#it has been a Week for me for reasons i can't get into without doxxing myself

[pocketramblr]

How about a gamer au? like an au where shigaraki and Izuku incidentally game on the same server, so for example shenanigans like Izuku kidnapping Shigaraki's pet sheep in Minecraft and holding it hostage until he gives Bakugou back could happen

I asked my brother a minecart question in an attempt to get info to answer this ask, he was confused, and so I showed him for context and apparently "guy holds Minecraft sheep hostage" is legit a thing one of the big smps did which. But also a BABY HOSTAGE???

1- um so Izuku, lonely child he is, turns to the internet to game and socialize. He enjoys Herocraft, which is like Minecraft but with hero product placement and uh you can activate certain quirks in villagers by giving them the right item, which will recruit them for you.

2- Izuku is very careful to not give out identifying information in public streams. Because he's a good kid who listened to the internet safety rules. There's another guy on the server who is just as cautious, though Izuku has no idea that HandHeldConsoul has a very different reason for him to do so.

3- the server in question is kind of set up for large group games, usually two teams against each other in a scavenger hunt, build quest, or more specific modded game. Izuku and HandHeldConsoul are usually on the opposite teams, but once there was a game about randomly drawn partnerships and they were a team who did pretty well for arguing half the time.

4- due to being so cautious, neither suspects each other's identity. Izuku mentioned a school entrance exam but Shigaraki assumed it was for college, thinking Izuku is younger than him but not by as much, and Izuku thinking Shigaraki is like ten, fifteen years older than he actually is to have the time to play when he does. This changes at the mall, when Izuku is trying to explain Stain to Shigaraki and uses a Herocraft metaphor - the same one that had been used in the server a few weeks back. Shigaraki is like "wait are you on that server?" Izuku is like "wait you are too?? WAIT DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE HANDHC" and Shigaraki threatens to kill him there if he doesn't say who he is- wait, no, of course he's SmallMight715. The two leave with a threat of mutually assured Herocraft violence preventing any real life such.

5- Izuku does not dox Shigaraki to the server, and vice versa, though Shigaraki does try to irritate Izuku even more than before now. The others wonder what's up with that but suspect nothing. Izuku just takes it without complaint or firing back, because he's planning something bigger. He didn't expect to have to use it so soon, but when Bakugou gets kidnapped Izuku activates the plan, which is half holding his Herocraft home, goods, and allies hostage and half threat to release info on him. The rest of the server is unaware of what's going on, the admins can't help him, and so Shigaraki angrily sends Bakugou back- an excuse to AfO that "he wasn't going to join anyway, but now the heroes will really distrust him"- and Izuku releases everything for now... Then starts preparing to keep his own things safe from Shigaraki's retribution.

[nerdallwritey]

end of the year asks!

9, 10, 14, 17!

WOOHOO!!!!!

Questions found here.

9. Best month for you this year?

Lol I'm glad you guys are so interesting in my favorite month! I answered here, but November was my fave this year!

10. Something that made you cry this year?

What the hell, are you trying to show everybody how sensitive I am or something?? (Kidding!) - I'm trying to think of something joyful that may have made me cry........ movies for sure make me cry - I cried most recently at Wicked, I think. What else............I said it in a previous post but I have the memory of a goldfish so I'm having trouble remembering any cries that weren't from the last few weeks 😅 OH! Here's an anecdote where I laughed really hard (maybe it made me cry? Can't remember, but I know it made me laugh SO hard) - I was playing Fortnite with my sister and @kermitwazowski, and we were playing music together, and we were so caught up in the moment that none of us noticed when a car pulled up and started shooting at us 😂 I'd post a video of it, but I don't want to dox usernames. But please trust me, it was so funny and we were screaming absolute bloody murder 😂

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Ah, I was going through my goodreads earlier and Khy, you know most of my year has been spent reading the dreaded Throne of Glass series, but I DID enjoy Bride by Ali Hazelwood. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but unfortunately I'm VERY into fated mates and protectiveness and all that jazz and WHOOPS! I had a blast reading this one. It wasn't a huge thinker, it was just hot and sweet and romantic which was exactly what I needed at the time. Here's the description via goodreads:

Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again... Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was…. Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.

17. Post a picture from the end of the year

Here's a silly one: for my birthday, my roommate got me an adorable little Astarion plush that I've been carrying with me throughout our apartment for a few weeks now. I also have an Astarion scented candle from Etsy and I was like......... "And well, what if Astarion smelled like Astarion?" SO for the past few days, I've been putting my little Astarion in a pot with the open candle (which I refuse to burn) and making him smell like Astarion 😂 It wears off after a few hours, but I felt like an absolute GENIUS when I did it the first time. Nobody tell my roommate why I've had our big pot out for the past few days............

[doubleddenden]

Honestly I really hate when people say there's something reasonably wrong with a Pokémon game and then bring up sales numbers, and then specifically bashes gen 5 for not selling "well"

An essay I guess

First off the gen 5 games sold pretty well for games in general, just not that well for a Pokémon game and certainly not by today's standards with a wider and accessible audience.

Second, there's a multitude of reasons gen 5 didn't sell as well but still are praised by millions. One of which is why we now have near simultaneous world launches.

ROMs.

It's actually pretty easy to run ROMs, so easy in fact that western side fans were playing new Pokémon games the week of release in Japan. This goes back as far as Platinum, but was getting better as of HGSS. People were (and still are) happy just spamming A, so the language difference didn't matter- even so, fans were translating the games faster than TPC was localizing them. Popular mods was something like a basic battle translation- just translating the names, types, and descriptions of moves and abilities. Given time, and especially by the time BW would release, fans also made translation mods for the games' plots, usually a couple of months before it hit stores.

So with all of this in mind, do you think it's just a coincidence that sales shot up when XY released world wide at the same time?

Of course I realize that's not the only issue. Nah, see BW released at a pretty low point for fans.

I don't think it's unreasonable to say most people who play the games have been fans since they were kids- at the time for gen 5, this was definitely still the case, as most fans of the franchise were in high school at the time, assuming they got into the games when they were 5 or so around gen 1 or 2. There was definitely a handful of fans picking up the games for the first time with gen 3 and 4, usually around the ages of 5 to 7 as well, but the main audience at the time was a little older- hence why the games started getting more complex plots and themes, and the characters for BW reflecting that by being older than usual as well.

Maybe it was just me, but by middle school everyone was beating me up and making fun of me for the SLIGHTEST thing, let alone high school. It wasn't cool to like pokemon at the time- shocker when you compare it to 2016 when people were breaking into yards and government properties and shit for a Cubone in PoGo. High school was the era everyone was trying so hard to fit in and seem more grown up than they actually were, still is from what I'm hearing.

Not to mention, pokemon fans at the time did not defend every little thing Game Freak did like they do today. These days they could sell a Switch game that's just a JPEG image of Pikachu, charge it for $70, and a good chunk of fans will defend it and call it art, and it would sell for millions. Not everyone, obviously, but people who speak out against it would get screamed at by defenders. Hell you still can't point out the very obvious, GLARING issues with the Switch games from a technical and consumer standpoint, let alone point out the bad corporate politics, without some twitter user screaming at you until they're red in the face.

That's actually a pretty common fandom thing these days- even Sonic the Hedgehog has people defending it now, and that fandom was putrid toxic before the movie. You gotta understand, people would get doxxed on forums for saying they liked SA2 and not Sonic 3 & Knuckles. It was bad. Really bad. Compare this to your average pokemon fan, and pokemon is actually pretty lovely.

Back in 2010, this defensive fandom behavior was not the case at all. Teens and early 20 somethings were much more cynical and edgy- this includes pokemon fans. 1 garbage and ice cream pokemon was all it took to make it a laughing stock- completely ignoring worse pokemon like Mr Mime and Jinx from when they were kids. Adults too hopped in on this, and genwunners ESPECIALLY hounded it to hell and back. Not to mention normal people thinking you're weird or outright being hostile and antagonistic towards you if you hinted at liking it.

In short, being a pokemon fan just wasn't IN at the time. This, despite there being a ton of effort to write a more complex plot and include an entire region of some pretty amazing new designs like Samurott, Haxorus, Gigalith, Krookodile, Whimsicott, Braviary, Carracosta, etc.

So of course when X and Y dropped, they began what is now a DECADE of nostalgic Kanto pandering to bring back old fans. Charizard got TWO new megas, and one was black and cool and had blue flames, and Mewtwo got 2 new Megas and one looked like goddamn Frieza. You got Kalos starters, sure, but you'd get Kanto starters after your first badge. Your first encounter was a Pidgey, Santalune Forest was just a shorter 3d Viridian forest- it was very clear who they were pandering to. Whether it was vindication for the petty genwunner that refused to play a game without Pikachu, or it was that jock that saw Blastoise getting a Mega and remembered loving his pokemon cards as a kid, the strategy worked and the momentum would carry further with GO in 2016. Not to mention the games were extremely easy, even without EXP share, so the person that couldn't understand why fire isn't killing this water type could just win via bigger numbers.

The prime chunk of audience at the time would be in college or older at the time, too. Unlike high school and middle school, suddenly it was cool to have interests outside of your stereotypical high school party movie. I mean, it was still prime time for alcohol and trying/failing to get laid, but now your friends had 3ds's and a shiny Machamp they want to show you. Yeah you could go to parties, but you could also freely participate in dorm wide pokemon tournaments and people would excitedly gather to watch, fan or not. Hell, they'd combine the two sometimes by having pokemon battles and beer related stakes. Hell, your college professor might even have a Pokémon day for fun.

Plus, there was the whole novelty that Pokémon on a handheld was ***THREE DEE OOOOOOO~~~~***

College in general was just a time for people to realize that life is way too shitty to try to constantly keep up a fake adult aura. Shit, it was not out of the ordinary to have dorm watch parties from anything including Naruto, The Walking Dead, and Pokémon movies. It was cool to actually like things again!

Now. All of this in mind- plus keeping in mind that they would have a SIMULTANEOUS world wide release on the exact same day- keeping further in mind that it's harder to emulate a 3ds or Switch game that it is a DS game.

THAT'S why gen 5 sold "poorly" in comparison to other gens. Tldr: roms and the target audience thinking pokemon wasn't cool at the time.

In comparison today, it's way more popular due to the novelty of the Switch anyway which not only has the casual Smash Bros, but a god damn dragon's hoard of amazing originals like BoTW or Mario Odyssey, and amazing ports like The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption- basically people would usually buy a ds or 3ds for Pokemon- MAYBE Kingdom Hearts or Mario, but now people are buying it for Donkey Kong, CoD, FIFA, etc, so you have a wider audience that might consider buying it as well.

This, and the outright milking of nostalgia. The average fan is a working adult now, not having to beg their parents to buy a system or game for them- not to mention we're now in an era where pokemon fans RAISE pokemon fans. Whether it's the guy that had cards as a kid thinking it's a good idea to have his 5 year old play Blue for their first game (in this day and age? Not really, but go off), or a mega fan getting the current game for their kid, that's the fandom right now, which guarantees more sales. Add in more influencers from Twitch and YouTube and throw in sponsorships to Vtubers or a standard streamer or animator- it is everywhere right now. Hell, I'd argue it's even more popular with adults than kids these days. It really isn't unreasonable to invite friends over for a movie night in your apartment and whip out pokemon to 1v1 one of them.

The games practically sell themselves now. You never really see a TV ad for pokemon, the majority of marketing is now by fans for fans online or in person.

Compare this to 2010, social media is still pretty young, smart phones are barely a thing, looking things up online wasn't as easy as reaching in your pocket, and again, cynical teens and adults think pokemon is uncool, and being seen with a DS could ruin your reputation.

And I'm already prepared for the eventual Unova revisits not selling as well as whatever new gen came out at the time- enhanced versions and remakes hardly ever sell as well as new gen pokemon games. But I think people will be very surprised by how well it actually does in this day and age sales wise.

Unova as a whole was just a wrong place and wrong time scenario. If it released today instead, it would have been praised for it's storyntelling, characters, pokedex, locations, hell even the mc designs.

Sales numbers do not denote whether something is good or not. Most Marvel fans agree Endgame sucked ass, but it sold pretty well. Most people will agree the Gamecube was cool, but it sold poorly. Boycotting doesn't work for Pokemon either because it's too big to fail, and people will literally buy multiples of each game for some reason or another. SwSh sold the best out of the franchise, but that doesn't excuse its piss poor story, empty wild area, annoying characters, and poor route design. Scarlet and Violet have a great story and are pretty fun, and are selling very, VERY well, but that doesn't mean it's not the poorest performing pokemon game on any system when there's hundreds of glitches and poor visuals that hamper enjoyment for a lot of people.

Anyway that's my piece

[sleepymccoy]

Since this post is the only thing in my activity feed right now, I thought I'd draw a (slightly abstracted so I don't fully dox myself) little map of all the libraries I can get to without having to think about where to go!

The city has quite a few libraries, I expect if I walked around a bit I'd find three more lol.

The one near my home is like a ten min walk.The tram line is the line I grew up near, so I know it fairly well. The further library is my childhood one, and the one in the middle of the tram line I know I can see when we pass it, although I've never been in. So I'd be able to get off in time

The train line, I've lived in two other suburbs along and have worked along, so I know the areas well. The tram line going south off the train I went to uni there for a year and spent a lot of time poking around the streets so I can find the libraries. The other place I went to uni I don't know the libraries

The bus is just a fluke that I happen to know that suburb's library (it's by the beach) and that bus goes everywhere. If I caught it and paid attention I'm sure I'd see a dozen, but I'm not counting that for this poll. Only places I know!

And the city has so many. State library of course, and I went to the top one in the city just last week. The bottom one I've been in before but I only know it's location vaguely, so it'd take some walking around. However, it's a touristy area and it's signposted. The middle left one is the court library, which I happen to know is public access

So that's thirteen I'm extremely confident about. I'm new to driving lol so I wouldn't use my car for any of it, way easier to navigate by train and tram, they definitely go where they say theyre going to go

If I wanted to max out my library number tho, I know how to get onto the main highways out of town. Just hit the highway and pull off in every small town and find the main strip and then the library! But while I know that'd work, I don't actually know those libraries so I'm not counting it. Also didn't count uni libraries because I don't have a uni card right now, so I couldn't get in. These are all public libraries

Also to mutuals and followed and so on, if you're trying to get in touch for any reason my activity is buggered right now. I posted this last night and it's got thousands of reblogs all saying something in the tags, I can't update my feed fast enough. Please DM me if there's anything you'd usually tag or mention me in ❤️

You can use any travel method you like, walking, public transport, so on. You can get an uber but their map has failed so you'll have to give directions. You can travel to other countries and count those libraries but you have to be able to completely navigate from your home without assistance. So you can catch a plane but must be able to travel to and from the airport. No limit on how long it takes. If you know which block it's on or which tram line but aren't sure precisely, but you feel sure you'd find it once you got there, count that as a yes (if you're not sure maybe google it now and see if your plan would work). You cannot rely on asking for directions though, this must be all your knowledge

[doberbutts]

It's also incredibly annoying because the problem is, from the perspective of someone who exclusively wants a fully natural dog and has always sought one out and has only been able to accomplish this by getting imports, that even the very request for a natural dog is seen as a challenge to the cropped and docked status quo.

I have had people harass me, spread rumors about me, put me on block lists, call me an animal abuser, accuse me of neglect, even dox me and contact my dogs' breeders over the fact that I have owned two dobermans who were cropped and docked. This is besides the fact that Skoll was an adult rescue whose ears and tail were already done by the time he landed in the court system and on his way to my house, and Creed was done at 6 weeks by his breeder long before I ever knew he existed and she wouldn't have given me the choice regardless. No, I had cropped and docked dogs, so it was proof enough of abuse.

Phoebe was from Sweden. While I'm not the one who imported her, the fact that she was imported was the reason for her to be natural. Fenris is from Canada. The Canadian standard allows for ears and tails (good luck showing that way but it is, at least, permitted).

Here? There's a small handful of people who will allow you to take home a fully natural dog, and I also am uninterested in buying from 90% of them due to other things I've seen with either their dogs or their ethics. Of the 7 or 8 I know, I would feel comfortable buying from 1, maybe 2, of them.

Otherwise it is largely seen as offensive to many doberman breeders to ask for the ears, let alone the tail. Considered breaking rank, to betray the breed in a way that ultimately matters very little in the true worth of the dog. Tell me genetically what difference it makes in my dog's working ability or his structure on whether or not I remove his ears and tail well after birth. If my dog is good enough to win trophies then he is good enough with or without the damn tail and the perfectest ears.

So now the breed is stuck. If you want to show, you only have so much longer to work your dog before it becomes impossible for you to do so outside of maybe PSA and American Schutzhund and whatever this new Shark Bite thing is (which are not sanctioned by FCI but are their own thing) (French ring also is its own thing but France also doesn't do the cropped/docked so 🤪) (Belgian ring doesn't exist in the US and KNPV isn't a sport and refuses to open to those who want it to be).

Meanwhile anyone who was interested in bridging the gap and merging the breed as a combination of both working and show now more than ever must choose which is actually more important to them, because of this FCI/DV decision looming over our heads. Have a nice dog that shows well and can bite like it should? Hope you have no plans on actually proving the last bit because you already automatically disqualify for worlds and may soon no longer be able to title at all.

And those with dogs they got specifically to work and left natural as a result? Well fuck you if you want to show because the best you'll get is UKC and UDC, both of which constantly derided by the DPCA crowd as being lesser conformation avenues, despite being the only avenues that will even allow our dogs to be judged at least somewhat fairly on something that isn't even the fault of the dog itself.

Making the entire fucking breed hinge on ears and tails as if that's not the most superficial thing to be caring about when the dogs can't work for piss and drop dead at 4 years old.

How is it that I've been in dobermans for 12, nearly 13 years and I'm already on doberman #4? How is it that I can't seem to get them to actually live to old age because they keep dying from some stupid genetic thing? How is it that these breed clubs are more obsessed with the thing that matters THE LEAST while continuing to do absolutely fucking nothing about our horrendous breed health and sky high COI and abysmal average lifespan?

Sure. OK. Fine. Make a hardline stance on how every single doberman needs to be cropped and docked or visa versa or else they're Not Really Dobermans. And then in 10 or 20 years when we don't have dobermans anymore you can say that you kept your stupid moral high ground you think you have while the mortality rate grew and grew until the entire breed was too incompatible with life to exist anymore. Good luck with that.

Obligatory disclaimer if you bring cropping and docking debate to my blog I am flinging you directly into the sun

But this entire passing match between the DPCA and the DV is getting old as hell. And for what? All it does is lead to further detriment to the dogs.

Here is the problem: the AKC will not sanction protection sports, so the breed club (the DPCA) is NOT ALLOWED to host their own protection trials. Which also means that they have to have another club do it, one that works with the FCI (the UDC).

Well the FCI says the parent club in Germany (the DV) adamantly refuses to recognize any cropped and docked dog as a doberman, and so will not reward titles or allow competition in FCI events for any cropped and docked dogs. We've been given a temporary stay on this for dogs who are only competing in the US, meaning a cropped and docked dog that qualifies for worlds is automatically disqualified from competing, but they have been pushing and pushing to make that a reality on American soil as well. It already is the case that IF a World's trial was held in the US, they would not allow any stateside dog that is cropped and docked to compete.

(This also affects Mondioring in the same way btw bc it is also an FCI sport so we're still bound to DV rules, and the DV has already stated that as soon as they get enforcing piwer they are planning to make it so that you have to follow their rules regardless of what your country's laws or breed club's expectations are)

(This is also after Germany told us on no uncertain terms that the doberman breed requires crop and dock and that to do otherwise was a betrayal to the breed... so basically they're mad that we're following the rules they put in place themselves when the breed came to the US)

This would be annoying enough on its own however the DPCA is of the opinion that as the last breed that REQUIRES all dogs of the breed to be cropped and docked with no exceptions, this is the hill they're willing to die on, and so has doubled down and stated that if you want a doberman then it HAS to be cropped and docked with no questions asked and no exceptions given, and has effectively told all of its members to stop allowing buyers to ask for natural ears and tails. What few of them even existed in the first place.

So now the breed is solidly split- if you want to show your dog, it has to be cropped and docked. If you want to work your dog, it can't be. A single decision made largely not even the choice of the person who owns the damn dog and you are locked out of the other side, forever. Or at least, as long as you own that specific dog.

I cannot show Fenris in AKC. Or rather, I can, if I don't mind either getting last and wasting my entry or being dismissed from the ring the second the judge looks at him. Fenris' littermates are all cropped and docked and may be looking at very short IGP and mondio careers if the DV has their way. This has nothing to do with the quality of the dogs. It has everything to do with stupid breed club politics and their refusal to find a compromise because they won't accept anything less than full authority.

What harm would it do to allow cropped and docked dogs to show alongside natural ears and tails? To allow them to compete next to each other? The FCI was doing that for years before the DV decided to have a fit so it's not like it hasn't been done before.