#for some ideas for this knocking around in the ol noggin

[st-peculiar]

Cosmic scifi media so good it’s got me contemplating my own cosmic scifi-esque story

[baratiddyappreciator]

Baki Cast Odd Habits

Ideas are bouncing around in my empty little noggin non-stop, so I'll keep writing them down for both your and my own enjoyment. Have some odd habits that the Baki cast have! I'll be making another post about habits that they all have towards each-other later on.

Baki:

The man stares. A lot. At everything and everyone. If he finds anything mildly interesting, everyone knows, because he'll be leaning over to stare at it, those big ol' peepers of his are wide open, and they see all.

He uses pens as drum sticks on his thigh whenever he gets bored and has more than one in his immediate reach. Does he actually know how to play drums? No, but would he be good at them? Probably.

If he can have a say in what channel the TV is turned to, it's absolutely to some nature documentary about bugs. Bro likes bugs, thinks they're neat as hell, and he'll always take the opportunity to learn more about them if that can potentially make him stronger.

Get this man a fidget toy and watch him just zone out completely. Were you saying something important? He certainly didn't notice, because he's been busy with this fidget cube for the past hour and a half staring at that one specific spot on the wall.

Smelling random shit. Seriously. If he gets bored enough, and there are enough things around him, he'll just pick them up and sniff them. Too big to pick up? He'll just lean in. It works great when you're grocery shopping, the man can pick the best fruits and veggies. Not so fun when it's, you know, an empty ceramic vase.

Kozue:

She chews on stuff, like, all the time. Gum, pens, her nails (she's trying to kick that habit don't @ her) or even mints. She's a heathen and she knows it, but that doesn't stop her from cracking a mint in half with her molars.

All those fun and weird hairstyles she did when she was younger? Yeah, that was a habit of hers too. She'd zone out while she was playing with her hair and wind up with some pretty interesting looks.

She plays with her clothes a lot too. She'll worry at the edges of her sleeves, or play with the hem of her shirt or jacket. She does it a lot even if she's not nervous, it's just a really stubborn habit of hers that doesn't stop. And it's not just her own clothes either. If she can, she'll start picking at Baki's shirts and sweaters too. All those little balls of fluff? They'll be gone by the time she's done.

That's another habit, picking at things that don't fit the established texture of an item. Is there a rough patch on her desk because the protective lacquer wore off? That patch is going to steadily get bigger and bigger because she'll pick at it.

She's picked up Baki's habit of smelling things, and it's something she catches herself doing all the time for no reason. He'll just hand her an apple and tell her to smell it, and she will, without question. Get this girl a candle collection.

Hanayama:

Destruction. That's a habit, right? Or would that be considered a hobby? He used to really like just destroying things with his grip strength as a child, and that has NOT changed in the slightest. It's less of a hobby now and more of just an outright habit.

He destroys, but he also makes things... Sometimes. He'll do it absent-mindedly, just tear an entire magazine apart just so he can twist it into little shapes and figures. Useless with a paintbrush, and also useless with any propter sculpting media, but just hand him a book or something and let him sit without entertainment for a few minutes and watch as he turns it into an art project that would make 14 year old you insane from jealousy.

Fixing little things here and there. Is that vase slightly skewed? He'll straighten it out. Same with that picture frame on the wall, and that carpet, and that stack of loose papers you meant to put away... Now that he's thinking about it, your entire bedroom is slightly off-center, and that's really bugging him.

Not knocking when he walks into a house. Like, ever. This man doesn't knock unless he absolutely has to, which is to say, if he's still able to walk on two feet and move his arms, he's not going to.

He folds towels in really particular ways. The tag needs to be facing a certain way, and it needs to be folded in a specific direction with a specific method... The man is really picky about his surroundings, he wants them to be nice.

Katsumi:

Before losing his arm, he absolutely used to bite his nails whenever he was spaced out. Both hands, he'd rip his nails off with his teeth then go in and clean them up later when he zoned back in. After losing his arm, he only ever bites the nails on his own hand. Retsu's hand gets taken care of meticulously.

He fixes his hair a lot. Like, a lot. Almost constantly unless he's fighting, he's tucking little stray hairs away so that he's all neat and clean. It applies for other people too, if he can get away with it. He definitely does it to Natsue all the time.

He stands weird as hell when it's just him and his boys. Not like, "oh, look at Katsumi, he's standing like he's never heard of posture before", nono, it's more like "what the hell are you doing?? How is that comfortable??" levels of standing weird. You ever just stood on one leg with the other one tucked up behind you? Take that and multiply it by ten.

He hums a lot. Not even particular tunes, he just hums to hum. If he's cooking, cleaning, in the shower, setting the table, anything. He's just making noises and vibing in his own little world until he remembers that he can actually just speak.

Jack:

He doesn't have a lot of super obvious habits, his mom was pretty strict on him, so if he used to bite his nails, that habit died out by the time he was like, ten for good. The only habit of his that has ever come back is his slouching, but that's more of an environmental thing at this point.

He cracks his joints a lot. There's a lot of pressure there, and he needs to relieve it somehow, otherwise he'd just be uncomfortable and stiff. Sounds like a gunshot whenever he cracks his neck, someone get this man a chiropractor.

He also has a habit of just... Staring at things. Not to the degree Baki does, where he's just blatantly looking at something. He's the opposite almost, where it's painfully obvious that he's not really looking at whatever he's staring at. Man stares straight into space quite a bit.

Diane instilled a lot of habits in him from her time in the military, so he always leaves his clothes folded neatly on the foot of his bed before he gets into the shower.

He touches his own scars a lot. Usually it's just him running a thumb over a scar on his arm when he has his arms crossed, but other times he'll rub at the scar on his throat, or the ones on either side of his face from when Pickle, you know, ate part of his face. He doesn't even realise that he does it, and if you point it out to him he'll get confused.

Kosho:

When he was younger he would pick at his nails a lot, but as he got older that habit turned into him picking at his cuticles, and then at whatever calluses formed on his hands from his training.

He also rubs at his scars, but it's something he's aware that he's doing, unlike Jack, who just doesn't process that he's doing it. Kosho has a favourite scar to rub at because it's just been there for so long that it's familiar now.

He likes to wander around and pick up little knick-knacks from around a room. Do you have a little model on your desk? He'll pick it up, look it over, then he'll put it back and move onto the next thing. His brother's office is a no-go for him because he'll make it even more of a mess than it already is.

Speaking of his brother, when they're having one of their genuine brotherly moments and not one of Kureha's smartass "I'm your big brother" moments, Kosho just starts to hip-check his older brother. Not hard, mind you, just a little bump, but it's something that he started doing when he was young and never stopped.

Kureha:

This man doesn't have many habits at all, and if he does, they're beneficial to him, because he's a petty bitch that way. He's legitimately trained himself to do these little habits so even when he's "at rest" he's still improving himself.

His worst habit, however, is when it comes to his laundry. Clean or dirty, this man puts off folding it for as long as physically possible by just ignoring its existence. Fresh load of laundry, straight out of the dryer that gets shoved right into his hands? It's like it doesn't exist, he just puts it down on the nearest surface and keeps going like it was never popped right into his grubby mits.

He used to toy with the ends of his hair a lot when he was little, but he's long grown out of that habit. If anything, now he'll just toy with a stethoscope or a pen if he has them handy.

Retsu:

This man has the most wholesome habits out there. If he starts to get bored, he doesn't immediately jump to training, he just goes for a walk. Is it kinda cloudy outside? That's fine, just go walk through a wooded area.

Hand him a flower and instead of picking at the petals, he just gently pets them. He doesn't want to damage the flower, it's just that they're so soft and delicate that he can't help but touch them and admire their natural beauty.

If a bug lands on him, he'll just sorta let it sit there and catch its breath for a minute. If it doesn't fly off on its own fast enough, he'll just take a small pause to set it down or gently blow it off of him so he doesn't crush it.

Can direct eye contact be a habit?? Because he makes it a habit to always look at the person talking to him and nod at least three times while they're talking so they know that he's listening. Direct eye contact, active listening, this man wants people to know that he's legitimately paying attention.

Doppo:

He stares at Natsue a lot. Give him the chance to sit and stare at his wife all day and he will. If he was a poet instead of a karateka, he'd write enough sonnets about her to fill the ocean with paper. He just thinks that she's beautiful.

Ever since he got his hand cut off, he rubs at his wrist occasionally. It's not like it hurts, no, the doctor did a good job putting it back on, but sometimes he just has to feel that little scar around his wrist.

We know where Katsumi got his habit of humming from, and it's this man right here. Walking around the house, cleaning the dojo, getting ready to do some early morning training, he'll just be humming along.

He developed a habit of fixing Katsumi's clothes and hair when he was younger, and that habit has kept around. If he notices that his son has a leaf on his shoulder or if his sweater drawstring is a bit loose, he'll just reach over and fix it.

Shibukawa:

He cleans his glasses a lot. Not even because they're that dirty, it's just a familiar, repetitive motion that he doesn't even realise he's doing most of the time.

He pats people a lot. Not to be demeaning or anything like that, he just does it. A quick pat on the hand or the arm, sometimes even a thigh if that's all he can reach. Just a small old person pat that they just do sometimes.

He reminds people of their youth quite a bit, and it's absolutely a habit by now. A lot of "Young man" and "youngster", but also a lot of "when I was your age" and "back when I was in my prime", even if it comes out of nowhere.

He absolutely fidgets with his fingers in his sleeves whenever he's just sitting there, chilling. It's probably something he picked up when he was younger, and he can't place where or when he started doing that, but he 100% does it.

!BONUS!

Tokugawa:

He absolutely has developed little habits with each of his fighters, he loves them so much, these men are fantastic and they all mean so much to him.

He absolutely brings little candies and snacks for Baki, even "sneaks" them to him in that little old person way of grabbing your hand and stuffing said snack into your palm. He can't help that he's so fond of his champion, who is incredibly food motivated.

He always calls Kozue "Little Miss" or "Little Lady" whenever he sees her, because while he knows she's not a fighter, and actually dislikes fighting as a whole, he does still appreciate that Baki has such a headstrong woman to take care of him.

He pats the taller fighters on the back of their calf when he walks past them so they know that he's there. He does it to Jack so often that he doesn't react to the touch itself, but if he glances down to see that it isn't Tokugawa he actually jumps a little.

He just lets himself get picked up and carried around by the fighters at this point. He's accepted that he's just small and light, and they mean it in as respectful a way as possible, they've all just gotten used to picking him up and walking off with him to go wait for a fight to start.

Definitely a social smoker, if he's sitting with Doppo and Gouki he'll light his pipe and have a little puff now and again, especially if they're having a few drinks.

[thesandsofelsweyr]

REMEMBER JASON TODD?

《 READ ON AO3 》

Joker reminisces to Batman about one of the happiest years of his life: the year he spent breaking Jason Todd.

《RATING》 Mature 《WORDS》 1,865

《CHARACTERS》 Joker, Jason Todd/Robin (Arkhamverse)

《TROPES》 Hurt No Comfort, Jason Todd Needs a Hug

《WARNINGS》 Graphic Depictions of Violence, Underage, Torture, Mindfuck

《NOTES》

I somehow got possessed by a death-worshipping garbage clown and wrote this Jason Todd torture-fest 🃏

If you enjoy the read, please consider reblogging 💚

《 ALSO ON AO3 》 (comments & kudos there are much appreciated!)

Remember Jason Todd? Ugh, what a whiner. Always complaining… We’re both better off without that loser.

I gotta confess though, Bats. Screwing around with his little-kid mind, digging around in his grey matter, stirring it up until Toddy made me look almost sane—that was the happiest I’d been in a long, long time. I’d thank the boy for that, if his brains weren’t splattered all over the basement of Arkham, huhuhu.

Ahh, the memories. I tortured that poor kid for nearly a year. Shattered his ankle, knocked out a few teeth, yanked out a few more, broke a few ribs—well, probably all of his ribs, after it was all said and done. Let’s face it, that pretty red armor of his could only withstand so many beatings before it started wearing down and losing its Bat-tested, Bat-approved effectiveness. Near the end the boy was practically begging me to take it off of him! But, hmm, now that I think of it, that was probably more about his shame over being such a miserable embarrassment to his Batdad and less about its ineffectiveness when I was bashing his skull in with my trusty, rusty crowbar.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes! I even invited a few of my fellow inmates down to take some shots at the little punk who’d terrorized them at Batman’s side. Man oh man, did those guys hate your jilted sidekick or what? I found myself a teensy-bit envious of all the fun they were having with the kid, especially after seeing Bane slam Toddy’s body into that concrete foundation so hard that I’m pretty sure he left a Robin-shaped dent.

Oh Batsy, you should’ve seen our boy’s face! I’m still kicking myself for not including a photo with your consolation prize. The video I sent you just didn’t do him justice. Your enemies collaborated on a masterpiece, they really did. Vibrant reds and pinks, rich purples, blacks, and blues; so battered and broken, his features all askew—Picasso himself would be in awe of their bloody canvas. They must’ve broken his beak at least a dozen times. By the time they were through with him, you wouldn’t even have recognized the little guy.

But c’mon, be honest. We’ve been buds for so long, you and I. You can trust me with anything��Clown’s honor. Tell me, did you even try to find the kid? I never bought the “World’s Greatest Detective” charade, but you gotta admit Batsy, I made it pretty easy for you. I stashed your Boy Blunder in the most obvious place I could think of. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t blame you for wanting to delete ol’ Jason from your history. He was a real piece of work, fighting me tooth and nail every chance he got, spitting on my hospitality and me. More of a “rabid dog” than a Robin, if I do say so myself. And that mouth of his, ugh! His mother would thank me for the beatings I gave him if she heard half the things he said to me. A real blight on the house of Bat, that one. This new Robin of yours seems more in line with your legacy. Maybe I’ll get my hands on him someday, tenderize him like I did Toddy, huhu.

Well, whatever your reasons, you gave me ample time to get my creative juices flowing. I’d been itching to try out some new ideas that had been floating around my noggin. I’m sure you’re familiar with the Rack. Sadly, I wasn’t able to procure that particular device for our little bird’s cage, but I’ve always been good at improvising. I read somewhere about this rather nasty technique they used during that delightful period known as the Inquisition. Ahh, the good ole days… when torturing people was a paid profession.

With the help of my pal Boles, we tied the boy’s arms behind his back then strung him up by the wrists. Some Arkham orderlies were kind enough to provide me with some weights, which I tied to his ankles. Must’ve been painful because that was the loudest I’d heard the boy squeal since he dropped in my lap! The pitiful thing was wriggling and writhing like a worm on a hook. I left him dangling like that for a few hours since he seemed to enjoy it so much. Tehehe.

That little device of mine ripped his arms clean out of their sockets, yet the bird still refused to break. He was as defiant as ever, cursing at me between sobs. Talk about loyalty. He was ready to die for you. How do you inspire that kind of devotion from these brats? It’s the car, right? Gotta be that fancy car of yours. Hmm, I should get me a Jokermobile of my own someday. Anyway, Junior wasn’t the sharpest Bat-tool in the Bat-shed. Six months of suffering and he was still convinced you were coming to rescue him. I tried to tell him that you’d moved on with your life, found yourself a new partner who wasn’t such a loser, but he refused to believe me. We’d reached an impasse.

But then—here’s the best part of the story, ooo it gives me chills just thinking about it—then you gave me a gift. You actually did replace the kid with a new one. BWAHAHAHAHA, now that’s my brand of cruelty, Bats—I always knew you had it in ya! After everything I’d done to that poor boy, all it took was a photograph to break your bird into a million little pieces. Yes Batsy, a photo of you and his replacement gallivanting around Gotham, saving the city from crazy men like me.

Oh how he bawled after I showed him that photo! And that was even before I beat him senseless with his favorite crowbar. I pressed that photo into his palm before I left him bleeding on the floor of his cage, and, God love 'em, the dumb kid was still begging for his Bat-daddy to come save him from the evil Clown. “Please forgive me, Batman. I tried to be the partner you wanted, I swear I did. I’m so sorry I disobeyed you. Please don’t let him punish me again. I’ll be a good boy for you, I just wanna come home. Wah-wah-wah, boo-hoo-hoo.” If only I had a heart, it would’ve been broken by his pathetic pleas. But I don’t, so I kept beating him for good measure.

Wee Todders was much more pliable after it finally sank into that thick skull of his that you’d abandoned him. I gotta be honest with you, Bats, you made it so easy for me to make him hate you after that, it almost felt like cheating. Still a rootin’ tootin’ good time though. For me at least. Can’t speak for our dearly departed boy toy.

No wonder you dumped his half of the dynamic duo on my doorstep. Talk about rough edges! Took some blood, sweat, and tears (his, not mine) but I eventually sanded him down and hollowed him out; sculpted him into a partner in crime worthy of the Clown Prince of Crime. Had to teach him some manners first, though. Clearly Emily Post wasn’t included in your crime fighting curriculum. Did no one bother to teach the child any words beyond the four-letter variety? Well, I trained him to address me properly: “yes sir”, “no sir”, “please don’t hurt me sir”—that sort of thing. I find that negative reinforcement works best when it comes to naughty little boys like him: electrocution, sensory deprivation, barbed wire bondage, blunt force trauma, starvation, force-feeding, puncture wounds, power tools, waterboarding, acid trips, acid burns, regular burns, stabbings, stranglings, even good ole fashioned paddlings. By the time I was done with the brat I had him thanking me for yanking out his fingernails with red-hot pincers. 

Jason was some of my finest work to date, if I do say so myself. I transformed your rejected Robin into a perfect pet. The boy was mine, body and soul, but I wanted to make sure he never forgot who he belonged to, who made him who he truly was, made him realize that potential you tried to snuff out. Let me tell you, he was none too happy about being branded like a bull. You’d think the kid’d be more grateful after all the time I spent hunting down a J-shaped branding iron just for him. He didn’t carry on about it for long though. By that point just the sight of my toybox had him cowering in a corner, shivering and whimpering like a kicked puppy with his tail between his legs. 

Speaking of puppies… I even had a collar made for my darling boy, in case my signature on his sweet cheek wasn’t enough. A red leather collar to match that red leather getup. What an adorable sight that was! Him, bruised and scarred from head to toe, down on all fours, staring up at me with those blown out baby blues, full of tears and fear, and dare I say, even affection. That poor kid’s psyche was so twisted by the end that he was clinging to me, clutching at my suit, begging me not to abandon him like you did. Hil-ari-ous! Bless his widdle heart, he was such a good boy by then. I rarely had to punish him but it was just so dang fun I couldn’t resist. I did so well with the little laddy, it got me thinking maybe Harley and I should have a few tykes of our own for me to abuse. But nah, you seem to have so many to spare, I’ll just stick to your brood. Lord knows I don’t want to get saddled with child support—oh the horror!

We had some good times, y’know? Little Toddy-woddy was like a son to me, he really was. He hated you so much it made me one proud papa. It’s a shame I had to put him out to pasture with a bullet through his brain, but he was becoming such a bore. He just didn’t scream as much as he used to—that collapsed lung of his probably had something to do with that. And he was so obedient, so submissive, so utterly desperate to please me… (yawns) If I wanted a vegetable, I would’ve made him a vegetable. This is a nut house after all. Got all the tools I need for a lobotomy right here at home. No, I wanted that ball of wildfire, that feral foul-mouthed urchin I fell in love with! I guess since I’m being honest here, I have only myself to blame. I suppose it’s a lesson to learn for my future bird boy endeavors—you can’t make an omelette without breaking some eggs (and legs) after all.

Welp, no use crying over spilled brain matter! If it’s any consolation to you, my pointy-eared pal, I’ll never forget the kid you gave me and that magical year we spent together. No really, I have a jar full of teeth and fingernails to remember him by! hehehehehehehehe 

[mwolf0epsilon]

Story on Norman catching Sammy in Joey cult ?

It's been twice now that I've written Norman's demise. Y'all really like killing people uh?

Summary: Sammy was weird in many ways, but this? This was just crazy.

---

     Back when Norman was still a little tot, his great nanna used to tell him and his brothers and sisters about their great poppop. How he'd been raised in some sort of cult that indoctrinated its disciples from birth. She related to them how, even though he'd managed to escape them, their constant drilling of ideals had never truly left him. Which was why nanna had gotten rid of him. Love him as she did, she knew he was a crazy dangerous man. Little five year old Norman had been very curious about those tales his mama begged nanna not to tell them. He especially found it curious when she described his eyes. Having a condition like the one he had, had made him a prime target for neighbourhood bullies that called him "Crazy-Eye". So hearing about someone who had actual insanity behind what most considered to be the windows to the soul... It had given him a sort of relief, because at least there was a spark of life behind his own unsynchronized peepers.   "N'aw child, don't yous go be tellin' ya mama 'bout what ol' nanna be tellin' you 'bout ya poppop, ya hear?"   "Ok nanna. Won't tell a soul."   "Yous is a clever one, boy. An' don't forget ta keep an eye out... Crazy can hide in plain sight. Sure did for poppop." Insanity could hide in plain sight. That was perhaps the most valuable lesson to take from his nanna's tales. What she could never get across was how hard it was to see someone you cared for slowly be afflicted with it.

     Sammy was a weird man. Had been from day one of Norman meeting him, and never quite changed even when he put a reign on his deplorable attitude. He wasn't a bad person per say. Misguided by a parent with that typical southern brand of white superiority complex. A man who thought his skin color made him better than all the other folk, and who taught his boy to think it was just as sacred an idea as the damn gospel he also tried to drill into Sammy's head. But Sammy was admittedly clever, and much more curious than his father had been. He asked questions and he tried to change when he realized his own crappy behaviour didn't please him all that much. But then things started getting unsettling in the studio. Little things popped up, and the world's own agenda got in the way of Joey Drew's plans. Turns out Joey wasn't about to fold for anything or anyone. Those who were drafted were the lucky ones. Those who were socially outcasts or liabilities in the military's eyes, were not so lucky. They stayed, so the wrongness affected them. The wrongness... Norman had felt something was not right for a long while, but now that he had to get acquainted with so many new hires and the such? He'd been preoccupied. So when the ones he knew suddenly started acting unlike themselves he'd been caught by surprise.   "I don't understand how Mr. Drew has no trouble with him... He's just so..." He'd found Buddy in the bathroom, trying to clean the obvious ink stains on his clothing. "Why did I think helping him would make him less nasty?"   "Sammy tends ta blow up at minor things. If it was as bad as yous say it was, then he was just freaked out from nearly drowning." He got as many paper towels as he could to help the poor kid get rid of as much of the ink as he could.   "Doesn't excuse what he says to me... Or the other Jewish employees..." Buddy murmured sadly.   "What did he say?"   "Not important... Just makes me uneasy. It's like I'm specifically not worth anything just because of my... Mr. Polk?" Buddy blinked once the projectionist dropped everything he was doing to stalk out the door.   "Yous ain't the first he's gone and played that card on. Was a long while ago but I can refresh Sammy's memory for the folks he's been barkin' at."   "Oh! Uh, you don't have to! It's not going to fix anything."   "Trust me, a hard knock on the noggin' works just fine ta sorte Sammy's bullshit." Norman smiled in passing at Dot who paused to watch him and then look at Buddy in concern once he peered out the bathroom door. "You two kids run along now. I'll see yous around." He tried not to laugh when he heard Buddy fretting over potentially getting fired for starting a fight. Kid still had a lot to learn about how Joey Drew Studios ran for all these years. Sometimes tough love was all it needed. But not this time.

     His nanna's tales rushed back to him when he'd cornered Sammy in his office. Norman didn't like roughing people up, but he'd promised the music director that if he stepped on any toes for the wrong reasons he'd give him a whooping like the one the blond had been begging for, back when he'd first harassed the projectionist. He had half a mind to start hollering until he'd caught sight of Sammy's eyes. Nanna had described insanity in great detail. The unfeeling and unfocused darkness in poppop's eyes that consumed the man she'd loved and left nothing behind. Sammy's eyes were a soft hazel, the nice flicker of green so full of the essence that made Sammy Lawrence who he was. What Norman saw instead of those pretty peepers were dark pools, a sickly grayish brown with flecks of blackness like tar. Like ink... Norman completely forgot what he was to say. He couldn't bring himself to talk when he saw the same thing that had tormented his nanna's dreams. It just wasn't right.

-

     Joey Drew was up to something, and Sammy was involved somehow. By his own volition, Norman wasn't too sure. The kid was acting mighty strange since Norman had noticed his eyes had inexplicably changed color, and whatever progress for positive change he'd made was completely gone. If anything, Sammy had become an incredibly volatile and aggressive husk. Very few people noticed, which was what was so concerning.   "It can't be a coincidence... Joey barely showin' his face 'round the departments and Sammy actin' up like the devil bit him in the ass..." He'd paced as he watched Jack drink what was likely the 5th cup of coffee he'd in the morning.   "Whatever it is, Sammy's more enthusiastic about his songs for a change..." He sounded nonchalant about it. "He complained about all the pieces Drew forced him to change... Now he's less, angry about those. Seems to love them actually."   "Those little annoying jigs? He said they was garbage!"   "And they are. Putting lyrics to those was dang awful but... Well if he's happy, I'm happy..." Jack gave a weak smile before coughing a rather wet sounding cough. He took another sip of his coffee to sooth his throat.   "You comin' down with somethin'?"   "Must be... This gross cough has been popping up a lot. And my nose is awfully stuffy. Can't smell or taste nothing, which is good considering I gotta hide away in the sewers to work..." Norman huffs. People were getting sick from being forced to do overtime with no rest. Jack getting sick wasn't entirely out of the question. But the stench of something acrid coming from his mug did give him cause for concern. Best check to see if Wally hadn't accidentally stored the coffee beans with the cleaning supplies again. A week later he forgets about it once he instead finds himself making a list of the people he stops seeing around the Studio not long after he noticed something up with Joey and Sammy.

     There's Jack, who he hadn't noticed gone at first until he'd gone poking around the sewers and not caught sight of the shorter lyricist. There was Johnny Brokehart, who's organ was completely abandoned in its little corner. No one dared touch it, in case the man returned and found so much as a pipe out of place. There was Julian Whitaker, the tall gangly cellist that often sat with the resident art critic, that Vernon fellow who liked to stare at the cartoon posters like they were masterpieces on display at a museum. Susie Campbell had gone too. Wally insisted she hadn't quit, and was awfully worried about her. Allison and Thomas had also up and split after they'd made a scene at one of them fancy parties Joey used to get investors to dump money into his lap. Shawn Flynn, Grant Cohen, Bertrum Piedmont, Lacie Benton, Emma LaMonte... People were vanishing left and right and there was no say of them being fired. Norman had a theory, and he didn't like it one bit. He tried to do his best to inform the younger hires to run before something inevitably happened to them. He told Buddy and Dot it was dangerous, in as little words he could so not to let Joey catch wind of what he did know. He prayed to whatever god was out there that no bad befell those two kids. And then he'd grabbed his light and went down, where the groaning and moaning came from.

-

     Norman ran. Ran as fast as he could, trying not to look at the things trapped in those tubes. The creatures that were tall, gangly, and vaguely humanoid. Weeping faces pressed to the glass, begging to be let out. The disgusting sludge creatures, barely holding themselves together and clawing at the glass in obvious suffering. The thing that had Sammy's voice and that was rushing after him, axe in hand and Bendy mask covering its face. Screaming at him to accept the "Lord's" blessing. He ran and dodged strikes that nicked his elbows, his legs, grazed his ankle and back... He came to a full stop before what could only be described as a throne. Horrified to find something twisted that looked like a humanoid corpse-like Bendy bound in chains. And then he was knocked onto the floor, air escaping his lungs from the sudden collision. The Sammy thing was on top of him, overjoyed to have caught him. And then all around, Joey Drew's voice filled the room... The thing on the throne shook and hissed.   "Excellent... You know what to do Prophet. Baptize this non-believer in the name of your lord."   "Anything for you my lord. Anything!" Norman tried to fight him off, knocked that silly mask off his face even. Except there was no face. Not even eyes. Windows to the soul... If he had none, then did Sammy even have a soul anymore? The axe raised, and Norman Polk didn't even have time to scream before it plunged into his chest, destroyed his ribcage, and obliterated his heart.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Saw your post about Oscar having the relic advancing the plot, and I don't disagree with you. However, I also kind of see it in a different way: that as a leader, each decision Ruby makes--such as entrusting the relic to Oscar--can have consequences, and that they have to learn to deal with them, especially when loved ones are involved. I'm not saying that's where the writers are going with it, but if I had written it, that would've been my reason for doing so. Does that make sense?

Salutations anon-chan! Your point makes sense however sadly for me, it’s not enough to override the almighty power of plot convenience. Because now I’m prompted to ask the question, why even have Oscar carry the Relic around in the first place?

Why have someone carry the lamp at all? Wouldn’t it have not been a wiser choice to place the Relic within a heavily protected vault under the watchful eye of the Atlesian Military where no one within the public would be aware of its whereabouts as opposed to having it be carried around on a keychain on the waist of a young huntsman in training out in the open where people can definitely see it; like the villains?

At the start of V6, during the Argus Train attack, Ozpin revealed that the Grimm were also attracted to the Relics. This one statement was the catalyst to so much friction within the hero team because not only did it result in them temporarily splitting up to provide the passengers of the Argus Limited a better chance of survival but it also led to the spat between Yang and Oz which ultimately culminated in the first summoning of Jinn and the revelation of the truth.

Either way, the point was made that carrying the Relic around just as it is as opposed to locking it somewhere like a vault will eventually bring danger to whoever is carrying it in the form of the Grimm. As a matter of fact, wasn’t the whole point of the heroes heading to Atlas was because without the Spring Maiden to seal the Relic back within its own vault, the group had no choice but to set a course for Atlas Kingdom so the Relic would be safe there.

“…We need to take the Relic to Atlas?”

“That’s what Oz said.”

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“I mean Brightside, we finally get out of this house

“Trust me, I’m not crazy about it either. But without the Spring Maiden here to seal the Relic back in its vault, it’s our best option.” – RWBY V6 Chapter 2

But just a few moments after the heroes touched down in Atlas, the Relic of Knowledge was taken from the them by Clover Ebi of the Ace Ops. The next time our heroes see the Relic, it was in Ironwood’s custody. But rather than keep the Relic and place it somewhere secured; Ironwood instead gives the Relic back to our heroes—the same heroes who almost died on their journey to transporting this Grimm-attracting Relic to Atlas where they believed it would’ve been taken into more secure hands.

I’m just going to come right out and say it anon-chan. Ironwood returning the Relic to our heroes didn’t make sense. At least, not to me. I can’t speak for everyone. Outside of the lamp being used as a token of trust, it did not make sense to me that Ironwood would just give it back to our heroes like that. Ironwood knows fully well the importance of the Relics and the importance of keeping them out of the public eye. And given what transpired at the Fall of Beacon and the Battle of Haven, Ironwood should be fully aware that there are people after the lamp.

So why not put it somewhere safe within your kingdom? Why give it back to our heroes ESPECIALLY when they brought it to your kingdom to keep it safe? What?

I’m sorry but that doesn’t make sense given previously established details in the narrative. Particularly the part that, as is, the Relic is a hazard outside of a vault since it can attract Grimm.

“…Yang, knock it off will ya. If we lose our cool now, we’ll just be inviting more Grimm.”

“Does that even matter? Apparently we’ve been attracting Grimm since we left Haven.”

“Oh and how could I forget about that? What happened to no more lies andhalf-truths?”

“Yeah. I think it’s time we got an explanation.”

“I did not lie to you.”

“Well you certainly didn’t tell us everything about the Relic.”

“Please, now is not the time.”

“No we’re past that!”

“I wanna know why you’re still not telling us everything.”

“It is true that the Grimm are attracted to the Relics. It’s faint but undeniable.I believe it has to do with their origin. I’m not entirely sure…” – RWBY V6 Chapter 2

And as if Ironwood returning the Relic to Ruby didn’t feel odd enough, Ruby then returns the lamp to Oscar. 

Why?

Again, I see what the show was trying to do in a sense. Like I said, the Relic was being used as a token of trust between characters. Ironwood gave the Relic back to Ruby as an action to show that she can trust him and Ruby entrusting the Relic with Oscar is synonymous with her trust in him; especially considering the fact that back in Anima, the Relic was taken away from Oscar after what happened with Oz and there was that whole tension in the group.

So when I put it in that light, I like the idea of Ruby giving the Relic back to Oscar as a sign of showing her renewed trust in him in spite of what happened with Oz. It’s a nice touch and a nice moment between the Rosegardening Rosebuds.

But then the ole noggin starts thinking and common sense creeps back in followed up by canon details left behind from previous seasons and I’m reminded yet again that Oscar shouldn’t have the lamp because Ruby shouldn’t have the lamp.

Ironwood shouldn’t have given the lamp back to the heroes in the first place. He should have taken it and placed it inside a vault where it could’ve been secured and out of the public eye without the need to make Oscar an obvious target for Neo and Cinder to go after as part of the V7 finale.

At first I was willing to look past the weird decision by Ironwood (and by extension the Writers) to give the Relic back to our heroes. I was even willing to look past Ruby giving the lamp to Oscar since I figured it was going to have some kind of meaningful payoff like Oscar possibly using the Relic to reveal the truth to Ironwood when Ruby’s choice to deceive him got out of hand and she found herself in a position mirroring Ozpin from last season.

Instead what we received was Oscar showing up at Schnee Manor with the Relic and in spite of all the revelations that went down—i.e. Jacques being outted for his alliance with Watts by Weiss, Ironwood revealing to existence of Salem to the Atlesian Council and Robyn Hill—none of it involved the Relic being used at all. So why have Oscar show up with Relic at all?

Well, you might say it’s because since Oscar was entrusted with the Relic, it’d make sense for him to carry it around with him at all time for safe keeping, right?

But the thing with that is, it still doesn’t make sense since in previous scenes this season, Oscar was shown to not have the Relic with him at all times. He didn’t have the Relic on him during his training sessions with Ironwood and his battle with JNR against FNKI.

And before you say—well he was training then and he can’t have the Relic on him while he’s fighting— that doesn’t count since when Ruby was carrying the lamp, it didn’t hinder her during combat. She was doing all kinds of flips,twirls and slashes with the lamp conveniently stuck to her hip at all times.

Not to mention that back in V6 when Oscar had the lamp first, he fought the Manticore and the lamp stayed fine on his waist back then too. The only time the lamp conveniently fell off was after the train crash.

So going again—Oscar didn’t keep the lamp with him while he was training with his peers. He didn’t have it with him when he was watching the others train at the start of V7CH6. He didn’t have it with him when he was down in the Vault of the Winter Maiden with Ironwood and he also didn’t have it with him at the start of V7CH8 during his briefing with Team RWBY.

V7CH3 = RELIC IS GIVEN TO OSCAR

V7CH5 = NO RELIC ON OSCAR

V7CH6 = NO RELIC ON OSCAR

V7CH7 = NO RELIC ON OSCAR

V7CH8 (AT THE BEGINNING) = NO RELIC ON OSCAR

V7CH8 (AT SCHNEE MANOR) = RELIC ON OSCAR ???

To tell you the truth, Schnee Manor was the first time I saw Oscar carrying the lamp for this season. 

It was so out of the blue that I didn’t even pick up on it until another FNDM fam pointed it out to me. Why would Oscar even bring the lamp to the dinner in the first place?

Like I said, he was never shown to carry the Relic around in previous scenes so why have him do i tnow all of suddenly especially if the only thing to come of it later was Oscar being benched from Mantle to go back to the academy.

That’s why I said Oscar having the Relic was only to advance the PLOT; anon-chan.

It’s fine if you think otherwise and I appreciate you presenting your own rationale for this narrative decision. Unfortunately, this squiggle meister can’t really buy into it.

Oscar bringing the Relic to the Schnee Dinner only to end up not using it at all felt so weird to me that the only logical conclusion that I can make from it is that it was done solely for the sake of pushing the PLOT.

When I first saw that scene where Ironwood told Oscar that it was time for him to return up to Atlas, the first comment that escaped my lips was “They made Oscar bring the Relic so that they could have a reason to have him return to Atlas Academy as opposed to joining the others down in Mantle to help with the evacuation”.

Not only did Oscar walking with the lamp provide an excuse for the Writers to write him out of the Battle of Mantle but it also provided them a way to have Neo spot Oscar with the lamp, thus leading to him being targeted by her for the finale.

While I don’t mind the set-up of Neo targeting Oscar for the Relic since it lends to a chance for us Pineheads to finally see the little barn prince in action at long last, I just didn’t like the execution of this set-up. 

It reminded me of how Weiss just so happened to run into her mom inside her father’s perfectly unlocked office who just so happened to have the info she needed to out her father for his crimes.

It looks like it’s not just Weiss who got a splash of Clover’s good fortune. Neo did too because how lucky was she that the night she disguised herself as a server at the Schnee Family Dinner,also happened to be the night our heroes attended the very same party. 

Not to mention, how lucky was Neo that that was also the night Oscar happened to walk with the Relic even though he hasn’t been shown to walk around with it in previous episodes.

I’m sorry if I’m sounding incredibly nit-picky here but…I think I know a plot convenience when I see one and this was definitely a glaring one, at least for me. But as always, this is only my opinion. 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[comeondowntosouthparkrpg-blog]

Leopold “Butters” Stotch

hi! i think i’ve worked out that i’ve reached the activity limit with my overall replies & discord rp-ing (16 replies overall) but, if not, I’m happy to leave this in your inbox until it’s ready x

out of character info

Name/Alias: Grace Pronouns: She/Her Age: 23 Join Our Discord: Yes – already in x Timezone: GMT Activity: 8 Triggers: N/A Password: Jimmy can fast pass my ass Character that you’re applying for: Leopold “Butters” Stotch Favourite ships for your character: Butters/Kenny, Butters/Eric, Butters/Chemistry

in character info (heavy trigger warning for parental abuse and neglect throughout !!)

Full name: Leopold “Butters” Stotch Birthday: 11th September 2000 Sexuality, gender, pronouns: bisexual, male, he/him  Age and grade: 17, senior.

Appearance: 

Butters is cursed with eternal baby-face: chubby cheeks and big blue eyes. Even his hair is as soft and fluffy as the day he was born, with his parents making sure that he never deviates from his short-back-and-sides style by cutting it themselves every Sunday evening. That’s not the only thing that hasn’t changed; his clothing style is as sweet and standard as his middle school days – boot-cut jeans, comfortable sneakers and the teal fleece his mom bought for his 15th birthday (he’s barely grown, since). Sometimes, Butters will experiment with a graphic-tee, his favourite being his array of Hello Kitty Island Adventure merchandise, or bright coloured polo. 

Butters stands at just under average height and just over average weight, with a cute bit of chub on his belly that he doesn’t think will ever go (he’s banned from visiting the gym after his dad’s bathhouse escapades). One time, his mom threatened to fatten him up so much that he’d never be able to leave, and he’s never been able to budge the extra weight, since. He doesn’t mind, though: he’s as body positive as can be, and thinks that anyone who don’t think he’s handsome ain’t looking hard enough.

Personality: 

Butters is a mess, frankly, though he thinks he’s just an ordinary fella living life as anyone should: by being kind and helping others. He’s dangerously gullible and painstakingly naïve, with a generous soul even after everything he’s been through. He just wants to do right by the world, especially his friends. He has a strong sense of justice, though this can be easily manipulated to the point where he’ll believe that what’s wrong is right and what’s right is wrong. Despite often being misguided, he’ll stick by his guns and stay true to himself when the time comes. He’s got better at standing up for himself as he’s got older, too, and isn’t afraid to put his foot down and say heck no if necessary. Most days, he's very confident in his own skills and self-image, but that can all change with one comment. 

His disrespect for authority is an interesting personality trait. He’ll fudge the police and tell his teachers to go suck a popsicle, but there’s two people he can’t say no to. Butters has been gaslighted his entire life, and the emotional and physical abuse he receives from his parents has led to humiliating and childlike obedience (what 18-year-old accepts being grounded for using twitter after 9pm?). When he’s caught doing wrong by his parents, all his self-confidence and cowboy-like bravado is shot to smithereens: he’s just a no good miscreant who ain’t gonna amount to nothin’, so he may as well give up on his dreams and stick to bein’ a plain ol’ nobody.

History:

Butters was born to Linda and Stephen Stotch on 11th September 2000. Ever since that fateful day, his life has been nothing but chaos and control and, though he wakes up to the sound of his own screams every night, he’s grateful for every opportunity he gets. It would be impossible to write all of his ups and downs in a couple of paragraphs, but there are two things that have really shaped Butters as a person.

One: his family. Stephen Stotch uses fear to control his son whilst his mom, Linda, is dangerously protective. Though seventeen, Butters still calls his dad ‘sir’ to his face and does what he’s told or faces severe consequences. The night that his mom asked him to stalk his father to the bathhouse changed a lot of things; he saw the internalised secrets and lies that have corrupted both of his parents and has watched them wear white-picket-fence masks in public every damn day since. He saw his dad embrace his sexuality yet treat it as a sin. He experienced his mom, breaking down, vulnerable and distressed, ready to kill her own son. Not to mention the time he was sold to Paris Hilton as a pet. Linda and Stephen Stotch are manipulative and controlling parents whose ‘love’ of their son, however much they fret over him and cover him with kisses, will never make up for the trauma instilled in him.

Two: his friends. Scrotie McBoogerballs, AWESOME-O, Good Times with Weapons, Marjorine, Casa Bonita. The list of shenanigans that Butters been apart of, and victim of, is endless. He’s been locked in a fridge, publicly shamed on television and stabbed in the eye with a shuriken, yet he still hangs out with these guys. Why? Because he was never part of the gang in kindergarten, and he’s never really had a true friend, someone who has made the effort to see what he’s been through and respect him regardless. Besides, hanging with these guys (whatever injuries and humiliation they bring to him) has given him a strength he never knew he had. He’s become a pimp, rekindled his confidence to dance, got his wiener out at school, become a best-selling novelist and, best of all, learned to say no to Eric Cartman. Not bad for a good-for-nothin’.

  Sample paragraph: (At least two paragraphs, centred around your character)

For the first time in a long time, Butter’s internal sludge pile of shame and humiliation is joined by anger. He’s so gosh darn mad that he don’t care who knows it, but no-one is gonna know it, ‘cause he got no cell, no internet, and no hope’a gettin’ outta his stupid ol’ room. It’s the same ol’ story: Eric and the fellas convinced him to get a fake ID so they could get some sorta fancy alcohol for Bebe’s party tonight. Kyle said it had to be him, ‘cause he looks the oldest, and he’s the best actor outta all of ‘em. Butters ain’t sure if that’s true, but he appreciated the compliment, and it’s a bad pal that says no to a favour, especially when the entire party rested on his hands.

He got the booze, alright. And he was nice and proud of himself, until Eric said it was the wrong one. Ain’t no one wants to drink this kindergarten crap, Eric said, we’re men now, we gotta drink whiskey. Well, Butters thinks whiskey tastes like butt, and ain’t no one wants to taste butt, ‘cept maybe Kenny. He thought the blue an’ pink bottles looked cute and bubblegum is his favourite flavour, no doubt about it, but maybe he should’a followed the plan and done what he was told. Darn it all.

He was in trouble with the guys, but at least he weren’t in trouble with his mom and dad, and that meant he’d finally be able to go to a real life party, maybe show off his dancin’ skills and eat some cheese and pineapple sticks. But then they found his fake idea when doin’ their routine search’a his room, and all hell broke loose. You ain’t goin’ anwhere today, mister, they said, you’re gonna sit right here on your tushie an’ think about the consequences of identity fraud. I’m goin’ to that party, Buttons said, puttin’ his foot down. Well, that  just about earned a slap around the noggin and a week without his cell, so he couldn’t even tell the fellas he weren’t comin’ tonight.

A knock on his window jolts him outta his angry pacing. He doesn’t want to look up, ‘cause he knows it’s probably Eric, comin’ over just to make fun of his current predicament and boast all about how much fun he’s gonna have tonight. Well Butters weren’t gonna have it, no sir-ee. He puts his hands on his hips and he gets ready to march right over there and give Eric a proper telling to, but then he sees it ain’t Eric, it’s Kenny, an’ he got a proper determined look on his face.

“We’re breaking you out,” Kenny says, an’ Butters ain’t gonna argue this time.

Headcanons: 

Butters still plays Hello Kitty Island Adventures, but he’s also a massive animal crossing fan. Any game that lets him escape his house, have some independence, and talk to (or raise) cute animals can keep him hooked for hours. Unfortunately, his mom and dad turn the internet off at 9pm and keep his phone in their bedroom at night. 

Butters keeps his sexuality a secret from his parents, and it’s no surprise why. After his mom found out about his dad’s trip to the bathhouse (subsequently attempting to murder her son) and after a gruelling (and very confusing) trip to conversion camp, Butters thought it best to hide any ‘abnormal’ feelings. Fortunately, his friends and their often open sexualities has made him feel comfortable and confident with himself, and he’s resoundingly grateful for it.

He is quietly considering his gender and what it means to be Butters. At the moment, he doesn’t think he needs to put a name to it, but it doesn’t hurt to research, and he’s ecstatic to see he isn’t the only one who doesn’t sit on one end of the binary. Though exploring the possibility of being non-binary, he’s happy to be referred to by male pronouns for now.

Butters wants to be a pre-school teacher, even after what happened to Ms. Claridge. He loves drawing and storytelling and wants to share those gifts to others, helping kids who might not be happy at home.

Unfortunately, he doesn’t think his mum will let him go as far as college without having a breakdown or threatening something real bad. Though his parents have started to treat him a little better as he’s got older, their distrust of the world around them, and of their son, has grown rapidly.

Butters works part-time at the ice cream parlour and adds something special to every sale. Most of the time he uses the wafers and chocolate chips to make little teddy bears, but his extra special treat (for people he really likes) is the unicorn uni-cone with lots of sparkles.

Butters is a wonderful artist! He loves using watercolour pencils and paint the best and though his work isn’t always the most profound (it’s usually portraits of his friends or cute animals he sees), it's always beautifully coloured and full of love.  

Anything else: thank u guys 4 the opportunity

[simjoritysims]

Why I’m Suing SimplyImaginaryPeople for §5,000,000

Naaah but get it? Simoleons and.. we’re in the..sims community..? No? Ok well that’s the only funny thing about this post.

*Opens up powerpoint and presses play*

It is frustrating when you work very hard on something exciting and original to share with others and to be wary about even doing it because someone is in tow to copy. This is exactly how I feel about SimplyImaginaryPeople.

This is so disrespectful not only to us (TheTogetherStore) that have spent so much time putting effort into the things that we make but it is even more disrespectful to the amazing wonderful people that have chose to support us on Patreon and get exclusive gifts in return, only to have someone turn around and remake everything that we’ve made specially for them, just because. 

The thing that bothers me the most is that of everything that we (TheTogetherStore) make is that she ONLY copies the things that are on Patreon (A website where we upload exclusive content if you CHOOSE to support us, and sometimes Patreoners will personally ask for our own personal use items or conversions from various sites to be uploaded so why not? They support us with their hard earned money, it’s the least we can do). 

Like, okay girl I get it, you expressed (repeatedly) that you dislike Patreon and believe everything in Sims should be free and no one should pay for content even if they wanted to, I get it. It’s cool and all that you want to be the Robin Hood of the sims 3 community but news flash, this is not a damn folklore so go ahead and take off your lil Peter Pan outfit and ya lil burlap made shoes and knock it off because it’s not cute. People are free to buy w h a t e v e r they so please, it’s not your money, it’s surely not your hand made cc, not your time, not your effort, I’m not using your computer, they’re not using your bank card, nada, nothing.

Every single time she has copied, we’ve politely and privately addressed this and messaged her to reach out as a small heads up like “Hey not sure if you’re noticing but you totally just duplicated *item here*” and each time it was that ole’ “Silly you, I’m not copying! (; “ BS mumbo jumbo and we would get an excuse about how it’s all just innocent people requesting items, pinterest inspo, followed by links of pictures or an elaboration on her “ideas”.. but she’ll TTYL because she’s a “bio-scientist doctor” in the lab with her hands covered in cells as she types, studies, remake whole youtube tutorials and makes 230 pieces of cc per week with time left to spare

Yeah, ok. 

Soooo you just happen to get inspired to make the exact same mesh that we just made, just days after we release it on Patreon? Oh duh, don’t mind me.. seems legit.  Eventually she came to me on her own, right after copying, to explain how she just realized her recent piece of cc was a copy of a romper in one of my pictures (HELL, I didn’t even make that I only retextured it.) and she apologized for that. She hadn’t known because of all the requests she gets, someone sent her my picture and asked for her to remake it in which she did..but somehow did not realize she was copying anyone until after she made the thing. OK first of all, if someone sends you a Sims 3 picture and asks you to remake a piece of clothing in the picture.. you’re not about to go make it and then afterwards be like “Aww damn I didn’t realize someone had made it already” like clearly it’s been made???????

Of course I pulled an “I told you so” that was followed by her “realizing” that she copied soo many things we’ve already made on Patreon and how her heart was just so damn broken and she just felt “soo bad for it” because the people that so-called requested it were her friends and how she just basically needed to remove those fucked up toxic people from her life and take a break from making cc as well to get over it. Oh and she wouldn’t copy anymore. 

Squashed ..bam, I thought we were good to go but the copying had been so bad and happened so close together that people assumed that @purpleplumbobs​ was copying and people hadn’t known that she was the one that made them first, and actually started the entire “bonnet” creating idea. So Frankie(SimplyImaginaryPeople) was asked to publicly address it letting everyone know the situation and how she was so poorly “manipulated” into copying. Pshhh, we thought! We thought that she could take full credit for her actions but she “doesn’t like drama” regardless of if she started it or not and refused to admit anything publicly (;

PurplePlumbobs just had to address it herself and that was that, or so we thought.. again. Ugh, right? It doesn’t end.

She finally started making cc again after her little vacation (like under a week, wow so long she might as well went full blown hiatus right?) and what do ya know, she’s copying what she missed out on in those few weeks time.

SOO I messaged her ONCE again like hey what’s up? I thought you were done with the copying life, some other stuff blah blah blah. I guess she didn’t choose the copying life and it chose her because had that triggered a tense back and forth session of no one going anywhere with anything so we just cut that short. 

She went missing or on break because I had messaged her YET AGAIN about the hair bow (pictured) and how she copied it soon after I released it and got no reply or response yet she stayed on tumblr liking posts... so I was like huh, In..ter..esting.. Her ass was just sitting up there ignoring me.

So bam she comes back, better than ever days later with whole room sets featuring amazing, super rare copied bassinet, ultra copied crib mobile.. you name it! Come on down and shop on now folks!

So ya’ll... I was shocked when I woke up to a message and someone was like “Hey isn't that your crib mobile?”

Me:

I think that is SO trifling, she must’ve read my message like “Oh speaking of copying, let me just keep ignoring you and go and load up this double whammy I’ve been working on”

Anyways, since private messaging isn’t stopping her from copying and keeping us from feeling like even posting or making anything (seemingly what she wants), maybe this public message will. If it doesn’t I’m shit out of options because then that means there’s clearly something not clicking in that sweet baby’s noggin.

[daleisgreat]

30 Years of Genesis: Going 30 Years Playing No More Than 30 Minutes of Sonic

This summer marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Sega Genesis in North America. I had such a nostalgia trip reliving my memories of the GameBoy while crafting my recent GameBoy 30th Anniversary piece, that it only seemed fitting that Sega’s iconic 16-bit platform gets the same honors of recounting my memories with it. If you are looking for a more authoritative historical piece on it I recommend either Phoenix IV or Console Wars. The former is a strictly informative recounting of the history of the system while the latter is an entertaining retelling done in the form of a novel after days of interviews with everyone involved. The following are my own personal experiences of playing the Genesis over the past three decades.

I remember first encountering the Genesis while spending either Thanksgiving or Christmas 1991 over at my older sister and brother-in-law’s house. I was only eight at the time, and remember being perplexed at the black gaming box and the thought that there could somehow be other systems than the good ‘ol NES. I did not subscribe to any gaming magazines at this point and I think I was still about a year away from experiencing Sega’s deluge of combative commercials against the SNES. During that holiday season of ’91 I recalled playing the first Streets of Rage on the Genesis with my little brother nonstop the couple days we were there. I remember being blown away by how superior it was graphically to what I experienced with other NES brawlers before like Double Dragon. We only got up to the stage where we faced off against the dueling karate sisters who kept whooping us and neither my brother nor I had the skills at the time to get past. The next year or two the only times I recall playing the Genesis were at my sister’s for the holidays or the occasional store kiosk. I remember my brother-in-law picked up other games we played regularly like ToeJam & Earl, Buster Douglas Boxing, Toxic Crusaders and PGA Tour Golf. I dug all of them, especially ToeJam & Earl where I had no idea what was happening half the time with its unorthodox level structure and item pick-ups, but loving the co-op gameplay, stylish graphics and its funky beats at the time. Brief memories of store kiosk play from the early 90s consisted of being horrible at the original Sonic the Hedgehog because it was too fast for my childhood noggin’ to comprehend. I also recall being confused at early editions of Madden Football at store kiosks because when I would press buttons to hike the ball ‘Audible’ would appear on screen and then eight or nine-year old Dale had no idea what that meant compared to easier pick up and play NES pigskin games I was conditioned to.

Until Christmas of 1995 I probably played no more than about 10 Genesis games all together. I was more aware of the system by that time thanks to reading magazines more regularly at that point and hearing from classmates who had the system, but until that point I was pretty loyal to my NES still (I did not get a SNES until late ’96). For the Christmas season of ’95 my best friend at the time who coincidentally lived three blocks away from me, Rich, received a Genesis and that was when I got a lot more hands-on time with its extensive library of titles. Rich and I shared a lot of similar game interests which at that time was a ton of sports games, fighters and action/brawlers. For the next several months I was over at Rich’s for countless sleepovers and going nuts with fighters like Mortal Kombat II and Evander Holyfield’s Real Deal Boxing. Real Deal Boxing blew away Buster Douglas Boxing with more authentic boxing gameplay and an insanely thorough career mode where we would take a created boxer and move him up the ranks as champion until his skills gradually weakened with age to force his retirement. We absolutely ate up the sports games at that time. We played what seemed like an infinite amount of Madden NFL ‘97. A much wiser 13-year old Dale was no longer befuddled by the intricacies of Madden and we had so much fun with it. We would create many players to deck out our teams and keep running blitzes to try and injure the players because there was an intense bone-breaking injury sound effect that we ate up. It was like the equivalent of Favreau and Vaughn going nuts in Swingers when they made Gretzky bleed in NHLPA ‘93.

Mutant League Football was another favorite of ours that made that injury sound effect in Madden child’s play. EA also made MLF and it was the equivalent of NFL Blitz at the time with larger-than-life mutants and animals literally killing each other on the field with over-the-top hits. It was possible to force a team to retire due to killing off too many of its players which was always our desired objective! If you have not played its spiritual successor follow-up, Mutant Football League on PS4/XB1 I give it the highest of recommendations because it perfectly capture the sensation of the Genesis game while bringing it up to contemporary standards. We also played a lot of EA’s violent driving game, Road Rash II. Being able to race motorcycles and knock out your competition with chains and nightclubs while trying to evade the cops seemed revolutionary when playing it for the first time! We later discovered EA’s take of Road Rash on rollerblades in the awesome rollerblade stunt/racing game Skitchin’! Fun fact about Skitchin’ is that the competitors you race against have gnarly nicknames like ‘Thrasher’ and ‘Jackal’ and thus in ’96 was the origin of how I came up with what wound up as my online handle but at the time was my radical Skitchin’ username, ‘Gruel’ to blend in with the rest of the pack and have stuck with it all these years later!

After spending several months devouring a good dozen or so Genesis games with Rich, it did not compare to the summer of ’96 when Rich signed up for the Sega Channel! I remember it launched in 1994 and seeing commercials for it at the time where it seemed too good to be true where for about $15/month would net the user a Genesis cartridge that would connect to a cable line and get the Genesis online streaming access to a rotating 40-50 Genesis games a month. That is right, decades before services like OnLive and Playstation Now, the Genesis did streaming gaming back in ’94 and it worked like a charm! Check out this pristine archival footage of the menus to see how it all worked. Sega Channel essentially was what Xbox Game Pass is today, and I am surprised to hear how little it is discussed when people reminisce about the Genesis. We discovered so many new games this way and for that entire summer I was over at Rich’s about three to four days a week binging on Sega Channel games until Rich’s dad got on my case because I was over so often. I remember discovering new sports games on there like the innocuously titled Super Volleyball that we became somehow addicted to and the surprisingly awesome Tiny Toons ACME All-Stars that had its own killer spin on arcade basketball and soccer that it played like NBA Jam but filled with crazy Tiny Toons power-up attacks. Sega Channel is what additionally exposed me to co-op games like General Chaos, the Streets of Rage sequels and Gain Ground and classic single player games like Shadowrun, Comix Zone and Vectorman that Rich and I took turns trying to keep progressing through. Sega Channel also was my first exposure to the classic Bomberman franchise with many nail-biting rounds played of Mega Bomberman! It came as no surprise to me when I finally bought a Genesis a few years later in 1999 that the first games I hunted down for it were those same games I first discovered on the Sega Channel! In April of 1999 shortly after I turned 16 I got my first after-school job and after a few paychecks I went to Wal-Mart to determine what should be one of the first games to buy on my own! This was around the time when Majesco re-released the third, mini-sized Genesis model at a discount price of around $30. I was legit stunned at that price for a brand new system, even if it was for a ten-year old platform at that time I could not help but instantly snatched it up!

If you read my GameBoy special from several weeks back you will recall my lamenting over its lackluster wrestling games compared to the superior ones on the 16-bit platforms. On Genesis, Rich and I played way too much Royal Rumble on the system. Other wrestling games I picked up for the Genesis over the years was the inferior predecessor to Royal Rumble in Super Wrestlemania. While I had a blast with Rumble way back when, it regrettably does not hold up well all these years later with its over-reliance on a button mashing grapple meter that obliterated thumbs that I have no idea how I tolerated at the time. Saturday Night Slam Masters was a unique wrestling game from Capcom. It is essentially Street Fighter II in a wrestling ring, complete with victory taunts, Mike Haggar from Final Fight in its roster and even has a few wrestling moves sprinkled in! I loved how they had over-the-top laser light entrances and larger-than-life character sprites at the time, and I recall enjoying the Genesis version more than the SNES. There was nothing else like it since, and on occasion I will still throw it in every couple of years. I continue to hope one day Capcom will release its sequel, Ring of Destruction in a random collection of arcade games because it never got a home port all these years later.

Sports games ruled on the Genesis! Pictured from clockwise at top left is Holyfield's Real Deal Boxing, NHLPA '93, Super Volleyball and Tiny Toon ACME All-Stars I mentioned some of my favorite sports games for the system above, but it really needs to be emphasized how big sports games were on the Genesis. Both Sega and EA pumped out a seemingly endless line of sports titles for the system. I remember getting into silly speculation with Rich over how much extra memory that yellow tab on the EA carts allowed EA games to play better. For hoops titles I got my NBA Jam and Live fix on SNES, but on the ‘ol Genny my go-to basketball games were the oft-forgotten NCAA skinned version of Jam in College Hoops. I occasionally also threw in the hand-me-down street ball version of NBA Jam in Barkley Shut up Jam. I loved Madden, but Sega’s Joe Montana line of gridiron games were just a notch or two below too. For baseball, Sega’s World Series Baseball titles were in a league of its own when it came to gameplay and presentation with its larger-than-life hitter/batter perspective. For hockey EA’s NHL line was/is legendary! About four or five years ago my friend Derek gave me a ring to come over for some impromptu random gaming and he never played much Genesis before so when he got over I had the Genesis hooked up and laid out all my games for it and of that night we had the most fun playing a few rounds of NHL ‘94. At that point it was a 20-21 year old game and it still held up as one of the best hockey games of all time.

For brawlers I loved the Streets of Rage games, but I think it is my secret shame that I have yet to complete a single one. That must one day change! I did love the exclusive Genesis TMNT game, Hyperstone Heist! It was right up there with Turtles in Time and every couple of years my friend Matt and I make it a ritual to plow through that game. After many attempts we also conquered the Genesis port of the awesome arcade brawler, The Punisher! It does not have as friendly of a continue system as Hyperstone Heist so Matt and I had to learn to play a little more conservatively and not rely on mindless button mashing. It felt gratifying to have all that hard work pay off and beat The Punisher….until we got a copout ending screen of text saying ‘Now play like the Punisher and try hard difficulty.’ We did not, but I wound up looking up the ending several years later and at least Capcom made it worth your while because it had a far more intricate ending than many other brawlers at the time. The one Genesis brawler that always had our number was Captain America and the Avengers. It is a lot of fun to play, but it does not allow that many credits and by setting ourselves up with the max lives and continues that game was still a beast, and even playing conservatively and having so many attempts we only managed to make it to the final boss, The Red Skull, only once. Let us fast track to about a little under 10 years ago when a co-worker approached me about being interested in buying his Genesis/Sega CD/32X along with a couple dozen games. He was saving up to pay off his upcoming wedding and he gave me a list of everything he had along with prices for everything he wanted going by what he saw off eBay auctions. I did some price researching of my own and made him an offer of around $250-ish for the ‘tower of power’ and about 20 games combined for all three systems. Looking back I accidentally lucked out with that offer because it was only a couple years later when 8/16-bit prices on the used market took a huge jump. I never had a must-have desire for a Sega CD or 32X, but there were always a couple of games I wanted to play on them that I eventually hunted down. I liked the versions of WWF RAW, Doom, Virtua Racer and especially Virtual Fighter the most out of my dozen 32X games. I recall as a then 10 and 11 year old being disgusted by early polygonal console games like Star Fox and Virtua Racer and was more on board with FMV games being the future, but remember being a little taken aback by Virtua Fighter indicating that there may be something to these 3D polygons. The 32X version is a surprisingly faithful version to its arcade counterpart.

I need to dive into my SegaCD games more one of these months. I hunted down all the must own titles for it like the Working Design RPGs, Shining Force CD, enhanced versions of Amazing Spider-Man and Batman Returns and Snatcher which I hope to one day knock off my gaming bucket list. Regrettably now my only SegaCD games I invested a decent amount of time into are WWF Rage in the Cage (essentially Super Wrestlemania but with some FMVs and a bigger roster), Slam City with Scottie Pippen (a abysmal FMV-based street hoops title) and the underrated SegaCD exclusive brawler, Prime. I am a huge Ultraverse comic nut and I ate up Prime on SegaCD since it was the only game released featuring characters from that comic book line before Marvel acquired them and cancelled all their books within a couple years (yes, I am still bitter over it). It is only one player, but Matt and I spent a few attempts taking turns at beating levels until we finally vanquished it. We even had an attempt thwarted when Prime was loading the final boss battle when a flipping blackout halted our progress! As memorable as that moment is I will instead forever associate Prime with its unrivaled and unforgettable opening theme music (seriously….give it a listen!). I need to give a shoutout to the official handheld Genesis, aka the Nomad! My brother surprised the hell out of me one year with it for a birthday present. My favorite Nomad memory is my brother getting hyped for getting his own version of Genesis Shadowrun and I told him I would come over and bring my Nomad and my version while he played on his television and we could both start off our own new game and exchange tips and hints in a friendly rivalry type of way. I think my brother must have gotten the Genesis version of Shadowrun mixed up with the completely differently designed SNES version because he tried to run around aimlessly and gun down everything which is not how you want to play the Genesis version. We were planning that day out for weeks and I remember being stunned after about 15 minutes when I was starting to sink my teeth back into Shadowrun’s cyberpunk action-RPG brand of awesome when my brother out of nowhere went ‘screw this, let’s play something else!’

As I wind down I want to give many thanks to Sega for keeping the Genesis relevant throughout this century with its gratuitous re-releases of physical and digital collections. I have no idea why, but I keep on buying them for the convenience of having them for the latest system. It started with the Sega Smash Pack on DreamCast seeming like a killer value in 2001 for 12 games for $40. Then a few years later on PS2 I snatched up Sega Genesis Collection which seemed like an even better value with just over 30 games for $30! Then in the 360/PS3 era along came Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection which offered 40 games for $30!! Sega also sold a lot of the games ala carte via each console’s digital storefronts. Then last year we got Sega Genesis Classics on Xbox One/PS4 with 50 games for $30!!! The last several years Sega also has been licensing out to At Games to release their own pre-programmed Genesis mini console with dozens of pre-installed games. I held off on getting those after hearing how awful its emulation and shoddy production quality is, but after hearing how Sega finally decided to manufacture their own Genesis Mini themselves this fall and handed off the emulation duties to the acclaimed emulation studio M2, I could not pre-order fast enough! I have no idea why I keep deep diving down this well, but hats off to Sega for keeping me coming back again and again! Similarly with my GameBoy flashback piece, I had an unorthodox experience with the Genesis. I was not a hardcore Sonic or Phantasy Star player like the average Genesis owner. If you ask me any day of the week my answer to what my favorite Genesis game is, it could be either The Punisher, Madden NFL ‘97, Shadowrun, Hyperstone Heist, NHL ‘94 or Skitchin’. That is another thing that made the Genesis great was its mammoth library of diverse titles so there was no doubt something for everyone! With that I will put the kibosh on this look back of my favorite moments with the Genesis as I anxiously await for my pre-order of the Genesis Mini to arrive in a few months! Want more Genesis Love from me in Audio and quasi-video form? I was looking through my hard drive archives and a decade ago while I was still doing my videogame podcast, On Tap, we did a special 20th anniversary special on the Genesis where my co-hosts and I reminisce about the Genesis. I went ahead and uploaded it on YouTube so if you want even more Genesis takes then click here to give it a listen! Also recorded throughout 2009 from the On Tap archives was installments from our history of comic book videogames series. In this next episode I uploaded to YouTube is the second part of series where we breakdown every single comic book licensed game on the SNES and Genesis! My co-host Matt and I did thorough research for this episode and played almost nearly every single comic book game from this era in preparation for the episode to give the most up to date research and to see if these games (of which a vast majority are beat-em-ups) still hold up. Click here to give it a listen! My Other Gaming Flashbacks GameBoy 30th Anniversary

[herwordlessness]

Are you still blogging?

In theory, lol. Now that I’m writing full-time, I’m a little creatively exhausted at the end of the day, and unfortunately, TWH has suffered a little. But I do have some ideas knocking around the ol’ noggin, and I plan to post something soonish! 

[thebiggaylion]

Marshmello @ EDC Orlando 2017 (with Gareth Emery and Excision)

It’s April, ya’ll!  There’s no more excuses for cold weather, so could someone tell Mother Nature to knock it off with all the snow for my friends up north?  Music festival season is definitely underway, and us Floridians ain’t trying to rave in no snow (but shout out to those who manage to do it anyway!).  As long as we’re on the topic of northerners, one of my friends was talking to me regarding Marshmello earlier in the week.  I knew that when I got around to posting this segment that it would need to also include Excision, whom he loves.  So, since this same friend was my original inspiration for my first ever #ThrowbackThursday, (which was for Excision), it seems liked that conversation was the perfect sign from the universe on what to post this week!  Before we get into all that, though, I had to split this post, but decided to do it in a slightly different way.  Instead of just doing two parts down the middle, I’ve decided to take the Marshmello stuff and the non-Marshmello stuff and put them each in a post.  We’ll see how it turns out in the end... and while I don’t think I’ve ever explicitly stated this before, feedback has always been and will always be welcome!

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram What a great way to start the set!  No, this wasn’t his opener, but I think his remix of Waiting for Love is a huge improvement over what seemed like a bit of weird pacing of the original, so I just loved hearing it. Avicii - Waiting for Love (Marshmello Remix) https://soundcloud.com/aviciiofficial/waiting-for-love-marshmello Slushii x Marshmello - Twinbow https://soundcloud.com/aviciiofficial/waiting-for-love-marshmello

Find this photo on Instagram | Find this photo on Facebook So those folks who were dancing in front of me in the video above turned around, saw me, and she wanted a picture!  Turns out these Norwegians are actually from Norway, accents and all!  Usually I think of the other large music festival in Florida being the one to attract international visitors, but I suppose Orlando is still the tourism capital of the world, so of course there’s draw for folks to visit here besides EDC Orlando... but it was really cool to meet some legit international headliners!

Find this photo on Instagram | Find this photo on Facebook Of course, getting a pic with only part of the crew is never best, and this year the husband behind The Big Gay Lion could act as a photographer for folks who wanted a pic without the selfie perspective haha.  We actually ran into these folks once more on the way home after Day 1 was over!  I didn’t get any socials from them, but they’re as delightful as they look!

Find this photo on Instagram | Find this photo on Facebook Speaking of delightful (and selfie perspective), here’s another headliner that’s a good example of someone who saw me taking pictures, and decided to get one for themselves haha.  I didn’t get a line on this gal, but I love a headliner that’s all smiles and loves to get in close for a great pic!  And who doesn’t love a flower crown at a music festival?

At this point, the husband of the guy behind The Big Gay Lion wasn’t feeling Marshmello like I thought he would, so we walked around the festival for a little bit.  I was interested in seeing some of the other acts performing at neonGARDEN and circuitGROUNDS during this time slot anyway, so off we went!

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram We’re leaving kineticFIELD along the edge of Rainbow Road, kinda near the merchandise tent, and-... holy crap, would you look at this!  At the time I took this video, I didn’t realize how her altitude and such was controlled (there are two tech guys holding onto the whole thing, leading it around and such), but we’ve never seen anything like this at EDC Orlando’s past.  I decide this shot can turn into a decent atmosphere video, and decide to pan back to kineticFIELD.  You can see the Pulse Portal art installation on the left side of the video, just before I zoom into kineticGAIA).  Once I started paying attention to what I was hearing, I knew for sure I’d love this video... this song is one of my favorites! Ookay - Thief https://soundcloud.com/ookaymusic/thief

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram So we made our way over to neonGARDEN, and saw a dude I’ve always loved not only because of his amazing music, but because of the positive, energetic vibe he brings to his (now concluded) podcast series.  Even though I didn’t stay long, apparently the universe was smiling at me, because... I caught an ID haha.  This one doesn’t seem to be out yet, but both himself and Ashley Wallbridge dropped this for Armin van Buuren’s A State Of Trance 850, and the video link to that show is below, timestamped to it’s appearance in the stream (@48:30). Ashley Wallbridge & Gareth Emery - ID https://youtu.be/4OLfAFkL8EY?t=48m30s Ben Nicky - Cobra https://soundcloud.com/bennicky/ben-nicky-cobra

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram And speaking of amazing luck, I managed to catch this clip during Excision’s set at circuitGROUNDS while his awesome Harambe visuals were up.  The song that followed was fire too, so while I’m certain the entire performance was just as hot as last time, I’d like to think I caught one of the highlights! Excision, Datsik, and Dion Timmer - Harambe https://soundcloud.com/excision/x-harambe Whyel - Revolt https://soundcloud.com/harshrecordslabel/whyel-revolt-1

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram After heading back down Rainbow Road to kineticFIELD, we must have run into some of the folks we knew, for we stopped kinda far back.  Doesn’t bother me, cause that just means I can get the whole of kineticGAIA in my shot!  Also, here’s one of those pop-crossover moments that I love!  Yeah, yeah, Guns N’ Roses would probably die than be called “pop”, but “pop” is slang for “popular”, and if you think Sweet Child O’ Mine wasn’t popular, then you are too young to remember it being on the radio (or simply haven’t listened to a radio station that focuses on the 1980′s since then)!  Also, I think it’s great that Guns N’ Roses has a SoundCloud!  This song is back-linked on their SoundCloud page as being THIRTY-ONE YEARS OLD.  That’s not the oldest song I’ve ever posted about (the winner would likely be when Alison Wonderland dropped Bill Withers in 2016, which at the time was released forty-five years earlier!), but it’s reaching back in time for sure! Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine https://soundcloud.com/guns-n-roses-official/sweet-child-o-mine Galantis - Runaway (U & I) https://soundcloud.com/wearegalantis/galantis-runaway-u-i-1 Reece Low - Bounce That Ass https://soundcloud.com/reecelow/reece-low-bounce-that-ass-original-mix-1

YouTube | Facebook | Instagram Here’s yet another pop-crossover moments!  Each song after the next was great, but I had no idea where he was going with his mix when I started recording haha.  Also, Papa Roach has a SoundCloud too?  And here I thought that platform may only get utilized for pop, hip-hop, and dance! Jack Ü feat. Kiesza - Take Ü There https://soundcloud.com/diplo/jack-u-take-u-there-feat-kiesza Knife Party - Boss Mode https://soundcloud.com/knifepartyinc/knife-party-boss-mode Papa Roach - Last Resort https://soundcloud.com/paparoach/last-resort RL Grime feat. Djemba Djemba - Valhalla https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cE_CUiteaM

Download High Res (35.4 MB) | Download Low Res (4 MB) End of the night?  More pyro!  I’ve been doing 15-frame GIF’s since I ran into the 2 megabyte soft limit on Tumblr, but this one I wanted to do with only 14 so I can get close to a perfect loop on that fire haha. At this point, the husband of the guy behind The Big Gay Lion starts getting all impatient, and wants to try to beat the crowd out of the festival.  Yes, I know that’s not possible with EDC Orlando.  No, he didn’t know that.  But after this moment, we walked back to the locker, got our stuff, and headed out.

Find this photo on Instagram | Find this photo on Facebook But before we got to the exit, I saw one of the most amusing totems of the year.  Maybe of all time?  A big ol’ screen shot of Trixie Mattel from her YouTube series with Katya called UNHhhh.  That’s not a typo, the title is just post-verbal.  The show is one of all-time favorites for the guy behind The Big Gay Lion, so he loves this pic!

Find this photo on Instagram | Find this photo on Facebook After exiting Tinker Field (and running into those Norwegian headliners at a crosswalk!), I got back to the car (may it rest in peace), and got the head dress off.  As you can see in this pic I snapped, my head dress wasn’t properly affixed to my noggin for Day 1, and there is almost zero remaining impressions on my forehead.  But, I was definitely messing with it all day, which was quite annoying.  The line of makeup you see missing from my forehead was intentional.  I figured if the head dress didn’t move, then I wouldn’t need to paint everything... man I was wrong, because if you look back at all my Day 1 stuff (which is easily done using my Tumblr Index!), you can see where the makeup stopped just below the headband in almost every one!  Ugh.  I tried to be lazy, and now it’s been immortalized in all my Day 1 pics from 2017 haha.  Don’t worry, as you may have already seen from my Day 2 stuff, I didn’t make the same mistake twice!

So there we go!  Probably one of my most musically diverse posts ever haha.  I did a lot of walking around this year--even moreso than I did in 2016--and while I did enjoy myself, it was hard to get into the groove.  I might have to let the husband of the guy behind The Big Gay Lion hang out with the biggest fan and his group of headliners so I can stick to a show I like and get into the groove properly!  But, that’s for seven months from now... only 218 days left to go, right?  Right!  Oh, and don’t forget there’s two parts to this post if you so desire to have this content split logically.  Love ya’ll, see ya next time! 🏳️‍🌈🦁❤

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