#I'm just a witness by happenstance

[insanityisfine]

Lowkey pissed at how erectyle dysfunction has become commonly known across several languages as "impotence".

Like.

I'm sure it's incredibly frustrating and alarming and worrying, especially if it happens to someone younger. I'm not trying to minimize that.

But do you know what impotence feels like?

It's despair, it's understanding why Sysyphus' punishement was insanely cruel well beyond physical fatigue.

It's seeing someone you love suffer and knowing there's literally nothing you can do to help, not even hold or confort them, because they're in so much pain there's no possible relief. There's no meds you can buy that haven't already been bought, there's no appointments you can make that you haven't made already.

You have done something, hell, you've done all you possibly could. And it still changed nothing. All you have left to do is wait. And it kills you. Ever. So. Slowly.

That's impotence.

[bakugoushotwife]

kinktober day one: daddy kink

>>> welcome to the start of kinktober 2023 with ya girl, kylee. i'm so excited to participate this year, with the following that i have, the friends i've made, and the stories we've all worked on so far. i'm so proud of every writer putting in that work this month!

>>> starring: kento nanami x curvy!fem!reader >>> cw: daddy kink-obviously-breeding kink, choking, clit stimulation, marking/ biting mention. creampie, nanami is such a whipped man it's borderline concerning, luv him 5ever >>>wc: 1.6k >>> event masterlist

the air was thick with the scent of sex and sweat, making you gasp out and struggle for breath. or it was due to the thick hand wrapped around your neck, strong and steady against your jumping pulse. he wasn’t like this often, so pent up with need and frustration that kento can’t help but rut into you like he was told he’d never get the chance to again.  his tanned chest heaves with breath, beads of sweat running in and out of the divots of his body. he looks so stunning like this, the honey blond tresses that you love to tug on so much sprawl in every direction, brown eyes zeroed in on every tick of your brow or ‘o’ of your mouth. his gaze was intense, and even if you wanted to look away, you couldn’t. not with his hand on your throat and every ounce of passion in his body driving into your cunt as hard as he can slam in. 

“you take me so well, darling.” he coos, pulling his hand from your neck in favor of pushing your thighs to your chest. he wanted to get a better angle, smiling to himself with a genuine pride as he watches your pretty pink hole swallow his fat cock, silken walls squeezing down on his lengthy shaft everytime it kisses your womb. he can’t help but draw well-timed circles across your clit, relishing the sweet gasps and moans you cry out with. your hands claw at his shoulders to demand him closer to you, and he hisses pleasantly at the sensation. 

“it’s ‘cause you’re made for me, daddy.” you whimper sweetly in his ear, and he’s almost embarrassed at how your saccharine whisper makes his dick jump, his brutal strokes stuttering a bit. your nails dig into his skin and your pussy clenches down on him again as you say it, and he kicks his pace up impossibly faster. his cock is perfect, hitting every spot just right, his girth stretching you every time, usually abusing your cervix like it is now. 

it was no secret he loved that name. loved it to such an extent that you called him that more often than his real name or any other pet name one would traditionally use for their husband–and it started way before you tied the knot. kento nanami hadn’t ever particularly felt special before in his entire life. not even amongst sorcerers. he thought his cursed technique was decent at best, and hated seeing talented sorcerers like satoru gojo walk around without a care in the world. nanami never felt like he had a role in life, settling to just live and work his life away. he would go home and watch shows or cook or maybe get into music–something mindless and low effort. maybe one day he would meet some average lady, probably at a market or bookstore if he had to say. then he would marry that girl and be happy enough. maybe even have a couple of kids while he works at that same job and does his best to stay out of trouble no matter the part of his rebel soul that desires to be known, to be important–necessary. 

so when he met you, the very personification of trouble, by happenstance, he knew his worldview had changed. you were a light he had never seen before, exquisite beauty paired with a bewitching personality and dangerous wit, he was in love with you before he had gotten your name. it was so utterly unlike him, such a logician and pessimist. he didn’t even know how you had wandered in, this location was veiled to non-sorcerers, but kento knew by the looks of you that you weren’t supposed to be there. so he’s surprised when he finds himself protecting you, knowing such a little thing like yourself had somehow bypassed the veil had him worried about you, and as much as he tried to tell himself he would be this concerned for any regular citizen that had wandered into a cursed trap, he knows it’s because he wants to be your hero, and he wants to matter in your story, maybe even become part of it himself. and you’re sweet. so darling he can’t even comprehend how quickly he’s become entranced by you. you talk to him through the entire mission, unable to see the cursed spirits yourself, you can only follow the tall man’s instructions, and clap whenever he waved you back to his side and straightened his patterned tie. 

he thought it was adorable, and even though you had no idea what he was doing, quite literally watching him slash through air with nothing but the foreboding sense of evil confirming the things the man named kento nanami told you about citizens and sorcerers and cursed energy and spirits. you praised him after, thanking him for keeping you safe. you bat your eyelashes at him, the affection in your eyes hard to miss. it was as if you thought the world of him, and it put a paralyzing grip on his heart. he had to see you again, and luckily you tucked your phone into the palm of his hand and smiled that same sun-moon-and-stars smile at him before he summoned the courage to ask for it himself. he programs his contact into your phone, but just the number. he hands it back to you, still on the contact page. you giggle and under the guise of flirtatious joking, put him in as ‘baby daddy.’ 

yeah, you were certainly a bundle of trouble. but kento took pleasure in undoing you layer by layer, getting to know you and growing his love for you day by day. the ‘joke’ of calling him daddy became a very real theme inside and outside the bedroom–only paused when in public. he finally had a role in life, the way you shower him in affection and lull that name off your lips is enough to make him feel whole, like every transgression he had experienced up to this point was a destination on the journey to be your perfect man, someone you put all your trust and love into. he felt like the most important man in the world, being by your side was the greatest reward a man like him could ask for. he had more than he had hoped for, but there was still a few goals left on his list, like seeing himself become your real baby daddy. 

with the way your tits bounce as he fucks into you, cunt squelching and leaking all over the sheets, he thinks this is the perfect time to really try. your sultry babblings of his name prickle goosebumps into his flesh–either that or it’s from your nails raking over his chest to pinch his overly sensitive nipples. his cock twitches against your spongy spot again, and a loud moan tears from your throat. he doesn’t repress the grunt that comes in response, nodding his head to the words that had been on repeat since you said them. “it’s ‘cause you’re made for me, daddy.” 

“that’s my girl, are you ready to be my little baby mama? tell daddy what you want, angel.” he says, withdrawing from your gripping walls  and slamming back in so hard your vision danced with colored orbs, mouth unable to form the words you so desperately wanted to say to him. you nod, feeling trails of saliva slide down your chin, drooling as he brutalizes your cunt. “use your words, darling, daddy needs to hear what you need.” 

“i’m ready daddy, please–god, wanna make you a daddy for real, i’ll give you the prettiest family, i swear!” you cry, the rate at which you spasm around him and claw at his chest tells him that you’re gonna cum again, for maybe the fifth time tonight. you’re so lewd; the sounds you make and the pretty white ring being smeared around by your pussy lips swallowing the adornement back up again and the way your doll-like hands fondle your tits all combining perilously to tip him over the edge.

“i know you are, love. i know, i’ll make sure of it, you know daddy’s got you.” he coos, planting his lips along your neck, going back over dark bruises and teeth marks from the night of passion. then  his balls tighten and his release spurts into you in long bursts, and he feels your pussy throbs and let a stream of cum spray from your cunt, coating his abs in more of your essence then he had ever had the pleasure of before. his smile is wolf-like, his cock still plugging you full. he wants to take you up on it, breeding you to be your baby daddy once and for all. you’re fucked out of your mind, legs twitching with pleasure as you continue to whine and catch your breath. he watches you, everything about your post-orgasm glow making his heart swell as always. you were effortlessly perfect, it was maddening. 

he keeps your hole stopped up until his dick softens, and even then he’s pulling your panties back up, kissing your clit over the bundle. he quickly cleans his stomach up and changes the sheets around you, picking you up when need be. he’s still grinning ear to ear from making you cum like that, so many times and so violently. you’re absolute mush, and because he’s such a good daddy, he’ll spend the rest of the night taking care of his baby girl.

[markscherz]

Can I ask how you feel about your Tumblr fame?

I get the impression you just made this account for normal casual funsies reasons, but it kinda blew up by happenstance. If that's right, I'm curious if now you feel like it's kind of a more serious thing, where you have an opportunity to sorta act as a science communicator with a reach you otherwise might not?

Or maybe something else? You gonna see if you can somehow leverage your Tumblr fame to get research funding? Deputize us to harass polluters and developers destroying habitats? Crowdsource name ideas for new species?

It's a bit bizarre, in that it has very little real-world-ness to it. I showed my mother the ongoing tumblr celebrity poll, and she was like 'how many people could possibly be interested in frogs?', to which I replied 'well as of today about 46,000 and counting'.

I have always had an unhealthy relationship with fame. I spent most of my teen and young adult life fawning after it, as is I suppose very often the case.

More after the cut…

I always really wanted to be famous, but I was never really interested in changing who I was or what I represented in that pursuit. That is to say, I wanted to be known for what I was already doing, or for things that were already interesting for me, rather than things that might have much higher chances of success but require more effort or be less in line with the things that I am interested in.

I had my first brush with virality in 2012, when a poem I wrote went a little viral (largely thanks to StumbleUpon). I remember the rush of seeing how much attention it was getting, and staying up late to keep refreshing the page as the visitor numbers went up and up and up.

But not long after that, I had some closer encounters with fame and people becoming famous. That was extremely eye-opening. I witnessed first hand how strongly that can affect someone's life, for good and for bad. That experience also made me realise, quite jarringly, that famous people are still just people; that celebrity is something extrinsic to them; that they also wipe their own butts (if they are able); and that in many cases, it is a substantial inconvenience if not downright pain in the ass for them. I think this is why we see so many of the big celebrities having mental health crises or trying to live as much of their lives out of the public eye as possible.

That experience pretty much stifled my desire to achieve fame, and really changed my relationship with it. I should add that I could say much more on this topic, but nothing so coherent or insightful as John and Hank Green, who have given me so much clarity on this topic over the years through their thoughtful commentary on youtube and their podcasts.

Anyway, in spite of the fact that fame itself doesn't really appeal to me anymore, I do still have a problem wherein I quickly became addicted to the microdosing of euphoria associated with every reblog and like and follow. So I put huge efforts into social media in order to try to gain traction in the space that I felt I could really compete in—Very Niche SciComm™—and build up a following.

Tumblr was the first platform where I felt that really succeed; I managed to fight my way to a few thousand followers with a thick queue of regular posts about herpetology and other science. At that time, there was a great community building up in the rudimentary private messaging system—I am still friends with several other tumblr bloggers from that era (none of whom I have ever met in person). From that early time (2013), I think my most successful post was probably this one about germination of 32,000 year old seeds—a post that, as of today, has 836 notes, but at the time felt huge and exhilarating.

As I went through gradschool, I got more and more active on twitter, and less and less active on tumblr (by the time I wound down, I had about 8,000 followers on tumblr). This was partly because of the pornbot takeover on tumblr, which meant I basically could not go on the platform in public or at work, but also because the audience and interactions are just fundamentally different. Twitter had a different kind of vibe and energy than tumblr, and there were real SciComm experts there, who were doing it just completely differently. More importantly, I became more focussed on doing outreach aimed at colleagues, rather than non-experts.

Then, in 2017, I hit headlines for the first time. The description of Geckolepis megalepis made it big on social and traditional media, and I had my first experience with real media attention. I had a flurry of late-night phone-calls with journalists in the US. This was a different animal altogether than the few viral posts I had had until that point. It was extremely stressful, but exhilarating. Then in 2018, our chameleon fluorescence story made similar headlines, and in 2019 the Mini frogs, and in 2021 with gecko fluorescence and the smallest chameleon.

Seeing my name on the BBC News website and in the New York Times and National Geographic—those things have been the most surreal moments of near-fame I have experienced so far. The number of followers on social media is quite difficult to conceptualise, but seeing your own name in a media outlet that you consume regularly, or have grown up with, is more palpable.

In any case, I continued to run with twitter as my main platform for years, because I found the interaction with colleagues and other academics highly stimulating. In 2021, I even posted a twitter thread about a different species of frog from Madagascar every day for the full year. All this work was ultimately greeted with mediocre success; I just crested over 10,000 followers a few months before the Musth takeover. But then the platform became basically unusable. And in the fallout, I came back to tumblr, where, just by chance, I happened to find a post about the Mini frogs and reply to it and it went properly viral and now here we are. In the space of a year, I went from having 8000 followers to having >46,000.

How do I feel about that? It's bonkers. I think it is great that so many people are interested in hearing the Good News about frogs and other creatures. But I also feel like I am not really on the same playing field as most of the others in that poll mentioned above, in that I do not have any of the celebrity that several others have. And I know for a fact that there are fanblogs with far, far larger followings than I have. But perhaps that is the great thing about tumblr; that the playing field is somehow levelled…

What's the point of this ramble? Well, first I guess it is to outline that I have given fame a lot of thought over the years, and I have a long-standing and complicated relationship with it, and take it quite seriously. Second, to illustrate that I have been working on as a science communicator or person in outreach for many years—it has kind of been my social media brand since I started gradschool in 2013. And third, to kind of outline how we got here, because I often feel like you have to know where an arrow has come from in order to figure out which direction it will continue to fly.

You asked if I would somehow try to leverage my tumblr fame to get research funding—I already do that. In fact, my social media activity had a signfiicant role in landing me my current job, and will continue to help me achieve tenure. Outreach is an important part of my job, and funders like it too.

I would love to have the community-building power and tenacity of the brothers Green; Nerdfighteria has achieved some incredible things over the years, and the power of that community is now being seen at an unprecedented scale in their battle for equitable access for tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment. But I do not have that in me; this platform is the wrong one for community activation, and my community is still too small for that. Moreover, it is not organised or structured, in the way that I think effective deputisation would require.

As for the crowdsourcing of name ideas, that is currently off the table. I like to try to name things on my own or with my colleauges; it is a very good part of the process. And I have yet to hear a suggestion for a Mini species epithet that I had not already come up with myself, so I am not convinced that this would really augment the experience.

So for now, I hope that the main way I use the platform, and the power that comes with a few thousand followers, will be to spread the Good News about frogs and other wonderful animals, and the other kinds of science happening around us (and occasional other off-topic content). I hope that you are encouraged to explore the world around you, and to do your own reading to find out more about the subjects that interest you. And also I will continue to try to make meme-worthy content, because it does nice, if addictive, things in my brain when I get the clicks.

Thanks for asking, anon, and sorry for the Wall of Text.

[homunculus-argument]

Have you ever had one of those things happen that just straight-up sound like something that'd only go down in a badly written sitcom?

This one time a few years ago, I had nothing to do in the middle of the day so I went out to wander around the city, and encountered one of those christian missionaries of some sort - not mormons, some local finnish-speaking one, probably Jehova's witnesses, I can't recall - who addressed me first. Having only gone out to kill time I figured I'd stop to see what he had to say, this might get interesting.

He started talking about sin, and I told him that I don't think that's real, humans aren't inherently bad creatures that need to be goaded into not doing evil by an outside force. Apparently taken back by my confidence about this, he asked me why I think so. And while I was absolutely not this eloquent about it while talking as I am typing it out now, I explained that if doing good didn't come naturally to people, it wouldn't feel good to do it. There's been studies about that - it makes people feel happy to help others, even when they gain nothing from it, or even at a cost to themselves sometimes.

Doing good things feels good for the same reason as eating, sleeping and having sex feel good - because we're supposed to do it. It doesn't matter to me why that is - either there's a god who made people with inherent goodness to them, or natural selection of the cold uncaring universe saw this behaviour as beneficial for survival. People want to be good to one-another just like migratory birds want to fly south for the winter.

He gave me his best annoyed "alright, fair enough"-shrug and was clearly trying to think of how to disagree with that when we were interrupted. I have no idea how a person that large and entirely indifferent to concepts like subtlety, stealth or an indoor voice even can sneak up on people, but we were both startled when someone I had briefly met appeared out of apparent nowhere, loudly going

HEY AREN'T YOU THAT TRANNY FROM THE PARK

addressing me. I used to go drinking at the park quite often back then, and while I did meet a lot of people that way and my memory is the first thing to disappear when I'm drunk, someone that loud, tall and broad-shouldered, covered in tattoos, with long hair, braided beard and electric blue eyeshadow isn't someone you easily forget. I was, indeed, the tranny from the park and I had been the person who had explained the concept of "nonbinary" to them.

My acquaintance here was somewhere between 30 and 50 and not exactly up to whatever the kids are doing these days, and their reaction to this information was roughly "oh huh so there's a name for the thing I'm doing". As they only spoke finnish, I can't say that I would have been the one to explain the concept of gender neutral pronouns to them, but they had been fascinated to discover that other languages have gendered pronouns in the first place.

Refreshing my memory of the encounter - and apparently unintentionally also recounting it to the missionary who was still silently standing with us - they proceeded to explain that they've never really felt like a man or a woman. And sometimes not really even like a human, but more like an alien who had just been dropped off here from a spaceship - but not like in a psychotic delusions sort of way, but just the vibes, you know? They then proceeded to tell us about some other fascinating epiphanies that they had had while on psychedelics.

As they went on, the christian missionary next to us was drifting backwards so slowly that I don't think I noticed him actually take an individual backwards step, just silently sliding gradually further away from this situation, with apparent mild concern. And while my happenstance acquaintance - whose name I either never heard or couldn't remember hearing - was talking, I noticed I had gotten a text message from a friend, who asked if I'm around and whether I want to come hang out.

So as the nonbinary giant self-appointed alien was finished with their story and took their leave - telling me that they'll probably see me around, and as I was around a lot, I reassured them that they would - I turned to the missionary and told him that while I'd love to carry on with what we were talking about, I actually have people to see now, and bid him good luck with whatever he was trying to do.

It's been like five years between that day and today, and during that time I moved to a different city and back here. I don't think I've seen the nonbinary giant again even once during this time, and wherever they are, I hope they're doing ok and no longer doing any weird drugs. Or if they are, that at least they're having fun.

[forestshadow-wolf]

One day soap (pre-relationship) starts pulling back because he thinks Ghost only sees a platonic or physical relationship with him and, "you give me an inch and I'll take the fucking world, when it comes to you."

He switches up his entire schedule just to avoid ghost because he's gotten too close, wants more that he can have. And it's lowkey breaking him inside, but whatever, right? Better this, than make Ghost uncomfortable right?

And God it hurts so much to not be able to interact with Ghost and his stupidy aggressive manc accent, and his dumb handsom face, and his godawful dry wit. But this is better for them, right? This is what's best for both of them, isn't it? He avoids making Ghost uncomfortable, and he'll just have to work on stuffing his feelings way way down. And then things can go back to normal, but until then he'll keep avoiding the man.

And Gaz sees and it breaks his heart. To have soap come to him late at night with unshed tears in his eyes because he refuses to cry, because it's not like he's dead or anything, right? And it breaks his heart to hold soap, while he trembles through unbidden sobs. And he just wants to make it right, but he can't. So he'll continue being his rock.

And when Ghost realizes that he hadn't seen soap all day he thinks maybe he just got extra busy so he leaves it. But by day two and not even a hair of the scot has been seen he worries that something is wrong. But maybe the Sergent just got slammed with a ton of extra work, Ghost isn't the only lieutenant on base and things happen all the time. And then on day three with no sightings he starts to ask around and he realizes that almost every one except for him has interacted, or talked to, or seen soap. Well that's off putting, soap almost alwas find him in his free time, but maybe it's just a coincidence. The fourth day is totally just happenstance that he hasn't seen soap, thay what he tells himself, even if it seems like everyone else on base has seen him.

But late at night when everyone is asleep soap will go sit outside ghost's door, splay legged, having to fight himself to not knock in his door and beg for forgiveness like he isn't the one pulling away.

It goes on for months of this same routine of soap avoiding Ghost during the day, and trying to crawl back to him at night. Soap's more or less stopped sleeping more than a few hours at night, he's working himself even harder. Ghost misses Soap. Soap misses Ghost.

Eventually Ghost stopped looking for him, instead, passing messages through Gaz. But soap never responds.

It's finally one night that Ghost wakes up to take a piss and grab a glass of water that he finds soap outside his door. He's scrunched up against the wall, sketchbook open, pencil in hand, but all He's doing is waving it between his fingers. And Soap looks up, and flinches when he sees Ghost, scrabbling to gather up his drawings and haul ass out of there.

But Ghost stops him, a light grip around the wrist, he's not even looking at soap, just staring at the spot he was sitting. Soap could pull out of his grasp easily, he could turn tail and leave, but he doesn't, he's frozen to the spot in the ground.

And then Ghost turns to face him, and he swallows. Ghost takes a step forward, he takes one back, keeping the distance between them. That makes Ghost stop, piss break and thirst forgotten.

"Why?" It's one word, and yet it makes soap's heart break, and then Ghost keeps talking, "I'm sorry."

I'm sorry he says, like it's his fault. I'm sorry he says, like he blames himself. I'm sorry he says, it isn't totally and irrevocably SOAP'S FUCKING FAULT. I'm sorry he says. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And soap wants to punch him to shut him up. He doesn't. He swallows thickly.

"It's not..." soap has to swallow against the lump in his throat to keep speaking, "you didn't do anything." The words sound hollow and distant to his ears, he can't imagine how it sounds to Ghost's.

"Please." And soap can't bare to look at the pleading look anymore or all this will be ruined. "I'm sorry." Ghost says again, and if Soap's heart was broken before, not its shattered, dusted, broken into so mand teeny tiny pieces that there is surely no hope of ever repairing it.

"I- I-... you didn't do this." He says, tears in his eyes, and all he can do is glance up at Ghost for the briefest of seconds before he has to look away. "I fucked up. A-and I'm trying to fix it." He nearly wails, he wishes his chest would just burst open and bleed him dry from the source, insted of this, anything but this. His voice stays quiet, near silent, even.

"Please." Ghost is begging now, and soap can't stand it. "I'll be better, I promise." He whispers, like he's not hearing Soap. And soap makes a wounder sound, and God, does it hurt to hear those words.

"It's really, really isn't you." Soap pleads, Ghost needs to understand. "I- I just can't give you what you want."

"Why?" And Ghost sounds so broken, and it's sending Soap directly down into the firey pits of hell.

"Because I want more." A tear slips down his cheek, and he curses it, he has no right to cry. He did this, now it's time to reap the fruits of his labor, no matter how rotten it may be.

"But I want you. Johnny." It rasps out, and Ghost's voice sounds just as broken as soap feels.

"But I want too much.. Ghost" he can't stop the tears now, but he locks down in the wail that's clawing open his chest from the inside out. It hurts. It hurts so much. But this is his doing. This is his fault. He has to accept that. "I can't have just friends."

"Please. I miss you." Ghost pleads, and soap almost fucking sobs. God, soap is never gonna recover from this.

I miss you too. I'm sorry. I miss you so much. He wants to scream. "I know." He forces his voice to hollow. He does know. Gaz has told him all about it.

"Please. I can- I'll meet you half way"

Soap chances a look up then, almost hopeful, except for the fact that he would leave hope up for a gamble.

Ghost does look hopeful. And also broken. Broken. Soap did that. As of Ghost hasn't has enough hirt in life, and Soap basically just stabbed him in the back. He has to fix this. He- he did this. Why did he do this.

He nods, and the pencil falls out of his hand, followed by the thump of his book. "I'm sorry." The sobs tear out of his chest, and all he wants to do is crawl out of his own skin and die in a fucking hole. Why did he do this.

He drops his head, and lets the tears fall. And then there are arms wrapping themselves around him, and a head resting atop his, and he can't find the strength to pull away, nor does he want to. So he turns into the warm embrace, and wraps himself around Ghost.

"I'm sorry. I thought- " he's hiccuping so hard that he's sure he's not understandable. Ghost shushes him gently, rocking them side to side.

They do have to make moves though, when Ghost's need for a piss makes itself known again. Soap's only a little ashamed to say he'd literally latched onto the man, and made him carry him all the way into the bathroom.

[toutvatoujoursbien]

I was watching a gif of Simone pointing out the outfits in London and the way he looks at her is just….it takes your breath away. And this on a day when he honestly was his most awkward and clearly uncomfortable with A looking on and possibly with what was about to go down later. He cannot help but look at her with so much affection. It is unbelievably sexy.

The real life teeny tiny interactions between them are 1000x more intimate and romantic than even the first kiss or carriage or mirror, etc (all of which I love). The flirty, more obvious PR-like moments don’t do it, although they still feed my delulu. It’s the small, stolen glances, the small rub on her arm with his finger during the London radio interview. Ugh. This is why these two occupy my every thought! The real people are infinitely more fascinating to watch together than their carefully written characters (again-characters I love!) and I have never seen that before between two actors.

💛All the little moments you've pointed out are making me swoon all over again!🩵 Thank you for reminding me just how much I love watching them together. And if this is what we need to nourish ourselves during This Difficult Time, then we are and will continue to be well fed. (Hahahahahaha... is it September yet?)

The real people are infinitely more fascinating to watch together than their carefully written characters (again-characters I love!) and I have never seen that before between two actors.

I think this encapsulates the magic of Nicola and Luke's relationship ✨ (because a friendship IS a relationship, fight me). And honestly, that magic and realness and bond they have? I like to joke that I was a relatively normal person at the start of this year, so happy and naive, but then these two assholes made me fall in love with both of them and I got invested. Was there some PR being served to the fandom? Of course there was; and I believe most of us are smart enough to realize and recognize it. But, like you illustrated, it's the little things that slipped through - perhaps even unconsciously - that caused us to go absolutely wild. And now we are all sat at the restaurant (or so I'm told is the cool way to refer to it 😆)

I just refuse to believe that so many of us saw what we did during the press tour (or even prior to that, for however long anyone's been on board this 🎢) and witnessed something fake or forced for promotion. Like, a handful of instances can be written off, but at some point when you look at the volume of ppl who are like, "Wait, so they're in love, right?" - that's just too telling, imo.

Once is chance. Twice is coincidence. Third time is a pattern.* So what number are we on now everyone???

*Again, another common phrase evolved from the actual quote: "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action." -Ian Fleming

[gentleeclipsey]

It was too cute I couldn't not fuckin do it

A tidbit about this scene, I'm writing this for pure self indulgence because I can't bring myself to put it anywhere else:

The warrioress had spent days lost in the snowy wasteland. The blizzard had struck during the battle, viability vanished within moments, and when she felled her opponent Gnasha found herself alone amongst the dead. She scavenged for any scrap of scent she could of her tribe, and hesitantly followed the one trail she caught wind of, however, it was a dead end.

Wandering, she had no markers to track, and with the blizzard overtaking such a foreign place, she was utterly lost. The cold and hunger had begun to eat at her, the first few nights she did her best to hide amongst and beneath the pine boughs but they weren't much help against the wind before the snow would accumulate but even then the chill was eating through her hide.

Eventually, she'd stumbled upon the cave by pure happenstance. The entrance was tight, however as she slipped deeper she found the wind unable to reach her. Finally, in her moments of relief, she collapsed into a withered heap and slept.

How long she had slept was a mystery, however, the gentle prickle against her cheek awoke her slowly. It nearly felt like the footsteps of a spring beetle. Her dark eyes warily opened, nearly expecting spring, but instead Gnasha was face to face with the strangest creature she'd ever laid eyes on. Adrenaline thundered into her chest and she shot up, the plump, fluffy beast jumping back and tucking it's tail between its legs.

Her eyes adjusted slowly, and finally she was beginning to wake up properly. She wasn't staring down a creature, it was a plump little she-troll, furred and plush as the finest nest of royalty! Gnasha felt a pang of guilt, the little troll looked absolutely terrified to be in her presence, which was only natural. The false crest was made to be intimidating, and the armor was entirely recognizable to just about any troll within the area and beyond that had witnessed the wrath of her chieftain.

"I'm sorry," Gnasha spoke gently, lowering down onto her knuckles before standing on all fours, gently chuffing a soft submission, "I'm not from these lands, I've been lost for days..." a soft squeak mildly startled the warrior, it seemed to come from the stranger's nose. "Can you understand my tongues?" There was a hesitant nod, though no vocal conformation. "Can you speak?" There wasn't an answer, but the little troll began to approach.

In the dim light filtered from beyond the rocks, Gnasha could grasp more of the little stranger. She had paws, a grabbing toe on all four, and a tail just a bit longer than her body that seemed to be all muscle, and fat at the moment. Her mane was thick, curly, a bright metallic coppery red against a sandy flecked coat. Her fur was thick, nearly luxurious, no doubt to help with the winter.

As she approached slowly Gnasha could feel warmth permeating the air, and the fog of her breath began to vanish. The warrior offered her hand gently, causing the little stranger to step back for only a moment before she got close enough Gnasha could feel her whiskers again.

The little nose wiggled, sniffing quickly, "You look so sweet," Gnasha cooed, "Are you friendly? I won't hurt you-"

She jumped, feeling overgrown paws latch onto her hand faster than she could blink, but all in the same moment a cacophony of purrs erupted from the tiny frame as she smiled, aggressively nuzzling Gnasha's hand and beginning to lick the leather.

The seasoned murderess couldn't help but laugh, "Oh! Oh you're just a big soft sweetheart!" Gnasha couldn't help but return the purrs as the she-troll began to scent her hand, "Your paws are so warm." A smile split her face, a genuine one she hadn't felt in a very long time.

"You're cold," her voice was soft, sleepy, "My den's back here." Before Gnasha could object, she was beging dragged deeper into the cave, "Uh, what's your name? I'm Gnasha."

"Jackie, and don't worry, I'll feed you plenty."

[total-drama-brainrot]

Hello hello ophe 👋😇

How are you doing so far?

So yeah I have an another crack idea

Lindsay and Alejandro rivalry

That it’s that’s the ask

Alejandro is over there losing how someone as dumb as Lindsay dear can outsmart his ass

While Lindsay is here doing all that shit by accident and crap

-Ass Stars anon

Hello hello, A.S. Anon! 👋😁

I'm still pretty sick though I'm slowly getting better, but otherwise I'm doing well! How are you?

NOTE: I'm gonna put this under a Read More because I got a bit wordy with my reply. 😅

I like the idea of a one-sided rivalry between Alejandro and Lindsay, where Alejandro is just dumbfounded by how someone so objectively dense can "manipulate the competition" as efficiently as she does.

Meanwhile, Lindsay is just A Nice Person so people actually like her and as are willing to do things for her/do as she asks. There's no hidden meaning to it; Lindsay's just a kind and friendly person (she doesn't have an intentionally mean bone in her body). Alejandro, however, interprets this as her using her looks and 'feminine charm' to 'beguile the competition' or something because Of Course He Does.

So he seethes over how she must be some sort of hidden genius, with how her dumb blonde 'act' always seems to generate results in her favour (it's not an act, and things working out in Lindsay's favour are always just happenstance), and he hates how he's being outplayed in a battle of wits by someone so outwardly ditzy even if he knows it's all a façade (again, it's not, but Alejandro doesn't know that).

And he spends a concerning amount of time scheming between/during challenges, trying to figure out a way to expose Lindsay for the mastermind she is (she's totally not), but she always seems to find some way to dodge his carefully laid out plans- yet more proof that she's outwitting him! (It's all coincidence.)

Lindsay is oblivious to this whole situation, our Unbothered Queen. 💅

OR

It could be a mutual rivalry between the two of them, but for different reasons?

Alejandro still has his "Lindsay is a secret mastermind whom I must outplay for the million" mindset, but Lindsay also just Can't Stand Alejandro because he's (seemingly) effortlessly well put together.

His hair is so healthy and glossy whilst hers is still kind of straw like from all the bleaching, and in all the time they've shared on the Jumbo Jet he's never looked anything less than perfect, even when he'd just woken up? Not even the slightest bit of acne on his naturally tanned (which Lindsay, who goes through a bottle of fake tan a week, is so jealous of), perfectly smooth and even skin? It's so unfair! Every time she's tried asking about his skincare routine he's shrugged her off- which, rude! She's so mad about how he's gatekeeping his beauty tips that is eventually evolves into the two of them beefing for completely different reasons.

Of course, Alejandro sees Lindsay's shared animosity as her acknowledging a fellow Manipulator™ and disliking how he has 'seen through her bluff', meanwhile Lindsay thinks Alejandro is just kind of a jerk who hates her for trying to 'steal his beauty secrets', so any attraction she might've felt for him plummets into nothing because she Doesn't Like Mean Guys (further proof of this is the fact that Tyler is a sweetheart who has done nothing wrong, and she was immediately infatuated with him).

Side note; She also probably doesn't get along with Justin for this same reason, as I can't imagine him humouring Lindsay with all of the restrictions and beauty routines he has to do as a model, which she'd also interpret as him gatekeeping industry secrets from her. (Man's got literal contracts outlining what physical activities he can and can't do in order to preserve his looks. That's wild.)

I like this idea a lot. Any idea that has Alejandro near enough tearing his hair out by being 'outplayed' by someone who presents themselves as a nonthreat/incompetent whilst the person in question really is just Some Average Joe who isn't even trying to ruin all of Alejandro's schemes, has me hooked. He's totally paranoid enough to always assume the worst in people, even when they're totally innocuous.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi raven! i really want to share my opinion with you about certain plot point in twst. welp i think the M*ckey is an bad plot point and seems very out of place in the game,while i'm not able to explain how it feel…shoehorned??as if yana is forced to include it (because she's writing for d1sney obviously,she gotta insert their mascot) but she's not sure in what to do with him,like what the point of his existence?wil he fight OB!Grim?(i hope not because it will look very unserious); and with the current story themes i cannot see how he could affect the course of events; it would've been a lot better if he remained as just an easter egg imo

But that's just my current feelings it might change later,maybe Yana will reveal the real plot of twst very late just like Black Butler!

Sorry for ranting!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

While I do agree that Mickey was kind of jarring to see at first, I think that’s only because his aesthetic clashes with that of everything else in the game. If Mickey were presented to us as another conventionally attractive anime boy (or, vice versa, if the TWST boys were drawn as simple anthro animal cartoon characters like Mickey), I feel like the fandom shock would eventually fade into the usual excited squealing 😅

I don’t think Yana was forced to include him because of Mickey being the face of Disney. His inclusion appears to be very purposeful and serves a role in the larger narrative. He doesn’t necessarily need to fight, but it’s very clear that Mickey is closely associated with the player character/Yuu, and that he may even be the key to helping them find a way home, or to understanding how Yuu ended up at Night Raven College to begin with. Just because we have vague details doesn’t mean the devs don’t know what to do with him; there have been many hints sprinkled throughout the game that will ultimately come together at the conclusion. When we get there, it will probably recontextualize all the breadcrumbs that have come along the way.

Firstly, I think Mickey can tie in with the story without necessarily adhering to its themes. Not every character has to exist to play into a work’s themes, because themes alone don’t define the entire work. One can argue that Twisted Wonderland’s themes are “the importance of friendship” and “even villains have their own tales/good sides to them”, but even then, that doesn’t tell the whole story. There are many smaller components which support the themes or are their own things that add to the world or narrative without necessarily supporting the theme. In Mickey’s case, I believe he exists to contribute to the mirror motif and to draw parallels between him and Yuu.

Mirrors (and, subsequently, their reflections) are vital in Twisted Wonderland. There are mirrors everywhere, serving different purposes—identification, teleportation, communication, etc. The fact that Mickey is speaking to Yuu through a mirror (an important object) already calls attention to him. Mickey is all Yuu can see, and Yuu is all Mickey can see; they are reflections of each other, living in different worlds and unable to cross into the other’s. They aren’t alike at all, and yet they were able to make this connection by happenstance. That imagery alone can sell someone on the mystery of it—and, if you look at it from a certain angle, that, too, connects to the themes of friendship in a less overt way. (Similarly, we see “opposites” reflecting each other in the presentation of other characters like Sebek-Silver, the twins, Kalim-Jamil, etc.)

Mickey ties in with the dream sequences that Yuu has between and within main story episodes. With how frequently it happens and how closely the dreams tie in with real world events, it cannot be a coincidence or just something hastily slapped in to stall the main story. We also get check-ins between Yuu and Mickey at the end of every chapter, which implies that they are building up to some kind of big reveal with him (not unlike what they’ve been doing with Yuu and Malleus’s brief meetings to build up hype and emotional stakes for episode 7). There are also other strange details that haven’t been fully explained but still feel weird to point out (almost like they’ll come into play again later): Yuu being the only one who can see Mickey, and both of them not being able to see each others’ worlds. What’s more, Mickey actually makes the Ghost Camera that Yuu received from Crowley in the introduction have narrative purpose.

We also cannot deny that Twisted Wonderland itself is heavily constructed based on Disney properties, which is highly suspect; Mickey’s inclusion could hint at more serious secrets regarding the nature of Twisted Wonderland itself. (For example, the “Twisted Wonderland is Mickey’s dream world, and Yuu’s dreams are Mickey’s world” theory.) It wouldn’t be too out of place tonally considering at how dark and existential episode 6 got (and implied 7 to be). m

If Mickey were left as just an easter egg, I think the main story I think the story would have a lot less intrigue to it (due to his association with Yuu’s dreams and their struggle to find their way home). He’s basically in the same position as Grim or Malleus; Mickey is a character that we meet early on in the main story, and someone who follows us throughout it. And just as we suspect an OB Malleus and a showdown with Grim, there’s no doubt in my mind that Mickey will be integral for whatever ending TWST has in mind for us.

[retphienix]

I'm not advocating that high end players just start hanging around earth nodes ruining the fun for new players, but I will say that when happenstance (a lith usually) places a brand new player and a high end player, sometimes you get that wonderful starry eyed moment where the new player is astounded at what you can do in this game.

I had it when I was new, and a couple days ago on a lith mobile defense I witnessed it again where I put down my oberon grass and a new player was like "How?? I need that!"

Warframe is really cool! And it sometimes takes a while to see that!

Or sometimes it's shown to you in really unfun ways (hello thermal sunder titania making base chart lith/meso star chart a fucking walking simulator for players new and old, really cool that you ruin the experience for new players :))

And sometimes something like what I did just leaves the player confused and bored, much like my aforementioned pet peeve frame combo, but sometimes- SOMETIMES- you get those adorable moments and I like them :)

[doubleddenden]

I had been going over various fan theories regarding ZA, and one I thought was totally dumb was the reintroduction of Ultra Wormholes. In Kalos.

I thought they were stupid, much like how I thought certain poketubers for thinking Kalos went to war with Alola, Kanto, Galar, Sinnoh, Hisui, and Paldea.

But, the longer I entertained the thought, the more I found ideas to actually give weight to UWs in Lumiose. Now granted, I don't think it's past a 30% chance of happening, but Game Freak keeps doing weird shit lately and the weather here keeps turning to storms at 4% chance of sprinkles, so let's just... let's just provide some support beams and pretend to be devil's advocate for a bit, just because I find the idea fun for a thought process.

Again, I'm not 100% committed to the idea, but I will entertain the bit to see how it could work.

DD's theory corner under the cut

Now first, we would need to ask "why" UWs in Kalos to begin with. Stretch your arms, stretch your hammies, we're gonna reach a bit while we do some mental gymnastics.

So

Why?

Lore theory: we're gonna need some way to isekai some poor Gen Alpha iPad teen to- presumably- Lumiose City 200ish years ago during the same time frame that Legends Arceus happened- irl, during the time period Japan colonized modern Hokaido and roughly the same Era the infamous Paris Rennovation came about (there's lots of videos and theories going over how this might be the case, pick your poison- Logstin went over the theory in a pretty digestable video).

So why not the same method as LA? While there's nothing saying Lumiose can't have Space Time Distortions like Hisui, you do have to remember that in the events of LA, all of that happens because Giratina started messing around with reality and pissing off Dialga and Palkia so that Giratina could get revenge on Arceus for sealing it away long ago. That was the method in which Ingo got transported to the past without memories, somehow traversing modern day New York to Hokkaido wilderness 200 years ago. Arceus sends the player back through the distortion above Mt Coronet as well, and we literally fall out of the sky according to witnesses.

So again, why not? Giratina and Arceus are busy in Hisui having their feud at this time- lore wise anyway.

However, the REAL reason I find this difficult is because that's a Gen 4 heavy premise involving the creation and maintenance of the fabric of time and space itself- Kalos is Gen 6, not really about those two.

So what other options are left?

1. Hoopah- in ORAS, Hoopah is highly implied to be why we're able to come into contact with so many random legendary Pokemon due to its rings connecting 2 spaces- the problem with this, I find, is that we don't really have evidence to say it could involve time travel- certainly explains getting a Sinnoh Legendary while in Hoenn, but not how someone could go back or forward in time.

2. Time Machine- as of SV and Indigo Disk (and as of late may/early june 2024), we now have time travel as a viable plot device, and seemingly space doesn't seem to be much of an issue since we Boot Strapped the book that would make the professor go crazy and create it to begin with. The issue here is that it seems to only be in places connected to the same Crystals of Area Zero, like the Crystal Pool, and that was just a temporary happenstance caused by Terapagos itself on a whim.

I won't completely dismiss this possibility- after all, we have a number of scientists that abandoned the professor after he went nuts and could have easily built another time machine in Kalos or something- however, the issue here becomes both lore and meta conflicting.

A. The time machine requires a TON of power to maintain, that's why it was built in Area Zero to begin with. The Crystals grow like crazy there and can easily power it for as long as the professor willed it- and mind you, we turned it off. That's not saying it can't be turned back on, but I doubt we could use the same one for Lumiose. Why?

B. Think back to Legends Arceus in relation to SwSh. The one connection to Galar we had was Laventon and a bit of industrial revolution tech. In fact, there's no Galar related Gen 8 Pokemon there and no discernable connection to Dynamax energy either (although the "bigger Pokemon" bit is recycled by Alphas, which lets face it, SwSh recycled that from Totems of Alola- of which Alphas are kinda those but Different tm). In other words, even though Paldea IS next door, if we look at it from a meta development perspective, it's most likely that- at most- we'll have a similarity and not exact mirrored causation.

To play 2nd Devil's Advocate, sure, they could theoretically power a time machine with modern day Infinity Energy- but you have to think that the professor could have turned towards that if it was a sustainable power source instead of the Crystals.

All of this being said, I won't completely dismiss another time machine of some kind. A wise man once said "shit happens, my dude."

3. Ultra Wormholes

Now that we're finished entertaining the second devil, we're back to the first I started with. UWs- Ultra Wormholes going forward- aren't strictly an Alolan thing. Yes, they are strongly associated with Alola, but as of Crown Tundra we have proof that they can and have appeared elsewhere and can even merge with other phenomenon like dynamax energy, paving way for Dynamax Adventures and its legendary bargain sale and even dumping our own Cosmog on us.

UWs can mimic the effects of TSDs- Time Space Distortions, taking us to different universes, dimensions, planets, and perhaps times. Remember how in Ultra SM we saw an apocalyptic Hau'oli City ravaged by Guzzlord? Remember how we could go visit alternative worlds where humans, Pokemon, and Ultra Beasts could live and thrive peacefully? Granted, we and the Ultra Recon Squad needed box legendaries to do it under controlled methods, but control isn't entirely necessary in this scenario of time traveling.

Fallers- if you don't remember the term, that's a term used to describe someone who fell from a different dimension and lost their memories of who they were- we could say Ingo became one from the TSD, Looker as well for some unknown reason in the AU ORAS takes place in-perhaps tied to Hoopah's rings. The term Faller, however, stems from the original SM and was used to describe Annabel- former Hoenn Battle Tower Frontier Brain in Emerald who lost all of her memories and came back as the chief of Interpol (or in Ultra, as Looker's new partner basically).

If we remember too, there might be another method to control these given how Rainbow Rocket formed from universes where the bosses succeeded.

Continuing on, you might ask why UWs in Lumiose in this particular case?

From here on, this will be conjecture, theorizing, guessing, and referencing old rumors. I did say I didn't 100% buy it, we're just giving this idea legs to stand on.

So to begin with, let's reference an old rumor that a few may have heard before- full disclosure, it came from a 4chan post that claimed to be a dev talking about scrapped ideas and content originally planned for XY- this was recent as of... a couple or more years ago, maybe. There's not much solid proof it's true in any regard, but the details mentioned do make it a curious read that I'd say might have a chance of at least partially being true, given how game development and Game Freak tend to work.

To summarize what I remember: basically during XY's development plan, there was a wildly different story planned at the time compared to the rather generic adventure we had. Basically, aliens were supposedly invading Kalos and Team Flare was part of it- supposedly this is why Xerosic and Vallerie look so strange. They were ALIENS. Fairy Types also came from space in this regard, as did Mega Evolution with the stones originally being part of the space ship. Sycamore and Lysander were also planned to be sort of a split mind 2in1 villain as well, and the XYZ legends look so different compared to other legendary Pokemon because they were also aliens of some kind. Also, Olympia's space-themed psychic type gym was apparently a remnant of this idea- she was originally supposed to play a much larger role in the story.

This idea was ultimately canned- too ambitious for the time limits they had. However, elements of the idea were supposedly reworked into ORAS and Alola following. You can sort of see where this is going with Ultra Recon Squad, Lusamine going kinda crazy as Mother Beast, Z Crystals being from Necrozma from another dimension, etc.

That's another thing- Alola took Kalos's Z. Not just the Z in Z Crystal, but Z as in Zygarde's additional formes, I think even his cave if memory serves. It also took Ash Greninja and the other Gen 6 megas and primals that Kalos didn't get to see. In that sense, it could be fair to say Kalos could use UWs in this sense.

Hisui dipped it's hands in a lot of other Gen pockets- Gen 2's signature Apricorns that were exclusive to Johto and never found in Sinnoh, Gens 5, 6, and 7 Pokemon and forms including Sylveon and Alolan Vulpix despite not appearing in the DP remakes, even regional variants and even ancestors from the Pearl Clan and Galaxy Expedition team to other regional characters. If we look at this, we can safely say Legends Games don't have to strictly abide by what the original region introduced and can borrow elements introduced later. So in this case, and looking at Crown Tundra again, we can say it's not off the table.

Getting back to Z- if you've read another theory of mine where I talked about how Z-A could be read either as "Zee-Ay" or "Zed-Ay" depending on your dialect, and maybe "Zeta" depending on your pronunciation, and how Z is how Zeta is represented in Greek (remember Alpha, Omega, and Delta were used before), there's something else neat to it: Zeta is the 6th letter of the Greek Alphabet- like gen 6, but has a numeric value of 7. Like... Gen 7, with UWs.

Now lets continue with another theory I posited a few posts ago: The A in Z-A. Xerneas, Yveltal, and Zygarde- XYZ- are a trio that represent a 3 dimensional view on a grid- important for the first 3d main line game. X is left and right, Y is up and down, and Z is sort of the 3 dimensional area that goes through both- 3 dimensions. So where does A come in? I had theorized A would be another legendary- much like Enamorus in Legends Arceus was introduced, but A in this case would serve a bigger and actual role here. The XYZ trio are based on various creatures of Norse mythos, including the deer that feed on Yggdrasil and provide life- Xerneas being both the deer and the trees; Yveltal being the hawk or eagle that rests atop the world tree, and Zygarde being based on the Nidhogg. A could be Ratatosk- a gossipy squirrel that kept trying to start shit between the eagle? I think? and Nidhogg. A in this case serving as a foil to Zygarde, since it's probably that Xerneas and Yveltal will still be asleep by this period. That's all the short end of my theory.

So now how does A fit into this? If we take into account that XYZ are the 3d plain, then A must be something beyond that. A 4th dimension, something beyond standard 3 dimensions- and what are Ultra Wormholes if not another gateway to other dimensions? With Ultra Space being the 4th, if we look at it a certain way?

In this scenario, A would be something from beyond Earth to some capacity, giving Zygarde agency in this story to defend the planet. Remember, we're only going to be in Lumiose, supposedly, so a localized danger from another world could pose significant threat. It could just be a monster of the week, it could just be alternative forms of Xerneas and Yveltal, it could be many things from beyond.

Actually, now that I think about it, Legends Arceus took Regional Variants to the next level by introducing them to a past region AND giving them to starters- maybe A in this case is not Ratatosk, but perhaps a Convergent Legendary from another universe or planet- an Anti-Zygarde, since we just got convergents in SV.

I had more rambling, but a small interruption came up as I was typing this and I lost my trail of thought by the time I came back.

I think I'll close this off for now. I'm still not 100% convinced of UW's in Lumiose, but I'm not opposed to the idea either. After building it up, I think there's plenty of ways to make this actually work, but I think I won't commit fully to this piece unless they show signs of it happening in a trailer or something. I'm open to many ideas, including the idea that this Lumiose we visit isn't actually real, but virtual- or perhaps there's an underground portion we haven't seen- but that's a different idea for another day.

thank you for reading this far, hope this entertained you for a bit

[lgcyubin]

here to present (bad trumpet playing noises) the illustrious kim yubin whooohoooo (crickets chirping) please like this post if you're down to plot and i'll mosey over to your tumblr ims. i have a discord if that's easier (tho i am slower on it) - just lmk and we can swap usernames :) also clearly bandwagon-ing so i may be even slower here, but i made a twitter since it's come up a few times! i'm also still (slowly) reading through event stuff but to the extent anyone's still looking for event partners please hmu!

better known as jamie (not james) kim, kim yubin's a california boy who's found his way to seoul with lukewarm dreams(?) of becoming a kpop idol.

quick tl;dr of his relevant journey: joined lgc in july 2021 by sheer happenstance. it's been two long years and he's still not sure if this is what he's allowed(?) to do, but for now he's trying to dabble in a little bit of everything to figure out what he likes, and works his ass off regardless of what he does bc it's in his nature. he doesn't have a self-declared focus, but his (current) penchant is for rap.

vs. what he'd put on his hinge profile: fluent in english and korean, the proud owner of two on-and-off dimples that may as well be a craters, and his t-shirt's made of boyfriend materi—

family bg: born to an affluent family of doctors. literally. all doctors, all successful, all brilliant. he's the youngest of four (three older sisters) and the black sheep of the family because he's... well, not exactly studying for the mcat right now. he's smart and hard-working, but certainly doesn't think he is - growing up in the shadows of steep expectations will do that to ya.

for as critical of himself as he is, however, he likes to keep most of his neuroses strictly to himself. you will not get him to be vulnerable without an ample amount of kicking and screaming.

self-inflicted mental saw traps aside, yubin comes across as remarkably... well, unconcerned on the outside. he's a flippant person who has zero issues making small talk with complete strangers. he's candid, straightforward, and he's got a wicked sharp wit and a penchant for dramatics. he's a funny guy! sarcasm is his crutch! and he'd much rather you laugh at or with him than see him cry.

WANTED CONNECTIONS

in desperate need of: friends. and specifically: friends who will put up with him whipping his head around dramatically every time you whisper "look at the hot person behind you but don't make it obvious" (he would be such a good wingman fyi)

best friends! but just a couple, max. he's a closed off person so if he did have any best friends that might have a better grasp of the inner workings of kim yubin, it's a limited number, and you've probably known him since he joined lgc (or longer—he's not a seoul native, but he was in town most summers). fair warning that he will be calling you his work wife/husband (it's a show of affection).

at the back of my mind, he is very loudly like "i would rather die than have feelings for someone" so naturally i feel inclined to write out a terrible ex plot. or a crush plot. or both. any breakup with him was probably messy and might be accompanied by some resentment (at least from his end), and any crush he could possibly have will be saddled with internal conflict. let's give it up for being unlovable!

no one's seen him cry except maybe a close friend or his sisters but you happen to catch him at the worst possible time and he is now avoiding you like his life depends on it. even if it means hiding behind a potted plant the second he sees you down the hall.

someone go on a perilous hike with him where you end up terribly lost and start to think you may have to spend the last moments of your life in each other's company so you might as well dish out all of your regrets and dashed hopes, right? it's not like you're just meters away from the path you were supposed to be on, right? good thing neither of you are drama queens, right???

if you would like to entertain the idea of having an inconsequential crush on the most charmless guy alive, please do so because he'd be so so uncomfortable with the concept of it and it'd be funny.

familial connection — he joined lgc back in july 2021 with his cousin (female), and she is 100% the reason why he's here. he's all about tough love and being mister sass pants so no one figures out just how much he cares about them, but he would do just about anything for his family and he's especially close to her.

[skinnytuna]

it is occuring to me that the longer im alive the less possible it becomes for the people around me to understand my fully story and lineage. the friends ive had for 10 years have missed a ton and the friends ive had for 1 year have missed a ton. but 10 years ago all of my friends knew everything important because so little of note had happened.

my god. what a burden to bear. especially with my memory being as shit as it is. i can't possibly be expected to retain and sort my sum of arcs. but also no one else can either? even with all of my archival. decades of files. they're all missing the blood and guts.

terrified of being known??? NEW FEAR UNLOCKED: terrified of being unknown. ununderstood. i've probably gone my entire relationship with my wife without sending her a single xkcd panel. im a completely different person than i was in high school! but that was an important part!

only i've been everywhere i've been... only i've heard everything i've heard... only i've said everything i've said! there are probably 0 people on earth who have witnessed both of my tumblr eras. dude i'm desperate. i told grug my entire life story a month ago but i left way too much out. it would take weeks. hold fuck im so old already and im not even old yet. i'm not even not even not even old yet. i'm not even 30.

it frightens me how much i've mellowed out. i'm still a crazy person but like. i present no danger to myself or others? i don't even break that many laws anymore? i think about my taxes? im generally content? what the fuck is that, dude. i need to get in a screaming match with someone.

do you remember being young and having a friendship-destroying argument over something as mundane as like, thinking a band sucks? do you remember being completely devastated at the most mundane happenstances? why do i miss it! maybe it's the dynamic range. i feel like i talk about this the way people talk about SSRIs.

emotional flatness but it's just flat relative to cluster B high explosives. i need to fly off the handle about bullshit again. i need to get obsessed with something pointless. i need to be a total loser who everyone's sick of. oh wait. eureka! i'm being histrionic right now! i've done it! i've attained the bullshit!

anyway. i just realized i've known some of my internet friends for over 10 years and it hit me like a sack of dicks. sorry for the outburst. will happen again if i have any fight left in me. good morning

[positivelybeastly]

I have done some looking into... how do I phrase this? What causes people to develop the powers they get? Hopefully, my explanation helps make sense. I couldn't find a lot, as surprisingly, this has only been researched by one person, but supposedly both personality and subconscious influence the powers and physical appearance of not just mutants, but inhumans and gamma mutates.

Thoughts?

~Stray

"Interesting theory.

As it happens, I've done some, what I would term, preliminary research into something like this phenomena, given that my mutation has been . . . well. Variable, shall we say? And I've oft wondered if there was something about me that demanded that I be - specifically this.

In my instance, I've only been able to hypothesise as to one direct causal link. When I was mortally wounded by Vargas in Valencia, Sage jumpstarted my mutation, and the form I was given was substantially more ferocious, more violent, more suited to combat. I can only therefore surmise that my body reacts to the threats that have ki - done lasting harm, to me."

"And that wasn't all. I also found that my skull had toughened considerably after my secondary mutation, providing increased protection for my brain.

As I'm sure you know, evolution is not a straight line - it's full of stops, starts, dead ends and random extinctions, until eventually you reach something close to perfection. But it's quite fascinating to see it manifest over such an accelerated period as a single lifetime.

My X-gene appeared to be quite simple, oversized feet and hands, superhuman strength, speed, agility, balance, but over time, it appears that it's actually expressing itself in a form of selective atavism, picking and choosing traits that it believes will best serve me.

Environmental factors are, of course, no new influence on evolution, but my skull becoming tougher . . . perhaps it's bad science to ascribe motive to primal forces, but it really does feel as if my X-gene is being guided somehow. Subconsciously, by my personality, by my neurochemistry, all three? It's an interesting theory."

"Expanding outwards, you can certainly see patterns within other mutants - Cyclops, for instance, is someone defined by control, over himself and external factors. Now, I'll grant that a good deal of that was caused by childhood trauma, and it's hard to say how much of his personality came about as a result of his powers as opposed to in spite of them, but it's still an interesting quirk of fate that he be given a mutant gift that forms a feedback loop into his personality. Not enough to be what I would call conclusive scientific evidence, but - interesting."

"The most compelling evidence for your theory would be the Hulk, of course, as you intimated with your mention of gamma mutates. Doctor Banner's trauma externalising in such a manner, and changing so often in response to the way that trauma morphs and peaks and valleys and transforms.

I've often wondered if Bruce had an inactive X-gene before his irradiation - much like Terrigenesis, his radioactive bombardment has so fundamentally changed his cellular structure that all the usual genetic markers are absent, so I can't tell one way or the other, but it is fascinating to consider, isn't it?"

"That being said, I would be wary of throwing my weight behind what is essentially, still, a collection of observations, personal judgements, happenstance and unique circumstances.

The question I feel that most naturally comes next is this. What comes first? To wit, the genetic markers that are required to develop powers, whether they be an X-gene, the cellular chemistry required to initiate Terrigenesis, or the genes that have been speculatively linked to cause Dissociative Identity Disorder . . . are they our fate?"

"Does our personality and subconscious form in response to our genetic blueprint? Had Cyclops not had the X-gene he did, would he have felt such a need for control? Or does our genetic blueprint merely unlock that potential, and as our personality and subconscious forms into a more solid shape, does it respond accordingly, like it did for the Hulk?

Was I always going to be a Beast? Or has the life I've lived, the way I've lived it, the world I've lived in, pushed Hank McCoy to beastliness?

What is it about Hank McCoy says furry and blue?"

He tries his best to smile, but it doesn't match his eyes.

"Was I always a monster, or did I merely become one?"

". . . Interesting theory."

[otherpeoplescreativity]

Using a game to make character portraits

I think I'm fixin' to start a side issue fight.

Sorry?

Anyway, below the ReadMore is going to be some carefully chosen screencaps of supersuit-type characters from City of Heroes: Homecoming. I'm establishing a Theme and then starting a constructive criticism of my own designs within that Theme.

If you want to instead decry my lack of artistry in using a video game's character designer, and perhaps compare to using Artbreeder, you are valid! and I probably won't change my ways no matter how impassioned your point.

In our ttrpg, Our Heroes have moved up very close to the point of the story where they are likely to face a mid-level Combat Challenge.

The "Theme" of the Supergroup is the kind of investigative superhero who may wear a trenchcoat. Their powers and approach tend toward the sneaky, the indirect, the contemplative. These are definitely not "FREEEEEM first and ask questions later" types.

They have spent six sessions facing People vs Puzzle challenges, either by having noncombat encounters with witnesses (and each other!) or by using their current knowledge to track down another Strange Device Probably Left Here By Unknown Supervillain. They have only just now gotten involved enough that Supervillain might notice something's up, and detail a few lower-level Minions to go tidy the edges.

The "Theme" of the coming mid-level Villain Minion Squad therefore cannot be combat heavies! The Minions should be dangerous, but solvable by the same indirect and sneaky and trenchcoat-wearing tactics.

All of the Minions for this group are expected to wear "crimson jumpsuits". Some have more pockets. Some have modified the sleeves. Some have underlayers.

All have superpowers.

I took some "crowd control" characters that I used to play in City of Villains, whose costumes I had saved before shutdown in 2012, and used them in Homecoming to pose for some character portraits. Here's what I have so far:

I don't know why Pichana's picture is uploading like this, all the way over to the left. Anyway this guy has already been captured by the Heroes. Part of what the rest of the Villain Minion Squad should do is to try to find out what happened to him. Not that they necessarily want him back!

I do not like the shiny red boots, they don't match the description I wrote out for the character. But nothing in the game DOES match. And I have absolutely no graphic arts skills to modify.

Anyway, I have established the basics of the Theme: no obvious electronics. Personal styling mostly happens in the accessories. The available resources for these "work uniforms" include decent quality fits, because this tall thin man does not have his pants riding up his calves or his sleeves "pushed up" to suggest the off-the-rack feel of something too short for his dimensions.

Not a lot of armor. For only the one guy, that might be happenstance. Maybe he was not expected to encounter heroes. Maybe his own team would rather he succumb if they have to practice aggressive attitude adjustment.

Here is one of the crowd control specialists. I have not settled on a name for her yet; let's call her "Verse" for the moment.

Verse is obviously going to have fire-related abilities. (That is what she WANTS you to think!)

She does not have much in the way of pockets or belt pouches on this crimson jumpsuit. I want to give careful thinkers the idea that maybe her manager does not trust her with gear.

Verse also has deep red scars that show up splendidly on her pale peach skin. If her power were not actively building up in preparation for use, one might also note that her eyes are white all over -- no visible iris coloration.

Again this person's clothing is not baggy or super snug. A clothing connoisseur will have a chance of noticing that every one of these Minions has their clothing tailored to suit their bodies, if not their preferences.

Verse does not have upper body protection at all. She does have those fingerless gloves to improve her grip or to protect her palms. She has some kind of shinguard in place on both legs, mostly protecting the upper two thirds of the shin, but her boots are flat-soled ankle boots.

Verse also has black leather straps wrapped around her upper thighs, attaching to the red leather waist belt at about the points of her pelvic bones. Does Verse sometimes go parachuting? Is she partway geared up to wear a rocketpack? That is a deliberate style choice that will hopefully get the Trenchcoat Brigade speculating.

This last fellow is going to need two images to show what I was doing with his design:

This one also needs a better name. Back in the Rogue Isles, the original Corrupter character was named "Grigaere". I do not think this version is going to suit the original gregarious Black Forest of Germany story, but I will refer to him as "Grigaere" for now anyway.

Grigaere has energy blast powers, but they look like beams of darkness. (Grigaere was a Dark Blast/Pain Dominator Corruptor, for those familiar with the City of Villains stuff.)

I am not delighted with how his full-length portrait turned out, because I could not get the camera close enough without cutting off part of him:

There is a lot about this costume that I think I could have done better, to the point that I am not sure which bit to tackle first. I picked the slightly looser fit of trousers and jacket sleeves because I do not want most of the characters to look like they have to be peeled out of their supersuits. I picked the motorcycle boots to give the character an impression of stolidity in combat: once Grigaere chooses his location, he anchors himself in place and starts doing ranged attacks.

His belt has several small pouches attacked all around it. He has something-or-other along as equipment, but it is exclusively items of palm size or smaller; there is no pocket where he could store a cellphone, for example, or a wrench and screwdriver. This may be a specialist but this is not a mechanic. He is not expected to do any manual tasks that could get messy, those sleeves would get stained and damaged, and maybe put his safety at risk.

Right now I have one "crowd control" type, and one "ranged attack" type. The entire Villain Minion Squad would be expected to notice enemies at a range of more than half a room away. They would be expected to hem those enemies into place, then do ranged damage to quickly knock all resistance into unconsciousness or compliance.

I really do need to convert three more members of the team, at least one of whom will be mostly team defense. But if I can't figure out what is wrong with Grigaere's outfit, how to make it look more aesthetically suitable to the Theme and also more believable as Minion What Does Sometimes Fight For Evil, I am stumped on how to move forward at all.

Can I keep the loose fit on Grigaere? Or does that need to go?

[thattimdrakeguy]

life is a wonderful fascination, because it's all one big presumably happenstance-al universal science experiment with all these variables that could 'cause any amount of different results, and we're all just here to witness it

the universe is the biggest longest running list of cause and effect

and so much beautiful stuff is out there, but can't be experienced to it's fullest because of societal norms making it weird to just simply enjoy the stuff we take for granted

like what flat uninteresting people

"oh it's just the sky. oh it's just grass. why are you so excited about this and that"

because it's amazing. you know how long the sky been there? just because it's been there for so long doesn't mean it isn't any less fascinating that it's there. or that the feeling of grass on your bare toes isn't anymore fun to think about, because really what are the odds of us even having grass on this planet?

instead of grass we could've had something called oglosiam and it feels like wet tissue paper that we try to avoid like the plague 'cause it's gunky and awful to touch.

every face out there. you know how many generation, and different samples of dna, and genes it took to make that specific face? that's astonishing

i used to be afraid of how small we were in the timeline. we're barely here. we'll be forgotten. and eventually the universal will die of heat death or whatever.

so it is true. nothing technically matters when you look at it from a large scale

but who says that has to fucking matter?

what happens after my death isn't going to effect me, i'm not fucking dead. and i shouldn't live my life thinking i have to impress everyone, because you're right it is pointless

but jolly-be-good i have all my senses, and i'm still capable of breathing, i'm not gonna let some boring asshole try to get me to think i shouldn't at least enjoy myself while we're here

it's mainly depressing because we treat ourselves with such importance, and we are all important, but we go about it in the right way.

we matter

but we only matter for so long

what matter is making sure we all feel good while we're here to make it enjoyable

i'm fully aware of the realities of life, more so than i'm making it seem. it's a crushing, cold, bitter, disgusting place

i'm just saying looking up into the sky to see things lightyears away isn't any less impressive because everyone can do it