#hate this but its so funny and unserious and silly

[disruptivevoib]

Incase the lot of you thought the homestuck au thing was a joke and also dead no. and no. !! Explanation here is that Soul makes troll version dolls of heart and mind, then a doll of himself as a human. He gives Heart and Mind each the codes of the opposite (Heart gets the mind doll code, and vice versa) (or he ships them to them somehow? idk. stuffs rough lol) and they make those and throw them into their sprites at behest of Soul. And also because they don't really realize they are dolls of troll versions of the other until its.. a little late.

Both sprites, M1ND5PR1T3 and <3sprite are over-exagerrated and bastardized versions of the other.

M1ND5PR1T3 speaks in all caps, <3sprite all lowercase.

Soulsprite facilitates between two extremes of "I want to die" and "I have had at least ten monster energy's in the last 12 hours and im going!!!!!! CRAZY!!"

When M1ND5PR1T3 and <3sprite meet, they are basically built to hate one another- and thusly do. M1ND5PR1T3 or <3sprite attempt to punch the other and... well, second prototype each other.

Soulsprite will get mixed in later.

@calamarispiderart made the <3sprite and M1ND5PR1T3 designs and is also responsible for a lot of their characterization stuff!!!

[sparrow-ceiling]

LUCIFER IN EPISODE 8 POST

because i want to squeeze him like a rubber duck (I WROTE DICK HELP)

OK FIRST CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE PARALLEL TO THE TRUST FALLS WHEN HE CATCHES CHARLIE (TWICE)!!??? Like she trusts him. They love each other. They're gonna be ok. Charlie never set out to do this but in saving all those other people she also saved herself and her dad and i love her for that. Also I just realized they have the same little cheek circles its so cute <3

(help why does Charlie look like Candace Flynn In the first pic-) LOOK at him hes such a short king. He's trying to hide it with that silly little hate but he's fooling exactly nobody.

"I'm going to FUCK you." HES SUCH A DAD LMAO he really thought he ate that one. Also its so silly how his hair part switches sides all the time I love him for that. ((Also did anybody else notice that when Charlie pops in she has her hair tied up and stuff but before and after she's like. disheveled/bloody etc. Probably just a mistake but still interesting.))

ALSO HIS WHOLE FIGHT WITH ADAM IS SO FUNNY why is he so unserious about everything LMAOO. Also bonus look at his slutty little eyeshadow in the first pic (also most of these pictures but its so silly I love it. Also probably necessary to keep the design from being monochromatic) He really gives so few shits about Adam and just beats the hell out of him it's hilarious (honestly giving Alastor-Vox dynamic a little bit but I may be reading into things too much)

ALSO THE DYNAMIC DUO!! They really destroyed that fucker so hard together. PLUS get you a dad that looks at you the way Lucifer looks at Charlie.

ALSO HES SO FUNNY HERE. Hes so fucking confused. And concerned hes just like uhhhh. Awkward wet cat of a man!!!

ALSO THIS IS SO FUNNY LIKE READ THE ROOM MAN. Your daughter and her friends are soaked in blood and you're out here asking who wants to have pancakes (I mean fair enough though. I could use a good pancake after slaughtering angels honestly). But the contrast between them is so funny.

AND LOOK AT HIM HES SO SWEET TRYING TO CHEER UP HIS DAUGHTER. WE LOVE A KIND MAN!!! (Also i just realized he only has four fingers)

Also girl what are these fruity ass stances chill out bro

AND HE TAKES HIS HAT OFF TO SALUTE SIR PENTIOUS AWWW. Hes so genuine about it too <33333

ALSO HIS REACTION WHEN ALASTOR SHOWS UP LMAO. The SASS, he hates that guy so much kdhsjksf

Anyway that concludes my rant about lucifer i love him so fucking much!!

[dialoverswritesssx]

Headcannons for Laito (just like generally)

some silly , some fluff some mature.

-I think that laito would be a very clean person (just overall ) taking care in his appearance and showering regularly

-is the type to wear perfume

-would be ok (and perhaps even enjoy ) his s/o putting makeup on him or doing his nails. Not because of the makeup aspect but because its something differernt that he hasnt tried before , also the attention his partner would be giving him , laito would try hold eye contact and make his face follow you around so that you would have to look at him

-wants to be percived as a happy/funny/unserious person. We kinda see this in the anime but when you know about laitos past , he actually really cares for people : his brothers and cordelia (but thats abit more complex) I saw a great post on this but i carnt remember from whom.

-Right so its cannon on how he has a fear of bugs , but I think laitos more afraid of how they move , like he thinks spiders are the worst because of the way they have their legs move ewww

-Throws away partners when bored / too serious . Yeah. One thing about laito is the way he gets bored easily ( partially from being immortal ) , he hates clingy women , becuase of his views on them . In one of his endings he tells yui to stop resisting becuase in the end all women want someone to look after them. I think that also once he has "broken" a partner , the chase is no longer intresting and disgards them .

-Is a sadist so will hurt partners . ( HAVE U SEEN THIS GUY ANGRY IN ANY OF HIS ROUTES , A ANGRY LAITO IS NOT A GOOD LAITO)

-would go *at it * anytime anywhere with anyone at anyplace . ( in the games he belives it to be more fun if one of his bothers joines in but not azusa for some reason??)

-hates anyone who wears flip-flops ( gives that vibe)

-WOULD NOT LET U CUT , DYE OR STYLE HIS HAIR ITS THE ONLY THING OFF LIMITS

-keeps familiars on his partner at all times

-is good with kids but would never have any ( would be VERY protective if he did but , doesnt want that responsibility also fear of traumatising them lolll )

thats all let me know secenarios to do next !!! Ill try write anything just keep it intresting ! ( no richter tho ) sorry for any spelling mistakes and if you disagree / have questions feel free to ask and correct me !!!

PLEASE GIVE ME IDEAS (DL ONLY )

[skitskatdacat63]

Tradition vs Modernity vs Comradery

+ context & lore:

In the first drawing, Fernando is wearing a capote de paseo, which is what bullfighters wear before the match begins, as seen below:

In the second, Seb is shouting the very familiar "Olé" which is shouted by the crowd to praise the matador. He's a little brat, so of course he's yelling it for himself, but he did get many 💐

The third(which was a random sketch I had that I didn't think I'd finish tonight, so ignore if its messy) has very important context to me. Before going to the final act and killing the bull, matadors dedicate their montera(hat)(and symbolically: their kill) to a a specific person in the audience(or just the public as a whole.) Seb and Fernando are finally in the same color! Seb is bowing!!! And Fernando is honoring Seb!!!! Also ignore that I drew Seb's post-retirement hair. Though, maybe this drawing is supposed to represent Fernando making a dedication to his now-gone rival 😔(Seb: stop telling people im dead!)

Now, some more lore :D

So I talked about this in my last matador post but I'll expand more. I think it's very funny to characterize Fernando in this au as this fun-hating traditionalist. Because you have to understand; he's only this way when it comes to Seb. Because you absolutely KNOW he was doing silly, unserious shit back when he was younger. But absolutely god forbid Seb do anything silly.

It's very ironic because there literally is a part in the third act of a bull fight where it's basically encouraged to be a bit silly. This is a tad morbid, but basically right before they deliver the killing blow, some show their mastery over the bull by doing some superfluous action(ex. kissing the bull, kneeling in front of the bull.) There's some guy who literally would lean on the bull and mime taking a call. But anyways, Seb would def do this. I've not been able to draw it exactly how I want, but he would bend down and do his little bull horn symbol and mime charging at the bull. (Fernando, trying to make up reasons to hate Seb: oh my god, look at this blatant disrespect, look how he is disrespecting the bull, I cannot believe how rude this boy is!)

Also there's something to be said about how the matador shows mastery over the bull by kissing it or bowing to it...and Seb is technically the bull in this au and Fernando is the matador. There's just this unfortunate level of weird power inbalance that still lingers even though their rivalry is over and can't be affected anymore. There was no succinct answer about who truly was better because Seb was forced out of it. So there's always gonna be this level of "is he just pitying me? Is he just mocking me? Is he just patronizing me?" on Seb's part whenever Fernando praises him or makes dedications to him. And Fernando's always going to be haunted by the fact that there's no answer to who is truly better because he'll never know if Seb had reached his full potential or not. Anyways, they also have nasty sex while wearing their costumes and do weird bull/matador roleplay :)

[sellaspeaks]

I don't know why ppl keep bringing up the saved tik toks like most of them aren't from highschoolers😭 she does not want those little girls its just funny to see imo

I think a lot of the people on here must also be veryy young or very new bc it seems everything is taken too literally/ seriously without any understanding of Paige and Azzi’s actual character

Nothing that's happened lately has let me to believe that they aren't together or on a break this is just how they are. And the last moment we got of them together b4 shit hit the fan was the most coupley thing we've gotten in months like c'mon y'all.

no frrr like let’s take the word unserious seriously!!

like i’m gonna start having to spread the pazzi hate each other agenda so we all see how silly that sounds

no one respects a soft launch anymore damn 🙄🙄 azzi came out of retirement for that let’s put some respect on her name 🗣️

[fictionkinfessions]

Actually okay you know what? I’m a little mad so. I’m going to rant a bit! Sorry!

Guys. Guys. Mouthwashing fandom I have a very simple request. Stop. Fucking Doing That, to me. I am being fucking baby girl-ified and that in-and-of itself is fine but. Like. Its all anyone seems to do.

Like I love cute/funny/stupid art a whole lot! It’s fun! People are having fun and that’s great, but. Like. “Omg Anya would sing lullabyes for him if he had a nightmare” or fucking whatever? Stop it. I was like. 20, not 9. Do you treat actual 20 year olds like that? If you encountered a 20 year old in the wild who behaved/acted/appeared similar to me, would you think about them like that? Probably the fuck not! I was an adult, guys, can you please stop fucking woobifying me. (There’s definitely a conversation to be had about the fact I’m an asian character, and the only one being woobified to That Extent, but I’m not in the mood to have a complex or. Nuanced conversation at the moment I’m on our phone and tired. Sorry)

Also please. Please I am praying on my hands and knees right now Can you please take me seriously. I am /begging/ you. I was in space at the actions of my mother (I Did Not Want To Be There), I had a whole fucking moment talking about it! I DIED there! And the best 90% of you can do os flandarise me into “Omg silly goofy little guy comic relief character he’s so unserious he burns water when cooking he wired something in reverse!!” STOP. IT. I SWEAR TO /GOD/!!!!!. It’s like the fucking woobifying bullshit. AND AGAIN! I love memes and shit and I love fun stuff fucking whatever! But please god I am /begging you/ to take me seriously. It’s not that hard! There’s so much fucking angst material just SITTING THERE and people have decided to Not do that and make me Silly McGee. I died, barely an adukt, in space, away from home and hungry and traumatised and /terrified/. I died there. Do you understand that. I am ITCHING for some fucking variety PLEASE!!!!! I love Among Us jokes as much as the bext guy but please!!!!!!!! God!!!!!

Also. Guys. I’m grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you like a fucking snowglobe. Stop fucking being awful to Swansea. I will /get/ you do you hear me. “Omg he killed Daisuke!!” “hes awful i hate him he killed sunshine boy :(“ You guys. I was dying anyways. You need to understand that. It’s the same logic behind putting a dog down. I just would’ve been in pain longer. There was no way in hell I would’ve lived that; we had no medical supplies, no disinfectant. Nothing. You know what Swansea did? The thing you’re all so disgusted by? He spared me from being in horrific pain for the next however long. However long Jimmy could fumble about keeping me alive. However long he’d want me to be alive. You’d rather I, your “favourite silly little sunshine boy”, die slowly, and painfully, on the floor of a crashed ship for what could have been /hours/ of agony, than have me killed quickly. You’d rather that.

Swansea; you know this. You’re a lot smarter than me, but: you did the right thing, in that situation. There was nothing to do, and it would’ve been immoral to try. Thanks. For a lot of things, really.

-Daisuke , Fictive (#sharkfeed). Sorry for the fucking. Essay, lol. Also yeah guys wowwww! “Sunshine boy” can SWEAR!!!! Wild!!! /sarc

w

[screampied]

hiiii. so, first i just want to say that the feeling is mutual, because i’m always looking forward to your replies to my asks, like giggling and kicking feet typa shit!!!

second of all, i’ve realized that if you do a scream theme, it would be perfect because of your username?!?! ngl i wish i was creampied by billy loomis

i used to look at those people eating and drinking pumpkin flavored stuff and i would gag, until i realized it probably taste like a famous pumpkin candy in my country, so yes, pls try it and tell me if it’s sweet and good. i’m a very picky eater and i can’t stand pumpkin, unless is for decoration and eating bits and bits of the said candy.

also, yeah, fuck scream 5. it was awful, i love gale and dewey, it was so unnecessary what they did to them, and proceeding to fucking kill him??? ain’t no way, i punched my tv.

classics are truly the best. ngl, i don’t like new horror movies, they are always lacking something. i did, however, enjoyed the movie talk to me from a24, but i saw it more as the metaphor (drgs) instead of possession, so yah…

NOW SHUT UP HIP PIERCINGS? AND BELLY BUTTON? oh i know u a bad bitch, like i can’t help but stan more. ☝️

how was your day today, btw? i finished an edit for my theme that was pissing me off and now i’m just waiting for the one person i’m comfortable with to be online so i can show and be like “gimme ur opinion 🥺” and they are sincere af so if they hate it, imma kms, i see no other option.

oh, also, this week i got a hate anon and i kept laughing because?? it’s so random, people are really miserable and funny sometimes. it’s like a certificate that their life sucks, idk.

AND YES, i’ll be showing myself for you, probably on october 1st, like nosferatu coming from the shadows, hihi.

nut anon

omg ur so sweet, hugs 🫂🫂.

FUCK UR SO RIGHT. a scream theme bc it’s literally in my url what are the chances 😋 plus my username was even based off scream omg we’ll see. that’ll be so sexy ughhhhh october hurry.

im kinda scared to try pumpkin lowkey. im also a picky eater and i feel like ill puke 🧍‍♂️ like ive smelled it and its okaaaay i guess but idk if i can handle it paha. if i do try it, ill tell u how it goes trust.

good fucking bye i can talk a whole rant about how AWFUL scream 5 is. out of all the movies, it’s the worst in my opinion. the only thing i loved about it was the opening scene—jenna ortega’s portion, she made me continue watching it 🙂‍↕️ plus she’s mother, i love her downnnnn. AND UR RIGHT. !!!!! LIKE DEWEY ?????? i get he had to die at some point but his death was so stupid. like really. just say you hate him. scream 6 totally redeemed itself tho now that is a SEQUEEEEL. only thing i hated about scream 6 was the killer reveals. the motive was understandable but dumb . LOLLL im such a hater but man ✋🏽 do you think neve is coming back for scream 7, i hope so and they better give her the pay she deserves bc i miss my final gyal 😔

TEEEHHEEE THANK YOU POOKIE 💋 i bet you’re an even badder bitch <3 my day was good !!! i was busy out half the day sight seeing and going to a nascar race showing near me which was sooooo cool. a bird shat on my car window which was totally uncool 😒. SLAAAAY omg i bet it looks so good.

booo hate anons r so unserious. i remember i got one months ago and just rolled my eyes because you could be like … saving the world ✋🏽 or idk doing crossword puzzles instead of talking shit to a silly lil stranger on the interweb. ppl be bored ig. don’t let it get to u tho bae !!!! ur amazing mwah

[kendrixtermina]

Space Babies

I did not like the overly silly & unserious beginning sequence, but once they landed on the spaceship it got solid, & there’s an actual sense of exploration, mystery, sensowunder & familiar thematic beats since the persistence of humanity, the solving things by talking („just creatures you haven’t met yet“), the Doctor as confident, enthusiastic & very experiened.

Ruby just had more emotional reactions in 2 minutes than all the Chibnall companions did in the entire opening two-partner. She’s woved by space. She’s showing concern for the Doctor. She’s awed at seeing humanity’s survival. She’s guessing & thinking.

UGH im just so glad.

Like she manages to seem like a person while continuing to be established as someone who rolls with crazy very well, as in the previous episode. It’s the little subtle reactions & questions that still make her seem like a person / functional audience surrogate.

That opening dialogue is a good summary of the Doctor as an explorer.

Ovsly they’re expositioning a lot of the lore of the Doctor’s backstory for any new fans who are only starting to watch wth this ‚era‘, but they’re also showing us where he arrived at as a character after his time with Donna.

He’s still rushing from place to place & being a tad blunt at it, he’s still glossing over heavy serious stuff by saying it lightly, but he’s come a long way since Martha had to forcbly drag the backstory out of him, and found a renewed sense of joy & purpose.

I love how they’re doing his reactions of being excited by the weird. Like, there’s the character I like again! (I suppose run with RTD’s patchup of explaining 13s OOC-ness with burnout, I don’t think that’s what Chibnall was doing, but it’s the best they could do & an unboring concept. I kinda wish we could just ignore the timeless child nonsense completely but I realize why that’s not possible, at least they’re actually showing him having an opinion about it. (‚the adopted one was the one to survive‘)

Like they’re actually trying to give it some meaning & have the character say what it means to him (exactly the thing Chibnall just never did with the twist for the sake of twist) & tying it into some celebration of diversity, which like strikes me as how the Doctor’s character would react to such a thing. They’re steering it away from ‚specialest little boy‘ & having him still identify with the culture he grew up with. (it probably lands better than it could have otherwise because they’re having someone from an immigrant family like Gatwa perform it. Like he’s got other roots but probably also sees Britain as his home & part of him? More sort of how many immigrants in europe tend to see themselves rather than the US American culture = genes nonsense. ‚In Germany I‘m the Turkish kid but when I go to Turkey I notice I’m very German’ type of thing. )

I still hate the timeless child thing with a passion & still wish it didn’t exist, but this is probably the best way to salvage it.

It’s telling that they’re not even using the fancy mary suey title „timeless child“ but having him say he was randomly found & no one knows where he cae from etc. that’s a different framing/flavoring less eviscerating of the character & less invalidating of all the previous stuff.

Well. I got the time jigzaw line, im grateful for it, its explicitly ambiguous what the og backstory was.

Especially in the context of the current arc with the rewritten universe, it does make sense that he doesn’t even know what his original backstory was, he’s kind of outlived not just Gallifrey, but his OG timeline, his OG version of the universe, sort of a unaligned unmoored chaotic existence. Theres some pathos to that, and you can see Ncuti channeling a bunch of his own feelings into it.

Though this makes me wonder how they’ll handle the Master when he comes back, if he’s now the one that did it in place of the Daleks. )

A speaking baby is unexpectedly funny, especially since they move their lips XD

I also love how much Ruby & the Doctor are obviously having fun together and acting like actual friends.

I keep being excited over low bar things but, like, UGH Chibnall traumatized me.

Still, they ARE actually doing a good job at showing Ruby & the Doctor behaving like friends, especially in the way they’re making jokes & gesturing.

They comitted to the ‚kindergarten meets space accident‘ aesthetic…

I love how Ruby immediately kicks into Big Sister Mode. The last episode we mostly got to know her family but there wasn’t so much on Ruby herself so in these episodes we’re probably going to focus on her.

The babies act like a mix between serious astronauts and actual babies xD

I love how sucinct & archetypical the answer of „The Bogeyman“ is. No uneccessary Fluff.

And though he’s warmer & more open, the doctor is still distinctly his a tad insensitive, big ego self.

So that’s the reveal.

I like this. This kinda miscarriage of justice situation and a random accountant who doesn’t know how to run anything being the one who stayed behind. „they won’t stop the babies being born but won’t care for them“… badum tsch.

Ohh, ohh the refugee line. That’s SO on point. That’s all the shit I’m mad about in current european politics. That’s not pulling punches.

I love how Ruby is the one to piece together the fairytale logic.

Like the Doctor’s excited to be learning the ‚new physics‘, but he’s the physicist. Ruby is kind of a fairytale protagonist, crazy number of siblings included.

Erics’s little toy sword :(((

Ruby’s actress NAILED this one. Like her concern & everything.

(oh thank fuck there are feelings in this show again)

RTD was rather good at world building, wasn’t he? Like making unique little one-off settings. Yeah, he had his flaws with the resent button endings & overblown pathos at times, but I always thought he did worldbuilding & flavor text pretty well. I like Joycelyn.

So yeah, we’re definitely getting to know Ruby in this episode and she’s pretty proactive & rolling with the punches a lot. Like she improv’d the distraction, she decided she was going with the Doctor etc. like, a lot of companions would have stayed with the babies (for different reasons), or gone with the Doctor mostly out of worry for him and have an emotional moment here, but Ruby’s like, just casually deciding here. She’s very ‚cool‘.

And she's embroiled in some kind of never-seen-before phenomenon. But after Donna, Amy & Clara that's just average tuesday for the Doctor at this point. Unknown Phenomena go Brr!

Must be wild for Ruby that this super-experienced time-traveller guy can't explain her.

Like I’m already getting a sense of ‚what would Ruby do if you throw her at a given situation‘ which fucking Chibnall couldn’t give us with 3 seasons and 3 characters to contrast off each other.

I love how they save the monster, too. I love the TARDIS key scene and how the Doctor’s actually excited to have Ruby on his team, & actually asking her. (war flashback to that compilation of prev Doctors inviting their companions enthusiastically except for the very awkward chibnall scenes or how 13 barely showed any emotion when any of them left)

it’s fucking Doctor Who again. The HUMANIST THEMES! The xenophile eccentric nerd protagonist. The friendship & humanity & shit.

It’s the show that I used to like that I didn’t fucking recognize in Chibnal’s trashfire except for, like, the one stray good-ish ep per season.

I’ll take it. I’m like, the Dad from ‚the Prodigal Son‘ today.

I lost it & it came back, I’ll take it.

Love also how this time the Doctor has the 'no undoing the past' convo right away to pre-empt a repeat of 'Father's Day'.

[imraespace]

doing your hair last night and then it gets wet is so real 💔💔

im currently makinf another rin edit to post for his bday today once again bc i feel like this one edit is really easy to do BUT NOW IM LOOKING FOR FONTS SO THIS ISNT EVEN THAT EASY EITHER SO MANY FONTS R UGLY 👿👿

i was actually typing this ask like an hour or so ago but then one of my bluelock moots just?? ASKED ME FOR MATH HELP? i mean i helped them but like theyre basically making me do their work for them?? i dont really mind bc they seem younger than me but like broski im someone who makes edits and you ask me ABOUT MATH?? i thought id be able to escape math because i have it next semester but apparently not if im helping ppl on the internet STOP

theyre also honestly a little weird and very how do i say this like funny inappropriate??? like they started talking ab theyre gonna tickle me and stuff (if u get my gist HELP) like theyre a minor im also a minor so i dont really care bc ik theyre like YK JOKING BUT IM ALSO LIKE WE MET?? 2 DAYS AGO????? AND URE ALREADY LIKE THIS?? like im the same w my friends but ive known them for 3+ years and they just met me and theyre already going at it.. LIKE I DONT REALLY CARE TOO MUCH BUT ITS QUESTIONABLE??

i have chem homework due today at 11:59pm but im too lazy to get up and submit it like i legit already have it done but im… too lazy to get up take a photo and submit 💔 i cant be doing this

i started writing this at like 5:30 why did i finish typing this at practically 6:30 THIS IS NOT REAL

- 🐙

OMG YOU REMINDED ME TO MAKE MY EDIT (its gonna be unserious bc its on capcut and idk how to use capcut.. and im lazy) actually i had this edit idea for the itoshi brothers for a while but im lazy! maybe ill make it some day I HATE FONT HUNTING then i get distracted and forget im editing

HELPME MATHS IM CAKCLIN quit editing and become a maths teacher online🙏🏽🙏🏽!!

HELP TICKLE YOU? dang 2 days ago they wanna be your best friend!! i mean i understand but i think thats a bit too much for 2 days on tiktok if a mutual started talking to me in 2 days time im still scared to send a video HELP

haha chem hw cant relate as a business student!!! *points and laugh bc im too lazy to find the emojis on laptop* but i can relate with the lazy HELP i have typing hw to do and im typing rn! but i dont wanna open up word to type silly work😒

ALSO WHY DID IT TAKE YOU AN HOUR HELP

actually i wanna edit now i blame you (im joking)

[flovoid]

Hi!! It’s the slashed anon! I know you’ll be on hiatus for awhile but I wanted to leave this ask before I forget! Also I hope you’re well! First I’ll try to watch Marrowbone soon!

As for Rex, I hope that Rex’s fate isn’t solidified 😭 but that’s just because I adore him and he’s my favorite! Plus Fern 😭😭😭 I can’t imagine how hard that would be her fighting tooth and nail to try to find Rex and he’s just passed away in Avery’s arms after the two of them got rid of the King Piggler (I have no idea how they’re found I just had this image in my head ignore me lol). But anyways the heartbreak she probably felt makes my heart ache for her and Avery especially with Avery and Rex being hesitant to ever share their true feelings. 😭💔 Also childhood friends to lovers is literally my favorite trope so this hurts me (I know they never got to act of their feelings but still)!

I know this is a long ask again my bad! But I had a question about Phillip! Why is he an outcast? Did something happen in his past? Also him and Wendell clearly don’t like each other at first. I was wondering if there was a deeper reason for that?

OHHH I HOPE YOU ENJOY!!! (also I know I am still on hiatus but today I finally had for time for my self! the next 10 days I will be still busy… *rip*)

this is kinda long??? IDK I WILL JUST HIDE MOST OF IT TO NOT ANNOY YALL

I really am crazy. because it always breaks my heart when a character fighting/looking for another character but when they finally find them its just too late. I DONT WHY I LIKE THIS KINDA IDEA ITS LIKE HURTS BUT ALSO MAKE US THE WATCHERS GET SENTIMENTAL???? ajshsjjs idk I think its a neat way for writing hdhshs- BUT yes im still not sure if these SLASHED characters ending is official because when I first made them I was like they are just a cas sims and I might never go back to them, in the end everything depends to my motivation skhssh (I still think I will be extra into taking pictures of them on fall or summer)

AND YOU GUESSED IT RIGHT THIS IS HOW I IMAGINE IT REGARDING THEIR END AAAA- I feel youuu friend omg its genuinely hurts when two characters have DEEP connection and feelings for each but they never confessed😭

Wendell and Phillip were actually in the same high school (and same class too), Wendell were a jock and absolutely annoying like he was a BIG SHOWOFF he thought he was THE man just because he was the best player on their school (although their school was not really the best school regarding the sports part) sooo he just one day on a freshman year, called kinda bullied Phillip ‘chucky’ and the wholeeee school found it funny and some are now scared of Phillip as well smh its all your fault Wendell. thats why Phillip turned into an outcast (my baby dont deserve this he actually was insecure abot his looks and thought he looked weird now Wendell made it worse-). so they hated each other n had this beef their whole high school year. BUT WHATS REALLY FUNNY is that Wendell is not that a great of an athlete. he didnt get accepted in any rich academies or colleges that support sports (look idk how american call these- im arabic lolol) soo karma hits, and he got in the same uni AND same department as Phillip later on. till then Phillip is NOW the one calling him out😭 ossjsjsj soo yeah I imagine them having this silly banter in SLASHED like sometimes they can get unserious aksjsj (they run, scream, sometimes help each other from the killer but then remember that they hate each other so they go back arguing skjdjsjs literally enemies to friends?? hehe)

[peaterookie]

I FORGOT ABOUT THE POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON AU NOOO OMG OK.I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT THESE

IMPULSIVE MASTERPOST TIME!! ABOUT ALL MY AUS

Merman Lupin 🐟

obviously we've talked much about merman lupin, my favorite child. if you havent caught up on them please check out these two!! posts!!

Swap AU 🔄

its like underswap but with lupin that's crazy. here's a minipost about it. i might rework some shit but here's a basic rundown of who's swapping roles with who

Lupin 🔄 Goe

Jigen 🔄 Fujiko

Zenigata 🔄 Melon ig??

there's genuinely not a sixth recurring character to use sorry..

Demon Angel AU 😇😈

these emojis are funny

this one is just kinda. there. im not interested in making it a thing i just kinda like making cool designs. funnily enough, the demon lupin is my pfp all this time, that's kinda how it started. then i naturally got goemon tied up in this as per usual and made him an angle

here's their designs i literally changed nothing for lupin ong

goemon imo is fire though. the rundown of this story is that goemon is tasked to fucking kill lupin!!! but he keeps failing because hes stupid and lupins just like haha ur funny woww then silly things ensue. jigens also there and hes also a demon but he can turn into like a hellhound. yeah i just made this up on the fly haha

ok so the other lupin fallen angel au is genuinely shitty so let's not even talk about it lets skip to the omori one!!!

OMORI AU 🪻🌌

I DONT. KNOW WHY I MADE THIS.HELP BUT NGL ITS PRETTY COOL

SPOILERS FOR OMORI GAME IF YOU WOULD LIKE NO SPOILERS PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THE NEXT AU OK HERE WE GO

ok!! so i remember i made a drawing for this but it really wasnt the concept i was truly going for yknow?

the idea is this:

omori/sunny - jigen 🌷

kel - lupin 🌵

hero - zenigata 🌹

aubrey - melon 🪻

basil - goemon 🌻

mari - fujiko 🪷 (ik this isnt the flower but its the closest to lily ok)

so yeah this story jigen is the one that kills fujiko (my friend and i made a joke that jigen did it on purpose cuz yknow. we love to joke that jigen hates fujiko) it kinda works like typical omor so you can just imagine the rest. yeah i wasnt that creative with this .

you can even imagine it as a super unserious story and goemons the only sane human that's traumatized by all of this. the poor guy he cant catch a break in any universe HELP if anyone wants to steal this idea? go wild baby

SPOILER ENDS

Cookie Run AU 🍪

this shall be saved for a future post. just know that i am COOKING (haha get it? post here

Undertale AU ❤️

woooaoaaooa sorry

this was a joke au tbh did you really think i assigned everyone a charac-yes

yes i did. sorry worm

SPOILERS FOR UNDE- no i don't care. its undertale

frisk - jigen im sorry for giving you the blank slate i genuinely didnt know where to put you

flowey/asriel - lupin jr. (i wanted to give him some feeling of relevance

toriel - fujiko for obvious reasons

asgore - lupin yeah he murders children. typical day man

sans - melon cop giving you a bad time

papyrus - zenigata

undyne - goemon. goemoncore

alphys - kyosuke mamo ong

mettaton - pycal. yeah.

chara - that girl lupin jr was with i forgot her name....

uh i guess gaster can be gnome mamo thatd be funny

PMD Sky AU ☁️ ⚙️

i genuinely almost forgot about this

i remember fixating a bit on the pmd universe during december 2022 and so i made this drawing to accompany lupin month (which i failed miserably at

let me summarize the plot for this decade old game

*inhales*

you wake up in the pokemon world and realize you have turned into a pokemon! meaning you were human before!? ur pokemon partner finds you on the beach, traumadumps on you, then you get assaulted, and your partner forces you to join a guild with them because they have social anxiety. then time travel gets involved and this grovyle dude starts stealing time gears and people think hes trying to stop time!! but no!! he's trying to prevent it!! and then this dusknoir guy who you thought was a good guy stops being good and is working under dialga who wants to stop time !! and then you, your partner, and grovyle gets sent to the future and everything's shit so you find shiny celebi to go back to the present and stop the world from paralyzing!!!! also you find out that when you were a human you were friends with grovyle and when you and grovyle went back to the present you lost ur memory and turned into a pokemon (cuz time stuff)

*exhales* whew.

ok yeah, so to put this in a lupin context, lupin(zorua) and jigen(murkrow) are the protag and partner, who joined the guild purely cuz jigen had nothing going on in his life and lupin convinces him that the cool rock he found could lead to cool stuff if they join the wigglytuff guild and stuff

(uhm i havent really figured out who would be wigglytuff sooo yeah hes there as a placeholder)

when the Shit Goes Down, they meet fujiko(vulpix) who is the grovyle of this au and they think she's the bad one due to zenigata's (who stays as dusknoir) manipulation.

and goemon is the shiny celebi, if you dont know celebi has a crush on grovyle and grovyle's also shipped a lot with dusknoir so its kinda like a cute goemon x fujiko x zeni couple hehe

if we wanna go in depth with my pkmon choices, i picked zorua for lupin because it is a pokemon capable of disguising as anything. jigen is a murkrow because of the hat and their tendency to follow. fujiko is a vulpix because it feels right for her to be a red fox. also ninetales just didn't feel right. goemon and zeni kept the og pokemon because i felt that it fits. also celebi's the only other pokemon aside from dialga that can time travel, so there wasn't much of an option to begin with.

...that was a lot! but i just remember another au. the LAST au hopefully trust

Kirby AU ⭐

woaw!!

there's no extra info or kirby lore needed to understand this au. they still steal shit, they're just kirby characters now!

in the drawing i have right here, lupin is a waddle dee because of their monkey-like appearance. but I've changed him to a key dee after that drawing because they unlock doors and are much more monkey-like than original waddle dees.

jigen is a waddle doo. there's no deep reason for this, he just really fits as a doo.

goemon is the same species as meta knight. they're both swordsmen so i decided to go with that. i tried keeping the knights notif for his design but with a more japanese feel, still partially hiding his face, and giving him gloves and shoes. i imagine before he became friends with lupin his body would look much more similar to the knight characters.

oh my god ok im gojng to sleep now

to date me you have to defeat my 7 evil lupin aus

[timalexanderdollery]

How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton was “yas queening” all over the internet. She had an official Snapchat account with a “Yaaas, Hillary!” logo that was also a T-shirt, a posed #yas photo with the stars of Broad City, custom Hillary Bitmoji, ironic cross-stitch art, and other signifiers of “yas” culture that’s since become emblematic of a certain kind of blinkered white feminism. An attempt to reach millennials with a passing familiarity with stan culture, it was also an extremely strategy easy to mock. As Amanda Hess wrote at the time in Slate, “American culture does not exactly appreciate the image of the ‘authentic’ older woman, but boy does it hate the older woman who strains to stay relevant.”

Hillary Clinton lost the election. That fact certainly can’t be attributed solely to a social media voice that many criticized as insincere and pandering, but it had a lasting impact on the ways we expect politicians to behave online.

It also might offer a clue on why so few politicians have a presence on the buzziest social media app of the moment, TikTok. Since its US launch in August 2018, the short-form video app has exploded in popularity, having been downloaded more than a billion times in 2018 and boasting 27 million active American users as of February 2019. Both Facebook and Instagram have launched competitors (or clones, depending on whom you ask), and celebrities like Will Smith, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Reese Witherspoon are now flocking to the app en masse.

Politicians, meanwhile, have been understandably hesitant to hop on board. Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with “ok boomer” comments is a real one. The other outcome? A TikTok presence that fails to leave a mark, like Julian Castro’s account, which currently only has 470 followers.

Still, that leaves an opportunity. Enter: the TikTok account of an equally stodgy publication that has, against all odds, managed to feel truly native to the TikTok ecosystem. It’s the Washington Post’s, which since its debut this spring has amassed a quarter-million followers and a legion of superfans who praise its goofy premises and unserious tone. So far, three candidates — Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and Julian Castro — have appeared on it.

The Washington Post’s TikTok’s success is the direct result of its creator and biggest star, 28-year-old Dave Jorgenson, who previously created humor and satire videos for the newspaper. A scroll through the Washington Post’s TikTok account will show Dave making self-deprecating jokes about being an adult on the app, Dave occupying the role of “the TikTok guy” in meetings, Dave doing silly 15-second sketches with the paper’s fashion, gaming, and economics reporters.

Jorgenson attributes the growth and fanbase of the account to his spending two months watching and listening to videos on TikTok instead of rushing to quickly turn around content. “If you’re gonna launch anything, whether you’re a newspaper or a brand or a company, you need to understand the app, otherwise people will see right through you,” he says. “Especially on TikTok, because the whole thing is that it’s mostly just raw videos set to music.”

The Washington Post, however, has what regular TikTok users don’t: access to very important people. In October, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang just happened to be scheduled to visit the Washington Post’s offices filming an unrelated segment when Jorgenson was able to strike a plan with Yang’s team about filming a TikTok.

Yang’s team was already a fan of the Post’s TikTok account; the campaign has also leaned heavily on the fact that he is a tech entrepreneur. “We didn’t really have to sell it to Andrew Yang,” says Jorgenson. “He was like, ‘If they think it’s great, I’m going to do it.’” It’s a particularly impressive feat considering the resulting video was actually poking fun at Yang’s low polling numbers. “Finally relaxing after a full day of interviews and meeting people,” reads the caption on the first segment, followed by “Still polling at 3 percent” against a backdrop of Yang dancing in celebration.

The paper has since done equally self-deprecating videos with both Beto O’Rourke, who ended his campaign on November 1, and Julian Castro, whose video was a play on how much he looks like his brother, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. All three videos took off, garnering between 40,000 and 400,000 likes.

Though neither Beto’s nor Castro’s team replied to a request for comment, Yang’s press secretary told Vox, “We’re constantly exploring ways to reach new audiences and voters, and the TikTok video with the Washington Post is certainly one of those ways.”

Since the election of Donald Trump proved politicians could tweet rambling, often nonsensical stream-of-consciousness sentences and still win over voters, politicians have approached social media with an increased candidness. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has posted her skin care routine to her Instagram stories; O’Rourke live-streamed his haircut; Elizabeth Warren posts videos of herself calling small-dollar donors to social media and makes a point to pose for every single person who wants a selfie after her town halls. In an age where we expect to be welcomed into the homes and lives of everyone we follow online, connecting with politicians has never felt so intimate.

Politicians have historically been pretty terrible at social media. A cursory glance at Mike Huckabee’s tweeting habits will illustrate as much — the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate was once described by Fast Company as “the least funny person on Twitter.” Even cool-ish, young-ish presidential candidates are sometimes bad at tweeting. Cory Booker has made the same joke — a bit of PG-13 wordplay about coffee and sleep — 14 times over the past decade.

There are now more avenues than ever for politicians to embarrass themselves online. Instagram, for instance, has gained popularity among politicians faster than any other social media platform over the past few years, and was also the site of O’Rourke’s now-infamous live-streamed dentist appointment.

Aidan King, a senior strategist at Middle Seat consulting who has worked on presidential campaigns for both Bernie Sanders and O’Rourke, says that there’s a certain degree of apprehension in approaching any new social media platform. If candidates don’t know precisely who they’re speaking to, their message can be warped into something else. “There’s nothing worse for a political campaign than going viral for the wrong reasons,” he says.

TikTok, with its legions of irony-steeped teens, presents a specific danger. “The zoomers can be pretty ruthless, and it’s also clear which candidates they like a lot,” explains King. “Young people are really into Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, so I can understand why other candidates in the 2020 races just don’t really want to mess with [TikTok]. Joe Biden going on a platform that adores Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a recipe for disaster. They know the audience well enough to know they wouldn’t really get along with the people there.”

The Washington Post’s TikTok, though, is a controlled environment where candidates have little to lose, even when the content is unlike anything a political PR team would have typically come up with. “There’s just this very positive feeling around TikTok. Even if they are self-deprecating, they’re pretty wholesome,” Jorgenson says. “While the text in front of Andrew Yang was deprecating, it’s very funny. How could that hurt you?”

Jorgenson hopes to get every 2020 Democratic candidate in a video and has reached out to multiple candidates, but there is one white whale in particular. “I think if we get Bernie, then we have done our job, because I don’t know how we’re going to. But I’d be very proud of myself,” he laughs.

There are concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government (its parent company Bytedance is based in Beijing) and its willingness to bow to conservative governments by censoring pro-LGBTQ content, but the app has always wanted its content to remain politics-free. It recently announced it would ban political advertising out of a desire to remain a “positive, refreshing environment.” While nothing is stopping politicians from using the app, they may be hesitant to engage with one that will soon be under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

It’s also likely it simply isn’t worth building a following on an app where a sizeable portion of its users aren’t even old enough to vote. For now, one-off sketches with the TikTok expert over at the Washington Post will do.

Sign up for The Goods’ newsletter. Twice a week, we’ll send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2ppxr5Y

[gracieyvonnehunter]

How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton was “yas queening” all over the internet. She had an official Snapchat account with a “Yaaas, Hillary!” logo that was also a T-shirt, a posed #yas photo with the stars of Broad City, custom Hillary Bitmoji, ironic cross-stitch art, and other signifiers of “yas” culture that’s since become emblematic of a certain kind of blinkered white feminism. An attempt to reach millennials with a passing familiarity with stan culture, it was also an extremely strategy easy to mock. As Amanda Hess wrote at the time in Slate, “American culture does not exactly appreciate the image of the ‘authentic’ older woman, but boy does it hate the older woman who strains to stay relevant.”

Hillary Clinton lost the election. That fact certainly can’t be attributed solely to a social media voice that many criticized as insincere and pandering, but it had a lasting impact on the ways we expect politicians to behave online.

It also might offer a clue on why so few politicians have a presence on the buzziest social media app of the moment, TikTok. Since its US launch in August 2018, the short-form video app has exploded in popularity, having been downloaded more than a billion times in 2018 and boasting 27 million active American users as of February 2019. Both Facebook and Instagram have launched competitors (or clones, depending on whom you ask), and celebrities like Will Smith, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Reese Witherspoon are now flocking to the app en masse.

Politicians, meanwhile, have been understandably hesitant to hop on board. Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with “ok boomer” comments is a real one. The other outcome? A TikTok presence that fails to leave a mark, like Julian Castro’s account, which currently only has 470 followers.

Still, that leaves an opportunity. Enter: the TikTok account of an equally stodgy publication that has, against all odds, managed to feel truly native to the TikTok ecosystem. It’s the Washington Post’s, which since its debut this spring has amassed a quarter-million followers and a legion of superfans who praise its goofy premises and unserious tone. So far, three candidates — Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and Julian Castro — have appeared on it.

The Washington Post’s TikTok’s success is the direct result of its creator and biggest star, 28-year-old Dave Jorgenson, who previously created humor and satire videos for the newspaper. A scroll through the Washington Post’s TikTok account will show Dave making self-deprecating jokes about being an adult on the app, Dave occupying the role of “the TikTok guy” in meetings, Dave doing silly 15-second sketches with the paper’s fashion, gaming, and economics reporters.

Jorgenson attributes the growth and fanbase of the account to his spending two months watching and listening to videos on TikTok instead of rushing to quickly turn around content. “If you’re gonna launch anything, whether you’re a newspaper or a brand or a company, you need to understand the app, otherwise people will see right through you,” he says. “Especially on TikTok, because the whole thing is that it’s mostly just raw videos set to music.”

The Washington Post, however, has what regular TikTok users don’t: access to very important people. In October, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang just happened to be scheduled to visit the Washington Post’s offices filming an unrelated segment when Jorgenson was able to strike a plan with Yang’s team about filming a TikTok.

Yang’s team was already a fan of the Post’s TikTok account; the campaign has also leaned heavily on the fact that he is a tech entrepreneur. “We didn’t really have to sell it to Andrew Yang,” says Jorgenson. “He was like, ‘If they think it’s great, I’m going to do it.’” It’s a particularly impressive feat considering the resulting video was actually poking fun at Yang’s low polling numbers. “Finally relaxing after a full day of interviews and meeting people,” reads the caption on the first segment, followed by “Still polling at 3 percent” against a backdrop of Yang dancing in celebration.

The paper has since done equally self-deprecating videos with both Beto O’Rourke, who ended his campaign on November 1, and Julian Castro, whose video was a play on how much he looks like his brother, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. All three videos took off, garnering between 40,000 and 400,000 likes.

Though neither Beto’s nor Castro’s team replied to a request for comment, Yang’s press secretary told Vox, “We’re constantly exploring ways to reach new audiences and voters, and the TikTok video with the Washington Post is certainly one of those ways.”

Since the election of Donald Trump proved politicians could tweet rambling, often nonsensical stream-of-consciousness sentences and still win over voters, politicians have approached social media with an increased candidness. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has posted her skin care routine to her Instagram stories; O’Rourke live-streamed his haircut; Elizabeth Warren posts videos of herself calling small-dollar donors to social media and makes a point to pose for every single person who wants a selfie after her town halls. In an age where we expect to be welcomed into the homes and lives of everyone we follow online, connecting with politicians has never felt so intimate.

Politicians have historically been pretty terrible at social media. A cursory glance at Mike Huckabee’s tweeting habits will illustrate as much — the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate was once described by Fast Company as “the least funny person on Twitter.” Even cool-ish, young-ish presidential candidates are sometimes bad at tweeting. Cory Booker has made the same joke — a bit of PG-13 wordplay about coffee and sleep — 14 times over the past decade.

There are now more avenues than ever for politicians to embarrass themselves online. Instagram, for instance, has gained popularity among politicians faster than any other social media platform over the past few years, and was also the site of O’Rourke’s now-infamous live-streamed dentist appointment.

Aidan King, a senior strategist at Middle Seat consulting who has worked on presidential campaigns for both Bernie Sanders and O’Rourke, says that there’s a certain degree of apprehension in approaching any new social media platform. If candidates don’t know precisely who they’re speaking to, their message can be warped into something else. “There’s nothing worse for a political campaign than going viral for the wrong reasons,” he says.

TikTok, with its legions of irony-steeped teens, presents a specific danger. “The zoomers can be pretty ruthless, and it’s also clear which candidates they like a lot,” explains King. “Young people are really into Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, so I can understand why other candidates in the 2020 races just don’t really want to mess with [TikTok]. Joe Biden going on a platform that adores Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a recipe for disaster. They know the audience well enough to know they wouldn’t really get along with the people there.”

The Washington Post’s TikTok, though, is a controlled environment where candidates have little to lose, even when the content is unlike anything a political PR team would have typically come up with. “There’s just this very positive feeling around TikTok. Even if they are self-deprecating, they’re pretty wholesome,” Jorgenson says. “While the text in front of Andrew Yang was deprecating, it’s very funny. How could that hurt you?”

Jorgenson hopes to get every 2020 Democratic candidate in a video and has reached out to multiple candidates, but there is one white whale in particular. “I think if we get Bernie, then we have done our job, because I don’t know how we’re going to. But I’d be very proud of myself,” he laughs.

There are concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government (its parent company Bytedance is based in Beijing) and its willingness to bow to conservative governments by censoring pro-LGBTQ content, but the app has always wanted its content to remain politics-free. It recently announced it would ban political advertising out of a desire to remain a “positive, refreshing environment.” While nothing is stopping politicians from using the app, they may be hesitant to engage with one that will soon be under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

It’s also likely it simply isn’t worth building a following on an app where a sizeable portion of its users aren’t even old enough to vote. For now, one-off sketches with the TikTok expert over at the Washington Post will do.

Sign up for The Goods’ newsletter. Twice a week, we’ll send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2ppxr5Y

[corneliusreignallen]

How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton was “yas queening” all over the internet. She had an official Snapchat account with a “Yaaas, Hillary!” logo that was also a T-shirt, a posed #yas photo with the stars of Broad City, custom Hillary Bitmoji, ironic cross-stitch art, and other signifiers of “yas” culture that’s since become emblematic of a certain kind of blinkered white feminism. An attempt to reach millennials with a passing familiarity with stan culture, it was also an extremely strategy easy to mock. As Amanda Hess wrote at the time in Slate, “American culture does not exactly appreciate the image of the ‘authentic’ older woman, but boy does it hate the older woman who strains to stay relevant.”

Hillary Clinton lost the election. That fact certainly can’t be attributed solely to a social media voice that many criticized as insincere and pandering, but it had a lasting impact on the ways we expect politicians to behave online.

It also might offer a clue on why so few politicians have a presence on the buzziest social media app of the moment, TikTok. Since its US launch in August 2018, the short-form video app has exploded in popularity, having been downloaded more than a billion times in 2018 and boasting 27 million active American users as of February 2019. Both Facebook and Instagram have launched competitors (or clones, depending on whom you ask), and celebrities like Will Smith, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Reese Witherspoon are now flocking to the app en masse.

Politicians, meanwhile, have been understandably hesitant to hop on board. Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with “ok boomer” comments is a real one. The other outcome? A TikTok presence that fails to leave a mark, like Julian Castro’s account, which currently only has 470 followers.

Still, that leaves an opportunity. Enter: the TikTok account of an equally stodgy publication that has, against all odds, managed to feel truly native to the TikTok ecosystem. It’s the Washington Post’s, which since its debut this spring has amassed a quarter-million followers and a legion of superfans who praise its goofy premises and unserious tone. So far, three candidates — Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and Julian Castro — have appeared on it.

The Washington Post’s TikTok’s success is the direct result of its creator and biggest star, 28-year-old Dave Jorgenson, who previously created humor and satire videos for the newspaper. A scroll through the Washington Post’s TikTok account will show Dave making self-deprecating jokes about being an adult on the app, Dave occupying the role of “the TikTok guy” in meetings, Dave doing silly 15-second sketches with the paper’s fashion, gaming, and economics reporters.

Jorgenson attributes the growth and fanbase of the account to his spending two months watching and listening to videos on TikTok instead of rushing to quickly turn around content. “If you’re gonna launch anything, whether you’re a newspaper or a brand or a company, you need to understand the app, otherwise people will see right through you,” he says. “Especially on TikTok, because the whole thing is that it’s mostly just raw videos set to music.”

The Washington Post, however, has what regular TikTok users don’t: access to very important people. In October, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang just happened to be scheduled to visit the Washington Post’s offices filming an unrelated segment when Jorgenson was able to strike a plan with Yang’s team about filming a TikTok.

Yang’s team was already a fan of the Post’s TikTok account; the campaign has also leaned heavily on the fact that he is a tech entrepreneur. “We didn’t really have to sell it to Andrew Yang,” says Jorgenson. “He was like, ‘If they think it’s great, I’m going to do it.’” It’s a particularly impressive feat considering the resulting video was actually poking fun at Yang’s low polling numbers. “Finally relaxing after a full day of interviews and meeting people,” reads the caption on the first segment, followed by “Still polling at 3 percent” against a backdrop of Yang dancing in celebration.

The paper has since done equally self-deprecating videos with both Beto O’Rourke, who ended his campaign on November 1, and Julian Castro, whose video was a play on how much he looks like his brother, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. All three videos took off, garnering between 40,000 and 400,000 likes.

Though neither Beto’s nor Castro’s team replied to a request for comment, Yang’s press secretary told Vox, “We’re constantly exploring ways to reach new audiences and voters, and the TikTok video with the Washington Post is certainly one of those ways.”

Since the election of Donald Trump proved politicians could tweet rambling, often nonsensical stream-of-consciousness sentences and still win over voters, politicians have approached social media with an increased candidness. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has posted her skin care routine to her Instagram stories; O’Rourke live-streamed his haircut; Elizabeth Warren posts videos of herself calling small-dollar donors to social media and makes a point to pose for every single person who wants a selfie after her town halls. In an age where we expect to be welcomed into the homes and lives of everyone we follow online, connecting with politicians has never felt so intimate.

Politicians have historically been pretty terrible at social media. A cursory glance at Mike Huckabee’s tweeting habits will illustrate as much — the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate was once described by Fast Company as “the least funny person on Twitter.” Even cool-ish, young-ish presidential candidates are sometimes bad at tweeting. Cory Booker has made the same joke — a bit of PG-13 wordplay about coffee and sleep — 14 times over the past decade.

There are now more avenues than ever for politicians to embarrass themselves online. Instagram, for instance, has gained popularity among politicians faster than any other social media platform over the past few years, and was also the site of O’Rourke’s now-infamous live-streamed dentist appointment.

Aidan King, a senior strategist at Middle Seat consulting who has worked on presidential campaigns for both Bernie Sanders and O’Rourke, says that there’s a certain degree of apprehension in approaching any new social media platform. If candidates don’t know precisely who they’re speaking to, their message can be warped into something else. “There’s nothing worse for a political campaign than going viral for the wrong reasons,” he says.

TikTok, with its legions of irony-steeped teens, presents a specific danger. “The zoomers can be pretty ruthless, and it’s also clear which candidates they like a lot,” explains King. “Young people are really into Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, so I can understand why other candidates in the 2020 races just don’t really want to mess with [TikTok]. Joe Biden going on a platform that adores Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a recipe for disaster. They know the audience well enough to know they wouldn’t really get along with the people there.”

The Washington Post’s TikTok, though, is a controlled environment where candidates have little to lose, even when the content is unlike anything a political PR team would have typically come up with. “There’s just this very positive feeling around TikTok. Even if they are self-deprecating, they’re pretty wholesome,” Jorgenson says. “While the text in front of Andrew Yang was deprecating, it’s very funny. How could that hurt you?”

Jorgenson hopes to get every 2020 Democratic candidate in a video and has reached out to multiple candidates, but there is one white whale in particular. “I think if we get Bernie, then we have done our job, because I don’t know how we’re going to. But I’d be very proud of myself,” he laughs.

There are concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government (its parent company Bytedance is based in Beijing) and its willingness to bow to conservative governments by censoring pro-LGBTQ content, but the app has always wanted its content to remain politics-free. It recently announced it would ban political advertising out of a desire to remain a “positive, refreshing environment.” While nothing is stopping politicians from using the app, they may be hesitant to engage with one that will soon be under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

It’s also likely it simply isn’t worth building a following on an app where a sizeable portion of its users aren’t even old enough to vote. For now, one-off sketches with the TikTok expert over at the Washington Post will do.

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How the Washington Post’s TikTok became an unofficial 2020 campaign stop

Andrew Yang poses for a selfie. | Ethan Miller/Getty Images

For politicians, the buzziest new social video app presents a risk and an opportunity.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton was “yas queening” all over the internet. She had an official Snapchat account with a “Yaaas, Hillary!” logo that was also a T-shirt, a posed #yas photo with the stars of Broad City, custom Hillary Bitmoji, ironic cross-stitch art, and other signifiers of “yas” culture that’s since become emblematic of a certain kind of blinkered white feminism. An attempt to reach millennials with a passing familiarity with stan culture, it was also an extremely strategy easy to mock. As Amanda Hess wrote at the time in Slate, “American culture does not exactly appreciate the image of the ‘authentic’ older woman, but boy does it hate the older woman who strains to stay relevant.”

Hillary Clinton lost the election. That fact certainly can’t be attributed solely to a social media voice that many criticized as insincere and pandering, but it had a lasting impact on the ways we expect politicians to behave online.

It also might offer a clue on why so few politicians have a presence on the buzziest social media app of the moment, TikTok. Since its US launch in August 2018, the short-form video app has exploded in popularity, having been downloaded more than a billion times in 2018 and boasting 27 million active American users as of February 2019. Both Facebook and Instagram have launched competitors (or clones, depending on whom you ask), and celebrities like Will Smith, Ariana Grande, Ed Sheeran, and Reese Witherspoon are now flocking to the app en masse.

Politicians, meanwhile, have been understandably hesitant to hop on board. Like all social media apps, TikTok has its own vernacular, and any transgressions of that shared language and sensibility stick out like, well, septuagenarian politicians on a social media app meant for teens. The fear of coming off as insincere or being flooded with “ok boomer” comments is a real one. The other outcome? A TikTok presence that fails to leave a mark, like Julian Castro’s account, which currently only has 470 followers.

Still, that leaves an opportunity. Enter: the TikTok account of an equally stodgy publication that has, against all odds, managed to feel truly native to the TikTok ecosystem. It’s the Washington Post’s, which since its debut this spring has amassed a quarter-million followers and a legion of superfans who praise its goofy premises and unserious tone. So far, three candidates — Andrew Yang, Beto O’Rourke, and Julian Castro — have appeared on it.

The Washington Post’s TikTok’s success is the direct result of its creator and biggest star, 28-year-old Dave Jorgenson, who previously created humor and satire videos for the newspaper. A scroll through the Washington Post’s TikTok account will show Dave making self-deprecating jokes about being an adult on the app, Dave occupying the role of “the TikTok guy” in meetings, Dave doing silly 15-second sketches with the paper’s fashion, gaming, and economics reporters.

Jorgenson attributes the growth and fanbase of the account to his spending two months watching and listening to videos on TikTok instead of rushing to quickly turn around content. “If you’re gonna launch anything, whether you’re a newspaper or a brand or a company, you need to understand the app, otherwise people will see right through you,” he says. “Especially on TikTok, because the whole thing is that it’s mostly just raw videos set to music.”

The Washington Post, however, has what regular TikTok users don’t: access to very important people. In October, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang just happened to be scheduled to visit the Washington Post’s offices filming an unrelated segment when Jorgenson was able to strike a plan with Yang’s team about filming a TikTok.

Yang’s team was already a fan of the Post’s TikTok account; the campaign has also leaned heavily on the fact that he is a tech entrepreneur. “We didn’t really have to sell it to Andrew Yang,” says Jorgenson. “He was like, ‘If they think it’s great, I’m going to do it.’” It’s a particularly impressive feat considering the resulting video was actually poking fun at Yang’s low polling numbers. “Finally relaxing after a full day of interviews and meeting people,” reads the caption on the first segment, followed by “Still polling at 3 percent” against a backdrop of Yang dancing in celebration.

The paper has since done equally self-deprecating videos with both Beto O’Rourke, who ended his campaign on November 1, and Julian Castro, whose video was a play on how much he looks like his brother, Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro. All three videos took off, garnering between 40,000 and 400,000 likes.

Though neither Beto’s nor Castro’s team replied to a request for comment, Yang’s press secretary told Vox, “We’re constantly exploring ways to reach new audiences and voters, and the TikTok video with the Washington Post is certainly one of those ways.”

Since the election of Donald Trump proved politicians could tweet rambling, often nonsensical stream-of-consciousness sentences and still win over voters, politicians have approached social media with an increased candidness. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has posted her skin care routine to her Instagram stories; O’Rourke live-streamed his haircut; Elizabeth Warren posts videos of herself calling small-dollar donors to social media and makes a point to pose for every single person who wants a selfie after her town halls. In an age where we expect to be welcomed into the homes and lives of everyone we follow online, connecting with politicians has never felt so intimate.

Politicians have historically been pretty terrible at social media. A cursory glance at Mike Huckabee’s tweeting habits will illustrate as much — the former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate was once described by Fast Company as “the least funny person on Twitter.” Even cool-ish, young-ish presidential candidates are sometimes bad at tweeting. Cory Booker has made the same joke — a bit of PG-13 wordplay about coffee and sleep — 14 times over the past decade.

There are now more avenues than ever for politicians to embarrass themselves online. Instagram, for instance, has gained popularity among politicians faster than any other social media platform over the past few years, and was also the site of O’Rourke’s now-infamous live-streamed dentist appointment.

Aidan King, a senior strategist at Middle Seat consulting who has worked on presidential campaigns for both Bernie Sanders and O’Rourke, says that there’s a certain degree of apprehension in approaching any new social media platform. If candidates don’t know precisely who they’re speaking to, their message can be warped into something else. “There’s nothing worse for a political campaign than going viral for the wrong reasons,” he says.

TikTok, with its legions of irony-steeped teens, presents a specific danger. “The zoomers can be pretty ruthless, and it’s also clear which candidates they like a lot,” explains King. “Young people are really into Bernie Sanders, Andrew Yang, Elizabeth Warren, so I can understand why other candidates in the 2020 races just don’t really want to mess with [TikTok]. Joe Biden going on a platform that adores Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a recipe for disaster. They know the audience well enough to know they wouldn’t really get along with the people there.”

The Washington Post’s TikTok, though, is a controlled environment where candidates have little to lose, even when the content is unlike anything a political PR team would have typically come up with. “There’s just this very positive feeling around TikTok. Even if they are self-deprecating, they’re pretty wholesome,” Jorgenson says. “While the text in front of Andrew Yang was deprecating, it’s very funny. How could that hurt you?”

Jorgenson hopes to get every 2020 Democratic candidate in a video and has reached out to multiple candidates, but there is one white whale in particular. “I think if we get Bernie, then we have done our job, because I don’t know how we’re going to. But I’d be very proud of myself,” he laughs.

There are concerns over TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government (its parent company Bytedance is based in Beijing) and its willingness to bow to conservative governments by censoring pro-LGBTQ content, but the app has always wanted its content to remain politics-free. It recently announced it would ban political advertising out of a desire to remain a “positive, refreshing environment.” While nothing is stopping politicians from using the app, they may be hesitant to engage with one that will soon be under investigation by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

It’s also likely it simply isn’t worth building a following on an app where a sizeable portion of its users aren’t even old enough to vote. For now, one-off sketches with the TikTok expert over at the Washington Post will do.

Sign up for The Goods’ newsletter. Twice a week, we’ll send you the best Goods stories exploring what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters.

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