#and also if it annoys you that much then you should find better fan spaces to hang out in lol

[sasaranurude]

Making a censored version of nu:c for download in the regular app stores is an understandable decision from a business standpoint--its success has been enormous even having to sideload it so they'll probably make tons of money with this. It's an observable trend that app store users spend more money on microtransactions.

So I'm not sure why people think that the release of nu:c bliss is some kind of attack on children. Even people who enjoy nu:c seem to be on this trend. The game is rated 17+ on both google play and the app store? 17 is a perfectly normal age to be engaging with censored sexual content in fiction... Have you guys even looked at the kind of M rated BL the average north american teenager can buy in a bookstore? Like, at my local shops--both national chain and larger independent--I can go to the manga section and buy any number of SuBLime or TokyoPop-published titles that have explicit sex on the page. Just in the writing of this post I went and grabbed three different explicit BL series off my shelf that I'd bought in person from book shops. The TokyoPop ones do say "18+" on them but the SuBLime titles only ever say "mature". They weren't even plastic wrapped the way hentai usually is, although I guess the dicks are lightsabered out so the publishers thought it unnecessary. If you're this mad that teenagers are going to be seeing explicit BL then I'm sorry but you have bigger fish to fry than a single censored mobile game release

Although I guess the more common argument I've seen is that this game release is somehow "inviting minors into adult spaces." What? Huh? Do you expect the game publisher to be moderating the fandom's spaces? Fan spaces are YOUR SPACES. If you don't want teenagers there, then don't let teenagers in. Also... It's not like you need to present ID to download the existing uncensored game. Does nobody remember when the nu:c official discord server first went live and it was absolutely ridden with teenagers who weren't even bothering to lie about their ages? Minors have already been trying to get into adult spaces, even nu:c ones. The nu:c bliss release has literally no impact on this. You just still have to do the same thing you always had to do: loudly state that adult spaces are 18+ and block any known teens on sight. You should be doing this in adult spaces for any fandom, regardless of source material. If you're expecting that the game publisher is going to try to moderate your internet experience for you then idk what to even tell you

[elderflowergin]

why atty jung woo-jin is so important to me (alt title: why I hope the titular good partner includes jung woo-jin too, alt title @haraxvati apologies for workplace romance talk)

If you were in fandom spaces during Sherlock, you know that people went crazy for the deductions, for how they were delivered by Sherlock on the show. Who is a terrible person to most of the people around him! The surface admiration fans feel is for the way he works and not what he does for his friends (we’re talking normal human reciprocity and not lifesaving sorts of things).

So little of romance is devoted to the opposite - women who are good at tough, unsympathetic jobs and are unapologetic about it. If you were ever a woman in law enforcement, litigation or any other job coded to be aggressive or dominant, you’d find no shortage of gatekeeping men telling you how to do your job right, and there is no pleasing anyone in this.

How to speak, how to lower your pitch, what to wear, what NOT to wear, what sort of concessions you should give to the boys in club if you want to be in the club, what sort NOT to give so you don’t look like a chump. Maybe it’s better now than it used to be. Maybe some spaces are better than others. But the outcome was the same - you never win, and someone always shifts the goalposts when you’re done. You’re too sexy, you’re not sexy enough, your voice is annoying, you’re mousy, you’re loud, you’re fancy, you’re too articulate, you’re no fun, you’re a little too much and God forbid you get angry, because no one likes an angry woman.

We don’t see this sort of criticism on the show, because Cha Eun-gyeong is successful, but it’s never far from the minds of small men, be it her boss or the lawyer her husband seeks out. And we don’t have to see more of it - her husband, who by all rights should be proud of her achievements and hard-earned reputation, weaponises her work as the reason she is no longer a mother or a woman in his eyes. Who needs to hear from a shitty colleague when the call’s coming from inside the house? He hates her success, he hates that he owes his own success to her in part at least. It’s no surprise that his girlfriend is not a fellow doctor or someone from an allied or parallel position to him - she is in an admin position subordinate to Eun-gyeong. I don’t say this to denigrate admin positions, but to point out the predictability of men like him, whose anger at not being the centre of a woman’s universe is never far from the surface.

But then there’s Jung Woo-jin, who admires Atty Cha because of all the traits that make her a good lawyer. He points out to Han Yuri that she started out doing a tough job in a time few women took it on, that she took risks and was courageous in her representation of her clients. He admires her and yes, he loves her all the more for it.

If you’re asking me why it matters what a man feels about Atty Cha’s job, frankly I don’t think it does! She’s the fulcrum of her own universe. She’s never needed anyone’s approval to do what she felt was right. But I think it bears pointing out that this is a lonely job. Clients need to be handled and protected, opposing counsel are to be suspected, and judges are to be feared. There’s at least three fronts of conflict, and here is Cha Eun-gyeong, handling it all with infinite grace. And it’s great that she can do it all, but it’d also be great if the narrative could be different, for once; if she could have friends, even lovers, potentially, who love her for all of who she is, and not just the pieces of her that are useful. It’s a fantasy, yes, but a type so specific and so underserved that it had to have been written by a woman in corporate, if not a woman in litigation.

Cha Eun-gyeong is a very good lawyer, a woman who at partner level is still working her ass off to stay at the top, and Jung Woo-jin sees that; he sees HER, and the things that make her a good lawyer are indivisible from her as a person, because they are for Cha Eun-gyeong. Which is why his admiration for her is also indivisible from his love, and it’s also why he thinks nothing of it and Han Yuri catches on immediately. Because he can’t see it, but everyone else can.

But beyond that, for me it’s the moment he bodily puts himself between the CEO (yet another man waiting for her to fail) and Cha Eun-gyeong. I think it’s easy to convey admiration privately, because you don’t lose capital from that. It’s another thing to stand up for a colleague publicly. To your CEO no less, and in front of all your other colleagues, at a time of great personal crisis for Cha Eun-gyeong. (To your CEO who is also your father, no less!). It’s telling that this unassuming man who tends to smooth ruffled feathers does not appeal to his father-boss’s ego or supplicate to secure a temporary detente; what he makes is a threat that the words being uttered are defamatory, a polite suggestion that there will be consequences for careless words, and his father absolutely picks up on it. He may pay a price for it yet, going by the conversation he has later with his father.

I don’t know why this fantasy appeals more than the other, but I think it’s in the instinctive nature of it on both sides. It’s in the way Cha Eun-gyeong - who actively distances him from her feelings, who does not open up to him by design - allows him to act as her vanguard in a deeply vulnerable moment, which in itself is an entitlement she has. It’s food for thought, a glimpse into this bond that has outlasted her marriage.

[ohanny]

so @cryingatships posted about pit babe cam boy au ideas (the north and sonic one will flourish in my brain rent free for the next forever) which reminded me i also wrote one for kenta and kim way back when and i just want to add to their genius because we need more spicy pit babe ideas

again, gets nsfw below the cut:

where introvert kenta finally moves out of his dad’s house and finds a room to rent for suspiciously cheap in a suspiciously nice apartment. he asks some questions because he's not stupid but kim’s all "don't worry, i can afford it and to be honest, i kinda get lonely” and well, it is a really good deal. how likely is it that kenta would end up living with a human trafficking evil overlord twice, anyway? like kim literally could not be worse than his father.

their cohabitation works brilliantly but after two months of living together, kenta comes home from work early to discover the reason why kim can afford their rental agreement and seems to have all the time in the world for his hobbies is not because he's some nepo baby but because he has an insanely lucrative career as a cam boy and an only fans star. because there kim is, dressed in a sheer robe and stockings, washing a sparkly pink dildo in the middle of their open kitchen.

kim, defiant: i am not ashamed of what i do and if it bothers you, you can move out.

kenta whose brain has blue screened and is currently making beep boop noises: gah 

but once kenta manages to stammer out he is fine with kim’s chosen career, kim stops hiding. partly because he's a petty bitch and wants to see if kenta is actually fine with it or if he's a closeted homophobe who really likes cheap rent and partly because sneaking around his own home is super annoying and he would much rather do his make up in the living room because the big windows provide the best light. also, it would be super helpful if kenta could lend him a hand with his lighting system because it takes ages to figure out all the angles alone.

kenta is totally having a crisis because kim is just so confident and self-assured and after he finishes filming, he will sit in the living room eating pizza in old sweats, regaling kenta with tales of cringy comments from old men and other streaming misfortunes from buying the most disgustingly tasting flavored lube to getting a cramp in the middle of riding his toys.

but then one evening kenta comes home to kim stabbing a salad, looking sulky, and he’s like “what, no pizza tonight?” and kim rolls his eyes and explains one of his top donors made a comment about how he's been gaining weight lately with a self-deprecating “i guess i got a bit too carried away with the take out and beer with you.”

kenta is offended. he might go on a little rant about how that man must be blind on top of an absolute imbecile and should go fuck himself for a change and kim is beautiful no matter what he eats and in kenta’s personal opinion actually looks much better now compared to the rail thin twink thing he had going on when kenta first moved in. kim stares up at him, wide eyed and in awe.

kenta, blushing and starting to stutter again: anyway… no one should be allowed to tell anyone what to do with their bodies and you should just block them because you don't need someone like that in your space and i will just go to my room now bye

kim, jumping to his feet to grab kenta: the fuck you are, come here -

and yes, they kiss and it's amazing but kim is still hesitant because “you're really okay with all this? because i don't plan on stopping anytime soon, i like what i do” and kenta sheepishly admits that he sometimes watches kim’s streams on a burner account.

kim: you know you'd get a much better view on the other side of the wall?

kenta: oh.

kim: that was an invitation, dummy.

kenta: OH

kim is right. the view is so much better on the other side of the wall. kim is stunning and looks and sounds so fucking good and having kenta there is totally helping him get in the mood and put on an even better show. if the live chat gets a rising frequency of comments along the lines of “is it just me or is kim looking at someone behind the camera?” well, it adds to the mystique?

and really, it's inevitable that - once he gets comfortable - kenta snaps in a moment of horny insanity and ends up revealing himself. it's friday and kim is on all fours, fucking himself with the infamous pink, sparkly dildo but he’s not able to reach quite right and he keeps begging and cursing at the camera and kenta’s brain just goes “well, i could help.” he doesn't think. he just gets out of his chair, ducks past the camera and swats kim’s hand away to grab the base of the dildo and then smoothly slides it all the way in.

it’s only when kim’s arms give out and he slumps down with a guttural moan that kenta realizes they’re still very much live. he snatches his hand back but before he can stumble completely out of the frame, kim whines “fuck, come back, sorry guys but i don't give a shit” into the pillow and the chat goes WILD when kenta is helpless to do anything other what he's told. he uses the dildo to fuck kim into, through and past a devastating prostate orgasm and once he has regained his senses, kim ends the stream with a breathless giggle and a “sorry to cut the outro tonight but clearly me and my roommate need to have a talk.”

kenta: roommate?

kim: i mean, i'd prefer boyfriend because i'm pretty sure i'm in love with you but -

kenta: boyfriend sounds good.

and they live happily ever after. kenta helps kim with his accounts, clothes and photoshoots and on special occasions, joins his streams and videos. kim charges double for everything they do as a couple and all that extra money is certainly helping him in convincing kenta to quit the office job he's way too qualified for and find what he really wants to do in life. they adopt three cats and kenta moves all his things into kim’s room and everything is beautiful and nothing hurts.

[nnnyxie]

Okay wait wait wait

You know I adore fan!Reader but what if it was Writer!reader??? Like writing fanfiction about Izuku x reader or generally hero x reader and their blog is fairly popular (assuming they use Tumblr bc yes) reader is friends with maybe Denki And Sero through some weird as connections because they‘re just a random ass civilian but keep getting introduced to heros this way

Through that they get a better understanding of the heros personality’s and can write more realistic ffs >:) maybe they‘re Denkis roomie because reader is broke and denki needs someone to care for his pet or something while he’s away- and they‘re writing a Deku x reader fiction right now and then the doorbell rings and they leave their laptop open in the kitchen and get the door- IT‘S DEKU!! They blush and stammer, letting him in saying denki should be home soon

To their demise Deku is met with a life sitze cardboard cutout of Himself (he still towers over it) and reader hurriedly tries to hide it away with the other merch

As they are busy he notices the open laptop, he REALLY didn’t mean to snoop but…holy shit

The things he finds..he blushes and quickly returns to the living space (like living room open kitchen situation yk?) and quietly Sits on the couch, flustered

Something along those lines :)

#𖢥 izuku anon

wait bc this is literally genius and ily

you’re childhood best friends with denki <3

to save up some money, the two of y’all move in together after high school. he wants to start his own agency with sero and you wanna start your own thing!! (idk you choose??)

getting that out of the way.

denki never really let’s you know when people are coming over. he’s kinda annoying like that. it’s caused a lot of awkward moments and meetings.

like when you first met sero— you were cooking and screaming the lyrics to ‘kiss me through the phone’ by soulja boy when he walked in. it was… embarrassing to say the least.

but hey— you’re good friends now!!

anywaysss

for the first time ever!!! denki let you know that he had a friend coming over!! he didn’t say which one or what time but— at least he warned you???

you didn’t think much of it cause it was probably sero or kirishima, since they come over the most.

you heard a knock on the door— which was odd bc usually one of them would just burst in. they had their own keys— they were supposed to be emergency keys but still!! it was odd!!

ofc you were silly nd didn’t look through the peep hole!! (remember kids, always check before opening the door)

when you opened it you slammed it back shut.

“uhm— does— does denki live here?” the person asked through the door. you opened it again, “sorry… uh— yeah uhm… he does.” you tried to act cool but your stomach was twisting.

“i’m midoriya izuku. i was supposed to come over and help him with paperwork today… is he home?” you silently cursed denki for not telling you, your favorite hero would be coming over. “uhh not yet… he’ll be home in like,” you checked your phone, “uhm probably an hour or so.” you were shaking from anxiety. you weren’t prepared for this— at all.

“would it be alright if i waited?” he asked, very politely. you just gave a quick nod and let him inside.

you felt like running out the door cause like— what if you made a fool of yourself?? what if you make him uncomfortable??? what if he sees your merch of him??

wait— did you close your bedroom door?

you’d been in the living room all day so you had no need for it to be closed—

and your bedroom is very visible from the living room so it’s not like it mattered if it was or not—

your bedroom is very visible from the living room.

your posters. your plush of his mask. your sweatshirt.

the fucking cardboard cutout.

then— you remembered you also left your laptop open. with your current deku one-shot on display.

“oh, do you write?” izuku says, seeing your laptop open, luckily he was far enough away so that the words were fuzzy. “well! uhm!” you shouted, accidentally. you were just nervous, okay??

you clear your throat— “yes uh— yeah. i do.”

“that’s so cool! can i—” suddenly, you dashed towards your bedroom, remembering the big ass posters and cutout that were on complete display. “hah hah! sorry! uhh… had to uhm… close a door! bad omens!” izuku gave you a weird look but nodded in understanding. i mean, some people have different beliefs—

“so uhh you can go ahead and take a seat! i’ll be in the kitchen! let me know if you need something!” you grabbed your laptop, and beelined towards the kitchen. “uh yeah— thank you,” izuku was a bit upset, honestly. does he make you feel uncomfortable? do you have something against him? why are you acting like this?

it’d been hardly two minutes and izuku already got bored (he has autism & adhd, he told me)

so. he did what anyone would do and began to snoop!!

he quietly looked at the pictures hung throughout the apartment— they were mainly just you and denki, it made him wonder if the two of you were together.

but then he remembered that denki called you his best friend rather than significant other. (he smiled)

after he looked throughout the living room and hallway— he wanted to peak at the bathroom.

IT SOUNDS WEIRD— I KNOW!!!

BUT!!!!

the bathroom can tell a lot about someone. like the kind of soap you use can tell the sort of scent you like or how cleanly you are (if that makes sense).

or if you have paper towels rather than a bath towel can tell whether you are cautious when it comes to ‘cross contamination’ (lord knows you wouldn’t want to share a drying rag with denki).

“uhm, excuse me?” izuku peaks through the doorway of the kitchen. you tense, “uh— yes?” “where’s the bathroom?” “it’s uhm down the hallway to the left.”

he smiles and thanks you. then makes his way towards the bathroom.

now. you see— the way the apartment is set up is odd.

your bedroom door is on the left but!! it’s tilted.

(i’m terrible with descriptions so here’s a few examples)

anyways. yeah. that’s how it is.

so i think you know where i’m going with this.

now YOU’D THINK !!!! he’d know that the left meant the LEFT left and not the TILTED left. but, no.

though, it’s understandable!! the setup is a little confusing.

he creeps on down the hallway, once again looking at the pictures of you and denki.

once he reaches the tilted left door, he opens it. he’s met with a, slightly shorter, cardboard cutout of him. as well as multiple posters and a few strawn out sweatshirts.

so that’s why.

he feels a blush come on. his entire face feels like it’s on fire and his ears burn as well.

izuku quietly closes your bedroom door and goes to sit back on the couch.

while that all happened, your nerves began to settle and you hyped yourself up to go bring him a glass of water— and maybe start a conversation.

“uhm— i thought that maybe, you’d like some water,” you walked in with two cups. he was a little sweaty— and still very red. he stuttered out a ‘thank you’ and basically chugged the water.

“how long have you known denki?” you ask, feeling stupid because, he’s probably known him since UA.

“oh— uhm i’ve known him since we were about… fifteen, i think? what— what about you?” his face was still very red. it started to make you nervous. “we’ve been friends since we were eight… next door neighbors and all that.” he gave a nod and began tapping his foot. his nervousness was rubbing off on you.

“so uh… what’s it like being a hero?” his tapping instantly stopped— and his energy changed. it was like he lit up. “well— it’s different for everyone! for me, it’s amazing. i love being a hero. i love helping people and being able to see their happy faces after rescuing them. i’ve always wanted to make people happy, and save them all with a smile. kind of like all might. now that i’m able to— i feel so full.” izuku smiled, staring at his hands that rested in his lap. “being able to do this all— being able to be a hero— i just feel so happy.” izuku smiled and looked back up, meeting your eyes.

“and, i love getting to meet my amazing fans.” he held a sort of hint in his eyes— almost saying ‘i know’.

eeee this was pretty fun!!

i’ll be so real, i wrote some of this when i was tipsy

[fatfables]

The Gainer in the Sty or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Others and Love the Bulge

A weight gain/gainer story for everyone who had to read that book at school!

Fakes. Nothing annoys me more than fakes. Fake fatties, fake gainers, fake feeders. Fraudulent men with fake bellies, with cushions stuffed up their t-shirts. They say they wanna get fat, they say they wanna feed ya, then all they do is sit around all day pulling it to AI generated images of teenage boys and girls with unrealistic protruding guts that are so fucking obviously fake. Then they probably go to the gym and hang with their fake friends where they take fake selfies pushing out their fake bellies so that they can post them to more fake friends on Insta or Snap ‘em with other fake gainers who lie to ‘em and tell ‘em how fat they’re gonna get. Even worse is the Mpregs, so obviously fake. And the Furries. Oh, you’re a fat pregnant male ostrich are you? Well get your thick fucking head out of the sand you fucking fake. I’m not like them. I’m a real boy, with a real belly. Not one of these perverted online losers who dreams of metamorphosing from an otter into a bear or any other damn cute little animal. I’m a real boy, I ain’t no Peter Pan and I ain’t no Robin Hood. I’ve never asked no one to morph a picture of me. I don’t need to. I ain’t into no fan art either. God, that shit annoys me. Here’s fat Ash and fat fucking Pickachu. Not into that? Why not try fat Kyle and fat Kenny or fat Bart Simpson? Bit fucking young ain’t ‘e? You fucking fake perv. The internet’s fucking full of fat anime guys and girls, but it’s alright ain’t it, cos they’re just cartoons, they’re just fakes. Till you find yourself stroking the snake to a Shutterstock image of a fat kid eating a burger.

I’ve gone too far. I do that sometimes. I’m Cody and I go too far. That’s how I should maybe start introducing myself. So as to warn people. So that they don’t get too offended. I just get so annoyed. The online world irritates me. I should also let you know that I’m a real gainer. I ain’t no fake. I love to eat and I love to do it in order to get fatter. I got a real pot belly, a real developing Dadbod. I only eat unhealthy food and I only drink carbonated drinks. Anything else would just be fraudulent. I ain’t ever bloated myself on water and I ain’t ever going to. And as for sticking a bike pump up my flabby ass, well you can damn well forget about that. My ass is a one way street! Well it ain’t, but you know what I mean. I ain’t one for air. It takes up too much space that could be better put to use for food storage.

I’ll give you an example of what I mean. I was staying downtown cos I was trying to avoid my folks. I’d gotten kicked out of yet another restaurant and didn’t quite know how to tell ‘em, so I checked myself into this middlin’ hotel for a few nights. Plan was to stay in my room and eat and goon. But I soon got bored of that after the first dozen take outs so I started swipin’ on the app like you do. Came across this cute little femboy called Danni with a pear shaped ass, said she wanted to feed me till I was a human balloon and then fuck me. We chatted for a bit and then I gave her my room number. I was already full to excited after my take outs and stood admiring myself in the mirror. My distended gut was already beautifully swollen and I stroked the underside of it dreaming about how very big she was gonna make me...

Read the rest for free at www.fatfables.com

[detectivebambam]

For the choosing violence thing.

I curious about your thoughts on 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24, and 25

(Your thoughts make my day tbh)

lol i gotchu pinky

the character everyone gets wrong: Dan. she's not a badass. i mean she is, but she's not. she's a scared little girl who had to raise herself and has no idea what she's doing at any given time and i love her for it

why andrew would never top or bottom: actually he does both, and tends to enjoy it. kind of an agressive top but Neil likes it, and sometimes likes to follow orders when he bottoms 🫣 i think they do anything and everything with each other. Neil could be dominant or submissive at any given time, which gives Andrew space to learn about what he actually enjoys. He finds that as long as it involves Neil, he doesn't mind

worst tumblr take I've seen: that Andrew was a misogynist because he doesn't like being manipulated, and "manipulation is a woman's weapon" like how is THAT not misogynistic be so real

why did you block that annoying person?: kept saying that Kevin abused Riko as much as Riko abused Kevin. don't know how far they had to reach into the depths of their asshole to find that one, i just hope they didn't get stuck

i don't have discord

which ship fans are the most annoying: y'all are going to absolutely murder me for this but kevaaron. 1) where did it come from? 2) what's wrong with Katie?? 3) no hate ship what u want but also, i can ship what i want? and it's fine it's literally fine

what character did you start to hate because of fanon: i hate to say it but Thea. i adored her when I read the books originally, but after 4 years of exclusively fanon content i didn't like her. but i did a reread recently and adore her again so it's all good

common fandom opinion everyone is wrong about: Andrew being a sex god. Neil is his first consensual sexual partner. like yeah he knows how to suck dick like a dying man, which he learned in juvie (when he was 13-16?) but in terms of sex? he doesn't know what he's doing and he's probably really scared and nervous

worst part of canon: kevin and thea turning their daughter into a mini Raven 😔

worst part of fanon: Renee erasure 😔😔

fandom related words you've filtered: as of currently? anything tsc related because I don't have access to it yet and people aren't tagging properly. but I also have Rinee (rixo x renee) blocked because,,, what do you actually mean

unpopular character you like and why people should like them: Aaron. yeah he's an asshole and a little homophobic but he was raised that way and he's getting better

worst blorboification: if this means what i think it means, fucking riko. like wdym "he serves cunt" he needs to serve time

answered prev

answered prev

you can't understand why this is popular: kevaaron, any riko ship, riko himself, ichirou x neil, andreil breaking up in fics ?

there should be more of this: fic: oral fixation. sexual or non sexual idc but let's Freud these bitches. fanart: ANDREW WITH LONG HAIR PLS PLS PLS

it's criminal that y'all have been sleeping on: STUART HATFORD. LITERALLY NEXT TO WYMACK ON THE FATHER FIGURE SCALE. I LOVE HIM

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like: i don't feel guilt I'm Presbyterian

part of canon you found boring: anytime they were in class like wdym

part of canon you think is overhyped: this one is going to get me in trouble so i wanna start off by saying that yes, Riko was a victim of abuse. I'm not disputing that at all. but the part where he got beat by Tetsuji and "was more blood and bruise than skin", while being horrible, was also because of Kevin leaving due to Riko breaking his hand. Tetsuji lost one of his biggest investments because of Riko's petty ego

fav part of canon that everyone ignores: Stuart Hatford man

ship you've unwillingly come around to: Kandreil lol. i didn't like it at first but idk the more fanfic i see I'm like yeah that could be cute

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse: picture this, if you will: Nora Sakavic says something about her own damn characters. yeah that's all

common fandom complaint you're sick of hearing: "it's poorly written" it's not. if you can get over the first chapter of The Raven King, the rest is actually written very well and it's so so beautiful and depicts traumatized characters in a way I haven't seen before that is very refreshing

ty for the ask pinky ily

[noahschnappinfs]

Honestly, a lot of fellow Noah stans would do themselves a lot of good by removing themselves from toxic environments such as twitter.

The internet has mostly moved on from picking on Noah, but if you still hang out in spaces where that kind of thing is more common, take for example st stan twt, then of course you are going to still see a lot of it. Noah already removed himself from twitter, and it would be much better for everyone's peace of mind not to continue interact with miserable people like that.

you’re totally right, i think protecting your mental heath should be always the priority and removing yourself from toxic environments is a good move. that’s exactly what noah did, he quit twitter and made a private tiktok just for his fans so he is now able do his thing without people bothering him. that was what’s best for him and i’m glad he took that step. i remember he even liked a comment about protecting his peace and i love that for him.

i also understand how annoying and frustrating it is to see how people mistreat noah so i get why so many have so much to say. it’s totally understandable to see people wanting to call out that behaviour and it warms my heart to see there’s people who want to defend him. even more when the cruelty is so mixed up with homophobia and antisemitism which makes it hard to ignore sometimes. i feel like we can find a balance between calling out that behaviour and moving on because at this point, there’s nothing else that we can do to make people understand that noah isn’t evil.

anyway, i also try to focus more on the positive because like you said miserable people will stay miserable and noah will keep on living and being successful whether they like it or not.

[olderthannetfic]

This might be a somewhat controversial opinion/rant, but as a black queer woman (i really id myself as being more genderqueer, but since i'm afab there are just things about womanhood growing up that has just stuck with me as formative experiences.), I find it really difficult to build community with queer men, even in fandom. I've tried to have friendships with transmen, but so many just feel the need to ramp up misogyny to 1000 to validate themselves as men, and then with gay men, some will say the most out-of-pocket, misogynistic things but because they're not attracted to women, it's somehow okay, I guess. But lately, there's been this trend among queer men of saying and doing misogynistic things but justifying it by stating they're talking about white, cishet women. But the thing is, there's nothing in what they said that can be specifically applied to only white women. It's a target to all women (I refuse to play the oppression olympics of who has it worse). And now I see other queer women in fandom saying the same things to each other. I typically stay in anime/manga and danmei fanbases because that's where a lot of my interests are now, and I don't have to deal with USAian nonsense as much. But now that 7 Seas has unfortunately decided to translate more danmei into English that's changed. A queer male fan of a popular series has been unfollowed en masse by danmei fans for saying wildly misogynistic things about the author. Everyone all week has been scrambling to figure out where this came from. "He only ever said these things about cishet white women," but you guys... he was always talking about us the whole time. Now, I just don't know. Now I see why men aren't generally welcomed in or are common within romance-genre circles. It's just really frustrating to see the same thing over and over again. I'll add on that the only genuinely cool queer men in fandom I've met have come from yuri circles. The ones who try to talk about BL are, from my experiences, generally misogynistic, toxic, and feel as though everything should center around them because they're men and in BL the characters are men, as well. But when other women don't want to form community with them, they scream about 'homophobia' and 'fetishizing gay men.' No, you're just an annoying, awful person to be around, and the queer male yuri fans didn't want to deal with you either. Has anyone else, or you specifically, dealt with this? Is there a way to become friends with more queer men in BL spaces who aren't... like That? Or are there specific things/patterns to look for as far as who to avoid?

--

God, so much of this sounds so familiar.

I've known a sad number of trans dudes who overcompensate in dickhead ways. A lot of them do calm down a few years into presenting publicly as male, but it's infuriating to see that crap even if it's temporary.

I will say that two of my close circle of offline friends are trans men, including one who came out during the time we've all been friends. The defensive tomfoolery is in no way inevitable. Both of these dudes are nonwhite and have experience in various other geeky and queer spaces beyond BL (gaming, drag queens, etc.). Maybe that broader perspective helped, or maybe they're just nicer and more mature people than a lot of the little jerkfaces I run across online.

TBH, I often have better luck in offline meetups because to show up at all, people have to be a little more comfortable with getting along with others and behaving themselves. It's also sometimes easier to detect the people you want to back away from slowly when you can see how they treat people in person.

One of my neighbors is a cis gay guy. White, able bodied, middle class, yadda yadda. Exactly the demographic you'd expect to be the worst in certain spaces. He and his partner have lots of queer friends, and plenty of them aren't fellow cis gay guys, which is basically my litmus test for non-annoying cis gay guys offline. (Toxic cis gay dude culture is its own kettle of fish with a different set of issues than defensive trans boy culture, but I've encountered it plenty too.)

This neighbor is interested in geikomi and was delighted to find out I'm a fellow nerd and eager for all my nonfiction book recs about queer Japanese stuff. We don't necessarily overlap in our manga tastes, but there's still a lot we do share. When I ramble on about how AFAB queer people and/or bisexuals study history that's presented as cis gay men's history because that's all we have for most historical periods, he's like "Yeah, that makes total sense!" and not "Mine and not yours!"

I think the key here is that this is a dude who is secure in his identity, who's getting both his media and queer community needs met, and who's in his 40s, so he has some god damn perspective and doesn't need to pretend BL is aimed at him.

A lot of the little jerkfaces make me think "Did your preschool teacher not teach you how to share your toys?"

--

To be honest, there seem to be plenty of dudes hanging around my tumblr. A few cis. Many trans. But they're not going to bring it up incessantly in some defensive "you know I'm not a cootie-having girl, right?" way because who does that?

It comes up when there's a discussion about trans shit or BL as #ownvoices or whatever. (And, in general, any dude worth hanging out with will not think BL as an industry is, or should be, anything of the sort—even if he's expressing his own sense of queerness by writing some.)

On the flipside, I have seen some pretty extreme "no boys allowed" clubhouse nonsense in fandom. It's less common than it was, and past shitty dudes have often been the inspiration, but it can still be a bit much. The nicer class of fandom dude is often pretty hesitant in certain spaces because he's expecting to be met with hostility and is trying to figure out how to participate without tromping all over everyone. (TBH, the guys worrying about this are rarely the problem, but you know how it is.)

I've had dudes send me private messages being like "this thing you said seems kind of stereotypical and anti-man", but in the adult capable of conversation way, not in the tantruming 5-year-old way. And we had a conversation, and they stuck around.

I think having a very clear "It's not #ownvoices, fuck off" stance deters a lot of the more pestilential set. Being equally clear that everyone is welcome and that male yuri fans and female BL fans are pretty equivalent makes the guys worth knowing come out of the woodwork.

In 99% of spaces, I do not give a fuck if some man has his precious feelings hurt by a double standard or default suspicion of men... But fandom is a little unusual because of the demographics and relative power here being so different from in most spaces.

I've definitely seen some people who think women liking BL are fine because we care about characters' personalities, while male fans are all predators or all write f/f that is just fetishy porn or m/m that sounds like Nifty.org and not other fanfic or whatever.

And, yeah, I'll shut down the dumbasses crying in my inbox because I made a joke about Nifty and "coke can dicks" (the kind of guys who have clearly never read m/m that's aimed at dudes outside of fandom spaces), but at the same time, we should extend a little benefit of the doubt to our fellow fandom members of whatever gender. There are usually plenty of men facepalming right along with me at these inexperienced young fools who cannot bear to share.

I think you're just running into the problem that the loud people whose identities you know are often using those identities to browbeat other fans on social media.

--

There are fewer men in BL spaces than women or nonbinary people, so one will typically end up knowing fewer men.

Honestly, I think you find the reasonable people and get rid of the unreasonable ones in the same way regardless of gender: Gatekeeping bullshit is a red flag. Very Online understandings of oppression are a red flag. Enthusiastic and clueless blanket endorsement of own voices as a concept is a red flag. Lots of talking about "fetishization" or even "appropriation" in a very online way is a massive red flag. Monetizing fanfic or seeing other pro authors as competition instead of peers is another. (Professional jealousy and fear about earning potential are behind a lot of bad behavior.)

A lot of it is down to whether you're willing to make yourself a target by publicly telling annoying people to fuck off.

If others can tell what you stand for, they can figure out if they want to hang out with you. Most people keep their heads down a lot of the time, so it can be hard to even hear of them, let alone know if they're your sort of person.

--

tl;dr – Be nice to nice men. Tell shitty men to take a hike. Making friends with men is really as simple as that.

There are larger issues here with what kinds of queer spaces exist and whom they prioritize and with toxic understandings of what representation even means and what should be demanded of whose art. But as you say, a lot of women are also promoting toxic-ass understandings of these things.

The bottom line is that we must resist social media clout-driven understandings of justice. The loudest assholes in the room are rarely worth listening to.

[bloodgulchblog]

Have you seen that YouTube video where some guy reads every Halo novel back to back and then reviews them? If so what did you think

The Brian David Gilbert one? Oh yeah, all my friends showed me it when it came out. (It was honestly kind of cute seeing how many people thought of me immediately.)

Rewatching it to refresh myself because it's been a couple years and a full-novel reread for me since the last time...

High fiving BDG because the Master Chief parts of The Flood were definitely the most boring parts.

He didn't have anything to say about First Strike which I think is a shame because I think it's better than The Fall of Reach and actually has A Theme I Find Interesting.

Rightful recognition of Contact Harvest as pretty damn good.

Rightful recognition of the Forerunner Trilogy as dense oldschool-style SF with deep worldbuilding. (Also the San'Shyuum thing.)

I disagree with him about, and have significant problems with, Kilo Five. He is correct that Kilo Five actually delves into some of the dark places in Halo in a way it really needed, and I would even say that its writing is extremely engaging by Halo novel standards. However, while he does notice the obvious parallels between what ONI is doing post-war and the kind of shit the CIA has pulled again and again irl, I think he misses some of the subtext I see where it feels like it justifies some shit a liiiiittle too much if you know the author's irl politics re: the military. He also doesn't seem to notice the character assassinations (particularly of Catherine Halsey) that I and a lot of other fans see/object to in those books. I kind of gaze into the middle distance with a haunted expression at the suggestion that these are the ones to read if you don't touch any of the others just because they are, ironically, so heavy-handed and feel like they treat certain kinds of evil as inevitable in a way that actually feels way worse to me than the excuse plot offered by the earlier/lighter Halo novels. (But idk, that's me? Nobody is committing a crime if they disagree with my frenzied insane person red string diagrams about Kilo Five.)

I'd swap Pariah for Dirt in the Evolutions anthology if it were me, but I think these are solid standouts.

Broken Circle is neat but really nonessential he's not wrong.

A one-sentence review of New Blood is probably not enough space to get into how fucked up the Spartan-IV program is, but yeah. New Blood is fun if you don't find Buck's first person narration annoying. (It comes and goes for me in that one.)

BDG you're an absolute sweetheart, I think Hunters in the Dark is kind of goofy in a way I cannot in good conscience ignore if I'm gonna review it. But it really really is so much fun and I love that one a lot anyway. The "it's like Halo 3... 2" observation is solid.

High fiving him again because I also found Last Light disappointing. And it is also a me problem.

Fractures!

Hell yeah these are all good pulls from Fractures, I would say Shadow of Intent is the pick of the litter in that anthology for me. Interesting that as a Kilo Five enjoyer he didn't single out Rossbach's World, which is the last we've heard about Osman and Black Box. (Also, that one is good.) I think Oasis is worth an honorable mention because I'm an Envoy stan, and the Forerunner stories are interesting but I wouldn't go for them if you don't already have a healthy interest in the trilogy.

This tangent is so fucking funny now that we know more things:

Oh BDG, oh buddy, it's really not for the people like you and me huh. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if BDG likes the Halo tv show or not and I have no desire to dig up evidence about it.)

Also, while you're here, this is the bloodgulchblog origin story:

Smoke and Shadow is fun so it's a little sad that when he ends that sentence with "whatever," I can't actually say he's wrong to. (Sorry Rion your part of the lore just.... hasn't... touched anything that touches anything else anymore.)

ENVOY IS GOOD AND EVERYONE SHOULD CARE ABOUT IT okay okay I'm cool I'm normal, anyway. Envoy is the Halo novel that restored my faith in reading Halo novels and reminded me that authors can care and know how to do nuanced, interesting themes in this space. It's great. Everyone in this book has war refugee trauma (except the Spartans which have Spartan trauma) and that's incredible to me. Please care about Envoy if you have spare room in your heart for Halo side characters.

I am cheered to see someone indifferent to the Veta Lopis stories, but I still feel petty for feeling it.

I don't have a lot to say about Legacy of Onyx here but it's always so fun seeing someone else suffer and care.

Bad Blood, the Blood is Bad now is a fun joke but lol yeah. It does have this very vital moment where Chief and Arbiter talk, though. For the first and only time in years.

PROPS FOR NOTICING THE YA NOVELS they're actually pretty nice.

"The Master Chief is the protagonist and boy does he shoot some people" is most of how I feel about Silent Storm and Oblivion too, I know they have their fans but Troy Denning's Chief books don't do much for me personally.

Renegades hadn't had its followup Point of Light yet but yeah, Spark stuff is interesting.

I had to remember that oh yeah, there are multiple books now that didn't exist when this was made. I wonder if he read them?

OKAY I THINK THAT'S ALL I HAD TO SAY as always if y'all want specific book opinions, I might have a tag for them. Or just yell in my ask box, I'm sure I can scrounge up some thoughts.

[lemonhemlock]

Do you think S3 will be for the greens because this is not it. Rhaenyra and co are getting all the juice. They get a cohesive narration at least. Sure most of it doesn't make sense but the pov of her with Jace is far more compelling as a concerned mother and a son she loves and takes seriously vs Alicent and Aegon, who she thinks of as scum. The blacks are getting the sympathy vote. Maybe S3 will focus more on the greens though I can't foresee it going well after this abomination of a season. Seven hells and all that. How on earth they are going to save the greens after this Idfk. They are ruined. It was supposed to be Rhaenyra who slowly descends into madness.

So, I know there is a lot of talk going around about what exactly constitutes "bad writing" and what is just copium from fans who are simply disappointed that their headcanons didn't come true and, to answer this ask, I'm going to try and give my take under the cut.

To begin with, I think it's normal for people to whine and rant about the direction of the show, even if they're just disgruntled that the writers made different choices for the characters. It's early days! We are very much in the midst of things and there hasn't been enough time to go through the five stages of fandom grief or whatever. However, I do find it short-sighted and (I'm not trying to be mean, but I don't want to mince words either) childish how some are using this as a launching pad to present themselves as the the depositories of true media literacy, because their preferred interpretation of whichever character came true at the expense of another. All this, of course, to take swipes at people who had other interpretations they considered annoying or delusional. IDK, I am just of the opinion that it contributes to fostering an unwelcoming space where fans start feeling circumspect when it comes to engaging in the fandom because they fear committing to any opinion for fear of ridicule.

I would therefore ask people to consider that, the way TV shows are made, there probably existed in that writers' room various directions they could have taken (some complimentary and some contradictory) and it naturally follows that one version had to win out against the others. So, to think that because some people sat down in a meeting and decided to settle on Interpretation A instead of Interpretation B somehow means you were right all along and all the others were wrong and that makes your takes superior is just dilly-dallying. HotD as a media production has many decision-makers involved in its creation, it's not just one person whose textual hints you correctly deduced using reasoning skills: there are probably people in there arguing just like we are about what Aemond should do or what Alys should be like and they might also disagree with each other and have different ideas.

Anyway. I look at HotD as a living, changing organism that can morph according to who is involved in its adaptation, not as a fixed, pre-determined thing that I can "guess" at and correctly predict. What if they change the writers this summer and S3 retcons everything we've seen? What then? It's a ping-pong fandom blaming game that disguises a quest for self-validation through parasocial projections and I don't think is very productive. If you ask me, it doesn't seem to me that these writers have much a clue what they're doing half the time.

As a general rule, some changes from the book I am probably not going to like to matter what (and I think that tracks for most people; everyone has their particular preferences). But I honestly think I could have been OK with them in the end had they been executed better and I am going to give a couple of examples of what I believe constituted "bad writing".

For instance, I really wasn't wowed by the scene in which Otto gets fired. The plot and acting choices fell flat to me. Aegon is too... unresponsive and Otto's monologue falls apart at a minimal examination. It's not necessarily the idea of Otto criticising Aegon that I'm so turned off by - I know it is a talking point that the shattering of the image of the greens as a family is what's making others salty. But consider the fact that it's illogical and directly contradicting to Otto's own actions. Last season in episode 9 he was planning for a long time to have Rhaenyra assassinated, with the approval of all members of the small council sans Beesbury, and Alicent had to become angry and put her foot down to defend Rhaenyra. The whole dramatic "the King would not wish for the murder of his daughter" line. Now Otto is mad because Criston sent someone to assassinate Rhaenyra? It's been a few weeks between these events and nothing happened to Otto so that he might have a change of heart.

It just takes me out of the story and prevents me from enjoying any bollocking he might give. It's too goofy. These writers want the greens to have conflict, but they don't know how to create engaging and believable sources of conflict. It's baffling because the sources of conflict are so many, yet, instead of choosing a reasonable element that might create differences in opinion, they have to invent stupid shit that compromises the entire process. Otto could be mad at Aegon because Aegon has been making lots of rash decisions or is turning the Red Keep into a whorehouse or whatever. But he hasn't literally done anything. He is shown to be impatient and impulsive but has always heeded the advice of his councilors when they started arguing back, so what gives? What is so unbelievably bad that could cause Otto's and Alicent's attitudes towards him?

Speaking of Alicent, a short while ago, she stood in front of a dragon in a desperate attempt to protect her son. You might think a traumatic event like this would cause a person to re-evaluate their relationship. It would be a normal reaction for Alicent to think her son has been disappointing overall, but, even so, it looks like she really doesn't want him to die after all. At least in the short-term? But, no, it's like the even had no bearing on her and she keeps acting like Aegon is the worst king alive when he hasn't made any grave mistakes - has actually been acting quite tame since then.

This is what drives me up the wall so much - all these traumatic things happen to the greens and they have no reaction to them. Apart from Aegon crying over Jaehaerys, on the whole, they are so emotionally passive. Maybe when in the midst of something gruesome they are 15% sadder, but they get over it quickly and return to their baseline gloominess. This is so easy to see and criticise, yet I am certain there is someone out there who is going to read this and think that I just want them to wail and dramatically bellow out a Hamlet soliloquy. "Everyone grieves in their own way". And, again, I find that kind of conversation tiresome because I can't help but read a disingenuous intent behind it - there is no way they are not being dishonest in refusing to acknowledge that the lack of emotional dynamism is an element many people find deeply unsatisfying in fiction.

I've said it so many times now, but the writers are constantly shying away from associating the greens with any kind of positive emotion (apart from a couple of measly scenes like Aegon being happy when interacting with Jaehaerys and the Alicent/Gwayne scene - which came in episode freaking 6 out 8 btw). When you have an entire group of people whose emotionality is so static, their part of the plot falls flat, too, because it looks like there are no stakes, nothing matters, they're going to be as miserable no matter what happens to them, so why bother? It prevents the viewer from getting invested and it's just plain boring to witness. A scene like Alicent charging at Rhaenyra with a knife would never have happened this season the way these characters are being written. She would have gone straight back to bed after the maester stitched Aemond's wound.

And this is such a huge and pervasive problem with the show right now that it does feel gaslight-y and duplicitous to be counter-acted with arguments in the vein of "you're just mad because you disagree with the characterisation". I know it's not always coming from a place of malice, but it is a little frustrating, what can I say!

Coming back to the ask, I am in the minority now when I say that, on the contrary, I think TB are written in a more interesting way because at the very least they behave like people! They are shown having emotions commonly associated with people, not robots. They grieve together, they bond, they are devastated - Rhaenyra had an entire mini-arc of needing to find Luke's remains herself in order to grieve and they all held a funeral together and were quite touched). They fight for real or have mini-arguments or are disappointed in each other. They talk it out and sometimes they make-up and sometimes they don't (like Daemon fleeing Dragonstone). They have emotional range.

Yes, it can get a little boring sometimes - I do not necessarily disagree with those complaining that Rhaenyra is constantly shown being undermined by her Small Council. A queen struggling to be taken seriously and trying to please everyone while also looking for ways in which to minimize harm is not going to be the most riveting topic to watch, but it's also not not interesting, you know what I mean? Not a long while ago it was a hot topic of conversation to say that TV executives should bring back filler episodes because it allowed characters to breathe and everything did not have to be so dramatic all the time. Well, this is what a filler episode would look like.

Ultimately, this group of writers are not too far off D&D's level of understanding themes. The books were about how, beyond legal arguments, feudalism and patriarchy are systems in which sometimes even siblings start turning on one another because of issues like inheritance, to devastating effects: they are not systems conducive to happiness or prosperity. Instead, the show is about a villainous side vs a righteous side. They won't be able to get away from this fundamental bastardisation of the text, because they never bothered to understand what it's about and so they'll just change whatever they have to and introduce as many non-sensical elements in the adaptation to fit this misjudgment. As a result, I don't think they'll be able to satisfactorily correct S3, but I hope at least they will make it less annoying.

There are still two more episodes to go, but, my goodness, even disregarding themes, this season is scoring so low in the rewatchability department. It feels like drudgery to get through.

[strawtebby]

Hide and Seek (Please find me)

Chapter 1: Hide and Seek

Also read it on AO3

Chapter Text

Branch winces softly, gently patting away the weepy, glittery blood that was oozing from his thigh. You'd think by now he'd be more careful when gathering food, he was 12 after all and he'd been doing this for almost 4 years. He pulls Floyd's vest tighter around him, the blanket he stole from JD's room and packed stuff in when they ran from the troll tree was on his bed and he didn't want to sit there while his leg was bleeding. He takes a shaky breath as he looks it over a little more... good, it wasn't deep enough to need stitches, he wasn't good at those yet.

He unrolls some of the cotton balls meant for scrapbooking he bought the last time he went to the village and folds the fluff into a cotton pad, disinfecting the wound before bandaging it tight. Exhausted, both mentally and physically, the grey troll sighs softly and uses the wall to help himself stand. He flops on the bed and is about to pass out when there's a knock on the door to his hideout... Well it wasn't much of a hideout yet, he was still building it, but there was a living area and his bed tucked in the corner, all underground and marked by a boulder so he and the other trolls could find it if they needed to. Branch groans softly as he tiredly forces himself from bed, half tempted to let them go unanswered. His feet shuffle as he drags them across the floor and yanks open the door.

"What?" He asks flatly as he scans the small group outside his door.

"Hi Branch!! Do you want to play with us??" The figure who spoke was a shade of bright pink with hair to match, and her tail flicked happily as he answered the door. The princess Poppy and behind her were the other members of her friend group.

The twins Satin and Chenille (who Branch could never keep straight in his head) were staring warily and hugging each other. He'd yelled at them the last time they met because they insulted his vest and tried to take it, saying they'd give him a better one. Fine by him if they didn't like him anymore, he wasn't the biggest fan of them either.

"Doubt it." Smidge, who was the strongest girl any of them knew, said with a huff, crossing her arms as she stepped a little forward, probably feeling protective of the weaker kids. Branch frowned softly, what was he, some monster they all needed to be protected from now?

"Why would I want that?" Branch says in a flat voice, it was not really a question and that much was evident to anyone who was actually listening.

“Cause you’re sad and lonely and grey down here!” said Cooper with a dopey grin causing the others to wince a little, the way everyone did when his colors were mentioned. Cooper was different. He was brash as any other troll but seemed to lack awareness of social cues, like what things you were supposed to talk about and what things you should be aware of but never mention because it was unpleasant. He was also on four legs instead of two, something people whispered about here and there which made Branch feel a sort of kinship that only the different feel with each other, maybe it’s because of this that he wasn’t as annoyed at the comment as he would have been.

“What I think our dear, simple friend here is trying to say” Starts a voice that makes Branch slump even further in exhaustion, oh great this guy. “Is that we thought we would extend a hand to you! It only seems right, given your situation that we try to assist you and pull you out of this… dark, tiny space.” Creek says, trying to hide a grimace behind a plastic smile which he faces towards the others making them nod in agreement.

Branch stares blankly. Really? They avoid or ignore him when he reaches out, insult him when they interact, and now they’re acting like they’re doing him a favor by barging up to his door and interrupting his day?

“No.” Branch says with a glare as he goes to close the door.

“WAIT!!” Poppy yells. “Please Branch? We really wanna play hide and seek with you!” Poppy says, stepping forward and grabbing his hand and no, no no, he didn't like to be touched, he didn't even know her that well, they'd had maybe 3 conversations and her friends always looked at him like he was a jerk afterwards. He yanks his hand away, the force causing her to stumble, and outright glares at the princess.

“I said no! Now go away glitter-for-brains, I'm tired!!” He barks, as he slams the door in her face. Branch huffs and turns away from the door a bit too fast And hisses in pain as the wound on his thigh starts to throb in pain. He sighs and leans against the door to give it a moment to settle.

“What a meanie!!” A voice that Branch recognized as one of the twins says angrily.

“I-It’s not his fault. H-He did tell us no after all.” Says a dejected sounding princess. Dammit, Branch didn't mean to hurt her feelings, he was just tired of his being ignored… Maybe he should apologize. Maybe... maybe they could play together. Branch couldn't blend in because of his colors, but he was good at camouflaging himself in the forest! Just as he was starting to work up the courage to open the door he heard Creek again.

“Don't worry princess, it's not your fault. You're only doing your duty to care for every troll, but… some trolls just don’t want to be happy it seems. I guess Branch prefers to be all alone in the dark.” Creak says in a soft, and in Branch’s opinion, patronizing voice.

There’s a soft murmur of agreement and Branch feels his eyes start to sting. He doesn’t like being alone, in fact he hates it. He hates looking around at what is supposed to be his super awesome hide out with his brothers and only seeing a lonely, dark cave. He wishes he could be happy like the others but he has no reason to. His grandmother is dead, his brothers are either dead or intentionally ignoring him, and none of the adult trolls in the village were willing to take him in after the escape from the troll tree. He didn’t like being alone but he was, he always was.

Branch grits his teeth as he hears them begin to walk away and limps to bed. He was tired, he wanted to sleep and his head was pounding. Why was he so… different? Why did he have to be like this, he didn’t want to, he just wanted someone to understand how he was and not try to change it, was that too much to ask? He was grieving so many things, why was that a bad thing? He sniffles and buries his face in his pillow and as he does he remembers the looks on the faces of the princess and her friends.

All of them except Creek were younger than Branch and they all looked at him like the monster under the bed. He could understand why, he was violent, snappy, rude, sarcastic, and worst of all he was grey, there was no reason to like him, and the princess… Well she looked at him like he hung the moon, of course he knew her good grace would only last so long before she left him alone again. He whimpers at the thought and hugs his pillow a little tighter as he starts to drift off, having cried himself to sleep again. It would’ve been nice… to have friends again.

[saltynsassy31]

no cus i totally understand your frustration, ive also quit splatfests for the moment until they get an overhaul

i suggest if you feel close to getting hateful to either shiver or shiver fans then maybe quit for a while for your own sake cus ive felt a lot better after doing so, im still really sensitive to negative comments towards frye or rude ones about shiver winning but taking some time for myself has made me feel infinitely better

ive been close to hating shiver before bc of how cocky and rude them and their fans can be but it doesnt really do anything but sour your enjoyment of the game more, so its really not worth it

i do have to say though, anyone who says "its just a game" reaaally needs to understand the frustration of people OTHER than them, sympathy is something a lot of people forget about when it comes to things that arent real life. just because it doesnt affect you doesnt mean everyone can shut off their attachment to the game or a character like a light switch; a lot of the time you dont know whats going on with them. i myself am really attached to frye cus i am hashtag autism creature and he brings me comfort, so anyone being rude to me about shiver winning really REALLY gets under my skin. its not entirely (if they were serious, if they werent then its not at all) their fault, but nintendo fixing the frustration of splatfests constantly keeling in one direction (which theyre supposed to do anyways but they havent) would definitely fix the issue. we need to find a way to have nintendo fix this, not attack anyone else for what bundle of pixels and text theyre attached to.

not everyone has really thick skin and if we want splatoon 3 to be more hospitable then we should try to cut down on the general splatfest bullassery in public spaces (being overly cocky and rude/blaming others in a way with no basis or truth behind it). its not something everyone can always do since we arent all perfect, but if we make steps in that direction then we could help more people enjoy the splatoon community rather than being eaten up by toxicity and spite

i didnt word all of this entirely correctly so like interpret ad best as you can cus im eepy but yeah.

a fye for u to enjoy (also ur anon is off btw)

u dont have to but for the sake of not being harrassed id appreciate if u didnt tag with public tags

👏👏 PREACH

I don't want to quit playing it, I do enjoy splatfests, to a certain extent, i like going with my friends and i made a lot of new friends through it, it's like, the online community that I'm having a problem with

I don't hate shiver, I thought I did but I can't, she is still a comfort character (tho Frye is like, my obsession besides being my comfort character cuz I am also part part the 'tism XD), in a way, I like her dynamic with the group at least, she annoys me, yes, very much so, but I don't hate her

And I don't hate people who like her either

Who I do hate is people being mean about it, I had turned off anon cuz of a stupid person who was going around every frye support account anonymously just saying mean stuff and praising shiver as the best, I just forgot to turn it on, so thanks for reminding me 😅

Saying that "It's just a game" is so annoying to, tell that to the football fans, they go just as crazy if not more so

Splatfests are ment to be fun! You should be able to enjoy the splatfest without having to worry about people fighting

I don't like fighting with people, I hate how angry I become, how mean I can sound sometimes, I usually just vent without interacting

At least she won in Japan, so that is one other win under her belt, I just wish she'd win more in the future 😔

Oh also I almost didn't participate in this splatfest either and I did only because I haven't had time to play and I haven't finished my catalogue yet 😅 I usually use splatfests to up my catalogue quicker lmao

Also, don't worry, I won't tag anything that could get you harassed, if anything does happen, please block for your health, I don't want anything happening to you, you seem very sweet ;w;

Edit: also YOUR FRYE PLUSH IS SO CUTE! I've been seeing people get her but idk where to buy her!!!! Where'd you get it? :0

[tkblythofficial]

For someone who was/is a proclaimed "fan girl" R really do be losing her cool easily when it came to her and being shipped with a co-star. You know I totally respect when actors set boundaries if there's harassment involved or people getting weird with speculations, creating rumors etc. She has the right to be uncomfortable with being shipped with someone she considers a platonic friend but the way she approaches this whole thing is weird to say the least

Hates to being romantically linked to T but can't stop sharing pictures of him, obsessing over what shippers do and say in their own spaces and trying so hard to "prove them wrong" 💀like girl it's not that serious, if nothing romantic comes out of zeglyth we'll move on (like people did with Jalle)

Her main problem relies in that she's ON SOCIAL MEDIA almost 24/7 and is obsessed with finding out what people are saying about her. My problem with her is she don't act like a real professional actor, she moves like a social media personality, it might be the Youtuber in her but if her plans are to expand her acting/singing career she needs to take herself more seriously and log out at least from Twitter. Get yourself to networking events like Zendaya did in her time, write an album, get in audition rooms because she's literally the only actor from TBOSAS main cast who has not booked a single role since the movie came out. Like girl, it was the perfect time to build a substantial fan base that's going to support your future projects, it was her time to use her amazing talent to do so much productive and creative shit. Like it upsets me how much time she wastes sitting around at her house having online meltdowns one day after the other over unimportant stuff like shipping 💀

Also it's not lost on me why she despises zeglyth shipping so much, and its because she realizes T is better than her man, she reads the comments and knows what people think of J or I better say how little they think of J as an actor/person. R has an obsession to prove her boyfriend is just as good as T, that's why as soon as she posts Zeglyth she goes back to like Sejanus/Zegvera/J posts lol lt's like clockwork. I understand she's J victim and why she's so defensive of her groomer but there's nothing she can do to make us like her boyfriend because:

1)He's ugly

2) He has the personality of a cardboard

3) We caught on his predatory behavior so yuck /:

4) He's an okay actor but he hasn't proved himself besides being someone who gets his career propelled by his more famous and talented gf, his castings so far are giving charity case 🤷🏼‍♀️

I always support R because I see so much raw talent in her, but her online persona is so annoying. I'll give her she's 22 but her excuses to behave like on the internet are running out. Girl needs to learn to back off a little and ignore shit she don't like. Choose your battles wisely R, instead of running your mouth and embarrassing yourself over dumb and petty fan wars... you should be above that at this point in your career. You're a Hollywood actress not a stan account on Twitter! Act like it pls 🙏🏼

She’s a fan girl herself so she needs to stop acting superior to any of us. She’s always in celeb comments acting like a fan, not a peer.

You’re absolutely right. I don’t care if an actor sets boundaries because I can respect it and back off. But I don’t like it when people set boundaries and cross those boundaries themselves.

People are already starting to move on Zeglyth because of her behavior. It’s tiring. Jalle went nowhere because Halle stop talking about Jonah and moved on from TLM. If R wants us to move on then she needs to stop the Zeglyth pics and liking stuff about T. But that’s issue, isn’t it? She doesn’t want us to stop talking about them.

She needs to put that phone down and get into the audition room. Worried about shipping when she has NYC bills to pay 💀 Rent and the phone bill is due, mama. Time to get to work!

She’s delusional about J. We will never like him. We don’t care about Sejanus. We all know he doesn’t have T’s talent. J needs to go to Broadway or sitcom / medical drama shows. He’s not fit to be a movie star.

R is picking the wrong battles here. I’m a fan at the end of the day, not her enemy. She doesn’t want to be an enemy of her loyal fanbase. She’s losing us already. I’m the one who buys tickets to her projects. I’m going to see Y2K and SW because of her! Stop paying with your hard working fans, R! I don’t need to spend my time, energy and money on you.

But again, she’s about to be 23 and I’m hoping this is just phase and she snaps out of it.

[somekindofsentience]

the nature of unrequited love, or personal headcanons on sunny and aubrey

SPOILER WARNING: MAJOR OMORI SPOILERS

CONTENT WARNING: GRIEF, LOSS, GAME-TYPICAL CONTENT

READING-THIS WARNING: I REALLY DON'T WANT A FIGHT, THIS IS MOSTLY ME BACKING UP MY PERSONAL HEADCANONS THANKS :) also i would like to clarify that i DO NOT support shipping the older members of the squad with younger ones. that's gross. it is literally not that hard to do better. (also i believe sunburn requires a lot less therapy than sunflower, and i can totally see it post-game, so i really don't wanna fight with sunburn fans. )

Alright. The goal of this post will be to attempt to prove that Sunny's childhood crush on Aubrey is one-sided, and due to the nature of Aubrey and Mari's relationship, that there is a possibility Aubrey had a slight crush on Mari as a kid. Alternatively, I'd at least like to highlight how much of Aubrey's life revolves around Mari still, even somewhat in secret.

Again, to clarify, I don't condone Mari x Aubrey (are there not three other kids for y'all to ship Aubrey with??) , but rather we should consider the fact that many kids get small crushes on older teens or adults they look up to. I'm sure Aubrey was confident it would never happen anyway - HeroMari is basically canon, and Aubrey is far from emotionally ignorant - but I still think there's a potential that she may have had some unrequited feelings for Mari.

I'll bring in all my evidence and speculation and you can think on it :)

SUNNY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH AUBREY - COMPARING HEADSPACE AND THE REAL WORLD

(If this segment seems similar to another analysis post on here, please let me know because I'd actually like to cite it here as inspiring me, but I can't find it and it annoys me that I can't. Look at me and my great citations, good work sentience.)

Within Headspace, Aubrey's crush on Omori is prevalent and obvious. She tries to get his attention, wants to go on adventures with him alone, and defends him from the Slime Girls. Conversely, Omori rarely reciprocates, likely because at this point, his emotions are so repressed that he can't express more than the simple emotion mechanics required to fight. Aubrey, Kel and Hero all express emotion in their conversations, but Omori remains numb, the effects of repression seeping into the character himself.

We have to remember that Headspace is an extension of Sunny's mind, and while it is heavily influenced by the real world, it's still unreliable. I personally don't like it when people use Headspace evidence to support Real World theories, or vice versa - we need to be clear that these are separate, and Headspace is heavily biased.

There are two pretty key pieces of evidence in Headspace that point toward Sunny's crush on Aubrey being one-sided, and those are the Aubrey School Event and the Rainy Day memory.

The Aubrey School Event is found in Lost Forest 2 (also known as Looping Forest) in Black Space 2, but it is also found when interacting with a TV in the Otherworld using the universal remote. It is a short sequence, oddly colourful in the dark realm of Black Space, where several Aubreys fight to the toast for Omori's love. Omori is asked to choose between the last two Aubreys standing, and the event abruptly ends and Omori returns to Black Space.

The ending is particularly interesting...

We know Sunny daydreams a lot from the Lost Library excerpts...

I personally think that this fantasy and its parallels to the way Aubrey acts in Headspace suggest that the Aubrey School event is one Sunny regularly fantasised about, now present in Black Space 2 as a small remnant of the world he left behind. I also think this points to Sunny's crush being one-sided - if Aubrey's Headspace reflection is similar to Sunny's fantasy of her, then it suggests that this isn't the real Aubrey, and the real-world Aubrey may not have reciprocated feelings or Sunny may have been too shy to own up to them.

We see a big difference between their relationship in the real world and Headspace with the Rainy Day memory. Unlike Aubrey's constant expression of love for Omori, in the Rainy Day memory, the roles are reversed - Sunny is instead the one who wants to see the picture of Aubrey, and Basil even teases him about it, to which Sunny doesn't try to deny it.

Not many of the real world photos feature Aubrey and Sunny alone or conversing together, and Aubrey was asleep when her head fell onto Sunny's shoulder during the Lost Library excerpts. Aubrey is usually arguing with Kel, or hanging out with Mari, or with the group as a whole; and Sunny tends to be with Basil, or typically with the group. Obviously these photos are missing a significant amount of background as to what life was like before Mari's death (which a surprising amount of people tend to forget - those photos are by no means a reflection of the reality!!), but they provide some insight into character and relationship dynamics.

In my opinion, Headspace and the Real World just don't add up for Aubrey pre-incident. Which is why we're going to discuss...

AUBREY'S RELATIONSHIP WITH MARI - PAST AND PRESENT

Past

I believe the actions of present-day Aubrey hold some more weight, so this segment is mostly speculation.

We know that Aubrey and Mari were very close before her death. Due to the dysfunctional nature of Aubrey's household, it's likely she saw the friendship group as her family.

In a lot of the Faraway photos, we see Aubrey and Mari together, whether that be Mari reading to her, the two licking popsicles, Aubrey falling asleep on her shoulder, or the two's promise to dye their hair together, it's clear they're very close.

While we don't have a lot of information other than the album about life before the recital day, Aubrey in Headspace is also very fond of Mari, rushing excitedly to see her. Despite it being heavily influenced by Sunny, there is no real reason for him to obscure other relationship dynamics as it means nothing to Omori's goal.

Which is why I'd like to propose that Aubrey had a little childhood crush on Mari, which she was probably aware would not be reciprocated. She's 12, so she somewhat understands what love is, although considering time context, Aubrey may not have understood lesbianism and might have just assumed she was really fond of Mari, or something.

Mari would never reciprocate, as most of the rest of the group seems relatively aware that Mari and Hero are an item, so Aubrey probably pushed it all down, and was devastated when Mari died. Her friend, but someone who truly cared about her, which Aubrey didn't get a lot of as a child.

She watched the friendship group fall apart, and felt so angry, how could they betray Mari like that? Hou could they betray Aubrey like that?

Present

This post explores how much of Aubrey's current identity revolves around Mari - Aubrey continues to dye her hair regularly (as is evident by the visual absence of any roots), Aubrey spends all her time at the church and the graveyard, and she clings onto the photos of Mari that were defaced.

I find the fact that Aubrey spends her time in the church incredibly interesting. For one, considering what Sunny and Kel have to do just to know where she's gone, it seems as though Aubrey keeps her visits to the church a secret from her friends, aside from the closest. We also know that Aubrey is relentlessly judged by those at the church,...

Aubrey is a complete outcast at this place, and there is no way she's unaware of this. Despite this, Aubrey's nature is to stay true to herself, and clearly Mari means so much to her that she's willing to undergo judgement and ostracization just to feel close to Mari again.

But we can also consider the way Aubrey acts after Mari's death holistically, instead of parts of a greater whole. If she truly just looked up to and wanted to be like Mari, wouldn't she tend toward mimicking Mari's behaviour after her death? Why does Aubrey instead feel vehement anger toward others for "betraying" Mari, and spend all her time near Mari's resting place?

It is possible that Aubrey felt she couldn't be Mari, and she gave up and instead sought for her protection; or that she tried to reconcile the group, but the sheer betrayal and ignorance of Kel, Sunny, Basil and Hero broke her, and she flipped. I'm not going to deny the possibility of these.

But I think there's also a possibility that Aubrey doesn't want to be like Mari, but instead mourns her death as the loss of someone she had a crush on. As a result of this, Aubrey's life centers around Mari, and she is incredibly focused on trying to understand why Mari did it, which is why she spends her time near Mari's resting place. She does these things so she can feel close to Mari again, not so she can follow in Mari's footsteps.

Aubrey misses Mari more than she wants to be Mari. Which is a perfectly normal response to loss.

My main concern with this headcanon is it makes it significantly harder for Aubrey to forgive Sunny and Basil. If she is still much closer to Mari than those two, then I can't see her forgiving them anytime soon. and i am a massive baby and really want her to forgive them

Thanks for reading! idk what else to say. reminder that aubrey x mari is disgusting and so is shipping hero or mari with anyone else in the gang, especially during the events of the game, as hero is LITERALLY TWENTY and everyone else is LITERALLY A MINOR. omfg.

[kuramirocket]

I came across posts you wrote a long time ago about Piper Halliwell and had to reach out to thank you. It seems like literally everyone LOVES Piper Halliwell, praising her as not just their favorite Charmed one but one of the best TV characters ever, and finding someone else who dislikes her was honestly the most validating experience I've had on this site! I recently rewatched a bunch of episodes and couldn't get over just how awful Piper is past the very first season. Fans are like 'all hail our sass queen!' like it's somehow a good thing that she goes out of her way to be ridiculously mean and bitter. She never, ever, ever stops complaining about everyone and everything, and it's not just that she's always in a terrible mood---it's that she directly takes that mood out on Leo and her sisters constantly, insulting and criticizing them nonstop. (Can you believe some people here think Piper was "too good" for Leo?! The man is a saint for patiently putting up with that shrew!) And she's always praised for her heart, but while the other three actually care about innocents, Piper is always the one whining about just wanting a "normal life" and throwing literal tantrums over things like wanting a better wedding or which of two great guys she should choose while there are literal LIVES at stake lol. Speaking of which, on a show about women destined to be witches, who thought it was a good idea to have one of the three main characters whine about how much she hates being a witch in Every. Single. Episode?! She's just such a completely unpleasant character with literally the worst attitude I've ever seen, and I can honestly say she ruins the show for me. (Disliking the turn they took with Phoebe's character didn't help either!) She was unapologetically terrible even before Prue's death, and it blows my mind that fans hate Prue for being too "harsh" when Piper is like a million times worse! Thank you for bravely speaking out so that all three of us who dislike her know we're not alone!!

Hello :)

Wow, I cannot believe it's been 5 years since I watched Charmed when I made those posts. And I never did finish watching the rest of the series 😭 So, naturally it's on my to rewatch and actually finish it this time around watch list. Lol

And I'm glad I could make you feel validated. When you, unfortunately, hate or dislike a character for whatever reason, especially one a majority of fans like, it's always nice to find like minded people. It's why I'm not quiet in my opinions. I want people to have a fun and safe space in fandoms even if that's just to discuss dislike for a fan favorite! Which is why if I am anti a specific character I try to tag properly so fans who do like the character can avoid my personal thoughts. And ofc, this means also never directing said dislike towards the fans who like specific characters. I just let people enjoy what they enjoy even if I do not.

Anyways, I'm surprised people view Piper as sassy. From what I remember, I never saw her as sassy, just annoying her complaints and plotline. And yeah! Prue maybe was 'harsh,' but she's the eldest and had that responsibility of caring for her younger sisters. She had a lot of weight on her shoulders. It's why she was serious a lot of the times and seemed to be hit the hardest by their mother's death from what I recall.

I wish I could comment more, but since it's been years don't remember a lot of details.

This ask made me smile, tbh. Again, glad you were happy to find my rants validating xD

[angelsdean]

going thru fan forums of old makes me miss the age when fans knew what they liked and stuck to their bubbles or, if it was a general thread, there were unspoken rules that everyone act civil bc you're all there for the same reason (gushing abt a show / character / actor / ship you like). and of course this didn't always work, people will be people, but that's why they also had moderators! to make sure everyone stayed on topic and threads didn't devolve into mud-slinging fan wars.

the problems we have with the wide open roaming fandom spaces of now is, many people will engage with the same media and have different interpretations of it. that's fine! that's good even! but fandoms should be fun !!!! fandom are hobby and leisure spaces. you should primarily be having fun in fandom. if you're not having fun, if you're getting upset over other people's interpretations or seeing too much of what you don't like, then you need to step back and curate your space better.

irl should you live in a bubble or echo chamber? no, not at all. but if in fandom all you want to see is specific content about one ship or character or just play with your headcanons like it's a sandbox? then sure! find like-minded people and have fun.

and this is said as someone who gets very annoyed at certain fandom echo chambers for existing bc imo they're doing bad faith readings or misinterpreting large swaths of canon and still !! i won't begrudge those bubbles for existing, i just wish we could be more considerate and understanding that we are coming from different places and interpreting things differently and stay in our lane, stay in your thread, etc. don't hop onto another person's post when they didn't ask just to start "discourse" or argue your point.

and we don't have to be completely isolated, of course not. because i think it is fun and good to expose yourself to other ideas and interpretations. but if people want to have conversations, send a message! have an friendly debate or conversation if the other person is open to it. it's all fiction anyway! there's no reason to get mean or ugly about it.

but if you're really feeling miserable in fandom and not finding joy in it for whatever reason, it might be time to hit the bricks whether it's find a new fandom or find other people to follow or just take a step back for a bit. but yea, my motto is fandom should be fun!! you should be enjoying yourself!!