#nonsense admin chats

[champion-of-love]

eah texting hcs

the charming siblings have a groupchat ofc and dexter is the admin

their gc photo is a blurry picture of their dad midsneeze and they got it from a stock photo website. their dad has tried to sue the photographer's company but lost the suit and it's the trios' favorite photo.

the gc is mostly them sending memes to each other, accusing each other of taking their stuff, or passing messages from their parents to the intended sibling (the charming castle being so massive and all)

their gc names were just their names at first til one day dex got so pissed at daring that he changes his brother's nickname to 'demanding' charming

darling laughed so hard she saw stars and made her twin promise to never change it back

darling's nickname is 'dueling' charming

dexter's nickname is 'dismaying' charming

(he picked it out himself, and daring and darling shared a concerned looked at the other when he did.)

the wonderlandians also have a groupchat. lizzie, maddie and kitty and eventually alistair and bunny

to match all their names, alistair happily changed his nickname to 'allie' and lizzie gave the loudest snort at it

their entire chat is in riddlish and other wonderlandian dialects and theyre happy they get to practice their native tongues even if they're away from home

maddie's messages are sometimes so nonsensical (so wonderlandian) that the kookiness can sometimes short out their mirrorphones

cue to kitty dropping by lizzie and bunny's rooms warning them to not open the groupchat for a while so they don't short out their phones

kitty never warns alistair though, because she thinks it's funny.

alistair just opens that chat with no suspicion and gets flash-banged by maddie's texts and has to spend the rest of the day with no phone, a little hearing loss and dark spots in his vision.

the pink squad also have a groupchat. cupid, briar and hopper, my beloveds.

briar is the admin and the groupchat moves at the speed of light

cupid and briar text rapidfire and send gossip, memes, selfies, screenshots and etc and react as fast to each others' messages as well

hopper wakes up to a massive backread that he has to spend half an hour in the morning catching up or he won't understand what they'll be talking about in lunch

they use that chat to plan events they want to go to and to send photos that they took during the event itself

their gc pic is a group photo of all of them posing pretty cool in front of a mirror during true hearts day (their first party)

they manage to get humphrey to encode some special features into their chat so that:

(a) briar's phone can send a message if she falls asleep alone somewhere to broadcast her location so any one of them can go to her

(b) hopper's phone can also send his location if he becomes a frog and there's no one to turn him back

(c) cupid's phone also sends her location. not because she physically needs help, but because she gets lonely (being further away from home than all of them).

briar and hopper always take this seriously and arrive with hot chocolate, cupcakes and hugs.

anyways this series has been dead for years now but thinking about these kids always gives me the feels and i had to talk about them

[warping-realities]

Familly Group Chat

Written version of my last video. At some point I'll make one of the first one too! Hope you like it!

Michael was one of the many “middle kids” of John and Louise Bennet; in fact, he was the 4th of 7, just a few minutes younger than his twin brother, Tobias, with whom he shared that typical inscrutable and unexplainable bond that only twins have. Even though the relationship among all seven Bennet boys was super strong, having been raised under the strict rules of the holy Catholic Church by their parents, they were all scattered across the country, so the only way to keep in touch was through the family group chat on an app. That morning, the 23-year-old blonde man, skinny but toned from constant running, had just finished taking a hot shower and putting on his favorite pair of skinny black jeans, which his modern startup job not only accept but even endorsed as part of the dress code. He was about to start brushing his teeth when a new message notification popped up on his phone.

“Message from Tobias, here we go…” he muttered to himself, knowing his twin would only send a message at that hour if it was to roast someone. And sure enough!

“Hey bro, did you see the good morning message Mom posted in the family group?”

“Not yet, man.”

“Well, brace yourself! I have no idea where she finds this stuff!”

As he opened the family group while heading to the kitchen to make his usual black coffee, Michael couldn’t help but chuckle at the cheesiness of the good morning image Mom had sent.

“Dude, do all moms have a group to share this crap?” he typed to his brother in the private chat.

“Has to be! But you better reply, you know how she gets… soon she’ll be whining about how she raised seven ungrateful kids or some nonsense,” Tobias replied. Thinking about that, Michael rushed to respond to their mom. Louise was really kinda needy now that only the youngest still lived with her. However, when he opened the family group, he couldn't help but laugh out loud at the reply Tobias had sent—an even tackier image than the one their mom sent.

“Dude, you’re the worst! Where the hell did you find that image to reply to her?” he shot back to his brother.

“Well, maybe I’m in the mom’s group!” He replied before sending something completely different. “Hey, what’s going on? Someone saved as Dad 0.2 just join the group. What the hell is this?”

Hurrying to check that message, Michael quickly opened the family group and was shocked to see an unknown person had joined, which shouldn’t be possible without an access link or an invite from one of the group admins, their parents. The private convo that followed between the brothers was frantic and freaked out.

“Dad 0.2 removed Mom from the group… what’s going on?”

“I don’t know… how does someone just waltz into a private group and kick someone out???”

“Dad 0.2 changed the group name from Bennet Family to Bradley Boys! What the hell is this?”

“He’s sending a video, what’s happening???”

“I don’t know, bro, let’s just open it and see.”

The video showed a dude in his forties, but he looked really good for his age, easily passing for someone younger if it weren't for the crow's feet around his eyes that showed he was used to smiling, and his extremely muscular physique screamed years of hardcore workouts. With light brown hair and a well-groomed beard, he was rocking just a pair of sweats that showcased his powerful muscles in a spacious but Spartan room, with minimal furniture or decor.

“Alright, guys, it’s time to send our good morning videos! Who’s next? How about you, Jeff? I’m dying to rest my head on those muscle pillows of yours, babe!” the stranger said, flexing his arms.

“WTF?? You seeing what I’m seeing, Tobias? And who the hell is Jeff?” Michael quickly texted back to his brother.

“I have no clue, man, this is so weird… wait a sec… Dad 0.1 just sent a video, what the hell is this?”

“I think we better check it out…” Michael shot back before opening the video from the contact that also showed up for him as Dad 0.1.

“I’m dying to see you too, Buck! Counting the seconds until you’re back, babe. The bed feels empty without you here! Who’s next? How about our firstborn? It’s on you, Wyatt!” That was impossible; the face on the screen was undeniably their dad, but he had gained a solid 50 pounds of muscle and lost a good amount of fat. Not to mention the carpet of hair that now covered his formerly smooth chest.

“Is that really Dad? No way… how?” Tobias sent back.

“I don’t know, man! This is so bizarre… how did he bulk up so much… it doesn’t make sense… and who the hell is Wyatt?”

“He mentioned firstborn… but no… that can’t be…” Tobias typed before they both received another notification. Upon opening the video, they were in for another surprise.

“Hey there, bros! Ready for a new day? I’m already warming up waiting for my workout buddy—where you at, Maverick, little bro?” said the muscular dude, barely in his thirties, dressed all in black and flexing in a gym locker room.

“Dude… that’s Will!!! But he’s never set foot in a gym,” Michael texted Tobias. William, the oldest of the bunch, was about to turn thirty, and he had the chubby physique of an accountant used to long hours behind a desk, drinking coffee and munching on donuts—that was literally his life… or should be. But if there was anything that video showed, it was that Wyatt had never put a single sweet in his mouth.

“I don’t even know what to say… but there’s more coming!” Tobias replied, apparently just as stunned. As the new video arrived, they rushed to look.

“Ha! I’ve already left you in the dust, Wyatt! Looks like the baby bro is now the big bro! Don’t take too long, or I’ll be late for school, and my coach is gonna flip, right, Griff?”

“Dude, that’s Martin on steroids! That kid looks like he’s tripled in size! Is this some kind of prank? Some deep fake?” he asked in shock. Martin, the youngest, was already a more athletic kid, being on the wrestling team, but with that size, he’d be better suited for the offensive line on a football team, if he wasn’t already too big for that, and who the hell was this coach he was talking about?

“Michael, I’m just as lost as you. But it looks like this isn’t stopping…” Tobias commented as another video popped up in the group.

“You’re gonna have to do a ton of push-ups for not calling me Coach Bradley, kid! No Griff or Griffin while I’m your trainer! And if you’re late for school, it’ll be suicide day! Speaking of late, where the hell are you, Chase? Bet you left Hunter hanging at the beach.”

“Tobias, that’s Gordon! How the hell is he a coach? He’s a math teacher!” Michael texted in disbelief, seeing their second oldest brother looking way older than he should, with thinning hair as if he had been overdoing the steroids, which seemed totally possible, he thought, seeing the massive bodybuilder rocking just boxer briefs and a tight tank top, flexing his powerful muscles in some dimly lit room.

“Tobias? Tobias? Damn… there’s more coming!” Michael texted anxiously as he opened the next video.

“Ha, you know me too well, bro, but The Chaser is on the scene, Hunt’s got to face me!” That was Carl, but just like the other family members, he had gone through a transformation that left him almost unrecognizable. He had turned into a mountain of muscles covered by a thin layer of bronzed skin, clad only in a tiny yellow short, shades, and a backwards cap. Sitting in a car, flexing his muscles and grinning. Michael didn’t even have time to send a new outraged message to Tobias when another video came in.

“Too bad I’m already way ahead in my workout, little bro! You sure you want to take me on? Hehehe. Speaking of challenges, which twin’s gonna fire the next shot? Trey or Micah?” said the bronzed, muscular dude sporting Hugh’s modified look, the brother just below the twins in age. Watching this, Michael’s shock wore off, and he resumed chatting with his twin.

“What the hell is going on??? What are they doing at the beach? They should be in college!” But the reply didn’t come. Worried, he called out for his brother.

“Tobias? Tobias?”

“Who the fuck is Tobias, bro? I’m already sending my video, Micah! Big T is once again taking the lead! At least The Grand Finale is all yours!” was the twin response.

“Tobias, you guys must be messing with me!” Michael sent before opening the family group, where his brother had just sent another video.

“Trey here, leaving the little twin eating dust as always. And like always, I can’t tell what’s more badass, the view from my window or the sight the girls get when they check out my bod! What do you say, Micah, who’s used to seeing pretty much the same thing when you look in the mirror?” said the guy who in no way could be his twin brother, while grinning and showing off his muscular physique in front of his sunny apartment window. Totally lost, Michael sent a message to him.

“Tobias… Trey… I’m not doing any of this, this is insane!” he sent without realizing that autocorrect had changed his brother’s name.

“Dude, we’ve been doing this for years! It’s a Bradley tradition, what’s the problem now? You know how our das freak if we don’t join in. One of them is gonna call you if you don’t send it soon!” he replied. And Michael didn’t even have time to formulate a response to that new absurdity.

“Crap, video call from Dad 0.1,” he muttered to himself, refusing to pick up. But it seemed his phone had a mind of its own because the altered version of his dad popped up on his screen without permission.

“Micah, your dad is far away and wants a video from his boys. Trey just told me you don’t want to do it. What’s the harm in sending it? All your brothers already have, don’t be a buzzkill,” said the man with a serious and slightly disappointed expression.

“Dad, I… what the hell?” Michael started to respond, only to be cut off by the sudden entrance of a third person in the call. How was this possible? How was all this even real???

“Chill out, Jeff! I think Micah’s scared of looking like a weakling in front of his brothers.” It was the guy from the other video, grinning and crossing his arms while looking at Michael with a mischievous glint in his eye.

“What??? I… no… weakling!” For some reason, that challenge sparked something inside him, a primal urge to show what he was capable of, and even more, to show that man what he could do. He wanted… no, he needed to prove himself to that man. Show one of the most important people in his life that he wasn’t some weakling!

“You’re gonna see who the weakling is, Dad!” Micah shot back with a grin before sending his own video.

“Last of the Bradley boys here, you bunch of exhibitionists!” he said, shyly smiling. Unlike his brothers he didn't like to show off his physique without a greater purpose, he kept hitting the gym for the joy it always brought him, mainly because it was something that connected all the brothers and their two dads. The boys didn’t know who was whose dad, and to them that didn’t matter one bit. The Bradley boys were a united front; even though each had their own place, they all worked together at the gym their fathers had founded many years ago, even those who had other jobs like Griff or were still finishing school like Maverick. Even when it came time for college, they preferred to stick around instead of crossing the country, which was why Hunter and Chase still lived with their fathers. Their upbringing had been liberal, but there were still well-established boundaries of respect. Even though a much greater degree of freedom was present now that they were all adults, provocative acts had become more common, with the guys and their parents occasionally sending more explicit videos. In fact, the bond among them was so strong that whenever one of them was away for some reason, it had become family tradition to send those good morning videos.

“We’re looking forward to your return, Dad!” he said in the group, joined by his brothers and other father. They were answered by Buck, affectionately known by all as Dad 0.2.

“I’ll be back this weekend, boys, and I want the whole family together! But until then, at least we’ll have our little moments every morning. To wrap it up, here’s one last video from me for you to think of me as much as I think of you!” he said, winking and provocatively massaging his pecs.

“Come on, Dad! We don’t need this at this time of the morning,” was the response from his sons, even though they were all exactly the same kind of man as Buck Bradley.

[sonicenvy]

Let's have a chat about AO3

Hiya friends and loyal followers! My last post about AO3 blew up yesterday so I figured now would be a good time to continue the conversation about AO3.

As I mentioned in my previous post (and probably in multiple other previous posts):

AO3 is NOT a social media site. AO3 is an ARCHIVE.

So let's delve into that a bit more since people don't seem to be getting that. Fanfiction predates the internet, and was transmitted via the internet way before sites like AO3 and FF dot net. Relatively speaking, I am a fanfiction newcomer, as I first started reading fanfiction in ... 2011? or thereabouts. I say this to say that I obviously don't have as personal of a memory of a time before fanfiction archive sites (my bitty fan experiences were on teaspoon and lcfanfic), but I certainly know plenty of people via fandom online that absolutely do.

For the newest children to fanfiction please check out the following pieces of reading to get started on your fandom history education:

“Fanfiction.” Fanlore Wiki. Accessed June 15, 2023. https://fanlore.org/wiki/Fanfiction. Archived [https://archive.is/yJpOq].

“So I’m on AO3 and I See a Lot of People Who Put ‘I Do Not Own [Insert Fandom Here]’ before Their Story.” sonicenvy.tumblr.com, July 2, 2016. https://sonicenvy.tumblr.com/post/146818589611/mikkeneko-thepioden. Archived [https://archive.is/FRNCy]

ofhouseadama, Emily. “A Brief History of Fandom, for Those on Here Who Somehow Think Tumblr Invented Fandom.” sonicenvy.tumblr.com, May 21, 2014. https://sonicenvy.tumblr.com/post/131935827010/ofhouseadama-a-brief-history-of-fandom-for. Archived [http://archive.today/j2Rfq]

mizstorge, fantastic-nonsense, and fanculturesfancreativity. “The Places Fandom Dwells: A Cautionary Tale.” fantastic-nonsense.tumblr.com, June 29, 2017. https://fantastic-nonsense.tumblr.com/post/162395547190/the-places-fandom-dwells-a-cautionary-tale. Archived [https://archive.ph/QK2wI]

As you read through this stuff, three things should become apparent to you:

Fanworks have always existed in tenuous space -- that is, they have always been under threat of removal, or threat of loss, whether this loss was through events like the livejournal strikethrough, the loss of a fandom specific website, destruction of physical copies of the work, or C&D/legal action from original creators of the work.

Fandom has a long and colored history with many of the most defining events of early fandom history being related to threats to the community.

A need was ripe for a place to save and ARCHIVE fanworks and protect them from deletion, legal action, corporate sanitization efforts, site deaths due to the deaths of admins, etc etc.

Out of all of this, comes The Organization For Transformative Works (2007), and their brand new site Archive of Our Own (2008). The stated intention of Archive of Our Own (AO3) (bolding mine):

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization, established by fans in 2007, to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. We are proactive and innovative in protecting and defending our work from commercial exploitation and legal challenge. We preserve our fannish economy, values, and creative expression by protecting and nurturing our fellow fans, our work, our commentary, our history, and our identity while providing the broadest possible access to fannish activity for all fans. The Archive of Our Own offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanworks using open-source archiving software.

Source: Works, Organization for Transformative. “Archive of Our Own Beta.” Archive of Our Own. Accessed June 15, 2023. https://archiveofourown.org/about. Archived [http://archive.today/QYtbM]

You may also want to check out the original LiveJournal Brainstorming sessions for AO3 by astolat as archived here [https://web.archive.org/web/20220627134339/https://astolat.livejournal.com/150556.html] if you need further clarity on this point.

Some neat stuff from astolat's original posts that I find are relevant:

making it easy for people to download stories or even the entire archive for offline reading (thus widely preserving the work in case some disaster does take it down)

code-wise able to support a huge archive of possibly millions of stories.

allowing ANYTHING -- het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult ...

As we can see both from the mission statement of OTW/AO3 and from astolat herself in the brainstorming sessions, AO3 is an ARCHIVE. It is a project that is meant to preserve and provide access to fanworks. Run for fans, by fans and meant to host any and all kind of content with none of the commercialization or censorship that fans found elsewhere. Before AO3 there were certainly numerous, disconnected, fandom specific archives for fanfiction or other fanworks. Many of these old sites have been archived (see we're getting that word again) via the opendoors project. Some, like teaspoon or lcfanfic still exists and are semi-active.

A common thread is that writers and readers weren't just using the archive site to connect. They were doing more connection through other sites like dreamwidth, livejournal, facebook, their emails and later tumblr or twitter. Archive sites were meant as a supplement to other fan spaces like message boards, blogs and journals.

So, dear friends, you might ask, what is an archive?

An archive is a place where documents, artifacts and records are kept and preserved for future reference, use and access. Archives help us maintain a better understanding of the past and protect objects, writings, documents, records and more in longevity. In the context of fanwork archiving, this means preserving fanworks in longevity/perpetuity so that fans can continue to access them for enjoyment and for historical purposes. Archiving fanwork is vital to preserving and, indeed creating fan culture and identity.

To read more about archives in general, check out this article from the American History Museum of the Smithsonian (https://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/about/what-are-archives) or this one from the US National Archives (https://www.archives.gov/about/info/whats-an-archives.html).

So AO3 is an archive. Why does this matter?

Oh, boy, I am about to get LIS nerdy on y'all. At this point in the post we can all agree that AO3 is and always has been an archive (it's in the name...). When we view and understand the site starting from this premise, a lot of, frankly stupid as fuck arguments that people have about AO3 look even dumber. Understanding AO3 primarily as an archive helps us understand:

The tagging system. Given AO3 is an archive, the tags for content on the site function exactly the same as headings in a library archive. They are designed to store information about the fic (that is, they are intended as metadata) which is then used to find the record of the fic in the archive. This is why it is important to tag what is in your fic, and to use tags properly, using the agreed meanings of particular tags.

The kinds of content that are permitted and excluded under TOS IV. The archive permits fanworks, which include: fanfiction, fanart, podfic, and fan videos. The archive thus excludes things that are not fanwork (records with no content (aka "placeholder fics"), posts asking for writing prompts or submissions, posts looking for fic, commerical promotions of ANY kind, original fiction with no relation to fan content, spam etc). Every library and archive has their own collections policies, and AO3 is not an exception. Collections Policies are generally guided by the mission statement(s) of the archiving party/library. As we saw above in both the official about page and the original brainstorming posts from astolat, AO3 is a library for fanworks, meant to preserve fanworks and is in opposition to advertising and commercialization. Therefore, if the thing you want to add to the library of AO3 is not a fanwork or contains commercialization, it does not qualify to be an object of the archive. Re: the "placeholder fic" post that I didn't know was going to blow up so much: imagine you go to the library to get a book and open it to find that it is empty or you get a DVD and play it only to find that it is the movie theater trailer for the movie. Doesn't that make no sense?

Why there is NO censoring of "adult" or other quote on quote "objectionable content". The archive does not chose to preserve works based on subjective quality or "moral purity" type standards. This is true in libraries and museums as well. We keep and save materials that people find objectionable as archiving and librarianship are and have always been diametrically opposed to censorship. As an archive AO3 follows this. Moreover, you can see in astolat's original post "allowing ANYTHING -- het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult" as a founding idea.

Why there is no advertising, and why this includes you adding your Ko-fi or paypal or whatever the fuck. Outside of the fact that doing this violates TOS and invalidates OTW lawyer arguments for the legal existence of fanworks under US Fair Use, AO3 as an archive is meant to be a keeper of fan records, not a space for promotions. Archives do keep records (and indeed some archives keep records of advertising) but they, themselves are not using their platform to advertise for anything else.

Why there is no "AO3 algorithm". The kinds of algorithmic feed generators that sites like the t*kt*ok or whatever use are antithetical to the mission of archiving stuff and providing access to it. In an archive you search for content based on terms and headings and self-select. I'm not on the t*kt*k or whatever and I actively block and disable all "suggestion" type things so I don't entirely understand what y'all are looking with this.

Ok, that's great, why are you telling us all of this?

There is a concerning trend of newcomers both young and older to fandom and fanfiction that have not taken off the social media brain filter before coming on board. Some excellent tags I've seen on The Post™ that spawned this one include:

#guys quit bringing the worst elements of capitalism to AO3 (via @watchtowersystem)

#algorithms have rotted people's brains i swear (via @pearly--rose)

#omg stop trying to social mediaify ao3 (via @greyduckgreygoose)

There were also some bangers on my reddit post on this topic as well, but the reddit I posted it on is (rightfully) on blackout at the moment.

I think the sociamediafying of fanfiction that a lot of these people are bringing has a few major negatives:

social mediafied fandom views fanwork soley as consumable content, creating more passive, entitled participants in fandom. For fanwork=content social media brain folks, the fact that fanwork is meant to be an active and engaging thing is lost. Fanwork is a gift from one fan to other fans, it is a point for discussion, a result of people's passion and creativity. It is transformative, out of the box and part of building a niche community. When you start to see it as "content" like a random object on a feed you stop valuing it, analyzing it, and interacting with it in the same way, and are more likely to passively consume what you see as content. Social media has made "content" out of everything, and everything becomes something to scroll past in a few seconds, always looking for more stuff, the newest stuff, etc etc. It's obviously very tied to the experience of social media being used to sell you shit, but that's another conversation I think.

fanwork=content social media brain also allows some of these people to post incredibly demanding comments for "more content" on fancreators works or makes them think it's ok (and indeed creates the same result as what the writer is creating) to feed someone's incomplete fic into an ai to get a "completion".

fanwork=content social media brain also means that when these folks start creating content they feel entitled to views, hits, kudos, etc etc, and feel like it is ok to do things that they see as "gaming" the system to get their fics to be at the top of the pack. They begin to care too much about posting to get their "content" the most views because that's how things work on social media.

fanwork=content social media brain also makes some of these people think that "fic" that is "written" by an ai is acceptable fanwork, because they do not view fanwork as artwork/writing with merit, as much as an entertainment property to be consumed. How the meat gets made becomes irrelevant, because the end result is the only thing that is important.

social mediafying of fandom is something that has helped a lot of advertising and commercialization sneak its way into our spaces, which actively hurts our chances of building good communities.

social mediafying of fandom turns fanwork creation and fandom into popularity contests, which is bad for all fan spaces. The point is that we're being weird together. I've seen new, young authors post on reddit about how they feel so bad about their fic because it doesn't have 1000s of hits or because they feel incapable of writing things (even things they might want to explore) because "no one will read it, and it will not become popular". This makes me very sad.

social mediafying of fanwork also turns right around into .... wait ... you guessed it .... censorship! people are now practising self-censorship that is utterly unnecessary and completely sad to me because they are afraid of getting deleted from anywhere for "objectionable content". This carries over into new users on AO3 doing things like using leet speech for curse words, sexual content and more in the TAGS or the body of their AO3 fics. Stop Don't. You can say fuck, dead, kill, murder, cunt, cock, and whatever the fucking hell you want on AO3. That was the whole goddamn point.

These people are trying to bring fanwork=content social media brain to places like AO3. I'm not entirely sure why.

tldr; AO3 isn't a social media site for talking with your following or posting about ideas that you've had. It isn't a popularity contest. It isn't a place where there will be no inappropriate content. It isn't a place for advertising or commerical promotion. It is an ARCHIVE OF FANWORKS meant to be "allowing ANYTHING -- het, slash, RPF, chan, kink, highly adult."

Anyone of you fans older, wiser, more well versed in fan history, and more articulate than me, please feel free to add to this. Ditto on any of you other funky LIS friends out here on tumblr dot hell.

[mawofthemagnetar]

TFC’s Completely Normal Afternoon Where Nothing Goes Wrong And Nobody Dies Horribly

(shoutout to @lindentree for inspiring this silly fic!)

TFC sat in his little bachelor pad, coffee in hand, watching the steam rise out of his mug. 

It was a nice mug, all things considered. A gift from the other Hermits. A handmade blue thing, turned on a potter’s wheel, with an extra-large handle to give his old hands a break sometimes. Full of coffee from his ancient coffee machine, that gurgled and growled like a jackhammer being waterboarded.

TFC took a sip, and winced. Okay, so maybe it was time to leave the mine and get more coffee. He’d re-used the grounds for the fourth time, and now it was really starting to get properly bitter. 

He drummed his fingers on his glass-top table, listening to the echo against the cold stone walls of his little antechamber. Maybe he’d decorate the walls at some point soon. 

TFC shrugged, and opened his comm. Hopefully one of the other Hermits had some coffee beans. He wiped the stone dust off his screen, and held down the three buttons to switch it on. Yes, he kept his comm strapped to his arm like almost every other player with some semblance of sense. No, he refused to let the damn thing be awake for any longer than it needed to be. The Hermits were chatty folks, and when TFC was deep in his mines and deep in thought, the last thing he needed interrupting his musings was a million buzzing noises as Cleo and Jevin got into a slapfight in the general chat. 

TFC’s personal logo flashed across the screen (the three letters of his name in red, natch) and he took another slurp of his bitter coffee, wrinkling his nose. The comm beeped, and TFC opened the group chat and tapped out a quick message. 

<Tinfoilchef> anyone got any more coffee? I’m clean out. 

He put his comm down, and took another swig. 

And waited. 

And waited. 

And waited. 

TFC frowned. He was a patient man by nature. The same could not be said of the other Hermits, who were usually falling over themselves to help each other out. 

And he hadn’t gotten a reply yet. 

It had been a whole ninety seconds.

TFC scrolled up in chat, and he sighed, rubbing his face. He sank back in his chair in annoyance. 

Of course. 

He tabbed upwards, watching things spiral out of control… in reverse. 

<Renthedog was blanched to death> 

<Renthedog> THE PAIN! THE PAIN IS INDESCRIBABLE

<Vintagebeef was portaged to death> 

<Vintagebeef> RUN! THE BOATS! THE BOATS ARE COMING!

TFC rubbed his temples with his free hand, sighing in exasperation. ‘

“Guys, I dug up five stacks of diamonds, don’t make me do this…I don’t want to re-dig those tunnels…” TFC groaned. 

And of course the nonsense kept coming as he scrolled farther and farther back. Gee, that last message from Ren was about four hours ago, now...

<Iskall85 became part of the weft> 

<Iskall85> HELP GOD THE LOOM’S GROWN LEGS

“Does anyone on this server besides me even know HOW to weave?!” TFC growled, averting his gaze from his pile of unfinished weaving in the corner of the room. It didn’t exist. He couldn’t see it. His WIP’s couldn’t hurt him.

And on and on it went.

<Xisumavoid was hooked to death>

<Grian was torqued to death>

<Tango was unraveled to death> 

<Zombiecleo was racqueted to death>

“Right, I’ve seen enough.” TFC sighed, “On the bright side, at least I’ll have all the coffee I had a week ago, so there’s that…” 

He carefully tabbed through his various screens and menus until he arrived at the one bit of his comm that was set aside for admin functions. Now, TFC wasn’t a server admin. That much was true. But he had slight admin privileges, for one thing and one thing only: server rollbacks. 

While, say, Hypno would have had an extensive wall of options, showing his permissions and all sorts of bells and whistles, TFC’s admin console had a text box to input a date and a big red “GO” button. 

He looked mournfully at his ender chest, and, with a sigh, keyed in a date one week prior. 

And TFC jabbed his thumb on the big red button. 

The world flashed white, utterly blinding him, and a second later TFC was deep in the branch mine in a half-finished tunnel, the same spot he’d been exactly a week prior. 

Unfortunately, he was still in a comfortable sitting position, resting all his weight on a chair that suddenly wasn’t there, so he immediately toppled to the ground, landing on his ass in an undignified heap. 

“Ow.” TFC muttered, sitting up slowly and tapping through his messages. 

<Xisuma> oh, we rolled back. Is everyone alright!?

<Tango> Mumbo you are BANNED FROM TIME TRAVEL

<MumboJumbo> It wasn’t me this time! I mean it was. But blame Zedaph! 

<Zedaph> ME?! No! Blame Cub! Cub gave me the doodad! 

TFC rolled his eyes and typed out a message. 

<Tinfoilchef> Does anyone have any fresh coffee beans?

Silence. 

No messages. No new complaining. As all the hermits re-read TFC’s words and soaked them in. 

Finally, Cleo broke the silence. 

<Zombiecleo> TFC. How many times did you re-use your last filter of grounds. 

<TinfoilChef> eh, six? Seven?

<Zombiecleo> are you telling me we’d all still be in shuttlecock hell if you hadn’t gotten sick of the taste of reused coffee grinds?!

<TinfoilChef> Pretty much, yeah 

<TinfoilChef> anyway 

<TinfoilChef> does anyone have some fresh coffee? 

[bubble-popping]

for all i've talked and answered questions about my Into the Fire au, I've yet to actually post my writing for it XD that changes today!

this isn't quite the beginning of the au but it's the beginning of if i ever write a full fic on it (do not hold me to that lmao) so yeah!

tw for mentions of torture, scars, and c!Techno being Weird about c!Dream

The admin pulled away from him, stumbling through the snow in bare feet. (It'd be a miracle if he hadn't gotten frostbite by now.) The cloak and thin prison uniform were the only things shielding him from the freezing temperatures. "No, you don't understand. I have to-I hafta go, I need to meet them-" "Meet who?" Techno questioned, a little harsher than he intended. Dream startled. A slip of the tongue then. Techno narrowed his eyes, shoulders squared as he approached. The shorter instantly shrunk.

"Um." He swallowed thickly. "F-for my armor, I-I need my armor back. I need to get it."

Chat wasn't buying it and neither was he, but he'd let it go for the moment. "I can make you new armor, Dream. You're in no condition to be going anywhere but inside that house." The piglin hybrid pointed to the cabin behind them.

"B-but, they'll find me, Techno! This is the first place they'll look! Sam and the guards and-and Quackity, oh god, Quackity-he can't find me! I can't let him find me-"

Techno abruptly grabbed him by his arms, gazing intensely into the single wide, terrified eye he could see of Dream's. "And he won't. They won't find you. I'll protect you, Dream. No one will lay a finger on you."

After a long moment of studying Techno's face, visibly struggling through an inner turmoil, Dream finally relented with a resigned sigh. "Okay... I'll, I'll stay for a little while..."

Techno softened his expression. "Good. Here, let me carry you inside. You'll get frostbite with your bare feet in the snow like this." Dream surprisingly gave no protest, he merely nodded. So, Techno lifted his malnourished body into his arms and entered the cabin, rushing to get the shivering bundle of an admin next to the fire place. It'd be utterly embarrassing if Dream died of hypothermia after he worked so hard to get him out of the prison.

Dream's skin was ice cold when Techno set him down in front of the fire. Even with Techno's warm red cloak wrapped tightly around his form, he wasn't exactly equipped for any extended time in the bitter arctic air. Techno got another blanket to wrap around him and a pillow for him to hug before closing the front door. With no chance of any coldness seeping into the home, Techno was a little slower in his movements. He slipped off his armor, hung his crown up, and pulled his boots off his feet. His gaze traveled to the shivering figure huddled by the crackling flames. Even after causing quite a bit of chaos earlier, the voices still spewed their nonsensical ideas, most of them being things he could do to Dream.

For now, he ignored them, and padded over to sit next to Dream. The blond flinched away at first, still not used to a touch that wasn't meant to harm him even after Techno had held him like he did. Perhaps the enclosed space and familiar hues of the orange fire were bringing back bad memories...

"It's okay, Dream. You're not in the prison anymore. You're safe. There's no one here but me and you," Techno cooed to him as softly as he could, putting some emotion into his usually unfeeling tone of voice.

Dream remained hesitant at first, leaning away from Techno and further curling in on himself. Techno had his hands up in surrender and kept still to let Dream decide for himself. The last thing he needed was Dream constantly cowering away from him.

Eventually, Dream's tensed shoulders dropped and he scooted closer to nuzzle against Techno's side. He still winced when Techno wrapped an arm around his shoulders, but luckily relaxed much quicker. Techno waited a few moments to let Dream settle before he began to rub his arm in slow, soothing motions. The rhythm made Dream's eyes droop and he felt an exhaustion permeate within him so deeply it made his body sag like his bones were turned to liquid.

Before unconsciousness could claim him, he murmured, voice further muffled by his barely intact mask and the layers surrounding him, "Th-thank you..." It also didn't help his voice was hoarse from screaming for hours, for days on end.

"There's no need to thank me, Dream. Not yet anyway. Not until I get my hands on those guys and-" Techno stopped himself. Probably not the best idea to scare Dream by saying all the horrid things he'd do to Quackity and Sam for harming his trophy.

Dream didn't respond, but Techno could still hear his quiet breaths so he wasn't concerned.

Only once his shivering had stopped did Techno speak again with a suggestion, "I think it'd be a good idea to look at some of those injuries and clean you up before we go to bed. Are you okay to walk?"

"'m not sure..." Dream screwed his eyes shut as Techno helped him to his feet. Moving was suddenly so much harder after having a moment of true rest.

His legs were shaking and grunts of effort left his lips during the process of just standing up. The second he tried to take a step, he immediately collapsed into against Techno. Dream whimpered at his own helplessness, a mix of shame and agony haunting his heart, but Techno shushed him placatingly.

"It's okay, I've got you. Do you want me to just carry you again?" Techno had both arms securely around the other, feeling Dream's bony hands grip at the front of his ruffle blouse.

"Please..." Techno gladly obliged. He once again lifted him into a bridal style carry, holding him close as he ascended the staircase to the second floor.

Passing his bedroom, Techno went to the bathroom to sit Dream on a small wooden stool.

"Is it alright if I help you undress? It'd make it a lot easier."

(Just the thought of Dream naked, weak and unable to fight back as Techno did what he pleased had the piglin hybrid biting back a groan.) Dream nodded, completely oblivious to the hole he was digging for himself.

Techno removed the thick blanket and red cloak from Dream's shoulders, then proceeded with much more caution to get the horrendous eyesore of a uniform off. Dream was hunched over as he sat so he didn't get much of a look at anything special, but he was quite entranced by the sprinkling of hardly noticeable freckles over his skin. He'd seen them before when Dream would roll up his sleeves or the very rare occasions Techno had seen his face without the mask and they were much darker and more numerous then. Months without sun hurt his trophy in more ways than one. He liked those freckles--not so much that he'd immediately let Dream go outside just so they'd be more obvious but still.

"Probably best we clean you up first, then tend to your wounds," Techno said. Dream just nodded again. So obedient and with such little persuasion. It was doing wonderful and dangerous things to Techno's mind.

The pinkette lit a fire under a cauldron of water and waited for it to heat up a bit before filling a bucket with the warm water. "Ready?" He asked, giving Dream a moment to mentally prepare himself, and poured the water over Dream's head. His thin body tensed and shuddered as the water cascaded over him, discolored into shades of red and brown. His mane of hair absorbed most of the water. Techno just knew that'd be a pain to deal with, already dreading the maintenance to come. Maybe Dream would let him simply lop it all off...

He repeated this process a few more times, making sure he rinsed every part of Dream's body that the other would allow. Anything more would have to wait for when he wasn't covered in cuts and bruises. Then, he got some supplies from the cabinet by the door and kneeled in front of the drenched blond.

"Where does it hurt the worst?" Techno asked as he began soaking a cloth in a potion of regeneration.

Dream unfurled his arms from around his own torso and held them out, revealing multiple slashes across his flesh. The scent of blood entered Techno's nose and it took everything in him not to spill more from the shivering man in front of him the way Chat begged him to. He took a hold of one of Dream's hands and was about to apply the potion when Dream suddenly pulled away. "P-please... Please, be g-gentle..." His voice shook like he was on the verge of tears.

"Of course, Dream. You know I would never hurt you." He left 'unless you give me a reason to' unsaid. Dream offered his arm again, letting Techno take it once more and dab the cloth to each cut, healing both old and new wounds. Dream stayed mostly still and quiet during it, only wincing occasionally.

Once his arms were done, Dream straightened his posture for the first time to expose his chest. The skin there was just as bad, if not worse, than his arms. Lacerations, bruises of varying colors, and even burn marks. Techno restrained from commenting as the only words on his tongue were promises and plans of revenge. He wet the cloth again with more of the potion and healed what he could.

An hour later saw Dream dressed in new clothing that hung off his skinny body and his hair pulled into a ponytail to be dealt with later. Techno never really thought about it before, but he certainly was now: the contrast between their respective sizes. Being part piglin had Techno nearly a foot taller than Dream, and don't even get him started on the body mass difference exacerbated by the prison. Techno could easily wrap his hands around Dream's waist and practically have his fingers touch. He could pick him up and carry him around with such ease. It gave him too many ideas to count.

Techno helped Dream to the bed and the blond was awkward as he lowered onto the mattress. As if the whole thing was foreign to him, and it probably was. Months of sleeping on hard obsidian would do that to a person, make them uncomfortable on a clearly superior place to rest.

Dream struggled to find a good position to lay in, so Techno spoke up, "Would it be better if I laid with you? I won't if you don't want me to, but it might help to-"

"Yes, please," Dream answered before Techno had even finished. Techno chuckled softly and climbed in bed beside him, feeling Dream immediately cling to him. There was still the occasional shiver that left Dream's body but other than that, he was okay. He was clean, healed, and dressed in some of Techno's old clothes which Techno absolutely loved. Oh, how he couldn't wait for his trophy to be ready for him...

[fuck-customers]

I think my coworkers hate me and i dont know why they do.

I sent a message to the group chat (the one we have if anyone needs help) and they completely ignored me. I asked again and nothing. But another coworker asked the same question and got an immediate response. I went up to one of my coworkers and asked if they could help me with something else (since im being ignored in the group chat) and she turned away from me all huffy.

The only thing i can think of is that i normally dont talk about personal stuff at work like the rest of them do? I just like to be quiet and do my work and focus. I dont have time to talk about nonsense all day. Ive never ignored any of them before if they do want to talk (they never want to talk to me anyways) so idk what i did wrong and i feel really hurt by how theyre acting.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[f1hallmarkfest]

Formula 1 Hallmark Fest

Hello one and all! We are delighted to announce the Formula 1 Hallmark Fest, aiming to bring winter cheer and cheesy festive feel-good holiday fic to the masses.

What is Hallmark?

Every year, The Hallmark Channel has their annual Countdown to Christmas celebration. As you can imagine from the title, the movies center around Christmas/winter holiday themes. Hallmark Christmas movies are some of the cheesiest, most nostalgia-evoking films you can imagine. Many of them center around small towns and discovering (or rediscovering) the spirit of Christmas, spending time with family and friends, and finding love in the holiday season!

Hallmark Christmas movies are absurd in the best way, making them perfect for fanfic plots.

How to Join

Sign up via our form

Join our fest Discord

Join the AO3 collection

The Rules

For writers- Minimum word count: 4000 words (and the sky's the limit)

For artists- Minimum art requirements: Lined and colored

Theme: Your work must align with the theme of the fest, that being cheesy heartwarming festive goodness!

Other than that, there are no limits on what you can create! A short, fluffy feel-good fic oozing with tender holiday love? A novel-length fic with an intricate plot and epic highs and lows? A painting of your favorite guys kissing under the mistletoe? A comic centered on holiday misadventures? Your call!

Key Dates:

Important Dates

TBD: Sign-ups close July 15th: Check-in 1 October 15th: Check-in 2 November 25th DECEMBER 14th: Collection submission December 1st 17th!!!: Fic reveals start

Important Links:

Admin: Dees @leclercenjoyer Mods: River @river-ocean, Tracy @apeacebone, Samuel @gearshxft Discord Server: https://discord.gg/GmXyBx3AVC AO3 Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/F1_Hallmark_Fest Sign-up form: here Email: f1hallmarkfest@gmail.com

FAQ under the cut! 👇

1. Does it have to be AU? Not at all! F1 drivers' lives are already so god damn weird that it lends itself perfectly to the sort of over-the-top nonsense that makes a Hallmark movie truly special.

2. Does it have to be romantic? Absolutely not! Follow your heart <3

3. Does it have to be Christmas specifically? Nope! At their core, Hallmark movies are Christmas movies, but it's not essential. Any winter holiday, or even just winter in general, can fit the bill. (Or I guess summer, for the southern hemisphere?)

4. Can I do art for someone else's fic? Yes! Absolutely! We won't be pairing writers and artists (a la Big Bang) but you are more than welcome to find a writer to work with through our fest discord!

5. What happens if I have to drop out? Nothing! We understand that circumstances can change, and the deadline is long so unexpected situations may arise. If you sign up and find you can't participate, that's fine! Just drop the mods a line, no hard feelings.

6. Does my work have to be completed for me to submit it to the fest? Given the length of the deadline, we would ask that yes, your work should be finished before posting!

7. Do you accept late sign-ups? Sure!

8. Do I have to have an idea when I sign up? No! If the theme of the fest intrigues you but you can't think of what you want to write/draw right off the bat, you're still welcome to sign up! The discord server is the perfect place to workshop ideas with your fellow creatives, and we even have a random plot generator if you need a shot of inspiration.

9. Can I join the Discord server if I'm not participating in the fest? Yes, absolutely! If you just wanna come hang out, share in the vibes and the love and chat with folks, you are more than welcome to! And who knows, perhaps inspiration will strike you!

10. Why is the deadline so long? We decided to get started early to give people lots of time to work on their fics! This way, if people want to write proper longfic, there's plenty of time to get it done!

[mariacallous]

There was this horrible tankie who got banned from my anime friend group Discord for unrelated reasons (mostly that she chose to leave, then she started writing unhinged nonsense about various people in the group whom she'd decided personally destroyed her life because she was having a psychotic break, then three years later made a hate comic all about us including libel about a dead person and unflattering versions of all our usernames - it was a whole thing) and this was before she went full tankie, but when she was clearly on the road to it... But she created what's become kind of a legendary moment in that Discord's "politics" chat, where a discussion about if Tulsi Gabbard was or was not sincere in her "pacifism" turned into the proto-tankie acting like I had to personally "solve" the Syrian Civil War or she could NOT take me seriously.

Anyway that's what these unhinged Afghanistan anons you're getting are reminding me of, like if you can't personally solve the Taliban's takeover or decide what the Biden admin should have done or should do about it, you're somehow totally okay with misogynistic theocracy

I also never said that I was happy with or thought the Afghanistan withdrawal was handled well - in fact, I've commented at length (and shared many articles by people more knowledgeable and involved than I) about how I feel and how things went down. I simply do not choose to go over that again here and now with someone who is both in bad faith and being rather clumsy and incompetent about it.

[fearfam69691]

So this is my social media au for hockey

Nico hischier x Singer! Reader

Face claim: sabrina carpenter and photos are from pinterest

Genre: fluff

Warning: suggestive song lyrics and maybe some swear words

Enjoy !!!!

Its.Y/N

Its.Y/N

Liked by by nicohischier, yourbestie, 298,120 others

Its.Y/N new album out!

user1 can't wait to listen!

user3 this is getting added to my spotify list!

nicohischier 👀

User5 nico what are you doing here!

njdevils we can make the guys listen to the songs now!!

user9 not the devil's admin in the chat too!

Twitter

User2 did you all listen to the new song! Who could this be about??

User3 Y/N , do you care to explain the song nonsense and who it is about???

User10 did you see where nico was in the comments maybe it's about him.

user3 i mean i guess but you never know

Nicohischier

Liked by its.Y/N, jackhughes, and 89,000 others

nicohischier finally spending time with my girl

jackhughes get it cap!!

lukehughes who knew cap got game

user8 wait is that @Its.Y/N ?

User7 OMG!! Its got to be Y/N

Its.Y/N

Liked by nicohischier, jackhughes and 300,000 others

Its.Y/N thank you New Jersey for having me! Thank you to that special someone who came to hear the song Nonsense

nicohischier ❤️🖤

Jackhughes wait a second is this song about nico?!

User1 i knew it!!!

njdevils this is about cap!!!!

lukehughes i need to bleach my ears

nicohischier

liked by Its.Y/N, jackhughes, 300,889 others

nicohischier trust me im the opposite of soft 😉

Its.Y/N that you are baby plus you make my eyes roll😜😘

jackhughes dude.. come on

lukehughes CAPTAIN IS A FREAK!

user2 well, we know what nico likes to do

This is my first social AU sorry if it sucks!

[valpoupdates]

RESIDENT OF THE MONTH : JUNE 2024 .

Congratulations to our June 2024 Resident of the Month recipient, Saffron Barton ! Our resident style icon! More than just a passion for fashion, the love you poured into Secondhand Style is a display of your strength and determination to carve your own path. We in the Valpo Region are so honored you've chosen this place to call home. It takes a special kind of resilience to push through the challenges you had to face and start over anew, but you do it with such grace. We love watching your commitment to your own worth and aspirations, and are inspired by your determination to keep moving forward. A name after a beautiful flower couldn't be more fitting for our Saffron, and we're looking forward to watching you grow. ( @hntedhouse )

OOC NOTE:

HELLO SAMALAM! CAN YOU BELIEVE ITS BEEN NEARLY A YEAR OF YOU WRITING IN THIS GROUP? OVER A YEAR OF THE ADMINS GETTING TO WRITE WITH YOU? THAT'S SO CRAZY!!!!! We're so grateful to have you as a part of our family. You constantly bring us so much laughter with your confused but supportive interactions in chat, the many questions Drew has had over the past months, and Saffron's quick witted responses to nonsense. You're a very unserious person and writer (affectionate) and it makes writing and talking to you so much fun!!! We love how in tune you are with the plots happening on the dash and in the ic server, and your acknowledgement of others muses is something we see and appreciate as it's something we value heavily in this rp. You bring so much to this group and we're so happy you're still with us and we hope you stay for as long as we do. Valpohq wouldn't be Valpohq without you!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

[trussovasims]

There’s MORE.

~ Reposted from my server- Aestheticsims ~

The reclaiming nonsense is still going on, however now, creators are uploading our horses which we have “failed” to “provide updates” on to the GALLERY for everyone to use. This completely takes away from the “value” they claim their horses are worth, and the statement of them not wanting the horses to be “wasted files” and “not active”. Please see the screenshot below of a passive-aggressive instagram post from a major horse creator: “So if you want a horse that’s being used already be my guest Pookie”. Then they proceed to upload said horses to the gallery, make it make sense?

A lot of malice is occurring in the community currently and people seriously need to wind their necks in.

I also want to note that there have been reports of people reclaiming logos & branding, when there is nothing in the creator’s TOU that says they can do this. Everything is being done to obtain a reaction, and to upset people.

I’ve attached some evidence of what has been going on. If anyone would like any further clarification on anything, feel free to direct message me💖

People like this WILL NOT be allowed in Aestheticsims and if you have horses from the people causing all of this mither, just be weary that if you don’t post regular updates in TES or leave TES, your horse will be reclaimed and shared to the gallery. ALSO, if admins of TES don’t like you, you’re friends with someone they don’t like, you don’t agree with something, you challenge something they have done wrong or you leave the server: they will also repo your horses. I’d love to see how tabs are being kept on the horses that are uploaded to the gallery, cos there isn’t going to be any updates from the numerous people who download them.

The pettiness and nastiness is astounding and I am honestly ashamed to have ever been apart of TES.

If anyone ever needs a chat about anything my DMs are always open. I’m so so fed up rn, it needs to stop.

I don’t lose sleep over this matter however I am SICK of seeing my friends, and other lovely individuals being hurt, and upset over this reclaiming nonsense. I am speaking up for those who may not have the courage to do so right now, I’m protecting our people.

This time, names and accounts will not be covered. The more people that are aware of these nasty creators, the better.

[svtskneecaps]

listen in the grand scheme of things i'm glad i let myself get back into minecraft content for this. like i haven't touched a minecraft series since like 2014, on purpose, but i saw clips of qsmp in march 2023 and thought, screw it. maybe it's time. and i don't regret it yknow? i saw multilingual server and thought 'that looks AWESOME' and it certainly didn't disappoint. my only regret is that everything went crazy and people logged off RIGHT when everyone finally started relying on the live translations more, which was something i've been dreaming of for months lmfao. all in all, just happy to be here. this stuff gave me new reasons to use my blog.

hell if this is actually an end or even just a pause maybe i can FINALLY write my FUCKING TIME LOOP FIC JESUS FUCKING I'VE BEEN COOKING THAT STUPID FUCKING THING SINCE LIKE MAY LIKE I WAS ON THE FUCKING FIELD AT MY COLLEGE GRADUATION CEREMONY WAITING TO WALK THE STAGE AND GET MY DIPLOMA AND I WAS WRITING THE FIRST STUPID CHAPTER OF IT LIKE GENUINELY BUT I PUT IT ON HOLD BC THINGS KEPT HAPPENING AND I WAS LIKE I SHOULD UNDERSTAND THE BIG PICTURE SO I CAN ACTUALLY PLAY WITH IT PROPERLY BC THE MOST FUN I HAVE WITH TIME LOOP AUS COMES FROM KNOWING EVERYTHING AND MESSING WITH HOW SIMPLE ACTIONS CAN ALTER THE PROGRESSION OF EVENTS AND CHANGE CHARACTER CHOICES LOGICALLY BC THAT STUFF'S COOL BUT I DIDN'T KNOW LIKE THE MYSTERY OF THE FEDERATION OR WHATEVER AND I WANTED TO SEE WHERE THAT WAS GOING SO I COULD SEE WHETHER I WANTED TO TOSS IT OR ALTER IT OR KEEP IT AND SEE NOW I'LL KNOW YKNOW AND NOW I CAN JUSTIFY SHIT LIKE "OH HEY PURGATORY'S HAPPENING IN JUNE THIS TIME BC I WANT THE BREAKFAST TRIO TO EXIST FASTER AND FUCK YOU" WITHOUT IT FEELING TOO WEIRD AND ALSO STUFF LIKE CODE LORE AND ALL THIS OTHER NONSENSE LIKE DAMN WOULD BE PRETTY COOL I MEAN ONE SINGLE FUCKING INTERACTION BETWEEN SLIME AND MARIANA COULD SEND ME CAREENING DOWN A PATH PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT UNIMAGINABLE I COULD MAKE THIS FIC THAT'S BEEN SIMMERING SINCE LAST MAY A REALITY I COULD DO IT THIS COULD FIX ME. THIS COULD FIX ME

but yeah i'm glad i allowed myself to get invested in this server. i think y'all are cool, and i think the admins did amazing with everything they were given even though they shouldn't have been given it the way they were, and the ccs were cool and i'm glad everything happened yknow. maybe things will keep happening and maybe not but yknow what. i became All Powerful. i started watching as someone who knew english and some french and now i am someone who knows english (100%), slightly more french (like 70%), a workable understanding of spanish (like 40%) and a slightly less workable understanding of portuguese (like 20%) they added german to nerf me specifically. they knew i was getting too powerful. yeah, i spent some time as a kpoppie, i have a tiny miniscule understanding of korean (5%) german i have 0 experience with they added german to nerf me and then this happened to nerf me further. make no mistake they cannot stop me. i will become all powerful.

like cmon. if it ends here it was never all bad. i don't even have to use google translate to understand roier shittalking in the chat. i can just read it. i couldn't do that before :D and i can make my chilean friend keysmash bc she's not used to me knowing any spanish at all

we've grown strong over the year, haven't we? i hope we will continue to, no matter what :D

[thornofthelily]

Hi hello !!! I'm here for the prompts thing !! May I suggest: Lasko and Cowoker in a little library date ?? 👁👁

omg that sounds lovely!!! Sorry, the library ended up being not as big a player as I wanted, but I hope you enjoy!

Lasko is nervous. Of course he's nervous. Lasko being nervous is as immutable a fact as water being wet. Or wait, was water actually wet? 'Wetness' is a quality bestowed on other objects by their saturation with water, but can that property be fairly applied to the water itself? Is water, an entity made only of wetness, therefore actually "wet"? Oh, god, now he's overthinking it and he can already feel himself spiraling and he hasn't even left his office yet.

When he tells his date about this, in his usual stumbling, awkward manner, they'll listen patiently like they always do, smile growing wider and fonder in that way that always makes his heart twist with affection, which only makes him more bumbling and talkative until they eventually calm his nerves and reassure him with a jubilant serenity that yes, water is wet, and they would know because they're an expert in water and in wetness, in a voice that makes him blush.

It's not even a formal date, so he doesn't know why he's so nervous. In between their teaching schedule and Lasko juggling duty as a teacher-turned-admin-but-still-sometimes-teacher, they haven't had much time to go out for a real date. Besides, after the disaster that was the pizza date, he had nowhere to go but up. They manage to find a matching gap in their schedules just long enough to visit the DAMN library for a bit of coffee and a chat. Lasko cups both hands around his drink (cappuccino with sugar and caramel) as they sit across from him at one of the many study tables, nursing their chai latte.

"The - the coffee here is quite nice," he says, then mentally kicks himself over such a lame opener.

"Mmm-hmm," they hum in the affirmative. "For just a small coffee stand operated by a single employee in a school library, especially. She does good work."

Lasko drums on the sturdy paper cup with all ten fingers, already out of conversation topics. Fuck. "I, uh, I haven't been in here since I was c-cramming for my Full Certification."

An eyebrow quirks in surprise. "Really? You don't use the library much?"

"N-no, not r-really. I mean, I mainly used the co-copier when I started teaching full-time, but I only did that for-" Wait, no, shit, backtrack, backtrack, don't talk about how you got your new job, don't talk about the promotion, don't talk about the Inversion, that's literally the best way to make this the worst date you've ever had, shit, fuck, shut up shut up shut up - "I-I-I-I mean I u-u-used to use the - the library for... research and - and stuff but I-I mainly teach pretty... pretty simple classes like, well, y'know, DAMN 101 and Introductory Elemental Control and, well, I don't really need research on Air control because, you know, Air Elemental, but s-sometimes need a refresher for Earth Elemental command, or maybe Fire, you know, that kind of thing, and I've never been that good at the Energetics but those are really rare anyway -"

And there it is, that smile, warm and glowing and just a little amused, but not a hint of teasing as he frantically backpedals and works himself into a horrible fluster, but they sit, calm and beautiful and accepting of all his frenetic nonsense, and he crashes his runaway verbal train. "I'm sorr - I mean, shit, I'm, I didn't mean... oh my god, I don't know how you put up with me when I get like this, you're just sitting there so patiently while I'm just tripping all over myself like an idiot -"

They silenced him with a warm palm smoothing over the back of his hand. "Lasko. Hey. Look at me." He met their eyes, cool and clear and calm like a deep pond in a quiet forest. "It's not about putting up with anything. I like you. This - the way you talk, even the parts of you that you seem embarrassed by, your nerves, your feelings, your thoughts - I like all of it. I don't want you to worry about that with me. I love this energy, I love your passion."

Lasko releases the pent-up nerves with a long, slow, controlled exhale. "I... I know. I don't... I don't understand it," he adds with a chuckle, "But... you've made that clear. Thank you."

They grin. "What are you thanking me for, my affection?"

Lasko laughs. "I... I guess? It felt better than saying sorry."

"It is better than apologizing for nothing. You need to be gentler to yourself." Lasko swallows hard, then shifts his hand in theirs, and links their fingers together. Squeezes once. Then panics, yanks his hand back, and starts all over again - "Oh god, I'm sorry, I didn't ask, and we're in public and there's students here, I forgot, oh my god they can see us what am I doing -"

They would try to calm him down again, bring him back to center, but they couldn't stop laughing. He's so cute.

[jake-kiszkas-smirk]

Im feeling sappy today with the end of an era, so I thought I'd make this little post.

In august of 2021 I was scrolling through tiktok and saw a video using safari as the sound. I immediately went to find out what it was and quickly fell in love with the band. Two months later I saw them at ACL music festival and I never looked back. I started to watch interviews and fell in love with them even more once I saw what genuine and kind people they were. Thier love for music captivated me and made me feel emotions I hadn't felt in a long time. I'm not overexaggerating when I say they pulled me out of a very dark time of my life. And while I love the music with my whole heart, the real treasure they brought me has been the people I've met because of them and come to love.

From people whose content I love seeing on the dash, and who I occasionally have little chats with that always make me smile, like @joshsindigostreak, @shutupdevvie, @sinners-go-to-drink-the-wine, @gretasmokerising, @gretavanfleetposts, @earthlysorrows, @takenbythestarcatchers, @ascendingtostardust, @gold-mines-melting, @myfriendtheghost, @joshkiszkas-admin, @sparrowofthedawnsworldand @obetrolncocktails

To the people I have become even closer with, the ones who I'm messaging daily with my nonsense and silly little thoughts, that tolerate me and show me limitless kindness like @dannyandthekiszkas, @allieisacrybaby, @gretavanlace, @runwayblues, @sacredthefran.

And last but not least the person who has become one of my greatest friends that I'm positive I knew in a past life, @indigostreaking. I won't ramble on about you because I know you'd hate the attention and you already know how much I care, but I love and appreciated you more than words can express.

I know I probably missed a few of you, and please don't be upset if I did. If you have ever supported my work, shot me a message to check in, or just popped in my asks/inbox to say hi, then I am grateful for you!

Anywho, I'm just glad I've had the opportunity to know all of you and I'm so ready to experience this new era together. 🖤

[void-botanist]

hiii i come bearing a very silly wip question

for whichever wip you think would be the funniest to answer for... please tell me what a discord server with the characters would be like. is it a fun hangout with friends? is it a discourse-riddled nightmare? maybe both?

Multi!! I was going to talk about the androids from TFA because they already organize their chats in a serveresque format but a Nicea server would be so much funnier. Cady started the server but got bored of making admin decisions so he added Rodney. Rodney was like "uh…great but I don't know either" and Gil was like "nonono I got you" and got Rodney all up to speed and now they are Discord admin spouses as they were meant to be (again. mlm/wlw solidarity). Of course the whole crew of the Nicea is on there, plus Bo, Celia, and Martin, and eventually Tatya. They all have their own circles within the server. And oops this was so delightful to me it got long so

Cady: has had Nitro from the beginning, which he uses to post gigantic ascii pictures that he creates, and is always the first person to try whatever new feature. He loves soundboards so much. He's also usually the person hosting Jackbox or otherwise streaming something (playing some horror game and screaming every time he gets jumpscared, or being way too serious about a flash game that he's way too good at).

Declan: has almost every channel muted because he can't stand the endless notifications. Cady made him a channel for his special interests, #declans-amphitheatre, which he had every intention of using for five minutes and then forgetting about it (for real or on purpose), but it's actually become a space that most of the server members pay attention to. He also shows up to the politics channel when summoned because there are some things that he keeps tabs on and knows Everything about.

Rodney: has never muted any of the channels and just deals with the onslaught of information. He wants to Know. He has his own black heart emoji that is optimized for both dark and light mode, and he reacts to everything with it. He keeps second guessing the organization of the server and is usually the one revoking privileges that Cady gave to someone then forgot about. But his favorite thing to do is post goofy things he encounters in his historical research, followed by talking at length about action movie choreography and watching Cady play (non-screaming) games.

Gil: constantly sends messages with no context because she's so deep in thinking about it that she forgot no one else knows what she's talking about. It's usually drama from the school where she teaches or home improvement plans. She and Rodney had an admin channel but it's barely about admin stuff at this point - they're just talking about politics and philosophy. On the public channels she is the reaction meme queen and also tied with Tristan as the most likely to ask everyone to show up to an event/rally for something.

Tristan: mostly posts her landscape photography and videos of her and Gil ballroom dancing. She hangs out in the voice channels a lot because she likes doing things while other people talk to her. Since the two people most likely to be in the voice chat are Cady and Bo, she also gets to hear a lot of chaos and nonsense that is extremely funny to her. She has tried to explain it to Gil and failed so many times that now she just shrugs and says "friendship?"

Isabel: most likely to send goofy selfies to the chat, half of which are just her poking fun at whichever server member she's hanging out with (they're in the background doing something else). She also posts her song recordings, which are 90% serious samples of her work and 10% meme songs that she also wrote, and you can't always tell which is which without clicking. She agonized over adding Tatya to the server because she didn't want it to devolve into strange flirtational chaos but she immediately begged Cady not to add his nephews (Neb & Oran) to the server because their love language is being fucking annoying.

Spinder: the emoji polls guy. Usually it's about something he's working on, like an embroidery piece, but it's also sometimes about whether he should get involved with whatever the tailors are up to or an extremely meme question (you know, the kind where you answer "vanilla extract") or sometimes something important and serious like when they're going to play Jackbox. He knows the name of almost every emoji and emote offhand but he does not use :rod: (Rodney's heart).

Bo: treated the server as a personal foodstagram to the point that they got their own channel, #restaurant-recommendations. He rarely messages on the server but is always emoji-reacting to random things and spends an inexplicable amount of time in the voice channels with Tristan.

Tatya: is honestly just so excited to see everyone else being excited. She's the other person most likely to message #restaurant-recommendations with suggestions for places and snacks out in her locality, which no one is in any hurry to go all the way back to. Despite her FTL connection her messages are most often a little bit slow and sometimes jump out of order. She asks lots of questions about the server like "why aren't Neb and Oran allowed here? also who are Neb and Oran?" and posts pictures of cool things she sees in the desert where she lives. Currently there is a debate going on among the triumvirate of admins whether she should get her own channel, #tatyas-travelogue. Or something like that. They can workshop it.

Celia: the server's hypemaster. Most likely to say "okay I'm catching up on all this and what the fuck????" in the main and drama channels, and has genuinely become enamored with #declans-amphitheatre and has learned an enormous amount of interesting things about pens by talking to Declan there. She always reacts with a relevant emoji and always votes the most YES option in every poll about whether Spinder should get involved in tailor schemes. She also loves Isabel's meme songs and Tatya's weird space snacks and thinks Cady is the only person she has ever encountered who is More than she is.

Martin: is never online except when summoned for Jackbox or when Cady begs him to post a picture of his pottery, but you will take his membership in this server out of his cold dead hands. He has had to swear not to also add his sons (Neb and Oran).

Nicea taglist: @kahvilahuhut @kk7-rbs @outpost51 @writernopal @athenswrites

[hoghtastic]

What was actually agreed upon why he canceled the fan convention? He's just now flying to New York and seemed to have a lot of free time in Copenhagen. He did a small thing for Isaac Productions but that didn’t seem too time consuming either.

I'm curious whether Johanne will fly to him and whether he will stay there until his birthday. The script doesn't look particularly thick, I don't mean that in a shady way, it just appears that way. For me, Alex has an extreme problem with being alone and since Johanne is obsessive and loves the new opportunities and attention from him anyway, I can hardly imagine them staying apart for longer than two weeks or that Johanne would waste the opportunity to post New York Instagram content and make new connections. I would like to thank our admin for all the work she’s doing. I mean every single day you’re replying and reacting to asks, that’s actually work and it’s not like Alex deserves promotion anymore. It truly feels like you’re doing this for „us“.

Everything we discuss here doesn't matter anyway. It's really like a round of girls shit chat. Alex does what he wants anyway and that's what he should do. Johanne is a psychopath who gets what she wants anyway and sometimes it helps to endure this misery if you can laugh at this nonsense.

Alex communicated to us over many years that he had a certain mentality that we identified with. That's why we remained loyal supporters of him, it wasn't just his appearance. To the fans who say you have to separate him from his girlfriend and that it should only be about him, I have to say that doesn't work. Because Johanne symbolizes exactly the mentality that some of us may see as the exact opposite of what he communicated to us for many years. In addition, the couple-content is overwhelming anyway. She has completely taken over him. So you can no longer support him without having to support them too and it’s not like we had any acting we could enjoy of him.

I see this blog like an outlet to point out their bullshit because no one else is doing it. I also can't imagine that many of us will stay if he proposes to her or she gets pregnant, because then Johanne will feel so safe that Alex won’t leave her that she will market every aspect of their private life in an influencer way on Instagram and I don't want to see that, I'm not into that same old whole influencer "my past ist sad but my world is so perfect now" crap. And now let me show you these earrings. Tag tag tag.

Hello, dear anon! 😊 Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts on these matters! In my opinion, you made a lot of valid points and explained the current state of the fandom perfectly!

As for your initial questions, nothing was ever confirmed, but it surely seemed like he cancelled the convention to spend time with Johanne — considering she also cancelled her show for the same day and her understudy took her place, and they later posted about having a date night. Even if the events were unrelated, their timing to post about such date on social media surely didn't do them any favors. 😅Regarding Johanne joining him in NY and staying with him until his birthday, I think it's unlikely, because she'll be busy with Askepot until June 9th, and the most free days she will get between shows are 3 days. But who knows? Maybe she'll visit him on one of these occasions? 🤷‍♀️ We shall wait and see. 😊

Last but not least, thank you so much for your kind words!!! 🥰 And for understanding what this blog is truly about — a place for "girls talk", uncensored and fun. It wouldn't be what it is without all your thoughts, opinions & jokes, so it has been my pleasure to be here with all of you! 💖