#these bring me back to my shitpost era

[sewermonkeys]

shitpost art dump. have my sewage

[hyunin]

hiiii everyone, this blog hit 1k followers the other day 🥹 tysm to anyone that has followed me here over the years! i'm sure at least a third of my followers are dead blogs from my suju (🤮) era in 2013 before i returned to gifmaking tumblr in 2020, but so many of you joined me once i returned and i'm so thankful for everyone that has reblogged my content and chatted with me and followed me up until this point! 🫶 i wanted to write some fun lil messages for my mutuals and pals below the cut, as well as shout out some people i don't necessarily speak to but like having on my dash also 💗 if u aren't mentioned on here and we're mutuals that doesn't mean i dislike u it just means i'm stupid and missed you 😭 before i get into the messages i also want to ask anyone who can to consider commissioning me for a gifset or writing by donating at least €10 to this fundraiser and sending me a screenshot of your donation! more info on that via this post. thank u so much again everyone!!! 🥳 (edit: i don't think half the mentions in this post are working so please check to see if you were mentioned even if you weren't notified!)

@redvelvetcult hi ele 🫶 i know we don't speak as often anymore but i'm always so happy to see u around and i love you <3 thank u for running yangjeongin with me even if it has been in spirit for 99% of its run LKJSDLFKJSJLKFD still wouldn't be the same without u @bataranqs hi kid! this is going to sound so lame but it's been rly fun watching u grow up over the years through awoo9, every time u use our weird ass humor it's so much funnier coming from u. thank u for hyping up everything we all do, especially my writing!! i really appreciate it and u @anyujins iwin...whew....LLKSJDKLFJLSKF i'm rly happy that we're a lot closer now than when we were last time i made one of these posts. i think we are anyway?? i forgor...but either way ilysm, thank u for your support when i've been going insane over the years and it would appear both of the stories of our love lives that we've been following for so long will have a tragic ending. LJKSDFJLKSLK but i hope we can be friends for many more moments of insanity to come and that we have more good news than bad news to share w each other soon. in the meantime it's always rly fun to talk to u and i am glad i have u in my life @miyawaki ver. i appreciate u v much if only bc u are a major provider of quality shitposts on my dash, u also being into kpop and giffing is a bonus. u are also so funny even if u are also MEAN!!!! it's funny most of the time. and u have also supported me a lot in ur own ver way over the years, and i can always count on u to give me feedback on giffing and such. i'm so happy for u that u are going to uni again and i hope u have so much fun but also don't forget about us 🔫 🫶 @seulggi gfx queen minya! u deserve a shoutout if ONLY bc u are carrying the gfx side of kpop tumblr on ur back fr. and i love seeing what u make on my dash. but u are also an awoo9er so i will give u a long AWOOOOOOOOO of appreciation ❣️ @meongppangz RI omg idk what account is best to tag u on so i tag u here. i rmr the last one of these i made i was like 'hope to talk more under better circumstances' and now we talk nearly every day LJSDFLKSDF i love that for us. thank u crazy person gc for bringing us together fr....love that we can bond over loving ggs and also hating collecting pcs and any other random shit of the day skz is doing. and giffing ofc. talking to u always makes me happy so i hope we continue talking and being friends for a long time to come 🫶 ily. also i'm going through my follow list for this in order of oldest blogs first and i just discovered y'all were one of the first skz blogs i followed. how cute @curiosityjams hi drea, we haven't spoken ages but i wanted to shout u out individually as well because i still enjoy seeing u on my dash and i still consider us friends 🫶 fellow eunbi stan...i will never forget waiting for the 2020 election results w you LMAO abt to do it all again soon...but i hope you're well and hope good things continue coming to u 🙇‍♀️ @hyunjinz agnes, backbone of stayblr that u are, i love u!! i know we don't Personally speak much at all i still feel like u are a dear friend of mine. you were one of the first ppl to support my skz content and i think you're that for a lot of people on stayblr and i think that is so sweet of u and also important for the community. u are so brave for going through the tags all the time and reblogging everything i do not have that kind of energy but i'm so glad u do!! i miss ur gifs but i'm happy that you're still around even when you don't gif. we're some of the last remaining pre-kingdom era skz ccs left 😱 so i will always appreciate ur company here <3 @innielove hi vi, i just want to say i love that u are giffing skz again. i've probably missed a lot of ur sets bc i'm bad at checking tags and dash but when i DO see them i'm like omg vi's gifs r really looking better than ever. thank u for returning to us 🫶 u have also actually been on stayblr for a long time so i'm always happy to see some of the oldies (can u believe we are oldies now...) back on the dash 😌

@kazuhas MS KALE it always makes me happy to see u on my dash here. ur gifs are so lovely and so are u!! i know we mainly know each other from off cc tumblr 🫣 but i wanted to give u a shoutout among all of my other tumblr beloveds bc ily. it's what u deserve @seo-changbinnies marie...another fellow stayblr hag at this point...u are still one of the funniest people on this site i swear. and i'm so glad u are still here and making gifs and blessing us w your funny tags. i hope u always stay just as insane, i love u for that <3 @seungs HI MIAAA we don't talk that much anymore but i wanted u to know that i still always love seeing u and your gifs on my dash 🫶 @felixies luna, legend of stayblr that u are 🙇‍♀️ i think ur work largely goes unappreciated by the fandom but u are an icon for keeping createskz running for all these years despite everything going on in ur life. tysm for your service 🫡 @huiracha marie huiracha...this is how i refer to u in my head btw. like 'huiracha' is ur last name. LKJSDFKLSKLD we have barely spoken but i want to give u your own shoutout just for surviving and continuing to gif on stayblr as long as u have. veterans' discount fr @hyunsung hi mona 🫶 we haven't spoken in a while either omg but i am still always excited to see u on my dash when u gif something or reblog something from me i'm like omg that's my friend mona :D SDKJFSJKLDF so thank u and i hope you're doing well 🙏 @hyunpic VILMA HYUNPIC...u know i am so glad we are better pals now. u are so funny and fun to talk to but also the sweetest ever!! thank u for always listening to me and being kind to me and also making me laugh. every time i feel like an rper named their hyunjin character something dumb i am glad i get to report it to u. some things only u will understand and appreciate. LKJSDKLJFSKLJFKLFD @sungtaro eri <3 we don't talk much anymore and maybe we NEVER HAVE??? but i have always felt like u are a dear friend and beloved mutual. i love seeing u on dash even if we don't have too many groups in common anymore. ur content is always lovely and so are u so we will always be pals as far as i am concerned 🫶 @exocean hi mo!! i must admit i don't have much to say but i wanted to mention you individually because you are so sweet and i love seeing u around and u deserve to know it <3 @hyumjim i don't even know what to say (positive) u know i am so glad ur squirmy wormy tag on one of my hyunjin sets brought us together. idr if we have ever properly spoken like via dm but bc u follow me on all my accounts i feel Seen by u....nd u haven't unfollowed me yet so god bless u. i always enjoy seeing ur thoughts and the posts u put on my dash whether they be a funny text post or someone's hot take getting dismantled or something Thought Provoking. my dash is definitely a better place because of u so thank uu 🫶

@wolfchans lau the Actual backbone of stayblr tysm for ur service fr. without u providing files for us i genuinely believe most of stayblr would be lost. not only do u do that but u are also genuinely very kind and make great content so i appreciate u so much!! thank u for making stayblr (and my dash) a better place @hyunebear hi adri i gotta admit i didn't even realize u were back on tumblr until i was going through my following and saw that u posted recently akljsdflkjdsf goes to show how much i'm on my dash...but i wanted to mention you individually even though it's been so long because you have genuinely touched my heart a lot and i will never forget ur compliments 🙏 ok maybe i did forget some of them word for word. but i will never forget how sweet u were to me. how about that. so thank you and i hope to see u around more!! i probably have to be on my dash more for that tho huh... @romanceuntold hi jen 🫶 i miss u on stayblr i'm ngl but i'm also still glad to see u on my dash through all your phases. you are such a warm and kind person and another person who i will never forget being so sweet to me. thank you and i hope you're doing well ❣️ @wearehappiness sidrah <3 the fact that we were both on stayblr but met properly on pc ig first is still so silly to me. me intending to wait on ur mail to get to me then being like 'stayblr perk i'll send ur mail rn' after i found out u were here LKJSDLKFLJKSF but you are suuuuch a sweet person who makes lovely gifs too. i miss ur gifs also!! and just you in general. wishing u the best in life always 💗 @mybodyfails hi oli 🫶 another person who has been soooo sweet to me, i'm so glad i got to help w leeknoween and i still have all the freebies u sent me from it preserved safely in my freebie photocard binder 😌 you are always lovely to talk to whenever we do, and thank u for reading my fic too despite zombies not being ur thing i appreciate u!! @strayklds / @facethesuns em i just think it's so funny that we like didn't speak before i invited u to the gif streaming server and i just did that on a whim bc u passed the vibe check and now i feel like we are good friends. despite still rarely speaking KSLDFLSDLKF but i love that for us and love ur gifs and seeing u around always 💞 @neohyune hi fae <3 i know us speaking is like a very recent development but i also wanted to mention u individually to thank u for your help 🙏 i need to write more of my fic tbh...but i Will be checking our conversation again for Notes. you also seem like a very sweet person so i would love to talk to u more in the future also 💕 @linoyes another very recent friendship (yes i am calling it that already) in my life, but thank u for your generosity, let's meet that fundraising goal together 💪 i hope we're also able to talk more outside of this context too. i just have a feeling i will have a lot more to say about u once i make another one of these!!

i'm ngl i don't know how many of you actually follow me here and i don't have time to check everyone's username individually so i'm just going to list a bunch of blogs i follow who may or may not follow me JKLSDFLKSDF but y'all make my dash a better place, thank u for all u do! 🫶 feel free to talk to me anytime too

@dazzlingkai @theseulgis @joytual @anyujin @cchuu @cherry-heartss @boynextdoors @hyunchans @ambivartence @minzbins @everglowz @chogiwow @ttathinker @minhosblr @minho-knows @yang-innie @leegahyun @bu99erfly

[snow-lavender]

now that we're a week out from the finale, i'm feeling settled enough to make my sappy post. TL;DR is: fable has been incredibly important to me, and i think it's a story that's important to have out there. to the community and cast, you've made something beautiful and helped me more than you could know.

so here we go-

i started watching fable in the summer of 2022, to kill time in between summer courses (and thank fuck for that, cause my brain desperately needed to have some fun after 5 hours a day of doing psych stats by hand.) i was originally pulled in by vo'lete, as dissecting a conlang is really fun to me. it became basically the only media i consumed, as 2022/2023 was the fourth year of my BA and i was crazy busy. and then the characters pulled me in further with their earnestness and their devotion to redemption and compassion.

i think one of the theses of fable is "people always deserve happiness. doing awful things doesn't erase your ability to change." and i think the simplicity and love of that take hit really close to home. in the era of modern fandom where bad actors try to make everything black and white, it's an important point to make.

i started making shitposts on tumblr, started enaging with stories from an analysis standpoint again, and found a lot of joy in the community here. i don't have the words for what that means to me, so i'll just default to you guys are great <3

then mid-august happened

those of you who frequent rin's streams might have caught bits and pieces of this, but basically, i had a fall and my knee became royally fucked beyond belief. it can only be fixed with a surgery that's not very common. the pain was (and still is) debilitating to the point that i had to drop out of my second degree, and couldn't walk more than like, a block every few days. my life, my dreams, my future all got put on hold. i was in a new city with no supports, no friends, and no way to leave my apartment. fable went from the only media i consumed to the only thing i did, period.

the fandom became the only people i talked to regularly, other than my family, as online relationships were the only ones possible to maintain. in fableblr and in rin's chat i've found people who i really click with, people whose company i enjoy and who enjoy mine. when i was lying in bed, feeling so alone and less than human, having people on the internet go "i know who you are and you are making an impact," quite frankly, kept me sane. i know i don't talk to people super often, but know that seeing you in my notifs brings me so much joy, and i'd love to talk to you more.

to assuage any worries- i'm doing a bit better now. i've moved back in with my parents so i have human contact and people who can make up for the things i can't do. i have a new doctor who is taking the severity of my condition very seriously and is fighting to get me treated asap. i'll be okay.

so yeah. fable has been super important to me, and will remain so! for me it's a story with so much joy and deep feelings and rediscovery of passions and just. fun. it's been so much fun. and i'm not letting go of that fun any time soon. i'm gonna keep making and watching and enjoying.

to sage, corn, and cob- you guys are great, i cherish every time we get to talk. i hope that it's okay that i count you among my friends

to my other mutuals and people who are here frequently- recognizing you in my notes is such a joy and i hope to get to know you better. y'all are cool and i'm glad you think i'm funny

to rin- thank you for nurturing your little community and creating a space where i have so much fun. also thank you for putting up with my constant setting off of automod

to beck- thank you for making a story that explores sisterhood in all its ugliness and beauty, that shows how even families full of love can fuck up, that holds space for loneliness and loss and joy and fear and new beginnings

to the rest of the cast- thank you for making a story with so many varied and yet connected points, characters and world. with so much love in it. you've truly done something special here and its impact will not be forgotten

to all of you- thank you for knowing my name. thank you for breathing life and joy into these stories. i can't wait to see what else we make. <3

[alwaysonlineau]

hi! welcome to the always online au!

for anyone who was into the hype of parkner back in late 2019/the early quarantine days, this might be a little bit familiar to you. basically, this is a social media au for marvel that i created when getting into parkner and thompsborn and when one of the main wlw ships was mj/shuri. it consisted of screenshots of (obviously fake) social media accounts (mainly twitter) of some of the marvel characters and it was mostly shitposting with a tiny hint of a plot. however, because of the mental health kick that came with quarantine, i ended up deleting the account while in a depression drop.

it’s been over 3 years and i honestly miss making this au, as it was just fun and gave me something to do, and a few days ago i realized that i still have the apps i used when i originally made this au and all of the fake tweets and messages were still on them, so… well.

basically, i decided to bring it back!

so, if you don’t remember or never saw this au when it was originally happening, you might have some questions! under the cut is a very basic q&a:

what is the always online au about?

nothing! also everything! like i said, it was entirely a shitpost account that very vaguely had a plot, but it was 100% just something i did in my free time for fun!

it’s essentially me throwing my sense of humor in a box with ships and characters that i like and then violently shaking it until something that i find funny comes out and then i would post it !!

ships and characters? which ones?

like i mentioned above, i made this during like the late 2019-2020 era of parkner hype, so, obviously, it was mainly parkner (peter parker/harley keener) BUT it also features many other marvel ships! i am going to be changing the ships up a bit to better match my current preferences. i’ll include a list of ships below this paragraph, but first, this is also going to include PLENTY of platonic/familial dynamics as well! so if you love stucky, sorry they aren’t dating in this but they are obviously besties, and there’s irondad, stuff like that, okay? i’ll try to include it all!

ships:

parkner (peter parker/harley keener)

ironhusbands (tony stark/james rhodes)

gwemj (gwen stacy/michelle jones)

peppermay (pepper potts/may parker)

sambucky (sam wilson/bucky barnes)

thompsborn (harry osborn/flash thompson)

nedbetty (ned leeds/betty brant)

thorbruce (thor/bruce banner)

and more that i will add to this list as i figure them out! suggestions are more than welcome!

characters include everyone in the above mentioned ships (obviously lol) as well as any and all marvel/mcu characters that feel relevant to include! such as:

happy hogan

shuri

t’challa

the guardians of the galaxy

matt, foggy and karen from daredevil

funny accounts for villains

norman osborn (ew)

loki (and maybe mobius? maybe include that ship too? i haven’t watched loki season 2 yet so we’ll see i guess lmao)

and more! again, i am open to suggestions!

if anyone has ideas for characters, ships, or dynamics to include, feel free to message me or send an ask!!

how often should i expect updates?

that one is kind of tricky, because i am an adult with a full time job who is also balancing hobbies and family and everything all at the same time. this is something that i’ll try to work on during my free time, and when i did this before it wasn’t hard to make updates once i figured out what i wanted to do for them, but still, my free time kind of depends on the day and the week.

i’m not going to commit to a strict schedule, but i don’t work weekends so my goal is to update every weekend! if i miss a weekend, i’ll try to get it posted during the week, and if i have a week with extra free time, i’ll do some additional posts as well.

i’ll do my best to be regular with it!!

anything else i should know?

yes! this is an ongoing creative project that i’m doing for fun, and i want it to be fun for anyone and everyone who may come across it! that means i want it to be interactive!! this is something i did before, as well.

for instance, when i was running this au in 2019/2020, someone sent an ask wanting to see harley finding out about the vulture after him and peter start dating, so i answered the ask with this:

obviously this au isn’t picking up from where the old one left off, so those tweets are not considered canon to the current always online au, BUT that’s just an example! i want people to feel free to send in asks and questions for the characters or for situations, and i will do my best to make it fit into the canon of the au!!

i think that’s it?

if anyone has any additional questions, comments, or concerns they would like me to address, feel free to send them in! i’m going to try to get the first update of this au posted today (october 17, 2023) but no promises! if not today, it WILL be up tomorrow!

once the official au is being posted, i’m also going to create a pinned post that links to this one as well as all the au updates and anything else necessary to include (like the tagging system i’m going to create and things like that) so that will be posted shortly after the first update is out! for now, thank you for reading!

i hope to see you guys always online ;)

[quotidian-oblivion]

✨Out of context lines shitpost Pt. 6✨

Part 5

@mispeltnostalgia and Quo are back at it again!

With the power of chaos and burnout, we bring to you: shit things we said in class as the batfam.

because of the burnout it was harder to be funny soz

~

[during Steph’s Robin era] Bruce: Who wants this used alcohol wipe? Steph: Me! *goes to put the wipe in her mouth* Bruce: Steph, no! You’re still underage! ~ Tim, with a sad face: I’m too burnt out to be funny ~ Dick: Use capital letters Barbara: *deletes the word and turns on caps lock* Dick: NOT LIKE THAT! ~ Damian, referring to Steph: Hang on, I need to call my local arsonist. ~ Dick: I must have bee vibes for family dinner tomorrow Jason: *slowly going on Google* Dick: I swear if you pull up the bee movie— Jason: *slowly turns laptop to him* 

Dick: …Actually I hate jazz. Fuck you. Note: Nog, while deciding who would say who: I feel like it would be Dick. He did choose a bright yellow cape. This man would dress up as a bee. ~ Bruce, while picking up Damian from school: You made people cry, Damian. Damian: That was the point. Bruce: You ruined their lives, Damian. Damian: Good. ~ Bruce: I just got a complaint from Lucius Tim: What’s up? Bruce: Did you just end an email sent to Lex with ‘Slay the day away’? Tim: Yeah. Why? Note: Nogolsta is a threat to professional society ~ Tim: *accidentally bumps into someone* Tim: Oh sorry dude, *goes in for a high five*. Guy: What? Excuse me? Tim: Alright man, all good. Have a nice day.  Damian: Did you… did you not see his badge? Tim: No? Damian: He was a government official. Tim: Oops. Oh well Damian: You are a disgrace, Drake. Note: Quo is on the FBI list for being a writer, but Nogolsta is on the list for giving someone a hi-five.  Correction: trying to give someone a hi-five ~ Jason: Legolas, what do your elf eyes see? Tim: *slowly raises glasses* I see popcorn.

[dancefloor]

I posted 2,094 times in 2022

560 posts created (27%)

1,534 posts reblogged (73%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@jimmymcgirl

@bitchpack

@cruellesummer

@misswicklowsometimes

@kimberly-wexler

I tagged 1,334 of my posts in 2022

Only 36% of my posts had no tags

#shitpost - 234 posts

#speaks now - 215 posts

#this is me talking* - 159 posts

#q - 128 posts

#gif - 107 posts

#ask - 106 posts

#edit - 64 posts

#art - 57 posts

#save - 45 posts

#succession - 45 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#im always like omggg i love autumn :3 and now its been autumn for a few days and i’ve discovered that although i’ve recovered from regular

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

swiftie boyfriends are god’s strongest soldiers because how is he listening to me explaining the ticketmaster situation then screaming along to the champagne problems bridge and STILL in love with me

215 notes - Posted November 20, 2022

#4

eras tour audience is gonna be like 🧍🏽‍♀️🤖🤖🤖🧍🏼🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🧍🏻‍♀️🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

219 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#3

zillennial better call saul soldiers i know we’re suffering over having to wait for the second half of the season but can we pour one out for our elders who had to wait a year after this

280 notes - Posted May 24, 2022

#2

GUYSSS SHE RESPONDED TO MY FUCKING DM

290 notes - Posted October 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

im fine with twitter people joining the site but do NOT bring your weird culture of cancelling anyone you think is kinda weird with you. it originated here and you took it to twitter. do NOT bring it back

854 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[countlessimagines]

Hi!! Could I plz have a male Stranger Things, MCU, and HP ship plz (any era is great!)? Ppl describe me as loving, shy when nervous but bubbly and outgoing once I'm comfortable, very affectionate and supportive, extremely intelligent on a wide range of subjects (I have a fact for every occasion), passionate af so I throw myself headfirst into the things I love, I'm known to be quite the spitfire as well and I always have a snarky, sharp remark handy for any time my fierce temper flares. Also, I've been told I have a weird Disney princess-like way with animals as they seem to gravitate towards me which brings me so much joy bc I adore animals of all kinds. My fluffy lil Tzu, Yoda, is my life; she's my best friend. 🥰 I'm also a perpetual night owl and a caffeine addict, so I basically live off coffee. I also have a very rebellious streak and issues with authority; I don't like being told what to do which makes me very stubborn. I can be very intense sometimes and I am fiercely protective of those I love. I have PTSD, GAD, and MDD so I sometimes withdraw into myself for a while but I always come back out eventually.

I do a lot of political shitposting and challenging fascists online, and have gained a small following for it which is something I love doing.

I'm half-white, half-Indigenous Latina and have long dark brown hair, black eyes, pale olive skin, and faint freckles across my nose. My style is usually pastel grunge (sparkly black nail polish, black ripped jeans, tank top with a pastel-colored flannel, lots of eyeliner, Converse or heels), anything that hugs my curves. I have a very curvy hourglass figure and dress to accentuate my shape so people often underestinate me and think I'm "a dumb airhead princess"type bc of it so I relish getting to prove them wrong by obliterating them in a debate.

I'm a Slytherdor and my Patronus is a Swan!

Tysm!! 💖🖤

From Stranger Things…

BILLY HARGROVE

-

From the MCU…

DRUIG

-

From Harry Potter…

JAMES POTTER

[candiliam328]

So um… pianist Five, huh?

Hey, @kakakuroo? Remember that playlist? The one with the classical pieces I think Five should play?

Um, I made it... 

and um, it’s about 40 minutes long (sorry). Highkey, it was originally longer, but then, I decided to focus on pieces that I think would resonate with our current Five as the pianist playing them.

But... oops I made myself sad.

Note: I said “our current” Five and yes, that means our post-season 2 Five.

(….. interestingly enough, I do have a few pieces in mind for pre-apocalypse, actually 13-year-old Five and some pieces for apocalypse Five....)

These aren’t even pieces that I think would actually play in the context of the show (yes, I have pieces for that too), but really, just pieces that I think Five would vibe with *as the pianist playing them.*

Now, a warning: I’m about to go on a whole thing about why I think this is the case, so if you don’t want to be bothered with me blabbing in depth about music and unnecessarily projecting onto a fictional character, don’t click keep reading…..  

OK, HERE WE GO

(Special shoutout goes to @disco-tea​ for letting me ramble about this with her for literal weeks)

Full disclaimer: I am NOT a music major nor do I claim to be super knowledgeable in music theory. This is just my personal take and experience and LOL I’m just a (barely) pianist with enough knowledge of music theory and composers to shitpost about them occasionally and apparently a lot of emotions about pianist!five (lol).

So, yeah, UM ANY ACTUAL MUSICIANS PLEASE DISREGARD THIS ENTIRE POST OMG – I’M ASHAMED.

ANYWAY --

Most of the pieces I included are by Chopin.

Bit of background: Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer of the Romantic era and a virtuosic pianist. At the core of his artistic process was improvisation and his pieces are known for their lyrical quality. The way his pieces are written allows for a lot of interpretation from the pianist performing the pieces.

But what do we mean by interpretation?

… oof um, where do I even start…

Okay, so each musician and in fact, each performance of a musician has a different interpretation, a different feeling if you will. There’s a certain level of flexibility in how you perform any piece and there’s a fine line each performer has to walk between being respectful to the source material and adding your own kind of flavor.

But what does that sound like? For pianists in particular, we’ll play around with articulation, phrasing, dynamics, pedaling, and (most importantly for this post) rubato.

Chopin pieces tend to be played with a lot of rubato.

Now, what’s that? Well, to be honest with you, in my head, rubato has always been a fancy term for “messing around with the rhythm of the piece.” There are some pieces for which you absolutely cannot do this (like a march, where you need to keep constant time), but remember, Chopin was a fan of improvisation, so he always had a “go with the flow” kind of thing going.

Rubato means you can stretch some beats and speed through others – it allows you to build suspense and breathe some life into your piece. That way, it’s not boring for the audience and it gets you invested as the pianist. 

Speaking from experience, some pieces require you to be vulnerable as the pianist playing them. These pieces that utilize tons of rubato? They practically demand it. You have to pour a little bit of yourself into them and allow yourself to feel the piece and get in your head a little to do justice to the notes the composer wrote. Inherently, each time you play the piece, your performance will be different and will sound different. You know the journey the piece is going to take you on, but not even you know exactly how your piece is going to sound -- it’s all about how you feel in the moment.

(And yeah, that’s why all the videos in the playlist show you the actual pianist playing the pieces -- sorry, I tried to find versions that had the least amount of coughing and clapping, but… live performances *shrugs*. It’s important for the sake of this (long-ass) analysis that you realize there is an actual person behind the music, feeling the notes and sharing themselves with you through the music.)

Now, I’m here to tell you that it can be incredibly therapeutic to play these pieces alone. For no one else. Just you and the piano. You can be feeling all these emotions and you can pour them into these gorgeous pieces and you can hear the emotions as well. Yeah, and remember that fine line I talked about for interpretation? That’s out the window. You’re just playing for you. You can stretch out this measure for as long as you want or you can rush through this run as much as you feel. You are completely free to manipulate this piece to how you feel in that moment and just play your feelings out. And it’s amazing.

 ...

And yup, all that brings us to our favorite time-traveling assassin.

Post-season 2 Five... um… he’s had a rough few days to say the least.

He was so close to getting his siblings safe back in their timeline, but he just… can’t… seem… to… do… it… right.

He’s been on edge for so long now that he seems kind of... weary?

What was it the old man said?

“I’m too tired.”

Anyway, there’s… emotions. He’s got a lot of them.

But he’s shit at being able to express himself non-violently, especially when the emotion isn’t anger. (and whenever he has tried to be vulnerable, it hasn't necessarily ended well...)

He needs another outlet. One that forces him to be vulnerable and honest with himself.

Enter: The piano. And these beautiful pieces with tons of room for rubato and self-expression.

(Let the man feel his feelings and play his heart out gdi.)

Now, if all I cared about was room for rubato, I could have chosen from a billion other pieces. So why would Five vibe with these ones in particular?

Well, I’m not going to use any musical terminology, because that’s not what matters here. I’m talking about the journey the pieces take you on as a pianist and as a listener. Give it a real close listen. 

None of these pieces feel like they’ve “arrived.” 

None of them feel “grounded” or “settled.” 

They’re all kind of wandering… yearning for something possibly beyond their reach. 

(Perhaps a desire to relive the past. Perhaps an unattainable dream.)

So, yeah, if I had to name the vibe, I would call it “longing”… but maybe with a twinge of “resignation.”

For 45 years, Five was wandering about in the apocalypse, longing to return home. His primary motivator became to return to his family and to go home. To keep them safe. Maybe even settle down.

And this hasn’t changed for the entirety of the series.

…

But what can he even call his home now?

And will he ever be able to rest?

[welcometowriteblr]

WELCOME TO WRITEBLR’S THIRD SHINING STAR IS @sprigofbasil aka Nicole! All votes were done through the WTW Server.

WTW: How does it feel to be voted a favorite writeblr?

Nicole: I’m super flattered but also really surprised? I definitely wasn’t expecting to be voted as a favorite writeblr, and there’s a lot of other people I would have picked over myself. But hey, I can’t say that I don’t love attention, because I definitely do!

WTW: what do you think you’ve done so far that’s made the most impact on writeblr?

Nicole: I guess just being friendly (sometimes maybe a little too much) and trying my best to make high-quality content? I love making new friends and gushing over their amazing work, so I hope that I’ve been able to bring more enthusiasm and positivity to writeblr ^^

WTW: What’s your biggest piece of advice to other writeblrs? (Writing or Blog related)

Nicole: Honestly, just let yourself have fun. So many people on here try to make perfect edits and stay completely serious (which does work for some!), but I’ve found that it’s a lot easier to stay invested in a project if it’s fun! Let yourself write that self-indulgent au—hell, let yourself make an entire wip that’s just all self-indulgent! Cringe culture is dead and good riddance. Make that shitpost. Make that character meme that no one would actually understand. Go crazy, go stupid!

WTW: What’s been your favorite part of being a writeblr so far?

Nicole: Definitely the community, by far. I’ve been able to meet so many incredibly talented writers, and the fact that we can just chat and have a good time with writers from all over the globe is amazing to me. Without the friends I’ve made on writeblr, I definitely would not have pursued writing in any meaningful way.

WTW: What are your biggest goals for the next year in terms of being a writer?

Nicole: I’m hoping to finish the first draft of my main wip the temporal heart! Depending on how things go, I also want to plot out and start drafting a few of my side wips!

WTW: What are your top 3 blogs?

Nicole: Oh man that’s a hard question. Definitely Tris @atelierwriting, who was one of the blogs I looked up to when I was a baby writeblr back in 2018, though I was too shy to ever try and approach her. Rochelle @starshots is definitely another one—her wip the crimson year was actually the thing that got me to come back to writeblr after abandoning it for well over a year, and I look up to her for her god tier prose and characterization. Ever since joining wtw, I have to say I also look up to june @ikilledmyocs, both for her worldbuilding and the incredible community that she’s created with welcome to writeblr!

Nicole can be found on Wattpad (sporadically) at @/porcelaintea

Her current WIP is The Temporal Heart: A vaguely Arthurian steampunk fantasy set in an alternate Victorian era, where a healer suffering from a mysterious curse finds himself on an expedition to find a lost city within the Rift, a land rumored to hide the treasures of the gods — that is, if he can survive for long enough to find them. It features a potpourri of magical creatures, all set against a classic adventure into the unknown a la Indiana Jones or Atlantis.

[mitigatedchaos]

Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space​ ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

[castielnova]

updated: got tagged by treasured mutuals @tennet & @softjensen (thank you!! 💕 always love to learn more about my treasured mutuals ❤️)

name/nickname: juri

gender: whatever y’all Perceive me as, anything works for me honestly (i probably give off big mender vibes tbh but my ideal is jender sjdfakdjh)

star sign: your resident bullshit— taurus 

height: slightly taller than the global average but still one of the shortest in my extended family (can y’all tell i’m somewhat insecure lol)  

birthday: 19th may

fave bands: the gazette & linkin park

fave solo artists: hmmm probably the fame album era lady gaga

song stuck in my head: i found by amber run (thanks playlist anon mwah ❤️)

last movie: a silent voice (am not much of a movie person but i had to write a paper on mental illnesses portrayed in pop culture and this was an anime classic so)

last show: i honestly don’t recall asjdfhksa lately i’ve been hyperfixating on destiel fics after destiel fics yikes

when did i create this blog: 2012 i think? (listen… i have seen too much and should be retiring into the grave at this point)

what i post: low quality spn shitposts lmao

last googled: average height in the world

other blogs: i have one somewhat popular snk blog (that’s still getting notes occasionally) but it’s been dead since 2017 so

do i get asks: i apparently only get asks for being a jack kinnie now help (used to regularly get a bunch for art/dj requests back in the good ol’ days when i was an anime blog)

following: 46 blogs currently! (but only the ~15 spn-infected blogs i follow are active sjdhaskjdfh the rest mostly died around the same time i did back in 2017? couldn’t bring my sappy ass to unfollow them still)

followers: ehh i’ve gained over 300 new followers since reviving this account on 25th nov

why i chose this url: ✨i love castiel✨

average hours of sleep: around 6 during the holidays and if i don’t self-sabotage about 8 during school days

lucky number: 8

instruments: piano, guitar and ukulele (but i suck at all of them so YIKES)

what i’m wearing: a sleeveless green army shirt with floral shorts lmao

dream trip: i desperately want to go back to japan for the scrumptious food man gOSH

favourite food: black sauce chicken vs garlic chili prawn vs mentaiko on raw salmon or seasoned lobster fucking FIGHT

nationality: somewhere in asia 🌚

fave song piece: elegie op. 3 no. 1 vs prelude in c sharp minor by rachmaninov FIGHT

last book i read: Satin and Sawdust (...shut up Ltleflrt is a Solid writer ok)

top 3 fictional universes id live in: i’m a massive action/horror fan so ehh i’m not particularly keen to live in any fictional universes i know of lol but if i was held at gunpoint:  

SCP for all its wholesome and wicked entities (used to read scp profiles like bedtime stories; some had fan lore so wholesome it left me in tears skjdfaskjdf)

D.Gray-man cause the whole verse is A Vibe however dangerous it is

IB (it’s an iconic horror rpg game y’all should check it out) for the same reason of it being A Whole Vibe (it’s basically an eden for any artist!)

favourite colour: all shades of blue

edit: no tags bc i’m just updating an old tag post lmao 💕

[joanofarchetype]

A Connecticut Yankee...a kid...that's all well and good but we really don't talk enough about the werewolf in King Arthur's court

This is not a shitpost — in Le Morte D'Arthur, Sir Thomas Malory makes mention of "Sir Marrok, the good knight that was betrayed with his wyf, for she made hym seven yere a wer-wolf". Of course, Malory lifted the tale of the werewolf knight straight outta "Bisclavret," which is one of the Twelve Lais of Marie de France. And it is...wild. There's also "Melion," an anonymous Breton lai which along with "Biclarel" is believed to have evolved from the same source as "Bisclavret". In this post we're gonna refer to the protagonist as the "knight" or the "wolf-knight" and tell a somewhat composite tale.

(A note: this takes place well before commonly established werewolf lore, which crystallized thanks to Universal's The Wolf Man. Curt Siodmak wrote all that stuff about the full moon and silver bullets in 1941 so well that our common imagination accepted it as ancient fact.)

So anyway our guy is a knight who disappears for a couple nights a week and his wife is like ?????? dude ??????? where ??? do you ???? go ??????

And my dude is like "babe I love you but I can't tell you because you won't look at me the same" and she's like "I am your wIFE you better tell me right quick or otherwise have a good nose for almonds in your oatmeal" (jk she doesn't say that because if she did he might've gotten a little foreshadowing of her treachery, but alas, our man was a sucker)

So the knight tells her he's a werewolf, and on the nights he disappears he's wolfing around the countryside and his wife is like !!!!!!!!!! on the inside but makes sure her face is only 🤔 on the outside

(Mind you, Marie de France goes into how the wife is grossed out because she shared her marriage bed with a beast, which has some interesting implications but we'll get to those later)

She starts digging about his transformation until he explains how in order to return to his human shape, he *needs* to put his human clothes back on or else he'll be stuck as a wolf, at which point wifey is 👀👀👀👀

Wifey's like, "but if ur in wolf form, how do u remember where u put ur clothes lol" and the knight's like, "no no, I retain my human mind even in wolf form and besides, I always put them under this one rock outside this cave"

now bear in mind he's never been able to talk about this to anyone so he's pouring his heart out about his deepest secret which he kept even from his wife & I know we're all pretty used to medieval repression but imagine how it must have felt to share this secret at long last 😥

So to recap:

knight: 🤵🏻🛡🐾🌕🐺🤫😅😍♥️💐 wifey: 👰🏼💭🤢🤔👀🧐💡💡👔💍🔪🔪🔪

Our knight is like "yeah so I was born this way and it's just a part of who I am and whew it's kind of a relief to finally be talking about it with someone"

Wifey nods along 🤔🤔🤔 because she's had a💡moment and is 🍳 up a plan...

so the knight has unleashed (pun intended) his secret for the first time in this life and is feeling just dandy, but what he doesn't know is his wife is already plotting his downfall with her...LOVER (dun dun dunnn)

wifey & her secret lover steal the knight's clothes when he's transformed, essentially trapping him in wolf form, get him declared dead in absentia, marry each other & take over his lands

and the royal court goes for this because at this point the whole kingdom knows about the knight's habit of disappearing for days at a time (because medieval nobles are messy gossipy bitches who live for that drama) so they just assume he abandoned her

*~*ONE YEAR LATER*~* (or if you're Malory, *~*SEVEN YEARS LATER*~*)

the king & hunting party corner the wolf-knight in the woods. knight is overwhelmed at the sight of his monarch & runs up to what for all he knows might be his oblivion to kiss king's feet at which point king's like, "THAT'S NO ORDINARY WOLF. HE SHALL JOIN MY COURT IMMEDIATELY."

the wolf-knight goes to live at court where he's basically regarded as a knight (so the takeaway from this part of the lai is that a literal wild animal had a better chance of becoming a knight in ye olden days than a peasant or a woman but I digress)

anyway so there's a celebration at court and who comes to the party but the ex-wifey's new husband, now a baron. understandably, the wolf-knight does NOT react well and attacks him, and the reaction of everyone at court at this near-mauling isn't to say "whoa whoa maybe bringing a wolf to court was a bad idea" but rather "huh, this wolf has never been hostile towards a human before so obviously this guy must've personally wronged him." which is...progressive.

so the new husband/baron/co-conspirator is all "wtf keep it away from me" and the king is like "idk man, what were you wearing? maybe you smelled like royal beef jerky at the time. seems like you were asking for it"

king & the other barons take wolf-knight to the new baron's property. they just need to figure out what's going on because they're not ready to take sir wolf to his final veterinary visit, u feel? they're attached. now get ready for this next part because it's a doozy.

ex-wifey hears about the king's visit so she's waiting with gifts & cakes & shit. the wolf-knight sees her & immediately BITES OFF HER NOSE & he bites it so good her progeny can feel it & henceforth all her descendants are — I SHIT YOU NOT — born noseless. talk about losing face.

under questioning (*cough cough* torture *cough*) the wife admits to her crimes & yields the stolen clothing, which they put in front of the wolf & he just stares at them until they realize "wow yeah sorry dude our bad" and leave the room to give him privacy

when they see the wolf-knight again he's in his human form and in Marie de France's "Bisclavret" it's expressly written that the king embraces him in the bedchamber and gives him "many kisses" (hashtag heterosexual friends doing heterosexual things)

the king restores the wolf-knight's lands and ex-wifey has to live with her ex-baron in exile, forever marked for her betrayal. some real Mark of Cain shit. (obviously this lai has a lot to say about spousal dissatisfaction but that’s another day’s dissertation)

the wolf-knight (Bisclavret, or Melion, or Marrok, or Sir Wolf or whatever you fancy calling him) not only regains his good name, but also the support of a court which now knows his secret dual nature.

something to be hated or feared, only understood and accepted. no one at court shuns him once the secret's out & no one tries to change or "heal" him of his lycanthropy.

remember when I said we'd come back to the wife's reaction? in "Bisclavret" Marie de France specifically states that upon finding out his secret, the wife no longer wishes to "lie beside him." let's unpack that a bit by exploring similar themes across folklore.

the marriage bed serves as a common motif in tales of animal transformation. ex: in "Beauty and the Beast," the protagonist has to overcome her revulsion towards her suitor's ostensible monstrosity before she can accept his marriage proposal. traditionally these stories with mysterious, beastly husbands who are secretly a true catch serve as an allegory for arranged marriage, designed to help young women process their anxieties about being passed from their father's house to that of a strange new husband.

(we should differentiate these tales from those of an ostensibly appropriate groom who turns out to be a monster in disguise such as "Bluebeard," "Mr. Fox," and "The Robber-Bridegroom," as those deserve a detailed thread of their own but also provide good thematic contrast here)

more often the Beast is kind, patient & gives Beauty the time she needs to the detriment of his own freedom from the curse. once the protagonist gets over her anxiety, she ceases to perceive her groom as just a hulking hairy beast and he can take the shape of a prince at last.

circling back to wolves! in most lore both ancient and modern, werewolves represent something uncontrollable; an animalistic second nature which threatens to literally tear through our well-mannered social façade. "Bisclavret" and its various incarnations don't do that.

if you read "Bisclavret" under a queer critical lens, you can interpret the knight as bisexual; a husband has a secret duality to his nature which he is unable to express in their current social order. significantly, he is born with his lycanthropy rather than being afflicted by the sudden, violent means through which most fictional werewolves are afflicted. it's a part of who he is, and it requires no further explanation or cure.

the wolf-knight finds freedom rather than shame in his lycanthropy, and as a result maintains both honor and control while in wolf form. unlike other famous werewolves, he doesn't function as an expression of tension between the id and the superego.

considering how often wolves are used to imply sexual violence (see also: "Little Red Riding Hood" or its medieval predecessor, "The Grandmother's Tale") this would be a fairly positive portrayal of a bisexual man.

however, his wife doesn't see it that way and is repulsed at the thought of sleeping with him again, so she commits adultery and conspires against him. so really, the crimes in "Bisclavret" have a lot to do with sex, just not sexual violence.

the king's attachment to the wolf & the way he embraces the knight can easily be read as homoerotic. there's absolutely an argument to be made about the normalization of homosocial behavior & male kinship across eras but...two things can be true. either interpretation is valid.

so what we have is a werewolf protagonist — not a villain or tortured anti-hero but an honorable man who isn't made to shed his lycanthropy at the end of the tale (tail). rather, he is accepted by his contemporaries and given a place in society to live as he truly is/ROLL CREDITS

[shookethbrooketh]

my “post-coming out universe”

i’ve been in this fandom for over two years, and i can honestly say i’ve never seen it quite like this. in its fundamentals, absolutely nothing has changed, and absolutely nothing should change, but as you dig into it, so many things have changed (undoubtedly for the better) that will never be exactly the same again. i’m making this post solely for my followers because i feel like this is a sort of a milestone for me as a member of this fandom, especially because it’s a point in which the entire fandom is becoming active again. i basically want to lay out what, going forward, i’m going to make this blog, and my experience in the phandom, into. can’t blame you if you don’t give a shit, but i’d recommend giving it a read if you’re someone who’s followed me for a long time. <3 

tldr;

i changed my url as a way of moving forward from unhealthy habits

my content won’t be changing much, although i’m taking on the position of Queen of Respect 

seeing the phandom rally together this week and seeing dnp return to the internet in general has made me excited to bring back the energy i used to have for dnp without the obsession 

i’ve grown a lot during the hiatus and i’m very excited to bring that growth back here to become a more authentic and healthy content creator and person

my url urls are fucking HARD, man! i’d like to take a moment in this post to apologize for randomly changing my url AND theme because i know how much confusion that opens things up to, and i’m also not the type who likes to change urls (again, confusion) but a part of me felt like it was sort of necessary. 

the evolution of a url is quite an interesting track to follow imo. i started on this website with the url “phaniltontrash”. yeah. then i switched to “phanisthetearinmyheart”, which i can’t decide if is better or worse. then i switched to optimistphan, which was my most Iconique™ url, but i feel like it just followed the old classic mold of “word-phan”, and that’s not what i wanted. so i landed on heartthrobphilly because, when i chose this, heartthrob was an amazing video, and watching it, and watching how open dnp were in it, made me really, really happy. looking at my url made me smile. but since then, this blog has fallen nearly as inactive as the boys themselves, and i even considered abandoning it, until dan came back. now that this has happened, i feel like heartthrob is almost insignificant. it’s something tiny in the path that led, for the boys, up to this, and it feels almost empty now. this url, however, makes me smile every time i look at it because i remember how proud i am of him for allowing me to use it in the first place. furthermore, i feel like the video has changed some of my general views (which i’ll discuss later) and a brand new url and theme is the best way i can think of to move forward into a completely new era. now onto the future :) 

my content in the past, i’ve mostly been a shitposter, but i’ve dabbled in editing, gifmaking, and writing. i’m writing two fics for the phandom reverse bang, and after that, i’m probably going to retire from writing. it’s not something i personally love like i used to, and i don’t want to spend my time doing something i don’t love. mostly, though, my content will remain the same. shitposting was one of my favorite things from the past era of my life, and i’m dragging it right on with me into this era. however, i feel as if some of my past content borderlined acceptable, and i think this video has instilled in me a new sense of right and wrong in terms of content. moving forward, this blog is respect central! queen of respect!! hell yeah!!! 

my energy one of the things that’s kept me from this blog in recent months was a lack of energy, or at least energy directed towards this blog. the phandom was dying, and dan and phil weren’t providing. that’s no shame towards them; it’s simply fact. i had no motivation to post, so i simply didn’t. but this week something truly magical happened. when dan tweeted that he was uploading, i made a shitpost, and it had over 100 notes by the time he posted. when i saw how it was gaining, i nearly started crying, not because of the notes themselves, but because, for the first time since 2018, the phandom was really, truly HERE. it resembled old times--the times that actually made me HAPPY to be a part of this fandom--and that gave me inexplicable joy. the joy continued as, after the video was posted, i got texts from people i haven’t spoken to in months and people i haven’t spoken to about dnp in years. the video was such a unifying force in the phandom, and seeing us all act like a real community again is really inspirational for me. it makes me feel like this is a place where i want to be again, and i’m going to be here. i want to bring the energy back and really, truly become a phan blog again. i want to interact with people, i want to answer asks, and i want to post ACTUAL content. i feel ready to bring the old energy and bring back the old times. 

my emotions it’s odd to say, but i’m really, really glad dan and phil went on this hiatus. while i began to lose interest in them in the recent weeks and months, i noticed how unhealthy my relationship with them was. i put too much of my happiness on them, on this fandom, and, worst of all, on my popularity within this fandom, and it was really, really unhealthy. personally, i believe this break was decided on by dnp not only because they needed it, but because they knew that before this could happen, we needed it too. moving forward, i believe that i’ve gained what i needed to from this hiatus, and i’m ready to go back to where i was, but for the right reasons. i’m ready to become invested in this fandom again, but never to the point where i can’t take a step back. i’m ready to become someone who creates content for fun, not because i feel obligated to. 

so, yeah. that’s what’s changing here. thanks for reading if you bothered to <3 i love you guys 

[calenlily]

A (probably incomplete) list of my Pern WIPs

(In a variety of states ranging from more than half complete to vague outline notes)

One-Shots:

What happens when some Lord Holder’s daughter decides the best way out of an unwanted arranged marriage is seducing a dragonrider into taking her to the Weyr (a whole lot of headaches for the Weyrleaders who have to deal with the fallout, that’s what happens)

Weyrling training is a mess of teenage hormones and homoerotic bonding and Weyrbred kids don’t even understand the concept of binary sexuality (shitpost working title: Everyone’s A Little Bit Gay In The Weyrling Barracks)

Lessa and F’lar in the days immediately after Ramoth’s first mating flight, because apparently I have a need to psychologically explore just how fucked up that situation is and how they justify it to themselves (shitpost working title: Lie Back And Think Of Benden)

The AU where Kylara Impresses a bronze from the same clutch as Ramoth, is absolutely gleeful about the political turmoil her existence creates, and decides that corrupting the Weyrwoman is the most entertaining thing she can do with her time (actual title: Unnatural Women; shitpost working title: Lessa and Kylara vs. The Patriarchy)

A very threesome-y sequel to the above bronze rider Kylara fic, because I totally need to be writing a sequel to a fic I haven’t finished yet

Multi-Chapter Fics and/or Short Fic Collections:

In a Position to Persevere: Filling in the blanks fic focused on the shifts in F’lar and Lessa’s relationship in the month of so leading up to the hatching of Ramoth’s first clutch. (5 out 8 chapters already published and then I left it on hiatus for years, but I’m actually going to finish it soon, damn it)

A World Without Fax AU: Fax never existed, or never made anything of himself. Lessa gets a normal adolescence. F’lon is still alive and Weyrleader at the start of the Dragonflight timeline. In Dragonflight-era, less political bullshit means more time for romantic drama. (Shitpost working title for this section: Mating Flights Don’t Count) Things never reach the degree of crisis that makes bringing back the Oldtimers seem like a good idea, so this is the AU where we go full temporal paradox and the Weyrs are entirely repopulated by modern dragons. Also, the pairings get pretty weird.

Four Loyal Holds AU: Fax was stopped much earlier in his rise to power, but the sentiments he spread did not die with him; as the Ninth Pass approaches, only Benden, Bitra, Lemos, and Ruatha still support the Weyr. Aka the AU where F’lar and Lessa actually learn to communicate with each other earlier, resulting in secret relationship shenanigans and a whole lot of clandestine political scheming.

Lady Holder Lessa Scandalizes Everyone: Jaxom is stillborn and Lessa refuses Search. Lady Holder Lessa continually aggravates the rest of the Lords by being too young, too female, refusing to marry, birthing an illegitimate child, allying herself with the Weyr, and being damn good at her job despite it all.

Weyr Rhymes With Queer For A Reason: OC-centric ficlets (possibly set in an AU 10th Pass) exploring Weyr life where the Weyrs are as gloriously queer and poly as all logic says they ought to be

And that’s not counting the plot bunnies I like but have no firm plans to write, the AUs of my AUs that are too silly and/or require too much context to be likely to ever see the light of day, and various bits of plotless smut. Why am I like this?

Please feel free to ask me to elaborate on and/or post snippets from any of the above. Maybe it will help encourage my ridiculous ADHD muse to actually focus on one thing for a while (and I’m always eager for an opportunity to ramble on about my stories).

[jammerlee]

Okay, I’ve been on the internet since before the great Y2K scare and *old person voice* Back in my day, everyone had websites like this. I had several. It was normal, everyone’s websites were a reflection of themselves and their interests, and it was beautiful. I’ve been lamenting a lot lately missing this era because of how badly social media has distilled and homogenized the internet experience

Your sites remind me so much of web 1.0 and it’s beautiful. I love this. Please keep doing this. Please keep expressing yourself.

Please everyone bring this back. Bring back personality, bring back individuality, bring back fun

And if you’d like to have a fine pairing to go with your website, I suggest going to proboards.com and setting one up. Still want social media, but want a smaller and more close-knit community without the same constant fear of some rando finding you and sending you threats, or something accidentally going viral and giving you a panic attack? Individual forum communities. You make your own rules, you can make your own aesthetic, and if you use add-ons or know CSS you can get a lot of customization. Also, forum signatures! They’re a great quick little way of expressing yourself! Use imgur.com to host your images! 

Seriously, Forums are AMAZING for sharing both long and shortform content, shitposts, art and writing, everything! Love roleplaying? They’re the best and most organized way to do that and be able to have everything tidily archived and easy to search for!

And best of all, you don’t have shit like twitter’s algorithm breathing down your neck or promoted shit being shoved in your face!

Please please please if you hate all this corporate homogenizing bullshit and attempts to do shit like manufacture fandom, this is a way you can fight back and express yourself!

IF YOU’RE READING THIS I NEED YOU to go to neocities.org and make an account.

It’s an emergency. Look. People are really getting into it now. Do you want to be the last kid on your block still depending on corporate social media for your self-actualization?

[novelelitist]

Agh, that one-sided Bedi/Artoria was perfect, but you're right- the poor sweet summer child;;; Soooo, if you don't mind, can I have some fluff with Bedi? (It can be Bedi/Artoria or just general fluff- I don't mind^^ the poor child deserves to be happy;;;;)

Did someone say….. fluff? 

I’m in-between posts I should actually be writing and the manuscript I have due Thursday morning. Shitposting my idea of sweet while trying to hammer out a serious short story is aesthetic. 8) Started decent, turned bad. Sorry.

I’m going to make “existential crisis” my general fluff flash prompt. I love writing about existential crises and the angst and fear it causes. It can also be stupid cute. So BAM.

Replica; Agateram

Bedivere Existential Fluff

“Master,” he asks, “do you believe in fate?”

Master laughs. “That’s a pretty loaded question given the series we exist in. I think I’m obligated to say yes.”

“That is not quite what I meant.” Bedivere frowns and and hangs his head. “I mean, how much control does one have over their own actions? Does that control matter if we lose it in a number of other timelines?”

“Bedivere…” Master plants their hand on his shoulder. He jolts upright. “Whoa! Sorry.”

“Ah! No, it’s fine, Master. You are allowed to touch me.”

Master leans their head against his. He stiffens at the closeness. He is often near Master, but they are in noticeable proximity of him and it’s only a little terrifying.

“I was going to say that I think fate is irrelevant,” Master states. They twirl their fingers through the servant’s silver hair. It falls through their fingers like silk.

Bedivere relaxes and stretches their arm out behind Master. “During Camelot,” he mutters, “I realized how heavy my actions were. I spent thousands of years trying to track down the Lion King.” He bites his lip. “Because I failed to return Excalibur, the King turned into… something else entirely. I wonder how much of that is my fault, or how much I was destined to do.”

Master wraps themselves around Bedivere’s arm. He spikes a fever. 

“What do you want that answer to be?” Master asks. 

The knight tilts his neck back and gazes into the sky. Fluffy white clouds speckle the bright blue abyss. 

I would make a terrible cloud, he thinks, for I worry far too often.

He says, “I wish to believe that my actions are meaningful. My service as the caretaker to King Arthur is my proudest accomplishment. I don’t know how I feel about all of society collapsing as a consequence of my mess.”

“Who could’ve possibly known that it would turn the king into a divine being with no heart or soul?” Master nudges Bedivere. “Whether you were fated to screw up or not, I don’t think it matters.”

His stomach sinks. “I want to believe it does. I revel in believing in those things greater than ourselves.”

Master reaches for his hand and holds it close. His skin prickles. The hair prods at Master like a porcupine. Each finger slides across the dry ridges and bloated callouses. Patches are rough as leather.

“Why does it have to be about something greater? It could be something far worse, for all you know,” Master says.

“I suppose that’s true. But what point is there to purposely creating failure? Why would they manufacture a timeline in which I’m destined to fail and the end of civilization will be on my shoulders?” Bedivere frowns. His lip quivers. 

Master brings his hand to their lips and plants light kisses on the knuckles. “You know how you spent like a thousand years trying to return Excalibur and kept screwing up?”

He throws his arms up in defeat. “Yes, I mentioned that a moment again and do not need to be reminded.”

“Right, well,” Master says, “I think the gods go through something similar. They don’t get the events right on the first try, either. I’m sure there is a part of reality that benefits from the Lion King vaporizing everyone.”

Bedivere reels back, appalled. “What good comes of that?!”

Master shrugs. “If we never get to my era, the ozone layer doesn’t fall apart because the greenhouse effect doesn’t trap us all in a bubble of carbon waiting to burst like the student debt crisis, and the icecaps don’t melt… and the world doesn’t become an overpopulated, inefficiently-zoned patch of land about to be flooded by said melting icebergs in the coming generations.”

Only one of the knight’s eyebrows pop up in curiosity. Because what master said makes very little sense. And he is confused. He has no idea what any of that means, but he chooses to believe Master and nod in agreement anyway.

“Trust me, Bedivere. You don’t want to live in a world without polar bears.” 

The two of them lean on each other and stare longingly out into the distance.