#it's not here it's in some other place but it's relevant

[14dayswithyou]

Some long-term followers may have noticed this subtle shift already (especially those who are in the 14DWY Discord server or have read this post), but I figured I'd make it official.

I'm no longer associating myself with the yandere VN community.

The TLDR is that the energy here really fuckin SUCKS!! And I don't want to be part of something so hostile and needlessly competitive.

The constant infighting and epicaricacy between communities is deeply upsetting, and it's very disheartening to see aspiring developers cancel their projects because of the unwarranted backlash and harassment they face.

Some entitled folks on here reeeeally need to understand that constantly harassing others for updates, encouraging developers to belittle others to make themselves/their project look better, complaining about a project not meeting the expectations you specifically put in place, attacking other communities because of the parasocial relationship you share with another developer, getting mad that you chose to ignore important PSAs or warnings and faced the repercussions, or even sending in hate messages on anon because you're bored are not things you should be doing — let alone be proud of.

I try to avoid bringing up these topics as it's not the vibe I want to have on this blog (nor do I want to negatively contribute to the Streisand Effect and blow things out of proportion), but I'm genuinely getting tired of being on the receiving end of all this harassment and negativity, seeing it happen to others, and watching other indie developers encourage such vile behaviour. I'm done.

For those wondering what this means for "14 Days With You": for the most part, everything will still continue like usual. I've said this from the very beginning, but 14DWY is just a passion project I pursue whenever I feel like it. It's something I do for fun as a hobby — not because I want to publish a well-known game or turn it into a career. I've been on Tumblr for over thirteen years now, and it's taught me how to grow thick skin, so everything that I'm yapping and yammering about won't stop me from working on 14DWY.

However, this does mean that I won't be as interactive with other developers or their communities anymore; many ill-natured people have ruined this for me.

Because of them, I'm no longer able to voice my opinion on other games without some opinionated rat whispering in my ear about how the developer is "problematic" or that I could get cancelled for simply following them on Twitter. I can't interact with certain games without its parasocial community becoming hostile or gatekeepy towards anyone they don't like. I've seen communities belittle and devalue promising demos because in their eyes, nothing can compare to their favourite game (or their favourite developer). I have been harassed, bullied, and doxxed by other communities and have seen the same thing happen to others as well. I've heard about the developers who weaponise their community's loyalty to attack and drive out their competition. And I've witnessed more than enough developers expressing how badly they want to take a hiatus due to how much unwarranted negativity they receive, but don't want to disappoint their community by doing so.

By saying all of this, you can understand why I dislike being here so much, as well as why I no longer find any enjoyment in interacting with the yandere VN community.

Many people here — fans and developers alike — are so needlessly pushy about their standards and personal opinions being the norm, and if anyone else goes against them, they'll purposefully try to ostracise and bully them out of the community. This place isn't as laid-back or inclusive as it used to be, and I don't want to be associated with a community that acts so hostile and aggressive towards anyone who shares a differing opinion — nor do I want to be part of a space that caters towards developers who'll tear down others in order to have a moment of relevancy.

We're all doing our own thing and making our own games; it shouldn't be a competition. But if you see it as such, then I urge you to take a moment to stop and rethink your actions — or, at the very least, understand how it's affecting you and others around you.

So until there's a reasonable change and people can go back to being less... demanding, hypercritical, and gatekeepy about who interacts with what, I'll be stepping away and continuing to stay in my own bubble, as I have for the past two years now. I've already unfollowed everyone associated with the yandere community many months ago, but I think I'll just unfollow everyone entirely now for my own peace of mind. I will also no longer be interacting with any yandere VN communities (aside from close friends), nor will I be as public with my interests from this moment on. Everything on this blog will be strictly related to 14DWY like usual, and I will continue to block and report any spiteful "anons"/burner accounts sent my way and delete their messages.

Again, this isn't really much of an announcement — it's more so just paragraphs of me bitchin and moanin 🫶 — but I wanted to get this all out there instead of leaving things unsaid and having people come to their own conclusions as to why I've suddenly become less active, less optimistic, and why I've stopped engaging with a majority of the yandere community in the last two years.

So, yeah... ^^; If there's anything I want y'all to take away from this entire post, it's to be kind, open, and understanding towards everyone — developers and communities alike — and to spread support rather than negativity. It's what I want my own community to be known for, so please be mindful of how you treat others online.

And if you find yourself being surrounded by constant toxicity and negativity (be it from friends, mutuals, or even other developers or communities), please don't feel ashamed to step away or cut them off entirely. Put yourself and your mental health first. I also think it'll be good for me to leave all this negative energy behind and continue to kick off 2025 in a better light, so if y'all need to let out any frustrations of your own, feel free to go ham in the replies (obviously, be kind and civil though jghsjg T_T)

[persisting]

“at some point” is literally the dawn of human history. i’ve gone absolutely wild on here before about shanidar 1, but now more than ever it seems relevant.

shanidar 1 is a set of neanderthal remains found in shanidar cave in northern iraq. this individual was likely in his very late 30s to his mid 40s, which was elderly for a neanderthal. discovered in 1953, the cave appears to have been a burial location. shanidar 1 was apparently interred here along with several other individuals.

what makes him unique, however, is that he has clear evidence of significant injury and disability. he had only one arm (we’re not sure if it was amputated deliberately, but if it was, it’s the earliest example of medical amputation we have) he was likely profoundly deaf, and he would have walked with a significant limp. all of these factors would have likely made him unable to participate in the kind of daily life labor that neanderthals engaged in to survive.

however, we can tell several things: several of his significant injuries show advanced healing. he had a degenerative bone disease that would have taken time to advance. this man likely spent his life disabled, and not likely able to care for himself. and yet, he lived to an extremely elderly age, and was buried with care in a sheltered place.

his people healed him, cared for his injuries, and even when it would have been apparent he was unable to meaningfully contribute to day to day survival work, he was still cared for. he was fed, sheltered. he died an old man, only because his people took care of him.

we have always cared for our weak, our disabled, our elderly. we have always sheltered strangers, and tended the wounded. we have always buried our kind with respect. we have never been inherently selfish, and shanidar 1 is unmistakably proof of that.

“Humans are inherently selfish--" Then why do so many cultures value hospitality, to the point of dictating it in their religions? Why is it so common for hosts to offer their visitors their best food, and as much of it as they can? At some point, multiple cultures decided that they knew what it felt like to be alone and vulnerable, and promised each other to never let those who stay with them feel that way. That doesn't sound very "inherently selfish" to me.

[relicsongmel]

Iris, Miles, and their mutual "secret"

The Ace Attorney fandom is no stranger to discussions of homoerotic subtext in the game's script—pretty much everyone who's spent more than five seconds here will be able to tell you that. Screenshots of lines that imply romantic tension between same-gender characters are all over the place, to the point that many fans are drawn to the series purely by its reputation as "the gay lawyer game." Some scenes are more well-known than others, but one I find brought up fairly regularly is this conversation between Miles and Iris:

This is optional dialogue that can be triggered by presenting incorrect evidence on Iris' Psyche-Lock during the Investigation portion of Bridge to the Turnabout. The argument here is that the "secret" Iris is referring to is the same as her own: that being, a romantic interest in Phoenix Wright. Which is definitely hilarious when you consider that Iris has known Miles for less than a day and she's already reading him for filth (granted, she could have been clued in by the similarly infamous "indispensable friend" line, and she's also exceptionally good at reading people despite Miles thinking otherwise). As a Narumitsu shipper myself I am not immune to enjoying that interpretation; however, I feel like there's a lot of nuance in this scene that isn't often addressed by the fandom at large. Which is unfortunate because watering it down to just Iris calling out Miles for being the gayass he is (to be fair. she's not wrong) does a MASSIVE disservice to both of their characters, and I'll explain why.

My bone to pick with the usual analysis of this scene is mostly centered around the larger conversation to be had regarding the treatment of female characters in fandom spaces. All too often they tend to play second fiddle to the male characters, and a similar principle holds true for ships with their canonical male love interests: mostly ignored in favor of the the more popular M/M ship(s). At best these women are sidelined, at worse they are flattened into wingmen for the boys (as is frequently the case with many AA girls and Narumitsu, Iris included), and at the absolute worst they are demonized for their perceived "competition" with whatever gay ship is most popular and therefore the Only Valid One for the male characters involved (as exemplified by some very "passionate" fans that I generally try to avoid interacting with). Whenever this scene gets brought up, the focus is almost always exclusively on Miles and what the interaction says about his relationship with Phoenix; Iris is only relevant insofar as she's the one initiating Miles' Homosexual Moment™—you could replace her with almost any other character and there'd be a similar level of neglect for their role in the interaction. Only very rarely will you see attention given to what Iris' question about Miles' secret means when she is the one asking it, and what it can tell us about her relationship with Miles/what she thinks of him, and vice versa (absolutely wild how even Miles himself is often flanderized despite being the fandom's golden child). It's all too characteristic of the systemic misogyny that has plagued fandom since its inception, which is deeply frustrating to me as someone who adores Iris as much as I do (if that wasn't obvious by now). So that said, let's dive deeper into what I think the missing link is here: namely, the Iris-Miles dynamic as it pertains to their relation to Phoenix.

Iris and Miles is one of my favorite relationships to explore in the whole series—but as I've described above, unfortunately a lot of people get it wrong in my opinion. Discussion about the two is frequently centered around Narumitsu Love Drama—which is a conversation worth having, don't get me wrong—but the elements at play there aren't always represented the way I envision them, which again, is frustrating. Take the idea of potential jealousy, for instance: it's pretty standard love triangle fare that can be (and often is) quickly turned into demonization when it's used in a shipping context, character assassination be damned (re: Narumitsu fanfic authors that project their personal dislike of Feenris onto Miles via his jealousy of Iris and/or how they tend to portray Iris unfavorably). However, it's not inherently a bad thing to explore: personally, I do believe that there is mutual jealousy between the two of them. Miles might not have the full context of Iris' history when this conversation takes place, but he's emotionally intelligent enough to pick up on what Iris means to Phoenix, and vice versa. And him being a jealous hoe about it isn't out of the question when you consider that he's a bit of a loner by nature and doesn't have many close friends or outlets for socialization outside of his job. The crucial element that's sometimes missed, though, is that Miles not only lacks the self-awareness to realize he's a jealous hoe...he's also a self-sabotaging jealous hoe.

And the same can be said for Iris, who is similarly introverted and doesn't often leave her home at Hazakura Temple.

The whole reason Miles is peering into Iris' heart in the first place can be found in this exchange, after he breaks her Psyche-Lock:

Miles uses the Magatama in order to gain the answers he needs to bring the truth to light and get Iris acquitted, and he does so for the express purpose of reuniting her with Phoenix so they can find closure—in fact, he reiterates this to her multiple times. He obviously recognizes how Phoenix is suffering from what happened between them (I'd argue he sympathizes with Iris' plight as well) and has resolved to do what he can to help him heal, but there's no reason for him to be so insistent that she rectify things with Phoenix when it does nothing but harm his own chances with him. Unless, of course...that's the whole point.

To convince Iris to reveal her secret so he doesn't have to face his own, because he thinks himself undeserving.

And Iris, noticing this because she empathizes with that feeling of unworthiness, calls him out on it in an almost uncharacteristically forward manner when she asks him what he's hiding.

Takes one to know one, indeed.

Iris highly respects Miles for taking on her defense despite the risk to his job as a prosecutor. She's willing to trust him after hearing he's a friend of Phoenix, hearing him out and letting him reason with her. She still keeps her cards close to her chest in some regards, but she's more honest with him than she's been with anyone else in her life apart from her sister. She sees his commitment to the truth and how it starkly contrasts with how she's lived her life to this point, and thinks that this is the type of partner Phoenix deserves—not someone like her, who only knows how to survive using lies and deception. She sees so much strength in him but still recognizes the insecurity lurking beneath his tenacity, which is why when he falters in his logic, she takes a leap of faith and gives him one last chance to examine his reasons for pushing the burden of his unspoken affections onto her, as if to say: "Look in the mirror. Is this really for me? Or is it for you? Do you really seek the truth for its own sake, or do you merely hope to find one truth so you might run from another?"

Her question to Miles is a gamble—a coin flip of self-sacrifice. If she loses and he presses on, she has to face the secret within her heart she's been suppressing for five years. But if she wins and he gives in to the truth in his, she has to live the rest of her life watching it unfold and knowing she threw away her chance to finally stop living in fear of her own love.

Either way, there's no escaping heartache for her anymore.

Miles and Iris both want what's best for Phoenix and prioritize their vision of his feelings over their own. However, they are also both deeply emotionally repressed people who find difficulty in being direct with their feelings, and are predisposed to self-sabotage due to childhood trauma. These tendencies may manifest in different ways for both of them, but the fact remains that such people would likely not compete for a person's affection in the traditional sense, which is exactly what we see with how Iris and Miles deflect their feelings for Phoenix. These selfless, lovestruck idiots toss that man around like a game of hot-potato because their mutual self-hatred for the ways they've harmed him has rendered them terrified of the reality of what he means to them, and desperate to find a way out of admitting to it. It's the most compelling explanation I can think of for why the usually unassuming Iris makes such a bold judgment about what Miles might be keeping locked away, and why Miles goes to such lengths to make sure she talks to Phoenix and tells him the truth��his agreement to defend her was conditional on that exact promise. They go through this whole song-and-dance of playing wingman to ignore their own feelings while still trying to bring Phoenix the happiness they think he deserves—and then they wonder why seeing Phoenix give the other one attention burns them up inside.

Because they’re dumb. And I love them.

TL;DR the Iris Psyche-Lock scene in BttT is so much more than just "haha Miles gay" and I wish people talked about it more. Also Iris and Miles are way more similar than they appear at first glance and if I think about it for too long it makes me physically ill thank you for coming to my TED talk

[hypersaline]

NPC and Townie Ager

This is a tombstone found in misc/misc that helps keep townies'/NPCs' ages in sync with playables' during rotational play. It ages them by one day each time the relevant pie menu option is clicked (or each day at 23:30 if auto-aging is turned on) and teleports them to the lot for birthdays and old age deaths. It requires HB's Easy Inventory Check and can be downloaded here at SFS or here at Mediafire. There's no preview image for this, but exhaustive detail is available behind the cut.

Credits:

The change-model interaction was mostly taken from Inge's teleporter cat; it's possible-to-probable that I cannibalized other mods as well when I first made this, but if so I no longer know which ones.

General notes:

There's a shift-click neighborhood age randomization option. It will only affect townies/NPCs at the beginning of their current lifestage, so use it first thing if you're going to use it.

For birthdays/old age deaths, the sim will materialize close to the ager object, so it's best placed outdoors and outside of any locked gates. There's an option to change it into a small rug for easier hiding.

NPCs will be retired to the townie pool when they have a birthday.

Teens will age into adults, but there'll be a one-day-left notification in case you'd like to send them to uni.

Elders will stand quietly near the ager for up to an hour before dying. Everyone on the lot will notice, like with other on-lot deaths, and you'll have to deal with tombstones manually.

The object doesn't alter the birthday/death functions and shouldn't conflict with mods that do. You'll still need the usual bugfixes, particularly for nonplayable children's aspirations and for multiple deaths occurring at once.

There's a shift-click menu option that'll automatically make townies/NPCs grow up well; another will make them grow up well and also make their deaths peaceful. Sims that trigger a fear as they're aging (like teens who don't go to college) might still age up badly.

Known issue: the object's handling of elders has a bug or two I haven't tracked down. Occasionally an elder will persistently refuse to die until you move them in; occasionally an elder will have their age reset when they're supposed to die. Neither should cause any other issues.

Known issue: under some circumstances the ager will mistakenly grow townies/NPCs up one day into a new lifestage. Saving the game right after the ager does its thing will prevent this.

Exceptions to aging:

YAs, pets, zombies, vampires, servos, any townie/NPC with a bottle of Elixir of Life in inventory, and (in some cases) townies/NPCs that've been generated but haven't visited any lot yet won't be aged.

Babies in the adoption pool will have days subtracted but won't automatically have birthdays. You'll be notified but will have to manually summon and toss them.

Special townies like downtownies, garden clubbers, etc., will age if otherwise eligible. Note that there are (were?) bugs in how the game generates vacation locals and tourists; if yours die off, you might want to make their replacements yourself.

Not all NPCs will age, and the list of those that will is somewhat arbitrary: burglars, cops, firefighters, maids, nannies, gardeners, repairpeople, mail carriers, paperkids, cashiers, bartenders (comm lot), bartenders (party), professors, streakers, coaches, cafeteria workers, servers, hosts, DJs, business reporters, landlords, butlers.

To add NPCs I skipped, open up the 'Sub - Ageable NPC?' BHAV, scroll to the last line, choose "Ins/false" in the special buttons, switch "Const" to "Literal", make sure the Decimal box is not ticked, and enter the NPC type number from this list.

[elbiotipo]

This is from one of my worldbuilding posts in response at the bias of temperate climates being considered the "default" in fantasy and fiction in general (so these are tags in response to tags in another post but try to keep up)

This is very true, and as someone from a subtropical region who has never truly seen snow, to me the danger that cold weather represents is, let's use the word, "exotic" when I read into writing. Things do get cold here, but the fact that there are entire months where things get cold enough that nothing grows and staying outside can outright kill you is not something I would get used to easily.

This is ESPECIALLY relevant when you're doing worldbuilding on pre-industrial societies. Nowadays we can go to the store in the deep of winter, but when most of the population is composed of subsistence farmers, the above dangers are more than fatal. In temperate regions, a great deal of effort in daily life was spent into getting ready for the winter; storing harvested crops and meat in one way or the other until the spring. A harsh winter or a bad harvest could and did mean people just starved to death.

In tropical and subtropical regions, you don't usually get a season where nothing grows. Actually, you do, most have a rainy and a dry season of some sort (in my region, you do get a relatively strong winter, but the main difference is rainy/dry), so the pace of life is regulated by rain, and there's also a greater diversity of crops (see for example the milpa/three sisters system of the Americas, still used today). It doesn't necessarily mean that tropical and subtropical regions had better food all the time, since they also faced the same challenges of dealing with bad harvests, droughts, and more (DROUGHTS, especially, are the kind of civilization-ending event), but they did sustain overall high population densities and extensive systems of irrigation. I'll admit I read this long ago and don't know where to look at it, but a good comparison would be the higher density of villages and small plots in rice-producing regions compared to those in more temperate places. The Americas were completely disrupted by European colonization so it's hard to make sweeping statements about them but if we believe 1491's research (there are some points in dispute there), they had very, very high population densities, and partly this must be because of year-round cultivation of a great variety of tropical and subtropical crops.

Indeed, cold places far away from fishing, for example, often had low populations because there simply wasn't enough reliable crops to support them. Until the widespread adoption of a calorie rich crop that can tolerate cold conditions. Can you guess which it is?

[sad-wet-cat-hannibal]

(Essay incoming so I'm adding a read more)

I think you've said some good stuff here, and I too get annoyed or even angered by people using the term in a way that I interpret as flippant; but I'd like to add that as someone who frequently described distressing books and films as "traumatising", it turned out that that word was rather apt - because my intense response was caused by my trauma being triggered by those very same things, too often in ways that felt like reliving it.

Here's the kicker. I didn't know I *had* any trauma. All I knew was that engaging with these works made me feel distressed and disturbed as if I were personally traumatised by these things. Like they were real. Like they damaged me. Just from reading them or seeing them. They'd haunt me for weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years. Sometimes they gave me weird symptoms I couldn't explain. So, naturally, I was hyper-avoidant as fuck.

That intense sensitivity and hyper-avoidance, combined with my ignorance to the fact that my psyche was not experiencing these things from an untraumatised position, meant I thought that "intensely distressing/traumatising" was just the normal effect these things had - except lots of other people seemed oblivious, and even delighted in the exact same works. Sometimes none more so than the kind of motherfuckers who actually like traumatising people.

So I figured, as incomprehensible as it seemed, everyone else had to be either too numbed out/oblivious/naïve to realise how awful this shit was, or were actually big fans of bad things happening in real life.

Because if to me it felt too real, capable of destroying my peace of mind for weeks, then surely to some extent that must be the same for everyone else, right? (Obviously not, but I was younger and working with what limited knowledge I had.) From that logic it's really easy to buy into censorship, into propaganda that claims that the symptoms of a society with a dysfunctional approach to life are often born of the media that echoes them, rather than the other way round. It's real to you. It's your only explanation. (You don't want to feel like this. You don't want anyone to feel like this. It's inhumane.)

What I'm trying to say is that not everyone knows they're traumatised. I think as many as those who do, do not. Perhaps far more. And for those people, the only time they are able to touch on the truth of their half-veiled iceberg is when they tell you that The Bridge to Terabithia "traumatised" them.

(I know it "did" me.)

Telling them they're exaggerating, and misusing language that doesn't apply to them runs the very real risk of making it harder for them to treat their feelings with the consideration and weight they deserve, and enabling them to begin the process of unraveling their denial and tending their wounds. It runs the risk of reinforcing the (potentially forgotten or minimised) messaging they may have already received, during and after the trauma, that it doesn't matter. They're exaggerating. They're making things up. Other people have trauma, other people have it so much worse, other people suffer - but not you. Your account of your experience is unbelievable. Silly. You will not be seen or heard or understood, not by anyone else, and not by yourself...

Yet. Hopefully one day. But I think it often takes other people being willing to shine a light on the pain, and say, "Yeah, it's real. It's caused by things. You aren't alone and you aren't exaggerating."

I think the flippant watering down of the word is potentially very unhelpful too, but there's a section of society who want to push the narrative that the vast majority of people speaking seriously and from a place of relevant psycho-education about their trauma are just special snowflakes jumping on a trend. Maybe I shouldn't, but I feel wary of adding fuel to their fire by trying to gatekeep trauma. I don't know what the solution to these two conflicting uses of the word is, or if it's even possible to create a solution that doesn't simultaneously police the traumatised out of expressing their pain the only way they currently know how. Which would set back the whole thing of trying to help people... We get enough trauma olympics ingrained into everyone as it is.

Oh yeah!! Just remembered, Gabor Mate said in either his book from 2024 or an interview about it that he considers everyone to be traumatised, the question is simply one of degree (if I'm remembering correctly). So from that it may in fact be possible to argue that books and films can traumatise people, although perhaps not necessarily to the extent we might associate with PTSD or CPTSD.

I'm wondering if, as a society who cares about vulnerable people, we could stop saying "traumatize" when we truly mean "upset"?

I am sick of hearing sad books or movies "traumatize" their readers. I simply do not believe that happens. A traumatic experience might be adjacent to books (I have vivid memories of books I was reading around certain experiences and even how the contents of those books affected my processing of the experiences). But it's not caused by the book. And, y'know. The weather is Christofascist Censorship Attempts outside.

Meanwhile from the other side I continue to be surprised at just how badly people fail to understand trauma and traumatic experiences in general. Watering down the term isn't helping. Find other hyperbole to express that The Bridge to Terebithia gutted you, chewed on your heartstrings, and made you cry your first pair of contact lenses right out of your preteen eyes.

[higuchisora]

Maddie Nolen always being a Noxian spy COULD'VE made sense if she wasn't also supposed to be a rookie enforcer. Because plenty of countries IRL have sent spies to other countries, even if they weren't planning to go to war with them. The problem was just how quickly she ingratiated herself into foreign law enforcement when they presumably know she's not a native Piltovan. So it would've been way more interesting if she'd been introduced prior to season 2, as a normal person (perhaps a passing acquaintance of Jayce's prior to his apartment blowing up) who maybe moved there for education or some other cover story.

Like, maybe she was supposed to be a student at the same academy Jayce or Caitlyn goes to (idk if they went to the same one), as, like, a transfer student or on education visa or via scholarship etc. So they know she's from Noxus, but since they're not actively hostile and she's not really being suspicious, no one thinks twice about her. Then, maybe she graduates after act 1 and by act 2, she's now living there for "work"/she decided she liked Piltover so much that she wanted to stay. And again, no one thinks about it because, well, Mel Medarda is Noxian, and she's a councilwoman! What reason would they have to be worried?

So by act 2, she's somewhat-friends with Caitlyn, and maybe pretends she's "inspired" by her to join the enforcers. They're not best friends or anything, but Maddie's persona as "Caitlyn fangirl/admirer" leads to everyone- including Caitlyn- to sort of overlook her. After all, she's been here for YEARS and hasn't seemed to do anything. I'd imagine as a trade port, Piltover has a decent amount of immigration every year anyway. I'd think a good chunk of their population are first-generation immigrants, so they don't think twice about Maddie joining the enforcers.

Then by season 2, she's not necessarily "experienced," but she's been on the force about as long as Caitlyn has (and has known her for even longer), so when Caitlyn pulls a dictator, Maddie ends up as primary advisor and first pick on the strike team. It would also make Caitlyn rebounding with her make more sense- they're not super close or anything, but there's a level of trust there already. It could also help mitigate that power imbalance. It's still there, but this time it's more like "being messy and fucking your friend" than a strictly professional line being crossed (because being friends means they're already past professional).

This way, she doesn't have to be super relevant to the plot prior to season 2, but she doesn't feel out of place, either. You might wonder how and why she'd spy for that long without switching sides/going home/etc., but honestly IRL countries have done weirder shit, especially when it comes to spies. Many have years-long missions. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Anyway, that's what I think would've made the "betrayal" REALLY stick the landing. Because it wasn't just "my side piece- who I inexplicably trusted for some reason- SHOT me, can you believe it?!" But rather, "Oh, I did NOT see you coming. Et tu, Brute?"

[mindless-existence1]

Shadow x fem or gn reader thats sonic’s sibling but they don’t mention it until they get together, how would Shadow and Sonic react? Thought this idea was funny (oneshot)

Idk if ur requests are open, but take your time !

I didn't realize I finished this so I was scrolling through my writing app and found it finished and girl I was shocked. Sorry it's gone so long without being posted 😅😅

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~♡~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shadow wasn’t the type to meet many people unless it was absolutely necessary. So when you brought up introducing him to your brother, he raised an eyebrow but didn’t argue, hed do anything if you said it nice enough.

The two of you had yet to start officially dating, you wanted to wait untill he at least knew your family. You spent nearly every day together, and it was clear to anyone with eyes that there was something deeper than friendship between you.

Still, you hadn’t exactly told Shadow everything about yourself. Not because you were hiding anything—far from it—but because, well, some details just never seemed relevant. Like the fact that your brother was none other than Sonic the Hedgehog.

You didn’t think much of it. Shadow never really talked about Sonic, and you didn’t bring him up often either. It wasn’t until you arranged for the two of them to meet at a local café that you realized the glaring oversight in your plan.

---

You arrived first with Shadow, finding a cozy table in the corner of the café. He sat next to you, arms crossed, his usual stoic demeanor firmly in place. “So, your brother,�� Shadow said, glancing at you. “What’s he like?”

You smiled. “Oh, he’s great. Kind of cocky sometimes, but he’s got a good heart. You’ll like him.” Shadow raised an eyebrow at that, but before he could respond, the door jingled, and you turned to see Sonic stroll in, his signature confident grin plastered across his face.

“Hey, there you are!” Sonic called out, making his way over to your table. His eyes flicked to Shadow, and his grin faltered slightly. “Oh. It’s you.” Shadow’s expression darkened immediately. “Of course. It’s you.”

You blinked, looking between the two of them. “Wait... you two know each other?” Sonic chuckled dryly, crossing his arms. “Know each other? Yeah, you could say that. Shadow and I have a bit of... history.”

Shadow scoffed, glaring at Sonic. “History? Is that what we’re calling it now? I’d call it a series of your insufferable antics.”

“Insufferable? Please,” Sonic shot back, smirking. “You’re just mad because I’m better and you're supposed to be "the ultimate lifeform".” Your mouth fell open as the two of them glared at each other, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

“Okay, hold on,” you said, holding up your hands. “I feel like I’m missing something here. How do you two even know each other?” Sonic blinked, glancing at you. “Wait... you’re telling me you never mentioned me to him?”

“I didn’t think it was important!” you said defensively. “Why, exactly, is this such a big deal?” Shadow narrowed his eyes at Sonic. “You didn’t tell me your brother was him.”

“Well, you didn’t tell me you hated my brother!” you shot back, exasperated.Sonic snorted. “Hate’s a strong word. It’s more like... mild irritation.”

“Mutual disdain,” Shadow corrected, his tone dry.You groaned, rubbing your temples. “Okay, look. Can we all just... start over? Shadow, this is my brother, Sonic. Sonic, this is Shadow. He’s... someone very important to me.”

Sonic’s eyebrows shot up, and a sly grin spread across his face. “Oh, very important, huh? Didn’t realize you had a thing for dark and broody hedgehogs.”

“Don’t start,” you warned, shooting him a glare. Shadow, for his part, simply crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. You shush himbefore he can let out the remark you could sense about to come from him, “You two are going to get along if it kills me. Sonic, stop being a smartass. Shadow, stop being... you.”

The two of them exchanged a glance, and for a moment, it seemed like they might actually listen.Then Sonic grinned again. “Fine. But only because I like you more than I dislike him.”

Shadow sighed, his expression softening slightly as he looked at you. “I’ll tolerate this... for you.” You rolled your eyes but couldn’t help the small smile tugging at your lips. It was going to take some time, but you had a feeling that, eventually, these two might just get along—or at least not fight on sight every time they were in the same room.

[rouge-fauna]

I’m sorry I swear I was planning on moving on but then I had a conversation with my friend last night and now I’m triggered again… I don’t mind if people disagree but damn it was really frustrating, for a few reasons, one of them being that even if I’m biased I still think I’m a better source of information and opinion after having watched 12 hours of streams versus some reaction channel videos. Like sure I like Dream and relate to both c and ccDream but I’m not heartless or unreasonable. I’m not saying, ‘oh my poor autistic dweam can do no wrong.’ I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m here for the facts and truth and what it says and what is reasonable based on that. I’ve dropped plenty of other YouTubers for doing messed up things, and Dream would be no different if he actually did cross a serious line. But honestly I don’t think he’s really done worse than plenty of other creators and at least he has apologized which is more than you can say for most others. So by all mean hate him for whatever reason, there are plenty of YouTubers I dislike, but don’t do so because you think he’s a creep or because of things that just aren’t true, and give me a little more credit that I’d not just support anyone or use autism to justify anything.

The reason I’ve talked a lot about the autism and ADHD is because I feel like it is very important. But my friend (who is also autistic), last night was giving me a lot of shit for it, noting how autism doesn’t excuse behavior and is beside the point. The thing is though, this situation is not like how people are saying Elon doing the salute is an autistic oopsie, no I’m literally just pointing out actual statements and points the content creators have said about why they dislike Dream, which are literally characteristics of his neurodivergence. Look no further for an example than what Jack says in the podcast, “I genuinely think he lacks the ability to read social queues.” That’s literally just autism 101, I’m not making excuses for behavior, I’m just pointing out the why a behavior is happening to say it’s not because he’s some evil bad manipulative guy. Tubbo is the one who noted that Dream’s behavior was weird and inappropriate and how he didn’t seem to understand the social rules and stuff. Those are actually things that have been talked about here. People have actually commented on how Dream’s over explanation and stuttering and repeating himself and such is manipulative and all I’m saying is no it’s literally just AuDHD. I’m not making stretches for behavior here, I’m not extrapolating here on what Dream did, if anything I’m focused more on the actual comments of the opposing side.

Autism isn’t relevant to the situation because of the meme. It’s no longer about whether or not he is allowed to use the r word because he is autistic, it’s about this inherent loathing people have where a lot of their listed reasons are typical ADHD and autism characteristics. All I’m doing is looking at what they themselves said, I don’t even have to theorize, Jack straight up just said he thinks Dream lacks social queues as part of his discussion on why he dislikes Dream. What do you mean his neurodivergence isn’t relevant, when the reasons people are currently bashing him are neurodivergent traits. That’s like saying, well her blue hair is irrelevant to the conversation - well then why do you hate her? - because I don’t like how she always dyes her hair. Heh? It is relevant because the things the hate him for connect directly to autism and ADHD, it is relevant because the internet is making fun of him after that stream with Tubbo for how he speaks because of his neurodivergence. It’s relevant because the reason people believe these rumors or spread rumors in the first place is because of the inherent dislike of autistic people they are literally describing on air.

[unpretty]

he has no grounds whatsoever. he's tried to create grounds by getting the board to create a new ordinance, and then got mad when the ordinance didn't functionally ban food trucks. the core of his argument is "it's not fair when i have to pay property tax and the other guy doesn't", and also "the town should support local businesses that support them with tax dollars and create jobs". he thought purchasing the property outright was going to save him money, but it turns out you still have to pay taxes and keeping a restaurant property up to code is fucking expensive and he's clearly bitter about it.

he vastly overestimates local government's control over property taxes and how much they get. our local government gets a tiny percentage of property tax. they get all of the food truck permit fee. it shakes out to basically the same amount, but for a building they have to provide actual services and infrastructure. all a truck needs is parking, which is provided by the other local businesses that pay property tax and want a taco truck there. this may be less true in other areas, such as cities that impose their own taxes on local businesses or have any traffic whatsoever, but here it's a nonfactor. it's unclear why he thinks anyone buys that he's a job creator when his only employee is his teenage daughter that is the only one behind the counter making any food every time i've gone in.

some companies who lease out retail spaces will have agreements that they will only lease to one sandwich place, one taco place, one smoke shop, etc etc. this is called an exclusive use clause and is not relevant here (and is also the source of the question of whether a hot dog is a sandwich, iirc). literally no amount of offering the same food will change anything. he is next door to a pizza place that sells subs significantly more popular than his. he's just pissy because he thought he'd bought a turnkey business and instead he bought a restaurant. which is expensive. and failing.

i mean, realistically, he's blaming food trucks because they're the only thing that's new since he bought the sub shop and fucked it up. it was never good, it was always at about the tier of a food stall at a minigolf place, but they had a limited menu and closed in winter and that kept expenses low enough to thrive on cheap deli cold cuts and soft serve. he looked at that and thought 'oh these guys lack ambition, i can do better than that' and immediately jacked up the prices and added a bunch of premade frozen shit to the menu that his daughter consistently leaves in the fryer too long. whenever it comes up in conversation, all anyone talks about is how the subs are all bread. the only way to get a decent ratio is to order the sandwich with the most different varieties of meat. he can't bring himself to blame the pizza place because the old owners never had a problem with them. the food trucks are the only scapegoat he has left to pretend he's not the problem.

lately a taco truck has been parking near the dollar store with the best tacos i've had outside of LA. this works out really great for everyone with taste but the guy with the lunch sub place has been getting really mad about it and won't stop filing complaints even though the truck has all its permits in order and has permission by the property owners to park there (because they also want good tacos). he keeps insisting the truck is stealing his business but local officials keep reminding him that he doesn't sell tacos and the truck doesn't sell subs. finally the sub guy posted his revised 2025 menu on facebook and it now includes a 'taco sub' which is just pre-seasoned ground beef on a sub bun with american cheese.

[thebreakfastgenie]

trying chardonnay for the first time and i am hating it. is there a billy joel song for this moment?

perhaps you and chardonnay don't fulfill each other fantasies. Summer, Highland Falls is about things not being quite what you expected or hoped (I always think there's more to this song than he says but he's discussed that part).

he talks about wine a few times:

"my belly's full of fancy and food and wine" Somewhere Along the Line, Piano Man

"we drown our doubts in dry champagne" I've Loved These Days, Turnstiles

"you had the Dom Perignon in your hand" Big Shot, 52nd Street

"here I am again in this smoky place with my brandy eyes" C'etait toi (You Were the One), Glass Houses (brandy is made from distilled wine)

"we get some money and we buy a cheap wine" Half a Mile Away, 52md Street

"they say that Joe became a wino" Christie Lee, An Innocent Man

"wines and dines with Argentines and Kuwaitis" That's Not Her Style, Storm Front

"pass me the wine it's just a minor variation" A Minor Variation, River of Dreams

"they are the vintage" Two Thousand Years, River of Dreams

and of course there's Scenes from an Italian Restaurant which I think is the most relevant because he says "perhaps a bottle of rosé instead" and since writing that song Billy Joel has decided he hates rosé (he's so real for this I also do not care for rosé).

[spotaus]

Late Night quick thing (New Age Sillies)

Bad news: That joke post about including Reset + Orchid is definitely not canon. (I legit got sad thinking about Reset being in a universe where Orchid isn't- because their stories are so so intertwined- but Nightmare 100% would NOT risk the whole twins exploding Error's soul thing.)

Good news: This means I COULD include Kane (Reset's older brother who usually dies in timelines where Reset is born) and use it to develope his character a bit more! Also! Perhaps a Blue × Dream kiddo is finally in the stars for me to design?

[hybbat]

I do think a good chunk of the 'cringey atheist' stereotype did come from the fact that, especially americans, regardless of their actual religious status are just casually christian and refer to things through a religious filter and that isn't seen for how overwhelming/obnoxious/frustrating it is. Its absense, such as when writing a story and things like "oh god" or other casual references are remove or replaced, is seen as notable the same way people find the cast being all women or queer being 'abnormal'.

And I think more people, especially here on tumblr, should take a moment from ragging on some kid being "cringey" saying god doesn't exist or making atheist jump around like dancing monkeys to establish they're one of the good respectful ones before they ever even begin to talk about their own thoughts, and examine why so much content just inserts god into a conversation that had nothing to do with religion like it's the expected norm, the same way they examine the invasiveness of casual heteronormativity.

[prosocialbehavior]

UNIT, self-preservation, and the Doctor

so UNIT is sus, right, we know this, they're getting too powerful for their own good and I feel like everyone is expecting them to get infiltrated or corrupted or something for a season finale plot twist in the near future. but lately I've been thinking about the weird and impossible position they're in.

so! you're in charge of the planet's main (only? idk what torchwood is up to these days) line of defense against alien attack, and your species has been adopted by a sort of alien trickster god.

this eccentric, erratic alien with apparently godlike power has decided to attach themself to you. The Doctor is benevolent and willing to sacrifice almost anything up to and including their own life for the good of the human race, but they're also unpredictable, unreliable, egotistical. you know what happened the last time a human authority crossed a moral line they decided was unforgivable:

so your organization is technically independent, but there are certain decisions you can't make, otherwise the Doctor might decide the weeds need trimming. you're in theory the highest military authority when it comes to alien conflicts, but if you decide to shoot those guys attacking you with your giant ray gun, there's every chance this guy could crawl out of the woodwork to burn your house down. you can't take any action without also taking the Doctor into consideration.

so what do you do?

maybe when they show up, you take them under your power. they're humanity's strongest asset and you need to make sure you have at least some measure of control over their actions.

but now that you've got them, how do you keep them from wandering off on a whim? how do you keep them inclined to work with you?

you formally grant them the power that is de facto already theirs. you rely on them, blatantly and obviously, making it clear that you need their help and their presence to have any hope of survival. you flatter their ego and encourage their attachment to you.

but in the end, it's been proven that nothing will keep the Doctor anywhere they don't want to be, and nothing will stay their hand when they've decided something needs to be destroyed for the greater good. so how do you make sure your organization stays on the safe side of that line? how do you sway the Doctor's judgment?

you employ their weak spot.

the people the your alien protector trusts, loves, has chosen, you bring them into the fold, and so you bring yourself into their fold. the Doctor can't attack you without attacking them, and their trust will rub off on you and your organization. you find what they value most in the world and keep it close.

so you end up with this defense organization which is semi-independent, but also built up totally around this one individual.

the Doctor is the most passionate defender you could hope for, but they also cut off your own ability to defend yourself. a good amount of your defense protocols center around hoping this guy happens to turn up. you HAVE to rely on their support, and you also have to fawn, flatter, and appease them if you want your organization to go on existing. if you want to get away with anything they might seriously disapprove of, your only option is to dazzle and flatter them, collect their friends, and hope they won't look close enough to find your secrets.

I'm not saying Kate Lethbridge-Stewart is some kind of Machiavelli spending all her time finding ways to manipulate the Doctor. but I am saying that UNIT probably has a protocol somewhere saying that in times of absolute crisis, if the Doctor shows up, the first thing you should do is dangle candy in front of their face by means of having someone they like give them a great big hug.

[emdotcom]

*remembers what they did to Vanny* 500 FUCKING PIPEBOMB ATTACK.

[badboysupr]

just wanna make something very clear here and on percy's blog; i adore crossovers

and i don't just mean the "let me make an entire involved AU for this" crossovers; i also mean the 0 effort, "let's just throw our two muses together and merge their universes and see what happens" crossovers

like don't get me wrong—i love all my pjo mutuals and i also do enjoy the effort put into creating AUs but listen

you can't tell me it isn't fun to take two muses who exist in the "real" world who have dealt with their own weird bs and watch them compare notes on the weirdness okay? it's immaculate

so if you write a muse who isn't pjo or doesn't have a pjo verse, i guarantee we will make it work, frienderino u-u and i guarantee i'm stoked for it