#We all know the reason we haven’t been shown this is because the creators are cowards

[acewizardinspace]

We see the attack on the jedi temple in ep 3, the Kenobi show and from Grogu, and they all show how horrific it was, but none of those have shown us the elderly.

It is only logical that during the war most of the people in the temple were those too old or sick to fight, yet, in all of these scenes we are only shown what appears to be mid-life adults.

But I just can't stop thinking about the elderly jedi.

The jedi who haven't picked up their lightsabers in 10 years, let alone actually turned it on, standing up to protect their homes. The jedi who gave themselves one final mission, to save as many of their people's children as they can. The jedi who fought in their hover chairs, who didn't even try to evacuate, who tried to stall the onslaught for just a little while longer.

I get really emotional thinking about the elderly jedi who are typically forgotten in these discussions.

[koimethehorizon]

Fionna and Cake theory: Simon the Artist

Nothing like a good old creative panic attack.

Fionna and Cake good. Haven’t been excited about a show like this in a long time, though it being a part of Adventure Time does help quite a bit. I was holding on to some cautious optimism for the show when it was announced as yet another big IP series covering the multiverse (still waiting to groan at THAT scene where Prismo has to explain to us about there being infinite universes), but as usual, Adventure Time’s crew continues to surprise me with its creativity, humor, and thematic resonance.

The most striking part about Fionna and Cake so far is just how deliberately the show wants us to differentiate it from the original Adventure Time.

We’re getting shots where Simon pops an artery from his arm, a theme song that explicitly talks about suicidal ideation, discussions of rent and financial problems, and curses no longer disguised with AT’s usual dialogue. Adventure Time has always had violence, thematic density, and juvenile rating pushers, but they were always reserved at small points. Meanwhile, these are factors that are just casually shown and discussed in Fionna and Cake every 3 minutes or so. This is not an all-ages miniseries, it’s for young adults. (hint: this will be relevant later)

Let’s get right into it. This is much less a speculative lore theory and more on what thematic direction the story may be going.

Before we do, let’s get this out of the way first. This theory assumes that the current Fionna and Cake world is all a part of Simon’s head and not merely a separate multiverse, which… I’m certain is fact for the following reasons.

The immediately obvious piece is that Fionna and Cake was always the Ice King’s fanfiction. Now if you’re versed in AT’s continuity you’re probably going to be asking about the red light in Fionna and Cake + Fionna and… I’ve no answer for it unfortunately. It’ll probably be relevant later in the series and possibly age this post like milk but for now, we’re not here to focus on the how, but the why.

Second is that the intro and the ending of Ep 2 literally show Fionna’s world spilling right out of Simon’s head like an animated world out of a frozen brain. If that isn’t clear enough-

Didn't realize this until writing, but these glasses are just plastic made to look like Betty's

There’s no other explanation for this other than that this world is artificial or influenced by Simon in some sense. Fionna even specifies that the statue went under renovation 12 years ago, but nobody seems to know who it is. Considering how Finn looks in the episode, it’s likely that it’s been that long since Betty’s sacrifice in the finale.

With that out of the way, here it goes.

The reason Fionna and Cake exist in the first place is because the creators found Natasha Allegri’s genderswap designs charming and wanted an in-universe reason to use them the Ice King wanted to create trashy, wish fulfillment through art. It was a phase.

Definitely changed that image for publishing.

Simon can argue if they’re good or bad but it’s undeniably his art. It’s not just a portfolio he left behind in a closet, it’s an experience that was shared with a larger audience.

And even if wasn’t liked at first, the citizens of Ooo seemed to have come around to it. And some of them love it!

Whether Simon likes it or not, he has a fan base that is so endeared to the story he made all those years ago that they demand he makes more. Why let a good story, loved by many, go to rest when you still have some life and creativity left in you?

Can't move on in more ways than one.

Except, the problem is that Simon isn’t Ice King anymore. He’s aged out of it.

His real passion is history, he's an adult who who finds passion in the mundane and antiques from the past. And frankly, there isn’t much room for wish-fulfillment and fantasy anymore. Simon has responsibilities. He has a job and a daughter in a world that is moving faster than he can process.

And where Ice King wrote about looking for love, Simon has already had it.

And lost it. His mind isn’t focused on the rosiness of finding new love, it’s grieving the one he already thought was the one.

Wasn't he supposed to be good with kids?

Despite his new life experiences, all his peers seem to want from him is to make more of what they’re familiar with.

A story made from wants and wishes that he doesn’t even have anymore.

A story that was literally made by someone else at a different time. It’s a fiction he cannot connect to anymore, art that he’s embarrassed by. Yet also jealous of. Because at one point, the body Simon used to be in understood what exactly was missing from his life and could express that easily.

Seeing it again is like experiencing a retrospection of a cringey loser you don’t want to imagine having ever been. It’s not you anymore, and you don’t want to be reminded of that.

Because despite him having a new creative passion, no one seems to care about that. All they want is Fionna and Cake. And what is more lonely than other people misunderstanding what you’re trying to express?

If I failed to make it clear somehow, my theory is that: Simon’s relationship with Fionna and Cake is a metaphor for creators growing out of their art. And this new Fionna and Cake world is still comfort art born out of Simon’s current desires and perceptions.

The snippet subtitles this “child holding a phone”. I guess I’m wrong. Essay over.

Episode 1 and 2 both have direct parallels with each other. They’re both about a protagonist who are feeling displaced from their world, living a phase of losing a significant other, leaving a thankless job, wearing a mask of stability in front of the people they care for, seeking a guru at the heart of the forest, and concluding that they no longer belong in their current world.

But more importantly, Fionna and Cake (the characters, the world, and the show) are no longer for an all-ages crowd. Fionna and Cake now feature young adults, curses, gore, alcohol, partial nudity, financial issues, morning routines, mid-life crisis, and overt suicidal ideation. These are the feelings that Simon relates to and possibly desires to express through art. Thus, his story and our new miniseries have warped that way.

Am I overthinking this? No. How dare you assume that.

Is equating the unconscious writings of his dementia-ridden self to Simon as his younger self seem a bit odd? ….Kinda. Again, it’s not the how but the why that matters in this case. I'm NOT crazy, I have proof that there is some acknowledgment of this directly in the show.

Rewatch the bar scene and apply this reading of the episode to what Simon says there:

“Your old stuff, Fionna and Cake, honest to glob my man, is an inspiration to me.”

“My old stuff, I don’t really want to talk about my old stuff…”

“Why not? You should be proud! You wrote an entire extended universe in a fugue state if you think about it.”

"Simon cringes"

If you have ever shared art with a group of people in the past, you’ve had this conversation.

Not likely, not possibly, no perhapses. You HAVE.

And Fionna and Cake being an epilogue to a massive award-winning, near-decade-spanning, cultural sensation 5 years after it ended, might result in its creators feeling very retrospective about what audiences want from them now.

And how difficult it’s going to be to tell new experiences and tones from what’s come before. Also, come on. “Extended Universe?” That doesn’t sound like Fionna and Cake. That sounds a lot like something else.

Again, seems bad with this kid.

One of the more profound shots in the main trailer for the show features the inconspicuously Finn-like kid crouching at her Fionna and Cake book in Simon’s trash. I believe this character is going to have a major role in two ways. Convincing Simon to be proud of what he’s accomplished and/or embracing that Simon wants to move away from his original work in order to create something new, or perhaps more likely, reinvent Fionna and Cake into what Simon relates to now.

We’ll just have to see what Simon thinks of his new Fionna next week.

PS. Talking as a fan now, WHAT IS UP WITH THE 1000+ TREEHOUSE IN THE INTRO?!!! ARE WE REVISITING THIS TIMELINE AGAIN?

SOMEONE TELL ME NOW!!!

[generic-sonic-fan]

Team Dark Week: Creation

Summary: After seeing some of the files regarding Shadow’s creation, Omega has something of his own to reveal. For @teamdarkweek.

1890 words, no content warnings

---

“A loud Omega is normal. A quiet Omega is a cause for great concern,” Rouge said as she filed her nails.

“You’re right. He hasn’t been acting like himself since viewing the files.”

“Yeah.”

“He thinks of me differently now, doesn’t he?”

Rouge looked up. “I wouldn’t think so. Why would he care about how you were born?”

“Created.” Shadow corrected. 

“Still. I don’t get how reading The Professor getting all weepy and emotional about you would piss him off. Unless his hatred of Robotniks is generational.”

“I shouldn’t have shown it.”

“Hey, look at me.” Rouge grabbed his hand. “You showed us for a reason. A damn good reason. Let me go talk to him, he might just be pissy about something stupid that’s entirely unrelated.”

“I doubt that.”

Rouge finished filing the nail she was on, before leaving the filing board on the countertop and disappearing into the hallway. She returned with Omega behind her. 

“So what’s got you all snippy, hmm?” She asked him.

“I AM NOT ‘SNIPPY’.” 

“You haven’t said very much since we got back.”

“I REQUIRED TIME TO PROCESS THE INFORMATION SHADOW HAS GRANTED US.”

“Did it anger you?”

“NEGATIVE.”

Shadow and Rouge glanced at each other. 

“YOU SHARED THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR CREATION SO THAT WE MAY, QUOTE, ‘HELP YOU REMEMBER’.” 

“I did.” Shadow replied.

“WHY WOULD YOU WANT US TO SEE A TIME WHERE YOU FOOLISHLY DID NOT HATE YOUR CREATOR?” 

Shadow took a deep breath. “Because it’s part of who I am. His initial kindness to me and his reason for creating me are things I don’t wish to forget.”

Omega paused. Instead of saying anything more, he turned around and stomped back to his room.

—

At 10:00 PM, Omega yelled “TEAM MEETING.” 

Shadow opened his bedroom door to see Omega standing in the doorway of his own room. Rouge emerged from her room with her headphones around her neck.

“What’s up, Omega?” She asked.

“THERE IS SOMETHING,” Omega paused. His cooling fans whirred higher. “I WISH TO SHOW YOU.”

“Alright.” Shadow replied. 

Omega beckoned them into his room with his hand. It was strange to see him use a gesture instead of words. His room was bare, as usual, with the exception of his power cord and his desktop computer. A data cable snaked out of one of the computer’s ports. Shadow didn’t think Omega owned one, given his distaste for having his processor accessed. 

Omega took the data cable and plugged himself in. The screen’s nuclear explosion background was overtaken by the scrolling data of Omega’s processor. Segments of the data began aligning, until a video player formed on screen. 

“What are you going to show us?” Rouge asked.

“WATCH.”

---

REPLAYING MEMORY LOG _001. . .

---

“Isn’t it magnificent?”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik stood five feet forward, gesturing behind himself in front of two smaller robots, one yellow and one red. 

“Yes, it truly is, master!” The red one crooned.

“I don’t know, seems to be missing a chin, if you ask me.” The yellow one put his hand on his own mentioned appendage. 

“It doesn’t need a chin, you dolt!” Dr. Ivo Robotnik stepped forward and backhanded the faceplate of the yellow one.

The force of contact between the flesh of his hand and the metal of the yellow robot’s chassis was not enough to fracture any bones, but it was enough to burst small blood vessels close to the surface of his epidermis. This constituted an “injury”. It was forbidden for any Badnik to injure its creator. Such insolence must be punished immediately!

Unit E-123 marched forward and snatched the yellow robot by the throat. He quickly calculated that the position of his claws was ineffective for a target that did not require respiration. Unit E-123 had not been programmed to destroy robots beyond information on the basic tolerances of metal plating. He created a new folder in his programs and began compiling data for the possibility, before-

“Hahaha! No need, E-123. Put him down.”

Unit E-123 released his grasp, and the yellow robot fell to the ground before floating away at what he calculated to be the maximum speed it could achieve with its thrusters. The red robot also activated its thrusters and traveled a similar direction. 

“See that?” Dr. Ivo Robotnik came beside Unit E-123’s extended arm. “That lethality? That obedience? Truly I’ve outdone myself this time.”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik placed his gloved hand on Unit E-123’s arm and pressed downwards. Unit E-123 understood the implicit command and returned to a neutral position. He swiveled his head and tilted his optics up to observe Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s face. 

“I certainly solved the particular set of problems that bubbled up from the previous of its series!” Dr. Ivo Robotnik grinned. “Not to mention fit the most superior firepower of my entire army within a single chassis!”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik strolled around Unit E-123’s frame, scanning his eyes up and down. Unit E-123 followed with his optics. 

“Heh, respectful, too! Keeping eye contact, ready to receive any order. Although we’ll see how that changes when its short-term adaptive processing calibrates and we start getting some more intelligent thought up there. . .”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik turned and interfaced with the computer.

“Oh! Seems to have finished calibrating a few minutes ago. In that case,” Dr. Ivo Robotnik whirled around and clasped his hands together, “hello, my creation! Status report?”

“Systems fully operational.” Unit E-123 reported. He then considered his next words for longer. He was a magnificent, superior robot. He should not reply with a basic status report. That was unbefitting of his actual status, evidently!

“Good, good.”

“Status: superior.” E-123 elaborated further. 

“Ha, it even knows!” Dr. Ivo Robotnik said to the red and yellow robots cowering near the door. 

“Indeed,” the red one ventured forward the equivalent of one of Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s strides, “you are quite superior, Unit E-123! You will do the Empire proud.”

“You’re going to get Sonic real good.” The yellow one nodded as well. 

Unit E-123 fired all of its scanners- visual, audial, tactile, chemical, and chaos radiation -to search for any sign of Sonic upon his mention. He found none. The yellow robot must have been referring to the wretched enemy in the hypothetical, a possibility he had not considered before in verbal interactions until now. Unit E-123 noted this for future reference. 

“Ohohoh, if Sonic tries to interfere with the Subject, he’s going to be in for a nasty surprise.”

“This unit will eradicate him!” Unit E-123 affirmed.

“Yes! Yes, you will!”

“He will not withstand the firepower of this unit’s arsenal!”

“Why, you’ll blow him away! There won’t be even a smear of blue left on the wall once you’re done with him.”

“I WILL SHOW HIM MY SUPERIORITY!”

“Augh, not so loud, not so loud,” Dr. Ivo Robotnik lowered his hands from his ears. “While I love your enthusiasm, you’re going to damage my hearing.”

Unit E-123 lowered the volume settings of his voicebox, and to ensure that he would never make such a mistake again, he knit together a program that would create a warning message should he ever be tempted to raise the volume high enough to damage Dr. Ivo Robotnik’s hearing. He patched it over the software that interfaced with his voicebox. 

“Now, speaking of hearing loss, allow me to grab my earmuffs and we’ll head out to the firing range to see how you do.”

Dr. Ivo Robotnik walked to the nearest counter and began searching the drawers, grumbling the phrase “now where did I put them?” as he did so. 

“Drawer label #12, beneath one layer of processed wood pulp.” Unit E-123 pointed to where his scanners had identified the location. 

Dr. Ivo Robotnik opened the identified drawer and retrieved the personal protective equipment. He then smiled back in the direction of Unit E-123. “Well aren’t you just perfect!”

“Affirmative, I am.”

But instead of affirming, Dr. Ivo Robotnik frowned. “Let’s correct that little slippage before it starts to become a problem. You are to refer to yourself as ‘this unit’.”

“Affirmative.”

“‘Affirmative, Master.’”

“Affirmative, Master.”

“Good!” 

---

END OF MEMORY LOG _001

---

Omega unplugged himself from the computer and the video disappeared from the screen.

Shadow was the first to speak. “I have never seen the doctor behave that way.”

“YOU ARE NOT TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION. IF YOU DIVULGE ANY INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THIS MEMORY LOG TO ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL, I WILL KILL YOU.”

“We won’t tell. Of course we won’t tell.” Rouge patted Omega’s forearm. “Your secret’s safe with us.”

“GOOD. COMMENCING DELETION PROCESS. . .”

“Hey, wait a minute. You’re not deleting that, are you?” Rouge said.

“NOW THAT YOU HAVE WITNESSED THE FILE, YOU WILL ‘HELP ME REMEMBER’. STORAGE OF THE FILE IS NOW UNNECESSARY.”

“”That’s not-” Shadow balled his fists.

“Omega, you can’t just delete your own memory.” Rouge said.

“HOW DO YOU INTEND TO STOP ME?”

“I’m not going to stop you- I’m just going to tell you that you really shouldn’t do it.”

“YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO ARTICULATE YOUR ARGUMENT.”

“Because it’s part of who you are. You can’t just run away from the bad things that have happened to you. Deleting this is just going to bite you in the ass later when you get the feeling you’re forgetting something you really should remember.”

“THERE IS NO VALUE TO REMEMBERING THIS REVOLTING EXCHANGE.”

“Well sure, you could hate the man without really knowing him, but remembering a time when he wasn’t a complete self-serving fool helps you hate him even more.”

“YOUR ARGUMENT IS FALSE! MY HATRED FOR EGGMAN WILL NOT BE AFFECTED!”

Shadow stepped in. “Keeping this memory will remind you how far you’ve come.”

“Yeah, you were able to get around all of the fawning the doctor programmed you with! That says more about how strong you are than almost anything else.”

“MY KILL COUNT BEGS TO DIFFER.”

“Strong internally,” Rouge flew up and knocked on his head plating, “which is not something a lot of people could say about themselves.”

Shadow met Omega's optics, stared at the flicker of intelligence behind the glass. “I couldn’t have done what you did.”

Rouge landed. “Hey, knock that off.”

“It’s the truth.”

“YOU DEFIED THE INTENT OF YOUR CREATOR ABOARD THE SPACE STATION ARK.”

“I had Maria.” The room went silent as he said her name, as it always did. “I couldn’t have done it without my memory of her. You had no one but yourself.”

Omega’s frame went still, and his optics defocused. 

“That makes you stronger than I am.” Shadow finished.

Rouge came beside Shadow, waiting and watching for Omega’s next response. She parted, however, when Omega abruptly walked towards the door of his room. 

Before he left, he turned his head over his shoulder. “I AM GOING TO THE TARGETING RANGE.”

“They’re probably closed by now.” Rouge replied.

“THEY WILL NOT BE CLOSED IF THEY WISH TO KEEP THEIR SPINES INTACT.”

“They probably aren’t closed, then.” She snickered. “Let me get dressed and I’ll come with.”

“NEGATIVE.”

“Think about what I’ve said.” Shadow crossed his arms. 

“I WILL NOT COMMENCE THE DELETION TONIGHT.” 

He left. Shadow followed him out into the hall and watched as he shut the apartment door behind him. 

“Do you think he was lying?” Rouge said.

“He trusts us.”

"Seems he does.”

[rosenotactuallyquartz]

What do you feel about the official Rebecca Sugar pearlgreg art going around?

i said: “okay, but where’s pearlrose?”

i’m half-joking. i’ve gotten a few asks about this, and i only vaguely posted about it on sunday. so, i’ll talk more about it since you guys are interested in hearing my opinion! i am also typing this all out while i’m extremely sick, so i apologize if i ramble (even) more than usual.

a lot of my closest mutuals were very happy about this, because they already liked the pearl + greg ship or, more so, the gregrosepearl poly ship. which is something i understand, because a few years ago sugar sketched pearl + rose kissing and it’s really awesome to have a sketch of the ship you love by the creators of the characters.

i’m someone who doesn’t like drama, so i didn’t get involved and i don’t quite understand what people were arguing about because i didn’t look into it at all. some of my closest friends have different opinions about ships, and that’s okay! the only time i get mildly annoyed is when people try to put down my favourite ships to bring up their favourite ships. especially when they really misunderstand the ship they’re putting down. for that reason, i try not to do the same when i write about the ships i like, and i try to be fair & unbiased when i’m writing comparative stuff.

where was i going with this?

right, so i was happy for my mutuals who already liked gregpearl & i didn’t want to (nor did i feel the need to) get involved in The Drama™️

that being said, i mentioned that i only get irritated when things impact how the fandom acts about my favourite ships, and i think that’s why i felt a little bit concerned. pearlrose is misunderstood enough. some fans act like pearl never truly loved rose, or rose never truly loved pearl. even if their love is validated, the ship & the shippers get hate on a lot of other platforms and a lot of the time, fans hate either pearl or rose, anyway. i felt so alone until one of my (now mutuals) gave me the idea to be more active on tumblr than the subreddit.

so, a few sugar sketches that we’ve never seen before have been shown to us this year and my only concern would be that the fandom would become even more… misunderstanding & possibly even more hateful towards pearlrose, as well as the people who ship them and are simply just trying to live their lives. there was a sketch that i don’t like to talk about, but it was one of the early sketches posted in may and it made people hate pearl & pearlrose. recently, i had someone tell me they hated pearl because she “did this *shows me early sketch* to rose” i had to remind them that early sketches (especially ones that aren’t in any books and weren’t released as the show was released) are far from canon. & this sketch in particular contradicted canon (i.e., communication issues resulting in a severe lack of closure that would not have been the case if this happened, or pearl canonically never doing *something* until she opens up about repressed trauma). anyway, it was bad, and it fed into all these misunderstandings that people have about pearl’s character.

so, that’s another opinion i have. i think it’s just important to remember that sketches like these are not canon. especially because they include such important details that would have altered the plot. i haven’t touched the subreddit in days because i’ve been afraid of hearing the, “well, knowing what we know now, pearl was probably afraid of greg being rose’s favourite because she already liked greg, too!” these sketches are likely scrapped ideas or things that sugar is exploring with their characters. unless they tell us this happened & it’s canon. basically, i was a little apprehensive knowing how steven universe fans have acted in the past about sketches like these.

that being said, does it bother me if people are enjoying these sketches & choosing to use them to support their personal headcanons, without using the sketches as reasons to hate on characters or ships? of course not! these are fictional characters and it’s totally okay.

if you’re wondering what i think of GregPearl the Ship™️, i always preferred pearlrose over gregpearl and gregrose, but as a poly girl myself i do enjoy AUs where greg, pearl, and rose are together and they all really like each other and communicate. it’s comforting for me, personally! the situation in canon ended without closure with a major lack of communication & some mental health issues so i love looking at what-ifs, even though i do really like that pearl ultimately comes to terms with things, talks to greg, and begins to find closure & understand that rose did love her. it’s a really meaningful theme about how important it is to be vulnerable and have difficult conversations, even if you’re insecure & hesitant.

pearl + greg being intimate any time after rose’s death, would absolutely be complicated and… yeah. in my opinion, pearl does seem a little out of character, just like she did in some other early sketches. & something really important is that sugar didn’t mean to share this with anyone but some crewmates / friends (but don’t quote me on this, i literally just read that in a comment and i don’t even remember if it was here. it does make sense though). i have no idea how we’re all seeing it now, and i don’t have twitter where i’ve heard there’s more information.

regardless, i don’t think it’s a reason for drama, you know? whether these arguments are about headcanons, beliefs, shipping, characters, canon, etc. the people who like the sketch… like it, and the people who don’t… don’t, but it doesn’t change anything in canon, really. people can enjoy this sketch if they enjoy the pearl + greg ship, and people who prefer other ships can just… enjoy their other ships and go about their day.

🩷

[servospawn]

✎┊Get to know me ⤫

Tagged by @thegloomiestwhim 🖤

1. What’s your favorite sims death? 

Blunt force trauma via vending machine. 

2. Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Mix &proud of it. 

3. Do you cheat when your sims gain weight?

Nope. They’ve been known to fluctuate their weight often. 

4. Do you use move objects?

Is that a serious question? 

5. Favorite mod? 

I’m not even sure anymore so I’ll just say everything from Nraas. 

6. First expansion/game/stuff pack you got? 

Livin’ Large.

7. Do you pronounce “live mode” like aLIVE or LIVing?

Alive.. anything else is weird.

8. Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

I haven’t shown his sim form in YEARS.. but this answer will always be the same: Granger 

9. Have you made a simself?

I have. I still have her too. One day I’ll throw her back in my game so she can embarrass me some more. 

10. What sim traits do you give yourself?

Foodie, Perfectionist, Hates Children, Loner.

11. Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Black.. not that nasty blue/black. BLACK.

12. Favorite EA hair?

Idk.. probably that one TS3 hair that looked like uncooked ramen because Granger wore it forever. 

13. Favorite life stage?

YA.. but I’m learning to actually have my sims age for once. 

14. Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

I only build unless I’m forced to, so.. gameplay.

15. Are you a CC creator?

A fake one.. sure. 

16. Do you have any simblr friends/a sim squad?

@x-virtualism-x, @fanaskher, & @touchmypixels have been with me from the beginning.. &a few others who are no longer here.

But really I’m including anyone who has witnessed this blog become complete &utter garbage. It’s been a ride.

17. What’s your favorite game?

Round of applause for The Sims 3.

18. Do you have any sims merch?

Lol.. chill.

19. Do you have a YouTube for sims?

Nah.

20. How has your “sim style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Sheesh.. a lot??? 

I guess I’ll say that my sim style has included more realism over time of being here. Seeing their portraits side by side (from left to right) as they’ve grown into how they look now is a little jarring for me because I’m not really sure if it’s consistent. If you look hard enough or you’ve followed me for a while you can tell that some of them are the same sim but others like Ben have gone through some serious overhauls. 

Mostly that reason is because in my eyes they’ll be forever wips. I’m always changing something about their background, story arcs or genetics &all that comes into play with their appearance. 

As far as my actual sim style is concerned.. IMO.. I’ve improved. When it comes to personal preference your own opinion is what should matter so please never let anyone else influence you on how your sims should look/behave. That goes for life in general too.

21. What’s your Origin ID?

Servospawn.

22. Who’s your favorite CC creator?

I can safely say that I have Sandy’s entire catalog &she’s the only one I’ve ever donated to, so.. AroundTheSims3/4.

23. How long have you had a simblr?

Est ‘13.

10 big ones.

24. How do you edit your pictures?

Photoshop. I’ve simplified my editing drastically over the years. I run my gameplay shots through a couple of actions &call it a day.

25. What expansion/game/stuff pack is your favorite so far?

For TS3.. University. TS4.. idk. I haven’t stuck with it consistently enough to form a well rounded thought on any of the recent packs. 

26. What expansion/game/stuff pack do you want next?

We not buying shit over here.

This was fun to do.. thank you. I tag @x-virtualism-x, @fanaskher, @touchmypixels, @wooldawn, @crsentfairy, @kazuaru, @pralinesims, @sims3melancholic, @vyxated, @birdietrait, @xldkx, @non-sims, @therichantsim​ &whoever else wants to do this. If you did already please disregard. 

[docholligay]

Dog and Wolf

Hello! This is about up to Episode 3 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 3 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the third episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open

I love Taissa because I feel like she’s horrible in a way that is so relatable for me personally. Perhaps that’s the gift of this show--it’s like a fucked up Sailor Moon where no matter what your ‘deal’ is you can find someone who makes you feel represented, only instead of you being a princess of the galaxy you’re a gelatinous blob of bad impulses and coping mechanisms. Anyway.

There’s a one man show I really love, and no one ever watches it, but I am borderline obsessed with the way it tells stories, called “In and of Itself” and one the of the things it talks about in that show is the time between wolf and dog. That’s the time of day when the sun is so low, that you can’t tell the difference between a wolf and a dog.

Doc, what the fuck does this have to do with anything? Taissa is a wolf. This isn’t just me saying this, this has already been shown a few times within the show, there’s a lot of wolf references and imagery generally, sure, but SPECIFICALLY in reference to Taissa*. But she’s living in a world that is domesticated, now. Her wife is a dog. Her wife is upright, and kind, and thoughtful. Her wife believes good things of her, and is, you know what? Actually naive. When she says Tai promised that this campaign would be about the issues, she shows a stunning lack of knowledge not only about how politics is done but about who her wife IS.

Tell you what, if I ran for anything, my wife would just assume I was going to start committing overt social violence immediately, which is part of the reason I DON’T run for shit, is I would be hedged into a situation where I KNOW I would compromise my values and become a person I can’t be proud of.

And Tai too! her first impulse is to weaponize something Bathurst didn’t do and couldn’t have prevented--his family potentially owning enslaved people. But she knows it’s an effective weapon, the same way she sets herself against Allie, the same way she doesn’t attempt to convince fucking jackie of anything but shows her that she’s no longer leader, the same way she is going to use Bathurst’s daughter’s addiction to bolster her own campaign. THE SAME WAY SHE HIRED A WOMAN TO TRY AND GET THE OTHER GIRLS TO CRACK. Taissa believes that the best defense is a good offense and that was never ever just on the field.

Taissa is a predator. 

And this is part of the problem with Sammy, too, isn’t it? Sammy is displaying wolvish tendencies, aggression and strong pack behavior with his family. IN many ways, he is a Taissa who has not learned to appear a dog in the dim light.

I’m not unconvinced that part of this show is about generational trauma but we haven’t gotten far enough for me to make more than a throwaway comment about that, so.

Maybe the woods let Taissa be the wolf she always was. Maybe everything happening with the postcard is going to release that ugliness, that strength, that power and that darkness.

*I think this is too on the nose, but I’m not leaving out the possibility that Taissa killed Jackie. I’ve talked before about rabbits and wolves in this show, and Jackie is Doomed, and Shauna’s fucking weird rabbit thing I think has to do with still hating yet memorializing Jackie, jackrabbit, etc etc etc. I am gonna laugh so hard if Jackie is alive ahaha.

[psychopasss4]

I think everyone has their own vision of the charecters.The voice actors,the writers,the director all have different vision.I have respect for the voice actors but the only vision that matters in the end is writers+directors+producers.Seki is more like a veteran stage actor who loves tragedy so he wanted a tragic ending and no romantic attachments for Kougami but that doesn’t mean that’s what the creators have in mind for him.As for Kana Hanazawa she’s literally never hidden the fact she prefers Kougami by a long shot.She clearly said to the director “Insensitive but honest types like Kougami are preferred by all of us(including her)and more popular(over Ginoza).That’s why akane and Kougami’s relationship moves people’s heart.”(on page 3 of the Newtype spread on July)

As for the creative team they have always said Akane’s relationship with both Kougami and Ginoza are workplace relationships.You hear about Akane and Kougami more because it’s the relationship people want to know about again and again.

Kougami doesn’t make any moves because you know he’s seen Akane as someone he needs to protect and he probably convinced she’d never be interested in him romantically(can’t blame him because Akane hasn’t shown signs so why would he assume?)

My impression is they have showed again and again Akane likes Kougami,haven’t they?Akane has never liked any other man aside from Kougami.And she SHOULD tell him she likes him.That she’s grown up and not to see her as someone who needs to be protected but as a potential romantic partner and she wants him.Maybe more casually but you get the gist.Akane ending up with someone she’s no feelings for as a consolation price is very icky to me.She’s the best girl of the series and she should be with the man she’s liked since day 1.

Hi again Anon 🤗. Totally agree 👍🏻, everyone has different opinion. As per the NewType spread, it doesn't necessarily imply that Hanazawa-san voted for Shinya x Akane, but rather she acknowledged their strong fanbase and the reason why.

Again, as mentioned to my first answer to you let's just wait for Season 4. And hope for the better and focus on the plotline rather than Shinkane or Fredegami or any other ship. 😉

As for Akane, I think the writers understand her well enough (Ubukata and Fukami) and focuses more on her character development than relationship development.

For "Kougami in-love with Akane and just shy to admit it". There's a chance. It could be❣️ and I wish it does. But nothing is for sure. Otherwise, it should have been explored more in PPP film.

For now, the only thing we can confirm is that Akane have (or perhaps used to have) feelings for Kogami. But as most fans noticed, it's a bit one-sided. The girl likes the boy, but the boy is flirting with other girl 😅.

And I love Akane's character for her to suffer from a one-sided love. Anyways, I love all characters. Even Kogami who exhibits the same behavior as Gin-chan 😉🤣

[jimkirksgirl]

hate spock/chapel but hate the casting of uhura more.

You should hate more on the casting of snw uhura

spock and chapel are not the issue. dont hate them much. hate the snw creators for downgrading and erasing uhura as a love interest. snw uhura is a flop in reception, no one cares about her because she is ugly and no one wants to ship an ugly girl with spock. that is the fault of the creators of the show. they knew this and they still went on with it.

spock and chapel can be a thing and it would have been fine if they have given us a hot gorgeous sexy uhura because it meant they could have built to spock and uhura as the show went on but that can never be because ugly masculine girls like uhura in strange new worlds are never romantic interest to very popular guys like Spock. they are in the mammy trope mode.

i dont like the spock/chapel ship, however i have a hatred for the casting of uhura a lot more.

I like your blog, however i wish you will join the voices of uhura fans who are unhappy by the way they have presented her in snw a lot more.

we dont like or want an ugly masculine uhura and we need more voices to make it so.

Okay, first of all, calling Celia Gooding’s portrayal of Uhura “ugly” and “masculine” is very unkind. I happen to think Celia is very pretty and can very much hold her own against Jess Bush’s Chapel. Now, is Celia pretty and sexy in the sense that Zoe Saldana is in her portrayal of Uhura? No, because the writers haven’t written Uhura that way for whatever reason. But that doesn’t take away from the beauty that Celia possesses and brings to the SNW version of Uhura. Calling someone ugly and masculine to degrade them simply because you don’t like them or think a character has been miscast is just hella distasteful and rude.

Secondly, and let me state again for the record that I like Celia as Uhura. I think my only problem is why they’ve made her so much younger in SNW than she appears in TOS/AOS. I think this may be part of why the writers haven’t made her a potential love interest for Spock. And we already know, too, that there are a few years between Spock and Uhura as shown in AOS. She was a cadet and he was already an instructor for 4 years when the first AOS film happens in the timeline. But in SNW she just seems a lot younger than the rest of the crew and I don’t quite get why the writers made that decision.

I will also say that I don’t agree with how the writers have written SNW Uhura. She reads as more of a background character for me and like she may not be as integral to the crew as a whole and that I truly don’t like. But that isn’t Celia’s fault and Celia is only able to work with the material given. So, I think the only point we can agree on here is that SNW’s writing of Uhura is shoddy at best and the writers should really do better for such an icon such as Uhura that Nichelle and Zoe so beautifully and powerfully brought to life in TOS/AOS. I just think the writers haven’t given Celia the material to do that yet and it’s such a shame because I think Celia could do a wonderful job at bringing more depth to Uhura in a way that fits better with her actual character instead of how they are writing Uhura to be right now.

And I do want to say thank you for liking my blog, but I will not be joining the hate train for Celia’s SNW Uhura.

[matan4il]

i'd love to know your opinion on what you think is going on with buck and eddie, like why is it that they haven't had a scene since episode 1. Do we think there's a narrative reason or that it's the creator/writers way to try to stop people from shipping Buddie?

Hi lovely Nonnie!

I addressed the distance in 6a a little in this ask reply, and I also kind of mentioned it in my meta comparing Buddie to Captain Swan (from Once Upon a Time) because that actually can serve as “proof” that this general notion, of keeping a ship apart for a while only to bring them back together, closer than ever, is a known one that is employed with many ships, during slow burns, like with CS, or even when they’re already established.

I can give as an example for the latter another ship I love and have written a bit of meta for, Kinnporsche. SPOILERS if you haven’t watched yet! During ep 109 of KPTS it seems like Kinn and Porsche are being torn completely apart. Kinn’s ex, Tawan, is back and flirting hard with Kinn, making Porsche quietly seethe with jealousy. They don’t communicate, most of Kinn’s time is spent with Tawan, including going alone without Porsche to the house where Tawan hid the hard disk, and before the ep is over, Tawan manages to make it seem like Porsche is guilty of being a spy who had betrayed Kinn. Porsche is arrested on Kinn’s order in front of everyone, and not even him pleadingly addressing Kinn changes that. At the very end of the ep, when Porsche is in his prison cell, hoping Kinn would show up, realizing his mistake and freeing Porsche, it’s actually Vegas who does, giving Porsche the opportunity to run for his freedom. Ep 110 reveals that he did, he chose to run away with Vegas. And all KPTS viewers know how much Kinn hates his cousin and doesn’t trust anyone around Vegas. So it looks like Kinnporsche can’t come back from this. Except they do. After rescuing Porsche at the warehouse, Kinn reveals to him that he never believed Tawan, and it was all an act to find the real spy. Which is why he chose to let Porsche run away with Vegas. There’s no greater demonstration of trust on Kinn’s part than that (given how he feels about his cousin, and how we learn he’s right to) and this will make them closer than before and lead to the trust we’ll see Porsche put in Kinn as well at the end of s1.

(I’m gonna put here a “keep reading” cut, just in case. But here’s a friendly reminder you can toggle on the “shorten long posts” setting that means you won’t have to depend on bloggers remembering to do this!)

These events are obviously very different in nature to what Buddie are going through in 6a, but the basic storytelling principle is the same. When you know the audience really wants to see two people together, keep them apart for a bit and make it lead to them closing the gap, leaving less distance between them than there was before. That’s exactly what we saw with Buddie in 5b.

Yes, a key element is the bringing back together of the two, stronger than before. Given the domestic Buddie scene we saw in 601, which feels in hindsight like it was there to reassure us hat 911 isn’t abandoning Buddie and it hasn’t stopped caring about them. It’s one reason why I don’t tend to believe the show is trying to get us to quit shipping. Another is that I don’t think there’s any real cure to shipping. There is no way to force viewers to stop believing that two specific characters are the best fit for each other. The most a show can do is try to give one or both people in the ship another partner, one that would dazzle the viewers and convince at least some of the shippers that they’re a better match for that half of the ship than the other half. The only thing coming close to such an attempt with Buddie that we’ve seen so far have been Ana for Eddie and Taylor for Buck. But both have been so poorly invested in, both have been shown from the start of their team with their respective partner as being “off” and both end up leaving the show during the very same season, leading me to think that that’s not what 911 was trying to do with them, it wasn’t trying to get us to quit Buddie. Especially not when it had Buck help Eddie figure out that he needs to break up with Ana, and Eddie being Buck’s emotional focus during 5b, despite officially being with Taylor...

I hope that helps! xoxox

Since I’ve been getting an influx of asks (you might have noticed that I’ve been scheduling more ask replies to post per day to try and keep up), I hope it’s okay if I answer you and this other Nonnie together, since you’re asking about the same general subject:

I saw love your metas! You do a great work, even in season like this one where we get almost no buddie content. Btw I see a lot of people seeing this distance is like the one we had in 5a, but honestly I disagree in 5a Eddie was mentally distant, because he was preparing for the breakdown, but we had almost a real buddie scene every episode, plus we had 2 girlfriends, this season imo there wasn’t any real reason to separate them so much, what do you think?

Awwww, kind Nonnie, thank you so much for these wonderful words of support, they mean a lot to me! *hugs*

Regarding your comparison between the seasons, I agree that there are differences! Everything you pointed out is spot on. But I would still point out that most of the moments we have of Buddie in 5a are on calls. Up to and including 504, they still have private conversations and moments, but 505-510, while they still have moments on calls that we know are meaningful, they don’t talk about them. I think this is particularly notable in 510, when Eddie is going through the worst of it, but he still doesn’t talk to Buck. Eddie has already broken up with Ana, Taylor is there, but LBR, we all know that made zero difference the second Buck heard there was something wrong with Eddie, and she didn’t stop her boyfriend once from being there for his husband in 5b.

So I tend to believe that while the exact circumstances might be different, the principle is the same. The show wants us to pine over Buddie and lose our minds once they bring our two morons back together in 6b. If they don’t, they seriously don’t understand their audience or the kind of story that they’re telling. And so far, that is not the impression I have of 911!

Again, I hope this helps! xoxox

Have a great day, both of you! And if you need it, here’s my ask tag! xoxox

[arrthurpendragon]

So, this is gonna lose me followers. I’ve already lost some, but I’m gonna tell my truth now.

I’ve been quiet about what’s been happening this weekend because this weekend is a difficult one for me to get through in general. Mother’s Day is hard for me for several reasons, but I’ve been focusing on myself because I didn’t want to get myself into a bad spot mentally. I think most of you know that I’ve had a very, very rough year and I wasn’t emotionally available for what I knew was likely to happen. That is why I remained quiet. For my mental health.

But I’m here to share that I too have had my own stories. My own worries. My own concerns. I would like to add that I did talk to @anna-phora - and gave some of my details to them. I wasn’t ready yesterday.

I hope I’m ready now. Because here goes.

Up until they unfollowed me, I had considered them a friend. I had sheltered them in the past and I couldn’t find a good way to stop, because I had already offered them comfort. I don’t enjoy backstabbing people. I was hoping that with a little nudging, they could be guided in the right direction. So please know that what I’m writing, is VERY HARD for me.

I first met Maddie through ocappreciation. As an admin there, I was the one who ended up doing most of the queuing. (And still try to.) That is where I first ran into the stealing issues.

I believe the first one I noticed was Adrien Argent. I knew I had a friend, who already had a TW OC, with a FC of Matthew Daddario, named Adrian Argent.  I’ll confess at first, I thought it was the same OC. Back then, I tended to bulk queue once a week and I was just trying to get posts in the queue and didn’t much bother to look at the user’s name.

Then someone brought it to ocapp’s attention. I was conflicted, as was the staff at ocapp. We could see both sides. I especially could be both sides, because as someone who had been writing OC fics before - I had been accused of stealing. People accused me of stealing from a HP fic even though the end date on my fic was before their start date. But because someone else’s was more popular - I got targeted. I knew what it was like to be on the other side.

Also early on in my days in the community, I found out that despite not knowing each other nor having crossed paths with @twofacedharveydent that we both had Superntural OCs where the OC was a Winchester sister, nicknamed Elle, both were paired with Cas, both had a connection with angels, and if recall correctly both had Lyndsy Fonseca as a faceclaim. We had a good laugh over it - because when it came down to our written work - our stories were different. We were able to be friends.

I will confess that this has likely skewed my outlook a bit, because I would never intentionally copy off anybody. For me personally, they were always happy little accidents. I think because I had been falsely accused, I wanted to be quick to defend others who might be falsely accused.

. . . back to ocapp. What we decided to do, as a group, was let those authors sort things out. But we (meaning me) were very careful not to reblog anymore Adrien Argent posts. Even this year, I still wouldn’t add them to ocappreciation.

Then came the Riverdale craze. Suddenly there were OCs that appeared to be quite similar. Don’t get me wrong, back then it was hard to find a red-headed female to be an Andrews sister that didn’t overlap. But as a community, I felt that most of us still tried to keep things different enough. Like if we used the same faceclaim, then we made sure our OCs had different personalities and such. Well . . most of us.

Again, being admin at ocapp, I could see similar OCs popping up. But as admins we made a stance of trying to let the creators figure out their stuff out. From all the evidence shown, clearly that didn’t work out.

That being said, there are some cases of their OCs where I haven’t felt completely comfortable with. But I think with me, being a “popular” blog, they knew to twist them just enough - but it was still obvious to me (and some others who brought it to my attention) where the inspiration had come from, because my OCs were usually first. There were a lot of times when I created an OC and then they would. I wasn’t sure whether to feel flattered they wanted to join me or used. It was all very conflicting.

Anastasia Andrews - That OC came out not too long after my Annabelle. They had a lot of similarities. Both were an Andrews sister. Both were crushing on Jughead and depended on him when Archie was in his stuff in the beginning of the show. While Annabelle wrote in a journal her feelings, Anastasia took photographs. While Annabelle was once in gymnastics, but had no team at school, Anastasia was a dancer. Both problems were solved with the River Vixens. Again - I tried to brush it off as concidence, but others noticed and I had no solid response. Because I was used to having my literal writing stolen. 

Elle Winchester - Maddie did ask for the blessing to use the nickname Elle. I had no copyright over a nickname, so I said go for it. The more the merrier. But I always felt a little anxiety whenever I’d see the edits for graphics roll out. My Elle Winchester is one of my more popular OCs I’ve ever written. Again, I tried to be supportive and put on a brave face

Cassia Potter - This one was brought to my attention by several of my followers how they seemed to be a mix of others OCs with my Leila. I’ll confess that I felt that way a bit too - so I usually never ended up putting content for them on my blog, unless it was a chapter update. I tried to make that concession.

Helena Jackson - appeared after my Ophelia. Someone brought it up to me and I brushed it off.

Honestly, this all of this is a HUGE part of the reason I stopped writing for many fandoms that Maddie was in. If I wrote for another fandom, they weren’t active in, I was safer.

I’m sure there are others and more takes, but my brain is already exhausted - because Mother’s Day is hard for me.

I knew that Maddie was ocfanhub and codenamekryptonite because of ocapp. They had sent us asks saying that we were spelling Wynter’s name wrong. And then later we got an ask asking that all Wynter’s stuff be removed from ocapp. This was the time they made the switch. 

To those who were disappointed by my stance on things: I’m sorry. At first I was trying to help a creator who felt picked on. But when the evidence was mounting up, I stopped talking OCs and mostly just talked about real life stuff, because I felt bad about losing them - because I also knew that they probably needed someone. Because the last thing I ever told my mother before she died was “I hate you and I never want to see you again” I never want to burn a bridge with someone.

To Gloria - I don’t know if you’ll see this. But I’m sorry I wasn’t as supportive of you. If you read this at all, I hope you understand that my stance came from being wrongly accused and I wanted to help others - my stance was because for a while, I daily had people coming to me and asking if they could use the same name, or faceclaim, or plot lines that are inevitable in certain fandoms.  It was getting too hard for me to deal with having all those asks, so I made my post - when we seemed to have had our falling out. It was never my intent to hurt you. I was just under a lot of stress and I thought a post would help others. I never meant for it to hurt you. It was meant to help others from being so scared.

I’m sorry for not doing more to help others or help nudge Maddie further. I apologize for my part in the drama. Please know that it wasn’t intentional. It was coming from a sincere part of my heart, as is this message.

Please know that I am here to create for fun and make awesome friends who can support one another. I personally thought I had that with Maddie, but clearly I was wrong.

All I ever wanted was for Maddie to apologize and own up to what they’d done. Or hope that they’d manage to find a compromise with the other creators. As a teacher, that’s what I teach my students and that was what I was hoping for from Maddie. I still want that. I think they’re a wonderful creator and hope that one day they’ll stop burning all these bridges and find their way back. Please don’t send them hate.

[leonardhoee]

A Rant About Ikesen’s Treatment of Motonari

I’ve been away from tumblr for a while but I had to come back for this.

So something I’ve noticed throughout playing Ikesen is the way that the game is very biased agains Motonari and I think it needs to be addressed because he is the only brown character and his portrayal is full of harmful stereotypes against brown men. I love this game but I haven't seen a single person acknowledge how badly Motonari is treated by the creators and the fandom as a result of that.

Also any racist comments will be blocked.

Possible route spoilers under the cut…

So lets start with the obvious, he is the only dark skinned character in Ikesen and when I first started playing I was so happy about that because finally (regardless of his ethnicity which honestly in this portrayal of him can be up for debate, I HC him as south East Asian) we are getting some representation. Throughout the game though I started noticing a lot of harmful stereotypes being thrown onto him that none of the other characters face.

Both him and Nobunaga are relatively misogynistic, I’m not denying that at all. However the way it is portrayed in their routes is very different. Nobunaga should in fact have sexual harassment charges, yet its romanticized repeatedly throughout his route. Motonari on the other hand treated MC as a possession the same way Nobunaga did, however he is shown as aggressive and scary as opposed to Nobunaga being shown as sexy and romantic.

There is also a difference in their respective CG’s 

Motonari’s CG is shown much more threatening and aggressive than Nobunaga’s

That brings me to my next point. Every other antagonist so far is shown to have a gentle and redeemable side. Kenshin threatened to wage war on the whole country while keeping MC locked in a cell yet he is still shown to be gentle and romantic. Kennyo repeatedly kidnaps and threatens MC’s life in other routes yet he is shown as a gentle monk who just wants revenge for his fallen brethren. Why doesn't Motonari get that level of consideration and empathy? Why is he, the only brown man, shown as an aggressive two-dimensional brute in every single route that isn’t his own? And this is a harmful stereotype that shows itself in all kinds of media. Brown men are depicted as predatory and aggressive both in fiction and real life.

This leads me to his ethnicity (I’m only talking about Ikesen’s portrayal of Motonari, I am well aware he was a Japanese warlord irl). In his route there is a part where he is talking about slavery and colonialism. As a South Asian woman I completely understand his perspective and its what got me thinking about this subject in the first place.

This subject is clearly personal to him. These lines, the way he looks as opposed to the other characters, and the fact that he speaks Spanish (around this time period the Philippines were being colonized by Spain), leads me to head cannon him as South East Asian, specifically Filipino. However, historically, Motonari comes from a region of Southern Japan, which is known as Hiroshima today. Cybird meant to market him as Okinawan. A large part of the reason Motonari is being treated this way by Cybird stems from the fact that people from Okinawa face racism from mainland Japan. Considering the fact that this game was made in Japan, and knowing what we know about their history of colonization, racism, and east asian beauty standards revolving around colorism, I am honestly not surprised that Motonari is being portrayed like this.

Until now they just showed his reason for fighting the Oda to be “oh I just want to watch the world burn for no reason”. But no that’s not the reason. These lines. That’s the reason. A lot of the context behind those lines comes from the fact that comes from because people from mainland Japan treated Okinawan people as slaves. He doesn’t want to see another colonizer come into power. Sure he’s a bit of an extremist but historically people who have this ideology have always been portrayed as savage and barbaric and “against the betterment of society” (think Jet from atla or even Malcom x). It’s no different in ikesen. The devs are clearly villainizing this ideology. Let’s not forget the fact that irl Hideyoshi invaded Korea. And the fact that anime and otome games are part of Japan’s way of erasing their war crimes and rebranding themselves to the rest of the world. It’s blatantly obvious here with the way they’re villainizing Motonari for having a perfectly valid reason to fight the Oda. If Japan stays divided they can’t invade and colonize other countries like the Philippines can they? Anti-colonialism = bad. 

Lastly I want to talk about how they downplayed his abilities as a leader and a warlord in his own right. In all the other routes he is depicted as less educated and frankly “dumb”, and it shows itself in his speech patterns too. Compared to Nobunaga and Mitsuhide, Motonari’s speech is stereotypically “less educated” and “lower class”. Yet he is just as much of a leader as any of the other warlords. However instead of acknowledging that, the game chooses to focus on his crimes and behavior as a pirate, instead of his role as the head of the Mouri clan.

At one point Kicho even compares his intelligence to a fifth grader which just rubs me the wrong way because lets take a moment to actually look at Motonari’s abilities. He is multilingual, has knowledge of global politics and economics, is an amazing businessman, and extremely analytical. He is literally known as the God of Decit, yet I did not hear that name once until his route came out. His strategies are good enough to be called a god, yet that is completely buried in the other routes in order to simplify his character into a trigger happy psychopath and a violent brute. He is just as smart as Nobunaga yet he is not given the credit he deserves.

Both Motonari and Nobunaga are extremely similar yet because of the horribly biased portrayals, Motonari is one of the least popular characters whereas Nobunaga is the second most popular. It makes me angry to see people in the fandom choosing to blindly hate Motonari without recognizing the fact that this stems from a frankly racist portrayal of an extremely intelligent and powerful character. Although truthfully, I blame the devs because if they had given his character even half the consideration and depth the others got, this would not be the case. 

You can disagree with me if you want. I am simply bringing attention to something I haven’t seen being addressed.

I hope in future routes, events, and sequels he is treated better by the devs and and the fandom. Please stop projecting racist stereotypes onto brown men.

[bonny-kookoo]

Ready Player 01 | JJK x Reader | 🔞❤️☁️

Pairing: Jeon Jungkook x Reader

Genre: dystopia!AU, former Game developer!Jk, former pro gamer!JK, former IT specialist!Reader, former programmer!Reader, romance, Smut, slight cyberpunk elements

Warnings/tags: injustice, forcefully controlled public, violence (police/government officials against citizens), unfair powerplay, interrogation, tech talk, Jungkook be antisocial as FUCK but so is the reader lmao wbk, fear of physical contact (Haphephobia), past trauma and mentions of a bad childhood, insomnia, crime, smut because yes it’s me hello my content isn't kiddy-proof in the first place what yall want from me I'm not sure, but that’s waaY at the end ya know, friends to lovers, a slightly sassy AI but we love her, reader struggles with emotions, I mean same tbh, they're both so sweet tho I cant, not proofread because let me live

Summary: there’s a war going on; silent, but it’s there. Media has been strictly become controlled and regulated- to the point of making it illegal to own a TV or phone with internet access without a valid license. But there’s always some people that will try to break free from the controlling force.

"-a new age. This is a new year. And remember; we're doing this for the greater good. Until tomorrow." The news reporter stops talking after she somberly looks somewhere behind the camera that is pointed at her.

Your room is dark- the TV brightness on it's lowest setting so you can see what's going on- but outside, no one can see the light shining in your tiny apartment. Investing in blackout curtains had really paid off at the end of the day.

You don't want to get caught.

There's an announcement van driving past your window; the tiny slits in your curtains where the light from outside can creep its way inside brightening a bit as the headlights pass your windows. Something is spoken, and by now everyone knows the routine speech.

"Electricity will be shut down in five minutes. We advice to save all progress immediately- and we wish a good nights rest. Electricity will be shut down in five minutes..-" It repeats, over and over, counting down the minutes. You slowly move into your kitchen, opening one of the loose floor tiles to turn on your own emergency electricity system. With well practiced movements you close the tile again, moving the rug over it as you walk back into your living room, swiftly sliding the TV behind your wardrobe to make it disappear. As if on cue; there's a knock at your door.

The same as always. Routine. Two times, loud and clear. You don't even have to look through the peephole to know what awaits behind it.

"Yes?" You ask, rubbing your eyes as if you had been already asleep. The officer behind the door nods at you shortly, a mild smile on his face as he looks down at you.

"We didn't mean to wake you miss. Just routine, as usual." He says, peeking into your apartment to look for any electronics still running. It's pitch black however- so he simply nods, as his colleague notes something into his tablet. "We wish a good nights rest miss. Again, sorry for intruding." He apologizes, and you nod, closing the door.

Only when the street lights turn dark, do you move from your bed.

"Creator." The AI voice chimes up, her voice greeting you as as you lift the tile on the floor again- your phone connecting to the AI to show information you instantly decode and note down inside your head. "Player01 has just connected." The voice states, and you sit down on your cold kitchen flooring, smiling a little. "He has sent a message. Would you like me to play it?" The voice asks, and you take a deep breath.

"Yes." You say, and there's a small sound indicating the start of the voice message. A male voice is head.

"Hey, whats up?" He asks, and you can hear something in the background- maybe an empty can or something similar. "I uh.. I'm on my way. Should I bring anything? Ah wait, I know the answer to that.." He says, chuckling at the end of his sentence, and you can hear him zip up his jacket as he moves around. "Yeah uh.. just text or something, I'll bring stuff over. Can't have you starve." He ends, and the AI speaks up again.

"Would you like to repeat the message?" She asks, and you shake your head at her; a signal the artificial intelligence has come to detect quite well. "Should I archive it?" She questions again, and this time, you nod- something your invisible assistant can pick up due to motion sensoring.

"Send him a message." You say. "Tell him: I only need you. Get yourself here in one piece and I'm happy. And I'm very capable of taking care of myself." You state, and your phone shows a small loading message- indicating that the voice is doing as you said. It chimes up after a moment. "Thanks Kana." You say.

"No problem creator. Would you like for me to run through the databases now?" She asks, and you nod, a smile on your face. "Database search in progress. Estimated time: sixteen minutes and eighteen seconds." You huff out a breath as you look at the tiny display on your arm; tiny, yet powerful as it's your way of keeping Kana- your AI assistent- close at all times. Tonight, there would seem to be a lot to dig through.

They really added a lot of content these days.

It's not the door that makes you notice that there's a visitor after a while- He never uses it anyways for some reason. You're sitting on your kitchen floor with a small cup of tea in your hands- kept hot inside a slightly beaten-looking thermos can since you can't use to water boiler at night. Using anything other than Kana would cause a spike the police would be sure to notice; and you're not ready to get caught yet.

Not tonight.

It's a boy who, after a moment, opens the unclosed kitchen window to climb in; his combat boots getting a little snow and dirt from the outside into your apartment as his 80's looking jacket makes distinctive noises as it brushes against the sides of your window. His blonde hair has grown out a bit these days you notice- the roots clearly showing. It's a little wet and slightly curly from the moisture. It must be snowing outside- or maybe it had. You couldn't know for sure.

You never left your apartment.

He closes the window after slipping on the tiles inside a little, the plastic bags noisy as he almost drops them- sheepishly taking off his boots as he smiles at you. His socks are different from one another- but that's another thing so distinctive and just so.. him. He's his own person, always has been; it's what brought you two together, after all. You both stood out against the 'regular public' these days; with his brightly almost white-bleached hair he was like an albino in a sea of crows.

But you knew he didn't need that to stand out to you.

You can still remember the first few times the boy in front of you has visited you; the times where he had just dyed his hair to rebel out, or when he pierced your ears in exchange for you to do it to him as well. It was like you had made a blood pact in your kitchen that night- you had somehow gotten closer, formed a little more than just a simple companionship in order to riot against the law. He began growing close. Gave you a nickname. Began calling you his player 2. Began calling you his 'ace'. He had explained that he thought of it from memories of his gaming days; the two fighting teams always called red and blue, and one of his favorite weapons having that nickname- simply because it always 'saved his ass last minute'. He had rambled on about his last tournament after that, eyes sparkling and cheeks round from cold noodles.

You had become friends.

"hey." He says after sitting close across from you on the cold floor; the opened tile and Kana's core exposed to you two, the only source of light apart from your bracelet. The colorful LED's paint marks on his face and illuminate his features to you; but it does the same to you from his point of view. It's a familiar sight. "How are you?" He asks, almost shyly, but you know that's not what's bothering him.

"Hey Jungkook." You simply say with the hint of a smile, as you answer him. "Haven't slept well these days but, what's new I guess." You chuckle, and Jungkook smiles too- though a glimpse of concern is still shown your way. He knows however that forcing you to sleep won't do much good- your insomnia was too bad to really conquer it in a day or two just by taking naps.

And also; who was he to talk about solving personal issues.

"Have you seen the most recent reports?" You ask him, and the boy somberly shakes his head.

"I was unable to." He states. "They were patrolling close to my apartment complex because there had been someone reporting a Glitcher today." A 'glitcher'- a slang word now commonly used for people like Jungkook and you. People who went against the nightly routines, people who tried to trick the system by using electricity at night, owning media, consuming it, or dealing with it. It somehow became worse than underground drugs. "They pulled him out at around twelve or so- but they seemed too on edge the entire day, so I didn't risk it." He says, and you nod. Jungkook had always been a very good person when it came to calculating risk versus reward. He was good at reading people too- even though he didn't interact much, he got out of his apartment a lot more than you did. "Anything important?" He asks, and you shrug.

"There was a report that China and Japan were still on edge- with the chinese government arguing that they would soon start with 'more drastic measures to get things under proper control', whatever that means." You say, and Jungkooks brows furrow as he starts to pick on the skin of his jaw. "Let's just hope the flood doesn't throw us under the sea as well if it escalates I guess.." You say, and the boy across from you nods.

"Creator." Kana's voice chimes up, making Jungkook look up before remembering that the only source would be your bracelet, which you look at as well. "My scan of your body shows that you have not consumed a sufficient amount of calories today. I recommend a meal in the next five to eight minutes to avoid malnutrition." She says, and you groan. "I take this as a form of verbal communication. Running data search..." She says, as Jungkook looks at you; thoroughly amused by the teasing banter between the AI and his friend. "My data search concludes that you are annoyed, creator. I have only stated a fact however-" She continues, and Jungkook steps in.

"I've brought some leftovers from my dinner today we can eat." He says, pulling out some plastic containers as he moves to get proper cutlery out of your drawers. He makes sure to push them towards you, making sure to nod with a smile as you nod and thank him a little embarrassed. "It's nothing. You know I love you too much to let you starve!" He states with a grin, bunny teeth on full display as bitterness creeps up your throat- something you make sure to swallow down before beginning to eat.

Because the kind of love he's talking about right now, is not the kind of love you want him to feel for you.

"You forgot to give it a proper validation there-" He points out as you type away. "Otherwise it will just run instantly, and everything at once. That could crash older systems, and we know that V95 uses an older laptop, so we should take that into account." He says, and you nod, clicking back to the spot Jungkook is talking about.

This is what you're both good for.

Writing code for you had always been something you did with a passion- simply because you were good at it. Numbers and short phrases were something you could remember with ease; but you never had to think much about the visual aspect of programs in your department back when you were able to work for a simple programming company. You had simply always been tasked to program security systems and automatically updating firmware, or simple AI's for factory robots. Jungkook however had been all about the visuals; he had been programming games after all. That's why you two fit so well together in this scene. Whenever he would be in complete awe of the broad knowledge you had about official guidelines and security breaches, of staying undetected and unseen while still gaining as much as possible from every single line of code, he could always throw in his input to make sure the program you were both writing and updating for the glitch community was easy to use and simple enough so it could run smoothly on as many systems as possible. Be it phone, laptops, PC's- you two made it possible.

This program was connecting Glitchers all over the globe- and with yours and Jungkooks knowledge, you made it almost invisible. And even if it was somehow detected; there was no possible way to track down any of it's users.

The fact that you had to hide a simple program from the government made you sigh.

"Okay. Yeah I think that fixed the bug." He says, and looks at your arm- at Kana. "Oh, by the way, Kana?" he asks, and the chime gives him the cue to talk. "I heard you had a bug-fix too recently." He says, and the AI chimes again.

"I did, Player01." The AI answers. "The addition of code to my current program has proven to significantly increase my ability to observe and save more data." The female voice answers, and Jungkook grins. "You are happy, Player01." She states, and he nods.

"I am." He says.

"Why is that?" The AI asks, and Jungkook shrugs.

"I'm just happy you're doing well. Someone has to take care of ace when I'm not close by, yeah?" He states, and you try not to react to it. Jungkook is by now used to your more stoic expression; you're not too emotional and barely let things get under your skin. You've been hurt before, he knows this even if you never told him- he can see it in the way you hide inside the safety of your home, how you're so cold on the outside but still clinging onto him. Sometimes he wishes he could touch you; run his hand over your head to ruffle your hair like in those cheesy movies, hold your hand, or simply give you some reassurance in the form of a gentle hand on your back whenever you struggle.

But he's got his own demons, and they love clinging onto him just as much.

"V95 has connected to voice chat. Would you like to talk to him?" Kana states, ripping him out of his thoughts as he watches you nod.

"JK? Y/N?" A deep voice asks.

"We're here. Heard there was a raid close to you?" Jungkook asks, and he can see you grow a bit more serious at that. "Are you okay?" He adds, and V answers, although quite.. tired?

"I'm good. They got Jimin though." He states, and you sigh, running a hand through your hair as you stand up, frustrated. Jungkook knows you're trying to calm down by pacing. He doesn't mind. "They didn't officially arrest him, took him for 'questioning' though. We know what that's about." He states somberly, and Jungkook takes a deep breath.

"Jimin is a master manipulator V. He'll get himself out of it, I'm sure." Jungkook tries to reassure, but it doesn't gain him much than a hum from Taehyung on the other end of the line. "What about Sleeper?" He asks, and a chuckle is heard.

"He's been checking the videofeed from inside the past few nights. He said he's send some of the big bites to Ace though?" He says, and Jungkook looks over at your form.

"Yeah I've seen it." You simply say, though Jungkook grows uncomfortable with the way you're suddenly standing there. You're a little hunched, biting the skin on your thumb as you look at the tiles as if they suddenly began to move. He knows himself that things inside the 'rehabilitation centers' weren't all that nice to see- but you rarely ever displayed so much distress over it. "Let's just hope Jimin get's his ass out of this situation. We can't afford to loose him." You say, and V stays silent before he sighs.

"Yeah. I tell sleeper you've seen the stuff. Oh, and our prince charming has asked for a date with Ace. Again." Taehyung chuckles, and you groan- while Jungkook can't help but clench his jaw. Kim Seokjin was a very good asset to the team; with connections reaching deep inside the government and his position as a former lawyer- but he still hated his guts.

You didn't need to waste your time dating. You were totally capable of taking care of yourself, you had even said it personally! And for anything else Jungkook would provide for you. You didn't need anyone else than him.

He was totally not jealous of him.

"Can he not use our underground connections for that circus?" You say. "I don't even go grocery shopping, why would I want to go on a fucking date?" You mumble, sitting down next to Jungkook as you take a spoonful of rice. Jungkook feels a weird sense of satisfaction about the situation.

"Who knows." Taehyung says. "Alright, 10 Minute mark- I'll hear from you two soon. Take care." He says, and you both say your goodbyes before the line goes silent.

Although Jungkook hates physical contact, he likes keeping you close.

His heart is melting like chocolate as he notes the way your hand grips his jacket tightly as the two of you walk through town to get your license renewed- a way of holding onto him, and he somehow wishes it could be his hand. He knows yours would fit so perfectly in his, and yet he can't bring himself to do it.

His body is not cooperating.

He remembers vividly how his fear had developed; with his father and mother both being dramatically overworked and overwhelmed with having a kid at a young age, they had no idea how to make a child behave. Every second touch would bruise, every time he had been held would be force.

And at some point, he started to dislike physical touch completely.

It had just been like his growing interest in freelance climbing- the way he would walk and jump high over the heads of unsuspecting people, away from all judgemental gazes they'd throw his way for behaving the way he did. Only when the wind could hit him freely, only when he couldn't make out faces of anyone down below, only when he was high up- that was when he felt safe. The ground below had nothing of interest for him, no point in going down, as his apartment was located on the top floor of the complex. Jungkook never took the elevator, always the stairs.

He liked being reminded how high he lived.

And yet, there's one thing that pulls him down, brings his feet to the earth below, calls him like a siren song. It's you, hidden away from everyone's sight inside your tiny home, just as troubled and judged as himself.

He'd fallen in love with you the second you told him his name.

It had been a rainy night, his clothes drying on your heater as he was wrapped in two of your blankets; the smell of your fabric softener and something so typically you surrounding him like a mother's hug would a child. It had given him a feeling of comfort he had never quite experienced before, and it had also been the first time he had imagined what it would be like to hug you.

To have you close.

He had explained to you why he had freaked out when you reached for his arm to steady him when he almost fell inside your apartment through your window; had apologized and bowed his head in shame until you had simply shrugged.

"You don't have to justify yourself to anyone, Jungkookie." You had said. Jungkookie. "You're you. And I like you." You had said, not looking at him as you typed in some code to Kana's internal system.

His heart had warmed up at that.

And while you had accepted him, he had accepted you just as much. While at first caught off guard by your quiet and sometimes harsh way of treating him, he had also gotten to know just how gentle and delicately you treated the ones you loved. You were a loyal person, always going out of your way to be helpful, and silently basking in praise any time it was directed at you.

He loved that view. The way your cheeks would grow warm, how your eyes would sparkle; and he loved most of all, that he had been, according to Taehyung who was the second closest to you, the only one to see you smile.

You even laughed with him.

It filled him with pride to know that you were able to let go around him, even if it was just a little. It made him feel like he did something huge. It helped him sleep at night knowing that you were trusting him enough to let down your guard a little.

And it hurt him even worse knowing that he couldn't do the same thing for you.

He was a coward-

and you deserved a hero.

"Ace?" He asked, slipping through your window as he noticed the apartment silent and dark. Nothing greeted him. "..Ace?" He tried again, maybe you were asleep? But your apartment was quiet, empty, nothing spoke of your presence. Dishes were in the sink, a cup of water left untouched on the counter, and something inside of him churned painfully at the way this looked. He checked the kitchen tile, sliding it to the side like he's seen you do it countless of times.

It was dark.

Instead, he was greeted by a post it note. "Underneath the bed. Take care." Was all it read. He stood up, pushing your bed away from the wall noticing how your carpet had been torn a little. And as he lifted the cut flap of carpet, there was an envelope.

Your watch. A small in-ear piece, and your old IT-identification, folded.

A noise outside your hallway made his head snap up as he pushed the bed back into place, making an escape for it as he climbed outside the window, watch safely inside his jacket as he climbed back up on top of a building, before he examined it further, turning it on, after putting the earpiece in.

"Hello, Jungkook." Kana greeted him, and it felt weird to hear the AI say his name like that. "Creator has advised me to answer all questions you might have, and assist you from here on." She said, and Jungkook simply put the watch on, making his way to his own apartment.

"What happened?" He asked, his face serious as he walked.

"At around 6:12 O'clock, creator was taken into further questioning regarding illegal possession and knowledge of classified information and technological equipment. She had shown no resistance and complied with authorities. My observations however showed that she was taken with more force than necessary." Kana explained. Jungkook shook his head. "She had prepared for this instance during the night, approximately twenty-six minutes after you had left."

"She knew?!" He suddenly said, shutting his apartment door violently as he started to pace around, throwing his jacket on the couch. "Why didn't she contact me?"

"Analysis; your body shows signs of-" Kana started, but Jungkook interrupted.

"Shut up. Why didn't she tell me?" He asks again, and Kana seems to hesitate for a moment.

"Considering her close relationship to you, she probably wanted to not get you involved." She stated, and Jungkook sighed, sitting down on his couch as he gripped his hair. He should've stayed. Hell, it wasn't the first time he wanted to stay. He had dreamed of staying over, of fucking living with you for months to no end by now, but he was a coward. And this was his paycheck.

"Kana." He said lowly, and the small tune gave him the cue to talk. "Contact V95. Tell him it's urgent. We got an emergency." He says.

"I can't watch this." He says, jumping up and holding onto his head as to not punch his wall, unable to go through the videofeed of your interrogation room.

There's not much to see, but Jungkook knows that's simply because they haven't had the time to see to you yet. You and him knew best what really happened in these rooms, and he hated knowing that deep down they wouldn't go easy on you simply because you were a young woman. It didn't matter to them.

He'd seen teenagers way younger than you and him getting the rough treatment before- and elderly didn't get spared either.

The government bragged about having everything in order; yet they couldn't even control their own law enforcement it seemed. When he really thought back on his history lessons in school, not much had changed at all.

The world was still in utter chaos.

His palm shuts his laptop harshly- earning a tiny chime from the AI he’s already forgotten shares his home with him now. “I suggest that you practice care in treating your electronics to-“ he groans, successfully shutting it off at that. “Why are you frustrated?” It- she? Asks, and he sits down.

“I don’t know how to help her.” He admits in shame, thinking back to the footage of your hidden camera; the way they had pushed you to the ground, before grabbing you, leading you out of your apartment a few minutes away from him. “I don’t know what I should do.” He says.

There’s a bit of silence, until the AI speaks up again. “Do you have a romantic interest in my creator?” She asks, and his head snaps up at that.

“What the fuck? Why would you ask me this?!” He barks, unsure where to look since he can only hear the voice.

“I have observed both my creator and your behaviors; you seem to have a very deep rooted interest in each others well-being and opinions. This is commonly found in partnerships. I was only asking you to confirm if my assumption is correct.”

He’s silent for a moment, until he speaks again, watching the announcement van pass his window; voices dull and unintelligible though the walls and windows. “It’s no use anyways. Who wants someone they can’t even shake hands with?” He sighs, looking into his lap again. He hates that he’s like this; that even though he very much loves and adores you, there’s no magic moment that makes him forget- even though he craves the contact, he can’t do it. Every time he’s close to you, he knows that he could simply hug you; or let you rest your head on his shoulder, like in romantic movies. He wants to hold your hand, wipe your tears- but his body won’t cooperate. He can’t do it.

Not even with you.

“Creator seems very comfortable with you.” The AI states. “I have been asked to archive all text messages and phone calls of you two recently. When I asked for a reason, she claimed she would need it someday- I was unsure what she meant.” Jungkook furrows his brow, raising his head again. “Sometimes, when creator is deeply upset, she has the habit of playing some of the recordings of you singing, or reminding her to take care. My research has shown that it slows down her heartbeat to a more normal level and also improves her insomnia.” Jungkooks eyes widen at that.

Does that mean.. that you like him back?

"Kana, fuck- cut the feed." He says, agitated.

"Are you sure?" She asks, and he sighs, before yelling his frustration out, sitting down to take a deep breath. He slowly shook his head no. He couldn't let all your hard work go to waste like this.

He couldn't stay a coward.

"Jungkook, it appears to be that the creator is being let go." Kana suddenly chimes up, and Jungkook rushes to his pc setup to see for himself. And she's right- your arm is being held tightly, and something is being said to you, but your hands are no longer chained to the chair- you're free.

What just happened?

Jungkook sometimes really hates himself for being the way he is.

There's no sugarcoating it that you need comfort now more than ever, even though you don't openly show it to him. He can see it in the way you're still biting your nails, he can see it in your eyes which never stay on one point for too long. And he can definitely see it in the bruises on your upper arm, and the cut on your lower lip where you had bitten in anger and frustration. He wants to comfort you, he knows you'd let him- and yet he can't move any closer than where he is right now; only the length of his palm of space between you two. And yet it's like his joints are locked into place. He can't touch you.

What if he hurts you?

And it dawns on him right then and there while he watches you drink your can of overly sweet soda while typing your code like second nature, that he's not scared of you hurting him. He's scared of doing to you, what's been done to him. Because deep down he is aware that his parents never had bad intentions, never hated him or wanted him to suffer; they were simply unsure and not at all confident in how to really care for a child. They had been caught off guard and gotten overwhelmed by the sudden shift in their situation that they never truly knew what to do. And nowadays he felt like he was simply heading down the same road.

He was starting to feel like he was becoming just like them.

"Hm?" You ask him, ripping him out of his thoughts as he looks at you, your eyes wide and worried as you put down your almost empty can of soda. "What is it?" You ask him, and he wants to scream. He wants to throw a fit like a child at the way you seem to worry for him every time you should worry for yourself. He's a coward, he's useless, he's everything you don't need nor deserve in his eyes, and yet you always look at him like he's the main character of your favorite movie.

If he was, he was sure he'd be merely a sidekick- because you deserved to be the focus of every story told in his eyes. And if you weren't included in the tale, he knew he didn't want to ever know about it.

He swallows, before he manages to make his hand move, finger pointing at your arm where a green-ish bruise already formed. "Does it hurt?" He asks, and he's not even sure if he's asking you about the bruise, of if he's asking something else. He doesn't know what he's saying, doesn't even know if he's asking you or himself.

"No." You answer, and he looks at you, searching for any hint of a lie in your eyes. But he only sees that slight smile, lips turned a little, almost unnoticeable. But its there, he can see it, and he wants to print it into his mind to never forget it. You were so observant, knew him so well, that he was almost certain you knew of his inner fight and what he really meant with his blurted out question. "Are you okay?" You ask him, and he swallows again, eyes stinging with unshed tears as his body grows rigid like an unoiled machine, only moving with as much force as he can manage to come up with. His breathing is heavy as his eyes can't leave the spot on your arm, and your watch him with wide eyes as his shaking hand slowly reaches out.

He doesn't know what he expects to really happen.

Maybe like those electric shocks you get when someone had rubbed their socks on a carpet before touching someone else. Maybe he had expected to recoil instantly. Maybe he had expected nothing- but he was suddenly in a rush the moment his fingertip touched your warm skin, delicate, soft, everything his rough hands weren't.

And you were still as prey in front of a wolf.

But the wolf in this scenario was holding his breath while his tears finally fell. He wants to speak, but he can't, he doesn't know how to ask for something when he doesn't even know if he wants it.

But suddenly he moves again, his palm now resting fully against your upper arm, shaking, as it moves over the length of it, softly, as he imprints the way your soft skin feels. "Jungkook.." You whisper out, and he suddenly snaps, leans forward, his legs on either side of your body as he snakes his arms around you from behind, pulling you close to his chest. You can feel him shake as he holds you, his cheek resting against your back and you don't care about his tears staining your shirt as he suddenly cries openly and possibly for the first time since he was a mere child.

He's unsure, overwhelmed, because you're so warm, you smell so nice, you're so soft, and he can't let go, doesn't want to let go. He whines out as you turn a bit as he thinks you're moving away but you're simply placing your legs over his as you sit in his lap, hugging him back as you make sure to give him a gentle squeeze.

He calms down after a long while of simply existing. Of breathing you in, of feeling you. "You're right." He whispers into your neck, and you can't help but shiver, leaning into his hug.

"It doesn't hurt at all."

"You know, I get why you come up here." You comment, as Jungkook makes sure to hold your hand tightly in his, your feet dangling off the edge of the building you're sitting on top of. "It's nice." You say.

He's not listening that well though.

All he can really do is watch your face, illuminated by the neon lights of the city, hair swaying in the wind as you look down below. He doesn't quite know what you two really are, doesn't know how long it will take him to really come out of his shell and give you the love you deserve, but he's trying. He's fighting, he's left his cowardly self behind.

He want's to change.

And not just for you alone, because while he hates seeing you hurt, he knows what you two are doing- what all of you are doing- is for the greater good.

Jungkook hates your ideas sometimes.

Simply because he knows they will work, but also end up with you getting into danger at the end of it. And just like now, all he can do really is hope that you make it out as he keeps a watchful eye on your movements from above, giving you directions via Kana as you sometimes trip and stumble a little.

You're not a very active person; running wasn't really your thing.

Fuck, you were basically a hermit, the most you walked around was from your bedroom into the kitchen!

But then again, sacrifices had to be made somewhere. And Jungkook really admired you; because every time he thought that you had reached your limit, you would face it head first and break through it.

"Ace, try and somehow get to higher ground. They're caging you in from all sides." He urgently tells you as he watches police chase you down the roads, pushing citizens aside to not loose sight of you.

The plan had been simple. Gain all the attention so Taehyung could infect one of the police station's servers with a new worm, giving you all a better and easier access to any data and communication of the area. Jungkook couldn't play the bate well enough; and you had been on their radar already, making you the best option to gain their interest quickly enough.

Although Jungkook hated that part.

"Come on, ah fuck it." He grits out, jumping down to grab a ladder, making his way to a nearby area he could pull you up. There was no way you could reach any of the fire ladders yourself, and by now, things were getting too hot for him to risk anything. "Here!" He barks out, not thinking twice about grabbing your hand and helping you upwards, trying not to worry too much about your heavy breathing. And then there's it.

A pop, loud, followed by another, and another, and another. You're suddenly falling, scraping your knees on the ground below as he can't catch you, too startled by the fact that they had actually decided to shoot to react quick enough. "Fuck!" He says, eyes wide and pupils blown as he looks at you.

"Jungkook, why the fuck aren't you running?!" You yell at him, a scratch on the top of your left cheek as you push his leg away from you- the only thing you can reach. "Go!" You bark again, and he growls out something, before he manages to pull you onto his back, adrenaline not letting his brain process what he's doing.

He can't just leave you.

"Taehyung, get out, Ace has been shot. Whatever was uploaded has to be enough." He says via the in-ear piece, doesn't wait for a response. He still gets it.

"Fuck, what?! Okay okay, I'm out" He says, and Jungkook can only catch a glimpse of the older man leaving the building via the backside entrance. He's only concerned with getting you somewhere safe.

"Urgh." You groan, slowly sitting up on Jungkooks couch. "I mean, I know paintball hurts, but rubber bullets? Jesus.." You complain, while Jungkook looks at you with a dark expression. "What?" You ask him, and he huffs.

"You sound like you haven't almost been killed yesterday." He grimly says, and you shrug. "Stop. I'm serious." He tells you, and you let yourself fall back down onto his couch.

"Whatever. At least we killed their communication." You say, closing your eyes. "Must've at least pissed them off." You say.

"Kana." Jungkook suddenly says, waiting for the familiar sound to tell him she's active. "Shut down for now." He says, and you sit up, hissing instantly at the sudden movement.

"Hey- ah fuck!" You say, as you watch on your bracelet how Kana complies; shutting down. "Why would you do that?" You say in an offended matter, before you grow quiet, watching him go onto his knees in front of you, as he lets his head rest on top of your lap.

"I just want.. you to myself. Just.." He mumbles, and you slowly bring your hand to his hair. "Just for a moment." He says, and you sigh. Jungkook had been under a lot of stress recently, you no doubt being the main cause of most of it recently. So you simply let him be, as he closed his eyes. "Y/N?" He asks suddenly, and you answer him. "I love you." He says, and your body stops moving.

What?

"It's okay if you don't." He says, not moving from his spot, and neither opening his eyes. "I mean it. I only want you to know." He explains further. "Because I.. couldn't fucking live with myself if something happened to you, and I've never told you." He admits, and you can't help but stare at him. Jungkook looked down on himself so much that it was sometimes frustrating to see; simply because you saw him as such an amazing human being with countless talents and beautiful flaws.

You knew you couldn't muster up the strength to actually answer him; not so spontaneously. You weren't that expressive, you couldn't communicate as freely and colorful as he could. All your words seemed black and white to you, mixing into grey and mundane sentences while his words seemed to bloom into the most amazing paintings. He had a way of charming those around him- and he didn't even know.

You slowly leaned down instead, moving his hair to the side as you placed a feather-light kiss to the top of his cheek, close to his eye.

You hoped he would somehow understand you.

And as he moved again, looking at you with eyes that sparkled brighter than any city's skyline ever could, you knew he did.

He'd always understand you, no matter how you communicated with him.

You didn't need words to understand each other.

The shy kiss you two shared, bathed in the purple glow of the neon lights outside his window, spoke enough.

"You should try and sleep." Jungkook tells you, taking away your can of soda as you whine at him. "No buts. Come on, I'll finish this for you." He says, and you let him take over the keyboard of your laptop. It's something you really only let him get away with- anyone else would've probably lost a finger or two trying to touch your work.

You don't trust anyone but him at this point.

"I know that Kana snitched." You comment, as you lean your back against his shoulder. He chuckles. "Can't believe my own creation goes behind my back like that." You mumble, and Jungkook has a light tune to his voice as he speaks.

"Well, it's a good thing though." He tells you. "I worry about you." He says.

"Ugh come on, you know that's not the part I meant." You laugh, and he grins.

"Oh, you mean the part where you listen to my crappy ass singing to help you sleep?" He tells you with a teasing undertone. "No wonder you got insomnia trying to find rest to that." He chuckles, and you playfully hit his thigh.

"Shut up, your voice is nice." You say, and he's glad your eyes are closed, and you can't see him blush.

Somehow, moments like these re-energized him again. Because it proved to him that there was still a piece of that innocent and untainted you inside that thick shell you had put up to protect yourself. And considering that you let him see you like that made his pride grow taller than any of the skyscrapers of his city.

Maybe one day the two of you will have a future together that won't be so difficult and unfair like your current one was. Maybe one day, you both will have changed enough to teach the next generation about what you've overcome.

But then again; living in the moment seemed to fit a lot better in his eyes, as he watched you sleep soundly against his shoulder.

Yeah, this moment was more than enough for now.

The world won't change over night- you both know that. All of you know that. But small things were starting to make a difference here and there; for example, the letter you held towards Jungkook as his eyes widened.

"..and we have officially decided that we no longer want to participate in the case against the defendant. The result of this agreement is that all charges against Y/N L/N have been dismissed and are no longer being investigated." He reads out loud, almost whispering as if saying it too loud could make it a lie. "They let you go?" He asks, and you nod, the small bandaid on your cheek making you look even cuter in his eyes as you shrug.

"Jimin had reached out too. They've let him go home as well." You say. and Jungkook huffs out in disbelief.

After infecting the police station with the worm you had all worked on, you had scared the entire country enough to take a step back from the overall aggressive tone. It wasn't much- but it meant that they knew you were there. You existed, and you were not bowing down.

You were still untamed.

Jungkook smiled brightly as he put the letter down to the side, reaching out to you to pull you onto his lap. He simply holds you for a moment, his lips kissing the skin of your shoulder as if in a trance. "I love you." He tells you, and you smile, squeezing him a bit in your arms. "I really do." He assures you, and you nod.

You don't answer him, and he doesn't seem to mind as he leans back from you, his eyes crinkling at the edges as he grins, hands holding your face so delicately as he places a kiss onto your lips, making you close your eyes as he breaks away from you, letting you rest your head against his shoulder.

He's still not letting anyone very physically close other than you; he's still scared of going out and around like everyone else. You're still rather hiding inside his apartment- both of your apartment now- and you still have trouble sleeping.

But Jungkook keeps the nightmares away.

And you make him brave in exchange.

It's really weird to hear the sound of a radio nowadays.

Things are still far from normal- but recently, citizens had been given radios to listen to public broadcast again. It only played crappy music with some rare good tracks here and there, but it was better than nothing.

Jungkook couldn't help but think that your breathless voice was far more entertaining than any music station he can remember from his youth.

While he hates touching other people, even friends and family, he can't help but feel a rush whenever he touches you.

His hands can't stop on one specific spot, can't seem to stay still even for a moment as his lips nip and suck at the flesh of your neck and shoulder, marking what's his, visualizing that you really belong to him. He bears the same mark on his collarbone from last night, and he should have been satisfied, but even an early morning couldn't keep him away from you.

The rain hit the window harshly, but he didn't notice at all. All his eyes could see was your form underneath him, skin glowing as he moves above you, euphoria filling his veins as he can't look away from where you're connected, where his cock disappears inside of you over and over and over again.

"I love you." He breathes out as he comes undone, holding you close, resting his head against your shoulder, as you hold onto his arms, a smile, a genuine and big smile thrown his way as he can't help but smile along.

"I love you too, Jungkook." You say, and he chuckles.

The radio in the background still playing, as you lay in each others' arms.

(c)Bonny-Kookoo. Please stop reposting my content on AO3 thinking I won't find it. I'm literally everywhere you clowns.

To everyone else: Thank you for reading this mess- I really apologize for the messy storyline, but I just wanted to put this out before the entire thing escaped me again and I would end up struggling to find my way back into it (cough cough flashback to mean lmao). I promise to somewhat post more regularly. Thank you for your kind words and for sticking with me!

[nealcassatiel]

Supernatural and Russia and the mess of Television Legal Contracts

One of the most important aspects of a television series’ life cycle is its distribution. It is in the stage of distribution when the production companies/studio recoup the largest amount of costs.

By looking at who distributes the show, as well as which companies stand to gain the most from distribution profits, we can gain greater understanding of the various complex agreements and finances at play.

Viewing Statistics in the USA, Russia, and other International Territories

Let’s take a look at where Supernatural is distributed, and it’s popularity in the countries in which it airs. 

After the US, in the past 30 days, Supernatural’s next biggest market is in Russia. The next is in Brazil. 

This got long - more under the cut (I’ll be talking about cuts shortly)

In Russia, Supernatural has been in the top 0.2% watched shows in Russia (link) . This is also the case in Brazil. 

In 2019, a modest survey was done on urban and rural Russians asking them what foreign television they watch. Supernatural was the 6th most mentioned foreign television show (link).

In 2017, Supernatural was three times more popular in Russia than it was in the US (link - this article has just a whole other host of information about it being popular amongst urban and rural US residents, as well as popular amongst both Republics and Democrats, however i haven’t looked further into that data so not going to discuss it much here)

So selling Supernatural to Russia and airing it in Russia is going to bring in a lot of revenue for The C*W and the production companies. That is a lucrative distribution territory and of a huge amount of importance to the network. Russia will air both new episodes, and reruns. Of course, if Supernatural made a queer love story a central premise, then execs are going to get scared that not only will the finale may not be aired in one of their biggest, if not their biggest market: Russia, but that the broadcasters who distribute the show in Russia might also pull the rest of the show and stop broadcasting reruns too. That’s a shit tonne fo distribution profits gone for The C*W, and who knows, maybe their relationship with Russian broadcasters who air their other shows will be on the rocks. After all, trying to sell gay tv to Russians right now is, sadly, never going to happen. This is not an indictment on the Russian viewers, but me saying that the show won’t be sellable to Russian broadcasters if it is too queer.

A huge huge majority of US Supernatural fans are progressive and wanted the more queer focused and found family ending. But the C*W and Warner believes that there are still enough US fans who don’t want something that progressive to be shown. They also know that one of their biggest markets is Russia, and Dean being shown to be bi will not go down well there. I’m just speculating, but The C*W may have looked at those chunks of audience who give them money and decide that they only care about those profits. 

The frustrating thing however, is that no matter the power of Russian Supernatural audiences, looking at the other progressive countries and the popularity of Supernatural there - these numbers as a collective outshine those of Russia. So maybe Russia isn’t that important. Or maybe all The C*W needed to think was ‘we don’t want to stop profits from our biggest international viewership’ and so they never even went further and thought about the collective viewership of the audiences from progressive countries. As I said at the start, distribution is where the companies who invested into making a show recoup the most costs. All the money that comes from distribution is incredibly important.

DISTRIBUTION AND CO-PRODUCTION AGREEMENTS

The writers, the crew, the actors, don’t really get the distribution profits. They may get small cuts of things or bonuses here and there, but they’re all essentially employed by the production company. It is the production company and studio who has sunken money into making the show who will get a cut of the distribution profits. So the production companies and co-production companies, the creator (maybe still if they had a good agent when they first sold the pitch), the network are all going to be the ones to care about how much a finale will matter to profits from showing reruns in less progressive countries. Dabb is an employee - he personally will be paid a fixed sum which is given to him by the production company. He does not care if SPN can’t be aired in Russia - that has no personal affect on him. He was paid to showrun the series and he’ll get nothing more even if it becomes the most watched anti-gay homophobic celebrated show in Moscow. He has no financial reason to cater to anyone. He’s just an employee. 

But if information like this, the knowledge that for multiple years TPTB have wanted Supernatural to cater to a non-progressive international and national audience for the sake of distribution profits, then the show should have never have taken the narrative to a place whose ending could not be green-lit.

If for the sake of these pofits and other secondary rights, for the sake of appeasing rural/southern USA viewers, and trying to keep an audience for Walker, The C*W derailed the final two episodes, then I still don’t fully understand why the ending was heading towards destiel when all of this distribution finance information has been known for many many years. 

It makes sense why such a terrible finale would happen, but it doesn’t make sense why up until episode 18, the entire narrative of the show was leading somewhere completely different? Why were the writers of SPN heading straight towards one thing, if they knew they always knew that they’d have to have a completely different ending? 

The Right of Final Cut / Final Cut Privilege

The answer may lie in the fact that The C*W wasn’t really paying that much attention to SPN, they couldn’t really see all the subtext, but suddenly the subtext all was going to become text and they were all twiddling their thumbs and looking for something to do during COVID when the industry shut down, so they suddenly got way more involved. 

Let’s quickly clear up who The C*W is and how they relate to SPN as a company. Supernatural lists The C*W as one of it’s distributers, but lists Warner Bros Television as a production company. When SPN started it was made by The WB (which is now The C*W). It’s all under Warner Media anyway, but we can basically say that Warner Bros Television (listed as a co-producer of SPN) is the sam as The C*W who is listed as a distributer of SPN. They’re essentially the same so The C*W is both producing and distributing SPN, as well as owning the format rights to the show - sorry that’s all complicated anyway The C*W are the big dogs who own Supernatural and have done from the beginning back when they were called The WB)

Essentially, The C*W have a co-production and distribution agreement for SPN. The power they have from that first agreement when they bought the show off Kripke is almost certainly still MASSIVE today. They are not only the ultimate distributers, but the ultimate producers with all the agreements and all the rights. 

Anyway, back to that first agreement: This was Kripke’s first big deal, and he almost certainly gave Warner Bros/The C*W a whole host of creative control in exchange for them sinking a shit tonne of money into making the show. Which makes me wonder if The C*W has something in entertainment law called “the right of final cut/final cut privilege”. If a studio or distributer has sunken a heck tonne of costs into making the series and are the ones who most need to recoup the distribution costs, then in their contract they may try to give themselves the ‘final cut privilege’ - essentially, this is the final edit. There’s the Director’s Cut, but then after that there is the Final Cut. The Final Cut is what is broadcast. Nowadays, most series and films don’t allow the directors to have final cut privilege anyway - it’s fairly rare from my understanding (one of my hats is a television legal contracts assistant, and all of these contracts still confuse me even though it’s an element of my job - I’m not trained in this outside of work so i apologise if this isn’t clear). The studio or distributer doesn’t even need to clear their final cut with the writer/director/producer. They can just do it. Cut it up and broadcast it, because they’re allowed to in their contract.

So with the finale episode being so short, a mess of montages, Carry on My Wayward Son versions back to back, a narrative mess, the pacing completely off, some scenes way too short and others way too long - this really could insinuate that the stupid clause of ‘the right of final cut’ was utilised by The C*W and without the need to get the permission or allowance of Dabb or even the other production companies, they edited everything they didn’t like out of the finale, citing their contract and the fact that they’re the ones who need to recoup distribution costs, and they don’t want to piss off large swathes of their national and international audience.

In Conclusion

So positives? Well, now that SPN is done and dusted, if there is a spin-off then this shouldn't affect distribution deals in Russia or Brazil. If whoever buys the format rights for Supernatural, allows The C*W to still sell the old series distribution rights, then market the new season of SPN not as a new season but a spin-off, then this will give them more freedom to not cater to the conservative international and national audiences SPN was beholden to due to distribution profits. What I’m saying is - a spin-off could free itself from catering to anyone who isn’t progressive. The old audiences can carry on showing reruns of SPN and completely ignore the new ‘fake’ gay spin-off. They can say that it’s a different production company, a different network - and therefore not the legitimate show. Great. Free SPN. 

A new format agreement could also mean that the new producers could ensure that not the distributer, but the director, or the new trusted production company themselves gets the Right of Final Cut. If another agreement is made, please please please take that right away from The C*W/Warner. 

The difficulty in getting the SPN rights would be caused by the mess of a Format Agreement to even get those rights... Supernatural is co-produced by Kripke Enterprises, Warner Bros. Television, Supernatural Films, and Wonderland Sound and Vision. I’m assuming Kripke Enterprises and Supernatural Films may be under Warner Media (as Warner Bros and The C*W itself is). If Jensen wanted to produce the new spin-off then his new production company is under WB/Warner Media too... so. Disentangling meddling and shitty Warner Media execs from a spin-off would be difficult because they own everyone. 

All in all, it’s easy to see now with that mess of a finale that this was caused with whoever has “The Right Of Final Cut/Final Cut Privilege’. And I HIGHLY doubt Singer or Dabb or any mere employee on the show has it. It’s more and more obvious to me that this power lies in the hands of The C*W/Warner and they didn’t even try to loop Dabb or the main cast in when making the final edits. I’m sure the C*W started to get involved at episode 19 and in the development stage of episode 20, but i’m certain they had a hand in the disastrous final cut. 

I hope we’re able to pry our beloved show out of the hands of those who don’t care about its narratives, but have more power than anyone to change the show’s narratives. Thanks for coming with me on this essay/me working out this complicated mess. It’s 00:50 and I'm super tired so I hope all this makes sense. Television contracts confuse me and I work with them so i dunno how clear any of this is. 

Anyway - I hope it was totally boring.  

[loadsofcats]

One thing I find really amusing is that Demonslayer makes it pretty clear that none of the characters are quite human, whether not anymore or never have been, while still making them more human than many other characters who are literally just plain humans. (I know I’m using the word human a lot, leave me alone)

When we see where Danila, Yana and Balor live (in the Vol.2.), if we are reading for the first time, we get the same emotional whiplash like Pasha - their apartment is messy and crammed, walls covered with posters, masks and magical symbols, counters full of leftovers and wrappers they didn’t want or bother to throw away. The bathroom tiles are cracked, there are little notes and graffiti everywhere and it’s helping the scene feel alive. I think it’s one of the reasons why I latched so hard onto Demonslayer - it makes me feel at home. There’s a strange familiarity about all that; the flowery tablecloth on their table is like the one everyone has somewhere, on the bottom of the drawer, and uses it when there’s no other clean tablecloth left. The floors are the same as they are in houses of most of the people I visited - hell, some of the floorboards are so washed out they could be in my house!

It’s one of the things I think Bubble did quite well, and it can be seen in other comics too. For example, while Igor Grom is not my favourite, I still appreciate the fact that, while keeping him a bit superhero-like, they still show us he’s human. Gets home, tired, sleepless. Again, I am going to drag Lera into this as well, and repeat myself by saying that I’m infinitely glad about the creators letting us see her tired, messy, angry, and most importantly of all, human. There is one scene where we see her completely naked, and it shows her back. The focus isn’t on the front, it isn’t sexualised and we see her vulnerable, breaking down, just continuing the set of scenes letting us see her insecurity and placing us behind her, essentially putting us closer to her viewpoint than usual. We also see Sergey and Oleg later expressing emotions which aren’t anger, we see them talking things through and actually listening and caring about each other, which is, from what I’ve seen, quite rare for male characters. I haven’t read it yet, but I got the felling that Dima also shows feelings, so good for him.

While I believe these are not the only things, whether those are books, comics or movies, or what else not, that manage to capture this familiarity, it’s the first I’ve come across that hit so close to home. There are undoubtedly many other media who have managed to capture this, but this stuck with me the most for now. I also think that I might’ve taken this so much to heart is because it’s Russian, and by that I mean Slavic. It felt so great to see some representation that wasn’t in such a way that Slavic people were shown as victims or completely opposed to the rest of the world, but were just people. I also felt more connected with this because of the language similarities and some things which can only be seen from the view you get while living somewhere. I know this is not universal, and looking at people I also see lots of bad things, but as a person I tend to always focus on similarities and things connecting people, rather than the differences. I found this a lot closer to my viewpoint than I have felt with the other, mostly American, media. There are, to be clear, American things that are great, and things from other countries as well, but in a world where American media is dominant and showing us just one side, it’s refreshing to see something new and not so washed out. To add on to this, I also enjoyed the, so to call it, diversity. There are many different names and they aren’t just generic names taken just so the characters wouldn’t be a faceless bunch, but they are real and fitting and normal.

I still don’t know much about the other comics, and there’s still a lot to read (to my pleasure), but I just wanted to collect my thoughts in one place, because I’ve been thinking about it for a while.

[tehrevving]

so I was goin through your posts (for mostly innocent reasons, prommy!) and i saw one where you said that running a blog was hard after the purge, and... do you think we just got used to the now, or that tumblr culture did change and it was too subtle for me to notice..?

Aside from the obvious ‘lmao there’s nothing innocent at all about my blog’, this is actually a super interesting topic Anon. If you have been on Tumblr for that long then I’m honestly surprised that you haven’t really noticed any changes. I know I’m a nsfw creator, but still I find that crazy lol. 

Tumblr is super different now than how it was before the purge. The easiest way to explain it I guess is that everyone was on Tumblr. Nsfw and sfw artists, writers, screenshot takers, basically  all of the fandom creators were on Tumblr. Nowadays most nsfw artists are on twitter, but because Twitter is terrible for writers, there’s not really one main place for fandom anymore. Most people moved to Twitter so they could look at art, and use Tumblr much less than before, so any writers or other creators that stayed here don’t get nearly as much traction as they used to. I’m sure you’ve seen all the posts complaining about no one liking or reblogging posts, it wasn’t perfect before the purge, but it was certainly much better.

The FFXV fandom in particular completely died after the purge. So much good art was deleted and so many people were so pissed off that they abandoned ship completely, some not even moving over to Twitter or anything, all of that stuff was just gone. Fandoms that have sprung up after the purge (like DMC as an example), or fandoms that the filter doesn’t affect as much (There’s still a bunch of Mass Effect alien smut for example)  have managed to do decent-ish, but really haven’t had the sort of traction that they would have done before. 

It’s unfortunate because the Tumblr purge should have been the catalyst for someone to try and make a new social media site, like when the Ao3 sprung up after all the fanfic site purges, but unfortunately this hasn’t happened. There’s no one place for fandom anymore. 

Writers are so lucky that we have the Ao3, so at least we can confidently know that all of our work is safe. Artists don’t really have that though. If Tumblr can go ahead and just delete all of your art, then there’s no reason that Twitter, or DA or any other site won’t just go ahead and do it too. There were a lot of people that figured it wasn’t worth their time to repost stuff on another platform, or spend the time building up a following again, and I don’t blame them for it.  

Tumblr has somehow managed to build itself back up a little bit after the purge, and that surprises me a lot, but I don’t think it will ever get back to how it was before. Additionally, with Tumblr also banning all of those ‘nsfw’ tags on iOS (which sure you can blame Apple, but there are ways that Tumblr can fit within those rules without having to be so drastic.) The site has really shown all of us nsfw creators that we’re not welcome here anymore, but for now there’s nothing better so here I am lol.

[apricotgojo]

yo.. I saw the request that you posted today? IT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD WHAT THE HELL? and I looked for the prompt and ended up finding it , Can you do a part 2 where the news reporter lady gets akumatized again finds the video that she was looking for? where y/n's crazy mafia father threatens to kill her now abusive ex boyfriend because he cheated on her but she was so blindly loyal and didn't want anybody to find out? like because that would be embarrassing but instead y/n didn't know (1)

HELLO! so I didn’t really understand the request well but i wrote this out and i’m planning on making another part related to this! so here it is! thank you for this request im so happy that you liked the first one.  Speaking of which, if you haven’t read the first one here it is!  Part One

The other part will be posted soon ;)) 

Strawberries, sunshine and Adrien Agreste on a red picnic blanket.

Life is so serene, so perfect at this moment. Especially with the blond resting his head on your lap as you run your fingers through his soft blond locks. He hummed and smiled softly. You noticed his cheeks were tinted red because of the time he spent in the sunshine. He’s gorgeous.

You pick up a strawberry from the plate and pop it in your mouth, the sweet juice bursting and dripping from the corner of your lips. Before you could react you felt a hand move to your face and wipe the substance with the thumb. You look down and see Adrien looking at you, his green eyes glistening and full of life. You couldn’t help but move down and kiss him softly on the lips. It was a slow, tender kiss which you didn’t want to pull away from but you did in order to catch your breath.

“Ma Belle,” Adrien whispers, moving a lock of your hair behind your ear. “How do you feel about coming to a film festival with me tonight?” “Film festival? You need to elaborate on that babe.” You say quirking your eyebrow up. You’ve never been to a film festival before, you didn’t even know what happened there. Fuck, you’ve never even been to a movie theatre before because you basically have a whole private theatre in your house.

He furrows his eyebrows at you and chuckles. “Basically once a year the students organise a film festival on school campus. Students get to show their own short films and projects that they’ve done while we sit on the grass with snacks and drinks. It’s really fun.” He explains.

It really seemed like fun but you end up looking down. You knew that after last time’s event some people still thought of you as a bitch. People still whispered behind your back and they still judged you. Other than that reason, your father was coming home tonight from Madrid and you were going to ask Adrien to come with you to meet him for the first time.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want you come?” He asks you and you look at him, a slight frown on his face. “Alya is going to present her film today and I told her we’d come..” He continues and looks to the side.

“No, no I do !” You say quickly and sigh, “My dad is coming tonight and I was going to ask you to meet him.” You say, averting your eyes to the side.

You feel him stiffen up. “Oh.” He says.

“But I can tell him that we can meet for brunch tomorrow instead.” You say and hold his hand. “I know you’re nervous about meeting him but I just want my two favorite boys to finally meet.” You say and give him a small smile.

 He softly chuckles and grabs your hand, kissing it. “Of course mon ange.”

You giggle and hug him. It made you happy that he was willing to come. He knew it would make you happy.

“What should I wear for the festival? I don’t want to be under-dressed.” You say suddenly pulling away, already thinking about the outfits you want to wear.

“I think I’d worry about you being over dressed instead.” He laughs a little bit and you playfully hit him on the shoulder.

  “Nadja, if you don’t get me any scoop on them by tonight you’re fired.”

“Fired?!” Najda exclaims getting out of her chair. She watches as her boss raises a questioning eyebrow at her and she clears her throat.

“But madam, I can’t-“

“By tonight Nadja.” Her boss urges sternly, causing the red-head to gulp.

She nods slowly and keeps her head down as she walks out of the office.

Rage started eating her up from the inside. She needed to do something. Anything.

  “Hey girl!” Alya closes you in a tight hug and hands you a red solo cup filled with juice which was already spiked with some type of liquor.

“Hey Alya.” You smile at her and give each other a friendly kiss on the cheek. “Are you nervous?” You ask her.

“No..” She scoffs and suddenly downs her drink, laughing nervously. “Okay maybe just a little bit.” She says quietly and it causes you to laugh.

“I’m sure that your film is amazing.” You reassure her.

“Thank you.” She says warmly. She looks you up and down. “You always love dressing up dont you?” She raises an eyebrow at you.

“I told her that it’s going to be causal.” Adrien sighs and you roll your eyes playfully.

“This is as casual as I can get.” You state and arrange the beret on your head, smiling proudly.

 The two laugh and you feel Adrien kiss your cheek and sliding his arm around your shoulder.

“Marinette and Nino saved you guys a place up front, I’ll be joining you guys a little later.” She explains and nods over to where Marinette and Nino were sitting. You see them waving at you guys.

“Okay we’ll see you later then.” Adrien says and you both start walking away from her.

There they were, the whispers, the eyes all on you as you walk past the people. Adrien felt it too, you knew he did, that’s why his grip on you was tighter but it was also somewhat comforting.

“Allô!” Marinette says and giggles while she hugs you both. You could tell that she’s already had a few too many to drink You all sit down and start talking about what’s going to happen tonight, what films are expected to show and what you thought Alyas film is going to consist of.

You sip your drink slowly. This shit was strong but you didn’t mind it.

“Alya’s film is going to be the best.” Nino says proudly and confidently. “She’s been working super hard on it non-stop.”

You smiled at him. The way he talked about her with his adoring eyes - you could just tell that what they had was real. It reminded you of You and Adrien. Maybe you two weren’t there yet but the way he looks at you was the same.

“Luka’s coming later because he got held up at his gig.” Marinette groans and sprawls herself out on the blanket, her phone resting on her chest.

“are you and Luka getting serious?” Adrien asks, grinning at her.

She hums and nods. “I really like him.”

“I’m happy for you Marinette, you guys look really cute together.” You say and she sits up quickly.

“You think?” She asks, batting her eyelashes at you. You nod, grinning. “yay!” She exclaims and hugs you unexpectedly.

“Okay I think that Mari has had enough of this.” Nino says and takes away her drink, chuckling.

The atmosphere was amazing. People drinking, laughing and chatting all around you guys.

  Everything died down when the screen in front of you turned on and everyone started cheering.

Alya quickly joined you guys and you all greeted her again quietly as you clapped for opening of the first film.

It was a love story between an alien and a human which formed because of their mutual love of French toast. Weird ass story-line but it was beautifully filmed for some reason. You could tell it was amateur but the shots and the beauty of the movie as the human and the alien shared their first bite of French toast really immersed you into it.

“those berries look so good im going to bust a nut.” You hear Nino whisper and Alya hushes him, earning a snicker from Adrien.

“I wish someone would eat me like that French toast.” Marinette blurts out and you clasp a hand over your mouth trying not to laugh.

As the film showed the ending credits the creator got up from where he was sitting and everyone cheered, whistled and clapped for him.

“Isn’t it Alyas turn now?” Adrien asks and Alya nodded taking a deep breath in.

Nino squeezed her hand and kissed her cheek. “Everyone’s going to love it babe.”

Everyone got quiet as it started.

Two people were sitting on the roof,

“It’s the end of the world isn’t it?” the character says and before the other person could respond, the screen went pitch black.

Everyone started whispering to each other in confusion and you looked over at Alya as she furrowed her eyebrows.

The screen turned on again but it was a different setting.

Two men were now sitting at a large table, one with a cigar between his lips and the other in front of him. Both of them were wearing a suit.

“Mother fucker.” The man says as he lights his cigar.

“What the fuck? This isn’t what I filmed.” You heard Alya whisper.

You were confused as to what was happening but you were too focused on the film in front of you. The man with the cigar came into view even more. He looked famillar.

“You can’t kill him.” The other man says.

“he cheated on her, Johnny!” the guy with the cigar shouts and hits his hand on the table.

Wait. Holy shit, that was your dad.

“He cheated on her and she still went back to him.” He blows out smoke and looks to the side. Disgust evident on his face. “I thought I raised her better than that, I guess she’s stupid just like her mother.”

A picture of you on his desk was shown in view.

You were visibly shaking, your mouth dry. You heard people around you ask you questions but you couldn’t hear anything. You couldn’t even react.

Your father pulls out a gun and clicks it. “I’m killing that bastard tonight, pay off a few people to make it seem like a car accident and we’re going to Paris. Just her and me. I’ve got too many problems with my junkie wife and I don’t want an ignorant daughter too.”

Tears stream down your face. It wasn’t a car accident. Your father killed him. That’s how Trevor died. Trevor cheated on you with one of your best friends back In New York but you never left him because you never wanted people to find out that someone cheated on you, you had too much pride for that.

You get up from where you were sitting and run away, ignoring the murmurs of people and gasps as the film continued. You felt like you were going to throw up, you felt like everything around you has been all a big fat lie. You heard Adrien call out your name but you kept running away until you froze when you heard a familiar evil laugh.

You turn around and see the villain from last time again. but this time it she was holding your father In her arms while he’s passed out.

“Finally! I got it!”

People started to scream and you simply fell down to your knees. Too weak to move. Too weak to do anything.

Your heart was shattered.

Flashbacks come back to you at Trevors funeral. You were sobbing as you watched them bringing out his casket. Little did you know that your own father was the reason for his death.

You were broken.