#since i saw some people talking about the timeline on twitter

[asterlae]

So im finally back home and i was in the middle of drawing them when i got to giving a mouth to buchi, and remembered that not only he has asthma but he also smokes, and that made me just sit there, thinking like damn, theres so many things about him that are autodestructive

i also have been thinking about the timeline and the one that convinces me the most is:

HTEL the novel → Kara no kioku → insomnia → HTEL mv → Fight song MV → sayonara

im still not very convinced but like, the htel novel its definitely the first thing to happen, i feel like kara no kioku its the next one since tobi there doesnt have the piercings, it could have happened after insomnia, but for some reason i feel like kara no kioku its what happens before that

then we would have insomnia, since the tobi there doesnt have the piercings and also has the same outfit as the one for the HTEL mv, then HTEL and Fight song would take place, before, i thought insomnia happened after HTEL but then i thought that it would make more sense that htel and fight song would be very close in the timeline, since ryuuko comes from tobi eating the dragon. And then we would have sayonara end roll

As i said kara no kioku could happen around the months between insomnia and sayonara but: 1. i feel like htel mv implies that tobi had been searching for he dragon for a relatively long time and i have a theory for the why but i would have to read the aviable chapters for knk and the novel again, but like htel mv feels like a mission that takes some time from him and its also very personal. My second reason its that knk's tobi feels rather young, like at least younger by a year or two to fight song's tobi, so yeah, maybe im wrong

But im still not very sure of this bc... im almost a 100 percent sure that ryuuko the dragon kind of zingai girl its closely related to ryuuko shiratama, the girl from the novel, like not only the name its the same but ryuuko's dragon apearence its very similar to the zingai of ryuuko shiratam, like a bigger and longer version, and before i was sure the the novel happened shortly before the mv...

but the timeline im thinking of sugest that there were at least 3 year between the novel and the MV which in turn would mean that tobi met buchi in that time, since it is havely implied (if not directly said) that ryuuko shiratama its tobis first friend. But i guess those years would explain the whole lore showed during fight song for the dragon girl

i also think the tobi meeting buchi happens before knk

[hs-is-loml]

He's My Favorite. (ln4)

Pairing: Lando Norris x Sainz!Actress!Reader

Summary: fans are speculating who y/n might be dating but it turns out it was in front of their faces the whole time. or y/n and lando are mistakenly considered to only be best friends and people are in for a surprise.

Type: Social Media AU! face claim is Bruna Marquezine!

Warnings: probably a few grammar errors. lots of fluff. drivers standing their ground against neymar jr. because he deserves his own warning. inaccurate timelines but then again this is a fictional smau! UNEDITED

a/n: i'm on a kick rn. nothing can stop me.

all translations come from google! english translations are in parentheses!!

masterlist

twitter

instagram

carlossainz55 just made a post

liked by yourusername, charles_leclerc, landonorris, and 1,560,937 others

carlossainz55 so proud of this one! but papa did say your head is growing too big after you saw yourself on the billboard...and i agree with him. anyways, go support y/n by watching her new movie Blue Beetle now in theaters!

tagged yourusername

view all 117,342 comments

sainzforlife this family is too talented for their own good-

yourusername papa did not say that.

→ carlossainz55 just ask him then @/carlossainzoficial

→ carlossainzoficial mija, es de lo único que has estado hablando desde que lo viste. (daughter, that's all you've been talking about since you saw it.)

→ yourusername papa, that's not very nice. don't try to pretend like i didn't catch you sending the trailer to all your friends last week...

iamrebeccad beautiful girl and amazing movie!

→ yourusername i love you more than my brother.

→ liked by iamrebeccad and 217 others

xolo_mariduena at least you didn't see her crying when she first saw the billboard

→ yourusername XOLO, NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO KNOW THAT

→ landonorris send the video.

→ yourusername now, look what you've done. all the drivers are going to see me crying now-

→ xolo_mariduena you'll still take me to the next gp right...?

landonorris just to let you guys know she cried after this photo was taken too

→ carlando4life does this mean lando was with the family for the private screening??

→ 4papaya lando is a part of their family so probably😭

instagram

landonorris just made a post

liked by yourusername, carlossainz55, mclaren, and 1,860,657 others

landonorris can't believe this girl is going to be blown up on the big screen coming to theaters near you. jokes aside proud of you and everything you do.

tagged yourusername

view all 99,342 comments

thatonebakucorner this post is so sweet!

yourusername thank you, lan🫶🏻

→ carlossainz55 why did you send him a heart?

→ charles_leclerc yeah, what's that about?🤨

→ yourusername carlos, you're just jealous you didn't get a post from lando

georgerussell63 i never get appreciation posts like this

→ landonorris what do you want me to post about your slideshows?

→ alex_albon it's because you're not y/n

welovey/n LOL not the drivers grilling lando about this post

ln4csforever "proud of you and everything you do" LANDO JUST TELL HER YOU LOVE HER ALREADY

→ paddockfashion please- like lando could pull someone like y/n

twitter

instagram

yourusername just made a post

liked by carlossainz55, landonorris, neymarjr, and 1,341,972 others

yourusername such a crazy week but glad i got to spend it with some of my favorite people. thank you for all the love and support you guys have given to Blue Beetle!

tagged carlossainz55 and landonorris

view all 117,593 comments

worldchampionsisaid what is neymar doing here?!?

→ neymarandy/n they need to get back together asap!

→ mywifeisy/n yes because that would be such a good idea even though he cheated on his baby mama while she was pregnant??

oscarpiastri lando is asking if you're serious with the guy in the third photo

→ oscarpiastri apparently, i wasn't supposed to ask you on here so now lando is yelling at me.

carmenmmundt proud of you, love! ❤️

→ yourusername love you, carmen! 🤎

ferraricountyourdays the third pic?? Y/N, WHO IS THAT MAN??

→ y/nismilf she needs to hard launch him already!

neymarjr linda como sempre, amor. (beautiful as always, love.)

→ carlossainz55 no, go away.

→ charles_leclerc wrong post, buddy.

→ georgerussell63 abosolutely not-

→ danielricciardo don't forget what happened last time you tried to contact her.

→ maxverstappen1 move along.

→ fifaandf1crossover do you know you have 30 minutes?

→ y/npleasemarryme love that they always protect her!

shesmyfavactress weird she posted picture with her bf along with one of lando and carlos

→ f1girlies maybe because she's an adult and allowed to be friends with her brother's ex teammate?

fernandoalo_oficial i remember when i used to be your favorite driver

→ carlossainzoficial those were the days

→ yourusername you two are still my favorite of all time.

→ carlossainz55 i'm hurt, y/n.

→ landonorris so was your caption meaningless?

→ yourusername i can't win.

whatacrossover oh, lando and y/n are definitely dating.

yourusername just added to their story

shared post by yourusername and landonorris

liked by oscarpiastri, carlossainz55, anasainzvdec, and 2,493,968 others

yourusername and landonorris just kidding, he's my favorite.

view all 136,975 comments

carlossainz55 that hand is getting a bit low, don't you think?

→ yourusername get over it. you've had years to get used to this already.

→ inmyf1era YEARS you say?

landonorris i get to be with you every day. what a life.

→ yourusername i love you.

→ oscarpiastri you're ridiculous

→ charles_leclerc mate, look what she has turned you into

→ yourusername charles, i will tell alex about this.

→ charles_leclerc I WAS JUST KIDDING. PLEASE NO

lilymhe was waiting for this hard launch!

→ alex_albon i thought lando was going to spill before they could even do one

carlossainzoficial what can i say i love my son so i approve

→ yourusername could've said that you love and care for your daughter's happiness

sebastianvettel actually, y/n forgot who her real favorite is

→ yourusername love you, seb!

→ landonorris back off, old man.

[miss-musings]

"The Bad Batch" Timeline: Explained

I've had some interesting conversations with folks on Twitter over the last few weeks about the timeline of "The Bad Batch" show: How much time passes between any given episodes? How old is Omega during S1 or S3? etc.

The short answer is that the entire show takes place over 18-24 months*

(*NOTE: All timeline discussion excludes the TBB epilogue at the end of episode 3.15 "The Cavalry Has Arrived.")

EDIT: I’m also calculating time based on Earth weeks/months/years. I recognize that time in the Star Wars universe likely varies from planet to planet, so I just want to clarify we’re going off IRL time calculations: 7 days to a week, ~30 days to a month, 12 months to a year. I’m also not referring to any external sources (except Wookieepedia, but that’s more to confirm the timeline than create it), so I don’t care what some guidebook says. I’m going based on what happens in the show itself.

Wookieepedia lists Hemlock's death as 18 BBY, so 12-24 months pass between 1.01 "Aftermath" in 19 BBY and Hemlock's death in the series finale.

However, the two biggest and clearest indications of how much time passes during the show is Mayday's comments in 2.12 "The Outpost" and Omega's tally marks in 3.01 "Confined."

In 2.12, Mayday says he's been posted on Barton IV for over a year, and based on his comments, he wasn't posted on Barton IV until after The Clone Wars ended. So, it's been at least a year -- but probably more like 14-15 months because Mayday says "over a year" -- since the events of 1.01 "Aftermath."

Then after the time-jump during 3.01, Omega has about 5.5 months of tally marks. Rounding up from when Crosshair was arrested and taken to Tantiss, about 6 months have passed since 2.12.

So, between those two indicators, at least 18 months have passed between 1.01 "Aftermath" and the end of 3.01 "Confined." But, realistically, it's probably been more like 20-21 months.

Then, the rest of S3 takes place over a pretty compressed timeframe, as no more than a few days seem to pass between episodes. I'll get into this more later, but I'm guessing that the end of 3.01 "Confined" to the big showdown on Tantiss in 3.15 "The Cavalry Has Arrived" takes place over the course of 1-2 months.

Again, it's confirmed that 18-24 months pass between the series premiere and the series finale.

But, my best guess is that the entire show takes place over 22-23 months based on in-universe clues.

THE SEASON 1 TIMELINE BREAKDOWN

Overall, I'm guessing that Season 1 takes place over the course of 4-6 months. I think this is much shorter than some people think, but it makes sense to me based on context clues.

1.01 "Aftermath" takes place over the course of a few days, and then 1.02 "Cut & Run" to 1.06 "Decommissioned" all seem to take place in a very compressed timeframe. No more than a day or two seems to pass between episodes, and no more than a day or two passes within each episode.

So, I'm thinking the end of 1.06 takes place about a month after 1.01.

Then we get our first notable time-jump between 1.06 and 1.07.

1.07 "Battle Scars" opens with the Bad Batch having done at least 10 more jobs for Cid since we last saw them in 1.06. (FYI: this is based on Omega and Wrecker's order of 20 cartons of Mantell Mix).

However Cid talks about the Corellia job like it wasn't too long ago, and if we average 2-3 days per job (which seems realistic based on what we see in the show), then about a month has passed between 1.06 and 1.07.

So, at the beginning of 1.07, I'm saying about two months have passed since 1.01 "Aftermath."

Then 1.08 "Reunion" and 1.09 "Bounty Lost" take place immediately after 1.07.

Skipping over 1.10, we get another notable time-jump between 1.09 "Bounty Lost" and 1.11 "Devil's Deal." The biggest indicator is Crosshair's recovery from his injuries on Bracca.

Assuming at least a month for him to recover and be stationed on Ryloth with Rampart & co., that means at least three months have passed between 1.01 "Aftermath" and 1.11 "Devil's Deal."

Even though we don't have any firm timeline, I don't think more than 2 months passed between 1.09 and 1.11, because everyone on Ryloth talks like it hasn't been that long since the Clone Wars ended.

Anyway, then 1.12 "Rescue on Ryloth" takes place immediately after 1.11.

Now, we know that 1.14-1.16 all take place over the course of a few days. So that just leaves us with how much time passes between 1.12 "Rescue on Ryloth" and 1.14 "War-Mantle."

Given that Rampart gave Crosshair permission to hunt down his brothers at the end of 1.12, I'm going to assume he wasn't looking for them that long. Rampart never complains that Crosshair's manhunt is wasting time, or that it's taking so long that they should abandon the effort. Plus, they were also busy decommissioning Tipoca City and the other Kaminoan facilities, so I imagine that took some time.

So, maybe 3-5 weeks (or another month) in all.

To recap, we have:

A month from 1.01 to 1.06

A month between 1.06 and 1.07

A month between 1.07-1.09 and 1.11/1.12

A month between 1.11/1.12 and 1.14-1.16

Overall, 4 months for sure, but 5-6 months seems a good estimate.

This would also account for how much time passes during the Bracca and Ryloth arcs, and gives more wiggle room on how long Crosshair's recovery process was. Maybe it took him two months to recover from Bracca and be assigned to Ryloth. Or maybe Crosshair was searching for his brothers for more than a month after Ryloth. Who knows?

EDIT/ADDITION: 4-6 months also seems to be a reasonable amount of time for the Empire to establish the Daro base with commandos like Gregor and Scorch, and then recruit, supply and train all the TK troopers we see in 1.14 "War-Mantle."

But, overall, I'm estimating the events of 1.16 "Kamino Lost" take place 5-6 months after 1.01 "Aftermath."

THE SEASON 2 TIMELINE BREAKDOWN

I'll tell you now: early Season 2 is where a lot of my guesses go out the window, because we get far fewer clues as to how much time passes between episodes.

Let's start with the time-jump between the end of Season 1 and the beginning of Season 2.

Based on Rampart and Crosshair's conversation in 2.03 "The Solitary Clone," Crosshair was stranded on Kamino for a month.

Given that he didn't have any food or water on him when his brothers left him on the platform, he must've been emaciated and dehydrated AF, even if he found some way to collect rainwater and/or catch fish. And Rampart said he needed to be "medically cleared" for active duty.

At least two months seems a good estimate. One month for Crosshair to be stranded; another month for him to recover. It's possible it was longer, though, I admit.

So, at the beginning of 2.03 "The Solitary Clone," we're at least 7 months removed from 1.01 "Aftermath."

Now, I actually think 2.03 takes place before 2.01/2.02. Story for another time, but it boils down to:

1) The creators would want to kick off Season 2 with a Bad Batch-centric episode not a Crosshair-centric episode, even if Crosshair’s episode takes place first chronologically; and

2) Rampart learns the Bad Batch is alive in 2.02, but never has Crosshair arrested or monitored as a potential spy or anything -- this only makes sense if Rampart finds out TBB is alive after Crosshair is cleared for duty and has proven his loyalty.

But, ultimately it doesn't matter:

Based on Mayday's comments in 2.12 "The Outpost," early Season 2 has to cover at least 7 more months. That means that months are passing between episodes in early S2.

In 2.12, Mayday says he's been stationed at the Outpost for over a year, and that he wasn't stationed there until after the war ended. So, assuming at least a month after the war for him to be reassigned, and then 13 months for him to be on Barton IV ... 2.12 has to take place at least 14 months after 1.01 "Aftermath."

So, ultimately, I think 2.01/2.02 might take place 3-4 months after the Fall of Kamino in 1.16 "Kamino Lost." It would allow enough time for the Bad Batch to get new clothes, repaint their old armor, and for Omega to start all of her studies while the Bad Batch continues to do jobs for Cid.

Then we probably have another month between 2.02 "Ruins of War" and 2.04 "Faster." Then another month to 2.05 "Entombed." And then another month to 2.06 "Tribe." And then another month to the beginning of 2.07 “The Clone Conspiracy.”

Because of how compressed the back-half of Season 2 is, I think 2.07/2.08 takes place about 13 months after the war ends in 1.01 "Aftermath" and, thus, about 7-8 months after the Fall of Kamino in 1.16 "Kamino Lost."

Now, once we get to 2.07, that's when the timeline starts compressing again based on in-universe clues.

We know 2.08 "Truth and Consequences" takes place almost immediately after 2.07. So, no more than a week seems to pass between the beginning of 2.07 and the end of 2.08.

Then, 2.09 "The Crossing" takes place a few days after 2.08, as Omega is still adjusting to Echo's absence. Then 2.10 "Retrieval" is immediately after 2.09, and 2.11 "Metamorphosis" takes place maybe a day after 2.10.

So, from the beginning of 2.07 to the end of 2.11, maybe two weeks have passed in-universe.

Then, at the beginning of 2.13 "Pabu," Cid remarks that it's been 20 rotations since she last talked to the Bad Batch in 2.11.

From 2.13 to 2.14, I'm guessing 1-2 weeks have passed based on how much of Pabu has been rebuilt since the sea surge and other context clues (like Shep and Hunter's conversation about the Bad Batch staying on Pabu).

Now, we're not exactly sure where 2.12 "The Outpost" falls in the S2 timeline. I'm guessing it's simultaneous with 2.13 "Pabu" for thematic and dramatic reasons, but we see all our various plot threads align in 2.14 "Tipping Point." Everything Echo, Crosshair and Hunter & co. do happens within 2-3 days.

Then, based on Echo's comments, we know 2.15 "The Summit" takes place two days after the Bad Batch's conversation at the end of 2.14 "Tipping Point." And then 2.16 "Plan 99" takes place immediately after 2.15.

So, while I can't speculate much on early S2, I can tell you that 2.07-2.16 spans about two months.

To recap:

2 months between 1.16 "Kamino Lost" and 2.03 "The Solitary Clone"

Several months between 2.01/2.02 and 2.07

A week during 2.07 and 2.08

A few days between 2.08 and 2.09

Another week during 2.09 to 2.11

Three weeks between 2.11 and 2.13

Two weeks between 2.13 and 2.14

A week during 2.14 to 2.16

But, overall, I'm estimating the events of 2.16 "Plan 99" take place 15-16 months after 1.01 "Aftermath."

THE SEASON 3 TIMELINE BREAKDOWN

Unlike the previous two seasons, Season 3 is very compressed. Outside of the time-jump within 3.01 "Confined," the entire season takes place over the course of 5-6 weeks. Not months. Weeks.

Now, again, I actually think 3.02 "Paths Unknown" takes place during the five-month time-jump within 3.01. But that doesn't really matter.

As we see from Omega's tally marks, the end of 3.01 takes place about 5.5 months after 2.16 "Plan 99." So, we have our between-seasons time-jump spelled out for us this time.

This means the end of 3.01 "Confined" takes place 21-22 months after 1.01 "Aftermath."

Skipping over 3.02, episode 3.03 "Shadows of Tantiss" seems to take place within a few days of the end of 3.01. We see that Omega is still being monitored closely after her outburst in the lurca kennels; and Hemlock told Nala Se in 3.01 that the Emperor would be arriving soon to check on their progress, which he does in 3.03. Heck, maybe 3.03 takes place the day after 3.01, but I’ll give a little wiggle room and say it’s been a few days.

Then, we know that the beginning of 3.03 to the end of 3.05 all takes place in a very short amount of time. Maybe a week.

3.04 "A Different Approach" takes place immediately after 3.03, and no more than a day or two passes between the end of 3.04 and the beginning of 3.05 "The Return."

So, from the end of 3.01 to the end of 3.05, two weeks have passed at most.

The gap between 3.05 and 3.06 is the only span of time in S3 we don't have any solid indicators about. It clearly wasn't too long, as Howzer talks about Crosshair escaping Tantiss like it happened fairly recently. Overall, I'd guess it's been maybe a week or two since Crosshair and Omega escaped Tantiss.

Then, 3.07 takes place immediately after 3.06.

Excluding 3.10 "Identity Crisis," we know that 3.08-3.11 all take place within a short amount of time. No more than 2-3 days seem to pass between episodes, and no more than 2-3 days passes within each episode. In total, I'd say these three episodes take place over the course of two weeks.

Thus, I'm guessing 4-5 weeks, or about a month, passes from the end of 3.01 "Confined" to the beginning of 3.11 "Point of No Return."

Then, we know the timeline between 3.11 and 3.15 is very short because all the episodes take place almost immediately after each other. The only exception is between 3.12 and 3.13, when maybe 12-24 hours passes based on Omega's movements in the Vault and her brothers' plans to infiltrate the orbital station.

You can round up and say a week, but that almost seems generous to me. Maybe a work week. Like the Empire invaded Pabu Monday night and Omega & co. were back on Pabu Friday morning.

Overall, I think the beginning of 3.11 "Point of No Return" to the end of 3.15 "The Cavalry Has Arrived" spans 3-5 days.

To recap:

5.5 months from the end of 2.16 "Plan 99" to the end of 3.01 "Confined"

A week from the end of 3.01 to the end of 3.05

A week between 3.05 and 3.06/3.07

Three weeks during 3.06/3.07 to 3.11

A week during 3.11 to 3.15

Again, outside of the time-jump within 3.01, the entirety of Season 3 takes place over 1-2 months if we're looking at the larger post-"Aftermath" timeframe.

Overall, I'm estimating the showdown on Tantiss and Hemlock's death in 3.15 "The Cavalry Has Arrived" takes place about 22-23 months after 1.01 "Aftermath."

We know it's not more than 24 months after the war ends, because Wookieepedia would list Hemlock's death in 17 BBY instead of 18 BBY. So no more than 24 calendar months can pass between "The Bad Batch" series premiere and series finale.

But, accounting for things that happen within the show, 22-23 months seems about right. Like, it's been almost two calendar years, but not quite.

So, to give a real-world example, if Palpatine gave his "Revenge of the Sith" speech to reorganize the Republic into the Galactic Empire on Jan. 1, 2022, then the big showdown on Tantiss takes place in October or November 2023.

That means:

If Omega was 12 years old when her brothers met her on Kamino, she was 13-14 during the showdown on Tantiss.

After his inhibitor chip activated, Crosshair was separated from his brothers for more than 18 months before finally reconciling with them in 3.05 "The Return."

The Bad Batch worked for Cid for over a year, and she still betrayed them.

Phee and Tech's ~situationship~ might've lasted half-a-year between their first meeting in 2.01 "Spoils of War" and his death in 2.16 "Plan 99."

Howzer and his men from Ryloth were in prison for almost a year before Echo & co. broke them out in 2.14 "Tipping Point."

When Crosshair sent the Plan 88 message, the Bad Batch hadn't seen or heard from him in ~10 months (since the Fall of Kamino).

Omega only got to spend 15-16 months with Tech before his death in 2.16 “Plan 99.” 😭

Crosshair hadn't seen his brothers for over a year between the Fall of Kamino and escaping Tantiss with Omega.

Omega and Crosshair only spent about 7 months together during the show (5.5 on Tantiss and 1.5 after their escape), and most of that was off-screen. 🙁

Apparently, more time passed between S1 and S2 than during S3 (excluding the time jump and epilogue). Seriously. From the end of 3.01 to the final showdown on Tantiss, the Bad Batch had a very insane and stressful 5-6 weeks. They all looked like they could use a nap in that final group shot under the tree, and I don't blame them!

All the clones (except Omega) aged 3-4 biological years over the course of the show. So, if Hunter & co. were biologically 22 when they met Omega on Kamino, they'd be around 25-26 when they finally settle down on Pabu.

Not sure how this will help people, but I wanted to share it because I've been thinking about how insane this show's timeline — how loosey-goosey it is in some places while being super-rigid in others.

So, enjoy!

[luna-andra]

Domesticated!König Headcanons: Meeting the future In-Laws ✨

Image: @Skavod29 on Twitter (Source)

I was floored by how much attention my first headcanon post got. Y'all had me fucking emotional and I am so happy it's something people actually like. It keeps me coming back to post more of my silly little ideas. Forever grateful for your support! ❤️

I also need to reiterate that my blog/posts are 18+ so MDNI, this one has some NSFW bonus HCS 💋

If you missed the first one, here :) StepDad!Konig is here!

I got other stuff! Masterlist pinned on my blog

When you decided it was time for your parents and König to meet, you were tempted to slip a Xanax into his morning coffee. It is not like he hasn’t said a polite hello and a few words over the phone or when you facetime them, but now he was finally meeting them in person. You’ve seen him more calm talking to two- and three-star generals than this, the kinds of things that rattled your nerves.

You swore he changed attire more times than you did. The sight of him re-rolling his sleeves on his button up shirt made you intervene before he undid them all over again. He paused when your hands held his, then flicked his azure eyes up to you. “They’re gonna love you, my king.” Your gentle smile and comforting words got through to him.

They welcomed you and the mystery man with open arms at their front door. Mom never knew how to keep her thoughts to herself, but she really did mean well. Of course, the first thing they all notice is how König has to duck under their doorway to come inside. “You weren’t lying when you said he was tall,” mom said. You gave her a warning look followed up with an apologetic smile to König. He managed to chuckle it off, it was nothing new for him. It did make him curious about what else you’ve said to your mom about the two of you.

You gave König a tour of your childhood home, nearly having to pry him from the wall of photos of you and your family. He had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face of the little timeline displayed in pretty frames; your first elementary school photo, a photo of you in a boy/girl scouts uniform, another of you during extra-curricular activities (band/orchestra, JROTC, sports, theater, robotics team, etc.), a prom photo with you and old friends, and lastly your high school graduation picture. König wanted a copy of one of them to keep in his wallet, mom promised to get him one behind your back.

König's field day got better when you showed him your childhood bedroom. Depending on how you last had it decorated, you were either low key bashful or regretting even showing him. It was like traveling back in time for him, giving him a glimpse of the kid and teen, you used to be. A chance to fall in love with every facet of you.

He was getting more comfortable when he found out your dad wasn’t out to get him as much as he thought. They ended up sitting in the living room, talking about a topic after your dad played twenty questions to figure him out. Something either about guns, hunting, hiking, fishing, blue-collar work, and if your dad is a veteran, they got along faster than you could imagine. You and mom caught up in the kitchen as you helped her finish up with cooking and setting the table.

If you have siblings, they showed up in the nick of time before dinner, to share embarrassing stories of you when you were a kid, or the stories you all waited to tell when you all were adults to avoid from getting in trouble. König watched and listened as you got more animated with laughter. Loving every second of this. He had a handful of memories he could count on his hand that were of happier times, but your memories became his favorite ones.

Everyone pestered the two of you for the story of how you met. And since you’ve been doing most of the talking, you looked to König to tell the tale. Your eyes never left him as he started the story from his point of view, recollecting the moment he saw you and how he was trying to come up with an excuse to try and talk to you. It donned on you that this was the first time you were hearing the way he saw you. “And now we’re here,” he concluded, looking over to you with a grin and a touch to your hand underneath the table.

NSFW Bonus:

König couldn’t stop thinking about taking you in your childhood room, nearly fantasizing what it would’ve been like if the two of you met as teens/younger adults. Indulging in the idea of sneaking into your bedroom window or standing outside with a boombox in 80s/90s style fashion.

Of course, your parents offered you to stay with them, not wanting you to have to rent a hotel room or travel back (depending on how far away you lived from them), so the later the night got, the more distracted König became with fulfilling his dirty thoughts.

It was just like the old days, having you home and hearing the music coming from your speakers when someone passed by the doorway. You were just showing König your CD collection, right?

It definitely wasn’t because you were trying to muffle your moans and screams as he pounded you into that fucking mattress. Making you a drooling and brainless mess under his rutting hips. He kept praising you for taking him so well and for being so quiet like the good little fuck thing you were, making it harder not to cum so fast. Secretly, this was your fantasy too, and you wanted it to last a little longer than the 10 minutes of foreplay and fucking you had already endured.

Likes & reblogs are always appreciated! Stay tuned for more to this unexpected series! Asks are opened for requests & ideas for others.

[kingshovelbug]

im sorry but i need to geek out somewhere and screaming into the void on tumblr is less likely to get me flayed than on twitter, especially if i get terms wrong. plus i can do a read more and yall can click into the tech talk if you want to verse it bombarding your twitter timelines

so idk if i only liked it or if i actually put it in my queue but i saw a post that talked about a few pieces of tech that focus on user repairs and being sustainable (fairphone and frameworks laptop) and after doing some more research into what they have to offer i actually really excited that these products are finely hitting the us market and that people are moving away from the belief that super smooth streamlined glassy = the future. being able to reliably repair and keep what you have alive verse throwing the whole thing away when maybe all you needed to do is add more ram to your current laptop (something that i would do with my laptop to keep using it for a few more years if it wasnt glued shut and i was at risk of cracking the screen) or swap out a fuse.

i know big corporations dont like it but i truly do believe with how much tech we use on a daily basis that the way that we are going to be more environmentally friendly is to move back to tech that we can hang onto for as long as we can and to recycle and then reuse what we cant. like with the frameworks laptop. i saw that they just partnered with coolermaster to create a case specifically so that you can reuse you motherboard, cpu, etc and make a portable workstation. you could dual wield with the laptop you just upgraded if you want to dedicate specific tasks to one or the other. they also specifically mentioned that you could screw it into the back of a monitor and create your own all in one. guys thats cool as shit??? if you had a 3d printer and some time you could even create that yourself

on top of the actual hardware part moving to open source programs when your able. when i update my desktop i plan on running linux. it might have a learning curve compared to windows but in terms of performance??? ive heard that it runs smoother even on older machines, that its more efficient because isnt running stuff in the background that tracks your data and shit. now i understand that not everyone can do that because there are some programs that dont play nice with linux but for my needs at least it does everything i would need it to. and maybe a couple years down the road we do figure out how to run these programs on certain flavors of linux since its open source and people fiddle with it so much. (still looking for alternatives to like word and excel though, i use google docs since its free but i want to move away from them as much as i can too since they laid of their youtube music team (i believe?? it might of been a different branch) for trying to unionize)

if anyone knows of any other smaller companies that actually focus on sustainability and user repairability please let me know. theres certain pieces of tech that i think are now unfortunately behind a software repair paywall, things that used to be just machines and are gaining more bells and whistles like cars and refrigerators if that makes sense. but the more we push for these things to be repairable by us the consumers id hope that would change, or there would at least be options that dont need specific companies to repair them or else they blow up

[jennysparksandtheauthority]

I wish I could believe any Pricefield's criticisms in good faith, but this is the same fandom that harassed and abused Dontnod when Life is Strange 2 came out and it wasn't about Max and Chloe. The game got review bombed in the early days, and along with harassing the staff, the VAs and characters both received terrible racist comments. We also saw similar instances with True Colors. Harassment, review bombing, and racism.

Both Dontnod and Square/Deck Nine wanted to make this series into an anthology.

It was the Pricefield shippers who continually demanded the return of Max and Chloe.

Seeing how horrifically this fandom has treated so many people who worked on these games, many of whom are just as big of fans and passionate about it as they are, is it any wonder the latest entry is now a souless cash grab meant to bring in money banking on nostalgia while disrespecting the fans and hating on one half of a big ship?

And ever since the first two episodes of Double Exposure has come out, when the fandom isn't talking about Pricefield, I've seen nothing but transphobic comments about Gwen (constantly misgendering her and calling her a pedo because she's trans), racist comments towards Moses and Safi (accusing Moses of being the murderer just because he's black or being hoping Safi is going to die in both timelines because she's Arabic), bisexual erasure towards Max (which Michael confirmed was always supposed to happen, Square didn't influence her sexuality like so many of the fandom and the "former D9 employee" keep insisting), and attacking the VAs who are actually excited for this project and want to play the game on their youtube channels.

I used to love Pricefield when I was younger. I grew out of it as I got older because I saw all the flaws with the ship and figured out it wasn't for me. Any chance of enjoying the ship ever again was ruined by this fandom.

The Life is Strange fandom, and the Pricefield fandom especially, are incredibly entitled and bigoted. One of the worst fandoms I've ever had the displeasure to be a part of. And I'm not surprised at all that things ended up this way.

Big fandoms are always bound to be toxic at some point. The more people in a fandom, the higher the chances of having assholes among us. Unfortunately, it happens. And you’re right about all the fucked up shit that happened through the years, the LIS2 situation was especially heartbreaking.

But you’re also leaning into confirmation bias.

I’ve seen people on Twitter and TikTok and Instagram and here making fan cams of Gwen, saying she’s the best new character, arguing that she would have been a better love interest for Max than whatshisname and Amanda (and I echo that sentiment, Gwen rocks and I’ll fight the transphobes with my bare hands if I have to).

I’ve seen people hold dearly Sean and Daniel’s story, making the ‘squad’ sweatshirt sell out repeatedly in that website that has LIS stuff.

I’ve seen people saying they want to protect Moses at all costs, even calling for everyone to be respectful to the VA and to leave him out of the madness, just like with Hannah Tell.

If we’re having dinner in a restaurant with 100 well behaved people and there’s one or two or even ten assholes screaming and throwing things to other people, they’re going to ruin the experience for everyone else. They’re going to be loud and annoying and you could leave saying you’re never coming back to that restaurant. That’s fair. But the fault falls specifically on that group, not the other hundred people that were minding their own business and enjoying their dinners.

Nowadays, it’s impossible to enjoy any fandom if you don’t find the four/five weirdos that enjoy the thing as much as you and you create a nice little bubble of the stuff you like and the people you want to interact with. It’s sad, but it’s true.

This doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be held accountable and that we shouldn’t try to take out our own trash — I’ve been calling out an awful person on Twitter that’s been harassing and insulting the devs for the last few days. I reported them, I tried to reason, I did all the work until there was nothing left to do but to block them.

Sometimes you can make a difference. Other times, you can’t.

Now, are you suggesting that the whole pricefield fandom deserved this? That we all should be punished? That we’re all implicitly responsible for the misogyny, the homophobia and the greed of the capitalistic machine? Wow.

The simple truth is SE and D9 wanted to pander to casual gamers and gamebros cause they thought that would give them more money. The truth is that D9’s toxic work environment (reason enough to boycott everything they put out well before the pricefield fiasco) influenced this game to the point of being lead by people who didn’t understand the first game and that hated the themes at its core.

You think the pricefield fandom is bigoted and entitled? Oh boy, have a look at all the articles about D9’s internal affairs: N*ZI symbolism, misogyny, sexual harassment, homophobia…

You think the majority of the LIS fandom is toxic? Then take a look at what the casual cismale straight gamers are saying now. They’re the new LIS:DE fandom. I’m not going to reproduce the comments and the absolute vile things I’ve seen them say post-DE gameplay reveal and the break up confirmation, but I’ll show you a glimpse of the reactions:

So, in the bitter conclusion, you might be right: just like Chloe, we might deserve all of this because after all we’re loud, we’re queer, and we deserve to be punished.

Just like Nathan said to Chloe in the bathroom, the devs were asking this to the pricefield fandom… “Nobody would ever even miss your "punk ass" would they?”

Well, fuck around and find out.

[chaifootsteps]

The entirety of this following ramble is me bringing to attention a very specific moment in the history of Viv's interactions with her fan base and how that interaction itself reflected on her as an early but easily ignored warning sign of her tendencies and lack of self-restraint online to come. I have only ever seen one anon vaguely reference this incident in passing on your page some months ago, so I think that providing a more detailed account of the incident may actually be a really important look at Viv’s personality in the past that not enough people are aware of. Almost everyone and their dog knows about the "My name is Caine, I am your Bitch" incident from last year because the internet quickly saw, in mass, the way Viv composes herself online regarding opinionated content about her and her creative works. This reveal was important because thousands of people learned through more than a few twitter posts that Viv is not good at, ironically enough, "taking a joke". However, over a year prior to the MNIC drama was the drama around the delay announcement in June 2022 for episode 8 of season 1 of Helluva Boss: Within a day of the announcement, a relatively small youtuber made a live stream talking about their disappointment with the delay announcement, explaining that this delay announcement revealed that they had been waiting for months on an episode that wasn’t even directly relevant to the plot developments from the previous episode 7, and that Spindlehorse had not been providing a reasonable amount of previous communication with the fandom about the state of episode 8 when considering how Helluva Boss was a nearly entirely fan funded web series. 

And then Viv herself showed up in the youtuber's live stream chat.

I don't know if some fans informed Viv of the stream or if she found out about it herself, but what matters is that she started basically arguing with the youtuber via the chat about why the Spindlehorse team couldn't disclose the reason for the delay and that the youtuber wasn't giving the creative team enough credit for their attempts to prevent having to delay the episode’s release, along with stating how the creative team were themselves upset by the complications of the delay. When the youtuber stood firm on their disappointment with the lack of communication and how the fans can't be expected to know the details surrounding a situation they aren't told about, Viv basically admitted defeat and left the stream chat, her last comment being "Sorry for saying anything".

The next day, the youtuber made a follow up video summarizing the delay update, their feelings on it, Viv's comments from the stream, and a final remark towards the Spindlehorse creative team about the communication the youtuber felt Spindlehorse owed their audience. Within a few weeks, the youtuber had to delete the summary video due to the extreme amount of backlash and dogpiling they got by Helluverse fans for their opinions and how they stood firm towards Viv's comments. I know my description of the event has been fairly vague, but part of that is specifically because there is very little information available that this all even transpired because of how quickly the degree of harassment led to videos being deleted. I won't say the name of the youtuber for the sake of their anonymity, but they were decently known in the earlier days of the fandom because of the lore and theory videos they specifically made about the show, a show they had great admiration for. However, I still think it's important you know more specifically that this happened and why it matters since many people come to you asking about the complex timeline of Viv's behavior. Well, in June 2022, one incident in that timeline that barely any Helluverse fan knows about was that one time when Viv went onto the live stream of a small-scale but dedicated fan of her show, argued with the fan on their stream where everyone in the stream audience watching would be witness, criticized the fan for their behavior and how they spoke out on a literal lack of information in front of that entire stream audience, and then played the pity card as she signed off. If I had to explain what the point of all of this was, it's that I just wish this fandom (antis and stans included) knew more about that incident several months before the MNIC incident when Viv, who had significant influence over her fanbase of millions at that time, caused so much distress towards a small scale fan of her own shows for committing the apparent sin of stating their own opinion. Viv has refused to "not get involved" in online conversations both big and small for YEARS proceeding the MNIC shenanigans, and in this case in June 2022, that included her self-serving, ego-protecting involvement causing significant distress for what had previously been an extremely loyal fan of Viv's own work who was simply stating an opinion to whatever other fans wanted to hear it.

For anyone who's curious, there are actually screenshots of this happening.

[yujeong]

Okk. I don't want to compare or anything but I don't get the people who's getting mad on Korn Tonkla scenes saying they had more screen time? Or shit. I mean tbh, I am understanding the plot of the series better because of the two of them because they are somehow related to all of the events. And Tonkla's situation is...... he somehow senses the other timeline which I think is an important role. And also, Korn! Like what you've said he knows Dome is dead, and at the same time he's with his brother who ’saved’ Dome. Both of the characters are pivotal in the series.

Also, I think that they are more talked about because a Bas and Fuaiz couple was not expected in the series, and at the same time their plot line is really good as well as the build up of their characters. And I've seen more & more people are falling in love with Fuaiz & Bas (as an actor) in this series.

But somehow, I get them because the main couple is GreatTyme but why does it feel like they are becoming more of a side couple. Also saw people saying that their ’plot line’ or how they were introduced to eo /wasn't it./

Thank you for giving me the incentive to speak about this issue, anon. I'm going to do it now because the new episode will come out in a few hours and hopefully I won't have to do this ever again - which I honestly doubt but anyway. Since I haven't seen this type of discourse pop up on Tumblr (thank GOD), I'd like to inform everyone that over on Twitter, there have been massive complaints about Tonkla, aka Fuaiz, getting more screentime than the main characters, aka JesBible, to the point of people tagging BOC in posts and demanding they give them more scenes with TymeGreat - as if BOC can just pull footage they haven't filmed out of their ass or something. It got so bad that Sammon herself saw them and AGREED with these people, further explaining how it was important for some plot elements to be explored now, in order for the rest of the series to make sense. Now, with all due respect to her position as a screenwriter: she's factually wrong here. Someone on Twitter actually sat down and counted the minutes each character is on screen and came out with these results:

It's not in English, but I believe the results are clear: Tonkla doesn't even come close to Great's screentime. He's a little closer to Tyme's, but the main character is Great, so he's the one we should be looking at. Also, in case it hasn't been fucking obvious, Tonkla is an essential character in 4 Minutes, which is why we're getting many scenes with him. The reason I mentioned the actors is pretty self-explanatory - people are mad their favourite actors are shown a specific amount of time, giving space to other plot lines and characters, instead of being there for the whole episode, as if the point of 4 Minutes is the romance between Tyme and Great and nothing else. Meanwhile, Bible himself was laughing and clapping and enjoying the flashback scene between Korn and Tonkla when they had their first time, because Bible wanted to be part of a good production, which he is and he recognizes it. But no, God forbid we get more context over KornTonkla, which is one of the most important relationships in the show, which guides Tonkla's actions, which moves the fucking PLOT of the SHOW. I could give the benefit of the doubt to people being upset Tonkla was shown for not even half of episode 4, but I won't, and the reason for that is because I'm sick and fucking tired of people getting their panties in a twist because a character who loves getting fucked is actually getting fucked in almost every episode. Good for him honestly, even if it's making him worse. (I've already ranted about this whole thing here, I'm not going to repeat myself) I don't know how your social media feeds are like anon, but mine are flooded with BibleJes + GreatTyme content and I rarely see anything about KornTonkla or Bas and Fuaiz or anything of the sort, so I can't agree with you that they're more talked about than the main actors/characters. (That's not the case on Tumblr though: I have a very varied feed + my lovely anon asks which give me the chance to talk about my boys and I'm thankful for that.) And I'm sorry, anon, but I'm going to have to disagree with you in the end: Great and Tyme do NOT feel like the side couple at all. They are and they feel very much like the main couple and they've had multiple scenes together in every single episode so far (at the hospital, in Great's garage, at the park, at the university, at the arcade, inside Great's car, at the rooftop of the hospital, at the warehouse, inside the tent etc). We've gotten plenty of fucking content for them AND also BOC has made sure to give Bible and Jes the chance to do a million interviews together + magazine photoshoots, with only half of the show being done, so fans have zero fucking reason to complain about anything. That's all. Rant over.

[aroceu]

some thoughts on leaving a social media website...again

as of 10/16/2024, twitter has announced its intention to implement a new feature into the platform: instead of blocking allowing you to block certain accounts from viewing your profile if it's public, it now just... doesn't do that anymore. it only limits interaction. though this certainly isn't a surprise with musk's twitter rollouts since 2021—when i first saw people start to trickle out—this, in particular, breaks a lot of users boundaries and has prompted many to private their accounts and move to bluesky.

i'm in support of this, btw—the ceo of bsky is strongly opposed to ever running any sort of ads on the site ("won't enshittify the network with ads"), doesn't use any blockchain technology, and has a culture where supplying alt text on images is the norm. your main timeline is in reverse-chronological order (like intended), but there are other separate options to create a custom algorithmic feed for certain types of content, only if you wish to. though bsky is a work in progress, i have high hopes for what it can be in the future: that is, usable, practical, and more reminiscent of what it was like when twitter first started, than how twitter currently is.

but despite my love for bluesky, i won't spend too much time glazing yet another microblogging platform. instead, i'm here to ponder the concept of social media: why we have it, why we use it, and why these moves happen in the first place. people have been trickling in and out of twitter ever since the richest and evilest man in the world took possession of it; especially in a fandom sense, there's been a back and forth between twitter and tumblr due to tumblr's former porn ban, as well. we all have principles and morals that guide the decisions we make, including what websites we decide to use. they speak to a pattern of not only our culture as people at any given time—but how these platforms have the power to implement these changes whenever they want. and we, as individuals, must make decisions both based on those principles, but also our desires to fit in.

i'll start off by saying this—eventually i'm going to start talking about what social media means for creatives. but there is in fact an extremely well-written article about this already that goes into more detail. if you're more interested in that, let me direct you there first: R U AN ARTIST ON SOCIAL MEDIA??? by omoulo

with that out of the way, let's talk about me, shall we?

i got onto the internet through geocities—crazy sentence to say now after all these years. of course, i played neopets and flash games like many other kids, but that was mostly through knowing those websites and urls existed, and preserving them in my mind so i could return to them for some mindless minutes of entertainment later. geocities was my first introduction to the creative, user-designed web, so to speak. instead of being a number to interact with a thing that someone else has made—a flash game, a youtube video, a website where you can collect fictional pets—the idea of geocities to me at the time was this idea of participating on the internet. being a part of it. writing whatever i wanted and posting it. sharing the link with others. having others find it and read it too—a part of me, my method of creative self-expression, whatever i desired to write and post on the less than permanent internet.

my best friend at the time was the one who needled me into creating accounts—first an email address, then an AIM, then a myspace, then an IMVU, so on and so forth. i wasn't going out looking for these, and though i'd heard of them before or seen ads of some of these sites, i wasn't interested in actually being on these platforms and making these accounts until my friend told me that i should. call me a people pleaser or easily influenced or whatever; i was 12. but it was through this link sharing, this naivety and ignorance of the vastness of the internet, that allowed me to be fascinated with the world wide web in the first place.

i usually cite quizilla as my first "fandom" website, because it was—but it wasn't because i found it by accident. it wasn't that i googled it or looked for a personality test and stumbled upon it. no, it's because i was chatting with a friend on AIM, and she had found some crazy chain letter story and shared it to me for how absurd it was, and sent me the link. it was on quizilla.

literally the moment i clicked that link changed my life forever. even though i read the crazy story, i also clicked on the username of the person who posted it, out of curiosity. that person had jonas brothers fanfics on their quizilla profile, of all things, which led me into an obsession with the jonas brothers in the 2 years that followed. through that link—that account—that platform—i got a lot more interested in writing, webdesign, and what it meant to be on the internet, not just as a numbered participant, but also as someone with an imagination, who finds fulfillment in creative expression. i wrote the longest thing i'd ever written in that time (30k of a self-insert, but we won't go into that), began to experiment with css and website design, and participated, sharing stuff that i thought was interesting or fun, worth 5 minutes of anyone's time.

the internet wasn't just about being a place where my presence didn't matter anymore—it became a medium of self-expression. more than that, it became a place where i could meet and socialize with people, especially as i developed avpd in my high school years.

the internet wasn't always like this. right now, when we talk about the internet, we don't talk about the random websites we find, the links we stumble upon. (i have an entire website dedicated to those for me, though.) the games we spend hours playing, by ourselves, without interacting with others. random personality tests, or just simply the news. we talk about google, but in the same way we talk about facebook, or even twitter. it's a verb; it's omnipresent; it exists within the context of our internet culture, but becomes meaningless outside of it. it's not to say it doesn't have meaning—but that the language we use represents our relationship with it, this assumed normalcy. this assumed dependence.

i bring up my own history because as young as i feel compared to many of my older internet friends, and how late to the game i always felt—i was there. i was there on the internet before twitter (since 2009), tumblr (since 2010), facebook (i lied about my age), bluesky now, and whatever will come in the future. i was there when people were saying that the internet was still being written; when websites were made with tables (eugh); when email was the primary way to connect with others, because irc was for nerds and nothing else had been invented yet.

i'm a big advocate for not looking at the past with rose colored glasses and getting caught up in nostalgia and greener grass. i believe that technology is not inherently harmful or bad—it creates more options for accessibility, especially for those who are disabled. and even outside of that, it allows us to learn about more people, communicate with others with a few keystrokes, and form relationships that we otherwise would never get to have. i don't want this to seem like i'm saying "man remember how good the internet used to be?" because i'm not—i believe that as things change, there are benefits as much as there are hindrances.

of course, it bears saying that the primary hindrance—of current twitter, of many platforms over the years, and the internet with increasing recency—is corporations. big money interests. capitalism.

it's why we get so tired of ads—it's why ads exist in the first place. it's why these social media platforms that used to feel like they were made by the same people who would use them (livejournal, youtube, twitter) have suddenly become these soulless impersonal websites. it becomes more obvious that they want you to use them more because they sell you on exclusivity and visual minimalism, rather than because that's where your friends are, and you have this unique way to express yourself.

in fact, i'll say this: the first time i learned about facebook when i was too young to use it, i was not impressed. i had a myspace at the time that i had dolled up to make pretty with sparkly gifs and obnoxious colors and weird fonts. when i saw how boring and samey everyone's facebook profile page was, i was like, what's the point? sure i could talk to my classmates and random other people in my life that i didn't really care about, but what about making myself different from others? what about my creative expression? what about having an account that makes me look unique, instead of blending in with everyone else?

and so here i am nearly two decades later pondering about the use of social media, our individuality as well as our collective interests, and how the internet has changed so much, both in itself and how it affects us, in that time.

i'm here because i want to talk to my friends and meet new people with common interests and get excited about them. i don't want to feel left out, but that's a normal experience—outside of fomo, it is in our core to connect with others. it's the whole meaning of everything. it's why i even made an email in the first place, in my basement with my best friend, secretly setting up a yahoo account because she wanted another way to talk to me, and i wanted another way to talk to her. it's why people have been leaving twitter little by little for another site—the same site as many others, because that's where all their friends are. whether it's bsky or mastodon or misskey or just back here on tumblr, we're here not just because of our desire for community, but even as simple as our desire for a bond, a relationship with another human being. to me, that is how "social media" is defined—a medium through which we socialize because of this innate desire.

and yet, of course the enshittification and corporatification makes this more difficult for us, in ways more than one. because the fact is that as we (as people) became better at using the internet, finished writing it, and understood it—psychologically and sociologically—so did the corporations. or advertisers, you take your pick. we, the everypeople who use the internet as means to fulfill our social and other self-indulgent desires, are not the only people here. as with many things else in the world, the internet turned from an unpredictable but fun mess of us figuring shit out as we went along, into a product designed to keep us using it and engaging with it more, so some rich people can put even more money into their pockets. it's why twitter is the way it is now; even why tumblr is the way it is. why social media has become about "content creation" and "small businesses." why it feels like, every day, we see more ads and AI generated bullshit, as a little bit of the original soul of the internet gets sucked away day by day.

but even there, i don't want to come across as cynical or world-weary. though i believe this to be true, i don't think it says anything about our lack of agency, or our lack of innate humanity. instead, i believe that this means, at least on the individual level, that we should think more about not only what we're doing on the internet, but why we're doing it. how we're doing it. are we here because we're addicted? or is there something we're getting out of it? sure, many websites now have more addictive UI and algorithms that tell the receptors of our brain to return to them because we were getting so much dopamine from them earlier. but i also wouldn't necessarily argue that the only solution to this is to, then, go offline.

i have many friends who've elected to depart social media but stay online—friends who i met through website building, to be fair, but that's one of my main points. i already wrote a manifesto on my love letter to the personal website; but the tl;dr is this:

the internet is not evil, it is not good, it is just a form. if we desire to express ourselves and socialize with others in this space, it does not have to be just about social media, and creating a new account on a new website every time people move. instead, we have personhood—we have individuality, we have agency. we have the ability to build our own websites, no matter how shitty or times new roman comic sansy or color clashy or sometimes inaccessible they can be. regardless of all these seeming impractical setbacks though, it does not absolve us of that ability to do whatever we want on the internet. and it also bears saying that websites, both the personal and impersonal, can change over time, for better or worse.

i am a huge proponent for people making their own personal websites. it makes me so so happy that neocities is gaining popularity, mostly because i love seeing people try their own hand at making a website for themselves, a new form of self-expression. i won't go into too much detail on this because i've already said everything i want to say about it (see above), but if you take away anything from this post, let it be this: consider making a personal website, a corner of the internet, for yourself, by yourself. not just because you want people to engage with it, or because you want to curate to an algorithm or an artistic/fannish trend. not because you want the things you make to gain traction, to get bigger numbers without considering the people behind those numbers, as soon as possible.

do it because you want to. because you have to. because you think it's cool, and because it's you. people may find it and judge it; but they may like it as well. the more unique and authentic and weird we are with each other, the more we are able to appreciate each other for who we really are. the internet is one of many places we can do this.

i don't really see these forms of self-expression separate from social media, but i do see social media separate from it. to me, social media is a vehicle to strengthen those connections, those relationships, much like DMs and IRCs; but it is not the be-all, end all of the internet. it's only a small part of it. not everything is permanent on the internet; but everything that ever has been online is a microcosm of the human experience, whether it's an old cloudflare site or twitter dot com in 2010.

our experiences on the internet are not about corporate interests. it's about using limewire to download pirate music, sharing random links we find, building a design that may not be practical or universally appealing but still represents a form of individuality. when i think of how the internet has grown, i don't think about what it means for companies or advertisers or what meetings must go on to get people like me to keep using it—i think about remembering the difference between addicting games dot com and addicted games dot com, clicking links on websites to find even more websites, sitting at the family computer and deciding if i wanted to spend hours on neopets or that one willy wonka flash game i grinded like several hours on one night when i was 7. i think about what it's always meant to me, because the internet was not always a centralized place where i was going on the same website every day. the rise of internet centralization to the point that it's become expected, the norm, the primary way any of us to be online, is not inherently a bad thing—but i wouldn't say it's a universal good, either, when the internet is a wide and vast space, and can be so much more than that.

because the one thing that remains throughout the years is our agency and choice. we still have the ability to make the internet what we want it to be, or at least a corner of it, something separate from the corporations, the enshittification, economically researched user interfaces and experiences, the advertisements, the "like and share so the algorithm boosts me more." there's still a point to it all without the money, and without twitter. and it's both our desire for creativity and self-expression, as well as our intrinsic bonds with each other. despite it all, it's about our humanity.

as the internet continues to grow, so do we. nevertheless, the importance of our humanity, and retaining it, will remain. oftentimes it is up to us to remind ourselves of that.

-

links here, for access:

Bluesky CEO Jay Graber Says She Won’t ‘Enshittify the Network With Ads’

R U AN ARTIST ON SOCIAL MEDIA??? by omoulo

links @ kingdra.net (my links, like bookmarks)

A manifesto of sorts; or, my love letter to the personal website by me

[imaginecolby]

collaborators || c.b.

summary: after a couple of collab videos, you and colby are shipped together more often than usual. however, this time, you think you're ready to take that next step in your relationship.

you and colby had been friends and collaborators for a long time. you and him were both youtube creators, and had been in each other's videos many times.

as he'd taken some time away from his personal channel to focus on his duo channel with long time partner, sam golbach, it was more often that he appeared in a video on your channel than you did on his.

today was a film day for you, and he'd shown up to your apartment to film a mukbang with you. this was your favorite type of video to film with each other, as there were no heavy pressures to put on an act. it was something where the two of you could be yourselves, two friends hanging out.

you made your way through the video, enjoying your meal, talking and answering questions. it was the first time in a while that you and colby had seen each other and had a lot of catching up to do, which made for wonderful conversation.

"thank you for dinner." colby said as he plopped back down on the couch after taking the trash out.

"of course. thanks for coming over and filming with me." you said, and he nodded. he hung out for a little while before he had to get back home.

once your upload day came around, everyone was excited to see your video. you'd hinted at colby's appearance, and sent everyone into a tizzy.

"finally! my favorite duo has reunited!"

"my babies! my favorite besties!"

"i missed these two together so much i needed this collab"

many other tweets flooded your timeline of fans being excited to see your video. you loved that everyone was as excited as you were to post it.

after it was up for a while, you scrolled through twitter and liked and replied to a few tweets of screenshots and clips of funny moments from your video.

a few tweets you came across were screenshots of you and colby smiling and laughing together, saying how cute you were with each other. 

these types of tweets were pretty common, especially more after you and colby were seen with each other. you didn't mind seeing things like this, because you knew the reality of your relationship, and you only ever saw positive things in response.

after a couple more videos though, you noticed that the shipping tweets began to increase. more and more people were posting you together, and agreeing on the fact that you and colby would make a cute couple.

you and colby had an intense connection, one that was stronger than either of you had with any of your other friends. there was a palpable tension between you every time you were together.  and you and he both knew that if you really wanted to, you would. you'd spoken about these feelings you shared only once, after sharing a drunk kiss, but you knew you would both be into it if either of you acted on them.

seeing all these tweets only made your feelings for him stronger. you liked him a lot, and you flirted with each other constantly. but you didn't know how he was feeling now. you just hoped these messages weren’t scaring him away.

a few days passed since you uploaded, and you were at home watching a movie. the end credits were just rolling when you heard a knock on your front door. when you answered it, you found a disheveled colby who looked like he'd been lost in thought for the few minutes he stood waiting for you to answer.

"hey, are you okay?" you asked as he walked into your living room.

"i need to talk to you." he said softly, hands in his pockets  he looked at you with a softness in his eyes. the same look he had after the kiss you shared.

"okay. let's talk." you said, walking over to your couch. he sat next to you, twiddling his thumbs as he gathered his thoughts. 

"i know you've seen twitter over these past couple of days." he looked up at you, and you nodded. 

"colby, you know these types of tweets are expected. especially with us. they always happen when we're seen together." you said.

"i do know. but this time it felt like there was a ~lot~ more. but i got me thinking," he paused and took a deep breath, "and i assume you must have been thinking the same, considering you liked a bunch of them." 

"oh, so you've been stalking my twitter now?" you teased, but he just shook his head and laughed.

"anyway, they've got me thinking. what if you and i took this to the next step. i feel like that you and i have always been on the same page about our relationship, and i think we could possibly consider being a real couple."

"i've been thinking about that a lot recently too. more over the past couple of days than anything. but i do agree. i’ve had feelings for you for a long time, and i feel better knowing that you feel the same."

“okay then. since we’re in agreement,” he trailed off as he moved closer to you. you fell into his arms as he held you tight, pressing a soft kiss to your lips.

as you kissed him, you could tell that the feeling of his lips on yours was quickly going to become a favorite feeling of yours. you could already tell that it was something you wouldn’t be able to live without.

as if he was reading your mind, colby quickly deepened the kiss, his arms tightening around you waist to pull you closer into his chest. 

pulling away only to catch your breath, you locked eyes with each other. lust heavy in your eyes as well as colby’s.

you spent the rest of the night with each other, connecting more intimately than ever. if the events of the night were any indication as to how your relationship was going to turn out, you didn’t want anything to change.

[islestea]

what’s the complete relationship timeline for mat and maya? and what is the drama?

Oh hi long time no posting, mm right now there is no drama but I can tell you a little bit of their history.

Well from what I know they met through mutual friends, some people said that they met in raya but chose what you want to believe, they were very low key for months until a photo leaked on twitter of both of them hanging out in New York this was maybe in April-May 2021 I guess (honestly I don’t remember all the dates anymore) so since this they started to make the relationship more public (she posting him on her insta) she went to some of her games during playoffs (she didn’t hang out a lot with the wags) not very much to tell of that moment that I remember by June/july they were more public.

By September they were seen together at the US Open with some of their friend so everyone assume that was their launch as a couple, I don’t remember if they spent Christmas together honestly but everything was fine in that moment.

2022 was great for them well most of the year, she met his family, actually she get along very well with mat,s sister Liana, they had some trips during that year, in all-star weekend they went to Miami, she went to saw him playing in Finland when he played for team Canada even during off-season that year they went to Europe (the only time that may posted about her in his ig) some weddings as a couple here and there, in September was the last time they were seen together as a couple, and after that the things started to get weird, they never posted together again, in October Maya went with his friends to Mexico, nobody saw Mat in maya’s birthday so everybody thought that something was happening and after that they stop following each other.

That’s what happen we talked here about the theories of the breakups but take your guess, I can only add that a few months ago they were together in a bar or something but only as friends so they are in good terms. And from what I know there is someone new in mat’s life but I think this time he wants to be full low key.

Thats what I have I hope I helped you understanding they story I don’t remember all honestly but I did my best

[silver-wield]

Can you do a deep dive/explanation on the newest Rebirth trailer? Because I feel like people are gonna be screeching "alternate timelines/worlds again."

Okay, I have some thoughts. Especially since people seem to have forgotten a few things. Like this isn't the first trailer.

This was in the first trailer, which also revolved around Zack's supposed survival. It also brings up Cloud's fragile mental state. We know he's delusional. We've seen it. Cloud dragging that sword to Midgar in CCR, EC and then being shown at the station with Tifa bringing him out of his zombie state, which the devs have said is canon to Remake.

If Zack's alive and dumped Cloud on Kyrie, and kept his sword, how did Cloud get it and himself to S7? And do people really believe Zack would dump Cloud on a stranger? Or is that something more in line with the pessimistic Cloud who believes eventually everyone will abandon him because he's just "not good enough"?

We're supposed to believe Elmyra is talking to Zack here because we can see her in the BG. She's not talking to him though.

As @enigmaphenomenon pointed out on twitter, nobody talks to Zack. Not in this trailer or any other.

Did we see Kyrie reply to his request? We did not. All we saw was Cloud's body fall on her, much like the black cloaks do when they're shambling around.

As for the key art, that's a metaphorical world being talked about, not a physical one.

And then there's the character intros that some people are taking as confirmation. Since when does SE drop huge spoilers in intros?

Zack being assumed alive is how they've portrayed him the entire time. That's part of the mystery that needs solving for Cloud to be whole. It's the same as calling Cloud a soldier when he isn't, and saying Biggs, Wedge and Jessie are dead when we were shown Biggs alive at the end of Remake.

You can't take that info at face value.

It's like when people said Jill is a sibling to Clive then stfu when it turned out they were suuuuuper wrong 🤣

All we know for sure is Cloud is delusional and believes and sees things that aren't true. He's the unreliable narrator, Sephiroth is the liar and Zack is the mystery.

They've always been shown as those things.

[louisisalarrie]

hey love, i recently saw a bunch of people on twitter saying h&l cheated on each other. i'm new to fandom and don't really know much, but did they?

Yiiiiikesss what a horrible first thing to see when you’re new to the fandom, anon. Twitter can get pretty wild, and is quite a different experience to tumblr. I feel like the community here is much more loving and we don’t post stuff specifically to start shit or start rumours, you know?

However, a small few of larries/ex-larries believe in this, and base it a lot off of song lyrics. Ex-larries also pair it with the whole bbg thing. I’m not sure what “facts” these people on Twitter are basing this off, can you tell me anymore about it and maybe I can break down exactly what they’re saying with a further analysis of exactly what they’re talking about please?

And yeah… it’s really tricky to know what to believe when you’re new to the fandom, so don’t feel bad or anything whatsoever. At the end of the day, I’m not here to tell you what to believe, but I can most definitely share my thoughts on it to help you!

The thing is… is that no one knows for sure if that is true. No one knows for sure if they broke up for a bit when things got hard. No one knows for sure if they cheated on each other. But it’s pretty safe to say they didn’t. We analyse in depth so much as larries, and there’s never been evidence of any kind of behaviour (except for stunts) that point towards that being the case. They are still referencing each other in songs. They still answer questions about each other in interviews (which they could easily blacklist if they didn’t want to). They are still sharing clothes and there are still so many strong connections between them. It just… doesnt really add up, in my eyes. And I also don’t think either of them are that kind of person. I mean, you could try and argue that they’re good people but one of them had a slip up but… you don’t have a slip up like that on a long term partner who you’ve been with for so many years, particularly when you’re in the public eye. Louis and Harry are extremely aware of what they do, and what they present to the world. They are trained media professionals, and they don’t take that lightly. They are very careful of who they spend their time with, too.

So… I’m not sure if these folks are referencing a particular person or timeline or have any evidence of it whatsoever, but it just sounds like a dramatised fanfiction that they want some clout for. Also unsure if this is helpful at all, it’s quite vague since I don’t know exactly what their theory is, but yeah.

[dustofthedailylife]

just out of curiosity since you mentioned you only have a couple of ships, who do you ship in genshin?

*sweats*

Don't mind me as I panic because I'm literally scared of the shipping-side of fandoms in general (I've seen how people talk to each other on twitter when their ships don't align and, oh boy, I want nothing to do with that...) >.<'

But my ships are fairly popular aside from one... I guess? I have three I like. Just to give a specific number. And while I don't read or write ship fanfics, since I prefer x Reader, I do like to look at fanart occasionally.

I'll put them UTC because I assume some people don't want to read that on their timeline since this is primarily an x Reader blog <3

Zhongli x Guizhong

I've shipped them pretty much since I started playing the game in 2021. I got super invested into Zhongli's lore and eventually came across her name. Then I started digging deeper into her lore and theories about her and fell in love with her and the ship.

I suppose this is something of a niche ship? Especially now with the new Lantern Rite where GuiPing seems to have overtaken it. And I've already seen people attacked over shipping GuiLi because of that too on twt now... cause apparently it's homophobic to ship them now? Idk... make it make sense. This is why I usually stay out of this.

2. Cyno x Tighnari

These two... I swear Sumeru has changed me somehow because as I stated in prior asks: I'm usually not into shipping characters so whenever I start liking two characters I have a sort of "denial stage" at first where I'm like "nah, I don't ship them... or maybe... no.... yes?".

And at first I was like "yeah they're best friends, whatever"... then I saw more and more fanart and was like "yeah, you know what, they're kinda cute." and eventually fanart converted me into shipping them. So, good job fanartists - the domestic and cuddly scenarios you put them in made me cave 👌🏻

And lastly...

3. Alhaitham x Kaveh

This one also seems to be quite popular and I basically just got past the above mentioned denial stage, haha! 😂

I have to admit I couldn't stand Kaveh at all at first, he seemed like a handful and I was like "yeah, they'd never get along in a million years, especially not as a couple."

Then I played Haitham's story quest and saw the interaction with Kaveh... then I saw more fanart again. Then [insert denial stage here] and I guess I'm now at the point where I can say, yeah... I like them and I also like Kaveh now... he is just such a kindhearted soul (even if he is a bit eccentric, I suppose).

Good job fanartists, once again 🤝🏻

So yeah, that is all of them.

I want to mention that I am really lost when it comes to shipping terminology and I also don't really want to get involved in all that stuff. It's all a bit too stressful for me.

I do want to draw fanart of these ships but I'm a bit too scared to do so and only drew things that could be interpreted as both ship or platonic (they're posted on my art blog, I'll keep this blog clear of that). Because I've seen how vile shippers get towards other ships at times when they don't like the portrayed one... instead of - you know - ignoring it??? Especially on twt.

And don't get me started on some "rules" people have put up for shipping. Like, just let me have the idea of two fictional characters being all lovey-dovey. If it makes me or anyone else happy, who cares? (as long as it isn't problematic ships ofc...)

I never intend to write ship fanfic however since that is something I also don't enjoy consuming myself. I always preferred self-insert 🤷🏻‍♀️

And lastly, idc if anyone ships these peeps with someone else or doesn't ship them with anyone at all. It's fictional characters and at the end of the day... it ain't that deep (which is why I'll never understand why some people make such a fuss over it...)

[helielune]

i looked at threads so you don't have to

the point of social media is to feel like you can connect with EVERYONE there, and in that sense, since Threads (by meta) is the only twitter competitor with a userbase pre-baked-in, i think they are by FAR the only actual threat to twitter in the near future

i love watching drama from the sidelines so i gathered some info about it, for all of us curious but cautious creatures:

toc: 1. features 2. acct deletion 3. home feed 4. privacy etc

1. threads is purposefully launching with MINIMUM POSSIBLE features. they are not shy about saying this. (wikipedia literally begins the history section of their Threads page by talking about twitter) they saw an opportunity to launch when and where it hurts and they TOOK it, instead of waiting to build an actually full service. and it's WORKING.

as of now, you can post/like/comment, repost, un/follow, mute and block things, and search (for accts). no dms, hashtags, web app, searching for posts, and your home feed IS your explore page (more on this later).

for more details here is a basic rundown of the app so far (nbc news), and here is a list of features they don't have yet (forbes)

2. they are 'looking into' a way to delete your threads account without deleting your entire instagram. (instagram ceo, via threads, and mentioned in other sources scattered around here)

from a slightly tech standpoint, threads is officially built as an offshoot of instagram. it literally calls itself an instagram app. when you sign up, you can only sign up via instagram. so depending on how they developed threads, it's likely that it was literally just easier to build a version of threads that is basically instagram with a hat, where removing the hat removes the body (??). if i give them some benefit of the doubt, maybe they just haven't figured out how deletion should work, since they seem to want every insta acct to have exactly one threads acct (so they'd need to plan ahead in case of returning signups and all). and since they wanted to get threads out as fast as possible, this is just what it came out as.

still, they don't seem to be promising much. imagine if they finish 'looking into' it and decide it isn't worth implementing. lol. also it was still definitely greedy of them to link those deletions together now so no one can leave when they realize there is no functionality yet! the same greedy that made them release this half-baked idea in the first place.

but, if you already made a threads, it is Possible that you will eventually be able to delete it without affecting insta.

3. from what i understand, getting used to threads is like training your fyp on tiktok. (i've also never had a tiktok lmao, but my friends do) it does not have a chronological timeline. it does not even have a Following timeline. you are served whatever the algorithm desires and you just have to deal with it, and you WILL be wading through default shit for a while (the verge but also Everyone is complaining about this lol)

they say that they are working on it too (instagram ceo again, via threads-- with much more conviction than they had for the deletion feature)

4. yes, it is asking for WAY TOO MUCH DATA ACCESS in the app store. meta does this with all of their apps (the general permissions list for threads on the app store is identical to fb's and insta's).

i've seen some people say that threads might not be actively using (or collecting??) every single category. notably, threads does not have ads yet, so a lot of visible surveillance things that fb is known for have not shown up.

this might be true Now (though it's an awfully generous opinion!), but they are At Least actively opening the doors to do so in the future. if you've already agreed to those permissions when downloading or logging into the app, you will NOT be notified if a new update suddenly starts siphoning all the data they ignored before. just so yall are aware.

this is likely not as big of a deal if you already have insta and/or fb downloaded, but it's always great to be informed :)

and yes, meta is withholding official launch in the entire EU, almost certainly because of their data privacy AND new anti-trust legislations. (some links may require subscriptions, but not all) there are other posts about this already though.

basically, threads is hardly even meant to be used at this point. it's almost completely unusable compared to other competing sites, which already existed. it's also run by a Notoriously Evil, massive company, with 114 Blazing Red Flags for personal security. (one for each type of data they ask for, plus 100 extra for saying "other data")

they are launching now to attract as large of a userbase as possible, and then just squatting on it as they figure out which functions to add and how to do that. from what i see, most people are joining for the same reason-- claim their username, and then squat on it as they wait for the app to be functional. no hate to them, because meta is nothing if not a master of marketing, and also there are a lot of legit reasons why you may want to claim your name, or make sure your following can stay with you, etc etc.

but what i'm going to be doing, and recommending to everyone else as well, is just grab a snack and watch this crazy competition from a Safe Distance as it goes down. i said that threads is probably the only twt competitor in the immediate future, because it's the only one with the pre-established market control to be one. but if we don't want to hand our entire society over to a soulless megacorp, we can play the long game. i mean, we're already Here, right? might as well just settle in for a long haul🍿

[unknowndrone]

Random I had while watching Antman and the Wasp: Quantumania (remember this is completely subjective and you're allowed to feel what you want to feel)

POTENTIAL SPOILERS IN THE CUT BELOW

what song was this again?

I feel it's been years since I heard the Giacchino's opening fanfare

Beck made a pretty good score

So like, did anything really change after the ending?

Is this a time loop thing?

What da fuq do u mean there's an end of time?? How come He Who Remains said he'd be back in the chair

Everything Everywhere All At Once ruined my expectations for Multiverse movies uhh ilohjcfasdjnc

Out of all colors for that juice, they chose red???

It looks like period blood or they ate someone's corpse

When I saw MODOK, I accidentally snorted a popcorn kernel

He looks like a fucking boiled egg

Reminded me of Zordon from Power Rangers for some reason

Uncle Fester without the emo makeup

Seeing his ass cheeks on screen was not part of my bingo list

Cassie honestly slay

It was technically ur grandpa's fault so don't blame yourself sweetie

This family is actually kinda wholesome

Honestly, if I was trapped in a jet and my parents were talking about how they hoed out in eachother's absence, I would also go and try to save my idiot boyfriend

Kang isn't me, I would've folded in front of Michele Pfiefer

...does that make me Kylar?

I would fold in front of Kang too, but like I don't like squishing bugs

I wish I knew the timeline of this movie

The scene where Hope goes to save Scott in the power core was so cool

Like when they all go away bc u realize that what they were doing was the only possibility that Scott and Hope could've exploded the core

DUUUUUDEE THE ANTS WHEN THEY CAME BACK

IT WAS GIVING

STAR WARS RISE OF SKYWALKER (fun fact that was the last movie I watched in theaters before COVID hit I am disappointed in that fact too)

So like is this post Shang Chi??

OH MY FUCKING GOD IS THAT LOKI AND LIGHTNING MCQUEENNNN??

THIS MOVIE CURES IRRATIONAL FEAR OF BUGS

6.5/10 Ants

basically just a standard Marvel Movie

slow in some parts

def not as bad as what twitter is saying

not every movie is gonna be like Endgame or spiderman (I'm saying to the people who takes Supes' opinions seriously)