#i don't know if this a popular opinion or not

[gatheredfates]

Playerscope, modding and the hunt for aesthetic: why you should be more upset about mods and community expectations than you already are.

I love that this sounds like an academic paper but HONESTLYYYY. I need to put my thoughts to paper in regards to my burnout with xiv, otherwise I think I'll go insane. This is a controversial yet brave post. I am well aware that I partake in some of the things I'm going to be critiquing; aka, "thank you, dinklebottom, we live in a society." I'm also not critiquing mods from a space of offering more accessibility to people and/or facilitating representation not currently offered within the context of the game. There is nuance to every discussion and I'm coming at this from an overarching view around mods and community expectations/standards rather than player joy. I hope this makes sense. I'm also predominately writing from a roleplay perspective, though I'm sure a lot of what I end up saying can reflect in the art party/social space. Just know if I haven't mentioned the latter it's because that's not my scene and I don't pretend to know otherwise.

Anyway. For those who don't know, there's a new mod that's causing some strife in the xiv community called Playerscope. Here is the reddit thread about it. I'm not going to be talking too much about the mod in general because that's not the point of this post, but seeing discussion around it today just made me feel more exhausted than I already am when it comes to modding and the xiv community around it. It made me realise... I'm actually really sick to death of mods. I'm sick to death of what they're doing to the community when it comes to gatekeeping, policing and in general the interactions we have with each other in the community.

Let me explain: I wrote a post about the roleplay mod on bsky that kind of articulates at a surface level what I mean.

I think what makes me sad, which I'm sure is echoed by a lot of people, is that mods feel like the standard now rather than an option and that there's a certain expectation for people to have them if they want to engage with facets of the community—whether intentional or not.

Unlike XIV, WoW has a supported mod scene (within reason) and TRP 2 and the like have been accepted for years now. In a space where people can't slap on an RP tag, having that tool readily identifies you as a writer/roleplayer and you can include as much or as little of your character as you like. The general idea is if you have one of these tools enabled, you're a roleplayer to some capacity. You can dress up the profile to a certain degree, you can add links and supported pictures, but you're mostly reliant on what you put to paper in regards to your character. Even then, I find filling out what my character is doing currently and marking the rest as a WIP doesn't necessarily exclude me from roleplay if I want to find it. A lot of people will do that and a super simple description to incite interest around their oc.

These days in XIV... I don't know. I do think communities have gotten more insular—it's why I'm so pedantic about trying to find them for the Compendium—but I also think mods and, to a certain extent, the 'nightclub' scene have gotten in the way of it as well. My argument is such.

I want to go to an event (for example sake, I'll call it Seascape). In order to fully participate, I may need:

Their discord.

A roleplay addon.

A carrd/google site/etc.

Their synchshell (including mods, mare and everything else)

Potentially a mod of some description so people know I can see theirs (and vice versa).

Also that your mod isn't made by a shitty person.

Appropriate understanding of the scene/social space.

Some luck and a prayer that it's an inclusive space and not a closed rp group advertising as being open and/or a mod showcase advertising itself as something different.

Like??? Holy shit you guys. If you are someone who doesn't want to mod because you're worried about repercussions it really just feels like a big 'fuck you, good luck'.

And let me be clear, not every community is like this. I'm incredibly lucky to have found fantastic roleplay within my own rp event/community, I have great friends who run awesome, inclusive events for people of any skill (writing or otherwise) and I do fully believe you can just enable the rp tag and find fun, fulfilling roleplay. But I've also found the above a lot of times, too. I've had people point-blank get mad at my partner because he won't install mods and try to exclude and/or circumvent him in spaces. It's weird. I've been to events where the only time I felt like I got proper interaction(s) was when I joined the aforementioned, even if I have my character's profile linked in my about. It's weird.

Honestly, no wonder new roleplayers feel overwhelmed. Not only do they have to learn roleplay etiquette, they have to be a mod expert overnight? It feels less about what someone can bring to the table as far as a story but what mods they can install to either look cool or pass an unspoken social barrier. As much as I'm down bad for aesthetic and looking the part, I hate it being at the cost of accessibility and fun for someone else.

Arguably it's the same for gposing and the like as well, which contributes to my exhaustion alongside all the graphical changes and I just. I'm gnawing at the bars of my cage.

I don't think it's going to change and arguably it's more of a Twitter/X issue than a Tumblr, one but Tumblr lets me write mini essays and Twitter will tell me to kms.

Ergo, I'll go with the essay-writing platform.

Anyway, I guess this is just a reminder that you don't need 4596419651 mods to be in the community and that people should be more vigilant on including people who don't have them for whatever reason, provided they operate in good-faith and want to contribute. I think we're careening to a slippery slope of expectation for something unsupported and I don't like it.

[abitchyturtle]

How does something you don't even care about wind up living so rent-free in your head, Lily? You couldn't keep Steven Universe out of your mouth for years and made several videos on it, despite trying to claim that you didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Oh wait, I know. Because the show was popular at the time, and smearing it and attempting to defame Rebecca Sugar would get you a lot of views.

Yeah. That's it.

You literally started pretty much an entire all out internet war against Steven Universe and Sugar ( And don't tell me she wasn't responsible for it. She would sit there actively encouraging it and interacting with people complaining about Sugar. She knew what she was doing. ), you knew it, and you literally didn't even give care because you could sit there on your throne while people brought up your awful two hour long video full of misinformation and insanity.

It's the one video that turned me away from your content, despite the fact that everyone else seemed to be on board with it. I told myself that, amongst the other things that were wrong with this video, the overarching problem is that you clearly didn't watch it.

I was right.

That intro she used to use for her videos of Peter from Family Guy going ' Give me money' was not really a joke. That's how she views her fans and her audience.

It's sad, and it's honestly even sadder that people take her opinion so seriously when this is how she views the material she 'reviews'.

Lily just admitted that she never watched Steven Universe, she only covered it because it was on while she was covering MLP.

[calware]

Do you have any advice on how to write Dirk and Hal or know of anyone I could get tips from :0?

okay so first of all i want to say that i don't think that i'm really an 'authority' on the subject, or that anyone else really can be aside from andrew herself. but i do have some thoughts and opinions that i'm willing to share

#1 piece of advice is to reread the comic once in a while. or at least reread bits and pieces if that's too daunting or not feasible. the POV cam extension is really helpful for that because you can specifically reread just the parts where dirk is there (does not work for hal though iirc which is where the dialogue directory is the next best thing) anyway i suggest doing this because it's always better to have their canon depictions fresh in your mind so you aren't accidentally working off of purely fanon ones

i think this is more of just a writing tip in general but try to think about how much you intend to transform the character. and by that i mean how much you want to stick to canon characterization. no matter how far you go with it, your depiction should always be informed by canon, but you can go as far with it as you want as long as it's intentional. so for example, if you want to stay really close to canon characterization, go for it. but if you want to stick them in an AU, ask yourself how that will change their behavior, personalities, etc. and it you specifically want them to act differently than they do in canon, that's okay too as long as you justify it and make it believable to your reader. you don't have to be afraid of changing them as long as something happened to cause that change

i feel like these are the two biggest pitfalls people fall into, usually a combination of the two. either they just don't understand the character well enough to give a believable portrayal of them, they don't give the audience enough reason to believe their portrayal of them, or both. for example there are a lot of hal fics out there where he is evil and kills people for fun, which to me just tells me that the author didn't really get him. but the takeaway isn't that you should never make hal evil and kill people, just that you need to provide basis for the audience to believe that he would be evil and kill people while still feeling in-character for doing so. that's what i mean by intentionality, you need to understand why you make the artistic choices that you are making

i wrote down some common tropes (?) of hal writing i tend to see that are along the lines of "i see these a lot and they wouldn't be bad if the author just made them feel believable" if that's at all helpful. i can do some for dirk as well if anyone wants me to

3. avoid being reactionary. the homestuck fandom is so reactionary with its portrayal of characters, meaning that one mischaracterization will get popular, and people will complain about it and swing the complete opposite direction, leading to a different mischaracterization becoming popular. an example of this is everyone thinking dirk is the coolest ever, and then switching to think he's the lamest ever. just try to focus on your own perceptions of the characters based on what you read from the comic and what you agree with others on, don't form perceptions based on trying to break away from something else

4. this goes more for dirk than hal because hal isn't as popular, but just keep in mind that dirk isn't the main character. i think a lot of people attribute main character energy to him when they don't really have to. obviously if you write a fic about dirk, he's literally going to be the main character, or if he's your favorite character you're going to care about him more than the others. but that doesn't mean he's any more important, more special, more traumatized, more mentally ill, or what have you, than any other character. going back to the example from above, the people who treat him as both the coolest OR the saddest character are both portraying him as the Special Boy. when the reality is that they are all pretty special and he's not an exception

i hope that all made sense... if not feel free to ask and i can explain further if needed

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Hi Derin!

Recently I came across one of your long posts about clothes, and it was a long long branching thread but it basically amounted to " the only way to stop humanity from man-made extinction caused by the fashion industry is to start wearing outfits made of many high-quality layers where every single piece down to your bra is made out of high quality materials that are EXPENSIVE but designed to last for decades, and in order to do that we need to start wearing underwear that covers bigger percentage of our skin than just a bra and a g string ,the way our ancestors did" and while I agree with that, I am wondering about something- JUST HOW do we adapt this kind of underwear that our ancestors wore to modern fashion, bc there are some very big differennces between " modern fashion" and " the fashion of yore" namely

Modern fashion includes many, many different styles of "tops" and "bottoms" ,from long jackets to tank tops cropped just under your nipples and full length trousers to miniskirts, while the fashion of yore was basically " you wear a cultural equivalent of a nun's habit every single day of your life, from the day you were born until the day that you die, no ifs or buts" (yeah yeah a MASSIVE oversimplification but bear with me here)

Modern fashion "strives" to be gender neutral, while the fashion of yore was basically like " there are two sexes, and if you wear clothes designed for the 'wrong' sex we're legally allowed to murder you with extra cruelty" ( YES I KNOW EVEN BIGGER OVERSIMPLIFICATION)

so yeah that's something that I was wondering for the past couple of days and I was wondering if you have any good ideas about how to solve those problems

My opinion on the matter is that fabric was just fine twenty years ago. Those clothes can last a long time under normal use and washing without being painstakingly hand-spun and woven to be part of a wardrobe that costs as much as a small home.

But if you did want to go back to protective layering, it's not hard. I do it, mostly because I can't stand the cold, so if you live in a cold climate you don't even have to change your fashion; just put the softest, thinnest tracky daks and long-sleeved tshirt you own on under your other clothes. Boom, skin layer. If you live in a warm climate, then do that with smaller clothes, I guess, shorts and skivvies or whatever, whatever fits under the clothes you like to wear.

To answer your broader question, you've got it entirely backwards. Never once in the history of clothing have the materials and industry adapted to the fashion. The fashion is an expression of the materials and the industry. The creation of the industrial loom alters the fashion, not the other way round. The availability of elastic changes the fashion, not the other way around. The changing climate and changing needs of the wearer (hard-wearing clothes for labourers, etc.) changes the fashion, not the other way around. Fashion is an intersection of culture, environment and industry; it can be used as a tool for politics and market demand, same as any cultural artefact, but it needs to be practical within its environment. If wearing barrier layers became popular again, then the clothing that people wore would be clothing that they find comfortable and good looking over barrier layers.

From the context of this post I assume you're alluding to European feudal and pre-industrial clothing, although high quality fabric has existed for most of human history in societies that did and did not wear barrier layers, but I'm not sure what you mean by 'the cultural equivalent of a nun's habit'. A nun's habit had the cultural equivalent of a nun's habit. I'm not a historian but I can't think of any society of the type you're alluding to where everyday clothing would be equivalent to a nun's habit in any way beyond being, y'know, clothes. What do you mean by this? (Also, people back then also wore a great many styles of clothing; I'm not sure why you list that as a specifically modern thing.)

Modern fashion, on the whole, absolutely does not strive to be gender neutral, but if it did, this would not in any way restrict fabric quality or the use of barrier layers. Men's and women's clothing of yore were both looked after.

[outboundskelliebros]

So skelliebros what is your opinion on dream and nightmare? I don't remember if anyone ask you that. Or how about the murder or killer or even horror?

Sans: lil shnookie pookies we want to hug the metaphorical stuffing out of. or literal in this case since this is the only way we can right now.

Papyrus:... really hope no versions of them see this. unless they would let us do that to actual versions of them instead of plushies, then hope they do see this.

Sans: i mean i'm pretty sure we could find a dream and he'll let us. maybe even... convince a horror sans to do it to with the right bargaining chip... s.

Papyrus: noooot sure about horror sans... or if that's ethical enough for us to try but dream? talk about a dream come true, heh heh.

(Basically, they would like any Sans and Papyrus (currently can't think of any they would dislike but that could change). Some more than others and in different ways depending on who they are. More below!)

They tend to avoid versions of themselves that have more code influence over them (aka older, popular Sanses and Papyri) since they tend to see them a little more like celebrities of the Multiverse than other thems.

Think of them having more parasocial relationships with more popular/older AU Sanses and Papyri, knowing (lots of bits of) their memories and experiences and knowing those versions of them have zero connection to them in return.

And being more willing to be buddies with newer/less known Sanses and Papyri since they feel less connected to them since there is less code of them floating around that could have made up the Outbound bros' code . I don't know how to explain it fully argh

Also, just saying, Papyrus is more likely to get genuinely attached to other thems than Sans even if they seem to like them equally... Just throwing that out there.

[changelingsandothernonsense]

I'm curious, what are Josh's preferred alcoholic drinks? Would he like to rank them?

Helloo! Josh most certainly has a ranking system and very strong opinions on what can be found in both Morrowind and Skyrim (and may have committed crimes as a result of disliking a particular type of mead). So without further ado.

Best of the Worst- Smashing Edition!

You want my opinion on liquor? Mate, no one asks me my opinion on liquor... I mean I have opinions on drinks... a lot of opinions on drinks it's just I got told I was being a dick about it so I...

No you know what, fuck it! Here's my top an bottom fives.

5. Best- Shein

I'll be honest, I find Shein to be mid as far as drinks go. Then again, I'm pretty sure I prefer something with a flavour profile that can be described as "Dwemeri Oil" because I can't taste shit so take my opinion with a grain of salt. Shein skews a little bitter an sour if I remember rightly an it's not overly strong. It's 'ight in a pinch, yeah? But I wouldn't order it if there was other stuff on the menu.

5. Worst- Ancient Dagoth Brandy

Look, this shit's been sitting in a blight infested hole for the last five thousand years. You can believe Neloth an that fucking Ash Vampire all you want about how "developed" the vintage is but I'm always gonna come back to how it makes me feel like fucking shit! I don't drink to feel like shit, I drink to not feel like shit. So it's shit!

4. Best- Flin

I'm partial to the odd import from the heartland an Flin's one of them. It's a whisky that appeals more to Dunmeri pallets than that of Imperials but because of the old tariffs it's expensive as all fuck! If you can get your hands on it, it's worth the buzz. I can't really speak for anything produced now but when I was younger an could still taste shit it had a smooth, smokey flavour. Doesn't wack out your head so much either. 4. Worst- Greef

An your Morrowind equivalent... if you can really make a comparison. I was never a fan of anything that was comberry forward and greef is like you got a bush of the shit an threw it in a wet barrel for six years an... actually I think that's just how you make it. Point is that I started drinking it when I was like 15 coz it's cheap as all fuck. I don't know how that equates to how men age but it's like early adolescenceish. Anyway, point is I drank so much of the stuff that I was spewing for the whole next fucking day. Shit gives me a headache almost immediately these days. I'll drink it only if I'm desperate.

3. Best- Wine, just wine!

It's hard for me to find shit I like in Skyrim and Cyrodiil. Mostly because they keep insisting on mixing everything that isn't mead with milk an that's a fucking disaster waiting to happen! My go to in the lands of men is wine. It gets me sloshed an goes down well enough. I've noticed Nords like jazbay grapes but I've always found they turn shit a little... weird? I don't know how to explain it. Usually i'll order an imported wine to avoid the addition of that ingredient. Get's me nice an drunk relatively quick so that's a good enough reason for it to be here. 3. Worst- Emberbrand Wine

This isn't because it's bad, necessarily, quite the contrary if I'm honest. Like sure there's that jazbay weird going on but um... This is on my shit list because it's a bit too potent, if you know what I mean? Like I shouldn't get two cups in an start feeling an urge to commit arson, yeah?

Give it a skip if you like sleeping in your own bed.

2. Best- Sujamma

There's a reason sujamma is a popular drink back home an that's because it does a few key things- One it fucks you up well an good an two it makes you feel like you're on top of the world. Sure it fucks with your magicka but who the fuck cares when everyone sounds less fucking annoying an you feel like you could mount a wild Alit. Um... don't try that.

Geldis makes a pretty fantastic version of it. Pretty much every clan has their own recipe, so sujamma from Blacklight tastes different from what you'll find in Narsis. Regardless, it's always a treat.

2. Worst- Honeybrew Mead

Look, I just don't fucking like mead, okay? It's weak as all shit an I need like half a keg to get the same buzz I'd get after a few glasses of sujamma. That means I'm spending too much money to get my hit, an if you know me you'll know I hate having to spend fucking money! I hear that mer generally don't like honey wine an I'm no exception. Maybe I'd feel different if I could still taste sweet things but considering I pretty much choose what I drink based on mouthfeel an how quickly any beverage can get me sloshed mead just comes up short every time. At least honeybrew doesn't remind me of warm piss which is like the worst crime you can commit in my opinion. I'd still choose this over my worst option...

Best- Matze

What isn't there to like about matze? It's a smooth drink that goes down easily an can be infused with whatever the fuck you want. It's a type of saltrice wine that some westerners compare to beer but like it's not any sort of beer I've tried. Beer tastes like piss, this doesn't. My favourite is a brew infused with jasmine flower an strained until the liquid's clear. You pair that with like some choice grapes and a steaming bath an a good book an you got yourself an evening. Matze, like sujamma is cheap as all fuck an each region back home has their own version of it. It's potent enough that you don't need much to make you feel like you're on top of the world an it's cheap enough that you can supply a whole group of idiots to join you on that alit mounting adventure I mentioned earlier. Still don't recommend trying to mount an alit though. What Erra's good at is not the kind of shit I'm good at, and probably not what you're good at either.

You want to know the quickest way into my bed, buy me a round of this. 1. Worst- Black Briar Mead

I don't want this, I don't know anyone who fucking wants this! If you want this I seriously have to fucking question your taste in literally everything! Not even Sydari likes it an she's the whole reason this shit's flooded every inn in fucking Skyrim! Look, Miluth likes gold more than liquor an I like liquor more than I like breathing so... you know. I remember when she dragged me to the brewery there whilst doing an inspection for the Guild and left me on a "Tasting Tour". That was mistake number one. I've always been really um...vocal to her about my dislike of Nordic swill but I didn't think anything could be as fucking bad as what's in this shitty blue bottle right here! I tasted enough varieties to tell you that I was still sober after an hour an I was fucking livid about it. Then I was given this reserve an I was beside myself! I seriously thought I was being fed piss. So I thought I would do a bit of an experiment, yeah? I pissed in an empty bottle coz even if you're not getting sloshed this shit still goes right through you an I just placed it back into the shelf. I never intended for the guide to pull it straight from the shelf an feed it to the fucking brew master who was possibly the most miserable looking s'wit I've ever met! I'd never laughed so hard in my life! Anyway I'm not allowed back in there an if you ever feed me this shit I'll do the same to you!

[nwarrior777]

thought to write cute post, turned out to be manifesto of Love to fat geek guys. another post of my "wait a minute, it's not weird to love fat people and be loud and proud about it, we just live in fucked up world where if you say you love fat people you are considered strange, and that's *exactly* why i will not shut up about it now" posts series

intimacy topics are involved

my "omg that's HOT 😍😍😍 guy other here.. top tier boyfriend material" type is very fat gamers (esp if they are good at some game, like, good at fightings or soulslikes, knowing all these complex mechanics and combinations etc) with special interest (esp building constructions: ships, lego) in glasses and beard (last two is optional bonus points). and i don't understand why it's not popular opinion. i mean i know why [capitalism + fatphobia] but i am shocked people still buying it

like. soft. its just literally nice and absolute heaven feeling to touch and hug and kiss fat boyfriend. they know interesting things and can tell interesting stories about it. if they make something - painting warhammer sculpts, lego, ships - they are artists, love it, very hot. whatever other special interest - hot brains, extra hot. glasses, beard - fucking beautiful

and its "not hot" by "society" "norms" cause... well, cause companies tell us. they are out of new ideas of what to sell and now they sell hate. and companies tell us that Hot Boyfriend Material (c) (trademark) (ai drawn) is..

fit rich guy.

like. em. what the hell people find hot about that.

don't get me wrong - *all* people are beautifull, no questions to muscular guys. but like. in social norm its like there is nothing more in that "hot guy norm" defined by society [capitalistic companies] *other* than "be rich and fit"

what to talk about with them? like, ok, you can go to whatever place on earth with him. but what to do with him there

intim? well, noone will be able to argue with me about that sx without fat person involved is better. it's literally feels more nice

i mean... idk, am i being autistic about it but?? its literally more nice *texture* feeling to touch fat. its soft. everyone like everything soft - plushies, pillows, matrasses, but then bodys its oh oh, no soft. okay, can get that everyone has their own thing and it can be nicer to touch muscles for someone, but, touching fat in intime and sexy ways considered as *something gross*. wtf? how can it be gross??? and its coexist with other "rule" - "oh fatty guys are nice to hug. as friends. haha they cute and funny :3". in which moment your nice to hug fat friend becomes ow ew gross to touch someone's boyfriend?

so yeah, people are caging themself out of absolute Eyphoria feeling of Love to people cause.. capitalists sold them idea about Love is smth cringe ew and not cool. selfhate 24/7 running in gym and eating water is eee cool, epic. god, it's so sad.

heaven is on earth and its to have soft boyfriend

[smokends]

smokends

i recently fell down the fake post tag the other day and was inspired to make one for lumiblr i hope y'all enjoy <3

0 notes

insane-moth-signals-facts

Fact #124: Shin Yeonghui publicly admitted to creating a smear campaign against Salem, Junyeong, and Serin after they left Superbloom Media. She leaked private information to various gossip sites in South Korea.

clovertruther

i would love to study shin yeonghui's brain and why she thought that would be a good idea

3.2k notes

songbirdzz follow

does anyone else remember when junyeong beat the fuck outta oliver at the lure in 2023?

prettyeon

didn't oliver deserve it?

oliverdefender001 follow

nope. junyeong instigated the entire altercation based off false rumors that he heard from some random person about a situation that never happened.

mothcandy

"some random person" IT WAS JIYEON 😭😭😭😭

2.3k notes

venusvue follow

moth signals lyrics that keep me awake at night

232 notes

insane-moth-signals-facts

Fact 293: Salem had to apologize for illegally downloading Fall Out Boy's Save Rock and Roll and Panic! at the Disco's A Fever You Can't Sweat Out.

2.8k notes

rocksandmoths follow

do you think jueun still lurks on her old tumblr account

deurimhrt follow

salem had a tumblr?!

rocksandmoths follow

yeah ! her @ is ribbondawn, just like her instagram!!

23 notes

junyeong247

Y'ALL PAID HER DUST.

junyeong247

Say you hate this song one more time and I will commit war crimes that the United States will use one day.

rubytine follow

3.9k notes

incorrectmoths

Shin Yeonghui: I don't care that your neuron divergent, I need you to get on fucking stage

12.2k notes

need2beu follow

i need them to kiss

need2beu follow

GUYS................ i manifested them

13.1k notes

12112001 follow

live posting me listening to jiyeon's new soundcloud album :D

12112001 follow

Update: just listened to older..... i think i need to lie down for a while and contemplate life

12112001 follow

Update: ☹️

12112001 follow

Update: this almost killed me

12 notes

2seo follow

tokiko follow

gentle reminder that we can all have different opinions on moth signals music and the direction they are moving in. gentle reminder that when the members start releasing solos, we will support them no matter what.

saliverwarrior follow

evil reminder that junyeong has never released a good solo project. evil reminder that deurim released love me or hate me. evil reminder you can be a hater and still support your favs.

tokiko follow

make your own post

783 notes

incorrectmoths

Oliver: I do not have "PTSD". That is all just the wizards curse. Oliver: The wizard is my father but that isn't relevant.

9.2k notes

littloserin follow

have you seen HER today?

57 notes

newlumi023 follow

does anyone know what happened to minjae?

songisms follow

minjae was blacklisted from the entertainment industry in south korea by shin yeonghui. he went back to get his degree in elementary education and now works as a music teacher! here's my favorite recent picture of him and you can follow him @/yiminjae on instagram !

175 notes

seurim

reblog if you've never hated deurim

seurim

i know you fuckers are lying

1k notes

boweroftabel

sometimes i want to kill myself but then i remember i havent seen moth signals on tour yet

239 notes

snsdsupremacy follow

do you guys think that oliver is a good or bad thing on moths signals repuations?

snsdsupremacy follow

IN MY OPINION!!!!! yes, he brings in a lot of fans and drives the popularity of moth signals, but he also tarnishes everything with his substance abuse and mental illness

luvlocketz follow

blame the mentally ill guy for something he can't change 🙄

thesinklive

if he wanted to change, he would. i think he's perfectly content with being miserable until he kills himself

y0urb0y

what an insane thing to say FJEKJFNKEFJN

mothsignalsisfoundfamily

i keep seeing people say this and it's truly baffling to me. i think it stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of who oliver is as a person and what made him this way. from what we know, his father abused him, he's been the gossip scapegoat for years, and is severely mentally ill. if i were him, i would have lost my mind years ago.

thesinklive

no i understand oliver lmao but we all know what happened when he went back to boston in 2021. he never got the help he needed and it SHOWS. i have no respect for anyone that avoids getting help for any reason. it's not that hard to ask for help.

hrtdeurim follow

next thing you know sink is gonna say that they think velvetine is a cult MDHBJWFHB

thesinklive

well, actually.

anonymous asked: what do you think of salem's solo music so far?

loviejovie follow

salem park can do no wrong in my eyes 🙂‍↕️ just the existence of curse of capulet as an album is enough to prove how talented she is. from the olim to the simplicity of lovers, she was on a mission to show everyone what she could make and the rest of the moths were not involved whats so ever. it's going to be very hard for her to follow up such an amazing mini album, so i worry about sp2 and whatever it may be

1 note

thesinklive

omhg i NEED him sooo bad.. he could fix me in every single way

thesinklive

they hated me because i was right

5.6k notes

[marzipanandminutiae]

honestly I'm kind of afraid that they wouldn't handle it well since it hasn't happened yet (and the series was pretty popular during the YA Golden Age years of the early 00s-2010s)

I'm not sure how it even could go wrong- there's no real-world history to be inaccurate about, for example -but. I don't know. making the heroines sexy or something? I mean obviously Touchstone and Nick are into them but they really don't do anything SexyTM throughout the series

if anything that could be why it's never happened- there's not really a ton going on with interpersonal relationships, especially romance, and TV loves that. a lot of it is more about exploring magic and the characters being in Survival Mode to focus on emotions. AKA, you know, Basically Sam's and Ellimere's Entire Upbringing oops. there ARE interesting relationships, but they're not exactly center stage

Fighting Zombies With Handbells is

apparently they've gotten as far as pilot scripts before, specifically with Amazon, but it just never panned out

my one sticking point is that I would NOT want it to be animated. live-action fantasy is much more immersive and I vastly prefer it, though I know that's an unpopular opinion. it's more visually rich, and seeing magic happen in what looks like the real world compels me MUCH more than animation

Hogwarts this, Hogwarts that

Where's my Wyverly College sweatshirt huh

[cosmicdreamgrl]

𝘧𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘫𝘬 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴: (114/?)

[oifaaa]

Realising that my idea of what it means to be in a fandom might be a little skewed so help me out here what is your baseline qualification for being part of a fandom

[doverstar]

actually I love Tentoo and he is the Doctor and it was the only ending for Rose that worked and it is a huge gift to be able to have the man she loves grow old with her, they were always heading for that, y'all be quiet. I 100% understand the angst but it's okay, they're okay, good ending-

[fist-of-vengeance]

am i the only person alive who ships sayid and danielle rousseau? i feel like an...um. what's the phrase? when you're alone.. it's almost like. um. it's like. um... it's like...i feel like. uh...AN ISLAND

[that-was-anticlimactic]

i will never understand how or why the httyd movies did the books such an injustice.

the movies aren't even an adaptation - they stole the name of the series, the name of some of the characters and places, and the general idea that there are dragons. honestly, i would be fine with the movies and maybe even like them if they didn't capitalize off of cressida cowell's incredible books that never get any credit.

the books are an amazing story about the cycle of violence and how vengeance and revenge is dangerous. hiccup says that the past is a ghost story, one we need to learn from to better ourselves. the books are about how everyone deserves freedom, how every creature, every being on the earth deserves to be free. we see that in the slavemark, with the dragons.

and like... hiccup is so different. they did him a severe injustice. he's scrawny and intelligent and learned to talk to dragons simply by observing them! he chooses kindness first above all else; instead of yelling at toothless to train him, he is kind. and in the end, that kindness is why toothless chose to save him. bc even toothless himself says that dragons are inherently selfish creatures who care only for their survival. hiccup is brave - his beliefs differ drastically from both the vikings and the world.

hiccup is a child who chose to do the right thing even at the expense of himself. he agreed to free the slaves on nobert's ship, and in return, they gave him the slavemark which is easy to give but cannot be removed. he was like twelve. and having the slavemark means he cannot be with his tribe or his family, it means he isn't considered a human being anymore. and he keeps it a secret for awhile until it's revealed and when it is everyone turns their backs on hiccup. his family, his tribe, his mentor, people he TRUSTED. everyone except fishlegs, and, once she got over the shock, camicazi. he was thirteen. and even when he lost his memories and was really injured, he persisted. he was told to go to tomorrow and to save the dragons and he did bc in his heart he knew it was right even though he didn't know who he was or how he got there.

and fishlegs,,, oh my god FISHLEGS!!! the did him SO DIRTY!!! fishlegs is hiccup's best friend, one of the main motivators for hiccup. he steals norbert's potato for the sake of fishlegs, he gives fishlegs his dragon and goes to retrieve another, he takes the blame for fishlegs. and fishlegs does the same for him. he takes the slavemark with pride. he refuses to turn. he gives hiccup his lobster claw necklace which is his most prized possession. he is brave for hiccup, he believes hiccup is alive. he fights for hiccup harder than anyone else ever has. he does not turn. his is loyal, has allergies, has asthma, has a squint and a limp, has glasses bc he's blind without them... and he's still a hero despite being a runt, despite everyone even the adults telling him he's hopeless, telling hiccup to leave him behind.

and they cut camicazi! i'm sorry, but astr*d is nothing compared to camicazi. camicazi is a tiny, feral child who can easily best hiccup, fishlegs, and pretty much anyone in a sword fight. she can bring a grown man to tears with her rudery and smack talk. she is recklessly brave and craves adventure and follows hiccup blindly bc she trusts him that much. she isn't in love with hiccup - in fact she doesn't care about romance and love. she gives up everything to help hiccup bc she has a strong sense of justice. she is the motivator, the cheerleader, she finds a positive in everything. she never gives up. literally never gives up. and that's one of the most inspiring things about her: she always has hope.

and toothless! god!!! toothless is *thought to be* a common or garden dragon. he is horrifically tiny, he is literally toothless, and is the biggest brat in the world. he will cause problems on purpose. he has a stutter, he's the most selfless selfish dragon around. he and hiccup can talk to each other. he masks his fear with singing and being annoying. his growth is remarkable. he starts off refusing to obey hiccup, doing the opposite of what he says, making life harder for literally everyone around him, and he's still somewhat like that. but he's also braver, more caring, more willing to make sacrifices for the sake of others. he's clever, which he needs to be to make up for his size and aggression. he protects hiccup with everything he has, therefore, he protects what hiccup cares about just as hard. he was the only dragon that didn't abandon the vikings in the first book bc he cared about hiccup.

and snotlout,,, god,,, i will never forgive the movies for butchering snotlout. hiccup's cousin, the bully character, the one who is horrifically jealous that hiccup's dad was born before his. the one who desperately wants to prove himself, to be worthy, to make people proud. and you hate him, you despise him. he betrays everyone many times bc of the nothing promised to him by alvin and his mom. he loses himself, turns his back on himself, all bc he wants to prove himself. all bc he wants to be better than hiccup. and hiccup still forgives him and gives him chances, sometimes out of pity, but also bc snotlout is his cousin. he can't just turn his back on him no matter how miserable snotlout made his life. and in the end, snotlout sacrifices himself for hiccup. he gives up his life for hiccup in one last attempt to set things right. his death and the events preceding it are one of my absolute favorite moments in the book. gives me chills. makes me cry.

that's the thing with the books - they're so realistic. there is no inherently happy ending where everything works out. the first book begins with "there were dragons when i was a boy", implying that they're gone now. the books show there are consequences to our actions. they enslaved the dragons, they fought against them during the dragon rebellion all bc alvin and his mom said to, and now they're gone bc a simple apology doesn't fix hundreds of years of enslavement. and the only way for the world to move forward was for the dragons to leave and heal on their own. and now they have to learn to live without them. and yeah i've heard the third movie ends like that but. it doesn't have the build up. it doesn't have "there were dragons when i was a boy". it doesn't have eleven books of development to back it up, to make it feel meaningful.

i know that the movies are really special to a lot of people. i know that, on their own, they're genuinely good movies. i can acknowledge that the soundtrack is amazing and the animation is beautiful. i just can't see past the way they butchered the world that i love, the world that i grew up with. i can't see past the way people yelled at me for saying i liked the books better, the way that people gave me weird looks when i showed them a picture of the original toothless, when i tell them that nightfuries aren't even a type of dragon. cressida cowell created hundreds of different dragons, and the movies couldn't even pick from that. i can't forgive the way that barely anyone knows there are books bc the movie barely gives credit to them. i cannot forgive the way they capitalized off the books and then shoved them aside. i know cressida thinks they're good movies and i know a lot of httyd book fans also like them. but i just... i cannot get over how much they changed and how they missed so much and ignored the books. also they got rid of camicazi so hiccup could have a love interest and that is unforgivable to me.

if you disagree, that is a-okay. we're all entitled to our own opinions. i just ask that you, perhaps, try the books out. give them a chance. bc they're amazing works of art and also just like. don't yell at people who don't like the movies? whether it's bc they prefer the books or just aren't into that kind of movie. and just remember that dreamworks didn't come up with the story; cressida cowell did.

[mourn-and-watch]

i would really like to see people appreciate beau's growth and character arc more without trying to convince newcomers that "she'll get better eventually just you wait" implying she was such an unbearable character you have to make yourself sit through her scenes. i assure you, she wasn't

[unclewaynemunson]

“I already did”

It was 2014 when Wayne heard the news.

He was sitting in his favorite chair, the sun warming his face through the window while he stared out over the lake, when Eddie came bursting through the door in his usual whirlwind of chaotic energy.

'Where's Scott?' He had something almost frantic in his face; Steve came walking up behind him, placing a calming hand on his shoulder in an attempt to stop him from practically vibrating out of his own skin.

'Hi, uncle Wayne.'

At least one of them had proper manners.

'Takin' a walk,' Wayne said in reply to Eddie's question. 'You alright there, boy?'

'You haven't heard it yet?'

'Heard what?'

'Jesus Christ, you don't know it yet!'

Eddie dramatically flopped down on the couch, grabbing Steve's wrist to pull him with him.

'What's this about? Good news or bad?'

'Great!' said Steve, at the same moment Eddie groaned 'Baaaad.'

Wayne raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the both of them.

'Well... Drumroll, Steve,' Eddie ordered, waiting for Steve to repeatedly slap his hands on his legs. 'As of today, the state of Indiana has bestowed upon same-sex couples the unimaginable honor to express their love for each other in matrimony.' The sarcasm was oozing from his voice.

'Pretty cool, right?' Steve added, flashing Wayne an excited smile.

Eddie rolled his eyes so forcefully it looked painful.

'No, it's not “pretty cool!”' he exclaimed before Wayne could say anything. 'What, after centuries of oppression and violence they get to decide that we're now worthy of joining their fucked-up social constructs and we should be clapping our hands ready to conform to their gross ideas of what love is about? We should be grateful that they finally let us play by their rules?'

'It's not about playing by the rules, it's about – about...' Steve rapidly snapped his fingers a couple times, and Eddie, despite his passionate dramatics, patiently waited for him to find the word he was looking for.

'It's about recognition!' Steve finally exclaimed in a somewhat triumphant tone. 'We get to be a family!'

Eddie scoffed. 'We already are a family. Have been for almost thirty years. We got each other, we got the girls; we don't need any ridiculous bureaucratic documents to prove that.'

'That's not – it's a celebration of love!'

'It's a preposterous and backwards tool of the heteronormative patriarchy to submit the people to their institutions and chain women to their men and keep the masses quiet!'

'Lotta big words you got there, did you rehearse this?' Wayne chimed in.

Steve chortled, which earned him a poke in his ribs from Eddie.

'So are you and Scott gonna...?' Steve let the end of his question hover silently in the air.

'I dunno,' Wayne said. It wasn't something he had ever given much thought to – not because he didn't care, but because he had never expected to live in a world where it was a possibility in the first place. Hell, he still vividly remembered the sodomy laws being abolished. He had never exactly been an optimist. But here they were.

Eddie kept on ranting for almost a whole hour, while Steve kept looking at him with that fondly amused expression on his face, as if he could never get enough of Eddie's dramatic complaining.

'You don't mind that he's bein' so, um... stubborn?' Wayne cautiously asked him when Eddie left the room to go to the toilet.

Steve chuckled. 'If I did, I wouldn't have kept up with him for this long,' he jokingly answered.

'But you want to. Get married.'

The fine lines around Steve's eyes deepened. 'Yeah, I want to,' he admitted. 'And I'm pretty sure that all his aversion against it will fly right out of the window as soon as I get down on one knee for him.'

He got this cocky, confident smile on his face; Wayne loved those moments, when despite the gray hair and the wrinkles, something of the young boys Eddie and Steve used to be shone through in them.

XXX

Wayne didn't stop thinking about it after the boys left. He could still barely believe that this was a decision he could make. Who would've thought, after decades of self-loathing and suppressing his feelings, that he could now get married to the man he loved?

He grew more certain of it by the minute. The answer was already everywhere around him, after all: in his eager expectation of Scott's return, in the framed photographs on the wall, the cheesy Mr & Mr mugs on their coffee table, the two pairs of reading glasses that were lying side-by-side on a newspaper next to those mugs...

He wouldn't buy a ring or drop down on one knee – he was nearing eighty, he probably couldn't drop down on one knee and get back up again even if he wanted to. But he didn't want to do it by the rules anyway. He wanted this to be theirs.

And he saw everything he needed to know in Scott's eyes before either of them even opened their mouth.

'Did you hear the news?' Scott asked, that beautiful glow of being outside and active that he always had after he came back from his walks clinging around him. Sometimes Wayne would join him, but Scott could still walk faster and longer – the price Wayne had to pay for smoking like a chimney for nearly seventy years – so he didn't mind letting him go alone and having a pot of coffee ready when he'd come back, enjoying the sound of his voice while he told Wayne about the ever-changing nature or the birds he had spotted along his way.

Wayne merely hummed in response to his question, while Scott settled in next to him on the couch.

They had shared this life together for almost thirty years: in sickness and in health, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer – they'd already done it all. And yet...

He took his time to look into Scott's eyes, to search his face. His gaze wandered over the fine maze of lines that had kept expanding over the years they had spent together, the gray stubble where once a thick mustache had been, that one big age spot right below his left eye, the scar on his chin from that time one of the twins had viciously attacked him for having the audacity to make her eat her veggies.

He could see the question in Scott's eyes before either of them even spoke.

'Should we..?'

'Yes,' said Scott, smiling. Eager. And that was that.

XXX

There was no elaborate party, no fancy reception, nothing like that. Eddie took Wayne shopping for a new flannel and a slightly nicer pair of jeans for the occasion. Scott jokingly wore a tie with little rainbows on it over a button-down in a light shade of pink. It was simple: just them, Eddie, Steve and the girls at the town hall. Their signatures side by side on a piece of paper; it almost seemed too profane. They were back outside before they knew it. But Scott's smile still managed to light Wayne from inside like the very first time he had seen it.

Everybody else was already gathered back at the house. The house they got together, the house that had been theirs for more than twenty years, the house they had made into their home with or without that piece of paper that told them they could. Hopper and Joyce, Robin and Nancy, all the kids who lived close enough to make the trip; they were all there, sharing food and laughter in the garden near the lake while the sun set behind the trees.

After the world was wrapped in darkness and it was just the two of them again, Wayne grabbed Scott's hand to guide him back inside. He lingered on the porch, looking up at the stars shining down on them. He felt Scott shiver beside him, cold now that the sun had disappeared, and pulled him closer. His husband.

He knew that the two of them were finite, of course, unlike the stars in the sky above them. He knew that the biggest part of their lives was behind them, that they would leave this planet sooner rather than later. He had honestly never expected to make it this far. But he had. He had made it, all the way from being officially fundamentally wrong, through years and years of deep-rooted, stubborn self-hatred, to here. 2014. The year in which he got married to the man he had allowed himself to love. The best thing, after Eddie, that ever happened to him. The person who had colored his every day, who had made it easy to get up in the morning and to go to sleep feeling content.

He tore his gaze away from the sky to look at Scott.

'What are you thinking about?' Scott quietly asked him, watching him with that attentive gaze that wouldn't ever let a single detail escape him.

Wayne took his time to think about how to phrase it.

'How it's possible that everything changed and nothing changed at the same time, today,' he eventually answered.

Scott squeezed his hand, brought it up to his lips to press a kiss against it.

'Who would've thought, huh?' he said. 'That something so simple and silly as saying “I do” can change your whole life?'

'It didn't change my life,' Wayne answered with certainty. 'I already did.'

Scott chuckled. 'I already did, too.'

And somehow, this moment, just the two of them sharing these words on their porch wrapped in darkness, was infinitely more meaningful than anything that happened in the town hall.