#the writers block is about the size of a shipping container | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fuelinthetank · 10 months ago

Text

Please note: This section will be updated from time to time.

WARNING

If you’re following with the intention of:

Doing one liner threads with random sized gifs and NSFW/smutty/flirty.

Your only goal��is to get me to write sexual themes with you right off the bat.

You just want to ship your character, canon or not, with Eddie/Venom.

You’re a person with low self esteem who starts drama for the sake of attention.

Then, please, don’t bother following nor interacting.

BASICS

This blog is semi-selective. Which means we don’t have to be mutuals in order to interact.

I don’t write with minors, so please don’t interact with me if you’re one. Don’t lie about your age either. Minors will be blocked.

I engage only with writers over 21.

Please, no god-modding.

I speak Spanish, English, and some Japanese. Writer is over 30 years old.

Been writing for over ten years, mostly on LiveJournal and Tumblr in the past. Meaning, I’ve been around long enough to know the drill.

This blog will contain at times mentions of NSFW topics and dark themes. Everything will be tagged accordingly if you wish to block certain topics.

THREADS

I do multi-para and novella mostly, sometimes it can get longer than that depending on how inspired I feel.

One liners are mostly reserved for memes/ask interactions.

I’m quite active but I tend to queue a lot of replies. Sometimes I hyper-focus on specific threads that have been previously and heavily plotted. This doesn’t mean I’m ignoring our thread.

Give me something to work with. This is incredibly important. If you invest a lot of time and internal monologue and give me no actions nor dialogue for my character to write with, it will be impossible for me to do anything about it, which will put all the weight on me to push the thread forward. I will drop the thread if this continues to happen after I’ve brought it up with you.

Please make sure you check out my verses before interacting. Depending which Eddie/Venom you interact with, they will react differently to various characters and situations. I will not accommodate Eddie/Venom's behaviors to please any characters either canon or original.

SEXUAL THEMES IN THREADS

Sex scenes are something I enjoy quite a lot when written properly, and I don’t shy away from kinks. However, let’s make sure we can plan ahead before jumping right into it.

I can be very picky with how sex scenes are written, so if at some point I let you know I’m not feeling it, please don’t take it to heart.

If you’re curious, this is my (the writer’s) kink list, to know what kind of things I like and dislike writing. Please note this kink list does not reflect the kinks of the character I write.

PLOTTING

Role-playing is a collaborative effort. I expect you to at least throw a basic idea of what would you like to do: that can be a prompt, a genre you’d like to explore or a trope, etc. I love discussing and plotting, and I’m constantly asking questions to better understand where you’d like to go with the plot as well as adding my own thoughts to it. Don’t take it to heart, the only reason I ask many questions is to make sure we’re on the same page.

I refuse to do all the work for the both of us, so keep in mind I won’t indulge into plotting by myself.

Know your facts. If you are writing a canon or original character, I expect you to know most if not everything about them. I can’t be doing research on them for you in order to be able to plot, and that also includes their background and trivia details that are relevant to their biography.

If there is something I need to know about your character, feel free to point me in the right direction. I do my best to go through most of the information offered on each writer’s blog, but please don’t expect me to jump through three or four links to know what their name is or which fandom they belong to. Please, make it easier and accessible for writers to get to know your muse through your links (this is mostly a suggestion).

Please, be open to feedback, as I am as well.

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (OCs)

I will be very selective on which OCs I choose to interact with.

Know your character, your facts, their backgrounds, etc. If your character’s story has plotholes, keep in mind I won’t be fixing them but I will be pointing them out if they conflict with my character’s story or verse. Don’t take it personally, just remember you know your character better than I do, and I expect you to keep those things in mind before interacting.

I won’t accommodate my character’s background or verses to fit your OCs. Which means, whatever fact you have for your OCs (if they’re an OC from a specific fandom, in this case Marvel) won’t apply to my character, and they won’t automatically know or assume about it.

By under no circumstances I will interact with children-OCs of any Marvel character, especially those that were created specifically to be “Eddie's kid”. The same goes for any “Eddie's husband/wife” characters.

If the existence of your OC is to invalidate my character’s existence, we most likely aren’t a good fit.

UNFOLLOWS/BLOCKS

Don’t feel obligated to follow back.

If, for whatever reason, you no longer feel comfortable writing together, feel free to soft block. By no means you’re obligated to reach out but if you want to talk about it/tell me something, you can always reach out via DMs.

I will ignore you if it’s obvious you haven’t read my rules. It’s common courtesy.

I give people plenty of time to get back to me either via DMs or reply to our threads, but after a month of no reply/interaction I just tend to untrack the thread from my Thread Tracker and unfollow. No hard feelings, I just like to keep my dash clean.

Don’t confuse me with the character I write.

No, I am not here to fulfill your sexual fantasies nor I’m your boyfriend or your friend with benefits.

Don’t harass me.

If I unfollowed you, most of the time is to keep my dash organized, don’t take it to heart.

SHIPPING

I don’t ship automatically. Yes, even if you’re writing a canon love interest.

Don’t force ship your character with Eddie/Venom. I will just ignore you completely or troll you.

MISC

Yes, I do have a Discord. I like to keep everything on Tumblr messages but I tend to give my Discord out to people I trust/people I’ve been plotting plenty with here on Tumblr. Please, don’t force me to give my username to you.

I am very selective with those I main or affiliate with. Don’t push me to add you to that list.

I make my own graphics and icons. Don’t steal them, I will find out eventually and it will be embarrassing for you.

All done? Don’t know where to begin? Break the ice with a prompt!

#✎ INFORMATION / RULES

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bloodstainedstar · 1 year ago

Text

Please note: This section will be updated from time to time.

WARNING

If you're following with the intention of:

Doing one liner threads with random sized gifs and NSFW/smutty/flirty.

Your only goal is to get me to write sexual themes with you right off the bat.

You just want to ship your character, canon or not, with Bucky.

You're a person with low self esteem who starts drama for the sake of attention.

Then, please, don't bother following nor interacting.

BASICS

This blog is semi-selective. Which means we don't have to be mutuals in order to interact.

I don't write with minors, so please don't interact with me if you're one. Don't lie about your age either. Minors will be blocked.

I engage only with writers over 21.

Please, no god-modding.

I speak Spanish, English, and some Japanese. Writer is over 30 years old.

Been writing for over ten years, mostly on LiveJournal and Tumblr in the past. Meaning, I've been around long enough to know the drill.

This blog will contain at times mentions of NSFW topics and dark themes (such as HTP). Everything will be tagged accordingly if you wish to block certain topics.

THREADS

I do multi-para and novella mostly, sometimes it can get longer than that depending on how inspired I feel.

One liners are mostly reserved for memes/ask interactions.

I'm quite active but I tend to queue a lot of replies. Sometimes I hyper-focus on specific threads that have been previously and heavily plotted. This doesn't mean I'm ignoring our thread.

Please make sure you check out my verses before interacting. Depending which Bucky you interact with, he will react differently to various characters and situations. I will not accommodate Bucky's behaviors to please any characters either canon or original.

SEXUAL THEMES IN THREADS

Sex scenes are something I enjoy quite a lot when written properly, and I don't shy away from kinks. However, let's make sure we can plan ahead before jumping right into it.

I can be very picky with how sex scenes are written, so if at some point I let you know I'm not feeling it, please don't take it to heart.

If you're curious, this is my (the writer's) kink list, to know what kind of things I like and dislike writing. Please note this kink list does not reflect the kinks of the character I write.

PLOTTING

Role-playing is a collaborative effort. I expect you to at least throw a basic idea of what would you like to do: that can be a prompt, a genre you'd like to explore or a trope, etc. I love discussing and plotting, and I'm constantly asking questions to better understand where you'd like to go with the plot as well as adding my own thoughts to it. Don't take it to heart, the only reason I ask many questions is to make sure we're on the same page.

I refuse to do all the work for the both of us, so keep in mind I won't indulge into plotting by myself.

Know your facts. If you are writing a canon or original character, I expect you to know most if not everything about them. I can't be doing research on them for you in order to be able to plot, and that also includes their background and trivia details that are relevant to their biography.

If there is something I need to know about your character, feel free to point me in the right direction. I do my best to go through most of the information offered on each writer's blog, but please don't expect me to jump through three or four links to know what their name is or which fandom they belong to. Please, make it easier and accessible for writers to get to know your muse through your links (this is mostly a suggestion).

Please, be open to feedback, as I am as well.

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (OCs)

I will be very selective on which OCs I choose to interact with.

Know your character, your facts, their backgrounds, etc. If your character's story has plotholes, keep in mind I won't be fixing them but I will be pointing them out if they conflict with my character's story or verse. Don't take it personally, just remember you know your character better than I do, and I expect you to keep those things in mind before interacting.

I won't accommodate my character's background or verses to fit your OCs. Which means, whatever fact you have for your OCs (if they're an OC from a specific fandom, in this case Marvel) won't apply to my character, and they won't automatically know or assume about it.

By under no circumstances I will interact with children-OCs of any Marvel character, especially those that were created specifically to be "Bucky's kid". The same goes for any "Bucky's husband/wife" characters.

If the existence of your OC is to invalidate my character's existence, we most likely aren't a good fit.

UNFOLLOWS/BLOCKS

Don't feel obligated to follow back.

If, for whatever reason, you no longer feel comfortable writing together, feel free to soft block. By no means you're obligated to reach out but if you want to talk about it/tell me something, you can always reach out via DMs.

I will ignore you if it's obvious you haven't read my rules. It's common courtesy.

Don't confuse me with the character I write. I wish I was James Bucky Barnes but I am not.

No, I am not here to fulfill your sexual fantasies nor I'm your boyfriend or your friend with benefits.

Don't harass me.

If I unfollowed you, most of the time is to keep my dash organized, don't take it to heart.

SHIPPING

I don't ship automatically. Yes, even if you're writing Steve Rogers.

A lot of WinterWidow fans ask me this all the time: Do I ship it? Not particularly. Am I open to the idea of them being more than friends? Yes, if plotted correctly. Does my Bucky know Natasha as their former lover/friend? No, I base off my Bucky on MCU and I've added a few bits and pieces from 616. WinterWidow is not one of those bits.

Don't force ship your character with Bucky. I will just ignore you completely or troll you.

MISC

Yes, I do have a Discord. I like to keep everything on Tumblr messages but I tend to give my Discord out to people I trust/people I've been plotting plenty with here on Tumblr. Please, don't force me to give my username to you.

I am very selective with those I main or affiliate with. Don't push me to add you to that list.

I make my own graphics and icons. Don't steal them, I will find out eventually and it will be embarrassing for you.

All done? Don't know where to begin? Break the ice with a prompt!

#✎ INFORMATION / RULES

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vihrago-a · 2 years ago

Text

( 𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖙𝖆𝖝𝖚𝖘 ) : independent and highly private multimuse. this multimuse contains only original characters which are majority female or non-binary. all of these original characters are based in a plethora of different fandoms ― written and cared for by 𝚅. rules can be found under the cut. [ previously illyriamade, mkoshi, atlaentian ]. nsfw sb is @jigjigstreet.

( 𝖆𝖋𝖋𝖎𝖑𝖎𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖘 ) : @motife , @jonbyers , @deadranch , @adaelus

( 𝖈𝖆𝖗𝖗𝖉 ) : link. promo temp credit. promo.

001 : i am 18+, so nsfw content will be present but it will be tagged with the generic ‘nsfw tw / cw’ tag, this also goes for triggers. — consider general trigger warnings for blood, death, murder, torture, are withstanding due to the nature the fandoms i interact with — all of these will be tagged accordingly ( trigger tw / trigger cw ), but if you need anything additional tagged, please let me know ( via message, anon, or carrier pigeon ) and i’ll make sure to do so! i generally tag anything that’s extensively / actually written out in threads or any visuals / direct references, but if you need something more than that, feel free to let me know.

002 : i don’t use heavy formatting ( occasional bolding / italicizing and small text is all i use ), but if you need me to adjust anything for replies to you ( because of eyesight / disability / ease of reading / etc. ) don’t hesitate to let me know i’d be happy to do it. otherwise, i give you overarching permission and encouragement to edit any parts of my reply formatting that you need to to fit your needs!

003 : i prefer to keep my blog mutuals only, that being said, if you unfollow me i’ll be pretty quick to unfollow you as well. typically i just block and move on because i detest confrontation with all of my being.

004 : i love multi-muse blogs and fellow ocs / oc writers, but i will not write with self-insert ocs or blogs that write a non-fictional character / a character that is based on a real life person. it’s nothing personal towards those muns, but the line between fiction and reality is a bit too blurred for me to be comfortable with it.

005 : i ship chemistry. force-shipping is an automatic block. but generally, if you ship it, i ship it. so just talk to me! i am a very nice person and easy to talk to! chances are, i'm more afraid of you than you are of me.

006 : regarding call out posts, DNIs, and messaging people about “toxic” mutuals – i 100% your respect your right and experience and choice to keep your dash a safe space for yourself, but i believe in two/three sizes to every story and i prefer to develop my own opinions about people. i do tag urls on all my replies to make blacklisting easier for those that need it and i respect all my mutuals enough to never talk negatively about them behind their back, so if you message me trying to spread anything but basic information ( like hey here’s what my experience with this person was, it wasn’t great ) you’ll likely be blocked because i don’t want to be put in the middle of drama that has literally nothing to do with me. the only time i do anything other than that is when someone is genuinely harmful and i feel that interacting with them is going to bring YOU more harm than good. i value every one of my mutuals' well beings.

007 : got something mean to say? tell your cat. or dog. or plant. but don’t send it on anon and just don’t spread hate about people in general. anon hate on this blog will only be accepted if it is either a haiku or a pun.

CONTACT.

DISCORD available upon request for chatting / plotting / flailing purposes.

MUN INFORMATION: V ( any prns ). 18+. ISTP-T. sagittarius. please tell me about your pets, i’m dead serious. i want to know about your pets. or if you don’t have pets, i would like to know about your plants. also if this rules page looks familiar, it is because @seesgood gave me her rules to use after she realized how little braincells i had left.

#DNI.#PINNED.

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iwasagod · 10 months ago

Text

Please note: This section will be updated from time to time.

WARNING

If you’re following with the intention of:

Doing one liner threads with random sized gifs and NSFW/smutty/flirty.

Your only goal is to get me to write sexual themes with you right off the bat.

You just want to ship your character, canon or not, with Doom.

You’re a person with low self esteem who starts drama for the sake of attention.

Then, please, don’t bother following nor interacting.

BASICS

This blog is semi-selective. Which means we don’t have to be mutuals in order to interact.

I don’t write with minors, so please don’t interact with me if you’re one. Don’t lie about your age either. Minors will be blocked.

I engage only with writers over 21.

Please, no god-modding.

I speak Spanish, English, and some Japanese. Writer is over 30 years old.

Been writing for over ten years, mostly on LiveJournal and Tumblr in the past. Meaning, I’ve been around long enough to know the drill.

This blog will contain at times mentions of NSFW topics and dark themes. Everything will be tagged accordingly if you wish to block certain topics.

THREADS

I do multi-para and novella mostly, sometimes it can get longer than that depending on how inspired I feel.

One liners are mostly reserved for memes/ask interactions.

I’m quite active but I tend to queue a lot of replies. Sometimes I hyper-focus on specific threads that have been previously and heavily plotted. This doesn’t mean I’m ignoring our thread.

Please make sure you check out my verses before interacting. Depending which Doom you interact with, he will react differently to various characters and situations. I will not accommodate Doom's behaviors to please any characters either canon or original.

SEXUAL THEMES IN THREADS

Sex scenes are something I enjoy quite a lot when written properly, and I don’t shy away from kinks. However, let’s make sure we can plan ahead before jumping right into it.

I can be very picky with how sex scenes are written, so if at some point I let you know I’m not feeling it, please don’t take it to heart.

If you’re curious, this is my (the writer’s) kink list, to know what kind of things I like and dislike writing. Please note this kink list does not reflect the kinks of the character I write.

PLOTTING

I refuse to do all the work for the both of us, so keep in mind I won’t indulge into plotting by myself.

Please, be open to feedback, as I am as well.

ORIGINAL CHARACTERS (OCs)

I will be very selective on which OCs I choose to interact with.

By under no circumstances I will interact with children-OCs of any Marvel character, especially those that were created specifically to be “Doom's kid”. The same goes for any “Doom's husband/wife” characters.

If the existence of your OC is to invalidate my character’s existence, we most likely aren’t a good fit.

UNFOLLOWS/BLOCKS

Don’t feel obligated to follow back.

I will ignore you if it’s obvious you haven’t read my rules. It’s common courtesy.

Don’t confuse me with the character I write.

No, I am not here to fulfill your sexual fantasies nor I’m your boyfriend or your friend with benefits.

Don’t harass me.

If I unfollowed you, most of the time is to keep my dash organized, don’t take it to heart.

SHIPPING

I don’t ship automatically. Yes, even if you’re writing Reed Richards, Valeria, or Sue Storm.

Don’t force ship your character with Doom. I will just ignore you completely or troll you.

MISC

I am very selective with those I main or affiliate with. Don’t push me to add you to that list.

I make my own graphics and icons. Don’t steal them, I will find out eventually and it will be embarrassing for you.

All done? Don’t know where to begin? Break the ice with a prompt!

#✎ INFORMATION / RULES

0 notes

withcolebrock · 4 years ago

Text

Guardian Angel Instead

Summary: While playing the Ouija Board, Y/N realizes she’s talking to someone who is important to her

Requested: yes!

Warnings: swearing, paranormal stuff, angsty kinda

Word Count: 3,242

Author’s Note: I didn’t mean for this to get so long tehe, but I like it and it is wack and I love knj so much. Also I am sorry this took so long to be written, I just was in bad writer’s block but I hope you enjoy it! This is my Gif!

She stood beside JC as they waited for Sam to finish setting up the camera. She ran her hands together trying to warm them up, it was surprisingly cold and none of them dressed for it. JC turned his head towards her and laughed, rolling his eyes. “Shut up,” she muttered while rolling her eyes. Sam ran back towards the group seeing if the angle was good, he nodded his head while he ran back towards the camera.

Sam glanced towards Colby quickly, “What’s up guys, it’s Sam and Colby!” Colby yelled dramatically, he quickly looked around him seeing if anyone was looking at him. Colby looked towards Y/N seeing her rub her hands together. He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked back towards the camera.

“Today, we are back at the Queen Mary for what? Like the third time now,” he smiled awkwardly towards Colby. Colby shook his head dramatically. “Why do we keep coming back here?” he laughed nervously. Sam looked behind him towards the ship, seeing a few people walking towards the entrance.

“I don’t know,” he laughed while glancing towards the group beside him. He slowly wrapped his arm around Y/N’s waist as he slowly pulled her body towards him. “I’ll keep you warm,” he whispered into her ear. Smiling to herself as she rested her head against his chest. Colby glanced towards the camera, raising his eyebrows.

“But this time we brought Kian, JC, and Y/N with us!” Sam shouted, motioning towards the three people standing between himself and Colby. Kian and JC started jumping slightly and hitting each other. Y/N eyes widened as she looked towards them, disgust written over her features. A small chuckle falls from Colby’s lips as he watches them. He slowly ran his hands up and down her back.

“We may have lied to you guys, just a little bit,” Colby transitioned, he slowly pulled away from Y/N. He kept his hand around her waist. Her mouth dropped open slightly as she crossed her arms over her chest. Colby kept his gaze on Y/N, her eyes squinting slightly as she looked towards him. A small smile formed to his lips as he hoped it would make her feel better.

“What do you mean?” JC asked while shifting his gaze between Sam and Colby.

“There’s no tour,” Sam sighed as he rubbed his hands together. The three guest stared towards Sam, “We are staying the night,” he said barely above a whisper. He bit his bottom lip as he fought off a smile.

“No, no,” Kian said simply as he shook his head. He pulled his backpack straps several times as he continued shaking his head. “I’m not staying the night,”

“We drove you here, how are you going to get home?” Sam teased.

“I’ll take an Uber, Sam!” Kian yelled while he started pacing back and forth.

“What the-I’m not staying the night,” Y/N whispered towards Colby. He shrugged his shoulders, “You kidnapped me, I’m not doing this.”

“Oh come on, Babe, you love spook-”

“Not this place,” she shook her head.

It had taken a few more minutes of Sam and Colby trying to convince them to stay the night. Kian and JC didn’t take long to get convinced to stay while Y/N was never convinced. She was simply outnumbered. As soon as they entered the ship, the vibe felt different and each of their moods faltered. The temperature dropped as soon as they walked inside, it felt even colder than it was outside. Sam, Kian, and JC were leaning their bodies against the check-in desk asking the man as many questions as possible.

Colby took a hold of her hand and pulled her body away from it. She furrowed her eyebrows harshly while he pulled her away from the group. Stopping, he pulled her hand towards him, forcing her body closer to his.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked, his voice was barely above a whisper, forcing his lips into a pout. She tilted her head to the side as she pursed her lips forward. She looked over his pinked features, rolling her eyes playfully as she saw the pout to his lips.

“No,” she drew out the word as he swung their interlocked hands back and forth. He slowly dropped their hands as he wrapped his arms around her body. She giggled while resting her hands onto his chest as he squished her body against his.

“Don’t be mad,” he whispered as he pressed his lips to the top of her head, he slowly ran his hand up and down her back. Shutting his eyes, he tried to calm himself down.

She wasn’t mad at him, maybe more worried than anything. Ever since Sam and Colby’s horrible experience last time, she has been dreading this trip. But she promised Colby that she would go with him. Colby pressed his lips to the top of her head again. He took in a long breath as he slowly rocked her body back and forth.

“I’m just scared,” she muttered. He pulled aways slightly to look her in the eyes. He raised his hand, resting it onto her cheek, he ran his thumb across her cheek for a few silent seconds. “I don’t want the same thing to happen as last time.”

“It won’t, I can promise you that,” he spoke softly as he continued to run his thumb along her cheek. His lips slowly grew into a wide smile while letting out a giggle. “Your cheeks are so warm,” he said happily as he raised his other hand and rested both of his hands onto her cheek. She snickered as she took a hold of his hands.

~~~

“Okay Buddy, mine’s the same size,” JC snapped as he rested his hand against the handprint on the wall of the closet. Colby took his hand away from the wall and laughed. Y/N smiled slightly as she glanced around the small creepy room.

“Can we get out of here?” Kian asked as he continued to play with his backpack straps. The group agreed and they slowly started out of the room. “That’s not a bathroom, JC,” Kian said loudly as he stepped out of the closet. Kian made eye contact with an older employee, who simply shook his head and kept walking.

Sam, Kian, and JC walked ahead towards their room; while Y/N and Colby hung back as they walked slower than them. “Are you feeling alright?” he asked as he reached for her hand. She interlocked her fingers with his as she glanced towards the floor.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight,” she chuckled while she tried to cover the fear in her voice. He nodded slightly.

“We never really sleep on these trips anyway,” Colby tried to comfort her, but he knows that she isn’t the biggest fan of these places. She shook her head as she slowly began to smile.

“I know, you end up texting me all night about how scary it is,” she teased. Colby huffed, pretending to be offended.

“I do not do that,” he said while he ran his fingers through his hair.

“Yes you do! You’re all like “Baby it’s so scary, like this thing happened and then this and then oh my god Babe we didn’t get it on camera but oh my god you had to be there” you’re very dramatic when you want to be,” she mimicked. He dropped her hand and crossed his arms over his chest.

“I am not dramatic,” he huffed, taking slower steps.

“You’re kinda proving my point,” she giggled while she took a hold of his arm and wrapped her arm around his. She interlocked her fingers with his as they continued walking.

“Why are you walking so slow, damn,” JC groaned from several feet ahead of them. Y/N looked up from the floor seeing the three of them standing facing them. Colby's mouth dropped open while he looked up towards the group. “We ain’t got all day, I’m hungry.”

~~~

The last thirty minutes were chaos. Kian and Colby got into a huge argument and it lasted for a while. Kian was accusing Colby of knocking on the door to try and spice up the video. When Colby kept saying he didn’t. Y/N saw how genuinely terrified Colby seemed, she knew that he didn’t. Yet Kian was convinced he did. JC was starting to get fed up with Sam about all of the stuff they were forcing them to do. Y/N sat in the middle, every so often one of them would bring her into the argument. This was supposed to be a ‘fun’ scary trip with her friends.

“For fuck sake! Kian, if Colby says he didn’t knock on the door, he didn’t do it. You are just trying to find any reason for it to not be true. Colby, stop arguing back about it, it isn’t helping; stop trying to prove some point. Sam, if JC doesn’t want to play the Ouija Board, he doesn’t fucking have to! And JC, stop saying Sam is forcing you to do this shit, you chose to come with!” Y/N interrupted the arguments that were happening. All four of them stared towards her, flabbergasted. After a few long awkward moments, she muttered, “Now fucking apologize to each other.”

The boys shifted glanced towards each other, before all muttering, “Sorry.”

“I’m going to go get some ice,” she continued as she took the empty ice bucket and left the room. As soon as she left the room, she felt the temperature change. She didn’t think too much of it as she walked toward the end of the hall. She smiled politely to a few fellow guests walking past her. She stood at the ice machine and began putting a few pieces of ice into her container.

Suddenly she felt goosebumps arise on the back of her neck; as if someone was blowing air against her skin. She whipped her head around seeing if anyone was there, and no one was behind her. Squinting her eyes, she turned her attention back to the freezer, that’s where the feeling had to come from. She topped off the container as she shut the freezer. She turned around, and began walking back towards her room with her gaze towards the floor.

After a few seconds she lifted her head to see a shadow for a split second. She furrowed her eyebrows as she squinted her eyes. Her mind had to be playing tricks on her, there was nothing there. Yet, her heart began to race faster. She began to take quicker steps towards the room they were staying at. But again, the blowing air feeling she felt before was back. This time her entire body went cold.

A small gasp left her lips as she fumbled with the key, she didn’t want to be in the hallway alone anymore. She re-entered the room to see them all laughing and playing fighting with each other. “Fucking boys, I swear,” she whispered to herself as the events she just had left her thoughts. She placed the ice on the table as she walked towards the bed. “Are you all okay now?” she asked as she sat down, running her hand over the back of her neck.

“Yep!” Sam cheered as he slowly placed the Ouija Board box on the ground. Y/N watched him, her heart began to race fast as she watched. “We are just about to start filming this,” he leaned down and began to unbox the set.

Colby laid down beside her, resting his head into her lap. Y/N smiled as she met his soft eyes. She slowly began to run her fingers through his hair, he shut his eyes at the feeling. “JC is out, are you going to do it?” Kian asked, wishing he could’ve backed out; but he had too much pride for that. Y/N took in a long breath as she nodded.

After about ten minutes of Sam setting up the two cameras, JC was sitting in the chair in the corner of the room scrolling through Twitter. Kian was pacing, he was nervous because he had never done this before. Colby was still resting his head in Y/N lap as she stroked her fingers through his hair. Y/N and Colby were whispering random cutsey things to each other tuning out the others in the room.

Sam slowly started the cameras, he snuck over towards them secretly filming them. “...No I was thinking we could-”

“Oh come on guys get a room!” Kian yelled beside Sam. Colby jolted looking towards the camera. He laughed nervously covering his face with his hands. Y/N shook her head slightly as she looked away from Sam and the camera. “We got some dead people to talk to!” Kian jumped slightly as he clapped. Y/N laughed as Colby slowly sat up from her lap.

~~~

They all took a long breath as they greeted the board as they rested their fingertips to the piece. Y/N kept her gaze towards Colby, hoping he would say something first. He nodded towards Sam as he whispered, “Is there anyone here with us?” For a few seconds the board didn’t move. Colby, being impatient, asked the board the same question. Almost immediately after his question the piece moved over to the ‘yes’.

Y/N felt air catch in her throat as she noticed the piece moving, she stared intently at each of their fingertips seeing if anyone was forcibly moving it, but from what she can tell there was nothing. Her heart was beating hard against her chest, while she glanced towards each of the boys beside her. “What is your name?” Sam asked.

It took awhile for the board to begin to move but it began to slowly move towards the R. They all read out the letters together as the board moved towards them, “R...U...T...H” Y/N felt her heart sink, she recognized that name. It was a popular name with the older generation. She put the thought to the back of her head.

Colby glanced towards Y/N, remembering the name of her family member, he also pushed the thought to the back of his head. “Did you die on this ship, Ruth?” Kian asked, right to the point. This time the board did not hesitate, it quickly moved towards the ‘no’.

“Oh my god,” Y/N whispered, her voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible.

“Then why are you talking with us?” Sam asked, trying to keep the conversation going for as long as he could. Y/N wanted to let go of the board, she wanted to throw it across the room. Several long seconds pass as they wait eagerly for the board to move. The board piece began to spell out Y/N’s name, as each letter was read the more their voices began to shake.

“Colby, are you doing this?” she asked furiously, her breathing was sporadic. She was confused. He shook his head, making sure he kept his hands on the piece.

“Why would I do this, Y/N?” his voice broke as his entire body was shivering. “She’s clearly here for you, ask it a question,” she stared towards him, her eyes filling with tears. The tears were unexplainable, she was filled with mixed fillings.

“Uh, okay,” she took in a long breath, “How do I know that this is really you?” she asked. It was a broad question, but she still had to ask it. She was hoping for an answer that Colby wouldn’t even know the answer to.

The board began to move again, slowly, “B...U...N...N...Y” the boys were staring at it confused, but Y/N eyes filled quickly with tears. “Oh god,” she let out as she stared towards the board.

“Bunny? What does that mean?” Colby asked, he desperately wanted to reach over to her and pull her into a hug, but he didn’t want to mess up the board.

“Why are you here?” Y/N ignored Colby’s question. Her voice cracked as she spoke, she was fighting off the tears. It had been years since she last spoke to her Grandma, she didn’t realize how much she missed her. At least she hoped this was truely her grandma.

The board quickly began to spell out, “S...A...V...E”

“Save? Save? What does that mean?” Colby asked, he wasn’t sure if he was asking the board or asking the group. The board quickly responded with spelling out, “B...A...D”

“I-I-I want to say goodbye,” she muttered, she looked up towards Colby. Her breathing began to quicken as she couldn’t fight off the tears anymore.

“But-” Sam spoke.

“I want to say goodbye!” she groaned. The group quickly spun the piece three times as they said goodbye. She lifted her hands from the board and quickly stood up from the floor. “Turn the cameras off, please,” she begged. Colby glanced towards Sam, as he quickly wrapped his arms around her. Sam quickly turned off the cameras, and began to put away all of the equipment. Kian and JC exchanged awkward glances as they looked towards Y/N and Colby.

“It’s going to be okay,” Colby whispered, “Come here,” he whispered, walking her towards the bed. They both laid down together.

“Well that was interesting,” Kian let out, trying to subdue the awkward silence. Colby gaze shot towards him, widening his eyes motioning towards Y/N. Kian’s mouth dropped open as he mouthed “Sorry,” as he leaned against the chair JC was sitting on.

It had been a couple hours since the Ouija Board, and Y/N was in shock. She kept asking Colby if he was pushing it, but he kept saying no. “I just want to know what she wants to save me from, I just don’t get it,” she let out, she kept running her finger along Colby’s shirt. For the last hour she was resting her head on his chest as they all discussed the events of the day.

“Probably, just some spirit that's on this ship, right?” Sam answered casually as he looked up from his phone briefly. She simply just hummed. “That’s kind of cool to think you have someone looking down on you,” he continued. Y/N smiled softly.

“It could’ve been a demon pretending to be your Grandma too, you know,” JC let out without thinking it through. Colby shifted his head towards JC with his eyes widened. He threw his free hand up while he shook his head, trying to warn him. Y/N was thinking about that fact too, “I saw something on Discovery channel that’s-”

“Just stop talking dude,” Kian interrupted as he lifted his gaze from his phone.

“I mean he’s right, that is something that could’ve happened,” she let out.

“How about we go with a guardian angel instead?” Colby whispered as he pressed his lips to the top of her head.

“Yeah, I like that better,” she whispered as she sat up slightly. She looked down towards Colby. She leaned down and pressed her lips against his. Sam, Kian, and Jc all began to pretend to gag.

“Get a room!” Sam yelled as he threw a pillow towards them.

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bookofmirth · 3 years ago

Note

Regarding your anti fandom ask, it’s not just limited to the sjm fandom! I’m in a couple other fandoms and it’s been going on for a while, a few years even. I suspect it’s only recently become more prominent in the sjm fandom because of how big the ship war has gotten. There hasn’t ever seemed to be a large scale disagreement of this size in the fandom before, we all generally got along and liked mostly the same ships. Even when we disagreed, there wasn’t as much hostility as there is now. I don’t like lysaedion and I remember posting about a koa scene I took issue with in the tag, but I never got slammed by lysaedion shippers trying to convince me to like them or giving death threats. Now though? If I were to post anything critical of any acotar ship or character - nessian or feysand or elain or lucien or azriel - I doubt anyone in the fandom would be willing to engage in a respectful discussion where we can both try to share our views even if we agree to disagree.

Like on one hand, I do like that the tagging system allows us to curate our own fandom experience. I don’t particularly like looking in the tag of my favorite ship and being bombarded with posts from people who hate it. On the other hand though, it seems to detract from actually engaging in discussions and analysis with people we disagree with, instead sheltering everyone in their own little ship bubble. Idk it’s complicated.

In my other fandoms, I’ve noticed anti tags becoming more common with the anti shipper and pro shipper wars, which I feel like is also on the rise on the acotar fandom. I’m sure you’re already aware, if you aren’t I’d highly recommend looking it up yourself, but basically anti shippers believe in policing content that they view as morally depraved and problematic, while proshippers believe everyone is entitled to make the content they want and if you dislike it you shouldn’t engage with it. The issue lies with the ambiguity of defining what is considered “problematic” content. Incest and pedophilia, sure, but what about when it’s fanfic of a 17 year old mc of a ya fantasy novel who falls in love with an immortal man? Should that be censored because it’s pedophilia? What about fanfic writers that venture into dubcon and cnc territory? Are they influencing young readers and promoting rape culture, or are they merely exploring kinks and adult fantasies in a healthy manner? How far should writers be allowed to go in their writing under the excuse of it being a coping mechanism? Are platforms like ao3 promoting racism and misogyny and homophobia by refusing to censor works that contain this content through a favorable lens? Antis seem to always lie on the side of censorship to protect others, while proshippers believe you should be responsible for curating your own experience and blocking content you dislike as you see fit.

Most of the time when people use anti tags they aren’t referencing this large scale debate, many proshippers even advocate the use of anti tags so you aren’t exposed to content you don’t want to see. But I do think that this argument between the two sides of the tumblr content war is contributing to why tagging things appropriately is becoming more of a social norm in fandom. And I’ve also noticed many people in the ship war using anti language against the opposing ship - for example, gwynriels saying that elriel is problematic and toxic and would send a bad message to readers about romance, and elriels saying that elucien is problematic and misogynistic by taking away elain’s agency. In both of these scenarios, shippers are co-opting buzzwords to give themselves a sense of moral superiority over other shippers, without looking at the nuances of both sides. It’s hard to distinguish between the two when you don’t know if people in the anti ship or anti character tags are using those to say “here is why I dislike this ship/character and I’m using this tag so fans of this character/ship don’t have to see it” vs. “this is why I believe anyone who supports this ship/character is a terrible person.” It’s getting even more confusing since anti sjm blogs use the same anti tags - so if you look at the anti nesta tag, for example, it’s filled with a mix of people - some making respectful criticisms of how her character arc was written, some claiming she’s a horrible person and anyone who supports her is an abuse apologist, and some claiming nesta should just burn the inner circle to the ground and how they think sjm ruined her.

Anyway, it’s a very confusing, complicated issue that extends beyond just the realm of this fandom. I hope this made at least some sense, lol I’m sorry it’s like a full on essay, feel free to ignore it if you don’t feel like reading it all (I wouldn’t blame you lmao).

I meant to answer this the next day and that was five days ago!!!! Between the two of us, anon, people are going to be scrolling for days.

it’s not just limited to the sjm fandom! I’m in a couple other fandoms and it’s been going on for a while, a few years even.

Hmmm... I have mixed feelings about this! Very mixed. It seems like what was once a good way to make people aware of the type of content they would encounter, or to help them avoid the content they want to avoid, is now being used to create extreme echo chambers.

it seems to detract from actually engaging in discussions and analysis with people we disagree with, instead sheltering everyone in their own little ship bubble.

Yeah that.

I'm still working under the assumption that if you're in the fandom, you generally like the thing. If I tag something #azriel, I don't feel like I need to specify whether I am being Nice or Mean about him, because... it's more complex than that? Or if I tag something #elucien, that doesn't mean that I can't say something critical of Elain or Lucien. There just isn't a way, imo, to categorize all opinions or content in that way. What if I say that Nesta is a bitch and she's also a badass. What would I tag that? What if I just tag it Nesta and assume that people interacting with my post can decide what to do from there. Block me if you want, idgaf!

I find this all super interesting, and yes I agree with everything you said about anti fandoms, and it's why I am never going to be an anti. Not in the traditional "I'm going to spend my life shitting on this thing and trying to convince other people it sucks and they should hate it too" style. I have plenty of stuff I don't like, but idgaf if other people like it.

Even when we disagreed, there wasn’t as much hostility as there is now.

Absolutely. So funny story, but a bunch of us got an ask yesterday about someone supposedly "infiltrating" the fandom, and then a blog encouraging that behavior, and blah blah blah. I will make a separate post about it. Point is, this person supposedly assumes that because they like e*riel, the fact that gwynriels follow them is super funny?

But whoever this person is... did they know that we can like nessian, or cazriel, or whatever, and STILL BE MUTUALs. Surprise bitch, but I don't agree with every single opinion of every single mutual that I have! I don't expect my followers to agree with everything I say either! Okay that's all I will say on that because that's a separate issue, but related to the hostility you mentioned.

I’m sure you’re already aware, if you aren’t I’d highly recommend looking it up yourself, but basically anti shippers believe in policing content that they view as morally depraved and problematic, while proshippers believe everyone is entitled to make the content they want and if you dislike it you shouldn’t engage with it. The issue lies with the ambiguity of defining what is considered “problematic” content. Incest and pedophilia, sure, but what about when it’s fanfic of a 17 year old mc of a ya fantasy novel who falls in love with an immortal man? Should that be censored because it’s pedophilia? What about fanfic writers that venture into dubcon and cnc territory? Are they influencing young readers and promoting rape culture, or are they merely exploring kinks and adult fantasies in a healthy manner? How far should writers be allowed to go in their writing under the excuse of it being a coping mechanism? Are platforms like ao3 promoting racism and misogyny and homophobia by refusing to censor works that contain this content through a favorable lens?

Sorry this quote is really long that I am highlighting but ALL OF THIS. I've been looking for posts about anti fandoms and you made me realize that really what I should be looking for are my posts about AO3 and censorship, because that's what all of this comes down to. When I say I am anti anti that means I really, really don't like anti fandoms, and that's why I started the tag sjm critical (which I have noticed has gained traction and I appreciate that).

For example, people who are anti rowaelin (which caused me to unfollow the tag years ago) don't just dislike the ship, they don't just think it's abusive lol, they think that sjm is a horrible person for writing it and that the only valid ships are those which are healthy and perfect. They don't like age gaps, they require explicit consent, they relationship must also be social justice-worthy. In other words, the only good ship in these contexts are ones that meet this insane standard of "have never done anything even slightly negative ever and if they did, then they immediately atoned for it and tried to teach the audience a valuable lesson about being a Good Person".

Also, re: anti rowaelin, when I was encountering a lot of that content there was no ship war, they were canon, they were together, and so the only reason for people to post anti rowaelin content wasn't because there was an actual, viable debate around it, like we are currently seeing with the e*riel/elucien/gwynriel ship war. People just didn't like rowaelin and were spending their time intentionally hating on something that was already fact. That's why it's different from antielriel, or anti elucien or anti gwynriel.

However... There is overlap between anti talking points (in the "I hate this thing and you should too" way) and the current ship war. They are, as you said, "policing content that they view as morally depraved and problematic". They will be "anti elucien" because the mating bond takes away choice (even though the series doesn't actually bear that out). They are "anti gwynriel" because of the (non-existent) power imbalance. It's not enough to have a valid reason to dislike it, they have to turn it into a moral purity contest.

And so when people use "anti character", that's why I'm like y'all... do you realize the baggage that comes with that tag? With the concept of being anti? Is this really the stance you're trying to take, or is this just your personal opinion or squick? There's just a much larger fandom history and context that is loaded into that phrase "anti", and I don't know if people always realize that.

I think that's the thing that I hate the most, and the thing that idk if people are intentionally wading into. Ships don't have to be healthy or pure or even consensual. They could be abusive and have age gaps and whatever. Acting like shipping makes one (real) person better than another is what drives me freaking crazy, and that's what anti fandoms bring into the discussion.

It’s hard to distinguish between the two when you don’t know if people in the anti ship or anti character tags are using those to say “here is why I dislike this ship/character and I’m using this tag so fans of this character/ship don’t have to see it” vs. “this is why I believe anyone who supports this ship/character is a terrible person.”

Yeah and that too - I use antielriel and censor the name because I don't want people to find content that they won't like. I have zero interest in changing anyone's mind, though. And while I find the ship potentially icky, that's my personal opinion and I don't think that says anything about the people who ship it. I have my share of "problematic" ships so I am definitely not out here trying to convince anyone to convert to the But Is It Moral way of thinking about ships.

I think another confounding factor is the way that ship names are used interchangeably to refer to both the ship, and the people who ship it. Yeah it's a quick easy shorthand, but when I say "e*riel would bring out the worst in one another", I am making a statement about those characters, not anyone who ships it. And yet, I guess people think I am shaming them or something.

This is why occasionally I'm like "FICTION VERSUS REALITY" or "fictional characters are not real!" It's mainly to remind people that when I make a statement about a character, it has nothing to do with people who like or dislike said character.

From a discourse community perspective (in the linguistics sense) it's really interesting to see how people take control of the ways in which we communicate and access or restrict content. I definitely appreciate that people have created these tools for us to curate our experiences online, and I use them so that other people can do what they need with my content, and so I can find things myself. It's just when the tags are used ambiguously, in ways that don't seem to account for fandom history or where those tags came from, that I'm like but wait. Are we playing the Who Is A Better Person game, or are you just trying to be organized.

#fandom things #ask #anon #acotar fandom #long post tag

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lardguz · 4 years ago

Text

The Aegis's Master Plan

I'm posting this story from the mobile app because I can't access my laptop until later today, but! I've been chipping away at this stupid story for months now, I started it way before the last story I posted. I kind of wrote myself into a corner by getting both Mal//os and J//in at sizes I had never really written before and then... Kept going. So it took me a really, really long time and lots of writers block to finally figure out how to finish it. But, I did! I think. I can't remember if I ever like, wrapped the story properly because the file is so goddamn big. ^^;

Regardless, I hope you guys enjoy two very homoerotic antagonists stuffing each others faces!

The Monoceros. A huge mechanical marvel of a warship, unlike any other that the nations of Alrest used for their transport. This metal beast of a ship didn’t rely on Titans to move, instead roaming the Cloud Sea unfettered by any lifeform. Within the black metal armor of the craft lay the secret base of the Blade terrorist group, New Torna. The leader of the ragtag group, the Flesh Eater named Jin, was currently preoccupied with matters other than freeing Blades and Core Crystals from those who would abuse them.

The long-haired man stood in the Monoceros’s kitchen, cooking up a storm. Three serving carts piled high already with his culinary crafts, he was working on loading up the fourth and final cart with the last of the dishes he had planned for the evening. This much food was usually only prepared for huge feasts for royalty, or small armies, but Jin had only one dining partner this evening. Said dining partner was currently heckling him from outside in the mess hall.

“Hey, Jin! How much longer is dinner gonna take, anyways?! You’d think 500 years of perfecting your technique would make you cook faster than the average human child, hah!” called the loud, brash voice of Malos, the Aegis himself, and Jin’s second-in-command in leading New Torna.

The white-haired Blade groaned as he plated some Gormotti Sashimi, and called back in an even tone that didn’t betray his frustration with his partner. “I’m almost done, Malos, would you please be patient? You requested a lot more food than I am generally used to preparing at once.”

“Well, what can I say?,” the sarcastic voice bellowed back, “Regaining my full Aegis powers made me really damned hungry. And you do not want to be on my bad side when I’m hungry, so HURRY IT UP.”

Jin sighed and resigned himself to his position, when a brilliant idea struck. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small pouch. The quiet man had stolen this appetite-enhancement powder out of the barracks of the Ardainain warship he had stormed on his own a while back. Some private must have stashed it away to help gain muscle mass in training exercises. Maybe I could use this to get back at Malos for all the shit he’s constantly putting me through… thought Jin. Without missing a beat, he opened the pouch and began sprinkling its contents liberally over every single dish he had prepared for the evening. His cunning plan now in motion, Jin began wheeling the massive feast out to the dining hall, where Malos sat waiting for him.

The darkly-armored Blade sat reclined in his wooden chair, his boots kicked up on the banquet table. He sneered as Jin began putting all the beautiful dishes he’d spent all day cooking on the table. “So this is the best food Alrest has to offer, huh? Certainly doesn’t look like much, Jin. You sure this will please an Aegis like me?” Jin nodded, respectfully and impassive, refusing to reveal his intentions with his expression. Malos chuckled, and pulled a plate of Ruska Dumplings toward himself. “Guess I’ll just have to see for myself, then!” Grasping a dumpling in his armored hand, he popped it into his mouth, chewing contemplatively. His eyes opened slowly, and he spoke around the dumpling. “Hey, that’s not half bad. I think I’ll eat the rest of these if you don’t mind, Jin.”

“No, go ahead, Malos. Feel free to enjoy until you’re satisfied.” Jin responded softly, as he began moving some more of the plates within reach of the hungry Aegis. He observed silently as Malos demolished the plate of dumplings and immediately moved onto the next dish, a plate of grilled salmon with herbs, without even making any of his usual sarcastic comments. That powder really shut him up, Jin silently mused, when he noticed something else. It seemed like his appetite wasn’t the only thing the powder was effecting. The Aegis’s once-strong and muscular body seemed to be growing softer before Jin’s very eyes. As Malos polished off the salmon and moved onto a plate of Cinnopon Rolls, some of the armor plating his body snapped off and clattered to the floor, allowing his partner to get a better look at his growth.

The first thing Jin noticed was that Malos’s stomach was much, much larger than it was before. The soft, flabby mass was resting comfortably on his thighs, the stretchy bodysuit he wore under his armor not doing anything to hold it back. His thighs were also softening considerably, and Jin couldn’t resist pinching the plush fat that now coated them, nodding approvingly as his fingers sunk in about two inches deep. The Aegis’s ass, once well-toned and round, was now squarish in shape, the cheeks losing their form and squishing into the back of the dining chair, threatening to droop off the edges along with his fat thighs if he kept up the rate he was devouring his solo feast. His arms were also getting bigger and softer, and his formerly toned pecs were now budding into a magnificent pair of breasts, resting comfortably atop his growing gut. His Core Crystal was nestled comfortably between each moob, and Jin wondered how visible it would be in a few hours. Malos’s face, which not long ago was rather sharp and intimidating, now undeniably had a certain rounded softness to it, his cheeks puffing out just a little bit, and a double chin peeking out any time he chewed on his food. Jin began massaging his boyfriend’s shoulders softly, feeling the fat between his fingers and getting an unexpected thrill of delight from it. He realized this was no longer about payback, but wanting to get his partner as big as he possibly could, and knowing he was an Aegis, that was probably a pretty high ceiling to reach.

Jin leaned forward to whisper in Malos’s ear from where he stood behind the growing Blade. “Are you enjoying the meal, Malos?” he asked softly. Malos laughed around a mouthful of roasted poultry. “Hah! What, can’t you tell? This food is suiting my needs just fine, Jin. Why, d’you want some too?”

Jin hesitated. “Oh, no, I’m fine. I made this all especially for you, remember?”

Malos nodded, taking another massive bite of the drumstick in front of his face. “Yeah, yeah, I know. But I feel like you really earned this, ya know?” The Aegis chuckled darkly as he made his move.

With alarming speed for one as fat as he was, Malos spun around in his chair and grabbed both Jin’s wrists, forcing him to the floor. Jin let out a yell of surprise that was cut short as Malos landed on top of him, his massive weight pinning him and knocking the wind out of his lungs. Malos smirked deviously. “You really thought I didn’t notice the food was off?! You idiot, I’m the Master Blade, of course I noticed you messed with my food! Which means…” Malos reached for a plate of Lovemerry Cake, grabbing a fistful of the sweet confection and shoving it into Jin’s open mouth. “You’re gonna be enjoying this lovely meal with me, Jin! It’s just not fair for you to not get to taste your own delightful cooking too, after all! If I’m gonna be a total fatass, I’m taking you down with me, asshole.” After shoving the entire cake, handful by handful, into Jin’s desperately resisting mouth, Malos hoisted his bulk off of his boyfriend, delighted to see a slight bulge of a new tummy growing on the Flesh Eater’s abdomen. Jin shakily rose from the floor and automatically made his way towards the other end of the banquet table, pulling the nearest plates close to him and immediately digging in without comment. Malos snorted and sat back down in his seat, the wood creaking under his already sizable ass. “I’m not letting you upstage me in this one, though, Jin. You’re never gonna outgrow an Aegis.”

The two men feasted in silence, the only sounds the scraping of silverware on plates, the loud smacking of lips, and frantic chewing as the appetite enhancing powder caused their stomachs to scream for more and more food. Jin was mostly gaining weight in his lower half, his titanic thigh rolls and enormous ass cheeks seemingly swallowing his wooden dining chair whole, their flab overflowing and dangling over its edges easily. His gut, which was still large but not nearly as big as his beanbag-sized cheeks, oozed over his tree trunk thick thighs, seeping between them and forcing them further and further apart. The white-haired Blade’s clothes were ripping at the seams all over his growing form, as he stared across the table at his partner. Malos was a Blade of his word, to be sure, and was not letting Jin catch up to his growth at all. The massive man had surpassed a double chin and had moved to triple, his cheeks starting to droop into fat-laden jowls that ruined his once-menacing expressions. His neck was lost under a ring of fat that looked like a small tire around his face. Malos must have fully burst out of his bodysuit a while ago, his mountainous bulk no longer able to be contained within its confines. His breasts sagged down either side of his triple-decker gut, each one larger than any female Blade’s boobs in existence. His arms were covered with jiggling fat that drooped off his biceps, slapping heavily against his numerous side rolls and his moobs every time he brought food up to his fat mouth. His gut was split into three rolls, which cascaded down his front and pooled in his wide lap. The dark Aegis’s flabby gut was definitely his largest asset, even the topmost roll large enough for a Tirkin to sleep on comfortably after only a few hours of feasting. The middle and bottom rolls split where his belly button once was, the fat from the middle roll folding over it and making a crevasse that would only get larger and deeper the more he ate. His meaty love handles stuck out to the sides of his massive belly, the side rolls they formed impeding him from placing his pillowy arms straight down at his sides, forcing them to rest at an angle in the brief moments he wasn’t stuffing food into his greedy maw. While his lower half wasn’t nearly as large as Jin’s would be when he eventually caught up to his current weight, Malos’s lard-laden ass and dimpled thighs still overflowed out of the tiny wooden chair he was in. He actually registered in his mind that his enormous asscheeks were almost definitely stuck in said chair, which was creaking and groaning constantly under his prodigious behind. He suddenly had an idea to keep the chair inevitably breaking under him from being an issue and heaved himself onto his feet.

Malos waddled his way out of the mess hall, leaving Jin behind to continue eating on his own. The round Aegis had to shuffle his massive thighs past each other with each step, the inner rolls rubbing against each other no matter how far apart he kept his legs. The lowest roll of his stomach slapped against his knees as he wandered around the halls of the Monoceros, looking for any of the other Torna members. Unfortunately for Malos, the first one he found was the one he least wanted to see right now.

Mikhail, the blonde skirt-chasing scoundrel of their group, was leaning against a terminal, punching something in on the keyboard. Hearing the huffing breaths coming from a bit of a ways down the hall, he turned toward the noise's source and saw Malos’s morbidly obese form and couldn’t hold back a snort of amusement. “Whoaaaah, Malos?! What happened to you? You look like you must’ve ate an entire Ardun by yourself!” Malos groaned. “Mikhail, please. For once in your life, shut the fuck up.”

Mikhail looked playfully hurt by this statement, and cried back in response, “Boss, I’m hurt! I was just saying you look even bigger than last time I saw you! Why are you being so mean to m—GAAAH!!” The blonde man didn’t get to finish his sentence as Malos made his move, pushing his entire body against Mikhail’s and using his massive gut to pin the smaller man to the wall. He leaned his blubbery face in close to Mikhail’s and snarled, “I told you. To shut. The fuck. Up. Got it?” Mik nodded, his cheeks flushing bright pink as he felt Malos’s body enveloping his own. “Good. Now here’s what I need you to do. Go grab two benches from the storage room. The ones meant to sit four people. Bring them to the mess hall as fast as possible, or so help me, I will crush you like the worm you are, got it?”

By the time Malos managed to waddle his way back to the mess hall, the benches had already been brought in, and Jin was planted firmly in his. To Malos’s disgust, he realized that Jin had surpassed him in size while he was gone. The white-haired Blade’s enormous, shapeless ass was already starting to get close to overflowing the bench he was sat upon, with the fat of his massive thighs making his legs look roughly the size of a particularly old Puzzlewood tree from Gormott. Malos moved as fast as his overburdened legs could take him to his bench and began stuffing food into his face at double speed, chewing frantically to make sure his boyfriend didn’t end up larger than him. They kept feasting long into the night, even after the benches shattered beneath their respective bulks, leaving them to shift their nearly-immobile bodies onto the table so they could continue reaching the food with their fattened hands. Being Blades, and incredibly powerful ones at that, they retained movement in their arms for much longer than most, long past when they both were immobilized by their own corpulence. Their multitude of chins and neck rolls blended seamlessly into each other, their drooping jowls wobbling and smacking loudly every time they chewed, and their cheeks so fat that they started to impede their vision slightly. Their massive moobs pressed into their neck rolls, giving the impression that their faces were sinking slowly into their own fat. The only thing hindering their powerful Blade arms from accessing food readily was the fact that their fattened hands were starting to sink into their fat as well, their flabby pillows of arm fat starting to absorb them at the wrists. Their legs had already done the same to their feet, the dimpled lard of their calves already collapsing over their ankles about an hour ago, preventing either of them from being able to even waddle ever again. Even if their feet were visible, though, they wouldn’t be able to touch the ground. Even Malos’s comparably small ass was still a veritable mountain of adipose, lifting him off the ground by about half a foot already, each cheek the size of a couch and steadily spreading out under him. His massive gut spread even further, its numerous rolls spreading out underneath him as he strained his overencumbered arms to try and reach the dishes that were closer towards the middle of the banquet table. Jin’s gut was nowhere near as huge as Malos’s, but his massive ass cheeks pushed him about a foot and a half off the ground, making it just as difficult for his fat-covered arms to reach the tantalizing feast near the center of the table. Both Blades soon surrendered, wobbling futilely as they fell back, unable to move anymore due to the lard encasing their once-powerful bodies.

Malos was wheezing for breath, the strain of leaning forward even too much for him now. His boyfriend was in a similar state, face flushed crimson as he huffed to regain his composure. The Aegis breathlessly spoke to Jin from where they both sat with the table and its forbidden meal between them. “H-hey, Jin. I think… haah… we might need… huff… to ask some of th-the others… haah… for h—urp, help… finishing this.”

Jin tried to nod in agreement, but with his face and neck caked in fat the way they were, all he could manage was wobbling his face fat instead. “Yeah, th-that sounds… huff… like our b-best… haah, haah… option, Malos. Should I… hnngh… call for them?”

Malos only belched in response, which Jin decided to take as a “yes”, and he sent out a mental signal to Mikhail and Akhos to come to the banquet hall at once. As soon as they both arrived, to quell any sass or small talk from the two particularly condescending Flesh Eaters, Malos cast a quick Monado Enchant on them and gave them their new instructions: to feed himself and Jin the rest of the many plates of food on the table in silence. Akhos immediately moved to grab plates and began climbing his way up to where Jin’s face was being slowly buried in between his breasts and back rolls, while Mikhail did the same for Malos’s mountainous form.

The two men continued to grow and grow the more they were fed, their hands now long ago absorbed into their arms’ fat rolls. Malos’s titanic stomach overtook the table, crushing it underneath its enormous weight. Thankfully Mikhail and Akhos had already moved the remaining plates onto the guts of their two leaders, which had long since become large enough to be used as a table anyways. Jin, with five crab skewers in his fat mouth at once, realized that he could feel his rear pressing against something, but since his face was so sunken into his own fat, he couldn’t even begin to move his head to see. Even if he could turn his head, all he would have seen was his boulder-sized ass cheeks and his cascading rolls of back fat that led down to them. His gut, while smaller than his partner’s, was still enormous, and was slowly getting pushed under Malos’s much larger and more expansive stomach rolls. The Aegis currently was having an entire four-tiered cake shoved into his mouth piece by piece and loving every second, reveling in feeling every inch of his flab creeping further and further across the room. He felt more powerful than he had ever felt in his life as the Aegis.

After hours and hours of feeding and eating, finally, the two Torna leaders were finished with their feast, and sat in the aftermath of their massive gain. The only thing Jin could see past his flabby cheeks that took up most of his vision was the ceiling directly above him, as everything else he could see was his own soft pale flesh. His miniscule face was nestled deeply between a valley of his massive jowls, his flabby back rolls, and his cascading chins and neck fat. His breasts sat atop his enormous gut, each one larger than the table that he originally placed the feast on was before it was crushed under his and Malos’s combined weight. The rings of fat next to his breasts that were once his arms contained no signs of once being able to wield a katana expertly, now uselessly huge with his fingers and hands swallowed up beneath the rolls of adipose covering them. His gut was mostly eclipsed by Malos’s enormous stomach rolls, but Jin’s ass and thighs were his biggest asset by far, both of which were so massively obese that they spread across the room and pressed firmly against the metal walls and ceiling of the Monoceros’s mess hall, threatening to crush them under the weight of his titanic ass fat if he ate any more food.

Malos was in a similar state, though he had definitely surpassed Jin in sheer size. Not that it really made a difference when both Blades were huge enough to fill the entire mess hall between them. Malos’s blob of a body towered over Jin’s, his wobbling mountain of a gut covering almost every inch of his side of the room and squishing up against Jin’s comparably-smaller stomach rolls, waves of pillowy flab spreading all over. The Aegis’s core crystal was nestled between his two boulder-sized moobs, still perfectly present despite the sea of soft fat around it. Malos’s face, however, was much less visible, the once-sharp and intimidating features now buried between enormous flabby jowls, rippling chins and neck rolls, and hefty rolls of back fat that already threatened to crash over onto his face. The black haired man wiggled his fingers from where he could feel them buried under the incredible amounts of lard that coated his arms, chuckling deeply as he realized he could still move them despite his hands being absorbed into his arm fat hours ago. Suddenly, his core began glowing with a purple light that enveloped the fat rolls that were once his arms, which then flowed over to his partner, Jin, covering his entire corpulent form with a glow of dark energy.

Jin groaned as his body started wobbling, every fold and roll rippling and slapping against each other loudly. Suddenly, the light dissipated, and the white haired Blade felt… strange. He almost felt lighter, despite being thousands of pounds overweight now. He squinted his icy blue eyes, trying to peer past his overfed cheeks to look at his boyfriend, Malos. He could make out the pale blob that was now the Aegis’s body across from him, and he heard deep, almost maniacal laugher coming from the mound of flab, which sent the entire expanse of fat wobbling all over. Malos spoke, his voice deepened significantly by all the fat caking his neck, and his words slurred from his incredibly flabby cheeks and pudgy lips making talking all the more difficult.

“Sho… Jhin… Hah doesh ih—hnnnnhhhh—feeuhl… tuh hahve—nnnnghhh—th’ pohwehsh… ohf an Aegish…?” Malos had to pause frequently to wheeze between words, the weight of his body making speaking and breathing at the same time a difficulty. Jin grunted in confusion. What did he mean, the powers of an Aegis? Malos laughed again, his drooping breasts wobbling like pendulums with each booming sound. “Youh… hahven'… fihgurhed ih—haaaaah… haaaahhh…-- ouht? Shtahnd… uhp… Jhin… an’ cohme… tuh meh…” The Aegis stopped talking, opting instead to gasp for breath, exhausted from exerting himself by just talking for a few seconds. Jin sat there in shock, wondering how the hell Malos expected him to stand up at his size. But then he remember that he did feel lighter somehow after Malos did whatever it was he just did, so the Blade attempted to move his presumed-useless legs.

Jin was surprised to find that his legs did in fact move, and he was easily able to shift his room-wide bulk into a standing position somehow. The resulting movement of his enormous rear end slapped both hills of lard into the wall of the dining hall, making the entire room echo with the sound of their bulk clapping against the cold metal. Jin hesitantly began shuffling his bloblike body towards his boyfriend’s immobile form, inching his carriage-sized legs past each other painfully slowly, the entire expanse of his body rippling with every slight move he made. His stomach, leg rolls, and ass cheeks all dragged along the floor, making the journey all the more difficult even with the strength of an Aegis making it possible for him to move at his incredible size. Eventually, Jin stood at the base of Mount Malos. He heard his boyfriend’s voice, smug as ever even with the weight affecting his speech, echoing from above him. “Haaaaah… ekshellehnt… Naoh… Ah—hnnnngh—neehd youh… tuh… clihmb uhp—hhhhhnnn—tuh mah… mouff…” Jin grunted in confirmation, moving his fat-swaddled arm rolls experimentally. They responded to his movements despite being disgustingly overfed, his hands still buried under their rolls, but it was enough for Jin to be able to climb the massive, wobbling expanse of Malos’s stomach rolls. It made for very slippery going, with one not-insignificantly smaller blob of a man climbing another one. Jin’s oversized arms and legs sank deep into Malos’s soft belly, the leader of New Torna feeling like he was going to fall into a crevasse of body folds and never be found again. Their fatty bodies slapped against each other loudly as Jin slowly ascended, every inch of their bodies shifting endlessly with waves of movement. Finally, Jin found his blob of a body perched atop Malos’s chest, gazing into his boyfriend’s cold gray eyes, surrounded by the sea of fat covering his entire face. Malos grinned, his eyes almost disappearing behind the creases of fat that formed when he did so. “Sho… naishe—haaaah—tuh shee yuh… agaihn… shekshy—hnnnngh—Reahdy tuh… fihnush thish?” The Aegis said, looking almost ecstatic that his plan had progressed this far, whatever it was. Jin nodded, or did as close to a nod as he could manage at his size. Malos explained through wheezing breaths that the true power of an Aegis granted him the ability to make whatever he wanted reality. He had given Jin some of that power to help make him bigger than any Titan or even the World Tree itself, so that he could fulfill his desire to destroy Alrest by crushing it beneath his own continental sized body. Jin agreed, lifting his sagging arm rolls and conjuring a flow of food to enter Malos’s waiting mouth. The Aegis moaned in satisfaction, readily gulping down anything that came near his greedy maw.

Rex and his companions were visiting his hometown of Fonsett Village to recuperate after their last encounter with New Torna. The Driver of the other Aegis, Mythra, sat on the overlook that he and his friends from the village had jumped off of into the Cloud Sea an uncountable number of times, watching the sun set as it bathed the clouds in a golden glow. Rex heard footsteps in the grass behind him and turned to see who was approaching. His eyes met those of the Gormotti Driver, Nia, who he’d been traveling with since the very beginning of his journey. The brown-haired boy grinned at her and patted the grass next to him. “Oh, hey there, Nia! C’mon, come sit and watch the sunset with me! Fonsett has the best sunsets you’ve ever seen!”

Nia scoffed, rolling her yellow eyes, her cat ears twitching with amusement at the boy’s enthusiasm. “I swear, Rex, yet such a kid sometimes! But, sure, why not? Sunsets ain’t really a thing I ever got tae enjoy much in my life.” She sat down next to him, crossing her legs beneath her and placing her hands on her knees.

Rex looked over at her, examining the look of quiet concern on the girl’s face as she stared at the clouds below. He piped up gently. “Nia, is something the matter? You look like somethin’s botherin’ you.” She closed her eyes and smiled wryly before responding. “Aye, nothin’ gets past ye, does it, Rex? I was thinkin’ about Malos and Jin.”

Rex tilted his head a little in confusion. “Jin and Malos? Why? Are you worried about ‘em or something? Do you miss ‘em?”

“Miss ‘em?! Pfft!” Nia snorted, “Of course I don’t miss ‘em, they were a right couple’a tossers. I was jus’ thinkin’ that somethin’ don’t seem right. I feel like they might be up tae nae good. I just feel somethin’… off in the air I guess? Somethin’… big?”

Rex clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth a few times before replying. “You know, I was thinking the exact same thing earlier. I feel something off in the air, too. Like the flow of ether energy in the air is… growing? Or maybe shrinking? I dunno. But maybe you might be right, and it’s something to do with them.”

Nia was about to theorize some more when she stopped, her ears perking as she looked off on the horizon. “Oi, Rex, d’ye see that there off in the distance?” She pointed to a large shape flying high above the Cloud Sea. Rex looked, squinting to see it better as it was so far away. “Is that… The Monoceros?!” He exclaimed in shock. Nia nodded. “Aye, that’s what I thought, too. Doesn’t it look a little off tae ye, though?”

Rex peered at the battle ship of New Torna and realized it looked… misshapen. The metal hull seemed to be bulging weirdly in places, and it also seemed like its flight path was sinking slowly, like something was weighing it down from within. “That’s odd. Why’s it look like that, do you reckon, Nia?” The girl shrugged. Rex looked back and noticed, now that it was a little closer, that some of the metal plating of the hill was coming apart at the seams, and something pale and soft was oozing out of the gaps. One panel fell off entirely, and in its place burst out a wobbling pillow of soft material, almost like a bubble of some kind. The two young Drivers looked at each other in confusing and worry as they watched the Monoceros fall apart piece by piece as it sunk closer and closer to the clouds below, revealing more and more of the strange, pale mass contained within the ship. “That definitely wasn’t there when I was still with Torna…” Nia murmured, “What the ‘Ell is goin’ on…”

Suddenly, the air was split with the shriek of breaking metal, as the entire remains of the Monoceros burst open, sending two indistinct shapes, one at least twenty times larger than the other, plummeting into the Cloud Sea. The smaller blob-shaped object landed on top of the much larger one with a resounding meaty slap, sending rippling shockwaves all over its form. The enormous wobbling mass floated suspended in the clouds, while Nia and Rex tried to figure out what it was. That was when they realized the shape was growing larger at an alarming rate. Rex looked at Nia, his eyes panicked. “Uh, Nia? We should probably evacuate everyone in Fonsett to safety. Whatever that thing is, it’s getting bigger by the second!” Nia nodded and the two ran off to the village to gather everyone together.

Jin sat on top of his boyfriend’s uncountable chins and neck rolls, thrilling in the feeling of his own massive expanse of rolls sinking into the even softer and ever-growing fat of the Aegis himself. One wouldn’t even be able to tell the acres of soft, pale flab were a Blade unless they got very, very close. Malos was completely unrecognizable, any semblance of a humanoid form long buried beneath tons upon tons of adipose. His gigantic mountain of stomach rolls spread for miles and miles across the Cloud Sea, blanketing the thick, puffy clouds with even thicker, softer, heavier fat rolls. Malos’s monumentally sized ass cheeks, each one now bigger than any inhabitable Titan, stretched out behind him for almost as far as his incredible gut did. The mounds of adipose that were once his legs were ringed with soft, dimpled fat rolls, completely unrecognizable as anything that once resembled a leg. His piles of pudgy love handles had reached the hundreds now, looking like a stack of floppy pancakes leading up to his enormous chest. Malos’s breasts were astonishingly huge, large enough to crush the entirety of Alba Cavanich under just one of them easily, each one weighing at least over ten tons. His face was barely visible anymore, between the boulder-sized jowls drooping down the sides of his face and impeding his vision greatly, his rings of hundreds of flabby, wobbling chins and neck rolls, and the cascade of back fat that was crashing down on his face from above. The Aegis’s mouth was constantly occupied with an endless deluge of fattening foods conjured up by Jin’s new powers, Malos’s mouth constantly stretched to its limits by the sheer amount of dishes crammed between his overfed cheeks,. He had no time to talk anymore, not when he was eating constantly to grow larger and larger and eventually crush all of Alrest beneath his massive blob of a body, but then again, why would he ever want to waste time talking? Becoming the largest Blade in all of Alrest was truly a calling worthy of the Master Blade himself.

#male weight gain #ssbhm #fat!xenoblade #fat!malos #fat!jin #my writing #holy shit this was an ordeal to write #why did i think it was a good idea to try writing such massive sizes for the first time? fuck knows

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killian-whump · 5 years ago

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Okay, so please forgive me if any of this is rambly or grammatically incorrect or whatever, because I literally just woke up and I had THE best and most amazing dream ever and I really wanna share it with you guys before I forget any of it.

OKAY so it was a long ass dream, and I’m not going to bore you guys with all the details of the beginning part, except for whatever you guys need to know to understand the awesome part that’s actually of interest to you all. Anyway, I have a lot of dreams that are semi-lucid, where I’m moderately aware that I’m dreaming and only “playing a role” in the dream itself. This was one of those. In this dream, the role-playing was going on in a miniature lego kingdom, and it was all arranged like a virtual playground that people logged into like a video game - and it was actually super duper awesome and I wish someone would build one, because HOLY SHIT was that a lot of fun. Anyway, I played all kinds of princesses and secret agents... and at one point, I even took a turn playing as Dean Winchester and let me tell you, Jensen Ackles was SO pissed at my complete and utter ineptitude and also the fact that I played Dean with a posh British accent, because it made me laugh and I can do whatever I want, so suck it, Jensen Ackles.

Anyway, so somehow my SUPERIOR role-playing skills were apparently gaining an audience and people were watching my adventures, and so the game itself started providing extra content just for ME to play along with. And I ended up doing a special run through the game as MYSELF, so people could “get to know” the person behind the role-player, such-as-it-were. And somehow, I made a complete cock-up of the whole thing, doing shit in the wrong order, getting completely enthralled by the little lego details in the buildings, almost taking out an entire block of lego buildings by tripping... it was basically PRIME “KW is actually an idiot” real estate right there, and the audience was loving it.

At some point in all of this, Dream Colin briefly showed up, but was claiming he was Colin’s twin brother from Oklahoma, and bitch you weren’t fooling anybody, but whatever, he’s cute, so he gets a free pass.

So the dream continues, yadda yadda, and it’s largely awesome and all, yeah, but then the lego airship the current scene was taking place in started falling, and everyone was panicking, and I was like, “Guys, we’re over the ocean and this is an airship, so we’ll just land in the water and christen it a shipship and be pirates or something. It’ll be great.” Except it wasn’t, because the impact of the ship hitting the water pushed the deck below the water level, so all the water ruched INTO the ship and that sucker sank like a stone. But apparently I had somehow out-matrixed the dream world itself, because I was suddenly full-size and glowing, standing in the middle of the ocean the ship had fallen into. So I grabbed the ship, pulled it out of the water, carefully tipped it to drain the water inside without, you know, toppling all the tiny role-players out of it as well, and then set it upright in the water. “Awesome,” I said. “Now we can be pirates!” And then... AND THEN... I heard Captain Hook’s theme and I was like

OH SHIT ARE WE DOING THIS RIGHT NOW

And we were absolutely doing that right now, because I turned around and there’s Dream Colin, no longer pretending to be Dwight from Oklahoma (thank God, that was his worst role ever), but now dressed as... a monk? Wut? Except, you know, I had completely matrixed the game itself, so I knew he was actually playing Captain Hook in disguise as a monk. And he wanted our ship. DUN DUN DUUUUUUN. And so he and I started role-playing this little storyline where he’s trying to win my heart with his innocent monk-y ways, and I’m fully aware that it’s all a ploy, so I’m trying not to fall for his devious plot, but it’s Dream Colin, so of course I’m in love with his character, like that’s a given. I never stood a chance. And the whole time, I was just SO honored and pleased and thrilled that Colin was actually acting out scenes with ME, of all the silly insignificant people, and I’m just, like, barely containing my absolutely glee enough to play opposite him. IT WAS AMAZING. And he was the consummate professional, of course, and completely smoothed over and worked around/through any bungles that came up and I was just like “He is amazing. This is amazing. HE IS AMAZING.”

AND THEN the plot thickened, because Captain Hook didn’t manage to “catch his quarry” - instead, he got caught by her. He fell in love with silly, stupid me. And we were going to get married. My character still thought it was a scam, right up to the wedding, when she realized that the wedding was legit and he was coming clean about his real persona and professing real love.

AND THEN I FUCKING MARRIED DREAM COLIN IN MY DREAM.

And I was like “there is a God and he loves me, because this is the closest I’ll ever come to marrying actual Colin O’Donoghue, right here in this dream where I’m role-playing myself, and my “character” is marrying a character being role-played by Dream Colin right before my eyes. So I was on cloud nine, and we exchanged vows and tiny lego rings, and it was really beautiful, and I even had a moment where I thought, “I can’t wait to tell my Tumblr friends about this dream, because this is the BEST one EVER.

AND THEN DREAM COLIN STARTED SINGING.

And it was a lovely little wedding song, dedicated to me... but the writers put some kind of political statement in one line of the song, because they’re idiots I guess, and the audience misinterpreted it and started booing and loudly singing some opposing political mantra or something, drowning out Colin’s dulcet tones and RUINING MY MOTHER FUCKING DREAM, Y’ALL.

So Colin walked off the stage, and he was clearly upset, and all the assholes in the audience were still carrying on, so I grabbed one of the microphones and started yelling at them all, telling them to shut up and knock it off. And then some neckbeard stood up and said, “Why should we listen to you? You’re just some nobody!” and I yelled “FUCK YOU” into the microphone so loud that the entire place went silent finally. So then I said how Colin is a sweet, wonderful guy, and how he clearly didn’t write the line that they were all offended by, it was the writers who did it, not him, he was just doing his job by singing it, and that he is EXCELLENT at his job, and that it was truly an honor getting to work beside him, and that this whole event and scene were a dream come true for me, “and you bastards are all ruining it, because you’re jerks and you suck.”

And then Dream Colin came back on stage, and he gave me a smile because he was touched by my words and wanted to thank me for them and apologize to the audience for upsetting everyone, and I was like, “Baby, you don’t have to apologize to anyone, I love you, come hug me” but he never got over to me for the hug, because the asshole who’d stood up and called me a nobody GRABBED Dream Colin and was threatening him. So I immediately threw the thing I was holding at the guy’s head, you know, knee-jerk reaction, except that thing was a handkerchief, so... Yeah. That was completely ineffective, and the asshole guy literally shoved Dream Colin under the water we were all still standing in for some reason.

OH MY GOD, IT WAS DREAM WHUMP.

At this point, I was so excited to tell everyone about this dream that I started feeling the edges of it kinda slipping. But as they were slipping, my lucidity increased - and so did my determination to save Dream Colin’s ass before I was pulled out of the dream entirely. So I generated a bowling ball in my hand and threw THAT at the guy, instead. Yeah, that did the trick. Dream Colin was saved, and came up sputtering and ALIVE, and the asshole guy was dead, because you know, bowling ball to the motherfucker’s head and all that.

And then I woke up.

So that’s my story of how I explored a mini lego kingdom, flew in an air ship, saved an entire ship of people, sailed on a pirate ship, acted opposite Colin O’Donoghue, married Colin O’Donoghue, got serenaded, blew a gasket, flat out murdered a motherfucker, and saved Dream Colin’s life.

THE END.

#dream colin #colin dreams #kw has dreams #drowned #bested by others #saved by ME #kw did it #with a bowling ball #BUT I DID IT

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sol1056 · 6 years ago

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I keep finding new salt about s7, like: Sendak has 5 warships, which is less than Voltron destroyed in s1 when they went to save Allura. They also had fully recharged the Lion Energy to form Voltron again through the power of friendship. Why why WHY didn't they just fly in, form Voltron, destroy all the ships, and then help sweep up the pieces/defeat Sendak's final ground assault?

My family has a long-running gag about Haley’s Comet. If there’s only one cookie left on the plate, someone will point off in a direction behind everyone and shout, “Oh my god! Haley’s Comet!” and when someone (because someone always does) turns to look, the person who shouted grabs the last cookie for themselves.

One of the hardest parts of a large-scope story is the final set piece. You need the antagonist (or obstacle) to be big enough that it’ll appear unbeatable, with the odds stacked against the heroes. And you don’t want the heroes coming up with something out of left field (*koff* magic *koff*); the solution is most satisfying when it’s an ingenious extrapolation of some skill or knowledge you’d planted earlier in the story.

The strategy — defeat the Big Bad — is almost never in doubt. The tension lies in how the heroes will manage that, the tactics they’ll use. Unfortunately, when you dissect most of VLD’s finales, they consist of Attack of the Haley’s Comets.

S1, they went in with no plan except a frontal attack against an opponent with a thousand times their resources. Good thing they all had plot armor.

S2, the finale involved getting Zarkon to come to them, so they could shut down his servers to implant a virus (that did what, exactly?) while the rest of the lions dog-fought (lion-fought?) a bunch of sentries for the nth time, then Allura forced the entire station-ship-whatever to go through The Universe’s Largest Teladuv to send Zarkon, uh, far away, for some reason. Then they formed Voltron and sliced at the big station that was again a thousand times larger, fought Zarkon in a Voltron-sized suit of armor and, uh, lastly left the scene via wormhole. Like the station was back online, clearly not destroyed, and besides, Zarkon spent most of S2 easily able to catch up with them, once he knew where they were, so not sure why ‘sending him far away’ had any purpose.

(This makes Star Wars’ “shoot at this tiny duct on the surface of the Death Star” look downright brilliantly efficient in comparison.)

S3 had no finale, and S4 involved, uh, Voltron going up against a planet. And almost getting blown up. While two other teams tackled super cannons a system away. Shutting down the relay station to leave a gap for those teams to capture the cannons was possibly the only tactically smart move I’ve seen in a VLD finale, tbh.

S5′s finale… uh, Oriande, right. S6′s finale was… well, we had the copy-paste Winter Soldier fight between Keith and not-Shiro, followed by Sincline and Voltron facing off. The latter of which seemed to mostly involve a lot of yelling. *yawn*

S6′s finale, well, you already summed it up. I guess ‘just go right for the warships with the cannons’ would’ve ended the battle too soon, so they had to run around for an episode or so. Y’know, make sure we’re suitably distracted from the Haley’s Comet gambit and not realize until too late VLD had stolen yet another cookie.

When it comes to prepping for the finale, Star Wars is a great example of a simple finale that works, because it laid a solid foundation. From very early, the story drives home two things: the plans to the Death Star contain major intel, and Luke’s an amazing and intuitive pilot. We get early chatter about Luke racing, with reminders like his crack about shooting womp rats. Both elements are made credible by the story never contradicting these setups, so when you put together teeny duct + amazing pilot + tunnel-shot cinematography, you get a marvelous heart-pounding finale.

With the exception of S7 using the shields (a callback to S6E1), VLD has been pretty weak at hinting at skills or knowledge ahead of time. And that’s ignoring that the EPs/writers don’t seem to understand battle tactics vs a solid and efficient strategy.

They do manage to give Lance consistent tactical smarts (despite fen calling him the best strategist, which he’s not), but otherwise the EPs/writers seem fuzzy on how the two perspectives impact characterization. So right there, they don’t even have a solid sense of how a team would split duties to play to each person’s strength, and that means we end up with battle scenes where Shiro is focused on A, Keith zooms off for B, Lance yells at Keith, while Pidge and Hunk just scream a lot in the background.

A strategy is the big-picture objective: “We need to retrieve Allura.” It’s what must be achieved to consider any action complete: capture that hill, rescue the princess, block the reinforcements. “We come from this direction, move fast, hit here, and hit hard” are tactics: the steps to achieve that objective. Against an enemy with 1000x more resources and size, it’s also a damn stupid tactic.

The commander sets the strategy, the tactician figures out how the army will manage that. The team’s arrival at the Balmera is one of the few times VLD uses the concepts properly. As the general, Allura defines the main strategic goal. As the field commander, Shiro divides up the labor. Keith and Lance are tasked with blocking reinforcements, and Lance figures out the most efficient tactic: lock the barn doors before the horses get out.

For the most part, Keith is a strategic thinker, not a tactical one, and that makes him a less useful second-in-command compared to Lance’s pragmatic tactical approach. In fact, those two would be a powerful pair if the writers understood the differences to highlight the two approaches, and how each is crucial for a successful outcome.

What most insults me, as a viewer (and yes, I would’ve said the same at age 10, thanks to reading plenty of history with battle strategies), is that the EPs/writers seem to have decided complicated is a synonym for smart. The result is a series of finales that are actually… pretty stupid.

I mean, have these people never even read Lao Tzu? Just as a bare minimum.

What about subterfuge? Like, say, a cloaking mechanism. Wouldn’t that be handy. That got used once for all of Voltron, and it was never mentioned again. Sure, copilot to assist Pidge with the cloaking mechanism? Take your pick: Shiro, Coran, Romelle, I’m sure at least one of them could’ve managed it. Hell, as much effort VLD put into making Kosmo the smartest plot device ever, the damn wolf could’ve done it.

All warfare is based on deception. It’s not a dishonorable thing to pull one over on the enemy. Wormholing in is only half the sneakage, people.

Avoid striking at what is strong; hit the enemy’s weak points. Instead, Voltron just goes head-on, over and over, and the only reason it wins is because that’s what’s in the script. Take advantage of chaos: with Zarkon absent in S3, threre should’ve been tremendous opportunities (mostly from previously strong areas now weakened by the internal turmoil), but instead Voltron’s on the outskirts freeing planets like Puig. Well, sure, fine, but is that really the best use of the team’s limited resources?

Don’t move until you have the advantage, or something to be gained. Aim for what the enemy holds most precious. When the enemy fights blindly and desperately, use their blindness against them to lure them into an ambush (which is possibly the one maxim at use in S2′s finale). Related to that, Lotor does act on at least one principle: rousing and forcing the lions to reveal themselves, so Lotor can determine their vulnerabilities.

In a war story, I’d look to the uses of strategy and tactics as a way to reveal characterization (of which Lotor circa S3 is the best, if not only, example). But specifically this quote from Sun Tzu:

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

It’s a classic trope in war stories to have the strategist insist that knowing the enemy — thinking like them, understanding them — is key to victory. Thing is, it’s true. If you don’t understand the enemy’s assumptions, biases, desires, and dislikes, you won’t know how to use those against the enemy. You won’t be able to divine strength from weakness.

In S1/S2, Allura (and Coran) was the best-placed to understand Zarkon’s objectives, the way he thought, the reactions he’d have to any action. Shiro was a distant second for strategist, with more immediate (if fuzzy) experiences of the empire. In S3, with Lotor as the new antagonist and a completely unknown variable, this really would’ve been the best time for Keith to come to the forefront as a strategic thinker. Allura or Shiro might assume their understanding of Zarkon could be applied to Lotor, while Keith’s lack of firsthand knowledge meant a lack of bias for seeing Lotor as, well, Lotor.

There could’ve been some interesting contrasts to play with, there, in terms of the different strategic minds on the team. Especially when places against the differing tactical brains on the team (Lance, Hunk, Pidge). But I guess we’ll have to leave that for fandom to fix, along with that mess of a finale in S7.

#vld #voltron #strategy and tactics #tropes #warfare #analysis #sol thinks about stuff

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precuredaily · 6 years ago

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Precure Day 060

Film: Futari wa Precure Max Heart - The Movie Date watched: 04 August 2018 Original Premiere Date: 16 April 2005 Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/QoKMbB6

The Golden Girls reboot looks great!

Well here we are! Precure has finally gone theatrical! They got a big budget and a 70 minute runtime to fill! They have so much money to blow that the movie is literally filled with DIAMONDS! So how is their first foray on the big screen? Toei Animation certainly has a lot of experience, but every project is unique. Well, it turns out this one is pretty good!

After a cold open featuring an evil witch (who is never given a proper name) plotting to steal something called the “Diamond Line” from her lair, an old sailing ship, we cut to the opening theme. I checked it against the TV opening and it’s exactly the same, except that it’s been cropped to a 1.85:1 aspect ratio and the logo has an unflattering stamp beside it with the film’s registration number. I assume this is from Japan’s film bureau or something. Otherwise, no “THE MOVIE” label (in any language), no subtitle, nothing to differentiate it from the show aside from what I already mentioned. A little odd IMO.

After the opening, Honoka and Nagisa are eating at Akane’s on a Sunday morning while Hikari helps out. After teasing Nagisa about her eating habits not appealing toFuji-P, the real deal runs by and she gets really embarassed. This is the first time he’s been seen in the series in a while, as I mentioned previously, and even then it’s just for a one-and-done gag. After this, Akane sends Hikari on break so the trio head to a nearby park to hang out, when they’re accosted by a mysterious figure wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora who asks them if they’re the legendary warriors. They start to realize this character isn’t from the Dusk Zone but before they can say anything else, off comes the coat and seven frog-like beings attack them! The trio transforms and we’re treated to a dynamic fight with no dips in quality. You can feel the impact of each blow, everybody moves around a lot, and even Shiny Luminous gets in on the fun by tricking some of the frogs into running into each other. The frog gang surrenders and they explain they were just testing the power of the legendary warriors, and they need their help. They regroup at Honoka’s place where they further explain they’re from the Garden of Hope and they want Precure to protect them during an important ceremony involving the Diamond Line. Despite some protests from Hikari and Honoka, who have obligations, Nagisa says full steam ahead and after barely pausing to give them breathing room, the frogs transport them to the Garden of Hope.

This place is filled with diamonds and most of the inhabitants (anthropomorphic animals) are digging for them above ground. I’d like to make a snarky comment about the value of diamonds being undercut by how common they are, but they seem to use diamonds as an energy source, so there’s that. Good job, Habara Daisuke (the writer), you thought of everything. Anyway, they make their way to the castle, seen above, and run into the kingdom’s prince, who looks like Fuji-P with long hair, and consequently shares his seiyuu to justify getting him for those two lines earlier. Nagisa in particular is a bit flustered by this, since he’s obviously not her crush despite the striking resemblance, but unlike Fuji-P, she gets over it, and the girls are taken inside to meet the Queen. The Queen of Hope shows them the Diamond Line, which turns out to be a set of jewelry, and she explains the energy ceremony and how the balance of the Garden of Hope affects the balance of all the worlds, including the Garden of Rainbows (Earth), so it’s important for Pretty Cure to protect the Diamond Line The girls agree and are about to change into formal attire for the party preceding the ceremony when Honoka breaks off to talk with Square, one of the Guardians (frogs) who’s been antagonistic and dismissive of the girls the entire time. She tries to reason with him but he’s insistent that they don’t need the girls. Later that day, the trio arrive at the party in their fancy dresses, and they look great, but it doesn’t take long for Nagisa to start butting heads with Square, and she storms off in anger to clear her head. Unfortunately, while she’s out, the ceremony begins and the Witch swoops in on a flying boat and attacks! Nagisa tries to run back downstairs to transform with Honoka but all the party guests are running away from the witch and blocking her path, so Hikari transforms and tries to take her on with aid from the Guardians. Unfortunately since Shiny Luminous is more of a support hero than a fighter, she’s quickly knocked out, the Guardians are bested, and the Witch grabs the bracelet from off the Queen’s wrist. Nagisa finally arrives and she transforms with Honoka, but the Witch already has what she wants and she just blasts them with her shark-headed ship.

The Queen also took a heavy blast and she and Hikari are both unconscious. Feeling bad for their personal failure, Black and White set out with the guardians to the Witch’s lair to reclaim what was stolen! They cross over a yard full of half-sunken ships from various eras until they’re attacked by some human-sized bat monsters. The unusual terrain makes for a great fight, and the cures and guardians barely maintain the upper hand until the Witch herself shows up and just blows up the ship they’re on. After rescuing all the guardians from the flames, they press on. Back at her lair, the Witch reveals that her plan after upsetting the balance of worlds is to revive the Dark King! Fortunately, the girls barge in and swipe the orb containing the bracelet she stole. They give it to the Guardians to return to safety and begin fighting her. Black and White get a few good hits in, but she takes the upper hand. After remembering there’s a sale on chocolate back home, Nagisa is encouraged to push forward and Honoka quips that that’s the Nagisa she knows. Black rushes the Witch and lands a powerful blow in her ribcage, strong enough to break the wall behind her and hurt Black’s wrist a bit.

But the witch isn’t done yet, and she blasts the two at point blank range, catching them in a massive explosion before leaving them for dead and taking flight in her ship to get the bracelet back. The Prince of Hope finds the guardians and takes the orb from them, with help from a newly awakened but not fully recovered Hikari. The Witch spots them and the Prince tries to fight her off, overcoming his trepidation, but she’s still too powerful and she fires an attack at him. Hikari jumps in front of him to take the hit, dropping the orb, and dropping to the ground herself. Black and White show up, fighting off all the bat minions, before they find Hikari and get righteously mad at the Witch for hurting their friend. Black gives a big speech about believing in your friends and allies and declares that that’s why they’ll always win and the Witch, who cares for naught but herself, never will. After blowing away some more of her minions, the Witch decides to handle it herself and transforms into a giant, purple-skinned form that would make Go Nagai proud.

She effortlessly blasts Black and White in the air, and they fall to the ground. They still refuse to give up, reassuring each other that they’re alright, and Honoka even imitates Nagisa by saying “Us giving up? ‘Totally unbelievable!’” This gets them both laughing and they stand up again, and they walk over to Hikari. The Guardians, the Prince, and the newly arrived Queen all will the power of the diamonds to heal Hikari and it does, restoring her health and transforming her back to Shiny Luminous. The Guardians then offer the cures their diamonds as a powerup, and the three ascend into the air with the stones, transforming into golden forms with heart-shaped diamond earrings and brooches.

The trio can now fly around, and they effortlessly avoid the Witch’s attacks, hitting her with their own, before performing a powered-up Extreme Luminario attack on a weak spot they had exposed earlier. The Witch is defeated once and for all, the bracelet is freed from the dark orb, and the power of the Diamond Line restores the Garden of Hope to its rightful glory, but the Queen lets them know that it was their courage that allowed such a miracle to happen.

Throughout all of this, Square has come to respect the Legendary Warriors, to the point where he begs them not to leave. Honoka hugs him and says that they don’t want to go, but they have to. On the way back, Nagisa laments that she didn’t take a diamond with her after all. Hikari arrives back at Akane’s stand apologizing for taking so long, but it turns out her 30 minute break isn’t even over yet! Meanwhile Honoka rushes to bring in the laundry before the rain, while Nagisa sits and mopes. Honoka spots a frog and jokes that it’s the Kero Kero God. Nagisa says they should try to fly back to the Garden of Hope again, and they try the incantation together, but obviously they don’t go anywhere, and as they laugh it off, the credits begin to roll.

There’s a song that plays about halfway through the film between the girls’ defeat and their journey to the shipyard called “Tears of Hope ~Tears for Tomorrow~” by Mayumi Gojo, the main theme song singer for the show, and that’s really nice. It’s billed as the main theme for the movie. The ending theme is “The Power of Hope” by Shizuka Kudo, which is also nice. I’ll be honest though, I find the ending to be better than the insert theme. While “Tears of Hope” fits the mood at that point in the film, “Power of Hope” is something I’d probably be humming on the way out of the theater. You can find both songs on the movie’s soundtrack or the theme song single if you want to listen.

this is the album cover for the single. Reverse search it and maybe it’ll help.

Still on the subject of music, there’s a really aurally clever moment during the fight in the ship graveyard. Black and White are performing Marble Screw on the Witch, and it has that awesome uplifting theme to go with it. But of course she doesn’t go down there, she blocks the attack, turns it into negative energy, and fires it right back at the cures. And RIGHT when she turns the tide of the attack, the music changes to one of the ominous villain themes. It’s been a long time since I studied music theory so I can’t describe the effect in technical terms, but the switch is perfectly timed in the Marble Screw music to hit right on the beat, and it changes the key and tempo seamlessly. That was a nice touch.

Before I give my analysis I want to make a few comments. It’s not confirmed, but there’s rampant speculation that this film was originally meant to correspond to the first series, but got reworked to be a Max Heart film when that series was greenlit. A big piece of evidence is the relative absence of Hikari for half of the movie, despite her being the new character whose products you’d think they’d want to advertise. Even during the fights she is in, she doesn’t do much and her role could easily be filled by one of the guardians or the Prince. Hikari doesn’t feel tacked on, but she also doesn’t contribute a lot of significance. Her being less of a fighter than the others works in her favor for how they treat her. If this theory is even true, the change was obviously made early enough in production that they could rewrite the story to include her in natural ways, and I’ll admit the idea of her defeat being cause for revenge against the witch is an interesting one. There’s a certain level of guilt that Nagisa in particular feels for HIkari’s situation, since it was her fault for storming off and leaving Luminous as the only one who could fight, and that’s a clever writing tool.

I just learned this while doing some research for this review but apparently the movie was sponsored by one or more jewelry manufacturers and the Diamond Line is the name of an actual product they make, so the jewelry theme is an advertisement for them. I can only assume that was for the parents in the audience. It’s a bit odd, but I’ll take it over going all-in on a Halloween theme for a movie that releases ON Halloween so anybody that watches it after the first day of release gets something out-of-season. *stares pointedly at the Go! Princess movie*

Diamonds are a magical girl’s best friend

Last note, I didn’t go over all Guardians individually because this is already long, but their names are Square, Round, Marquis, Pear, Oval, Heart, and Trilliant. These are all cuts of precious stones, and they all wear those cuts on their capes.

So what did I actually think of the movie? I thought it was great! It’s a lot better than I remember it being, a strong first outing for Precure on the big screen. I’d honestly be willing to pay money if this got a US theatrical release like the Sailor Moon films currently are. (C’mon, Funimation, cut a deal with Toei.) I still like the second film better, but there are much worse Precure films out there. (looking at you, Kirakira) The plot is reasonable, the pacing is good, the animation is much better than anything we’ve seen in Max Heart so far, and especially better than our next episode. The fight scenes are very fast-paced with characters moving all over the place and you can feel the power of every blow. They used their opportunity to great effect, it’s truly a cinematic experience. It’s got the gags you’d expect from a normal episode but it doesn’t get bogged down trying to shove in EVERY in-joke from the show or a bunch of side characters. The Guardians aren’t especially memorable but Square has some solid character growth, going from the outlier who doesn’t think they need Precure to being extremely grateful for their help and their part in saving his home. If I had to make one nitpick, it would probably be that the Queen and Prince’s parts could be combined together and they would make a better character overall. The Queen doesn’t have anything to do except bless the diamonds, she’s knocked out for most of the film like Luminous, so I think if they tied the prince’s hesitancy to fight with her royal duties they’d end up with a more rounded part.

I think when I get to the second movie, I’ll allow myself two days to review it. Screenshotting, uploading, researching, and writing has taken up all of my day today, but now I know what to expect for future films. But until then, look forward to Max Heart 11, the one where the animators quit, coming at you soon.

Pink Precure Catchphrase Count: 3! 3 Areianai! And a bonus “Arienai” from Cure White imitating Nagisa.

#Precure #Pretty Cure #Futari wa Precure Max Heart #FWPCMHMV1 #PCD060

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designdekko · 4 years ago

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Public sanitation: Design interventions lead the change

A 2017 report by the WHO found while 74% of the world’s population used at least a basic sanitation service, approximately 2 billion still did not have access to basic sanitation facilities like toilets and latrines – a rather shocking statistic when weighed against the amount of progress you see in the world today. Another highly disconcerting statistic on the subject is from a UNICEF blog, which noted 673 million people still defecate in the open, for example, in street gutters, behind bushes, or open water bodies.

Most urban millennials are unaware of the actual impact human waste and its incorrect disposal has on life across the planet. But trips around the country highlight the glaring shortcomings of India’s public sanitation system and every successive government’s inability to stick to its pre-electoral promises of improvement on that count. Of course, there has been improvement, but the pace at which we are changing isn’t still satisfactory.

Also Read | Holt Renfrew Ogilvy dazzles as a sustainably forward luxury flagship

In 1999, the Indian government introduced the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) to accelerate sanitation coverage throughout the country, particularly in rural areas. It focused on information and education to generate public demand for sanitation facilities, particularly in schools. The TSC made some progress, but it suffered from its relatively low priority and ineffective deployment of resources. Renamed Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014, the GOI, armed with a barrage of shocking statistics and a revised mandate, took up the cause with renewed vigour, putting a significant dent in the widespread problem of sanitation.

Where to draw inspiration from?

Japan’s spotless, pop-anime, Kawaii-cute, tech-driven toilets are the stuff of legend, with tourists excitedly using them for that perfect Instagram moment. In fact, the country gained global media attention for its Tokyo Toilet project. Who’d think a public urinal would make for a perfect photo-op?

Switzerland is one of the world’s favourite tourist destinations, has toilets so clean that you can lie down in them. In Paris, the City of Light: a monolithic domed structure stood with a few scattered people standing in a queue in the middle of a Parisian cobble-stoned street. A sliding door whooshed open, revealing a clean albeit soaking wet toilet inside. Pictorial instructions outside the loo read: Post a single use, the entire toilet is sealed and sanitized, and only then access is granted to the next person.

Also Read | Marieville Celebrates Its Past While Building for the Future

All this was planned and executed before the pandemic took over the world. Also, it is free. It is definitely impressive but is this a viable option for a country like India with its large populace and disparate economic structure?

Modern problems need modern solutions. I spoke to Rohan Chavan, principal architect at RC Architects and the mind behind Lightbox, a one-of-kind public urinal for women with space for social gatherings. Rohan engages with projects and issues related to public and community sanitation, urban design, affordable and low-cost housing, single-family houses, space design, and institutions. His signature approach to design created the Lightbox. This public urinal redefines the concept of ‘restroom’, taking it beyond just being a public toilet and creating a unique, visually attractive space that caters to the peri-urban female population living in and around the Thane region in Maharashtra (India).

Also Read | MERAKI: New Adhesive Wall Coverings Designed by Artists From Quebec

Over a short phone interview, Rohan spoke of how, as a designer, he took the initiative to design the Lightbox when Agasti, a social enterprise working in urban sanitation in Mumbai, floated a brief.

Wanting to create something to take to the municipal corporations to add to public sanitation infrastructure, in the hopes that it would be a departure from the largely unappealing ones that already existed, Chavan structured his design around a tree, aware that paucity of space in an urban setting was likely and he would have to work with what he was offered. His design was just as adaptable to smaller or larger spaces and could be tweaked to fit different venues.

Also Read | Bright whites, chrome yellows, and curved geometry put together a space that promotes life

Lightbox is covered under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals at #5 – Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Built around a large tree, the 10’ x 30’ restroom features two urinal blocks each at both ends, with a standard washbasin, a nursing room and a toilet for handicapped or senior citizens. The centre of the restroom was a garden measuring 15’ x 10’ that was meant for various activities like a place to rest, a free gallery to display art for amateur artists, a place for lectures and awareness campaigns, celebrating festivals, seasonal activities and events.

The central garden was a metaphor for spaces where people can sit and relax under a tree in the shade and socialize. The restroom with toilet blocks was fitted with a biodigester to reduce freshwater use and improved waste management. It also included a nursing room and amenities like sanitary pads vending machine and incinerator, CCTV cameras, mobile charging points, and a panic alarm system.

Rohan’s efficient use of modern materials resulted in natural light in the restroom, eased the process to keep the toilets clean and ensured high durability and construction within a specific budget. Rohan, however, is quick to point out that the design can be customized to fit a variety of sizes and use different materials, thus making it more sustainable.

Chavan recounted an instance when policemen at the police station across the street from Lightbox were so taken with the concept that they eagerly inquired about why there were no such facilities for men. He was also excited about the amateur artist showcase within the restroom, an unusual venue for an art show but an important one to highlight the accessibility of art and the opportunity to incorporate culture into everyday life.

While Lightbox sees social interaction as the key to the solution, LooCafe wants to hit the root cause of why public sanitation projects fail: Lack of safety, technology, and revenue-generating opportunity.

Also Read | An Ambitious and Thoughtful Vision for Montreal’s Largest Insular Park

With over 450 locations to its name, LooCafe, the brainchild of Abhishek Nath, MD & CEO, Ixora FM, is all set to expand across Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Karnataka. The concept is a simple tuck shop with a public urinal attached, sizes ranging from 4x8 ft, 20x8ft and 40x8ft, made of a shipping container or pre-fabricated materials to maintain long-term cost-effectiveness – basically a study in upcycling. And the brand is constantly learning, adjusting its designs and making changes where necessary. A cafe is attached to the front to add a layer of revenue generation opportunity. The attractive facades and cosy, clean interiors are home to thoroughly cleaned and disabled-friendly washrooms which use several sensors and technology to make them sustainable, clean and trustworthy.

With an increase in road trips during the pandemic and transportation of goods and personnel across state lines, initiatives like LooCafe are a viable business model and encourage safe sanitation practices, thereby slowly but surely transforming the nation’s response to public sanitation.

Also Read | Everything's Visual: food photographer Shumaila Chauhan and visual artist Shaun D'sa

The societal impact of projects like Lightbox and initiatives like LooCafe was clearly visible. Such unique design interventions represent a burgeoning design collective bent on creating distinctive architectural and spatial perspectives. Some of these are initiatives that governments and municipal corporations across the country must take advantage of and be utilized by the public.

Yes, there have been concentrated moves to build a network of public urinals, with their glossy tiled facades promising better facilities and clean services to its users. But inside, in barely-lit caverns of fetid water, lie disease and stench and the hopelessness of an impoverished citizenry in desperate need of what others might constitute as a fundamental human right.

Also Read | Public sanitation: Design interventions lead the change

However, hope now lies in the hands of a few thoughtful individuals contributing ideas and government bodies prioritizing public sanitation in their regular mandates and worldwide recognition of an endemic issue deeply rooted in neglect.

The article is part of a series of blogs by the writer on public sanitation and design interventions experienced during her travel around India and the world. Views expressed are of author.

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#home decore #home decor tips #decor tips

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michaelandy101-blog · 4 years ago

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Test Core Net Vitals in Bulk: Moz Efficiency Metrics Beta

New Post has been published on https://tiptopreview.com/check-core-web-vitals-in-bulk-moz-performance-metrics-beta/

Test Core Net Vitals in Bulk: Moz Efficiency Metrics Beta

The writer’s views are fully his or her personal (excluding the unlikely occasion of hypnosis) and will not at all times mirror the views of Moz.

In Could 2020, Google took the step, as they often do, of giving SEOs a heads up a couple of large change coming to their algorithms. At Moz, we’ve taken benefit of this warning and are introducing a function that can assist SEOs maintain their websites up to the mark.

So, at this time I’ve the pleasure of saying a brand new open beta function accessible to all Moz Professional subscribers: our new Efficiency Metrics suite.

The suite contains bulk evaluation (on cellular and desktop), of the three Core Net Vitals metrics which can be set to turn out to be a part of Google’s Web page Expertise replace subsequent month. That is a part of Moz’s dedication to technical search engine optimisation assets in 2021, together with our just lately launched Technical search engine optimisation Certification, and a few extra options and content material items that we’ll have the ability to share quickly.

On this submit, I’ll undergo the background of Core Net Vitals, and the way the brand new instruments from Moz will assist to identify, observe, and repair web page efficiency points as they occur. However for those who’re keen to simply leap in and get began:

Join Moz Professional to entry the beta!

Already a Moz Professional buyer? Log in to entry the beta!

Hold on, Core Net … what now? Is that this search engine optimisation?

Sure — for those who care about natural rankings, it’s essential care about Core Net Vitals and efficiency metrics generally. As such, that is a kind of items of technical understanding that’s going to must enter normal search engine optimisation information, identical to its predecessors in cellular friendliness and HTTPS. Thankfully, it is not as daunting as it could possibly at first appear.

Right here’s a fast recap on the historical past of subsequent month’s replace:

Sitespeed has factored into Google’s rankings since 2010.

In May 2020, Google introduced that three particular efficiency metrics, referred to as “Core Web Vitals,” could be explicitly used to measure web page expertise. They later pushed again the efficient date to May 2021, then once more to summer 2021. The three new metrics are:

Largest Contentful Paint

Cumulative Structure Shift

First Enter Delay

To get a rating increase, Google’s says that you just’ll must go a threshold on all three metrics, in addition to go 4 different primary technical hygiene checks:

This rating increase would possibly only apply on mobile.

The three new Core Net Vitals efficiency metrics are measured utilizing CrUX (Chrome Person Expertise) knowledge, which suggests it’s being measured within the browsers of actual Chrome customers. Curiously, it’s likely that pages with out sufficient site visitors to achieve this threshold will miss out on any increase.

As with Google’s earlier efforts to form the online (significantly with HTTPS and cellular friendliness), the initial impact may be minimal. Nevertheless, previous expertise suggests it should ramp up considerably over the subsequent 1-2 years.

So what’s Moz doing about it?

Suggestions from our customers suggests the majority are at the moment routinely getting these key metrics by querying URLs one after the other in Google’s Pagespeed Insights instrument. This knowledge is then troublesome to mixture, kind, filter, prioritize, and so forth. Alternatively, they could use CrUX knowledge (just like the recently-launched Google Search Console report), however this solely works for those who’re engaged on pages that already get loads of site visitors, can’t be re-analyzed while you want it, and isn’t a managed take a look at. We wished to ship the instrument that mixed the metrics SEOs care about, recognized potential fixes, and will analyze and observe giant portions of pages. Primarily based on this suggestions, it was clear that there was an opportunity right here to handle all of those frustrations, and in doing so, to enhance search engine optimisation practitioners’ day-to-day working lives earlier than this summer time.

Our preliminary beta is open to all Moz Professional subscribers, and may be discovered within the left hand navigation of Moz Professional, nested beneath the Campaigns’ Web site Crawl instrument.

We’ve taken the freedom of pre-populating 100 of your high pages by Web page Authority with cellular and desktop efficiency knowledge. However, it’s also possible to select an inventory of pages to research from a wide range of sources like high rating pages, pages with different crawl points, or all pages – at the moment as much as a most of 6,000 pages per marketing campaign per 30 days.

Extra sources are coming quickly, and what you choose right here may also have an effect on the overview bar chart on the high of the web page. You may then additional refine the pages you want to analyze by narrowing down with URL textual content, reminiscent of /weblog.

What’s included within the beta?

When you’ve chosen your batch of URLs to research, you’ll be introduced with a desk like this one:

As you possibly can see, my private website requires some TLC.

This knowledge may be filtered and sorted. The “details” dropdown arrow in every row highlights key urged fixes for that URL at fast look.

In the event you click on by to “View Report,” you possibly can see extra detailed info for every URL:

Notice that we’re utilizing Whole Blocking Time as a proxy for First Enter Delay. Google can be utilizing “field data” as talked about earlier on this submit, whereas for scalability causes we’re utilizing Lighthouse “lab data,” such as you see in Google Pagespeed Insights and different comparable instruments. It isn’t doable to measure First Enter Delay on this context as a result of there is no such thing as a person to make an enter, however Whole Blocking Time is an effective approximation.

These metrics can every be expanded to provide extra context on every metric, and what’s thought-about a very good or dangerous rating:

And lastly, we’re offering some urged areas of focus, which may be expanded to supply human-friendly explanations:

Why ought to I take advantage of Efficiency Metrics beta?

You would possibly need to:

Determine URLs which can be more likely to miss out on any Core Net Vitals rating increase

Determine URLs which can be performing poorly

Report on efficiency in bulk and determine the size of any issues

Prioritize accordingly

Discover out what to do about every problem

I’m assured Moz Professional is, by some margin, the simplest technique to get this sort of knowledge at scale.

To attract some fast comparisons with the present state of the market:

CSV obtain, extra knowledge, and continuous enchancment

Nevertheless, all that doesn’t imply we’re accomplished fairly but. We had been keen to resolve sure issues SEOs are going through earlier than subsequent month’s large rollout, however it is a beta, and the search engine optimisation significance of Core Net Vitals is more likely to rise regularly for a while, so we do have a number of enhancements already deliberate.

One explicit enhancement I wished to name out is a CSV export. As a long-time search engine optimisation knowledge junkie, that is considered one of my most requested options for any instrument like Moz to have. Once I first made my Moz profile again in 2013, I listed “endless Excel use cases” as my favourite factor about search engine optimisation. I nonetheless have a comfortable spot for having the ability to manipulate and mix knowledge to my coronary heart’s content material in a dwell atmosphere. Even for those who’re extra onboard the current Python search engine optimisation pattern your self, CSVs are nonetheless an effective way to get knowledge into that atmosphere.

Past that, we’re additionally options to trace efficiency over time, and numerous UI enhancements to ensure essentially the most actionable knowledge is at all times surfaced.

Get began, and inform us what you suppose!

That mentioned, it is a beta, which suggests half the purpose is to get your opinion on what ought to come subsequent. You may get began right here:

Join Moz Professional to entry the beta!

Already a Moz Professional buyer? Log in to entry the beta!

Tell us what you’d wish to see added within the feedback beneath.

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xtruss · 4 years ago

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Suez Canal Re-Opens After Stuck Cargo Ship Is Freed

— BY Isabel DeBre And Samy Magdy

SUEZ, Egypt (AP) — Salvage teams on Monday finally freed the colossal container ship stuck for nearly a week in the Suez Canal, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world’s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce.

A flotilla of tugboats, helped by the tides, wrenched the bulbous bow of the skyscraper-sized Ever Given from the canal’s sandy bank, where it had been firmly lodged since March 23.

The tugs blared their horns in jubilation as they guided the Ever Given through the water after days of futility that had captivated the world, drawing scrutiny and social media ridicule.

“We pulled it off!” said Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given. “I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given … thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.”

Navigation in the canal resumed at 6 p.m. local time (1600 GMT, noon EDT) said Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority, adding that the first ships that were moving carried livestock. From the city of Suez, ships stacked with containers could be seen exiting the canal into the Red Sea.

At least 113 of over 420 vessels that had waited for Ever Given to be freed are expected to cross the canal by Tuesday morning, Rabei added at a news conference.

Analysts expect it could take at least another 10 days to clear the backlog on either end.

The Ever Given sailed to the Great Bitter Lake, a wide stretch of water halfway between the north and south ends of the canal, for inspection, said Evergreen Marine Corp., a Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship.

Buffeted by a sandstorm, the Ever Given had crashed into a bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. That created a massive traffic jam that held up $9 billion a day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rabei said an investigation would determine why the Ever Given got stuck, and he estimated daily losses to the canal of between $12 million to $15 million.

“The Suez Canal is not guilty of what happened. We are the ones who suffered damage.” he said.

At least 367 vessels, carrying everything from crude oil to cattle, had backed up to wait to traverse the canal. Dozens of others have taken the long, alternate route around the Cape of Good Hope at Africa’s southern tip — a 5,000-kilometer (3,100-mile) detour that costs ships hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel and other costs.

The canal is a source of national pride and crucial revenue for Egypt, and President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi praised Monday’s events after days of silence about the blockage.

“Egyptians have succeeded in ending the crisis,” he wrote on Facebook, “despite the massive technical complexity.”

In the village of Amer, which overlooks the canal, residents cheered as the vessel moved along. Many scrambled to get a closer look while others mockingly waved goodbye to the departing ship from their fields of clover

“Mission accomplished,” villager Abdalla Ramadan said. “The whole world is relieved.”

The U.S. Embassy in Cairo tweeted its congratulations to Egypt.

The breakthrough followed days of immense effort with an elite salvage team from the Netherlands. Tugboats pushed and pulled to budge the behemoth from the shore, their work buoyed by high tide at dawn Monday that led to the vessel’s partial refloating. Specialized dredgers dug out the stern and vacuumed sand and mud from beneath the bow.

The operation was extremely delicate. While the Ever Given was stuck, the rising and falling tides put stress on the vessel, which is 400 meters (a quarter mile) long, raising concerns it could crack.

Rabei praised the team, saying they “achieved a very difficult mission in record time,” without damaging the vessel or its cargo.

Berdowski told Dutch radio station NPO 1 the company had always believed it would be the two powerful tugboats it sent that would free the ship. Monday’s strong tide “helped push the ship at the top while we pulled at the bottom and luckily it shot free,” he said.

“We were helped enormously by the strong falling tide we had this afternoon. In effect, you have the forces of nature pushing hard with you and they pushed harder than the two sea tugs could pull,” Berdowski added.

The crew on the tugs was “euphoric,“ but there also was a tense moment when the huge ship was floating free ”so then you have to get it under control very quickly with the tugs around it so that it doesn’t push itself back into the other side” of the canal, he said.

Jubilant workers on a tugboat sailing with the Ever Given chanted, “Mashhour, No. 1,” referring to the dredger that worked around the vessel. The dredger is named for Mashhour Ahmed Mashhour, assigned to run the canal with others when it was nationalized in 1956 by President Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

Once the Ever Given is inspected in Great Bitter Lake, officials will decide whether the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship hauling goods from Asia to Europe would continue to its original destination of Rotterdam or head to another port for repairs.

The crisis cast a spotlight on the vital trade route that carries over 10% of global trade, including 7% of the world’s oil. Over 19,000 ships ferrying Chinese-made consumer goods and millions of barrels of oil and liquified natural gas flow through the artery from the Middle East and Asia to Europe and North America.

The unprecedented shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, has prompted new questions about the shipping industry, an on-demand supplier for a world under pressure from the pandemic.

“We’ve gone to this fragile, just-in-time shipping that we saw absolutely break down in the beginning of COVID,” said Capt. John Konrad, the founder and CEO of the shipping news website gcaptain.com. “We used to have big, fat warehouses in all the countries where the factories pulled supplies. … Now these floating ships are the warehouse.”

International trade expert Jeffrey Bergstrand predicted “only a minor and transitory effect” on prices of U.S. imports.

“Since most of the imports blocked over the last week are heading to Europe, U.S. consumers will likely see little effect on prices of U.S. imports, except to the extent that intermediate products of U.S. final goods are made in Europe,” said Bergstrand, professor of finance at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.

— DeBre reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Associated Press writers Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai contributed.

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