#some of these i got from reddit so i can’t take all the credit

[free-for-all-fics]

Vampire! Namor and Tenoch AU prompts! Please tag me if you’re inspired by any of these ideas, I’d love to read it! 💜 Thanks to @okay-hotshot for helping me out with these!

1. “The most accessible veins are the jugular in the neck and the great saphenous vein that runs just under the skin inside your upper thigh” so just imagine vampire Tenoch sucking your blood from your thighs. Would he do that before or after he eats you out? Or Vamp!Namor or Tenoch and period sex, going absolutely feral and unhinged at the scent of your blood and cum. He purposely fucks you on white bedsheets so you can see the bloody mess you two made. The messier and bloodier the sheets, the better. Bonus: He gifts you white dresses because you look so innocent but it’s also easier to stain and ruin you. He would have a corruption kink.

2. Blood rave, blood rave, blood rave! Dancing with vampire Tenoch at the blood rave. Like the scene from the Blade movies. Either you're human who he feeds on like a personal blood bag or you're also a vampire, up to you.

3. To get out of an arranged marriage you have decided to marry yourself to the sea. You weren’t expecting there to be underwater vampires and for their king to take you up on your offering yourself as a bride. Now you’ve been kidnapped by your “husband”. Sort of Hades/Persephone AU.

4. From Dusk Till Dawn AU with Vampire/Culebra! Tenoch. You escape across the Mexican border after a robbery gone wrong and Tenoch is maybe one of the nine lords who has found his own way to obtain blood, through illicit business like his siblings. But he has some of his humanity left and he keeps you around as a toy or blood bag at first, but feels attracted to you over time.

5. Vampires are stealing blood tainted with sedatives and opioids from hospitals. They use this blood as drugs to other vampires. Vampire Tenoch drinks blood that’s spiked with alcohol, coffee, hallucinogens, or garlic because it gets him high/drunk. Vampires can only get drunk if alcohol is contained in the blood of their prey, for example. Distilling human blood with various different flavors is like an addiction. Vampires basically force feed their captive human (that you have or are sharing with another vampire) the food of their choice, then after a while that flavor starts to run all the way through the human’s blood and “spikes” it. Instead of drinking straight from humans, some vampires prefer blood from the bag, as letting blood cool is the vampire equivalent of cooking food. Oblivious to the little side business you’re involved in, vampires from all over come to your hospital to indulge in the tastiest cuisine and the finest wines.

6. Loosely Midnight Mass inspired: Vampire society have been loyal customers to a carpenter for years. He made the best coffins they have slept in for centuries, and never really got suspicious of so many wealthy people willing to pay premium for the same niche item. As he got old, the vampires try to offer him immortality. Instead the carpenter asks that they save you, his adult granddaughter who's dying. This is how you meet Tenoch. Because you're so sick, your blood is tainted. You can't be bitten or turned the normal way. So he comes to you under the guise of the new town doctor. As you start to feel better, you have no idea the "medicine" he feeds you is actually slowly bringing about your transformation into a vampire.

7. Vampire and human scientists alike have placed a bounty for vampire! Namor to be captured alive. Their reason? He has a genetic mutation wherein he can walk in direct sunlight without dying.

8. Vampires are real, and are mostly employed as librarians. Tenoch is a vampire historian. Unlike most vampires, he decided not to sleep hundreds of years and instead decided to document historical events into books. He now owns a library made for vampires just waking up. You are a vampire. But instead of sucking blood to maintain your immortal life, you are a writer. The more people read your stuff, the longer you live and stronger you are.

9. Vampires are often romanticized, but it's really more of a curse. Feeding not only kills the victim, but attaches their soul to the vampire, effectively haunting them as long as they live. The older the vampire, the more ghosts. Namor is 500 years old and you’re the most persistent ghost he’s ever had haunting him. Most have gotten bored and left by now, but not you.

10. Vampires can't drown. Because of this, many vampires have built a civilization at the bottom of the ocean, away from the sun or any humans. Namor, king of the vampires, is a mutant. He’s the only one who’s still able to walk in the sunlight of the surface world without burning. He’s just successfully brought the sun to his people. Except this one doesn’t burn or harm them. It’s just as beautiful and bright as the one humans have on land.

11. Vampires are real, but humans enacted a powerful ritual millennia ago making them vulnerable to the sun's rays. The vampires fled deep under the sea, where they created an underwater city, Talokan. Desperate for the taste of human blood once again, the vampires are preparing an invasion on dry land.

12. Vampires have returned to the world after their time in the shadows, with the promise to never feed upon humans, lest they too become changed. You, on the other hand, are fair game, due to a rare immunity to the vampire transformation. This makes you a rather hot and highly contested commodity. You spot a vampire who appears to be starving. You take pity on him and allow him to drink your blood. Big mistake. Apparently you have 'good blood' and are given a room in the vampire's underground society. You're treated really well. but you want to leave.

13. You set off with a spare tank, a powerful light and an underwater camera, determined to prove the existence of underwater vampire covens. You’ve held the belief that mermaids are actually vampires that realized the sun could not harm them underwater, but never had the chance to test your theory until now. You were always told never to enter the deeper waters. The Elders said only the shallows were safe, that the monsters never came up this high. That glowing lights in the deep would lead you astray. Why didn't you listen?

14. CEO! Vampire! Tenoch/Namor AU: Suddenly, it dawned on you. The company you work for, Sunsetters, is run by vampires and bad employees aren't fired, they're food for the bosses. Looking at your calendar, your two year review is coming up.

15. You, an ancient vampire, have been fighting a family of vampire hunters for centuries who vow to avenge their ancestor whom you killed. After a little research things suddenly get awkward as you realize that the ancestor in question is actually you when you were a human.

16. As a vampire, I follow traditions. My fiancée is human and just found out that human brides are to be bit to become a vampire themselves. She absolutely refuses to let that happen, and says the wedding is off unless I refuse to bite her. I feel like she's disrespecting tradition. AITA?

17. When you signed up for a dating app with a gimmick around being comprised entirely of cryptids, you thought it was just an in-joke between all of the users. Now you're on a date with a vampire and need to explain that you're just an ordinary human in a way that won't piss him off.

18. You slap Tenoch, your vampire friend, to shock him out of his bloodlust. In return, he frowns at you in confusion and rubs his cheek. "..OW?"

19. Under the guise of a "Monster Hunter" you've been helping innocent vampires, spirits and other oddities find safer homes instead of killing them. When someone happens upon you escorting one to safety, the townsfolk turn on you.

20. Due to extreme air pollution, people have been dying while others have been mutated into vampires. To protect themselves from the sun, the survivors created a modern underwater city and named it Talokan. Years go by, and everything is fine. Until vampires start drowning for unknown reasons. You are the overseer of one of the many underwater labs, and are tasked by Namor, the King of Talokan and all vampires, to investigate what’s causing this strange drowning phenomenon. Equipped with a variety of gadgets and people, you decide to finally activate your long ranged floor scanner.…And see what the hell has been making those noises outside.

21. A catastrophe leaves Earth's surface uninhabitable, forcing mutated survivors to retreat to undersea bunkers. Centuries pass. Civilization is thriving underwater, with a new nation: Talokan. Ruled by their King, Namor, the mutated vampires are now preparing for the first surface expedition.

22. The submarine had run out of power and was now dead underwater. Slowly, you watched your crew mates die of starvation but, for some reason, you didn't die. You survived months, then years on end in a dead submarine. Fast forward 75 years and your submarine is found. Namor follows the scent and finds you alone, surrounded by blood and carnage. Your crew mates, or pieces of what’s left of them, floating around. He realizes you don’t remember what’s happened. You’re confused as to why the bodies of your crew mates are gone or in pieces, unaware of what you did. You have no memory that you’re a vampire. But he knows. You had to feed, and you got desperate. Contrary to popular belief, vampires can feed on all parts of a human, not just blood. He tells you that he’ll help you, but you must come with him at once.

23. Your family is the most prestigious and successful line of vampire hunters in the world, keeping everyone safe from the shadows. Nobody realizes that you are in fact vampires using your position to strike down competition and maintain supremacy over your own kind.

24. A thief breaks into a luxurious mansion...when the local vampire aristocrats happen to have their soirée there. A rich vampire demonstrates their status by publicly drinking a human's blood. A few seconds later, their body corrodes from the inside out. This is the story of the night a scientist decided to test the blood that killed the aristocrat. The plan quickly switches from "steal" to "survive".

25. Tenoch, an aristocrat, invites you, an old beggar woman, into his castle out of concern that you might be a disguised enchantress. In reality you’re a vampire. You just haven’t been able to feed in far too long. You must feed, soon. How fortunate that this man is either unafraid of you or oblivious to the stories the superstitious locals tell. Perhaps he or members of his staff can provide you with some much needed refreshments.

26. A vampire AU where Tenoch/Namor is similar to Count Strahd von Zarovich. He’s in love with the reader, bordering on obsession and possession. Maybe he even killed her past lovers and husband-to-be in order to have her for himself, but this caused reader to either run away and disappear forever, or die. Once every 100 years or so he will meet a woman whom he believes is Reader reincarnated. He always tries to woo her, but his curse is that the woman inevitably dies. So what if when he finds your most recent incarnation, he keeps you under tight lock and key in his castle, in a room where you can’t escape nor hurt yourself. He keeps a very close eye on you, never leaving you alone. If he’s not watching you, one of his servants is. After all this time, he still wants you as his wife. He’ll make you his bride, he’ll plan a huge celebration for your wedding and transformation into vampirism. “My dear, you shall not leave me again! Why do you run!? Come back, my sweet! Give me a kiss!”

[wintrwinchestr]

lather (joel miller x f!reader oneshot) 18+

moodboard by @iamasaddie

summary: you decide to try shaving your pussy for the first time on your first night settling into jackson with joel. he accidentally nicks you while helping you shave, but he makes sure to kiss it all better <3

warnings: 18+, smut, early jackson joel, established d/s relationship, porn with some plot (probably too much), oral (f receiving), innocence kink/roleplay, daddy kink (bordering on ddlg), shaving, a bit of insecure reader, blood (tried to keep it short & not very graphic), sprinkle of humiliation, pet names (darlin’, baby, babygirl, lil’ girl, honey, sweet girl, etc), joel refers to reader’s pussy as she/her, spitting, reader can be lifted by joel and has hair that can be tucked behind her ear, implied *legal* age gap (reader went to school in the qz)

word count: 2.9k

a/n: this fic is based on an nsfw audio by u/organ_donor86 on reddit!! i went to reddit and found it again so i could properly credit them for the inspiration, but i haven’t heard the full audio in probably 2 years so this fic is only based on what i could remember of the premise <3 this is my first time writing smut, nice comments and reblogs are appreciated if you enjoyed!!

You were sat on the end of the first clean, comfortable bed you had encountered in twenty years, taking in the surroundings of the charming bedroom you now found yourself in: The deer antler lamp emanating a warm glow from the bedside table, the framed paintings of various Wyoming-native wildlife hung up on the walls, the earth-toned woven rug beneath your bare feet. You took a deep breath, savoring the smell of a house that had never known decay. For the first time since outbreak day, you felt safe. Truly safe. Of course, Joel did his best to protect you as you traveled together over the last year or so since you met him, but you were never really without a looming threat of danger nearby.

His familiar, comforting voice startled you out of your daze.

“Y’ alright, babygirl? Settlin’ in okay?”

You looked over to where Joel was standing in the doorway, freshly showered and changed into a clean flannel and jeans.

You smiled with a relaxed sigh, flitting your eyes around the room again. “Yeah, I like it here, it’s cozy… Can’t wait to finally get a good night’s sleep in this bed tonight.”

“I’m with ya, baby, Maria ‘n Tommy gave us a real nice place, huh? Speakin’ of which, it’s about dinnertime, I think they just started servin’ it up down at the dinin’ hall. Why don’t we all go get somethin’ to eat together, hm? I know you must be hungry, sweet girl.”

Your eyes widened and your smile dropped a bit at the prospect of socializing with strangers, especially after the exhausting day you’d had getting to Jackson. Joel clocked your expression immediately, approaching where you were sat on the bed with slow strides. He gently pinched your chin between his thumb and pointer finger, tilting your head up to meet his eyes.

“I know, my babygirl’s a shy one, huh? There’ll be a lotta people down there, I know…” He stroked a lock of hair behind your ear with his other hand. “Why don’t I go down there myself and see about bringin’ back some plates for us to eat together, just you and me? We’ll save the introductions for tomorrow, alright, darlin’?”

You nodded, your shoulders relaxing as your anxiety was soothed by his reassurances. He smiled down at you and pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead. “Alright, sit tight, honey, Daddy’ll be right back… We’ll have a nice lil’ night together.” Another soft kiss, to your lips this time, and he was gone from the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.

You got up from the bed and padded over to the window. Peering out to the main road, you could see a crowd of people lined up outside the dining hall to get their evening meal. You figured you had at least fifteen minutes or so until Joel returned, deciding to take the opportunity to explore more of the house while you waited.

You wandered out of the bedroom and down the hallway, peeking your head around the doorframe of the first room you came upon. You reached out your arm and blindly felt around for the lightswitch, flicking it on once you found it. You were still standing in the doorway, knowing by now to wait a beat for the roaches to scatter before stepping fully inside. But to your surprise, there were none. The fluorescent ceiling light revealed the room to be a bathroom, a clean one at that. 

You stepped over the threshold, immediately taking notice of the charming basket of homemade-looking toiletries perched on the sink’s granite countertop. It might as well have been Christmas morning, the overwhelming joy you felt at the idea of getting to take a bath in a clean tub with soap after all these years. 

You picked up a white bar of soap from the basket and brought it to your nose, your eyelids fluttering closed as you inhaled its sweet vanilla scent. When you opened your eyes again, you noticed something even more enticing in the basket: a razor. The QZ school you attended had allowed the boys to have them in order to keep their facial hair under control, but deemed them a non-essential for the girls. Which, you supposed, was true, but you had still always fantasized about having a smooth, hairless body like the girls you had seen in wrinkled magazines and faded movie posters.

Your newly acquired shaving supplies planted an idea in your head: you were going to surprise Joel by shaving your pubic area for the first time. You imagined what it would be like to make a move on him after dinner, getting him hot and bothered, letting him carry you back up to the bedroom to have his way with you, and the wanton look on his face when he pulled down your cotton panties to find your pussy glistening and bare for him for the first time.

You practically tripped over your own feet in your rush to close the bathroom door. You quickly stripped off your worn jeans and underwear, tossing them into the corner of the bathroom to be dealt with later. You plugged up the sink and began to fill it with warm water, hoisting yourself up onto the countertop.

You swished the bar of soap around in the water, then rubbed it on a small patch of hair to create some suds. You placed the razor onto your soapy mound, then dragged it upward along your skin toward your belly button. Removing the hair proved to be more difficult than expected, and you were surprised to find that it hurt. It felt like you had just ripped out the hair instead of shaving it clean off. Just as you had touched the razor to the same thatch of hair to try again, you heard Joel’s heavy footsteps approaching, returning with your dinner much sooner than you had expected. 

He was slowly turning the knob before you had a chance to get up and lock the door. “You in here, darlin? I was callin’ your name but you weren’t respondin’, and you weren't in the bedroom…”

“Sorry, Daddy… I’m just, um… doing something…” you responded, not very convincing in your flustered state.

“Can I come in, baby?”

You hummed your permission and he pushed the door open. The concerned look on his face dissolved when he saw you, worried at first that you might have been crying. His eyebrows raised and his lips parted in realization as he took in the sight of you before him.

“What’re you doin’ in here, darlin’, hm?”

“I… I wanted it to be a surprise. Wanted to shave it for you…” you admitted with a defeated pout.

“Oh babygirl… you know I’ve never cared about what you look like down there, don’t you?” You suddenly felt shy under his gaze, beginning to regret giving in to your girlish idea.

“I know, but… just wanted to look pretty for you, that’s all… like the girls in the magazines…”

“Oh, baby… you’re already the prettiest lil’ angel I ever laid eyes on… But if you really wanna shave her, Daddy’ll help you, sweet girl, don’t gotta keep struggling…”

He pulled up the worn little wooden stool from the corner of the bathroom and took a seat between your spread legs, gesturing for you to hand him the razor and bar of soap. You gave them up reluctantly, placing them delicately into his calloused hand. Your lips were still formed into a little pout, upset that your surprise had been ruined.

He dipped the vanilla-scented bar into the sink again, then rubbed it back and forth along the same vertical strip of skin above the hood of your clit that you had tried to start shaving first. He took note of the shoddily clipped hairs and how the skin beneath them was already looking a bit irritated from your misguided attempt.

“Gotta shave in the direction of the hair first, honey… like this…” He swished the razor in the water, then demonstrated the technique. The fingers of his left hand were splayed out across your lower tummy, his thumb pointed down, tugging the skin up towards your belly button as he shaved downward with his right. “See, baby? Just like this…” He did a few passes over the area, rinsing the razor in between each one. 

You were mesmerized by his movements, watching his expert fingers work to remove coarse hair, revealing velvet smooth skin underneath. His hands looked so strong and competent as they moved from one patch of hair to the next, his brows furrowed and his tongue peeking out from between his plush lips in concentration.

You felt your core becoming wet as he exposed more bare skin to the bathroom’s cool air, his warm breath ghosting over your clit with each careful stroke of the razor. As he pulled away to admire how his work was coming along, the focused tension between his eyebrows released, noticing your hole beginning to drip.

“Oh…” he breathed, gathering some of your wetness on his thumb and bringing it closer to his face, inspecting it. “What’s all this honey, hm? This just from Daddy helpin’ you shave your lil’ pussy?” He sucked his thumb into his mouth, his eyelids fluttering as he savored the flavor. “Taste so sweet, babygirl… always so fuckin’ sweet f’ me…”

You nodded and whimpered at his words, heat rising to your cheeks at his slight mocking tone. “Can’t help it, Daddy…” Your hips started twitching of their own volition, rocking upward toward where his lips were now curled into a faux-sympathetic pout. You knew this was part of a little game he liked to play with you, the one where he made you feel a little embarrassed for being so easily turned on by him.

“I know, honey, I know… Lil’ girl can’t ever help herself, always gets wet f’ me so easily, doesn’t she? But you gotta hold still f’ me, let Daddy finish helpin’ you shave, okay?”

You gave another quick little nod and a hum of agreement that came out sounding more like a pathetic whine, and tried your best to control the movements of your pelvis as he got back to work.

But his big, warm hand was spread out over the delicate skin of your tummy again, and his lips were so close to being right where you wanted them, and what little self control you had been able to muster was quickly beginning to slip away. You were nearly able to contain yourself for the rest of his shaving, but your eager hips betrayed you on what would have been the final pass of the razor, giving a swift little buck toward Joel’s face despite your best efforts to keep still.

He wasn’t prepared for your sudden movement, and the sharp blades nicked the skin of one of your outer lips. You let out a startled cry as a little crimson pearl began to bloom on your sensitive skin. Joel gasped and was quick to apologize, even though your injury was really due to your own desperation. “Oh, Christ… I’m sorry, babygirl, I’m so sorry… here, gimme a tissue, baby.” 

With a shaky hand, you reached over to the box of tissues sitting on the back of the toilet, plucking one out to hand to him. He dropped the razor in favor of the tissue, balling it up and gently pressing it to the little cut. His free hand quickly came up to the side of your face, smoothing his thumb across your cheekbone. “You okay, babygirl? I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean t’ hurt ya… told ya to keep still for me, baby…”

He wiped away a tear that had slipped from your lashes as you sniffled. “I’m okay, Daddy, jus’ scared me… stings a lil’ bit…”

“Yeah, I’ll bet it does… my poor girl. Daddy shoulda been more careful, knew you wouldn’t be able to control yourself, needy lil’ thing… But you know what, babygirl? Daddy knows somethin’ that’ll help, that’ll make it stop hurtin’...”

“What is it?” you asked, soft voice still wavering slightly.

“Well, I read somewhere a long time ago… that spit can help a lot with lil’ cuts and things…”

You could tell this was part of one of the other little games you liked to play together. The one where you pretended to be innocent and inexperienced, when in reality, Joel had made sure you were anything but. But you liked this game, it put butterflies in your tummy and made your weeping hole quiver when you played the part for him.

“It… it can?” you wondered with a naive-sounding lilt.

“Oh yeah, babygirl, you never heard o’ that before? Spit can help a whole lot, ‘specially Daddy’s spit, can make it feel all better, darlin’...” The stained tissue now discarded, his thumbs gently stroked the slick pink skin of your outer lips as he spoke, careful to avoid your little injury. “And your lil’ baby pussy is a real uncomfortable place to have a cut like this, too… Don’t want my girl hurtin’...”

Your eyebrows were knit together with need as you released a pathetic whimper, your breath hitching and heat rising from your fluttering tummy all the way up to your cheeks. He barely concealed a smirk as he noticed the change in your demeanor, knowing how this particular game had always affected you.

“Whaddya say, sweet girl, hm? You wanna give it a try? You want Daddy to kiss it all better?”

You nodded frantically, your mouth slightly agape as you began to pant out of desperation.

He was quick to deliver a small swat to your inner thigh at your unspoken answer.

“Words, baby, you know better…”

“Y-yes, Daddy, please, want you to kiss it better, make it stop hurting…”

“There you go, good girl. Spread your legs a lil’ more for me, honey, let me see her…”

You wiggled your thighs further apart on top of the counter, giving him full access to your now soaking cunt. 

“There she is, baby, she’s cryin’ for me, ain’t she? Needs her Daddy to make her feel all better…”

He placed a few wet kisses to the afflicted area before looking up at you with apologetic eyes. “How’s that feel, babygirl? She still hurtin’?”

You nodded your head with a pathetic little cry, mindlessly chasing after his mouth with your hips. “Still hurts, Daddy…” you vocalized your answer this time. 

“Yeah? Poor lil’ pussy… She need some more lovin’ from her Daddy? More of his spit to help make her feel good again?”

Another frantic nod, another eager mewl. “M-more… please, Daddy…” 

“Alright, babygirl, don’t you worry, Daddy’ll give her some more…”

He latched his lips onto your swollen clit, alternating between sucking it into his mouth and giving it soft kitten licks. His large hands were firmly planted on the inside of each of your thighs, keeping you spread wide as he devoured you. You were already so sensitive from his teasing, it wasn’t going to take much more to push you over the edge. You were practically riding his face, your hips canting feverishly into his mouth with each expert drag of his tongue across your folds. 

When he started fucking his tongue into your bitty hole, swirling it around and then licking back up to your clit to circle it, you knew you weren’t going to last much longer.

“Please, Daddy, please… feels so good, ‘s too much, gonna cum, Daddy…”

“Yeah? I dunno, babygirl, I don’t think she’s healed all the way just yet… might still need some more takin’ care of,” he murmured into your pussy before pulling his head away to spit directly onto your cunt. The lewd action was enough to launch you into your orgasm right then, his head still between your legs, slurping up the divine combination of his saliva and your sweet juices. As you rode it out, his tongue maintained a gentle, steady strum on your clit, eliciting breathy whines of please and yes and Daddy…

When you finally came down from your high, your breath catching up to you and your hips stilling, your pussy twitched one last time at the sight of Joel’s wrecked face. He was smirking up at you, his face soaked with your slick, thumbs rubbing soothing circles onto your thighs. 

“Well, I reckon it worked, whaddya think, darlin’? She feelin’ better now?”

“Much better… thank you Daddy…” you sighed, still catching your breath.

“You’re welcome, babygirl, such pretty manners… Now, why don’t we get ourselves cleaned up and have some dinner, hm? I even brought back a slice o’ huckleberry pie for ya if you eat all your vegetables like a good girl…”

You lit up immediately at the promise, prompting Joel to reach into the basket and pull out a soft, cream-colored washcloth. He dunked it in the water, squeezing out the excess, and carefully cleaned up your now freshly bare pussy. When he was done, you took the washcloth from him, rinsing it in the sink before repeating his cleansing process on his own face. He helped you up off the counter before leaving the bathroom, returning promptly with a fresh set of clothes for you to change into. He helped you into a clean pair of panties, which you noted felt nice against your naked skin, then into a warm sweatshirt and comfortable leggings.

He carried you into the kitchen and sat you down at the little table set for two. You ate your dinners together by soft candlelight, relishing the feeling of having a sturdy roof over your heads and warm food in your stomachs.

You supposed tonight, and this little house in Jackson, represented a new beginning in more ways than one.

tag list: @beefrobeefcal @gracieispunk @iamasaddie @rebel-held

[theadhddimsenion]

you know ever since mastermind the blitzø antis seems to have had to rehash his previous “sins”.

At first it all was “he doesn’t care about anyone but himself”, “he adopted Loona so he could force her to love him!”, ”he yelled at my waifs/husbando and that makes him evil!!”, “he was mean to poor whittle moxxie boxxie!”, “he made Loona burn owls which she could easily not done!!”, “he stole from my succuwife!”, “he’s literally a rapist!!”, “he makes excuses!” Blah blah blah blah blah!! Yeessh!! But now they are constantly having to bring up his old sins and create straw men to make their nonsense work. Because when he put himself on that chopping block he proved that he cared more for his found family more than any of these people probably care for anyone in their life!!

Now I know that the internet isn’t the best place for a civil discussion this is especially true of Reddit but just yesterday I saw someone get 2000 upvotes for calling people hypocrites for supposedly “ignoring” blitz’s stalking of m&m in favor of emberlynns stalking of him! And contrary to what some people think I don’t believe that m&m need any kind of “karmic justice” on him in the slightest!! He saved their fucking lives this episode I think he’s got a lot more good karma than people give him credit for. Fortunately the Redditor in question was rightfully flames for their bad take which goes to show that no website is a monolith.

We all know that blitz’s greatest flaw is his self hatred but I would argue that self awareness is his greatest virtue. You can’t really blame yourself for everything and make it make sense in your head without knowing who and what you are on a very deep level. Contrary to what some people think he has never once tried to deflect blame from himself even in apology your he said “everyone is shitty” that obviously includes himself and no he’s not trying to deflect blame from himself he’s asking “why me specifically?” To which veroskia doesn’t answer but instead insults him and speaking of veroskia. It should be plainly obvious to everyone with an iota of media literacy that veroskia was not helping anyone with those parties of hers she was just prolonging their supposed suffering by dragging them into her bad coping mechanism and causing them to never move on just like her. If she doesn’t want to forgive than fine but at less than forget!! Blitz is always the first to take responsibility even for things that aren’t his fault this is made crystal clear in mastermind where he volunteered for the chopping block and took advantage of the fact that he big red bitch was never going to hear them out. Blitz’s greatest “crime” is daring to be something more than a worthless little circus imp who’s value is determined by everyone but himself. And to me that makes him a working class and neurodivergent hero.

[pizzacatdelight]

My Birthday

Yay, today’s my birthday! I turned 28 years old! And avoided the dreaded “27 Club” where some of the biggest musicians from the 60s’ and 70s’ died when they were 27 years old! (They mainly died due to massive drinking, doing drugs, etc.…)

My 27th year on this planet was not a good one. Early this year, I quit my toxic part-time job at a well-known pizza restaurant that I won’t name. I got scammed into paying for my own equipment for a new job I thought it was a job, but wasn’t. So, I lost over $2,000 because of it and I have to freeze my credit scores to keep the scammers from opening any new credit cards under my name! Then there’s the fact I can’t even find a job that would even hire me due to both my disability and my limited skill list! I even got rejected from getting Disability (or SSI); two months later because of the fact I even had a job!

At home, my youngest niece graduated from high school in June and instead of going to University, she’s working a full-time job at Sally’s Beauty in order to save up money to buy her own car since the car her mom gave her last year and it‘s too expensive to go University right now. My only nephew started 11th grade last month, which means once he graduates in 2025, mom’s planning to sell the family house. She told me and my older sister this back in March/April where after she sold the house; she’s planning to (probably) move to Oregon to get away from the politics of conservative Texas and to retire. Of course, we’re going to move with her as she’s planning to buy land and build a condo house where my sister and I can live on one side of the condo.

For my hobbies, on the other hand, they’re doing great! I beat over 15 games this year, which include “Pokémon: Emerald”, “Hypnospace Outlaw”, “Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Cindered Shadows DLC” and “The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog”. “BAD END THEATER” became the first Steam game where I 100% all the achievement. I preordered “Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” a few days before it came out in May and played it on release day. I remembered staying up all night going around Hyrule, completing the Shrines and not being dicks to the Koroks who only wanted to be reunited with their friends. I’m looking forward to the release of the remaster of “Super Mario RPG”, which comes out in less than two months! I saw four LPs of the game in the past and played it myself for the WiiU. I can’t wait for it to come!

My webcomic is going along. I just finished Chapter 9 and I’m currently taking a small break from it to focus on making this site. I changed how I publish my comics, where I used to release 6-7 pages at a time. But now, I have changed it to 2 pages per week, which means I’ll get more views compared to what I did before. I’m planning to post the links to my webcomic here; I’ll have to find the motivation to do so.

I also made a Tumblr account in June after Reddit decided that they're going to start pricing the 3rd party apps that use its’ code (Apollo, you will be missed). While things are great on Tumblr, I have to get used that most of everyone there is very left-leaning compared to Reddit, where everyone is either in the center or right-leaning, depending on the subject. Yes, I know there are left-leaning people and subreddits there, but it’s the right-leaning groups that are the ones who make the headlines. At least the fandom on Tumblr is way nicer compared to Reddit, where you get attacked for saying or doing something that the fandom subreddit doesn’t like. It’s the reason why I was too scared to either post or comment on Reddit.

Then early this month, I made a NeoCities website and learned how to code again after 11 years. It’s not easy and sometimes it’s even frustrating when you want to do something cool to your page and the code won’t work! At least coding is a skill I can use when I try to look up jobs since it’s one of the most important skills that businesses need. And I also started to blog to write about my thoughts as well. I’ve been doing it on Tumblr for a while, so now I have two sites to pour it all out.

As for what I will be doing for my birthday, it’s not going to be much as I tend not to ask for a lot. I know mom normally gives me a $50 Amazon gift card so I can buy something nice for myself. And I already have plans to make brownies for desserts since we have so much flour and a huge box of brownie mix is in the cabinet.

So yeah, my 27th birthday wasn’t that great, but it could’ve been worse. I hope my 28th year will be a little better and things will improve.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 128

Hey, it’s the Cbat episode.

I should explain that.  Some time ago this guy posted a story on Reddit about how he enjoyed making love to the song “Cbat” by Hudson Mohawke, but his partner didn’t like the song or the quality of the sex.  This caused something of a stir as people would see this tale and look up the song to hear it for themselves, and yeah, it really sucks.  I mean, whether or not it’s a good soundtrack for sex almost seems irrelevant, since it’s so terrible in general. 

I don’t want to be too hard on the dude, since apparently he got a lot of online harassment after this whole thing went viral. Nonetheless, the song went viral for being horrible, and then someone realized that Toonami had used it for a promo of Dragon Ball Super Episode 128.  No one probably paid any attention at the time, but now the song was infamous, so it takes on a new significance.

Anyway, I need a palate cleanser, so let’s look to a far better song for having sex, “Sure Know Something”.  Why are people fooling around when they have the entire KISS discography to serve as background music for their bedroom activities?

All right, enough clowning around.  So last episode, 17 blew himself up to buy Vegeta and Goku a little time to recover and try to fight Jiren again.  But the boys are exhausted, and Vegeta’s the only one who makes it back to his feet.  He can’t even transform, so he just attacks anyway, doing anything he can to keep this fight going.

There’s a flashback montage that helps him muster the will to get back up and keep trying.  I find it amusing that this train ride from Episode 2 made the cut. 

Beerus is astonished to see Vegeta continue to get back up and keep fighting.  I guess this sort of closes out the relationship between Beerus and Vegeta in this series.  There’s always been this casual disrespect Beerus has shown toward Vegeta.  I think it’s mostly done to prod him into getting stronger, but now Beerus has been stuck on this bench for the whole arc, and his divine power means nothing while he’s reduced to a helpless spectator.  Beerus’s own continued existence is on the line in this fight, and Vegeta is fighting tooth and nail to buy them a chance.  

He still looks goofy as hell in some of these shots.  I miss @awkwardvegetaphotos​, you know?

At one point, Vegeta gets knocked out of the ring and hangs from a floating fragment of the stage.  He nearly passes out, but he hears Bulma calling out for him to keep fighting.   I had forgotten this scene, but I think this was done as a tribute to Hiromi Tsuru, the original voice actress who played Bulma, who died tragically before this episode aired.  I’m pretty sure they just used previously recorded lines for this, and Tsuru’s final performance of the character was in Episode 96, when she saw the team off. 

Well, sometimes you just gotta pull yourself up to your feet and keep going.   It doesn’t matter if you can win, you just have to drag yourself forward.  Sometimes people are gone and you just have to do the best you can on your own. 

To his credit, Vegeta manages to perform a Final Flash, but all it gets him is a punch in the face and some words of respect from Jiren.  Vegeta’s done.

But before he gets teleported back to the bench, he sends the last of his power to Goku, and pleads for him to win this somehow, so that he can keep his promise.

I’m too old for this shit, but I still dig how gigachad it is for Vegeta to be the most badly beat up dude to arrive on the bench.  He fought until he could fight no more, true to his principles.  Krillin gives him a senzu bean and everyone congratulates him on his performance. 

As for Goku, the boost he got from Vegeta helps him get back to Super Saiyan Blue, but it isn’t enough.  Jiren clobbers him and he drops back to base form immediately.  There’s just nothing left for him to work with.

Honestly, this part of the episode just feels like a repeat of the first half, but with Goku taking the beating instead of Vegeta.  Goku keeps trying because 17 and Vegeta sacrificed so much to give him this chance, and they’re trusting him to make the most of it, but there’s just nothing he can do.

Finally, Jiren prepares to finish Goku off...

And Goku has a flashback to all of his teammates asking him to continue.  Also Frieza just says “dance for me, monkey”, which kind of spoils the mood. 

And suddenly Goku vanishes before Jiren can hit him, and then... Well, I think you know what’s next.

That’s right, Goku’s reached Ultra Instinct for a third time.   And this time...

There will be punching.

Yeah, eat it, you creepy jock.  Plenty more where that came from.

So now it’s time for the real main event.  The past few episodes were nothing more than an ordeal to push Goku into this moment.  Now he’s here, and the time has come to see if his Ultra Instinct can get the job done, or not.

[tamaradoubraomonibeke]

RSA Presentation ( AO1, AO2, AO3, LO1, LO2, LO3)

Explanation

I was shocked by the feedback I received because I wasn’t confident in my idea (others have amazing product ideas and it feels like I’m taking the easy way out focusing on the social media route). That isn’t so.

I spoke to a fellow with Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) and it totally changed my perspective on this project (I can’t in-hear his story).

After that, I knew no way in God’s name I could continue with the portrait route. Human beings have low retention span and don’t read as much e.g how many times have you read the long blurb on an Instagram post? You just look at the post, it’s caption, like or comment.

Also, this brief isn’t about displaying my talents, it’s about helping others. Social media is trending and it’s a good way to spread information and garner community.

Yet, there’s a lot of issues with social media. This is why I thought, I could change that narrative.

Some of the problems with social media

Enlightenment: Social media e.g Snapchat and Instagram sometimes offers support for superficial media, rather than enlightening people (You can get information from these platforms but need to seek it compared to Quora or reddit or even youtube). This means the topic of skin conditions are pushed back under a rug.

Representation and Community: I didn’t exactly explain it well but the algorithm is rigged. Using myself for instance, black girlis in the past got annoyed always having to type ‘black’ after a search on google or Pinterest. This is why Pinterest had a rebrand. It’s interesting how when I type braids, my mind goes to box braids, only to see French braids….. Okay, you may now assume, well I live in England and it’s mostly Caucasians. Well, as a foreigner, my search was still completely filled with Caucasian media in Nigeria. This is wrong. Even though I do explore other cultures (Spanish, Korean, Japanese,etc), from my location and most of my searches being about blackness, can’t google or even TikTok take the hint (Yes,I’m coming for TikTok too). TikTok’s algorithm is the worst because it appears to be inclusive when it’s the opposite. Back in 2021, black creators complained as they’d make a trend but on the top of the sound was Caucasian so there’s no credit given. Now, imagine the skin condition community in that retro-spect. They must do a lot of digging to find an answer to every symptom. This is because as a doctor once told Jackson Gillies about HS ‘the disease isn’t sexy enough’.

Community (again): Going back to my experience, this can be explained using, the teen girl experience (when she sees all these beautiful adults, she becomes insecure and wants to start changing her features to fit in). Another problem with social media is the individuals I see. They’ve asked for a birthday, so they certainly know my age range. I think there’s nothing wrong with admiring people older or younger than you but there’s a thin line. I just used the teenage girl experience but now, let’s talk about adults. When the algorithm doesn’t draw boundaries, this can breed predators. Yes, it’s disgusting, a crime, a choice but we need to realise when the algorithm is showing someone who’s clearly beyond their years a young audience…….. Yes, they could have pure intentions like parents BUT not all the time, that is worrying. In 2022, when TikTok faced allegations in US, it was alarming how most of the congress (old men) stated how they have little girls dancing on their ‘for you page’. TikTok users were appalled, because we all know the trend of dancing has slowly diminished. This begs the questions, why is their ‘for you page’ mostly filled with children because mine isn’t.

Human engagement: No more user engagement. There’s an obsession with getting humans to use social media. Thus, triggers like the vibrations, red circle notifications are installed in place to make people use the app. Suddenly, it’s no longer a tool but a religion.

Obsession with numerical data: Humans are obsessed with rewards such as likes and followings. This is why social media uses them. However, social media was supposed to be a tool, not a lifestyle. What’s scary is how they refuse to make changes to social media regardless of the impact. Instagram in 2019 announced it’s removing likes but never did. I believe it should have been implemented.

Solutions

These are all summarised in the presentation.

Feedback

Narrow down the target audience to a specific skin condition community.

Could also try the comic idea but the forum or anti-social media Dot called is the best. This depends on the route I want to go. I didn’t say anything truth be told but I’m leaning into the anti-social media. For the longest time, as a child, I was always inquisitive and wondered how to problem solve but I lost that zeal, focusing on only the aesthetics as my ideas never made it to the cut so I’m a lot more confident.

Research my target audience.

Re-brand likes instead of discarding it.

[dianight]

About unsourced art and such

At this point seeing some image with like “when the / when the cock pushes in” or whatever text straight up bothers me. I’m actively blocking any blogs like that when I see a post where the OP just adds some text, with all those reddit tags and no source.

Like ultimately it is harmless. I do not think there is a “need” to source everything[1]; if one of your friends shares an image through discord (or whasap, or skype, or pigeon) and you make a “meme” out of it it’s whatever.

I view this kind of thing as juvenile behavior (neutral). The kind of thing that you’d share in class with friends. Again, no moral value attached or anything. But when a whole group of people acts like that, taking art from other people adding some text and posting it around... Do they know it is kind of rude? Disrespectful if you want to go there?

LIke I’ve seen a few of these people getting called out, and it’s a 50/50 whether they go “sorry my friend shared this and I thought it was funny” and “no one cares about the artist, I changed it so no need to credit anyone”. These 2 positions can be even more extreme, with someone acting very apologetic in the first case or doubling down on the second one.

All those traaaaaa, egg_irl and 196 memes... Literally can’t relate. In a way I am happy that all these kids (affectionate) have such a positive attitude(?) with transness(????).

I’m too jaded I think. My personal experiences have been struggle after struggle, and then more struggle. And then I see some people talking/acting like their experiences are universal, disregarding non passing women, ignoring how lucky they got with free healthcare/hrt[2] and just generally perpetuating harmful stereotypes about trans people... All the while posting those kind of memes.

Rubs me the wrong way. Not everyone posting pics of femboys or cute anime women is like that, but in my mind it’s kind of the same culture(does that even make sense?).

Conclusion: it might seem that my two main complains are unrelated, but it is the combination of them that bothers me so much.

---

[1] It is the right thing to do.

[2] It is not out of jealousy that these people get criticism, but out of how blind they are to their own privilege. Certain countries provide better rights/healthcare to trans people. If you are lucky to be born in one of those countries the least you could do is do some introspection and sort out your internalized transphobia.

[odinsblog]

i usually use the anon function bc im embarrassed to ask people things sjfjfjhs but I've never sent anything horrible to anyone!! I'm sorry you've had negative experiences with the anon function before, you don't deserve that at all!! sending love!

[re: this post]

Thank you. I genuinely appreciate you rn

People like you are literally the only reason why I don’t completely disable the anon feature, because I understand that sometimes people are shy, or they want to express themselves without taking shit. I actually dO get that

But alas, as with everything, there are those who abuse what really should be thought of as a nicety, or privilege—some people just abuse it

Very long rant, incoming

So here’s the thing, right? Sometimes when people are online, they act and behave in ways they wouldn’t dare to irl

I’m not the government. I don’t have a staff to edit my posts. I’m not anybody special. I’m just some dude on the internet who enjoys sharing my opinions and other things. If YOU don’t like or agree with my opinions or something else that I post, you are completely free to keep scrolling or to block me. That’s fine. But when anons begin demanding that I phrase things the way that they’re more comfortable with, then we got serious issues

And another thing: people need to not be so quick to assume malicious intent where none exists

For example, I have accidentally typed the number 500 in a post when I meant to type 50–now, in the specific post, it truly was a significant error. But an anon immediately jumped into the comments and self righteously accused me of lying to make a point, rather than saying to themselves, “Hm, maybe Odin just made a typo”

And my personal favorites

them: YOU’RE SPREADING MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION !!!!

me: um, it was a fucking joke? do they have jokes where you come from?

Or,

me: posts a video of an alligator and some cranes, and adds a bit of whimsical commentary

them: WELL ACTUALLY, THAT IS PROBABLY PREDATORY BEHAVIOR AND I THINK YOU SHO-

me: no. goddamn, I can’t be fucking whimsical on a social media site? eat shit. stfu

And also,

them: well technically, it’s not really fascism

me: maybe not, but it’s fucking close enough. I’m not gonna wait for people to start getting marched into ovens and say, “now can we call it fascism??”

I have literally had all of these dumb, stupid ass conversations (almost verbatim) here on tumblrdotcom, and lemme tell ya, it’s frustrating af

And other times, when I author a post containing a hyperlink on desktop but then later edit it on mobile, sometimes the hyperlink doesn’t carry over to mobile and you’re left with a post that may say “source,” but is not clickable. It happens sometimes, and it’s not a big deal, right?? WRONG! Instead of sending an ask to ask me what happened to the link, I’ve had anons accuse me of “not crediting” a source

I’ve had people use anon to accuse me of cropping videos so that I could somehow “steal” credit from others, and I’m just like … What??? Who does that? Who has the time for all of that? Are you aware that sometimes people on the internet see something like a video or a photo from somewhere else (also uncredited from twitter, reddit, facebook, etc), and then just post it here on tumblr??

And no, I am not talking about reposting someone’s art or other works

Look, if YOU get your thrills from finding out who/where/when the very first instance of every single cat or dog video came from, that’s great! Do you. Knock yourself out. Have fun. But don’t try to shame others because we aren’t all humorless poindexters like you

If I post something from tiktok, the video generally tells you where to go to see it there. If it’s a tweet or from reddit, again, there are usually twitter or reddit handles in the tweet. And NO, I am not putting a link to every single tweet or reddit thread or facebook post — if that’s that important to you, then figure it out. It’s not hard, and in the year 2023 most adults should have the necessary skills to find an original tweet, if that’s something that’s important to you. I’m not doing it for you, not sorry

(SN: I’ll never forget when I took my first college English literature course, and at the end of the semester I was on the bubble for getting an A or an A+ in the class, and our final exam was a written essay that would decide my final grade. I didn’t quite score the A+ that I wanted, and when I looked over my essay, the professor wrote on it: “Odin, you are the quintessential college freshman, and your inquisitiveness has made this semester one of my most enjoyable.” And after class, I walked up to him and thanked him, and asked him what quintessential meant? He opened his mouth and was about to answer me, but then he smiled, wagged his finger at me and said, “you should learn to look things up.” He was one of my favorite professors (had a British accent, eyeglasses and reminded me of Giles from Buffy), but I’ve never forgotten that lesson. Some of you very obviously need to learn it too)

I’ve also made what are very obviously jokes online, only to have people accuse me of misrepresenting facts—and then I’m like, do I really need to explain the concept of what a joke is to you people??

Like, I could see if it was something racist, trans/homophobic, Islamophobic, antisemitic, etc, BUT I DON’T DO THAT

I think that some people need to be seen as, or have a desire to be known as a gatekeeper, and instead of using just a tiny bit of common sense, they try to make mountains out of molehills to elevate themselves in the eyes of their followers

The people who act this way are truly joyless human beings, and they probably suck all the fun out of parties and other events that people are forced to spend time with them

Maybe try socializing a bit more? Learn to read (online) cues. Don’t be so eager to accuse everyone of doing something wrong just so that YOU get to look like the good guy

And all of that’s without even addressing all of the straight up racist anons that I constantly receive

Like, do people even understand that we aren’t inside of each other’s heads? Sometimes we’re all dealing with life and other stuff. And just maybe people are busy trying to have just a tiny bit of fun, and then the mf fun police come along and try to ruin shit? Because I don’t use a word exactly the same way you do?? Or because of an obvious joke?? You guys who do this kind of shit really SUCK

I feel sorry for you

I almost can’t believe this is the piddling little shit that some people choose to be upset over

Please find some REAL things to be upset over

Try learning to use the feature that lets users (gasp) make a post of their very own! instead of fixating on one goddamn mutha fucking post that wasn’t worded to your liking

I am not here for the discourse with anyone with an internet connection and a keyboard

Please go touch some grass

[automatismoateo]

“when you hit rock bottom, he’ll seek you out” via /r/atheism

“when you hit rock bottom, he’ll seek you out”

Just a quick rant .. I’ve heard many theists make this argument for why they believe or have “heard god”. That when they were at their lowest “god” found them & made their life better .. that they opened their magic book of fairytales, recited verses & poof they were healed. But I’m sure many can say, they have been at their lowest & rather than finding an imaginary friend to give the credit to .. they can give credit to themselves. I’ve been at my lowest, nobody showed up for me .. I got myself to a better place I will never give that credit to anybody but myself.

These kind of people who believe this have an entitlement in a way. People at rock bottom who cry out for a god’s help & never get an answer so eventually came to the conclusion to take their own life, but believers think they are more special because they received through their own delusions some sort of help. Why didn’t this “god” speak to them when they cried out for help knowing what they were about to do? Why did he just sit back & watch? Why would you want to believe or even receive help from a “god” who picks & chooses who he grants special that day? This is not the only atrocity this monster of imperfection could’ve not made happen in the first place amongst many many many others, but instead just witnesses.

To any fellow non believers who have picked themselves up either once or many times where ever your lowest was, be proud of yourself. You are no longer there because you got yourself out. You are more confident & stronger than any theist who will never gain that fulfillment you gained all on your own, even their most powerful being can’t do it.

Submitted March 17, 2023 at 09:28AM by breeelaxx (From Reddit https://ift.tt/qds3mUt)

[free-for-all-fics]

Namor and Attuma at the beach/swimming pool AU prompts. Some of these are really stupid and silly but I regret nothing. Pls tag me if you get inspired by or write any of these, I’d love to read it. 💜

1. Thinking about that cliche “Woman lets man put sunscreen on her body for her and it’s supposed to be sexy” thing except it’s Namor or Attuma rubbing his hands all over reader’s skin while he’s applying the sun screen and they’re just spending time on the beach together. Of course reader would return the favor if Namor/Attuma asked.

2. Namor/Attuma treating reader’s sunburn/sun damaged skin because she burns easily/forgot to put sunscreen on/accidentally fell asleep outside.

3. Baywatch AU where Namor/Attuma is a sexy lifeguard and every time you look at him, the world slows down. He’s so sexy, it’s like he runs in slow motion any time he comes to the rescue of a beach goer. You debate pretending to drown just to get his attention. Yeah this is dumb and no I’ve never seen a single episode of Baywatch.

4. Thinking about Namor or Attuma being a dad and doing dad things, like teaching their kid how to ride a bike. Except the bike is a dolphin 🐬. And then teaching their kid how to drive a car when they’re a teen/adult. Except the car is a whale 🐋.

5. Every day you practice holding your breath, for just a little longer than usual every time. After being "saved" by a lifeguard you learnt that humans aren't meant to hold their breath for nearly an hour.

6. One day while swimming at the beach you drown and die. Then you wake up on land, resuscitated by a lifeguard. But now that you are back, you have a strange urge to breathe in water. Unable to hold the urge back, you try it and something happens.

7. You work as a lifeguard at the Dead Sea and wonder why your job even exists. Just as you're about to fall asleep, people start drowning, as if being pulled under by an unseen force.

8. You’re taking a bath when suddenly Namor bursts into your bathroom claiming to be a lifeguard here to protect you from the "sharks". At first you resist, “It’s two feet deep, man!” but you soon see something lurking in the bathwater. (Yeah this is an AU based on that lifeguard “I’m not at the beach this is a bathtub” porn meme. Maybe the “shark” is Attuma. Attuma and Namor as pornstars AU. Just embrace the sexy stupidity of it.🛟)

9. You're swimming off the coast of Wakanda when suddenly all the waves in the water stop. You hear whistles blow and people scream as a lifeguard yells, "Get out of the water! The serpent god is approaching!"

10. You accidentally summon an old god while playing with pool noodles.

11. After a short career as a model, you're tired of not being taken seriously. One day you quit to start a new life with your dream job- picking up trash and cleaning up the beach. You didn’t expect to encounter Namor/Attuma while on the job. He’s come to thank you for saving the hatching sea turtles, among other things.

12. You've never been invited to a beach party before and as soon as you touch the water, everyone else can see your imaginary friend, Namor/Attuma, rising from the shadows of the waves. At least, you thought he was imaginary. He’s upset you stopped coming to visit and that you haven’t called him on the conch shell.

13. You prefer to swim laps alone in the middle of the night as it helps you think and have found a way into the local pool after hours. You pause in the shadows of the shallow end and hear a splash at the other end. Three armed men in suits are watching someone struggle at the bottom of the pool.

14. Possible Fae AU: You come to and find yourself not alone in a clearing in the woods. You’re mesmerized by the blue skinned people as they sing and dance around the pool of water in the night, with their jet black hair, and beautiful dark brown eyes, laughing and playing happily as can be. Their king uses his winged ankles to fly towards you. His loving smile is entrancing as he motions for you to come over.

15. Cocoon AU: Residents of a retirement home discover their swimming pool is filled with vital energy from Talokan, giving their elderly bodies the same ability and vigor as when they were teenagers.

16. You're an immortal who lives at a beach resort. You have many summer flings with mortals on getaways. One day you see someone you had a hot romantic night with 50 years ago. He looks exactly the same.

17. On break from college, you take a summer job at the beach. Making friends is not your thing but there's one guy who's different than most. He's bookish and not at all cool. The social scene at college can be so destructive and he's not trying to one-up you. By the end you are so much more. (Maybe AU where Namor assumes a “Clark Kent” secret human identity. Maybe he goes by Tenoch in this AU idk.)

18. AU where Namor is believed to be a cryptid/myth: When you chatted with that Tenoch guy on tinder, you thought the K’kul’kan cosplay with the elf ears and ankle wing shoes in his profile pic was nerdy and a bit funny. Then you meet him on the beach, and realize it wasn't a cosplay, as the actual feathered serpent god himself stands before you, a dozen water flowers in his hands and a picnic dinner laid out.

19. Post-battle AU: Namor with a broken ankle meets reader, a beached mermaid with a wounded tail. Restricted from their usual activities, they find solace in each other's company as they tend to each other’s wounds.

20. Some beaches have groups of Sea Lions, but our little town has Talokanil hanging out on the piers, especially when the sun is out. Bit of a local nuisance, but they bring us fish and other good things to eat during winter or in times of hardship, in exchange for keeping their existence secret. We benefit from mutual protection, so we’re all good. Just don't get too close. They will try to drown anyone who makes them feel threatened.

21. You are taking a family vacation on the beach, when you see the lady next to you fill a water bottle up with seawater and later notice her drinking from it.

22. As you're walking down a secluded part of a beach, you spot something large and blue wrapped in fishing wire, peaking through a pile of rocks. Thinking it a washed up dolphin, you approach the rocks and see that it's a Talokanil and he’s/she’s scared.

23. As a child your parents often took you to the beach, until one day they suddenly stopped. When you asked about it, your parents said the sea had become dangerous for you. Years later, you head to the beach yourself. When your feet touch the water, your legs start to tingle.

24. The Bachelor sort of AU: The 5 remaining girls head to the beach house at Innsmouth. They've all got brains. They've all got beauty. Four of them will be given the great honor of keeping the sun alive and shining bright in its constant war against darkness. With their sacrifices in body and blood to the revered feathered serpent god, K'uk'ulkan, they will keep the sun moving across the sky and preserve the very lives of the Talokanil. Only one will become his chosen mate. Whomever he chooses will be given godly gifts, such as immortality and the ability to bend water to her will. She will take her place upon the throne as his eternal wife. But who among these women has that special something worthy of representing the nation of Talokan as Queen? Four will give their still-beating hearts to him. K'uk'ulkan will only give his heart to one.

25. You're resting on a sandy beach with a bucket of iced beers, when Namor/Attuma emerges from the waves. He sits down next to you, grabs a beer, cracks it open, and takes a swig. He sighs and says, "You would not believe the day I've had."

26. This year the beach was cold, wet, and miserable. The girl not too much older than you in the house next door was nice though. So when you saw her out on the beach in the middle of the night in a rainstorm wearing only a nightdress, you had to investigate.

27. Reader and Attuma, childhood friends, are sitting on the beach together. One of them is about to confess, when suddenly the ocean rumbles. Namor emerges from the waves, looks at you both and says "Aha, so THIS is where you've been!" Ugh, he’s so embarrassing! Can’t believe your father followed you here and ruined the moment. Namora swore she wouldn’t tell! Can’t a princess get some privacy around here?

28. After being teased by your high school swim team about your fear of open bodies of water, you attempt to prove them wrong by trying to swim in the nearby beach. You start to drown but are luckily saved by a cute man. "Hey, are you alright? I thought the other humans were going to help you out?"

29. "Never swim too deep into those waters," my father used to say, "never be the furthest from the shore." I never understood why until today.

30. You breach the surface and swim over to the diving boat. As you climb into the boat you notice the instructor and captain slumped over each other in a sort of lifeless embrace. You take off your mask and instantly realize you can't breathe the air of the surface world anymore.

31. You and a friend go on a camping trip to a hidden lake. Your friend goes swimming, and when they dive down, they never surface again. Instead, a strange woman you've never seen before crawls ashore. Upon seeing you, she declares: "The feathered serpent god accepted the exchange! I'm finally free!"

32. While swimming away from your friends on a camping trip, you find Namor stranded high on the sand. He’s too hot/dried out to move, and asks for your help to get back into the water.

33. Mafia/mob AU: An agent is sent to the beach to find you, the much younger wife of a mafia boss. You’re in a purple bikini on a towel some meters away, in the arms of Namor, your secret lover. You catch the agent looking at you from a distance and don’t seem to care about his presence as Namor rubs sunscreen over your skin and makes love to you in the sand. Too far away to tell who you’re with, the agent tries to shoot Namor, but the god deflects the bullet with his arm without breaking eye contact with you.

Namor kisses you before flying over and punching the agent so hard that he flies a few feet into the air and skids through the sand. Namor drags the agent back and forces him to watch your lovemaking. (Maybe he’s brutal and drives his spear through the agent’s hand to pin it to the ground. Idk. Just a “Tell your boss this is how you please a woman” power move/show of dominance type thing). The agent finally looks away in embarrassment. When he looks back again, you and Namor are both gone and all that’s left are two sets of footprints leading from your abandoned towel to the ocean.

34. Sort of Old God/Ancient Mythology AU: Reader goes to a nude beach for the first time by herself, where she meets and makes conversation with other friendly beach goers. Everything seems normal until the sun reaches its highest point in the sky, and tens (or hundreds) of blue skinned people wearing strange oxygen masks rise from the ocean. Reader thinks some sort of attack is about to take place, but is instead shocked when everyone pairs off. A sort of ritualistic orgy seems to be going on, as she watches the beach goers engage in intimate activity with the strangers from the sea. Turns out the “is your beach body ready?” advertisement she saw refers to whether you’re ready to partake in a group mating ritual that’s said to bring humans prosperity, protection, and lifespan extension. In exchange, the Talokanil hope to create a new hybrid species so that their kind may one day be able to walk freely among the land without turning blue or without the use of masks. They want to reclaim the surface world that was stolen from them.

Suddenly everyone pauses and goes silent as they make a path for a man with pointed ears and winged ankles. They kneel in respect as he makes his way towards you. You can tell by his layers of jewelry and air of authority surrounding him that this is their king, their god. He first holds your face with both hands, caressing your cheeks and hair. His hands slowly go down as he feels and squeezes your breasts and hips, as if inspecting them. Finally he rests his palm on your stomach and wraps his other hand around your neck to press his forehead to yours. He speaks in a language you don’t understand, but nevertheless it dawns on you what he wants you for.

[babycharmander]

If you think you have never stolen artwork, read this post.

So, art theft. If you've been a follower of mine, you've heard my barely-coherent rants about this before, but I thought it might be more productive to make a more coherent post on the subject.

If you're wondering about the title of the post here, it's because I feel like a lot of people aren't really grasping what exactly art theft is, and a LOT of people, even well-meaning ones, do it without even realizing it.

"But wait," you say. "I would never STEAL from an artist!! I never claim it as my own!" And that's all fine and good, but you're missing something here.

To start things off, what IS art theft? (It's not what deviantART said it was several years back, I'll tell you that much. *cough*)

We all know what art is, so let's talk about theft. Dictionary.com defines "theft" as "the act of stealing; the wrongful taking and carrying away of the personal goods or property of another; larceny." Okay, makes sense, but what about that other word there, stealing? Dictionary.com defines "steal" as "to take (the property of another or others) without permission or right, especially secretly or by force."

From those definitions, we can go on to define art theft as, specifically, "taking art without permission or right." In the context of art, that typically involves reposting it (not reblogging--reblogging is different) or using it for other things.

And there, my friends, is the issue.

If something is taken or used without permission, it is stolen. Permission is the important thing here--if an artist says "oh yeah, you can go ahead and use this!" then it's not stolen. You have their permission. But if you DON'T have that, then it IS stolen. It IS theft.

"But I'm not claiming it as my own!" you say. But you don't have to claim it as your own--the act of taking it in and of itself is an act of theft.

"But I said 'credit to the artist!'" The "credit" thing is a whole other conversation, but here's the short of it: The entire point of credit is to direct people to the source of something. If you are not directly linking to where you got the art from, you are not giving credit. "Credit to the artist" is not actually credit of any kind whatsoever. (Also, Google and Pinterest are not sources.)

"But I DID link back to the artist!" Okay, now this is where it may get confusing, because you may think you're covered because you actually did give credit. Here's the problem: if you reposted it or used it without permission, regardless of whether you gave credit or not, it's still stealing.

I'm bolding this because it's a point that a lot of people get tripped up on. Let me explain it this way: If you went into your neighbor's house and took something of theirs without their permission, but you told people "oh yeah, I got this from [neighbor]'s house!" that that would still, of course, be stealing, and it's no different for art.

Another thing is that even when you credit, people don't always check the source. Very recently I found a case where someone had reposted a piece of artwork of mine to Pinterest that was deliberately made to look like it came from the source material (it wasn't meant to confuse anyone, though--the description of my original post made it very clear that it was fanart). The person who reposted had linked back to my original post. The problem? The comments had people asking if this was official, where it happened in the source material, etc. Despite the fact that the source was right there, no one thought to look at it.

Even if you link back to the source, if you did it without the artist's permission, it's still stealing, and still causes problems for us artists.

"But I just posted it to my Pinterest--" DO NOT DO THIS. DO NOT POST AN ARTIST'S WORK TO PINTEREST IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THEIR EXPLICIT PERMISSION TO DO SO.

"But this artist friend of mine says they're okay if I post their work to my Pinterest so long as I link back to them!" Good for your friend! But the fact that your friend is okay with it doesn't mean that all artists are okay with it. For me, personally, I am very not okay with my work being posted to Pinterest, and say as much on my art blog description and posts (which people tend to ignore).

The problem with Pinterest--and reposting art in general--is that we artists don't know when it happens unless we're told, or unless we find it ourselves. It causes us to lose control of our art. And because of this, our art can spiral further out of our control, because when our works get posted to Pinterest or other similar websites, people who have no grasp whatsoever on how art works will just take it as "free art" and then use it for whatever they want.

That's how a piece I spent 20+ hours on was used as a poster for a paid event, without my permission, and without any payment or credit to me.

If an artist has said nothing about Pinterest (or other similar image sharing sites), your default should be to assume that they don't want their artwork posted there.

"Well I didn't repost someone's art, but I did use it for my avatar/RPing icon/video/fic cover/photo edit--" That's still stealing. If you're using it without their permission for any reason, that is stealing. Not to mention, the artist may not be cool with what you're using their art for anyway. (Looking at you, people who use platonic art in your shipping videos.)

“I MEANT to ask them for permission, but I forgot!” This can ONLY happen if you used the artwork BEFORE you asked for permission. You can resolve this by asking for permission BEFORE you use it, rather than assuming the answer will be “yes” and using it before asking.

"But it took me a really long time to make that icon/video/cover/edit!!" How long do you think it took the original artist to draw their piece? It doesn't matter how much work you put into modifying someone else's art--if you're doing it without their permission, you're still stealing.

"But I couldn't find the original artist! I tried to find them, I really did, but I couldn't. Is it okay to use their art then?" No, because you still don't have permission, and by reposting it anyway, you’re continuing to make the artwork spiral out of their control.

"What if I found the artist, but they speak a different language from mine? I can't ask them for permission, so is it okay if I repost their art anyway?" NO!! DO NOT DO THIS!! If there is a language barrier, use Google translate or find someone to translate for you and get a hold of the artist that way to ask them for their permission. The language barrier is NEVER an excuse to steal artwork. There are plenty of non-English-speaking artists who have taken ALL OF THEIR ARTWORK OFFLINE because the art theft was completely out of control. (And this isn't just exclusive to English-speakers stealing art from people who don't speak their language. It happens artists who don't speak English stealing art from English-speakers, too, but as this post is written in English it doesn't do much good for me to rant about this here.) If you can’t ask their permission, do not use it!!

"But what about reblogging?! Isn't that the same as reposting?? Should we not reblog art at all then?" No, reblogging (or retweeting) is not the same as reposting. If you reblog art, you keep all the information that we attached to the art, including our blog name and the description attached to the art. Reblogging/retweeting actually helps us artists A LOT, so as long as you're reblogging from the original artist (and not someone who's reposting their art), by all means, reblog our art!

"What if I just want to share someone else's artwork on Discord or show it to a friend?" This one's a bit different and is not actually as problematic. If you want to share our work on Discord or whatever, just link directly to where we posted it. Please don't post the art itself, unless you're doing it alongside a link because Discord won't show a preview or something.

"What about a forum or a site like Reddit?" This one's a bit different, since due to the way Reddit functions, if you LINK to the art, you have to go directly to the artist's original page to view it. (At least, that’s what it’s like the last time I was active there.) In a way it's roughly the same as with Discord--be sure you're linking directly to the actual post rather than just uploading the art on its own--but I would also ask the artist if they're okay with it, because they may be a member of the subreddit or forum and want to post it themselves, or they might not want their work shared to specific communities. (Some communities have a function where a bot will repost the artwork to Imgur, and some artists don't want that done with their art.)

"What if I'm saving it to my computer/phone to look at later, or making it into my desktop/phone wallpaper?" IMO this is fine, since your computer/phone files aren't public, and neither is your wallpaper. It's only a problem when you post it to public places without our permission.

"What if it's art I commissioned?" Well... like... in that case, it's art you paid for, so unless the artist you commissioned laid out very specific terms for you, you should be good to use that art. Like, at most, the artist may ask you to credit them somewhere in your blog description if they drew your icon or something, or credit them in a fic description if you commissioned a fic illustration from them, or something to that effect. It's really something you should have already worked out with the artist beforehand, but for the most part you should probably be fine to use art you paid for however you like.

"What about art I requested?" This is a bit different from commissioned work. Just because the art was drawn at your request doesn't mean it's explicitly yours (unless it's like, a drawing of your original character or something). Some artists take requests more as suggestions, so the art they draw in response to a suggestion or request is still theirs. Treat this as you would any other artwork and ask the artist for permission first before you do anything with the artwork you requested from them.

“What about NFTs?” ... Okay this one I can’t really go over too much because I barely understand it in the first place, but NFTs are BAD for artists and are a form of art theft. Do not turn people’s art into NFTs. This is a crappy thing to do. (If you want more information on this one, you’ll have to look it up yourself. It’s a form of cryptocurrency and it’s confusing.)

“If you don’t want your art stolen you shouldn’t post it in the first place.” This is fascinating logic. Try applying it to something else and see how it holds up. “If you don’t want your merchandise stolen, you shouldn’t open a booth.” “If you don’t want to get poisoned you shouldn’t eat food.” “If you don’t want to get punched in the face, don’t walk outside.” Yes. Flawless logic. Truly.

"Why do you care so much, anyway?! I'm sharing your art because I like it! That's a compliment! Shouldn't you be happy?" Well, we're certainly glad you like our art, but the problem is... as I've said before, reposting our art causes us to lose our control over it. When we lose control of our art, that damages our livelihood. As I said before, other people have made money off of my artwork. As well, some artists lose jobs because when their potential employers check out their portfolio, they may find artwork that's been reposted everywhere online, so they cannot hire the artist because they believe they may have stolen the artwork in their own portfolio.

Your reposting an image you thought was cute to Facebook or Pinterest could cost an artist their job. Think about that.

So, tl;dr, keep this in mind: you need the artist's permission to repost or use their artwork. If you do not have it, it is stealing, even if you credit the artist.

I know this post is really harsh in places, but this is such an important thing for all artists, and there's so many misconceptions about art theft online. And I feel like one of the biggest problems is that when some people see posts on art theft, they ignore them, because they think they've never done it or would never do it, so that's why I worded this post the way I did. I'm not trying to hurt anyone--I just want people to understand what art theft is, how it affects us artists, and how you can avoid it. Thank you for reading.

[ghostie-my-beloved]

c!wilbur affection headcanons

Synopsis: just some cuddly headcanons of being with c!Wilbur

Pairing: Wilbur Soot x GN!reader (they/them)

Genre: fluff, but it gets slightly angsty at the end

A/N: So I feel like kicking off this blog with some fluffy headcanons with my favorite music man. This can be seen as platonic or romantic btw! Hope you enjoy. ALSO IGNORE THAT THE BANNER SAYS FLUFF IM TOO LAZY TO CHANGE IT (art credits to petghost413 on Reddit)

TW: Mentions of death, mentions of explosions, mentions of mirrors/glass breaking, swearing

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Wilbur isn’t a very affectionate person, as a man who’s always working to fight for his country anyways

Pre villain arc Wilbur would do his best to squeeze in as much time for you, wanting to watch out for his allies anyways

He doesn’t want to neglect his loved ones anyways, he’s just a busy man

Sometimes when he’s really stressed, you just hug Wilbur from behind and he’ll melt

Likes it when you play with his hair too, maybe even put it up in a braid too

“You’re working too much, Will. Take a break.”

“I can’t I have to fill out these pa—“

“If I play with your hair will you stop poking your nose into those papers?”

“…. Maybe?”

Election/Pogtopia era was harder to show affection towards him because of the weight of what was going on

You’d sneak out of Manberg with the help of Fundy or Niki to see them, but it was always a hard sight when visiting

The music man getting kicked from his own country + having to deal with a stressed out and panicky Tommy made things harder than they always seemed

Wilbur wasn’t even starting to act like himself anymore, but you wanted to show that you cared for him

When he’s up in the middle of the night, you’d drag him to bed, and snuggle up into his chest, as a way of reassuring that things will be okay

While he’s reluctant, he gladly accepts this affection from you, as he drifts off to a peaceful sleep

When he wakes up, he’d see that you’re gone, but you’d leave him a note filled with nothing but support to keep him calm

“Wilbur, you’ve been up for the past four hours now, get some sleep.” You desperately told him, trying to get him to rest.

“Not now, Y/N. I— I have to stay up- otherwise things are gonna go to shit. I’m only doing what’s best for us.” The brunette bluntly stated, waving you off. But you stood your ground, grabbed his wrist and dragged him, making him squeak a bit.

“Y/N what the fu—“ “It’s clear that your dumbass won’t take care of yourself, so I’ll do it myself.”

Revivedbur is an interesting but scary case

After Wilbur’s death you were absolutely crushed, not only because you were really close to him, but because he was one of the few people that understood you

You resided in Techno’s place to keep your mind of off the more recent stuff that has been happening, but you do visit Tubbo and Ranboo every now and then

After the whole Tommy getting trapped/killed arc, surely things couldn’t get any worse, right?

Nope, turns out that you got a message from Tommy reading “Wilbur is back”

You dropped your phone in shock

After a whole catastrophe of running around the SMP to find this man, you found him in front of the community house just— standing there

It was hard trying to get you both into a stable friendship/relationship again, as you are aware of how bad his actions were

So Wilbur tried his best to make it up to you

He’d either take you out for walks around the entire server, or just spend some quality time with you in your home

Since he got revived, Wilbur has a hard time looking at himself because he’s scared of himself

One time you caught him punching a mirror because he stared at himself for too long

You woke up to the sound of glass shattering, as you rushed downstairs to see a shaky Wilbur , clenching his bloodied fist, with shards of glass scattered all over the floor

You didn’t worry about stepping on the glass, as you had your slippers on. You quickly rushed to the medkit and sat Wilbur down as you treated his hand

He then explained why he did that and you reassured him that he would be fine, telling him that you’d always be with him no matter what happened

“Look you idiot, I know things have been bumpy lately but… I just want you to know that I’ll always be here if you need me, I can promise you that.” You spoke softly to the tall man, consolidating him as best as you can.

Wilbur then looked at you, his bright ruby eyes meeting with your own, he sighed before parting you on the head, smiling to himself. “I- I don’t know what to say other than… thank you, Y/N.”

Wilbur is grateful to have you on his side, even if he doesn’t show it that well, he’s always appreciated your company from the very start

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[simbelene]

Cowbuild, be better

behaviorsSince this post is getting too long, I’ll start a new one! It’s worth a read if you want to fully understand what’s going on.

She’s still out here runnin her mouth y’all. Okay sis, but we got you clocked. Just take the L!

First of all, the slander where? Those came from your reddit. It’s not our fault that you’re problematic. Next time, watch what you say on the internet! Naturally they’re deleted now, but that’s why we take screenshots. Also, let’s not talk about the fact that in your post you only attacked one person. This was multi-person job. You wanna come for one of us, you better come for all of us! T’was I that shared the first round first reddit posts! Fight me! I got two hands and a foot and they stay ready! P.S. I’ve already seen your face and I’m cuter than you, so don’t try it!

And then not to mention we clocked your fabricated screenshots.

Like, girl! You are playing a game you’re not very good at. Have a seat!

Also, get this! Remember how this got started in the first place? Check the username: 

Keep that in mind. Now look at this here from our favorite problematic person, leosims:

Peep the username where she got it 👀

And this is Leosims we’re talking about here, so you know I have the receipts! That was just one. There’s MORE

Here’s a link to JP Farmer’s SL: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/186403 

Some people take just a few items, she done took the whole catalog! G I R L 

NIKOMESHxx Dinner Set (X) | Leosims (X)

What Next Decor Pumpkins (X) | Leosims Decor Pumpkins (X)(X)

Somebody come and get her! 

What Next Pumpkin Pie (X) | Leosims Pumpkin Pie (X)(X)

Schadenfreude Bunny Parfait (X) | Leosims (X)

Mukets CGTrader (X) | Leosims (X)  I’ve already discussed CGT here. It’s a fun read!

Chez Moi Turkey (X) | Leosims Turkey (X)

Coincidence where? I’m calling shenanigans! 

It should also be noted that Cowbuild and Leosims are good friends and they’re fellow members of the track team. Not to mention that I also have it on record that leosims uses 3D models without giving credit. (Permission and credit are two different things leo, I shouldn’t have to tell you that)

Cowbuild, hunny, You don’t wanna be like Leosims. She had her whole website taken down, had to start a new one. 

Can’t see the pic because it got copyrighted

If there wasn’t a problem, her items would still be up.

I’ve never seen a copyright strike on tumblr up until now. If Leosims was right, this wouldn’t have happened. Just saying

Has a whole thread on a Second life forum dedicated to exposing her stolen content.

And if I’m not mistaken, at least one person sent her a whole DCMA. And now she’s right back out here like it never happened. We see you sis!

If you wonder why Leosims’ patreon looks like shady city, it’s because of all this. Instead of leaving credit, she chooses to go through all of that. 

Natural selection is what it is. Monkey see, monkey do I guess

thanks to @mack3030 for having a nice directory of problematic behavior. A goo number of my links came from there

[allronix]

Carth and Force Sensitivity (crossposted from Reddit r/kotor)

This is for @k-she-rambles:

Okay, so while we're shooting the bantha crap over on KOTOR fan theories, u/134340Goat mentioned my all time favorite "Have you been chewing spice?!" fan theory when it comes to KOTOR: Is Carth Force Sensitive?

So this one starts with a story. I mentioned my brother in law, who is pretty much Keeper of the Jedi Archives. Seriously, he's an English teacher and my sister is a librarian. They met at a sci fi convention and their first date was Phantom Menace. We're taking not just geeks, but geeks who can throw the damn bookshelf at you. Brother in law bought KOTOR on the day it launched and turned it into a week long binge watch at his house. And because brother in law is that kind of geek, he's translating the characters into the West End D6 system. I'm watching him do a playthrough, and he's got Canderous and Zaalbar at Ajunta Pal's tomb.

Allronix: Huh. That's odd. Why aren't commenting on anything when Ajunta is speaking?

Bro in law: Oh. They can't even see Ajunta. You have to be Force Sensitive to see a Force Ghost The stronger your Sensitivity, the better you can see it.

Allronix: Really? Then how come Carth can see it?

Bro in law (gets the "holy shit, I gotta confirm this" look): Really?! He just sees something out the corner of his eye or something?

Allronix: No, he sees Ajunta just fine. Understands what the dude's saying too.

Bro in law instantly rolls back to his last save, swaps Zaalbar for Carth, and sees the bit in question.

Bro in law: Oh. Dear. (Goes over to make some quick scribbles on Carth's character sheet)

Okay, so maybe that was a lore fail. I didn't really think about it too much until I hit that False Level Up glitch and ran around with Carth and Mission as Sentinels. Now, while I couldn't really see Mission as a Sensitive, that little bit with my bro in law nagged at me. And became a "once you see it you can't unsee it." Apologies to TV Tropes, where some of these were my additions to the Wild Mass Guess entry on this topic.

Any one of these on its own is pretty easy to blow off. After all, man is career military, and knows All this Shit is Weird. I also like to think of Sensitivity as a spectrum and not a switch. If all life is connected by the Force, then all life would be Sensitive to some degree or another. It’s just a matter of to what degree. It’s only as the list gets longer and longer does the case start looking damning...

What are the odds of surviving that attack on the Endar Spire, getting to the escape pods, sharing the last escape pod with the mindwiped Sith Lord, piloting through the chaos, landing in what passes for the "good" part of town, remaining uninjured, pulling the badly injured mindwiped Sith Lord from the wreck, evading Sith detection while all this is going on, and just happening to find a dump of an apartment where the landlord's not asking questions? That is one amazing string of coincidences and good luck. Get that many in Star Wars, and it's definitely The Force sticking its nose in things.

Piloting the escape pod to land in the Upper City, piloting the Hawk through the Sith Blockade of Taris, the random Sith patrols, the escape from the Leviathan, and the fleet around Lehon along with the crash landing that left the ship easily repairable. Now, compare to Atton who we know to be an excellent pilot and drawing on The Force who still manages to crash the ship at least three times.

He's a scary good judge of character if you're interacting with other NPCs. If you watch him with other NPC characters, he's got a pretty good compass as to which characters are being helpful and which ones are full of shit. The only one he calls incorrectly is Rukil, who is probably also an untrained Sensitive (the age, the "marked" comments) and half senile, which is probably throwing him.

Related to that, his distrust and wariness about something not adding up with the PC, the Jedi Council feeding the party a line of bull, that things just aren't adding up. And on all of it? Dead on. He's 100% right about the Player Character, he just expected something a little less crazy than "that's Darth freaking Revan."

If you play Female Revan, then Carth's the one who gets fried in the torture cages on the Leviathan. Saul comments how strange it is that Carth takes so much punishment and still remains conscious. Now, this is a low level thing, but in lore, Force Sensitives have drawn on it to keep them alive or conscious under duress. Explicitly, the first sign we got that Leia was a Sensitive when she withstood the Imperial torture droid.

Another of his scary ass judge of character feats? In the comics, Zayne (who is on the run from the Jedi, who framed him for the murder of his classmates) has a vision that Mandalorians are coming for Serroco. Saul? Laughs it off, throws Zayne in the brig. Zayne's own friends don't even believe him. Carth gets one of those creepy hunches and starts calling in "duck and cover" sirens as far as he can broadcast, which sends seventeen cities and millions of people heading for shelter. It saves their lives and Carth is called a hero for it. Armed with another hunch, he disobeys Saul (remember this is before Saul nukes Telos) and lets Zayne "escape" from custody. Mind you, not even the Jedi or his party members believed Zayne. Carth did.

Carth makes a lot of creepy weird offhand predictions about the future. He says he knows on some level he'll be there when Saul dies. That certainly pans out. He makes an offhand prediction that the Jedi have set the party up to take a fall. Right again. He tells a female PC that she'll have to make a choice soon, one she can't walk away from. And then we get the temple top. He even blurts out that "I sensed you would have to make a choice soon, and that was it*, I can feel it!"* If you specify a LS Female Revan, his recording for T3-M4 says he's had a hunch Revan would leave without warning. Again, spot on.

Specify a LS male Revan, and Carth will remark to Bastila that seeing the Exile reminds him "there are worse things to lose." The only other people who can see just how screwed up the Exile is are the Jedi Masters, Chodo Habat, and the Force Sensitive party members.

Specify a LS female Revan, and Carth will insist that he would know if Revan were dead (again, scary ass intuition) and that there's an "emptiness" where she used to be. Now, remember one of the things about a broken Force Bond? It would simply be "empty, a wound."

You know how your party members in KOTOR 2 feel upset or even horrified as they realize they feel compelled to protect Exile and can't being themselves to leave, even when said actions are kicking puppies? And how they swing wildly from being crazy, almost stalker level possessive of them to being scared out of their wits and clamming up when you try to pry anything out of them? And the more potent (and untapped) their Force Sensitivity, the more they get hammered with the effect? (Mira and Atton in particular) Yeah. Now, Carth's "I don't wanna talk" looks a bit different, doesn't it? It could also account for that romance arc, especially if you roll a DSF Revan and go for that "everyone dies" ending.

Again, Ajunta Pal. Seeing a Force Ghost? Yeah. Some degree of Sensitivity needed. Understanding what he's saying? Yeah. Takes a bit more than that. And Carth makes a weirdly insightful comment about the Dark Side on top of it.

Notice that this a wall o text argument already, and I'm now just getting to the "Yeah, his kid is able to throw around mid-level Dark Side powers and packing a red lightsaber." Given the jawline and the muleheaded attitude, no way Morgana was fooling around with the pizza delivery boy. That's definitely Carth's kid, and that's definitely Force Sensitivity. Now, while it can skip a generation (see Theron Shan), it tends to run pretty heavy in families.

Lastly? Gee. He comes from a planet settled by and heavily populated by descendants of Force Sensitives who failed their training. I'm also willing to bet some bastard children of Jedi get passed off as "foundlings" and "orphans" and dumped there, too. Jedi are forbidden attachments, but not sworn to celibacy, so...yeah, bastard kids are gonna happen. There's probably a Jedi or two in that family tree. It's circumstantial evidence at best, but it still supports the case.

Now, any arguments I missed? Counterarguments?

And the million credit question: If there's a character who gets to break this news to poor Flyboy, who do you think would actually take that on? How do you think Carth would take that kind of news? And what, if anything, would come of it?

I kinda figure Jolee might be the only one nuts enough to poke that with a stick...I also kinda figure "Sentinel" would fit best. Consular? Hell no. He hired Mical for that. Guardian works with the feats, but the whole "ferreting out deceit and injustice?" Yeah. That's Carth.

[lemonwrld]

Credit to ohbeeones for uploading the linked video from which I took the above screencap.

I’m pretty sure it’s been pointed out before about the balding Gollum vision board behind them and how obviously the Sunny Make-up Department used this for inspiration re. Dennis in s14.  (Sorry, I can’t find that post. If someone made that and wants me to credit them for that discovery, I will. Please just send the link.)

EDIT: pizzashakes made this discovery and kindly sent me the link! You all should check it out, it’s a great find. Also you can see the vision board way clearer there.

Anyway, do you think they are going to continue with this look for Dennis in s15? Part of me thinks it’s an interesting idea (”That’s what his soul looks like”, etc.) But then maybe Waiting for Big Mo was the conclusion of it?

Like, I don’t know if I 100% got that episode… but it clearly alluded to Dennis actually kinda being Gollum-like in his obsessive pursuit of “staying on top of the leaderboard and winning at the game” at the expense of actually enjoying his life. It concluded with him and the others seemingly understanding that they have to let go of this compulsive need to control everything and just try to live more freely and in the moment.

(Although it was also likely a reference to the creators and granting themselves the freedom to pursue their other projects. It also randomly turned into a psych-out about rcg ending Sunny, which they then made clear that they absolutely don’t intend to do. So yeah.. again not 100% sure if I added all the meta references together smoothly. I personally found it all to be a little bit jumbled.)

Nevertheless, my general take-away character-wise was that Dennis worked through some of his control issues with the support of Charlie and the others. He seemed in a better headspace by the end. S14 was him at his lowest in terms of physical appearance. And rcg clearly intended the audience to see that as a manifestation of his internal state as well.

I’m interested to see what Dennis looks like in s15. Is he going to look better / more like normal Glenn? Because part of me feels they didn’t fully complete that arc. Like, Dennis still has so many issues to deal with before he resolves anything about his identity or the way he lives his life (at least in my eyes).

But if you look on other sites like reddit, a lot of people didn’t even seem to link Dennis’ change in weight/physical appearance with a deliberate creative choice. I feel the general audience understood that Rob gained weight for s7 as a deliberate acting choice and in service to the show. I’m not so sure the general audience wholly understood that Glenn lost weight and was made-up to look quite sickly on purpose. And if they did note it, I’m not sure everyone understood exactly why… y’know?

Anyway, I’m interested to see where they go with Dennis in s15!!

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

IOTA Reviews: Furious Fu

Well, I'm surprised this is here so quickly, but here we are. The first episode of Season 4. While I was on the fence about reviewing it even though it isn't in English (though there’s one in Spanish with English subtitles), but it seems like there are people that want to see me do it anyway, so who am I to let them down? Hopefully, I won't be regretting my decision to go over every episode of this season later on.

Will Marinette's new position as Guardian lead to more storylines other than her suffering? Will the show actually resolve the whole Love Square debacle this season? Why am I asking you all these questions?

Let's dive right into the first (actually sixth because of course it is) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season, Furious Fu.

We start off with all of the Kwamis under Marinette's care asking to see Former Master by Default Fu, before Marinette reminds them, and by extension, the audience, that he erased his memory during the events of last season, making her the new Guardian. They continue to act like hyperactive children until Marinette finally caves in and carries them in her backpack, although not before they give us one of the most unintentionally creepy images in the entire show.

I apologize in advance for your nightmares tonight.

The only Kwami who stays is the Dog Kwami, Barkk, who looks like she's going to see if Marinette's parents have any wine in the kitchen once she leaves.

Marinette heads down to the train station, where she meets up with Fu and Marianne, a former confidant/old flame who he recently reunited with. It turns out that inbetween Seasons 3 and 4, not only has Fu been living in London with Marianne while taking up painting as a hobby, but they've actually gotten married. So yeah, while Marinette has to deal with the stress of protecting some of the most dangerous artifacts on the planet, Fu's just been chilling in London, oblivious to the fact that he forced a teenage girl to do his job for him. Nothing but the best from this show's wise and lovable “mentor”.

After heading back home, Marinette sees a strange man who has broken into her room and demands to know where she got the Miracle Box from.

This is Master Su-Han, the former Guardians before Fu accidentally killed them all. He's naturally not happy with the “improper” form of the Miracle Box (he's not the only one) and wants to know how Marinette got in in the first place. When she says she got it from Fu...

Yeah... while it isn't as obvious as “Animaestro” and “Felix”, you can kind of tell that this is a “turn the critics into enemies” episode. Even though the criticism towards Master Fu isn't as prevalent as the criticism those episodes were meant to call out, there have been some fans on Tumblr and Reddit who have criticized Fu's actions in the show, calling out his decision to make Marinette a guardian in particular. Likewise, Su-Han is meant to be a strawman to mirror the complaints, and show why they are ridiculous. Though ironically, Su-Han's dialogue and rules also unintentionally highlight how incompetent the Order of the Guardians was, but we'll get to it later.

But because the script says she has to, Marinette defends Fu's decision to make her Guardian. She even refers to Fu being the reason the Guardians were all killed in the first place as a “mistake”.

NO HE DIDN'T! How was what Fu did in any way a sacrifice? When he made Marinette the new Guardian “Miracle Queen”, All Fu really did was make the box float for a bit before it immediately landed back in Chloe's hands. If the box had magically floated over to Ladybug in the process, I'd see why Fu would have done it. It'd still be reckless, but it would be a good way to escape from Hawkmoth and Mayura's trap. Hell, the Kwamis had already refused to let Chloe transform when she had their Miraculous, so there was no real threat there. We don't even know if Hawkmoth knew how to transform with the other Miraculous. So again, I raise the question: How was Fu forcing Ladybug to take his job while he gets to paint in London a heroic sacrifice? How can you even frame that as anything but cowardly?

Su-Han notices a few of the Kwamis are missing, and takes notice of Plagg, who was shown to devastate Paris with a single tap to the ground, being missing in particular. He's even more horrified to see Marinette's earrings, because, get this, Guardians aren't allowed to wear Miraculous.

You're telling me that if someone gets their hands on a Miraculous and goes rogue, the Guardians are supposed to fight them with their bare hands? They don't even explain it by saying something like how the Guardians aren't supposed to be tempted by the power of the Miraculous, we're just supposed to accept that rule as fact. How are you supposed to fight someone with superpowers like illusions, shapeshifting, teleportation, and time travel on your own?

So Su-Han orders the Kwamis back into the Miracle Box (still don't get why they have to listen to him) and lists off some of the rules Marinette broke like he was a Ferengi reading the Rules of Acquisition. He does all of this while voicing several concerns fans have about Marinette being Guardian, but rather than being out of concern or compassion for her, it's condescension.

It's pretty easy to understand Su-Han's side of the story, and if the episode actually acknowledged it, I wouldn't mind. But no, everything he says is automatically supposed to be wrong, because when has anything with a different viewpoint portrayed as a good guy in this show?

Su-Han orders Ladybug to take him to see Cat Noir before demanding they both hand over their Miraculous, and we learn something interesting about the Order of the Guardians.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?

Of all the stupid Guardian rules Master Fuckup didn't blindly follow, it's the rule that Miraculous are ONLY SUPPOSED TO GO TO ADULTS!? Why the hell did he even recruit Marinette and Adrien in the first place if Miraculous for adults to use? What did he even see in them? All they did was help him once!

And again, we're supposed to see Su-Han as wrong for doing this. Why can't Ladybug simply tell Su-Han about Hawkmoth and ask for his help before she returns her Miraculous to him? That way, Hawkmoth is defeated, and Su-Han gets the Miraculous back. And it's not like Ladybug doesn't try to talk things out with Su-Han, so you can't say she didn't consider it. Oh wait, that would imply Su-Han is supposed to have a point in his claims.

Though to the show's credit, Su-Han's words do get to Ladybug, causing herself to doubt herself and her ability to stop Hawkmoth, but Cat Noir helps to reassure her, saying he'll only return his Miraculous only if she asks him to. It's a brief moment, but it's nice to see him place his faith in his partner in a platonic way.

Less nice to see is Cat Noir finding out that if Ladybug gives up her position as Guardian, she'll lose her memory like Fu. Except... Cat Noir was there when Miraculous Ladybug failed to restore Fu's memory, so why does he see this as new information? Did he only think it would happen to Fu? Did he lose some of his memory at the end of the last season?

This information is enough for Cat Noir to start a fight with Su-Han, with Ladybug abandoning any attempts at diplomacy by declaring that Cat Noir won't lose his Miraculous. It's a little frustrating to see them engage Su-Han, but again, this is meant to show Cat Noir trying to protect Ladybug so she doesn't lose her memory. This scene still does a good job showcasing the bond the two heroes have. It's far better than anything we got from the New York special.

Su-Han is trained in... Oh God... Mirakung-Fu, which somehow gives him the ability to predict Ladybug and Cat Noir's moves before they make them, comparing it to his rage “adaptating and always finding a way”. Translation: Astruc ripped off something else from Dragon Ball, Ultra Instinct. Ladybug distracts Su-Han and gets the Miracle Box, while Cat Noir gets his staff. After briefly trapping him under some rubble (which I guess doesn't kill him because of his “Mirakung-Fu”), the two heroes escape.

Meanwhile, Shadowmoth, the upgraded form of Hawkmoth that I'll talk about in his debut proper, senses Su-Han's negative emotions and sends out an Akuma after him. Su-Han sees Fu painting in the park, and steals his cane, thinking it's a Guardian's staff he can sue to track down the Miraculous. When the Akuma reaches him, Su-Han uses a technique to repel the Akuma completely. I like this idea. It makes sense that a monk would find a way to mask their emotions and achieve enough of a state of zen to ward off an Akuma. The Akuma instead reaches Fu, turning him into Furious Fu.

I like the design of this Akuma. While I personally thought it could have made for a more interesting fight if he was still short (like Yoda's fight scenes in the prequels), I think it's really clever to incorporate Fu's Hawaiian shirt into what looks like a Chinese gi. Furious Fu's powers are kind of like Evilustrator, only he has to draw down a Chinese character on a talisman before the power takes immediate effect, and lacks the weakness Evilustrator had with his tablet being easily breakable, with the corrupted object, a paintbrush on his ear, being harder to reach.

Ladybug and Cat Noir retreat to the unnamed stadium that the local school has gym class in for some reason, where they're confronted by Su-Han, who in turn, is confronted by Furious Fu. This leads to a three-way fight for the Miracle Box, which they all kick around like a soccer ball. Cat Noir even gets a goal. All around, pretty fun bit, though not for the Kwamis, I guess.

As soon as he sees Furious Fu get the Miracle Ball, Su-Han hides while Ladybug and Cat Noir get beat up by the Akuma. While he does get up eventually, he's still taken out by Furious Fu. Apparently, Su-Han's “Mirakung-Fu” is only useful against Miraculous holders, not supervillains created with the powers of a Miraculous. How the hell does that work? That's like being a trained soldier in the Marine Corps who's terrible at laser tag.

Ladybug uses her Lucky Charm (again, I'll talk about the suit change for its proper debut episode), and gets a pair of wire cutters. She uses them go get a soccer ball from a nearby container while Cat Noir keeps Furious Fu busy. Furious Fu, in turn, uses one of his talismans to predict Ladybug's plan, and manages to immobilize both heroes, but not before Ladybug traps the soccer ball underneath Cat Noir's arm before Furious Fu can use his Cataclysm against him.

How do they stop him? By having Marianne casually walk up to him and break the paintbrush while he's distracted. Honestly, that's a pretty funny payoff. Not “Puppeteer” or “Bakerix” funny, but it's still one of the funnier Akuma defeats I've seen. Another funny joke is Cat Noir using his Cataclysm on a soccer ball before he accidentally uses it on Ladybug and Marianne for their post-victory fist bump.

Later on, after Marinette sees Marianne and Fu off while the latter continues to avoid responsibility, Su-Han apologizes to her, and decides to trust her. He'll still take away the Miracle Box if she screws up, but it's a start to someone Marinette can at least consult Guardian to Guardian.

And honestly? I think this episode is a pretty good start to Season 4. It really feels like the writers are learning from their mistakes in Season 3.

Yes, Marinette is blamed by Su-Han, and while it is frustrating to turn Su-Han into a strawman, unlike other Season 3 episodes where Marinette is blamed, the blame itself is unwarranted, and by the end of the episode, it looks like Su-Han is willing to change, as he apologizes to Fu after he's de-evilized. That's a lot more than I can say for Astruc's other straw characters like Chloe and Felix. Sure, some of Su-Han's concerns are brushed off, but it's still a start.

From what little we saw of him, Cat Noir is also a lot better, really showing the character development promised towards the end of “Miracle Queen”. He's thankfully turned down the flirting, and I can only hope he keeps his promise as the season goes on. I hope we get an episode or two showing his perspective on Ladybug becoming Guardian, and how he feels less like her actual partner now. You know, something that can reinforce their bond as partners.

My biggest complaints from the episode really come from the way Fu is portrayed, and even then, it's only because of events that happen because of what he did last season and how much of a screw-up he is, despite the narrative trying to tell the audience he isn't. Then there's the revelation that Fu's cane has the ability to track down Miraculous. So... we're seriously learning this now? Why didn't Fu use it earlier to look for the two missing Miraculous? He literally has a Miraculous detector! But hopefully, the consequences of Fu's actions won't affect this season too much.

So yeah, I'm actually feeling pretty optimistic about this season so far. Maybe Season 4 won't be that bad after all.

Oh.

Oh no...