#I don't want to clog up the channel

[eddsworld-nightscape-au]

Ladies, Gentlemen, and the Vast In-Between

May I present to you,,

[lizardsfromspace]

The problem with discussing the impact of reality TV is that there were two booms of reality TV that were very different, and people conflate them

The first one from 1999 to the mid-2000s was mainly reality-competition shows, and mainly on broadcast networks. This was the one networks did as a ploy to replace writers with cheaper content. This wave was also dying or dead by the end of the 2000s. The biggest hits survived, but it became harder to launch new reality-competition shows, and all the smaller shows and specials that clogged up the schedule (and some famous ones, like Fear Factor) went extinct, a victim of oversaturation - something foreshadowed by the show that kicked off the boom, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, going from hottest thing in TV to cancelled as it expanded to five nights a week. Like, if you look them up, most of the big reality-competition shows now either started during these boom years, or are spin-offs of one that did (like the Gordon Ramsay shows all springing from Hell's Kitchen). The network's dream/the industry's fear of reality replacing scripted content never came to pass

It's actually a huge commitment to launch a new "the viewers at home vote!" reality show, since you have to assign a untested show two hours on one night for the live show and one hour on the next for the results show, and throughout the 2010s networks would look for ways to ditch the results show. In some countries you could do voting live (British reality shows do due to having just one timezone), but you can't in the US due to episodes airing on a delay on the West Coast

I don't think you even can do a show of American Idol's level anymore, since it thrived from a brief period of overlap: where phones & internet were common, but we still had some kind of a monoculture. My proof of this is that there's a new season of American Idol airing right now, in April 2023. Did you know it was still on? I didn't. Do you know who won last year? I'm not sure I could name a winner or even contestant since the Bush years. I never watched it, but everyone knew who won it in its early years, since it had a saturation you just can't get anymore, except with sports. Hell, at its peak everyone knew the names of people who didn't get past the auditions. This is not a growth industry, it is one crystalized around a few shambling forever-hits, and that one show where famous people sing in animal masks

The second boom is the one that took off around the time of the strike, which was made up of "personality" based reality shows. These were most common on basic cable channels, and crucially, basic cable channels that didn't really have scripted content. Keeping Up with the Kardashians didn't displace anything, because E! was a celebrity gossip channel that was all-reality from the beginning. The fears around this kind of reality show were more intangible, that Jersey Shore or the Kardashians were a kind of cultural downfall, though they weren't in any sense a new evil but just the latest manifestation of tabloid culture. In past generations the type of person to keep up with the Kardashians would've religiously bought the National Enquirer, and far before that they would've kept up with the society pages.

Anyway people act as if these two booms were the same when they were very different and treat the first one as if it's ongoing and not very firmly dead

[laidback-thrills]

EDIT: THIS IS SLIGHTLY OUTDATED. More coming soon.

Hello all!

I've been meaning to talk more in depth about this!!! I put a "read more" bc this is a little long and I don't wanna clog up the tag.

BUT

DSAF CULT AU!!!

My DSAF Cult AU is very canon divergent.

Dave Miller is a fledgeling demon who was once a young nephilim. He remembers very little about his past, but something horrible has made him what he is now.

He has a full, actual Enochian name, but people tend to throw up and shit and die when they hear it, so he chose to go by "Dave" because "It's common! I'm a normal, common guy!", but also because he trusted and loved someone like a father.

His demonic sigil and general telltale symbol is the extremely long sacrificial dagger driven into his skull. No matter what form he takes, he will have it. It can be taken out for a short period of time before Dave begins to have trouble staying corporeal.

Now literally borne with a total inability to feel remorse for his actions, he is a sick and twisted monster that does not know how to control his own extremely horrifying powers. He requires a conduit to channel them, lest he explode.

He was all alone in the world. A freak, even when "disguised" as a human. (He's purple for fuck's sake, he smells like rot and he's scaring people!). Connection eluded him, although it was all he ever wanted, even as a horrifyingly malicious entity. It's very much a similar situation to regular DSAF - he was "abandoned", and now forever seeks

Until some idiot.

Jack Kennedy was a desperate man with a missing family and no future. He was addicted to every kind of substance, heavily in debt, and crushingly isolated.

After uncovering some interesting literature from his shitty Fazbender's Pepperonerie job, he decided that he was desperate enough to follow the instructions in the grimoire. Nothing to lose anymore, and a big goal to achieve. A skeptic as he was, he did not expect the ritual to work, but when it did, it completely changed his world.

Jack did not immediately make a contract with Dave, out of pure shock and wariness, but the fucker stuck around anyway. He was offered a deal and spent a while debating it.

Eventually, it went through.

Jack was granted a demonic boon. Power, money, pleasures of the world, and a chance to put them back together. In return, he traded his body and soul for Dave's services.

The process was painful.

An agonizing death, and a transformation. Dave's sigil burned into his back, and all at once, he was rotten and orange.

Then, the demon ate his soul.

Dave benefits greatly from the exchange too (baby's first contract). He gets a lot of power from it. It keeps him anchored. Gives him something to do. Someone interesting to play with. Company at last, and it's someone that can't run away from him!

Jack is Dave's saint. They are intrinsically bound. Jack is the first person to ever form a contract with Dave— Blackjack is caged inside of Dave, alive and warm, providing him with abilities and power he didn't have before. The Black Dog is loyal to its original master, however, and attempts to return to him. As a result, the soul more or less keeps them tethered. They physically cannot stray too far from eachother.

Post-contract, now armed with the knowledge that more souls = more power, and wanting to actually put a use to their power, they get to work!

With supernatural persuasion and a great gambling streak, Jack gets his start in Nevada. There, they build their empire off of the backs of desperate gamblers who put their soul on the line. Hungry, lonely men, hookers, the desperate and the naïve...all are errant souls that Father Jack will lead right on home.

Dave requires fresh blood for any spell, but demands child sacrifices to perform large spells, but that is quite alright. With the influx of followers, children are not too hard to come by. The death of a toddler, and an unholy miracle is performed— Jack's precious little flock has a home, a commune tucked into the desert.

(It isn't DSAF without a little toddler stranglin'!)

Jack and Dave- they get them good. Victims, converts- they're promised security, "God is dead, but we've got the power to help you!" Father Jack's a friendly and convincing fella, it seems, and after all...his Gospel is very legitimate- why have just faith when you can see your new God? When that doesn't work, there's always fear. Don't believe his word? Why, they'll show you horrors of which you've never seen! Father Kennedy's fun loving, but he's a soulless bastard, and he's not shy about putting the fear of all things unholy into his flock.

Of course, once the sinners are deep enough, it's too late to escape. Father Kennedy has some dirt on them. This lovely community is built on violence, after all, and Father knows exactly what they did to get here, and exactly what they've said at confessional. That, and...who does not fear the erratic demon?

At the commune, the "church" is hidden away in the labyrinthine basement of an invaded Freddy's location. (The management seems...more than willing...) The Pepperonerie is a front, concealing profits and deaths from the government. The Priest and the Demon wash their money, wash their hands, and serve unsuspecting guests pizza with a healthy dollop of propaganda.

When they aren't terrorizing their followers, however, Dave and Jack spend their time together. It is with mixed enjoyment. They find new purpose in each other. Commit horrible atrocities and live it up in V E G A S, baby! They're...gasp...starting to crush on each other? They're also sexily trying to kill each other just a little bit.

"I hate this purple motherfucker...but I want to kiss him on his hot mouth..."

Important note shoehorned in—

Jack does not worship Dave traditionally, the way the other followers do. He does not fear him at all. He recognizes Dave for what he is- a lonely, desperate fool. As far as they go, the demon is on his leash, not the other way around. He only prays when he needs something, in the very beginning. As their relationship advances however, and they commit atrocities that would make mankind pale, Jack becomes a very religious man. Not because he is afraid or respects him as any kind of authority (he does not respect him period), but because he is Really Gay. The way he prays is devout and hungry. Only in prayer can Jack manage to say what he means.

Actually, Dave ends up more worshipping *Jack* more than Jack worships him. It's turned on its head. Dave is sooo down bad and in love, he'll do anything. Anything at all for his priest, his clementine. His obsession is very much comparable to canon. He haunts Jack and everything that he does. Jack is never alone, never truly, because a dark looming purple shadow will always follow him. He steals his things and vies for his attention at all times of the day, because he is so wrapped around Jack's orange finger it's stupid...

"Jump." "How high?!"

Peace, quiet and privacy is an extinct concept to Jack, unfortunately.

TLDR; They're horrible to eachother but are in love and their hands are drenched in the blood of children (as usual) but now it has a gay worshipping undertone.

This is not everything, of course. Next time I talk, i'll delve more into the serious and rather toxic side of their relationship but this is just some stuff i've managed to crank out! Sorry if it's all over the place! I have one billion thoughts. Feel free to ask any questions, too, I'll do my best to answer. There will be more soon.

[scholar-of-yemdresh]

Hot take but the aggressive hardline separation of asexual and aromantic is actually EXTREMELY harmful to a lot of ace/aro people.

Angry rant under the cut

It's one to thing to go: "okay yes sometimes they go together but it's important to remember that for some people they can be different things and you can be one and not the other"

And go: "These are TOTALLY DIFFERENT 100 always separate there is no intersection EVER and if you DARE to be both then you have to piecemeal your identity to not uwu invalidate others(we do not care that we are invalidating you though lol) Don't you DARE ever experience them together you are CONFLATING"

It's like yall just want asexual to = alloromantic only and aromantic to = allosexual only.

You don't give a shit about aroaces, aces who aren't alloromantic but don't ID as aromantic or aros who aren't allosexual but don't ID as asexual.

The aspec community despises us. We get talked down to demanded to split our identities apart for your comfort. We can't exist in certain spaces because our presence there is a personal affront to allo-aspecs. Shout out to the alloaros that bitch about those disgusting aroaces just clogging up the aromantic tag ☺. Shout out to the alloaces who can still love and aren't totally heartless monsters 🥺.

Don't talk about ace shit in the aro tags, Don't talk about aro shit in the ace tags...what's that you're both? And can't neatly separate them and it brings you comfort to be able to discuss your whole orientation? SHUT THE FVCK UP YOU CONFLATING IGNORANT SHIT HEAD.

If you want to be in the aromantic community you have to leave your ace-ness at the door same for asexual community and disregarding your aromantism.

A personal example was an Aspec discord server I was in that had two media recs channels one for sex repulsed people and the other for romance repulsed. Now the issue came is that they didn't acknowledge someone could be both i.e both sex & romance repulsed/just looking for media that had neither sexual nor romantic content, what this lead too is that the romance free media channel was filled with graphic hookup erotica or sexually explicit songs and the sex free channel was just fade to black romance books 🙃...wonderful.

Or when polls/forms will ask you to pick your orientation but only things listed are het,gay,bi/pan yes even the ones made by aspecs, and what they actually mean is use the one that correlates to your romantic/sexual attraction...so fvck aroaces and non sam aces & aros?

And don't get me started on how you treat non sam aces & aros. You at least tolerate the self IDing aroaces, because they have the "curtesy" of separating themselves from the real proper aces & aros.(let's not question how many aroaces would prefer to just ID as just asexual or just aromantic but are forced into aroace identity because that would be "conflating" and they don't want to deal with the harassment).

"UwU don't say asexual when you actually mean aromantic" Some bitches don't use to SAM fvck off with allo-splaining my own sexuality to me.

It would be so much easier and save a lot of pain if yall just went : "asexual for some means no sexual attraction and it says nothing of your romantic attraction AND some people use it to mean no attraction generally". And "aromantic for some means no romantic attraction and it says nothing of your sexual attraction AND some people use it to mean no attraction generally" and "for some they are separated but others not so much as there isn't always a strict separation. Just be chill about it don't accuse people of being ignorant or conflating they know their identities better than you". But no ya chose violent aphobia instead.

But ultimately nobody cares because this shit is only harming the undesirable aces/aros the ones who are harmful stereotypes the ones that make you "look bad".

I know deep in my heart there are a lot of alloaces & alloaros that who would be happy if aroaces & non sam aces/aros didn't exist, there I said it. How can I not come to that conclusion when at every turn they shit on us. They talk about how the worst thing in the world is to be mistaken for one of us. That our representation is actively harmful.

A last parting spicy take it's either "asexulity and aromantism are full identities on their own and aren't modifiers" OR "actually neither asexual nor aromantic can stand on their own they need to be paired with another orientation and they actually are just modifiers" you can't have it both ways. 🤭

[ethereallyjade]

Pick A Card: What Your Body Wants to Tell You

Choose a photo that calls to you and the cards will tell you a message that your body would like you to know right now. This is just for fun. Do not take anything seriously or above legal or medical advice. Masterlist

1 - 2

3 - 4

Images Not Mine

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

Pile 1

Channeled Message: Stuffed, Clogged, Ridgid, Resisitant

Your body is encouraging you to branch out and try new things. I'm hearing try new foods. If you've been thinking about trying out new recipes, your body's giving you the green light to do so. If you've been thinking about adapting new habits and exercises, it's also a go. Even if it doesn't work out, you will learn to adapt and make adjustments along the way, but you need to try something other than what you've been doing. It's time to use your enegy more effectively, and if you don't have energy it's time to treat yourself/eat/move better so you can start making that energy. Having that said, don't get too caught up in trying to find a perfect routine. You may have a habit of trying to do too much research, and although that's still important (don't put your body through potential harm w/o research obviously) make sure you're doing as much as you're thinking. Just let loose, have fun with your health practices, be in the moment with your body and don't think too much, just do. You're in a period of change and old habits are needing to be left behind and walked away from. You're so close to becoming that person you want to be. The time is now.

Pile 2

Channeled Message: Clashing, Deep Breath, Judging, Slow, Waiting, Patience, Observe

Okay, like I figured from the channeled messages, your biggest issue rn may be your own mind. As in, judging yourself too harshly that is. You may be quickly losing your patience with waiting and waiting for results to show on something. You want to stay calm about it, but inside your timer is ticking away. You're being asked to sit and take a deep breath. Perhaps you don't fully believe in your results. You want it bad, you may even need it, but deep down maybe you don't really believe this will/can happen for you or that you deserve it. I'm seeing this type of mentality is what's truly stopping you from transforming and being offered amazing gifts in life. Give yourself a chance at happiness. On a lighter note, I believe you are starting to realize what's actually important to you. Maybe you placed too much importance on having the best/most expensive food, equipment, medicine, clothes, etc. for your body and you're coming to the conclusion that it's the little things or the things on the inside that matter most, or for some of you the things you put inside your body. Things will start looking up for you, but you have to believe it.

Pile 3

Channeled Message: "Work with me". not listening, "there you go, you're getting there", distracted

You are in the midst of discovering something about yourself, but I'm seeing mood swings, tough love, and running away from the real issue. You're body may be changing in ways you didn't expect and you don't know how to deal with it. Maybe you want your body to go back to how it was, but the cards are saying to be present with your body and focus on changing your mentality to adapt to the now. Don't repress these feelings in you, but also be okay with keeping the past in the past. You are a new you and time needs to be set aside to explore this new you and to find happiness in it. Even if you don't look, act, feel, etc. how you used to, there's still so much you can do, if not new things you'll find you can do. TW: I'm really getting that for some of you this could be a weight related issue, but regardless of what it is, don't give up on yourself. You're still beautiful and worth it no matter what.

Pile 4

Channeled Messages: Mistakes, My fault, "it's just who I am", exhausted, "I can't do this right."

Both cards I pulled are Aces, which is giving me the impression that you've discovered something about yourself recently and are currently trying to become a new you. I'm not picking up anything inherently bad though. Honestly, I think you found a new talent or something good that can really change your life, but you're scared. Scared of what it means going forward. This discovery has brought out insecurities in you because you don't know if you can do it. You may be reluctant to tell others about this new thing and you're finding ways to implement it into your life in a quiet but successful way. I'm seeing that whatever this is for you could also lead to some financial gain. Your body's asking you if this is what you truly want? And since it already knows the answer is yes, it's saying to set goals and just go for it! It's time to be clear about your wants and needs and not be shy about knowing yourself. Slight TW, but obviously if the reason you're hiding this is because it could potentially put you in danger then obviously do what you need to do to keep it hidden as long as you can, but the cards are saying not to let great opportunities pass you by out of fear.

[ddejavvu]

Hi! CONGRATULATIONS ON 6K THATS AMAZING!!!! So happy 4 u :D I know it’s the last day but I wanted to throw in a request for your 5.7 k event if that’s okay?

My heart won't change

Peter Parker + “I love you too much to ever forget you.” Where readers friends and family having forgotten their birthday, so all her family goes out for plans without her. Peter shows up at her door with balloons and flowers at night to wish her happy birthday, and she immediately collapses into tears in his arms.

Peter Parker is the last person you expect to see when you open the door. Your parents don't knock, but your best friends are out, so you have no time to prepare for the sight you're greeted with when it swung open.

A colorful party hat is strapped under Peter's chin, the boy's blinding grin on display as he stands waiting for you. He holds a cake in his hands, red and blue frosted with a spider-man action figure stuck messily into the icing.

"Happy birthday, bug." His voice is impossibly bright, lighting up the darkened street around him, "Do you like it? I made it myself!"

You stare down bewilderedly at the cake, two messy eyes drawn onto either side. They're just like the lenses of his mask, and he catches your eye scanning them.

"May had to help me with that part," He admits, "But the rest is- hey!"

You burst into tears before he can finish regaling his baking tales. The thoughtfulness clearly displayed in the sloppy icing before you strikes your heart with a warmth you had never felt before. Sure, you were loved. But you'd never felt it like this, you'd never felt so wholly and unequivocally cared for.

It makes Peter panic. He sets the cake as gently as he can on the flower boxes to his right, then takes you into his arms hurriedly. You sob weakly into his shoulder, pent-up frustrations from a day of neglect all piling up and oozing out now that the cycle is broken.

"What- what's wrong, sweetheart?" Peter tries in vain to get you to speak, but all you can do is blubber, "I mean, I know it's not the best cake in the world but I didn't think it was that bad!"

"'S not the cake," You urge, your voice muffled miserably into his neck, "I love you, Peter."

Your throat is clogged with emotion and it bleeds through your voice, making his arms wind tighter around you.

"I love you too, Y/N." He almost lets out a laugh at how adorable you are, but doesn't want to make you feel patronized, so he keeps it in. Instead he channels it into the bear hug he's giving you, suddenly tempted to let his sticky grip win over and cage you to him forever.

When the sniffles finally die down, though, he decides against it. He gently pulls back from the hug, peering concernedly at you, "Are you okay, bug?"

"I'm good," You laugh bashfully, wiping tears off of your face, "I just- everyone forgot me, and- aah! I love you, Peter."

He frowns at the realization that he's the only one who's shown, but giggles softly at your repetition. The sentiment is sweet whether you've said it once or a million times.

"I love you too much to ever forget you," He smiles sappily at you, then leans in to press a soft kiss to your lips. You let him, basking in his affection rather than pushing it further.

When he draws back you lick over your lips slightly, a soft blue film transferring to your tongue. You smack your lips thoughtfully, then glance at the cake, "You've already had some, haven't you?"

Peter blushes under your interrogation, "Only a little bit! I got to lick the spoon."

His admission only makes your heart soar further, and you eagerly tug him inside, grabbing the cake so that he doesn't have to. You notice that there's been a gift bag by his feet the entire time, and from the looks of it it has several wrapped presents inside. You let him take over that, though, rushing the cake to the kitchen and nearly dropping the knife in your hands before you can cut it.

"Easy!" He chides you lightly, "Can't have you making a birthday trip to the ER."

"They might give me special treatment," You shrug, "Two painkillers instead of one?"

"My girlfriend the druggie." He pinches teasingly at your side, then watches as you pluck the action figure from its sticky stance. You pop its feet into your mouth, running your tongue over the plastic to clean it off.

"Very good frosting," You note, taking a swipe from the side of the cake, "How big of a slice do you want, Peter?"

"Half," He grins cheekily at you, "Let's finish it so no one else gets any!"

"Deal," You giggle, eagerly chopping the cake in half down the middle, "Left or right eye, Peter?"

"Left." He chooses without hesitation, "It's your birthday so I have to let you be right."

"What a gentleman," You snort, plating the massive slab of cake, holding it close to your chest before handing it to him, "Thank you, Peter."

"You're welcome." He doesn't even feel right responding, because it's the least he could have done for you. Or maybe it's not, maybe it's over the top and extravagant, but he doesn't care. Because he loves you, and he loves letting you know it.

[captainmera]

This is a weird or maybe nonsensical one, has Caleb ever seen or faced a Wendigo?

Out of respect for the Mohegan tribe of the Pequot people in Connecticut, I stay away from using terms like wen**go and sk**walk** in my fanfic.

Adding a read more so I don't clog up people's feed. 🙇

I'm not native American. It would be unwise of me to dig into things I dont have a greater understanding of. Especially when it involves things that marginalised people are still believing in and practising spiritually.

Although I research extensively; I'm not flawless in my execution. But in my years of interest in native culture, history, and contemporary issues - I have learned that those two words are often misused for shock value in stories. I don't want to contribute to that.

There is a wide smörgårdsbord of other native folklore that can be used that won't bring further mysticism onto a still existing and practising group of people, though.

If youre interested in finding out more, Here's one of my favourite channels on the topic!

https://youtube.com/@NavajoTraditionalTeachings?si=PSIL9Z7ZRiA9JZvG

Now, these are mainly from a Navajo perspective, but the various nations and tribes do share a lot of them.

I prefer when my sources are directly from first hand. Thankfully, there are a lot of YouTube channels like these now that make it easier.

I've bought books when I was younger that was written by outsiders looking in, and they're not always that good - I understand the irony, as I am probably in the same boat as them here (being an interested outsider, that is). But I think, what I've learned from those authors mistakes, academically speaking, are two things:

1) Be aware that you are speaking as a secondary source of information and that you are biased as an outsider. Remind people of this, and admit when you don't know something rather than start guessing.

2) Have respect. They are not some mystical group of people that once was. They are still here and practising their beliefs.

There's nothing wrong with including representation, and doing your best to be accurate and respectable about it, but the way I see it is that - do your best and don't let your ego get the best of you.

Yes, it would be fun to write Caleb encountaring dark forces of Pequot folklore, or dip into a Demon Realm lens of what those lores """really""" are (aka from the boiling isles) - but that's incredibly dismissive of the spiritual beliefs of those tribes.

I try to tread cautiously there. And so should you.

It's nice to have fun, but sometimes it's more important to be respectful. I'm against anything that snubs creativity, but if you think this limits you, then you're not seeing the opportunity for what it is. Force yourself to find something new and a bit more respectfully inclusive.

In my caleb fanfic, I've included a Mohegan man by the name Nashoba. Now, instead of using Nashoba as yet another overused trope of making a native person a mystical guide for a white guy - he's instead just some guy Caleb admires (bisexual panic, that is). So there's historical accuracy, including native people in a town like Gravesfield, without making it all about the "mysticism" of a tribe.

I also discovered that Gravesfield is pretty much based on Hartford, Wethersfield Connecticut:

So I'm getting most of my information from the official historical society website and the Pequot historical museum website. Amongst other academic sites.

*shrug*

Long story short, there are cooler and less disrespectful folklore to write about than that one in particular.

Not saying you're being disrespectful, I know you weren't. I'm just providing what I know and my reasoning why I wouldn't.

[peachteaships]

Interest check for my mutuals!!

I just want to get some input before I do anything, and I want to see if anyone would want to join, but I have some ideas already in mind. I'll put a few of them under the cut!

Again, this is for mutuals as I want to get better at talking with you guys but also because the thought of running a full fledged server with more people that I don't really know kind of makes my anxiety rise as I haven't had the best experiences running open servers honestly. I'm sorry.

Maybe different channel rooms for different people to gush about their f/os and current interests in case they're worried about clogging up other channels so there's no stress

These channels would also be used for comfort if someone is uncomfortable with sharing an f/o with another member in a chat to avoid any issues.

A channel to share ideas like scenarios or "tag your f/o /your self ship" stuff

Art channels of course

A channel for if anyone wants to talk about a shared universe au or about inserts from the same media interacting

A gaming channel for talking about games, upcoming games, or updates and maybe even planning gaming sessions

I have other ideas in mind, but these are just a few! If you're interested, please vote, and please let me know!

[wafflebloggies]

the long con - part 1/7

a Don't Feed The Muse crossover story. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

*

The con was coming to an end.

DIGIVID, the largest annual convention for digital content creators in the Southern United States. Three days of booths, networking, merch, watchathons, speeches, special previews, presentations, weird food, crowded spaces, fun.

Fun in theory, anyway. For Mark Mayhew, it had been three days of a brand new kind of purgatory. Unavoidable, self-inflicted, endless.

“...honestly, we couldn’t choose, so like for our first video we just put all our favourite movies into a picker thing and it turns out Watchmen came out the exact same year as Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and I know, they’re totally different movies, but then we were like, wait, there’s some parallels here...”

Mark was certain by now that the con had been a terrible idea. True, if he’d had the time all over again, there were several big, pressing reasons why he would still have made the same choice, but only a couple of them were fit to explain to anybody else. Even if he’d known how frankly- miserable- it was going to turn out to be, he probably still would have chosen to go, but knowing this didn’t make it feel like any less of a mistake, or change the fact that he would have given almost anything, right now, to not be stuck in the middle of it.

“...and the whole ship metaphor they cut from the movie, and like, Flint’s invention basically has the same thematic purpose as Veidt’s EDBE? We kept saying ‘eeby-deeby,’ it took us like, twenty takes…”

It was almost incredible to him, as he stood in silence, how alone it was possible to feel in such a big crowd. The main convention hall was hot, airless, busy. Even though some people were already packing up, here at the end of the third day, plenty of bodies still shuttled back and forth in clogged little streams whenever they found the space to move, elbow to elbow between the double rows of human backs shutting out the tables, the crowded booths. It was easy to feel overwhelmed by the sheer press of people, the talk and the noise. If Mark had only walked in alone, twenty minutes ago, and spent the time silently trying to make his way from one side of the massive space to the other, he would already have been more than a little agitated, ready to leave.

“...and he has all these shell companies, like all these theatres that play alien invasion movies all the time, to subconsciously prepare people? And when you look at Meatballs, you’re actually getting lowkey bombarded with fast-food imagery the whole time right up to when he turns on the machine...”

Mark had been in the hall for hours, and he was done. Currently, he was standing in a small pocket of space in a very nicely put-together booth belonging to a fairly well-known ASMR channel, watching a conversation happen right in front of him that he had about as much share in as an exiled Martian had in a conversation backstage at NASA. Yes, he’d started this conversation, he’d introduced himself, he’d started to steer the topic in a useful direction… and then Anthony had happened. Anthony Williams had turned up with his big, friendly grin and his busted paper carrier bag full of leaflets and merch which had been shedding everywhere since Friday and his completely distracting, distracted self, and now…

“...actually the biggest audio problem we have is my cat, Blaze, when we film at my house she’s got a real thing for the fluffy boom whatever on the mic, she wants to kill that thing on sight, right Mark?”

“Yeah,” said Mark, in the same way a corpse will twitch if you electrocute it. Anthony, who was too into the conversation to notice his friend’s thousand-yard-stare, carried right on going.

“Yeah, so we have to shut her in my parents’ room, but then I feel so bad, and she yells so loud in there it picks up on the video! So we usually record at Mark’s, but with our Parasite video...”

And so on. And on.

Not that the ASMR guys seemed to mind. People always seemed to open up and respond to Anthony quicker and with far more warmth than they did with Mark alone, which added another layer of frustration to the silent, invisible war he was fighting against himself. If Anthony could only have understood, and been focused, if Anthony could have been trying like he had been, these last three days, they might have found a sponsor already.

A sponsor, a partner, a collab, anything, anything to make the whole weekend feel worthwhile, instead of a painful waste of time.

Mark could tell that these guys had lost focus completely. One of them was still chatting quite happily with Anthony about God alone knew what, relaxed and disengaged, and the other was already moving away, eyes on a new bunch of visitors. There was no way Mark could steer this back the right way again now. Even though, at the bottom of his heart, he’d known it was a lost cause before Anthony had joined them, the tide of bitterness ebbed higher as he listened to the conversation wander so far wide of the point.

He must have looked distant enough for a party of people trying to use the booth as a short-cut to mistake him for an unconnected bystander, because as he stood there they pushed gently between him and Anthony, widening the gap as they passed through. On impulse, he went with it, let them nudge him and his whole parcel of garbage feelings to the side, let the general stream of the crowd push him out of the booth.

Without waiting to see if Anthony had noticed, he started shoving his way towards the main exit at a quicker pace. It was a relief to just move, without Anthony winding along just behind him, getting distracted at an average rate of once every four booths. Through the whole weekend, every time Mark was just trying to get from A to B, every time Anthony spotted something which made him want to stop and take a closer look, he would reach forwards and pat Mark on the back of his right shoulder. By this point, three days in, the feeling was starting to evoke a kind of Pavlovian response in Mark, knowing that every time he felt that light touch he would have to stop and stand and wait, getting hotter and more squashed and more impatient by the second, until Anthony was done, and by now just the feeling of Anthony’s hand on his shoulder had become a button that hiked his blood pressure, his heart, his temper.

By all appearances, Anthony had enjoyed the weekend a great deal. He got on with everyone he met, he was absolutely down for talking with new people on a vast range of subjects (with absolutely no practical application towards growing the channel whatsoever) and with his usual unbounded enthusiasm he seemed happy to keep going for as long as the con lasted.

Which wouldn’t be for that much longer. The hall was crowded now, sure, but already not as bad as it had been on the previous two days. Mark could see stalls and tables beginning to clear as their owners began to pack away. Pressing towards the main door, he had a sharp and ghastly vision of the convention hall as a vast interconnected series of nodes, bright and promising, each shutting down and turning black and dead as he touched them, came into contact, even approached them at all. Each booth, each prospect, each point of hope-

(nobody is going to want to work with you.)

He couldn’t feel normal, he couldn’t relax for a second, when on the one side the enormous thundercloud of dread loomed and on the other… something nobody here could understand, something he barely understood, something that lurked at the bottom of his stomach like a squishy leaden bowling-ball, the part of him that whispered that he really was just torturing himself for no reason, because what he had been granted out of the blue was, could be, his miracle. That it had been pointless coming here at all, that he was wasting time, wasting precious time not just ditching any other blighted and unreliable possibility and reaching for it with grateful hands-

“Mark!”

Unaware up until that moment that he’d stopped dead in the heaving crowd, Mark started and looked back as Anthony shouldered through the general stream of people, a small, willowy splotch of red flannel and concern. He felt Anthony’s hand on his shoulder again, guiding, steering him forwards and sharply left into a faster-moving stream of people that quickly swallowed them both and spat them out on the other side of the main doors. He wasn’t even aware of how much he’d just wanted the fresher air outside the hall until they were out in the gigantic hub of a lobby, the atmosphere so much lighter and cooler just from the fewer bodies and the bigger space, the vaulted metal-and-glass ceiling lined with great sheets of striped tarpaulins like a vast circus tent, shaded against the fading July sun.

He gulped several big breaths, realised his eyes were watering from the heat in them, the blur of colours and the crazy nimbus around each far-distant light, and angrily dragged his glasses from his face, looking down to clean them on his T-shirt as Anthony arrived by his side.

“Hey, you just dis- are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” said Mark, putting on his usual wry, flat, deadpan tone with difficulty, like a familiar sweater that suddenly felt too small. “You sure you’re done? You didn’t have any more hilarious cat stories to tell them? ‘Cause you all seemed to be getting on great.”

“Uh… yeah? They seemed like cool guys.” Anthony never usually minded Mark’s sarcasm, but finding the sharp end of it directed so pointedly towards himself clearly threw him. He shrugged, uncomfortably.

Good, thought Mark. Be uncomfortable. The thought wormed sharp and slimy through the back of his head, and it left him feeling ashamed. He didn’t want Anthony to be miserable just because he was, as if making Anthony feel awkward or hurt could make him feel any better about himself. He wasn’t that shitty a friend.

At least, he didn’t want to be.

Anthony looked down, shuffling through his bulging paper bag full of garbage, the thing he’d been stuffing every sheet, pamphlet, sticker and card he’d collected the whole weekend into as if it was as big as a lending library. He pulled out a couple of stickers from the top. “Here, they gave us a couple of these.”

Mark took the stickers. They were the window-clinger kind, for cars. He didn’t want to put any stickers on his car. They would be a pain in the ass to peel off, if-

(when)

-he had to sell it.

“Thanks, Anthony. Using my car to advertise someone else’s YouTube channel instead of our own, that’s a really proactive move there. Real four-D chess strats.”

“I, um… I just thought they’d look neat.”

“Yeah,” sighed Mark. “I know. Come on, let’s go find somewhere to sit.”

*

Even though it was getting towards evening, there weren’t too many people in the food court seating area, and half of the kiosks still had their metal hatches pulled down. At a long, near-empty table, sticky and spotted from a day of crumbs and wipe-downs, Mark dropped into a chair across from Anthony, always easy to spot in his bright red-check flannel, who was already halfway down a container of loaded chilli wedges.

He shrugged his backpack into the darkness under his feet and back-kicked it under his chair, and set his styrofoam carton on the table. Following the trend of the whole weekend, he hadn’t had as much luck with the food options as Anthony, whose potato wedges looked pretty good, apart from the whole ‘drenched in meat’ thing. His vegetarian lasagna looked like a slab of undercooked doormat in half an inch of thin red soup.

There were no real quiet places anywhere in the hall, but the food court was at least a little quieter, only a couple of other people at this table, eating alone. Mark tried to let himself relax, as much as he could, forcing himself to untense joint by joint as if his skeleton was an IKEA diagram strictly controlled by his mind, but only got about as far as his elbows before giving up.

Anthony grinned at him. Mark attempted to smile back, didn’t point out that he had a speck of chilli cheese on the tip of his nose, and ate a couple of bites of lasagna. The best that could be said about it was that it held no surprises- it tasted exactly how it looked. His phone buzzed, and he checked it hurriedly, trying to look preoccupied enough to dodge any conversation, to at least catch ten minutes worth of peace and silence while they ate.

He got maybe two minutes, because by then Anthony had wolfed down enough chilli to have taken the edge off his appetite, and wanted to talk.

“What happened back there, anyway? I just looked round and you were gone.”

Mark shrugged. “They weren’t going to give us anything,” he said. “Before you came over, I managed to give them our card, but really, I could just kind of tell they weren’t going to bite, so, like…”

With some trouble, he could make himself see that what had just happened wasn’t Anthony’s fault. He had known those guys weren’t interested, just like all the others. He’d known it in his gut before Anthony had even shown up, and with just a little distance he could see that clearly and admit it, and know that it wasn’t fair for him to put the blame on Anthony at all-

“Wait, that’s why you were talking to them?”

-for almost five seconds.

“Yes,” said Mark, trying to keep his voice, down, for all that it mattered. “Yes, Anthony, that is why I was trying to talk to them, before you-”

“But they’re nothing to do with our channel!” Anthony looked genuinely confused. “They do 3D print projects, they do that ASMR printing thing-”

“I know, what they do, Anthony,” said Mark, barbing every comma as if it was a physical thing, something pointy he could flick against Anthony’s forehead. “It doesn’t matter, they get two hundred K views per video, we could do something-”

“Come on, Mark,” Anthony drooped back in his chair, rubbing his face, obliterating the chilli cheese with his palm and pushing his curly mop of hair out of the way. His legs slid forwards on the tiles and his heels bumped into Mark’s toes. Mark pulled back and tucked his legs under his chair like a curling bug, hooking both feet tightly around its front legs. “You’ve been doing this the whole weekend, the mobile game people, the wallet people, the deodorant people, the freaking- weird pillow things people-”

“You think we can just wait for someone to come to us? That’s not how it works-”

“This isn’t how it works, Mark,” said Anthony. Now he leaned forwards, pushing his chilli to the side, all earnestness, his freckly face an open book urging Mark to hear him. “I’m just being realistic. We’re a really small channel, we don’t need sponsorships, it’s okay if none of these guys want to work with us yet. Maybe if we get bigger it’ll happen, fine, but you can’t force it, you’re just making-”

“When are we going to get bigger, Anthony? When? How long? When is our first sponsor going to come along and ask us? Another six months?”

“Maybe-”

“A year? Two years? I don’t have-”

“Maybe not at all!”

“-I don’t have that kind of time!”

Mark had almost yelled over his friend, but he’d heard him perfectly well. Although he knew exactly what Anthony meant, although it was only echoing his own thoughts, the words still stopped him dead.

“Maybe never,” said Anthony, quieter. “Look, you know I love our stuff, I love the channel, I’d love it if it got as big as those ASMR guys one day, are you kidding? But I’d be fine if we never got any more subscribers than we already have, I’d do it if we got like three views a video. It’s just supposed to be for fun, Mark! Remember the first time we uploaded and we got like, twenty views? We got pizza to celebrate!”

“That’s… that was different.” Mark did remember, and the memory made his throat tighten and his eyes prickle. It didn’t feel like a long time ago. The summer they started the channel, leapt into making videos as soon as term ended. That summer, back when his dad was only normal-crazy, back when Theo’s acceptance letter was stuck right on the front of the fridge all month, back when the thing that sucked the most in the world was the prospect of having to miss the second half of summer for some stupid family cruise.

That summer. Before everything went to shit.

Anthony pushed a finger against the smeary tabletop, drawing a big invisible circle, tapping a small dot next to it. “We have to think of it like, there’s hundreds and thousands of people here who have a channel, and you know it’s only a tiny, tiny percent of a percent that ever get big enough to get sponsorships and stuff. You know that. We were never doing this for sponsorships. I mean, I’m not, and- we’re on the same page, right? This is like when you wanted to do that video reading negative comments-”

“Okay, that? That stuff works. People love hate-comment videos. We’d easily get twice as many views as our last video, and we wouldn’t even have to write a script-”

“We don’t even get hate-comments- we’ve had like, one! Even if we did get a bunch for some reason, why would we even want to focus on that shit?” That’s just going to make it seem like we don’t care about the people leaving us good comments, and then we’d just look like assholes!”

“We don’t have to wait for real ones.I could make some fake accounts, or- or something. Who cares what we look like-”

“I do,” said Anthony. “And so do you, Mark.”

He sat back, as if he’d made a really good point, and gave Mark his best knowing look, which made him look about as sly and full of deep psychological understanding as a first-grader’s spelling primer.

“I know you, and I know the channel means way too much to you, for you to really want to screw it up like that just for a bunch of views.”

(It’s not about what I WANT!!)

In the real world, where screaming at the top of one’s lungs is unacceptable mealtime behaviour, Mark swallowed and looked down at his lasagna.

“It’s not like that’s why we’re here,” said Anthony. “This was just supposed to be fun. I mean… it was supposed to be.”

His tone of voice made Mark look up, quickly. Anthony was still watching him, and he looked worried. Not just worried, but uncertain, sympathetic. Mark felt his stomach lurch. He knew that look, because he’d found himself on the receiving end of it a lot lately, from a lot of different people, all for mostly the same reason. He hated it. He hated the pity, the pointlessness of it, the unwanted obligation of knowing someone felt bad for him when he never asked them to, wouldn’t ask them to, because they couldn’t do a single thing to help. Seeing it in Anthony’s guileless hazel eyes was worse than seeing it in the face of a stranger, because-

(he could help he just doesn’t want to)

-it cut deeper, somehow. Mark shut his eyes hard for a second. Hard white light, clean surfaces, the pervasive smell of disinfectants and sickness and waiting, and the voice, thin and drowsy and blurry with sleep and painkillers, but the same, the same well-loved voice-

(It sounds great, honey. You two go have a good time. You’ll have fun.)

“Sure,” said Mark, to his lasagna. “Fun.”

There was a short silence. Anthony clearly wanted to say more, probably to the same purpose, but he knew Mark well enough to recognize when he was being shut down. He shifted uncertainly in his seat, picking at a bit of cracked decal on the front of his t-shirt. Mark picked up his spork again.

“You know,” he said, casually, drawing small deliberate lines across the top layer of his gross lasagna, just like someone might do when they were absolutely unbothered and totally not trying to force the issue, absolutely not so wound up to the point that their usual sharp, smooth-running voice was fracturing into bits and pieces of sentences like grammatical shrapnel, “if you ever felt like- you were kind of done with this whole thing, with the- the channel, I’d completely understand. It’s been a... stressful weekend, right? It hasn’t really worked out like we wanted it to, and I can tell you’re not really into it, I... I wouldn’t be mad.”

He coughed, poking holes in the lasagna like he was trying to seed a miniature lawn. He hadn’t even eaten three bites, but it felt like it was stuck in a big ball in his throat.

“If- if you were feeling like, ‘You know what, I’m over this stupid YouTube thing, but I don’t want to disappoint Mark!’ I’d get it. Really, you wouldn’t be disappointing me, or- letting anybody down, I’d be- I’d be fine with just- running it on my own.”

He looked up, barely daring to hope. “If that’s how you were feeling... you could hundred-percent just tell me.”

Anthony leaned across the table, putting a hand on Mark’s arm, stopping the nervous movement of the spork mid-jab. His face was encouraging, wholly sincere.

“Mark,” he said, with serious emphasis, “I love our channel. I’m never going to be ‘done.’ I’ve got you, buddy. You don’t have to worry about me- I am never gonna just leave you to do it on your own. Okay?”

Mark looked at him, helplessly. Anthony smiled, his beautiful Anthony smile, nothing but sunshine and freckles, a smudge of chilli cheese and a total absence of doubt. He squeezed Mark’s arm, gently.

“We’ve had a long day,” he said. “I’m gonna go back to the room, get some packing done. Take your time, okay?”

And with that, and another quick, reassuring grin, he grabbed his raggedy paper bag and the rest of his chilli, and was gone.

Mark sat there for a little while as if he’d been hit with something heavy around the back of the head, looking at the place where Anthony had been. After a moment or two, he screwed his eyes very tightly shut, jabbed his spork into his lasagna so it stuck there like an upright little sail, put his face down in his hands and made a noise like a high, muffled nearly-silent scream.

[marshalmallow]

Fuck it, because I want to, I'm gonna rank my IEMS and give them a short review lets go

KZ x Crinacle CRN - ~£30 - These were my first "Neutral" sounding IEMs. I felt like a Real Music Liker when I used these, however they had no bass and a very weird treble response. I later found out that most units sold of these were completely broken, with some only utilising the Dynamic driver, and other having glue in the inner routing channels. I don't know if mine was affected by this, but there's is a whole story behind KZ and Crinacle (popular youtube audio reviewer) so I don't buy KZ anymore. This is the first of a few Crinacle collaboration IEMs.

Moondrop Chu - <£20 - These were the first IEMS I brought from a more reputable brand, and they honestly blew me away for the price. This is what started my IEM hobby. For the price I cannot fault them for sound or build quality. Metal shell, solid sound signature, however not having a removeable cable did make them a little tricky to keep in my ears. Unfortunately my ears seem to be cryptonite to any budget Moondrop IEM, and the audio filters quickly clogged. I did replace them, but it happened again soon after.

Moondrop Aria - £80 - Because my Chus blocked up (i didn't know about the filters at the time), I upgraded myself to their Big Brother. This IEM was the original market shake-up, you could not get sound quality and tuning anything like this for the money they were asking. I still have them, however like the Chus, the filters got blocked very easily. I replaced them fairly regularly for a while, but I could only get them straight from china, and the hassle of that quickly wore me down. I've stopped using them now because I have better IEMS, but they do hold a place in my heart for being such a mind blowing IEM when I first got them.

Dunu Titan S - £80 - I bought these for no other reason than other reviewers saying "They compete with the Aria" and they look really cool. That's it, no other reasons. The reviewers were right, they have a slightly different midrange and my pair felt a little more bassy than the Aria. They do not, however, like to stay put in my ears no matter which tips I use with them. So they don't sit in my regular rotation. I got them in sandblasted black and red.

7hz Salnotes x Crinacle Dioko - ~£100 - I'll be honest on this one, I regret buying these. They have no bass, they don't stay in my ears, and they look... unique? Weird. They look weird. They were the first IEMs I bought that came with a nice hard case and a lot of accessories. I do not use these at all and have tried several times to try to sell them, but my thoughts seem to be pretty common. These use a planar driver which is the only thing that sets them apart from everything else on this list, which is largely Single Dynamic Driver IEMs.

7hz Salnotes ZERO - <£20 - These came out in a wave of sub £/$20 IEM offerings from the chinese hi-fi scene, and these were a standout competitor in sound quality and tuning. I still use these sometimes, but only when I use the bass boost on my headphone amp. The neutral tuning is great, but they really do sing when the bass is boosted. It later came out that these are actually a Crinacle collaboration as well, however due to him working on these at the same time as the next IEM on this list, he decided it would be a silent collaboration instead. Solid recommendation for anyone who wants to get into IEMs or wants a solid pair of earbuds!

Truthear x Crinacle Zero - £40 - Due to NDAs from both companies, Crinacle couldn't sway either Truthear or 7hz to change the name, Crin chose to put his name on these as he wanted to help this incredibly new company break new ground. These IEMs were fairly unique when they released, they have 2 dynamic drivers, with one set to be a subwoofer and the other to handle everything else. The quality of the bass in these IEMS is like nothing else I own and this is what solidified me in the hobby, as I finally knew what was possible. I barely use them however, as the nozzle on these (the part that goes in your ear) is HUGE. I can't find a way to wear these comfortably, which is a huge shame in my eyes as this is the tuning that I have the most fun with. This isn't the last time you hear about Thruthear though.

Sennheiser IE200 - £120 - These were something of an impulse buy while at a hi-fi show. I got them for £100. These are without a doubt the best sounding IEMs that I own and I always come back to them. I don't know how sennheiser managed to squeeze this level of audio quality from a single dynamic driver, but the experience and heritage of the brand really comes through with these. One thing that I don't like is the cable. It feels cheap, it tangles easily, and makes these look much cheaper than they actually are. The ear hooks having wire in them is a huge help though, and it helps them stay in place. These would be my desert island IEMs.

Moondrop Chu 2 - <£20 - it's the Chu but better! WIth detachable cables this time. The sound signature is better than the original Chu, but again, the filters are very prone to clogging for me. At £20 they were more of a throwaway impulse purchase than anything else. Will be gifting these to a friend at some point if I can be bothered to replace the filters any time soon.

Truthear NOVA - £150 - They're back! This is what I refer to as the Zeros big brother. The design on the outside of the shell is similar, but everything has been updated on the inside. One dynamic driver and 4 balanced armature drivers (basically hearing aid speakers) with the DD set up once again as a subwoofer. These feel like premium IEMs and they're my newest purchase, so I think I'm still in somewhat of a honeymoon period with them, but they're really solid. The nozzle is much narrower then the Zero (which is something I researched thoroughly before buying) and they fit very nicely in my ears despite being a much larger shell than anything else I have. I do wish there was more bass on them, and while many people call them a "baby Variations" (a Moondrop IEM that is only big money wishlist at £520), they don't hold up in the same way, and I am still looking for a more bass heavy IEM.

Tin Hifi T2 - Free - I found these in a bin at the hackspace with a broken connector. Fixed it and bought new cable. They're terrible.

Thank you for reading if you did, i'm always happy to talk recommendations and stuff if you want them so feel free to do that if you want to!

why did i do this

[player-1]

Hell's Chicken recap (post Canto 4)

Not sure if anyone rewatched the Hell's Chicken cutscenes (especially after Canto 4), but I love the multiple hints and pain to any future Cantos. In semi-order, here's a few moments I caught:

-Yi Sang w. Samjo's infodump on the multi-winged/legged chicken delicacy of K Corp: Oh yes, I'm already aware of this (BECAUSE DONGRANG TOLD THEM IN Lo9!!)

-Don w. Bongy!Heathcliff: (Sniffles sadly) And here I was hoping to dress him up like Fixers del Artedecer Ardiente (Burning Sunset Fixers/Fixers of the Burning Art (Liu Assocation??)), there's no need to insult him so!

-Me on 20:57-22:13 after skimming Dream of Red Chamber's Wikipedia: Wtf, Hong Lu!? Now I know your family life sucks, but you don't be to be so blasé about it! You're just brushing it off like Don!! (Just check out Liu and Base ID Hong Lu for the hint :)

-Meursault w. Outis violently slapping Bongy!Heathcliff: The force of impacts is similar to a soldier interrogating a captive enemy (Outis...wtf kind of soldier were you!?)

-Sinclair w. Ryoshu insulting Gregor's cooking skills on the battlefield: :O She's speaking with full words for once! -Gregor getting a headache after Ryoshu threw down the Mr. Krabs insult.

-Outis prefers instant-made food...Enough said.

-Also Gregor: Come on Ishmael, don't listen to Rodion. You and I were as thick as thieves in the early days (Veteran bonding? Another hint of Dante going MIA before the main story or them being in the company for years before?) [25:43 Sees Ishamel join Ryoshu's side, easily hearing the pain in his voice] -I...-I feel so betrayed right now.

-Sinclair immediately understanding Ryoshu's acronyms down to a T without question (CHICK: Chirping hesitation isn't cool, kiddo and RAFTS: Restaurant already fated to shut) And many more). It's honestly ironic since book/Limbus Sinclair explains art and emotions extremely heavily while Ryoshu shortens it, but they still have that artistic appeal.

-Ryoshu channeling her inner Yoshihide and traumatizing any poor soul who witnesses her "artistic talent" (ie. Don witnessing the horrors she committed on the chicken kebab that she refuses to explain with words).

-Yi Sang getting nostalgic over spoiled milk he drank the day before and not getting sick from it, but also getting embarrassed if anyone implies he eats terribly-cooked food on a regular basis (mostly likely ate spoiled food in his captivity and probably not remembering how to cook for himself cause of Gubo): Oh honey :(

-Sinclair taking the mantle in Round 2 w. cooking (hassled by the mom group excluding Ishmael), probably because he cooked for himself (terribly though) after his family got prosthesis replacements: Oh honey! :(

-Everything about Yi Sang's potato monologue (and 48:05 for the nervous panic in his voice when Don throws it away), also his reference of shredding chicken with his hands as a custom in his hometown at 39:47 (S Corp/District 19, but there's no further info on it's culture or Singularity).

-Meursault after verbally butchering Don's dish: Yi Sang, if this is your particular taste in food, I personally ask you to throng my teeth and prong my tongue this instant. Yi Sang: ...I have no excuse. (Also on par with book Meursault being an accountant and being extremely thorough on explaining things with brutal honesty)

-The Limbus gang actually succeeding in turning a Distortion back into a human through sheer luck and bullshittery (even if it's w. Dante and Heathcliff's help, Taii and Moses will definitely have an aneurysm if they ever found out).

-Vergi spacing out the second Don kept explaining the story past going into Eubong's, and Charon taking the Bongy plush and puts it on her window! :D

If there's anything else I might've missed (or not wanting to clog up the post with a full list), feel free to comment.

[banned-for-horny]

the following is an INCOMPLETE drabble of a genshin smut one shot (a smutshot, if you will) idea i have that i dont feel like throwing to the void but also was too lazy to make another note so i'm just throwing it here

[As part of his training as a Fatuus, Lyney has to undergo days of torture. He's already managed to get through most of the gauntlet. All he has left to deal with is the final stage: sexual torture under the hands of the Black Widow.

And from the way his dick jumps the second you stroll into the torture chamber, Lyney doesn't feel all that confident in his chances.]

Lyney is still tied to the chair when the door opens. He doesn't have the strength to lift his head, most of it being channeled into ignoring the pain of multiple hairline fractures in his shins, but when his chin is lifted by a single finger, he finds just enough energy to swallow.

"Morning," you chirp, smile the first warm thing he's seen since last week. "You still with the living?"

And that's the first thing he's heard that hasn't been an explicit threat on his life. Lyney swallows around the blood clogging his throat and nods, which only makes your smile grow.

"Good." You reach up to brush his sweat-soaked hair away from his brow. "I'll patch you up real quick, then we'll get started on the next stage, 'kay?"

Lyney...doesn't know what to say. "You're...going to heal me?" he manages when he catches a glimpse of your Hydro Vision.

"Mhm." With a practiced flick of your wrist, you bury a polearm formed by water between the legs of his metal chair. Elemental energy begins to seep through his skin, and Lyney lets out an exhausted gasp when the full-body ache began to fade. "Not the biggest fan of playing with broken toys, unfortunately."

Toys? Hydro Polearm? Soft, pleasant smile that makes every nerve in Lyney's already-fried system tingle? "You're the Black Widow?" he croaks.

Your smile lifts, both fluttering his stomach and sending it into the floor. "My reputation preceeds me!" With a little flourish, you bow at the waist. "That I am, Monsieur Snezhevich. Worry not, though-" You lift your head and wink. The front of your shirt falls open well enough for Lyney to see the full expanse of your chest and stomach. "-I don't bite."

The polearm bursts, splashing Lyney's legs with water. Whatever raw energy is stored in the hydro-formed weapon seals the gashes in his skin. Another sigh escapes him, only to choke halfway when you use his knees to support your crouch. You're not wearing gloves, unlike the rest of the proctors. It's almost too warm.

"These guys are too rough sometimes, I swear," you mutter, eyeing the bruising along his inner thigh from where a proctor decided to aim his heel. You peer through your lashes as you squeeze his knee in reassurance. "Can't heal you all the way," you say apologetically, "but I do have some salves just for you. Want it?"

Lyney nods, then bristles. Wait, wait-

"Oh, I recognize that look," you huff. Your nail skims the flesh of his thigh, creeping dangerously close to what little scrap Lyney has left covering his penis. "You're allowed to talk, you know. I like it when they're loud."

Lyney grits his teeth as your fingers creep closer to his groin. He can't afford to get distracted, he reminds himself. You won't kill him, obviously, but the whole point of this training was to find his weaknesses if he was ever captured and interrogated, and any crack in a dam will only lead to the entire thing bursting. He just has to outlast you.

The proud smile you flash at him definitely doesn't help. The way your voice drips with excitement when you say "Good boy" does not help either. You rise from your crouch, palm soothing his thigh-

"Fuck!" Lyney hisses when you palm his crotch, shuddering as you grind the heel of your palm down his clothed shaft. For a Hydro Wielder, your touch feels electric, pinpricks stabbing at his spine until he's stiff on both ends. It's not like he hasn't touched himself before, but there's a difference between getting himself off just to get rid of morning wood and someone else groping him.

"Are you a virgin?" you ask as give his shaft a gentle squeeze. Lyney's lips curl, channeling the influx of heat into a glare that only makes you squeeze harder. "I'll take that as a yes."

You release his erection, giving Lyney just enough time to exhale until you retrieve a small jar from your side pocket. The aroma of Sumer spices stings his nose. When you scoop a generous glop and massage it into his bruised thighs, the cool touch of your Hydro begins to simmer under his skin. Everywhere you spread the salve, you leave behind a burgeoning warmth that tickles his throat and escapes in a strangled whimper.

"Feels good, right?" you coo as his skin begins to flush. "This is my own concoction. Makes the body extra sensitive."

Yes, Lyney wants to say when you poke the tip of his nose. He can tell.

By the time you finish massaging the cream into his skin, Lyney's entire body feels like it's been left in the sun to burn. With the coarse fabric scratching his hardening nipples every time he breathes, he's starting to regret allowing his last proctor to redress him. Never mind the little jolts of pleasure bursting from his cockhead when he tries to sit up.

"There," you say, sealing the jar. You bend over to smile and poke at his jaw. "How do you feel?"

Burning. Dying.

Your little laugh chimes in his ears. "Good, that means we can start properly."

Lyney's brows furrow. Oh, right. He has a dossier he memorized, like, a month ago. You and the rest of the proctors received the same dossier and are trying to pry it out of him. He's heard plenty of stories about the Black Widow portion of the exam, in equal parts embarrassment and anger. Not everyone receives the same treatment, sure, but almost everyone Lyney has talked to had to go through the entire gauntlet twice because of you. He risks a glance around the room while you're busy circling him. You didn't bring in any tools or anything. What could you possibly have pla-

"Ah!" Lyney gasps when your arms snake around his neck. You waste no time planting a hand against his stomach, slipping down to stop just below his navel.

"Let's start slow," you murmur in his ear. "Be a good boy and answer my questions and I'll make this quick, okay?"

'Quick.' Hah. Lyney inhales deeply in hopes of calming himself. All it does is flood his nose with your scent.

You seem to take that as his assent, though, because you trace a finger over the tent in his shorts and say, "Who hired you?"

Silence. Obviously.

"Are you part of any organization?"

Silence. Easy.

"Did you have a partner?"

Too easy. Lyney's starting to wonder if everyone lied in an attempt to psych himself out.

"Who's Lynette?"

"Wha-ah!" Lyney chokes on his gasp when you squeeze his erection. His knee jerks in its chains, stomach curling in some attempt at protecting himself, but you keep one hand burried in his roots and yank his entire body back with a single pull. It should've been painful. He still moans. Your other hand pumps faster this time, tightening the coil deep in his gut. Already, he can feel himself creeping towards climax. There's a virgin joke somewhere in there, he thinks, but his hips are already lifting in time with your touch.

Until you pull away.

Lyney catches the moan before it escapes him, planting his ass against the chair to stop from chasing your hand.

"She your partner?" you ask.

"Reacted to that one," you note, pressing your thumb right under the head of his cock. His jaw tightens. From the way you nudge his jawline, he doesn't doubt that you can tell. "Your partner in crime?" Heat sputters in Lyney's chest, a horrible concoction of rage and arousal as you massage his cock. There's a wet patch starting to bloom at the head. He shouldn't be surprised you know Lynette, he thinks. In fact, he's amazed she's only being brought up now. He and Lynette don't exactly hide themselves from the crowd.

"Let's see.

[kiichu]

thank you to @marshvlovestv for the tag!!!

Last song you listened to: Honestly it was Don't Touch My Clogs by OCT. It's hilarious and catchy and I played it in the car for my friend hehe.

Last movie you watched: Godzilla Minus One! It was pretty good! :]

Currently watching: Ooh boy, I need to like, actually watch things. Like tv or anime or something. I mostly just watch Youtube videos, more specifically commentary channels.

Other things I've watched this year: Okay, you ready for this? I looked up a list of movies this year so I'm just gonna. list all the ones I saw in theaters this year:

M3GAN, Knock at the Cabin, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Cocaine Bear, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Dungeons & Dragons, The Super Mario Bros Movie, Evil Dead Rise, GotG Vol 3, Across the Spider-Verse, Asteroid City, Insidious: The Red Door, Barbie, TMNT Mutant Mayhem, A Haunting in Venice, Saw X, Five Nights at Freddy's, Wish, Saltburn, Godzilla Minus One

Still not as many as I'd have liked! Maybe I'll get to see more before the year ends...

Currently reading: Fanfiction, like all the time. But as for books, I haven't touched it since the summer but I'm in the middle of Ricky's Hand by David Quantick.

Currently listening to: Christmas music, mostly :V It's a suitable time of the month for me to start busting it out, hehe

Currently working on: I have so many fucking WIPs it's not even funny. I would like to finish this final Nope fanfic, and I have some ideas about a Durgetash fic. (I mostly just want to write Gortash and my own Dark Urge, indulge myself a little) I dunno, I just want to write something...

As for art, I'm procrastinating, but I'm finally inking my Zecret Santa piece.

Current obsession: Baldur's Gate 3 has me in such a vice grip. <3 And I simply say thank you to it.

Tag if you want to: @pomegranate-belle @foxtophat @electric016 @eatingfireflies and anyone else who wants to!! :]

[gwacha]

THE FOXGLOVE DIGEST; A SakuAtsu creator-centric 18+ Discord Server

Hey everyone, esp my SKTS moots! I don't like clogging up tumblr or my feed with advertisements, so I'll likely only push this out once :P <3

We're The Foxglove Digest, an 18+ only SakuAtsu space with a focus on writers/artists/creators, though fans who are just excited about the pairing and want a place to brainrot are fully welcome! The server is themed as a magazine company, which sounds intense, but really we're just a tight-knit community of SKTS obsessed nerds. There are many channels meant specifically for creators to help one another and work together, as well as some really unique 24/7+live events.

It's pretty tiny right now but I'm surprised by how excited and active the lil group is!

If you're interested, please send me a message on tumblr for a link.

[mcyt-co-create]

Hello! Three questions:

If we signed up but later think of more fic ideas we'd like to work on (for option 2) how would that work? Do we dm you here, or something on the discord, or something else? For example if I only named one longfic idea in my sign up, but later thought of a second longfic idea, how would I let you know?

Is this event anonymous? Because the whole "give a vague description of your work" thing makes me think this will run on anonymity, so I'm just confused there. I thought this was an event to bounce ideas from each other and cheerlead towards a collective goal, but how would that work anonymously?

If this event has a "posting" schedule, does that mean we're meant to work on our projects but hold off on posting them for 3 months?

Just want to clear up my confusions about this thing haha

Yep, you can add more fics (or art pieces) later! You can contact any of the mods via Discord (using the server's ticket function, by sending us a message, or by using the mod-help channel), Tumblr, or email to do this. We'll ask you for the same information as you would've given in the original sign-up form, and then you're good to go!

This event doesn't prioritize anonymity, but it can be anonymous if you need it to be. This event is meant to bring people together to help bounce ideas off of each other and work towards a collective goal, yes, and this level of interaction means you can't be anonymous if you want to talk about your fics specifically or ask for any feedback. However, if you don't join the server, there is no need for anyone to know that you are participating. The 'vague description of your work' section is used to give each individual work its own code. We need to keep track of every single work that everyone submits, so that we know how everyone is getting on with the projects they've signed up with, and this means giving each individual work a unique code. The description you give us will only be used by you to identify your own work later on, and won't be seen by anyone except for the mod team. When the sign up period ends, you'll get a DM that will read (roughly) 'Hi, we're contacting you to give you your individual work codes. Your work [vague description] has work code 001W01'. We just need to make sure you know which work is assigned which code- there's no point saying 'one of your works has code 001W01' if you don't know which work it is! We only emphasize the 'vague' part of the description so that participants don't worry that someone else is going to use their ideas, and so that they can keep their works as secret as they'd like. We have some descriptions that are whole paragraphs and some that are only two words! So long as you can identify it from your other submitted works, you're good to go!

Yes, pretty much. The posting deadline works to give people a goal to work towards, but it also makes it easier for us to make sure that the Tumblr account is only used for important information until the posting period, and that it isn't clogged up by reblogging everyone's hard work. You are expected to hold off posting until the end of the period, though there are exceptions for some multichapter fics and the exact rules for this are still being discussed. Posting all at the same time helps create a sense of community and we can all see just how much work we've put in over the previous three months, rather than seeing it as we go!

Thank you for all of your questions and we hope that the answer give you a better understand of our event! Once again, thank you for considering to join our event and if you do sign up, we look forward to seeing you! If theres any more questions you can send another ask or message our blog!

[daz4i]

listen. sometimes idm ads. i do want sites i use or youtubers i watch frequently to earn money so i can keep using/watching them, and i won't spend money myself, so this is a good compromise.

the problem is!!!!! ads make these sites lag, sometimes cover pages and make them unusable, or they clog videos and pop up so often and are so long they're practically as long as the video itself, to the point i just stop watching youtubers who have too many ad breaks even if i do like their content

and i gotta say, i don't get it? like being annoyed with an ad won't make me want to get the product - and i know that's not the point, the point is to put it at the front of your mind for when you or someone you know need the product this company provides - and i do end up clicking ads for things i find interesting sometimes

and the thing is. with video ads especially. i think smaller is better for everyone. one 5 seconds ad is so much less annoying than a 20 seconds one or even just two 5 seconds ads, even if it appears multiple times per video, bc psychologically it feels more bearable, yknow? the product is still gonna be in my subconscious or w/e but now i won't associate it with being painfully annoyed, so this is better for the advertisers too. so why not go for that!

also, sometimes ads are taken straight from tv directly to youtube (probably why some are very long), and the problem with that is their volume. like. if i'm watching smth in the middle of the night and your car insurance ad is twice as loud as the video i'm watching, i'm gonna hate it even more (a friend who learned copywriting told me they make ads louder on tv bc if you lower your volume during an ad break and tune out or just change channels quickly, it's more likely to catch your attention this way. i get that but why not just do this very minor adjustment when you sell that ad to youtube. please)

as for websites, some of these ads are so fucking evil 😭 i ranted abt this before but oh my god weight loss and especially fasting apps ads should be illegal i am not even slightly exaggerating. ads literally being malware??? not even getting into how scary algorithms can get.

and as i mentioned about lags, so many ads running at the same time, or the same ad space changing rapidly make things so slow that i once again have to wonder who's benefitting from this. i can't even see what some of the ads are bro, and i don't want to, but like, you're just losing money here, and if i know a site doesn't work well with ads enabled i will either switch to a browser with adblock (tbc, talking abt mobile here. firefox's app is shitty but necessary) or, if i can't use adblock, won't use that site anymore. so again. who's benefitting from this.

idk what the point of this rant is. ads today literally exist for the sake of existing i swear. i don't think they help sell things more at this point, which is the whole point of ads in the first place. and for smaller or newer businesses, they sometimes have to raise prices to make up for paying for their advertising campaign (drew gooden's videos about buying random items he gets ads for showcase this phenomenon well i think) which makes people less likely to buy them, and i can't help but wonder if some products would be better if their companies spent less money on just advertising them and instead actually invest in quality (see also: any shady company that targets youtubers for sponsorships constantly while having an extremely bad product, or barely paying their employees a living wage, etc)

anyway yeah these are my probably not too uncommon thoughts on the matter. have a nice rest of the day