#(in this case the asks and posts from 2019)

[zu-is-here]

<– • –>

[quaranmine]

Missing 411 guy?

David Paulides, the guy who is the creator of "Missing 411" which is basically a conspiracy about suspicious clusters of people going missing in National Parks in the United States. He is also the bane of my existence for the past year as someone who is researching a story about someone who goes missing in a National Forest.

To start with, if you've ever been even on the fringes of "irl spooky stuff" videos on YouTube, you might have encountered this. There are a lot of youtubers and podcasters who cover this guy's content without understanding What and Who they are giving platform to. Sometimes, people don't even mention him but will relate the cases that he covers in his books or use the same conspiracy points as him. I would not be suprised if you watched a Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher video (which are fine btw) and then got recommended something related to Missing 411 in the sidebar since it's a similar genre. It's super popular to the point where its outgrown its creator. I can't stress enough that many of you have probably encountered this content, at least in passing, without knowing what it was.

So to recap, Missing 411 documents cases of real-life people who have disappeared or been found dead in national parks, national forests, etc and claims that these cases are unusual and mysterious. It frequently talks about missing person "clusters" and things like that. There is often an overt, if not outrightly stated, implication that something supernatural, crpytid, or UFO/alien related was involved. For starters, David Paulides has written a ton of books trying to prove the existence of bigfoot. Now, I have no issues with people believing in bigfoot, or cryptids, or aliens, but I do have an issue with people co-opting real life tragedies and twisting information to push this as conspiracy. I simply do not think it is helpful or respectful to talk about missing and dead people (and children!) like this. Also, with the high prices of his books ($100-200) he just reeks of grifter to me.

To me, Missing 411 "criteria" is a stretch at best. You will see cases "mysteriously" connected because both of these people wore red when they went missing. Both these people's bodies were found near water (as if many National Park do not have water features.) Both these people's bodies were found near granite rocks (like, the most common rock type in mountains lol.) All these cases involve the weather turning bad! (um, yeah, that's a big reason why people get in trouble?) He frequently claims that bodies being undressed is highly unusual, without ever acknowledging paradoxical undressing. Or he claims laughably weak connections between people like "these two women who went missing in different years are connected because they both had three letter names that started with A." I haven't personally listened to this talk but there is a data scientist mentioned in his Wikipedia page who examined the case data and found nothing out of the ordinary in them. If you don't want to watch a video (I don't either right now) then he also wrote this article. From a different person, this article from a podcast is also good.

David Paulides does not present Missing 411 cases with accuracy. He has been known to cherry-pick data and purposefully omit data to make them seem more unusual. Many cases he covers are either already solved, or have extensive information available. He does not retract information or admit when he is wrong. Even if he does present a particular case accurately, he has such a bad track record with reliable research that he cannot be trusted as a source. There used to be someone on reddit who would deconstruct cases he covered. In this post they found several instances of cases of Paulides missing sources and coming to incorrect conclusions.

Note there's a few differences in the sources I just linked. The data scientist and podcast skeptic both said they found the data to be accurate, while the redditors have found evidence to the contrary. The data scientist also says he found Paulides' presentation of information respectful, but I personally find all of this highly disrespectful. But despite these differences I think we can all agree....the claims of Missing 411 are pretty ridiculous.

Also, let's talk about David Paulides himself. Before becoming a writer, he was a cop in California. He was a cop who was fired for corruption (well that's hard to do), because he was caught soliciting donations for a fake charity he set up. That's straight from his Wikipedia page. He continues to use his past as a "dectective" to attempt to make his claims sound more reliable. There was also a redditor who pulled up some other career highlights from when he was a cop in the 80s, by looking at court transcripts and news articles. His job used to be entrap gay men by pretending to be gay, getting them to invite him home with them, and then arresting then. He and his unit were also accused of police brutality many times in the 80s, with Paulides testifying in defense of his unit. And he has not changed btw, he's a Qanon stolen election covid denier type of nut right now on his YouTube channel (according to reddit. I am not watching this man's videos.) So yeah, I think his character speaks for itself.

Anyway, I'm tired of hearing about this guy and seeing 411 related content pop up around YouTube, Reddit, Tiktok, etc. Pay attention if you watch things related to "creepy and unexplained real life disappearnaces." I do not think he is a good person, I do not think he can be trusted, and I do not think that his work actually benefits the families of the missing persons in question. These are real people. He turns them into spectacles to push ~unusual~ circumstances and paranormal activity.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Happy Public Domain Day 2025 to all who celebrate

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/17/dastar-dly-deeds/#roast-in-piss-sonny-bono

In 1976, Congress set fire to the country's libraries; in 1998, they did it again. Today, in 2024, the flames have died down, and out of the ashes a new public domain is growing. Happy Public Domain Day 2025 to all who celebrate!

For most of US history, copyright was something you had to ask for. To copyright a work, you'd send a copy to the Library of Congress and they'd issue you a copyright. Not only did that let you display a copyright mark on your work – so people would know they weren't allowed to copy it without your permission – but if anyone wanted to figure out who to ask in order to get permission to copy or adapt a work, they could just go look up the paperwork at the LoC.

In 1976, Congress amended the Copyright Act to eliminate the "formality" of copyright registration. Now, all creative works of human authorship were copyrighted "at the moment of fixation" – the instant you drew, typed, wrote, filmed, or recorded them. From a toddler's nursery-school finger-painting to a graffiti mural on a subway car, every creative act suddenly became an article of property.

But whose property? That was on you to figure out, before you could copy, publish, perform, or preserve the work, because without registration, permissions had to start with a scavenger hunt for the person who could grant it. Congress simultaneously enacted a massive expansion of property rights, while abolishing the title registry that spelled out who owned what. As though this wasn't enough, Congress reached back in time and plopped an extra 20 years' onto the copyrights of existing works, even ones whose authors were unknown and unlocatable.

For the next 20 years, creative workers, archivists, educators and fans struggled in the face of this regime of unknowable property rights. After decades of well-documented problems, Congress acted again: they made it worse.

In 1998, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Act, AKA the Mickey Mouse Preservation Act, AKA the Copyright Term Extension Act. The 1998 Act tacked another 20 years onto copyright terms, but not just for works that were still in copyright. At the insistence of Disney, Congress actually yanked works out of the public domain – works that had been anthologized, adapted and re-issued – and put them back into copyright for two more decades. Copyright stretched to the century-plus "life plus 70 years" term. Nothing entered the public domain for the next 20 years.

So many of my comrades in the fight for the public domain were certain that this would happen again in 2018. In 2010, e-book inventor and Project Gutenberg founder Michael S Hart and I got into a friendly email argument because he was positive that in 2018, Congress would set fire to the public domain again. When I insisted that there was no way this could happen given the public bitterness over the 1998 Act, he told me I was being naive, but said he hoped that I was right.

Michael didn't live to see it, but in 2019, the public domain opened again. It was an incredible day:

https://archive.org/details/ClosingKeynoteForGrandReopeningOfThePublicDomainCoryDoctorowAtInternetArchive

No one has done a better job of chronicling the fortunes of our fragile, beautiful, bounteous public domain than Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle of Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Every year from 2010-2019, Boyle and Jenkins chronicled the works that weren't entering the public domain because of the 1998 Act, making sure we knew what had been stolen from our cultural commons. In so many cases, these works disappeared before their copyrights expired, for example, the majority of silent films are lost forever.

Then, in 2019, Jenkins and Boyle got to start cataloging the works that were entering the public domain, most of them from 1923 (copyright is complicated, so not everything that entered the public domain in 2019 was from that year):

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2019/

Every year since, they've celebrated a new bumper crop. Last year, we got Mickey Mouse!

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/15/mouse-liberation-front/#free-mickey

In addition to numerous other works – by Woolf, Hemingway, Doyle, Christie, Proust, Hesse, Milne, DuBois, Frost, Chaplin, Escher, and more:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/20/em-oh-you-ess-ee/#sexytimes

Now, 2024 was a fantastic year for the public domain, but – as you'll see in the 2025 edition of the Public Domain Day post – 2025 is even better:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2025/

So what's entering the public domain this year? Well, for one thing, there's more of the stuff from last year, which makes sense: if Hemingway's first books entered the PD last year, then this year, we'll the books he wrote next (and this will continue every year until we catch up with Hemingway's tragic death).

There are some big hits from our returning champions, like Woolf's To the Lighthouse and A Farewell to Arms from Hemingway. Jenkins and Boyle call particular attention to one book: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, its title taken from a public domain work by Shakespeare. As they write, Faulkner spoke eloquently about the nature of posterity and culture:

[Humanity] is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance…The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

The main attraction on last year's Public Domain Day was the entry of Steamboat Willie – the first Mickey Mouse cartoon – into the public domain. This year, we're getting a dozen new Mickey cartoons, including the first Mickey talkie:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse_(film_series)#1929

Those 12 shorts represent a kind of creative explosion for the Disney Studios. Those early Mickey cartoons were, each and every one, a hybrid of new copyrighted works and the public domain. The backbone of each Mickey short was a beloved, public domain song, with Mickey's motion synched to the beat (animators came to call this "mickey mousing"). In 1929, there was a huge crop of public domain music that anyone could use this way:

Blue Danube, Pop Goes the Weasel, Yankee Doodle, Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, Ach Du Lieber Augustin, Listen to the Mocking Bird, A-Hunting We Will Go, Dixie, The Girl I Left Behind Me, a tune known as the snake charmer song, Coming Thru the Rye, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Auld Lang Syne, Aloha ‘Oe, Turkey in the Straw, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean, Habanera and Toreador Song from Carmen, Lizst’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and Goodnight, Ladies.

These were recent compositions, songs that were written and popularized in the lifetimes of the parents and grandparents who took their kids to the movies to see Mickey shorts like "The Barn Dance," "The Opry House" and "The Jazz Fool." The ability to plunder this music at will was key to the success of Mickey Mouse and Disney. Think of all the Mickeys and Disneys we've lost by locking up the public domain for the past half-century!

This year, we're getting some outstanding new old music for our public domain. The complexities of copyright terms mean that compositions from 1929 are entering the public domain, but we're only getting recordings from 1924. 1924's outstanding recordings include:

George Gershwin performing Rhapsody in Blue, Jelly Roll Morton playing Shreveport Stomp, and an early recording from contralto and civil rights icon Marian Anderson, who is famous for her 1939 performance to an integrated audience of over 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson’s 1924 recording is of the spiritual Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.

While the compositions include Singin' in the Rain, Ain't Misbehavin', An American in Paris, Bolero, (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, Happy Days Are Here Again, What Is This Thing Called, Love?, Am I Blue? and many, many more.

On the art front, we're getting Salvador Dali's earliest surrealist masterpieces, like Illumined Pleasures, The Accommodations of Desire, and The Great Masturbator. Dali's contemporaries are not so lucky: after a century, the early history of the works of Magritte are so muddy that it's impossible to say whether they are in or out of copyright.

But there's plenty of art with clearer provenance that we can welcome into the public domain this year, most notably, Popeye and Tintin. As the first Popeye and Tintin comics go PD, so too do those characters.

The idea that a fictional character can have a copyright separate from the stories they appear in is relatively new, and it's weird and very stupid. Courts have found that the Batmobile is a copyrightable character (Batman won't enter the public domain until 2035).

Copyright for characters is such a muddy, gross, weird idea. The clearest example of how stupid this gets comes from Sherlock Holmes, whose canon spans many years. The Doyle estate – a rent-seeking copyright troll – claimed that Holmes wouldn't enter the public domain until every Holmes story was in the public domain (that's this year, incidentally!).

This didn't fly, so their next gambit was to claim copyright over those aspects of Holmes's character that were developed later in the stories. For example, they claimed that Holmes didn't show compassion until the later stories, and, on that basis, sued the creators of the Enola Holmes TV show for depicting a gender-swapped Sherlock who wasn't a total dick:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/dec/22/lawsuit-copyright-warmer-sherlock-holmes-dismissed-enola-holmes

As the Enola lawyers pointed out in their briefs, this was tantamount to a copyright over emotions: "Copyright law does not allow the ownership of generic concepts like warmth, kindness, empathy, or respect, even as expressed by a public domain character – which, of course, belongs to the public, not plaintiff."

When Mickey entered the public domain last year, Jenkins did an excellent deep dive into which aspects of Mickey's character and design emerged when:

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/mickey/

Jenkins uses this year's entry of Tintin and Popeye into the public domain to further explore the subject of proprietary characters.

Even though copyright extends to characters, it only covers the "copyrightable" parts of those characters. As the Enola lawyers wrote, the generic character traits (their age, emotional vibe, etc) are not protected. Neither is anything "trivial" or "minuscule" – for example, if a cartoonist makes a minor alteration to the way a character's pupils or eyes are drawn, that's a minor detail, not a copyrightable element.

The biggest impediment to using public domain characters isn't copyright, it's trademark. Trademark is very different from copyright: foundationally, trademark is the right to protect your customers from being deceived by your competitors. Coke can use trademark to stop Pepsi from selling its sugary drinks in Coke cans – not because it owns the word "Coke" or the Coke logo, but because it has been deputized to protect Coke drinkers from being tricked into buying not-Coke, thinking that they're getting the true Black Waters of American Imperialism.

Companies claim trademarks over cartoon characters all the time, and license those trademarks on food, clothing, toys, and more (remember Popeye candy cigarettes?).

Indeed, Hearst Holdings claims a trademark over Popeye in many traditional categories, like cartoons, amusement parks, ads and clothes. They're also in the midst of applying for a Popeye NFT trademark (lol).

Does that mean you can't use Popeye in any of those ways? Nope! All you need to do is prominently mention that your use of Popeye is unofficial, not associated with Hearst, and dispel any chance of confusion. A unanimous Supreme Court decision (in Dastar) affirm your right to do so. You can also use Popeye in the title of your unauthorized Popeye comic, thanks to a case called Rogers v Grimaldi.

This all applies to Tintin, too – a big deal, given that Tintin is managed by a notorious copyright bully who delights in cruelly terrorizing fan artists. Tintin is joined in the public domain by Buck Rogers, another old-timey character whose owners are scumbag rent-seekers.

Congress buried the public domain alive in 1976, and dumped a load of gravel over its grave in 1998, but miraculously, we've managed to exhume the PD, and it has been revived and is showing signs of rude health.

2024 saw the blockbuster film adaptation of Wicked, based on the public domain Oz books. It also saw the publication of James, a celebrated retelling of Twain's Huck Finn from the perspective of Huck's enslaved sidekick.

This is completely normal. It's how art was made since time immemorial. The 40 year experiment in life without a public domain is at an end, and not a minute too soon.

You can piece together a complete-as-possible list of 2025's public domain (including the Marx Brothers' Cocoanuts, Disney's Skeleton Dance, and Del Ruth's Gold Diggers of Broadway) here:

https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/

[ms-demeanor]

I got called into a meeting in January where people were very delicately trying to figure out how we were going to tell the client that their environment uses WinServer 2022 but the licenses we had purchased were 2025 so we either needed to update their whole system or return the licenses and purchase the correct version and I was like????????

You don't tell them that because it's not true?

Windows Server has downgrade rights. Just install 2022.

Because there was so much consternation about this that last week I searched around for definitive instructions from Microsoft and came to a subreddit where someone posted a downgrade rights document for 2022 but said the 2025 ones hadn't been released yet. When I searched the name of the 2022 document on Microsoft's site I found an updated 2025 document and later dropped the link in the thread in case anyone else came looking (forum rules; pay it forward). Then I sent the PDF and info about the downgrade rights to the head of the team working on that server.

Today, one of our other techs, Sam, asked me if she could reach out to the vendor to get 2022 licenses for the same user and I was like??????? I gave Brad the PDF???? Again, you can just downgrade, ask Mike from the socal office, he's done it before. And she said "no you can only downgrade OEM licenses" and I said "go to your meeting and i'll ask Mike to reach out to you."

Mike was on the phone so I pinged another guy and asked "hey you've done downgrades from like 2022 to 2019 before, right?" and he said "No, but I could figure it out." And I was like, "yeah, the team working on that server could use a hand." And he said, "here, give them this" and it was a link to a microsoft answers thread that insists that you can only downgrade OEM licenses and is incorrect in other ways (it only gives instructions on how to downgrade OEM, but then talks about VLSC licenses? VLSC has been gone for ages it's been CSP for like five years; clearly what Sam had been looking at though).

And I rolled my eyes and sighed and was like "fine, what chat did i put that fucking pdf in" when my coworker goes "Oh, actually, 2025 has downgrade rights" and links me to my own fucking reddit comment.

[gojover]

i was debating making this post for a long, long time, because i don’t like getting political on a fandom space, but as an indian, i felt the need to talk about this. i can’t engage in fandom content without feeling deeply guilty & worried for all the soldiers and innocent lives already lost and at stake, so here’s a brief masterpost to spread awareness about what’s going on in jammu & kashmir at the moment.

i have linked all my sources, and have aimed to be as unbiased as possible. if you find any discrepancies or inaccuracies, please don’t hesitate to tell me so that i can edit accordingly.

before i get into any of the actual details, i want to talk about what triggered this entire conflict between india and pakistan: the pahalgam attack, which took place on april 22, 2025.

(it’s also worth knowing that the india vs pakistan conflict over J&K is not something that was caused by this isolated incident; there are decades of history between the two countries dating back to the partition of india. you can read briefly about it here.)

the pahalgam attack was an attack on 26 tourists by five armed militants in a popular tourist destination known as baisaran valley (located in india-administered kashmir), which is surrounded by dense pine forest and is only accessible by foot or horseback.

the militants singled out the men & asked for their religion, before shooting the hindu and christian tourists. the attackers also asked some tourists to recite the islamic kalima to identify non-muslims. of the 26 people killed, 25 were tourists and one was a local muslim pony ride operator who tried to wrestle a gun from the attackers before being shot. the tourists included several newlywed couples, and the men were shot point-blank in front of their wives.

some hindu men were forced to remove their trousers to check for a lack of circumcision before being shot at close range. the militants also told some hindu women that they were spared so that they could narrate the horrors of their mens’ killing to the prime minister of india, narendra modi.

the national investigation agency (NIA) formally took over the pahalgam terrorist attack case on april 27. the lashkar-e-taiba proxy the resistance front (TRF), claimed responsibility for the attack.

in retaliation to the pahalgam attack, india launched operation sindoor on may 6, 2025.

the indian armed forces carried out precision strikes at around 1 am on terror infrastructure in pakistan and pakistan-occupied kashmir (PoK). nine sites were targeted, and each were selected because they had a history of association with major terror plots and infiltration attempts against india (such as the 2001 parliament attack, the 2019 pulwama attack, and the 26/11 mumbai attacks). no pakistani military facilities were targeted, as stated during the press briefing on may 7.

you can read about the nine sites & why they were targeted here.

as an additional note, it is worth noting that the central government directed all states and union territories to conduct mock drills on may 7 across 244 categorised civil defence districts in the event of a hostile attack.

following the indian attacks on may 7, pakistan resorted to unprovoked artillery shelling across the line of control (LoC), resulting in 13 casualties, with the poonch sector in jammu being the worst hit. this is not the first time pakistan has violated the LoC ceasefire agreement.

as of the time of writing, several cities/districts present on the border of the two countries have been facing blackouts. this comes as a counter-offensive against pakistani drones and missiles which violated the indian airspace several times over the entire western border with the intent of targeting indian military facilities along the western and northern frontiers. however, india was able to neutralise this attempt to hit military stations in jammu and other locations.

tl;dr: this thread on x offers a more concise version of the same events.

the main reason i wanted to make this post is because i saw this post on x and had to take a minute to recover because. genuinely what the actual fuck. in my opinion, a caucasian british person should be the last person speaking up on this matter. the selective activism and hypocrisy is glaringly obvious.

edit: here are a few more resources that provided good insights into what’s happening

articles on the pahalgam attack and its immediate aftermath: one two three

regarding the TRF statement: one

more articles about india/pakistan escalating the war: one two three

posts about what’s been happening in azad kashmir: one two

how to download tiktok (if you’re indian): here

please take the time to read through these and educate yourselves if you’re unaware of what the conflict is about.

[mitchipedia]

Yep, I'm faceblind

Faceblindness, technically called prosopagnosia, is the inability to recognize faces. I think I first learned about this condition in 2019, in this Washington Post article, and I said, “Yes, that’s me!” I often fail to recognize people I’ve met before.

Lately I’ve been second-guessing my self-diagnosis. While I often fail to recognize people, that is usually not the case. Usually I do recognize folks.

Last week, I listened to this interesting episode of the Revisionist History podcast, which talked about faceblindness and its opposite — super-recognizers, with extraordinary ability to remember the faces of people they’ve met once briefly, or even just seen in a photograph for a few seconds years before.

The podcast shownotes included two links to tests for faceblindness:

troublewithfaces.org Cambridge Face Memory Test

The first test asked questions about my opinion of how well I recognize faces. I scored 65. The test result said that people who score below 70 may have “developmental prosopagnosia” (whatever that is). I considered this test non-definitive.

When I took the second test, holy crap did I score terribly!

The test was in two rounds. The first round showed dozens of faces of people who appeared to be white men, with their hair and ears cropped away from the photos. This is important because faceblind people often look at hairstyles and ear shape as clues for facial recognition. All the men had approximately the same skin color — again, skin color being another gross clue that faceblind people can use to identify faces.

The first batch of photos showed one face at a time, three views — full face, turned a little to the left and a little to the right. I concentrated on the shapes of the chins. One face had a cleft chin, another a pointy chin, another a round chin, another seemed to have a featureless chin.

I thought I maybe did OK on that round of questions.

The second round of photos was different.

For each of the second round, the test showed six of those hairless, earless faces, and asked me to memorize them. Then, the test showed three faces, and asked me to pick the one that had appeared in the previous array of photos.

After going through one or two of those questions, I grinned, because I had absolutely no idea which face appeared in the previous series. The faces did appear different from each other. But I was unable to fix in my mind how they were different. The instant the faces disappeared from the screen, the visual memory of those faces disappeared from my mind. I was guessing entirely at random.

The results page told me that the average score on the test was 80%. A score of 60% or lower “may indicate facebliindness,” the test results page said. My score was 35%.

I am weirdly pleased and proud of this. If I’m going to fail a test, I want to fail spectacularly badly.

So how is it that I am able to recognize faces most of the time? The same way everybody with faceblindness does: Contextual clues. I remember hairstyles, height, build, glasses, skin color, people’s habitual clothing styles. Facial blemish.

Location is a big clue. If I’m expecting to see a person in a particular location and time, I can usually recognize that person.

The other day, I arrived at a dinner in a private room of a local restaurant. I was early — the second person there. I instantly recognized the person who arrived before me. I recognized her skin color, complexion, the shape of her face, her hairstyle. In a social group where many of us wear T-shirts, she is usually dressed nicely — that was a big clue. And she was one of a half-dozen people I expected to attend that dinner. I recognized her easily and greeted her warmly.

Now imagine the same restaurant, if I did not expect to see this woman. Same woman, dressed the same. She recognizes me and greets me — and that’s probably going to be the way it happens, because I am probably not going to recognize her if I am not expecting to see her. In that circumstance, as we talk, I might recognize her voice, which is distinctive. I’ll pick up on clues like her dress, hairstyle, shape of her face, height and so on. Likely she’ll drop a hint in the conversation by mentioning the community association we’re both on the board of. Given that information, I can often recognize a person. And maybe she doesn’t drop that hint, and we talk for a few minutes and then Julie asks me who she was and I say, “I have no idea.”

How do I cope with the disability of faceblindness?

I deal. It’s all I know. It’s not a disability at all. I have led a successful, even privileged life. I have my compensation mechanisms and I do fine.

On the other hand, I have been an introvert my whole life, and have strugged with that, and I think my faceblindness has something to do with that.

But as far as I know, there is nothing I can do about being faceblind, so I live with it and am grateful for my many other blessings.

[rassicas]

QUESTION, how do Inkfish have milk/milk flavoured things if there are no mammals to produce it? And if they synthesized the milk, how would they know that its nutritional? Or that it can be made into cheese/yogurt?

Even if theyre using oats or nuts to make milk substitues, i dont think those can be used to make other dairy products right? Idk im not a biologist

for this ask i thought about just linking the wikipedia pages for plant milk and vegan cheese or the video where i touch on this topic and leaving it at that, but i thought that would come off as too passive aggressive and i dont like that with how often i see this question floating around still i think its worth going into a bit more so i can just link this post in case anyone ever asks again.

“One thing we know about the world of Splatoon is that mammals are basically gone,” said Nogami, seated across from me in a small room behind Nintendo’s booth. “So they don’t eat beef or pork or the meat of mammals.” With Splatoon 2 playing on a screen, Nogami walked his Inkling over to a corner in Inkopolis square where a bright ad played for cereal. A crab chowed down on a bowl of milky carbs. “There’s no mammals, so whatever is being poured over the cereal might not be milk,” Nogami laughed. Hm. Okay. So what do Inklings eat? “Veggies, birds, fish,” said Nogami. “Some bread.” -- What do Squid Kids Eat? Splatoon’s Producer Explains

So the facts are: -Mammals are basically gone (excluding Judds/Grizz) -They drink milk that isn't real milk -There are crops cultivated in the Inkling world The obvious conclusion is that they use plant-based substitutes. there are a few questions that could spawn from this.... Q1: a bunch of stuff went extinct in the splatoon world. what kind of dairy substitutes could they use exactly? A: canonically, inklings have a variety of rice and soy-based products. a few types of nuts are confirmed to exist. they eat coconuts too. you can make milk out of all of these, as well as other dairy products like cheese and yogurt. They're not limited to plants either...

i swear everyone ive shown the left image goes like EWWW THEY EAT INK but like. squid ink is edible in real life. i dont get why this is weird?? nobody said ewww at the squiddymelon which i imagine would absorb ink to change colors like that. the concept that inklings figured out Ink-based dairy products is fucking awesome. anyways Q2: how did they figure this out? A: I think the answer can be found by looking into the history of plant milks in our world. Humans have been making and consuming plant based milks like soy and almond milk for centuries. the consumption of coconut milk goes back millennia. plant based cheeses are not as old, but still go back a hundred or so years. a lot of other dairy substitutes emerged in the past 50 years. Inklings figured out plastics, fish egg energy, and computers, surely at some point in their 2000+ year history, they figured out plant-based milks, cheeses, and yogurts. It's also possible that recipes from the human era survived. maybe they learned about dairy products that way. oh wait isn't there a sunken scroll about human era recipes?

yes There's also a non-zero chance that Judd could've taught the inklings about the human era and their food. The other question i can think of is... Q3: is there any specific mention of a plant based substitute being used instead of a mammalian product in splatoon? A: yes<3

In 2019 there was JP only splatfest, pineapple vs. no pineapple. It's about whether you put pineapple on subuta (japanese sweet and sour pork.) (i dont have strong opinions on pineapple, but the subuta at gyoza no osho. bro it will make me hurt myself and others. literally licking the fucking plate its so yummy. anyways.) Now pigs are extinct. How would pearl and marina have opinions on a pork dish?

「だな！ アタシんちの古い書庫で見つけたレシピで ロブに作ってもらったやつだろ？」 「豚という生き物が 絶滅しちゃってるから 大豆とかで代用した 「酢豚風」でしたけどね♪」 Pearl: "That's the recipe you found in the old archives at my place, and Crusty Sean made it for you, right?" Marina: "Yeah, though since those creatures called pigs are extinct, he substituted it for soy and some other things to make a "subuta-style" dish~ "

this is the only thing i have seen that confirms plant-based substitutes being used for mammal meat in splatoon's setting. i learned of this just recently and i was SO happy this was confirmed somewhere<3 I think this gives a lot of weight to the idea that they'd use soy milk and other soy-based dairy products.

[hkthatgffan]

The Flamebel Mystery!

Now, I'm sure you all know who this is. That is of course, Flamebel from Gravity Falls Lost Legends. Appearing only in the story "Don't Dimension It," she's become arguably the most iconic and remembered of the alternate Mabel's we see in that story (aside from Anti-Mabel of course).

However, this is NOT Flamebel! You might already know this, but in case you don't or forgot, given how many years it's been (just like I did), then you should know that this Mabel was NEVER referred to as Flamebel at any point within Lost Legends. If you read through DDI, she's never mentioned in name. Of all the alternate Mabel's that helped Mabel defeat Anti-Mabel, she was the only one who didn't have her name be stated in the story.

I looked over LL again and sure enough, nowhere in the DDI is she referred to as Flamebel. But okay, there's a Barnes and Noble edition of Lost Legends where we see the names of all the Mabel's in Dimension MA-B3L. Surely in it there will be a name for her and it would be Flamebel. Well, not every Mabel in that page was given an official name and surprise, surprise...neither was this Mabel...

In fact, she isn't even the same Mabel here! "Flamebel" didn't even exist in this original line art of the page. She was added in later and neither her or the Mabel that used to be there was named.

So, that brings up an interesting question; Where did the name Flamebel come from if it was never her official name?

Having been in the fandom back when lost Legends came out, I do have some theories. And it starts with this fanart that was posted in 2018 by turquoisespace35.

In Turquoise's post, which was made on August 14th, 2018, she refers to this Mabel as "Flamebel." This was the oldest mention of the name that I remember. And given Turquoise back in 2018 was one of the most popular GF fan artists at the time, it's possible her post helped popularize the name, given it got over 3K notes on Tumblr and also likes of that same amount on Instagram, as well as over 300 favourites on Deviantart.

However, in my research, I found some older posts that may have been where the name initially came from. For one, found this now deleted post from a user named korla-the-kenku that was made on August 2nd, 2018. In it, they list their favourite Mabel's and among them, is our mystery fire Mabel under the name of Flamebel.

I did also consider asking Kiki-Kit; the artist who worked on Don't Dimension It, about Flamebel and if she knows how the character came to be and if that was her name at any point, but uh...for obvious reasons...that was out of the question...

But then, I found what was the oldest post I could at least find during my own research, that used the Flamebel name. And it was this piece of fanart that was posted on July 28, 2018 (4 days after Lost Legends came out), that was made by hntrgurl13.

In the post, she refers to this Mabel as Flamebel. But what's more intriguing is the fact that she made this for an ask question and in it, the anon refers to her as "🔥Mabel," which suggests that before this post was made, the name Flamebel was not what she was known as.

Like Turquoise, hntrgurl13 was a pretty active and popular artist in the GF fandom back in 2018 when Lost Legends came out. And while her post of Flamebel only had a little over 650 notes compared to the 3K Turquoise had, her post is the oldest I could find that uses the Flamebel name.

It's possible there are older posts out there or now deleted ones that use the name, but as far as I can tell, hntrgurl13's post was the first one to use it. I did find this post on Reddit of Flamebel art dating to July 27th, 2018. However, given the OP posted it in May 2019, I can't tell if they referred to her as Flamebel then or added the name in based on the fact that was by that point the name she was most referred to as.

I also found this post hntrgurl13 reblogged on the same day in July, from a now deleted user that talks about Flamebel and while the name isn't used, it could be where she got the question asked to her from that made her post the art where she first used the name. I also found this fanart of Flamebel (but not using that name) posted on July 28th too by Pitopishi; the artist who worked on the story Face It in Lost Legends. But uh...for obvious reasons there too...I don't think there's any chance of asking them about Flamebel either (why did both Lost Legends fan artists have to screw up big time?).

My theory therefore is that hntrgurl13 was the one who came up with the Flamebel name while posting that fanart for the ask she got. From there, given her popularity in the fandom at the time, the post got the name to be used more. Eventually, artists like Turquoise used the name in her viral post and that caused it to stick. Plus, with how wholesome and on point of a name it is to the theme of that Mabel, it worked and people probably didn't bother to realize that wasn't her official name.

I did reach out to hntrgurl13 to ask her about it, but she never got back to me. So, I can't say for certain if she made the name up or heard it from someone else, but it seems she was the first or at least oldest remaining person to use the name that I could find a record of.

At the end of the day, does this all matter? Of course not. I'm not trying to say we shouldn't refer to this Mabel as Flamebel cause even I love the name and think it's super wholesome and on point for her. Alex never bothered giving her a canonical name but the fandom did and she became legendary through it.

But what is funny is how the name became so common place that so many of us, including me, thought it was her canon name and was what was written in Lost Legends itself. I didn't even realize that wasn't the case till a few days ago when someone asked me about where the name originated from and I realized, "Oh...she's never officially been called Flamebel!"

I used to think the Mandela effect wasn't as prominent as it often gets talked about as being. But even I believed for a good while that Flamebel was really this Mabel's name and was in Lost Legends...only to realize that was never the case.

I guess it goes to show; even when you think you know the source of something, you may be wrong. So, always work to make sure what you believe really is based on solid fact. Whether it be something you hear on the news in this divisive world we live in, or just verifying if a character name fans use really is that character's real name.

At the end of the day though...I just hope like we see in this wholesome fanart that mischieflily made for the Epilogue fanzine for Lost Legends, Flamebel finally got to canonically reunite with her Dipper ❤️

And that, was the Mystery of Flamebel; the Lost legends Mabel that Gravity Falls fans named themselves!

[jeonscatalyst]

Sometimes I think about Jungkook’s NJ Vlive in 2019 and laugh about the fact that both Jikookers and taekookers think that Live was the ultimate prove of their ship. I mean why on earth do taekookers think that Live proved their ship in anyway when it was all Jikook lol.

Anyways. You once said you were going to talk about that Live (and others) in detail. Could you please elaborate on it? I would love to read your thoughts about the Live😊

Hi anon,

Sorry it took me almost forever to get to your ask. I’ve had a crazy couple of weeks lol.

I promised to discuss a few V Lives, either featuring Jikook or all the members together, that I found significant. Let’s begin with the most intriguing one, Jungkook’s New Jersey V Live from May 2019.

Before diving into the specifics of this Live, I’d like to point out an issue that many shippers, particularly Taekookers in this case, tend to have: they rarely consider the full context of moments, both before and after, and instead focus on fragments that suit their narrative. A reasonable person watching this Live along with the preceding one would not categorize it as a Taekook Live. To me, this V Live is one of the most defining moments that highlights the nature of Jimin and Jungkook’s bond. Below, I’ll elaborate on why I believe this, using tangible evidence that connects the dots effortlessly, rather than baseless speculations like “voices in the background,” imaginary snores, or random household sounds with no supporting proof.

Understanding the full context is key, so let’s start with Jin’s Live, which took place earlier that day.

JIN’S VLIVE

The Live begins with Jin sitting alone in his hotel room, eating and chatting with ARMY. Around the 10:00, Jimin rings the doorbell. Jin answers, and Jimin enters wearing a plain white t-shirt and black pants while carrying food. This detail will become relevant later.

Jimin sits down and starts eating with Jin while chatting. At approximately 13:35 minute mark, Jimin mentions that he planned to quietly sit on the side, watch Jin’s Live, and leave, a detail that will also matter later.

Around the 18:00 minute mark, they discuss their hotel room sizes. Jin mentioned that he heard Jimin’s room is bigger than his, to which Jimin replies that the rooms are similar in structure but adds that Jungkook’s room is the biggest. This, too, will be important later.

At 30:30, Jin wipes his sweat, jokingly asks if Jimin likes the shirt he’s wearing, and then wipes his hand on Jimin’s shirt. Jimin laughs and says, “This is why I don’t wear my own clothes when I visit Jin’s room.” This playful interaction will also tie into later events.

The Live continues with lighthearted eating and chatting until the doorbell rings. Both Jin and Jimin laugh mischievously before abruptly ending the broadcast, leaving fans wondering who was at the door.

Shortly after, Jungkook starts his own V Live. Before diving into it, it’s worth mentioning that Jimin posted a video on Twitter confirming that it was Jungkook who rang the doorbell. He was upset (though not seriously) that Jin and Jimin ended their Live before he could join, which prompted him to start his own.

Jungkook starts his own Live.

In the opening seconds of Jungkook’s Live, around 17 seconds in, we can hear what sounds like a cough or sigh before Jungkook pans the camera, revealing Jimin seated on the bed. It’s important to note that Jungkook started the Live with Jimin out of view, and had Jimin not made a sound, we might never have known he was in the room.

This connects to Jimin’s earlier comment in Jin’s Live about quietly sitting in the background. The one mentioned above. It suggests that Jimin has likely done this on multiple occasions, sitting silently in members’ rooms during Lives without fans noticing. This isn’t mere speculation…it’s behavior Jimin himself has confirmed. Therefore, it’s not far-fetched to think that during past Jungkook Lives where fans speculated about sounds or movements, it could very well have been Jimin quietly present in the room.

During Jungkook’s Live, it’s evident that he’s lightly annoyed at Jimin and Jin for ending their Live before he arrived. Jimin tries to apologize, but there’s a noticeable tension in the room, especially when Jimin leans closer to Jungkook around the 53-second mark. Jungkook’s unease becomes apparent as he starts fidgeting—touching things, adjusting lights, licking his lips, scratching his nose (though clearly without an itch), and avoiding eye contact with Jimin.

This kind of nervous energy doesn’t align with the dynamic of simple friendship, in my opinion. Around 1:25, there’s an awkwardly charged moment where Jungkook appears to peek into Jimin’s shirt. Jimin notices and immediately begins rubbing his chest while saying something only the two of them seem to understand. The interaction feels intimate and loaded with subtext.

Jungkook’s uneasiness isn’t the kind you’d associate with discomfort or dislike; it’s the other kind…..you know, the kind that carries undertones of something more. Iykyk.

Side Note: One of the things that stands out to me about this Live is how Jungkook can’t seem to look Jimin in the eye throughout most of it.

Jungkook brings up his frustration again about Jimin and Jin turning off the Live before he could join, prompting Jimin to apologize and tell Jungkook he loves him while cupping his chin. Although Jungkook still appears annoyed (albeit playfully), Jimin says that since he has apologized, he’ll leave. Jungkook responds immediately with an “okay.” However, pay close attention to Jungkook’s body language as Jimin starts to leave. He doesn’t take his eyes off Jimin, stares intensely, and even begins making plans on when to see him the next day, almost forgetting he’s still Live lol.

At 12:14, Jimin reappears in the frame, heading toward the couch at the back to retrieve a piece of clothing. Let’s revisit a point I mentioned earlier…Jimin’s outfit when he visited Jin. He arrived wearing only a t-shirt and black pants, with no hoodie or sweater. We also know he didn’t have any extra clothing on him when he entered Jin’s room because his hands were full with food. So, where did this piece of clothing in Jungkook’s room come from? When exactly did he leave it there because it certainly wasn’t after he left Jin’s room and followed Jungkook to his.

Jungkook mentioned earlier in his Live that he’d been working out before heading to Jin and Jimin’s Live. This implies that Jimin must have left the clothing in Jungkook’s room before going to Jin’s room. It’s unlikely he brought it with him when he left Jin’s room because he didn’t have it then. Also, remember how Jimin joked in Jin’s Live that he doesn’t wear his own clothes when visiting Jin? This means that Jimin must have been in Jungkook’s room before going to do a Live with Jin and there is a good possibility that the T-shirt he had on wasn’t his but Jungkook’s. While this is speculative, what’s certain is that Jimin had been in Jungkook’s room earlier and stayed long enough to leave his clothing there, on a chair that also has someone’s underwear lying on it. Do with that information what you will.

Around 2:26, as Jimin picks up the clothing and starts to leave, if you listen closely, you can hear the sound of what sounds like a closet door opening and closing….a distinct creak, like those older wooden closets that open toward the front. You can even see the closet on the left near the TV.

The timing is notable because before this sound, all we could hear were Jimin and Jungkook talking, along with the sound of Jimin’s footsteps so I can’t think of anything else that could make that sound at that particular moment. What’s intriguing is that Jimin pauses and doesn’t walk directly to the door to leave. You can clearly hear his footsteps stop as the creaking sound is heard and then starts again after and then stops again. Why would he seemingly stop to open and close Jungkook’s closet before leaving if he is just a guest in that room? Again, do with this information what you will.

Now, this next part is speculative, but it seems obvious to me that Jimin had no real intention of leaving the room. Here’s why: when Jimin announces he’s leaving and Jungkook tells him goodbye for what feels like the umpteenth time, there’s a brief silence after Jimin’s footsteps stop. We don’t hear the door opening or closing during that pause. To me, it feels like Jimin intentionally paused, trying to create the impression he had left the room while simply standing silently by the door. We’ve already established from earlier behavior that Jimin is fully capable of doing this.

Also, note the lack of resistance from either of them regarding Jimin leaving. Jimin announces he’s leaving, and Jungkook immediately agrees without hesitation. It feels like there’s an unspoken understanding between them…like they’re merely playing along for the camera. This part will become important later.

The doorbell rings, and we realize Jimin is still in the room when he answers it. He opens the door, and Jin walks in. While they laugh and chat, notice how Jimin immediately starts explaining himself to Jin, saying he was “just leaving” before Jin arrived. To me, this sounds like a guilty person trying to proactively explain their actions before being questioned. Jungkook even chimes in, repeating, “Jimin was just leaving.”

This could mean one of two things: Jungkook could also be guilty and trying to explain, or he could be subtly signaling to Jin that he wants him to leave soon too. Jin’s response, saying he was about to leave anyway suggests he understood the hint.

What stands out to me the most is Jimin’s behaviour. He seems hurried and anxious. He turned to Jin and told him to say something to Jungkook kinda like “say what you have to say quickly and let’s leave” lol. Jin then says he wants to apologize to Jungkook (for turning off the live) and Jungkook says “thank you” but again we have Jimin lol. Jimin once again says this to Jin “Jungkook wants to say something to ARMY so…..” to me he was indirectly saying Jungkook wants to say something to army so let’s leave. Jin then asks if Jungkook can’t say what he wants to say with him in the room. What is worth noting here is that Jimin seems hurried but the question is, why doesn’t he just leave by himself? Why does it seem like he is trying to get Jin to leave with him so bad? They continue with their little banter, jokes and then they try to leave again before they hear a doorbell.

The bell rings and Taehyung comes into the room. At 5:21 Tae mentions that he came because the alarm went off (the Vlive notification) . The other members start commenting on how good his body looks and he says he worked out with Jungkook which means Taekook were probably working out together when Jimin and Jin were Live. Around 5: 43 Jungkook says “ one tries to go out and one comes in” seemingly acknowledging the revolving door of visitors. Then pay attention to Jimin again. He puts his hand on Tae’s chest physically trying to turn him towards the door while explaining to him that he was just about to leave. Yet another attempt to subtly get someone else to leave the room. Tae then says he watched them on Live while having steak in his room. ( this will be relevant later).

Eventually Jimin stops being subtle about trying to get the others out. Now he says it directly ….. lmaoo.

My question here is, why is he trying so hard to get the others out of that room? First he did it with Jin, and now he is doing the same thing with Tae. If he was tired and wanted to go to bed, why didn’t he just leave? It’s not like the others being there affects him in anyway…….except perhaps, he wanted them to leave the bedroom he planned to sleep in. That to me is the only reasonable explanation for his behaviour. Mind you he said he was leaving ages ago but minutes later and two doorbells rings later, he is still there. Why? At 6:21 you literally see Jimin let out an exasperated sigh and his body language tells that he is hurried and uneasy.

At 6:23, Taehyung asks “whose room is this.

The way he asks, genuinely curious shows he didn’t know. This stands in contrast to Jimin, who not only knew whose room it was but had even visited earlier and left his clothing there. This single moment should be enough to debunk any claims of Taekook being real because why wouldn’t Tae know his boyfriend’s hotel room? Mind you this wasn’t the first time we got evidence of him not knowing Jungkook’s room while they were on tour but Jimin always knew. Do with this information what you will.

Tae then moves towards the chair where Jimin picked up his piece of clothing earlier and we find out from him that there was an underwear laying there. Now there is speculation that it might have been Jimin’s because his other item of clothing was laying there but we don’t have any definitive evidence to support this so we leave it at a maybe.

The guys go on to joke about the underwear and later Jungkook’s clothes while Jimin sits on the chair with the camera. He looks kinda fed up and later he gets up and says he is leaving. I think he leaves for real this time cuz you can hear the door open and close. Jin leaves shortly after and we are left with Taekook.

Tae asks Jungkook if he had something to eat and Jungkook says this “ I don’t eat anything at dinner time” not “ I didn’t eat anything for dinner” or “I haven’t eaten yet. The way the sentence is phrased shows that he is informing Tae that he usually doesn’t eat dinner and not just today which means that is information Tae didn’t know. This seems like a small detail but why wouldn’t Tae know that his boyfriend doesn’t eat at dinner time? It raises the question of how well Tae knows Jungkook’s habits. Tae then says he is on a diet these days too but Jungkook reminds him that he earlier spoke about eating steak….

At 9:18, the doorbell rings, and both Jungkook and Taehyung go to check. Jungkook says the person rang and left, but you can still hear the doorbell ringing as Jungkook opens the door. Unless the person ran away at superhuman speed, it’s unlikely Jungkook didn’t at least see who was there.

What is worth noting here is that immediately after that doorbell, Jk starts asking Tae when he would be leaving. Now, many taekookers say that it was probably a staff ringing to ask Jk to end the Live but if that was the case then why wouldn’t Taehyung understand and then immediately leave when Jk started asking him to? Later on we see that Jk keeps subtly asking Tae when he would be leaving but Tae is clearly stubborn about leaving. Remember how I asked to take note of the way Jimin and Jungkook had a quiet understanding about Jimin leaving? I don’t see any reason why Tae would have been stubborn about leaving on camera if he knew he wasn’t really going and was just putting up an act. If anything he would have wanted to quickly leave so jk could end the live and they spend private time together but instead he was stubborn about it.

Jk asks Tae again when he will be leaving and Tae says he will leave after Jk is done with the Live. Jk then says he is going to shower and that Tae can continue with the Live. Watching Jk, it is clear he wasn’t going to shower with Tae on Live. I think he wanted Tae to leave but didn’t want to be direct about it so it doesn’t come off rude on Live. He starts fidgeting around, picking and folding ziplock bags lol.

At 9:59 or 10:00, there’s an audible cough-like sound coming either from the bathroom or outside the hotel room door. The echo makes it more likely to have come from the bathroom. At first, I thought I might be hearing things but what convinced me is the fact that , before this sound, Tae had the camera panned towards Jungkook but after the sound, Jungkook audibly asks Tae to “stay put” and then he walks towards the bathroom and we can hear him say something from a distance. Remember that Jimin had a little cough while on Jin’s Live, and even when Jk’s Live started, we only knew Jimin was there because of his little cough and we also saw him cough a few times during the Jk’s Live.

At 10:05 Tae asks……

Taekookers interpret this as evidence they were sharing a room. However, when Taehyung entered the room earlier, he didn’t even know it was Jungkook’s room and had to ask. If they were sharing a room, wouldn’t Taehyung have known? Taekookers argue that he was pretending not to know to avoid suspicion, but if he was trying to hide their relationship, why would he then ask this question that could supposedly expose it? The reasoning seems contradictory.

I’m not sure if there was a translation error or if there is some context we are missing but he clearly wasn’t sharing a room with Jk else he would have atleast known the room and also known that Jk doesn’t eat at dinner time, no? This might just be me but this question from him felt calculated and I could be wrong but I suspect it has something to do with that cough sound we just heard.

After this, Jungkook once again subtly suggests Taehyung leave, mentioning that he needs to shower and go to bed. Taehyung eventually decides to leave, and we hear the door open and close as he exits.

Note the contrast between Jungkook’s reaction to Taehyung leaving and his earlier reaction to Jimin leaving. This observation speaks volumes. Do with it what you will.

Once Taehyung leaves, Jungkook continues the Live, but it becomes obvious he’s distracted. He frequently glances to the side, seemingly at something or someone in the direction of the bathroom. Jungkook is not great at masking his expressions, and his unease is noticeable.

At 12:00, something white flies across the frame, which Taekookers claim is a candy wrapper thrown by Taehyung. However, it’s clearly just lint; it’s too small to be a wrapper thrown open and if it was folded before it was thrown, it wouldn’t have gone in that speed.

At 12:20, it is even clearer that someone or something is distracting Jungkook from the side because he looks to the side, laughs and then you can hear a faint whisper of “Saranghe”. Jungkook looks really uneasy too and if you know him even a little you’d easily recognize where else you just saw him look that kind of uneasy and with whom.

When Jungkook was alone with Taehyung in the room, he appeared calm and relaxed, even though he seemed slightly exasperated while asking Taehyung to leave. With Jimin, however, Jungkook was visibly uneasy…fidgety, scratching his nose, avoiding eye contact, and barely managing to look at Jimin. This unease, while subtle, speaks volumes about the dynamics between them. While some people interpret uneasiness as a bad thing…. in this case, it tells us whom he has something to hide with and who he doesn’t.

At 12:44, Jungkook looks to the side again and laughs, further indicating something or someone off-camera is drawing his attention. His behavior is strikingly similar to how he acted around 2:20 earlier in the Live, when Jimin said he was leaving. Jungkook’s distraction is impossible to miss; whoever is in the room is clearly holding his attention more than the Live itself. Someone he is desperately trying not to look at but failing woefully?

This Vlive for me stands out as an extremely significant moment for understanding Jikook. Just like you anon, I honestly don’t understand how anyone could watch this Live and genuinely believe it was anything other than a Jikook live. While Taekook had some lighthearted and cute moments, they didn’t suggest anything beyond friendship. On the other hand, Jimin and Jungkook’s interactions, body language, and subtle cues paint a much more complex picture.

I’m not one to jump to conclusions based on every sound or coincidence in a Live, but this particular VLive offers enough factual evidence to support the idea that something was going on between Jimin and Jungkook. The before-and-after context makes all the difference.

For me, it is never just about a particular moment but about the beginning and after of that moment. So many taekookers believe this Live to be a Taekook Live because many of them don’t know what happened before and after. The Live before was between Jin and Jimin so many Taekooker probably didn’t watch it but what they don’t realize is that, without starting from that beginning, you miss out on a lot of context or important information like Jimin’s jacket being in Jungkook’s room before he went for a Live with Jin or other little information we got from Jimin like the fact that he doesn’t wear his own clothes to visit Jin and that he is capable of hiding in the corner and watching members do Lives. These seemingly small details add up to tell a larger story.

This is one of my favourite Lives and as promised, I would try to elaborate more on other Lives I thought were significant to understanding Jikook more.

[kaile-hultner]

Help me dig upward: the Tumblr post

In which I talk a little bit about the hole I’ve been in for a hot minute—and what I want to do to dig out of it.

Hey y’all,

For the second time in a few years I’m starting a GoFundMe. This time, though, it’s not for the site, at least not explicitly. It is to help me get out from under the weight of debt that I’ve been carrying for more than a decade at this point, but which has finally gotten so bad that it’s affecting everything from my sleep patterns to my overall mental health and ability to do the thing that you likely already support me for: this website. 

If you’ve been wondering why the posting has decreased here, or reduced in quality, or why we started 2024 off publishing other writers and then just as suddenly stopped doing that again, this is why: I am out of money, I am in debt, and it feels like I’m living every day in pure, basic survival mode. 

This GFM, in which I’m asking for $10,000, is a moonshot, a Hail Mary. I don’t expect it to raise anything; it will be the last time I ask the Internet for money, whether it works or it doesn’t. If it works, obviously it’ll mean I’ll be able to post more and maybe my mental health will improve and I won’t feel like every moment is a countdown to a terrible ending, and I’ll be able to think of compelling angles to talk about video games again. If it doesn’t work, maybe I’ll figure something else out. Bankruptcy, probably. I don’t know. 

I hate doing this. I hate being in this position. I hate that I’ve already asked for money this year and people have been extremely generous and it just feels like all that generosity just went into a hole. I wish I had something to show for that generosity, or proactively for anything I gain from this campaign. So, if there is something you want me to cover or talk about or look at in exchange for your support on this campaign, just shoot me an email with proof of your donation, no matter how small. It’s kaile@noescapevg.com. I can’t promise I’ll write a bunch of magnum opuses at your request but I will do what I can just simply to show appreciation for your support. 

Anyway, this feels bad to me and I’m already starting to regret it, so I’m going to wrap this up by saying thank you in advance and I owe you my life. I wish that was figurative.

Edit: here is the text of the GFM I posted. 

Hi y’all,

My name is Kaile Hultner. I am an online cultural critic who has been running the video game criticism website No Escape since 2019. My work has been featured in other places like PC Gamer, Polygon and Bullet Points Monthly. And like a lot of people, I have been deeply in debt for years. 

Debt is a very strange phenomenon. As anthropologist David Graeber demonstrated in his book Debt: The First 5000 Years, it is a phenomenon that imparts a kind of moral valence on a person; whether or not that person can pay their debts is a sign of their trustworthiness or virtue as a member of polite society. Yet you can’t go without debt: at some point, at least in the United States, you have to pick up a form of debt – credit – to establish your credit score, without which you can’t rent an apartment, buy or lease a car, or, in some cases, even get a job. Being debt-free can harm this score, as can having a credit history that is “too young.” 

I’ve been in debt for a long time. I’ve been managing my debt for over a decade. Every year for the last six or seven years in particular it feels like I’m losing progressively more and more ground. Seven years ago I had a car; I could do things like deliver Uber Eats and DoorDash and make extra money whenever I ran out. It broke down in my driveway in 2022 and I couldn’t afford to take it to a mechanic to get it fixed. I sold it for $200. I haven’t been able to replace it. I don’t know what I’ll do if I ever need a car for anything. Luckily my day job is WFH. 

Recently, I’ve been fighting with my old bank over charges it erroneously applied to my account in excess of $1000, causing it to go deep into the negatives. I’ve been slowly, slowly digging myself out of that hole thanks to some close friends and some very kind folks who follow me on the Internet. But it’s caused other debts to exacerbate. And tonight I realized that I am at the end of my rope. I can’t do this anymore. I won’t sit here and say that I’ve done everything right; certainly, more than one bad decision made out of desperation has put me here. I won’t make excuses for that. But I’m tired of being here, in this position. I’m tired of waking up in the middle of the night with heart palpitations because I got an alert from my bank that I’m in the negatives. I’m tired of getting emails and phone calls from debt collectors. I’m tired of living in basic survival mode with no discernible path forward. I’m tired of being tired, of not having the energy to be creative and do the work I’ve built an online presence around for five years. And paradoxically, I’m tired of asking people on the internet for money. 

So I’m going to ask people on the internet for money, one final time. 

I’ve set the goal at $10,000. This is far more than I’m honestly expecting to get, but if I get even a fraction of that I could finally obliterate my debts in a meaningful way. I do have specific milestones that I basically need to meet, otherwise this GFM doesn’t hit its maximum effectiveness, but otherwise the sky is the limit. If I reach the whole amount… I don’t really know what I’ll do. Cry, maybe. 

Milestones – bolded are high-priority

Milestone reached! $750 – gets my old bank account out of the negatives. Eliminates one vector of harassment, allows me to close that account and move on. 

Milestone Reached! $1800 – does the above and allows me to fully pay any late or past-due loan payments missed as a result of the bank issue.

Milestone Reached! $6000 – does the above and allows me to fully pay off all installment loans 

$8000 – does the above and allows me to pay off any remaining debts. 

$10,000 – does the above and allows me to start saving. 

$10,000+ – basically a moonshot, I have no idea what I’ll do with extra. 

I fully do not expect you to donate to this. There are people trying to escape genocides, much more abject poverty, crushing medical debt, and so much more that feel – at least to me – so much more worthy of your attention and money. But just know that if you dodonate something, you have my undying appreciation. I will quite literally owe you my life. 

I’m going to post this now before I get too emotional or lose my nerve entirely, but again: thank you. Even if all you do is read this. 

—Kaile

[vsvitrix]

You may have seen this post before asking to help us move from Washington to Colorado. That is no longer the case.

This past week I ended up on the ER. In the initial testing, they did a CT scan, and it revealed I have issues with my heart that were completely unrelated to the symptoms I went in for. The combination of those issues, even with as little testing as they've done so far, is frankly pretty bad.

I'm having a surgical consultation with a specialist in a couple weeks to discuss our next steps and some of my options going forward, but the resounding sentiment is that moving out of state (and thus losing my insurance and having to find a new doctor) is out of the question for the foreseeable future. In the best case scenario, I will likely have to see doctors for regular heart checkups for the rest of my life; in the absolute worst case, even though it's very unlikely, I could end up needing a heart transplant.

Instead of a funding an out-of-state move, this will help us find and maintain a place in the Seattle area so I can still easily see my specialist and other doctors I'll be seeing for my conditions. It would also give a financial cushion for my partner to help me with doctor's appointments and recovery, which he’ll have to take time off work to do.

Before, I was looking for work, but right now I can’t. I'm working on applying for disability again, but that's a long process I've already been denied twice for. They may approve me after more testing, combined with my already existing disability from my hit and run in 2019, but that's unknown given the current political climate surrounding disability funding. Until then, we are relying on one income, and it's not enough to keep us afloat for long.

Thanks for your generosity—we need all the help we can get.

If you want to help but don't want to use that particular donation site we also have

Paypal

Cash

Ko-fi

Buy Me A Coffee

Patreon

You can also buy handmade crochet dolls from Sam on our Ko-fi as well.

Thank you so so much.

[jikooklove9795]

Hi! I recently saw a post about a live Jimin did for his birthday. In this live he had a cake that said “you are my Park filter” writing on it. Jungkook said he made the cake for Jimin. But Jimin had previously said the cake was giving to him by the staff. Do you know if the cake was actually from Jungkook?

Hi! 😊

That live was truly something, so much to unpack! It was interesting (very), revealing and undeniably telling.

I'm sure most of you already know all the details of this live, but let's go over it again because it never gets old.

The first thing that caught my eye during this live was the decorations in the background

Compared to the other member's birthday setups that year, Jimin's definitely stood out

The other members mostly had simple decorations with photos and writing. The only exception was Seokjin, whose setup was special because it also celebrated the release of "Super Tuna" which dropped on his birthday. Otherwise, his too would have been like the other five. Even though, Seokjin's setup was a bit more elaborate than the other five, it still didnt compare to Jimin's.

Jimin's had so much going on. The balloons, the color coordination, the writing and a birthday banner.

I thought about it and the only reason that makes sense is that it wasn't just done by the staff like the others. In Jimin's case it was all arranged by Jungkook.

Let's break it down one by one.

First, the JM balloons which resemble the JM tattoo on Jungkook's hand. Even with that same gap. And yes, JM is definitely Jimin. Jungkook said so during Run BTS when he pluck out the J and M balloons out of the PAJAMA PARTY, stuck them on his chest, went up to Jimin and said "JM, Jimin". Jungkook got his tattoo in Sept 2019. This episode aired in March 2020 but it was shot in 2019. Most probably in Aug 2019. Anyway it was before Jungkook got his tattoos.

Next, there's the yellow and purple color coordination. Jimin and Jungkook's representative colors. The yellow JM balloons were placed over purple heart balloons and there were yellow and purple hearts placed side by side. Talk about obvious! Not to mention the red heart balloons added a sweet touch.

Then there was the "Cutie, Sexy, Lovely. Happy Birthday Jimin"

Back to the live, Jimin mentioned that the decorations and cake were prepared by the staff. I'll leave that there for now and share my thoughts on it at the end. For now let's keep going.

I think he read a comment asking about the members and he replied like this:

But then he did something which caught my attention. He spun in that chair, moved toward the decorations and pointed at them with both hands

To me it felt like he was hinting that a "certain member" did this for him. Otherwise why would he do that right after talking about the members and saying he wished just "one" of them was with him?

He then talks about his daily routine. A few minutes later he reached for his phone, seemed to be contemplating and finally made the call to Jungkook, asking him to join the live and keep him company.

So, Jimin made the call to the "one" he truly wanted there with him. It's always Jungkook for Jimin and here he is proving it again. I'm sure Hoseok would have come too if Jimin had asked, but it wasn't Hoseok who he needed. It was Jungkook.

Just one minute. 60 secs. That's all it took for Jungkook to show up at the studio. What is he??? Superman?!

He was working out with two others when Jimin called, but he dropped everything and rushed over because he knew his bf wanted company for the live. In the process he even spoiled his new haircut which he wanted to surprise ARMY with. But priorities are priorities and for him Jimin always comes first.

Then we are treated to some adorable Jikook moments.

Jungkook says he's leaving and he's out the door when Jimin asks him to fetch water for him. He not only brings water but also Soju. He's about to leave again when they hear a knock. Jungkook opens the door and it's Hoseok. And Jungkook stays back too to chat a bit with both of them.

Let’s pause and talk about something interesting. Notice how Hoseok knocked for someone to open the door, while Jungkook just walked right in? Before Jungkook entered, you can hear the sound of the machine granting entry. That’s the first clue that the studio belongs to Jungkook (if it wasn't already clear from the decor). HYBE’s studio rooms have face and fingerprint scans that only allow access to the assigned member. That’s why Jungkook could enter freely, while Hoseok had to knock.

This live clearly proves what I'm saying. From the 59 min mark you can see Hoseok scanning his face and fingerprints to enter his studio:

Then what about Jimin? We will know about it soon.

Let's continue again.

Hoseok mentions a strong smell in the room, like spicy garlic fried chicken. Jungkook immediately says he wants it, and Jimin agrees. Jungkook suggests ordering it, but Jimin reminds him that his mom is already cooking for him (or maybe for both of them?).

Jimin and Jungkook getting busted by Hoseok in 3... 2... 1!

Jimin's expression nearly slipped but he caught himself.

By now, Hoseok knew exactly what was going on. He wasn’t done yet and went in for the final blow:

And Jimin was left completely speechless. Reminds me of this:

And also Hoseok's Tokyo 2016 live.

When Hoseok teased Jimin about continuing the live in his studio, Jungkook quickly tried to change the subject by bringing up the 3J Butter version, a bit too obviously 😅

They drank soju, and Jimin left with Jungkook and Hoseok from Jungkook's studio. He lingered outside for nearly a minute, making me wonder if he was complaining, whining to Hoseok about spilling the beans. Moments later, the machine sounds granting entry into the studio and Jimin walks in. So, now its clear that Jungkook's studio allows access to Jimin too.

And even if the studio has a password system still the point is that others have to knock while Jimin can enter by unlocking it himself.

Now to answer your question about the cake, yes, I think Jungkook was the one who arranged it. Jimin probably chose not to share that with us, just like he did with the decorations. The wordings on the cake and the decorations on the wall felt too personal like something which comes from your significant other instead of from a fellow band member. So, he likely decided to say they were from the staff.

What we see and hear about their relationship is probably just 25% of the full picture.

Take their companion enlistment, for example. They got confirmation regarding it on 6th Sept 2023. But to make that happen, they must have started discussing about it in early 2023. Yet we only found out when it was officially announced.

The same goes for the hickey situation. During the Jinjikook live in December 2016, Jungkook used a pic of himself to make Jimin stay in the live. When he posted the pic we speculated the hickey to be from Jimin but we had no confirmation about this. Years later, in 2021, Jungkook casually walked in with a hickey and confirmed it was from Jimin.

Next is Taehyung's Osaka live in 2016. The one where Jungkook was dressed down and playing music before Tae entered. Here too we speculated that Jimin was hiding in Jungkook's room but had no confirmations. Then, during the April 2022 live, Jimin mentioned how he's usually dressed down at home and Hoseok chimed in with "And Jungkook's in charge of the music, right?" leaving Jimin momentarily speechless.

Think about all those times we speculated they were sharing hotel rooms. We've had plenty of confirmations from the other members' words and reactions, Jikook's own actions, and even that hidden cam their company set up.

Most of these confirmations came gradually over the years through OG content, the members' words, and Jikook's own actions. Now, think about a fan—not an anti—who doesn’t watch OG content, early-year footage, or only follows their own bias. Speaking from a Jikook perspective, they're unaware of many things we’ve noticed. Their lack of awareness doesn’t mean those things don’t exist. It just means they don't know about it because Jikook hasn’t shared them directly (I mean like a verbal confirmation) even though they’re clearly reflected in Jimin and Jungkook's actions.

This is exactly why some jkkrs feel insecure. Understanding Jikook is a time consuming process. You have to watch as much content as possible from all the members, see the bigger picture, read their magazine interviews over the years and read between the lines to pick up on the hints and subtleties conveyed which they leave for us to figure out on our own. Stop hating on the other members. At the end of the day they're all a family and each one of them cares deeply about the other. It also takes empathy to recognize that Jikook are a closeted couple, which means they might tone down their moments when they feel they're oversharing.

During this live Jimin mentions how he felt awkward with the cam while shooting for their behinds footages but still he acted as if he wasn't. It reminds me of their debut years. Did you realize he was playing the "macho guy" role back then? I didn’t, not until he mentioned it in the BTS documentary. It isn't him lying. It was him simply playing the role he was assigned until he found it comfortable to be himself in front of the camera and audience. Just like Seokjin who had to act the cool guy part during the debut years.

I bring this up to explain the cake and decoration situation. Its Jimin choosing not to share it with us. And this is the same Jimin who mentioned Jungkook visiting his room more than the managers and staying for hours "doing nothing." I’m pretty sure they were sharing the room, but Jimin chose not to say it outright instead choosing to only share a part of the truth.

Jungkook tones it down by saying that it's because Jimin's room is the closest. And this is the same Jungkook who, during his 2023 lives, watched hours of Jimin’s content, constantly asked Jimin to come over or asked if he could go over to Jimin's and showed just how much he missed Jimin when he was busy with work. A big part of his 2023 lives was basically him fanboying over Jimin, supporting him, cheering him on and also made it obvious to us that he misses his bf. So much for toning it down.

Sometimes, it’s the passage of time and changing circumstances that push people to make bold choices and prioritize their happiness above all else.

That’s what I realized when I heard about their military enlistment news. That’s what I felt when I saw Jikook in AYS. It was them choosing their love and happiness above everything else—despite all the critical eyes and opinions.

This conversation:

This goes out to both antis and insecure jkkrs. When you bring up things like Jungkook not knowing about Jimin's tattoo or Jimin not knowing Jungkook's schedule and a bunch of other nonsense, I can’t help but laugh. They probably do know. They're just choosing not to share it. Or pretending not to know, like Hoseok did here. Maybe they feel it’s not their place to share it or they don’t want to overshare or because they want to keep certain things in their relationship to themselves. Privacy! Both of them value that a lot. And it's important that people keep certain matters private in order to protect their relationship. They’re not obligated to report every detail they know about each other to us. However, for 10 years, they’ve shown us more than enough about what they mean to each other. Which in itself is a huge deal. For them it's all about balance.

A healthy relationship strikes the perfect balance between celebrating love openly and cherishing private moments. Publicly, it's beautiful to express love, share happy moments, and show appreciation for each other. It solidifies the bond and lets others witness that joy.

However, the real strength often lies in the private moments. Those quiet conversations, unspoken understandings, and personal challenges faced together. Protecting those sacred spaces from outside noise allows the relationship to grow stronger without external pressures.

This balance isn't about hiding. It's about choosing what to share and what to hold close to your heart. It’s like saying "We are happy, and that's ours to protect".

And Jikook are doing an amazing job practicing this balance despite their surroundings and circumstances.

When I began answering this, I planned to keep it brief, but here we are! Thanks for the ask, anon. I really enjoyed answering it.

Take care 👋🏻

Credits to the owner of the video

[yamumsyadadd]

the forgotten girl (5)

posted this originally on my old account. will be posting twice weekly :)

Alexia Putellas Segura. The one that got away? She was my first. First kiss, first person I had sex with, first person I was in love with. Maybe in a different universe things could work out. What’s the saying, right person wrong time? That seemed to be the case with us Every time. I loved her, she wasn’t ready for that. She loved me, I had just gotten together with Emily. 

There was a moment when things would’ve happened, after Emily died and before I went MIA. But after that first night I couldn’t. I didn’t want to hurt her, to break her heart. So I left, breaking her heart anyway. Now she is with Olga and things are going great with them, right? The what ifs always playing on my mind. 

•————————————————————-----------------------———•

I was glad to have Ariel, my social media manager. I didn’t have to deal with the comments or the tweets, I could live in my peaceful bubble and not have to worry about anything. The news of Sam Kerr tearing her ACL ripped through the football community, the Matilda’s were out a striker. There were two possibilities, Michelle Heyman who is retired or me. The girl who hasn’t played an international game since the 2019 World Cup, the same person who left the team high and dry for the 2020 Olympics. 

The tillies were coming off a successful World Cup, secretly I’d watched every game, cheering them on from the safety of my own living room. When Jona had informed me that Tony had rang and asked for my number I was shocked, surely he’d call up Michelle before he rang me. She deserved it, I’m sure there were lots of younger players that deserved it too. But alas, it was me he rang. Just as training ended and we’d made our way back to the locker rooms. 

“Hello?” Confused by the unknown caller, forgetting the conversation with Jona. 

“Amelia? It’s Tony Gustavsson.” 

“Oh shit. Yeah hi Tony. How are you?” 

“I’m good Amelia, listen, I know you’ve heard the news about Sam, we are in an Olympic year and now without a striker. I know you’re just coming back and you haven’t played an international game in a few years, but if you’re willing I would love for you to join us this international break.” 

“What? What about Michelle or one of the younger girls? I’m sure there’s someone more suited to this.” 

“There is no one else I would rather. You’re the person we need. The missing piece to this team. The girls look up to you, they listen to you. We need you, I need you. Take some time and think about it, we have a few days before the foster needs to be released. Call me in two days ok?” 

“Yeah yeah okay. I can do that. Thanks Tony.” 

Disbelief. Was I excited for this opportunity? Sure. Did i deserve it? Probably not. 

“Who was that?” Keira’s voice broke me from my thoughts. 

“Uh it was tony. The Matilda’s head coach. He wants me?” 

“Holy shit that’s amazing! Milly that’s so good! Congratulations!” The high fives poured in from everyone, expect one person, Alexia. 

If it was so good, why didn’t it feel it? The first thing I did when I got back to the apartment was make a pros and cons list. 

Pros:

It’s the olympics 

Cons:

It’s the Olympics 

Media

The team? 

Football 

I was stuck in my own head until a knock rippled through the apartment. Apprehensively I opened the door to Alexia standing there. She walked straight on through as if she’d been here before.  

“What are you doing here? How’d you get my address?” 

“Hi to you too. I’m good thanks how are you? 

“Yeah yeah answer my questions?”

“I heard the phone call in the locker room and how you looked stressed. So I thought I’d come and be a good friend.” 

“And you got my address from?” 

“Jona. You should add that you can see me and Jenni.”

“Huh?”

“Your list” she points. “We will probably be there.” 

Silence. Unsure what to even say in this situation. Alexia was still standing, looking around. There wasn’t much to look at. I had bought a couple of plants but other than that, it was just furniture. 

“Have you lived here long?” 

“3 and a half years. Why?”

“Oh. It’s… empty?” 

“It’s easier this way.” 

“So when you want to run away again, there’s nothing you need to take? Clothes and furniture can be replaced right.” 

“That’s not fair Alexia.” 

“No what’s not fair is you leaving in the middle of the night! You disappeared Amelia!“

“Seriously? We are doing this now? Fine. Yes I did leave, yes I disappeared, yes I fucked you and told you everything you wanted to hear. But I couldn’t stay. Not after everything. You deserved better Alexia.” 

“I didn’t want anyone else but you! I loved you and you just left.” 

“You should go.”

“Mil”

“No. Go home to your girlfriend Alexia.” 

After she left I got up to write another con on this list:

Potentially seeing Alexia 

Maybe in another life time things would be different. 

The next week is rough. The tension between Alexia and I is very clear to the team, not to Olga though. She reached out inviting me to dinner with her and some girls from Manuelas. It was a nice night overall, it definitely felt weird being friendly with Olga. It was hard to separate the Olga from Manuelas and Alexia’s girlfriend Olga. 

the morning of my first game arrived, I had barely slept because of the nerves. I wasn’t starting, however Jona said he’d bring me on in the second half. The thought of playing again was extremely overwhelming. My body went into autopilot, doing my old day time routine: making breakfast and coffee, brushing my teeth, changing my sheets, laying out my clothes and then going for a swim. 

The ocean was calming and refreshing. It reminded me of home. The one place I could go and enjoy myself when I was living in foster homes. I taught myself to surf after watching some people do it, it took a lot of trial and error but in the end I was successful. As I came out of the water, I noticed a familiar pale, ginger sitting on my towel. 

“It’s nice. You should go in.”

“Don’t be stupid Milly. I would never get in there in the winter.”

Keira was a constant. No matter what happened or what teams we played for, she was always there. She’d drop everything to come help and wasn’t afraid to tell me I was being a dickhead. I wasn’t expecting what she was going to say. 

“You being here is hard for her. Being so close and her not being able to be with you. It’s a lot, I know you did what you thought was best but you broke her heart and she’s been different since.” 

Alexia. It always comes back to her. 

“I couldn’t let her love me Kei. It was too much.” 

“But she loved you anyway. Pretty sure she always has and always will. She was mad for the first few weeks, then really worried, then sad. Every Sunday she would message Leah and ask if she’s heard from you, and every Sunday it was the same answer.” 

“We should go. Got a game and all.” 

[watchersleuth]

I didn't think I'd use this blog to make a post like this, but I'm seeing more and more comments and posts criticizing Watcher for their recent decision to layoff their production staff, and I want to try to explain some things. I also have experience working in film and television production so I hope that's helpful in this case.

For background, on March 17, 2025 people discovered via LinkedIn that Katie LeBlanc had ended her employment with Watcher. This, of course, caused some alarm.

I'm not in the habit of sharing things posted in the Wiscord, but Shane did let everyone know an important detail that I think is getting overlooked

I want to point out the part where he said that they were taking some "full-time positions and converting them to freelance"

Note: Almost every US television show that you watch from a major network runs on a freelance model

Yes, that one that you're thinking of right now. Also that one. Most exceptions to this would be a show like a news program or talk show that runs year-round and doesn't only film for a few months out of the year. When a crew member is freelance and one job ends, they use their networking connections to find another job. That's the way it's been done for over a hundred years in Hollywood.

This isn't ideal for everyone, for many reasons. And of course it would be preferable to live in a society where we valued creative work and people could get steady employment and benefits from being in this, or any artistic, field.

That's why Watcher hired folks on full-time as soon as they could. Remember in the 2022 Making Watcher when Steven talked about how they doubled their staff from 10 to 21 and how they were reinvesting into their own company? That was by design to try to give as many creative folks a shot at a regular full-time gig and I'm so proud of them for that!

Knowing this, I would bet that Watcher didn't WANT to convert anyone to freelance positions. People need to stop talking about the layoffs like this is something they wanted to do. They told us last year that they were launching the streamer to stay afloat, because YouTube isn't as beneficial as it used to be for creators.

Not to sound parasocial, but if you think that any of the Watcher Founders wanted to layoff the staff that they've worked with for years - people that have been with them since Worth It and Unsolved - then you don't know them at all.

Even if you think that they laid off everyone just for fun, consider that now when Watcher wants to film a new season of say Puppet History they will need to ask their previous staff if their schedule aligns with their filming time so they can be hired on to work the shoot. If not, they will have to advertise or go word of mouth, to find crew. That's more time and resources spent to staff a shoot than pulling from their regular crew.

TLDR; There's no controversy behind this news. This is normal for many media companies and is what Watcher had to do to remain in business.

It's not ideal, and I wish the streamer would have been so successful that they could've went the other direction like they planned all along - to bring on new hosts and make the diverse shows they've wanted to since 2019.

If you want to help Watcher:

-Subscribe to Watcher TV if you can. They've been running constant promo deals for the past year so if you do get an annual subscription make sure you use the discount code. The banner is always on top of the site.

-Subscribe to their main and podcast channels on YouTube

-Watch the videos as they get uploaded to YouTube, even if you're already a Watcher TV subscriber. Try to watch within the first day or two of uploading to push it up the algorithm. Make sure you "like" it and leave a positive/friendly/funny comment too! YT is looking for engagement and watch time, so the likes and comments help. And so does watching the video all the way through. (Bonus: Watcher has been using audience comments from videos on their social posts and it's fun to see what they choose!)

-If you're short on time or don't want to rewatch a video you already saw on the streamer you can always put it on a separate tab on your browser and mute it. Let the new videos or your favorite playlist stream in the background while you surf the web!

-Share their videos with friends, family, co-workers, etc. The more people that watch them the better! The Watcher channel is one of the more diverse that I've seen on YouTube so there's something for everyone.

-Make posts about what you enjoy about their shows and you'll find more friends that way.

Thanks for everyone who read this far. Comments are open if anyone wants to ask general production questions and I'll try to answer. Probably can't speak for Watcher specifically but maybe I'll know the answer from a Making Watcher video I can point you to.

And if you read all of this and still feel like you want to choose chaos (ie. harassing Watcher via their social media posts with accusations about the economy that they can't control) then I would urge you to direct that energy at your elected officials no matter what country you're in, find a fandom you enjoy engaging with instead, and maybe go touch some grass.

[boringkate]

Do you think that it'll ever become fashionable for cis girls to pack their panties to give themselves the sexy girlbulge they sadly lack?

Not exactly what you're asking about, but like...

There's this movie from a few years ago about a cis girl (hard to say what's irony when it comes to the real person being like a non transitioning trans dude, but the character is a cis girl) who decides to compensate for no longer being underage (and thus no longer desirable to men on the internet) by packing and pretending to be the only other thing that men what to fuck (a tgirl).

It's like full disclaimer the most 4chan brained thing I've ever seen. Like wildly aggressively racist (on top of being obv transphobic etc).

It's like interesting that it exists (easily the only movie I've ever seen with an unsimulated cum tribute montage), but I don't recommend it.

In any case, it was immediately followed by an unrelated uptick in irl fake internet tgirls.

That one account getting so much attention has made it impossible to google around for other examples, but I've definitely seen other cis women packing and pretending to be trans for attention and OnlyFans subscribers.

Not to mention all the non transitioning ~cis~ boys who (rather than accepting the time tested femboy route of wearing a face mask) use heavy face filters and photoshop and pretend they're out and transitioning trans girls on hrt etc (again often for OnlyFans subscribers). Which I consider a different thing. That's more of an extension of standard sissy egg behaviour.

I'm also constantly thinking about that cis girl model that pretended to be a trans woman a few years ago after getting criticized for being transphobic (no packing involved that time).

No shortage of real world gender swapped Adam (2019)'s.

And then there's all the discourse (that seems extra inescapable lately for some reason) about openly AFAB self identified "trans women."

Edit: One late addition: I think I was angsty at some point about Lady Gaga always leaning into stuff about her having a dick, but I've come around to thinking that was fun actually lol.

[httyd-art-requests]

Heya! I wasn't sure if this was a legal request since it wasnt listed in your bio, but it is an official httyd video game

I'd love to see the goofy guy Patch from dawn of new riders! Chimeragons really made one appearance, became way too op, and then disappeared into obscurity. But look at the guy...he so ugly and goofy I love him

Your art is gorgeous btw!

( @yuendelahoya )

So funny story. I watched a playthrough of this game when it first came out in 2019, and it's been on my wish list ever since (mostly because of the flight mechanics lol) And now that I found these asks in my inbox again, I checked the Nintendo Store just in case, and it had a 55% discount??? So I got the game and spent the last 2 days playing it and now I'm a changed man (as of posting this, the discount lasts for 2 more days!)

Dragon #125 - MLM Patch (and Scribbler)

I hope they're doing well, wherever they are...

More thoughts and spoilers for the game under the cut!

I made Patch MLM colored instead of some other random Chimeragon, because the game has shown us that he can change colors with every rebirth, which I think is pretty neat :) It also explains why neither Scribbler nor Eir recognize Patch, even after he grows to be a Broadwing and then a Titanwing- if he changes his colors every time he hatches again, then yeah, no wonder they believed there's more than one Chimeragon

I knew what the big twist was going to be at the end because of the playthrough, but MAN does this game not hold its punches. The writers really asked "How can we elevate the Best Friends Forever thing to a whole new level?" and then made Scribbler witness the death and rebirth of his best friend, and now I have to draw these guys with literal tears in my eyes 👍

The sentiment that their friendship literally transcends life and death is so meaningful to me. Patch will continue to die and resurrect, and Scribbler will be there every time to welcome him and forge their bond all over again. The mystery of Scribbler's past, his involvement with Grimmel, and the open ending leave so much room for speculation and theorizing and it's just so incredibly up my alley, it's like it was made in a lab for me lol

This game ended up being a lot darker than I was expecting, but it was honestly so refreshing. The mechanics are simple enough for younger kids to learn, and the artstyle is very evidently targeted at kids as well, but some of the dialogue and the entire theme of death and inevitable loss feels surprisingly mature in contrast. They make you go to Vanaheim and hold a burial for Patch before he resurrects, literally what other kids' game does that?? /pos

Anyways play this game, it's a short and sweet little self-contained adventure, which accomplishes the one task it set out to accomplish: making me cry, specifically