#yesterday i found some of them on twitter

[ivorydice]

Torn between feeling incredibly amused and kinda bummed out that an old screenshot of mine that people reposted around is now on some officially licensed collab clothing thing. Like. Aww. But also lmaoooooooo.

[hydrachea]

I’ve always loved the dynamic between the ot3 we've had since 1.0 and with firefly joining the party it instantly became an ot4 for me lol so that's fun! Speaking of firefly infantilization, I absolutely agree with what you said and what’s sad is you know damn well that if the person inside SAM was a man people would’ve cared to explore the odd connection & parallels between “him” & blade beyond “dad & daughter 🥺” posting (not to mention the fact that she’s much older than him). And she literally told kafka to “stop playing with her food” in the jepella trailer. They're partners & equals, not a nuclear family 💀

It's the exact same for me! Well, except I started playing in 1.3, but don't worry about it. As soon as Firefly's identity as a Stellaron Hunter was leaked (wow that was a while ago now) I started waiting to see how they'd portray her relationship with the other three, since they all already had a great dynamic - and wow did 2.2 and 2.3 not disappoint. She joined the ot3 now ot4 easily!

Alas, infantilization is just the fandom fate of any short young looking woman with a man she's close to in her life. Over on Genshin's side, Sigewinne still largely gets treated as Wriothesley's daughter even though she literally saw him grow up and clearly acts like an adult. Nevermind that she, just like Firefly, is the much older one of the two. Just because Firefly actively tries to enjoy her short life in as many ways as she can experience instead of brooding 90% of the time like Blade doesn't automatically mean he's older or more mature... He's just depressed.

That said! There are people with very nice takes out there, even if they aren't directly ship. And since I too am very interested in the dynamic between Blade and Firefly, given their respective situations and wishes - have you seen this comic yet? Only part 1 is out and I don't know if the webnovel (fic?) it's based on exists in English, but just that part 1 is so nice.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You should be using an RSS reader

On OCTOBER 23 at 7PM, I'll be in DECATUR, GEORGIA, presenting my novel THE BEZZLE at EAGLE EYE BOOKS.

No matter how hard we all wish it were otherwise, the sad fact is that there aren't really individual solutions to systemic problems. For example: your personal diligence in recycling will have no meaningful impact on the climate emergency.

I get it. People write to me all the time, they say, "What can I change about my life to fight enshittification, or, at the very least, to reduce the amount of enshittification that I, personally, experience?"

It's frustrating, but my general answer is, "Join a movement. Get involved with a union, with EFF, with the FSF. Tell your Congressional candidate to defend Lina Khan from billionaire Dem donors who want her fired. Do something systemic."

There's very little you can do as a consumer. You're not going to shop your way out of monopoly capitalism. Now that Amazon has destroyed most of the brick-and-mortar and digital stores out of business, boycotting Amazon often just means doing without. The collective action problem of leaving Twitter or Facebook is so insurmountable that you end up stuck there, with a bunch of people you love and rely on, who all love each other, all hate the platform, but can't agree on a day and time to leave or a destination to leave for and so end up stuck there.

I've been experiencing some challenging stuff in my personal life lately and yesterday, I just found myself unable to deal with my usual podcast fare so I tuned into the videos from the very last XOXO, in search of uplifting fare:

https://www.youtube.com/@xoxofest

I found it. Talks by Dan Olson, Cabel Sasser, Ed Yong and many others, especially Molly White:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTaeVVAvk-c

Molly's talk was so, so good, but when I got to her call to action, I found myself pulling a bit of a face:

But the platforms do not exist without the people, and there are a lot more of us than there are of them. The platforms have installed themselves in a position of power, but they are also vulnerable…

Are the platforms really that vulnerable? The collective action problem is so hard, the switching costs are so high – maybe the fact that "there's a lot more of us than there are of them" is a bug, not a feature. The more of us there are, the thornier our collective action problem and the higher the switching costs, after all.

And then I had a realization: the conduit through which I experience Molly's excellent work is totally enshittification-proof, and the more I use it, the easier it is for everyone to be less enshittified.

This conduit is anti-lock-in, it works for nearly the whole internet. It is surveillance-resistant, far more accessible than the web or any mobile app interface. It is my secret super-power.

It's RSS.

RSS (one of those ancient internet acronyms with multiple definitions, including, but not limited to, "Really Simple Syndication") is an invisible, automatic way for internet-connected systems to public "feeds." For example, rather than reloading the Wired homepage every day and trying to figure out which stories are new (their layout makes this very hard to do!), you can just sign up for Wired's RSS feed, and use an RSS reader to monitor the site and preview new stories the moment they're published. Wired pushes about 600 words from each article into that feed, stripped of the usual stuff that makes Wired nearly impossible to read: no 20-second delay subscription pop-up, text in a font and size of your choosing. You can follow Wired's feed without any cookies, and Wired gets no information about which of its stories you read. Wired doesn't even get to know that you're monitoring its feed.

I don't mean to pick on Wired here. This goes for every news source I follow – from CNN to the New York Times. But RSS isn't just good for the news! It's good for everything. Your friends' blogs? Every blogging platform emits an RSS feed by default. You can follow every one of them in your reader.

Not just blogs. Do you follow a bunch of substackers or other newsletters? They've all got RSS feeds. You can read those newsletters without ever registering in the analytics of the platforms that host them. The text shows up in black and white (not the sadistic, 8-point, 80% grey-on-white type these things all default to). It is always delivered, without any risk of your email provider misclassifying an update as spam:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/10/dead-letters/

Did you know that, by default, your email sends information to mailing list platforms about your reading activity? The platform gets to know if you opened the message, and often how far along you've read in it. On top of that, they get all the private information your browser or app leaks about you, including your location. This is unbelievably gross, and you get to bypass all of it, just by reading in RSS.

Are your friends too pithy for a newsletter, preferring to quip on social media? Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get an RSS feed from Insta/FB/Twitter, but all those new ones that have popped up? They all have feeds. You can follow any Mastodon account (which means you can follow any Threads account) via RSS. Same for Bluesky. That also goes for older platforms, like Tumblr and Medium. There's RSS for Hacker News, and there's a sub-feed for the comments on every story. You can get RSS feeds for the Fedex, UPS and USPS parcels you're awaiting, too.

Your local politician's website probably has an RSS feed. Ditto your state and national reps. There's an RSS feed for each federal agency (the FCC has a great blog!).

Your RSS reader lets you put all these feeds into folders if you want. You can even create automatic folders, based on keywords, or even things like "infrequently updated sites" (I follow a bunch of people via RSS who only update a couple times per year – cough, Danny O'Brien, cough – and never miss a post).

Your RSS reader doesn't (necessarily) have an algorithm. By default, you'll get everything as it appears, in reverse-chronological order.

Does that remind you of anything? Right: this is how social media used to work, before it was enshittified. You can single-handedly disenshittify your experience of virtually the entire web, just by switching to RSS, traveling back in time to the days when Facebook and Twitter were more interested in showing you the things you asked to see, rather than the ads and boosted content someone else would pay to cram into your eyeballs.

Now, you sign up to so many feeds that you're feeling overwhelmed and you want an algorithm to prioritize posts – or recommend content. Lots of RSS readers have some kind of algorithm and recommendation system (I use News, which offers both, though I don't use them – I like the glorious higgeldy-piggeldy of the undifferentiated firehose feed).

But you control the algorithm, you control the recommendations. And if a new RSS reader pops up with an algorithm you're dying to try, you can export all the feeds you follow with a single click, which will generate an OPML file. Then, with one click, you can import that OPML file into any other RSS reader in existence and all your feeds will be seamlessly migrated there. You can delete your old account, or you can even use different readers for different purposes.

You can access RSS in a browser or in an app on your phone (most RSS readers have an app), and they'll sync up, so a story you mark to read later on your phone will be waiting for you the next time you load up your reader in a browser tab, and you won't see the same stories twice (unless you want to, in which case you can mark them as unread).

RSS basically works like social media should work. Using RSS is a chance to visit a utopian future in which the platforms have no power, and all power is vested in publishers, who get to decide what to publish, and in readers, who have total control over what they read and how, without leaking any personal information through the simple act of reading.

And here's the best part: every time you use RSS, you bring that world closer into being! The collective action problem that the publishers and friends and politicians and businesses you care about is caused by the fact that everyone they want to reach is on a platform, so if they leave the platform, they'll lose that community. But the more people who use RSS to follow them, the less they'll depend on the platform.

Unlike those largely useless, performative boycotts of widely used platforms, switching to RSS doesn't require that you give anything up. Not only does switching to RSS let you continue to follow all the newsletters, webpages and social media accounts you're following now, it makes doing so better: more private, more accessible, and less enshittified.

Switching to RSS lets you experience just the good parts of the enshitternet, but that experience is delivered in manner that the new, good internet we're all dying for.

My own newsletter is delivered in fulltext via RSS. If you're reading this as a Mastodon or Twitter thread, on Tumblr or on Medium, or via email, you can get it by RSS instead:

https://pluralistic.net/feed/

Don't worry about which RSS reader you start with. It literally doesn't matter. Remember, you can switch readers with two clicks and take all the feeds you've subscribed to with you! If you want a recommendation, I have nothing but praise for Newsblur, which I've been paying $2/month for since 2011 (!):

https://newsblur.com/

Subscribing to feeds is super-easy, too: the links for RSS feeds are invisibly embedded in web-pages. Just paste the URL of a web-page into your RSS reader's "add feed" box and it'll automagically figure out where the feed lives and add it to your subscriptions.

It's still true that the new, good internet will require a movement to overcome the collective action problems and the legal barriers to disenshittifying things. Almost nothing you do as an individual is going to make a difference.

But using RSS will! Using RSS to follow the stuff that matters to you will have an immediate, profoundly beneficial impact on your own digital life – and it will appreciably, irreversibly nudge the whole internet towards a better state.

Tor Books as just published two new, free LITTLE BROTHER stories: VIGILANT, about creepy surveillance in distance education; and SPILL, about oil pipelines and indigenous landback.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/10/16/keep-it-really-simple-stupid/#read-receipts-are-you-kidding-me-seriously-fuck-that-noise

[bemusedlybespectacled]

what's happening with James Somerton right now: a probably-incomplete primer

TW: suicide, including suicide as a threat and a manipulation tactic.

The short version:

James Somerton is a former Youtube essayist who focused entirely on queer history, queer media criticism, and queer issues in general. He is also a flagrant grifter who has made tens of thousands of dollars via fraud, both directly (lying about his finances to beg for money and getting donations for films he never even started making) and indirectly (stealing whole essays and articles and books, reading them out loud verbatim for his videos without indicating they were anything other than his own work, and then using the prestige he gained from using their work to get Patrons and sponsorships).

The story as told James and James apologists was that James attempted to apologize twice, was hounded mercilessly on the internet for weeks, and then, driven to the end of his rope, he posted a suicide note on Twitter, was MIA for several days, and from then on has been avoiding the internet.

The actual story, as revealed yesterday, was that James used two sockpuppet accounts to defend himself and parrot his talking points (again, while publicly claiming to be trying to take responsibility for his actions), using one to try to rebrand the con under a different name and another to deliberately stoke the panic caused by his suicide note. He was not only aware of the pain and anxiety he was causing people, but he encouraged it on one alt while hornyposting about his favorite movies on the other.

He is an unrepentant con artist who successfully used a suicide threat to prevent further interference with future cons. The only reason he was caught is because he is apparently incapable of going more than a couple of weeks without trying to get back in the internet spotlight, allowing people to tie his alts back to him. He lies for fun and profit and he should not be taken seriously, ever.

The long version:

In December 2023, Youtube essayist Hbomberguy (Harry Brewis) put out a four-hour-long video about plagiarism on the internet, and devoted two hours to addressing as much of JS's plagiarism as he could. I strongly recommend watching the entire thing, as the first two hours build on the concepts that he uses later in the video.

He also blew the whistle on James' fraud surrounding Telos, a studio James founded using thousands of dollars of IndieGoGo money that never actually produced any films despite him definitely working on them! Any day now they'll be released! Don't you worry!

A day later, Todd in the Shadows, a guy whose entire thing is music reviews, posted his own video debunking multiple outright lies that James had told about history, especially queer history. A few more days later, The Ace Couple, who run a podcast about asexuality, released an episode detailing how they'd lost $1.5k donating to Telos.

I have put the videos, Twitter threads, Patreon posts, and Reddit posts by other people discussing different aspects of James' fraud under the cut.

Every other time James was caught plagiarizing, prior to Harry's video, he would lie about it. Either he'd have some excuse (easily proven to be a lie) or he'd retreat to his favorite deflection: "I'm just being harassed because I'm gay."

This last lie was one he'd use not only to deflect accusations of plagiarism, but all criticism in general, no matter how trivial. Every time, the critic or someone associated with them would somehow dox him, or harass him, or send him death threats, or threaten to falsely accuse him of sexual assault.

This happened to The Ace Couple (who'd tried to correct him on something extremely acephobic in one of his videos), Jessie Gender (who'd tried to correct him when he claimed that there were no queer content creators on Nebula, given that she and a bunch of other queer creators were definitely on that platform), and the person who first blew the whistle on him stealing from Tinker Belles and Evil Queens by Sean Griffin (who was accused of being behind death threats he'd received, and hounded so harshly they had to leave Twitter).

It is important to note that every time James faced potentially damaging criticism, or even just a threat to his ego, suddenly he would claim to be harassed by people connected to the critic, including threats to his life. There has never been any proof of any threats being directed at him, nor evidence that, if the threats were real, that they are actually from people connected to the critic.

In the original video by Hbomberguy, Harry makes a compelling argument that James brought on a friend of his, Nick, as a co-writer specifically as a shield against accusations of plagiarism. "How dare you accuse me of plagiarism! Nick would NEVER do that!" This is even more apparent given subsequent developments which I will get into.

When evidence started dropping about different aspects of his fraud (not only Harry's video, but Todd in the Shadows' video debunking his misinfo, The Ace Couple's podcast about their experience donating to his fraudulent film studio, and Dan Olson's tweet thread about James' obvious lies about his finances), he went into hiding for two weeks, and then put out the first of two apologies. He then deleted that one and put out another one a few weeks later. And then he immediately deleted that one.

While his first apology was rambling, vague, and dramatic (lots of sniffing/crying), and his second was more measured, thought-out, and totally batshit (lots of hilariously and bizarrely implausible excuses for why he'd done what he'd done), they had roughly the same points:

Not ALL of his stuff was plagiarized! Actually, a lot of it wasn't! No specifics as to what, though!

Most of the stuff that was plagiarized was just a failure to properly cite sources, as he had no idea that putting someone's name in your end credits or video description (without specifying what parts are attributable to that person or disclosing that you are using their words verbatim) is not sufficient credit,

Also, he totally had permission, in some cases, to use their work verbatim prior to publishing the video (this is not true, and is disproven both in Harry's video and his own screenshots);

He definitely didn't commit fraud with Telos and would soon have a good explanation for where the money went! (he did not)

He was going to keep the videos up so that he could either donate the funds from any monetization to the fund Harry had set up for his victims or to "help Nick's portfolio" by showcasing his work;

He lost his best friend (i.e. Nick) over these allegations, who absolutely definitely wasn't a scapegoat, except Nick was also responsible for a lot of the stuff James was being criticized for;

He was going to keep the videos up so he could either donate the advertising proceeds to Harry's fund for his victims (first apology) or to "help Nick's portfolio" by showcasing the work he'd done; and

As a result of this entire ordeal, he had attempted either self-harm or suicide (he merely alluded to "doing something stupid").

Again, his response was to 1) downplay the severity of his actions or flat out ignore allegations against him, 2) come up with ridiculous excuses for his behavior, 3) throw Nick under the bus, and 4) claim to be in mortal danger. As far as I am aware, he has never taken any concrete action to make amends to any person, not even donating money to charity.

This was coupled with some kind of attempt to profit: monetizing his apology videos, closing and then reopening his Patreon right before the monthly charge cycle happened (totally to let people unfollow him, not at all as a grab for that money), creating a new Patreon under a different name, and changing his Twitter and Youtube handles to distance himself from the controversy while gathering new followers.

At one point (I forget if this was on Twitter or Instagram), he also said that someone had broken into his apartment due to the notoriety he'd received from Harry's video. I believe that was after his first apology, when people started to point out that he'd just changed the name of his Twitter and Youtube channel and had restarted a new Patreon under a pseudonym. (BTW, the pseudonym he used for his new Patreon was "The Gay Raconteur"; this will be important later).

It had what I think was the desired effect: any attempt at pointing out that he was rebranding his grift now came across as weirdly fixated on minor things he was doing, which certainly wasn't worth putting him in physical danger. (Again, he has never provided any proof of this happening, nor provided any evidence that these people allegedly threatening him were, in fact, in some way inspired by Hbomb).

So along comes March 5, 2024, and James posts a suicide note on his Twitter, saying that he is going to set up his videos to automatically publish (for Nick's portfolio), provide in some way for the ad revenue to go to a suicide prevention nonprofit, and then kill himself.

The immediate response from the internet was compassion and totally chilling any further criticism, since you might be callously criticizing a dead person. Harry and Kat worked for a couple of days to get a wellness check for him while a substantial section of the internet called them murderers.

On March 6, a day after the note was published, Nick tweeted that that he had cause to believe James was fine. Kat confirmed that James was safe on March 11. Due to the drama of the "suicide attempt," however, the chill on criticizing James stayed in place for months.

And then yesterday Lady Emily, one of the cowriters for Sarah Z., drops two more bombs:

James has not one but two alt accounts that he was using to rebrand and start over.

The first one was created between his first and second apologies, and originally was for "The Gay Raconteur" until he changed it to "Will"/"thatgayyouknow" and, later, "The Achillean Boy."

The second one was much older, under the pseudonym "Mikey JB," and used stolen pictures from Grindr instead of his own face. However, it is pretty obvious that it is, in fact, a sockpuppet account and not just some other person who happens to like James, as detailed below.

Both accounts, both between apologies and after his "suicide," talked about how criticism of James was unfair because the plagiarized stuff was "like a decade old" and repeating the same excuses that James had also made.

The "Mikey JB" account not only supported James, but actively threw Nick under the bus, saying that a criticized part of a video "reeks of his co-writer."

On March 6, the day after James' main Twitter posted the suicide note, The Achillean Boy account was hornyposting about Ryan Phillipe. James didn't even take a day or two off of Twitter. If he had been completely off Twitter for a couple of days, that could have been an indication that he really had hurt himself and was unable to access his phone, or at the very least unaware of the panic. But he wasn't. He was aware of it and did nothing. Actually, no! Worse than nothing!

On the same day (March 6), the Mikey JB account was actively contradicting Nick saying he was okay (they "haven't spoken in months" so there's no way Nick could know if he was alive) and saying that "people like you" i.e. his critics, "drove him to it." Not only did he ignore the panic he'd intentionally created, he actively drove it.

He saw people going emotionally through the wringer over the idea that they might have somehow caused his death, and intentionally made them keep thinking it. He say people calling his critics "murderers" for "driving him to his death," and he joined in.

Why am I explaining all of this? I want to make a couple of things extremely clear, and the context is necessary to my ultimate points, namely:

James Somerton didn't merely "credit people improperly;" he conned his followers out of more money than some people make in a year with the Telos con, while raking in thousands more per month on Patreon and buying expensive equipment, while claiming to be near insolvency and in desperate need of money.

James Somerton has never taken full responsibility for his actions or attempted to make amends. He has only ever tried to dodge responsibility, particularly by throwing Nick under the bus.

Every time he has ever been criticized, for any reason, he has lied about threats to his life to gain sympathy and quell criticism. This is a standard part of his MO. He has done this over and over and over again. At this point, I think if he says the sky is blue, someone should go out and check first before doing anything.

"But BB, what if he really is getting harassed/threatened or really is suicidal?"

So, okay: people who are attempting to manipulate you may use legitimate problems as a tool. It doesn't need to be fake to be effective - in fact, it might be more effective if it it's true. An abusive ex who says "if you leave me, I'll kill myself" and genuinely means it and actually attempts it (and possibly even succeeds!) is a lot harder to leave than someone who says the same thing but is clearly just bluffing, because the threat is real.

My rule of thumb in these cases is to treat the threat like it's real, without caving to the intended manipulation. Whether your ex is lying or telling the truth when they say, "I'll kill myself if you leave me," the appropriate response in both cases is to immediately call a mental health service or supportive family member. If it's fake, it's inconvenient for them; if it's real, you reacted appropriately. Your response needs to be the same regardless.

You don't get back together with them because it's a real threat (presumably you wouldn't do that if you knew it was fake and they were never in any danger), and you don't tell them that they're a piece of shit who should be dead (HOPEFULLY you wouldn't do that if you knew for a fact that they were telling the truth).

In this case, I am extremely confident in saying that he was coldbloodedly lying the entire time and was never once threatened, and certainly not to the degree he claimed to be. But even if he wasn't, that does not and should not change anyone's behavior in terms of holding him accountable.

And I mean actually holding him accountable: making sure he doesn't try to start a new con on new people, continuing to point out that he hasn't paid anyone back for his previous con (so long as it's still true), that sort of thing. It doesn't mean people should tell him he should go die for real or, I don't know, try to get him fired if he gets a job at Tim Horton's or Target or something else that's not fraud. That would be wrong regardless of whether he's actually in danger or not. The point is to avoid being cruel without negotiating with terrorists.

Video sources and links under the cut:

Links:

It's like Breaking Bad, but backwards: a brief history of how Somerton successfully screwed himself Dan Olson's Twitter thread about the financial fraud My Year With James: Todd's post explaining the backstory of his video (Patreon-locked) DJSO#: Dan Olson's breakdown of James' second apology (Patreon-locked) Lady Emily's Twitter threads revealing James' alt accounts, part 1 and part 2

[lemonmangosorbet]

Normally I wouldn't bother making a post like this but it came to my attention yesterday via a twitter thread that tumblr user fridaypls is using AI elements in their fanart. Now, if they were doing this because they didn't feel entirely confident in their artistic ability, and they were just doing this for fanart they posted online, then I'd shrug my shoulders and go "eh, whatever"

However, I then found out that fridaypls is selling this fanart and even making posts like "buy my Gale print and get Tim Downie to sign it" and I just can't sit idly by whilst someone makes profit off AI 'art' and there are so many other artists (myself included) trying to make a living off our own art.

The tweet thread about the use of AI by fridaypls can be viewed here and here but I'll also copy and paste some of the examples under a cut line in this post.

So far on twitter, fridaypls got wind of the thread going around about them and they deactivated their account rather than take accountability. I'm probably going to be blocked by them for making this post, but I encourage you to reblog this and spread the word and please, PLEASE don't buy artwork from someone using AI generated images. There are so many other hardworking artists out there making amazing fanart and merch that you can give your money to instead.

Examples from twitter:

[whosblackcat]

mini thread abt how to help riize & seunghan + info 🩷🫧

note & warning: please don’t engage with ANY content of riize, for example don’t comment in their tiktoks saying “riize is 7” even if your intention is good, it breaks the purpose of the boycott!!

mass report sm's US office!! you can report using the template in the link attached in the tweet or via email!! email: hrus@smtown.com

riize boycott version (mv, songs, shows, etc.)

reporting to korea’s human rights foundation site: koreahumanrights.org

sm will pull fake scandals to distract our attention from the matter, for example as they did with sungchan yesterday! don’t believe anything, exols warned us

tweet the trending tags on twitter!! big official fan accounts always share which ones we have to use

don't buy or watch anything related to riize & sm, we’re boycotting

don’t interact with any post of sm and riize even if it’s to use the tags or supporting the boys, we’re boycotting

all the info of what did one of the persons who sent the death wreaths

ot6 are complaining to the police & government abt the displays and flowers for seunghan in front of the sm building, and according to this person now it's not possible to put them in commercial facilities

sm is buying followers and likes due to the impact of the boycott

ot6 are monitoring every movement and project in every language and reporting them. @/RIIZEUSACENTRE kofi was reported because of them while raising trucks money

seunghan's leaked photo with his girlfriend was leaked by hybe

riize is seven movement schedule. day 1 october 28th

mass review 1 star to all sm facilities on google maps (note: they’re deleting the bad reviews but we have to keep going)

hybes’s ceo lee jae sang issues apology letter for the ‘music industry report’ document (a sorry is not enough after destroying hsh life & career)

seunghan town will be removed due to ot6 reports and company that they reported the project, causing making hard getting the needed permits

pineapple manager passed in front of the protest today, he def saw the protest

manager passed in front of the protest again, they know what’s going on

manager passed in front of the protest for the third time, and tomorrow is the meeting

riize is seven movement schedule november 6th

there’s a very popular lawyer who has won a case against sm before that right now is representing fans

riize doesn't have any schedule, comeback or tour for the first quarter of 2025. the boycott is working, keep going!

riize lost 400k monthly listeners on spotify

clarifications on rumors regarding hsh. the thread linked below explains it really well, so please read carefully and repost it on X!

this is all the info i found and i wanted to spread it here too, so thanks and credits to all the ppl on twitter!! if i find more relevant info i’ll keep updating this post. please share it 🫶🏻 (note: english isn't my first language, sorry for any mistakes in my grammar)

little motivation and some twitter accounts that organize projects/give info below the cut! 🩷

— some good info twitter accs:

@/RIIZEUSACENTRE @/SEVENRIIZE @/RIIZE_EUROPE @/PROTECT_RIIZE @/Seunghan_USA

— little motivation:

kbriize are holding face to face protests and fanbases hired an attorney. boycott properly if you don't want all the effort to be wasted! remember, boycotting takes time

"The group nearly disbanded in September of 2001, after Park Joon-hyung was discovered to be in a relationship. Their management announced, without informing him or the members, that he was to leave the group and they'd continue as 4, but it was met with strong objection from fans, who repeatedly signed petitions and threatened to boycott concerts and the company. Danny, Kyesang, Hoyoung and Taewoo held their own press conference, without the knowledge of their management, to show their support for Joon. After two months of disagreements, their company eventually backed down and allowed Joon to be in the group." if joon returned to the group after two months of protests, complains and boycott, we can bring back seunghan!! the key is persistence. please don't give up and keep fighting for his rights and justice!!

[harrysfolklore]

dog love - blurb

day 3!! if you’re still following along ilysm okay?💗

GIF BY @delicatepointofview <3

MASTERLIST | MY PATREON

//

Yours and Harry's relationship was still a secret to the world.

Even though both of you were famous for your careers and fans and media were always following your every step, you have managed to keep what you had to yourselves for six months now.

Rumors were out there, for sure. And they started when you decided to be in the crowd with Harry's friends for his final show in Reggio Emilia, instead of hiding from prying eyes backstage.

However, no one had really caught up that you were in a relationship, people just assumed that you were friends and you wanted to see the show.

Right now, you and Harry were spending a few months together in his London home, you decided to do that since soon you both would have to go back to your busy careers and be away from each other. You basically moved in to his place, with your dog included.

"Milo! Come over here buddy!" You called out for him, sitting on the den and watching play around Harry's backyard, "You're such a good boy!" You cooed at him when he curled up to you.

"What are you pals doing?" Harry asked, walking through the sliding door that connected the kitchen and the backyard, sitting down next to you and pecking your shoulder quickly.

"We're just hanging out over here," you turned your face to look at him, matching his soft smile, "But I think Milo is eager to go outside, poor thing couldn't go on his walk yesterday because of the rain."

"I can take him for a walk," Harry said, and you noticed that he was indeed dressed up to go outside, "I'm actually meeting with Brad in a few minutes, I can take him with me."

"Would you?" you asked, and he pecked your cheek, standing up and offering his hand so you could join him.

"Of course, love. I can pick up some wine and food on the way back for dinner, you stay here and relax."

You pecked his lips softly before speaking, "You're a dream," he smiled and pecked your lips again, "And you, be a good boy for H, okay?" you knelled down to pet Milo, and with a final kiss to Harry's lips they were off.

You took in Harry's words and decided to relax since you had the house to yourself, you filled up the bathtub, lit up a scented candle and put on some music, leaving your phone behind as you took a bubble bath.

When you were done in the bathroom and clad in one of Harry's soft hoodies, you grabbed your phone and decided to lurk on social media as you waited for Harry and Milo to come home.

You opened Tiktok, your explore page showing you some Harry videos, cute dogs and even some edits of yourself. When you got bored of scrolling there, you decided to open Twitter, which wasn't your favorite platform at all but every now and then you got there to see what fans were on about.

However, you were surprised to find out that what fans have been discussing over the last few hours was Harry walking your dog.

At first, you found funny that his fans were trying to decode if he had adopted a dog, or where did the dog had come from, not knowing hat it was your dog and you were practically living with him.

However, your mood changed when you scrolled down and saw that they somehow connected the dots and found out that the dog with Harry and Brad was your Milo.

You shook your head, surprised by how quickly fans could put the  pieces together, and not sure about how to feel about yours and Harry's relationship being exposed by your dog.

As in on cur, you heard Harry and Milo walking up the stairs to the bedroom, and soon you saw both of them enter the room.

"We're back, love!" Harry cheerfully said, sitting on the end of the bed and Milo staying close to him, "Brought the wine and some food, are you hungry yet?"

"I think Milo just exposed our relationship." You simply said, laughing and how comical the situation sounded out loud.

"What do you mean?" a confused look appeared on Harry's face, and you showed him your phone so he could see.

After a few minutes of scrolling to your Twitter and seeing what fans were saying, Harry couldn't help but find the situation comical too.

"Well, that's better than TMZ, right?"

taglist: @lightsoutstyles @willowpains @straightontilmornin @sleutherclaw @gimsaysay @hazzassmirk @platinumbarbie143 @musicforcinemas @celesteblack08 @scntfrhs @eleanordaisy @lomlolivia @iceebabies @iloveshawn @be-with-me-so-happily @watermelonsugacry @rayisthehoe @drewrry

[dervampireprince]

ASMR | Elden Ring - Messmer x Listener SFW Giving Comfort And Care To Touch-Starved Messmer

[M4A] [Reverse comfort] [Touch-starved Messmer] [Feelings confession] [First kiss] [Mentions of Messmer's abandonment by his mother] [Potential DLC spoilers] [Listener left ambiguous so can be non-tarnished, or tarnished who's made peace with Messmer]

So remeber how the first Astarion audio I made was done 3 hours after I found out he had sad lore in him and consumed every cutscene and read up on his lore and recorded an audio that night? Well... the same might have happened again. An artist I follow on Twitter (thank you ProxysArt) has been drawing and retweeting other drawings of him and I thought he was pretty and all but then I saw that his lore was sad and well... I went and did it again, watched every video I could find, read all the lore I could find on fanwikis, and recorded this a couple hours later. While I'm familiar with Elden Ring, I've never played it, only fell down some lore rabbit holes a couple years ago, but didn't remember much so apologies if I got any lore wrong. I've tried to also make this understandable without you needing to know anything about Elden Ring.

Because I recorded this yesterday and it wasn't planned in advance, I didn't have enough time to draw a thumbnail image. The image is a screenshot from Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Though honestly I have noticed that videos with photos or official images instead of my artwork seem to do better? I don't know if that's the algorithm pushes them more or non-subscribers are more enticed by photos instead of drawings?

.

Old public spicy audios on sound gasm (link in pinned post). 2 Exclusive spicy audios on Patreon every month. I also stream on Twitch every week @ dervampireprince . [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit any of my content]

[two-white-butterflies]

champion of the world | m33

Description: Rumors spread around about you breaking up with Max. Those rumors are put to rest with a simple string of posts.

Pairing: max verstappen/sainz!reader

992 comments 234k likes

joviesasnd: this is my great war, i fear

charlesleclerc128love: IF THEY BREAK UP I DON'T BELIEVE IN LOVE LOLLLLL

y/ncorner: yeah plus she hasn't appeared in his insta for 3 months - joviesasnd: she's only appeared once tho, they keep it private - carlossainzfanferrari: yeah keep ur noses out of their business 😭

y/nlurksontwitter

AWOOP JUMPSCARE @Carlossainz55

Carlossainz55: Hmmpphh - latoxica90: sound of max's car flying past yours

Charles_Leclerc: tw next time :) - y/nlurksontwitter: tw hermano 🤮

"Did you check twitter?" Max asked while opening the back door for you. He couldn't believe what he was seeing - apparently some celebrities found it appropriate to tag you in their thirst traps, under the premise that you were single. "No, why?" you frown - sitting on the back seat of your brother's car.

"They're saying that we broke up," he shows you the thread of posts, squeezing his body in the right passenger seat. "Wait, really?" you frown, reaching for your phone. To your surprise there were thousands of posts tagging you.

"Oh my god, where do they get this information." you rolled your eyes - also showing it to your brother in the driver's seat. A laugh escapes Carlos' mouth seeing one of the tweets about you: 'If I can't marry Carlos, I'll marry his sister.'

You turn your attention back to Max, watching as he scrolled through an entire thread of them. "I still like your posts, why are they saying that I don't?" he pouted and a giggle escapes your lips. "Well, let's put these rumors to rest." your lips settled into a thin line, opening your gallery and searching for photos of him and you.

yourname_sainz: my #1 crush 📸: @Charles_Leclerc

9128 comments 712,291 likes

y/nsainzismydaddy: sis said *shut up

carlossainz55: ferrari ❤️ - yourname_sainz: redbull 🧡 - landonorris: that's mcclaren 💀

maxverstappen1: 💕 - yourname_sainz: 🏅

maxverstappen1: I love you today 💪🏽 I love you yesterday, and I'll love you tomorrow. @yourname_sainz #OrangeArmy #Carlito

6719 comments 1,293,238 likes

landonorris: How was she taller than him as a kid? 🤣 - yourname_sainz: stupidity stunts growth 🤷🏻‍♀️ - - carlossainz55: that's why you didn't grow after that ✌🏼

yourname_sainz: second pic, right side is an eyesore - maxverstappen1: i agree, amor. -- y/nandcarlosfanbase: y/n i can speak spanish for u too

basedbarbie69

ya'll when max and y/n posted

alexademieisgoddess

y/n stans when their crush isn't single

[dollsorwhatever]

More Cleo

Some more Cleo updates since my last post about her on here! I mostly post on twitter nowadays but I like to keep this account somewhat up to date, especially since I can be more long-winded here lol "Casual" Cleo (rerooted Ghoul Spirit Cleo) is finally finished! She's been mostly finished for a month or so but I dragged my feet doing the hair rings lol.

They're inspired by a set of wig rings found in the tomb of Sithathoriunet (Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty), shown here at The Met and here in an earlier Met exhibit, displayed on reconstruction wigs.

I couldn't find any metal beads in the right sizes or color (and I wanted them to be the same shade of gold as her accessories) so I made these myself with a handful of coffee stirrers that I painted and cut into little rings lol Other than the hair rings, she's been given a pair of shoes since my last post (Goreganizer Cleo's shoes with the Skullettes dremeled off and painted), a new choker that I made by cutting MB Cleo's ponytail holder into separate pieces, sanding off a few parts and reassembling it (the cartouche on it actually spells her name btw!), a Gloom and Bloom Cleo purse that I painted to match her shoes and a new clasp on her kilt made with a G1 Cleo vanity bracelet. Also, it was pointed out to me yesterday that the hieroglyphs on this top (from G1 I Heart Fashion Cleo) spell out to say "oh my Ra" phonetically lol. A nice touch that I never noticed! And I also finished up this Cleo a while back but never posted her here lol

Her headdress is a heavily altered and repainted Monster Ball Cleo headdress; I just wanted the "core" of the headdress so I removed everything but the cow horns and sun disk with my dremel, then drilled a hole through the back and pinned it to her head lol. The bracelets are all g1 Nefera bracelets that I repainted (as well as Nefera's necklace) and her shoes are from Skulltimate Secrets Cleo but repainted to match the rest of her accessories, and the hair rings are repainted G1 sig/Howliday Cleo bracelets. The first two 'tiers' of hair are her original rooted hair, but the longest tier is an extension that I made and pinned to her head. My general idea is that this is something she'd wear for temple ceremonies or religious events, or as a model for portraiture and statuary that represents her as an embodiment of Hathor? Not sure! My SS2 Cleo custom got some small updates shortly after my last tumblr post about her, mostly just her new headdress and new fishnets that actually fit her lol

And finally a group shot of my current Cleo lineup:

Skulltimate Secrets Cleo (far left) and Goreganizer Cleo (second to the right) are still WIP but they look good enough to be part of the shot! I also have a partially rerooted Monster Ball Cleo waiting for a new fit too, but there's no room on this display for her and she's barely dressed anyway lol

[urfavskzlvr]

whoopsies?

SMUT UNDER THE CUT

MINORS DNI

Bangchan x GNreader 😻

you really didn't mean to. it was an accident. you didn't mean to find your best friends Onlyfans.

You were just on your couch on Twitter scrolling through. You came across a small clip of a guy teasing if he would take his shirt off. you could see his large bulge through his black sweats. you couldn't see his face but you still found it hot. you watch the video twice and you're turned on. fuck. it wouldn't hurt, would it? you click the link in the caption and it brings you to his onlyfans. $45?! Who does this guy think he is? well, he is really sexy... and you are horny... and you got paid yesterday... what's the worst that can happen?

you put in all the information and hit confirm. it unlocks a whole world of jack-off videos, whimper audios, and a plethora of boyfriend roleplays. holy shit. the fucking jackpot. which one do you choose first? you scroll aimlessly until something catches your eye. "Jack off instructions" goddamnit, it's perfect.

you click the video and it starts. you slip your hand into your pants.

"Hey love." you shut off your phone. what the fuck? it can't be. why did that guy sound like Chan? God no. you're just mistaken. you have to be. you open your phone again and press play again.

"here's a new gift for you. I know sometimes you need a little hel-" You shut it off again. it's him. it sounds exactly like him. his accent, his tone, it has to be him. what are you supposed to do? you just spent $45 on your best friend's Onlyfans.

just ignore it until it goes away, that works. But you are still really horny. no you wouldn't. but you just paid $45, might as well put it to good use. HE'S YOUR BEST FRIEND THAT'S WEIRD. but he's so sexy. what if he finds out? but what if he doesn't? what he doesn't know can't hurt him. fuck it. you open your phone and continue to watch the video.

"I'm only here to help you feel some relief. if you're not already, go ahead and start touching yourself, slowly. you can listen, right?" shit. you feel your face starting to get hot. this is your best friend and you are currently jerking off to his voice, on his Onlyfans.

"you're doing so well. such a pretty look for you. do you want a little more? go ahead, go a little faster." why are you listening? why are you doing this? you feel so gross, but so incredibly good.

"you want to cum? hm? go faster, baby" you let out a small groan as he says baby. you listen and go faster. fuck. it's so good. you feel yourself being embarrassingly close.

"you can hold out for me, can't you, love? or maybe you can't. such a greedy baby." holy shit. your body shakes as you inch closer and closer. "i guess you've been good enough to cum. go ahead. cum for me, baby" your body jolts forward as you finally go over the edge. your legs shake wildly and you feel like your heart is about to jump out of your chest.

"you did so good, baby. look at you. so needy for me." he chuckles. you lay there looking up at the ceiling while trying to catch your breath. you can feel your arousal in your underwear. how the fuck did you just cum that hard? you feel embarrassed and ashamed. you just came the most you have to your best friend's voice. you want him to come and lick it up. WHAT? don't be thinking such things.

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

heyyyyyy

sorry if it seems short or unfinished. i hope you liked it either way <3

Pt. 2? 👀👀

reblogs, comments, and ASKS highly appreciated <3 (please leave me asks i love doing them so much)

Okay. love you bye <33

[leothil]

so i kind of took a hiatus for the first month the season was airing from episode 1 all the way to episode 6, so any chance you can link me to some fic recs that i missed during that time span by any chance. i think that was march to late april?

Hi, thanks for asking and sorry for the wait, but I was busy all day yesterday. Here's some I found in my log:

the going water and the gone by @try-set-me-on-fire, where Eddie goes missing in the cruise disaster and is presumed dead. 31.5k words, rated T

illicit affairs by @burnthatbridge where Buck realizes he's bi and starts dating men, but isn't sure how well he'll do at sex with them, so Eddie offers to help him out. It's not cheating when he's just helping out his best friend, right? Note that as of now it's unfinished, but I'd argue it's still worth seeing their stupidity at work. 42.6k words, rated E

hearts will hold by farfromthstars (@doeeyeseddie) where Eddie keeps canceling plans with Marisol to hang out with Buck instead. 3.1k words, rated G

don’t wanna let you love somebody else but me by fleetinghearts (@shitouttabuck) where Buck and Eddie pretend-date each other during Chimney's bachelor party to be able to give Christopher advice about dating. 14.7k words, rated T

put my heart inside your palms by @markofalover where Buck accidentally calls Eddie baby and Eddie is overcome with love. 3k words rated T

every evening, every time by hrudayam (@eddiegettingshot) where Marisol points out that Eddie doesn't really talk about Buck, and Eddie is baffled but then the puzzle pieces start moving in his head. 2.4k words, rated T

rebirth by @renecdote, a Buck introspection fic where he lies and ponders his bisexual realization. 752 words, rated G

lest i go unsheltered by iphigenias (@oatflatwhite) where Buck comes out to Maddie. 1.5k words, rated T

my heart is working overtime by lecornergirl (@clusterbuck) where Buck sits with his feelings after 7x04. 1.1k words, rated T

my heart aches with love for you by farfromthstars (@doeeyeseddie) where Marisol slightly chides Eddie for interrupting Buck and Tommy's date, and Eddie kinda bluescreens. 1.8k words, rated G

got that, oh, I mean by @bekkachaos where Hen comes over to talk to Buck after 7x04. 2.7k words, rated T

some things fall when they're meant to fall by @sibylsleaves where Eddie realizes he'll never prioritize Marisol the way he does Buck, but his realization comes just a bit too late. 25.7k words, rated T

as lucky as us by hammersmiths (@henswilsons) where Ravi overhears and observes Buck and Eddie interact, and Suffers. 3.6k words, rated G

every little thing the sun shows, well it’s worth it by wafflesofdoom (@capseycartwright) where Buck drives to Hen to talk to her about his new realization and Tommy. 1.7k words, unrated but like G/T

so much to say that's subject-sore by @hattalove where Buck thinks calling Tommy his boyfriend feels wrong, even though he wants to continue dating him. 3.1k words, rated T

the gift you gave him by @thatbuddie where Tommy asks Eddie for tips on what Buck likes, and Eddie wonders why he feels weird about it. 5.1k words, rated T

I won't tell no lie by @lamardeuse where Hen shows up at Tommy's place to ask him about his behaviour while they worked together at the 118. 1.3k words, rated T

Ah hell this is so long already so I'll stop here, but feel free to come back and ask again after you've gotten through these, because I have many more! Actually, one last one I have to recommend immediately too:

good luck, babe by @hattalove, a twitter fic where an outsider observes Buck, Eddie, Marisol, and Tommy during Buck and Tommy's first date and tweets about it all. I cackled the whole way through! 2.1k words, rated T

[latinasforace]

Hidden feelings

A/N: update!!! ngl i hate being the reader & having to wait for an update haha so i��ll try to be quick with it. Also cuz i enjoy writing this. FORGOT TO MENTION. THIS AU & SOME OF ITS IDEAS ARE HEAVILY INSPIRED BY ARTIST @/_ceceru ON TWITTER. So definitely check your their school au one piece art to get a visual of the story :D it’s so cute. also ignore the shit editing i’m not use this tumblr stuff…

warnings: none as of yet..?

pairing: Luffy x Fem Reader

WC: 4.8k

part 1 here!!!!!

Chapter 2: Flow

The morning sun rays went through the curtains of your room, gently waking you from her sleep. You rubbed eyes and stretched, feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness. Today was Friday, and it was the day you planned to return Luffy’s hat.

You got out of bed and started with your usual morning routine. You brushed your teeth, washed your face, applied your usual makeup, and dressed in your school uniform. As you fixed up your hair for today, you glanced at Luffy’s yellow hat resting on your desk. You had spent a good part of the previous evening mending it, making sure it looked as good as new.

With a deep breath, you picked up the hat and placed it carefully in your bag. You went downstairs, had a quick breakfast, said goodbye to your family and headed out the door to catch the bus to school. The streets were bustling with students and commuters, and the atmosphere was lively, everyone excited for the weekend ahead.

At school, you went through your usual day. You attended her classes, took notes, and did your best to focus, but your mind kept drifting to the certain yellow hat in your bag. During lunch, the cafeteria was buzzing with activity. You spotted Luffy sitting with his friends, the Straw Hats club, their table lively and full of laughter.

You took a deep breath and started walking towards them, but as you got closer, your anxiety took over. The thought of approaching Luffy in front of all his friends felt overwhelming. You turned around and went to by your lunch mate’s table instead. They greeted you with kind gestures but didn’t bother you throughout the period, sensing your feelings of frustration and irritation.

Throughout the day, you tried to find the right moment to approach him, but he was always surrounded by people. Each time you gathered the courage to walk up to him, your nerves got the better of you.

Finally, the last bell of the day rang, signaling the end of school. Students started to disperse, eager to begin their weekend. You gathered you belongings and decided to make one last attempt. You walked through the emptying hallways, your heart pounding.

Near the bathrooms, you saw Luffy standing alone, adjusting his backpack. This was your chance. You took a deep breath and approached him, your hands nervously trembling slightly.

"Uh, Luffy?" you called out softly.

He turned around, his usual grin lighting up his face. "Oh, hey, Y/N! What’s up?"

You reached into your bag and pulled out his signature yellow hat. "I, um, found this yesterday. It was under a bench in the courtyard, so I took it home and fixed it up for you. It was really teared up from the cap part.”

Luffy’s eyes widened in surprise and delight. "No way! You found it? Thank you so much!" He took the hat from your hands, examining it closely. "Wow, it looks brand new!"

You smiled, feeling a sense of relief. "I’m glad you like it."

Luffy looked at you with genuine gratitude. "You’re really amazing, Y/N. Hey, how about I get you a drink from the vending machine as a thank you?"

Before you could respond, he continued, "Actually, you know what? Let’s go grab something to eat. There’s a small restaurant near the school, you know the pirate seafood themed one. My friends kinda busy right now, so it’ll be just us."

Your eyes widened in surprise. "Um, that sounds great, but—"

Luffy didn’t wait for you to even finish. "Awesome! Meet me there in about an hour, okay?" He gave you a quick wave and jogged off, leaving you standing there, stunned.

As you made her way home to drop off your bag, change out your uniform and freshen up, you couldn’t believe what had just happened. You are going to have dinner with Luffy, alone. A mix of excitement and nervousness filled you, but you knew this was a chance to get to know him better and maybe even become friends.

The sun was setting as you walked to the restaurant, a tiny spark of hope igniting in your heart.

~

You arrived at the small seafood restaurant near the school a little early. It was a cozy place with a warm, welcoming atmosphere. The soft hum of conversation and the scent of delicious food filled the air, making you feel slightly more at ease. You chose a table by the window and sat down, nervously fidgeting with your hands.

After a few minutes, the door swung open, and Luffy walked in, his usual bright smile on his face. He spotted you and made his way over, waving enthusiastically. "Hey, Y/N! Thanks for waiting."

You smiled shyly. "No problem, Luffy. I just got here myself."

Luffy plopped down in the seat across from you, looking around the restaurant with curiosity. "This place looks great! I’ve always wanted to try it."

You nodded. "Mhm, it’s really nice. I’ve heard their food is amazing."

A waiter came by to take their orders, and Luffy, with his usual enthusiasm, ordered a variety of dishes, making you chuckle. You opted for something simple, feeling a bit more relaxed as she watched Luffy’s excitement.

As you both waited for their food, Luffy leaned forward, his eyes shining with curiosity. "So, Y/N, tell me about yourself. I mean, I see you around school, but we’ve never talked at all.”

You felt a bit nervous but was glad for the opportunity to share. "Well, there’s not much to tell. I like reading and studying. I like to hang out with my friends after school, uh.” You slightly lied, not finding the correct answers that will please him so you made something up.

Luffy nodded, listening intently. "That’s cool. I like hanging out with my friends too. We have a LOT of fun together. Hmm do you have any hobbies?"

You thought about it for a moment. "I like drawing and painting. It’s a nice way to relax and express myself."

Luffy’s eyes lit up. "That’s awesome! You should show me your drawings sometime. I bet they’re really good."

Your face slightly warmed at the replied, feeling flattered. "Maybe I will."

Your conversation flowed naturally, with Luffy sharing funny stories about his friends and their adventures, making you laugh. You found yourself feeling more comfortable, enjoying his company and the way made you feel at ease.

When your food arrived, you both dug in with enthusiasm. Luffy’s excitement over the dishes was contagious, and you couldn’t help but smile at his reactions. You shared bites of your meals, laughing and talking about their favorite foods.

As you finished your meals, Luffy leaned back in his chair, looking content. "This was really fun, Y/N. I’m glad we did this. And we ate really really good.”

You nodded, feeling a warm sense of happiness. "Me too, Luffy. Thank you for inviting me."

Luffy grinned. "Hey, anytime! We should hang out more often. You’re really cool, Y/N.”

Your heart fluttered at his words. "I’d like that."

You both split and paid the bill and then left the restaurant, walking side by side under the evening sky. The streets were quiet, and the stars were just slightly starting to appear, creating a scenery.

As you walked, Luffy turned to you. “Thanks again for finding my hat and fixing it up. It really means a lot to me. Like a lot. It’s from a special someone, you know.”

You smiled. "It was my pleasure, Luffy. I’m glad I could help."

You reached the corner where you guys would part ways, and Luffy stopped, looking at you with a sincere expression. “You know, you’re kinda cute, Y/N.”

Luffy gave you a quick, friendly hug, catching you even more off guard and rushing to this way. Before you could even respond, he turned and sprinted towards the bus stop that was different from yours, waving as he went. “See you tomorrow, Y/N! Oh wait— Cya Monday!”

“And don’t forget to meet my friends soon!” He yelled out from the distance before slowing down and riding on his bus home.”

You watched him run off, feeling warmness in your chest. This evening had been more than you could have hoped for. You had spent time with Luffy, shared laughs and stories, and felt a connection growing between you both.

As you made your way home, you couldn’t stop smiling. This was probably just the beginning, and you looked forward to what the future held. For now, you cherished the memories of your first little dinner together.

~

The weekend flew by in a blur of activity. You spent Saturday shopping with your siblings, trying to find clothes that suited your style. You had experienced a small crisis last time, picking out an outfit when you went out with Luffy, and wanted to be more prepared in the future. As you browsed through racks of clothes, she visualized different outfits, hoping to make it easier to plan ahead. You also were in need of some makeup products to try out new looks and enhance it. Your siblings also offered their opinions, turning the shopping trip into a fun bonding experience.

Sunday was a mix of chores, homework, and relaxation. You tackled your assignments in the evening, making sure everything was ready for the upcoming week. Despite the busyness, you still felt a warm, happy glow from Friday’s dinner with Luffy. The memory of your time together lingered, making you smile every time you thought about it.

Monday morning arrived, and you went through your usual routine. You got dressed in your uniform, and applied your makeup, doing a little more than usual going out for a different makeup style. You felt more confident about your appearance. The school day began like any other, and you headed to your locker to gather your things for class.

As you were busy organizing your books, you heard commotion down the hall. It was Luffy was running around, fooling with his friends Usopp, Chopper, and Sanji. Their laughter echoed through the corridor, and you chuckled at their antics.

Suddenly, Luffy came barreling towards you. Before you could react, he ran into you, knocking you to the ground. Your books scattered across the floor, and you looked up in shock. He had clearly seen you in the hallways so you didn’t think you would get caught up in the commotion or be in the way, and left completely caught off guard.

Sanji immediately rushed over to you, scolding Luffy. “Oi, Luffy! Watch where you’re going! You can’t just run into a lady like that!”

He offered his hand to help you up, his expression full of concern. “Are you okay, Miss? That was quite a tumble.”

You nodded, accepting his hand and getting you to your feet. “Yeah, I’m fine. Thank you.”

Luffy scratched his head, looking sheepish. “Sorry about that, Y/N. I didn’t mean to knock you over.”

Sanji continued to fuss over her, making sure she wasn’t hurt. “You need to be more careful, Luffy. You could’ve seriously harmed such a beautiful girl.”

Luffy grinned, seemingly unfazed by the scolding. “Hey, guys, this is Y/N. She’s the girl I told you about from Friday.”

Usopp’s eyes widened, and he elbowed Luffy playfully. “Oh, so this is the girl you went on a date with?”

Luffy laughed, waving off the comment. “It wasn’t a date, Usopp. We just had dinner together.”

Usopp smirked. “Sure, sure. Whatever you say, Luffy.”

Luffy turned back to you, introducing you to his friends. “Y/N, this is Usopp, Chopper, and Sanji. Guys, this is Y/N.”

They all greeted you warmly. Usopp gave you a friendly wave, Chopper smiled shyly, and Sanji bowed slightly, his demeanor polite. “Nice to meet you, Y/N.”

Usopp grinned. “You should sit with us at lunch, Y/N. It’ll be fun.”

Chopper nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, you should! We’d love to get to know you better.”

Luffy didn’t wait for her to respond. “Yeah, come sit with us! Uh you usually sit with Vivi right?? She’ll be okay with it.”

You felt a mix of excitement and nervousness. You had always admired the close-knit group of friends from afar and now had the chance to join them. “Okay, I’d like that.”

Luffy’s grin widened. “Great! See you at lunch then.”

As they went their separate ways to class, you couldn’t help but feel a flutter of excitement. You had just been pulled into Luffy’s world, and the prospect of getting to know his friends better made your heart race. The morning had started with a bit of chaos, but it was turning out to be an unexpectedly wonderful day.

The day flew by and when lunchtime finally arrived you made your way to the cafeteria, your heart pounding with anticipation. You spotted the usual table where Luffy and his friends gathered, filled with laughter and lively conversation. Taking a deep breath, she approached the table.

Luffy waved over at you enthusiastically. “Y/N! Over here!”

You walked over, feeling a mix of shyness and excitement. The group made room for you, and you sat down next to Luffy. “Hi, everyone.”

Most of them greeting you with the kind smiles.

The table was full of energy and chaos. Luffy and Usopp were animatedly discussing their latest adventure, while Chopper listened with wide-eyed wonder. Sanji was busy serving the cafeteria line, his duty as a volunteered chief in the school.

Y/N also noticed Nami and Robin sitting together, engaged in conversation. Franky was tinkering with something, his mechanical hand making small adjustments, while Brook strummed a soft tune on his guitar. Zoro, as usual, was napping in his seat, his head resting on his folded arms.

Nami looked up and smiled warmly at Y/N. “Hi, Y/N. I’m Nami. I’ve heard from you before from Vivi.”

Robin nodded in agreement. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Robin. You seem like a very interesting person.”

You felt herself light up under their attention. “Nice to meet you both.”

Sanji, ever the gentleman, made his way to the table and placed an organized and appetizing plate in front of you. “Here you go, Y/N. Enjoy!” While motioning over

to Nami and Robin’s side and also placing their plates down with utensils.

“Hmph. No fair Sanji only bothers to serve the girls.” Usopp grumbled while getting up to line up for a plate.

Luffy and Chopper running behind him as well while chanting “food! food!”

As lunch continued, you felt herself becoming more comfortable. The infamous friend group included you in their conversations, making you feel like part of the group. You laughed at Usopp’s exaggerated stories, listened to Chopper’s excitement about his latest medical class studies, and even joined in when they talked about their favorite foods.

Luffy was his usual cheerful self, making sure you felt included and comfortable. He talked about his friends and the soccer team, explaining how much he loved the sport. “Soccer’s the best! You should come watch our game sometime.”

You smiled. “I might just do that then.”

Luffy’s eyes lit up. “Ahaha. You should meet the rest of the team too.”

The bell ring and as they all got up to head to their next classes, Luffy turned to you with a grin. “See? Told you it’d be fun. You should sit with us every day.”

You smiled back, feeling grateful for his kindness. “Yeah, it was. Thanks, Luffy.”

You headed to class and continued on with your day. Even if before you had noticed some of Luffy’s friends in your classes, you had never approached them. Since you didn’t know them and they didn’t know you, they were just any other classmate although you observed them more than others.

However, now that you were introduced to his gang, some of them now approached you in class. Starting with Nami, whom you have majority of classes with.

It was during AP Geography and Human Studies, that she approached you first. “Hey Y/N. Let’s sit together from now on. I don’t really like the people I sit with in this class.” She mentioned while taking a seat to the always empty chair next to you in class.

“Ah okay,” You replied softly. You didn’t mind her sitting with you at all, infact you hoped she would now that you both know each other. You always had a feeling you would get along with Nami, you were intrigued and inspired by her fashion and her beauty. Alongside her leadership skills and her intelligence. She’s the smartest student in this class, geography being her strongest subject probably.

“You know, you don’t have to be so tense with me. You’re always so quiet and keeping replies short. You can losen up around me. I promise I won’t judge. I want to be your good friend as well.” She motioned, with a gentle smile on her. Her pretty and expressive brown eyes gazing, seemingly analyzing you.

You shy away from her stare and replied, “Mhm okay. Thank you Nami. I want to be your good friend as well. I really admire you, especially your looks.” You hummed softly.

“Aw really? Thanks. I try you know. If you need any tips just let me know like…” She listed some out and you listened attentively. Afterwards, Mr. Cobra, Vivi’s father, made his way to his desk and settled down the class to begin the lesson. Nami and you stopped your conversation and quickly opened your notes to begin.

After the bell rung and the class period ended, you said your goodbyes to Nami for the day since you won’t be seeing her in your last few classes and rushed out to reach the PE locker room before the warning bell rings.

After changing out of your regular uniform and on top your PE one, you made your way to the gymnasium.

You usually just wandered off, never really grouping with other students and letting Mr Shanks just group you in with anybody.

You were standing there, distanced away from others as Mr Shanks explained the rules of the game you’ll be playing today.

You heard noise behind you and look back to see Zoro slowly walking to the circle formed of students in the middle of the gym. He nodded at your direction, his way of greeting and got back to listening to Shank’s instructions.

Zoro was in this class as well, however he was often very late, due to getting “lost” on the way here. You had no clue how he would get lost, sure, the school was fairly big but there was clear signs everywhere of where everything was and directions given out. It was almost halfway through the school year already. Either way. Mr Shanks always left him off the hook and consequence of getting a tardy since Zoro has a defense position on the soccer team, which Shanks coaches.

You hoped you both can get along later on so you won’t feel as alone as you feel in this class, having no companions to practice with and in general, talk while working out. You have observed Zore before and he isn’t really one to talk unless he feels comfortable around you like you seen when he walks with Luffy and Nami in the hallways, fooling around and bickering.

Shank’s whistle broke your train though and signified to get in positions for the game for today. You joined your classmates on the side of the gym, ready to give your best effort. Shanks had a way of making every activity feel like an adventure, his laughter echoing across the gym building as he encouraged everyone to push their limits and have fun.

~

The day flew by in a blur of lectures, assignments, and fleeting interactions. You navigated your classes with a focused determination.

As the final bell rang, signaling the end of the school day, you mentally reviewed your upcoming challenges. Tomorrow was going to be a kinda busy day, with a presentation for Biology with Mr. Jinbei and a chemistry quiz for Mr. Caesar Clown. You felt a familiar twinge of nervousness but also a sense of readiness. You had prepared thoroughly, and while the thought of presenting in front of the class made you stomach flutter, you knew she could handle it.Gathering your things, you made your way to her locker and then we’re ready to go home.

You exited the school building, your backpack feeling heavier than usual with the chem book in there needed for future later today. The day had been long and stressful, filled with classes and looming quizzes. You put on your headphones, scrolling through your playlist and settled for a soothing track to calm your mind. While you like to observe your surroundings and take in all visual and sound, you also often needed music playing in your ears to ease you up.

Lost in your own thoughts, you didn’t notice the group of your newly made friends gathered near the school entrance until you heard your name being called.

“Y/N!” Luffy’s voice was unmistakable, full of enthusiasm. You turned to see him jogging towards you, his friends following closely behind.

“Hey, Y/N!” Nami waved, her brown eyes sparkling with excitement. “We’re going to get boba drinks. Wanna join us?”

“It’s all last minute,” Luffy added, grinning widely. “Nami was craving it, and now we’re all going together.”

You hesitated for a moment, your initial instinct to retreat into your comfort zone fighting with the opportunity to spend more time with them. But the inviting smiles on their faces made the decision easier.

“Okay, I’d love to,” you replied, a small smile tugging at your plumped lips.

The group walked to the nearby boba shop, the lively chatter making you feel a part of something special, again. You noticed Zoro trailing behind, looking half-sleepy, while Sanji animatedly discussing some food recipes with Robin, who listened with her usual calm and attentive demeanor, with Franky’s hand in hers. Brook and him engaged in a playful debate about music, and Usopp was excitedly talking about a new gadget he was working on.

Your back also felt lighter than before. Before making the sightly distanced walk to the boba shop, Sanji had offered to carry your backpack, carrying his and Nami’s as well. You were about to declined until Luffy just snatched it off your back and carried it for you, grinning cutely at you.

Continuing, he walked alongside you, chatting about his upcoming soccer match this weekend. “Shouldn’t you be practicing today? I thought practices was required every day after school.” You asked curiously.

“Oh yeah, we did but Shanks had something after school. So practice was cancelled today.” Luffy replied.

“You should come watch us practice tomorrow tho! And come to our game this weekend. Shanks always takes us out to eat if we win, and i’m sure we will so i’ll sneak you in with us.” Luffy added on, with his signature mischievous grin on his face and a little twinkle in his eyes.

“Mhm, i’ll be there. I’ll have to ask my parents for permission if it’s during the weekend tho.” You replied back, with more confidence than usual that ignited from his invitation. Your heart felt light and bubbly.

At the boba shop, you all crowded around the counter, each of them choosing their favorite flavors. You, feeling a bit overwhelmed, let them decide for you.

“Get her the taro milk tea,” Nami suggested. “It’s a safe choice.”

When their drinks arrived, they found a large table to accommodate everyone. The conversation flowed effortlessly, with Nami and Robin making sure you felt included. The group’s dynamic shone through. Luffy, being his usual playful self, grabbed a handful of boba balls and stuck them to his teeth, making silly faces. Nami and Usopp laughed, quickly snapping pictures with their phones.

“Hey, Y/N, you’re gonna love this,” Luffy said, his voice slightly muffled by the boba balls.

You chuckled softly, feeling a warm sense of belonging. Despite the chaos, there was a sense of harmony among them, and you felt yourself relax.

“So, Y/N, what do you think?” Nami asked, gesturing to the taro milk tea.

You took a sip, the creamy sweetness spreading across your tongue. “It’s really good,” you said, smiling.

As you continued to chat and enjoy the drinks, Luffy and Usopp started a mini food fight with the boba balls, much to Sanji’s chagrin. Zoro, who had snapped off his sleepy mode joined in, adding to the chaos. Franky laughed, encouraging their antics while Robin watched with an amused smile and Brook laughing with his silly ‘Yohoho’ echoing throughout the shop.

You found yourself laughing along, your earlier stress melting away. The group vibrant energy and camaraderie were infectious, and you felt grateful to be a part of it.

You noticed Chopper beside you had pulled out his chemistry notes, flipping through them with a determined look. You seeing this, decided to join him, grabbing some of your notes and reviewing for the quiz.

“You’re really serious about this,” You remarked, impressed.

“Of course! I want to do well,” Chopper said, his eyes shining with determination.

You nodded, feeling a kinship with the little brown haired guy. As you both studied, the others continued their lively conversations, occasionally glancing over and offering their good-lucks for tomorrow’s quiz.

After a while, Usopp pulled out his phone, scrolling through the pictures they had taken. “HA, send me that one. Luffy looks so stupid.”Nami laughed, while pulling out her phone, which you noticed had a clear case and a small polaroid of Vivi decorated with hearts.

“Hey, Y/N, wanna be in your group chat?” Usopp asked, turning to you.

“um yeah,” you softly replied, nodding your head.

“Give me your account info then ,” Usopp said, grinning. “I’ll add you to it. We use it a lot to keep in touch and plan stuff.”

Feeling a bit overwhelmed but touched by their inclusiveness, you gave Usopp her details. He quickly added you to the chat, and soon enough, her phone buzzed with new notifications.

“Welcome to the crew!” Usopp announced, giving you a thumbs up.

As the evening progressed, the boba drinks were finished amidst laughter and animated conversations. Nearly three hours had passed in the cozy boba shop, and outside, the sun had begun its descent, casting a warm glow over the autumn-colored trees.

With the daylight fading, the group started to gather their things, mindful of the time. Nami and Robin, ever the nurturing duo, insisted that you don’t take the bus home with the evening growing late.

“It’s not safe,” Nami stated firmly, her concern evident in her expression.

“I agree. Let us get you an Uber,” Sanji chimed in, offering his phone.

Luffy, who had offered to walk with you part of the way to the bus station, looked slightly disappointed at the plan changing.

“Aw, c’mon guys, she’ll be fine,” Luffy protested, though his concern was genuine.

“It’s better this way, Luffy,” Robin reassured him with a gentle smile. “We’ll make sure she gets home safely.”

Reluctantly, Luffy nodded, understanding their point. Sanji ordered an Uber for you, ensuring the destination was set correctly before you handled the phone back.

“Make sure you get home safe, okay?” Luffy said earnestly, his usual carefree demeanor momentarily replaced by a more serious tone.

You nodded, touched by his concern. “Thank you, Luffy. I had a great time today.”

“Me too!” Luffy grinned, his usual cheerfulness returning. “You better come next time we go out again.”

With a wave to the others and a final thank you, you stepped into the waiting Uber. The ride home was quiet, the events of the day replaying in your mind. You felt a warmth in your chest, a mix of happiness and gratitude for the new friendships that was forming.

~

Arriving home, you settled into her room, feeling content. changing to your pijamas and climbing to your bed. You just layed down, enjoying the silence that your home offered as late night approached. Until you felt vibrations coming from your phone, notifications from the LINE app popping up. It was the group chat Usopp had added you to.

You browsed through the messages, saving the silly pictures Usopp took of Luffy earlier. Giggling at some of their funny remarks and insults to one other. You sent Sanji a quick thank you text for the uber he ordered for you earlier, and receiving a corny reply, ‘Anytime Y/N gorgeous 😍!’ followed by a long lines full of hearts and more romantic emojis.

Then Nami complained to shut up because she needs to sleep. You turned off your phone and settled it down, while going to the washroom and starting your night routine of skin care and brushing your teeth. Afterwards, you tugged into your bed and attempted to close your eyes and fall into sleep.

Your mind drifting back to the whirlwind of events that had recently brought you closer to Luffy and his friends. Reflecting on the day, it had been filled with laughter, camaraderie, and unexpected moments—a day you will fondly recall as you drifted into dreams of your subconscious.

a/n: is this too corny or too slow? 😣 Feedback pls except don’t be too mean yall. Also will try to have more longer updates!!! just cuz. Thank you!

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/17/2024 Crew Recap

Well, today was once again a day of new and exciting things happening, and some fun progress on all fronts. Anything I missed -- as always please add. Links to all the threads are in the pictures so please visit them, I want to make sure people who actually posted them are credited :) I realize this is a lot, so if you don't wanna read it all, please at least hop to the bottom for a special message.

===Today's Impact===

Petition Status: We broke 58,000 Signatures! Great job everyone!

Our Flag Means Death Status on Television Stats -- Numbers went up a bit!

#SaveOFMD Trending #4 in Hungary, way to go friends!

Source

Wondering if your calls are working? THEY ARE! Apparently they are cataloging and categorizing calls.

Warner Bros Discovery Inc is still trending downward!

Our Flag For Palestine - Care for Gaza Fundraiser is up to $7535!

The team on this is pretty great about transparency, feel free to check out the twitter thread here

===Cast / Crew Sightings===

Chaos Dad, David Jenkins posted about the 35th Annual Glaad Media Awards Nominating Our Flag Means Death for Outstanding Comedy Series!

Con O'Neill started posting stories on IG with #SaveOFMD and also he showed up in a Screen Rant Plus interview! Our Flag Means Death Interview: Con O’Neill On Izzy & Blackbeard In Season 2

And our Pirate Queen Ruibo Qian was reposting save ofmd art on IG!

=Latest Twitter / Other Platform Insanity=

So apparently someone updated the Our Flag Means Death Wikipedia page to say one of the Production Companies was Astroglide, you cheeky little fuckers.

Source

Squishables joined the fun with Astroglide.

Astroglide Announced a Live Reaction Video to OFMD they'll be doing on Friday. Thanks to IG: _Irene_Adler for bringing this to my attention! Somehow I missed it looking at this post this morning.

===Articles===

1. Could HBO’s Beloved ‘Our Flag Means Death’ Jump To Another Ship After Cancellation?

2. Our Flag Means Death's "numbers weren't there" for renewal says MAX's boss - but it is welcome to sail to another platform

3. OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH CANCELED AT MAX, BUT IT COULD FIND LIFE ON OTHER PLATFORMS

===Ways to Help===

So I found of a new way to keep engagement up that I hadn't heard of before-- I apologize if you all already know about it and I'm repeating it! Daily Clicks to help with Engagement: Clickable Links below:

Our Flag Means Death Wikipedia Page Google Search for Our Flag Means Death Google UK Search for Our Flag Means Death Our Flag Means Death IMDB

Fundraiser for LimbPower

Looks like another fundraiser going on by our fellow OFMD Crew, right now is by For Our New Unicorn, that benefits LimbPower. This has been going on since December but has had some ramp up since the cancellation announcement. If you're looking for somewhere to donate, seems to be a good cause!

Calls / Emails / Faxes

I don't believe anything has changed in terms of calls and emails but here's the latest info in case you're just joining us, there's a lovely post over at @renewasacrew's post.

Postcards / Outside the US Fans

@renewasacrew has the following awesome post about how to send mail from outside the US: Are you outside the US and looking to send Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav a letter? 🏴‍☠���

Petition

As usual, sharing the petition with posts is super helpful, and @merryfinches has a cool guide on how to get additional email addresses if you want to help send more signatures here

Hashtag Updates from yesterday

#RenewAsACrew #SaveOFMD #TheNumbersWereThere.

================================================

❤️❤️Lastly because even if you are tired of hearing it, I'm going to keep saying it, so suck it up buttercup here comes some love ❤️❤️

================================================

Every single one of you is enough.

If you bust your ass for this campaign, YOU ARE ENOUGH.

If you signed the petition and that was it, YOU ARE ENOUGH

If you lurk and keep an eye on things, YOU ARE ENOUGH.

If you do nothing at all, and just take care of yourself, YOU ARE ENOUGH.

There is NOTHING in this world that you could do to make you not enough.

Remember that.

You are amazing-

and beautiful-

and everything you do every single day is wonderful-

and YOU are worthy of love.

You are doing a great job just being you. Keep doing that.

We are so lucky to have each and every one of you here on this planet with us.

Remember to drink some water, and take care of yourself if you can. Even if it's just a few minutes a day. You got this, and you're loved. 🥰

Love you crew. Have a good night/day, wherever you are on this little blue dot. <3

[directdogman]

Hey there's someone trying to say you said you were pro Israel on discord? They're anonymous and say you blocked them before they could get screenshots so I don't really believe them, but still :[

Mhm. Nice bit of news to wake up to, this.

Yeah, so this person's a troll and they're more than likely lying on purpose in order to try to me look bad because I blocked them on Twitter for being unpleasant, something I rarely even do and they're still seething about it. The block had nothing to do with Gaza, the person was just being annoying and I thought it'd be healthier to block and move on. I'd really prefer not to have to give this person energy, but if there's a rumor going around, I'd like to nip it in the bud, since it's very easy to disprove in this case.

To explain what this person's blathering about: Earlier this week, on a Phonegingi plush advert, this random user that doesn't follow me (and actually instructs fans of mine not to interact with them in their bio) made a dramatic QRT decrying me for posting a DT advert during a strike week, which I honestly had no clue it was, especially since my own timeline was (and still is) full of accounts posting normally.

Given that the person seemingly encountered one of my posts in the wild and ended up seething because of it + likely didn't want anything to do with me on their timeline (as their bio indicated), after thinking it over briefly, I did the healthy thing and just blocked the person + moved on. Makes sense, right? I'll admit: Even if the way the person approached me was regrettable, if I'd known it was a strike week, I'd have participated (as I'd participated in the last one), so I stopped posting teasers for the week anyway, only resuming again yesterday.

I'll also say: I checked my own timeline btw and looked at the accounts posting, and nobody else had anyone acting like this in their replies, even the much larger accounts. Nor did anyone else contact/reply to me in any way stating any disapproval.

Given that I've only blocked one account recently that isn't a replybot (and ofc, given the subject matter of that tweet), I'd have to assume that this is the anonymous person spreading stuff.

I'd understand where this person was coming from if maybe I'd stayed completely silent about Gaza, (which a lot of accounts I follow have) but I haven't. I had a Palestinian aid post pinned on my Twitter for weeks, I've talked about Gaza's child population and my support for South Africa's Hague suit in my discord server, I've engaged in the boycotts, wound down posting during strikes, donated a pretty substantial amount of Dialtown revenue towards sending money/esims... I have 4 bucks in my bank account right now and when my next DT check comes in, you'd better believe I'll be giving more. That's my right as a private citizen and one I'll continue to exercise.

I feel pretty uncomfortable having to put this stuff in front of me to 'prove' myself, even if some of it is public anyway. Charity should be something you do because you CARE and if it wasn't for this person, I'd have been far happier keeping a lower profile and not explicitly calling attention to my own aid, but given this ask, I feel it'd be stupid not to nip this in the bud. The majority of this information could be easily found with the tiniest amount of digging, btw, so it's not like the user couldn't have known any of this. This is the part of having a fandom that creators seldom talk about. You block one person for being a lil annoying, next thing you know, there's rumors that you support genocides! Fun.

So yeah, I'd like you to tell this person to just move on like a normal person (send them this post if you have to) and to stop spreading incorrect rumors about me out of spite. If they insist, I'm happy to pull up receipts to prove everything I've said. If they actually thought I was pro-Israel, they wouldn't be spreading it anonymously, they'd be writing another public post about the subject matter. Also if you see anyone repeating the rumor, please correct them. Thanks.

[starrysymphonies]

The II ARG is underway!!! Oh boy ok. All info I have so far under the cut

Puts my Dipper hat on

Disclaimer that I’m not the first person to discover this, I was only made aware that the codes existed, and you all saw my tumblr feed after TBOB came out. I went straight to work.

Alright so, within the description of every episode of ii, there is one letter. Together they create “cpuygtuctgkpuvqtg” and when put into a Caesar cipher translator (two letters forward) you get “answers are in store”

Head to the ii store. In the description of each piece of merch is yet another code! To decipher these you must use the vigenere cipher, the key is “COBS”

KT ZGW KBFV - IF YOU WANT

KBGGTABLKCO JGUBJFWOY - INFORMATION REGARDING

KBBFKABLG WOKCBJLA - INANIMATE INSANITY

VVF LTIUZ EOO TG TPMPR - THE TRUTH CAN BE FOUND

QB UZG VPJKNPF - ON THE HORIZON

VC GAPR JL ACV EWGU YQ - TO FIND IT YOU MUST GO

UHSSKUIL VC UZG GPMTQF - STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE

HCS LJS OWZH DDWS - FOR THE NEXT CLUE

From here, you go back to the inanimate insanity store, just the front page! If you’re on computer, press ctrl+u to open the source code (aka: straight to the source). Scroll to line 2013 (note the number. 2013 is when the first episode of s2 released. The message ends on 2024, which means we’ll likely get ep18 before the new year since then it’ll align with the year ii2 ends) there you will find this: (description in alt text)

The key word is likely going to be used as a passcode or possibly a key for a cipher later in the hunt.

This is where the trail leads us to Cabby. I’ve found nothing in the source material of her website but… “you may want to take a page out of their playbook”

Cabby used her files, and recently on Adam’s Twitter, he posted this just yesterday:

This countdown gave us about 2 days. One day is up already, but tomorrow lies ahead. He’s uploading files. Like Cabby’s files

There isn’t anything us to do further from here, since he hasn’t alluded to what these files can be. It’s likely that there’s going to be something hidden within them on a certain page, and we’ll probably have to use the highlighter tool to find some kind of hidden text.