#grubs legacy

[babzyz]

after testing out her experimental vaccine, ingrid was questioned by the new lawyer in town....

meet arthur quinton aka the love of ingrid's life created by the wonderful @druidberries <3

[smoshdykery]

finale gang

with bonus 5 ft arms

[simssub]

the only money-grubbing behavior after Serena won the lottery was this

like, Ronan...you're not just her neighborhood friend, you're LITERALLY twins

[woundedeagle]

Not a single soul: ....

Not a single soul at Hogwarts: ....

Not even Marvolo: ....

Also not even the snake, Rerek: ....

Ominis: ONCE A COWARD, ALWAYS A COWARD. JUST ASK DUNCAN HOBHOUSE.

@woundedeagle

Lmao, don't think I've ever wrote about Duncan before, and I'm not in on the whole Duncan and Ominis having beef thing? 🤣 ive never seen that before haha, but thats hilarious💚 when I read your message, this little idea came to me. So hope its good enough for you.

(Some of the beast class students at a Puffskein Den doing research)

Ominis: *leaning back against a tree with his arms folded, while MC gets them the information they need*

Poppy and Sebastian: *laughing and joking as they pet Puffskeins*

Duncan: *kinda freaking out in a corner*

Marvolo: *happens to roll up with Rerek close next to him* Ominis?

Ominis: *turns his head* Marvolo? What are you doing here?

Marvolo: *smirks* This is Rereks favourite Puffskein spot...We didn't expect there to be a gaggle of hogwarts students here though..*turns to Rerek* Seems like your grub is busy Rerek, we'll have to come back later, or go to another den..

Rerek: Oh for fuck sake..

(Marvolo looks over, spotting Duncan anxiously wandering around, looking terrified at the Puffskeins, a playful grin curls onto his lips)

Marvolo: Pfffft, who's the little prick clearly horrified of these fluffballs

Ominis: *smirks* Duncan.. And you're right.. He's scared of them..

Rerek: *slithers up to drape around Marvolos' neck and shoulders* P-HA! Did I hear that correctly?!

Marvolo: *chuckles* Yes..

(A Puffskein suddenly gets really close to Duncan, he screams like a little girl and starts running away, causing Marvolo and Rerek to laugh)

Duncan: *screaming, not looking where he's going, as he runs in Marvolo and Ominis' direction, before finally turning forward, seeing Marvolo towering over him *smirking* and Rerek, who brings his head forward and hisses aggressively at him* Aaaagh!!! *falls back*

Rerek: *hissy laugh* Silly little bitch..

Marvolo: *laughs looking down at him* If you're terrified of a little Puffskein, I dont blame you for being terrified of Rerek. *wicked little smirk*

Duncan: Wh-Who are you?

Ominis: He's my brother, now go away Dun-

Marvolo: *lies* LOOK OUT THERES ONE BEHIND YOU!!!!!

Duncan: *screams and scrambles away*

Marvolo and Ominis: *both slap their knee and burst out laughing in unison*

Ominis: A rare moment Marvolo, but you just made my day. *continues chuckling*

Marvolo: *chuckles* A rare moment indeed...I do so ADORE fucking with people though...Its Especially fun when I know their fear..

~

[thewertsearch]

EB: […] i'm not sure if i actually want to encourage you to go off fighting him… EB: because as strong as you probably are, it sounds like he is REALLY strong. EB: and even though you killed tons of people, i think i would still be pretty sad if you died. […] EB: so maybe you should just let us handle it? at least we won't fight him directly.

Well, if you actually manage to destroy the Sun, Jack will be significantly weaker, albeit still threatening.

If we can't convince Vriska to back off, maybe we can convince her to at least delay her attack. Once Jack's no longer a First Guardian, she'll be able to swoop in for a duel she could actually win.

Against Semi-Perfect Jack, I'd give her even odds - but what are the odds if she leaves now? Does she stand any chance against a Jack at the height of his power?

Well, maybe. I know I just joked about her getting annihilated, but Aradia did prove that God Tier powers work on him. Vriska's luck stealing is capable of some pretty astounding feats, but is it really enough to compensate for their enormous power differential? Luck can only take you so far, after all.

I'd give Perfect Jack a huge advantage in this fight, but a Vriska victory isn't completely out of the question, and I can see a few ways she could clinch it.

For example - what are the odds of Jack's Ring falling off?

Is it a million-to-one chance?

Is it a sixteen-million-to-one chance?

AG: You know how I said I couldn't rel8 to the attachment you have for your guardians? […] AG: Well, I guess that isn't completely true. AG: There are adult trolls who we can rel8 to, if we choose to, and if we are lucky enough to discover who they are. AG: 8ut it is not really in a familial sense, at least not socially speaking, the way you understand family. They are more like figures of legend, who are said to have more in common with us genetically than any other troll. 8ut we can never meet them of course. Only look up to them, and follow in their footsteps, 8ecause they died centuries ago.

Wait, so Mother Grubs are sitting on the same DNA for centuries?

I suppose that's why they're ancestors, rather than parents. It's a little strange that Mother Grubs hang onto the same genetic templates for so long, but this is alien biology we're talking about. Anything is possible.

Can the same genetic templates be reused multiple times, then? Can one single ancestor have multiple descendants, allowing trolls to have siblings as well as parents?

...hey, they might even have grandparents! If every troll has an ancestor, then your ancestors will have ancestors themselves, and they'd be your second-order ancestor, too.

AG: I am completely certain it is true, and I know who mine is! AG: I have 8een doing my 8est to honor her legacy for most of my life. AG: I even named my roleplaying character after her!

So this is why she’s so gung-ho about Marquise Spinneret Mindfang. Lay it on us, Vriska!

don't think about baby vriska being forced to kill don't think about baby vriska being forced to kill don't think about baby vriska being for

AG: It was 8efore I ever started gaming, or rounding up other kids to feed my lusus. AG: I was nearing the age where I would 8e expected to feed her.

::::(

[traincat]

i was trying to explain to my mom how the harry potter game is antisemitic (we are not jewish) and she didnt really seem to get it. she was like "i mean if they were wearing yarmulkes i would be like yeah, the goblins are supposed to be jewish". do you know of a good source that i could send her that would break down the jewish stereotypes and how they arent just coincidence? if you dont have a good source dont worry about it but i saw you reblog stuff about it so i thought you might. thank you for your time!

I have a few resources I'm linking in my reply here, but I'm probably not going to be answering other questions about this because, to be honest, as a Jewish person in fandom, it's stressful. I'm reblogging stuff about Hogwarts Legacy because I'm Jewish and the antisemitism in the game is vile to the point where it feels irresponsible for me not to address it in some way, and because it ties into a lot of the other antisemitism I've personally faced in fandom when speaking about anything Jewish. I feel like your mother may have some trouble grasping the antisemitism because she seems to be viewing Judaism solely as a faith, when Judaism is an ethnoreligion -- a religion, an ethnic group, and wide and varied culture, and so stereotypes about Jewish people don't have to involve religious symbols and very often involve specific physical features, ie, big noses. The goblins in Harry Potter are short, ugly, and they have huge noses -- these are all features commonly associated in antisemitic caricature with Ashkenazi Jewish men. The idea that the goblins would only be valid caricatures of Jewish people if they were wearing a specific piece of clothing is troubling because it invokes the yellow stars Jews were made to wear by the Nazis. (For the record, my uncle wears a yarmulke full time, but the other men on my mother's side of the family do not. This does not make them less Jewish.)

But if your mother needs a symbol associated with the Jewish faith to help her understand, it's been noted that the game features a "goblin horn" that is very clearly a shofar, an important piece of Judaica which is used for religious purposes. (There's also a link between the date the horn is given in the game and a very brutal pogrom; more info in the twitter thread linked. If you want to get an idea of how virulent antisemitism is in fandom, the response to this thread and others like it are A Lot.) Like I can't say enough how blatant this is, and the reason it's getting by so many people are 1) a lot of non-Jewish people are at least on a base level, if not actively antisemitic themselves, basically okay with antisemitism, because antisemitism is so present in our culture and 2) uneducated on Jewish matters.

It's also important to note that in the Harry Potter world, goblins are specifically bankers. This is how they are first introduced to readers and this is their primary association in world: the goblins are literally guarding the gates on huge piles of wizard gold. This is an antisemitic stereotype, as Jews are often perceived as being money grubbing and greedy, as well as "secretly controlling" the greater world's wealth. More info in this wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_antisemitism. This thread by Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg also breaks down the connection between the "greedy Jew" stereotype and the historical precedent for Jewish moneylenders, a profession that was foisted on them because it was distasteful to Christians: https://twitter.com/TheRaDR/status/1057333224538624001. Harry Potter is not unique in these depictions. There is an example of this in, say, Star Trek, where the Ferengi are a race of greedy, money-obsessed aliens who have exaggerated "ugly" features and who are often depicted as oversexed, especially when it comes to women of other, more classically attractive alien races (this is another antisemitic stereotype of Jewish men). But the Ferengi are also all played by Jewish actors, and in the show where they feature most, Deep Space 9, they're protagonists. So while the Ferengi are rooted in antisemitic stereotypes, the involvement of Jewish creatives and their role in the story makes it a more complicated, nuanced situation. This is not what is happening in Hogwarts Legacy.

It's not a coincidence that the goblins in Harry Potter have always been depicted as bankers right from book one. While you can theoretically separate the series from Rowling's transphobia (although, y'know, you shouldn't), the antisemitism is baked into the series. Hogwarts Legacy just takes it to a whole other incredibly overt level. The point of the game is violence against Jews, and we see that because it's revealing just how many people out there are fine with demonizing Jews specifically and the level of violence Jewish people often face in fandom when they speak out about antisemitism.

[roetrolls]

Zerkev, why did you decide to raise your own descendant?

> The Marauder, so used to scribbling away while he speaks to you, suddenly falls very still. A distant look settles over the general, his expression unreadable.

> When he deigns to speak, his voice is soft.

"Redivi takes in runts."

"The day I hatched, I could've fit in the palm of your hand. Wouldn't even open my eyes at first, he tells me. Says it took a week before I started crawling for food.

Any normal cavern would have culled me on sight, caste and bloodline be damned."

"But my father doesn't run a normal cavern.

I don't know what the defect was. I couldn't tell you what fixed it, whether it was a matter of genetics or Redivi nurturing it out, but whatever the reason... I was lucky. Before long, I caught up with my peers and then some."

"I became a general. An emperor. Looking at me today, you'd never know I came from a dud egg."

"But I knew.

And I was terrified I'd pass it on.

We're a legacy bloodline, you know. About as old as the species itself, with a reputation earned and maintained for centuries. And here I was, a troll that shouldn't have lived. Imperfect.

I feared two things. The first, that I'd ruin the Pravus name, be the weak link that ended us. The second... That any kid I made would suffer the kind of rejection I so narrowly escaped."

"And I got it in my head that I needed to be involved. That it was my responsibility to fix whatever flaw they'd get from me.

When Kiyana hatched, I knew she'd be fine. She was strong, healthy, intelligent. I was relieved to know I wouldn't ruin any grub I touched, but the biggest concern still remained.

What would mine be like?

And then...

Then came Mallum."

"And he was everything I could have hoped for.

Maybe it was the Drakon in him, or maybe I was just an isolated fluke, but he... He was perfect. Large, energetic, curious..."

> The Marauder's voice catches slightly.

"That boy stole my heart the moment I laid eyes on him."

"And it should have been enough... Should have laid those fears to rest, enough to set him loose and let him live the normal life I wasn't fit for.

But my fears don't rest easy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong with him. Something I couldn't yet see. I wanted to be sure.

Or... Maybe that was just the lie I told myself.

Maybe I just couldn't stand the thought that he'd become something great, not because, but in spite of me.

Doesn't really matter, in the end. Above all of that... I raised him because he was something incredible."

"He was mine."

[goingrampant]

There's an increasingly common plot device or framework that I'm seeing applied where a basic antisemitic narrative is retold with the evil Jew figures replaced with Nazis in an effort to make it no longer antisemitic while still telling the same basic narrative. For a concrete label, let's call it... Protocols of the Elders of Nazism. The Illuminati exists; there is a secret society threatening children with bloodletting, but it’s the Nazis this time, so it's no longer antisemitic (?). With enough care, this can be executed well, but it may be substantially flawed and wind up supporting real world antisemitism with what reads as a dog whistle or first layer of Nazi propaganda to make new recruits accept basic premises of Nazi ideology before hitting them with the hard stuff. This latter condition may be due to bad writing or literal Nazi propaganda and the lack of clarity is part of the problem.

There are a few instances where this is done reasonably well (YMMV), to make an antifascist point from a place of respect toward Jews and Jewish culture. Roald Dahl was very antisemitic, and his The Witches book reproduces the blood libel narrative, as does the 1990 film adaptation, but the 2020 film attempts to spin this around to code the witches as Nazis with a smattering of German (I believe I read somewhere that Anne Hathaway deliberately played her witch character as a Nazi). Guillermo del Toro's The Strain draws heavily from Dracula and Nosferatu, both frequently labeled as antisemitic, and spins the narrative to have the vampire bad guys intertwined with the Nazis while heroic Jews oppose them. Hunters does similarly, with a Nakam-like rogue group of heroic Jews (eh... *handwavy gesture*) opposing a secret conspiracy of Nazis.

And then there is worse execution, with the framework often appearing as leftist populism while also ferreting in ideas in common with rightist populism/actual Nazism. The Boys comics drip with allusions to antisemitic conspiracy theories as part of its populist message but technically has a Nazi bad guy and villainous American fascism, which makes me consider the comics to read like an antifascist work made by an ex-Nazi the day after he decided he was antifa. The Boys TV show (which has a significant Jewish presence in the production) is better but still suffers this problem with its depiction of an evil pharmaceutical company exhibiting traits in common with antisemitic conspiracy theories, just now with a Nazi origin associated with a revamped version of the comics' Nazi bad guy as well as the American fascism element. Associated terf ideas bring Abigail Shrier's antisemitic conspiracy theory to mind, as well.

Hogwarts Legacy dresses its goblin antagonists up like Nazis, has a line of combat dialog be "I was only following orders!", and depicts them as racist against humans... while also an allusion to anti-SJW Nazi propaganda characterizing feminist game critics as a Jewish conspiracy. The goblins drip with antisemitic imagery but are supposed to be Nazis. With one of the main developers' active advocacy for Gamergate and fixation on Anita Sarkeesian, who I believe was demonized through the main goblin antagonist in allusion to neo-Nazi antisemitic memes ("Anita Jewkeesian"), I think it's reasonable to characterize the game as Nazi propaganda. It's worth note that journalist Robert Evans suggests in The War on Everyone, his audiobook chronicling the development of American neo-Nazism, that Gamergate could have been created by Internet-savy neo-Nazis to spread propaganda.

Most recently, Wonka--also an adaptation of a Roald Dahl work--depicts an evil money-grubbing cartel with characters alluding to Hitler in name and appearance... and seemingly alludes to terf Abigail Shrier's antisemitic conspiracy theory with this evil cartel drugging a woman's daughter to give her a mustache. A chocolate that makes you get clever ideas, made of the essences of lightning and sunshine, is also concerning. ("The lightning and the sun" is a phrase from Nazi occultism representing Hitler as a heroic god figure opposing spiritual chaos, and you can find references to it as dog whistles in various places. Joe Rogan seems to have been indoctrinated in this ideology and similarly dropped references to it. It's possible someone involved in the production of Wonka stuck in lightning and sun references to dog whistle?)

This trope should not be seen as an instant fix for narratives grounded in antisemitism and may indeed carry ideas serving to induct people into coming to accept antisemitic conspiracy theories and associated problems. My takeaway is that depictions of Nazis should be handled with great care. It's not simply acceptable to stick them into any old evil archetype and call it a day. When resurrecting antisemitic narratives, care must be taken to insure the antisemitism itself doesn't propagate, whether or not Nazis are in it as bad guys.

[raenegade-accio]

Thanks @traceyc-uk for the tag, you precious 💙💖

LAST SONG? - May It Be by Enya, I’ve been falling asleep to it for days and it’s great for migraines 😆

FAVORITE COLOR? - it has to be either Burgundy, or Tiffany Blue

CURRENTLY WATCHING? - season 3 of Bridgerton, I guess. I only just finished it with a family member, we didn’t think it’s as bad as everyone on the internet says

LAST MOVIE? - The Return of the King, hence the song choice. I’m happy that the trilogy is as amazing as my friends said it was (and I finally understand the memes!) Now I have the biggest crush on Aragorn…

SWEET/SPICY/SAVORY? - Spicy! 🔥 I’m of the East Asian continent, it’s practically mandatory. And I love me some Thai and Sichuan!

RELATIONSHIP STATUS? - I’m a registered Single Pringle. I don’t trust people enough for all that hahaha (cries 🥲)

CURRENT OBSESSIONS? - LotR, The Modern Prometheus, Harry Potter and Hogwarts Legacy, obviously hehehe

LAST THING YOU GOOGLED? - “GERD symptoms chest pains” because now I can’t tell if it’s either from acid reflux or anxiety. It’s supposed to be a mental illness, leave my hungry belly out of this! 😭 I just wanna eat some good grub!

Tagging - since most people I know already joined, anyone reading who’s interested consider yourself tagged 😊

[arch-official]

currently installing Arch on my other (older) laptop, saving it from years of the WORST dual boot ever

(i had win10 set up on UEFI and ubuntu on Legacy, don't ask me how i got to that point i was young and stupid, also i didn't have GRUB or any kind of decent boot manager)

I have several questions about that set up

[readthephible]

i've seen people talk about shaymien drifting apart and missing their dynamic- since i know you love them both dearly, what are your thoughts on this?

oh dear anon, idk if you know what you’ve signed up for letting me ramble about them. hiding this under a cut bc it will probably be very long and also like tw speculation

so i’m basically rewording what i sent in an emotional, pms-infused series of messages to my bestie arrow @feral-teeth. i have been making connections and conclusions in my head where i’m having to step back and realizing they’re so parasocial, but i think i just emotionally connect to both shayne and damien so much that it “all” has a deeper meaning to me. keep in mind that this all just thoughts i’ve had as a viewer, it’s not me trying to say that any of this is factual or encouraging anyone to pry. don’t do that please (i, avery smoshpvnk, do not endorse the act of harassing real people with my speculative thoughts of them)

my over-emotional Shaymien Thoughts™️ have progressed with my obsession, mainly looking at the wavelengths over the course of their friendship how they’ve been close, then a little more distant, close, then a little more distant. i don’t have a set in stone timeline for it ofc, especially compared to like dan and phil where we have very solid chronological factors to make sense of things, but a rough outline: so random, they become best friends. they eventually become roommates for a little while. damien moves in with an ex and they drift for a bit while shayne gets miscellaneous roles and eventually books with smosh. shayne opens the door for damien at smosh.

from the get go they’re already a solid duo like in show with no name episodes, we see them closer with the damien and shayne show - so many good moments!!!, smosh pit weekly, then into the mythical era still with a good dynamic like in tntls and stuff. eventually we get hacking off mini series (iconic and under appreciated) that starts in 2019. then they seem to still have a good, standout dynamic through the pandemic videos. hacking off comes back for a bit about 2021. there’s also some GREAT moments from like twitch / heavy baf era (basically the time when saige is there) about them seeming really close, chaotic, having fun (ex. quelf, uno, game of life) there was also a stream damien did (12/14/21) where shayne came to his apartment (that i didn’t know about until recently??? i would die for the vod)

we get closer to the renaissance aka anthony’s back era with stuff like baf legacy series (where damien is touchy with shayne as expected, and also i know at the end of the series he is proud of everyone for the commitment and character work but the way he looks at shayne, kill me) ⬇️

[Image ID: baf legacy betrayal set. the main focus is damien in the middle dressed as mr. grub, smiling up at shayne who is standing to the right of the image and posing with a katana as the chosen. angela is on the left, jaw dropped. End ID]

then, the damien and shayne show revival! that’s where damien unintentionally clears up their timeline in a sense, and it’s cute how he gives a sappy monologue about him and shayne’s friendship. it’s really sweet even though damien did make a joke at the end to deflect from it.

i watched the video when it released, and admittedly i haven’t been a recent (as in last 5 years) smosh watcher since about august, but after this, i have just noticed a bit more of a decline in “joint content” with them. the space in which we have had videos with them together since then and especially this year has been admittedly lengthy. i have respect for my fellow rarepair shippers like how we all experienced the spommy drought, but i feel like with shaymien we have an extensive history of “canon” content rather than more consistent, current content, compared to like ianthony for example where we get to see their dynamic all the time. or anyone + the frequent cast members like shayne, ian, courtney. (i don’t really count shour/tney as a ship bc it’s real and like, not to be touched how i see it. but you do you.) even the ones we’ve got, they haven’t been seated together. (except for smosh mouth, but like, that’s the guest chair.)

could this be because damien is just busy outside of smosh? of course it could. in streams and through social media posts, you can see/tell/hear that he has been traveling, auditioning and working a LOT. i feel like with smosh videos though, besides maybe through the delay of sword af, there wasn’t a huge, monumental difference that oh, damien isn’t in videos as much. like it seems a bit more balanced i guess or less noticeable. but also, shayne has been in a ton of videos this year already, so why haven’t they been casted together with how frequently we see them in videos normally??

we get the we found our so random scripts smosh mouth episode. hallelujah shaymien is reborn. right?

idk, this could be me just totally misinterpreting, but i feel like ever since about the “decline” after the d&s show returns video, i feel like there’s a bit of a disconnect. and now this is me being incredibly parasocial and self projecting, but because i relate to damien so much, i can kind of tell that he is the kind of friend that puts in the majority of the work when it comes to upholding a relationship. is this true for all of his relationships? i have no fucking clue. but it’s something i’ve noticed with shaymien specifically. how they just don’t interact the same or bounce off each other as much as they used to.

i got a comment on one of my compilations that started more of a spiral for me:

[image ID: A YouTube comment saying “The fact that Damien wasn't at Shayne's wedding can be something so shocking and sad to me personally.”End ID]

is this true? who knows, i’m not gonna try to look into it too much, but from what i’ve seen, it makes sense. extremely speculative: surely we would have gotten photos? unless it was actually really small and limited, but why would shelby young post about it then? same with renfaire. you’re telling me they both went but didn’t even meet up?

anyway, it breaks my heart. not just in a shipper sense. at the end of the day, i really just want what’s best for them, i love their friendship and i can admire a relationship being only platonic but so strong. i have a thing for duos and always have because my lack of having a best friend throughout my life. anyway

from what i’ve seen as a viewer: you can tell damien ADORES shayne. ofc in our little alternate universes we take it a step further for fictional fantasy fun purposes, but on camera, you can tell he loves shayne so much. they both have seemingly gone through some rough shit, been very vulnerable, and grew up from being 20 and 21 together - so young and figuring out the world. i believe damien’s dad died around the so random time, and being a young adult moving to la to become an actor, mental health, neurodivergence and therapy, weight issues (me coded!! damien is me!!), relationships, etc. and through 13 years, shayne has been a constant.

you can tell how grateful damien is that shayne has been there, proud of how far he’s come, and what they’ve done together. (again, he kind of summarizes it in the d&s show revival.)

how can you tell?

1.) because of how he looks at shayne when shayne isn’t looking back. the way damien looks at shayne in the smosh mouth episode makes me want to BAWL.

the heart eyes haas is INTENSE. it’s just so tender, loving, sappy, sentimental and sweet—the intimacy of getting to be nostalgic with someone about a very niche, specific time of your life is such a concept to me. only damien and shayne know what it was like to constantly be asked “where’s demi?” then have that moved to “where’s anthony?” from so random to smosh. only they (okay, and maybe some other so random cast members) know what it was like to be a “special guest” for all the episodes and never have a solidified position on a goddamn disney channel show, or what the on set pranks were like, or who the makeup artist was that made you look dead.

damien is the one to mention the “metaphysical soulmate radar”. damien is the one to say it was their big break, just not in the way they thought “for friendship and good connections”. if you are Unwell like me about them, there is still the lowkey amanda playing the third wheel bc they’ve known each other for so long dynamic, but it’s different compared to like, bad 2 sentence horror stories.

2.) how he makes references and talks about shayne when he isn’t even there (recently, jackbox video with smosh theme where he did shayne’s bananas on monday joke). a semi recent stream where a character’s name was shane and he said there was no correlation and got all 🥰 (https://www.tumblr.com/queenofcaradelle/741683580962521088/hellers-brothers)

and this:

[Image ID: A tweet from Trevor saying “shayne blocked me” with a meme image of baby Peter Griffin. Damien’s reply: “The hell did you do? I’ve been antagonizing him for 13 years, and never got so much as a shady subtweet.” End ID]

no one asked bro /lh

3.) scroll back on damien’s instagram a bit and see how much shayne appears. here’s a link: https://www.tumblr.com/smoshpvnk/735024614400524288 but to summarize that post it is THIRTY. PHOTOS. where the focus is just the two of them. the vidcon post from last year where damien shared the text exchange “WE are awful 😌”.

AND DAMIEN’S POST ABOUT SHAYNE’S FUCKING BIRTHDAY. HELLO???

also, i stalked damien’s instagram (not promoting to do that, but i did it) and he is a very, like, proud and happy lover of people! like he wants to shout about them from rooftops! i wasn’t in this fandom for saige era, and damien has deleted those public photos from his instagram, but the photos come up on pinterest for me - they’re very cute, sweet and proud.

(took out the @ name of his ex - not about saige bc of date)

4.) even how he touches shayne: damien is a VERY touchy feely person and usually ghosts his hands or gives very light touches to others, but with shayne, it’s a full grab, it’s a grip on the shoulder, it’s an initiated hug. it’s “heart of the cards” with a bro handshake that shayne thinks is gonna be a high five but damien holds his hand and forces it still. even when he knows a touch wouldn’t necessarily be appropriate, with shayne, damien’s inner thoughts just seem to win so he ghosts it (ex. hacking off where shayne has oreo on his mouth and damien pretends like he’s gonna wipe it off)

— end of examples

damien just loves him so hard and so genuinely. and again, this is only speculation, but especially as of lately, it does not seem that shayne reciprocates that much admiration.

i know exactly how it feels to be damien. to need a person in your life that you can be 100% yourself with, without holding yourself back, because otherwise you feel like you’re going crazy. how you can love and appreciate someone so much it becomes obsessive. that person, that relationship, becomes a core part of your identity. how even if it’s not necessarily romantic, you can develop strong crushes on people that feel so intense and overbearing. how you want to spend so much time with them, envision the two of you becoming so close, jealousy making you really hard on yourself.

i know, and maybe damien does too, what it’s like to be the one who gives 75% in the relationship when the other person is giving 25%. the 75% person is trying so hard to keep it alive when it doesn’t seem like the other one is giving the same amount of effort, and disappointingly, unceremoniously, and ultimately — it fades away or crashes and burns.

i feel like the smosh mouth episode, as beautiful as it is, is a great example. how there is some good back and forth between them, but i feel like it’s heavily dependent on only so random nostalgia, which is great, but it’s not a lot of new information. we know they became friends from being on so random. it’s like finding one common thing you and a coworker have and being forced to work together on it to produce a result. again, i love that episode, i watched it the second it came out and blocked the world out to watch it. and maybe i need to watch it back to squash the little voice in the back of my head saying their dynamic is different now, or maybe i need to watch it again to make that voice louder, or maybe i shouldn’t even touch it bc it will break my heart to analyze.

ofc this is only based on what we see. maybe shayne just isn’t a pda person at all (not just touch, i mean other methods too like the 5 love languages. see: my edit of shaymien x everything i know about love by laufey) or damien’s is so strong it makes his look like nothing (again about the 75/25 though.)

maybe their friendship is absolutely blossoming privately and we don’t see it. maybe they will drift apart for a bit but come back together in an amazing way. maybe their friendship is so strong that it can overcome a (presumed) not speaking period like ianthony. or maybe it isn’t. maybe their friendship isn't as strong anymore because of them being busy with other things, or being on different walks of life (ex. shayne just got married which is presumably taking up a lot of time)

i don't mean that to negate any of damien's accomplishments ofc like boi is successful, but it must be hard in a way to have your best friend hitting such a huge milestone when you're just... with 2 cats. not getting to be with him as much anymore. drifting away from a relationship you thought would last forever. stuck caring so much more than the other person does. understanding that life must go on and so do people but it’s a sad event.

i know that, for me, staying busy and forcibly mindful and in the moment/present (working WAY too much) where you don't even have a choice to stop and think and be in your head sometimes just numbs it and makes you forget, and damien has seemed so busy lately. i’m glad he said in his tuesday 4/23 stream that he plans on taking a break soon and that it doesn’t feel bad to be busy. he’s an adult, he can handle his own life, i’m not trying to baby him.

also, i don’t mean to blame shayne or anyone else for my (admittedly silly) little perceptions of some guys from a youtube channel i love. this is, again, all entirely speculative.

my heart hurts thinking about the potential of them not being best friends anymore, of the lack of content we have seen with both of them recently, of my own perception of how much shayne means to damien. don’t listen to mitski (especially francis forever) and think about shaymien at the same time. but if you do, you better meet me in my dms. don’t think about how we’ve gotten, what, 4 videos with them both this year and it’s already almost may. don’t think about how we haven’t seen anything from shayne to damien lately and how it’s all been damien /about/ shayne, mostly indirectly.

who knows what’s going on. but either way, shayne is a big part of damien’s life. thanks for letting me get on my shaymien soapbox 🫡

[babzyz]

knowing she needed at least some help, ingrid decided to take arthur out to the local diner to answer all his questions... safe to say he was not expecting that

bonus under the cut

that moment when you're telling your crush about the evil (?) hive mind plant that's possessing your town

[doubleddenden]

Fuck the Pokémon Company International.

They hired a third party company of lawyers that sent a DMCA to Relic Castle- for those not aware, Relic Castle was a friendly online forum dedicated to Pokémon fan games, rom hacks, and game jams- all of which were free and did not earn a single penny, and were just loving pieces of playable fan art. It would have been 10 this year.

Funny how they do this after their Twitter account kept retweeting fan art and talking about how much they love fan art the last few weeks. Hmm. Funny how that works.

I've heard people claim they legally "have" to do it, but look at Sonic the Hedgehog- not only do they encourage fan games, they actually poach talent- that's how Mania was made. Ideas, too- that's how Frontiers was made. "Legally" they could have just left it alone. "Legally" they could have just taken ideas from it like GF has been taking from fan games for the last 10 years (variants, the SwSh league, etc). "Legally" they could have just kept riding positive PR from Legends ZA and kept fucking quiet.

But no, they can't handle not being in the spotlight for any reason. They intentionally create negative press for themselves just to stay relevant. Fuck you, The Pokémon Company International. The only reason you have success is because of dedicated fans that you relentlessly punish for no reason except greed. I hope your filthy, greedy, money grubbing, selfish executives lose their jobs and are replaced by people that actually care some day.

And thank you, Relic Castle, for the fun times. I hope this doesn't deter any of the devs from there from creating, and I think that if you guys were to make Pokémon clones akin to Nexomon or Coromon, I'd gladly buy them. You don't deserve the treatment you've been given for making playable fan art.

Do better, Pokémon. Shame on you. You don't deserve the fans you have and you dishonor yourselves and your legacy when you do shit like this.

[autisticsupervillain]

Now that Zero Punctuation is over, I want to immortalize it with some of Yahtzee's best quotes. God speed you magnificent British bastard.

"Those who had the random chance of being born white in the first world are the most privileged fucking people on this unequal fucking planet and Call of Duty is just those people complaining about how hard life can be when everyone's jealous of you."

"We live in an age where mass communication has counterintuitively turned all attempts at verbal debate into a basketball game where the teams are on different courts, racking up meaningless points and throwing shit over the dividing wall. That's why the only way you can safely express your politics these days is to anonymously spend money. That's how homophobic pizza joints can mysterious aquire a million dollars in donations. So two groups of middle class people annoy each other, Hatred makes tons of money, and the world at large gives less of a toss than a quadriplegic shot putter, good night!"

"The only reason I wanted to talk about it was the depressing inditement of modern gaming it creates. Not by itself, but by Value's indifference to this waterfall of piss trickling down its legacy's nose. Twenty years ago, Half Life was a focal point in gaming's ever-growing development as an artistic medium. The next few years saw a slew of titles that combined triple A game design with genuine emotional story. But what happened between then and now?! Why are the games rewarded with triple A status and income exclusively loot box infested live service bullshit designed not to stimulate our emotions, but to numb them and hypnotize us into lab rats mindlessly pawing the button that makes treats come out while games created with love drown beneath bottom feeders like Hunt Down the Freeman as Valve themselves, once habitual founders of new eras of narrative gaming just waves them on, barely glancing up from their tax paper work. What happened to you! What happened to us!? To the people we were supposed to become!"

"Hogwarts Legacy is by every definition of the phrase, a game made by cunts. As well as very literally a game made by a cunt."

"We really need a better term for shit like Gotham Knights than 'live service'. It sounds too much like a good thing. Being alive is good and so is being serviced. We can't let the publishers control the narrative on this one, they'd call a kick in the bullocks a key entertainment reinvigoration scheme. Hmmm, how about... cunts. Games made by cunts. Evil money grubbing cunts who make soulless, emotion deading skinner boxes deliberately designed to foster addictive behavior. Demonitize me YouTube, I don't care. And neither does my editor. Probably."

"We as gaming audiences have always separated games into the worthies and the unworthies. My dichotomy is this. Games that make you feel vs games that make you numb."

*Begins review* "Undertale is a good game." *Ends review*

"Let's all laugh at an industry that never learns anything, tee hee hee!"

[sage-lights]

smoshblr tag game 💗💫🫂

tagged by: @babychosen

rules: copy and paste the questions below into a text post and write in your answers, then tag as many people as you want!

1. how long have you been watching smosh? about 9 years, but i did take a 2 year break from 2021 to 2023 where i didn't watch smosh at all (just wasn't interested in that era)

2. favourite smosh cast member(s)? i have what i call my "core six," which is amanda, angela, shayne, courtney, chanse, and arasha 🫶

3. favourite pairing? amanda + angela (*gasp!*) (what a shocker!)

4. favourite recurring character? ooooo, i've got a couple! aunt carolyn and the chosen are so damn good. but my all time fav will always be my boyfriend, dominic!

5. favourite smosh video? right now, it's got to be the last video in the baf legacy series with criss darren, brenda "final girl" poppy, mr grub, the chosen, and regina o'brien 🤗

6. first video that got you into smosh? don't remember which one really got me hooked, but i know the first one i ever watched was the boogie-boarding video from the first ever smosh summer games

7. favourite picture of the cast? forever in love with this shoot. have i mentioned that i wrote an entire paper on the costuming alone? (yes, and i won't shut up about it)

8. favourite picture of your fav? her face card is lethal 😭 and this photoshoot is so elite, she looks INCREDIBLE here!!! (i've posted these pics here sooooo many times i'm obsessed with them)

9. what smosh series do you want to see more of? praying for the return of "let's do this" fr 😔

10. dream guest on smosh mouth? oh my god, i don't know! i mean, angela. that was already a dream and that happened A LOT and now i don't want her on. now it's too much. (jk my real answer is matpat. they HAVE TO make it happen!)

i'm tagging: @unknownteapot, @mynephewmarriedajaguar, @smoshimonsters, @vangoghschair, and @poppyfamily 💌

[hotheadrednecksimmer]

Vault Tec Legacy Challenge

The Wastelands Part 2

Ellis: Alexia, time to switch.

Alexia: *yawns* Okay, I'm awake I'm awake. Too bad we didn't bring coffee with us.

Ellis: That would be wonderful.

Alexia: Get some shut eye, I'll see you in a couple hours.

Couple hours later

Alexia: Ellis, Time to get up and get some grub. I'm sure you're as hungry as I am right now.

Ellis: *Yawns and stretches* Yeah I could eat

Alexia: Great, I'm making weenies.

Alexia: How are you and Kenzie adjusting to Vault life? I know you guys were out here for years before we accepted you guys.

Ellis: I'm really enjoying it, the safety and community alone is really nice. I don't have to sleep with one eye open anymore for myself and for Kenzie. I think Kenzie misses having lots of friends but that has more to do with the bombs dropping rather than being in the Vault.

Alexia: It must be tough to be the only teenager in the Vault. Val is turning 13 in a couple days but I know it's not the same. How old is Kenzie?

Ellis: She's turning 16 this year. Mary and I had been saving up to buy her a car for her 16th birthday. I guess the money is just wasting away in the bank now.

Alexia: Who knew bottle caps were going to be the new currency? I would have been saving for years. Maybe while we're out we can get a present for both of the girls.

Ellis: Yeah that would be nice. Something that she wouldn't be able to get in the Vault.

Alexia: I'd suggest a book since we're at the old library but I haven't seen her in the Vault library at all.

Ellis: She prefers hanging out at the pool. I think it makes her feel better about her skin wrinkling. It's something that she can control.

Ellis and Alexia sit in silence for a while.

Ellis: I notice something going on between Jameson and you. Is everything okay?

Alexia: Has everyone noticed?

Ellis: I don't think everyone has noticed. I have the closest quarters to the Overseer quarters and I heard shouting. I also noticed Jameson not coming to your quarters at night.

Alexia: Jameson can't seem to understand how much I have on my plate as Overseer. I know we haven't spent time together as of late, but there's so much to be done. Plus, I was freaking out about the generator.

Ellis: I'm sure it's overwhelming. Work life balance has always been a struggle. Take it from me, I missed out on a lot of Kenzie's childhood because I was too focused on becoming the best scientist I could be. And have breakthroughs.

Alexia: I know I've missed a lot already with both of my girls. How did you manage it?

Ellis: To tell you the truth, I didn't. Not until she was all I had.

Alexia: I don't know how to do it. From the time I wake up til the time I put my head on my pillow, my time is filled with issues with the Vault, issues with Vault Dwellers, and planning for the future. I rarely get any social or me time. There's been many days I've forgotten to eat.

Ellis: You need help Alexia. I know you're the Overseer, but you deserve to spend time with your kids and your husband.

Alexia: I think it's too late for us.

Ellis: Why do you say that?

Alexia: I supported that man through all of his hobbies, every time he picked up something new, he was out with his friends or doing his hobby. There was no time for me. That was the first two to three years of our marriage. I never complained, he did his thing and I did mine. There would be some romance and intimate time, but not a lot.

Ellis: What changed?

Alexia: The bombs fell.

Ellis: Did he realize his mistakes?

Alexia: No, I never brought it up and we never talked about how he treated me. I think things changed because I was all he had.

Ellis: Oh.

Alexia: We've got a long journey ahead of us, let's get walking.

A couple hours later

Ellis: I'm starting to get hungry, you?

Alexia: Yeah, I could eat.

Ellis: I think we could go in there and find some food? We don't have much food leftover in our packs.

Alexia: Alright, let's check it out.

Unknown: Stop right there! Why are you on our land?

Alexia: Sorry! We didn't know!

Unknown: You're gonna pay for that!

In the prison of the unknown camp

Ellis: Alexia can you hear me? Alexia?!

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╭┈◦•◦❥•◦ Updated Character List