#bro i have no clue how to handle this ask technically its people from his own college so like??? public info kind of

[wildpeachfarm]

idk if its ethical but its not from critblr if thats what you mean. i went to college in the area and when i told my sorority sisters i was into mcyters/yters circa 2021-2 my gbig said "oh that reminds me some kid who creeped on us and some alumni at an informal works for mr. beast now" and they showed me a picture of Karl. my heart fell outta my ass that day fawk

ok welp I guess that's good enough for me, here you go guys:

This is very interesting tbh and honestly we knew they were all hypocrites but this is a new low especially for how high of himself karl talks when comparing himself to snf

[january31st]

I show up to the party just to leave (Venable x reader)

Summary: After a long time of not seeing each other, your brother invites you to his birthday party.

A/N: Title from Amoeba by Clairo. Her new album is like salt on an open wound, but in the softest way possible, and I love it :'). This has been in the drafts for a month and it was supposed to be a quick one to get me out of a slump :/ oops i guess (also i have no idea what this is or how we got here)

The reader doesn’t know about the whole selling their souls to the devil thing

Warnings: Drug addiction, overdose and hospital mentions. 

Masterlist

~1800 words

The brightness inside Kineros was somehow even worse than outside in the California heat. Its whiteness and clean, modern look took you by surprise, given that your brother’s room back home used to be a mountain of unwashed dishes and dirty clothes, his PC setup the only thing you could look at without getting a headache. 

“This.... is insane Jeff” you said as you took your sunglasses off, squinting very hard.

“I told you! I don’t know what’s so hard to believe about it. The whole multi-million company thing wasn’t convincing enough to make you believe this place is nice?” He said as he led you around to his office.

“Well, I’m just saying that coming from you I expected more of a nerd bunker than a sci-fi spaceship”

“Are your standards really that low Y/N?” he said with his hand on his chest, pretending to be deeply offended.

“Yeah, in the beginning you bragged for months about your Van”

“Oh but you can’t say that a company on the move isn’t cool”

“Sure” you said, shifting your attention to the woman in purple sitting behind the desk.

“Hi, you must be Ms.Venable! I’m Y/N, Jeff’s sister.” You said with your hand stretched out in front of you.

She looked from you to Jeff, and then at your hand, considering whether she should take it or not. Slowly, with the help of her cane, she stood up and shook it.

“And I hear you would be joining us to prepare for tomorrow, although I’ve told Mr. Pfister I have it handled.” She said, shooting your brother a menacing look, but you were too distracted by the feeling of her gloved hand still in yours. Had someone turned off the AC?

“I know Ms. Venable, I just had to show her the place before the party so she would believe it is nice. And by having her help get things ready she would know we didn’t mess things around to make it look better than it is” He said, and when you managed to shift your gaze away from her you noticed how Jeff looked. Someone finally taught him respect?

“If I had met Ms.Venable before, maybe I wouldn’t doubt how nice it is.”

“If you hadn’t left home for so long, maybe you would know more about the company”

“If you didn’t have so much blow up your nose all the time back then, maybe I wouldn’t feel the need to run away!” 

“Awww family reunions are so cute” You turned to the circle door on the left side of the room to see your brother’s work partner leaning against it and looking at you two with a pout.

“Oh… hey Mutt” 

“How is my favourite Pfister doing? I can’t believe how long it has been since I’ve seen you bro!” He said giving you a hug you did not expect.

“Hey! What the hell? Your favourite Pfister? Really? Stop flirting with my sister, asshole” said Jeff.

“I’m not! But it’s true, your sister is the best. Back then before we even dreamt of Kineros, the three of us would have so much fun!” Mutt answered, his arm still around your shoulders.

“Yeah I guess, before you two started your bullshit in between the lines” you said, scratching at your nose.

“Oh, speaking of flirting, how is that girlfriend of yours doing?” Jeff asked.

“Girlfriend? What… Ah. Yeah, well- she..” You laughed “ I swear I can’t make this shit up. Has it been that long since we spoke really?” The topic was making you even more uncomfortable, and you noticed that Ms. Venable was looking at you with an almost curious look? Was it? She was hard to read.

“Well, would you believe it, she fell in love with your dear coke instead.” Jeff looked at you as if he had just broken your favourite toy.

“Yea she just dumped me a while back and hit the streets. I tried to look for her, but she was just gone. I have no clue if she’s even alive.”

“Shit Y/N I’m sorry” Jeff said.

“Are you? Or are you still sniffing lines like a mad man?” 

“Technically not lines no.” He said, smiling at Mutt knowingly.

You took his arm from your shoulders. “So you’re telling me that if I punch your ass right now it wouldn’t be snowing in here?”

When he didn’t answer with anything other than laughter you went on “It’s not funny! None of this is funny Jeff! Not now, and not that time I had to take your ODing ass to the ER! And not on all those times you were in withdrawal!”

He only laughed more, and said “It would be hell if that happened again!”

“Jeff! Have you-”

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but the last of the decorations for tomorrow are just arriving.” said Ms. Venable. And despite her low voice, all three of you went silent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You worry too much”

“What?” You asked through the pen you were chewing at, with your back still turned to her from the top of the chair, as you exchanged the regular lightbulb with a colorful one from the box you were holding.

She didn’t repeat herself for a while, as if she regretted saying anything in the first place. The past hour or so you had barely exchanged more than a couple words, her impassive looks making you assume she just didn’t like you.

“You worry too much about him.” She said, her voice loud and clear this time.

You stepped down from the chair placing the white bulb on the box she was holding with one hand. Thinking about your brother now made something clench on your stomach. To hide how hard it was to find an answer for her, you went to write a check on the lighting part of your to-do list.

“How could I not?” You asked.

“I must admit his lifestyle is… interesting. But it seems to have worked to bring this company to where it is today.” She said.

“I know he’s your boss, but you don’t have to doll-up how things are around here. And don’t give him more credit than he deserves, he is cocky enough about it.” after a pause you added “I know that if it were up to him, he would still be assembling robots amidst his dirty socks. It doesn’t take much to realise who’s behind everything that isn’t necessarily robots here.”

You reached for the box she was holding to go put it away, and noticed she was standing as still as a statue. Grabbing it from her with the ghost of a friendly smile on your face you went on, since she didn’t seem to know how to answer you this time.

“He used to say it helped him think and work better. And maybe it does but as his sister I can’t just ignore it and pretend I’m okay with it. He never takes things that matter seriously.”

“Before we got here I- for some stupid reason- actually thought he stopped it. He isn’t like he was before. Something has changed about him.”

“It has.” She said. “I think his dedication to the job put him in his tracks somewhat. Whatever his tracks are” She added with a smirk.

Giggling at that, you said, holding the checklist for her to see “Now that we´re done, how about we go get a snack and talk about something that doesn’t involve dumb and dumber or their tragic hairstyles?”

Fighting back a smile, she guided you somewhere you could eat, and said “I’m glad you don’t have a bowl cut too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the first hour or so Jeff introduced you to random people at the party, none of them getting much of your attention at all. Fancy and famous people, and though it was hard to believe seeing your brother around them- their nice suits next to his striped shirt, jeans and hoodie- you didn’t feel astonished at all. You felt crushed by everyone around you and took every opportunity to avoid dull conversation.

Some of them were surprised to meet you, to see how his casualty wasn’t a trait you shared, and given that you knew this would be a somewhat big party you did, in fact, dress up to the occasion. You decided to wear a nice blazer over a silk lingerie type shirt, straight legged pants and heels, hair slicked back and makeup dark and bold. Anywhere else you would look out of place, but here you managed to melt into the rest of the well dressed crowd. Thankfully that worked to your advantage so you could be away from the center of attention.

On the quick calls you did have, your brother never failed to gloat about his life and how great things were, and a part of you hoped blindlessly that it would mean he left his bad habits behind. Though now as you stood under the coloured lights it was more than obvious that he wouldn’t change, and all the bad memories from his addiction came back to you at once. Overwhelmed by your thoughts and the ambient itself, you made your way to the outside of the building unaware of the tic-toc of a cane following you.

“Where are you going?” her voice pulled you back to reality.

“I don’t know. Just away from this” you said, hand waving in the air. Then you took a second to look at her, as formally dressed as the day before, lilac suit and all, only her expression had changed. Though you knew she would never admit it, her face was contorted in a plea, almost begging for you to stay.

“I thought he changed. I really did. Like a foolish fucking child.”You blurted out.

“You don’t have to leave like this.” She stated, sounding disinterested despite herself.

“I do. I really do.”

“I never come to these events… I hate these people just as much as you do.” You narrowed your eyes at her, waiting for the rest of it, and when it didn’t come you asked “What made you come this time?”

After a long pause she said “I was surprised to meet you. I would never believe your brother had someone as… prudent and sensible in his life.” Another pause. “I’m trying to say don’t leave m-” She stopped herself.

“Then take me somewhere” You said without thinking, looking straight into those brown eyes as they seemed to soften. And for the first time her face twisted into what was definitely, unmistakably, a smile, and all you could do was smile right back.

“Come along then”

[toasttz]

From the Tabletop #5

So, we arrived in Hell. With an opener like that, you know it's gonna be good. Or it would've been, had Hell not become the most boring place still technically within creation due to the last campaign. So Scarlet's personal mission (Admittedly fueled by some metaknowledge on my part and having like 3 new Solar ideas in line at this point) was to get in, get the clue for the One Piece, and then get the hell out of Hell. Magpie and Volkenstein kinda went along with my lead, but only because they literally knew no other way to exist by this point. Which kind of lead to their own downfalls over the next few sessions, courtesy of my willingness to just give PCs overly-generous trades in my haste. But let's slow it down a little. Our first mission was to head to the Veridian Plaza and the Pool of Drowned Poisons (our GM and Valentinian's player know way, way more about Exalted's frankly overly-dense lore than I, so I accepted this as part and parcel of being in Hell). Unfortunately, this got complicated fast by, of all people, Alabaster Albatross, back for her petty comeuppance against Scarlet and co. In a pretty big damn hurry to get on with it, Scarlet bartered Volkenstein away for a day's time in return for passage, which A.A. happily accepted, due to liking his muscles to a, frankly creepy, degree. So, enter we did, only to be told he were required to be in a bathing suit despite the fact that no one in their right mind would actually attempt to swim in the Pool of Drowned Poisons. The name alone should be dissuasion sufficient. Scarlet, of course, had a bikini on under her clothes and Magpie decided to stop by the gift shop which, also of course, they had. It is Hell after all. Inside, she met... well, Inferno Cop. Don't know who that is? Look it up on Youtube, you owe it to yourself. But, no, it was not Inferno Cop who then proceeded to just incinerate a demon, but Valentinian! In a rather badass sudden reappearance. Magpie, no doubt channeling aspects of Maxwell, asked Valley to become her mentor. Valley said "No" pretty damn quick. Scarlet had a rather amusing exchange when she followed in to see what was taking Maggie so long. Scarlet: Oh, hey, Valley. I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first? Valentinian: The bad, I guess? Scarlet: Maxwell's dead. I might have sort-of decapitated him. Valentinian: (100% monotone) Oh no. How sad. Scarlet: The good news is you get to be the Maid of Honor at my wedding! Valentinian: Wait... WHAT?! With Valley back in tow, we began shaking down anyone we could find for intel. This ultimately pointed us towards Master of the Eternal Golden Paradise's theme park - Super Happy Fun Land. So off we went! Unfortunately, it was guarded by a demon who, so long as he was in the light of the Green Sun, was unkillable. This posed a pretty significant problem on account, uh, the Green Sun doesn't... ever set. So we were initially repelled until Valentinian suggested we needed to make a dark deal to handle this. So we went to speak to the Ebon Dragon. A nasty piece of work, Scarlet initially offered herself for a "good time", but was quickly shot down, as the Ebon Dragon explained he preferred them "young". Pausing not for a moment, Scarlet offered him Magpie - 24 hours with him for 24 hours of darkness over the guard. Which he accepted with sadistic glee. The circle quickly changed the tune of the joke to "He's forcing her to play Super Smash Bros. Melee with tournament rules." Before long, the gate guard was dead (and we then joked Scarlet took an impromptu biology lesson after bisecting the poor bastard). For the next session, Valentinian's player was unable to join, so we agreed that he and the Oath Warriors went on to enjoy the theme park and take a load off for a time. Magpie and Volkenstein (who had returned from their respective times being sold off by Scarlet) basically scoured the park, but Scarlet ultimately found the clue (a statue of Master, pointing towards a particular star in the sky) which sent the trio into the Endless Desert. There, they found a bank, of all things. Just because the desert is ENDLESS doesn't mean there's not landmarks, apparently. Inside, we ask a random worker there to see the boss of the location. After revealing Master's journal, she was taken in to see the boss-man himself: Master's own son, Aladdin, the Dragon of the Desert Wind! It's important to note that if an Exalt procreates with a demon, the result typically ends up in a monsterous creature. In this case, a dragon, with his father's in-built desire to accumulate wealth. Which was apparent, as the room we met him in was flooded with gold and riches of all sorts. When Scarlet pettioned him for the next key, he explained that he couldn't give it to her, but she was free to take it... with the asterisk that if we chose the wrong thing, he would transform into his dragon form and devour us all. The only clue he offered us was "The thing most valuable to my father is the key". Magpie offered to take Aladdin, but he laughed her suggestion off and told us flat-out it wasn't him. I, with benefit of metaknowledge but still within the believable scope of Scarlet's ability, parse that it was money, but not just cold hard cash. Something that represented the full sum of his wealth. There, I found the first penny that Master ever made, on prominent display. Scarlet chose it and it was confirmed we chose the correct key. Upon returning and regrouping with the others, we learned the location of an Oath Warrior was actually nearby, in the castle of Zen. We met Ascendant Sword and Heavenly Sky, who also had a grudge against Zen, but the latter also had a bit of a grudge from an incident 2000 years prior, with Valley. This resulted in them having a few minutes of bickering before Scarlet stopped the problem by giving Valentinian a great big hug. I'll leave you to parse how that stopped the problem for yourselves. This resulted in Scarlet needing to return to the Black Turtle and sail it down to their current level. Hell is separated into different layers, which are dynamic and ever-shifting, adding to the omnipresent dangers of living or being in... well, Hell. TL;DR version, she got down in good time with the ship and its cargo of war mecha with little trouble. As the raid on the castle started, I PM'd the GM with a particular idea I had in mind and he signed off on it. So the battle opened with Scarlet, riding in her mech which was riding atop Gwyn's mech (almost forgot: Gwyn had left to escort an NPC back to her hometown, as his player resumed role as GM), belting out JPop songs from Macross 7 - Totsugeki Love Heart, in case you were wondering - as she rolled crazy well for her performance to draw all eyes up to her as she sailed in, smashing against the first wave and wall of the keep. This was all to allow Valley and Maggie the chance to infiltrate the castle with all the main defenses distracted. It worked beautifully, being one of my favorite moments in the entire campaign. Once inside, Valley found Orlando, one of his Oath Warrior fellows, under a berserk mind control curse - likely brought on due to the previously-mentioned "DO NOT TOUCH, THIS MEANS YOU, ZEN" sign. He was no slouch and Valentinian had to fight fiercely to down his raging friend. It even ended with me punctuating the battle by putting my blade tip-down through the cockpit of the rival mech, and Maggie... weirdly trying to engage in skinship with an unconcious Oath Warrior, no longer able to resist either his assaulters or the mind control he was under. It was uncomfortable for all of us. Afterward, we departed Hell and sailed for the South, towards Gem, where Master's first coin had been minted. This ultimately resulted in a complete and total clusterfuck. For context, Valentinian's player wasn't able to join this session, and Volkenstein and Magpie were just DETERMINED to drag the game to an absolute crawl. As we were barely heading through the pass to head into the desert proper (the non-endless desert this time), this conversation actually happened: GM: Okay, you guys need any last-minute things? Magpie: Yes! I want to get some snacks. GM: Um. Alright, you find the vendor. Magpie: I want caramel popcorn. GM (As vendor): Why are you asking about such high-fallutin' fancy goods there, girl? Me, OOC: They aren't going to have it, dude. It's the bronze age. Magpie: But it's my favorite type. GM: How would you have ever had it? Magpie: Well, Arilack... Me, OOC: NO! They wouldn't have it! That's a luxury good in this age, dude! Sugar is a luxury and they wouldn't have it here, let alone waste it making caramel of all things! The only viable alternative they MIGHT have is honey and they absolutely would not waste that on popcorn either. Hell, they probably wouldn't waste the corn either! Magpie: W-well, what about cheddar popcorn? Me, OOC: STOP! GM: Uh. Right. Let's get on the road. That more or less set the tone for the rest of the trek south. So, on that frustrated note, I'm going to pause here. Join us next time as the Seven Deadly One Piece campaign comes to a close and a new game full of crazies began. See you there!

[thisaintascenereviews]

Book Review by Bradley Christensen For The Sake Of Heaviness: The History Of Metal Blade Records Author: Brian Slagel & Mark Englinton Publisher: BMG Release Date: August 29 2017

November of 2014 is when I first got into heavy metal. It was a combination of picking up some albums from bands like Cannibal Corpse, Abysmal Dawn, At The Gates, and some new albums from some veterans of death metal, because I wanted to get into actual death metal. I say that, because I’ve been pretty into deathcore for years, but I never got into actual death metal. Not that I didn’t like it, but I didn’t listen to it, so I wanted to expand my tastes a bit. Now it’s funny, because a few years later, Cannibal Corpse is one of my favorite bands (especially now that I’ve gotten more into their stuff since then), but metal is my favorite genre. I mean, sure, I like specific kinds of metal, but if I had to tell someone what I liked most, it would be metal. That’s what I listen to most. I’m listening to Helloween as I write this, but I also got into bands like Dio, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden around this time, too. I was already a big fan of “classic rock,” the umbrella term for bands, artists, and albums that defined the 1960s through the 1980s (maybe even the 1990s, too, but not really), but I’ve always to get into classic metal. I picked up Black Sabbath’s 1970 LP, Paranoid, around that same time, and I really liked it, so I thought I’d get more into stuff like that. I’ve grown to love a lot of classic metal, stuff that defined the genre (or shall I say, genres, thanks to how many kinds of metal there are), and it’s amazing as to how much I’ve listened to, consumed, and loved throughout the last few years. For this year, actually, I’ve listened to so much metal that I’ve really enjoyed, I’m separating out my yearend lists into non-metal, metal, and a culmination of both. Anyway, my point is, my life has changed a lot, thanks to metal, mainly in the sense that I’ve discovered an entire world of music. Of course there are plenty other worlds of music to discover, like when I got into funk, soul, and R&B music, but metal is its own breed. Metal is interesting, because there are tons of kinds of metal. You’ve got black metal, power metal, death metal, thrash metal, and tons more.

A good question that is worth asking, regardless of any genre of music, is where did it all come from? Not even in terms of where the music itself came from, but the scene that erupts around it. A lot of people credit a band like Black Sabbath with creating metal, and they kind of did, but it wasn’t until the early 80s (and some would even argue the mid-80s) that heavy metal started taking off. Part of that I would like to credit with Metal Blade Records. This is a record label that’s one of the biggest in the world, and one of the torchbearers of the genre, giving a lot of unknown and talented bands a chance to thrive in the world of heavy metal. For The Sake Of Heaviness is a book that details the creation, as well as the rise, of Metal Blade. Written as an autobiography of the label, Metal Blade CEO Brian Slagel takes us, the reader, through his early years as a metal fan, and what inspired him to start Metal Blade. The book takes us through mainly the early 80s through the 90s, and it’s a really interesting read, especially if you’re a metal fan. I don’t know if this is worth reading if you’re not into metal, because you’ll have no idea what he’s talking about, but at the same time, it’s worth taking a look at if you want to get some ideas on starting a label, whether you’re a fan of metal or not. The thing is, too, I can’t say that this piece is a review of the book, because it’s not a proper book. I mean, it is, but there’s not much to critique here. This is about something that actually happened, and instead of an autobiography about a person with a story, per se, this book is more or less about a lot of stuff, including bands, musicians, people, and places. There’s a lot of stories in one here, so this isn’t a review, but it’s merely about my thoughts on this book. Obviously, I love this book, and it’s totally worth a read, but it’s honestly for fans of metal, first and foremost.

Now that’s a good and a “bad” thing, and I put that in quotes, because it’s not anything that makes me dislike this book. The good thing about that, well, is that one thing that I got throughout the book is that Slagel is a metal fan. That’s why he started Metal Blade, because he’s a fan, first and foremost. I actually really like that he talks a lot about that, and a ton of guest musicians talk about that, too. Something cool that this book does is actually have little paragraphs, as well as full interviews, from other musicians, or just people that Slagel came across / knew within the music industry, or elsewhere, and one thing that’s constantly talked about is how much he’s a fan of metal. As I was saying, I really like that he talks about how he’s fan of the bands he signs, first and foremost, because it’s similar to being a reviewer. He looks at music from a business perspective, too, but he wants to sign bands he likes, too. He enjoys what he does, and I feel that, coming from the perspective of someone that likes to write about music. My best friend Jake would always ask me if I’m a fan first, especially when we first met, even though I like to critique music. I like to review it, analyze it, and things like that. I’m not necessarily harsh, or anything like that, because there are a lot of things that I’ll give a pass to, no matter the reason, but it’s definitely possible to be a fan of music that you might criticize, or bands that you’re handling from a business perspective. That’s a thing that I wanted to briefly talk about, just because I really enjoyed how Slagel came across with that balance of being a fan, but also knowing what business steps to take. If anything, though, this album is just great for fans of metal, because you get a sense of history from this book. The “bad” thing about that, however, is that you wouldn’t have a clue as to what is being talked about here if you’re not into metal, so I wouldn’t go into this book without being a metal fan.

With that said, however, this book is great. There are a lot of things that I knew (one interesting fact that I knew before reading this, but I didn’t know any specifics is that the alternative band The Goo Goo Dolls were actually signed to Metal Blade for awhile early in their career; the thing is, Metal Blade had a punk sublabel, and they signed to that, but Metal Blade had a joint deal with Warner Bros in the late 80s and early 90s, a deal that was broken by the band Gwar, but The Goo Goo Dolls were technically a Metal Blade band for a brief time), but there were also a lot of things that I didn’t know. Being a huge fan of Metal Blade itself, especially through a lot of bands on the label, it was cool to hear a lot of these bands being talked about. It was cool to see where the label came from, and it was also awesome to know a few other things. For instance, I never knew that Slayer released their debut LP, 1983’s Show No Mercy, on Metal Blade (I picked it up the other day, actually, and it’s a great album), or that Slagel, as well as Metal Blade, is responsible for bringing Metallica into the world. I definitely would pick this up if you’re looking for a history of one of the most important and influential metal labels of all time. I almost feel like, especially after reading this, that Metal Blade helped to kickstart the metal scene in the US. I almost feel like this label had a lot to do with that. If you’re a metalhead whatsoever, no matter the kind of metal that you like, I’d check this out, because this doesn’t necessarily talk about amazing albums, bands, and songs (even though it does), it talks about the history of metal. It talks about where metal was at the time, and how it grew throughout the years, as well as adapting and changing when it needed to. There’s a whole thing about the 90s, and how grunge music played into metal, ultimately showing how Metal Blade adapted to grunge. Real quick, too, this book is really short. It’s around 170-ish pages, but the text is pretty big, so it’s not a long read whatsoever, which is good, because it’s something I didn’t want to put down.