#thats a really really short timeframe!

[nightmare-foundation]

First. I must say, thank you for being an ozpin apologist.

What makes you dislike the Academies so much? Other than maybe the age. Actually how does the system even work? I never cared much for the rwby side stuff (only recently watched the vid on the great war & a reading of The Infinite Man), so if it's mentioned there I wouldnt know. Is it just Combat School-> Huntsman Academy, or is there more to it?

I don't actually dislike the Academies, but a lot of people do. I see them as a neutral/morally gray sort of thing.

In general, how the Huntsman system works seems to be you start training from a young age and then you get into one of the four Academies. A lot of stuff on how it works isn't very clear? But Combat School isn't a requirement to get into the Academies (Jaune and Blake got into Beacon without going into Combat Schools), though it seems to be the most normal, possibly the safest way to train and get into the Academies.

I think an issue is how young people typically start training, which seems to be... 10-13 years old if I had to hazard a guess? Though this doesn't seem to be required either (Jaune got in with no training, and learned quickly, but this doesn't seem to be normal) I don't think, just the norm. It's also unclear if 17 years old is the required age to get into a Huntsman Academy, or if 17 is just the minimum required age with the occasional outlier (i.e. Ruby getting in at 15). I'd say it's more likely 17 is just the minimum required age, since it'd be kinda stupid to not allow people to join based on age lol.

Its also unclear to me if getting into the Huntsman Academies is the ONLY way to become a Hunter. Overall I'd say the Academies are comparable to college, with it being the norm to train from a young age and then get into one of the 4 Academies at 17 at the youngest.

The Academies, to me, also seem to be pretty safe for what they do. No required waivers to get in (waivers, iirc, being legal documents to keep an organization or person from being sued), lots of safety measurements (the cameras in the Emerald Forest and the likelihood of the teachers intervening during initiation and training missions), plus legal processes (Ozpin interviewing teams CVFY and RWBY individually for example, and iirc says that certain things have to happen and if things go wrong he and Glynda are held responsible, etc). It's definitely not foolproof, given the plotline of Hazel's sister, Gretchen, dying during a training mission, but these moments of things going wrong are treated as unusual.

In my opinion, the Academies are definitely necessary on paper. The actual system itself is flawed, and each Academy has their own separate issues given they work independently, but overall the Huntsman Academies aren't as evil as people make them out to be. People are going to have to learn to fight Grimm, considering they're an existential threat, and it was already common to learn how to fight them before; the Academies just centralize the learning and makes it safer to do so, and also offers the necessary resources to learn and make weapons. It's safe to assume that before it was learn to fight Grimm or die, for the most part.

The Academies also help to make non-huntsmen feel safer, since Hunters can also be hired help, and there's lots of Hunters being pumped out every year. People can be protected, or they can learn to fight, where that might not've been an option before.

The Academies DO have flaws, don't get me wrong, but I believe those flaws tend to be intrinsic to the kingdoms themselves rather than always being a flaw of the entire system itself. The episode that reveals Cinders backstory is criticizing Atlas itself, since Rhodes is, presumably, an Atlesian Huntsman and pressures her not to fight her literal slave owners (and this episode is in the Atlas arc, which basically repeats "Atlas fucking sucks" to you a billion different times). Not only that, but Atlas Academy is also pretty tied to the Atlas military, and also doesn't typically let faunus in. These are pretty uniquely Atlas issues, given the other kingdoms don't have militaries and the other kingdoms also let in faunus, including the very anti-faunus kingdom of Mistral.

So the Academies don't all share the same issues, which is pretty clear since Beacon is seemingly the most progressive of the Academies (though still deals with anti-faunus bullying, but Cardin and his team are the only examples and were only seen in v1, so we don't know how common that is either). The criticisms of the Academies are all very region-based so far, and that's the legitimate criticisms (I'm still not sure where people got the impression that students regularly die in the Academies, since there's nothing even implying that).

Basically my opinions of the Academies are that they're more or less necessary, though they do have problems that vary from Academy to Academy (forgot to mention- Shade seems very ableist and strength-based, which is a very Vacuo-unique issue that the other Academies don't deal with). I'd argue the biggest issues lie with the Combat Schools, given how young students start training, though the Combat Schools aren't required.

Otherwise, the Academies lie in a gray area. The people on Remnant don't live like we do; they're in a perpetually post-apocalyptic world with monsters as an existential and very real threat. Even if you don't have any Huntsman relatives, it's still very likely you've either lost someone to the Grimm, or know someone who did. They're a constant threat unless you live a very privileged life, and even then, they can still be a threat. Fighting is a very normal and necessary thing in the world of Remnant, and is pretty much baked into the world's cultures. Civilization being destroyed is a very real threat, and a constant one, and the population on Remnant is much lower than here, IRL. So something like the Academies are genuinely necessary there, whereas it wouldn't be here.

Its a very complicated and nuanced thing lol. People have a hard time really believing that the Academies lie in a gray area, rather than being completely 100% evil and unnecessary. They're very necessary, and have flaws. The only way you can believe they aren't necessary is if you think the Grimm are somehow secretly Not That Bad. Dunno, it's complicated lol.

[sanctifiedtongues]

i think subconsciously i always knew i didnt want to move to nyc though like The Fantasy is always appealing but reading the words 'trailer park-themed bar in chelsea' in this book solidified that further

[pioussoup]

ILLITERATE MINERS?!!?!!

heyyyyy so y'know in the opening scene isn't it INTERESTING that Orion Pax ONLY takes the audiovisual chips??? Like he barely looked at the datapads and even then it didn't seemed like he was reading titles just looking between for the chips. EVEN THOUGH HE KNOWS HE HAS TO BE SNEAKY AND QUIET???? sure maybe MAYBE the flying droid is like a new addition but STILL.

Why go for the ONE material that would be so harddd to be stealthy in? He also has watched like apparently 90% of the fucking chips already.

If you say it's because hes in low light. Hes a miner bot that can spot the lasers. Yes he uses a headlight but like c'mon he got to have SOME stronger nightvision-thats-not-outright-nightvision. (just realised; he knows to be sneaky enough to NOT activate his headlight even when it could help look around. So he's not being stupid he KNOWS what hes doing.)

'Maybe he's read all of them?' in the history section? with a 50 cycles timeframe (however the fuck long is that supposed to be LMAO)? thats he quite most likely is online for a fraction of. Even if he was one of the first generations of cogless bots to be miners (doubt) there would STILL need to be time taken for him to be 'fuck it im just gonna break in the archives.' plus he also had to find the section in the first place. Sentinel definitelyyy placed/moved it in a hard to find & reach area even for bots with legal access and cogs. Orion Pax is many things but for TFO he aint clearing that section in time (TFP might though lol).

'It's to set a fast paced opening and provide a suitable setting for exposition without having to resort to narration. Also avoids overwhelming the possible new fans audience with walls of Cybetronian of the bat' Correct

'He chose the fastest option' Well I mean he could just ctrl + F 'Matrix of Leadership'. No but really he could try to speed read as best he could. Or like. steal 'em. I mean just look at the state of it. WHY is some chips just stacked besides horizontally stacked datapads (when every other shelf has the vertically placed). No separate holder?? that can clearly indicate what the chips are + what they include neatly?? Alpha Trion weeps from beneath the boulders and its not for his fellow Primes I tell ya'. But yeah if he can be sneak in & sneak out (again hes not dumb dumb just reckless BUT get him locked in and he can totally do it. He didn't cause the intial cave-in after all) he could totally steal a couple pads and have some time to go through (he does it all in times in fanfics!) before getting caught. Actually they (& by extension Senti) probably wouldn't care, its ALL heavily edited and curated after all.

'He could navigate the map' as a miner he definitely needs some good practical skills, navigation being one of 'em. Also like as I far as I saw there were hardly words; just coordinates and stuff (okay i am negative in geography and tech so this section might sound stupid but STILL HEAR ME OUT). They kinda NEED to be number literate but do they really need to be reading?

I have thoughts on TFO caste system (specifically uh how the fuck could it come to be, what exactly are the cogged doing for those not in on it because there were definitely more of those in the know [its not Darkwing], where the fuck are the new cogless coming from, how did a cogless become a DOCTOR FOR COGGEDS???) but wouldn't it make sense for Sentinel to take even their ability to read while he's at it? It's trouble enough to keep the cogged in belief while keeping up the Archive no need for snoopy miners to get a chance to spot any discrepancies.

'Doctor Ratchet' He's usually characterized as an older mech so maybe the earlier cogless gens still could read shrugs. I mean Sentinel could very be going through a learning process lmao a fraction being able to read is probably small fry especially considering the no doubt short lifecycle cogless miners can have. Hell its likely that most of the older gens are kapoosh (possible character motivation for Ratchet to go doctor nyeah? nnyeahh?).

And yeah I fully believe Orion to be more a recent cogless gen. Not NEW NEW and while I hc'ed it is so, he doesn't have to be the youngest. He knows his way through Iacon (from sneaking in to the archives to the hidden pathways), has a sure enough skill and confidence to mining, knows the protocol just doesn't follow it lmao. But he also has the energy to strive for something more, something better. I'm not saying old peeps cant be active but not once does Pax ever seem defeated by the system or relents at ALL, even when it would save his hide. If he WAS an older gen his opposition would be tinged with just a bit spite of exaperation I feel like. Like it would be 'I'm too old for this, they deserve better than this' kind of rebel while movie I see more as 'WE can be more than this, there IS more to US' which I feel like is an energy more to younger gens ya get me?

(ALSO COUGH I KNOW I KNOW ITS A BLUNDER AND COST SAVING BUT! BUT!! D-16 BEING LIKE IDK TIER 6 OR WHATEVER WHEN HE FIRST MET ORION!! IM JUST SAYING HE WOULD JUST BE DUMB AND SAY "WHATS A MINING". NOT EVEN FOR DPAX REASONS HE'S A FANBOYY. A FANBOYYYYY THATS PASTING A WHOLE ASS POSTER WHEN AS A COGLESS MINER HE DOESNT HAVE MUCH!!!!! ON THE ONE AND ONLY BERTH THAT HE EVER COULD HAVE!!THAT MECH IS FUMBLING ALL HIS SOCIAL INTERACTIONS!! ACTUALLY JUST THE FACT THAT HE HAS A WHOLE ASS POSTER OF MEGATRONUS PRIME KINDA INDICATES THAT HE'S PROBABLYY OLDER THAN ORION PAX BY HOWEVER MUCH.EVEN IF NOT ALL COGLESS IMMEDIATELY GO INTO MINING GETTING A POSTER! IS VERY HARD! EVEN FOR PEEPS WITH NON-SLAVE WAGES & HOURS. LIKE ORION PAX IS ALREADY HANDLING EQUIPMENT HE MIGHT NOT HAVE MUCH SHIT FOR HIS SLAB LMAO ALREADY DONE MOVING IN.)

So anyways this was a long way to say that the Autobot government is run by a mech who can't read. OR if the matrix literates the guy well he just made someone who maybbee at best might have some lower grade level reading skill as COMMANDER. AND ALSO HAS TO DEAL WITH A NATIONWIDE LITERACY CRISIS. I guess he could just make a literacy package file and Apple Drop it or some shit lolololol.

On the flipside the Decepticons are lead by someone who can't read and DOESN'T have a deus ex machina to give him literacy sooo. Soundwave is going to be in a loooongggg ride LMAO.

Edit: "I've read all about you [Elite High Guard] in the Archives" OKAY OKAY OKAY I MIGHT BE SPITBALLING BUT MAYBE MAYBEEEE HE STILL MEANT 'went through every audiobook with & without visuals' or like he read all the baby books about the HG. I mean despite them being possibly the second next famous celebrities after the Primes; Sentinel makes sure to AVOID MENTIONING them AT ALL. Iacon 5000 only commemorated the Primes but the HG? Pshawww who gives a shit except that yellow one who's conveniently already in the literal dumps.

Okay but really they were definitelyyy worth a mention. (cough especially since Skyfire exists cough unless this is a TFA sorta instance where it's a completely different fucking mech cough oohh noo guess we will never know unless TF2 happens wink wink winkwonkwiwkhwkiwsjsk)

I've mentioned Sentinel absolutely curating the Archives and I'm just saying maybee out of spite and because unlike the Primes he can totally go with it; the only thing left/accessible about the HG is baby books. I mean sure the only hate we've seen him directly channel is towards the Primes BUT THAT'S IT!! Though he spouts making the truth as he wishes of it he STILL has to praise the Primes and shit even after the Betrayal. Not even he can erase or even twist their influence.

But the HG? Oh maybe he doesn't particularly hate them beyond being a nuisance to his plans but it's still an outlet. Of course he still can't demean even them in any public away but he can certainly diminishes them. Besides it would definitely grind Screamer's gears when he realises his only legacy in Iacon is fucking sparkling stories that still focuses more on the Primes LMAO.

Plus B-127 is DEFINITELY the kind of mech to go crazy about these cool ass warriors from a kids book. I'm not super into infantalizing TFO Bee but he is still a mech of whimsy & fantasy. Also sneeze maybe it was someone's gift to him whether out of mockery or genuine generosity but however it was the stories were the one of the few things if not the only thing that followed him down in the dumpsters. Or salvageable trashed datapads happened to be of the HG greatest stories and shit that too.

(also yes I am a 'B-127 is one of the older generation of cogless if not the first' truther and I will DIE ON THAT HILL)

Oreon Pix also managing to read all the baby stories on the HG can still work; even his entire generation was illiterate he would definitely try his darnedest to read SOMETHING and would at least achieve youngling level lol. I know I know I've been using his case for this entirety but bear with me. Ori is probably self aware of his low skill or at the very least had taken a peek at the datapads and realise he don't understand a goddamn thing (it's the history section). Knowing he don't got much time per intrusion he bit the bullet and risked it with the chips since he was going to get caught at some point might as well have gotten some progress.

[transfemkaladin]

final thoughts on wind and truth:

it was kind of mid. like it was Fine but it felt a lot weaker than the others yaknow

i like adolin, okay? i like shallan as well. i like them a LOT. but their povs (also jasnah’s and dalinar’s) just kind of. dragged a little for me?

kaladins therapist arc was fun (he gave therapy to a talking sword. on ACCIDENT. that’s fucking hilarious) but felt a little unsatisfying. the whole time he was talking with szeth i felt frustrated bc like. idk

and don’t even get me STARTED on the “‘no,’ kaladin said. ‘im his therapist’” line. that bit was ASS. it broke the tone and tension of the scene unnecessarily, in a way that hindered rather than enhanced the storytelling, and for what. an unfunny joke.

by the way. for a book that was theoretically supposed to focus on szeth i really wish it had done more of that. yeah he got more pov chapters and stuff but also i came away. not knowing nearly as much about shinovar as i would’ve liked. which is a personal preference thing (maybe i just liked elid a lot tbh. i do think she should’ve gotten at least one pov chapter)

oh THATS what it was. the only outside perspective we really got of szeth was kaladin’s. i think seeing how szeth was perceived by others while living in shinovar would’ve been a good addition.

ishar’s plotlines felt unsatisfying as well. like all that shit with torturing spren and putting them into physical bodies, and then it was just written off as “oh yeah that was just part of his insanity 👍”. like yeah it was but i wish it had gone somewhere

GAVINOR. the loose end of all time to me. what the fuck happened to him after the duel. does he remember his secret handshake with lift.

i miss navaniel. toxic yuri please come back to me. with sadalinar and navaniel and kalmoash all gone and kaladin and shallan healing there’s no one to be toxic and insane anymore. it’s just taravangian. we need more interpersonal problems we need more people sabotaging and fucking shit up for no reason

im also sad abt the venli povs bc she was one of my favorite povs in past books. but then in this one she was just There. where is her conflict. she didn’t even swear an ideal or anything.

tbh i think that’s probably my main problem with the book. the plotlines were all interesting and i liked getting to know more about shinovar (and i never really cared about szeth before so im glad we got to know him more!) but it all just felt like it was kind of There. maybe it was bc of the short timeframe but everything just kinda Dragged a little and everyone was kind of There. there’s only so far you can stretch the tension on that contest of champions, and when you spend over 1300 pages covering ten days? everything starts to feel a little like a filler episode.

also a lot of things just felt kind of underwhelming. the truth behind the recreance? eh. the stormfather being tanavast? eh. chana being shallan’s mom? eh. this was probably bc of the tension problem at least a little though

to be clear, i didn’t hate it. there was a lot i enjoyed- it’s just that the parts i enjoyed weren’t really given as much narrative emphasis, and the short timeframe of the story made my sense of pacing weird.

[mins-fins]

infinite love without fulfillment [prev].

and though you have always been the apotheosis of misfortune, it appears the son of sunny prosperity, huang renjun, can never just remain faithful to your very inquiries.

PAIRING. huang renjun x male!reader

GENRE. alternative universe, 80s–90s timeframe, hurt/comfort, a crossbred of slow and fast burn, angst angst angst, fluff.. in fleeting moments, a boy with bad luck x a boy with good luck, mutual pining, the typical isa mins-fins sadness meal, sort of relationship study, technically childhood lovers i suppose, much romantic

WARNINGS. swearing, explicit language, death, suicide, smoking, mere mentions of child neglect, school violence, bullying, mentions of slight injuries, bleeding, reader has the absolute worst luck imaginable, period-typical homophobia, the rest of the dreamies are kinda terrible friends, most of the adults suck, um thats it??

WORD COUNT. 1k, 1074 words preview | ??? full fic

NOTES. well jesus hello everybody, this fic is quite literally a monster and i have no idea why i conceived it or where it came from or why i so dearly cherish it but welcome to your much typical isa mins-fins angst fest with love, a non linear narrative, stuck in the past and simply boys with huge feelings 😁 this fic came from the most disturbing corners of my mind and is again much self indulgent because i have terrible luck so nobody is allowed pleasure and is subjected to pain!! of course, this preview is probably one of the few nice scenes in this thing, but don't get your hopes up, i am me after all 😋 i began this pre-renjun return, i just love him a lot.. and just for contexts sake bc this thing flip flops throughout several years, reader & renjun are both 74 babies, okay enjoy my mess

   1987.

the first meeting took place in a spot now abandoned. following the beginning of your teens, your uncle managed to grab you the occupation as his friend’s protégé. mr lee was about the sweetest man you could meet in such a town, his smile reached his eyes, his glasses tilted sideways in a display of his excitement, his words often scrambled and much too practiced for a kid your age.

you paid no mind to the peculiarities, there may have been a falter here and there, a fracture in the show of happiness he kept so perfectly built up as his defense. strange or not, you had nothing against a harmless, cheerful man who sought for the best life he could offer for his family, it was admirable really, you found him the closest figure of a father at the time.

the records shop was barely a mile walk, your shift consisted of sorting records of movies you had no mind to comprehend the existence of. the horror was typical, comedy was cheesy, romance was.. something, and you always wrote down in your mind to speed past the adult movies, glancing at them would be akin to committing the sin of lust.

clouds shook above on the dimmed november afternoon, a foreshadowing of the incoming rain. you spent most of your shift peering upward at the roof on its final leg, you’d not be surprised if it collapsed on you.

“it won’t fall” your boss voiced, assurance there when you most needed it. the state of his widened eyes behind his glasses still provides you a good deal of amusement, they were the thick ones, brims much too passionate. “place has been standing for years, a simple storm won’t take us down”.

“knock on wood” you opted to whisper.

his replying chuckle is cut short when the bell above the door echoed off the walls in a stark, beaming sound. eyes narrowing, it is then when the first meeting took place. you can pinpoint the exact start; 3:45 pm, october second, in the lee’s movie record shop, you spotted the drawn out features in an instant.

your gaze averted as his settled onto you, your intrigue in your cuticles suddenly peeked. in contrast to you, mr. lee brightened at the sight of seemingly familiar folk. “ah! is that the huang’s i see? how was the trip?”

always ever so buoyant, conversation picked up rapidly, you always pondered on if all adults acted in such a way, you hoped it was a skill that developed with age, your own antisocial nature being that of your biggest weakness.

a pair of eyes kept themselves trained on you, yet you managed to avoid their path. you placed your hands forward, a pile of dvds suddenly tumbling downward and crashing onto the floor.

you swore under your breath, muttering apologies in the air. a nuisance you are.

you knelt to begin cleaning your mess, eyebrows knitting together as another figure kneels to aid you in picking up the clutter. you glanced upward, meeting an identically colored pair of eyes.

his features are soft, you theorize they still are. eyes wide, cheeks full, lips pressed thin, you two are the same age, yet he still appeared as a baby. protection, fondness, you wanted to insulate him from the horrors of this world. how funny.

“hello” he spoke as if you were delicate, fragile, glass would shatter if the volume had been too high, your expressions would fracture if he even dared to speak in such a contrasting way. “my name is renjun”.

it was never meant to be a conversation, never meant to be anything more than a spontaneous act of kindness. a sure fire, mundane november afternoon with rainfall right on your tail.

you stared inarticulately, as if rendered beyond words, nothing of a term on your tongue, like the mute kid those who don’t know you assume you to be. his gaze remained soft, nothing compared to the calloused looks from the other boys at school, they’re mean, they’re toughened, renjun? he was completely different, in the glass of his eyes was pure virtue, virtue he longed to share.

your throat went dry. “my name is.. um—”

you kept at a pause, the lack of malice foreign to you.

“y/n” mr. lee called, the tensing of your shoulder paired with your wince startled renjun backward, but you composed yourself quickly enough. “have you really never met renjun? he’s a good friend of donghyuck’s, you know”.

lee donghyuck was the son of your boss, his smile is toothy, his baby bones remaining present, his laughter always seemed endless, a true testament to the kind of son he is. you surmise that he inherited most of the traits from his father, his mother was never stone cold, per say, but she did not ease the stoic looks.

he could be akin to one great pain, but he could never be a genuine problem, he had vivid dreams and could power through any brick wall, you envied his vigorous manner.

“donghyuck is.. um, i— we aren’t really friends, i forgot to ask” you stammered, hands clasped, gaze frantic. he released his usual mr. lee hearty chuckle, the sound bouncing off the walls in a resounding action. “i didn’t know how to..”

you twiddled your thumbs, gaze straight down, shame running along with the bright red blood coloring your veins. there reigned a rain cloud over your head, dumping its depression ridden remains atop your head. you did not mean to ruin the mood, yet the aching silence alerted to you that all could sense the dejection lacing your tone.

stupid, stupid, stupid, you ruin everything.

you’re sure mother would never utter such words, yet her voice was all circling around in your mind, appending to the depressive rainfall drenching your very soul.

“it’s okay! you know, renjun likes books too, you two would get along!”

and he began his ramble, you found such a prospect amusing, he couldn’t help it, the manner of an excited child who had every spontaneous factoid to spew. both you and renjun merely glanced, equally as gladdened by the sight.

“these are scary” he voiced, staring downward at the picture of the omen. “do you like scary movies?”

“they are okay”.

your opinion hasn’t changed since.

“too scary”.

you could not help your silent chuckle, it was just the slightest bit cut.

[terraliensvent]

no more self promo in my inbox

Edit/Disclaimer: this post is out of date. please read this post for more information. the doxxer has now been revealed to be Veal themself, however per my rules of keeping everything in place, these posts will remain up for archival purposes, despite the ongoing speculation of the time.

Original Post below: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

so the more dillingent of you may have noticed that @terratimeventblog (aka, the one from this post) is now gone

turns out that they were using the blog as a front to dox our new public enemy number 1, veal.

this is pretty interesting considering the veal hate that came recently to here, but anyways, that account dmed veal to say someone sent them these anons:

shortly after, veal sent this:

seems like they deleted shortly after that

so! hypothesis and speculation time:

first off, i think the blog itself was probably made JUST for this purpose, seeing as everything happened in such a short timeframe. they possibly could have used a spoofed link on there? however since the gofundme is brought up, im more inclined to think they got the info there. since gofundme uses your bank account, you have to use your legal name. its possible they used veal's legal name in a background check website and got all of their info.

as for who is behind this, leads are minimal. veal did say that civ had donated to their gofundme, and while this doesnt directly implicate them it is a funny coincidence. personally, i think it could be any one of their cronies. they ARE someone in re-up, so anyone over there be careful with your personal info. this is proven with them using screens from the server that i havent used here (according to someone else in re-up) and the fact they specifically say "you can show this to re-up." theyre definitely an uber-cool master level troll who wanted to just sit back and watch it all burn *slides on sick shades*

their goal seems pretty clear, its someone with a vendetta against veal for whatever reason and wanted to scare them shitless. if i wanted to be even more of a conspiracy theorist, i would say the anon of my recent veal ask is the same person as the doxxer, but honestly i dont know how many enemies veal has

the last bit of interesting info is this post from civ that came out around 3 hours before veal dropped the "someone has my address" message

i hypothesize that this connects the situation more to one of civ's cronies, and possibly someone linked with isopups. considering zaga's current apology tour, veal suddenly getting hate, and the dark past of both isos and terras coming to light, thats what makes the most sense to me. this post could be a "coming to reality" moment for civ, not wanting to be tied in with these fucking lunatics anymore (and considering terras hasnt had any huge civ-related drama recently id say its a bit out of left field), but ultimately this is just me having playtime with my polaroids and red string

as a small conclusion, i feel slightly responsible for this, being the person to promo them (and considering the high visibility of this blog). as such, no more self promo in my inbox whatsoever. build an audience your own way

for a more final conclusion though, doxxing people isnt the way to go (thanks captian obvious), and really what does it accomplish? what are you going to do with the address of a person who pissed you off in a closed species discord server? are you gonna seek legal action against some stupid highschooler? are you gonna order pizzas to their house? SWAT them? send a really strongly worded letter? never mind the fact the communities involved are niches within niches within niches. try explaining this shit to someone in real life, try explaining it to your geriatric grandma.

my advice to you all: get a fucking job. go outside. talk to a real human person instead of your ChatGPT waifu. for the love of god stop wrapping yourself up so deeply in this shit that you need to go on a spec-ops mission to find some guy's address and scare them. do you really have nothing better to do? this behavior comes off as pathetic more than anything else. it screams to me "hi! im a socially deprived individual acting fucking insane because im constantly high off huffing the paint from the walls of my mother's basement, as well as the pervading stench of my own ass!"

genuinely, get a life

[cali]

im a different anon but im just curious what advice you would give to someone whos been pillbugging it for um. over a year now

mmm i cant really answer how to stop having depression which im guessing is what u mean + i dont know how ur head works but ive been living mostly NEET-ly for more than 2 yrs now and everyday im getting a better curve at dealing with it so i can tell u what works for me.

half the time when im pillbugging hard im paralyzed by a nontangible fear and the only thing that could stop it is adressing wherever the fear is coming from but the confrontation of the topic, trying to figure out where its even coming from, is terrifying too so i dont do it and stay swimming in tar. theres a sentence people keep saying when they explain why they watch 2 hour video essays "it makes my head go quiet". thats the enemy, the thought, not the person saying it. long term i mean. when its short term anguish that can be bridged by pillbugging its fine i think but if ur "making ur head quiet" for more than a month i urge u to make it go really loud again but thats hard. the only times i can try and confront those thoughts is when i feel otherwise nice, if i got externally forced to have a fun day, hike with my papa, date day with my girlfriend, sometimes just got myself to make a nice meal and it helped, when u feel better its a little less scary and u can maybe try and think out of it a little better. also i think on those days youre generally more positively charged so u got more hope outlook. COOL. i think this is why some people do meditation. im not good at it so i dont really know but i think its a brave pasttime of tackling unpleasant ideas. i used to try and dope my way out of it with lsd cuz everytime i used it it kind of forced me to confront whatever trouble i had but ive forbad myself that cuz i didnt want to rely on it as crutch + it was just unpleasant to get hit over the head everytime. now i only do it when i feel good already (havent done it in half a year lol). sorry, drug tangent. also weed is synonymous with pillbugging 4 me.

otherwise, rituals.... mmmmm..... when therapists and whoevers say stuff like take daily walks daily exercise take daily shower i think all of those are like half about the direct benefits they give and half just about doing anything regularly. cuz it helps. during pillbug hours the point for me is kind of to have time pass as fast as possible so the timeframe to hurt is reduced which is counterproductive cuz if it flows u by rlly hard u cant really grasp onto anything to get off the ride easily. and its never going to come really easy theres no probable single action or event that is going to singlehandedly pull u out of the mire, no rapture, no healing vitamin, its always going to be slow and tedious and boring and stupid but a routine is a nice framework to start that. brushing ur teeth is nice. and when u do something daily the days start becoming more tangible again and u will be able to tell how many days ago tuesday was. maybe u can think abotu what factors motivate u and twist them to do your biddinggg. shame and dissapointment works really well for me if i tell someone i will have this done by then and i dont it usually overpowers the malaise or whatever other reason has been making me not do it prior. but this requires social bonds and i cant guarantee u have those. in summer i started doing therapy cuz in germany i need it for transgenderism and shes also a good beacon for that, if she says do something until next time we meet i dont want to dissapoint her. other than that, um idk, everyting else is just kind of part of that. take walks even if u dont want to think about things even if its scary. be brave like childrens book illustration of knight slaying dragon. and then maybe u get a princess kiss

[dianakko-week]

“Who are you?”/Amnesia

Also, I am begging on hands and knees that more time is given to create the content this year. Last year the timeframe was WAY too short 🙏

Cool prompt!

And this year I'm trying to make sure there is going to be enough time.

Thats something I really care about and that's why I'm using my expiriance from last year to make sure it will happen!

(Shorter amount of asking for prompts cover art already ready clear dates for things etc)

Everyone will hopefully get to see the prompts chosen a few days/a week after we get them all!

(We already got so many rn!!)

So stayed tuned!!!

[buffa-z]

something thats running in the background of tmc is a shifting real estate dispute going on between neon's dad's company, a yakuza family, all the small businesses ace frequents, municipal authorities, and the construction company michinaga worked for. the set pieces move on their own.

so neon's dad's company is starting to fall apart starting around the end of the second game. part of it is that like four different dudes (individual hotel managers) are embezzling funds, and the other is that his first hotel that he still manages just got a bunch of overdue code violations. so he goes to the dgp for help, they way he always has, and theyre kind of running out of patience and thats why they put neon in as the desastar. like sure if your daughter wins we'll help you. well she didnt win so they dont help him. so he's bleeding money trying to keep his company together. and the dgp is kind of done with him bc they dont have a purpose for him anymore.

another thing that isn't helping is the yakuza group that's been getting territorial bc of ace (but more on that later). theyre feeling threatened so theyre locking down on their turf in terms of both property and racketeering. we get a glimpse of this in chapter 18(?) with the incident at hatake's hotcakes. with the kurama conglomerate on decline, theyre looking to acquire some holdings on the cheap. but theyre also getting major suspicious bc of one ukiyo ace.

so basically the thing that was keeping ace afloat as part of his wish to "live comfortably" was the various restaurants, food stands, and cafes within range of places he frequents. and i do mean Frequents. he considers cooking for himself as a luxury activity. so theres like several nodes of small businesses that he is reliably keeping afloat. in doing this, he's basically shielded ~25 places from being racketeered. some of that is bc he's offered financial help to the business owners, the rest are the reputation of him doing that for places he frequents. now pretty much any place he goes is considered semi-off limits to be safe. bc nobody knows where ace came from or where his loyalties lie. i mean, would you trust a random 21yo who got really famous this year and he suddenly starts making a bunch of financial contributions to the city? is that not fishy?

now to bring it around full circle, ace is very mindful to keep clear of the kurama conglomerate hotels bc thats bad business/privacy hazard (see: neon's account that mr kurama or one of his associates was making money off famous people at their hotels). ace happens to also know about it bc he hooked up with a kurama hotel security manager and the guy insisted they not meet at a kurama hotel. so thats actually the main thing ace knows about the kurama family til he meets neon officially in the first game--he is unsurprised but extremely concerned about her livestreaming at that point. i mean, at that point in time she's constantly broadcasting that she's alone and without support, as well as her exact location, and she's going to be distracted bc she's managing a livestream. created to undo kidnapping thus living as an inversion of it etc.

in the meantime, the company michinaga worked for is not yakuza but its yakuza-friendly (no-questions-asked blueprint to building in short timeframes!). notice how that company got hired for the show ace was on (his influence--he wanted to see michinaga). but previously they were getting jobs from the one yakuza group. but now that ace contracted with them that one time its over. no longer safe. but the company owner doesnt really know about that, he just knows his clientele changed big time after that appearance. he went from running a barely above-board contracting company to getting offers for set construction deals on major tv networks. which would be great, if two of his best guys hadnt vanished mysteriously in the past two years. so hes taking these offers but hes not being forthcoming about the staffing issues (he basically only hires people who fucked up in high school) so his projects are all behind schedule.

[cosmicanger]

“ppl talk abt the george floyd uprisings as failing i just dont think thats true. energy from them went into the revitalized labor movement and the clarity from them have been informing the pro-palestine movement, ppl need to see this as a long process rather than being defeatist.”

“Yeah but the goal was defunding the cops and police funding increased. I'm not knocking energy and joy, but at some point, morale has to create a material result. We can't just "long process" ourselves forever. Believing in ourselves enough to go back to the drawing board and start figuring out how to do more is the opposite of defeatism. I marched with Occupy Boston. I marched after Michael Brown was killed too. I understand that *in theory* it is a long game. What incremental leftists don't understand is that the 21st century does not have to be like the 20th. The whole idea that long games work is based on 1) the civil rights movement, 2) smaller policies that marching has more consistently worked for. In both cases the results came from convincing people in power, which involved A LOT more than just marching. The electoral organization, the militant wings, the ability to overcome resistance from the right, none of those pieces are in place for big stuff because the country is structurally different now. We have a lot more people, A LOT fewer at the top, and multiple info bubbles. The "long game" argument is based on the idea that the majority will eventually win out, but the country is now structured in such a way that that's simply not true. Billionaires & politicians have figured out how to game the system to keep us constantly in a state of cope. This is why I've been doing threads on how they're playing us with Palestine. They do not care one bit that we're shutting down the streets. There does not eventually have to be a stop to the genocide just because the majority wants it. Those are 20th century assumptions. I understand that this is scary because it throws out the model of activism that incremental leftists have become entrenched in. But I expect that, as leftists, you should be able to face that fear head on. Otherwise you all are just street party Democrats. Also, finding new models of activism doesn't mean violence. There's more tactics in the world than marches, symbolic shutdowns, and violence. I'm begging you all to stop being so complacent about the long game and start thinking bigger. On Palestine, the past month has gone from "If we threaten not to vote for Biden, the Democrats will call off the genocide" to "Maybe if we get everyone in the streets?" to "Well, it's a long game, Palestine will be free eventually." Seasoned activists on here pivoted very smoothly from "The people united can never be divided" to "Well, look, boycotts take a year to really work, and movements are a long game." THEN WHY ARE WE USING THESE TACTICS, WHEN GAZANS MIGHT MASS STARVE IN A COUPLE OF MONTHS?????? If you see a short term problem and funnel everyone into long term tactics that OBVIOUSLY will not work in the scheduled timeframe, then as far as I'm concerned you are just as complicit as our entire government.”

[lightleckrereins]

Not sure if you’ve discussed this, but what actually is used for Cleves’ breakaway costume? Snaps? Velcro? Magnets (my best guess)?

Also I thought I remember somebody mentioning the actress had a separate, non-breakaway costume for post-Get Down, but I feel that may have been just a rumor. Any insight you could provide would be incredibly interesting! Thanks!

The reveal uses a combination of magnets, zippers that separate when pulled apart and really smart construction. I will eventually make a breakdown on how the costume works but those are the basics.

As for the second costume those are real. Mostly for practical reasons. During the show, after the reveal the jacket and shorts are thrown to the wings one on each side of the stage. After that Cleves goes offstage at the start of AYWD and comes back in for the first chorus. That leaves the wardrobe team a very short timeframe to retrieve both halves of the costume, take one to the opposite side of the stage, reassemble it, make sure it will stay in one piece and prepare a very fast and slightly complicated quick change; mostly in the dark. Thats not accounting for the potential of closures being damaged in the reveal or the costume not falling deep enough in the wings that they can retrieve it without being seen by the audience.

Wardrobe workers can literally do magic in a very short timeframe. But there are too many potential complications for this to be reliable so making a second costume is the safer option. Wardrobe just needs to preset the second costume in advance and do the quick change. This also has the advantage of giving them a costume with no visible tear spots (and more decoration in the case of US costumes) for promotional material and public performances.

As I said promotional images always have the non reveal costume, but a lot of backstage photos are from before the show so its easy to compare both versions. Reveal has a small gap on the sides of the shorts and the back of the jacket and no chains in US costumes.

[tiktaaliker]

so does judge hate Rasputin

funny enough, not really! mooncats (and angels by extension) can only be formed in instances/places with large amounts of death in a relatively short timeframe. Judge specifically considers this a "nessicary evil" because without these sorts of events mooncats would not happen (even though thats not even true considering natural disasters/plagues/graveyards/hospitals are the most common prompts for mooncats. judge is just kind of a bastard)

[schimmelspore]

personal whining below the cut

sometimes i look at my behavior and realize once again that i have the strictest avoidance mechanisms drilled into my head. they are elaborate, too. ive been wanting to sit down and just watch some movie for a few weeks now. you know? simple. something i used to do every other day, if not daily a few years back. but i cant. i get anxious just thinking about maybe liking the movie too much. about getting excited about it. god forbid hyperfocussing on it.

im have been keeping myself from watching all kinda of shit i know i will love, simple because i will love them. pacific rim is on that list, just as an example. its mechas, its kaijus, its weird science and scientists and pilots and all kinds of shit i really fucking like. so, why cant i watch it? its right there, i just need to press play.

its because im scared of liking it, im fucking terrified of beginning to like something, get excited about something, and then being told by someone close to me that im not allowed to talk about it because they dont care or im getting too excited about a dumb action movie that has 'no substance'...

usually id try to go at things like that by telling myself that my fears are unfounded, but they literally arent. it happened to me before. my former best friend told me to not talk about batman/red hood or kpop or shaman king or whatever else i liked that she wasnt into. she stopped me and told me to shut up about it already because she doesnt care. (the excuse was "im autistic and i dont care and cant bring myself to care so youre not allowed to be upset about it" which is extra bitter because im audhd and she never accepted any of my struggles comming from that and i had to fix them.) (this happened again and again over the timeframe of a little less than 10 years)

so now im fucking terrified to get too much into something that my gf isnt into. i got into an obsessed watch of sgu one weekend and because i got so fucking hyperfocused, i couldnt snap out of it when the topic turned more serious and it upset her. and she was right to be upset. but since then i havent been able to sit down and just watch something. not really. she encourages me to, because shes a great gf, but i cant. i tried to watch bladerunner 2049 a short while back and i dont remember what it was, but we talked about something on the side and she mentioned that she would like me to be present or smth and i shut off the movie and couldnt restart it. i havent tried since. she feels really bad about that, she didnt want me to stop watching (and i really dont remember what triggered my 'cant to stuff, must be vigilant for messages' response), but its not her fault that im wired like this.

im upset that im too terrified to just enjoy a show or a movie. ive reached the point where i might dare to call it a stress response to past events. so. trauma. i dont like calling it that, but thats kind of what it is, right? and im disstressed and im crying because it upsets me. and its something so miniscule too.

idk that to do about this. probably exposure therapy (aka just watch a god damn movie, zack) but im just scared it will repeat itself because it always does. it seems such a small thing, but im too scared of the emotional ride that shoots me off a cliff at the end.

[archer3-13]

Someone was dumb enough kind enough to get me pokemon violet this christmas so i guess i am gonna be playin it and gettin the 'inside scoop' on the pokemon companys latest game. For clarifications sake the last pokemon game i really bothered to sit down and complete was oras and thats only because oras was a remake of gen3. otherwise the last mainline one ive gone out of the way for is xy.

thoughts!

i appreciate the effort to cinematography, it helps breath a bit more life into the affair then there might otherwise have been

on the other hand the game runs like ass, which you could arguably say is a good indication of the ambition the pokemon companys going for this time... but i would argue back that its just the game being poorly optimized cause overall well its all rather ambitious i havent seen anything that feels too far outside the switches capabilities so far.

nemonas a treat, shes got that slight edge of barrys insanity but its a bit more balanced with calmer moments so that she doesnt feel quite as overwhelming as barry could

is catching easier in this game? cause it feels real easy so far to catch in this game, practically nabbed the whole lot of pokemon in the 'tutorial area' before hitting the school

i appreciate the game introducing terrestalizing the way it does, having nemona use it against you before letting you enjoy it. it helps demonstrate how well its quite the powerful new gimmick to use, its not invincible and can be beaten if ya play it smart

that said the ai for battles is feeling particularly rock stupid this time around. hopefully that'll change when things go on, but if nemonas response to having her pokemon wake up on red health with already 3 workups behind it, is to go for another workup as ralts erases it from existence immediately afterwards... im not confident itll get much better from there.

neither penny or backpack boy leave much of an impression so far. cant even remember backpack boys name.

it definitely feels like theres some form of response to criticisms of pokemons previous outings going on here, how a lot of the gens after xy were seeming to get increasingly hand holdy to the point of gen8 having the player around as a side piece to its actual plot. here the reins are taken off pretty heavily even just in the tutorial section and they really wanna emphasize how its 'your choice' on what ya do.

that said, the fact that theres 8 gym challenges but only 5 star bases and 5 titan pokemon makes me irrationally angry cause they arent all 8 apiece. hopefully they still all feel substantial enough that it doesnt become an actual problem...

the tutorial section as it were both lasts too long, yet feel too short in my opinion. cause mechanically you can get all the stuff the game teaches ya here out in a much shorter timeframe/area. but on the other it doesnt feel quite as immersive as i think they were going for to draw me in?

i like that even in the school setting child endangerment is just the accepted status quo of things. turns out even if red and blue were in school they'd still have a better then 0 chance of being killed by super powered monsters.

idk, maybe its the abysmal expectations i had going in but im digging this more then i thought i would. if the game ran more consistently and didn't... glitch out in a lot of places i'd probably be even more hooked into the experience.

they shoulda given you a cylcazar as a 'ride slave' instead of the box legendary to start with, especially if were just gonna keep the legendary out of battle 'till yer tough enough' regardless. that way you could have the legendary as a reward for say, completing the titans quest.

[ectonurites]

Do you think Bernard knows Tim is robin

I don't think he actually does, but I think he's possibly been suspecting it, maybe even before Urban Legends #6 if we want to take all canon back into consideration again since we're in this Infinite Frontier era where that's like... a thing we can do

Like. going back to classic Bernard from that pre-War Games era when he was introduced, we know how deep into conspiracies he was... and how he didn't really think Robin was just one person

(Robin #127)

BUT an important thing to remember when looking at these panels is that this is from an era where Batman is in full Urban Legend mode, the only photos and videos are like 'cryptid spotted'-type unreliable stuff, so the conspiracies are bound to be... a bit wilder like this!

It's not until during War Games that Batman lets himself be caught on camera/seen at large by the general public while bringing Darla out of Louis E. Grieve to the paramedics because he wanted to try and save her life, which while it starts new different rumors does confirm he exists.

(Batman #631)

Bernard was... present for this.

He saw Tim leave to go investigate during the shooting...

(Batman #631)

and was was one of the people in the room when Bruce, Dick, & Cass come to the rescue and... casually talk with Tim a little bit

(Batman #631)

While that doesn't directly indicate 'Tim is Robin', it's definitely a... someone onlooking and paying attention to Tim specifically might notice him having some connection with the Bats. But for someone like Bernard who didn't subscribe to a single Robin theory anyways, I don't think he'd assume immediately that Tim was Robin or anything, just that there could be something going on.

A little later, Tim actually uses a variant of Bernard's theory from earlier to try to get Darla off his back for the whole 'she got brought back to life with magic by a guy who hates Tim so she has to kill Robin now' thing. We see him do an amount of digging online where he specifically mentions limiting himself to the resources an average person with an internet connection could find, and still manages to find enough Robin pics to make this thing work (plus him slipping in some fake Conner!Robin pics because plot)... but that means Bernard also definitely had access to this sort of stuff

(Robin #141)

And like, frankly, if you were already into some conspiracy theories about superheroes, and then those superheroes show up at your high school in the middle of a huge gang war... I feel like just digging deeper and deeper into that stuff is a pretty reasonable course of action! (Tim even uses a similar reasoning to that when explaining to Darla why he suddenly knows about this stuff)

So I feel like Bernard while doing that might also be missing his friend Tim because they got sent to different schools after Louis E. Grieve closed (also I've seen people point out Bernard's behavior back then could arguably indicate he had a thing for Tim at the time, so dare I say missing his crush). He might remember seeing Tim getting all buddy-buddy with the Bats in the chaos of it all, he might look at those same photos Tim was able to find online and have been like 'hey thats funny this Robin kinda looks like Tim', like I see that as within a realm of possibility.

Maybe it's a joke to himself of 'what if Tim was Robin oh my god' because it'd be both his crushes actually being the same person, but not something he ever takes that seriously

When he comes back in Urban Legends and drops this line it kinda further cements to me that after the gang war he kept following up on Robin info and news and stuff, and that he totally had a thing for Robin

(Batman: Urban Legends #6)

So like... Okay. Putting all of it together I just think that:

Bernard has had a crush on Tim for a while, since back at Louis E. Grieve

Bernard has also been obsessed with Robin & had a lowkey crush on him since after the Gang War when he realized Robins probably aren't as temporary as he once thought

Bernard spends time over the next few years keeping up with Robin info and missing Tim

Now in present day, Bernard goes on a date with Tim and gets kidnapped

Very shortly after, Robin comes to save him. That timing is at least a little bit suspicious

Bernard sees Tim up close & in person and then Robin up close & in person within a pretty short timeframe which... means the physical similarities would be apparent.

Bernard takes that shot in the dark and confesses his feelings about Tim to Robin during the fight

Tim comes to his door a few days later and jumps right into a conversation about the kidnapping and the feelings (that seems like it comes right off of what Bernard had said to Robin) and accepts a date with him

Bernard's brain is screaming at him that the 'Tim is Robin' theory is looking more and more likely every day but he still doesn't know for sure

[doobashmurp]

just watched noiseman sound insect had a time of it now i am talking about it to meself weehooha

BACKGROUND INFO the original broadcast released in 1997, its a ova from studio 4c, masaaki yuasa was on it doing something and thats how i found it lol lmao

the name? oh my god its incredible…. noiseman … sound insect…. rotating in my head in big sparkly text for the next section of my life methinks

noise man..... sound .... insect ...... dawg i do not know what a sound insect is but by jove do i want to find out.......

aaalso the characterization in the setting of the world - at least what i could glean from the backgrounds - is incredibly suited to go right to the part of my brain that loves items and things to have and hold. these guys did tekkon kinkreet also and this very much feels like a practice run for the environment they cultivated there, HUGE fan

the actual story, and execution thereof, seemed very jostled and clunky to me, though. this thing its 15 minutes and i think that was FAR to short of a timeframe to do the little story justice - things were happening all the time in a way that hindered my experience with it rather than adding a sense of charm. like, it was fast paced, because it HAD to be, and not because it WANTED to be... i wonder what happened for this ova to be granted a runtime shorter than a typical tv anime episode! strange, and i will not look into it, because i dont feel like it, cheers, i get the sense that the production team was doing the best with what they had available to em and looking at it through that lense paints the project in a much warmer light to me in retrospect, but i dont think i will think about this very much in the future, and i dont think id want to come back to rewatch it at all really

thats all

have a good night