#idk idk it doesn't come out as bad from fans or maybe i am just at the good side of tumblr

[chussyracing]

I agree the height jokes are not funny, it comes across as microaggressions at best. He's infantalized by so many in the sport and on the grid and this is just another example. It is literally belittling and needs to stop.

This!! Like, I don't mean to come out for everyone, because obviously he is a very pretty guy and I'm sure all of us called him cute at some point. But at what point does it stop being funny if short and cute are the only ways you find to describe him?

[httpiastri]

more than enough – jmm21

you hate your birthday, but pepe is determined to change your mind.

genre: fluff/a little angsty/comfort

pairing: reader x college!pepe marti, ft christian mansell and sebastian montoya

warnings: uhhh anxiety and such ?? idk

word count: 2.6k

author's note: just like last year, this is merely a very self-indulgent birthday gift to myself (and a bit of a late birthday gift for a friend on here who confided in me about not liking their birthday either), so sorry if you don't relate but i needed to write this for myself despite how painful it was. not happy with how it turned out but, i had to get it out of my system. <3 (also not proofread because i will freak out likely aaaaa)

this is mostly a standalone fic but ig it kinda works as college!pepe so i put that there. i got this idea at my mom's birthday back in march but never actually wrote it until this last week... also loosely based on a tiktok that really spoke to me.

also! this doesn't really work with the headcanon of pepe, seb and chris all sharing an apartment, but i wanted it this way. i also wasn't comfortable including gaby or hermes, so i used the names nora and emma for seb's and chris's respective gfs. :)

"why didn't you tell me your birthday is next week?"

the question is innocent enough, only borderline accusing, but something tightens in your stomach nonetheless. you don't look up from the pot in your hand, however, instead continuing to scrub it with your dishbrush like it's no big deal. "who told you that?"

pepe chuckles as he makes his way over to your side, leaning against the counter as he looks at you. "emma," he tells you, crossing his arms over his chest. "going to answer my question now?"

"i must've forgotten to tell you."

"oh, come on..." your boyfriend shakes his head. "is there a reason i wasn't allowed to know? did i do something? do you not trust me? am i-"

"pepe," you say, his name followed by a sigh as you look over to him in hopes of stopping his rambling. "it's nothing personal."

"what is it, then?" he presses, eyes following your hands as they begin to rinse the pot he'd cooked your pasta in just a couple hours ago. "why don't you want to tell me?"

you take a deep breath, shrugging your shoulders before turning off the tap. "i just... i'm not a big fan of my birthday."

the biggest understatement of the year.

you hate your birthday.

for a number of reasons, really. some to do with your family and childhood; many to do with your own inner thoughts and feelings.

you hate how it reminds you of every bad birthday you had as a kid. you hate how it makes you hopeful that people will remember and congratulate you, because you hate how painful it is when they don't. you hate how you always get reminded of how little people seem to care, and how they always prioritize themselves even on what's supposed to be your day.

it's too much of a mess to explain to him right now – maybe, hopefully, one day you'll have the energy and courage to go through it all.

you hadn't forgotten to tell pepe; you had just been silently hoping he wouldn't address it, and that everyone else would forget, too. but apparently, you have a snitch in your friend group. "what do you mean?" pepe asks.

"i'd much rather not celebrate it." you place the pot on the drying rack, wiping your hands on your towel hanging by the stove before turning to him. "a lot of stuff regarding my birthday just makes me really upset. if i could, i'd just... make it disappear, honestly."

your eyes flicker to the floor, fingers nervously fiddling with the sleeve of your shirt. he can tell you don't want to get into it, and he won't push you. instead, he opens his arms wide, taking a step forward. you accept the offer instantly, arms wrapping around his waist as he pulls you close.

the air in your little dorm room isn't as thick as you had expected it to be when telling him all of this – but at the same time, you aren't surprised. pepe has always had a way of grounding you, making everything seem a bit easier. "i can't make it completely disappear, i think," he says, placing his chin on top of your head. "but i can pretend for you."

you hum contently, letting your eyes close for a few moments. "that would be great."

he remains quiet for a couple of seconds, but then he can't stop himself from talking again. "do you really not want anything? no party? you threw me that party for my birthday, i'd feel guilty not doing anything back."

"i did it because you had a fun time and you like those things, and because i enjoyed planning it. but i was really hoping i could skip all that," you answer, pulling away ever so slightly to look up at him with a sheepish expression. "i would honestly rather have dinner with you, emma, nora, sebas, chris... maybe get some takeout from that new indian place down the road?"

to pepe's ears, you sound more than just a tiny bit crazy – but your being so different from him is one of the things that attracted him in the first place. he nods, leaning in to press a kiss to your forehead. "whatever you say, love."

"where did your girl go?" emma asks the second pepe slumps into a free seat by the cafeteria table.

your boyfriend shoots a glance over his shoulder back to the serving line before setting his plate down. "they were out of rice so she's just waiting for a new batch," he says with a shrug.

"okay then, let's be quick before she gets here," emma speaks up again. "what are we doing for her birthday? it's just a few days away, but i think we can pull something off."

"me and seb were talking about throwing her a surprise party," nora says, looking over at sebastian who's nodding excitedly.

pepe, however, lets out a dismissive sound and swats the air with his hand. "no, forget about that," he says, stuffing a spoonful of pasta into his mouth. "she doesn't want any of that."

nora snorts. "what? of course she does."

"you know, pepe," emma counters, eyebrows raised at the spaniard. "every girl will tell you that she doesn't want a surprise party. don't bother, i don't care, you don't have to do all that for me! but in reality, we're all secretly craving it."

pepe considers her words for a few moments; maybe there is some truth in them after all. maybe all you did was try to act modest, to put the idea in his head so he would make the right choice.

but you weren't the one to bring up the subject – he was. he remembers clearly how you were doing your very best to avoid talking about your birthday at all, and the memory of how tough of a subject it seemed like to you is still etched into his mind. he thinks you were so brave to confide in him like that, and so he needs to stand up for you. he can't dishonor your trust.

"trust me, guys. she really doesn't want it." he ignores the groans of the people around him, taking a few sips of his water before continuing. "can't we all just grab some dinner on saturday instead? maybe that new indian place?"

"works for me," christian joins in. "how about presents, then?"

"right, are we all buying something together, or separate gifts?" emma fills in.

pepe shakes his head yet again. "i don't think she wants that, either." his words are followed by a long silence, which makes him unable to hold back a chuckle. "just paying for the food should be enough."

nora sighs dramatically, the palms of her hands pressing into the sides of her face. "and i'm supposed to just trust you, huh?" she asks and pepe merely shrugs, focusing back on his food. "hope you're not messing with us here, marti."

"i have no idea what he said, but he usually is," your voice spreads through the group as you finally take a seat at the table. "fill me in and i'll help you decide if he's just being annoying."

"i was just telling them about what mr. peterson said yesterday," pepe says quickly. "about what he'll do to everyone who fails the exam."

you throw your head back laughing, nodding instantly. "oh my god, that was hilarious. so, it started with someone on the front row asking about..."

pepe loves birthdays. his own, too, but mostly he finds himself looking forward to his friends' birthdays and longing to celebrate the important people in his life. he loves picking out gifts, planning celebrations, and making sure everything is perfect. it just comes naturally for him to be caring and detailed in that way.

but while pepe eagerly awaits your birthday, you couldn't even come close to feeling the same way.

most years, you spend the weeks leading up to your birthday dreading it, and the day of your birthday crying, because your birthday reminds you of everything you try to forget year-round.

pepe wants to make the day perfect for you, but he also obviously doesn't want to do too much. it's a hard task, but he's set on making it work – and the first step is getting a cake.

his first thought was to get you something huge, something to properly convey what he thinks you deserve and how much he loves you. though, it didn't take long for him to realize that something like that would be way too much for you. instead, he settled on a more basic yellow cake with some kind of white coating that the lady in the bakery recommended to him, and dropped by the grocery store near campus to buy sprinkles and a bunch of candles.

the end product is a little messy, but created with so much love, and pepe knows you're going to adore it. what he doesn't know is how he managed to keep you away from his refrigerator and the surprise hiding in it all night yesterday, but it doesn't matter – all that matters is that you're currently still sleeping soundlessly in his bed, with no clue of what's going on over in the kitchen.

pepe's hands are trembling slightly as he lights up the candles; he is a little nervous, he will admit, but he's also excited at the same time. he can't wait to see the look of surprise on your face, so he hurries up and places the cake on a tray along with two cups of coffee.

he silently curses at the way his bedroom door creaks when he pushes it open with his foot, but thankfully you don't move a single muscle. he carefully scoots over to the side of the bed, sitting down next to you and balancing the tray in his lap. he reaches over with one hand to your cheek, thumb tracing along your skin, fingers settling under your jaw. "mi amor," he whispers, a soft hum leaving his lips as he watches your eyelids slowly flutter open. "happy birthday."

it takes a few moments for your eyes to adjust to the sunshine lighting up the room, but when they do, they can't help but focus on him. the goofy grin on his lips, the messy hair, the-

the cake on his lap.

you push yourself up to sit in bed, rubbing some sleep out of your eyes. you're mistaken, surely? you're still half-asleep, you must've imagined it...

but no amount of blinking makes the cake disappear. the little flames of the candles swaying in the air, the single drop of stearic rolling down the side of a candle, the rainbow sprinkles sticking to the top and sides of the cake – it's all very real.

pepe was so sure this was the right way to go. but seeing the tears begin to seep out of the corners of his eyes makes him horrified. he messed up.

he knew the sprinkles would be too much. and that amount of candles, what was he thinking? he definitely went overboard.

"oh my god," he says, instantly placing the tray on the bedside table before scooting closer to you. "i'm so so so sorry, i thought you would like it... i don't know what i was thinking. here, let me-"

you shake your head as he begins brushing away your tears with his thumbs, and to his big surprise, you chuckle. "don't be sorry," you say, letting out another laugh when you see the confused expression on his face. "i do like it. a lot." you reach up to take his hands in yours, bringing them down to the bed and intertwining your fingers. "it's just... very emotional, for me. as you can see."

he also chuckles now, and he thinks he understands – even though seeing your happy tears is more painful than he'd expected. "okay," he says with a nod. "so..." his eyes flicker back to the cake.

"yes, please. i mean, what could be better than a sugar rush first thing in the morning?"

pepe would've been so happy to shower you with presents to express how much he loves you; it would've made him so proud to invite all your friends to a big celebration, to show you how much you mean to all of them, to change your idea of a birthday. but this – sitting together in bed, eating straight from the cake (no plates needed), pressing sugary kisses to each other's cheeks – is another form of perfect.

he just hopes you think it's perfect, too.

hearing you tell the stories of how you needed to bake the cake for yourself if you wanted one as a child, how you always made sure to buy yourself a gift because the risk that no one else would get you one was too high, and how you always needed to plan out your own parties breaks his heart – but hearing you open up like that also means the world to him. he understands that it's all buried so deep inside of you, but there's nothing he wants more than to help you heal and to prove that you can have much better and bigger birthdays than that.

but for now, a little cake in bed and a ton of kisses will have to do.

baby steps.

"chris, will you pass me the chicken korma?"

he leans over the crowded couch table and holds out the takeaway box to nora, who takes it into her hands and thanks him. "that one is really good," you tell her through your mouthful of bread, nodding to your friend.

"what's the verdict, then?" sebastian asks from his seat over on the couch. "i need a rating from the birthday girl, one to ten."

"food? ten," you say, taking a sip of your soda. "company? ten."

birthday? eleven.

the whole day has been much better than you'd expected; from your wake-up this morning, to the lunch date you shared with pepe over in town after a cute walk along the river, to having your closest friends all gathered in your living room for you. you don't even mind the way your buttcheeks are already starting to hurt after sitting on the floor for too long – you knew you should've invested in more seating for moments like these – because all of this is worth it.

"agreed," pepe chimes in from next to you. "especially about the food."

"speaking of which," says emma. "was there any bread left?"

you're quick to jump to your feet, already turning towards the kitchen. "garlic or plain?"

"ooh, garlic! thank you!"

pepe hurries off the floor right after you, making up some excuse about getting a new spoon for one of the sauces, but no one even bats an eye. you hear him enter through the door, and you smile instinctively. "how are you feeling?" he asks when he reaches your side, hand finding the small of your back as you rummage through the takeaway bag. "is this all enough?"

"it's more than enough. so much more." after pulling out the garlic naan from the bag, you reach up to the side of his face with your free hand, brushing your thumb over his cheekbone. "best birthday ever."

you seal your words with a feather-light kiss to his lips, and he's still smiling when you pull away. "you promise?" he asks, eyes searching through yours for any slightest hint of insincerity or uncertainty.

"i promise." another kiss, followed by a gentle hum, and he visibly relaxes. "thank you."

"no, thank you." for opening up, for letting him do all this for you. for existing. "only happy birthdays from now on, okay? i will make sure of it."

"it could never be anything other than a happy birthday with you around."

[chasedeys]

hello again i have another fic concept and am very curious about your thoughts

sooo seeing ja’marr with his kid (cutest thing in the world btw) made me think about him, for whatever reason, asking joe to babysit for him one day. and joe is good with kids but probably doesn’t have a lot of experience taking care of them? idk. i just think he’d panic a bit at first and then he’d realize it’s not that bad

but what i was really thinking about is when ja’marr comes back he finds both joe and the kid asleep on the couch and they aren’t even together at this point but it makes ja’marr fall even more in love bc he sees his two fav people together like that and it’s just such a soft sweet moment <3

GRAHHHH the way im still trying to reply to your last reply to the fwb au 😭 but i adoreeeee the image of them with kids so much thank youuu for giving me the chance (yet again) to yap about this oml i ran with this i apologize in advance:

joe and ja'marr both love kids sooooo much you can see it every time they interact with them!! but the thing is I've never seen joe actually hold up a child which is kind of impressive tbh considering how.....extensive joe's archive of pics is here lmao. has he never once in his life been photographed holding a baby or. have i just not come across any.

ja'marr is totally the type to swing children around by their legs and fling them around in a circle as they climb him like a jungle gym etc etc just 100% comfortable and secure in himself that he can catch any kid if they fall or never even getting them to that point in the first place. just clocked that this is maybe because of his wr training lmao. or just a case of extremely good dad reflexes who knows! i don't actually know what point i wanted to make here i just wanted to say something about this 😭.

joe doesn't know how to interact with children below the ages of 5. no like he'd be good at it of course but if you squint your eyes you can see him visibly sweating from the entire exchange 😭 but he loves it!! loves meeting little kids who idolize him!! he does not know how to carry babies without having his entire torso and limbs (both upper and bottom for some reason) stiffening up. ja'marr once handed him junior without thinking much of it to fuss over the baby car seat and when he turned back 10 minutes later after a losing battle it's to the sight of joe frozen in time staring blankly at ja'marr junior who is doing him absolutely no help just staring right back entranced at his face. they might be locked in a staring contest. they're definitely locked in a staring contest because ja'marr has called both their names repeatedly and has been ignored the entire time. cute stuff. snapped a pic to share to his parents, sister, tee, joe's parents and brothers, the entire wr group chat etc etc.

but!!! he has an amazing ability to just....exist in the same space with the quieter children, the nonverbal ones. even manages to take them out of their bubble sometimes and bond over the most obscure shit you can think of (neurodivergents solidarity tbh). if it's the more enthusiastic outspoken ones he's happy to just let them lead the convo, always so accommodating and fascinated by their way of thinking! he just adores kids just as much as ja'marr he loves talking to them and hearing their thought process and current obsessions and when ja'marr jumps in he loves seeing them light up even more because ja'marr always knows the right words to get them to loosen up and start snort-laughing, when to tease and poke, when to be firm and admonishing. joe's more of a pushover i guess lol he lets them walk all over him and has no backbone to speak of. when they meet little fans on the street who get a bit overbearing don't know when to knock it off ja'marr's usually the one who successfully gets them to back off and let joe breath. this might also be because his boundless energy matches the kids more easier hmm.

BUT you're asking abt joe babysitting ja'marr jr sorry got incredibly side tracked over them with children 😭

maybe it's a little wr training thing where ja'marr has to go for idk 3 days and the baby mama can't take junior for the whole week and his parents are having an anniversary cruise vacation and his sister is on the other side of the country and his usual babysitter (neighbor's teenage kid lol) is having an exam season and sure he could ask any of his friends who would go the extra mile for him but!! the number one person in his mind and soul who he would feel absolutely 100% comfortable and safe leaving the beloved piece of his heart outside of his body with is one joseph lee burrow. who might possibly think that taking care of junior primarily involves him staring directly and piercingly at the little kid watching lion king for the whole two and a half hours of runtime. all without taking a single eye off of him. like at all. which is. well.

joe manfully says yes to ja'marr's sincere plea and is handed junior and his entire baby bag with some fanfare because ja'marr is always one for dramatics. joe is staring bemusedly down at the one year old child who had somehow ended up in the circle of his arms drooling on the fabric of his old faded acid wash tee while ja'marr is fussing over setting up a little toy station in the middle of joe's living room and stocking up joe's kitchen with all the meals and snacks and milk he brought for junior. he's also yapping in his usual endearing way over all the things joe has to look out for, allergies, times for meals and snacks, what to do when junior starts crying, when to let him just run around and when to get him to sit the fuck down, what some of the baby babble junior likes to blurt out mean, etc etc just baby essentials and everything that joe would usually very easily sort through but he's kind of. completely overwhelmed here on the pending sole responsibility over a one year old baby—his best friend's actual living breathing mini version of him—for the next 72-ish hours and tries very hard not to freak the fuck out.

in the end ja'marr is just standing in front of joe holding his son so carefully like he's something so precious while baby ja'marr is slowly blinking awake to the sight of joe's own blue eyes looking wide-eyed down at him and feeling something so right and warm when junior immediately reaches out an arm to press against an enchanted joe's cheek and start laughing when joe flinches and weirdly fumbles around. god the image of joe with a little kid i can't do this. ja'marr snapped a pic ofc had to immortalize the first ever lone babysitting gig with joe. little baby ja'marr album <3

love the idea of this being pre-relationship with ja'marr enthusiastically stepping forward all up in joe's space and hugging junior via hugging joe and blowing raspberries all over his son's cheeks in his usual goodbye-routine while joe's staring wide-eyed because wow this is. an incredibly close view of—of all this. all within his reach. of a sort. and then ja'marr turns his bright baby-ja'marr-special-smile upwards towards joe and dumbly (dumb-of-ass-ly!!) smooches joe's cheek too on. like. autopilot (or is it!) and blusters through the immediate oh-my-god-i-just-did-that leaving like a whirlwind through the front door yelling to just call him if he has questions. and joe's just. left standing there stupefied beyond belief and can't even reach up a hand to press against his warmed cheek because he's terrified of letting go even a single hand from carrying junior. who is clapping his hands in delight, already in love with joe from the first time they met long before and beyond delighted that he gets to hang out with the nice blond man with the warm hands who makes his daddy laugh like that. didn't even cry getting left alone by his dad!! which is a Very Important and Heartening thing to note when left with a baby not your own but joe doesn't know that (yet)!! anyway.

then follows a wonderful lovely saga of joe learning how to take care of junior and it's!! ja'marr's kid!!!!! he literally cannot do anything wrong to fuck up junior even if he tried because that's ja'marr's blood and soul over there in pint-sized form. it took a whole minute for him to fall completely in love the first time they met and with them being left alone for the first time it takes barely an hour for him to learn literally everything there is to know about the kid (proverbially of course. junior's first time asking to go potty nearly made him breakdown. called his mom in distress, got laughed at for a full minute, before she helped him the best she could through face time and then spent the next hour cooing over an equally enamored junior through the phone) because he's literally an extension of ja'marr, who he knows better than the back of his palm!!

anyway when ja'marr comes by to pick him up again bringing a shit ton of food as a little thank you also—he easily barges through the front door with his own key, not not worried exactly because the last time joe texted him was to snap a pic of junior trying on one of his custom glove (tiny hand in big glove!!) which was a whole hour and a half ago and didn't reply to any of the texts ja'marr sent asking if he wanted gross junk food A or B for dinner.

came to the truly heart melting sight of moana playing on 20% volume while joe is stretched out on his couch in one of his eccentric t-shirts and grey sweats, hair rumpled beyond saving, baby ja'marr settled on top of him in a tiger onesie with his head tucked right on top of joe's heart snuggled up under one of the fluffy blankets ja'marr got for him that's barely covering joe, both dead to the world asleep. ja'marr instantly brings out his phone and takes a whole bunch of pictures from literally every angle AND several videos of the 1 minute and over variety. immediately shared to everyone he knows that matters within the hour. the very first pic of them both snapping awake to stare up at him leaning over the couch in groggy shock looking weirdly alike is for him and him only though. the next pic of them with smiles starting to bloom through staring right at him is made into his phone's background that night. joe has the pic printed on polaroids one for each of them and they each keep it in their wallets. wow this is corny as hell sorry but.

sooooo compelling if this was like. THE feelings realization for him like—'oh. ohhh my god. oh no. oh wait a damn fucking second this is not that. i am not in love with him. i do not want ja'marr jr growing up with him as the other half of his parental unit no. no. oh god.' yeah.

had a little family dinner afterwards on the couch watching the jungle book <3 junior usually chooses to sit on ja'marr's lap but he's sticking close to joe and it makes ja'marr feel all fuzzy and dizzy. little kid tucked between these two whose bodies are turned to one another caging the kid so he won't fall. laughing together playfully smearing sauce all over baby ja'marr to make him shriek and laugh. spending the night there anyway because it's midnight all of junior's stuff is still there enough for an extra day or several and ja'marr can just use joe's stuff anyway and really ja'marr doesn't think junior is ever letting go of joe's shirt so.

this is just incredibly self-indulging 😭 and i don't actually know what to call ja'marr jr wkwkk

ending this with a little screenshot of ja’marr and ja’marr 🥰🫶 they're sooooooo cute

ok bye!!

[mikachacha]

𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝙻𝚎𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚎𝚊 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚎 (𝙱𝚊𝚍𝚊 𝙻𝚎𝚎 𝚡 𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛)

Synopsis: Bada is finally coming home after her stay in the US and there's only one thing that she wants to do, go to you and be with you.

Warnings: idk but this one is fluff for sure ❤

(A/N: @asweetcollide you and your song suggestions are really amazing ❤ its creating all these ideas in my head)

🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸💮🌸

It has been a full year since Bada left South Korea to further improve herself in dancing so she went to the states to learn new styles. There's not a day that she doesn't miss home because someone back there is waiting for her. That someone is you.

You and Bada are the best of friends ever since childhood. Though you're a music major and she's a dance major, that didn't stop you from supporting each other. You were the first fan Bada had as she was yours. Though it saddened you when she told you she was leaving for the States, you supported her in that decision, assuring her that you're gonna be okay and will be waiting for her to come back home.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you?" your mom nudged you gently as you spaced out thinking about Bada. You pouted at your mom who just gave you a knowing look. Your mom raised you all by herself since your dad went off with another woman so your mom definitely knows you like the back of her hand. She even knows that you're gay for Bada and that you had a major crush on your best friend.

"Eommaaaa.. I'm just wondering how she is, if she's eating right or if she's chasing lots of girls over there.." you reasoned and your mom just laughs at you. You sighed and helped her set up the table so you can have dinner together. Bada still hasn't called you and it's making you anxious since she never does that, even when she's still in South Korea. She always calls or updates you at random but today she didn't.

Meanwhile, Bada is sitting on her seat, cursing the plane silently as it wasn't fast enough to get her home. She wanted to surprise you by not telling you she's coming home but it quickly backfired because she can't talk to you or it will ruin the surprise.

"It's only a few hours more, Bada.. You'll see her again.." she says to herself as she could feel her sanity is slowly slipping away from how badly she wants to hug you and hold you after not seeing each other for so long.

Bada sighed as she looked at her phone and her phone screen wallpaper is your picture together. She couldn't deny that she's so in love with you. It's like she's an ocean and you're the shore. She can go far away but she knows that she will always come back to you. Even though there are lots of people whom she met while she was away, her heart would still long for one person only and that is you. Everywhere she looks, all she could think of is you. Maybe she's got it really bad but for her, your warm embrace would make all things in her life way much better.

Bada almost raced her way out of the airport when she finally arrived. Jet lag couldn't even keep her excitement down. She can worry about rest later, her main goal is seeing you so she hopped in a cab and told the driver your address. It was early in the morning but she could hardly care.

You woke up to the sound of a knock coming from the front door. You got up, wearing Bada's baggy shirt and pants that she left when she once slept over your at your house. You wore your fuzzy slippers and was rubbing the sleepiness off your eyes, mentally cursing whoever was knocking on your door so early and disturbing your slumber.

"Oh damn.. Good morning, pretty angel." Bada greeted you as she stood outside as you answered the door. She found it adorable that you wore the clothes she left at your house as pajamas. She knows she sounds delusional but the thought of you wearing her clothes for comfort makes her feel giddy.

"Bada? Am I still dreaming or are you really here?" you asked, thoughts still in disarray as you just woke up. Bada laughs and pulled you in for a hug. She missed you so much and just wanted to hold you in her arms after having been gone for so long.

"I'm home now, Y/N." She whispers and it took you a minute for your brain to process what's going on and when you did, you hugged her back and began sobbing on her arms. You were so worried the night before when she didn't call or message you and now she's here. You're still upset about it but it was trumped over by the happiness you felt because Bada is finally home.

The both of you just stood there hugging each other and crying, exchanging 'i miss you' and just enjoying each other's hold for minutes before your mom found you two and ushered you inside the house as it was cold outside. She made breakfast for you and Bada who still could not let go of each other but has since calmed down from crying.

"You bitch.. I was so worried when you didn't call me or even update me about what's going on.." you glared at Bada a little and she just pouted before resting her head on your shoulder.

"I wanted to surprise you, okay? But it was hard for me too.. Not talking to you made me so anxious while on the plane." she reasoned out and kissed your cheek. You sighed and ruffled her hair while your mom just listened to her daughter and maybe future daughter in law flirting and fighting at the same time. At first she was in denial with the idea of her daughter being with a woman but seeing how happy you are with Bada and how in love you are with each other even though none of you admitted yet, she finally came to terms that you, her daughter will not be giving her a son in law but she's not complaining since Bada is a good daughter in law in her eyes.

[adolin]

anon! I see you! same for the other anon I got 3 weeks ago and left on read — I was trying to decide how to phrase this.

I'm not publishing these in full because I'd rather talk about cool fandom theories I like instead of singling out specific takes I don't agree with.

The one thing I really feel like saying publicly re: TLT fandom discourse is that I think we could all benefit from, like, taking a step back from invoking Tamsyn when it comes to discussing theories or interpretations. I think the tone of the discourse and the fandom as a whole would be a lot healthier if we just agreed that we're getting a lil' bit silly with it, which is 100% what Tamsyn wanted when she started writing, anyway.

There are many fandom posts that EYE would find very compelling if they were presented as "This is a cool idea I had and the lenses through which I choose to engage with this story and these characters..." but often take the tone of "This is CLEARLY what the author means to do, listen up..." — with the implications that people who see things differently are getting a bad grade in lockedtomb reading, and then it stops being fun and it starts getting pretty hostile pretty quick.

I think a lot about Tamsyn's quote "I am writing for my younger self and it would be disgusting of me to try to teach her anything." That's the spirit in which I think it's most fun to engage with her writing. She's an excellent author and her books have a lot going on and many angles you can look at... but they aren't flawless, and she can't have accounted for all the theories the fandom is coming up with. I think we should stop trying to look at these books as though they are That Serious, and give ourselves more credit that maybe we're coming up with stuff the creator never considered, and that doesn't mean your stuff is less valid, but it does mean you shouldn't flex on other fans because you see it and they don't. From everything we know about Tamsyn, she'd probably be the first to say "It's not that deep, unless you want it to be."

For comparison, I've been in ASOIAF fandom for 15 years and we haven't had new material for almost as long and silly theories and renewed interpretations are flourishing every month, and nobody gives a fig about what GRRM was really trying to say because maybe the author's intention isn't the ultimate value of a work, and the author is dead anyway.

IDK. I think we should all get a little sillier with it. I've been guilty of some Not Silly in the past, though hopefully not much, but ultimately I'm here to have fun and so are most people. Especially since TLT is still ongoing, and many interpretations WILL get debunked, we're probably just better off now putting less stock on authorial backing to avoid disappointment later on, and to have more fun as a fandom during the #alectopause.

ANYWAY my askbox is always open specifically to get silly with it. I haven't hornyposted about lyctor sex in a while

[sunthyme]

Hehehe. Part two baby! Be prepared! (Pun absolutely intended) Also, to the people who are yelling the the tags, I love you guys! I read them all and I can't say thank you enough. It genuinely means a ton!🩷🩷🩷

Enough of me being sappy,

🌻Savanaclaw🌻

Disclaimer: Savanaclaw is like lowkey my favourite dorm, not in terms of redesigns but I love the characters. Huge Leona fan and Jack and Ruggie are my children so I will not stop talking about them. You have been warned.

First up, though y'all have seen him already,

♟️Leona Kingscholar♟️

(he/him) - Unlabelled but doesn't care about gender

I snuck in a lil treat of my work in progress housewarden card. The jumpscare it was to toggle my version with the og card underneath, y'all. Am I making my version of pretty much all his cards? Yes. Will they ever be finished? Who knows? Anyways, onto the headcanons...

- Physically, I feel like I changed a lot and not a lot at the same time. I gave him some more scars which I guarantee you are from really stupid accidents.

- Piercing on his ears just cause I felt they fit him and snakebites because (I'm so down bad for them) it gave the illusion of fangs even with his mouth closed. Gave him moles cause they're pretty.

- I textured his hair and gave him a shit ton more because if the og design won't AT LEAST give him fluffier hair, what's the point? Yana Toboso, if you don't give this man a high ponytail in the Clubwear Card, I will hunt you down. Also made his front, larger braids the colour of Cheka's (And presumably Farena's) hair because honestly? They didn't really look similar enough? Also threw in some smaller braid to 'tie' them in more (haha).

- Someone gave him like this cool inverted pupil due to a scene in the movie but I simplified it to basically heterochromia.

- This might be hardly noticeable but I give give him slightly more muscle? I felt it suited him more idk.

- Onto non-physical headcanons, he has 💕depression💕! This is kinda not up for debate given how much he exemplifies the symptoms. Hell, he made me realise that I may have depression cause I was like, "Damn, he's so relatable, not wanting to get out of bed, no motivation to do anything, struggling to care of himself. He just like me frfr- oh..."

- By the way, I see a lot of people talking about Ruggie's reaction to the fallout of Book 2 but I think that on Leona's side, he felt horrible and probably locked himself away for a WHILE. I think his mental state must have been terrible and I'm SO PISSED HIS FCKING PROBLEMS NEVER GOT BROUGHT AGAIN WTF! Well, I'm on Book 4 so maybe???

- Anyways, I saw someone posit he could also be autistic, more on the asymptomatic side which is actually growing on me a lot. Picky eater, doesn't like tighter clothes, not fond of loud noises, smaller things but I'm a fan.

- Really random but I like the idea that he's one of those people who kids love for literally no reason, he just doesn't like to be around them.

- Is actually extremely book smart, though that's kinda already canon but I mean this bitch was a nerd when he was younger. Knows way too much on various topics, especially about his homeland.

- He can purr. I know lion's can't but there are literal mer and fae. He's just a big kitty. My and Idia like 🤞 when it comes to thinking of Leona as just a big meow. I have a cat who doesn't like anyone but I'm her favourite, I could win him over.

I could talk about him for sooooo long tbh so I'll shut up now.

Anyways, now for my boy,

💸Ruggie Bucchi💸

(he/she) Bigender - Biromantic Asexual

God I love my bigender child.

- I made him black, though probably mixed and gave him vitiligo for both visual flavour and a mild(?) reference to like hyena spots?

- He originally was going to have her hair down but then I realised how many of them had their natural hair already so I gave him dreads? I'll have to render them out at some point.

- Gave her more scars too, since she grew up in a more rough environment. Made his eyes really big and cute 'cause I feel like she can get extras when she hits 'em with the puppy eyes.

- Probably got mad ADHD, has to constantly be fiddling with something or another. Wears spinny rings a lot. He's actually really good at paying attention in class and likes to learn.

- Steals from Leona, whether it's money or items or clothes he leaves out (which, while Leona would never admit, he purposefully leaves out for Ruggie).

- Oh and a post pointed out that hyenas can purr, so have fun with that.

That's mostly it for now, but expect this list to grow lmao.

Now for,

💪Jack Howl💪

(he/him) - Queer (he doesn't know lol, just knows he likes dudes at this point)

Not me struggling to find a weight emoji (I failed) 😭😭😭

- Ah, I made a reference in the Heartslabyul post about my concern about darker skinned characters with white hair and I was mainly talking about Jack. I also had to make Kiki, and I figured that wolves have pretty naturally salt-and-pepper hair, so why not. I actually love how it looks omg, it's very pretty and marbled.

- Gave him darker skin, since I headcanon him as black but I did see someone who designed him as indigenous so it might change in the future idk. Also it makes his eyes almost glow and I love that for him.

- He gets more scars too, though likely from sports rather than fights or anything.

- He's autistic. Apologies that so many of them are autistic to me, not only am I autistic but like, the way they're written speaks to me. His whole moral compass being the reason for Book 2 playing out like it did was an immediate 'yes' from me. He's my boy and my son and I will fistfight anyone that smack talks him (looking at those Savannaclaw NPCs in one of Deuce's vignettes).

- Oh, I forgot. He listens to K-Pop. I don't know if it?s canon that he has younger siblings, though I totally think he does, but one of them accidentally got him into K-Pop and J-Pop so whenever he's at the gym, that's what he's listening to lmao. Specifically girl groups, he likes them enough that he knows all their names. He insists it's out of respect, which it is but he's also lowkey a stan too lol.

- Generally has a weakness for cute things, even if he doesn't show it. Also a total plant nerd omg. He could instruct you on pretty much any houseplant on how much sunlight and water it needs, seasonal changes, etc.

Final note is that I'll make a separate post about him and Epel, cause I love them and have some headcanons there too.

Now for my ocs!

💎Kiki Adebayo💎

Third Year - (she/her) Transfem - Aromantic Demisexual Sapphic

- Twisted from Rafiki? I think that's his name, the baboon. I'm crying sobbing throwing up that you can't see her eyes in this.

- She got the white hair since the fur on a baboon is directly white and took inspiration from Dislyte's Isis design. Her eyes are a pale gold like her earrings and she has red to blue eye shadow.

- Natural resting bitch face but she's just tired most of the time. She'd probably be the actual vice housewarden as I think her family has been close to Leona's for a long time, though she earned her spot with her own skills.

- Additionally, I wouldn't call her and Leona 'childhood friends' but she's known him for a long time. She's like, concerned about him as he's changed so much but she also worries that it's not her place. As a result, she tries to make sure Ruggie's not taking on too much and handles most of the dormhead duties herself.

God, she's so pretty omg anyways

👟Mandisa Jelani👟

Second Year - (they/she) Demi-girl - Pansexual

- Mandisa is also based on the hyenas, though I don't know if her and Ruggie are from the same pack necessarily.

- I gave her scars, moles, and some piercings as well, I just felt like they'd suit her.

- I think she and Jack would be relatively similar in terms of personality, I see her being the gruffer upperclassmen. I think she'd be rather protective of the first years, knowing how harsh the older dorm members can be and she does her best to make everyone feel welcome.

Next up,

🤘Rocío Chávez🤘

Second Year - (she/her but doesn't really care) Transfem - Panromantic Asexual

You'll never guess who she's based on /j

- My girlie based on Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove! Yes, she is a big and buff bimbo? Himbo? I don't know but she's got a heart of gold and head empty.

- I wanted to keep her physique cause it always annoys me when people genderbend a character but don't keep them proportional to their og design. Mini tangent over, she so silly I love her.

- She and my Yzma character met as first years and have been inseparable since, though I'll talk more about that later.

- Not a massive ton of characterisation sine it's been a while since I've seen this movie too but I'm always open to suggestions.

Finally, my silly

🎸Abayomi Furaha🎸

First Year - (she/they/it) Nonbinary - Bisexual

- My final baby from Savanaclaw, also based on a hyena. Specifically the lil bug-eyed one, but I gave her a lazy eye instead. Not sure how well that comes across but I tried.

- She's got scars, was definitely bullied as a kid and I think that once the dorm members consider her a part of the pack, they'd be super overprotective as a result.

- That being said, she's more than capable of defending herself as she's good at various martial arts.

- She's into rock music and joined the music club as a result. Probably a drummer or guitarist as I think she's insecure about her voice.

- She and Mandisa are quite close and she convinced them to dye the edges of her hair red. Abayomi wanted touch up hers and managed to get Mandisa in on to lol.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for Octavinelle and thank you so much for reading!

[donttouchhadesbaklava]

I really want to know more about your Persephone plz What's her personality? Likes and dislikes? Why did you choose the movie design?

Have a great day 🔥🌷

My Persephone is quite the opposite to Hades, calm, kind and gentle. She's like a mixture of snow white and Ariel (my favourite princesses). Hades definitely doesn't get much lye ins due to Persephone's morning singing lol. I always thought she would sound like Shelley Duvall. Idk there's something about her voice, ugh it so angelic 😭🌸.

She is hard to anger and unlike Hades has patience, avoiding confrontation as much as possible. But don't get on her bad side or find yourself added to her plant collection. I am looking at you Minthe.

Likes

Besides the usual plant and animal life, Persephone loves theatre. Her and Athena like to go watch the occasional play when they have time to get together.

When Persephone's not busy as queen, she likes to do some gardening in Asphodel meadows. Experimenting with new plants, from nightshade, hamlock, snakeroots, etc.

She enjoys pottery, both making and painting little cups or bowls. painting small flowers or patterns all over. The underworld is just filled with her vases holding all kinds of flowers. No house tables are safe from her decor 🤣.

Loves Hades cooking, especially his moussaka. She's always going back for seconds ✨️.

Dislikes

Persephone isn't a fan of her family's attitude towards mortals. Just seeing them as means for worship and not considering them as more than just mere mortals. I think it's because growing up on Sicily Persephone had a lot of friends who were mortal and nymphs. She sees how hard they work and how they are so much more complex than what the gods think.

Anytime a hero storms into the Underworld. Come on, guys, she's trying to enjoy some time with her husband. After the whole Sisyphus situation, she's not as lenient with letting souls ask for favours.

Persephone has a no hurting Pain and Panic rule for a reason. No one hurting her boys 😌. Sorry, Hades.

Mint….anything to do with mint…if you know you know.

Why did I choose the movie design?

I just really love the movie design. I remember young me reading into mythology when I started obsessing over Disney's Hercules. Finding out about Persephone, I immediately typed her up on google, and the rest is history 🫠. However, I did have her pink for some years. For example, my first post

Opf old art jump scare 😅

Look at her! She's so beautiful! Maybe i'm biased because my favourite colour is purple. I know people don't like her headdress, but It's so cute!!!!

[sweetcollywobbles]

leon has to leave and doesn't know when he'll be back (idea)

idk if anything will come of this but this was just a little idea that i had. idk if this makes any sense either 😭 it's the same yandere!leon from my previous one-shot. again, i am no writer. this is all just for fun!

cw: implied kidnapping

₊˚⊹ ᥫ᭡. 𓂃

"whatever happens, leon," she paused in between words, staring into his cobalt eyes. "come back home." her grip on his bicep tightened to signal that she was serious. that she meant every word.

to her, the words meant to relay her terror of being trapped in the house for who knows how long. terrified by the idea of something happening to leon, leaving her stuck with no way out. left to rot in the custom, oversized cage like an ill-kept bird until her inevitable end.

but for leon, he melted. the sight of her clinging onto him, her pretty eyes looking up at him with distress. worry for him. for his safety. for his wellbeing. it was all too much for his beating heart. at the same time, this was exactly what he needed before leaving her. reassurance that she'd miss him just as much as he'd miss her. leon tried his best to hold in his smile, instead opting for the best pout he could muster.

he cupped the right side of her face with his left hand, brushing his thumb under her eye. admiring the way her eyelashes fluttered, the smoothness of her skin, and her pretty doe eyes. her right hand moving to lightly hold onto his left wrist while the other held tightly onto his keys. "nothing's gonna happen." he reassured again, leaning in, nose lightly bumping into hers. "you don't know that, leon." she muttered, voice small and shaky. eyes not daring to meet his own.

"i'll always come back to you." leon leaned in even more, his shallow breaths now fanning her lips. "where else would I go, hm? if not always back to you." with that leon closed the distance in a gentle kiss. his hand slowly moving from her face to the hand that holds his keys, taking his time to feel every crevice and bump along the way. leon wanted every part of her touch burned into his memory.

both pulled away from the other, Leon's right hand moved from his luggage to tuck some hair behind her ear, laying to rest on the nape of her neck, thumb brushing her jaw. "i have to go now." his voice no louder than a whisper. she didn't look at him, just sluggishly nodded her head, turning over her hand to give leon his keys. "that's my girl." he softly praised before placing a small kiss on her forehead.

with that leon zipped his bag up and headed for the door, but not before he gave her another chaste kiss on the cheek.

'maybe this is what we need.' leon thought as he placed his bag onto the passenger seat. 'maybe some space will do us some good.' for once, leon didn't mind pulling out of the driveway.

₊˚⊹ ᥫ᭡. 𓂃

sorry if this is bad lmaoo

[the-chessboard-is-personal]

season 2 time wahoo another damn liveblog am I right??

(liveblogging ii season 2, for if it's not obvious. same style as last ii liveblog)

1 - woahh! okay I love the style tbh. wait. Super Mario 3D World/Initial release date: November 21, 2013. this episode: Apr 2, 2013. INANIMATE INSANITY PREDICTED THE DOUBLE CHERRY???? ...huh. weird. why does MePhone have an app for that? y'know, RESURRECTION?

2 - MePad ? can teleport? ?? yeah that egg is gonna be relevant again isn't it

3 - BOW INATOR?? holy shit holy shit ohhg waow,,there is something in this episode that I want so much. lmao. "umm huh, lmhuehyahahuh.." (<- me attempting to spell what test tube said at the end of the ep)

4 - I didn't think the elimination song sucked.. hey wait why does it sound like they get killed or something when they go through the portal. also where does the portal lead

5 - SEVEN?? MeOS SEVEN??? oh huh. is that why someone who dies in space can't come back? OH THE NO SERVICE COMMENT WAS FORESHADOWING!!? wait why is that how it works. why does MePhone specifically get notifications about people dying. wh- okay?? that was ominous ?MePhone what does that rnean. ..chESS MENTIONED

6 - aaand there's another one. ANOTHER TWO??? .oh :| ...what the entire fuck. and yep this episode makes me uncomfortable. who would've FUCKING GUESSED

7 - oh so THAT'S where the portal lead. ..as down as the WHAT- ouhjghhu nooo... not a song

8 - ah yes, MePhone got The Common Code- oh. also idc what the objects say, ftrEwy7u9iop8oaTE7gI is a wonderful name for a challenge. or a password. each new MePhone gets less understandable because of the "techy" voice effec- oh he's dead. [sees Steve Cobs's reaction to the egg] ohh okay. one moment [walks away from the computer]please don't be like dsmp please don't be like dsmp please don't be like dsmp please don't be like dsmp plehokay. oh I don't like him

9 - ...I'm not crying you're crying.,, uohg this is the second time a show like this has had something that felt like it was directed at me. and the other time was Gothi talking to Xanu in Fool's Gold,.,. which was also about moving on.. is.. is that wh- oh hey a gravity falls reference. haha lol :) ...oh this is the depression eppisode. BITCH -> 🌮 <- BITCH

10 - aha! I've figured it out! the secret is MPABZCEAS!! holy fucking shit my joke was immediately kind of relevant. wha..suitcase?? y'know that voice kinda sounded like MePhone

11 - wHUH SMG4 SOUND?! oh wait that sound probably isn't from SMG4, that's just the first time I heard it. still though, neat. ...wild theory. I'm gonna sound like Fan here, but. "Is anything on this show real?" seems.hmm idk. sus. I call foreshadowing. hokay something's definitely going on with Suitcase. oH FOR FUCK'S SAKE yep don't like this episode either

12 - oh fuck they're in episode 1. oh fuck they're in HWUH ?? ..ohh MePhone hates Cobs too. hey if anyone's read this far, I want to know who's your favorite character from the alternate timeline, because why not! mine is Traffic Light

13 - woahhh MePhone backstory! oh. oh I do Not trust that "screen protector". HEY HEY WHAT WAS THAT WHISPER [turns on captions] oh. oh REALLY. HMM. ...wh. what. what what what what what ROBOT ADAM?? MEPHONE 3???? WHAT WHAT WHAT AAAAAAAA UH OH! UH OH OH NO UH OH!! ohkay this is the panic time, the time in every show tumblr freaks out about where things go CRAZY. OKAY OKAY I'M READY AAAAAA

14 - so the person who told me I should watch ii said I need to watch all of season 3 after this episode. I have no idea why! oh fuck! but anyway. that rneans I'll be splitting this section into actual paragraphs since this is the last episode of this liveblog. (<- said that before starting the episode). anyway.

okay. okay Fan just got abducted. ..hhhow did he know that. how did he know that MePad let Marshmallow leave. .hey hey what's with the shot of that panel with the hole in it. maybe I'm just tired but that doesn't seem..right. and not in the bad writing way.

uhm. hey 17:36 isn't supposed to be hitting me too whY IS IT HITTING ME TOO WAUGH.

"is that what you said to Pickle" OHH DAMN MY HEART DROPPED LIKE THE SCENE HOLY SHIT. wait IS FAN DEAD FOREVER??

wait didn't test Tube get eliminated? why did Microphone go through the portal??

looking at the comments for. tbh I forgot what reason when i saw this one

uh knew what KNEW WHAT OH FU-

anyway. so Fan glitching is. gonna be foreshadowing? oh boy let me guess... uhh.. wait why would Fan glitch. other things that glitch are..the tree MePhone made for Cobs? MePhone himself when Tissue Box sneezed on him?? that MePhone 3?? but none of that has anything to do with Fan..

unless.. AHA!

FAN IS A PROJECTION MADE BY ONE OF THE NEWER MEPHONES

COBS IS GOING TO KNOW WHERE THEY ARE AS LONG AS FAN IS THERE!!

although with Fan eliminated, th- oh there's an after credits scene?

UH. UM. WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT

AND THE OMINOUS OUTRO THEME. UH OH

okokokokokokayokayokayokay. that's obviously some kind of MePhone. the Meeple logo is there and it's phone shaped, so. that's pretty obvious. but not one that's been seen before, right? like not even a model that's been seen before, because none of them have the grabby hands.

because of the red X imagery I'm gonna guess this one is called MePhone X. and if not, well I'm gonna refer to it as that until I find out otherwise

with how scary that moment was clearly intended to be, we can all agree that Toilet just got permakilled, right? like. despite not being in space? that was definitely. not anything good that happened to Toilet there. I'm just gonna assume Toilet's dead, yep that just happened. aaand now there's a seemingly murderous (although maybe it had a grudge against Toilet for some reason, but I find that unlikely) MePhone roaming around. n e a t .

thiiiiinking that thing is the exception to the "each MePhone we see is dumber than the last" rule that seems to be present. hm. wonder who the Big Villain is going to be

welp it's too late to binge s3 rn so uh. yeap. okay. sure. that's a thing

[thelesbianpoirot]

What do u think about Renee Rapp? I thought she was a Chappell lesbian chic kind of bisexual because she used to adamantly correct people and state she was bi she came out as gay in January, is dating a woman and one of her most recent releases was about being in love with her female costar—very cute song. Idk if she’s released anything this year but my friends are super into her music. I think like Roan she makes boring pop and don’t really care for it. It’s cool that so much of it is about women tho. But idk I always feel like if these young women have the guts to come out as lesbians knowing being lesbian and female exclusive isn’t popular and having claimed bi before then maybe they are lesbians? But it’s also been trendy to claim even bi and then admit down the line that they were trying to be trendy/sexy etc. I guess time will tell but either way I think more women need to know about febfems because it would save so much trouble and stop making people think lesbians are ‘fluid’ when the ones that are bi eventually drop the act. Like Kirsten Stewart gets clowned a lot but she’s a perfect example of a thriving febfem even if she’s never used the term.

I don't know who she is, but I can look up in my free time. I'll take your word for it, I am not a big pop fan, but I will give any female popstar a listen. I think some of these women could be lesbians, and some are not. Chapell is not in my book, but I am not an authority on another woman's sexuality, it just seems she was hurt or neglected by multiple men and women are her safe haven to protect herself. "I am not going to date men anymore, men can't make me come, here are sad love songs about men." The signs are all there. Every female popstar identifies bisexual, it is so common it doesn't stand out anymore, I am shocked when a female popstar says she's straight, so I think to stand out, some of the bi female stars say they are lesbians, especially if they are dating women at the time, knowing well they have been and are still attracted to men. Bad relationships with men, either abusive or insensitive make them excited for their relationship with women, they feel actual love from these women and it makes them think they must be lesbians, because men have never treated them so well and they have never felt so connected to a partner. But this is just the affect of some light female Seperatism. Especially since people are abusing the term comphet. I really would like if the term febfem got popular outside of rad orbit because some women really need it. It's not because I think only gold stars are lesbians, it is because you tell who is going to soon start saying lesbianism is limited, we need more men dressed as women, dick, or they are caught with another man. I applaud kristen stewart for continuing to call herself bisexual, and really being an example for bi women who primary date women, so girls can feel more pride in themselves. Same for Michelle Rodriguez the love of my life.

[batsplat]

I think this should be a fun one for you: rank 00’s-early 2010’s spanish atp tennis players from most beloved/underrated/least beloathed to your most behated.

I love when you’re mean about atp 🥰

incredible hater ask. love to see that me just endlessly lobbing potshots at male tennis players has finally found an audience. the inclusion criteria for this list is extremely vibes-based - they need to have had some of their career-best results in the 00's or early 2010s and I can't primarily associated them with 90's or 2020's. so no moya or alcaraz... rba marginal inclusion but not pcb. (ramos vinolas would've come top but he just... didn't really get going until late 2010s.) cut-off is top twenty peak ranking. so let's go

MOST BELOVED/UNDERRATED/LEAST BELOATHED

bautista agut: horse girl!! horse girl!!! a bit of a journey of how I learned to stop worrying and love the pusher. I've occasionally had a slightly troubled history with the guy, not least because sometimes it does feel like he crawls out of the woodwork literally just to piss me off? like, I'm sorry, check out this string of results from last year (I've conveniently highlighted the irritating result)

first time since JANUARY he'd strung together back-to-back match wins. feels a little personal!!

beyond spawning out of nowhere to hand medvedev a yearly defeat, he has also been done a fair bit of torturing of murray. that 2022 match at doha with the foul scoreline... that being said, if you're a fan of a high-ranked player it is extremely poor form to be too annoyed by this kind of thing. medvedev should maybe consider stop losing to inferior pushers and even at the time I did find it pretty funny, rolled my eyes but fundamentally idc that much about how he does in halle. and I am obviously a big supporter of pushing... rba is quite an un-spanish players in some ways - doesn't play with a lot of spin, not bad at clay but it's not where he shines. idk I'm a big fan of pushers, rba has been a stalwart representative of the pushing lifestyle on the atp tour, he's kind of in that gilles simon camp where I was always happy enough to put on a match with them in it. and y'know, he seems like a nice enough guy. a fixture of the atp tour who I'm just kinda fond of

ferrer: always felt kinda sorry for him. destined to be #2 spaniard forevermore. thing is, with his game, you do have to say he didn't massively underachieve - like in a way a slam final is a pretty impressive showing. he's not one of the players TO ME where it feels super painful they never won a slam, even though arguably he's had a better career than some of the guys I'd put in that camp. funny how that works out!! I actually quite like ferrer's game, it's very bread and butter, spanish clay court style... and y'know, I grew up on clay, it's probably still my favourite surface all things considered, and we did always joke about the grinding from ten metres behind the baseline thing. I respect it. gets annoying when someone is nadal-levels good, but ferrer is very much not that so I quite enjoyed watching him play. idk, I did always vaguely like those second tier players during the big four era - childhood nostalgia of watching them in a bunch of slam matches without my negative feelings towards the big three. he's not my favourite of those, but he's all right. just quite inoffensive really

costa: oh man, I just don't really have any particularly strong feelings towards this guy. I think it's pretty funny how he won a slam and does just reflect where the clay game was at for a few years before nadal, like none of the post kuerten pre nadal rg winners were particularly serious characters. still, beating ferrero in that 2002 final is something I will gladly applaud, especially absolutely walloping him in the first two sets. this is very firmly before my time and perhaps a year or so before I even held my first tennis racquet as a kid, and while I obviously have quite a few past players I have strong feelings about... costa is not one of them. he is not actively offensive to me, let's put it that way (which I retroactively realised I'd put for two players in a row, but I'll leave it because it's funny that this is how I classify spanish players)

verdasco: now, look. verdasco doesn't hate nadal, but I am more than happy to do so on his behalf. I wasn't a sentient enough person yet in 2009 to have particularly sophisticated takes on the tragic inevitability of sports narratives, but if I HAD been I think I would've gone insane at some point during That Australian Open Match. basically redlined for hours and it still wasn't enough, never reached another slam semi, just kinda sucks man. (not that it matters but I'm glad he did at least manage to beat nadal in five at ao 2016 in the first round, just for the vibes.) I do also have a fair bit of sympathy for him over the two month doping ban he got in 2022 for failing to renew the therapeutic exemption thingy he had for his adhd medication - that was just so obviously a case of someone not really doping and tbh a lot of people (including some players!!) were pretty cruel about that shit

all that being said, can't say I've ever particularly been a fan. idk he was just one of those vaguely frustrating players to me who theoretically had a lot to their game but never was quite... on it enough. I do like some players who build their games around big booming forehands, but it's not really what I've ever gravitated towards. I think we have now reached the part of the list where most of these guys get a bit of a nadal tax. as in, I've seen them pal around with nadal, it has been forced in front of my eyeballs, and I simply do not support that kind of behaviour. (true of ferrer too but he has just about enough accumulated good will to be ranked higher up.) it's nothing personal, it's just that they're associated with nadal in my mind. I don't like it

robredo: is it bad if I say I got him confused with verdasco as a kid. too many spaniards. well, first off, go watch the valencia 2014 final against murray (I got a kia ad for nadal when I tried to open this video which ramped up my internal haterism for what is to come). what people sometimes forget about this horrifically painful final is that it was the second time in like?? a few weeks?? where he was playing murray in a final... I think he blew five matchpoints in both which. ouch. anyway the point is that valencia match is great - and unlike when the big three inflict horrendously painful defeats on their opponents, this was good and moral and fun. robredo was probably the most... invisible of this lot, if that's not too mean. his biggest contribution to tennis history is defeating federer once and only once at the 2013 us open, ensuring that federer and nadal wouldn't play - which ensured they never played at the us open which means it is an incomplete and quite frankly fraudulent rivalry. they missed out by one match on six occasions. the list of players who stopped them reads murray, djokovic, del potro and.... robredo. a hero tbh

other robredo thoughts... I mean, he was a bit top twenty filler if we're being honest. the thing where he won three consecutive slam matches from two sets to love down was pretty neat. he's basically ferrer but worse. I rank him at basically the same level as verdasco but I remember more verdasco matches than robredo so. there we are

ferrero: okay. look. I'm aware some of this might be coloured by my extreme irritation at his presence in alcaraz's coaching box these last few years. man will simply not shut up. I can't help it - sometimes this stuff colours my opinions on someone

(not a player but the swiftest downfall in this regard has been darren cahill, who had a base fondness for as 'notable agassi coach' that he's steadily pissed away in this sinner partnership. zero respect for how he dumped anisimova so soon after she hired him because he just couldn't handle the strains of travel, throwing himself a pity party... before almost immediately linking up with sinner. a tangent irrelevant to this post but I just needed to get that in there!!)

I get that coaching's legal now!! and I am NOT a conspiracy theorist about the timing of that change happening right during the golden boy's rise to the top, but!! it's still obviously been pretty convenient, like surely the umpires could not have ignored that for all that much longer lol. and I hate the rule change, idc how little practical use it is - it's antithetical to the spirit of tennis. I know coaching happened before then too but it makes a difference if you have to at least be sly about it (not that this guy ever really was). also beyond my principled opposition, he's just annoying. it's annoying. I'm sick of his face by now. get him off my screen

but to rewind twenty years, it's still aggravating that his one and only slam came at the cost of what would have been one of the all-time great slam fairy tale runs. it should have been verkerk!! ik that it wasn't even particularly close, I don't care. verkerk also just had a more compelling run to the final - sure jcf beat defending champion costa but he wasn't in particular good form, and verkerk took out both moya and coria. some random dutch bloke took out former champion moya in five sets... should have gotten the title. I'm sure you'll be delighted to know the match is indeed on youtube. isn't this cool:

don't you want to root for this guy!!

anyway yeah idk you're a top player for years you win one slam and THAT is how you won it? by stomping on a fairy tale? the counter-argument is that jcf SHOULD have won in 2002 but, well. just an awful performance wasn't it. like I know I said I like grinders and chokers but the first two sets of the first slam final you compete in being 1-6 0-6... hm. idk man. just don't think he was a good enough player to have earned a slam or indeed to have been number one, and in that case I would prefer the fairy tale slam. I will say he was an underrated hard court player, but yeah just didn't like his playstyle. a lot of these spaniards are way too big on their forehands. and I cannot forgive his role in blighting the game with another spanish prodigy. we're just never going to be free

lopez: okay, look, admittedly the fact that he seemed so close to nadal didn't make me particularly keen on him, but it's more than that!! another one where his activities post-retirement have hardly done much to endear him to me. I do unironically loathe this guy for his work running the madrid open, I think he's an incompetent sexist cunt who needs to be kept far away from women's tennis as possible. these last couple of years have made me more and more furious about the current situation with women's tennis - the game is in an excellent place but it might as well be being sabotaged by the people who are supposed to promote it. it's disgraceful he is still even in the job after the women's doubles finalists were prevented from speaking during the trophy ceremony, and it's as good a demonstration as you're going to get of the wta's luck of power. just makes me sad man

also, I never liked him as a player. idk man hating's not rational but I'm trying to come up with something I feel like I can defend a bit more than 'I was sick of people talking about how attractive this guy was to women'. but well, I was! oh wow, he's a heartthrob?? you think he's good-looking?? you want to make a joke about how he makes the ladies swoon?? original! never heard it before! look, I support straight women in their lifestyle choices even if they differ from my own, but more than anything else I just find this shit cringe. 'deliciano' is cringe. calling a bloke vain can be a pretty charged insult, but in this case I stand by it - shallow man with shallow tennis. just this gross macho energy that I personally have always found off-putting. he's also a commentators' pet where they want him to unlock his inner potential and become the player he could be with all that talent inside of him... literally shut up

nadal: if nadal has a million haters, I am one of them. if nadal has five haters, I am one of them. if nadal has one hater, that is me. if nadal has no haters, then I am no longer alive. if the word supports nadal then I am against the world

I ended up writing paragraphs and paragraphs worth of why I hate him for One Match Specifically but then I realised that wasn't really part of the remit for a jokey hater post and was also getting a wee bit TOO earnest and emotional. it has been cut out but lmk if you want to read an extended scream into the abyss I suppose lol

anyway! my number one enemy. djokovic might be the worst of the big three on moral grounds, federer's whole aesthetic and vibe is horrendous, but as an actual tennis player? oh, nadal, they could never make me like you. instinctively the least appealing playstyle... I love watching djokovic move around the court, even I can appreciate clean federer hitting. nadal is just... well, look, I'm not a forehand girl. and when I AM a forehand girl, I tend to like mine a bit flatter. penetrating. I can appreciate nadal's forehand is a great shot, but it doesn't really do much for me. all the good and appealing parts of nadal's game... low key are better from djokovic. the athleticism, the counterpunching, high margin game etc. if I want this stuff, I go to djokovic. also, look, I don't like the grunting - but what I really don't like is how completely accepted it is to hound wta players for grunting while nobody bats an eyelid when nadal sounds like a flock of seagulls is dying in his throat every single point. and I get that the double standards aren't exactly his fault, but you know what is his fault? his repeated and consistent opposition to equal pay in tennis! admittedly women's rights aren't exactly an issue you want to interrogate too closely with any of the big three, see the utter cowardice and moral void surrounding the zverev case

which I think gets to the part that really pisses me off about nadal. it's just... the hypocrisy. his pr is all about being this big fighter, big fighter, big fighter, he's so tough, he never gives up, what a fighter. such a big song and dance is done about what a great sportsman he is, him and federer obviously - how respectful they are, how civil and composed and isn't it great that we have two such great role models for the sport. people won't stop banging on about the fucking racquet smashing thing, as if we have to declare sainthood because a multi-millionaire tax evader has decided not to break a stick that clocks in at maybe a hundred fifty quid retail price. I'm biased in that I like racquet smashes, I think they're funny, they're ultimately not that serious - I don't particularly mind giving them a code violation but I do think it's remarkable that breaking a racquet isn't allowed but smashing up your own body with a racquet is. which is a separate issue! point being, it's one of those things that get used to paint nadal as the fairest most respectful most humblest bestest sportsman of all time. but he's not!! of course he engages in gamesmanship, of course he did some blatant time violations every time he could get away with it, of course he loved disrupting the rhythm of the other player serving, of course some of his medical timeouts were awfully convenient. of course it's pretty rich of him to complain about other blokes grunting

which I literally would not mind - I am a justine henin fan - if it weren't ignored due to this guy's insane pr. I also think it is awfully like tennis, in all its hypocrisy and fundamental conservatism, to judge someone's moral character over the number of racquets they have smashed - rather than literally anything else. this OBVIOUSLY isn't his fault, but I find the way many of his fans glorify the abuse his uncle subjected him to as a child beyond distasteful. federer fans are the cockiest and at times most fanatical (though For Some Reason they've quietened down these past few years), djokovic fans are the most flat out insane, but I find something about the conservatism of the nadal fanbase particularly pernicious. all in on the macho culture, endless wanking off to his masculinity and traditional values and whatever other bullshit

and to bring it back around - he's also fucking boring lol. like at the end of the day all this stuff just eats away at his appeal for me. so committed to never saying anything controversial he never says anything at all. I've already expressed this opinion before on this blog, but I firmly believe if you are an athlete that good and that dominant then you NEED to have more going for you. you need more character, more narrative juice, more interesting interpersonal relationships with your fellow competitors. tbh I think it's probably quite hard to keep me invested if you're THAT dominant, but let's be honest - men's tennis hasn't even been trying since agassi and sampras retired (rip to my men's tennis goats). serena on the women's side is way less annoying because she faced a changing cast of characters throughout her career, everyone in noughties wta had crazy narrative juice, and she is also exponentially more interesting than the big three combined. she really WAS an asshole at times, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible!! all the gamesmanship people use to insult her honestly just makes me like her more. people complain about the chaos at the top of the wta tour but like... first of all, obviously we've left that era, and secondly I'd take that any day over stagnation at the top of the men's. the big three for all their incredible tennis have stifled the men's game, nadal's the worst of them, glad he's retired

MOST BEHATED

[charles-leclerc-official]

Hi, I am curious what you think about Leclerc vs Sainz. I feel like a lot of Charles fans underrate Carlos (imo he's an upper midfield driver, very solid) but also many Carlos fans treat him like the second coming of Christ, it's insufferable.

Do you think he's pretty close to Charles in terms of ability? I mean he isn't terrible, but Charles is better in the metrics, like one lap pace, race pace, tyre management, race starts, W2W/overtaking (did I miss anything else). I think some of it also comes down to the issues in Charles' garage but I don't know to what extent, I don't have the numbers. I would love to see corrected data from anyone if it's possible, but idk.

I feel like the gap should be bigger. But maybe ironically I am one of those people who underrate Carlos. He is a strong driver but I don't see him in the WDC conversations whereas Charles often is.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong but Charles has outperformed and maximized the SF-24 more than Carlos has. Suzuka, Spa, come to mind. I don't recall Carlos doing anything particularly extraordinary with the car this season (again please correct me if I am wrong!!) but he has been very solid.

I do know for sure that in terms of raw talent, Charles is better than Carlos. Higher peaks too.

I mean, I think that the numbers and data really speak for themselves. By any measure Charles is the better driver, but that doesn't mean that Carlos isn't a solid driver who pulls consistent results. Two things can be true and I think that usually gets overlooked. The comparison fallacy a lot of people try to paint when comparing any drivers is that if one driver is better then it means the guy they are comparing him to is bad, when those are not the only options. You can have two good drivers on a team and one be better than the other, it happens a lot.

As far as fans go, I don't really like to attack anyone for hyping their driver. Of course fans are going to say their driver is the best, we all do it, so I don't think that's unique or anything to read too deeply into.

Your assessment it pretty accurate as far as performance goes. Charles pushes things to the next level and demonstrates his skill weekly. I agree, Carlos has been solid, nothing extraordinary, but solid.

I think Carlos' best performance this year as far as driving goes was probably Austria. He stayed close enough to the front even with the SF-24 struggling to be able to podium when Max and Lando went out. Australia was probably his best qualifying lap (possibly tied with Monaco tbh)

Pretty close is subjective. I don't think they are in the same category, I think Charles is the better driver in just about every category and the data does support this. Correcting the data for all their DNFs and car trouble would be an undertaking. I believe someone did that for them through 2023, but we have more data now so.

And the gap between teammates shouldn't be too big. If it is then there is a problem. Either with the talent the team has hired or the car. They are in the same car so the gap isn't going to be massive if they are both driving well, even if one is better. Ideal results are 1-2s or as close as we can get to that.

I think one reason people get lost in the gap to the teammate "debates" is they just take the result stats and the H2H graphics, when digging into the actual track performance and data reveals a more detailed look at a drivers actual performance. Results only tell you so much. And of course there are just a lot of things that are outside a driver's control.

[eri-pl]

@edennill I just had an… well, not epiphany because it's not theological, but an insight or something. Tagging, you, because a) it may be interesting b) you often wonder (in frustration, I think) why do people make so much fanart of the bad guys. (Tagiing you doesn't mean the later rhetorical "you" is you. It's a different you. Huh. Maybe we should start using "thee", it would make things easier.

Why do we deny canon characteristics of characters?

(long post below cut, no triggers, kind of fandom discourse-related but tries to empathise with both sides?)

(It's rhetorical "we", I am trying to not do it. But I'm 40 and got many things sorted out. Probably still do it anyway, esp around kidnap fam)

Imagine: you suffer. You read about a character that suffers in the exact same way, or at least a way that rings a bell in your heart.

This is you.

So you love them, you try to defend them, they didn't deserve it — you didn't deserve it — extept it turns out they kind of did deserve it. And all the unsaid accusations you felt from people — well turns out for the character they're true. So are they true about you?

Of course it would be most natural to unlink yourself from the character, but that's not how human brain works. also, unlinking it would be very painful and take a lot of time and effort (and still may not work) and often feels like betraying yourself.

So you fight. For your dignity.

So you fight against people correcting you with things that are actually in the book.

…I legit think it's how it works usually. (Of course, echo chambers and unwillingness to factcheck are a thing too, depends on the person probably.)

So when we engage with someone speaking about their beloved character and it's OoC — there are, at least partially, speaking of a part of themselves. And, while it's technically true, telling someone "a part of you commited [insert a Silm-typical deed here] is very painful.

(Aaaand now the rhetorical "you" is again my friend Edennill, because I can't into rhetorics…) When you engage with someone hyping about Sauron, there are two three Saurons in the conversation: yours (obvious. the Númenor stuff and all other stuff), canon (very similar, maybe with more focus on other evil stuff and not Númenor on top position, idk, anyway close), and theirs (a child who wwas told too many times that they are unforgiveable, or something like that + also has flaming hair and cool ring).

What to do with it? I have no idea what to do with it, except the obvious.

I'm looking for ideas.

And yes, people do project on the good characters too, and criticizing those characters hurts in the same way, only it's also factually false (usually, because not all characters are black and white). I know. I don't mean to say that the "good guys" are ok to criticize and the "bad guys" not, or that book canon should be not spoken about.

Maybe the answer is just "don't hate characters to their fans"? (Facts and hate aren't the same, but with facts, there's still a need for compassion and getting a feel when to say what)

Truth is an important thing. Yes. Truth about what's in a book…. still it is a thing worth saying. Especially when the book is as good (even with it's problems and kitchen sinks) as Silm is. But as I said, empathy or something is needed?

IDK, I'm still figuring it out.

I think I've kind of know this for a long time, half-consciously, but today I had a moment when something clicked and things started making much more sense. Like: why people do have takes that are so far from canon and still call the character the same character. It does make sense in the contaxt...

(Also, no: I'm not like that with Melkor, I'm much more aware of my stuff and of what's canon and what not and I can switch between perspectives… But as I said, I'm old. It comes with some amount of wisdom. Funnily I can deal much better with people hating him than hating Maglor. But I can deal with people hating Maglor (filtering too counts as "deal with" ;D) and I can admit all the stuff he did in the book and that he's a coward, and all that (relateable). I just feel sad when people say he deserves all the worst.)

[crkstuffidk]

Okay I am bringing up White Lily again. And I'm sorry but I've realized I haven't fully been explaining how I feel about her that much. So let's ne explain

I like her, it's contradictory to what I said about my first post about her, but I do. She's generally a very Pretty design, and the voice actor did amazing. And honestly her story is kinda good. Until it came to everything regarding Dark Enchantress, and honestly I feel like this is more devsisters faults for just idk trying to shove her down our throats, that's how I see it atleast. But her fans are also a problem, because they don't seem to understand that she can have flaws. And that's my next point, she has some good flaws, and some good I forgot the name but good traits. Thing is, the flaws and good traits I feel like are blown way out of proportion with eachother, her flaws especially now are just squashed and her good traits are heightened. And that's not good character writing, flaws and good traits should be equal, or somewhat close to eachother, ex for a good trait could be someone being a gentle character and who is always helping other, a flaw could be that they don't ask for help, or maybe their still holding a grudge against something. But White Lily doesn't seem to have any thing that's makes sense, you're going to tell me she's a shy and quiet cookie and then the next moment she's ready to leap into action and fight against someone that could've snapped her in half??? That makes no sense once so ever. And again her toxic fans, especially toxic pure Lily shippers they need to chill out, take a step back and realize: 'hey it isn't that serious, it's not hurting me or others, so why should I be this offended by it.' I'm not being mean, atleast I hope not, infact I'm trying to see from both sides right now. But I can't really, she's got good potential, but with how her toxic fans and even devsisters sometimes, seem to be shoving her down our throats, I can't like her character. And I know you aren't all bad, which is why I stated 'toxic' fans/ purelily shippers' look I don't mean to bash on your ships or favorite characters. But some of ya'll do need to calm down a bit. I still haven't gotten any thing from any of the toxic ones, and I'm very glad for it.

Okay look I'm done officially with this. And like every other time I've done this, I'm not looking for a fight, I'm just putting out some of my opinions not that their right, but because I feel like they kinda have some sense behind them, I'm not saying you have to agree, but just don't come after me for it. Okay bye!

Also something I find funny, and that I think about from time to time, is that after my first post about this I entered tik tok like the next day and scrolled down maybe five times, and I got a video about someone defending White Lily, no hate to it, that was honestly just kinda ironic to me and kinda makes me smile cause of the coincidence. Anyways now I'll officially leave ya'll alone. Bye!

[lllllllllllines]

(I urge that you read this to the end, as I know some of you will take pieces of what is said here and use it as ammunition for more drama. I can't really do tl;dr because i feel like it would ruin a lot of my points)

I don't usually like to deal with drama or discourse in general leaves a bad but I feel like this needs to be said.

This discourse is stupid, a lot of different points on either side due to several reasons at least in my opinion.

Ive seen many people who were against palworld use claims for stolen designs, mentions of AI art as well as lots of people either acting in defense of game freak/TPC/Nintendo as well as some acting in defense of artistic integrity.

I've seen the people who were for the game act in one singular way while just trying to have fun with it(which i cannot deny, it looks fun as fuck).

This being them claiming that they are just kissing the boots of Nintendo, though i don't think its quite fair to put them in the same category.

Just have fun with the game, no need to engage with the hate if you don't want to(even though i know it's difficult, especially when it's staring you in the face).

For those who are for, I only have a couple things to say.

Companies are not faceless entities, I know that this sounds like basic knowledge but I've noticed that's not something people usually mention.

Not everyone who attacks this game, cares for pokemon. Im gonna go in more depth when i get to them, but i feel like this needs be said.

While there are many good things on the internet, the internet as a whole, especially nowadays, is chaos and pain.

So many different opinions, leading to low self-esteem and rage.

You just want to have fun, you probably don't like pokemon, or if you do, you probably don't like what they've been doing with it.

You've seen the early trailers and had a laugh, found out this year that it came out, sought it out be cause hey, could be a bit of a meme.

But soon you start to actually have fun with it and hope it succeeds, despite some of the designs not being totally original, and you don't care.

But soon, like usual, you find that there are people who dislike the game.

In the real world, it doesn't matter to you, it rolls off you like nothing, because you don't know them, maybe you get into a heated argument with a friend.

But as soon as you hit the internet, you feel as though people are personally attacking something you like, (emotions are hard to convey through text) so you defend.

Not really caring about how it sounds to those you desperately fight against.

But in the end that's just adding fuel to the flame.

(though I can say that this discourse is great publicity for the game, good or bad it still lets people know that it exists.)

So just have fun with it.

(Unless dealing with discourse like this is fun for you idk)

For those who are against,

I am first going to speak to those who seem to want to defend Game Freak/TPC/Nintendo and those who speak for artistic integrity.

Why do any of your thoughts matter when it comes to a company.

as I had stated earlier, people usually associate companies and conglomerates as faceless entities.

They don't see them like systems, heavily broken systems, like if a beehive were born from an unloving tyrannical queen.

The ones at the top exist to fill their pockets while those at the bottom suffer for it.

I bet around half of the people speaking of artistic integrity don't really know the names of the designers of each pokemon(and to those who do, I'm glad, cause then I know you know what you're talking about.)

I feel as though speaking of artistic integrity only works when you're talking about an individual.

Which means, by extension, that a company like Nintendo, or the other two companies that own or work on the ip, those that see only the product and the work.

To them, artistic integrity is dead.

Why else would the shoot down fan works so heavily?

To keep their product close to the chest.

But what about the claims that they stole from fakemon artists?

To my knowledge, (please let me know if im wrong) there has only been one claim of such a thing, and it was soon taken back as they soon found out that the palworld model was older than their's.

Which im pretty sure proves that claim false.

And to the people who are against AI art, don't get me wrong, I hate the idea as much as you do.

But AI image generation like many things is a tool.

And if used properly, tools can be useful.

like say for example, you have an idea you want to draw, but you can't fully figure it out in your head.

There are no pictures that fully convey what ur thinking in the depth you want for a reference, you could use an image generator for reference.

Add to an image in your own way, while removing the parts that were taken by the algorithm.

Be creative.

When tools are used properly, they can do a lot of good things.

The reason people hate AI art, is because people are being stupid and lazy with it.

Hell, i think pocketpair realized their mistake a long time ago as not only has that game been absolutely shat on in the steam reviews, but you cant even find it on their website, or at least i haven't.

Lastly, I'm gonna show you a trailer for a game pocketpair is also making, it should be coming put Q1 this year.

A game I have not heard mentioned this whole discourse.

As an honest question, what part of this looks AI generated to you?

Its a 2D sidescrolling platformer, said to be a mix of a metroidvania and a roguelite, also with base building elements since that seems to be a commonality for them.

The only things i could see that were taken or inspired by are the backgrounds, which feel very hollow knight, and the main mechanic being a possession mechanic which loosely reminded me of super mario Odyssey.

I've seen AI 2D animation, and it's usually pretty jarring due to how quickly everything warps and changes as things move.

I don't see that in this.

Nor do i recognize any of the monster or character designs.

I could be wrong and both palworld and never grave could be scams, seeing as both are in early access.

And if or when i am, then that's egg on my face.

Those that were all happy to play a new and exciting game, will seeth and mald.

And you can live happily, i guess.

But it at least shows they know some integrity.

I mean, as long as they make any of the new pals that come out more original than the 111 that they have now, we should be fine.

The only time we should be outraged, is if there is sort of harm coming to the workers, and I don't think I've heard any news on that.

If it bothers you that much, make your own game.

Actively do something about it rather than complain on the internet.

Like, I can't even imagine how difficult that is.

Especially for a smaller company.

Pokemon has it easy, It doesn't need defense.

Defend it from itself before defending it from others.

Stop paying for shit that doesn't work out the gate.

Do something to force the people making the bad game to do better.

And stop trying to shit on the little guy for your own ideals.

Criticism is fine, yelling over a game on the internet is not.

Not by a long shot.

But hey I don't think anyone is gonna read this.

Much less to the end.

Because I've scrolled passed shorter posts for less.

[aristocrating]

I kind of don’t know how I feel about Jack and Bitty being endgame? That’s my hot take. Like, idk if I want Jack or Bitty ending up with anyone else, but idk if I want them ending up with each other either???? Idk. Maybe it’s got something to do with Bitty’s inexperience in the dating scene.

i'm not gonna be beating the allegations that i sent this to myself, thanks anon lmaooooo

you are right and you should be saying it.

let me preface this by saying: i GET what people see in zimbits. from the angle of the wholesome ending, sure, absolutely. let them be cute together if it sparks joy for you.

howEVER, i personally am a big fan of jack's angsty side. it's what drew me to the comic (it's even what made me want to see zimbits initially), and i am jack zimmermann's biggest fan for the sole reason that he is a mess of a person. the jack that intrigued me would be a HORRIBLE first boyfriend for bitty. because you are right, bitty's inexperience is a huge factor in this.

i read jack as being trapped in this perpetual cycle of isolation and over-attachment. he had his thing with kent, then isolated himself for many years, then came out of his shell at samwell and immediately grafted himself onto bitty's hip. at the same time, he also demands bitty to keep their relationship secret. bitty, who just came out to his teammates 1.5 years ago, comes from a conservative homophobic environment and has, as far as we're told in the comic, not had any great dating experiences while at samwell (which could be its own entire post, stay tuned ig)

as the biggest jack zimmermann fan under the sun, i am convinced that bitty -- yes bitty -- deserves better. i used to run a queer youth group in my area and there's a lot of young queer folks out there who come from conservative backgrounds and take YEARS to unlearn all the internalized bullshit, find out who they even are, and only then are really able to properly integrate themselves into their queer community. bitty, from what we see in the comics, never really goes through any of this process.

so getting together with the first closet case he can find (after having that guy yell at him for a year, then living for a year in fear of crushing on a straight guy) just kind of makes me feel bad for him. if we're taking what the comic gives us at face value, i don't think they're that good for each other.

i would LOVE to have seen the process of them figuring it out, then i probably would've been more on board with the ship, but the comic was never going to have the means to deal with all of this, so it just falls flat for me. personally. i see what the comic was getting at, it just didn't do it for me. it doesn't scoop me up, as we say in german. ("holt mich nicht ab")

as far as this being a hot take. *looks at my crowd of jack/kent mutuals* hmmmm, 7/10?

🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

PS: anyways if you want sports drama featuring deeply traumatized and horrible people, @fanartshmanart got me into All For The Game, which hits a lot of the marks i wish check please wouldve hit in regards to jack, bitty and kent

edit: for added context, the zimbits kiss was huge for me when it happened, but now looking back on it im just kind of like... eh