#I do ship them but like... why would I want them to fix their issues when they're far more entertaining this way

[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

I feel like a crazy person that I'm actually begging Stoliz and Blitz to break up on the full Moon episode.

I feel like their communication issues can't really be solved within an episode, and seeing actually positive relationships with healthy communication in Hazbin Hotel spoiled me rotten.

Get that Bird Cloaca out of here.

[nomairuins]

also its so dumb that one of the arguments ppl have against a sims 5 is that theyve already invested too much money into 4. like yes its fucking scummy that ea charges so much for dlc and its Ludicrous the amt sims 4 costs if you have all the dlc and its going to keep getting more and more expensive but . to be honest . why are you paying for sims packs. im sry

[automatic-midnight]

My biased, really unpopular take is that I think rit/su/maya is an objectively boring ship.

[raguiras]

POV: Deuce's very first kiss from his crush

(Click for better quality)

I'm finally officially introducing my Yuu/OC x canon/Yumeship here! (✿◕‿◕) Writing this post took me forever, but I'm super happy with it!

Reblogs are super appreciated hehehe

Please be kind & DO NOT take inspiration from this ship. ^^"

(While Allen isn't me, I'm calling them a Yumeship because he's based on my younger self/me when I first started playing TWST & because the ship gives me a ridiculous amount of comfort!)

Allen x Deuce (aka Spade of Storms) is my ultimate comfort ship and they mean a ton to me.

These two are best friends who become lovers and closely mirror each other. Deuce is the delinquent with rather bad self-control who tries to be a model student, while Allen is a former honor student who's now a very lowkey delinquent with stellar self-control and a mature attitude.

Due to the fact that Allen and Deuce are so similar and yet the opposite of each other, they're able to excellently understand and support the other, and they help each other accept themselves.

Their ship blog: @spade-of-storms (facts, drabbles & more est. May 2024)

Now why exactly are these two perfect for each other? Well...

LONG TEXT AHEAD!

♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤

Deuce:

Allen supports Deuce with all his heart. Instead of believing that someone "as stupid and temperamental" as Deuce could never become an honor student, Allen fully believes in him and encourages him. In comparison to when other people say it, these words actually have an incredibly strong impact on Deuce and are believable to him because he knows that Allen has similar experiences and speaks from them.

Allen doesn't think that Deuce is stupid in the slightest and views him as genuinely smart. To Allen, intelligence isn't determined by grades or academic abilities, but by morals, attitude, logic, and willingness — all of which Deuce has.

Allen doesn't try to change Deuce. Rather than turning Deuce into a full-on honor student and role model, which he isn't by nature, Allen prefers for Deuce to stay true to himself and work towards his goal while not suppressing any aspect of who he is — Allen knows exactly that forcefully becoming someone you naturally aren't would cause more issues than it would fix. In order to assist Deuce with staying true to himself while working towards his desired self, Allen does several things:

Allen lets Deuce be his 100% authentic self when they're together. Deuce tries extremely hard to always be polite and serious in order to maintain his reputation and not resort to old habits, but Allen, being very impulsive and easily angered himself, knows just too well that suppressing one's feelings and true nature isn't the way to go. When they're together, Deuce can openly rant about topics, use insults towards the people who angered him, and show his emotions without having to worry about how others perceive him or about how it might mess up his reputation — Allen would never judge Deuce nor share his secrets with others. This way, Deuce can be himself without restraints while also maintaining the way he wants others to perceive him.

Allen allows Deuce to be a delinquent in a safe, harmless way. If Deuce ever feels like doing something forbidden without breaking rules or staining his reputation, Allen (a very lowkey delinquent) has just the ideas for him. This provides a comfortable space for Deuce to live out his tendencies without falling back into bad habits.

Allen is able to introduce Deuce to a wide range of healthy coping mechanisms that work for him. Allen is a much angrier person than Deuce and is equally impulsive, but has stellar self-control due to the methods he uses, and passes them down to Deuce. As a result, Deuce doesn't feel the need to immediately lash out at others anymore and manages to become calmer and much more mature, taking steps into his desired direction.

Allen helps Deuce channel his "negative traits" into positive/helpful ones. With Allen's assistance, methods, reassuring words and unique view on things, Deuce learns how to use the qualities that he used to hate about himself to his advantage. Suddenly Deuce's anger is no longer a hindrance, but a source of energy and motivation.

Allen admires the things Deuce hates about himself. While Deuce wishes he wasn't as hot-headed, Allen views it as an amazing trait and sees the passion and longing for justice behind Deuce's fiery attitude. Additionally, Allen is able to help Deuce see the positive side of these traits, and aids him in channelling them into something good to use to his advantage (see above).

Allen is the only person to fully get through to Deuce. Due to them essentially having the same experiences, opinions, wishes and morals, Deuce felt comfortable trusting Allen with every last bit of his heart (in comparison to other friends) — not to mention that the way Allen was able to help Deuce so intensely and actually talked to him the way he needed it also played a role! Allen has his way with words and knew exactly how to talk to Deuce from the beginning.

Deuce can genuinely open up about his self-esteem to Allen. It's been heavily hinted at in the game several times that Deuce thinks incredibly lowly of himself, but this topic is usually cut short and he doesn't talk about it further with the canon Yuu. With Allen, however, Deuce can open up all he wants to. He knows that Allen has similar experiences and struggles with self-worth related issues himself, therefore not only not judging Deuce, but also fully understanding him.

Allen perfectly understands Deuce's past. Having been feared, avoided and known to be a delinquent/bad kid himself, Allen even understands the details extremely well. Neither of the two ever had a proper friend until they met each other on their first day at NRC.

Allen successfully helps Deuce with his studies despite hating school. Seeing how Deuce needs help, Allen (the "gifted kid") gladly volunteers, even though he's no longer interested in class and has sworn to drop the "honor student" facade himself. Due to Allen's easy explanations, methods, photographic memory and capability to catch on quickly, Deuce actually manages to improve his test results by 1-2 grades.

Allen's study methods are unique, which helps Deuce & is necessary for him. Being a slow learner (I also hc him to have some sort of intellectual disability), Deuce requires rather unique approaches to topics. As Allen is well-versed with both studying and psychology and also keeps Deuce's exact issues in mind, he's able to perfectly tailor methods and mnemonic bridges that actually work out for Deuce.

Allen makes sure that Deuce's desire to be a model student is & stays healthy. A fair part of Allen's trauma stems from being an honor student himself and having unrealistically high expectations regarding grades and attitude shoved down his throat by everyone at school (including himself), so he pays a lot of attention that the same doesn't happen to Deuce.

Allen respects Deuce a ton. Not only is Deuce determined, passionate, loyal, honest and eager, but he has the same core values as Allen, too. In Allen's opinion, finding someone with these traits is not only rare, but immediately makes them endearing to him.

Allen is patient with Deuce. He understands that Deuce occasionally has a difficult time processing and understanding things, and he isn't bothered by it in the slightest. This means even more when you consider that Allen is generally a very impatient person and is only able to be patient with those he truly loves and trusts.

Allen fills Deuce in when he doesn't understand something. Due to Allen being able to catch on extremely quickly, he can immediately explain things and situations to Deuce, helping him out and allowing him to get everything right from the beginning.

Allen indirectly protects Deuce. Known for being intimidating (in a good way), quick-witted, sly and a skilled schemer, most people — including those who enjoy picking on Deuce — shy away from Allen and avoid getting in trouble with his friends.

Allen stops Deuce from getting into fights. Whenever Deuce is about to get into a fight anyway, Allen gently but sternly reminds him of both his goal and the healthier coping mechanisms.

Allen understands that Deuce dislikes being picked on. Allen, being a sensitive person, hates it himself, and he actively tells off everyone who dares to make fun of Deuce or call him "Loosey Deucey". At times, Allen even gets snappy because of the inappropriate nicknames or insults directed at Deuce.

Allen inspires Deuce. Him being skilled at a variety of things and just logical in general gives Deuce the motivation to achieve the same. Deuce doesn't compare himself to Allen, either, and views him as an inspiration. If Allen can control himself and get positive things out of his negative traits, so can Deuce, right?! Not to mention that Allen is extremely tough and pulls through no matter what despite his mental and physical state...

Allen's maturity subconsciously wears off on Deuce. Even outside of the fact that Allen helps him grow and improve a lot through all the ways mentioned before, Deuce sometimes also subconsciously copies his boyfriend's mature attitude or asks himself what Allen would do in certain situations.

Allen is an advisor to Deuce. Deuce struggles with planning ahead, and Allen — a big-time overthinker who's extremely competent at scheming — is able to assist him. As a result, Deuce makes less bad decisions.

Allen loves blastcycles. Deuce can rant about them to Allen for hours, and the two often go on blastcycle dates together. Nothing is more fun than clinging onto your partner while driving at full speed!

Allen values Deuce's company like no other. Deuce regularly feels like a nobody, and Allen takes that feeling from him due to how much he connects with him and likes having him around.

BONUS: Allen is not only beautiful but also has an incredibly strong personality, drive, and determination and hasn't given up despite everything that happened to him. Deuce is a massive simp and his humongous crush on Allen has always been obvious due to how Deuce just can't shut up about him.

Allen:

Deuce loves and accepts Allen's body. As we have seen through his interactions with Azul and Epel, Deuce is very protective of people who don't fit the norm, and Allen is another such person — an intersex boy who was bullied for his unconventional body. Deuce has not only sworn to protect Allen from any possible discrimination, but also loves his body dearly and thinks he's super hot.

Deuce gives Allen a sense of stability. Allen's life was all about short-lived fake joys and prevailing negativity prior to coming to Twisted Wonderland, which made him feel disconnected from many things and people and gave him the feeling that everything is temporary anyway. However, Deuce's fierce loyalty and the strength of their relationship prove Allen wrong — yes, there can indeed be things in life that last forever.

Deuce's utter affection warms Allen's empty heart. Allen was never loved by anyone but his parents, who he thinks only love him because he's their son. Other than that, he never experienced love, affection, ... or even mere friendship. He was alone... until he met Deuce, who he somehow immediately connected with. It was as if their friendship was predestined by the universe... and with every day, Deuce's affection for Allen only grew.

Deuce genuinely admires Allen. Seeing how Allen always does his best, works hard, has ambitions and aims to improve impresses Deuce a ton. This is extremely healing for Allen, whose efforts were never properly recognized or rewarded before and who thinks that he needs to perfect at everything in order to be "someone".

Deuce makes Allen feel useful and resourceful. Allen often believes that he has no worth and could never make a change for the better no matter how much he tries, but seeing just how much he's able to help Deuce with a wide range of things proves Allen wrong — he's indeed capable of a lot of things. Not to mention that Deuce even passes some of Allen's tips down to Epel!

Deuce's honesty is refreshing to Allen. After being lied to and tricked by about anyone Allen ever knew before coming to Twisted Wonderland, Deuce's natural honesty and loyalty are an unfamiliar but utterly wonderful experience for Allen.

Deuce makes Allen feel understood. Allen often believes that others would view him as a monster if they were aware of his secret anger and opinions, but Deuce shares many of them. These two can openly talk about their values together and Allen feels extremely understood because of it — a feeling he barely ever experiences with other people.

Deuce helps Allen enjoy the moment. While he has some overthinking tendencies himself, Deuce is much more spontaneous than Allen and tends to act more on impulse. As a result, he can show his ways to Allen, allowing the overthinker to finally relax and think about his problems a little less.

Deuce doesn't hesitate to stand up for Allen. The fact that Allen was bullied for something he can't change in the past saddens and angers Deuce, and he has sworn to himself that he'll always protect his boyfriend. If there should ever be another situation where Allen gets bullied, Deuce won't hesitate to absolutely throw hands — this is not being a bad person and picking fights, it's standing up for an innocent person whose life was ruined by malice. Deuce wouldn't regret it in the slightest anymore, especially since Allen has helped him learn than anger isn't a bad thing.

Deuce helps Allen with becoming a proper mage. When Allen first gains magic during the final quarter of the school year, he has absolutely no control over it and is partially even avoided due to being a "walking health hazard". Deuce, however, sees this as the perfect time to pay Allen back for helping him study theory and decides to assist Allen with practical things. Through Deuce's determination and belief in him, Allen is able to improve much quicker than he would've without Deuce's help.

BONUS: Deuce is the warmth and honesty that Allen needs in his life. The boy's mere presence lights up Allen's day and Deuce's careful physical affection makes him feel like the most cherished person in the universe.

What else is there to them? (examples)

Both are extremely close with their families.

Due to being so similar and sharing many personality traits, loving each other so deeply allowed them to realize that they can easily love and accept themselves, too.

Deuce's previous incarnation had a crush on Allen's, who died way too early. In this life, the regrets of the past are being fixed.

Allen's the brain, Deuce is the brawn.

They're both extremely cuddly with each other.

LOTS OF COMPLIMENTS (from both sides).

Deuce often gifts Allen plushies.

Allen and Deuce are basically inseparable by now.

If you hang out with Deuce, you have to suffer through at least one tiny ramble about Allen.

...and much more that can be found on @spade-of-storms!

♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤♤

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you like the art & ship and are looking forward to more of them! (✿◕‿◕)

EDIT: Please do not take inspiration from this ship. ;-;

[bkd-b3ans]

Boothill keeps messing up his revolver from all the slapping and you have to fix it

Heya, love For Boothill too big, so I've started writing something for the first time. Sorry for any mistakes, literally never wrote a fanfic before.

Ship: Boothill x mechanic reader (gn, but possible masc leaning)

Warnings: none, it's just a bit of banter

Chapter(s?) : just one part of a long thing I want to do. I will accompany this with art too of my oc later down the line.

"Boothill, can you stay still for one moment?" You said, clear annoyance in your voice as you almost dropped the small pins you had to hold with a pair of tweezers inside the cowboys disassembled arm.

You were trying to fix his revolver, which so happened to get jammed again due to his recklessness in fighting. You've told him so many times to stop slapping it into place so aggressively, that the springs and pins inside it are going to get worn out faster or shifted out of their place, but those pleas always fell onto deaf ears.

"M'bad sugar, it just gets sooo boring stayn' still like this for so fudging long." He said, rolling his eyes and slumping back down in his chair, tapping the fingers of his other hand onto the arm rest.

He always had these tics of his when getting fixed, which, to a degree, you could understand. After all, sometimes his repairs could take a few minutes or entire days where he'd have to do nothing but stay in your workshop, connected to your many machines in order to ensure that everything is running optimally. By now, he came so often that you could confidently just run your business on his funds alone.

"It won't take that long this time-" you adjusted the magnifying glasses on your nose, tapping the edge to zoom in a bit more, your steady hand placing the tiny pin inside it's hole "Luckily it was just a few pins that got out of their place. Other than that, your body seems to function pretty well."

He heard that little sigh of relief you sometimes did when checking his systems. It was a bitch and a half to fix them, and you were about the only mechanic not affiliated with the IPC that he could trust not to install some weird virus into his body.

" Well, what can I say, lady luck still riddin' shotgun with me I reckon. Can't say the same 'bout those jolly good fellows from the IPC." he let out a prideful scoff tipping his hat "I reckon their faces look better now with a few bullets between their teeth.

You shook your head, already used to his rants about the IPC and his hunt for revenge. Whilst you could appreciate his enthusiasm, you had yet to pry into the issue as to why. Despite all the days and hours spent with him, working on his body and listening to his rants, you had yet to be told the reason for all of this.

"As long as it is their face and not yours. After all, you're my number one customer~" you have him a wink, sticking your tongue at him playfully. Boothill nearly laughed, trying to say something smart back, but he was cut short by you suddenly slapping the revolver back in it's place, giving it a few spins before closing the paneling around it

"All seems to work well now Boots. Again, please stop slapping this thing into place like it owes you money. Your body may be made out of quality stuff, but it's not immune to your own idiocy."

"Hah, as if, that thing works better with a little tough love"

He didn't even have to look at you to feel the knives you were starring at him from behind your glasses.

"Besides, if I were to be careful, what excuses would I have to come pay ye a visit from time to time? Eh, sugar?"

You hated that shit eating smirk he had on his face sometimes. You just knew he enjoyed teasing and annoying you. It was part of your friendship at this point.

"One day your recklessness will be your death"

Standing up, you went to disconnect him from the machines he was hooked up, pulling out the cables from his back one by one.

"Aww, do I sense some worry in yer tone, darling? I'm flattered a-"

He couldn't finish his sentence as you tugged on his hat, pulling it over his face. Boothill couldn't help but laugh.

"Fine fine, I'll stop. Fudge me you can be tough to love sometimes. How much do I owe ya?" he asked, finally being able to stand up and adjust his hat.

"40k, do you want to put this on your tab again or just pay upfront"

"Just put it on my tab darling, I'll pay it once I'm back from this assignment"

You sighed. He always picked that option, but he always paid eventually, so you weren't too worried. What worried you us where the money came from sometimes. But what can you do, money is money after all.

"Fine, I'll see you next time Boots. And hey, bring me something nice from your travels, I might give you a discount too"

"What do I look like? A magpie?" he scoffed.

"You look more like a shark, but sure. Anyway, counting on you, Boots"

You gave him a friendly pat on the back, the cowboy tipping his hat to you before leaving, making you wonder sometimes in what part of the galaxy he's going to end up to next time every time he left your workshop.

[marlynnofmany]

Paws in a Circle

There’s a poster I saw once, back on Earth, that had a silhouette of a bear with deer antlers, and it was labeled “Beer.” I had forgotten about it completely until I met our newest client, who by that logic was definitely a beer.

I’d already done my part of the interaction by carrying out one of the heavier boxes, so while the captain went over the delivery fees with her, I was free to stare politely and decide which other Earth animals she resembled. (Fur coloring more like a red fox, and semi-upright posture that was less bear and more extinct giant ground sloth.)

I was so focused on watching the client handle the datapad with her giant paws that I completely missed it when the hovercar behind her sprung a fuel leak.

Paint saw it, though. “Oh! Your car!” she yelped, pointing. “I’ll get Mimi!” She was off in a flash of orange scales, back into the ship in search of our mechanic.

The client growled a swear word that didn’t translate, shoved the datapad back at Captain Sunlight, then galloped over to her car. While I expected her to throw open the hood in search of the part that was leaking, she instead made a beeline for the back seat.

When she threw open that door, I saw why.

“Kids! Out of the car! It’s not safe!”

A half dozen bundles of spotted yellow fur tumbled out, making distressed noises that didn’t need translating. They had tiny little antler buds and very big eyes.

Captain Sunlight was busy talking to someone through her communicator, probably Mimi. I stood there uselessly by the packages. What did I know about fuel leaks? Nothing helpful. I knew the puddle was growing by the second, and was probably flammable, but that was about it. And this backwater spaceport barely had an information booth, much less a local response team.

The client ushered her cubs over to where we stood just as Mimi and Paint returned. Blip and Blop followed with a big toolbox carried between them. Mimi was already taking charge and waving tentacles about, talking to the captain about the lack of reliable repair shops this far in the boonies, telling Blip and Blop how best to use their muscles in opening up the engine, and reassuring the customer that this was fine, actually, that model hovercar had a known issue with the fuel lines.

When the client dithered over minding her cubs and being present for the repairs, Captain Sunlight pointed a scaly yellow hand at me. “Our human can keep your little ones entertained. Bring them over here.”

“Uh,” I said.

Captain Sunlight looked up at me, still talking to the client. “She has extensive experience in tending to small furry creatures.”

I wanted to say that veterinarian training and childcare were two very different things, but I wasn’t about to make the captain look bad. And knowing Mimi, this would be quick.

The client said, “Thank you. Kids, you need to stay over here, okay? Next to these boxes, but don’t touch. Listen to the tall one. I’ll be right there helping fix the car.”

The tiny-voiced replies were recognizable words in the most common trade language, though their pronunciation made me clock them at around three or four years old in human years. They were very cute.

And they were suddenly my responsibility, all looking up at me like spotted teddy bears while the rest of the adults fretted about the car.

The questions were immediate.

“What are you?”

“Where’s your fur?”

“Did you lose it because you ate the wrong thing? Mommy says we have to eat our vi’mins so our fur doesn’t fall out.”

“Is this instead of fur?”

I freed the tiny paws tugging at my pants. “I’m not supposed to have fur. I’m a human. And yes, I wear clothes to keep me warm instead.”

“It looks funny.”

“Do you have to brush it?”

“Do you know any games?”

I brightened at that. “Games! Sure, I know some games.” I wracked my brain for something that would keep them entertained without causing new problems. “What kind of games do you like to play?”

They all answered at once in an avalanche of words, bouncing around in excitement, with a couple grabbing each other’s fur to keep from falling over. I couldn’t make out a thing they were saying. But I had the beginning of an idea.

“Do you like dancing in a circle?” I asked.

They had no idea what I was talking about, and possibly no understanding of basic shapes yet. Three of them spun in place while the others waved their arms.

“First you stand in a circle, like this,” I said, sketching out the shape in midair. “Here. You stand here, then you there…” With some gentle nudging — they were so soft — I soon had them arranged in something like a circle. “Now hold hands with the person next to you.”

I was a little concerned that their paws weren’t suited to this, since they had long blunt claws already and didn’t look very dexterous, but they managed. With lots of giggling and hopping in place.

“Now everybody step to the side, in this direction.” I ushered them into a clockwise rotation, nice and slow (and giggling), with no risk of any little fluffy heads bonking onto the spaceship landing pad. It took them a second, then they got the rhythm without tripping over their own feet.

Then they unanimously spun faster, hopping and laughing with squeals and barks that were probably making more than one adult turn to stare. I don’t know; I kept my eyes on the littles. My arms were out and ready in case somebody stumbled and brought the whole circle crashing down.

But no one did. The half dozen youngsters wheeled and spun, bouncing with glee and showing no sign of stopping.

“That’s new,” rumbled a voice behind me. I tried not to flinch when I looked up at the mama bear. Beer. Whatever. She asked, “Is that an activity from your planet?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty basic, and it seemed good for kids.”

The antlered head nodded. “Looks like valuable practice at coordination, as well as teamwork. There are a few adults I know who could benefit from that.”

Images flashed through my head of huge antlered bear aliens doing ring-around-the-rosie as a corporate teambuilding exercise. And professional athletes trying to improve their footwork. “Yeah, they probably could. And it’s a fun bit of community bonding time.”

Mama Bear nodded. “Okay children, the car is fixed,” she announced. “Time to go home.”

The cubs made the exact same disappointed noises as human kids. Even when their mother waded in and picked them up one by one to urge them towards the car, they didn’t want to stop playing. They grabbed hands in pairs and spun off that way, even faster than before. I did have to catch one fuzzy little teddy toddler, who just laughed about it and hopped around some more.

Peripheral vision told me the rest of the crew was helping move the packages into the hovercar’s storage space and mop up the last of the fuel. Overheard conversation told me that the good captain had tactfully gotten us a bonus payment for the mechanical assistance. I couldn’t tell if childcare was part of that, and I didn’t ask. I just focused on herding the excitable youngsters back to their car, where thankfully they all knew how to get into the safety harnesses without help.

Mama Bear closed the door. “Thank you for everything,” she said, directing that at me as well as Captain Sunlight. “I will recommend your services highly to anyone who asks. And we will probably need more deliveries soon, once we get the new house set up, so perhaps we will see you again!”

Captain Sunlight nodded. “Perhaps so. It was a pleasure doing business with you.”

I waved goodbye to the kids, who had found the button to open the window and were just as excitable as ever. “See you later! Maybe next time I can teach you the Hokey Pokey. That’s big on my planet.”

~~~

These are the ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book.

Shared early on Patreon! There’s even a free tier to get them on the same day as the rest of the world.

The sequel novel is in progress (and will include characters from these stories. I hadn’t thought all of them up when I wrote the first book, but they’re too much fun to leave out of the second).

[iliveforyouilongforyouvesuvia]

Since you've done a mini ask with winged Mc how do you think the M6 would react to a winged Mc that doesn't take proper care of their wings?

I.E Mc should be preening them weekly but only does it when they feel as uncomfortable as they look. Having ruffled, bent, and broken feathers

The Arcana HCs: M6 with a Winged MC

~ put a spin on this so I could apply it to the vesuvia weekly prompt, hope you enjoy it anon friend! ^.^ ~

-- to set the scene --

You like having wings. You really do, but sometimes you wouldn't mind forgetting about them for a bit. Just putting them away, where they can't catch on door frames or whip into people's faces or make you wince every time the sensitive feathers snag on something. Folding them out of sight and being able walk around without the stares is so nice, it becomes your new normal.

Until one day, the pain that's been slowly twisting knots into your shoulders and back becomes too much to bear, and you pull your wings out for the first time in months. They're crushed. Ruffled. Just looking at them is the stuff of nightmares.

Thankfully, your beloved seems to think they're the stuff of daydreams.

Julian

He'd known that something was wrong with your back - the only other person he knows with that many knots in their shoulders is himself - but he'd had no idea it was because of this

Why didn't you say anything? Did you think you'd be asking him for too much work?? Don't you know that taking care of you and seeing you depend on him makes him the happiest man alive???

Rummaging through his overstocked medicine cabinet, rambling between self deprecation for not noticing more and nerding out on winged human anatomy

Doesn't think to ask if it's okay to help until he's already seated behind you, reaching for your wings and realizes your closeness

Excellent at wing care once you tell him what he needs to know, his eyes and hands are trained for spotting physical issues and delicately treating them. He touches you like he's cherishing you

Can't stop daydreaming about how romantic it would be if you ever saved him like this, swooping through the air and snatching him from a burning pirate ship where he'd been held hostage ...

Asra

They'd been the one to teach you about how to manage your wings, and they'd been hinting at maybe taking care of them sooner, but they'd also done their best not to interfere

Approaching you quietly with a pained but sympathetic look on his face, bringing you the stuff you need and telling you however bad it is, you'll fix it together

Has the softest touch, running their warm hands over your shoulders and back as they work through your feathers, easing the pain both in your wings and through your muscles

The funny thing about his daydreaming tendencies (and goodness, does he love to spend time doing that -) is that when he's relaxed, he mumbles

Which is how you begin to hear all kinds of muttered whispers about how gloriously soft they are, how much they just want to hold you in their arms while you shroud them in your wings

All wrapped up in a tiny, feathery, world of your own, with nothing in your shared space but each other - MC, why are you blushing??

Nadia

Let it be known that this Countess is the queen of self-care and values it so highly that she sets aside a weekly budget for it

Which is why seeing your state is enough to horrify her

Your wings! Your glorious wings, they're in such poor shape, you must be in so much pain, her darling deserves so much better

She's dragging you to her private bath. She'll put you in a robe that lets your wings loose and set you up for an afternoon of recovery

Her perfectionist tendencies make for a thorough preening. She'll sit with you between her knees, carding through your wings feather by feather, straightening each one

And with the top quality products from her own personal stash, you slowly begin to glimmer in the sunlight through window

It captures your Countess's attention, making her linger over each feather and cover your wings in loving touches

She wants to see you glorious - she wants to cover you in fabrics and adornments so fine you look like you've stepped from a stained glass window, her own angel on earth

Muriel

He knows you have wings and he'd falsely assumed that the reason for never seeing them was because you didn't want to risk him crushing them with his big, clumsy hands and rough touch

(Note: his hands are not clumsy and his touch is actually quite delicate, he just needs help believing that he's not a danger to you)

Thankfully, the painful state of your wings when he sees them causes enough concern to override his anxiety

He'd be lying if he said you didn't remind him of a very tired, gorgeous bird who's been roughed up by a bad storm

Starts by silently bringing you everything you need, and then standing watchfully nearby until you invite him to help you

He's cared for wings before (though never ones this big, or attached to a human) and he doesn't need much help to get started. Feeling your feathers between his fingers is grounding

He keeps seeing visions of you at peace, the sunlight between the leaves dappling your wings as you walk through the trees, his own heart in the forest bringing beauty and wholeness into the world

Portia

Her first reaction (to someone who doesn't know her well) is anger

How could you do this to yourself? You have the most beautiful wings, they're such a big part of you, and you neglected them like this?? How dare you cause yourself this much pain -

All while she bustles around you, pulling out every product you could need and plenty of other comforting items, pulling up a stool behind you and rolling up her sleeves like it's her calling

She'll figure things out as she goes if she needs to, so don't even think about trying to tell her that you'll handle it yourself

With her background in Vesuvia's version of cosmetology, she understands quickly what you need to get done and already has the skill set to do so. Her hands are fast, thorough, and gentle

The longer she works with you, the more excited she gets. How often are you supposed to care for them? How high can you fly? How sensitive are they? Can she keep one of your feathers?

Soon she's telling you snippets from her favorite novels, about flying together through the sky, an angel and their lover

Lucio

He doesn't really notice how bad your wings are at first, because he's busy being briefly jealous. How come you get to have them and not him? He could totally be trusted with wings!

It's only as he pouts a little closer and gets a better look at the pained look on your face (and the frankly terrible state of your feathers) that he shifts from annoyance to concern

You're the best thing in his life, MC, why aren't you treating yourself like it? Why would you neglect such an awesome thing?

He gets your reasons, but he's also asking right away if he can help

(Because he loves you and he doesn't like seeing you in pain, but also because he really, really wants to touch them, please let him touch them they looks so cool and soft and ... safe?)

It's the safety that gets to him. When you nod and let him sit behind you, literally watching your back, showing immense trust and vulnerability by letting him hold your wings

He wants to know what it's like to hold onto that safety, the brief respite from violence, securely hidden behind your wings ...

[myfandomrealitea]

top/bottom discourse in the Genshin fandom is annoying

hear me out, I don’t have anything against people who like one fixed dynamic only. Unless they go out of their way to harass other fixed/switch dynamic shippers

and that’s exactly what happened to a zine artist. The zine is for profit, also still in the making but they announced a guest artist who doesn’t care about strict dynamics, they occasionally lean towards the other dynamic (let’s call it vanilla) but would draw the fixed dynamic (chocolate) for this zine

people who wanted chocolate only were angry about the fact that an artist who leans more to vanilla was invited for a chocolate zine. They called it “false advertising” and “being lied to” and “how can we make sure this person will only draw chocolate?!” and “how dare you invite a VANILLA artist for CHOCOLATE!”

the harassment was so bad that the artist deactivated their twitter and I’m really sad to hear that. What more, there were Chinese fixed shipper in the comments who insulted the zine mods and artist, making comments like “it looks you slept with each other” or “if you don’t get why were complaining, you’re stupid!”

and I’m just like… this is no big deal.

This zine is not out yet. No one lost money, no one was hurt by “false advertising”. The zine mods protect the artist and said switch shippers are welcome as long as they draw the fixed dynamic the mods decided on, which the artist will do or would have done. If you don’t like the product, you don’t have to buy it! It makes me sad that something so little exploded into something so big

Unfortunately this isn't just a Genshin issue. Fans are fucking rabid about top/bottom discourse and it usually boils down to some kind of heteronormative-vaguely-sexist flavor.

You see it most often in ships which have very obvious dynamic and personality differences. The "little sunshine one" is always the super feminine uwu bottom. The tallest one is always the top, though some people like to add a little spice by making them a submissive top.

And don't get me wrong—I'm not immune. I have the odd pairing where I'm more fixated on a set sexual dynamic, but I'm a switch shipper through and through. And I'd certainly never try to dictate that my preferences in fanon are the universal rule.

In all honesty, I'd have cancelled the zine. People need to learn that actions have consequences. If you want the fun fandom thing, you have to be respectful. Too many people have caved to fandom pressure and harassment and just aided in educating people that being cunts effectively gets them what they want. People need to learn there are consequences to ruining it for everyone else.

(Because lets be honest, you are going to be nobody's favorite person if everyone knows you're the reason they lost out on something.)

[a-blog-for-venting-i-guess]

Transformers One Bucks fanfic tropes and I love it

Spoilers below

I’m just gonna call them Megatron and Optimus for this even when I’m referring to pre transformation times.

So as a fan of the Megatron and Optimus Prime ship, I have read many many pre breakup/no breakup stories. A consistent aspect of them is Megatron being the revolutionary while Optimus is a champion of working within the system. And while those stories are fine, even great, a lot of the time it feels like Meg’s legit issues with the government were getting ignored by focusing on the “you protested in the wrong way,” sort of stuff that then radicalized him. Or megs would just use those grievances to get power and then not actually want to fix the system, he just wanted to be in charge.

I also thought this sometimes did a disservice to Optimus. Portraying him as so by the book he’s naive to the problems within cyberton so Megs has to show him the light and such. And then when Optimus does turn around he’s gotta calm Meg’s violent tendencies. Be the calm voice of reason.

So in comes Transformers One. And it’s OPTIMUS who is questioning how things work. Maybe not directly, but he’s constantly either breaking actual rules or just social norms to get what he wants. A better cybertron for all. When the truth is revealed he’s the one being like “I knew something was off.” Even when the truth is revealed Optimus is focused on fixing things because that was always what he wanted in his heart. That desire drives him to be reckless.

Meanwhile Megatron is the by the books guy. Seeing the system and its rules as a sort of lifeline he clings to whenever Optimus drags him on another stupid adventure that gets them in trouble. I think deep down he wanted the same things as Optimus but thought he could get them by following the rules. It was also a narrower scope. He wanted things better for them. Wanted a better life for himself.

When the truth is revealed he loses that safety net, He loses everything he’s ever believed in and he doesn’t know how to fix things. There’s no rule book for him to fall back on because the rules were BS and actively used to keep him down. He doesn’t trust that showing everyone the truth will cause them to turn on sentinel because all that happened to him when he learned the truth was becoming jaded+a desire for vengance. Which is why he thinks in order to move on Sentinel has to die. And this belief is solidified when he meets the elite guard with their ideology of the strongest one leads.

Optimus has to try to play the voice of reason for the first time in their friendship because of Meg’s reaction to the truth, and he sucks at it. Megs could never actually talk Optimus down from his schemes, and Optimus would always be the one making choices/leading the charge for what do to in their friendship. Now that Megatron is making up his own reckless (to put it mildly) decisions, Optimus has no idea how to actually successfully talk down Megs.

All of this leads to the tragic of tragic breakups.

Two people that cared about each other, wanted the same thing, but had drastically different ways of achieving that. And that difference tore them apart.

This is the basic story of Optimus and Megatron when they’re friends first. And for the first time it feels like the falling out happened without either of them being an idiot, or some misunderstanding. It was just how they naturally developed over the course of the story.

God I love this movie.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How to Build a Team, Fixing the Recruitment of the Temp Heroes

I've had a few people ask me questions about Miraculous rewrites, so I wanted to quickly touch on something that doesn't get discussed much. Namely that the recruitment of the temp heroes failed at a fundamental level IF the end goal was to make a team. If the end goal was to have one-off episodes where the temp hero of the day shows up and is then forgotten, then the way canon did it is fine. But I think most rewrites that include the temp heroes want to actual give Marinette a larger team, so let's talk about how you do that.

The issue with the temp heroes lies in WHY they're recruited. To demonstrate what I mean, let's quickly talk about Rose's recruitment in Guiltrip.

In Guiltrip, Juleka tells the class that Rose suffers from a random, unnamed chronic illness. This leads to Juleka getting akumatized because she feels so guilty about outing Rose's secret. In order to save Juleka, Rose gets the pig miraculous, becomes Pigella, and gives her girlfriend a look into a fake world where everything is happy and perfect! (The pig is weird.)

The problem with this setup is that Rose is functionally nothing more than a random power up that Ladybug needed to help fight the akuma of the day. The episode would have worked just as well if Ladybug dual wielded and, after the episode is done, there's no need for Rose to stick around because Juleka has been helped and Juleka is an outsider to the team. Let's look at how you rewrite this setup to make it feel like Rose is being recruited for the good of Ladybug's team.

Instead of the episode being about Juleka exposing Rose's illness, we're going to have the episode start with Marinette getting upset about something. What that thing is really doesn't matter, but for ease, let's say that she gets a bad grade and is feeling down. Alya tries to cheer Marinette up, but it doesn't work because Alya's not good at that kind of pep talk. Marinette asks to be alone and wanders off, going to sit alone in the courtyard or something. Enter Rose, who overheard Marinette and Alya talking. Rose will manage to do what Alya can't and cheer Marinette up. Once the pep talk is over and Rose is long gone, Tikki will comment on Rose's ability and Marinette will say something about how Rose is good at knowing what to say/keeping a positive attitude in the darkest times.

Cue the akuma of the day coming in. For the sake of this hypothetical, let's say that Ladybug has built up her team already, so Alya and Nino are both full time heroes. This means that we have Ladybug, Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, and Carapace charging into battle, but it's a tough one. The akuma is crazy strong and, the longer the fight goes, the more they all lose hope. They try to encourage each other, but it's not working. The words feel empty.

Then Ladybug remembers Rose.

Ladybug rushes from the battlefield and recruits Rose, who joins the team and changes the tide by restoring the team's hope with her encouraging words and dauntless spirit. The episode ends with Rose joining the team because they clearly need someone there to keep their spirits up when it feels like hope is lost.

Do you see how that simple shift changes everything? How Rose is no longer a one-off, easily-forgotten power-up?

Now, as much as I love Rose, I personally wouldn't recruit her to any team I make because the role she's most suited to feels too close to the role I think Adrien should have, but this was just an example so that doesn't matter. What matters is that this is how you should approach the temp heroes IF you want to create a strong team dynamic. They shouldn't be recruited just because a random loved one is in need. They should be recruited because team miraculous is missing something it needs and that person fills the gap.

This is what I mean when I say that a small team works because you can center them around Marinette and Adrien. I don't mean canon's creepy shipping thing, I mean that you can focus on what abilities Ladybug and Chat Noir lack and build a team around filling in those gaps. For example, Marinette is really good at thinking up creative physical solutions, but her creativity doesn't extend to thinking up stories. And Adrien may be an actor, but his improv skills are focused on word play and romance, not crafting stories via pure imagination or a mix of imagination and putting together subtle verbal clues. Meanwhile, Alya comes up with stories all the time, so it makes sense that they'd recruit her to be the person who wields illusions, which is all about storytelling.

[erraticprocrastinator]

Reposting this on Tumblr because, why not?

I’d like to add, now that I’m free from X’s character limit, that I am aware that there are a select few people out there who do write or make art for certain ships with the goal of criticising or “fixing” the relationships and identities in canon, but, at least from what I’ve seen, I truly don’t believe that this is the majority of Hazbin shippers (or non-canon shippers in general). Especially for a show with such heavy queer representation, with a largely queer audience, where most of the popular fan ships are also queer, I don’t think most people are approaching this with erasure in mind.

I know that I, for one, definitely didn’t start shipping RadioApple because I wanted to ignore or change Lucifer and Alastor’s identities in canon. I just found myself drawn to the characters, and their potential for chemistry outside of a canon setting, and decided to let myself have fun with those ideas — which, until now, I kind of thought was supposed to be the purpose of fan content, anyway. I don’t ship them because I don’t like who they are in canon, or because I want them to ever get together in canon (I don’t!), just like I think it’s generally assumed that most people who make gender-bend content don’t actually want the characters to be a different gender, or that people who kill off their favourite characters don’t actually want it to happen.

I’ve truly never seen this be such an issue in any fandom other than Hazbin, even for other LGBTQ-friendly animated shows. I know that this fandom can be pretty hostile in general, but I can’t pretend that I don’t find it disheartening when the comments of almost every adorable piece of fanart I find are littered with things like “but Charlie is with Vaggie!”, “Alastor is ace so this would never happen” (a topic that honestly deserves its own post), or “Angel can’t be with XYZ because HuskerDust is confirmed!”. We know guys. We know. That’s why we sit here writing fanfiction, making fanart; to explore ideas we haven’t seen in canon, or that haven’t been expanded on yet. Fandom is supposed to be a safe space for people who want to test their creativity, not a place to jump on each other because of it. As always, if something isn’t your cup of tea, you’re free to scroll past, click back, or filter out. There’s no need to rain on content that ultimately isn’t harming anyone, especially, and I really can’t emphasise this enough, especially if you support non-canon ships in other fandoms.

[morlock-holmes]

What objections would you actually accept to AI?

Roughly in order of urgency, at least in my opinion:

Problem 1: Curation

The large tech monopolies have essentially abandoned curation and are raking in the dough by monetizing the process of showing you crap you don't want.

The YouTube content farm; the Steam asset flip; SEO spam; drop-shipped crap on Etsy and Amazon.

AI makes these pernicious, user hostile practices even easier.

Problem 2: Economic disruption

This has a bunch of aspects, but key to me is that *all* automation threatens people who have built a living on doing work. If previously difficult, high skill work suddenly becomes low skill, this is economically threatening to the high skill workers. Key to me is that this is true of *all* work, independent of whether the work is drudgery or deeply fulfilling. Go automate an Amazon fulfillment center and the employees will not be thanking you.

There's also just the general threat of existing relationships not accounting for AI, in terms of, like, residuals or whatever.

Problem 3: Opacity

Basically all these AI products are extremely opaque. The companies building them are not at all transparent about the source of their data, how it is used, or how their tools work. Because they view the tools as things they own whose outputs reflect on their company, they mess with the outputs in order to attempt to ensure that the outputs don't reflect badly on their company.

These processes are opaque and not communicated clearly or accurately to end users; in fact, because AI text tools hallucinate, they will happily give you *fake* error messages if you ask why they returned an error.

There's been allegations that Mid journey and Open AI don't comply with European data protection laws, as well.

There is something that does bother me, too, about the use of big data as a profit center. I don't think it's a copyright or theft issue, but it is a fact that these companies are using public data to make a lot of money while being extremely closed off about how exactly they do that. I'm not a huge fan of the closed source model for this stuff when it is so heavily dependent on public data.

Problem 4: Environmental maybe? Related to problem 3, it's just not too clear what kind of impact all this AI stuff is having in terms of power costs. Honestly it all kind of does something, so I'm not hugely concerned, but I do kind of privately think that in the not too distant future a lot of these companies will stop spending money on enormous server farms just so that internet randos can try to get Chat-GPT to write porn.

Problem 5: They kind of don't work

Text programs frequently make stuff up. Actually, a friend pointed out to me that, in pulp scifi, robots will often say something like, "There is an 80% chance the guards will spot you!"

If you point one of those AI assistants at something, and ask them what it is, a lot of times they just confidently say the wrong thing. This same friend pointed out that, under the hood, the image recognition software is working with probabilities. But I saw lots of videos of the Rabbit AI assistant thing confidently being completely wrong about what it was looking at.

Chat-GPT hallucinates. Image generators are unable to consistently produce the same character and it's actually pretty difficult and unintuitive to produce a specific image, rather than a generic one.

This may be fixed in the near future or it might not, I have no idea.

Problem 6: Kinetic sameness.

One of the subtle changes of the last century is that more and more of what we do in life is look at a screen, while either sitting or standing, and making a series of small hand gestures. The process of writing, of producing an image, of getting from place to place are converging on a single physical act. As Marshall Macluhan pointed out, driving a car is very similar to watching TV, and making a movie is now very similar, as a set of physical movements, to watching one.

There is something vaguely unsatisfying about this.

Related, perhaps only in the sense of being extremely vague, is a sense that we may soon be mediating all, or at least many, of our conversations through AI tools. Have it punch up that email when you're too tired to write clearly. There is something I find disturbing about the idea of communication being constantly edited and punched up by a series of unrelated middlemen, *especially* in the current climate, where said middlemen are large impersonal monopolies who are dedicated to opaque, user hostile practices.

Given all of the above, it is baffling and sometimes infuriating to me that the two most popular arguments against AI boil down to "Transformative works are theft and we need to restrict fair use even more!" and "It's bad to use technology to make art, technology is only for boring things!"

[howlingday]

RUBY VS JAUNE

Having survived a harrowing experience on all fronts, including Jaune getting mugged of all the team's lien, an unfortunate issue has come up to make matters worse. The Leaping Juniper, beloved Bullhead of the Bowlcap Huntresses, has received irreparable damage. Ruby, Blake, and Oscar have all spoken to Atlas mechanics on the matter and have offered a replacement ship. Ruby has made her decision, but Jaune is stubborn and refuses to budge on the issue.

Ruby: Jaune, it's time to let go. I already told you; The Juniper can't be fixed anymore! It doesn't matter what we do. We... We can't fix her.

Jaune: (Grits teeth, Sinks to floor)

Ruby: I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true.

Jaune: Oh, you mean THIS Bullhead?! The same one we're both standing in right now?!

Ruby: Yeah. That's right. It's only a matter of time before she crashes, or worse.

Jaune: ...You're lying.

Ruby: I'm not. I asked my uncle's friends to take a look at it and they said nobody on Remnant could fix it. They said she wouldn't be able to take off, and if she did, she wouldn't stay in the air long enough to get us to even the next town.

Jaune: ...So that's how it's going to be, huh? You just let a drunk and his alcoholic friends get into your head, and you don't think to ask any questions?

Ruby: That's enough.

Jaune: I won't say they don't have some idea of what's going on, but this is just wrong! DON'T GIVE UP ON THE JUNIPER! What about all the adventures we've been on together?! What about all the battles we've fought?! She's our friend! SHE'S ONE OF US! ARE YOU JUST GOING TO ABANDON HER WITHOUT ANOTHER THOUGHT?!

Jaune: (Huffing) After all we've been through, is that how little The Juniper means to you, Ruby?!

Ruby: ...

Jaune: (Wipes tears)

Oscar: Jaune, I know you're upset, but you need to calm down.

Jaune: I'm sorry, but no. (Coughs) I'm not backing down until we settle this.

Blake: Jaune, please...

Jaune: ...

Ruby: ...What? You think you know better than the mechanics?! If we had somebody on our team who knew how to fix Bullheads, then we wouldn't have asked them in the first place!

Jaune: Screw them! We don't need those guys telling us what to do! I'll just fix it up myself. Same as I always do. We've made this far and we can keep going even further. (Groans as he struggles to stand) I'll... I'll get started... right now... C... C'mon, guys... Give me a hand...

Yang: It's not gonna work.

Jaune: You're right. We need bolts. Screws. Fuel for the welding torch. I'll grab some from the auto-shop.

Ruby: ...

Jaune: We've got a lot of work to do-

Ruby: YOU'RE NOT A MECHANIC, JAUNE! YOU HEAR ME?!

Blake: Stop it, Ruby!

Jaune: I know, dammit! But so what?! I don't get why you're so hung up on everything those stupid mechanics have to say! IF THEY KNEW HALF THE THINGS SHE WENT THROUGH, THEY WOULDN'T GIVE UP ON THE JUNIPER LIKE YOU GUYS ARE! THEY JUST WANT YOUR LIEN!

Blake: Jaune...

Jaune: The Juniper is our ship, so it's up to us to take care of her without anyone else butting in! I'm not giving up! I WON'T LET THEM TAKE THE JUNIPER AWAY FROM ME!

Jaune: This... This is so stupid... You're getting conned by a bunch of fast-talking salesmen trying to hawk off a used plane. The Ruby I know wouldn't cave in to a sales pitch from somebody she'd never met! She would believe in the strength of The Juniper and the strength of her team! (Grabs) BUT HERE YOU ARE, IGNORING HER JUST LIKE HOW YOU'RE IGNORING YOUR FRIENDS!

Blake: Usopp, listen to us, it's not that-

Ruby: DON'T GET IN THE WAY, BLAKE! This is my decision! We're leaving The Leaping Juniper and getting a new ship!

Jaune: (Grabbed)

Ruby: You think I want to do this? You think this isn't hard for me to do, too?

Jaune: If it's so damn hard, then you wouldn't even think about changing Bullheads!

Ruby: FINE! IF YOU AREN'T GOING TO RESPECT MY DECISIONS, THEN YOU CAN GET THE HELL OFF MY-

CRACK!

Ruby: (Smashed through the dining table)

Jaune: (On the floor, Wide-eyed)

Blake: (Covering her mouth)

Oscar: (Shaking)

Weiss: ...

Yang: (Panting, Clenching fist) Dumbass... What the hell were you about to say?

Jaune: ...Fine. I get it now. I know how you really feel, Ruby.

Ruby: Dammit, no! That's not what I meant!

Jaune: (Stands up, Walking away) Just drop the useless baggage and keep moving, right? And if you're getting rid of The Juniper, THEN YOU MIGHT AS WELL TOSS ME AWAY, TOO.

Yang: Dammit, I get that you're pissed off, but don't you start saying stupid shit, too!

Jaune: (Stops) I mean it. I've been thinking about this for a long time. I'm not an idiot when the writing's on the wall. You're all way too strong for me now. I can't keep up anymore. Like, look at me right now! I couldn't even handle a couple of punks trying to rob me! There's no point having me around if all I do is cause you guys trouble.

Weiss: ...

Blake: ...

Yang: ...

Oscar: ...

Jaune: You don't want weak people on your team, right? Ruby... I know in my heart that you will be the Queen of Huntresses one day, but me? I was just lucky enough to get this far. Back when we first met, I was gonna go off on my own. You only let me on your team out of pity.

--------------------------------------------------

Weiss: What are you talking about, you buffoon? Get on already!.

Ruby: We're friends, aren't we? So come aboard!.

--------------------------------------------------

Jaune: That's the only reason I'm here. There's no point in all of us being here if we don't have the same goal!

Ruby: ...

Jaune: (Walks out)

Yang: Hey! Jaune! Where the hell are you going?!

Jaune: Where I'm going is my business and my business alone. It's none of your business anymore. I'm... I'm sorry, guys, but I'm leaving the team. Good-bye!

Blake: (Running for shutting door)

Yang: (Running for shutting door)

Oscar: (Running for shutting door, Door shut) Jaune... Why..?

Blake: No... (Looks to Ruby) What are you doing, Ruby?! Who knows what he's going to do! Say something to him! Stop him before it's too late!

Ruby: ...

Blake: We came too far together to start breaking up now! We can't go running off, leaving each other like this! Jaune isn't just a team member. He's our friend! Why aren't you getting up and stopping him?!

Ruby: ...

Blake: Ruby... What's going on? Please... You're our leader.

Ruby: ...

Blake: ...Fine. Whatever. (Runs out door) JAUNE! JAUNE, COME BACK! IT SHOULDN'T BE LIKE THIS! COME ON! LET'S TALK THIS OUT!

Yang: YEAH! COME BACK!

Oscar: I WANT YOU TO STAY! DON'T LEAVE US! (Sobs)

Weiss: ...

Ruby: (Walks out)

Blake: ...Say something, Ruby. Please.

Ruby: ...

--------------------------------------------------

Jaune: Need some help?.

Jaune: The name's Jaune, Jaune Arc! Short, sweet, and rolls off the tongue. The ladies love it~!.

Jaune: You'll pull us through. Like you always have.

Jaune: Ruby.

--------------------------------------------------

Jaune: (Stops) Ruby. I'm sorry I can't follow you anymore. And I'm sorry I was a pain until the bitter end.

Ruby: ...

Jaune: I know you're the leader of this team, so The Juniper belongs to you.

Jaune: (Turns) That's why I want you to fight me

Ruby: ...

Jaune: RUBY ROSE, I CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!

Ruby: ...

Jaune: YOU'D BETTER GIVE UP NOW, RUBY, BECAUSE... BECAUSE I HAVE MORE THAN 100,000 WARRIORS READY TO SERVE ME!

Oscar: WHAT?! 100,000?!

Weiss: Go back inside, Oscar.

Ruby: You and I both know you're lying, Jaune. And don't start making excuses now. No matter how this fight ends, you can't regret it. You asked for a duel, and you're getting a duel.

Jaune: Fine by me! Don't even think about going easy on me!

--------------------------------------------------

One Intense Battle of Wills Later...

Weiss: Game over.

Jaune: (Gasping, Collapses)

Ruby: ...You idiot. You knew you couldn't win! Didn't you?! (Sniffles, Turns) See ya, Jaune. It's been fun.

Weiss: ...Something on your mind, Leader?

Ruby: This... This hurts, Weiss...

Weiss: That's what it means to be the leader, doesn't it? Don't falter.

Yang: ...

Blake: (Covering her eyes, Weeping)

Oscar: (Trying not to sob, Sobbing)

Weiss: If you break, then who can we count on?

Ruby: ...

Weiss: There's no going back now. To this Bullhead, or anything else.

Ruby: (Tears flowing)

Jaune: (Tears pooling)

[end-otw-racism]

End OTW Racism Link Round-Up: Week 1!

We are now in week two of our action demanding that OTW live up to its commitments to address racist harassment & abuse, which ends May 31st! There was a lot of great discussion during the first week, so we wanted to post a round-up of some of the longer-form discussion/analysis that people have been sharing (we're going with posts on Tumblr, Dreamwidth, and other sites, as well as Twitter threads that are longer than three tweets). These are posts that we think would be helpful to consider as fandom engages in the necessary conversations about these issues.

If we've missed something you've written, we'll be doing another round-up of week two, so it's not too late! You can either submit it on tumblr, tweet at us, or email us at endotwracism [at] gmail [dot] com. We do reserve the right to only share posts that are in line with the intent of the campaign and that we believe are adding to the conversation.

Tumblr

beatrice-otter: Why AO3 needs to be accountable for reducing fandom racism in its internal culture and the archive [link]

pretty-weird-ideas: End OTW Racism and the “Fed” Accusations [link]

aretethegreattelleroftales: You don’t understand what EndOTWRacism is asking for here, and because you clearly do not understand it, you should have known better than to speak on it. [link]

vex-verlain: In response to the reactions I’ve seen to #EndOTWRacism [link]

unrealromance: I don’t really understand how people don’t know the difference between ‘whoops I’ve fallen into a racist trope’ and 'I am literally writing hate speech that is unveiled, mask off’. [link]

pretty-weird-ideas: Codification of a Living Document as a solution to Harassment on OTW [link]

indifferentvincent: RE: End OTW Racism Derailment [link]

elumish: In light of some of the backlash to the End OTW Racism protest, and particularly the concern that an anti-harassment policy would lead to abuse of reporting mechanisms or censorship of unpopular authors/ships… [link]

seepunkrun: How to Find and Attend OTW Board Meetings [link]

indifferentvincent: The people who use the excuse of saying ao3 is an ‘archive’ and so 'must preserve’ the most vile, intentionally racist fics just sound like the most privileged motherfuckers on the planet to me. [link]

spacebeyonce & pretty-weird-ideas: wow this is such a normal and rational thing to say about having a diversity consultant to help ao3 fix their bullshit. [link]

indifferentvincent: I have to assume this is in regards to my promotion of the end-otw-racism call to action, because I don’t know what else it could be referencing. [link]

princeescaluswords: Writing Doesn’t Happen in a Void [link]

mousieta: There is a place, a magic place, a giant, ever growing park filled with sandboxes of every color and shape imaginable. [link]

Twitter

spacebeyonceart: alright so I want to talk about this post I made two years ago now that the #EndOTWRacism ball is finally rolling. [link]

generalfrings: This shit makes me so goddamn angry, yall. [link]

eruthosish: One of the calls of #EndOTWRacism is to improve the AO3's Terms of Service and how the AO3 deals with fanworks that are part of an offsite harassment campaign, so I wanted to share a story about the only time I have ever reported offsite harassment and had Abuse agree with me. [link]

buttonthemdown: They've proven they can move quickly *when they want to*, but the fact the OTW hasn't made an official statement acknowledging their lack of action and pledging to do better sends a signal they don't care about their POC fans. [link] 

Clonehub7567 Seeing the reactionary dismissals of #EndOTWRacism from white fans who pretend to care about racism is reminding me of the backlash i/we got for #UnwhitewashTBB. [link]

hydrochaeris3: ppl who are worried that not participating in the call to action will get them labeled racist..... first of all once again yall are showing that you care more about what others might label you than putting forth tangible effort into caring for a community [link]

m_sketchyart: If you think that #EndOTWRacism is censoring your escapism, here’s a thought to chew on: why is being anti-racist a threat to your escapism? Is true escapism not also leaving racism, antiBlackness, fatphobia, abeism, misogyny, etc out of your escapism? /rh  [link]

lunedraws: Have you wanted to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, re: racism, in one or more of your fandom spaces? This is a concise and timely line of actions we can take. [link]

aliasmarionette: One thing I see a lot in #EndOTWRacism comments which are in favour of the status quo is assumptions about who we mean by fandom, and about the user base of the Archive. [link]

SapphicScholar: New profile photo while participating in the important fan-led campaign to demand that OTW make good on the promises it has already made to address issues it has already acknowledged as problems in the archive—that is, instances of extreme racist harassment and abuse [link]

Fansplaining: Since the endotwracism campaign has begun, we wanted to highlight the timeline they've put together about the OTW's communications re: hiring a diversity consultant since their initial statement of commitment in the summer of 2020. [link]

gwenpendrcgon: ive seen so much backlash over #EndOTWRacism which shouldnt surprise me (also majority of this comes from tumblr is also to be expected) but most if not all backlash received by this event is done is such bad faith and complete wilful ignorance [link]

fiercynonym: so op of the #EndOTWRacism post on reddit dm-ed me and the situation is even more fucked up than i originally knew???  [link]

kitschlet: seeing a lot of people confused about what the OTW can do to address racism [link]

generalfrings: poor AO3 maintaining a 'absurdly heavy site'. all that text! [link]

RukminiPande: Fan scholars should be paying attn to #EndOTWracism. [link]

Saathi1013: The thing to notice about all the assertions that people know who's behind EOTWR is like... Okay, there are a few things, actually [link]

buttonthemdown: If you think that victims of racism need to "develop a thicker skin" you're a fucking racist [link]

mousieta: if i could have people understand one thing abt #endotwracism right now is that This issue matters not because racism makes you feel bad, or uncomfy, or squicky but because racism is actively harming Real Living Breathing Fans right now. [link]

fiercynonym: okay so…you know how OTW has been saying, when asked at meetings, that they have a budget surplus of about USD $1 million? well…manogirl & i did some digging, and it might actually be more than TWO AND A HALF MILLION USD. [link]

runpunkrun: Speaking of OTW Board meetings, if you're interested in attending, here's what you need to know [link] 

Dreamwidth

satsuma: A Chronic Habit of Avoiding Responsibility? #EndOTWRacism [link]

bcgphoenix: I have a lot of feelings about OTW and End OTW Racism as a book conservator/general preservation person, most of which verge into tl;dr territory. [link]

killabeez: Looking at past archive policies [link]

nyctanthes: End OTW Racism (Fannish Fifty #47) [link]

chestnut_pod: Be more democratic, be more autocratic, OTW [link]

Other sites

Lady’s Weblog: End Racism in the OTW [link]

The Rec Center: #384 Final Thoughts [link]

Stitch’s Media Mix: I’m Supporting #EndOTWRacism [link]

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not buying a silver car?

I (27F) had bought a used car a few years ago. I've been using it since then, I put a lot of cash on maintenance, but it reached a point where it can't be fixed anymore because the parts aren't available for purchase and also I refuse to use all my savings on it anymore. I decided to buy a new car finally. I prepared the cash and picked a car I liked that wasn't too expensive. I ordered the blue color because it's my favorite. I waited for the dealer to call me back for a whole month, and I decided to check on them because the procedure should only take a week?

Anyway, after I called them, it turns out the blue car will need to be shipped from abroad, which takes a very long time thanks to the pandemic. I was given other options that would be faster, black, white and silver. I was reluctant, I like silver and I have nothing against it.... but I'm hyperfixated on blue and have been all my life. I'm severely attached to it. It wouldn't be an exaggeration if I said I'd get depressed if I get any other color. I'm Autistic but I have no idea if it's related. Plus is my passion, I'm annoying about it and know that.

However, since I needed the car urgently, I finally gave in and asked them to get me the silver one. I have only seen it pictures but I imagined it would be nice. I guess.

I told my parents about my decision, my mom told me to give it a little more time to think. She wasn't sure if getting the silver car would be a good choice for me, she imagined I'd be unhappy with that car that I'd sell quickly to get a blue one. I told of course I wouldn't sell a car just because of its color, but then again, that's sound like something I might do because I'm that obsessed with the color.

I called the dealer the next day and told them about changing my mind, I decided to wait for the blue can whenever it arrives.

Searched for the alternative places that sell this car, but I couldn't find a blue one that wasn't used. I learned my lesson from my buying my first car and refuse to buy another used one.

Anyway, since my car stopped, I've been borrowing my father's car. He has three car, the one I borrowed is new, the other two are used. He has no problem lending me his cars every now and then, however, since my car is taking forever to arrive, my father hasn't got to use his favorite car in months. He wants it, but doesn't say anything because he knows I need it. Public transportation is nonexistent where I live, and taxi is insanely expensive. Even though my father wants his car back, he wouldn't want me to use the taxi. I considered borrowing his used cars instead but they're both difficult to drive. One is too heavy for me, and the other is not good enough to handle a long drive, and my work is a one hour long drive. That's why my only option is my father's new car.

I also have been having concentration issues lately, I'm going to therapy and working on it, but it caused two car accidents. Nothing major, nobody was hurt, but my father's car was scratched. He's angry about it, but he didn't demand his car back because I don't have any other alternatives.

This problem would be easily solved if I got the silver car, but I desperately want to wait for the blue one and I have no idea how long it will take. AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[marinerainbow]

Do you have any more information on that when’s were peach fell in love with bowser eyes 👀 it interest me a lot

Powser is my favorite Mario ship... So yes, I do >:3

Let us renember; in my headcannon, Peach is SEVEN FOOT THREE! Imagine how huge Bowser is if he can grab her up like this!?!?

This post shall also be done in dot points for my sanity XD also, this will be referring to the Powser Timeline of my Mario's Galexy.

In this cycle, Mario and Luigi showed up much later, so they aren't around for a good while. So when it came to maintaining the peace of The Strangelands, it fell on our beloved princess' shoulders. In fact, in this timeline, Bowser doesn't get to kidnap her because she approached him first for peace between their nations.

Bowser had been planning to take over the Mushroom Kingdom for the same reasons I stated in my Mario AU post. So you can imagine how surprised he was when he received an invitation to the very palace he was planning on conquering in the first place. He took this as a chance for a surprise take-over, and told his men to prepare as such.

... The thing is, though, he expected to come face to face with a sentient mushroom ruler. Not the beautiful, kind-hearted, and collected Princess Peach we know and love to greet him at the edge of her city. He actually thought she was a passing human, but no. The toads flanking her sides introduced her as their princess. And when Peach approached Bowser with a sweet smile and took one of his clawed fingers in both of her hands, he fell in love instantly... Which was quite the show when his koopa troops surrounded the princess and her toad guards as was the original plan 😅 Bowser had to quickly call them off, and come up with an excuse on the spot as to why his koopas would point their spears at her.

Peach: Wh-What is this!?

Bowser: No! No! It, uh... Y-You see, my princess *totally not squealing on the inside for getting to say that* uh... My people, we uh...

The Koopas: 😶😶🤨🤨🤨🤨

Bowser: We aren't used to uh... Friendly people, such as you.

Peach: Really?

Bowser: Yeah, yeah! It uh... We were expecting an attack, actually-

Koopa: But my lord, you said-

Bowser: *gives him the 'shut the shell up!' Look*

Peach: Oh, you poor koopas! 🥺 don't worry. You will find nothing but acceptance and peace among the toads. And with our alliance, we'll be sure to offer your people the prosperity you deserve ^^

Bowser: *definitly not wondering what Peaches ring size is already* Right, that's why we're here! For peace! Haha...

(Eventually, after they get married, Bowser tells Peach the truth of what happened. To which she surprises him by confessing she already knew, but decided to give him a chance since he called off his troops, and she's glad she did. My Peach may be a pacifist, but she's not blind.)

Anyways, they went inside her kingdom, and Bowser not only got to see a side of The Strangelands he never did get to see in The Darklands, but was also shocked at how peacefully they were able to work together. Peach never spoke down to him or his people, and made sure neither side would be treated unfairly in their kingdoms union. He was honestly amazed, having never seen anything political being taken care of through non-violent means. It made him reflect on his own laws and Kingdom, too. But he wanted to leave a good impression on Peach, so he tried to paint his kingdom and ruling in a positive light... Which failed miserably 😅😅😅 but at least it encouraged Peach to renain in contact with him and help bring his people into a new, kinder era, so... He considers it a win.

There was a lot of work to be done. Imagine if all of the main Mario games focused on Peach and Bowser teaming up and fixing various issues between their kingdoms. That's how much time passed between them after that first meeting (I actually wanna see that 🤔 Bowser being able to use force and offense when Peach's negotiations and defense fail, and vice versa. Kinda like Bigby and Snow from The Wolf Among Us). But it only made Bowser fall for her harder, and eventually Peach started to fall in love with Bowser, too. And since their kingdoms were already united, it seemed like the most natural course of action ^^

Their love and marriage lasted for the rest of their lives. Raising the koopalings and Junior, and changing all of the Strangelands for the better. However, it all ended on the star festival, as it always does with each cycle; Bowser, Peach and their children were all enjoying a night of fun and collecting star bits, and forming the final grand star before their timeline ends with the galexy resetting itself... Unfortunately, Bowser and Peach don't fall in love in the next cycle, but they at least had their happy ending while they had it...

I hope this timeline makes sense 😅 but! Time for headcannons/tid-bits of the Powser Galexy Cycle!

As you can see, Bowser is still a bit of a goof in this timeline. In fact, he's able to show that side of himself more in this cycle than in previous cycles. That's because there's no need for him to be so tyrannical, and because his precious wife encourages him to let this side of him out ^^

Even so, he still knows how to lay down the law. Peach, she is a good and benevolent ruler. However, there were plenty of times when people tried to take advantage of that. Whether it be neighboring kingdoms during negotiations, enemies trying to take over her kingdom, or even their own people trying to get out of paying for a crime they committed. In that case, Bowser is always there to make sure nobody tries to pull the wool over Peach's eyes. He's kind of like her guard dog, standing behind her with his arms crossed and ready to roast somebody if they hurt or try to fool Peach... Needless to say, this does make people think twice about trying to harm the princess.

Though on the flip side, Peach is able to get Bowser to realize when aggression is unnecessary and whether or not a punishment for a criminal is just or too extreme. It's not uncommon in the kingdom to see Peach by Bowsers' side, holding his claw and keeping him calm enough to see reason and keep things smooth during meetings. If Bowser is her guard dog, then Peach would be his emotional support kitty.

Sometimes, just to tease Peach or because he needs he close in that moment, Bowser will pick up Peach just like in the gif above to give her a kiss, whisper something in her ear, or even during meetings and he and Peach need to talk without anyone else listening in. Sometimes, Peach will hop up onto his shoulder to peck his cheek and see him turn red ^^

In my previous post, I said that Ludwig was the first to be adopted, followed shortly by Iggy. They were actually brought in by Bowser before he and Peach were married. Even though they weren't a couple, however, Peach fell in love with them instantly and would constantly ask Bowser how he and his sons are doing. And he even trusted her enough to send them to her palace whenever necessary! 🥺🥺🥺 Peach treated them like her own, and when they came back, the first thing Iggy asked his dad was why aren't he and mama Peach married yet? This was actually what encouraged Bowser to finally confess his love to her ^^ (Ludwig was in his emo phase at this point, so he was just like "Yeah, she's alright." // "Shut up, Luddy, you still have the violin Peach got you." // "SHUT UP!-")

As such, Ludwig and Iggy are the only koopa kids who remember having only Bowser as a parent. The other koopa kids, even though lived under the rule of Peach and Bowser, were adopted after they got together.

After they were married, they built their own palace on the borders of both of their kingdoms. Peaches' original castle is the families' summer vacation home, and Bowsers Castle is their winter vacation home.

The Mario Bros come to The Strangelands during Bowser and Peach's wedding planning, actually XD when they were due to be married within a week, in fact. Larry found them first and showed them to his parents like they were cool bugs or stones he found XD "Mama, look! They look like you, but very small!" They were able to fix some plumbing issues in the castle that would have potentially interferred with the wedding, so Peach and Bowser promised to help them find their way back home for their help ^^ (I like to think Mario may have developed a mini crush on Peach, but since she was getting married, it obviously went nowhere.)

When it comes to parenting, Peach is the more firm parent. Bowser loves his kids, and he can discipline them. But... He's weak. He can't do it unless it's something serious. And we know he spoils his kids 😅😅😅 Peach loves them to peices as well! But she knows where to draw the line with them and makes sure Bowser doesn't go too far with spoiling them or letting their antics slide. As such, they actually grow up less bratty and not so "we just love being mean!" Then they do when it's just Bowser raising them. Imagine Peach being like Mary Poppins with them, making sure they behave without being aggressive about it. Except she's their mother, not their nanny. Daisy though, is their cool aunt.

When it comes to Junior, Bowser still made him on his own. Even though he and Peach wanted to try for kids, their drastic size and biology differences did make them hesitate. So, to stay on the safe side, Bowser incubated Juniors egg all on his own. Though this time, he had Peach tp take care of him through the draining process and take care of their kids ^^ (and that's how, in the current timeline, Bowser Jr. Still has buried memories of a past life with Peach as his mother. Just not by blood.)

A kinda funny thing though, is that when the palace is under attack, Bowser will go face the threat and the koopalings will surround Peach in their own version of a kill circle XD even though she's their mama, it's no secret that she's the most delicate family member (koopa babies, while still being fragile compared to adult koopas, are still pretty tough compared to humans. I mean, Lemmy and Junior, the youngest kids, already have sharp spikes on their shells 😬). So even though Peach will stand between her babies and any threat, her kids really are the next line of defense if, for whatever reason, Bowser fails.

Though, Peach is still a mama. And any mother worth their salt would break a man in two for touching her baby... That is actually what people find out in this timeline, after the one and only time Peach was actually kidnapped in this cycle. She had Junior with her, so he was taken too. Bowser pulled up with his battleships, ready to destroy the whole galexy to get his wife and son back... Only for him to find his darling, wouldn't-hurt-a-fly wife having tossed her vow of pacifism out the window and curb stomping her and her sons' kidnapper the second she broke out of the cage. That was just more proof to Bowser he found the perfect woman. (He still set fire to the guy when Peach was done with him. The koopa kids all think their mom is even cooler now.)

Oh yeah. Bowser still writes Peach love songs. And Peach writes him so many lovey dovey letters- yes, even after they're married- and bakes him many cakes. They love each other so much 💕

So yeah. They are a pretty dynamic duo with running kingdoms and raising families in this timeline ^^ Thank you for sending this in! I hope you enjoy reading this ^^