#viewers had fun

[tenrose]

Remember when tv shows seasons were so long, the writers were allowed to not only slowly build the plot and characters but they also had fun by making musicals episodes, Christmas specials, Halloween episodes and generally just some random episodes that did not make the plot advance but were amusing to watch?

[mars-ipan]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE VERY SPECIAL HAJIME HINATA !!!!!! new year's kisses for the birthday boy :)

[dogearedfriends]

they're trekking for real (EDIT: made the damn comic, you can see it here!)

[perhapspen]

it's nearly 2025. tommyinnit is a bicurious comedian podcaster and somehow actually funny again. coy piso is getting ever closer to announcing that he's moving to new york. mumbo jumbo is uploading new hermitcraft videos that simply ooze joy and excitement 3 times a week. and somehow i'm watching all of them enjoying myself like it's covid era again

[heartorbit]

a mob of emus for an artstyle game on twt! ^_^

[scarymonsters-andsupercreeps]

My entry for @scary-monsters’s DTIYS! 💕 congratulations on the milestone :D

[reineydraws]

we're allowed to post our pieces from the @opspacezine today! ✨️🌌🚀 here's mine :) it's the romance dawn trio (except zoro's not facing the front, sorry man 🙏) looking at the east blue on the map of the grand line. luffy's poking at where he's from haha.

hope yall have an amazing new year! and that 2025 is 🚀✨️🪐 out of this world 🛸✨️☄️

[marlynnofmany]

Small-Scale Comedy

A lot of the time when our little courier ship makes deliveries to alien planets, the captain will send someone of the customer’s species for the hand-off. It puts them at ease to see a familiar face and all that. Usually. Other times, the customer is of a notoriously egotistical species, likely to feel affronted if the delivery person has a shinier exoskeleton than they do.

Guess which today was.

“Good greetings,” Mur said, looking up at the insectlike bundle of limbs that loomed over him. Our customer for today was colored in white and the palest pinks, edging into more vivid red at the ends of her legs, and the blades of her pincher arms. She looked like a murderous flower.

And while we had two perfectly eligible Mesmers back on the ship, one of whom I’d accompanied on similar deliveries before, Captain Sunlight had decided to send in two of the squishiest crewmates instead.

Mur lifted the package with half of his tentacles, using the rest to hold himself up at a respectable height. I stood behind him with the payment tablet. I tried to stand very still.

Instead of grabbing the box or offering to pay, the customer called imperiously for someone to come open it for her. We were indoors, in what I’d thought was an empty room aside from all the tables molded from the same brown clay as the walls, and the copious amounts of junk on them. (Buildings here were made of the classiest mud I’d seen in a while, with burnished tabletops and patterned walls. But the mess of scientific equipment and photography supplies was much less classy.)

One of the locals scurried out from one of the many holes in the wall that I’d honestly thought were decoration, but now that I thought about it, there had been a balcony at about that height outside. No need for elaborate doorways when you’re shaped like a centipede.

Yeah, our customer was a large bug person spending time among smaller bug people. This was a comparison that was probably only amusing to me, so I kept it to myself. I’m getting good at that.

The centiperson — no idea what they’re actually called — scuttled over and took the box from Mur. This looked like a risky operation to me, and I had my hands out to catch it just in case the leg-sized whatever toppled over backward, but everything went fine. Their many top legs clung to the box while that long body curled into an S, and their bottom legs skittered over to set the box on a table. Then the centiperson manipulated the combination lock with some very skilled little leggies, and opened the box.

The Mesmer swooped in to pull out a sheet of what looked like tiny stickers, muttering and inspecting it for flaws. When I was starting to wonder if Mur or I should remind her that she still needed to pay for the delivery, she handed it off to the centiperson, whose many legs handled it with more dexterity than her little wrist fingers could. Mesmer pincher arms are excellent at doing damage, but not great for detail work.

“Right, yes, money,” she said, turning back toward us. “Put those on the three in the test chamber!” That part was for her assistant, who was already climbing up onto a table full of terarriums and lightboxes. “Tell me they’re doing better!”

I held out the payment tablet. She grabbed it with a pincher and typed in her information, making me glad for the thick rubber casing on the edges. We could have used a metal case for it, but Zhee had demonstrated how easy those were to dent by crushing one with his own pinchers. It had turned out like a work of art.

“They are healthy,” reported the small voice of the centiperson. “I have applied the cameras.”

“And?” demanded the Mesmer, striding over without giving the tablet back. “Show me!” She peered down into a white-sided box that currently had a lot of lights aimed at it.

Before I could ask, something happened in the box to make the Mesmer exclaim in frustration and lift the tablet skyward. Mur made a noise, worried just like I was that she was about to smash it.

But instead she just stalked back over and thrust it into my hands. “Here. Either of you know much about animals?”

I, with my veterinarian training, had to answer, “Yes.” Mur was pointing at me with multiple tentacles.

“Good. Tell me what is wrong with these animals.”

I found myself ushered over none too gently, while the centiperson moved aside and the Mesmer spoke at length about the videography work she had come here to do.

“The final thing I need is a point-of-view recording from one of these, and I have acquired the absolute smallest of camera tabs, and I am starting to worry that the local population is diseased.”

“Why?” I asked uneasily. The white box held three tiny whatevers, each smaller than my last finger joint, as brown as the walls. They had froglike hopping legs, though none seemed interested in going anywhere. Their faces were pointed like bird beaks, and an itty-bitty camera tab sat on each head like a tiny hat.

“Their jumping is impaired,” the Mesmer said from above me. I made a mental note not to turn around quickly. “And I know that it’s not the cameras throwing them off; those have the molecular weight of smoke. I’m more concerned that something is wrong with all of the creatures here. None of the ones we’ve caught can land on their feet.”

To demonstrate, she stuck a pincher blade into the box, which made the three not-frogs scatter.

Wow, she’s not kidding, I thought as they landed on everything but their feet. They scrambled upright quickly enough, but that was some spectacular tiny pratfalls.

From right next to me, Mur asked, “Is there a disease that causes that?” He’d climbed onto the table himself, and was watching with interest.

“It’s possible,” I said. The centiperson was observing in silence, and I asked, “Are they always like this?”

“Yes.” The answer came quickly, in a flat voice that suggested this conversation had happened before.

The Mesmer waved a pincher arm, folded this time. “The entire population may be suffering from something, either a creeping illness or a low-level poison.”

“It could be,” I said slowly, watching the centiperson turn their head toward the ceiling in what looked an awful lot like exasperation. “Or these animals could be built like a small animal on my planet, with a similar problem.”

I had all their attention now.

“What problem?” demanded the Mesmer.

“Their inner ear is too small to work properly,” I said, gesturing toward the side of my own head. “The part that senses which direction gravity is pulling. It has fluid that needs to slosh around, but the channel isn’t big enough to do it.”

There was silence for a heartbeat, then Mur said “Wow,” and the Mesmer said, “WHAT?”

The centiperson just said, “That makes sense.”

“An entire species can be like that??” exclaimed the Mesmer, stepping back to where she could gesture without hitting anything.

“We did tell you,” said the centiperson.

“I thought it was toxins!”

The centiperson looked at me. “The common name for them is ‘headhoppers.’”

“I thought they had a habit of jumping onto people’s heads!”

Not replying to that, the centiperson produced a little hand net from the far side of the table, and deftly scooped up the tiny not-frogs. They really were about the size of Pumpkin Toadlets, just not bright orange, or fully frog-shaped. Once these had their tiny camera-hats removed, they tumbled willingly into a terrarium full of plants.

“Well,” Mur said, “That’s interesting.” He hopped to the floor with a splat.

The Mesmer was complaining to the world at large that fate was cruel and she’d never get the recording she wanted.

I looked to the local. “Are there any similar animals that are a little bigger?”

“YES.”

“Did you already tell her that?”

“Also yes.”

The Mesmer whined, “They’re nocturnal.”

“Flashlights exist.”

I stepped away from the table, careful to bring the tablet with me. “I’m pretty sure you can come up with a workaround. You should listen to your local expert here; sounds like there’s a wealth of information ready and waiting.”

The centiperson spread many legs and looked skyward, which looked grateful to me. The Mesmer grumbled but didn’t say no.

Already halfway out the door, Mur said, “Good luck with everything!”

I echoed the sentiment and followed him with a wave. The centiperson waved back: a rolling motion along one side that looked especially jaunty. The Mesmer’s arm motion was more of an “Ah, whatever,” but I’d take it.

“So tell me more,” Mur said as we walked back to the ship. “The tiny animals on your planet land on their faces every time? How are they still alive?”

“Well, they’re too small to really get hurt by it,” I said with a shrug. “And I’ve heard it said that any predator is probably laughing too hard to eat them.”

“Yup, that’s definitely it. Your planet sounds hilarious. I’d love to visit someday.”

“You should!” I said. “It’s a great place. Though you know what other animal jumps like that? Fleas.”

“What’s fleas?”

“Oh, let me tell you about fleas.”

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

[viatrix-glow]

happy valentine’s day @chocokayke !! i got to draw for you for the @valensemblestars gift exchange, i hope you’ll like it! ๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑

[kiro-sveta]

Wanted to draw something nice for @sloaners, so here's some happy KakaObi!

[the-knight-of-destiny]

On Fantasy High, Redemption, and Agency (General Spoilers for Junior Year, sort of?) Also this post about FHJY is long as fuck, as all of mine are getting. In short it's my understanding of how Brennan Lee Mulligan sets up the teenage villains of Fantasy High.

Fair warning, this is LOOOONG below the cut.

Y'know when I said I wasn't going to talk about Ratgrinder discourse? I lied.

So Brennan as a DM has a very specific narrative language for how a villain is 'redeemable' and it primarily has to do with the level of agency a villain has in their actions. This isn't particularly hard to notice when you look at our very own (and fan favorite) reformed villain squad.

Starting with Ragh, while he was in his right mind for most of his villainy in Freshman Year, he really didn't do too much other than beat people up and be a bully? While he worked with Daybreak on some level, he wasn't anything more than muscle and not very in on most of the plans. There was also some implication of grooming and manipulation from Daybreak to Ragh.

Zayn as an example also helps build this thesis, while he also hasn't done a TON evil he's generally a bit more discerning than Ragh. However he builds the understanding of how Fantasy High looks at it's redeemed teenage villains, when Zayn is found as a ghost he explicitly calls out Daybreak as being the only reason he's still housed, were he not to go along with the Freshman Year scheme he'd have been sent back to his abusive parents, the foster system, or homeless as like, a fifteen year old boy.

But the actual silver bullet to understanding this is Aelwyn, to preface. Aelwyn fucking sucks in freshman year, way worse than Ragh or Zayn. She's also responsible for way worse than any other teenage villain in the series. She's arguably committed worse than Dayne Blayde or Penelope Everpetal, but there's an important component to her redemption in Sophmore Year, something Brennan has her stay conscious despite making death saves to explain.

In tears Aelwyn notes that Kalina was actively threatening to kill her had she not complied with the Kalvaxus plan.

So there's a running theme here, Ragh didn't seem to have much of an idea of what the wider plan even was and was just muscle, Zayn was under significant threat to his personal safety (and unbeknownst to him, also under threat of death, a threat that actually gets carried out), and Aelwyn was literally convinced she'd be murdered for not complying.

This tracks with the teen villains who DON'T get redeemed by the way, Dayne had no qualms about casually murdering his classmates with a great sword, Penelope didn't seem to mind the idea of throwing her best friend Kalvaxus for a power play. They both get killed because they don't seem to really care what happened, were fully complicit, and had no form of remorse at all.

This leaves us with our code to cracking if Brennan sees the Ratgrinders as possibly worthy of redemption (IMO, signs point to yes, but it's complicated.) We know the Ratgrinders are being manipulated heavily by Porter (I have so many more thoughts about Jace's place in this but that's for a whole other post,) however they don't have Ragh's excuse of being mostly in the dark.

Kipperlilly and Oisin for sure know exactly what's going on, and the rest (sans Buddy) probably do too. The actual question is how much does Ankarna rage affect one's reasoning, and the thing that's interesting about how the Ratgrinders have been set up is that question is sincerely ambiguous.

Signs point to the corruption needing some sort of genuine anger or frustration to latch onto, but this is my first hot take here. This isn't really that damning? Pre-Rage Kipperlilly said some concerning things, in private confidential counseling. She (at the time) understood her fixation on Riz was a problem and perhaps not fair. Oisin probably was mildly frustrated or saddened a girl he had a crush on didn't notice him, but to cast Pre-Rage Oisin as a full on Biz Glitterdew incel is, in my opinion, unlikely. Ruben was already seeking attention but wasn't anything worse than a mildly annoying teenage boy, etc.

These aren't exactly 'good' feelings but they are pretty normal for 14-15 year olds. Pre-Rage Ratgrinders really aren't that much worse than Pre-Character Development Bad Kids, let's not forget that they too definitely act out in really mean, unfair ways at around the same time as Pre-Rage Ratgrinders (Fig and Fabian, most notably.)

As for agency though, they clearly have a bit more of it than previous teenage villains, and are a bit more aware of their actions. They're not under direct threat of violence like Aelwyn or Zayn (though the way Porter and Jace act around them may make that threat implicit.) and they don't have Ragh's excuse of being seemingly largely in the dark.

The Ratgrinders I feel are an intentional test for the Bad Kids (and the Intrepid Heroes as players) because they're significantly more antagonistic than previous teenage villains. Heck, even ones that turned out totally evil. Dayne's kinda chill to the Bad Kids initially, Penelope is a bit backhanded but she isn't outright mean. If you count him, even Johnny Spells humors Riz and is relatively lax to him. Ragh's honestly way more harsh for most of the first half of Freshman Year, Zayn's initially more rude and confrontational to them too.

That said they're both being influenced by a much worse adult (Like everyone in the Reformed Villain Squad) and have a rage god clouding their judgement to an unknown degree. If we follow previously established patterns, they're salvageable by the story's own logic.

The test is for the party, it's easy to forgive Zayn when he openly cries and apologizes immediately when finally confronted about his place in the villain plot, it's easier to forgive Aelwyn when she openly puts herself in harm's way and almost dies to save Adaine.

It's going to be harder, emotionally, for both the player characters and the players themselves to forgive the Ratgrinders and recognize they're also victims in some sense when the Ratgrinders have been actively fucking with the Bad Kids for the whole season, and taking an obvious amount of satisfaction in it.

The challenge Brennan has set up for the party, I feel, is a test of their character. Fighting a possibly ascended god Porter is gonna be a lot easier without a whole other party of enemies in the fight (and even much easier if you can convince some to fight alongside you as a part of heroes.)

[calciumisgood]

mullet stan doodles (without reference so ignore any inconsistencies lol)

[mars-ipan]

be honest everyone. am i cooked

like my art? commission me on ko-fi!

[softquietsteadylove]

Hello love how are you?

I miss the actors au, so i have a promt for you if thats okay.

Thena and Gil are casted in an action/romance movie where their characters have a lot of tension and have to flirt a lot, so their tension in real life gets real high and they kinda start flitring with the other but they are just "friends".

As always thank you for your works 🩷🤍

"You ready?" he asked her, his weapon in hand.

She gave him a look over her shoulder, raising a finely plucked eyebrow. "Are you going to ask me that every time?"

He gave her look right back to her, though, both of them grinning at the exchange. "Well, I believe in words of assurance. Doesn't that help set the mood or something?"

She tested the doorknob, preparing to charge in with him. "Are you asking me as your partner or as a woman?"

He pressed his back to the wall with her. He wasn't nearly as entertained by it as she was. "I'm asking if you're sure about this."

She was surprised by his sudden hesitance. "You think we aren't there yet?"

"I mean dinner is one thing, but taking down this whole compound just us?"

"I knew you had commitment issues."

"You think everyone has commitment issues."

She rolled her eyes at him. "If you can't do this, then fine, I'll take care of it myself-"

He stopped her from going in alone, his hand holding hers back. He moved closer, even, his arm around her and his face nose to nose with hers. "You'll never have to take care of anything alone so long as I'm here. Whether you think we're there or not."

The clip faded out and the audience applauded obligingly. Some was politely directed by the teleprompters and some was genuine enthusiasm. The movie did seem fun and light, with well paced action, based on the snippet presented.

Gil and Thena laughed at the scene chosen, as if they hadn't already seen it countless times during their press tour.

"That was a clip from your latest--I'm already excited," the host of the show exclaimed, leaning back in her chair. "I feel like we haven't seen you guys take on anything this light in a while."

Gil and Thena shared a look. It was always funny for them to do press and receive notes on how their careers were going. Whether they were working on something together or apart, they were spending almost all their time together anyway.

"Well, Thena had her more serious biopic, which swept awards season," Gilgamesh began, openly inviting the audience to shower her with adulation. He clapped as well, chuckling as she ducked her head and played with her hair in a moment of shyness.

"You see why I can't do press with him all the time? I can't take it," she laughed in good nature, spreading her time between the host and the audience. "He's too much."

"It's so sweet how close you are, though," the host beamed, dancing the line between innocent commentary and probing at something more. "I feel like it's not always the case."

"We are lucky," Thena agreed, looking at Gil again with a full smile. Her makeup done for the show made her seem to glow under the lights, from the blush in her cheeks to the colour on her lips. "I can't imagine how insufferable it would be if I didn't like him."

"Well, it'd be pretty hard, if that clip was anything to go by!"

She was somewhat luring them into something--saying something, admitting something.

"Is it hard to get into a character like the ones in this film, or do you find it easier because you already get along so well?"

Thena met the eyes of their host. She was good at her job; the audience was ooh-ing and ah-ing at all the right times. She kept her smile even, though, resting her cheek in her hand. "Well, movies like this one often focus more on the action and the humour than the characters. But we're lucky our writers actually have quite a fun story buried within the scenes."

"It was nice to be able to really play around with the characters and how they interacted and that would, in turn, influence how we played a scene or how we would allude to something that would come into play further down the line," Gilgamesh answered. It was a very practised, media coach approved answer. It really didn't say all that much, but it sounded like he was saying a lot.

"Now, just tell me," the hostess got a devious smirk on her face. "Are you flirting like that the whole movie?"

Thena resisted the urge to roll her eyes, much like her character for the summer blockbuster. "Would you call that flirting?"

Gil laughed beside her, their eyes drawn together and away from the third party on stage with them. "I think that's just how they talk to each other."

"It's natural for them," Thena joined in his laughter. "They get up, go to work, see each other in the elevator-"

"She says 'fuck you', he says 'how hard'?" Gilgamesh joked, which had both he and Thena laughing, as well as the audience in stitches. He made a sheepish face to the camera, "sorry, sorry, forgot you'll have to bleep that."

Thena shrugged one shoulder, "it's not rated R, we can have one truly good profanity."

"Yeah, and you got it," he pointed out, recalling the exact scene in which her character gets the privilege of saying the coveted once-per-movie-F-bomb. "It's a big one, too."

She gave him a look before purring, "not as big as you, baby."

The audience laughed again. Gil and Thena both leaned in their seats, losing themselves in the mirth of it all. The hostess was banging on the table.

She wiped a tear from her eye, picking up her coffee mug only to tip it upside down. "It's okay, there's no coffee in here."

The audience continued to laugh.

"How did you even get any work done like this?"

"Is it really work if you do what you love?" Gilgamesh chuckled, trying to calm his laughter and appear at least somewhat professional. He tugged at the lapel of his suit jacket, although he didn't button it closed. He looked at Thena again. "Wouldn't you agree?"

She made a face; Sprite got her mischievous side from Thena, but neither would ever admit it. "I think they do each other all the time, yes."

The audience roared with laughter again. Thena attempted to hide her completely open laughter with a hand in front of her mouth. Under the cover of it, she whispered to him, "sorry, but that one was too good to pass up."

"Takes one to know one," he whispered back to her.

"Okay, okay, okay," the hostess held her hand up, signalling the audience to cool it and drawing her guests' attentions back to her. "Cool it, kids--leave some room for jesus, 'kay?"

Thena and Gil both chuckled, but they had indeed gravitated closer and closer through the course of their banter. Their thighs were touching.

"Thena," the two women traded grins and raised eyebrows. "First, I have to know where you get your eyebrows done, because you're putting me to shame."

She was funny, Thena conceded. She liked her delivery and her genuine charisma. "It's all my stylist team, I assure you."

"Second," she held up a finger. "Did you write your own dialogue for this movie or what?--you're killin' me, here. You know how hard it is to get your own network show? I'm supposed to be the funny one."

The audience applauded again, the energy in the room still high.

Gil joined in. "She's always been funny--I keep telling people."

"No one believes you," she shook her head at him. They were ignoring their host again and getting lost in the fun of trading little jokes. She toyed with some of her hair, winding it around her finger.

He shook his head, capturing the lock of hair for himself. "That's what happens when you're pretty and talented, people think the rest of your resume is fake."

"Is there anything you can't do?" the host asked, partly for the info and partly so as not to let her own show get away from her again.

"Plenty," Thena looked back at her again, although it had to be said that Gilgamesh was still toying with her hair. "Cooking is top of the list."

"That's okay," the host jumped on the opportunity to bring up more inside info. "I hear he's a master chef all his own."

"It's true."

"It is not."

"It most certainly is," Thena cut him off, tipping her head in his direction again. He tossed her hair over her shoulder but she didn't let it distract her. "He's an amazing home cook."

The host pouted, leaning her chin into her palm with her elbow on top of her desk. "I'm jealous."

Thena nodded at her. "We had a break during filming, while we were changing location and our crew was doing the real heavy lifting work. And the day we were back on set, Gilgamesh brought everyone a little bundle of cookies he had made."

"For everyone?!"

Thena nodded again, confirming the other woman's shock. "He baked at least three hundred cookies so he could give them to everyone in the cast and crew. They were in cute little bundles, tied with ribbon and everything."

"Okay," Gil huffed, blushing modestly.

"Look," Thena pointed at the screen, where the showrunners were pulling up a picture taken and posted on social media. "Isn't it cute?"

The hostess dropped her jaw in the audiences direction. They were being well fed this segment. "Okay, I didn't think there was anything you couldn't do, but now it's him too?!"

Thena raised both her brows at him and crossed her arms with a smirk. "No, there is absolutely nothing he cannot do."

He rolled his eyes, still playing up his bashfulness. He raised his arm up onto the back of the couch, somewhat around Thena's shoulders. His fingers toyed with the fluttery sleeve of her dress. "Except get you to stop, apparently."

"Okay," the hostess tapped the desk, signalling the closing of their time. She turned to the frontmost camera while the other two turned to cover her other angles. "We are gonna take a quick break, and when we come back, the lovebirds here will have some insider info on release dates and we'll even have some questions from our viewers!"

The cameras pulled out and the band played until sound was done rolling. Gil and Thena waved to the audience, as well as the 'audience' at home through the cameras.

"That was amazing, you guys are nailing it," their hostess addressed them openly as her team came scurrying in to retouch her hair and makeup in their brief commercial spot. "Keep up the fun, flirty vibes when we come back, okay?"

Gil and Thena looked at each other. The hostess was further engulfed in assistants and scrip producers and coffee gophers swarming her for their brief five minute window to do their jobs.

"Flirting?" Thena voiced aloud, to which Gil also shrugged. "I wouldn't call it that."

"No," he scoffed in agreement with her. "We're just making friendly conversation. And you're totally killing the audience--just admit you're funny."

She scoffed at him this time, her arms still crossed, him still playing with the sleeve of her dress. "I admit nothing. If anything, you are bringing it out in me. And she's quite humorous."

Gil just chuckled, adjusting himself to fully sit sideways on the couch, since this was the position he would be in for the rest of the interview anyway. He abandoned the dress sleeve and found her stray curl of blonde to play with again. "You're funnier."

And they said they weren't flirting.

[garden-gno-thanks]

Stilt Man feels the inexorable march of time

[akkivee]

Imagine if Kuukou did become a vtuber. We all know Ichiro would be a fan of vtubers. One day, Ichiro is looking around looking for a vtuber to watch, and he finds one who seems familiar? He clicks on it to hear Kuukou's voice and how Kuukou is trying to convince people to donate to him so he can create the metaverse temple. Of course, after that, Ichiro becomes his number one supporter (and some anonymous person who might or might not be Hitoya)

lol kuukou’s vtuber experience trying to get his metaverse hub world up and running will probably go like

‘chat, imma be real with y’all, i don’t know what the hell i’m supposed to do with this’