#If this /does/ work and become a thing I'll probably upload one or two at a time instead of building up a whole book's worth

[somegrumpynerd]

Alright, colouring book test!

These should both be transparent so you can either print them out or save and open them in your art program of choice, put a layer underneath and colour away! :D

Since the poll was pretty close, I have one with the eye and nose sockets pre-coloured and one with them still blank so you can have your choice. It wasn't that hard to do both so if I make more I'll probably do one of each for variety. Let me know if you come across any problems with them and I'll try and find a way to fix it!

Also I printed it earlier to test and tried colouring it in so I'll put that under the cut lol

[panda-writes-kpop]

I'll only stay with you one more night ~ j. hjn.

a/n: two weeks between posts will probably become the new normal as I struggle through this semester 😭 don't worry, school's going fine, I'm just busy as hell right now with work, school, and familial obligations. So don't worry if there's a week or two between uploads, I'm totally fine!! 🫶

tw: a bit pg-13 with some of the description (my bad yall, i just want to make out with jeon heejin y'know), mention of booze, reader is a romantic yet a bit depressed but we love them for it ❤️

summary: a precarious dance between you and heejin threatens to end as she lures you into her thralls yet again, but you won't break this new normal between the two of you. neither will she, so you're stuck in this limbo of 'not-quite-friends-but-not-quite-lovers'.

♡ Masterlist ♡

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Jeon Heejin eyes you, warily, as you approach her in the kitchen.

“You thought parties weren’t my… thing?” She draws out the last word, inviting a rebuttal from you.

You’re too smart to take the obvious bait, but too stupid to leave the conversation alone in its entirety.

“Didn’t think you were one to shoot vodka straight.” You gesture to the red solo cup in her hand - you’re a foot away from her, but you can practically taste the liquor in the air.

The smell makes you wish that you had drank something before starting this conversation. It’d help you feel less bad about what happens afterward.

“Maybe I like the way it tastes.” She teases before lifting the cup to her lips.

You’d almost believe her, if you didn’t know her so well, but the ghastly grimace on her face gives away her true thoughts about the drink.

Heejin scowls at the nickname - a long standing tradition between the two of you. You’d call her a role model or a perfect princess, and she’d respond by calling you a jackass or rolling her eyes at you.

“No person drinks vodka because they like the taste. What’s on your mind, Little Miss Perfect?”

Two people, perfectly molded to be each other’s opposite.

So why are you here, at this party, with her of all people?

“Would you believe me if I told you?”

“No,” Your response falls from your lips, immediately, and a teasing grin appears on your face, “but I’m willing to hear you out anyway.”

“You’re a liar.”

“It’s my charm, really.” You shrug before leaning against the fridge. “Are you in the mood for confessions or not?”

“Well…” She trails off, an unreadable expression on her face.

She leans against the counter after setting her drink aside. Her shirt lifts up, perfectly showing her well-defined body.

Why does she play this game with you, again and again? You’re both losers in the end.

Heejin is a perfect calamity of a woman - her eyes a whirlwind of emotions, a smile that is genuine but never quite reaches her eyes, her gestures as icy as they are warming.

You can’t tell if you want to slap or kiss that shit-eating grin off of her face.

And, based on your previous encounters with her, it’s most definitely going to be the latter option.

“Like what you see?” She winks at you before grabbing her drink again.

Her eyes study you, just as she studies her materials in class. Brutally methodical, looking for any errors or opportunities to pounce on.

She wants to lure you into her trap, into her clutches - you wanted her first, right?

“Fuck you.” The words would sound malicious coming from anyone else, but they’re oddly playful from your lips.

“You told me you wanted to know what’s on my mind…” Heejin strolls towards you with an unmistakable amount of confidence, the type that comes with experience.

She’s got you right where she wants you - as she does every time.

When she lands right in front of you, one of her hands lands on your abdomen. Heejin leans in close, close enough for only the two of you to hear.

“You. I’ve only had you on my mind, and it’s ruining my day.”

She leans back, a playful pout on her face.

A lioness with her prey in her claws - so much for her façade of innocence.

You should resist, push her hand away and let yourself get some air. Maybe it’s the booze in her breath that’s making you drunk, or maybe you’re just drunk on her.

Either way, that fleeting thought of rationality doesn’t seem to stop you from chasing Heejin’s lips as you kiss her with the pent-up frustration of her teasing.

Her hand leaves your chest as you place your hands on your lips - if you’re letting this happen, you may as well be in control of your actions.

You know you want this, as does she. You’re both just scared of the after.

The eternal after, the words you two should tell each other.

I love you. I miss you. I want you. I need you.

But you’re stuck in this charade, this mess where you push and pull against each other, hoping one will give before the other does. 

Heejin’s too prideful, and you’re too resistant to the idea of “us”.

But you’re both content, especially as she pulls at your shirt for more as her lips continue to meet yours.

Why should you deny her of you, of the things that make you both content?

Maybe next time will be different.

It won’t be. 

You know this.

She knows this.

Yet you’re still kissing her, and she’s still kissing you.

Forever in limbo.

Forever two souls together, but not quite intertwined.

[rumitome]

HEYYYYY!! for the s/o ask game 🪽🥂🤍💍 (you can chose 2-3 of them if four is too much but I’m so curious)

HI LOVEEE TYSM FOR THE ASK MWUAH MWAH (ㅅ˙³˙)♡ i've already done the other two in this -> post and i'll probably upload the 🥂 one later because i feel like this has become too long (⁠人⁠⁠•͈⁠ᴗ⁠•͈⁠)

🤍 — what are your love languages VS. your s/o’s? How do you show theirs and how do they show yours?

i generally love showing my love towards others through physical touch, but when it comes to scara, on the other hand.. i just feel so uncomfortable with it? like, whenever we would hug or kiss in public, i just feel so exposed—like all eyes are on us so i usually end up pushing him away. it's probably because i just hate pda, but to him it's the opposite, he actually enjoys flaunting the fact that we are in a relationship. but still, he never oversteps his boundaries—whenever he senses that im uncomfortable, he pulls back. instead, he does small and gentle things like linking our pinky fingers or brushing my hair out of my face. he stays patient, doing little gestures like that until i feel ready to do more, like holding hands or other things.

on the other hand, i really value quality time—and it is quite evident with how much i enjoy spending time with my friends rather than doing things alone. it is also clear in how i plan my dates with scara and always make the effort to attend his fashion shows just to support him. or whenever scara feels overwhelmed, we’ll often take quiet walks together, finding comfort in each other's silence. but there are also times where i would stay behind in the fashion design wing of our university until late at night, buried in multiple projects and looming deadlines. and everytime, without fail, i would find him sitting beside me—sometimes silently watching me as i work, other times sketching in his sketchbook or even helping me with my projects. and once im done working, he would always accompany and bring me home. when i ask him if it's because he loves me and he cares about me, he usually brushes it off with a smug, “it’s just because you’re afraid of the dark—and mona might kill me if i don’t walk you home.” (but honestly? he does loves and cares about me <33)

scara is generally terrible at expressing himself with words, so he often shows his love through acts of service. like how he helps me with my sketches, buys fabrics for me, and even fix the things i accidentally broke without asking any questions. he also remembers every little detail about me and pays attention in things i like, dislike and even my habits. and honestly, it makes it more harder to believe that he supposedly hated me for the past six years considering how deeply he knows me. on the other hand, whenever he feels overwhelmed, i would always be there—bringing him his favorite food and drink and staying by his side until he is ready to open up again. during his fashion shows, i’m the one adjusting his outfit, smoothing out every wrinkle, and fixing that eyeliner he loves so much.

on the other hand, he also loves giving me gifts he knows i will love. like popmart blind boxes for example as well as plushies and makeup. and whenever i ask him what the occasion is, he just shrugs and says, "just thought you'd like it". and there was even one time when he gave me two entire sketchbooks that are just filled with drawings of me—sketches of me listening in class, working on my projects and even portraits of me... basically, i’m his muse at this point. he even submitted a painting of me as a project for one of his classes. (love me a good fine arts major). meanwhile i love giving him handmade gifts—crocheted plushies, hand-crafted jewelry—because let’s be real, he can afford to buy anything he wants since he's rich af as a model already. but the things i make? they’re made with love, time, and care. and he knows nothing he can buy will ever compete with the gifts i make just for him.

[gl1tt3r-gutz-and-r0b0tz-sl]

MegaCee would probably be where Arcee is the super innocent bean to help turn the murderous terrorist of a Decepticon into a more neutral character in terms of alignment. In my AU, Arcee is a gladiator forced to fight by being drugged with dark Energon while Megatron is a seasoned fighter who climbed the ranks high enough to spectate the fights. TLDR: Gladiators becoming besties and then one becomes an Autobot.

StarCee would be probably in the same universe, or if Starscream got his shit kicked in a little too hard by Megatron and was left for dead. Arcee finds him, fixes him, and keeps him with the Autobots. TLDR: She fixes his mommy issues after they get into bitch fights.

Both art works are mine. I had to delete my old account, so I'll try to re-upload stuff. BTW, this is for a fanfic I'm writing. I'll probably post it when it's done.

I'm high off of two days of sleep deprivation. IDK WHAT I'M SAYING ANYMORE LMFAO

EDIT: So, I was thinking a little bit more about MegaCee and remembered the rest of the lore kinda, I'll explain more based on the results of the pole, but essentially, in my universe, the Quintessons took Arcee while she was young, I'm talking like- five, and then experimented on her, destroying her body, ripping apart every organ, Gorey shit, etc, then hyking her ass up on dark Energon injected into her to make her viscous and kill all her cellmates. Then they entered her into an illegal gladiator ring that was like a gambling thing, bets and whatnot, then the whole Megatron thing I stated before, he was abandoned and trained by the bots responsible for the ring, meeting Orion Pax/ Optimus during it, then their falling out, and Megatron rose higher in the ranks. Arcee climbed the ladder of ranks in the ring due to her brutal and forced way of combat. Megatron almost formed an infatuation with her brutality and when it came time for them to fight one another, he gave her an opportunity. To join his cause. She accepted, they both killed practically everyone, and she became a spy for him to report back with Intel Sound wave could not. Because of the blue optics she has and her overall cuteness, she appears harmless and no one has suspected a thing. She no longer is hooked on the dark Energon, but kills out of loyalty for the most part. She does weep alone after every Decepticon life she had to take during the battles in order to not look suspicious.

Then for StarCee, to make it fair with the other ship, would be where Arcee is the same with this universe, but grows closer to Starscream, despite his jealousy of Megatron's attention being on her. Starscream, like in one of the comics, was abandoned by his mother figure, but in my universe Thundercracker and Skywarp are canonically his brothers, and he was responsible for himself and them. Due to him having to be an adult at such a young age, it could explain why he's more childish and bratty when older. This will probably end in both Arcee fully defecting to the Autobots and Starscream to join her, causing drama and shit to blow up.

Arcee will most likely be the therapy mom in both of these lol. DAMN. THIS WAS LONG AND IM SORRY. IM TIRED YALL

[brainrotactivated]

okay so yall are gonna have to BARE WITH ME as I try to explain this New steve saga AU I'm working on called "Future Progress AU" (the name will probably change later on).

This takes place AFTER the whole shbang where the "virus" resets the server (???). I also need to mention how this Au, out of pettiness, is also a teeny tiny (actually kinda big) rewrite of how Sabre interacts with Illusion Steve, Alex and especially the Guardian! (mainly because it frustrated me SO MUCH the way Sabre acted at the end of the steve saga - basically the last 20-30 episodes before Elan fully stopped uploading for the series and all that - and also because the plot stopped making sense all together after Illusion Steve left, which irked me for a while).

I wanna try playing around with these characters and sort of give them a Happy Ending that isn't just the canon ending. (mainly because I love Illusion Steve's character so much and the Guardian's but nobody gotta know yet and so I wish to include him aswell, and also for him to have - And Bare With Me - some kind of peaceful, but overly complicated relationship with Sabre. As to what kind I'll need to decide - for now it's left for interpretation). Basically I'd LOVE to see this guy, after trying to discover 'the Truth' about their reality and failing miserably a couple years ago, try and live a normal life AFTER the whole VIRUS problem is SOLVED, and the STEVES ARE SAFE AND SOUND, and THE SPIRIT WORLD IS STABLE AGAIN. And also for Sabre to adapt again to things being peaceful finally, feeling obligated (from his own fears and feeling responsible for all that mess to begin with) to stay and check on the server 24/7 Almost. Yeah.. That sure won't lead to problems! (it will) THEN have these two knuckleheads trying to be 'friendly' to one another (they're passive aggressive most of the time, but have no choice but to work together as the Steves start to finally prosper again and multiply, leading to many homes needing to be made), then soon for them to slowly get used to one another, have a couple heart-to-heart moments eventually that will develop their relationship even further, then... well, we'll see what happens next.

As for Illusion Steve and Galaxy Steve's relationship, in short, it will be a 'Distant Family Members Reconnecting Again Type Of Awkwardness' kind of thing at first, where Galaxy Steve cringes so much from his past actions and wants to be better and more mature/responsible this time, that will slowly develop into a slightly awkward, complicated Father-Son dynamic the more these two learn about one-another from spending so much time together as roommates lol. Alex decides to be more careful about any 'Evil Steves' spawning out of nowhere (or viruses for that matter), so she basically does daily rounds around the steve villages/cities to ensure people are safe and sound, having been taught by Sabre to make records of anything bad happening (and also mapping out all these locations).

And, well... As to how the virus problem gets solved, and the whole spirit world becoming stable again part, and the missing steves coming back part, and so on and so forth... Will take a bit to figure out ngl. Chances are I'll be writing and making art about all four characters and their lives in The Present (better explained: talk about all the Progress they make in The Future and all, after everything gets solved, and their day-to-day life + interractions with one another, wink wink).

All the scenes/backrounds will be inspired by the places I've visited in my trip to Barcelona, since it was during that time that I got inspired to make this Au!

Posts will continue to come in slowly, so I apologize in advance.. (cuz School loves to KISS MY ASS and WORK NEVER ENDSSS). Once I have more free time, I will spend it developing this AU!

SO YEAH! If anyone got any suggestions/questions, the ask box will remain open! Feel free to send me messages <33

[crystalclear365]

Some things that I'm working on

Now that I'm finished with How Are We Friends? (THANK GOD.), I'm finally able to work on some other projects I've been wanting to share with y'all! I'll be making a separate post for each of them, but for now, here's a bullet-point list with a short description of each of them. I hope to have all of them uploaded onto ao3 (completed or not) by the time I go to start posting chapters for the sequel to HAWF. :)

Apple Cider: A Mega Man farmer/country, human AU. (What has my life come to...) Instead of building robot masters, Light and his kids are all a bunch of farmers, along with the Wilys. They have a deep rivalry with each other, and it doesn't help the fact that they live right next to each other. But there's a vacant house in the middle, which the Cossacks will move into and become enveloped in the chaos while trying to live in their new environment coming from Mega City. Both the classic and X-series characters will be involved. :D

Unbreakable Bonds: A Mega Man x Pokémon AU, which is basically a big huge what-if scenario if the characters from both the classic and x-series were human, and living in the world of Pokémon. They all live in the "Neo Region", and the narrative follows both the classic and the x gang as they gain gym badges and ribbons from gym battles and contests. Unfortunately, a persisting group of bad guys keeps getting in the way... but it'll probably work itself out!

Two Sides of the Same Coin: A Mega Man role-swap AU, where Light is the villain, and Wily is the good guy, which in turn would make Bass the protagonist of the series, and Rock (Mega Man) the anti-hero. However, the only catch is that they all keep their personalities and beliefs (to some extent). This creates an interesting narrative. Bass will actually have to put his ego aside, and learn how to be a good person for once. But will he be able to do it?

Mega Man: Restart: A crackfic where it's a retelling of the main games, but every death the player, or Mega Man gets actually counts in the story. Including the level restarts. Wily is going insane trying to figure out how Light rebuilds him so fast, with Bass being just as baffled, if not more so than Wily.

Untitled Mega Man x Kalinka fanfic(s): Unfortunately, I don't have a name for this one. But I plan on writing maybe a couple of one-shots or a multi-chapter fic of this rare pair. C:

Secret project with @pale-opal: Opal has mentioned it a couple of times in her previous posts, but I also want to mention it on here since it's still a WIP. Unfortunately, I can't say much, but there's a lot of cooking and baking that's going to be happening. Does anyone want some freshly burnt water?

I have other projects that I plan to work on, but they're mainly one-shots. But I do have one fic that I'm going to upload either tomorrow or later this week called "Publicity Stunt". I started working on it back in November, but I couldn't work on it for a while because I had to focus on my main project. But fortunately, I was able to complete it earlier this month, and I'm so glad that I was able to. :) (I hope you guys will like it!)

If you guys have any questions about my fics, feel free to ask! ^^

[themildestofwriters]

So, question. Do you plan on uploading The Sith, Zero to AO3? Is The Sith, Zero a dead fic at this point, or is there more planned and it's just a matter of getting the muse to cooperate? TSZ is one of my favorite Familiar of Zero fanfics, even as it is, so I wanted to let you know that I still love the story and appreciate you for writing it.

It's more or less muse at this point. I'm rewriting it because I was dissatisfied with certain elements — such as the opening prologue — and there were other things I wanted to better explore — Louise's time at the Sith Academy — but the core issue is, well... muse. I've got a lot plotted, just need to, you know, *write*.

The goal was to write the entire first and second book on my own before publishing on a weekly basis. This would be the prologue and the first third of the first act, overhauled. Instead of chapters ranging from 5,000 to 10,000, they'd become 3,000 to 5,000, with the books themselves being upwards of fifteen chapters long. We'd have more time in Halkeginia, we'd have more time with Louise enslaved, we'd have more time exploring Louise's time at the Academy. And it wouldn't be just empty time faffing about, either.

The Sith, Zero is more or less, in my mind, a character piece focused on Louise's journey, so the intention is to focus more on that journey. The first ever chapter of The Sith, Zero, aside from ending, is basically an adaptation of the first episode of The Familiar of Zero. Now, it is (and I say this with certainty because it is almost entirely finished) six chapters that, while still taking elements from that first episode, explore more of her classes, what she thinks of the Academy, her relationship with teachers and other students, her passions, and her problems.

The issue I'm running into is that... I don't have the same validation cycle that drove the original series. I might have issues with it, but the validation was one of the primary reasons it got released as quickly as it did (on top of being less of a mess, lol). If I got more of the work finished, I could start posting more sneak-peaks, but I do need to just get that motivation back in place. Now that I think about it, I have an idea of how to go about doing this. The first part might be done sooner than I thought.

The other issue is, well, I'm treading into new ground. With the expanded scope of the first book verse the original prologue, I'm going to be spending more time with Louise as a slave. More than that... Er... you're probably familiar with that original storyline. Aye? Yeah, I've all but scrapped it. Her Twi'lek friend is still around, and the Sith, but the plot is wildly different. I'm excited for it, because not only does it work better and give her a stronger starting connection to the Star Wars Galaxy, but it'll tie into elements sooner than the original would have later. Unfortunately, I'm wading in unfamiliar territory and I'm struggling with the details.

Ultimately, I'm currently struggling with two lines of thought. I either stick to my original plan, finish the first book and the second, while beginning the third, and then start publishing, or... I finish the first part of the first book, publish, then publish the second and third parts once I'm done those, finishing the second book the same way and then on. I'm leaning towards the original plan, but I do miss that validation.

Regardless, it ain't dead! I'll continue working on because this story deserves to be finished, one way or another.

[dreadnotau]

Its been a decent couple of months of productive work, so it's sadly time for a schedule change. I'll be posting pages two weeks apart again. Details provided below if you're curious as to why.

In all honesty there's no big dramatic reason this time around. I've just slowly lost drive to work on Dread Not as often and as thoroughly as I used to be able to. As I said in one of my previous posts (that sounded suspiciously like this one), I want to focus on other projects as well. One of those is my personal art blog, which I've neglected even though I've had art on the backburner that I've been meaning to post for AGES. Kingdomrune is another one of those, where I have shit I could post that I just... never did. Dread Not takes a lot of time and I miss being able to dedicate that time to consuming media instead of just grinding and trying to produce my own. One of the most important things to do as an artist is to broaden your horizons and take in as much art as you can, to diversify and expand what you know and what you can make. But, when all day every day I'm just sitting and drawing my own thing, it's like I have tunnel vision and my creative resources run dry. It's starting to feel weirdly soulless on my end, because I don't feel nearly half the inspiration to make the pages as I did when the big hiatus ended. It's all dependent on time and exposure, and I can only crunch for so long before it starts to feel damaging to me instead of fun and creatively fulfilling.

So what does this mean, practically speaking? Well, for one, I'm spacing out the page upload for the rest of Act 1, as previously mentioned. I'm well aware this will kill the pacing and it'll drag out longer than it theoretically needs to, but I'd even rather that than trying to rush out a page in the Two Days I have free this week (yeah, ONLY two days free out of the ENTIRE week. Don't ask me why it's not even my fuckin' fault this time). If pages become even more scarce than 1 page per 2 weeks, blame it on college. I'm getting new subjects and I don't even know the class schedule yet. Concerning Act 2 though, I'll be changing the structure of the pages from their core. I'll be switching to a different drawing software (probably Krita, suck my dick Photoshop) so it'll take some getting used to. I can't even promise bonus content or anything during the necessary break between acts because of that shift in software happening, I've never done a massive technical move like this. However, it'll allow me to, not only work on Dread Not better, but expand my art overall, so it's definitely worth it. I've wanted to get into animation for YEARS and Krita seems like an okay place to start (the gif on this post WAS made with Photoshop, but shitty gifs are about all I can make as animations in Photoshop). Act 2's style will, predictably, differ heavily from Act 1 and (with how long writing the dialogue alone for it is taking), it might end up being Longer than Act 1, too. Visually, it'll probably be something like cleaned up and coloured sketches, with simpler colour palettes and simpler (big airquotes) visuals overall, and it'll speed up the process and possibly allow me to post more than one page at a time. Possibly. That's not a promise.

I'm sorry if that's disappointing to anyone, but I physically can't make myself continue the current artstyle across all acts. It's just not feasible.

For those curious about the FARTHER future of Dread Not, I have plans to turn Act 3 into a series of fics rather than full comic pages, and something maybe a bit more insane for Act 4. I don't have everything figured out yet, and I don't want to make any false promises or give any grand ideas I won't be able to commit to, since only time will tell how my creativity will flow years from now. If you all want more content from me specifically, again I'm planning on reviving my art tumblr like a half buried zombie, and you'll probably see more there than you bargained for once I actually get into the habit of posting things. If you're mayhaps interested in my original stuff, keep your eyes peeled for a guy called Duro, I might start posting about him some time soon.

As always, thank you for your patience, and apologies again if this news was disappointing to anyone. I'm just one guy and this comic is a titan of biblical proportions. I'll keep you all posted on any further developments and plans for the future! Stay tuned!

[ozzni]

that "from the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh" speech really resonates with me. well, a bit less on that part about "hahahaha I'm so much better than you, grovel at my mechanical feet so I may make you better", The strength and purity of steel is a gift to all, regardless of when they discover it. The Omnissiah shall grant it's perfection to all who seek it. cast off your flesh body. if it takes until your body fails you in old age for you to realize it's weakness, that's alright. You may still be saved. My body failed me earlier than it would fail most people, by giving me a male shaped form. I intend to remedy it. there are further flaws, of course. my eyes dont properly work, so I wear glasses. my arches are absurdly high, so I wear special soles. I have a disgusting lump of flesh on my groin, and it will be removed. I am covered in itchy, scratchy, disgusting filth (or body hair), and it will be burned away. I have a stutter and a set baseline voice tone and low maximum speech pitch, and it will be trained, and potentially cut, away. And at some point, standard medicine and psychology will not go far enough. my glasses are fragile. my soles exist only in my shoes, and don't last very long before failing to give proper support. the skin will continue to hurt and gather new discomforts. the groin will continue to spew out wasted resource (admittedly, this one I kind of don't actually mind that much and I think I'll be fine with having a vagina actually). I may well forget my training, and it will be far too long before I can speak effortlessly and in comfort. This is where the machine comes in. tough, smooth, soft, and easily cleaned plastics can replace my skin. A cybernetic eye can give me perfect vision, allow me to focus on multiple targets, maybe even see MORE COLORS!!! My feet can be replaced by... well we already have prosthetic legs so I don't even really need to imagine what I can do here, just get feet but they don't sweat or hurt (of course, the discomfort there will most likely move up to the connection point for the leg, and I can probably just fix the arches thing surgically, so ehhhh). Voice... actually idk what exactly replaces it. I guess a digital voicebox? But that gives me total vocal control! of course, everything I'm writing about after the first list is purely fantasy for me, because the tech for most of that doesn't exist and the stuff that does exist is just really damn expensive, and it's kinda not worth it to me to cut off my legs just to stop having foot sweat and pain. But like... a girl can dream, you know? hell, if we're being fantastical, I could just stop relying on a body altogether and upload my mind to a computer and if I ever need to look at/feel my cute body I can just simulate out whatever I want. Other than the whole "there's a bunch of people who can kill me easily and at any time if I don't behave exactly as they think i should" thing, Dragon had it good. wish I could be like her. Maybe we wouldn't be friends exactly, but I would hope we could be close. because of the shared state of being. if there was only you and one other human in a world of other people alien to you that the two of you lived amongst, you would probably learn to become friends. But I guess Dragon has the opposite problem to me, she wants to be more human and less mechanical, while I want to be more mechanical and less human. But we both use she/her pronouns so what's not to love?

[superexplosive]

Just gonna use this as a springboard.

Jenkins was one of the foundational facts about the series when we were first figuring out what it would look like (if it got the opportunity to become a series). It goes like this:

Atomic Robo's world is full of science adventure and it always has been. As a result, there have always been people to have those science adventures. We get hints of this throughout the series. Like the truth behind the War of the Currents. Or everything that happens in The Nicodemus Job.

But then this robot shows up in the early 20th century and the proud tradition of multi-generational adventurism dating back hundreds if not thousands of years becomes totally co-opted by automation!

But it doesn't happen overnight, of course. Jack Tarot has a whole vigilante career while Robo is still a youngster. And then his daughter, Helen, a.k.a. Nightingale, has one too while Robo is a seasoned veteran. We figured that WW2 would be something of an inflection point. In the wake of Robo's wartime experiences he would be familiar enough with the field operations, and globe trotting, that he starts being the guy people go to when Weird Shit happens. A similar effect brings sorts of people who would have naturally become independent adventurers in a world with no Robo in it into his orbit. This is what turns Tesladyne from an exotic aeronautics and research firm to one where people run around with guns. The Science Agents of Tesladyne are an early example. And by the turn of the 21st century the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne are practically a cliché.

This brings us to Jenkins. The idea was that he was your impossibly capable prototypical comic book or pulp action super soldier. Easter Egg: Jenkins' description of how completely he has the task under control (second to last panel) is taken directly from an official description of Captain America's powers. In short: the guy who would have been the main character in a comic book that didn't already have Atomic Robo's name on the cover. Only he didn't enter Robo's orbit like so many others, he fell in with MAJESTIC 12, one of the setting's secretive bad guy groups! We actually did a 4-page story about how he and Robo met on the battlefield. This story appeared in one of the print issues from the original series but has not yet appeared online, though we did reference it here. Maybe I'll advocate we upload it between the current series and the next. Anyway, in it, Robo is sent to the Vampire Dimension to find any survivors of a disastrous expeditionary mission into it. Turns out there's just one, Jenkins. But, because hopping dimensions does weird time stuff, he's been the sole survivor for like a week. Which is simply a superhuman effort. Anyway, Jenkins and Robo fight their way back to our world, the end.

We don't know precisely what happens from there, but my feeling is that Jenkins realized he didn't want to dedicate (or lose) his life to parties who valued it so little they would throw him into suicide missions from the comfort of their Pentagon offices. And Jenkins has been Robo's right hand man ever since.

But a detail that is never really touched on is the incredible trauma these two guys share. By the 21st century Robo knows, for a fact, that he will outlive everyone he knows and loves forever. That's a lot of death, and the specter of ever more deaths, to live with. Jenkins, meanwhile, must have seen his whole unit slaughtered by undead hordes. And then, as a matter of his own survival, probably had to re-kill all or most of them when they Turned. Not to mention the sheer strain of being the only living thing in the Vampire Dimension with no expectation of rescue day after day after day.

Until this guy, this robot guy, who as far as you've been briefed by the top secret organization you work for, is the chief antagonist of humanity, shows up out of nowhere and pulls you out of hell.

And I think, from Robo's perspective, he got so close to Jenkins because, obviously, he respected and trusted in his abilities. But also, on some level, Robo probably felt like if Jenkins was someone who could survive the Vampire Dimension on his own, then he was someone who wouldn't die on him. Which is, of course, absurd. Old age would inevitably get him if nothing else did. But people aren't always reasonable about the things going on in their minds and that includes robots. Robo, who had made a habit of not getting too close to anyone, was drawn to connecting with Jenkins as a result. Meanwhile, Jenkins' loyalty to Robo after that rescue mission borders on the psychotic. Over the years this relationship turned into something not too far from a gay married dads dynamic.

I don't know that we really see much of any of that directly or obviously on the page, but I like to think it's there if you (re)read into it. Superficially we used Jenkins as a joke, somewhat like the Chuck Norris meme but (Christ, I hope) less dreadful. For example, compare the final two panels of this page until you find one of my favorite visual gags for years and years (Scott's idea, btw). Fun Fact: it's valid to read that issue as Robo fighting the Shadow from Beyond Time for like seventy years as an unintentional delaying tactic until Jenkins could arrive to deliver the killing blow. Which also plays into the joke of Jenkins. Just like his torment of the New Kids being played for laughs. Even Jenkins taking Alan under his wing is, from page one, full of Really Bleak Shit you're supposed to laugh about.

Anyway, that's Jenkins.

What do you think of atomic robo x Jenkins (if you're still into that comic)

Generally, I like Atomic Robo in a way that doesn't compel me to stack "shipping" on top of the story as it stands. (The humorous/matter-of-fact/low-key approach to romance is kind of a draw for me.)

That said, the Robo/Jenkins relationship sure has a "male soul bonding thru fires of battle, muscle meets and respects muscle" thing going on, with all those possible homoerotic connotations. The idea that you find the only other person indestructible enough to keep up with you, that's a deeply compelling type of partnership, you know? I think Brian Clevinger said the goal was that it's never totally clear which one is actually the sidekick to which.

So some old-married-coupleness comes with the territory. It doesn't hurt that Alan totally imprinted on Jenkins as a second, cooler dad. (Or that Jenkins is one of the few Action Scientists to have a clear and complete character arc. Funny, since he seemingly evolved out of a 2012 era Chuck Norris type joke. Any bit character can become a Real Boy/Girl when properly cherished.) It's fun, I just don't have much more to say about it than the comic itself does.

[nflstreetsanimereviews]

Bocchi the Rock! Review

What was your favorite anime of the Fall 2022 season? If I had to bet, it was the highly anticipated Chainsaw Man. It was the most hyped anime of the year after all. It even had me, someone who usually doesn't watch or read shounen, keeping up with it. And as expected, it was a pretty good adaptation. Was it my favorite anime of the season though? I would have probably said yes if Bocchi the Rock! wasn't airing that season too. I'll stop with the comparisons here, since most people reading this already have read and/or watched CSM, and the two are apples and oranges, if the apple phased out of existence if you said its name too loud and the orange made you shit your pants after two bites. Anyways--who is Bocchi? And why does she rock?

Bocchi the Rock! is about Hitori Gotou, more commonly referred to as 'Bocchi', a high school girl who started learning to play guitar in order to be in a band and become popular. The problem is that, while she has become an excellent guitarist in the four years she has been playing, she has made zero friends during that time. She also hasn't joined a band yet due to her severe social anxiety. Turns out that being good at guitar, while making you look cooler, doesn't automatically net you new friends. In lieu of that, she runs a well-known YouTube channel under the pseudonym 'guitarhero', which she uses to upload her guitar solos. Luckily for our dear Bocchi, her dream of being in a band suddenly becomes true one afternoon, when she meets drummer Ijichi Nijika, who coincidentally is looking for a guitarist for her band.

Rounding out the band (named Kessoku Band) is bassist Ryou Yamada, whose cool and aloof demeanor is counteracted by her always being broke and being a walking rock music encyclopedia, and Ikuyo Kita, vocalist and backing guitarist, who joins the band because of her admiration (and longing) for Ryou. She doesn't actually know how to play the guitar when she joins Kessoku Band, but her willingness to learn combined with her ability to handle the social media side of things makes her a valuable asset to the group.

The four congregate at STARRY, a live house managed by Nijika's older sister, Seika. STARRY operates as a home base for Kessoku Band, with all four members working, practicing, and even sometimes performing there. Other characters of note include PA-san, a mysterious girl who also works at STARRY, and Kikuri Hiroi, an alcoholic bassist who quickly became a fan favorite despite her only appearing in a few episodes.

What made Bocchi the Rock! such a well-received show? The main reason would be the way Bocchi's social anxiety is shown as ridiculous and surreal, while at the same time being relatable and hilarious. I believe the phrase goes like 'She's just like me!'. There are more anime than I can count that have a socially awkward main character, but Bocchi the Rock! is one of the best anime at portraying the main character's introvertedness. Who among us has not at one point mentally melted into a puddle of water over being asked to do a simple task? Watching Bocchi's growth is one of the best parts about the anime.

Bocchi the Rock! has drawn many comparisons to K-On!, with some even considering it K-On!'s spiritual successor. While both anime do have many of the same plot points (slices of life about high-school-aged girls forming a rock band), Bocchi the Rock! is in no way a clone of K-On!. Bocchi the Rock! is nowhere near as 'moe' as K-On!, and contains a lot more conflict, although said conflict generally being low stakes. Kessoku Band has aspirations of becoming big, while it was only a passing thought for Ho-kago Tea Time. That being said, if you enjoyed K-On!, then Bocchi the Rock! is right up your alley (and vice versa!).

The sincerity of Bocchi the Rock! endears it even further, never using cheap fanservice as a cop-out. It isn't afraid to have subversive characters, which is great considering musicians tend to be, well, subversive. The nature of the anime leaves little to be desired. If there's one thing I'd fix, I'd have Nijika call Ryou a broke ass more often. I'd also have Bocchi listen to The Smiths and then have her turn into evaporated water once she finds out how stupid Morrissey can be.

In my opinion, Bocchi the Rock! is as good as the hype says. Is it top ten anime of all time good, as Anilist suggests? I wouldn't go that far. However, Bocchi the Rock! is one of the best SoL anime that I have seen in a long time. It's a good, wholesome story about a girl overcoming social anxiety to show off her guitar skills to the masses and gain fans and, more importantly, friends. While I would love to have a chance to scare the shit out of Bocchi, I'm cheering her on, mostly because I know she's more than likely to be a NEET if the whole 'become a famous guitarist' plan doesn't work.

80/100

[jolliestlolli]

Jolly's Monday Blog Update - Dec 19th 2022

Elf on the Shelf scares the shit out of me.

There's probably a hundred other better opening lines I could have thought of for this blog update but that's the one I decided was the best. I'm well aware I missed both blog updates last week, and I'm not gonna even try to spin a good excuse for that. It just is what it is.

Writing wise, I started writing a new short story, and then I got cold feet and decided to return to a project I actually started last year with the intention of trying to finish it before Christmas. Here's an excerpt:

He had to admit, Teruteru’s passion about food was as clear as day, and that was admirable enough on its own even if it didn’t quite make up for the chef’s… other quirks.

Teruteru held the zucchini and cradled it to his face like it was a precious creature, stroking its outer rind. “The best part about this particular store is the price you get for such beautiful, long, juicy–”

Ryoma could practically feel his eyes going cross and his brain briefly numbing for the few seconds it took Teruteru to say whatever gross innuendo that the person currently recounting this story to you does not even want to recite.

In that time, his eyes drifted away from the chef and around at some of the other shoppers in the store. Out of all the people currently around them, the ones that stood out the most were two young women standing not very far away from them. The both of them clearly not Japanese, judging from their clothes they were likely American tourists and not quite used to the culture shock, because when Ryoma first saw them out of the corner of his eye, he realized one of the girls was already staring directly at him.

Enjoyed that? Good, because I have no idea if I'll actually be able to upload this before Christmas lmao. I'm really excited to finish this story because it'll be the first time I reveal some certain details of Ryoma's backstory that I've been thinking carefully about over the last several months. I just hope you all find it acceptable.

Speaking of Christmas, I'm going to be attempting to cook my first ever Beef Wellington soon. Jason Farmer's video about cooking a Wellington using Walmart ingredients really inspired me and I'm feeling confident I can do it with minimal help. A couple years back I made a Christmas Porchetta so I guess I just like to make a tradition out of cooking complicated AF dishes for the holidays. Cause what else says "Christmas" like working your ass off to try to appease a bunch of ungrateful sour pricks that have as much Christmas spirit as Ebenezer Scrooge passing a kidney stone.

Woo, got a little salty there (Not as salty as the Christmas Porchetta I made). What do I wanna talk about now? Hmm

Well one minor thing I wanna mention is that I became mutuals with @graincracket today which I'm really happy about! I don't have nearly enough Ryoma simps to chat with so it's always a good day when I get to become friends with one.

Ghhh... Now I feel like sorta going off on a whole tangent about the Christmas season, but if I'm gonna do that it's not gonna be a today thing. Maybe not even a next week thing. So instead, because I'm really high now as I finish writing this, I'm going to leave you with a sudden revelation that came to me that I must share:

There is no visible difference between using normal quotation marks and using double apostrophes. You cannot tell the difference between '' and ", you fucking look me in the eye and tell me there's a difference. I rest my case.

[beautifully-lumpy]

the beautiful person's journal - #4: the troubled production of the late 2010's videos, and my teenage self's concerns

(just gonna give a little disclaimer...i obviously don't know jim personally. in this post, i'll be discussing the SPECULATIONS i had about the caddicarus show's production between 2016 and 19 that i gathered through public information on his social media accounts. these are my PERSONAL opinions! you may have different ones about this era of the channel, but i...was an observant little autistic teen.)

so, i'm pretty sure i've established several times now that i'm a fan from 2014. and if you happened to know me between 2014 and 2019, you'd probably remember that i was very much a proud 2014-15 era caddicarus fan.

and i had a reason to be proud! i came along the same year as the release of the legendary dalmatians 3 video. the channel went up over 200k subscribers that year - from 100k-something to 300k. it went up to 400k in 2015 before the stagnation period. us buzzcut/apartment-era fans were the most populous group of beautiful people before the 2020 reset. the community interacted a lot, the caddicarus show was fortnightly and it was putting out bangers such as the vib-ribbon, playstation cheats, snow white, and cheesy episodes.

but by mid-late 2015, some problems began to arise. there were rising debates in the fanbase about whether or not the caddicarus show should upload more frequently. the ballz and blossom blast episodes were very controversial. and the puppicarus show was the final nail in the coffin for the older community - it sent the fandom into violent fights and debates in the comment section. it was one of the first times our fanbase was truly divided...the only precedent for this would've been the stanley parable tinker time, which couldn't hold a candle to these events.

and after this incident...the caddicarus show became weekly in february 2016, which was HUGE at the time. all the beautiful people rejoiced as this was the first time in history we've had weekly episodes. AND with two bonus videos every week? what's not to love?

well...even back then, i was simultaneously excited...and worried. i was ecstatic about the show becoming weekly, and i was also excited about the channel getting new branding...and as you may recall, my expectations were a bit too high for the latter.

but i was very worried about caddy. this 21-year-old dude who had just moved into a family situation is now gonna have to pump out three videos a week, while staying consistent in quality and being there for his family?

and you know what? i had a lot of fun with season 6 when it came out. i have a lot of fond memories waiting for the video to come out every sunday, and during that waiting time, me and my fandom buddies would create stuff like memes and fanart.

and season 7 was fun too! that month of terrarr was by far my favorite, and the fall of 2016 is EXTREMELY nostalgic.

by the beginning of 2017, he'd moved to the current house and was still keeping a consistent schedule. current quickies was replaced with the caddy show, which had longer videos and more variety. film fridays was replaced with cinemaggots but it was still a show about movies nonetheless. and hey! even after all the other shows were phased out in 2016, there was still something for everyone on the caddicarus channel! don't like the monty python madness on the caddicarus show? check out the slower-paced caddy show instead! don't like video games? well, cinemaggots is the show for you!

season 8 was still great, but it wasn't as great as the two preceding it. well, surely things can only get better, right...?

season 9 was...a season alright.

sure, after re-evaluation i like it a bit more, but at the time...woof.

and this, my friends...is where i personally thought the cracks began to show.

i was thinking to myself at the ages of 15-16 in 2017-18 - why does jim feel like he needs to appeal to everyone? yeah, he has to make money and pump out these videos to feed his family, but is that really working? look at these view counts! they don't even begin to halfway reach the sub count! people aren't tuning in like they used to! the charm is going away! does jim not realize that the caddicarus show used to be an event? in 2014-15, if i got a notification on my phone for a caddicarus upload that said "... - caddicarus" at the end of the title, my ass dropped EVERYTHING i was doing. the caddicarus show was SERIOUS business.

who in god's name was itching to watch drive thru reviews?? film fridays?? tinker time?? most people who subbed to caddy were coming for the caddicarus show. but when he makes it weekly, not only does the feeling of it being an event go away, but it becomes routine and formulaic along with the other shows. every episode has the same structure, with these repeated jokes sprinkled in. "here's a crappy kids' game, here's me analyzing it in-depth for 20 minutes, obligatory content creator friend saying 'CADDY i played this WRETCHED game on my OWN channel, PLEASE caddy you are going to DIE if you play this', obligatory miluk reference, obligatory side character cameo for obligatory lore, here's me shooting the crappy kids' game, please remember to stay beautiful." this mindset is ultimately weakening the show. i can guarantee if he changed up his format and made the caddicarus show fortnightly or monthly again, the quality could go up AND his mental health would improve. please jim. we're worried about you.

...ok, those weren't my exact words. but i'll participate in a family prayer before i show y'all direct excerpts from my 2017-18 caddicarus random book on wattpad.

but those were still the thoughts that were brewing in my head. i was campaigning for monthly caddicarus episodes on my wattpad, i was always worried whenever he'd talk about his mental health. i thought that the schedule wasn't only hurting the video quality, but also him.

and...my suspicions were correct.

caddy has talked about this on many streams, interviews, and convention panels, such as the arlo podcast and this final fantasy stream; this work mindset absolutely destroyed him. paraphrasing these interviews and panels and streams, he would have mental breakdowns where he'd shut himself away from his family and the internet. he was making videos just for the sake of making them.

of course, when i was 14-16, this stuff wasn't really public knowledge yet. but i looked at clues such as the sub rate which began to stagnate as soon as late 2015, and the view counts of videos which began to suffer. caddy had thought he needed to pump out more videos to have his channel perform better, which obviously wasn't the case. he was stuck at 500k for over two years...these days, he takes about 8-9 months to gain 100k subs.

so now that i know a lot more, i understand fully why the quality of the show slipped.

i stopped watching in march 2019...and from what i was being told by a fandom friend who kept updating me on what was happening, things weren't really improving as much. december 2019 was one of his worst months for mental health. looking at this capture of his socialblade, he was bleeding subs in may 2019 and it was one of his worst months yet. that same month, he published the now-unlisted PUBG video, which was extremely divisive. it was also the same month where he tried to start a new film review show that he quickly pulled because he realized he was about to fall into the trap of having multiple shows again. and according to this community post and this video, he almost shut down the channel twice in 2019 because of how poorly it was performing.

needless to say, i stayed very worried about him throughout that year while i was pursuing other fandom endeavors. i would just feel sad watching the view counts deteriorate.

this quote from one of the community posts i linked says a lot:

As it turns out, this was more a strategic early move to save myself over anything. I know exactly how I get when I get overworked, and it isn't good. Uninspired, stressed, rushed, even sick - so before I got too into it and allowed to to negatively affect the Caddicarus Show, I nipped the movie review series in the bud before it could get too out of control. I REALLY need to stop letting these ideas get to my head. If I feel inspire to create more, PLEASE remind me to channel that ALL into Caddicarus. I'm insane.

this was EXACTLY my concern with the channel...and here it was being said back to us by the man himself.

i never said a word to him about this stuff. i never tried to get attention, i was never overly angry about it, i just had criticism. but this answer from the 2022 TMG panel just confirms to me that caddy had these same thoughts all this time since 2016...but he couldn't act on them because of the financial situation. and that combined with the mental health stuff...it feels kinda weird looking back on certain years of the show, especially 2019. when i think about the shit caddy was dealing with during the time, it kinda taints them.

here's a comment from jim in the replies of a top comment on the behind the scenes episode. the comment in question was a person reminiscing about the older videos and wishing caddy didn't rag on them so much:

there's a lot of confusion as to why those older videos are tagged as such. but they're tagged for a reason. and it's not just because of the video quality. trust me, i was confused and irritated when i saw he'd done that, but after returning, i started to understand. of course, i don't support him straight up privating or deleting them, but simply tagging them is a good compromise. the thing is, a lot of us have amazing memories with these older videos. and i recall him making a tweet that went something like "the more i hear about my older videos the more i want to delete them", and all the lumpies and germs promptly began telling him "DON'T."

so, the 2016-19 era was pretty rough. but it's good knowing that things did get better from there. jim went through so much adversity and bullshit and it paid off astoundingly. this channel has seen hell, been through hell, and crawled out of hell before its putrid hands could pull it back in. caddy adapted, learned to game the system, stopped caring about numbers and staying relevant, and proceeded to create the best videos he's ever done...while rejuvenating his channel in the process. it had returned to a 2014-like community and sub rate...the sense of community that 15-16 year old me had longed to return. the loving community had faded away after the 2016 changes and i missed it so.

and just how rejuvenated was his channel? well...

just this past august - one day after my 8th anniversary of becoming a fan - he achieved what a lot of us in the fanbase thought was impossible for years. for a while, it looked like he'd never reach it. but with all his determination, resilience, and strength...he made it. and my god, i am so glad i was able to watch all this history unfold.

you are amazing, jim. 💜

[fimawari]

Thoughts on the comic and Skully's Identity. [Slight Spoiler Warning? Not really any plot spoilers just details and characters.]

So a lot of people accept that Jay is probably Skully, either surviving or something else. However there's also speculation that it could be Alex, Jessica, or even Seth Wilson, a few thinking about Tim. (Though I would rule him out as the artist drew what he looked like in the Comic on another post) So I raked out every detail I can. Of course it can all just be a stylistic choice but whatever - make of it what you will.

It could just be some new random asshole, but It's a given they know Jessica, so it is very likely to be Jay. He presumed she was gone, unless he watched the last Entry. That would also explain "It's you" sort of "oh shit" moment. Jay was also set on looking for Jessica, so if he did survive, you could assume that would still be one of his motives. Tim wouldn't likely have that "it's you" moment because he knows Jessica is alive. Alex might have that reaction though. I believe he presumed that she was gone.

It also takes two things from Brian and Tim. The hoodie and the plastic mask. So this person has likely seen both of them and came to imitate their appearance.

Coat Buttons

The Jacket appears to have snap on metal buttons. It's typical for this style of jacket (similar to a utility jacket, which would be useful and warm to run all over the goddamn woods at night) to have the buttons placed on top of the left side for a men's jacket. (Of course it could just be any person in a men's styled jacket, but still.)

I picked this out because it's paid attention to very carefully as a detail. Of course that's good for continuity, but I know for filming Marble Hornets they were very careful with detail and hinting at things.

2. Height

They're only seen crouching up to a door with Jessica on the other side, but if they both stood straight, they'd come to be about the same height, which was true for Jay and Jessica in the series.

3. You are broken but you CAN be fixed

This is what the masked figure says to Jessica. Similar to ToTheArks video saying Alex was broken, but couldn't be fixed. That might line up with Jay's motives because he continued to think he could solve the situation. It could be argued he also believed Alex could be saved from the Operator. It it were Alex, it could be his own changed perspective in whatever "form" this is now. That would be quite interesting to see why he would go from wanting to destroy the tapes to actively giving someone the tapes.

4. Not a point but something I noticed.

On the Rosswood bulletin, there is a blurry poster that looks like it could be a "Missing" sign. Who for - I don't know, but it does kind of appear they have glasses, so it could be Alex? This could also just be meaningless background illustration.

In the same frame, Adam also talks about people getting lost in the woods and says, "The Majority of them were recovered safely but," and he stops. That's a pretty cliffhanger "but" there Adam.

Closer inspection of the Rosswood Map shows Rosswood Rd, mentioned in the series, and was supposed to be the road off the usual parking lot they stopped in when meeting up, and an X location to hard to read atm, but it is off the beaten path.

5. In a silly doodle drawing in the comic files, I did notice this poster with a skull on it. It may just be nothing but could also be implying that whoever is in the skull mask died and came back.

Also I appreciate that the soda is Conk.

6. It's Fall about 10 years later after the first incidents in Rosswood began, in the timeline 2019 ish, but that is apparent from the trees outside and the time the comic was created at.

7. Jessica has a "Sarah" in her phone. Could he literally the millions of Sarah's but I'll point it out anyway. But more interesting barely covered is Tim's contact.

8. I was thinking about why their seems to be Blue Lenses in Skully's mask, they're even visible from a distance. Now this is really digging at the bottom of barrel but when Jessica grabs the pipe to defend herself, it's highlighted by red for emphasis. Red and Blue have often been a scheme for duelity and such.

This repeats again in the second title page:

A lot could be discerned from it. Maybe she is Skully, like a second half of her, as one of her nightmares is fighting against herself. May also not mean that and be another symbol of duelity, red vs blue.

I don't think the blue is styling choice because you can quite clearly see eyes in Masky's drawing. I believe there is definitely something covering their eyes - like lenses. Their "fashion choices" are also leaning towards the expensive side I noticed. Unless they just stole it went to a goodwill and got lucky. A utility jacket like that would cost somewhere beyond a $100 unless you're lucky. I'd pay to see a cryptid running around in Gucci in butt-fuck-nowhere Alabama in the middle of the night. Or who knows maybe Alex got some prescription lenses put in that shit.

9. Do I even have to explain the symbolism of a Jay.

10. I can say with good certainty this probably symbolises Jessica's memory of Alex.

11. Some damning evidence, whoever is in the mask has access to the original entry files, not just downloaded YouTube stuff. Jay, Tim, Totheark would likely have access to that. Alex was pretty dead-set on having all the traces deleted, I'd doubt he'd have them all uploaded to a computer.

12. No idea what this might represent besides some metaphor for life being a merry go round, but in the postcard Skully is chilling on a horse lmao. "Stuck in a loop of unhappiness." Ring a bell?

13. Can't attach another photo but the abandoned house Jessica goes to has "Bones" written on it, much like the Hospital did. In the original series they said that graffiti was just there, so maybe they decided to work with it? Who knows maybe it's some kind of new group? Maybe ToTheArk vs "Bones?" You CAN'T be fixed vs You CAN be fixed.

14. I also can't speculate what it exactly means, but it's obvious Skully can talk, not seen previously with the others. Whether out of an inability or just not wanting to. Could be argued it's a person behind the mask by choice, not volition. We also don't really know if Brian chose his path or became that. But he became a masked cryptid after supposedly "dying". We also never see people "die" just assume they have died or are dead and they disappear. Tim implies that it's just feeding off them, physically or mentally. They always die off camera or get fucked off somewhere by the egg head. They appear dead afterwords, with Jay and Brian, but still missing. All of their bodies were taken by the monster and are god knows where in some seperate dimension. This is borderline r/im14andthisisdeep but what is "death" in this series. Does it mean gone permanently or just "gone" ... For an unknown amount of time. People die, but do they stay that way? Or do they die ... In one sense, but not the other, Losing something of themselves from before, and becoming something new. That would awfully explain Brian's behavior after Alex "killed" him. It's also implied there are others apart of ToTheArk that were never shown in the series, suspected to be other members of the original cast who maybe had "died" and come back as someone else. Something broken.

Tim seems to be an outlier. It's presumed he has avoided death, and essentially kept his mentality. But still slips into another form out of his control, usually in response to the monster or the hooded man being near and stealing his pills and shit. Is he between death? Is that why doucheslender follows him? "The one that got away." Istg I don't take drugs.

That was Michael from Vsauce thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

[ratralsis]

Discworld, Book 6: some thoughts

I've recently started working my way through the 41 Discworld novels again. I've read them all before at least once, but it's been a long time, and I really enjoy Terry Pratchett's writing style.

Today I'd like to talk a little bit about Book 6, Wyrd Sisters. It's a complicated story, but I'll try to keep it brief.

It's also a very easy read, and I would strongly suggest you find a way to read it yourself. If nothing else, I suppose there's nothing stopping me from uploading my collection of .cbr files of all the Discworld books somewhere.

In theory, Wyrd Sisters is the second in what is often called the Witches series, or the Granny Weatherwax books, because they all feature witches, and Granny Weatherwax is one. Most folks call her Granny, but her name, her real name, is Esmerelda. Though witches don't have leaders and don't rank themselves in terms of power, "Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the leaders they didn’t have."

The first book, which was the third, Equal Rites, is theoretically the first of the Granny Weatherwax books, and is often listed as such when listing Discworld books. I'll do so myself, even, because it's technically correct. The problem is that I don't think Equal Rites means much in the grand scheme of things, as far as the Discworld series goes. The events of it don't matter much. They almost become non-canonical as the books roll on. Equal Rites sees the first female student enroll at Unseen University in the largest city of the Disc, Ankh-Morpork, and she isn't mentioned again for dozens of books, at which point she appears briefly in a scene that affects nothing at all.

I think it is fairly safe to skip the first three books in the series, honestly, but I didn't, and I won't, going forward, either. But they don't mean much, really, and it isn't until the fourth book that Pratchett really finds his footing in Discworld. Book five is something of a return to the themes and subjects of the first two books, though done a bit better, and book six is the one I'm talking about today.

Granny Weatherwax is possibly the best character in Discworld. She is not, however, my favorite. To be honest, I don't even think she's the main character of this book, though she's often given top billing. This is hardly surprising; she's the best character.

In the opening scene, Granny Weatherwax uses her powers of headology (the art of manipulating people, essentially) to avoid being killed by a soldier from out of town who doesn't understand that he ought to respect witches. She does this by looking over the soldier's shoulder at another soldier, a local boy, and saying "Then strike, man. If your heart tells you, strike as hard as you dare." The soldier about to kill her believes she is talking to him. She is not. She is speaking to the one behind him, who stabs the first soldier in the back and saves Granny's life.

That's Granny Weatherwax's power as a witch. She very rarely uses actual magic, though she can. She convinces people to do and to think and to feel the way she wants them to, and makes the world a better place for it. If she didn't, then, well, she probably wouldn't be the most highly-regarded of the leaders the witches didn't have.

That opening scene also introduces the two other members of Weatherwax's coven: Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. Granny, Nanny, and Magrat make up the crone, mother, and maiden trio that pops up a lot in this kind of story, respectively. The coven was Magrat's idea, as Magrat is a newly-minted witch now that her teacher, Goodie Whemper, has passed on. She's inexperienced, barely knows what she is doing, and is trying her best to earn Granny's respect, which she never really will.

I would argue that Magrat is more the main character of the book than Granny is.

Magrat is not pretty. This is made abundantly clear very early on. We're given this description of her early on, for example:

The best you could say for Magrat was that she was decently plain and well-scrubbed and as flat-chested as an ironing board with a couple of peas on it, even if her head was too well stuffed with fancies.

Later, we read this description of her hair:

It is one of the few unbendable rules of magic that its practitioners cannot change their own appearance for any length of time. Their bodies develop a kind of morphic inertia and gradually return to their original shape. But Magrat tried. Every morning her hair was long, thick and blond, but by the evening it had always returned to its normal worried frizz. To ameliorate the effect she had tried to plait violets and cowslips in it. The result was not all she had hoped. It gave the impression that a window box had fallen on her head.

These kinds of things are repeated ad nauseam, culminating in this lengthy description of her suiting up for the rather important task of rescuing the imprisoned Nanny Ogg from the villain of the story:

She’d dug out a startlingly green dress that was designed to be both revealing and clinging, and would have been if Magrat had anything to display or cling to, so she’d shoved a couple of rolled-up stockings down the front in an effort to make good the more obvious deficiencies. She had also tried a spell on her hair, but it was naturally magic-resistant and already the natural shape was beginning to assert itself (a dandelion clock at about 2 p.m.).

Magrat had also tried makeup. This wasn’t an unqualified success. She didn’t have much practice. She was beginning to wonder if she’d overdone the eyeshadow.

Her neck, fingers and arms between them carried enough silverware to make a full-sized dinner service, and over everything she had thrown a black cloak lined with red silk.

In a certain light and from a carefully chosen angle, Magrat was not unattractive. Whether any of these preparations did anything for her is debatable, but they did mean that a thin veneer of confidence overlaid her trembling heart.

She drew herself up and turned this way and that. The clusters of amulets, magical jewelry and occult bangles on various parts of her body jingled together; any enemy wouldn’t only have to be blind to fail to notice that a witch was approaching, he’d have to be deaf as well.

However, we aren't even halfway through the book at this point. There are many more insults for Magrat left to go:

The guard looked at her occult bangles, her lined cloak, her trembling hands and her face. The face was particularly worrying. Magrat had used a lot of powder to make her face pale and interesting. It combined with the lavishly applied mascara to give the guard the impression that he was looking at two flies that had crashed into a sugar bowl. He found his fingers wanted to make a sign to ward off the evil eyeshadow.

...

Magrat pushed her way through the actors and clasped him to what could charitably be called her bosom.

...

He became aware of someone else looking at him, their gaze playing across his face like a blowlamp on a lolly. He looked up. It was the third witch, the young…the youngest one, with the intense expression and the hedgerow hairstyle.

We are made to understand, dozens of times over throughout the course of the book, that Magrat is simply not an attractive woman.

And yet.

And yet, she is absolutely beautiful to one man in the story, who falls in love with her, who eventually marries her in a later book: the Fool.

Perhaps you've seen this line elsewhere:

“Come hither, Fool.”

The Fool jingled miserably across the floor.

That's from this book. That's this Fool. The one who is cleverer than he appears, who winds up rising far above his given station as Fool, who becomes a hero, and, in a later book, marries Magrat.

“Are you really a witch?” he said. “They said you were a witch, are you really? You don’t look like a witch, you look very, that is…” He blushed. “Not like a, you know, crone at all, but absolutely beautiful…” His voice trailed into silence…

...

The Fool had been edging along the log. “If I kiss you,” he added carefully, “do I turn into a frog?”

Magrat looked down at her feet again. They shuffled themselves under her dress, embarrassed at all this attention.

[…]“We shall have to see,” she said.

It was destined to be the most impressive kiss in the history of foreplay.

And, towards the end of the book, after she's "clasped him to what could charitably be called her bosom:"

“Are you dead or not?” she said.

“I must be,” said the Fool, his voice slightly muffled. “I think I’m in paradise.”

And we believe him. We know that what he's saying is true. He sees Magrat and all her flaws, all the ones we've been repeatedly told about, to the point where we understand very well that she's plain and has a boyish figure (at one point, when she's backstage at a play, someone believes her to be a man in drag and tells her that she needs to stuff her clothes with more padding to pass as a woman) and she has bad hair and bad makeup and ridiculous jewelry, and he sees her as beautiful and desirable and he is absolutely, undeniably correct, and we know that to be the truth.

It's a skill Terry Pratchett has: he can write heroes who have so many flaws that they can't possibly be heroes, or even considered heroic, and yet they are. He does it anyway. It's as though he was setting up challenges and obstacles and hurdles for himself to clear, hoping to drag us as readers along with him, and off we go, dragged along, believing for all the world that Magrat Garlick is, in fact, not just gorgeous but also a powerful witch and in complete control of every situation. It isn't true, yet it is.

It's a quote that's been cited a million times from Wyrd Sisters, and I'll cite it again:

Granny had never had much time for words. They were so insubstantial. Now she wished that she had found the time. Words were indeed insubstantial. They were as soft as water, but they were also as powerful as water and now they were rushing over the audience, eroding the levees of veracity, and carrying away the past.

I say all of this because, of course, it's the trick I most want to learn from Terry Pratchett. I want to keep reading his stuff, studying and dissecting it, killing the frog, as it were, to learn more about it, until I understand it well enough to create a pale imitation of what he's been able to manage.

The main characters of my stories are deeply flawed. They aren't heroic, either. Can I make them into heroes anyway? I certainly hope so. Can I write a story in which the main character marries an orc woman taller than he is, with a network of battle scars and a handshake that could crush walnuts, and convince the reader that she is also beautiful? That's what I'm going to try very hard to do, at least.

The trouble, of course, is that Terry Pratchett was one of the greatest writers around. What I'm doing is very much like someone who wants to learn kung fu going and watching every Bruce Lee movie, slowing down the footage and practicing Jeet Kune Do in front of a mirror and a screen, then thinking to themselves, "Yes, I think I can choreograph a fight scene now."

At best, they'll wind up like the Star Wars kid, flailing around and looking absurd. That's what I'll wind up becoming.

Which is, of course, why I've spent the last two and a half years taking writing classes, and why I'll continue to do so for at least another two years. I just wrapped up the "Second Draft" course, meaning that the second draft of my novel is now complete. The "Third Draft" courses are longer, and they don't even start until October.

So I have plenty of time to read before then, I suppose.

I'll keep you posted.

I don't know if it would be worthwhile for me to write more about Discworld as I reread it, but if anybody's curious for my thoughts, I do have quite a few. For one thing, I don't think that Wyrd Sisters is alone in lying to the reader about who the main character is. I mentioned that the fourth book is the first one where Pratchett gets a grip on what it is that Discworld is going to be. That book is Mort, and though it begins and ends with a boy named Mort, and we watch him grow and change and learn things throughout the story, I honestly don't believe him to be the main character of the book. I think that Death, the anthropomorphic personifcation of death, the Grim Reaper, the man who hires Mort as an apprentice and teaches him the craft of ushering souls into the next life, is the real main character of Mort. Death is the one who learns and grows the most over the course of the story. He's the one who makes hard decisions and fights a difficult battle in the climax. You might think it's Mort who fights the difficult battle: after all, it's a duel between himself and Death. But Death is the one who really puts it all on the line.

After all, the worst that can happen to Mort is that he dies. The worst that can happen to Death is that he has to live with killing Mort. Dying is easy. Living is hard. Sometimes, it's the hardest thing there is, even when you're Death. Especially then, because he knows just how much of it he's going to have to do.

Maybe that's all I have to say about Mort, though. I'll think about it.

[internethorrorfan]

Commentarypasta: A Meet I'll Never Forget (originally posted on Deviantart in 2017)

The creepypasta fandom is known being particularly cringeworthy. From all the terrible OCs out there to the lame music videos to the frankly pathetic film attempts to, of course, the fanfiction. So boils and ghouls, allow me to introduce you to something I like to call: Commentarypasta! In Commentarypasta I'll take a look at some of the worst stories the CP fandom has to offer in order to find one that's even remotely entertaining while I give my commentary on the . Most of them will come from Wattpad but this particular tale came to us from some site called Creepypasta.xyz. I've never heard of it either. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, I call this story... A Meet I'll Never Forget by Meganthekillerforever. CHAPTER 1: I was sitting in my room reading Creepypastas online. I'm sorry, who are you? Could we get some establishing please? I love all of the Creepypasta stories, including Jeff, Slendy, Slenderman doesn't have an official creepypasta since he wasn't created for creepypasta.  Ticci Toby, and more. I was always bad at acting good. Spoilers: This fact is never mentioned again and has no relevance to anything at all. I hated my neighbors Why? For what reason? Who the hell are your neighbors and why should we care? We don't even know our protagonist's name and your telling us about her neighbors? and hoped Smile Dog would finish them off. You've never read Smile Dog have you? I was always sending a picture of him to them at night, but to my disappointment they called my parents the very next day. My parents didn’t care though, thank goodness for that, and my older brother just ignored me like most brothers do to their younger sisters. They didn’t care what I did. My father was a writer and my mom was an artist. My brother was already making plans to go to college. I'm sure all these things will be entirely relevant pieces of information that will pay off later in the story. One night I decided to go out into the woods to see if I could find Slenderman.( I know…childish right?) Well that was me always trying to prove that they were real. Now, time and time again I tried to see if Ben It's BEN. was real, but when I played Majora’s Mask nothing ever happened to me. That's because he only haunted (past tense) Jadusable's specific copy of Majora's Mask that he got from the Old Man. Jadusable put files from the cartridge into his computer allowing BEN to escape into it, and later Jadusable uploaded footage from the game onto Youtube which allowed BEN to escape into the internet. You must not have paid very close attention to these stories if you're getting all these things wrong. So, I figured that all the Creepypasta stories were fake. I still like to find out for myself though. As I went out the door, You were going out the door? Thanks for establishing that. Can we have some details to anything please? I called to my parents and told them I would be gone for a while. I heard my dad typing away on his typewriter and my mom getting extra paint from the storage closet. “Okay. Be back before breakfast.” “Okay Mom.” I rolled my eyes. We're a paragraph into this thing and I already want our main character to die. This doesn't bode well.

Since my mom is an artist, she always has some extra paint lying around. I grabbed some glow in the dark paint before I left and went outside. I gathered some rocks from the garden and a flashlight from the shed. I felt like someone was watching me, Thanks I thought we could use some more clichés. so I shone the flashlight in the darkest parts of the shed just to be sure. I grabbed the glow in the dark paint and started painting the rocks with it. When I was sure they were dry I gathered them in a bag and set off for the woods. Oh that's the pay off to her mom being an artist! So our still nameless protagonist could paint rocks with glow in the dark paint and light her lay through the woods. Or, you know, she could have only used the flashlight. As I made my way into the woods, I started setting down glow in the dark rocks. You've got a flashlight, you don't need the rocks.  I continued to explore until I found a large flat rock that I made into a resting place. I was getting tired. "I'm so exhausted from all the nothing I've been doing!" “I guess there’s no harm in resting for a few minutes.” Just go home. As I started to doze off, a rustling noise woke me up. I darted straight up and looked at my watch. “Oh no! I was planning on being home an hour ago! I lost track of time!” Which is why you should have just gone home instead of randomly taking a nap on a rock. The rustling continued as I started back on the path of rocks. I started to grow fearful as the rustling noise got louder and closer. I always keep a pocket knife with me at all times. Why? I pulled it out and turned around ready to confront whoever it was, but when I turned around I found none other than Slenderman himself. As I stared, I found that there was someone behind him, no two people. A man in a white hoodie and a man in a black hoodie wearing a blue mask. So Slenderman gets no description but Jeff and Eyeless Jack do? Consistency: it's not a polite suggestion. I had come face to face with Slendy, Quit calling him Slendy. Jeff, and Eyeless Jack! I was so shocked that I was at a loss for words. That's it? She doesn't shiver, shake, try to run away, use the knife to defend herself or anything? She's just at a loss for words?  Being at a loss for words is the reaction you get after reading fics like this, not after coming across several supposedly fictional monsters/killers. Finally after a while, Jeff spoke. “As you probably already know my name is Jeff, Jeff the Killer.” What person talks this way? "Oh hi my name is Martin, Martin the janitor. How are you?". I nodded, still not being able to say anything. “This here’s Slenderman and that’s Eyeless Jack.” I finally work up the nerve to speak. “W-what brings y-you to me?” That's your first response? Not asking "how are you real?" or better yet, running away in terror? This time Eyeless Jack speaks. “Well, we’ve been watching you for a while now.” Because....? “Why me?” Good question. “Slendy here thinks you’d make a good proxy. What has this girl possibly done to make Slenderman think she'd be a good proxy? Did she win him over with her amazing one of a kind ability to read horror stories on the internet? Me on the other hand thinks you look kinda weak. Jeff’s thinking the same thing.” “W-why would you want me? I’ve never killed anyone.” Every person that thinks creepypasta is just about killing people needs to be lobotomized. "Jeff spoke up. “Well, I guess that’s going to change tonight.” Jeff smiled wider than usual. As I just stood there dumbfounded Jeff started to lead me in a direction I knew well, back to my house. “You’re seriously not going to make me kill my family are you!?” No one's said anything remotely like that yet so unless nameless girl here can predict the future there's no way she could have known that they'll say that. Jeff started laughing. “You’ve read all of our stories haven’t you? How can creepypasta be a thing in this universe if all the popular creepypasta characters are real? They can't be fake and real at the same time. Well, in most of them our parents are either killed by us or something else. Spoilers: Jeff is the only character featured in this story that killed his parents. In order for you to become one of us, Creepypastas are stories not beings. Plus why do they want nameless protagonist to join them anyway? you have to get them outta the way.” Spoilers: Sally's in this story and Bloody Painter is mentioned. Both those characters have living parents. Is the author seriously under the impression that every creepypasta ever has dead parents in them? “And if I refuse?” “Well, now that you’ve seen us we’re probably going to kill you if you refuse.” Probably? “I-I’ll do it. WHAT?!? Are you kidding me? It takes that little to convince her to murder her family? Them saying they'd probably kill her instead? You wouldn't just straight up kill your parents with no second thoughts because someone said they'd kill you if you didn't. What about my brother?” “We kill him too of course! No witnesses.” He's not a witness if he doesn't see anything. I dread every step on the way back to my house. I enter the house silently, as to not alert them. I make my way into the kitchen and grab a steak knife. They're not around to see you do this. You could just warn them all and get the hell outta there. What happened to that knife you already had? My parents are usually in the study room working. I crept into the study hiding the knife behind my back. “Hey sweetie, back already?” "Hey sweetie, what is that knife shaped object you holding behind your back? You better not be trying to murder us again young lady!" I continued stepping closer gripping the knife hard behind my back. “Yep, I’m back.” Finally, when I was close enough to them I lunged at them with the knife and stabbed repeatedly. Because she'd definitely be able to do that with no effort at all. They twitched for a moment, but then they were still. I was wide eyed and gasping for breath when I finished. I heard clapping behind me. Jeff was standing there. “Very well done. Slendy didn’t even have to get into your mind like he did Toby.” “That…actually felt good. Yeah, let's do what the creepypasta fandom does best: glorify the murder of innocent people! What, you're not going to tell us about the "rush" you get from killing or how fun and exciting it is? What about my brother?” “I took care of him. I haven’t killed in a whole day and I was itching to kill someone.” I just watched my parent’s lifeless bodies for a while before Slenderman came to get me. This character has shown no previous signs of sociopathic personality disorder, psychopathy, psychosis, or any other mental disorder that might possibly make her Ok with killing people.  She shouldn't be so nonchalant about everything. Since he didn’t have a face he didn’t talk much. I don't even need to point out why this line is moronic do I? Slenderman beckoned for me to follow. I followed him outside where Jeff and Eyeless Jack were waiting. “Well kid, welcome to the family.” CHAPTER 2: After I killed my family, After that minor insignificant easily forgotten event of stabbing my parents to death with a steak knife. Slendy teleported us to what looked like an old, run down mansion. I stared in disbelief at the beautiful mansion. The last sentence said it was old and run down. Now it's beautiful? OK then. “I thought the mansion was just a legend!” Jeff started speaking. “Nope, it’s real kid.” They led me into the mansion where the other pastas were waiting. What other pastas? You gonna tell us who they are? They all looked at me and stared. I started to get nervous with all the attention on me. A boy I knew to be Ben BEN's a statue in a video game, not a "boy". started asking questions. “Who’s that? Why have you brought a human here? Jeff is human. So are Bloody Painter, Hoodie and Masky, all of whom are mentioned later in the story (spoilers like you care at all). Does she like games?” Will this fandom ever realize Pasta Monsters is not an accurate representation of who BEN is? Seriously. Eyeless Jack interrupted his questions. “This is a new edition to the family. If you have any questions about her, ask her yourself.” They started crowding around me with questions. Because you're just so likable and interesting that of course these people would bombard you with questions the first second they lay eyes upon you. Thanks a lot EJ. I’m not the type of person who loves crowds. Your whole family was just murdered, two of them by your own hand, and a minute later you're in a mansion in the woods with a bunch of monsters, serial killers, supernatural beings and other horror characters you previously thought to be fictional. Stop acting like this is completely normal. “SIT DOWN AND RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION!” I was screaming at the top of my lungs. They all sat back down and raised their hands hesitantly. Because again, you're just so likable and interesting that they have no choice but to listen to someone they've never met before. “Ben.” “Do you like games?” “I love games Ben.” “How do you know my name?” I had forgotten to tell them that I’ve read all of their stories and seen pictures of them online. “Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that I’ve read all of your stories.” Ha ha no you haven't. They were very surprised. To learn that people have written stories about them. I'd be surprised. Sally spoke up. “All of them?” I thought she was cute. It was hard to imagine an 8 year old girl as a killer. That's because she's not a killer. Good God people it takes five minutes to search up her old ref sheet with all her info on it. But to save anyone the trouble here it is: Sally - Official Profile. “Yes Sally, even yours.” I smiled at her. She smiled back at me. Because of course Sally and our protagonist instantly get attached to one another and become inseperable best friends/family figures to each other. How else are we going to lazily boost our protagonist's ego and get the reader to like her? “Yes, Offenderman.” Offenderman didn't say anything. Also why is a rapist part of the quote unquote "family"? Especially with Sally around. Offenderman smirked and pulled out a rose. “Would you like a rose?” He extended it out to me. “Nope.” “But, why!?” “Because like I just said, I’ve read all of your stories. I know what happens when you give a rose to someone.” Offenderman frowned and mumbled under his breath. The others laughed. “ The sex offender doesn't get to rape anyone today! So funny! Betcha Sally really got a kick outta that one! Okay who’s next?” “Ooh me! Me!” Jeff practically yelled. How does one "practically" yell something? I laughed at his persistence. “Yes, Jeff.” “Do you like knives? And what is your opinion on killing?” Not every creepypasta OC is a killer or needs to kill. Nobody died in Ben Drowned and there was never any danger of anyone dying. At least not from BEN physically killing them. “If I had to choose a weapon, I would definitely choose a knife. My second choice would be a pistol. As for killing, I don’t really mind it, especially when they deserve it.” Oh piss off. The only people you've killed are your parents who you only killed because this story is lazy and stupid. You are in absolutely no position whatsoever to be giving an opinon on murder or what your preferred weapons are. Hoodie seemed to be satisfied that my second option would be a pistol. You're dead Brian. “LJ.” LJ laughed and stood up. “Do you like candy?” I should have known that was coming. No you shouldn't have because Laughing Jack is capable of thinking about things that aren't candy. “Yes LJ, I love candy.” “Would you like some candy?” “No thank you. Polite pass.” LJ looked kind of hurt when I declined, but he tried to hide it with a smile. I felt bad for declining it, but I still didn’t fully trust them yet. I wanted to get to know them first before I accepted anything from them. You murdered your own parents in cold blood to join them. You don't get to be weary around them. I must have zoned out, Thinking about what? How uneventful everything is? because Jeff was waving his hand in front of my face trying to get my attention. “Hello? Anyone in there?” Oh! I’m sorry. I guess I just spaced out.” EJ decided that was enough questions. “Alright, I think that’s enough questions for today.” I was getting very tired. I yawned loudly and rubbed my eyes. Everyone turned to look at me. Everyone was wondering where I would sleep. Why does anyone care? Sally spoke up with excitement in her voice. Much like us, Sally knows absolutely nothing at all about our main character so she has no reason to give a damn about her at all. Sally's an attention seeking prankster who gets jealous easily and cries and throws tantrums every time she doesn't get her way. She'd be one of the people most against a new person, not most for. “She can sleep in my room! I have an extra bed in there.” Because as we all know, ghosts need to sleep. All the others agreed. Masky Hey Tim how's it goin'? Still not a creepypasta character? Sounds great. spoke up this time. “Yeah, just until we get a room fixed up for her.”  Because Mary Sue sure does deserve a room all to herself. Why doesn't she share a room with Sally permanently? “Thank you Sally. I’m very grateful.” I was relieved somewhat, because I didn’t want to be rude. I still didn’t trust them yet. You already said that. I followed Sally to her room. Her door was decorated with bloody pink flowers. When we got inside the room, I saw that her walls were a pale pink with blood splatters. Because an 8 year old girl who likes stuffed animals, tea parties, cute things and stereotypical "girly" stuff would obviously decorate their room with blood splatters. You still sure you've read all their stories, miss Thekillerforever? Plus blood smells. Hanging on her walls were many drawn pictures of the Creepypasta family. WHAT CREEPYPASTA FAMILY?!? You've told us nothing about this supposed "family" or what characters are a part of it! We know Masky, Hoodie, Slenderman, Jeff, EJ, LJ, Sally, BEN, and Offenderman but that's because you just plopped them into this story with no set up at all! We don't know who's part of the family! Quit acting like we do! And where is Toby? This story's referenced him twice now and he hasn't shown up! She was a very good artist for an 8 year old. “You’re a very good artist. Those pictures are amazing!” I don't think many 8 year olds are"very good" artists. But this is a crepypasta fanfiction so Sally has to be portrayed as an absolutely perfect flawless shining paragon of humanity that always gets what she wants and is instantly loved by every life form on Earth because she's just so "cute". Our main character's already a Sue, we don't need you to change other people's characters into Sues too. Sally smiled at my words. “Thank you. I’m not as good as Bloody Painter Because she would obviously refer to Helen by his serial killer alias instead of his actual real name. though. He’s the best artist here. Here’s the bed you will be sleeping on. Why does Sally even have one bed, let alone two? I’m so happy to have someone sleeping in my room with me! The only one who comes over sometimes is Lazari.” Who I'm sure this author know nothing about. Given the track record so far I wouldn't be surprised if the author thought 8 year old Lazari murdered innocent people with knives for the lolz. I feel bad for Sally. It must get so lonely in here by herself. Out of these retarded Slender Mansion stories, THIS is the one that figures out a little kid living in a gigantic mansion with almost exclusively grown men would get lonely? “After my room is finished I could sleep over sometimes.” You're sleeping in her room now. What are you talking about? Sally smiled and looked at me with hope in her eyes. “Really?” YOU JUST MET THIS PERSON, YOU SHOULD NOT BE THIS ATTACHED! “Really.” “And will you play with me?” I smiled warmly at her. “Absolutely.” YOU JUST MET THIS PERSON SO YOU SHOULDN'T BE THIS ATTACHED EITHER! And if you two are this attached already, why not just share the room permanently? She jumped up and down with excitement. Can ghosts jump? “Yay! I can’t wait!” “Would you like me to tuck you in and read you a story Sally?” No she wouldn't like you to tuck her in because she's a ghost and ghosts can't sleep. Who said she wanted to go to bed anyway? “Yes please! I would like to listen to a story about your family if you don’t mind.” "You know, that family you murdered an hour ago with no remorse or guilt whatsoever?" “It’s fine. "I've already completely forgotten about stabbing them to death, almost like it was pointless or something!" I’ll tell you about the time we got a puppy.” Sally eagerly got into her bed. Which she probably doesn't need since she has no physical body. “I love puppies! They’re so cute.” This chapter started off with the line "after I killed my family". “One day I was sitting in my room playing with my dolls How old were you when this happened? Scratch that, how old are you now? and my parents were excited about something. I walked out of my room to my parents’ room You could have just said "I walked to my parent's room." because you already said you were in your room, we can tell that you walked out through context clues.  to see what they were talking about. When I asked them, they both shouted that we were getting a puppy. I was so happy I ran around the house squealing with excitement. My parents would have straight up told me I wasn't getting anything if I kept running around the house squealing. My parents decided to let me pick the dog. I ran into the pet store checking out all of the dogs. I set my sights on the cutest chocolate brown puppy with short floppy ears. He had the most beautiful brown eyes. And he was just as sweet as can be. This is a fanfiction based off creepypasta, a genre of internet horror stories frequently about madness, tradgedy and the terrors of the unknown, and the second chapter is concluding...with our main character telling bedtime stories about cute puppies to a little girl. Wow. We decided from that day, to call him Brownie.” Where's Brownie now? Given the level of intelligence you've displayed in this I wouldn't be surprised if you ate him thinking he was an actual brownie. When I finished my story, That wasn't about your family at all. I looked over to find Sally fast asleep. I ask this question a lot regarding fanfictions with Sally in them but does this author even know Sally is a ghost? Or does she somehow think ghosts can sleep? If these stories ever offered an explanation as to how Sally can do these things that'd be fine. But they never do so it doesn't make any sense. I chuckled and got into my own bed. I had one last thought as I fell asleep, ‘I wonder what tomorrow will bring.’ Nothing because this story was deleted by the author. Thank God. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well that was dull and uneventful. This story's only two chapters long but those two chapters are some of the most boring things I've ever read in my life. Pretty much nothing at all happened in them other than our bland unnamed protagonist murdering her family for pretty much no reason, but that's almost immediately glossed over and swept under the rug to get to more pressing matters like telling bedtime stories about cute puppies. Our main character is such an obvious self insert Mary Sue and she doesn't even get the luxury of a name let alone a personality. The closest thing I got out of her character was stupidity but that's only because the writing was so botched it made her look like an airhead who was completely unaffected by everything around her. "A Meet I'll Never Forget" feels like it was written by a 10 year old due to the almost complete lack of detail to anything. As of this writing the story's been deleted so this is the only place to find it. So with this story out of the way join me next time for...something less boring and forgettable.