#no but all jokes aside this game has consumed my life

[fireflower117]

breaking my silence to say that this is how i feel about hit rpg in stars and time rn. i am so incredibly normal about this game idk what you’re talking about

[thegreatyin]

How did you manage to handle not one, but FOUR separate accounts in fl? I recently made the account for my HD little guy but having to do the tutorial again just seems miserable

there's... weirdly several answers to that question, actually??

a HUGE part of it is due to the way FL is structured. the 10-minute action timer is a core part of the game on a fundamental level, and the fact that i can very easily run out of stuff to do on one character and thus have an excuse to quickly and easily swap to another is just... convenient? satisfying? i'm not entirely sure how to explain it. the fact that i can make progress even while i am fundamentally simultaneously Not Making Progress is like pure dopamine for my freak insane awful little brain. there's just something really pleasing about spending all of my actions pursuing The Goal Of The Day™ on one account before casually swapping to another and doing the same without feeling like i'm wasting time or acting to the first account's explicit detriment. the downtime helps! the recharge time helps! the structure really really works!!

i'm technically only actively playing three, maybe two accounts minimum. the only reason the fourth (the one that'll be my future BaL playthrough) currently exists at all is so i can get his earlygame completely out of the way now and not have to waste time running through it all later, when what i actually want to do is play the ambition i've made myself wait a full year to play. and also getting free goodies as seasonal stuff happens,, something something surprise tools to help us later. the only two accounts i'd say i'm really "actively playing" at the moment are caeru and lark- and of the two, lark takes the most priority, since his ambition is the one i'm currently pursuing in earnest. for a couple months now- despite being My Main FL Character- the scoundrel has actually been pretty inactive on a gameplay front outside of the occasional progression in TLC and discordance content. purely by virtue of having Very little left to do outside of Very long-term grinds and vanities. they're in their "now what?" "now you can start playing the game" era. they've graduated to previous protagonist background cameo in a sequel anime series. they're like the yin FLPC equivalent of red at the top of mount silver. they're Literally just vibing rn. i only keep posting about them regardless because i'm insane and i will never ever ever ever ever let that bat go. but yeah, big TLDR, outside of doing the bare minimum to keep making waves/notability up every week, i'm not actually spending that much time on accounts i'm not currently actively interested in playing. and that accounts for way more gaming spoons than you might think.

i have a virtually lifelong history of playing MMOs, especially and specifically world of warcraft. i was born in the endless grind for useless video game pixel vanities and/or bragging rights. molded by it. you all have merely adapted to doing the same piece of content a pointlessly excessive amount of times for literally no reason besides whimsy and folly. me? i've done my time. i've served my sentence. i've spent weeks doing the original burning crusade netherwing dailies. i've devoted days to running praetorium over and over and over again, back-to-back, nonstop, long before square enix cut it in half and made it NOT take at minimum an hour and a half per run. i've perfected my silverwastes + auric basin goldfarming strategies. i've (almost) crafted dragonwrath tarecgosa's rest. i've killed the sha of anger so many times its dying scream of agony is embedded into the very fabric of my being. ""only"" doing making your name content four times over? that is nothing to me. it means nothing to me. it is so infinitesimal i can do the persuasive seduction quests in my sleep. it's not a matter of handling misery, or having the capacity, or even sighing as i remember the brass embassy raid segment of the watchful questline seriously i don't know why i keep forgetting that exists or what even is my problem with it i just am so consistently mildly inconvenienced by it and its highly specific resource requirements and it is the worst thing ever. maybe i'm just so used to the scoundrel's near-infinite money and troves of disposable items that i've completely forgotten what being poor is like. despite having done that step 3 fucking times now. ahem. anyway. i have transcended the feeble mortal bindings of my resistant-to-grinding flesh and ascended to a higher plane of enlightenment, they may call me insane but they will be the ones left laughing when they see what that "insanity" has wrought, i've usurped them, i've usurped them all-

hacks and coughs and awkwardly clears my throat. i mean. uh. um. Ahem.

the empress' court artistry + tales of the university nerfs helped too.

[rimouskis]

thoughts on social media use, algorithms, and the strangeness of being a human in the world:

I don't remember when I downloaded tiktok. It was either 2021 or 2022. I was working from home and had more unsupervised down time than I was accustomed to. It was easy to scroll and get lost in it.

The algorithm was good. It had my interests pinned so quickly that it was almost alarming. I suddenly felt reattached to youth culture, which was something that had been slipping out of my fingers as I aged into my 20s. I rather enjoyed getting to explain new jokes or memes or references to my older friends who weren't on the platform. It was, for a time, my favorite way to spend time online, aside from Tumblr.

And all I did was consume. I barely even commented on things, mostly because the constant notifications you couldn't silence when your comment got liked were annoying, but also because I didn't think I had much worth adding. It was entirely passive. Scroll, watch, scroll, scroll, scroll, watch, watch, scroll. An eternal feed of dopamine beamed right into my skull.

I stopped writing as much, though there were lots of things I could blame that on. I stopped reading almost entirely, though that had been true for a little while, so I also couldn't blame that on the app either, not really. It wasn't like I could point to the app and say "THIS THING IS RUINING MY LIFE!" because it wasn't. I was entertained. I felt informed because I started seeing some news items this way that I hadn't seen elsewhere. I was Connected To The Culture, and I've always enjoyed that. I found music I liked, and cultural critics I liked, and endless, endless amounts of Content that I liked.

My phone was old. So old, in fact, that the screen was made out of some sort of thing where the stark white like/comment/home icons on tiktok's interface literally burnt themselves into my screen. I was kind of embarrassed about that. I didn't use it a weird amount, I was on other apps, I had a life, I ran, I was outdoors whenever the weather was good, I was always busy around the city going to events and seeing people and going to hockey games. So what if I burned some icons into an old, faulty screen?

Then my life got blown up in short order, through no fault of my own, and it wasn't until I got a new, fully in-person job that I began noticing how much I was watching tiktok when I had a SECOND of free time at my job. It was more obvious when I was in an office that my fingers twitched with desire to scroll and watch short-form videos. It was embarrassing. It was like a smoker tic for a cigarette between their fingers.

Sometime in late 2023, I told my friends I wanted to stay off of tiktok more. I was sick of not writing like I used to. I felt like all my time was spent staring down at a little screen. In bursts and spurts, I would go a day or two without using the app, or only using it in the evening before I slept. I always ended up back on it, though.

It wasn't until March 2024 that I deleted the app off of my phone instead of just hour-limiting it. It was gone.

Funnily, some time later, maybe a week or two, I tried to redownload it. But, lo, my curated algorithm was gone. It had reset entirely, like it had forgotten me. My For You Page was gibberish, wholly unlike the fun, """"curated"""" (bleh) page I'd once had that could spoonfeed me stuff calibrated to my exact interests.

And just like that, the spell was broken. I deleted the app off of my phone forevermore. I left it logged in on my laptop, where the FYP was similarly broken, and I would—once every two months or so—go online to check on the pages I followed and watch a bit of their content. A mere five or so minutes would go by before I hit the end of my "Following" feed, and I'd close out of the tab, having seen all I wanted to see. It was kind of shocking how once the addictive, spot-on algorithm was destroyed, so too was my interest in the app.

That isn't to say my attention span has returned. It doesn't feel like it has. It wasn't like I smugly wiped my hands of algorithms, either. Even though I'd previously never used the "For You" tab on Twitter, I began clicking onto it. Then, a couple months ago, I started going into Instagram reels consistently, also having never done that before.

Twitter is, of course, a terrible place now filled with absolutely hateful bigots, but it's also a place unshakably dedicated to a culture of dunking and owning and getting one over another poster and being confrontational and being rude and being the first to say the most provocative, attention-grabbing thing about ANY topic.

It became deeply unpleasant to be on. It had been for a while, if we're being honest. I stayed off hockey twitter for months because I couldn't stand the horrible takes about the Pens, or about Geno's contract, or about how Sid should jump ship.

Instagram, meanwhile, was more insidious. I've never felt the kind of anxiety about my Instagram that I know bothers some other people—I deeply enjoy it as a tool of curation. I'm a hobbyist photographer. I like sharing snippets of my life (lol obviously, given what I'm doing right now). I love the language of images. I didn't really follow any influencers or news outlets, just old friends and acquaintances and family members and some small artists I enjoy. I muted the stories of people who shared incessant and oversimplified PSA graphics about the news or social issues. I kept it rather apolitical—that was what Twitter and sometimes Reddit were for.

When I started perusing the curated/algorithm Reels feed, though, I started to get sucked back in.

It was nice, at first. My tendency to stay away from political/news content meant I didn't get ragebait on there. In fact, the VAST majority of content I was served was interior design, furniture restoring/flipping, and home remodels.

It was really interesting. I liked seeing people's homes! I liked daydreaming about getting to do big-scale renovations with custom homemade cabinetry and wallpaper and gorgeous tiles. Sometimes I'd get recipe content, too, and vaguely crunchy-but-still-sensible environmentalist stuff.

I started noticing, again, how much time I was spending on it, but it also wasn't just taking my time.

All the beautiful new furniture made me want new furniture, too. All the starkly-beautiful and obsessive (and frankly stupid and overconsumption-informed) organization content made me want to improve my hall closet. Suddenly the interior design in my home—which had gotten compliments from everyone who'd ever stepped inside, from my landlord to my friends to my family—wasn't good enough for me anymore. I wanted a change. I wanted a gallery wall. I wanted a sideboard. I wanted removable wallpaper. I wanted beautiful, impractical, expensive storage. I wanted, I wanted, I wanted.

I've never been particularly influenceable, not when it comes to internet influencers. I'm very informed and watchful over my money. I know what I like spending on. I plan and I make it happen. And what influencers were often selling—clothes, makeup, beauty products—wasn't where I loved spending my money.

Home decor, though? Home improvement? Interior design? Turns out that could get me to open my wallet.

I did make some changes to my living space. I like them. I think they're beautiful and they solve both a storage issue I had and a oh-god-I-own-too-much-art-where-am-I-gonna-put-it-all problem I had. But I noticed what made me spend that money: seeing other peoples' beautiful homes.

I didn't like that.

I read AHP's "Culture Study" newsletter. I find her an interesting journalist and I usually find what she has to say, and what her guests have to say, to be interesting. This morning, she put out a newsletter talking about how she'd deleted Instagram from her phone before Christmas, and taken her email app off too while she was at it.

There are so many good chunks of this newsletter, but I want to share a few:

I find myself diverting my scroll energy to Facebook, where I still have an account to access dahlia groups, but it feels even more gross than before: a wasteland of AI accounts promising blue dahlias and weight loss reels and suggestions to friends of friends who haven’t updated their Facebook accounts in nearly a decade. It’s like a frat house basement at 10 am. Why the fuck am I here.

and

After years of people yelling at me in books, think pieces, and tweets (lol) to “break up with my phone,” “delete your social media accounts,” and “fuck Mark Zuckerberg,” turns out the thing that I needed was a whole conglomeration of quiet arguments and technological shifts that made my phone and the social media accounts on it feel less precious. Put differently, I haven’t come to value it less; instead, it’s become less valuable.

and

The amount of space these technologies take up in our lives — and their ever-diminishing utility — has brought us to a sort of cultural tipping point. I’ve sensed it over the last year, when my social feeds seemed to finish their years-long transformation from a neighborhood populated with friends to a glossy condo development of brands.

AHP articulated precisely what I'd been feeling. My curated feeds of people I'd CHOSEN to follow had been replaced with algorithms of content created by professional influencers who wanted my attention (to monetize it, to sell me things, to sell my eyes to a company, whatever).

I was disgusted by the few home renovation accounts I'd begun to follow posting their all-precious Amazon links of useless chintz. Twitter was plainly a hellhole. I'm sick of businesses and businesspeople deciding what I see in the desperate hope that I hand them money.

This has bled out to other parts of my life, even. Though I've lovingly heaped praise onto Spotify for giving me two new playlists of just-for-me algorithm-picked songs each week, I've gotten into watching and listening to DJ sets on Youtube (this and this were really enjoyable) because something that's become patently clearer to me was my own desire to experience curation.

I want to feel like what I read, what I hear, what I see, has been lovingly and intentionally made by another human because they loved it so much that they had to share it. Not because they wanted to sell me something. Not because an algorithm thinks that since I liked Song A, I'll like Song B, C, D, and XYZ based on other listener patterns. Because a real human put time and effort and a pinch of luck into discovering something and wanted to share it.

I'm getting off of Instagram Reels. I'm unfollowing the home decor/design pages I added into my feed. I'm debating deleting Twitter off my phone entirely. I'm tired of being fed ads, even if they're disguised as pretty home updates. I'm tired of being fed the worst news and the worst denizens of the internet all clamoring for attention. I'm tired of an algorithm determining what will suck up my attention.

So, all of this to say: it's been weird seeing people—friends, acquaintances, old coworkers—post on Instagram mourning the (very brief) death of Tiktok. The idea of the app being banned in the States, while worrying from a freedom of speech/oligarchy perspective, didn't bother me on a personal level as a now non-user. It's been weird noticing that my dad has started watching YouTube shorts in retirement. It's been weird seeing all the algorithms and feeling so claustrophobic about them. I want out. I want away. I can feel their presence like a shrinking room, the walls touching my skin.

This is pie-in-the-sky and naive, but it's why I like Tumblr. I shell out a few bucks a month so I don't even see ads anymore. I ticked the "do not show blazed posts" option for my dash. I don't go on the "For you" page. Every morning when I scroll my dash, I always reach the end, because I don't even follow all that many people. There is a finite limit to what I see. I can go a half hour without anything new appearing on my dash, some days. It can even get boring.

...it's nice. It feels self-curated. It's actually what I want out of social media.

Anyways, this is now a stupidly long post, and I don't have a closing statement beyond "I want to experience human-curated spaces that aren't trying to sell me shit" and "I want to stop subjecting myself to algorithms out of fear that I'm missing something or out of fear that I'll be bored."

I'll finish out with three more quotes from the AHP piece:

Not being bored is why you always feel busy, why you keep “not having time” to take a package to the post office or work on your novel. You do have time—you just spend it on your phone.

and

App Time is Time, App Energy is Energy

and

The world, filtered through the apps, is not the world we want for ourselves. And in many cases, it’s not the actual world we inhabit.

[forgienersgod113]

I wanna talk about the basic overview of some things that have sprouted in my brain about these characters. I know you won’t agree with me, I don’t care if it’s canon, argue with the wall. I’m having fun.

Head canons:

- Jeff is a 19 year old asshole. Embarrassed often by his situation which translates into him acting defiant and hostile. When he first ended up at the house he was 13 and terrified, they had to drag him kicking and screaming. Efficient at his work, not a precision killer, more like he’s so good because he’s a tireless motherfucker. Aggressive and sloppy kills. No specific rituals, bro is not telling you to go to sleep. Major insomnia, sane on a whole but has extreme periods of mania, still able to work under these conditions but the kills get more hysterical. Has a cheepy Brooklyn accent and gets genuinely angry if you make fun of it. Chews beef jerky like it’s gum and hates company most of the time. Has a short fuse but usually knows when to walk away before he gets himself in trouble with the boss for fighting in the side yard. That shit can cost you your life in this industry.

-Toby is 17 and he wakes up every day in a new hell. The other two proxies call him “the kid”. He hates it. “I have a name you know”. Very bipolar, spends a month not talking, smiling, eating, or sleeping, and then spends the next 30 days cracking jokes in the kitchen. An immaculate aim with his hatchets. He knows them like they’re an extension of him. An undeniably horrendous crime scene every time. He was raised in a house full of women so he naturally has a much easier time being cordial with women. He can be extremely hostile and brash. Nobody is exempt from the moods that take him under. During dry spells of his depression he hardly moves his face when he talks. All around not a particularly malicious character, he definitely has a dark underbelly but his intentions aren’t usually bad, aside from victims and assignments. He doesn’t feel pain, his nerves are busted, so he has trouble regulating his temperature and other cues as well. Can run until he passes out, and fast. He bolts through the woods tirelessly and evrey single time he will gain on you. He has episodes of extreme grief for his life, his family, his dignity. During which times he’s so consumed with pain that he forgets to find himself hungry, or numb from the cold.

-Ben’s age is lost to time, and he is a rarity. This line of work is dirty and weathers the soul over time, but Ben seriously acts like he hasn’t seen a day of it. He cackles down the hallways at his own jokes and while his personality is refreshing, he can be childish as well. He’s nosy, passionate, and well versed on any subject you could ever be curious about. He can get hostile if he feels like he’s been wronged. Which he often does. All over the black market, all day. He serves mostly security because while he does kill, it’s over a game, and his specialty is driving his victim absolutely, whole heartedly insane. He’s a keeper of information on everyone in the house, he watches the woods like a hawk. And his ghostlike nature is honestly quite terrifying. Takes his job very seriously. Like too seriously.

[androids-insides]

Another thing I’d like to explain! What can I say, I like explaining things ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Todays explanation is on my theories (I guess?) on, you guessed it:

The Stanley Parable!

(I like other things, I swear! I’m just very irrationally afraid that everyone who follows me won’t like the other things, so I usually don’t post about it :,] )

A summary, so I don’t lose your attention, is that I like to think that most theories are correct! Now, allow me to explain! (Yes there will be pictures)

Put in different terms, all endings are “cannon,” in what they imply. For example,

This is a helpful and much needed picture of Stanley and The Narrator.

From here, the story could go anywhere! From following directions, to jumping out a window, anything and everything is on the metaphorical table.

This is the Confusion Ending. Here, The Narrator had a story and a point to it all, but has lost his control to a yellow line^tm and self-contradicting revelations.

One of the few examples where The Narrator has no control. The story, the parable and the outcomes are all at someone, or something, else’s command. This is currently cannon.

This, however, is the Countdown Ending. Here, everything had gone exactly to plan, aside from Stanley’s last decision. The Narrator, seemingly on a whim, rewrites the ending in a moment, and has the omnipotence to detonate the entire facility.

At this point, The Narrator is in control of everything. Nothing stands in his way from destroying both Stanley and the story’s outcome. There is no question of who or what has altered the story, as it is most certainly The Narrator himself. This is currently cannon.

If that understands it, then let it be. In some endings, The Narrator is the only one who controls the story, in others, control is left to someone/thing else. In some Stanley has a wife and a kid, and in others he’s just a boring no-body (or, no legs at least). In some The Narrator works the boring office job and created Stanley to entertain himself, in others Stanley miraculously became part of a dark and twisted game that both gave his life meaning and took it away.

On a cosmic scale of “what is the parable and where did it come from,” I honestly think there is no real answer. It’s lazy, I know, but hear me out:

Think of it as Past, Present, Future. We, as spectators or consumers, know very clearly where the story currently is. As well as that, we know several of the ways that it ends. We know it started at some point, is currently existing, and will stop existing after that loading screen, right?

Each ending answers the burning question of “what about before this?” However because of the inconsistent variation, there can’t really be a solid answer. We arrived at the middle of the story, where Stanley works in a big office building and decides to try and figure out where his coworkers went. We don’t know how long Stanley and The Narrator have been in this loop, as it is, you can play The Stanley Parable as many times over as you want. Therefore, the beginning can really only be where we know the story picks up, which is at a time where there is no definitive answer of What came first, The Narrator or The Stanley. A question that no one can truly answer.

It’s sort of like the concept of Gender Fluidity, in a way. Where however the person feels that day is their decided gender, is as to however The Parable ends is how it begins. In conclusion, The Stanley Parable plot is a close second Gender Fluid icon, right behind Nimona.

Joking put briefly aside, I think The Parable is just a huge concept. Did/can/could Stanley talk at some point? Maybe. Isn’t The Narrator supposed to be the “physical” representation of divorce? Probably. Is The Narrator a figment of Stanley’s imagination, or the other way around? Who knows. All I can guarantee, is that the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never the end is never

[theoneofwhomisblue]

Maybe following 3,000 people isn't great

Because I fucking hate scrolling through this fucking site now

I'm not even joking, I fucking hate this shit

This site sucks ass

Also if this post has less than 10 notes in 3 hours I'm deleting it

I know this is completely my fault. I also don't give a fuck

I'm too tired to curate my page to be decent for me

I'm so fucking tired

This site sucks ass

Reddit sucks ass

Tumblr sucks ass

The Internet fucking sucks

Google is constantly bitching at me to pay for more space in my account cause I habitually download every Tumblr and reddit image resulting in 13 gigabytes of bullshit

I fucking hate this

Anyway

I'll find better stuff to post tomorrow

Or not

I don't know

I'm so fucking tired

Kill myself

What the fuck do I do with my time now? Is there another site or app worth my time?

Tumblr's ass, I'll still use it but it's dogshit

I'm too tired to even do reddit anymore

Twitter is fucking disgusting and gets worse by the day because of dipshit mcmusk

And that's all that comes to mind

YouTube is constant background noise, but the algorithm there is fucked up too

I hate every video thats recommended to me

I'm not doing fucking tiktok

I don't care about my standards anywhere else, but no fucking tiktok

What else is there now?

Oh yeah, I can't comment on webtoon because I accidentally said fuck in a comment, so all the fun community stuff there is gone now too

All the webtoons suck ass anyway

The only fucking app that hasn't disappointed me is cookie clicker

Been playing it for like 400 days

I make continual progress

I just check in every two days to pop the wrinklers

Then after a month or two on a run I check in after a week

Until my legacy points start to plateau, then I reset

And get all the upgrades I can afford

Buy 5 grandmas, then 90 more, then as many more as I can afford that'd a multiple of 100

I do the same on everything else

Except the fractile engines, which I buy as many as possible, no matter the multiple

And buy all the items

Then at that point I start the research facilities, then start one, and check back in 30 minutes until I've researched them all

Then I top off the fractile engines and leave for a day

Then check every day, popping the wrinklers until a week in, then every 2 days. Then after a few months once every week

Then I do it all again

And spend all the legacy points on the upgrades I can afford

It's rewarding you know

Consistent anyway

Unlike reddit and Tumblr and Twitter and YouTube and everything else, it doesn't fuck me over on the algorithm whatever the fuck

Reddits decent for the porn, that's all

You know, I used to use a lot of sites for porn

Dozens and dozens of sites bookmarked

Then at some point I started to only use r34 reddit nhentai, and occasionally the good ol hub

I didn't use to have accounts, I'd depend on my memory for different images and accounts and artists and comics and shit

Then I made accounts on r34 phub reddit e6 gelb nhentai and half a dozen others

And started saving things

It used to be a fun game to try to remember

Now it's gone

But I'm too tired to continue that anyway

Anyway, same shit everything else as with the porn at this point

No variety

Nothing fun

It's all annoying bullshit

With the Advent of machine learning chat bot whatever the fucks, there's a little bit new

But aside from that, it's just the same thing every day

I'm so fucking tired of living like this duxe

The fucking internet used to mean something

Now it's just the boring status quo bullshit

And I know that it's because of me

But still

It fucking sucks

I don't want to do this shit

And I spend like 10 hours a day on the Internet too

More than ever

But I'm not happy

Barely entertained

But it kills time

If I need information, porn, music, videos, whatever elze

Entertainment

I get it

But I'm not happy about it

It's shitty

I feel like shit

Like, my life outside the internet is decent. But the Internet consumes so much of it, and I don't even like it anymore

I don't know if there's a fix

Or if I should just stop being so online and shit

I'm too tired to do anything anyway

I don't know

I take pride in what I achieve for some reason

But as soon as I get the imaginary goal point, I don't give a shit

Over a year I got a shit ton of reddit karma on a new accoutn

A specific number, that I won't say to keep myself from seeming like I'm trying to brag

But once I got it, I no longer cared to comment or post

Over 2 or 3 months, I don't remember, whenever 196 shut down, I got a relative shit ton of followers

Again, a specific number, but I won't say

I'll keep that number secret, cause I can

But once I got this imaginary amount that I thought I'd never reach, I didn't care anymore

I still posted as much as I did before

But I got no joy out of it

I just post, wait a few hours, then check to see how many notes

If it's an amount equal to what I think is average for the amount of followers I have, I feel kinda good, then post again

But that's it

I don't scroll anymore, except occasionally on my followers profiles when I accidentally click on them while looking through my new notes

And I enjoy that

But other than those fleeting moments, and the small satisfaction I get from high note counts I don't care

I don't care for Tumblr or anything else on this shit

I don't know man, is this how other people do stuff on the Internet?

I don't think so, people always have strong emotions on the Internet

I emulate my internet behavior to match, which makes me think that maybe more people do the same as me

But I have no evidence

I don't know, I'm too fucking tired of this shit

I just got an apathy about the Internet at this point

Apps, sites, everything

I just don't care

But I'm always on it

It makes no sense

I should probably proofread this post as I go

This is just a stream of consciousness at this point

I won't check it as I go

Maybe I'll make this a thing

Just typing my unfiltered thoughts for like 30 minutes then posting

Depends on the notes I get

If the notes are bad I'll just delete it and forget about it

Who knows

I guess I keep trying to do that

I'll do something new on Tumblr like this

And think "oh, maybe this'll be a new thing I do" then it dies

At first it was my consistent posting of reddit shit for like a year ago

Then I stopped posting that consistently

Then it was random screenshots of mine

I even made a tag for that one

Then it died

I keep thinking of myself as someone important because of my follower count

Which doesn't make sense as it's not even a lot

But still

I don't know

My delusions of microcelebrity status are the only thing keeping me on this site/app at this point

If I didn't have that, and the fuel for the delusion that is notes I'd be gone

I did already fuck my recommended tab

And following tab

And tag tab

It's already all bullshit

I guess I can keep my narcissism about my status in this site because of the top post by notes tab on a blog

I just click into someones

And 9 times out of ten, they don't have top note counts even comparable to time

Which fuels the delusion

It's the same thing I'd do on reddit

"oh this person only has [x] karma, when they've been on reddit for 3 years. And I have triple that, and I've had this account for 6 months. I'm better"

Shit like this is what makes the internet garbage

I don't let it bleed into the theme of my posts and comments tho

I let it make me feel superior than everyone else

But if I made that obvious in any post it'd be for naught

For that reason I'm considering not posting this anymore

Whatever, this post is already super long rambling bullshit

If it gets good notes a single anecdote in it won't matter

And if it doesn't get good notes I'll delete it

Then there's no harm

I just thought of that reasoning now to keep doing this post

Cause I got sunk cost fallacy on this at this point

It was a vent thing at the start

Now it's just me trying to think mildly interesting shit to add

I guess I can use that other reasoning to post anything

If it goes bad, delete it, and no one would have saw it, and no one will, so I matters naught

And if it goes good, who gives a shit

Nothing I post would be bad, maybe cringe, maybe rambling bullshit, as this js

But not bad, so it'd be fine

I lost my train of thought

I think I was gonna say something else about what I'm posting, and how it would be fine

That's gone now

Poof, into the abyss that is lost thoughts

This does kill time tho

It's been like 40 minutes since I started this

This is basically what I do in my mind if I just let my mind run, uninterrupted

But here it's written down, with line breaks, and exact words rather than a mix of words and images and concepts

So it's more digestible

I suppose it's not completely true to say this is my pure train of thought, not just because of the exclusion of images and concepts

But also because I'm listening to music

Just enough to mild my mind so to speak

My mind is always going man, and if I don't have something to dampen it

Like music, or weird fidgety things I do with my hands (I don't know the word), or exact things to focus on, I think way too much

And spiral and shit in stress

But then my thoughts are too frantic and fast to write down before they disappear, so in a way this is as pure a log of thoughts as anything could be

You can tell the theme of how I sound now, vs at the beginning

If you don't want to scroll up you can just look at the tags

I typed them near the beginning

And haven't added to them

Nor deleted them

So you can just look slightly down to see the notes

It's not even the right topic anymore. It's still on reddit

And Tumblr and internet shit

Oh yeah, speaking of

I've just said my Tumblr scrolling is bad without specifying

But to specify now, it's like scrolling through Twitter

Weird serious discourses

Arguments

Peculiar topics

Shit like that

You know, not the Tumblr I had before

And if I don't like scrolling through Twitter, why would I be here? And that's the bind I'm in now

I only stick around anymore because of the notes, as I said

I'm back to using punctuation occasionally

Not too much, but at least some commas

No periods though, they seem too intense for a stream of consciousness thinf

Question marks too, but that's about all

Oh yeah, stuff I was talking about before

Webtoon

I shit talked webtoon

It's not too bad

I just fucking hate slice of life shit, dumb "funny" shit, and worst of all romance

I fucking hate romance webtoons

I can't stomach them

And webtoon is constantly shoving exactly those down your throat

And when my tolerance is low to begin with, and I enter webtoon, and it throws a fucking popup in my face for a dogshit new romance thing, I damn near snap my phone in half

But it's not too bad

I just read the fantasy/action/thriller/horror/drama (ones without romance shit) ones

But I can't navigate the canvas section decent at all

By design obviously, canvas doesn't make webtoon money, the originals do

But I'm too tired to work against them

So I only read originals

But at least they post regularly

I read around 70 webtoons now

Which is to say, I read the new episodes of them when they come out

With such a large selection, I have like 4 webtoons minimum updating every day at 7:00 pm

8:00 when there's time change

But 7:00 most of the timr

It notifies you at 7:30 but they update at 7:00

Except for the goblin one, which updates at like 7:20 for some reason

And the daily pass ones, those update at 8:00 for some reason

But they notify you directly at 8:00 for those if I remember correctly

Even still

I remember roughly which days are best

Tuesdays have the most, like 15 updated at once

And ones I really like too

Fridays have a handful, and the one daily pass that I read as they come out week by week

Saturdays have like 4 I really care about, then like 5 I think are mediocre, but they kill time so Saturdays are good

Mondays are ok, but that's about it

Wednesdays are kinda ass, but they're decent

Thursdays used to be amazing, but after like 3 I really care about went on hiatus, Thursdays don't matter anymore

But having like 60 (because 5-10 are on hiatus at a time) new episodes a week, divied up across the week pretty well

Is nice

Now, I did accidentally say fuck in a comment, because there was a guy shipping children and saying sexual stuff about it, then there was a reply on it from another guy defending it. So I got mad, and typed a paragraph saying why that was fucked up

But I said fuck

So I can't comment anymore

I don't know, webtoons ok tho

I was just pissed off earlier

What else was there

Oh yeah reddit

I've actually been temp banned from Reddit (like my entire account) twice for using up too much server space on bullshit

There's this thing where you type u/profanitycounter [self] and it tells you how many times youve said certain swears in like the past 500 comments

So, for a joke, twice I've copy pasted "cum cum cum cum cum cum cum cum...", The max amount of times you can in one comment (a few thousand, I can't remember), then do that in a comment chain with myself for like 150 comments in a row

And it takes me several hours, but it's funnt

But it resulted in a temp ban for 2 days

Then like 4 months later, a temp ban for a week

Cause I used too much space, or bandwidth or whatever the fuck doing that

Also I got banned from r/Barry for saying the last season was ass

And I got banned from r/notinteresting for a reason I don't fucking know

But aside from that, my accounts clean

With a shit ton of karma too

Oh yeah, I use the same username (or a derivative of it) for every porn site account I make.

If you can find it out somehow I'll give you the passwords to the accounts

I doubt anyone could, it's a different username than I use for anything else

But there's hints

If anyone cares I'll even give you a few more hints directly in a DM if you ask

Though I will be vague as fuck

Been doing this for over an hour now

I wasn't paying enough attention to when I started

I'm pretty sure I heard someone say that Tumblr has no character cap

Let's hope so

I'm too tired to continue this shit

I guess this ends it

Let me know if y'all want more bullshit like this

I, personally, always like an unfiltered look at someone mind

But that's me personally

Maybe my mind is bland and uninteresting

Who knows

I'll stick with what I said at the beginning tho

Less than 10 notes in 3 hours and this post going bye bye

I got a headache from this shit

I thought way more than I usually do

Now that I'm more chill, I don't hate tumblr

I fucked it up for me

But y'all are good

Tumblr's good

[astralartefact]

FFXIV Dawntrail Review Part 1 - Where I tell you if I liked it and also Bingo(?)

This post contains spoilers for all of Dawntrail's Main Story up until the Ending!

Hmm.

I'm a little bit embarrassed to write this. I genuinely didn't expect this. Should I have? No. I was perfectly right to not see this coming.

I really loved Dawntrail. Like. You don't understand.

I don't really rank the FFXIV Expansions (except that Heavensward is last) but Dawntrail might be up there. It's 2:00 am and I will probably delete this when I reread it when I have slept over it, but I might genuinely call this my favorite X.0 so far. (read over it and at least for now i will stand by it) (keep in mind most enjoyed =/= best and "best art" doesn't exist)

I know it won't be popular in the community, I've already known that 30% through and by the many, many posts proudly announcing that they do not like Wuk Lamat it seems like that Dawntrail truly will be Stormblood 2.0 in the eyes of the public - but what can I say, I loved it. I had a fantastic time.

There is a bunch of criticisms I've read that I disagree with. I thought the WoLs place in the story was great. What do you people mean by 'We're not the main character anymore' it has literally always been like this except that usually we don't only have one dedicated Expansion Character that gets this much of a monopoly on screentime (see Ryne) - by which I mean, are you jealous? - but also that isn't 'bad', they're allowed to do that and I liked it. also how do you go through this expansion and arrive at "we weren't the main character" - bro, everybody told us at every corner how happy they are we're here bc without us none of this would remotely work. also they literally teased the key is an azem thing clearly this is build up for something

I liked the pacing, I enjoyed the slowburn build-up of Wuk going through the nuances of her people's individual problems before turning to the actual crisis. I know people are big mad that the MSQ gameplay is mainly just Fetch Quests and Cutscenes - which is something we'll get back to - but tbh I didn't even think it was that bad? I feel like we had expansions that were far worse about it....

I also loved Wuk Lamat! I liked that she grew relatively quickly and continouosly, aside from the Seasickness Joke they repeated too often, and I was surprised how much genuinely smart and thought through things she added to the conversation. One example I remember is her bringing up that she would rather learn and fix why people are committing crimes in the first place instead of just 'adding police' - without anybody prompting her to learn that. I don't know, I just really appreciated that.

I even liked Bakool Ja Ja, there I said it. I knew people would be really mad about Wuk just forgiving him and his dad especially after the kind of stuff they did - the internet has become really weird about forgiveness the past few years especially if it's "unearned" whatever that means - but like, you guys know this is a story, right, he didn't threaten to murder someone in real life. Immersion is good and all, but you know you're playing FF14, right, a game that's 50% a Saturday Morning Cartoon, 50% Game of Thrones for a Young Adult Audience. also it's kind of necessary for the theme of the whole narrative for him to do something we 'hate' him for more than the others - and i guess i would agree that they could have written the details around it better - but what's there is there for a reason. if you want to know more that's what Part 2 is going to be for.

Which brings me back to the Fetch Quests. Listen, I'm not really defending anything here, I do agree that the MSQ gameplay could probably be a little more engaging - There's just a thing I thought that keeps coming up in other contexts too:

At which point does this become a "Consumer Problem" instead of a "Developer Problem"?

We're five expansions in. If all expansions before have been structurally exactly like this, at which point is it your problem for expecting it to be different. What I mean is, if you played four parts of a Visual Novel and then you play part 5 and complain that the gameplay is getting stale, I hope we can agree that, like, that's a you problem. If you don't want to read then why are you playing a Visual Novel.

Again, I'm not really trying to 'defend' the core issue - even Serialized Mediums, for all the security their regularity brings them, should mix it up a little sometimes and expressing that want as an audience member is completely fine with me - but I feel like this is also at least a little bit a perspective issue. Like. I'm so sorry to tell you that this is just the game you're playing. This probably won't change and it's probably better to not expect it to for your own sake - and yes, I'm so sorry but to some degree navigating your experience of this game is your own responsibility. What I'm saying is Skip Dialogue if you're bored. Farm a Dungeon. Are you guys not doing Fates on your way to a quest marker? I keep seeing people say 'I didn't fight against a single monster as part of the msq' - Well, That wasn't a problem I had, I fought constantly! There are monsters right there for you to fight! Like. Make your own fun!

Anyways, time to look at my bingo card!

(My WoL = Happened, Krile = Depending on who you ask, Sphene = Jury is still out) Certainly better than my Endwalker one!!

One thing I noticed while playing Dawntrail is how bitter exactly Myths of the Realm has made me about this game and i'm so sad!! Like, how did I forget how completely this game is made specifically for me. I will just fail to not like it, because I get it and it gets me. at least until 8.0 when whoever wrote Myths of the Realm gets to write the expansion

Let's go through the noteable ones.

ill-advised azem lore drop - is in hot water, because they did seem to imply that the novelty wine glass of shard travel has to do with azem.

someone sundered knows more than us - krile's parents count and also Gagool Ja Ja's party too to some extent

the forgotten people went to tural - for two seconds!!! technically correct!!!

questionable armor design choices - some of the second dye slots. choices were made.

somebody "important" (but not too important) dies - i didn't expect them to write meaningful side character deaths, but they did so... i guess on a technicality i win?

the twelfth shard is involved // they talk about sundering meta physics

this room. they're so mean. they talk about the silly masks but not about the fact that apparently whatever shard this is either has three moons or two other planets in its solar system. you knew what you were doing q_q

y:da did it better - hahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA I AM A FOOL! MEGUMI ONOZUKA! I KNOW THIS WAS YOUR DOING AND YOU CANNOT HIDE ANY LONGER! YOU ARE NOW ON MY LIST OF NAMES TO SHOUT!!!! If my theory in Part 2 turns out incorrect then I'm so sorry about this, buT IF I'M NOT THEN---!!!!

Shaaloani did not win me over - it being the padding zone really didn't help.

Erenville did not Outfit Change - but given the ending he's probably going to at some point. And I hope he stays around :)

who needs eternal life anyways - They tried to be a little bit more understanding about it and make it a "it's just not worth what it costs" sort of thing, but they did still say at least once - verbatim! - that "Eternal Life is Bad, Full Stop, you people suck and are failing the human game by not dying"

Something Actually Unexpected Happens - I was surprised by the Final Zone. Maybe it's not Actually Unexpected because in a way it's just "Amaurot meets What Myths of the Realm should have been" - but if that doesn't count I still didn't expect the devs to fully ugly down that zone when you're done with it lol. Shutting down the first one and realizing they didn't just mean it would be left empty, it's dead and fully without music physically hurt and it made going through the other three hurt so much more. I loved it. Like. Wow.

I guess to that, I was indeed reminded of Myths of the Realm - but not in the way I intended this square to be so I didn't mark it. Like. I wrote this in another post but how were these two in development at the same time???? What??? They come to radically different conclusions on the exact same premise and the only difference is that one is about Religion and the other about Eternal Life????

Was the last zone the original draft for Myths of the Realm and then they were like 'no that's too good, let's do that in the MSQ instead' and then they panicked and produced godly waste?? God, I kind of hope, that would mean that whoever wrote it didn't wholeheartedly mean what they wrote.

I'm not willing to let Wuk Lamat Distaste be Asinine Community Reaction - sadly that was to be expected given how people still fervently hate Lyse. Similarly I haven't looked into what funny theme changing English Localization Moment they decided to add to the plot today. Btw German Localization, you are as always my heroes. Don't let the Haters tell you different, I will always love you!!! I wanted to screenshot your names in the credits for this but i HIT THE WRONG BUTTON SOMEHOW

Anyways, look forward to Part 2 where I will talk some more about why exactly I really like Dawntrail - which is mainly the Themes - about why I think Megumi Onozuka is to blame and about YORHA DARK APOCALYPSE, THAT'S RIGHT, I WILL NEVER BE FREE

[howsitduud]

Ranking Every Single Piece of Media I Watched/Played/Read in 2024 Part 1

The title says it all, really.

I have kept a list of every single thing piece of media I have watched/played/read this year and now I will rank them all. Everything is fair game with this list, be it movies, tv shows, video games, musicals, plays, books, analog horror series, music albums (if I listened to any). If I first consumed it this in 2024, then it's fair game for this list. The only things I'm not including are Youtube videos because that seems like a lot.

For this part of the list, I will be going through the bottom to top, starting with the worst thing I watched all year and ending with the best. Part 2 is after this, so keep watch.

Megamind vs The Doom Syndicate - 1/10 - Easily one of the worst animated movies I’ve ever seen in my life. It is so lifeless and dull, not just in terms of animation, but also in terms of the writing. Megamind is straight up not the same character he was in the original, Minion’s name was changed for no reason, Roxanne has literally nothing to do except become mayor at the end for no reason, the new characters are annoying, and aside from ONE JOKE, this movie is painfully unfunny. I can’t believe Despicable Me’s low point was better than Megamind’s.

Ouija - 2/10 - Who’d ever think that a movie about a Ouija board would be bad? Imagine every single horror movie cliche you’ve ever seen and heard of done in the most boring, incomprehensibly stupid way. You have now imagined a movie that is a hundred times better than this.

Battleship - 2/10 - I was dreading watching this movie for years and after conquering my fear and putting it on, yep it was as bad as I thought. The characters are ass, the alien stuff takes forever to get going, and the action itself is so slow. I would rather watch actual Battleship gameplay.

DnD: Wrath of the Dragon God - 2/10 - This name is way too good for this movie. There’s a fun moment once every 20 minutes but other than that, it’s bland, generic, poorly acted straight to DVD schlock that has nothing to do with the first besides Domodar being in it.

Christmas Again - 3/10 - I will give this two compliments: The concept of a time-loop Christmas movie is a good one, and there’s sometimes a good joke. Other than that, this movie is a dumpster fire of horrible writing and worse characters. The main character is insufferable, and I just wanted it to be over so I can hang ornaments.

Dungeons and Dragons - 3/10 - Yeah, this movie is bad, what’d you expect. Every single character walks the spectrum between boring as shit or annoying as shit, especially Snails and Ridley, two of the main characters. The only things that gave me any sort of joy was the horrible special effects and Jeremy Irons playing the hammiest villain he’s ever done since Scar. Honor Among Thieves is better + L + ratio.

Power Rangers - 3/10 - Oh, goody, another classic property that had all the charm and fun sucked out of it for a boring, basic, lifeless remake that adds nothing to the franchise. The only net positive here is Billy Cranston, who is the best and I would give my life to.

Transformers: The Last Knight - 3/10 - Well, it’s better than the previous one. It’s still visually bland and the plot is borderline incoherent at times and the acting sucks and the aspect ratio changes actively got on my nerves, but at least Cogman, Nitro Zeus and Sir Burton were fun characters.

Madame Web - 3/10 - Yeah, it’s bad, but like, not that bad. I get a lot of ironic enjoyment out of how stupidly written every single aspect of this movie is and how most actors here just have no interest in actually making a good movie. I will say that Sydney Sweeney does a good job here, and Webb’s powers can make for decent editing and visuals, but this is a perfect “get drunk and watch with your friends” type movie.

DnD: The Book of Vile Darkness - 3/10 - The second best D&D movie, only because some of the action scenes and magic spells were pretty cool and there’s a single character I liked. Otherwise, it’s still a poorly-acted, poorly-written, ugly as hell fantasy movie. It was also impossible to find, so fuck you for that.

Jem and the Holograms - 4/10 - This was a theatrical release and that is the only memorable part of the movie. It’s just your standard generic pop star movie chicanery, with the editors using random Youtube videos and fans celebrating the original Jem show to pad the runtime.

Red One - 4/10 - Not as bad as I was expecting, but it was still bad. Occasionally, there’s a hilariously bad moment or an unironically good action scene (plus Krampus was good), but other than that, this is a self-serious, tacky, unfun action slop with a Christmas coating on top of it.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation - 4/10 - This is exactly what I thought the first movie was gonna be like. It has its moments, namely the mountainside action scene, but this is as bland and generic as 2010s action movies get with none of the personality the first movie had. They don’t even scream “Yo Joe!”

Snake Eyes - 4/10 - The action is surprisingly great, but the story and concept of the movie is so dogass that I can’t bring myself to like it. Whoever thought to make a Snake Eyes movie that has him maskless and talking the whole time while not even bothering to explain why he’s mute later on should go immediately to jail.

Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie - 4/10 - It’s just an hour and a half long episode of the show, and not a good episode at that. The villain is annoying, barely anything happens, but there are at least a few fun moments to keep my attention. Also the rubber suits are back THANK GOD.

Maestro - 5/10 - By far the weakest Best Picture nominee this year, but it’s not that bad. Carey Mulligan is good, the beginning is well shot and edited, but all that energy is lost in a painfully average middle and a good end that hits a little too close to home for me. Thank god this didn’t win any Oscars.

Town Hall - 5/10 - The performance I watched had great acting and phenomenal sound design, but in terms of the story, there is none. It’s intentionally vague to fit with any time period or issue. While I like that conceptually, the execution was just not there. Also wild to watch that before election week.

Kung Fu Panda 4 - 5/10 - Incredibly beautiful animation, fight sequences and visual gags wasted on by far the worst script in the Kung Fu Panda franchise. Dreamworks had a mixed bag of a year, but at least they gave us more time with Po’s gay dads. More movies should’ve done that.

MLP: Rainbow Roadtrip - 5/10 - It has some decent characters and songs, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this is just a worse version of The Crystal Empire, made even worse since the movie character designs are back, but without the budget to make them look any good.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 - 5/10 - Easily the weakest Mario platformer I’ve played so far, but it’s still a decently fun experience. It’s boring in terms of the aesthetic and overall gameplay, but Coin Rush is a cool gimmick, some levels and worlds are fun and challenging, but the boss fights are fucking awful and worse than the ones in Wonder. Yeah, that’s possible.

Echo - 5/10 - Sure is a show that exists. I liked Maya in the Hawkeye show, and her story is still pretty interesting, but not a lot happens in this show and it makes Kingpin look super weak and unintimidating, especially with that last episode. Like a lot of MCU projects post-Endgame, this will probably get worse the longer I think about it.

MLPEG: Better Together - 6/10 - Never expected there to be a Red VS Blue-style Equestria Girls webseries, but here we are. It’s perfectly fine, but with this being the last bit of content for the most popular My Little Pony generation, I would’ve expected there to be more.

Percy Jackson S1 - 6/10 - The biggest disappointment of the entire year. It’s better than the movies, no doubt about that, but the slow pace of the show and how badly written a lot of the dialogue and characters are make me feel like I’m watching a poor imitation of the books, which would be fine if the author didn’t write for the show. That being said, it’s still Percy Jackson, you’re gonna have to fuck the story up a lot more to get me to hate it.

MLPEG: Spring Breakdown - 6/10 - Rainbow Dash is pretty annoying, not a lot happens until the end, and the pacing is hella off, but Sunset, Sci-Twi and Rainbow Dash going to Equestria was a nice surprise, and the ending with the Storm King was tense and fun.

Star Wars: Hunters - 6/10 - A pretty fun, but not super deep Overwatch clone. Being a mobile game ported to Switch, there’s plenty of graphical updates to be desired and there are way too many currencies and microtransactions to keep track of, but the core gameplay is fun enough to make it good for a “free” game.

Past Lives - 6/10 - I really want to love this movie, but I can’t. I really liked the writing and there were some scenes that hit me emotionally, but I am just not into romance movies at all. You have to have some great filmmaking or talented performers to keep me purely invested in a movie that’s just about romance, but this movie didn’t have those things at all. At least it ends in a super mature and interesting way.

Super Mario Land - 6/10 - Out of all the Super Mario games, it’s certainly one of them. Props to it for being unique with its setting and level design, but it’s super short, super janky, and it doesn’t look that good, especially in comparison to its sequel. You can tell it was a launch title for the Gameboy.

Convent of Pleasure - 6/10 - This is a play about a woman who opens a convent full of just women havin a hot girl summer. It’s perfectly fine and as an early modern feminist piece, it’s pretty good. Madam Happy and the Princess were obvious highlights, but the way the play ends with the secret man who came into the convent is not the best. Make the ending gayer and it would be a 10/10.

Death Proof - 6/10 - Easily Tarantino’s worst movie. The extended cut adds some of the worst directed and acted scenes in his entire filmography, and the Grindhouse cut is better, but there’s still some serious pacing issues. That ending was a fucking 10/10, though. That’s pure Tarantino.

August: Osage County - 6/10 - I read the play and watched a bootleg back in highschool, so I knew what to expect, and yep. This is a decent enough adaptation of a decent enough play. The acting is good, but it feels too awards-baity at times. Also suffering through Benedict Cumberbatch’s American accent is something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

Robodunk - 6/10 - A cute little indie game about robot basketball. The most striking things about this game is a) the art style replicating stop-motion LEGO films and b) the rogue-lite style of the story mode. It’s not necessarily my cup of dunk, but it’s still fun.

Woman of the Hour - 6/10 - Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut is very simple, but I was pretty much hooked from start to finish. Having never heard of the original story, I was interested in seeing where the movie would go from scene to scene. I will be watching her career with great interest.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit - 6/10 - A pretty great, but pretty dated early Mario Kart. It’s a struggle to get a handle on the steering and drifting, but the maps are still pretty fun, especially Sky Garden and Sunset Wilds. Imagine those courses being fun to play and not missing key elements of their designs wow crazy.

X - 6/10 - Never thought I’d see a horror movie where a horny old lady kills people making a porno, but never say never. This movie is well shot, gorey, but the plot takes a while to get going and I really don’t like a few of the characters. RJ, I get it, but take a look at what kind of movie you’re making.

Pom Poko - 6/10 - A pretty good, if not super well-written movie about raccoons fighting deforestation with their balls. What’s not to love? I would’ve liked some better characterization for our main raccoons, but the story is still fun, and the ending is pretty bleak for a movie like this. That’s not a bad thing.

MLPEG: Rollercoaster of Friendship - 6/10 - It’s pretty fun all things considered, and Rarity being gay for Applejack is always a plus, but the villain hard tanks this special. She’s so annoying, she’s derivative of another villain, and her redemption at the end is rushed.

Drive-Away Dolls - 6/10 - This movie should’ve been called Diners, Drive-Aways, and Dykes, but whatever. This movie is weird, queer, and generally pretty fun. While a lot of the humor doesn’t hit, the characters are fun and likable, the plot is fast and interesting, and the editing is fucking hilarious.

Tales From Earthsea - 6/10 - Better than I was expecting. It’s not a very good movie, since there’s plenty of filler content and the characters aren’t that special, but I did like the worldbuilding and the animation, plus there’s a few charming characters and Willem Dafoe plays the villain, so the choice was made for me to like it.

MLPEG: Holidays Unwrapped - 6/10 - It’s sad that the one of the last things in G4 of MLP was a half-baked compilation film, but I still enjoyed the hell out of it. Twilight convinces everyone to not commit crimes, Flim and Flam commit crimes, a war happens outside Pinkie’s home, it’s all pretty fun.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - 6/10 - It’s still fun, creative, and inventive with its humor and visual style, just like the first movie, but the plot is way too unfocused and lame. I could’ve done without the ghost boy subplot or the new age stepdad subplot if it meant spending more time with Mr. Juice and Dolores.

MaXXXine - 6/10 - I watched half of this movie shitfaced so I could be misremembering things, but I enjoyed it well enough. It's fine enough, but it’s really unfocused and turns into a completely different movie by the end. Still, the scene where Maxine almost gets mugged at the beginning made me feel a certain type of way.

Super Mario 3D Land - 6/10 - A good 3D Mario game and a great showcase of what the 3DS is capable of, especially with how it uses the stereoscopic 3D in certain levels. The only thing is that 3D World is just a better version of this game and I was constantly thinking how I’d have more fun playing that game instead.

G.I. Joe: The Movie - 6/10 - Not much to say about it that isn’t blatantly obvious. Animation is beautiful, the story is bonkers in the best possible way, and the villains are some of the best in Hasbro’s lineup. Still, Duke living at the end felt like the biggest ass-pull and feels like a late-stage change more than anything.

Big Cats - 6/10 - It’s a lesbian cowboy erotica, what else do you want me to say? It’s not really that spicy, but the story and characters are pretty solid. I can’t wait to see what the author has in story in the next book or in her Dragon yuri webtoon.

American Fiction - 7/10 - It’s a bit on the pretentious side and the two plotlines in this movie barely intersect, but I still think it’s a great satire and a funny as hell movie. The ending bits slay me everytime I think about them, I can’t believe that’s how they chose to end it.

Another Crab’s Treasure - 7/10 - Crab Dark Souls is pretty fun, but it has a lot of problems. The writing is hit-or-miss, and while the combat and exploration is fun, the game is incredibly buggy. It could just be the Switch port, but I’ve seen other people playing on PC complain about it as well.

Porco Rosso - 7/10 - A solid, but not too special movie in Ghibli’s caliber. It’s pretty funny and I like Porco as a character, but the rest of the characters aren’t that interesting and I really wish everyone in the movie didn’t fall in love with the 17 year old girl. Still, it’s a good time and it made me hungry for bacon.

OPM: Road to Hero - 7/10 - It’s my first time going through the One Punch Man OVAs, and this is one of the better ones. I like seeing Saitama struggling through his earlier days and the ending where he gets his costume is great, but I would’ve loved better villains that aren’t a fish in BDSM gear.

From Up on Poppy Hill - 7/10 - Yeah, yeah the incest scare in the middle is bad, but aside from that, this is a pretty cute movie. The characters are fun, the plot to save Latin Quarter is fun, it’s mostly a solidly fine Ghibli fare. Also Shun’s english voice sounds like Cookie Masterson and that made me happy.

MLPEG: Magical Movie Night - 7/10 - Dance Magic was alright with a great song at the end, Movie Night was really undercooked, and Mirror Magic was great! I wish that we had more time with the last short, but I still had a fun time with this movie/anthology/compilation.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers - 7/10 - This movie is rad as hell. I love the action choreography, I love the super cheesy villains, I love the practical effects, I love how this movie oozes 90’s cheese, I love almost everything about this movie. If the last 30 minutes or so were hacked off, I’d say this movie is a solid 9/10!

Hazbin Hotel S1 - 7/10 - I don’t get the hate with this show. Yeah, the edgy humor can be bad at times, but I still thought the setting was creative enough to carry the plot forward. There’s also some great characters, voice performances, and some slick as hell songs, especially “Poison.”

My Neighbors the Yamadas - 7/10 - This is a cute little anthology movie about bits and pieces of a family’s life and that is about it. I do really love the art style, but it’s something that The Tale of the Princess Kaguya does so much better.

The Color Purple - 7/10 - Never seen the original movie before this, so I was really invested in this story and the characters. Great performances helped this movie out a lot, and while I didn’t necessarily need the musical bits, I still loved the songs.

I Saw the TV Glow - 7/10 - I absolutely love not only the visual flair this movie has, but also how deep and in-depth the metaphor about being trans (or queer as a whole really) is. The problem is that I don’t really like the characters or the story and that is a big problem for a movie to have.

The Terminal - 7/10 - A cute little movie, but that’s about it. Tom Hanks does an incredible job, especially during the beginning when Viktor doesn’t even know English yet, but other than that and a couple of cute and well-done scenes, not a lot of this movie intrigued me. The romance subplots weren’t that great, the overall filmmaking isn’t that special, but I liked it well enough.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra - 7/10 - What the fuck, this movie was actually good? I mean, it’s not a great movie, but I had a fun time with these characters and the editing and action were surprisingly great. Nothing to do about the hammy writing or the awful CGI, but I still liked this a lot more than I thought.

An Extremely Goofy Movie - 7/10 - Not as good as the first (because there’s no songs >:( ), but still a damn fun movie. I don’t like how Max seems to regress as a character, but Goofy getting his degree and a girlfriend and the respect of everyone on campus is so fun to watch. Also that coffee shop lady gave me gender envy and I’m sad now.

The Girl From the Sea - 7/10 - Not really much to say about this book. It’s fun, it’s cute, it’s got lesbians in it, what else is there to say? I do wish there was more depth to this story, it is a pretty basic coming-of-age graphic novel, but I liked the supernatural elements and Keltie was really adorable.

Jackbox Party Pack 5 - 7/10 - Zeeple Dome and YDNJ were fun, Mad Verse City and Patently Stupid were the highlights of the night for the people I played with, but Split the Room really drags this pack down. Still, one bad game doesn’t hurt the 4 other fun ones.

The Tempest - 7/10 - Holy hell, Christopher Plummer could act. There’s not much to say about this play that hasn’t been said in the past 400 years, so I’m just gonna say I like the magical elements and how convoluted Prospero’s plan is and I fucking hate Stephano and Trinculo with a passion.

Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure - 7/10 - A pretty good comedy and an excellent showcase of Tim Burton’s talents as a director, since this was his first movie as director. It’s very cute and funny at times, but I personally find Pee Wee to be a kinda annoying character. I also can’t see him without thinking of Paul Rubens’s big adventure to prison.

Mario Party 3 - 7/10 - A decent Mario Party game, easily one of the better N64 games I’ve played. Most of the boards are fun, the duel maps are quick, the minigames are stupid in a good way, and Daisy and Waluigi were added to the series here. What’s not to love?

Challengers - 7/10 - Can’t believe the bisexuals convinced me to watch a tennis movie man. I liked the story and the acting here, but I really wish that Tashi was a more developed character. She’s essentially the lead and all the development she gets comes in towards the end while the gay boys get so much more. Still, this is the best representation of bisexuality, so I’ll take it.

Straight Outta Nowhere - 7/10 - I would consider this to be a masterpiece if I was actually invested in Courage. Never watched more than a few episodes of the show, but I still enjoyed this movie. There are some neat bits of animation, there are plenty of funny jokes, and it’s a great ending to a show I wanna watch someday.

Measure For Measure - 7/10 - Wikipedia says that this play is a comedy, but this is a comedy in the same way that a tomato is a fruit. This is one of Shakespeare’s better plays, but that’s entirely because of the Duke. What a dramatic lil bitch, I love him so much.

A Goofy Movie - 7/10 - This is a really sweet, pretty fun movie about Goofy reconnecting with his son. Max and most of the other characters were fine, but the star of the show is Goofy. I love most of his antics and the way he grew as a character with his son is sweet.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - 7/10 - As someone who’s a casual fan of the newer PotA movies, this is definitely the weakest one I’ve seen. It’s not a bad movie at all, but the characters (save for Racka and Proximus) aren’t as interesting as Caesar or Colonel. Still, the action is great, the story is well-written, and the visuals are top tier.

Smiling Friends S2 - 7/10 - It’s not as good as the first season (mainly because no Glep episode), but it’s still as funny, creative, and visually amazing as the first one. Still THERE’S NO FUCKING GLEP EPISODE IN THIS YOU FUCKERS. Also Doug Walker jumpscare

[kaeyacollection]

Hi, I don't play genshin but sometimes I like to lurk through other people's fandom to spice things a bit on my brain. Anyways, recently I saw some posts talking about some red moon eye-like god (? Something like that, having strong Naruto flashbacks here btw) and I was wondering:

(What with all the eyes?

I mean, visions look like eyes (and the name lol), the fallen nation's king had a single eye, Kaeya covers an eye, Furina has something weird in her pupil, that god is an eye.

That was really not the point tho.)

Is that eye god stuff the reason visions exist or celestia really said "oh, yes, lets give these tenacious mortals who have reasons to hate me a way to become stronger, there's no way this fires back at me"? Or is the eye god stuff Celestia? Or are all higher up gods just eyeballs? (Half joking with this one but that would be kinda fun) Though according to religious stuff, biblically accurate angels would look like eyeballs or something.

Anyways, I know you probably don't know the answer (since the game seems to be like an unfinished book with the real plot still unfolded), but I wanted to share the senseless questions in my head with someone and the chosen one (by my brain) is you (based on vibes).

Lmaoo hell yeah I passed the vibe check 💖💖💖

But you're right in that currently we're only working off of speculation for Visions

And oh boy did this become a long one lmao (tldr at the end ✨️)

The most popular theory back in the day was that Visions were the eyes of Celestia

Because as you said, they've also been given to people with reason to hate them, so this was a way to keep an EYE on them lmao

As we continued our journey we learned the archons would set aside a fraction of their power for those who hit certain marks in their life in order to be granted a vision - but they had no control over who got them or why

What finally challenged this theory is that Neuvillette, a dragon (that the ever composed Zhongli, ex archon, hid from), also set aside some of his power to be handed out as visions. Something that wouldn't seem to line up if they were actually harmful to the humans he's come to care for

And then we got his Friendship 6 Vision story:

"To continue to subdue and control the resentments and loathing of the world, the usurper and one who came after created the Gnoses together. So it came to be that an order was made to be upheld, and thus did humans come to only possess these seven remembrances ... From that day on, whenever a person's wishes reached the heavens, the seven overseers of the material realm were duty-bound to grant them a gift.

... And when one so gifted completed their duty... the gift the gods would receive in return would be more abundant still."

Neuvillette was also opposed to the fates/constellations before later caring for humans and allowing his own mark to be etched into the sky

"He did not initially care much about such, for the puppet strings glossed as "divine rules" would one day be burned away by the fires of judgment."

"And could it not be, he would explain, that King Nibelung had been wrong, and that the black void could only be opposed if all life were to band together as one? Thus did he, in the end, come into his own "fate." The skies had left a special, ennobled place for him, one reserved for the overseers and those who could defy the world itself — that of his own reflection."

Obtaining a Vision, and therefore a constellation, seems to represent a unity of goals instead. Not of a hatred for the Usurper but of an unbreakable will to keep pushing forward. A Will that when unified together, like in the fight against Ei, can become something more. It's easily why many Vision holders get theirs in dire situations, when faced with death they stand defiant against despair.

Perhaps when facing off against an all consuming void that threatens the world created by the Usurper, a darkness that would also threaten their very lives, these Wills will be at their strongest to push back the calamity, at least for a while longer.

To counter the despair of the world is to rise to your own judgment and demand to have a place in the world anyways... or at least that can be one interpretation 🤷

'Cause you see, the Narzissenkreuz Institute also brought up the belief that "one's own will is an obstacle, and that obtaining a Vision is a "guaranteed path to destruction." "

Whether a dramatic/poetic interpretation of giving up your Will to act as a battery for some anti-void machine, or much like Fontaine's prophecy, a twisted truth, it's not a line that should be disregarded so easily.

(Could also mean that having a will to stand in defiance would really fuck up their plan of everyone giving up their identities to seek shelter in the one water droplet during the end of the world. So "guaranteed destruction" in the belief that their plan was the only way to survive, and not that the visions themselves were the cause for the end)

So all in all, what we know about visions is that it's soft locked behind poetry and lines we don't have the full context for, and I suck at reading poetry (looking at you Fischl istg) ✨️

--

As for why eyes in general? Genshin takes inspiration from a LOT of mythos/stories/religions that ALSO have a thing for eyes

Like at this point I think they went through their own red string conspiracy of eyes throughout history and decided to compress it into a single story lmao

But man you just reminded me of the "Natsuhiboshi red eye" Naruto song I used to listen to a bunch lmao

[atypicalacademic]

SOLAS I want to cause Drama

why would you do this to me

First impression: Okay so my first time meeting Solas "in-person" (ie not watching my dear friends stream the game), there was something very appealing about the combination of music and his cadence. Like I had that "I did nothing, the credit is yours," stuck in my head for a solid while lol. Pleasing to the ear, would be my first impression. Until it got super, super old. The rest I'll put under a readmore so I wouldn't spoil those who haven't finished DA:I, perchance.

Impression now: I would, unironically, hunt him for sport. For someone so consumed by regret he is pathologically opposed to changing, and for someone who's so terrified of dying alone he's so determined to not see people as people. Sure it's a defence mechanism which makes for great narrative, but by god my Inquisitors shouldn't have to save him. But Narein Cadash is nicer than me so he tries. Ugh. All that aside, I think Solas is bound by what Fen'harel represents. I'm not sure whether it is godhood or self fulfilling prophecy or sheer fucking delusion, but he is bound to deceit itself. It is both his power and his downfall. He deceives his friends and deceives his people and he deceives this world that could have needed him, and a lot of the time he deceives himself. Everything he touches and everything he does turns eventually to a kind of betrayal in a cycle he cannot break on his own and wouldnt let anyone else. I'd almost pity him if I didn't want to hunt him for sport.

Favorite moment: I actually really like the banter of him playing mind-chess with Iron Bull. An inkling of who he might have been in a previous world and a previous life seemed to shine through in those little hints of playfulness. I also absolutely adore the fresco he makes in his room in Skyhold. Genuinely beautiful.

Idea for a Story: I like stories where Solas has to stop himself before he sees to much of personhood in his companions whom he is inevitably going to betray. And not in a romance way, even. Just him laughing at a joke Varric made and suddenly this world is too real and these people have lives and these people are beside him.

Unpopular opinion: I don't think he's so fascinating that he merits being centered in the overarching narrative the way he is. I'd have preferred if his arc was wrapped up in Inquisition. I also don't see him as a revolutionary figure who has the charisma to pull all these elves to his side. The elves of Thedas, I'm sure have or should have their own political formations and their social reformers (hello, Briala?).

Favorite relationship: I would like to study whatever fuckshit he had going on with the Evanuris like a bug.

Favorite headcanon: I hc that he had a wife back in Arlathan, who died in the Fall like so many others. I imagine they did love each other very much, and she was this dreamy, witty, creative woman who shared his love for art and frilly cakes. There must be a portrait of her, somewhere in one of the older ruins, and I like to think whenever he dreams he looks for a lingering trace of her.

[whoaffle]

I got asked about Defeated By A Mere Child...

I didn't want to go and answer the asks with a huge dump of text, so I decided to post this separately to whoever is interested in reading a bit more about my reasons for being in a hiatus.

There was more than only one factor that led me to the hiatus.

First of all: time. I graduated in 2019 from Language Arts course, but back in 2021 I started another course (Game Design), and I also got a job in 2022… So for the past 1 year and a half or so, I've been not only studying again, but working too, meaning that time has become scarce… And here I need to mention that DBAMC is not my only creative project, even though it is one of the only projects I ever managed to actually "put out there in the world", I guess… But with all the games I'd like to make, all the unfinished fanfictions in my AO3 (Including the DBAMC one!), all the other comics I still want to create (fancomics and original projects), drawings I still want to make, RPG campaings I'm playing (with sessions that I owe my friends), yada yada, DBAMC has become only one of thousands of things "in line", and yet another project that I keep thinking of and wishing to some day finish. Specially because the little free time I've got, at the end of the day, always ends up being consumed by playing Baldur's Gate or watching Youtube, simply because I'm too tired to produce actual content after a whole week of work (that's modern capitalism for you)…

All that aside, there are emotional factors related to it as well. (Sad Backstory Unlocked).

Jokes apart, I lost a dear relative around the time Legends Arceus was first around, and it was a difficult period for me, meaning I found it hard to keep up with the Pokémon franchise (and any other franchises to be fair). Pokémon released Legends, the Sinnoh remake, DLCs, and in the middle of all that I was still trying to successfully incorporate the characters from SwSh into my comics... I had no time and energy to look up the new content, couldn't play the games since I don't have a Switch, and just ended up stressed abouot not knowing the new content, thinking I should be working on it to keep up with the fandom for the sake of the comics - Now, I want to clarify, I created this problem myself, in my head, on my own (as one with anxiety does). No one from my followers ever pressured me to keep up with releases or anything, but I ended up turning it into a problem in my head and couldn't tackle it in a productive manner.

The fact that now ScaVio has also launched and I still haven't even touched anything from Legends or even the SwSh DLCs should explain how much I distanced myself from the new Pokémon content ever since, in part due to bad emotional associations with the loss I experienced, but also due to not liking how GameFreak / Nintendo have been managing the development of their games recently, AND also due to simple lack of time to go after anything other than "let me take a look at the new pokémon" (Tinkaton is my favorite Fairy Type ever, just in case anyone is interested).

Thing is, I couldn't keep up with the new content, as much as I love Pokémon and as much as I love all the content up to SwSh. The fact I couldn't keep up led to my anxiety acting up (plus emotional difficulties due to personal life stuff), leading to me deciding to take a break. Lack of time in general ended up becoming the main reason why the break hasn't ended yet, unfortunately.

So, all the context aside, am I gonna get back working on DBAMC content?

The short answer is: I don't know. I want to, but I don't know if I'll manage. I do want to do it, eventually.

I still have no idea when I'll be able to work on comics again, being 100% honest. But there are two things I can tell:

First, it's not gonna happen before July 2024, because that's when I'm expecting to finish my graduation project. I'll still have to finish one or maybe more disciplines after that, but the most difficult part should be over by the middle of next year... Still, this is not a promise DBAMC will be back after I finish college. I'm just saying that it will certainly not happen before that.

Second is that, whenever I manage to get back, I have decided that I will not incorporate newer content in the comics, at least not so soon. This has to do with the reasons cited above, of course, but also has to do with all the complicated "logistics" that adding new characters to comics turned out to be (incorporating Rose and Piers was a lot harder than I expected, since I had to re-write and change already written scripts and change the order of comics and etc... I won't be able to do that again with even newer characters).

All that said, I have at least ONE good thing to say: I've been revisiting my written content in AO3, wanting to get back writing some projects, and that includes the prequel I wrote to my DBAMC comics! I've been wanting to at least publish the last two chapters so that the story can be complete! So this is something I am planning to do in January, if everything works out. :)

I understand that it's definitely not the news any old follower of the blog expected... But it's what I can do for now...

If you read everything... Wow. Thank you!

Happy new year, everyone!

[scribe-of-stories]

15 Questions 15 Mutuals

Rules: Answer the questions as yourself or as an OC of your choice

The always friend shaped @vicstmichael tagged me, and you can read her lovely post here.

I'm going to be answering for both myself and Lexical's oldest OC, Samuel. (I'll be responding like this) meanwhile Sam like this.

The lightest of tags towards: @sunset-a-story @squarebracket-trick @valanke @pure-solomon @captain-kraken annnnd I know it says to tag 15 people but I've got other tag games so I'm going to save some mutual. Alternatively if 10 more individuals could do this so I don't become cursed that'd be grand.

1. Are you named after anyone?

I think I was named after one of my grandfathers, who was named after some biblical character. Someone who broke pillars? Or was that another guy? (To shorten a long story: Sam predates Lexical and is technically two older characters mixed together. One was an unplayed FATE character named Smith of Masks, who was a spooky manakin looking monster that was also a journalist. It wrote under the pen name "Sam Smith" as a loose reference to it's acronym [SoM] and the generic last name Smith [which was also already part of its name]. The other was a short story I wrote over on Reddit, but that has little to do with the name.)

(Meanwhile I was named after a Frenchman in space. Or two books of the bible. I claim the former, but my religious [secretly trekkie] parents claim the later.)

2. When was the last time you cried?

I don't know, not like I keep track of these things. Probably the last time I had a bone broken. (It was when Ashley gave him his birthday gift).

(Last night I was meditating and talking to myself and we felt emotional. It was a good cry.)

3. Do you have kids?

Biologically no, but there is a worryingly growing group of young and wyrd individuals that I keep either saving or having over for dinner. I, uh, well they know what they mean to me. I think.

(Nope, not yet at least. That said I had been working in some form of child care most of my career life.)

4. Do you use sarcasm?

I would Never do such a thing. Words have power after all, imagine if I didn't mean what I say. (See: Umbra wyrdling)

(All the time, though usually for me it walks the fine line between sarcasms and lying/gaslighting as a bit. I never let it go too far though, and only do it over un-important topics.)

5. What's the first thing you notice about people?

How many limbs they have. Jokes aside, how they are presenting themselves: they way they walk, talk, stand, etc. Got worse/more noticeable recently.

(Usually their hair. I'm slightly face blind and find myself relying on the hair/dress of people I only slightly know to recognize them.)

6. What's your eye color?

It changes, but I think I was born with blue eyes? Can't exactly remember.

(Very Brown.)

7. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings any day of the week. Love me some sappy romance where everyone's just content at the end. Besides I see enough horror in my work life, don't want to bring that shit home. Hell it usually doesn't have trouble finding my house anyways.

(Both? Both is good. If I had to choose horror since I see that as being capable of exploring things a lot of fiction can't, but I wouldn't want everything I consume to end with "then everyone was bound to super hell for eternity".)

8. Any special talents?

Surviving things that should have killed me. My more magically inclined friends have taken to referring to me as a "Community College Wizard" so I guess I've got that going for me too.

(I've been told I'm a divergent thinker, so I think that's special. Also I'm fairly good at most video/board games. Might be linked, idk?)

9. Where were you born?

Dalas, Texas. Don't intend on going back any time soon though.

(South Carolina, though I moved to Kentucky before I started being old enough to remember things.)

10. What are your hobbies?

Reading. I've got this lovely pile of shitty novels I collect that I'm slowly working through. No rhyme or reason to what's in them, just slowly bought them on discount from local book stores. Romance is my favorite genre.

(Games, I love games. TTRPGs, video games, tabletop/board games. Anything with a rule system that I can learn and play with in unique ways. I'm usually drawn to things that are turn based, but the video game I have easily put the most time into would be Warframe. Also, uh, writing.)

11. Have you any pets?

I've got a half dozen Wyrdlings I have to babysit and at least 2 minor thought entities living in my house. Yes I consider all of them effectively Pets.

(Not currently, but I used to have a turtle named Ruto.)

12. What sports do you play/have played?

Used to place baseball back when I was a kid, but that fell off when I graduated.

(Back when I was a child my parents had me try nearly every form of sports there was. None of them stuck, and I never joined a school related team.)

13. How tall are you?

It changes, or at least I suspect it does. Around 5'8 last I checked but I swear I'm getting shorter.

(5'10)

14. Favorite subject in school?

Took a semester of forensics back in high school. It was taught by a couch who was just reading a chapter ahead of the class, but the topic was fascinating.

(Psychology/Philosophy in that order. I didn't properly start learning either till I was in college. Got some regrets that I didn't take more than 1 philosophy course; even more upset that I only ever took 1 writing course.)

15. Dream job?

What I'm doing now: private investigating. Though in a perfect world I'd deal with a few less monsters on a daily basis. I guess it's more interesting then just spying on people from inside a car. Some days I miss not knowing about the Wyrd; but other days balance it out.

(Still trying to figure that out. Ended my career as a behavioral therapist a while ago [moral/stress issues] and kinda now figuring out what I actually want to do. Would have said being a Therapist a while ago but I'm not sure.)

[jjraderftw]

Genshiken (ep.1,2,3,9)

Genshiken was definitely a show. It indeed had characters who talked and interacted somewhat…yup that's for sure. Jokes aside, this style of anime was not my forte. I’m all for comedy and slice of life anime but this one just felt too bland for my personal enjoyment. Most of the humor came from silent/awkward scenarios which just didn't land with me. Nevertheless, the anime presented some interesting insight into the minds of older, college age otakus. As someone who helps run the UF equivalent of the club the anime presents, it's interesting to find parallels with the real world in terms of the behaviors and ideologies modern diehard anime fans have. Similar relations are a sense of awkwardness, interests in online games, and large collections of things like cards, figures, and manga. In term of a modern critique, the show presents ideas that this week’s readings (Otaku: A Japanese Database Animal & Cultural Economy) convey such as otaku’s seeing their interest as a lifestyle, the parallel development of fan culture that influences the source media, and the obsessive (and potentially harmful) lifestyle that too much devotion could have on a person.

All members of the Genshiken club have a passion for anime and manga. They’re lives are filled with these interests and they enjoy their time with friends and at school by partaking in this interest. Whether it’s playing games, reading manga, watching anime, or talking about the former, they’re main social interactions are filled with otaku culture. To them, a defining characteristic of their person is their love of the media they consume. It's a cultural identity. For characters like Madarame, he no longer feels ashamed nor self aware of his interests. He lets people think whatever they want of him because part of his identity is the media he consumes. All the friends in the club come together because of common grounds. This shows that otaku culture is a form of binding. It may be a slight obsession, but that is okay in life. In order to pass the time we have enjoyably, we find things that bring us interests and otaku culture is very much that. An interest can be incorporated into our personalities and bring people closer together. This has its extremities however. Extremists may draw fine lines between who is considered a fan and who is not, making inclusion a bit hard at times. Fans can also help develop the source material. The amount of doujinshi created that either add to or complement existing works are numerous. Fan theories and original creations based on existing media is a huge market this show helps demonstrate by showing the convention scene.

Sometimes, however, this interest can turn into unhealthy obsession. Kousaka is the embodiment of this. His interest in otaku culture has made him neglect his girlfriend and non anime related life. He makes Saki suffer neglect when all she wants is to spend time with him. Instead, he cuts her off at every point in time and goes out to wait overnight in lines or compulsively shop for large quantities of merchandise. This can be seen in the real world and it's an unhealthy problem. Any obsession can be taken too far. You may neglect your studies, job, friends, and family and fall into a rabbit hole that is hard to return from. At this point, your person is no longer complimented by the media you consume, but it is the media you consume. Without your obsession, you are nothing and become neglectful person for the other facets of your life.

[moxiemaemaple]

My paranoia.

Sometimes I embrace my madness. My own paranoia makes wonderful stories down on paper. Former written works aside I gotta grab a tight grip on reality here. I run from many things and I often feel haunted.

How far does this haunting go? Is it contained in a house? Oh no…my whole life feels haunted, house and whole world. Ghost town here and its crowded with spirits around every corner. Maybe its all its in my head but I swear I'm seeing it again, feeling it…

I hate looking over my shoulder. Tired of worrying what could be there. Constantly surveying my surroundings it use to consume me…this fear. I don't even know who is there if I'm being honest. Who do I fear? Who do I even think could be there? Is it the fear of the unknown? A mental sickness…?

I see a person in the background, faded in with the backdrop of my surroundings. Again I see them outside while I take a call. Shifting forms that just feel slightly out of place, lingering around. I see people in odd places, pacing odd spots. I try not to let it get to me. Sometimes I use to linger in the background, pace outside but never approach…this is all different though. Something off… I trust my feelings.

A car that turns down the same street as me more than once is all it takes for my paranoia kick in. I'm studying the brand, color, custom body work, rims and tires like this is a game of guess who. I try not to stare over my shoulder anymore like a loon leaving my attention to only catch glimpses of the car turn off just out of my sight, tail lights, flash of the color the only detail I get to build with. Maybe its coincidence, with me I see patterns everywhere I realize. Is this one of those times? How many own identical cars?

Or is something there…someone.

I'm a paranoid one however people make it seem like its all in my head. I have proof it hasn't always. In my past I suffered some extreme levels of stalking. Never once have I been able to catch them. That shadow that lurked around my former workplaces, the car that was just far enough back I almost miss it mirroring my turns on the way home. That person in the woods while I take a hike, the figure who sits across the park just out of sight… The figure just in the treeline as I off road, with binoculars in hand. The figure up on a roof top where a ladder stands between me, and uncovering identity… That stranger who has spent a bit too much time on their phone pacing the same corner down the street.

I've tried to catch them. These people, shadows…stalkers. Elaborately staged old friends around to try and catch them on film, try to snap photos of their plates, face, anything. Chasing cars to extremes where I risked reckless driving charges, risking my own life. One of my former associates even chased one down the road on foot and they thought I was mad till that interaction.

It isn't all just in my head.

Once someone even dressed up a sandking in colors mirroring one of my own vehicles and left it in my parking spot where I use to live. Left bags with interesting gifts; rat tails, lint, food, rocks, weed, collectibles no one just 'left' laying around. Is it all the same person? Multiples? I've lost track of the patterns…if any of them share anything in common beyond their mastery of blending in unnoticed.

The most frustrating thing is I have no idea if I'm in danger. I don't really care if someone wants to admire me from afar just what are the intentions? I've had my life threatened many times by stalking. People waiting till I'm alone and making their move to gut me. Kidnap me…plot my death. Death fantasies of those who can no longer access my time.

I often joke about ex's stalking me making light of my trauma. Some people aren't joking around though…

Should I buy a weapon again? I feel like history repeats with me. Last gun I owned was stolen by a woman who hated my guts due to sharing a past lover, targeted me at my workplace and the pew pew did jack shit in keeping her crazy ass from pulling me into the trunk of her vehicle.

Perhaps a knife collection again. I was always one to keep things personal normally.

[starmahgalaxies]

Get to Know You

Thanks for @sinvulkt for tagging me. I'm not really sure about what facts to give about myself so I'll just use what you did, with a couple others that are relevant for my answers. And this makes me look like a massive weeb (or am I?!), but that's mainly because my most recent/current fandoms and my very first fandoms were animanga. (yes, yes I am)

Last song: King of Anything - Sara Bareilles

Currently watching: I'm not currently watching anything, but next up on my list I have finishing up Digimon Adventure (2020) and going back to Magi The Adventures of Sinbad.

The main thing I want to do soon is go back to my incredible backlog of video games. There are so many just sitting in my library.

Playing Next: I've wanted to get to Chrono Trigger on my PC since Akira Toriyama died. His designs in video games are iconic. But I also have a lot of indie games that I want to go through too. I should make a wheel to decide, but I haven't yet.

Three ships: I have several ships, but none rank high enough really to be above everything else. If I name any amount I'll name all of them and be here all day. Like many 90s queer kids, Haruka and Michiru (Sailor Moon) was my first lesbian couple. At least in my circles growing up.

Favorite Relationship Dynamic: Familial! They can be whatever! Oh, you mean romantic ship dynamics? Meh. Romantic ships are fun -- I'm Aegoro -- but I have no real preference there. I like family relationships more and even a good enemy ships. Not even enemies to lovers (not always) just enemies. Give me a bonfire mess of a dynamic and I'll watch it.

Favorite color: I like shades of red and magenta.

Currently consuming: Nothing. Eating by my computer, over my tablet/keyboard will leave a mess and get all over both things when I rather they not. I need that stuff to work! The last thing I had though was a big fat chocolate muffin for breakfast.

(Since I am writing this in two sittings, the thing that I had last now was an Italian soda from a local café chain and chocolate eggs that were on clearance at the supermarket.)

First ship: I'm sure I had non-gay ships first. I didn't clue into people of same gender liking each other for a while. Or anyone liking anyone for a while. For the life of me I can not remember them. So the same answer as above. HaruMichi.

Birthplace: I was born through a C-section! So not quite through my mother's womb. (yay Macbeth reference. And anyone reading this name in a theater, I'm sorry XD)

Jokes aside, I am, for better and worse, an American.

Current location: I haven't moved far from where I was born.

Relationship status: Hahahahaha. That's cute. No. 🧡💛🤍🩵💙

Last movie: This makes me sad. I can't remember. Life (being broke), moving (having physical copies packed away), and stuff in general has made it so I can't remember the last time I saw a movie movie.

Other recreational watches typically rank higher on to-do list anyway, so don't feel too bad for me XD.

Currently working on: Uh, I have about five drafts (essays and shitposts) on my Magi fandom blog (@pan-magi), one fic I'm working on, and at least five art pieces. I've lost count.

I have the opposite problem with tagging people. I never really feel comfortable tagging anybody. So anyone can do what they want. Heh.

[teamarine777]

this is... a long one...

Heta: Have you heard of Murphy’s law? The one where if something can go wrong, it will go wrong?

Kree: Yeah, I have. Heta: Have you heard of Cole’s law?

Kree: Is this a joke about coleslaw?

Heta: …maybe.

Kira: Vul, I don't like you.

Vul: What did you say?

Kira: You heard me!

Vul, internally: And it turns out I actually didn't hear what the fuck you just said.

Vul: Oh gosh I wish I got more sleep I only got six hours!

Kira: Six? I only got three!

Rose: You guys got sleep?

Heta, comes stumbling out of their room and grabs a jug of coffee before saying: What year is it??

Rose, texting Heta: Roses are red, Tony Hawk is a skater…

Heta′s phone, auto-replying: I’m driving right now–I’ll get back to you later.

*Later*

Heta, texting back: Fuck you.

Heta: This is a bad idea.

Vul: Then why are you coming along?

Heta: Someone has to get your injured ass home.

Kira: I will beat all of you in Rock, Paper, Scissors. You go first.

Heta: Rock.

Kira: Paper.

Heta: Money... Is like president trading cards.

Kree: What can therapy do for me that screaming in my car for 30 minutes can’t?

Kree: In the past year you have managed to piss off the LAPD, ATF, CIA, FBI-

Heta: NBA.

Kree: …?

Heta: Snuck into a Cliffords game.

Vul: Everyone knows that Santa is an invention designed by the big five corporations to sell tinsel and video games to an unsuspecting public.

Rose: The whole “childhood wonder” stage just blew right past you, didn’t it?

Heta: People tell me I have a unique way of lighting up a room.

Kira: It’s called arson and those people are called witnesses.

Heta: I WOULD DESTROY THE WORLD FOR YOU!

Vul: Okay, can you do the dishes?

Heta: No!

Rose: I see the red flags, I acknowledge that they're there, and then I completely ignore them.

Heta, very tired: Can I sleep in your bed?

Rose: *half asleep* Heta, this is a queen-sized bed. That means it’s for *gestures vaguely to themself* the Queen.

Vul: I hope no one lowkey hates me.

Vul: Highkey hate me. Hate me with every fiber of your being.

Vul: Go big or go home.

Heta: You really put aside everything and came all this way for me? How did you even get here so fast?

Kree: Several traffic violations.

Vul: Three counts of resisting arrest.

Rose: Roughly thirteen cans of energy drinks.

Kira: Also, that’s not our car.

Vul: I know one person who finds me funny!

Kira: Okay, who?... and you can't say yourself!

Vul: Okay then I'm out.

Kree: *sneaking in through their window*

Heta: *turning in their chair and flicking the light one* You want to tell me where you've been all night?

Kree: I was with Rose?

Rose: *turning in their chair* Wanna try again?

(This is only here because I have no clue why Kira would be trying to sneak out to talk to Rose????)

Heta, peeling a banana: May I take your jacket, sir? Hahahaha.

Vul: Do you think other people can’t hear you?

Rose: Screw lactose intolerance! I will consume as much dairy as I want!

Rose 2 hours later, crying on the floor: WHY DOES IT HURT SO MUCH?!

Heta, gently nudging Vul aside with their foot: Vul, move out of the way so I don’t trip on you.

Vul, their eyes enormous: You kick Vul? You kick their body like the football? Oh! Oh! Jail for Heta! Jail for Heta for one thousand years!

Kira: Heta, I think we have a problem.

Heta: What, the fire?

Kira: No, the- wait, what fire?

Heta: Oh forget about it, this sounds more interesting.

Rose: Pardon the intrusion, but-

Heta: On this moment or just my life in general?

Vul: I'm not creepy.

Vul: I'm petty.

Vul: There's a difference, ya' know.

Heta: Unpopular opinion, not all dogs are good boys.

Rose: Blocked.

Heta: Sometimes, they’re good girls!

Rose: UNBLOCKED!

Kira: Rose, I want Heta gone ASAP!

Rose: If you say so… wait, shouldn’t we get someone to help us?

Kira: The only person that could help us is Kree and I don’t really trust them… *Looks over to Kree*

Kree: If you’re gonna hide a body, clap your hands! *clap clap* If you’re gonna hide a body, clap your hands! *clap clap*

(Once again, WHY AND HOW?! AND HETA'S JUST FUCKING DEAD?!)

I might do more later, but this is enough for now

@caffeinated-starsailor @theverumproject

⚜ INCORRECT QUOTES ⚜

Bringing back an old tag game!!!

Rule: use this generator to create “incorrect quotes” for your wip

(I feel legally obligated to post something actually about Faerie's Dawn today and I want to meme these idiots lmao)

Cloud: Tell me a little about yourself. Nova: I'd rather not, I really like this group.

Nova: I hate when people ask me, 'What did you do today?' Buddy, listen, I woke up at noon and then it was five pm, okay? I don't KNOW!

Nova: I will be using so much pink you’ll be seeing green by the end from sensory deprivation.

Sky: You're violent. Nova: Yeah but I'm also short and that's adorable.

Nova: Wanna get out of here and grab a bite to eat? Sky: I don’t usually eat with losers. Nova: Neither do I but I asked you, didn’t I?

Nova: Branch, you’re in charge! Sky: Branch, can we start a fire?

[while waiting outside the principal’s office] Nova: What are you in for? Cloud: Oh, they just want to know if it’s cool if I miss my classes tomorrow to run sound and lights for a presentation in the auditorium. What about you? Nova: I stabbed a kid with a screwdriver. Cloud: Cloud: Cloud: We live very different lives. Nova: Yes, we do.

Branch: Be careful about succumbing to these sorts of destructive... urges. Addiction can be a powerful thing. Nova: So am I. Bow down before your new supreme overlord, bitches.

Nova: When I get Doordash I order 20 Cheeseburgers at a time and heat them up throughout the week so that I don’t have to pay the delivery fee multiple times. Branch: I hope you understand how food poisoning works. Nova: I hope food poisoning understands how I work. I've never met a burger I couldn’t eat.

Nova: Branch's amazing at concentrating. Once he starts reading, the only way he’ll notice you is if you take his book away. Not even if you hit him or shake him! Sky: That was him ignoring you.

Sky, at Nova's funeral: I need a moment with them. Everyone else at the funeral: Of course. [leaves] Sky, leaning over Nova's coffin: Okay, listen here you little shit. I know you’re not dead. Nova, sitting up in the coffin: Yeah, no shit.

Sky: I hope you have an explanation for this. Cloud: We have three, actually! Nova: Pick your favorite.

Cloud: I bet you’re wondering why I gathered you here today. It’s because we need to have a discussion about how some people in this room aren’t getting along with other people in this room. Sky: Why did you say that so vaguely? Nova and I are literally the only people you called in here.

Sky: I love sarcasm! It’s like punching people in the face, but with words!

Sky: [trying to buy a Father's Day card at Hallmark] Sky: Excuse me, do you have any that just say "You are my dad?" Associate: Well, I- Sky: How about "You banged my mom?" Associate: No... Sky: You know what, I'll just get a blank one. Sky: [writes] You are a father. This is a day. Here is a card.

Cloud: You gave me up, you let me down, you turned around, and deserted me. Sky: But did I make you cry? Cloud: [cries on the spot] Sky: ... shit.

Sky: We wouldn’t last two minutes without Nova. Sky: Sky: Don’t tell them I said that.

Cloud: What language do they speak at the center of the earth? Cloud: Core-ean! Sky: The center of the earth is around 5430 degrees Celsius! Nobody is going to live there, so they don’t need a language! Cloud: Core-ean.

Cloud: You know, it’s fine to admit you were wrong. Sky: [sipping his drink after accidentally adding salt] I just like the way it tastes.

Branch: I never tell people off the bat that I'm gay. I wait. I wait until they say some homophobic shit and then I laugh and am like "you know I'm gay, right?" and watch the look of terror on their face. Sky: Sky: I like you.

Shade: Can you recommend a book that'll make me cry? Sky: General Mathematics 8th Grade Edition.

Shade: We have a problem. Branch: No, YOU have a problem. I have an idiot who keeps making them.

Shade: What the fuck. Shade: ESPN is showing 2003 national jump rope championship. Shade: Who the hell watches jump rope competiti- ooh bouncy!

Shade: A pessimist sees a dark tunnel. Cloud: An optimist sees light at the end of the tunnel! Branch: A realist sees a freight train. Sky: The train driver sees three idiots standing on the tracks.

Achilles: We’ll find another route, it’s not safe for amateur adventurers. Nova: That sounds like a challenge. Achilles: I have to stress, that is not a challenge. Nova: ... Is exactly what you say to dissuade the weak of heart from accepting the challenge. Well, challenge accepted! Achilles: There is no challenge!

Achilles: Okay, how do I look? Be honest. Cloud: There’s no critic more honest than Sky! Sky: Bad.

Achilles: We all have our demons. Achilles, grabbing Shade: This one’s mine.

Eve: Asa, don’t go picking a fight with Ailwyn. Don’t forget, they’re powerful, they could make life difficult for you. Asa: Wow, I wonder what it'd be like to have a difficult life.

Asa: Quitting! It's like trying, but easier!

Asa: If I fall down these stairs, I'm just going to lay down and accept my fate.

Asa: [walks into the kitchen, ignoring everyone] Eve: Hey, Asa, how was your day? Asa: [picks up an onion and bites into it, staring at Nova] Hell. Eve, watching this unfold: (whispers) Who hurt you?

Eve: What's worse than a heartbreak? Shade: Waking up in the morning and your phone wasn't charging. Branch: Waking up in the morning. Asa: Waking up.

Shade: Which one of you was going to tell me that tea tastes different if you put it in hot water?? Cloud: Y-you were putting it in cold water?? Sky: Shade. Answer the question, Shade. Shade: Yeah??? I thought people just put it in hot water to speed up the tea-ification process. didn't realize there was an actual reason. Shade: Plus you think I have the patience to boil water? Cloud: You don't have the patience to microwave water for 3 minutes?? Sky: Why are you putting it in the microwave to boil it? Cloud: Do you think I have the patience to boil water on the stove? Sky: It takes less than a minute. Cloud: Is your stovetop powered by the fucking sun??? Sky: How long does it take you to boil a cup of water on the stove? Cloud: Like seven minutes?? Nova: Just stick the mug on top of the stove on medium heat and it boils in like 2 minutes... less than that if you use a saucepan! Sky: Why are you putting the whole mug on the stove?? On medium heat?? Nova? Your stove is enchanted! Shade: Every single person here is a fucking lunatic. Branch: Do none of you own a fucking kettle?!

[during a group project] Branch: [does 99% of the work] Cloud: [has no idea what’s going on] Nova: [says they’re gonna help but does not] Sky: [disappears at the very beginning and doesn’t show up again until the very end]

Just a silly thing I felt like I had to make lol.

Ik you guys don't know half of these characters lol. But it's fun foreshadowing for later... and still funny 😉

(Idk should I @ the whole Faerie's Dawn list? I'mma just @ my "everything" taglist and anyone I know who's really into FD lol)

@honeybewrites @the-golden-comet @illarian-rambling @ashirisu @urnumber1star

@the-letterbox-archives @48lexr @aalinaaaaaa @thecomfywriter @an-indecisive-nerd

@seastarblue @rae-butter @teamarine777 @caffeinated-starsailor @oliolioxenfreewrites

@corinneglass