#you think they got illuminaughty?

[1spooky2me]

I got lazy here’s a shitpost

[ceaselesswatchersspecialboy]

Hi, just got sucked into the rabbit hole of your not who he seems au. Any tidbits? Tidbits for a poor soul?

On a more focused note: how does Ford feel about the state of his body when he gets back? Between thirty years of Bill and thirty years of aging, I imagine it’s not anything like how he left it.

I shine a light upon you and provide you with tidbits, my favourite thing to give:

— Bill occasionally cameos in the Mystery Shack as ‘Dr. Mystery’ and does specialised tours where he talks more about the unusual biology of the fake Mystery Shack attractions (naturally, he’s bullshitting all of this). He also helps Stan brainstorm new attractions. Stan has to get a use out of his twisted mind somehow!

— Into the Bunker happens much later after Ford is returned to his body. He wants to check on the Bunker and finally get rid of the Shapeshifter permanently, and Dipper and Mabel convince him to let them tag along (Bill had promised Dipper he’d show him the bunker a while back anyway, but he doesn’t say that to Ford). Stan also ends up tagging along, despite Ford’s protests, because as far as he’s aware, he has two kids and a thirty years younger brother to look out for, and he doesn’t exactly trust Ford’s mental and physical state right now to be looking out for Dipper and Mabel.

It ends up being more of a test in Ford’s current paranoia and makes him truly question how well he knows his brother anymore. Dipper, Mabel and Stan are all able to pick each other out easily, but Ford, an outcast, struggles. Like how the original Into the Bunker was used to tackle Wendy and Dipper’s dynamic, I imagine it focusing especially on Stan and Ford’s dynamic here, the growing tension, and how different they are to Dipper and Mabel, as well as the elephant in the room of Bill.

— Scary-oke I’ve previously talked about how Stan was down in the basement summoning Bill before he comes up to protect Dipper and Mabel, and I think I forgot to mention Bill also re-enters Ford’s body and comes up to help too, so he and Stan and up fighting back to back. The major reveal here isn’t that Stan always knew or the black light, as both of those have already been addressed, rather the kids witness their Grunkle Ford using what can best be described as magic to fight the zombies off.

Also Bill is maybe starting to realise how protective he’s become of the kids and is even more desperate to he his body back. This can’t be happening!

Stan thanking him for it — sincerely as well — only makes that feeling worse.

— I’ve given in. Bill has a pet Plaidypus named Perry. Perry is his Henchmaniac and Lab assistant. He’s trained Perry to attack Gideon. This is important information.

— Bill does have the ‘I’m a little different, get used to it’ shirt and uses it as a pyjama shirt, alongside his Illuminaughty one.

— Mabel introduces Bill to sweater town after an incident where they were watching TV together and it turned to static. He freaked out badly. Stan was out with Dipper and Soos at the time so she tried to handle it the best she could and sat with him in sweater town, which he soon copied. He asked her not to speak of it afterwards, not that he remembered most of what happened — he just blanked out! Her lips are sealed anyway.

— He and Wendy have a habit of making bets about customers/tourists with each other. Wendy loses most of the bets because Bill cheats and taps into his ciphervoyance. It leaves him weak and exhausted but it’s fucking worth the money. Wendy ends up cheating herself and asks Stan to push the favour in her direction. He’s all for it. This game has been going on all Summer.

— Now for the specific question: A lot of people have pointed out the tattoos and how uncomfortable Ford may feel with that, as well as generally looking older, but physical problems are a whole other issue. There’s aches in places he knows there weren’t before and new scars from injuries he doesn’t remember, and he hates every second of it. Fortunately, Stan stopped Bill from pushing his body too far and kept it in decent enough condition, add that to the fact Bill was fairly active, he isn’t in the worst state, but that’s barely a comfort.

I think the thing to put it in perspective is it’s like if you went to bed one night and woke up thirty years older the next day. That’s how it felt for him. He can’t stand mirrors. And he tries to ignore the new aches. The way his skin feels. The fact he can barely see out of one of his eyes (courtesy of long exposure to bill possession), and there’s other minor visible changes too I’ve considered: triangular finger prints, the tips of his fingers stained black permanently, some parts of his hair growing in blonde amidst the grey etc.

He’s… not too happy about any of it.

[monstrousmuse]

*rubs hands together* Right. We're doing this.

or, My Very Serious Attempt At Analysing The Billentines.

"BILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?" - Gods, he's even worse than Stan. Jack of NO Trades, Master of PUN. (Not the actual intent here, but if you add a comma, it almost sounds like someone else is asking him out. In cute-sy speak. "Bill, you go out with me?!?! Pwease?")

"I'VE GOT MY ❤️EYE❤️ ON YOU" - Aww, his eye is so expressive. Also love the way he's just... sitting on the ground like that. His base is so thin, it's no wonder why he needs to prop himself up with his little noodle leg. Like a reverse kickstand.

"YOU'RE ACUTE-Y" - Bill torments his friends with terrible, nerdy geometry puns Confirmed. Stanford Filbrick Pines PhD x 12's dream partner amiright？

"I LIKE YOU FOR SOME REASON" - *apologetically glances towards Ford* What reason, Bill? You can confide in us. Or perhaps you don't know...

"LET'S GET ILLUMINAUGHTY" - HE REMOVED HIS BOWTIE WTF-I-I didn't even think that was possible. Welp, you learn something new every day. ...And, are those his cheeks? I’ve always assumed that his whole surface changes colour whenever he is feeling a particularly strong emotion. Huh.

"I'M BROKEN. WANNA FIX ME?" - ...now you're just mocking us. If this ends up spreading to the wider fandom- Oh. Oh dear. It already has. Well played, Hirsch. In all seriousness though, this one is surprisingly introspective of Bill. Has he been doing some postmortem soul-searching? Read a few self-help books? Perhaps Frills was the one who first suggested that he write his own book as a means of reaching a state of inner catharsis...Or maybe it’s just a reference to how Stan literally shattered his face before killing him.

"I DON'T WANT TO DIE ALONE" - See my previous post. Long story short, he stopped time for a reason. But. Also. He looks depressed. No offence, of course. (Is the floor comfortable? From data gathered during the period of my life that I spent as a Weird Human Child With Weird Human Quirks, I have come to the conclusion that the floor is not, in fact, the most comfortable of places to lie down and ponder one’s existence, but you do you I guess.)

"I SECRETLY COLLECTED YOUR SWEAT IN A JAR AND ACCORDING TO EXTENSIVE LAB TESTING. WE HAVE AN 88.3% PHEROMONE COMPATIBILITY MATCH" - Bill has pheromones. 88.3%...Is there a significance to this number? Does Bill Cipher even know, or care, about basic lab safety and scientific accuracy these days? The answer is a resounding “No. Definitely not. Absolutely not.”

"THEY CALL ME...THE LOVE TRIANGLE" - How To Become Besties With Mabel Pines In One (1) Quick & Easy Step. But you better watch out Bill, the Love God will probably be filing a lawsuit against you for Stealing His Look...and a minor case of Very Intentional And Blasphemous Blasphemy.

…

Whew. Done. Overanalysis is to me what Ichor is to the Greek Gods.

[raguna-blade]

having had my day devoured by the newest hbomberguy vid (been a short day, it happens) i think the thing most impressive going on here vid wise is the degree of build up that goes on here.

like yes, fuck james sommerton, it's real hard to imagine that you accidentally duped shit that many times for that long, but we get it, fuck him and the other guys.

no what i found real interesting is the way the whole essay was constructed really really did spend an almost excessive amount of time building up the foundation of how the youtube plagiarism and such goes on, coming from pretty basic baby shit that none the less required a bit of effort to do (the game reviewer dude) to a more complicated but still effort requiring bit with illuminaughti and the cinemassacre stuff, to even MORE effort being required (until you found it admittedly) with the internet historian who, at the very least, seemed to be just the one time unless I glitched out and missed other stuff.

Like way back with the game review he goes ok but this is actually a really transparent attempt at dealing with the fallout of being caught doing this, it's just actually a bad misdirect but because it is we can see how this actually works so when we see more experienced and better people do it, it'll be easier to see.

And that was true, like it came up frequently throughout the video.

But this was a tremendous amount of careful, pretty considered build up going on here, and you would expect, especially given the length of the video and the section focusing on him, that what you were going to get when we got the Sommerton, was some REAL bullshit, like some grade A "Damn I hate to see it but fuck if they didn't plagiarise but good and here's how and what"

That'd be the thrust right? That's generally how you build up the stakes, the final point is usually where it's going to be the most complicated and detailed, where you'd need the level of build up and experience established (such as you can in a video, even a long 2 hour set up being what it is) so that you can see all the techniques and tricks and shit and it's just....

Holy Fuck. I'm not gonna make light of how he got away with what he did, because lord knows i would have fell for it trivially (even with vids that DO actually give bibliographies i don't usually do the reading I just kinda trust that it's fine. It's something to work on I suppose especially in light of this) but the absolute level of laziness here is something fucking WILD to see on display.

Like i'm stealing the last bit from @cryptotheism post here

But genuinely how the actual FUCK do you read that much, or hell even just SCAN that much for a given subject and not have even a mental shorthand of how you wanna phrase the same information? Like not even a condensed version of their points? Just straight up word for word stealing? AND YOU INTERLACE THEM WITH OTHER AUTHORS AT POINTS?

Like this is damn near cartoon levels of sloth going on here. You are working so hard to work so little that you're working harder than it would take for you to actually just do something original at that point. like it's not even the whole goddamn thing in a lot of places, it's parts! You had to understand at LEAST the individual points made there, and understand that they connected to some degree to the other related points, select JUST THOSE RELEVANT BITS, and shove them into the essay but you don't...You don't even change them up enough that a quickie google search would have at least some trouble to find them?

This gets away from the point i was initially going with, i'm kinda doing this off the top of my head fresh off the vid and winding down, but it's wild that for all that he set up in the first half of the vid a bevy of techniques, ways around things to not immediately ding bullshit, how to play off if you DO get caught, and all that and it damn near turns out you didn't fucking need it because dude was basically getting by and raw...whats' the word i'm looking for here. Arrogance? Absolute But Unearned Self Confidence (pretty sure that's arrogance) for what looks like it was damn near fucking amateur hour for how well he actually hid what he was pulling from.

An excellent video, and the breakdown is definitely more complicated than that for all that I feel like i'm underselling it but it's like i was built up ready and trained, primed to see bullshit everywhere, and then i see a series of spike pits with signs in front of them saying where they are but even though it's obvious it's SO MUCH you start second guessing yourself at a point.

[talenlee]

Speedrunning the Hbomberguy Plagiarism Video

Plagiarism is bad. Plagiarism is Plagiarism. Plagiarism is mostly vibes.

A bunch of people you don’t need to know and may not have cared about before this conversation started all failed this vibe check.

Plagiarism is bad because it erases the work of a lot of people, who aren’t rich and successful and don’t have huge audiences.

You know about this now thanks to a guy who is successful and has a huge audience.

And Time.

That’s it. That’s all you actually need to know from H Bomberguy’s four hour long video Plagiarism And You (Tube). If you’ve heard people talking about Illuminaughti, Internet Historian or James Somerton, this is why, and if you heard them talk about Lukey Poo, no you didn’t. The video is about two hours of specific examples digging into the work of James Somerton, and the rest is unpacking the story of these other youtubers. Illuminaughti is a content mill producer who is, apparently, an asshole, and Internet Historian is like if a page from KnowYourMeme decided to talk, complete with being a thief and a surprisingly large number of Nazis in the comments. If you didn’t know them, you don’t know them and you won’t know them.

It is a Topic, it is a Discourse, it is something people care about and talk about and are interested about. It basically vaporised James Somerton, who within the runtime of the video went from ‘oh, this is just a hit job’ to ‘goodbye forever’ where he deleted his discord and channels and locked down everything and vanished off the internet, which made sense because everything he had that didn’t have comments locked was full of fans of Hbomberguy saying ‘hey, you’re a plagiarist.’ This is strange because Hbomberguy said that anyone harrassing anyone for their misdeeds would not see heaven. It’s like he told you in the video a thing to do and then a lot of people didn’t do that.

The thing is, it’s four hours long.

It’s four hours long. It’s four hours long and it’s one video about five topics and one of those topics is plagiarism and it doesn’t give a good or meaningful discussion of what plagiarism is, or how to identify it. But don’t worry, after three hours and forty-five minutes, Hbomb gives as a coda to his video, a talk about how all this media being made through uncredited copying of the work of others has caused real material harm, by making it hard to find and connect to that work. Like putting it at the end of three and a half hours of video.

When the video was new, I had a friend approach me and ask what was in it. So I told them. They didn’t know who Illuminaughti is, so telling them ‘hey, here’s a youtube lady who sucks’ doesn’t mean anything. Same with Internet Historian, same with James Somerton, and then at the end the question lingered: Okay, so why watch it?

Which is hard to answer, y’know?

Hypothetically the HBomberguy video is about a bad practice, with examples to try and address it. It opens by spending twenty minutes on someone who already did the bad thing and was caught doing the bad thing and was punished doing the bad thing, and this is important to present an example.

It doesn’t define plagiarism, by the way.

This four hour video presents an explanation for what plagiarism is, twice; once, when criticising Illuminaughti in a conversation with her, around the one hour mark, he says it’s ‘passing off work that’s not yours as yours,’ which counts as a definition of plagiarism but it also fits her definition of not adequately sourcing the work – ie, where she got the words she’s using from. But don’t worry, he also explains that plagiarism is ‘vibes.’

And I can understand only providing this kind of insight into what plagiarism is, and what it does, because there’s so little time in the video to dedicate to clear definitions or explanations of things, what with the tight runtime and focus on clear communication of its ideas.

Before I go on I guess I should clarify that I don’t think that Hbomberguy should bother reading this. There’s nothing in here that I consider useful criticism for him. He’s clearly made a successful career doing the thing he’s doing, and anything I have to say about what he did or should do isn’t helpful. I especially don’t think you, in my audience, should think ‘I can and should do things like that,’ because I think it’s not harder to do a better version of what he’s doing. For example, you could make your point in less than four hours.You could platform and present the people who were hurt on the other end of a four hour video about a liar, rather than on the far side, at the end, after four hours. I’m not mad that Harris Barras Garrus made a four hour long drama video about an interesting topic and presented it interestingly. It’s what he does, it’s literally his job to emerge from the wilds once or twice a year and drop a multi-hour examination of whatever his personal brain worms have been brewing on for and he only has

Nineteen Thousand Paid Backers A Month At A Minimum Rate Of $3.50 A Month?

Ahem.

Goodness me.

Goodness me.

That threw the whole meter of that paragraph off, but I was genuinely shocked when I checked that. I thought the guy was pulling down like, 60k a year not 60k a month.

See, I know there’s an element of jealousy and frustration in all this. This is a guy who is getting car money a month to make points on the internet, and he released in 2023 two videos according to his Patreon. That means for about $789,000, those patrons supplied the world with two videos, one of which was only for them, and it was about Myst. Which may be great! It may be great. I have something like six hundred subscribers and teach classes of about twenty people at a time, and I do not get that kind of money, and I have to like, make sure that I’m clear in what I’m communicating and describing and it’s not important to be funny as much as it is important to be correct.

Undeniably part of me is just overwhelmed by how a guy (and a team, obviously, because four hours is a lot of work, right) can make a Pretty Good four hour video which I think does a mid job of communicating its ideas and command a significant fraction of a million dollars, while I am considering how I am going to transfer money between sales platforms to help pay for rent this fortnight. But HBG has a million subscribers. HBG is a big name and a big deal in the space he’s at. HBG is at a level of success that hearing him refer to ‘small creators’ as people with a hundred thousand subscribers leaves me-

Again, a nobody with six hundred subscribers –

agog at the things that seem obvious to me. Things like ‘respect your audience’s time.’ And maybe ‘make your points clearly and well.’

One point that HBomberguy’s four hour video on plagiarism returned to was how much money people were making with their videos pumping out a lot of content easily and cheaply and how this deprived smaller channels of attention and money that hypothetically they’d be getting, right? Right? Because they would, right? That’s how the Youtube space works. If James Somerton wasn’t producing his work and getting his audience, the people he stole from would have gotten it instead… right? We have to hope that’s how it works… right?

(Ah, but he platformed a bunch of people who were plagiarised! Great! Cool! Do that more? Do that more often than just once? Especially in a video you say you’re not going to do again?)

I do think that when you’re talking about a video on a topic you think is important, about a serious problem that makes it harder for people with smaller and less prominent voices to get attention, to connect to an audience, it stings a little for the most important thing in the whole four hour video to be a task that you describe as ‘vibes,’ or ‘passing work off as your own.’ That sucks! I’m going to be teaching in a few weeks, and in that, I’m going to have to talk to them about plagiarism. Odds are good I’m going to have at least one fairly online student who’s going to bring this up!

And sure! I should expect the students in a class to reach a higher standard than I expect a youtuber presenting on a subject they care about. But he’s getting paid an absolute shitload more than I am and he’s going to get repeated by more people than I am and he’s going to be seen as giving good advice by more people. I saw after this video dropped other youtubers talking about how they were concerned about their ‘doing plagiarism’ because they quoted wikipedia in a video. I saw other youtubers talking about how ‘plagiarism is illegal,’ and that’s why it was bad, and… it’s not. I’m sure I’m going to have to have a student in my class where and I’m going to have to explain to them how a large language model isn’t ‘complicated stealing,’ and that being funny and witty isn’t the same thing as being clear, or correct.

It’s a good video! It’s very enjoyable. It was funny and had good jokes in it. It’s also made people mostly interested in talking about how much James Somerton sucks and address his actual harms like victimising and bullying people, because sure, the guy was a misogynist and a bully and a liar and a fraud but now thanks to a youtube channel with a million subscribers making a point about how bad he sucks in another way, then finally, there’s some redress and the other people don’t care and won’t change. Oh and we now have a body of new creators who have an incorrect idea of what plagiarism is and how to make a good point cleanly. It could have been ten minutes long and come out half a year earlier and not let James Somerton cash six more cheques from his three thousand Patreon subscribers. This could have been five videos, split apart for easy approach and access, but it won’t, be, because it’s not about being right or communicating well, or distributing good information easily.

It’s about making a four hour drama video for an audience that love to hear the things he does in the way he does them. The immune system of Youtube is poisoned by being Youtube.

There’s got to be a better way to do this.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[marley-manson]

gotta rant at least a little after watching those videos on james somerton lol

the thing that really gets me about somerton after watching both hbomberguy and todd in the shadows' videos, is that he had millions of views somehow??? tons of subscribers and patreon supporters? people respected him as an educator and expert on queer history?

idk i've seen posts that are like, 'oh the point is that plagiarism is insidious and rampant and you have to be vigilant' and like, sure, i'm sure youtube is full of plagiarism and bullshit and there are probably plenty of people who are better at hiding it, but for the record one quick and easy way to cut a big chunk of it out of your viewing experience is to like, simply not watch people who present themselves as important sources of information and eminently qualified to educate, and yet have no credentials and cite no sources as they state "facts." Not to mention the absolute statements, blatant appeals to emotion, and obviously biased opinions presented as fact.

like way too many people apparently watched him say that eg fitness became an obsession in america because americans were (homoerotically) jealous of nazis and didn't go 'uh wait what the fuck?' like, you don't need a solid basis of knowledge on the history of fitness to recognize that that's a bizarre claim.

I get maybe watching one or two of his videos and shrugging and taking his knowledge as fact I guess because you don't care enough to consider it, or respecting him without watching his videos and just assuming he knows his shit because others say so, but the idea of regularly watching him and being a fan is genuinely p baffling to me.

i've seen a lot of comments on those videos that were along the lines of 'wow i occasionally got bad/confusing vibes from somerton but i ignored that and watched anyway because he seemed smart, thanks for revealing all this' and like, oof. schools need to be teaching critical thinking skills man.

the other thing that floors me is how many viewers he had considering he has the most annoying speaking cadence i've ever heard lol, both when he's awkwardly stumbling over plagiarized paragraphs he didn't write and that weren't written to be read outloud, and when he's very smugly and overdramatically making shit up. iirc I watched part of one video of his ever (queer horror i think) and quit in like 5 minutes because I couldn't stand how he spoke. I might have different standards than many others, I'm sure there are people who can't stand the youtubers I watch, but I truly can't comprehend how millions of people sat through his videos. That Illuminaughty account too tbh, awful, awful presentation even without the plagiarism.

Idk, I hope people who were fans of his take this as a lesson for what red flags to watch out for in the future, at least.

[zapsoda]

hullo love. as i may quote les mis, Tell me quickly what's the story / Who saw what and why and where / Let him give a full description / Let him answer to Javert!, what is going on with the essayists/hbomberguy/plagiatists? im not familiar with that side of usamerican youtube game but im all for the tea

so hbomberguy is a youtube man (i am not an avid viewer but he is leftish and makes long video essays so hes PRETTY popular on here) the other day he dropped a long ass video about plagiarism on youtube, totally pwning an assortment of youtubers ranging in popularity.

among them, the most notable are illuminaughti, internet historian, and james somerton.

illuminaughti is/was a youtuber who would shift from popular topic to popular topic for clout. eventually she landed on video essays which she would churn out on the regs

she was/still is in a contraversy which started because she accused another youtuber of "stealing" her "editing style," because HIS editor asked HER editor how to do some fucking generic video effects. this, obviously, was stupid.

hbomberguy took the opportunity on twitter to point out her directly lifting words from a documentary she based one of her own videos on, without direct credit (it was just a fucking link to the documentary in a google doc in the description), thus making it appear as if those were her own words.

then, her former friends started calling her out for weird vindictive shit behind the scenes, but its 3 peoples word against hers and not interesting enough to be anyone elses business.

anyways, hbomberguy covered all her plagiarism stuff (she has done this several times lol) in further detail within the video.

the next one was internet historian.

you might have heard of him, he makes videos i think. (i am... less familiar with him lmao.) i think hes known for his distinct matpat-esque animation style and his collabs, making him pretty well respected among youtubers i think?

so he made a video called "man in cave" which was VERY popular. he went all out with the animation and told a vivid tale of a certain man who got trapped in a cave.

suddenly though, this VERY popular video disappeared without a trace. it had seemingly been taken down for youtube copyright reasons... as you can imagine this is very vague, and Usually when this happens its over some complete and utter bullshit, so people were inclined to side with him, yet, strangely, he made no efforts to rectify this "mistake" on youtubes part.... hm....

later, he silently reuploads it, unlisted. yet. somethings different.... this isnt quite the same video. the language has been changed in many places, the writing is significantly worse. some bits have been cut entirely. and in the description, he thanks a certain mentalfloss article written by lucas reilly for "inspiring" him....

upon a cursory look through the article, something becomes readily apparent. the structure of the youtube video, an hour by hour retelling- the vivid descriptions which made the original video what it was, they all originated in this article published years ago.

i cannot relay this without mentioning how much worse internet historians writing was despite it being stolen. see, he would embellish and change certain things to make it less blatantly obvious he was lifting the whole thing (including... facts about the story.... lmao) and he would do so BADLY. very badly.

hbomberguy went into FAR more depth about this, even doing side by side comparisons of the article to his video with animations pointing out the bits he altered.

but the video wasnt really about any of those people, they were just setting the stage. they were giving you a taste of plagiarism in action, how and why people do it, and how they try to cover it.

by far, the main event was a gay youtuber who talks about gay things by the name of james somerton.

im actually only like halfway through his section lol.

it seems to me that he plagiarizes every aspect of his videos, like he googles the topics he wants to talk about, finds an article, and then reads that but changes the words here and there.

the only original words in his videos that ive seen were REALLY odd transphobia and misogyny that he would pepper in or go off in tangents about. he misgendered two trans writers (Rebecca Sugar and ND Stevenson) and called becky abertelli straight, specifically calling them straight women writing about their cutesy idealized version of gay mens lives. actually fucking identical to the shit open transphobes say about transmasculine people.

whats worse is becky abertelli CAME OUT because she was forced to by people harrassing, doxing, and threatening her for the crime of being a closeted woman writing about gay characters!

after being called out multiple times (and sending his fans after the individuals calmly addressing his plagiarism) he started OCCASIONALLY using credit in the descriptions, or saying he "based" his work on theirs.

he doesnt do this when he thinks he can get away with it though

hbomberguy does these incredible visuals dividing up transcripts of james videos based on where each section was lifted from

thats as far as ive gotten anyways!!

[lorbanery]

Listen

I'd never heard of most of the people mentioned in Hbomberguy's video either! It doesn't prove I'm smarter or more discerning than folks who had watched their videos, or that I can't be taken in by grifters.

All it actually proves is that their videos either never got pushed onto my recommended page, or their titles/thumbnails didn't spark my interest.

But you know whose videos did interest me? Illuminaughty's. That's right, I'd been following Illuminaughty for a couple of years up until the day video exposes started popping up on my recommended list.

I like to consider myself relatively good at spotting and avoiding scam artists. But I just never clocked Illuminaughty. Part of it was because, with very few exceptions, I don't like to engage with Youtubers outside of their main Youtube content. I don't follow people on social media, I don't join discord servers, I don't even generally watch personal/life update videos, because I don't like feeding that parasocial monster. So I didn't even see the whole mess on Twitter that started the subsequent rockslide.

But part of it was that ... I just didn't notice the red flags that Hbomberguy pointed out! He, someone who is very familiar with how to research and how to properly use and cite sources, saw things like unattributed quotes flashed on screen and vague statements about when and where quotes were found and they stood out to him. But I just don't have that background or experience. I was one of those people who fell for the tactics that HBG exposed as ways Illuminaughty covered up and suggested that there was more original content in her videos than there actually was.

Part of it was also that I just ... let slide the relatively small red flags I did notice. HBG mentioned her massive source lists — I remember thinking more than once that a massive list of sources like that would be way too much for anyone to actually sift through. But it was good that she was included sources at all, right? Or just how many flubs she has in her voice overs. Some people just don't have the time patience to edit those out or rerecord, though! And sure when she stumbles on a name it's almost like it's the first time she's come across that name despite having supposedly done all this research, but also some people are just bad at name pronunciations.

You know, I even followed Cruel World Happy Mind for a while around the same time (I unfollowed her before this for a wholly different reason, and while I've watched her videos about Illuminaughty because they shared important information, I won't be refollowing her). I remember when she posted that video where she talks about an issue she had with a mysterious other, larger creator over fan accusations of copying. Apparently a lot of other folks had been able to figure out that she'd been talking about Illuminaughty. I had no clue.

Everyone is susceptible to being lied to. Because that's what happened here to viewers at the end of the day. They were lied to about who had actually authored the writing in those videos. We're all susceptible to it! No matter how smart or discerning you think you are. You have blind spots, you have subjects you're don't actually know that much about. And we are all inclined to trust people when they present themselves as knowledgable, because most people aren't lying about that.

And that's not a bad thing! It doesn't make you stupid or naive to trust people when they say they know what they're talking about.

This shit happens. It's always happened, it's always going to happen.

The solution isn't never be taken in by a liar. The solution is gathering information when someone you trusted is accused of lying, of being open to the possibility, of not taking it as a personal slight against you and acting accordingly.

Because that's the other thing: It's not about you. It's not a test to see how smart or naive you are. It's a wrong that's been committed. The only person who did anything wrong is the person who stole and lied. Not the people who were lied to.

You've been given information because it's important. These people have harmed the people they stole from. You have the information now, not so that you can use it as a cudgel against people who had supported them, or will having missed this whole dustup; but so that you can make the decision to not or stop supporting them. So that you have more tools to identify plagiarists in the future.

[sniffanimal]

James somerton has *only* lost 2k subscribers in the 4 hours since the new hbomb video (tl;dw he's guilty of plagiarism in the hundreds of cases in his videos, lying about it when caught, and overall just the shitty behavior of 'theres no queer voices in media except the people I plagiarize me' and is also misogynist)

I was one of those subscribers but probably not for like normal subscriber reasons. not to sound high and mighty but the only reason I had subbed was as a reminder to check his channel out and bc ADHD never got around to it. and like, well glad I didn't waste my time. hbomb extremely awesomely includes a playlist of queer creators who write all their own stuff verifiably and aren't shitheads so I'll replace my sub with a dozen new ones.

he also talks more about the whole illuminaughty thing that happened earlier this year and like I'll use that opportunity to be a little high and mighty and say I never could get into her videos because her writing voice, or lack thereof, irked me. her stuff felt regurgitated only because it didn't have any sort of identity to the way sentences flowed. I didn't know she was outright plagiarizing, I just felt she crutched on her sources too much for me to enjoy her as a content creator. turns out it was both!

anyways I'm always so paranoid someone will source the exact royalty free creative commons hand art reference photo I use in my art and declare me a fraud or something but I think I'll rest a little easier knowing people who make fucktuple my salary can go so long without getting caught doing way worse and lying about it.

that's my initial thoughts on the hbomb video have a good night I love you

[glorbo-from-your-evil-show]

I don’t understand how people see it as a ‘dunk.’ The only way i could is because of the focus on somerton, but even then, the focus was because of just how egregious his case was. Pretty much every other person he mentioned used 1 source for each of their videos, which while still gross and exploitative, wasn’t close to somerton. I still can’t get over it.

18 sources, plagiarised and stolen for 1 video. And that might not even be all of them.

The fact that he stole a source from someone that was one of his fans. Someone that financially supported him through the systems he provided. He continuously purposefully omits anecdotes and other personal affects of the sources because he blatantly knows what he’s doing is wrong. And he drew himself a line he wouldn’t cross.

For me, the most insane part of the somerton essay was the fact that he rarely reworded things. He so often said things word for word! How can you feel guilt over plagiarising and then copy it word for word and change nothing!

The point of H’s video isn’t that it was a dunk. It wasn’t an exposé. It wasn’t made to debunk creators. It was made to point out that even creators you love and trust could be doing it. Because creators other people loved and trusted did it. If it was an exposé, he would have gone in depth over illuminaughti (because hooooly shit.) but he didn’t. He briefly pointed out outside circumstances during the time (sad milk) but didn’t go into personal life or anything. He even said that if you harass or threaten these creators you are worse than them. You can’t harass someone online because you view them as lesser than, because that’s how these creators got away with plagiarising for so long. It’s why they plagiarised in the first place.

Most importantly, he never places himself on a pedestal. He continuously says ‘i am not good at video essays’ and talks about how reviewing things is hard. It isn’t easy and that people deserve credit for the skill it takes to write them, but still says he couldn’t do something like it. He isn’t making this video because he views the creators as less than him, he’s making it because there is a deep layer of trust in the youtube community that these creators (and likely many more, with these creators being some of the most obvious and prevalent cases as of right now.) are exploiting in order to make more and more money.

The video is meant to make you think. You’re meant to think ‘is this creator i like doing everything they should be doing? Are they properly citing these sources, are they giving credit and asking for permission as and when it is needed?’ Because that’s what you should be doing anyway! You should be questioning things that don’t add up, that don’t make sense or even seem normal but just don’t sound like what you normally know.

I feel like those of us who are longtime Video Essay Enjoyers™ have been aware something was suss about James Summerton (I remember when Lawrence called out Somerton for stealing their Hannibal essay years ago) for a while. But I think it's cynical to reduce Hbomberguy's vid to just a "dunk" when it's more of an odyssey railing against how influencer and content culture devalues the work of culture critics, academics, and activists. As Harris said, it's not a problem exclusive to Somerton, but a corrosive attitude baked into late capitalist "content" culture. The video is a clear exploration of the consequences of all media and art being flattened into "content" creates a system where the labor of marginalised creatives and storytellers are exploited and stolen by people with more privileges and resources. As someone who has witnessed rich tiktokers quote articles and posts I've written verbatim without credit to make money from their 1000s of followers, this video hit super hard for me. From James Somerton claiming the works of dead gay activists, to Charli D'Amelio building a career from stealing dances created by Black tiktokers - plagiarism is often inseparable from discrimination and exploitation of labor rights. Harris' video is about how the nature of influencer content culture has further exacerbated the exploitative systems that already existed, wrapped up as YouTuber drama analysis. But I hope people don't miss the forest for the trees and remember you should always be citing your sources, fact checking, and be very wary of people who don't. And for the love of God, please stop getting your information exclusively from video essays, tiktoks and podcasts.

[inazuma-fulgur]

Normally I truly just ignore shitty opinions

But sometimes I see so many shitty takes, so many posts preaching and shaming, I wonder if there even are any others outside of those and shallow entertainment, goofy jokes

Ie. Everything is either for fun (good) or serious nonsense

And I realize there are serious and good and thoughtful posts out there, they even get shared, I have shared them. But I can't unfeel that they never start discussions, get people talking and rethinking, even when that is their stated goal

To me it seems people are always just searching for the next appealing, popular post to *unironically* integrate into their belief system the way they meet it. No being picky about takes, no taking only the parts you like, no self reflection and merging the new knowledge with the old, always replace everything.

Got a new personality and political opinion for free from my favorite (insert ideology here) influencer

Like genuinely, to me the reason why Hbomb is popular on here is not because he's good (he is though) but because it's good easy drama, comes with a target and moralization (or at least a villain which can be targeted and who's action can be moralized) in a format that is so large most of us aren't even used to comprehending such thorough takes, how could we possibly critically examine and compare them?

And no matter what hbomb says, someone will find a way to deliberately misunderstand him, someone will be lazy and self righteous about it

If you found out from Hbombs video that James Somerton is full of shit, didn't manage to do that on your own, do you really think just by watching that once or twice you've figured out and learned everything about scammers? About fact checking? You probably didn't even fact check his video because everything aligned with your beliefs, you just needed to make the new information fit in somehow.

It's probably pointless to say this, but he isn't infallible, and he knows he isn't, he admits he isn't, still his videos are gospel to people. All Harris gives you is an idea, a starting point, a concept from where you can expand. He doesn't know what's right, he just knows that what James and Illuminaughti did definitely ain't it.

And that's cool y'know, I don't expect anything more. Only if his watchers could stop pretending he is all of the above, no different from Vaush* fans or whoever. Philosophy Tube fans, very much the same. And Abby and others definitely, maliciously or not, profit off of that, actively keep it that way because it makes YouTube safe as a source of income. It also makes for more efficient and easier branding

*not saying hbomb is like vaush. He isn't

But y'know, Harris and Abby are white british people how could they be wrong about anything amiright

Tumblr, I call you out, do the thing you preach and start fact checking and thinking critically

[darklingduke]

Game On

A/N: It’s been a while since I’ve tried to write much of anything. But if you guys like it, I’ll definitely continue this. I have ideas to turn this into a multi-chapter fic. If you do like it, make sure to leave a like and reblog it to share it around! Thank you for reading. 

Ship: Anxceit

Word Count: 1421

***

Virgil had been on the server for months, longer than they had ever committed to anything, and they were still having the time of their life. They weren’t on it constantly, mind you, but they did log in most days and spend at least an hour or two online. Building towers, mining for ores, gathering up way more supplies than they would ever need. They had already gotten their shot at killing the ender dragon, had a beacon of their own, and had tried their hand at some redstone machines. 

All of them failed, but it was the effort that counted. 

One of their favorite parts of logging into the server was the other player who they had come to consider their friend. Illuminaughty had approached them on their first day on the server and gifted them with a set of enchanted iron tools and armor, along with a few baked potatoes to get them started, and the two had been inseparable since. 

Virgil had built their base - which had started as a small cottage and slowly evolved into a large survival base with a storage cellar and overcrowded farms of animals for food supply - close enough that they could visit Illuminaughty whenever they were both online together. Luckily, whenever Virgil logged on, the other would either already be on, or would get on not too long after. It made Virgil feel a little less like they were annoying him for always hanging around. 

They had recently decided to join up their bases into one big castle, and had advanced from using strictly in-game text chat to making use of the server’s proximity chat mod, and Virgil was able to hear the voice of the boy they’d become friends with. 

They had stayed up late together, until both their voices were groggy with sleep, getting up early the next morning to get back on the server and continue work on their castle together. There would be times - sometimes up to an hour - where neither of them said a word, and yet Virgil never felt lonely, knowing that the other was there. 

It got to the point that when Virgil heard Illuminaughty’s voice, their stomach would do flips, anxiety and butterflies fighting together inside of them, and they had to hide the smile from their voice when greeting him. They missed not talking to him when they weren’t on the server together. 

One thing they hadn’t done, however, was see each other. Virgil didn’t know the other’s name, didn’t know how old he was - hell, they didn’t even know his pronouns, they were just assuming. Virgil didn’t know much about their friend apart from their time in-game together. 

And they desperately wanted to. 

“Hey,” they said while in game with Illuminaughty. Hearing a hum in response - even the slight noise coming from the other raising goosebumps on their arms - they continued. “What do you look like?” 

Gods, what kind of question was that? Now he was going to think Virgil was some kind of creep. What if he was a kid? Virgil had heard 17-year-olds - fuck, even 14-year-olds - who sounded like full-grown adults, so it wasn’t out of the question. 

Why did they have to lead with that question? They couldn’t have asked his pronouns, or age first? 

There was no hesitation on the other side, however, and that put their nerves to rest - at least a little bit, anyways. Illuminaughty snorted, and Virgil could just imagine him rolling his eyes. They were sure he did that a lot. He sounded like he did. 

“What, you wanna see me or something? Need something for the spank bank?” 

Face red, Virgil froze. 

“Sorry,” Illuminaughty chuckled. “I spent the day with my roommate. She tends to rub off on me, and not in the way she wishes.” 

She? Was Illuminaughty in a relationship? Was he straight? 

Wait, no. 

He said roommate, not girlfriend. 

Why did Virgil care, anyways?

“No, it’s-” Virgil tried so hard not to sound flustered or anxious. They hoped they succeeded, but they weren’t so sure. “It’s all good. I just realized I don’t know anything about you, and we’ve been hanging out almost every day for months.” 

In-game, the character that Illuminaughty was puppeting stopped moving, crouching on the top of a wall, five blocks above Virgil, and turned to look down at them. After a second, they heard him suck his teeth, and then he spoke. “Alright, how about this. We get on a video call, we can both see each other, and get to know each other. I don’t know shit about you either, and if I’m gonna share, it needs to be fair.”

Virgil thought for a second, crouching in game and looking down at the ground to show that, before un-crouching and looking back up to the other, moving their cursor up and down to nod. “Fair enough. Before we get on call, though, I gotta protect my ass; how old are you?”

“Over 18, younger than 30. Leave it at that for now. You?”

“Same here.”

Fair was fair. If Illuminaughty was going to be cryptic with his sharing, so was Virgil. 

They didn’t expect the chuckle in response, the low sound sending shivers up their spine. “Alright, I’m gonna disconnect, and call you on Discord.”

And before Virgil could respond, he logged out of Minecraft. They did the same, and moved to Discord, opening the app on their computer. While it was loading, they did a quick check around their room. Anything that would be in the frame was clean enough - no dirty clothes or trash piles in view. 

Virgil hadn’t gotten to cleaning their room yet this week, and shit was starting to build up. Lucky for them, they had showered this morning, so the few days of oil buildup on their hair was gone, and it was freshly fluffy. They had even put on eyeliner this morning, making somewhat of an attempt to take care of themself. 

Their therapist had said that if they want to feel better, a good place to start was to take care of themself and their house better. It was a lot of work, and it was hard, but they were trying. Some days were better than others.

Discord booted up, and within seconds, a box popped up saying that Illuminaughty was calling them. Panic fluttered in their chest, and they scrambled to look around, double-checking that everything was okay. 

They grabbed their headphones and plugged them in, flipping the switch on the cord to turn on the microphone, and joined the video call. 

“Holy shit,” they mumbled, not realizing the words had left their mouth. 

Illuminaughty was fucking hot. 

He had shaggy blond hair that looked obviously bleached, the roots overgrown and brown. There was a port wine stain on his cheek, and a black tattoo on the side of his neck that looked like the Illuminati triangle. A hickey peeked out from under the collar of his shirt - what looked like a dark pink-ish Henly-style shirt, with most of the buttons undone - and another tattoo accompanied it, though Virgil couldn’t make out what that one was. 

A smirk tugged at his lips, the piercings on his bottom lip shifting with the movement, and he chuckled, rolling his eyes. At least they were right on that part. He did roll his eyes. “You’re not so bad yourself, Spiderling.”

They were mortified to learn that they had actually said that, their cheeks flushing red all the way to the tips of their ears. Illuminaughty didn’t seem too phased, however. He brought a hand up into frame, resting his chin on his palm as he looked into the camera. Every single one of his fingers had a different style of ring on it. 

���So,” he teased. “Am I what you expected?”

No. Not even a little bit. 

Virgil shrugged, rolling his eyes. “Not really.”

“Ready to start the 20-questions, or do you need more time to drool?”

They sighed, laughing at themself. He was never going to let that go. They could already tell. 

They hardly even noticed that a majority of their anxiety from before the call had immediately vanished upon answering it and being with the other again. It was like he was a walking, talking Prozac. 

“What’s your name?” It was Illuminaughty who asked the first question, surprising them. 

“Wh– Virgil,” they answered, shocked. “Yours?”

“Janus.” He seemed a little more hesitant to answer, but he did. “It’s very nice to finally meet you, Virgil.”

[the-casual-cheesecake]

Creator Tag Game

tagged by the lovely @mizzy2k

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2019. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

1- Dead and Lovely 

I love this one because it was challenging as FUCK to write and I legitimately did not think I could pull it off. It’s a DoomStrange post-Battleworld fic with Victor being haunted by the decisions of his time as god-- very literally haunted. It’s my most beloved child so far.

2- Still Won’t Leave You Alone

This was my first piece of writing in ages. I had forgotten how much I adored writing before I started working on this, and it sparked a whole new Cake-writing-renaissance lmao

It’s SteveTony Hickmanvengers hatesex, that is literally it, I love it so much.

3- when I’m down on my knees (you’re how I pray)

This fic is a scene that I wanted to read as a fic five years ago when I first read Secret Wars, back then I didn’t think to myself, “Cake, hey, Cake, you can write it yourself.” I just went to the ao3 page, realized it was the rarest pair ever, and backed down slowly and not thought about my heartbreak again, till last year when I was rereading and thought to myself, “weeeell, it’s been years! somebody must have done it.” and then was the most disappointed ever.

So, yeah, that’s why I wrote throne room fucking and got dragged into DoomStrange. 

4- IllumiNaughty (podfic)

So, remember the DoomStrange disappointment? This story is the complete opposite, I read this five years ago when I was like “Hey, those Illuminati are all super hot, they should definitely fuck.” and then went on ao3 and VOILA! FIC! 

I’m so glad I got to record this.

5- A Very Careful Kindness (podfic)

I don’t know why exactly I adore this podfic, maybe it’s the fact I voiced Victor von Doom and swooned to myself about it, maybe it’s because I love this fic so much, but it’s certainly one of my favorites. 

It’s a DoomTony CW2 fic, that is simply perfect, it is everything I ever wanted from a DoomTony fic, and the way the author writes appeals to the way that I formulate my own words so much that I couldn’t not love it. 

So, there, five fanworks from 2019, that was fun! 

I’m tagging @rulerofthelimbo @whenas-in-silks @ironlawyer @humanveil @osheetson and anyone else who sees this and wants to do it, you can say I tagged you ;) 

[christophe-delorne]

KGC Drabble Part 3.

Pairings: Gregory and Christophe

AU: Werewolves

Warnings: NSFW. Blood, bondage, and sex. Club Illuminaughty Members only.

Notes:  This took me so long to finish. I kept getting distracted by cats. Anyways, here's the end of this little scene inspired by an rp. Also, I’m making a South Park RP server on Discord and I need help picking out a theme for it. Find all the information here!

"Gregory." The start of a breathless reply followed soon after the demand, gaining the blonde's attention. There was a pause, a mere heartbeat that seemed to last forever before Christophe continued on when Gregory didn't respond right away. "Please." A simple answer, Christophe wasn't one to beg, but he had little options at the moment. He couldn't resist Gregory, especially not this close to the fully moon. Not when Gregory was playing his interests so perfectly.

"Please what?" Gregory mused, one hand reaching out so he could ghost his fingertips over the front of Christophe's torso. Light green eyes tracked their path, taking in ever intricate detail. The scars, the tattoos, everything that made Christophe's body unique, a roadmap of his past. A gloved thumb circled lightly around one of those dusky nipples, watching with cold amusement as Christophe arched into the touch with a need. Christophe was all too aware of what Gregory could do, what sort of pleasure the blonde could give him and right now Christophe's mind was bringing those memories up to the fore.

"I need you." Christophe strained out through clenched teeth, causing them to ache. He wanted nothing more that to sink them into pale, beautiful skin, into hard muscles, to leave his mark so all could see who Gregory belonged to. He hated the way others looked at him, impressed by his build and height, of perfect blonde hair, dazzling green eyes and a charming little smile that melted him on the inside. Gregory was far from charming at the moment, but that wasn't a bad thing. Christophe loved when Gregory let Christophe catch a glimpse of that alpha nature that so few rarely got to see.

"Oh?" Gregory raised a brow as his index finger came to pinch at Christophe's perked nipple, he was non-too gentle about the way he slowly began to twist. Christophe quivered and strained against his bonds, feeling another sting of pain spiderweb out from the sensitive peak. He found pleasure within the pain and Gregory knew all too well on how to get what he desired from the French werewolf. "You always need me, don't you, mutt?" Gregory murmured in a chilled tone that mocked charming, making this a pleasurable source of punishment.

Christophe could only nod, his body strung tight as Gregory kept his nipple pinched tightly. Though, that didn't seem to satisfy Gregory as he leaned in towards the unabused nipple, catching Christophe off guard as thick canines suddenly pieced through olive skin and lean muscle. Christophe cried out from the sudden rush of pain and ecstasy from the feel of those bestial teeth gracefully tearing into his flesh with no effort around his nipple. His hips bucked desperately, trying to obtain some sort of friction to get off on, but Gregory's free hand only tightened on his hip, forcing him to remain still.

Warm lips pressed down on his skin, sealing off the wound but not before a stream of blood managed to leak down Christophe's chest, rippling over ridges of scars down his abdomen. Christophe tried to move, to writhe and demand more with his impatient motions and in defiance to Gregory's casual pace. It only served to dig those teeth in deeper and make the holes bigger, it would certainly look like he was mauled by an animal once Gregory was done. Nothing new there as some of the scars on Christophe were from Gregory, on closer inspection one could identify each one.

Christophe couldn't find his words, couldn't really think beyond the pain tangling with erotic pleasure clouding his mind. It only grew worse when he could feel Gregory's tongue laving over the open wounds as if gloating over his deed. By the time Gregory pulled away, Christophe was panting lightly, hot rushes of air slipping through the metal cage over his lower face. His body shuddered with each exhale, tense muscles outlined his frame, giving away out strong he was and yet it wasn't enough to get his way against the much larger male.

Cruel jade toned eyes look up to meet forest green ones, wanting Christophe to watch him, wanting to be the center of attention as always. He pressed the tip of his tongue into one of the wounds his canine teeth made, forcing more blood to well up and ease out onto that pink appendage. Christophe's eyelids fluttered briefly, letting out a low moan from between his bared teeth, at the mercy of the man beneath him. Such a position should mean Christophe was in control, dominating Gregory, but no such luck here. Gregory wanted to play with his toy and Christophe was perfect to chew on for the alpha.

"Are you going to be a good boy for me?" Gregory rumbled against Christophe's chest, this time pausing to drag the flat of his tongue over the large bite mark over Christophe's right pectoral. "You want to please your alpha, don't you? Tell me, who do you belong to, mutt? Who holds your leash?" Gregory leaned back again, now blood had smeared over his chin but he didn't seem to pain too much mind to it. Instead, he pointedly used the hand previously teasing Christophe's nipple to jerk hard on the leash connected to the collar around Christophe's neck.

"You are." Christophe almost whine, his rough voice wavering slightly. His nature was leaking out under his defiance. "You are the alpha." Christophe didn't tend to beg, but Gregory always had a way of digging under all the layers to pull it out. It was a sign of trust, Gregory would only force Christophe like this only because he knew Christophe secretly enjoyed it in private.

"That's right." Gregory seemed pleased, reaching up to stroke his leather clad knuckles down along Christophe's jawline almost affectionately. Christophe knew better than to be lulled into a false sense of comfort from the gentle touch, Gregory would be far from gentle near the full moon. "As my subordinate, its your duty to obey me. You haven't been a very good mutt lately have you?" Gregory's hand slid back, delving his gloved fingers into those messy brown locks, combing through them and lightly scratching at Christophe's scalp. "Now you need to gain back favor with me."

Christophe gasped as those fingers in his hair tightened, pulling roughly at his scalp and yanking back hard enough to make Christophe arch backwards painfully. In an instantly Gregory attacked without mercy as those already bloodied teeth sank into Christophe's bared throat. Christophe's eyes rolled back underneath his eyelids, his jaw hanging slack in the muzzle as pain flared hotly through his body, making his cock twitch in his boxers. Already a generous amount of pre had leaked from the tip, causing a dark stain to become obvious on the navy fabric. He wasn't the only one excited by this either as Gregory thrust up hard against Christophe's ass, revealing that he was growing just as desperate.

Christophe couldn't move much at all like this, his head pulled back, making his shoulders strain and ache from being pulled back further from the arm binders. Christophe made a sound, wanting to call out Gregory's name but the slightest movement from his throat cause the blonde's jaws to squeeze further, slowly cutting off the flow of air. Christophe didn't struggle, knowing better to even if he could while Gregory's teeth were embedded in his neck. He gave in to the Brit, feeling the hand that had been on his hip slide around the lower curve of his back. Gregory pulled him closer, forcing Christophe to feel the wall of the man beneath him.

Just as Christophe was starting to feel light-headed from lack of air in his burning lungs, Gregory released Christophe's throat. He gasped for air finally, the corner of his eyes watering from the pain and pleasure that was growing more and more intense but it wasn't enough. Christophe wanted more, needed more from Gregory. "Please..." His voice was thin from the abuse his throat had taken, but Gregory paid him little mind as he was like a cat lapping up the blood that oozed from the large puncture wounds. It was almost like Gregory's tongue was busy painting Christophe's skin with blood the way it twirled and prodded, streaking red over scarred flesh.

The hand in Christophe's hair released, sliding down the back of his neck, over his shoulder, slowly down the front of his torso to smear blood further along the Frenchman's body. Finally the tips of those fingers curled into the band of Christophe's boxers, making his breath hitch in anticipation. Christophe expected Gregory to tease him further and pull his boxers down slowly, but Gregory had grown impatient by now, so used to getting what he wanted. What he wanted now was to be inside the French werewolf on his lap. Instead, Gregory yanked hard, tearing the fabric with surprising ease, unlike his usual nature where he took care to put everything in its place. Right now, he just wanted to put Christophe in his place. Nothing else mattered.

The elastic band dug into Christophe's skin, likely leaving an abrasion before it finally snapped. Tattered dark cloth was tossed elsewhere, uncaring as Gregory now had Christophe naked and sitting on top of his lap, bared and vulnerable to him. Christophe was breathing heavily, his eyes already unfocused as he stared back at Gregory who looked like he was seconds away from devouring him completely. A gloved hand curled around Christophe's cock, easing in a light stroke, not wanting to be too rough here without proper lube. It was still enough to make Christophe whine on top of him, a rare sound that was music to Gregory's ears. Only him and Kyle could ever see Christophe completely broken down like this, begging, murmuring in french as he pleaded for more, giving in to the heat of the moment.

Christophe could feel Gregory's thumb press and rub back and forth along the sensitive spot just beneath the crown, teasing him and smearing more of the pre leaking out from the tip over Christophe's length. Christophe tried to jerk his hips, to thrust himself into Gregory's hand, but when he tried, Gregory pulled his hand away. "Behave." He could hear Gregory growl out lowly in a warning, sending a shiver of excitement down his spine and making his cock twitch a little in response. Once Christophe settled back on his lap, Gregory's hand returned, this time rewarding Christophe's obedience with a slow stroke down his length, drawing a long, low moan from the brunette.

With Christophe lost in the burning pleasure building within him, he was unaware of Gregory's other hand reaching to the side table to grab the bottle of lube that had been waiting there for this moment. Gregory used his thumb to flick open the cap and begin to messily pour the lube down over Christophe's cock and his own gloved hand. Christophe bowed his head forward a little as the cool liquid slid over his heated and ultra-sensitive skin, making his swear between clenched teeth. The lube did warm either as Gregory's hand began to stroke more confidently, the strong scent of mint reaching his nose and causing his skin to tingle pleasurably, already too much for him.

Gregory seemed to sense Christophe climbing up in pleasure as his hand begin to pick up speed, but every time Christophe tried to thrust into the strokes, Gregory would pull away until Christophe settled back down on his lap. Sweat began to dampen Christophe's skin as he was forced to remain still while Gregory toyed with him, he was slowly losing his mind. When Christophe grew too close to climaxing, Gregory would tighten his fingers around Christophe's cock to painfully deny the brunette from coming. Christophe's mind was in chaos, dizzy from lust as Gregory had stripped him of resistance until all he knew was Gregory would deem when Christophe could gain release.

Then, Gregory's hand was gone from Christophe's cock, leaving him whimpering pathetically in attempts to convince Gregory to continue. However, Gregory had enough of teasing Christophe, despite the view of Christophe writhing and whining on his lap was addicting. Instead, Gregory slid one lube-slicked gloved finger into Christophe's back entrance without warning. There was no teasing, no gentle massaging. Instead Gregory simply thrust a single digit into Christophe, causing the other male to yelp and jerk, a bit of pre-cum spurting from the tip to land on Gregory's uniform. Gregory couldn't find it in himself to care at the moment, he'd punish Christophe later for it.

Instead, he curled his finger, stroking Christophe's insides just right, watching with heated lust as Christophe arched back, practically howling to the ceiling from the rush of pleasure and Gregory found his prostate with practiced ease. Slowly, he began to move his finger, easing it back before thrusting it back in roughly. Gregory was enjoying watching Christophe quiver and attempt to ride Gregory's finger himself, he could already imagine what it would feel like to be inside the Frenchman. The thought alone was shredding the remained of his patience and spite.

"Gregory, j'ai besoin de toi en moi. S'il vous plaît. Je t'en supplie..." Christophe's words were thick with a moan, of a whine, broken down to his more primal desires. His accent was thick, more apparent than he'd ever let anyone else hear and it drove Gregory mad with need. Exactly what Christophe had intended as his hazy eyes gazed at Gregory with such a strong need that not even Gregory's alpha nature could resist any longer. Gregory pulled his finger out so one hand could hold onto Christophe while the other fumbled with his belt and pants, trying to get them open.

Christophe tilted his head, his body moving restlessly now that Gregory's attention was frayed, doing his best to get relief while unintentionally making it more difficult for Gregory to free himself. Not wanting to be parted from Christophe, Gregory surged forward, his mouth seeking out Christophe's abused throat. He wasn't gentle in the way he nipped and kissed along any patch of skin he hadn't already ruined. All the while he was bending the metal buckle off his belt until it broke under Gregory's strength. The button and zipper fared the same fate in Gregory's desire to get what he wanted. By the time he struggled to get himself free from his boxers, pre was already leaking from the tip and oozing down his aching length.

Not trusting Christophe to truly behave, one of Gregory's hands grabbed at one ass cheek, dragging Christophe further up on his knees so he could hover over Gregory's lap. Gregory took this moment to stroke himself, smearing more lube along himself. While he did enjoy hurting Christophe, there were limits to it and going without lube was something he'd never do to his boyfriend even in this state. He made sure he was well prepped, even if his own touch was making him want to lose what little control he had now over the situation. He left a good deal of lube collected on the tip, even though the mint nature of it send shivers through his body.

Slowly, Christophe felt himself dragged down, no matter how hard he pushed down, Gregory's bruising grip wouldn't allow him. Gregory was in control here and he was teaching Christophe just that, despite how much Christophe tried to take matters in his own hands. Then, he could feel it, the large head of Gregory's cock nudging against his entrance but going no further. Gregory was torturing him, making him wait and suffer, to remind Christophe again and again, to hammer it home that Gregory was the alpha and was to be obeyed completely. Gregory waited until Christophe's head rolled forward again to look at the Blonde's strict, strained face like he wanted.

"Who do you belong to?" Gregory's voice was husky, rough and low with a growl.

"You." Christophe's reply came without hesitation and he was quickly rewarded for his obedience.

Gregory pulled Christophe down hard while at the same time he thrust roughly up into Christophe. Their cried harmonized, echoing through the study. If they had neighbors, they certainly would have heard. Pleasure ripped through Christophe, scorching his body with pure ecstasy. It was intense, overwhelming and threaded with a bit of pain from not truly worked open properly for Gregory's size. His numb fingers attempted to curl, instinctively wanting to cling onto those familiar broad shoulders but unable to do so. Gregory's face was tucked into the crook of Christophe's neck, hot and heavy breaths rushed over Christophe's already heated skin, branding him almost.

Christophe didn't know how long they stayed like that, Gregory stretching him, filling him completely to the point it was difficult to even catch his breath. Once Gregory seemed to collect himself once more, he leaned back into the chair, staring at the brunette impaled on him, looking completely lost in the pleasure. "'Tophe..." Gregory's voice was strained, almost affectionate as his eyes roamed over Christophe's intoxicating form. "Show your alpha how much you love him..." It was a command, a plea almost as Gregory was holding himself back just to continue to make an example out of Christophe.

Christophe was already too eager to give both of them pleasure that he didn't even want to disobey. Using the strength left in his legs, he lifted himself up, sliding Gregory's cock slowly from his backside until just the tip remained. In a small show of revenge, he paused, letting Gregory wait with bated breath before Christophe shoved himself down, forcing Gregory deep inside him once more. Both howled out in their pleasure once more, their bodies shaking, waiting to snap at any moment, waiting to see who broke first. Christophe began to set a pattern, slow but rough and demanding, no longer able to pause but not taking it easy on Gregory for the torturing he'd gone through.

During one raise up, drawing Gregory out, the blonde's hands shot out to catch Christophe's hips once again, denying him from moving. "Enough." Gregory bit out, having enough of this little torture show, he'd watching Christophe's expression twist and turn in utter pleasure and he wanted more. Without waiting, Gregory thrust himself up into Christophe, holding the brunette still as he was already pulling away after that first quick thrust. Christophe's head tipped back, baring his throat in trust and complete submission, in pleasure that he was gaining. Gregory took it as a sign to go ahead, not that he could or would stop himself. Strands of blonde hair was already falling over onto his forehead, losing its once perfectly styled nature to stick to sweaty skin.

Christophe's breathes were ragged, feeling Gregory thrust into him again and again, unable to move, forced to simply lose himself into the ecstasy flooding his mind, dominating over him. Gregory's pace was rough, pounding as he was certain that those hips would leave more bruises on his ass yet again. Christophe didn't care, the aches and pains would be a reminder of this moment, of the complete bliss shared between them. That rush burning through his veins, Gregory's presence and control branding on his mind and skin forever. He could no longer tell where he ended and Gregory began, completely losing himself in the moment as their moans and cries filled the room for what seemed like hours in his mind but knowing neither could go on for that long certainly.

He could feel himself getting closer to that edge, reaching desperately for it as his inner muscles coiled ever tighter around Gregory's cock, making it harder for him to thrust each time but nothing would stop the blonde now, driven by Christophe's begging cries. Then, everything seemed to erupt within Christophe, pleasure completely wiped his mind of everything as his eyes rolled back into his skull. His spine arched back painfully as his cock jerked, letting loose streak after streak of cum hard, lashing out over Gregory's once clean uniform. Christophe's inner muscles spasmed and clenched, driving Gregory over the edge to join his partner in euphoric bliss of an orgasm.

Christophe hadn't even noticed the fact Gregory had lunged forward to sink his teeth into his shoulder during their matching climaxes, far too gone in pure white ecstasy to ever care of the wild and uncontrolled damage being done to his skin. He clung on tight to that high for as long as he could, but it had demanded too much from him, draining him of everything he had. Eventually, Christophe slumped forward against Gregory, panting erratically as he remembered how to breathe once again. He could feel Gregory slowly slump back against his seat, releasing Christophe's shoulder so he could drag over the wounds almost lovingly.

While Gregory had thought to teach Christophe to behave through this punishment time and time again, it really only taught Christophe to misbehave more so he could get this time and time again.

[madebycoffee]

git to know me bb

I was tagged by the amazing @rainb0wguy. a thenk

Are you named after someone? Sorta kinda. I had a great grandpa Carl. BUUUT My mom really got my name from an Agatha Christie book lol. I think I was murder suspect.

Last time you cried? Anytime I read the news! Dear god!

Do you use sarcasm? Ye

First thing you notice about a person? Uhhhhh idk. It’s been a long time since I met a new person IRL. I guess I got really excited about the starbucks barista’s two tone hair and matching makeup the other day? So I guess I notice eyeshadow. Ffffft.

What’s your eye color? Green bb.

Scary movies or happy endings? Nah. Youtube videos. 

Special talent? Making idiot bois for reality tv challenges!

Birthplace? Washington State bb. 

Hobbies? SIMS. All the shit I do around that.

Height? 5'7″ (hey frenship I’m one inch shorter than u lol)

Favorite subject in school? I really liked the specified classes I took in junior high within subjects. I took a whole history class just on the USSR. I took a whole literature class on horror novels. And tbh Math once I got to geometry and it finally made sense.

Dream Job? I get paid to pet cats all day. (I’d also really like to be involved in movies in the art department but OOF trying to get into that not living in LA is like trying to get tumblr to ban porn bots)

What colors do you associate with happiness? PURPLE BEETCH.

i tag my illuminaughty gorls @slothseasims @galakzee

[2percentsugar]

@dougielombax Sure! Sorry this got long -- it ended up being the conclusion as I wish it existed in the video.

So like, throughout the essay, hbomberguy regularly says that he feels bad for the fans of the plagiarists he's covering. And the ultimate fault certainly lies first with the plagiarists themselves, but...

As he says, it's not impossible to notice that this stuff is plagiarized. Somerton's stuff may have been harder to catch, sure, but it's blatantly obvious that illuminaughti's stuff is content mill drivel.

A better conclusion to Plagiarism and You(Tube) would have exhorted the viewers to start paying attention to certain warning signs for plagiarism, like:

Not citing sources

Stilted language

Impossibly fast video releases

A lack of knowledge about the subject, or alternately, covering so many topics it's impossible that the creator knows much about any of them

He even makes (most) of these points individually! But the conclusion is just, like, telling people to go watch certain creators, which is great, but does nothing to address the fundamental issue. That is, our current media ecosystem incentivizes plagiarism through a series of endless scrolling and low-effort engagement bait.

I think hbomberguy falls short of making this point because it would imply that, on some level, plagiarism is the fault of the audience. But, like -- isn't it?

By the time hbomberguy called out Somerton with this video, he was making thousands of dollars a month from people who didn't factcheck some pretty basic claims, like "what else on the subject have you read" or "I'm the only gay youtuber making media analysis."

If someone is making a long video about something, they read other peoples' work to do it! And yet the fact that he rarely or never quoted other people didn't seem weird to the many, many people giving him money. They didn't evaluate his work with their own brains before donating, they just believed what they were being told.

It's not nice to say, but the only way to make sure you don't get scammed is to learn the trademarks of scams. And plagiarism is certainly a scam -- and worse, one that tends to pollute the entire rest of the media ecosystem with mis/disinformation. (This is also pointed out several times in the video.)

(I say "scam" because, even if everyone was perfectly media literate, these things would still happen. That's why the ultimate blame lies with the plagiarist themself, who uses social engineering to get away with it. But still. It could happen a lot less.)

The algorithm does not exist ex nihilo. It's built around human behavior, and wants to incentivize you to do certain things, like watching as much YouTube as possible, never going offsite even to Google simple factual claims. The longer you're entranced, the more profit.

So, like -- for your own sake and for the sake of the media ecosystem, you should change how you interact with content. Don't treat it as infinite slop, because it comes from somewhere. Where does it come from? What is it trying to tell you?

These are not idle questions, and in many cases, the answers are upsetting. If you want to avoid being the Patreon fan of the next James Somerton, you can't do that by simply cleaving to the recommendations of whoever is doing The Correctest Think. That's just another form of media illiteracy.

when i first watched the hbomberguy plagarism video i was like, so certain he was building to a conclusion abt how uncritical consumption of online content can lead to supporting plagiarists and scammers, and so we as individuals should try to vet new creators we come across and. No that wasnt his point at all. BUT IT REALLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN?