#lets make 2017 nothing but gravity falls

[ordinaryschmuck]

I love that The Ghost and Molly McGee's forced cancellation isn't just frustrating to fans of the show but to people in the animation industry as well. They're just as sick as we are about how much studios disrespect animation. They keep looking for the next Spongebob, Simspons, or goodness forbid Family Guy, but instead having faith in the creators and their content, they just...wait. They wait to make a profit and do the bare minimum to market their shows and make them available.

Let's look at Gravity Falls for example. I remember that when Gravity Falls was still airing, you would be able to find out a new episode was coming out based on coming across a commercial by random chance or by the people working the show promoting it online. Add that with the fact that it was on a different channel that required you paying MORE for your cable to get it. It WAS available through Disney Channel, a channel more available at a cheaper price, but the entire of Season Two got moved to the more expensive Disney XD, where Disney shows go to die, because...REASONS. With no warning or announcement. I think I found out about Gravity Falls moving to Disney XD because the trailer played during a commercial break. And that's just the START the show's problems. Mixed in with poor marketing, the show would have a crazy inconsistent schedule, where we'd have four episodes a week, a few months of NOTHING, a few more episodes a week, nothing for a few months, a random episode playing between that nothingness with next to no promotion, and all of that happening to the rest of the show until it finally died a slow death with its series finale where four episodes got stretched out for six months. That...is NOT okay. And it doesn't stop with Gravity Falls.

Steven Universe, OK KO, Ducktales 2017, Amphibia, The Owl House, and now Ghost and Molly McGee are all shows that had similar and sometimes WORSE treatments as Gravity Falls did, where the networks gave next to NO marketing, the creators had to promote their own shows themselves, and the airing schedules were so inconsistent with wildly long hiatuses that only the most dedicated fans were willing to keep watching. General audiences (mainly kids) weren't willing to keep up with shows that had ongoing stories if the episodes stories kept being too spaced apart and never had reruns as frequent as other shows like Teen Titans Go or Big City Greens (Or whatever's constantly on network TV nowadays. I don't know. I mostly watch shit on streaming).

The people of the animation industry is catching onto all of these tricks, and they're getting sick of it. They're getting sick of inconsistent schedules. They're getting sick of trying to bend over backwards in every possible way to make the show they wanted. By either making serialized content as episodic as possible so the network could air it more or by condensing their stories as much as they can, already expecting that forced cancellation to happen sooner than later. And in some cases, they don't even get the luxury of being told their show is ending. Did you know that Inside Job and Paranormal Park both had seasons that were already in development before Netflix pulled the plug shortly after releasing new episodes of their shows? Did you know that The Ghost and Molly McGee was already working on a Season Three before Disney shut that down so they had to force out a series finale that would still be good despite the cancellation? Because it's true. It's ALWAYS true. Creators want to make MORE, but the studios won't let them because they didn't profit off of it. Except they WOULD HAVE if they treated it better.

I want kids to grow up with characters that stick around through their childhood, just like I did with mine. I want kids to have their own Ed, Edd n Eddy, Codename: Kids Next Door, Phineas and Ferb, or Kim Possible. I want kids to watch shows that last more than two-three seasons, stick around for years, and leave an impact as if they have all the time in the world because to them, it feels like they do. I want kids to have a show that ends on a high note because the creators wanted it and not because the networks demanded it. But the unfortunate thing is that it doesn't seem possible nowadays. Because if a mostly episodic show like The Ghost and Molly McGee fails, despite being charming and inoffensive and something most kids will love, the what hope IS left.

[deadgurlfilmz]

CHAPTER 1- “what. The. F*ck”

Ford pines x platonic!teenage!reader

Summary- Reader and their friends go out to the forest. When reader is looking for a secluded area to pee instead they find a creepy statue. That definitely won’t lead to nothing more… right?

Warnings- teeny bit of swearing, reader is gender neutral, this is probably the only time these friends will be in the story they are only here to add context for the chapter.

it’s been 4 months since stand and Ford returned from their travels on the Stan o’ War and for the most part life has been normal. fords house is still ‘The Mystery Shack’ Stan and Soos co-manage the shack, Ford still continues his studies of Gravity Falls even writing a 4th jornal (it’s more of a personal jornal just for Dipper) and best of all there is no Bill. The pines family is no longer being terrorised by demonic triangle. YAY!

Now for you a 17 year old kid living in Gravity Falls. You are very ordinary you go to high school, have a close group of friends, decent grades and like every other teenager in Gravity falls you want to get the hell out of there. Even with Gravity Falls weirdness for example the gnomes you’ve encountered (that tried to force you to become their wife), and the ghost that haunts you’re old hangout spot (the abandoned 24h convenient store) the weird and supernatural just never really interested you.

Now for the present. It is a Saturday afternoon July 2017 you and your friends (Maren, Rebekah, Owen, and Julia) All decided to go deep Into the forest just for something to do. Owen and Julia were walking ahead of you, Maren, Rebekah, and You were gossiping about some junior his name was something like Gary? Gideon? Definitely on those lines. You spoke about his criminal history what is insane as at the baby age of 11 this boy was in prison. You all continued walking until you shouted to the group.

“Wait guys! I gotta pee” you shout so Owen and Julia would hear aswell.

Rebekah turned to you “babe… where about are you gonna pee? We are miles away from any bathroom.”

You look around and see a patch of land totally hidden with thick trees. “I’ll go over there” you point.

“Cool. We’ll just be here” Owen nods.

You walk over to the “pee spot” you walk into the tall trees and as you do the vibe changes from ‘normal woods’ to ‘suddenly I don’t need to pee anymore’. You feel as if you are being watched. You walk further in trying to shake the feeling. That is until you see a stone statue sticking out from the ground. It’s triangle shaped. On the one hand it’s creepy but on the other how can anything look creepy when it’s wearing a top hat and bow tie? You take a quick picture of it muttering under your breath “ahaha this is cool” and quickly leave (without peeing). You head back to the group not mentioning the statue you saw. A few hours pass and it’s getting dark so all of you head home.

When you 5 make it back to main gravity falls you all go your separate ways saying byes. The walk to your house isn’t long just 5 minutes away from lazy Susan’s diner. You reach you’re home taking out you’re key from you’re pocket and letting yourself in, you heat up left over pasta in the microwave and go to your room. You place the bowl on your dresser when you see a black book sitting on your bed. You know for a fact you didn’t put it there. Curiosity takes over and you pick it up skimming through the pages and taking in it’s horrifying illustrations and stories.

Two things you notice about the book-

1) the book was covered in drawing of the statue you saw in the woods. (Strange)

2) there was one man who repeatedly showed up. You recognise his face from somewhere… you take a moment to think that’s when it hits you the mystery shack! This is the man who owns the mystery shack!! You need to talk to him ask him what the fuck is going on.

You close the book and toss it under your bed not wanting to look at it any longer the only thing you can say is

“What. The. Fuck.”

—————————————————————

Okay!!! Chapter 1 done. Yay!! I know the dates and ages of characters I’ve used may not line up with the actual plot of GF but oh well just try to ignore it lol

[mdhwrites]

So, any theories on what Sasha's parents are like? Like I doubt they were perfect considering Sasha's behavior (remember when she outright stated in True Colors that she was okay never going back home and having zero problem with smashing the box, plus the fact she never shows signs of missing them even after her redemption in season 3). And considering how other redemptions are with their flawed relationship with family like Pacifica on Gravity Falls, Amity and Hunter on Owl House, Andrea on Ghost & Molly McGee, Zuko on Avatar the Last Airbender, Eddy on Ed Edd n Eddy, Catra on She Ra 2018, Lena on DuckTales 2017, Ludo on Star vs the Forces of Evil, and Helga on Hey Arnold, it's hard to believe Sasha had the best relationship with her parents. Granted Sunset Shimmer from the MLP FiM spin off Equestria Girls is a redemption character who also never had her family brought up or ever had an onscreen reason for why she was an evil and mean bully in the first movie (aside from probably just being an arrogant power hungry spoiled brat) so maybe Sasha's kinda like her in a sense too.

So this is a question I actually LOVE. There's a LOT you can glean off of a parent by their kid in general, let alone with any references to them. However... Them being redeemed doesn't always say anything about their relationship. Hell, for Amity since you listed her and I can comment, the speed of her redemption versus how much of a mustache twirling villain Odalia is ACTIVELY CONTRADICT EACH OTHER. It's REALLY bad.

Sasha's redemption says literally fuck all about her parents. Mostly because they don't mean anything to Sasha. Very little means anything to Sasha besides herself and her two best friends. Arguably not even Marcy.

The rest of her context to being willing to see the box destroyed and not return is critical here because she does actually explain herself. "Why rule a school when I can rule a world?" Her priority is self aggrandizing. It's not about freedom and it's not about safety. In fact, Sasha has cared very little for other's freedoms or her own safety. What matters is that Sasha is winning. Even Battle of the Bands made it clear that she is used to doing whatever it takes to be on top and getting her way.

Which to me doesn't mean abusive parents like you want to imply just through saying a lot of other shows did the trope of blaming abusive parents for bad behavior... It just means parents who thought the best way to make their daughter happy was to never tell her no. They let her live a life that had no consequences and where she didn't have to worry because if she skipped school or needed fifty bucks for gal pal time, they'd give it to her. This fits a lot more with Sasha's arc too because her arc has nothing to do with rebelling against her parents. She CHOSE to be a bad person. To not care about others. It's only by realizing that what she does hurt people with her actions and deciding they matter that she becomes a better person.

And to me, that's MUCH more compelling than trying to scapegoat what someone does onto their parent. It's not like everyone is evil just because their parents are shit. It devalues their choices as a character and is honestly a trope I'd like to see LESS. Or, bare minimum, not have standing up to their parent be like flipping a switch and making them automatically a good person because those scars last and their parents couldn't have made them do EVERY bad thing they did. Just look at Amity who decided "I'm going to make my ex-friend's life hell for YEARS despite only having to tell her we're not friends anymore to make my parents happy." That's not her parent's fault, that's her decision to be a monster.

At some point, the blame is on you for what you do. Narratively, for me, that's also more compelling and satisfying because it means you are the only one to blame for your gains too. People always have the choice to do good. It's their decision if it's too much work or relies on caring about others too much.

That to me is what makes Sasha so compelling and why anyone who wanted to see her parents I think are just asking for a categorically weaker story.

======+++++======

I didn't mean for the two blogs to be on a theme today but I decided on this anyways since I had both typed up. For anyone curious why I thought the previous one was dumb but this one was fun, it's simple: One asked if it belonged in the narrative. This one is just nice old character analysis.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[miblue]

how did you first come up with Darlen? and then later Dannie n Richie?

Okay. Storytime!!

I have had darlen for a long time. Infact, I first made her in 2014. But her name used to be Jenny. (I changed it to darlen in 2016 cause I like it better). I was or more so am, a big gravity falls fan. I love mystery, secret codes, supernatural creatures, all that fun stuff. And I really wanted to write a scooby do/gravity falls like story of mystery, so I came up with my own little group, the story was called pinemaple, cause that's the name of the town I was going to have everything happen in. Darlen was very inspired by mables personality (mixed with dippers cryptic obsession) . Overtime she's become her own person and the only one from that og group that stuck around. In 2017, I was drawing her with another og, Dean, as a sorta little mystery squad. Looking for her brother.

But one thing that always stuck, is darlen was always ment to have a brother. (It jumped from twins, to older brother, to now back to twins). He never had much personality developed cause in the narrative of the story, he was essentially the mysteriously missing element that had to be found. Which damaged the writing for him on my part.

Time jump. Darlen has been in a sorta story limbo, where I know what I want but making anyone else that stuck around her, was being hard.

(see especially in early days, I wanted to write story's but didn't know how to go about it, or understood how the process worked, so I would make characters, have a idea, then it would slowly fade cause I had no substance, I didn't know what I was doing or what I needed to do. I understand better now from learning more, but then I knew I wanted something just didn't know how to make it)

Around 2018. I made a new little crew. 4 members. And this one I like more, where it was more focused on the 4s personal relationships, plus ghost. (I always intened the group to pair off, the two guys and the two girls. The thing that kept the group together, is cause the siblings are close, and like working together, so the other two had to learn to get along and deal with eachother for their sake. )

Then come last year. I wanted to draw some cute shit, and make a new ship. Which is where Dannie and Richie showed up. And while drawing them, I had the idea of "hey wait. I been trying to make darlens brother for years, and Richie seems like he could work, I wonder...." And I doodled them interacting, and boom. Perfect! And it fit really well for the small group I had started, but never really developed past some first ideas (that group is where Louise came from too)

Darlens brother, was always ment to be just as into hunting ghost and the supernatural as she was, but he approaches it differently, more serious. (Think if she's like Mable, then he is like velma). He wants to find ghost too but is more skeptical about things. But evertime I did something with him, he was just boring to draw/write. So nothing stuck

Once I made the choice that darlen n Richie are siblings, it just seemed to fall into place. The thing I been wanting to make for a very long time, suddenly started to come together in a way that fit so well, like it hadn't done before.

So. Generally. Darlen has been around for a very long time. She's in almost every sketchbook sence she became darlen. And Richie and Dannie are more or less, the newest version of another older connecting concept, but now much more thaught out then before. Alot of my ideas, if I can't make them work, if I Really like them, I don't let them go, and I just try again differently at a different time.

[listieshadows]

Well, after years of procrastinating, I've finally started watching The Owl House. I'll be watching it in four episode chunks throughout the month, so right now I don't have terribly much to go on, but I've got some general, preliminary thoughts.

To begin with, I honestly wasn't feeling it too much in episode one? While I was watching it, it felt... I'unno. A bit too quick? I didn't really 100% get this show's vibe until episode three, so thinking back on the first episode it makes more sense, but in the moment... I think I might'a been spoiled by the fact that the last show I watched was Avatar: The Last Airbender, and that opened with, like, a three parter. That's close to 70 minutes to set itself up versus only 23 minutes for The Owl House. And for what was there, thinking back on it, yeah; it's a fine lil' adventure to kick things off.

At the very least, from episode one I vibed very much with its sense of humour. That whole "Yep, she got away" bit in particular clued me right in. Not everything hit with me, but a good majority did—and, besides, who expects to bat a perfect 100, anyway? I saw Alex Hirsch's name in the credits, and I didn't see what he was credited, but I do get a lot of Gravity Falls vibes.

It's also funny that—and for the record, I came into this show knowing pretty much nothing. It's about magic, there's a character called Odalia Blight that an artist I like themed themselves around for a few months... And that Luz and Amity will eventually hook up. And that's the biggest thing I know, so watching their preliminary interactions in episode three are big, "Wow, is that how you treat your future girlfriend?" Seriously, I kinda look forward to learning more about her just so that that's not the only thing I think about when I see her in the opening title sequence.

I got, like, two more preliminary thoughts I wanna share. One, I thought I'd get sick real quick of King's thing of acting like he's a big, scary demon when he's really just a cute lil' thing, but he really hasn't yet. Testament to the writing, design and voice acting for finding the balance where I don't mind, I guess. And speaking of his voice, it sounds really familiar to me, but I can't place my finger on exactly who it is... And I'm feeling a big lazy right now and don't feel like looking up who it is.

Second—and this one is more for me and my friend group than the open Tumblr public, but—I got this OC, Louise, who suffers from what I call "existential depression." Basically, she worries, and she worries hard, that she doesn't truly have a place in the world. She worries she's a side character in someone else's story, and that, ultimately, she's not really important. I feel like she'd get something out of the message in episode two: that no one's going to just come up and tell you you're the chosen one and you're destined to be special; you just have to choose to be it. At the very least, Louise would for sure fall super hard for the "you're the chosen one" scam. She ain't above nuthin'.

So yeah. Scattered thoughts on the first four episodes of The Owl House. Truthfully, I don't feel as sparked as I did when I saw the first few episodes of DuckTales 2017 or Avatar: The Last Airbender, but for sure it still falls into that big category of "I'm really kicking myself for not checking it out sooner." Especially when it's been on my "to watch list" ever since Disney+ first launched. Alongside Amphibia, actually, but let me take things on at a time here. Besides, there's still the rest of the series left, and if the final three episodes are each big enough that all three can get entries on Letterboxd... Well, darn; if I don't expect big things.

[pricklyrecords]

sza: good days (2020)

09/05/23

context: for the past ten days, i’ve been staying at a friend’s place while someone i thought i’d marry moves out of our shared apartment together. in the past month, all the pillars of my identity i hold so dear to my heart — my sanity, my sobriety, my humor and general goodwill — have turned into tarnished half-images of themselves. i am looking, proverbially, for good days. so naturally, i am revisiting this song.

i’ve been obsessed with this track since the second it came out. the plucky, reverb-y guitar intro is still catchy as hell — but back in december 2020, it also offered some much-needed lightness deep in the pandemic and amid a racial reckoning, when better times still felt very far away for most of us. then those muted drums come in, grounding the track, giving it that distinctive SZA flair i loved so much on Ctrl (2017). an irresistible urge to sway along bubbles up. 

on this track, Solana’s challenged by a relationship that feels intractable — the gravity of which flattens her, but without which she’s losing her mind (Gotta let go of weight / can’t keep what’s holding me). 

her quest for meaning turns spiritual: she feels like Jericho, like Job, like a Black woman, relentlessly bombarded by enemy forces, too on guard even to let her edge out. the only solution? “being on that empty mind shit.” but SZA doesn’t want you to numb out. she wants you to wise up. 

you don’t know what your future holds? tough titties — nobody does. but is that a reason to let the walls of Jericho fall? to let the enemy breach? to let them win? or do you want to be brave, face what’s coming anyway? have you ever considered that the cross you bear might be an anchor? that your fear might be what makes you human?

and if you were worried that a track about the oncoming onslaught — your “armored fate” — would mean an eternal war, rest assured. the last 40-ish seconds of this track are conflict resolution. jacob collier lends some of the most beautiful harmonies i’ve ever heard him sing to this track. 

“you’ve been making me feel like i’m always in my mind, always in my mind…” but nothing lasts forever. not even a bad day. not even the siege of jericho. even if the walls fall and the worst thing happens anyway. 

as long as you are here, that is enough. 

[themadcapmathematician]

@skillfulstudio saaaammmeee

[bnhasimpgirltm]

Why Is It That You Only Ever Hurt Me? (Part 2)

Parings: Bakugo x Reader (Past), Yo Shindo x Reader (Present)

Warnings: none

Type: Oneshot

Genre: angst? (this hurt my heart to write)

A/N: I had to use Yo Shindo for this because Bakugo DESPISES this guy. It might have been a bit much to do the entire song, but I didn’t want to remove anything because I really like how well this songs fits. I just didn’t write this very well, and it feels a little repetitive, but I think that’s what adds to it. Let me know what you think, and as always, Enjoy!

Song: “Heavy”- Linkin Park ft. Kiiara (2017)

note: the last lyric line “If I just let go I’ll be set free” was added by me so I could tie the story together nicely. It isn’t actually sung at the end in the song. I cried while writing this oh crap.

Read Part 1 HERE

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

I don't like my mind right now

Ever since you broke up with him, Bakugo had been miserable. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t function. The only thing he could do was train. He had lost you and he couldn’t get you back.

Stacking up problems that are so unnecessary

He still loved you, and you didn’t love him back anymore. One sided love creates all sorts of problems. So many problems piled up.

Wish that I could slow things down

He wishes that he could take back what he said. He wishes that he didn’t speak so impulsively, that he slowed down and though about his words before they left his mouth. But he couldn’t turn back the clock, so the only thing he could do was let go.

I wanna let go but there's comfort in the panic

He wanted to let you go, but he couldn’t. He wanted to hold onto you for as long as possible, and every waking moment that he wasn’t training, Bakugo as looking through your social media.

And I drive myself crazy

You had removed all of the pictures of the two of you together after the break up. He missed seeing his tag on your photos. He missed being able to retrace your entire relationship just from your social media page. He missed you.

Thinking everything's about me

Bakugo still had all of the pictures with you on his pages. He knew that if he archived them it meant that you were really gone forever. He didn’t want to think that it was all over, even if deep down he knew the truth. He wanted to hold onto these last threads of your broken relationship. Bakugo knew he had to let go, so he tapped on one of his posts with you in it.

Yeah, I drive myself crazy

He knew you were gone, but he couldn’t do it. Bakugo couldn’t wipe you from his life, so he exited Instagram and opened messages. His finger hovered over your name. He wanted to text you and tell you how much he missed you, how much he loves you.

'Cause I can't escape the gravity

He couldnt escape you. Everywhere he went he saw you. Even if you weren’t really there, to him, every place you went together had a small piece of you. 

I'm holding on

When he saw you for real the first time after the breakup, he thought it was his imagination running wild again. That was until you looked at him. Imaginary you never did that. Bakugo knew that it was really you. He thought that you had finally given up running from him, and that maybe he could move on because you had too.

Why is everything so heavy?

But he couldn’t, because when he saw you, his heart ached so much that it felt like it was physically hurting. It felt like a weight heavier than anything he had ever lifted was placed on his back. He knew that he couldn’t let go. He couldn’t set himself free just yet.

Holding on

He couldn’t let you go. It had been months since the breakup, and he still couldn’t let you go. He still held onto the hope that you still loved him as much as he still loved you.

So much more than I can carry

He wanted to go and apologize to you, to take the weight off of his back, to end it for real. To tell you that he was sorry for everything, and that he wouldn’t bother you anymore. 

I keep dragging around what's bringing me down

But he couldn’t. Bakugo couldn’t bring himself to go and talk to you. Not after everything he did. So he let the weight sit on his back.

If I just let go, I'd be set free

Everytime he saw you, he considered finishing it for real, to tell you that he was sorry and move on. He could be set free from his guilt. 

Holding on

But he didn’t want to. He was going crazy, trying to keep this nonexistent relationship alive, but Bakugo didn’t care that he was being insane. He just needed something to care about, because the only thing that he truly cared about was gone. So if the only thing Bakugo cared about was this pretend relationship he still had going with you, so be it.

Why is everything so heavy? 

When you saw Bakugo, you felt your heart fall. He still made you feel this way, even after all this time. Even after you told yourself that you had moved on.

You say that I'm paranoid

Everywhere you went, you saw him. His blonde hair poking up between the people in the crowds. His black tanktop passing by on the trains. Every time you saw him somewhere, you felt haunted by a ghost. A ghost from your past that you couldn’t let go.

But I'm pretty sure the world is out to get me

You hated that you couldn’t face him. You were too scared of what he would say to you. You were too scared that he would say that he had moved on.

It's not like I make the choice

But you were more scared of what you would say to him. Because if he moved on, then that meant that you would have to move on.

To let my mind stay so fucking messy

So you pushed your emotions back like you always did and continued to live your life with thoughts of Bakugo constantly ravaging your mind. 

I know I'm not the center of the universe

You didn’t mean anything to him, he made that clear, but he was the center of your universe. He was your everything.

But you keep spinning 'round me just the same

You knew he didn’t love you, but deep down, you still loved him. You knew it would take a long time to move on, so you started dating again. Hoping you could move on and find someone else to love. And you did, you found someone else.

I know I'm not the center of the universe

Bakugo knew that he didn’t mean anything to you, you made that clear by avoiding him for months. 

But you keep spinning 'round me just the same

Bakugo knew you didn’t love him, but he still loved you. So he kept himself away from the dating scene.

I'm holding on

Bakugo told himself multiple times that he wasn’t dating because he ddin’t have time, but in reality, he still held onto the hope that you would want him back.

Why is everything so heavy?

Until he saw that Ketsubutsu guy, Yo Shindo, walk into the common room. He wondered what that idiot was doing at UA, until he saw you smile and walk towards him. Then it clicked.

Holding on

Shindo grabbed you in a hug, and threw a dirty look over your shoulder straight at Bakugo. The worst part was that you jumped into his arms willingly. 

So much more than I can carry

He wanted to say that he was okay with it. He wanted to just roll his eyes and walk away.

I keep dragging around what's bringing me down

But he couldn’t lie to himself, he was jealous. Not just jealous, Bakugo was enraged that you were hanging out with that Shindo guy. He was enraged that he had been replaced.

If I just let go, I'd be set free

So instead of going back to his dorm, he followed you and Shindo.

Holding on

Bakugo watched as Shindo did everything he didn’t. Shindo held your hand and talked with you. He kissed your cheek and laughed when you said something funny. He bought you lunch and gave you a flower. 

Why is everything so heavy? I know I'm not the center of the universe

He saw the way you looked at Shindo. Like he was the center of your universe. 

But you keep spinning 'round me just the same

It was the way you used to look at Bakugo. 

I know I'm not the center of the universe

He watched as Shindo looked at you the same way. The way Bakugo looked at you. The way Bakugo still looked at you.

But you keep spinning 'round me just the same

He knew that he wasn’t the center of your universe anymore, but for some reason, he still couldn’t let go, no matter how much he tried.

And I drive myself crazy

He hated himself so much for losing the best thing that ever happened to him. He hated himself for screwing up everything good in his life.

Thinking everything's about me

He hated that he couldn’t get over himself just to keep you with him. He hated that the weight of your breakup was still tied to his back and that it wasn’t getting any lighter after seeing that you had moved on.

Holding on

Years passed, and Bakugo never got into another relationship.

Why is everything so heavy?

He was still dragging around the weight on his back. It never got lighter. Not when he immersed himself in his hero work, or when he saw you and Shindo on the news together as the hero couple that everyone loved.

Holding on

Bakugo felt like he was being crushed, but he continued on with his life. Until one day, he got a letter in the mail. “You are invited to the wedding of Yo Shindo and (y/n) (l/n).” It was at this moment that the weight became too heavy. It crushed him, and Bakugo Katsuki, the pro hero Ground Zero who feared nothing, broke down into sobs.

So much more than I can carry

His entire world shattered that day. It should have been his name with yours on that invite. It should have been him who you were marrying. Bakugo was so overcome with sadness that he did the only thing that he could when he was sad. He masked it as anger. Why the hell would you invite him to your wedding? Was this some sort of joke? 

I keep dragging around what's bringing me down

Bakugo was angry, but he still loved you even after all this time, so he went to your wedding, and he watched as you walked down the aisle to marry a man that wasn’t him.

If I just let go, I'd be set free

He watched as you and Shindo looked into each others eyes with so much love that he regretted his decion to attend the wedding. Bakugo regretted not tearing the invite in half and shoving it into the recycle bin. 

Holding on

He listened as you recited your vows and said “I do”. He listened as he heard the priest say “Any objections?”, and Bakugo wanted to stand up and proclaim his love for you. He wanted to stand up and tell you that you belonged with him. To take you back and love you just as much as you loved him back at UA.

Why is everything so heavy?

But the he remembered what you said to him all those years ago. He remembered: “Were you always this selfish?”, and Bakugo made his decision. For once in his life, it wasn’t selfish. He owed it to you. Maybe the selfish part of him wanted you to be with him, but the part of him that still loved you and wanted the best for you was telling him to let you be happy, so he stayed silent.

Why is everything so heavy?

As Shindo swept you into a kiss, it was all crystal clear to Bakugo. He would never get over you. He would carry the weight of your breakup for the rest of his life. Maybe the weight would get lighter, and maybe it would only get heavier, but it would always be there.

Why is everything so heavy? 

Bakugo finally realized that you had moved on from him. You had Shindo. You didn’t need him anymore. 

If I just let go I’ll be set free.

 You had finally let go. You were finally free.  

[where-dreamers-go]

Merlin x Fem!Reader (Soulmate AU) (Text reupload)

(A/N: Yes, I know I already have this up here, but it’s a DeviantArt link and it’s bothering me because it’s an external link. So...can’t take away the link aspect because it won’t let me save it. SOOO...here’s an insert reader from 2017 and my first attempt at a soulmate au.

Warnings: Minor angst?, fluff.

Word Count: 3,773 words)

“I’m telling you, Gaius, I felt something. It has to be magic if I woke up like that,” Merlin stood in front of his room as his older companion prepared breakfast.

“Merlin,” Gaius sighed and turned to the young man, “It could simply be nothing, but.....if you feel so strongly about it we should keep ours eyes open.”

Merlin simply nodded with a minute smile, not informing Gaius that, despite all they’ve been through, he was strangely looking forward to discovering the source of his new curiosity.

The young sorcerer went back into his room to dress for the day and giving the world a hopeful smile as his blue eyes peered down at his golden mark over his heart.

“Someday,” Merlin whispered to himself before pulling on a colored shirt.

* * *

Hide it.

You had to hide it.

The gold, the shape, the details.

A mark that helped bring souls together must be hidden.

Everyone else did since as long as their ancestors could remember. A unique mark appearing on everyone some time after birth, an image that would be perfectly matched to their soul mate. Whether the mark actually resembled something or was a pattern of shapes or swirls. It was said to be a powerful experience to meet one’s other half especially upon realizing who each other truly were.

Regardless of one’s mark, the pair were usually still bound by the laws of whichever kingdom they lived in. A ridiculous notion that you didn’t bother yourself with much. You only pitied those who were unlucky enough to deal with strict kingdoms where it was difficult between soul mates with different statures in life or overall trickier situations.

You were one of those lucky enough to live in Camelot, but even more fortunate to have been granted the opportunity to work in the castle as a servant. It was a drastic change from tending to the farms your family and neighbors grew for many decades.

A newly adjusted life as a castle servant gave you many opportunities during the day to daydream about your possible first encounter with your special someone as you went about your duties.

But how in the world were you suppose to find your soul mate when yours was inconveniently located over your heart?

It wasn’t as if your soul mate was going to display theirs. Well, you certainly hoped not.

You preferred not to tell anyone outside of your family about your golden dragon mark on your chest lest they scrutinize you for having a magical creature as your mark. Some marks weren’t even anything specific as an animal let alone a silhouette of a flying dragon. Your family liked to relish in their hopes of it meaning that your soul mate was a Pendragon, however deep down you knew that wasn’t true. Not just because King Arthur and Queen Guinevere were widely known as soul mates by now, but how the meanings of the marks went much deeper than names or outside appearances. They were symbols of who they were and you were honestly worried for your other half because of living where the majority of kingdoms outlawed magic and if your mark implied as such, you hoped they could take care of themselves enough not to be put to death before you met. If only you knew where to find them because even a peaceful kingdom such as Camelot forbid magic of any sort.

Working in the castle was still a learning experience that involved memorizing directions and scheduled times for cleaning rooms or simply changing sheets on a bed before washing them in a large barrel of water.

Not unlike your current state as you hauled a hefty load of used bedsheets in a basket from more than one bedchamber. This week had brought a number of visitors who sought to greet the new queen of Camelot; although they were a bit late by a few months.

Many of the castle’s servants, like yourself, were scampering around like ants on a daily quest. You had met a few already during your short time there, but remembering their names was more of a challenge than learning where to clean the laundry.

You continued walking with the basket wrapped in your arms as you centered your direction on getting to the lower levels of the castle. Taking a turn, you gingerly made your way down the stairs, being careful to the placement of your feet on each step as your eyes focused on the stone beneath you. The last thing you wanted was to bust a kneecap or make yourself look like a fool if you couldn’t even handle walking down about a dozen steps. More than halfway down the stairs, a patch of skin on your chest prickled and heated into a burn causing you to loose focus on anything else, including the placement of your footing.

“Ah!” You felt the ever fearful sensation of falling ripple through you.

Your body twisted to the left as gravity pulled down on your legs, the basket of dirty sheets leaping from your grasp. Your positioning was quickly leading the fall to surely be on your side in a painful trip instead of toppling headfirst.

(E/C) eyes were trained onto the steps as you closed the distance with hands hardly ready for the impact that was deemed so evident.

It never came.

Well, not from the stairs at least.

A pair of arms were braced under yours before you even registered anyone was near you. Their blue shirt filled your vision as you now felt how your savior was supporting you from even sitting on a single step. Being as your legs were the only part of you touching the cold stone.

“Are you alright?” A strained male voice asked, you figured it was from the position you found yourselves in, but the voice was soothing nonetheless.

“I’m fine,” you answered, not even positive if you were lying or not.

You didn’t fall, which was a plus. Yet your mark was burning into a searing pain with your blood rushing through your veins as rapid as a fleeing rabbit. Too much so for simply almost falling. Your mark had never done that before and you knew that it wasn’t a normal occurrence.

“Thank you,” you said, finally looking up to meet a pair of gleaming ocean blue eyes. A fluttering in your stomach added to the overwhelming feelings that coursed through your body that severely increased in this young man’s presence. One of whom you have never met.

“I’m Merlin,” he smiled as he pulled you to your feet.

The name registered in your mind in a snap, you had heard about him from the other castle servants about how he was the King’s loyal manservant with a name that seemed to stick in your mind.

His hands slid down to your hands before slipping away hesitantly and their comforting warmth they left on you slowly faded.

“I’m (Y/N),” you said, glancing up at him, your hand subconsciously going up to press onto the fabric of your dress that hid your mark underneath. As much as you tried, you couldn’t ease the stinging as it kept your attention.

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Merlin asked bringing his hand up to copy your movements. His blue eyes suddenly bouncing between the two of you.

You didn’t reply, you couldn’t, and every part of you was screaming know if he felt it too. The pulling, the aching itch of your bright mark, and the undeniable need to be closer despite only just meeting him.

Was he your match?

Azure eyes bore into your orbs eagerly waiting yours short reply and full of hidden knowledge. His brown jacket moving shakily upon his now heaving chest.

“It burns,” you whispered, hand pausing its movements.

“Your mark?” His voice came out low, tickling your insides into a shudder.

Again you were silent, but you nodded. Oblivious to the by-passers having to walk around the pair of you at the foot of the stairs.

“A golden dragon,” Merlin whispered so quietly that your ears barely caught his three words.

But those words had your eyes widening to saucers and lips parting for what little breath you had.

Merlin took ahold of your free arm, pulling you away from the stairway before almost tripping over the dirty sheets. Using his brown boots to repeatedly kick the scattered fabric and basket aside to be out of the way of others.

Now beside a wall, the two of you stood in front of one another with the fabric mess at your feet.

Brushing aside his red neckerchief, he adjusted his shirt enough to pull the fabric down to his left to reveal a very golden dragon. A shining silhouette of a flying dragon’s profile was imprinted above his heart, an exact copy of your own soul mate mark.

Neither your eyes nor your mind could fully believe it was real. Yet your heart and soul was singing with rejoice at the discovery.

You raised a trembling finger to Merlin’s mark and tentatively touched it. A jolt went up your arm at the skin contact and he let out an uneven breath. Being mesmerized by the sight of it all would be an understatement, what with your shaking knees. Not only did you find a matching mark--your soul mate was seemingly happy and healthy. You would be more than glad to spend a few hours tracing your fingers along the delicate shapes on his warm skin.

An equally heated hand went up to cover your own with the thumb rubbing gentle strokes on your knuckles.

“May I see yours?” Merlin asked, breaking you out of your trance and focusing on his blushing cheeks.

Only now did you realize how close the two of you were standing from each other. Shoes mer centimeters from touching and Merlin’s breath billowing your hair.

Your eyes flickered over to where people were still milling around. Of all places, you and your soul mate, Merlin, had to meet at one of the most used staircases in the entire castle. That being said, you weren’t too keen on anyone seeing you physically disclose the location of your mark. Even if the neckline of your simple dress made the task rather simple.

“It’s okay,” Merlin softly shifted you to have your back to the stairs and effectively blocking your actions from any prying eyes.

Your fingers worked on their own accord, pulling the (F/C) fabric across your skin the short distance to reveal your still stinging mark.

“We are soul mates,” he whispered, “I knew something was different in Camelot.”

Tilting your head at him, you watched as Merlin’s mouth morph into a triumphant smile. You half expected him to touch your mark as you did with his, but he wrapped you in his surprisingly strong arms instead. A most welcome gesture being as you’ve never felt more relieved and happy in your entire life as you hugged your arms firmly around his waist.

There was a lightness in your chest that could have sent you floating to the ceiling as you nuzzled your cheek into your soul mate’s chest. Safety and joy emitted into you like the warmth from a fire. One of Merlin’s hands combing themselves into your hair while his other held you securely to him by the waist.

“I’m so glad I moved to Camelot,” you mumbled into his shirt as you squeezed your arms tighter around him.

You were sure the grin on your face would become permanent with Merlin resting his chin on the top of your head despite the tears threatening to roll down your cheeks.

“MEEERRRRLIIINNN!”

A spark of fear shot through you at the sound of the booming, annoyed voice. Your other half on the other hand didn’t seem fazed by it in the slightest. If anything his grip on you only grew tighter.

“Merlin! There you are,” King Arthur came from around the corner spotting his manservant. “What are you doing?” He pulled a face as his confusion sank in at the sight of his brunette friend embracing a girl.

“I....,” Merlin gazed down at you, “I found her.”

The look in his eyes as you met his again was overflowing with emotion. Ones that made your heartstrings pull and flex if only as a sign to tell you that he already cared so deeply about you.

Arthur’s eyes snapped wide and he pointed between you and Merlin.

Both you and Merlin looked back to the other young man.

You held in a giggle at the King’s lengthy reaction as Merlin nodded in glee with a new shine to his blue eyes.

“Oh.” Arthur peered around in thought before spying the floor. “Pick up your mess and the both of you can have the rest of today off. I’m sure someone else can take care of the laundry,” he looked straight at Merlin. “But I expect you to be on time tomorrow.”

“Really?” You gasped, fingers digging into the back of Merlin’s jacket. “Thank you, sire.”

“You’re welcome,” King Arthur let a smile slip. “If anything, you need luck having Merlin as your soul mate.”

“Ha. Ha,” Merlin looked as if he was suppressing the need to roll his eyes. “Thank you, Arthur.”

The King nodded at the both of you as he went to walk away, but turned to point at the scattered mess.

“Now, Merlin.”

“Right!” Your soul mate released you and spun out of your grasp.

A surprise giggle escaped your lips as you watched Merlin crouch down and rush to gather the almost forgotten mess. Before you knew it he had everything back in the basket and was standing with it ready to go.

“Shall we?”

It wasn’t difficult for Merlin to keep pace with you as the two of you completed your earlier journey to drop off the laundry. Leaving hand in hand after a hurried explanation to a rather confused woman who was already scrubbing away at some clothes.

You sprinted to keep up with Merlin, following his lead through the halls of the castle. Passing some knights as you went who called out to Merlin in a friendly manner to only have Merlin shout over his shoulder in passing.

“I found my soul mate!” Merlin was practically beaming with his wide grin that you equally matched with a short wave to the men.

Cheers and whistles echoed down the halls from the red-caped knights that added fuel to Merlin’s already quick pace.

Sooner than you thought in your adrenaline-rushed state, Merlin had finally stopped long enough to swing open a wooden door.

“Gaius,” Merlin called out, scanning the room as he lead you inside.

“Yes, Merlin. What is it?” An older man, much older in age than the knights, looked up from a much tattered book and adjusted his glasses. He eyed Merlin with suspicion, making you wonder what trouble the young man beside you had gotten into in the past.

“Gaius,” Merlin took a few breaths, “This is (Y/N). She’s my soul mate. (Y/N), this is Gaius the Court Physician.”

If only you would have noticed the physician’s jaw drop, but Merlin’s voice saying your name as if it was a proclamation of love was an easy distraction. Your hand that held his tightened all the more.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, (Y/N),” Gaius stood from his seat to shake your hand.

“A-and you as well, Gaius,” you briefly shook his aged hand.

“Ah....How did you both meet? Might I ask?” Gaius’ mind was clearly running through a long-winded list of questions and a mixture of emotions at the moment.

It wasn’t everyday that someone you know finds their soul mate.

You and Merlin on the other hand were clearly feeding off of one another’s energies, practically bouncing in place with excitement that only grew.

“When I was heading back to grab Arthur’s armor.....that I forgot, and once I went around the corner to go up the stairs my mark started to burn. But before I could do anything I saw (Y/N) about to fall down the stairs. I mean I didn’t know who she was at the time, but my feet were running after her before I realized what was happening.” Merlin’s fingers easily wound their way between yours. “Then we showed each other our marks just before Arthur showed up and figured out what happened.”

“Not to forget I dropped the laundry basket and made a mess out--.”

“That wasn’t a problem,” Merlin interrupted you and gave your hand a gentle squeeze.

“Let me be very honest with you both,” Gaius started and making you tense, “Soul mates, especially upon first meeting one another can hardly stay away from each other. They are drawn together.”

“Like Arthur and Gwen,” Merlin added in, unfazed by the in progress lecture.

“Yes and you remember how difficult it was for them once they found out. Being together makes soul mates complete and one. So I advise you both to spend your time wisely...and I hope Arthur understands your situation.”

“He gave us both the day off,” Merlin boasted as if he’d never had one, which quite frankly might be the case.

“Today or tomorrow?”

“Just today. You know Arthur can’t function without me,” Merlin glanced down at you with a smirk.

You bumped him lightly with your clasped hands.

“It’s nearly noon, Merlin.”

“I’m sure Arthur has told Gwen and he can survive a few hours without me. Well, hopefully,” Merlin mumbled the last bit, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.

Gaius only sighed, looking about his home, and grabbed an empty hand basket.

“I’m....going to the market....for....I’ll be back later,” Gaius excused himself and walked past the pair of you before leaving.

“Is he alright?” You asked, glancing at the now closed door.

“....He might be in shock,” Merlin suggested with a shrug. “He’ll be fine though. I promise.��� He reassured you, leading past the table and towards a door on the other side of the room with a couple of small steps leading up to it.

“Alright, but....maybe we should have listened more about what he had to say,” you said, “Just in case.”

“We’ll be fine. I won’t let anything bad happen to you for as long as I live,” he opened the door and gestured you inside. “But we won’t have as much time as we would like to speak to one another. So we can talk in here.”

“Is this your room?” You asked, taking a seat on the edge of his bed.

“Yeah,” he glanced around the room a bit.

You could sense his overall giddiness, however there was an amount of anxiety now that the two of you were alone.

“To be honest....I was afraid something would have happened to you before we met,” Merlin shut the door behind him, “because of our mark.”

“Afraid? I was worried you’d be locked up for magic or something. It’s a dragon, Merlin!” You gestured to your own mark.

“Er....About that,” he started fidgeting his feet.

“What?” You furrowed your eyebrows at him.

“I have magic.”

Your eyes widened and you were sure your eyebrows met your hairline.

“And I’m the last Dragonlord,” he added, “Which would probably explain our mark.”

“....Dragonlord?.....B-but I....I don’t have magic....a-and you....you have magic,” you tried desperately to have your mind wrap around this information being that it wasn’t theoretical anymore. “But you’re....”

“Arthur’s manservant.” Merlin sat down beside you, his hand finding its way to yours and intertwining with your fingers.

“Yeah,” you breathed out. “How in the world have you not even been caught?”

“It’s a long story.”

“We some have time,” you scooted closer to him with a sweet smile and rested your joined hands on your lap, his hand nicely nestled between yours. “Mister I-can-hide-my-magic-powers.”

“We do,” Merlin leaned closer and lowered his voice, “And I’m pretty sure Arthur will come looking for me before dinner.”

A short snicker shook you before resting your head against his shoulder and peered up into his deep blue eyes.

“I really hope we have more time than that,” you said, watching as he shifted his attention to his free hand that was closed.

“Well as long as nothing decides to attack Camelot today, we should be as good as you make me feel.”

Your eyebrows rose shortly as you breathed out a soft laugh.

“Did you just use a line on me?”

“Yes.....It was bad wasn’t it?”

“No, it was cute,” you smiled, feeling your cheeks get a tad rosy.

“So are you,” Merlin answered back and placed a small rose in your hair.

“Where did--Oh.”

Merlin moved a few stray hairs away from your face before resting his forehead on top of yours. The pair of you closed your eyes, absorbed in the calm moment that resulted from such a fast-paced turn of events.

“Thank you,” you whispered, still keeping your eyes shut and not entirely wanting to break the silence.

“For the flower?” Merlin asked, his fingers playing with the ends of your hair.

“No, for catching me.”

A soft warmth pecked your nose causing you to open your eyes in time to see Merlin kiss the tip of your nose again.

“I’ll never let you fall.”

You couldn’t help biting your lip because the back of your head was hurting from smiling continuously. Something in you told you that he would be the most positive person in your entire life.

“Merlin?”

“Hmm?”

“Did your mark stop burning too?”

“Yeah. I forgot when though.”

“Good,” you snuggled into his side as he buried his face in the crook of your neck.

You looked forward to your future together even if you didn’t quit know it would involve more magic and adventure than you had ever experienced. Merlin would show you more of his magic and entrust you with knowledge of his destiny. No matter what was to come, you would be more than glad to help him in any way you could, even if that meant making sure he remembered to rest and eat.

~~~

Part Two 💖

[imnotoverlyobsessive]

Looks Like Someone Picked a Whole Bushel of Oopsie Daisies

Chapter Ten: Shades of Blue

As always, thanks to @edward-or-ford and @pacific-ship!

How can you leave me on my own? Desperate and destitute, these seconds feel like lifetimes without you.- New Years Day, My Dear

Mabel marked off February 1st in her calendar with an X in her pink gel pen with sparkles (was it really even a gel pen if there were no sparkles? Mabel’s opinion was firmly on the side of ‘no, absolutely not’).

Just two hundred and twelve days to go. She was counting the days, the hours, the seconds (okay, maybe just the days, she wasn’t that good at math) till her parents could no longer keep her from her soulmate.

Because on August 31st, 2017, Mabel and her super awesome brother-boyfriend-soulmate combo would be turning eighteen, and there was nothing their parents could do to keep them apart once they turned eighteen.

Their parents had insisted they were monitoring their texts, and that they weren’t allowed to speak under any circumstances.

Of course, Dipper had called Mabel from Grunkle Stan’s phone (turns out their parents had been total liars about that, too, and neither Grunkle Stan nor Grunkle Ford was in any way opposed to the whole soulmate situation) as soon as she got home, and they had both downloaded an untraceable messaging app where they could text, make phone calls, and send pictures.

As one might imagine, they sent a great deal of pictures.

And also videos.

They had a lot of phone sex and sexy texting time, okay? They’d only gotten to have actual in-person sex twice (twice!), so they had to compensate somehow.

In any case, there was nothing they could do about it before they turned eighteen, so they had to come up with workarounds.

Not that it could prevent the withdrawals that were likely to hit if another month or two went by without them seeing each other, of course, but it sure made the days go by easier.

Mabel wasn’t sure what her parents were planning to do once they hit the three month mark and the first of the withdrawal symptoms started. It wouldn’t be so bad at first, according to what Dipper had told her regarding the massive amount of research he’d done. Probably just more of the usual depression she’d been having since she watched him disappear behind their car, and then sleepiness, then headaches and body aches, and then things would get progressively worse until eventually, they wouldn’t be able to function at all anymore.

She didn’t know what their plans were for anything, really. She hadn’t spoken to them since they’d left Gravity Falls. She hadn’t said a word to them on the drive home; just put her headphones in and tuned out. She hadn’t said anything to them since, either. Her parents would try to get her to talk sometimes. Her mom did it more often. She had headphones on most of the time. She wasn’t even home very much.

She didn’t tell her parents when she was going to a friend’s house the way she had before. The first few times, her parents had called the parents of various friends until they found her. After awhile, though, they stopped.

She didn’t care if they were worried. They clearly weren’t worried enough about her and Dipper to let them be together, so Mabel didn’t see any reason to notify them or her comings and goings, despite their protests. Just because they wanted to cherry pick their concerns for her well being didn’t mean she had to let them.

Besides, she came home every few days, anyway. It was usually only for a night, of course. Then she’d go back out again. And yeah, that meant she was out on school nights, but her grades were good, and she always made it to class on time.

She wanted Dipper. She wanted to be in his arms again. She slept in the shirt she’d taken from him every night, and she hadn’t even washed it. It smelled more like her by that point than it did him, and not in a good way, either, but it made her feel a little better.

Plus, whenever she sent him pictures of herself wearing it (sometimes leaving enough of the buttons undone to where her cleavage was visible, other times leaving all the buttons undone), he got all possessive and sexy, and the night usually ended with them panting each other’s names into the phone as quietly as they could.

Mabel stared at the cheery pink gel pen in her hand. She wasn’t feeling particularly pink. She hadn’t felt pink in just over a month, as it happened. Which was strange, because Mabel always felt some shade of pink or purple.

But she could hardly remember what Dipper smelled like. She could hardly remember what he tasted like. What he felt like. If she couldn’t remember those things, she couldn’t make herself feel anything that wasn’t some shade of blue or other.

She hung the gel pen back up on her calendar, grabbed her overnight bag, and opened her bedroom door.

She had her headphones in and was looking at her phone, pulling up a playlist, so she didn’t notice her mother there until she spoke.

“Honey, why don’t you spend the night here? I’ll make your favorite, if you want, and we can watch a movie, and…” tears welled up in her mother���s eyes. “Please, sweetheart, I can barely remember what your voice sounds like.”

Well, Mabel thought, maybe you shouldn’t have decided to separate me from my soulmate, then.

With that in mind, Mabel shot her mother a glare severe enough to make her flinch, and pushed past her, her overnight bag bumping against the hallway wall as she did.

Her friends were waiting for her in their car outside.

Mabel loaded her bag into the trunk and ignored her mother watching her behind the curtains in the living room.

Squeezing into the only empty seat in the car, she grinned at her friends.

Kristin, Eva, and Julie had been total lifesavers. They knew about Mabel’s soulbro situation, and they were, like, super supportive.

“Your ‘rents still giving you shit?” Julie asked over her shoulder as she pulled out of the driveway.

Mabel sighed heavily, her shoulders drooping. “It’s not shit, exactly, just…” she sighed again. “They just, y’know. They won’t let me see him.”

“Yeah, that still doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” Kristin said, adjusting her black lipstick in a compact mirror. “I get that having an incesty-soulmate isn’t, like, ‘socially acceptable’ or whatever,” she did air quotes with her fingers, the motion seeming a bit off due to the tube of eyeliner she had in between her pointer and index fingers that she was using in lieu of lipstick. “But if my parents can handle me being bi, yours should be able to handle your soulmate being your brother.”

“Okay, so here’s the thing,” Eva cut in, turning around to address Kristin and Mabel. “I feel like, if it were me, and they were my kids, at first I’d be all freaked out, y’know? Cause like, they’re your kids, and then it turns out they’re soulmates and have to bang a whole bunch or they’ll get all eeeeuuughh, right? That’d mess anybody up, I think,” she paused for a moment before continuing. “But the thing is, though, I feel like after that initial freak out, I’d be kinda relieved, honestly.”

“Relieved? Really?” Julie was so surprised she forgot to use her turn signal when changing lanes. “Oops, my b,” she said, half to herself and half to the driver who had honked at her. Not that he could hear her, of course.

“Why relieved?” Mabel wondered.

“Well, if you’ve got a kid, right, and your kid finds their soulmate and it’s some stranger you don’t know, how do you know your kid’s soulmate isn’t gonna hurt them, or be a terrible person or something?” Eva reasoned.

“That’s a good point,” Kristin agreed, shutting her compact mirror with a snap. “Soulmates aren’t exactly exempt from domestic abuse and shit.”

Eva nodded. “Exactly, so like, if it were me, I feel like I’d be cool with it once I got used to the idea, because I’d know my kids, right, so I’d know they’d never hurt each other.”

“That makes sense,” Julie said thoughtfully.

“Mmm,” Mabel hummed. “I guess. I dunno. They’re weird about it.”

“Wait a sec,” Kristin interjected. “Didn’t you say your parents mentioned something about their parents being, like, religious fundies or something?”

Mabel nodded. “I think my grandmother on my mom’s side might be. Which would make sense, honestly, since my mom has been so militant about keeping the Dipster and me apart.”

“Okay, first of all,” Eva had a haughty air to her voice, and Mabel raised an eyebrow at her. “First of all,” she said again. “It’s ‘the Dipster and I’.”

The other three girls groaned, and Julie took a hand off the wheel to swat at her half heartedly.

“Ommigod, shut up!” Mabel giggled.

“Whatever, you love me and you know it,” Eva said with a grin.

The others grumbled but did not object.

“FYI, Mabes,” Kristin put a hand on her arm. “You should send him a selfie real quick.”

“Oh?”

“Mhm,” her friend nodded sagely. “You look hot, and it’s a damn crime he doesn’t get to see it in person, so you gotta help a brotha out!”

Mabel smiled and snapped a few dozen pictures of herself.

“Okay, which one’s best?” she asked, handing her phone to Kristin, who scrolled through and inspected each one.

“No, no, no… meh, maybe… no, no… oooo, yes, love it, this one, totes send this one! Look at how much boobage you got in there, just fuckin’ go for it, man!”

Mabel grinned and sent the picture to Dipper, along with a short little miss you <3 text.

He responded with a miss you too and then, two seconds after, fuck you’re beautiful.

She giggled and showed Kristin his response. “Mhm, mhm, told ya.”

“Okay, so, confession time,” Julie said, pulling into her parents’ driveway.

“Spill it,” Eva immediately demanded.

“So you guys know Chad, right?”

“Unfortunately,” Kristin said with a grimace. The guy in question was a bit of a fuckboi.

“No, don’t say that!” Julie whined, getting out of the car. “He’s really sweet!”

”Of course he is,” Eva deadpanned.

“He is!” Julie insisted. “Anyway, so he asked me out.”

Mabel groaned. “Jules, tell me you didn’t.”

“I might have, yeah.”

“Ugh, ew,” Kristin said.

“It’s not ew!”

“No, it’s totally ew,” Eva pointed out, and Mabel nodded her agreement.

“If it helps,” Julie was saying sheepishly as she unlocked her front door, “he’s really, really good.”

“Of course he’s really good, numbnuts,” Kristin said with an eye roll. “He’s slept with half the school.”

“So have you!” Julie said defensively.

“Oooo, gotta point there,” Mabel snickered, pointing a glittery blue nail at her friend.

“Yeah, but I’m, like, discreet about it,” Kristin pointed out. “And I’ve actually dated people seriously, too!”

“Anyway,” Julie cut in. “So the consensus is ew, then, huh?”

“Definitely ew,” Mabel agreed.

“Why are Chads always such Chads?” Kristin wondered aloud, opening the door to Julie’s bedroom.

“They really are,” Eva laughed, plopping down on the bed.

“Soooo…” Mabel trailed off. “Cards Against Humanity, anybody?”

———————————————————————Her friends always helped push the separation anxiety to the back of her mind, but with the other three girls asleep, there was nothing for Mabel to do but wallow.

Her phone lit up the dark room, illuminating the air mattress Mabel lay on.

Dipper had sent her a message.

I want you.

Mabel unplugged her phone and scrambled up as quietly as she could, crossing the hall into the guest bedroom and locking the door behind her and turning on the light, typing out a quick okay in response.

She knew from experience that as long as she was quiet, nobody would hear her.

Now? he asked.

Now.

And then he was calling her, and she was hastily stuffing her headphones in her ears and hitting the little phone icon on her screen.

“Hey,” he greeted, and she could hear the smile in his voice.

“Hey,” she said back. It was always such a relief to hear him. “I miss you.”

“We’ve been texting all day,” he laughed.

“I know, but…”

“It’s not the same,” he agreed with the words she hadn’t said.

“Yeah,” her voice was soft, and she heard him sigh on the other end of their call.

“Can I see you?” he asked after a moment.

“Y- yeah, one sec.” They’d done this more times than she could count, but somehow, she was always nervous.

She stripped out of her shorts and unbuttoned his shirt to let it reveal her breasts, pulled her panties down a bit with her thumb and smiled into the camera.

She only had to take six or seven pictures before she had one she was satisfied with. Sending it over and promptly deleting them from her phone, she waited for it to arrive.

She knew when he got it, because he said, “Fucking hell, Mabel,” with a groan, and she could almost picture him stroking himself.

She’d only seen him do that a handful of times, when they’d gotten the chance to do this on the rare occasion she was at their parents’ for the night. She could have watched it for hours.

“You’re so perfect,” he sighed in her ear, and if she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine he was there with her. He’d kiss her neck, maybe, and then squeeze her breasts and pinch her nipples. Mimicking the things he was doing to her in her mind’s eye, she trailed a hand down her body and stroked herself lightly through her panties, listening to the way his breath was quickening.

“I wanna see you, too, Dip,” she sighed into the phone.

A few seconds later, a picture came through of him holding himself, and when she saw him naked… well. She had seen him naked more times than she could count by that point, but it was always breathtaking each time.

“Are you wet for me, Mabes?” he murmured in her ear.

She nodded, pulling her drenched panties off and kicking them to the side, before remembering he couldn’t see her. “Yes.”

“Show me.”

She took another picture, this time of a part of herself she didn’t really understand why he wanted to see, but he liked it so she sent it to him anyway.

“I wish I had gotten to taste you,” he gasped. “I think about that a lot.”

“O- oh?” How embarrassing. She knew she was blushing. She could feel it.

“Are you blushing right now?” Dipper asked. “I bet you are. You’re so cute when you blush.” She giggled a little, and he went on. “Will you touch yourself for me?”

“Mhm.” She brushed her fingers over her slit, dipping one inside slightly, just for a second, and gasping as she did so.

“Pinch your nipples, too, okay? I know you like that.” He did know, didn’t he? He knew all the things she liked. He seemed to know them intuitively. To be fair, though, he’d said she knew all the things he liked, too.

Pinching her nipple and brushing a finger lightly over her clit, Mabel whimpered.

“Does that feel good?”

“Y- yes,” she gasped out.

“I wish… mmmf,” he cut himself off with a groan. “I wish this was your hand instead of mine.”

Mabel squeezed her breast roughly, rubbing a finger back and forth over her clit.

“Me too,” she whined. “God, Dip, I want… I want you inside me so bad, I-“

“I know, Mabes. I know. I’d give anything to be inside you right now.”

She rubbed herself a little faster, and her legs were going to give out, she could tell they were, so she allowed herself to collapse onto the cold of the hardwood floor.

“You okay?” Dipper asked when he heard her fall to the ground, concern evident in his voice.

“Yeah, I just had to… ah!” she gasped. “I had to sit down.”

“Oh, okay,” he murmured, and it sounded like he went back to stroking himself.

“I need you.” She’d resorted to begging. She always did that when she was getting close.

“I know,” he groaned. “I need you, too.”

“Dipper, I- please, I need…” she rubbed herself faster, and her hips lifted off the floor an inch or so.

“I know,” he said again.

“I need you.” She couldn’t stop. It felt too good. “I need it, I want you so bad, please,” she begged. “Please give it to me, please Dip, god, I can’t-“

“Are you gonna cum for me, Mabes?”

“Yes,” she gasped. “Yes, I’m gonna- fuck, I want your cum in me, yes-“ her wrist hurt, but she kept going. She was so close, so fucking close-

“Cum for me, I wanna hear you cum for me.”

“Dipper, ah, oh fuck, Dipper, I’m gonna-“ her body spasmed, and she fell limp.

A few seconds later, he followed her with a grunt.

It had felt so good, and Mabel felt so content for a split second, because she’d forgotten that Dipper wasn’t there with her.

The tears started to fall, and she began to sniffle. It usually ended that way. She couldn’t help it.

“Mabel,” he said with a sigh.

“I’m sorry,” she hiccuped.

“No, no,” he assured her. “I just… I wish I could be there with you.”

“I don’t care where we are as long as we’re together,” she cried softly.

“I know,” he sighed again. “But we’ll be together soon, okay? I’ve got an idea.”

“An idea?” What kind of idea, she wondered.

“Yeah, but it’s a surprise, so until I’ve got everything worked out, just be patient for me, okay?”

“Okay,” she sniffed.

“I love you,” he told her softly.

“I love you, too.”

After a few seconds, he said, “and on that note, I need to clean this jizz off my stomach before it drips all over my bed.”

She giggled. “Okay, I’ll talk to you later.”

“You’ll text me tomorrow, right?”

“Uh, doi, when don’t I?” She sniffed again. It was hard to force the silliness that usually felt natural when she felt so blargh.

“Good point,” he chuckled. “Night, then. Love you,” he said again.

“Love you, too.”

After they hung up, it took several minutes for Mabel’s body to stop tingling from her orgasm, and then several more minutes before she could stop the tears and go back to bed.

Being without him was tougher than she’d imagined.

[ramblingguy54]

Raiders Of The Doomsday Vault: Wholesome, Inspiring, & Just Plain Heartwarming All Around

There’s a lot I’ll be revisiting with DuckTales 2017, which isn’t a surprise since I’ve been doing that from the start while waiting for new episodes to arrive. One thing that’ll be way up on my list of stuff I’ll always look forward to rechecking out would have to be hands down, Raiders Of The Doomsday Vault. Dewey’s quest to find his mother, Della Duck, was so heartbreaking, endearing, and highly relatable of a kid wanting to learn more about his family roots. When he greets his mother first with a big hug outta all his bros in Nothing Can Stop Della Duck it’s an adorable sign how much Della truly means to him. This boy has been devoting so much blood, sweat, and tears into finding her it’s a pay off equivalent to how Dipper felt meeting Stanford in Gravity Falls Season 2. You can’t help but root for him every step of the way because I know how that feels to want know more about relative you never knew in your entire life. I sure felt that way in first meeting my half-sister a good several years ago, who I only saw when I was merely still a baby before. Naturally, this episode warms my heart to no end.

I could gush for hours and hours about how this story makes my heart melt in showcasing how truly much alike they are. Della & Dewey love to stand out, be seen for who they are, let their energetic attitudes be known to all, and most importantly share a love for adventuring into unknown places to explore as family. Della’s parental nature in this story shines ever so brightly with all the unconditional affection she throws Dewey’s way, even when he fumbles stuff up because of his own inexperience about still being new to all this, like say learning to try piloting the Sunchaser, or rather Cloudslayer in this case. Della, on the other hand, is still also very much learning to kick more into her parental authoritative nature when Dewey risks himself in big danger, as he leapt leapt for those money tree seeds to prove something he doesn’t need to his mother.

That he needs to earn all of her love & respect to which Della quickly patches up that issue by sweetly saying to him, “No, honey. I will always believe you can do anything, but you never have to prove anything to me.”, leaving me in a glass house of total emotional happiness at this sight of such loving embrace. It makes for such a cute and awesome revelation Dewey taking up the mantle of pilot in Season 3 because it shows just how an impact Della has had on him. Yeah, this is just another reason to thank DuckTales for making me consider parenthood again in the far off future. Della’s resolve to be the best parent she can be is so amazing. <3

Anytime I’m feeling down this episode is a guaranteed uplifting great time. They both mean more than just the world to each other, but really everything.

[tobiasdrake]

Dragon’s Eye on DuckTales S01E14: Day of the Only Child

You know, I’m not fond of vignettes episodes. These are episodes where, rather than tell a single story, the episode features a set of short stories loosely tied together by a framing device. These typically come in sets of threes due to the convenient way that an episode’s two commercial breaks can be used to divide them.

Vignettes often leave me feeling like there wasn’t enough time to tell a substantial story; each vignette comes off as just a brief taste of something. Further, vignettes are often relegated to explicitly non-canon status. Consider The Simpsons’ annual Treehouse of Horror specials or Gravity Falls’s “Little Gift Shop of Horrors”. These are episodes that tell you up front that nothing that happens in them actually happened or have any bearing on the series whatsoever.

Even for a show that does not have a strong sense of continuity, being told up-front that an episode’s events absolutely did not happen within the series generally leaves me wondering if I can skip it.

With “Day of the Only Child”, the writers tried to do something a bit different. It’s a vignettes episode with a core theme running through each story and a framing device that loops the vignettes together at the beginning, then ties them back together in the end. There is a genuine effort on the part of the writers to make these vignettes more meaningful than a set of isolated short stories.

It all starts with a relatable and sympathetic problem. Being a triplet has made Dewey feel suffocated. He wants to have one day out of the year where he and his brothers can be their own individual people. He wants to be Dewey, and not just the middle part of Huey, Dewey, and Louie.

Many kids with siblings can relate to Dewey’s frustration. Furthermore, it builds from a major element that makes this show stand out in the Donald Duck franchise. The biggest thing DuckTales 2017 brought to the franchise was splitting up the triplets into their own unique, distinctive characters. Dewey’s frustration feels profound because it’s rooted not just in a relatable sibling qualm but also in the characters’ meta-history of being Xeroxes from each other.

This sets the stage for the vignettes to come. Each short story is a tale about what being an independent duckling means for each brother.

The Junior Woodchuck’s Guide to Slaying Your Abuser

The first vignette is about Huey. He wanted to spend today participating in the Junior Woodchuck Commemorative Cookout. It’s a three-person activity which is why he expected his brothers to be there, but now he has to be assigned colleagues he barely even knows.

Through each vignette, the connecting theme is loneliness and isolation. Huey doesn’t have the people he needs for a group activity. He’s forced to work with Burger and Bouncer, a pair of Beagle Boys trying to capture him for their older brother Big Time.

Of all the vignettes, Huey’s is both the weakest and the strongest. Let me explain.

Each triplet has a foil in their vignette and for Huey, that’s Big Time. Big Time is the domineering older brother who demands everything be done exactly the way he wants it. He mistreats his brothers and ignores their opinions and protestations, becoming physically abusive when he wants to get his way.

Big Time is a dark reflection of Huey. Perhaps too dark; Huey can be domineering and stubborn albeit in more of a neurotic way than an outright mean one, but he’s generally not violent? The intro tries to set up the parallel by having Huey disagree so ferociously with Dewey’s Only Child Day that he physically attacks Dewey, but it comes off feeling a bit out of character.

Huey of course recognizes Burger and Bouncer immediately. He weighs his options, literally stating his choice as risking probable death for the certainty of a badge and decides it’s worth the risk. This is a bit of a writing flub. It’s not a big deal, but phrasing Huey’s options that way creates a problem.

We’ve already had a fairly significant Huey episode in “The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest”. There, Huey faced the likelihood of probable death for the sake of gaining his cartography badge and in a climactic moment of character development, realized that the badge wasn’t worth his and his family’s life. He had to learn to sacrifice what he wanted, and even had to verbally defeat Scrooge to do it.

Now, those circumstances were much more extreme than these ones which is why I give this flub slack. This is not an icy mountain full of disaster and death that has killed many times before and will kill again. This is Team Rocket trying to steal his Pikachu. I can believe Huey making the decision he made near the peak of Mt. Neverrest, but also making this decision now. It’s just the way he phrases it that makes it feel like character regression.

It’s a flub, not a plot hole.

But at the opposite end of the spectrum, once Huey starts teaching the Beagle Boys how to make their deathtraps, his vignette gets good. It gets really good. Huey provides Burger and Bouncer with the respect, appreciation, and positive reinforcement that they desperately crave.

It takes the parallel between Huey and Big Time and flips it on its head. Big Time isn’t the dark parallel to Huey. Huey is now the light parallel to Big Time. That stuff about Huey being rigid and domineering and even violently assaulting Dewey? Forget that! That’s not what this story’s about anymore! This story is now about the effects of positive reinforcement on people accustomed to abuse!

Burger and Bouncer become so smitten with being treated decently that they turn entirely against their abuser, and it’s the best part of the entire episode. This vignette was so tragic and heartwarming that it left me wishing Huey could keep them. Webby gets to have a friend outside the Triplets Plus One; why can’t Huey have a pair of Beagle Boys?

In fact, that’s really the problem with Huey’s vignette. The writers had a good idea here. They had a really good idea. They had a great idea. And it was so great, it didn’t really fit in the boundaries of the short story they were supposed to be telling.

Huey’s vignette outshines the larger story it’s supposed to be part of. It makes it difficult to be invested in the other vignettes or the framing device or the central theme, because I just want to go back and see more of this. 10/10, why can’t we just have a Huey episode about this instead of a vignettes episode about the triplets? Huey deprogramming Beagle Boys through compassion and respect, leading to a revolt against their abusive hierarchy? That sounds like a Top Five episode premise to me.

Louie’s Lessons in Scheming: Reinventing Doofus Drake

It’s Louie’s turn for a vignette and what is it about? Well, what else? Louie only really has one story. Working hard for your wealth makes good people who respect the value of their wealth, while lazily acquiring it without discipline and work ethic makes bad people who are terrible. This makes Louie’s episodes a bit repetitive, but it also provides him with the most cohesive storyline our of any of the Triplets Plus One.

For today’s version of the Louie Story, Doofus serves as Louie’s foil. He came into immeasurable wealth at an early age when his Gummeemama passed away and left her entire fortune to him. This had a devastating effect on Doofus’s development. His seemingly endless wealth and privilege made him an intolerable person to be around. He has no sense of value, either for possessions or for people, nor does he have any sense of empathy.

Doofus lives in a world where there are no limits on what he can possess, and possession consequently holds little meaning. The universe revolves around him and he can have whatever or even whoever he wants, but he genuinely does not care about what and who he has beyond the act of having them. He imprisons and abuses his “friend-presents” and destroys priceless artifacts on a whim.

Doofus’s role within the Louie Story is similar to that of Gladstone Gander from “The House of the Lucky Gander”. He embodies the “wrong” way to acquire wealth that initially enchants but ultimately disappoints Louie, in contrast to the “right” way that Scrooge wishes to impart on him. Where Gladstone was about acquiring wealth through chance, Doofus is about acquiring wealth through inheritance.

But unlike Gladstone, Louie’s interaction with Doofus is placed front and center in his vignette. It’s the plot, rather than happening in the background of the plot. Louie’s vignette also has the advantage of being a Louie Story that doesn’t have Scrooge trying and failing to explain the episode’s moral to him; it presents Doofus as an awful kid whose personality and worldview have been consumed by unearned wealth and doesn’t try to contrast it by claiming that ethical billionaires are a real thing that exists.

We’re Dewing It Again: The Debut of Dewey Dewnight

Dewey’s vignette is classic Dewey silliness. What exactly was his motive for Only Child Day? What did he want to do without his brothers around? Well, he wanted to create his own late-night talk show: Dewey Dewnight!

Unfortunately, Dewey quickly realizes how lonely playing by himself is. Within minutes, he goes crazy from the isolation and makes mock-ups of Huey and Louie to play his guests, who he engages with even outside the talk show as though they were real people. Dewey absolutely cannot handle being alone; ironic, given that this was his idea.

Webby is here in Dewey’s vignette to serve as his foil. Where Dewey coveted the idea of being an only child, Webby is an actual only child (a neglected and isolated one, at that) and covets Dewey’s relationship with his brothers. She is desperate to bring Only Child Day to an end because she fears the triplets will split up, leaving her alone again. Isolation has given her a crippling fear of abandonment.

Webby enacts an elaborate scheme to convince Dewey that he needs his brothers back which almost seems unnecessary given that his early-onset solitude madness seemed to be pushing him that direction anyway. Being Webby, her scheme is zany and needlessly violent; she terrorizes him with the DT-87 security robot. Observant viewers will notice that its serial code is a reference to the original DuckTales series which debuted in 1987. Unfortunately, it goes haywire.

The three vignettes all come together for a finale where the brothers solve each others’ problems through their strong bond of brotherhood. Specifically, Huey and Louie solve each other’s and Dewey’s problem while Dewey is present. Huey rewires the security robot, then uses it to fend off Doofus Drake. Louie convinces Burger and Bouncer that it’s okay that Big Time is emotionally and physically abusive towards them because faaaaaaaamily. Which, uh, is a gross way to wrap that particular plotline up.

The Power of Brotherhood

With all that said and done, what was the central theme that ran through this episode? Well, the boys explain it to Webby at the very end. Even though they may sometimes have different interests or want to do different things, that’s okay. Siblings/friends can pursue activities outside of their social group and still remain siblings/friends. Your siblings/friends don’t need to be in your life all the time.

...wait, what?! How was that the moral of this episode?

I said in the beginning that these vignettes are more closely tied together than most vignettes episode, with connecting bits in the intro and conclusion and a running theme through each vignette that makes it all feel like one connected story.

But maybe that wasn’t a good thing. This is gonna be filthy rich coming from me, but these vignettes were ultimately too connected. This final scene is the biggest problem with the stated moral. If the lesson was about the Triplets needing to respect and appreciate one another, this final scene where they work together to solve problems none of them could handle on their own would be an effective capper on their vignettes.

But “Day of the Only Child” ends on the statement that Only Child Day is ultimately a good and healthy thing for the brothers to do. And this is absolutely not what the vignettes have shown us. We’ve watched three instances where the triplets get in over their heads and are ultimately helpless to solve their own problems without their brothers present to bail them out.

If this is the statement the writers wanted to make with the vignettes’ connecting theme, then this last scene shouldn’t have happened. Each vignette should have ended with the brother in question bailing himself out and being empowered by his independence.

In Conclusion

“Day of the Only Child” is up and down across the board. I ultimately liked it better than most vignettes episodes but that’s shallow praise. The events it shows us have a clear message and the theme it explains to us has a clear message, but those messages thoroughly contradict each other.

Louie’s vignette is the best of the lot. It’s the most consistent in terms of quality and it builds on the story the writers have been telling with Louie from the beginning. There is a clear path for what it’s about and where it’s trying to go, and it never gets lost in the weeds.

Huey’s vignette, meanwhile, teases at a much better story that could have been told in place of this. If any vignette was to be expanded into a full episode, Huey’s would be the one I’d want. In fact, I would actively prefer that episode over this one.

Huey’s vignette is too good for this episode and so it gets hacked off at the knees by Louie encouraging blanket forgiveness of familial abusers. Which is terrible.

[gologames]

4 years before Halver Steam page

Since the summer of 2017, my mate and I have been persistently creating an unusual game

This is what Halver looks like now. You can add the game to the Wishlist to follow its development further ― https://store.steampowered.com/app/1358440/Halver

How it began

At that time, I became very ill. To distract myself and again return to the usual rhythm of life, I decided to make a new game

I wanted to come up with something small, about three months of development. All my games involve logic ― ASCII roguelike, color splitting, GROW game, VR Tarot cards, grand strategy, quiz, GO game

Therefore, I was looking for an idea based on a good toy, space for combinations and creativity. And I thought ― let’s say I have a block/cube. I will shoot to him and divide it into two equal parts. Exactly into equal parts. Then if the block was vertical, then I can jump and move the upper half. And if it stood horizontally, then one of the halves may fall. And this process can be repeated over and over again

First prototype

I made a working version overnight and hurried to my mate the next morning ― “I have a brilliant idea, let’s make a game.” In general, the idea really turned out to be quite good. So far, I do not know of another game with the same principle of mechanics

Later, we came up with many other blocks besides the usual (heavy, transparent, jumping, portal, gravity, magnetic, etc.), which can also be divided in half. The basic idea provides many options for the development of mechanics

First build of the game | Halver

Basic concepts

Pretty quickly, we formed the basic principles of the game

As a visual design, we chose a blueprint style, a combination of strict lines and vivid visual effects. I had to puzzle over the development of this combination many times

Basic principles of the game | Halver

The hero’s task is to get to the exit from the level, cutting various blocks in half, which can be initially fixed and immovable. To cut the block, the hero makes a shot. This set of mechanics makes the gaming experience unique

We introduced a rule ― the block is divided in half depending on the side of the bullet hitting it. For example, if a projectile hits the left side of a block, then the block will be divided horizontally. And if in the upper side, then vertically

I thought about different trajectories of a shot / types of weapons ― minigun, laser with ricochet, grenade, mortar. The last variant with a curve path of the projectile turned out to be the most convenient for level design. In this case, the player can often cut the block both vertically and horizontally without changing his position

Level design

One way to find inspiration for level design is to put whatever you have onto the scene and see what happens

“Big level” of early version of the game, where we tested the mechanics

So we did it while figuring out the key features of our game’s level design:

Levels of the game are arranged in the order in which player learns new mechanics

More compact levels preferred than huge

The structure of the level foundation forms a graphic composition

I’ll tell you more about the latter. The early levels of the game were reminiscent of a regular platformer. The foundation blocks were placed for ease of movement, but nothing more. Because of this, the player was often forced to simply engage in “walking”

Early levels of the game | Halver

Our game resembles a puzzle in which a rectangular character was placed. Therefore, it is logical that the very shape of the level resembles a certain silhouette or image. This complicates the task, but creates harmony, unity of form and meaning

Plot

He’s gone. Indeed, it was a long way towards this decision

Initially, we had several scenario sketches:

Overpopulation in the world of the future and people “move” to VR

A certain Doctor created a copy of his consciousness

As a child, he invented a kind of game about “blueprint and programming”

The player had to figure out the rules of this game, learning the details of the plot, trying to understand what was going on in general. We even ordered voice acting for the storyline ― https://soundcloud.com/gologames/sets/doctor-strories/s-YdEPC (“Doctor stories” on Russian language)

But under the weight of accumulated inconsistencies, we abandoned the plot in the direction of complete abstraction. Only very attentive players will be able to see the narrative details that remain in the level design

What are the plans?

To create a demo version and further develop the game for release. The implementation of the editor and level generator is in question

Everything to make it comfortable to jump | Level “Sort Station”

The fact is that even the levels from the main campaign of the game most likely will not cover the potential of its mechanics

Portal block connects the cut halves | Level “Gutter”

For example, we will most likely add this idea, with a “colony” of blocks absorbing everything in its path, to the campaign

Rolling blocks turn other blocks into themselves | Level “Colony”

But maybe you have ideas for levels that are not yet in the game?

Gravity block slows down blocks in its field | Level “Milky Way”

Links

Steam ― https://store.steampowered.com/app/1358440/Halver/

Twitter ―  https://twitter.com/GoloGamesStudio

Discord ― https://discord.gg/fsVQSHnv

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Darkly Dawns the Duck Pts 1 and 2

It’s a Darkwing Double Feature! Just in time for his ducktales special, I take a look at the introduction of everyone’s favorite Daring Duck of Mystery. In his daring debut we meet Darkwing Duck, an egositical and attention hungry superhero who soon finds himself having to look after a feisty orphan to keep her from getting nabbed by local kingpin of crime Taurus Bulba with the help of his biggest fan. Darkwing owns the night under the cut with decades old spoilers. 

Let’s Get Dangerous.. is tommorow so with that in mind i’m doing a darkwing double feature to refresh myself before the big special. So i’ll be covering both the original series pilot “Darkly Dawns the Duck” and the ducktales reboot episode “The Duck Knight Returns”.  Let’s Get Dangerous Itself because I was so wiped yesterday I didn’t get the other review done and unexpectly got acess to the new episode way earlier than usual so i’d rather focus on that. Got it? Good. Let’s continue past me. 

As usual with a new show a breif bit about my history with it: I watched it years ago, as a friend of mine lent me the first two discs of the season 1 dvd and never found the third one nor asked for them back, nor cared I had them. I thoughtly enjoyed it, had a great time and then it took me a decade or so to actually watch the series again due to a combination of being too stubborn to just buy the season 1 dvd again, a very darkwing move of me in hindsight, and then when disney plus meant I had all episodes at my finger tips I.. sat on them till now.. though to be fair i’ve sat on a LOT of great shows on there including the mandalorian, gargoyles and boy meets world. I have a bad tendency to procastinate, the fact this is coming out so late in the day should be a giveaway. I did read about half of volume 1 of the comic and all of volume 2, so there’s that at least.  Point is this new episode finally made me decide to get off my ass and watch darkwing once again, starting with the pilot and the episodes related to the fearsome four to be ready for tomorrow to see what the differences are (Thoguh I did remember bushroot vividly, so I had that at least).  Something to note before I get started talking about the pilot itself though, is the episode order for Darkwing Duck is a Darkwing Clusterfuck. Now I do understand WHY they aired this way: While some episodes do logically take place after other episodes, you can reasonably pop on just about any darkwing and watch it and enjoy it with minimal need to know what happened in previous episodes, kinda like batman the animated series oddly enough. It was also aired between two networks so on some level I get disney’s confusion here.. but on the other hand it’d take ten minutes, they clearly can call up the creator easily as Tad Stones made a cameo in ducktales 2017 we’ll get to so they could easily get a better order from the creator himself, so they really don’t have an excuse for this, or for slapping the pilot in the middle of season 1. Then again both ducktales 2017 and x-men the animated series were sort of a mess order wise when first put up, so not giving a shit about where episodes are placed for re-watching clearly is a pastime of theirs. 

Now i’ve got that out of my system we can dive into the episode itself and a breif plot synopsis. Darkwing Duck is the superhero protector of St. Canard, a masked vigiliante who takes out crime but wishes he actually got fame and credit for his work. Kind of like Booster Gold but without taking endorsments or as far as we know coming from the future. He also has nothing else as shown by the fact he fights crime, does a training regimine to prepare his breakfast that’s a delight to watch then prepares to sleep. It’s an intresting concept, a hero who HAD a civlian identity once, as the rest of the series would play out, he just no longer needs it. And it’s also ahead of it’s time as batman would explore this idea both seriously with bruce wayne murderer and comedically and seriously with the lego batman movie LONG after this series aired, meaning the writers here figured out what many probably knew about batman and put it into their parody version: Batman is the real identity and Bruce is the mask. Batman only keeps his old self because the bruce id is useful to him: It keeps people away from his company, puts up a playboy facade that draws attention away from him being batman, and allows him to do various charities and what not and help honor his parents in a way that dosen’t involve swooping in and kicking people in the throat. And as seen with bruce wayne murderer when the option to throw bruce away for good came up Batman gladly took it.  This is the same idea: Drake Mallard ONLY cares about crime fighting, has no friends no family, we never do find out jack about his family hopefully if there’s a full reboot series Frank and Matt fix it for their version. He has nothing, and is fine with that. He hasn’t really had a reason to care about anything else than his own glory and works alone not because it’s less efficent but because his oversized ego means he dosen’t want to share credit. IT’s an intresting start and his ego would be a defining bit of who he is and used intrestingly int he reboot but we’ll get to that there. 

His life changes forever though when local crime boss Taurus Bulba unleashes his latest scheme: To steal the Ramrod, a gravity manipulating device created by the late Dr. Quackmeyer.. late because Bulba’s men killed him and were dumb enough not to get the arming code for the ramrod first a year ago. Bulba is also behind bars but in one of my faviorite gags of the episode despite the warden’s constnat gloating, Bulba has taken the “Supervillian makes jail into a base” Or “Jail is nothing to a supervillian who can easily get out trope” to ludcrious machines. He has whole meetings with his minions, keeps the ramrod once he gets his hands on it in the laundry and has a ship SHAPED LIKE HIS FACE built into his cellblock. I’ts just so over the top it’s glorious. But yeah since Bulba can’t go after it at first he sends his three goofy minons, one played by eddie “Mandark” deezen in.. love that guy. 

THey do end up stealing the ramrod thanks to the help of bulba’s cool, non-anthromporhic condor who he uses as his right hand man and as his link to his minons via a small tv aroudn it’s neck. That.. is awesome. Darkwing spots the condor but fails to stop the three stooges or the condor and gets unknowingly blamed for the robbery..and stopped to get glamor shots not realizing the guy thought he was a criminla which.. fair enough. It is a shadowy disguise after all. 

Darkwing ends up grabbing onto the vulture sonic 3 style, but ends up falling off him into a hangar where we meet the original version of Launchpad McQuack, whose apparently quit working for scrooge and has his own hangar now though it wouldn’t be a stretch that scrooge bought it for him.. he does , stingy as he is, appricate hard work and launchpad wanting to start his own buisness and while hte planes were probably all on launchpad, Scrooge would gladly buy a run down buliding for a loyal friend who wants to put in some hard honest work. Plus it’s a free place to store any vehicles he has in the st canard area.. I mean it’s still scrooge. And yes I know the whole “Tad stones said they aren’t the same universe” non sense. I do have the utmost respect for the guy and he seems really, nice but I don’ tlike that, no one likes that and both the comics and the current duckverse with the ducktales reboot entirely ignore that for good reason.While the two shows are diffrent in tone they stil lfit and it’s not a stretch for launchpad to want to spread his wings or failing that scrooge to help push him out of the nest and give him his own buisness or one of scrooge’s to run. 

But while Launchpad does help DW with a propeller plane they fail and while launchpad offers to be his sidekick, DW gives him the old I work alone bit.  However him being alone won’t last for long as Bulba still needs that arming code and since his only lead is Waddlemeyer’s grandaughter who grew up in his lab, he sends his buffonish minons to go get him. Why he never sends his lone female minon with them is because it’s funnier if she dosen’t I guess. Which it is so fair enough.  So thus we enter Goslyn, who the head of the orphanage is fed up with due to her antics. Goslyn is played as most of you knwo by christine cavanagh.. I honestly forgot and it still throws me off a bit she’s using what would later be her chucky finster voice for a character so completely diffrent. Granted it’s not unusual in voice acting, just weird here and only for me personally having grown up with rugrats but not darkwing. The orphanage head is a bit less jarring as she’s played by Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabable from the simpsons but A) that show was already running at this point and B), the character is basically a nicer version of edna versus chuckies voice coming out of a tiny if immensly fun to watch hellion. I do like goslyn, sh’es a fun character even in her shadier moments, it’s just something i’d forgotten about i’ll need to get used to is all. 

Bulba’s hired goons come in claming ot be friends of her grandpas and we actually get some really heartwrenching context for Gos’ behavior: While she does act out she actually LIKES THE orphanage.. ti’s just her friends keep getting adopted while no one wants someone “full of spirit”. It’s heartwrecnhing to hear.. and only gets worse when the goons try and kidnap her.  Thankfully Darkwing.. also kidnaps her, but he kindaps her from kidnappers and while Goslyn naturally takes a second to realize he’s the good guy them shooting at him clues her in. Darkwing, in a rare for the series as a whole moment of reason and not wanting to just power though something himself TRIES to do the responsible thing and leave gos with the police where she’ll be protected.. but given they think he’s a wanted criminal they shoot at him.. and the small child in his motorcycle. Yup that’s the police alright. 

So with no other options Darkwing takes gos home, hyjinks insue including her activintg the breakfast thing. But the two genuinely start to bond. While Darkwing dosen’t WANT to keep her around, the whole not wanting connections thing, it’s clear he’s growing fond of the little snot as she holds her own with his trianing course, they have a tickle fight and in the sweetest moment of the episode the two sing little girl blue, a song her grandfather used to sing her to sleep that she teaches darkwing. It’s an utterly heartmelting bit and Cummings and Cavanagh really sell the hell out of it. It also however turns out ot be plot relevant: Turns out just in case Dr. Waddlemeyer hid the code for the ramrod in the song, and when Darkwing sees a photo Goslyn got from bulba’s goons, he realizes this and realizes that depsite thinking she didn’t know it Goslyn had it all along.. and that as long as h’es around she won’t know.  Bulba is naturally livid at his minons failure and decides now’s the time to take this into his own hands and while he actually liked the prison hq setup, as it did make sense as it was the perfect cover and the warden was too full of himself to realize Bulba was still active and too convinced the bull was beaten down when he clearly wasn’t, but instead as mentioned above awesomely converts his cellblock into a flying ship in the shape of his own head.  Bulba.. is a great villian and I only think the show didn’t use him more because he’s a dead serious, deadly dangerous villian in an otherwise goofy but fun superhero parody show. The show later gained Negaduck, so they had a more dangerous threat for darkwing that fit the show’s tone better while still being utterly terrifying, and likely simply didn’t need him till the idea for the steerminator came up. But I love the guy: he reminds me a lot of the kingpin, a threatning villian who uses his sheer size to beat our hero down, is cool and suave and is an utter mastermind at planning. He also wears a nice suit.  And naturlaly he has a plan to take out darkwing since despite the two never having met, as Darkwing disparages when Goslyn assumes their lifelong mortal enmies like in the comics, they know of each other.. and thus bulba knows exactly what trap to spring to get him out of the way and goslyn into his ship: He flashes a message in morris code that he wants to surrender to Darkwing while stroking his ego a LOT. And it works... while i’ts an obvious trap Darkwing’s so full of himself he goes despite Goslyn telling him it’s very obviously a trap.  Naturally everything goes pear shaped as a result: Bulba shows up, revealing gos not only to be right but easily pummling Darkwing. Which makes sense: While Darkwing is a vetran crime fighter and secret agent, Bulba’s been at being a villian longer clearly as he’s built up enough of a rep both for Darkwing to know him out of hand and for the warden to be proud capturing him. Given what univese this is, it probably isn’t Bulba’s first round with a superhero and given at this stage St Canard only has one.. yeah Darkwing is outclasssed and the police grab him while Bulba scarpers. And while Gos puts up a good fight using the trianing course, Bulba’s vulture gets her. Bulba has everything he needs.  Darkwing meanwhile actually bemoans what a dick he’s been, that the first person he’s cared about besides himself in possibly ever is now in the hands of a murderous mastermind, and that he’s stuck in jail with no one to call on for help. Thankfully.. help arrives.. and by help I mean launchpad backing the ratcatcher, Darkwing’s bike, into the prisoin. He DID come just to bail DW out despite his earlier jerkishness, but backed in and Darkwing not beliving superheroes have time for paperwork, decides to just bust out. And to be ifair int his case he’s probably right as you know, a ten year old might die if they don’t get there in time. So off they go.. but with Bulba in the air they need something with wings to catch him. ANd luckily as Launchpad mentioned earlier he’s been working on something special for darkwing.  It’s with this we enter the thunderquack, which is DW”S awesome headshaped plane. It’s just cool it’s got a nice design, goofy enough tof it the universe but cool enoguh to still be fun to watch. Darkwing has really damn cool vehicles, as the ratcatcher is also awesomely iconic. But yeah the thunderquack impresses darkwing and rightfully so and he decides to make LP his sidekick afterall.  So now our heroes fly into the danger zone and attack bulba’s airship with Darkwing landing on the bow and a scuffle insues with darkwing and hte minons.. who use actual guns which for a 90′s kids show is  a suprise, especially one this intentioanlly goofy, but boy is it nice. However Bulba, being awesomely evil, isn’t dumb and instead of fighting darkwing, which he could win but would win him nothing and having gotten nothing out of goslyn, figures the hero might know the code.. and while Darkwing lies and says he dosen’t, Bulba points out .. he’s right.. but he’s always been a gambling man and has his condor drop goslyn to lure drake into telling him , with DW putting in the code and bulba testing it with a bank robbery.. before predictably having his condor drop the girl because he no longer needs her. Thankfully launchpad catches her in time and then they get revenge on the condor with the thunderquack BITING IT.. which is awesome. Hopefully the reboot version does that. 

Darkwing meanwhile saves the day, his new daughter and the city by simply sneaking over to the ramrod and mashign the keys till it overloads, silly, but undeniably awesome and effective. Bulba TRIES to finish off darkwing this time for foiling his plan.. btu the ramrod explodes and while bulba’s minons and goslyn and launchpad are safe... bulba and darkwing are apparently dead and it’s effective.  A few weeks later Goslyn’s back at the orphanage utterly distraught and broken at being basically orphaned again. Naturally though Darkwing’s alive, having taken his old identnity back since now he has something worth using it for and adopts her, hinting at who he is so she goes with him. And Drake has changed.. sure he’ll still be as egostical and impuslive as he was here.. but he’s no longer just darkwing.. he’s drake again as he has someone worth fighting for.. two someones in fact. He has a friend, a loyal partner to help him fight cime. And more importantly.. he has a loving daughter. And both needed each other: Goslyn needed someone who understood her despite her manic energy, and Drake needed someone who needed him and not darkwing, a reason to be a person outside the cape and cowl and outside the attention again. He needed a reason to live again... and he’s got it. And it’s going to be great. 

Final Thoughts: This pilot is excellent. Well paced, plenty of laughs, tense action and great introductions for everyone involved as well as a hell of a vilian> This is how you do a first episode: it introduces the main themes of the show, both comedically and dramatically, introduces the cast and gives us a one off , or rather two off it’d turn out, villian whose compelling and intresting. IT’s really damn good stuff and I can’t wait ot see what frank does with a simlar story tommorow. Until then, stay safe, and happy hallowen. We’ll be back shortly for The Duck Knight returns and then Let’s Get Dangerous tommorow. 

[drkineildwicks]

Okay, new BH6 episodes and….

I am crying and not in a good way

These episodes legit caused me pain and shortened my lifespan

Well maybe not the latter but UGH

Firstly, I hated this show getting more musically inclined and OH GUESS WHAT THESE TWO EPISODES ARE MORE OF

I was expecting the boy band to be either incompetent or evil so this doesn’t surprise me

Or clones but that’s only because Gravity Falls

These guys are secretly products of Sycorax

Which makes sense because Wasabi geeked over Chris too so....

Definitely got vibes from Kim Possible and the Oh Boyz

Which makes sense because it’s the same team but….

“Oversaturated boy band market”—uh, you’re like…fifteen years too late to be saying that….

Also some of them reminded me of James from Team Rocket so….

These are Jessie and James’ kids and you can’t convince me otherwise

There’s even the Team Rocket’s Blasting Off Again ding!

This…literally could have been avoided by BH6 not doing anything

They kept sniping everything BH6 could have just said “You want this so badly?  Fine, we’re out” and let them flounder

Oh look, fake news!

And I was actually expecting Seto Kaiba when the dragon showed up

And then I was expecting NBB to convert the dragon when it went evil

NBB and sibs need a big dragon sib PLEASE

So…yeah, didn’t like that one…how’d the next one go….

Oh look it’s the creepy “I fear nothing” kid!

Uh….

Uh…

Gogo’s song was…

I legit noped out of the room I’m sorry

Oh no she’s gone native

And here I go, noping out of the room again

I’M SORRY, I TRIED TO STICK IT OUT, OKAY???

The bit about the Mad Jacks made me laugh tho

And the kid just…didn’t know how to express himself???

I mean I guess I get it but???

Also Gogo showing affection making Baymax short-circuit XD

So…

I’m sorry, these episodes were painful

And not like previous episodes were painful

I just???

I can’t

Someone yeet me back to 2017 when I was running all over the house in excitement over this show instead of now when I’m actually squirming uncomfortably at it

This doesn’t even

I’m not even sure it feels like the same show?

I know some people like the direction the show went this season but

I

JUST

DON’T :’(

[rhyslucia]

If you're pro-military, you shouldn't vote for trump

"Some 489 national security experts — including 22 four-star officers — have endorsed Joe Biden for president.

'I believe the current administration is a real threat to the republic,' says Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who served as the Army's No. 2 officer before retiring in 2012. 'I had to stand up and be counted.'"

***************************************************

If you're Christian, you shouldn't vote for trump

"While the president has delivered on some issues of concern to us, such as economic reforms and trade deals, his immigration policies are cruel, undermining his pledges to life and religious freedom. For instance, while we cherish unborn lives, we also value the lives of thousands of children who were separated from their mothers or fathers by the "zero tolerance" policies of the administration at the Mexican border in 2018.

Our commitment to life also compels us to do everything that we can to end human trafficking. The administration has decided to suspend the life saving elements of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, the passage of which evangelical Christians proudly championed under George Bush and the flouting of which evangelical ministries like World Vision and International Justice Mission have decried.

Our convictions on life also are why we strongly believe the United States should continue to be, in the famous words of George Washington, "a safe and agreeable asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong." Rather than continue the life saving tradition of asylum and resettlement of refugees, the administration has shut out persecuted refugees with its immigration policies."

*************************************************

If you value American lives, you shouldn't vote for trump

“You just breathe the air and that’s how it’s passed,” he said in a Feb. 7 call with journalist Bob Woodward. “And so that’s a very tricky one. That’s a very delicate one. It’s also more deadly than even your strenuous flus.”

“This is deadly stuff,” he said.

At the time, Trump was telling Americans that the U.S. was in little danger and that the outbreak would soon go away on its own.

Asked about those statements in March, Trump said he wanted to downplay the threat. "I wanted to always play it down," Trump told Woodward. "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."

In the same interview, he went on to acknowledge the gravity of the threat facing even young adults. "Just today and yesterday, some startling facts came out. It's not just old, older. Young people too, plenty of young people," Trump said.

************************************************

Are you, or have you ever met a woman? If so, you shouldn't vote for trump

Donald Trump, current president of the United States, has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least 25 women since the 1970s.[1][2] The accusations have resulted in three much reported instances of litigation: his then-wife Ivana made a rape claim during their 1989 divorce litigation but later recanted that claim;[3] businesswoman Jill Harth sued Trump in 1997 alleging breach of contract while also suing for nonviolent sexual harassment but withdrew the latter suit as part of a settlement for relating to the former suit; and, in 2017, former The Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos filed a defamation lawsuit after Trump called her a liar.[4]

Trump in 2017

Two of the allegations (by Ivana Trump and Jill Harth) became public before Trump's candidacy for president, but the rest arose after a 2005 audio recording was leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump was recorded bragging that a celebrity like himself "can do anything" to women, including "just start kissing them ... I don't even wait" and "grab 'em by the pussy". Trump subsequently characterized those comments as "locker room talk" and denied actually behaving that way toward women, and he also apologized for the crude language. Many of his accusers stated that Trump's denials provoked them into going public with their allegations.

Another type of accusation was made, primarily after the audio recording surfaced, by several former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants, who accused Trump of entering the dressing rooms of beauty pageant contestants. Trump, who owned the Miss Universe franchise, which includes both pageants, was accused of going into dressing rooms in 1997, 2000, 2001, and 2006, while contestants were in various stages of undress. Trump had already referred to this practice during a 2005 interview on The Howard Stern Show, saying he could "get away with things like that" because he owned the beauty pageants the women and girls were competing in.

***********************************************

Do you support racism? If not, you shouldn't vote for trump

In unguarded moments with senior aides, President Trump has maintained that Black Americans have mainly themselves to blame in their struggle for equality, hindered more by lack of initiative than societal impediments, according to current and former U.S. officials.

After phone calls with Jewish lawmakers, Trump has muttered that Jews “are only in it for themselves” and “stick together” in an ethnic allegiance that exceeds other loyalties, officials said.

Trump’s private musings about Hispanics match the vitriol he has displayed in public, and his antipathy to Africa is so ingrained that when first lady Melania Trump planned a 2018 trip to that continent he railed that he “could never understand why she would want to go there.”

When challenged on these views by subordinates, Trump has invariably responded with indignation. “He would say, ‘No one loves Black people more than me,’ ” a former senior White House official said. The protests rang hollow because if the president were truly guided by such sentiments he “wouldn’t need to say it,” the official said. “You let your actions speak.”

In Trump’s case, there is now a substantial record of his actions as president that have compounded the perceptions of racism created by his words

************************************************

Do you enjoy advances made by science? If so, you shouldn't vote for trump

The Trump administration and 115th Congress have been actively dismantling science-based health and safety protections, sidelining scientific evidence, and undoing recent progress on scientific integrity.

Below is a running list of attacks on science—disappearing data, silenced scientists, and other assaults on scientific integrity and science-based policy. The list provides a representative sample of threats to the federal scientific enterprise.

FDA Now Lacks Authority to Halt Use of Inaccurate Coronavirus Tests

In a move strongly opposed by FDA officials, the agency will no longer use science-based checks to regulate a broad swathe of laboratory tests, including coronavirus tests.

CDC Coronavirus Testing Guidelines Were Modified by Political Officials to be Less Scientific

The White House’s Coronavirus Task Force and HHS changed the novel coronavirus testing guidelines on the CDC website to fall out of line with the best available science.

EPA Refuses to Regulate Rocket Fuel Chemical in Drinking Water

The EPA has officially announced that it will not regulate perchlorate, a common ingredient of explosives and rocket fuel, in the nation’s drinking water supplies.

Fetal Tissue Research Blocked by a Biased Advisory Committee

13 out of 14 NIH grants submitted since September 2019 that involve fetal tissue are likely to be rejected based solely on the recommendations of the Human Fetal Tissue Research Ethics Advisory Board at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

White House Demands Rewriting of CDC’s COVID-19 Guidelines for Schools

Vice President Mike Pence ordered the CDC to rewrite their school opening guidelines for reasons that appeared to be primarily political.

Trump Administration Takes Away Hospitalization Data From the CDC

The Administration mandated that hospitals bypass the CDC and send data on COVID-19 hospitalizations, to a private third party.

Trump Administration Endangered People Evacuating From Coronavirus-Infected Cruise Ship

State Department officials overrode science-based concerns of CDC officials and allowed 14 infected people to board an airplane with over 300 non-infected people

White House Hides Economic Analysis Showing COVID-19 Downturns

The White House will forego the publication of an economic analysis on budget projections in the summer of 2020.

NOAA Fisheries is Restricting the Use of the Words “COVID-19” and “Pandemic”

An official memo, issued by NOAA, stated that the agency’s “preferred approach” is making “no reference to anything COVID related” in public-facing documents.

Trump Administration Buries COVID-19 Information For Religious Communities

White House officials instructed the CDC to delete certain sections of a COVID-19 guidance measure for communities of faith

*****************************************************

Sorry I forgot to copy over my sources, but it's very easy to Google and find, just, all the reasons to not vote for trump. If you're feeling apathetic or like your vote doesn't matter, it does. If nothing else your vote will stick it to the egotistical, thin skinned, racist, misogynistic, hateful, lying, fascist ass-hat. If not for love of the country or hope for the future, get out and vote out of hate of who trump is and what he stands for. #VoteHimOut