#which is something that i love abt him so much. his fanbase is so so tight knit

[comas-are-for-sleeping]

literally Cannot stop thinking about how all the musicians i love for their rlly raw political music that hits just right and yet now (and tbh realizing always) theyre silent on everything going on rn? like i thought they actually stood for something bc their music does Not tip toe around shit but here we are??? and nothing??? maybe im not paying attention but like. dude.

and they cant even make the “oh but itll ruin my career” because they built themselves on saying theyd say what they believed in whether or not it fucked with their popularity or their ability to make money. like these artists made me give hope in artists creating art for art’s sake, but also to spread really important messages. and yet

[reel-fear]

Genuinely so curious who Mike thinks is gonna be buying The Cage or the new DCTL GN bc with the way he tweets as far as he's concerned, it's not gonna be:

The queer people he has actively admitted he will never show any representation of in the games.

2. The POC he has actively fought against representing in his franchise. [Who he also mocked for thinking they would be represented in his franchise]

3. The Bendy fandom which has always been concerned with topics of diversity esp in the sense of queer people since its creation. Who he has responded to really poorly esp in regards to the GN.

4. The fans who critique him. [He blocked me for doing so lol]

5. His fans in general who he tweets about like this currently. [He's being vague about why people were mad at him or sent him 'nasty messages' because if you actually looked into why you'd see he was in the wrong. Either way, a very hateful way to speak abt ur own fanbase.]

Reminder while Mike is trash talking his fans he has always treated them rather poorly. The fans who won the fanart contest for Chapter 5 never got their posters actually in game due to it being rushed. Not only was chapter 5 a big slap to the face story wise, but it was literally so rushed he couldn't be bothered to add in the art his fans gave him for his game FOR FREE. [Meatly blames this on a crazy timeline, reminder him and Mike are the literal ceos of this company. The proposal of future updates here is also pretty cruel considering Mike nowadays happily admits he corrupted Chapter 5's source code and therefore literally can't update it At All currently. Because he is a moron]

At least they got to be in Boris and the dark survival, and by that I mean that was the Only game they got to be in so far, isn't that just treating your fans like you love them? Shoving their hard work into a spin off game almost nobody has played or addresses much. [Hell, who knows if with the Lone Wolf rebrand they'll even stay there. In which case they'll be in None of the games, only in the credits of BATIM]

6. The Bendy fans who just generally disagree with him on stuff. Like the new ink demon design where there is literally a public poll showing people generally prefer the old one.

7. The Bendy fans who can see he is actively lying to them. To their fucking faces.

He says this has always been the case, but screenshots and links to tweets regarding the books being canon prove it was not. Does he really think bendy fans are stupid or something? [Unless he's admitting here he lied to Kress when he told her the books were canon which sounds worse!]

8. Anyone who doesn't like the idea of giving money to a guy who laid off tons of employees then afterwards thought it was a great idea to express his anti-union views! Also brag about how good of an employer he was, according to his employees, he was not!

So in summary; Mike is an awful person who has not learned anything from the awful things he did. I will not be purchasing The Cage because, combined with this and his absolute refusal to take any kind of critique or see any differing interpretation of his franchise, I have no reason to think my problems with the franchise will ever be addressed or fixed. I probably will pirate The Cage along with any future Bendy Products [Including the movie] and will do my best to avoid giving it any kind of monetary support. Unless this changes any time soon, I can't see myself making anymore positive Bendy posts soon.

Mike has just managed to make it so hard to speak positively or optimistically of this franchise when he's so willing to broadcast how little he cares about it or its fans. I'm at the point where I refuse to pull any of my punches with my problems with it. What's the point of trying to play nice with my critique when either way the people creating it don't care?

So with this post, I want to invite anyone who feels similarly about the franchise to tell me, make a post or send an ask talking about how all of this makes you feel. It may not change how things are, but genuinely seeing other people share my feelings of anger makes me feel better. It feels nice to see when other people share our same concerns and worries. I'd also love to know if anyone else thinks they'll be avoiding purchasing Bendy products over this.

I'm not forcing anyone to participate in it nor trying to say anyone who doesn't supports mike but genuinely maybe if we can collectively decide to boycott things like the movie, graphic novel and The Cage... It might at least make the bendy devs acknowledge how much they have destroyed their own fandom's faith and trust in them.

The way Mike tweets about his actions like he had no control over why people were mad at him at least proves to me he takes NONE of it back nor regrets it. If you didn't know about his actions and only went off his tweets, you would be led to believe Mike has been needlessly picked apart by fans over things he couldn't control [or in his own words, had his words twisted and taken out of context]. That is not how you speak about your actions if you have actually learned better from them.

anyway, that has been my bendy dev callout post. This is an open invitation to anyone feeling similarly upset about the way the franchise is going to talk about it. It's genuinely nice to see how people feel about this and the more we talk about the more it's likely the bendy devs are forced to address our concerns. I don't think they will but hey, that's why I'm not gonna support them with my money anymore nor am I gonna be nice to them in any content I make critiquing Bendy. I mean I'm also basically making this post just in case anyone asks me Why I feel this way towards to bendy devs/as a way to respond to anyone who thinks I am too harsh in my critique in the future.

As always, it seems the best part of Bendy isn't actually anything about canon but about what the fan's are creating with the ideas Bendy failed to do anything interesting with.

Also the books, the books slap.

[deesi-academia]

evryone is yelling abt taylor swift rn nd I've never heard 1 of her songs or know nything abt her, what'd she do ? /nf

ty in advance ^^

well i cant speak for everyone, but to me she was an ICON during some dark times in 2019. i loved her emotions in her songs and i loved her story even though yeah they werent exactly 'relatable'. but i truly admired how she rose to stardom despite whatever.

then her more mature works like 'folklore' and 'evermore' came out and all the re-recordings of albums I LOVE, which made me love her even more. so naturally i was really really excited for her latest album titled 'the tortured poets department'.

but this album was marketed SO WRONG - basically her hinting that her partner of 6 years cheated on her and 'caged' her and 'stole' her youth. admist all this she was involved dating a sexist, racist, zionist shit of a man. naturally, backlash followed against her supposedly cheater-cruel-ex + some was directed towards her.

imagine my surprise when the album came out, and it was revealed that TAYLOR was the one who basically cheated on her ex, and blames her ex's depression for their relationship to fall apart. AND she defends that shit of a man by calling all this due backlash as "bitching and moaning" by her fans. truly horrific.

for more context, her long term ex was with her during her absolute lowest and she was a 27 year old something adult when she got into a relationship with said ex. he helped her through it all and she has produced some of her finest works while dating him. but oh look she leaves him when HE'S at his lowest. and she outs this man's mental health struggles in public when she knows her fanbase is unhinged. and claims she 'lost' her 'youth' to him.

tldr; i loved her music but her personality is making me hate her too much to enjoy her art too. i suck at separating art from the artist. her very nice ex is Joe Alwyn and this latest album makes me want to give him a very tasty cookie to comfort him as he handles swift's whatever-this-petty-attack-is so well <3

[soccerpunching]

headcanons about tachimukai during ie go? its always good to see your posts on my timeline!!

WAAAHHHH OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH!! And of course, I love him sm and I have a lot!!

I'm also adding this picture here because i really love how soft Shinsuke remembers Tachimukai, makes me emotional. He genuinely wants to help him. (I'll keep using this picture forever, methinks)

(some of these are during the 10-year timeskip; putting it under the cut)

Headcanons:

Almost everybody comments on how is it possible to have one of the most vicious goalkeeper in existence be so polite in interviews. He's so loved by people across Japan and has a really strong fanbase. And it's bcs he looks so focused and vicious in the field that most ppl cant recognized him outside of it (like how Shinsuke didnt).

Much like Kazemaru, Fubuki, Gouenji, and Kabeyama, he's also one of the few from the cast who stayed in Japan soccer leagues. All of the teams he belonged in lost the least goals in the leagues they've joined!! He's a monster goalkeeper in their eyes! (Another reason why Shinsuke didnt recognize him is bcs he doesnt believe someone as legendary as tachimukai would casually teach a goalkeeper-beginner like him.)

I genuinely think he's good at studying and has good grades in IT-related subjects and is above average in most sciences, he just chose to not go to college. He did go to a vocational school as a backup plan. In case he gets severly injured or sumthn since goalkeepers are known to retire for injuries more than the field players.

More than anything, he wants to teach goalkeeping so he has that as a consideration for his future also. He's still thinking abt in what way can he accomplish this but that time with Shinsuke did make him realize that it's something he wants to do. But maybe not right now, he thinks he needs more experience!

He gets tons of modeling offers that he keeps on declining bcs it's never been his interest. He once jokingly told Tsunami that maybe he should try it after his retirement, he didnt realize Tsunami took it seriously and he's very excited for this modeling career (Tsunami is in fact considering modeling too bcs of that joke)

He makes a lot of effort to stay connected with old friends and likes traveling a lot even if it takes time! He likes taking the scenic route too and just takes life slowly.

Some of the things he does when the league season is over are riding sleeper trains and hotel-buses!! (It's so cool that japan has those!!) Sometimes with friends or family, but he also likes going alone and making conversations with people (who most often does not recognize him at all).

He's timid as an adult still but he overcomes this by telling himself that being with people is part of the great experience of life however corny that sounds. It's one of the things he learned from being with the cast who gave him the courage to step out of his comfort zone.

Speaking of his traveling! His inagram is full of traveling pictures!! And all the food he gets to eat! He also travels outside the country and taste as many spicy food as he can. He's famous in inagram actually even if he barely has any pictures with his face in them but he's really cool with it.

He is also demiromantic ace in my heart <3

He casually enjoys surfing too (in the drama cd, he asked if tsunami can teach him how to surf to which i think he enjoyed) and competitively with tsunami (bcs tsunami makes everything a contest)

He goes trekking, mountain climbing, and skydiving with his old pals from Yokato a lot.

He goes to camping trips with the first year gang too (kabeyama, kurimatsu, kogure, haruna and they also invite shourin, shishido!!). Kogure plans these trips.

I have some more that's in my hissatsu techniques hc of him regarding how he is in the field but that's yet to be posted (bcs descriptions are so hard 😣). These are the ones that I can remember outside of that for now!

And really thank you for the ask, they really motivate me to share them!!

[gayspock]

okdok (how my mam spells okie dokie; need to give her credit) some more bsg thoughts

okie btw i never properly said. i DO rlly love the themes of religion in the show. i have seen glimpses (i go through threads, bc im nosy, despite trying not 2 spoil myself) of ppl rlly rejecting it but sorryyyyy its just... yknow like- i loathe how patronising scifi can be of it sometimes, AND how bad fanbases can get. coming off of trek, well, youknow....

also completely . disavowing it .. is always soo silly 2 me bc... like im not religious myself, even, but i always find it one of the most interesting things to explore within fiction ^_^ esp esp with more scifi stuff, like... thats one of the best places to challenge and to play with it. smile. both with its relationdship between science but also how with its relationship between Humanity and how that might differ for different cultues.... and again its so disappointing the way its hanled so much of the time in many works, and by many Scifi enthusiasts. -_- bc its sooo reductive.

anyways i still sometimes feel like theres something missing from the show and i think thats just me im not sure why. like in terms of like... a certain incompleteness thats not JUST them pacing it out, or leaving things up for interpretation... but i cant uqite put my finger on it. its like i feel like maybe its just bc s1 was SO short for what it was and s2 has been very plot heavy. i think the show would have benefitted a bit more from some more establishing "filler" eps in terms of, like, worldbuilding, yknow? again- i really want to see more of the civillian side of things. i hope we get more of that ^_^ its deffo not like THE WORSTTT problem the show oculd have

BC LIKE OTHERWISE im rllyyyy loving the direction they took EVERYTHING in in season 2. omg. they set it all up so well and OUGHGHGHGG. i love how its testing everything theyve built from s1, wrt the command. absolutely crazy moves...

i was absolutely ITCHING for a presence like admiral cain and she delivered. part of me wishes it went a bit longer? just a bit. i dont think it was like... RUSHED... partially bc i do agree her takeover would have just been immediate, like it was, and i dont know what her role really could have been after they called off the assassinations. but idk- i wish we got to see a bit more of her, i guess! maybe even just an ep or so.

nonetheless she was still a really good contrast. her and the pegasus and how its run, versus galactica. and i do think.... i think i tlked before abt how sometimes i was unsatisfied with how, like, bsg kind of handled its own politics sometimes? like- specifically the roslin and zarek. i think thats moreso an issue with the latter, and again how... kind of lacking i find him, for what could be a really good and interesting opportunity to challenge roslin, who does have issues, unchecked, rather than just be kind of a minor antagonist ... & THATS EVEN MOREE the case with his presence back on kobol. like he was literally there just to cause conflict and idk like its FUNCTIONAL but its also like comeee on you can be more interesting with him! come on!

BUT here i do think with both cain and tigh's brief stint in command they did well to rlly explore it a bit more so im forgiving it. its not like that fixes that mess but this stuff was good enough for me to be like 👍uh huh, yaknow? b c it was soo good and argh im- SPEAKING OF, i am glad they did "remember" incidents like the gideon massacre, even after adama came back. again i do wanna see MORE of the civillians- but i think we're going to getthat soon, i hope? i feel it more in the air, with the introduction of that new number 6 and the cylon apologists which im rlly excited for... both bc theyre things i rlly wanted to see more from the show ^_^

anyway i feel like noneof this is that mad i just wanted to ramble in bc i haventttt properly eek and squeak i feel like i acc dont have much to say ^_6 despite rlly enjoying myself and the show LOL

sharon is still my favourite btw teehee smile

[turian]

honestly i have many grievances with the fallout show as a long time fan of the series but i think it's really enjoyable in the little moments. the lore mistakes are GIANT and it's not a leftist game in the way that (most of) new vegas was a leftist game - i have issues with new vegas as well but those are more just a long list of critiques of my favourite game that i think abt all the time. and maybe later i'll make a longer post about my issues with the show and with the series in general. i think that it was somewhat unoriginal because it was trying to cater to people who have never played the games, and while it does a lot of winking at the already existing fanbase, it feels like a show that is trying to be both a reboot and a sequel. it can't do both. i think it also tries far too hard to be grandiose, and also. the irony of it existing as it is, distributed by amazon. the communism lite. the events which are literally impossible given the new vegas canon unless they're meant as a GIANT retcon, which i don't accept. lmfao. it shines when it's just being irreverent dark wasteland comedy.

another point wrt fallout i've been thinking about a lot lately is like... the reasons it may be loved. personally i adore it because my family were displaced by genocide, and as a nomad with that history i really relate to a lot of the themes in new vegas (i also have a lot of issues with new vegas and the way it frames benny's story - he did nothing wrong imo - and just. the racism) but like. watching this show i'm also reminded of the horror of the western genre (which is lampshaded a little in the show but it's like... yall are doing this Right Now, writers). haven't seen westworld and i doubt i ever will but there is something about science fiction western which avoids really touching on the racism inherent to the genre by setting it in the future. and in fallout sometimes i feel like that is where the horror comes from, and again, i don't know shit about westworld. in new vegas some of my fave parts are the parts that lean into and do not shy away from the horrors but i feel like the fallout show like? it really? can't grapple with that shit, because it doesn't really understand it. it's a western and it's not really much more than that, but it's trying to pretend to be deeper.

this doesn't mean i fully disliked it but it's like... seeing that shot of new vegas at the end of the show didn't fill me with excitement lmfao it just filled me with dread! i don't feel like this show should go anywhere near new vegas content. i don't want them to hurt it. it's not perfect by any means and i don't mean to uphold it as that, but. judging by s1 i don't think the showrunners have anything close to the nuance required to measure up to a lot of the obsidian writing.

giant list of grievances aside the protagonists are cute i rly love maximus !!! all three of them are chill but i think he is honestly the most interesting lmfao like... cooper and lucy are very fun but i think they're a little more cookie cutter (not a complaint, to be clear - i do enjoy them). maximus like... was also the least predictable to me and i think his motivations at first, despite being clearly stated by the show, seem sort of nebulous because his performance has a little more subtlety and so. yeah. may he rediscover oysters. + from a screenwriting standpoint it's cute that it ended like. with him and lucy both reaching their goal and realizing "oh shit. this is not the vibe."

also genuinely enjoyed the minor characters and cameos!! genuinely just really wish it wasn't trying to do this much, because like... imagine the same story but a little smaller scale. like. all they'd have to have done to make it all make sense is set it a decade or two later and/or simply not destroy the WHOLE ncr.

+ this detail was so cute !!!

[yatsugareboyf]

figure skater nakahara chuuya

i saw this post and i also coincidentally saw the art a few days ago while crying over yuzuru hanyu so let's do this ! idk much abt figure skating so if i got anything wrong / say anything wrong pls lmk

i wanna believe that chuuya as a fs would be like yuri plisetsky. he would be so aggressive with making all his jumps quads and attempting them all the time during practice, but he might not do it during competition if he feels like he can't do it

he started very young, thinking that getting into ballet and ice skating would stretch his legs and make him taller (im half joking), but he's very good very early on

he might be more recreational rather than competitive, but never really refuses when he's offered to compete. might as well yk

like yurio, he has a certain genre or type of flow he wants for his programs. i feel like he would do something like this . something very bold and telling, and hes flexible. he can pull off those back bends and spins

he may be very aggressive, he's a graceful skater. his moves are clean and sharp and it's very satisfying to see him skate. it's like he glides so smoothly on the ice, like the ice is doing his bidding by giving him the most smooth ride. his jumps are cut and dry, and he makes AMAZING SAVES !!

hence his amazing saves, he's dubbed as the gravity manipulator (corny, ik) because it almost seems impossible how he jumps so high and spins so low yet still keep his balance and stamina. like, how?

of course every artist has their flaws, and chuuya's might be his facial expressions . he gets the message of his piece and it reflects in his movements but not on his face , its VERY visible when u know he fucks up a jump or forgets a certain part of a routine. he might make amazing saves that look like it was MEANT to happen, his face says otherwise. hes working on it tho !!!..... he'll get there .

outside the rink, he's very kind to his fanbase and interacts with them a lot in social media. it gets him in trouble sometimes, especially when judges are biased against him due to his "feminine" figure and gives him a crappy score and those hastags pop-up on twitter? yeah. he's ALL OVER THOSE

DO NOT GIVE HIM WINE DURING SPECIAL EVENTS OR BANQUETS DEAR LORD hes JUST like yuuri but hes ready to beat anyone's ass 😭 his manager and publicist steers him away from the bar after ONE incident. they learned their lesson abt chuuya and alcohol

his diet and workout regimen is pretty normal, but he works out a lot more when he can't come to the rink. he values his body and it's strength a lot so he's very mindful of the food he eats (except w wine). hes a beauty to work with

as mentioned above, due to his small stature and slim figure, it's difficult for him to place and score a lot due to biased judges and conflict of interests in what male figure skaters should look like. he's very passionate about defending himself, but secretly wishes he was taller and maybe a bit more buff :( my poor chuuya

as for being his s/o ,,

he would LOVE YOU FOREVER if you come to his competitions. even if u dont wanna come with him to the kiss and cry (because you can't, but he insists you should), just seeing you in the crowd before his program starts gives him such a boost. toss him a gift after his program he'll keep it forever

although chuuya loves you and values his time with you, his time inside the rink is sacred. it's his first love, his safe space, so he won't compromise a lot when it comes to his practice time on the ice. but he has PLENTY of time after that, in which he wishes nothing more than to spend it with you.

come to his practices tho !! though he might be a bit loud and dizzy to watch, he's amazing at what he does and he loves it when two of his most loved things are together. wipe the sweat off his face when he approaches u he'll die inside

tie his hair for him !!!

when you learn all the terminologies in secret and try to memorize what each jump is and which program is for what event and stuff he'll be so happy

"you... you just attempted a quad axel just now didn't you? be careful-"

"you know what an axel looks like ? and you knew it was a quad? marry me"

PRACTICES HIS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS WITH YOU AND IT'S SO FUNNY BUT HE ASKS YOU TO TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY AND HE'S SO SERIOUS ABOUT IT

"what do you think, babe?"

"chuuya, love of my life, i'm saying this with all the love i have for you, but you look like you're trying to shit out the biggest fucking turd ever."

"you could've said so earlier!"

"you were so into it though?"

but seriously, if he asks you to help him then please please please do. he makes up for it by supporting you in your chosen hobby/profession as well !!

if you're a figure skater as well, then congratulations! you're both in pairs now /j

solo or pairs, he'd be super happy to see you compete or even just perform. he thinks you're so awesome and cool

a bit jealous about pairs but he knows TT he's closely considering pairs .

if he is your partner, you're the one lifting him up /j but seriously, he can take on both roles he's amazing

isn't that strict with diets with you but helps you avoid things you shouldn't eat from time to time, but usually he's your enabler when it comes to cheat days and eating off diet ^^

all in all, he's a great figure skater and an even greater s/o .

requests are open! (08/02/22) (note : i'm too shy to tag op in this one TT)

[night-fallz]

XY’s Muse

Based on this prompt

Like I have stated before, this is my first fanfic. Please let me know what you think of it. Any kind of criticism will be welcome.

uploaded on 01/23/21

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ao3 // Wattpad

previous II next

Chapter 2

XY was staring at the ceiling. A week has already passed. And he still couldn't stop thinking about the day he spent with Marinette. It was the most fun he'd had in a while.

Before the whole Silencer fiasco, his father would not stop pressuring him to produce a new song. So when they met up for dinner and his dad came up with the idea of stealing someone else's music, he couldn’t bring himself to decline.

XY knew it was wrong.

But all he wanted was the chance to finally impress his dad. Bob Roth might not have the best attitude towards him, but he was all XY had left.

Xy already lost his mom. He would not lose his dad too.

At least, that's what he believed. He should've known that his father was just using him for money. According to his dad, money was the most valuable thing in life.

XY scoffed. He should've known better. He should've known that all his father thought of hi-

He felt a buzz in his pocket and his face immediately brightened. Marinette just texted him!

Marinette: what's up?

Marinette: have u been inspired yet?

Marinette gave XY the idea to just sit back and let inspiration hit him. It was a common idea but it was one that most people tend to forget in the long run.

XY: nothing much

XY: and nope.

XY: my dad has been pressuring me to come up with something tho

Marinette: ignore him

Marinette: he's just mad cause he can't get any ladies

The three dots popped up on his screen.

Marinette: OH CRAP I'M LATE

Marinette: TTYL.

XY rolled his eyes and smiled.

They've been texting back and forth these past few days. He's learned so many things about her and vice versa.

It was nice. It's been a while since XY has had a friend.

Maybe she'll be even more, XY couldn’t help but think as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Huh," XY said out loud. "Even more"

And just like that, inspiration for his next song hit him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Marinette was thinking of a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed musician when she heard her phone ring.

"Tikki!" she screamed, staring at her phone as if it was Hawkmoth himself.. "He's calling me. XY is calling me."

Tikki sighed and floated next to Marinette, "Maybe you should answer it. It would be pretty rude to keep him waiting."

"Right, right," Marinette answered his call and hoped her voice didn’t sound as squeaky as she thought it did.. "Hey."

"Hey."

There was a moment of awkward silence.

Marinette didn’t know what to do. She glanced at the small goddess.

Tikki rolled her eyes at their awkwardness as she gestured to the phone. Ask him why he called you, she mouthed to Marinette.

Marinette nodded. That was a smart idea. "So," Marinette cleared her throat. "Why did you call me?"

"Right, Uhm." Marinette heard him shuffling around his room. "You know how you've been asking me if I was inspired and stuff?"

Marinette's eyes grew wide and a huge smile took over her face as she started to nod before remembering that he couldn't see her. "Yep." she eagerly said, "Did you find any?"

"Yes!" Marinette could hear the excitement in his voice. "I was actually wondering if you wanted to design the outfits for my music video."

Marinette's eyes looked shocked. "Yes!" she jumped around in excitement before remembering she was still in a call with XY. "Why me though?"

XY’s voice sounded confused.. "What do you mean, why you? You're literally perfect for it. You're talented. Plus, everyone loves your designs."

Marinette’s cheeks resembled a tomato. She has never been more thankful for the fact that he couldn't see her right now.

"Thank you." Marinette managed to mumble. "That really means a lot."

"You're welcome." XY said. Marinette had a feeling he was smiling though. "I have to go and have my dad listen to the demo. But I'll text you later, okay?"

"Yep," Marinette whispered and gave Tikki a cookie. "Good luck. I know that whatever song you came up with is gonna sound good. No matter what he'll say."

Marinette heard a faint "Thanks" from the phone before the call ended.

Marinette screamed into her pillow and looked up and saw Tikki look at her with amusement. “I think I like him.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"So, what do you think?" XY asked as his father finished listening to his song. "Is it bad? Do you think people will like it?"

Bob Roth grinned at his son. "This is a Masterpiece. Where did you find this?" He gestured to the video of XY singing the song, "Who did you steal this from?"

XY's proud smile immediately turned into a scowl. "What do you mean, who did I steal this from?" He yelled at his dad, his blue eyes glaring at him as he grabbed the demo from the table. "I made it. I came up with it myself." XY felt his eyes tearing up. "Something you would actually know if you thought of me as something more than a money-making machine."

How could he? XY thought as he climbed up the stairs. Is it that hard to believe that I could come up with something good?

XY slammed his door shut. "All I wanted was to prove to him that I wasn't a talentless son." XY put his hands on his face. "I just wanted to make him proud."

XY felt a buzz in his pocket and immediately knew that it was Marinette. After all, she’s the only one that ever texts him.

Marinette: how did it go?

Marinette: did he like it?

XY wiped away the tears that were starting to come out of his eyes. He couldn't help but smile. Marinette certainly had an effect on him.

XY: he called it a masterpiece

Marinette: yes! I knew he would like it.

XY: yeah

XY: but then he asked me who i stole it from

Marinette: THAT JERK

Marinette: WTF

Marinette: THAT's SO MESSED UP

Marinette: HOW COULD HE-

Marinette: DO YOU WANT ME TO BEAT HIM UP FOR YOU????

XY laughed at her text messages. He only started to text her and he already felt better.

XY: no, it's fine

XY: i actually yelled at him

Marinette: ...

Marinette: do you feel better?

XY: actually, yep.

XY: he's a really sucky father

Marinette: for some reason, a lot of the blondes i know have a toxic parent

Marinette: it's kinda sad

XY: maybe it's a paris thing

They texted back and forth, XY laughing at the memes Marinette sent.

XY: You're definitely a daughter of Athena

Marinette: ( ⚆ _ ⚆ )

Marinette: is that a percy jackson reference i see

XY: yep

XY: have u read the books?

Marinette: duh

Marinette: you haven't lived til you've read the books

Marinette: sadly, the movies sucked tho

XY: I KNOW

XY: ANNABETH WASN'T EVEN BLONDE

Marinette: EXACTLY!!

Marinette: SJSJSJSJSJSJ

 Marinette: THE MOVIES SCARED ME FOR LIFE

XY: oh yeah

XY: before i forget

XY: what's ur insta?

Marinette: which one

XY scrunched his eyebrows up in confusion.

XY: What do you mean by which one?

Marinette: i have two

Marinette: one as my personal one and the other one for commissions and stuff

XY: ohhh

XY: smart

Marinette: i know ;)

Marinette: my personal one is @Mdupaincheng and the one for my commissions one if @MDCdesigns

XY switched his apps and searched up Marinette's personal instagram. He clicked on the first result that came up.

The profile picture was Marinette in a blue, silky dress that went just above her ankle. There was a slit on her left leg that showed her knee. It was nighttime and Marinette was practically glowing under the city lights. She was staring at something on her right side, with one hand running through her silky black hair which was down for once.

She looked hot.

After XY stopped admiring her profile picture, he finally noticed her follower count.

She had 200,000 followers. 200,000.

It wasn't as high as XY's follower count, that was still quite a lot.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

XY: i didn't know u were insta famous

Marinette: wdym?  

Marinette: which acc

XY: ur personal one

XY: u have over 200k followers

Marinette thought that she read his text wrong. There's no way that Marinette had that many followers. 200,000? There was no way.

Marinette: ur lying

XY: I'm not.

XY: check ur acc

It's been a while since Marinette has logged onto her personal account. The hate she got the last time she's been signed in was too much for her and when Alya told her to log out and just focus on her other account, @MDCdesigns, she couldn't bring herself to argue against her.

Marinette hasn't even thought of that account since that day. So when she logged in and saw that XY wasn't lying, she accidentally dropped her phone in shock.

Tikki looked at Marinette with a questioning look.  

Marinette ignored her kwami and texted the blue-eyes boy back.

Marinette: HOLY SHIT

Marinette: I HAVE 200k FOLLOWERS

Marinette: HOW TF DID THAT HAPPEN

XY: when was the last time you checked ur acc

Marinette: about 3 months ago

Marinette: the media thought i was adrien's gf and his fangirls came at me

Marinette: i got a ton of hate and a friend of mine told me to log out and just focus on my @MDCdesigns acc

Marinette: so i did

Marinette: i haven't thought abt that acc since then

XY: the fangirls were probably just jealous

XY: it's been months so they probably calmed down

XY: I'm looking through the comments rn and so far the latest hate comment you've got was about 2 weeks ago

XY: you've got a bit of a fanbase yk

Marinette: WHAT DO I DO

Marinette: DO I JUST CONTINUE NOT TO POST OR SHOULD I POST SOMETHING ON MY STORY ABT HOW THANKFUL I AM FOR 200k

Marinette: HOW COME NONE OF MY FRIENDS TOLD ME ABT THIS

XY: don't post anything rn

XY: post a picture of yourself and the caption it something that shows ur thankful for the number of followers u received

XY: OH

XY: a few hours before u post the picture, make sure u post on ur story abt how ur back from ur break on social media

XY: that way ppl will understand why u haven't been active

XY: it'll also have ppl prepared for ur post and they'll be waiting for u to post it

XY: that'll give u more engagement and stuff

Marinette: thank u

Marinette: that was really helpful

Marinette: when should i post something?

Marinette: AND I STILL DONT KNOW WHY MY FRIENDS DIDNT SAY ANYTHING ABT THIS

XY: u told ur friend that u were taking a break from social media right?

Marinette: yes

XY: then they probably weren't expecting u to post anything so they weren't checking ur insta

XY: u should post something on the weekend

XY: that way ppl wouldn't bother u during school this week

XY: if u want i can help u come up with ideas tomorrow?

Marinette: yes, please!

Marinette: do u wanna come over

Marinette: we can plan it in my room so that ppl won't overhear us

XY: guess I'll see u tomorrow then

XY: just text me the time ur available and I'll be there

Marinette: make sure to wear a disguise tho!

Marinette: we got lucky last time and no tabloids caught us

XY: ur right

XY: we must've been really lucky if no one got a pic of us

XY: but okay

XY: I'll wear my best disguise

XY: goodnight, princess

Marinette blinked a few times, making sure she read the text correctly.

Princess.

Marinette: goodnight ♥

previous II next

This is the first chapter of the story. Please let me know what you think

1,967 words

Tag list:

@iglowinggemma28 @mica-aa @lady-bee-fechin @maskedpainter @snnoww26 @ravenr22 @spiritofchaoticdreams @ravennm84 @heaven428 @finn-cipher @peterxwade24 @aliceofice22 @queenamongthorns @captainmac6

[swimmingleo]

harry basically said that watermelon sugar is about eating p*ssy 🍉 thanks harry! 🙄

okok yeah I read the quote, thank you ! I have lots of thoughts about it and I'm so sorry this is not me answering you I'm just jumping on your ask to rant abt the whole thing eiejdielzfo

I feel like it was bound to happen (us being disappointed). One thing I didn't understand was why some part of the fandom (especially over Twitter) was so determined to prove that the song was in fact not about pussy but dick (or gay sex.. gay keyword). Like. There's not much basis for any claim lyrically wise.

So yeah with what Harry said hets will be far too pleased with themselves. Im talking about the ones who were getting in fights with larries. Maybe some hets will lose it and see it as the green light to be more immature and dumb in his face. But we don't know that for sure yet so..

Harry writes a song. The song is vague enough to be marketed as a pussy anthem. Which is to me the most annoying thing, not because i think he's gay but because i think there are so many songs explicitly about pussy that deserve the title more but WS gets it bcuz it's Harry and he's good lookin white man so of course he gets to represent women's sexuality (in the non inclusive kind of way with that). For real if i want my pussy to be worshipped i want it to be unequivocally. Not in a song that can also be about eating ass, sucking dick or falling in love the lsd trippy way.

Harry is a people pleaser, Harry has in front of him a sample of his general fanbase, which is a lot of ciswomen, feeling empowered by a dude vaguely singing about their genitals. So harry plays the game and turns the song into a feminist-ish anthem go women (and I'm at least happy that he made it about orgasm rather than just genitals cuz it's more inclusive this way). He didn't say that was all the song was about. But it's the most popular lecture so of course, it is what it is. When you're an artist that much marketed, you learn to live with the idea that your art is gonna be used and manipulated by the mass.

And if queer!Harry beliefs are crumbling tonight because for some people you can't possibly write about something you don't know, well good riddance cuz if there's one thing I hate it's entertaining the idea that gay men are allowed to find pussies disgusting and not knowing shit about female anatomy. I'm glad Harry isn't one of them and doesn't mind if his song is claimed by women, at least. Also in this fandom there are a lot of women who write about gay men intercourse so really it's not that deep, even if Harry actively wrote the song with female orgasm in mind, which I don't even think he did.

That sucks for us but on twitter the feud was real. That was self sabotage to go and claim to hets that the song is about fellatio when the MV kind of implies het sex and pretty women caressing each other cuz it's summer and quirky and just women appreciating each other ✌️🤪. The song was never marketed towards us, despite them following the trend and including two dudes in the background and aesthetically pleasing soft woman on woman action on main. I saw an ask not long ago that basically said that this side of the fandom had an issue with accepting the fact that Harry could perform heterosexuality in his career and i think this is the perfect example.

EDIT when I diss the MV and song this much it's about the way it has been marketed right. I never thought much about the interpretation of the MV itself but I'm not saying that its nature is inherent het propaganda

[modgirlyreposts-revamped]

kinda wanna hear more abt yr streamer!millie thing (no pressure though if you don't want to, of course)

jfdjafdjsdk Millie being a streamer in my main AU is a headcanon I came up with for no other reason than I thought it would be funny if Millie was allowed to swear

As you can probably tell my main genre of YouTubers is mainly gaming YouTubers, which I based a lot of my headcanons about Millie's streams around

My main CTW AU is "A.I." so I imagine that after the events at Afton Robotics, Millie starts streaming as a new hobby by Dylan's suggestion. One of her first streams is a Just Talking stream titled "bitching about afton robotics", where she just drags Clayton for what he did to CTW Funtime Freddy, Funtime Foxy, and BonBon, as well as casually leaking multiple secrets about the company that she found out while raiding it in search of CTW Funtime Freddy. She gains traction from that stream, with a lot of skeptics, which are quickly convinced when Millie posts a short video to her newly made YouTube channel of her grandfather's workshop, with the three animatronics just wandering around going about their day.

She starts streaming regularly under the name "x._missing._x" and quickly gains popularity since she's known as "the person that blew up the local Afton Robotics building". Dylan joins her on the majority of her streams, which are usually gaming. Dylan is the local troll on her channel, constantly taking advantage of the donation feature which is set up to allow whoever donated to play music on the stream. He constantly plays bass boosted songs with his donations, the only warning Millie gets being the alert sound that someone donated. Once she sees Dylan's username overlayed onscreen beside the donation message her viewers tend to hear a horrified "NOO-!!" as Millie rips off her headset, and throws it on the desk before running off, all you can hear being bass boosted music playing in the background as Millie runs down the street to Dylan's house so she can strangle him.

She starts streaming with Brooke and Sarah as well, sometimes showing up in Brooke's streams as she does mainly irl streams, and while Sarah isn't really interested in doing her own streams she loves appearing in the other's, and Millie's fanbase find their relationship adorable, and ship them so hard. She has fanpages that dedicate themselves to posting compilations, and random out of context clips. Every time her and Sarah have a cute interaction onstream the "x._missing_.x x azure_sarah" fans have a field day.

Since FNaF as a franchise is probably canon within the FNaF universe, you can bet that Millie has played the FNaF games onstream. She also looks up weird fancontent at the request of her viewers, or her friends resulting in either a hilarious stream with a whole bunch of out of context moments, or Millie being scarred for life and telling her fanbase that she will never trust them again, until the next stream where they trick her into looking something up again.

Her grandfather becomes a fan favorite from the multiple times he accidentally walks in on Millie while she's streaming. Her chat eventually goes from "who is he?? 🤨" "who's that?" "that's you're grandfather 😮???" to "GRANDPA FITZSIMMONS!!! ❤❤❤❤❤" "HE!!!!!!" "NUU LET HIM STAY-". Millie's fandom starts shipping him with CTW Funtime Freddy after seeing them interact in some videos, or in the background of some of her or Brooke's streams, much to Millie's dismay. She finds out the hard way that people ship them after a viewer tells her about the ship in a donation message. As a result Millie puts the whole stream on pause to look it up, and see if it's real. She finds loads of fanart with a concerning amount of skill and effort put into them, and some very descriptive fanfics that usually consist of CTW Funtime Freddy pinning her grandfather down and making out with him. She then forces Dylan and Brooke to read them with her onstream, effectively scarring them.

Her fandom then take this as permission to try and taint her grandfather's innocence, to which Millie desperately tries to protect him from her fanbase. It doesn't work very well, as her grandpa now knows what "gilf" means. Millie even decides to react to edits of the ship with her grandpa in a stream simply titled "why". Her grandfather still does not really understand what is going on.

When he becomes a little more comfortable, her grandpa starts to feature in her streams, which Millie doesn't know whether it's a good or bad thing. Her grandfather's fan favorite status only grows after he lets loose his pent up anger during her gaming streams. The best way to describe his rages is GameGrumps Arin during Super Mario Sunshine, and the infamous Sonic and the Black Knight clip. Millie even has to end a stream early one time out of fear that her grandfather will have a stress induced heart attack. Her fans still ship him with CTW Funtime Freddy, despite her grandfather yelling at him to fuck off at the end of one stream.

[mable-stitchpunk]

Please rant abt fnaf interpretations I am, all ears

.I didn't expect such a positive response! 8D I got a few asks for them, and I'll see if maybe I can reply to a few of them with different interpretations...

...Also-

Let's begin with the rants. You might've seen some of these points before, but I'll bring them back up because I desire to.

1. The ghosts of the Missing Children are evil.

I don't read a lot of fanworks anymore, but I used to loathe when I would find those fics where the murdered children would be portrayed as vindictive little monsters who were going out of their way to ruin everyone's lives. Possessing main characters and forcing animatronics to go against their wishes to attack innocents for little reason.

I find this is the reason I also don't like the "animatronics are sentient and possessed by second consciousness" headcanon. Not all of them are bad, mind, you, but many of them eventually go the earlier route.

Why I hate this is because it's never a situation where we're being led to see the children as sympathetic, or corrupted by time, but a way to make the Missing Children less sympathetic to the audience. Or to raise drama by having a slew of ghosts who feel no sympathy and cannot be stopped.

Other versions show them as being especially bratty or excessively mischievous, which I just find a little annoying.

Funny enough, I don't think a child's soul going rogue is a bad idea. Such as in the case of Andrew, who I feel was massively underutilized. You can just tell when it is a pull to make the reader see in a specific direction. You can tell when there's a subconscious desire to make the murders seem 'not that bad'.

Also, the idea that the ghosts of dead children are evil because they're looking for justice for their deaths is kind of frustrating when so many headcanons try to excuse William's actions by suggesting that something traumatic triggered them.

Of course, in these cases the children are seldom actually looking for their murderer and instead are just circling around someone else.

...Oh yeah, and since we're on it-

2. William killed those children for revenge. (As a defense)

Specifically, when this is NOT used as a plotpoint, but instead used as a blame shield for William Afton. You can usually tell the difference by how the effect is cast on William.

If the tone is: William lost someone and then went on a kamikaze mission to ruin everyone's lives. Then typically it's fine.

If the tone is: William killed a lot of people- but he only did it because he lost his x! Then it gets frustrating.

It's the same boat as that Henry depression excuse, though it's worse in this case because William didn't just murder children, it's suggested that he hunted and tortured them, and then brought them back to continue making them suffer as animatronics.

3. William was a scientist.

Don't give him that much credit. This man didn't start doing science experiments until the plot got so elaborate that they needed to one-up him with himself.

4. Henry was a good father.

I absolutely loathe this one, because it hinges off of the novel's version of Henry, who actively abandoned one of his children to obsess on the other one. To the point of forcibly bringing them back without caring if the other existed- and then ditching that one too.

Sammy Emily does not exist to the FNAF fanbase. He's not a sympathetic character or an important character, he's just a plotpoint that's written out when it comes time for the big Shyamalan twist. He's pretty much totally ignored.

And by his father too. Henry never acknowledges Sammy, never cares about Sammy. He only cares about what happened to Charlie.

...But not enough to do anything about it.

Which is why I think a little acknowledgement that Henry wasn't great just because he died would go a long way. I won't even go into his more egregious actions.

5. Circus Baby's sexualization.

This is one actually backed by canon, but that doesn't make it any better. I hate the constant sexualization of Circus Baby... and especially the hypocrisy that surrounds it.

Let me give you one example of an event I had once.

When I was first writing CGHA and Mike and Mari got together, there were a lot of people who apparently missed the numerous references to the fact that Mari had aged in his many years as a puppet. This meant that Mari was now an adult, but they said since he died as a child that he is still a child. The word pedophilia was dropped a few times.

These are the SAME people who are all gung-ho about Baby dolled up in a sexy human body with skimpy skirts and long boots, dolled up by her daddy. But isn't SHE still a child?

Well, no... Because she's a bad girl, so she doesn't count.

Get off with that.

6: Vanny is in love with William Afton.

Unless we're talking Stockholm Syndrome, I don't think you're going to love a demonic entity possessing you and threatening to break your fingers if you do the wrong thing. I guess you can say that's abusive love, but like Joker and Harley Quinn, people somehow manage to forget that aspect.

I've gone into this before, so I'm not going to rant on it again. Largely because I don't know how FNAF will portray Vanny, and it's not above them to take inspiration from other sources.

Now, unlike some of these other headcanons, I THINK someone could actually write a story and make this work if they acknowledged that it was beyond "toxic". Vanny would have to be emotionally and mentally crippled to respond positively to such treatment, but it is possible if it was backed up with behavioral issues and a backstory.

You'd have to get on Silent Hill 2 levels of backstory, but it is possible if you want to go that dark.

---

I think I'll end it there for now. I know some of these might be hot takes, but I'm just voicing my thoughts here. Again, not saying anyone's wrong for holding these interpretations, but I think they should consider why they hold them.

Because it looks to me like these are used-

1: To make this Missing Children Incident less severe. 2: To make William Afton more sympathetic. 3: To make William Afton look cool. 4: To make Henry a martyr in contrast with William. 5: To have a forced femme fatal. 6: To underplay how gross the possession aspect- especially when it is a middle-aged man in complete control of a young woman's body and actions.

...But hey! That's just me. Rant over, for now. XD

[mariaiscrafting]

ahhhh ty ty ty <3

ok, so I think that what makes Dream act this way (iykyk) is how dreamwastaken became so big so quickly. and by quick I mean fucking lightning speed.

he didn't have enough time to learn enough about cc etiquette, especially in these three aspects: influence, boundaries and fanbase/stans/whatever you call it. I'll try to explain it:

• Influence: Does he know the influence he has? Like, when he hears that he is the myct with the largest fanbase, does he really process that? I remember he talked about not being able to control all of his fanbase and there's bad apples everywhere -- which is true, and that only like 1% of his fanbase breaks his boundaries (that include sending hate for him, harassing, doxing, etc. yk, basic twitter culture lol) but, honey, with your big ass fanbase, 1% is still a lot of people. As a content creator you *have* to be aware of that.

let's take the hbomb situation. First off, as a streamer, it's you that set the mood of the stream. Even if he was only messing around with his pals, even if they did say to do not send hate to hbomb, dt dunking on him created a toxic environment, which caused his fans being toxic towards hbomb and you know what happens next. Hell, when this happened, I was watching Tapl and he was watching them and he was crying laughing over them screaming bc they were just. so loud and so aggressive that it was kinda ??? Sirs, this is literally a Minecraft Stream lmaooo

my point is, that was not the road that dreamwastaken, 21M fans, should've taken. he don't condone his fans actions but he knows his fans are diehard and will always be on his side, he should be more careful before stating negative opinions, especially if its towards another person.

• Boundaries and Fanbase: He posted a list of his boundaries a while ago, idk if you know or seen it (btw please george copy your bestie for the love of god <3) but I'm not talking about those boundaries, I'm talking about the basic boundaries between cc and viewer. boundaries that, in my opinion, should exist between cc and viewer. I get that Dream is an open person, an oversharing type of open person if I may add, but I think he should take a step back regardless. When I heard that he was taking a time from twitter, I genuinely got so glad, not because he couldn't start any drama then, but because it would do so so good for his mental health. I'm not even that fond of him, it's just that for me, any cc taking a break or outright leaving twitter is a win for me. I know how RSD is hard to deal and honestly letting shit out it's better but dream you have dt you have bbh so please don't make things worse online 😭 I know how good can be to feel validation from millions of people but. it's not a good idea, especially in the state that his fanbase is on rn (this topic is kinda sensitive to talk abt for me bc people be outright ableist and hide it as criticism like. say that shit's not helping his reputation and whatever without acting like he's fucking. manipulating his fanbase for being affected by his rsd💀 or, on the other hand, don't say that hes just being adhd🤪 when he's just being an asshole like damn that's a Him thing bro lol)

(omg it's so big I'm so sorry and theres a part two I'm so sorry tumblr user messed-up-gal ToT) - morango 1/2

pt. 2:

Dream is the proof that the people who loves you can be your downfall. istg. Have you noticed that every drama that Dream enters, people usually get more mad abt how his fanbase reacts (85% they'll react in a bad way) than Dream himself? it's not always, but its definitely more likely. I'm not saying Dream is saint, he Is petty and his ego does him dirty and made him choke multiple times before,, But! i dont think hes a bad guy. he's literally just a dude. ok, he's a 21yr old white gamer man that has a trumpie past (maybe?? idk. I think hes cured now ig lol) so he's bound to do some shitty things but he still tries to get better and hopefully he'll mature. 21 is old enough but it's still so young, yk? I kind of lost my mind during the end and my eyes are literally begging to be closed so tl;dr: Its gonna be hard for him to become a better cc bc his fans don't let him be criticized (by infantilizing his adhd symptoms or the mob mentality as soon as someone says anything abt him), the honest criticism get lost between lies from antis that don't know shit, he still has a lot of growing up to do and overall he became famous too fast and he needs to learn things even faster bc as soon as there's not a single one dream hater on sight they'll turn their back and attack him instead lmao I hate twitter i definitely have more to say but I'm tired and my memory is shit. just-- hate dream if you want, love dream if you want, nobody is obligated to have an opinion but I wanted to express mine. have a lovely day! -morango 2/2

Aight, there's a lot to unpack here, so Imma try to only go into the points I have something to add to (here's what I talk about in each paragraph, if you want to jump to a specific point):

Speed of Dream's rise to fame

The "bad apples" in the Dream fanbase

Post-MCC HBomb stream

Not condoning versus actually condemning his fans

Manipulation & RSD

Criticism of Dream, his fanbase, and his brand

The “just a dude” argument, flipped

First, I agree that one of the many factors that has resulted in the current image Dream has set up for himself, the way his fanbase functions, the ways people hate on him, and the way the Dream brand functions, is the speed of his rise to fame. It's unique, and there are probably a hundred social/psychological angles that could be used to examine the exact effects of that speed upon all of these facets of the Dream Name; did rapid fame beget the rapid rise of unrighteous hatred, did those waves of hatred then instigate the rise of a surprisingly overdefensive fanbase, did that rapid fame get to his head and/or result in an inability to appropriately handle all the after-effects of rapid fame, etc.? That point you bring up, about how the speed of his rise to fame requires him to learn even more quickly, is so interesting to me. I think that maybe Dream expected to get pretty famous pretty quickly, hence the preparedness in regards to some mechanics of influencer fame- merchandise, business-building, networking, knowing how to manage his fanbase to best benefit him. But I don't think he expected to get this famous this quickly. This is all speculation of course, as are this entire post and your ask, but I think that he just couldn't anticipate having to learn how to handle enmasse controversy, waves of antis, or every Youtuber speculating/knowing about him; and yeah, that results in him having to learn all of these things very quickly, lest he allow his whole brand and fandom to fall apart.

Second, I disagree with the frequent argument that Dream's fanbase is only marginally toxic. Personally, I think that the circumstances of Dream's fame, his personality and management of his fanbase, and his brand of content have resulted in the very specific kind of stan that Dream stans are. I don't think this is simply a case of "all fandoms have a small percentage of assholes who take it too far;" rather, the nature of the community itself breeds the kind of mentality of "an asshole who takes it too far." I only even know this because I was a Dream fan (kinda a stan, I'm ngl). At one time, I watched every single Dreamwastaken & Dream Team video multiple times; I listened to the Manhunts on repeat, as though they were podcasts; I followed mostly smiletwt and dttwt accounts on mcyttwt; I had upwards of 10 tabs for AO3 DNF fics open on my phone at a time; I watched DNF and Dream Team Being A Family-esque compilations on repeat; I watched every George and Sapnap alt stream I possibly could; I went out of my way to defend Dream against Redditors and Twitter antis regarding the cheating scandal. For the latter half of 2020, and a couple months of 2021, I lived and breathed this part of the fandom; so when I say that Dream stans are a whole other breed than any other kind of mcyttwt stan, I say that because I used to be like that, too. I usually use parasocial very loosely or ironically, but Dream stans are genuinely one of the most parasocial fanbases I have ever seen or been a part of. The level of investment Dream stans have in this man's life, the lengths they will go to to defend him, the amount of psychonalysis and digging they do on his life and character, the amount of emotion he can evoke in them- it's taken to another level, man. This isn't just characteristic of a fraction of his fanbase; this is what the fanbase is like as a whole.

Third, I partially disagree with your take on the HBomb thing, but not in the way one might think? I actually empathize with the way they reacted much more than I thought I would, simply because I suspect I have RSD (also suspect I have ADHD, have for several months now) and I can see myself getting insanely frustrated because of something like that. Like yeah, it was "just a MC stream" or "just an MC game," but that's kinda disregarding the fact that something that might seem like "just a [insert inconsequential thing]" to a rational mind might have a major emotional consequence/take a major emotional toll on someone with RSD, or really anyone who gets easily impatient/angry about video games (Sapnap reminds me of many of my friends, in that way). The issues I, personally, had with the way they handled the HBomb situation is that these are simply explanations and reasons for my empathy; they are not excuses. I have no excuse when I get irrationally angry about something inconsequential in my own life, for a couple of reasons. One, because I am an adult and I need to learn how to handle my reactions and manage my own anger. Two, because as someone with many mental problems, it is my responsibility to learn coping mechanisms to ensure my own emotional stability and livelihood; this includes learning whatever I need to handle RSD- whether that be isolating myself from others when I know I will become violently/passionately angry about something, creating and sustaining a support system that can get me through bouts of extreme emotion, finding healthy emotional outlets for my negative emotions that won't harm myself or others, or a combination thereof. I don't think what they said about HBomb post-MCC was an irreversibly horrible thing, or anything. I think there were errors committed by two men who should be fully capable of foreseeing and preventing those errors, but I don't unconditionally hate Dream or Sapnap for the post-MCC stream or comments. I just wish they had made amends quickly, publicly, and sufficiently, because the greatest consequences from the whole thing weren't even from those two criticizing HBomb themselves; they were from the waves of backlash because of their immense influence on the MCYT fandom, which could've been prevented, if they had acted maturedly and responsibly after the stream.

Fourth, you’re right, that he doesn’t seem to condone his fans’ behavior. I detest the frequent anti argument that one of the reasons Dream should be criticized is because he explicitly uses his fanbase to attack others, or something of the sort. Personally, I think he created his fanbase in a very specific way and interacts with them in such a way so as to benefit him as much as possible, yes, but he never actually tells his fanbase to go and yell at or harrass anyone. Still, there is a significant difference between not condoning something and condemning something. It might seem unfair, and it might be annoying of me to say this, but I truly think that someone with this large a fanbase, especially one as overzealous as Dream’s, needs to be condemned every single time it goes on some kind of rampage/harrassment campaign. Either that, or Dream needs to make a definitive, permanent statement against any kind of harrassment of others on his behalf. I know he’ll occassionally make the odd tweet or serious stream addressing something his fanbase did, but one of the many reasons his fanbase keeps doing the same damn thing is because he’s so lukewarm and spotty about this condemnation. A fanbase like his needs to be given explicit guidance and boundaries for the numerous things they do in his defense- harrassing/doxing antis, harrassing people who criticize him who aren’t antis (respectful criticism, other CCs, other MCYT stans, etc.), harrassing the people he critcizes (i.e., HBomb), speculating about his personal life (his relationship with his gf, his mental health/ADHD, his romantic life, his childhood, etc.), and speculating about his relationships with his friends and colleagues.  My personal ideology is that, if you have significant influence over someone or a group of people, you are at least somewhat responsible for the things those people do or don’t do, if it at all relates back to you. I’m so fucking tired of the argument that CCs aren’t responsible for what their fans do. Obviously they aren’t responsible for every single one of their fans, and obviously they can’t fully control their fans at the end of the day. But I think there are certain things that reach such a level of extremity that does make those CCs responsible. This can be measured by either scale or intensity; that is to say, if a CC’s fanbase does things on an extremely large scale, or one person from/a fraction of the fanbase does something really extreme, then the CC is made all the more responsible. Another CC I’ve always had trouble discussing with other people on this subject is Pewdiepie, in particular, about the extremists in his fanbase. Because the things a small handful of his fans have done in reference to him and/or in his name were so fucking extreme, I thought Pewdiepie had to take at least some responsibilty. Along a similar vein, because the things Dream’s general fanbase does are so widespread and on such a massive scale, Dream has to take at least some responsibility.

Fifth, okay. Hmmm. I want to tackle this point you made about the ableism he faces in some criticism of him carefully and with empathy, but not coddling. One, I do think a lot of the criticism he receives for the ways he handles criticism (post-cheating Tweets, reactions to John Swan, post-MCC HBomb stream, etc.), disregard his RSD and can be oftentimes ableist. I’ve actually encountered people irl who criticize this aspect of Dream’s character, and have had to explain to them their disregard for how ADHD/RSD affect neurodivergent people’s reactions to criticism. But - and this is a big, and very controversial but - I think mentally ill/disordered people can 100% leverage their mental illness/disorders for the sake of manipulation. This is actually something I’ve learned from a psychiatrist, regarding the ways people I know and I handle our anxiety and depression. This manipulation can be unwitting or intentional, but it is entirely possible, and the possibility shouldn’t be entirely dismissed as ableist. Living with a mental illness or disorder that others know about/that you are very public about puts you in an interesting position to receive frequent sympathy, empathy, and/or pity. I’m not saying that empathy for Dream having ADHD/RSD is entirely unjustified; on the contrary, I have frequently expressed how I can relate to his ADHD symptoms and have defended him for expressing those symptoms, both on mcytblr and in real life. I am saying that Dream fans tend to use his ADHD as a kind of shield for a lot of criticism levied against him, including the supposition that he could be manipulating his fanbase to defend him because of his public expressions of RSD. So yes, my theory is that Dream knows how to levy every aspect of his life for his personal gain and for the growth of his brand, and that includes his ADHD. I think he has courage for his openess about his ADHD, I think his openness has contributed to the rise in awareness of mental health and empathy for neurodivergent people within Gen Z, and I think at least some of his expressions of RSD publicly/online weren’t intentionally made public. All that being said, I also think he has to know just how much his fanbase cares about defending him for his ADHD, and I think he has to know that some of the things he does related to his neurodivergence endear him to his audience, in a coddling, baby-ing, mildly ableist sorta way.  Maybe this is all incredibly presumptuous of me. Of course, I can never know the real intentions behind any Dream video, Tweet, or stream. Maybe I’m just projecting, because I can see myself doing just this, if I had the maturity I had circa 2018-2019. Idfk know, man.

Sixth, I actually agree with you here, people probably do get more mad at his fanbase than him. Dream puts out content pretty seldomly, considering the frequency of content output for other Youtubers/streamers in his field/at his brand size. And yet, he has received masses of criticism. Considering that the things Dream himself does/says do not entirely correlate with the amount of criticism he receives, I think it’s a logical assumption that a lot of that criticism actually goes back to the size of his presence online, rather than the man himself. That is to say, because of the massive community he’s amassed, the exponential growth of his fanbase, their presence on every single social media site and in virtually every single Internet space/fandom, and the size of his metaphysical presence in his fields, Dream is much bigger than the man himself, so the criticism he receives will, at least in part, be a direct or indirect result of all these other aspects of the Dream brand.  Something I don’t think many Dream fans/stans, or even most MCYT fans in general, understand, is that Dream isn’t just “one guy” in the eyes of the Internet- at least, not anymore. He hasn’t been for nearly a year. Like Pewdiepie, Mr. Beast, and other CCs who have amassed similar levels of fame and wealth via Internet content creation, Dream is a brand now, and most people will treat him as such. He isn’t just some uwu soft boy playing Minecraft anymore. He is on a whole other level from any other MCYT in his friend circle or colleague interaction bubble. His words will never again live in a vaccum or private bubble, his friend circle will never again be under anything less than intense scrutiny, his past actions will never again be simple mistakes or silly errors, his words will never again be casual tweets or streams for laughs among a couple thousand followers. Dream’s name represents something much bigger than just the one man. As such, all aspects of his brand, including his fanbase, will tie back to him and, ultimately, to any general criticism of him.

I’m not saying I like any of this, and I actually think the evolution of influencers from people to a marketable brand with similar mechanisms, responsibilities, and liabilities as a corporation is some kind of late capitalism nightmare fuel; I’m just stating my own observations and theories as to why so much anti-Dream criticism seems to be directed at his fanbase, rather than him.

Seventh, he’s just a guy, you’re right, but I think a lot of the antis on Tumblr understand this more than you know. As I’ve seen it, the sentiment among much of the “DSMP stans DNI” crowd seems to be that of “Dream/other MCYTs are such ‘bad’ people, so why do their fans stick to these mediocre, racist men, when there are so many better people to watch/better content to consume?” We know this argument is flawed for many of the obvious reasons - the conflation of all MCYTs’ actions regardless of individual identity, the equating of a CC’s fanbase’s morality to that of the CC they enjoy watching, the exxageration of any error MCYT CCs have committed as bigotry/racism, the fundamental misunderstanding and misinformation that led antis to believe this exxageration of the facts, etc. But I want to focus on the general, underlying sentiment of, “why not watch someone better, when your creator is problematic?” Sometimes, I ask this of Dream stans. Yes, being mildly ignorant, getting involved in the scandals Dream has, and being a right-leaning/libertarian centrist in the recent past all seem like harmless things, all things considered. One could say Dream isn’t nearly as bad as many antis who are misinformed seem to believe, and that there are much worse CCs Dream stans could be watching and creating fan content for. But I think what Tumblr antis wonder is, aren’t there also much better MCYTs/CCs people could be watching and stanning? Because he’s just some guy, right? Is his content truly so exceptional or is he really so exceptional a person, that people have to stick by him, despite the things that spike up regarding his current or past actions? I think that’s what made me finally decide to stop watching Dream. I realized he was just Some Guy. The Dream Team was a comforting dynamic to indulge in, DNF was a cute ship to read and speculate about, and Manhunts were fun videos to watch; however, once the Reddit posts came out and I read them in-depth, the cost-benefit analysis tipped over to the “not worth it” side for me. I realized Dream’s content, while fun and comforting, was not entirely unique, and wasn’t worth sticking around for, given what I then knew about his past political leanings. If he is just Some Guy, then there are a hundred more like him out there. There a hundred more ships, a hundred more found family dynamics, a hundred more entertaining and skilled Minecraft players. So while I agree with you on the point of people being allowed to love him regardless because he is just a guy, at the end of the day, I think that, if we are to believe that sentiment or use that argument in such a manner, we should also understand the flip side- that, if he is just some guy, why is it worth sticking around? To that I say, maybe because people just enjoy the simple things they enjoy.

Anyways, I wholly agree with your tl;dr. Thanks for that insanely long ask, this was a fun thing to keep me occupied while I’ve been at work, facilitating Zoom sessions this whole morning.

[hermitreunited]

i love your tags on the post abt klaus’ cult bc i hate the whole cult plotline with a passion so anything kind of undermining it or pointing out it can be kind of scaled back or make it “better” (if possible) is greatly appreciated.

Cults are bad! They are really awful, and the people who run them are despicable. It’s totally natural to dislike cults being used as a wacky comic punchline, or to be averse to consuming stories with or about cults. I, however, am occasionally a true crime weirdo, so let me put some of my podcast hours to use and undermine a bit for you :)

What we see with Destiny’s Children reads a lot like an overzealous fan base to me. I’m not an expert like @sunriseseance, but they feel very much like Deadheads, which was the term for the Grateful Dead fans. Here’s my wikipedia information: the band started up in the 60s in the San Francisco counterculture scene, in the 70s Deadheads became known for following the band around in their hippie painted vans, and here’s a quote: "for many Deadheads, the band was a medium that facilitated experiencing other planes of consciousness and tapping into deep, spiritual wells that were usually the province of organized religion.” That… that sounds an awful lot like Destiny’s Children to me.

Here’s another wikipedia quote: “Before the term was invented, The Grateful Dead became one of the first cult acts in music.” The term ‘cult’ here is used as an adjective, the same meaning as calling Rocky Horror Picture Show a cult movie. It’s got a very dedicated fanbase - maybe not widespread appeal, it’s not the MCU, but the people who are into it tend to be really into it, and develop their own culture around how they take in the art. Throwing spoons at the screen when you watch The Room, following the Grateful Dead around in vans, this is stuff that cropped up in fan circles, centered around the object of devotion, but not behavior mandated by the movie or the band.

So, here actually is my moment to put my podcasts to use! There are some checklists aimed at outlining the signs of a cult, both the BITE model [x] and this list of characteristics from International Cultic Studies Association [x]. Destiny’s Children fits in very few ways. Yes, Klaus is the ‘leader,’ elevated to special status - ‘prophet.’ But ‘leader’ isn’t a very apt description, because of the stuff like we see in that gifset. He’s not dictating the thoughts or behaviors of the group, he’s not instituting control via manipulation, brainwashing, threats of violence or punishment. He’s not in control at all.

Yes, it’s a group of followers and yes they live in a commune environment, but that’s not something that’s inherently bad. Who among us would not want to go live on a farm, be gay, and eschew capitalism? 

There is no indication that Klaus is forcing people to live in a certain place or in certain ways, he’s not cutting off all communication to the outside world, he’s not constantly bombarding them with propaganda and fostering a persecuted ‘us vs. them’ mentality. Frankly, the opposite is what we see. He runs away from them, he wishes they would leave him alone and get out of his house. He is not eager to ‘share more of his wisdom’ and he has no say in how his words get interpreted.

And that’s not to say he hasn’t done anything wrong. He certainly lied and fostered a perception of himself as a divine figure. He didn’t care enough about the repercussions of that, and not taking responsibility for what he had created allowed the situation to get very out of hand. That’s not admirable. 

BUT it’s also why he’s not a dangerous cult leader - he has no control over the group. Because even with three years of devotees treating him as an object of worship, he never even tried to exert control over their minds, bodies, or lives.

[bzevon]

i’m just gonna send it to you since you were who i originally sent this stuff too so you already have the context for my rant here —

but just to go off abt the donos again for a sec?? luckily that whole bit is long since passed but like. unless kids are taking their parents cards or something, we can very much presume the people donating this are people who would have cards, meaning they’re late teens or adults donoing all that.

which... just for context i don’t have any specific donos to quote verbatim (i didn’t ss or write any of them down but i can find actual examples of anyone asks) but a lot of them were just .... weird? like i don’t know if anyone noticed it but there were a lot of people donating very uncomfortable content which wasn’t nsfw or inherently weird as a statement, just really fuckin weird to donate to a streamer in front of 60k people?? there were those “ranboo i love you” donos that didn’t give off regular appreciative viewer vibes, there was one i saw that i don’t fully remember the exact wording of but it was something abt possessive tubbo that was 100% shippy? and not even to mention the like - at one point two people were straight up arguing through donos abt chronic illness and several others that described their mental health in extremely unnecessary detail when trying to say ranboo was their comfort streamer?? and sure they disappeared quickly but like. what the fuck lmao?? i understand wanting to appreciate a streamer but you 1) don’t go into excessive detail abt ur life and 2) you don’t get super fuckin weird???

and on another note chat is getting way too comfy with blatant eb shipping stuff in chat... like, i think having the eb community is fine because we’re completely separate from the streamers main social media and we already do everything we can to still have a community while preventing people from just stumbling upon it because we know that it’s problematic - but chat is so fucking bad abt it. beetwt is relatively fine given beetwt is the entire community as a whole, but chat specifically and the way people act in chat is actually kind of disgusting? i’ve seen so many “this is definitely fruity” “they’re flirting so much omg” “tubbo is so sus” (specifically after any kind of eb joking implication) type messages and dear god that’s so. man. i mean i know we on ebblr do essentially the same thing but at least we’re fucking like, respectful about it? and we know when to back off about something?? and we certainly aren’t going to go into streamer’s chats with this kind of comments and content??? man. just man - vod anon

^^^^^

for the weirdchamp ranboо donos, it’s unfortunately probably because he interacts with his fanbase a lot, which creates the parasocial illusion that he actually genuinely cares about every single one of his viewers (and there’s like 90k of them, it’s just unrealistic and we should know that because he’s a streamer, not our friend) but it makes people more comfortable donating weird stuff to him :/

i’ve also seen a bunch of borderline homophobic comments in both of their chats, a place where theres a real chance they’ll see it, and i shouldn’t be too worried because they’ve both got pretty thick skin, but it’s just, man.

[hayaosmiyazaki]

Don't get me started on James "Rhodey" Rhodes?

i love rhodey so much. we should’ve gotten a war machine show & ill be mad abt it forever. honestly rhodey is the only side character that marvel has gotten consistently right (besides that scene in infinity war) like his story is interesting! he has strong morals that he sticks to and he’s not just a plot device like some other more popular side characters are but he gets paid dust by the fanbase. im gonna start putting these under read mores bc this is LONG FJHD

send me “don’t get me started” + a topic and ill rant about it

i appreciate all the ppl who write rhodey meta and make rhodey sets/art and write fic w/ rhodeys relationships because otherwise this dumb fanbase would just forget abt him lmao. like the tags of the rhodey set i made last week are all “most underrated character!” “why don’t we talk about rhodey more!” like YEAH why not!!! the racists here would rather talk abt characters who’ve shown up for two seconds (like coulson after the avengers) and pairings with characters who have never fucking interacted or interacted ONCE like tony x loki and clint x coulson has how many more times the amount of fic on ao3 than rhodeytony??? sorry but rhodeytony is literally the best mcu ship bar none and ppl would rather ignore it for their white boy ships that make absolutely no sense. on rhodeytony sets ppl are always replying/in the tags like “wow brothers for life” “what a good best friend” HELLO ?’$;@4$3?2 ppl could literally gif the scene of rhodey complimenting tony’s blindfold on the plane while tony invites him to a threesome and still call them brothers like this fanbase makes me wanna scream sometimes. and don’t even get me started on the way ppl insist on trying to erase carol’s relationship with rhodey... anyways. not to mention rhodey is not just tony’s reluctant babysitter or something which ppl also try to reduce him to, he has his own important obligations & his own motives too like the man literally has a degree in rocket science. he’s a genius too. plus he is always willing to counter tony? he doesn’t just go along with everything he does lmao AGAIN he has his own mind and morals and purpose which is a lot more than some other characters have!!!! and he has interesting friendships with other characters! his bond with nebula was one of the only good parts of endgame and i wish we had gotten more of it, plus his friendship with nat 🥺 this is so long sorry but yeah ilove him

[gayspock]

for the character ask .. mickey dr who … :]

YES YES THANK YOU (DROPS AN ESSAY)

How I feel about this character: i'll defend mickey to the fucking grave. both the show and so much of the fanbase do him a GREAT disservice.... rtd era is, like, my favourite era of doctor who - but it treated its black companions like fucking dirt, and sooo much of the fandom also just follows suit in that sentiment it STINKS -_-. ive seen ppl call him abusive, baselessly- and its like... im sorry, but when and where?

he was a shitty boyfriend at the beginning of the series, that's true. but he was just up his own arse in a way where its like... yah, sucks, but a lot of ppl are at that age. and besides, rose wasnt so great to him either - jesus, i'd insist she never DOES start to treat him with respect onscreen. but, like, in s1 they were both, like, 19... and theres a lot of ppl who havent rlly figured stuff out properly either and arent in totally sparkling relationships. i think its rlly weird how they take his scenes from the beginning of s1e1, and just characterise him as an utter jerk bc of that.

and its also, like- like ALL of that aside i think its why i like him a lot as a character. he does actually go through quite a fucking lot, yknow? and unlike the mainstay companions, its something heclearly did not want at the beginning. like a lot of them CHOSE to live life tangential to the doctor- he was just kinda dragged into it despite being v fucking terrified, which is truthfully quite fair yah.but by the end of his tenure on the show hes completely different!? and like- dont get me wrong, i LOVE all arcs on the show regarding companions, and what they bring but... there's something abt that, that i just really do admire a lot. i feel like changing, like, your very nature- that's so much more? and again this- IM NOT TRYING TO SHIT ON ROSE... I SWEAR I AM NOT. bc i do love rose- i just think the show itself did revere her in this sort of way. which, hey! makes sense for it to do- whilst its not inherently from the doctor's perspective, it was very much their story being told a lot of the time, so it does make a lot of sense... but again like i said before.

i feel like rose never did end up respecting mickey and in turn it feels like she gets a lot more applause for a lot... less? same happened to poor fucking martha. but again uh. thats going back to the thing abt rtd era who kinda disrespecting black companions, and writing them BOTH in positions where they're second fiddle to the main romance and constantly putting them down / comparing them to it in the process.

. and god- backtracking a bit, im so glad they did what they did with him in s2. like thats such a defining moment where its like my little king rlly has changed... where he sat down and CHOSE to stay in the parallel universe to fight like GODDD. (screams and punches the ground) like i eat that shit up like MAD... like are you KIDDING me. (starts ripping shit apart) bc he didnt have anyone... sniff sniff. he didnt have anyone so he just left and he went somewhere where he DID have people.

All the people I ship romantically with this character FUNNILY ENOUGH? i dont rlly ship anyone with him. i mean- i like people entertaining the foursome 9/rose/jack/mickey idea. so true besties- im not trying to be a hater, but they all had so much more chemistry in boom town alone than the fam from chibnalls era ever rlly managed to get to. that being said, i think if you're like.... actually taking that FURTHER-furhter, whilst i thibk their dynamic is sweet and like. it does work in that episode i dont really run with it in, like, seriousness just bc of how it doesnt work so much within the context of the show- its moreso a cute little insight into a different reality...

and then, i know he ends up with martha (ambiguously?) but eh!! im not against it- i just feel like it was an odd, "lets just stick them both together" even though martha already had like a guy they mentioned she was engaged to and whatever... it was really weird??? I MEAN- like i think they have A LOT of similarities when it comes to wht i was saying above with the doctor... but i think thats where their dynamic sort of ends for me, with what they have? which isnt to say they'd suck together- maybe if we got to see them, i could really come to like it (i could see them being cute, and having nice back and forth!) but instead ive always been a little... ambivalent, i suppose, bc the thought of them dating just bc of their odd dynamic witrh the doctor feels... counter to what their own personal journeys were, if that makes sense? yeah<3

what i will say, bc i love to bring it up every time. the fact that rickey, his parallel universe self, was canonically dating jake (who: sorry to insert this, but hiii- that's my uncle's ex, not to brag... smirk) was confirmed in a DELETED SCENE still makes me furious like PUT IT IN. PUT IT BACK IN. that's also why i think mickey is confirmed not straight. <3 (though i dont ship MICKEY-mickey with jake, bc i think that's a little... :( after what happened to rickey like noo but i think he'd be an important person in his life after the fact)

My non-romantic OTP for this character also going back to the 9/rose/jack/mickey dynamic. i think it works really good friendship wise, too. in any sort of combination- both rose and mickey, jack and mickey, 9 and mickey.... i think again its a thing more out of the context of the show. rose and mickey especially- though i suppose they'd definitely work as better friends and closer, post canon.

ODDLY enough i dont rlly like 10 and mickey being friends bc i feel like their interactions in the show always felt weirdly ... cruel? in a way 9s never were. or maybe thats me. like- 9 was a bit of a dick but that was just him. 10 was, like, specifically more cruel to mickey it always felt like. and eh thats not a vibe for me personally.

My unpopular opinion about this character honestly everything i said about him being disrespected. i still see so much shit about him it sucks.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

i think (waves hand at above) everything like... regarding just tweaks with scenes with him, all over the place. ultimately i want the show to do right by him, yknow? and thats vague as hell, but yeah. i think you can kinda guess wht i mean abt that from my first ramble. just stuff to round him out bc i do think he is so underrated.

and if it werent for the parallel universe part.... i'd have liked to see him come back, actually. i never liked how moffat hard reset everything and refused to let different companions meet. i get why you might want that as a showrunner (and funnily enough: i dont think chibnall handled jack THAT well in all honesty) but he is a type that i do think, with martha, could have made more returns. AND UHM- ALSO, THAT IS.... I AM TALKING EXCLUSIVELY ABOUT HIS CHARACTER HERE. i dont want him to actually be brought back any more after all the crap that happened with noel- no duh...

and also. hell. i would have loved to have seen him join torchwood, back when it was airing... i think he'd fit in really nicely and couldhave rounded out the team in a fun way.