#(Context: people were teaming up to attack other groups

[royalarchivist]

Tubbo: Quackity!

Quackity: Shh! Don't talk English, don't talk English– [...] Tubbo, Tubbo, they hate Americans, they're targeting Americans, so just speak Spanish, ok? All the Spanish you know, just speak it.

Tubbo: ¡Si si si! ¡Si! Co- uh... El comprende.

Quackity: [Quiet laugh]

—

Squidcraft was a bit of a hot mess, but I still remember this moment and Quackity's fond little laugh as Tubbo tries his best to speak Spanish :')

[jerktournament]

ROUND ONE - Herbert P. Bear (Club Penguin) VS Snowball (Battle for Dream Island)

!!! PROPAGANDA BELOW !!!

HERBERT: "Herbert may be a fandom darling in our fandom of like, 20 people. BUT DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU! He is a conniving, EVIL bear, and a professional jerk and some highlights of his jerkishness include... - Spending ten years of his life (by the time the game closed) trying to destroy the Penguin Secret Agency and Elite Penguin Force (both were agencies that protected the island from disasters and villains like Herbert) with varying success... - SUCCESSFULLY destroyed the Penguin Secret Agency with a popcorn bomb, which destroyed their HQ. It should also be noted that while doing so, he locked in the player, Rookie, and Gary the Gadget Guy, presumably so the bombs explosion would have killed them all. -Teamed up with the EPF to stop the Ultimate Protobot 10,000 and the Test Bots, a small group of four dangerous robots after he personally brought them back. When Protobot went "too far" for Herbert's standards by threatening the environment and trying to completely destroy the EPF (despite the aforementioned Popcorn Bomb incident literally destroying the PSA, and also a certain Operation: Blackout), causing him to temporarily switch sides. This might sound like a character growth moment...except for the fact that he immediately betrays them once Protobot is dealt with and attacks and damages the EPF's HQ using a robot hydra made for the Medieval Party that he stole. - A canonical ex-dictator. Don't believe me? Look up Operation: Blackout on the Club Penguin Wiki! He froze several agents during his reign of terror, was open to freezing innocent civilians, and also wanted to do away with puffles- the pets of penguins. He also banned several hobbies and professions during his reign (being a Ninja, a DJ, a Pirate, etc) for no reason other than disliking them. He also destroyed the EPF'S HQ and exposed two agents' private information to the public. This means Herbert is the first and only character to canonically dox people he doesn't like on Club Penguin. -Was planning to bomb the EPF literally two months later with a hot sauce bomb (makes sense in context of the game and yes, it is more destructive than it sounds). -Brainwashed puffles into digging coins for him purely because his henchman, Klutzy the crab brought a coin slot to use for his DIY heater, instead of just removing the coin slot and retooling it to work without one like a normal person."

SNOWBALL: "OMG. SNOWBALL. SB. BABYGIRL. MI PRINCESA. HE IS SUCH A JERK. ok so for starters he is very arrogant and cocky (like a jock) and he thinks of himself as better than other contestants. snowball is also very stubborn and doesn't like people telling him what to do, and he often ditch or hurt his teammates for the sake of the challenge, thinking he was in the right to do so. he often intimidates and threatens the hosts of the show he competes on (x in bfb and two in TPOT) and he is also bery unlikeable both to fans and in universe. he was so unlikeable that in the firsr season of the bfdi franchise in a vote to regoin, he got the least votes out of 21 contestants with 8, less than 1/100 of the total votes. because of his behavior he made a reputation for himself among the other contestants, and was picked last for team making in the 5th season/TPOT. even on his new team in TPOT he is give the cold sholder by his teammates. OK NOW TO THE JERKY STUFF HE DID. so first of all he has killed at least 10 people, and he has hurt multiple contestants out of rage or for the challenge multiple times (some examples being when he broke fanny, a member of his older team from season 4 for telling him what to do, or him setting grassy, another member on his team in the 5th season on fire for the challenge. or the time that he punched grassy off inti the distance twice because "he felt like punching something "in episode 3 of TPOT). snowball also sabotaged his team in a challenge on purpose purely because of his ego (episode 4 of TPOT). he is also pretty rude to pretty much anyone and everyone, including hosts. only begrudgingly listening to them if it benefits himself. that is it (sorry for the really long propaganda he is my comfort and my favorite character from his series, i have been nominated as his no. 1 fan)"

[pedripics]

Pedri: "I think I'm a lot more dangerous as a playmaker"

(Mundo Deportivo - July 3, 2024)

De la Fuente said in the run-up to the European Championship that Pedri had to find himself. And he seems to have found himself.

"I'm feeling very well, with much more confidence, with a lot of desire and above all with the desire to continue in this dream of winning the Euro, which I think we have the team for it."

In order to find yourself again, you have had to make several changes.

"Yes, I changed my nutrition, my physical preparation, I started to do pilates and I've done a lot of different things to try to find something that suits me. I think I've found it."

And some ideas that Ferran passed on to you. Soak in ice-cold water for one minute a day.

"Yes, although I don't think it's really necessary here because it's so cold. In the mornings we always go into very cold water for one minute. It's good to wake up, to wake you up and to get you ready for the day."

It's been a long time since you've been with the national team. Has this change of context been good for you?

"Above all to get away from it all. It's true that in Barcelona I had injuries and relapses, but I wanted to come to the national team, to be here in a training camp with my teammates. I feel very comfortable and I'm getting better every day."

Playing more vertical.

"That's right. A lot of coaches throughout my short career have asked me to do that. They've told me to get into the box a lot more, that I have to score goals and give assists. In that position it's much easier. Also, here I can play with Morata, who fixes the centre-backs very well. For a '10', having a striker like that makes everything much easier. It's a spectacle to play with Morata."

Which attacking midfielders does he look at?

"There are players who may not play in that position but have the qualities of a playmaker, like Musiala, a player who may play as a winger but can play inside. Or Wirtz himself. They are players who have been playing at a very high level for many years and you learn from them."

Musiala and Wirtz. Both will be opponents on Friday.

"They are having a spectacular Eurocup, especially Musiala. Wirtz is also playing very well. Let's hope we can neutralise them in the best possible way. It's clear that our midfield is also very strong and I think we have the best player in the world in that position, Rodri."

Called to be, surely, the stars of the next decade. Pedri, Nico, Lamine, Wirtz, Musiala… They will face each other for the first time. Are you looking forward to it?

"Yes, it's going to be a match where the neutral spectator, the one who doesn't belong to either team, is going to have a great time. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be a match with a lot of magic, a lot of dribbling, a lot of possession. I think it's going to be a hard-fought match and hopefully we'll take it."

Dani Olmo and Pedri also complement each other on the pitch

"Yes, at the last European Championship and at the World Cup we met on the pitch many times.He is a player with whom I enjoy playing together and I hope we can do the same at this European Championship."

You must have heard about the curse of the host at the training camp.Spain have never beaten the host country.

"I've always said that there's a first time for everything and hopefully this is it. It's a curse that sometimes scares people, but not us. It motivates us a little bit more to try to put an end to that."

Beyond the cliché of an early final, are the two best teams in this European Championship facing each other?

"These are two teams that have been very consistent, both in the group stage and in the round of 16. We've always played the same way, the same football, scoring goals and winning games a bit more calmly. That's why it's going to be a spectacular game."

Is there any other team that has caught your eye?

"Switzerland. We knew beforehand that they were a difficult team, but they are having a spectacular tournament and they are a tough opponent."

Their group is usually made up of Fermín, Lamine, Nico, Ferran, Dani Olmo… At 21 years of age, he's already one of the veterans.

"I get into the rondos before Nico because I'm from November, imagine that. We are always together. With Ferran and Dani Olmo we like to banter, we like to joke around. But when the match starts, the jokes are over and we play."

[orion4ever]

hey dude, i know you mean well for the ol community, and i think you're really cool and have been following you for a while, but i really don't think all this shitting on rose is justified. spreading callout posts by taking shitty things people have said out of context, especially queer poc, is a real tactic used by terfs to spread discourse and isolate queer people from communities, and it's worked so well that queer people have started doing the same to their own with really good intentions, but the overall effect is nonsense discourse and the spread of hatred. kab herself has publicly said that she and rose have a good relationship and that she thinks most of rose's impact on the games and community has been really helpful for checking her own biases. the screenshots and shitty things you've read about her are not the full story, and yes, i do agree that rose handled certain things really really shittily and i am not excusing that at all, but rose isn't a bad person at all, what the callouts show is out of context and does not show rose accurately as a person, and the degree of hatred for a group of people honestly trying to create a safe space for queer people is wildly disproportional. i really hope this doesn't come off as any way accusatory, because it really isn't, and i really look up to you as a creator. i just want you to be aware that this is something that has been settled by the people involved, and continuing discourse and wanting rose fired goes directly against kab's own wishes and is based on misinformation. thanks for reading this far. please have a wonderful day

I respect you and I appreciate that you reached out respectfully with this.

I do not repost these call out post to be malicious or start a hate campaign like some people have been accusing others of.

I do not encourage witch-hunting or harassment of Rose or Kab ; As they are people and make mistakes , even if the mistakes are extremely shitty and I understand that those screenshots were a private conversation but frankly , I think some of the stuff Rose said was extremely odd and vulgar , context or without.

I am not in the official OL server so maybe your right about them not being as bad but even if that was the case they should still be let go of the role as sensitivity reader because they’re views aren’t open minded and its ironic that they are supposed to help prevent bias and keep the game inclusive when they’ve shown a weird rhetoric and the paper bag comment actually made my jaw drop.

OL has been one of the most comforting things to me , I was in a really dark place when I started a new save file and fell in love with all the characters and the game so believe me when I tell you I would never want to attack the very person who created and brought me that comfort. It physically exhausted me and upset me yesterday when it all came to light , considering it has been a huge hyperfixation and boosted my self esteem.

I don’t care if GB is okay with their friends talking an insane amount of crap behind their backs. It's not my business, I just think that they need better friends.

Even with this in mind, I can’t continue my support for Kab if they decide to keep Rose on the development team, not purely just because of what they said in private but how they treated my friend. The both of them are insinuating that they’re a “liar” or that they “overreacted” when they just wanted to express a grievance. And a surprisingly large number of people are harassing them and accusing them of starting a “racist campaign” towards Rose when they are a trans minority as well. If the fandom is so quick to villainize my friend for simply speaking out then frankly I don’t want to be a part of this fandom.

I hope you also have a good day.

[phantom-thieves-official]

look i know I talk abt pegoryu all the time BUT there's so much to love about Ryuji outside the context of ships. Like, there's plenty of good characters in p5 but Ryuji steals the show, no contest. He's so kind and selfless. He's the first to give joker a chance. He's not even on particularly good terms with Ann and is pissed off at Kamoshida's creepy behavior on her behalf. When they enter the palace and get attacked, he tries telling to joker to run even though Ryuji himself is being attacked by the guards - he wanted joker to leave him there and was okay with putting himself in harm's way to allow joker an escape. He's not moved to take down kamoshida by his own potential expulsion, or his own anger about their history, but is moved by seeing what kamoshida is doing to other students, particularly shiho. After the kamoshida arc, he doesn't say anything about his own trauma or history with kamoshida, he's just happy that things will be better for Ann. He's the first to forgive makoto after she gets kidnapped by kaneshiro and has generally been a thorn in the phantom thieves' side for weeks. In fact he jumps in front of a moving vehicle to get a taxi to follow the people who took her. He fights with mona and gives a half-hearted apology, but all that animosity is out the window when the group finds mona and haru being harassed by haru's fiance. His entire confidant is about him trying to help the track team, which benefits him in absolutely no way, even after they turned on him for standing up to his abuser. even after the track team themselves physically assault him in an early social link rank. he wanted to get a track scholarship for his mom's sake, not his own. He puts himself in danger to get the lifeboat when shido's palace is sinking. he puts himself in danger and takes an attack from possessed cendrillon in maruki's palace. he gets angry when hearing about joker's past, but doesn't actually seem to have much anger in regards to his own - in fact, consistently through the game he gets angry and moved to defend others while not mustering that same righteous sort of anger for his own sake. Everyone else is his priority. he's the only character who has mistakes in the plot of the game that he owns up to and apologizes for - for getting mad and scaring futaba, and for being preccupied by their fame. he's a momma's boy. he's joker's best friend and right hand man, and more than anyone else he opens up to and confides in joker, to the degree that he has moments like that which occur outside of his confidant whereas nobody else really does (he calls joker through the story several times and confides in him about things like his apprehension abt the current events or how he is sorry he got mad and yelled earlier or even just that he's worried about the kamoshida plan.) the world has been so cruel to him and he still finds so much compassion and selflessness within himself. he's similar to his drunk, abusive dad, with a temper and a reputation for outbursts. but he's a twisted, funhouse mirror representation of that. his anger is justified and sparked by seeing others mistreated. his outbursts were just him standing up for himself and his whole team. and for it he got abandoned and shunned. he's a deconstruction of the people who've hurt him; he's similar to them while also standing for the exact opposite of everything they stand for. he's selfless and kind and driven to protect others even at the cost of his own safety, social standing, or well being. he makes mistakes and owns up to them, then tries to be better. he trusts joker so much. he's been hurt and abused and kicked while he was down and he still wants so badly to help others. as cruel as the world has been to him he doesn't let it embitter him or make him cynical and mean.

tldr; your honor, I love him

[littledigits]

That time when working in animation made me realize I needed therapy

Since we're on the topic of overworking / being passionate in animation and blah blah blah.  I want to share my story about working on the first season of Hilda (for context I was the animation director), specifically..how completely garbo my mental health got because 

I INSISTED ON WORKING MYSELF INTO THE GROUND. 

This is a story I've shared when I've had a chance to do lectures or talks, and if there is one really awesome thing that comes with ..weird ..animation clout, its that you can use those powers for good in terms of teaching people about the BS that comes with the job...anyway.

The reason why I like to talk about this is because I insisted on doing it to myself, and that was really got me thinking about the factors that do lead us into over working. Because heres the deal

Hilda season 1 was, without getting into too many details, a heckofatime...especally for the core crew. we were a small group, doing something new because most of us haven't worked on a show before that included pre production. My entire career up to that point had been working on service work for shows that were created in Burbank, so the new pipeline had a ton of challenges. We did all care, and we all believed in the project SOOOO much. I would tell people not to work over time, because I want my team to leave on time - but I was there...a lot. Leaving the studio by 11pm , working through the weekends..it wasnt an uncommon thing for me. sure , it wasnt all the time, but this stuff spans years sometimes so it went in waves. But whenever the challenges came up, i doubled down. because I super believed in it.

  And the thing was - other people told me to stop. I had a lot of valid concerns given to me by my friends and team members who saw how I was burning myself out at both ends. And I thought like, well , its my *choice*.  Its my chance to have a voice and be creative and try to do something different and we all have to push ourselves and yes its HARD but. THATS HOW YOU DO IT RIGHT? surely if I just make sure I’m the one overworking and my team isn't.. that's fine. 

Well, no, I was immensely effecting my team maybe I wasn’t telling them to work late, but they were seeing me get more and more tired and stay later and later.  I thought they would still approach me for help, or if they struggled. But the issues they had they kept to themselves without wanting to put more on my shoulders. Because they *cared* , just as much as I did ..and we all took more on our shoulders then we should have and there were a lot of things that I could have solved had I fostered a better communication environment.  I became really resentful in my head over the smallest things, I actually saw myself becoming a more hateful person and easily annoyed. I came home every day rambling about the frustrations. Now, let me preface this by saying - my mental state did not only have to do with overworking. I had and have things still to unpack, but the control I had over work and the validation I got from it was a coping mechanism for me. I really didnt think i had any worth as a person outside of this job. It basically was a very nasty cycle that didnt stop until ...well I had gotten so bad I had to.  By the end of the first season I was actually incredibly close to quitting . I was in big anxiety attack territory because I was so worn thin- I had started therapy but eventually moved onto getting medication as well and that was what allowed me to stick it out. ( I have the same therapist and I am on the same meds, it was very hard to do at the time, but i cant imagine my life now without making that choice ). After it was done I was immensely supported by the studio and worked part time as a trainer, which is what i requested to give my brain a break. (Only a few of my closer friends knew how bad I was getting but it was pretty obvious I needed to rest) I'm really proud of the work we did and we keep doing on the show, ..and some other people may have gone through something similar and found it was worth it, but thats not me. I still struggle not to fall back into that mindset, but it helps knowing that if i keep myself out of it , i can help my team out of it, because I know they care about this show just as much as I do. I’m not a martyr, I am a leader, and its up to me to keep myself healthy so I can keep my crew healthy.   I always strive to be better, but i get to decide what that looks like - and for me ..better has nothing to do with the image on the screen. Its got more to do with the experience of the people around me. Readjusting those priorities has helped a lot with keeping my head above water and not add to the pressure that makes it so hard not to get sucked down in the first place.  I do think its good to talk about though , how our passion and language and drive can lead to a lot of us being a part of this cycle. And if theres one good thing about the challenges, its sharing them so at least others can learn faster then you did ;) . take care of yourself friends.

[highfantasy-soul]

So I need to get something off my chest about 'writing' and what a show is trying to do vs if the writing is the best to show that.

I haven't seen this complaint so much on Tumblr, but it has been brought up several times in a Discord server I'm in and I don't think there is the best place to address it (it might be taken as too political or an attack against specific people) but I really really needed to write out how I'm feeling about it.

So a massive complaint in this Discord is that the writing of the Acolyte is bad. The ones making this criticism claim that they like the ideas behind the show, but the execution with the writing is terrible and they need to get a whole new writing team for season 2.

So. Hmm. How to not get too in my feelings about that.

Let's take a look at who the writers are. We have:

3 men - 2 of which are men of color, the last I don't know enough about to say if he's part of a specific marginalized identity or not

and we have 7 women - Leslye who is openly queer, 3 black women, an asian woman, a trans woman and activist, and another who I again, don't know enough about to say if she's a part of a specific marginalized identity (other than her femininity) or not.

I didn't do deep dives on them, they're writers, so it's kind of hard to specifically find out 'hey, do you personally have a lot of experience with colonialism/religious trauma?' BUT I think that just baseline seeing how many women, people of color, and queer people there are on the writing staff and the way I could see so many extremely nuanced and real things on screen that I personally know about gives me a good idea about their own experiences/knowledge about such subjects.

Despite the claim that 'they like what the story is going for', the understanding of how the writers are telling that story isn't translating to everyone. I have a little suspicion as to what unites the people who 'don't get' the writing despite claiming to like what the show was going for. Kind of like how people 'liked what the civil rights movement was about, but those leaders and their methods? Get those out of here and accomplish the goals in a different way'. Or reading a classic and having no context for who wrote it or when the story was written and trying to judge it based on your own very limited understanding and claiming it's "bad" because you, personally, are just not aware of anything outside of your own world view.

It's important to be able to identify where your own understanding might be lacking - and acknowledging that just because YOU don't 'get it' doesn't mean that the writing is BAD. It just means... you don't get it. Personally, I don't get every single show made for a very specific audience - especially racialized comedies specifically for the race the writer/performer is. As an example, Dave Chapelle (horrendous transphobia aside) wrote a great deal of his material for his very specific audience of Black Americans. I personally, as a not-Black person, wasn't sure how to feel about some of his jokes - but what I DIDN'T do was say that he was bad and 'I get that he's making fun of his own community, but he should do it in a different way, maybe get a different writer'. Because I'm not the one equipped to judge that. I acknowledge that his comedy is outside my wheelhouse and honestly, for Chapelle's case when it comes to his racial jokes, I simply remove myself from the equation and just look to other Black people and how they react to his comedy to see if he's stepped over a line. (Also, when it comes to comedy, as he himself pointed out, some white people were laughing a little TOO hard at his jokes - I think that's mainly an issue with comedy and poking fun at yourself only to have someone not in your 'group' not take it as friendly ribbing but rather more malicious - and so he dialed it back).

Comedy is a bit different than any other media - I do think that comedy requires a lot more knowledge of the subject matter to know when the person is exaggerating, critiquing, or affectionately ribbing that is pretty important to know before internalizing what's said in the show. If you're not aware of that stuff, you might hear a stand-up routine and internalize a lot of really harmful stereotypes so I think it's ok to step away from comedy that isn't "for you" in a way that I don't think is particularly great for ALL types of media that isn't "for you".

With romance stories - I just don't get why a character would make all their decisions focused around getting a romantic partner, maybe I actively dislike watching/reading about that, but what I'm NOT going to do is say Jane Austen is a bad writer. I can point out things I disliked aside from the romance aspect or even larger writing critiques, but I'm not going to say that 'I see what she was going for, but get a different writer because I didn't get it'. Those stories were intensely personal to her and many people see themselves in the characters she wrote. Just because *I* don't get their motivations doesn't mean others don't.

So, examples aside, I think it's incredibly important that before we say 'the writing was bad', think about if maybe it's just that you don't have the meta understanding of the groups being highlighted in the story. It does give me the ick when people say to 'replace the writing table' on The Acolyte when the story trying to be told is of marginalized groups interacting with massive colonial institutions and the generational trauma that causes - and when you look at the writers....they are part of the groups affected by those issues, and the ones who are saying 'replace them'....aren't (largely).

When you 'don't get' something in media, especially if that media is telling the stories of groups you don't belong to, go to see what those groups are saying. There have been articles written about The Acolyte from the points of view of marginalized groups and meta posted around about how these irl subjects are being handled. In my opinion, as someone a part of such effected groups, I think the writers have done an incredible job with the show.

The main issue I think (good faith) people have is that DISNEY didn't give the show more time to tell its story, but then they lay the issues at the feet of the writers for 'not explaining enough' - but the things they want explained, largely I find are things that...were explained enough if you know the basics of colonization, missionaries, and generational trauma.

Other complaints I've seen boil down to "the show should have told me everything in order, clearly, and told me what to think about it and each of the characters - because I was left guessing, instead of using my own brain to think about it, I have decided it's bad writing because everything wasn't fed to me in a straightforward way" which again, isn't a fault of the writing, it's a flaw in the way you THINK all shows need to hand-hold you. Just because a show doesn't spoon-feed you the story and character motivations, doesn't mean the writing is bad.

Finally, I've seen critiques of the writing (and story) to the effect of 'it's a Star Wars story - it NEEDS to fit into the Star Wars box/expectations and if it doesn't, that means it's bad writing' - which again, kills diversity. You want surface-level inclusion where "yay! It's a woman doing bombings now! Cheer for her!" rather than "Look, it's a woman doing war-crimes and we're pointing out that war crimes are STILL wrong and here's other marginalized people fighting against that!"

So before claiming 'the writers need to be replaced', take a step back and look at why you feel that way, take a look at who the writers are and what story they were trying to tell, and first consider: maybe you just aren't knowledgeable enough about the subject matter. And just because it's not 'baby's first colonizer story', doesn't mean the writing is bad. Maybe you aren't the center of the universe for once and maybe its OK for you to feel a little behind in understanding - it just means there's new stuff for you to learn! Which is a good thing!

Obligatory explanation that all this doesn't mean that you can't critique the writing or that if you critique the writing that means you 100% are who I'm talking to in this post. All I'm saying is that maybe before having the knee-jerk reaction 'get rid of the writers', take a look at it from this perspective to see if you 'not understanding' isn't on the writers, it's on you and your life experiences not preparing you for such a story told in this way.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for wanting a interpersonal conflict in my friend group to be handled privately?

I want to preface this by saying that I'm fully aware that my actions sparked said conflict. I feel horrible for what I did but I wanted things to be talked about in such a way that wouldn't end in a blowout fight. There's a lot of context, so I'll try to be succinct.

So, one of my friends (19M, we'll call him Cal) and I (20M) are exes and things ended on good terms. We got together at the wrong time and place and we both agreed on this. We haven't been dating for a year now. After we broke up he ended up in a long-distance relationship with another friend (19F, she'll be called Alice).

Since Cal and I are still pretty close, we go to each other to vent about things. A little while into his relationship with Alice, he started confiding in me about how he wasn't super happy in his relationship with her. After another month or so he stayed at my house while his family went out of town. Things were fine at the start but long story short we ended up hooking up.

I felt terrible afterwards and it was really weighing me down for weeks before I decided to vent to someone else in our group (22F, she'll be Tess). I figured that since she knew Cal before me and was mostly uninvolved with a lot of the group, she could give me advice and help me figure out how to handle things from there.

Tess ended up pressuring me into telling Alice about what happened within an hour or she'd do it herself. I still wanted to talk to Cal about it first before I did anything because I thought he should know about what I was doing. Tess didn't like this answer from me and she immediately went to the rest of the group to tell them.

She went to the moderator chat in the public Discord server I made since all of the group were mods and started spilling everything I said. It all spiraled after that and eventually it got to the point where Tess was sending messages about how terrible Cal and I were in the general chat of the server. At that point I tried to crack down on it and took away her ability to send messages in that chat (she had the permissions to talk in the moderator chat) because I wanted all of it to be kept out of the public server. No one other than the moderator team were involved in this issue and I didn't want things to boil over anymore than it had.

The rest of the group started to pile onto me and they started talking about it in the general chat as well, so eventually I just ended up deleting the server in a panic because it was starting to send me into an anxiety attack.

I haven't talked to anyone in that group since except for Cal and the one or two others that thought that the rest of them had fucked up by handling it the way they did. It's been a month or so now since then. Now, the people that I'm still talking to have noticed that the ones who split have been taking pictures of us without permission in any classes we share together, and it's making all of us really uncomfortable.

I'm still really stressed about this because I know that what Cal and I did was fucked up and we shouldn't have done it but I feel wronged by the way those friends reacted to it. So, AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[promiscuousasexual]

oh my fucking god lee are you seeing these rumors about esteban allegedly getting into physical fights and being difficult to work with? why the fuck are people just blindly believing one anon’s claims? like what fucking evidence is there for this shit? why would they renew esteban for 3 years if this shit was true? i’m genuinely getting really pissed off rn with this whole situation

and if people want to call it pulling the race card then fine but it makes me so uncomfortable that people are trying to painting someone with North African heritage as violent and aggressive…

are you fucking serious? i haven’t seen any of that and frankly i don’t believe any of it

although one things clear, the second anything negative is said about esteban whether there’s any evidence for it or not, people will absolutely jump at the chance to attack him. i saw so many people say they started hating esteban after dts and i was just ??? cause i thought we all agreed that we can’t just blindly trust dts?? and that most of it is bs?? but i guess when it’s esteban it’s a different story.

i try not reveal too much about my personal life on here, but as someone who has interned for multiple teams and circuits (and i mean A LOT), none of them have anything bad to say about esteban ever, almost every employee who has ever interacted with him has said how he’s so sweet and grateful and always makes sure to thank everyone around him, and when i interacted with him briefly, still in the context of working at a circuit, he was so welcoming and friendly. (and that’s honestly the reason he’s my fav)

people will always tell poc that we’re pulling the race card so atp speak your truth. f1 is so predominantly white and they will never listen to a single thing we say ever, i’ve seen so many people say we’re over dramatic for bringing up the racism and that there isn’t any but that’s also the same shit my white friends told me when i was the only poc in the friend group and they were excluding me so what does that say about them.

you’re so 100% right about how the portrayal of esteban as aggressive and violent is due to racism because there is quite literally no other reason for it. “oh it’s cause he’s aggressive on track” yeah, so is every other fucking driver cause it’s a fucking race, fuck right off i’ve never seen this shit with other drivers

[mserm]

Kinda obsessed with this idea of post-Endgame Steve as one of Charles and Erik's handlers during First Class. He's not Moira, and definitly not CIA, but maybe some other agency? Possibly SHIELD related? He's been investigating Shaw in case he had any connection to Red Skull and somehow ends up being a part of the group that reaches out to Charles.

At first, I couldn't find anything interesting narratively with this because Charles would know immediately he's Captain America, right? Except now I'm convinced Charles would think Steve is INSANE. It's not the Captain America thing, though in context Charles doubts that. It's the fact that when Charles reads his mind, he finds out that Steve thinks he's from the future. And that he's fought aliens. And that he thinks he's friends with the God of Thunder. And oh wait, he's been to space. And worked with a fucking talking raccoon.

This man must be crazy and somehow he has the power of the government behind him.

Steve, on the other hand, is going by an alias and has only shared his past with a few choice people, often omitting the more unbelievable details. He's tried to be open with Peggy, but once he made a joke while they were in a park about not taking the time to learn Groot when he had a chance and she regarded him with such skepticism that he's kept most of the rest to himself.

He's beyond excited to get to work with the mutants, and despite the fact that he's pretty sure there weren't mutants in his own timeline (he would know!) he believes in them with all his heart. He feels especially kindred to Charles with all his rhetoric about using his gifts to help humanity. He adores Hank and his big brain. He's compelled by Erik's single-minded determination. He throws himself into the mission to find Shaw with his own special brand of stoic enthusiasm by researching mutation and running theories past Charles and Erik whenever he sees him.

Charles, at first, ignores these theories but slowly comes to the conclusion that this man is at least somewhat intelligent. He could be useful. And then Steve's the reason no one gets hurt when Shaw attacks the CIA compound, so Charles is willing to accept this guy might actually be Captain America incognito.

(But everything else must not be true. He's still crazy. Maybe all that experimentation fried his brain.)

Charles shares his thoughts with Erik, who cares less about the insanity angle and more about the fact that this man looks like he can actually protect people. He's glad there's at least one other person who can hold his own in hand-to-hand fighting. So what if Steve thinks he's close with the king of Wakanda? At least he's useful.

After the attack, Steve supports moving the team to Westchester. He doesn't trust the CIA and well, he's partial to the idea of a rich guy giving a bunch of misfits a home. He's also a little startled to discover that the very real possibility of nuclear war sparks something in him. Not excitement, definitely not that. But something closer to clarity. It's been almost twenty years since he's faced an annihilation-level threat. He, unfortunately, feels at home under end-of-the-world pressure.

So he helps train the young mutants and discusses tactics and feels closer to people than he has since he and Peggy started to drift apart. Then he sees fault lines in the conversations and arguments about the future of mutant-kind and is overtaken by a fear that it will tear the nascent group in two. Because what Steve knows is this: someday those differences won't matter. Someday you'll have the option of staring down an annihilation-level threat and being told that you weren't there when someone needed you and if you could choose again you'd choose the former.

But Steve doesn't try to interfere. He's not naive; he knows that he can only imagine what it's like to be a mutant.

But it's hard not to project.

It isn't that he regrets his decision to go back in time. He'd do it again. He saved Bucky and ripped Hydra out of SHIELD and he's so close to finding out how Red Skull ended up in space guarding the soul stone. But it isn't until he begins to teach Raven the finer points of combat that he truly feels not alone.

He's with them when they go to Cuba. He sits next to Moira and wonders if he should have brought the shield. He hasn't used it since he came back to the past. For all intents and purposes, Captain America is supposed to be dead; yet, Steve's blood thrums through his veins like he's standing on the ruins of the Avengers Compound next to Tony and Thor.

(Charles has long since learned to ignore Steve's strange internal monologue. This man should have been a storyteller instead of a soldier.)

Steve doesn't fix it, in the end. He falters just when he could be of use because when Erik holds those missiles in his power and turns them around on the ships he thinks of Tony turning a missile around and at flying it into the sky. He wonders how he could be so wrong about someone. It's at this moment Moira picks up the gun. Steve's fast, but he's not faster than a bullet.

It still shatters Charles's spine.

They save the world, yes, but Steve will only be able to watch as Erik's sent into solitary confinement. He can't prove Erik didn't kill Kennedy. And, of course, he'll try to reach out to Charles as the school closes and he shrinks into himself, but Charles can't stand to look at Steve and only finds him marginally more tolerable when he can't hear Steve's impossible thoughts.

It isn't until Logan arrives that Charles realizes that Steve might actually be the person he thinks he is. However, Steve's halfway across the world for some unimportant reason during the events of Days of Future's Past. He's not on the plane when Charles tells Erik that he wasn't there when Charles needed him. He's not there when Erik--again--chooses his principles over Charles.

And that's fine. You can't rewrite the future in Steve's brand of time travel. You live with your choices. You try to be there when people need you and you live with the consequences when you cannot.

[phocidine]

Some meta talk comparing Dsmp and Qsmp below.

The Dsmp had a lot of behind the scenes issues that led to it’s eventual downfall, but two big ones were the difficulty to get involved in lore, and boredom on the server.

Lore is built on interactions with other streamers or pre-planned moments. But for there to be interaction, there needs to be people…actually playing on the server.

And if it’s been a year on a vanilla server and a majority of people are tired of building houses and gear and new silly religions and the reason the server is still going is for LORE, then streamers are going to start only logging on for lore. And if people aren’t logging on as frequently, then there’s even less motivation to log on.

And if pre-planned lore is mostly being done by small tight knit groups of people who have already done lore together, and even within those groups there’s a lack of communication, then pre-planned lore becomes rare and lore in general is unfairly hard for new members and members who couldn’t fit their character arcs easily into the bigger ones.

And this is (in part) how you end up with a lore server where nothing is happening.

I have no idea if Quackity or the Qsmp team had the Dsmp in mind while doing this, but I think it’s fascinating how the Qsmp fights against these two issues.

Dsmp obviously didn’t have the luxury of having a pre-set up storyline because the server wasn’t originally meant to be a roleplay server, but the fact that the Qsmp has a central antagonistic force controlled by a team of non-streamers (or streamers that don’t play on the server and don’t stream minecraft at least) helps SO MUCH.

The admins are constantly giving the server members shit to do. They get egg children they need to take care of, they get puzzles, they get random attacks by codes, they get weird missions from Cucurucho, they get Lucky Ducks, they get sent to prison, they get unhelpful AIs that will flirt with them instead of giving the inside info the everyone wants.

Like The Maze is it’s own kind of misery and maybe not the most entertaining thing the admins have cranked out, but I think we all would prefer hours of the maze to streamers getting bored and avoiding the server for months until the next event.

The eggs are evil genius for keeping players on the server, lmao. I remember during the last months of the Dsmp there was talk of potentially having required amount of time to be played on the server and everyone here on Dsmpblr was joking about how that would be enforced. The Qsmp straight up did the ultimatum of “Log on long enough to do these tasks by this deadline or either your character’s child will die, OR, one of your fellow server members will be forced to pick up the slack for you and you will be at risk of being called a Shitty Parent.”

Having a team of people control the lore makes it super accesible, too. If a streamer has a lore idea, they go to the admins for it and the admins put it into context of the setting and help them out with it. Pre-planned lore still happens between streamers, but this set up puts a lot less of a burden on new members, and makes things way easier for streamers who like doing solo lore.

It also gives opportunities for members who haven’t done lore together to suddenly be in Situations. Like the egg parenting, or Cellbit getting sent to watch Jaiden do her task, or Roier, Slime and Tubbo getting randomly(?) selected to do the fever dream maze run.

Again, it’s a little unfair to compare the Dsmp to the Qsmp because the two servers are from two different times and were created with very different plans in mind. And the Qsmp still has it’s own issues, it’s not perfect. But it’s still really interesting to see what works and what doesn’t.

[jerktournament]

FINAL ROUND - GLaDOS (Portal) VS Herbert P Bear (Club Penguin)

!!! PROPAGANDA BELOW !!!

GLaDOS: "So mot only is she running your character through a series of puzzles with the intention of killing her at the end, but in the second game she spends the Entire. Time. Verbally and emotionally abusing you, including body shaming and bullying you for being an orphan. If it's any consolation, she does have to exist as a potato for the second and third acts of Portal 2."

"Known for being mean (hot). Mercilessly targets the player character's every possible insecurity. Petty and mean. I understand if you don't want to include her since she tends to dominate polls, lol."

HERBERT: "This mf spends his whole life trying to heat up a frozen island and terrorizing the innocent penguins that live on it all bc he was bad at sailing one time and is too much of a wimp to try again. Classic Misery loves Company type asshole."

"operation blackout would have been NOTHING without him (mostly because he caused it). he has a SOLAR LASER. this polar bear is an ass who literally harnessed the power of the sun and froze the top members of the elite penguin force (a group of penguin special agents) and his best friend is an equally villainous crab"

"Herbert may be a fandom darling in our fandom of like, 20 people. BUT DON'T LET THAT FOOL YOU! He is a conniving, EVIL bear, and a professional jerk and some highlights of his jerkishness include...

- Spending ten years of his life (by the time the game closed) trying to destroy the Penguin Secret Agency and Elite Penguin Force (both were agencies that protected the island from disasters and villains like Herbert) with varying success...

- SUCCESSFULLY destroyed the Penguin Secret Agency with a popcorn bomb, which destroyed their HQ. It should also be noted that while doing so, he locked in the player, Rookie, and Gary the Gadget Guy, presumably so the bombs explosion would have killed them all.

-Teamed up with the EPF to stop the Ultimate Protobot 10,000 and the Test Bots, a small group of four dangerous robots after he personally brought them back. When Protobot went "too far" for Herbert's standards by threatening the environment and trying to completely destroy the EPF (despite the aforementioned Popcorn Bomb incident literally destroying the PSA, and also a certain Operation: Blackout), causing him to temporarily switch sides. This might sound like a character growth moment...except for the fact that he immediately betrays them once Protobot is dealt with and attacks and damages the EPF's HQ using a robot hydra made for the Medieval Party that he stole.

- A canonical ex-dictator. Don't believe me? Look up Operation: Blackout on the Club Penguin Wiki! He froze several agents during his reign of terror, was open to freezing innocent civilians, and also wanted to do away with puffles- the pets of penguins. He also banned several hobbies and professions during his reign (being a Ninja, a DJ, a Pirate, etc) for no reason other than disliking them. He also destroyed the EPF'S HQ and exposed two agents' private information to the public. This means Herbert is the first and only character to canonically dox people he doesn't like on Club Penguin.

-Was planning to bomb the EPF literally two months later with a hot sauce bomb (makes sense in context of the game and yes, it is more destructive than it sounds).

-Brainwashed puffles into digging coins for him purely because his henchman, Klutzy the crab brought a coin slot to use for his DIY heater, instead of just removing the coin slot and retooling it to work without one like a normal person."

[mdzs-fics]

The Shade of Old Trees by Kryal

Action/Adventure Alternate … just Lots of Alternate, with a Modern Setting 9 of 25 chapters WIP 128k words

In his defense, Wen Yuan hadn’t planned to jump in front of a bunch of twitchy guys holding guns.

Except that his head had been full of a horrible jumble of he’s alive, he’s alive, he’s alive and they’re going to kill him…!, and the security guys had left the door open, and he hadn’t known what he was going to do beyond something but he had to do it!

“Don’t get in the way, kid!” the guy in front snapped, and oh great, Wen Yuan actually recognized him, this was the same guard who always kept trying to kick him out because high school students didn’t belong running around the university, even though no one else cared and he even had official permission to come. “He’s dangerous, he attacked Doctor Lan, move!”

“Of course he did!” Wen Yuan snapped back impatiently, not budging. “What would you do if you suddenly woke up and you’d been kidnapped by aliens?! That’s got to be how he feels right now!”

One of the other guards made a strangled noise, and the third’s lips twitched slightly. The guy in the front just spluttered – and spluttering was fine, it was even good, Wen Yuan would take it, especially when spluttering meant the guy had lowered his gun a little bit…

“…pfft…”

He blinked and looked over his shoulder. Because Yiling Laozu had just laughed. Okay, not laugh-laughing, but he knew a snicker when he heard one, and the man’s silvery-grey eyes were… he’d always thought the expression about eyes dancing was a bit of poetic license, but this time Wen Yuan was pretty sure that no other phrase would fit.

Blinking again, Wen Yuan smiled tentatively, and felt his heart squeeze a little when he got an amused grin in return. Because that wasn’t I’m in over my head and don’t know what to do, Wen Yuan knew what that looked like from Mo Xuanyu. That was this whole situation is unexpectedly hilarious.

Sputtering became a snarl. “You think this is funny, huh?!”

The next second got… confusing.

There was a pow sort of noise. Suddenly Wen Yuan wasn’t standing where he’d been, because he’d been pushed off to the side and Yiling Laozu was there instead, eyes narrowed and face hard, one arm raised with a closed fist in front of him, watching the security guard like he was one second from taking the man down hard, and Wen Yuan had a feeling he could do it…

“Su Minshan, what the hell are you doing?!”

The prologue of The Shade of Old Trees begins with the discovery of a body trapped in ice on a mountainous glacier near Yiling. Nicknamed Yiling Laozu, it soon became apparent that the body could not stay where it was. There were too many people coming to look, a whole lot more after someone released a photo. Eventually, the body is cut away from the glacier and sent to Cloud Recesses University as part of a multi-disciplinary study. The Yiling Laozu was, after all, dressed in the manner of someone from fifth or sixth century China.

As part of the team, Lan Wangji didn't expect there'd be much to do, being the "Historical Culture and Language Expert". The dead do not speak. His secondary degree in folklore … well, the Yiling Laozu did have a sword.

The Shade of Old Trees has a lot going for it. Literal time travel (via glacier). Historical mysteries. Academics and cultivation. And a small group of researchers attempting to acclimate the Yiling Laozu (ok, Wei Wuxian) to the 21st century.

Mysteries abound. Where was Wei Wuxian in historical context? Why is there no mention of the Sunshot war? Who attempted to steal the body from the lab after Wei Wuxian was secretly moved? When did cultivators go away?

This makes for both a great read and a fresh approach to the life and times of Wei Wuxian as we see him reminisce about his own past.

Names will be familiar. Wen Yuan, teenager, is on the project as Lan Wangji's assistant. Wen Qing is the medical lead. Nie Mingjue is head of security. There are other Lans involved, several Jin and at least one Yao on the project.

Wen Yuan is still in high school, and has a number of friends his age who are disappointed that his summer is going to be taken up working with a 1500-year-old body. Just wait until he finally gets to tell them about "What I did this summer".

The story is currently ongoing and started releasing chapters in December of 2023. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to reading them as they come out.

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

This post might help give more context<3

Tldr: this takes place in a someone lived/not everyone died part 5 au, where Muro, Bruno, Cherry [one of my ocs representing another group in Passione] and Risotto are negotiating the future of Passione. And i have just finalized that Muros mother and Cherrys familiy were both killed by a Passione hit man in 1991. [check my notes on this for an explanation]

-

The meeting had been a blissfully boring few hours- the highest peak of aggressions being arguments over what turned out to be a clerical error caused by people using different punctuation for decimal points and separating large numbers- at least until Cherry threw a gun onto the table.

Cherry, representing the data analysis team, was generally considered the closest to neutral of the people who sat at the negotiations table. Sure her and Muros history was lengthy, but as had been established early on, it did him no good- if anything it created a stalemate between the two as they kept each other in check, to the benefit of everyone else, revealing information about each other that anyone else could only guess at. 

The betting pool favoured Risotto as the person to attack first- a man with almost nothing to lose, who was practically dragged to the negotiating table and has a vendetta against at least half of the people sat at it- at least in the pool among Muros men- but whispers from the analysis team said Don Brunos people placed their spoils of war on him.

No-one had placed bets on Cherry.

The thunk of metal on wood was lighter than expected, either the revolver was unloaded or only had one or two bullets.

Every eye in the room was on it as it spun across the table, until it finally ran out of energy, and the barrel was left pointing, practically point blank, at where Risotto Nero sat.

“I would like to propose a game to one of your men, Nero,”

Something was wrong, even beyond the potentially loaded gun on the table, Cherry's usual cheer and dramatics having fallen away, leaving her voice deadly serious.

“This revolver has eight chambers, one of which is loaded,”

Muro chanced a look at Cherry, and something deep inside him twisted painfully at the grim look on her face, at the tremor in her voice.

“Frankly I couldnt be fucked to try and find a sixteen cylinder revolver-”

Muros heart stopped before starting hammering at his chest- he thought that gun looked familiar-

“- But two sixteenths is equal to one eighth, it’s the same chance,”

Cherry's eyes were fixed on Risottos, drilling through his head, as he stared at the gun, horror dawning on his face, horror Muro knew was all over his face as well from the eyes he could feel on him. Cherry finally broke eye contact, but avoiding Muros own stare, she shifted her gaze to survey the room.

“It turns out one of your members was in Passiones employ as a hitman, even before you yourself joined Passione, let alone started leading the the execution team- joined in fact, over a decade ago,”

Cherry drew herself up, eyes wide and glaring- the hate she had been so carefully covering up showing clearly on her face- before she spat her parting line.

“You better hope Prosciutto has better luck than your failed rebellion and his injuries implies,”

The room was left with the sound of her chair scraping against the floor and then her footsteps growing quieter. 

Red and black eyes turned to Muro, understanding and fear in the usually unflappable Risotto Nero's eyes.

“Cherry made her point clear- a one in eight chance- no bullet and we move on, a bullet and… well, I think you know what would happen,”

Muro was enjoying this, even as his stomach was churning and bloodsoaked memories flickered before his eyes.

“In face, she's being downright generous- by giving you the gun,”

It's Nero's choice- if the worst comes to light- his choice to put down one of his own men, or hand him over to Cherry or Muro’s most tender of mercies.

Don Bucciarati cleared his throat, “Meeting adjourned,”

Muro couldn't help wanting to get the last word in before he swept out of the room.

“See you next time, Nero, I for one can't wait to catch up with what's happened between now and then,”

[whack-patty]

more comic practice! Context/rambles below the cut but all u need to really know is This Is Fun

OKAY SO

idk what im doing but i'd highly recommend throwing your ocs into another universe and practice writing comics n stuff with them bc it takes the edge of "oh no this has to be perfect/presentable/make sense" off bc it just gets to be absolute nonsense bc w h o gives a frick. nobody

((Plus this was genuinely good practice for how my own ocs would handle this situation/how I want to write them WITHOUT worrying about inventing the perfect side characters/scenarios. Just a "what would Simon/Ethan do in THIS situation?" and now I feel More Confident in writing them in my own stuff. 10/10 would recommend. This is your cringe pass, dear reader, join me))

for those of you who might give a frick/be curious:

one of the Detective's main antagonists is an arsonist who attacks big fancy buildings f u l l of people, which just hAPPEN to be like the ones Buster and his troupe perform / rehearse in a lot. Making them a very bright and bubbly and fun target.

I moooost likely won't be drawing the rest of this comic bc this one in particular would just get kinda dark ((ɥqʇ ʇᴉ opɹǝʌo ʇuplnoɥs ʎllɐǝɹ ᴉ os ɥƃnouǝ ʞɹɐp ʇǝƃ ɐuuoƃ sᴉ ǝuo dɹous dǝǝus ǝɥʇ puɐ)) but if it were to keep going, Simon and Ethan would split off in two teams:

Ethan would be in charge of getting everyone OUT safely, but she knows that at this point the mystery arsonist would already have blocked off all the main exits and fire escapes, so the challenge is finding a new, safer exit. The team probably would've ended up taking some weird hidden tunnels (bc hc that no matter HOW good things get, Buster always has a backup escape/hidey hole. Tis The Way of people who have come from bad places -- they're generally prepared) and having to do a mad scrambling dash out.

BEFORE the teams split, Simon would've pulled Clay and Johnny to the side to give them some unfortunate instructions --- ideally it won't come to this, but there's a good chance their group may be attacked by someone VERY dangerous before they get out. Clay and Johnny, as the largest/toughest/most experienced with danger, would be the best bet to protect the others should worse come to worse.

Simon would split off to both call the cops, find ANYBODY who may not have been with the main group (janitors etc), and if he can, stall the Arsonist themself. ((aaaaaaaaaaaand potentially some of the more ambitious/crazy troupe members sneak back to see what the frick is going on. Nooshy I'm looking at you)) (((actually that scene might be fun to draw. potentially)))

also. Simon can speak in emojis. That's how they communicate quickly without causing panic in the people around them/alerting antagonists of their plots right away. Why can he do this? that's a ramble for another day lol

if you read this far you get a royal kiss on the hand btw thanks for indulging my madness <333

[oc-aita]

AITA for becoming my ex-best friend’s nemesis after he ditched me to join a superhero team with my bullies?

Some context. I (16F) have been best friends with this guy Gale (16M) since…forever. Our moms were in the same pregnancy support group and we went to the same kindergarten and we’ve basically been inseparable our entire lives. We’ve always been there for each other when times were tough- my dad died in a freak accident at work when I was 5 and his family really helped me and my mom, and we offered similar support when his older brother died a few years later.

I don’t want to minimise Gale’s issues but he’s lived a much more comfortable life than me. His dad is the CEO of a construction company and they have a normal sized house in a nice area (difficult to get in our city). Meanwhile my mom works 3 minimum wage jobs and barely affords the rent in our run-down apartment in the most dangerous part of town. He’s super sociable and gets along with everyone, while I’ve been bullied since the day I stepped on the playground. We’re both equally smart but teachers see him as charming while I’m the disruptor. The only real “advantage” I have is athletically. Gale was never interested in doing extracurriculars, but the 2 neighbours on our floor teach martial arts and REALLY like my mom’s cooking so I’ve been getting free Jujustu and Capoeira lessons since Elementary school. But I never really made friends in those classes so it’s always just been me and him.

Anyway a couple days after Gale’s 16th birthday he started acting wierd. He was spending less time with me, hanging out with other people and dodging the issue anytime I asked him about it. He was still friendly during school but anytime I wanted to hang out he’d say he couldn’t. I wasn’t angry, just concerned, especially since he’d been getting closer with a select few classmates who’d been especially ruthless when bullying me and often picked on him too. Eventually he relented and told me that his dad had volunteered to be the coach for the “Lacrosse team” and signed him up for practice every day after school and he had no say in it. I said it was fine and he didn’t need to hide that from me but he said he felt bad bc he couldn’t hang out as much.

I spoke with my mom about it and she said I should ask about joining the lacrosse team too if I really wanted to keep spending time with him, so I did. And it turns out the Lacrosse team was a LIE. Well it did exist, but they were using it as a cover. Turns out Gale’s dad was our city’s superhero (his name is “Tempest” and he has weather powers) and he’s been acting as his sidekick and leading some kind of young justice-esque teen supersquad with my 3 bullies. Btw, I only learned this AFTER I showed up to Lacrosse practice where I was ridiculed by them and Gale cut off our friendship entirely. Initially I was going to forgive him bc he kept giving me guilty looks at school and I figured he probably ditched me for my own safety. But then he told the bullies ABOUT MY DEAD DAD, apparently in an effort to get them to sympathise with me and leave me alone. This obviously didn’t work and now the entire school knows about my home situation and I’ve been the butt of so many hurtful jokes.

Anyway the only reason I found out Gale’s secret was because I was one of the civilians caught in the crossfire between their squad and his dad’s nemesis, some supervillain named “The Underking.” This Underking guy saved me from falling debris at some point, and I followed him back to his headquarters out of morbid curiosity. Initially he was furious and tried to get rid of me but then I learned that not only was this guy BEST FRIENDS WITH MY DAD, HE WAS THERE WHEN HE DIED AND IT WASNT AN ACCIDENT. Apparently the factory they worked at was destroyed by a supervillain, and when he went after him he learned that the guy was being paid so the building owner could commit insurance fraud. All the villains currently attacking the city were getting similar payments, and the Underking was masquerading as a bad guy to try and get in good with them and uncover who was behind it.

I begged him to let me help find out who killed my dad, and while he didn’t want to at first, I told him that I knew the secret identities of everyone in the hero squad that just defeated him and what their weaknesses were. He gave me this suit that gives me invisibility powers and now I’m an “intern” at city council because it turned out this guy was THE MAYOR.

I started this whole out of spite but working for him has actually been really nice? He’s become like a surrogate father to me; he tells me stories about my dad, his lackeys help me with my homework, and he’s been paying my mom’s rent. He’s encouraged me to put more effort into my martial arts classes; I actually started making friends with the other people there and now my mom has more money I can afford to go out and do nice things with them.

Gale, his dad, and my bullies all know I’m the Underking’s new sidekick causing mayhem around the city. I tried to hide it but I got tag-teamed a couple fights ago and they ripped my mask off. The Underking lost that fight but I sure didn’t! Seeing the fear in my bullies eyes when they realised the girl they’d been throwing in dumpsters can roundhouse kick with near-professional precision was the highlight of my week ngl. They’ve FINALLY stopped harassing me at school because of it.

Part of me still feels bad though, Gale told me that he never wanted to work with my bullies and wanted me on the team instead but his dad said no. Whenever we fight in the field it feels super personal, and he always looks super betrayed. A couple times he’s even begged me not to fight. I just can’t help but feel like he decided that being a superhero was more important to him than being my friend. But when I put it that way I feel selfish. AITA?