#publically shitposting each other’s characters

[jonnywaistcoat]

What’s your opinion on the contrast between “silly” and “serious” spaces? Do you think people can have very serious interpretations about a genuine piece of media and also be goofy about it? I’m asking this particularly because I’ve seen people in the Magnus podcast fandoms fight about people “misinterpreting” characters you, Alex, and the many other authors have written. Are you okay with the blorbofication or do you really wish the media you’ve written would be “taken seriously” 100% of the time?

And follow up question, what do you think about the whole “it’s up to the reader (or in some cases, listener) to make their own conclusions and interpretations and that does not make them wrong”, versus the “it was written this way because the author intended it this way, and we should respect that” argument?

This is a question I've given a lot of thought over the years, to the point where I don't know how much I can respond without it becoming a literal essay. But I'll try.

My main principle for this stuff boils roughly down to: "The only incorrect way to respond to art is to try and police the responses of others." Art is an intensely subjective, personal thing, and I think a lot of online spaces that engage with media are somewhat antithetical to what is, to me, a key part of it, which is sitting alone with your response to a story, a character, a scene or an image and allowing yourself to explore it's effect on you. To feel your feelings and think about them in relation to the text.

Now, this is not to say that jokes and goofiness about a piece of art aren't fucking great. I love to watch The Thing and drink in the vibes or arctic desolation and paranoia, or think about the picture it paints of masculinity as a sublimely lonely thing where the most terrible threat is that of an imposed, alien intimacy. And that actually makes me laugh even more the jokey shitpost "Do you think the guys in The Thing ever explored each other's bodies? Yeah but watch out". Silly and serious don't have to be in opposition, and I often find the best jokes about a piece of media come from those who have really engaged with it.

And in terms of interpreting characters? Interpreting and responding to fictional characters is one of the key functions of stories. They're not real people, there is no objective truth to who they are or what they do or why they do it. They are artificial constructs and the life they are given is given by you, the reader/listener/viewer, etc. Your interpetation of them can't be wrong, because your interpretation of them is all that there is, they have no existence outside of that.

And obviously your interpretation will be different to other people's, because your brain, your life, your associations - the building blocks from which the voices you hear on a podcast become realised people in your mind - are entirely your own. Thus you cannot say anyone else's is wrong. You can say "That's not how it came across to me" or "I have a very different reading of that character", but that's it. I suppose if someone is fundamentally missing something (like saying "x character would never use violence" when x character strangles a man to death in chapter 4) you could say "I think that's a significant misreading of the text", but that's only to be reserved for if you have the evidence to back it up and are feeling really savage.

I think this is one of the things that saddens me a bit about some aspects of fandom culture - it has a tendency to police or standardise responses or interpretations, turning them from personal experiences to be explored into public takes to be argued over. It also has the occasional moralistic strain, and if there's one thing I wish I could carve in stone on every fan space it's that Your Responses to a Piece of Art Carry No Intrinsic Moral Weight.

As for authorial intention, that's a simpler one: who gives a shit? Even the author doesn't know their own intentions half the time. There is intentionality there, of course, but often it's a chaotic and shifting mix of theme and story and character which rarely sticks in the mind in the exact form it had during writing. If you ask me what my intention was in a scene from five years ago, I'll give you an answer, but it will be my own current interpretation of a half-remembered thing, altered and warped by my own changing relationship to the work and five years of consideration and change within myself. Or I might not remember at all and just have a guess. And I'm a best case scenario because I'm still alive. Thinking about a writers possible or stated intentions is interesting and can often lead to some compelling discussion or examination, but to try and hold it up as any sort of "truth" is, to my mind, deeply misguided.

Authorial statements can provide interesting context to a work, or suggest possible readings, but they have no actual transformative effect on the text. If an author says of a book that they always imagined y character being black, despite it never being mentioned in the text, that's interesting - what happens if we read that character as black? How does it change our responses to the that character actions and position? How does it affect the wider themes and story? It doesn't, however, actually make y character black because in the text itself their race remains nonspecific. The author lost the ability to make that change the moment it was published. It's not solely theirs anymore.

So yeah, that was a fuckin essay. In conclusion, serious and silly are both good, but serious does not mean yelling at other people about "misinterpretations", it means sitting with your personal explorations of a piece of art. All interpretations are valid unless they've legitimately missed a major part of the text (and even then they're still valid interpretations of whatever incomplete or odd version of the text exists inside that person's brain). Authorial intent is interesting to think about but ultimately unknowable, untrustworthy and certainly not a source of truth. Phew.

Oh, and blorbofication is fine, though it does to my mind sometimes pair with a certain shallowness to one's exploration of the work in question.

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

cannot get over the IMPLICATIONS of that 'armand was telling the truth' tattoo like:

-in universe fandom for the book

-potentially armand has come out of this whole situation once again portrayed as an innocent victim, and this time he didn't even have to work for it. none of the readers have even gazed into his big beautiful eyes!!!

- everyone thinks lestat is cosplaying as lestat. dear God do you think the armand girls are constantly @ -ing him and daniel on twitter bringing up copyright laws

- do you think daniel has publicly threatened to sue lestat. I Know he has.

- the author, who is perceived to be having an end of life cunty gay era, is convinced to interview the rock star who's cosplaying as his famous character. you KNOW. you KNOW the girls are rooting for them to fuck each other

- discourse about how a hashtag real artist would create their OWN character to embody and also isn't it a red flag that he's idolizing an abusive murderer?!?!?!?! boycott the new album guys!!!

- louis and armand and sam all have burner accounts to constantly shitpost about the book

- claudia girlies showing up to a concert with fanart of her on all of their posters and he has a public breakdown but everyone just thinks it's a regular drug scandal

- anyone remember the armie hammer cannibal situation. yeah.

- lestat says onstage that he ships loustat and he gets booed by even his most loyal fans

- small sector of fans that ship louis and daniel and they refuse to make eye contact about it

- daniel's daughters publicly try to have him committed more than once and some fans preemptively start a gofundme in case his daughters try and get a conservatorship

- (armand donates) (the fans don't even know daniel personally the whole thing is a scam)

- armand prints out and dramatically gazes at any and every piece of fanart drawn of him

- lestat projects hate comments on a screen at his show but like half of the hate comments are by people who think they're talking about a fictional character

- this is getting away from me. I DO wanna see louis in a mosh pit dressed slutty and covered in glitter tho

[definitelynotafurinasimp]

Robin with a reader that's a journalist

Characters: Robin x gn!reader

warnings: none, just fluff

a/n: It's ya boi, definitelynotarobinsimp, I have returned from my exile of writing for Robin and logged into Tumblr to write… for Robin... I gacha’d for the whole c4 Robin, I’m gonna use the whole c4 Robin!

I could have returned sooner with one or two stupid posts, but with this one we are at 999 posts and I am not wasting number 1000 on a shitpost. /hj

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Robin

Truth be told, when you told Robin you were a journalist, she couldn’t help but be concerned. A part of her committed to answering your questions for as long as they remained sensical and didn’t pry into her private life, while another worried about what she would do if you turned out to be another obtrusive one that wouldn’t leave her alone no matter what.

However, when you proceeded not to ask her anything afterwards, simply continuing with your conversation as if nothing had happened, Robin couldn’t help but wonder what your deal was. Were you not interested in interviewing her or did you simply want to lure her into a false sense of calm to get things out of her you usually wouldn’t?

And so, the first few times the two of you chatted with each other, Robin remained on her guard, making sure not to say anything she’d regret, only for nothing to happen each and every time and before she knew it, her walls were slowly but surely coming down when talking to you, the two of you growing closer as they did.

As Robin got to know you better, she came to realize that your interest in writing stories about her was as non-existent as it could be. Even if she said something she realized she had meant to keep a secret, there’d be no headline to suit it the following day, you simply responded with a secret of your own. Whether it was to make her feel better or to give her ammunition to assure mutual assured destruction, the songstress didn’t know, and before she knew it, she didn’t care either.

What you found great pleasure in however, was writing news stories about people writing news stories about her. Sometimes she’d find your name under an article writing about creeps taking photos of unsuspecting women while the pictures you took of paparazzis whenever you noticed one following the two of you on an public outing littered the article, other times she’d find it while reading about you being sued for the very same articles.

And yet, no matter how often she tried talking you out of it, you’d do it again.

The moment the two of you saw a bright flash emanate from a nearby bush, you hastily pulled out your camera, aiming it at the source before Robin even had the time to react, quickly trying to talk to you as you snapped your first pictures.

“Oh, I got his face”, you marveled excitedly as you glanced down at your camera, reviewing the photos you took as the songstress’ words failed to reach you.

“Wait, you don’t have to do this”, Robin desperately whispered to you, knowing full well how much trouble you were once again going to get yourself into, causing you to finally respond to her.

“Don’t they bother you?” You asked earnestly, only for her to quickly shake her head, cheeks growing ever so slightly red as she wasn’t used to voicing her less positive thoughts.

“Of course they do, but-” That was enough for you, as you shot her a big smile before once again looking down at the screen of your camera.

“Then I’ll do it. I already have a great headline in mind.”

“You’ll get sued.” She tried one last desperate attempt, only for you to almost look amused, that possibility never having stopped you from doing your thing.

“I have great lawyers.”

[evilspiritweek]

Super quick online activity tier list.

Notes:

Treating "Facebook" as weird catch all. Like- technically you have social media, but it's kinda sort of just there

Some of these characters wouldn't have access to the internet (Plop Plop, Sorcerer, etc.) but if we gave them the internet as a treat, I imagine this is how they would react.

more thoughts underneath

Heidi: Appeals to the masses, so while I thought she wouldn't be super into the going ons of the internet, she's so obsessed with it I think she'd find herself going into rabbit holes. Definitley would have a drama channel on youtube, but any drama there is for chronically online people; if she brought it up IRL, I think ppl would see something wrong with her <3

Theresa: I think all of Der Monster Klub is chronically online to some degree, Theresa's no exception. At the same time, she'd be good at hiding it, mainly because then she'd have people from her school finding out about her tumblr.

Julian: is in the same area, although, I think he would also be surfing tumblr in public.

Levandar: Terminally online, but that's because he more so ego searches and sees what his fans are posting. In turn, he's probably not only seen the deprave stuff his fans would post about himself, but also the other fandoms their in.

Stevens: I think would just be a shitposter. Don't really have a specific niche in mind for him because I think he could go into really any sector of the internet and

Sorcerer: does not have internet access, but I can see the potential, you know? Would send anon hate like it's a living, because when you're trapped under a high school for hundreds of years it probably is. Unrealistic, but I think he would get into weird niche tik tok drama just for the fun of it.

Daves: like,, a normal amount, but that's because he doesn't really interact much? Outside of the Der Monster Klub, I imagine he would just lurk. That being said, he is definitely privy to the weirdest internet rabbit holes

Ignoring how busy he is with being a ninja, Randy would probs be online a regular amount. Definitely posts random youtube videos, but he's like,, trying to be youtuber so uploads are sporadic. Also, this boy does touch grass. He seems to want to be active in the social life of high school and that means hanging out in person rather than blogging on tumblr lol

Howard: Same level as Randy, but I can also see this guy trying his hand at streaming. Sporadically does it with no set schedule and it's only ever Randy and a few other people in chat, but like. It's fun. they're teenagers.

Bash: Normal amount? I don't think I have a lot to say on him, really. posts like,, pictures of all the stuff he owns to flex, but that's what any rich teenager would do. Would say something dumb online, but it never really blows out of proportion.

Brent: I think he'd really only post his work. Would occasionally vent too. Blew up at some random person who left a hate comment, making it his sworn duty of the day to make them just as miserable.

Debbie: I think she's not super social and really would keep up with her friends and like, the school accounts. That being said, I can see her running the social media for the news club too, that's where her passion lies afterall. Thinks about making a news/commentary youtube channel, but just doesn't have the time

Marci: I was initially going to put her down as a Facebook mom, and while she does have one, I also see her almost being like one of those Instagram influencer moms too. She does have the status already, so I think it would just come naturally to her. Thankfully, because she's already rich, she wouldn't try shilling you an MLM. Def follows her son on social media, but doesn't comment because Bash said it's embarrassing.

Flute Girl: Tumblr user, but not in trenches, you know? Runs several aesthetic blogs for each of her interests, but actually is sane enough to just block and move on. Could also see her writing fanfic, but most of it doesn't get posted because she might be a bit self conscious

P: I think bros neat design wise, so while I don't have many thoughts on him, I wanted to include him lol

Plop Plop: if this guy had social media, I think he'd be into the DIY stuff, for some reason? Never really posting his own tutorials, but always there to comment and help others out on forums

Rachel: Normal amount. Pinterest board game goes CRAZY. One of those cute aesthetic tumblrs, but genuinely a nice person. Avoids drama at all costs

Doug: Get the vibe his parents would restrict internet access. That being said, could also see him on Reddit, so..?

McFist: I don't think he would use social but instead pay someone to post McFist posts both for himself and his businesses. Does not understand it and is a very busy man.

Slimovitz: Just has a Facebook. Reposts minion memes and cat photos. He used to post about his car, but then a student found it and turned it into a meme showing the before and after of it's destruction one day. He put a ban on phones for a bit. They never found the culprit.

Bucky: Also probably had restricted internet for a while. Interested in getting a social media, but they say he has to be above 16. I imagine he'd actually want to post band videos, though, so that'd be nice

Jacques: He does have parkour videos, but I don't think he actually likes talking online. Touches grass.

Sorceress: I think she'd be on social media like any "teen" would, but I don't think she'd get it. Posts selfies, but also doesn't really post them enough

Viceroy: I just imagine this guy goes on engineering or science related forums and solves problems, but he'd like,, also be the dude that would message the answer directly to the initial poster so when you find the forum 10 years later for your very specific problem, the answer isn't there. Could also be on tumblr to and while he says he's above it, would start shit online (or at the very least keep tabs on it to watch from afar).

Juggo: I can't see him on social media, but like,, frequent poster in clown related forums and accounts? Would answer weird clown trivia questions and is a respectable member in the historical clown community.

McAffee: Business has a Facebook that hasn't been updated for several years because he keeps forgetting about it. Also would occasionally post on youtube, but I feel he really shines nestled deep within the comments of a random youtube video he got mad at. The comment was about how the Star Wars prequels suck and by the 100th comment, it's moved onto furry discourse.

Morgan: I think she lurks more than anything. Her account has nothing and if you ever see her, it's one of the other members of dancing fish posting and her showing up in the video (I also think I just make Morgan more mysterious than she actually is lol)

Ranginald Bagel: Goofy guy with next to no internet access. If he did, he would sadly

S. Ward Smith: I can't even see this man on any like specfic welding forums online.

Finja: I think even if we gave him internet access, he'd actively avoid it. He's got other shit to do. Doesn't understand the youth's slanguage. Like that one post where that person shows Fortnite to an Ancient Roman that I can't find for the life of me, someone PLEASE GIVE IT TO ME BEGGING

[broken-clover]

Feeling sort of nostalgic and I think I'm gonna clear my old copy of Tomodachi Life and restart from the beginning, but first I wanna see what shit I had left on there since it's been about five years since I've booted the thing up

Current findings

-About 90% of the Miis are Guilty Gear characters, not much of a surprise there

-For some reason I decided to use Millia for the game's obligatory starting character (that's supposed to be a representation of yourself)

-I used the music hall entirely for shitposts (and oh my god was my sense of humor even worse back then)

-Except for the one about Bridget escaping prison that one's a little funny (and maybe the one about Ram being a war criminal)

-Several (bad) songs done by Sin, Elphelt, Ram, Bedman and Bridget under the band name 'Baby Squad'

-Why did I make a song that's just Venom and Chipp making innuendos at each other

-I made a bunch of characters the opposite gender, presumably because you can't be gay in this and I wanted to hook certain characters up

-Numerous characters paired up and proceeded to get divorced, for some reason the only ones that stayed together were Dizzy and Ky and Jam and Potemkin (the latter of which actually had a kid together)

-Zappa is dressed like a train conductor and I think has the highest voice I could possible give him on the slider. He hurts to listen to.

-May and Slayer are best friends

-Testament is wearing a hamster suit

-The daily news was about Izuna locking himself in a public bathroom

-Faust's favorite food is grilled cheese

[sixty-silver-wishes]

you don't understand I need to talk about shostakovich's antiformalist rayok because HOLY SHIT

okay. so.

I've been wanting to talk about rayok for a while because it's truly mind-blowing what rayok is. hell, it's mind-blowing, considering the circumstances, that we know about rayok. and it's even more mind-blowing what we don't know about rayok. this is probably one of the most impressive works by shostakovich when you really dig into it, just because of how ridiculously multilayered it is. there are scholarly essays and research conducted on this piece because the rabbit hole that is rayok just goes so fucking deep that in order to fully understand it, you need to know a decent bit about music, russian history, the russian language, the relationship between the soviet government and the artistic sphere, etc. I'll mainly be citing manashir yabukov's essay on it in rosamund bartlett's "shostakovich in context," because while there are many publications about this piece, this one is especially comprehensive.

so. what is rayok. WELL.

the antiformalist rayok, simply put, is a shitpost. less simply put, it's a satirical cantata by dmitri shostakovich. it lampoons stalin- and post-stalin era political officials who attempted to interfere with the artistic, particularly musical, culture of the soviet union. shostakovich essentially argues in this piece that political figures have no business policing the arts, especially when they have little to know artistic knowledge themselves.

the way "rayok" works is sort of like a soviet musical SNL skit. there are four characters at a conference on "realism and formalism in music" (sometimes played by the same singer) who are all caricatures of a specific political figure or idea, imitating these figures in a mocking, ridiculous way. the characters are the announcer, who introduces the other three, "yedinitsyn," who represents stalin, "dvoikin," who represents andrei zhdanov, head of the central committee propaganda department of the USSR, and "troikin," who represents zhdanov's successor, dmitri shepilov. shostakovich caricatures each of these figures through references to quotes or speaking patterns, musical quotations, or satirizing their ideologies. for instance, yedinitsyn's (stalin's) verse is often sung in a georgian accent (stalin was a native of georgia), the music quotes the folk song "suliko" (said to be stalin's favorite song), and the text is repetitive without saying anything, parodying stalin's manner of delivering speeches. (an example of a line- "formalist composers are formalist because they write formalist music")

nobody knows quite when rayok was written, or if shostakovich was the sole author. we know that shostakovich often performed it in private gatherings with close friends, but the authorship of the text is disputed. shostakovich wrote the music, but it's contested who wrote the words- shostakovich's friend isaak glikman claimed that shostakovich was the sole author, while another friend, lev lebedinsky, claims he had a hand in writing the text. (many of lebedinsky's other claims have come into dispute.) interestingly, rayok is referenced in "testimony," the highly controversial supposed memoir of shostakovich, which was published before the piece became known to the wider public. it's assumed that shostakovich started working on "rayok" around 1948, and continuously added onto it into the 1960s. along with the piece itself, shostakovich also wrote a hilarious preface (which I'll get into later) and a sarcastic questionnaire to go with it, perhaps as a nod to ideological exams that were required in schools.

so, what does the title "antiformalist rayok" mean? that requires some historical context. "formalism" was a term used to describe art considered unacceptable by the soviet government, and was used most often from the 30s to the early 50s. it originated from the term in academic analysis which meant interpreting a work of art by its "form," or removed from the context intended by the author. formalist analysis was popular in the late 1920s, a more liberal time in soviet history that gave rise to an avant-garde art movement. as such, by the 30s, art considered "formalist" was deemed "art for art's sake," and was derided as "bourgeois" or "western." the crackdown on the arts was part of a larger cultural campaign under stalin, in which he sought to increase the soviet union's industrial production and differentiate it from the west, both culturally and politically. "antiformalist" art, therefore, was the opposite of "formalist"- safe, patriotic, and easily digestible by the masses. such art was also referred to as "socialist realism." "formalist" artists faced increasing persecution that culminated in the "great purges" of the late 1930s, a campaign that sought to eliminate anyone who could be viewed as a threat to the soviet union through exile, arrest, or execution. people who were purged included stalin's political opponents, artists, accused german spies (often in the military), ethnic minorities, farmers who refused collectivization of their land, and civilians suspected of dissent.

still with me? good.

now, the word "rayok." this is a reference to two concepts- rayok shows, and another piece of classical music called "rayok" by modest mussorgsky, a 19th century russian composer. the original word "rayok" refers to rayok shows- a popular form of entertainment in 18th and 19th century russia, in which rotating figures of people or animals would be displayed inside a fairground box with holes that viewers could look through. a performer called a rayoshnik would rotate the figures in the box with a crank and narrate a story, usually of a satirical nature:

mussorgsky's "rayok" took its name from this form of entertainment. like shostakovich's "rayok," it was a satirical piece, focusing on the conservative musical establishment and its patrons, in which specific people were lampooned, similar to the performances by the rayoshniki. by the 1920s, rayok shows were beginning to die out, but shostakovich (b. 1906) displayed an interest in them. as a reference to these performances, he sometimes jokingly referred to his colleagues in letters with exaggerated diminutives, a common practice in rayok shows- for instance, the composer vissarion shebalin was "shebalalishki." (put a pin in that bit about diminutives. it'll be important later.) shostakovich's title "antiformalist rayok" is therefore a reference to the mussorgsky piece and rayok shows, as well as the concept of "antiformalism."

and if you think that's complicated, that's only the title.

so, let's walk through the piece. again, there are four characters- the announcer, yedinitsyn (stalin), dvoikin (zhdanov), and troikin (shepilov). the names "yedinitsyn, dvoikin, and "troikin" correspond to the words for the numbers one, two, and three in russian. some people speculate that these names do not only refer to the order the characters appear, but also the russian school grading system. in russia, students' assignments are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with a 1 being the lowest grade, and a 5 being the highest. therefore, these names could potentially be a snide remark on the intelligence of shostakovich's subjects of ridicule. elizabeth wilson also notes that the name "troikin" could be a reference to the nkvd's "troika"- a group of three secret police members tasked with sentencing the accused to imprisonment or death, which would line up with troikin's remarks towards the end of his verse.

"rayok" starts out with the announcer introducing a panel on "realism and formalism in music." he introduces yedinitsyn, who sings over and over again about how "realistic music is written by the people's composers, and formalist music is written by formalist composers." that's it. that's the whole verse. as I said, there's a suliko quotation to tip us off to the fact that this is stalin (shostakovich even lists his full name in the score as I.S. Yedinitsyin- as in Iosif Stalin, removing any doubt of who yedinitsyn represents). the announcer then says, "let us thank our dearly beloved comrade yedinitsyn for his historic speech, and for his exposition, enrichment, and elucidation of complicated issues of the musical sphere." this is typical shostakovichian sarcasm- as seen in his letters, he tends to over-elaborate a statement to communicate distaste or irony. this statement is even funnier when we consider that yedinitsyn did not "elucidate complicated issues" in his verse, but rather repeated the same thing without elaborating. and of course, the ensemble thanks him for his "historic speech" and "fatherly care." the next character up to the stand is comrade dvoikin, and this requires a LOT of historical context to explain. while yedinitsyn is fairly straightforward, dvoikin and troikin are much more multilayered. so again, bear with me as I go on another tangent about soviet history.

in 1946, andrei zhdanov launched a series of denunciations and censorship against soviet writers and poets. by 1948, this expanded to scientists and musicians, in a period known as "zhdanovshchina." among the composers denounced during zhdanovshchina were big names like shostakovich, prokofiev, and khachaturian, as well as a little-known georgian composer named vano muradeli. muradeli had written an opera called "the great friendship," which had come under fire because he had written his own lezghinkas (a kind of caucasian folk dance) for the opera, instead of incorporating "authentic lezghinkas" instead. shostakovich, as one of the most prominent composers to be attacked during zhdanovshchina, was particularly targeted. many of his works were censored, he was fired from his teaching positions at the leningrad and moscow conservatories, and he was pressured into denouncing his own music, resorting to writing banal film scores and ideological pieces to make a living. while no composers were arrested during zhdanovshchina, it still took a heavy toll on many of their lives, shostakovich included. worse yet, after ww2, a wave of anti-semitism in the soviet union began to take hold around the same time, impacting many jewish artists and professionals. some were assassinated, including solomon mikhoels, the father-in-law of mieczyslaw weinberg, a composer and close friend of shostakovich's. (weinberg himself would be arrested on false accusations of zionist conspiracy, but was released from prison after stalin's death.)

so, all that being said, 1948 was a really, really bad time in the soviet union. this is likely when shostakovich began composing rayok, as well as some of his other "desk drawer" pieces that would not be performed until after stalin's death, such as the first violin concerto and the "from jewish folk poetry" song cycle (note- while shostakovich was not jewish, he took a strong stance against anti-semitism, which would be more pronounced in his later years).

as such, zhdanov comes under serious fire in "rayok." many of his speeches are referenced, if not quoted word for word, in "dvoikin's" lines, including where he refers to dissonant and atonal music as a "dental drill" and "a musical gas chamber." these criticisms were leveled by zhdanov at shostakovich's music- the second directed towards his eighth symphony. this was a serious insult considering the time period- the 8th was written in 1943, when the soviet union was at war against nazi germany. in his essay, yabukov points out something interesting- after the ensemble laughs at dvoikin's remarks, a transposed instance of the dsch motif- shostakovich's musical representation of himself- is heard, implying that while zhdanov is laughing at him, shostakovich ultimately gets the last laugh by satirizing him in "rayok." dvoikin is introduced as having the "ability to vocalize" as he sings exaggerated arpeggios, a dig at the fact that zhdanov was said to be a good singer. he stresses how music must be harmonic, beautiful, elegant, etc., until the music does a complete 180 from oversaturated, kitschy romanticism into- of all things- a georgian lezghinka, just like zhdanov denounced muradeli over. he suddenly sings obsessively about how "in caucasian operas, there must be authentic lezghinkas," the caricature exaggerating to ridiculous lengths as he sings (and in some productions, dances) the lezghinka, before the announcer gives the floor to troikin.

troikin. troikin. oh boy, troikin.

while troikin is based on dmitri shepilov, soviet minister of foreign affairs during the khrushchev era, he can be read to represent, in general, the disastrous effects of politicians in the musical sphere. troikin is portrayed as a complete idiot, singing to a simple melody about how "the soviet man is a very complex organism." in my favorite joke in the entire piece, troikin sings the names "glinka, tchaikovsky, rimsky-korsakov" three times in a row- romantic-era russian composers whom soviet composers were encouraged to imitate, in opposition to avant-garde western composers. (note- tchaikovsky is a complicated case when it comes to his legacy in the soviet union, but his music was regarded far more positively after ww2 than before it, due to the increase in russian nationalism during the war to boost morale.) during this part, troikin mispronounces "rimsky-korsakov" as "rimsky-korSAkov" each time, singing to a 3/4 time signature (for you non-music people, that's like a waltz rhythm). the mispronounced syllable falls on a downbeat, making it stand out even more. according to lebedinsky, shostakovich once heard shepilov give a speech, in which he listed off the names of classical and romanticist composers that soviet composers ought to imitate. however, he pronounced "rimsky-korsakov" as "rimsky-korSAkov," and shostakovich thought it was so hilarious that he puts it directly into the spotlight in "rayok." (remember covfefe? it's like covfefe.) and FURTHERMORE, during this "rimsky-korSAkov" bit, shostakovich is quoting a song called "we'll tell you" from a film score called "faithful friends." this film score was written by none other than tikhon khrennikov.

who's tikhon khrennikov, you may ask? khrennikov was the general secretary of the composer's union from 1948, all the way up to the fall of the soviet union in 1991. he played a role in the zhdanovshchina denunciations against shostakovich, but later stated he was pressured into it. whatever the case, shostakovich didn't forgive him, and we'll see another multilayered shot at khrennikov a bit later on.

troikin continues to be a hot mess on stage. he begins listing kinds of music that should be written, but gets stuck on "suites," before giving up entirely and switching to a parody of "kalinka," a popular folk song. this in itself is another joke- troikin knows nothing about classical music, so he switches to a folk song associated with socialist realism, but it's like, one of the most basic ones you can think of. and in these modified "kalinka" lyrics, troikin drops two names- "dzherzhinka" and "tishinka."

okay, remember what I said about rayok shows and how the rayoshniki performers liked to use exaggerated diminutive names as a part of their satirical shows? this is an example of that right here. "dzerzhinka" refers to one ivan dzerzhinsky, a socialist realist composer best known for his opera "quiet flows the don," whom shostakovich was on unfriendly terms with- shostakovich had helped dzerzhinsky with the music for "don," which was upheld as a "proper" soviet opera after the denunciation of shostakovich's own opera, "lady macbeth of the mtsensk district," in 1936.

tishinka, of course, is khrennikov once again, but there's another layer here. "tishinka," as yabukov points out, was also the nickname for the transit prison "matrosskaya tishina," or the "silence of the sailors." but shostakovich uses the words "raskhrenovaya tishinka"- yet another triple play on words. "khrenoviy" means "rotten" or "worthless," "ras," in this context, meaning "completely." and furthermore, "khren"- as in "raskhrenovaya" and "khrennikov," means "horseradish," and can be used as a euphemism for "penis." so essentially, shostakovich is saying, "khrennikov is a fucked-up dick."

so, after the kalinka segment, troikin's tone suddenly changes. he begins singing about being vigilant for the enemies, and consequences for those spreading "bourgeois lies," such as being "sent to the camps" and "extra hard labor in the snow." as the verse goes on, his mask comes off. while he may be a complete idiot, he's dangerous. this is a common theme in shostakovich's works- that stupidity breeds danger, and that the comedic and tragic exist alongside one another. as soon as troikin makes these threats, the music picks up again and becomes circuslike, trivializing the "vigilance, vigilance" theme- but also adding a threatening undertone to the humor, as shostakovich gives us a grave reminder that real people indeed suffered consequences under the ridiculous ideologies posed by the figures behind yedinitsyn, dvoikin, and troikin.

I want to close off this extremely long analysis by mentioning the written preface to rayok and questionnaire by shostakovich. these are somewhat difficult to find both of them. the questionnaire is at the bottom of this page (in russian, but you can autotranslate it) and the preface, in english and russian, can be found here, with notes by scholar elizabeth wilson. it's honestly one of the most hilarious music history tidbits I've ever read, so it's seriously worth checking out. the preface is essentially a fake article about how the script for rayok was "found," and I'm just going to share it in full here because it's just. you have to see it

like. look at these fucking translation notes. dmitri shostakovich made these names. you can't make this up

so like. here it is (in english)

also, this is the best performance of rayok I've ever seen. just. just watch it

would highly recommend reading yabukov's analysis btw. it's WAY more comprehensive than this post, which tbh is just scratching the surface.

[sobredunia]

Kenikari boundaries

You can RP as the characters

Do NOT make them as AI to roleplay with them

Do NOT feed anything kenikari related to AIs, be it images or dialogue or whatever else

You can make OCs and self inserts and selfship

You can make merch as long as you're not a company. You can sell the merch for money

You can make POC, sexuality, gender headcanons... Don't get angry when other people's headcanons don't allign with yours. It's basic etiquette

You can kin these guys and be public about it 👍

NSFW is fine, but keep them to exclusively NSFW sites / tag them properly / put them under readmores. If someone doesn't want to see NSFW they should be able to easily avoid it

Modding the game / looking through the files is totally fine. You can share the mods and the stuff you find

You can get inspired / steal the premise idc. Though a shoutout or credit would be nice

You can use the music for youtube videos / your own games / whatever have you, but you MUST credit the composer. The composer for each track is listed in the game credits

You can use the sprites and backgrounds for shitposts, Kenikari askblogs, etc. Except if it's a commercial thing

You can make money off of Kenikari fanfic, I won't sue or anything

You can make as many AUs as you want forever

[trecomics]

Mastodon is great for a quiet fandom life

Even before the buyout, Twitter has been an anxious place for a hobbyist like me.

I want to chill in my fandom bubble and find people who like the same characters I like to connect and chat maybe! I want to shitpost in peace!

Because of how twitter’s algorithm and search function works, I don’t want to force people who don’t like that sort of thing to see what I draw, so I’m careful with how I word my post. I mark the pairing name somewhere so people can mute it. (or find it) I censor full names or series titles so it ’s not found in search. I’ve been doing this for so long it shouldn’t be stressful, but getting stray comments reminds me to stay on my toes.

Mastodon, I realized, is close to perfect place for a peaceful fandom life.

Mastodon is compared to twitter a lot. That’s the wrong way of thinking about it. It’s not about trying to be “engaged” with the site 24/7. It wants to work for everyone, while keeping its focus on safety and making it harder to dogpile on others. That’s freakin’ awesome. Once you understand how it works. So how to get started?

These were my top worries while figuring out Mastodon.

There’s so many instances! What if I join the wrong one? This had me stuck deciding whether Mastodon was even viable. But there is no “wrong one.” you can join any instance, you can even make your own as the sole member. It’s simply having an address to be found.

HOWEVER

You might want to shop around first. When you sign up for an instance, their rules and which instances they don’t interact with are listed. I draw NSFW art, so I wanted to join an instance that allows that sort of thing.

AND

There’s no advantage joining a heavily populated instance. it could lag, more difficult to get into contact with the admins/support. The local timeline is a mess. Small and cozy is best. You can follow anyone, anywhere, anyway.

I don’t know how to follow others from different instances. You don't have sign up to different instances to follow others. The easiest way to do that is to copy their profile URL and paste and search into your instance’s search bar. You can also copy and search their account name, usually displayed by their username. They look like “@name@example.social”

I tried doing a search for my favorite thing but got 0 results! I’m proud of this creation, how can others find it? Mastodon’s search will only catch hashtags and URLs from all the instances. While I avoided hashtags with every fiber of my being on twitter, it’s vital to use them if you want public posts to be found by others. So don’t be shy and tag it up, use appropriate content warnings if needed on posts you want others to see! Because of these search limitations, you don’t have to censor words without fear of being found in a random search anymore. It’s great.

Best of all, you can follow hashtags! This way, any post with that hashtag will appear in your home timeline whether you follow that person or not, even from other instances. It’s great to see new stuff without manually searching. To do this, search your favorite hashtag names. Click the hashtag in the search results and in the upper right corner there’s an icon with a plus mark to click. You can remove it anytime by doing the same method.

But I want to follow others who speak different languages, twitter at least has a translate function (for now) Mastodon does too! But it’s up to each instance’s admin to implement the feature. it doesn’t hurt to politely ask them to add it. If they don’t, some apps have it built in! I know Ice Cubes for Mastodon does at least.

Quick tips: —You can change the default visibility of your posts in preferences The default is “public” but if you’re like me, you don’t want every thought out on the public/local timeline. I have mine set for “unlisted” so only followers or profile visitors can see it. The many posting options Mastodon has are almost perfect. I hope someday they adopt Twitter’s circle function.

—You can add filters to words and hashtags you don’t want to see! It just works! This is in preferences.

—No more extra work when you have to delete and repost, the “delete and re-draft” function is the best option ever.

—For the most comprehensive FAQ that answers every little thing you want to know about how Mastodon works and why, https://fedi.tips answers and then some.

I'm still a newb to Mastodon but I love being there so much. If anyone else has tips I've missed I'd love to know!

[perpetual-canon]

Perpetual Canon

summary: This is as grand as it gets - Ace landed the gig with Gorillaz, and it's a chance of a lifetime for him. It is as clear as day - Murdoc landed himself in prison, and it's a chance for everyone to move on.

There's nothing more to it. Right?

Or: How to make sense of life when all its stories are sung at the same time?

Or all of them were part of the same song all along?

about the story: This is an AU where most of the Gorillaz insane lore is alt-reality storyline they come up for the fans & publicity stunts. The reality behind the lore is somewhat similar but not always as epic.

The timeline is a bit more sensible - in 2017-2019 (phase 5) when the story is taking place, it's been about 13 years since D day.

The story is full of creepy supernatural lore and fae laws and, no joke, is nearly 50% flashbacks.

Expect the feels, the funny, and the drama.

Ace has his ice powers, but with a twist. Same for some other characters.

Aaand, big spoilers, this is an AU where Ace is Murdocs son! But no one knows about it yet :D

This silly little idea is one of the main reasons the story exists, and so we share it in advance because we can.

Ages at the start of chapter 1: Stuart - 32,5 Russell - 31 Murdoc - 38 Noodle - almost 23 Ace - almost 22 Snake - 21,5 Big Billy - 19 Grubber - 20 Lil Arturo - almost 16

Damon Albarn & Jamie Hewlett - 40

pairings: 2doc, 2ace (one-sided), (past) Russell/Dell. This is not as dramatic as it sounds, promise :'D

pairings (that are slow burn and SPOILERS): Snake/Ace, Russell/Ace, Russell/Snake, Snake/Russell/Ace. This is the hill we built and are going to burn on, you guys are welcome to join :'DD

warnings: There will be warnings for each chapter/parts of chapters, when needed.

generally there may be: drug abuse, mentions/discussions of child abuse, discussions of trauma, suicidal ideation, unhealthy coping mechanisms.

about the format: There will be comics, short stories, text with illustrations, shitposts, basically anything that'll work for each piece. Updates will not be regular after chapter 1, but we are very much set to finish this project!

tags guide: PC!story - for the story bits PC!art - for the additional art PC!not in text but in spirit - for shitposts and inspo stuff PC!spoilers - idk, may need this one

—

You may recognise the comics from couple years back, and yeah, this is doublebassstory (now with a proper name! that is also a pun, yes :'D).

The hiatus and real life got us, but the story didn't let go, it's too fun, and totally doesn't hold us at gunpoint (: So we're back at it, and the goal is to get this whole thing out, and have some fun along the way (':

Most of the story is already planned out - plot, chapters, episodes and all (g-d help us).

The links to read Perpetual Canon, and the chapter plans can all be found HERE.

Feel free to hit us with any questions you may have.

[catspittle]

This notif is only showing up on mobile and it won't let me physically answer the ask, tf.

Anonymous asked: "👗 what is your muse’s fashion sense like? are they able to dress the way they want to? what would they wear in an ideal world?"

As a physically disabled man, first and foremost Jonathan wears whatever's comfortable and relatively easy to put on. Barring the Scarecrow costume, which was made when he was a much younger and slightly less disabled man, very little of his clothing has complicated closures and it's often somewhat loose. There's a lot of sweatpants, leggings, and outerwear like cardigans, sweaters, and ponchos in his wardrobe. He does own a few fancier coats, and prefers boots above any other footwear despite having exactly 1 pair of flats. There's also some elements of traditional wear blended into his daily attire, such as the handful of cheongsams inherited [stolen] from his great grandmother and tang suits in various colors and patterns. Outside of prison, he dresses however he likes. In an ideal world, he'd wear exactly the same clothing as he currently does; he sees no reason to change his fashion sense. Anonymous asked: "✨ what aesthetics or symbols do you reference when writing your muse? are these backed up by canon, if your muse comes from a canon? is there any specific relevance to these choices?"

All jokes aside, there's a lot in his 719 image large aesthetic folder on my computer, so let's break that down by chunks. A lot of it's black and white or in sepia tones; this is because I try to pick and stick with a certain color to describe each of the characters I write. There's also a significant chunk of the folder dedicated to his lack of self-esteem and how other people tend to view him as meat, which as far as I'm aware isn't a thing in canon but, when you're a minority in America and all that. It's a logical character progression imo. +Some gripes over his being transgender that I think he'd sympathize with, overall silly shitposts I thought would fit him, and another significant chunk dealing with his past drug abuse and regrets in life. How he's a better ghost than a living being. These are backed up by my own personal canon, but given the endless DC reboots Scarecrow as a canon character is hard to analyze aside from saying he has delusions of grandeur in most canons, is a lot more timid in private than in public [a showman], and is overall withdrawn when he's not putting on an act for an audience. I think that Scarecrow having self-esteem issues is logical, he's been pigeonholed into only being known for one thing for decades. He's also just an angry, horny cat here. Dude has cat vibes. I'm right.

[creepypuppetbrigade]

Good to know that lost media is the weirdest thing to happen to us, and incessantly calling Baker Terry to the point where the number had to be shut down after a day or two was the most normal thing.

For the fandom youngins, here's the explanation on these.

2014 Padlock - After DHMIS 2 came out in 2014, Sketchbook and Tony got shipped together in a really specific way. An artist called kadabura (please don't bother them about this for the love of god) made gijinkas of them, and those specific designs really caught on, and the ship dynamic for this sexy gijinka version of Padlock was basically the two of them making out while murdering each other. Fan art of this was so abundant that those who weren't interested briefly had to make a separate tag for non-Padlock posts. Even people who were never fans of DHMIS before and seemingly never fans again were drawing the fever dream sexy murder Sketchbook and Tony. This lasted about two or three months max before almost entirely disappearing.

Kickstarter credit card fraud - When the Kickstarter for episodes 3-6 of the web series was going on, £35,000 was suddenly donated one day, making the campaign reach its goal instantly. This turned out to be (we think) a child that found a stolen credit card number online, so they committed credit card fraud so the main trio wouldn't die. The 35k had to be removed by Kickstarter the next day. This may have ironically helped the campaign eventually succeed through its weird publicity.

BIRDMAN IS GOD - Between the Kickstarter and 3, the fandom was alive and active, but also had no new material to go one. So, a shitpost meme where we all worshiped the Duck as a god started. Also something about grapes? Duck was often called Birdman back then, as we kind of didn't seem to notice he was a duck for a while.

The phone number at the end of 5 - At the end of episode 5, there was a number on the phonebooth in the end credits. This was the number to a cell phone Becky, Joe, and Baker set up as a fun easter egg thing. One of them (usually Baker Terry) would answer in-character for anyone who called. They were not prepared for a swath of fans to almost immediately call them all at once. People online recorded some of their calls, with dhmis-audio probably having the most documented. They gave the phone to Baker, and after a couple days it drove his wife insane so he had to turn it off.

Thinking the Pilot was going to come out any day now in 2019 :') - This is the most recent thing, and a lot of you were probably around for this, or have at least heard of it. In 2018, an unexpected video was put on the DHMIS youtube called "Wakey Wakey," a trailer for the pilot episode of their planned TV series which was to premiere at Sundance in Utah in 2019. It premiered, a couple people were able to see it, and we thought surely it would be released officially after Sundance ended. And then we waited... and waited... and waited... Then the actual TV series came out. We still don't have the Pilot. It is suspected to be wrapped up in copyright limbo. RIP Key Man.

[crowberri]

[OC] Artfight revenge for @marggri

nya?

[amaraudermind]

Anyway all of us need to stop fighting over how much we hate each other's favorite characters and team up against the real enemy: DC destroying all of their characters by way of blaming a different character

[lmaowhateven]

umodern au but its only the genshin pairs i care abt

some hcs under the cut or whatever 🙄 i have lots of thoughts

THOMIYA (dating)

Thoma 26 Yoimiya 24

-Thoma is the manager of a Kamisato Teashop. He grew up with Ayaka and has naturally been very close with the family. Unofficially adopted into the family and eager to help in the business :)

-Yoimiya is running her father's fireworks shop as he's getting to old to do everything himself. It's taking a lot longer than she thought it would, but currently she's trying to get a degree in business.

-The Kamisato Teashop and Nagonahara Fireworks are right next to eachother! Thoma and Yoimiya have known each other since middle school but they only recently started dating (Ayaka set them up on a blind date >:D)

-They are practically perfect together save for the fact that Thoma frequently picks up stray animals and volunteers at shelters, and Yoimiya is wildly allergic to animal fur.

BEIGGUANG (divorced/it's complicated)

Beidou 33 Ningguang 35

-Beidou use to be a prominent fish catcher and sailor, but within the last 5 years has quit her job and bought a houseboat where she lives with Kazuha (17) (her half adopted son/half roommate).

-Ningguang is a prolific CEO of a mining and trading company. She's built up the entire operation herself. She's also paying the mortgage on Beidou's houseboat.

-Beidou and Ningguang met in their early 20's and it was practically love at first sight. They got married within a year and stayed together for 4 years. Split up due to completely different lifestyles, but they can't stay away from each other for too long.

-There is nothing funnier to me than divorced beigguang but the relationship is so messy they can't help but come back to each other. It's not toxic they just need couples therapy and both are too proud to admit it. 😐

-My ideal for them is "I thought we'd be better off divorced but I'm literally so miserable without you." They are so messy so so so so messy in my head

CHAEYA (flirting)

Kaeya 24 Childe 25

((this one is a bit of a shitpost idea my other idea was smth inspired by killing eve because i love my gay bitches MESSY and PROBLEMATIC but i went with this one instead bc it was just tooooooo edgy and i didn't want to make kaeya work for the FBI or MI6 cause he's too sexy for that))

-Childe is a tik tok influencer trying to break out into the acting world. He's fairly talented for a newbie on the scene, and having him as an actor in your movie is good publicity, so he's quickly becoming an up-and-coming star.

-Kaeya has been an a-list celebrity since his teen years, due to his father being a rich philanthropist it was fairly easy for him to get roles as a kid. He's won many awards for his talent and has been in block buster after block buster. As of late though, he's recently been caught in the middle of a NASTY public scandal surrounding his brother suing him, and has become black-listed in many celebrity circles. This hit to his public reputation has him working in films he'd usually decline.

-So that's how Childe and Kaeya became co-stars of the newest cheesy netflix teen drama. Kaeya so clearly doesn't want to be here and Childe is very eager to mess with him. I'd like to think Childe keeps posting images of him and Kaeya online together and fans keep speculating on their (character's) relationship. It drives Kaeya INSANE and Childe loves to press his buttons. He pretends like it doesn't but he's plotting 1210312313 different ways to get Childe fired offset.

-Kaeya starts messing with Childe whenever they have to act together on screen. If Childe wants to spread rumors than Kaeya can spread rumors too. 😌 Y'know just adding a little acting here and sprinkling a yearning touch there. It's all in the name of show-biz (AND VENGEANCE)

XIAOYU (married)

Xiao 31 Ganyu 34

-Both of them are ex-members of the Chinese mafia, but you'd never have guessed that. Now Xiao is a homemaker and Ganyu is a secretary for Ningguang. (basically a way of the househusband au.)

-Have been married for 8 years but everyone tells them they look too young to even be married at all.

-Ganyu frequently falls asleep on public transport, so Xiao takes her to and from work on his motorcycle. She absolutely loves the feeling of being on the bike, Xiao is so terrified every second of the way.

-They met after a long turf war had ended between two gangs. Their boss had grown tired of all the fighting and wanted to retire, and felt that they were too young to be roped up into all of this. Without anywhere else to go both of them had found solace with each other.

[soraka-in-warhammer40k]

Meme Culture in 40K

The Guard: regular shitposting. Often about eccentric characters of the "I knew that guy back in..." variant. Everyone knows the guy who shot his nuts off with a modded lasgun. Names change, often there is no official record, but everyone says they knew the guy. Also a lot of shitposting about certain commisars that is just vague enough to not get them shot on the spot.

Strapping your lasgun to your body so it looks like you are shooting with your dick is an evergreen joke that has not died down for centuries.

Space Marines: in its thematic combat and training focussed for obvious reasons, but utterly incomprehensible to outsiders. Some of the in-jokes and references date back centuries and sometimes puns include several generations of lingual drift to make sense. The events referenced might already be entriely gone from living mortal memory. One of their favourites is "funny mortals I met during a mission"-stories that they swap. Guard officers who just don't give a shit. Civillians who tried their best to "help". Sometimes just humans who just were not intimidated and treated them like any other person, which is very unusual for them. Some people have become meme-characters in their own right by now, even if they have been dead for centuries.

The Inquisition/Officio Assassinorum: No Fun Allowed. If you feel a fun-neuron in your brain firing off report to your superior for mental reconditioning.

Sisters of Battle: Officially also no fun allowed, but when they know no one's looking there is SO much religious shitposting. Sometimes it is bordeline blasphemy, but they usually stop before it goes full heresy. Fire jokes are always in style, and as with any zealot group there are also sub-groups that have their own eccentricities, and oh do they love roasting each other.

Grey Knights: Overly serious and will never be caught making a joke in public. Internally there is a lot of "I punched a Slaanesh demon its dicks with a powerfist once" jokes.

Custodes: Space Marines but x10 worse. Imagine memes that reference minor events in the unification wars. They are essentially a very small club of isolated weirdoes.

Knights: Very dependant on the household, but expect a lot of references to obscure family history. Also every now and so often someone takes a knight arm weapon and makes it look like its firing from where the mecha's genitals would be. That joke is just a human constant by now.

Adeptus Mechanicus: Madness. Utter madness. Their entire binary language is a mess of references and memes piled onto each other, combined with code and mathematical concepts pressed into linguistics. Within all that incomprehensibleness it is almost absurd that "I replaced my dick with a neutron laser" is still an evergreen joke.

Tyrannids: the Overmind is pretty sure that a "meme" was something it ate last week.

Genestealer Cults: they literally just post propaganda. They are genetically conditioned to only find that funny. Quite sad when you think about it.

Demons: are memes. Literally. Chaos is a memetic danger. The trouble is just that they are sentient with their own agency. They definetly have a preference for things that get people killed, such as weird challenges and so on.

Orks: Stories. So many stories about warbosses and the like. Half of them don't make any sense but as long enough Orks agree they do... well... you know the drill.

Craftworld Eldar: Very sensible humor, nothing too exciting. Quite polite. Often with a very melanchonic and depressive undertone. Looking at craftworld memes for too long as been cited as a cause for clinical depression.

Dark Eldar: a weird mirror-universe scenario: if you want to be really punk and edgy in their society, you post on "wholesome memes boards".

Harlequins: Shitposters Surpreme, Clown God and all. However a bit too self-referencial so it gets boring quite fast.

Exodite Eldar: every now and so often someone straps a laser gun to a dinosaur to make it look like it fires with a place where on a mammal there would be genitals.

Necrons: a bunch of royality who literally has nothing left but weird hobbies and shitposting. 90% of memes is someone roasting someone else, somtimes in a very roundabout way. Leads to multi-system civil war sometimes, especially when grudges are held for millenia. Often utterly incomprehensible to outsiders.

T'au: masters of the optimistic meme, also loves throwing shade on Imperial living conditions. Their favourite sort of comedy enjoyed by T'au and auxilliary races alike is essentially auxilliary races or very eccentric T'au driving the Ethereals insane with actions of the "they are a bit confused but they got the spirit" category - the characters definetly do their best for the Greater Good, but in entriely diferent ways the Ethereals would have wanted or planned them to act.

Every now and so often, someone submits blueprints for a battlesuit or Stormsurge that has its massive cannon in a rather peculiar spot. The recent increase of such submissions has been blamed on the humans.

[kamari333]

I’m curios to ask (If it’s alright, feel free not if you don’t want to) what makes Underlust your fave Au?

Oh this is a great question! There are a lot of reasons!! Longpost under the cut. Forgive me, i typed this on my phone and i just woke up.

One is the designs. I fucking adore everyones designs! Sans is damn cute! Papyrus is cute! Napstablook is cute! MTT is cute! Grillby is cute! The color palettes and slight deviations that make them unique are all just Artistically Good and they hit me somewhere nice in the visual appeal part of my brain.

Another reason is that I just love the canon story! I mean, yeah, its really dark and tragic what happened to Mettaton. But the point of the story is that he overcomes it. He is able to heal. The story tells us that you can heal even after you get hurt that badly and it doesnt have to define you and thats wonderful and beautiful and something too many people legitimately need to hear.

And the RELATIONSHIPS!! MTT and Papyrus talk it out and have a relationship that isnt based in physicality they just genuinely love each other. And Papyrus is so clearly Ride or Die. It's just GREAT okay? And the Sansby is ALSO GREAT because Sans and Grillby are awkward and never talk until Sans does his drunken confesssion and Grillbz is just like oh god i love this dumb idiot drunk this is my life now.

And MTT and Alphys also have a great relationship! They are close enough to make Girl Talk even after what happened! Alphys knows cuz she patched MTT up but they're still making sass at each other! GREAT!!

Papyrus and Undyne have a great relationship!!! She doesn't infantilize him and admits he is good at the sex part of the job, she just thinks he is too clingy and romance driven to keep himself detached enough for work. And thats a legitimate concern! For his well being and the clients both!

Sans and Papyrus's relationship is great!! There is clearly a standard set of platonic affection being shared between them. They talk and joke and sass and tease each other. Theyre brothers and its great.

(did the creator draw a lot of underlust fontcest too? yes. yes she did. and that was also great. but these are two separate things and even without the obvious -gestures- "theyre fictional skeleton monsters, dont be weird", its also addressed that the fontcest part is not something to model irl.)

And i like to headcanon blooky and sans are friends even though they never interacted in the canon material we got. i like to think they would have eventually if it wasn't discontinued.

I love how the humans are adults and frisk is aroace. i'm afraid of children so having an AU where the humans are all canonically adult is great to me.

I love Toriel and Asgore's relationship. It is tragic what happened to them, but I think it's important that stories not always shy away from that kind of hurt. Some people need stories like that too.

I love Rosie the Rose's design and concept in general.

I also love the LUST mechanic. I love that there is an AU where sex is a prominent, plot relevant, societally prevalent and important thing. I love that as an Asexual, myself. It allows me to explore that topic safely, while having fun. I love how its treated as a both natural (meaning its normal and not gross or weird) and unnatural (not meant for monsters, specifically, under normal circumstances) thing. I love how it is defined as a Very Human thing, and what that can mean to me when analyzed and juxtaposed against the narrative foil to the idea that we are given in Frisk the Asexual.

I kinda love that the whole thing is 80% shitposts and pieces the creator made while just having fun living their best life. Yes the papyton comic, which is the meat of the canon, was done seriously, but so much was made of just the characters having fun being themselves and thats pretty cool too.

I know there is a lot of bad publicity around underlust. I know people have spread terrible rumors about it. I frankly dont care. I know it is a beautiful story made from beautiful art. wherever its creator is now i wish her the best in the world. It is my favorite AU (aside from my own lol) and nobody can change my mind.