#plus the original caption from when i posted it

[wahooworld-doublehelix]

What? No, that's dumb! How would bunnies even play ink sports?

[dunmeshistash]

Okay I think I'm ready to write the second part of this post about Milsiril

To make it easier for me I'll just divide this into her relationship with Kabru, Mithrun and Helki (her ex-canary prisoner teammate)

First about Kabru

This is an extra from the daydream hour 5. The caption says "Something like this might as well have happened" so its probably not canon but could be. I honestly think his reaction to Milsiril visiting and being overbearing says a lot about the type of relantionship they have. This is the fakest bitch in the whole of dungeon meshi, he never says what he trully thinks unless there's an advantage to doing so, he's a people pleaser that does and says anything to make people like/trust him. And yet he immediatly converts into "Mooooooom you're embarassing meeeeee" when he sees it's Milsiril.

This translation used "Mom" but as I understand the original he uses the more formal version so I think it would be closer to "Mother" but still he acknowleges her as his Mother, and he acts like her kid in every interaction we see between them.

I really don't understand where the idea that he learned to be fake from being "forced" to be her adoptive son comes from.

(Continuing under a cut)

The other interaction we see between them is the Kabru extra from the Adventurer's Bible

Kabru comes to her with a deep fear he clearly has had even before she adopted him, he trusted her with this fear and she did not disappoint him, she comforted him and then gave him the information he needed to believe what she was saying

I'd also like to point out in no moment she discouraged him from calling his his bio-mom "Mom". He also says she taught her children everything they asked

I doubt this would only be true for him, it also mirrors something she said in the manga

"You can go ahead and learn all you want about something else." I believe it when Kabru says she made every effort to answer her children's questions. I think this is also the way she expresses the love she has for them. Plus I love the thought bubble with Kabru mirroring what he learned from her. I also love this daydream hour, she sacrifices her own comfort to do something for Kabru.

Milsiril isn't a perfect mother tho, besides the fact she is overprotective she comes from a very different culture from her children. I like to call her Kabru's white mom cause I think that would be the real world equivalent. This extra is the one I think the most about showing this context perfectly

Kabru wants to share Utaya sweets but looks at his mom looking gloomy/rejected so he talks about fruitcake instead. This very rude for Milsiril to do since she's kinda trying to overwrite his actual cultural background, but I think its done more as a "I want you to like the things I like" rather than something nefarious, and once again Kabru doesn't hide at all his distaste for it, he does the bare minimum to please his mom since she's being dramatic but he doesn't lie to her, he shows how displeased he is about fruitcake, something he refuses to do when eating the harpy omelette that is way worse, because he must make a good impression for Laios. Kabru is honest with his overbearing white mom once again.

Now a little about Rin, from Kabru's context, this is her extra in the Adventurer's Bible

(look at Helki he's such a gremlin i love him) anyway, Rin has a trauma about elves, they really mistreated her so she hates them, but when they notice she isn't thriving they go to Milsiril for help (Helki specifically I'll talk more about him next). I think this indicates she really has a better understanding of short lived kids, her kids are thriving differently from the ones the other elves try to care for. I'd also like to remember she lives secluded from other elves so while Kabru probably had lots of interactions with elves during his life, most of it was probably spent with Milsiril and her other adoptive kids. She also asks Kabru if he would do this to help Rin, he isn't being forced or anything, I also think it's good that Milsiril knows she cant take in any more kids, this to me shows she's worried about the quality of life her kids have. That is all to say, Rin is the one with elf trauma, not Kabru, because Kabru had Milsiril to shelter him from them.

Helki

This will be short and sweet since there's barely anything about Helki, he's her prisioner companion from her time in the canaries, but he was pardoned after Utaya, it says so in the Canarie's Structure page in the new adventurer's guide but I cant really find it translated again... so here's google's machine translation (I remember it saying "Retired and pardoned as a reward after Utaya", something like that)

so officially he isn't a prisoner anymore, but I think he still works as a canary, even so he and Milsiril seem quite close, he is the one to go talk to her about Rin, He is there when she's training Kabru (both laughing at Kabru and then participating). I saw people theorizing she stays close to him because he is also someone who she can feel superior to, but I don't believe it at all, he's STILL in contact with her even after they have nothing to with each other, I think they really have a friendship, and there's no point where it seems like she feels like she's better than him or that he's less than her, people seem to interpret Milsiril and her relationships in the worst possible ways every time and I don't understand why.

This segways into Mithrun

I've also seen people assuming she only got close to Mithrun because now he needs her and has no power over her, once again with the theory that Milsiril surrounds herself with people she can feel superior to. But once again, Milsiril had a change of perspective about Mithrun after seeing his Dungeon

Rather than she feeling superior to him I think rather she realized he was just like her. (And I think she's friends with Helki for a similar reason, it's probably easier to see him as an equal than other nobles)

I've also seen this part used as proof of that. "He said that you've got suspicious ulterior motives and that I shouldn't listen to you" as if that's true, but this is past Mithrun, the one that didn't trust anyone and thought ill of all his teammates, ofc he doesn't believe someone would help him without an ulterior motive. This doesn't prove much about her real motivations.

Also before she showed up, Mithrun was being cared for by servants hired by his brother, he isn't someone helpless she has power over, he is still a member of an important Noble family that has a caring brother providing for him, he can do without Milsiril, he had done without her for 20 years before Utaya happened and she quit the Canaries.

This is all to say I think Milsiril is just a white(elf) adoptive mom doing her best, I don't see much of anything nefarious about her or her motivations, she is flawed as all the dunmeshi characters are, she isn't a perfect mom, she isn't an evil mom, she's just a person.

Elves in general also see short lived species as "children" so I imagine this makes her "You'll always be my baby" attitude way worse, she really treats pre-teen/teen Kabru like he's a toddler sometimes. But she also respected him enough to go all out in training him. I think they're a family with everything that entails.

PS: I didn't get much into Interracial adoption since this is something that happens irl too and I don't know much about all the issues that entails, but in the end, in this case, it seems like a net positive for the kids she adopts considering all we see about how she raised Kabru.

[jamielovesmychem]

My big mcr5 conspiracy thread guys

All composed from what I spammed my friends with

So mcr just announced a North American tour, however some people suspect that they might be going to release another album. I also believe this due to the odd cryptic nature of the things they’ve been posting, even after the tour was announced.

For example, this picture of a dog captioned “good boy”, which was posted well after the tour was announced (16 hours ago)

There is also a new private/unlisted video on their YouTube channel which hasn’t gone public yet, just like the announcement. Unlisted videos show on the number of videos available on a channel. This just went up. It had gone up by 1 for a while before the announcement went public even when it was unlisted. (I learned this from someone in the mcr tumblr community but my screenshot doesn’t contain the account name and I can’t find it, if this is you please tell me and I’ll credit you)

On the topic of the announcement, it contained a lot of recurring characters from Gerard’s 2022 tour outfits. It is said on the promotion not that my chemical romance will be performing the black parade, but that the black parade themselves will perform. The concept of the album is that death comes for you in the form of your strongest memory, which in the patients case was a parade that was most likely ww1 propaganda, and the gap between the black parade and right now is close to the gap between ww1 and ww2. This has lead some people to believe that the band will be performing a new album set near ww2 as the black parade. The trailer shows a ww2-esque scene which would back this up.

Plus, at the end of the video there is paper falling from the sky in front of a kingdom, which might allude to The Paper Kingdom, the original, scrapped 5th my chemical romance album.

This is also slightly backed up by the odd typography used throughout the promotional of the tour, like in this post captioned “if you could be anything, what would you be?

This typography has been shown to spell out K, T and P in another script, rotated (Russian I think??) which is TPK backwards, or the paper kingdom (MCR5!!!!)

And it is not abnormal for them to spell things backwards, they’ve done that before so it’s not completely conspiracy level, like how they wrote my chemical romance backwards in the corner of the foundations of decay (their most recent single and the only thing they’ve released since the reunion).

Plus, the typography doesn’t really look like it spells mcr, suggesting they are alluding to something else.

Under an hour ago, they posted this with the caption containing “long live”.

Some people think that the new album could be performed by the characters of the black parade and called long live. If this is true then the band could even be performing as these 4 characters depicted below (like in danger days!!). However, this could just be tour promotion.

Promoting an album also takes about 2-3 months and the tour lasts about 3 months (the perfect amount of time to promote an album in!) and contains ten shows. I have seen people saying that they could even tease a track per show!!

This is all speculation obviously, however I don’t believe mcr would have a reunion just to drop one song and go on a couple of tours. I think they will drop more new music sometime soon and I’m sooooo excited!!

[muffinrecord]

Current Plans + Musings

I don't plan on playing Exedra to the degree I did for Magia Record, or playing it at all. Because of that, I won't be taking an active role in the community and archiving anything for it. Of course, if Exedra has like amazing gameplay and stories then this is all subject to change, but for now I think I'm done with phone games.

The two youtube channels will stay up and I'll check em periodically to make sure there aren't copyright strikes against the content. I've saved all my raw files, especially for the battle animations, so I can remake them in the future if the music ever becomes a problem for some reason.

Google Drive will stay up until Google rots away. I haven't recorded footage in a long time (as in stories, I do for the character doppels and such), but I'll upload things if they're sent to me.

Magia Union Translations still plans on translating things and making videos, especially leading up to the end, but also for after the game is over for whatever wasn't made in time. I'm not sure what form this will take in the future-- if it'll be manual captions added to the videos or not, but I know it WILL happen.

As for this blog, I'm not going to delete it or anything. However I'm going to be taking a step back. I'd like to say that I'll do liveblogs but I mean... *gestures at blog* I've been saying that for years and the only one I really did successfully was the Oriko one lmao. Ahhh oh well.

I'll have more words later, but it was really fun to be part of a fandom experience like this. I'm excited to work on my own original story projects though and quiet down a bit.

...

When I started this blog, I never expected it to have people actually read it. Or look at it. I just wanted a place to gush about how much fun I was having. I didn't even want to tag the posts with "Magia Record" at first because I was terrified people would be mean at me, haha.

But I'm glad I did. I made so many good friends through this game. I'm glad it existed. And it made me happy to have a place where people cared about what I had to say. Some folks actually got their news from here, can you imagine that? They had notifications turned on for this blog. My god.

Anyways, I'm going to be here for the next two months, and tomorrow I'll start reblogging fan projects and initiatives, plus general news. Maybe this blog will turn into a dumping site for art and fanfic reblogs, who knows. I might watch the remaining stuff and add various thoughts here and there.

Otherwise, you can find me on my main blog @malignmuffin, which only reblogs stuff (I don't talk much if at all there). I have another tumblr blog for my comic, but I think I'll reshare the name once I actually have content you can look at on it. It's pretty bare bones for the moment.

Actually it'll be funny if the end of this game is what makes me finally work on it again. I was in the process of working on it when NA came out, and it totally derailed me. Stopped writing, drawing, just focused on this silly little phone game. Now it's like those five years have gone by and I'm going back to where I started, except I think my lil comic is going to be a bit better than it was before. If I actually make it, that is.

If I ever do actually make my comic and start posting it, I'll be sure to update y'all here. hah

Anyways, thanks for being on this wild ride with me. The memories have been great, and I'm glad I had this experience, even if it had to end.

[can-i-make-image-descriptions]

Image Descriptions and Accessibility in General on Tumblr for New Users

What are Image Descriptions

Image Descriptions are text following a picture explaining what’s in that picture. They are primarily for blind/visually impaired people with screen readers and visually impaired people who can read text but have issues with pictures.

They also help people who have trouble:

focusing on/understanding a picture

reading text on images (ex low contrast, weird fonts, etc)

getting images to load

Without image descriptions posts are not accessible to many people, so if you can it's best to include a description or alt text every time you post an image.

Alt text vs image descriptions

Image descriptions are written in the body of the post itself, and have some kind of text before and after, to explain that what's coming up. They typically begin short and concise, but can expand to more detail.

Alt text is added to the image itself, and is what is read by screen-readers (which will otherwise just say "image"). There is no need to add any explanation before the description so you can just say "a description of the image". Alt text can only be added by the original poster, by clicking on the three dots in the bottom right corner of the image and clicking 'update image description.' It is typically short and concise.

On tumblr, alt text is currently available on web by clicking on the alt button (or via new xkit - accesskit - move alt text to captions below image). On mobile, alt text is available in some versions of the app through clicking on the alt text button. Image descriptions are visible on all posts, although if you put them under a read-more, that makes them less accessible. (Thanks to @911described for helping with this section)

How to Make Image Descriptions

Awhile ago I made this general guide. I learned from examples, so here are descriptions made by a bunch of different people. I've also made templates for a lot of common images you'll see on Tumblr.

Other Concerns

Gradient or all caps text make most screen readers read out the word one letter at a time. In addition, these plus text that is bold/italicized/underlined, in colors other than black, or in weird/fancy fonts are difficult for many people to read.

How Filtering Works

You can filter out both words/phrases and tags in the filtering section under the general section in the settings. When filtering out words from a post, it will look at both the text of the post/reblog chain and at the url of op and the rebloggers. When filtering out tags it will look at the tags of the specific post on your dash, and at the tags of the original post.

Tagging for Common Triggers

Don't sensor trigger warnings (for example don't tag suic!de) because then people who have them filtered will still see it.

Tagging for Flashing Lights

If you post a gif or video in a post that flashes, you should tag it with something like "flashing lights" and Not "tw epilepsy" because if any of the tags in the original post contains the world epilepsy it will show up in the epilepsy tag, which is dangerous. Check out this post from @photosensitive-despair for more info about tagging photosensitive content.

Tagging for Unreality vs Misinfo

Things that could trigger delusions/psychotic episodes/etc should be tagged with unreality. This includes:

content that has existential themes related to reality/things not existing (example: a philosophy such as solipsism, do not look up the term if unreality stuff is triggering for you)

extremely surreal content(example: sometimes content such as weirdcore/dreamcore aesthetics can fall under this umbrella but again this is very subjective)

content that reinforces or encourages common delusions(example: that one "im living in your walls" meme)

Things like rp blogs and fake/edited tweets should not be tagged with unreality, unless they contain triggering content. Consider tags like "fiction" or "misinfo." See this post for more info.

Edit:

Addition from @mindflamer

You can look through the reblogs of a post to see if someone's already written a description. There is a button to see just comments vs. comments + tags which makes it easier. Scroll through looking for brackets [], ID, or Image Description. This is great to do if you can't write your own IDs for whatever reason, so that you can at least spread the version of the post that's described if there is one.

If you're not able to write IDs consistently, some is better than none. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You can use the tag #undescribed to make it easy for those who need them to filter out those posts. Similarly, if you primarily tag triggers but can't for certain posts, you can use a separate tag on that to be filtered such as #untagged.

Please, if I forgot something, sound off in the notes and I'll update this post with it

[none-shall-caricature-me]

Kuras's Atonement + His Past with the Senobium - A Theory

So the latest Kuras character lore came out, which hints at Kuras or one of his fellow angels being the 'otherworldly teacher' who taught humans stuff like writing, art, WAR, etc. Inventions that can be used for good, bad or in between. Hence there are differing views of this entity - as benevolent or a harbinger of ruin.

Moreover, the caption states (it's highly plausible that Kuras says it) - “Hope. A strange concept, after so long seeing myself as the agent of ruin.”

This, plus an earlier stats post that puts his empathy at 2 / 5 lead me to the folllowing conclusion -

We know that Kuras is atoning for a past blunder by entering the human world and setting up his charitable interventions. That catastrophe was probably the event of him introducing all these new concepts to humans WHILE lacking the lived human experience to truly foresee, understand and empathise with the consequences. For example, war happens for resource access, profiteering, ideology, punitive 'destroy those sinners' rage etc. Perhaps Kuras introduced war hoping to elevate the humans he considered righteous or wiser over those he thought evil, lesser or dangerous, but this judgemental aloofness meant he overlooked the reasons WHY people do evil, overlooked moral greyness. And then this spiralled out of control because he failed to grasp and predict humanity's vices.

It's like how less intelligent animals commit atrocities ultimately for survival and genetic lineage, but more intelligent animals like dolphins, otters and above all, humans will commit atrocities and shape exploitative systems for non - strictly essential reasons.

But why didn't he correct his mistake ? Maybe he lost hope for humanity out of disgust and left them to their sordid devices. But that fixed nothing and only led to more suffering. Or maybe his specific kind of inhuman purity (and I mean 'pure' in a very NEUTRAL sense) prevented him from understanding humans enough to do anything about it all. And then he went into exile in the mortal world to finally try to decode and dialogue with humanity through with an open mind instead of an untouchable omniscience.

Perhaps that's why he hates the Senobium. They seem to pursue knowledge and innovation for all kinds of reasons at ANY cost, treating living creatures as a lab simulation. Earlier he had good relations with them, back when he stuck to his original path. But now it's just a reminder of his biggest sin.

Possibly a stretch, but what if he had a hand in the Senobium's initial establishment + growth ?

REFS FROM RED SPRING STUDIO'S TWIITER -

[notesmadefromthedark]

A Slow Motion Love Film [Part One]

Pairing: Yuki Tsunoda x Original Character Tags: Childhood best friends turned lovers turned strangers turned lovers, second chance romance, mutual pinning

Summary: A timeline of Isabella’s and Yuki’s friendship is shown. From being friends to being strangers [through the priv account of isabella]

Notes: 1. All photos are from Pinterest! And a Reminder this is a fictional story 2. Isabella's face claim: sevaral idos/models

Nex Chapter: Two

onebellionmangoes posted the following...

Caption: "Yuki and You have been glued to the hip since day 1. Isabella and Yuki are partners in crime. Yuki and Isabella are each other's biggest supporters" - Mother Dearest the Mother of House Wang, 2002 caption. Also tagging: kazutokotaka_0417 and marino_sato

Caption: The summer of 2004 captured in 4 photos - Taken by Nobuaki Tsunoda 📸

Caption: 2006 was a year of many first moments! First day of school. First Piano and Dance practice. And lastly first karting session! - 📸Photos by Father WanWan and Papa Tsunoda ✨

Caption: In the year of 2008. I had my first dance recital and piano recital! While Yuki had his first karting race! Snow Owl got 1st place! So, proud of snow owl! Plus my first singing practice! - Photos by the best parentals in the world!

Caption: 2012 was School in the morning and then Performing Art School/Racing School in the afternoon. And lastly at the end of the day is a meal with Yuki...imissyousomuchmysnowowl

Caption: 2015 is a busy year for me and snow owl. Auditions and Podiums on the weekends. Shared meals at the end of every day. Thank You toshiki_oyu for the podium photo! And Thank You Snow Owl for the photo during audition! Ramen on a sunday afternoon after lots of activities ✨

Caption: Moving to South Korea while carrying part of his heart in the year of our lord 2016. My favorite love letter confession from snow owl is "Honestly, you are my favorite part of summer, and I hope we can always spend our summers together, even when we are thousands of miles apart."

Caption (Year 2016): I did a few love confession doodles while on the plane to South Korea! Wrote few love confession lines

"And all my walls stood tall, painted blue And I'll take 'em down, take 'em down And open up the door for you And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies"

Caption (Year 2016): Yuki got podiums! We celebrated in his fave restaurant though he wished you were here with us. Call us when you settle down at the dorms! Yuki says congrats on being an idol trainee! - Papa

[pwippy]

the monkey king havoc in heaven is literally so iconic i dont get why people discuss it more 😭 over the past few years i've noticed an influx of media retelling/remixing chinese myths

(a few familiar examples: lego monkie kid (2020) over the moon (2020) and the adaptation of the graphic novel 'american born chinese' into a show on disney plus (2023)) (more obscure(??) example: ne zha (2019). im sorry i cannot get behind the design they look like the kid from the robinsons but i digress!)

but honestly if you enjoy chinese mythology and specifically the monkey king pissing off the entirety of heaven this movies great. unlike disney's adaptation of folktales, i think chinese mythology created a lot of crossovers(??) so this movie is literally a huge crossover of major figures in myths. its a delight. and even if you dont know that much about mythology this movie is really entertaining in general!! (also it was made in the 1960s so if youre into the yellow submarine or classic disney films it has the same vibe) it's mainly based off of journey to the west and the animation style is reminiscent of peking opera.

characters + character design? especially the antagonists (at least for this movie lmao)?? actually top tier. theres straight up a rollerskating child that can grow 3 heads. (thats ne zha btw. very different from 2019)

the landscapes and worldbuilding have really surreal and gorgeous art. when it come to epithets/titles these types of myths go to the MAX with them and it translates really well to an animated medium.

i cant really demonstrate this well in a post but the score is also amazing!! as i mentioned earlier the animation is strongly influenced by peking opera and they incorporate the music into the film too. the percussion is insanely dramatic and the more melodic based segments are high energy. if you havent heard a full chinese orchestra (in western films its usually only individual instruments + western accompaniment- erhu was used in spocks theme from star trek!) you should- it diverges a ton from a 'classic' orchestra and the older compositions are incredibly unique

not going into the specifics of the plot to keep this post somewhat short but heres the movie if anyone wants to watch it 💃 its originally chinese so you'll have to watch with captions. overall very entertaining

[daisyswift3]

hey I'm pretty new to gaylor stuff and am just wondering, why are the daisy socks important? Just wannna know how crazy I should be going over this lol

Hi and welcome to the gaylorverse!! 🤗 The daisies are one of the most obvious pieces of gaylor/kaylor evidence and they were the nail in the coffin for me when I first fell down the rabbit hole 🌼

It all started when Karlie and Taylor took a trip to Big Sur, California in early March 2014. They took a bunch of pics of their trip and this daisy makes a cameo in many of them (you can search “big sur” on my blog to read more abt it). The most important of these pics is the one where Karlie tags Taylor as the daisy on the dashboard and captions it w “best road trip ever.” This is referenced in Don’t Blame Me—“I once was poison ivy but now I’m your daisy.” Also “trip of my life” is a double entendre here bc she’s not only talking abt tripping on drugs but also abt this road trip. To add more evidence to this theory the original handwritten lyrics include a drawing of a daisy that looks exactly like the one on the dashboard w the same positioning and all.

Plus Karlie was a literal VS angel hence all the angel/heaven imagery in Don’t Blame Me and many other songs—“Halo hiding my obsession / I would fall from grace just to touch your face / Lord save me” // “Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” // “I know heaven’s a thing, I go there when you touch me,” etc. And when she was making the song (1:00 of this vid) she said she wanted it to sound religious.

She mentioned in this vid that she has repeatedly used clothing and jewelry as easter eggs over the yrs which is why the daisy socks are a big deal. She’s extremely intentional w everything she does (she’s a mastermind after all) so it’s unlikely this is all a coincidence. She still uses daisies in her art and wears lots of clothes w daisies to this day which is one of many indicators that they probs haven’t broken up. Here’s a great post showing many of these instances. Here are some other times she’s worn daisies: (x)(x)(x)(x). There are countless other times daisies have shown up but I don’t have time to cover them all.

Fletcher and Kelsea Ballerini, who are Taylor’s friends and were invited to her after party not long ago, also took a trip to Big Sur in 2022 where they took a pic identical to the 2015 Vogue photoshoot pic and Polaroid shown above. This photoshoot was a recreation of their 2014 Big Sur trip. See here and here. This issue was released on Galentines Day, the same day Style was released as a single.

Also, Girl in Red recently mentioned at the eras tour that Serotonin, which has the lyrics “put me in a field with daisies,” was Taylor’s most listened to song. Taylor gifted her a painting she made w these exact lyrics.

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, JULY 2024

If you are new to my Tumblr, I usually do these summaries of SEO and marketing news once a month, picking out the pieces that are most likely to be useful to small and micro-businesses.

You can get notified of these updates plus my website blog posts via email: http://bit.ly/CindyLouWho2Blog or get all of the most timely updates plus exclusive content by supporting my Patreon: patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

There is a relatively new way to file copyright claims against US residents, called The Copyright Claims Board (CCB). I wrote more here [post by me on Patreon]

After a few years of handwringing and false starts, Google is abandoning plans to block third-party cookies in Chrome. Both Safari and Firefox already block them. 

When composing titles and text where other keywords are found, it can be useful to have a short checklist of the types of keywords you need, as this screenshot demonstrates. While that title is too long for most platforms and search engines, it covers really critical points that should get mentioned in the product description and keyword fields/tags as well:

The core keywords that describe the item

What the customer is looking to do - solve a problem? Find a gift? Feel better? 

What makes the product stand out in its field - why buy this instead of something else? Differentiating your items is something that should come before you get to the listing stage, so the keywords should already be in your head. 

Relevant keywords that will be used in long tail searches are always great add-ons.

What if anything about your item is trendy now? E.g., sustainability? Particular colours, styles or materials/ingredients are always important.  

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google’s June spam update has finished rolling out. And here is the full list of Google news from June. 

Expect a new Google core update “in the coming weeks” (as if we needed more Google excitement).

Google’s AI overviews continue to dwindle at the top of search results, now only appearing in 7% of searches.

Despite Google trying to target AI spam, many poorly-copied articles still outrank the originals in Google search results. 

Internal links are important for Google SEO. While this article covers blogging in particular, most of the tips apply to any standalone website. Google also recently did a video [YouTube] on the same topic. 

Google had a really excellent second quarter, mostly due to the cloud and AI. 

Not Google

OpenAI is testing SearchGPT with a small number of subscribers. Alphabet shares dropped 3% after the announcement. 

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

New social media alert: noplace is a new app billed as MySpace for Gen Z that also has some similarities with Twitter (e.g., text-based chats, with no photos or videos at this time). iOS only at the moment; no Android app or web page. 

Thinking of trying out Bluesky? Here are some tips to get the most out of it. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

Meta’s attempt at circumventing EU privacy regulations through paid subscriptions is illegal under the Digital Markets Act, according to the European Commission. “if the company cannot reach an agreement with regulators before March 2025, the Commission has the power to levy fines of up to 10 percent of the company’s global turnover.”

If you post Reels from a business page, you may be able to let Meta use AI to do A/B testing on the captions and other portions shown. I personally would not do this unless I could see what options they were choosing, since AI is often not as good as it thinks it is. 

Apple’s 30% fee on in-app ad purchases for Facebook and Instagram has kicked in worldwide as of July 1. 

Facebook is testing ads in the Notifications list on the app. 

Meta is encouraging advertisers to connect their Google Analytics accounts to Meta Ads, claiming “integration could improve campaign performance, citing a 22% conversion increase.”

Instagram

The head of Instagram is still emphasizing that the number of DM shares per post is a huge ranking factor. 

LinkedIn

Another article on the basics of setting up LinkedIn and getting found through it. 

You can now advertise your LinkedIn newsletters on the platform. 

Pinterest

Pinterest is slowly testing an AI program that edits the background of product photography without changing the product. 

Is Pinterest dying? An investment research firm thinks so. 

Reddit

If you want to see results from Reddit in your search engine results, Google is the only place that can happen now. 

More than ever, Reddit is being touted as a way to be found (especially in Google search), but you do have to understand how the site works to be successful at it. 

Snapchat

Snapchat+ now has 9 million paying users, and they are getting quite a few new personalization updates, and Snaps that last 50 seconds or less. 

Threads

Threads has hit 175 million active users each month, up from 130 million in February. 

TikTok

TikTok has made it easier to reuse your videos outside of the site without a watermark. 

TikTok users can now select a custom thumbnail image for videos, either a frame from the clip itself, or a still image from elsewhere.  

Twitter

You can opt out of Twitter using your posts as data for its AI, Grok. 

YouTube

YouTube has new tools for Shorts, including one that makes your longer videos into Shorts. 

Community Spaces are the latest YouTube test to try to get more fan involvement, while moving users away from video comments.

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Start your content marketing plans for August now, including back-to-school themes and Alfred Hitchcock’s birthday on August 13. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Google Ads now have several new updates, including blocking misspellings. 

Google’s new Merchant Center Next will soon be available for all users, if they haven’t already been invited. Supplemental feeds are now (or soon will be) allowed there. 

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Google Search Console users can now add their shipping and return info to Google search through the Console itself. This is useful for sites that do not pay for Google Ads or use Google’s free shopping ads. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

The second part of this Whiteboard Friday [video with transcript] discusses how consumer behaviour is changing during tight economic times. “People are still spending. They just want the most for their money. Also, the consideration phase is much more complex and longer.” The remainder of the piece discusses how to approach your target market during these times. 

Prime Day was supposedly the best ever for Amazon, but they didn’t release any numbers. Adobe Analytics tracked US ecommerce sales on those days and provides some insight. “Buy-now, pay-later accounted for 7.6% of all orders, a 16.4% year-over-year increase.”

MISCELLANEOUS

You know how I always tell small business owners to have multiple revenue streams? Tech needs to have multiple providers and backups as well, as the recent CrowdStrike and Microsoft issues demonstrate. 

If you used Google’s old URL shortener anywhere, those links will no longer redirect as of August 25 2024. 

[soupy-cosmos]

Clarification

I may be stupid I wasn't talking about ai I prommy. I had two versions of the final piece saved, one that was plain and one that had the cringetober prompt and my signature written on it,, since I drew these a while ago I forgot about the prompt being there and just went with the version I signed. I noticed basically the second I hit post and remade the post with the added all caps clarification in case anyone managed to catch the original withing the like minute it was up

Post this is about, I already took the reupload part out of the caption:

putting the sketches and some of the layers below the cut as receipts and also a fun little look into my process ig

the sketches were originally done in krita cuz I preferred it as a sketching program at the time, and then moved over to firealpaca for the render. There's a bunch of layers because I had the cringetober sketches and some doodles all on one file

mostly flat louyd plus the background sketch

And some of the bg process ^_^ you can see where I recolored the price tag lol

[hils79]

Hils Watches Misty Creed - Part 1

This was supposed to have been released at the end of October but finally it is here.

I wasn't hugely enamoured with the last movie but I'm always here for my blorbos and maybe this one will address some of the issues I had with the first one.

Okay, let's go!

I forgot these new movies are more horror. So we're starting with what looks like a demon baby

I have a squick about pregnancy anyway so this is going to go well for me

I do love that both movies have started with flashback horror like an episode of Supernatural

Oh, dude, you just abandoned your heavily pregnant wife who may be about to give birth to a demon. This is not going to end well for you.

First scene in the present day and Wu Xie is in trouble and calling for Pangzi to save him *sighs happily in pangxie*

THERE'S MY BOY

Ooh he strong! Holding up a whole coffin by himself to stop Wu Xie going splat. I love this already.

And of course Xiaoge bursts in to help his husbands. God I love all three of them so very much.

Excellent out of context caption there

Wait if Xiaoge could use his special Zhang fingers to punch a whole through the coffin lid to give Wu Xie one of his hairs why doesn't he just make the hole bigger and pull Wu Xie out? Unless there's something else going on beyond 'Wu Xie trapped in coffin'

And then he just ripped the lid off. Why didn't he do that before? Well, it's not DMBJ if there's not plot holes I guess :D

He had a whole coffin plus all of Wu Xie's weight on one shoulder but he's acting like helping Wu Xie stand up takes all of his strength. It's okay, Pangzi. You can admit you just want to keep touching him.

Oh no not more creepy dolls

In case you weren't sure they're a triangle

Wait, what? Oh my god is this an escape room?

IT IS!!! HAHAHA! Incredible! A+ I love this! That is exactly what these idiots would do in an escape room too

Throwaway reference to Xiao Hua there. Love to see it.

Ah hah! So this ties in to the post-credit scene from the last movie. So this is the person Xiao Hua said he was sending to Wu Xie while he adventures in Russia with Hei Xiazi (at least that's where I assume he is)

Xiao Hua's family owes this dude, but he was too busy with his boyfriend so he told him to come and see Wu Xie instead. Xiao Hua isn't even here and I love him.

HAHAHA! God, I love these idiots so much!

Oh shit if Xiaoge feels strongly enough about something that he actually says it out loud then you listen.

I am absolutely losing it over the idea that Xiao Hua apprently has a business running an escape room based on a tomb. He's such a nerd I adore him.

Pangzi is so outraged that Xiao Hua charged them to do the escape room, then billed them for destroying the probs AND they have to go off on an adventure to repay one of Xiao Hua's family debts. I'm sure Words will be had at Pangzi and Xiao Hua's next spa date.

I love that even though Wu Xie is allegedly the brains of their group (did you know he has a degree in architecture?) it's Pangzi who has thought of the practical things that they'll need for a misty environment.

Wait, what happened to Xiaoge's sword? I know he lost the original one during Ultimate Note era but Wu Xie replaced that one.

Ah, okay. Apparently Xiaoge's original sword came from the place they're going so I guess we're ignoring the Ultimate Note replacement so they can find a new one for him here. Who needs consistency when you're NPSS.

I'm losing my mind at 'xiongdi' being subbed as 'mate'. In my head these hunters now all have British English accents.

Is it really Wu Xie if he's not having terrible ideas?

Right, I'm only 20 mins into the movie but I'm at the image limit. Onward to part 2!

[mayalaen]

my server vs netflix

Long post for a few mutuals who asked about this 🏴‍☠️

Netflix (according to the geeks on server forums -- so this could be off a bit) has individual servers that hold about 100TB of data each, and Netflix claims they have around 18,000 servers worldwide.

Netflix has about 3000 movies and 1800 TV shows available in the United States at any given time. It varies in other countries, but is similar.

This is my server below (pen for size comparison and purple sticky note covering the super bright blue light that bores into my brain)

It's got 5 drive bays, and right now I have 60TB of storage space in it (meaning it's just a little smaller than one of Netflix's servers), and only 37TB of which is currently used. I can easily expand with add-on bays once I fill up the 60TB.

I currently have 4470 movies and 862 TV series, all with closed captioning that I've curated and about 100 of the TV shows have bonus scenes and specials included.

My server cost me about $2700: $1200 for the 5-bay box and the rest was spent on hard drives over the course of 2 years -- 5 inside the server and 6 backup drives. I bought good drives when they were on sale.

I spent another $300 on a range extender for my house so mom and dad could watch in their bedrooms without interruption.

My home internet costs $50 a month and I'm able to serve friends and family in the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. It's not always accessible (sorry Australia and your shitty internet), but it's up most of the time.

I never take movies/TV shows off of my server, and all the TV shows have their original DVD soundtracks, so nobody has to worry I'm going to remove their faves or ruin soundtracks.

I take requests from anyone, adding it when I find it with no judgement on content.

I don't charge anyone for using my server, and yet I'm paying less than I used to for internet and streaming services.

My payments for internet and streaming for my business and two family houses (Charlie's house and my house) used to be $900 A MONTH ($450 of it was the business internet because ISPs gouge businesses even though the internet usage at the shop is less than home).

Just before I quit Cox Internet, they were about to raise the cost and my new total would've been $1000 per month.

My monthly payments are now $220 for internet service and streaming services. So within just a few months, the server paid for itself.

I still have YouTube TV, Netflix x2 (one for each house), Hulu, and Discovery+.

I'm not saying the average person can set this up, but I want to make it clear that streaming services aren't the mysterious, unknowable magic that people think they are.

They're just servers (hard drives) with data on them and a good internet connection.

Anyone can set up a home server. You don't need a $1200 box like mine. Even an old computer/laptop or single hard drive will work.

A brand new 2TB good-quality hard drive that could hold about 1000 movies or 60-80 TV series would only cost $60 plus another $29 for a basic enclosure/case. (I bought mine from NewEgg for backups)

I use Plex as my media server program. It has a free version and a paid version. I bought the lifetime pass on sale for $90. It goes on sale 2-3 times a year. There are other programs out there too, including Kodi, which has a Netflix skin so it looks like you're using Netflix.

Plex and other programs like it already have a huge library of metadata, so I didn't have to create my own cover art or fill in any other information other than title & year for movies or title + season + episode number for TV shows.

Careful naming of files and sorting in properly-named folders is all you need to have this:

It took me about 3 months to download and organize most of the movies and TV shows in between working and taking care of my home/family. Now I update the server once a week and it takes about 2 hours a week to download/update new TV shows and movies.

I wasn't able to torrent when I had Cox Internet, but the new $50/month ISP doesn't give a shit. Even so, I use a VPN, which is $9 a month just in case they ever decide to get touchy about torrenting.

The server does regular maintenance on itself, and I have backups of everything.

I realize not everyone has the tech skills to set something like this up, but even if one tech person in the family or circle of friends has the ability, they could serve around 60 people.

The most I've had streaming at one time was 10 separate people watching different things, and my server handled it with no problem.

Others on the server forum claim they've maxed out around 25 people simultaneously watching, but 60 people is the number suggested because not everybody will watch at the same time.

Streaming, as it currently works, does NOT support anyone related to the creation of TV shows and movies.

Hopefully this will change, but even if it does, that doesn't change the fact that I can easily support creators myself by buying their DVDs, merch, going to cons, and donating to them or their projects directly.

Right now, pirating movies and TV shows doesn't hurt creators because streaming services and big studios are the main villains, and if all you did was donate $5 to your favorite TV show/movie, you'd be giving them more than if you streamed their content as many times as you wanted each month on a big streaming service.

I have movies and TV shows on my server that aren't even available from content creators anymore due to greedy CEOs and execs who dump their content for tax breaks.

If more people switched to using their own servers, MAYBE it would scare the greedy assholes into paying content creators what they deserve, but in the meantime it's a great way to enjoy content that was created to be shared and to support the creators.

EDIT: I need to add that streaming a TV show/movie as much as possible in the first few weeks of the release date DOES help the show get renewed and the movie execs are more likely to buy future movies, so please stream as much as possible then to help content creators. After that time is up and the streaming service moves on, then it's totally fine to pirate.

[taekooktimeline]

July 15, 2023 (posted) -

ARMY asks Jungkook questions about “Seven” in his Spotify interview. He’s asked who the first person to hear “Seven” was and he says “Taehyungie Hyung,” with the brightest expression. I’ll never get over the Taehyungie Hyung nickname (😭), but I also want to draw attention to the fact the question asked who the first PERSON was to hear his newest song, not who the first MEMBER was. Taehyung was the first person out of everyone Jungkook knew to hear his newest solo. That’s really special and significant and shows (again) their closeness, and how they support each other in their pursuits.

He says he “played it for him first” not that he sent it to him, indicating they were together when Jungkook shared his newest song.

This is super sweet, and is another of many instances we see Taekook sharing their pursuits with each other and supporting one another. Taekook respect each other as musicians and even though the music they create is different, the first person they share it with is each other. It’s another example of how close and supportive they are.

Jk jokes that they don’t share the same taste in music. Jk’s big, bright smile after he says this is so sweet (I love his smile in general). I agree with others that he was obviously joking (and the little caption says as much). While the style of music they make is different, we know they share playlists, play the same songs in their lives, recommend the same artists and songs on their IGs (when Jk had IG) and sometimes those songs shared are from more obscure artists. Plus, my friend who is fluent in Korean posted the following:

“음악 결이 안 맞아요 (the translation missed the nuance) 결… is hard to translate

Where as It means

We have different music styles”

Jungkook is saying that they make different music and that they have different music styles as musicians. This is consistent with what we have seen and known of the two over the years with their shared playlists and recommended musicians and songs.

Jk isn’t finished talking about Tae🥰

https://twitter.com/peachesminty/status/1680762355452641281?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

Snippet - https://twitter.com/jjklve/status/1680526364762308608?s=46&t=StSwHjW0_Domk_lHUFMaCg

Raw snippet- https://youtu.be/f6FsAbGSqNI and Tae interview https://open.spotify.com/episode/1vUeOvM2Z69G4xzsf10sVs?si=qJz-I3zfSsahKGeGpezxjw&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A35ltzomNTBi2lqCtoL4Drt

This isn’t the first time Tae has been the first person to hear Jungkook’s work. During BTS’ November 20, 2020, comeback live, Jungkook explained “Stay” was originally the last song for his mixtape, but Tae heard it and had the other members and company hear it. They listened to it in the practice room and agreed to have it on their BE album.

Recap -

https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2020/641203143698530304/november-20-2020-live

And on November 27, 2020, an interview with Weverse Magazine was released. Jungkook reiterates Taehyung heard “Stay” first and then the other members heard it.

Recap - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2020/641203143698530304/november-20-2020-live

And on June 13, 2022, Tae went live and confirmed he heard Jungkook’s “My You” a month ago, then repeatedly praises the song.

Recap (which includes at the end a more comprehensive recap of the times Tae has hyped and praised Jk’s work) - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2022/687452923679145984/june-13-2022

This isn’t comprehensive, but here are some examples in prior instances of Taekook sharing playlists and knowing / recommending the same artists and songs.

May 12, 2016: Taekook sing karaoke together. Tae let’s Jk pick the songs, saying he knows all of the songs he does - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2016/624267536691757056

February 7-13, 2018: Jimin and Hobi saying Taekook share playlists - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2018/625075227856158720

September 2019: Jk immediately recognizes Tae’s playlist - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2019/625211123706331136/september-2019

April 11, 2023: Jk recommending “oh no, oh yes” to Tae - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline2023/718035311903588352/april-11-2023-tae-goes-live-around-215am

March 4 (Jk) and July 18 (Tae) sharing artist CHS - https://www.tumblr.com/taekooktimeline/723206835313704960/july-18-2023

[thelilreddragon]

Welcome to Red Reviews: The Weekly Witch Watch Edition!

This is where Red reviews random things! My personality until October 30th will be Agatha All Along. Be warned. Spoilers ahead.

Agatha All Along: Episode 3

- Agatha clearly has never actually been on the road. Her face 2:52 confirms this. She is making things up as she speaks. You can tell based on her eyes darting from side to side. Plus with her addition to trying to break the rules during the trial, she clearly was bluffing. More on that later.

- Let’s take a closer look at “Teen” and the sigil across his lips. As soon as we flip it over (tilt your screen), it does look like a curved cursive W and M. In this scene, the sigil did not allow us to make out any lip reading… peculiar.

- Additionally, why does little witchy wannabe boy not know what a sigil is? He knows everything else about witchcraft.

- Whatever magic is on the boy, still works on the Road, where no magic can be used… quite a strong spell, I see.

- Unbind, reverse fortune, discover answers, and then Mrs. Hart disappears.

- Mrs. Hart seems to be incredibly connected to the earth…

- The mark on the door is a water sign. It’s the water trial. Each element gets a trial, possibly?

- The jewelry on each individual, minus “Teen” didn’t change. This include’s Mrs. Hart’s earrings. I believe she was wearing a necklace initially, but disappeared. It’s either behind her scarf or she is only half magical?

- The uninitiated lost his piercings and jewelry; Does this mean anything?

- Huge Tiny Lies is a reference to the 2017 drama Big Little Lies.

- The flowers on the card seem to be blue roses (correct me if I’m wrong), and symbolize mystery, secrecy, and pride. I think this gives a huge hint towards how the four confirmed witches respond to the potion. Pride being Alice’s mother, secrecy being Jennifer’s and mystery being Lilia’s. I believe that Agatha’s hallucination is a combination of all of them.

- I roughly translated the label on the wine; “Queen made in the Rioja property, qualified designation of origin, aged 2016, _____ for Queen: Product of Spain” Couldn’t figure out the blank.

- Red Queen wine. Scarlet Witch.

- Also 2016 is when Age of Ultron released

- WHY 2016?!

- Wine is 10 years old.

- It is believed that Agatha traded her child (Nicky?) for the Darkhold

- He disappeared. He may be dead. He may be a demon. OR AN AGENT OF MEPHISTO. Jennifer believes that Agatha may not recognize him.

- if “Teen” is 16 now, then 3 years ago, during Westview, he was 13. He mentions that a lot happened to him at 13. Did post-hex, version of this boy show magic?

- Ale Wife’s Revenge…

- Spanish… that seems to be an important language in this show thus far! Agatha said andale and it means hurry up.

- “Try to save Agatha…” - Lilia

- Alice’s hallucination has her mom wearing an amulet, however Alice’s necklace has more design and customization around the amulet itself. Her mom believes that something is going to kill her.

- Jen’s hallucination has a creepy dentist man, who looks to be from the 30s? He tries to drown her in her hallucination. This is the only hallucination in which someone is forced to do something. Jen physically feels like she is drowning.

- Lilia’s hallucination is in Italian, according to captions, and then switches to Sicilian . The outfits seem to be from the 16th-17th century? Who are the skeletons? Is one of them Evanora Harkness?

- Agatha is incredibly tender with Lilia. I think that they were close in the past.

- Agatha’s hallucination is by far my favourite. Her genuine fear of her son being replaced by the Darkhold broke my heart.

- Cerulean means relaxing, hence why the potion changed it.

- Mrs. Hart drank the antidote before the timer wore off, and did start moving again. Her eyes were wide open.

- I don’t think she’s dead.

- Agatha is still having issues with memory, or she’s just that self absorbed, hahahahaha! (she’s my favourite character.)

My thoughts?

I think that Mrs. Hart is alive, just comatose. Or something else. She’s a lot more important than I think we know.

Rio will need to be in the next task, or I’m gonna riot. And so will Scratchy.

Overall, I really liked the episode! It is very psychological thriller, so I am very happy. It’s really fun to psychoanalyze!

Do I like it more than WandaVision? I think they are completely different. I like them both for different reasons. WandaVision was fantastic and incorporated different elements of television, while Agatha All Along is incredibly whimsical and magical.

Also- Idc what anyone says. Teen is Billy, and Agatha knows deep down that he is Billy. Because she couldn’t protect Nicky, it doesn’t matter, she will protect Billy. She wouldn’t let him drink wine, she just wanted to rile everyone up. When she found out it was poisoned she almost lost her mind.

I don’t think Agatha turned Nicky over for the Darkhold. I think she tried to get the Darkhold to bring her son back, and that’s what tore her and Rio apart.

I’ll post my theories closer to next week. Now I can sit and scroll through everyone else’s reviews of this episode!

[sickiebabytae]

If your requests are still open and if you have time, can I request a scenerio where a member eats something way too late at night (like ramen or something) and wakes up in the morning really nauseous? My brain is screaming either Jungkook or Namjoon but I’ll leave the sickie up to you! ❤️ thanks in advance!! I love your writing

thank you so much for the request, anon!! I'm so so sorry it's taken me literally forever to get to this, and that I kind of derailed a bit when it came to the original plot 😭😭 I hope this is still to your liking!

sickie: jungkook

caretaker: namjoon

word count: 2125

jungkook knows this will be a bad idea the moment he sets out the (six) ramen cups neatly on the table, but rational thinking isn't really in his ballpark right now. he's been feeling stressed out from their tour lately, and feels as if he hasn't been performing as well as he should be, so he thinks he needs a good stress-eating session to get his mind off of things. 

but as jungkook takes a step back and looks at the ramen cups laid out, he can't help but laugh to himself. "this is so stupid." he murmurs, pulling out his phone. this is something he thinks army might enjoy. plus, he's been trying to be more active on Twitter recently. he captions the photo with something funny and his hashtag before setting his phone down and beginning.

just as he finishes getting through the first cup and a half, lips already zinging with spice, he feels his phone vibrate against the table. he picks it up and sees it's a message from namjoon.

rapmon hyung: jungkook what the hell are you doing

rapmon hyung: I saw your post -_-

jungkook feels a sheepish smile spread across his face.

jungkook: … I'm eating my emotions

jungkook: :D

rapmon hyung: good god jungkook

rapmon hyung: this screams bad idea, you know

rapmon hyung: your stomach is going to hate you tomorrow :/

jungkook: ill be fine hyung dw

jungkook: we've got a off day tomorrow anyways, it'll be fine

rapmon hyung: you know jimin wants to go sightseeing tomorrow

jungkook: yeah, I know, I'll be okay for it :)

jungkook: please don't worry hyung, it cant turn out THAT bad

jungkook can practically hear namjoon sighing from his hotel room a few doors down

rapmon hyung: okay fine

rapmon hyung: I trust you

rapmon hyung: but don't say i didn't warn you

jungkook: ay ay captain

with that, jungkook returns to his food.

this was definitely a bad idea, jungkook thinks to himself when he's all done. well, mostly done. by the last two he couldn't bring himself to finish off the soup at the bottom. his stomach is already bloated and full beyond belief.

he decides to make light of the situation and posts an update to twitter with one photo of the (nearly) empty ramen cups and one selfie of him looking, very rightly, in pain. his lips feel swollen and his nose won't stop running and itching from the spice, eyes watery too. he throws all the cups away and shuffles into the bathroom, washing his face down and stifling a burp into his hand. he shudders and sighs. "you idiot, jungkook," the singer whispers to himself, voice thick. he pushes himself back out to his room and gets into bed. maybe lying down will help him digest, he thinks, all lessons he's ever learned in his entire life failing to come to him as his eyes start drooping closed. he feels like he's going to be sick already and he doesn't like it. maybe he'll just… rest his eyes for a moment. let the world fall silent around him. yeah, yeah that's what he'll do. 

against his will, jungkook begins to fall asleep, and he drifts off before he's even able to stop himself.

jungkook wakes up in the middle of the night, sweaty and stomach cramping. he winces and sits up instantly. "oh god- fuck-" he swings his legs over the side of the bed, but that alone forces stomach acid up that burns his throat as he burps. he places a hand over his mouth and cringes, swallowing. "shit-" he freezes in place with no idea what to do. how did this happen? he feels so much worse than when he did when he-

he fell asleep. a groan leaves his lips. he just had to have fallen asleep. his stomach is killing him, bubbling and churning. he thinks he's going to throw up. 

moving slowly, he shuffles to the table and grabs his phone. more stomach acid burns up his throat, swallowing again. he goes to text namjoon since he seemed to be the only one who was caught up with his shenanigans the night before and sees that he missed a message right before he fell asleep.

rapmon hyung: jungkook you look terrible-

rapmon hyung: did you really eat all of that??

jungkook sighs before reluctantly sending a text of his own, deciding to ignore namjoon's. he only hopes that namjoon is either still awake or won't wake up from the message notification. he just wants someone to know what's happening

jungkook: I feel sick

jungkook: really sick

jungkook: I'm really sorry :( 

jungkook shuffles back to bed and sits down, not wanting to lay back in case it makes whatever acid reflux is going on worse. he jolts with a hiccup and grimaces, untucking his shirt from the jeans he'd forgotten to change out of that keep digging into his stomach. he slips his hand in between the hemline and his abdomen to give it some leeway, sighing when it provides the slightest bit of relief. he knows he should get up and change, but he doesn't want to risk it. he feels like the tiniest movement will set his stomach off.

his phone vibrates in his other hand to jungkook's surprise and he lifts it to look at the screen to see namjoon having responded to his message.

rapmon hyung: god kid I told u

rapmon hyung: hold on

rapmon hyung: I'm coming over

jungkook's eyes widen, mortified already. namjoon cant come, he knows he looks a mess.

jungkook: no no no-

jungkook: hyung it's fine really

jungkook: I just felt like someone should know

jungkook: hyung-

as jungkook types out his next text, he hears knocking at the door followed by a hushed, "jungkook? are you in there?"

jungkook suppresses a groan and slowly pushes himself to stand, stifling a low whimper when his stomach churns in protest. he makes his way to the door, unable to straighten properly from just how full and in pain he is, and opens it with cheeks flushed with both shame and the beginnings of what might be a fever. jungkook doesn't know at this point. "hey, hyung." he murmurs. he can't bring himself to meet namjoon's eyes.

he hears the leader sigh and make his way in, warm hands coming to rest by jungkook's sides. "you idiot, come on. let's go back to bed. I'll grab you some clothes."

jungkook manages a few short nods, trudging his way back to bed and laying down in a curled up position, fighting back a grimace and laying his hand back over his stomach. he can vaguely make out namjoon shuffling around the room, grumbling under his breath. probably something to do with jungkook's clothing organization. or lack thereof; jungkook has always had a bit of an unorthodox way of storing his clothes while on tour. it's just how his brain works, okay?

still keeping his gaze averted, jungkook feels the bed dip next to him. he allows himself the smallest of glances and notices the clothes on namjoon's lap. jungkook can't help but smile; those are some of his favorite pyjamas to wear on hard days. he didn't know that namjoon had picked up on it.

"arms up." namjoon orders gently. jungkook reluctantly complies. he can't help but blush when namjoon pulls his soiled, sweaty shirt off, feeling embarrassed that namjoon has to deal with this. to top it off, jungkook shivers when the air conditioning hitting him, realizing belatedly that his bloated stomach is now on display and painfully obvious. jungkook finds himself wrapping his arms around it as quickly as possible and curling in on himself. 

namjoon sighs. "jungkook-ah, look at me please." 

jungkook shakes his head stubbornly. but before he knows it, namjoon's hand comes up to his cheek and tilts his head up, their eyes meeting. jungkook finally clocks just how welled up with tears his are, and he can see it when namjoon clocks it, too. "jungkook, are you crying??"

at that, jungkook feels his bottom lip quiver. a sob bubbles up out of him, unexpectedly. "fuck, I'm sorry-" he tries to look away again, but namjoon doesn't let up. 

"hey hey, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like such a big deal I just-" namjoon sighs again. "you're feeling really sick, huh?"

jungkook manages a pathetic nod. another sob. 

namjoon gives a nod back. "okay, that's okay." he says; it sounds like he's talking more to himself than jungkook, but the maknae is too caught up in his self pity to notice it all that much. "we can get through this, not the first time one of us has gotten knocked down."

"but… the sightseeing… the others-"

"will understand if you can't make it tomorrow." namjoon promises with a gentle smile. "now let's finish getting you changed so you don't get more sick from the cold hitting you." 

it's been an hour and jungkook has yet to fall asleep. namjoon lays next to him, having already drifted off a while ago, snoring away without a care in the world. jungkook is extremely jealous. his stomach is still gurgling and churning and it doesn't seem to want to provide him with any relief any time soon.

slowly, carefully, jungkook pushes himself up into a sitting position, afraid that he might choke on the productive burps that keep crawling up his throat. he worries at his fingers. his breathing feels short and heavy and jungkook swears under his breath. he hates this. he hates being sick. arguably more than anything in the world. he hates feeling so gross and out of control and-

great, he's crying again. jungkook shoves his head into his hands and tries not to make too much sound. this is all his fault, and he knows it, and that makes the whole situation so much worse somehow; this disaster is a product of his own making.

jungkook's head continues to swim and swirl with thoughts, and before he knows it, something heavy rushes up his throat. his mouth waters dangerously, a sour feeling coating the back of his tongue and weighing it down. he's definitely going to throw up. he feels it coming on, and fast.

throwing the sheets off himself as quickly as he can, jungkook hurries to the bathroom and shuts the door behind him, hand clamped over his mouth. he crouches in front of the toilet with a few heavy pants, white-knuckling the sides of the bowl. the first wave of vomit comes out of him with a guttural gag before jungkook can even fully process that it's happened. and then another wave comes out. and then another. and then he's rolling; more specifically, his stomach is rolling. agonizingly so. 

jungkook tries his hardest to be quiet. he really, really does. but it's difficult to do so when each round of puke rips his breath from his chest and burns the way up his throat, eliciting involuntarily whimpers and groans and pants.

he feels a warm hand on his back before he registers the fact that someone has joined him in the bathroom; namjoon. jungkook can't help but give a choked sob. "i-i'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you, I-"

"shh," namjoon hushes. "it's okay. just get everything up, it'll help you feel better."

namjoon's calm, deep voice helps some of the tension leave jungkook's muscles, but they quickly seize up again when he has to throw up once more.

after another five minutes or so go by, the last few filled with nothing but weak, unproductive gags and pants as jungkook tries to regain his breath, namjoon decides to make the executive decision that jungkook is done. the leader reaches over to flush the toilet and helps jungkook to his feet. "come on, let's wash out your mouth and go to bed."

jungkook gives a weak moan but lets himself be dragged to the sink, pliable. now that his stomach is left with nothing more than a dull ache, and waves of relief continually washing over him from the nausea finally being gone, jungkook is tired. so, so tired. he barely feels it as namjoon guides him through washing out his mouth and leading him back to bed, helping jungkook sit on the edge as namjoon shuffles off to grab a new shirt, jungkook having soiled the one he'd changed into from sweat. 

the boy is practically already out cold by the time he's been changed and tucked in. the last thing he registers is a gentle touch brushing back his hair and the familiar voice of his leader whispering for him to "sleep well, jungkookie."