#i understand being upset at having to get another subscription

[greenieflor]

Hey maybe a group of creatives deciding that they want control over their content and don't want to waste time and resources begging for ad revenue is like. A good thing

[heichou-ackerman]

Texting Levi fluff

Levi hates texting but he likes you. Another modern!AU which I am re-uploading since tumblr was stupid about it

TW: Some slight cussing but nothing MORE

It was rare for Levi to actually utilize his phone for  anything more than just make necessary calls, checking the weather, and keeping up to date with his monthly Tea Box subscription.

Lately, however, he found himself spending more time watching the bright screen on his phone, face scrunched up, as he began to understand the means of what it meant to actually meant to maintain consistent communication.

Unfortunately for him, you seemed to have a knack for coercing him to text you throughout the day no matter how busy he actually was with his actual work or with his own personal chores.

He both liked and hated this about you. Although your apparent clingy behavior was charming at best, it was a bit exhausting for the introverted man to keep up with some of your needs.

Like clockwork, your good morning texts would pop up at almost the exact same time every weekday (he actually began to depend on that more to wake up than his actual alarm). He learned the hard way you really had expectations of him texting you back and in maintaining a conversation with you from morning to night, at least during the days where you both were unable to see each other.

It was a pain in the ass.. Single word responses were insufficient to satisfy your need to drag out his opinion about a variety of things, ranging from your choice of lunch for the day and where he saw himself in ten years. He really didn’t understand why you valued his opinion so much about these things or why it was important for you to know.

>where do you see yourself in 10 years Levi? :)

> I dont know.

>Come on! Do you wanna live in a different city or something like that?

> I see myself being 10 years older

>You suck

He got a bit better over time, unaware of how he began to think a little more in depth about his responses to you. If he was curt and short, you would become upset at him. When it was something more of a slight flirtatious advance, his screen would be filled with heart emojis. He wouldn’t admit it but there was some satisfaction in seeing you reply eagerly to him. A curious feeling but not a bad one.

>cant wait to see your face on the weekend!

>you literally saw me yesterday

>so you dont wanna see me then?

>I didnt say that

>so you are excited to see me too :)

>I didnt say that either

>awe, getting tired of me already I see

>I told you Im not going to respond to anything stupid you say

>You just did! :D

>everything you say is stupid so Im at a loss

He wondered  if you acted this way with anyone else. He supposed, the way you tended to be, that you were equally as warm and inviting to most of your circle. Not to say, he wanted to have this particular ‘treatment’ for himself only, but it genuinely felt like you did dedicate most of the day to stay in touch with him as much as you could.

In the past, Levi would had found this overwhelming. He appreciated his friendships and relationships with others, but he was also someone who valued his privacy, and most people in his semi social circle understood this of him. He would be the type to hang out a Saturday evening and then would be completely out of reach for the rest of the month, which was minimal for him. He was unbothered for most of the time, which to be fair, is the way he preferred it.

Once you and him became an item however, there was a noted disruption in this rather, exclusive lifestyle of his. It wasn't awful but it was something he was not attuned to, so it made things feel awkward during some of these interactions.  Despite his standoffish demeanor and his lack of substance in some of his messages, you still kept at it. You didn't shy away from him or even become too upset when his responses seemed bland or cold. It seemed like you had an understanding of the type of person he was, but you still wanted to simply spend as much time in touch with him as possible. You genuinely craved for his attention and treated it as something important and precious.   And this simple fact made him like you so much. So, he would make an effort.

---

After a long day at his office job, Levi arrived home, throwing his belongings onto his couch, not caring much about things spilling out, and flopping onto his bed, a deep sigh coming out from his nose.   It was a shitty day at the office to say the least, which soured his mood for most of the day. As usual, you made attempts to message him throughout the work day, but he would be lying if he said there was a bare minimum effort at responding back to you. He knew you were probably peeved off at his lack of consistency for today, but he was far too exhausted to really explain himself about the matter.

He closed his eyes for a bit, feeling he might literally drift of to sleep still in his day clothes, when he felt the vibrations from his phone go off in his pocket. He groaned slightly, knowing only one person in the world would message him at such a time. He reached into his pocket to pull it out, squinting at the bright screen to see your name pop up with the following message:

> are you mad at me? :(

Jesus fucking Christ. He knew if he began to entertain the conversation (and no he wasn't mad at you), he would probably be up for another couple of hours trying to reassure you of this fact. He debated to leave it as it was for the sake of being able to go to sleep, but at the risk of you blowing up his phone the entire night.   "Goddammit." He muttered to himself. He sighed heavily, bracing for the worst as he gave into it and began to message you.

>no, long day at work

There, that should be sufficient, right?

Not even five seconds later, he saw those three dots appear, indicating you were messaging him back. He pictured you literally hunched over your phone like some gremlin, texting him rapidly.

>awe, im sorry to hear that. you home now?

Okay, not too bad. It seemed like you were considerate of his situation at the moment. He blinked forcefully, feeling his eyelids begin to droop as he stared at your response on his screen. No, he wouldn't be able to last long like this, he might as well just cut it short.

>yeah im home, super tired, need to sleep.

He hit the send button and set his phone down, allowing his eyes to droop shut, feeling the inbound sleep coming to him. He would literally be able to fall asleep and wake up in the same position the following morning, and for a couple of minutes, it felt as if this would be the case.

And then his phone begins to ring.

His eyes shoot out open as he become startled by his ringtone, and by nature, he immediately picks up the phone, being met with its bright screen.

It was you. Of course it was.

Levi rubbed his hand over his face, muttering curses at you and at the situation. It really didn't even fucking matter at this point if he tried ignoring you. He sighed heavily as he lazily answered, bringing you over to his ear.

"What." He muttered, not even as a question.

He could hear you slightly giggling over the other line, which made him kind of irritated. He told you how tired he was, we’re you really just fucking with him?

"Just wanted to check in to see if you're okay. But I can tell that you are super sleepy." He heard you on the other line.

"Yeah." He replied simply. "I told you I was."

"Sorry. You mentioned you had a hard day at work, I figured you wanted to talk about, buuuut I didn't think you'd be this tired. You usually stay up pretty late, even during your worst days."

Well, you weren't wrong about that. He would usually be a night owl most weekday evenings, entertaining your text shenanigans well off into midnight.

"I'm fine." He iterated, allowing his phone to fall next to his head, close enough to still hear you. He kept his eyes closed, still somewhat attentive to you. "Work was shit but I'm fine. Sleepy."

"Want me to tell you a bed time story?" You asked softly, jokingly of course.

"No. "

"Didn't think you'd want one. Want me to sing you a lullaby?"

"No, fucking weirdo."

“Kidding, kidding. Kinda sucks, but I’d be so down to just do that thing you like me to do to you. If I was there of course.”

He raised a slight eyebrow, eyes narrowing slightly towards his ceiling. “I literally don’t have the energy to talk nasty right now.”

“No!” You exclaimed. “Not that stupid. I meant like, that one night when I was playing with your hair and you fell asleep on my lap.” He hummed in consideration. “Ah, yeah. Maybe. That was nice.” It wasn’t too long ago, but it was another of those exhausting evenings for him, similar to this one. You mindlessly began to run your fingers through his hair, coaxing him to rest on your lap as you minded yourself on your phone. Your fingers were soft and it seemed like they knew exactly which parts of his scalp would respond the best. It was no secret he enjoyed your pampering from time to time, although he would never directly ask you for it. He would always hope you would initiate it however and it seemed as if you had an intuition of when he really needed. This being one of those times.

You chuckled softly on the other line. "Okay, okay, let me leave you be then sleepy head. Can I text you tomorrow then?"

Why the hell are you asking that?

You didn’t need his permission to do so, and its not like you ever asked him for it.

"Why are you asking that?" He asked you bluntly, his voice low.

You stayed quiet for a bit on the other line for a bit, and Levi could feel the hesitation from you.  "Don't know. Just wanted to be a bit considerate."

Considerate? Considerate of what?

He should really go to bed, he thought. But there was something weird about you right now.

"What's with you?" He continued to probe. "You're being weirder than usual."

"Gee, thanks." You respond dramatically. "But nothing is wrong, I just wanna be considerate of, your time lets say."

He sighed loudly enough for you to be able to hear him on the other line. "Okay, I'm too tired to be subtle about it. What's wrong? What did I do?”

" "Nothing Levi!" You exclaim with a laugh. "I just wanna be mindful of not bothering you too much during the day, especially when you got all this stuff to do at work. I realize I can be a little too demanding of your attention, but I also don't want you to feel obligated as well. Hence...why I asked if it was okay."

Yeah, he agreed in his mind that you were a little bit demanding at times with this, but you weren’t overtly intrusive about it. Plus, if he was actually bothered by it, what was stopping him from simply blocking your messages during his shift? He obviously didn't do it because he didn't think of it that way.

"Don't be stupid." He replied lowly. "Let's be real, you'd lose your shit if I didn't reply to you during the day. Regardless, I'm fine, it doesn't bother me."

"You sure?" You asked a bit skeptically. He could tell you were genuine about all of this, and even if you did like to be overtly clingy, he understood you were capable of understanding necessary boundaries about things. He would never admit it to you, but you were capable of making mature choices about things.

He kept thinking of that particular pout you'd make when you tried to be serious with him. He didn't know if you made it on purpose but it was a rather cute feature about you. He imagined you making that same face right now as you tried to see if he was actually okay with you. He felt a smile form on his face.

"I'm sure, you brat." He responded back. "I enjoy talking to you, it makes work a bit more bearable. So stop asking me for permission like some kid."

He could hear you hum rather approvingly on the other line. "Okie dokie then. But legit, go ahead at get some rest. I'll check in with you in the morning yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Good night, love you."

He grunted back to you as his response. Yeah, he was still like that about those words. It was hard for him to say it back to you without feeling the need to be swallowed whole by the entire earth. He did care deeply for you, without a doubt, but it was as if he physically couldn't utter those things to you. At least not yet, it was still a work in progress.

You hung up on him on your end, and Levi rolled over to his side, breathing in deeply. An image of you kept popping into his head, wondering how this conversation may have ended in person. He wondered what kind of stupid face you'd be making or how annoying you'd be with your necessity to touch and hold him. He imagined a situation where you'd get upset at him for swatting his hand away, unaware that he would do it on purpose just to rile you up and to encourage you to forcefully grab a hold of it. He felt a crooked smile form on his face as he recalled your goodbye to him, your soft voice lulling him in his head as he felt a need to share the same sentiment to you in some way.

He rolled over back in his original position, eyes slowly peering open as he grabbed his phone, slowly tapping on its screen, soon pressing send to you before finally drifting off to sleep.

>I love you too.

[aprilblossomgirl]

hi! this is the anon from earlier today again!

i get the disappointment you’re feeling because same. i’ve been looking forward to the show so much, and now i probably won’t even get to watch it live due to work.

anyways, gmmtv is setting them up for failure atm, and it is upsetting for everyone - the actors, the fans and probably everyone who has been working on this project for months and months

there haven’t been too many shows that were broadcast on other paid platforms yet so there aren’t a lot of examples. 23.5 degrees and cooking crush are the most recent (and possibly only??? idk i can’t remember 😅) examples and neither trailer mentioned youtube and they also didn’t put any info about it being shown on youtube on twitter either. for 23.5 they only specified the countries where it was going to be shown on netflix. however, they DID NOT specify that the show was going to be put on youtube in all other countries

idk how the whole iqiyi thing is going to work either, but at the end of the day it’s just another subscription-based platform like netflix so they are definitely going to geoblock the youtube broadcast it in all countries where it’s going to be put on iqiyi - the iqiyi thailand twitter page is the only one having posted about it yet but ig it could include some other countries as well. also, for 23.5 they’re putting the uncut version on youtube and netflix so that’s an interesting fact

i don’t think gmmtv is going to say anything about this whole situation so we will probably have to wait until wednesday to find out if it will be on youtube or not 🙏🏻

Hi Anon, thanks for dropping by again. I don't think I can say much about this broadcasting policy by the company; I could only try to understand based on the published promo materials (i.e., the shows' posters) and perhaps a few 'conversations' among fans on twitter.

And you're right, now that I remember, I think it was not the GMMTV Official account that stated about 23.5 still being broadcasted on the company's YouTube channel outside SEA and Latin America, maybe it was the show's twitter channel or maybe the unofficial fan account of the show that already did the research so they could come up with the information. But I do remember reading such statement, that's how I ended up trying to watch the show on YouTube using VPN (I live in SEA so the YouTube broadcast is geoblocked since it's on Netflix). Some fans already said similar things about this whole We Are x iQIYI case. So, assuming the case would be the same with 23.5 (because both Netflix and iQIYI are paid subscription-based platforms), it is most likely that We Are will still gonna air on the GMMTV YouTube wherever no iQIYI broadcast available. But again, and as you mention that GMMTV probably won't say anything to clarify, I think I would want to wait until Wednesday to make sure.

As I mentioned in the tags of my previous ask/answer, I think all the uproar was more than just, if it's not, about the sudden platform changes. It was due to accumulation of many things concerning the overall promotion (including unclear information about the viewing platform issue) of the show by the company. So that's how things blew up. I would be very 'happy' if this all was just a misunderstanding of the information and turns out the show is going to be on YouTube. However, the thing with having different platforms is the challenge for the fans (both Thai and international) to do the live trending of the show while it was airing. As you might know, it plays an important role in supporting the show, the artists, and the show-maker that could be one of the things that lead to the show's success. So that adds to why things went a bit chaotic yesterday when the new poster of the show came out. Trending would be a lot easier if the show is broadcasted on the same platform across regions. But now we know that will no longer be the case, I'm afraid.

And finally, regardless of that whatever GMMTV is doing right now is not at all a favor to the show, I think it's still way too early to predict about 'setting up the show for failure' simply because it hasn't even started yet. The show involves four fandoms, and I trust that most of the fans are still willing to find a way to maintain their support for the show regardless all these 'chaos' :)

[sturkillerbase]

Hello friends!! It's been a while. A very long while, I know...

I'm writing this to tell you all that's happened in my life that stopped me from coming back here. I'll be tagging my closest mutuals, but feel free to not read this if you don't want to. Sorry in advance because it's going to be a long one :/

First of all, if any of you are upset or disappointed or frustrated with me for vanishing, I completely understand, and it's okay.

Back in June, the first week of it, I got quite sick, and my mind wasn't in the best of places. I thought a week or two off would be enough. But then, inthe middle of that period, I got a terrible flu. I had never had a flu episode like that in my whole life, and even my mom was scared. It was so bad I also ended up with otitis and sinusitis. We spent so much in doctors and medicines, and I actually to this day need sinus medicine. It's only been a couple weeks since I've felt 100% well. Well, all of that took me an entire month.

Since I was so sick, I was on my bed for the entire two weeks. I only left the house to go to the doctor and a few times in my backyard to get some fresh air. I also had no energy to talk to people, weather in person or online. So, as you can imagine, I had A LOT of time to think on my own. Which led to overthinking the most trivial things and, unfortunately, the absolutely not trivial things as well. I've always been depressed, and this led me down into a well of despair, sadness, emptiness and all that comes with it. I was feeling like a used, dirty, old rag thrown into a dark corner.

Now we get to July. Despite my depressed state, I apply to the cinema postgraduation I've been waiting for since January, and I start making plans for my tumblr comeback. Then, I have MAJOR issues with the institution and its website. The website subscription page does not recognize the email I applied with. Without being able to log in to the page, I can’t complete my application, because I can't send the documents they require. I get in touch with them. The first people I talk to are completely useless, and send me copy-pasted instructions that don’t help at all. I then find another way of contacting them. They now know about it and say they'll fix the issue. Well, the entire month of July goes by, with me contacting them and them not solving the issue. They only halfway fix it when I tell them I'll be contacting the consumer's defense system (the institution is a private one so I can sue them for this ridiculous situation and stress they put me under), since I've been with this issue since July 1st, and it was now August 1st, AND classes began on the 9th. I don't know exactly what the woman on the other side did, but suddenly I can access the student area and finally send the required documents. I was so stressed through the entire month, there was no way I had enough peace of mind to come back to my blog. And I didn't want to come back just to complain and be angry.

But all is good now right? The degree of my dreams was about to start. I finally felt I had a purpose in life. I admitted to myself I was mentally worse than I thought I was, and that allowed me to start working on getting better. I get the urge to start illustrating again, something I love but hadn't done since January. Things are going just FINE.

Until they don't.

On August 3rd I'm informed the post grad classes won't be happening this trimester because there wasn't enough quorum. I'll have to wait until the next class, in October. After all that stress they made me go through for a whole month...

My mind crashes again. I'm back to the starting point, which, to me, feels like a loser's point.

But FINE! I'll wait. It'll happen, just not now.

Fast forwards to last Friday, August 12th. I was happy. I went to my friend's birthday party and I had fun. My friend and I have a trip scheduled for next week. I chose nice stuff at the supermarket for a nice Father's day dinner (this year it was on August 14th here in my country).

Then, last Friday, during dinner, my dad decides to be an ass. He says the most stupid shit he's ever said. I've always had issues with him but things had been doing well lately. But he just had to ruin it all.

So now here I am. My mind is fucked up again. I couldn't bring myself to wishing him a happy father's day or even giving him a hug. Well, how can I after his last episode of not wanting to be a proper father who fulfills the basic things he's supposed to as a parent? Plus accusing of things I had never done or said?? I'm angry. I'm upset. This makes me sick and gives me a headache. I feel like punching a punching bag for an entire week at least.

I'm truly hoping this 4 day vacation, away at a beautiful place, with people I like, will ease my mind. After that, I'll be back here with all that I'm in debt with you.

I'm sorry this is so long. I'm sorry I've been away, with no apparent signs of coming back. I haven't been a good friend to you here on tumblr. But I hope you'll understand I had no energy left to be here. English is not my first language, so even thinking in it was overwhelming to my already overworked and over exhausted brain.

I want to thank @scorpio-marionette and @boliv-jenta for not giving up on me; I've seen all of your notifications, and although my mind was too far away for interacting, my heart was warmed everytime I got a notification from you.

I also want to thank all of you who'll be understanding of this messy situations. I don't hope or wish for forgiveness or pity. I wrote this because I wanted to let you know of it all.

I do love you all, and never stopped for a moment. I've missed all of our interactions, and I'm looking forward to getting back here and making new lovely memories with you. As I've mentioned a while ago, the best thing that I've ever done and that ever happened to me was joining the Pedro Pascal fandom, because I had never met people that are so, SO lovely, kind, comprehensive and talented!!

Sending you all all my love and best wishes,

Ana 💖

@scorpio-marionette @boliv-jenta @darth-voder @supernaturalgirl20 @misspearly1 @mandoblowmybackout @becksxoxo @littlemisspascal @oonajaeadira

[taggingtim]

Why I love Pre-Boot Tim Drake and why the Reboot has ruined him

I love Tim Drake.  He is my favorite comic book character of all time.  I’ve been really upset the past few days about what DC has been doing with him lately, and I thought it would be cathartic for me to write something up about it.  (No, this isn’t a rant about Tim being bi/gay; it’s a much larger problem than that. But I’ll get to that in a bit.) Bear with me for a bit of history, first.

When I was a kid I loved the Batman Animated Series.  I know this will lose me a lot of internet cred, but I always preferred the fourth season. In particular, I loved Tim Drake. He was fun and funny and I absolutely adored him.  I used to beg my mom to take me to the mall so I could buy issues of Gotham Adventures. For my birthday one year my parents got me a subscription to the comic, and I was blown away by the idea that I could have comics MAILED to my HOUSE.

Around middle school I started collecting Marvel comics, mostly X-men stuff.  I loved them, but when I started college I quit the hobby for financial reasons.

 Fast forward a few years, and I felt I was financially stable enough to start buying comics again. Rather than going back to Marvel, I decided to give Batman comics a chance.  I had no idea where to start, and when I found out my beloved Tim had his own comic series, I thought it was a perfect entry point into the Batman universe. I bought the complete series from a local comic shop and dove in.

 Tim’s Robin series was exactly what I was looking for in a comic.  He was very different from little Timmy Todd from BtAS, but I loved him. I built the rest of my comic collection around him, grabbing up every book that he was featured in, from Young Justice to Teen Titans to Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing, Red Robin, and many others.  I have random books from series like The Demon just because Tim was in them.

 So why did I like Tim so much?  What about this character made me so excited for more?  I found in Tim something that I had never seen in a comic book before: character growth.  Somehow, though he was written by many different authors over many different years, Tim managed to have a character arc that is consistent and makes sense. Sure, there were a few small bumps along the way, but on the whole Tim has always stayed true to his character, and he’s developed in a way that the big name characters, like Batman, never can.

 When we’re first introduced to Tim, he’s a young teen who has been neglected by his parents growing up. He’s smart, healthy, and strong, but he lacks so much self confidence and has little sense of self worth.  Tim notices Bruce’s increasing violence as he grieves for the loss of his son, and Tim knows he needs to step in and help.  Batman needs a Robin.

 For most characters, this would be the part where Tim put himself forward for the job.  But he doesn’t.  He seeks out Dick Grayson and begs him to come home instead.  It’s only when Batman and Nightwing are in danger and there is literally no one else to help that Tim steps up and dons the cape. And once he does, he’s constantly plagued by self-doubt, terrified he will screw up and leave Batman worse than ever before.

 From there, Tim undergoes intense training.  He never begs to be in the spotlight, doesn’t push to go out on the streets before he’s ready.  His goal is to help Bruce as much as possible.

 Here’s where I started to fall in love with him.  All that self-doubt, the constant need to be useful?  That’s exactly what you would expect to see from a child whose parents had ignored and neglected him.  He finally has a parental figure who sees him, who values him, and Tim does everything he can to make himself worthy in the hopes that Bruce will keep him around.

 This is the first example of character consistency that we see with Tim.  And it continues.  When his mom dies and his dad is put in a coma, you see Tim struggle to come to terms with losing the people he loves, but never had a relationship with.  Tim almost never mentions his mom after her death, because she just wasn’t present in his life.  When his dad recovers and decides to stick around, Tim struggles to build a relationship with him.  He’s plagued with guilt because he’s finally found the father figure he needed in Bruce, but he thinks that he’s supposed to feel that way for Jack.  It’s a running undercurrent in their relationship that creates distance between them for years.

 This is already so long, so I’m going to try to summarize a bit more.  We get to watch Tim grow up.  We see his awkward relationship with his first girlfriend, Ariana.  He doesn’t know how to treat her; he’s never had the opportunity to observe a healthy relationship.  But he tries so, so hard.  All of Tim’s relationships are awkward, because he’s never had a model of a good one. Steph is a great match for him, because she’s very vocal about what she wants and needs, and she isn’t afraid to call Tim out when he messes up, which is exactly what Tim needs.

 Big things happen to Tim. He’s stuck with Jean-Paul Valley, who slowly goes insane, leaving Tim to try to keep the city in one piece.  He’s infected with the Clench, a plague that sweeps over Gotham and kills everyone it touches, and barely escapes with his life. His girlfriend is sexually assaulted, leaving him to deal with the fallout.  His family moves out of Gotham, and he has to sneak back in during No Man’s Land to help.  His relationship with his dad has intense ups and downs, resulting in him being sent to boarding school, punished in a variety of ways, and generally caused a lot of trouble in his life.

 Then people start dying. Over the course of about a year in his life, Tim loses his girlfriend, his dad, a close friend, and his best friend, each of whom dies under tragic conditions.  Tim’s grief is intense, and he is understandably traumatized by the losses. We see fundamental changes in his character.  He changes his costume from something bright and cheerful to something darker that reflects his emotional state.  He’s more subdued, his adventures a little more serious.

 When Bruce first tries to adopt him, Tim literally creates an uncle and hires an actor to play him, just to avoid dealing with the situation.  Bruce has viewed Tim as a son for years, so to him the adoption is an obvious step.  For Tim, it feels like a betrayal of his father, and it takes a while before he’s ready to accept Bruce’s love, home, and a place in his family.  

 When Damian shows up on the scene, Tim really struggles with him, and not just because early Damian is a horrid brat who tries to kill Tim on multiple occasions.  Tim has always felt the need to earn his place with Bruce, and Damian constantly throws all of Tim’s biggest fears in his face—he’s not wanted or needed now that the “real” son is here, he’s not worthy of a place in the family, he’s not good enough.

 Tim tries to clone Conner, his best friend.  He’s lost so many people, and he’s desperate to get them back.  Conner was cloned to begin with and fully matured over a very short period of time; the technology clearly exists, so why can’t Tim use it to get his best friend back?  And if he can get Conner back, why not the others he’s lost?  He eventually gives up, but when he eventually gets access to a Lazarus Pit, he immediately wants to incorporate the waters into his process so he can revive his loved ones.  With Dick’s help, Tim eventually decides to let it go, but it’s such a poignant moment for the character.

 Then Bruce dies, and Dick takes Robin away.  Tim switches to the Red Robin persona as he travels the world, alone, trying to prove that he was right.  He has to deal with the trauma of losing another father, finds out that his girlfriend never died but let him hurt so much for so long.  His brother and the only close friend he has left both think his grief has overwhelmed his sense and that he’s gone crazy.  He’s utterly alone.

 The Red Robin series is such a great culmination for Tim.  He finds a place for himself as a hero, as a CEO.  He gets parts of his family back—Bruce, Steph, Bart, Conner.  He finally figures out who he wants to be and creates a place for himself.

 This overarching character development is what I love about Tim.  His many, many traumas impact his decisions, and you can clearly see how he changes over time as a result of them.  I didn’t even go into his development as a leader from his early fumbling with Young Justice to his strong leadership of the Teen Titans, or how his relationships with Conner, Bart, and Cassie develop so fluidly and realistically over the years.

 This is why I love Tim. Characters like Batman are static; nothing that happens to them will ever have a lasting impact, because in the end the character always returns to what they were.  Tim, on the other hand, has changed and developed A LOT since his initial appearance.  His growth has always been consistent and logical.

 When the reboot happened, all of that character growth was lost.  Tim was replaced with a jerk who betrayed his friends and cheated on his girlfriend.  DC has basically retconned all of this and tried to turn Tim back into who he was, but by taking away all of the things that have happened to him over the years, Tim has lost SO MUCH.

 I keep looking for my Tim in recent comics, and I just can’t find him.  It breaks my heart, because I love him so much, and it feels like he’s lost to me forever.  The most recent Young Justice comic series actually gave me hope; I felt like maybe, finally, someone was going to write Tim correctly.  He had his primary friendships back, his relationship with Steph was developing (even if they seem to have completely dropped all the development around Steph’s decision to let Tim think she was dead).  The actual book itself wasn’t fantastic, but it felt like they were headed in the right direction.

 Over the last few days, I read the Batman: Urban Legends books.  I actually read the Batman/Red Hood story first, which was fantastic.  I was really excited to read Tim’s story (though I already knew how it ended).  Jason’s character was handled so well, and he seemed to actually have some character development that will hopefully last.  I anticipated the same for Tim.

 But Tim’s story was awful. The plot was all over the place—kids are being kidnapped, so Tim has to join a pain cult to get them back?  He’s somehow helping Oracle with computer issues while simultaneously questioning witnesses?  He’s broken up with Steph, off camera, shortly after telling her how much he loves her, but Steph somehow thinks that they should have a caring relationship where Tim tells her what he’s feeling?  Bernard has somehow become a good enough fighter to stand side by side with Robin?  Tim STILL doesn’t have a code name?  Why is everyone suddenly hounding him about what he wants to do with his life?

 It’s just such a mess of a story.  If it didn’t end with Tim agreeing to go on a date with Bernard, no one would ever have even mentioned it.  There’s nothing particularly re-readable or enjoyable about it.

 I actually liked that they brought Bernard back. I really enjoyed him in the original Robin series. It’s been a while since I read that part of the series (I’m actually working my way back through it now).  I know Bernard always read as gay to me, yet somehow I felt like he was out of character in these books.

 And then, the climax of the story.  Tim is bi, or gay, or has at least agreed to go on a date with a boy.

 If this had happened in the pre-boot, when Tim was Red Robin and had an actual character arc, I honestly wouldn’t have had an issue with it.  I do think it would have needed a LOT more build up than it was given here.  Tim has always been a very introspective character, and we’ve been party to so much of his internal monologue over the years.  It seems very strange to me that such a huge thing just sneaks up on him out of nowhere when he’s never even thought about it before.

 But more than that, this story just feels like the final death blow for the Tim I loved.  The whole arc is about how Tim doesn’t know who he is or who he wants to be.  What will his hero name be?  Will he go to college?  What is he going to do with his life?  These are all great questions, and his answer to all of them is… date a boy?  

 Is this going to be his defining characteristic going forward?  From here will we just see Tim exploring and discovering his sexuality?  The Tim we have now doesn’t have a family, a team, a purpose, or even a code name.  Why was this the thing that DC decided to give us?  It feels like they wanted to make a gay Robin and decided it would be Tim because they didn’t know what else to do with him.

 It’s stupid, but I honestly feel like I’ve spent the past few days grieving the loss of a loved one. The Tim that DC is presenting now is just not the person that I knew.  Tim would never break up with Steph that abruptly for what he admits is no apparent reason.  He would never say “just call me Robin, since Damian’s out of town.”  Everything that I love about Tim seems to be gone, and in its place DC has given me a date with a boy.  

 Again, it’s not Tim being not-straight that I have an issue with.  I’ve never read the character that way, but it’s something I can live with. My issue is the way it was handled. Why not make Tim an actual person first, and then explore his sexuality?  Send him off to college!  He’s obviously thinking about it!  It’s the perfect opportunity to give him his own book.  He can move to a different city, choose a new name, and DC can introduce a whole new set of characters.  Figure out which parts of Tim’s backstory are still canon, and which have been dropped. Make him a person again, and then let him explore his sexuality.

 I know this post is all over the place, and I don’t have time right now to go back and edit it.  I just really needed an outlet for my frustration.  Right now it feels like there are so many people who are so excited about Tim being bi/gay, but they don’t know anything else about him.  I keep seeing people comment how DC has been “dropping hints for years!” with no evidence other than “he and Superboy were really close!”  I guess I’d just really like to have some dialogue with other people who are fans of Tim, rather than fans of Tim-as-bi/gay or fans of Tim-as-straight.

 Does anyone else feel this way?  I’d honestly like to have a dialogue about it with other long time fans.

[poetrusicperry]

the poets and their first summer jobs

i’ve seen some discourse about how rich all the boys/their families are, and of course there would be like very little reason for them to work, but i couldn’t help wondering who would do what for their first jobs (summer jobs bc they couldn’t work while they’re at school). andddd that led me to writing this lol

neil: so neil would have like absolutely zero time for a job between all his normal coursework/extracurriculars and his summer classes (”you know me, always taking on too much”), but i guarantee you he would still take the time to get a job and have his own money to do with whatever he chose. mr. perry wouldn’t care much because it showed neil “taking initiative” or whatever. neil would likely work at a diner as either a bus boy or a waiter. he’s super personable, so he’d always strike up conversations with people sitting at the counter, and he’d get loads of tips bc he’s cute (: he’d bring his summer school work with him to do during lulls in business, which his boss didn’t mind because it’s neil and everyone knows how responsible he is. the poets would come visit him pretty much every day (to eat, see neil, and escape the heat in the air conditioning), likely taking up a whole booth, and making an absolute mess of the area. charlie would be making spitballs, aiming at cameron and knox every time (earning a “charlie, knock it off, i told you three times already! so mature of you, really.” from cameron) and meeks/pitts would try to see how many straws they could connect to make “ultra straw.” todd would come hang out at the counter when neil was closing, admiring his pretty bf as he worked (’: neil would always make todd a chocolate milkshake with whipped cream and rainbow jimmies on the house, claiming, “we have to empty out the ice cream machine anyway” (but really he’d take the cost out of his paycheck, just wanting to make todd happy). his boss would hire him back every summer, loving how much business neil drove in (even if the poets made a mess every time they hung out and ate) and absolutely adoring how much effort neil put into what anyone else would seemingly call a “meaningless” job.

todd: you can’t tell me that todd wouldn’t look forward to working. especially during the summers, it would get him out of the house and away from his parents judging his every move. being the shy introvert he is, he’d likely do things like mowing lawns or gardening for people around his neighborhood. minimal interactions, but still decent pay (as all the people in his neighborhood were likely super rich and could afford to pay him well). the poets’ parents would hire him, after much convincing from their sons (”todd’s just trying to make some money, dad. please?”) and todd would appreciate this more than they ever knew. he’d become super familiar with flower types and he’d become a lot more nurturing after taking care of plants and grass for multiple summers. he’d keep a little journal or notebook with drawings or sketches of the flowers he’d taken care of, complete with descriptions and magazine/newspaper clippings from his mom’s better homes and garden subscription (a lot of his poetry would become nature-related as well). it would be his late night project, or something he’d do if he couldn't sleep (which was pretty common for todd). he’d call neil on the phone some nights and just gush about all kinds of flowers or tell neil how he accidentally got stung by a bee and cried about it because he knew the bee would die (all the while, neil would be listening so intently, taking note about which flowers were todd’s favorites for future use (’: the calls would have to be pretty planned, bc if neil wasn’t working, he was doing school work, or his parents were keeping an annoyingly close watch on him. but sometimes neil would call him impromptu and that made todd just the happiest little camper ever). todd’s nails would be really short (he’d cut them really often because he doesn’t like the feeling of dirt under his nails), which means he couldn’t bite his nails anymore, causing him to pick up a new anxious habit of biting the inside of his bottom lip ): overall, though, todd would like his job, and even find pleasure in being surrounded by little flowers all day. also if/when neil ever got the chance, he’d absolutely tag along to see his sweaty boyfriend in action (come on, neil would go absolutely nuts for todd in a cutoff shirt, 5″ inseam shorts, and converse mowing a lawn looking all manly and tough). 

charlie: obviously, charlie wouldn’t need to work because of his financial situation, but his mom would 110% make him get a job just so he wouldn’t be around the house causing trouble/bothering his siblings for fun (”i’m hosting a lot of book club meetings for the country club this summer, i can’t have you putting spiders in the ladies’ hats again, charles”). similar to neil, mr. charlie dalton would work his summers at an ice cream/custard stand. he’d have to wear a white, short sleeve button up, a red and white striped apron, and one of those white, rectangular hats (his least favorite part HAHA, stating, “my hair is one of my best features and this just takes it all away. it’s unfair.”). the poets would visit often, both for ice cream, but primarily to give him a hard time about his uniform (”i’ll give you twenty bucks to wear this on our first day of classes” meeks would tease, completely gobsmacked when charlie showed up to their first chemistry class in his uniform, earning lots of demerits, but also twenty dollars). charlie would hate it at first, but obviously he’d adjust, being the extroverted/personable person, not taking himself too seriously and being one of the best ice cream slingers anyone had ever seen. he’d give the cute girls (and boys) extra scoops of ice cream for free, winking as he handed them their orders. like neil’s boss, charlie’s boss was even more thankful for charlie’s presence because they’d likely be raking in at least triple the income they would in a summer without him. he’d become a sundae expert, spending many dead poets meeting making them for his friends while they read poems and stories. that being said, he’d come to hate eating ice cream, publishing an article in welton’s honor demanding that they remove ice cream from their dessert menu (yes, almost exactly like the “girls at welton” prank, but he’d make the call collect this time. mr. nolan would be fed up to the point where he wouldn’t even punish charlie physically, just suspend him from rowing [which charlie wouldn’t mind at all HAHA]).

meeks & pitts: after their hi-fi success and the fact that they are seemingly inseparable, they both sought out jobs at the local radio station where they were hired as interns/assistants, running errands and picking up coffee or lunch for the station. but sometimes, when they worked pretty late, the night shift dj would let them pick the records and show them how everything worked (: after nights like that, meeks and pitts would go to one of their houses and add modifications to their hi-fi radio, staying up all night modifying and researching (by the end of the summer, they had made another hi-fi (portable) and their og hi-fi would have been morphed into a huge nationally reaching radio that they keep in the cave (since it would be disallowed in their room at welton). another job that the two of them would have would be answering calls for the station about song requests. with this knowledge, charlie and the other poets would hang out at someone’s house, calling and requesting the same songs over and over and over again. their biggest task for the summer would be organizing the shelves with all the records into alphabetical order (”duh, we should go by first name, meeks. which other way would it be” pitts would argue, only to find out that after they had spent about three weeks alphabetizing by first name, they were supposed to go by last name. “now who’s the idiot?” meeks would jeer, beginning to pull the records off the shelves). they’d also learn a lot about music from their night shift coworker, which would help in their quest to woo some ladies the following school year.

cameron: cameron liked spending his summers doing research projects for fun and just reading a whole lot, so you can imagine his displeasure at when his parents asked him to get a job (presumably to help with paying for his schooling). while upset about it, he wouldn’t complain, and took it on the chin, understanding the reasoning. he’d apply to a couple places, but ultimately end up as a grocery store cashier/stock boy. much like charlie, he’d have the same kind of uniform, but with a green apron instead. he’d spend most of his shift ringing people up at the register, being friendly and personable (something no one ever really realized about him !!). the poets’ moms would always see him and choose his register on purpose, using it as a chance to catch up or tell him to tell his parents that “the overstreets say hello!” or “mrs. anderson says hi!” pitts, meeks, and charlie would utilize cameron’s position at the supermarket to buy nudie magazines unembarrassed/slightly illegally HAHA (”come on, cameron! it’s not like you won’t be included in seeing them next year, too. we bring them to the meetings, you know that!” charlie would say, leaving cameron at a loss, reluctantly scanning the magazines and bagging them as pitts and meeks sniggered). charlie would wave, blow him a kiss, and wink as they left, “love you, richardddd.” sure enough, the magazines would make an appearance during the following school year and cameron was glad he had decided to let them buy the magazines lol. 

knox: out of all the poets, i feel like our knoxious would be the least inclined to work (yes, even less inclined than charlie). his parents wouldn’t even make him get a job because he simply didn’t need to, but to everyone’s surprise, he would volunteer at the animal shelter. the poets would later find out that it was a great way to meet girls (which is why he did it lmfao so they endlessly goaded him about it). charlie would visit often, and even took a rescue puppy home, much to charlie’s younger sister’s delight. charlie even wanted to start volunteering at the shelter to also meet girls, but he was too busy at the ice cream stand (plus, he had really grown to like it there so he didn’t want to leave). another effect of volunteering made knox super interested in zoology and animals, which brought out a newer, more nurturing/caring side to him, and who knows, maybe he’d go vegetarian somehow. he’d want to pursue a career in animal science or becoming a veterinarian, but mr. overstreet was hellbent on knox taking over the firm, so it seemed like a pipe dream. knox would continue to volunteer at the animal shelter, well into his career as a lawyer, and would even go to veterinary school in his 30s (when he was a nationally famous, established lawyer) to get certification to work with animals in a broader way (: 

hope you guys liked these. it was pretty fun to write, and i'd pay such good money to see neil, charlie, and cameron in their uniforms (and todd, but that’s neither here nor there). happy thursday !! let me know what you guys think of these <3(:

[mymegumi]

BUT WHEN HE LOVES ME I FEEL LIKE IM FLOATING

pairing: sugawara koushi x fem!reader

genre: fluff

warnings: spoilers for love island series five, the female reader is only for the nicknames ‘pretty girl’ and ‘sweet girl’

word count: 1.0k

note: for darling cass bc she’s lit going thru it rn and asked for a fic w suga n love island 😋

“No, because I don’t really understand.”

You huff at your boyfriend’s words, eyebrows knitting together as you turn away from the TV, British accents filtering into the room from the speakers as you tilt your head at him. Sugawara has his confused face on—his lips pursed forward, eyes squinted a bit, and a chin resting between his thumb and forefinger.

“Babe, what isn’t there to understand?” Your lips have a teasing smile on them as you motion towards the TV again. “Five girls and five guys are introduced to each other and are forced to couple up, before they end up spending a few nights at the villa together in the same bed.”

“Yeah, I got that part,” he rolls his eyes a bit at the tone in your voice, a bit too excited and talking so fast it was almost hard to understand you, “but I thought I saw more people in the trailers?”

“Oh, yeah.” You nod your head at him, hand running idly along the straight of his shoulders. “So, usually after the first night, the hosts send in more contestants to stir up drama. This time around, they ended up adding two guys: Curtis and Tommy.”

He nods sagely along to your words. Despite not really knowing what was happening in the show, he knew you needed any sort of distraction from the ending of your favorite anime that had happened recently. He didn’t want to be insensitive and force you to watch something he wanted to watch, so he was happily indulging you in your favorite dating show.

It helped that it was filled with drama, and he liked seeing them argue.

“Okay, so, we don’t like Sherif, and we don’t like Callum?” He inquired, watching the way your face lit up as he remembered a few names of the people that had been introduced already. “Okay, is there a reason why we don’t like Sherif?”

“Well,” you press your face into the crook of his shoulder when a commercial plays, too poor to pay for a Hulu subscription without them, “he’s not doing bad now, but he’s kinda jerky later on in. He ends up leaving cause he got, like, kicked off.”

“Oh shit,” Sugawara presses a kiss against the crown of your head, before curling an arm around your shoulders and pulling you into his lap. “I love you.”

Sighing contently, you curl your legs over his lap and make sure to curl into his warmth, making a soft noise of approval when he grabs a blanket from the side of the couch. He throws it over the two of you, leaning back as the show turns back on, the announcer’s voice jovial as he reintroduces the contestants.

“I love you, too.” You murmur softly, feeling a soft tugging in your heart when Sugawara pulls you just a bit closer. “Thanks for watching this with me.”

“Of course,” he whispers it against your hair, “anything to make you stop crying over a fictional death, baby.”

Which, of course, was the wrong thing to say as he feels you begin to sniffle. He quickly runs his hands along the sides of your arms, hoping to stem the flow of your tears before it turns into full-on sobbing. “Shit, I’m sorry, sweet girl, I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

“I know,” you moan helplessly, hands wiping at your eyes, “I shouldn’t even be this sad, he’s fictional!”

“But your feelings are valid,” he gives you a soft smile before offering you a tissue to wipe at your tears, “and I’m always gonna be here to wipe your tears away.”

The statement makes you smile, ignoring something stupid that Anton says on the television as you press your lips against the curve of your boyfriend’s grin. Despite your fixation on a fictional boy, he’d never cared for a second that you fawned over him. Sugawara, while being somewhat a jealous guy, found that he liked watching you fret and worry over this fictional guy.

It was cute, really.

“Did you know that there’s a mobile game for this?” You say, wiping at your eyes with the tissue he’d given you. He shakes his head a bit, gray hairs dislodging themself from the otherwise tidy hairstyle he’d gone for today. “It’s pretty fun, but I don’t like the fact that you have to spend money to get the good outfits. It’s annoying because I don’t wanna be at the poolside in an ugly bikini.”

His hands skate along your sides when your hiccups start to subside, instead focusing on the game you were talking about. The show was still idly playing in the background, but the British accents were a nice reprieve from the thoughts you were having every time you had a spare quiet moment.

That ending had thoroughly ruined you, and despite it ending on a somewhat positive note for most of the characters, your favorite one seemed to just continue getting the short end of the stick. It wasn’t fair and just the thought of it could send you spiralling into another breakdown.

Sugawara had, thankfully, taken your moods in step. He had immediately offered to stay with you and watch something different just to take your mind off of the distress you were going through, which is how you ended up watching Love Island. Your favorite series had been the fifth one, so he was more than willing to accompany you on the couch with a cup of tea and water at the little table at your side.

“You’re so pretty.” He says, eyes roaming along the curves of your cheek, and along the planes of your smile. He was enamoured with you, even despite the way you kept pressing at your puffy eyes and blowing your nose.

“But I’m crying.” You groan a bit, trying to pull away before his arms wind around you firmly. “I’m not pretty when I cry,”

Sugawara closes into your space, pressing his nose against your cheek and rubbing gently, “I’m your boyfriend, I think you’re always pretty, sweet girl.”

Taking his cheeks in your hands, you press a gentle kiss against his lips as you giggle gently. “I love you, idiot.”

“And I love you, even despite your fake boyfriend.”

[plus-size-reader]

Holloway

Billy Hargrove x Plus size!reader

Word Count: 1541 words

Warnings: none

Summary: Max giving you dating advice when you and Billy fight

Losely based off of this imagine by @myriadimagines. Check out their blog because I love it. 

——————————————————————————————————

“Why don’t you go ask her?!”

Your voice reverberated through the entire house as you slammed the door, huffing with upset as you tried to clear your head.

Fighting with Billy wasn’t new.

You frequently got into little tiffs about stupid stuff, and in this case, you were fighting about Billy getting a little too comfortable with his coworker. He wouldn’t cheat on you, you knew that, but he shouldn’t be so friendly with her.

You were his girlfriend and he should have respected that but when you tried to inform him of that fact, he just got defensive and tried to tell you why you were wrong.

Which resulted in this ‘conversation’ in the first place.

“Holloway again?” Max asked, a mild humor in her voice as she addressed you, letting her know she’d heard the whole thing. Though, in her defense, it would have been impossible not to.

You and Billy were so loud that you could probably be heard all the way down the street.

Her words made you turn your attention to her instead of the male who had previously had it. You hadn’t meant for her to overhear all of that, but instead of telling her that, you nodded.

It couldn’t hurt to talk to her.

If nothing else, it would get your mind off of how her stepbrother was being right now.

“Yeah, he was ten minutes late to pick me up because he offered to drive her home. Can you believe that?” you sighed, sitting down on the couch beside her, content with the fact that Billy was going to pout in his room for a while.

He had to let you cool down before trying to talk about it again, not to mention the fact that he wasn’t quite sure what to say.

You didn’t think you were overreacting. After all, when Billy offered to pick you up from your shift, you had the audacity to assume he would be there when your shift ended.

Naturally you would be upset when that didn’t happen, not to mention the fact that he wasn’t there because of another girl. Anyone in their right would react the way you did, as far as you were concerned.

Not that Billy thought that was the case.

“He did? That’s so stupid” the redhead laughed, setting her magazine to the side in favor of the new drama that you’d brought into the living room. She wasn’t about to pass up on participating in this conversation.

You nodded, glad she was willing to participate in this. You needed someone to be part of this with you that was on your side. It made you feel better to know that you weren’t overreacting.

If this was up to Billy, he would assure you that you were overreacting.

“I know it is. Why would he do that? And then when I asked about it, he made it seem like I was crazy for asking” you hummed, rolling your eyes as you replayed the conversation in your head.

Clearly, he shouldn’t have acted that way.

...And Max knew that pretty well too.

She had been having her own boy problems with Lucas lately and she could sympathize with what you were going through right now. Though, she never really understood why you were with Billy in the first place.

After all, he was kind of an asshole, and it didn’t surprise her that he would act that way, even with as much as he loved you.

“Lucas does that sometimes. Like I’m overreacting even when he’s in the wrong” she shrugged, feeling similarly to what you were describing more than she would have liked to admit.

It must have just been a guy thing because she had never seen you try to do that with Billy and that wasn’t something she ever felt the need to try. Though, she didn’t have too much experience.

Not that she needed personal experience to know what she was talking about.

Max, in her youth, had access to something that you didn’t right now. She had several stacks of teen magazines her mom signed her up for in monthly subscriptions.

So, she knew a little bit more than maybe she would without them.

“Don’t worry about it though. Sometimes they just don’t think about what they do before doing it. He probably didn’t even realize it would bother you” she tried, doing her best to make you feel better.

Talking to her clearly made you feel better, as it got your mind off of what you’d been dealing with since you got off work, but you couldn’t help but be amused by her.

Max was so young in your eyes, and sometimes it was hard to remember that she was as mature as she was. Never did you think you’d be in a position for her to be giving you dating advice.

...But you weren’t complaining.

If anything, talking to Max had really helped you understand where she was coming from. Maybe she had a point, maybe Billy just didn’t understand that it would upset you.

He had always been flirty in nature and sometimes it bordered on inappropriate now that he was in a serious, committed relationship.

“You know what, I think you’re right Maxy, thank you” you hummed, getting up from the couch to press a gentle kiss to her forehead before heading back down the hall toward Billy’s room.

You still weren’t happy with him for doing what he’d done earlier, but getting angry wasn’t going to change what had already happened. If nothing else, maybe you could talk it through like adults.

After all, if Max could fully understand Billy’s intentions, then you could too. You just had to do your best to stay calm.

…

You pulled the door open with little hesitation, after a slight pause at the door.

Billy was still just sitting on his bed when you entered, huffing on a cigarette as upset as he was. You could practically see the smoke there, entering and exiting his lungs in haste.

“Hi”

His voice was hefty, filling the room immediately when he saw you. It wasn’t much, all things considered, but you didn’t care.

Max had really helped you put everything into perspective, and you weren’t angry anymore. At least, you weren’t going to get into another screaming match over it.

“Hey”

It was much smaller in comparison, your voice and his. However, that was enough for Billy to relax a little bit more. If you were still upset, you wouldn’t have come in at all. Let alone talk to him after all that.

Usually, you would give him the silent treatment for a few hours after a big fight until you really cooled down.

“Did you forget something?” he wondered, trying to break the ice without letting you in that much more. Billy wasn’t sure where he was standing right now in your books and he didn’t want to push his luck.

Not that you could blame him.

“Nope, but I realized something while I was talking to Max” you allowed, plopping down beside him on his bed, all hesitation melted away by this point.

You realized now that you and Billy hadn’t been listening as well to each other as you should have been. You realized that you shouldn’t have been as upset, and he shouldn’t have been as blind.

Perhaps you were both in the wrong.

Now, Billy was confused by that, seeing as you had just admitted to talking to her after all that, but he didn’t say anything about that. Instead, he chose to keep quiet as you spoke.

That was one of the things he had a hard time doing normally, but things had calmed down a lot since you two took a little break.

“I realized that you and I really need to listen to each other more” you hummed, reaching over to take the cigarette from his fingers, making room for you closer to his side.

After you’d put it out on the ashtray on his dresser, you turned back to him and found him there waiting for you to continue.

You had a point.

The whole time you were fighting earlier, it was over how you thought he had gone behind your back and betrayed you while he didn’t even understand why you were upset.

He was lost the whole time but that didn't stop him from being defensive over it.

“I shouldn’t have taken Holloway when I was supposed to pick you up. I’m sorry baby” he muttered, ever so dramatic.

In all the time that you’d known Billy, he’d never been all that good at apologizing or admitting when he was wrong but that was okay. Looking at him now, you knew that he was serious.

He felt bad, and so did you.

“I shouldn’t have accused you of something you didn’t do. I’m sorry too” you allowed, leaning into his side to snuggle up to him. You two had been arguing for what seemed like hours, but it seemed now that all was forgotten.

After all, being angry wasn’t going to do anything when you really loved each other.

You had learned that from watching Max and Lucas.

[creek-cryptid-deluxe]

So I'm still recovering from The Great Holiday Baking of 2021, right? Plus, here in central NTX we've had some rapid fire (and pretty serious) cold fronts, so I just generally feel like I'm being ripped apart. But true to my nature, I'm still doing shit. Too much shit in fact but to my credit I am making myself do things that require sitting in between.

Everyone round here also knows that I get over stimulated in terms of noise pretty easily because for some reason my brain interprets my baseline pain as background noise. So, for example, if I'm in a store, I generally wear headphones because my 'pain noise' combined with the background music shops have, the chatter of people, sound of carts, and sound of check out scanners is too much resulting in me being unable to think which leads to me being agitated. If I'm with another person, I can generally just focus on what they are saying & make it through, though it's a struggle.

As you can imagine, between that & being an extremely introverted person, I value my quiet time.

Since just after Christmas that quiet time has been greatly diminished. Why? How? Well that's why I'm here right now. To tell you a tale both annoying & heartwarming in equal measure.

So since just after Christmas, The Spawn has changed up her general habits. Normally my morning quiet time is from when I arise from slumber wanting to die until about 11-1130 when I've adjusted to the reality of living in my flesh prison for that day (because what it is going to do on a daily basis is a surprise, like the shittiest kinder egg ever.) However, lately when The Spawn arises at 830 or so, if she doesn't have a morning client, does her routine of feeding the pups, putting the previous night's dishes in the sink, & grabbing breakfast, then plops down in the living room & begins talking.

Ok. Cool.

Except that she basically only stops talking in short bursts or if she leaves to do stuff (work, errands, friend things, etc.). So from the time I wake up until her pre-bed routine begins at 8 pm, she just basically has diarrhea of the mouth. Unfortunately this means that for the duration of being exposed to her chatter, I have to deal with some annoying/frustrating conversational habits she has.

What habits, you ask?

The big one is that when I pause mid-sentence to make sure I have the words I need or to summon a word I'm looking for, she jumps in to finish my sentence. If she's incorrect on the first go, she tries again, not giving me the chance to get the words I require & often making me forget what I was attempting to convey entirely.

The other is that when she is venting about something that she is unhappy with, upset about, inconvenienced by, she will get stuck in a loop. She will vent & I will give appropriate feedback based on whether she wanted advice, opinions, solutions, or support. Then she basically just starts repeating the things she's said in various tones of voice. When that starts I basically just chime in with 'I understand, man' 'oh i know' and the like at the appropriate times until she decides she has beat the subject to death & hops to a new topic or wanders off.

Then there's her reactions to things I bring to the conversation. Basically if I voice an opinion she dislikes or sees as criticism or a personal attack, she blows up about how 'this is why I never tell you anything' (if you're confused about that based on the information you have about our relationship, welcome to the party. There's snacks over on that table.) & then sends me excessively long paragraph texts about how she didn't want my opinion & I need to keep it to myself unless she asks. That's happened a couple times in the last couple weeks.

There's also her tendency to take all my facial expressions & noises as being about her or about something she said. For example, a few days ago we were chatting about vitamins & her possibly setting up a subscription to them so she doesn't forget to order them when she runs low. She explained why she doesn't want to. I said ok, that I just thought it might help. She brought up that for most of her life, I've told her to not have stuff automatically bill her bank account if she can help it (because we were on a shoe string budget & I often had to juggle payments, paying some stuff a bit late) and now I'm suggesting this. I said ok again.

However, this entire conversation was happening while I was putting new sheets on my bed. Doing that every week is one of those necessary tasks where I basically have to get fucking angry at in order to do. I don't know how to describe it aside from it being akin to being powered by spite. It is the only way I can get it done without stopping to sob halfway through. So when I said my last 'ok' I was tucking the bottom of the flat sheet & pushing my mattress back up against the headboard. In order to do this, I basically have to slam into it because mattresses are fucking heavy. It also caused a huff & a bit of a grumble. Why is this relevant?

The Spawn immediately said "This is why I don't talk to you or tell you things. You're getting mad because I didn't take your suggestion. Now you're slamming things around & huffing. " Ok, first off my dude literally all you do is tell me things. But I didn't say that. What I said was: "Honey, I know that you are the center of my world but that doesn't mean every noise, facial expression, or action on my part is about you. This is just how I make the bed. I have to get really angry at it in order to get it done." She looked at me as though I was full of shit, but chilled so... win?

Anyway, between the constant Spawn chatter, my elevated pain, & the general crap I deal with in regard to my dad, I was starting to get burned out & agitated because I had no quiet time to recoup unless she had work (and even then she frequently calls me to chat while working or driving home).

Then I got a random text from her out of nowhere at 11 pm night before last: "I love you lots mom I wish you could live forever." I was very tempted to ask if she was ok, because it was an unusual text for her. But instead I responded: "I love you lots, too, but unfortunately we are all beholden to the cycle of life. However chances are really high that I won't make my departure until I'm well into my 80s. So you are stuck with me for quite some time ♡"

It wasn't spoken of again. But yesterday she came in when I was watching something while working on a project & rather than pause it, I just turned it off. She asked why & I explained that lately she comes down often enough to chat that there's no sense in pausing it, as it never gets unpaused. She laughed & explained that part of why she's been hanging out so much is that she's trying to avoid laying in bed watching tv, as her seasonal depression compels her to. I told her I was proud & that of course I'd prefer her company over tv or podcasts any time.

Today I have a break, though. 2 of her friends came to stay the night last night so they could all leave early this morning to spend the day in Austin (about a 4 hr drive one way). They left early enough to be there for breakfast & planned a day full of cool but free or inexpensive stuff to go do, then be home around 9 or 10 pm.

The break is nice, but now that I understand her motives I'm going to try to fight my sensory overload. It's tough though. I can't even get through a whole cigarette without her appearing on the porch to chat.

Kids... are a lot of work & sacrifice, even when they are older & in a lot of ways lower maintenance.

Don't take my posts for your blog or lazy ass excuse for being a 'journalist'. If you want to share my experiences, go have them yourself then write about them through your lens. (Super nice way of saying to get a fucking life.)

[gayregis]

Do you have any thoughts on TWN using non polish actors to portray characters from polish fantasy book with dense polish culture and roots? And on how most of the cast apperereance are drastically different than in the books? Like Foltest, Renfri, Fringilla or Calanthe? (Sorry this is the correct one, i forgot to add Fringilla on my previous question.)

i feel like the witcher should not be handled by a large american company like netflix. it is clear that a lot of decisions were made to “dumb the series down” in a manner that would make it more of a pop culture phenomenon that could be used to profit off of from viewership, subscriptions, social buzz, and merchandise, instead of an opportunity to demonstrate actual artistry, storytelling, character depth, and poignant messages. the company that handles it CAN be american or another nationality besides polish, but it shouldn’t be a huge one focused on making as much money and social sharability as possible, that will ruin things. (i also feel like the witcher should not be a live-action adaptation, but this is kind of besides the point... to better gauge how i think the feel of a visual-audial witcher adaptation should look, my dream adaptation would be that of a more “adult version” (”adult” meaning in themes like war and despair) studio ghibli or laika).

in regards to casting, i feel like it’s fine to not use an all polish cast as long as they fit the character description in a way that is actually relevant to the plot. so many people in response to people of color being cast in the witcher were volalitely racist and demanded a “polish cast” - as if polish MUST = white. even though poland is not as ethically diverse as some other european countries, people of color do exist in poland, as they/we exist everywhere. if you want an “all-polish cast and production,” that’s fine to me, i don’t think it’s inherently necessary, but i think if one is doing so, that doesn’t mean that it would be wrong to cast actors of color in roles. 

i think the issue lies more with storytellng, for two reasons. one is that eastern european people involved on set seem to actually understand the witcher and what it’s about way better than any of the british cast, and by that i mean sakharov and baginski, who have demonstrated more understanding of like, the style of storytelling (not every scene needs to be jammed with action, drama, sex, gore), what the characters actually mean to each other, and the lore in general. this makes sense because i have read some articles and such before about how the witcher was and is important to its fans in poland and eastern europe because very little “slavic fantasy” ever gets exported and represented internationally, and of course sapkowski involved many cultural references in the series, so it’s recognizable to people from those regions (or are diaspora from those regions) who grew up hearing these fairytales, etc. it’s more of a meaningful callback and less of a “foreign curiosity,” if that makes sense. so for those reasons, i think it’s important to have a majority polish and/or slavic writing room/directors/etc, people behind the story and how the story is told - but that doesn’t mean the writer’s room should be all white men, though. diversity in gender, race, etc should be considered.

the other reason is that the casting for the netflix is inaccurate, but not for reasons of race. the issue with anya chalotra as yennefer isn’t that she is indian, it’s that her hair is incredibly straight and flat and not like yennefer’s curly stormy hair at all, and that her face is so soft and childlike, she doesn’t look stern and cold like yennefer at all. there are many casting issues amongst the white members of cast, such as henry cavill, who doesn’t fit the description of geralt at all because geralt looks like he’s starved constantly, and joey batey, who ... well, dandelion is supposed to be blonde and curly long-haired... but of course, these are the appearances which don’t really “matter” in regards to the story. except i think geralt’s build, as well as yennefer and ciri’s proximity in age, which makes me nauseous to think about how they only have a 6 year age difference

one physical description which does actually matter to the plot/lore is that of calanthe, pavetta, and ciri, as they are a matrelineal line, but in netflix, they don’t look related at all. i saw so many people complaining that they should have chosen a white actress for calanthe, but why is she the problem? why not cast people of color for calanthe, pavetta, and ciri altogether? they should look related and have the ashen grey hair/green eyes, but that doesn’t mean they have to be white. it’s a similar issue with yennefer and fringilla. they are supposed to look similar, and i saw many people complaining that they chose mimi who is black to be fringilla, they are just using “they need to look similar” as an excuse to hide their racism and anti-blackness, because anya is more white-passing than mimi is. from my perspective, why not then cast a black actress who looks similar to mimi as yennefer, then? “they need to look similar” again does not mean “they need to all be white or white-passing.”

we should have cast actors that both fit the descriptions of the characters in the books AND are diverse, without it being “random diversity to appeal to a diverse audience.” lauren thought she was so clever by throwing the actors of color in the roles of background characters, stereotypes, forgettable and disposable aides to the white leads, or super evil villains... i see what you did... why not center actors of color in an actually proud and leading light, with lead roles, where the casting makes sense and isn’t there for tokenization that does nothing to empower people of color? actually incorporate people of color into your artistic projects in a way that respects them and makes sense and not just so you can get more views to make more money

other divergences from canon like foltest were just piss-poor and demonstrated the lack of understanding about the messages of the story. foltest was supposed to be handsome, elegant, and as a refined a king as any, to show how those in power are actually corrupt and as prone to disgusting acts as any other human being, that foltest is not a better man than geralt because he is beautiful and sits on a throne. by making him disgusting on the outside, they totally missed the point that he is supposed to mask his disgustingness on the inside with beauty on the outside. also i feel like (maybe related) twn really made a whole joke out of foltest and his relationship to his sister because in one of the flashbacks (in the sorcerer? gala? party?) foltest is shown as a kid with his sister and his mom grabs his arm or whatever and is like “foltest stop bothering your sister” as like some kind of fucking joke... literally they made a “funny ahaha incest joke” like seriously wtf. the story of the striga in particular should be taken seriously imo because of how rawly the tragedy is depicted... this is probably why it’s one of my least favorite short stories... its so sad and also incest disgusts me horribly

for renfri i feel like she was just sooooo ... more “likable” as a character, a lot like how yennefer’s character was changed. you feel feelings of pity and curiosity towards her rather than actually being intimidated by her. renfri in the books actually made me so mad because i think she represents something like what ciri goes through across the saga, just how when you have the choice on how to respond to your abuse, you can easily become consumed with revenge, and i think renfri made me think of myself in that way so i really disliked it when they changed this terrifying raw aspect of her anguish and hunger for retrubution that made her lose her humanity into like, more of a palatable manner of killing... it really was just “girl with sword” and it was so boring. the lesser evil literally makes my stomach turn and that’s why i only read the story like once as well...

also to return to fringilla, i liked mimi and i thought she should have been cast for yennefer instead maybe.... i just was really upset at how much they changed fringilla’s character in the writing to be a “generic evil villain” when in the series she actually is kind of unique in my opinion. she is like, not allied at all with the main characters, but ends up saving both yennefer and geralt’s lives. she’s not good or bad, she’s not super loyal to the empire but she is still nilfgaardian/beauclairoise, and she just exists as a character and that’s why i actually like her in the books (asides from all of the unnecessary library nonsense). i thought mimi could have handled that complex role really well but they totally took that away from her and just made her a flat boring forgettable “evil” character that does “forbidden black magic” and is super loyal to an empire that brought her purpose because yennefer was mean to her once or smth ig... yeah ok. also i fucking hate how they had cahir of all fucking people order her around. idk how old cahir is supposed to be in netflix because he’s obviously not like 16-20 as he would be in canon during this time period, but to have him be the boss of fringilla... that is dumb as hell. i just try and think about that ever occuring with books verse cahir and fringilla and i think she would smack him off of his horse and into the mud. she’d tell assire and assire would get mawr to drag him off by his ear as he tries not to cry.  also of course i hate cahir’s casting and the fact that they showed his face. why. it ruins like every message that his character had...

oh also because i HAVE to talk about it. i hate how they tried to make jaskier more masculine/boyish with not giving joey a wig or flamboyant setting-appropriate garb, i think they are allergic to men with long hair that’s not a grime, dirt-covered mess... literally just give half of the production wigs or better wigs i swear to god ... also like this is totally for another post but i don’t think making jaskier a flirt is inherently misogynistic like he acts in the books at times. like just write the misogynistic bits out and it’s fine... flirtatiousness is not evil when it’s consensual and appreciated ... i think they just really wanted geralt to be the one that gets large amounts of p*ssy because he’s muscular or w/e and jaskier became this sort of helpless annoying barnacle on his side instead of a real character and friend to him. and to bring this point back to the main point , i think character appearance really affects their characterization: jaskier in twn has short, boyish hair with no facial hair, which makes him look kind of juvenile, jaskier in the books has curly long hair with some light facial hair, which kind of brings up ehhh what would you call it... 70s casanova energies maybe, a man that puts oils in his hair and such, male thottery...

[news4bees]

Things I do to make my ADD/ADHD slightly more manageable.

Full disclosure: everyone is different and non-neurotypical behaviors are not a copy-paste situation. What works for me might put others in the exact opposite head space and that’s okay. I just wanted to share what I’ve learned works for me over the years. I’ve been really struggling with my ADD/ADHD lately and I need to remind myself of the healthy coping mechanisms I’ve developed so I can implement them again.

1. Have a morning routine.

Working from home as a freelance editor / publishing consultant, I have a lot of autonomy over my day. Which is great… if I make the most of it. I learned a long time ago that I am most productive in the morning, so it’s important for me to get myself into the right head space as soon as possible. I set an alarm to get out of bed at 7:00am every day, I try and go on a walk around the neighborhood first thing (weather permitting—we don’t mess around with rain or snow), I eat breakfast (usually including either coffee or tea for caffeine purposes and warmth) and take my supplements, and prep for my day. It sounds super simple, but it’s really all about inertia. A body at rest will want to stay at rest. I’ve had just as many days where everything goes according to plan and I’m able to have a productive day as days where I don’t get out of bed until I have to drag myself to my service job in the afternoon. So having that morning routine and sticking to it can honestly be a night and day difference for me.

2. Make a schedule for my day.

I have a terrible concept of time. I can look at a task, assume it’s going to take several hours, and abandon it before I even begin. Or I can see a gap of time in my day (such as the two hours between lunch and when I have to get ready for work) and be worried it’s too small of a window to accomplish anything so I lie around instead. By creating a schedule, literally an hour-by-hour layout of how I want my day to progress, I have a tactical roadmap for how to achieve my goals. I also make sure I schedule little breaks and time to eat, walk around, shower, etc. into my day so I don’t forget. It doesn’t have to be perfect, and I have to remind myself not to get upset if I end up deviating from the schedule for one thing or another. It’s mainly supposed to help me look at my day in a way that makes more sense to me and how my brain processes time. I fully understand that there are others that might see my hour-by-hour schedule and be completely overwhelmed—that’s fine! Find what works for you.

3. Set attainable little goals.

This one goes hand in hand with making myself a schedule. If I have a giant task I need to complete at a future date, I really struggle with conceptualizing it as something I need to get started on now. I see that future date, feel overwhelmed, try to calm myself down by thinking, “It’s okay, I have time,” and will sit on that task until the last minute when I have to scramble to get it done. It’s procrastination, yes, but it’s also not feeling too overwhelmed to act on something until there is that “go go go!” anxiety-inducing pressure to get it done. So I break it down into smaller pieces and set little goals. A 352 page manuscript I have to create an index for by March? Scary. But indexing one or two chapters a day? Much more doable. This also helps me accomplish non work-related tasks, such as calling the bank or scheduling appointments or canceling a subscription—things I would have trouble accomplishing on my own otherwise because my I have trouble differentiating between “important” and “immediate”. Goals don’t have to be solely task oriented either. Set a goal to reach out to a friend you haven’t connected with in a while; set a goal to meditate for fifteen minutes, or be intentional about doing something you love like reading or art or exercise. Personally, the more things I can check off my “to-do” list the better, so I write out everything I want to try and get done, even if I would have done it regardless.

4. Keep distractions out of reach.

This one is extremely tricky for me since I work exclusively out of my room since I moved back home. I’m always surrounded by distractions, from my phone to my bookshelves to the dozens of internet tabs I constantly have open on my laptop. I have little tricks I know work for me: keeping my phone on the charger in a different room (but close enough that I can still connect to the Bluetooth), leaving the book I’m currently reading and the journal where I write my fiction in my work bag downstairs, blocking YouTube and other distracting sites from my laptop, and making my bed each morning so I’m not tempted to crawl under the covers when I’m feeling burnt out. But knowing these things will help eliminate distractions and actually implementing these techniques are two very different things for me. As I write this, my phone is on the charger next to me, my fiction journal is within easy reach and I have corresponding document opened in another tab, none of my site-brokers are enabled, and my bed is a mess of cozy blankets—all major distractions for me that I’m blatantly ignoring. So what can I do about this? Set a new goal: move my phone and journal out of the room, close unnecessary tabs, re-engage the site blockers, and make my bed. Little things to reset my headspace and get back on track.

5. Have an accountability buddy.

While freelancing gives me a lot of personal freedoms, it also means I function as my own boss. Some people might enjoy such responsibility, but I personally really struggle when I’m not constantly checking in with someone and showing them my progress. An accountability buddy doesn’t need to function like a micro-managing boss, but they should be someone you can go to and say, “Here’s what I set out to do today and here’s what I accomplished.” Currently, I do not have a good accountability buddy (my ex was my accountability buddy when we were together during my last semester at college, but he often criticized me for only working in short sprints and needing to take a lot of breaks, so I’ve been really hesitant to trust another person in that role ever since), but my mom often lets me inform her about my goals and will share some of her’s in turn; my dad and sister on the other hand get uncharacteristically angry when I ask about goals, so I’ve learned to steer clear. Mirroring is also a common strategy for ADD/ADHDers. The visual stimulation of seeing someone else working can often be a bit of a jumpstart to my brain that says, “Okay, it’s time to do things.” In the old days, this meant I would spend hours in the library or at coffee shop doing my homework instead of my apartment because I was surrounded by others with similar tasks. Now, if I find myself needing a mirror I’ll move my operation to the kitchen table so that I’m closer to where my mom works and I can feed off her productive energy, so to speak.

6. Give myself grace.

Whenever I have an unproductive day, my first instinct is to be angry or upset at myself. What kind of person spends the entire day in bed and doesn’t get a single thing done? This would lead me down a self-deprecating path of calling myself useless and a garbage person, which is a big trigger for my depression and I can easily find myself spiraling. ADD/ADHD means my brain functions differently, but at the end of the day my brain still works. It doesn’t mean I’m stupid or lazy, and a bad day doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. My schedule and my list of goals are a template to help me focus, but if something happens that gets me off task, whether intentional or unintentional, I have to remind myself that it is not the end of the world. I have to give myself grace and forgiveness, because things happen.

I’d be really interested to hear what other strategies people have developed to manage their ADD/ADHD, especially in the midst of a pandemic that might have altered the way we approach our days. Keep being awesome!

[jensvisualnoveladventures]

In general, I’m super behind with Choices. The issues with how the subscription works with coupons/discounts put a bad taste in my mouth and I haven’t really played since. I’ve kept up with spoilers and I figured once I save up enough, I’ll catch up with a subscription. 

But wow do I just have so little interest to do so at this point. Like part of me wants to finish out stories and make characters (And I’ll be honest, even though I’m not interested in the plot at all, Foreign Affairs hits some of my favorite tropes with Blaine), but I’m also just not that interested in anything right now.

I think, based off announcements, what I’m most interested in is: 

The new cooking book (And that could change based off how it goes. With the VIP Books, it’s been hit or miss for me-- I really enjoyed AVSP and what I played of TUH. I also liked WEH even though the end killed me (which I guess I should’ve expected, but it’s also the thing that holds it back from being a top favorite for me), but Hot Couture I found disappointing in the end (Only thing I liked was the scrap book feature), Ms. Match was just awful for me from the get-go (I can’t get into any romance that starts with sex with no choice otherwise. Simple as that. If I could stay single in that book, I would, but I guess I’ll at least save plenty of diamonds) and I honestly didn’t like the way the ending went either, and Wolf Bride clearly isn’t really for me, but I am curious about parts of the plot. (Like how Morgan fits in, more on the MC’s family and why her mother left, why she has these specific bonds and with who in general, etc. But honestly if there’s an option to not pick eithe and head back to her mom, I’m picking it)

The new Mystery book. At the same time, seeing how other mysteries have gone with a lot of unanswered questions or not the happiest of endings, I’m trying to not get my hopes too high. 

Blades Book 2, but after other sequel cancelations, I’m holding my breath there too. I also REALLY hope we can change our hair separately from our skin color. SO much. That was still my biggest disappointment with the book. 

I only started playing Choices a little under 2 years ago when a friend told me to check it out. For the most part, I’ve only liked a handful of books, but some LIs stood out for me.

But the big thing is it wasn’t as long for me as I last played and waiting for Book 2′s of books that were said to be coming. Most Wanted and Hero had such huge cliffhangers that we’ll never have resolved.

Nightbound was frustrating to not be getting a sequel as it still had a lot of unanswered questions. I also genuinely enjoyed it more than Bloodbound, a book which also disappointed me a lot with its final book in the series. 

Distant Shores and Ride or Die fell into a similar thing where they didn’t necessarily NEED a Book 2, but there were a lot of questions unanswered and I still hoped for some closure there. I wasn’t even as attached to either of these. 

I know a lot of people were upset about the Elementalists ending the way it did, but I was actually more or less okay with it. I felt it answered everything it left off, despite causing some of the foreshadowing to be for nothing. 

In general, I just hope PB thinks further ahead in the future I guess? Either have something set up to give us closure or make sure it’s all rounded up at the end without us needing another book.

As for the current ones going... I wasn’t really into Baby Bump to begin with and already being in a full relationship in Book 2 doesn’t make it any better. I wish she just could be friendly with the LIs for now. I also just... am tired of these types of plots-- there was enough going on without all the Craig stupidity and we don’t always need the extra antagonism. 

It’s part of what brought down The Royal Heir so much. We could’ve still used these books just to dig into everything with Eleanor without all the added treason and B Drama Plots to push it back and spending time together. And then the 4th could’ve been the hanging out relaxing time to take it easy if we really needed one final book... Or maybe a like “Through the Princess’ eyes” or something. There’s just so many better ways they could’ve done it IMO. 

And in the subject of both and really the MCs a lot of the time in general-- I’m tired of White being synonymous with Blonde and light eyed for them. 

I don’t have much to say about MTFL besides how horribly forced it was for all types of people. The main argument I’ve seen is that we’re following another character’s journey but like... then don’t less us name or customize them? So many people do put themselves into the characters they play in this type of thing so I think it’s understandable to be upset (That said, some people are absolutely hypocritical-- I’ve seen so many people only be upset about Ava’s kiss and not the boy’s and no, all three being forced sucked), but going through the break-up for each when you may have had no interest dating them was so uncomfortable to do. 

If it was really a set story, the LI chosen should’ve been set and we shouldn’t have been able to change anything. I felt like we had more freedom in ROE than MTFL and those were all set characters. But somehow it still felt my choices mattered more. 

Anyway, just lots of disappointments I guess. And if I have a spare $15, I’d rather just put that to my FFXIV Subscription again. 

[booasaur]

As someone who works in TV I can understand why Netflix are doing a cull of things. Even if they had a successful first series.

The logistics of everything now is a nightmare. On top of the extra expenses for Covid testing/PPE/Cleaning equipment. There is ensuring correct transport that will keep passengers and drivers safe (all which have to be approved by a Covid supervisor). Additional rig days to ensure each department gets space to work (which is fine for light entertainment shows and just about manageable for sitcoms) but high end dramas? That’s so many additional days. If you add in potential weeks for shut downs which might occur if they have someone test positive, this then adds on an extension of costs for equipment and space.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Netflix, Apple TV etc have sat down with a list of shows and gone through which ones they are willing to spend the money on. If shows are easy to make normally, then they will more likely be higher on the list to film during times of Covid because of the potential for them to cost less than a show which would normally require a larger budget.

America is also very unionised so everything there takes longer anyway. So it wouldn’t surprise me if shows that film outside of the USA (take Warrior Nun as an example) get priority of those within the USA. It wouldn’t surprise me if shows also get filmed in the UK/Europe instead of the US

Okay, first, asks can be this long (again)?? What the.

But oooh, thanks for your expertise! From what I saw, that does sound spot on and it is...so much. I get it, and yet. Doesn’t make it feel any better, right. And can’t they just delay some of these? Shorter seasons?

Oh, and I think Away actually did shoot in Canada, but not sure if that’s relevant. Hopefully WN will be okay with the Europe cases rising again.

And another two anons:

Covid just fucking ruins everything huh

I know COVID has caused a lot of big shit but we can be mad at the small shit too right? Like all the shows it’s ruined for example

Lol, I was thinking that too, like of course, it’s actually killing so many and separating families and costing jobs (although these are jobs too), is it okay to be mad about this thing, since it’s mostly just us being upset at not getting certain shows... But I think we can be, we’re not saying it’s anywhere near that level of awfulness, it’s just one of many ways in which this has sucked. :x

And another anon:

Lu and Mei deserved better

Truly, whatever else the show had going on, that was such a unique little gem in the middle, something I’ve legit never seen in American media, adult professional Chinese wlw who clearly cared about and understood their culture. There are so few at all, but they’re either teens or like, action-centric. And the more I look at characters played by actresses like Michelle Yeoh and Ming-Na Wen, the more I appreciate a character from that mold.

But representation aside, they deserved an explicitly happy ending!

And another anon:

I doubt they would have even had to like do a lot of COVID stuff? Just cut down on the mission control scenes and quarantine the five actors together near the Mars set?????

Btw that anger was directed at Netflix but you

I can’t remember if I said not or but in that last ask so I wanna clarify Netflix not you

Lmao, this made me burst out laughing. How dare you! But no worries, it was clear in context anyway. But from what the first anon above said, I do think there are a whole lot of very specific expenses that they can’t just can’t skimp on. And it wouldn’t be just the five actors, but all the crew that would interact with them. 

But yeah, I don’t think there’s any kind of exact algorithm they’re using, it’s not as if they judge profitability in the same way other businesses can, they’re at the point where interest doesn’t automatically translate to new subscriptions because so many people have subs already, so it’s a whole thing to figure out what actually is a success and what isn’t. It may be more a gut feeling thing, what they think is better rid off or not.

And another anon:

The showrunner of Away said he had a COVID plan already in place and that Away worked perfectly for it ugh didn’t even let him try

Do you mean Jessica Goldberg? I feel like I read something like that, but I guess it was still too expensive to them, and of course, she was still a showrunner trying to get her show renewed, anyone in the same situation would say the same.

And another anon:

Away was one of my fave shows ever *Sigh*

Ouch. Sorry, bud. Brave of you to get invested in a Netflix s1...though I guess it seemed like a safe bet at the time! Still pretty shocked at it, tbh. But at least they ended on a high note, overall? You could imagine the mission going well, with of course the technical and emotional hiccups, and then back on Earth as celebrities.

[mypencilshavings]

Obviously this situation is very stressful and, if you have the privilege of social distancing in a safe home, the days can slide into one another in joyless monotony. Here are my tips for spicing up your days and finding out a way to protect your mental health during this quarantine.

Basic Day Structure

Experiment with how your days will work for you. Without the need to get up and go out into the world, there’s also no need to subscribe to conventional wisdom about time. It’s made up anyway! I tend to get in a groove with my work really late at night, so I stay up until around 3 am and sleep until my first zoom class at 9am or 11am and just take as many naps as possible. Point is: don’t force yourself to follow your normal sleep schedule if it’s just making you miserable. If you can still go to bed at 10 and be up by 8, good for you.

Keeping Busy

There’s a lot of free time now and if you’re the type of person that needs to stay busy to cope, here’s a list of things to do.

Write letters to your friends and/or family

Research a topic you’ve always been interested in (I’ve been using Academia.edu. but you can always use google or see if your local library has online resources to use)

Try to get better at a task (mine is eyeshadow)

Read

Watch Netflix and write reviews for the films or shows

Learn dances (whether they be TikTok or K-Pop, learning these dances could be great exercise)

Learn a new language or better your skills in one (Duolingo, Memrise, watch movies in your target language)

Make your notes pretty (I find making my studyblr content very therapeutic because it’s busy work that is actually helping me academically)

Apply to scholarships (this is for current students: don’t let the pandemic make you forget about that real need for money. If you have the resources to still apply, make sure you try to get that money especially if social distancing is making you or your family miss paychecks)

Pick a random YouTube tutorial to try

Get a fun subscription box (my girlfriend and I do Hunt a Killer, which is this really fun subscription box that gives you monthly clues to solve a murder)

Make a body journal (you can take this time to really get in tune with your body. really examine it and try to understand what it needs to feel good and what you should avoid to prevent feeling bad)

Interview your family members (odds are, everyone is feeling lonely in their house and they’d be delighted to answer any and all questions. plus you can learn some family tea!

Read manga or webcomics

Marie Kondo your house

Write! Poetry, personal essays, books, anything!

Self-Care

Maybe productivity and business makes you feel overwhelmed, here are some things you can do to check in.

Just lay down. Don’t be afraid to just be prone for a while and not respond to anyone but your breathing. Resting is just as productive as working. 

Get a water tracking app (I have Drink Water). Being hydrated will make you feel better, so having a cute little app to remind you just gives you incentive to take care of yourself.

Wash your face. You don’t have to get all glam for the living room, but being clean will make you feel better

Journal. Process your feelings.

If you feel sad, let yourself feel it. Usually, we say that we don’t have the luxury for sadness and brush it off for a later date that never comes. Let your feelings come and be present. 

Be active. I don’t care if you do one jumping jack or just walk from your bed to your fridge. Make sure you let your body move.

Get dressed up. Sometimes it feels good to wear cute clothes and make up. Wear an outfit that makes you feel good and take pictures. Do a fashion show in your living room. Feel your quarantine fantasy, sis.

Above all, I want to say that my biggest tip is to do whatever will cause the least harm to yourself. This situation is very strange and upsetting, so find coping mechanisms that aren’t harmful to yourself or others and do that. Let me know if there was anything I missed! Stay safe and find peace. 

[ask-the-phan-site]

Phan Cam: Thanks all around.

>November 26. Thanksgiving.

>The Virtual Track of Racer Academy. The Thanksgiving Day Race was now under way. The racers were ready.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen! Happy Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving is different due to circumstances. However, we decided not to let that stop us from celebrating. Which is why we will still be having our annual Thanksgiving Day Race. Now, let us introduce the racers in our race. First up, my oldest nephew, X!

I hope you’re all ready for this! This is going to be unforgettable!

Headmaster Spritle: Next up, my younger nephew, Speed Jr.!

NOTE: I apologize, but this is the only image that could work.

Thanks, everyone! I hope this race will light up your day!

Headmaster Spritle: Next, Jared and Jesse Deucey.

Slice: We would like to dedicate this race to our dad, Ace Deucey. Sadly, we could only spend our Thanksgivings with plait glass between us and can only see our races on TV.

Dice: But if he could be here now, we know he’d be proud of his boys.

Slice and Dice: Pops, this is for you!

>Meanwhile, in a prison, someone was watching TV in the prisoner lounge.

(with a tear hidden being his glasses) My boys...

>Back at Racer Academy.

Headmaster Spritle: Next, from one of our overseas schools and has just made her transfer here despite the pandemic, Annalise Zazic!

I know most of you have your doubts about me, being the daughter of a mechanical menace. But I can assure you that while I’m here, you won’t have to worry... (now sounding threatening) I mean it. I’m nothing like him!

X: (whisper) It’s here, alright. Not a robot this time.

Headmaster Spritle: Next up, our student lesion from Alpha Academy, Alpha Leader!

This race will be a victory for both Racer Academy and Alpha Academy. And since the twins were honorable enough to dedicate this race to their father, I also like to dedicate this race a couple of close friends of mine... Wish me luck, Bobby and Cameron.

Thanks, Alpha. You’re a true pal.

You bet! Hey, we should go to Superboy’s bachelor party as soon as they give they okay!

Alpha Leader: We’ll see.

Nearby Race Fan: Question... Why is there a supervillain here?

Relax, that’s why me and the merman came along. To make sure he behaves himself.

Icicle Jr.: (trying to sound innocent) Can’t I help it that Sterling jerk hurt my fellow ice-guy?

We’re not going to take that chance. Miss Martian and Superboy would kill me if you did anything to hurt anyone. Especially in these times.

Icicle Jr.: Okay, okay.

Headmaster Spritle: Moving on. We have in the Mitch-mobile, Mitch Mitchson!

Aww, I’m just doing this for the people who can’t come here... That, and I’m hopin’ to get more subscriptions for Mitch-Per-View. And more subscribers means more money in the back.

Headmaster Spritle: And now, for our special guest racers! First up, the young genius inventor who will be driving the Mach 60, Ronald Multon!

(in an obviously fake accent) Roe-nald! It’s Roe-nald Muu-tan!

Oh no. Don’t tell me in this timeline, Ronald is still...

Ronald Multon: ... (laughs and speaks in the normal accent) I’m just kidding. Still, it is a pleasure for you all time see me here.

Conor: (a bit relieved) Well, at least he’s using his real voice.

Headmaster Spritle: Our next guest was once a student here, but he’ll be participating in this year’s race. Trey Sterling!

>Everyone was surprised to see... Trey’s spot on the starting lane was empty.

Headmaster Spritle: Mr. Sterling, you did say your son was coming, right?

Well, when I found his bed empty this morning, I assumed he already got up and got ready for the race.

Headmaster Sprtile: Are you sure about that?

Mr. Sterling: I’m sure he’ll be here any- Oh, here he is!

>Trey appears on the commentator’s balcony with an almost depressing air around him.

Mr. Sterling: Ah, Trey, you’ve come! The question is why are you up here when you should be down there with your car?

... I have... something... to say...

>Trey goes up to the podium and Headmaster Spritle moves aside for him.

Trey: I... I won’t be in this year’s race.

>Everyone gasped. Especially Mr. Sterling.

Trey: The reason is... Because me and my father had the race fixed.

Mr. Sterling: (shocked) What!?

Headmaster Spritle: (grinning a bit) I figured as much.

Trey: I had some of the racers attacked or paid them to either lose or drop out... I especially attacked those who disagreed with me... I became a race champion through a lie... I’m not a champion... I’m a cheater... In both sports and in love...

Icicle Jr.: (grinning widely) I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! JUST LIKE THE CALLING CARD SAID!

Kitty Pryde: (quickly) Yes, I know! Now shush!

Trey: I cheated on Bobby Drake and Annalise Zazic because I thought it would make me more popular... And I thought that because I was rich, I could get away with it... I treated them terribly... I even told everyone I would propose to Annalise at this race... But it was a lie just make more money...

Annalise Zazic: (shocked and enraged) WHAT!? You lying bastard! You never loved me, just my money!?

Bobby Drake: (smiling a bit) I know how you feel.

X: (thinking to himself) If Trey and Annalise are through, does this mean I have a chance at her? Wait, no, the race might still go on. I’ll think about this later.

Trey: But the one I need to apologize to most of all... is fellow Bostonian, Zack... Whose last name I never bothered learned... I treated him and his sister like like amatures when I myself was the real amature... (begins tearing up) They were a real professional team and I was just some spoiled brat living off his father’s money... I didn’t deserve that money... I’M THE REAL FAILIER! I’M SORRY! TO ALL OF YOU! (breaks down crying)

Mr. Sterling: (now sounding impatient, a first) Trey, my son, pull yourself together. You’re making a scene.

Trey: ...

Mr. Sterling: (now trying to pretend that this was all very normal) Come now, son, quit joking around, you have a race to win.

>Trey just sat silently without a response. Then, Mr. Sterling did something no one ever saw coming...

Mr. Sterling: (angry, real angry) Now you listen here, you piece of shit, I didn’t pull strings and bribed the board to let you back into this garbage school just to blow it! I swear... Sometimes I think I should have invested in Zack after all. At least he has real talent instead forcing me to fix races so I can bet on them to pay back Sharkhead Eddie for giving me the money start this wretched team!

Trey: (shocked) What?

Mr. Sterling: (realizing what he just said) !

Something tells me you have some explaining to do, Mr. Sterling.

Mr. Sterling: (trying to compose himself) You can prove nothing.

Are you sure about that? Because, we got this recording of you in our inbox this morning and we found the something very interesting about it.

>Mrs. Racer takes out a tablet wirelessly connects it to a holographic screen to show a scene of Mr. Sterling on the phone.

Holo Sterling: Relax, Eddie, I’ll get you your money. Me and my boy have this race in the bag. We fixed it. I paid some of the racers to go away for ‘certain reasons’.

Sharkhead Eddie’s Voice: Good. With this virus still going on, I think it would be best to gather up on old debts while I still can. So you better get me my money soon. Because if you don’t, then perhaps I should pay a visit to your mother at St. Terrence Retainment Home, unless she, like most of everyone else there may have COVID. Or maybe I should go see you sister, the beloved Dr. Sally Sterling, at her clinic in Chinatown, if she isn’t busy with the same virus. Or perhaps your brother, Samuel Sterling. I hear he could use more patrons at his restaurant. Or maybe your other brother, Professor Shelby Sterling, at Harvard University. Yes, I think we should visit him since his students switched to online learning. So, are we clear?

Holo Sterling: (scared) Y- Yes.

Sharkhead Eddie’s Voice: Good. Sharkhead out. (hangs up)

Holo Sterling: (nervous and enraged) That spoiled brat better now blow it.

>The recording ended and everyone stared at the nervous Sterling.

Mr. Sterling: Well, (nervous chuckle) I guess this is quite the predicament.

>Some security guards came and and cuffed Mr. Sterling.

Trey: (still sobbing a bit) I want to make up for what my father did. I will use the money I did earn and donate it. If that is alright.

Mr. Racer: Well, what you did was still a bit unforgivable, but I guess it’s a start. How about to us since the money your father donated to us is clearly not his?

Trey: I could. As long as I have enough for B.O.M.G.T.M. or W.E.B.

Mr. Sterling: (in disbelief) W.E.B.!? You want to give money to those idiots? Especially the fat homo who disappointed me by not rebuilding the school that I was actually hoping to invest in it this time, so instead, came up with that?

Trey: (getting upset) His name is Max Modell. And it was his old lab partner, Peter Parker, who came up with W.E.B.

Headmaster Spritle: He’s right. I think you should start there... But for now, all your attacks on the students and other racers could have gotten them hurt. Even killed. So you still have to answer to the police.

Trey: I... I understand.

>The guards came and cuffed Trey and lead both him and Mr. Sterling away.

>Down in the pits, we saw the whole thing unfold.

Yes! We got it.

We shouldn’t forget to thank Futaba for recording that conversation. We had a feeling something was up.

I just happened to be browsing the school security system and just happened upon this footage. I just thought that something like this needed to come out.

You did well, Futaba chan. I’ll see if you can get an extra helping of pumpkin pie.

X: Forget it. Grandmom says you only get one each. She said getting second helpings of anything wouldn’t be fair for the others.

Speed: It’s true. You should have seen her at the Easter Party. I’ve never seen anyone so mad just for asking for another chicken leg. But there might be some left-overs. We’ll see.

I call dibs on the left-over turkey and ham!

Oracle: Not before I get the turkey first.

Hands off the stuffing.

I would like try all of them. I remembered the last Thanksgiving Dinner we were invited to and liked it.

Yes. I miss that tofu turkey. And I should really ask Dogg what herbal spices he used in it.

If there are any left-overs, I wonder if Grandmom Racer will let me take some back to my father.

I doubt you can get any of it past customs. Especially during a pandemic.

Oh, we have our ways.

(on Carmen’s phone) I’m not sure what that means, but okay.

Oracle: Wish you could be here, Player. It’s way more better than having to see it from a “dark little cave”.

Player: Hey, I’m happy in my dark little cave. Besides, you know us Canadians have our Thanksgivings way earlier than Americans.

Hold on, I think they’re continuing.

>Back on the balcony.

Headmaster Spritle: With that out of the way, we should move on. Good thing we only have one left. And now coming all the way from Los Angeles...

>The sound of an engine can be heard coming. But sounded more like... the roars of flames.

Th- That car!?

That’s a 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner. And it appears to be in great condition.

I think they’re more concerned on who is driving it.

Joker: Fox?

Fox: It... It can’t be...

>The car opened... and the driver came out.

Here I am, Racer Academy. Happy Thanksgiving.

D- Dad...

REMINDER: This is a fanmade timeline. Fox and other Persona characters are not really related to characters from other franchises as according to ATLUS. These relations exist only in this fanmade timeline. Please do not hate or sue me for this. Thank you.

Everyone: (except Joker) WHAT!?

Shush! I don’t think he heard you guys!

>But he did. The man the Fox and I were going to see was right here. He turned to us. He seemed to have recognized Skull as an Idol, Panther as a model, and Crow as a famous detective. Then, his eyes fell upon Fox... He was slightly shocked.

Taro Kitano: ... Kitagawa Sensei?

Headmaster Spritle: It looks like the Leader of the Scorchers has seen a ghost. But let’s not cross into that thorny territory. Now, we shall-

If I may, Headmaster Racer, but now we have an empty space in the starting lane. This simply will not do.

Headmaster Spritle: But we’ve had races with one less racer before. I don’t see why that should be a problem.

Professor Aniskov: True. But this time, I must insist. We need someone to replace Trey Sterling.

>Back down with us.

*Chirp*

Conor: Chim-Chim’s right, Zack, this is your big chance to race again.

That’s great, Conor. You, too, Chim-Chim. It would be like a dream come true... But I’m gonna have to turn it down. My racin’ days are long behind me now. Me and Ivy got a new goal in life.

I’m sure we will race again someday. But right now, Carmen needs us and we need her. Until V.I.L.E. is down for good.

Carmen: And besides, Player says our little calling card got A.C.M.E.’s attention. They’re on their way here now, so we gotta leave.

Joker: I see. That’s a shame.

Carmen: Hey, we had a wonderful time with you guys. We should try this again some time.

Sophie: Will we see each other again?

Carmen: (winking) Sooner than you think.

Joker: Carmen, before you go...

If you ever cross paths with my favorite cousin, tell him I said “Hi”... Even if they will happen soon.

Carmen: I’ll be sure to do that.

Player: Hey you guys, they just passed the gates.

Carmen: Happy Thanksgiving. And Happy Holidays.

>With that, Carmen, Zack, and Ivy run off and were gone... Who knows when we’ll see them again. Then, a black car drives up to us and two people in suits came out.

La Femme Rouge! We just saw her here! Where did she go!?

Joker: I’m afraid we have no idea who you’re talking about, Agent Devineaux.

Agent Devineaux: (a bit surprised) How did... Never mind, I know you saw her!

Calm yourself, Devineaux! If we just saw her, then we should follow her where she might have went.

Agent Devineaux: ... I knew that. I just wanted to see if you knew.

Oracle: (whispering sarcastically) I’m sure.

Agent Zari: Happy Thanksgiving.

>With that, the two A.C.M.E. Agents leave.

Conor: I wonder if I should have told them that I put cloaking technology in their getaway car?

As detectives, me and Wolf frown that you aided and abetted a criminal...

But as Phantom Thieves, we say “Right on”.

Conor: Thanks.

Headmaster Spritle’s voice on the speakers: Speed, X, can you send our Japanese guests up here, please? We wish to talk to them.

Speed: Alright! You guys better go. We’ll meet up after the race. If we’re still having it.

Joker: Right. See you all later.

>With that, we leave Conor and the others for now.

>Meanwhile, with Taro Kitano, he goes back inside his car... He is not alone.

Taro Kitano: So the rumors are true. Aren’t they?

I am truly sorry you had to find out this way.

Taro Kitano: So what now? You want me to talk to him? To get to know him?

Goemon: (shaking his head) Yusuke's in no hurry to meet you. Right now, he is content with how things are. He’s in college, he’s a talented artist, he has many good friends... And even someone he can share his heart with.

Taro Kitano: You mean that frizzy-haired guy with the glasses? I see. They look so happy together. It definitely reminds me of... me and her. When I look at Yusuke, I see his mother. And when I see his boyfriend, I can’t help but see myself. And I don’t even know the guy... Except in the ring.

Goemon: You’ll know soon enough... Speaking of comparing yourself with Ren, I have a favor to ask you.

Taro Kitano: (confused) Me?

Goemon: Or rather, someone on your team.

>Up on the balcony, we meet up with Headmaster Spritle, Speed Racer Sr., his wife Trixie, and Professor Aniskov.

Queen: You wanted to see us, Headmaster?

Headmaster Spritle: Professor Aniskov insists we can’t start the race without someone taking Trey’s place... And he suggests one of you do it.

Phantom Thieves: WHAT!?

Professor Aniskov: If it’s not too much trouble.

Mona: Well don’t look at me, Ryuji, Yusuke, Futaba, Haru, or Sumire. We’re still learning.

Wolf: Me and Akechi were asked to assist things with the Sterlings. They thought having a couple of detectives would make things a little more smoother. So we’re out.

Queen: I don’t think Sis would be too happy for me to spontaneously join in a big race like this.

Panther: And I promised the modeling agency I would take a few pics here as inspiration for their next session.

Fox: Then that would just leave...

Me?

?????: Pretty much.

>Then, my parents arrived with the wheelchair bound Defensive Driving teacher, Professor Winn, and Speed and X’s grandparents, Mom and Pops Racer..

Joker: Mom, Dad, so glad you guys decided to stay.

You didn’t think we’d actually miss this, did you?

Nor I. This is proud day for all of us.

Jonny: And who knew it would be on Thanksgiving.

Mrs. Racer: What do you mean?

As some of you may not know, but Mr. Amamiya here had just taken his driving examination with me as the supervisor.

Jonny: I’ve been helping him, too. Ever since last summer.

Professor Winn: Well, after much evaluation and seeing how well you managed your driving, whether it be regular, casual, cruising or even racing, I can honestly say... You passed.

For real!?

Queen: Congratulations, Ren.

Crow: Well done.

Mona: That’s our Joker.

I’m very proud of you, Ren.

Thank you all... Especially you, Yusuke.

>Me and Fox embrace each other lovingly.

Professor Winn: (taking a camera from her chair) Okay, smile!

>Everyone and Fox moves aside as Professor Winn takes my picture. Then, something prints out and she gives it to me.

Jonny: (smiling) You did good, kid.

Mom: Yes, well done. We’re so proud of you.

Thank you all.

Professor Aniskov: (clapping a bit) Now that that’s settled, I think we can get this race started.

Joker: I’m still not sure about this. I don’t even have a car. I mean, I do have one, but I don’t think it’s meant for racing.

Jonny: Professor Aniskov says he has that covered.

???? ??????: Hey, down here!

>We look down at the track. We saw that members of the Scorchers were hauling in a car.

Taro Kitano: Everest is letting you borrow his car for the race! So you better get down here, now!

Mom Racer: Well I’ll be.

Pops Racer: Yeah... (We finally have a speaking role here.)

Speed: (calling from down below) I have something for you, too! Chim-Chim!

Chim-Chim: *Chirp*

>Chim-Chim takes a package up to the balcony and give it to me. I open it up to find it had a white racing suit with some black and two patches on the chest. One a red circle with a white 5 on it that looks like it came from the logo our game. The other patch had a picture of a white coffee cup with some steam coming out with a fancy CL on the cup. There was also a white helmet with a large black stripe in the middle with a red line on each side of it.

Speed: (calling through Chim-Chim) It’s my old racing suit. I don’t use it anymore, so you can have it. But I did change the patches. Consider it an early Christmas present. And a thank you.

Joker: You’re welcome.

Mr. Racer: (a little confused) Thanks for what?

Speed: (awkward) I’ll tell you later, Dad. Right now, we have a race to get going.

Pops Racer: (looking stern) You better tell us later.

Mr. Race: (also looking stern) You bet.

>Chim-Chim climbs back down to Conor. Panther snaps her fingers and I magically change into the racing suit.

(this is the only picture that could be found that is similar) How do I look?

Headmaster Spritle: A bit like Speed when he first started here. Seems only yesterday he first started here... Wait, hasn’t he always? Never mind. It suits you well.

I think my heart just skipped a beat. If only I had my sketchpad, I would preserve this moment for life.

Joker: (smiling) You can do it later. I’ve got to head down.

Wolf: And me and Akechi have to deal with the Sterlings.

Crow: I just hope Trey will be cooperative.

Panther: And I have some pictures to take.

Queen: The rest of us will be at the stands if you want to join us. Text us when you’re ready to join us.

Mom: We will join you.

>We leave. Then, Professor Aniskov stops me for a bit and does something no one would ever think he would do... He gave me an encouraging smile... And a wide one at that... Wait a second.

Professor Aniskov?: (whisper in a very familiar voice) Good luck out there... Favorite cousin. (wink)

Joker: ...

(also whispering) Thank you, favorite cousin. (out loud) It’s showtime!

>We leave the balcony.

Headmaster Spritle: Ladies and gentlemen, filling in for Trey Sterling is one of our Japanese visitors, Ren Amamiya!

>I get in the Thunderbird. Then, I get a call from Speed, X, Slice, and Dice.

Dice: Good luck, Leader!

Slice: You’re gonna need it.

X: Hope you can keep up.

Joker: Can you?

Speed: Pretty bold. Let’s race!

>With that, we begin our engines. A holo-screen shows staring lights.

>Ready... Set... GO!

>We drive off. We go around the regular track once before the arch to the Virtual Track opens.

Automatic Voice: Virtual Track, activated!

>We drive into the Virtual Track. The track was made to look like we were on a giant table where a giant Thanksgiving Dinner was set up. The dishes, foods, and drinks were the obstacles, including a gravy boat spilling gravy around.

>In the stands, Fox, Mona, Skull, Queen, Noir, Oracle, Violet, and Sophie were watching the race when Bobby Drake, Kitty Pryde, Icicle Jr., and Lagoon Boy come to them.

Bobby Drake: Enjoying the race?

Queen: Well, Ren is still in 7th Place. But all in all, it’s going great.

Icicle Jr.: I don’t know about him, but I’m rooting for Alpha Leader. Look, he’s already in 4th.

SPLAT!

Oracle: (laughing) Until he drives into the mashed potatoes.

Commentator: Oh, right into the mashed potatoes.! Hope Alpha Leader can dig his way out. Now, Annalsie Zazic has passed him, narrowly missing the yams! But can she get by the slicing ham?

Kitty Pryde: (cheering) Don’t give up, Alpha Leader!

Yeah, you can do it, Alpha Leader! Keep going!

Skull: (surprised) Yoshizawa san, just who’s side are you on?

Violet: (a bit surprised herself) Sorry, senpai. I can’t just disagree with my favorite X-Man when she’s sheering for her favorite racer.

Kitty Pryde: (smiling a bit) I’m your favorite? I’m quite honored.

Violet: I’m so glad to hear that, Shadowcat san.

Kitty Pryde: Oh, you can just call me Kitty, Sumire Yoshizawa.

Violet: You know about me?

Kitty: I know a thing or two about the world of gymnastics. Plus, we know Spider-Man and the Future Avengers and they told us a lot about you guys.

Bobby: Yeah, we recognized you guys from what they told us, the past two Dream FESs, and those Dancing in Starlight videos.

Lagoon Boy: Yeah, Nightwing and the others told me about you as well. And a certain connection.

Queen: I see. So you have also been having dreams.

Lagoon Boy: How do you think we came to know Alpha Leader and each other?

Icicle Jr.: Yeah, we’ve been having dreams about him and each other for a long time. Ever since the last Dream FES... Along with that guy.

Skull: What guy?

Bobby: Well, maybe it would be better to show you. If you don’t mind.

Fox: Actually, I wish to stay and support Ren.

Sophie: I can record the race for you so you won’t miss much.

Mona: Thanks, Sophie. Okay, we’re coming.

>With that, Mona, Skull, Queen, Noir, Oracle, and Violet follow Bobby, Kitty, Icicle Jr., and Lagoon Boy.

>In a parking garage, they arrive at a black SUV with the X-Men logo on it. It was parked next to an old fashion roadster. Then, Lagoon Boy knock the back of the roaster with the “Shave and a Haircut” rhythm.

??????: Finally! I thought we were gonna die in here!

??????: Hurray! This lovely bear can become the prince he was meant to be! It was getting cramped in here.

??????: Only because you were wearing the suit when we got taken! You should have taken it off when we were leaving!

??????: But I lost my mask! I needed something to protect me from the virus!

??: I’m sure you were only doing what you needed to do.

??????: Thank you for that, Sensei.

??????: Kiss up.

??: Don’t worry, Yosuke, you’re still my best partner.

Yosuke?: (happily) Thanks, Partner.

Kitty: Okay, enough with the shouting, we’re getting you out now.

Bobby: Just try not to kill us when we let you out.

>Bobby opens the trunk. And out comes...

Ah, at last, fresh air! You guys know we can’t get to close like that, do you? We might get the virus.

I feel like an can survive anything with Sensei around. Even in enclosed spaces.

What!? You guys!?

Ryuji san? And the others? You’re here, too?

Queen: Yes, but how are you three here?

Yosuke: (unhappy) Ask him. (points to Icicle Jr.)

Icicle Jr.: (putting his fingers together) Well...

>Flashback.

>Junes Department Store, Electronics Department in Inaba. Yosuke had just finished work for the day. However, it was a slow day.

Teddie: Not many customers today, huh, Yosuke?

Yosuke: What did you expect? Because of the virus, only essential businesses are allowed to open. So the customers are only going to parts of the store that sells the essentials. And I doubt they include electronics unless they need replacing or if they want to do some early Christmas shopping.

Teddie: I see. (sighing sadly) I sure miss playing with the kids that come here. I haven’t even seen Nana chan in a long time. I miss her.

Yosuke: You just video chatted with her this morning.

Yu: (coming in with three take-out bags from Aiya) Talking to each other on the computer and talking in person are very different from each other.

Yosuke: Yu, you’re here?

Yu: I didn’t have time to make dinner tonight, so I picked up some take-outs. I would have ordered it, but due to the lockdown order, Aika’s really busy with other deliveries... There should be some left over to take to Nanako and Dojima san. So I guess we can visit them after all.

Teddie: (dramatically) Thank you so much, Sensei!

Yosuke: (unimpressed) Don’t get too excited, bear. We need to save some for Nanako and Dojima san.

NOTE: Before we go further, let me explain. By this point and time in this fanmade timeline, Yu, after graduating, moved back to Inaba. This time, for good. Yosuke had also moved out of his parents’ house. However, Mr. and Mrs. Hanamura didn’t want to be left alone with Teddie because of the messes he always leaves behind, so they convinced their son to take him with him. Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie all move in together in an apartment that was just a block away from the Dojima residence so they can visit each other whenever they want. Yu and Yosuke attended college in Okina City, though, Yosuke continued to work part-time at Junes and Yu started work as a gas station attendant at Moel. After they finished college, they still work their jobs because Yosuke is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Though, after a long time of always listening to music on his headphone, dancing at the Love Meets Bonds Festival, and performing at the Dream Festival, he might consider something in music. As for Yu, he wishes to work in Psychology, but that requires him to study a little more into it, so he’s still works at Moel. And Teddie... Well, he does have an “exclusive contract” with Junes.

>Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie make their way through he parking lot to Yu’s car where Yosuke’s scooter was also parked. Then suddenly...

?????? ??: Hey, are you Yosuke Hanamura?

Yosuke: Yeah, who wants to-

>They turned and are surprised by who they saw.

Yosuke: Y- You’re...

Icicle Jr.: Sorry about this. Don’t worry, I’ve been training with Iceman.

>With a blast of ice, Icicle Jr. froze Yosuke and Yu. Luckily, they were both still alive.

Teddie: (boastful) Ha! Betcha didn’t know that ice doesn’t work on moi!

BANG!

>Teddie is suddenly knocked out by a wrench. He didn’t see who did it.

>End of flashback.

Teddie: So that explains the small bump on my head. Good thing I was wearing my bearskin or else it would have been serious.

Queen: So you kidnapped three people from Japan and smuggled them across the sea to America in the middle of a global pandemic?

Yosuke: I think the real question is... Why?

Icicle Jr.: I just wanted to confirm some stuff... Like that you guys are the Phantom Thieves. Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to book a flight overseas in a global pandemic?

Noir: So you know who we are, huh?

Lagoon Boy: Don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone. This is out of respect for your friends. And we warned Icicle Jr. that we would send him off to Belle Reve this holiday season.

Icicle Jr.: I’m really hoping to spend it with an old friend of mine... To help her get over that her boyfriend isn’t around to spend it with her.

Kitty: (unsure) I don’t think she’s ready to go back into the fray yet.

Lagoon Boy: It’s true.

Icicle Jr.: (shrugging a bit) I don’t know. If Superboy and Miss Martian can even get engaged, there maybe hope for me yet.

I think we got bigger issues here. Like how you brought these guys here without even testin’ ‘em first.

Kitty: Got you covered. (takes a scanner from the SUV) We bring some with us whenever we go looking for new mutants. We may have powers, but apparently, we’re not immune to COVID. (scans Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie) They’re good.

Yosuke: Well that’s a relief. (rubbing some sore spots) But even though I’m not sick, I’m hurting all over from being stuck in there. Why couldn’t you have just kept us in the nice roomy SUV instead of the tiny trunk of this antique? Who owns this thing anyway?

Bobby: Another good friend of ours... Including you, Yosuke.

Yosuke: (confused) Mine? Who would... Wait, now that you mentioned it, I have seen this car before... in a dream.

Yu: Same here. When I think about that dream, I have the oddest feeling that I should thank you. But for what? I know you helped me a lot, Yosuke, but what I should thank you for is something else.

Yosuke: Yeah. But I just can’t remember. Then again, that dream isn’t as clear as... No, we should think about that one.

Yu: I agree.

Teddie: (confused) I don’t get it.

Yosuke: If this car is what we think it is... Where’s the owner?

Lagoon Boy: Most likely outside watching the race.

Yu: Race? What are you talking about? And where are Joker and the rest of the Phantom Thieves?

Sophie: (on Oracle’s phone) You’ll meet Fox, Panther, Crow, and Wolf in the stands. As for Joker, you should see for yourself.

>Sophie was now showing me now neck and neck with Annalise on a bridge over a casserole.

Yu: Is that a casserole?

Violet: We’ll explain later. Right now, they’re waiting for us.

>With that, they all head back to the stands.

>Back on the stands, Fox, Panther, Crow, and Wolf were surprised to see Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie here. They explained what happened.

Wolf: (whining) Please, one crime at a time. We already just dealt with the Sterlings, and we’re celebrating here.

Icicle Jr.: I just said I was sorry.

Queen: By the way, where is this friend of yours?

Bobby: I guess he stepped away for now.

Yosuke: Can you blame him? It would be awkward for a French guy to be at an event for an American holiday.

Violet: Hey, Senpai’s catching up to Taro!

>In the Virtual Track, I was catching up to Taro Kitano with rows of glasses of sparkling cider surrounding us. Some of them kept falling to try and drown us.

Commentator: Ren is gaining up on Kitano. Can fresh college student pass a seasoned pro?

Just so you know, I’m not going easy on you just cause you and my son are dating, kid.

Joker: I don’t expect you to. I wanna beat you fair and square. We’re all equals here.

Taro Kitano: Good. Hope you’re ready for this.

Announcer: This is it, folks! Speed, X, Kitano, and Ren are at the final part of the race. The man course itself: THE TURKEY!

>Before us was a giant cooked turkey the was guarded by robot turkeys with titanium drills for beaks.

Speed: Time to carve this bird!

You bet! It’s showtime!

>We managed to tear are way through the robot turkeys. They drill hard, we be are harder. Then, some of them were now ganging up on Speed and X.

Joker: We can’t let them get drilled by robot turkeys, will we?

Taro Kitano: I guess. Fine, we’ll save them from the robot turkeys... Now that’s something I never thought I’d say.

>We managed to drive up and beat the robot turkeys with the cowcatcher on the Thunderbird and Taro Kitano with his car’s hook. Finally, they were gone and Speed and X drove up ahead.

X: Thanks for that.

Speed: Now let’s go!

>We make it to the end of the rack. The exit portal arch looked like an eaten-through pumpkin pie. We drive in and back into the real world. Once out, Speed was the first to cross the finish line, then X, then Taro Kitano, and I was the last one. The remaining racers followed.

Commentator: And that’s that! Speed Racer Jr. comes in a spectacular 1st Place! His older, brother, X, in 2nd! Taro Kitano in 3rd! And Ren Amamiya in 4th!

>The crowd was cheering loud. I could see my friends in the stands. Wait, why are Yu, Yosuke, and Teddie here? Actually, never mind, this is a great moment for me. Then, I look up to the commentator’s balcony. The Racers were smiling and waving that Speed and X came in 1st and 2nd. Then, I look to my parents who are waving to me. Then, I looked to “Professor Aniskov” who was also waving to me. Finally, I turn back to the stands and see Fox.

????????? ???????: WHERE IS HE!?

>Uh oh, the jig is up. I see the real Professor Aniskov wearing nothing but his boxers, a white tank-top, and a very angry look on his face. With him is my favorite cousin’s favorite every-vigilant inspector.

Excuse me, Racer Family, but I found this man tied up in a closet somewhere. You wouldn’t happen to know where to find a man who looks just like him, would you?

>The other Aniskov was already gone.

Jonny: (smiling) Not at all, Inspector.

Mr. Racer: ... Not me, either.

Headmaster Spritle: Nor me.

>The other Racers just shook their heads.

Professor Aniskov: (upset) Are you serious!? He was just here!

Inspector Zenigata: Don’t worry, Professor. I’ve been chasing Lupin for the longest time. Knowing him, he can’t be that far.

>You don’t know that half of it, Pops.

>In the same parking garage, the other Aniskov had just come in when a car shows up.

Cutting it rather close, aren’t we? I’m not sure Fujiko would want to spend Thanksgiving alone this year.

Professor Aniskov?: (laughing) Don’t forget, Jigen, I have family, too.

Jigen: Even though he’s not related to you by blood?

>Then, the other Aniskov removes his disguise.

True... But do you want to tell his Persona that?

Jigen: ... Good point.

>Suddenly, someone comes running in. It was Pops Zenigata.

Inspector Zenigata: LUPIN, YOU’RE UNDER ARREST!

Lupin III: Took you long enough, Pops. Probably because ACME came here looking for my rival and told you to stay back. But I’m afraid I have other plans to get to. Happy Thanksgiving!

>Lupin III gets in the car where Goeman was already seated and Jigen drives them off. Pops tries to chase after them... But the car they my friends were just at drives up and blocks him. Lupin, Jigen, and Goemon get away.

Inspector Zenigata: (angry) Hey, what’s the big idea!?

>Icicle Jr. walks in.

Icicle Jr.: Sorry, Inspector! My friend was just leaving.

Inspector Zenigata: I should have known crooks like you and him stick together.

Icicle Jr.: Hey, don’t blame me for that thief’s escape. I was just seeing my friend off before I go to the feast with my other friends.

Inspector Zenigata: Grr! Fine. But you better watch yourself. One of the heroes you face is here today.

Icicle Jr.: (smiling) Who do you think invited me?

>The inspector just stood silent with his teeth gritting. Then, he ran off after my favorite cousin. Then, Icicle Jr. goes over to the driver of the car.

Icicle Jr.: Hey, thanks for helping Lupin and his friends escape... And thanks for helping me bring Yosuke and his friends here. I really appreciate it.

Anytime, Cameron. Anytime.

>Another successful heist.

NOTE: I apologize that this post was a bit long, we tried to cram as much of this day in as possible.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

RE: My post earlier about the Ooblets Epic Games Exclusive backlash.

I’m not going to show the Twitter user, if you follow the indie game development scene on Twitter it’s likely you’ll recognize this tweet, either way that’s not who I am. The Ooblet’s account on the other hand is fair-game since it’s basically a product placement.

I feel it needs reiterating how utterly dense this kind of tweet is, and how completely skewed the narrative for this issue has gotten, so let me reiterate in obnoxiously large and emboldened font to try and get the point across:

THE GAMING COMMUNITY IS NOT TOXIC

“Honesty” and “transparency” are all well and good, but unless you’re honestly trying to drive away your own community, perhaps you should try being a little less honest and a little less transparent. No one (or I guess no one but this guy and the few who agree with him) is going to thank you for honestly throwing them under the proverbial bus after they’ve spent months, if not years, supporting your project; your dream.

I’ve heard from others that “this is just how they write” and “it’s meant to be funny”, and to an extent, I can understand that. But let me just include some screenshots from the post in question to reiterate my point, because I feel like my previous post didn’t quite get the point across:

(Context: What the Epic Games Exclusivity Deal means for you, the fan and/or financial backer of Ooblets).

I get that the Fortnite bit is the joke, ha ha, Fortnite used to be wildly popular, I get it, good meme. What isn’t the joke, and what was part of why people got upset was the first bit, specifically the “download the Epic Games Launcher and make an Epic Games account” bit, that bit.

Now, I personally have no qualms about having the Epic Games Launcher on my PC. I have long since looked beyond the ‘scandal’ of tech companies saving and selling my data to distant lands to be used for nefarious moneymaking schemes. Is it bad? Sure, maybe. Would I prevent it had I the chance? Of course. Do I have that chance? Not a chance in the world, so I decide to live with it.

That said, many others have not reached that point of fuck it, and understandably so. I hit that point because of my negative outlook on society as a whole but, praise be, there are in fact still some optimists out there who look at these shitty corporate tactics and say no to them, and good on them for that.

That is what I would say is the bulk of the primary issues people have with the Epic Games Store. The missing features bits aren’t terribly important, as even this post says, if you have a social life on Steam, then use Steam. The EGS does not need to be your do-all replacement.

This is where the post should have stopped. Here and now, had this post ended, any and all issues with this decision would have been but a whisper in the wind. As I said in my previous post, yes they undoubtedly would have received plenty of critical, and non-critical backlash for the decision regardless, but ending the post here would’ve 100% put the developers on the right side in this situation and I’d be right up there agreeing with that tweet.

(Context: Are you angry at Epic and/or us for this decision?)

Referring to earlier when I said that playful tone and humour are all fine and dandy, I understand that this is probably meant to sound playful and humourous, but it comes across as largely self-important and ignorant, and the bits that follow do in no way dissuade from that appearance.

While my response to this complaint was similar to their own, in that you should just use Steam for the features that the Epic Games Store lacks, they go on to essentially say that this is just baby EGS and that Steam used to be just like it and look at it now.

While they aren’t technically wrong, from a development point of view, the big thing they need to understand is how web standards have dramatically changed since 2003 when the Steam store launched. Launching a store, of any variety, without a shopping cart is a big no-no.

As far as missing features go, that’s not like missing a friends list or a IM feature, that’s missing a crucial part of a web-based storefront. Imagine going to a store and only be allowed to purchase one thing at a time, that would be ridiculous.

Their response to this was as corporate as any triple-A publisher, or really any corporation at all, from any industry. Just a complete disconnect from society that frankly is unwarranted from what is quite literally a two person operation. Not to mention, their response is quite literally what every parent warns their kids about at a young age. “But mooooooooooooom, everyone is doing it!!!!” Yes sweetie, but if everyone jumps off a bridge, are you going to?

Apparently, yes.

And not to discount the idea of making money, by all means make money, but let me put it this way, had they left this post exactly where I said they should have previously, all of the blame would be at Epic’s feet. Because at the end of the day, having your game be exclusive to one service does not make you money, it makes them money. So this whole “everyone is doing it” schtick doesn’t fly when coming from the developers. Had this been a post by Epic (and frankly with all the shilling I could be convinced it was from them) then this argument might have made just a tiny bit more sense.

Underlined in yellow are the jokes; the “playful” and “humourous” attitude I’ve heard so much about. Underlined in red however, are what the developers are actually genuinely saying with complete and utter seriousness.

“There are worse things in the world to be upset about.” I kid you not, that’s their argument.

Now, all of that reiterated, to get to the actual point of this post (wish Tumblr let you do multiple “Keep Reading” lines but I digress), the article linked in the tweet here is about the previous “non-critical” backlash I mentioned they’d receive, though multiplied exponentially by their horrendous blog post, and further community responses to said blog post.

I’d like to refer to a completely unrelated post I made quite a while ago that really needs to spread like wildfire if you ask me:

RECEIVING INSULTS, UNCRITICAL FEEDBACK, AND/OR DEATH THREATS DOES NOT INVALIDATE THE CRITICAL FEEDBACK NOR THE ISSUE AT HAND.

I am by no means wiping away death threats or mean words as things to scoff at, by all means take them as seriously as you will, but under no circumstances should 20+ people telling you to kill yourself invalidate the hundreds of fans and financial backers who are upset with your recent financial decision, or your response to criticisms to those decisions.

This happens time and time and time again. Someone of note does something bad, for one reason or another, and instead of responding to the completely warranted and justified criticism and feedback they instead play up the 15+ people who IM’d them to drink bleach and throw it up as “an example of the ever present toxic gaming community”.

More or less, the substance to this article is their “apology”, and I use that term very loosely but I’ll get to that, to the community at large for the recent events. The post summarizes the issue from their (biased) perspective, posts some screenshots of the colourful responses they’ve received, the usual woe-is-me schtick.

I’d like to highlight a few bits from it to further exemplify the continued mindset of these people:

I have given the full context to this next statement with these screenshots so that I can now take parts of these statements out of their context to, at least to my belief, succinctly identify the mindset of these folks:

“I understand the relationship people think they might be owed when they exchanged money for goods or services, but...we’ve never actually sold them anything and don’t owe them anything at all.”

I don’t want to get off-topic any more than necessary, but this, this right here is why fundraisers, Kickstarters, GoFundMes, Patreon subscriptions, or any other form of crowdsourcing platforms need to be handled with extreme care. I hesitate to say regulated legally, but I am by no means opposed to that idea.

I want to express this carefully and plainly: LEGALLY, yes they are absolutely right that they do not owe anyone anything. At least to my knowledge, they didn’t have a formal Kickstarter, their financial backing came primarily from whatever it is they do for a living AND the support of their Patreon backers.

And while I do not feel that it needs addressing, for the sake of consistency I will address it: MORALLY they owe the game to anyone who financially supported them with the express purpose of developing the game.

“We definitely owe all of you who supported us, but also fuck off you entitled cunts because we don’t owe you shit.”

When in the face of well-deserved criticism, deflect deflect deflect. As if a broken record, I’d like to again emphasize that yes, legally they owe no one anything. Morally, they do. Legally, they don’t. Morally, yes. Legally, no.

This, in essence, is a response to the majority of people who are like me, who aren’t screaming vitriolic personable attacks, telling them to drink bleach, long jog off a short pier, the works. Essentially: “If you aren’t with us, then you’re against us.”

Because apparently pointing out your blatant mischaracterisation of the gaming community, your outrageously awful personal relations skills, and most especially your morally bankrupt understanding of the relationship between you and the people financially supporting your passion project means we are, by their logic, on a level equivalent in nature to the 10+ people telling them to drink bleach.

Fixed for typos:

Remember how I said this was an “apology” in the loosest form, well what I was referring to was how in the beginning during their (totally unbiased) summary of the events, they more or less said “Sorry you didn’t respond the way we wanted you to.” Beyond that, yeah, it’s not an apology.

And why would we expect one? Nothing they have spat out in the face of their fans so far has even a hint of self-realization or self-reflection in it. Even their acknowledgement of their (horrendously under exaggerated) bad PR skills comes across as a hollow acknowledgement, if it can even be referred to as an acknowledgement at all, because if you truly truly acknowledged it, then this post wouldn’t exist.

As to this anti-Semitic fabrication making the rounds, I have not seen it so I will take their word for it that they did not make one, especially since I have seen fabricated evidence involving Discord messages rearranged out of order. What I feel needs addressing specifically in this chunk though is his reference to “my messages taken out of context to insinuate I don’t care about our patrons/fans”, because if you’ve seen my previous post then you’ll know no amount of context makes this statement look good:

Sure, it’s a true statement of fact now that they have Epic’s money, but it’s fairly obvious that it reads “We have Epic’s money now, we don’t need you anymore.” I’m sure they didn’t mean that, but that when combined with their other statements regarding how they don’t owe their patrons anything, what they are saying is clear as day.

But hey, credit where credit is due, at least with this we can agree:

But of course, as these people are now infamously known for not ending their posts where they reasonably should...

Now I know how much money goodwill, faith, and morals make, and again I would fully expect this kind of response from the likes of EA, Ubisoft, Bethesda, or fuck even Amazon or Facebook to show that corporate greed has no industry bounds, but this is a two person team whose passion project is to make this game which is being financially supported by loyal fans and future customers.

And that’s just it, that is the mind-boggling part to me, that this is all just the self-important, mischaracterising, morally bankrupt, and childishly ignorant ramblings of a small little husband and wife duo.

In summary...

As was said in the blog post, I’m sure that looking from the outside in we don’t get to see the full scope of the vitriolic comments they’re receiving, so to that I give them credit, and the most sincerest of apologies. I’ve received a few death threats and vitriolic hate-filed messages in my time on the internet, and while personally I am unphase by them, I can fully understand that it can be damaging to one’s self-esteem and self-confidence, especially when it comes in relation to your passion project. I am sorry.

But unwarranted, hate-filled, vitriolic, suicide-baiting messages do not invalid those of us criticizing you for the things that you did do, the words that you did say, and the actions that you did take. I mentioned this in my previous post, but as it stands, the centerpiece to this issue isn’t even about the Epic Exclusivity Deal anymore, it’s about you. You and your treatment, of not just the community at large (for which, might I add, is your primary customer base), but of your treatment towards your loyal fans and financial supporters along the way.

You, for whatever reason, act as most of us have come to expect a soulless and faceless triple-A publisher would, when in fact you are just a two person team with public faces. You’re taking the shots that the likes of EA, Activision, or Bethesda would and have taken, but you’re forgetting that it is above and beyond easier to find you then it is to find them.

All we, but more importantly your fans want from you is for you to make the best game that we all know you’re capable of. And for those who supported you this far along the way to be given even an ounce of respect, despite you not needing their support anymore.