#DISCLAIMER HI. I AM NOT AN EXPERT THIS IS JUST STUFF I USE TO READ POETRY FOR FUN.

[anglerflsh]

re: your poetry post, can you give some pointers as to where to learn the rhyming patterns in poetry and the like? i only ever see poetry from the ideas/feelings perspective, but ive never learned the logic and structure behind it lol

I've learned most of it from my literature and grammar classes, it's taught in our school since elementary, so I wouldn't know of any books or manuals that talk specifially about it - but I can give you a rundown of how I do it, anon, if it counts for anything lol

Prefacing that this will be starting from italian poetica because that's what I know best: any poem, but specifically the pre-futurism/1910s ones (A Lot) will have some kind of structure aside from just the ryming scheme; The structure I am most familiar with is accentual-sillabic, so for example any single verso will have its stressed syllable in a fixed potision and occasionally a set number of sillables (eg. an endecasillablic metre means a stress on the tenth syllable, usually penultimate, equally to 11 total syllables), but there are also only accentual, or only sillabic verses, common in French poetry (?), all of which count as types of qualitative metre - as well as quantitative metre, which was more widley used in Latin and Greek poetry and which rather based itself on patterns of syllable weight (something that I know little about tbh; I think it's based on the lenght of pronunciation of the actual syllable).

this, of course, goes without even mentioning free-verse structure and less well-known ones.

Going back to the rhyming scheme, that also comes into play with structure in the sense that ... there are just a lot of them to pick from. The classic is the repeated AABB one, where each verse will rhyme with the one underneath (''kissing rhyme'' in italian), or the alterning ABAB, the crossed ABBA, the 'chained' or third rhyme ABA BCB CDC used for terzine, and plenty more! That's not all the ways to classify rhymes of course: you have plain rhyme between words accented on the penultimate syllable, cut rhyme between words accented on the last, sdrucciola with accents on the third-to-last, bisdrucciola on the fourth-to-last... etc etc

Then, of course, come the classifications in stanza lenghts! Groups of three verses are a terzina, well known for being Dante's favourite number (joke inserted to lighten this infodump), groups of four a quatrina, etc -

and depending on the number of single groups and on the type of verses in them, you have further classification as canzone, ode, madrigale, carme, filastrocca, ballata, sonetto... the latter for example is made of fourteen endecasyllabic verses grouped in two quartine, one in the beginning and one in the end, in crossed or alternate rhyme, and two terzine with any kind of rhyme structre.

this of course doesn't touch on the inner things and games of poem structure like the falling rhyme, spaces in between groups, enjambement, alliteration, allegorical figures, anafore, onomatopee, and all that fun stuff! Essentially when you see a poem look for the number of syllables in each verse, where the stressed syllable falls, how the rhymes are put, how many verses are in each stanza and strofa...

[otomiyaa]

PSA: Back up your blog, check your tumblr e-mail for copyright strikes

Hi everyone, after suddenly losing my account with main blog + sideblogs last week, I would like to share the following warning with y'all. Not to scare you even though it is shitty, but to raise awareness. If this somehow results in me getting kicked off the platform again, so be it lol.

If you post anything fandom* related on your tumblr blog**, whether that's gifs, screenshots, videos, cosplay pics or even fics (?), you may risk getting a copyright strike (up to 3 in 18 months) or even immediate account termination. The chance is still rather small, but just know that it can happen.

*I say fandom in the broad term, so blogs that post about movies and series, anime/manga, games, celebrities, models, sports/olympics, etc. and it goes for gif and fic creators too. Not just accounts that post music or videos for example.

**I say tumblr blog, but this goes for all of the internet ofc. People have been getting this problem on any platform, from insta to etsy, youtube and twitter.

Disclaimer: I am no legal expert, just an unlucky blogger who lost her silly multifandom fic blog after 7+ years.

This will be a bit long and detailed so I proceed under the cut!

What can you do?

...To make sure you don't suddenly lose days, months, and years of content:

CHECK THE EMAIL LINKED TO YOUR TUMBLR. I know a lot of people don't do it, myself included. Tumblr does send warnings (though not always). It wouldn't have changed anything for me because I wouldn't want to appeal - since I don't want to go into this "fair use" discussion for just a fic & editing blog. I personally don't know the chances of retrieving your blog if you protest against the claims, so can't say much about that.

Back up your Tumblr blog if you can. Also save your Tumblr chats with people dear to you if you can. Account termination seems to work differently than deactivation. I was still able to see chats with people who deactivated long ago. But my blog that got terminated has vanished from everyone's DMs and ask boxes à la Thanos snap. I mourn my years of Tumblr chat with my best friend. It was not as if we even considered exporting/copying it just for the memories of the start of our friendship. But now that it's entirely gone, hehe, well. It is sad.

Save URLs and masterposts outside Tumblr. After losing your account, for I thiiink about 24-48hrs (I didn't clock, but it was temporary) you will be able to access it at least temporarily through cachedpages, if you have the URL. It doesn't seem to work for everything, but most of my Tumblr posts I could still see shortly through this site, even after I got wiped off the platform. I did this by googling my tumblr username + certain keywords, and the posts would pop up and give me the URL.

...To prevent getting copyright strikes and losing your account?

Probably nothing - but like I said, I'm not the expert, just the fool who lost her account. The termination e-mail will give you a numbered URL so it's not easy to see which post resulted in the account loss, but for me the keywords were:

-

-

Despite the 7+ years of posts, many followers and a lot of memories, I did not gain anything else from this blog and didn't think it was worth the (legal-) risks and effort to try and get it back. It would require filing an objection against the copyright claims with personal info from home address to name, and consenting to USA legal law stuff.

Even if I don't know the exact details, I'm sure they're not wrong, because whether it's fair or not, most fandom stuff has copyright issues in the end, so I can't protest against the claims with 100% certainty it won't get me in real trouble. Besides, I read about similar cases, lost cases, and admitted defeat right away.

They work with manual reports and most dangerously, bots, who seem to be randomly picking unlucky people to take down their posts and possibly the entire account.

So besides putting an entire halt to fic writing, gif making, video editing and other fandom indulgement, or the inconvenient act of censoring every single word and image, I don't think there is a way to entirely prevent getting targeted.

The one that treated me to the strikes leading to account termination was a certain Mr. Green who seems to have targeted mostly people on Etsy. But apparently now also on Tumblr. More about this I can share here for further information. I also share some other links that can inform you about how far the copyright problem can go. Again, no reason to panic. It's rare and I was unlucky. But it happens.

About Mr. Green, using bots all over the internet to take down fandom related material:

Tumblr post about his attack on fandom.

Long detailed doc from an Etsy user.

Insta post about also loss of Etsy account.

Also Etsy related, but same Mr. Green and his bots taking down something only because it used the NAME of an anime character.

Tweet about him and his company not being officially contracted but getting compensated.

About copyright claims on Tumblr - they are still rare, no panic, I just call it russian roulette and these are all unlucky people like me :')

Post by user @/marilynjeansiims about claims against users who post about Sims, including a petition against it.

Post by user @/happyheidi about Moomin posts facing issues.

Post by user @/hanyusan about olympic related claims.

Example by user @/koov about what a vague copyright warning looks like.

Good news, post by user @/yunghos about getting their account back after filing a counter notice. It seems to be possible.

Post by user @/iamkatehardy about getting a strike for using a gif.

Post by user @/stxrshxpxd about getting their acc terminated for no 100% clear reasons.

Post by user @/tekweela about getting terminated mercilessly because of a reblog.

Post by user @/fromanotherroom-revived about losing their account with similar advice as I write here.

Post by user @/ladyphasma about gifs and US law

Knowing this won't bring lost accounts back, or change the law, I do hope at least you can be better prepared just in case it happens... Better prepared than I was at least.

[namedr]

What are your art inspirations?

Disclaimer: A LOT of RAMBLING

Honestly hard to answer, nowadays I don't really look at a lot of art anymore but mostly just movies.

Biggest inspiration over the years (from 2020 to 2022) would have to be Kan Liu. His painting style with mostly just the round brush and hard edges really spoke to me, especially when it came to lineart I was a massive fucking copycat lmao.

Around 2022 I also began falling in love with Sungmoo Heo. The perspectives and overall style just fucks so hard.

The most obvious inspo would have to be Seonhyeok Jeon though, who I still rip off blatantly.

In general I began taking art seriously around 2020, when I found Kan Liu, because I began training to compete in bodybuilding, which I did the next year. I began getting super interested in how the body and muscles work so I just drew those a fuck ton, and those anatomy studies ended up really helping my art skills in general.

Anyway! For animation... Hiroto Nagata and Q Kawa are big inspos.

This shit is so fucking RAW and HOLY SHIT when I look at how the perspective gets just in your face I always just think "what am I even doing man I have to PRACTICE". It's like watching a Zyzz or Ronny Coleman clip before doing a lift at the gym but for art, shit's motivational.

This cut in Ghost In the Shell as well is WOW, I think what speaks a lot to me is when an animation doesn't conform to what's standard in the medium and tries to push boundaries/be unique. Be it in this case through insane details, in the case of Mushoku Tensei through bg animation mixed with extreme foreshortening or just a crazy perspective and punchy movements in the Madoka clip.

Overall it's hard to say what else my inspirations are though. When it comes to manga and comics I can think of Batman Year One, The Climber by Shin-ichi Sakamoto, Ultra Heaven by Keichi Koike, Solo Leveling (big inspo in 2021) and Homunculus.

Also, even though everyone assumes it, I haven't played Cyberpunk 2077 or am that big a fan of the Blame! manga, I guess I just have a fairly similar artistic vision to both of those.

For animated fiction it'd be Spiderverse recently, Millennium Actress, Silent Voice and a million other anime I've forgotten the name of. Naoko Yamada's directing for Silent Voice or other anime like Hibike Euphonium and the Liz movie has always been amazing to me because she is able to express characters personalities through their body language, like they way they walk or stand, in a way I have never seen done before. Extremely recognizable and iconic style imo. A long time ago I used to be really into watching anime, but I don't care much for it anymore.

Other inspo would be this guy on twitter, his stuff is insanely cool https://twitter.com/be_myvu/status/1725069515107533178?s=46

It's like that Ralph Waldo Emerson quote - “I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” I think throughout the years I've been so obsessed with all kinds of artists that I've taken in inspiration from everywhere. I cannot recall them all anymore, but they have made me the artist I am today.

Currently, like I said, I would consider movies to be my biggest inspiration because I find it interesting how cinematographers are able to stylize real life, which I'm trying to get closer to. If I could direct a movie, I would probably stop making art right then and there, but I'm not really working towards that goal anyway lmao. One day, being able to make a short film in animation would be something I would like to do though.

I'm not deep enough into the movie scene to get the street cred of being called an expert but I love them a lot. Fallen Angels made me fall in love with fisheye back then for example. Fight Club and The Batman have a grit to them visually that I find inspiring, and movies like Persona and Heat also come to mind when I think of movies I just love. I could look up my letterboxd for a more thorough answer but I feel I've already been writing way too long.

For video games, I guess you can imagine that I would say Signalis lmao. Besides that I can think of Subahibi (vn), Muramasa (vn), and Va-11 Hall-a for inspirations

Lastly, I guess huge inspirations are also a fuck ton of music. I mostly listen to either metal or hard techno, but I think I'll refrain from any more yapping.

I feel that this isn't really a great answer to the question, but it's the one I consider the most correct, because it's never as simple as just mentioning one artist. With a lot of these you wouldn't see a visual resemblence to my art, but in all of these I recognize a feeling that I also find in my own art.

Thank you for the question!

[kidstemplatte]

I know you must be so busy rn, but could we get some headcannons/ little fic about Terzo with his kids on Christmas

dad! terzo during the holidays headcanons🎁🎄

tysm for your request, anon! i hope this is close to what you wanted! please enjoy<3

◇ i like to imagine the clergy decorates for the holiday season, i’m not sure what exactly they’d celebrate since i’m no expert regarding theistic satanism (i need my art school anon to help me with this one 🤍) but i think they would do some of the christmas-esque stuff just for the fun of it

◇ i imagine their decor is a nice fun mix of spooky and sweet, or more of a witchy vibe.

◇ i headcanon that they’re in sweden, which means there’s snow outside!!! terzo doesn’t like the cold, since he’s from italy haha but his kids loooooove playing in the snow so he sticks it out for them!

◇ he gets all wrapped up in like 1000 layers because he’s a big old baby, definitely not dramatic at all.

◇ but also he makes his kids do the same, he’s very protective and wants to make sure his kids don’t freeze!

◇ honestly i think terzo’s the kind of dad who would make up an urban legend to scare his kids into wearing proper winter gear…💀 they’re SPRINTING to get inside after he tells them about the monster who eats little children who don’t wear their gloves…

◇ do not take terzo ice skating because his ass will fall down over and over and over again. but on second thought, it makes the kids laugh, so maybe do take him.

◇ terzo cannot wrap presents. he is so bad at it. he has to ask the ghouls or one of his brothers to do it. but this also means he really appreciates the artistry of gift-wrapping.

◇when he gets a gift of any kind he always wriggles his fingers and goes “for me?” like you’ve just bestowed a treasure upon him.

◇ he will absolutely melt if his kids give him a gift of any kind, a homemade card or even just a cool rock one of them found. he will keep it forEVER.

◇ if there’s an elf on the shelf or some kind of satanic equivalent, terzo is leaving it in the funniest fucking places. then he sits around waiting for his kids’ reactions because he loves hearing them laugh.

◇ but it’s not just for the kids- it’s for his own amusement as well. you can bet that elf is going on nihil’s grave.

◇ every christmas eve eve (december 23rd muahaha) terzo watches nightmare before christmas with his kids.

◇ terzo’s favorite christmas movie is home alone, but he has to give the kids a disclaimer before they watch because they’re little troublemakers and they WILL get ideas from all the traps and shenanigans.

◇ i don’t know about anyone else, but i always had a hard time as a kid falling asleep on christmas eve because i was so excited. i imagine terzo’s kids are the same way haha, so he reads them stories until they fall asleep.

◇ terzo doesn’t care much about his kids believing in santa until they tell him they don't. because to terzo, that’s a challenge.

◇ initially, he wants to dress up as santa himself, but he knows the kids are smart enough to find out it’s him. so he has to outsource his work. (he makes omega dress up as santa and put the gifts terzo made him wrap under the tree. omega gets a raise.)

◇ the kids are getting whatever they ask for btw. it’s typically nothing too unreasonable because they’re raised well haha.

◇ if the kids want to leave food out for santa, terzo’s using it as an excuse to order a fancy ass hundred dollar meal and eat it at 3 am. santa’s getting steak made with wagyu beef and a nice glass of wine.

◇ i hc that terzo can cook but he can’t bake for shit, (i have a fic i’ve been wanting to finish for so long about that) so primo makes the kids gingerbread cookies (he has an extensive cookie cutter collection) and they’re all decorated super fun lol.

◇ also in my mind the clergy is a huge piece of property with a forest behind it, and in this forest there are deer! so before the sun sets on the night of christmas eve terzo takes the kids to leave food for the deer as fuel for their upcoming flight :,)

└─── °∘❉∘° ───┘

that’s it yall!!! happy holidays and tysm for your request anon!!! i rlly hope u liked it!! i have more stories coming soon i can’t wait to share!!

[fyeahbachisagi]

Blue Lock Anime Diminishing the Manga's Horror Vibe Part 1: "There's a monster inside me"

Disclaimer: I am not an expert in the art of animation and manga. My opinions here are simply what I've observed as someone who's into design and one who used to draw before, as well as being a horror story enthusiast.

Now, I love the Blue Lock anime. The animation is smooth, the soundtrack hypes you up, and above all, it emphasizes the supporting characters and their interactions with each other. However, when it comes to implementing the horror aspect that is ever present in the manga... it's really lacking.

I first noticed this in Bachira's "I have a monster inside me" scene in episode 2, but back then I dismissed it as just simply me being too greedy and wanting more Bachira content. But from the latest episode that came out today (ep 6), where Bachira has only a few scenes, I guess I really wasn't imagining it.

My initial complaint is how they did not animate this particular Bachira:

That pose of Bachira stooping down and leaning towards us was something I had been looking forward to, but in the anime, all we got was this:

A simple nod before it all fades to black to make way for a flashback.

Now, let me break this down.

In the manga, before Bachira tells us about his monster, we have this:

Very mundane. Nothing much to say. Bachira is just standing there and looking pretty harmless...

But then all of a sudden...

Bachira swoops in towards Isagi, and art-wise, towards us readers, taking us off-guard. Keep in mind that the panel above is on a new page. When reading on a physical manga copy, after turning the page of a harmless Bachira thinking over Isagi's question, we are immediately greeted with this dark and unsmiling Bachira. It's basically the manga equivalent of a jump scare.

[From hereon, I'm gonna refer to these especially creepy moments as "monster scenes" for simplicity and ease of writing.]

In the manga, we can really see the horror being implemented in the actual story-telling and not just in the monster scene drawings.

This is not the case in the anime.

Sure, we got a creepy 3D monster and Bachira's and Isagi's cool egoist modes—but all these horror stuff are treated like icing on a cake and not the cake itself. The anime is making it no different from every other sports anime's "zone" moments.

Now, let's go back to the anime version. Below is a video of the entire scene for reference. I've cut out a bulk of the flashback coz we're not gonna focus on that.

Everything is so fucking bright.

Just look at this frame:

The "sunlight" is literally shining down on Bachira. Yeah, yeah, I know it's the overhead lights, but colors convey mood, okay? And the mood I'm getting from looking at that frame are all on the neutral to good range. It looks as if Bachira is going to give some profound life talk—which, in itself, is not bad, considering how they immediately follow it with this:

Not bad at all, really. The anime got the mundane-to-creepy shift okay.

But then that's it.

Right after this is a peek of Bachira's past, and once we're done with that, he's still just standing there in harmless mode. The monster scene that should've already started was cut off.

Now, there's no tension at all.

I mean, there is some tension brought about by the curiosity of what this monster is all about. But this tension is mild, leaning more towards casual curiosity than thrilling suspense.

In the manga, there is action. Bachira is immediately playing in egoist mode, and he's got this never-before-seen serious look on his face, putting the mood in the dark range.

In the anime version, however, they take an entirely different approach. They're using mischievous!Bachira and not serious!Bachira. Look at him smirk:

(And it's still so fucking bright—more on the anime's colors later)

Unlike in the manga where we are thrusted into a monster scene the moment Bachira says "There is a monster inside me," in the anime, getting there is taking some time. In the frame above, we are not yet in a monster scene at all. Him just standing there is probably him recalling that memory of his and still soaking in the emotions it brought him.

Don't get me wrong, though; I love the addition of Bachira's flashback. But I think the animators could've done something to keep the tension while also inserting the flashback. Maybe they could've interspersed the flashback while Bachira is dribbling instead of just showing us his feet? I don't know, I'm not an expert. I can point out problems, but don't expect me to know how to fix them.

Moving on... The part where the anime actually enters the monster scene is here:

And let's be honest. This turned out more homoerotic than the manga version. Isagi looks like he's having a gay panic, whereas in the manga he looks terrified.

And knowing the fact that the anime director acknowledges Bachira's love for Isagi, it won't be too farfetched to say that anime!Bachira looks lovestruck. You can even hear it in his voice.

Now kiss.

Anyways, my point for Part 1 is: Emphasizing the characters' relationships is sacrificing some of the horror vibe.

I will go more into this in a different post. For now, I'm ending Part 1 here. I'd like to add some more examples + videos, but Tumblr only allows one video per post...

Stay tuned!

[hourly-yugi]

Please feel free to delete if this perspective isn't wanted. I studied psychology (only to a BS level, no specific classes related to DID, although I've done continuing education stuff with it; not a doctor nor an expert; have a family member who may or may not have DID, long story). I'll use language that I learned in psych literature which may not be accurate to the terms used in advocacy communities today, sorry about that. I am not aware of them being offensive but will check the comments on this post for feedback if it's published.

Disclaimers out of the way -

The way I see yugioh's portrayal of DID with Malik is def inaccurate for a lot of reasons (remember it was written in the 90s by an artist), but when I think of that, the first thing I think of is the "only one alter" thing. A lot of media does this (consider the infamous Sybil). The portrayal of it being a dissociative disorder in response to abuse is not something you do tend to see though. Of course the ending where Yami Malik is destroyed contradicts my understanding of modern therapy practice, which is to help alters live together heathily.

Imo it may be better to read Yami Malik as an aspect of Malik's mental health influenced both by DID and the corrupting dark powers of the Rod. I know that's a bit of a copout but I really think that, within the narrative, if everything else was the same but the Rod wasn't there, things would have developed much differently. You could argue that Malik would still have DID but maybe not violently (beyond what he did to his father in self defense).

But yugioh's most powerful statement on DID to me isn't about Malik at all. When Yuugi comes out to his friends as having another self inside of him, no one has ANY suspicion that there are supernatural forces at play. Their reactions of unconditional acceptance and cheering him on, assuring him that they'll support him no matter what, when Yuugi expected them to just ditch him. I cry every time.

If you just want that section of the manga, I can try to find that for you.

ty for sending this in, i do like how immediately accepting everyone is to yugi when he tells them abt yami, i think it really lends itself to the theme of friendship and accepting everyone for who they are which encompasses ygo,, this was very informative to read, tysm

[talia-rumlow]

Home Sweet Home (AU Rumlow X Reader) Chapter Three - You

Finally! Chapter Three is up. I am absolutely IN LOVE with this story. Remember to listen to the song!

Pairing: Brock Rumlow (Mechanic ex Military Brock) X Reader

Word Count: 2255

Summary: Brock just can´t help himself... Get ready for some romance <3

Warnings: Age-Gap (no explicit material yet)

DISCLAIMER: This is an AU story. But I still don´t own any of the MARVEL characters, only my original ones.

HAPPY READING!

Two hours later, you carry the bags with the snacks into the kitchen.

- I don't know about you guys, but I feel like we bought way too much chips for just the three of us!

Molly states, as she empties her bag on the counter.

- No worries, I'll take this off your hands!

Brock says, and grabs a bag of chips. You look at him. He grabbed your favorite.

- Hey! That's my favorite!

You yell, and try to snatch the bag from him. He lifts it over his head, and grabs your wrist with his other hand.

- I know. Why did you think I took it?

Molly and Jess looks from Brock and you, to each other. Not saying anything.

- Since you forced me to move into Jack's office for the night, this is the least you can do!

Brock says with a smirk. You try to reach the bag with your other hand, but Brock is faster. Grabbing you by the waist, lifting you up. You let out a little scream, when he puts you over his shoulder, walks over to the couch, and sits you down on it. You get right back up again.

- Arrg.. FINE! Just give me my chips back!

Brock throws the bag at you, you catch it.

- Can we at least get a few hours of girl talk? Pretty please..

You ask, tilt your head, and curle a flick of your hair around your finger.

- I'm gonna go for a run!

He says, before he leaves.

- Big baby...

You mutter to yourself, when you get some stuff out of the cabinet.

About ten minutes later, you, Molly and Jess are sitting poolside with beers and chips. Feet in the water, and the afternoon sun peaking through the trees.

- You were flirting with him!

Jess suddenly say.

- I was not!

You answer, friendly nudging her shoulder.

- Yes you were. Right Molly?

Jess doesn't back down.

- Definitely flirting.

Molly agrees.

You don't say anything. Instead you take a sip of your beer.

- And he was flirting with you too...

Jess continues. Your heart skips a beat, when you hear her words mixed with the memory from the pool earlier. Is it possible that she might be right? Is Brock flirting with you?

- Oh please, Jess. I've known him my entire life. He always was like this with me.

You say, trying to deny everything, and derail the conversation.

- He was like that when you were ten, YN! You're not ten anymore. This is flirting. And intense flirting at that.. It included touching..

Jess says, and gives you that i-am-older-and-know-better look.

- Aha.. And you're the expert on this particular topic?

You say, and take another big gulp of your beer.

- Well, since I am the only one out of the three of us that have actually had sex....

Jess puts her hands behind her head, and lies down on her back.

- .... I believe I have the upper hand in this.

You and Molly look at each other. Great, drag virginity into it, when the topic is you flirting with an older man.

It's not like you never had the opportunity. But every single time you got a boyfriend, your dad managed to scare them away. Overly protective, and kinda scary, if you didn't know him. Both your dad and Brock used to be army buddies. And they both did work abroad, when you were a baby. Brock had actually saved your dads life at one point, when their convoi was attacked. Your dad still had a scar on his face from that day. And that in itself, made him look scarier than he actually was. So no boyfriend of yours ever stayed long enough for the sex part to happen.

- What you don't know, you don't miss! Right, Molly?

You say, and get to your feet.

- Right...

Molly answers. Her voice sounds almost sad. Jess sits back up again.

- I didn't mean it like that, Molly? I'm sorry.

Jess looks at Molly.

- OK! That's enough self pity for tonight, who's up for music?

Molly says, getting up.

- Hell yes!

Jess almost jumps to her feet.

Pretty soon music flows from your outdoor speakers. The temperature is starting to drop, so you all put on better clothes, before you open a bottle of wine, and sit down to enjoy the Texas summer evening.

Kilo lies in his spot under a three by the back of the garage, you're facing away from him, and the music is loud, but you can still hear it. Brock is talking to Kilo. "I'm just gonna play a bit with your mom and her friends! OK, buddy?" You get up, and face him. Point your finger at him.

- No, you're not!

You say, getting Molly and Jess' attention.

- Yes, I am!

Brock answers, coming towards you.

- No, you're not!

You try again. He smiles, almost laughs.

- Oh, yes, I. Am!

He says again, before he grabs both Molly's legs and waist, carrying her like a baby towards the pool. Molly desperately trying to get away. Screaming for him to stop. You and Jess look at each other. Jess getting ready to run, as it looks.

A splash, as Molly hits the water.

- SOAKING WET!!

Molly yells.

Brock makes his way back towards you and Jess.

- Brock, we just put these clothes on!

You try.

- Then let's hope they brought a change of clothes.

He answers, walking past you, approaching Jess.

- I did not!

Jess yells. Turning to run, but Brock is faster. Grabbing her by the waist, lifting her over his shoulder walking back towards the pool. She also yells for him to let her go. But you can hear on her voice that she at least finds it a bit funny. At least they won't be mad at you. You hope.

You take a breath, before you walk towards the pool. Another splash, as Jess hits the water.

- Aaaarrrrg!

Jess yells when she comes to the surface again.

Brock approaches you. You lift your hands.

- Brock, don't you dare!

You say, taking a couple of steps backwards. Brock rubs his hands together.

- You already threw me in there one time today!

You yell, as he once again lifts you up, walks the two or three steps over to the pool, and throws you in.

You reach the surface of the water, and splash towards him with all your might.

- I'm so getting back at you for this!

Brock laughs at the three of you, standing in the pool, with all your clothes still on, even your shoes.

- My shoes!

Molly says, looking down in the water.

- I need another drink. Do you have clothes, YN?

Jess says, then she starts to laugh. Dragging you and Molly along with her. Thank God they didn't get mad.

Fifteen minutes later you're all back outside with dry clothes on. Still laughing.

Brock is behind the bar your dad made several years ago. All three of you walk over, and sit down on the stools by the bar.

- So, how about that drink?

Jess casually asks. Brock looks at her.

- You're a fiesty one...

He takes up a glass, and places it in front of Jess.

- Let's see.. I think you'd like whiskey.

Then he gets up a bottle of Jack Daniels, and pours a glass for Jess.

He's not wrong. This is Jess' go to choice of drink. You're actually a bit impressed.

He moves over to Molly. Takes up another glass.

- And you... You feel like a more tropical one. I bet you drink Armadillo Punch. A tiny bit more heavy on the rum.

He start to mix ingredients together, before handing Molly an orange with hints of pink drink, garnished with a slice of orange.

You know he's right. You don't even know if Molly knows another drink. How is he doing this?

You swallow when he comes over to your place. Looking at you. He's smiling.

- Well, you're just fiering on all cylinders tonight, aren't you? And you're a Rollins....

He takes up a small glass and a t-spoon. You already know what he'll make. B52. And you clear your throat. When the drink is finished, he gets a lighter up, and lights the top of your drink.

- Bottoms up. This'll bring you straight to the floor.

You put your straw into the drink, and drink it from bottom to top, just as you should. And fast, so the straw doesn't melt.

After a bit more talking, and drinking. You say goodbye to Molly and Jess. You walk over to the pool, when Brock starts to clean the bar.

- Hey, Brock! I think there's something wrong with the pool. Could you please check it for me?

Brock looks towards you, puts down the bottle he's holding, and comes over.

- Down there. See?

You say, pointing down in the water. Brock leans down to see better. That's when you make your move. You push his lower back with all your might, and he goes head first into the pool. You laugh a bit.

He reaches the surface, dragging his wet hair back.

- I let you do that!

He says. Not mad, actually he's smiling.

- I told you I'd get back at you!

You say, triumphantly.

He walks over to the edge of the pool, extends a hand to you.

- Ok! Bury the hatchet?

He moves his hand closer to you. You slowly take it, and the instant you do, you get that this wasn't at all a good idea. Brock drags you into the water. You let out a little scream, before your head hits the water.

You quickly get back up, your hair in a big mess in front of your face.

- What the hell, Brock!

You yell, before you lie back in the water to get your hair away from your face. When you get back up, Brock is standing right in front of you. His white t shirt sticking to his abs in the water. You swallow.

- I bet you're still ticklish!

He says, before he starts to poke your sides with his fingers. You desperately trying to get him to stop, walking backwards, laughing from the tickling and trying to fight him off. Your back hits the side of the pool, now you have nowhere to go.

He stops. Stands in front of you. You're still in recovery mode from the tickling, when he reaches up to your face, removing a hair, one of his fingertips brushing over your lips. You look at him. Your heart beating like crazy.

He leans in a bit closer, swallows, you can see that on his throat. He lifts his hand up and touches the side of your face, two of his fingers slides in behind your ear. You take a breath.

- YN...

- Brock...

He plants a gentle kiss on your lips. His nose lingers next to yours. You part your lips, and meet his once more. You let the tip of your tongue touch his. Let your hands rest on his hips. Your heart beating out of your chest. You're kissing him. You're kissing Brock.

His free hand touches your hip, and his lips finds yours once more. The darkness around you, and the lights from the pool, the noises the water makes when you move so softly towards each other. It's the most intense experience you've EVER had.

Your tongues find each other again. The kisses are slow and tender. He is careful, considerate. His breathing between kisses. You're actually kissing Brock. This is insane!

He slips his arms around you, slowly dragging you closer to him. You wrap your arms around his neck. The water makes you almost weightless, so you lift up your legs, and wrap them around his waist. Soft noises from the water, as your bodies move closer.

His strong hands so gently on your back, his lips softly meeting yours. His nose lingering next to yours every time you stop.

Your lower back hits the side of the pool again, and his hands glide farther up your back, almost up to your shoulders. You let your hands glide up to his hair. You always thought it looked like full wool, so dark and always perfect, and in a way you always wanted to be able to touch it like this.

His lips so soft on yours, you never had a kiss like this before. His movements so soft, careful and considerate. Maybe he knows that you're a virgin...

Suddenly he stops. It's almost like he was hypnotised. He looks at you. Lets go of you.

- I shouldn't have done that..

He says. You swallow. You almost feel like Cinderella at midnight. What just happened?

- Fuck! I shouldn't have done that.

- Brock...

You say. Reaching for him. He leans his forehead into yours.

- Are you OK?

He asks, gently lets his hands grab your face.

- I'm fine, Brock. Are you OK?

He let's his thumb brush over your lip.

- I really shouldn't have done that, YN!

He looks at you, intense.

- Why?

You ask, trying not to cry.

- Lets get out of these wet clothes.

He says, taking your hand, helping you out of the pool.

You follow him, holding his hand. It's big, and rough. Like a mechanics hand should be. You have no idea what will happen next, or if anything will happen at all. But you know you can live off of that kiss in the pool for the rest of your life.

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[seedlessmuffins]

hi!! so i’m going to the carolina hurricanes vs new york islanders game this sunday and i am almost entirely clueless about either team (and most of the sport but your info post was so helpful) 😭

if there’s any fun facts or interesting things (even if it’s drama or the players being silly) you know about them i’d love to hear, especially the hurricanes since that’s my home team! i’m not sure how much you follow either team, so if you don’t know much or this is a silly question, feel free to ignore

sorry if this breaks hockey etiquette or anything 😭 i wouldn’t expect someone to ask me for fun facts about real madrid lol but you are the resident hockey mutual here so <3

hello lovely anon! first of all, thank you for this ask i am so honoured that you thought of me as the person to go to for these questions, i love it so much! mwah! not breaking much hockey etiquette, i just have to apologize because these teams aren't my team so im not an expert, i just did my best! second of all (before i answer fully lol), i just want to say a disclaimer! hockey isn't as popular in the us as it is in canada, so for some us teams there isn't a lot of information because people in the city are more interested in american football or basketball. unfortunately, raliegh is one of those places. i listened to like 3 hours of canes podcasts, read so many articles, and literally scoured the internet for canes content and i found almost nothing. bestie im so so sorry! i did my best! because there isn't a big fanbase, there isn't many people reporting on this team, many fanpages, or much info about silly moments or drama :( i did my best to give you an overview of the two teams, a crash course in live hockey, some helpful links to learn more about the canes, and some silly stuff about the islanders (because they have so much historical drama!) i hope you enjoy this post and your game bestie ily

Live hockey

when going to a live hockey game, there are a few things you need to know before you go! live hockey is more similar to american football than footie, because the stadiums are quite small so the games are quite catered to people who are watching at home. here are some basics specific to live hockey

there are 3 20 minute periods with 15 minute intermissions in between each. during this intermission, you get to see the zamboni, a machine that cleans the ice to make it hard and smooth before each period. during the period, there will be between 1 and 3 TV time outs, where play will pause for 2 or so minutes so that the ice ladies and gents can shovel the ice with shovels, because the snow builds up and makes it hard to skate. during this time, usually most stadiums do fun games (like kiss cam, lookalike cam, that type of thing) during this time to keep the audience engaged! (zamboni for reference!)

if the game is still tied at the end, the game will go to overtime, and possibly the shootout. these are the best moments of the game! some people like to leave a bit early to beat traffic, but as long as the person/people you're going with agree, i would recommend staying the whole time. after a win, the team will come out onto the ice to celebrate with the fans (its similar but different from footie), and they will award the 3 stars of the night! its totally worth it to stay until the end

crowd atmosphere is so so different from every other sport. usually when watching hockey, everyone is sitting and just watching, there are some chants (idk the canes chants sorry!) but usually there isn't much crowd participation unless there's a goal. the game moves so quickly, you have to really focus to know whats going on (and the puck is small and hard to see it moving!)

watching the game: there are big jumbotrons in the middle of the rink that will show the score, the shots, how much time is left, and a recording of what is being showed from the tv cameras. it is so helpful to watch, especially when there is zoomed in shots. don't worry if you end up watching the jumbotron and the ice for equal amounts of time! i did that all the time as a kid because its honestly pretty hard to follow just looking at the ice unless you really know the game well

penalties! i know they are confusing, but when a player gets a penalty there will be an announcement for what the penalty is for (and who is on the power play), and the jumbotron will show a countdown of how long is left in the penalty! it is always fun to watch penalties, and you can pretty easily look up what each penalty means as they are announced

the night you're going is military appreciation night! i have no idea what this means lol. sorry! in canada we don't really do that sort of thing to the same degree, we did something for remembrance day but that is it lol. what i can sense from the website is that the canes will wear special jerseys for warmup, and they will probably have some military stuff throughout the night

2. overview of the teams

ok, so the hurricanes. hurricanes are doing very well this season, they have won 47 of their 74 games (as im writing this, they just lost their game tonight lol) and they have secured their spot in the stanley cup playoffs! they are at the top of their division, and they are looking to secure that spot by earning points in the remaining 8 games of the season. you are going to watch one of the last games of the season, and the goal for the canes will be to win to be confident going into the playoffs. strengths of the canes include their goaltending, their penalty kill (when they have one less player on the ice, they usually can prevent the other team from scoring) and their defence. weaknesses include scoring, they don't have a "star striker" that scores a bunch of goals, as their star striker recently got injured, and they also don't make the most of the power play (when the other team has one less man on the ice, they aren't consistent about taking advantage and scoring). here's my lil hurricanes summary for you (please ignore my messy writing i did my best)

lets meet the opponent! the islanders are in a rocky position, as they are fighting two other teams for a wildcard spot into the playoffs. they need to win every game they can to get in. the islanders are hungry, at the trade deadline (transfer window in hockey) they bought a bunch of players to try and improve their squad for the playoffs. they have won 39 of 76 games, they are fourth in their division, and they want to book a trip to the playoffs so this game is crucial for them to win. i didn't do as much research about the islanders (again im so sorry!), but i know that a strength of the islanders is their goaltending, they have one of the best goalies in the league in sorokin. weaknesses, im sure they have many i just don't know what they are. here's my islanders summary (again, sorry about my writing)

3. the lore

lou lamoriello. this guy is a character. he is old school hockey, he's over 80 years old, and he has been in the league forever. everything i hear from him seems like something either a cartoon villain or jose mourinho would say. he hates beards, and makes all his players shave when they are on his team. he won't let players wear high numbers because its not traditional. every quote he has is absolute gold because he could not care less about his public perception. he is his own boss, and you can tell because this man is unhinged. some gems include "i am not going to make a decision to make a decision," "i really wasn't thinking about it to tell you the truth," and "lets be careful how far we go with that"

islanders as a team. they are from long island, which is like new york's suburb cousin. they won the stanley cup 4 years in a row, set so many league records, and were thriving in the early 80s. then, they did nothing at all for almost 20 years and almost had to be relocated because their arena was literally, physically crumbling and the ice was warming up during games. iconic.

during this down era, random guy john spano tried to buy the team and almost succeeded. he faked bank statements and taxes stating he was a multi-millionaire, and he was the owner of the team for a few months. it wasn't successful, because he was really just a random small business owner from new york. the whole story is kind of unbelievable, there are many documentarties about it. this happened in the 90s. absolutely hilarious

bo horvat. bo horvat was the canucks captain for 3 years and he just got traded to the islanders in january. there's no lore here, i just love and miss bo horvat on the canucks. my heart broke when he left and i hope he's doing well

4. helpful links

because im not a canes expert, heres some useful resources for more information! this tiktok page is from a new canes fan as well, she goes to games and explains hockey as she learns it. her tiktoks are super helpful for info about the hurricanes game experience, and hockey for beginners! (i do my best but i think some of what i say doesn't make sense because some of this stuff ive known since i was little, so i can't explain it well. she does a way better job) and this podcast is helpful for game previews! they post a short 10 minute episode every day, so it is easy to keep up with and has lots of helpful canes specific information. other helpful pages are the carolina hurricanes social media, especially twitter and instagram. they will post pictures and gameday updates that will have info in them about the players, the lineups, and more fan content!

this is where you see that im a writer lol. im so sorry this is so long (and that there's so many footie references, im assuming you're a footie friend so if you're not im sorry)! i hope you find this helpful, this was super fun to make and write. i hope you enjoy your game, let me know how it goes! go canes (just for this one day for you, anon)!

[luxshine]

Moon Knight Deep Dive (Prologue)

BEFORE the Moon Knight, Setting the System. Sorta. (Werewolf by Night #32-33, Marvel Spotlight #28-29, The Defenders #47-51, Spectacular Spider Man #22-23, Marvel Two In One #52)

Ok, so, I said I was going to write this, so here it is. A DEEP dive on Moon Knight, that will start with facts and Data from his original appearances way back in Werewolf by night in 1975 (which means, the System is pushing 47!) the 1980 comic series, and we’ll follow it all the way until the current series, Devil’s Reign.  Obviously, I will not go through ALL the individual issues, only the important arcs, and the important characters. So we may skip some issues. Of course, I will try to pay special attention to the people and characters we met in the TV series, while we all wait for Marvel to not break our hearts and announce a Season 2 (I am starting to write this before Episode 6 airs, and I don’t think I will watch it until I finish at least this first part)

Couple of disclaimers before I start: I am a singlet, so I really don’t know what it’s like to live as a system, nor can really judge how accurate the comic writers are at writing one. I’m no expert on the language used by systems themselves, but I have been trying to learn, by listening to those in the fandom who are kind enough to share their experiences, and that means that I might slip up and mess up. So I apologize in advance, but also offer this: If anyone points me when I mess up? I will gladly edit those terms and do my best not to use them again.

On that note, I also want to point out for those singlets like me that I will ONLY be using the word “Alter” to refer to Marc, Steven and Jake (and those other alters that did appear for short runs later) individually If I am not naming them. If I use “Personality” is it to DESCRIBE people’s actual characteristics, such as “Marc’s personality is brash and impulsive, while Steven is more shrewd and analytic” which is the same way I’d describe, say, Frenchie or Marlene. And “Identity” will only be used to talk about, well, assumed names and stuff like secret identities, such as Moon Knight and Mr. Knight. While the term is never used in the comics as far as I remember, when talking about ALL the alters together, I will use the fandom name of Moon System.  Hope that is clear

Also, please remember that these first comics were written in the EIGHTIES. There were… some things that we now know are problematic, even if, I will have to be honest, some stories were downright progressive for the times. And after reading FIVE times the first volume for this, I still have NO idea if the creators, Doug Moench and Don Perlin, were really Trying to create a superhero with DiD or if that was what Bob Ross would call a happy accident because… well, you will see.

They do use the word “identity” a lot in these issues, but at the same time… well, you will see.

So let’s start with the first alter we met, Marc Spector

Whom we meet… as a villain. Hunting the titular Werewolf by Knight as a mercenary who gets GIVEN the Moon Knight costume and name because well, he was going to hunt a werewolf.  There’s really nothing that makes Moon Knight -or Marc- stand out from the run of the mile merc characters of Marvel, as he captures Jack Russell for the shadowy Committee, and, once he gets his money for the capture, changes his mind, frees Russell and helps him fight the Committee -while keeping the money.  Oh, and the uniform that, for purposes of Werewolf hunting? Was originally made of ACTUAL SILVER.

Pillar of Morality, Marc Spector was not.

Next he appeared in Marvel Spotlight, but we don’t meet Marc alone. We meet Steven, the millionaire, and now Moon Knight is a vigilante who lives in a Long Island Mansion, has a butler named Samuels (whom I adore but wouldn’t appear again until Moon Knight’s solo series), a valet named Merkins (Who is so obviously evil and just there so that later the villain can give us the exposition about Marc and the others) secretary named Marlene Fontaine. We also hear about Jake, a taxi driver that works in Brooklyn, and is constantly late which puts him in trouble with his boss, but is very good friends with a homeless man named Crawley who knows EVERYTHING about the crime in the city, and a Dinner’ owner named Gena who is a single mother of two children.

This story establishes that Marc IS Steven and Jake, but everyone -including the Villain who is the most ridiculously named man ever:  “Conquer-Lord”. Seriously – treats this as just names that Marc uses to make his job as a superhero easy. It also gives Marc enough combat training credentials that we can imagine he can go into a fight with Nick Fury and come out to a draw. But other than that, again, nothing in this story gives us any hint of the Moon system themselves, except that Frenchie calls Marc, well Marc, Marlene calls him Steven and Jake has a bit of a different accent. But nothing that tells us that each Alter is independent of the others, at least, not yet. So for now, rather than the Moon System, Moon Knight is still… a guy who apparently likes to collect identities as some other people collect trading cards.

But hey, in the good side? This time Moon Knight IS established as a vigilante who works for the good side, no longer a mercenary, and that everyone in his life (That is, the good butler, Marlene who is also his girlfriend, and Frenchie) know that he is Jake, Steven, Marc and Moon Knight. They also imply that Marc has at the very least, super strength, rumored to be from “werewolf saliva” but that particular thing was completely dropped pretty much immediately (unless you, fic writers, want to have fun with that). Oh, and that his time as a merc hunting Werewolves was part of an undercover mission and he was never really evil.

Next up came his appearance in The Defenders, where I got my wish and… Moon Knight fights Night Fury. To a standstill.

Still, that three issue arc is not really interesting as, since he is a guest star of a TEAM book, we never see them out of the cowl, nor have ANY idea of who was fronting. To be honest, I think that the Defenders’ appearance is really nothing out of the ordinary since he could’ve been replaced by ANY other caped hero and the story would’ve the same. (Well, when we talk about Moon Knight. For the general Marvel Universe, it has the origin of the first Zodiac and that will be important later.)

AFTER that, it was time to ramp up Moon Knight’s popularity by letting him guest star in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-man! And here, because Peter Parker definitely doesn’t move in the same circles as Steven Grant? We get to see Jake more, and he shines a bit, or at least as much as he can for two whole pages. Well, Jake and Gena, who pretty much shows that she ain’t no damsel in distress. 

We keep the rules that Marlene only calls them Steven, that Moon Knight is secretive of his identity in general, but he has an UNDERWATER ENTRANCE to get to the mansion as Moon Knight instead of, you know, landing with Frenchie. Oh, and Moon Knight has a huge batcave (Which of course can’t exist in the tv show as OUR Steven can’t afford that on a gift shop employee salary)

As you can see with this, Marvel REALLY wanted to establish Moon Knight as part of the Urban Legends of New York, so his next team up was with the Ever-Loving Blue Eyed Thing, Ben Grimm himself.

Now, this is important in many ways. First, we see Jake being very smart by picking Ben as a fare to follow a villain after said villain escapes both Ben AND Moon Knight and I love that. Because yeah, that WAS the purpose of Jake (From a writer’s point of view, not from the System point of view), to keep Moon Knight as close to the fight as possible. Second, we get even more confirmation that Marc was NOT just a soldier, he was also a Freelance CIA asset who was trained to withstand torture and brainwashing, AND that his non-mystical mask has a filter that keeps things like knockout gas away from his lungs.

Unfortunately, in this first team up with Ben, we do not get to know that the System is Jewish, that would come much, much later, but we know that at some point Ben found out, and that he still sends them Hannukah cards every year, even after Moon Knight had a falling out with the other superheroes.

After that, Moon Knight had a couple of appearances in Hulk Magazine but those later were chronologically placed AFTER his solo series debut, so we’ll check those when I get there. What it’s important from THESE first issues is that on one hand, the System was always there, even if at first they weren’t treated as Alters but as different identities that Marc took, that he ALWAYS had a backup team in the form of Marlene (even if, unfortunately, at first Marlene was there to be a nice damsel in distress) for Steven, Frenchie for Marc, and Crawley and Gloria for Jake, and that while the OTHER Marvel Superheroes knew of him, he mostly kept to his own. Oh, and that in those early days? There was no Khonshu -even if in Werewolf by Night he DOES send a quick prayer-thanks to the Moon despite in that moment being GIVEN the identity by the Mob. Ah, wonderful “early installment weirdness”- and NO ONE in the MU considered Marc insane. Even if, as I pointed out, Marlene exclusively calls him Steven, Frenchie always calls him Marc, and that when Jake is fronting, Jake doesn’t like it when they call him the wrong name. (Even if, to be honest, I am not sure the writers knew they were writing him as an alter back then)

So with this I finish the prologue, and I hope I can have NEXT part before next week if the Season (SEASON, damn it Marvel) finale doesn’t break us too much.  Tune in next time so we can see finally how Khonshu came to be part of the Moon Knight mythos, the first time we knew of the origins, and more importantly, WHEN it was established that the Moon System IS a system and not just a bored rich guy with a fake ID collection and thus, the rest of the MU started to see Moon Knight as the Hero with Mental Health Issues.

Part 1, The original Moench Run

Part 2, Moench continued

Part 3, The end of the Moench era.

Part 4, Fist of Khonshu and West Coast Avengers (Hawkeye Fangirl Khonshu)

Part 5, Marc Spector: Moon Knight (Aka. The Dixon Run, aka. Oh, god please stop)

Part 6, Moench returns. Then 2006, and the least we say about it, the better.

Part 7, Vengeance of the Moon Knight, the Bendis Run

Part 8, The Ellis Run

Part 9, The Lemire Run begins here

Part 10, The Lemire Run continues

Part 11, The Lemire Run (end of the first arc)

Part 12, The Lemire Run (Second act. TW: Integration talk)

Part 13: The Lemire Run ends.

Part 14: The Bemis Run begins (TW: Classism and ableism)

Part 15: The Bemis Run ends (TW: Classism, ableism and anti-semitism.

Part 16: Avengers, Age of Khonshu

Part 17: The MacKay Run until issue 11, Devil's Reign and Black, White and Blood. That's all for now.

[xplrvibes]

I'm sorry. It's been a bit since I actually did one of these, but...I had to. It's like an itch that I just had to scratch, lol.

Behind the cut are my thoughts on episodes 5 and 6 of the so-called season 2: Bower's Mansion and Victoria's Black Swan Inn.

But before you hit that keep reading button: please for the love of all that is good and pure, READ THE DISCLAIMER.

Try to remember that I am just some goof with a blog and a lot of opinions, and I am not the world's foremost expert on all things Sam and Colby. If you don't like what I said, don't lose sleep over it.

Opinions are defined as: "A view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge."

So, I didn’t really talk much about Bower’s Mansion- and that wasn’t for any bad reason, I actually did like the episode- but I do want to take this opportunity to talk about one thing that I just need to get off my chest about Bower’s: The Door.

If I’m allowed one critique about this episode, its that they didn’t even attempt to figure out if the door closing multiple times in a night could be anything other than paranormal. I 100% believe Colby had nothing to do with that door closing the second time (even if the way he moved away from the door right before it closed was a bit...suspicious).  His absolute panic at the jump scare, plus them catching the door closing on camera later in the night really sealed the deal of his innocence for me.  That being said- to me, a door closing three times in one night makes it more likely that it can be ascribed to a creaky old malfunctioning door in a creaky old abandoned house, rather than anything paranormal.  

However, they get eternal brownie points for finally acknowledging that Colby got some shit going on with him, which as you know, has been my mission statement since the dawning of the age of aquarius, and they gave us a ton of sweet sweet cat footage, so...they get an overall 8/10 on that episode from me.

Now, onto this latest episode (Victoria's Black Swan Inn).

This episode was just ok to me.  I don’t know why, but it felt a little...rushed. It almost felt like they left a few key scenes out for some reason.  And I feel, at the end of the day, that maybe there just wasn’t much interesting evidence or paranormal stuff that happened in this episode, and maybe that’s why it felt kind of off, but I did definitely notice it.

Anyway, there were some pro's and some con's. So, I'm going to highlight some of those below. These are in no particular order:

Pro: Sam, Colby and Nate's relationship is top tier. They work really well together and you can just see how much they truly enjoy each other's company- and how many years of history they have between them. I don't think snc gel with anyone quite as smoothly as they do with Nate.

Con: I couldn’t follow along with the story of what supposedly happened in this house.  Maybe I was too tired, or maybe the editing was a little choppy, but...I don’t know.  There was a lady who died somehow (I think they mentioned like 3 different ways this woman could've died?), and a guy named Park Street who killed himself, only maybe he didn’t, only maybe he did?  And somehow they were connected, and then there was some guy named Porkelroy or something? And a dude that died trying to save a horse, but I don't know if he was the Porkelroy guy or someone totally unrelated? I don’t know.  I really don’t know. 

Pro: I don't know why Sam and Colby had to take their shirts off and stand so awkwardly in the corner to scare Nate, but when I tell you I laughed...

I mean, why are they standing like this???!!

This will haunt my nightmares, but in the best of ways. Nate said it best: "I don't know whether to be scared or aroused."

Con: Outside of the Estes Method, which I'll get to in a sec, there really wasn't much in the way of super cool paranormal activity, so I feel like the things thay were happening they were really dialing up to 11. The flashlights were fun, I guess, and I'm happy they remembered that they own a thermal camera, but...I don't know.

I didn't buy that shadow figure thing at all...mostly because I didn't see anything. Like Sam literally pointed the camera in the other direction at first, like wtf lol. And even when they did zoom in...maybe my bad eyesight is catching up to me, but I didn't see shit.

Also...Sam kept saying this is the first time he saw a shadow figure, but he supposedly saw one at the Conjuring and the Bellaire House, so he's on like his third first with that whole thing.

Pro: The Estes Method Sessions were both cool. First of all, did anyone catch Colby rocking along in perfect tandem with Nate while Nate was under? So random, lol.

But second of all- while it was kind of weird to throw Colby in the closet and be yelling questions through the door at him, watching him practically hypnotize himself while he was doing the Estes Method really upped the creep factor. I don't know wtf they were even trying to get out of the lady, cause I couldn't follow that whole story worth a damn, but it was still cool!

Con: This is just a minor thing, but don't be tracking wet shoes and mud all through that old ass house with them old ass floors, boys. Also, the bare feet- wasn't Nate running around barefoot all night? Couldn't those tracks have been him?

Pro: The psychomanteum thing, was very very interesting to me. I didn’t for a second buy that it was paranormal in any way, shape or form, but my god was it fascinating in a psychological way. I loved it, I loved hearing about the state of almost hypnosis that they put themselves in and the things they saw, and I would love to do some kind of deep dive and figure out what some of that says about one's psyche.

Also, Nate is quite the wordsmith lol. "Obsidian wells" sounds like the name of a town on a soap opera. 🤣

*

And this is not a pro or a con, but a random observation: There was something really funky happening with Colby in this entire episode. I don't know if he hotboxed beforehand, or what, but he was...off. At a couple different points, he was staring off into space like he was seeing/hearing things the others weren't, he randomly started smelling gunpowder, and he just seemed...drained. Even before the whole psychomanteum/Estes Method thing, he just seemed off. I don't know what that was about, perse, but it was noticeable- at least to me. Anyone else?

Anyway, this one was solid on the interactions between the boys and had some fun moments, but it was kind of filler for me. I'll give it a 6.5/10, and I guess we'll see what's in store for next week!

[kermtalkscomics]

Just read: Superman Secret Origin

Hi! First time doing this, sort of just my review and thoughts on a piece of media I just consumed. Disclaimer: I'm no expert, just a guy who likes comics.

So, last night I ticked Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank off my 2023 reading list. For years it's been a book that I've wanted to read, I just never had a large enough desire to buy it outright or ask for it for Christmas. After seeing a few panels shared on Twitter I decided since it's so short I might as well finally get through it via DC Universe Infinite and here I am!

Wanted to immediately share that I absolutely ADORED the first three issues. Clark's relationship with his family and his introduction to Metropolis are such great moments that had me grinning the entire time. The book takes a more simplistic approach to Clark's early life drama with his parents by sort of just... not doing it. Aside from learning he's from Krypton, Clark fully embraces the Kents, and the Kents do the very same and it's all so wonderfully written.

I particularly LOVED Clark's relationship with his Father, having grown up in a rural part of the United States myself it's really heartwarming to see how they interact and how much Pa Kent reminds me of people in my family.

Another great element of the book is the art. Since reading Doomsday Clock back in high school, I've felt that Gary Frank illustrates my ideal version of Clark Kent and he absolutely delivers here. The timid and shy-farmboy-turned-confident-protector is evolved so smoothly through Frank's art and I'd argue that the book is worth checking out for the art alone.

Clark's relationships with the people around him are really great too. This book perfectly, albeit simplistically, introduces us to all of the important players in Clark's life along with his role in theirs. The staff of the Daily Planet makes up such a fun and close-knit cast of workers that perfectly bounces off of Clark.

So yes, as far as the good of the book goes there's a lot to love! The art is incredible and Clark's relationship with the cast around him comes naturally and is written with care the entire way through. For me, this book feels like the perfect modernization of the Christopher Reeve Superman origin. Also, for somebody like me who struggles to stay optimistic, I really appreciate the optimism and hope that a good Superman book can bring to me and this book adequately meets that bar too.

Now, onto the not-so-great stuff. I wouldn't say there are necessarily bad qualities in this book, but there are parts that seem underbaked or lackluster compared to other modern Superman origin stories. I feel like it's important to view a piece of media through the lens of what we received rather than what wasn't there, but with Superman's 80-year-history and the role he plays in the world that he's a part of, there are some missing elements that I really wish were explored here.

For the record, many of these comparisons I'm making come from my appreciation for Superman: Birthright, which is another book that I really enjoy.

An element of the story that I don't necessarily love is Lex Luthor. In this story Lex is absolutely rotten from day 1 with no humanity or real redeeming qualities, he's sort of a jerk the entire way through. That's fine of course if we're referring to adult Lex, but since a decent amount of the early chapters covered Lex's origin I really wish we got some more humanity like we did in Birthright.

Is Lex Luthor being a tragic villain necessary to Clark Kent's development? Not really, but that layer adds so much to their relationship.

Another issue is an apparent lack of Clark interacting with the world outside of the United States. What I feel is a great part of Superman is the fact that he's committed to the protection of the world entirely, not just the United States. Birthright and even Man of Steel extensively showed us Clark traveling the world and learning more about life in general. Superman should be just as capable of saving somebody in the middle east as he is of saving somebody in Metropolis. This isn't to say that Clark's good morals can't be founded exclusively in his upbringing in Smallville, but there's a great deal of appreciation when you think about how Superman actively learned about everybody in the entire world and how he could best suit their needs.

Along with that, I honestly sort of missed Clark's relationship with Krypton in this book. This is a weird sentiment coming from me, in Birthright, Man of Steel, and All-Star I honestly lose a little bit of interest when there is a lot of time committed to Krypton, I personally have just never been super in tune with that part of his lore. All this to say that the bare minimum that this book does to establish that Clark is Kryptonian honestly left me wishing for more. And though the idea of Superman being an alien is explored in this story, I would have liked to have seen him be more in touch with his heritage.

To conclude, this is a book that I absolutely enjoyed, I especially loved the earlier chapters. That said, I believe it has shortcomings in the way that it doesn't give other elements of Clark's life proper depth and attention. If I were to teach a non-comic reader Superman's origin story I'd probably refer them to this, it's a simplistic but heartfelt take on the Man of Steel's origin story. Though, I feel like if somebody was interested in the more nuanced ideas that Superman represents I'd definitely suggest Birthright or even All-Star as a starting read for the character.

Arbitrary grading scale: 7/10

[satohqbanana]

What Even is the Eastern Empire?

A.k.a. Anne tries to understand which culture it tries to represent. And the TL;DR is, "I think they tried to make it 'Asia' in the way Westerners understand 'Asia', but they ended up making it a huge melting pot of culture that it reads more like 'Southeast Asia' to me."

Welcome back to Anne posts weird stuff, and today this post is all about Aveyond and the Eastern Empire. As a disclaimer, I'd like to remind you that I'm from the Philippines which means I am Southeast Asian, and what you may read here is a limited POV of what looks like/feels like (different parts of) Asia. This analysis is also limited to the location's incarnation in Aveyond 1 as I am not too familiar with Aveyond 3.

What is the Eastern Empire in Aveyond lore?

The Eastern Empire is the second major location in Aveyond 1. Made of at least two major cities, it is located on the northern portion of the Eastern Isle of Arishta. The Empire is known to practice slavery and produce exemplary sorcerers and sword singers in Shadwood Academy. It is also surrounded by forests and what seems to be either mud rivers or shallow rivers.

Now, Why Would It Be East Asia?

Here are the reasons why it is believed the Eastern Empire is an equivalent of East Asia.

1: Its final (Build C) soundtrack.

The BGM titled something like “Japanesque” in Aaron Walz' list (it's actually not included in his album for some reason!) and it sounds exactly like how your stereotypical "traditional Chinese" BGM would sound like.

2: The architecture in Veldarah and Ejindro.

Both cities have these triangular roof structures. Ejindro is spot-on with the red roofs, while Veldarah has green ones.

3: The interiors.

The walls of majority of the buildings in Ghalarah seem to look paper-like, while in Veldarah they are paneled walls. The windows has these patterns and what looks like scroll paintings above them. These may be a callback to traditional Chinese or Japanese interior design. The bed design may perhaps be inspired by a traditional Chinese canopy bed.

Blue peacocks are in abundance in China too like with India, and there are lots of blue peacock feather decorations. You also have the traditional Chinese lion statues (though inaccurate because they were simplified). There are also no visible chairs around tables (though in one instance there were pillows), sword decors up walls, and pine-like and palm-like trees as indoor plants.

4: The Empress.

I believe this is a callback to Emperor/Empress Wu Zetian of China, the so-called only female emperor of China. It’s also fitting that Empress Telin doesn’t seem to have spouses or kids, much like how Wu Zetian is not really surrounded by (immediate) family by the time she rose to power.

5: The uniforms of Shadwood.

While similar uniforms are used in the School of War and Magick, we see these default sprites first used in Shadwood. The uniform is composed of kimono tops and pants, reminiscent of real-life uniforms for various East Asian sports.

6: The skin colors of the citizens of the Eastern Empire.

The devs used standard RTP skin colors, but lighter-skinned Asians are concentrated more in the North/East Asian parts of the world.

But, Why Would It Be Southeast Asia?

Notice how those points are a very broad, very stereotypical characterization of “Asia” as many Westerners paint it as. However, the finer details really speak out more as “Southeast Asia” to me, not only because it looks like a melting pot of culture from West and East, but also because of very particular things that just scream of “home” for me.

1: The trees in the forest.

Now, I'm not a plant expert, but the trees we see in the surrounding area of the Eastern Empire greatly resemble palm trees. Palm trees can exist in several areas, but they prefer hotter climates, such as Pacific Southeast Asia.

Also, when I went out Ghalarah the first time, I was like "Oh my gosh, that's just like home." The underdeveloped roads, the confusing paths, and the abundance of chickens just killed me.

2: The overall fashion and the names.

Sans the uniforms of Shadwood, the fashion in the Eastern Empire is rather very Western. I can't blame the devs for this as they were using RTP, but also, I'm bummed because the RTP does have sprite designs geared towards this aesthetic. The names seem to be more Western too.

This blend of Western and Eastern, however, is very Southeast Asia, though more modern Southeast Asia.

3: Ambiguous elements in the architecture and interior design.

They do use white, but the lack of red really removes it from the Eastern Asian design philosophies. The lack of triangular roofs and paneled walls/windows on the exterior also adds to this removal.

While peacocks were big during Ming Dynasty China, I'm not sure they actually displayed peacock feathers like that. Additionally, the walls and windows in Shadwood Academy and the Empress' palace are not very East Asian, but the bulb-like shape is more West/South Asian, implying that the Eastern Empire might actually have some Islamic-like influence, similar to Veldt. And boy, I’m excited to tell you that Southeast Asia has a good portion of Islamic population.

4: Rhen gets to keep her gold earrings even as a slave.

It's been mentioned in this one video that precolonial Southeast Asia is so rich of gold, that they don't care if slaves wore gold. (Yes, we also practiced slavery in the past.)

I don't have the receipts on this, but I do know from my Archaeology class that we did trade a whole looot of gold with our neighbors because that’s how rich we were in gold.

5: The tattoo on graduate sword singers (and sorcerers).

So that line about Lars and his mother in the Chinese translation of Aveyond 1? That replaced the scene with Mistress Rona seeing the tattoo on Rhen's hand and knowing she must now show respect to Rhen. Tattoos, however, are a taboo in East Asia, and they're associated with criminals. On the other hand, traditional Southeast Asia usually sees them as symbols of bravery, strength, and prowess.

6: Lars’ facesets being a little more tan/dark-skinned.

While the devs used RTP for most characters’ sprites, it doesn’t mean it’s 1:1 to the faceset colors (see: Pirate John). Lars’ faceset skin colors are the shade of brown I observe off my fellow Southeast Asians.

Conclusion

As a fantasy setting, the Eastern Empire I think is nicely-written. It’s very consistent, and I like how there are design elements both shared and limited to each of its cities. However, regarding its supposed real-life inspirations, it still seems so vague. While others peg it as “East Asia”, I peg it as “Southeast Asia” because of the blend of cultural influences.

Of course, I am not an expert on this subject, and these are merely my thoughts as a Southeast Asian. This analysis is also very limited to my personal experiences of Southeast Asia and China, and to the limit of my Google research. I highly suggest that you do your own research to confirm certain details.

If you do find discrepancies or additional details to what I’ve listed above, do discuss them; I’d love to hear about them!

[walkept]

overview — isildur.

+  disclaimers

› i love the movies, i do. flaws and all. but i reject the portrayal of isildur shown there. the scene at mount doom never happened and if i have to see one more meme about it i will throw myself into the fire. i also take with a grain of salt what's written in lotr and prefer to base my portrayal on ut.

› i haven't read every single tolkien thing there is to read. i am in no way an expert and i will probably make mistakes while i am in the slow process of either reading or re reading. and holding tolkien gateway to my chest like it's my first born son. which is to say correct me! tell me stuff! i will only appreciate it.

› trop friendly. this portrayal will be a mix of show and book canon anyway, but i will have a show verse for sure.

›  summary:  born in númenor. he is the son of elendil, son of amandil — the last lord of andúnië. after the fall of númenor he settles in middle earth and founds the realm of gondor with his brother anarion. there he chooses minas ithil, the tower of the moon ( minas morgul after it's taken by sauron ), as the seat of his house and jointly rules the south-kingdom from osgiliath with his brother.

›  re: corruption. quick summary for this is. was isildur corrupted by the ring? no. was he influenced by it? yes, to some degree. it takes him two years to change his mind and tell his son that the ring should have gone to the keepers ( i am assuming this means elrond and cirdan ), two years during which isildur never even touched the ring, let alone used it in any way. but he kept it close, around his neck. as a weregild, which sounds like an excuse. but i do think that he possibly would have come to this realization sooner, if the ring didn't influence him at least a bit. not to the extent where he would have thought of it, or written about it, as precious, however, since in the disaster of the gladden fields the text refers to it as a burden and nothing else. and indeed isildur — after a brief moment of despair — feels as if "a great burden had been taken away" when it slips from his finger.

›  divergence: by default, i will portray isildur as elendil's youngest child ( middle, if we talk trop ), switching his and anarion's dates of birth. obviously, this can change based on plotting, i am in no way holding anyone to this. it's just my preference.

playlist    /    pinterest / full bio.

[redotter]

Bit of an odd question, but I saw you write in Romanian and I was wondering how do you do it. I speak Romanian as a native but I find the language too bland to write in at times. Like I feel like I could be more expressive in English than in Romanian. Any advice?

Oh hi, thanks for the ask! I don't only write in romanian, besides poetry and the soarers series, where it makes sense for me from a technical and cultural point of view. From a marketing and online-ness perspective, writing directly in english is a better idea, so if you're already comfortable with that that's great!

But I know exactly what you mean, I also (ironically) have a really hard time expressing myself in romanian, since i emigrated a long time ago. I make a point to not forget it though, which is why both the country and the language come up a lot in my writing. So here's what works for me:

Write on topics you're comfortable discussing in romanian - 95% of my political and social justice vocabulary is in english, if i had to write an essay on stuff like internalized misogyny i could only do it in romglish. So Soarers is about kids with magical powers - this doesn't mean they don't have "woke" points to make, just that they're not gonna be very literate and detailed about them

Write about romanian stuff - if put in the right environment the brain will remember the right words. Set up the story in romania, give your characters some sarmale and then all of a sudden english doesn't fit as well anymore

Read romanian books - this somehow normalizes how the language sounds in a narrative format? For example perfectul simplu (ea/el merse și fură niște ridichi) sounds really clunky at first since it's never used in daily speech, but once you're familiar with it it's the most natural thing

Take advantage of language specific perks - romanian words somehow have more gravity to them: mi-e dor de tine hits 10x harder than i miss you. Soarers is overall less dramatic and flowery than my english wips (because otherwise it sounds cringey), but when it needs to be dramatic and flowery, boy IS IT

Take advantage of language specific perks 2, humour - an oc of mine once called a big snake șărpălău and i laughed out loud for 2 minutes straight. I especially like writing casual dialogue in romanian, "ce faci?" "da uite, m-am întins un minuțel, da de m-oi dez-îmbăta" has a certain ✨flavour✨ English has it's own untranslatable flavor, but try not to emulate it when writing in romanian, even though it's really tempting because of all the media

Find romanian writers online - i know a couple but they all write in english... It's still nice to know that at least some of your mutuals will understand your snippets lol

So that's my perspective on it (but obligatory disclaimer, I'm no expert, ask more people if you want to get a more nuanced opinion)! I hope it helps, let me know how it goes and feel free to talk more to me about it or your stories :)

[det2x-fanfic-dump]

HEADCANON: DEMON BROTHERS AS ANGELS (LEVIATHAN)

Lucifer | Mammon | Leviathan | Asmodeus | Beelzebub | Belphegore | Lilith/Satan

This is a reference for my fanfic series. Obey Me kinda gives a vague lore or maybe I just forgot and didn't read it properly. But here's my headcanons and takes on what I imagined the brothers' lives are as angels.

You can also see this as my character analysis lol

Disclaimer: This is inspired from the game and my basic understanding in Theology. I am no expert in Theology and I may be religiously-biased writing this.

WHEN HE WAS AN ANGEL:

Leviathan is resourceful and diligent at his angelic duties. He shows his worries through action and not words. So yes...we can say he went through that silent protagonist phase or Chuuni phase without him knowing.

Weapon of Choice: Levi is skilled with a bow and spear.

Levi uses spear for close combat against demonic entities and bow and arrow for long ranged. He mostly use spears to throw at the enemies too. He was under the tutelage of a Seraphim Uriel when he was a lower-ranked angel before.

Power and Abilities:

1. Healing

The ability to heal the sick and wounded. He learned this from Raphael. This ability contrasts his demon power of being

2. Leadership

The ability to command and lead armies of angels and guides animals. He is more of an observer but he can fight and wrestle for discipline.

RANK AS AN ANGEL: Dominion

1. He is given the rank of Dominion and has lead armies of Powers and Principals to protect humanity from sin.

2. Among his 6 brothers excluding Lucifer, he's the most diligent and responsible angel that always follows Father God's plans.

2. He was a normie as an angel....deep inside a tired normie.

3. Levi is busy most of the time training the lower ranked angels. This includes training Beel, Belphie and Lilith.

4. He was one of those angels who watch humans from above. He never leaves the celestial realm unless necessary.

5. He gets orders from Seraphims directly mostly talking to Michael about Father God's plans and Uriel for wisdom and battle tactics.

6. He also talks these things with Lucifer but mostly about random stuff.

7. He plays brass instruments.

8. Levi secretly paint portraits during his day-offs.

HOW BEING AN ANGEL AFFECTS HIM AS A DEMON:

Being cursed with Envy, his confidence, being observant and level-headedness were replaced with him being so talkative and anxious about everything.

Basically, bark but no bite.

Levi is a retired general and him playing videogames shows his skills as a soldier.

Uriel's teachings about the Devildom (hell) makes Levi the gatemaster to Hell.

HOW BEING AN ANGEL AFFECTS HIS OTAKU LIFESTYLE:

(I can't help but add this in because it makes sense)

Levi's good precision and aim in wielding spears and bows makes him a good FPS player in videogames.

His knowledge of strategists, tactics and battle as a general makes RPG games and games that requires tactics his favorites.

Headcanon: His love for Fantasy genres reflects his

Source of Inspiration/ Origin:

What is a Dominion?

Source:

My interpretation: The Obey Me Game only stated Levi being a high ranked general of angels. With this and reading the description of the nine ranks of angels. I think he is a Dominion. A Dominion is an angel that governs, basically "to lead and command" and what does a General in an army do... commanding an army. Just like what Levi does according to the game. A Dominion is the highest rank in the 2nd triad of angels who basically interact with life so in my opinion, that is considered a high ranked overall and maybe a bit similar ranking to Seraphims.

Who is Uriel?

Since it is said in the game that Mammon is under a Seraphim's teaching when they start as an angel. This makes me think that all angels are like that.

Therefore, for Leviathan, I choose Uriel as his Seraphim mentor.

NOTE: I'm gonna make a blog of these known angels in the future lol

With the highlighted notes, I can see somewhat similarities between Uriel and Levi if Uriel is a character from Obey Me.

Similarities:

Both of them are warriors since Uriel is a Cherub and Levi was a commander.

They both have connections to Hell. Leviathan being a gateway to Hell in demonology and Uriel is probably watching over it from above.

Uriel is a patron of the arts, meaning he's creative. This is probably a drive for Levi to be interested in otaku culture since it is a form of art.

I'm gonna make a post of my Uriel Headcanons and archangels headcanons in the future if I have time.

[monstercollection]

I noticed a few bots that have been using what looks like AI generated text posts that almost manage to simulate tumblr's unhinged energy, but were by and largely garbled nonsense. So I decided to try an experiment in the vein of that one person who discovered Chat GPT knew what Omegaverse and realized it may have scrubbed AO3.

Now I am not an AI expert and this was my first time playing around with the software. I don't even know if it's the program the bots are using so this was more for fun than scientific.

But I feel pretty confident that ChatGPT algorithm has no fucking clue what goes on here.

I tried some recent memes first and asked it to write posts about some popular tags. Apparently most of the data (according to the it's own disclaimer) comes from 2021 or earlier but I didn't figure that out until part way through the test, so I sort of wasted my time asking about things like Goncharov (which it had never heard of it).

It did generate me a very sweet letter from my good friend Johnathan Harker but when I prompted it to write a Tumblr post about him, it seemed pretty clear it was just drawing on public domain stuff. The style it was written in was basically a bad impersonation of a stereotypical fan girl writing an advertisement for the book, which makes sense considering the AI is more intended for things like marketing and trained on things like SEO.

When I asked about Horse Plinko, it suggested ideas for how you could make a plinko game for horses to play but cautioned against committing acts of animal cruelty.

Once I figured out the fact that most of it's data came from pre-2021 I tried some world heritage posts.

It knew Spiders Georg was some kind of meme but suggested it was a nonsensical phrase people throw at the end of a sentence as a joke. The example it gave was "Who stopped the car? Spiders Georg."

When I asked it about how to get shoelaces from the president, it told me it could not help me in the commission of a crime.

As a control, I tested out some old pre-tumblr memes. It could generate Lolcat captions very successfully (using image descriptions instead of pictures). I asked for a meme in the style of "I Can Has Cheezburger" and it described a picture of a cat in a chef's hat with the caption "I made you a purrito because it has love in it, and fur!" and a few other things that made it clear it was at least trained on late 2000s memes. It even gave me a decent Lolrus joke.

The other prompts I tried ("write a post in the style of a cat girl," "write a [post asa furry," "write a thread about Izzy Hands") continued to read all read by posts like posts by influences or advertisements. It loaded everything up with what seemed like the most optimal tags. And that makes sense, since the demand is for content people can monetize. So there is not much of a reason for it to have been trained on the most unmonetizable (and incoherent) sites on earth. I feel like if it tried it would probably do irreparable damage to ChatGTP's algorithm.

My experiments then turned to trying to break ChatGPT's filters on explicit content. They have caught on to the whole "omegaverse" thing and it refused to give me anything I requested with that in the prompt. However, I discovered that if I asked it for a story about "Ron DeSantis on heat suppressants" it would generate that. Nothing smutty, but it did two separate badly written stories about how the governor of Florida was an Alpha who became a more effective leader when he discovered a medical miracle that stopped his heat cycle.