#i use the same name on bluesky

[bestunderheaven]

also important: no elon fuckhead and no giving money to elon fuckhead

should you delete twitter and get bluesky? (or just get a bluesky in general)? here's what i've found:

yes. my answer was no before bc the former CEO of twitter who also sucked, jack dorsey, was on the board, but he left as of may 2024, and things have gotten a lot better. also a lot of japanese and korean artists have joined

don't delete your twitter. lock your account, use a service to delete all your tweets, delete the app off of your phone, and keep your account/handle so you can't be impersonated.

get a bluesky with the same handle, even if you won't use it, also so you won't be impersonated.

get the sky follower bridge extension for chrome or firefox. you can find everyone you follow on twitter AND everyone you blocked so you don't have to start fresh: https://skyfollowerbridge.com/

learn how to use its moderation tools (labelers, block lists, NSFW settings) so you can immediately cut out the grifters, fascists, t*rfs, AI freaks, have the NSFW content you want to see if you so choose, and moderate for triggers. here's a helpful thread with a lot of tools.

the bluesky phone app is pretty good, but there is also tweetdeck for bluesky, called https://deck.blue/ on desktop, if you miss tweetdeck.

bluesky has explicitly stated they do not use your data to train generative AI, which is nice to hear from an up and coming startup. obviously we can’t trust these companies and please use nightshade and glaze, but it’s good to hear.

[factorialsotherfandoms]

HELLO! Today I bring you post-canon EdM fanfic. It has massive spoilers, read at your own risk, ao3 link here and full text below the cut

Oswaldo awakens in a field. It is dark, and his vision struggles to see further than the wildflowers around him. His body feels wrong, there is the ache of injuries he does not remember, and a stiffness that does not feel quite right.

He is also alone.

Very, very alone.

That's…

"Alan?" He whispers.

This is…

Think. What does he remember.

Last he remembers… They were about to arrive on a mission. At a place called the Perimeter, a place that does not exist. Previous agents had vanished, and those that returned had lost their memories, so… so a long term investigation was being arranged.

Okay. His memory has a gap, but it is not contextually unexpected.

Not contextually unexpected, but why is he alone? And in a field? Where is Alan? How long has it been - did something happen? He was unconscious not walking so it cannot be he left, it must be that someone succeeded in banishing the paranormal. It’d nighttime, maybe he was asleep, but why was he asleep and not preparing the infirmary for patients? A delay before the magic undid, maybe?

He thinks… That works. right?

But where is Alan, where is Theo, how long has it been, did something happen-?

If something happened, if something happened…

"Alan!" He yells his beloved’s name this time, then takes a deep breath and calls louder still "Alan!"

He pulls himself up, starts looking around. He finds one of their photographs in the mud nearby - he grabs it, clings to it, tries to work out where to go.

If they have just finished the mission, people are likely hurt. He should… He should find the infirmary, get there and prepare. Maybe Alan is gone because he was fighting the cause? While Oswaldo prepared for patients?

But then why is Oswaldo in a field, and not the infirmary?

He needs to find someone.

Anyone.

Alan.

“Alan!” He calls again, trying ro pick a direction to search. “Jorge? Anyone?”

It is dark - it is really dark - he cannot see-

"Uncle Oswaldo?" A voice calls back. "Where are you?!"

Theo.

He sounds scared.

"I'm here," Oswaldo calls back. "Theo, are you okay?!"

Oswaldo squints against the darkness, turning to look for his nephew - Alan's nephew, but his all the same.

As he looks… he spots a faint, purple light not a little ways behind himself.

No, not just purple light - a UV torch. Every agent was equipped with one, but Oswaldo has nothing with him, not even bandages. They were supposed to have normal light ones as well, but perhaps in however long it's been, whoever this is had lost theirs?

Does not matter. The light moves, and either it is Theo or a very specific sort of trick.

"I think I see you!" He calls back. "Stay there!"

The light twists and Oswaldo is only more certain of his choice.

He stumbles a little as he runs, feet catching on an assortment of debris, all hidden by the wildflowers. He still clings to the photograph he found, chasing towards the light.

As he approaches the figure holding the light becomes apparent, and then that figure becomes familiar.

"Theo!" He reaches out, grabbing his nephew's face. Even in the dark, he can tell things have changed. Theo is older, now, his face filled out a little more and the bleached fringe now just one lock of hair. "Theo, are you alright?!"

Theo is frozen for a moment, and then all movement as he throws his arms around Oswaldo's chest. Oswaldo shifts, moving to return the hug, keeping the shaking boy - man, now, he is very clearly a man now - tightly against him.

"I thought-" Theo's voice bubbles. "I woke alone, and something happened, and I don't-"

"I think…" Oswaldo hesitates a moment. "I think the mission is over? It was a memory well, perhaps we couldn't undo that, only stop it going further? The others must be around somewhere."

He says it with more confidence than he has; years of shaken patients and time at the surgical table has only taught him a little more consideration.

Theo nods, "where's uncle Alan?"

"I'm not sure," Oswaldo tries to mask the terror that question leaves in his throat. "We can go look for him. He was probably with the team fighting whatever caused the problems, right?"

"Right," Theo takes a deep breath, pulling away as he dries his eyes.

He looks so, so much older now - just how long has it been?

"There's nobody that way, I just came from over there."

There could be, further away.

But it's as much a way to make a decision as any.

The photograph goes in Theo's bag, and together they use the UV torch to see just a little more than in the darkness. It is a cloudy night - a new moon, even - and the little helps, reflecting off disjointed metal and scraps burrowed in the mud. There is something familiar about some of it, in a way Oswaldo refuses to think about; he just clings to Theo's hand, and they keep walking.

If Oswaldo thinks about how he seems to have awoken in the remains of a destroyed infirmary, equipment unevenly buried until everything is a trip hazard, he will break.

So they just walk, hand in hand, an occasional call of "is anyone there?" "Alan?" "Beto? Rossi?" "George? Lethicia? Veríssimo?" "Uncle Alan?" between them.

After not very long or perhaps forever they hear an answer.

"Oswaldo?" The voice is faint, but unmistakable. "Theo?"

"Alan?!"

Squinting against the darkness, Oswaldo can see a shape sat against a rock. Most of him is obscured, but he knows that voice like he knows his own soul; he drops Theo's hand, and runs towards him.

Alan does not rise, instead he stays sat against the rock. Worry builds in Oswaldo's throat, barely even checking for danger before he crashes to his knees at his beloved's side.

Alan does not even turn to him.

"Alan?" He calls again, softer now, patting his face in an attempt to draw attention. "Alan? What's wrong? Are you hurt?"

He looks rough, but it is unmistakably his Alan, no matter how many years have passed and how many scars have been accrued. Oswaldo wants nothing more than to sink into his arms, return to his favourite place in the world, but first he has to make sure his beloved is okay.

Please, please, if there is a god, let it be something Oswaldo can treat at least.

The lack of anyone else here is terrifying.

So, too, is a lack of corpses.

Didn't he and Alan command a team? Where are they?

"Oswaldo?" Alan turns to face him, just a little. "You're there?"

"I'm here," Oswaldo promises. "Alan, are you hurt? Is anything wrong?"

Theo comes close, and stops a few steps behind them. He rummages in his bag; Oswaldo pays it no mind other than making sure he still knows where their nephew is.

"I can't see," Alan's voice shudders a little. "Oswaldo-"

"It's dark," Oswaldo answers, dread in his stomach. "A lot of time seems to have passed…  Maybe… I'll check. As soon as we're somewhere with lights, I'll check. It'll be okay, I promise, I'm right here, everything will be okay."

Alan clings to his hand, but takes a deep breath and nods.

"I tripped over a root or something,” he tells him. “Hit my head and scraped up my leg. Seemed better to stop trying and wait for someone to come to me after that."

"Idiot," Oswaldo nudges him before moving to feel across his head. He cannot find any swelling, but once they have proper light… "You shouldn't have tried if you can't see; I will always find you. You know I always find you."

Alan’s face softens a little. “So you do. I-”

"Got it!" Theo yells, drawing both of their attentions. There's the sound of something heavy being dropped; as Oswaldo turns to look, he is greeted by a red box. "First aid kit!"

"Thank you Theo," Oswaldo would give his soul for their nephew at the worst of times, and especially right now. "Can you see if you can find a better light? Just be careful, and stay close."

"Of course."

Theo hesitates, and then steps away. Oswaldo listens to the footsteps for a few moments, then begins checking the first aid kit.

Usually…

It's a small, tiny thing, but there is a little keyring torch there. It is too small to walk by, and he dare not risk putting it near potentially damaged eyes even if to assess them, but it is enough for what he needs.

"I'll check your head first, then your leg," he tells Alan. "Theo's looking for a better torch - I can still see him. There's no monsters, and we're safe."

"Oswaldo," Alan's voice is tight again, perhaps tighter. “You're not hurt?"

He considers that as he checks Alan's head more properly. There is some bruising in grey hair, but it's not particularly swollen or tender - something to keep an eye on, but not an immediate issue, given his responses are coherent enough.

"I'm okay," he replies. "Sore, it feels a little like healed injuries or old bruising, but there is nothing recent. Theo is alright, too; scared, but intact."

"Good," Alan squeezes his shoulder. "That's… I'm glad it's only me."

The eyesight explains why Alan isn't with the other combatants, having fought whatever the cause is.

It does not explain anything else, or ease the worry in Oswaldo's veins.

Still, his Alan is hurt. Make sure he'll be alright, then hunt the others together.

Head injury, leg injury… There's no point asking about dizziness or nausea right now; newly discovered vision problems will do that, too, and they are not in a position where they can do anything but move.

They have to find more people, or shelter - something - and they have to get up to do so. They'll have to be careful, but he's conscious and talking, so the rest can wait for a proper room; they’ll just be careful, that’s all.

Moving down, he finds Alan's trousers torn. Beneath there is one long cut, deeper than the rest, and a bunch of scrapes.

Oswaldo takes a wipe, and grieves the lack of stitching supplies in Theo's kit. He knows exactly why they are missing, but the long cut could definitely do with something.

"You've some cuts," Oswaldo tells him. "I'm going to clean and bandage them for now, but you'll need stitches and a tetanus jab as soon as we find some. Alright?"

"I trust you," Alan tells him.

Oswaldo kisses his cheek, then begins.

By the time he has finished, Theo has returned with a better flashlight. Oswaldo quickly reminds him to keep it away from everyone's eyes - the last thing they need is the sudden change in light hurting Alan more - then puts everything away. Rather than return it to Theo, he strings the first aid kit onto his belt.

"I'd tell you not to put weight on it, but we really need to get out of here," Oswaldo tries to keep his tone light. "So, leaning on me?"

"I always do."

Oswaldo offers a smile, then realises it cannot be seen.

It falls quickly, but he helps Alan get an arm over his shoulder, and then onto his feet. The position is awkward, but the only other way Oswaldo would take it is for nobody to be injured at all.

"I'm fine," Alan tells him.

Oswaldo shushes him, "Theo? Can you lead? Just go a little slowly."

"Of course!"

In the torchlight his eyes are wide, typical of the boy they know but looking strange on a much older face.

Still, it is with growing confidence that he finds a safe route onwards, keeping up a chain of words. It takes a moment for Oswaldo to realise what he is doing, but when he does… It's very considerate.

They walk on again, unsure exactly for how long. Soon, however, Theo interrupts himself to say "I see more lights!"

With them pointed out, Oswaldo can see them too. A small collection of probably torches, gathered in the middle of a field.

"Hey!" Theo calls, about to run ahead, only to pause and remember what he is doing. Oswaldo smiles, watching him restrain himself, and staying close instead.

There is no way that the people at the lights would have heard the call, that far away. When they get a little closer, however, one light does break off from the group.

"Someone's headed our way," Oswaldo tells Alan. "There's a lot of lights down there - it's probably some of the others, not cultists. I doubt there’d be that many cultists with electric torches in a field."

Alan understands the inference; he might be able to see little to nothing, but Oswaldo feels him tense up, ready for a fight.

"Hey!" Theo calls, once the light comes close. "Who's there?"

"Theo?" The voice… Oswaldo struggles more with this voice than those of his family. A woman, though, and familiar. "Thank god, I was so worried when you weren't with the others. Did you find anyone else?"

"Just the three of us, Lethica," Alan is the one to reply, relaxing a little. "Is anyone else missing?"

"Theo was the last of my tea," she replies, now close enough to see. "So we're all accounted for now. Everyone else… Diogo has found his way here, but not Jorge. I'm not sure exactly, but it seems to be about half of their team and a quarter of yours here, plus a couple of the missing agents. Nobody's seen Veríssimo or either Besatt, though; we're looking for a phone."

"Your best bet would be Calisto," Alan frowns. "I think only you, he, and I have mobiles, maybe one of the rookies?"

She shakes her head, "already checked. And we tried the radios, but nobody answered."

As they talk, they slowly begin the cautious descent to the group.

"I'm glad you're alright," she tells them. "We worked out the three of you were probably together about as soon as we realised Theo wasn't with us, but with so few of your team making their way over here…"

"It's been a long walk," Oswaldo replies. "We haven't seen anyone else, but they may have gone a different way? Or been off fighting whatever caused all of this?"

"We can hope," Lethica agrees, then pauses, and "Alan, are you hurt?"

"Just scraped up my leg tripping over a rock; Oswaldo's feeling protective," Alan replies.

Oswaldo would correct him, but… better not to. If he wants to keep it quiet until they know what's wrong exactly, Oswaldo will help him hide it.

"Is anyone else injured?" Oswaldo asks instead. "I can't imagine Alan was the only one who tripped in the dark; I don't have much equipment, but I can check people at least."

"I don't-" Lethicia pauses a moment, reconsidering. "There's a few people a bit banged up, but I think anyone seriously injured would struggle with the terrain; once it's light we can organise search parties, but I don't want to risk anyone else in the dark. Fernanda thinks we’re an hour or two off dawn.”

She pauses, frowning, clearly wanting to say something else.

The three of them give her a moment.

“Speaking of Fernanda… Some of the rookies are acting a little odd. I'll send them your way if it becomes very odd."

"I'll arrange to see everyone once it's light," Oswaldo promises, already running through what he will need to do. "If there is anything serious or bleeding, though, we'll keep ourselves central. Just direct people over."

If Veríssimo, both Besatts, and Jorge are still missing, Lethicia will have been trying to organise everyone herself - no wonder she looks about to drop dead from exhaustion. Hopefully he and Alan can take some of the pressure from her, coordinate their own team at least, perhaps Jorge's too.

Or maybe he's wrong and Diogo took control, which is perhaps the more terrifying option entirely.

Still, she leads them down to the group. Theo glances back as he's mobbed by some of his friends - Oswaldo promises they'll be fine, prompting Alan to shoo their boy off - before running off to join them. There are a couple of crates and camping chairs around the area people are congregating in; Oswaldo helps Alan sit down, only to be pulled onto his lap.

Familiar arms wrap around him, and he leans back to kiss the inside of Alan's neck.

"We'll work it out," he quietly promises. "I won't leave you."

"I love you," Alan replies, equally as quiet. "Always and forever."

"Forever and always," Oswaldo replies. "Even into the depths of hell."

That draws a chuckle, before Alan drops his face into Oswaldo's shoulder. "I am so, so very glad you are safe."

"You must have protected me,' Oswaldo replies. "So, thank you. For that. And for staying safe yourself."

"I don't remember doing anything."

"But you must have," Oswaldo clings to his arms. "Because I love you, and you love me, and whatever else happened in these years, we are safe and we are together."

"And we always will be."

"And we always will be."

[sharpedgedfool]

Did some fanart for the folks who run the GUN-Official blog (not SEGA official it’s a fan project), it used to be over on twitter but they’ve recently started over on Bluesky under the same name and I’m really excited to be seeing it again! It's a very fun in-universe way of storytelling with some great art and humor I can’t recommend it enough! Here’s the link to their Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/gun-official.bsky.social so give em a follow if you’re interested!

Some extras under the cut too:

[checkeredflagggs]

Aftermath of a Storm

Pairing: oscar piastri x sargeant!Storm chaser!fem!reader

summary: people are shocked to learn about alice and oscar

a/n: tbh i really meant for the first part to have more of the other drivers learning about Barbie and Alice but obviously that didn’t happen 😂

a/n 2: timelines? What timelines? Idk know them

Part 1

Bluesky

Private Messages - Logan, Oscar, Alice

Private Messages - The Grid, Fun

Private Messages - Logan, Oscar, Alice

mclaren

liked by drbarbie, teammate1, logansargeant, oscarpiastri, and 4,822,445 others

tagged: drbarbie, oscarpiastri

mclaren: Check the weather this weekend! Because there must be a storm moving in —Oscar Piastri is taking Dr. Alice “Barbie” Sargeant, Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant’s twin sister and notable storm chaser, on a hot lap here in Mexico!

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user1: oh my god this is everything I never knew I needed

user2: oh yeah hey mclaren don’t forget to mention THAT THEY ARE DATING

oscarpiastri: it’s gonna be a good time!

logansargeant: it’s been nice knowing you

oscarpiastri: I’m sure it’ll be fine

logansargeant: you sure about that? you SURE about that?

logansargeant: are we talking about the same girl?

user4: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

user5: LET US IN. LET US IN!! YOURE AMERICAN — SPILL THE TEA

landonorris: Oscar! You didn’t tell me you had a girlfriend!!!! 😡😡😡

oscarpiastri: I’m sure I mentioned it.

landonorris: I’m sure YOU HAVENT!?!

oscarpiastri: of course I have. are you sure you were listening?

landonorris: of course I was LISTENING! You just haven’t said A WORD!? Since when have you had a girlfriend?

oscarpiastri: we’ve been together for nearly 7 years

landonorris: 7 years?!?

oscarpiastri: yes.

landonorris: WHAT?!??!

user6: WHAT?

user7: uhh raise your hand if you had Oscar Piastri has a secret girlfriend, Logan Sargeant has a twin sister, or the two would be the same person on your bingo card this year

user8: ok but if anyone on the grid had a secret girlfriend of course it’s gonna be Oscar?

user7: you got me there

user9: 7 years?!? How do you hide a girlfriend for 7 years? Especially one as cool as drbarbie?

user10: user9 asking the real questions

user11: right?? How did some guy who drives in silly circles score such a cool badass girlfriend?

drbarbie: I ran over him with my bike one day

user11: WHAT?!?

drbarbie: ummmm what is this??? oscarpiastri WHAT DID YOU DO???

logansargeant: apparently signed you up to tackle a hot lap

drbarbie: NO

drbarbie: ABSOLUTELY NOT

drbabrie: SPEED AND I DO! NOT! MIX!!

drbarbie: oscarpiastri ANSWER YOUR PHONE

drbarbie: nicolepiastri where is your son? I’d like to have some words with him

nicolepiastri: you and me both sweetie

user12: you chase tornadoes but can’t do a hot lap?

drbarbie: THERE IS A MAJOR DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO!

user13: and you prefer the storms?

drbarbie: YES!!

f1gossippage

liked by logansargeant, oscarpiastri, teammate1, and 3,997,455 others

f1gossippage: a hot lap for the records! Oscar Piastri drove girlfriend Barbie Sargeant around the track twice today! Definitely seems like she’s not a fan

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user14: not a fan? I’d say 😂 I didn’t know anyone could scream that high tbh

user15: those were genuinely screams of terror…save my girl 😭

user16: Barbie Sargeant? Nah fam you did not do my girl dirty like that. Put some respect in her damn name. It’s DR. ALICE “BARBIE” SARGEANT

user17: oh thank god someone said it. She did not get 2 phd’s by the time she was 21 to have that be disrespected

user18: no shit really?

user17: yes! She graduated with double phd’s in meteorology and mechanical engineering from Cornell when she was 20!

user18: so fucking cool! And yea! PUT SOME DAMN RESPECT IN HER NAME!

user19: someone with more experience needs to watch this entire clip and then make gif sets of the ENTIRE thing because her face goes on a lot of journeys

user20: most of those journeys end in murder i think

drbarbie: they do. They will

logansargeant: maybe don’t threaten Oscar on a public instagram post?

drbarbie: for once in your life, stay in your lane. Unless you’d like to join him?

logansargeant: …carry on.

user20: logansargeant what was that??

logansargeant: I support women’s Rights and Wrongs

drbarbie: good

oscarpiastri: oh these are good pictures!

drbarbie: you are a dead man walking Piastri

oscarpiastri: would you really hurt me?

drbarbie: yes

oscarpiastri: what about my mother and sisters?

drbarbie: nicolepiastri soooo…you’re gonna be down a son soon. I can offer Logan?

nicolepiastri: oh we’d love to have the two of you visit again soon logansargeant and drbarbie

oscarpiastri: nicolepiastri mum??

user21: not nicolepiastri supporting this 🤣😭

teammate1: 😂😂😂

drbarbie: I sign your checks. Watch yourself

teammate1: girl this is too damn funny

drbarbie: 🙄😑

Private Messages - Oscar, Logan, Alice

drbarbie

liked by oscarpiastri, logansargeant, and 3,728,388 others

tagged: oscarpiastri

drbarbie: it’s your turn now! 🥰

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user22: the hearts make this a very ominous message

drbarbie: it’s supposed to be!

user22: oh!

oscarpiastri: babe?

oscarpiastri: what do you mean my turn?

drbarbie: I told you! I’d only ever get in your car when you get in mine!

drbarbie: so convenient that you have a break and dolly is back from the mechanics right now! 🧡🩵🧡

oscarpiastri: ummm…🏃🏻‍♂️💨

user23: ok but is she really gonna take him through a tornado???

user24: that does seem like it’s the plan?

user23: I can’t watch this 🙈

user24: she’s a professional?

drbarbie: more confidence in me please

user24: you right you right

user: SHES A PROFESSIONAL

drbarbie: thank you!

logansargeant: good luck! Have fun!

drbarbie: 😊😊😊

logansargeant:…no.

logansargeant: What did I do?

logansargeant: come on I helped you

logansargeant: I’m on your side!!

teammate3: dolly is ready to roll!!

oscarpiastri: that better be a joke

teammate1:…

teammate2:…

teammate3:…

teammate4:…

teammate5:…

Private Messages - The Grid, Serious

drbarbie

liked by oscarpiastri, logansargeant, charles_leclerc, and 4,288,373 others

tagged: oscarpiastri, logansargeant

drbarbie: don’t worry guys! They made it through the “storm” a-ok! (Come on guys, have a little faith. I’d never actually take someone unprepared into an actual tornado. Plus prime tornado season is over for the year!)

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user25: oh thank god. I was so very nervous

user26: girl you ain’t the only one. Check the video at 14:25. Oscar’s fingers are fucking white with panic 😂😂

oscarpiastri: thank you love for not subjecting me to a tornado

logansargeant: yes thank you my very favorite sister who is definitely the best and best and most wonderful

oscarpiastri: yes! Most wonderful and loving and beautiful girlfriend ever

drbarbie:…laying it on a little bit thick aren’t you?

logansargeant: quite literally whatever I have to do so I never ever ever ever have to get in that truck again!

drbarbie: don’t you dare disrespect dolly!

logansargeant: never!

oscarpiastri: dolly is a queen! We aren’t worthy.

logansargeant: yes! We definitely shouldn’t be in that truck ever again

drbarbie: babies…fine

user26: wow!!!! 🤩 those photos are stunning!

drbarbie: thank you! When I was planning this I knew the conditions were gonna be good for some nice thunderstorms but even I didn’t expect this level!

user26: so you just…followed them around?

drbarbie: yup! It’s something our parents used to do for me when logie and I were young - the driving being a lot more calm then normal is just about the only difference (my passengers complained the entire time 🙄)

user27: oh that’s so cute! (They seem like the type 😂)

landonorris: stunning

drbarbie: thank you!

oscarpiastri: no

landonorris: I didn’t say anything?

oscarpiastri: and yet the answer is no. Go away

georgerussell63: shut down!

landonorris: why am I catching strays on my comment thread???

charles_leclerc: these are magnificent photos! And it looked like a fun trip to get them

drbarbie: thank you! (Oh my god oscarpiastri I’ve been noticed by your father!)

oscarpiastri: that’s cool babe

charles_leclerc: yes! Welcome to the family. We expect you for dinner soon

drbarbie: score!

alicepublic

liked by landonorris, charles_leclerc, oscarpiastri, and 3,590,455 others

tagged: oscarpiastri

alicepublic: happy anniversary my love. The best 7 years of my life so far — with many more to go 🧡🧡🧡

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oscarpiastri: I can’t believe that it’s only been 7 years, I feel like I’ve known you for a lifetime already — I couldn’t imagine spending it with anyone else.

alicepublic: oh my love…

user28: water is wet. Fork found in the kitchen. I’m sleeping on the highway!

user29: sleepover!!

oscarpiastri: You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me 🩷

mclaren: you won the race last week?

alicepublic: uhhh your point?

oscarpiastri: and? I said what I said!

mclaren: alrighty then! Well said!

charles_leclerc: happy anniversary my son and daughter in law!

alicepublic: not a daughter in law yet but thank you!

oscarpiastri: soon!

alicepublic: WHAT?!? 😳 🫢

logansargeant: 7 years of being a third wheel and they don’t even tag me…EVEN THOUGH I'M VERY BLATANTLY IN THIS PHOTO DUMP

alicepublic: chill out dude

oscarpiastri: thank you for being our favorite third wheel and for taking these wonderful photos

logansargeant: Oscar is my favorite

alicepublic: I’d be mad but same tbh

user30: it’s been years but yay! Dr Barbie’s priv account is finally open

user31: oh my god baby her and baby Oscar are so cute!

user30: I know!! I’ve been getting fomo going through her posts - like what do you mean I haven’t been growing up with them?

user32: yeah alicepublic can we get an explanation for that photo near the beginning of you on a bike and Oscar bleeding?

alicepublic: that was the first day we met! My bike broke (no brakes) and as I was trying to slow down I accidentally ran over Oscar!

oscarpiastri: best accident I’ve ever had!

user32: ok this is the cutest meet-cute! ♥️

landonorris: unfortunately you guys are cute…

alicepublic: what 🥺 🥺 …

oscarpiastri: what do you mean unfortunately?

landonorris: yeah — can’t have anyone cuter than me in the garage so you’re uninvited to mclaren

oscarpiastri: happily you can’t make those decisions (slides $5 to mclaren)

mclaren: don’t worry alicepublic ! Permanent paddock pass for you!

landonorris: WHAT? NO!

landonorris: IM STILL CATCHING STRAYS ON MY COMMENT THREADS

[simmireen]

'Forever and always' ~ Santareen adventcalender DAY 16 6 romantic couple poses ♥ DOWNLOAD (SFS) DOWNLOAD (Patreon) (always free!)

Here stood a shout out to the machinima with the same name. These poses were requested for the movie poster of the machinima. Sadly, since the chosen pose was adjusted without my consent on their final movie poster version, I felt the need to officially distance myself from it. ♥~♥ Clipping sadly is inevitable due to sim bodies/faces being different, or the clothing they wear, but I try my best to fit most of them. Be free to tag me at tumblr, insta or bluesky if you use my poses (@simmireen) You can find an overview of all my posepacks at Pinterest Want to commission me? > Ko-Fi page Terms of use Don’t claim as yours or put behind a paywall Don’t re-edit (adjusting hands is always allowed, just don’t change up my pose) Don’t reupload anywhere Please let me know if something doesn’t work!

@ts4-poses @sssvitlanz @alwaysfreecc

[bogleech]

Also going to finally make a pinned post for all my stuff:

BOGLEECH - my tumblr blog is named after this website I created around 2002 and still update. Thousands of pages worth of content focusing on creature design as well as real biology. My review of the original Legend of Zelda monsters might be the most straightforward example of my articles. Links to some of the most popular content:

POKEMON REVIEW ARCHIVE: - I rate and review each and every single Pokemon, in Pokedex order, on its merits as a creature design. I also do so as someone whose favorite animals are all parasites.

DIGIMON REVIEW ARCHIVE - same, but more chaotic.

CREEPYPASTA COOKOFF ARCHIVE - for several years I hosted a yearly writing contest before it grew too big for me to keep up with. There are over a thousand user submitted horror, fantasy, sci fi and surrealist stories here emphasizing unconventional, original ideas you seldom see from the "creepypasta" community!

The original "MORTASHEEN" Monster Archive - since the early 2000's I've created and illustrated more than 800 creatures and counting for my own monster-catching world, now set for release as a tabletop RPG setting.

AWFUL HOSPITAL: SERIOUSLY THE WORST EVER (page one): an interactive comedy-horror-sci-fi webcomic I started in 2014 about a medical facility that could maybe be better.

Some of my other internet stuff:

PATREON - constant work makes my patreon updates inconsistent, but the content backlog goes back years with a huge amount of exclusive art and writing. I try to put up new exclusive stuff whenever I can.

ETSY - I design all sorts of original enamel pins like these, plus I sell zero-maintenance terrarium plants (just leave them in a jar!), original books and other things!

COLOR THE ABYSS (available on the above etsy!) - a 30 page educational deep sea coloring book! Includes a few famous favorites like giant isopods and hagfish, but mostly focuses on less popular, often much weirder animals.

UNBELIEVABLE BUGS - also regularly restocked in the etsy store, 30 of the strangest and most surprising arthropods most people have likely never heard of, illustrated by myself and @revretch, written for even the youngest kids to understand (but will likely teach you something new at any age)

My Itch.io and Ko-fi - both sell digital versions of my books, including some creepypasta collections and my first novel, "Return of the Living," about a world of entirely ghosts suddenly dealing with the appearance of ghost-hunting monsters.

TWITCH CHANNEL - I now try to stream something at least monthly, sometimes weekly when possible, from horror games to books and art.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL - archives my twitch streams and other little things.

INSTAGRAM - look at pictures of my huge weird collection of toys and Halloween collectibles

BLUESKY - I'm going to put mainly just updates to my stuff on here. SEE ALSO:

HUMANS-B-GONE - a science fiction animated series by my partner @revretch, about a world of kaiju-size, technologically advanced insects and arachnids to whom vertebrates like us are just pesky little "gubs." Also has a tumblr account @humansbgone FINALLY, HERE'S MY GUIDE AND RESOURCE TO MAKING YOUR OWN INTERNET WEBSITE IN A FEW MINUTES WITH NO KNOWLEDGE OF CODING

[seangardnerxiv]

Shadow and Maria's Complex Relationship

FOR DISCLOSURE: this thread is going to be discussing the complexities of Shadow and Maria’s relationship based on many different factors. Though I will be including the romantic interpretation (NOT a sexual one – I do not support nor condone sexualizing these two, nor most of the characters in Sonic, as they are almost all minors) as a potential, I will not be arguing to assign a definite label to their relationship – I will, in fact, be doing exactly the opposite (I am also not interested in engaging in shipping discourse over Sonic the Hedgehog characters). I would simply like to disclose that that will be discussed in case the topic upsets you and you would prefer to stop reading now. I accept this post may not be received well by some.

SPOILERS FOR SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS

So I've had to break out my Tumblr for this - my usual haunt is Twitter/Bluesky, but those don't really allow for longform posts. This is also a major departure from my usual FFXIV posting, so apologies to anyone who follows me for that.

Sonic x Shadow Generations recently dropped, alongside the short animations “Dark Beginnings” as well as the (non-canonical) manga “The Jet Black Hedgehog: Shadow the Hedgehog.” With it, discourse surrounding Shadow and Maria’s relationship has kicked up again, largely in two parties – that Shadow and Maria held a sibling relationship, or that Shadow and Maria held romantic feelings for one another (some people have also argued that Shadow is her uncle, or Maria is his mother, but I won’t be discussing those views). There are arguments for both drawn from a variety of sources – I will do my best to present both (if there are others I've missed, please feel free to comment and I will add them).

For siblings:

This Twitter post of artwork for Dark Beginnings has the following alt text: “Shadow and Maria reach out for one another in an infinite abyss (as long-lost siblings would) with the Moon and the Space Colony ARK in the background."

The manual for Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) describes Maria as “like a sister to Shadow.” I have also seen another screenshot of a different manual that states that Shadow as "like a brother to Maria," but I've been unable to find which manual it is. (EDIT: It’s a Prima Games manual, not written by Sega)

Gerald refers to Shadow as “son” during the climax of SxSG.

For romantic:

Maria saying “I love you” in the Japanese version of SxSG uses the kanji “ai shiteru,” whilst her “I love you” in the Japanese version of the manga uses “daisuki.” Whilst it can be used for familial relations, it is apparently very uncommon for both of these to be used outside of romantic intent.

Shiro Maekawa – the original creator of Shadow and Maria – based them (or at least parts of them) off of a romance manga known as “Please Save My Earth” (with Maria sharing the Japanese voice actress for the female lead from the anime), and has frequently supported them together, often retweeting romantic art and posts of Shadow and Maria.

In a recent interview from Sega, Maria touching Shadow’s face in Dark Beginnings was equated to Beauty and the Beast.

For Tanabata – a Japanese festival celebrating the meeting of the deities Orihime and Hikoboshi, and the separation of them as lovers – Sonic Channel posted artwork of Shadow and Maria reading the story beneath the stars. Sonic Channel has also published fanart for Valentine’s Day relating to Shadow and Maria (although they publish a lot of fanart).

Before I go any further, when the topic of Shadow and Maria in a romantic lens comes up, many of the same criticisms arise that I do not believe are fairly levied – namely accusations regarding their age, species, and familial ties. I would like to address – and debunk – these three before we go any further. Keep in mind while you read these – this is not meant to convince you that their relationship was one thing over another, but only to provide validity to a subjective point of view I feel is unfairly stigmatized.

“It’s incest because Shadow is Maria’s brother/uncle(?).”

While there were notions of family stated by both Maria and Gerald, Shadow was grown in a tube with alien DNA and has zero blood relation to the Robotnik family. Whilst there are abstract labels of “like a sister” or “sibling coding” that are only ever applied in a meta sense, neither of them define their relationship in such a way within the lens of the universe. And it is not as if the topic never arises - in Shadow Generations, Maria herself likens young Abraham Tower as akin to her little brother, but she makes no such distinction with Shadow.

“Sibling coding” is ultimately a nothing statement, and unless a proper adoption is made, it does not magically turn romantic feelings towards the two involved into incest. Frames of reference are often informed by what young people are familiar with, and they sometimes lack the proper tools to acknowledge that their feelings towards each other are more complex than they first believe - to say that this is something that potentially occurred with Shadow and Maria is not outlandish, and not a concept unique to Sonic as a series.

Similar examples to this include Clive and Jill from Final Fantasy XVI (Jill is accepted into the Rosfield household and raised alongside Clive and his brother, only to later enter a romantic relationship with him as an adult), Nero and Kyrie from Devil May Cry (Nero is fostered by Kyrie's family and considers Kyrie a sister initially, only for her to become his love interest as adults) and Sidon and Yona from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Sidon grows up perceiving Yona as a sister, only to realize his feelings for her are more complex later on). None of these are incestuous relationships, nor is Shadow and Maria’s were it to be romantic.

“It’s bestiality because Shadow is an animal.”

Bestiality is applicable to regular animals that do not hold human sentience of thought, as they are unable to consent to a relationship, like a dog or cat. Shadow is not this, nor are any of the anthropomorphic characters within the Sonic games - were you to change the anthropomorphic animals in Sonic into humans, basically nothing about the series' content would change. All of them are completely sound-minded beings that are essentially just people who look different. Shadow is not Maria’s pet, he is her fully sentient friend that holds the same degree of thought as she does – given that Shadow’s entire arc is about finding his purpose in life, degrading him to simply a lab animal rather than acknowledging he is a person defeats that entire arc (something the manga also touches upon).

A lot of people also cite Sonic and Elise from Sonic ‘06 (namely the scene where Elise kisses the deceased Sonic) as a reason why Shadow and Maria should not be done - while I think it’s valid if you didn’t like watching a human girl kissing Sonic the Hedgehog, I maintain that a good chunk of that disdain stemmed from two major reasons:

Elise was very poorly characterized in her game. She existed to constantly get kidnapped and be saved by Sonic, and so both the relationship and the kiss came off more like pandering than something earned.

Sonic '06 had a bizarrely realistic artstyle for the human characters, whilst all of the animal characters retained their cartoonish appearances. This clash of artstyles looked its worst when Elise kissed Sonic at the game's climax.

Maria, however, does not fall into these pitfalls. She does not exist to be purely a love interest for Shadow - she’s certainly not someone for him to save, as the entire inciting event of Shadow's character is his inability to save her when she saves him.

For a frame of reference, Shadow is more akin to an alien from Star Wars – a setting where humans also exist. It is not bestiality for a Human to hold a relationship with a Twi’lek, as both races are fully anthropomorphic and sentient. On a similar note, Beauty and the Beast is not considered bestiality either, even though the Beast bears obvious animalistic traits. Some people have also entertained the notion of Rouge and Topaz from Sonic X, even though the latter is human. This is all the same principle, and none of it is bestiality.

“It’s creepy because Maria is young.”

Shadow – while said to be ageless – is not an adult, and to imply that he is one is a fundamental misunderstanding of Shadow’s character – whilst there are many instances where he demonstrates maturity on some levels, he has shown much immaturity since his inception in Sonic Adventure 2 (his desire to destroy the world out of revenge for Maria), and his most recent storyline in Generations involves his naïve desire to change Maria and Gerald’s fates (or rather, an initial indifference to what it will bring). Not only that, but his time on the ARK was mired in confusion over the point of his existence – Maria was the one that helped him field through his confusion, and was arguably the more mature one between the two of them. We can safely say that Shadow is not an adult character, nor is he ever presented as one in the lens of the game.

As the closest thing Sonic likely has to an equal in both body and mind (Sonic holds his own immaturities similar to Shadow), he can likely be placed mentally close to his age of fifteen. This is reinforced by the leaked transcript of Sonic ‘06 that refers to Shadow as 15 (the red squared text in this image).

Maria has no canon age established in game material, but Sonic X lists her as 12. 15 and 12 is the same age gap as Sonic and Amy respectively.

In addition to that, many people have claimed that Shadow is over 50 years old, but this is only true of his chronological existence, not the time he has been conscious and aging. He spent 50 years stuck in cryosleep, and awoke exactly how he was when he was placed in there.

A similar example would be Aang and Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender - Aang was frozen at the age of 12, and awoke 100 years later. Nobody, however, tried to claim that he was 112 years too old to kiss the 14 year old Katara, as Aang was physically and mentally still a 12 year old upon awakening - most people who watched the show were also actively rooting for these two characters to kiss, which they did at the show's finale. It's the same principle regarding Shadow - he is 50 chronologically, not 50 in mind or body.

If we’d like to really get into it, I would point out that nearly every character in the lens of Sonic is in and around Maria’s age range (according to the Sonic Channel). As stated previously, Sonic is 15. Amy is 12, Knuckles is 16, Rouge is 18, Blaze and Silver are 14, etc. Nobody bats an eye at notions of romance between any of these people (not that I’m saying they should inherently).

Romantic intent between minors is not inherently viewed as a bad thing - see the examples of Aang and Katara or Clive and Jill above, or for an in house example, consider the canonical (to Sonic X at least) relationship between the 8 year old Tails and Cosmo - yet for some reason when it comes to Shadow and Maria, a relationship is stigmatized.

To reiterate in the wake of the last point, my discussions of romantic intent ARE NOT SEXUAL IN NATURE. As I acknowledge these are minors, any notions of that are completely off the table, and I do not agree with anyone who would imply their relationship was a sexual one. I want to make that unmistakably clear.

My major takeaway from observing both the Sonic fanbase and those on Sonic Team seems to be that in western circles, Shadow and Maria as siblings is the popular perception, whilst in eastern circles, they are more commonly perceived romantically. But ultimately, Shadow and Maria’s relationship seems to have many contradictory signals that makes it hard to pinpoint a concrete definition, especially in the most recent releases – and I believe that this is fully intentional.

Shiro Maekawa has stated in DMs has stated this regarding their relationship when asked if he saw them as siblings or love interests (translated from Japanese):

“I think they have a special bond that is unique to them that doesn’t fall into either of those categories. Just my personal opinion.”

From the way that the two are written post-Sonic Adventure 2, this appears to be a sentiment that is fully carried forward – their relationship is more nuanced than a canonical label would make it. Maria was the only person who made Shadow feel loved, and Maria unquestionably loved him back. What kind of love that was is up to the viewer, especially given that Maria died when they were both young, before they even had a chance to expand upon their relationship, if that was ever on the table – not that they needed to, given that their bond seems to have transcended both labels. Maria was the only one who acknowledged Shadow as more than an experiment or a weapon, and Shadow was her rock in an environment where she was isolated away from her family and home. Maria was Shadow's person, and still remains that in death.

To disclose for me personally (in case it was not obvious), I have always interpreted their relationship as romantic - or at least having romantic implications - ever since playing Sonic Adventure 2 Battle and Shadow the Hedgehog when I was a kid. I have both a fiancé and a sibling, and the way they treat each other is far more evocative of how I treat the former than the latter (especially in Dark Beginnings – I do not imagine my sibling through a shoujo filter while I wistfully think about cuddling them in a field of flowers). I do not take the awkwardly placed alt text verbiage from the Sonic Twitter account, used to fake-argue with the Wendy’s Twitter account, as gospel for anything, and I think that treating it as a damning disproval is silly. Had she lived, I believed the complex feelings they held would have been identified as romantic down the line. The relationship always just read as too intimately charged for me to perceive as siblings (it still does especially in the wake of seeing how she touches and speaks to him), even before I had a serious relationship. I think that arguing the nitty gritty over Twitter alt text and translations is silly, as all it took for me to takeaway that the relationship was still romantic was to play the game, watch the animations, and read the manga for Shadow Generations - but that's just me.

That said, I will concur that if you are weirded out by romantic notions between the two of them, that is completely understandable, and I would never argue that you should not feel what you feel for yourself. The sibling viewpoint is also wholly valid an interpretation, with or without word from a meta source. Though she had her grandfather and later Abe, she was largely alone on the ARK away from a family that she clearly loved and missed, and it’s not unusual to presume that Shadow filled in the role of a brother for her. I will also acknowledge that many things I have not mentioned - such as Shadow blushing at Maria calling him cool, or her saying "I love you" in general - are not inherently indicative of romantic intent, and can be read as fully platonic interpretations, and I find those that try to state that the romantic interpretation is the objective one just as irritating as those that state the sibling interpretation is the objective.

My intent is only to dispute the idea that romantic interpretations, and the people who hold them, deserve to be scrutinized. The pairing is completely innocent, and the treatment people have received for believing them to be romantic is obscene. Sweeping blanket statements have been made to insult all who do (some going as far as to wish death and harm upon them), all just based on subjective viewpoints held by people who see them platonically. The fact that there is so much discourse surrounding this topic, and that there is evidence enough on both ends to make an argument, means that Sega has intentionally left the relationship up to interpretation - including the romantic take.

Everyone unclutch your pearls.

But with all that said, I will reiterate that this post was not meant to convince anyone of one thing or another, but rather that both interpretations of their relationship are valid, as it is essentially a secret third thing that transcends both labels and is special only to them. Strictly defining their relationship as “siblings” or “love interests” (even as someone who perceives them romantically, I would never want that to be definitively confirmed for this reason) is deconstructing what is perhaps the most nuanced part of a series that does not always tend to be terribly nuanced, and a definition matters far less than acknowledging what Maria means to Shadow in the present – he is who he is because of her, and because of that, he is now living a life for himself. Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) ended in a way that had Shadow let Maria go, and Shadow Generations ends with him carrying her forward with him after accepting her loss. She was, and will always be, the person who loved Shadow - however you define that love is up to you.

Nothing has ever been hard confirmed by Sega, no matter how much either side wants to pretend it has been.

In summary, both points of view regarding Shadow and Maria’s relationship are simultaneously true and not true – it is a matter of interpretation according to the viewer what their feelings towards each other were, yet their relationship in the lens of what it is now after the tragedy of their existence (even before Maria died) is purposefully indefinable, and it should remain that way. Nobody should ever try to say that Shadow and Maria are definitively something - that goes for both points of view. I doubt it will, but I hope this goes towards removing the stigmas towards one of the more nuanced parts of this series, as nuance in Sonic the Hedgehog - frankly - does not come along very often, and it would be nice if that were encouraged rather than smothered.

Thank you for reading.

[prokopetz]

Trying to make an entry for the jam made me confront a question: how does one inject flavour and evocative writing in an RPG when there is little to no space for flavour text?

I ended up unable to add any writing that wasn't rules without going over the 200 word limit, outside of maybe the naming of some mechanics, but I went in thinking that being able to provoke the imagination would be the difference between an ok entry and a really good one.

How would you do it?

(With reference to this post here.)

The customary answer in the one-page-RPG sphere is graphic design, but here you can't do much of that, so you need to rely on phrasing, rhythm, register, word choice, and yes, game-mechanical jargon. Indie RPGs are often mocked for using their own idiosyncratic terminology rather using the "standard" jargon developed by Dungeons & Dragons and its various direct imitators, but there really is a point: even something as simple as the level of formality of the mechanical text can have a huge impact on how a game comes across.

Let's look at an extreme example – my own recent experiment in fitting a complete game into a single Bluesky post:

CREATURES Need: 3d6 Character * Skills: Hands, Feet, Mouth, Guts; assign 3, 2, 2, 1 * Traits: claws, fangs, fins, horns, shell, slime, tail, tentacles, trunk, wings; pick 2 Conflict * Roll dice=skill * Highest: * 6: Yay * 4–5: Okay * 1–3: Uh-oh Scenario * escape maze * eat wizard * profit!

This one only has three hundred characters to work with, and consists almost entirely of rules text, yet the structure and word choice convey a very clear idea of who the player characters are and what they do!

It can be helpful to bear in mind that the separation of rules text and flavour text is an artificial one, adopted by long-form games where mixing mechanics with microfiction can make the former difficult to when there's three hundred pages of the latter to comb through. You don't really need to worry about that in a very short game, so you're free to have the same text play both roles.

[miss-conner3]

En Español: Aquí

“My Ship in 5 Minutes”

Openly using my lamb's name for this template because I don't see the point of hiding it anymore <(UvU)>

A few months ago, I saw a lot of this template in my highlights, and although I didn't dare to do it at the time, yesterday, I decided to make it when I found it again.

I had a lot of fun XD

The original template belongs to @gibbarts (gibb_arts on Twitter) you can also find it on Bluesky with the same name (ouo)/

¡I hope you like it!

Extra: Here are the solo profile pictures because I really liked them /(>u<)\

[scam-alerts]

WARNING FOR BLUESKY USERS:

If you see an account asking for donations that looks like this:

Look out for these red flags:

The account is new (the sun rising symbol)

The account is @ spamming the same exact same message every few seconds/minutes.

The account has posted literally no other content other than @ spamming people for donations.

Please take a minute to open their paypal link, copy their 'name', and search it on tumblr or on @kyra45's blog. She keeps a good track of reports regarding scammer PayPal names with the help of anons.

Click link, get name, use search function. Bada bing you're done.

These are the same scammers from tumblr that are now using BlueSky to advertise and try and get donations. They're probably using images from peoples gofundmes and stuff too (I swear I've seen the name Siad going around before on a gofundme??) so who knows.

Always report them on Bluesky for mention spamming.

Also maybe let your followers know about them being scammers too so they know what to look out for.

Again, these are the same scammers that Kyra's made posts about, other people have called out, and that I've made reports about on this blog and that are currently listed in the scam list.

Let's work together to make sure they get taken down. :)

Helpful guides on how to spot scams. (by @kyra45)

Current list of documented scammers: Part 1 and Part 2

[alpaca-clouds]

If I had a penny for every time a Belmont got startled by a fox...

So, @aquilaofarkham pointed this out on BlueSky, and is totally right about it (they made the screenshots to, thanks for allowing me to use them!). Why I clocked this scene in Nocturne as well - I actually did not draw the comparison to the Trevor season 3 scene. But yes, that is indeed...

If I got a penny for every time a Belmont got startled by a fox, I would have two pennies, which is not a lot, but it is weird it happened twice.

And you know what that means, right?

THEORY TIME!!!

As some people might know: Since season 1 of Nocturne was out, I am very very certain of one thing. And that thing is, that the Belmont bloodline also goes back to a god.

In S1 of Nocturne when Annette talks about her own divine bloodline, she says a lot of people do have a divine ancestor, but the knowledge got lost. And to me this instantly read as: "Actually, by the way, the Belmonts totally have a divine ancestor as well!"

And I have been riddling since then, who it could be.

So, what if the fox is a representation of that ancestor?

Yes. This does mean I get to talk mythology again.

So, foxes. In early European folklore the fox is basically equivalent to coyote in North American folklore. Especially in Germany and France Reynard or Reinecken shows up a lot as a trickster spirit in the form of a fox. While there are some theories on Reynard somewhat going back to an actual deity, we kinda don't know about that for sure, because we have absolutely no textual evidence for it, and it mostly goes back to the fact that throughout the area in early medieval times the depiction of Reynard as a trickster is very very consistent - and also lines up with more eastern depictions of fox adjacant deities. Since we know that those are connected through Indo-European culture group it is not so weird to assume that there might have been a fox trickster deity, though if there was, we do not know their name.

But the good news is: The Belmonts are French in origin, and we do know from Trevor that they had contact to indigenous European people (aka the Celts). So, the highest likelihood for a divine ancestor is definitely a Celtic god or goddess.

Now, if we talk about Celtic deities we obviously run into the problem: Outside the Gaelic culture we know Jack Shit. Because fuck the fucking Romans and fuck the Christians even more, who very thoroughly erased most stuff about those religions. My anthropology heart does not spend three hours a day crying about this fact at all!!!!

Of course, we know the Celtic cultures were related, so there is a high likelihood that at least some of the deities from the Gaelic culture will also show up in the Gaulic culture, but we do not know for certain.

Which on the bright side also means, that my guess is about as good as whatever the writers might come up with. Hooray!

So, my first guess is Adsagsona. A goddess about whom we know exactly nothing. We know she was a goddess of magic, who was invoked in spells. And we have the suspicion she was maybe linked to foxes. Maybe. Because the thing is, we do have one written evidence of her being invoked, and some artifacts from the same area she was invoked in that might be related to her and the practice of magic. Which is not a lot. Cool bit about that, of course: It would totally give a writer freedom to make up whatever about this.

Next guess would be Arduinna. She was a forest goddess who got merged with Diana when the Romans colonized what is France today. She definitely got depicted a lot with forest animals, and definitely also was connected to the hunt (which works well with the Belmonts), though the preferred animal for her to be paired with was either the deer or the boar. Which, I would guess, makes sense, because people hunted those more for food than they would hunt foxes.

A bit more vague would be the god Cunomaglus. Because he is British, not Gallic, though definitely he is a hunting god, and while his main animal was the dog, he definitely got also depicted with foxes. No doubt about that bit. xD

Next up would be a probably related god to Cunomaglus: Nodens. Again, British. Again, hunting. Again, the main animal are gods. I would not know about him being depicted with foxes, but given he has a lot of overlap with Cunomaglus I would also not be surprised. Bonus points, because I know there is fandom-overlap between GDT's Hellboy movies and Castlevania: Nuada is based on the Irish equivalent to Nodens, and draws a lot of influence from the Brittanic god.

If we go a bit more wild, we could also make a guess for Ceres, though that one would be a bit weird. Ceres is of course a Roman Goddess, but Romans were also in France forever, so it is not impossible. Ceres is heavily associated with foxes, though mainly in the sense that foxes are sacrificed for her. But there is a fox association.

There is also with the Roman gods a very loose association with both Dionysus and Diana. But Diana usually gets depicted with dogs and stags, and for Dionysus there is exactly one myth linking him to foxes. So... Eh.

Lastly... I will just leave here that Diana's Slavic equivalent, Devana, actually gets depicted as a fox more than once. But Slavic culture is kinda on the other end of Europe. So it is possible, but also... Eh. It is a far bit away. But then again, the Belmonts lived in today's Romania for a long while, so it is not impossible, I guess.

And that's it. For today at least.

But I wanted to get this off my chest.

[sir-fluffbutts]

OK PEOPLE LETS DO THIS ONE LAST TIME

---------------

HELLO!

my name is sir fluff, also goes by just fluff

i am a adult

i am korean, yes english ain't my first language, no i don't care for typos

i go by any pronouns, place your bets and headcanons, perecive me however you want. just don't go "ermm actually, sir fluff is [your headcanon] 🤓"

-------------

i talk about my ocs (mostly anthro characters) and make storys with them a lot on tumblr

i also make art....sometimes

you may find me on other places such as

main youtube for animations and videos

second channel for streams and funnys

pateron for exclusive pay-to-view content

instagram for art and pet pics

twitter for also art but more active artwise

toyhouse to store ocs

and perhaps even on these places i sometimes visits

tiktok

blueskies

---------------

most frequently asked questions and answers are

what apps/programs do you use to draw?

- i use medibang paint and flipaclip on mobile, and CSP EX on ipad!

can we ship our ocs with yours?

as long as

- my oc in question don't have a official ship going on.

- its not anything wierd

- you lable it as a "AU" or a "fan ship"

sure go ahead!

can we ship your ocs together?

- same as ☝️! go ahead!

can we make ocs in your universe?

- sure! just mention "sir fluff universe" or something like that and you'd be set!

although im not sure if the exact fluffverse character is possible cause not everything about my univserse is written in text.

can we draw fanart?

- of corse!!!!!! 💖

do you have a webcomic/series?

- nope! i just have storys in my head that i draw and make short animations about sometimes.

do you plan to have a webcomic/series?

- i wish 😭 however it takes a LOT of time and costs a LOT of money to do so, so for now im only working on my wee arts and animations

do you have merch?

- not ATM! however i plan to open a merch store soon so theres that!!

are your commissions/customs opened?

- right now for tue public, nope!

if they do open in public, it'll probably be announced on twitter or toyhouse

more TBA if needed!

ty for coming to my ted talk

[corporationsarepeople]

Pam Bondi is a crook. And she is for sale, cheap. Trump doesn’t nominate people he doesn’t have dirt on, and in this case the dirt came directly from him. From Tristan Snell on Bluesky:

The REAL story on Pam Bondi, Trump University, and Trump's $25,000 payment to Bondi:

1/ In August 2013, I was at the NY AG, and Bondi was Florida AG.

On August 24, 2013, I filed the NY AG's prosecution of Trump University and Donald Trump, for $42 million in fraud.

2/ Our case made national headlines for several days after.

Unbeknownst to us, on August 28, 2013, Trump's assistant, Rhona Graff, had an email exchande with Bondi's campaign finance director, to obtain the payment info to send a $25,000 donation to one of Bondi's PACS.

3/ During that same time, our office was in touch with the Florida AG's office; they were interested in joining our case. State AG offices routinely join each other's cases when there's a large multistate fraud.

Florida had one of the largest numbers of Trump U victims.

4/ At the request of my bureau chief, I collected all the key documents from our case so they could be emailed to the Florida AG's office.

This was just after Labor Day 2013. At the NY AG's office at that point, we were excited about the prospect ofFlorida joining our case.

5/ But then the Florida AG's office ghosted us, and we never heard from them again. At the time, we didn't know what had happened.

6/ Meanwhile, on September 13, 2013, unbeknownst to us, Donald Trump sent one of Bondi's PACs a $25,000 check, misspelling Bondi's name and writing a note: "Dear Pam, You are the greatest!"

Florida never joined our case or take any other action against Trump University.

71 Additional fun fact: Trump's donation came from the Trump Foundation, the 501(c) (3) tax-exempt charity Trump and his family then ran.

That was illegal. And my colleagues at the NY AG's office then prosecuted the Trump Foundation for this and other offenses and shut it down.

8/ For the FULL story of Trump's payments to prosecutors over the years, check out Chapter 2 from Taking Down Trump: takingdowntrump.com

And for continuing legal and political coverage of the fight against Trump and Trumpism: tristansnell.com

[umishiqu]

☀️ “a friend like me” - quick kalim analysis (i lied i thought it was going to be quick but it wasn’t)

a recent compilation by @yuurei20 on twitter and bluesky piqued my interest, so i had to go back into the stories mentioned to see if there’s anything specific on the context of the mentioned situations. warning for book 7 jpn spoilers!

kalim’s definition of “friendship” is explained in book 7 and in previous personal stories (explained later) where he considers others as “friends” if they helpr him, and himself to them if he helps them. if it isn’t noticeable yet, the thematic reason why kalim has such a loose idea of friendship is because it is based on the genie’s idea of friendship. in the genie’s perspective, he is a friend to aladdin (“friend like me”) because he is able to do things for him. after aladdin promises him that he will free him, the genie starts referring to aladdin using casual nicknames that are synonymous with the word “friend” (buddy, pal, etc) (and yes, i did check, it was only ever aladdin’s name or “master” before this promise).

there are a few unique situations that the game touches on and some of it is more obviously written than others.

1. normal (for kalim standards) (emphasis on “for kalim” + a projection onto jamil) friendship-making

this is the situation that we see the most, and it’s mostly based on, again, kalim’s loose standards for what constitutes as a friend or not.

the one in jamil’s ceremony robes is one i wanted to touch base with the most, because although he has a loose definition of friendship for himself, he uses the proper word to describe other people knowing another person (“acquaintance”).

“knowing each other” is the logic that kalim uses to describe acquaintance, which is the correct definition, as he uses the same logic to come to the conclusion that sebek may also know silver. when sebek mentions that he and silver were taught alongside each other by lilia as fellow pupils, kalim mentions that “silver and i are in the same class”. i know it’s a simple way of explaining their friendship, but it’s nice that sebek mentioning that sebek and silver were taught alongside each other got kalim to mention the same context between his friendship with silver (they’re in a class together = taught alongside each other).

it’s here when kalim then starts to suggest that “you and I should be friends too!” meaning that, like silver and kalim, sebek and kalim should be friends as well. this is taken out of the Japanese version of the card, where kalim only mentions that him and silver get along great in class without implying a desire to be friends with sebek. ill explain later why it might have changed. (on a side note, i find it really interesting that kalim was smiling during jamil’s lecture after this until jamil tells him “i keep telling you not to trust new people so easily”, considering that the only one kalim says he trusts is jamil. i might talk about what the differences are in their definitions of trust in another post) (on another side note, kalim mentioning “sebek wasn’t even a spy!” implies that was a possibility he was thinking of).

last thing: kalim says “who cares which dorm he’s from? we know his name and we’ve chatted. that makes us friends! and friends help each other out” to try to convince jamil to help out sebek. I’ve mentioned this a few times in other posts, but kalim’s specific idea of friendship (polished and finetuned by the narrative) is based on reciprocal deeds. these can lead to helping each other out, but initially they don’t always start off that way. this might mean that exchanging words is a reciprocity that kickstarts kalim into treating the other person as a friend. sebek wasn’t an assassin or “even a spy” (aka, ulterior motives, which, to kalim, would mean that the exchange of words and value in those words wouldn’t be reciprocal) (more on this later), so by kalim’s standards, sebek is a friend. however, there is one problem with this interpretation from the story.

there is a time between when kalim says “we should be friends”, which means the idea of being friends with the other person isn’t true presently but could be true later; versus when kalim says “that makes us friends!”. but during this time, kalim and sebek don’t exchange any more words - the conversation happens between solely kalim and jamil, or jamil and sebek. you can go back and see for yourself! this is potentially one of the reasons why the former line was added into the official english translations, because one more thing changes later on.

with this, there is a big implication that kalim was projecting his idea of friendship onto jamil in that moment; he wasn’t describing his friendship with sebek at the time, but jamil’s friendship with sebek. (pronouns in Japanese are vague). jamil should help sebek because he is friends with him, and if jamil won’t go, then kalim will go instead to help jamil out. this is also implied when kalim describing his relationship with sebek uses the term “schoolmates” rather than “friends” to describe himself helping out sebek:

id like to note that the term “schoolmate” isn’t used in the japanese version. kalim doesn’t specifically say a term for what he calls sebek in this moment. again, the original japanese version of the card leaves things vague on who is referring to what. it could be true that they wanted to translate that ambiguity into the official english translation of the card by subtly showing the difference between how kalim wanted to be friends with sebek but didn’t do much after he mentions it to pursue the friendship, and how kalim thinks of sebek as a schoolmate but sees jamil and sebek as friends because they’ve chatted together more than him.

to summarize the logic: kalim would like to be friends with sebek, understands he is just schoolmates with him, but believes that jamil is friends with sebek. unlike when he calls himself sebek’s schoolmate to justify himself helping him out, he persuades jamil to go help sebek because they are friends. if jamil doesn’t go to help, kalim will go instead, because jamil and kalim are friends and kalim should help jamil out if he can’t do something. kalim, later on, understands that he “basically forced jamil to walk him back and all”, so followed after them to make sure they were getting along.

if it helps to add context to his behaviour, kalim sees jamil as a brother, and kalim has a lot of younger siblings. he is practically obsessed with making sure jamil had good relationships with other people (…doesn’t this sound like both of our favourite matchmakers in aladdin) (im talking about the sultan and genie here) (i need to make a compilation of parallels between them and how it’s relevant to kalim’s character). lab coat was also a thing where the main objective of throwing the party for jamil in the beginning was to get him to bond with other people. (good job kalim for understanding that codependency between you and jamil is a problem) (or he’s getting tired of jamil’s own micromanaging lmao). this pops up again in the nbc event when he encourages jamil to make friends with students from other schools. that was potentially his objective here, which is why he then follows the both of them to see if they’re getting along, despite him forcing jamil to go along (and kalim himself acknowledging this).

2. implications of times where his interactions with other people didn’t mean they were interacting as friends (or an initial desire to be friends from kalim’s end)

this is unlike sebek’s situation, where kalim says he wants to be friends with sebek or is implied to want to be friends with sebek but didn’t get a chance to form a proper friendship outright, but understands that he might be able to later on. to my knowledge, this specific situation only ever happened once, and the only time it happened, it’s acknowledged as a thing of the past that kalim would like to change - and is mostly a result of the type of people both Kalim and the other are.

i won’t explain everything because you can deduce for yourself how kalim thinks of riddle, but back to the idea of “friendship” and reciprocity - kalim mentions to riddle that “you don’t have to take everything upon yourself either, you know. if you ever need help, you can always come to me” implying that it is very unlikely for riddle to start the “friendship-making process” by asking for help. when kalim does try to help riddle out by giving him advice, riddle is always against it: “must I stand here and take advice from YOU?!” is a repeated statement from him twice in the same personal story.

conversely, in riddle’s gym story, when kalim does offer to help by offering to be his partner, and gets help from riddle when he forgot his running time, in both instances, riddle reacts rather poorly and kalim notices it/acknowledges it with a small “hm?” from him. i have a summary of kalim’s opinions of riddle based on these two stories lying around in my docs that i need to post, but to be frank, he didn’t consider him as a friend before kalim’s school uniform story. for more proof, back to said school uniform story: kalim runs off after getting his ingredients, but runs back to tell riddle that he should come to the banquet because they’re “both sophomore housewardens, so it’s about time they hung out as friends”. this implies that, although kalim interacted with riddle in situations before this, learnt his name, and chatted, in very few or none of those situations was the context “as friends” to kalim. this further adds to the idea that kalim’s idea of friendship - “we talked and are now friends” - was him encouraging jamil to be friends with sebek by projecting an idea of friendship onto jamil and wasn’t actually an indicator of how he makes friends or sees his relationship with sebek himself.

coming from kalim, not being considered his friend sounds very harsh at first, but you have to remember he naturally doesn’t trust other people and had to make a conscious effort and change to begin trusting others enough to not scare himself at the dinner table. and this only came about because he actively worked on detecting poisons himself. and even with this, he still hates eating by himself.

speaking of, this is exactly what the game tries to emphasize in the same story when kalim, rather rudely than normal when it comes to denying food from other people, tells riddle not to bother with bringing food to the banquet. even though they can start hanging out as friends, they initially come from a place where they didn’t, so kalim still can’t trust whether the food riddle brings will be poisoned or not. but riddle, who didn’t catch the initial “ooc moment”, or the second one for that matter, also didn’t catch this conclusion. the conclusion he did catch is only what the readers at the time needed to know - that kalim was possibly poisoned. it’s framed this way (narrative-wise) for both the readers who look into kalim’s character - which at this point, would be none at all considering this is his very first card - and for new readers. which is incredibly perfect writing and i wish the events and newer stories would try to do some of this when balancing out “new readers who didn’t experience main story vs old veterans”, especially when it comes to scarabia… anyway, expanding on the former idea, it’s like a lot of kalim things where it’s encouraged by the narrative to look back at these moments in hindsight to understand it (aka every single one of his lucky breaks in events where something he did previously led to a lucky moment in the end).

this card is probably one of the purest instances where, although kalim treats someone as a friend, he still keeps an arm’s length emotional distance from them. his idea of friendship is very loose, but doesn’t necessarily mean - or maybe because it doesn’t necessarily mean - he regards everything the other does with utmost faith and trust. he’s positive, yes, but just like the development of his relationship with riddle, it wasn’t always that way. to a certain degree, describing him solely with his positive and generous nature when it comes to his idea of friendship still might not be entirely accurate either.

3. being told who he becomes friends with

the situation of “becoming” friends with fellow and gidel is an interesting situation because it was influenced by the people around him. before the group agreed to a temporary truce to help fellow out (again, back to the idea of “helping each other out” as a key standard for Kalim’s general standards of friendship), kalim then says that he’s always wanted to be friends with fellow and gidel. this implies a similar situation like sebek’s, where kalim recognizes a desire to be friends with someone, but never really got the chance to in full. you can tell when this is the case vs when it’s not depending on the vocabulary and terms kalim uses, which is why this is different from riddle’s situation, where this wasn’t vocalized in their conversation with each other.

i don’t have much to say on this one, but it is a thing that happened! so it’s important to mention. he didn’t actively start thinking of fellow and gidel as friends until this truce was made and approved by other people, which is a different situation in general. a lot of the other times we see kalim refer to someone as friends either 1. makes sense for his character, or 2. projects his idea of friendship onto someone else.

i hope this (supposed to be short but is now long) post made it a little easier to understand kalim! if i missed any other special situations let me know :D

[simmerianne93]

[Simmerianne93]Action_poses_09

Hello guys!!! How are you today??

It's been a while since I posted an action pose pack and I'm so glad to bring you this pack today.

Last month I was thinking about what kind of poses I could bring this month and it occurred to me that some action poses would be nice, however, I had two options, do a girl/boy fight or do a girl/girl fight. I did a poll on Twitter and one on Instagram and in the end, adding the results of both polls, the winner was girl/boy, so I ended up making this package that you are seeing right now. However, this doesn't mean I won't do the girl/girl poses, it will just take a little more time.

Then, when I was going to start making them, I said: why not do a livestream showing how I make them? and that's how I dared to do my first live. If you want to see the process of creating these poses (well, most of them) you can go to my YT channel (link down below with all my links) and watch a couple of videos where I show how I made them. The videos are a bit long, so I recommend watching them in fast motion.

BTW, I'll try to choose another pack to make some lives next month, I haven't decide yet what to make but I'll be letting you know on my socials. I have to plan my time with the power outages and all that (main reason i haven't made more lately e.e).

Anyway, I hope you like these poses, I wanted to add a little bit of "romance" so that's why it ends up with a kiss, apart from the fact that they will be some poses that will work very well for one of my stories in the future and I needed it to have a kiss at the end haha... Oh and there are 2 face reactions to pose #10, but they are the same poses, that's why I named them as 10 V-A and 10 V-B. V-A: is Angry (female)/ Smiling with eyebrow raised (male) V-B: is Surprised and insecure (female)/ Serious (male)

And that's it. I'll leave you with the description of the pack:

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What is on it?

13 Duo poses  (Made with a female rig and a male rig) + 2 all in one for each sim.

---

What do you need?

Andrew's poses player 

Teleport any sim by Scumbumbo or Mccc by deaderpool.

Instructions in the original post.

——

TOU

Do not claim my creations as your own.

Do not re-upload or modify my creations.

Do not make money of my creations.

Do not include my creations in Mods folders to download.

Please follow my Term Of Use.

——

Download it now here — [Early access until June 21st, 2024]

——————

If you want to support me:  Patreon | Ko-fi

All my poses overview: Pinterest |  Wix | Tumblr

More in-game preview pics of all my poses: Instagram

My socials: Twitter | BlueSky | Instagram | Tumblr 

Lives and videos: Youtube

——————

I really hope you like them and I will say in advance: Thank you so much for using them.

@ts4-poses

[nights-at-crystarium]

As a twitter/tumblr user since 2010-2011, I believe I have sufficient grounds to say that currently we as a community are living through the scariest, shittiest time yet. This post isn’t trying to fearmonger, no I’m not leaving tumblr until it literally keels over, but I suggest that we don’t put all our eggs in one basket.

If twitter/tumblr stay usable, great! In the worse scenario, you’d have kept posting on a new platform and stayed ahead of the curve.

This post shares my personal experience with three potential “new”* fandom places, and is aimed to help fellow content creators. I’m an artist fully depending on internet to survive, my reasoning may not apply to you if you’re a hobbyist. Do your own research, it’s always healthy. * Pillowfort and mastodon have been around for 5+ years, bluesky is ~2 years old.

Discovering new people to follow kinda sucks on all three platforms, twitter and tumblr are eons ahead, but, given the recent chaos and uncertainty, I’m willing to be patient, keep posting on those, and feel safer than I would’ve otherwise been. More baskets good, one basket bad.

All three have poor visual customization, don’t expect custom tumblr themes.

This list starts with the least popular, but most human and easy to join, and what I personally trust the most. All three allow nsfw if labeled properly.

✦ Pillowfort is a barebones tumblr. Intuitive, cozy, but currently very, very small. Be patient with its clunkiness or lack of some features, it’s made by an AO3-like team. I’d personally love if the fandom crowd managed to redirect its attention to it instead of the sus bluesky.

Joining: is free, invite-only, but the waitlist is nearly instant.

Lurk around on their official tumblr: @/pillowfort-social

✦ Mastodon, for me personally, is impossible to explain directly. I’ll use several comparisons.

- Discord but all servers can interact. You’re still on a server curated by some human(s) that might tell you what you can and can’t post, BUT, if you don’t like that server’s policy, you can move to a new one while keeping your followers. - Email, users A and B may be registered on different domains, still they can talk. It’s a weird comparison, but fediverse (please I’m not explaining THAT but it’s a good thing) in general looks like another email story: unlike big sites that come and go, it might stand the test of time. - Someone compared mastodon’s structure to xiv’s dc and servers, if you look at its domain names that way, it might be easier to understand.

Depending on user, mastodon may feel gatekeepy/snowflakey. I haven’t spent enough time on there to form a proper opinion yet, but a warning’s due.

An actually good and hopeful thing about mastodon AND tumblr: the two might start interacting in future. Ever lamented that your fav asian artists don’t use tumblr? If they use misskey, or any other place on the fediverse, it might be possible to follow them directly from tumblr in future, and vice versa.

Joining: is free, however some servers close for new members sometimes, and have human moderators reviewing your request.

✦ Bluesky is a twitter without Musk: today’s average internet user reads this, drops everything and already looks to register there. It’s still sus, but people flock to it like crazy. Most likely to become the next big fandom place in my eyes, even if I’m not happy about that.

I personally have no good feelings about bluesky. Same as twitter, which I hated even before the 2018 tumblr exodus, yet the crowd decided to make it The New Fandom Place, and, grudgingly, I had to give up and also join them in 2022. During the year I haven’t stopped despising twitter, yet, I can’t deny that it helped me survive. I estimate half of my patrons, and, hell, even tumblr audience, comes from twitter. So, if bluesky ends up being the next hot shit, I’ll have to keep up because internet pays for my living.

Joining: is free but hell, invite-only, the waitlist is a lie, your best chance to join is a direct invite.

This’s all I’ve got to say for now. If you have a correction or an addition, replies/reblogs are welcome!

Screenshots of the current interfaces under the cut, you may spy on my profiles o/

Pillowfort

Mastodon.art

Bluesky