#unless you read this and you think it's garbage lol

[l-in-the-light]

Trafalgar Law on touching and being touched

It won't be a perverted post despite the title lol. But I won't stop your imagination, be free!

There's this funny theme going on with Law and Luffy in particular that picked my interest.

Luffy touched him first.

And he later returned the gesture, much more awkwardly.

Again, Luffy grabbed him angrily first.

Law made sure to return the gesture. (btw he also does it with Zoro, who was the first one to wrap an arm around him at post-Dressrosa feast. In Wano Law has no problem grabbing Zoro and shouts at him angrily. Again, it was Zoro who initiated the touch first).

Law grabbing Luffy to teleport them makes Luffy react in a curious way, you wanna know why?

Because it totally feels like this moment. Both Law and Ace, right after getting uncuffed, grabbed Luffy in same way to get him to a safer place. Ace-Law parallel in relation to Luffy kills me. The whole Dressrosa arc's plotline between Luffy and Law is just Marineford Went Well This Time. Ngl I kinda hated Oda at first for that. Now i dig it.

He didn't seem to like that. Luffy says "Let's all get along well!", but Law thinks alliances don't have to "get along".

Mistranslation here. What Law says here, being so surprised, is "nakayoshi ka?!" which means "you two get along?!" or "you two are buddy-buddies?!". It's a callback to Luffy declaring that Law and Strawhats crew should get along (he uses same word then, nakayoku-get along), Law learns here that Luffy's crew indeed "gets along well". You can interpret it whatever way you wish, but I will use it this time to put this scene into context:

The same gesture Luffy did to him before, but Law didn't return it to Luffy - that's because they're not crewmates. But he takes the lesson to heart and "gets along" with his own crew. Omg I can't believe i'm writing it, I make Law sound like this completely awkward adult who doesn't know how to be friends with people.

But bear with me, the shit is only starting. If you don't want to have feels I reccommend you just laugh at it and stop reading here. I digged up a feels landmine by accident. In-depth study starts below!

It's also a possible callback to the "reassurance" Law got from Cora-san. "I'm counting on you to escape" and Law did. He counts for his crew to steer the submarine well in similar manner.

Law's family didn't seem very touchy-feely, so please keep that in mind as well. He's got limited experience with touches and the few touches he did get familiar with were either taken away from him or brutalized.

Law getting patted on the head lovingly by his parent.

Next time this loving gesture happens, he gets thrown from like two-floor building into a pile of garbage.

And then he gets lied to that everything will be fine. We all know it wasn't.

Do you still wonder why he hates being touched on the head?

The sister touches his face gently while showing child Law support and compassion, reminding him not to despair, someone kind will help him.

Corazon doing the same gentle touch to the face while crying for him, thinking of all the pain Law had to experience. Indeed, the world sent Law someone kind. And Law lost him and blames himself for that.

Law holding Lammy's hand while lying to her that it will be alright. He never does that gesture again to anyone.

The sister holding Law's hand.

"Don't come closer! Don't touch us! We will get infected!" even doing the barrier gesture (I guess that's why Law doesn't get along with Bartolomeo). I used only few examples, there is much more, I just couldn't bear posting them all. Anyway, Law's got the message, his touch is unwanted. The body and mind remembers this.

Similar shit said at the auction in Sabaody about Fishmen, we don't see Law's reaction to that, but we can guess already that it was for sure triggering. Those people talking are sitting not that far away from him.

Ever wondered why Law throws people when teleporting? Besides the fact he avoids making contact with anyone unless they initiate it first, because that trauma is still strong in him ("Stay away! Don't come closer!"), there is one other possible reason:

Wonder no more! He does it to people because that's how people treated him as well, even people who apparently loved him.

Now that I have ruined the "Law is just an awkward unsocial nerd" joke for you, let me offer something to warm your heart a bit in exchange:

Corazon made sure to touch Law a lot and hold him in his arms, despite being often clumsy about it. I think he understood Law's trauma about being touched and his fear to touch or approach anyone, and tried to help him overcome it.

Being hugged and trying to return the gesture. Corazon's efforts did bring some results! But it only works for very few people, Law is still wary of people he doesn't know well. He expects to be unwanted and acts uneccessarily cold, distant and unapproachable because of that. But if you scroll back to the beginning of this post, you can see that he is trying his best to overcome it as well, one step at a time. Some things just can't be rushed.

And hey, at least he seems to be actually relaxed and almost like he *enjoys* being carried around. You think it makes him look uncool? Definitely. But suddenly it feels like Something Important, kinda intimate in a way and not just a silly comedy moment. It's a sign Law relies on people when he lets them carry him and that's why he doesn't protest.

Sanji is like "Why are you relaxing like that?! Get off!!" Finally, it makes sense why Law makes such a sour face here. Sanji should be grateful for the rare privileage after all! Anyway, this is anime-only extension, in manga Sanji actually doesn't tell Traffy to get off and Law chooses to scramble by himself, which doesn't taint the fragile trust those two just shared.

For those who made it to the end of this post, have I ruined Law's comedy moments for you forever? Because I sure just did that for myself.

I could also add one more cute thing from One Piece World Seeker Law's dlc, but I will let those interested to discover it by themselves!

I'm also amazed by the consistency of this theme. Both manga and anime never forget that touch is seemingly a big deal for Law.

[bookie-bookdust]

About this bitch, Bookie

I've been on Tumblr since the dawn of time™️so these little pinned bios are wild to me, BUT:

HELLO THERE:

You can call me Bookie, Bookdust, a simp - I don't care. I am happy to brain rot about many things, but the little demon in my head makes me hyperfixate over Hogwarts Legacy, metalcore/alt/emo music, and writing. Feel free to reach out to me. I like caps lock.

Ravenclaw - INFJ - Gemini sun, Cancer moon, Libra rising - Tired

I'm an ADULT here so I will share NSFW content and I really like to fucking curse. If you're a minor, figure it out and ask your mom if you should stick around idk. That being said, I write a variety of teen to explicit-rated content. A little something for everyone. You should always assume my characters are 18+ unless stated otherwise.

FAN FICTION (the literature🧐):

My most popular work is Sebastian Sallow Fucking Sucks, which I am genuinely stunned that so many people have enjoyed it. Seriously thank you so much for all the support. It started as something to write when I had writer's block, and now I'm obsessed lololol.

Where you can read my deranged writing:

ao3 - I am most active here. This is also where I post all of my chapter fics and one shots.

Wattpad - I'll post all chapter fics and some of my one shots here. I hate WP, and I don't have the patience for it.

That's it lol. If you find my garbage anywhere else, let me know because then I'd have to go break some legs.

One Shots:

How to Defuse a Ravenclaw - Seb finds himself violating his newest rule - do not think about fucking the Ravenclaw // porn with plot // ao3 - wattpad

Secret for One - In which using some anti-cheating ink reveals what you and Seb were up to (kissing – the answer is kissing) // teen-rated cute and secretly conniving // ao3 - wattpad

Pass the Ring, Not the Potatoes - Seb gets the flu on Christmas Eve, the night he plans to propose, and starts...hallucinating // holiday explicit comedy // ao3

Little Sis - Anne Sallow POV where Dark Seb attempts to use the relic to heal her // Horror // ao3 - wattpad

Other fanfic related content:

Shitty Sebastian headcanons

Shitty Ominis headcanons

Stupid things Sebastian would do to get you to talk to him after a fight

Stupid things Ominis would do to get you talk to him after a fight.

SSFS Playlist

HL characters breaking you out of detention (unhinged edition)

Eventually more will be hereeeeee maybe lol

OTHER STUPID SHIT:

I will always write Sebastian with MC. Not sorry one bit lol.

I do love Ominis though too, but Sebastian just rots my brain.

Poppy is a sweet baby angel who will smack anyone as needed.

I have a tendency to write Anne as semi-antagonistic (swear I don't mean to idk why it keeps happening).

I love the morally gray zone of Dark Magic and how it affects characters.

I don't like Draco Malfoy lol.

WE NEED MORE RAVENCLAW REPRESENTATION!!!!

My female characters are gonna be messy. Always. They don't jog for fun. They have constant bedhead. Poor impulse control. Love to torture themselves. I'm on the complex female character bus, and I will run over all pedestrians.

My main MC does actually have a name. I'll soft launch her eventually with a backstory and a bio. I love her deranged little head.

I'm pretty strict on AI. You do NOT have permission to feed my work into AI. I will curse your entire bloodline if you do. I'm like 5'1" of pure vengeance and fury, trust me.

I don't tolerate rudeness, bullying, misogyny, racism, or homo/transphobia. I will find you and eat your bones if you try shit. (I'll actually just ignore and block you, but you never know). Also fuck JK Rowling lol.

If you read all of this, then you've earned a tiny shard of my soul in thanks, friend. Here's to more delusion and fanfiction.

Thanks for stopping bye! 🥰

[simstationdance]

HAPPY BIRTHIVERSARY part 1 - THE SIMS 2 IS 20???

FUN FACT: The Sims 2 (2004) was released 3 days before the date upon which I was released from my mother's womb, therefore making me younger than The Sims 2 by 3 days as of September 14th 2024, but objectively older by 6 years as of September 17th 2024. The march of time is inevitable and frightening! Let's celebrate!

Admittedly I didn't have very much to give when it came to sharing content for the Sims 2's anniversary because I've been battling the Chronic Exhaustion Demon, but then I realized I still haven't released those hair colors I showed a while back. And then I realized I could share EVEN MORE content by spreading it out across a few days instead of condensing it into one day. And it just so happens that, as stated above, there are two special occasions (for me at least... lol) close together on the calendar. SO. HERE'S SOME COOOONTEEEENT.

Today's bundle is mainly a resource for creators who use GIMP 2.x, and includes 11 UNNATURAL HAIR COLORS in the form of Curves that can be used on just about any texture you want, as long as you use it on a Volatile base These only come in Curve form, but if anyone would like to convert them into Photoshop actions, you're more than welcome to.

The colors are named, in order of appearance above: Sapphire, Tanzanite, Azurite, Alexandrite, Moonstone, Aquamarine, Bloodstone, Ruby, Entropy, Blue Moon, and Lily. You can read more about them under the cut.

DOWNLOAD (sfs)

(btw I made the Gemstone colors and the Alien black and brown a year ago, and I made Ruby and Lily this year, which is why they're in separate folders in the .zip)

The Gemstone colors were inspired by, of course, gemstones. They were my first attempt at making a hair color palette of my own. Out of them all, Moonstone, Bloodstone, and Alexandrite are my favorites.

I wanted to go for something fantastical. I also wanted to push GIMP's Curve function to the limit and see how many shades I could put into one color without it looking like garbage.

I use Bloodstone, Moonstone, and Aquamarine as Red, Blond, and Grey respectively in my (still hypothetical) Alien hair color family.

Entropy - intended to be alien "black", a very desaturated indigo color. since Alien sims born in game typically have black hair genetics (unless using a pt mod that changes this), I wanted it to really stand out against both the Maxis mint green and any alternative Alien themed skin tones despite its overall 'plainness'.

Blue Moon - intended to be alien "brown", I wanted to go for a color that was strange and unsettling in comparison to human brown hair. I think I originally intended it to be more blue but it came out more desaturated teal instead. Attempts to change this made it too similar to Entropy for my liking, so I left it as it is.

These colors were originally created and named after the sims I specifically made them for, and I was going to use them only on a small handful of hairs. But I liked the shades so much that I decided to incorporate them into my personal palette. And so, with that in mind, it didn't feel right to keep them to myself.

'Lily' maintained its name as a color, but 'Ruby' was renamed to what it is now. In my game I bin them as Brown and Black respectively because they're meant to be considered 'dyes' in-universe and I wanted to be able to make their associated sims in CAS without having to make them go to the mirror in-game every time I put them in a new hood, but you can do whatever you want with them lol.

[whackk-kermitt]

Dear PenPal

Prompt: Write a story that only consists of love letters. Warning: Fluff, No fire, Mention of homophobic Bullying, Mention of Bullying and Harassment, Shameless(steamy)flirting, some sexting(if you can call it that), Some Angst, happy ending Summary: Due to bullying and harassment at Beacon Hills High, the school board came up with the idea to randomly match each student with another and make them write letters talking about their experiences. At the beginning of the day, they will receive their letter, and by the end of the day have to turn in their response(Receiving a letter every other day) They've been asked to keep their letters anonymous.

Important(sort of): I saw a post where someone said high school au's portray Derek wrong because in high school Derek was completely whipped for Paige and I can't agree more. So soft mushy Derek for one, soft mushy Derek for all!!

Certain grammar mistakes are on purpose, these are handwritten letters I'm emulating here. Others. . .I'm just too lazy to proofread- I mean-THEY’RE ON PURPOSE!

≫ ────── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ────── ≪ Dear penpal,

I honestly don't understand why I'm being made to write about bullying and shit when I'm not the issue in this hellhole school. But Mr Harris said if I don't participate he's gonna knock points off my final grade. Does that count as bullying? I think he has it out for me.

Anyway, Jackson Whittmore is a jackass, and I'm comfortable blaming him for all my problems. If this is you Jackass, your daddy's money means nothing and you're pathetic.

Apparently, we're gonna have to deal with each other all year or until the superintendent gets bored and loses all interest in this project of his. I don't see this still being enforced past a month or two.

They don't want us telling each other our names or anything. which is stupid So I need something to call you. You can call me Batman!

Sincerely, Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

It doesn't matter to me whether we're writing to penpals all year, I'm out of here soon enough anyway. But it's a half-decent idea for kids to hear about bullying and what it can do to someone behind the curtain, it opens your eyes. Really makes you think about what you say to people before you say it. Some kid in my homeroom was excused because whatever his pen pal had confessed to him made him cry so hard I thought his eyes would pop out of his head.

As for Jackson Whitt-whore, I totally agree. He's never bothered me in particular, but he's laid into some friends of mine before and I wanted to rip his throat out with my teeth. I know I have some serious issues, but that guy has ISSUES.

If we're gonna deal with each other all year, or however long this lasts we might as well have some fun with it. Right??

Tell me some things about yourself..

Sincerely, Superman (the best dc hero)

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

Since um when? As cool as Superman is, batman is easily better by at least a hundred times!! Don't embarrass yourself, buddy.

Was it Greenburge?? I heard something about him crying like a baby down the hall lol

I don't know what to tell you without giving away who I am. I mean I'm pretty unnoticeable unless you know what to look for, and then I stick out like a sore thumb.

I like

comics

food

starwars

reading

reading about starwars

reading comics

the smell outside just after rain

watching garbage cop shows with my dad and making fun of all the shit they get wrong

dogs

curly fires (I mentioned food but curly fries are in their own category because they deserve it)

HATe

Jackson Whitt-whore good one

tinny annoying dogs

when I forget my clothes in the washer and they start to stink and I have to wash them again

sports (only because I SUCK) I like watching hate playing

people who think Superman is better than Batman

lack of personal space

derek hale

fake cheese ruining otherwise perfectly good nachos

What about you, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

First off, not really funny about Greenburge. I talked to him about it yesterday and the person writing to him confessed some pretty dark shit that's been said to them. Videos of them got posted online and how they get picked on in school and online by complete strangers. They mention how they were seriously depressed. (Although he does blubber like a baby, it was valid in this case.)

Second, what did Derek Hale ever do to you?

Lastly, I like:

Superman

Reading

Cooking

Basket Ball

Baseball

Comics as well

Family time

My sisters (don't tell them that)

The idea of traveling

Cats

I don't like:

People with zero work ethic

Bullies

People who hunt for sport

People who are dumb enough to think Batman outranks Superman

People who don't like sweets (can't trust them)

Dirt in between my tose

Mr Harris

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

Oh shit for real about Greenburge? damn. I feel sorry for whoever wrote him that letter.

Also derek hale is a douchebag jerk face. He used to tease the hell out of me but I guess he's mellowed out this year since everyone is talking about all the bullying and shit their penpals are confessing to.

I try not to hold grudges- dad says its not good for me- but I'm gonna hold onto this one. Derek hale can suck my big toe!

also dude it sounds like you just don't like people.. fair enough I guess I don't either but damn you do have issues

-batman

p.s sorry was in a rush, forgot to write until now school gets out in 5

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Damn.

I'm gonna be out of town for a few days next week, don't sus out who I am while I'm gone.

Also yeah, I don't trust easily. You know the deal with broken hearts. Been burned too many times. But as a result, I love and hold onto people even harder now. So I guess it's a win-lose.

Are you gonna be at the game tonight? Scratch that, you won't get this until tomorrow. Hope you have fun, otherwise, enjoy whatever it is you're doing tonight.

Question: what do you wanna be when you grow up?

Sorry, I'm just trying to think of ways to get to know you better. You seem cool.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

I seem cool? I'm legit a geek with like one actual friend. People just roll their eyes when I speak I roll them back but whatevr

You wanna get to know me cause im cute ;) or . . . you want to get to know me, so you can sus me out first, huh? Well, the race is on baby!

I haven't really thought about what I wanna be, most likely something in law enforcement. Aim high how about the FBI that would be sick!!

What about you tough guy? any big plans for life?

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

I don't even know what you look like, how would I know if you're cute? You don't know what I look like, so you couldn't even say if I'm cute.

I haven't thought about it much either. Maybe I'll open a bookstore or even a bakery? I'm not sure, those are just two things I like pretty well. Might end up in the family business or as a mechanic.

It's kind of sad now that I think about it; I've never really considered what I am without my family. Whatever it turns out to be it won't be far from home, that's for sure. Hell, I'm down to be a stay-at-home dad even.

That sounds really nice.

Sincerely, Superman

P.S FBI is super cool

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

I think it's cute that you felt the need to defend yourself about thinking I'm cute. You so think I'm so cute, don't you??

I also think it's cute that you wanna be a stay-at-home dad. Not gonna lie- dads are hot. Sometimes. but like, dude-wife energy you know??

also, just an idea- might take some serious cha-ching- but if you owned your own bookstore cafe you could totally bring your little ones with you to work and it could become your very own family business

i can imagine Superman jr running around like he owned the place.

"do you know who my daddy is, he owns this place, he's Superman"

SUPERCUTE Get it??

Dumb joke never mind

if were on the topic of getting to know each other whats your deepest darkest secret??

-Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Sure, Batman, you're cute. Whatever helps you sleep at night.

That's a nice idea though, I like it. Maybe I'll aim for that. I wouldn't mind having my babies grow up and take over a shop I built. Definitely need that "cha-ching" though.

Deepest darkest secret? We only just met, you gotta at least buy me a drink first.

I'm a werewolf.

Your turn Batman

Sincerely, Superman

︵���︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

you SOOO think i'm cute!! I'll buy you a drink anywhere anywhen.

Also ha ha ha, super funny. but if you don't tell me yours I'm not telling you mine. hmm, you do have trust issues so I guess it's only gentlemanly of me to do it first- even though I'm buying you a drink at some point now.

Um I'm finding comfort in hoping you never ever know who I am when I tell you this

I've been talking to this guy and I kinda like him. We don't really know each other all that well, but from what I do know, there's nothing I don't like. But I'm not stupid enough to fall for that trap again so I'm not gonna bother

Also also “my babies” you're fucking adorable.

-Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Hope you didn't miss me too much while I was gone.

I know it's Friday and you won't see this until Monday but how have you been? Do you have plans over the weekend? What did you do over the weekend, I should say? I've been home the last three days so I'm itching to go out this weekend.

I'll be at the lacrosse game tonight, then I'll most likely hang out at the arcade with some friends tomorrow. Someone beat my high score on Pac-Man so I've gotta reclaim my crown.

Anyways, whats been up since I've been gone?

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Fuck you Superman

Not really sorry. I forgot you said you'd be gone for a few days and I thought for a while you ditched me.

Also, I was at the arcade on Saturday!! And just to let you know DRH your score was not hard to beat. Your crown is mine forever champ

What time were you there? What if we're were there at about the same time? Dude that's crazy! I was there at about 5ish and stayed for about two hours I think I don't really remember

-batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Screw you STI,

I left about five o'clock and had to get home for dinner, so we just missed each other. I waisted nearly three hours trying to get my high score back! I finally did it!

And what happens when I go back after your letter yesterday? You're on top again! Screw you. All that time and money for nothing.

I don't know what made you think I'd ditch you before, but now I'm considering it. You are the reason I don't have nice things.

In your wise words, “suck my big toe”!

Sincerely, Superman

P.S your initials sound like damn std

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Haha Superman

Don't be such a sourwolf.

Be humble, dude. Nobody likes a sore loser. Its not my fault I'm better then you, I'm perfect.

But hey maybe if you calm down I can give you some advice. I am perfect after all I give the best advice. And I advise you to take me up of it for the sake of your wolvly-hood.

But if you insist on being a sore loser, I could give you a massage to work out the kinks. ;)

-love yours truly, Batman 

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

“Sourwolf”? Really?

I regret telling you anything.

And don't think I didn't catch that last part. I had to hold it up to the light to see what you scribbled over but I saw it.

If you're so perfect why did you scribble out the shameless flirting? Not confident, hmm? If you're so perfect, why so shy, sti?

I think it’s cute, honestly. But I don't think you could take the heat. I think if we were face-to-face you'd be puddy in my hands. I think your mind would go blank and you'd revert to caveman lingo.

“Huh” “yeah” “mhmm” and a whole lot of grunting.

You're probably so hot under the collar right now you're not even reading this anymore. You're just thinking about us grunting a whole lot. I bet it's so easy to get under your skin.

I wonder what kinds of things you're thinking right now. I wonder if you'll go all day thinking about it. I wonder what you get up to when you're finally home alone.

You'll probably reread this letter over and over won't you, sti?

Can't wait to hear from you tomorrow.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Holy shit dude

Warn a guy before you say things like that. I literally choked on air my friend thought I was having a panic attack

Jeez I don't even know what to say now

What the hell am I supposed to say?

Yeah you're probably right about when I get home tonight though, not gonna lie. Damn dude

We should meet I think..

-Batman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Holy hell, I was joking before. Wasn't expecting you to actually get hot and bothered. Thought you were just gonna roll your eyes and fuck with me.

Dude you actually touch yourself?

Like you seriously went home and I don't even know what to say cause I'm not sure if the teachers read these before passing them on. I don't wanna get into trouble.

But I kinda wanna get into trouble.

I regret nothing, hot damn.

As flattered and curious as I am about meeting you in person, I don't think I want it to be just for sex. You know? Like you seem like such a good guy, I don't wanna waste all my time with you on just that.

I want you to like me more then that.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Okay superman confession time I guess. Remember the letter I sent you before you took off? The guy I mentioned liking?

Sort kind of was you…

I said before I forgot you had mentioned not being in school for a few days, so when I never got a letter back I thought you put the very obvious pieces together and stopped writing back cause I mad it weird.

But I guess you're just ditzy cause clearly it when right over your head.

I do like you, I wanna meet you. Maybe at the arcade or something? I could show you how to actually be good at Pac-Man.

Only if you want!

-Batman

PS I DID NOT THINK ABOUT TEACHERS READING THIS OMG

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

That was me?! I didn't even adress it cause I didn't know what to say. I don't have a good track record with relationships and I didn't wanna screw anything up by getting jealous you weren't into me when we've never met.

Holy crap you have no idea how happy I am right now.

I think you're amazing. And I know we've only been talking for a month and it's been mostly banter but I really like the idea of getting to know you better. Person to person.

I’m gonna be honest though, I kind of don't want to cause I don't want you to be disappointed when you find out who I am. I don't think you like me very much outside these letters. I don't even know who you are in the slightest.

I've taken notes about you and tried to figure it out but I'm fucking clueless dude.

I'm nervous to talk new people, actually, anyone, cause I don't know if it's you want I don't wanna drive you away or give you a reason to be any more upset when you meet me.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

You are the cutest ditz I've ever not met ever. You have no idea how many times I read that letter and GIGGLED. Honestly, I kinda hate you for it now. That was embarrassing in Mr harris's class. I couldn't help it your so fucking cute I swear

I was like a 13 year old girl getting Justin Bieber's autograph. EMBERASSING

but you're sweet so I forgive you.

I'm ready to meet when you are, I don't wanna push you into something you're unsure of. But I want you to know that whatever I may have thought of you before, whatever impression I gave you to make you think I don't like you, it doesn't really matter now.

I know you well enough that I don't think any of that matters anymore.

Unless I hate you in person cause you were a total dick.

Then I think you'll have to make it up to me. ;)

I take smooches as payment for being a jerk

-Batman🖤

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

You really are something special. But do you really think it would all be swept under the rug, just because I made you giggle?

And we've talking about ouselves and our goals and everything but do you really know me well enough to make such a bold statement like that?

I wanna trust that when we meet it will be like a fucking fairytale, but fairytales are never as fun and a hell of a lot more gory in real life. I don't wanna be a downer but I don't wanna be hurt again. I've told you things about myself I've never told anyone. Things I don't trust anyone with.

I let my guard down and if you end up looking me in the eye and you can't stand what you see, then that's gonna break my heart.

Sincerely, Superman.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

I know that you're sweet. I know that you're a family man. I know you want kids and a big happy family of your own. I know you're smart, you always use basically perfect grammar and spelling. I know you're an introvert who like quiet time with friends more then parties. I know you love to cook. Not just because you told me, but because I get the feeling with you shifters that you're a total mommas boy. And mommas boys can always cook. I know you feel things with all you're heart and I bet you pour everything you have into your family and sisters. Even if you don't want them to know how much you love when they fuck with you. That's just what sibling are for- so I've heard. I know you've got enough charisma and charm that you probably have a lot of friends. But only maybe two or three of them would last long enough to be invited to your wedding someday. I know you are poetic, just based on the last few letters. I know you're funny as hell. You've made me laugh a few times. I know even though you seem like a macho sport guy your really a softy. Total hopeless romantic I bet. I know you're a geek like me, a fucking nerd too I bet. I bet you one of the top kids in class. I know my dad would love you. I know you're a werewolf. Which means if I tell you that tonight I'm gonna go to the store and find the strawberry-scented soap or perfume, what ever I can find, tomorrow you'll be able to sniff me out. You'll hear my heart when I walk into a room super nervous, knowing you'll know its me. I know that you care about me. And I know you're smiling like a little kid right now. I know you'll probably read this over and over but you won't tell a soul.

Have fun sniffing me out today, superman.

-Batman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

I know who you are. You weren't lying when you said you were perfect.

I smelled the strawberries as soon as I knew to look for them. Followed it in between classes. Kind of sent me on a wild goose chase for a bit, was late a couple times. The scent traveled everywhere, couldn't tack it. The you came into lunch, you walked right by me.

Your heart was racing just like you said it would be. It looked like you were looking for me too. I wanted to just walk over and kiss you silly.

I ran away like a fucking loser though.

Just got up and left. I'm sorry I'm such a coward. I miss you though. I know you already went home. I'm staying late to right this to make sure you get this tomorrow.

I almost didn't write anything. I didn't expect you to take me seriously when I told you. Didn't expect you to believe in werewolves or to know anything about us. That kind of scared me.

I had a girlfriend before. She had no clue. When she found out, she moved. She was so afraid of me like she didn't even love me anymore. I was a monster to her all of a sudden.

But for you, you don't seem to care. You used it to help me find you. Used your scent to help me find you and you probably don't know as much as I think you might, but that sort of thing makes the wolf go crazy.

Like a hunting game of cat and mouse but without the murder and eating at the end.

Shit, Stiles, you're so perfect.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Superman,

I told you so.

But, my friend got bit. I had to sort through Hollywood bullshit and actual facts to help him not kill anyone every full moon. Honestly if I had known there were wolves in Beacon Hills other than the sick fuck that attacked him I probably would've gone to them to help him.

But he's got control over it know. Full moons are more like a girl's time of the month for him now. Don't tell him I said that. Or your sisters! When I meet them I don't want them to be pissy over it.

But I don't mind. The claws and fangs are kinda hot. Definitely not hot on my friend! Ew

But I got to thinking about that night. I kinda liked it more than I thought I would.

I'm still here superman. You can't chase me away with claws and fangs. ;)

-Batman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Warn a guy. I read that first thing this morning and I lost control for a minute. Hand to hide my claws in my jacket. You owe me a new one by the way. The pockets are fucked.

I wanna scent you so bad. You don't smell like me and it makes me uncomfortable. I wanna rap you up on my scent and leave you there until you smell more like me than yourself.

On a more serious note, I think its time I ask. I don't wanna pry but this whole thing was supposed to be about bullying anyway. How did Derek Hale tease you? It's been really bothering me since your first few letters. Why do you hate Derek Hale? I mean you don't seem, at least from your letters so far, to be harboring a serious grudge against Jackson, so what makes Derek that much worse? What did he do exactly?

I don't really remember anything that could make someone hate him as much as you do. Yet I'm biased. So, I guess I'm just concerned.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Oh dear lord you're dereks friend??? That's why you think I don't like you? Cause you hang out with that jerk? this is awful I hate you

No i dont sorry

DO NOT TELL HIM ABOUT ME AT ALL

I'm serious Superman. Please.

I was humiliated by him! I dont want to drag up anything and relive freshmen year, it was the worst. Thank god people forgot about it over the summer and it's been peaceful since.

And don't get all wolfy jelly over it, cause I'm over it. Its all you now baby.

I may have let it slip ACCIDENTLY - i talk alot, my mouth moves before my brain can tell it to shut up- that I sort of maybe had a teeny weeny little bit had a major crush on him. the next day his friends were laughing at me in the halls and there was a note in my locker calling me a fag and shit

This was back before danny made it cool to be gay.

I couldn't even muster up the balls to tell my dad what I was crying about when I got home. I spent all last year avoiding him like the plague and yet I still got mean notes in my desk and locker every now and then

like i get he probably doesn't like guys, and even if he did I'm like a fish out of water on my best days- very clumsy- not the prettiest flower in the garden but let a guy down gently you know??

I just wanna forget about him and his stupid face

-Batman xoxo

Ps I owe you a drink, jacket, Pac-Man advice and you owe me smoches. Am I forgetting anything?

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Batman,

Don't be mad. . please don't be mad. Derek says he has no clue what you're talking about. He never had any guy confess a crush on him, and he certainly didn't tell anyone about anything like that. Literally ever.

Maybe someone else overheard and they made fun of you? But I don't know, cause you never told him anything like that. Derek isn't the kind of guy to do something that fucked up. He's an ass sometimes and he knows it but he wouldn't do that.

It doesn't change the fact that you were hurt, and I'm so sorry that happened. Whoever is responsible is twisted and deserves a beating. I'll rip their throats out with me teeth, just give me the word!

Please don't be mad!

Maybe try talking to Derek? I'm absolutely certain he will wanna hear from you in person about this.

Sincerely, Superman

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

[Blank Page]

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Please, please, please talk to me! Nobody else knows about this and I swear Derek won't tell anyone. I want you to understand that Derek would never in a million years use someone's feelings like that to hurt them. He's a total pussy honestly!

He's been taken advantage of by someone he's gave his heart to, so he wouldn't do it to someone else.

I promise you with everything in me, Stiles.

Derek Hale if not that kind of guy, there's a misunderstanding somewhere. I want to understand what happened. I want to help!

Between you and me, Derek is Bi, not out to his family or literally anyone yet. He wouldn't out you like that.

Can you please tell me what happened? Spare no details.

Sincerely, Superman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Derek wouldnt out me maybe, but you just outed him??? how the hell am I supposed to trust you after I asked you not to say anything and then you did!! THEN you outed your fucking friend.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Batman,

Yeah, I get how I fucked up there. But Derek was down for it! I let him read the letter and he told me what to say. Think of me as his wingman! He wants to know what happened just as much as I do.

Swear on my mother, Batman.

thats a weird thing to write so sincerely

Yours Truly, Superman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Fine Superman.

First off, why didn't you just fucking drop it! I don't wanna mend anything with this guy cause I want you! Derek Hale is dead to me, a thing of the past.

But you wanna know why your friend is a dick, sure.

I was sort of his friend- kind of only because I knew Cora. It was a best friend's-other friend's-friend's-friend thing- cora being the last one. I don't know we just kind of knew each other and we were chill. and that's how we met. we talked for maybe three minutes at Cora's birthday party last year and then I literally only saw him from a distance at school. but I was whipped okay.

I mean have you seen him?? he's fucking perfect. totally unfair

We ended up in a group project though, even though he was out for the week- family emergency or whatever it was. But the group got everyone's phone numbers down to go over shit, and thats how I got his number, and we started talking- like literally every night for a good two weeks. I let it slip on night when we were going back and forth fucking with each other that I liked him

I was gonna play it off like as friends or whatever but he said he had to go and then blocked my number.

The rest is history.

Stiles out

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Stiles,

What was the phone number?? Are you sure you got the right one? Derek never got any texts like that! I swear he wouldn't do that to you. Ever. Not you.

If we can sort this out then you'd see where it all went wrong. And you won't hate him anymore.

I wanna make this right.

Sincerely yours, Superman xoxo

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dude why does this fucking matter? Its not like just because we’d potentially be a thing doesn't mean I have to be buddy buddy with all of your friends. I don't care about whatever happened between me and Derek fucking Hale. I don't give a shit about him. He's old news, loser boring basic news okay.

He's a jerk and there is no way in all his time hanging out with that asshole that called me names and beat me up, and told everyone I was a freak and a fag that he didn't catch on. He had to have known something was happening because the whole school knew it was happening. He may have not been the one to call me those names. Or break my arm and nose. He may have not been the one to tell Jackson all about how I thought he was pretty and smart or whatever I was hyped up for but he still knew I was getting shoved, jumped, and dragged through the dirt.

And just like everyone else who watched, he said NOTHING. didn't step in didn't stop it, nothing.

He may not be a bully, but he's a bystander which is so much worse Superman.

I was hurt and alone and at some point I let myself believe it was actually my fault. I don't care about Derek Hale anymore.

I don't wanna think about him.

If you wanna keep being his bud then whatever defending him and shit go ahead. I won't stop you.

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Superman,

Haven't heard from you in two weeks. I've been reading your letters over and over. I miss you. I'm sorry I kind of blue up on you in that last letter.

I ended up taking a lot of things out on you that I shouldn't have. I'm so sorry. I never talked about any of that with anyone, so I kind of just bottled it up. And you poking and the damn broke. Its not your fault.

You just wanted to help, and your stupidly sweet for that.

My feelings for you haven't changed at all. I still wanna be with you, and totally school you at Pac-Man. I wanna argue over Batman VS Superman. I wanna meet you and smooch and cuddle. I wanna go home smelling like you. I want your sisters to like me. I wanna do stupid romantic shit that makes you blush and get all cute.

I want you to talk to me again.

I miss you so much.

Sincerely Yours, Stiles xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

ps I guess I owe you kisses for being a jerk now

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Stiles,

You're really gonna hate me after this one.

I asked around about it. I don't hang out with those guys anymore. You were right, their fucking bullies. I don't know how I never noticed. They were always so cool and nice when I was around. But I guess you weren't their only victim. Basically, the whole school thinks those guys are assholes. And so am I by association.

You never had my number. You were taking Greenburge the whole time. He told Jackson and them about it and they said they thought they were doing me a favor.

If you hadn't been given the wrong number none of this would've happened.

Meeting you last year would've saved me from a lot of pain. You make me feel at home in my skin. I meet Paige at that party right after you. But you never seemed to notice me and Paige did.

When she saw me as I am she made me feel like a monster, I hated myself for it afterward. Still do. I felt like being born the way I am would cost me everything. Like id have to settle for someone who was just okay, because they're a wolf and they get it. Like I was robbed of being with someone as amazing as you because I was a monster.

But here you come, and you're so fucking perfect, Stiles. You make me feel whole again like I can trust my wolf again. I trust you with every part of me.

My anger, fear, loneliness, my love.

I didn't want you to know who I was while you hated my guts. I didn't want you to look at me like I don't even know. I wanted to clear up the misunderstanding before we met in person is what I'm saying. I want you to like me so bad it hurts, Stiles.

Cora made fun of me for crying when Mom put strawberries on our pancakes the other day. I didn't tell anyone about you. I couldn't. Didn't know how to think about you without feeling like shit.

I never wanted to hurt you but I did anyways. I'm so sorry sorry.

Sincerely, Derek Hale

︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

Dear Derek,

Saw Greenburge with a cast and broken nose. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? I know you've been suspended for fighting the past few days. But I know you'll be back here today so

I just wanna forget about this. I wanna just get to the good bit where you're all over me because I'm so fucking perfect.

heres my number xxx-xxx-xxxx text me so I can actually have your number this time.

With Love, Stiles

ps meet me in the locker room during lunch so we can be alone

I'm gonna smooch you so hard ≫ ────── ≪•◦ ❈ ◦•≫ ────── ≪

Part Two (Comming Soon)

•Kermitts Masterlist•

[blushblushbear]

sorry..... me again...… you can choose to ignore this if you feel like it's too much

(not trying to guilt-trip you, please don't feel pressured

uh maybe... Nimh? Nimh is cute I like Nimh

if you don't feel like doing him, maybe Poe or Anon?

*blows the dust off this ask* oops this one's pretty old

I already did Nimh so Anon and Poe it is

Anon

Okay not to call the scott a drunk

but I'm about to call the scott a drunk

he's not too bad, but he is a little picky about what he will and will not drink

low key judges people for their choice of beers

side eyes people who order basically liquid candy as a drink (for a cocktail at least, he will rot his teeth on mountain dew don't get it twisted)

he mostly does pints but his fav mixed drink is a moscow mule

or a spiked energy beverage

speaking of drinks he always has a crazy amount of them

g-fuel, red bull, monster-- every energy drink type thing you've seen he's probably got

also drinks prime

also mountain dew

a lot of it

I joke about his teeth rotting but in all honesty he takes good care of them

that's the one gamer stereotype he does not fall in town

he's low key germophobic so his apartment and battle station are SPOTLESS

he defo has those touchland hand sanitizers cause he's a boujee bitch

speaking of boujee he's actually p well off

started trading stocks young and did crypto till it tanked

he doesn't like to talk about his crypto days (he was a hard crypto bro at it's peak)

usually his drunk rambles are about crypto

also conspiracy theories

also video games

his parents are decently well off too but he doesn't talk to them much

they don't have a bad relationship but it's definitely one of those 'you see the family only around the holidays' kind of deals

he has a lot of internet buds but I think deep down he's bad at making real connections and actually gets pretty lonely

likes watching animal videos, WOULD NOT get a pet

rarely has people over to his place, took him a while to fully mentally accept having you over

he was determined to get over it though cause he really wanted you around

would never shower with someone cause that just feels unsanitary-- the shower is for CLEANING

would maybe get a snake-- they're pretty clean

once went 3 days without sleeping

actually lost a lot of sleep to stardew valley when it first came out

his farm is AMAZING

loves to troll at video games but not in a run face first into the enemy team and ruin it for everyone kinda way

more a does a 360 no scope on you right when you think you're safe

you mad bro??? lol

sends lots of memes about liking his s/o cause he's really bad at saying how he feels

favorite director is Edgar Wright cause he's a man of taste and culture

regularly cleans and buffs his nails

has at least one to two drinks chilling in every room of the house

really wants to get an ear piercing

really vain about his looks even though he dresses like garbage

just tell him he's handsome, he's legit too proud to beg but he needs that validation

listens to a lot of underground bands and artists

also a lot of djs

owns 15 pairs of headphones

5 have animal ears

showers at least once a day unless he's in a gaming trance

once tried to write you poetry, felt like an idiot, removed all evidence of it's existence and would deny it fully if you ever found out

Poe

Probably not a surprise to anyone but he got bullied a lot in high school

Has been writing poetry since he was 10 and has notebooks full of poems and short stories from over his life

really wants to write some kind of vampire mystery series centered around a brooding poet vampire but also he's bad at writing mysteries

I've sad this before but he's in a book club with Nimh and Cashew

he keeps trying to get them to read romantic novels

Cashew was game until he realized Poe meant like Lord Byron romantic

Mary Shelley Romantic

thinks Mary Shelley losing her virginity on her mother's grave is the coolest thing ever and is high key jealous

Mary Shelley is honestly his hero

secretly got addicted to soap operas

he wants to stop so bad but he can't

he doesn't have a pet but if he did he'd be that dude you can totally tell has a pet cause he's always covered in fur

not that Poe would even care

Poe actually never much cared for birds and is still salty about becoming a magpie

owns so many Victorian/Edwardian style coats

and vests

he's just one color palette/slight aesthetic change away from just being steampunk

owns so many bits of jewelry, it mostly just floats around his living spaces and he chooses what he's wearing that day at random

all the people who headcanon Poe as trans, you're correct

constantly painting his nails and it's always chipping

his nail polish is actually pretty jank but he doesn't care so long as his nails are black

his living spaces are a mess

lots of papers, lots of random odds and ends, lots of clothes and book and forgotten mugs everywhere

does actually partake in the music aspect of the goth culture

most of his fav bands are ones you haven't heard of

he doesn't actually like horror much

at least not this modern jumpscare nonsense

he likes his horror dark, dramatic, and poetically gorey

Saw??? more like pa-shaw he can't stand those movies

the closest thing he gets to liking more mainstream horror franchises is Chucky

Tiffany Valentine is his favorite (*jennifer tilly voice* ~Jennifer Tilly~)

he can always get down with halloween, but only the first one

he can fuck with Tim Burton and Guillermo Del Toro though

crimson peak is his shit

also Jane Austen bitch?!

he loves him some Jane Austen

Emily Dickinson

Mary Shelley obvs

he low key hates to be basic but fucking

read Emily Dickinson's poetry and tell him you're not simping

he legit does simp for Shelley and Dickinson

legit loves the Kira Knightly Pride and Prejudice will all his heart

Sylvia Plath

He's trying so hard not to be basic but he loves Wednesday Addams

that line about her being allergic to colors--- he felt that

regularly listens to sounds of rain and fireplaces

ye I think I'll end it here lol XD

[nickel156]

I was scrolling through your blog and it got me thinking that I've literally never seen a logical, fact based elriel argument because they always fall back on some negative perceived assumption. For example, people only ship Gwynriel because they want to self-insert, because they hate elain, because they only care about Lucien. Or the ones that are just pure made up conjecture i.e., Gwynriel can't happen because Gwyn isn't ready, because Azriel will always love Elain, because Elain and Az are true mates (lol). Even worse that third party articles are somehow the word of SJM herself. They truly have no recourse against the simple math that SJM is a fated mates author, that from a dramatic story telling standpoint Elucien has by FAR the most plausibility and Gwynriel follows it, but Elriel has quite literally no obstacles unless SJM suddenly pivots her career into writing tiktok-ready forbidden romance and we get 800 pages of contrived "Nooo we can't be together" "But I want you so bad baby" cringe. They seriously do not have a pot to shit in. Praying we only have to suffer this for another week.

I'm glad you enjoy my opinions enough to scroll through my blog 😅

They really don't have any factual evidence to support their convoluted theories!

We will even debunk those theories because they can't be supported and they'll come up with another!

I also find it hilariously ironic how they'll claim we're the ones self-inserting.

Bitch, you're literally the ones self inserting as soft, sweet Elain with a batboy. 😆 They just want him for his wingspan and don't actually understand him as a character AT ALL!

From my readings, I've found more Eluciens that actually like Elain than Elriels. Because we understand (or try to) her character and we want her in an actual healthy non-toxic relationship. We don't find her boring we know her character is just not developed yet.

Elucien x Gwynriel = Everyone is happy

I swear to the mother, if one more Elriel tries to tell me Gwyn can't be with Azriel because.. I'll yeet them. Idk how, but I will!

Do not get me started on Azriel and Elain being mates. The cauldron was tampered with garbage. I could go on the longest tangent on how this is the stupidest shit I've ever heard. Or how Elain has two mates, which totally defeats the whole premise of them.

Just comes down to their shared brain cell.

There is no forbidden romance as I've shown evidence that Elain and Azriel aren't sneaking around. (But they come with a THEORY to disprove it)

They also want her to train with Azriel, which is also hilarious. Tell me you don't understand Elain without telling me you don't understand Elain.

Considering they have no actual evidence of their ship, they have to use songs and articles or they'd have nothing to go on.

Elriel died in that BC

I am first and foremost an Elucien. I know from the context and sjm herself that they are endgame. I do love Gwyn though, and she's a great way for everyone to get their HEA.

They laugh at us when we say she's a fated mates author but fail to realize how accurate it is.

And we try to make it as easy as possible to for their one brain cell to comprehend..

But I guess even the easiest answer goes above their heads.

Elain and Lucien will have tension, healing and growth TOGETHER

Anything they come up with is irrelevant.

The day isn't over! It could still come Anon!!

Xoxo

[mirror-ralsei]

initial sleep-deprived thoughts on the february newsletter:

- some memes referenced: doobie ralsei, eric andre, everyteenagers, warthunder leaks, cdi mario

- weirdly enough the sans “your mom” valentine creating a recursion of moms is really reminiscent of the joke book physics book recursion lol. probably doesn’t mean anything but jic

- i doubt the amv character is alphys. she already has valentines with her undertale version sprite depicted, and her deltarune counterpart is more focused on superheroes than anime.

- furthermore, upcoming characters such as elnina and lanino and arguably the strange letter character were teased. so i personally think this is a new anime-themed character, probably from chapter 3 with its focus on TV

- wait i just realized this would match up with the anime case in the garbage dump too

- as for the strange letter. my gut reaction was like many of us GASTER CONFIRM??!!?11 but turns out i just misremembered “SHOW YOURSELF! DELTARUNE!” as “SHOW YOURSELF! DELTA RUNE!” so scratch that

- the most compelling evidence against it being gaster is definitely the japanese version not matching his katakana quirk. using contractions and no line breaks in the english version too

- if it is a different character other than gaster it’s at the very least an intentional red herring making us believe it’s gaster... like the gaster reading seems completely intended.

- if they aren’t gaster or a version of gaster then they’re probably a character strongly connected to him, considering the illegible writing and the disappearance and redaction of the letter

- speaking of which, i haven’t seen anyone bring up [REDACTED] yet, who also talks in wingdings (assuming gaster is mysteryman and not [redacted]). probably not them but could be relevant

- as wandydoodles pointed out it could also be the “YOU’RE EARLY!” character

- “squint your heart” is an interesting concept. not sure we’ll find out what it’s referring to for a good while though. unless it’s just the soul

- “THE TIME IS GOING AROUND.” interesting phrasing. seems reminiscent of “the world revolving” or “take a ride around town” somehow but who knows the significance

- “EVERY DAY IS A DAY OF LOVE, IF ONLY YOU BELIEVE IT SO. DO YOU BELIEVE IT SO?” this also could be vaguely important. like belief determines things into existence?

- i don’t have much to say about the “there was someone i wanted to help” “i seem to have forgotten who” part bc like with the roaring knight this is just setting up a plot thread with virtually no context whatsoever at the moment. it’ll form the basis of investigations going forward but there’s nothing really we can determine with the information right now imo. like with the existence of the bunker and such, it’s just asking a question.

- the only context we have is “don’t forget” as a main theme of the series in the music title, sans’ lab, or occasional references to the phrase like spamton, but that really doesn’t tell us much of anything yet - this is just one more instance of that.

- the only part that helps us determine anything about the speaker is maybe “YES, IT’S QUITE IRONIC, BUT I SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN” which could imply the identity of the speaker is someone who is good at remembering, or whose job it is to remember or catalog things.

- “WAS IT MYSELF? NO... WELL, PERHAPS.” another interesting bit of dialogue that we really don’t have context for yet. though if this is some other piece of gaster this would be evidence towards it i guess

- “YOU ARE VERY ODD, RESPONDING OUT LOUD TO A LETTER.” uhhh this character seems to have the ability to hear our responses... and it’s odd considering the letter would already be written, possibly implying further timeline weirdness

- i’d also just quickly like to point out that it’s possible, if not likely, that this letter is addressed to someone other than us the readers. i doubt it but we do have some of the other valentines like ralsei or elnina/lanino as precedent that this could be written to another person

- “HAPPY NEW YEAR! OR, WAS IT THE OLD YEAR.” “NOW, PUT ON YOUR COAT AND WASH YOUR FACE! OR, PUT ON YOUR FACE AND WASH YOUR COAT.” this reminds me of the river person dialogue and the egg man dialogue and again, the whole cat state egg stuff in general

- according to reddit im not the only one getting unused string vibes off the “put on your face” line lol

- “NOT NECESSARILY IN THAT ORDER. OR, IN ANY ORDER AT ALL.” chaos confirmed??? (joking haha jk unless...?? but probably joking)

- “GOOD BY!” clearly means something and isn’t a typo given there are no typos in the rest of the letter... but i have no idea what. a pun maybe?

- the tense shift from present - “It’s a strange letter” “It’s more or less” “if you squint” “you feel you could understand it” - to past - “There was a sound” “the letter was gone” - is interesting and seems to support the cat state egg things yet again (“there is a man here” “there was not a man here”)

ETA:

- actually... “Well, there is a man here.” “Well, there was not a man here.” “WELL, HAPPY NEW YEAR!” “WELL, IN ANY CASE,”

- overall i wonder if this character is associated with the past: an old timey letter, new or old year, the time going around, the character maybe having a good memory, the parent-y demand to wash up and put on a coat, and the shift from present to past tense?

- my crackpot first thought while first reading this (other than gaster) was “grandpa semi?” but that’s definitely not right lol

- they also might be associated with or affected by the timeline wonkiness going on: “HAPPY NEW YEAR! OR, WAS IT THE OLD YEAR.”, “THE TIME IS GOING AROUND,” the mixed-up order of coat and washing, the shift from present to past tense, and continuing a letter based on a response that hasn’t happened yet

- spamton love network: “the earth will stop spinning” might be a “the world revolving” reference... whatever “the world revolving” even means

- spamton love network: “where is the promise of perfection?” ???

- spamton love network: “my fears surging through me like suspicious waves” something with the ocean?

- spamton love network: once again i am operating on the assumption that the contents of the wayneradiotv spamton shows aren’t themselves canon yet have alluded to things within canon (eg. trouble dingle)

[put-them-thangs-away]

how is this only about one single episode,,,, i have GOT to stop doing this,,,,,

starting this off by saying i am making the extremely questionable choice yet again to start this rant in my notes app so there is a Very Large chance that this episode ramble analysis is going to become another monologue,,,,, sorry bout that. if it’s more than like three paragraphs i’ll stick it under the cut. anyways,,, Y’ALL READY FOR ME TO TAKE AN EPISODE’S WONDERFUL HAPPY ATMOSPHERE AND OVERTHINK IT INTO PAIN???

spoiler alert: i had to come back and add this. it was not less than 3 paragraphs. it’s a significantly longer essay this time. 🫠

i was gonna start with the hierophant card now that i’m rewatching since it’s early in the episode (and i love milfs nang) but i think imma go make that as a separate add on to my previous post about the tarot cards instead. i also still need to go back and watch the bit with boss’s card from that earlier episode so i can add that on as well.

i know the episode technically starts with jack & joker goofing off and once again making ad placement gayer which is very cute but i don’t actually have much to say about that (yet) except that it’s really funny that joke’s reflexes and ability to fight are lowkey garbage unless it’s to mess with jack. also there is that little foreshadowing nugget in there from jack reminding joke again about his promise not to do anything stupid but my take on that will make more sense with my rant about the final scenes. lmfao don’t worry,,,,,, i have plenty to say about them later.

so INSTEAD bc i love to suffer imma start with arun and tattoo’s scene. yippee! so we’ve got these two bonding over creative ventures,,,, and by bonding i mean arun being supportive and pouring his heart out and tattoo being deeply uncomfortable with any display of human emotions lol. i saw that tiny little smile to yourself when your back was turned to arun tho tattoo,,,, im onto u buddy. 🏳️‍🌈❔🫵🤨

and then we’ve got arun’s line about missing his shithead garbage father at the beginning of his breakdown, which at the time, did not mean much to me bc in the moment i got immediately distracted by the comedic factor of tattoo having the emotional range of a thimble. (which i now am like,,, 75% sure was an intentional diversion on the writer’s part.) and also that little crumb of tattoo smushing himself in between hoy and arun by physically pushing them apart when they were half cuddling so that he could impart some Tough Love™️ lmaoooo,,; once again sir,,,, im onto u,,,

anyways the reason that little comment from arun came back to haunt me is related to the tarot cards. i went more in depth about the card meanings in my previous post, but short version for this exact moment: arun gets The Moon as his card which is often considered to be symbolic of deception or things not being what they appear…. and also truths that you have not (or cannot) accept about yourself. haha! neat! i’m sure that’s definitely not the reading they went for and definitely absolutely will not have anything to do with arun not having accepted what kind of person his father truly is, and possibly making some poor choices relating to that in the future! and i’m sure if that is the reading, there is not a more in depth reading for tattoo’s The World card as well since they are in many ways narrative foils of each other! lol! anyways! 🤪

mostly unrelated sidenote: when did nang draw the star on the back of the cards? bc it wasn’t there when she was originally laying the cards out for hoy. continuity issue or Important Tiny Detail?

skipping the rosé jack scene here because imo it didn’t have much purpose other than to kind of make you pissed at her manipulation tactic. (and probably to mislead us into thinking that she was gonna handle the rejection scene really poorly. she didn’t thoooo come thru bb girl! so proud of u) also skipping the teeth rottingly adorable found family meal for similar reasons. (joke adopting ama’s little “aiyah!” tho had me In My Feelings)

surprisingly i don’t actually have that much to say about the flashback to boss and joker’s interaction. i might be missing some subtext, but generally it just kind of gave me the vibe of being there solely to show boss being menacing and remind you that joke’s lovesick self-sacrificing ass is, in fact, about to Do Something Stupid. imminently. (can’t tell if i am also supposed to have like? an ounce of sympathy for boss because he’s “never been free” or whatever the fuck that’s about. don’t know don’t care i wish him a very nice die painfully at the hands of his son. adopted or otherwise, i’m not picky.)

brief shout out to the security goon who is literally a brick wall what the fuck like i know they’re our resident idiots but FOUR ON ONE AND THERE’S BLUNT WEAPONS INVOLVED HELLO????? king shit tbh rip in peace my guy

also lmfao joke saying “how did you find me?!” and arun just being like “what like it’s hard? we already know you’re gay AND stupid.” 😂😭💀 read for FILTH,,,,

[insert Four Men, None Braincells heist montage]

the absolute unmatched level of shenanigans. whatever was going on with the choice of fish. the botched directions. the inability to open a bottle of champagne.

(i love them)

also WAIT HOLD UPI JUST NOTICED AND IDK IF I’M READING INTO THIS TOO MUCH BUT WHAT’S WITH THE LITTLE LOOK BETWEEN NANG AND ROSÉ WHEN SHE GOES OFF TO CHANGE AND ROSÉ IMMEDIATELY MOVES TO LIGHTEN THE MOOD AND CHANGE THE SUBJECT?? like we know that nang had a hand in this plan but does rosé know something? and if she does, does that have any significance to her bringing jack to the ring room or is that just about the romance? also getting a better look at jack’s face through all of this (during the dinner especially) makes me wonder how much HE knows about the heist bc he clearly has clocked some weird shit happening (and also i feel like there’s no way at this point he has not managed to recognize disguised joke) which like,,,, god it is sending me on a whole other level of spiral bc like on the one hand that makes one of my takes on the final scene less painful but also makes the other part of it even more ouch??? many thoughts,,,, head full,,,, which works out bc we’re closing on the end of the episode which is where my overthinking ass brain went into overdrive the first during the first watch.

first of all i was obviously in my feelings about jack’s whole speech about how lying doesn’t help relationships. shout out to ama’s Great Value Family Therapy Sesh, as always, she is the real mvp.

also ok now i am Thinking bc if jack does know something about the heist that would def have an even deeper meaning to this speech? bc like if they actually communicated beforehand for once then it’s not lying and breaking a promise? and if he doesn’t know anything about it then i feel like he could be more upset about joke doing this exact same thing again? (hELP MY BRAIN HURTS) and joke’s reaction from his cozy little spot deep in the closet isn’t helping at all like,,, maybe it’s the guilt of lying and breaking a promise again?? is it just the crippling lack of self-worth???? and then the surprise specifically when rosé actually took the rejection well? HOW AM I EVEN MORE STRESSED THE SECOND TIME AROUND WHAT THE FUCK 😭

i am also having more thoughts on hoy’s assignment of The Star card, not necessarily about the card’s actual meaning (positivity, optimism, all around good boy golden retriever energy etc) but more how it relates to his whole [handwaves] Thing with nang,,,, and also her plan. hm. idk how to really like. put those thoughts into words tho. i can’t put my finger on what it is that is making me flag that, but it is there.

also like idk if i’m misremembering but were we ever told specifically what nang’s relationship to rosé is? like she’s not her mom for sure so??? older sister??? or????

god i have so many questions after this episode especially because i feel like there were a lot of little foreshadowing hints that were immediately followed by HEY LOOK OVER THERE! shiny distraction moments and u kno what,,, fair,,,, i was and wld continue to be distracted by naked nang if i wasn’t picking this apart scene by scene rn like her calling hoy to pick things up from her when joke clearly didn’t know that Most of this was part of her plan??? i need to know RIGHT NOW WHO IS IN ON WHICH PARTS AAGHHHH

also once again unrelated aside bc at this point i’m already neck deep in not shutting the fuck up but tattoo fulfilling The Pyrotechnics Guy™️ heist trope with the spy music overlay brings me so much joy acshually,,,, it’s giving oceans eleven and i love that for them

JACK’S FACE AT THE FIREWORKS THO JACK WHAT AND HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOWWWWWWWWWW like now there’s this whole phone conversation that will ALSO TAKE ON A WHOLE OTHER MEANING IF HE’S IN ON ANY PART OF THIS??? originally i was just like “damn this will really suck if he thinks he did this and got out of this situation all by himself and then gets mad at joker all over again and they fight and (temporarily obvs) break up” but now im like OH MY GOD????? WHAT IF IT’S NOT THEM COMMUNICATING AHEAD OF TIME???? WHAT IF HE’S BEATING JOKE AT HIS OWN GAME???? WHAT IF THERE ARE TWO FUCKING HEIST PLOTS/TEAMS??? HAPPENING??? SIMULTANEOUSLY?? these writers have proven to be absolutely insane (affectionate) so far, so the only thing i’m actually sure of is that i can’t trust NONE of my first gut reactions ajdkdkd

and now we have reached The Scene™️ ,,, the culmination of everything,,, the yearning the pining the tension the misunderstandings,,,,, it’s just so [clenches fist] why are they so good

and i am once again spiraling bc if there were two different plots going on in this heist, this whole “did you work hard” conversation has even more double meanings aaaagghhh AM I READING TOO MUCH INTO THIS?????? if i am this 5000 word essay is about to be real embarrassing. anyways.

like originally i was just lasered in on the double meanings behind every fucking moment (and word and expression and body language augh) from joke’s side of the conversation and the pain it was bringing me even tho on the surface this is a super happy moment and they’re finally getting together etc,,, bc like from joke’s perspective this could very well be the end of them? he knows he’s done exactly what he did last time to snap their budding relationship in half, but this time there’s a million more promises in between for him to have broken.

like listen i know the yearning and the infamous microexpressions could just be because he’s been being crushed by the weight of his feelings for over five years, but idk man,,,, i was getting major bottling up The Sad™️ vibes from joke in this scene, even in it’s most tender moments (that soft little “together?” which was absolutely just in relation to candles and nothing else will haunt my dreams) and i don’t think it was Just his guilty conscience about lying even tho that is also obviously eating him alive right now. (him knocking back that drink when jack’s telling him about rosé and he’s gotta keep up the act and pretend he doesn’t already know what was said? all of it? and like it didn’t have him connecting the dots finally about the feelings being mutual? big fucking oof.) which brings us back to joke’s ever present ✨crippling lack of self-worth✨,,,,, i think he genuinely thinks this is the last time he’s going to have jack. because now on top of the guilt of What He’s Done, he thinks he’s upped the betrayal factor now that he has confirmation that jack likes him back. like based on jack’s reaction to the situation when they were barely just becoming friends, it’s understandable to assume that this broken promise would cut deeper.

and y’know in case that didn’t already deal me enough psychic damage, i think at the beginning of this conversation he just thinks it’s the last time he’s going to have jack from an emotional standpoint. and then jack is being brave and playful and straightforward (just like that first confession, which he also DIDN’T BELIEVE WAS POSSIBLE IN THE MOMENT goddddd im so emo) and he’s just like welp might as well have this last moment where he loves me for real to keep close to my chest for the rest of forever. and he’s ecstatic to have it like this boy is straight up glowing. the slow smiles, like he can’t believe he gets to have this. (which like. again. i think that he thinks he doesn’t which obviously i am feeling Very Normal about hahahaha)

then to round this all out we have That Kiss,,,,, like. whew. the absolute explosion of pent up feelings is seriously unmatched by any other bl (and possibly just like,,,, every drama) i have ever watched. but of course even with that i’m not done overthinking things because these mfs make me truly unhinged. like there is that fucking feral face joke makes when they pause for their forehead touch and instead of enjoying this beautiful and satisfying moment for more than five seconds, my brain would not let me live and was like “oh,,,, is this the moment where it hits him like a sack of bricks that this is maybe also the last time he gets to have jack from a physical as well as the originally presumed emotional standpoint? and maybe he should just choose to be selfish and let himself have this for once, if it’s going to be the last time?” bc hnnnn idk something about him in that tender moment just projected underlying grief to me and perhaps i am overthinking that! perhaps it’s just grief for time lost with a little dash of guilty conscience!

anyways then there’s,,,, the possibility of jack’s perspective on this also gaining a lot more nuance which i only even thought of as a concept in the middle of writing this insane manifesto for licherally over 3hrs so frankly! i am not even remotely emotionally or mentally equipped to handle The Implications of that! that is officially too many layers and changes my entire viewpoint of the microexpressions on jack’s face also and i simply cannot deal with it! i am already eating glass about them!! i am Looking Away!!!!

in conclusion, i am so so so so so so normal about them thank you for coming to my ted talk.

(if you sat through this, i’m so fucking sorry.)

[rosesradio]

so I never finished Heroes of Olympus but also I never liked Percy/Annabeth in PJO (……. which makes me an outcast I know) my reasons were silly but I was like 13 when I read the first series. (something something she was too mean to MY Percy and he deserved better) ALL this is to say, I’m curious on your opinion of HoO Percy/Annabeth:

“was not a fan of the amalgamation they became in HoO, but that’s another post”

would love to hear your thoughts as to why it was better in PJO or whatever you feel like sharing!

so first off, you should definitely finish HoO !! i'm not a huge stickler for "you have to read all of the source material" (because i haven't read past the first ToA book), and HoO is really only Peak Literature if you're like 14 (not to say adults can't like it obv, i do, but when you get older you notice some glaring flaws lol). that being said, you should still finish it, it has its rises & falls. i for one have been rereading son of neptune (very very slowly) & listening along to the newest olympian podcast. but anyways

i honestly can relate to your take on being young & having a book boyfriend & feeling overprotective of him lol. when i was like 14 & first reading HoO, i felt that way with leo when calypso was treating him like absolute garbage...like that's my little guy lol

so my take on percabeth is kind of a, "like it more than i don't, not overly invested in a fandom sense, take it or leave it" on the tier list. i enjoyed their development in PJO despite the moments where annabeth did give him a bit of a hard time, etc. they had a close friendship & trusted each other & i think it developed into a nice relationship (i will say them getting together the morning after annabeth's older brother figure/childhood crush/war rival Died is some Unhinged romantic timing on Richard's part, but i get that ya gotta wrap up the book & the underwater kiss was still cute, etc).

that being said, i understand how they were seperated in HoO & circumstances were desperate, but obv the judo flip scene was just...ick. i think i saw a post somewhere that rewrote it to where she pulled her knife on him, he pulled his sword on her, the romans got freaked out & then they just kinda half-play sparred with no winner, and that helped percy gain back some of his memories, which i think was a sweet rewrite. but anyways.

in the rest of the HoO books they're just kinda...wildly codependant with no individual personalities. annabeth needs percy to save her in battle because it's not like she's been training Longer than he has, and percy needs annabeth's wisdom because Obviously he has none of his own, Right?? (someone save percy from the stupid allegations i can't do it in these conditions Richard—this is all your fault Richard & the fandom Is Not Helping—)

all in all i think Richard's just...not good at writing established relationships as opposed to build up, which is funny because he pairs so many ships off-page & then we gotta see the amalgamations for the rest of the books (someone save solangelo i can't i need a cig—)

also for the record i think perachel is underrated. i think there was a point in tlo where percy admitted in the narrative that hanging out with rachel was more carefree than hanging out with annabeth, and that's kind of the ideal you would want in a partner.

so i'll take them or not, i like fanart & cute hc's with them & having them as a background pair. i don't see myself writing anything with them unless it's like a request or something though. i ship both of them with other people more in a Fandom sense, remaining a casual fan of percabeth. i know there's a niche group in the pjo fandom that are anti-percabeth & say annabeth is abusive—i'm not gonna say that's a lie or the truth or anything, i can see where they're coming from but i can see the other side of it too.

so yeah, that's pretty much my unorganized ramblings on percabeth ! thanks for asking !!

[sokkastyles]

Just saw this take, and I wanted to know your thoughts. i feel like if ever there was a post to describe "bad faith" arguments, this would be it lol

I didn't read all of this because it hurt my head. I actually do not agree with the premise that Azula is incapable of kindness, but the person in the screenshots was replying to a post that tried to argue that Azula is actually a good person, and the only reason people consider her bad is due to protagonist-centered morality, which is 1) blatantly, ridiculously false, and 2) not how protagonist-centered morality actually works.

I'm not interested in the argument about whether Azula is inherently evil or incapable of redemption, because of course she isn't inherently evil and anyone is capable of redemption, but she is a sadist, and this is a problem that people cannot wash away with "well she was just following orders," and it kinda floors me that people would spout this kind of garbage and then claim that they know what they're talking about because they (allegedly) are from a colonized country or have themselves suffered abuse. I'm not saying those claims are not true but like. This is not the argument you should be making if you claim to understand colonialism or abuse. It just isn't. I'm not saying their life experience didn't happen, but just because you experienced something does not mean you always understand it, and these arguments do not speak of understanding. With abuse, in particular, a lot of people don't have the clarity to understand unless they've been through therapy, which is one of the reasons abuse victims who do not get help are at risk of becoming abusers. This very closely describes Azula, whose abuser encouraged her worst traits.

And like, the thing about colonialism is that it encourages and enables people who already have sadistic tendencies. Whether or not Azula was born with those or if they were instilled by Ozai is not an argument I am interested in, but he certainly encouraged them and that is one of the reasons she thrived under a colonialist regime. Zuko and Iroh also could have easily developed these tendencies, although we do see that even when they still believe in the FN, they do have much more of a tendency towards kindness. This is canon.

What makes the real difference, though, is that they stopped believing in and supporting colonialism, and Azula did not. They drew on and expanded upon the more empathetic sides of themselves and became changed people. That is the real difference between Zuko and Iroh vs Azula, and it makes all the difference.

And I'm absolutely not here for garbage takes about how Zuko and Iroh were not nice enough to Azula when she came to them for the express purpose of lying to and imprisoning them. If you really want to speak for victims of colonialism or abuse, you really need to stop with that very obvious victim-blaming argument and like, think before you type.

The last thing I will say is that it's funny that these people always paint Zuko as having an inferiority complex when Azula's is a mile wide and a major part of what brings about her downfall.

[blackbatcass]

im so happy u turned ur anons back on they rlly thought they were baiting you, huh?

anyways! im sooo excited for the cass rebirth fic skdfewkd but in the meantime i DO wanna get into some arrowfam. ollie, roy, mia and connor just interest me so muchh but i havent read muc except for fics and even though i was supposed to follow my super specific reading order i wanna take a break from nw and the batfam and read something else.

like you said ga can be very healing!

anyways do you have a read list for me that includes all of them? thankss!

p.s nightwing vs green arrow was a question dc posted on their insta and the answers really surprised me! any insight on this?

LOVE YAAA

hey! <3333 tyyy i hope it lives up to expectation. LITERALLY reading ollie is so healing its good for the soul.

so this is like a comprehensive list of ollie comics, and this is a guide to everyone in the arrowfam. they’re super helpful if you want a broad overview

for my own personal recs, i think it's nice to start with green arrow: year one or green arrow stranded, to get a feel for his origin & time on the island. the hard traveling heroes (green lantern/green arrow) stories are also essential reading in that they basically established the modern version of ollie's personality and they're soo much fun, just beware of snowbirds lol.

from there green arrow vol 2 (1988) is the big one! pretty much Thee green arrow run, especially if you want to get to know ollie better. it's a lot of solid street-level ga stories in seattle, dinah's there, eddie fyers is there, and connor's introduced towards the end! if you're specifically interested in connor #102-137 was his original green arrow run. though word of caution that anything written after mike grell is a bit questionable.

if you're more interested in the 'arrowfamily' as a whole then you're looking for green arrow vol 3 (2001). it's 75 issues and a lot of fun. this is where ollie comes back to life, mia is introduced, ollie legalizes gay marriage, etc. it's pretty much just ollie hanging out with connor and mia and having some more street-level star city shenanigans, and i am very fond of it. that being said when judd winick takes over there is some questionable shit (you might want to just skip the arc with joanna pierce) but overall it's a fun time. roy shows up occasionally, dinah comes and goes. it's probably the best run to read if you want to get to know the arrowfam as a whole.

do not read green arrow/black canary unless you're desperate. it's bad. it's hilariously bad. do not trust anyone who tells you it's good. it is pretty harmless so if you just want to skim through for mia funny moments go ahead but...yeah it's trash.

post-new 52 there is not a lot unfortunately. a lot of it's garbage. the jeff lemire run is probably the most salvageable? and the rebirth one (volume 6) isn't as nauseating so that's also an option. but obviously you can read & enjoy whatever you want, maybe new52 ollie is your favorite ollie. i would say to read through some of this if you're interested in emiko but i can't really recommend it per se.

and that brings us to the current ga ongoing! you've probably heard us bitch about it a lot on here, but tbh it's been less bad & more mediocre. mediocre comics are just really frustrating to read through in real time. i might give it a try though, it has some nice moments even though it's not great, and williamson is leaving the title next month! chris condon is set to take over and has said the first arc is about street-level crime in star city, influenced by grell and o'neill. so i am VERY excited, it has the possibility to be peak. i think condon's run (issue 18) could be a great place to hop on!

so those are my green arrow recs! if you're more interested in roy, he usually features more in titans titles than ga titles so i have a separate list in my comic recs tag for him.

i couldn't find the ig post you were talking about? i have no clue how a fight between dick and ollie would go if that's the question. power scaling is not my forte by any means. i'm not sure how ollie's archery and dick's hand to hand fighting would match up. so i don't have a lot of insight on that sorry!

[vaelzz]

I'm curious: do you think AI art should be considered art or not? I honestly don't agree with it because it's just plain lazy, but I want to hear your opinion about it.

Been procrastinating on this ask because there is a lot to be said. I've actually written about 10k words around AI art throughout the year which I've been planning to breakdown and make digestible because I know no one wants to read a massive text wall randomly.

For the most part I'm pretty conflicted, I do think that people relying on AI to create art with no understanding of beforehand tends to lead to these repetitive and soulless pieces with no substance. From a technical perspective it's usyally pretty impressive albeit with some minor defects, it has all the bells and whistles of what you'd think would be art yet it fails to actually feel like art.

Over time this has led me to believe that AI is just a tool like all the other tools that came before it that made things easier, it's an amplified version of the same principle. However there is a distinction between art and craft. It just makes the technical side faster and more professional but without a lack of intent and personal touch you are always going to get these soulless pieces with AI models as most are trained on other people's artworks/styles. 95% of AI art I see is just complete garbage and you can tell it's AI because all the AI pieces typically have a pretty distinct style so you just end up being flooded by millions of AI art pieces in a spammy fashion by people that have nothing to say or express. It's actually pretty offensive to all the hardwork and lifetime artist's have spent learning their craft but the worst part is that it causes oversaturation so the public perception of art's value goes down. This means unless you are already well known or insanely talented no one is going to give a fuck about you or your art unless you have a close group of friends interested in art. So overall as an artist it just means spending countless hours, weeks, months, years? Alone and isolated working on things traditionally for no real return which is fine if it's for fun but it feels like you have to make such heavy sacrifices to even make art in modern society. Simply for no one to truly value or appreciate it.

I know it's going to be adapt or die to keep up so I've been experimentint painting, blending and compositing different elements generated with AI in Photoshop to make new and original things but I do also feel perpetually guilty about it so I have rarely posted any but I will mention that I'm still putting tons of hours and effort into creating. It just puts me in a weird spot because implementing AI tends to carry the connotation of the AI is doing all the work (which can be true for the soulless spammy pieces around) but the fact it's not entirely AI or entirely done from hand just puts me in an anxious loop lol. But ultimately I have this idea in my head that I'd like to get out faster but often I just end up actively handicapping myself and spending many hours extra for stuff that people aren't going to care about.

I think intent matters massively in all of this and I'm still debating and questioning myself. I think on this account though I'll continue to post any non-AI work and post mixed Art implementing AI on my new account idiovoidi

I've been posting to Tumblr since 2013 on/off so I'd hate to discredit all the work I've done over the years.

[pommunist]

past anon who talked about the alex's first priority being money/funds and who is apparently based to you (hola :D👋)

after reading back my ask i realize that i may have come off as a little bit harsh (not as harsh as you french fans, you guys are BRUTAL) i wrote most of it in a burst of frustration at the whole admin thing lol.

i don't think alex is some disney villian who is twirling his mustache as he watches on his past workers cry out of frustration because of the lack of communication. he just isn't as experienced when it comes to these kinds of things.

he's doing what he thinks is best from his lawyer studies, don't gave out any info that isn't 100% guaranteed, anything that comes with money is a huge legal problem and must be fixed as first, those type of things.

everyone that has known alex personally has said that he's a genuinely sweet guy (well, except his some of his workers but doesn't even have a relationship with them because of the lack of communication LMAO /coping) i don't think any of his current actions are done out of malicious intent or whatever.

all of his recent streams are probably a way to earn money and the whole egg merch is probably for even more money (the bio of the acc literally says that it is ''the best way to fund qsmp'') (i've already talked about my opinions on that)

the whole not communicating is so ''he doesn't make false promises'' and also, so he doesn't get sued. (understand where he is coming from but huge disagree)

the not having ways of contacting him via twt isn't done as a result of this situation, he deleted twt some time ago (very unfortunate timing, like, 2 days before lea's statements. he should've reinstalled it, but he doesn't need to anymore since he now has an email for when he needs to be contacted)

the events that are currently happening have been planned for months in advance (still think he should put them back a bit. i guess the german streamer is kinda understandable since he has apparently been waiting for like, 10 months?? still think he should've put it back)

i think what he wants is for when pomme's admin comes back for the work environment to be perfect but i still heavily disagree with his ways. the way he's going about it now is only going to lead to burnout from the workers :( none of what i said justifies the lack of communication btw. his actions come off as kinda tone-deaf right now.

although with the whole (understandable) anger from people about the twt admins + the union + jose's statements + the french's statements, i do think he will start actually communicating with his workers (he kinda has to with the whole jose thing, unless he wants all of qstudios garbage out in the public, which is like, a really bad thing for him)

unfortunately, i'm only based when i'm angry <3 so this is probably dogshit. but the problems in qstudios ARE fixable. (this is either gonna end up aging like milk or like fine wine. i hope it's the fine wine since i love qsmp and i'll probably completely give up on learning french/spanish if it doesn't)

holà again !

I personally didn’t think you were too harsh on your last ask, you had genuine concern about the course of his actions and it didn’t feel like you were attacking him or anything !

I don’t know Q personally obviously so I won’t speculate too much on what he’s thinking through this, but I agree with you that he probably isnt an evil guy and doesn’t have bad intentions with it.

However I still stand with the fact that he was at least negligent towards what was happening behind the scenes of his passion project and should’ve been more aware of the inner workings of the QSMP.

This isn’t an easy situation, especially with all the legal aspects (which should’ve been thought of beforehand btw) but I think everyone or at least most people who criticise what is going on are doing in first because they want the admins to be treated well but also because they want to trust that Q will do the right thing.

Admins and fans alike wouldn’t spend so much time getting updated on the situation and writing their thoughts if they didnt have at least some hope that things can be fixed.

Now it’s up to Qstudios to prove those who believe right and to prove those who lost trust (can’t blame them) wrong !

[bcbdrums]

Fave character from an oldy show / fave line from Soul Eater / how would u handle it if u were the Tweebs' music teacher?

i see you.... heheh thank you for the ask.

How does one choose...between their children... No seriously this is hard. Top choices I'm stuck between are Adam Cartwright from Bonanza, Al Calavicci from Quantum Leap, H.M. Murdock from The A-Team, or Spock from Star Trek. I love them ALL for very different reasons, but they all have things in common. Dark and angsty characters with difficult lives (in different ways) who struggle to overcome things and never quite achieve their peace... And...while the character I've spent the most time on is probably Spock, I think ultimately I have to go with Adam. I suppose I relate the most closely to him, because his struggle is so human and relatable to many. A good upbringing not without challenge, a steady adulthood offered to him...but he simply is never satisfied. And we never get an ending for him in canon! So he appeals to me and my creative side, both as an exploration of himself and as a way to process through some things of my own. Al, Murdock, and Spock all a semblance of peace in the end or at least we're told they get it (some more than others/in unique ways) but Adam just...vanishes, and we never truly know. So I guess he'd be the fave pick. (But how can one choose a favorite child, heheh.)

I chose from the anime because I need to re-read the manga (even tho I do have a favorite manga moment). And I must give must preamble to this... So you know how from Death the Kid's very first introduction he's falling on the ground and having fits about possibly having done something wrong, leaving something asymmetrical (which...symmetry for him is symbolic of the balance between good and evil, which he as a Reaper must uphold), and in these fits he has he calls himself worthless garbage and he's basically given up in all of these situations and his weapons have to talk him out of it and it takes a lot of effort? And these moments are always played comedically right up until one moment... His final moment of development in the anime, right before facing down against Asura... After first he thinks he can't help, then Lord Death is defeated, and so he resolves to protect the world. He has one more of these self-deprecating rants, but...this time it's spoken to this dad, who he thinks could be dead. This time it's not calling himself worthless for a lack of symmetry, but not worthy to be his father's son... You really feel the weight of everything he's been going through up to this moment. BUT...this time... Instead of declaring himself worthless and that's the end of it, Kid says, "Maybe I don't have what it takes to do this... But... I can try!" That's my favorite line from Soul Eater.

I'm thinking of them at their age in the beginning, as ten year olds. So first of all they'd be percussionists in the 5th grade band cuz they'd get to do a variety of things. Since that wouldn't be enough, I'd give them extra (optional of course) challenges to learn some solo pieces for percussion. And knowing they'd wanna take everything apart and make new things, I'd also hang around with them after school to show them instrument maintenance on all types, explain how all the things work. And if I had some instruments broken beyond repair (we often do and keep them for spare parts) I'd let them play with those in whatever way pleased them. Lol they'd likely make their own frankenstein'd instrument... Or do chemical experiments on the brass since there's some toxicity risks.... Yeah. And that's just band (but I'm tired now so that's what you get lol). Meanwhile, I'm operating on the assumption that they are good, well-behaved kids at school unless they're either bored out of their minds or the teacher is lousy.

[femmecelworld]

intro to american political campaigns:

a romencken bestie asked me what campaigns were like/how they work, so I tried to do a brief overview… lol. I work in politics and I’m an overexplainer, so this is probably way more information than they intended. BUT if you were ever curious about the weird wild world of american political campaigns or wanted to write a political AU fic, this should help!

wow where to even begin 🫠

First I should clarify that while the Dems and Republicans have more in common in political gamesmanship / campaigning than either party would like to admit, Republicans don’t run electoral campaigns the way Dems do. They don’t do a lot of what we call “ground game”, or “organizing”—which means the person -> person part of campaigns; people who knock on doors and make calls or send texts, organize rallies and voter events, etc.

if anything, they run “paid canvasses”: when the campaign or PAC group will just pay people to knock on doors and read a script and hand out lit (those flyers/pamphlets). How is that different from Democratic organizers? A Dem organizer also knocks on doors, but they’re responsible for a lot more and they should (🙃) have more agency and flexibility to make decisions about their particular area. Also they actually care very deeply about the issues or the candidate(s), whereas a paid canvasser might not—organizers get paid absolute shit wages and have terrible working conditions, so it’s not about the money. If an organizer want to hold a rally or organize some kind of action, or even start up a weekly activist book club or something—that should be within their purview. (Whether or not their boss okays it is another thing)

Republicans don’t respect people at all, Dems at least pretend to (if anyone wants, I’m happy to do a longer expanded version of this rant with the way the DNC treats entry level workers, unions, hourly workers, and marginalized people). So the GOP doesn’t really care about “organizing”—despite the fact I think they might even be better at it—because they do it in the shadows. And if anyone wants me to get into *that* on an expanded scale, I will, it’ll just be too long for a campaign overview here. Officially, the RNC doesn’t do things… but subgroups and PACs and “local organizations” will. The truth is, the GOP is deeply involved with all of that, it’s just not “officially” and not on their financial disclosures.

For example, this year, the Trump campaign basically didn’t even hire campaign staff on the ground. Like at all. And coincidentally, El0n Musk ran a national PAC that did a paid canvass program in the swing states (that was a garbage program but I’ll sideline that)

guess I should try to highlight the different kinds of campaigns.

501(c)(4) vs 501(c)(3)

OKAY STAY WITH ME HERE lol!!

You’ll hear this tossed around a lot if you work in politics; it’s the IRS filing designations between political candidates, campaigns, PACs, lobbyists VS. nonprofits and “non-political” orgs. basically it means directly campaigning for a candidate/group/issue and non-profit organizing—which is tax exempt, and that’s why this is important. So for instance, in America, a church could run a “get out the vote!” campaign without risking their tax-exempt status, because they aren’t advocating for a candidate or position. If they did, that would be considered a political contribution and they’d have to pay taxes.

Example that is definitely fake and for sure not a mess I had to sort out last spring COUGH— I had to repeatedly tell someone that I couldn’t help them unless they register with [redacted] because I’m a political operative and my time counts as an in-kind campaign contribution unless they go through my bosses.

Like you can’t just do someone a favor, as much as it might not seem like a big deal. Even if I were to write a basic script or help someone get access to, idk, an event space, that’s all going to get me and them in huge trouble with the FEC if they’re not filing properly.

Now I say that, yet republicans pull this bullshit *all the time*. The problem is, the courts are stacked, Citizens United fucked this country so badly we might never recover, and it’s really hard to nail them on this because they always have money for lawyers. But I don’t, so I don’t play about the FEC.

Think of c3 vs c4 as a firewall—we don’t coordinate. (The GOP does but everyone in America decided to turn a blind eye to that I guess)

501(c)(4) political operations:

Cool so let’s talk about what that means, practically speaking:

The DNC (stands for Democratic National Committee or Democratic National Convention) runs most campaigns, followed by candidates’ individual campaigns, then sometimes we see issue-campaigns or movements. In a presidential general election year, everyone comes out to play and we call that “coordinated campaigns”. That means the DNC or Dem state party (they’re synonymous for this context) will coordinate with the candidates and county parties to run one big machine (that’s how it’s supposed to work in theory, almost never that smooth in actuality)

I think what a lot of folks don’t understand is there are DNC campaigns and candidate campaigns. So in Pennsylvania 2024, there was the Democratic statewide campaign, the Harris-Walz campaign, the Bob Casey campaign—etc etc. All running at the same time. Now if the coordinated campaign was working properly (lol it was not) they all would have flowed together into ONE campaign, like tributaries running into a delta. Because you don’t want 5 different groups doing the same thing.

Top of the ticket / all the way down the ticket:

When political people say this, they’re talking about a ballot and all the candidates listed there. In the context of campaigns, they are probably talking about working for all party candidates at once. Like I was explaining above ^ why would we have 5-8 democratic campaigns who are essentially doing the same thing when we could just have one campaign talking about all the Dem candidates?

1. money. Coordinated campaigns are taxed differently than an individual candidates campaign (more, basically)

2. ego. There are a lot of candidates, who shall remain nameless, who think they know more than everyone else so they want to be in charge of their own campaign instead of allowing someone in dc to call shots for the coordinated.

3. competence. Now to immediately play devils advocate to my own point, sometimes they’re right about this! sometimes (almost always) the dnc/d.c./hq is absolute trash or the people they hire suck. I’m going to just ref this quickly but if anyone wants an expanded note on this I’ll do it: the congressional district in Nebraska that ran to the left, in the middle of a very red state. That candidate ran as an independent not a Dem, but this isn’t why (or not the whole reason) he won. He ran his own campaign without working with the dnc and it was absolutely the right move for his district and his brand.

4. But. More often than not, I see a candidate (or their campaign manager) who lets their ego run the show and it doesn’t end well

Presidential vs Senate vs Congressional etc:

Now I think you asked about a Senate campaign—I’ll say really the only difference in campaigns, outside of “coordinated” or not is just scale. Like obviously it’s harder to run a Senate campaign than a city council campaign (unless that city council campaign is in NYC) BUT the overall picture is pretty similar. You still need a campaign manager, good field math, excellent data, comms strategy, a treasurer, and a plan for ground game.

Your budget and fundraising projections will determine how much staff you can hire and the various phases of your field plan (I’ll get into more detail on a campaign simulation later) but your campaign still runs with the same kind of philosophy and method, just on a different scale.

Like on a small scale campaign, the campaign manager might end up wearing 7 different hats, doing strategy and comms and arranging political relationships AND management, whereas on a better funded or bigger campaign, they’re able to delegate better because they can hire more people.

In my experience, a big difference in culture is that you get a lot more true believers on candidates’ campaigns. People apply because they’re there for that person, not the general cause or issue. A little more hero worship, and people who just want to get that specific person into office. There is way more money in coordinated campaigns but I would pick my first candidate campaign over that in a D.C. minute.

(Lowkey if I could quit my current job and go back to working for my first candidate, making about 1/3 of what I do now, I absolutely fucking would {that was probably the last time I had faith in a politician lol})

NY does spending caps and small dollar matching, it’s very cool and the whole country should be doing it:

Outside the DNC:

Now there are also a lot of groups who essentially fall into D-branding or the Dem umbrella but aren’t technically part of the party. PACs like SwingLeft, NextGen, Run For Something, Emily’s List, NARAL, MoveOn, Human Rights Campaign, etc etc I’m not going to list them all because I don’t got time like that. But they will run campaigns exactly like the DNC. Campaign finance laws have been changing a lot in the last 8 years and coordination is getting murkier and murkier and it often depends what state you’re in. So there are some states where these PACs actually can coordinate with the DNC (which, my 2017 brain still gets hung up on that).

Then there are even more groups that do campaigns, but they aren’t the DNC or PACs, strictly speaking. And that would be like, the AFL-CIO, greenpeace, sunrise movement, etc. those campaigns vary a LOT year to year and candidate to candidate.

{If anyone ever has questions about mutual aid / issue advocacy campaigns, lmk, happy to ramble! I won’t get into it here because it’s a bit of a side tangent. But an example that everyone in America should be paying attention to is the stop cop city campaign in Atlanta Georgia. Absolutely horrific consequences for the country and the future of protest movements.}

So. Yeah. Political campaigns are a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States; they’re complex and insane and unfortunately not going anywhere.

Okay now I’m finally going to talk about the inside of a campaign lol 🤪🫠

Different parts/departments of a political campaign:

Field/Organizing. Comms. Data. Digital. Political. Finance. Operations (Ops).

Any of these departments (except Political) you can essentially start entry-level, like fresh out of college or completely new to the industry. Politics runs pretty young, and campaigns ESPECIALLY so. Most campaign staff are under 35. another time I’ll rant about how the dnc loves to snatch up wide-eyed college kids who don’t know how to advocate for themselves and pay them shit wages to do horrible endless work. Part of the reason for the age gap is ^ that, but also campaigns are so fucking grueling that you need the elixir of youth to survive them. You can’t do campaigns endlessly, you just can’t. The burnout is insane. And the turnover rate is very very high.

I know people who started doing paid campaign work while they were still in college, and were managing statewide races about 3 years later.

Now, 12 years ago, campaigns were a rich kids/nepo baby’s game. You didn’t get hired onto a campaign unless your parents were Important People with Connections. Entry level campaign positions often weren’t paid (and if they were, it was minimum wage), so no one could afford to work them unless they had parents helping them or other money. reason for that was of course keeping power consolidated with the elite. and you can imagine how diverse campaign staff was (cough)

plus, if you want to make it as a campaigner, you have to be able to pick up and move a thousand miles with a few days’ notice. you’ll work one campaign for 3-6 months, longer if you’re lucky, then the election, then you have to find a new job and 9 times out of 10, that means moving to another state to start all over again. It means you have to own a car, you have to be able to fit your whole life in said car, and you have to have savings for new apartment deposits or moving costs. Most people can’t afford to live like that.

But things have changed—not fast enough but making progress. Now wages are increasing (slowly) and they have healthcare and caps on working hours.

The first union campaign was in 2018 but wages were secondary to the other massive issue on political campaigns: sexual harassment. You would think that progressive spaces would have less of a problem with that, right? Nope. Sexual harassment was rampant on campaigns (still a huge problem even now tbh). The reason for that is campaigns cross a lot of boundaries: you work insane hours, at weird times, and you have to push yourself to ignore or blur typical social norms, like, you know, working up the nerve to talk to complete strangers about their political views and personal ideology. So there are a lot of late hours in the office, talking about politics and deeply personal issues, and you’re running on empty because the work is exhausting—yeah, shit happens. And bad actors take advantage of these situations.

(Once, with a friend from 2020, I was talking about this and realized campaign working conditions almost perfectly match the conditions necessary for captor bonding and psychological conditioning 🙃)

Anyway! Like I said in that earlier section, each of these departments is determined by the scale of the campaign and how much money you have. On a city council campaign, I worked up a campaign plan that allocated for about 5 staffers—that was for Manhattan, so you’d think there was more money than a typical race but! NYC does have some very cool campaign finance regulation, YAY for that!!! You would not believe how much money gets spent on some of these other cc races. If you were running a cc race for… idk, St. Louis? I’d budget for maybe 3 staffers including your campaign manager, and they will probably mostly be doing organizing work while the CM does everything else (strategy data comms political finance)

The one position you never short is the campaign treasurer. Most states legally require you to have one. But, that isn’t really a full time job thing or even a paid position. A lot of campaigns will just designate someone to keep an eye on the books and make sure the money adds up, but not pay them.

Believe it or not, your candidate will do the bulk of the fundraising. Check out AOC’s page for more on this; she has some great explainers on how much time members of Congress have to spend fundraising. That’s called “call time” or “candidate call time” and sometimes you’ll even have a finance person sit on the candidate to do this because candidates fucking hate it. And I get it, cold calling people for money sucks, but people are way more likely to write a check if the candidate themself calls. And I don’t work with candidates who won’t. I don’t have a lot of black and white rules, but one is I do not work with candidates who won’t fundraise their own race and won’t knock doors. Hell no. Because if you won’t put in the real work, why the fuck should I?

For a Senate race, you’re going to have more money (or you fucking better lol) so you’re probably looking at… it really does depend how big the state/race is, but I’d say somewhere from 12-20. Maybe more! Covid changed campaigns a lot too, and hiring has been a nightmare since 2020. And for a Senate campaign, you *should* have at least one person staffing each of the departments I mentioned.

Just a very very vague simulation of what your staffing timeline could look like—obviously I would be more specific for a certain state or candidate, but as an example:

{timeline for hiring staff and campaign phases}

For a statewide (senate, gubernatorial) or a high-profile congressional, I would have:

campaign manager hired 9 months out min

senior staff hired 6 months out min, depending on budget and campaign needs

other staffers, entry level and otherwise, hired 3 months out

if the campaign just doesn’t have the money, you can adjust all these maybe 6 weeks, and possibly get away with cutting other staffers or hiring organizers only for the final four weeks

Field/organizing will always be your biggest department, because you need to hire enough organizers to cover whatever your district is, how many people can feasibly knock/call/text/etc all your constituents. Hopefully you’ll get volunteers, but your staff is going to do the biggest piece of it.

Now my advice is to *never hire fucking consultants because they are evil*. Snake oil salesmen. Sorry but true! And I can say that because while that isn’t technically my job title, it’s closer than I would like (🥲😩) Also consider that Shiv Roy is a political consultant. So.

But republicans always hire consultants for their campaigns, so if you’re writing a GOP campaign, you’ll need to write them in.

Also, if you can afford it, a lawyer can be a good move, sometimes. Like if the candidate doesn’t have a law background and they haven’t worked with consultants or advisors or any other group who might have a lawyer on retainer… they either need to double check some things with a lawyer to make sure they’re kosher, or get a campaign manager who will do a crash course in FEC regulation and campaign legal guidelines online (me early on working for candidates who had no money lol)

So if candidates run afoul of campaign finance law, it isn’t always the end of the world, because people make mistakes just by not knowing the law—but you never want to be in that position if you can avoid it.

Campaign structure:

Basically how campaigns start is top down: you need to sit down and figure out the big picture stuff and strategy, then you can start hiring people and doing things. A lot of first-time candidates will work with advising firms or consultants to figure themselves out. Sometimes other groups (Emily’s list and run for something dabble in this, but lots of others) work in communities to identify good potential candidates, then they’ll help them get off the ground. It might be the candidate and campaign manager rolling by themselves for a few months until they can afford more staffers. Your campaign manager is, obviously, your most important hiring decision. Not only do they need to be competent and skilled in a huge variety of work, but they need to be a cultural match with the candidate. If they’re not, it doesn’t work. They don’t have to line up on every single ideological or political issue, BUT they do have to speak the same language. That’s something I tried to get to come through in anointed, the difference between someone like Aiden and Paul in how they relate to Mencken. Paul doesn’t give a shit about Mencken’s policies but he knows this work and he wants a Rep, any Rep, in the White House. (And I also wrote it this way because a classic party leadership move is forcing one of their own people into a candidate’s campaign after they get through the primaries and win the nom, and at that point, for a POTUS campaign at least, the simpatico thing isn’t as important because the campaign manager becomes way more about bureaucracy and task management than shaping policy) So he and Mencken don’t mesh very well and Mencken doesn’t trust him, but it doesn’t sink the campaign because of Aiden. Aiden is a true believer type—he might not have stuck around in politics if he and Mencken hadn’t built this relationship. And he’s great at his job because he gets Mencken and he’s down with the fashy shit.

A candidate does need an Aiden-type, someone who really truly believes in them, that the candidate feels like they can trust. You see chaos when candidates don’t trust their own staff or they pull too many cooks into the kitchen. There’s a good book (“Shattered”) about what went wrong with the 2016 Clinton campaign (what didn’t go wrong, damn) and a huge problem she’s always had is she doesn’t trust a lot of people and those she does trust, she listens to blindly and those people set themselves up as gatekeepers with no accountability. A whole ass mess.

If you want more detail on day in the life type stuff for a campaign, I can get into it, but it varies so much based on state and office. Basically it’s like… you work all day with little or no breaks, you put out fires constantly, everyone’s stressed, and you find yourself locking yourself in a hall closet screaming “why didn’t they do this a month ago!” Oh also there’s this thing called “floor time”—which is so fun once you get brainwashed enough. Basically it’s like, when you get overstimulated, you shut down your laptop and lay down on the floor for a while until you feel better. (I had Mencken do it on the plane in ‘a precinct short’)

🤠

Sample daily schedule:

8am start time for CM and senior staff, morning checkin call

10am start time for daily checkin call (usually per department)

***there are usually 1-2 all-staff meetings per week, with everyone from the campaign manager down to field organizers and interns

CM and senior staff would have a variety of meetings and calls, depends on campaign’s specific affiliations and political network

Meanwhile, other staffers settle in to the days work, after their department level meetings where the dept head assigns work or updates—if there’s breaking news or a special event (a rally, a debate night), all previous work gets sidelined in favor of that. Sometimes those events happen really quickly with no notice, like you get a call from HQ and they say “hey Candidate is going to be there in 3 days, put a rally together”

Field organizers do call time (not fundraising, canvassing calls to voters/constituents) or door knocking after 3/4pm. The closer it gets the election, the more contact they’ll do. So if it’s 6 months out, they might do it every other day or twice a week, but once you’re in the final 90 or 60 days, that gets moved up to every day.

Per US law, campaigns are not allowed to contact people before 9am or after 9pm.

Then there’s a nightly checkout call per department, probably at 7 or 9pm, depending on how close it is to election day (hours increase)

In other departments outside of the field/organizing, hours are much closer to a typical 9-5. BUT they will work as needed, on weekends late at night whatever, and their workload also increases exponentially the closer it is to election day. Pro and cons to working in these departments: you’re supposed to get better hours and you do get better pay. But your schedule is abused a lot more because they don’t have as strict hours and cutoffs as the field organizers. Like digital staff will get pulled on a moments notice and be expected to just work until Item X is done if there’s breaking news. Political dept staffers work just all the time, because there’s an unspoken expectation that you constantly network and go to events to gladhand in your “free time”.

Okay… wow. Not me writing a thesis on this damn 🫠

I think that’s pretty good general overview of how campaigns work, but if you’ve got more questions, go for it, I can always add more sections.

Hope you enjoyed this Proust-length novel about campaign world!

[maddyshome]

Heeeey the biggest hater (me) is back. By no one’s demand (it was actually a person but I like being dramatic). This one is for you @merlinssassybeard​ and all Gojo Satoru fangirls. I’m here to make your dreams or nightmares come true. 

That’s right. I’m INVALIDATING or VALIDATING your headcanons with the help of my own cursed technique: astrology. Let’s start.

(for references here is this mf’s natal chart im including aspects this time cuz i dont wanna post the same img again. i have no time of birth for him and at this point i dont wanna think so if any of you have a suggestion i’m open for it)

Damn...it’s ugly, right?

First things first. Gojo’s Venus is in Capricorn. His way of loving (venus) someone is much more mature than we might think. Combined with his Pisces Moon, it seems clear to me that he is not at all the type to have a different person in his bed every single night. In fact, hookups don’t seem his thing at all. If he does indulge, he is probably left unsatisfied with the encounter.

Gojo, like it or not, might need an emotional connection first. People that don’t arouse his feelings don’t really have a big impact so if he does hookups he is 100% going to forget about that partner.

His capricorn venus makes him kind of emotionally constipated. He needs an emotional connection, but he fails at expressing his own emotions. In fact this is very common with Pisces Moons, they live in a haze, they feel too many things at once until they don’t know what they feel. It’s better if his partner makes the first step. 

Normally a Cap Venus would like a mature, secure, calm and collected type of person. They are attracted to older partners. In this case I wouldn’t really say this is 100% correct. That’s because he has Scorpio Juno, Mars and Pisces Moon. Unless the capricorn partner has plenty of water in their personal planets it ain’t really gonna work. (Kinda see that with Geto) His Venus is mostly unaspected. Just two sextiles with Moon and Mars so that’s where we should look. Venus itself brings our attention to his Moon and Mars.

He has a trine between moon and mars so his emotional needs (moon) influence his sexual ones (mars). His scorpio mars conjunct scorpio pluto undoubtedly makes him prefer being the dominant partner. I don’t think that’s a surprise to literally anyone. Especially to all of you who read my last post lol. His scorpio juno tells me he likes passionate and deep people. Juno is the asteroid for marriage and commitment so his future spouse/lover should be a deep thinker.

Overall his ideal partner is simply someone that is a much better person than him (because he fucking SUCKSSS) So that would be someone that is spiritual, empathic, compassionate, caring. Someone that could make it safe for him to open up and express his own moon, his own emotional needs (that is struggling to SURVIVE). 

This is the better outcome. The worst outcome is him still being a egocentric bastard that will never move on from Geto’s betrayal, will never open up to other people and will always remain an emotionally constipated garbage that thinks no one has it worse than him. So that would mean a doormat partner will suit him well enough.