#this is such a niche reference to one of my own memes

[thatswhatsushesaid]

he's in

omg guys he did it!! he smuggled su minshan back into the olive garden!!!!

thank you xiandu 🙏

[lorax-devito]

i don’t think the people in my life understand the fear i have when going to sleep that i’ll wake up,log onto tumblr,and the townspeople are screaming that ao3 is down like a raid is happening and their first born has been killed while the straw roof bakery goes up in flames.

[magentagalaxies]

wanted to go to bed at midnight but instead stayed up to 3am writing an outline for a future video essay about the simpsons (specifically todd flanders' grief-as-purgatory and the graggle simpson meme)

[weaselandfriends]

Lucky☆Star (Anime)

How does art age?

There's a joke in Lucky☆Star where the four main characters fill out a questionnaire that asks them what they want to be when they grow up. Konata, the otaku, puts down "Brigade Leader," which draws as punchline an eyeroll from her sarcastic friend, Kagami.

The core of this joke is that Konata has taken a serious question and answered it with a fictional "occupation" from an anime she likes -- specifically, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, which was monstrously popular at the time. Almost everyone watching Lucky☆Star in 2007, when it first aired, would understand this reference. That understanding would then foster a sense of kinship with the work, the feeling of "being seen," the long yearned-for ideal of niche nerd subcultures laughed at by society at large.

Despite its incredible influence on moe aesthetics and anime culture in 2006, Haruhi Suzumiya is virtually forgotten now, unwatched even by diehards and unrecommended by the old weebs who were around in its heyday. I've never seen it myself. It's my next watch, with another friend who is even more of an anime neophyte than I am; our third friend, who did watch it in 2006, refuses to rewatch with us. It's too cringe, she says. The suggestion I get is that, if we were to modernize the what-you-want-to-be-when-you-grow-up joke, Konata might instead put that she wants to become a Skibidi Toilet.

Haruhi Suzumiya haunts Lucky☆Star like a ghost. She is in almost every episode, as either a poster or figurine or manga cover or cosplay or karaoke rendition or even, once, a voiced commercial. She has more presence than most of the supporting cast, the majority of whom do not appear until the 14th episode (but who also haunt the show via their unexplained presence in the OP). Konata is voiced by the same actress who voiced Haruhi, a fact that launches an armada of arcane metafictional injokes, including a scene where Konata sees said voice actress in concert. The sheer magnitude of these references wash over the 2025 viewer. They are meaningless. Haruhi Suzumiya is dead and buried. She is seen more by the shadow she casts in this show than anywhere else.

The inscrutability of this massive swath of the show suggests that Lucky☆Star itself has not aged particularly well. Indeed, compared to its zenith in 2007, it's not faring much better than Haruhi today. The sole advantage Lucky☆Star has, in fact, might stem from the "Out Of Touch Thursday" meme, which keeps some small shard of it alive in the anime community's consciousness. Even if you take the time to research the references, needing to research them at all gives the ultimate impression is that Konata is no longer the trendy otaku she once was, but passe, lame, dated, cringe, Out Of Touch. It's only the thin line of competent verbal skills that keeps her from becoming her dark mirror, Tomoko Kuroki.

But Haruhi Suzumiya is by no means the only obscure reference the show flings out, and some of these references I can only imagine were unknown even to the teenage-skewing anglosphere anime culture of 2007. At one point, Konata makes a reference (Timotei, Timotei) to a Japanese commercial for a Finnish shampoo brand from the 1980s. Karaoke segments feature Japanese pop songs from the 70s (with Kagami sarcastically asking Konata "How old are you?" whenever she puts them on). The entire Lucky Channel bit that appears at the end of each episode is an extended reference to a Japanese-only radio show that ran concurrent to the original airing. Even within that context, the fact that Lucky Channel co-host Minoru Shiraishi is a real person playing himself (and the other co-host, Akira Kogami, is not) is lost on anyone without highly specialized knowledge. That the credits sequences of the show's second half feature the real Minoru Shiraishi in live action is equally easy to miss. The bleeding edge transience of the references culminates with the show recursively referring to its own fame. In one scene, Konata reads a fortune at a Kyoto temple that says "Konata is my wife"; this is a reference to real-life otaku going to a temple in Saitama, where Lucky☆Star is set, and leaving the same prayer.

The show requires footnotes. It had them, on the 2007 anime forums where the show accrued so much buzz, entire Bibles breaking down every reference; it truly wasn't understood even when it aired. It makes perfect sense why Lucky☆Star wouldn't age well.

Yet, watching the show for the first time in 2014, long after its cultural moment, and again in 2025, I have found it extraordinarily timeless. In fact, I liked it better in 2025 than 2014, despite an additional 11 years of watching anime that enabled me to understand exactly 0 things I didn't get the first time around. And there are a lot of things I didn't get. The references I detailed earlier are only the ones, in complete befuddlement, I bothered to look up; so many more continue to elude me.

In many ways, Lucky☆Star is aware of how inscrutable it is and compensates for itself. Wikipedia describes Konata as the "main character" of the show, and to the otaku audiences of 2007 she was the most relatable of the cast and by extension the most popular character by far (something outright stated in one of the Lucky Channel segments, which reveals the results of an actual character popularity poll), but in terms of screen time, she is not appreciably more present than either of the Hiiragi twins, Kagami and Tsukasa. It's not as though Lucky☆Star has anything resembling a plot, either, that would frame a particular character as the "protagonist"; at best the cast can be described as ensemble. This decentralization of perspective enables a wide variety of ways for the viewer to connect with the show. Konata's authentic (in 2007) otakuism made her the darling of that audience, but the show itself does not innately weigh her so highly. In fact, even when her references are inscrutable, it's the confused response of Tsukasa, or the sarcastic response of Kagami (who tends to call Konata the 2007 equivalent of "cringe"), that provide a contextual framework for what the joke is supposed to be. I don't need to know what the SOS Brigade is when Konata expresses her desire to grow up and become a Brigade Leader, because I can understand through Kagami's biting remark that it is some frivolous anime horseshit.

More importantly, the show's equivocation in terms of perspective makes it possible to empathize with Kagami's position over Konata's. The simplest comedy dynamic is the comedian/straight man, but the reliance of most narrative comedy on some form of social stakes -- either in the form of argument, humiliation, physical or psychological pain, or so on -- generally leads to empathy with one of the duo over the other. The straight man might be a put-upon everyman who is unfairly forced to deal with an obnoxious oaf, or a too-serious curmudgeon who is getting what they deserve from a guy who's just having a little fun. In the first case, the straight man is the point of audience empathy; in the second, the comedian is.

Konata and Kagami follow this comedy dynamic to a T, with Konata an aimless slacker and Kagami the uptight perfectionist. But in Lucky☆Star, divorced entirely from anything resembling a narrative -- episodic, situational, or otherwise -- there are zero social stakes to their conversations. Nobody ever "loses." Nobody is ever hurt. Nobody is wrong or right. Nothing happens at the expense of one character or another. As such, it is possible to watch the show and see the joke from the perspective of any given character at any time. If Konata says some arcane reference you don't get, Kagami's clapback becomes the joke. If Konata says something and you do understand it, the reference itself is the joke.

This comedic ambivalence is structurally remarkable (jokes typically have rigidly defined punchlines, moments you are "supposed" to laugh at), but comes with the price of the jokes not really being very funny. What it does do is create comprehensible and even "relatable" situations out of incomprehensible bits of referential information. Not understanding the reference is not an impediment to understanding Lucky☆Star. As such, Lucky☆Star functions as both a hyper-specific time capsule of 2007 anime subculture and a work that can be engaged with on its own terms even when completely divorced from that context.

The advent of the internet has led to an explosion in the spread of information and the ascendancy of the niche. It has also led to shorter shelf lives for information and an increased focus on the immediate. Memes burst into prominence, linger a month or two, vanish. Media is buzzed about in some section of society, is unknown everywhere else. A social media influencer has millions of followers and yet is a complete blank in the wider cultural eye. How can a work of art reflect this reality without rendering itself incomprehensible in a year, ten years, twenty? Is it possible to make timeless art in such a milieu, without stripping away as many signifiers of the world we live in to rely solely on "universal" and thus generic themes such as love, death, etc.?

I've seen many ways of attacking this problem. Infinite Jest's famous footnotes are one, as is the genre of "hysterical realism" itself, which attempts to create the suggestion of information density via massive novels with tons of characters spanning many countries and even time periods. Homestuck builds its own internal language of memes (I warned you about stairs bro!) that the reader will always understand no matter how many arcane applications those memes receive throughout the work. (Hence why an audience of teens in the 2010s were able to laugh uproariously at jokes about the 90s action flick Con Air that none of them had ever seen.) Multiverse movies, from Everything Everywhere All at Once to Into the Spider-Verse, depict the density of information horizontally rather than vertically, with unlimited variations on the same core theme. Even if you have never read whatever obscure comic run Noir Spider-Man comes from, you can understand him immediately based on his relationship to a sort of Platonic ideal of "Spider-Man".

These are all highly controlled forms of conveying the idea of "current day information density" without actually wallowing in actual current day information density. What's remarkable about Lucky☆Star is both that it actually does engage with the incredibly niche memes of its exact moment in time, but that it does so through the complete ceding of narrative control. Lucky☆Star functions because, not in spite of, the fact that it has no protagonist, no plot. It doesn't even have situations, like an episodic sitcom. It is not especially concerned with being funny, or dramatic, or heartwarming, or any particular emotion.

As a sort of thesis statement for the show, its first episode opens with a six-minute scene in which Konata, Tsukasa, and Miyuki discuss various ways of eating different types of food. There is no buildup, no joke, no emotional payoff, not even any of the references I've spent this entire essay talking about. There is no progression. The girls discuss how to eat one type of food, then move onto the next. In a way, this scene is a more aggressive challenge to the viewer than the niche references it employs later on. It is a complete surrender to banality.

Even within the context of the slice of life genre, which is full of comfy shows about Cute Girls Doing Cute Things, Lucky☆Star achieves phenomenal laxity. Other popular examples revolve around a specific theme that creates a sense of progression toward an ultimate goal; in K-On!, for instance, the girls are members of a band and work toward a successful performance, even if they spend a lot of their practices slacking off. Alternatively, without a clear theme, these shows might use surreal characters and situations to elevate the show above the mundane, such as in Azumanga Daioh, where a main character is a 10-year-old genius in high school. Or, in the case of Clannad, there might be a romantic angle to the laid-back character interactions.

This is all gone in Lucky☆Star. It has been stripped down past the basics of storytelling, akin to an abstract work of art that is three colors on a canvas. (Or four, in this case.) In this context, even Konata's deep cut animanga references sink to the level of banality, their impenetrability both an abstract confusion and a level of verisimilitude that other works can usually only suggest or evoke when they attempt to grapple with the reality of subculture. (To this end, Lucky☆Star is massively advantaged by its adaptation, as studio Kyoto Animation also made Haruhi Suzumiya and was able to mine its cultural relevance without the usual fear of copyright reprisals, in a prognostication of Ready Player One/Space Jam 2-style pan-brand media crossovers.) Similar to the best abstract art, there is an odd, ungraspable power to the starkness of Lucky☆Star's composition; also similar, much of this power emerges out of the work's context. Not simply its hyper-specific 2007 cultural context, which I've already discussed, but also the way it contextualizes itself internally.

Because I lied when I said the first episode of Lucky☆Star opens with a scene of three girls talking about how they eat different types of food. I'm not even talking about the actual first scene, which is a 10-second quick gag where Konata tells Tsukasa she doesn't join a sports team because it would cut into her free time to watch anime. No, Lucky☆Star opens in episode 1 the same way it opens every episode, with this:

The ambiguous 3 cm? Does that mean it's plushy? Wait! The wrapping is a uniform, argh, it's not an act, pooh Gotta do your best, gotta just do it That's time to catch n' release, eek Between sweat (whoop) sweat (whoop) Darlin', darlin' FREEZE! Kinda lethargic, something's kinda comin' out I love you... oh wait, one of those was different Worrywarts, high metal bars Tasty thoughts... and that's enough! The heated body of that flying you-know-who It's what you'd call a normal girlie Am I the only one surprised? Seconds on pork-bone broth ramen with wire-hard noodles Da da da da da! [Several seconds of indistinguishable chatter] Pom-poms cheer squad Let's get cherry pie [this line is in English] Happy fun welcoming party Look up! Sensation [also English] Yeah! Feeling of existence, dot dot small planet Collided and it melted away, in total awe Go all out to sing, shi-ranger! Take it away! I should be the one who'll be laughing in the end Because I have the sailor suit ← This is my conclusion It's only Monday! Already in a bad mood? What to do? I really prefer the summer outfits ← kya! Wah! Good! (cute!) <3 Until we approach 3 pixels, no hesitations please ☆ Do your best, be energetic My darlin' darlin' please!

The lyrics of Lucky☆Star's OP are nonsense, both in translation and in the original Japanese (and if you don't believe that, the English line "Let's get cherry pie" should be evidence enough). At best, they are a mishmash of schoolgirl concepts and oblique anime references, which at the very least is an accurate reflection of the content of the show. But the presentation is frenetic, erratic, aggressively at odds with the show's lassitude, without any contextualizing remark from Kagami to make it make, even in the abstract, any sort of sense.

Likewise, on the opposite end of the show is its concluding bookend, the Lucky Channel segment. This segment also sharply juxtaposes the show's core content, first in tone -- being far more cynical and meanspirited -- but also in structure. Lucky Channel engages in the exact stakes-driven comedian/straight man dynamic that the show eschews. When the Lucky Channel co-hosts Akira Kogami and Minoru Shiraishi banter, the results are either Minoru's physical or emotional abuse at the hands of Akira, or Akira's humiliation as a failed but narcissistic idol constantly upstaged by the unassuming Minoru. Lucky Channel also has another concept anathema to Lucky☆Star: narrative progression. Minoru grows bolder as the episodes draw on, Akira more violent; in a late episode, a mental breakdown leads to the destruction of the set, which remains destroyed in the final few episodes as Minoru and Akira finally and without reconciliation descend into blistering hatred of one another. At the same time, these segments are the location of some of the show's most indecipherable and multilayered injokes, injokes almost defined by their transience as most stem from a real-life radio show lost to time if you weren't right there listening to them as they went live. This segment is probably the most consistently funny part of Lucky☆Star; that's not because its jokes make sense, but rather the blunt slapstick and Akira's dramatic shifts from ultra-cutesy child idol to chain-smoking world-weary industry cynic.

The effect of the OP and the Lucky Channel segment is to sandwich the sedate, relaxed, mundane central content of Lucky☆Star between chaos, nonsense, and irony. Thus, the inner show contextualizes itself as a retreat from the storm of information and self-reflexivity, despite the fact that it deals directly with these topics. The show's indolence renders them harmless, comprehensible, and nonthreatening. Lucky☆Star is a world where the unknown can be easily and pleasantly demystified; the show's fourth character, Miyuki -- sometimes nicknamed Miwiki -- is an encyclopedic fountain of knowledge whose primary role is to exhaustively explain oddities on the fringes of Japanese culture with a polite and friendly smile. Miyuki is clearly secondary to Konata and the Hiiragi twins in terms of screen time, which gives her the feel of a supporting character despite her main cast billing, with an emphasis on the word "supporting"; like a servant, the other three will, after a conversation among themselves, call her to define some term or idiom. (That this obliging sense of service comes from the richest and most aristocratic character of the cast is another matter.) In Lucky☆Star, information is not chaotic and confusing, the way it is at the show's fringes, or in the "real world", but something that stimulates curiosity and kinship. So many scenes begin with a character saying, "I wonder why...?" followed by speculation and finally an answer. In the absence of plot, progression, or even humor, it's this sense of curiosity that renders Lucky☆Star's mundane scenes compelling. And it is their tonal juxtaposition against chaos that renders them so comfortable, so soothing.

As the internet grows older and more central to everyone's lives, as the headlines everyone talked about last week are forgotten today, Lucky☆Star's expression of retreat and reorder will only continue to become more emotionally satisfying, even as its 2007 references become more dated. What I find most potent in Lucky☆Star, though, is the steadily growing sense of wistfulness it fosters, not through any one scene or tone shift, but through a collection of tiny ones. New cast members are introduced in the second half, which dilutes the presence of the main characters and thins the tight-knit sense of friendship that unified the work. The characters increasingly ruminate on their futures (despite the lack of progression, time does pass linearly, and the show ends with the end of high school on the horizon), always suggesting a "real world" of adulthood lurking behind the corner. The show's artifice is explicitly exposed by the Lucky Channel segments, which metafictionally describe the show as "the show" and the characters as "actors." ("They must all hate each other once the camera stops rolling," Akira cynically suggests.) The ED of the show's first half features the four main girls in a karaoke bar; in the second half, though, this is replaced with live-action footage of the real-life actor Minoru Shiraishi from the Lucky Channel segments. Reality infringes on Lucky☆Star at its corners, slowly creeping inward. Its calm fantasy, a fantasy founded on verisimilitude rather than imagination, is gradually exposed as fake, a production. (Which it always was, no matter how real, how relatable it felt. For all the verisimilitude in its tone, these are characters who are more moe than moe, blobs of cuteness and distorted proportions beyond even the average CGDCT anime.) It ends, in the final episode, as the characters diegetically recreate the frenetic nonsense OP, with them all arrayed on a stage, the curtain rising to white light. And even more ominously, its final ED ends with Minoru Shiraishi intoning a few plaintive notes as he faces a lone and level plain.

This is Lucky☆Star's final shot. This what awaits outside of the show's dewy comfort. Bye-ni.

[phoebebuggers]

modern party high school/college headcanons that will maybe kind of end up in my text au if i ever go back to it

mike is a tote bag user and a letterboxd fanatic!! he listens to alternative rock especially weezer but he's not a music elitist he likes pop and stuff too. he still plays dnd and i feel like he probably reads like classic fantasy book bro books u know (brandon sanderson, GOT, LOTR, prolly also like steven king and stuff which the rest of the party also like.) cat person. he is such a film bro it's obnoxious and he has to shove his letterboxd account down your throat every 5 minutes after meeting you. says he's bitter and evil but would do anything for his friends (canon.) video essay watcher. dirty-ass pair of falling apart converse at the end of their life begging for mercy that he refuses to replace. ADHD diagnosis.

will loves thrifting and coffee shops and museums but not in a performative pinteresty way he just genuinely likes these things. had an art hoe aesthetic phase around 2020 and will never live it down. subverting all gay stereotypes by not knowing anything about gay/stan twitter and being happier for it. kind of a music elitist ('can i see your spotify wrapped??') but not as much as jonathan who he learned from. still loves the smiths, the cure, etc but i think he would also be into modern indie nowadays. i feel like he would have a huge chapsticks/lip balm collection bc his lips are chapped all the time and it's just like a running joke atp. major art kid draws all the time we been knew listens to podcasts while he does art. goes to therapy

lucas is still kind of a jock but i'm kinda anti jock lucas because he will never truly fit in with them he will always be a nerd first!!!! still plays basketball tho and runs cross country (all men who run cross country are a little bit unhinged and free.) wears a hairtie on his wrist in case max needs one. kind of matches will's evil music complex from the other side with objectively good music def likes tyler, brent, frank, SZA (max likes the same their music taste kind of bled into each others.) very good social media presence like color coded feed, highlights, pinterest worthy pics etc (digital camera user.) likes to cook. chronic notes app list user. wanted to be a youtuber as a kid. type of guy to say "um, guys, that was awkward!" etc etc and everyone clocks him for it

dustin is a reddit user but not in a weird incel way in a genuinely helpful and knowledgable way. he also wanted to be a youtuber because he fucking loved matpat as a kid. he also would love the green brothers. a sneakerhead. keeps his keys on a carabiner (max tells him he looks like a lesbian.) also very up to date on pop culture like max is, probably quotes that one baron trump suitcase video daily among other things. does a few very good very niche impressions. i feel like everyone in the party is a good student but dustin is definitely the best a genuis future engineer or smth. he's the friend who always has those party games but can't read a cards against humanity card without laughing (max has to read for him)

el knows it's trash but loves reality TV (real housewives) and also glee. probably volunteers a lot. she was probably like the most boy-crazy fictional man/celebrity obsessed tween but ended up being bisexual/questioning lesbian. chronic story liker and responder so everyone thinks she's in love with them but she's actually just really nice and maybe doesn't 100% understand the social cue. she was also in theater because i want her to be her own genre of nerd maybe not in big roles because i don't see her as someone who loves being the center of attention but in ensemble. type of person to make goals like "try a new type of apple every week for a year".

max is up to date on tiktok/internet memes and kind of speaks fluent reference. probably watches real housewives and dance moms with el (will will join in occasionally for glee.) she also thrifts a lot of her clothes and has very cool style in kind of an idgaf what anyone else thinks way. huge flannel collection. does stage crew. i know she skateboards in canon and she still would but i feel like she would also do roller-derby or like speed skating or something. similar music taste to lucas but also a swiftie from a young age. had a panic at the disco phase and did crazy 2020 eyeliner (it's not a phase, mom) and will never live it down. keeps a journal. goes to therapy

bonus:

mike and max never shut the fuck up during class and always have to whisper something objectively hilarious to each other/one of their friends while the teacher is talking

will el and max have a book club where at least someone lies about having read the book every month and they spend the whole meeting gossiping and eating snacks

will forced them all to get airbuds and airbuds reacts mike listening to mcr with mildly disappointed faces and cat emojis

mike and dustin had a phase where they were really into like conspiracy theories and UFOs and cryptids and stuff

lucas bought a stanley cup with no shame because 'it's so functional'

el is an ex-larry

[l7nns31deb109]

Any hcs about what kinds of humor/memes/jokes would lotr characters like in modern au?

AHHH OMG I LOVE THIS REQUEST!!!!

OKAY!! SO!!! Did the hobbits but if you’d like the rest of the fellowship just lmk! Ps. Sorry it took so long to answer!

Pippin

•LOVES brain rot memes

•unironically watched skidbi toilet once

•half of what comes out of his mouth is a TikTok reference

•^everyone gets so sick of him smh

•(this is niche but) loves judyhopslover69 on tiktok

•^will quote “AHH IM SHIFTING!”

•calls people ‘sigma’ and ‘alpha’

•owns a wolf shirt

•loves ironic tee shirts

^’I’m with stupid’ with an arrow pointing at his head

•loved the cursive singing trend

•talks about the rizzler and big aj

•”THAT GETS FIVE BIG BOOMS!”

Frodo

•dabbles in brain rot memes

•keeps up with TikTok lore

•^knows all the ash trevino and santos drama

•^will tell Sam about it

•weird sense of humor lowkey

•^ will laugh at a picture of cheese??

•used to be a dan and Phil stan

•has a secret account where he trolls people

•^ will send slightly ominous messages to people on it for shits and giggles, “he still loves you…” or “DONT trust her🐍”

•prank calls people with pip and merry, will steal bilbos flip phone to get the numbers

•^not meme related but, these three would choreograph dances/ performances to get sleepovers

•”mamma a girl behind YOU 💚”

•participated in brat summer

•^introduced the group the charli and yes okay they all love her

•stan twitter warrior

Sam

•doesn’t have tiktok and refuses to download it

•has a big Pinterest board with memes on it

•misses vine like a mofo

•^ favorite vine was the potato flew around my room one

•”what does this mean im employed”

•^ learnt this from scrolling on tiktok on Frodos phone

•LOVES emojis

•^often communicates solely by emojis

•ex: Frodo will text him a question and Sam will reply this, “🚫👎😓🫶🍄”, “why the mushroom??”, “It’s pretty. :) 🍄🍄🍄🍄”

•likes podcasts, listens to them while

gardening

•^him and merry def wanted to start one together

•likes niche memes

Merry

•tried to get a meme account popular on instagram

•had a minecraft YouTuber phase in 2020

•has a soundboard app downloaded and will use it

•loved icarly and Fred when he was younger

•quotes really cringy Stuff

•^”um he’s right behind me… isn’t he?”🤓

•loves commenting on tiktoks

•^gets into arguments with people on there

•him and Frodo (sometimes sam and pip) watch drag race together and send eachother memes abt it

•whenever one of them leave a room the other will definitely say “sashay away”

•^they put pippin in drag one time

•reposts cringey stoner memes

•him and pippin played FNAF when it first came out (pippin cried)

•him and pippin were literally at the tiktok rizz party so….

[tequiilasunriise]

Random canonshipping headcanons because I’m invested in this crackship:

Instead of common petnames such as ‘babe’ or ‘darling’, Perrin affectionately calls Viola ‘shutterbug’ bc DUH meanwhile Viola gives me ‘my muse’ vibes but also ‘ma cherie’ because French™️

Viola’s lockscreen is a quick phone pic she took of Perrin’s intensely focused face as she’s about to take a photo of some passerby Santalune Forest Pokémon, but the best part is Viola’s vivillon being casually perched on Perrin’s head the entire time kinda like a comically oversized bow

What can I say when you’re a Pokémon photographer you get used to staying extremely still as not to spook your subject, and sometimes you just get used to becoming a perch fer wild Pokémon who mistake you as a funky looking tree

In this case Viola’s ace just really likes to vibe with her trainer’s girlfriend and Perrin is more than happy with the arrangement even if she doesn’t notice the giant butterfly perched on her half of the time because yeah she’s just used to being a makeshift tree fer randomass mons

Perrin’s lockscreen is a photo she took on her camera of a victorious Viola leaping with joy and a jubilant sparkle in her eye after a hard fought gym battle against a tough opponent she had narrowly beat, the vibrant gym leader celebrating with her vivillon is defo one of Perrin’s favorite pics ever

Yes Perrin loves to photograph Pokémon, but her gym leader girlfriend in action is a very, very close second when it comes to favorite subjects

When it comes to how they met in the first place, I like to think Perrin travels around the world photographing a variety of Pokémon, and when she heard of a Kalosian gym leader who was also a Pokémon photographer specializing in bug types girly just had to visit the region and check her work out

They met in a gallery showcasing Viola’s latest collection of photos, and hit it off real quick with their shared love of capturing the hearts of Pokémon in a single snap (infodumping to each other bout their fave photographers, techniques, praising the other’s work, etc etc)

You know inside jokes with the homies that require seven layers of context and a highly specific sense of humor? Besides a love Pokémon photography itself, Perrin and Viola bond over photographer memes that only they understand like anyone who would overhear the conversation would be so fucking confused

Like, their Pokégram dms are just filled with spamming the other really niche photographer memes/reels because meme spamming is its own love language

Need Viola taking Perrin as her plus one to some Kalos Pokémon League event and Perrin to make some obscure reference that sends the bug type specialist giggling and Korrina leans over to Grant to playfully stage whisper, “Damn, you never made her laugh like that when you two were dating” and Grant would roll his eyes as he goodnaturedly shoves off Korrina and mutter something about weird photographer humor

Grant and Viola as besties who tried dating but found they were better as homies and Grant wingmanning Viola when she was mad crushing on this traveling photographer can I get an amennnnn

Jokes on her while Viola was meticulously planning how she’s going to rizz up this baddie with box dye, Perrin thought they were already dating and Viola preferred to take it slow because useless sapphics <3333

When they’re OFFICIALLY dating not much really changes between the two expect more physical affection (smoochies!!) because ah yes Viola, her calling you all these sweet nicknames and consistently ‘hanging out’ with you all alone at Kalos’ most famous romantic spots is soooo normal gal pal behavior mhm yeah y’all dressing up all cute and stylish to go cafe hopping around Lumiose City was soooo platonic

Perrin and several of Viola’s friends tease the HELL outta her fer this fer pretty much the rest of time but hey!!! Now that the air is cleared, Perrin turns up the blatant flirtiness with her official girlfriend now that she knows Viola is comfortable with going not so slow so to speak >:)))

Rip Santalune City’s gym leader girly got that raging gay panic on a daily basis now

There’s tons of long distance girlfriends shenanigans because Viola has to consistently stay in Kalos to run her gym while Perrin continues her travels, this leads to timezone shenanigans where it’s like three am fer one of them and the other is just casually grabbing brunch but it’s finnneeee gods knows the gays don’t need sleep

Ruining your circadian rhythm fer your gay lover is also a love language guys trust trust trust

Assuming they met and started dating pre-Kalos game events, imagine it’s a videocall that’s like:

“Shutterbug, hey, um, why does every news station say Kalos was hit with a huge mega death ray?”

“Oh yeahhh don’t worry about it the whole thing got resolved by that super tough challenger I told you about a few weeks ago, anyways LOOK at this gorgeous Volcorona I was so lucky to meet today!”

“Viola please- wait those wings are so glossy wow the trainer must be taking such good care of them.”

Perrin says she’s not sure how a single kid can singlehandedly save the whole region from certain doom mixed with legendary Pokémon, the events of the DLC go down (whatever they may be), and then she calls Viola with a, “…okay, okay yeah I get it now.”

Anyways that’s all I got fer now if I decide to make a part two list then yiipppeeeee I love getting invested in total crackships

[kuiperoid]

How terminally online are YOU?

Some of us are extremely online these days, some of us terminally so. For each listed below that applies, please go and touch one blade of grass.

You can give a cohesive definition of an “anti-shipper.”

You have used the term “unalive” out loud.

You have referred to an animal as some cutesy name established on the Internet, ex: doggo, pupper, bnnuy, catto, et cetera (touch a blade of grass for each one).

You have referenced a meme in an in-person conversation, touch an additional blade of grass if you had to explain it to the person you were talking to.

You are familiar with a political-themed online streamer (touch one blade of grass for each one additional blade for each offensive nickname their detractors call them that you are aware of).

You have watched a modern Scorsese film-length video essay on a niche topic that you are not academically or professionally involved in.

You can give a detailed description of a conspiracy theory that gained traction in the twenty-first century.

You have recognized a scene from a movie or show after having previously seen it in a meme.

You know what “height gap discourse” refers to.

You have referred to a single person as “maidenless” (touch an additional blade of grass if used for someone not even attracted to women).

You absent-mindedly reached for the “find word” function while reading a physical book.

You own a piece of merchandise (shirt, sticker, et cetera) with a meme on it (touch a blade of grass for each one).

You have produced a piece of AI art.

You know what a Sigma Male is.

You can recognize more than five pride flags on sight (other than the rainbow, the Monica Helm trans flag, the bear flag, the BDSM flag, or any of the myriad of lesbian flags older than the “lipstick lesbian” flag, all of which predate the modern Internet and usually required leaving the house quite a bit to recognize on sight).

You have spelled it “tiddies.”

You are familiar with terms popularized by TV Tropes.

You at  some point believed that “your brain is all done changing at twenty-five” myth.

You spent more than twenty minutes looking into drama by two or more social media figures (touch an additional blade of grass if they were not even people you followed).

You know what a “catboy” is.

You have watched a livestream by choice (touch a blade of grass for each streamer).

You have said “LOL” out loud instead of laughing (touch an additional blade of grass if you pronounced it “lol” instead of spelling the acronym).

You have discovered a musical artist because their song was featured in a fanvideo.

You have strong opinions about the cutoff years of the different generations (as in baby boomers, generation z, et cetera).

You are familiar with the phrase “touch grass.”

How many blades of grass did you have to touch? I lost count of my own because they all apply multiple times over.

[grandhotelabyss]

What makes an artwork highbrow? What makes another low?

Keeping in mind that this is a sociological rather than an aesthetic distinction, I believe the distinction hinges on how much you already have to know about art in general to appreciate any given work. As the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu writes:

A genre containing ever more references to the history of that genre calls for a second-degree reading, reserved for the initiate, who can only grasp the work’s nuances and subtleties by relating it back to previous works. By introducing subtle breaks and fine variations, with regard to assumed expectations, the play of internal allusions (the same one that has always been practised by lettered traditions) authorizes detached and distanced perception, quite as much as first-degree adherence, and calls for either erudite analysis or the aesthete’s wink.

This is most obvious in the case of a work that is both intensely allusive and extremely sophisticated in technique, like Ulysses, but it also applies to works of a radical simplicity or even contentlessness, like the writings of Gertrude Stein or the paintings of Jackson Pollock, where you have to know enough about art to know why this apparent non-art ("my toddler could paint that!") is actually very serious and meaningful art.

In practice, these distinctions don't hold. They don't hold aesthetically, because most actual practitioners say that the relevant distinction is not high and low but good and bad. But they also don't hold sociologically. The high-low distinction only applies after the mass literacy of the late 19th century, which generated both a mass culture industry and writers and artists who wanted to set themselves apart from this mass culture industry. The very same industry, however, produces such a proliferation of niche markets that even low-art genres become as complex and recursive in their own traditions as the high-art genres, such that you can't really just hand The Big Sleep or Dune or Watchmen to a person off the street anymore than you could with Ulysses. This is the symbolic import of the factoid I am always insisting upon: that this all comes from Poe, that Poe invents both Mallarmé and Lovecraft.

Then "middlebrow" as a concept presents problems of its own. A serious critic wants to scorn the middlebrow and uphold only the raw energy of the lowbrow and the radical intellection of the highbrow, but this standard is too severe. Anti-middlebrow critics get trapped in a hipper-than-thou spiral, or, to vary my image, they futilely chase an unreachable horizon of authenticity and difficulty. There is such a thing as middlebrow—we know it when we see it—but if you become obsessed with the idea, then soon you'll find that nothing is astringent enough for your taste. Anti-middlebrow critics may start by dismissing Our Town and The Grapes of Wrath, but they will inevitably end up writing "Against Ulysses."

Finally, these categories assume too much about who attends to what, and where and when and for what purpose. I quoted that Bourdieu passage above this summer in my Oppenheimer essay. Is Oppenheimer lowbrow, middlebrow, or highbrow? A film made for and sold to a mass audience through memes and sex appeal (lowbrow), a film full of Big Themes and Human Interest and Major Issues (middlebrow), a film formally ambitious, politically ambiguous, tragic in theme, and freighted with unexplained scientific, historical, political, and cultural allusions (highbrow)? I just don't think it's a very interesting question.

Do these categories explain why I read about Ulysses on Microsoft Encarta when I was 13 years old? (It included a recording of an Irish actress doing some of Molly Bloom's interior monologue.) I first checked the novel out of my suburban public branch library the summer of the same year and determined to read it, a task I admittedly didn't accomplish in full until later, when I was in college, just as Bourdieu would predict. But the ambition first found me in the lower-middle-class suburbs through a simple consumer conveyance rather than through any type of elite training.

I don't mean to sound a note of false populism here, to suggest that there's much hidden greatness in the morass of cranked-out junk clogging Amazon. It is, as I've written, "lonely at the top." My populist instinct, insofar as I have one, runs in the other direction: not "low art is actually great" but rather "great art is actually for everyone." (Or perhaps not "everyone" but "anyone." Not every single person but any single person capable of being found by it, which can't be determined in advance.) Still, the worth of a work of art is not extrinsically determined by the position it occupies in the social field, as the sociologists claim, but rather relies on its intrinsic merit in dynamic interaction with an unpredictable range of actual and potential audience members.

[alexsorsis]

Well, hello there (MASTER-LIST)

Welcome to my personal hell hole where I post art, dank memes, and deranged comments. |—————|

first of all…

DNI:

Proshipers, z00philes, p3d0files, anti-lgbtq+, transphobia, anti-Palestine, and more that I probably forgot to mention

over all, just don’t be a asshole and or weirdo

if I notice that you are one of these, I will block you

|—————|

A bit about me

Name: Alex Age: minor gender: gender fluid pronouns: any

I make art, OCs, comics, and sometimes animations. I am Cambodian (Asian) but I technically only speak English.

give me a heads up if I make you feel uncomfortable

Jop.

|—————|

tags

#all hail jop - my art…

#alex does reblog - my reblogs, though I do have another blog for reblogs

#alex does respond - it’s a reblog but I actually say stuff that’s not in tags (wow)

#alex does funny - where I try to be funny. You can probably tell it’s going to be bad

#alex does ask - you give me a ask, I’ll give you a different question- nah, just where I reply to your asks

#alex does rant - I’ll ramble about some hyper fixation or my OCs here. Probably.

#jop - him.

#reset protocol - an original comic lightly inspired by STP (slay the princess)

|—————|

Projects

Wowie, I make some cool stuff. This is most likely what you’re looking for anyways

HORROR- Reset Protocol. an interactive choose your own adventure type of story where when you mess up you restart… though, it not only you that knows what happened before hand. (TW: likely to be gore, bright colors, gun, syringe)

|—————|

Events:

None :[

|—————|

Other blogs

^^^ reblogs

|—————|

Have a niche day and all hail Jop

[vaninakan]

Late night thoughts vol. 1

It's 4 am and I cannot sleep so I'm just gonna splooge some random thoughts that I have (some positive, some negative, and some that's probably just nonsense.)

Uhh, I like to get negatives out of the way first so I guess I can start with that.

- Does anyone else miss when art/animation communities felt more niche but open? I'm particularily talking about the animation meme community here cause that's a community I've more or less lurked in for a long time. I remember a time when there was the big three of animation memes a lot of people and myself were inspired by. (I'm referring to early 2010's creators like Kay2036, Ezpups and Caramelcat123) It feels silly to say that what got me into art were a bunch of independent artists animating anime cats fighting eachother, but that's exactly what happened. I loved these creators (still do) and I looked forward to seeing what else these creators had to offer. As time went on, more creators came in the fray with a lot of cool talent and craftmanship and it was honestly very cool seeing what everyone had to offer. That's something I loved most about AMC, that so many were able to feel free to create whatever they wanted and how wonderful it paid off to see that creativity put into so many special masterpieces of independent art and animation, and that's something I'll always admire. So it breaks my heart to see what the AMC has became. Don't get me wrong, there's still a ton of great artists out there and y'all are fantastic, but I cannot help but feel like the environment in that community especially had gotten a lot more vile than what it started off as. To be fair, that's pretty much any community these days, I'm well aware of that. But I have never seen so much drama, so much infighting, and so much people being deplorable to eachother in my life that it's honestly sickening! I've always wanted to make my own animation memes and I still do, I have a TON of ideas I'd love to get to eventually, but if I ever decide to post them, don't expect me to engage much with the rest of the community. IMO, the best communities you can have are the small close ones you have with your best pals.

- For the past few years, I've been distancing myself from big social media branches and fandoms because of how toxic the environments can be for some of these spaces especially, and it's honestly helped a lot with my mental health (Deleting my Twitter and moving here has honestly been one of the best things I've done last year). It's partially why I've stopped posting so frequently, because really the only people I truly care about pleasing are me and all my close friend groups and found families I've built. I don't really care about statistics and platform building, if people like my stuff, then that's cool. I can look at a post I made with bigger numbers than usual and go "huh, that's pretty neat" and then move on talking about a crossover AU I've been cooking up with my boyfriend. That's not to say I don't appreciate my followers or people who like my content, I do. But know that what I make isn't catered to what'll get me the most attention, it's what'll make me and my family happy. And if people like that, then that's cool. Maybe every now and then I'll ask my followers what they'd like to see, maybe a fanart raffle or sketch request event, I think that'd be nice. But for the most part, this page is very, and I mean VERY self indulgent.

- Uhh I've been doing okay for the most part, personal issues I don't wanna get to aside. I've mainly been working on plushies, commissions and other self indulgent projects. I mentioned before that I got into the latest Cookie Run game, and that's pretty cool. I've mostly focused on making art for that and mine and my boyfriend's OC/AU projects. I'll post more about it when I get there, but for now uhh... gay people.

You'll learn who these guys are soon enough, for now you'll only get name drops

The big gruff fellow is a lava rock golem named Vulcan and the pretty boy is named Jack Frosting.

- And I think that's mostly it for tonight? This post took me a full hour to write so it's actually 5 now as I'm finishing up oops..

My sleep schedule's fucked.

Uhh any final words before I pass out? Hmm..

Gender dysphoria sucks okay BYYYEEEEEEEEEE!!!!

[frostbite-the-bat]

no but genuinely. i love shadow filbo dearly. he means a lot to me.

he marks a time for me where i began embracing what i like just... for the sake of it!

he embodies the things that inspired me to draw online in the first place. hell, sparklecat characters with bangs have made me stop cutting my hair. i haven't cut my hair properly since. just because i wanted the same bangs, not knowing how hair works. now i have what is best described as messy fluttershy hair. to many people just how long my hair is, is what defines me when they see me and my hair is in a way special to me.

and again - he was what inspired me to draw. in class i'd be drawing my own sparklecats at the age of like 8, with bangs and wings and little companions that sit on clouds that rain hearts. (and bolts and skulls when ANGRY!)

i put rainbows on everything. i thought nyan cat was the embodiment of everything good in the world. i listened to nightcore versions of songs only. i say, as i am listening to nightcore, right now.

because of all these old classic animation memes and sparklefurs and silly scene and emo song flash animations i'd find... i'd pick up ms paint and draw. i imagined just how i'd animate, finding even the simplest methods absolutely mesmerising. there is something to be said about me being this young with internet access - because it very much so had it's negative effects. not me watching fetish videos at the age of 8 just because it had pokemon in it. yea that did not have any lasting effects.

but despite all this shit - it raised me! and even just a few years later... like.. 2015 when i began posting online on deviantart for the first time, not being just a lurker... learning how The Computer works better - not only drawing on paper anymore and gaining more and more interest towards digital art... i was already nostalgic towards these earlier days. but still living IN it, y'know?

just having fun, doing my own thing! isn't that what art is all about?

well. then the cringe culture nation attacked. severe bullying at school. and in general, just shame - which i am still fighting in certain aspects. but it's a bit more complicated than just "shame". (more so fear of Things.)

i'd look back at things with either genuine "cringe" or a distaste. how DARE these people have fun? because deep down, i was simply jealous.

if i was going to reference anything old like this, like classic animation memes, it was framed as "JOKE" "NOT SERIOUS" because i feared i would be harassed, made fun of, or people would thing THAT is the best of my artistic abilities. but... it's not like that.

and now, more and more people are embracing this. and it makes me so happy. and shadow filbo helped me fight off these fears a lot and just let me love what i love and be myself.

maybe it's not an ""aesthetic"" that completely defines me, maybe it IS a tik tok trend to do nowadays - but i don't care. without any of this i wouldn't be here. those were my first inspirations. silly colorful cats animated to crunchy mp3s of songs using movie maker and 3 (three!) frames drawn in ms paint. it had so much charm. it had so much genuinity. and i could feel it even back then.

without it i might've not been here as i am now. there are so many things that go into this, of course. but i simply would not be the exact way i am. and i dunno. that's something to think about.

thank you so much, shadow filbo. one "mistake" with you i've had was thinking i should be a good creator of something and respond to every fan and fanart, which only stressed me out. i have... opinions! about being recognized in various places and, as some dub, a "NICHE INTERNET MICROCELEBRITY" (nothing against you fox </3).... yeah! not a fan.

another mistake was dubbing him as a "joke" always. and... he is! he is humorous! i am a jokey person! i like crunchy shitposts! i like being the reason people laugh! i will go to certain levels to even ridicule myself just for the bit, and i don't mind it. i'm hyper(active) and i am just a jokey person, that's that. but... him being called a joke was honestly just a shield from people taking him too seriously.

if people were to mock me for being nostalgic for nightcore, and rainbows, and edgy amvs, sparkledogs, scene culture and clothes, rave songs... all this!

but... no! people loved it! people loved it so much, it moved THEM to create art!

me, referencing things that made ME inspired to draw all those years ago - then inspired OTHERS to draw other things. to embrace themselves. to have fun. to connect.

it means so much to me. it's a bit odd to comprehend, too.

but it means the world to me. sorry if i am ever annoying about shadow filbo, and is often the first thing i bring up when bugsnax is brought up - but he is the highlight of my experience with bugsnax.

thank you so much, shadow filbo. and me and my wretched little claws, of course. for making them. and those that inspired me. those old friends i lost along the way, too. and those, that inspired those that inspired me. and so forth.

thank you.

[neutrallyobsessed]

obviously u like topher x joan but how far does it really go? just curious cuz ur always making fanart and even fanfiction about them

Yeah, drawings, drabbles, edits, comics, collages, smut, videos, everything two dimensional I can manage! when I get a better computer with a good video editing software and a animation program it's all over for y'all~~♥!

I FUCKING SHIP IT WOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ♡ww♡

What made you ship it?

I fell down the "this is a pretty funny ship" to "hol up this actually makes a lot of sense, this ship kinda fire" to "these motherfuckers have consumed my every thought and its GREAT!!!" pipeline xdd.

The more I thought about it, the better it sounded, the more ideas I had, EVERYTHING CLICKS SO PERFECTLY WTFFF

It do be like a sliding scale with me in the middle approving a het ship with Joan where sliding negative leads her with Confucius and sliding positive she ends up with Topher lolxd

What are your favorite things about the ship?

WHERE TO BEGIN!!!!! Well, they are terrible people and can always get worse, either doing shenanigans and bothering everyone in the process or just ignoring everyone to be in their own world~~

Age gap, people. It might be a technicallity but they do be 20 years apart and thats like, the best thing ever and the OW/YM strikes again so it's EVEN BETTER!!!!! And with their unconvencional tastes, they'd have A LOT of stuff to share and talk about and teach and learn and they could have so much fun with their niche lil hobbies and references that nobody but them could get and memes that could scar the average angloparlant for life!

And they both have this,,, love for nostalgia (not as apparent in topher, ill concede that its more of a hc) so reminiscing about the past or catching up with things they never lived could be so themmm and so fun to explore~~!!

To bring back something I said earlier, I also really dig the isolation of it all. How Joan feels betrayed by everyone but Topher is there to give her all the attention and devotion that she wants. I haven't decided if they'd finish school or drop off earlier but they do feel like a couple that could ride into the sunset to never be seen again as they build a new life for themselves~~.... it's just that after what happend, I don't see her going back to her old and new friends, but I totally see Topher manipulating all that he can to keep it that way, including Joan. They do be having some unhealthy clinginess towards each other and that's soooo damn good >w<

And yeah, I like Topher getting positive female attention, he looks cute when he likes girls and whoever said that they turned Joan into y/n was so right she really is very easy to project to x_v

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

That's the fun part! As the Queen of Joanpher, is everyone else the who may have an unpopular opinion, my word is law and the other 3 shippers are pretty much in similar Joanpher wavelengths. It is a very instinct ship, ya either get it or ya don't. I don't care and don't have to care bout what non shippers have to say btw 737

Joanpher tastes like: EVERYTHING!! I have eaten so many delicious foods, of many flavors and textures, and when it's Good I go uff si esto es muy joanpher =w=~ but if I had to pick one dish, it'd be The Brochette! Anything you can cook in a stick and directly on the fire cause it's hot as hell~♡! Any type of meat, any kind of vegetable, oil, sauce, sugar, salt, caramel, tender, crunchy, mushy, firm, literally all!! The most important part is that it must be eaten out of the metal stick, like gnawing meat out of the bone, cause it's both raw and wild plus ~elegant and sophisticated~

[memes-and-shit]

🍁 what programs do i use for my edits:

please note: the following is an extremely unprofessional set-up for one of the least serious editors/"editors". this is to help out anyone else who wants be extremely casual and only make dumb shit for their own personal use. if you want to be a semi-professional or professional editor one day, i suggest you do not copy my set-up lol

my (android) phone's screen-recorder (for videos, assuming i don't download them)

my (android) phone's screenshot feature (for images, assuming i dont download them)

my (android) phone's Gallery App (specifically its photo, gif, and video editors within said app) (i usually try this first, to see if all i need is achievable here. if not, i go elsewhere. and, if nothing else, it's great at helping me get crop-off/video-trim-away various app's watermarks. like?? lol no. i won't keep that. ill keep creators' watermarks, 100%; but not million-dollar companies lol)

the free version of the CapCut App (which i use when my phone's Gallery App just won't work, bc the editing needs to be too precise or something)

ezgif.com (is especially great for converting videos to gifs, examining and messing with frames of your project, converting the "gif files" creators' attach to their youtube Community Tabs post called "webpage files" to gifs, and a few editing needs that Capcut or my phone's Gallery App just won't work with. like ezgif can get REALLY PRECISE and gritty about exactly where you want the beginning and ending of a video/gif to be, down to the hundredth and thousandth+ Decimal Place. which is soooo useful lol just make sure you have the item you want to edit downloaded; some of the "insert the image/video's URL" options havent been updated to recognize the changed URLs of sites like youtube and whatnot)

imgflip.com (quick, easy way find and customize popular memes/meme-templates)

KnowYourMeme.com (very helpful for both finding niche memes if youre like "i really want some more Scooby Doo memes. let me look up the show on this website to go through its 'related meme entries' tabs". it's like TV Tropes for memes. it's also helpful for finding meme templates, finding out if someone did a variation of a meme already so you can reap the benefits while not having to make it yourself (eg. looking for a Doctor Who variation of the "Is that a Jojo's Bizarre Adventure reference?" meme), and more)

remove.bg (it deletes backgrounds for you. and you can download your image either as a transparent png or you can tell the website to download the image with a background, to which i typically use a solid black or white the rare time i don't want a transparent png. my favorite thing about it though is, if the auto-generator is wrong in any way, you can manually guide it on what you want erased and what you dont; and you can use their "magic brush" (AI trying to understand what you want to erase/store) or you can "turn off their magic brush" for something that follows your exact "erase/restore this pls" scribbling and does add intelligence to what you mean. i switch between turning on/off magic brush often, it's so helpful lol) (the sister-website this has for videos isn't good though, i do not recommend that one at all. at least how it is as of writing this in August 2024)

imgonline's specific "combine two images into one by putting them side-by-side" tab (it lets you put them side-by-side, what can i say. it does it by either connecting them landscape-style or connecting them vertically, depending on what you choose. the only setting i change, beyond the obvious "do i want landscape or vertical?", is i make the images the png-option. highly recommend you "Open The Image" to check it is what you want before you "Download The Image" bc sometimes i click the wrong toggle. i know i could just use Canva instead, but ive been using imgonline before Canva was around, personally, so it's a habit)

pinetools' specific "combine two images into one by overlapping the smaller one to be ontop of the larger one" tab (this is so helpful for my phone's Gallery App. bc it has a size limit on how small a "sticker from my photo albums" can me. so what i do is i go to pinetools with my ever faithful companion, WikiCommon's HD Transparent Large Image. i have the transparent image be the biggie, insert the file of my "too small image" to be anywhere on top, and wham-bam-yes-m'am, now my Gallery App will allow the the combo to be a sticker. love this for me specifically)

imagecolorpicker (helps me pick a color from an image to use as a hexcode, helps me find a photo-color scheme i can steal, etc. it's a great tool to use for anything that will accept a hex-code (but may/may not allow a tear-drop, or maybe you want a color from x-image to put into y-project and so the teardrop tool may be ineffective across tabs), such a great website)

[cedarbranch]

OMG... tell your beloved fans about haunt me PLEASEEE + also "show me how you do that trick" + one dealer's choice :-D

WARGHH thank u <333

in response to the wip meme... putting this under a cut bc it got long lol

haunt me is my monstrosity of a stranger things wip, sitting around 90k and MAYBE 65% complete. if i'm lucky. it's fucking Long. the basic premise is that eddie dies and then steve starts dreaming about him and eventually comes to realize he is NOT dead, but in fact alive in the upside down and somehow psychically linked to steve... i won't get too deep into spoilers but it's kind of a kas!eddie fic but with a twist that's it's less kas and more similar to the pacific rim fic designations congruent with things (<= sentences that mean anything only to the most Niche Possible Audience). anyway the more complicated premise is steve's savior complex and how every single issue in his life connects back to it

show me how you do that trick is the sequel to my hellcheer fic, push the limit! (which. is fucking crazyy to me that that's the only stranger things fic actually posted on my ao3 given how much time i've spent working on haunt me 😭😭) anyway. it's as horny as the first in the series but with more feelings and plot. it's from eddie's pov and includes some actual proper kink negotiation and apologies following the insanity of the og fic, and also some RLY CUTE FLIRTING!!! a snippet for thee:

“I don’t like… weird dirty talk?” Chrissy says, wrinkling her nose. “Like, the stuff they say in bad pornos.” Eddie sighs in feigned exasperation. “God, it’s like pulling teeth here. Specifics, woman, I need specifics!”  “I don’t know! Like,” Chrissy opens her mouth, then closes it again, flushing brilliantly. “No. I’m sorry, I can’t, I can’t say any of it. I just—I don’t like the word ‘pussy,’ or ‘cunt,’ or anything like that, just—” She flaps her hands in the direction of her crotch—”Just don’t directly refer to it while we’re in the act? Like, if you’re having sex, it should speak for itself!”  Eddie grins at her.  “What?” she demands, all frustrated but laughing with her eyes.  “I love that you have porn opinions,” he says fondly. “You asked!”

for dealer's choice... oooh this is tough... but i think i'll go with 5 + 1, the full title of which will one day be "5 times steve tried to teach eddie how to swim and one time it worked" or something of the like. this fic was born out of me a) wanting to write something with intense hot-summer-day energy, b) being really interested in water/swimming as the focal point of Multiple Traumatic Incidents in steve's life as of s4, and c) can you fucking imagine if part of the reason eddie was last to jump from the boat in lover's lake was that he couldn't swim. and then he DID IT ANYWAY. but yeah second snippet:

Eddie is, in fact, wearing boxer briefs, and nothing else. Seeing so much of his skin never gets less startling, no matter how many times Steve’s splashed around with him in the lake. He always forgets that Eddie’s shoulders aren’t as broad as the vest normally makes them look. He’s pale as a goddamn sheet, too, except for the pink-red scars that pockmark his stomach and chest.  Eddie catches him looking. “Might not even be worth it to teach me to swim,” he says wryly. “Don’t think I can ever set foot at a public pool again with these bad boys.” “We could just go together,” says Steve. “Then we’d match.”  His own wounds have healed up better than Eddie’s. The demobats tore him up pretty good, but the bites were shallow; as months passed by, they’ve smoothed over into pale, warped ripples of scar tissue. Without thinking about it, Steve touches one close to his hip. As if in a mirror, Eddie does the same, his fingertips brushing over his stomach.  His boxers have little skulls on them.

your honor i fucKGIGN LOVE THEMMM!!! IDIOTS!!!!

[manebioniclegali]

for the writer ask game! 💖, 🎉, 🤯?

Writer ask game!

💖 What made you start writing?

The long and short of it is me, myself, and I; same with drawing, I wanted to be able to see my ideas come to life, and get personal satisfaction out of finishing a story. The oldest fanfic I wrote was from first grade lol, and anytime there was an opportunity to write a story for a school assignment, I went above and beyond. I did write plenty for myself, between first grade and when I started uploading stories online.

I started posting bc I saw people posting MLP fanfic on a specific site, and I was like "I wanna do that!" and I had just officially fallen into MLP G4 in 8th grade, so I had some ideas and wrote them and posted them, and I enjoyed getting feedback, so I kept writing and kept posting. That site was great for that, bc people would largely give constructive criticism, and it was SO easy to find someone to edit your stuff....posting on Tumblr and especially AO3 just doesn't hold a candle to the way that environment was. I moved over to Tumblr bc 1) didn't know AO3 existed, and 2) that's largely where the Markiplier fandom is. At least Tumblr you know that people are sharing your work by reblogging (sometimes); the website had a featured box and a popular box and groups that you could put your stories in and get exposure! I don't really have ideas for MLP anymore, hence why I'm not really on there as of late :(

🎉 What leads you to consider a fic a success?

It depends, really. Comments and reblogs are a huge part of it, and if every reblog I received had someone making a comment about the fic, I'd be thrilled (although that's not always the case). The number of notes are a factor (80-100 I'll consider it successful), but it's hard sometimes when most of those are just likes. 😞 I'm still deeply appreciative of all the interactions, but having 50 likes but no reblogs makes you wonder if you've done something wrong that nobody wants to share it. :(

The other side to this is that if I wrote something specifically to "target" another person, or it involves referring to lore I participate in, then as long as that person/those people see it and react and I get to interact with them about it, then it'll be worth it, even if the fic doesn't break like 20 (the only piece of writing I did for Egotober didn't get far cuz it was so niche, but the people whom I participated in the lore with saw and liked it, so I'm not as bothered (unlike the MLP art I did for the Cringetober part...can't believe that one)

🤯 What's a genre you struggle with as a writer (ex. romance, action, etc.)?

Mystery for sure, bc I only attempted it once for school and I felt I didn't do the greatest (had to hide a phobia in the writing and my classmates guessed it rather quickly). I'm also not super interested in writing mysteries, so it works.

Angst might be the other one, bc it depends on the type of angst. Most angst I can't write unless I'm already in a funk, bc even my own writing has the opportunity to bring me down. At the risk of sounding like the meme, I have a bit too much empathy to write depressing circumstances unless I'm in that mindset. I wrote something with mild angst recently and it made me tear up 😅 I can't read angst cuz it usually hurts too much. Major angst/whump no, minor angst sometimes.

Thank you for da ask!!