#(tho fair use exceptions would likely apply)

[narse-tantalus]

You're wrong when you say GenAI is incapable of reproducing specific works.

Specifically: exactly reproducing training data is what the models are trained to do, and then many techniques are used to attempt to get the overall product to not reproduce exact copies of the training data in their output.

Here's a source that talks about different techniques to use to prevent verbatim copying in LLMs:

It specifically says this is undesirable because:

LLMs can regenerate copyrighted content verbatim, creating risks for both LLM providers and users.

For Users: Outputs containing copyrighted content could result in unintended legal issues, especially if such material is used commercially or distributed without proper authorization.

For providers: Hosting and distributing models capable of regenerating protected content poses unresolved legal challenges. This issue is particularly concerning for code models. Verbatim code reuse can impact licensing agreements, even for open-source code with restrictions on commercial use.

So your argument that genAI shouldn't be copyright infringement isn't accepted by people who develop genAI models and put lots of effort into making them infringe less often in their final outputs.

Your argument is obviously stronger when applied to novel output of genAIs (which may be all you intended to argue about). But the fact that they often and undesirably create exact copies of their training data does raise questions about the extent to which what they do is simply copying other works badly or is the creation of something original. Does it change your perception of a GenAI work to know that its first several attempts were deleted and not displayed to a user because they were judged by the service's algorithms to be too copyright infringing?

Do you care if LLMs reproduce Open Source code with a closed source license erroneously attached? Or are you contemptuous of the Open source and copyleft movements because they rely on copyright to enforce their licensing terms?

I feel like the people attacking the idea of copyright in the notes - especially those saying it's a tool that only benefits corporations - should be reminded that open sourcing and Creative Commons licencing rely on copyright to have legal force.

the framing of generative ai as "theft" in popular discourse has really set us back so far like not only should we not consider copyright infringement theft we shouldn't even consider generative ai copyright infringement

[reinanova]

so you're new to ao3

and want to learn how to find and filter fics. then boy oh boy is this post for you

(this is going to be a Long post so I'm adding a read more break now)

but where to begin? i personally like to search by fandom or by ship. there are two ways to go about this:

search the fandom, then click on the first link for the fandom you find:

2. click on fandoms in the upper left corner and find your fandom in the giant list of fandoms

(Same concept applies for searching for a specific ship)

Great! now you're in the search results of all the works in that fandom! I'm now going to introduce you to your new favorite button: Filters

When you click on the filters button, the filters menu pops up. There are two main ways to filter works: including tags and excluding tags.

the Include Filter

before we begin: keep in mind that ao3 shows you the most popular tags under each filter. if what you're looking for isn't listed, you can use the search boxes under each filter category to find what you want

Ratings and Warnings

If you want to read a fic with a specific rating or a specific warning, this is where you select that. I personally prefer to use the exclude filter to filter out the ratings/warnings I don't want, but that's up to you. (Notice how you can only pick one rating: if you want to only read one rating, this is great for you. if you want to read anything except a certain rating, that's when exclude is your friend)

Categories and Fandoms

This is great if you want to read a specific slash or a crossover with a specific fandom. (I personally don't use these filters)

Characters and Relationships

this is the good stuff. here is where you can pick the relationship(s) you want to see. If you select more than one, you will only see results that include all of the selected options. The relationships filter is my favorite include filter--utilize it!!

Additional Tags and Other tags to include

want to read fluff? hurt/comfort? this is where you go. If the tag you're looking for isn't on the list under Additional Tags, you can search for the tag you want. ao3 will start to suggest tags, so you can select what you want from that list.

we have now reached my favorite part of the ao3 filtering system:

the Exclude Filter

ao3 operates on a don't like, don't read principle. the exclude filters exist for a reason: USE THEM!!!! i love the exclude filters and use them for every single search

Ratings, Warnings, Categories, and Fandoms

This seems pretty self-explanatory. Let's say you don't want to read fics that are not rated and fics that are tagged as major character death, but every other rating or warning is fair game. Boom, you've excluded them from the search results.

Characters and Relationships

Don't want to read a fic with a certain character or ship? You can get rid of all of them from the search results. For example, if you don't want to read any /Reader fics, you can filter those out here

Additional Tags and Other tags to exclude

Anything else you don't want to read about? maybe it's something that is a trigger for you, or something you just aren't into. Maybe there are specific relationships not listed under the relationship filter that you want to exclude. you can exclude those tags here. The exclude tag search feature is great for this.

More Options

there are some more ways to filter fics, including crossover status, completion status, word count, date updated, and language. Let's say you don't want any crossovers and you want to read a work in progress. you would select Exclude crossovers and Works in progress only here.

One last thing before you hit sort and filter!

You can sort the results by a variety of different features, like date updated, hits, and kudos. Be careful tho--sometimes some of the best fics you'll read will be the ones that don't have the same number of hits and kudos as the "popular fics" so don't judge a fic by it's numbers

That's it!! Now you're ready to sort and filter the results to your heart's content! This button is at the top and bottom of the filter tab for your convenience :)

Based on the filtering, your new search results will appear. Now you can read what you want and ignore the rest!

In summary:

Including: will show you only the results that have ALL of the included tags

Excluding: will show you results that have NONE of the excluded tags

Don't like, don't read! ao3 is an archive, not an algorithm--you have to search out the content you want yourself. hit the back tab if you don't like the fic you're reading

Remember to leave comments and kudos to make an author's day!!

[raveneira]

so is Sarada becomes bind or some bullshit

Here's what I don't get, someone made a good point that even Sasuke got caught off guard by kaguyas hand grabbing Sasuke from behind and pulling him to another dimension, which ok fine that's fair, except one thing tho.

For starters this is a 10 tails Sasuke clone, not a literal alien goddess, she was on a completely different level way above human comprehension. Hidari isn't human but he has human chakra, the second he walked into konoha they sensed Sasukes chakra signature, not the 10 tails.

This is important because they never make mention of sensing any other chakra within him, they specifically say Sasuke, not Sasuke and some unknown chakra mixed together.

This means hidari is not some other worldly being that can't be sensed as easily, this means he has human chakra, the same will apply to bug and moegi. They obviously have a 10 tails boost, but their identity as far as sensing goes appears human, specifically the human their cloned from.

With that out of the way there's another thing that goes against this defense, and that's the fact that Sarada KNOWS how the belt works and how it's used, she saw it first hand and literally dodged a sneak attack once already from close range, Sasuke wasn't expecting kaguya to grab him to another dimension, he was expecting her to attack, so he wasn't looking for a grab.

Sarada however WAS expecting an attack, Sumire had JUST told everyone that she's the target and to be on guard, so why would she drop her guard for even a second? Sasuke didn't know kaguya was gonna target him specifically in that moment, Sarada knew she was the target, knew how the belts worked, and has already dodged a sneak attack once already when she wasn't even expecting it.

Please tell me why Sarada would be 100% on the alert now, know that he is targeting her specifically, knows he has her father's lightning abilities for some reason, yet stupidly drop her guard and take her eyes off him?

The fact that he's already tried to sneak her from behind once before should've made her EVERY cautious and paying attention to her back.

Saradas not blind, she has perfect vision with her glasses and even better with her sharingan, she just can't be allowed to shine or fend for herself ANY chapter moon moons involved in because he ALWAYS gotta make a heroic entrance and rescue.

I don't wanna hear shit about his promise, Sasuke does NOT constantly protect Naruto that's a constant damsel in distress that needs his protection, that is not what a fkin hokage is.

If Saradas dream to become hokage directly ties into Borutos promise then she don't need or deserve to be hokage in the first place because how TF is the village supposed to depend on her for protection of she can't even protect her danm self? If Borutos promise means he'll be protecting her constantly, if protecting her dream means never letting her do shit for herself, if her role as hokage amounts to her just doing paperwork and politics and Everytime a big bad shows up she don't do shit because Boruto will be like 'don't worry I got this you just hang back and tend to civilians and help evacuate etc' then she needs to not even touch that seat, don't even DREAM of the hokage seat, she absolutely does not deserve it if that's what her reign is gonna be. Having HER village protected by somebody else and BEING protected because she can't defend herself.

Everything you see now is foreshadowing of the worst kind and the fandom even backs it up but hypothetically claim it's a good thing.

The future hokage and the supporting shadow, comparing it to Naruto and Sasuke when it couldn't be more different, they protected each other equally, one was not a constant damsel in distress for the other and they know it.

They claim her being saved constantly isn't a big deal because what's wrong with needing to be saved? She can be strong AND saved, there's nothing wrong with needing help.

Except the problem is she isn't strong, she's weak as hell, that's how she's written, she's weak mentally because she can't even remain calm or be strategic in trying to prove Borutos innocence, she fell apart and just sat on the ground crying when her friend was being hunted down right in front of her, she couldn't stand up to Kawaki and actually protect Boruto cuz she got cold feet.

She's weak physically because she barely knocked back the glass Grimes despite having ces that should've sent them flying and immobilized them entirely, she's weak chakra wise because her chidori as a child was both bigger and caused more damage than her chidori has after 3 years of training (supposedly)

She's weak in intelligence because even Sumire does the bare minimum dot connecting she should easily be able to connect as well.

Sarada, CANON Sarada is indeed strong, but whoever tf this is is weak as hell and a total joke.

She talks big, claims the hokage title, acts like she's gonna do something but the doesn't, tells ppl what she won't allow them to do and then proceeds to allow them to do it cuz all she can do is yap but not back any of it up

Yet she has the audacity to think she deserves to become hokage, even worse, to think she's even remotely like Naruto when she couldn't be more opposite.

Naruto was strong, she's not, Naruto had battle intelligence, she doesn't, Naruto cared about ppl other than Sasuke, Sarada cares about nobody but Boruto, Naruto earned ppls acknowledgement and support of him becoming hokage, Sarada hasn't earned a single person outside her teammates support and acknowledgement towards her dream which is the biggest most clear sign you can get that she is unworthy of the title.

3 years have passed and Saradas name has only gone through the mud due to her own foolishness in how she pushed everyone away who didn't side with her about Boruto, she completely isolated herself to just Sumire because she was the only other one not affected and on Borutos side.

Imagine Naruto cut everybody off except for Sakura because they were the only two on Sasuke side, do you think konoha would've even remotely acknowledged him as future hokage? Do you think they would've believed in him to be able to create peace and deal with the big bass if ALL he cared about or showed interest in is Sasuke? Ended relationships with everyone and only hung out with Sakura because she's the only one obsessed like he is? Hell no.

So Sarada is nothing like Naruto and she doesn't understand his ideals the way she thinks he does either, she follows an idolized version of Naruto she has in her head, not who Naruto actually was.

If she believes Naruto is someone who needs constant protection, who would be content with staying weak and helpless because his friend will always rescue him, who would turn his back on everyone who doesn't agree with him, and who thinks all it takes to become hokage is to just yap about how he's gonna become it one day while putting in zero effort and gaining zero recognition.

Then she doesn't know or understand Naruto at all, probably because she never made an effort to get to know him to find out. The hokage she idolizes isn't Naruto, it's a false Naruto she made up in her head, a selfish self righteous and entitled one that'll cut off anyone that doesn't dance to her tune and only cares about one person and nobody else.

For the record I'm not speaking about Kishimotos or Kodachis Sarada, I'm referring specifically to whoever ghostwriter-kun is that has absolutely character assassinated her since Kodachi left.

Sorry I veered a bit off topic... But I am just so pissed at how her character has been treated and massacred all so some Gary Stu MC can look good.

[rollercoasterwords]

hi rae how are uu!!!

i was reading about mulvey and the female gaze and i remembered you saying something about how it pushes bioessentialist agendas but i don't remember what u said exactly so do you mind sharing a piece of ur mind about this again

also!!!!! i've read captive prince with ur influence and then read ur laurent's pov rewrite and god!!!!! it was so so good it brought me to tears and made me laugh out loud and scream into my pillow at times... the first book didn't stick out to me that well but afterwards?? their dynamic is everything i was missing in life. also reading the first book in laurent's pov was an otherworldly experience, him getting surprised to see damien isn't the definition of all things evil like he thought ahhhh u captured him perfectly i think

also read all for the game series (saw a fanart of neil in ur blog and it kickstarted me getting into yet another fandom) and i was like wtf is this and then later i was like wtf is this but in a positive way. now the characters are all my babies (except kevin like yes i understand his struggles and all but i still see that guy as a little bitch which is a bit ironic when andreil are the biggest bitches to exist but still)

also binge-watched iwtv and goddddd gays with communication problems who happen to be vampires i love them all sm <333 do u have a fav character i wonder AND any thoughts on the last episode?

anyways i hope life is treating you kindly much kisses and good wishes <3

hi i'm good hope ur doing good as well!! such a fun message hang on let me take this piece by piece...

mulvey's male gaze the bane of my existence lmao...yeah the entire theory is rooted in bioessentialism. basically mulvey is basing her theory in freud who assumes that the categories 'father' 'mother' 'son' and 'daughter' are stable + static & therefore assumes that the categories 'male' and 'female' are stable + static biological categories which engender inherently different psychic/interior qualities. mulvey's entire argument hinges on the idea that men will be categorically unable to relate to/empathize with/see themselves as women onscreen--this argument begins to break down when you start asking questions like 'how is mulvey defining 'men' and 'women'? is she defining them, or is she assuming that they're static biological categories? are they static biological categories?' also i disagree with the idea that people are categorically unable to identify with characters across sex and/or gender & think it's kinda dumb tbh. to be fair, mulvey's theory was meant to apply to a pretty specific context and has largely been taken out of that context in ways that are very annoying but not necessarily her fault; still, when the original theory is so rooted in bioessentialism i don't really find any of it useful.

anyway. moving on to the fun stuff captive prince omg!! so glad u enjoyed the series & my own take on laurent...it was SO fun trying to get inside his head & imagine what would have been going on in there i love him so much <3 <3 tricky to write tho bc i was definitely trying 2 walk the line of like. not diminishing/excusing laurent's cruelty while simultaneously showing why he acts the way he does in the first book...abuse as cyclical etc...

and aftg lol such a trip...wtf is honestly an accurate response it's a wild ride but so much fun <3 & not liking kevin...valid honestly i like him but i also don't care abt him that much compared 2 the other characters...u should read 'the sunshine court' at some point it's abt jean & it will probably make u like kevin even less lmao

& finally. iwtv!!!!!!!! i've been obsessed w that show the past few weeks i just binge watched season 1 & have now been watching season 2...SO fucking good omg. personally my favorite character is. armand <3 idc what he does they could never make me hate him...last episode was soooo good claudia is my second-fave character just a smidge after armand i truly think her story is probably the most interesting + tragic out of all of them like. makes me feel a bit crazyinsane thinking abt it BUT her & madeleine. oh my goddddd that scene broke me. don't have many more coherent thoughts currently other than wailing + tearing my hair out etc but i am having a great time nonetheless...

anyway thank u 4 the message love catching up life has been busy but mostly treating me kindly hope it's doing the same for u!! <3

[evilkitten3]

me: oh there's no way that's- wait i can just look this up

*googles "kamala harris campaign website"* *clicks on kamalaharris.com*

first thing i see:

that's a screenshot of the entire page. then right after i took that screenshot, this popped up (probably not related to the screenshot, i think that was a coincidence):

*click "later"* *click "close"* ok so NOW we'll be getting to the meat of the- MA'AM, AGAIN?

twice, even, wow. well ok that's just kinda annoying but i already knew politicians wanted donations (gotta say "let's win this" is. a little on the nose but alright). maybe her platform will be under "meet kamala harris"?

ok, so there's some things that happened under the biden administration, and she also wants people to know she's pro-choice and anti-voter suppression which. seems like it should be a no-brainer, but this is america, so. ok what else?

some more stuff she's been part of (just throwing this out there tho - grilling kavanaugh was a waste of everybody's time; the man threw a public temper tantrum and the dems still couldn't get rid of him. idk if i would choose this to brag about, personally).

"back on track" is also an interesting thing to be bragging about - it was well-intentioned but imo had serious issues that still haven't been addressed (first and foremost being that you have to plead guilty to be eligible, which already shows a deeply biased viewpoint of the criminal justice system's effectiveness; to be clear this isn't a part of the program itself, it has to do with california's penal code, but it's still a serious issue, and harris herself tied it to her plan directly), it served very few people (only about 241 people fully completed the program, according to an internal da document, although that may not be fully accurate as some of the other numbers didn't quite add up) and also i. don't think there's any actual evidence that it had much effect on sf's crime rates (the rates DID go down, but that had more to do with california being ordered to reduce prison overcrowding and a general decrease in support for overcriminalization).

(for integrity's sake - i used jacobin's article on back on track bc i couldn't really find much else that had anything of value to say, but jacobin is a source with a left-wing bias, and while the sources the author uses seem legit, i would recommend checking them out yourself if you find something a bit funny somewhere)

anyway, let's keep going. we'll find that platform somewhere.

ok that's. great i guess good for her i don't actually care about. any of that (aside from being the first black, south asian, and female vp, which is neat)

well that seems to be it for meet kamala american girl, so maybe her platform is somewhere else. to tim!

resisting the urge to state my personal opinion on the american military and what serving in it says about a person, the first half of this bit is kinda... vague. how many Good American Boy boxes will Terrific Timmy tick off today!

$35 a month for anything would absolutely devastate me if i had diabetes and lived in minnesota and was one of the many-but-not-all people that that applied to, but. well it's actually the same price here i think so not like i can judge (except the schmucks who let/made it get that overpriced; they're going to have to build a new circle of hell just for those fuckers)

speaking of that paragraph, the second half of it starts off strong with a genuinely good thing he did in protecting abortion rights, but it immediately turns right back around and punches itself in the face with the police (yeah cuz you know what america needs? MORE cops)

i don't think his dad being a veteran says much about him except to explain why he joined the military (refraininggggggggg) but i will take this opportunity to dad-flex on him bc my dad burned his draft card <3

ok, reaching out to the i-only-care-about-guns crowd, that's a fair move. not sure what the pheasants did to him personally but if you're gonna hunt something, that's a pretty decent one to go for, i suppose.

good for his daughter? i'm going to assume she was ok with that being super public information bc. now it is.

ok well that's. i mean it doesn't mean a whole lot but alright. moving on i guess

let's see if we can find her platform under "take action"

i'm gonna looooove what i see when i scroll down, i bet

i would not like to do any of those things, if i am being entirely honest

maybe events?

THIS ISN'T EVEN YOUR WEBSITE ANYMORE, COME ON

maybe her platform is in the last part of her website

at the bottom of this mug

(for the record, i also checked all of these

to see if i could find her platform hiding in them, but.

anyway i'm going to share the faq page bc. it's hilarious to me. i swear i am not making this up:

fortunately, that second to last one actually contains something useful!

don't mind if i do!

aaaaaand sent!

If you go on kamalas website then you'll find not a single campaign proposal is on there. Not one.

[rachel-morrigan]

Your page makes me wanna return to the brony fandom holy cow I dropped off after the beginning of season 6 or smth...

Ehe i love making people go back to mlp in some way,if you decide to catch up w it tho allow me to give a fair warning

Everything happens in terms of enviroment changes but little happens in terms of character development after season 5-6, which isn't a terrible thing cause clearly they knew all the mane six were essentially fully developed (twilight being the exception as she has main character privilege ).

So they brought in more characters and a new secondary cast as well, which a lot of people were upset about cause it felt like an unneccessary addition as some would simply declare "they could have just ended it instead" which granted is fair but i think it's just as unfair to condemn the new lil characters they introduced because they took to some extent the mane six screen time.

If you want to get back into it, do so with an open mind, the story progresses and new peeps gets introduced but it's not necessarily a bad thing (unlike what many wants you to believe), there are still some great episodes and some others that don't need to be overread in their concepts and executions.

Also cause the show main target was never that old of an audience, it just gradually adapted to that audience as time went on, but the main idea behind mlp is friendship and basic easy to understand morals, which is something people tend to forget and criticize like it should be peak cinema ahah.

I like mlp cause growing up it substituted for figures and parentings i was lacking, and to me its simplicity in execution for non plot driven eps is more than enough and shouldnt be too complicated than that, it worked just fine for when i was a kid and it felt comforting once i grew older, and it also shaped many passions of mine such as reading, my interest in history and so on.

Its not excluded from criticism of course, she's all yak is definitely..an episode to say the least! It exists!

But to quote DWK

"Do you like saturday morning cartoons?"

"Of course"

"Hypothetically, imagine if you were just sitting there watching your cartoons and a bunch of wannabe professional movie critics showed up and started deconstructing that saturday morning cartoon using the same standards you'd normally apply to art house cinema, what would your reaction be?"

"Those people were missing the point of the show"

With this i mean that for example, just because a dress and a pair of work pants are both pieces of clothing, it doesn't mean they can be judged by the same criteria because they're meant to be worn for different purposes.

[littlemissnoname13]

Fortunate Misfortune (D.M. x Reader)| Chapter 9: Enough! All of you (vol. 1)

Summary: Its his last year at Hogwarts and former Hogwarts bully, Draco Malfoy just wants to clean up his act and get through the year. Maybe even apply for a potions fellowship and date Astoria Greengrass. His plan seems perfect on paper except for a minor hiccup in the form of a feisty Hufflepuff girl…

A/n: This multi-chapter has been in my Drafts since before I started posting on here and I’ve taken out so many scenes from it and turned them into one shots in the past. The series is almost completed and ill just be dumping it on my blog over the next few days because I don’t know what to do with it. Please do not feel pressured to read it. 😅🥲.

The first draft was a bit too rushed so I had to add a few scenes and break this chapter in half. My apologies for it.

Reblogs and Feedbacks are always welcomed

Warnings: mentions of food, coarse language, making out, some slight suggestive themes but nothing too explicit, reader discretion is advised tho

Word count: 1977

Chapter 8 | Masterlist| Chapter 9 (vol.2)

“This?” He massaged the bridge of his nose for the second time that day. “This is your big plan to get even with Pansy?”

“Uh huh.” You nodded eagerly.

“But-”

“They were the best pranksters of their year at Hogwarts Draco!”

“You think we’re the best pranksters of our year at Hogwarts?” George wiggled his eyebrows teasingly at you while Draco continued to stand next to you with his arms crossed defensively. It was only fair that he had some trust issues with them, considering the fact that their history was a bit tainted.

“But it looks like Malfoy disagrees.” Fred smirked, casually shoving his hands in his pocket and Draco fought back another scowl. Oh, They were enjoying this alright. If this weren’t so important to you, Draco wouldn’t have dealt with another second of this.

“Excuse us, one moment.” You said, before reaching for his hand to pull him away. Your single touch, easing his mood by a tenfold.

When you were far enough, Draco took a moment to look at you and understand what in Merlin’s name was going inside of your head.

Sure, what Pansy did with the potion was uncalled for, but surely there must have been something else that had triggered such a reaction from you.

“Please Please Please agree with Fred for this one time, I beg of you Draco.” You pleaded, even going so far as to join your palms together.

“Not a chance.”

“Please.” You pleaded yet again, looking him straight in the eye and that is when he knew he was knee deep in trouble.

Those eyes.

He would have agreed to anything if you looked at him like that—correct, incorrect or straight up lies, didn't matter.

The sun rises in the west? Sure. Trees shed leaves in the spring? Absolutely. St. Potter wasn’t so bad to begin with? Of course.

Draco used his index and pointer finger to grab a hold of your chin so he could get a better view of the whirlpools in your eyes that seemed to always pull him in.

“This is really important to you, hm?” He asked observantly and you nodded.

“Are you going to tell me why?” He asked again, and you shook your head to denote a no.

“If I agree to whatever the Weasels say, will you at least tell me why you have been avoiding me like the Plague?”

You nodded slowly and he let go of your face so you could both walk back towards Fred and George.

“So, where were we?” George asked, looking at Fred with a mischievous grin.

“We were at the part where Malfoy over here was disagreeing.” Fred gestured towards Draco and he took it upon himself to keep this mouth shut and count to a hundred.

“Draco Agrees.” You said, nudging him lightly with your elbow.

“Ow—right. Whatever she said.” Draco muttered reluctantly wondering why he was going through this humiliation for you.

“Sorry. We didn’t quite hear you.” The twins said in unison.

“You two were the best pranksters in your year at Hogwarts.” Draco muttered.

“Perfect.” George chuckled, summoning a suitcase that read Weasley & Weasley.

~~~

Your eyes had barely opened the next morning when you heard a knock on your door.

Astoria was a late riser meaning, there was only one person that would show up at your door this early.

Sheepish smile, top two shirt buttons left open, right hand shoved deep into his pocket and an unusually messy blond head full of hair that had managed to turn wavy.

Draco tossed you the paper bag he was holding in his left hand, dipped his head low to kiss you on the top of your head and walked into your room like he owned the place.

“Almond Croissant. Apparently, they were all out of your usual.”

“Thanks.” You muttered, taking a small nibble of the croissant.

Draco was a creature of habit because he’d almost always use aguamenti to fill up your kettle and fix a hot beverage for himself.

He was obsessed with that kettle.

“I need to freshen up.” You yawned, summoning your bathrobe as he sank into pillows with a cup of tea floating next to him. “I’d tell you to make yourself comfortable, but it looks like you already have.”

He lifted his head from the pillow, and shrugged at this.

“Don’t spill tea on my comforter like that last time.” You warned.

“It was that one time y/n.” He protested, lifting the comforter to look for the past damage. “And I fixed it, didn't I?”

You shook your head at him and headed to the shower. You still owed him an explanation as to why you were avoiding him.

You thought about appropriate explanations as you lathered on shampoo into your hair.

Scrubbing your body clean, you pondered about all the variables that had led to this particular moment in time—Draco Lucius Malfoy sipping tea on your bed.

As a last resort, you settled on preparing a mental list of explanations to give him as you picked the tangles in your hair.

Astoria is sick. Can’t tell you that

Astoria is in love with you. Can’t tell you that too.

I might be falling in love with you. Can’t tell you that either.

Is there anything I can tell you?

Did I bring spare clothes in here?

Fuck.

You wrapped a towel around yourself and tiptoed back to your room. Draco seemed to be deeply immersed into one of your books, giving you the perfect opportunity to tip toe into your room to reach for whatever article of clothing you could lay your hands on.

~~~

The sound of the running water had abruptly stopped and so had your absentminded humming. If his calculations were correct, you’d be out of the shower any moment now.

Suddenly feeling conscious about himself, Draco attempted to put his tea away and sit up straight.

His hands felt awfully empty without the mug so he decided to reach for whatever book you had left open on your nightstand and read it, or at least pretend to.

“Her breathy moans only encouraged him to increase his pace—now thrusting at a speed that was increasingly desperate, almost animalistic.”

What even is this book?

His palms suddenly felt clammy, and small dots of sweat had started to form on his forehead. He couldn’t decide if he suddenly wanted to keep reading or pause to take notes.

Deciding to tear his eyes away from the raunchiest book he’d ever read, he looked up to find you, standing in front of your dresser with nothing but a towel on.

Water trickled from your hair and decorated your bare shoulders and some of it had even managed to collect along your clavicles.

He was suddenly very parched.

Deciding to take the gentlemanly route, Draco tore his eyes away from the sight even though It took him everything to do so and went back to reading the blasted book.

Maybe it was the passage in the book about the protagonist’s hands around his love interest’s throat, or the fact that you were semi nude but he was finding it increasingly difficult to sit still which was strange because Draco never took himself for someone who was easily seduceable.

He had gone through a toxic phase of one night stands and casual flings with girls from all four houses. Yes, even Gryffindor. But he couldn’t recall feeling this hot and bothered about anyone before.

“As much as I pride myself for exercising immense self control, I can only take so much, y/n.” He muttered out loud, training his eyes to keep themselves glued to the book.

From his peripheral vision, he saw your cheeks flush bright pink as you quickly reached for a green sweater and slipped it on.

“Hey! That’s my book.” You yelled when you took notice of what he was reading, causing a smirk to form on his face.

“Well, I’m borrowing….” He read the title of the book out loud in a mocking tone. “..Lacy and Racy.”

“Draco! No—Give it back.” You whined, now walking towards him to snatch it off him.

Luckily for him, he was taller than you were. All he needed to do was hold the book out of your reach.

“Give—it—” You continued to whine as you stretched on your toes to reach for your book. “—Back.”

You were now standing impossibly close to him—arms reaching forward, damp hair tickling his face and the scent of your body wash infiltrating the atmosphere.

“No.”

Draco slowly lowered the book, maintaining eye contact with you the whole time. He thought he was the only one but it appeared that your breathing had gotten increasingly shorter too.

“Draco, Please.”

He always thought there were a lot of intriguing words such as blasphemy or serpentine or even trapezoid in the English dictionary. But none of those words sounded as intriguing as his given name followed by “please” tumbling from your mouth.

“Say that again.” He whispered, gently pressing his forehead to yours. “My name, the way you said it y/n, Please.”

“Draco.”

His hands wove themselves into the hairs along the base of your neck as he pulled your face closer to his.

“Take this as a warning,Y/n.” He struggled to keep his voice from getting hoarse. “Don’t ever say my name like that again. Because if you do, I will have to kiss you again.”

He allowed himself the privilege of ghosting his lips a mere centimetre from yours before letting go of you and backing away.

This time round, it was you that leaned back in to crush his lips with yours and it didn’t even take him a second to respond.

This was the third time he was kissing you and his lips had gotten acquainted with yours. It was like they automatically knew what you liked. The amount of pressure, the moment, the urgency.

It wasn’t long before he found his hands running up and down your sides along the knitted fabric that hugged your body.

“Is that my sweater?” He arched a brow, backing away.

“Nope.” You answered, pulling him back into the kiss.

“It has my name on it.” He murmured between the kisses.

“No it doesn’t.”

“Whatever you say, D.Malfoy 07.” He murmured, deepening the kiss as he referred to his name embroidered at the back.

You chuckled at this, and he used your distraction as a means to pick you up from the ground.

“This sweater belongs to me now. So technically, I’m still right you know. It's my sweater.” You giggled, wrapping your legs around his torso—the kiss still continuing to get steamier by the second.

“I didn’t take you for a thief. ”

“And I didn’t take you for someone who would enjoy reading smut.” You kissed his jaw and he held back a laugh.

“Speaking of smut..” He dipped his head forward so he could attach his lips onto the skin at the base of your throat.

You let out an involuntary sigh and he silently decided to thank Merlin, Salazar, and of course, the writer of Lacy and Racy.

His gratefulness was rudely disturbed by a knock on your door.

Reluctant and to put you down, Draco continued to carry you in his arms as he made his way to the door.

Whoever it was, he was going to shoo them away.

“Are you going to put me down before you answer that?”

“Nope.”

“People talk, you know.”

“Like I care.” He whispered into your ears as he used one of his hands to unlock the door.

The two of you froze when you were standing face to fact with Astoria and Blaise.

Astoria and Blaise?

“Black lake?” Astoria asked, holding a wicker picnic basket in front of her. “We were supposed to meet up over here beforehand?

To be continued..

~~~

🏷 Series Tag-list: @sycathorn-slush @badass-yn @louweasleymalfoy @writeandtranslate @silentkiller2374 @lilmissquackson @mzmalice3 @mvdbldd @emptycanvasthings @likediamondsandgold @hey-asstown @dr4cking @flacalatke @beautiful-y/n

~~~

End of chapter notes:

You will see more of Pansy and The twins in the upcoming part. Also, I used this to come up with the name of the book Draco was reading.

[blockgamepirate]

Technoblade’s purpose in the political narrative of the Dream SMP

I can’t sleep so I decided to finally write the post I’ve been struggling with for literal months, except way more casual because I can’t be bothered anymore and also I’m sleep deprived.

So the thing is: to me the DSMP storyline has always been primarily political, probably because I was introduced to it through Wilbur who was definitely going for political, and also because I’m just generally interested in political narratives right now. Obviously I appreciate the character work and the personal relationship stuff, that’s what makes it more interesting than just dry allegory, but when it comes down to it, this story is about politics to me. So that’s the angle I’m going to approach it from.

Also not to spoil the conclusions here, but I’m an anarchist, that’s my lens.

(Obviously all of this is about rp from here on out unless otherwise specified)

Basically the situation as Techno joins the server is this: L'Manburg exists as an autonomous nation and is de facto independent although not officially recognised by the Dream SMP. The self-appointed president Wilbur Soot decides to hold an election and rig it in order to consolidate his power over the nation he founded and he gets his VP Tommyinnit to join in on the plan. Their scheme fails and they end up voted out instead. The new president, Schlatt, immediately establishes himself as an authoritarian figure and exiles Wilbur and Tommy.

A couple of points on what the election arc demonstrates:

1: the appearance of democracy can be used for distinctly undemocratic purposes.

2: even if the elections aren’t rigged, the electoral system could be massively flawed and end up favouring a party that in fact didn’t have the popular vote

3: even if the winning government (the coalition in this case) has the majority vote, that doesn’t guarantee that they’ll actually act according to the popular will.

4: the supporters of the losing parties basically just have to let the majority overrule their wishes, espcially since apparently L’Manburg doesn’t have an established role for an opposition, yikes. That’s actually a MAJOR oversight in the system but I’m not gonna go into that too much.

5: frankly as an anarchist I am just deeply cynical towards representative democracy, and just because you have a token appearance of choice and consent doesn’t mean that it isn’t a hierarchical and authoritarian system. And to be fair, from my point of view this applies even to so-called liberal democracies and progressive parties. Full disclosure: even if L'Manburg was the ideal example of a representative democracy (which it very much isn’t) I would still be opposed to it because I fundamentally do not believe in top down systems, even electoral ones.

6: despite all these flaws, all the characters seem to implicitly accept the electoral system as legitimate. There’s criticism against the actions of individual characters acting within the system, such as Quackity calling out Wilbur for trying to rig the election, but nobody is questioning the system itself.

So at this point I’m sitting there, watching all this go down, and thinking “man, this would be so much more bearable if there was an anarchist point of view being represented in the story.”

And hey, look who IMMEDIATELY SHOWS UP.

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, early installation Technoblade is not the best representation of anarchism. I was mostly rooting for him out of sheer contrarianism initially. I didn’t really even care if it would be another Killmonger/Magneto/Zaheer situation because I’m used to reading against the authorial intent when it comes to these things. Sometimes any representation is better than no representation, even with political ideologies. That’s not to say that him just straight up spouting this hobbesian notion of a “dog-eat-dog world” didn’t grate on me, obviously it did.

That kind of worldview of humanity needing authority in order to prevent chaos and conflict is literally antithetical to anarchism and is the favourite talking point of authoritarians, the least anarchist people there are. It’s literally what people use to argue AGAINST anarchism. I think it’s mostly because cc!Techno obviously wasn’t particularly educated on anarchist thought and was just basically having fun roleplaying with his friends at this point. Which is frustrating but fair enough I guess.

Cynical ideas about human nature are pretty deeply rooted in the mainstream, unfortunately, most people just consider it common sense. And like I said, it’s a huge talking point in the propaganda against anarchism.

(… even though in fact these arguments were originally used against proponents of representative democracy. Hobbes himself was very much a monarchist, the idea of letting normal people vote for their representatives would have been terrifying to him. Like surely the world would descent into a free-for-all war, all against all. Imagine letting commoners have OPINIONS, the horror.)

So yeah, that stuff was pretty ehhhhh. It was basically what I’d expected though: cc!Techno isn’t an anarchist and we just don’t get accurate representation from non-anarchists, ever. What I dared to hope was that Techno’s character would at least stay consistent about his opposition to ALL governments. I was pretty sure that he would, even though it seemed like the majority of the fandom at the time was convinced that he would switch over to Schlatt’s side or something. It would have been a really shitty twist, I would have ragequit immediately. I mean what would have been the entire point of his character then? He might as well have been a random mercenary. Why even have his character be an anarchist if you were just going to make him work for a government?

(ftr this is kinda my biggest problem with the Hypixel Skyblock revolution event lol, honestly I think that was a worse depiction of anarchism than early DSMP Technoblade. I mean the speech was good, but… still became a government official, tho. booooooooo, cringe)

And yes, I was rooting against L'Manburg, obviously, and I would have even if it had meant having to deal with another badly written anarchist villain character. I never understood why people saw L'Manburg as the good guys, they were nationalist and exclusionary and their whole existence was based on trying to scam people for money.

I mean they were definitely funny, they were great entertainers. I have no problems with people rooting for them because they’re fun to watch; I did that for a bit too. But people were starting to get really into the story and talk about Wilbur and Tommy, the corrupt politicians, and the country that literally excluded people based on nationality as the heroes, unironically, which was wild to me. And when Wilbur started his “villain arc” well: people called it a villain arc, as if he hadn’t been pretty much a bad guy from the beginning, constantly just out for money and power and taking advantage of the people around him and then pretending to be the victim when challenged. I mean yes he got worse, but I wouldn’t call it a villain arc, more like just a mental breakdown arc.

More importantly, to me L'Manburg represented so many things I hate about the status quo in real life, and seeing the fandom mostly unquestioningly accept it as good just pissed me off. Still pisses me off tbh. I mean, to be diplomatic I could say that I understand the emotional attachment and the way L'Manburg was built up mirrors a lot of how real nations are built and how they create a sense of patriotism out of symbols and a sense of honour and loyalty, and it’s actually really fascinating how it even works in a Minecraft roleplay. Says something about the human mind I guess. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though.

Anyway, I just wanted to see literally any kind of opposition to power, even if it had to come from a character that was unquestionably a villain, which I fully assumed Techno would be. Because political narratives so often just leave us out, or at best barely mention us. And even from a narrative point of view, adding an anarchist perspective to a political story just objectively broadens its scope and actually challenges people who are used to only arguing along the lines of conservative or liberal, welfare state or privatization, nationalism or multiculturalism, etc. Even if the original work dealt with it poorly, at least it would give me the excuse to rant about it on Tumblr, which is kinda why I revived my old Minecraft sideblog for this. (That and pig!Techno fanart.)

Also how can you have a story so fundamentally about power without its counterpoint: the rejection of power?

(Yes, Dream SMP as a whole is definitely a narrative about power, it’s a huge theme for Wilbur, Quackity, Dream, Eret and the Badlanders at least, as well as obviously the anarchist characters from the opposite direction.)

So yeah, the build up to November 16th for me was mainly about the anticipation for what Techno would do, how would Techno’s character respond to the seemingly inevitable formation of a new government. THAT was the point of interest for me, that was what I was the most invested in. Would we get an actual anarchist opposition as a new side to the conflict or would they just awkwardly drop that whole angle? Or even have him team up with Schlatt like a complete sellout? There was so much potential but I worried they might just waste it.

And I was right to worry since apparently in the original script Techno wasn’t supposed to do anything, he was just there to help fight Schlatt and witness the explosion along with everyone else.

And WOW that would have been so incredibly boring

Not even just from the political perspective, just talking about the narrative in general terms here: imagine November 16th without Techno’s plot points. Not only would it have been boring for Techno’s character but it would have been equally boring for basically everybody but Wilbur and Philza. An anticlimactic fight followed by a big explosion that pretty much everybody had seen coming already. Yes, the button room scene is dramatic and heartbreaking… for Wilbur and Phil. But nobody else was there to see it. For everybody else, it was just a big explosion. It would have been such a huge disservice to anyone watching the other POVs.

Techno’s intervention gave everyone an ACTUAL climactic fight, it allowed characters other than Wil and Phil to witness some actual drama happening and to participate in it, rather than just waiting around for the explosion, while also foreshadowing the explosion. Even better, it provoked SO MUCH discussion in the fandom AND gave a perfect hook for future conflicts to arise. Wilbur’s end was tragic but it was, at the time, final. L'Manburg would have still suffered a catastrophe but it would have been left with just the same exact antagonist as before: Dream.

And at this point Dream’s core goals had barely changed, just his approach was now different. Yes, that makes a difference for the plot, but it doesn’t really change much in terms of ideological conflict. Especially since there really isn’t that big of an ideological difference between Dream and Tommy, because arguably neither of them are particularly big on ideology in the first place, they just have conflicting goals and use different tactics to achieve those goals (well, the tactics aren’t always even that different *cough Spirit cough*).

Techno’s conflict with Tubbo and especially Quackity (and honestly most of the other characters in general) brings in so much more depth to the story, just by introducing another angle, not to even mention how much it brings to focus questions about power and violence. These are themes that exist in other characters’s storylines too but nowhere in the same way or as central as with Techno.

I’m getting kind of ahead of myself here, though.

The real twist of November 16th was the fact that Techno WASN’T a straight up villain, actually. It was a twist to me anyway, because with all my cynicism I just didn’t see it coming, I didn’t expect him to actually start making reasonable criticisms. I didn’t expect him to drop the hobbesian arguments entirely and start making points that actually sounded like anarchism.

I have to assume that cc!Techno must have seen some of the criticisms of his character and been inspired to adjust because the difference is pretty notable.

(Sidenote: I’m just forever kinda sad that Techno’s “I may seem like the villain here” monologue was cut from the video and most people never heard it.)

And I felt SO validated by the way, because it works so well in the story! Everyone is mostly content with the restoration of a status quo of some sort, Schlatt is gone, this is supposed to be the good ending, and then Techno calls them all out and turns the narrative around completely: This was just a coup d'état. This was just the previous political leadership retaking power by force. Why is everyone celebrating the same exact system that lead to Schlatt’s authoritarian rule in the first place?

What he does there is force the audience to question the narrative they’ve been presented so far, that they’ve accepted without a thought. It might not convince them, but they can’t just ignore it either.

Whatever you wanna say about the discourse around Techno on that day, in the ideological narrative THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART. Not who betrayed who or when is political violence justified, that’s about personal relationships and morality and it’s mostly all more relevant to the aftermath than the event itself. In my opinion, the REAL point in the moment is that the characters and the audience were comfortable with the ending only to be presented with a completely new perspective on the events.

It also recontextualises the finale, including Wilbur’s actions! It’s a much more ambiguous end to the Pogtopia vs Manburg arc and to Wilbur’s original run as the head writer. Wilbur’s “even with Tubbo in charge I don’t think [that ‘special place’] can exist again” is vague enough to be dismissed as just part of his paranoia and internal conflict, but with Techno, there’s a concrete question: what if Tubbo, given the same powers as Schlatt, will turn out to be just a new Schlatt? And suddenly you have to wonder what Wilbur meant by his words too. And was all this foreshadowing something about L’Manburg’s future?

Okay I’ve only made it to November 16th and there’s so much more DSMP to talk about but the post is getting too long and I’m starting to lose my energy. Will I ever make a part two? No idea. But I’ll try.

Standard disclaimer: I’m not the spokesperson of anarchism, other anarchists might disagree with my reading

[shinra-makonoid]

And what do you know of the "cis experience" and how it's different from the experience of a passing trans guy? From what I can see between us, it seems I have more in common with the cis experience than with yours tbh. So why should you be the one deciding that the cis experience is impenetrable? I'm also a trans man and a fag, disabled but not visibly. I was even homeless once, not because I was trans tho.

My points are relevant if you try to paint the idea that trans men and cis men issues are fundamentally different? Which you are, by claiming that only trans men are subject to the idea of not being the same gender as cis men, or not being really straight. On both posts you've been making that argument, and this response applies to them all.

You are no different than a TERF believing that women and trans women issues are fundamentally different. They just aren't.

No we're not. I'm sorry but you're the one being transphobic there. Neither you nor I are different from other kinds of men. Socially it's not the case. Biologically in the scientific sense it's more debatable, but it has absolutely 0 barring in your everyday life. Except maybe gyn appointments if you still have the bits (which I encourage you to do), so even that is not really applicable as a general trans experience. Like maybe medical abuse too, but even there, intersex and disabled men go through it... It's just not that "special" unfortunately, it's sadly very common.

What I meant is that cis straight men don't suffer from anything we don't suffer from too. There is no singular trans man social experience that is apart from other men. You gotta talk to men to realize that tho, which I'm doubting you do on a day to day basis.

I'm a trans guy??? I know trans guys??? Outed trans guys get treated as if we're lower men, we get beaten the same way feminine/"weak"/other flavor of men are, because we do not fit the standard of what a cis man is supposed to be based on society, just like the majority of cis men don't. Again, you claim that as if I was the one not talking to enough trans men, but have you got any guy friends???

Any kind of man outing themselves as a trans man will face the same shit too. Tho to be fair, if I out myself as having been born a woman, or having had a girl name before, people don't believe me now, just like most cis guys. Would it be transphobia to be treated differently and/or badly for outing yourself as trans? Yes absolutely. Is it a thing that only happens to trans men? No. Any kind of man who isn't fit to the social standard of being a cis man can be considered trans and abused on that basis. Cis people, like trans people, suffer from transphobia.

It doesn't really. We're lower men, just like any other lower man on the planet. We can die and nobody cares. We can be homeless and nobody cares, we don't have rights and nobody cares. People call us manlet if we're too tiny, cry babies if we have boundaries or requests to be treated right, or if we complain too much. We can get in trouble, get beaten in the street, disrespected, called a faggot if we look or dress wrong, or if hold the hand of another guy. That's all men who don't fit every flavor of the gender cis straight man created by society. It's not a unique trans experience. It's universal to being a man.

Everything phobic lmao

Everyone can hurt you. Other trans guys can hurt you too. I've been bullied and threatened by some trans men, years ago, for having the "wrong ideas". It's not ok, but everybody does it. It's not some special man kind of thing happening.

How do you define oppression?

I mean...

That's literally what you're saying? "Trans men are being oppressed for being men is true because while trans men and cis men are the same gender, in terms of relationship to society, trans men and cis men are not the same gender."

I'm not inventing it, it's right there.

I guess my question boils down to... what kind of experience in society do you have as a trans man and as a fag, that is completely separated from being a man? Or that a cis straight man cannot live through?

Also like this is probably way too big brain for 99% of people who wanna discourse but "trans men are oppressed for being men" is true because while (generally speaking, its more nuanced on an individual level) trans men and cis men are the same gender, in terms of relationship to society, trans men and cis men are not the same gender. Much how straight trans people and straight cis people have the same orientation, except when they don't. (Straight vs straight, remember that?)

[miaclemeverett]

The Build Mart discourse isn’t people disliking it, it’s people calling it ableist for arbitrary reasons that can be applied to most of the other games. Dream was talking about it on the MCC Reddit and even said that if Build Battle wasn’t changed he would sit out of the next MCC (he shit-talked Grian in the process). It’s ridiculous because it’s literally only him and Sapnap that feel this way, and Sapnap doesn’t even have ADHD (as far as I’m aware.) They’re just not very good at team-based games, which is fine, but they refuse to work on it and instead blame the game.

here's Dream's comment for context. I think it's completely fair and he can skip out if he wants to. Again it's probably pretty similar to Wilbur with Ace Race where he wanted changes made to that game mode, except Wilbur is very committed to being in every MCC so obviously he wouldn't use his attendance to try and make a point about the game needing to be changed. I don't even think he was shit talking Grian, he was just bringing up how Grian had a similar thought about PW (just as how I compared it to Wilbur with Ace Race) though his tone might lead you to think that. He also didn't bring up anything about the game being ableist so idk and he has a point that other players don't like Build Mart either (one of the most upvoted posts on the subreddit is a compilation of everyone being upset when BSABM was chosen last for MCC13 lmao tho the game was changed afterwards so).

I think I'd like to hear from Dream what alternative build game he'd want in MCC instead.

[larsisfrommars]

Campaign 2 Rewatch: Disparate Pieces

Wow the fucking puppet head chaos shit holy shit that was funny and dark! First instance of Matt Being Salty about Keen Mind of the campaign Hooraaaaaaaay.

Molly and Toya making me fucking cryyyyyy againnnn. Poor Toya oh my goddddd wow this is NOT okay, that’s just fuuuuuuucked oh noooooooo.

Molly is like “yes! You SHOULD feel bad” Tal really was like “Mom said it’s MY turn to be the party’s moral compass!” And then he WAS, with BOTH characters! “Yes everyone likes you, it’s very irritating” lol, Molly had crushes on Fjord AND Caleb and you can NOT change my mind.

“We like to be unsung heroes” “underground activists” WHYYYYY how are they right?! How the frick did they set the tone so quickly?! Awwww Nott “I’m very ugly for a halfling” GUYS, Sam played us like a goddamn fiddle what the fuck??? Oof Caleb too… dropping trauma hints allllll over the place.

“Sorry for choking you with my stick” god how far my Beau has come lmaoooooo. Poor Molly already being exhausted by these idiots, love it he’s like “I’m two fockin years old and I’m still wiser than the lot of you!”

Goddd I forgot when Caleb was way too nervous and unhappy to really apply his charisma Stat, that whole “I killed a man no I will not explain why even tho I’m trying to explain why because I have like 0 fuckin confidence” lmao. Level 2! (Oh my god I get why it’s not working! Vax is peeking through Caleb! Caleb is trying to be intimidating the way Vax is and it’s… not working lmao.

WAIT A MINUTE ARCHIVIST ZEENOTH?! HOLD THE FUCK UP!? Did he just not recognize Beau or did he just wanna watch her suffer? My bet was it was the later because he is a ✨prick✨. OH! He does notice her! B i t c h

Oooooh first Felderwin mention, also maaaaaan fuck Goblin racism (which Nott participated in for a long ass time to be fair). I hate Zeenoth but thank god he’s here otherwise these punks would probably still be in jail. OH SHIT DAIRON’S HERE! She didn’t say anything but still!

Yasha’s back! Tell a friend! I still don’t know what Gustav’s shady debt thing was I hope we find out in the campaign wrap up!

Now this is the REAL beginning! Hell yeah! My babies! They have NO idea what’s to come! Also Fjord making Yasha laugh 😊 wowww Molly “the days that you’re gonna have are the days that you’re gonna have.” It’s actually amazing to me how fitting so many of Molly’s lines were in the full context of the show.

Ooooh was that the first, “Sam helps Laura hide that she’s pregnant” move after everyone leaves the table for Beau’s thing?? Weird!

People I am 1000% okay with watching Beau treat like shit: Archivist Zeenoth that bitch. Also immediate crush on Dairon is a MOOD! Also super weird to watch Zeenoth compliment Beau knowing full well what he did to her. “Not everyone does what they do in this world for coin” EXCEPT U DID YOU FUCKING BITACH! HAHA!! Get him Dairon! Fuck Zeenoth! I loooooove you so MUCH Dairon! I love you SO MUCH!! Let’s get MARRIED?! Lmao

It is so WEIRD seeing how distrespectdul Beau was to Dairon initially! Oh shit! I understand why she didn’t trust them at the beginning maaaaan. Dairon is such a cool teacher! Aaand I didn’t realize just how early Beau/Marisha reveals the physical abuse thing! Maaaan this combat is making me FEEL THINGS! Beau baby you’ve come SO far! I love youuuuuu!!

God in hindsight it feels… so fucking GOOD to watch Zeenoth get the shit beaten out of him because he fucking deserves it. Get him! Get him Beau! Get that fuckin extract aspects and stunning strike! The world needs assholes! Fuck yeah!!! “Maybe one day you’ll find the corruption inside our own” and THEN SHE DID! O M F G

Fjord being like a proud older brother when he sees Beau looks beat to shit like “woah dude?! You good!? Bet you did something badass” guys, I love them and I’m going to miss Marisha and Travis sitting next to each other. Molly being wary of the Soul is good and On Brand but also not quite the right call lmao.

Nott and Caleb are always so goddamn precious I love them. God first successful charisma check Caleb makes this whole session is one about books lmao. Time for Caleb to take a baaaath! Huzzah! Oh my god, Nott, I am so glad you never changed but nothing will EVER be as feral as Nott in the bathhouse in this episode “I dump out the cucumber water and eat all the cucumbers” MOOD!

God, healing potions and drugs lmao. Little did they know this shit would help them defeat a baby faced monstrosity 100+ later 😂😂😂 blackmail! Drugs that ultimately only Beau will use! (Unless I think maybeFjord took some at one point I don’t remember?) Hooray!

Aww Nott giving Yasha the flowers befire she even knowing what that means for her and mostly out of fear. Maaaaan this is making me FEEL things aaaaaaagh! The PRESSED FLOWER BOOK! GUYSSSS. Yay mail fraud!

Awww I love that convo to between Caleb and Fjord. Fjord automatically protective of their most skittish party members, strategically to keep them from running off but also cuz he cares. Caleb being cautiously trusting and their low key agreement to herd this group of cats together. I love shit like soooo much!

[arthurtristankingsmen]

More and longer theory chatter with @flash-the-geist with guest stars who popped in. This one is longer since it’s theorizing but turned into something Flash affectionately named the ‘Esprestissimo AU’ which I am keeping because I love it so much.

Most of this mainly features Duet thoughts and then shenanigans ! The most I did was add a missing thing in my own comments for clarification or that my brain skipped over when typing it before, or where I adjust the order of the messages for cohesiveness

please enjoy jdjd

flaaaash — Today at 4:35 AM

hmmm what if the note-taker is Duet, taking notes about "Solo"? that implies they're two different people

Arthur — Today at 4:36 AM

that's what i was thinking-- that the ‘He’ in the note is reverb, and this note is in reference to reverb, but also a comment on Solo, and the Duet 'wrote' this character profile as like-- a case file if they're in charge of the organization

so duet is like 'solo' claims she still needs to study him for research in a note on the file he's taking on reverb or something like that

flaaaash — Today at 4:37 AM

this might be my deep, unfortunate familiarity with bureaucracy talking, but- if the person in charge is also the one taking notes, it's a very small organization

Arthur — Today at 4:37 AM

oh yeah

i imagined it was tiny personally

tempo seems on the smaller side so if it's all based there, i was imagining it was relatively small

flaaaash — Today at 4:38 AM

not international then, perhaps

adkjfakjf oooh now I want to make a little card for Flash

Arthur — Today at 4:39 AM

yeah no-- at least since the name tempo of the town following the motif like seemingly implies it's based in/related to the town since if follows the reference style

or that's my thinking anyways?

flaaaash — Today at 4:39 AM

very true

imagine if Tempo is just Like That and the rest of the world is totally normal

Arthur — Today at 4:40 AM

i personally think vivi didn't grow up in tempo now more tho-- because i think if she did and there is an organization, they woulda gotten wind of her and she probably would've been recruited since she's smart and clearly into that kind of thing

and if she was in the org and knew what she was doing, i don't know if she would've gone to the cave if she was at all in the Know 

flaaaash — Today at 4:40 AM

or they would have tried to study Mystery?

Arthur — Today at 4:41 AM

that too!!

even if they brought her in just because of mystery i imagine they would've brought her in

flaaaash — Today at 4:41 AM

maybe that's what the "her research into "REDACTED" is referring to. Research into mystery?

it all does seem to come back to him

Arthur — Today at 4:42 AM

or maybe she's relatively new to tempo still, and duet gave her a job because they intended to bring her in at some point but hadn't yet

like there were steps to take and like-- the cave happened before things could get fully underway

i mean at my job i applied in like-- march, and i didn't get an interview until may, and then i didn't get any training until november, and then i didn't get brought in to learn the job until december. so it'd be easy to imagine that if there was a reason, bringing her in could be a slow process 

flaaaash — Today at 4:43 AM

that might also explain why there were all these "go back" signs in the cave

clearly someone with English language skills put the signage there

Arthur — Today at 4:43 AM

that too! it definitely felt like it was to warn off people and keep them from tresspassing

but the gang were kids and also ghost don't haunt the places that aren't super scary and dangerous! so of course they gotta go in!

flaaaash — Today at 4:45 AM

maybe they weren't expecting someone like Vivi at all

she was a wild card that popped up and threw a spanner in the works accidentally

Arthur — Today at 4:45 AM

yeah!

i can imagine her just coming in and completely bamboozling everyone

duet is like 'okay we'll get her in on this but we'll take some time to sort everything and judge where she's at skill wise since we have time and it's not like she can get into any danger with all our protective me--oh no'

flaaaash — Today at 4:48 AM

that calls Duet's motivation into question a lil bc - there's at least a significant amount of time between Lewis dying and them finding him again

since their search is reasonably extensive and Arthur's had time to heal up. So why didn't Duet do anything during this time?

Arthur — Today at 4:50 AM

hmmmm--- well we know it's been less than a year since the cave happened at least, and i think the way Ben talked about it  sounded like it was a relatively short time table of only a few months, so maybe they wanted to give them recovery time or they weren't sure how to broach it-- i'm not sure. maybe the comic will give some kind of insight hopefully if the case is that vivi came in like that

i feel like it'd be interesting and make more sense given what she has available magic wise and mystery-wise if she wasn't in town until much later in life to explain why she wouldn’t already be working with the organization. but i'm still like hmm

because you do have a point that there would be a fair bit of inaction, unless for some reason vivi's memory issues or something was a problem or something happens in the prequel to explain or hint

tho now that brings into question if duet knows Lewis is dead, how are things not being managed better

i mean i've had arthur say in the past and i've said once or twice that like-- i think arthur was already working with prosthetics. so he could've had an arm mostly built and just had to make a more functioning one so that could've been fast. so hopefully maybe the prequel comic is set a bit before and might explain duet helping or something in a way that could make sense of it?

especially given he did make galaham's wheels already and such. he might've already built one but needed to make a new one set up for him

flaaaash — Today at 4:54 AM

I'm fairly sure people would at least know he's missing

I guess it's possible that the 'memory magic' thing that makes Vivi forget - it could affect everyone except Arthur and Mystery?

Arthur — Today at 4:56 AM

that's possible--

we have only seen mystery and arthur in the world seeming to know what's going on, so we don't know who knows what. just that vivi doesn't know lewis

but maybe nobody else does either to some degree

flaaaash — Today at 4:56 AM

Arthur being possessed at the time, and Mystery being a magical being himself. We don't have any evidence that anyone else remembers Lewis, although he seems to still be in pictures

Arthur — Today at 4:57 AM

people did seem confused arthur was freaking out in the store in the comic and like

idk. if i knew he lost his best friend i'd be more sympathetic/not look at him like he was crazy. I’d assume something set him off but probably feel bad for him if i knew what happened in the last year?

because i would imagine mental health is in the toilet after going on a trip and losing a friend even if he was only 'missing'

and the way arthur mentioned lewis and when vivi forgets he's just like 'nevermind'. if no one really remembers Lewis, then maybe giving up trying to explain is because he’s used to no one knowing who he means

flaaaash — Today at 4:58 AM

yea h

Arthur — Today at 4:58 AM

what if arthur only remembers lewis? (and mystery does)

Don't forget to take your meds ❤ — Today at 4:58 AM

In fairness most people would be confused if they saw someone having a panic attack in public, no matter how much was known about the person

flaaaash — Today at 4:58 AM

also if Lewis looked like himself for a moment just before dropping Arthur - does that mean Lance saw him?

or did he only see skele-version and thus didn't recognize him as Lewis

Arthur — Today at 4:58 AM

hmmmmm--- i lean to skele vision. he turned back pretty quick iirc

flaaaash — Today at 4:59 AM

I'm torn between analysing between a storyteller perspective and an in-world perspective

Arthur — Today at 5:01 AM

por que no los dos?

also

hmmm-- i think given people were like 'what's up with that guy', it seemed either not knowing what was going on with him or what it could stem from, but if lewis disappeared in a small town i feel like a lot of the details would've spread. so they might assume it had to do with that instead-- so it feels like maybe most people don't know

which seems strange in a smaller community because stuff gets around

flaaaash — Today at 5:01 AM

especially since the Peppers own a restaurant

Arthur — Today at 5:01 AM

yeah-- in a small town place a restuarant is usually a social hub of sorts

so if lewis disppeared i'm sure people would talk given he was a waiter and thus kind of a face for the restaurant

flaaaash — Today at 5:02 AM

also if they think he's missing and not dead, his family would be looking for him too. which means missing persons pics and all that

Arthur — Today at 5:02 AM

yeah and we didn’t see any. and some people not knowing or visitors i could get, but everyone seemed surprised by arthur freaking out, and if they knew lewis was missing and lewis and arthur were friends, it feels odd to like-- none of them to even look sympathetic

i would imagine if they knew lewis was gone they'd assume arthur would be more emotionally reactive than usual-- unless they have no idea that something is going on with arthur because you know-- lewis is erased jdjd

i mean the reason we know vivi doesn't remember is because her eyes glowed as lewis got phased out of the photo

but who knows maybe him being phased out was in general and that just meant she was affected too. everyone gets amnesia

flaaaash — Today at 5:03 AM

also slightly cracky theory but - if they ended up accidentally in the research facility during Ghost, that would explain why Vivi found a fully-stocked fridge alkja;gl

Arthur — Today at 5:04 AM

DSJDDLJSDLFJDSJL

that would be hilarious

lewis is his own scp in his tantrum mansion

they just keep an eye on the lot

flaaaash — Today at 5:05 AM

well what else are they gonna do with him??? xD

Arthur — Today at 5:05 AM

dslsdjdsfljdsfd

''welp no one knows who this guy is soooooo manor in the middle of nowhere time'

flaaaash — Today at 5:06 AM

"so the waiter turned into a vengeful spirit?" "oh uhhhh ok put him in a box i guess until we figure something out?"

ok theory- Duet knows Lewis is dead, but is trying to figure out a way to help/break the memory magic on Vivi, and that's why he's in the mansion/cave for a while before Ghost?

Arthur — Today at 5:06 AM

i like it! i think them knowing and approaching arthur in the comic and using 'rancid vibes' as an excuse would make sense

flaaaash — Today at 5:07 AM

"so that Vivi person wandered in again somehow and now the vengeful waiter ghost is loose?" "for fuck's sake you had ONE JOB-"

Arthur — Today at 5:07 AM

they know what's actually going on but they kinda act like everyone else while also getting arthur something that might help him in that book that i think will be important in the plot of the prequel

DL;G;HDGSAL;HKGSDHL;DGS

flash you have the biggest brain

 flaaaash — Today at 5:08 AM

,kadjgalgkj

"also there was this killer tree-" "I do not care about the tree, one problem at a time"

Poor Duet is having A Week

but the mental image of them trying to avoid Arthur and Vivi investigating, while trying to find ??? and re-capture him while shoving Lewis in a box is hilarious, and then they run into Shiromori and just throw their hands in the air like "can u not????". And then Murder Mystery shows up and they just quit

Arthur — Today at 5:10 AM

dlaajldkljjdl;dldjlfkfd

duet is just like

on their tenth cup of coffee

Don't forget to take your meds ❤ — Today at 5:10 AM

Arthur: Those are rookie numbers

Arthur — Today at 5:11 AM

they see murder mystery and go back inside the shop like 'can you add like 5 espresso shots to this'

flaaaash — Today at 5:11 AM

explains why they're like "Arthur pls your vibes. Do you KNOW what I've been dealing with"

Arthur — Today at 5:11 AM

asdl;;dfslhsdahg;as;dghkghsdllhsgd

flaaaash — Today at 5:11 AM

"five extra shots and a red bull chaser please-"

Arthur — Today at 5:12 AM

(also just still crosses my fingers for medium/spiritually-sensitive!arthur to be canon but if not it will live on in my fannon)

dsldjllssfdf

they just start shoving coffee grounds directly into their mouth

flaaaash — Today at 5:12 AM

this series has a lot of antagonists

akjdalgj just crunching beans down whole

Arthur — Today at 5:13 AM

i need-- to draw duet

looking tired with a coffee

flaaaash — Today at 5:14 AM

Duet with a giant cup of coffee, staring at Murder Mystery with a deadpan stare and going "Absolutely not, I forbid it, there is not enough coffee in the WORLD."

Arthur — Today at 5:14 AM

flash and will if i share this chatter on tumblr would you be okay with it ? or would u rather i block out names if i do

i feel like some of this is hilarious and people need to experience it

flaaaash — Today at 5:14 AM

akdflaf no go for it

I will out myself as a sham of a storyboarder

Arthur — Today at 5:15 AM

duet is that gif of the ghost busters lady going 'mmm nope not today, room full of nightmares'

and turning and walking away

duet is doing their best and needs a nap

tired as Arthur

flaaaash — Today at 5:15 AM

Duet walking around the corner to see the gang facing down Murder Mystery: swivels on one foot and goes right back the way they came

Arthur — Today at 5:15 AM

ldjldljd EXACTLY

Don't forget to take your meds ❤ — Today at 5:16 AM

Heheheheh

Arthur — Today at 5:16 AM

like look at this person

look at their eyebags

they are Tired

they have deal with this bullshittery

they have sass to provide

but they also are Tired and done with this shit

flaaaash — Today at 5:16 AM

I want Duet and Arthur playing a game of caffeine chicken

Marshy — Today at 5:16 AM

Huge massive sigh as they see the whole bullshit situation go down and turns around to go back to the bookshop

flaaaash — Today at 5:16 AM

just lined up at the cafe bar, espresso shots in rows down the counter as they lock eyes-

who shall win- the CAFFEINE-OFF?

Arthur — Today at 5:17 AM

flash

pls if you right that i will pay you money

or maybe art

Marshy — Today at 5:17 AM

It's me I'll win

flaaaash — Today at 5:17 AM

SLFKJLKGS

Arthur — Today at 5:17 AM

dlasd;sdgkd;djslj;dags

i'm rooting for you take those nerds OUT

flaaaash — Today at 5:18 AM

"Duet gives him a look of Supreme Weariness and Nopery. Arthur counters with a double eye-roll of Resignation and Angst. In the true synchronicity of the Absolutely Done, they each take an espresso shot and slam it down."

Arthur — Today at 5:20 AM

djdasd;ds;lsda;ldj;lkdsl;jkdsj;lkasljkdjlkdg

they clink the little cups together first before taking their respective shots

flaaaash — Today at 5:21 AM

they do the thing where they turn it upside down to prove it's empty

by the fifth they're trying to outcompete each other with anecdotes

by the tenth they've moved onto toasting each other

Arthur — Today at 5:21 AM

Bonding!

Don't forget to take your meds ❤ — Today at 5:22 AM

The anecdotes get concerningly similar to each others

flaaaash — Today at 5:22 AM

by the twelfth, Arthur begins weeping. Duet pats him in solidarity and knocks the next shot clean off the counter due to caffeine-induced twitching

Arthur — Today at 5:22 AM

DSGLAHGLDGHDGHAAHDSGDG

EXCELLENT

i

want them to be friends now

flaaaash — Today at 5:23 AM

by the thirteenth, the barista stages an intervention and starts giving them decaf

by this point, they don't notice 

Arthur — Today at 5:23 AM

asdlaadjsdsajd

thank you they owe you their life

they could taste the difference if they weren't vibrating into the 28the dimension atm

flaaaash — Today at 5:24 AM

after the fifteenth shot, the counter is clear and they're both full of sympathetic outrage for the other's plight. They sprint from the cafe, steamroll right over Shiromori, and punt the colours right out of Murder Mystery in a fit of industrial-strength caffeinated indignance.

Don't forget to take your meds ❤ — Today at 5:24 AM

Hahahaha

Arthur — Today at 5:25 AM

h;lsadlf;dsldj;fsljl;dfsajdfsa

flaaaash — Today at 5:25 AM

The newly Monochromatic Mystery has to then help Vivi contain the pair before they wipe all paranormal activity off the face of Tempo.

Arthur — Today at 5:25 AM

that's how the fifth video ends

flaaaash — Today at 5:25 AM

Lewis narrowly escapes by hiding in a box. THE END

Arthur — Today at 5:25 AM

dsal;gsdhldgsa;dgsdgs;hldgs;lhdsa

beautiful thank u flash

i owe you my life

flaaaash — Today at 5:25 AM

you're welcome it's my magnum opus

Arthur — Today at 5:26 AM

A+ story telling

i'm including it in the post

flaaaash — Today at 5:26 AM

ALKJGAGK

it's okay I don't have a reputation to ruin xD

Arthur — Today at 5:26 AM

dlasdl;dhsgldgdgs

this is a callout for flash being the funniest person alive--

or undead

flaaaash — Today at 5:27 AM

dead-

sfkjga

l

Arthur — Today at 5:27 AM

djdjdjdj

i thought about it and corrected myself xDD

flaaaash — Today at 5:30 AM

ok I have no idea if anyone will get this pun, but I dub this the Esprestissimo AU

Arthur — Today at 5:36 AM

djalsd;ldsjdsjldf

i LOVE THAT

music puns but espressos EXTRA ESPRESSOLY

flaaaash — Today at 5:49 AM

xD

[bookwyrminspiration]

Tam x Grizel

you come into my house (blog)....just realized I actually don't know that quote. something about marrying my daughter (whose nickname in this fictional scenario would be nessie for uh....no reason...) and maybe murder. but! not the point! the point is I would like to know if you are doing alright, because I certainly am not anymore /j

obligatory note: I am approaching this in a setting where Tam is much older !!

but like what draws the two of them together? in what instance does Grizel look at this angry, sarcastic man and go yea. I like that.

the vibes I'm getting is that Tam is an angry adult who hates the system and he channels that into fighting, and lo and behold Grizel knows how to fight and can teach him how to use his body (not like that), to utilize his physical advantages and just generally become more aware of himself. we could see some bonding here as they spend more and more time near each other, working through their frustrations by hitting things.

wait fuck how could I forget. Grizel is literally described as melting into the shadows by Sophie when she's introduced. I don't think that's the exact wording but the whole point is that she's sneaky and shadows are definitely involved. Tam's whole thing is shadows and being a shady person, sneaking around like Grizel. They are the same person except they are very different. Grizel is a goblin and skilled with weaponry and Tam is an elf who is skilled with his control over his mind (note: so many of the elven abilities we've seen revolve around the mind and mental battles, maybe that's what makes pyrokinetics so scary. because what they do is physical and dangerous in a way other physical abilities aren't. undeveloped idea tho). And this feels like an interesting comparison between the two of them, two sides of the same coin

i can see where this could come from. I mean it still hit me like a ton of bricks and shattered every bone in my body (/hyp) but I can understand the approach.

I just have so many questions, the main one being: huh? that's not actually a question just a noise. but my actual questions are: is sandor dead in this scenario? or is this in the same world where sandor and keefe have something going on? is grizel using tam as a ploy to get closer to linh? who is taking a shower rn? that last one only applies to me irl because the shower just turned on, but since we were on the topic of questions it only felt appropriate.

this is all just me being joking by the way! I'm not actually distressed by the ask or anything, just wasn't a topic I was expecting. though there is a fair amount of comparison that can be drawn between their characters!! particularly that shadow one intrigues me...

[veiledsilver]

Top five moments you've felt like the universe was messing with you.

Oh boy everyone get ready this is a long list. In descending order, from mildly funny looking back on it to "oh god oh shit oh fuck":

5. Catfishing: College Edition

In 6th grade, I decided to apply to colleges early to see how they were like. I was scared that if they knew I was too young, they'd arrest me. So I created a gmail account as my persona, a white 12th grader named Emilie Alexander. Emilie was planning to go into nursing, dating a high school linebacker named Kyle Kenderson, and deathly allergic to bee stings. If she even came near a bee, she would die.

This part was of the utmost importance.

See, I was constantly paranoid that one day, the jig would be up- I might forget that my fake last name was Alexander. Or the college dean might come knocking at my door and tear up my home in his mad search for Emilie. If that happened I would fake her tragic death, presumably caused by one big fucking bee.

I secretly collected my information. What nearby states were the prettiest to visit. Which colleges were the safest and most affordable. How often they held courses that I liked. In my emails with colleges I tried to sound as mature and professional as possible.

Then, one day, a college member asked me what high school I was in, so they could check my records.

My blood froze.

It was time to bring out the bee.

In response to their question, I sent an email that was like this:

"Dear Mr. McLaughlin, I was a proud graduate of- ugh! Ah! Kyaaaa! Uwaa! W-w-what's this... huge goddamn bee doing here?! Eek, pardon my foul language! It's just that, as I told you earlier, being stung by a bee would kill me.... and now it's stung me thrice (three times)!!

What do I do?! I can't die... I've always wanted to attend your beautiful college...

But this is... the end...

Mr. McLaughlin...

*looks at you sadly*

Tell... my mother... I loved her...

*dies*"

He never responded, probably because he was rendered speechless, but I never touched that account again.

My private gmail for fun stuff like tumblr still has "Alexander" as a surname, though.

4. Wild and Authentic

Alright. Alright. So. My art teacher in middle school.

Right off the bat, they endeared themselves to the tumblr art kids- they proudly used they/them pronouns, dyed their hair vibrant colors, deeply encouraged OC creation, and was chill with any art style even if it was anime. Mx. Mason was very cool, except for one thing.

We had complete artistic freedom when it came to their assignments, EXCEPT FOR ONE THING.

Drumroll, please.

Take a deep breath if you must.

Ready?

...

Cats had to have extremely distinct whisker pores.

YES, they believed that modern depictions of cats were too streamlined. Too... idealized. As a cat owner themselves, they were convinced that society's vision of cats did not do their feral feline ancestors justice. In making their faces flawlessly smooth-furred, we were stripping the cat of its true nature.

I found this out the hard way, when I was drawing warrior cats fanart for class (it was of Firestar cuddled in the arms of an orange haired anime catgirl who was his reincarnation in my first ever comic series, Warriors Neko Desu! ♡ Heart Academy Dokidoki).

Mx. Mason came over to look at my magnum opus, and I expected them to have their socks knocked off at my artistic talent. They lifted up my drawing for all to see, and I smugly leaned back in my seat.

Only for them to launch into a passionate lecture about how, in neglecting to draw whisker pores on cats, I was DENYING THIS FICTIONAL CAT OF ITS WILD AUTHENTIC SELF.

My friends absolutely lost it when I told them this story, and there was a period of time when all our discord nicknames were wild and authentic too.

As for Firestar and his counterpart Hoshineko Orenji-chan, I never did give them wild authentic whisker holes, but that's to be expected of a kittypet, I guess.

3. Stan Jungkook Or Whatever

A couple years ago, my family and I flew to Seoul, South Korea, to visit our relatives and teach me more about my heritage. It was very nice! I got to visit shrines and festivals and palaces, and I was in awe that this was what my ancestors had once seen in their daily lives.

Then, when we went to the modern side of Korea, I realized just how much I didn't fit in.

It was clear that I didn't know how to act, or how to speak Korean, and I spent my days fumbling around and getting scammed multiple times by salesmen. But I clowned myself the most... during an interactive event with kpop stars.

They had this experimental event where holograms of the boys would sing onstage and dance in place of the actual idols. Before the show began, girls could stand in booths that scanned their appearances, and holograms of THEM could dance onstage with the hologram boys.

I didn't know this.

When Cousin Ae-cha told me to step inside one of the machines, I thought I'd be hilarious and stand backwards, so it would scan the back of me instead of my front. As I walked out, I saw other girls putting on their best makeup, cutest clothes, and most expensive accessories, and I slowly realized that I was in danger.

But the danger didn't come until halfway through the concert, where the boys looked eagerly off-stage and a holy staircase appeared and all the hologram girls descended from heaven. There were cherry blossoms. There were roses. There was me, among the crowd of beautiful airbrushed girls, walking backwards.

I felt the judgemental gazes of twenty girls and their mothers.

Each boy danced with a girl, who got a cute animated moment with special effects, and sang about how they found a dream girl to have a true love romance with. Finally, all the girls vanished except one, and it was me.

One of the boys didn't dance with any girls, and now he was all alone in the rain, feeling dejected that HE did not find his true love girl to have a dream romance with. Then the rain stopped, the sun came out, and I emerged. Still backwards.

He was thrilled and sang about how my face (that he didn't see) stole his heart, and now everyone in the audience was giggling, and he slowly brought me very close to kiss me... but because I was backwards, his nose was cutely nuzzling my hair.

The audience members- at least the adults- were now laughing their asses off. His lips met the back of my head, and together we vanished into the wind.

I'd say I couldn't show my face there ever again, but I never did show my face, so... hm...

2. Horrid Little Temptress

If I wasn't a minor, I'd need a drink before starting this story. Sadly, I cannot drown my sorrows- and neither should you after you hear this, because it's only fair.

Mrs. Appleby was my Spanish teacher in like, 9th grade. Even the wild and authentic art teacher thought she was insane. Appleby forced kids to brew tea for her and yelled at them when they didn't get it right, and I thought she had a chronic squint until I realised she just did that to mock me and my Asian eye-folds. She forced us to watch Dora the Explorer to "absorb knowledge." Everyone fucking hated Mrs. Appleby.

But the worst thing she ever did... was during the school festival.

See, whenever she's angry, she zooms right into kids' faces to scream at them. Her wrinkled flesh would blot out the goddamn sun and all you see are her bloodshot yellow eyeballs so victims just stayed rooted to the spot like cornered animals or something similar. This is important.

Because when she was sampling her own brownies (read: hoarding them so no one else could eat them), one parent foolishly decided to grab one and she thought it was a student and she grabbed his wrist so hard she could've nearly snapped it and... and... zoomed into his face.

Except she underestimated his height and kissed him by accident, but it was more like her mouth was sucking in his face like a vacuum.

His wife was shrieking like an ape. His kid, my classmate, saw his social life flash before his eyes.

In her defense, she did not mouth to mouth with him on purpose and afterwards she cried in the bathroom and when I foolishly followed her in to comfort her, because I am a teacher's pet through and through, she snatched the paper towels I got for her and wailed that she was a-

A-

HORRID LITTLE TEMPTRESS.

If I had decided to not be kind, I never would've heard that string of fucking words. But I did. And I paid for it dearly. The end.

1. Violence IS The Answer, Sometimes

Thomas, my dearly detested.

Back in sixth grade, I used to have a crush on him because he had the surfer boy look with nicely tanned skin and pale blond hair and the clearest aquamarine eyes I've ever seen. He also liked surfing and swimming. He seemed like the perfect little trophy waifu except for one absolute dealbreaker.

He and his parents were extremely conservative and so, when I told him I liked him, his response was basically "haha no you're a [slur] and would probably eat my dog."

I was horrified and ran away to cry. But then, by the next day, I decided I needed to punish him. Thomas walked in before class started and I was waiting for him with these hands. I kicked him so he doubled over, slammed his face into his chair's seat, and quickly clambered on top of him to SIT ON THE BACK OF HIS HEAD. He started shaking and twitching and trying to pry me off, but eventually he went limp and stopped moving.

I thought he fell asleep, but Mohammed, another classmate who was bullied by Thomas, told me that Thomas might never wake up again (not that he was very sad about this. I didn't know until later, but Thomas said slurs at him too).

While I was sitting on the guy, he'd straight up passed out from the lack of oxygen.

Screaming and crying, I told our homeroom teacher that Thomas suddenly fainted, and she was the type of Caucasian that thought all little Asian kids were sweet and innocent, so it didn't even cross her mind that? It might've been me? Who sat on his head when she walked in?

He was sent home early that day. I had to go to a different school next year because Thomas's mom threatened legal action. The only reason I didn't get punished further was because my rich cousins out-Karen'd her and donated a huge amount of money to the school to keep them quiet.

Anyway, I never did anything that insane ever again, because something like that is enough for a lifetime. My cousins made it clear they would never back me up again. I was sure this whole event would be put behind me, too.

But last fall, during my first day of online learning... who did I see in my zoom meeting... BUT THOMAS! I had my mic and camera off, but the moment he saw my name, his face went pale. His soul would've left his body, but then it would've gone to hell, so it wisely decided to stay inside.

Still, out of shame and embarrassment, I never turned my camera on for the rest of the school year.

[normal-thoughts-official]

I.t.a (Identity thief anon)

I thought I had replied (if I did and you just hadn't post it it's 1000% fine ahshs)

I love Elliott so much!! And his crush is so cute (but also looking at the bigger picture is hilarious that I killed his would be father in law lmao) also awfullest thing pixelberry did was making me choose if I wanted to be his legal guardian or if I wanted him to be emancipated only to not have to do any of them since, you know, our grandpa was still alive...

Also I thought about it way too much for a choice (with no actual impact) in a game ahshshshhs, emotionally wise I'd have wanted to be his legal guardian but I think it'd make more sense (legally) emancipation because he would still get government help but there wouldn't be a risk of someone taking him away of in case I wasn't a successful guardian, and he could apply for scholarships more easily while I worked or something lmao I was just excited in that part.

I know there are some books in which you can be poly but the only I remember was moty (mother of the year) which was a better than expected book (to be fair I didn't goof have expectations) and in that one I started to date the three love interests <3

How far along are you in endless summer, who are you romancing, what do you think of the classmates + lila and what do you think about the story in general 👀

u hadnt replied!!!! hi i missed you!!

i didnt know u could be polyam in moty! i might try it out then, i never gave it a shot cuz i hate the idea of having kids 😬 but anything for rep i guess

and YEAH I KNOW DIDNDIDNDO i love elliot so much and him and robbie are SO cute together but damn his in law straight up tried to kill us huh. like robbie deserves better than bobert or whatever his name is and im glad to have killed him but

also okay im in the middle of the second book idnfidndidndo around the part where the arachnids show up for jake. my opinions so far are kind of messy but uhhh

grace and raj are my faves, hands down. craig is a close second

i like almost everyone except for jake because hes just military propaganda in a trenchcoat with that annoying wahh im too conflicted to care about anyone white boy complex, and aleister because he was a dick to grace. idc how much he simps for her now she deserves better than him. and Quinn is kind of whatever. like her whole personality is uwu and its kind of annoying but i dont hate her or anything

the story is such a fucking mess?? udndidn i have NO CLUE whats going on 😩 if they manage to make everything make sense by the end ill be REALLY impressed cuz damn wtf is going on

im romancing sean!!!!!! what can i say, i have a type and that type is self sacrificial idiot. he has a heart of gold and he deserves better and aaaa 😭😭 u idiot man stop putting ur life in danger as the instinctual reaction BLEASE. i just want to wrap him in a blanket and make him take care of himself for once

i also like estela a lot but im not really that interested in romancing her ig? i enjoy our moments together but my feelings for her are more casual ig

i rlly want to like lila but i cannot stand her simping for discount tony stark my god. please lord just make it end

i rlly like everyone's dynamics???? its so nice to see how the group has been growing together more and more. i love them ❤️

i LOVE the vaanti. every last one of them. my beloveds. if they tried to kill us it's cuz theyre valid

varyyn and diego are the greatest couple this game has ever given me i am SO grateful for them. i just got to their first kiss and aaaaaa it was so sweet. upset at choices for not giving me art of their kiss when i had to watch aleister and grace's but 😩 its fine im fine. holding onto hope that ill get art of them eventually but i dont want to look it up and risk spoiling myself

i actually like craig and zahra as a couple a lot too which i didnt expect. i still dont fully understand what happened between them but i really hope they work it out :(

on that note i love zahra. anticapitalist queen. cant believe she fucking hacked wall street. id die for this woman even tho she wasted tiramisu

tbh i dont wanna get off the island. like what for? to go to college? when i could stay with the cool vaanti culture and be happy and not have to worry about capitalism and have sick ass tattoos? lets just kill tony stark and stay there besties

really like how they made the MC's past a mystery? like yeah we have absolutely zero past and backstory as per usual but this time it actually is an integral part of the story that we dont know that we were born in la huerta or basically anything about ourselves truly (even tong stinky didn't so like?). and it was nice to see that being a part of the story rather than just this weird feeling of detachment from the MC

the MC is so stupid and i love him

sean and craig are gay for each other. michelle and quinn are gay for each other. i diagnose everyone with gay

i literally dont have a single theory as to what the hell is going on like not one. and i have gotten almost every clue/idol/file but like i literally have no idea how to tie all of this together. this is such a mess didndkdndkdndidn im kind of excited to see what happens because ES seems to be so popular in the fandom i can only imagine the plot is gonna blow my mind, but im kind of afraid of being disappointed

and thats all ive got so far i think? udndidjd god

[fizzingwizard]

Last week I mistakenly wrote “episode 41″ instead of “episode 40.” Tried to fix it, not sure if Tumblr let me. Here’s the real episode 41!

We’ve been on a pretty darn good streak lately, but this episode was a miss for me. It’s not terrible - it’s still far and away better than much of what we were getting in the past - so I don’t want to be harsh. It’s a much needed Yamato & Takeru centric episode, which I was excited for.

But one of the weaknesses in this reboot is that the characters just lack the strong motivations and inner conflict that drove the 99 Adventure series. It’s not completely absent, but it’s very dialed back by comparison. So I just couldn’t really feel the brotherly bond this episode wanted me to feel. But more below the cut.

Pic of the week:

Yamato and his gentle face <3

The group is taking another break. I will never get bored of watching them just chill.

Gomamon gives Jou a massage. On the one hand, cute! On the other, wtf? XD I mean wouldn’t that hurt? He has claws

Cutest siblings.

Even though they’re taking a break, Taichi, of course, is too responsible to properly goof off. (99 Taichi would be so freaked out by this kid.) He decides to go scouting and Koushirou offers to go with him. I really hoped we’d see a bit of what they do this episode scattered through the main story, but looks like we’ll get to it next week and I can’tttt waaaaitttt

Speaking of the main story, Yamato and Takeru decide to go gather food.

Who even knows what the other four get up to. Jou and Mimi continuing their break makes sense, but I’m kinda surprised Hikari and Sora didn’t want to join one of the tasks, or do their own. I suppose they know they can’t leave Jou and Mimi unsupervised though hurr hurr

So Takeru and Yamato go to look for food and find themselves surrounded by fog. Suddenly this little guy, Opossomon, pops out. I instantly hate him and his annoying squeaky voice.

Opossomon takes them to his amusement park. He is sad because nobody comes to visit anymore. I figured Takeru would be like AMUSEMENT PARK AMUSEMENT PARK!! but literally all he cares about is “aw, opossomon seems sad, let’s give him what he wants.”

Whoever heard of a kid who wasn’t excited by amusement parks.

Takeru does get a little excited once they enter the park and start going on rides. They get on the ferris wheel - a classic Digimon motif - and the brothers recall going to a theme park with their parents before the divorce. Takeru reminisces happily, but Yamato seems a bit more reserved.

Takeru: Oniichan was scared of the haunted house and wouldn’t go in?

Gabumon: o_O y-you were??

Yamato: o/////////o

seriously Idk, I just love that he’s bothered by ghosts, bahahaha - pretty sure that wasn’t a thing till Tri, unless it happened in a CD drama or novel or something. Anyway it’s just, it’s just so perfect for Yamato, bahahaha

I am absolutely going to write a ficlet about Taichi, Yamato, & the haunted house now

Then there’s this weird bit. They come across a merry-go-round and they remember that, on their family trip, Takeru tried to go on it with Yamato, but Yamato said no and Takeru went with their mom instead. That seems to be the situation but IT’S NEVER EXPLAINED. Why did Yamato not want to go on the merry go round then?? Was there a reason? Or he just didn’t want to at the time, and the reason he regrets it now is because this turned out to be their last family trip and there was never another chance to go on the merry go round together after that? I could totally accept that but it’s not explained in any way.

Unless I totally zoned out... I’m pretty guilty of that with this show lol.

But this is the kind of thing that bugs me... we’re supposed to understand that Yamato, at least, is feeling some kind of melancholy, at least. But we have so little background for it. We know Yamato and Takeru don’t live together and that they care a lot about each other. But we don’t feel the kind of bitterness 99 Yamato had, nor is Takeru anything like as clingy as his 99 version. They seem pretty well adjusted.

And, I mean, that’s probably the point. Plenty of children of divorce are perfectly well adjusted. Maybe that’s the reason the producers didn’t want to be as heavy-handed with the trauma this time - there’s more divorced families than ever and you don’t want to be guilty of suggesting all those kids are messed up because of it. I’m on board with that. But even in 99, the main reason Yamato and Takeru struggled wasn’t because their parents were divorced - it was because the divorced separated them from each other as well. Each parent took one kid. You can see how that would seem practical, except that kids aren’t furniture, you can’t just divide them evenly and call it fair.

So... yeah. This episode seems to want us to believe Yamato and Takeru are indeed struggling over being separated. But it’s so low key. It just doesn’t make sense when in every other interaction they’ve had, they’ve been fine. The only previous sign was Yamato being worried about protecting Takeru when Tokyo was in danger, and anyone would be worried in that situation - you don’t need to be from a divorced family for that lol.

Back to busness - they come across... Xiaomon? Chowmon? who is annoyingly cute and helpless. Turns out, shock! The theme park is a trap! Opossomon is evil!

And he has evil balloons! Evil balloons!

Yamato and Takeru fight the balloons but somehow end up creating more fog and get separated. Previously they’d also realized that their Digivice communication wasn’t working, probably due to the fog. I hope we see more of that in future episodes.

Yamato hears Takeru’s voice coming from within the dreaded haunted house and ventures inside.

Here’s another bit that just left me like uggggh. Yamato is scared of haunted houses, so make it a big deal that he makes himself go in for Takeru! He has like one timid line about and that’s it. There’s no challenge here. There’s no stress. The whole encounter is like a minute long.

He quickly finds out the voice was actually just a mimic coming from these Takeru balloons.

And then Bakemon attacks.

Me: Now something interesting will happen, right??

Yamato: Nope.

Meanwhile, Takeru hears the story about how Opossomon has been luring Digimon into his theme park and then sacrificing them to his Monzaemon statue thing in another weird example of this Digimon-eat-Digimon world we’re in Why Opossomon is doing this, or where Monzaemon came from, is never explained.

Takeru also encounters his dreaded theme park ride, the roller coaster. But Pegasusmon takes care of it in a single attack lol.

He fights his hardest but still can’t prevent his new friend from getting sucked into the void. This was another place where they could’ve stressed Takeru out, but he’s fine.

Ugh, I miss crybaby Takeru. The victories are more powerful when the challenges are steeper, what does this show not get about that?

Monzaemon then becomes WaruMonzaemon, but he seems to be a mindless puppet ordered around by Opossomon. I DON’T GET IT BUT OKAY.

Now Takeru does something really cool! He wants to save the trapped Digimon and he understands they’re inside WaruMonzaemon’s hole. So he willingly goes in himself!

That is SO COOL! Why isn’t it a bigger deal???

Why don’t we get Takeru struggling to muster his courage?

Why don’t we get real fear and worry from Yamato when he sees him go inside??

Yamato runs up right at that moment just in time to watch his brother get swallowed up. HE SHOULD BE OUT OF HIS MIND WITH PANIC.

But he just fights normally. Shouts Takeur’s name, gets a bit of a power boost... that’s it.

Inside WaruMonzaemon, Takeru finds out that the trapped Digimon are having their life energy sucked away by the balloons connected to them.

Then he and Patamon also realize their own energy is draining away thanks to their own balloons.

Yamato finally looks properly concerned, though it’s still like... not at the level the episode needs.

He recalls the family theme park outing again, and apparently he promised Takeru that the next time, they would go on the merry-go-round together. The episode treats this promise like it’s a Big Deal, again without explaining anything like they never got that next time thanks to the divorce, or they’re so lonely being so far apart, or Yamato is obsessed with giving Takeru everything he wants... I don’t. I don’t get it. I can’t be moved by this nonsense.

why a merry go round? Maybe there’s a good reason I’m not thinking of, but I wish it had been the haunted house or the roller coaster. It would make more sense if Takeru were scared of the roller coaster and only wanted to try it if Yamato went with him, but Yamato at the time said no, and thus Takeru didn’t get over his fear and the roller coaster itself played a role in this episode both towards Takeru getting stronger and their brotherly bond getting stronger...

Inside WaruMonzaemon, Takeru gives a speech about HOPE and HOPE IS IMPORTANT and WE MUST NOT LOSE HOPE and the other Digimon are like YES WE HAVE HOPE HERE’S OUR POWER and are able to channel their life energy into Patamon so he can evolve...

... and Angemon appears. And I’m like, oh yeah, this is the Takeru episode. It’s supposed to be his episode. IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE IT. If anything, up till this point it feels like a Yamato episode.

I mean, in the other episodes, the kids’ Crest traits mattered to various degrees. Sometimes they talked about it in words, sometimes they didn’t so much, but you could see the trait at play (uh, not sure how well that applies to Jou’s case tho...? lol). This episode gets to the very end and is like “Oh yeah by the way Takeru’s trait is hope... forgot to mention it before so lemme mention it ten times in a row now!”

If Takeru had seemed sad, scared, upset - literally any negative emotion - this would have worked, BUT AS USUAL HE’S FINE THE WHOLE TIME.

Angemon wins, duh.

And apparently it’s evening now??? They’re still gonna go get food. By the time they get back the other kids are gonna be like wtf where were you we are STARVING

So yeah, I guess you get the idea of how I feel about this episode. Just nothing special. It’s like a summary of the episode it wanted to be, if you know what I mean. On paper, everything looks fine, but in execution, it’s just... a lot of nothing. I mean compare this to 99 Takeru with DemiDevimon at the theme park. Or how about that fan favorite episode with Gotsumon and Pumpkinmon? Those both kick this out of the water, despite being no more complex.

I just so want this show to understand.... what made 99 Digimon good wasn’t just the monsters and the battle scenes, it was the kids’ relatable flaws and problems and the surprisingly organic way they learned new things and overcame obstacles. Digimon Adventure in 1999 had a way of teaching without preaching that is incredibly rare in children’s media. The modus operandi was pretty much let the kids be kids.

This 2020 reboot is not preachy - but it’s also lacking the stuff that made the 99 show relatable.

However. This wasn’t a terrible episode. At least it gave us some face time between the brothers. I’m frustrated, but I’m still glad that the show has overall been moving in a much more Digimon Adventure-like direction. And who knows what will happen in the end - I plan to rewatch the whole thing after the finale and maybe I’ll discover they were doing something totally different with Yamato and Takeru the whole time that I just didn’t notice, or that wasn’t clear until the very end. We’ll see.

Next week!

My favorite Digimon, Raremon, appears!

More importantly, TAICHI AND KOUSHIROU EPISODE, TAICHI AND KOUSHIROU EPISODE, TAICHI AND KOUSHIROU EPISODE!!!!!!!!!!

like I’m sooooo psyched for this!! I hope it’s good but I’ll just be happy to see the two of them working together. Taichi didn’t appear in the preview though, only MetalGreymon - not sure if that means anything. Regardless, my little Taishiro heart is pounding!