#so i just went generic so it could be either-or

[furiouszealot]

All right, I know no one gives a shit, but let me give you a recounting of the fall of 4chan from the perspective of someone who was there and has been lurking both 4chan and tumblr for a few years now.

I'll try to provide as much context as I can, but a lot of images were either lost or im too lazy to look for them in the +5000 reply thread in soyjak party.

Anyways, info below:

So, necessary context: a few years back, 4chan had a board called /qa/, which if you know little about the page, you may think every board is like /b/ or /pol/, which means a containment cess pool of grifters, (you) baiters, incels, and other deranged individuals. The thing is, /qa/ was somehow worse. The entire board was plagued and infested with soyjack edits, board culture was a nuclear disaster, anons were incredibly hostile in there, you know the drill, the big bad 4chan, but this time its actually true.

One day, moderation deleted /qa/, anons that posted there got mad, tried to raid other boards, failed, and then moved on to an altchan called soyjack party, which entire purpose you can guess from its name alone.

Apparently, the boards that allow pdf uploads (paper and origami, for example) didn't check if the uploaded file was actually a pdf file, so postscript files could be used to get access. This is as far as my understanding of web backend goes, sorry.

The hacker claims to have been working on this since 2021, and that he had access since about a year ago, but was recopilating data.

Now, what actually happened when the hack ocurred? Well, a banner of miku dancing with a song that played automatically was placed on top of every board, with the text "/QA/ IS BACK", this was possible because apparently no board was ever deleted, they were just hidden from the public.

A thread was then made on soyjack party, claiming authorship over the hack, and shit went south from there. Anons went en masse to talk there, a lot of weird discussion happened, the thread got the bump limit removed and got pinned, more than 5k posts were amassed on the first night alone. Keep in mind this happened at about 8 pm and most of the stuff went on through midnight.

So, the hacker leaked some things, first of all, the html files for the entirety of /j/ and the email address for every moderation member (important note: the pressence of .gov mails was disproven by the hacker themselves, so i guess there were never any feds), what is /j/? the board exclusive for jannies and moderators to discuss actions taken on the website regarding spam, ban evaders, threads spiraling out of control, etc. Among other things, some of the inner workings of 4chan got revealed, such as the web extension for jannies that allows them to do their job easily, how reports are handled, and other stuff. (Anecdotically, some guy got permabanned for calling anons jews or n-words over a 100 times in the same few threads)

Then, the source code got leaked. Important to say, the hacker removed the part of the source code related to the captcha, as to not facilitate bot attacks on the future, and all information related to email verification or 4chan pass users information also got removed, so all in all users are safe.

What was found on the sourcecode? That it was old, mostly. Most boards used code that hasn't been updated since about 2016, and /flash/ used the exact same code from when it was created back on 2011.

From there, desuarchive, a site that archives threads that die from bump limit, opened a dragon ball general on ghost mode, and thus began what later got called /ghost/, a solely text based thread with well over 20k replies as of right now, where a fraction of the 4chan population took refuge and is currently discussing random things with no particular topic. Kinda hard to read, but its comfy.

What does this mean for other sites? Not a lot, really. A lot of anons already crossposted in 4chan and tumblr already, and the ones that din't most likely wont come here. Some of the bigger/most dedicated groups, like /vt/, migrated to other boards. Various altchans are trying/tried to catch some of the flock of users that got lost, but i doubt it will get anywhere, since soyjak party for example was struggling with just the influx of users that came for the hack thread given its poor infrastructure. Kiwifarms saw a surge of new accounts apparently, but a lot of anons kinda loathe the idea of having to register, so theres that.

Smaller communities, such as generals that didn't get a lot of traffic, or boards on the slower end (say, /ic/, /lit/, etc) will probably vanish or disseminate until (or if) 4chan comes back up. I'd say give it a month, don't get your hopes up whether you want it to stay dead or want it to come back.

Given how many anons are staying on places like /ghost/ or other similar archives with the same ghost posting feature, i doubt it will be as bad as people are making it sound. Besides, the communities that are most likely to migrate to places like tumblr are either /co/, /vg/ or /lgbt/ refugees, which aren't THAT bad. Not every board was like the main cesspools (/b/, /r9k/, /pol/). From now on, either 4chan comes back up in a few weeks (somewhere between 2 weeks to a month is expected), altchans capture the migrating anons, or a brand new imageboard rises from the ashes to become the new go-to site for old 4chan posters.

In conclusion, nothing ever happens, but also don't worry, chances are this won't affect tumblr in the slightest. If it does, you can cash in your "you were wrong" ticket whenever you want, i'll take the L. As a footnote, keep in mind: NO users were compromised, if you ever posted there and are worried for your safety, physical or digital, you are safe. Edit: Forgot to add, if you are a 4chan refugee, im BEGGING you to dm me and tell what board you were from and where are you migrating, if at all.

[freevoidman]

I also wanted to add some additional context for why people were trying to circumnavigate the official updater and why GShade's dev decided to include the malware, since I was part of the community that started the whole rumble lol.

So, GShade is used for a lot of games. I know it's used for Sims, but it's ALSO used for Final Fantasy XIV, a very popular MMO with some outdated lighting/shading tools because of tech debt. This is why GShade was so popular--ReShade didn't work super well with the MMO initially and GShade was created as a fork to work better with FFXIV's systems.

However, as the years went on, ReShade improved a LOT and GShade mostly stayed relevant as it was the defacto photo enhancement mod through good faith and recommendations. Problem is, Marot (the dev) began to update GShade frequently. Like, beyond any type of frequency any other mod or official software would do. It would require updates multiple times a week sometimes for trivial fixes that were not major compatibility/software issues, it was ridiculous.

But that shouldn't have been a problem, right? Just don't update to the latest version, updates aren't mandatory. Here's the first problem: people wouldn't update and it would lead to the tool becoming incompatible, so people would "complain" to the dev (as far as I could tell these complaints weren't frequent, but they were your classic "they didn't read there was an update" complaint that could get annoying). Second problem came about trying to fix the first one: GShade's update tool is connected to a server which checks to see which version of GShade you're running. If the server saw you hadn't updated, it would put THIS on your screen to prevent you from basically playing the game:

This would block your whole screen. It would happen outside of FFXIV's photomode and make it so you couldn't even play the game at a basic functionality level. It's beyond stupid.

Obviously, people were VERY annoyed by this, so Marot changed it so that the tool would FORCE GShade to update to the most recent version if the server saw you were playing an outdated system. This annoyed people EVEN MORE because the GShade's updates were NOT fast and could easily take up multiple hours if you didn't have great download speed or ping. And, again, these minor updates (that wouldn't DO anything substantial for user experience) would happen multiple. times. a week. You'd spend more time updating GShade than playing the game.

So, user NotNite (and many others, but NotNite was the most vocal about getting around Marot's dumb update system) coded a work-around for the forced updates AND to not to have the stupid clipart pop up on people's screens. This was widely appreciated by the people that use GShade, because the forced updates + clipart if they disabled updates was incredibly annoying and unnecessary, and people just wanted to be able to take nice photos man.

Then Marot got pissed, because he considers GShade his baby, wanted to be the only one in any control of GShade, blah blah blah, he created the malware protocol and the rest was history.

In general, I would also highly recommend you get literally ANY other tool for your photo/lighting/graphics mods. ReShade is now much better with game compatibility and functions exactly the same. I have no clue if GShade is even still receiving any updates, but I wouldn't trust anything Marot has his hands in from now on either.

Why You Shouldn’t Use GShade

Even after two years, I still see people using GShade and claiming it's a safe program, when it’s really not! There are already some older Tumblr posts about this, but I figured it’s worth refreshing the issue.

So please read this

Around two years ago, GShade’s developer added a code that could forcefully shut down your computer, not because of a bug or security measure, but on purpose. Why? Because he was mad that someone, specifically a 16-year-old made an alternative way to install GShade without using the official updater. Instead of handling it professionally, the dev decided to add a malicious code as "punishment" for anyone trying to modify GShade. That’s malware behavior.

(The first spark) ↓

At that time you also HAD to update Gshade to unistall it. ↓

(Developers "Apology") ↓

Now, you might be thinking, “Okay, but that was patched out, so it’s fine now, right?” Nope. Because the biggest issue isn’t just what he did, it’s the fact that he still thinks he did nothing wrong.

The Problem with Closed-Source Software Like GShade

GShade is closed-source, meaning no one except the developer can see or verify what’s actually in the code. This is a issue when dealing with someone who has already abused their control over the software.

With open-source programs (like ReShade), anyone can look at the code, verify it’s safe, and contribute to improving it. If something shady is added, people can catch it immediately. But with GShade, you have to just trust that the dev isn’t hiding anything malicious. And considering his past actions, that’s a massive risk to take.

Even if GShade is "safe" right now, nothing is stopping the dev from adding another backdoor, data collection, or something even worse in the future. Since no one can see the code, you wouldn’t know until it was too late. And given that he still defends his actions, there’s every reason to believe he’d do something similar again.

“But I’ve Never Had Issues With GShade”

A lot of people say GShade runs better than ReShade or has better effects. That might be true, but no amount of quality or convenience is worth putting your computer at risk. Just because something hasn’t caused problems yet doesn’t mean it won’t in the future. Malicious code can be slipped in at any time, and because it’s closed-source, no one would be able to warn you.

And honestly? You shouldn’t be using software made by someone who has already proven they’re willing to mess with your computer. If a developer intentionally inserts harmful code once, they can do it again.

What Should You Use Instead?

There’s a safe and open-source alternative: ReShade

It’s free and open-source, meaning the community can review the code to ensure it’s safe.

It can do almost everything GShade does, and while it may take some tweaking, it’s worth the effort.

Most GShade presets can be converted to work with ReShade with a bit of adjustment.

There are guides available to help transition from GShade to ReShade Here is one: How To Move To ReShade From GShade

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, it’s your computer, and you can do whatever you want with it. But if you choose to keep using GShade, just be aware of the risks you’re taking. The dev has already demonstrated that he’s willing to sabotage people’s computers when he feels like it. He still thinks he was justified. And because GShade is closed-source, he has complete control over what’s in the code without anyone being able to check.

So ask yourself: Is that really the kind of software you want to trust?

ReShade is a safer, open-source alternative that doesn’t put you at risk.

Thank you for reading

Here are some links that discusses the whole topic:

Twitter

Reddit

The persons Blog the code was directed at

[seaborgium-dazies]

think of me ♡mdni

walking in on mha boys masturbating

🌊: deku, bakugo

Deku:

You noticed that deku wasn't on top of his game 30 minutes into class. He kept drifting off and looking around the room in a panicked manner and when you tried to help him by whispering what the teacher just said he looked even worse.

Deku looked uncharacteristically lost, he kept squirming in his seat and he looked a little flushed too. So naturally you tried to convinced him to go get some rest. You assured him that you'd give him the notes as soon as he felt better. You pushed your worries away as he took you up on your idea. Still, dekus behavior was more than odd.

You bought some chicken soup after class, copied your notes and even drew a silly doodle on a sticky note, to cheer him up. So you continued your usual after class routine; you walked to dekus dorm room and pushed the door open.

Dekus was laying between a mess of sheets and blankets, his shirt bunched up and most of his body visible. You saw the gentle yet precise movement of his hand against his cock. His thumb massaging the tip, which was a beautiful shade of pink. Dekus eyes were shut and his lips were contorted in a breathy moan.

And as if that hadn't given you enough reason to gasp, the fact that you heard your name fall from his lips, definetly did.

This mix of lust and adoration was so raunchy that you let out an audible gasp, which made dekus eyes shoot open.

It took a hot minute for deku to cover up and stop rambling as if his life depended on it. You took your sweet time coming down from that shock as well. You were both left speechless and furiously blushing, unsure how to proceed.

Finally, you put the soup down next to his bed, feeling like the sun was shining from within you.

"You know I can't hear you if you call out to me like that, next time try my phone instead"

Bakugo:

You were sparring with bakugo when he stormed off after defeating you once more. He left you lying on the floor, huffing and puffing, massaging your shoulder as you tried to collect yourself. Due to this intense sparring session you were utterly spent and you couldn't help but wonder how bakugo had enough energy left to power walk away from you. He mumbled something about taking a shower and before you could process his words he was already gone.

When you were discharged from training you noticed that some piece of metal was lying around where you and bakugo had sparred. It was the same shade as his bracers and some screwdrivers were also laying around in the general vicinity. Did it fall off? Or did he take it off intentionally? Either way, you should probably return it.

You were standing in front of his room and when you didn't hear the shower running you figured you'd be in the clear. You couldn't have been more wrong.

When you opened the door you saw bakugo sprawled out on his bed, a white towel beneath him. While his body was still glistening with drops of water, his eyes were clenched shut and his fist was moving up and down his cock at a fast pace. His lips were slightly parted and he held something against his face, inhaling deeply. You recognized the color immediately - bakugo took your clothes?!

You were so shocked the metal fell out of your hands and landed on the floor of his dorm. Bakugos eyes shot open and you saw a brief look of shame turn into anger.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Bakugos voice was accompanied by the throw of a pillow which you masterfully dodged. In the span of seconds he covered himself up and you started furiously apologizing, tripping over your words.

"Sorry! I didn't mean to! I thought- because the shower wasn't running- I should've knocked; really- I just came to bring- return this"

You went to hand it to him but placed it on his bed instead. As you met his intense gaze both of your breaths hitched and you realized that there really was no going back.

The romantic tension that both of you tried so hard to hide upwards to that moment was unavoidable after this incident.

"Let me just-"

In your shocked daze you reached over his body to grab your clothing off of his bed and bolted out of his room.

©️ seaborgium-dazies 2025

do not steal, translate, reupload or edit.

[artbyblastweave]

I've been reading through some of your old asks since I remembered you were where I heard about Worm, and recently you wrote about how "deconstructions" of the superhero genre are often uniformed and lazy pastiche from people who seem to have not bothered engaging seriously with the source material. (There's a great quote from Ursula Le Guin about writers and critics all too often disregarding genre fiction, hence why the literati alll thought Harry Potter was original back in the day)

But you made the point that big two comics have been dealing with most of the plot holes in the genre for decades, and cited a few specific examples. I'm by no means a new comer to comics but I've largely stayed away from big two, and so I'm wondering, if you are so inclined, if you could share what you consider "required reading" to help me get started?

It seems like a fascinating thing to read about, and I love tracing genre histories.

Yesterday I finally finished a long long rec-list for @worlds-smallest-creature, which was a mix of foundational texts and stuff I personally thought was neat. I'm going to pare down and amend the list to ten comics that are particularly useful for getting a feel of the Big-Two space; comics that, if you read them, will instantly make significant portions of the references and in-jokes much more legible. Note that this does not universally map to high quality, ( though it does for most of them) just utility for understanding the genre and the space as it stands:

Watchmen: By Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. The big deconstructionist comic, most directly in conversation with the two-and-a-half generations of superheroes that had been published when it first came out in 1985. This is the comic all other superhero deconstructions have been chasing and it's tonally informed basically everything that's come after.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns: Frank Miller and Klaus Janson. The other big deconstructionist superhero comic of the 1980s. While nothing in it is actually canon, it hugely (and arguably negatively) informed the writing of Batman as a dark-gritty-anti-hero and gave rise to the endemic "Batman vs Superman in a fight to the finish" thing; like Watchmen, it's also a rumination on what went unsaid politically in the Silver Age of Comics. Huge amounts of the Batman Mythos are either repudiating this or parroting this, for better or for worse.

Marvels: Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's gorgeously painted retelling of the first 30 years of the history of the Marvel Universe from the perspective of a photojournalist, from the first appearance of superheroes in the 30s to roughly the start of the Bronze Age. In addition to being a comic about the existential horror of being a normal person living in a world with Big Two superhero dynamics, it's also an excellent primer of the major players and plot beats from the front half of Marvel's publication history.

JLA/Avengers by Kurt Busiek and George Perez: One of the last intercontinuity crossovers published by Marvel and DC before they started circling the wagons on their respective IP. A major thrust of the piece is the two teams reacting with horror to the business-as-usual of their counterparts universe, in a way that's meant to highlight the historical differences in writing trends between the two; it also contains basically Every Single Superhero Who'd Ever Been Published Up Until 2004, making it a pretty useful who's-who birdspotting guide of both settings.

Astro City by Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson and Alex Ross: An anthology series set in a constructed pastiche Big-Two universe, following the lives of dozens to hundreds of characters as they make their way in the titular Astro City, the longstanding superhero capital of the world. Because the setting contains direct pastiches (and therefore commentary) on basically every significant Hero and general archetype who shows up in both Marvel and DC, and because every one-or-two issue vignette is usually in direct conversation with a specific trope or standing question raised by those characters and those settings, blowing through as much Astro City as you can will allow you to infer huge chunks of the decades-long history that it was written in conversation with- the type of characters who were published in each decade, the type of adventures they were going on in the 60s vs the 30s vs the 90s, and so on.

(Is this three things in a row by Kurt Busiek, you ask? Yes, because he's basically the on-call "thoughtfully root around in the guts of the architecture of Big Two Superhero Comics" guy.)

JLA (1997) By Grant Morrison and Howard Porter. This one was an ongoing, and it presents an interesting balancing act between being, essentially, a platonic example of the thing- no aggressive deconstruction, just a through and through superhero comic that balances accessibility to new readers, high-quality, high concept stories, deliberately enmeshing itself in remixed high-context deep-cuts from the silver-age, and having all sorts of odd little inscrutable asides that are the result of weird decisions being made in other books. Superman's blue and has lightning powers, roll with it. There's an Angel From The Actual Bible hanging around because they couldn't get the rights to Hawkman, roll with it. This thing is essentially training wheels for the reality that almost any big-two ongoing worth reading for any reason is doomed to be jerked around and informed by the larger editorial context at the time, which you might only know bits and pieces of going in; a sufficiently gripping comic will reel you in regardless.

Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and a whole bunch of artists. Claremont's run from the 70s to the 90s was a development site of a huge number of enduring cape tropes- in particular a lot of the ones related to superpowered factionalism, dialing in on relatively specific and well-defined powersets applied to problems in a puzzle-logic kind of way, shoring up the "Mutant Metaphor" as a parallel to civil rights movements, and a lot of stuff related to bad futures and time travel. By virtue of the amount of time he spent in creative control of the book it coheres better than the average big two thing (though that's not necessarily the same thing as it being universally good.) To this day the genre is plastered in the thumbprints of Days of Future Past and The Dark Phoenix Saga, so those will both be useful context.

Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley. A reboot and retelling of Spider-Man for a 21st century audience, which was so meteorically successful that the Ultimate Universe- a condensed, lean, and heavily politically barbed reboot of all of Marvel's major properties- was spun off from it. On top of being a very good comic, Bendis's background in crime fiction writing, decompressed style and ear for naturalistic dialogue became something of a house style at Marvel for a while and heavily influenced the space generally; the DNA of this one can be found all over the place. This remains probably the best self-contained Spider-Man run ever produced.

The Authority By Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch. The premiere cool new superteam of the late 90s/early oughts; paradoxical revolutionary authoritarians willing to lay waste with abandon to all the evils of the world that normally go untouched or get off with a slap on the wrist. This book was extremely stylistically important in its embrace of a cinematic 'widescreen" pacing intended to make the comic feel like a breakneck blockbuster movie, and significant chunks of what was to come over the next decade ate its lunch stylistically. This team evolved out of Stormwatch, a Jim-lee 90s-antihero outing that Ellis took over with issue 37, hollowed out and wore like a skinsuit in order to write the same kind of genre commentary spec-fic story he liked to. Ellis's work on that run is useful context for The Authority, and a pretty good read, but not strictly necessary.

The Ultimates V1 and V2 By Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch. Millar was the guy who took over The Authority from Ellis after issue 12, and The Ultimates- the version of the Avengers created for the above-mentioned Ultimate Universe- was his attempt to create a superhero team with essentially the reverse characterization from The Authority. Where The Authority were quasi-left-anarchist mavericks willing to coup the president if that's where their fight against evil took them, The Ultimates were characterized as a gaggle of incompetent, jingoistic stooges who solved only slightly more problems than they personally created, backed Bush to the hilt with the illegal invasion of Iraq, and represented a massive escalation in an international superhuman arms race that was implied to be on course to end the world. Because of the book's massively uncharitable characterization of literally every member of the Avengers lineup with the exception of Thor, and because of Millar's deep-seated edgelord sensibilities, this book is regarded poorly by many. (I like it as satire.) However, it (and the rest of Ultimate Marvel) represent the single biggest aesthetic influence on basically every Superhero film of the 2000s onward and the MCU in particular- despite arguably being an aggressive attack on the enterprise the MCU would become.

I'll round the list out with Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos. This was Bendis's other keys-to-the-kingdom-granting outing at Marvel. A noire piece following Jessica "Jewel" Jones, a retired superheroine-turned-PI, as she roots around in the dirty laundry at the outer edge of the superhero community; similar to Astro City in how it uses "edge-case questions" about how superhero settings would work as the launchpad for sad (and frequently anticlimactic) little excursions about the Human Condition. The DNA of this one is also floating around in the space.

Happy Reading!

[dross-the-fish]

I’VE MADE A BREAKTHROUGH IN MY ADAM DESIGN THAT I MUST SHARE WITH SOMEONE BUT NONE OF MY FRIENDS WANT TO GEEK OUT WITH ME SO THAT LEAVES ME TO YOU DROSS

Y’know the I Feel Fantastic video? Or the Daisy Brown ARG with Alan the monster?

I just — I feel like Adam could look uncanny in the way Tara the singing robot does, or have a voice similar to Alan, I dunno, this is just something I wanna share, I’ll share the drawings with you if you want, idk

Hmmm, I should ask you something.. what were some of your major design points with Adam?

I'm glad to hear you had a breakthrough in your design. I'm not familiar with the video you're talking about but music is also a pretty big inspo for me in general and it's a good place to seek ideas. I'd be happy to see your drawings if you want to share them. For designing my own Adam there was a lot of trail and error. I did draw inspiration from existing depictions of the creature, the Boris Karloff version, some aspects of the Bernie Wrightson creature. I really liked the stitched lip from Robert De Niro's creature in the 1994 movie even if I hated like 90% of that film. I kind of just absorbed all the different version of the creature until I felt like I had a good grasp of the character I wanted to make and I've evolved his design over the years. Given that his mouth is limited in how much it can move I did put a lot of focus on giving him very expressive eyes. I felt like it was important to give him a lot of intensity. I also really liked the idea of his pupil being reflective and that reflective shine breaking the boundary of his eye just for a little extra drama. In colored pictures I'll add a ring of a bluish color to make the yellow more vibrant.

As far as coloring him, I stick to the foundation of the book, yellowish skin, black hair, dark lips. I do like to add touches of greens or pink to the lighting. One thing that I decided on for Adam as far as making him corpse-like was to make his skin look a little bit like it wasn't quite attached to him. Almost like he's wearing a suit or mask and you can see the "holes" around his eyes and nose where the skin is kind of broken and discolored. That was an idea that came to me while I was watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Seeing Leatherface with the skin mask. I felt like to Victorian/Edwardian people that would be really difficult to look at for very long.

I did want to avoid making him conventionally deformed. I feel like what makes a Frankenstein creature potentially scary is that uncanny valley factor where he looks like something that was supposed to be beautiful but then it went horribly wrong. You can't really see it in static pictures but I'm really fond of the head canon that he doesn't move quite right. He's either to jerky or too still and he doesn't blink enough. He doesn't look properly ALIVE but he's still moving around and doing things that imitate life. Even people who love him should still find him a little unsettling, I think. For a long time I was resistant to giving him lichtenberg figure scars because they are very time consuming but they look very cool so I added them anyway. They cover all of his back and shoulders and the right side of his face.

[lordoftheskiesandearth]

Alright, so just to set some clarification right from the start. I do not blame Andrew or think he is bad for lying, or that this makes him bad . Perhaps it was an issue with my presentation or word choice, but my general focus was on the types of lies he tells, and what he focused on through his childhood, while he was a teenager, and what we see during the time of the game. The focus of his lies, the way he reacts is similar all throughout his years of growing, and all of this comes from how he was raised (abused) by Renee. I especially do not think that any abused kids will grow up to become someone like Andrew (or Ashley). I was mainly pointing out something I’ve noticed in my own life, in that the habits I gained as a child in terms of how I lie or react have repeated and remained with me as I’ve aged, many times self detrimentally later on. I’ve obviously not gone through as bad a situation as the siblings, but in terms of how I interact socially my own childhood traumas have left their mark.

I also could’ve made it clearer, but pretty much a majority of the graves siblings issues comes from Renee’s shitty parenting, and the traumas they went through when they were young were not their fault. It’s nothing intrinsic in them that lead them to this stage, and going through abuse also doesn’t mean you will end up like them.

Moreover, traits and habits Andrew gained to survive a terrible situation while helpful in the moment could have detrimental effects on situations outside of that. A lot of how he acts with Ashley, especially in the ways that they clash and have hurt both comes from his habits and “lessons” he’s learned through his abusive relationship with his mother and how he was raised. Just like how the Andy persona he adopted in childhood can and has come back to haunt him and there’s an ending where he falls entirely back into that, some of the ways Andrew lies to himself does not help him. I think that decay digging through his lies is an important part of him reaching a good ending going forward.

When I was talking about Andrew’s drive for normalcy I was working through the idea that rather than that being the end all be all, he’s more focused on presenting a front and not being seen as he truly is. I don’t know if he actually wants to be normal, rather than just be thought of as that. When he’s a teenager, and he’s with Julia he’s deeply focused on Ashley still and when he has the chance to just live with Julia later on and move on he is deeply unhappy. Despite that if he wanted normalcy that lifestyle was within reach.

Either way, I’ll try to be clearer moving forward. Thank you for posting your thoughts, they gave me a lot to think about.

I’ve been thinking on Andrew’s need to be normal and after reading Sunshine-Jesse’s latest essay I’ve come around to the idea that it’s truly not that important to him. Or rather, being normal in of itself is not that important to him, the attempts to do so are something he takes very seriously.

There’s a consistent method that Andrew uses to deal with his problems, and that’s disengaging, avoiding, denying, hiding away from it. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but taken to the extreme Andrew does it becomes a very big problem. As with most problems with the Graves, a lot of this can be traced back to Renee’s shitty parenting.

From his youngest memories, Andrew shows a predilection for lying and lying to withdraw himself. When his great Friend B talks to him about playing the Magic card game together, Andrew rather than open up in anyway lies about the reason he can’t play the game with him. He hides away and disengages rather than tell the truth and explain that his family doesn’t have the financial ability to support playing cards.

This is a continuous thread in the flashback as well, where when Ashley and Andrew deal with the Hag in their building his actions are to disengage and attempt to sweep any problems occurring under the rug. Andrew tries to make it so that if a problem occurred he feels no consequences and if he can manage it, make it so it “did not occur at all”.

When Ashley falls down and is covered in mud, Andrew goes to great lengths to hide this problem entirely. He does his best to make it so this is something his mom never even knows happened, when he could have just made up an appropriate lie and the situation would have resolved more favorably. But that requires a degree of being open that Andrew is near incapable of, not to mention allowing a problem to be brought to light rather than buried (burial hmm). It blows up in his face, which is something that happens to him several times through his life, from that incident in the flashback to him pulling away from Ashley when she was in the process of growing up, making them both tread a worse path.

So how does Normalcy fit in to this method that Andrew employs? Andrew sees “being normal” as being someone without problems. Someone who is normal is good, and by playing that part he doesn’t have to open himself up to anyone. (Interestingly, he never opens up to Ashley, but the fact that she is perceptive enough to see him in truth is something he very much loves. She even points out that others could see him too if he opened up, but he very much does not want that, would rather play a role and withdraw from that type of connection).

So to be normal in Andrew’s eyes is to remove himself from any danger to his inner self, and to remove any chance of problems occurring.

All of this also ties very heavily into Andy as well. Andy was not allowed to actually express himself, Andy was required to withdraw and only provide the appropriate assistance with Leyley. To grow past Andy for good, Andrew has to open up for real rather than keep pulling away.

[thedoomedhometown]

Doma Castle from FFVI: Magical, Chemical, or Both?

The event: In FFVI, when the Gestahlian Empire decides to invade Doma Castle, a castle situated on a river moat with water running under it, Kefka decides to poison the entire castle via the water supply rather than engage in combat, therefore engaging in an act of chemical warfare.

The water of the river changes color (at least as well as we can see in pixel art), and people begin to succumb to the poison, with those closest to the river - the guards and such - falling first. Those in lower levels of the castle itself proceed to die, with effects ascending quickly but also dissipating quickly outdoors, while collecting indoors: the king is fatally poisoned, but a guard walking down through it survives long enough to die and, when the character Cyan runs downstairs, he seems relatively unaffected in that he doesn't show effects.

The analysis: First, let's just get the simplest Occam's razor out of the way, because that's not the point of this kind of analysis, but I'll acknowledge it once again for the sake of those who somehow missed the pinned post, the description, and everything else, to save you the effort of leaving such a low-effort comment and looking like a troll

Simplest Occam's razor: "It's only a game, a Wizard Did It , it was just magic, and Cyan had plot armor because him dying would have meant the end of the game."

Bad-faith Occam's razor: The above, but add "and it says SOMETHING about you that you'd put this much thought into it"

I am fully aware of both arguments, and I recognize the validity of the first as a possible and indeed probably the most likely interpretation. (it is, indeed, a game and a piece of fiction, the writers probably didn't care or if they did didn't expect anyone else to, it was just magic to advance the plot).

That said: if you're still here reading this, I assume you came for the deeper analysis. Then join me below the cut, to take apart the events of Doma Castle, as described above.

The geography alone is the first clue we would be looking at here: a moat of water likely connected to a water system of some sort, and the water color was changed. This would point to whatever substance/action was involved being capable of reacting with water. While the pixel depiction is purple, we'll just assume the color change could have been to any color because depicting simple muddiness or cloudiness would not have been able to depict well.

That contact with the poisoned water or consumption of it was not necessary to kill points to the next point: whatever went into the water had to be a substance that converted to a toxic vapor when combined with the water, or that displaced breathable air and created dead air.

Also, the deaths progressed inward and upward, yet dispersed quickly. The only character that died from exposure at the highest point indoors was the king, who was already older and weaker, and Cyan was either unaffected or less affected. This shows that whatever was involved was something that collected at ground level, blew through the castle, and dispersed with ventilation as it did, only strongly affecting weaker persons indoors once it reached height.

Generally, this would mean the substance either created dead air at low heights but didn't wholly displace oxygen the higher up and more indoors the characters were - similar to carbon dioxide in the real life disaster of [TW: graphic descriptions of real human death due to asphyxiant gas exposure] Lake Nyos's limnic eruption

OR

was a chemical substance that reacts with water, similar to the chemical "accident" due to utter negligence at [TW: graphic and very traumatizing depictions of real human death due to toxic chemical exposure, racism, corporate greed so bad it is indistinguishable from malice, enraging content] Bhopal, India involving the reactive chemical methyl isocyanate. [Interestingly enough, I wonder if, seeing with the name of the character involved, Cyan, this was actually partial inspiration if any of the canon writers knew of it? Although that is super speculative, and I do not have any proof of it!]

And this brings me to something to a theoretical way the characters could have survived the disaster -aside from having gas masks or other proper PPE - if you want to do an alternate take - those at the top of the castle should have moved indoors and sealed off the outside as much as they could immediately, and those already indoors should have moved upward and inward to the last of the safely breathable air for the time being, waiting for the concentration to disperse enough that moving down and out away from the water would be safer.

The geography was also probably what helped contribute to the survival of anyone who made it out and downward after such as Cyan - the flowing water and wind would have both contributed to dispersing either carbon dioxide and restoring survivable oxygen levels and/or dispersing MIC to a survivable level of immediate exposure, which, as time passed, would have made the source area that he ran past safer than the inside of the castle for a long period of time, where confined spaces would have remained "dead space" or toxic levels of MIC would have collected in less ventilated areas. By choosing evacuation rather than continuing to hole up in the castle once the outdoor amount had dispersed to a less-fatal level, even if inadvertently to go join the fight against the troops following up after the poisoning, he likely saved his own life.

So one takeaway I want to offer here is that even sometimes just the few smallest clues in your writing of a disaster can indicate what it is, what caused it, and what it does. You don't need to do an entire infodump like this analysis - just pick a few consistent things, a few consistent threads that can be picked out under examination. For example, the detail that the water changed color pointed out water reactivity as a component and that the guard near it died first followed how exposure generally works - e.g. had the king died first, or characters at distance died first like some random on the other side of the planet, that would have made this just "who cares, a wizard did it" rather than something that, the more you look at it, becomes an even deeper and more horrifying thing just because even a few, possibly research-informed, details were included, just enough to make it make a degree of sense.]

And because I want to offer some advice that might help you if you ever are unlucky enough to suffer a Bhopal or an East Palestine or [TW for lots of descriptions of human suffering and death] any of the other innumerable chemical accidents that have happened in the real world (since in the real world, you are FAR more likely to be the victim of corporate greed and unsafe practices than a psychopathic clown supervillain who won't stop at anything) OR if you're writing the survival or aftermath of a chemical-related disaster in a story of your own: If you see/smell something unusual or see a mist or fog or smoke - especially after a nearby explosion or fire or in a closed, confined space - and/or if you feel suddenly, overwhelmingly ill, or you see other people who seem unconscious or dead especially in a closed confined space or near it - Move as far away from the dead/dying/more severely ill as possible, do not go to help them because you will likely join them rather than be of any help. ideally upwind and into the closest, tallest indoor space with clean air, turn off HVAC systems, and wait for instructions on when/if to evacuate.]

[dcdreamblog]

Going to ramble a bit before my latest question.

My scrapbooks aren't a reliable primary source of information. Their contents seem to shift every time there's a furshlugginer Crisis event, and there's a missing volume but every time I try to think what's in it exactly, it slips my mind. Plus of course they only contain the newspaper and magazine articles I or someone who knows about my hobby happen across, and some of those newspapers, like the Metropolis Whisper, are known to give false information.

Still, it's a fun hobby. The first clipping I started with was one my slightly older cousin pointed out to me about the Justice League fighting Doctor Destiny in 1966 (yes, I know). The mask Wonder Woman had to wear during that case was shown and fascinated me. Mom suggested making a scrapbook for the news items I was interested in, and it quickly became all superheroes and mystery men.

Once it turned out I was serious about this, I also inherited loose clippings on the general topic that my parents and grandparents had randomly saved. And now we're getting closer to my question.

I've got six items from the 1930s about a New York City mystery man, or urban legend, named the Shadow. Two are straightforward news reports of gangsters going to prison, with a mention that "the Shadow" was somehow involved. One is an official announcement from the NYC police commissioner of the time that no such person as the Shadow existed. Then there's a snippet from a gossip columnist where Orson Welles, the radio celebrity, allegedly claimed to have actually met the Shadow and helped him on a case. Finally, two letters to the editor, one claiming that the Shadow was made up by reporters as a hoax to sell newspapers, and another positing that the reason the Shadow had never been photographed is that he had the power to turn invisible (which was also why no one could catch him.)

From what little I could find in a cursory search, the existence of the Shadow appears to be controversial.

So, what's the current scholarly consensus? Was the Shadow a for real person, an urban legend, and either way, what's actually known about him?

Establishing the existence of a superhero or mystery man can be tricky in some cases and utterly trivial in others, making the hard ones even harder by comparison. For instance, it's pretty easy to establish that Superman exists. He acts publically on a daily basis, the world over, his face, his costume and his abilities are globally known and he interacts with the public and the media enough that establishing a profile on him is background radiation. It's just KNOWN. Establishing that a mystery man existed back in the late 30s and 40s is also usually easy. Green Lantern is attested in dozens of newspaper articles, photographs, newsreels and of course the man is still alive and directly connected to many other well known superhero organizations. Then there's the tricky ones. Superheroes who show up once and then never again, strange costumes and images that don't quite fit with any other report, things that mix closer to legend than fact. This is one of those.

(A sketch of the most well attested version of what 'The Shadow' may have looked like) Reports of the Shadow's existence stretch back as far as 1931, the better part of a decade before The Crimson Avenger and the Sandman would bring the era of the mystery man into the full public consciousness. There have always been theories, some more fringe than others, that they were NOT in fact the first Mystery Men of their era but in fact simply the two that went public and maintain their identities long enough to be well attested in the historical record. That's never become a mainstream position simply because all versions of it either fail to meet the definition: The Crimson Avenger and the Sandman are the first BECAUSE they directly lead into their generation being birthed as a social force. Even if other came before them they only arguably count as part of the same wave because they obviously didn't reach the war years. OR like in this case, because their existence is impossible to prove. I don't believe the Shadow exists because the more you try to dig into him the more his existence becomes something worse than unprovable, it becomes unfalsifiable. He can turn invisible, he's a master of disguise, everyone who has ever seen his face is dead, he can mind control people through hypnosis so even standing in the center of a well lit room he won't be noticed, he has dirt on literally every possible person in or out of power that's so airtight no one would dare leak his existence, etc, etc, etc. The more questions are raised about lack of evidence, the wider the circle becomes to justify how nothing about him has ever been pinned down. None of the other heroes who were active in the very early 'gangland' days like the Sandman, The Crimson Avenger or The Atom ever confirmed working with or against him, he was never a member of any team or organization, no photograph was ever taken of the man beyond a shadow of a doubt. Eventually it comes down to the fact that a theory that can't be DISproven can't be trusted.

[dyingroses]

Of Fathers and Failings pt2: I went to the doctor, I went to the mountains

"My boy -" Poseidon began but was cut off by his son.

"Please, father. I have to see her. Please, I already abandoned her once, I - I can't - I," Triton said starting to break down.

"How about I tell Athena that you want to see her and she can meet -" Hermes began to suggest.

"- She was struck by lightning! Six times! I'm not making her have to move let alone fly!" Triton shouted

"Okay, I hear you cousin. At least let me fly up to Olympus and see if it's safe and you know, if Athena wants to see you," Hermes said.

Silence.

"I mean, she's probably still really injured, didn't look like the wounds were gonna heal anytime this decade if I'm being honest, and in a lot of pain and well Athena doesn't really like to show any weakness whatsoever. So yeah it might not be the best time to see -"

"- I have to try! . . . Please. Please, cousin" Triton begged.

"Okay, you wait at the bottom of the mountain and I'll go up and check on things, deal?" Hermes said

"Yes," Triton agreed

"Son -"

"Father whatever harm Zeus will cause me will not be worse than if I never try. Please. This is the only way I can live with myself," Triton told his father.

"Fine. But I'm coming with you," Poseidon said.

Only problem was Athena was not there. Not in her palace, not in Apollo's palace - which was also missing it's resident - not anywhere on Olympus. He couldn't ask Ares because he would be worried, Aphrodite would tell Ares anyway, Artemis wouldn't be there, Hera wouldn't know either, and neither Heph would just be worried too. Reckless was not a word Hermes used when it came to his sister. Practically every move she made was calculated. And they still were, Hermes thought to himself a slight smile on his face. He had a suspicion where she might have gone.

Any lies Hermes might have thought about telling disappeared the moment he saw the fear and desperation on Triton's face.

"She's not there," Hermes told him.

"What! Where is she?" Triton demanded.

Hermes had his suspicion and was not finding this tension to be the delicious or hilarious kind.

"If she's left then she has probably healed," Poseidon said, although he knew there was no way she would heal from lightning that quickly. Poseidon tried to put a hand on his son's shoulder but Triton shook it off.

"Even IF her body could heal from the lightning that quickly she - she . . . her father . . struck her . . her father struck her," Poseidon said with tears rolling down his face, "I have to see her."

Hermes sighed. Lying would be soooo much easier. But Hermes wasn't heartless and after everything he had witnessed on Mount Olympus that night, really on Mount Olympus in general, it was nice to see a dad caring about his kid, and fates know Athena deserves that. Needs that, Hermes thought to himself.

"Okay, I do have a strong idea of where she might be," Hermes began, "But you must swear on the river stix not to intentionally harm the people of the kingdom I believe her to be in now, unless it's in defense of yourself or a loved one," Hermes said, "Athena took six lightning -"

"- I swear it on the river stix," Triton replied. Hermes blinked. So this is what it's like when a father actually cares about his kid, Hermes thought.

"Uncle, if you plan on coming too I need to you to swear the same oath. Athena really cares about these people and I will not have her suffering be for nothing," Hermes said.

Triton looked up at his father with pleading eyes. Poseidon sighed.

"I swear it on the river stix," Poseidon said.

"Good, then off to Ithaca we go!"

[dustymeadows]

I should smooth out what the situation is between nightmare and his men

I don’t quite think its anything abusive, but you can’t put 4 mentally ill men in the same building and expect good situations to come from it you know. So its not exactly all needs are perfectly met either

This is all coloured by my personal idea Nightmare would not replace his men- its just generally inefficient and troublesome and honestly emotionally taxing. And terrible for loyalty. Nightmare went through so much shit himself feeling like second-best, expendable, like nobody would blink an eye if he was gone, and as much as he’d want to position himself like the people that hurt him in order to feel powerful I think the moment he felt like his brother (or how he believed his brother thought of him) he’d recoil like touching a hot stove.

Anyway my order of joining I think would be Killer, Dust, Horror, Cross (if applicable)

I like Killer being first because it means all of the shit NM had to figure out? He had to do with Killer. Creates a really complicated relationship thats closer than Nightmare’d like to admit. Killer’d get to see Nightmare go from someone floundering trying to pretend he knows how mortals work to sssort of having it more together by the time Dust is picked up. Killer doesn’t have a positive opinion of Nightmare but he still likes NM yknow? Out of everyone, Killer sees Nightmare the most falliable. The most “human”. Just as prone to faults in judgement as everyone else. Killer trusts Nightmare only as much as Nightmare will trust Killer. Which puts them into fun seesaws

Dust doesnt really give a shit? Dust is always kinda in his own world until things settle down more. Dislikes Nightmare but its as much as Dust dislikes everyone so. Has the most trouble adjusting to things but I also think him and Nightmares arrangement definitely involves NM telling him if the player returns to his world? So it lets Dust kinda start to explore his new… everything, without as MUCH of that constant weight. Which eventually becomes a general trust of nightmare even if it never grows past neutrality

Horror… horror is. Interesting. The first hurdle you have to jump is how the hell you convinced him to join NMs gang but that could be a whole other post. So putting a pin in that, Horror seemed like he adjusted the quickest but definitely was just putting up a front until everything eventually cracked and he had worlds worst crash-out. Horrors trust in nightmare (and dust and killer) was built by how that situation was handled- not that it was done perfectly but the fact Nightmare gave him proper space and accommodation without trying to force anything definitely. Like. Like in the moment it worsened the paranoia but in the long-run it made Horror feel way more secure in his place. He’s not too personally close with Nightmare but he has a pretty positive opinion despite it

Obviously theres a lot of rough edges but i think its important that Overall theres a level of security. Because it helps tie them together and give them an actual motivation to stick around if shit gets rough. If nightmare ever spiraled or seemed to make stupid decisions the three wouldn’t blindly follow, they’d turn around and try to figure out what was fucking him up. Because even if Nightmare believes its fear or deals that keeps them in line, its the security of the situation and the fact that Nightmare listens to them and values their perceptions of reality.

[honorhearted]

".... For somebody named 'Tallmadge' ye' have the shortest temper, y'know tha'?"

(I dont know what this is but i apologize for him)

Even without seeing Richard's face, Ben was all too aware that he had to be grinning that miserable, punch-worthy sneer he'd grown to loathe.

Shoulders dropping in annoyance, Ben finally turned to regard the other man. "You don't pronounce the tall in T.allmadge," he muttered, spearing Richard with a sharp once-over. "But then, you already knew this. You're just being an arsehole. And you know what? 'For somebody named Richard,' you have the perfect nickname that encapsulates your personality."

[chirpsythismorning]

I’m sorry but nothing will ever beat Finn’s drive playlist that he made during s3 filming, with songs like Me and Michael, The Basement, Gay Thoughts and No Woman lmaoooo

[scootatwoni]

The strongest warriors are those that love botw but don't ship zelink (me its me I'm the strongest warrior)

[floorpancakes]

big fan of headcanoning that kid doumeki killed the class chicken because nobody else wanted to and he was already being picked on for being Inexplicably Weird and Smelling Like Death so his classmates probably thought it would work as a bullying tactic. he handled it like a champ and it makes sense that he would but it's still kind of sad

[soullessjack]

hey uh not for nothing but it would be so much easier to talk about the ableism issues with how jack is treated/depicted if you guys could learn to understand that bigotry doesn’t necessarily have to be intentional and outright cruel for it to be harmful. that sometimes it is accidental or made with good/harmless intentions but that doesn’t make it less bigoted in the long run. If we could just move past that one square we could actually have a conversation 👍

[dennisboobs]

seeing discussion of autistic dennis out in the wild is insane i feel like i walked into some bizarre mirror dimension