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Asking because currently I only post to ao3!!!! but I often feel like I'm not reaching as many people as I could??? IDK.

If you see this in the wild, hit me with a response and maybe a reblog so I can figure my life out!

Thanks pals

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This.

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why is lake superior so dangerous? i cant find anything online that will give my access (not american!)

it's the largest freshwater lake on the planet by surface area, you could lose a couple of smaller countries in there and not even notice. (vs Europe)

on top of that, it's a Northern lake, so the water never really gets warmer than 50 F (10 C) even in the heat of summer, and it's famous for sudden violent storms that destroy ships and buildings alike. this thing has a MASSIVE body count because it's also a major shipping thoroughfare.

tldr it wants to eat you so so bad

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You want someone to have a panic attack behind the wheel? While driving?!

Yea- you do that

Why isn't "too scary" a good enough reason to never drive a car

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All of these seem so obvious until you're actually interacting with a child and are like:

WELP

An incomplete guide to how to talk to young children (3-5 years old):

- Do not assume they understand your instructions the first time. They will ask you the same question three times. Answer it the same way, patiently. They will get it eventually.

- Children will ask strings of “why” questions. They’re not trying to be annoying; they don’t have a lot of the context older people have. Answer until you can’t, then admit you don’t know and ask them a question back. They’ll get distracted for the moment, and trust that you take their questions seriously.

- If you need a kid to do something, give a reason, but don’t give up at “I don’t want to”. If they don’t listen, it’s okay to say “I explained why, and I still need you to do it.” Be calm, and firm. Usually, kids will listen the second or third time.

- If a kid doesn’t listen to an instruction repeatedly, there’s probably something in the way. Ask them why they’re not *without accusing them*, and they’ll tell you what’s going on most of the time. Common reasons: I’m scared, I don’t know how, I miss my parent/sibling, I’m tired, I’m angry/frustrated/sad, I need help. Address the roadblock and help find a compromise that works for the both of you.

- Threats are only as good as you can enforce them. If you threaten them with a countdown, you need a consequence to back it up that is appropriate to the request. For example: “I need you to stay in your chair. I’m going to count to five. If I get to five, and you’re not sitting in your seat with your feet on the floor, I am writing down that you were not listening during snack time on your behavior report.” Keep in mind that these threats only work if the consequence is at the right level; too harsh, and they’ll get overwhelmed and shut down, but too light, and they won’t see it as a consequence. A kid who doesn’t care what their behavior report says won’t worry about a bad report as a consequence.

- Never scream at a child. Never hit them. Never continuously escalate consequences until they do what you say. These behaviors cause a child to panic, and their fear response will prevent them from doing what you want them to, as well as make them more distrusting of you in the future. It’s not just cruel, it is actively counterintuitive to correcting their behavior.

- Make a point to notice and compliment/reward good behavior, especially with kids you are biased to view as “rude” or “badly behaved”. Kids take the views of adults seriously, and if they feel as though they can’t redeem themselves in your eyes, they won’t waste energy trying. Complimenting good behavior when you see it will encourage them to repeat good behaviors to earn your praise. In addition, if there’s other children nearby, they will also mimic the complimented behavior to earn the same praise. Give it.

- Kids want to feel heard. If they want to show or tell you “something cool”, and you have a few moments, watch/listen and compliment them *regardless of if you get it or not*. If you don’t have time, say “That sounds really cool! Can you tell me after we do [insert thing]?” This tells them that you care while still making sure they do what they need to.

- Kids can be downright frustrating sometimes, especially when they need to do something and they just *won’t*. Recognize when you’re getting angry, and learn to stop talking before you direct that anger at them. Take some deep breaths, remind yourself that this too shall pass, and try a different approach.

- Always understand why you’re asking a child to do something. Not only does this help you tell them why they need to, it helps you find replacement behaviors if they can’t/won’t do it. For example: “I need you to lay down and try to sleep, because your friends are sleeping and what you’re doing right now is waking them up. If you can’t sleep after trying for a while, we can work together to find you a quiet activity that you can do at your cot.”

- Don’t expect from a child what you wouldn’t expect from yourself. Could you stand laying still and staring at the ceiling for an hour when you’re not tired? No? Don’t ask a kid to do it. Could you stand staying out in the cold for an hour without a jacket? No? Don’t ask a kid to do it. Could you stand someone yelling at you without feeling angry? No? Don’t ask a kid to do it. Even if you think you could do it, consider if you could do it with the same limitations this child has. Could you do it without the emotional regulation and impulse control you’ve developed as an adult? Could you do it without the inference skills you’ve learned after years of social interactions? Could you do it when you felt angry, tired, overwhelmed, hungry, thirsty, desperately needing to pee with no bathroom nearby? If not, don’t ask a child to do it.

- Don’t react to potty words, insults, or offensive language. Don’t laugh, and don’t act upset. Use the same tone you would if someone said something innocuous, and correct them in that tone. “We don’t say that; that’s a hurtful thing to say to someone.” Or “That’s not funny. Let’s talk about something else.”

- Kids don’t (and should not) have a sense of sexual innuendo or puberty. A four year old doesn’t understand that reaching up to hug you and touching your breasts in the process is gross. A five year old doesn’t understand that “why aren’t you a mommy?” or “why does your face have red dots on it” are weird questions to ask random people. Enforce boundaries without delving into details. “Don’t touch me there; that makes me uncomfortable” and “That’s just how it works sometimes” can be used to great effect. Importantly, don’t act angry or use a tone that indicates they did something wrong; this will seem to them like you’re arbitrarily angry.

- Kids at this age don’t have a strong sense of cognitive empathy or predicting the future. The idea that actions have consequences beyond the immediate result is a very, very new concept to them. Be prepared to explain the obvious of “why can’t I bite her when she makes me mad?”, “why can’t I steal his toy when he stole mine?”, and “why do I have to do what you tell me when I don’t want to?”

- Give explicit instructions. “Stop that” isn’t likely to be understood by a four year old. “Stop throwing the toys; please put them in the bucket gently” is far easier for a kid to follow.

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anyone else wish they would get roped into a freaky friday body swap situation just for the hope that the other person will go "oh jesus fuck how do you live like this" and instantly validate your feelings of being Strange and Built Wrong.

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Apparently Caine and Bubble share a Tongue together! And Ragatha snuck some stupid sauce back in the tent hehehe...

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New episode was cool

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ok so something in tadc that's bugged me for a bit is the lore drops about what the characters used to do and be like

and don't get me wrong, the gravity falls kid inside of me LOVES some lore, but it's just a specific detail about it

back in the pilot, caine said that no one in the digital circus remembers their names upon entering, and it was confirmed by pomni

and yet...they can recall the rest of their past lives with ease??? can they remember everything but their names? cause jax even made a breaking bad reference, like who tf forgets their legal name and remembers breaking bad??? (tbh that sounds like jax, bro didn't even notice he lost his tail ;-;)

or they forget everything when they enter, BUT after their minds finish adjusting to their new digital form, they regain their memories fully. they just don't bother to try and recall it because they already have a new name that everyone calls them already

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Lmao

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I don’t get the amazing digital circus . Like I understand the premise and now that there’s 5 episodes the characters have had a little time for some more characterization but like this is clearly still a show in its infancy . Plot beats and character dynamics are still just being established but the fandom for the damn show is so massive and rabid. You would expect this from something with a bit more hype like hazbin hotel that had years between the development of its pilot and the show itself but TADC has just trickled out a few episodes over like 2 years and yet it’s everywhere . I saw merchandise for it in a 5 below . The first season isn’t even done yet !!! I can’t name you another media property that has received this much hype and discourse and it’s not even finished with one season.

I feel like some wacky adventures have happened sure but in terms of actual plot progression there’s nothing! And yet fandoms are having arguments about what ships are toxic and what characters are problematic when we’ve barely spent more than an hour with most of them .

I guess I’m just getting old but it’s I’m just so confused why this one series has SO much discussion around it when it’s barely even started . Where were you people with Blue eye samurai ? Or scavengers reign ? Or common side effects? Or any show that’s actually doing something new and interesting and is out in its entirety. Does it just not intrigue you because you can’t ship the characters ? Hell even glitch’s most recent original property The Gaslight District has way more personality and intrigue immediately and I barely heard a peep from tumblr.

I like Digital Circus so far and I’m interested to see where it could go but I really just do not understand the rampant obsession I see online . What’s the mass appeal? Why are you people writing fanfic about characters we barely know ? Why does it already have merchandise in stores ???

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I felt obligated

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TADC Theory

I’ve seen people saying that the “vegan Jax” bit proves that Jax is an NPC, since Caine has said that he can’t access human minds.

But Gooseworx has told us that Jax isn’t an NPC.

(Also, we’ve seen Ragatha’s mind be altered by the stupid sauce, and Gangle’s by the mania mask. They’d need to be NPCs too, if this theory were true)

So Caine is lying.

But I think it might go further than that. I have a suspicion that there are no NPCs.

The theory is based on the idea that Caine either can’t or doesn’t create sentient beings. Instead, he takes the abstracted humans in the basement, and uses them as raw materials to make adventure characters out of.

There’s clearly some kind of narrative arc going on with Pomni and Gummigoo, and it doesn’t feel finished. I think she’s going to find a door with Gummigoo’s face on it, crossed out, and that’s going to set off the revelation that he’s not fake at all. He’s just a trapped human from before the current group’s time, who lost his mind, spent decades in the basement, and then one day Caine fished him back out, scrambled his brains around, and dropped him in the Candy Land adventure.

It might explain why Caine is afraid of losing track of who’s an NPC and who isn’t; at the fundamental level there is no way to distinguish between them because they’re not different groups.

All of which, if true, implies that the narrative climax will involve a reunion with Kaufmo and Queenie.

Flaws in this theory/Notes:

The Evil Big Tops just kinda looked like that. Caine reusing character designs for the current group? Although if Gangle’s a newer design then it’d explain why she lacked an evil version.

Whole ton of artist’s reference dolls around. That’s a lot of trapped humans. The entire C&A employee workforce?

What exactly is Bubble? A brainwashed human? An extension of the AI? A genuine NPC?

Could be a mix of humans and NPCs, but that feels messier.

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Goose said on Twitter that Episode 5 is the second most self-indulgent episode in the series. Episode 8 is the most self-indulgent.

Episode 5 has the most whack Bubble lines so far, maid Jax, feral Jax, an anime sequence, a bar scene, Jax angst, Ragatha angst, Caine angst, evil versions of the main characters, the Moon being thirsty for Caine, Jax making a dirty joke, and the whole intermission sequence.

What the flying fuck happens in Episode 8 that makes it MORE self-indulgent than Episode 5???

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ik that jax assumes ragatha is talking about ribbit (or whoever jax’s friend is who abstracted) but i think she was actually referring to how AFTER ribbit abstracted he started acting like a jerk (at least more of a jerk, since i can’t imagine him not being at least a little bit like this already) & pushing people away who were his friends and if he weren’t such an asshole, more people would be willing to try & be his friend. you know, considering they’re all stuck there possibly forever. especially considering ragatha & kinger were probably the only people around who would remember jax if/when he was a more amiable person.

plus it just doesn’t seem like ragatha to purposely bring up something she knows is so hurtful to him, and how she immediately began profusely apologizing once she realized what jax thought she was referring to.

idk episode 5 is making me feel things man.

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Ok. Let’s talk about the breaking bad joke.

This joke has so many in universe implications and I haven’t seen literally anyone talking about it. Like yea there’s definitely the chance that it was just a throwaway gag but like. There’s so much to talk about.

1) Zooble acknowledges the joke and tells him to “be creative” if he’s going to make up a fake backstory

This implies that breaking bad was already a pop culture staple when Zooble (and probably Jax and gangle) got trapped in the digital circus. The show premiered on January 20th, 2008 but didn’t really gain mainstream popularity until 2011 when it was added to Netflix, and subsequently joined the cultural sphere of generally understood pop culture references. This in turn means that Jax, Gangle and Zooble were probably trapped in the circus sometime post 2011.

2) Ragatha doesn’t understand the reference

This means that Ragatha (and by extension Kinger) have been in the circus since BEFORE 2011! Probably before 2008 if I’m being realistic! This means that Ragatha and Kinger have been here for at the very least 14 years. That’s a long time to be trapped in an unending digital hell.

Anyways this is just my observation (and possible over analyzation) of the BB joke. I just think being able to put these characters on a timeline is crazy.