#it's rare that I get into stuff like this nowadays but I saw a take on my dash that just Felt Bad (TM) y'know?

[humanlyimprobable]

Hey little reminder that aroace people can still date, and even in some cases fall in love! Aroace is can be a spectrum of different identities and doesn't neccesarily equal completely celibate.

My identity is very complex, but definitely falls under the aro umbrella, and my dating history is quite long! It feels nice sometimes seeing aroace characters in ships, as someone who has been dating and has even fallen in love (twice!)

I understand the importance of characters with no interest in dating or romance or sex, but in the case of fictional characters at least let people be. It's alright if it's not your cup of tea or uncomfortable for you, but you are in charge of your own fandom experiences, learn to block people and tags and move on please.

[dangermousie]

People complaining about the Argan plot on my TL. I'm indifferent to it because it does follow the novel and it's not one of those novel things that don't adapt well for TV.

But I can see the complaints about it being in the last episode. I'd rather it be in the penultimate episode and then have the last episode dedicated to them rebuilding their new life. Like choosing the Yu-yeon name.

Overall, I didn't hate the last episode. The leads carried the episodes. I think the ending with the SLs was pointless. I get that anything happens in a time jump, but we've seen no progression really of their relationship. It's like a quick way to wrap up their storylines. But SFL literally had no storyline or purpose. SML at least had a storyline, and he had a purpose in the first half (to indirectly help our couple be a couple).

That's the only choice I question, the need for the SFL (and SML). The SFL was especially a mess that even the writers clearly didn't know what to do. One minute she's fangirling over ML and gets excited and acts like she has a date with the married ML (which she knows he's married), then after that, nothing. She suddenly stops fangirling and acts normal and this is before she learns about HJ as his wife.

People like to complain, it’s human nature.

I liked the Argan thing because it was in the novel and also because I was already a kdrama fan 15 years ago when so many dramas liked to send their OTPs to exotic war torn locations for make outs and torture (see Swallow the Sun, IRIS and Lobbyist among others. Side note - STS had a secondary OTP of a mercenary and suicidal stripper that was very matter of fact and they got a happy ending to boot; when people say nowadays kdramas are so more frank about things - well no they are not.) So that was yet another delicious throwback about this drama.

Anyone who complains (as I saw) about this being unbelievable or too OTT has clearly not been paying attention to the genre - this was a crack melo from ep 1. It stayed in genre until the end. I totally get if it’s not someone’s thing but it didn’t really pull a genre rug on anyone.

I was quite happy with the amount of post-plot fluff we got. We got half an ep and seeing that dramas have a long tradition of giving us 1 minute before the end in terms of happy stuff, that felt downright luxurious (even in the novel, the bulk of post-plot fluff is in the extras not the novel proper.) To be fair though, I am not really a fluff person and don’t have much interest in watching fluffy happy dating moments of even my favorite OTPs unless it’s narratively done in the middle as we we watch in knowledge the hammer of doom is coming. So this take is informed by that. (Shen Li remains close to unique for me in loving the fact that the entire last ep is dedicated to their cottagecore bliss post the plot resolution. But Shen Li is an outlier for me in many respects - when something hits well enough even my normal preferences melt away. I mean I love Suppli and that’s an office drama.)

As to second ML and second FL agree they weren’t as developed as they could have been (esp SFL) but I am just happy they weren’t ship interlopers. I rarely care much for SML/SFL unless they have their own interesting narrative not revolving a love a square so my expectations are usually low.

Ultimate while I did have some niggles (where is my naming scene, where?!?), Phone ended up my favorite kdrama of 2024 by a large margin, over even Lovely Runner, Black Out and Goryeo Khitan War.

I hope its success makes kdramas make more of those type of old school, intense, romance melos but I have my doubts.

[greattigerssimp]

Punch Out!! Wii boxers and their workout regimes.

(Got inspired from @bucketspammer4life and their buckets-worth of Punch Out headcannons, so here I am making mine! Teehee. We all saw cutscenes about how Lil Mac trains for matches, but what about the other boxers?? Find out here!)

Glass Joe: 🥐🇫🇷

- Hates waking up early, so he starts later in the afternoon/evening

- When he works out, he wears a black hoodie that says "But first, coffee" on it.

- Focuses on cardio to stay in shape, and because his natural upper body strength is abysmal

- Kaiser sometimes helps him prep for matches and tends to over-praise him... like, Joe will do 2 push-ups and Kaiser will be on his knees, screaming about how amazing Joe is doing.

- Hates dieting to build muscle (since it takes him away from his beloved breads and wine), but if he has to, his go-to meal plan consists of Greek yogurt, berries, PB on whole grain sandwiches, and salads.

- His workout playlist consists of a variety of music, but quite a lot of Daft Punk. He's a closeted fan of them.

- He used to sparr with Gabby Jay before he died. It was his only real practice and upper body exercise he got. Nowadays he sparrs with Kaiser or Bear Hugger for practice

Von Kaiser: 🔩🇩🇪

- Opposite of Joe, focusing on his upper body strength only.

- Wears his classic slutty white tank top and army pants... and iconic boots while working out.

- He also wakes up stupidly early for a run, and almost got mugged one morning one time.

- A rare pull-up lover! Dude is shockingly good at pulling his own weight.

- He's also scarily good at climbing stuff... don't blink, or you'll see him on your roof all of a sudden

- Uses techniques from his own regime to help train his students

- Workout playlist is boring

- Very meat heavy diet, both on rest and training days. Very bleak breakfast, mainly consisting of eggs, toast, and black coffee.

Disco Kid: 🕺🇺🇲

- One word: Boxercise.

- Takes lessons with Heike as his teacher

- Ofc wears the leotard. He's had that leotard for a while, actually... he says it fits fine, buuuut let's just say that there are certain signs that show the outfit getting small on him...

- Exercises whenever he wants; his classes are indoors, so time isn't an issue for him.

- Has over +20 playlists, one for every day, of ever hour, of every "vibe."

- If he's training for a fight, he'll usually rely on greens and vegetables to help him keep him focused. Also plenty of protein shakes (his fave flavor is cookies and cream)

- Aside from boxer-cising, he enjoys going on afternoon or morning walks with his mom (and sometimes April tags along)

King Hippo: 🦛🏝

- His only idea of "working out" is to swim butt naked at the nearest beach

- The only music he listens to is the ocean ✨️

- He always eats a punching bag before hits fights... no one knows why. That should tell you enough about his pre-fight diet.

Piston Hondo: 🥊🇯🇵

- Like Kaiser, works out early in the morning, but also late at night too

- If he's in public, he's wearing a white t-shirt and sweat pants. If he's working out in private, he's wearing this pink Sailor Moon tank top he's owned since he left Japan.

- He and Tiger practice meditation together. Mental health is just as important as physical health!

- Cardio lover

- Disgustingly quick reflexes

- One time, he used a treadmill at the gym, and he accidentally broke it after running in the highest setting for over an hour.

- Playlist consists of J-Pop and a little bit of vocaloid. Like Joe, he's insecure about the music he likes.

- Absolute W workout diet. Rice + home made chicken or white fish, crunchy sea weed strips, and lightly seasoned edamame?? All inside a cute bento box that looks adorable AND portions out the food??? Sign me and the WVBA up! He changes it up a lot, too, for the sake of trying new things.

Bear Hugger: 🐻🇨🇦

- Trains anytime of the day, wearing anything. Sometimes he'll train butt naked in the woods to really "capture the bear spirit."

- Bears, squirrels, you name it! He's trained, at least with every North American animal, at least once.

- Loves hockey! Not only does he watch it a lot, but he's good at playing! He and Lomasi play for fun or for training.

- Doesn't really listen to music while working out (he prefers the sounds of nature) buuut he does have a playlist all about country rock.

- His diet? Raw fish. Either caught by him, Lomasi or the bear he trains with.

Great Tiger: 🐅🇮🇳

- Doesn't actually work out... his clones do, and he resuscitates the energy from their efforts.

- Does meditation with Hondo... will float unconsciously during meditation.

- His playlist consists of authentically Indian music, mainly ones with a calming aura. He listens to them while meditating

- Will sometimes go on jogs with Hondo and get hilariously left behind because Hondo is naturally speedy

- Works out/meditates shirtless

- Would have a W diet if he knew how to cook. He mainly gets Hondo to make him bento boxes for lunch and dinner. Had a prime phase for a good 2 months

Don Flamenco: 🥀🇪🇸

- Works out shirtless in the summer, low-cut tank top in the autumn and spring seasons, and doesn't work outside during the winter.

- Also loves swimming! His swimming exercises are pretty rigorous. Also, he posts thrist traps of him swimming for attention lmao

- Carmen decides when he can and can't work out. Someday's he can work out at night or in the morning, and somedays he can't

- His workout playlist is all sorts of disorganized. He's got authentic Spanish music in there, but he also likes his fair share of girly pop (thanks to Carmen), and because of his one emo phase, there's a bunch of metal and punk pop in there. One minute he's listening to "Firework," the next, it's "Misery Business."

- He would absolutely LOVE to have his own Spanish based diet, but nah... Carmen's rich parents usually cook for him every night. He's stuck eating unseasoned chicken and cold collared green until his fights. And no, he isn't allowed to cook for himself, even though he can do so pretty well.

Aran Ryan: 😈🇮🇪

- Upper strength dude, straight up. If he's not punching something into oblivion, he's not working out.

- Works out all night and sleeps all day.

- Will trash talk whatever inanimate object he's beating into oblivion.

- Got arrested once for fighting random strangers on the street... police were called after he bit someone's finger off. Claims he was just working out

- Wears a "punch me, I'm Irish" tank while he's working out

- Playlist consists of Irish and British punk rock bands

- Gets hot way too easily; the place he works out in has to be breezy/cool or he's getting distracted

- No diet whatsoever. No one's taking his fish and chips or his shepards pies away from him, no sir

Soda Popinski: 🍾🇷🇺

- Booty shorts and crop top tank top. Doesn't matter what the weather is... he's wearing this. He gets a lot of stares...

- Hates cardio, makes him anxious bc he's so tall. Focuses on upper body strength

- He isn't into basketball, but if we was, he'd be really good at it; would be a nice way to train.

- During his withdrawal phase, he found it horrible to work out. He felt so tired and weak for days on end, and lacked the motivation needed to workout.

- Broke lots of training equipment back in his spiked liquor era.

- Playlist mainly consists of Russian hits that he grew up with + the occasional folk song

- Sparrs with Macho Man for totally straight reasons (liesss)

- Very safe, very bland diet... but it does the trick, and it doesn't make him throw up. He's very conscious about what he puts into his body, since he's afraid of how the liquor would react to it.

Bald Bull: 🐂🇹🇷

- Wears a boxing outfit + tank top

- Also meditates, but privately.

- His entire work out regime is as closeted as possible.

- Very calm when working out... he's almost a completely different person than how he is in the ring

- Listens to calming white noise instead of music

- Diet isn't that rigorous, but it isn't particularly unhealthy either. Baklava for breakfast, lean kebabs for lunch, and Manti for dinner.

Super Macho Man: 🌊🇺🇸

- Wears the same speedo he does in the ring when he works out. If it's cold outside, he'll wear a Hollywood Blvrd hoodie and no pants, aside from that speedo.

- ONLY works out on the beach he lives by, and only does it in the afternoons.

- Blasts his music on the beach... he listens to a DISGUSTING amount of pit bull. It's either him, or any other rave song that's been played dozens of times

- Either swims, surfs, or punches a bag. He'll record himself doing this too

- Likes to sparr with Soda on the beach... and surf, ofc, this is my AU and Soda x Macho Man is built upon romantic surfing moments !!!

- Also hates dieting, like Joe, but if he has too, he'll stick to steaks and energy drinks. Also enjoys morning Mimosa's

Mr. Sandman: 💤🇺🇲

- Very private work out routine

- Spends entire days in his apartment, just punching a bag and listening to a playlist designed by Mr. Dream that TOTALLY doesn't have subliminal messages... ha-

- Puts bulking powders into every piece of lean meat and energy drink he consumes; its borderline unhealthy

- Ofc the bulking powder he uses is created by the WVBA...

- He's lowkey miserable, but pretends he's not.

[aspecmemesdaily]

bro weird stuff has been happening to me lately. so I’ve known I was ace for a year now and that’s still going strong but also I never like. thought about romance like other girls did and never thought about a wedding. I never want a boyfriend and the idea of getting married scares me. and I wanted kids but I thought babies were ugly, and never thought about who their dad would be or anything. but like over the last year I

Really love babies and little kids, and now am miraculously really good with kids. I changed my major to education and finally found my calling (elementary librarian)

when I watched the pilot of fallout and I saw her wedding dress (I love that style soooo much) something clicked in my head and suddenly I started making little plans for my future wedding

it’s still hard for me to imagine a specific person as my husband but I realized I want that best friend for life thing. (my brother and his wife were kind of the turning point on this one because they just have so much fun and love each other so much. I realized it’s a different love than what I’d ever wanted before and now I really want that for myself?!?)

I still don’t really want to date anyone but I am feeling more open because the idea of finding someone who I love is just so exciting to me nowadays.

this is just all weird for me because my lack of interest in these things were a big part in what convinced me to look into asexuality and aromanticism and It’s so weird to lose that aspect of it but still feel no sexual attraction. I’m still me, but I’m growing into another version of myself and it’s so strange but wonderful and scary. idk growing older is weird when big opinions and feelings shift from what they’ve always been.

Thank you for sharing this, @jack1701.

I cannot give you a definite answer as your experiences and feelings are unique and only you can label yourself or choose not to label yourself at all. You don't have to fit into a specific box and I am not in a position to assign you a certain label, but I'd like to mention a few things that you might want to take into closer consideration if you so desire (The following points are just my opinion and may not be accurate!):

QPRs: Queerplatonic relationships are relationships that go "beyond" traditional notions of friendship, but don’t necessarily fit into the category of a typical romantic relationship. They can be a way to have that deep, lifelong partnership you’re envisioning without the pressure to conform to conventional romantic or sexual expectations. QPRs are quite common for partnering aspec people to be in. There is no set definition for a QPR and its boundaries—you and your queerplatonic partner (QPP) decide individually what you want to do or not do (e.g. hug, cuddle, kiss, live together, raise a child, pay taxes, idk??) and what you want to call each other (e.g. partner, friend, boyfriend/girlfriend, idiot, shnookums??, whatever...), etc.

Cupioromantic: This label falls under the aromantic umbrella and typically describes someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction, but still desires a romantic relationship (regardless of whether they are in one, aspire to be in one, or not).

Aegoromantic: This label also falls under the aromantic umbrella and typically describes someone who enjoys the idea of romance or romantic fantasies but doesn’t desire a romantic relationship for themselves. You may think of it as a disconnection between oneself and one's romantic fantasies. It's explained quite well here, I think.

Other arospec identities such as demiromantic (only experiencing romantic attraction after a deep emotional connection has been developed) or greyromantic/grayromantic (experiencing romantic attraction rarely or only under specific circumstances).

But you don't have to label yourself just now or ever, and no label is permanent. Just keep being yourself and do what feels good for you.

All the best!

[astrolavas]

Ok ok, but now is turn for the grimwalker HCs!! Give us the creature👀

!!!!! BET

once a grimwalker is "formed" they simply turn mostly organic, just like how palismen are live animals instead of wood (when activated). so even though the ingredients are still THERE technically, they appear as just like... normal stuff, so grimwalkers are mostly biologically the species that their ortet was, almost indistinguishable (hair is hair, skin is skin, there's blood flow despite there not initially being a heart, the galdorstone is there but it functions very similarly to a heart, etc etc) and yet sometimes the original ingredients' features somehow still "show up" in unique-to-grimwalkers ways. ㅤ

i imagine grimwalkers used to be like a more popular/frequent occurence in ancient demon realm. the process of creating a grimwalker was like a sacred magic ritual, only allowed in special cases (like maybe if a witch lost a child early and wasn't able to have another one, sth of the sort) so it was still very rare even back then and would have to be approved of by most of the community. however, then the tradition died off as ingredients started becoming more scarce, and most of knowledge about it was eventually lost to time. nowadays, grimwalkers are considered to be an extinct species as well as an urban legend/myth by boiling isles habitants, like a "supposedly extinct but there's no certainty if they ever even actually existed" situation (without taking hunter and his possibly-openly-a-grimwalker-in-the-future thing into account just yet). the books we saw hunter read in labyrinth runners have some right information but also lots of misinformation in them, since they're far removed from the direct source, based on only tidbits of actual info, and have been written by witches/demons, with no grimwalkers consulted (obviously); lots of it is speculation, and lots of it is wrong. (i imagine the only actual, entirely truthful info is in those scrolls and books we saw in belos' grimwalker lab, but even that isn't fully complete; and belos wouldn't have wanted to share it with the public anyway, for obvious reasons) additionally, i feel like grimwalkers have a sort of cryptid-like reputation in the boiling isles' pop culture. there are stories made up about them. there are teens making pink-eyed grimwalker ocs on the demon realm equivalent of deviantart and making up things like "grimwalkers can shoot lasers out of their eyes" or "they can raise the dead with their thoughts" LMAO. hunter gets a headache when he discovers all that. ㅤ

grimwalkers are semi-immune to boiling water. the selkidomus scales give them a lot of immunity so boiling water is not actually lethal to them but still, being exposed to boiling rain for a long while or full-on diving into the boiling sea may hurt a bit and prolonged contact with boiling water may leave them with blisters/burns. ㅤ

when grimwalkers' skin is wet for a long time, it gets somewhat scaley ??? scales-resembling texture ?? instead of just being pruney/wrinkled. when dry, their fingertips have a sort of wood-rings-y look. ㅤ

grimwalkers' hair naturally grows incredibly fast, but especially when they spend lots of time in the sun. plant magic may also affect its growth positively. ㅤ

grimwalkers' eyes are reflective and can glow/shine in the dark. ㅤ

when it comes to human-based grimwalkers (the golden guards), sometimes their ears would turn out rounder and human-looking, sometimes they'd look pointier but still not fully witch-like. belos preferred them to be round cuz obviously he preferred "caleb" to be human-looking, but with time he started modifying some grimwalkers' naturally round ears to be pointier just so that they could blend in easier and so they'd believe that they're witches too. he'd "mold" their ears during early creation or sometimes modify/cut them after, like he did his. (hunter's ears are naturally pointy and generally look like a witch's ears but, upon closer inspection, the details of his ears differ from a normal witch's ears juuuust slightly) (ears of the grimwalker that we saw in ftf were fully round because belos was counting on this one to be the golden guard post-day of unity, seemingly brought up as human and in the human realm) ㅤ

just like stonesleepers, grimwalkers often have a slightly sensitive spot behind their ears. ㅤㅤㅤ

palismen can somewhat sense that grimwalkers are also made of palistrom wood so they naturally cling to them more (big win for mr palisman enthusiast/carver hunter owlhouse!) ㅤㅤ

again, when it comes to specifically caleb-based/the golden guard grimwalkers, i can imagine that belos' first attempts were....... FAR from perfect. since i imagine he got all the information from different incomplete ancient scrolls, there were many things he had to come up with and re-discover himself. the very first grimwalkers he made probably didn't even survive for longer than a few minutes/hours. and when they did survive, i feel like the ingredients used were much more distinguishable at first too, not fully transformed into their organic counterparts; like for example some grimwalkers had more selkidomus-like or stonesleeper-like features, or were visibly wooden in some places, etc etc. i feel like belos didn't succeed in making a fully functional, stable and human/witch-looking grimwalker until he met the collector, and then did so thanks to their help. ㅤ

grimwalkers are already "harvestable" at early infancy and that's when you're "supposed" to unbury them, but they can technically emerge at any age (they just have to stay underground and age for the amount of time). i feel like there were also times when belos tried to speed up the process and age his grimwalkers up faster so that they'd be of use to him quicker, but that would also often result in the grimwalkers being unstable; so not really a good idea. (i envision that hunter was probably one of the youngest- if not the youngest- grimwalker belos had ever made, and that's also why he had high hopes for him lasting longer than the others; because he manipulated him since early childhood, starting in his most pivotal developmental years) ㅤ

i like to believe that the reason why flapjack was able to save hunter in thanks to them was because hunter's a grimwalker. if hunter had been a normal witch or a human, i don't think flapjack could do anything to help. (something abt the thing that hunter was ashamed of and hated abt himself ending up being the exact thing that makes saving him possible... you know?) ㅤ

for specifically caleb-based grimwalkers, i imagine that since they're mostly human in biology, they might also have issues with eating some particular demon realm food. not as much as luz of course, since they're not completely human + after years of living in the demon realm and basically eating ONLY demon realm food i can imagine your stomach would get mostly used to it, acclimated and all, but it probably still could result in some problems and discomfort. ㅤ

because of their stonesleeper lungs, grimwalkers are usually pretty still and motionless sleepers. they breathe very slowly when sleeping. ㅤ

you can't make a grimwalker out of a grimwalker. you can try, but the magic simply won't work correctly.

[poopiefart420]

Pls tell me more abt your divorced dad AU Ozai!! And his relationship with Ursa and his kids and how it all went down etc.! If you wanna :'D!

I’ll be completely honest I don’t have a full grasp on it I just apply my experiences with my dad and plaster ozai on it 😭 but I’ll try just for u PLS ADD IF YALL THINK ANYONES OOC OR LIKE ANY IDEAS YALL HAVE BC I SUCK AT WRITING

I ALSO HAVENT READ THE SEARCH SO BARE WITH ME

incoming yap sesh 🎉🎉

How Ursa and Ozai met and divorced (and Ozais side of things post divorce)

Ozai was in a completely different major to Ursa the fact they even saw each other in the cafe was a rare occurrence but Ursa caught Ozais eye

Being the kind of guy he is he would linger and watch her because he is cooked in terms of romance

Ursa made the first approach

Seeing Ozai and Ursa interact made Ikem uneasy because of the weird energy Ozai had but he let it slide after Ursa reassured him Ozai was normal (WATCH OUT IKEM HES MR STEAL UR GIRL)

Eventually, it came down to Ozai and Ursa becoming closer and Ozai finally growing some balls and asking her out (“Go out with me” “what”)

Since Ikem and Ursa still weren’t official but they had something Ursa asked Ozai to give her time and she chose to distance herself from Ikem and go out with Ozai ( NOOOOO URSA RUN)

it eventually became an official relationship with the whole meeting parents and family fun stuff (Ursa's family thought Ozai was ominous asf but they accepted their daughter's choices with a couple of complaints)

Ursa and Ozai's years before kids were pretty good until after they got married and Azulon started to pressure Ozai into his business (politics or whatever y’all want it to be) and the pressure to have kids

Ursa could see the way it was affecting Ozai but she made no comment because Ozai was impossible to get to talk about his emotions

When they finally had Zuko it changed them both Ursa looked at Zuko with love; Ozai looked at him looking for potential (despite the fact Ozai told Ursa he wouldn't be like his father)

On Ozai's part his mental health was lowkey in the gutter (but he never acknowledged that mental health is for losers not alphas like him) and he continued to compete for Azulons position in the company with Iroh

Iroh could give less of a shit btw he’s chilling with his kid

Ozai picked up smoking/vaping but he never did it in front of Ursa because he knew she would throw a hissy fit (in his eyes)

If anything by now Ozai and Ursa were drifting but Ursa decided to have another kid to see if that would bring them together and they could be a happy family

So when Zuko was 2 they had Azula and Zuko loved his new baby sister. As the kids grew up Ozai put pressure on them regarding school, martial arts, etc…

This made them grow distant and Ursa was becoming nervous because not only were her kids constantly fighting but her husband encouraged it

She tried to give Zuko as much love as she could to combat the harsh words he would get from Ozai and Azula, but in doing that she was losing Azula

She realized the source of the issue was Azulon and Ozai. She considered maybe killing Azulon but nowadays there’s forensic science so she just filed for divorce in hopes her kids can grow up without having Ozais influence

Ozai was sure she was divorcing him because she was cheating on him with Ikem. He signed the papers but the days leading up to the divorce were him arguing and trying to make her more miserable as “revenge”

Azula was angry with Ursa because she thought she was trying to take her away from her dad and she would ignore Ursa and latch onto Ozai (Zuko would latch onto Ursa but he was still hurt that they were going to leave Ozai because that's still his dad)

When they finally divorced Ursa took her kids to live in her parent's home and Ozai would drunkenly call her yelling abt how she’s Ikem's bitch and this and that

Eventually, things calmed down as time passed and Ursa was able to kindle some sort of relationship with Azula but Zuko was a mommas boy through and through

OH I FORGOT the whole Azulon dying thing doesn't really happen bro just dies of like falling down some stairs without his cane IDK LMAOOO and Iroh recently lost Lu Ten to a car crash so he just gave Ozai the company

Ozai's side of things post divorce

Ozai continued to live in the original families house but he would pick up Zuko and Azula on weekends.

He fought for weekend custody because like hell was Ursa gonna strip him of his company heirs

His nicotine habits worsened but when the kids came he would only smoke in the car (nicotine patches inside the home)

He continued to nurture the rivalry between his kids and let them do whatever they wanted as long as they didn't burn down the house (unlimited access to everything i wonder how bad that could go)

By the time the kids reached their tween/teen years Ozai just stopped picking them up as much; Zuko would feel so much relief when Ozai would call saying he was busy that weekend (also disappointment he wanted to prove himself to daddy dearest)

Zuko gaining his scar from Ozai was more of a Ozai going into a angry fit from being talked back to while he was by a source of fire (idk a candle i rlly dont know how a hand print would appear without magic fire powers)

When Ursa found out she immediately reported Ozai to CPS but as usual CPS lets Ozai off because he is a successful man (hush money...)

Ozai isn't allowed to have either kids over at his house because Ursa does not trust him in the slightest, but Azula still asks Ozai to pick her up for the weekends (she argues with her mom on this because in her eyes Ursa is trying to isolate her)

He stays awake at night wondering what he could’ve done better but then argues with himself that he was the best Ursa was ever gonna get (pov when your insecure but full of yourself at the same time)

I have nothing more to say sooo YEA sorry if its not like peak writing but ive never written a fic i just pace around my room and half of this stuff was made up on the spot

[dodgeballstuckonthegymceiling]

Hello! I'm going through a rough time right now and I was just wondering: can I request the ROTTMNT turtles x a S/O who has anxiety, depression and PTSD? How would they take care of a S/O whose depression spells make it hard for them to get out of bed, take care of themselves etc? Bonus if S/O is plus-sized/chubby and insecure about it.

Hope you feel better soon 💜

Raph Leo Donnie and Mikey x Reader with anxiety, depression and PTSD

Raphael

★ Oh lawd please let him help. He wants, no, he needs to help you. You are his s/o and he cares about you more than you think. Need a mental health day? He's coming over with sented candles and snacks.

★ Anything you need, he's going to give. If you are having one of those days where you feel you can't leave bed he will stay by your side so you don't feel alone. If he needs to leave your side he grabs a few of his favorite teddy bears and puts them on the bed where he was.

★ He's familiar with the concept of having body image issues but never once thought about you having them. Your body is perfect to him. It's soft and warm, ideal to lay down and cuddle with. What could be missing?

★ You are gorgeous. You're probably tired of hearing those words from well meaning people but to him it's true. In his eyes every single thing you see as a flaw is beautiful.

★ "How was your day?" Is asked every night when the two of you meet up. He genuinely wants to know how your day went and how you are feeling. If something went wrong of if you are stressed out about something you should vent.

Leonardo

★ When you start to open up to him about being insecure he is going to feal really bad. Mostly because he knows what it feels like and the idea that you feel the same hurts.

★ He is going to mess up at first, but he wants to help. He regularly sends you random body positivity photos and memes he finds online.

★ One of his go-to ideas for when you're feeling stressed out is to bring you on a walk around the hidden city and do a little sightseeing. Usually it works and you get your mind off whatever was bothering you.

★ PTSD attacks scared him at first, purely because he didn't know what to do. He felt really bad after he first saw you have one because he had to call his sister, April, to help. Later he went down a rabbit hole of googling and websites to know what to do next time.

★ Nowadays he is much more prepared, he knows a few grounding techniques to try and help you through PTSD attacks. He even put together a "emergency Y/n kit" filled with stuff for you. Among other things it's got gum, a soft blanket and some watter.

★ it's just a tote bag that sits in the corner of his room. It also has a few Lou jitsu movies on DVD to watch together.

Donatello

★ You have unlimited access to his room and lab for the sole reason that it's the quietest place in New York. It's definitely not because he worries about you and wants to give you a safe space. Not at all...

★ When you don't have the motivation to get up out of bed you get to have some very rare and valuable Donnie cuddles. Usually he would cuddle you for so long but you need this, so he does it for you.

★ He tries to gently bring up the subject of antidepressants, hoping that you might decide to try them. But in true Donnie fashion does it by saying "Did you know antidepressants affect two neurotransmitters in particular, serotonin and norepinephrine?" Yea, he ain't slick.

★ He would never force or pressure you into going on meds. If you say you don't want to go on them for whatever reason he accepts it and leaves it at that.

★ However, if you choose to he would go over the different types of medication. Lists off the side effects and benefits along with what they actually do. For gods sake, he might go through the process of drug compounding for you. No doctor prescription needed.

Michelangelo

★ Can't find the motivation to get out of bed? He's joining you and ends up clinging to you while asleep. He's only leaving the bed if you leave the bed.

★ However, neglecting your own health is where he draws the line. You are not allowed to neglect yourself (not bathing, eating enough or letting yourself to give up). Imagine him saying "open wide!" While holding a chicken nugget up to your mouth.

★ Venting session might do you some good. If you can't afford therapy (thanks American lack of public healthcare) he will pick up a book on phycology and try his best. He's not the world's best therapist/boyfriend but he's trying.

★ Over time you end up telling him a lot about where your PTSD came from. Mikey is really good at noticing things that upset you now. Along with that he researches the effects of mental illness, to try and know more about what you're going through.

[hawkflame999]

Someone please draw my OC (This Includes My Headcanon #1)

My OC's name is Arcturus, but he prefers being called Arc.

He has ice-blue-white wings, a night fury tail that is also ice-blue-white, ice-blue-white ears, and deep ice-blue blue eyes. He has dull dark gray horns that are somewhere between Oni horns and Dragon horns. His hands are clawish (Like his hands look normal but they have all the claw abilities and all). Otherwise, he looks human with white hair, wearing white stuff because somewhere along his bloodline there's an Ice dragon.

So this is an AU where there are more Oni-Dragon-Human hybrids, but the FSM fam is one of a kind, they're also Elementals but they stay low profile... But the ninja-elemental clan has no qualms about taking in orphans or runaways or rescuing kids that are mistreated (kidnapping in extreme cases, like abuse), no exceptions, all species. Including Dragoni pups.

in this AU, Some Dragoni go through this thing called the Oni phase- where their Oni blood controls them, and they are more aggressive in short bursts for some time, the length of time and when in a Dragoni's life -or if it even happens to them- varies from Dragoni to Dragoni.

Arc's father, Azymondias (I stole that from the Dragon Pince, sue me) looks just like him but with bigger wings, those claws-talon things at the wing joint like some dragons, Oni horns, a spiked tail, darker blue eyes, silver-blue scales that run down from his hair in a straight line to between his eyebrows, Oni fangs, and he's really big.

Arc has two older brothers, Adam, six years older than him, who is completely their father's spitting image except he has dragon horns and teeth, and a rare Oni tail.

His other brother is Asher four years older than him, who looks exactly like Arc except his scales are brown his eyes are purple (Oni trait) and he has Oni horns.

When Arc was born was around the time Azym went into the Oni phase. thanks to this, he horridly abused his youngest son, Arcturus, while his two other sons, Adam, and Asher, could just watch.

But one day, when Arc was almost 4, his father was, well, chasing him, and this other Dragoni-Elemental, who was a younger Garmadon, crashed into Azym, and started trying to fight him off, away from Arc, while another Dragoni-Elemental, a younger Wu, grabbed Arc and flew while Garmadon unsuccessfully tried to get Adam and Asher.

Arc was pretty badly hurt, and by the time Garmadon and Wu got him back to their clan's hideout, the monastery, he was barely alive.... but somehow, he lived.

Now, there was another young ninja at the monastery- Zayde, Ice ninja, the one who later chose Zane. Zayde (Zay for short) was just three years older than Arc. He saw when Wu and Garmadon brought Arc in and hung around the room he was in before sneaking in once the adults left. He and Arc got pretty close, so Zay's father, Zack, took Arc in.

Arc trained to be a ninja and learned Spinjitzu (because why not)

He and Zay got to the point of referring to each other as their brother, Zay will actively call Arcturus his little brother.

Nowadays Arc lives on a mountain near the monastery and generally just helps with training and is a friend. He’s pretty close to the six.

I will or already have released a poll on whether i should have Arc run back into his reformed father and brothers, and have them reconcile. Here is the link to the poll

(@the-ninjago-historian @nyaskitten @senseiwu @s0ull3ss-p3rs0n @tellsfromninjago @owlrabbit09 @rainbow-lust,) (I'm interested to hear what y'all think of this,)

[no-not-without-you-blog]

Recipe for Love- Chapter 5

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC (Joanna MacDonald)

Warnings: Language?

Section Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Recipe for Love Masterlist | Main Masterlist

The week went by quietly enough. Steve hated to admit it to himself, but he found it nice to have home cooked meals more often. None of the team were fairly good cooks. They could each get by on a couple of dishes, but none of it was very good and it wasn’t varied enough to not get tired of the same things over and over. However, with Jo, the food was good. Not five star restaurant level, but it was hot and well seasoned and not burned and soggy at the same time, which you wouldn’t think would be a problem, but it was. Especially if Bucky or Natasha were cooking. They might be some of the deadliest fighters in the world, but they couldn’t cook to save their lives. Steve couldn’t say much though. He only really knew how to cook a few things, including pasta. It was hard to screw up pasta, but he had definitely given that a run for its money a few times. So yes, it was nice to have good food again. Also having the team sitting down together was nice. They were always so busy with training, briefings, and missions that they rarely got to get together and just relax. At first, having Jo in the room made it difficult to have conversations with each other, as she was very serious about her request to not be involved in any “Avenging” conversations. The team was so used to being hyper-focused on work that it took a bit of time to step back and take a break. It wasn’t long, however, before normal conversation took over.

It was Friday, and the team was excited to go out the next night. Steve was still holding strong on not attending. A modern bar was definitely not his scene. Very few things made him feel “old”, but the dating scene at bars was up there on the list. He had always been shy around women, in general and this didn’t really stop when he became Captain America. But going out nowadays was a minefield. Women were so open and blunt about their desires and being so shy, this threw him off. Plus, he always worried that someone was attempting to be with him because of who he was. Sam used this to his advantage. He wasn't looking for anything serious currently, so a short fling with someone who might only want their five minutes in the light was fine with him. But Steve wasn’t like that. He didn’t want to have a casual thing with someone. To be fair, he wasn’t sure he wanted a thing with anyone again, serious or not.

He had been avoiding Jo all week, however, it wasn’t for the same reasons he had been in the beginning. He was embarrassed and remorseful of how he had treated her. He knew that he needed to actually apologize to her but he hadn’t worked up the nerve to talk to her about it yet. That night after dinner though, he had finally had enough of his own wallowing in guilt and walked towards her room. He hesitantly knocked on her door and waited until she opened it. He was shocked to find Wanda at the door instead of Jo, eyes red with obvious emotion.

“W-Wanda…What are you doing here?” He asked her, surprised to find her here.

“Oh, I was just talking to Jo about… some stuff.” Steve knew that while he tried his best to be there for her to talk, he could only provide so much support and advice. While he personally was hesitant to speak to a therapist, he was glad that if she was needing help, that she was getting it. She looked at him and cocked her head. “Why are you here, Stevie?”

Steve rubbed the back of his neck, feeling embarrassed at the inference in her question. “Oh, uh… I needed to talk to Jo.”

She raised an eyebrow. “I’ll get her for you.” Turning back towards the room she called out. “Jo! Steve is here to talk to you. I’ll see you tomorrow.” At this she walked past Steve and started down the hall. She looked back and grinned as she saw Jo come to the door and give Steve a wide smile. Steve had his hands deep in his pockets, letting Wanda know that he was nervous. A big strong super soldier who looked afraid to talk to someone. She just shook her head and rolled her eyes as she walked away. 

Steve was standing in front of Jo with his hands shoved in his pockets, staring at the ground, not quite sure how to proceed. She smiled widely at him and leaned against her door frame. 

“Hi Steve, what can I do for you?”

He shuffled his feet slightly. “Jo, I don't really know how to start. I know you told me not to worry about what I said to you earlier this week, but it’s been eating at me all week. I needed to come apologize for how I spoke to you and the assumptions I made about you. It was rude and a poor representation of who I strive to be. I didn't give you a chance to be honest about yourself and I just assumed you were going to lie about things and use the team and myself.”

Jo was surprised by his words. “Steve, you don’t need to be upset about this. I understood your reasons for being cautious of me and I wasn’t expecting an apology .”

Steve shook his head in disagreement. “I know you didn’t expect an apology, but you deserve one and I couldn't go any longer without giving you one. I’m sorry, truly. I hope I didn’t make you feel too uncomfortable on your first days here and that I can prove to you that I am not some judgemental asshole.”

At this she laughed. “I would never have thought that of you…” She saw Steve raise an eyebrow in disbelief. “Okay, maybe for a little bit, but not for long.” 

Steve chuckled as well. “Trust me, I wouldn’t blame you. I was definitely not myself for a moment there. Is there any way that I can make it up to you?”

She started shaking her head and saying that he didn’t need to make anything up when a thought came to her head. A slight smile creeped across her face. “Well… you could always come out with the group tomorrow. Sam told me you aren’t really one for the bar scene and I completely understand that, but you’re the only one not coming and it would be nice to have you there. You all need to let your hair down and relax and I would hate for you to be the only one not going.”

He thought for a moment, his face scrunched up in displeasure, and then sighed with resignation. “Let my hair down, huh? Yeah, I guess I could make an exception this once… Just as an apology.” 

“Sure, sure.” She said while nodding her head in mock seriousness before a smile crossed her face. “Well, Captain, I look forward to seeing you there. Goodnight Steve.”

He smiled and nodded his head softly. “Goodnight Jo.” He said softly.

She closed the door behind her and leaned against the door. She was happy and she wasn’t quite sure why. It must have been Steve’s apology and that he was willing to get together with the group. She wouldn’t admit that part of the smile was for the soft way he had said her name when he said goodnight.

[prismaticflare]

Colorful - Part 1 (G)

Fandom - Our Life : Beginnings and Always

Pairing - Cove Holden / Gender Neutral Reader

After a day at the beach, you learn a shocking fact about Cove. Takes place in Part 2

It was another perfect summer day in Sunset Bird. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and you were ecstatic to enjoy the day with whatever random activities came your way.

You had just finished breakfast when a knocking came to your door.

“Can you get that?” Ma asked from the couch. “I mean, I’m willing to bet that it’s for you, anyways. There’s really only one person who visits us.”

“Ma!” You squealed, blushing.

“You know I’m kidding.” Ma giggled, earning a glare from Mom, who was sitting next to her.

You ignored their antics and rushed to the door, opening it to see Cove, dressed only in his swimming trunks, swaying nervously at the front door.

“Oh, hey!” Cove stuttered out. “I was going to go to the beach, and, um, if you’d like…”

“I’ll join you!” You said, interrupting Cove’s stuttering. You were pretty sure that was what he was going to ask you, anyways.

“Oh! Um…” Cove said in shock, readjusting his conversation, as if he had planned everything out beforehand and now had to reword his proposition (which, knowing Cove, was almost certainly true). “Sure, I’d love that.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there.” You replied. “See you in a minute!”

And with that, you rushed off to your room to find the perfect swimsuit for the occasion. Living on a beach you had plenty to choose from, so you quickly changed into your favorite one, and grabbed anything else you could need. You had no idea what you were actually planning to do, but knowing you and Cove, it would mainly consist of just floating in the water and chatting.

After grabbing everything you needed, you rushed downstairs.

“I’m gonna go meet up with Cove at the beach.” You told your moms while you were double-checking that you had everything.

“Okay, have fun!” Ma replied.

“Elizabeth has an event today, so all three of us will probably be gone when you get back. Don’t get any sand or water in the house.” Mom added.

“I won’t! Bye!”

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

Arriving at the beach, you saw Cove already splashing in the waves. Ever since he got his cast removed, Cove practically lived on the beach. Nowadays, you rarely saw him elsewhere. You didn’t mind though. The beach was the perfect place to spend free time, and if it meant a lot to Cove, it meant a lot to you.

When you finally caught up to Cove, you dropped your stuff next to his, and met up with him. “So, what’s the plan?” you asked, slowly entering the water. “Spending time with you.” Cove said, causing both of you to blush at Cove’s forwardness.

And that’s what happened. You two just spent your day relaxing in the water, occasionally opting to do more stimulating things like racing in the water or building sandcastles. But, for the most part, you just chatted. Even though you saw each other practically every day, you always seemed to have things to talk about. That’s just how it went with Cove.

Eventually, though, you realized it was getting late. While you originally planned to go straight home, you remembered that your parents and Elizabeth were all gone. You also remembered Mom’s strict rules on not getting any of the beach in the house, and looking at the state you were in, that didn’t seem very possible.

“Hey Cove?” You asked while packing up your stuff.

“What?” Cove asked.

“Do you mind if I clean up at your place instead? It’ll be a lot easier, plus, your dad cares a lot less about getting sand and water in the house.

“Um…” Cove blushed, squirming to find the right answer. “Sure, if you want.”

“Okay, thanks!” You replied, as you both headed back to Cove’s place.

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

When you got to Cove’s house, you pretty much directly went to his room, passing his dad on the way there. Kyra was gone this evening, so it was only him. Cove insisted that you cleaned up before him, so after quickly rinsing off, you traded places with Cove so he could clean up himself.

While Cove was in the shower, you opted to sit on the floor of his bedroom, waiting for him to be done. You were just relaxing, twiddling your thumbs, when you heard a voice from the bathroom. You walked over to the bathroom door to try to figure out what he was saying.

“Were you talking to me?” You asked, leaning your ear against the bathroom door.

“Yeah, um, so, sorry if this is a bother, but in my bedroom there should be a bottle with some seafoam-colored liquid in it. Could you grab it for me? I normally would myself, but, um…”

“Sure, I can grab it.” You replied before the conversation went in a very awkward direction. After scouring the room, you finally found the bottle, or at least what you thought he was looking for. To your shock, however, it was labeled as temporary hairdye! While it makes logical sense that Cove didn’t naturally have green hair, you had never really thought about it. And it definitely surprised you that it wasn’t permanent.

With the bottle in hand, you went back to the bathroom, knocking on the door before telling him that you had the bottle. Slowly and tentatively, the door opened, revealing a profusely blushing Cove wearing nothing but a towel, avoiding eye-contact with you as much as possible.

In any other situation, you would be blushing too, but your mind was much more focused on something else. Cove was blond! I mean, it made sense. His father was (although you weren’t confident about that being natural), and you’d need light hair to get the color that Cove usually wore. Still, it felt so odd, seeing Cove like this.

“I know, it looks weird.” Cove said, making you realize you had been staring at it for longer than you probably should have.

“I think it suits you.” You said, leaning against the wall.

“Why?” Cove asked, going back to the shower and closing the curtains so you could still talk with him while he re-dyed his hair.

“It fits your whole surfer-dude aesthetic.” You laugh. It made him look even more like a basic surfer boy than he already did.

“That’s why I hate it.” Cove groaned. “Well, that and it’s way too boring.”

Finally, Cove left the shower, wrapping his head in a towel to allow it to dry and let the color to soak in.

“Than why don’t you permanently dye it? I mean, I think you’d look great either way, but if you prefer it green, you should keep it that way.”

“Dad wouldn’t let me.” Cove said, sighing.

“What? How do you know? Did you ask him?” You asked. Cove’s dad always felt like the type to not care about that kind of stuff, so him banning permanent hairdye would be a shocker to you. I mean, at this point, it was practically permanent, so he couldn’t care that much.

“Well, not really.” Cove said slowly, as if he was realizing that his assumption may not have actually been true. “But most parents don’t allow that kind of stuff.”

“Most parents don’t offer kids 20 bucks to be friends with their kid.” You laughed. Cove never found it as funny as you, but at least it gave him easy blackmail on his dad.

“Fair.” Cove replied. “So, should I go, like, ask him?”

“Why not?” You responded.

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

Following Cove into the living room, you were met with Mr. Holden sitting on the couch, eating some sort of snack and watching surfing on the TV. You never really understood why he watched that, he could literally walk outside to see it, but you never really bothered asking.

“Hey Dad?” Cove asked from the hallway, sticking close to you.

“What’s up kiddo?” His dad responded.

“Would you be okay if I dyed my hair?”

“What?” Cove’s dad replied in utter confusion.

“I mean, like, permanently.” Cove replied, nervously fiddling with his thumbs. 

It took Cove’s dad a few more seconds before Cove’s statement finally settled on him, causing him to laugh at the realization. “Kiddo, I thought you dyed it permanently a long time ago!”

“You did?” Cove asked.

“Of course I did! I didn’t expect you to be dyeing your hair temporarily for the last who knows how many years! Go ahead and dye your hair. It’ll probably save me a lot of money if you’ve been doing it temporarily this whole time!”

“Thanks Dad!” Cove replied with a sigh of relief.

“You’re welcome kiddo.” Mr. Holden responded, still clearly in shock that his son had been dying his hair temporarily for this many years straight.

“And thanks to you too.” He said, returning his attention to you. “I totally wouldn’t have asked otherwise.”

“You’re welcome. I had a sneaking suspicion that he didn’t actually care.”

“Yeah, I guess it makes more sense that way.”        

part 1 | part 2 

[thelastspeecher]

eregyrn-falls replied to your post: “I've been watching a lot of tornado related...”

tornadoes are something that terrified me as a little kid, no doubt due to television. (i can remember a nightmare from early childhood about a tornado.) i grew up in eastern PA, where at the time we didn't have any. so it was the IDEA of them that terrified me. honestly, it still does. i would very very VERY much prefer never to live in a place that gets them with any regularity.

​i realize they're old hat for you, and that's true for anyone who lives with a natural phenomenon. you come to respect it, rather than be terrified of it. but for me, i can't get past the suddenness of them. the fact that they can strike in the middle of the night when you might have almost no warning at all. while they aren't completely unpredictable (obviously there are observable weather fronts and stuff), to me, they feel that way.

the natural disasters that i can deal with are hurricanes, and blizzards. both of those are things you see coming for DAYS. you can get out ahead of them. you can take steps to protect your house and your pets and yourself. (i mean, both of those in theory, assuming you have the means and the financial situation.) earthquakes and tornadoes are too sudden for me and that's why they scare me.

oh you're not the only one who's had a tornado nightmare! one of the worst nightmares I've had in my entire life was a tornado nightmare!

I think that what allows me to continue living in a tornado-prone area despite my general anxiety over like, idk, life, is two things: 1) tornado predictions give a crazy amount of warning nowadays, and 2) I live in a tornado-prone area, I've had a few close calls, but it's not like I live in Moore, Oklahoma lmao.

most tornado warnings aren't even that a tornado has been spotted by someone or confirmed by radar. most of them are "radar indicated rotation", meaning that a thunderstorm with a rotating cloud has been detected on radar. which doesn't mean tornado. it does mean a storm capable of a tornado and more likely to produce one, but it doesn't mean a tornado. or even a funnel cloud!

very VERY rarely are people caught off guard by a tornado anymore. FEMA says the average amount of time between a tornado warning being issued and the tornado or storm striking the area is 10 to 15 minutes. plenty of time to grab your emergency kit and go to your safe place. we have tornado watches if the weather is favorable and often know days in advance whether we'll be hit by weather conducive for tornadogenesis.

and even when we don't know in advance, like I said, we still have plenty of warning! about a week ago, I woke up to sirens, then ten minutes later, heard them again. which I knew likely meant a tornado warning had been issued (the first time, I checked my phone and saw it was severe thunderstorm and just rolled over to sleep some more lol). and before I could check, my phone went off, blaring the same alarm as an Amber Alert. which I knew 100% meant tornado warning. and it was. my roommate and I had time to use the bathroom, grab the dogs and emergency bag, and even take the dogs outside really quick to pee before the storm hit us! and we didn't have a tornado watch in effect. there weren't supposed to be conditions for tornadoes that morning.

and like I said, I don't live in Moore. if I did, I wouldn't even DREAM of living somewhere without a basement. as it is, I fucking hate that my best option is a hallway on the first floor. we've gotten tornadoes before. some have gotten close to me. one literally lifted over a building I was in. but thankfully, we're not as prone as other locations in my state; the storms tend to lose some steam by the time they reach here. and the tornadoes that do spawn tend to be lower level, again, because of the storms losing steam by the time they get here.

I know a lot about the science of tornadoes and grew up in Tornado Alley (or adjacent, depending on what graphic you use), so I know that our current methods are so flipping good at protecting us. we DO have warning. not as much as for a hurricane, but generally speaking, enough to, like I said, use the bathroom and grab the pets. earthquakes...yeah those don't typically give much warning, but that's something scientists are working on. buildings in earthquake-prone areas are built to withstand them (much like many buildings in tornado-prone areas are built to withstand severe storms), and people grow up learning what to do in an earthquake. (which is find a table to hide under, essentially, btw.)

no, what scares ME the most are wildfires.

you're flat-out fucked over by those.

[floatingcatacombs]

Tech So Bad It Sounds Like The Reviewers Are Just Plain Depressed

12 Days of Aniblogging 2024, Day 8

I really do try to stay away from armchair cultural criticism, especially when it's this far removed from my weaboo wheelhouse, but this one’s been eating away at me for the entire year. What are we doing here?

2024 has been full of downright bad consumer tech! The Apple Vision Pro, the Rabbit and Humane AI pins, the PS5 Pro… those are just the big ones, and that’s not even getting started on vaporware like Horizon Worlds and Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC initiative. Sure, there are Juiceros every year, but this recent batch of flops feels indicative of a larger trend, which is shipping products that are both overengineered and conceptually half-baked. Of course, there’s plenty of decent tech coming out too – Apple’s recent laptops and desktops have been strong and competitively priced, at least the base models. The Steam Deck created a whole new product category that seems to be thriving. And electric cars… exist, which is better than nothing. But it’s been much more fun to read about of the bad stuff, of course. These days it feels like most of the tech reviews I read these days have the journalists asking “what’s the point?” halfway through, or asserting in advance that it will fail, like this useless product with a bad value proposition is prompting an existential crisis for them. Maybe it is!

yeah yeah journalists don't write their own headlines. I can assure you that the article content carries the same tone for these though.

What did a negative tech review look like before the 2020s? Maybe there wasn’t one, really. The 2000s and the 2010s were drenched in techno-optimism. Even if skepticism towards social media emerged over time, hardware itself was generally received well, mixed at worst, because journalists were happy to extrapolate out what a product and its platform could do. Nowadays, everyone takes everything at face value! As they should –the things we buy rarely get meaningfully better over time, and the support window for flops is getting shorter and shorter with each passing year. On the games side of things, look how quickly Concord ended! With that out of the way, I’m going to start zeroing in on the hardware I saw a “why does this exist” type review for this year.

The Apple Vision Pro

People have been burnt time and time again by nearly every VR headset ecosystem to release (other than mayyybe Oculus, but Facebook’s tendrils sinking in don’t feel great either). The PSVR was a mild success at best and the PSVR2 was an expensive and unmitigated disaster that lost support in a matter of months. Meanwhile, the Valve Index couldn’t cut it with its price, and Microsoft actively blew up their own HoloLens infrastructure earlier this year. It’s at this point it's clear that VR is a niche, and one that’s expensive to develop for and profit off of.  Surely Apple will save us!

completely isolate yourself from your family for the low, low price of multiple paychecks

With most of the competition focusing on gaming, Apple attempted a blue ocean strategy with the Vision Pro by instead making their target audience… nobody! It’s hard to tell what anyone was ever supposed to do with these things, and reading long-form reviews, it became very clear that the reviewers were trying to come up with viable use-cases and largely failing, because it’s just not very practical tech. There’s no physical input devices, so you’re instead using mix of hand-tracking, eye-tracking, and voice commands to control the thing. That’s pretty cool, but it means that the one niche that VR has been proven in, gaming, is effectively impossible. Things like office software can also be hard to use without a keyboard and mouse, and even when there’s tailor-made headset applications for existing software, it’s still usually not better than just doing it on your desktop!

The tech is real, and that’s the saddest part. Looking at teardowns, I fully believe that the hardware had to cost multiple thousands of dollars to break even, and as someone who suffers from VR motion sickness, I’d be really curious to see if all the stabilization tech from their extra onboard chips helps with that as much as the press releases claim. It’s like a more drastic version of the iPad problem, where the hardware is amazing on paper, but interfacing limits with the form factor itself combined with a subpar operating system mean that you can’t actually do as much as you’d hope to with all that power.

Of course, the Vision Pro is also full of prototype hacks and hard design problems – that battery pack is a nightmare! If it’s a productivity device, how are you supposed to share content with other people when the headset has to be custom-fit every time and there’s only one profile? Apple still has no good answer. That leaves the only available niche for this device as white-collar productivity done in isolation, and most people fundamentally do not live in that world. It feels lonely and dystopic, even.

If I had to guess what happened, the VR division at Apple was working on this for the better part of a decade, and facing headwinds, Apple decided to cut their losses and force them to deliver a doomed product. There’s a potent business fantasy of a bad version 1.0 leading to a successful 2.0 and beyond, but Apple has not pulled that off any time in the twenty-first century. It’s either a success or it is a proven failure, and this is so, so, obviously the latter. I do hope that the stabilization tech makes it into other headsets eventually though, so that I can play Blade and Sorcery at my friend’s house without throwing up. Everyone else, please copy Apple’s homework or steal their patents, preferably to the tune of under $3500.

Rabbit R1 and Humane AI Pins

The current AI paradigm has been around for two years now, and since we've all heard way too many arguments already, I will try to keep my own takes brief. The LLM results we have right now are real (even if everyone is trying to dress them up as superintelligent snake oil when they’re just cool computer synthesis), but from everything I read, it seems like the era of drastic improvement is over. It would take exponentially more text and images and video than we already have to get more linear improvements, and a good chunk of the world has already been scraped, and the lawsuits are already pouring in, further slowing down data ingestion. The tech is slowing down, and the industry won’t be able to grow its way out of the hard social problems it’s invoked. If there are gains to be made, it's in more fine-tuned and curated LLMs, and that's far harder work than most of these companies want to get up to right now.

With that out of the way, are you interested in wearing an LLM on your shirt?

The video that notoriously tanked a company. Of course, now I'm also supposed to make fun of this guy for using b-roll of himself speeding in a school zone . Nobody wins.

Not one, but two separate startups pushed this idea to market this year. Humane’s AI pin launched for seven hundred dollars plus a twenty-five dollars per month subscription, all for the privilege of getting to ask a little square on your chest questions and getting GPT answers spoken back to you. But what about like… ChatGPT’s own phone app? Or hell, even Siri! Apple and Android’s voice assistants are both are over a decade old– do you really have that many ungoogleable queries? And specifically, ones that voice responses make the most sense for, and not text? To make things worse, this thing has serious overheating issues and a battery that can’t even last a day. The Rabbit R1 at least has a cute design, and actually has a screen, and is much cheaper, but it requires a data tether to your phone, so like…why not just use your phone. Reverse-engineering has confirmed that its app can just run on a normal Android phone, so there’s really nothing special other than the little orange square that it’s hosted in.

Why would you even try to roll out a product as doomed as these, instead of just going bankrupt and pocketing a year or two of salary like most startups? The AI boom, of course! After the NFT hype cycle, everyone really did convince themselves that you can just fail upwards with no real limit. Unfortunately, people have higher standards for hardware than PNG transaction platforms, as they get far more upset when they’re left physically holding the bag. I’ve been watching Deep Space 9 recently and have to ask, are these companies trying to capture the fantasy of Star Trek comms badges? Because if so, they should honestly lean more into it. It wouldn't be any more functional of a product, but if there’s one thing nerds always love, it’s themed garbage.

welp

The PS5 Pro

This one just launched a bit ago for the holiday season. It makes some sense on paper – most PS5 games offer a choice between a performance and a fidelity mode, so why not just make a version strong enough that it can get the benefits of both? Great! That’ll be seven hundred dollars.

Okay, $700 doesn’t sound as insane in the context of that Humane pin I was just talking about. But it’s $200 more than the PS5 at launch, and it doesn’t even come with a disc drive unless you want to fork over another $80. The past few generations of gaming have been defined by heavily subsidized console prices with the goal of roping gamers into more lucrative ecosystems, but Sony here seems to be testing the waters for an unsubsidized era.

I've heard the external disc drive install process is surprisingly user-friendly, but at this price point they should have included a little automaton who does it for you

If you can stomach PC gaming, at that price you’re halfway there to buying something that could trounce a PS5 Pro, plus a monitor close enough to your face that you might actually notice the 4K improvements. There are also only a couple of games per year being produced at high enough fidelity for there to be any noticeable quality improvements. The returns are diminishing and the AAA landscape is narrowing, and console upgrades like these only hasten the industry’s spiraling. Is all this sustainable from a development perspective? I don’t know. If Nintendo announced a Mario Odyssey sequel for the Switch 2, I’d buy it at launch regardless of the graphics, and my PS3 can play Demon's Souls and my anime blu-rays just fine. So I’m well aware that I’m not the target audience for stuff like the PS5 Pro, but I think it's going to become harder and harder to compel that audience going forward.

_

The end of the low interest rates in US has drastically changed the underpinnings of its tech industry, and I think every one of these bad product launches can be traced back here one way or another. The era of running flashy ventures at a loss for years in order to corner the market is profoundly over, unless you’ve got Thiel blood money or a GPT transformer, and even then. This, combined with the end of quarantine-era user habits, has left many companies to repeatedly go all in on hype cycles like blockchain and the metaverse and AI, pretending like the last one never happened every time. This trend-chasing means, that depending on each company’s circumstances, they need to either spin something up quick, reroute an existing prototype, or risk delivering laughably late. You need a product and you need it fast. And rushed tech is always going to have load-bearing and stupid problems, no matter how long the initial development time was. Everyone loses, especially the saps who actually believe in the sales pitches enough to buy these things. And those poor, poor tech journalists who have to review it all are being consumed with eldritch madness watching this all unfold. Hey, at least they’re not trying to simp for Microsoft Copilot!

Hopefully, this particular era of tech ends sooner rather than later, so that I don’t feel compelled to do another essay of this type. If I were more of an idealist or a doofus I’d be dreaming of a serious anticonsumerist movement and/or Xi Jinping liberating us all, but unfortunately I’m of the belief that we’re doomed to dumbass gizmos destined for the landfill until the end of the silicon era.

[chubbydino]

I stumbled upon fool’s gold when I was looking up brocedes fic (yes in 2024 i know) and omg was I drawn you with your amazing writing. On my way to order your novel!

I wanted to know if you had any tips for new writers trying to plan their novel, keeping track of storylines and ways for improve their writing?

thank you! i really appreciate it.

my advice under the cut

for commercial novels, i'm definitely not the one to ask, as i'm still very much a newbie when it comes to self-publishing. i will say commercial fiction and fanfiction are completely different beasts. if you're a new writer, i would try fanfiction first to see where you stand, so to speak. commercial novels are very hard to sell without a fanbase unless you really know what you're doing, and even after publishing (almost) 3 books in a year, i still barely know what i'm doing.

fanfic lets you write what you want, and you can tell almost immediately if its resonating or not because the readers are already there. word gets around quick in fanfic spaces. if it doesn't do well, you have to figure out why. my older fics have terrible grammar and punctuation mistakes that would never fly in a real novel. sometimes i made up for it with a good enough story that people could ignore those things (Horsepower, for example lol) but it wasn't until i really started focusing on learning that it started coming together. i still have problems with commas and semicolons LOL. once you get that down and pair it with a good story, the magic happens!

i will say that finishing what you start is absolutely necessary. i used to get stuck at 30k words. now i can write that in 2 weeks or less. it's important as a writer that you deliver on your promises to finish what you start. for fanfic it's more okay to abandon something, but you will burn fans. i have 3 fics i'll never finish, 2 no one really read in the first place but 1 was on track to be my most popular fic ever and i just...didn't write anymore because of life. nowadays i'll shorten the story and finish it before abandoning it.

yes, fanfic is about having fun etc, but i take it seriously, especially when people are depending on me to create for them. while you don't make money on fanfic, you get what every business pays a shit ton of money to have: people engaged in your content/you. the readers here on tumblr, ao3, and in the discord server make writing fun for me. i'm very lucky that many of those people have also followed me into novel writing by joining my patreon and buying my books as well. if i only finished half of the books i started, i doubt those people would stick around, no matter how much they like my writing haha. i don't write for myself, i write to share stories with those fans.

as for planning, i'm also not really the person to ask haha. for fool's gold i just scribbled down sparknotes of race weekends and wove the plot into them. my best fics maybe had an ending in mind early on (HLS) or a premise i wanted to explore (for PAPM, a amnesia fic where the MC never gets his memories back but there's still a story). a lot of it is intuitive, but i'm still learning. for my professional writing i loosely go off the 3-Act breakdown and Save The Cat! but i only started doing that in the past year or so.

In fic writing, you're forced to work with what you've already written and make it work. In professional writing, you better be ready to hack it to pieces and rewrite the whole thing (Redline lol) to make it better, and people will still not like it. like, people are mad at me for how i ended Short Shift because they think I'm going to tropify it lol.

i see all my stories as movies in my head, so i rarely have to dig into my notes to see what actually happened because i "saw" it happen. idk how to explain it. for FG i wrote most of it without flipping back through. i do forget stuff, but for fanfic it's usually fine. for professional writing, i have beta readers checking that everything makes sense.

in short, just write. soooo many people i know want to write a book and then spend months planning, planning, planning, and never write it. my first attempt at a novel is 85k words and took over a year to write and will never see the light of day. meanwhile wheelspin is 106k words and i wrote it in 3ish months.

there are a lot of shitty books out there making careers for people. as long as you have a good story and a good editor (or knwo how ot edit yourself), you can do a lot and learn as you go. but just keep in mind that self-publishing is like 40% writing and 60% business. i spent 6 months taking free classes on self publishing before Redline debuted just to be able to do the basics. it's a steep learning curve, but worth it when you can hold your own book in your hands. :)

[goetzjpvis]

3/5/24 "Ring" JPT3391

This movie was super fun to watch. A lot of the films we have been analyzing so far were ultra fine-arts type stuff, so getting to sit back and watch something that was made with the intention of having little to no major social value and commentary was kind of refreshing!

But still, it has commentary and value. Funny how things are!

Anyways, everybody knows 'Ring', a.k.a. the girl crawling out of the TV- but nobody knows her story. Ring is one of the most famous Japanese horror movies, and by extension, horror movies in the world. Personally, I consider Ring to be a 'denpa' movie because it deals with themes of electronic connection and societal reject with an air of goofiness, but it caps that off at the horror aspect, which is why I consider it to be 'analogue horror' too! Which was definitely not as explored then as it is now. I genuinely believe this movie inspired so many analogue horror trends and eventually the content that we see today.

A lot of the "Japanese spooks" we see on the net actually also follow a similar pattern, involving cursed electronics, train stations, etc. But the 'electronics' feel kind of follows new-age horror into America simply because we have technology too! You can see lots of modern day creepy pastas revolving around similar themes, such as evil mario romhacks, etc.

Below is an illustration of "Kisaragi station", which is another Japanese Urban legend/creepypasta, and the right is the "Mario Romhack Face", which is another modern Ubran legend famous in the gaming community.

We've actually seen a lot of American spinoffs and parodies of Ring as well, showing just how influential this modern-day take on technological horror was! I believe what made it so scary was its immersiveness (I mean, she literally crawled out of the TV and it looked so real...) and it's ability to be easily replicated made it a popular form of horror as well.

Aside from the horror aspect, Ring also features a very unique set of character relationships in it! A working woman who is also a devoted mother, and her divorced husband who works alongside her. It's rare enough nowadays to see a film that has a female MC, but one who is also a mother!? that remains unsexualized?! It is so refreshing to see. I was half expecting something bad to happen to her the entire time, but the film itself ended on a bittersweet note, with the death of her husband and her own survival. I also thought the scene regarding the old man's illegitimate daughter's death was really cool, because it showed the story behind the seemingly unrelated imagery that plagued the evil tape.

I felt like this movie displayed an unconventional family life while still refusing to paint the mother or father in a bad light. They had a bad marriage, yes, and they separated, but neither of them were villains. Of course the divorce wasn't portrayed positively, but neither the wife or husband were really at fault. I saw good people in a bad situation, just like the situation the Ring girl herself was in. The Esper situation did catch me by surprise however, I found that more fantastical than the idea of evil tapes, haha!

[lionews]

“They used to teach this shit in school, or are the newbies too young for school, too?”

I agree with all of this without taking out a single word. I’m the anon that listed all the prices below.

I could say people nowadays are getting way less inclined to read because of the mass consume of quick stuff (ie Tiktok). Wich btw, I use too, to not sound like one of these “in my time” boomers aswell. As a teacher myself, kids nowadays don’t want to read and learn patiently, they want the content chewed and spit to them in 30 seconds or less. I will give papers with very clear instructions in max 3 paragraphs and just 10 seconds after I distribute them I will have someone raising their hand and asking something that the answer is quite literally highlighted in the second paragraph. I point that out and they sigh and read.

That’s the phenomenon that I observe within Lioden users too. Especially the younger ones (not only the kids I could say anyone that’s -21). They have a whole wiki that will give them every answer they want, but they want that answer faster, they don’t want to waste time learning, they want to consume the content and regurgitate it further. That’s how their world works, and it sucks.

Lioden TikTok users don’t help it either, since mostly just want to show their prides and their daily stuff and rarely explain things, the newbies immediately acquire the “I want to do that too” mindset based on this 15 second video. They will try to do exactly what they saw there over and over, but Withouth considering external factors (preparing and saving and researching prices etc like you said.) it’s a VERY limited world view we’re trying really hard to overcome, at least in schools, from my experience. But yeah, it affects every part of someone’s life.

.

[unluckyuncle]

Unprompted Ask // @krueger4eva // Always accepting

When you lose your temper, do you ever enter a dissociative state?

[ Oh boy, that's a big one. ] It's pretty rare for people to take his outbursts seriously at all, let alone ask something like that.

[ Sometimes it does feel like that, considering I don't remember a lot of it... I just get lost in what I feel. Fear, embarrassment, or even frustration. I lashed out 'cause I'm angry and defendin' myself. I don't think... I couldn't think during my temper fits. I just saw red, and I couldn't stop until... well, whatever I was mad at got hurt. ]

He clenched his fists ever so slightly. [ For a real long time... it's just how it was. ] It was hard for him to talk about this kind of stuff. In truth, he still struggles with his temper to this day despite all of the hard work he's put into helping himself grow.

But he always remembers the ducklings who motivated him to begin with. He's gotten better at keeping the fit to himself, except when someone threatens his boys. He can never seem to control his temper when people do that.

[ Nowadays I keep focused on what's important to me so I don't hurt something I can't fix. It's... not always easy but, I have to be proud of my progress. ]