#This game would be a lot funnier (and more unfortunate) if you didn't get the LR benefits if you had a cutscene

[a2zillustration]

Croissant’s descent into madness as everything starts ramping up and they’re running on 2 hours of sleep

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[[ All Croissant Adventures (chronological, desktop) ]]

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[janmisali]

Number Tournament: Honorable Mentions

well, you've all asked for it, and I guess there's no point in waiting any further now that round one is almost over. here's some highlights from the numbers that didn't get enough nominations to make it into the tournament. (as you can work out from looking at how many nominations the numbers that made it into the tournament got, my cutoff was seven nominations, which left room for me to hand-pick three numbers that only got six to fill in the bottom seeds)

six nominations

these are the numbers that were the closest of all to making the cut. in the end, I picked ten, Rayo's number, and omega to fill in seeds 62-64, but four other numbers got six nominations but didn't make it:

25: perfectly fine square number. notably funnier than 24

81: another square. I only wanted one "boring normal integer" for the bottom seeds and like come on it had to be ten.

5040: Plato's favorite number, a very fun one

42069: both 420 and 69 already made the cut, so this would have been excessive

and now for some miscellaneous fun ideas that not enough people suggested to make the cut!

cool math things

c (the speed of light) could have been a strong contender, but physics fans were pretty much universally putting their efforts behind the fine-structure constant and the Avogadro constant, leaving other universal constants behind

the Euler-Masceroni constant got five nominations super early on in the process, some of which were even intentional (there are so many things named after Euler but I made the call that people who said "Euler's constant" without specifying were talking about this one) but never got any further than that

a lot of infinite ordinals more interesting than the standard omega were in the running, but given that omega itself only barely made it in, numbers like omega to the omega power never stood a chance. of course, given how well omega did in round one maybe those other bigger infinities could have held their own if only more people suggested them before the tournament began

Not a Number's presence in the tournament is I think very fun, but other floating point things were also nominated, just not as frequently. negative zero was a fun one, as are the handful of nominations for just slightly-off multiples of one tenth

besides star, a lot of game theory not-really-number numbers had a few fans supporting them, such as dud (deathless universal draw), a couple of tiny numbers, and one suggestion for {69|420}

meme numbers

fans of boobs were split between 80085, 58008, 8008135, and 5318008, so none of the boob numbers made it individually

perhaps even more disappointingly, only five people suggested 1312

1337 is a super dead meme so that one being unpopular isn't as surprising. but then literally nobody suggested 9001? weird!

the AACS encryption key (an illegal number) only got a handful of suggestions, which is a shame because that's a really fun one

only three people suggested "your credit card number" but if it made it past the cutoff I 100% would have put that in the tournament

meta jokes

a few people suggested variations of "the number that wins the tournament", which I think is a funnier meta joke than either of the ones that actually made the cut

a couple people also did versions of "the sum of all other numbers in the bracket" (or "all other numbers people suggested in this google form"), with a couple people who said that also thankfully adding in some conditions to only include numbers where you can actually do that

a couple people have asked me what the smallest natural number was that nobody suggested, and unfortunately (by which I mean I love this) I can't answer that because a couple people suggested "the smallest natural number nobody else suggests"

another fun one was "the number of notes on this tumblr post", which only one person suggested

three separate people did "five (the word five not the number)", "5 (the symbol not the number it represents)" and "V (the roman numeral)" (looking at them all together it kinda looks like this was the same person all three times but that's because I'm paraphrasing all of them)

googologisms and otherwise big numbers

shockingly, the famously large numbers googol and Graham's number didn't get nearly as much support as the googologisms that made it to the bracket

five people suggested numbers in the Busy Beaver sequence, but none of them suggested the same Busy Beaver number

there were also things like "the smallest counterexample to the Collatz conjecture", fully hypothetical numbers

"zillion", "bajillion", and "fuckton" got two nominations each, any of which would have been extremely fun to see in the tournament

other

a couple people just said "fibonacci number" which. do you mean like the whole sequence? maybe these should have counted for phi

two people suggested "a grizzly bear". I'm assuming that's a reference I'm not getting, because it's way too specific of a joke for two people to say that independently

there was one suggestion that was the coordinates to a restaurant in yemen called burger king 2

anyway there's literally thousands of these, and I have no intentions of at any point making a full comprehensive list of what people suggested, but I think this is a pretty good sample of what the nominees were like. there were a lot of really good candidates, but I think the 64 that made it into the tournament are a pretty dang good set of numbers!

thank you to everyone who suggested your favorite numbers, it was genuinely very fun reading through everyone's suggestions.

[f1shart]

the amount of times i've drawn clowns on this blog is absurd. yes it was twice but that's twice too much

ANYWAY personality swap verona au anyone? its more of a personality inversion since i didn't swap their personalities with one another (og idea by @quejicadelapulpa)... more info ⬇️

idk why when i invert their personalities they become depressed, evil, or both but 😭 i'll go in depth on each of them

Tybalt: he was always a clown but swapbalt is quite literally a clown (he prefers jester). his personality is basically mercutio: playful, friendly, but still prim since i don't see why that would change about him i mean he's still absolutely loaded 🤑 also he loves annoying mercutio, especially since it's not like he'll get his ass whooped if he starts to throw hands (since, yk, tybalt is JACKED)

Mercutio: what i meant when i said they turn depressed when i invert their personalities 💀 swapcutio is a man of few words. he probably speaks very quietly too, only ever getting loud when he's pissed at tybalt. speaking of, he's not as hot-headed as og tybalt mostly cuz i didn't want to just swap their personas and call it a day. nah this is much funnier. i feel bad for him though i mean he's got this fucking clown constantly bothering him and there's nothing he can do about it

Romeo: he's giving pascal and i'm so sorry ab that. anyway this is where i delve more into personal hcs about personality since some of these sims weren't given much originally. i see romeo as a pretty smart kid so i didn't change that about him. i also see him as a bit immature but his wit makes up for that and that's how he's able to charm people. while swapmeo is mature, he is unfortunately quite uncharismatic so who tf knows how he pulled juliette. he's still a romance sim tho so he has his ways...

Juliette: not too much about her. i originally saw her as a little hot-headed similar to tybalt, so i decided to commit to that and make her a very mellow and chill individual. no more raging at online shooter games for her ! swapiette also wears very comfy clothes unlike juliette and dont u worry i kept her uggs. they're simply too iconic 😩

Miranda: she's basically more like her mother. this is where i was conflicted like do i swap the adults' personalities as well?? regardless, swapiranda (i need to stop) is a good christian girl 😌 as you can see she did not dye her hair in this universe and same with hermia but we'll get there. i also removed her beautiful shades SORRY but they're still there in spirit with the blue of her nails. i think swapiranda has that sweet exterior but a snakeish interior in terms of personality

Hermia: i exchanged the goth aesthetic for something more pastel and trendy for the time. you could say swapmia is a bit like og juliette in terms of personality. ooh maybe she doesn't dislike her brother in this universe! though i can see her and juliette getting tired of his smileyness. also yess swapmia's hair is her natural blonde it fits her vibe more.

Puck: last and certainly not least, evil puck 😍 the poor residents of swap veronaville cuz this kid... to me, og puck is kind, shy, dedicated to their tasks but dreadfully incompetent. you'd think he's the media's idea of a fairy- playful and mischievous, but he is surprisingly the opposite. THEN THERE'S SWAP PUCK. absolutely devious. despicable. he plays pranks and they are fucking mean pranks (not as far as battery acid in pop tho 💀 that's one of their cruel jokes. pls tybalt is not actually drinking battery acid) who KNOWS what swapmia sees in them. maybe she's evil too lmfao

anyway that's what i got. tell me why typing this drained 54% of my battery. apple is wild. maybe i'll do st but that's a hell of a lot of work

[wellsbering]

i really wish i could have gotten my grandpa to write an autobiography (or even funnier, start a podcast) because every time i visited him he had a new wild story about his life such as:

- during wwii (he was 8 when it ended), he and his friend would walk to a factory where the military police had put german POWs to work making stuff for the US war effort, and stand outside and make fun of them. the nazis were on the second floor but there was this little gap in the window for ventilation and my grandpa and his friend would just stand underneath it and taunt them until one day one of the nazis got annoyed and threw some little piece of metal at my grandpa and it nearly hit his ear, so he joked that he could've gotten a purple heart if it hit him

- he went to catholic school in the era where teachers were still allowed to hit the students when they got in trouble, which he did A Lot. the nuns would hold out their hand and tell the student to place their hand there and then hit the student with a ruler. one time my grandpa moved his hands away quickly enough for the nun to slap her own hand, which did not go over well with her (but it did with the rest of the class)

- when there was a baseball game downtown he and his friends would volunteer as batboys to make some extra cash and meet the players. apparently mickey mantle was an asshole

- shortly after wwii, he knew someone (a neighbor or a relative, i can't remember) who had served in italy and fell in love with a woman there, but since he didn't know italian, he would bring her letters to my grandpa's mom so she could translate. she said she wanted to come to america and marry him, but she needed money, so he sent over the money. then she wrote back that her mother wanted to come too, so he sent more money. finally when she said oh thank you but HER mother wants to come too my grandpa's family was like my guy. this girl is scamming you please stop sending her money

- his aunt and grandma went to visit relatives in sicily after the war. sicily, of course, was hit extremely hard by wwii, so there were a lot of food shortages. but while they were there they bought a giant wheel of cheese. it was supposed to be shipped to them in the states on a cargo ship (rather than the passenger ship they returned on), so after they got back they waited like a month for this really great italian cheese to arrive. and when it finally did, they pried open the crate (this was the 40s, so no cardboard boxes, it was all wooden crates that were nailed shut) and instead of cheese, there was just a pile of sawdust. someone stole the cheese and replaced it with sawdust so the dock workers would think it was still in there

- speaking of ill-fated shipments from sicily, at some point after his grandparents arrived in the states (c. 1915?) their family mailed them an olive sapling to plant at their new home. unfortunately it turned out that american midwestern winters are very bad for olive trees. they did not get a single olive from it

- he once decided to dye a sweater blue using a big pot & spoon his family regularly used for cooking, and he thought he'd rinsed out the dye, but when his family sat down for dinner that night they were greeted by the sight of blue mashed potatoes. his parents were dumbstruck. his brother adamantly refused to eat the cursed potatoes. my grandpa might've gotten away with it except that the rest of the table got extremely suspicious when he just started eating the blue potatoes like nothing was wrong

- he had a friend who knew danny thomas's (of st. jude's hospital, marlo thomas's dad, and the best joke on the golden girls fame) brother, who had a problem with gambling and alcohol and kept asking danny for money (since he was. you know. rich and famous). at some point this dude went to his brother's house, asked to see him, and the maid/housekeeper/whoever opened the door recognized him and just shut the door in face bc she was tired of him asking for money

- as a kid he would go to his grandparents' house and stomp on grapes in the basement to make wine. apparently they were just so used to always having wine in italy (even the kids had wine at dinner) that, even when my grandpa's mom was a kid during prohibition, the family just kept making wine in the basement. once their neighbor asked for some, they gave it to him, and then shortly afterwards the cops showed up and went down in the basement and smashed up all the equipment. in response, my grandpa's grandparents simply bought new equipment and went back to making wine again (and presumably, this time, did not tell their neighbors)

- his relatives owned an italian restaurant in toledo and when louis prima stopped there on tour, my grandma (who did not work in the restaurant, and in fact was not even italian) made him spaghetti and got free tickets to his show

- paul lynde also came to the restaurant once (or maybe it was a different one? there were two italian restaurants) and was a dick

- he once walked into the bathroom at his high school and there was a whole doo-wop group rehearsing in there. no word on if they sounded good or not

- he once traded in his old car (a ford with no paint on it, just metal that he polished with steel wool, and with an oldsmobile engine instead of the original) at a ford dealership, got home, and then got a call the next day from the dealership owner who was mad they couldn't sell the car. since. it had an oldsmobile engine and no paint. my grandpa was just kinda like. ok. what do you want me to do about it lmao we already signed all the papers, it's legally yours now. sorry! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

- he was in the printers' union for decades and at one point the union workers were getting so overworked by the union leadership that they threatened to form their own union within a union. my grandpa gave a talk at their national meeting to try to get both sides to reconcile, which he summarized to me as basically "come on guys. this is stupid"

- part of his role in the union was negotiating on behalf of workers during disputes with their employer. he once had to stop a business owner from unjustly firing his own son

- another time some secretaries were threatening to strike because their boss was so awful, and upon finding out that the boss tried to coerce one of the women to sleep with him, my grandpa stormed up to him and threatened to physically fight him

- after he retired he was out playing golf or shooting guns or something with some guy who kept talking about how annoying and useless unions are, and when they got back to their cars he complimented my grandpa's car and he responded "thanks. i bought it with my Union Pension :)"

- when i was a little kid he had a red corvette for a year or so. i found out years later that it had every possible added feature a 1999 corvette could have, because the original owner was really rich. the reason he was rich was because he was none other than pasquale "pat" giammarco, the founder of marco's pizza

[whumpitisthen]

5 and 7 for the dark oc asks?

For this ask game :)

I will do these for Auden and Grim as they have been my main bois for the most part! (and are the most developed because of that)

Read more because this came out way longer than it had any business being (i get so excited when someone sends me an ask i just have to deliver!! you know!! I didn't even expect someone to send me anything from that i just thought the questions were cool 👉👈)

5. What is their moral code?

Moral code in Hell is... An interesting concept. Generally speaking most people who live in Hell have grayer morality than those that do not, as Hell allows for depravity that will ruin you unless you grow used to it. Bearing that in mind:

Auden is an angel, fresh out of Heaven. A righteous one too, as he is a Guardian, meant to be a protector of the innocent. Even if he wasn't being abused and picked on by everyone, he'd still have awful trouble coming to terms with how life is down here for everyone. He finds the hurting of anything living unbearable, even for those that may deserve it — which separates him from other angels, because no matter how hard he tries to put on this face of rage and disgust whenever faced with a hellspawn, seeing someone like Mori being not only hurt, but tortured so casually and undeservedly put him in more distress than what Heaven deems rational. He is meant to feel nothing but hatred for demons. He is meant to be pure, above them all. He should know and understand that not a single one of them deserve mercy. But he can't. He tries, he parrots every awful expression angels use to spew their vitriol at demonkind, but he is such a bleeding heart, he can't help it. If possible, he is even more morally soft than Heaven wants him to be, and that is unfortunately not a good thing to be according to the rules of neither Hell, nor Heaven.

Grim, on the other hand, is the polar opposite. He is so far above the question of this made up concept. He is a god, for crying out loud, if anything, he should be able to decide with finality what is and isn't morally correct. He spends most of his time in the ethically questionable Hell, but he doesn't truly belong on anywhere but Earth — the moral dilemmas of Heaven and Hell are meaningless to him. What is important is his fun. If faced with a seemingly obvious question of mortality, like 'would you help the helpless?', he would not think of morals and ethics, he would think of what answer would be funnier. Or more beneficial to him. Morals will not even come to mind. His answer will be highly dependent on his current mood. He understands the concept, well enough to use it to taunt and mock, but he does not take part in philosophies like this. Rights and wrongs are a part of life, and why would any of it matter if every person has their own minds made up about what counts as what? It only serves to feed judgement, and judgement is not part his field of work. And in any case, did you ever know Death to be fair? I doubt it!

7. How far are they willing to go to get what they want?

(ive actually been doing a little character study and one of the questions was what is it that they want, or if they have it already, how do they hold onto it? And im thinking of posting that at some point too :3 let me know if youd like to see it im just fleshing them out — i think this is the first time I've ever written out that expression, and it sounds so metal and torturous??? "Fleshing Them Out" it sounds like gore i love it)

Auden wants a lot of things, probably the main one being acceptance. He has tried so hard all his life to get such a simple thing, but he has unfortunately been looking in the wrong places, asking for it from the wrong people, and never managed to grasp it for long. If there was some kind of miracle worker who could just magically make all the other angels accept him as he is, he would do just about anything. If Grim, for example, being the powerful deity he is, could make something like this happen, Auden would give up everything he has for it. Every bit of dignity, all morals, even body parts maybe. He is so desperate for it, however, that he would do all that for less. His thirst for belonging started in Heaven, but by the time he arrives in Hell, all he truly wants is for someone to see him and appreciate him for himself, to tell him he is perfect as he is. Grim has shown he understands this part of Auden in little ways already, seeing how unconfident he is and how entranced he became with him at the slightest sign of respect and love, even if clearly fake. A couple kind, understanding words; an 'I know you can't help it, it's okay' can melt Auden, even bring him to tears on bad days. Now he is more desperate than ever before, all alone in the worst place imaginable, so it's not surprising how he clings to those words like his life depends on it, even if the one cooing them at him is someone who only does so to hurt him.

Grim is a tenacious bastard. What he wants is power to do whatever he wants to and to keep everyone in a chokehold with nothing but his intimidating presence. He wants that fear he causes, and he already has it. Yet, he holds onto it carelessly. He is not worried about it ever fizzling out, because even if some are truly unafraid of Death, the vast majority will always shiver at his cold presence. While he likes showing off his powers every once in a while, he does not need to do that for that fearful respect to remain. He has a reputation, and to break that reputation he has built up over millenia is no easy feat. If his status is ever threatened, however, he will become enraged, murderous, threatening, dangerous, desperate, unstoppable, and near inconsolable. While he is awfully difficult to get to this point, what with his mastery of keeping all eyes on him and proficiency at leading social situations, it is not impossible. He will lose all the theatrics and replace them with a chilling lack of emotion, brutal efficiency and uncontrollable thirst for blood. He would not stop the slaughter until he is not only respected, but Worshipped by every mortal and immortal at his feet, begging for forgiveness in terror. He will burn the world to the ground. He will kill without reason or care, until someone stops him. The one trusted to do that is his Lord, usually. These "hissy fits", as his Lord calls them, could be world ending. Luckily, they don't happen often, as you'd need someone just as tenacious as Grim to be able to tilt him that bad, and as powerful as his Lord to strip him of his effortless control. If we're talking about something way lower scale, like a single person like Auden, who is also something he wanted, things aren't that much different. If he wants something, he takes it. If there's resistance, he overpowers them, at first through words, then through violence. If he cannot, he will keep being a pest until they give up, having fun toying with them, as he still remains the true one in control. He is not used to not getting what he wants. But if nothing works, sooner or later he will be pissed off enough to start throwing one of his infamous, catastrophic hissy fits, and start levelling buildings.

Taglist: @whumpsday @whump-me-all-night-long @whumpifi

[strawberri-elixir]

— Notice anything? — ~ R. Itoshi ~

╰⇢ In which you decide to poke a little fun at your usually expressionless boyfriend. Only, his reactions aren’t what you expected

Requested: Absolutely! Right here

Pairing: Rin Itoshi x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None(?) but this is a High school AU with all the different characters, so it doesn’t follow plot at all.

Note: Thank you so much for letting me write this for you. I tried my best to get it how you envisioned it. Enjoy!

“Good game as always, love.” You give your boyfriend a pat on the back.

“Mhm, thanks.” Was all he said as he looked around for his teammates.

Once he found who he was looking for, he walked over to the group of guys who were all happily chatting with their girlfriends. Leaving you to stand there, hurt that he brushed you off.

But you quickly regain your composure and join him and his teammates. You notice a few of your friends, who were also dating soccer players, standing around as well.

“Oh, perfect! Come here real quick!” Your friend waved you over.

“What’s up?” You hover over to them.

“Have you seen those tiktok trends that couples do?” She turns her phone screen over to face you, a video of a couple doing one of those cute photo trends. “Wouldn’t it be so cute to do one of these with them?”

You glance over to the boys in question, looking for your boyfriend. Rin was still deep in conversation with one of his teammates. Isagi was it? The more you thought about it, the funnier you sounded.

“There’s absolutely no way that Rin would do one of those trends with me.” You give a small chuckle. “He’d probably think it’s a waste of time.”

“Just give one a try! What’s the worst that could happen?” She gives you a nudge.

Maybe giving it a shot wouldn’t do so bad.

So you thought you would try a little something. Not too much, but maybe just something cute. Like a little prank or one of those texting questions. What could go wrong?

A lot could go wrong apparently. Now, not only did you get a rude awakening about your boyfriend’s opinions on Disney princess’s, you also had this ache in your chest.

Surely he didn’t mean it… right?

Right! You decided to try again tomorrow. But what would you do to get a good reaction out of him?

You send a quick message to your friends asking about possible ideas.

Ignore him. Well, the original idea was to ignore his affections, but seeing as Rin never initiates any sort of affection, ignoring him completely might work.

You walk to school, not bothering to wait for your boyfriend like usual as you enter. Normally, you'd wait for him and talk with him from your lockers to your class. But now that you thought of it, the conversations were rather one-sided.

A little while later, you settled into your seat as the teacher began his lecture. As he starts writing stuff down on the board, the door bursts open, effectively stooping the lesson momentarily.

"You're late Mr. Itoshi." Your teacher resumed his writing. "Hurry up and take your seat."

The dark haired boy silently complied and took his seat next to you, looking confused as he saw you sitting in your seat.

"Where were you?" He whispered.

Unfortunately, his question fell on deaf ears as you ignored him and kept writing, not even bothering to look up at him. He just scoffed and focused on the task at hand.

You kept going for the rest of the day, walking away whenever he approached and not answering him when he tried talking to you.

Days turned into weeks. You moved on from completely ignoring him to giving him half-assed responses. All of that, and he still didn't care.

"He doesn't love me." You dramatically flop onto your friend's bed. She was the poor soul who got all of your rants about how Rin wouldn't bother trying to fix whatever was wrong and continued to act as if nothing even happened. Even his teammates picked up on it!

"Don't say that." She chuckled. "If he didn't love you, he would've broken up with you by now."

"But still! He hasn't even bothered to ask if something was wrong! It's like all this is normal for him!" You groan.

“Well me and the other girls tried this one trend on our boyfriends, maybe you could try it on Rin. Give yourself a reason to be mad at him.”

An actual reason to express your anger? That sounds a little too good to be true. But if it meant that Rin would finally acknowledge your attempts, why not?

“What is it?” You sit up.

“So basically you go up to Rin and tell him you look different from yesterday, and you ask him if he knows what changed”

“Pfft. Knowing him, he’d say nothing.”

“Well then you can use that as an excuse to just be mad at him! Besides, most of our boyfriends said nothing looks different anyways, so nothing bad can happen.”

After being ignored for so long, you did have some pent up anger in your system. Maybe you could give it a shot?

“Rin!” Your boyfriend looks over as you run up to him.

“What?” His eyes widen slightly as you use his given name rather than a sappy nickname.

“I look different from yesterday! Can you guess what it is?”

Now for the fun to begin.

“Your bangs.” He pushed your hair out of your eyes.

Huh?

“Just the same!”

“Makeup?”

Well technically you had to use a different foundation today because your old one ran out… doesn’t count though.

“It’s the same.”

“Your eyebrows.”

You were in a rush this morning and didn’t have time to fix your eyebrows, but they’re still the same.

“Nope!”

“And your nails?”

Nothing changed with your nails.

“Still the same~!”

“Where’s the difference?” He finally let out a sigh of defeat.

“Look closely silly!”

He leaned forward, scanning every inch of your face and body, trying to figure out what you changed about yourself. “I don’t know…”

“Give up?” You grin.

“Yeah, I give up.” He finally admits defeat, giving you a fearful look, like you’ll snap at him for not noticing.

You couldn’t help but let out a small laugh. It was funny to see your stoic boyfriend crumble at your mercy.

“Actually, nothing’s changed…” You look around the two of you. Anywhere but into the set of teal eyes staring at you in confusion.

“What?” His eyebrows furrow.

“I just wanted your attention.” A blush found its way onto your features.

After taking a second to process the information, Rin lets out what you believe to be a sigh of relief.

“What?” You shoot him a look.

“My friends were right.” He suddenly pulled you into a tight hug.

“Right about what?” You leaned into him more, appreciating the hug.

"They told me about how you would probably do something like this because I haven't put much effort into our relationship."

He finally admitted his behavior out loud. You couldn't but feel emotional. It was like all your efforts were finally acknowledged.

You let yourself breathe a sigh of relief as you reciprocate his hug.

"I was being immature, I should've just talked to you about it. I'm sorry." You sigh.

"Don't be sorry, I'm just glad you're not mad."

"Oh she definitely was!" Your friend steps out from around the corner.

"You should've seen how worried Rin was when we told him about your little plan." Isagi pokes his head out. "He was scared shitless."

"You told him?" You turned to your friend in confusion.

"Yep!" She exclaimed. "We figured it would be a fun way to get Rin to realize how bad he makes you feel sometimes."

You turn your attention back to Rin who's glaring at the duo, a faint blush on his cheeks. "Rin? What are they talking about?"

"Nothing." He grumbles.

You look between your friends and your boyfriend, everything coming together. The prank suggestions. The whole 'looking different' idea. The responses he gave to you. It all made sense.

You couldn't help but let out a laugh, it was all ridiculous. Rin didn't say anything else, just hugged you tighter.

"I know I'm not the best at showing my true feelings but... I love you." He whispered.

"I love you too." You smiled.

~ Please do not repost on other platforms! ~

[theminecraftbee]

Ren Cleo BigB and Etho for the last life ask game please!

i am gonna do this to give people a break from my steady fic title answers (which, i think. i'll try to finish tomorrow.) for the record, these questions are from here!

REN: "- Any headcanons?" a lot, and it depends on what i'm doing with everything. one of my bigger headcanons is probably still "deaths leave a scar/mark of the death you took", which i know everyone does, but i'd like to say the marks are there for every death in the game, not just the last one.

CLEO: "Favourite meme/inside joke?" the spyglass bit from session 2 is pretty good, i think. also the running joke of scar's lack of clothes in third life was funnier than it actually had any right to be.

BIGB: "Who do you think will die first?" god i never know how to answer this because i am SO BAD at predictions like this. i think the prognosis for jimmy is still bad unfortunately but also if he dies first twice in a row that would be terrible. my other prediction is that i think mumbo is having a WAY worse time of it than i actually predicted he would. joel is not allowed to die first i've grown emotionally attached,

ETHO: "Share a sad thought/headcanon" joel's last words before he went red were telling pearl that she didn't have to kill him. those are the words that keep on echoing in his head as he's alone in his stupid cave with his weapons. he was cured. didn't she get it? he doesn't feel cured, though. he never had time for that to really settle in. four lives to one in a single day, and it's all his own stupidity. joel doesn't have bloodlust. he doesn't need it. what he has is resentment, which is, perhaps, more dangerous.

[keptin-indy]

Indy plays Legends: Arceus

I haven't played Diamond/Pearl for a lot of years, but it's possibly my favorite game of the bunch. I've watched my roommate play some of the remake, and I hate the art style and also that you can't meaningfully decorate your base anymore. All this to say that I'm sure there are D/P references that I'm not going to get because it's been so long.

I have spent an ungodly amount of time playing the DLCs for Sword/Shield lately. I put more time into them than the base game itself. So I am very excited about an entire open world game.

Everything specific below the cut

It is sending me that Arceus speaks like the King James Bible

The fact that it speaks at all, like many legendaries and psychic types, once more drives home how much of a dick Calryrex in the Isle of Armor is for hijacking an entire human without their consent or knowledge just because he couldn't be arsed to do his own talking

I really hate the "modern kid wakes up in a fantasy setting" trope, but I'm interested in the wrinkle that a direct visitation from god means this kid is kind of a prophet. I did not expect to contact god via my cell phone, I must say.

The professor's hat looks so stupid. It would be fine if it didn't go all the way under his chin, but just hung open like a winter hat. Also why Laventon instead of Lavender? At least it'd be a plant, if not a tree.

I'm pretty sure that if all pokemon could shrink this would have come up A LOT before now. I can only assume that either a) this is a side game like Mystery Dungeon and therefore things work differently and are dubiously canon, or the much funnier b) the study of pokemon is new and Laventon believes all pokemon can shrink because the alternative - that one particular species of nut is just wild - is too out there for his modern science yet.

This looks to my uneducated eye like the fantasy Meiji Era and I am running around in basically my underwear by those standards. Professor, would it kill you to give me some clothes before teaching me how to imprison the wildlife?

I'm so glad the villagers are as wigged out by my clothes as they should be

I see a Galarian Weezing-shaped thing. Could it be that the British-sounding people really are Galarian rather than Galar being relatively newly connected to the rest of the world? I just want to know all about the history of this world and its regions.

Wow, I hate Beni's awful green mustache/chinstrap and grey beard combo

15! Not the tiniest of children! Hurray! Unfortunately, this qualifies me for indentured servitude. If I knew I was going to be a prophet pressed into a foreign power's service, I'd've named myself Joseph.

"Hey 15 year old, if you fuck up we are explicitly booting you out to die in the wilderness and get eaten by pokemon."

I want to eat a potato mochi. I had no idea these existed until I googled it just now, but I want them in my face.

I want to decorate my quarters but I don't think you can.

You people are sending a child out in the wilderness in basically underwear.

Putting so much emphasis on how you can and probably will die alone in the wild is hilarious for a series that is normally marketed for kids. I feel like they know the people most excited about this specific game in the series are the ones who've been hoping for open world pokemon since the late 90s/early 00s.

Laventon's camera is absurdly small for this time period expy. Cowards, not going for the huge tripod-mounted ones. It doesn't even have a big ol' flash!

Like in A Knight's Tale, the key to excelling in this story is to be too stupid to know when you're in mortal peril.

Finally someone has clothed me! And it's the person who's repeatedly said she'd leave me to die in the wilderness!

Not that I'm complaining, but why did you specially give me a hat, ma'am?

PLEASE DON'T SUPPLEX ME, SIR

The tutorial for this game lasts forever. I know there are a bunch of new things to learn, but I want to run around the wilds like a gremlin already.

WHEN YOU'RE IN YOUR HOUSE YOUR SHOES AUTOMATICALLY DISAPPEAR, THAT'S SO CUTE

I know I said I wanted to wander around outside but now I have to explore every single door in this town. And there are many.

A very serious young trainer and, unfortunately, his pokemon.

I will exclusively take pictures with the old timey lens.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: You DO take falling damage and you CAN drown.

I have learned how to roll and now I will Link my way across this entire landscape

Oh no, inventory management

I am very bad about keeping track of which buttons do what in any video game, but I'm mad that they arbitrarily changed the controls from what they were for doing the exact same things in the Wild Areas in Sword/Shield. Now I have to retrain my muscle memory for no good reason.

I am also very bad at keeping track of whether I'm throwing a pokeball or a pokemon. And I keep pressing LR instead of ZLZR because I'm really a PC gamer and not used to two whole sets of triggers back there.

[spicycreativity]

Fanfic Appreciation Week Day 7: A Place Where I Can Breathe

Yes, folks, I'm appreciating my own darn fanfic for the final day of Fanfic Appreciation Week because I worked really hard on it and it was a labor of love for/with one of my QPPs, my roommate, the man who got me into Sanders Sides: @\cadeorade-powercade (That's him in the aesthetic board)

Allow me to present the director's commentary for A Place Where I Can Breathe:

Content Warnings: All content warnings mentioned in the fic apply.

Chapter 1: I actually wrote this fairly late in the game. It's meant to serve as a prologue and orient the viewer in the universe, s opposed to staring on Chapter 2, which just throws the viewer in without context. I think it was a good choice, as it also allowed me to introduce the concept of the Sides having power focuses early on.

The Premise: Cade is a Virgil stan and he was getting frustrated looking for Virgil fic. He was finding a lot of stuff written without nuance by young authors, a sort of "by teenagers for teenagers" type deal. We are not teenagers, so we both have a hard time relating to that kind of teen angst fic, as we're not the target audience. So he asked me to write him a Virgil fic and we worked together to identify what plot he wanted, what the Mindscape looked like, and what quirks the Sides have. So a lot of this fic is quite gratuitous and self-indulgent

The Title: Lizzie McAlpine has a song called "Apple Pie" which includes the lyric "I've been running around trying to find a place where I can breathe." Apple Pie SCREAMS Moceit to me, and I had taken notice of the lyric and wanted to use it as the title for a Moceit fic. I didn't really have an idea beyond that, and when Cade asked me to write this fic, I realized it was actually perfect and summed up Virgil's inner struggle quite nicely. So cheers to "A Place Where I Can Breathe," the Moceit Fic That Wasn't

-Cade asked me specifically to include Virgil having a spider and I wrote nearly the whole fic without doing so, then had to go back and sprinkle some references in. I think I managed 2 total.

Chapter 2:

"Uh, how about I hold off on that until I actually see my room?" Virgil stared expectantly at Roman, who bounced on his toes. "Lead on, Macduff."

"That's not the line and you know it," Roman complained, but he turned to lead Virgil to his room. "It's ' lay on, Macduff,' and--"

-This fic was originally supposed to reach a climax with a confrontation between Remus and Roman, and "lay on, Macduff" would come back as a brick joke. Unfortunately, the original ending was a result of me getting tired and lazy, so I had to go back and fix it, and we lost the Roman-Remus confrontation.

It was hard for Virgil to not shudder at the sudden heat and weight on him. With his senses already open and taking in more information than his brain seemed to want to process, touch was an added stressor, more unwanted sensory input.

-Virgil being touch-averse is a direct shoutout to Cade, who is also touch-averse.

Roman had already transformed the living room: metallic streamers of purple and black stretched across the corners of the ceiling, and shiny balloons spelling out A-N-X-E-I-T-Y hovered above the TV.

-Upon first writing, Virgil had already given the upstairs crew his name, so the banner spelled out "VIRIGL" which is way funnier than "ANXEITY." But then his name reveal became a plot point so I had to go back and change it.

-Let! Virgil! Be! Mean!

-Virgil's line about hearing refrigerator noise when Roman talks is another shout-out to Cade, who has leveled that accusation at me

A small, cruel part of him protested at the idea that he would need special treatment and desperately wanted to throw it back in Patton's face. He wasn't a sweetheart, he wasn't a baby. He didn't need to crawl into a blanket fort with Dad just because he was a little stressed.

-Remus calls Janus "Janus Geminus" because I was tired and couldn't come up with a pun. "Geminus" is one of the Roman god Janus' epithets; another is "Pater" meaning "Father." That led to a conversation about Remus deliberately confusing Patton by calling Janus "Daddy," but I couldn't think of a clean way to fit the explanation into the narrative, so I stuck with "Geminus."

Chapter 3:

"There's nothing normal about that! " Roman stared in horror at the coffee massacre Virgil had orchestrated. What had once been a respectable (if not very tasty) cup of black coffee was now part of a 1:1 coffee to milk suspension, the liquid a tasteful shade of tan suitable for business casual trousers or a show-ready chihuahua.

-Cade is a certified Nightmare Man and came up with Virgil's horrifying coffee order after I asked him about it. Keep an eye out for Janus' equally horrifying coffee order later in the fic.

1) Shouts out the fact that Janus is canonically a Dostoevsky fan

Chapter 4:

Janus smiled at him. "Where reason fails, the Devil helps." He fussed with his gloves and straightened his capelet. "It's showtime."

-I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Look at me. Look at me. I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Janus' quoting Raskolnikov serves multiple purposes:

2) Lampshades the fact that Roman just conveniently happened to be alone in the living room, because I didn't want to waste time getting him there. That makes me, the author, the Devil

3) Foreshadows the impending disaster. When Raskolnikov says this line it is because he had planned to commit axe murder. The axe he was planning to steal had been moved, but he finds another, different axe to use. Raskolnikov messes up the murder and ends up killing an innocent witness in addition to his intended target. Janus messes up his manipulation attempt and ends up murdering Roman's self esteem

-I was going to include a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Remus' line "debauchery and vomit" was originally going to be "blood, love, and rhetoric") but I didn't because... Uh... Hm. Why didn't I do that. Maybe I just forgot about it???

-Roman is too stubborn to manipulate for long and that is a fact.

"I was pretty much done anyway," Remus said. "There's only so much debauchery and vomit you can fit into one story."

-Cade specifically ask me that nobody cry in this fic, but after I had Janus eviscerate Roman I knew he couldn't not cry a little. I kept it to a minimum because there's already a billion fucking fics about [literally any Side] crying on the shoulder of [literally any other Side] and it's really just not interesting to either of us.

-It didn't come up because it doesn't matter, but Thomas dreamed he was participating in the exact Dionysian orgy that took place in The Secret History because it's my fic and I said so.

Chapter 5:

He just sat back and watched and tugged at his hair while Janus spooned mound after mound of crisp white sugar into his mug and Virgil poured his customary eight fluid ounces of milk into his own mug.

-Cade strikes again. Virgil's coffee order is equal amounts milk to coffee; Janus' is equal parts sugar to coffee. He had asked me to include a scene where Roman catches Janus massacring his coffee and is appropriately horrified, but I uhh... Didn't write it. I still might include it as an omake someday.

-I imagine that Roman feels really strongly about dragons vs wyverns, and Remus just pretends to give a shit because he thinks it's funny to wind Roman up. Fortunately for me but unfortunately for my sense of realism in writing, I can't relate because I adore my sister and we get along perfectly almost 100% of the time.

"You shut us down every chance you get!" Remus said, baring his teeth. "How would you like it if your pens never wrote, hm? What would you do with all those thoughts in your head?"

-I do wish I had developed the concept of power focuses a bit more, established rules and such. Basically, Patton is always on the prowl for wrongthink and actively represses it, which in turn breaks or sabotages the Dark Sides' power focus.

Chapter 6: This chapter really should have been Janus and Roman but I was really tired and didn't want to bother with it. Plus, you know, Moceit. This chapter was meant to demonstrate how the characters would get along without Virgil nannying them. There's friction, but everyone is making a conscious, deliberate effort to get along because they love Virgil, and love is a series of choices you make.

I chose "Leo" as the answer for the answer to the crossword clue instead of "Virgo," because my other QPP is a Leo. She'll never read this fic, but I did it anyway because I love her. (Trivia: My sign is Virgo, so it was really a choice between shouting her out and shouting me out, and the last chapter is self-indulgent enough, thank you).

Chapter 7: I was gonna write a fic where all the Sides watched Cats the Musical because I was going through a phase. Then Cade requested this so I combined the two ideas. By this point I was fucking exhausted, and that's the only thing that saved you and the rest of the world from me writing the Sides riffing on the movie scene-by-scene. I could come up with snarky commentary for almost every, if not every single song from the movie.

Most notably, I cut a Patton-Remus interaction where Remus declares his love for Grizabella and Patton gets all staryy-eyed about Remus connecting with the idea of rising above rejection and being loved and accepted only for Remus to shoot him down and explain that he just likes that she got to die in a tire fire.

Other cut scenes include Janus quietly pretending not to go feral over Mister Mistoffelees, Patton full-on fucking sobbing over Grizabella and the kittens, and Logan experiencing a deep, soulful kinship with Munkustrap during Of The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollices (and henceforth introducing the phrase "like herding cats" into his regular vocabulary

[obsessivestar]

Steamy Love (A Tom Hiddleston x Reader) Part 21: ~Friendship~

Summary: You spend more quality time with your best friend and best man!

Warnings: None.

Read it on my Wattpad: @/HiddlesStar

Word count: 1715

Author Notes: Sorry this chapter took so long! Had to take a break to get the creativity back. Expect weekly chapter updates to resume again!

Tags: @theoneanna @midnightdragonzero @drakesfiance @kcd15 @ihthr @deviantsendbyreallife @bookgirlunicorn

"What the hell is 'Leg Day'?" Your friend asked, looking rather confused.

Your cheeks immedietly got a little pink. You had remembered in the last live stream you did with Tom, he mentioned the infamous High-Rise 'Leg Day' inside joke you two had created in regards to the first love scene where Laing lifts Charlotte's legs up. He had referenced the joke while talking about how Zero Suit Samus fights in Smash Bros. Ultimate. He didn't explain it, though, keeping the inside joke as an inside joke.

"Umm.." You paused again. You really weren't sure how to explain it, or even if you should explain it. It was a bit...personal.

"Well...it's..."

Before you could really give a response, Tom knocked at the door, walking in once he had permission.

"Are you ladies hungry at all?" He asked. You could tell your friend liked being called that from him. You weren't offended by their little crush. You understood how they were feeling, and it honestly made you feel even luckier to be with Tom.

"I am." You smiled some.

"Me too!" Your friend chirped. "I've barely eaten today."

"Shall we go out for lunch? Say, 10 minutes?.." Tom smiled some.

"In 10 minutes works!" You chirped, and your friend nodded in agreement. Tom gave a little wave and left, closing the door again. Surprisingly, your friend didn't ask about Leg Day again, thankfully. They probably just forgot about it.

After a couple minutes, the three of you left to go get some lunch. Unfortunately by now, the paparazzi knew what streets you and Tom go down to get to places like the grocery store and restaurants, so you'd spot cameras at specific areas. Tom tried not to acknowledge the cameras as you all exited the vehicle after arriving at a lunch joint, but you and your friend gave a slight wave before entering the building, knowing they couldn't follow you in. You were surprised to see that no one in this lunch place knew Tom or you, so you didn't see anyone watching you while you all ate.

"How did you two meet, again?" Your friend asked as you waited for your food.

"I'm surprised she didn't tell you.." Tom smiled, referring to you.

"No I told her. She probably just wants to hear the story again.." You chuckled, getting a little grin from Tom. "We met when he came to my hotel room asking for an extra towel. I didn't even know it was him at that moment.."

"I don't blame you. Me and Loki look nothing alike.." Tom smirked.

"Still, I should've recognized those nice eyes immedietly.." You admitted, getting another big smile from Tom. "It was actually (BF/N) that helped me remember who you were."

"Really?" Tom asked, a little surprised.

"Yeah, I had a call with her on that bus ride to the meeting. That's when she told me. After that, I met you at the meeting the director had set up. That's where I learned we would be costars.."

"Ooh, and the rest is history.." Your friend giggled, nudging you some.

"Do you think you would've realized it was me at the meeting, if she hadn't of reminded you?" Tom asked curiously.

"I mean, they said your last name in the meeting.." You nodded some. "My anxiety would've gone through the roof." You joked, Tom smirking somewhat mischievously.

"I hope you guys weren't having super obvious eye-sex at the meeting." Your friend joked with a chuckle.

"Oh not at all. Not until we got to his hotel room that day.." You admitted with a wink. Tom gave a little snicker.

"I was quite tempted to make a move then, I'll admit.." Tom smirked.

"So was I.." You grinned, seeing Tom's eyes darken and look you over.

"Hey." Your friend snapped their fingers some. "We're in public! Y'all are like rabbits. Jesus.." They shook their head, making you and Tom laugh.

"People would lose their minds if they heard this conversation, I swear.." Your friend laughed, leaning back against their seat.

It was nice reminiscing about your first couple days with Tom, before you had even begun to share a living space. You remember the dark fantasies that had been playing in your head when you went back to his hotel room with him. Now you've probably relived those fantasies twice as much as you expected in your bedroom, and now especially out of the bedroom.

"Let them hear." You shrugged, noticing Tom's slight surprise. You had started to come across paparazzi the more you and Tom have gone out. You wondered if any one of them had watched your streams to get any juicy gossip. Things have been amazing. Any gossip has been good and just excites fans.

During lunch, you talked a lot about your streams. Tom's been really interested in the technical side of it. He's almost been a regular guest. You guys can't even count how many inside jokes you've created.

Leg Day will always be your favourite, of course. It was practically the first.

After dinner, you all returned back to Tom's house. You all decided to stream together. It would probably be a while until the three of you get together again. Now's a good time for it. You all got to play a game together too, deciding to pick Smash Ultimate since it had just come out. Helping Tom figure out these games is one of the best parts of streaming with him. He could be so old sometimes.

"Oh my God, enough with the legs!" You chuckled as you fought against your best friend. They're good with Zero Suit Samus, and they use the Up B attack when you're about 100% to get a stock off you. They're really good.

"What, I thought you liked Leg Day?" Tom commented with a smirk, getting a shy but playful chuckle out of you.

"I don't wanna hear any of that shit, big dog." You chuckled. You could practically hear Tom's big grin as he gave out that iconic 'ehehehe' laugh.

"Y'all still have to tell me what that means." Your friend commented. You gave a slight playful glance to Tom, and he returned the expression. This is very entertaining.

Further into the stream, you were letting your friend teach Tom how to play. He wanted to get better with Joker.

"Joker is a pretty cool character." You admitted with a little smile, keeping an eye on chat while watching Tom and your friend play.

"He seems cool.." Tom smiled. He liked using the white school uniform skin, rather than the mask skins.

"I like his mask. It suits him." Your friend added. "Do you think Loki would ever wear a mask?"

"I don't think he'd want anything to cover his face.." Tom replied. "He may wear one to a Ball, as like a disguise.."

"Who would want to cover those eyes?" You smiled, getting a bashful smile from Tom.

"Very true.." Tom nodded.

As Tom was learning to play, you kept an eye on chat. In a quick moment, something caught your eye.

"Someone sent in a donation and just wrote in 'Nut Hiddleston' and it's really confusing.."

Your friend laughed. "Tom Nut Hiddleston.." They spoke, making you laugh as well.

"Nut? What? What does that mean?" Tom asked, a little confused. "Like a peanut?"

Oh God. That just made you laugh more. How can this man be so innocent in public, but a freak under the bed sheets?

"Sure. A peanut.." You nodded, though you could tell Tom didn't believe that's what it actually meant.

"What? What does it mean?" He asked again, getting all confused when you and your friend giggled. "What does nut mean?"

Him repeating the question just made you laugh more. Hearing it with such a concern tone in his voice was just hilarious. You were starting to notice that little small things he did were funnier than you'd normally think, like him giving little smiles or dropping something. It would give you a warm feeling in your chest, too.

You finally leaned in close to his ear to whisper what it meant. His expression went from slight confusion, to complete embarrassment.

"O-Oh my.." Tom blushed heavily, fixing his glasses. "I-I see.." You giggled again, shaking your head.

"How did you not know what it means?" Your friend asked Tom with a little laugh.

"I don't keep up with today's lingo!" Tom chuckled. "I just learned of what TikTok was the other day..."

"Oh God, TikTok.." Your friend cringed some, making you laugh. "Stay far away from that App, Tom.."

"From what I've heard, I can understand that.." Tom agreed.

After the stream was over, you all got ready for bed. You helped your friend get settled in the guest room, your former bedroom, before going back to your new room to lay down with Tom. You crawled into bed and nuzzled up to his half naked figure. He smiled and wrapped an arm around you.

"I nearly forget the times we slept in separate beds.." Tom admitted.

"I nearly forget what it's like not to wake up with jelly legs.." You added with a shy blush, getting a chuckle from Tom.

"It's not too much, is it?" He asked. "I'm a bit of an...adventurous lover."

"No, it's great.." You smiled, pecking Tom's chest. "You're great.."

Tom smiled, turning off the little side lamp so the room would get dark, laying down on his pillow and closing his eyes to fall asleep.

"...I'm gonna miss this.." You admitted, making him open his eyes again. "After March, you're headed back to the UK and I'm headed home.."

Tom detected the sadness in your voice. Truthfully, he would miss this too, but he couldn't possibly ask you to move in with him, or at the very least, spend another couple months away from home.

"...Hey now, that's not for another couple months.." Tom spoke up, trying to lighten the mood. "Let's enjoy the time we still have together.." He pecked your forehead, making you smile a bit.

"I know.." You spoke in a soft tone, nuzzling close before closing your eyes and falling asleep.

You can't keep delaying this conversation forever, though.

[yiqiie]

I am not sure why they make boys sit outside in first ep. that was little weird since some of outside boys ended up doing well. but now I think about it, I think they did those kind of things to encourage boys to work even harder. IP boys (esp Kun, Nong, Justin) kinda have things handed over. This season, nobody have it easy. Li Wenhan's team almost lost to Casper's team. "Tough" Rappers did a cutesy vocal song. Casper's team and team A of vocal song got too comfortable and didn't work hard (1/?

you can see it in ep 4. Rappers and Li Wenhan’s team worked hard and kept practicing while other teams (who suits the songs better) didn’t stay late. I actually find myself losing my respect for Casper. He was very cocky and confident because his team have rappers while Li Wenhan’s team are vocalists who have to rap. This season show that you still have to work hard even if you’re good. Also, I heard that all new rules was due to copyright issues (mnet threw hissy fit) so IQIYI have to change all rules. unfortunately, that includes allowing both teams perform on stage. there’s nothing IQiYi can do about it. personally, I like new rules. it fits the reality. idol industry are brutal. if boys can’t handle QCYN, then they are NOT ready to be an idol. idk if you watch ep4, but I am impressed with losing teams’ reactions (except for casper’s). a lot of them took it as a lesson and put their best in practice video. IQiYi did good job at giving losing teams screen-times they also released the practice videos so fans can vote for them as well. I just checked the result of first elimination and I saw several boys from winning and losing teams being eliminated. personally, I think IQiYi show less favorites in this season. Their favorites are those who worked their asses off. those who fools around got less screen times and I am totally fine with that. Dream’s Team A is an example. Mingze got a lot of screen-time even if he’s from losing team because he worked hard while his teammates (who received less screen-times) didn’t work hard enough until it’s too late. lol im rambling now. anyways. HOWEVER, I do agree with you that there’s a lot less of fun scenes like playing games, etc. idk about bts videos since I relied on lovely subbers lol I think it’s because IQiYi actually tried to give all teams decent screen-times 3 hours and it’s still not enough lmao. hopefully, it will become more funnier since there’s less boys now. don’t give up yet!

i’ll put my answer under a keep reading so this doesn’t clog up people’s feed! 

the first episode seating was based on preliminary voting, i.e. lower ranked boys were forced to sit outside and to me, personally, that was pretty unfair. Trainees with established fanbases are obviously going to get more votes, company fans are going to stick to voting for trainees from the company they stan (bigger company trainees have a better chance of getting more votes) and new fans are going to vote for those who they consider to have the best ‘visuals’ so it ended up turning into a kind of ‘visuals ranking’ / previous popularity ranking which i didn’t really like as much as last time which was just they got to choose for themselves 

i think it would be very unfair to say that IP boys, esp Kun, Nongnong and Justin, have things ‘handed over’ to them. Kun had a previously established large fanbase, yes that’s true, but that doesn’t just devalue all the hard work he puts into his training and all the shit he went through. He voluntarily handed over a position he could have easily won in ‘Dream’ Team to let Qian Zhenghao stay, he let Zheng Ruibin take center in ‘Listen to What I Say’ and when he won that evaluation with the most votes, it was because he worked his ass off with the team to help them improve. Nongnong is the same, he started off in A grade and fell down to C because he was an inexperienced dancer and truly couldn’t keep up at that stage. He worked his ass off all the same for the evaluations and still, he wasn’t guaranteed placing first in his teams. To say anyone had anything ‘handed over to them’ or had it easy in S1 would honestly not be true. 

I also don’t think it’s necessarily true to say that Casper’s team ‘didn’t work hard’. Maybe in comparison, they didn’t stay as late as Li Wenhan Team, but I think it would be harsh to conclude that they didn’t work their asses off all the same. Personally, for me, I think Casper’s Team had a tiny bit better stage presence in the end but then again, I knew Li Wenhan team would get in (more on that later). 

This seasons’ showing that you have to work hard even if you’re good is not any different from last year. They’ve emphasised it differently with the new rules, but I don’t think we should take away all the hard work that the final top ranking boys put in in S1. The Mnet think makes sense because Mnet is a shithole so welp 

Now, with the whole losing teams thing. I understand why they used that new rule. Like you said, it’s realistic. But for their first stage, I think it’s a bit too unfair. There are people who have barely had like two minutes screen time altogether, and we all know how much live performances can influence someone’s elimination result. I think at least for the first live performance, everyone should have an equal opportunity to win some new fans on a live stage (which is way better than a practice room). If they used this for a later evaluation, I wouldn’t have complained. 

Another thing, I literally could predict every single team that was allowed to perform (except maybe one I think) based on the team members. @linm0mo basically covered what i want to say about this so here’s the link 

I have to disagree with you on screentimes. When I said iqiyi was being unfair with screentime, I wasn’t really referring to only the losing teams. Yeah, they showed their practice videos in the episode (because they have to) but I’m kind of talking about individual screentime. I’m not sure if it’s just bc I’m hypersensitive to this now (because of S1 criticisms) but I felt that those teams with more popular members were given just more time with behind the scenes footage in general . We are always seeing the same few faces, whether that’s a close up for reactions, interviewing them or just in general editing to show more of their conversations in favour of other people. It seems exactly the same as last season which was the one thing I hoped they would improve. 

After experiencing iqiyi for a whole year, i have a better feel of what they’re doing. The popularity and trend of s1 is something they want to continue and how would you do that? giving people who have previously established fanbases just that little bit extra screentime because they know that’ll secure more people to watch. It sounds really bad when I say it like that, but you can’t deny it’s true. I have nothing against the top ranking boys (i stan guan yue for god’s sake and i’m an ikun lol) but i guess i’m just disappointed iqiyi isn’t at least trying to hide the fact that they’re slowly playing favourites again. 

I’m going to continue watching because I already have boys that I’m supporting again and I hope they do well. Hopefully, iqiyi can up their game in providing more content about their developing relationships like they did in s1.