#that's all I'm going to say because that's off-topic

[fuctacles]

<< twelve | 😺 | fourteen >>

"I'm gonna grab another." Steph shakes the empty bottle in her hand. "You want one too?"

Why isn't she kicking him out?

"I'll do it," Eddie offers quickly, jumping off the couch. "I know where everything is."

She's a bit surprised by the offer, but lets him take away the bottle without protest.

The kitchen isn't exactly hidden away in the layout of the apartment, but it shields him enough to have a silent freak out. He's not sure what's the end goal here. If she knows he's into her but isn't interested in anything herself, why let him stay? Are they supposed to sit in the acknowledged attraction as friends? It just might cost Eddie the last shreds of his sanity. 

He presses the cold beers to his cheeks before uncapping them and heading back to the couch. 

"Thank you." Steph takes the offered bottle. There's a remote in her other hand. "You wanna watch something? Family Feud should be starting soon."

A tactical change of topic, but what else could there be to talk about?

"Sure," he nods. When he sits back down, it feels like they've gotten closer, but it might be his mind simply playing trick on him.

They exchange small commentary, drinking and snacking on popcorn, a relaxing evening not dissimilar to what he could have with Wayne. But then, his hand scrapes against the bottom of the bowl. After they pick a couple of edible strays from between unpopped kernels, Steph leans forward to put the empty bowl on the table. When she falls back against the couch, she's definitely closer than before. 

Eddie jumps when she pats his knee.

"Relax, I don't bite," she says, eyes glued to the screen. Only then does he realize how tense he's gotten and forces his muscles to loosen up. He sits more comfortably, their shoulders brushing when one of them raises the beer to their lips. 

That distance also seems to be shortening, until Steph is leaning against him.

"Hey," he ducks his head down to take a look at her face. "You falling asleep on me?"

"No," she protests weakly. "'m watchin'."

Her eyes are indeed stubbornly half-open. He chuckles. 

"Okay, but if you need me to go, just tell me. I'll even tuck you in," he offers.

She giggles, pressing herself firmer against his side, and it takes all of his willpower not to wrap his arm around her. It would be a step too far. 

"What's so funny?" he asks instead, gently nudging her shoulder. 

"Nothing," she says innocently. "Just, Robin gives me a good night's kiss when she tucks me in."

Eddie twists his head again to look at her face. She's biting at her bottom lip and her eyes are glued to the screen.

"Well, whatever you need for a good night's sleep," he reassures her. And, realizing some hearts might end up broken no matter what he does, he raises his arm to rest it on the couch. He doesn't dare wrap it around Steph's shoulders, but at least it's not stuck uncomfortably between their bodies. 

With the show on screen slowly coming to an end, and the beer running through his system, he could happily fall asleep where he's sitting. But the overhead lights are still on, and he knows, deep in his gut, that it was a precaution to keep their hang out friendly. Gods only know what would happen if they were covered in the intimacy of a movie night's semi-darkness. 

When the TV host says his goodbyes, Steph blinks her heavy eyelids unhappily.

"I have work tomorrow," she grumbles with disdain, like the mere thought leaves a nasty taste in her mouth. 

Eddie huffs out a laugh.

"You do." He pats her shoulder sympathetically. "But you're also the boss, and you're not gonna fire yourself for being late, are you?" He cocks his head. 

Steph hums thoughtfully, before turning her head towards him, eyes narrowed. 

'You're a bad influence, you know that?"

"So I've been told," he grins, before disentangling himself from her warmth, because they've gotten way too close, and her mouth was right there for him to do something enormously stupid. "Let's clean up and I'll tuck you to bed like I've promised."

"I have to close up behind you," she reminds him with a twist of her mouth.

He looks up at her, empty bottles in hands. 

"You really should invest in a spare key, you know?"

"Very thoughtful, thanks," she looks at him flatly, before swatting at him playfully. 

"I mean, what if something happens?" he continues, gathering everything before she can grab it herself, and ignoring her protests. "Like, there's a fire and we have to save your cats?"

"Then, by all means, you're welcome to axe my door."

"I don't own an axe!" he points out with wide eyes. 

"I'm pretty sure Wayne does."

Eddie huffs, dumping the greasy bowl from their popcorn in the sink. 

"Yeah, probably."

He insists on cleaning the bowl, swatting away Steph's hands when she tries to take it away from him. But eventually, he's drying his hands and it's time to leave. 

"Well, thank you for having me, I had a great time," he smiles, stalling. 

"Me too." Steph smiles back. "Come over any time."

"Same time tomorrow?" he picks up the offer immediately, grinning as he slowly backs up towards the door.

"Sure, why not," Stephanie shrugs, and he didn't expect her to agree so easily. But then, she crosses her arms. "You know, just so I won't go insane talking to my cats."

"Not my words!" he reminds her with his hands raised placatingly. He stumbles into his discarded shoes, and it's probably high time to stop pushing his luck anyway. With less grace than he'd like while the woman of his dreams is watching, he steps into them, and springs back up, ready to say goodbye. "See you tomorrow, then?"

"Wait, wait wait!" 

He cocks his head curiously, and is a bit disappointed when Steph presses conditioner into his hands. 

"Ah, right. I totally forgot." He laughs awkwardly. But then, she's not letting go, so he looks up at her with a questioning sound. 

Her eyes are glued to his mouth.

"You want your good night kiss?" he asks without thinking.

Thankfully, neither of them might be doing it right now.

"How else am I supposed to fall asleep?" Steph counters with a slight pout, briefly raising her gaze to meet his eyes. 

This time, they lean in together. 

It's soft and hesitant like they are each a delicate, porcelain statue. Like it is a good night kiss, one of many, closing the day with tenderness and care, with no plans to start anything more. It still leaves Eddie short on oxygen, too focused on the woman in front of him to think about something as trivial as breathing. 

"Goodnight." Steph breaks away first with a soft smile.

Eddie nods stupidly, hands still clutching the bottle in his grasp. 

"Goodnight."

tags:

@wheneverfeasible @steddieinthesun @hattsy-likes-pretty-stuff @bumblebeecuttlefishes @phantomcat94

@tartarusknight  @tinyplanet95 @steddiefication @estrellami-1 @disrespectedgoatman

@madigoround @tartarusknight @blasvemous @cryptid-system @hiei-harringtonmunson

@hellowhatthehellisgoingonhere @dreamercec @manliest-of-muppets @bookbinderbitch @marklee-blackmore 

@icecat @rootbeerandmusic

[eggfriedricedwasian]

Ive seen things where people have kids who are dark haired and eyed at birth and turn light haired and eyes when they get older or vice versa.

I headcanon Janet with blonde hair and green eyes and Jack with black hair blue eyes.

Im using this on Tim.

Tim was born with blonde hair green eyes and looked like Jack as a baby, but when he got older, around 4ish, he turned black haired and blue eyed and started looking like Janet.

His parents were both in a love hate relationship with this change. On one hand they want him to have their colors and look like them...

On the other hand they miss when he used to look like the other parent.

Just imagine:

Tim going through old pictures in his gazillion boxes of pictures, the family is helping him.

"Who's this baby? Steph's?"

Someone asks. They look over to see Duke holding a photo of a blonde baby, smiling a gummy smile with curly blonde hair and green emerald eyes looking brighter than a kryptonian in the sun.

"No.. That's.. who is that baby?"

Steph asked very slowly. Guess they forgot to tell Duke that Steph's daughter was a sensitive topic amongst them.

"Steph gave up her daughter at birth, Duke. And it was a traumatic experience for her so we don't talk about it."

Bruce informed.

"O-Oh! I'm sorry."

"It's okay, you didn't know"

She waved him off with a smile, but everyone still wondered who the baby was.

"Tim?"

"Yeah?"

Tim replied from inside his closet. He walked out upon no reply, setting down another box filled with camera equipment and saw all their confused faces.

"Who's baby is this?"

Duke turned the picture and Tim looked at it closer.

"Oh!"

Tim smiled, taking it and putting it next to his face.

"It's me!"

He smiled just as bright as the baby, which happened to be him, in the picture.

.

.

.

"WHAT!?"

The family, including Alfred, stared jaw dropped shocked at the guy.

The baby in the photo, smiling oh so brightly like the sun, green eyed, blonde curly hair, with the cutest little red polka dot dress on, was Tim, who had straight-ish black hair and blue eyes, didn't smile as brightly as the moon, who only gave smirks and grins, and was wearing a long sleeves under a Limp Bizkit t shirt with very baggy jeans.

"Yeah.. Genetics! Ya know..?"

"Explain."

Jason demanded.

"Well, up until I was 4-ish I had my dad's face but my mom's green eyes and blonde curly hair, but then it turned black and my eyes turned blue and straight-ish and I started looking more like my mom."

He rubbed his neck sheepishly.

That started the searching of Tim's baby photos. They'd organize the Bat photos and the hero photos later, right now they needed to find all of the blonde hair green eyed baby Tim photos.

It was no secret that Tim was trans, so when all the photos of a little girl in dresses and skirts showed up they weren't phased. It was hilarious to see all the pouty faced pictured of Tim in dresses.

The photos did get put up around the house with Tim's (begrudgingly(willingly)) permission.

Dick wanted him to bleach his hair but he refuses to damage his hair.

But also imagine this:

The older that Tim gets, the blonde comes back. He still looks like his mom, but his slowly starts turning blonde again, and his eyes start having a greener tint/hue to it.

The first to notice was Bart.

Bart was braiding Tim's rather ling hair when he points it out.

"Hey Tim, your hair's got some blonde in it!"

"What?"

Tim runs to the mirror and looks in it. Yep. Sure enough his hair was growing some blonde strands. And now that he looked, his eyes looked more green than it's normal blue.

"Oh my gosh.."

He calls Bruce.

Bruce who was in a JL meeting.

"I'm in a meeting."

"B! Im going blonde again! Ans my eyes! They're turning green!"

Tim says, somewhat panicked, somewhat excited.

Bruce blanks. Because.. what. What do you mean his baby boy, who he loved staring at the blonde and green eyed baby pictures of, was resorting back to that color.

"...really?"

He asks very hesitantly at first.

"Yeah!"

Tim turns his head down, showing his scalp. And there, right there, were several prominent, yet blended, strands of blonde growing in a curl pattern amongst the straight black locks.

Bruce just about cries right then and there.

Because then Tim does a close up of his eyes. And yep. His eyes have a but of green in them.

"That's great, sweetie. But I'm in a meeting right now."

"Oh! Sorry!"

He hangs up.

Bruce doesn't.

He's still stuck on the call smiling like a sappy parent whose kid just did something so small yet so touching. There were tears in his eyes and none of the JL knew what to do.

[fromchaostocosmos]

Also America Jews worked really hard to get the Holocaust to be a part the USA curriculum.

There is also the pervasive idea that Holocaust Museums are funded by government and that they were created/founded by the governments.

That is a lie.

Jews fought tooth and nail for Holocaust Education and memorials to the Holocaust.

That included persevering Concentration Camps so that they could be a testament and witness to the history.

Because there were those who advocated razing them.

Jews fought for the memorials to put up in places there were no physical reminders to be the testament to history.

Jews in the USA fund-raised amongst our communities to raise money for Holocaust Museums and applied for grants when and where applicable to teach and educate on the Holocaust.

And when others Genocides have happened such Cambodian, Darfur, and Rwandan for example information about those as well as the Armenian Genocide have sections within these Holocaust Museums.

No one handed over Holocaust memorials, Holocaust Museums, and Holocaust education. We Jews had to fight a very fraught and bitter fight for it.

And in many countries we are not the ones in charge of the Museums and memorials so you get really not good choices and decisions being made.

Like the Polish government has a lot of control over the Concentration Camps and so official statements that get made by them can be very political and it is not good. Also there are a lot of choices especially in terms of Auschwitz on how they go about things that many Jews are not fans off, myself included, like appearance for example and tone.

The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam has made choices that again have I don't think would have happened if the majority of those in charge were Jewish.

Also within Europe these places are very tourism and will have gift shops.

For me personally I think it is inappropriate. This is not something that should anyone should make money from. Your countries made your money when you murdered us and pillaged from us. At least treat our dead with a little more respect this time around.

The governments should fund the upkeep and care of these places.

I will not forget being at the Majdanek Death Camp and having to pay to go in and then walking and seeing sign that was a pointed arrow shape and it said in English, Gift Shop.

I felt so sick seeing it. I won't ever forget it. I feel sick when I think about it.

This is not the place for a gift shop.

So if people want to have a serious and honest discussion about how Plantation sites are used in the USA, what should be done with them now, what can be done, and more I am more then willing to have that conversation because I have a lot of thoughts and opinions on the topic coming from the People I come from and the experiences we've had.

I think that there is a lot that the Jewish community have to offer in terms of experience and help to the Black Community on this topic.

I'm just really sick and tired of people who don't really anything about the Holocaust speaking total bullshit and then also making stuff up the USA in terms of the Holocaust.

I'm also sick and tired of seeing the type of shit that we see in the screenshots because for as hurtful and painful as it is for me to see it I have to imagine that it is even more hurtful and painful for Black Jews to see and experience.

Because that type of rhetoric is in essence not just erasing their experiences, but is erasing them entirely. Because it is saying the Jews come at the expense of Black people and if someone ascribes to that kind of hateful ideology then how must the view Black Jews. Do they not think they exist or do they think something even worse and more hateful or somehow both.

And I myself do not want to be Black Jews in position where they ever have to feel like they need to choose between parts of who they are because they shouldn't. They should be able to be all of who they are, fully and wholly.

And to remind or educate those who may not know the USA after the Civil War had a policy of Isolationism in regards to International Affairs. Which meant that whatever was going outside of the USA they were not really getting involved in and didn't want to.

So when WW 1 happened the USA came in later and was kinda pulled in and at the time it war on a level no ever saw before and it was called The Great War not World War (1) and once it officially over the USA was like ok bye.

And went to saying we are gonna stay here and do our thing.

So once World War 2 was going on the USA was yeah no that is a Europe problem leave us out of it.

It is only until Japan bombs Pearl Harbor that the USA gets involved and they are fairly late the party, but they are there and become a major power player.

It Japan never did that and the USA was left alone the USA would not have gotten involved.

So it is once the USA is pulled in because of Pearl Harbor that you have Japanese citizens being forced into interment camps, you have the rationing of food and supplies, the mass of women entering the workforce, vegetable victory gardens, and all of that.

So the USA like to present the retrospective that the poor pathetic Jews needed help and big strong USA came to save the day which is bullshit.

FDR was multiple times presented by his generals ways they could destroy the tracks to Auschwitz and he said no every to it every time.

FDR also made it much harder to apply for refugee status, rules that still exist by the way, in order to prevent Jews from coming into the USA and added quotas too for the same reason.

USA Jews raised money to pay to get Jews in legally to the USA and when that really wasn't working, they wrote to their elected officials and marched in Washington D.C to bring attention to what was going on to get Americans to give a fuck.

And when that didn't happen some USA Jews went to Europe to try and help Jews get out putting their lives on the line and USA Jews also were able to help to pay for some European Jews to get out and go to other countries be it at the time safe European ones, ones in South America, illegally into the USA, British Mandate Palestine, or countries in Central America and the Caribbean Islands.

So what it would like is USA Jew has lets a cousin in Europe so their local community raises funds and however much they raise goes toward paying to get however much of said cousin and family out of the country so fees, bribes, tickets, etc and to cover for as much people they can so it could sometimes cover everyone in the family and sometimes just one or two people. And the family in Europe would have to pick who goes.

So we are not talking about hundreds of thousands of people being saved here maybe not even thousands and thousands, but this is what could be done and so it was.

And often you would send the money and tickets and stuff with someone so someone had to risk their life to bring it to the family in Europe because you couldn't take the chance of it getting lost or stolen in via mail.

So Jews in the USA knew about what was happening and they were doing their best to help.

And while they were doing what they could however they could you had the USA government only getting involved when they had to and the until the USA joined the war in the USA Nazism was super popular. The American Bund Party was popular. Hitler was popular.

Many Americans were not happy about joining the war and having to fight the Nazi. They might not have cared for the Japanese, but they were not happy to fight the Germans.

That is relativity condensed and basic breakdown of what was going on, but yeah so anything or anyone who goes American were like yay lets fight Nazis are lying.

Jews were happy to fight Nazis which is why many Jews volunteered to fight.

Black people I think were probably happy to fight Nazis and I think from what I understand thought that the army would present an opportunity for an actual merit based structure and that was sadly not the case.

I have great respect and הַכָּרַת הַטּוֹב Hakarat HaTov, gratitude, to the many Black soldiers who fought on behalf on the USA army in WW2 because they did not get the recognition they did deserve after the war was over and I doubt they were treated with respect by their fellow white soldiers. I would also imagine that due the anti-Black racism they were forced to due riskier missions and tasks by their white army leaders (commanders?). They helped liberate us and their efforts freed us.

I have great respect and הַכָּרַת הַטּוֹב Hakarat HaTov to the many different peoples who helped in fighting the Nazis even when it meant having endure discrimination and racism from the very army the were helping and fighting on the behalf of.

Because how can I not.

(X)

i’m going to let this video speak for itself. bc i don’t even know what to say anymore. i don’t know how we come back from this level of radicalization among young people to the point where holocaust denial has become the norm.

[mamayura]

Okay but what's crazy is that the episode does subtly reveal that Adrien did keep it a secret from Marinette that he's more than silent jogging buddies with Sublime

In the beginning, Marinette says that when she asked Adrien if he and Sublime talk when they go running he always says "no". This is factually correct as we find out in the end through Sublime:

But there is obviously something not adding up here. Sublime literally says "Outside of running, of course Adrien and I talk". They just arent talking in any of their morning runs because Sublime in particular is doing it as serious training. So no talking because that would impact their breathing, but outside of that? Well, yeah, duh.

And that makes sense

Adrien and Sublime are in the same ancient Greek class, of course they would talk. I'm gonna go with the assumption that this is why Sublime started running by his side, because they vaguely knew each other from Greek class and when they crossed each others running paths one morning they were familiar enough to just run together in silence

Look, I- I dont know how to put this more elegantly, so I'll rip off the bandaid. The vibes I'm getting from this episode are that Adrien was more than cool with not talking anyway because he deliberately keep his friendship with Sublime a secret from Marinette because he knew Marinette would be weird about it and that made him uncomfortable.

He knows his girlfriend and she's peanut-butter-and-jealous.

And the thing is, as much as this certainly is a complicated topic with a lot of factors to consider for both sides, the way the episode had Marinette go about all this...

... the episode proved him RIGHT. He was right to be too uncomfortable with letting Marinette know about being friends with Sublime. She merely found out that they were running together in silence and proceeded to not only keep watching them each morning and taking photos, Marinette even proceeded to stalk the hell out Sublime:

No, this isnt normal. This isnt a "quirky girlfriend" thing to do, or "funny haha". Its one of the reason why Adrien didnt feel comfortable letting her know.

And, I mean, yeah. I can't blame him for it, can I? :I

Later on, Sublime is very quick to piece together that the girl hiding behind them is Adrien's girlfriend. Not the thing I would immediately go with, unless of course Adrien did already vaguely mention having a girlfriend to Sublime at one point. Then yes, her coming to this conclusion after Marinette followed her all day makes a lot more sense. Even if those are not.. nice implications. The episode does go on playing it straight at first that Marinette is the weird and a bit alarming girlfriend.

Look, you can pretty this up if you like, but for me, Adrien is clearly a solid bit uncomfortable and very apologetic here to Sublime because of Marinette's behavior. Sublime too is being nice about it to a degree you shouldnt take for granted. She would have had been perfectly justified in saying something else entirely. Adrien is trying to be a good boyfriend about this, but Marinette is out here proving him right in having struggled with wanting her to know about Sublime. Marinette has been following her around all day, Sublime noticed, and Adrien is doing good faith damage control here by telling Sublime that Marinette has good intentions and only wants to be her friend.

Something, though, that the episode clarified 3 times wasnt really the case:

It is so weird that at the core of the problem for both sides of Adrinette WAS Marinette being peanut-butter-and-jealous.

Marinette did NOT try to befriend Sublime out of some pure-hearted desire to know her. She did so because she feared that Adrien could end up not loving her anymore if she doesnt gain some control over the Sublime situation real quick

And Adrien DID keep his friendship with Sublime a secret from Marinette because, well, was he wrong?

And thats the thing. The episode just DROPS this in favor of saying that Marinette only had these pure-hearted intentions to know her when that isnt true. The episode proved Adrien alarmingly RIGHT in his gut feeling to keep Sublime a secret from Marinette, they just-

They just didnt let him know about any of it as if that makes it any less true. I would understand it if this episode had been entirely about tackling this issue for good. Adrien not being wrong for feeling uncomfortable with letting Marinette know about any new female friends and then Adrien gets proven right, but the situation is saved by Marinette's secondary desire of befriending Sublime.

Sure, not the plot of my choice, but I would GET IT because it would actually cover the given problem. Here it is... they didnt do it. Adrien was proven right, Marinette did everything wrong to Sublime that was possible and ended up breaking her prosthetic and ruined the sponsorship with a combo of Marinette's and Ladybug's harmful inconsideration.

Marinette did exactly what Adrien was afraid of... and they just DON'T resolve the initial Adrinette core of this issue. It's still ongoing. Marinette didnt even get to react in the end to finding out that Adrien did keep her in the dark about talking to Sublime:

I guess for now the explanation for that will be that Adrinette switched positions in this for once and now it's Marinette who isnt questioning it enough that Adrien only said the truth to her going by the technicality of "She only ask him if they talk while running".

Obviously, this is not how it works. He kept her in the dark. And whether he was right to doing so or not isnt important for the feeling I'm getting that this is just the beginning of a streak of similar problems like this. The postponed resolution to this will happen at a later point, and knowing Miraculous, they'll do it after it escalates to hell.

We already saw it in "Illustrhater" and the synopsis for "Werepapas" for example also sounds like Marinette will not stop here being a questionable girlfriend

I just dont understand why they would keep on DOING that?

[overflowingteacupoflove]

Tid-bits ✎ this series includes mature content such as sensitive topics,substance abuse, sex, angst, and more. Read with that in mind.

Chapter 1 ✎ Pool House.

"You're just too much." Is the last thing your ex-boyfriend said before you're off, stumbling through the crowds of party goers, Sorority girls in short dresses, frat guys in snapbacks, random kids in bright clothes that hurt your eyes. The entire crowd smells like sweat and achohol, concoctions mixed in red solo cups, sloshing liquid out onto the grass. The smell of it burns your nose. You stumble into someone and their drink spills on the front of your dress, whatever it's old anyway and you don't even like dresses so you shouldn't really care.

"You're just too much." Is the only thing that plays in your head when you smack into the door of a small shed. When you open it you're hit with the scent of chlorine, mildew, and plastic. You tiptoe through the shed, through buckets filled with pool toys, towels that stink of mildew, and pool noodles thrown about on the floor. Almost slamming your head into the wall stepping on a pool noodle, the styrofoam of the neon green floating help, crunching and sliding out from under your sneakered feet, you gasp as you steady yourself.

"Fuck." You groan, sitting down on a threadbare couch. Tears are slipping down your face, slow and then faster until you can't stop them or wipe them away. Gosh you swear to yourself that you're never going to date again. "Too much? I'm not too much." You grumble to yourself. The sound of music is blasting "Bourgeoisieses" by Conan Gray playing from the cheap speakers you're sure some frat brother got from the Walmart 3 years ago because its mostly staticy. It drowns out your words.

The music gets louder and a flood of light comes in from the door as someone shoulders it open and in comes a fratboy, red snapback on his head and an oversized red and gray jersey looking shirt on his torso. He looks seriously confused when he turns around to see you, teary-eyed, snot dripping down your face, harsh breathes forcing through your lungs.

"Oh-shit I didnt know that someone- that you- I didnt know anyone was in here. I thought it was a bathroom" He says gently, like you're a wounded animal who you need to be gentle with or they'll lunge.

"I-I-Its's fi-fine." You stutter through sobs and gasps, wiping at your face with your hands. They get sticky from the snot and tears drying on your palm in the creases as you fist up your hand. The boy looks concerned, his eyebrows drawn together and a soft frown on his lips.

"You okay? You don't...I mean I don't mean to sound rude but you don't look okay." He says rather gently as he's tiptoeing around the clutter on the floor to get to you. He reaches you and barely puts his hand on your shoulder before you're hunched over and throwing up, all over his airforces. "Oh, okay. Okay, yep- uh-huh, let it all out." He grimaces, patting the back of your head as you sputter and cough, spitting off to the side. "I think its time to go back to your dorm, yeah? No more drinks, party girl."

"Did I throw up on y'shoes? m'sorry, dude. I'll- uhhh- buy ya new ones." You slur sitting up and wiping the back off your mouth with your sleeve. "Also I think I jus' pissed myself. Jus' a lil bit."

"Yeah well that's what happens when you throw up. Vomiting creates sudden stress on the opening of the bladder, leading to leakage." He explains while hauling you up to your feet and hooking an arm around your waist.

"Nerd." You huff as you lean on him, head on his shoulder. "Doctor in training." He corrects as he walks, and you stumble along beside him, out of the Pool House.

"But you're a fratboy?"

"That I am." He nods, stopping to mumble something to a friend of his before continuing to walk, practically dragging you now. "That sounds illegal." That makes him laugh and you smile at the small victory. "It's not, party girl. Trust me."

You walk in silence for a while until he reaches his car and helps you into the front seat, buckling you up, and making sure you don't fall over, before closing the door and getting into the driver's seat. "Did you see me crying?" "Which dorm do you live in?" Your words overlap eachother and there's a bit of an awkward silence as you tell him which dorm house you live in and wait for the response to your question.

"Yeah, I did. What was it about?" You flush in embarrassment because this random doctor in training, fratboy, Jeep driver has seen you cry, throw up, and maybe pee yourself a little all in one night and you don't even know his name. "I don't wanna talk about it." You mumble, rubbing the tip of your nose with the knuckle of your finger.

"That's fine. I'm Chris by the way." Chris smiles at you before turning his gaze back to his phone to pull up the GPS and then start the car. "Y/N."

"Cool name, party girl." You smile softly, "Thanks."

You're back at your dorm, the car ride was mostly silent, random music playing low on the radio. You felt to awkward to try and say anything so you didn't, sitting with your hands wrung together or tugging at a loose string on your dress. Chris got you out of the car with some difficulty because your dress got caught on the arm rest of the seat and you tried to fix it yourself but only got yourself more tangled up. He had to hook an arm around your shoulder to hold you still while he fixed it Chris got it unhooked with a simple "See?" as he pulled it off the arm rest.

"We should take the stairs, it's way faster." You explain as you walk without Chris and only with minor difficulty because you're rather sobered up from the activities of the night. He shakes his head but follows anyway only to watch you take one step up the stairs and fall flat on your face. He winces and hauls you back up,checking for any injuries of anything, and then drags you to go take the elevator.

Once in your room he helps take off your shoes and get you into bed. "Hey, wait, wait. I needa get your number so I can buy you those shoes." You protest, grabbing Chris's arm, as he turns around. He turns back around with his brows furrowed and a frown gracing his lips. "You dont need to, I have more shoes." He reassures and pats your hand.

"Just give me your number, doctor fratboy." You sigh and reach around for your phone in the bag that's been thrown on the bed. He huff out a laugh at the nickname and types his number into your phone before handing it back to you. Chris watches as you giggle and type something, before closing your phone and letting go of his arm.

"Okay well text me in the morning, just a check up y'know. I'l talk to you later, party girl." You nod at his words before rolling over onto your side and closing your eyes. Chris, rubs your shoulder before he's reaching into his pocket and pulling out a granola bar, he's always prepared, and maybe he wanted a little snack, but he thinks you're going to need the snack more than he does.

He pulls the covers up over you and goes to the bathroom to place a trashcan by your bed, just incase. Then he leaves, turning off all the lights, except for the lamp by your bed, and closes the door behind him.

Lo's post-writing clarity-wagging my tail rn

[jimpagne]

Would it be possible for you to make a post talking about/explaining batchim? I watched two videos about it on YouTube but I was still really confused… I found your explanations (and guide in general) very helpful and interesting so I was thinking you could make a post that was clear and understanding.

Hi anon, sorry it took me like... *checks calendar* ... three weeks to answer this... I got a little busy. Maybe very busy. Oh well.

But oh boy, yes, I remember the days of having to learn batchim... Well, if I'm being entirely honest, in my Korean classes my professors actually never touched on the topic besides some of the most basic forms. They just hoped that we would pick it up by ourselves through listening and reading practices.

And in a way, that's exactly what happened.

However, I do know it's pretty hard for someone just starting out, especially if you've only just learned Hangul. I will keep it real with you: don't view batchim as some type of roadblock or something that stands in the way of you progressing with your learning. With enough practice, you'll begin to pick up on these changes and eventually integrate them fully with your speaking skills.

Despite this, I will explain batchim as best as I can, and I will do it from a more linguistic type of view, since I actually study linguistics/phonetics (한국어로 '언어학' & '음성학')! A lot of sources will try to explain batchim in its most simplest form, but I'll try to get a bit more technical with it, but hopefully not in a way that is confusing.

Alright, let's begin!

받침 BATCHIM OVERVIEW

Batchim, in the most simplest terms, is the final consonant at the bottom of a Korean syllable block. However, depending on which consonant it is and which sound proceeds it, can have a pretty big impact as to how its pronounced.

I know everyone (including me) goes on and on about just how perfect the Korean writing system is, and how it's phonetically consistent -- until it's not. But we try not to scare Korean learners away from learning the language, and to be fair, even though batchim can be confusing, it is still way easier than English orthography (writing).

Intervocalic Forms: Voicing

Okay, before I actually dive into the more complex batchim forms, I'm actually going to start off with something that is not batchim. Wow. I know, this is a little inconsistent.

But anyways, have you ever looked at a Korean Hangul chart and asked yourself: why can the ㄷ, ㅂ, ㄱ all be read as both a d & t, a b & p, and a g & k? Many might answer this question with a simple, "because Korean sounds are not like English sounds", which yes, but also because these characters can be read like voiceless and voiced variants depending where they are in a sentence.

For a bit of background, in linguistics, we classify consonant forms as "voiced" or "voiceless". All vowels are voiced sounds, so they don't have a voiceless classification. Basically, to make it as simple as possible, this just means that some sounds produce more buzzing in the throat, whereas others do not. I think the best way for me to really show this to you is for you to say "s" and then for you to say "z"... you feel that difference, right? That's voicing. B, G, D are all voiced, whereas P, K, T are not.

So to try to sum this up: vowels are voiced, liquids (r & l ㄹ) are voiced, nasals (m ㅁ, n ㄴ, ng ㅇ) are voiced.

In Korean, you can have words where one character can be read as both its voiced and voiceless variant. How do you know when to voice versus when to leave it voiceless? Intervocalic positioning.

Intervocalic, in this case, basically just means between voiced sounds.

Let's take the word "idiot" in Korean. 바보. Notice that when you said this word, the first sound in 바 is more like a p, right? And then the second sound in 보 is more like a b, right? That's because the ㅂ in 보 is sandwiched between two voiced vowel sounds, ㅏ & ㅗ.

Other words where this trend is apparent:

바다: pa-da; ocean

아버지: a-beo-ji; father

예쁜 구름: ye-ppeun gu-reum; pretty cloud(s) Again, the ㄱ in this one is read like a g because it comes after a nasal (m, n, & ng), and a vowel, and nasals & vowels are voiced.

You don't need to memorize/learn any of this linguistic mumbo jumbo, but it's just a way of showcasing a pattern that many people learning Korean might have not noticed. You don't need to hyperfixate or constantly look out to see which characters are sandwiched between which characters... because that would be exhausting. A lot of this voicing occurs because it's just more natural to the human articulators to pronounce it that way, so you might just end up doing it without thinking. I just thought I might answer that quick question that some people might've had about Hangul.

But anyways, isn't that cool?! It's cool to me. The linguistics student.

Coda Neutralization

I know, that's kind of a scary linguistic term. Coda. In the simplest words, it's just a term that means the final sound in a syllable. Like the batchim. But in this case, Korean has a lot of batchims that when they are the final sound and not followed by an additional vowel (again, they're the coda), then their sound will neutralize/sound the same as other consonant sounds.

The first rule you should know is that if the sound is aspirated (ㅋ, ㅌ,ㅊ, ㅍ) or doubled/tensed (ㄸ, ㅆ, ㅉ, ㅃ, ㄲ) in the batchim, if it is by itself and does not connect to a vowel, it will unaspirate/untense.

EX) 있 -> 잇, 밖 -> 박, 엌 -> 억, 밭 -> 받, 빛 -> 빚 etc...

The 'T' Variant

Many consonants in the Korean batchim will come out sounding like a 't' if there is no vowel to follow them.

ㅅ

ㄷ

ㅈ

ㅎ

So, words like 곧 (soon, immediately) will sound like got. 빛 (light) will sound like bit, and not bich. Remember, ㅊ had to unaspirate first as well.

The Normies

These are the batchims that are more loyal to their sounds, and will only undergo the aforementioned unaspirating and untensing.

ㅂ

ㄱ

ㅁ, ㄴ, ㄹ don't have tensed/aspirated forms, so they're just chilling fr.

But like I said multiple times, this is only if there is no vowel sound to carry over the batchim sound. If there is a vowel, the sounds will be pronounced as normal.

Like 있다, when added to ~어요, the ㅆ will undergo resyllabification and will be read as i-sseo-yo (있어요).

Cultural notes: Sometimes Koreans will pronounce the batchim as its original sound for comedic effect. I've heard Jimin do this a lot with the ~ㅅ/ㅆ batchim.

Tensification

This section will focus on ㄷ, ㅂ, ㄱ, ㅈ, ㅅ and their tensed/doubled variants ㄸ, ㅃ, ㄲ, ㅉ, ㅆ. Basically the rule goes that if a non-tensed consonant that has the ability to be doubled/tensed is in the batchim, and it comes into contact with another consonant that has the ability to be doubled/tensed, the latter consonant will be doubled/tensed.

Kind of a wordy explanation, but let me try to clarify it.

Take the word 식당 'restaurant' for example, the ㄱ is in the batchim and the consonant that proceeds it is a ㄷ. Both of these sounds have tensed variants. So instead of reading this like sik-dang, you would read it more like sik-ddang. The latter consonant of ㄷ has been doubled into a ㄸ.

학교; school: hak-kyo -> hak-kkyo

먹방 mukbang, (taken from the verb 먹다 [to eat] and the noun 방송 [broadcast/stream]); muk-bang -> muk-bbang

낮잠; nap (낮 day, 잠 sleep): nat-jam -> nat-jjam

있다; to have, to exist: it-da -> it-dda

Nasalization

The process of nasalization occurs when a stop consonant (p ㅂ, t ㄷ, k ㄱ) comes into contact with a nasal consonant (m ㅁ, n ㄴ, ng ㅇ). Though the 'ng' sound can't ever be a proceeding consonant since the 'ng' sound can only be voiced in the batchim, but you know...

I'll explain further.

This is BTS' wonderful MAKNAE LINE. The word maknae in Korean is spelled like 막내. As you can see, the batchim ㄱ (a stop consonant) is coming into contact with the nasal ㄴ sound.

So how will that impact the pronunciation of this word?

When the batchim ㄱ comes into contact with the proceeding ㄴ sound, the ㄱ sound transforms into an ㅇ sound. So instead of saying the word mak-nae with a prominent 'k' sound, you would say it more like mang-nae. The process of nasalization has just occurred!

Other Instances of ㄱ + ㄴ interactions:

학년; school year/grade: hak-nyeon -> hang-nyeon

먹는다; to eat (in the plain form): meok-neun-da -> meong-neun-da

ㄷ&ㅂ Interactions with Nasals

When a batchim ㄷ (and its other variants) comes into contact with a nasal, it assimilates and turns into a ㄴ sound.

받는다; to receive (in the plain form): bat-neun-da -> ban-neun-da

However, if the batchim ㅂ (and its variants) comes into contact with a nasal, they can take on an ㅁ sound. Also, remember, I taught coda neutralization first, because remember, the ㅅ turns into a 't' sound in the batchim if it is not followed by a vowel!

있는데; 있다 [to be] + ~는데 grammar form: it-neun-de -> in-neun-de

앞문; front door: ap-mun -> am-mun

~습니다; deferential conjugation form: seub-ni-da -> seum-ni-da

So, to sum it up, just remember this quick little chart.

ㄱ -> ㅇ ㄷ -> ㄴ ㅂ -> ㅁ

ㄹ Nasal Interactions

ㄹ is a bit of a special case; if nasals like ㅇ & ㅁ are in the batchim, or if ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ are in the batchim BEFORE a ㄹ, the ㄹ will change into a ㄴ sound.

심리; psychology: shim-ri -> shim-ni

통로; aisle: tong-ro -> tong-no

This makes a lot of sense! Just try saying tong-ro or shim-ri... it just feels a little uncomfortable, right?

Lateralization: Progressive & Regressive

Time for some more fun ㄹ forms! This particular form circles around ㄹ & ㄴ. I want you to think of these characters as siblings, and ㄹ is the older sibling, and ㄴ is the younger sibling that wants to copy everything that ㄹ does. Basically, if ㄹ and ㄴ are right next to each other, the ㄴ will turn itself into a ㄹ phonetically. Remember, these are still spelled the same way, but when spoken it just sounds different.

There are two instances in which this structure can occur, and it's formally known as progressive or regressive lateralization.

Progressive Lateralization: the ㄹ is in the batchim and turns the proceeding ㄴ into an ㄹ sound.

설날; Korean New Year: seol-nal -> seol-lal

실내; indoor: sil-nae -> sil-lae

Regressive Lateralization: the ㄴ is in the batchim and turns into a ㄹ upon connection to a proceeding ㄹ sound.

신라; Silla Dynasty: sin-ra -> sil-la

난로; stove: nan-ro -> nal-lo

Again, you don't really need to memorize these linguistic terms. As long as you know that ㄴ changes to a ㄹ if they're next to each other, that's good enough.

Palatalization

This will focus mainly on ㄷ and its aspirated (again, just meaning its just spoken with more air) variant ㅌ, and their interactions with 이. This form is quite easy and there's not really a lot of content that goes into this one. Basically, all you need to remember is...

When ㄷ is in the batchim and meets 이, the following sound that carries over will not be 디, but instead 지.

맏이; the eldest/firstborn (like Seokjin!): ma-di -> ma-ji

When ㅌ is in the batchim and meets 이, the following sound that carries over will not be 티, but instead 치.

같이; together: ka-ti -> ka-chi

Syncope (Deletion) & Fusion

This is primarily going to focus on the function of ㅎ, who has been up until this point pretty impartial toward most of the changes that we have covered. However, the ㅎ undergoes deletion and fusion when meeting certain vowel and consonant forms.

If ㅎ comes into contact with unaspirated stops (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ) & affricates (ㅈ), it will aspirate them/carry an aspirated sound over. This can occur with ㅎ in the batchim, or if its proceeding one of these characters. This explanation might be confusing, so bear with me if you can.

DELETION: ㅎ in the batchim

A common process that ㅎ undergoes is having its sound "deleted" when proceeded by a vowel sound. ㅎ is a "weak" consonant, and therefore just falls silent, even going as far to be overpowered by other consonants in its double-batchim forms.

좋아요; it's good [좋다 to be good] + 아/어요 conjugation form: jo-ha-yo -> jo-a-yo

많이; a lot (adv.): man-hi -> ma-ni

괜찮아요; it's alright [괜찮다 to be alright] + 아/어요 conjugation form: gwen-chan-ha-yo -> gwen-cha-na-yo

As you can see, in both 괜찮아요 & 많이, they have the double batchim ㄶ, but in this case, the ㅎ is completely ignored in favor of the ㄴ.

FUSION: ㅎ in the batchim

This is when ㅎ comes before an unaspirated stop (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ) or affricate sound (ㅈ). The ㅎ will turn its proceeding sound into its aspirated form (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ).

좋다; to be good: joh-da -> jo-ta (조타)

넣다; to put/insert: neoh-da -> neo-ta (너타)

싫지만; 싫다 [to loathe/disagree] + ~지만 but: shil-ji-man -> shil-chi-man (실치만)

FUSION: Following Stops and Affricates

This is when ㅎ proceeds an unaspirated stop (ㄱ, ㄷ, ㅂ) or affricate (ㅈ) batchim. The ㅎ will carry over the sound from the batchim much like a vowel would, but it will carry its aspirated form (ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅊ, ㅍ).

막히다; to be blocked: mak-hi-da -> ma-ki-da (마키다)

입학; matriculation (entering a school): ib-hak -> i-pak (이팍)

축하하다; to congratulate/celebrate: chuk-ha-ha-da -> chu-ka-ha-da (추카하다)

When you sing Happy Birthday in Korean, the process of fusion takes place!

생일 축하합니다 생일 축하합니다 사랑하는 [이름] 씨 생일 축하합니다~🎵

Double Batchim Battle!

Well, we've reached the end of the road... for now, anyway. The reason why I decided to include this last is because this is something that'll just require memorization. I don't really have any cool hacks for you here, it's just something you'll have to manage to cram into your brain. So, let me make a WHO WILL WIN!!! type of guide for you. Again, this is in the case of reading it without a vowel for the other batchim to attach itself onto.

ㄱ WINS!

ㄳ - ㄱ ㄺ - ㄱ

ㅂ WINS!

ㅄ - ㅂ ㄼ - ㅂ

ㅁ WINS!

ㄻ - ㅁ

ㄴ WINS!

ㄵ - ㄴ ㄶ - ㄴ

ㄹ WINS!

ㄽ - ㄹ ㄾ - ㄹ ㅀ - ㄹ ㄿ - ㄹ

Alright, did you get all that? I hope so because I have no other way of explaining this.

The End ... ?

Congratulations, or 축하해요! You made it this far. If you managed to get through that without a headache, I applaud you. As I stated in the beginning, trying to memorize/learn all of this in one go is motivation suicide. So, I really don’t recommend that you get stuck on this. Don't worry about it too much, you'll pick it all up eventually!

Also, there are a fewww more details when it comes to batchim, however I thought it would be better to save that for a Korean conjugation/present tense lesson instead, since I feel like it fits a bit better into the "curriculum" of my brain. The conjugation lesson would be devoid of linguistic terminology, but would still answer some questions some may have about it.

Well, until next time!

[sideblogofawriter]

First of all OP this is not against you in any way because I think you're largely correct. (Let me know if you want me to delete this because I did kind of hijack the post a bit.) And you absolutely don't have to justify choosing not to answer certain questions or types of questions. You make a good point about how things like seemingly worsening internet criticism feed into perfectionism and fears of failure. And while I do think AI is to blame for shortening attention spans and over-reliance, I don't necessarily think that's the case here... more in a bit.

I laughed at one of the asks in the linked post that said "what are vil's flaws if he has any" because what do you mean if he has any? Are we playing the same game? Asks for a list of basic character traits are also amusing because come on. If you didn't know their basic character traits, you wouldn't be interested in reading/writing about them, would you? Have more confidence in yourself.

But as a writer to writers: I get it. Especially when a character is your fave, you might have a tendency to woobify them, whether accidentally or not. It's not a bad thing to seek a second opinion or find a beta reader to keep you on track. That is a valid route to improvement. And it's logical to want said person to be someone you believe/know has a solid understanding of the characters. But a cold open with someone you don't know personally is a little awkward; I know I'd find it hard to advise without knowing more about both the topic and the writer.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that people aren't asking for summaries because of unwillingness to read a longer analysis (à la ChatGPT), but more out of respect for OP's time, and the mindset that "something is better than nothing". Though I can't speak for everyone, it's specifically because people sought someone relatively well-known for their writing/analysis that I daresay they're not looking for a "cheat sheet" but rather "insight". After all, there are bots that will write stories for you now, for those who don't understand the value of effort and quality attained over time. For those who do, just a tiny glimpse of someone else's perspective can spark something thought-provoking and lead you to conclusions you wouldn't have come to on your own. Of course, it's still up to each individual to decide what they're comfortable with answering/sharing, especially on a public platform.

However, there's a huge difference (in my opinion) between asking how a character acts and why a character acts. The former you can figure out by playing the game or finding the sources online who have translated/organized content. The latter, however, focuses on things that are shown rather than told. They're very open to interpretation based on educated guesses and personal experience.

Which leads me to my point: characters are flexible. People are flexible. "In-character" and "out-of-character" have wiggle room based on the situation at hand and how you perceive them. You might not agree with someone else's takes and they might not agree with yours. Chances are, whatever you're writing is not something that has happened canonically; therefore, no one other than the developers can tell you that's not how it goes.

I'm not saying OOC doesn't truly exist - if Leona cartwheels into class, you've gone too far. But have faith in your own interpretations. If you think it's reasonable that a character would act a certain way in whatever situation you've put them in, go for it. If it's a little bit of a stretch, but it makes for a good story, it's not the end of the world. It's nice to bounce ideas off people or get some validation (which I suspect is what some people are really after when they ask for someone else's thoughts, hoping they align with their own for a confidence boost). But if you can't, consider the fact that you actually care about what's OOC a sign that you're on the right track. We've all seen fics that grossly misinterpret characters based on surface-level characterization. An idea of what NOT to do and some basic character research, and you're probably good to go.

Hi! I'm trying to get into writing twst fanfiction, but I'm having some trouble with keeping the boys in-character. What do you think are their base traits? Like, what's the foundation of their personalities?

Hello! I spent a long time debating about whether to respond to this ask or not. Ultimately, a lot of the thoughts I would include in my response are the same as what I have already expressed here. However, I've noticed that this has become sort of a recurring issue, so I'd like to address this more seriously.

I've recently been getting a lot of people requesting that I basically tell them how to write the Twst characters. Tens and tens of them, in fact (too many to include all in one post). Sometimes it's an ask like, "please list out strengths/weaknesses or a summary of their character traits", and sometimes it's more specific like, "here is a prompt I am working on; how do you think [character] would act in this situation?" I'm NOT comfortable with either type of ask and refuse to answer asks of this nature.

I want to be clear: this is NOT the same as asking for general writing advice; this is literally just asking to be spoon-fed the answers. There is a difference between seeking advice on how to overcome writer's block or asking what are techniques to show, don't tell (which is general writing advice) versus asking someone to specifically instruct them on how to write Leona Kingscholar from the hit Disney mobile game Twisted Wonderland. The former is okay with me, while the latter is not.

While I am flattered that people care about my opinion and hold it in high regard, I am not here to be a cheat sheet, and nor are my opinions the "most correct". There is no single "correct" way to write a character, and even if there was, it's certainly not mine. Only the Twst devs themselves are the "most correct", as whatever they produce is what ends up as canon.

As I have said in my previous post on this topic, having someone else tell you how to write does little to help you. Writing is a skill, and skills are not inherent. They are something you train in, practice, and learn. Looking at a bunch of adjectives will not help you write or understand the characters any better than you currently do. If anything, it just means you don’t develop or practice your critical analysis skills. In a worse-case scenario, it devalues what a writer does, as it places the burden on them to condense what they know into a laundry list of characterization--as if it doesn't take us tons of time to hone those writing skills. The only real way to get the results you want is to do your own research, develop your own interpretations, and practice, practice, practice. There is no magic pill or shortcut or streamlining or easy way to do it and come out with a quality result. You have to be willing to put in the time and the effort to learn a skill, and that extends to writing, be it for this fandom, another fandom, or even for non-fandom writing. Think about it like this: when you're writing a good research paper, do you go and ask a single other source to gather all your data and summarize it for you? Of course not. You have to go out and manually collect the resources, do the reading, take notes, and gain an understanding of those resources. Then you use your newfound knowledge to summarize and to synthesize your own conclusions in your research paper. The same logic applies for writing in fandom.

I'm not sure why there is this sudden interest in shortcuts. Is it social media shortening our attention spans? Is it the rise of A.I. like ChatGPT making people more reliant on and more comfortable with summaries? Is it that people are concerned with nailing characterization or instant success the first time around? Is it that the internet's so much crueler with comments + feedback that we want to avoid OOC-ness as much as possible? Is it that I just so happen to like talking about character analysis so people think I must know everything? It could be any of these reasons or a combination of them--but whatever the reasoning is, it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It's concerning to me that it seems like people are becoming less and less interested in thinking for themselves and instead are increasingly reliant on others telling them how to create. You NEED to fail and get stuff wrong. You NEED to be able to have the courage to try things on your own. Don't be afraid of failure--failure isn't inherently a bad thing, it is how we learn, grow, and shape our own styles and ways of thinking! I definitely was not perfect when I first started out. I had to fail and stumble and struggle to get my craft to where it is today. So did every single one of your favorite creators. Artists had stick figures, writers had their first words. No artist or writer started off making masterpieces. Arguably, they still don't. Every creator is continuously learning and trying to improve their craft. It's not as though they hit perfection one day and decided to stay stagnant. I feel that it devalues what we make when we try to boil down all the skill we've developed into easy "answer keys" for others to digest. Again, you can ask all you want and seek out as many shortcuts as you like, but that's not going to be properly absorbed into your brain unless you walk the walk for yourself. You can't assume that learning these things will be as easy as reading a summary, memorizing a tutorial, figuring out what brush someone uses, etc.--it wasn't for the people you're asking for this advice from either. Failing is normal and expected. You will also never be able to create something that pleases everyone or something that everyone agrees with--so instead of trying to appeal to an unseen audience, please focus on creating what makes you happy. You have your own creative journeys ahead of you, so don't be scared to walk that road! It can be tough and you'll hit roadblocks and challenges--but overcome them, and you'll become even stronger and more skilled than you were before.

Best of luck!

[eftanz]

I never do this but

TF2 SNIPER × GN!PARTNER FREAKY HC

I apologize in advance for the terrible writing, normally I'm better but I'm falling in and out of consciousness

Mick Mundy hc under the cut 🙏

anyway!

- he lives in a camper van secluded from everyone else, his whole job is basically not contact if possible, and he doesn't often go out with people if it's his choice

- this guy is the definition of touch starved

- meaning Micks first time was TRAGIC

- he'd drawn it out with nervous foreplay in the back of his van (had no idea what he was doing), but the moment he actually slid it in?

- dead, done-for, he finished right there, hips stuttering and face flushing in pure embarrassment

- it took him days to get over it, he couldn't even look you in the eye

- after a while of casual on and off fucking, he learned a thing or two, and he was FAR more confident

- when I tell you this guy is a freak? He is a wild animal

- Feral as all hell, occasionally has a trigger word that sends him reeling

- Bites, whether on top or on the bottom doesn't matter, he puts those sharp canines to good use

- Likes to pretend he's hunting you, no explanation needed

- Back on the feral topic, he is out there groaning, growling, whining, drool dripping down his chin. Feral

- Scent play, likes to smell you, it turns him on. Whether that's you spritzing some of your scented cologne/perfume on his clothes before you leave for work, or just letting him stick his nose in the dip of your neck, it drives him MAD

- He will steal you from wherever you are if you tease him enough, he knows you two always have a private place in his camper

- Occasionally spies on you with his rifle scope, but he knows you know, that's why he does it

- normally quiet, but won't shut the fuck up when he's on top/below you. He knows you like the accent, and he knows how to rile you up

- anyway, after the fact, it's like all of the bat-shit crazy is wiped from his system because he just goes completely breathless

- wouldn't say he's the best at aftercare, but he knows what needs to be done

wahoo

[zephyrusswinds]

I saw you agreed with take on presents day take on macaque with shadowpeach

Question what you'd thoughts on it?

I am very curious

hello there! I am so, so sorry for the late answer, funnily enough, I was rewatching Season 5 when I saw your ask.

I am also going to apologize for if this post reads very rambly and doesn't make a ton of sense, I'm going off of what little energy I have left in me, ha! Do expect spelling/ grammar mistakes!

Anyways, I believe my reblog wasn't funny clear enough, as I don't fully agree with your post but I do agree with what I believe you were trying to say;

I believe that Macaque's victim complex either originates from trauma or insecurity. Now, Macaque is most certainly shown to be very aggressive when interacting with Wukong, and it feels like he just can't see him beyond the hurt Wukong caused.

I don't necessarily think that Macaque would always view himself in the right. But like, I don't think he'd ever admit that Wukong was right. Also, Wukong doesn't verbally admit he's wrong, like ever.

^ now, I am the 1# Wukong defender, so this isn't saying he's acting like he's right all the time. But Macaque does have an extremely fierce victim complex; even within season 5 when he has a much more "agreeable" personality he throws most of the blame on Wukong (regarding MK's origin and the very human- or monkey, I should say- mistakes that Wukong makes throughout the mentorship).

Macaque says something along the lines of; "That kid idolizes you, you're his literal hero, and you just-" (season 5, Ep 1). And there was a line before that which implies that Macaque viewed Wukong in a similar way to how MK views Wukong. He brushes too much of MK's pain onto Wukong when Macaque is the one who caused so much of it.

Tjis is also why I really hate most interpretations of their relationship- I hate Macaque as an individual but I ABSOLUTELY love the implications of his relationships with others.

Macaque makes Wukong feel like shit constantly, and I thank you for introducing this opinion into my ever-growing Shadowpeach analysis essay.

But it's important as well that Wukong and Macaque are very alike personality-wise, with Macaque packing a tea-spoon more-o-sass than Wukong. Wukong is more mature than Macaque because well... Wukong's been hurt by others in a different way.

so, it'd rather not go into detail on that part; as, I'm saving it for part 2 of my Lionpeach essay. To put it succintly, everybody put a halo on Wukong and shoved him into a position where he's at blame for everyone's fate. (blame the brotherhood)

And Macaque kind of settled into the position of shoving blame, faith, and the blindest of hope onto Wukong. If anything, he'd think it's right. Because it's Wukong- no, wait, The Great Sage, or just the Monkey King. It's only really in season 4 (the turning tides of their relationship) when Macaque consistantly calls Wukong by his name, which, is actually fascinating if you think about it.

Regardless, Macaque felt like he was being ignored (again, to be emphasized in the aforementioned Shadowpeach essay; coming out in the year of our lord, 20-twenty-qué sé yo), his constant yelling and pushiness feels like an attempt to make himself feel bigger.

perhaps he recognizes Wukong's emotional power over him and wants to shut him down? just a thought.

so, I don't fully understand some of the things stated in your original post? My grasp on the English language is a lot worse than it seems, so i've been trying my best to interperate what you were trying to say.

I apologize if this comes off as a bit rude, but would you mind clarifying what this part of your post says? "I can see macaque to access wukong of things,he never done in the relationship"

ANyways, I don't currently have anything to add, I'll make a follow-up post if I think of something new.

I am open to more discussion if you'd like to add on! I'd love to hear your opinions, as, shadowpeach is such a complext topic!

[sergle]

(re: sssniperwolf and jacksfilms) It's laughable that she escalated it that hard. Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure stalking him like that is illegal and it's terrifying regardless, but Jack said in a stream (can't remember which one) that he wasn't about bringing up past controversies of hers or cancelling. And now she shows up outside his house (wtf!!!). Like he was willing to only call her out for stealing and freebooting but she's gone and stalked him and Jack doesn't seem like the type of guy to take that shit. Actual WTF moment from her part. wild

omg long post below bc apparently I have opinions: YES!! THAT'S WHAT'S SO INCREDIBLE ABOUT THIS... Jack has been genuinely diligent about keeping things on-topic in his streams, and hasn't brought up any of her other Stuff, or anything Personal. Despite the fact that she kickstarted the whole thing by making it INCREDIBLY personal and attacking his physical appearance... His goal has been to call out and bring attention to content theft, and he's stuck with it. Dude's also cared about this for years, and she's not the first content thief he's criticized. He just hates the way that freebooting has become so accepted-- to the point where youtube praised her for "coming up with such creative video ideas"? Hey! Ew! Dude wasn't trying to get her cancelled though, there was no smear campaign of her character. He's been rallying to get her to CREDIT the creators that she relies on for all of her content. It would set a precedent for all other "react" channels on the platform for one of the biggest channels on youtube to actually give credit where credit is due. Or, god forbid, get permission first? It's not hard. It's already done the job of making some other people who do "react content" self-analyze whether or not their content is transformative, and to maybe care about crediting the creators they rely on for their genre to work. There is a way to make this kind of video that isn't so slimy. And making fun of her lackluster-at-best reactions is so far from even being a big deal. Bc she literally does just sit there and say nothing. Plus, his goal has a clear End built into it: if she started shouting out the creators she takes content from, and put links directly to their pages in her video descriptions, the job would be done! That's what he's asking her to do. Real bare minimum stuff. It legit would have been easy to steer away from the content theft and to also talk about her history of lying to her audience! her ghosting a dying kid with cancer who was a big fan of hers! the fact that she's been arrested for armed robbery! her history of transphobia! He would also get more clicks that way, which is what she claims is his sole goal- to get more clicks. I'll bring it up though! She's been a terrible person the whole time, and has kept a steady course of manipulating her audience of young children and/or, let's be completely honest, simps- into thinking that she's a Wholesome creator. (And now, into thinking she's an innocent victim.) All of the actual effort put in by her has gone toward optics, not the content she puts out. A carefully constructed online persona, for one, but also literal appearances. Jack totally can't say this, bc she already went off the handle and said the only reason he doesn't like her is bc he Hates To See A Woman Be Successful. But I can! That was a cheap shot for her to use that argument when, for once, it's not applicable! Much the opposite, even! Dudes online wouldn't go to bat for her if she didn't look the way she does. And it weakens any case she'd have against him by making baseless claims like that. She banks hugely on being an attractive woman to get her clicks/following. A massive amount of effort is put into her appearance. The makeup, the lip fillers, putting her hair in little pigtails, the chokers and tube tops, the big non-prescription Nerd Glasses, the thumbnails where she has her mouth open in That Expression?

I don't even have to say anything. But making a weird facial expression and putting your hair in pigtails aren't moral failings. Showing up at someone's real life home (whose address you shouldn't even have access to), filming the front of their house at night, doxxing them to your audience of millions of people? Because you were mad at them online? That is fully scary! Yeah girl I'm pretty sure that Jack can press charges! There is absolutely no way to take the moral highground now that she's literally stalked him, and doxxed his home. She tried to goad him and Erin (Jack's wife) out of the house, also, which creeps me out even more-- because what was she planning to do? The fact that she's been arrested for violent crime before does pop into my mind! lmao! Jack was streaming a game at the time that she was outside his home, and these clips of him, his friends, and Erin reacting in real time to what is genuinely a scary situation have been taken down in case he needs to use them in legal action. Shit is legitimately serious!

[letters-from-the-library]

Seconding this as a fellow academic librarian. And also adding that, as you get used to this process, it will become easier for you to recognize iffy-sounding rhetoric. A big part of this is considering audience and context.

When thinking about audience, consider who the information is targeted toward, why it is being targeted toward them, and what the cues are that indicate such. For example, a shady news story may be targeted toward people with an underlying ideology in order to cause fear and anger, rather than distributing facts. The cues may include using dehumanizing language, vague predictions and threats to well-being, and misleading statistics. ALWAYS look into statistics.

To my favorite topic: context. Information does not exist in a vacuum. A single fact is influenced by people, events, phenomenons, history... the list goes on. When evaluating sources and fact checking, you should be vigilant for over-simplification. A source that leaves out key information that is necessary to understand the complexity of a situation is suspicious. Of course, news agencies don't have the time or space necessary to give a fully complete backstory for each piece of news. That's what books and scholarly articles are for. The news is going to summarize where necessary. But summarizing isn't over-simplifying. I'm talking about egregious exclusion. Example: I recently taught a class session on misleading infographics. An article in a news source was published claiming that people got much lazier during the pandemic. A closer look revealed that their conclusions were drawn from Apple Maps usage dropping off sharply during the pandemic. What they didn't include, or didn't realize perhaps, was that people don't need to use Apple Maps as much when walking around their neighborhoods because we were all stuck at home.

I can give more examples. I can talk about context all day long. But you already have these skills. I'm not saying that you need to deep dive every single little thing, that's just burnout waiting to happen. But with practice, you'll be able to recognize fishy patterns and methods of misinformation, and develop quick skills for checking validity. You got this. And if you have questions, or need help finding an answer, my ask box is open.

Also, don't ask AI to factcheck for you, for a multitude of reasons. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

okay given how fucking weird and rapid-fire everything is (already, has been for ages) and to remind myself too: We Need To Learn To Fact Check.

i am talking about anything we see about trumps antics and I am talking about international news and I am talking about local news and I am talking about nearly everything in our lives. it is tiring, and takes more effort. but i think this is the only way we get thru the world right now, is by checking what we share however we can. it won't guarantee we are sharing only accurate info, but it DOES help us focus on sharing more accurate stuff and not buying into mis and disinfo.

Context/why i know this: im an academic librarian. I teach classes and do research on misinformation and media literacy among other topics, and i teach about authority of information and finding and evaluating info all the time. when I teach people to evaluate information i use Mike Caulfield's SIFT method, which is great and adaptable, and consists of these four moves:

STOP. this is the most important one. it just means: take two seconds before you click reblog or share smth. ask yourself: what is my emotional reaction to this content? what does it want me to do with this post or information?

do I know this is true - bc I've already checked into it before or I know something related to it that corroborates it - or am I far enough removed from the situation that I don't really know? for ex: I know gazans fundraise on tumblr bc i have tunblr, and that conditions in gaza are awful bc of both user posts and news coverage I've seen. I don't have tiktok or see much from it that isnt reposted, so I paused more before sharing that last post bc im less aware of the cjrcumstances.

INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE. where did this come from and do I know that source of information? can i identify the author not just the website it was shared from? what position is this person in to know what's going on? they might have expertise, education, a job, they might also just be in a place where things are happening (ukraine, gaza, los angeles, etc) or have access to a place where things are happening (tiktok, for ex).

FIND ADDITIONAL COVERAGE. if this is the only place you've heard about an event or statement, look and see if there are others reporting on it. sometimes you are looking for broad coverage (lots and lots of reporters and civilians have reported on the conditions in Gaza independently) and sometimes for very specific coverage (i wanted to see more than one screenshot of the TikTok ban msg before I believed it was real), but what you really want is to see if others are talking about and reporting on something.

this is called lateral reading btw and it's a really critical piece of fact checking.

TRACE CLAIMS TO THEIR SOURCE. who was the first to say this? where did they say it? was it misinterpreted along the way? the internet is a giant game of telephone and messages get distorted. this one is particularly important if you're not finding additional coverage AND/OR if the coverage is all weirdly samey.

highly specific example here: in 2020 there was a brief time when ppl were saying that ibuprofen was dangerous for covid and could heighten your risk. i am ibuprofens georg and I was on it 2x/day high dose at the time, so this could be a problem for me. so I started citations tracing - following citations and references and news posts and academic preprints. and finally found a brief and uncited Twitter post from a French health minister that appeared to be the original source, and along the way I found NO other corroborating info that wasn't citing that specific quote in the end. and thus. I took my ibuprofen.

this part takes time and effort more than anything else, but it's also often illuminating. I dont always go all the way to TRACE. but I have that move in my pocket for when I need to. it is very similar to a wikipedia rabbit hole where you start somewhere and end somewhere very different - but if you looked at your browser history you'd see all the pages you clicked to get there.

thats SIFT! you don't have to do each move for every post u see. if you take anything as a habit, start from the top and just STOP for a second before you share or repeat something wild. ask yourself about it a little. this is what i consider the most vital step, and it makes it easier to do the others in time.

we can't know everything. we will sometimes share misinformation by accident. we will sometimes share malicious disinformation by accident too. but I think we owe it to ourselves to try and build these habits, and it makes it a little harder for the people in power to convince us of whatever they want this week. it makes us more skeptical and more informed. these are always relevant skills and they're more and more important every day.

[dariusaurs]

i think dinostar is such an interesting ship right now even if i've kind of turned away from it after this season. the problem is that it's complicated, and fandoms historically don't like nuanced situations or takes. i don't think it's fair to say darius is putting brooklynn on a pedestal, since from his perspective, she hasn't done anything wrong, and kenji has been framed as this unfair partner to her. it does feel like his feelings are very immature and more of an infatuation right now ("if he loved you half as much.."/"unless?"), especially when you compare them to kenji's own feelings for brooklynn - his girlfriend who he's loved for 6 years - but that isn't a horrible thing, it's just different. i do completely understand if people dislike the ship right now, and even criticize darius' way of handling the accidental confession, but i just think people have been way too harsh on all three of them without being willing to see that all of their perspectives are different

[alongtidesoflight]

so here's my honest thoughts on dragon age: the veilguard, after ~40 hours of playing. i finished the main quest after having finished all companion quests and major faction quests. just to clear up what content i saw, i played as an elven transmasc rook who is a member of the lords of fortune. he romanced lucanis (although after finishing the game i'm now leaning towards taash). i don't know what's happening in playthroughs that have a different race, gender identity, romance or faction going on.

full spoilers ahead, i mean it. don't read further if you want to avoid them. i don't want complaining about it in my asks.

oh and also, if you're worried because of a few negative reviews online i can comfort you by saying don't give a fuck about a certain big name youtuber who is very much tied to bethesda franchises giving this a negative review. i'll explain why.

i'm starting off with the things i liked

the game looks really pretty. i was worried it wouldn't feel like thedas anymore (with them trying to "focus on northern thedas only" i thought they'd make a clear cut in environmental design. they do and they don't. it's complicated. i'll elaborate on it when talking about the negative stuff). anyway it does. minrathous feels like kirkwall. treviso enchanted me like the winter palace did. the hossberg wetlands reminded me of the hinterlands and a couple other inquisition maps. arlathan looked like... arlathan. the crossroads were different, but familiar. overall i like the way it looks and feels. it's thedas, with a twist. it's a good one, and gives everything a solid but unique feel.

combat is top tier. if you're a hardcore dragon age player you WILL miss the tactical aspect of it for a bit, but i promise you, once you're used to the way the combat works, you will be lapping that shit up. and once you get to ability combos you'll mourn the control you used to have over your companions in battle a bit less

the MAIN quest and its story. i expected worse, way worse. and for a while the game even had me tricked (harr harr you'll get it in a second) it is Really That Much Worse. but holy shit was it good. i walked away satisfied ngl.

your choices have SOLID weight. there's consequences, good AND bad. i got minrathous blighted, ruled over by venatori, and the leader of the shadow dragons ultimately died because of my decisions. i made those at the beginning and throughout the game. he died at the end. DAVRIN died because i didn't expect what i was saying to have that much weight. i thought i was in the clear. he had hero status. well turns out, your choices can still get your companions killed even if you do everything right. i fucking love him. he shouldn't have made that sacrifice just because i told him to do everything it takes once.

the inquisitor, morrigan and dorian being there, surprisingly. there's also negatives to this though, see below.

speaking of companions dying and the inquisitor playing a bigger role: the final quest feels like me2's suicide mission. i was blown away by it and the fact that i got to see the results of all my efforts playing out in front of me.

bioware are NOT trying to redeem solas. they love him as a character yes, but i wasn't forced to see any good in him. he betrays you. he fucked my rook over twice. he fucked him over right back, for good this time (the veil wasn't torn down, i anchored it by binding him to it, he's doomed to uphold it). but solas really lives up to his name as the trickster elven god. rip to all the people who grew really attached to him over the years.

varric died. if you like him that's probably as hard reading it as it was watching it. varric died and the game lies about it until the very end. when the realisation hits, it hurts. but in the very best way.

the amount of care they put into gender expression and trans identities this time around. (i'll add onto this with negative points as well too).

rook feels very much ingrained in the world of thedas. he doesn't ask questions that expose the player to lore through dialogue as if he's stepped foot into thedas for the first time. those conversations feel very solid and good. i hope other faction players got as much joy out of this as i did.

and the things i didn't like and boy there's a lot unfortunately

the music. let's just get that out of the way holy shit. it doesn't feel like it belongs in this universe. it gets so incredibly sci-fi-y at times you'd think it's taken straight from mass effect andromeda. there's not a single song unique to veilguard that i really enjoyed. it broke my immersion, real bad. hearing a busker play the tavern songs from inquisition on a lute right after i killed some venatori with wobbly bass songs playing in the background is just odd. weird tonal shift. don't like it. it's made for people who like flashy light-weight cinema.

tevinter nights is required reading. the podcasts are required listening exercises. the game is so fast paced, especially at the start, that there's no time to introduce you to characters and how much weight their names carry in-game. i would not have known who half these people are if i hadn't skimmed over tevinter nights. i'd care even less about them than i already did. there is no time to get properly attached to them. people will act as if you're talking to a legend personified and you'll be thinking man goddamn which chapter of tevinter night were they in again and what did they do???

there's a weird mismatch with the animations. you'll have beautifully fluid ones, like emmrich casting spells. and then you'll have rook's face animating in the most unnatural manner that's sorta reminiscent of mass effect andromeda's "my face is tired" addison, when their emotions SHOULD be landing with the player rn instead.

i'm not vibing with the art style. sometimes it works. most of the time it doesn't. at points i felt like i was watching tangled.

that also brings me to some of the dialogue. same issue. i am watching frozen. i am watching tangled. someone on the writer's team really likes the adorkable trope. bellara is its victim.

for all the talk about identity, bioware sure doesn't like theirs. the grey warden armor got a redesign again and it just makes them look like a generic army. i hate it lol

in general, i don't like the armor design. the wardrobe/appearances system is fine, but it's just not helping if all the armors are just... kinda bland or downight bad looking? and don't get me started on the lords of fortune armor. that is orientalism personified.

the world states should have been carried over, full stop. i know they said they didn't because they want to separate what happens in the north from what happens in the south, which... i could have lived with that. but the inquisitor sends you letters that keep you up to date on... the south of thedas. you learn that there's a blight again, that people are standing strong but it's difficult, denerim's fallen, the rulers are taking care of it, orlais is fighting and they're successful for a while, etc etc. what's good bioware. i thought we don't care about the south this time around. why are you feeding me so much boring generic information. if you're not gonna show any of it and just write letters, then carrying the world state over should not have been an issue. i have a game dev background. those few lines of code would not have broken your budget or pushed your engine's limits. fuck right off.

this gripe of mine carries over to all the cameos. as a lord of fortune you have to deal with isabela a lot. it's fun. i missed her. you get to go drinking with her and taash and bellara! also my hawke romanced her. she's not mentioned once. they had the opportunity to put a sentence or two about her in there with not a lot of effort, trust me.

when varric dies, all she has is a single line about it. for gold, for fortune, for varric. she only says it if you interact with her on your way to the final push. that's not mandatory.

morrigan is there. kieran isn't. the old god soul that mythal and then solas absorbed? who cares at this point, the gods are dead now and solas is locked away for eternity. i suppose? why is morrigan there. she feels unneeded. i wish they'd just left her down south, at least that way i wouldn't have had to witness her god awful redesign.

dorian at least feels as if he belongs in this story. the shadow dragons are a crucial part to protecting minrathous. he's also weirdly underutilised. isabela and morrigan had more lines than him in my playthrough.

on the topic of romance: bro that was underwhelming. no, genuinely. you know when romance picked up a bit? after the point of no return. i heard maybe two lines of companion banter about it before that. maybe i missed something which i honestly doubt, but romance did not play much of a role in lucanis's storyline. i saved his grandmother as he wished me to (and if you read tevinter nights you know she was rather abusive and their relationship not the healthiest) and told him to focus on his family. a reunified family my rook wasn't even introduced to as a partner at the end of all that.

really, do not buy this game if you're only in it for the romances. others might be better, lucanis's basically gave me nothing. except for an outing (the second coffee date i had with him, it was getting repetitive) all of it played out once i committed to the final quest. the sex scene was a fade to black. annoyingly right after davrin died. if you're looking for well paced and good spice, pick up something else. the sweet talk and the final goodbye were nice though.

for all the good the ever-presence of gender identity does, it is brought up in such a disruptive manner too. it doesn't even play out naturally if you CHOOSE the lines that are meant to be said. hearing the words trans and non-binary in this setting doesn't feel right, and i'm saying this as a trans guy. i think it could have been handled more gracefully. the amount of times my rook went "i'm a MAN" as if he's about to start drumming on his chest and roaring any second now got super nerve-grating. "i'm so glad you're into me... the me who is trans. remember?" just. tell me one trans person who'd talk like that to a person they've grown close with and are trying to romance. this game doesn't handle sexuality well, so all this hey my body might not look like the way you're expecting it to look talk amounts to nothing anyway. i feel about this the way i feel about krem: this is partial exposition to trans experiences... packaged up for cis consumption. the ONLY exception to that is interacting with taash. holy shit was all of that heartwarming and bro did it feel good and natural to talk to them about theirs and rook's gender.

rivain and nevarra are new locations added by veilguard. they're also incredibly underwhelming, small and constricted maps. rivain is a coastline with a few ruins. the hall of valor is a partial ruin nestled into a cave on a beach, with a fighting pit. isabela is there in her skimpy outfit commentating your pit fights. that's it. i'm sorry if you were looking for a bustling pirate cove or whatever. you're not gonna get it. the nevarran crypts btw are a long ass dungeon crawl. that's it.

speaking of maps. i thought people were being dramatic when they said you're gonna be fighting the same enemies on them again and again. i thought they were figure of speeching it. they're not. you WILL fight the same amount of enemies. in the same spot. every time you reload the map. best to stay on a map and clear out the enemies and do as much questing on that map as you can before leaving, because you WILL have to do it all over again once you return.

the three choices i made for my inquisitor didn't matter lol she didn't have to face solas and therefore couldn't stop him at any cost as she had sworn (maybe because my rook tricked solas into binding himself to the veil, there was also an option to fight him. would she have stepped in? who knows). blackwall wasn't mentioned. and either her using a small amount of her forces in the final fight was the reason the civilians of minrathous fared so well..... or it just didn't matter. ultimately i think she had very little impact on anything

[amplexadversary]

I've been saying this for over a decade, in particular about the classic ghostbusters.

I can tell Winston apart from the other three, 'cause he's black, but even he looks a LOT like the rest of the Ghostbusters in terms of being Hollywood Handsome, the prescription mens' short hair, and similar body types.

Like. If you're going to be putting your characters in a baggy uniform, you need to break up their silhouettes more or give them different hair colors. Get some guys in with more drastically different builds, someone with longer hair, someone really tall, someone really short, get the bespectacled guy some darker frames, please, anything.

I could *not* follow the original ghostbusters when I first tried to watch it because I could not differentiate between 3/4 of the main cast. Controversial opinion, but even for all its script failings, I still think the 2016 reboot is a better film for the casting and character styling alone. I was not confusing any of those women with each other! I could understand what was going on!

I know I’ve spoken about it before but I think I have a form of face blindness that makes it impossible to tell apart conventionally “attractive” white men beyween the ages of 25 and 45 and it makes it really difficult to watch movies sometimes.

[icewindandboringhorror]

I've referenced before how I have a big google document to keep track of every media I've ever seen in my entire life (just for reference because I like to track everything possible lol… I am the Data Collector), but recently as I was updating it, I thought of actually evaluating them to find out random percentages (like for example, out of Total Shows Watched, what percentage did I finish vs. stop watching, what percentage did I like or dislike, etc.)...

Evaluating these things is made easier by the fact that I already place everything on each subsection of the list into 6 broad ranking categories, so I don't have to go back and guess to figure out how I feel about them or anything. The categories are: Ranking 5 - overall best* (despite some criticisms of course because I'm too much of an Analyzer to ever find anything Perfect lol) Ranking 4 - more positive than neutral, but not good enough to be 5 Ranking 3 - either the good + bad negate each other, OR it's just not memorable/interesting in any way enough to be ranked higher or lower (this is the Default category ALL things are placed in if no other rank applies) Ranking 2 - maybe a few redeemable elements but largely more negatives than positives Ranking 1 - So bad that it circles around to being fascinating to observe in some way (not necessarily Funny, or Good, but just interesting somehow) Ranking 0 - Bad in a genuinely frustrating or obnoxious manner

*("best" primarily defined here as most interesting, rather than most good in a technical sense, or some other measure. I tend to value more highly whether there's something novel or thoughtful about the worldbuilding, tone, writing, base premise, etc - than about whether it's actually executed perfectly.)

And here's the amount of shows that have so far been placed into each category -

TV shows ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 20 shows ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 28 shows ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 114 shows ~ Rank 2 (mid low) -33 shows ~ Rank 1 (low low but intriguingly so) - 14 shows ~ Rank 0 (iredeemably low) - 2 shows

This would make for a total of 211 TV shows overall. However, there are 57 shows within these list marked as "didn't finish" (typically meaning I quit on the very first or second episode - but log them still to keep a record that I at least had a brief view of them).

So my total of genuinely fully watched shows would be more 154. 211 Total, but a More Accurate Total of 154.

Counting them all and using the Total Number Of The List (211) -- that means roughly 9.5% of all total shows I have ever watched (or at least attempted to watch) have been Mostly Good, 13% have been Moderately Okay, 54% have been either entirely Forgettable or some mix of good + bad that lands them right in the Neutral Middle, 15.6% have been Mostly Bad, 6.6% have been Bad (but in an interesting way), and 0.9% have been Terribly Bad.

Additionally, I didn't even get past the first two episodes of about 27% of the total.

Sooo, discounting ones I didn't finish, my total TV shows ever watched in my life would be about 154 (maybe give or take a few, assuming I might have forgotten some from very long ago).

But instead of entire life, let's just say this is the total for 'About 20 Years' (so, not counting very early childhood when I likely wouldn't remember things I saw/have no detailed recollection of them (like for example, I'm sure at some point when I was like 4yrs old I must have seen an episode of Spongebob or something, but I have zero distinct memories of it, can't quote anything of it, and barely recall the premise - so I don't count it on the list, etc.)).

In that case, 154 divided by 20 would be roughly 7.7 shows a year.

Which is actually surprisingly low considering that I often have stuff on in the background for hours whilst I make sculptures and do costumes and stuff (maybe I should have also marked some distinction between 'things I fully paid attention to' and 'things I kind of half listened to whilst sculpting', but that would further split the categories too much probably lol), but I guess a lot of that is youtube videos or random documentaries, so .. eh.. maybe I get it being lower.

Now, doing the same thing for movies-

Movies ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 4 movies (3.4% of total) ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 12 movies (10.3% of total) ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 91 movies (78.4% of total) ~ Rank 2 (mid low) - 8 movies (6.8% of total) ~ Rank 1 (low but interesting) - 1 movie (0.8% of total) ~ Rank 0 (irredeemably low) - none in this category (0%)

That makes 116 for a Total (Actually Remembered) Movies Watched In Lifetime (Or At Least In 20 Years).

116 divided by 20 is roughly 5 or 6 movies a year (I feel this has probably been skewed though by adding everything since like elementary school onwards, as I remember a lot more movies from child/teen years.. Whereas, the past 3 years I feel like I've barely seen maybe even 5 movies?? lol). I also have "Didn't Finish" marked on 18 of them. Which means I quit halfway through about 15% of the total movies.

So, a for broader summary stuff..

I seem to be less forgiving to movies than tv shows, by far. Which makes sense to me, I guess, because I love elaboration and details, so "short form" things that only last an hour or two are often lost on me a bit. My biggest complaint with movies is indeed usually walking away just wishing there had been more exposition, more scenes where characters are doing nothing, more "mindless bantering" conversations, more Quiet Downtime and Lore Elaboration and so on lol, so... of course most 1-2hr films end up feeling a bit Not Enough To Draw My Interest/Nothingy to me.

If you count 5 and 4 as "like" and rankings 2 to 0 as "dislike", then for TV shows I at least somewhat liked 48 of them, and at least somewhat disliked 47 of them.. So it's almost exactly the same lol. I'm just about equally as likely to find something bad as I am to find something redeeming about it. But overall, the largest chance is that I just won't really care much for it at all and it will be tossed into the 'neutral' pile, forgotten forever. Movies have a bit better of a balance, "liking" 16 of them, and "disliking" only 9 of them. So I'm slightly more likely to enjoy a movie than to find it annoying - though still VASTLY more likely to just not find it anything in particular, possibly not even finishing it.

ANYWAY.. this is vague and literally pointless, but like I said, I just really find information fun. Like my document where I've rated every apple flavor I've ever tried (like 40 of them now?), or reviewed every oreo flavor (32?), or ranking data from my entire 10 years of Trying To Make Friends process (out of 100 people, roughly 8% chance of a moderate compatibility, 3% chance of high), or etc. etc.. I love to have random pointless things to analyze I suppose lol.

I doubt anyone tracks things in their life in this same exact way, but I'd be interested in hearing any at least somewhat similar data !!! (like, how many TV shows you watch a year on average, and what percentage of those you like vs. dislike (if you keep track of that sort of thing), etc.)). I guess it might be easier with movies, since I think some people use those websites where you curate a list of movies you've seen and you can rate them or something, so maybe the numbers are already available on those places. :0

[milfbrainrot]

i feel like i type so much more than is reasonable when i do talk to people but i also don't get to socialize a ton so i just have soooo many words in me and if i'm like, tired or short on time, it is so much harder to restrain to the already-pushing-it point i can sometimes manage ;-;