#this entire website is just fucking nerds

[illmoraineakoi]

Timeline Implications

I'm a timeline nerd, so one of the first things I tend to become intrigued by is when hard dates are introduced into a series.

In AvA11, we get a ton of new ones (for Victim), but there's one that stuck out to me as...confusing.

2011?

2007 to 20...11?

Now, this might not seem so strange at first glance, if it wasn't for the event that is about to happen:

Dark and Chosen's attack on Newgrounds.

Why is this weird?

Because Dark and Chosen only escape Alan's pc on October 2, 2011.

And the Flashback shows them attacking three other things before they attack Newgrounds.

It's always been the assumption of the fandom that these attacks happened over the ~7 year interim between AvA3 and AvA Season 2 (which all happens on August 18, 2018.) IE: these four attacks were spread out over years.

But this isn't what AvA11 is saying.

It is saying that the Newgrounds attack (and probably all of them if they were in chronological order, but specifically Newgrounds) happened somewhere between October 2 and December 31st 2011.

A timespan of 2 months and 29 days, MAX.

It's strange, isn't it?

The Flashback had been the setup for why Chosen had a change of heart, as well as showing Dark just going off the fucking rails into becoming a murderous psychopath. It's weird that those two things would happen so quickly.

And leave literally YEARS worth of time they spent together a complete mystery. What in the hell were they doing, between 2012 and 2018, if they've already had their Establishing Character Events???

They were together that entire time. They're living together. Are there more attacks The Flashback just didn't show?

Or was the Flashback not entirely what we thought it was...?

There is a clear disconnect, between the Newgrounds scene in the Flashback, and the Newgrounds scene in AvA11:

[gif from @octdl-lee]

Not once is Chosen shown doing what he, supposedly, did in the Flashback. Meaning the events of the Flashback might not be entirely accurate to what actually happened, but more like Chosen's FEELINGS towards them. Or perhaps what HE interprets his own actions to have been like, a perspective that isn't accurate to how things looked from the outside.

The Flashback is, ultimately, showing Chosen's own recollected memories, memories that could be tainted and flawed by his own emotions and regrets at the time we're seeing them.

Chosen could be an unreliable narrator, of sorts.

Could this imply that the Newgrounds attack isn't actually the final straw for Chosen's own character change that we thought it was? Was it just a large enough event that affected him, opened his eyes to Dark's nature, that it was one of the ones he was remembering on the way back to the Outernet?

None of this really helps to explain anything about the timeline.

It doesn't make sense, for the Newgrounds attack to happen at the end of 2011, with Dark doing virtually NOTHING until 2018. Not for his character, which is shown reveling in destruction, who enjoyed attacking websites. He likes to destroy shit and cause chaos for the hell of it. He's an evil little bastard. He wouldn't just sit around twiddling his thumbs for 6 and a half years, no matter how nicely Chosen asked him to, and it did NOT take him that long to make the Virabots either.

[And that's something that's grinded my gears for years, why did Dark target Alan again after so many years??? Him sending the virabot to his PC just seems so out of the blue.]

There has to be more we haven't seen. There are far too many unanswered questions, about BOTH OF THEM, between the Newgrounds attack and the creation of the Virabot.

Was the Newgrounds attack instead the BEGINNING of Chosen's change of heart, not the end of it?

Or...

Was there more than one Newgrounds attack?

Did Chosen and Dark target certain popular websites, repeatedly?

That absolutely sounds like something Dark would do. It sounds like something Dark would ENJOY doing.

I don't know. There's so many unanswered questions with Dark and Chosen, it's hard to put the peices together. Especially now, when so many things keep tying back to Chosen and Dark's past. Mostly Dark. Because he's the bastard who keeps starting shit that somehow ends up getting Chosen into trouble.

Did they even go to the Outernet after they escaped? Or did they just jump right into destroying stuff?

They were clearly very satisfied with themselves after destroying Alan's PC, so why would they stop there?

Why wouldn't they ride the internet webstrings to Yahoo and blow it to smithereens? (Also Alan are you okay, you've targeted Yahoo like three times now, what did it do to hurt you?) Why not go destroy Angry Birds? Why not attack StickPage?

Why not Newgrounds, a website that Chosen must have known was a favorite of Alan's, considering he was used as a popup blocker for Alan's INTERNET BROWSER.

They could have absolutely just went on a rampage immediately after escaping. Four massive things attacked and nearly completely destroyed, in a single afternoon. Not even a single day, it was already 3:39 pm when they destroyed Alan's PC.

That's why I think 2011 was chosen in the episode, and not a much more reasonable 2012 or beyond. No significant event happened in 2012, and the date was clearly meant to induce a foreboding feeling into the viewers who KNOW the timeline. 2011 is significant to Dark and Chosen's part of the timeline. There was no other date they could have used, not until the entirety of Season 2 itself.

AvA11 has filled a TON of holes in Victim's story and in the lore as a whole, but it's also left us with a TON more questions about Chosen and Dark's histories, and their place in the overarching narrative.

Hopefully, one day we'll get some answers to these questions just like we did for Victim.

And maybe Chosen can get some fucking character development, like holy shit, literally every other hollow head's got hobbies and interests but my boi doesn't. Get him some personality, please.

[kris-tyne]

Chromebook Tech Literacy Masterpost

I've seen a lot of posts about the systemic death of tech literacy in schools with the advent of ChromeOS, and instead of responding to them one by one, I want to create a masterpost to destroy the system. First: FUCK CIPA. The Children's Internet Protection Act is a United States FCC act that standardizes internet safety across the country. Public schools are not required to comply with this act, but they will lose discounts offered for the E-rate program. In short, if you don't want to put up web filters, then you don't get government grants for technology and Internet. Fuck that. Many of these workarounds bank on my personal experiences, so some solutions may not work with your web filters, but they definitely are a step in the right direction. For talking with friends: chat rooms are your friend. Many chat rooms for professional use act just like Discord, and many are just a single text channel. Several I've used include: Google Messages, Rumbletalk, Slack, Element, ClickUp, Pumble, and... in a pinch, Google Docs can give you a shared document that's practically impossible to block. For watching videos: some chat rooms, especially Rumbletalk, allow you to directly embed a YouTube video. This is rare, however, so we found some workarounds. Canva has a video search and embed function that allows you to play YouTube videos straight from the editing page of their slideshows. For anime, a website that I don't think is maintained as well but should still work is AnimeTribes. It is a .ru site but it is perfectly safe, as long as you don't click on ads. I've never seen it redirect you otherwise, and the owner used to be commonly found on the chat page. Another piracy site is 9Anime, which doesn't work on Chromebooks but is an infinitely better source in general. A non-anime video piracy site is Arc018, which is my favorite. It does redirect you decently commonly, but just take care to avoid those redirects and follow piracy suggestions that I will lay out further down. For adblocking: the easiest method is to use uBlock Origin. Though, with all the stuff that Google has been doing, I'm not entirely sure if it works anymore. I gave up on Chrome the second I could get away from it and I suggest you all do the same. For playing games: so. I'm a nerd. I play Pokemon games. SO if you do too you're in luck. The only thing I could come up with was to download GPemu, a ChromeOS based emulator. Unfortunately it's pretty bad, but apparently there's an alternative called EmulatorJS. I never used it myself, but if someone wants to try it and let me know how it goes, that would be appreciated. HOWEVER, none of these work without the games to play them with. I'm going to detail piracy safety later, but for now: Vimm's Lair recently got axed by Nintendo's DMCA, but some ROMs may still be available. Another source (which is admittedly undergoing some major changes) is The Internet Archive. I haven't done a lot of searching on the Archive, and I don't know if it works on Chromebooks, but try it and let me know :).

Circumventing the web filter: While those solutions work for specific things you can do online, these present a general solution, capable of multitasking and providing you much more extended freedom. The first is CroxyProxy, a completely free proxy service that can be added through the Chrome Web Store. If the Web Store is blocked, it can be accessed via the direct website or through specific IP addresses. These change frequently, and I’m absolutely positive the ones that I have access to are blocked or simply go nowhere useful. The other option, assuming you have a home computer connected to the Internet at all times, is Chrome Remote Desktop. It will work as long as both computers are signed in to one shared Google account and both are connected to the Internet.

But Ty... none of this works for me: Oh boy. I guess it's time for my trump card. The pinnacle of my Chromebook workaround career has culminated in this. The ultimate destruction of ChromeOS, all without jailbreaking the computer and getting in a LOT of trouble (don't do that please). My magnum opus came from my blossoming understanding of emulation and, specifically, Windows images. During my senior year, I successfully used a trusted and necessary source (unblockable) to emulate a Windows computer entirely through a single Chrome tab. This source… Microsoft Azure. This cloud computing service allows the creation of a remote desktop that will save data when offline. The biggest hurdle with Azure is that… it costs money. However, when I did it, I got 200 hours of emulation FREE, and I would highly recommend you find the same deal, if it still works. Things to note: you can make multiple accounts, but you will need to also have separate payment cards, as multiple accounts with the same card will flag and not be usable. The frame rate is decently shit, and there is no physical graphics card, so the vast majority of games will not run. I mostly used it for Discord. However, feel free to experiment and make it your own. Use this knowledge wisely, and run free, my friends. Fuck CIPA, and fuck ChromeOS!

Please feel free to reblog or comment with more suggestions, because I would love to add them!

[athena5898]

Given the nature of my blog at this point, i tend to shy away from posting about media stuff. Buuuuut I think there are a lot of younger people experience this slightly "political" dude bro phenomenon so I kind of want to walk them through it. So Dawntrail the most recent ff14 expansion. Is actually pretty good. Now if you listen to some aspect of the community you are going to get some other........."perspectives" on that. Dawntrail is flawed, of course it is. This is the expansion that would have been in development during mid to post 2020 AND it's the expansion that needed to come around after Enwalker to build up the new story. Endwalker that spent YEARS building up to a climatic finish. What does this have to do with the first paragraph? Well, I'll tell you.

Dawntrail focuses on the story of a coming of age of a nontraditionally feminine woman lead Wuk Lamat (who is voiced by a trans voice actor) and we, the heroes of the world, are now going to help and take a back seat to this person. Who she and the entire expansion is based on Indigenous people from various parts of "America" so you know, they should be front a center and our out-of-town asses *should* take a seat in the back (some of you will read this and immediately go "oh that's why it's getting extra hate") If you do not know and was lucky enough to not be a woman or non cis het white male in the 90s trying to play video games or enjoy nerd culture....All of what I just stated is a big problem. Dude bros as I like to call them, (aka someone who you will always be curious if they were or would be part of Gamer Gate. Also please note a dude bro doesn't have to be a man...trust me on that) hate this kind of shit. They naturally feel threatened when the media's focus is not about them. So what do they do? They take legitimate criticism of something and BLOW IT THE FUCK UP. Suddenly that thing that was kinda annoying, is now just the fucking worst. A story beat drags on a little long? Worst media ever. A character has a minor plot hole? Worst media ever. dialogue a little blah at one point? Worst media ever. etc etc etc These are the same kinda people mind you who will write a 8 page essay how (insert average mid action movie here) is the most amazing masterpiece of a film. (which I don't really care about, but it shows that these people are not exactly the most objective purveyors of media arts as they like to claim to be when it's suddenly about their misogyny and white supremacy) I'm bringing this up cause I'll notice some well meaning people being confused saving things "well...I kinda get *this* part of the criticism but...not this other stuff. Why is it a big deal" or some version of this. They don't actually care that much, they just care that an Indegenous GNC cat woman is getting more screen time then their precious gods gift to Eorza WoL. If they had made this expansion about a white guy or our WoL and it wouldn't of gotten nearly the same level of backlash. People will disagree with me, but I'm sorry this is just a fact. And because this is the reading comprehension website, no it's not bad to dislike Dawntrail. No it isn't bad to think a character is annoying. But the patterns are there and the chances of this JUST being about the real issues is just fucking zero. You dont' spend that much time complaining about ONE character as the focus if it isn't about the bullshit dude bro gamer pride. Honestly given how fucking gay this game is I have no idea how these people play this game without burning up like a vampire touching sunlight ALSO...I'm a ex wow player who played that game for the story (I was 14, give me a break) from BC all the way up to 7.2. So I kinda know what i'm talking about when it comes to toxic dipshit gamer behavior *looks back at that last paragraph* god that's so fucking sad. Oh fun fact, according to Wuk Lamat's voice actor Sena Bryer, all voice acting for the new area in Dawntrail was given to Latino/Indigenous voice actors for every single character. (from this area of course) *edit* lol yeah anyone saying i'm wrong is just a fucking grifter or liar. Found this while looking something else up. You know it's bad when the god damn director has to step in and say "yo you little assholes cut it out" https://www.pcgamesn.com/final-fantasy-xiv-a-realm-reborn/naoki-yoshida-wuk-lamat

[frog-doctor]

this is my first time doing something like this, but this man has been stuck in my head for ages and i need the 3 other signol fans on this website to know they are loved.

introducing:

SIGNOL x READER HEADCANONS !!!!

on the night he confessed to you, he decided to do what any corny music nerd would do: bring out a bigass boombox to the front of your house and serenade you from your front yard

when you opened your window to see this dork singing at the top of his lungs directly at you, you ... honestly fell even further in love with him than you thought possible

you said yes, obviously, and while he insisted he could catch you from that height in your pointpalace:tm: like you were both in some kind of shitty romcom, you just ended up descending the regular way lol

he still insists he could've done it no problem

he wouldn't really have any main love language, aside from the secret 6th one: Music

he knows every genre. every genre

he has his own personal library of music that stretches across what seems like an infinite expanse. every single musical art piece made since the beginning of time, no matter how obscure, is kept in his library, and no matter what you ask for, he knows exactly what you mean and exactly where to find it

for every song you like, he can show you 10 more of the same kind that scratch the same musical itch

he'd show you songs that remind him of you and songs he thinks you'd like

you can practically hear him excitedly vibrating when you hum the tune of one of his recommended songs, or when you namedrop a piece in front of another point (that's SO obscure only HE could have put you on it)

he insists on karaoke night. just the two of you? with all the other points? he doesn't care. he loves to hear you sing

the very first time you sung to him, you were super nervous because this is like. The Music Point.

but he hypes you the fuck up

"Don't be silly! There's no such thing as a bad voice, just a voice without training~"

he'd be so excited to uncover the intricacies of your voice/speech patterns/tone and help modify that to develop a voice that you like, should you take him up on his offer

he is incredibly pro-rest as well, and the moment he hears you strain he will insist you take a break

similarly, this applies to other facets of your life. despite his inclination for audio, he is somehow the world's worst alarm clock. on purpose.

you finally manage to sing again for the first time in forever after starting voice training and hes speechless for a few moments before being like

"Wow."

"Your voice ... It's beautiful."

he will never stop bragging about how he was the first to hear your singing voice

or how he was the first to properly teach you how to dance

and when he sings it sounds like the entire universe goes silent at his command, just for you to hear his ode to your love

you don't see this because its professional workplace point business:tm: but when meetings get too chaotic/loud he'll step in and just speak this firm, all-encompassing

- "SILENCE."

and everybody shuts the fuck up

he will also speak like this (albeit less loudly) for you if he senses you're not being heard in a group setting

you rarely ever see him irritated though hes a goofy lil cornball around you

[finchswordmesses]

Literal First Tumblr Post, baybee

So, I saw a post on Bluesky, and it was so awful I made an entire ass Tumblr blog to talk about it.

The post shows a screenshot from an ad for an AI service. To save you all the trouble of going to a whole-ass other website, I'll transcribe the relevant bits of text from the ad, here:

"A.I. isn't just another tool - It will redefine how our world works. Why memorize facts, write code, research anything - when a model can do it in seconds? The best communicator, the best analyst, the best problem solver - is now the one that knows how to ask the right question. The future won't reward effort. It will reward leverage."

This is... wrong. And bad. The corners of the internet I frequent hate every bit of this sentiment, and so do I. The problem is, the place where my brain went is so ridiculously arcane I cannot possibly convey it in anything resembling 300 characters. So, I'm talking about it here.

Let me tell you a story about scurvy.

Part One: Scurvy and the "Scientists" who Rejected it

In the early days of the age of sail, there were a lot of things that doomed voyages. Storms, pirates, mutiny, those fucked up looking dragons everyone drew in the margins of the maps... sailing was a dangerous business. But among the many, many threats to long voyages was a new disease that seemed to exclusively affect sailors.

Scurvy is a specific form of malnutrition, caused by a prolonged deficiency in Vitamin C intake. It could happen to basically anybody who didn't eat enough fruits and vegetables, but the reason it happened to sailors had entirely to do with failures in logistics. Produce did not keep well, in an era before refrigeration, and alternative methods of preserving such things usually destroyed much of the nutritional value they held. Of course, sailors did not know that. Nobody did. Up until this point in history, there had never been reason to think that people could get sick from only ever eating hardtack every day.

In this time period, science wasn't exactly the same as it is today. Most scholars and doctors of the time were little more than nerds with large and expensive libraries. The prevailing attitude at the time was that learned men should defer to those who came before, that the oldest sources of knowledge were the purest and the closest to God, and therefore the most likely to be correct.

In that vein, your average doctor in the Age of Sail was likely to be some manner of adherent to humor theory. Humor theory was a whole rigamarole invented by Greek physicians that said that every malady in the body was due to a failure to keep your various fluids topped up. Citing the "learned sages" of ages past, doctors confidently proclaimed that this new disease was the result of an imbalance of blood, a torpor that could only be cured by increasing the afflicted's workload. Given that scurvy causes a person's body to slowly disintegrate on the connective tissue level, you can imagine how well that went.

Of course, science was being done. Several people were conducting early experiments, gathering testimony from sailors. Slowly, the idea was being introduced in academic circles that the cause was based in the poor diet of sailors, not a humor imbalance. Still, for years, the community at large clung to their old theories. After all, the Greek sages never said anything about fruits and vegetables as the cause, so why should that even be considered?

What those Age of Sail scholars failed to take into consideration was that the ancient Greeks had never encountered scurvy. At least, not to any extent that mattered. The Greeks lived on an archipelago and never strayed too far from shore. Not compared to the globe-spanning trade empires of the Old World. The first possible mention of scurvy wasn't until Roman times, when brief mention was made of soldier illness during long marches through the relatively barren African countryside. The world, by and large, had just never experienced the problem on this scale, because the world had never had to coordinate logistics on this scale, before.

This post is about A.I. tools.

Part Two: Digital Scurvy

Going back to that advertisement mentioned in the Bluesky post, the feeling that I got from it was very much that of the 16th century doctor. It seeks to push forward the idea that all the answers to every question you could have have already been found. Your job as a "learned sage" in our modern times is not to do research or to inquire or experiment. Your job is to efficiently parrot the knowledge of those that came before, to be the best at drawing forth the wisdom of your forebears.

"The greatest analyst," it says, "is one who knows how to ask the right questions." What is meant by that is not "asking questions in service to independent research." Instead, they mean "asking an AI chatbot the questions most likely to get it to pull the relevant information from its impossibly large database." It is a man in a library who has never gone to sea, but who has just the right Greek physician on hand who can explain humor theory to you.

Because this is the problem: what happens when the ancient sages are wrong? What if their information is faulty, outdated, or rooted in outmoded thinking? What if you try to ask the database the answer to a question it has never been asked, before?

What do you do when the new scurvy arises?

Part Three: The Reality

The vision, as promised, just can't happen. The whole of humanity cannot return to a backward-looking way of thinking, any more than the world's doctors could return to humor theory. Information will still need to be synthesized. Not just recited, not just regurgitated, but actually made, whole cloth.

If the world imagined by AI startups has any chance of not imploding on itself, then the end result will be a world of systematized stolen valor. Writers will still feel the pull to tell stories. Scientists will still perform experiments and research. Artists will still create and experiment and discover new philosophies in art.

The only thing that will change is that they will do so with the understanding that they will never be credited.

Somehow, someway, all their output will find its way into the databases. There, it will be snatched up by the "digital sages," who will proudly hold up their prize as one holds up a magnificent pearl, dredged from the sea floor. They will be lauded for their ability to navigate the databases, to petition the gods in just the right way as to earn their favor.

Meanwhile, the synthesizers will continue their work, forgotten.

Part Four: The Less Fun Reality

The true reality of this world would likely be even more bleak.

Creatives all over the world quickly learn to pull their content from electronic sources. Money is hard to earn for people in the arts, and having to share space with a machine that can spit their own output back at them at a quantity beyond mortal means makes the process less than impossible. What few artists remain successful do so in controlled venues. All viewings are in-person, and recording is tightly monitored. Physical media comes back into fashion, loaded down with any subtle measures the artists can think of to foil scans.

Science, meanwhile, grinds to a halt. Funding has long since been diverted to the sages. The credits on scientific papers, once considered a prestige and an honor, now becomes nothing more than a hollow gesture of ownership known only to a select few in an ever dwindling community. What few researchers hang on do so out of bloody-minded desire to change the world for the better. Their efforts are anemic and without support.

The sages, ensconced in their server farms, see none of this. Secure in their positions as the wisest and most powerful, they assert themselves as the ones with the answers to all of life's questions. The databases become filled with the wisdom of the sages that came before, information synthesized semi-randomly from past information. Soon the life of a digital sage is to quote the lessons imparted by other digital sages, in an endless Ouroboros.

The people do not question the sages, for the sages know how to ask the right questions.

And then, one day, when humanity has charted the stars, a new problem arises. Astronauts on the extremely long voyages in space are suffering from a new affliction, one that has never been encountered, before. Dutifully, the people turn to the sages. Dutifully, the sages make their pleas to the databases.

The databases speak.

"This new affliction is caused by a lack of Vitamin C."

[aeternallis]

yooo, fam!! Im bored this Monday at work, so tell me one of your opinions that’d have you like Eugene from Tangled with the swords pointed at him 😈

no introductions, I’mma just get right into it:

Call me cynical, paranoid, pessimistic, a mean old grouch, and every other name in the book, but you will never make me change my mind when I say I do not and will not ever trust positivity posts on here that speaks in regards to the nature of fandoms, as if there’s some higher ideal that fandom as an existence must be beholden to. Because I can assure you, at least within the scope of my experience, almost every positivity post I’ve seen on here always comes from either a place of disingenuity or limited to no context.

And I’m not calling anyone out specifically on this, if y’all need that reassurance. Because if you do feel called out, then methinks you’ve got some soul searching to do. All I’m saying is, this is my boundary, and I enforce this to myself with a metaphorical iron brick whenever I get into a new thing and earn myself another set of blorbos to obsess over for the next year or two.

Tell me nonnie, if this sequence of events I’m about to describe doesn’t seem familiar to you:

Person 1: //posts a controversial opinion in the fandom

then…

Person 2: vague-posts about said controversial opinion for not following fandom norms and seeing it as an attack on their faves; they won’t say it’s a personal attack on their faves, not outright, but they won’t hesitate to create some moral/ethical dilemma about why such a take is controversial and why it’s #bad for the blood

and then…

Person 1: tries to clarify their opinion in the fandom, all while dealing with the overbearing anxiety of being vague-posted about and seeing their own words twisted

and then…

Person 2: writes a toxic positivity post that 1) completely misreads the original controversial opinion and indirectly villainizes Person 1, 2) doesn’t provide any context for why they wrote such a post in the first place, and 3) writes the post in such a way that people who aren’t aware of the drama behind the scenes would sensibly agree and 4) derails the entire conversation to the point that the original meaning and intent of the controversial opinion has long been discarded

for example: who would ever be able to argue that all queer stories deserve to be told and that although some queers may find value in certain stories, some others may not.

or, another example: that having headcanons that a fictional character has autism or ADHD is simply someone’s own enjoyment of the story and that they shouldn’t be attacked for it.

Whenever I see posts like this, my immediate gut instinct is almost always to ask:

“So, my dearest OP, what made you decide to make a post such as this? did someone inadvertently hurt your feelings with their opinions, and you didn’t have enough willpower to just block and move on? what context are you keeping from your followers and whatever audience you have? you’re not actually using your audience to validate your own insecurity and indirectly villainize the person you disagree with…right?”

Because the truth of it is nonnie, at the end of the day, we are all nothing more but a bunch of nerds on this website who have some time in their hands. Beyond that? We’re just the same as any other socmed website, prone to petty arguments and toxic behavior.

Why do you think it is, nonnie, that so many people on this stupid site are so very bitter or scared or hesitant to talk about their controversial opinions and hot takes? The answer, imo, is simple:

A lot of people on this site have taken it for granted that fandom is a safe space, that fandom is designed in such a way to make people happy and share in the fun.

But, I disagree.

I completely disagree.

Fandom is not a safe space. Fandom is what you make of it, and if that means spouting your controversial takes, then I say fucking go for it, and block who needs to be blocked. Mute whomever needs to be muted, and consign them to the ash heaps of the block list.

Fandom is not a safe space. What fandom means to you can have a completely different meaning to someone else. No one is ever obligated to cater to anyone else’s version of what they believe fandom ought to be.

Fandom is not a safe space, fandom—as we all should know by now—is just as susceptible to human folly and wholly imperfect biases, as any other community that chooses to come together, whether organically or by choice.

Especially on here.

Toxic positivity posts that speaks of higher ideals when it comes to fandom behavior are nothing more to me than smokescreens that these OPs use in order to hide their own pettiness and insecurity, to boost their own ego, if you will. They’re just a tool to manipulate other people into taking their side of some dumb argument that could have been easily solved through a Private DM and making use of common human decency.

So there you go nonnie, an opinion I hold that would have a thousand swords pointed at me.

Even so, I stand by it.

[director-yomi-hellsmile]

reading the...... Preview....... My notes....... Heheheheh

We got a timeskip. By a little.. I see Bristleclaw (aka formerly Bristlepaw) as a warrior let's see about the siblings + if the wretched nightsun spawn are born. Also if Graypaw's not named Grayspots I'm slamming my keyboard (I'm on the phone)

Wafflepelt. I forgot Wafflepaw was a thing sdjjjgds imagine getting ur cat to win a contest to star in canon warrior cat and its got the -pelt suffix. Cheated and spat on

Stemtail and Graywhisker.... I guess Graywhisker's fineeeeee but come on he has spots. He's got spots.......

Nightsun babies are here. Named Goldenkit (golden tabby tom) and Shinekit (black molly). Hi kids I'm so sorry your dad is literally Nightheart

Oh wait Myrtlebloom also got a litter?????? Is this where Shyfrost's gonna come from.. Kits are Oakkit (pale brown tabby molly with white spots), Sunkit (orange tabby tom, is it after Sunbeam??) and Hazelkit (tortie molly with white spots). No Shyfrost in sight. Keep on looking

ThunderClan baby boom

This will affect the family tree.

Anyway checking out all the other adult names of the ASC kits lol. ShadowClan first

Oh they got: Birchfeather (Dovewing and Tigerstar kit which means I automatically like him), Bloompetal, Firbark, Whisperbreeze, Streamripple. I actually like those?? Firbark and Streamripple especially. Good job Tigerstar let me kiss you directly on thr lips

Who the hell are Redpaw and Sprucepaw huh... New spawn.... Also oh no I see Lightleap gave birth god forbid a single even a little prominent female character not get pregnant. The Curse has finally affected my girl. It was inevitable. I should have prepared

Lightleap spawn is Quickkit (ginger tabby tom), Beehckit (pale brown tom, haha typo the writers made a typo everyone point and laugh), and Poolkit (white molly). The cat genetics nerd inside me in crying and writhing in pain rn

SkyClan section. Fuck you Tree I hate Tree stupid stupid cat

Beetleshine for Beetlepaw... Good name good name but I already named an OC that earlier so I am not impressed. I was first. Beepaw is uhhh where thebhell is Beepaw. Oh they're Beesting. Actual good names I am satisfied with your work. Moving on

Duskshine and Ridgeglow also good however come on you already used -shine in the same generation come onnnn.......

Ok Who's pregnant. Was anyone pregnant

Needleclaw was.... Her kids are Robinkit (reddish-brown molly) and Starlingkit (black and white tom) Woohoo Starling prefix win. Also by any chance is the father Kitescratch. Just wondering

FINALLY. Sparrow and Cherry retired

WindClan timeeeee

Leafcurl yay. Nice girl nice name 9/10. Her less cooler siblings got Grassfur and Branchleap. Clearly there's a superior sister

Silkypaw and Fluffpaw??? Huhhhhh?? Who are they..... Also thanks for getting creative for once your efforts have been recognized by the great Yomi

Kicking my feet going hehehe at warrior cat website book preview. This is where I was supposed to be all this time. I found my calling

Stripeheart and Brookripple are also here. I revoke my praise of the authors getting creative come onnnnn you literally JUST named Streamripple I. I'm gonna make them kiss. Bond over being literal clones

Guys this is big. This is huge. Breezepelt is a grandpa now. I am going to shed tears

Appleshine's kits (Breeze grandkids) are: Rustlekit (white tom with a brown tail) and Stretchkit (brown tabby molly with white face markings). Giving the authors their creativity praise back. Do not dissapoint me again

WAIT NIGHTCLOUD RETIRED. o7

Still not over with how Owlnose is a deputy now for some reason. Didn't his entire small character arc a few books back center wholly around with how he should not be a leader. They literally only picked him because they killed off literally every other RiverClan character with a personality and he was the only fuckijg option because he's the only cat who got actually developed even if it makes no sense I. I'm. I hope he spontaneously combusts

Also I will prevent myself from going off on Podlight getting off scot free for his atrocities while. I will prevent myself I do not deserve this headache

Anywayyyy Splash siblings are adults now named Troutshine (WHAT'S WITH THE SHINES), Rapidsplash and Floatshimmer (who's also with kits now? you sure you aint too young..)

wait a moment. I just realized something about the timeline. Wait was Sunbeam already- yeah she was pregnant in like. Wait hold on does this make sense. If it doesn't then the timeline is broken if it does I'm just rightfully worried,

Anyway guess Hollowspring and Sparrowtail joined RiverClan? I thiiiiink it was mentioned in Star. Or not.

Amyway Floatshimmer kids are Heronkit (silver molly) and Eelkit (black tom)

Phew... That's the allegiances section. Holy fuck. That's a lot of cats. Kitten season

On to the actual chapters now lmao

Prologue:

Oh hii Leafpool is that Skystar GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERRRR LEAVE HER ALONEEEEEEE DO NOT TALK TO HER. HE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED AROUND WOMEN THIS IS FUCKING TERRIFYING GET AWAYYYYYYY

"The Clans were unstable in my time, and if you ask me, they’re just as bad now.” Skystar. Skystar back in your times the Clans weren't unstable they were a tragic disaster that brutally murdered every single woman that came in contact with it. Also shut up get this man away from Leafpool

Why is Skystar here even. Get him out

Also. The writing here is so goofy can we get to Moonpaw already

Oh wait another journey?? Actually this is fine I hate the Lake territories. Change location NOW

Chapter 1

Why's Tawnypelt such a hater. What did Bloompetal do to you she's literally just frolicking she's just a girl

Why is she. Genuinely So mean to everyone.

Which don't get me wrong is not inherently Bad if this was any other media I love mean mean women however this is warriors. I don't remember the last time a wc character was genuinely just kind and nice to people, every single cat is just written interacting in such a mean-spirited way and them just being casually cruel to each other is supposed to be charming somehow, like everyone's an asshole already we don't need more. And also Tawnypelt is a Female Warriors Character™ which means that if this keeps up she'll definitely get disproportionately "punished" for it in some way later and. I'm just praying that Moonpaw is a ray of goddamn sunshine when we get to her please I can't do this anymore

Is. Is the entire chapter gonna be her being unreasonable and snapping at everyone younger. Is. Is

I actually genuinely do not understand her problem. Like I get she's sad I get it but. Was she deliberately written as making problems out of nowhere, or did the writers shart once again.

(don't mind me I'm just paranoid... I've been hurt by warrior cats before...)

Hehe Poolkit- oh wait that was it. That was the chapter. I mean its fine actually

Chapter 2:

Leafstar time. I don't like her but I will now mindwipe all my opinions I've had on her character to have somewhat of a good time now. Maybe she gets better!!

Praying they are gonna be normal about Leafstar's vision loss. Please warrior cats

I was correct lmao Kitescratch was the father

Mystery Sickness

Mystery Sickness epidemic plot!!! I got no idea what the hell these symptoms are supposed to be but. Ok❤️yay

There is people being loud at my house

Can be Mystery Sickness pleaseeeeeeeee spread to ThunderClan too. Can we have ThunderClan population culling this arc pleaseeeee

Anyway get out my way grandma it's MOONPAW TIME

Chapter 3

Baby.

Oh god another medcat apprentice that doesn't want to be a medcat. Can we stop.

Also idk about how they just took a look at Moonpaw (who's also a child) looking different (aka. having chimerism) and went "we're now gonna force you into a lifetime of celibacy" it's just. So weird to me I hope Moonpaw kills everyone especially her parents

Moonkit. Moonkit I'm speaking directly to you now you have to start killing

Oh fuck she's got that voice inside her head. Please writers I am praying for you to be normal. If this is her vengeful dead fetus sibling she absorbed in the womb that people have been theorizing I am also going to kill everyone. If this is also an Evil Plural plot I will get your spirits too

Oh no. Oh fuck. Chat I think it's. Oh no. Chat I think they're. Doing just that.

Oh fuck. Oh no. *sighs painfully* *cocks gun*

Thanks Jayfeather and everyone else in that den for being normal about Moonpaw and clearing up the fact that it's just her parents that are being Really Weird

I like. Moonpaw. I'm also taking her and her voice away from the warrior cat writers she is mine now get away from her

Yep that finally confirms it she's being deliberately written as plural

Unnamed Moonpaw Voice you're so silly. If you're evil later for some reason I will take your side

Unnamed Moonpaw Voice got a reflection-

Oh fucj is that. They're really. Is that really the spirit of her dead fetus sibling she absorbed in womb oh god oh fuck

VERDICT: I am officially taking Moonpaw away from the writers that's it. She is mine now get away from her what are you doing why am I actually somewhat affected by this

[bones-mcjones-incorporated]

can u pls ramble to me about music i lvoe hearing people ramble !! pls ramble !!

!!

ok so. Recently I’ve been kind of obsessed with the culture of covering songs through the 40s-50s-60s, and tracing how songs evolved over time with each successive iteration through different genres and artists. one of my favorite music writers (reviewers? It’s hard to categorize exactly what he does), George Starostin, has a series on his substack blog called “The Life Of A Song”, where he focuses on just that - tracing songs and their development through different covers and reinterpretations over time. He has a really good article on the evolution of “Train Kept A’ Rollin’”, tracing it back all the way through the song’s jump blues roots during the late-40s-early-50s as recorded by Tiny Bradshaw, into the rockabilly era with the version by the Johnny Burnette Trio, into the british invasion era when recorded by the Yardbirds, and then into the 70s hard rock era when Aerosmith covered it. And its so fucking cool just to listen through all of the versions and notice how the song developed over time. 

so because I’m a huge NERD about all of the mid-60s British invasion bands, I’ve recently been doing much of the same “tracing back” on a lot of the music that all those British bands covered. Because most of the early British invasion was based on covers of American pop, R&B, and blues music, it's really easy to trace the influence of certain artists and songs throughout this period. Secondhandsongs.com is like my favorite website right now for just flipping through multiple versions of the same song and tracing them back since it formats it all nice and neatly. And let me tell you - if you ever feel lost or you don’t know where to start when trying to get into pre-Beatles era American pop music, going to any miscellaneous 1963-1965 british invasion album and just tracing back the song credits is legit the most effective and interesting way I’ve found to get into all of this 50s-early-60s music that's mostly been overlooked by our generation when we look back on “old” music. For example, taking the 1963 debut album by Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas, “Listen”, (at least, this was their debut UK album - much like the Beatles, The Dakotas’ albums were all cut up and rearranged into entirely different beasts in the US - and as a quick little side note that nobody else but me is going to find at all interesting, this album was actually the band’s only UK album to be released during the band’s entire run. Across the pond, they had three US albums - a situation not unlike most british invasion bands of the era, where more frequent album releases were typically favored in US markets rather than UK markets. But I digress) - where was I? ah, yes - anyway - as I was saying, let’s take Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas’ Listen as an example. It’s a pretty standard-fare Merseybeat album of the era, with the overwhelming majority of the songs being covers, so there’s a lot to work with here. I focus on tracing back the songs to the original artists (or in the case of there being multiple “original” sources of the song, tracing back to the version where the band most likely got their version from), and kind of formatting it into the track listing to keep it nice on the eyes, like so - 

“Dance With Me” (The Drifters)

“Pride” (Brent Edwards)

“I Know” (written for the band by George Martin)

“Yes” (Ben E. King) 

“The Twelfth Of Never” (Johnny Mathis)

“Sugar Babe” (Buster Brown)

“Da Doo Ron Ron” (The Crystals)

“It's Up To You” (Ricky Nelson)

“Great Balls Of Fire” (Jerry Lee Lewis)

“Tell Me Girl” (I honestly don’t know if this is a cover or if it was written for the band. The only credits I can find attribute the song to Norman Smith)

“Anything That's Part Of You” (Elvis Presley)

“Beautiful Dreamer” (Tony Orlando)

“Still Waters Run Deep” (Brook Benton)

“I Call Your Name” (written for the band by Lennon/McCartney)

I embedded the links so that you can click on the name of the song to listen to Billy & the gang’s cover of the song, and then linked the original versions of the songs for ease of access for comparison. Anyway, a lot of information can be gathered about Mr. Kramer (anyone else getting visions of Seinfeld?) just by looking at the information like this and noting the kind of artists that he was covering. Even before listening to the album, you can tell just from the track listing and the kind of people that he’s covering that the material is largely slanted in favor of ballads and the softer sides of early 60s pop. Billy’s own niche was something of the Elvis-style romantic crooner of the British invasion (even if he hardly had the vocal talent to even come close to upstaging his idols. But that’s a tangent for another time), and this is evident just from the people that he’s covering on this album - Johnny Mathis, Elvis Presley, Ben E. King - he only really gets into rocking-mode on a small handful of songs like Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls Of Fire” and Buster Brown’s “Sugar Babe” (where he arguably turns the most searing performance of his entire career - nowhere else in the band’s short discography can you hear the Dakotas kicking up as much dirt or Billy shredding his vocal chords quite like this one song, even if it sounds comparatively tame to his contemporaries on the Merseybeat scene, forget even the R&B scene in London). When framing the album this way and taking into account not only the interpretation of the material, but the origins of the material itself, it helps to give a more wholesome picture of the band’s artistic identity and influences by the kind of people that they were covering.

And it also becomes a good exercise in broadening my own musical tastes - had I not decided to take a look back at where these songs came from, I would’ve never discovered Brook Benton or had the chance to learn about the long colorful history of “Beautiful Dreamer”, a song that dates back to the mid-19th century. It’s insights like these that make me cherish all of these relatively obscure records british invasion records of the era - not only because I’m a slut for hot english guys with matching suits and floppy haircuts singing cheeky love songs (guilty as charged), but because it leads me down these other related endless rabbit holes that bring me to other music that I may never have heard of or been able to appreciate in light of the covers. 

Someday when I have the time I want to try and go through more early British invasion albums and notate them up like above, and hopefully provide even more comprehensive descriptions of where the songs came from, who-covered-who, etc etc… so that I can form almost something of a database for understanding the great musical and cultural exchange of American music of the late 50s-early-60s and how it mutated when picked up by British bands and exported back to the American record-buying public. Which I would spend all my time on right here right now but unfortunately school is a Thing That Exists and I have a degree to earn right now so I don’t have time for HyperIntensive Autistic Research (HIAR) right now :( :(

anyway. I appreciate asks like this so much because it gives me an excuse to infodump and be as pretentiously encyclopedic as I want (har har har) so I hope this was at least interesting to somebody else other than me!

[gor3sigil]

While I sometimes miss the old internet for its anonymity, the niche forums and chatrooms and the blogs/websites that were fully customizable and had personality to them wompared to the social media hubs that all look the same now, I think that people like me and older (because I'm 26, I did not know the times where you couldn't use the phone and surf on the web at the same time for exemple) tend ot over romanticize it. Yeah, nostalgia is great and all, but sometimes I see nerds in their 30s say that "at the time you were anonymous, you couldn't get doxxed". Yes you could, and it very much happened, with very real and devastating consequences. "People didn't care who you were", yes they did, and if you were a girl you were very much likely going to be scared of the internet for a good fucking while and/or stalked, online and/or IRL. "We didn't have to put trigger warnings and we could say shit without filters" Idk dude, I don't think that saying the nastiest slurs ever to strangers was THAT fun. I don't think that finding snuff films on the surface web like it was nothing was great. I don't think that not being able to punish anyone who would go online to prey on kids and teenagers when they were fully grown adults and groom without consequences was a good thing. And yeah, I'm aware that all of this still happens, to an extend that is still too much, but I really don't understand how the terrible shit you could find online or have happen to you in the 90s/early 2000s was better. I DO miss a lot of things. I miss forums, I found it way more fun than the social medias that we have now, and I'd much rather hangout on a dozen of pretty, customized niche forums than on subreddits that are devoid of any pizzazz. I miss the chatrooms (at least, a part of it), because you could log in and talk with total strangers about your deepest secrets and confide and people, I think, actually took the time to read you and answer you. Maybe I'm a sour fuck but the many times I tried to go into some Discord servers, it always seems like people don't fucking read what you write and will just "talk over" you. It annoyed me so bad I just gave up the thing entirely because I hated trying to connect with someone only to have random people bursting in the conversation to talk about their day or brutally change the subject without reading the room. That and the fact that I don't seem to find a server that isn't or dead or overcrowded to a point were you just can't talk, it's a constant flood of people saying whatever, or were people have a Minecraft server that takes over the whole Discord server (I kid you not, I had found a place where I really liked to hang out and they decided to make a Minecraft server, and then EVERYONE was always on VC playing Minecraft and if you didn't play, which I don't because Minecraft bores me to no end, nobody was talking into the main room. Everyone was on MC, and it isn't the first server where I saw that happen).

[nnugatoryextravagance]

I think one of the fun things about being so disconnected from whats popular right now in general is the comical ways I've found out about popular music related things for the past countless years now. I originally found out about chappell roan because I sang along to red wine supernova with my friend in their car and I found the song hot to go from a rarijack amv on this very website. I found out about The Caretaker when the final stage of EATOT first came out because it was super important to an ex friend of mine and that even led me to finding out about an entire music genre that has become insanely important and deeply sentimental to me- and hell through that same ex friend I found the band who I would later end up literally naming myself after one of their albums (KGLW) which like, jesus christ the butterfly effect is freaky as hell. Then there's just the silly ways I found things- which honestly I don't see as any less important really, like how I found out about Will Wood, an artist who's been a core inspiration for so much of my work for years now and who's music has gotten me through so much awful shit, I technically found out about through animation memes when I was like 11-12. I feel like there's so much fun memory sharing shenanigans to be had with the ways people found certain things they like especially music, and i'm gonna sound like a huge fucking nerd but being so honest right now it feels really good not listening to the radio and finding music on my own, I've just been collecting music from other people and random places for years now and its like I've got my own little scrapbook of random songs and albums from all over the place. ...Also its honestly so fucking funny for people to act utterly baffled when they name Currently Famous Musician and I can either only name some random song they made almost 10 years ago or i just straight up don't know who they are and they think im lying or fucking with them, then they pass me the aux in the car and I proceed to play them the worst shit they have ever listened to in their life.

[desceros]

*gets up onto table and bangs pots together like a neanderthal* I WAS RIGHT BITCHES I CALLED IT !!!! I FUCKING CALLED IT !!!!!!!

no because i was waiting for her to show up the entire chapter and just. completely forgot about aloplex when i was reading violist-chan's healing with todd and reunion with mikey.

i banged my head on my desk when mikey explained that he can detect his family's energy. how he kept insisting she is family after witnessing the whole showdown in the lair, more than likely getting leo's side of the story and wanting to patch up that big ass WOUND he left. mikey will be forever a better person than i'll ever be cause if i heard that my siblings pulled that shit on someone i consider a sister? sending them to the closest desert.

also bee tee dubs, i read the triangle head leo fic and wow good golly is it hot in here no of course im not questioning where my loyalties stand [sweating profusely]

srsly tho sam ur writing has always been one of my biggest inspos!! not to brag or anything [nerd voice] but i was there when the donnie camping fic was first dropped On The Day Of!!!! and WOAH i knew immediately i was going to have a favorite writer on that website

anyways !! KEEP UP THE AMAZING WORK AND THANKS FOR FEEDING MY PURPLE TURTLE BRAINROT !!!

oh man you HAVE been around forever hahahahha!! you were one of the first comments on symphony chapter 1 so. street cred established

mikey's a GOOD BOY who is TEAM VIOLA-CHAN and i'm so delighted to get to the point where he's stepping up. i've been looking forward to this part of the fic for months.

there's likely going to be more pyramid head leo to come, i confess. those brainworms didn't quite get all wiggled out with the one fic. looks into the foggy distance, yearning

[yoiku]

aye, still getting the random reboots as i thought. at least so far its been only once a day or so. I guess I'll just need to stay on top of any driver and bios updates and hope. Literally done everything i've found on the internet and asking tech nerds on the issue, and since hardware and power issues are also entirely ruled out now i feel like I'll just have to wait and see. as annoying as that is. looking at the history of the same problem it's been usually fixed with either switching hardware, a mix of windows settings, or a bios update. I did grab a new beta bios build a moment ago and will keep my eye on those, I feel like its my best bet as of now. On another note entirely, I thought i'd install minecraft and surprise surprise, microsoft has made it worse again. log into your microsoft account log into your xbox live account log into windows store in order to install it even though you grabbed the installer from the mc website. fuck offff.

[salted-anime-takes]

Sword Art Online (S1 & S2; dropped after that)

Author: Reki Kawahara, originally light novels

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Genres (Listed by MAL): Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance (vomits), Love Polygon (kills you)

Premiered: Summer 2012

Anime vs. Manga?: You couldn't pay me less than $100 to consume additional content to this series. I'd also need a large margarita.

Salted Genres: stereotypical teen boy fantasy, loser cardboard male mc, harem of women too good for him, jesus christ they had a torture dungeon for main girl in S2 by some grown man obsessed with her???, jesus FUCKING christ they gave Kirito a cousin who is into him but reasoned it off not being totally blood related, why did we let this series get so popular

Major Trigger Warnings: that weird sex dungeon thing in S2, almost incest, shitty writing, shitty love polygon garbage

Can I Watch It Around My Parents?: Just don't watch it. The cultural context isn't worth it. Do yourself a favor and stop thinking isekai will be family friendly when the main audience is incels.

Artstyle: That moe-esque style without any personality and makes all the main characters look 12, and many side characters look ridiculously older.

Personal Review: I will never forgive SAO for kicking off the isekai genre in anime so hard. Fuck yourself, Kirito. Every other anime lead in isekai is just you. Fuck this garbage pile for the isekai boom. Fuck my life

Context: This is the real reason you're here, aside from the scathing remarks you've probably heard a billion times. Why the fuck is this show even relevant? Let's go back to the early 2010s, before half of tumblr could pretend to read. (This is mostly from the Western perspective, so please add anything else happening in the world with this wild popularity jump, because I'd LOVE to hear additional takes.) Several factors were going on. Firstly, Netflix was finally a full streaming service, and most people were starting to subscribe. You didn't have to hope it was on Toonami or go to whatever sketchy websites had anime illegally available (and get every virus known to computer-kind) to get your fix anymore. Well... for a small starting selection. Secondly, while the isekai genre was already a fully developed thing, it hadn't broken into the majority Western anime viewership circles, which barely ventured outside of Toonami at the time. Then along came SAO. Netflix got the rights to the entire first season, and suddenly, it was not only insanely accessible but also something most Western fans had never seen before. You die in the game, you die in real life?! Incredible!!! (Sorry Tron, you weren't high fantasy enough for this crowd.) Thirdly, gaming was finally mainstream, and watching streamers was a new norm. The timing couldn't have been better for its release. And what with the insane levels of ignorance and assumptions most Western anime watchers had at the time of anime tropes, most red flags discussed were merely looked over. We let too much slide in the early 2010s, and SAO was one of the biggest culprits. Fourthly, if you needed a gateway anime? SAO didn't require any sort of understanding of Japanese culture to get, which appealed to a lot of people who didn't want to think outside their box, as was the early 2010s. Despite it all, SAO was easy merchandise. Hot Topic (apologies for the American chain drop) was venturing into nerd culture and including some nice trinkets for the little nerds that hung out with their goth besties, and anime merch- including SAO- was some of the first big hits. After that? It's history. I don't know if anyone who still claims to like SAO actually is banking on nostalgia or just never gained tastes beyond a lameass horny 15 year old boy, but that boom it created gave so many light novel writers the ticket they needed to get isekai as a major genre in today's seasonal anime lineup.

Favorite Character: Asuna deserved better you motherfuckers. She actually did stuff until you get thrown into the most unnecessary slice of life arc where they begin the Sexualization. S2 cour 2 they gave her a genuinely interesting opportunity to be a lead, AND Kirito wasn't there. Still not worth watching.

Fandom: you couldn't pay me ANYTHING to check this.

[that-dinopunk-guy]

So I found this shirt being sold on one of those geek-shirt websites and I hate it so goddamn much. Why, you ask? Well, I'll tell you!

Why does it have two Weyland-Yutani logos on the front, one from Alien, the other from Aliens, which are set over a half a century apart?

Why does it have NOSTROMO PATCHES ON THE SLEEVES?! The Nostromo was a towing ship, it wasn't associated with their bio-weapons division in any way, and it was seen by the company as so unimportant that they didn't give a shit if it rolled into port with the entire crew dead.

They just lazily slapped a bunch of shit on a shirt without considering whether it made sense, and that bugs the hell out of me.

Now you may be saying "Well yeah, it doesn't make sense as like a facsimile of what an in-universe employee of Weyland-Yutani's bio-weapons division might wear, but it's not necessarily meant to, it's just a fun shirt for people who like the franchise."

And to that I say: Shut up, fuck you, get out of my sight.

Anyway I don't like this shirt for dumb nerd reasons, that's the point of this post bye.

[saibugslegacy]

Ambrose Ask Game

I realized this morning that I forgot how ask games work and just did Odysseus' entire thing so I am a fool but I am now a committed fool. Questions from @rypnami

1) if your mc was an animagus, what would their form be? if they are, what is their form?

I think Ambrose’s animagus form would be, ironically, an eagle. They’re fiercely loyal and will fuck you UP, along with being good caretakers of their young

2) if they could choose what animagus form they would take, would it be the same? or would they want to have a different animal form?

I think he’d choose some type of bird, maybe a raven or crow, but he wouldn’t mind an eagle too

3) does your mc have a favourite colour? why is it their favourite?

Green, because Slytherin is the first real home he ever had

4) in a modern au, would your mc use social media? what would their preferred platform be? why is if their preferred one?

Ambrose would use Tumblr unironically. He’s just fucking weird and it’s easier to avoid arguments, also it’s more anonymous than twitter or Facebook or especially Instagram. He has a twitter account but has not opened the app in two years. He’s more likely to use Facebook. I could also see him using Snapchat, the messages disappearing would make him feel less nervous

5) did you consult wand lore when choosing their wand? if so, why did you pick what you did? if not, would you ever change wand details to match your mc?

I did consult wand lore because I am an absolute nerd. Ambrose’ wand is Aspen wood and phoenix feather. I chose Aspen wood because it’s particularly suited to martial magic and duelling, which is where Ambrose excels via Ancient Magic, and it’s masters are strong minded, determined, and drawn to quests. I was really sold though with this quote from the Wizarding World website: “this is a wand for revolutionaries.” Phoenix feather is because it has a huge range for its magic and Ambrose is at least average in most forms average. Plus it’s a rare and picky wand and Ambrose has a very “chosen one” energy the rest of my mcs dont have as much

6) what is your mc’s diet? are they vegan, vegetarian, do they eat whatever? Why?

Ambrose will eat literally anything you put in front of him, because he doesnt want to be rude or ungrateful, and because he didnt grow up with the ability to reject food because he never knew when the next time he’d eat was

7) what is your mc’s backstory as to why they didn’t join hogwarts until 5th year? or did you retcon that part of the story when creating them?

Ambrose was raised by two squibs who were SUPER bitter and hated wizards, so he grew up subconsciously suppressing his magic, especially since his brother’s magic was so destructive. He was teetering on the edge of becoming an obscurial but at the least second he let out all the magic he’d been suppressing while protecting Everett from his own fire (getting burned in the process). He got his Hogwarts letter when they went out a few months later, wrote back refusing to go, then Fig showed up and his efforts combined with Everett convinced him to go

8) what house is your mc in? why are they in that house? 

Ambrose is in Slytherin because, while he has a moral code, he is completely willing to set it aside whenever he feels like he needs to. Ex, he thinks killing is bad but is absolutely willing to murder someone if he feels he has no other option. He’ll feel shitty about it afterward but he’ll do it

9) were you inspired by characters from other media when making your mc? if so, which characters? and how did they influence your mc? 

Not really? Harry Potter a little but only in the sense of the main character/chosen one energy

10) does your mc have any special abilities? (legilimens, parsletongue, metamorphagus, etc) how do they choose to use these powers? did you give them powers for fun, or does it relate to their backstory/plot?

Post game he becomes able to channel the Ancient Magic for a wider range of abilities and can become a host of it, like the avatar state, but nothing outside of ancient magic

11) what is your mc’s blood status? how does it affect their time at hogwarts? how does it affect their home life?

His parents both have wiarding blood but since they’re both squibs he is technically a half blood. It doesn’t affect his home life much, but it does affect his life at Hogwarts for a bit because of a bunch of people being bitchy about a half-blood Slytherin. But him, Sebastian, Ominis, and Imelda shut that shit down fast

12) did your mc open the repository? why or why not? 

He did not open the Repository because he felt bad 

13) if your mc opened the repository, how did absorbing all that power affect them, if it did at all?

N/A

14) what does your mc think of the keepers? do they trust them? why or why not?

Trusts them overall but does get kind of annoyed at them sometimes over their lack of urgency and refusal to tell him anything

15) how does your mc’s story continue after 5th year? how do they cope with everything that happened with ranrok, sebastian, etc?

Not to give toooo much away but Ambrose’s story in 6th year mainly has to do with trying to get Ominis away from his family, raising Everett while also attending school, and dealing with black market smugglers trying to get their hands on powerful rare artifacts, in this case the Ancient Magic wand, the Deathly Hallows, and the Founders Relics. Thankfully, it isn’t long before a young witch transfers from Beauxbatons to help, a witch with very familiar powers…..

16) did your mc learn the unforgivables? why or why not?

They did because, while they are a last resort, he likes having some “break glass in case of emergency” spells

17) did your mc turn in sebastian? why or why not?

He did not, even though he was really pissed at him at the time, because he is a gay loser

18) what is your mc’s family like? do they have siblings? do they still have parents?

His parents SUCK, and his little brother Everett might as well be Ambrose’s son. He is a little goblin with fire powers and the most precious baby in the whole world and he will burn you alive

19) does your mc have a love interest? who is it? why did your mc fall for that character, if they do have a love interest?

I like to play with my MCs like dolls and make aus where they have different love interests, but the canon love interests for Ambrose are Sebastian and Ominis

20) does your mc have a favourite spell? if so, what is it and why do they like it the most?

Depulso, it gets people the fuck away from him and it’s really easy for crowd control, not to mention to just knock someone off a cliff and now you dont have to deal with them

21) if you could change anything that the mc does in the game, what would it be? why would you change it? how would you change it? (ie; a line they say, an event of a quest, things of that nature)

I really wish we could see MC trying to cope more and get comforted. I want MC especially to have more of a reaction to literally being kidnapped by Rookwood and suddenly they’re being attack on all sides, or maybe some PTSD at the dragon fighting ring or in the fight with dragon Ranrok because of the dragon attack at the beginning. It’s hard to get invested in them when they have no reaction to anything. They are 15!! Let them be scared and sad! Also they should have absolutely ripped Sebastian a new one after his little “ignorant” comment

22) does your mc have any pets? if so, why do they have the pets they have? and for fun, what are their pets’ names?

After 5th year he gets an owl so he can keep in touch with his friends and once they get away from his parents him and Everett get a Kneazle named Sock because Everett found him rummaging in a shoe

23) when designing your mc, why did you choose the appearance you did? has it changed at all since you first made them? would you change anything now?

I just kinda fucked around and found out honestly, even his burn scar I didn’t figure out the source for until later. Ambrose was also the first MC I played with so he started as a sort of self insert while I experienced the game for the first time, then became his own character my second playthrough 

24) where is your mc from? where is their family from?

His father is from London and his mother is Greek

25) what is your mc’s favourite season? why is it their favourite?

Autumn, he likes being cozy and thinks the leaves are pretty

26) how about your mc’s favourite holiday? what makes it special to them?

Halloween, no particular reason other than that it’s in Autumn honestly, but he does like how excited Everett gets to trick or treat around their little hamlet

27) if your mc wasn’t in their current house, where would they have been sorted? why do you think they’d be there?

Hufflepuff because of his his loyalty. Outside of his resourcefulness his loyalty is a core part of himself and what fuels most of his actions. The entire plot is spawned because of Ambrose's loyalty to and trust in Fig.

28) does your mc have a favourite childhood toy? if so, what was it? do they still have it with them?

Not really, though he did like to use sticks and pretend they were wands and swords

29) what kind of music would your mc like? is there a reason?

I think he’d like whatever genre Conan Gray counts as, purely based on vibes

30) last but not least, just tell us something you love about your mc! 

I love his silly freckles and that he has long hair despite being a trans guy, I think he looks very pretty :3

[psychologicalwhorefare]

sos

my number one skill is never shutting the fuck up ever and indeed in many circumstances it's more of a curse than a blessing because i genuinely can't control it for the most part but it does come in handy including throughout the entirety of my academic experience as well as just about every desk job i've ever had because it means i can fill a lot of space with a vast quantity of words that scan with a great deal of clarity and cohesion despite ultimately saying very little over the course of that volume. the result of this is that those who are reviewing my writing, which are usually people with varying degrees of power over my continued success, scan the content i've generated and deem it to be of high quality because everything seems well-thought out and competently composed and so they give it an instant pass, at least as long as they aren't paying too much attention, which - spoiler alert! - pretty much nobody ever is. they've all got their own shit to worry about, things that matter far more to them than whether or not you ended a sentence with a preposition in your 10-page report for a course that they're already sick of. now, what i did just there was a little trick where i actually violated my own natural cadence and patterns of writing in order to include a little gag! in the sentence where i mention the concept of ending a sentence with a preposition, i did just that; the sentence ended with "of." but for me, i normally would have phrased that sentence as follows: "they've all got their own shit to worry about, things that matter far more to them than whether or not you ended a sentence with a preposition in your 10-page report for a course that they're already sick of teaching." if this were actually a report with a word count minimum, obviously i would include that final word at the end of the sentence, because getting all cute and meta with the way i phrase things isn't worth losing that extra word of length. but in projects where the minimum requirements are more lax, i find it's helpful for my motivation to allow myself to have a little bit of genuine fun with it and liven the place up some. of course, that only applies if you're like me and you're a massive nerd who has fun doing that sort of thing, but i would say that there's a pretty decent chance that is true about you, seeing as how you're on tumblr dot com, a website that has an observably quite high population of huge nerds, and also you're presumably following me, which means you've identified with my nerd self enough to choose to see more of my blog. for what it's worth to you, my external keyboard seemingly ran out of battery several sentences ago, which is really kind of funny when you think about it. what an ironic time for that to happen, as i'm discussing and demonstrating my ability to type forever and ever! this is the first time i've had the battery in this keyboard die, so it must have had fresh ones in at the time i got it. i wouldn't know for sure, because i got it secondhand from someone i know who was clearing out some old inventory from their workplace's office building. that's where i got my big external monitor, as well. i really like tech appliances but honestly i really don't know much about them, that was never my area of expertise. as is likely obvious from this post alone, my passions have always remained more with the humanities. good god i have to stop now before i give you my whole fucking autobiography but i think by now i've sufficiently proven my point - i could easily do this until the end of time.

i have to create a new block now because of tumblr's character-per-block limitation. the one last thing i'll tell you is that, since i'm now typing on my laptop's keyboard which is at a somewhat awkward angle from me, my wrists are in danger of mucking with the trackpad, and just a few moments ago i accidentally selected the entire wall of text i've typed here and replaced it with what i was continuing to type. so thank goodness for the tumblr post editor's ability to undo, or else nobody ever would have seen this very intellectual and not at all frivolous and annoying post that i've generated here. if you actually read all of this, you're a huge freak and i'm proposing to you right now.