankly, so am I. Is everything alright?”

Instead of answering, Jihoon opened the door’s lock. Before the producer could decide differently again, Wonwoo pushed the door open, careful as not to accidentally hit Jihoon. The bathrooms on the ship were tiny, but Jihoon had managed to curl himself into such a small ball that Wonwoo had no trouble opening the door. 

While he had expected it, Wonwoo was still taken aback by how awful Jihoon looked. The producer was slumped over the toilet bowl, one arm resting on it and cushioning his head. His other arm was wrapped around his stomach. Long strands of his blond hair were falling into his white face. He looked like he had gone through the wringer.

Jihoon turned around to look at Wonwoo and croaked: “Welcome to the party. The motion-sickness medicine does an awful job though.”

“I’d rather not be invited”, Wonwoo replied, happy that Jihoon seemed at least still able to make jokes. “Did you take other meds than unusual? Normally you feel okay when you take them, don’t you?”

Careful not to step on Jihoon or injure himself on a shelf or the door, Wonwoo sat down next to his younger chingu. Jihoon just shrugged and laid his head back down on his arm. It had been some time since he had been so awfully seasick.

“Have you thrown up?”, Wonwoo asked, daring to put a hand on Jihoon’s back. He supposed that if Jihoon hadn’t wanted comfort he wouldn’t have opened the door for him in the first place. And indeed, Jihoon even leaned a bit into the touch.

“Just, uhm, the sheets, only a mouthful, really”, Jihoon stuttered, flushing bright red, “I woke up feeling so nauseous and well, I uh, threw up a bit. Ever since …” He stopped and swallowed harshly. Speaking seemed to make him feel more sick. “... I’ve been in here. I’m so nauseous, Wonwoo.”

“I’m sorry you’re having such a bad time. What can I do for you?” Wonwoo rubbed his hand up and down Jihoon���s back, hoping it would comfort him even more than the simple hand on his back.

“Can you make it go away?”, Jihoon asked, an exasperated undertone to his light words.

“No, sorry. All out of magic potions”, Wonwoo joked, “I can go ask the staff for more or others meds if you want?”

“I … uh, could you just stay here?”, Jihoon questioned quietly. He seemed embarrassed by the question, despite it being a very legit request in Wonwoo’s opinion. Not wanting to make the producer feel more uncomfortable, the rapper quickly reassured: “Don’t worry, I’ll stay. Would it be okay if I texted staff for meds still?”

Jihoon nodded weakly. “Don’t know if I can take them though. I’m starting to feel really sick again.”

“That’s okay. I got you”, Wonwoo promised and finished up his text message to a manager. “Do you want me to braid your hair out of your face? You might be more comfortable that way?”

“If you would?”, Jihoon whispered. 

Wonwoo just reached over to gather the long, sweaty hair and started to braid.

💎🍊

Seungkwan rushed into Wonwoo’s cabin only to realize that the blinds were drawn and that Joshua was asleep on one bed. As quietly as his bursting bladder allowed, he rushed into the bathroom to relieve himself. 

He exited the bathroom just in time to get scared senseless when the door to the cabin was flung open, admitting Mingyu and Seokmin who were seemingly lightly arguing over something. Seungkwan frantically tried to calm his racing heart and shush them, hoping that by some miracle Joshua was not awoken by the abrupt entrance.

“Kwan-ah, what are you doing in here?”, Seokmin chirped, confused. 

Seungkwan shushed them again, waving his arms into Joshua’s direction, but it was too late. Their hyung opened his eyes, blinking up at them and frowning. 

“Wha’s go’n on?”, he slurred, clearly still half-asleep.

“Great, now you woke Shua-hyung”, Mingyu exclaimed, exasperated. 

“It’s not only my fault. You’re just annoyed that you lost at table tennis”, Seokmin countered.

“Well, you’re a terrible referee”, Mingyu said.

“Maybe you wanna take this bickering outside?”, Seungkwan suggested, still holding his hands to point at Joshua, who was now slowly sitting up.

“Alright, fine”, Mingyu and Seokmin agreed. The last thing Seungkwan heard before they shut the door again was Seokmin mumbling: “It’s not my fault that you were alone after…”

“Sorry, Shua-hyung”, Seungkwan apologized, dropping his arms and walking over to sit next to the older vocalist on the bed. 

“It’s fine”, Joshua mumbled and leaned his head on Seungkwan’s shoulder. “I probably should get up. I didn’t even mean to fall asleep - I just wanted to lay down a bit. My head hurts.”

Internally Seungkwan groaned. It was promising to be a really bad day if Joshua’s headache turned into a migraine, Seokmin and Mingyu kept bickering and Woozi was seasick. Seungkwan just hoped that Wonwoo got further than him with the stubborn producer who firmly believed that anybody younger than him was a baby and not to be involved in his issues.

“Do you want some painkillers?”, Seungkwan asked.

“Please. They are in my bag”, Joshua replied, nodding his head into the direction of the shelf at the headend of his bed and immediately wincing. “Actually, I think I will go back to sleep after I’ve taken them after all. I really don’t feel good.”

Seungkwan nodded and quickly managed to obtain the mild painkillers that Joshua took when a migraine was on its way. Joshua quickly swallowed them with a sip of water and sunk under his blankets. 

💎🐢

Vernon watched the table tennis match with interest. He himself had not wanted to play, enjoying the freetime while listening to music with one headphone on his ear, the other off to know how the game went. Mingyu and Minghao were playing against Hoshi and Jun with Seokmin as the referee. None of them had any real talent, Minghao the best of them but only due to his amazing reflexes. It was fun.

Below them in the water, Seungcheol, Jeonghan and Dino were swimming and snorkeling in the open sea together with a few staff members. Vernon didn’t know why anybody would willingly do that but he hoped they had more fun than Mingyu who was slowly getting annoyed over the table tennis game.

“Hao, I thought you were supposed to be good”, Mingyu groaned as Minghao missed another ball, causing cheering by Jun and Hoshi.

Minghao muttered a reply that Vernon didn’t quite catch, then pushed himself away from the table and left. Hoshi, Jun and Seokmin seemed as confused as Vernon felt. 

“He said it’s too hot to play”, Mingyu said, also a bit stunned, “uh, do we just go on?”

“Jo, Vernon, you wanna join instead?”, Seokmin yelled as if Vernon was on the other side of the boat, not just a few meters away. 

“Nah”, Vernon replied, shaking his head and pulling off his headphones. He had a bad feeling about Minghao - the older would never leave in the middle of a game. Despite his regular meditations he was competitive. “I’m going to get myself something to drink. Have fun!”

The staff had stocked the living room below deck with a tiny bar - a few different sports drinks and some snacks to choose from. Vernon grabbed a Sprite and took a few sips before heading further inside in search of the missing Chinese member. He wasn’t sure what exactly was wrong, it wasn’t like Minghao to be sulky, especially since Mingyu’s words had been just in good fun and he was easy to read. 

The young rapper didn’t even have to go check the cabin he knew Minghao shared with Woozi, Dino and Seungkwan. When he left the living room he nearly collided with Minghao exiting the bathroom across the hall. 

For a second Vernon was confused - if Minghao had just needed to go to the bathroom they could have stopped the game for him. They may have made a bit of fun of him yet ultimately some stuff was more important than games. But then he noticed the way Minghao had his arms wrapped around his stomach and was doubled over. His complexion was ashen gray and he was covered in sweat.

“Hao-hyung?”, Vernon asked and reached out to the unsteady older member. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?”

“Nonie?”, Minghao asked and lifted his head. His eyes were a bit glazy and it was a bad sign that he only seemed to have noticed Vernon when he spoke. Normally Minghao was so aware of his surroundings. “I … uh… I don’t feel well.”

For a second Vernon contemplated getting Jun or any other of the hyungs, he himself not often in the role of the caretaker of a sick member but Minghao didn’t look good and Vernon didn’t feel right to leave him alone at the moment.

“Let’s sit down, okay?”, he suggested instead, hoping it was the right thing. Minghao looked really bad and so shaky. 

The older nodded and let Vernon guide him to a chair in the living room. He sank down with a wince, still holding his stomach tightly. 

“Can you try to drink something?”, Vernon asked. Maybe Minghao was just a bit sunburned, a bit overheated, and a cold, sugary drink would cure it all. The rapper held out his own bottle of Sprite, feeling a lot out of his depth just standing there watching the other look so unwell.

“I don’t really want to”, Minghao mumbled, “my stomach …”

“Have you thrown up?”, Vernon asked panically. Uh oh, this was not going as he had wanted. Maybe he should have gotten a hyung after all. He really didn’t like vomit.

But Minghao shook his head, flushing and stammered out: “I … I was feeling really hot and my stomach was feeling really upset. I, uh …” 

The last part was muttered and spoken so fast that Vernon wasn’t able to catch it. “Come again?”

“I had diarrhea”, Minghao mumbled, barely louder than before but not as fast. 

Vernon tried to school the grimace creeping up on his face into a neutral expression. There was no reason to make Minghao feel more humiliated than he already was. At least he wasn’t throwing up.

 “Do you feel better now?”, he decided to ask instead. 

“Barely”, the dancer replied, curling into himself more again, “my stomach is still cramping badly. Actually, I think, I need to …” Minghao’s eyes went wide and he pushed past Vernon to hobble to the bathroom again.

Fuck.

💎😇

“I think I’m going to go back to the boat”, Seungcheol said through chattering teeth, “it’s so cold.”

“What are you talking about, hyung? It’s so hot”, Dino exclaimed, swimming up to where Seungcheol was holding onto a unicorn floatie and Jeonghan was floating on his back. The youngest had been happy to swim around the sea, pulling his eldest hyungs with him. Since it was a calm day there were barely any waves in their way and the maknae had been fascinated by the coral reef they had been able to see below them. The ship was anchored in a shallow area in the middle of the sea that day. So they had taken the opportunity to swim in the open sea when offered by the staff. It was fun but also exhausting.

Jeonghan moved from his position on his back to just paddle lazily by the other two. He had to agree with Dino, it truly was warm even in the water. But then again Seungcheol had always easily felt cold. And again, it was exhausting.

“I’m going to join you”, Jeonghan said smoothly and pushed the floatie closer to the ladder at the side of the boat that would take them back up to the deck. “I’m beat.”

“Don’t leave me here”, Dino pouted and quickly followed his hyungs. 

Seungcheol couldn’t seem to get out of the water fast enough. He moved the floatie to a staff member and started climbing up the ladder at a quick pace. It was lucky that a slight breeze of wind had pushed the floatie more to Jeonghan than to the staff member. Instead of climbing directly behind Seungcheol, Jeonghan was a bit away, trying to catch the floatie, when the leader lost his grip on the metal bars and fell back into the water with a splash and a surprised yell that abruptly stopped.

“Cheollie?”, Jeonghan called, feeling adrenaline course through his veins. It was useless, really, since the leader was still submerged when he spoke. Luckily, in the few strong strokes, exhaustion forgotten, Jeonghan needed to get to him, Seungcheol managed to resurface. 

He was coughing badly and clutched at Jeonghan tightly to keep afloat. Dino had swam over too, concerned as well, and together they held Seungcheol up until he managed to stop coughing and spitting out salt water. 

“Are you alright?”, Jeonghan asked, “what happened? Did you slip?”

“Lost my grip”, the rapper replied a bit breathlessly. “Can we go up? I’m really cold. I just wanna get warm.”

They managed to climb up the ladder without any incidents this time. Seungcheol was trembling, from shock or cold or both, but Jeonghan stayed directly behind him. Once on deck, Seungcheol collapsed backwards onto the warm wood, sighing in relief. 

“Are you feeling alright, Seungcheol?”, the main manager, who had likely seen the incident happen from above, asked and came over carrying three towels. 

Jeonghan was surprised by his best friend’s honesty as he answered: “I’ve been better. I’m so cold and my chest hurts from coughing. My stomach feels a bit upset too, I think I swallowed a bit too much of the salt water.”

“Take it easy for the rest of the day and let us know if …”, the manager said but trailed off as a loud voice called: “Hyungs? Hannie-hyung?”

The voice was followed by Vernon’s body as he slid around a corner to reach them. “Oh, I’m glad you’re out of the water”, he said, “Minghao-hyung isn’t feeling well.”

“What’s wrong exactly?”, Seungcheol asked immediately and Jeonghan forgot about Seungcheol to focus on the gasping Vernon. He must have run all across the boat to reach them and he looked frazzled in a way that seemed quite worrisome. What the hell had happened while they were in the water?

“Well, he, uh, he said he had diarrhea earlier and now he locked himself in the bathroom but it sounded like he was throwing up too”, Vernon replied with a frown. Before they had a chance to react the manager’s phone beeped and he read the message that had plopped up.

“Uh oh”, the manager exclaimed and stared at his phone. “Damn. Wonwoo-yah just texted me, asking for meds because Jihoonie is really seasick and threw up.”

“This isn’t good”, Dino said what they all thought. Jeonghan felt a bit of panic start up - he had made sure to get himself and Jihoon the seasickness medication and he himself felt fine. If Minghao was sick too then it was much more likely that Jihoon wasn’t seasick but sick sick. And if two members were sick on this tiny boat… he really hoped it was just food poisoning but he knew they had all eaten the same food and then everybody would be ill by now. A gastrointestinal sickness was much more likely. 

Jeonghan quickly explained his train of thought out loud and the others nodded in agreement, looking as worried as Jeonghan felt.

“What do we do?”, Vernon asked. Jeonghan met the eyes of Seungcheol and the manager for a moment, before nodding.

“I’ll go look for Jun and go check on Minghao with him”, Jeonghan decided, “manager-hyung and Cheollie will go check on Jihoon-ah. Dino-yah, Vernonie, please don’t worry too much. Find the others but only tell Joshua at first, okay? We don’t need worry and panic now.”

ILMTILMC Part II

Masterlist links: Fairy's Full Masterlist Fairy's Masterlist - SEVENTEEN

[voidedaurora]

hey! quartlez just posted a video “clearing the grooming allegations” on their pasqelz channel. which i find a bit funny cause if you’re so serious about clearing your name n ppl are lying grr 😡 shouldn’t it be on your main account??

they also said working on it stressed them out (poor them 🥺 /sar) so the video isn’t super long

they said “Originally had a longer video prepared but workin’ on it stressed me out too much and ended up not likin’ it later down the line so hope this one will suffice Apologizes on the wait but didn't wanna rush anythin out”

i hope that you n everyone else affected by them are okay! 🫶🏼

I'm aware of the video and have watched it, it proves nothing, disproves nothing, flat out LIES?, etc. Starting with the most blatant lie, around 6:42 I never posted her porn/Nsfw, I'm not evil and I have no reason to do so. She claims that I deleted it but I actually don't think I've deleted a SINGLE tumblr post I've made here, I've edited posts to correct spelling, censor evidence I failed to censor while rushing, etc. But I don't think I've flat out deleted any of them? After looking for a while to figure out what she was talking about I figured out the image at least, this is a flat out lie and her trying to twist the narrative. THIS is the drawing she is talking about to my knowledge.

This is obviously NOT NSFW, Suggestive at worst. She's honestly just trying to make me look bad I guess? I've never posted cropped NSFW of hers, I don't have a reason to. Additionally, just gonna point out since she has a caption at the bottom left saying she looked for the post, I have good reason to believe SHE never looked for anything according to her own words as shown here.

Screenshot was taken on the 22nd of October

This obviously isn't groundbreaking or anything crazy but it's definitely something to note since she's making this "response" based off of things her friends have told her and interpreted from posts online At around 1:11 she talks about how she "didn't want to treat Khai differently than how I acted towards any of my other friends so they didn't feel left out" and pretty much tries to justify the way she acted around her with the fact it was how Mel and I had acted to eachother and sometimes with Khai as a group. This does NOT excuse anything, despite what she believes, acting a certain way around someone or letting certain things slide that you wouldn't "normally" would be considered SPECIAL TREATMENT and isn't ok. Letting Khai in her server early is special treatment It's fucking insane that even after your friends told you not to let khai in you'd let her in anyway Additionally she mentions briefly the "shit talking" I did about her around 0:34 and shows screenshots (i'll show them below but in higher quality + more context bc she paints em in a certain way with how they're displayed

For this one I was talking about how she was treating me throughout surgery, not shit-talking to shit talk

Again, this isn't shit-talking, this is me being upset she was treating me like caca

THESE aren't shit talking either, sure they may have been rudely worded but the context of this was when kiwi, another friend, Mel, and I were all playing monopoly and Mel had been being really mean to everyone else involved and pushing everyone's boundaries (not in the "monopoly divides friendships" trope way either)

Now this one is definitely fair, it was worded quite immaturely/meanspirited but I was just being honest with Khai at the time, Mel would constantly shit-talk about Khai to me :/

#1 is fair TO AN EXTENT, she took what I'd said as some deep dark threat, I was extremely upset at the time and DID INDEED have alot of things she'd done bottled up for her, and to me it had felt extremely unfair that I'd kept shit secret and had THAT much care for her and her career to lie for her only for her not to give less of a shit about me when I needed her, additionally I was also in the middle of a long bpd episode fueled by stress, the surgery, narcotics, and general mental illness. She took this and tried to frame it as me "blackmailing" her. Not to whip out definitions but-

By definition, blackmail is basically when you hold information above someone's head as a threat to get something else either OUT of them or force them to do something for you. This was NOT blackmail, if ANYTHING it would count as a threat, but I didn't even say this directly to her so I'm just??? For that second set of screenshots I was definitely being an ass about her, but again, all of this was out of frustration of how I WAS BEING TREATED by her All in all, all of these screenshots are WILDLY cropped and get rid of other bits of context that are honestly pretty important when viewing Moving on to the next point

She mentions how the "whole grooming thing mainly comes from the Just Dance VR video I did with Khai" this is not true and you know it! I guess she's just ignoring this whole stream

ADDITIONALLY, she mentions that I "was just mad that Kai's character looked similar to voided character because they were both blue and had antenna" no, this is not why I was upset. Sure, I was uncomfortable with the two characters looking the same, and WHEN Kaia was made initially, it was during a point of time when Khai was at her peak for copying pretty much everything I'd do, down to ocs, artstyle, ways I spoke, etc. (she doesn't do this anymore so this absolutely is not to shame her <3) It made me uncomfortable knowing that Kaia was 1. based off of Iris 2. was drawn EERILY similar to how Mel drew Iris before (even to the point where when I'd ask other people to spot who's who THEY WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO TELL) 3. The character that looked like Iris was now being shipped with the EXACT SAME one she was etc. all of those together, coupled with the apparent special treatment Khai was being given made me extremely uncomfortable, and worried. My primary concern was NOT the fact Kaia looked like Iris, its the fact she was clearly being used to fill the space where Iris USED TO BE, and was using Khai as a sort of replacement for me. Next. I think its loony that Mel is complaining about people thinking she's still obsessed with her ex as if there isn't REASONS we all think this, you redesign their characters to use as your own, flat out have stolen a couple, talk about them ALL the time in private, the first thing people get to know about you is how much you fucking hate your ex, theres the whole Honest video, the shit-posts about them, etc. There's other things I'll mention at a later date once they're public additionally. She also mentions how the "characters arent even alike anymore" but they really are still the same characters but in a different font. Not to mention the fact you've recently literally stolen 2 characters (Bronze and Frostbite) which were never yours to begin with. wild At 10:47 she says she's surprised people are shocked when she vents about her EX, OFC they are. It's been what 7 years? since yall first dated, and ANOTHER 2 years for you to move on, at least publicly. People are upset you still SHOW people these vents then rant, rave, and shittalk them as if they're still here actively doing you harm, you wish DEATH upon them to this day, aswell as any other people who wrong you. There's a difference between venting to get out feelings and venting to ""cope"" with your ex not liking you anymore and then showing these vents to people around you. The fact they were your "first love" doesn't excuse anything either. "im not friends with any minors" Highly doubt this, only reason you aren't now is because they all left you Around 12:51 she touches on the fact she's shit-talked people in her server, and possibly her friends aswell. She blames this on her old friends and people around her, while this is partially true, there have been MANY instances where she was NOT influenced or told to make fun of these people, i've shown these before but I'll show them again Randomly dming me about fanart someone made, poking fun at it

Randomly dming me about fanart someone made, poking fun at it pt.2

you get it

more

As you can see in these screenshots she's actively making fun of fanart just RANDOMLY, every single screenshot is from a different time aswell. so this behavior was ISOLATED and un-influenced at that moment. Pretty much everything past 14:30 is just her going on a weird ego stroking powertrip about people speaking out about her, you can SMELL the stick rammed up her ass just from her tone alone, she doesn't care, she never will. All yall praising her for this "response" are honestly pretty crazy and your standards are BELOW the floor atp, the glazing is insane ☹️like be so so real, she doesn't even TALK in a serious manner in the video, she starts it off by YELLING Anyway this ENTIRE video was a nothingburger, she proves nothing, she disproves nothing, there's absolutely nothing new brought to to table. Just 17 minutes of excuses, lies, and "nuh uh" Also to anon, I agree 100% she should've posted this on main even if it was absolute dog water, I dont care if you're family watches your videos, the thrusting furrys and suggestive videos were fine but the one supposedly "clearing your name" was too much, awesome Sorry about the formatting being bad, I'm tired of this girl

[xmochaccinox]

Kendratello: An Analysis

What’s up?

I wanted to do an analysis on this ship, and now I'm doing it!

If you are in the Rise Fandom and somehow you have never heard of it, Kendratello is basically a ship between Donnie and Kendra that’s slowly gaining popularity

For as long as I have been in the Rise fandom, I’ve been seeing this ship popping up more and more. By now, it’s almost impossible to meet someone who hasn't heard of the ship, and even though there’s not much content of it, there’s definitely more people who ship it than you think

However, despite the growing popularity, there are still a good chunk of people that hate it for various reasons

But how did it come to be? Where did the ship come from? Why is it so loved by some and hated by others? Well, I’m gonna answer all those questions and even share my own opinions on the ship!

But first a disclaimer!

This analysis is ONLY meant to describe why people like Kendratello or why they don’t like it! Any canon info I bring up will be provided in full context alongside descriptions of how Kendratello shippers may interprete said canon info in order to gain a better understanding of their perspective

Everything I say about the ship is mainly from what I know from the Kendratello content on Tumblr as I don't really use any other social media

I'll also mostly be focused on Kendra because most of the arguments against Kendratello has to do with her

This is NOT meant to be something to persuade or dissuade you from shipping Kendratello!

So let’s get started!

In order to begin, let’s introduce the lovely characters involved in this ship with a brief description

Donatello, also known as Donnie, is a softshell turtle and one of the middle children alongside his twin, Leo

Much like his other versions, Donnie works with tech, but what makes him more unique is that he displays a more mad-scientist-like attitude and has a huge theater kid persona

Kendra is one of the antagonists introduced during the first season. She’s the leader of a computer tech group called The Purple Dragons and specializes in working with computer software, hacking, and modifying

She and her group are basically trouble makers causing various kinds of chaos, to describe them incredibly briefly

So how do they meet?

Donnie and Kendra meet in the episode The Purple Jacket when Donnie sneaks into April’s school to help her with a project. It was there he first noticed the tech club. Well, not really the club, but more the jacket. He then immediately tries to join the club just to get his hands on said jacket by showing off his tech.

Kendra, seemingly impressed, allows Donnie to join and gives him Jason’s jacket. However, it’s revealed that the only reason why she let Donnie join was so she and her group could steal his tech in order to use them to rob various tech stores in order to then steal a code from some very important computer company. Of course Donnie and April stop them and get them arrested. The end

So that’s basically the beginning, now let's go over why someone wouldn't ship it

First thing to get it out of the way, you were ask why someone didn't ship Kendratello, then most of the time, they would say that it’s because of Kendra, so let’s talk about that!

Kendra is a bully. She uses others for her own benefit and causes mischief for her own entertainment, which can range from annoying yet harmless pranks to her getting people hurt

After she stole Donnie’s stuff and he got her arrested, Kendra retaliated by making Donnie think he’s just playing a normal video game when in reality, he’s controlling a giant robot that almost smashed his brothers, and then tries to do so herself when that fails for the sake of seeing Donnie’s reaction

She also convinced Shelldon (Donnie’s robotic companion who was feeling low when they encountered due to an argument he and Donnie had) into participating a deadly race known for causing many drones to get dismantled just to win her the Shadow Transmitter and then yelled at him and ditched him when he failed

And these are only things she did to Donnie. She also yells at and gets physically violent with Jason, and while she does see Jeremy more as an equal, she still snaps at him and shoves him around

She's sadistic, she's cruel. There’s a 50-50 chance that either she’s aware of how bad she is and doesn't care or sees nothing wrong with anything that she does. And judging by how done April seems towards her, and the way Jeremy barely reacts to anything she does, I’m gonna assume that Kendra’s been like this for a while

And yeah, she’s an antagonist, so no shit she’s awful

However, if we wanna play the Canon game, then canonically, Donnie altered his brothers’ minds to make them smarter, he gave Leo a shock collar as a present to “correct” his behavior, he chained up Sheldon as punishment for giving him attitude, and he almost destroyed a town just to prove he’s right

The only difference between the two is that

Donnie did feel remorse for all of them and tried to fix it to the best of his ability. Kendra on the other hand doesn't really show all that much remorse for what she does and has full intentions of doing it again if she ever gets the opportunity (and she has, multiple times)

I am purposefully leaving what Donnie did out somewhat of context just to make him look as bad as Kendra (specifically their intentions behind their actions)

(And just to get it out of the way, Jeremy and Jason are both just as bad as Kendra. Even though Kendra, for the most part, treats them like trash as well, they still willingly go along with what she wants)

However, there are others who don’t ship it because Kendra reminds them of someone in real life and it makes them uncomfortable

Now, I just wanna say that if you feel uncomfortable with Kendratello due to this, I completely understand

I also want to say that even if you don’t know anyone that Kendra makes you think of, it’s still okay to be uncomfortable with the ship. You do not need a reason why to not like a ship, and if anyone has a problem with that, that’s on them

So with that in mind, it’s completely understandable why anyone would dislike the ship. Based on the evidence, they would be an extremely toxic relationship. You’d have to be absolutely INSANE to even think this is a good ship, right?

Well… Here’s the thing

Like most ships in existence, you gotta have the art of interpretation and shutting off the canon brain, especially when it comes to Kendra

Sure, there are still some things that makes Kendra, Kendra, like her working with tech, her being super smart, her going by a purple theme, and sometimes she’s still a menace (depending on the story)

And the other thing you need to know is that Kendra, just like all the other non-important villains in Rise, is pretty much a one-dimensional character. Her character is literally just a bully who’s the leader of a tech club that's constantly after devices that can hack any computer. Other than a few things, we barely know that much about Kendra, so there’s room for people to add their own personal headcanons and stuff

And it's not like Kendra is going to be evil 24/7, which gives people a change to give Kendra more traits to be more than just that as well exploring the potential reasons she is the way she is

Basically what happens 90% of the time is that most of Kendra’s negative traits are turned into positive ones. For example, take the fact that she's manipulative, arrogant, insensitive, bossy, and aloof, and turn them into charismatic, confident, honest, assertive, and reserved. These are all words that have different associations, but they basically mean the same thing

And Kendra is usually either

Given some kind of tragic backstory (usually revolving around her parents getting a divorce)

Given a redemption arc

Given more likable traits

Most of or all of the above

There’s also a good chance that the Kendratello story someone is sharing either takes place after the series or it takes place in an AU, so of course the characters are going to be a little/very different. Although sometimes you'll find stories that take place before or during the series. Many people have their own ideas on how Kendratello would go. Though usually what I talked about above is often the formula used. You just gotta find the right story, or make your own story of how you think Donnie and Kendra would fall in love and eventually get together!

And keeping with the themes Rise has of being lighthearted, it’s pretty fun and hilarious to imagine those two bickering one minute and then making out the next. It’s pretty easy to see a bit of a slow-burn enemies to lovers where Kendra and Donnie both slowly realize that oh no, they’re totally into each other, but won’t say anything because of their pride and all that. So there’s the drama, the tension, the idea of will they, won’t they?

Plus, come on, lots of us love a good Enemies To Lovers story with some Slow Burn on the side

And imagine those two going on a date by committing various crimes and half the city is destroyed because of them and then they watch the news talking about what they did while cuddling and holding their new pet cat that they randomly got at some point

Overall, most of the time the story is about two messed up individuals who end up finding peace with each other. They feel like they're the only ones that can understand each other, and they hate it, but at the same time, they don't mind

However, that’s just one side of the ship

I said it in another post I made, but if we look at the ship through another viewpoint, the side that leans more towards the toxic side of the ship, then Kendra is the embodiment of Donnie’s deepest fears and insecurities

The biggest thing people tend to overlook about Donnie is that he cares very much about being useful to the people he loves. It’s why he behaved the way he did in Witch Town, because he’s terrified that if magic can do what he does but better, then no one will need him anymore

Meanwhile Kendra is someone who will very much jump at a chance to take advantage of anything that will benefit her, especially if it has anything to do with Donnie

Donnie is the provider, and Kendra is the exploiter

Those two are perfect for each other in the worst way possible and horrible for each other in the best way possible

And I will mention too that are things that happen in canon that people interpret to be Kendratello moments, or they say could be used as evidence for Kendratello

Kendra blowing a kiss to Donnie (The Purple Jacket: She does this before attempting to leave Donnie to deal with his tech turning against him (which she hacked) to go rob the world bank)

Donnie saying that “Cute but mean” is his type (War and Pizza: He says this while getting stomped on by a tomato animatronic, saying, “Oh you’re so cute, but so mean! Why do I always go for your type?!” before proceeding to electrocute it)

Donnie and Kendra flirt whenever they interact (purely interpretation)

Donnie wanting to join the Purple Dragons because he has a crush on Kendra (also purely interpretation)

Now my thoughts on the actual ship? Eh, it’s complex

I see them as a Doomed to Fail type. They would most likely end up in some kind of a codependent relationship because of their biggest flaws, and I can see the official break up being extremely messy on both sides (since I 100% see them taking several “breaks”). Then after a couple years, things are back to normal, with Donnie and Kendra being rivals, only this time they have a respect for each other and they even help each other out if the other person needs it. And even though they still have some feelings for each other, they choose to remain as exes because they don’t want to risk falling back into old habits

On the other hand, I’m frankly tired of the whole, “Bad Person’s Not Actually Bad, They’re Just Misunderstood And Need Someone Who Understands Them” thing

And before anyone tries telling me about Kendra dealing with her parents having a divorce

We don’t know what exactly happened during the divorce between her parents. There’s no cookie cutter reaction to how a teenager would react to their parents having a divorce no matter how well or badly it's handled

The only time Kendra ever brought up the implications that her parents are divorced was when Jason failed to get the Shadow Transmitter. She told him that she wished her father never married his mother, which implies the only reason why Jason is part of the Purple Dragons is because he’s her step-brother. So basically she’s telling him that if she could kick him out then she would

Now, I’m not saying Kendra’s dad and stepmom are the perfect parents, because clearly they’re not with what I’ve mentioned so far, but still

And don't get me wrong, I'm on team Purple Dragons Get A Redemption Arc, I just see it happening more in a way where they become anti-heroes because they got bored of going after the same goal over and over again

Alright, those are all of my opinions

So, overall, do you have to ship Kendratello? No

Is it one of the more complex ships? Oh yeah

Did me rewatching every single scene Kendra is in over and over again in order to describe how she is in canon make it really hard to make this whole thing without being biased? Most definitely

But really, the reason why people ship Kendratello? It’s just for fun!

I know some people in every fandom tend to take shipping and their head canons way too seriously for some reason, but here? It’s genuinely just for fun

That’s all I have to say, but hopefully you now know more about it! Again, if you don’t ship it cause it makes you uncomfortable, that’s okay! But it doesn't give you an excuse to harass those that do. If it bothers you so bad, then the block button is right there. People have their own ideas of how the ship would go and their own reasons why they like it

If you got any questions or something to say, don’t hesitate to send them my way. I can’t guarantee that I’ll get to all of them, but I’ll do my best!

[baskeigh-ball]

Loving your seperated raph au so far! So if Raph wasn't around, Leo must be the leader up til now? How did that affect his personality?

Thanks so much! And I actually have several ideas for their dynamic without Raph that I've been exploring, so prepare for a long-winded rant because I have Too Many Thoughts

I've brainstormed a lot about how the leadership role would work with Raph out of the picture, and my consensus is that Leo isn't a full-fledged leader. Instead, he and Donnie accidentally end up as co-leaders!

And by "accidentally", I mean "Leo elects himself as leader but Donnie hates the idea of being ordered around by his slightly-older annoying twin so much that he turns it into a competition for the leadership role". Actually in this context, I'd call it more of a president/vice-president dynamic, with Leo taking charge more often and Donnie occasionally stepping up if he doesn't agree with a decision. Poor Mikey kinda ends up stuck in the middle of all this, lol.

Outside of leadership, Leo is definitely more responsible as the self-appointed oldest brother, but that responsibility is more spread out between him and his brothers than it is with canon Raph. My reasoning behind this is how he's just barely the eldest. The difference in age between him and Donnie is so small that his younger brothers feel more inclined to help him out. Overall, the trio is more mature than in canon, but not by much (this isn't one of those super serious AUs where it's all about survival and familial issues, trust me. they're still a bunch of gremlins that love each other and do as they please, they just. know how to do their chores now.)

Also side note, without Raph around to be the tank/shield that takes the big hits, the trio's missions default to stealth if they're unfamiliar with whoever they're facing. At least until they get a handle on their mystic weapons; after that they can go into fights guns-blazing in all of their unhinged glory >:] (and i'd say Donnie with his tech takes up the mantle as the "tank" of the group, i mean did u see the first episode's fight with draxum? he was the only one getting effective hits in)

Exploring their dynamic is gonna be fun, especially how Leo and Raph might clash about leadership once things start winding down and Raph is finding his place in the family. He'd definitely feel like he should be the protector, what with his size, strength, battle skills, street smarts, etc etc, but I imagine the trio would be hesitant about the idea. After all, they've survived just fine up until now. Sure, they've got a few extra scars they could've done without, but they're still kicking!

To sum it up, Leo and Donnie somewhat share leading the team while also competing to become the True Leader, then Raph comes along and unwittingly joins in on the competition while Mikey has to just Deal in the background. Wonder how long it'll take for Dr Delicate Touch to step in?

Anyways, rant over. I hope this answered your question! (and sorry if it's kinda rambly, my thoughts usually come out as word vomit and this is the first time i'm posting them publicly ('._.))

[traegorn]

"Get therapy lol" you're a real empathetic motherfucker.

Laughing at people in pain really doesn't fit with the picture of a kindly uncle looking dude, that's really sad and I'm sorry I ever followed you. Fuck you, fuck men who want to yell about slamming doors.

For real man, I'm sorry I ever followed you I'm crying now what the fuck? What the fuck?

What the fuck is wrong with you? "Get therapy" is what you say? Fuck you.

Maybe on our call this week I'll tell my therapist about the fake asshole who tries to act like an understanding elder but just drops edgelord epic bacon putdowns when somebody shares how something made them unhappy. For real, fuck you.

Okay, you sent me this string of anons because of my flippant response to this ask.

But like, my dude... I'm a stranger on the internet. I am not an "understanding elder" -- I'm a middle aged nonbinary office worker who makes some podcasts and writes comics and novels. I don't know what you think our relationship is, but I think you need to step back for like a minute.

Like I don't think you've remotely considered my perspective in this entire interaction.

I'm sitting here cooling off after a workout, watching this week's Dimension 20 episode, and I'm scrolling Tumblr. I had reblogged a poll about car door slamming, with a little thought appended about the subject... and then there's a contextless anonymous ask in my box which:

Complains about Europeans who are not even remotely referenced in the post I reblogged. Which is, y'know, weird.

Vents about their father. To me. A stranger in Wisconsin. Who again, neither knows who you are or who your father is.

Like, dude, let me remind you what you sent me. This is your exact ask:

My father used the stupid fucking car door as a reason to yell at me all the time, Europeans sound like whiny bitch ass motherfuckers who could use a few doors slammed at them. Fuck that persnickety shit. Fuck them.

Like what the actual fuck did you expect me to make of this, anon? You brought this energy to me. You didn't ask me for advice. You randomly vented to me, a stranger, without any context.

And randomly insulted Europeans, who hadn't even joined the chat.

Like the whole "who tries to act like an understanding elder" and "kindly uncle" is something you've projected on to me. I am not trying to be some wise elder or any other bullshit -- and I'm not going into how you've decided to use exclusively masculine terms for me.

Because your use of those words shows you don't know shit about me.

I'm just old and trying my best. I know some stuff, so I try to tell people that stuff. If you're coming to this from the witchcraft side, I have always maintained that all witches are equals and I am not above anyone. If you've put me in that position, I definitely didn't ask for it.

So yeah, this is where I'm at my limit. You've crafted a pretty weird parasocial relationship here and I have to get up and work in the morning. I'm glad you're getting some help, because this entire interaction has been wild from start to finish.

I am not your guru, and I am not your mom. I'm just a tired queer person who should probably go to bed.

(Also, I mostly added the song "Therapy" to the end there because it's a fucking bop and all nonbinary band Kat and the Hurricane's new album comes out tomorrow/today and more people need to listen to it)

[yallemagne]

AHHHHH

So I was screaming during this episode (Re: Dracula November 6)

Episode spoilers under the cut because you need to listen to it:

Jonathan and Quincey you're so fineeeee you blow my miiiind with that HALT. just end me sirs.

The way Mina describes Jonathan is so damn sexy. I swear to god, this is the only adaptation that properly captures how desperately she wants to jump his bones.

Literal Castlevania organ music started playing when Jonathan threw the box off the cart ipjoegaojaiq.

But, on the instant, came the sweep and flash of Jonathan's great knife. I shrieked as I saw it shear through the throat; whilst at the same moment Mr. Morris's bowie knife plunged into the heart.

I too shrieked with delight!! And I know that Bramothy the Coward wrote that line with like... a scared lady scream in mind? Because owww wiowence is scawy? Fuck that shit, you know Mina gave a guttural "YES!!" Hearing Dracula choke was the best thing in my life, and do take that out of context, I dare you.

and then. and then the guitar. As Quincey was dying I could do nothing but scream at him to put that guitar down. He did not, he sang an entire song.

(those Amens, just, just shoot me. Ahhhh men. I have replayed this part too many times trying to discern the order: VH, Jack, Arthur, Jonathan. Quincey doesn't say it for whatever reason.)

With the song "Take My Heart Back to Texas" we have confirmation that they did exhume Quincey's body and lay him to rest in Texas, it's what he would have wanted. He said to lay his wild soul down in the West, what's not clicking. I refuse to believe they dug a shallow little hole in the snow in the middle of a field and left him there.

that aside that aside AHHHHH

[genericpuff]

it's legit been a hot minute since i've read an LO episode from start to finish so I decided to read the new free episode

wow i'm really not missing a dang thing am i, jfc

I've talked about it before how the dialogue in these comics really feels... non-human, but now I'm at a point where I wouldn't even be surprised if I find out the comic was being written by one of those script bots or some AI Chat GPT tool. It's just so stupidly clunky with very little context or build-up to what's being said, the characters feel like they're just talking at each other rather than with each other, if you know what I mean. It's giving Shenmue 3.

But let's have some extra fun with this and go through it panel by panel.

I'm not gonna talk about the Apollo scene, not yet at least. But I DO want to talk about the dialogue exchange between Persephone and the demigods she's chosen to be judges.

First off, we get this cut to Persephone saying "Thank you so much for coming today." But the stuff that follows really feels like these guys have no idea where they are or why. Like, the first thing the guy on the left has to say is "you're a woman", why is he making this observation now if they intentionally made the decision to join her? If he's supposedly sexist on that line alone (which is what a lot of people in the discussion circles assume) why would he even join her on the boat in the first place if he wasn't willing to listen to a woman?

Oh, okay, so they HAVE had this conversation already, great exposition, Rachel! But again, it still makes no sense why he's making this observation out of nowhere if he already knows he's going to be working with her and chose to come along with her on the boat ride. Why is he repeating what he's already said? Why not just have this conversation happen organically instead of doing the whole sitcom "cut to the middle of what's happening and explain it matter-of-factly for the audience to catch up so we don't have to actually show the entire conversation???" bit?

It's such a cliche overused tactic to try and skip informing NPC's of what the audience already knows but that only works if we, the audience, know what's going on. Such a tactic is meant to benefit the AUDIENCE, not the characters. It's a pointless waste of time for everyone involved if they're doing it the other way around where the NPC's know but the audience doesn't and the characters have to re-explain everything they already know for the audience. It's clunky exposition.

And then of course, we get Persephone acting all high and mighty with people who, again, don't even seem to know what the fuck is going on, they don't even seem to be functioning at full brain capacity with how repetitive and pointless their dialogue is (especially the "I'm a son of Zeus" guy but we'll get to him later). If Persephone's thankful for them joining her, why is she being such a bitch? This isn't a power move, she's not being a "boss babe", she's being that bitchy manager that complains about high turnover rates completely oblivious or uncaring to the fact that she's the reason people quit the job in the first place.

"It's listening to the Queen of the Underworld time", bitch you have done NOTHING to earn that title or demand for respect. NO ONE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE. Anyone who DOES know her only knows her as a consort of Hades from that one tabloid pic from ten years ago. So... yeah, literally no one knows her. Even if they saw her in that weird broadcast during the Kronos fight (which, why would they, everyone was asleep as we were told and that news chopper was from OLYMPUS), she has done nothing to organically earn the respect and admiration of the people. As far as anyone's concerned, she's just this weird pink thing rolling into town and the only reason she has power at all is because the King has a flower nymph fetish and wanted a replacement for the girl that "got away" and married his brother.

IDK if this was an attempt at a joke but I feel bad for this guy because he clearly has no idea where he is, why he's here, or why he's going to work for the Underworld when he's a son of Zeus and would maybe prefer a job in Olympus somewhere. Look at him, those aren't the eyes of a man who knows what's going on.

"RAWR, I'm edgy and in control, shut your whore mouth while I'm speaking, peasant!"

She doesn't even look intimidating here, she looks severely constipated.

This is also legit just a copy paste of the Hera/Apollo/Echo scene from S2 which just further drives home how Persephone is an emotional replacement for Hera and a physical replacement for Rhea (while also satisfying that aforementioned flower nymph fetish).

Again, Persephone has done nothing to earn the admiration or respect of her people (unlike, y'know, Hera) and it's bullshit that she pretended to be all thankful at the beginning of this only to then treat them like shit as soon as she was able. Like, again, she seems to have just kidnapped these guys and they undoubtedly have questions and instead she's steamrolling all over them for zero reason beyond stroking her ego. If she's so bothered by the first guy being a sexist, why is she hiring him in the first place???

girl he's literally trying to escape from your bullshit, why are you treating him like a toddler or a hamster who can't control himself

it's painfully clear now these guys absolutely did not sign up for ANY of this and even if they DID sign up to be judges for Hades, they clearly were NOT aware it would include being berated and snipped at by his moody toddler of a wife, she's the ONLY one here who has zero self control or qualifications. push her in the river, please. put her in the hamster cage.

so yeah, it's not "thank you for coming with me today", it's "thank you for shutting up and being good little hostages so mommy can play pretend ruler, if you even THINK of ignoring me i'll have my daddy Mads Mikkelson- I mean, Hades chop your balls off, teehee!" seriously can SOMEONE please push her in the river, she's got like 50 pounds of hair, she has zero chance /hj

"i found a way for my husband to do even less work than he already does, like a good little billionaire!"

ms. brian griffin, no one knows what elysium is

we, the audience, haven't even seen elysium

no one knows what you're talking about and no one has anything to thank you for because so far you've spent the majority of your time in the underworld since the time skip dicking around and acting like a Karen

literally sit down and eat your oatmeal

we don't even know what 'nu-tartarus' is, who wants to bet rachel watched sci-fi the week she made this with the 'nu' spelling, jfc

what did she do to warrant the 'nu'

in fact, is tartarus even accessible right now??? what happened to Kronos locking himself up in there and refusing to let anyone in??? Did they seriously dig a hole in the ground and call it "Nu-Tartarus"? Fuck off.

Hermes, pal, you're seeing this shit, right? How can you sit there and watch her act like this??? This ain't the girl you used to make out with in the mountains.

"My husband serves in the military, you know! You'll regret not giving me that 2% discount!"

for those of you in the audience who don't know this, this is what we call panel filler. i.e. pointless repetitive panels that RS uses to fill her panel quota each week. LO always has at least 2-3 of these per episode. Go ahead, fact check it yourself, I'll wait.

Diva Plavalaguna wore it better, honey.

(also why do her ARMS look the same as her hair, they look like sausage casings 😭)

Such a weird cut though, from her making that "lol can you believe the things I put up with ????" face to her just WALKING AWAY FROM THE MEN WHO HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY'RE EVEN HERE.

what- um, why are we cutting to this? I get that it's RS still trying to exposit instead of write organically but Hermes literally didn't ask and he should probably already be aware of what's going on if he's ON THE BOAT WITH HER. Also why are you explaining to him what a demi-god is? Again, it's Rachel trying to do the "and that's my plan" shtick not understanding that only works for OTHER CHARACTERS who aren't "in on it", NOT THE AUDIENCE. When you try to have your characters explain things JUST for the sake of the audience, it makes them all look stupid and it wastes the audience's time.

Like, never mind the fact that Hermes himself is technically a demi-god in LO as his mother is a non-god.

This would have worked better if she was explaining who these men were specifically, like the fact that they were Kings when they were alive, or why she chose them, but no, she just starts it and leaves it at "well they're related to Zeus, so they're demi-gods" with zero lead-up or context as to why she's explaining this to Hermes of all people in the first place.

WAIT OKAY. SO I WAS RIGHT, THEY LITERALLY AREN'T FUNCTIONING AT FULL AUTONOMY. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE REPEATING THINGS OR NOT SAYING THINGS THAT ARE RELEVANT OR ASKING QUESTIONS.

PERSEPHONE LITERALLY TOOK THESE SHADES WHO HAVE NO ABILITY TO CONSENT OR UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON

AND IS FORCING THEM TO WORK FOR HER HUSBAND, THE SLAVE DRIVER.

PERSEPHONE HAS BECOME A SLAVE DRIVER.

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING WITH ME TODAY" ????

"THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING GOOD LITTLE SLAVES. YOU WORK FOR ME AND MY HUSBAND NOW. WE'LL GIVE YOU BACK ENOUGH OF YOUR AUTONOMY TO MAKE YOU GOOD FOR WORKING BUT YOU WILL NEVER HAVE FREE WILL."

THIS IS LITERALLY THE PLOT OF HADESTOWN BUT IT WANTS US TO CHEER FOR HADES' POINT OF VIEW IN THE END.

Also, "Hades is going to restore some of their humanity"??? Guys, do you realize the implications of this?

If this is something he's always been able to do, that means he's always had the ability to grant the shades working for him autonomy and will, but chose not to.

Give them enough sentience and autonomy to work, but not enough to question why they're working for the system in the first place.

Great job Persephone, this is soooo much better than what Hades was doing before. You've made life so much better for the dead.

Fucking hell. I started this essay with the intent of talking about the weird clunky dialogue exchanges and as I sat on it and wrote on it longer and longer it just got so much WORSE and turned into discussing Persephone's lack of morals and how she's become the very thing she always claimed she stood against.

I say "great job Persephone" but we also have to give credit where credit is due - great job Rachel, this is soooo much better than just ending the series in the first two seasons or actually resolving the plot threads you started in Season 1. You've made your comic so much better to please the stans and spite the haters.

Christ. I'm not even done talking about everything I wanted to talk about regarding this episode but I figured I should cut it off here to at least keep it all on theme. I do wanna talk about that Apollo scene and the Hermes/Persephone conversation but I'll probably do that in separate posts.

Despite how fired up I got, I am glad about one thing - I really am not missing anything. I have lost nothing from unsubscribing from LO and uninstalling the WT app. And frankly, neither will you if you've been contemplating on promoting yourself to a non-reader. There is zero FOMO here. I get just as much if not more entertainment from just following along with the hilarious conversations in the Discord and subreddit each week, because at LEAST those are fun and don't make me feel dead inside like LO does. LO isn't entertaining, it's hardly even so-bad-that-it's-entertaining at this point, maybe it still is for you, but I'm assuring you right now for those of you "hanging on", it's not going to magically "get better", even the episodes that some people CLAIM are better really aren't because of how low the bar is nowadays. I am giving you full permission to free yourself of these shackles if you've been looking for a way out. Take this as your metaphorical key.

The LO we all fell in love with is long, long gone.

[ultimateloserboy]

i cant go to sleep until i release the thoughts so here they are. im sorry if this is a bit more nonsensical or rambleish than my other ones, im very very tired but anyway

this is going to be a bit upsetting for the lovey-dovey sunshine and rainbows crowd but people give red guy and duck WAYY too much credit when it comes to their relationship (or at least how it used to be) like they DID NOT //start out// functional AT. ALL. they used to go together like a car and a tree. and honestly this makes them even more interesting

They’re both insecure in different areas, and they react differently to these insecurities as well. from what ive gathered, red guy dislikes how “odd” he is. he tries to act bitter and uncaring about everything and everyone, either to fit in with the other red things, or to keep himself distracted or distanced from the world hes stuck in. he distances himself from his friends as well. this is a horrible contrast with ducks outward and open love of his friends (despite how horribly he treats them lmao but i digress) duck reveals in the family episode that despite loving himself, he wants other people to love him too. duck is not necessarily insecure in himself, hes the best one after all, but he does feel very lonely. he feels like nobody loves him as much as he loves himself, like the only person he truly has is himself because nobody else is willing to love him. this obviously makes him feel very alone. this is why red guys denial and dismissal of his friends hits ducks insecurities harshly and directly, even if its not intentional.

once i got to the fridge scene during my first watchthrough i was very confused. firstly because i was utterly flabbergasted that they were gay for some reason (i had never even considered it), and secondly because ducks reply caught me off guard. duck is a very full-of-himself character. so why would he be surprised to find out someone likes looking at him? shouldnt he reply with something like “well yeah duh you big stupid idiot im the prettiest and the best etc etc”?? well i understand now why duck reacted that way. he doesnt get many compliments from anyone but himself, probably talking in the mirror. and he ESPECIALLY hadnt gotten many compliments from red guy at this point. red guy denied being his friend very adamantly. EVEN AT HIS FUNERAL. HIS FUNERAL!!! and yes red guy does realize he misses duck eventually, but duck isnt even there to see it, and when he comes back he finds himself literally replaced?? (like.. red guy ur fumbling so hard right now. fumbling straight into a divorce. and ur not even married yet man. but anyway, back on topic)

slowly throughout the series red guy starts being more open, and whether he realizes it or not his whole uncaring act isnt that good to begin with. my favorite small detail during the funeral is that red guy calls the plates “our plates” without even realizing it, right in the middle of denying his best-friendship with duck. like dude who do you think youre fooling other than yourself!?

with all of this considered, despite red guys poor performance of denial, it’s perfectly understandable for duck to be surprised when red guy openly confesses his honest emotions. an up-front confession of feelings is not something red guy ever wants or allows himself to do, so duck was probably confused as hell.

my favorite part of this scene is how red guy is looking away when he says it, still clearly embarrassed but saying it anyway. this is a HUGE deal for his character. it was a character development that had been slowly growing throughout the tv series, and by episode six i think it was as close to completion as its ever been. he does pull the whole “its fine just ignore it” thing with duck earlier in the episode, but he does it more to calm him down in this context. the fridge scene confirms to me that red guy has almost stopped running, not necessarily from the house, but from his friends. he has finally let himself love them. hes finally let himself admit not just to himself, but to duck, that hes important to him.

this is why i think theyre so interesting, because these two characters are cynical assholes. that’s how becky and joe have described them at times. these characters are not the best of people, theyre both messed up people in a messed up and confusing world, so of course they wont be perfect. but thats the beauty of it. they dont want to hurt eachother, so they try their best to change. they try their best to fight against the cruelty of their minds and surroundings and let themselves love eachother even if only for a second, even if in the end it wont really matter

ok im going to sleep now goodnight

[wienersmosh]

my thoughts after 6 episodes of bit city:

smosh needs writers.

sorry, but it had to be said. the cast can't do everything.

at this point i think it was just beginner's luck that the first two episodes of bit city were great. the one direction reunion was absolutely hilarious, the 2008 ianthony interview was extremely charming and such a good enactment of how different smosh was between then and now. the bits in between were all cohesive and i didn't find myself getting bored.

after that, it's all just been... downhill.

for example: i love tommy bowe. however, i do not care about his commercials at all. i remember liking the mr beast ones bc his mr beast impression entertains me but that was it. does that mean i think tommy is untalented? absolutely not. i just don't think everything he writes is funny or worth watching. and since bit city's selling point is that "the cast are doing everything now!" i think it's starting to look like that might've been a mistake. they are my favorite entertainers to watch but maybe there was a good reason why smosh had writers whose sole job it was to write. maybe having the cast do everything wasn't a good idea.

and this isn't to say bit city is even awful or terrible, it's just... boring, forgettable, and doesn't necessarily inspire conversation other than complaints or discourse about erin dougal.

my main problem with it is that it doesn't really do anything to get me to care or pay attention. i find myself pausing every 5 minutes to go on twitter or do something else until i remember that i'm in the middle of watching it. it feels like a chore almost. and i know the obvious solution to this is to "just stop watching" but i think i'm still seeking any moment or segment that could live up to the 1d reunion or 2008 ianthony interview.

i don't believe in the concepts of being a "good fan" or a "bad fan" bc we all engage and interact with art differently. in the context of smosh, however, i do have a mild disdain for people who are always nostalgic for the content they used to do rather than engage with the content they're doing now. i'm sorry to say that i'm starting to become one of those people. i tried to like bit city. it just doesn't do it for me as a whole. i've resigned myself into accepting that they have a good and valid reason to stop doing the ianthony sketches but i keep wishing they'd just bring back the old unscripted shows they used to do.

but at the very least, if there's only one thing they can do to change things up, i wish they'd bring back actual writers.

[sapphic-agent]

Sorry in advance for how long and wordy this gets.

My Hero Academia is squandered by the less than mediocre writing of Horikoshi. I will give him credit only on his ideas and concepts as the premise of the series and the setting are likely the only reason any of us are still tuning in, that and spite.

The show is too quickly paced and surprisingly for a complaint about a shonen, it's too action packed it doesn't offer much up in the way of quiet moments allowing characters to breath properly outside of conflicts and so I don't really care much about the conflicts they are involved in, especially when the thematic relevance of said conflict got spoon fed to me moments before it started in a shoehorned scene or a flashback.

Hori introduces themes of Heroic corruption regularly but never actually shows any corrupt hero's, and those that are said to be corrupt show very quickly that they aren't, usually at the detriment of others.

A complete reboot is necessary, slowing down the pacing immensely to the point where this war arc we are on will take place once they have all left UA. Have major events of the story take place staggered across the three years of UA, include "filler" with dedicated episodes to every student of 1A with mini arcs exploring the more important side characters such as Todoroki, Tenya, Uraraka, Tsuyu and maybe even Momo.

Completely redo Aizawa to actually perform to his own standards, he should teach the students to work on their fundamental "quirkless" capabilities as he more than anyone should know how easy it is to beat someone who has had their quirk countered to make sure they won't die in a situation where their quirk is useless, instead of threatening to expell them for having a weak quirk or non versatile quirk.

This can be done easily by just inverting his test. Have elementary/middle schools let kids use their quirks in gym and PE to help them understand their quirks and use them safely and give genuine context for why teenagers are expected to be skilled with their quirks when public quirk use is illegal. And have his starting test be about who is the most capable without them, showing him to be an unorthodox instructor and less of a hypocrite as that genuinely ties into his fighting style.

Have Izuku be quirkless for either half or all of his first year at UA. Have All Might take notice of him but still teach at UA to scout out a proper successor. Have Izuku manage to get into UA and do well in it's entrance exam as someone quirkless.

Make quirkless people exist and actually matter. 20% of the human race are quirkless, that is a much larger number than people realise coming in at a wopping 1.6 billion would be quirkless out of 8.1 billion. That cannot just be the elderly like fannon suggests.

Have Izuku go from the quirkless wonder to user of OFA actually matter, have him being conflicted about it, have other quirkless people actually have opinions on it, have people discredit him for being Quirked all along, only pretending to be quirkless. If you have him inherit the quirk at all.

Have stain be quirkless and have that revelation chill the world, have him being rejected from heroics for being quirkless have Stain parallel Izuku in many ways.

I could go on and on and on and on about a million and one ideas that would make the show/manga better but I feel like I've made my point well enough that there is so much here untapped that Horikoshi has, but rushed his way past for the next action scene and ultimately squandered.

Agree that MHA does need a major rewrite. It had such great potential and introduced a lot of intricate concepts for an average shonen, only to squander it at every turn. Like someone super smart in one of my reblogs said, "the story has a lot of interesting ideas, the author just has nothing interesting to say about them." A series that was built upon discrimination, inequality, and prejudice has done nothing more in the end than prop up the privileged, bigoted kid over the MC he abused.

Talk a about disappointing

[turtleations]

KUMA: Never Ending Bond, Chapter 1, Part 1 & 2 (Translation)

Preface & Prologue

Note: See this post regarding the update speed.

Chapter 1: The depth of our bond, the reason why I was a beloved disciple Why I called him Shishô, why our bond was like family

The reason why KUMA calls HIDE Shishô

I am going to touch on my meeting with Shishô, and also X, in detail in chapter 2, so for now, please let me spell out the affection I always had for Shishô in my heart.

I call HIDE-san Shishô, but in the beginning, I called him “HIDE-san”.

This is how it came that I call him “Shishô”…

I think it’s because along the way, HIDE-san became like a member of my family to me.

I, being from Kumamoto, was always freeloading at HIDE-san’s apartment whenever I came to Tokyo.

It also happened that he left his house key with me when he went to the USA  for recording.

Since he was someone who was incredibly close to me, it wasn’t long before calling him “HIDE-san” felt so formal that I was embarrassed to do so.

And so, before you know it, I came to call him “Shishô”.

Actually, for a long time, I didn’t understand what a relationship between master and apprentice even was. Therefore, I wasn’t certain if me calling HIDE-san “Shishô” was even appropriate… But, that was the word that seemed the most fitting to me.

Not Teacher, not Older Brother, “Shishô”.

In the stories to come, the names HIDE-an and Shishô will both be used depending on the episode’s historical context, so I hope that will not be confusing.

My bond with X, and HIDE, guided by fate

I wonder if it was really destined for me to meet X… I will give the details in a later chapter, but the moment I first got to know the band called X, my entire heart moved.

I was so thoroughly charmed by them that even though I was just a 3rd year middle school student, I would chase them around from Kumamoto to every concert I could get to.

Later, I helped out as if I were staff, and came to call HIDE-san, who had most taken to me among the members, “Shishô”, but… That I was that hooked on X and Shishô was, at the end of the day, because of music.

Also, X just had that power. I believe it’s because of this that that virtually impossible encounter and communication came to be.

After all, X was the coolest in the world. When I first saw them, it overwhelmed me so much it made me shiver… I believe it’s an incredible asset that I got to see up close this band that caused a craze and created legends all over Japan.

At the same time, I wonder… about the mystery of fate, and encounters that seem more and more strange the more time passes.

There were probably many who were just as affected by X as I was. But not everyone could stay with the band members all the time.

Regarding HIDE-san, what started out as simple admiration and fondness grew into all sorts of feelings along the way.

There was HIDE of X, hide the solo artist, as well as the private person Matsumoto Hideto. Regardless, seeing him carry them all on his back, my feelings were the same.

Reflecting back on it now, the affection inside me was very complicated. I did not understand it myself… it’s incredibly hard to put it into words.

What I can say is that even if Shishô no longer is X’s HIDE, no longer hide the solo artist, my love for him never changed.

Shishô had only one body, only one personality. But even when I saw him use those different characters of his for different purposes, the familial bond I had with him did not change.

Therefore, whenever I was face-to-face with him, the only thing on my mind was, “For this person, I want to do whatever I can to help.” Without fail.

When I was with Shishô, and even now that we are apart, there was something between us that cannot be expressed with words. Something that will never end…

Chapter 1, Part 3

[catboygirljoker]

What were your thoughts about KHearts before you got into it vs Now having been into it? Also late welcome to the community hope you've had fun!

thankyou :D!! i have had fun, sitting in my little crevice and exporting my xigbar images and xigbar posts. im happy that people have connected with it in some way :]

thoughts about KH before i got into it:

for some reason i was under the impression that the games were about a boy who has dreams about disney worlds. and he has regular size feet in the real world and only has big feet in the dream world. i also think he traveled with mickey and not donald or goofy

also for some reason i was under the impression that ventus was sora's dad. it was not until i actually watched the cutscenes in birth by sleep and saw lea and isa that i realized OH. this is NOT as far back on the timeline as i thought it was

images of a spiky red boy and a spiky blond boy and a black haired depressed girl eating ice cream together with lots&lots of people sobbing in the replies. (REALLY emphasized the slow creeping emotional dread of that game for me. like golly i sure hope i dont get emotionally destroyed like all those other people! and then i , was)

when i was in middle/high school i had friends who were super into it, but i was never able to play it because my parents had a policy of No Consoles. we were allowed to have handhelds, though, because my family took frequent road trips, so when i found out that there was a KH game for DS i said to a friend "oh, cool! dyou think id be able to play it without playing the other games?" and she looked at me, and looked at her copy of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and said "........no"

only ~15 years later do i realize how funny of a question that was

thoughts about KH as i was getting into it:

too numerous to count. i shall attempt to keep it moderately brief

last year my husband listened to a podcast called "lore dump" where people explain the lore of different media to each other, and they did an episode/series on kingdom hearts, and i heard some pretty WaCkY sTuFf (i specifically remember them explaining what the recusant's sigil is, in the context of xigbar explaining that they'd been tracking sora and riku through the story of DDD)

found a vod of one of my favorite streamers streaming 1 and 2 to benefit abortion rights in texas, and i was like, well, here's my chance, heh, im gonna understand all of the WaCkY LoRe

i start up the stream. within the first 15 minutes i Get it. like it feels very dated in a lot of ways but i instantly understood what made people connect so strongly with this series. even as someone who didn't grow up with any attachment to it, and was a little put off of it even by how into it my friends were, to me kh1 is just pure high octane nostalgia. the tone is so specific and warm and bittersweet. i cried multiple times during the ending. it just really got to me! i was hooked!

when i fixate on a media property i like to have a hot person to chew on. i really. really thought it was gonna be axel. he is exactly the kind of character i would've fixated on when i was younger, when i had friends who were into KH. older mentor figure character who takes younger characters under his wing. associated with fire. projects brash confidence. k,ills people. he's a really good character! i love him a lot! every time he appears on screen i get on all fours and start barking! and there's all this fanart and merch and...then i got distracted......

hey blake in early 2023. it's me, blake in late 2024. have you heard of kingdom hearts. yeah. yeah youre gonna get really into it. yeah youre gonna have the longest running blorbo since you mega-fixated on the tenth doctor when you were 14. yeah. yeah um. you know the clip where the guy says "me? i'm already half xehanort!" and sora says "that's..nuts!"? yeah that guy? yeah. yeah. that guy. the half xehanort guy. yeah youre gonna make a fool of yourself online for that guy.