#just shouting into the void because that's all I have

[infoglitch]

Falling dusk (a Lancaster story)

Chapter 1: a beacon in the dark.

Ruby's feet trudged through the black sand as she carried crescent Rose on her back. With jaune not to far behind as he carried crocea mors on his hip and ember Celica on his right arm.

Ruby's torn cloak billowed behind her revealing gamble shroud was attached to the back of her waist.

"how much farther until we reach beacon?" Jaune asked as his breath was ragged. Ruby kept going as jaune followed, she was completely ignoring him.

"ruby! Are you listening?" Jaune spoke again as Ruby kept walking her once silver eyes now a dull black. Jaune grumbled softly as he managed to catch up to her and grab her shoulder.

"RUBY." He said sternly as Ruby turned to face him her eyes narrowing at him. Her face contorted into a scowl. "We have a few hundred miles left until we reach beacon, and we will still a few hundred miles when we finally leave vacuo. YOU ASKING QUESTIONS ISNT HELPING" Ruby finally answered as her voice was cold. Jaune simply looked at her and nodded.

"alright.. we will have to camp soon. How much longer do you think we can last with just our aura?" Ruby questioned the blonde as jaune sighed, closing his eyes before eventually opening them.

"we got 6 days left then our auras are drained we'll need to find more rations soon... Who knows we might find some cookies." Jaune jested but ruby just sighed and looked away.

Eventually the two set up camp as jaune sat opposed to Rwby as she had taken out her sisters scarf and held it close.

Jaune sat quiet just allowing silence to fill the void. Before finally he asked the question he knew he would ask eventually after.. after Armageddon.

"what happened to us.." jaune asked as Ruby just looked away. "Now isn't the time jaune" she would mumble.

"there is no time left rubes, we are left HERE! Time doesn't exist anymore- Life doesn't exist anymore! so- what happened to us?! We were practically linked at the hip when we started. But now- Now I can't tell if I'm even your friend anymore. Let alone your partner..." Jaune pressed on as Ruby just looked away. She didn't want to entertain this conversation.. not at all.

Jaune took a breath before sighing. "I'm just... I'm tired.. I still worry about you rubes but I'm at the point of just giving up. Everyone is gone, my sister's are gone, my parents are gone, your family is gone, all of our friends are gone. Reduced to either ash or Grimm.. I cant keep going like this-"

"I CANT KEEP GOING LIKE THIS EITHER! BUT IM NOT THE ONE BITCHING ABOUT IT!" Ruby interrupted Jaune as she stood up. Her face was only darkened by the growing shadows.

"YOU THINK I DONT WISH WE WERE BACK AT BEACON, BACK TO BEING KIDS WHO JUST WANTED TO FIGHT MONSTERS?! I DO! I do! There is never going to be a day where I hope this is all just a nightmare. That I will wake up at beacon being late to Ms. Goodwitch's class, with my sister, my teammates, my friends waiting for me! I wanna go back to the way things were just as much as you do!" Ruby continued her eyes glowing as hot tears ran down her face.

"but what the hell am I supposed to do when reality is that this is REAL. This is our destiny. To try and find the remaining relics in hopes that we can undo this or at the least stop Salem! You wanna know what happened to us?! We broke a part because you can't handle reality!" Ruby shouted out as she knew some parts of what she said were wrong but she knew the majority was right.

Jaune just sat there. As much as he wanted to protest he figured it only escalate things. And this point, things could not be allowed to escalate anymore.

"alright.." that was all jaune could mutter as Ruby just looked at him. Before she sat down.

As the two were about to just continue the rest of the night in silence a light shined in the sky.

[fruitisthenewvegitable]

I’m relistening to Empires: The Musical again

And can I just say, having Oli the Orionsound voice the prophecies in the background was a fucking spectacular choice in my opinion

There’s something about the way that he says the prophecies that scratches my brain in the right way. And the way that his voice overlaps itself in The Prophecies sounds so intimidating compared to most of the songs around it, which makes it feel like we now know something we shouldn’t, something ancient, something once discovered, something that was left behind when all the things that knew of it were dead because of it.

And it’s really fucking cool

Also I don’t care how distorted Xornoths voice is, Your Old Friend Xornoth is a fucking banger and Lizzie’s lines in that song are my favorite part, and Xornoth referring to themself as “Big Daddy Xorxor” is comedy at its finest because the only person who would actually call them that is Joey, and Xornoth doesn’t socialize with anyone else (with the exception of of Sausage, but tbf Sausage is…. Sausage)

Tldr: please listen to Empires: The Musical if you’re into Empires smp s1, I need someone to shout into the void with 😭

[lggy]

I just wanted to tell you, coming from a past total Jason hater who has now accepted that they were wrong on things, that your takes about him and Jess have helped me get out of whatever parasocial disillusioned mess I was in. I just felt like you deserved to know that you weren’t shouting into the void.

THANK YOU

i'm trying to undo some of the damage caused by parasocial rumors n hater stuff.. i feel like i probably come off as a dickrider and it doesnt help that im the wiki guy on top of that and people probably perceive me as not being critical enough, but i think it's way better to approach things (especially accusations against irl people) with all the facts laid out and with critical thinking (bad-faith interpretations are not critical thinking) and also empathy/believing people's first hand experiences.

i'm mostly advocating for stopping the spread of misinformation and rumors.. but i am biased bc i love aphmau.

it's just really hard for me to hate on jess like some people here do after watching that livestream where she breaks down after talking abt the level of harassment/threats/(now as we learned, stalkers) she got during mcd s2. idk i feel bad for her people are so mean to her :(

a lot of people jump on hate trains bc they dont want to be labelled problematic hence all the ppl who tag their aphmau posts as like "jess defenders dni" "jesson supporters dni" "i dont support aphmau" and it becomes one big spiral of rumors and accusations and becomes a toxic cesspool then wonder why jess ghosted all social medias. it takes effort to get all the information and a lot of ppl dont want to do that, so thats why i'm doing it.

idk i just go about the internet as if the creators can see what i say and draw. some ppl straihgt up want to bar the creators from their own fandoms which is fucked up in my opinion. some of you people are proud of bullying the employees which is extremely gross and cringey too. thats just my opinion though

There really are issues with the workplace, a few current/former employees speak up about it. These are issues brought up in just the past few weeks:

( sebastian's og tweet was last year but he retweeted in the beginning of june for some unknown reason but i won't speculate on that though)

last one is just in general that pulls in over the past couple years^ i don't have any sources for the employee who allegedly had ptsd after working at blujay/catface because i haven't looked that deeply into that in particular and dont know where to look for it

i don't really know what to say about the workplace things.. they hired new HR recently so i guess they're working on it.

I can interview a few current employees to learn more but all i know rn is people in the voice and art department

i had more but its 1 am i have work tomorrow oops gn thank you for hearing me out

[dizaryswrites]

New comic book day is looking very blue 💙

[lurkingshan]

The Sign is only at the halfway point of its narrative and just did an entire episode of filler…concerning.

[cluescorner]

WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH KAEYA AND VENTI?? Like, of all the relationships I want explored in genshin theirs is the most fascinating to me. Do they know who the other is in relation to their origins? Are they both in the dark? Does one know and the other doesn’t? What are their real feelings towards the other person, not just the expressed ones based around their personas? Why was Kaeya left in Mondstadt specifically and does Venti have any thoughts on the matter? Are we gonna get a big reveal scene where Venti shows himself as Barbatos and Kaeya is like ‘AYO WHAT THE FUCK’? Are we gonna get one where it’s vice-versa and Venti loses it onscreen? 

Does Kaeya know that Venti is Barbatos and is friendly with him regardless? Or is it to get more info on the Archon? Or is it to perhaps ingratiate himself to Venti in hopes of not fucking dying like literally almost everyone else? Is he completely unaware and if Venti admits his identity to Kaeya that will be yet another instance where Kaeya’s trust has been broken by someone close to him? Or will he lash out at Venti because it is heavily implied that the Abyss Order/Fatui/tbh everybody related to Khaenri’ah in some way hates Barbatos in particular for some reason? Or will he just go on as normal in hopes that Venti doesn’t recognize Kaeya as Khaenri’an? Or will he have a fucking panic attack immediately because bro I would too if one of the people who killed-or-worsed literally my entire nation just showed up and oh no he was my fucking drinking buddy? 

Does Venti know that Kaeya is an Alberich and simply not care? Or is he pitiful of the man whose freedom was restricted at a very young age? Or does he feel intense guilt stemming from whatever the fuck he did in Khaenri’ah because SERIOUSLY WHY DO KHAENRI’AH-RELATED GROUPS SEEM TO HATE BARBATOS IN PARTICULAR? Or is he perhaps afraid of what Kaeya might do to his nation and hopes to get as close to Kaeya as he can to prevent anything from happening? Did Venti always know that Kaeya was there even during his sleep? Did he wake up and wander into the city and suddenly BOOM, DESCENDENT OF THE ABYSS ORDER IS YOUR CAVALRY CAPTAIN AND YOU CANNOT DO SHIT ABOUT IT? Does Venti not know that Kaeya is an Alberich/Khaenri’an and are we going to get a big reveal wherein Venti will once again be placed in a position where he might have to compromise his identity in order to protect the greater good? Or will he try to kill Kaeya because honestly if I took part in the mass-destruction of an entire civilization I would assume that if somebody reveals themself as a part of that civilization that they’re here for revenge? Or will he treat it like it’s no big deal because he already knew/doesn’t care because Kaeya has made it clear that he’s loyal to Mondstadt? Or will he collapse into a big puddle of guilt and beg forgiveness for everything that’s happened because, when you really think about it, none of Kaeya’s suffering would have ever occurred if Celestia hadn’t nuked Khaenri’ah? Even outside of the other bullshit, Kaeya’s freedom was restricted at a very young age due to the actions of Celestia which Venti played a direct part in. Does Venti feel guilty for this or like he’s wound up betraying his own value? Does KAEYA feel that way? 

THEY DO NOT HAVE VOICELINES ABOUT EACH OTHER! Kaeya and Venti get them for such a menagerie of Mondstadt characters (including ones they never even interact with) that the fact they don’t have them for each other drives me insane. That HAS to be intentional, why the fuck do y’all not talk about each other when you should probably have THE MOST AMOUNT OF THINGS TO SAY ABOUT EACH OTHER?! They are making me crazy. LET THEM INTERACT AND BE HONEST WITH EACH OTHER! WHERE ARE THE FICS WHERE THEY REVEAL THEIR IDENTITIES/LITERALLY ANYTHING RELATED TO THEIR HIDDEN IDENTITIES HAPPEN AND THE OTHER REACTS TO IT?? WHERE ARE THEY?? They are easily the most fascinating yet utterly unexplored dynamic in Genshin. I see more fics about Childe and Kaeya interacting than Venti and Kaeya and I get it and no hate BUT WHAT THE HELL MAN?!

[finniestoncrane]

people shouldn't be allowed to be mean to me. do you know how hard i spiral? it's a hazard to myself and others!!

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

oughh......

[the-fallen-blue]

I know I just finished saying I like this fandom, but. We definitely still have our full quota of subtle fandom misogyny.

For example, the internet's two ~favorite~ characters are Astarion and Karlach, supposedly. But start a conversation about Astarion, and get six thousand pages of gushing essays about his trauma and his perspective and the subtle contradictions in his behavior and a universal acknowledgement that the way he sees the world is warped by his experiences and his perspective and what that means for him and endless pondering about what sex means for him and what violence means for him and when his decisions are right and when they're irrational and how he'd react to things and what he really means when he says or does this and and and and and....

Start a conversation about Karlach, who has every single bit of that complexity, and the best you'll get is "Muscle Mommy Hot 🥵💦" and the worst you'll get is "I've somehow taken every single word Karlach says in this game completely at face value and yet I confidently believe that you're the one who is wrong about her for thinking she has a shred of development or depth."

The default majority take on Karlach, in this game where she is the only ace-friendly romance option, is that she's the horniest character on the team. The default majority take on Karlach, in this game that is about trauma, and helping your companions not do stupid things because of the warped perspectives left by their trauma, is that when she says she'd rather die than go back to Avernus that's a simple, rational, informed, healthy judgement that should not be questioned. The default majority take on Karlach, in this game about murderers saving the world, is that she's a cinnamon roll who's never done anything wrong. The default majority take is that Karlach's entire character begins and ends with the things that she says to your face.

And then that same majority will turn around and write fifteen hundred words about how Astarion's fear is driving his desperation about Ascension at the drop of a hat, and not even notice the discrepancy.

And you know what? I do genuinely believe that people like Karlach. We've come a long way from the days of ATG fantasy where every single female character was a bitch or a harpy or a Mary Sue or a boring doormat getting in the way of the sexy white boys we were actually here for. We can be enthusiastic about them and say nice things and genuinely enjoy having them around. We can actually like them! It's just that "liking" a female character and "liking" a male character are still. Apparently. Very different things.

[aparticularbandit]

Sometimes, I feel like it should have been me, instead of Mom.

But God, in His infinite wisdom, decided to take her instead.

This isn't, like, a death wish or anything. I don't want to die. Terrified of the idea.

But I think she would have been doing much more good in the local community we are in and involved with so many more people and been allowed that than what I've been doing and continue to do.

Mom fits here in a way that I don't.

So sometimes I think, well. Maybe it should have been me.

[early-october-skies]

Me when we don't speak anymore by bears in trees

[katzenklavierr]

That poll is the first time I've encountered something that just like. Forgot binary trans people exist lmao

Like I don't really consider myself genderqueer, I definitely don't consider myself nonbinary, and I have pretty much zero interest in dissecting how much my intersex status plays into my gender not matching my assigned sex.

I understand not everyone feels this way, but I can't imagine I'm the only one who does.

One of my biggest pet peeves in queer spaces is people automatically assuming that an intersex person's gender label is also intersex or anything else outside of the male/female binary. It feels awfully similar to bioessentialism to assume that someone's sex not being strictly one or the other means their gender can't be, either.

I'm just a man. Trans and intersex are adjectives to describe my body the same way that I might call myself short or dark-haired.

[giantkillerjack]

Your stance on the Dunmeshi queerbait stuff is a bit selfish. Wanting this one manga to go exactly the way you want is a dangerous path - the way you phrase it is so entitled, making it clear it's not about consuming media about lesbians, but making one specific work suit exactly what you want. So many yuri mangas are written by sapphic women. It's a shame your stance is how it is.

And bastardizing the term queerbaiting does no good, either. Neither does the japanese manga market. You should research more before making such hurtful posts.

Hope you have a great day anyway.

[Anon is referring to this post, I believe.]

I mean, one of us certainly IS acting very entitled and weird about the media they like, and it ain't me. Like, I think you just have associated this piece of media with your own identity in an unhealthy way that makes you react to criticism of it with intense defensiveness. You don't own Dungeon Meshi. You aren't Marcille. Dungeon Meshi is NOT a yuri manga; it's a beautiful manga with either sapphic queerbait or a woefully underdeveloped queer relationship at its center.

Maybe if you had an argument besides "it does no good" to criticize it, but you don't. So.

Smh, it's a "dangerous path" - I'm screenshotting that bc I know it'll make my wife laugh. Like, friendo, wanting a piece of media to be better isn't dangerous. But calling someone selfish and hurtful for criticizing media while offering no clarifications as to who I've hurt or how (any fellow sapphics bleeding out in here? Or is it just me with my bonkers-heavy period??)... it's overstepping a social boundary in a bizarre way.

Like, I'm sorry that I'm better at media analysis than you (not actually sorry - I am being petty! :D), but I actually have studied queerbaiting!! I am willing to bet I have done more research than you! (Are you from twitter? You have that vibe. - Again, pettiness.)

... and I spend every day with my wife (the best writer I know; I'm so honored to share stories with her), talking of nothing but our shared special interest all day - i.e. media analysis. (I honestly don't know what neurotypical couples talk about lol)

And I've done enough research to know that one of the side effects of queerbaiting is that fans are often in denial about it and then get REAL MAD when someone points it out. I was there for the Sherlock/Supernatural fandom. Shit was crazy. (Not saying Super-who-lock bc my man Russell Davies was like MAKE THOSE BOYS SMOOCH! 😎)

Also like, my apologies to Ryoko Kui - I really do love Dungeon Meshi - but like, I'm just better at writing and illustrating queer rep than she is. I make real gay protagonists who do gay shit and are gay, and I will never queerbait my audience. Womp womp.

Also, honestly, even if I turn out to be wrong about the queerbaiting by the end of the series, this message was still rude and entitled and weird. We have a lot of issues facing our queer community that endanger real people; someone calling a story queerbaiting mistakenly is not one of them.

[goodbye-susan]

.

[notmygrave]

so recently a child had gone missing and it ended up being a case of manslaughter with bad cover up and people are calling it a collective trauma (it is not) and comparing it to last year’s massacres (two of them, consecutively, also not a collective trauma) and it’s so disgusting how people are victimizing themselves and shifting the narrative around how if affected them personally and i’m not even going to touch upon the conspiracy theories and sensationalist approach to the entire ordeal

[finniestoncrane]

ah i have my first ever comic con tomorrow and i am so scared and nervous and excited like i've got a map printed out of the convention halls and i don't think i want to overwhelm myself by meeting people cos that's intimidating but i think it'll be good!