#damn copyright strikes I hate them

[10bendog]

Happy 25th Anniversary, Powerpuff Girls!!!

💙❤️💚

[lil-tachyon]

Hey logan, i'm trying to get into sci fi more, do you have any media, movies or otherwise you'd say it's a must watch for someone starting to get into it? Thanks

Super broad question! And precisely the thing I love to talk about. Although unfortunately I really don’t watch a lot of movies or TV so the best I can do for you is list some stuff I like and hope that you find something you enjoy. If we were talking sci-fi literature, that’s something I would probably write a full essay on- if anyone’s interested in reading my thoughts on that and getting my really long list of recommendations, just let me know. I might even do it on my own anyway, just for fun…

I guess if we’re going to talk about “must-watch” sci-fi movies then we have to talk about Star Wars first just to get it out of the way. I’ll keep it brief, far too much ink has been spilt regarding this franchise and you can find more in-depth opinions somewhere else. The original trilogy is great- there’s a reason it launched one of the biggest media franchises of the past 45 years. Endlessly rewatchable, somehow still looks better than basically any other big budget SFF popcorn movie and just plain fun. If you somehow haven’t seen the OT yet, get to it. 

You don’t really need to watch any other Star Wars stuff aside from the OT. The prequels aren’t exactly essential and they’re unquestionably worse in terms of dialog, acting, pacing (i.e. the nuts and bolts of storytelling.) If you’ve never watched Star Wars before you won’t have any nostalgia for them so you can skip them. Don’t even bother with the Disney sequels- pointless and incoherent. If you DO for some reason want more Star Wars in your life I can give you two recommendations: 

First is the masterpiece that is Genndy Tartakovsky’s (creator of Samurai Jack) Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) (no, not the CGI Clone Wars show you’re probably thinking of). Split into 25 episodes ranging in length from two to twelve minutes, the whole show is only about two hours long but boy is it sweet. There are no main characters and not much in the way of an overarching plot. Instead the show is composed of a series of rapid-fire vignettes that take place across the entire Star Wars galaxy and tell dozens of unique microstories. It’s pulpy and fun and never takes itself too seriously and the whole thing is on YouTube because for some reason Disney actually hates everything that made Star Wars good and hasn’t taken the time to copyright strike it.

Second recommendation is the Mandalorian. I didn’t believe it when people started raving about it, but it really is great and tells a poignant, self-contained, original story. It’s not perfect and it definitely suffers from the Disneywars curse of really obnoxious references to the OT, but it’s absolutely worth the watch.

Damn that’s so much more time than I wanted to spend on Star Wars. I always forget how much of a SW geek I am until I start talking about it…

Quick list of the other big “essentials” that I’ve seen and can recommend before I get into more personal stuff (in no particular order):

Alien (1979) - Weird and creepy and gross and with impeccable visual design in every single frame. I need to rewatch it, only seen it once.

Akira (1988) - Massive, groundbreaking, unsettling, beautiful. Brought cyberpunk into the visual realm, brought anime to the West in a whole new way. I could rewatch it a hundred times. 

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - A foundational film that moves at a foreboding crawl and leaves you feeling unsafe and unsure of what you just watched. (Also my dad’s band referenced the monkey scene in their big-label debut music video, so that should be reason enough to watch it)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - UFOs, the American West, and the most 70s-looking cast imaginable. It feels more a product of its time than most of the others on this list, but I love it for that and it does nothing to make it any less impactful or engrossing.

The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) - I waited waaaaaay too long to watch these. I only got around to seeing them this past year in fact. I had always just written them off in my head as nothing more than cheesy 80s action flicks but my God are they good and so much different from what I expected. The first one is basically a sci-fi slasher film and the second is probably the best sequel film I’ve ever seen and takes everything in a totally different direction that still manages to build on all the groundwork laid by the first. Please watch, don’t be like me and wait until you’re twenty-six. 

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) - My favorite Ghibli movie. For being a film about people flying airships and fighting bugs in a giant toxic jungle, it really has a lot of important stuff to say and says it very well.

Castle in the Sky (1988) - Hits a lot of the same plot beats as Nausicaä and, imo, suffers a little bit in comparison but still a great anime sci-fantasy romp. 

The Thing (1982) - Disgusting sci-fi horror in the glacial Antarctic wastes

The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) - The first, the best. Sure, it’s inconsistent in terms of quality, but it’s at least consistently weird and inventive and the good episodes are really damn good. Also something I love about it is the acting- it’s very over-the-top expressive and exaggerated. Feels more like it’s meant for the stage than for the small screen. You don’t see a lot of TV like that these days. 

The X-Files (1993-2002, 2016-2018) - Absolutely in my top 5 TV shows. It was great to watch as a 14-year-old because I was still young enough to find it scary, and it’s great on every re-watch because I can really appreciate how much chemistry Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny have and how fun, goofy, and overall weird it is. As I recall it starts to decline noticeably in season 8. Season 9 you’ll have to grit your teeth to get through. The 2016-2018 revival is half composed of unwatcheable “storyline” episodes and half surprisingly good-to-great “monster of the week” episodes.

Cowboy Bebop (1998-1999) - My number one favorite anime, I love everything about it. So much effort goes into small background details and characters that only appear for a few seconds and it really goes a long way to making the whole universe of the show feel so real that you could see yourself living in it. Also the soundtrack is top-notch, I listen to it regularly. 

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996) and End of Evangelion (1997) - Another one that I took too long to get to and to be honest I probably would’ve been more into it had I watched it when I was younger, but it’s still great and I recommend it. Features a classic “inflation suit” episode

Stuff that’s less “essential” but I really like it:

Planetes (2003-2004) - My second favorite anime. Starts off as a workplace slice-of-life and slowly builds into a really, really emotional conclusion. Can’t recommend it enough.

Forbidden Planet (1956) - A sci-fi adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (I’m an illiterate piece of shit so I can’t tell you how good an adaptation it is). It’s slow-paced and eerie, and way more atmospheric than its decidedly 1950s visuals would lead you to believe.

Digimon: The Movie (2000) / Summer Wars (2009) - A short story: as a kid I probably watched the Digmon Movie about a million times. It was huge with kids my age and was probably an entire generation’s first introduction to ska-punk. It’s a great movie. Anyway, fast forward about a decade and a half and at some point I sit down to watch Summer Wars with my brother on no other information than that we heard it’s good. And it is! But pretty soon into the movie we both notice something odd- it seems to feature almost the exact same plot as the Digmon Movie. After a bit of digging we find out that they were both directed by the same guy and it seems he just had this idea in his head for a story that he really wanted to make for over a decade because Summer Wars is basically a more mature and less merchandisable remake. Watch them both!

Samurai Jack (2001-2004, 2017) - the first cartoon I saw as a kid that really made me say “finally, something for me!” I wouldn’t get another TV show aimed at me that was “cool” and “epic” and “badass” until ATLA came out. Nothing beats watching a samurai fight a million robots and bounty-hunters on an endless quest to go back to the past. Also the season 5 revival is great and I genuinely don’t get why a lot of people seemed to really hate on it. 

Moon (2009) - It’s been a LONG time since I watched it, but I liked it quite a bit. A lonely lunar miner runs into what seems to be his double and things get spooky…

Prospect (2018) - More space miners running into trouble! Really great costume and prop design on a super small budget (but you wouldn’t know it from how good it looks). 

Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket (1989) - Listen- I’m not a gundam guy. I don’t care about all the different robots and I’m not about to watch 40 years of TV to try and figure out the story. Which is why War in the Pocket is great because it’s six episodes long and it just tells a really touching story punctuated by cool robot battles and you don’t need to know anything about Gundam to enjoy it.

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise (1987) - A story about a space race set on an alternate world. What really sets it apart is the visual design- every detail from books, to currency, to texts to vehicles, to architecture is unique enough to feel totally alien but also grounded enough to somehow feel familiar. It’s quite an achievement. Trigger Warning: there’s a very uncomfortable rape scene in the middle of the film that seems to come out of nowhere. I’m still not sure why they chose to include it.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999) - Military police get up to some real nasty stuff in alternate history fashy 1950s Japan. Very depressing, all my friends complained to me about how sad it was even though they went into it knowing what it was about and agreeing to watch it with me. You just can’t win sometimes!

That’s about all I have for now. I know it’s all kind of basic bitch stuff but like I said, I don’t often watch movies/TV. Hope it helps and thanks for the great question!

[lezdomstories]

Rival to Slave

Story Synopsis: After a childish bet, Lora starts seeing her friend Charlotte in a new light. Lora starts feeling inferior, and Charlotte gladly takes advantage.

This story includes: Foot fetish. Lesbian domination. Humiliation. Femdom. Female Worship.

Hope you like it, EggWhites.

Copyright © 2022 by EggWhites

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Today was the day we put this ridiculous fuel between us to rest. I was a genius at math. This was going to be a piece of cake for me. My foot couldn’t stop tabbing on the ground as I waited for Mrs. Lanigan to inform us that the test started. I looked over my shoulder at Charlotte, who was chewing her gum boringly, looking as relaxed as a girl during a test could be; she always hid her nervousness better than me. Her eyes caught mine. She pushed her red hair behind her ear as she smiled and blew me a kiss. I didn’t know if that was an attempt to irritate me, but it worked.

“You have two hours. Start writing.” Mrs. Lanigan stared at her clock, and I immediately snatched my pen and started flipping through the pages. My quick and rabid movement must’ve amused Charlotte, cause I heard her trying to sniffle a chuckle. I didn’t care. She could laugh all she wanted. I’d like to see how funny she’d find this when I won.

My name’s Lora. This was my last year of high school, and, logically, my last chance to prove to a certain annoying brat who’s boss.

My high school years held a striking resemblance to a cringy high school movie. I didn’t do cheerleading, nor any other sport really. But I was an A+ student, elected council president for all three years. For some reason, surprisingly, that made me popular. Everybody knew me, from the teachers to most of the students to the principal.

I didn’t realize I had that reputation till a year back, but once I did, I really liked it. It was nice to be recognized, and nicer still that I didn’t have to lift a finger to make that happen; it just kinda happened.

I didn’t mistake it for anything but what it was though, a short phase of fame, one which I planned to enjoy while it lasted before I headed off to college. Even though I didn’t like to admit the fact, it really mattered to me, and for a perfectionist girl who knew nothing but being the best at everything she did, this became a really important part of me.

Enter Charlotte. It was a normal day where I was meeting up with my friend Sally in the cafeteria when I saw she had company, a girl I hadn’t seen before. I sat with them, and Sally introduced us. Charlotte was a new girl in school, transferring from another state. First thing I noticed about her were her looks, cause honestly, they were noticeable. She was gorgeous. She had bright red hair and bright green eyes. Her body, though not that ripped, was fit, indicating she worked out often.

I wasn’t lacking in the looks department per se but…the difference between us was clear. I had a plain, cute kind of beauty. She had the kind of beauty that those damn social media models had. I wasn’t envious…but it still bothered me somewhat. I hated the fact that she excelled…in a way, in the only place I felt I didn’t. All through our meal, I got to know all kinds of stuff about her. She was the Capitan of the basketball team in her old school, and planning to be so in this one. Her father managed a big tech company out of town.

More and more I felt, as ridiculous as it may sound, like she was some stranger from overseas that came her to overthrow me. She was talkative and confident. I wasn’t shy, but when meeting people for the first time I couldn’t act all social and playful; I needed some time to get comfortable around a new person. She didn’t. It was like she and Sally had been friends for years. And considering Sally was my only friend—close friend anyhow—I didn’t like this sudden closeness between them.

When our tedious meal finally finished and we stood, I was hit with the last slap: I looked up at her and realized she had easily over a foot of height on me. I wasn’t short. Bitch was tall.

However, next day, I let all of that go—or, tried. Charlotte in the end was just the friendly new girl in school. I didn’t know why she worried me so much, but I knew it was better to let it go. We had nothing in common. So why did I treat her existence like a challenge? Plus, she was a sporty girl. And I bet she sucked academically. She had the looks and the social shit, she couldn’t have the brains too; she couldn’t have it all.

My first plan was to just forget about her. Nothing held us together. Sally put a sure end to that plan when she started including her in all our meetups. Overnight, I had a new friend, cause of Sally. So I kind of blamed Sally for what happened after that. Simply put, we didn’t get along.

She had an irritating presence, and I was easily irritated. I swear she started doing it on purpose after she realized that fact. I cared about how I looked in public—maybe a bit too much. Once she realized that, she started making sleezy comments about either some of my clothes not matching or my hair looking “Dunno…kinda weird to be honest.” Or, she’d ask me out of nowhere, “Did you sleep well last night? Don’t know, you seem kinda off.” And stupid shit like that. Worst part was, I knew she was only messing with me, especially that she flashed me a teasing smile every time she made such stupid uncalled for comments. I knew that and still it got to me.

I didn’t know if she was just teasing me, or if she sensed I had harbored insecurities towards her and enjoyed pointing them out. I couldn’t make the same comments about her, what was I gonna say, “You sleep well last night? I dunno, your skin looks smoother than milk and your hair looks healthy as fuck!” And the only time I tried it, told her she kinda “looked off” like she put it, fucking Sally immediately intervened and chuckled, “Check your eyesight four-eyes; she looks gorgeous.”

And it actually backfired, cause Charlotte identified my teasing comment as payback, and knew she had been getting under my skin.

Our time together wasn’t all pickering. But there was a great deal of back and forth between us. Every now and then, she’d make a comment, and like the sensitive twat I was, I’d give a heated reaction; she loved to get those reactions out of me, for some reason. The more she realized a thing bothered me, the more she did it. And Sally, my friend since kindergarten, always took her side—understandable, since probably she saw my lash outs a bit childish, which I think they were. That was only a small part of the things that annoyed me about her.

Our little passive rivalry that had been going on for months, came to a peak last week.

Me, Charlotte and Sally were in Sally’s backyard, just hanging out. I and Sally were slumped on two patio chairs and Charlotte, as usual, was on the swing.

“Dad is going away for the weekend.” Charlotte said from her place on the swing.

I winced, knowing what that meant.

“Party?” Sally said, raising her strawberry milkshake in cheers.

“Humm.” Charlotte nodded.

Her parties were a regular occurrence ever since she’d transferred, as were mine. However, and I still didn’t know if it was deliberate, one time, our parties just happened to be planned in the same day. Now, except for Sally, none of the friends I invited were that close. But it still hurt when all of them chose to go to Charlotte’s. Granted, she had the bigger house, and she had a pool, but what the fuck I’d known those traitors for years! Only Sally showed up. And after playing monopoly and munching on half the snacks I had prepared, I had to let her go, cause it was obvious she wanted to be elsewhere. And that was the last party I threw. I couldn’t put myself through the humbling experience again.

“You coming…” Charlotte nudged my knee with her sandaled foot. “Right midget?”

My teeth dug into my lower lip. Four weeks ago, I finally gave up on stopping her from calling me that. Now I just accepted it. Bitch didn’t care it bothered me, so I just did my best to act as if it didn’t. “Not likely,” I said.

“What?” She yelled. “Why?”

I didn’t know if her disappointment was genuine. If it wasn’t, she was a great actress, but I couldn’t see a reason why she would bother faking. I shrugged. “Sorry, I just have to study that’s all.”

“Come on,” she whined. “it’ll be forever till I throw another one. Studying can wait, yes?”

“No” I said. “Calculus exam is in less than a week.”

“So what?” She shrugged. “We have calculus too.”

“Well,” I said, unable to miss an opportunity to deliver an insult, however insignificant and childish. “I actually care about getting a good grade. You see I care about my future.”

“…” She recoiled, her eyes narrowed. “So? Are you saying I don’t?”

“Not saying anything.” I said, delighted more than ever to see the slightest signs of annoyance on her face. “Your grades speak for themselves honey.”

“Huh—” She scoffed. She was smiling, but it was obvious she was trying to hide her spite.

Sally’s eyes just moved back and forth between the two of us, a satisfied grin on her lips. She lived for our fights; it was the highlight of all her days.

“I don’t mean anything.” I shrugged. “Believe me I know it’s not for a lack of trying. Some people just can’t do well academically. I wouldn’t feel bad about it. Sports is more your thing.”

A long and sudden silence overtook. I couldn’t hide my smile. I could see her from the corner of my eye, a dumbfounded look on her face as she tried to make sense of what I said. After a while, she leaned back, looked at Sally and said, “…Is it just me, or did she just imply I was stupid?”

“She just implied you’re stupid.” Sally nodded indifferently.

“…” Charlotte raised an eyebrow, like she was making her peace with the fact. “Okay.”

She just leaned back and sipped on her milkshake. But a quick glance at her neutral face told me she was offended. Maybe that was it. Maybe I found an insecurity of hers, one that I could use and abuse and tease her about. I felt like a child. I was having the time of my life over such a silly thing. But I couldn’t help myself. “Don’t feel bad,” I said sympathetically.

She shook her head like she was surprised. “Who’the fuck said I feel bad—”

“No, I’m just saying, it’s alright.” My tone was caring and sweet and sympathetic. “You can’t expect to be great at everything.” That was what I thought I was before she entered my life. I thought I was perfect. I was smart, a top student, social, popular, and pretty. She came into my life and made me feel small in three of those aspects, and since then had been teasing me about it non-stop.

We were still friends. Good friends, considering how much time we spent together and that, when she managed to shut her mouth, we had pretty good times. We had similar taste in music and movies and we shared a sense of humor. But I hated how much her playful teasing made me feel small in comparison to her. I didn’t even know if she knew it or not, if she knew the effect she had on me. But this here, right now, was a chance for me to take any kind of revenge I could. “Some people have the brains, and some people simply don’t.”

“Okay okay,” She brushed me off. “Take a break Mastermind.”

Satisfied, I took a break. I just sunk back into my patio chair with a big sneer on my face. Whatever insults she tried to direct my way after that would feel a bit less bitter. I put a dent in her perfect existence.

“And I don’t study that much, FYI.” She spat. “That’s why my grades are suffering a bit lately.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “Not cause you’re dumb, not at all.”

Sally snickered silently. It felt good not being the one acting spiteful and laughed at for a change.

“You know what—” Charlotte took a breath, trying to control herself. Seeing her cute pale face grow red with agitation both surprised and amused me. Who knew we had that in common. She had the same ‘perfect’ image about herself too; it just took me some time to figure out how to disturb it.

“Okay…Okay.” She nodded, chuckling nervously. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll still attend the party tomorrow, and I’ll still score more than you on the calculus exam.”

“Yeah you definitely will.” I said. There was no doubt in my mind that it was impossible for her to do that. It was the only area in my life that I felt confident about now. “She will, right Sally.”

“Ahha.” Sally nodded, equally amused.

I looked at Charlotte, and she had her eyebrow raised and her lips pursed. She took a deep breath, calming herself down, then leaned back. “Alright. That’s it. You’ll be sorry. I’ll show you.”

“That you will.”

After some time, during which none of us said a word, Sally said, “Why don’t you guys make a bet!”

Me and Charlotte looked at each other at once, as we contemplated the possibility. For some reason, I felt worried. “What kind of bet?”

“I dunno?” Sally shrugged. “Make it interesting.”

I hated her at that moment. Things were going fine. But she had to swoop in and make sure she got some fun out of this.

Which brought us too today. Bet made. Whoever scores higher on the exam will be the winner, and the winner could give one command to the loser, one that, however embarrassing, should be obeyed. Sally made that point very clear.

Adrenaline rushed through my body as I ran my pen through the paper. This was my thing. Exam was easy. It was crackers for me, and yet, I was shivering like crazy. Part of that was due to Charlotte informing me firsthand what her order would be the very night we made the bet. “I’ll order you to get on your knees…like a good little girl,” She pinched my cheek as she said it. “And, after stating, clearly, honestly, how I’m the coolest person you ever knew, in great detail might I add, you’re gonna pucker those lovely lips of yours and give my ass a big kiss.”

It was ridiculous. Proved to me how childish she really was. And I didn’t hide how I felt about it. “Piss off,” I said. “Not doing that.”

“Where did all the confidence go?” She chuckled. “Or are you all talk? Thought I was stupid? Come on midget, have some confidence in yourself.”

That comment got through me. I felt like slapping her. But she was right. I should at least trust myself in my own game. I told her she had a deal.

And since that day, I barely slept. I already studied hard and a lot, but that week…that week studying was all I did. Losing that bet would be the end of me. Not socially. At the end of the day, it was just a silly bet between friends; it meant nothing. But to me, deep inside, it did. It meant everything. It would just be an assertion of all the tormenting insecurities I had about her. A verbal confession from me—worse, an act of submission. It would haunt me for years. I wouldn’t and couldn’t let that happen. My perfectionist persona image of myself would not handle it.

And the fact that she’d suggested that bet made me realize she knew what ran inside my head all along. She knew I was insecure around her. She knew I was constantly comparing myself to her. She knew there was a private competition going inside me, and while she may have found it funny previously, now, she wanted to win it. She wanted me to admit she was better than me.

The prospect of me losing kept me awake at night, as I imagined myself, on my knees in front of her, telling her how awesome she was, and she, like the stuck-up runt she was, offering her behind for me to kiss. I wanted to vomit.

As I solved my paper, feeling like my life depended on it, I glanced back at her. She looked as calm as ever, and her eye again caught mine. She winked and blew me a kiss. I grunted, and got back to my exam, my pen almost breaking between my fingers.

Four Days Later

I and Sally walked towards the basketball court. Sally, having already got our papers, kept the results to herself. The plan was that we’re gonna go get Charlotte after she finished her game then go to one of our houses. I shivered as I walked.

Sally took a look at me then chuckled. “Gee…” She shook her head. “Relax.”

I nodded animatedly. I must’ve looked like a child, nervous about such a thing. But I couldn’t explain it to her, why this meant so much to me. We got to the basketball court and sat ourselves on the benches. For the first time, I watched Charlotte play.

True to her word, she was team Capitan by now. And seeing her play, I could see she deserved it. The way she ran and dribble and jumped and scored, it was like seeing an NBA star playing a bunch of noobs. And, strangely, as she ran and panted, her body glittering with sweat and her red ponytail getting messy, she still looked attractive.

I shook my head and pushed my glasses up the bridge of my nose. Sports were her thing. Academia was mine. After a while, after she’d scored a shot and while the players got back to their positions, her eyes caught us. She smiled and waved at us, before she smiled at me. She turned and arched her back, sticking out her butt in my direction. “Just getting it all sweaty and ripe for you.”

I blushed, as all the players looked my way. Bitch didn’t whisper or anything; she practically yelled at me from halfway across the court.

Half an hour later, the game ended. Charlotte made her way towards us while she wiped her sweat off her forehead and chest with a towel. “You got the results.” She spoke to Sally but directed her teasing green eyes at me.

“Right here.” Sally tapped the envelope in her hands. “Where do you wanna go?”

“Don’t know?” She shrugged, then nudged my shoulders. “Where do you feel it would be a proper place to lose your dignity today midget?”

“….” My mouth gaped. I felt like I had to say something smart…or anything really. “..I…yeah? you…” I murmured like an idiot.

She smiled at my pathetic show of nervousness, then said, “Let’s go to my place, yes?”

“Fine—” her sweaty towel hit my face, making Sally chuckle.

I threw it back at her, my face growing red with anger. I controlled myself. Soon enough…she’d be sorry.

We got to her place, and immediately went to her room. I’d been in her room before. It had a big master bed and a decent-sized closet, the walls a bright shade of white.

And of course, it was as messy as it was every time I came. Clothes everywhere, shoes everywhere, and, a new thing that made me slightly worry, notebooks and books everywhere on the bed and the table. She’d been studying. But I had been scoring A’s since I got into this school. No matter how hard she’d been working lately, she couldn’t win this thing.

I wasn’t planning to make her do anything drastic when I won; Actually, I was planning to give her the same command, minus the kiss; It didn’t feel right for me to make her kiss my butt. I didn’t know why though; guess I didn’t have the confidence to make such a demand with a straight face.

I and Sally were sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for her as she freshened up in the bathroom. I was wearing my usual school clothes, a long black skirt and a white blouse, and Sally was in a simple yellow sundress. Charlotte came out minutes later, having changed out of her basketball uniform and into a comfortable pair of pink fleece pajamas, her face wet and clean; she still had her dirty socks on however. I didn’t know why she didn’t bother changing out of those dirtbags. Her eyes were immediately drawn to mine. I looked horrified, and I did my best to hide it, but her sneering at me told me I was doing a poor job. “So,” she said.

Sally, excitedly, got to her feet and walked to the center of the room. And Charlotte took a seat beside me on the edge of her bed, for some reason wrapping her arm around my shoulders, like she was trying to comfort me. “Why so scared Megamind?”

“I’m not scared.”

“You’re shaking.”

“Shut up.” I wiggled away from her hold.

“Okay okay,” Sally said, opening the envelope. “First we have…” She examined the top of the paper. “Lora.”

I took a deep breath. Ever since junior year, the lowest grade I ever had was 96. And I studied for this exam more than I ever did before. I knew I didn’t miss a single question. I was expecting a hundred. An A+. A sure victory. A 100.

“97.”

I actually screeched upon hearing it. “No.” I whined. “But I—”

“Hush hush…” Charlotte brushed me off. The only thing keeping me together was the slightly, equally worried look on her face. She was worried. It was unlikely she got more than that, impossible even, and she knew it. She said, biting on her thumbnail, “What about me?”

Sally took the second paper from the envelope. She took a breath as she stared at the top of it, then she looked up at us, a wince on her face.

Both I and Charlotte just waited in silence, as Sally looked at us. It took us some time to realize she was prolonging this for no good fucking reason, then we both shouted, “Get on with it cunt!”

“Fine.” Sally recoiled. “…A 100.”

My stomach plummeted, and I started seeing spots. I jumped to my feet and strode towards Sally. “Liar.” I snatched the paper from her hand. Here it was. A big fucking A+ with a big fucking 100 right beside it. Not a single X was found anywhere on the paper.

My legs trembled and I could barely stand This wasn’t happening. A gentle fake cough made me close my eyes, before I finally managed to open them again and look towards Charlotte, who sat there on the bed with her legs crossed and her socked foot dangling, the biggest victorious grin on her face.

“So…” She drawled as she rose to her feet. “How you wanna do this.” Her eyes suddenly widened like she’d gotten an idea. “Oh you should wear lipstick.”

“That’s a great idea!” Sally said. My best friend was too damn excited about my debasement.

“I’m not wearing lipstick.” I shook my head, avoiding looking at either of them. I crossed my arms and looked at the floor like a salty kid.

“No…?” She pouted sarcastically at me. “Pity. Would’ve loved to see the outline of your lips on my cheeks…where it belongs.”

Even Sally seemed a bit disappointed. I tried to give her a disdainful glare, but she just smiled at me and shrugged. None of them thought much about what was happening. I did. I couldn’t do it. This was too much for me. And I really loathed Charlotte by this point, almost as much as I loathed my stupidity for getting myself into this situation.

“Okay then,” Charlotte sighed, with her hands on her hips, and nodded in front of her on the floor. “On your knees. I hope you remember the words.”

I remembered them. They were pretty much all I thought about for days, but I couldn’t. “I’m not gonna do it.” I mumbled. My arms tightened around my chest as I looked at the floor.

“Come again,” Charlotte snickered. “What?”

“I’m not doing it.” I said, only clearer and louder.

Charlotte said nothing, but looked at Sally.

Sally gave me a shaming look, like she was saying ‘come on.’ She whined, “Don’t be like that Lora. A bet’s a bet.”

“It’s a stupid…” I said through gritted teeth. “A stupid… childish bet. And I’m not doing it.” I shook my head. “Sorry.”

“…” Sally sighed.

Charlotte half smiled half frowned. She didn’t like what she was hearing, but she didn’t care that much. But it must’ve told her something, the fact I was going back on my word for something as silly as this, told her that it wasn’t that silly for me.

“Not cool.” Sally said. “Not cool at all.”

“What!” I whined. “It’s not big deal. Just pick something else.”

“Like what,” Charlotte sighed.

“Something less embarrassing.”

“Where’s the fun in that.” She rolled her eye and shook her head. “Chicken.”

My head only grew hotter. A wimp. I looked like a wimp. I didn’t like that. But I preferred it better than getting my lips anywhere near her bottom. It would be the most humiliating thing I did all my life, with or without the creaming on top that were the praises she’d have me sing for her.

“Fine…” Charlotte said. “I’ll give you something else.”

A surge of hope ran through me, and, surprisingly, I felt somewhat…disappointed. I had no idea why. It felt like I avoided something I wasn’t supposed to avoid. Like I cheated my way out of what I rightfully deserved, which, was I guess an accurate way to describe what just happened. But of course the dominant feeling here was relief. “Yeah?” I asked.

“Aha…” She nodded, and her smirk put me at unease.

“What?”

She extended one socked foot forward, then, with her teasing green eyes staring at me, she pointed towards it. “Repeat the words, then get on your knees and give my foot a peck.”

I rolled my eyes.

“What!” she chuckled at Sally. “That’s better isn’t it? Less embarrassing.”

“…” Sally shrugged. “I guess—” She shook her head. “Come on Lora just grow some balls and do it!”

“She just came back from a basketball game!”

“I’m not asking you to make out with it.” Charlotte chuckled. “Just a quick…symbolic, kiss.”

My eyes snapped towards hers. Symbolic. It wasn’t all fun and games. She knew this would be humiliating for me. She wanted it that way. I could see it in her amused sneer. She wanted me to admit my defeat.

But, did it really matter whether or not I admitted it. She’d already won. Girl bested me at everything. Being smarter was the only aspect about myself that I felt confident about, and today that proved to be a lie. I never felt ashamed about the fact I was so full of myself. There wasn’t anything wrong with it. I was awesome. But if I admired myself for all my merits, logically, Charlotte proved herself more worthy of that admiration, more than I ever was.

That wasn’t gonna change anytime soon. So maybe it was only right I grew up and admitted it, and gave her the symbolic gesture she demanded. I didn’t speak. I just pulled my skirt up a bit as I sunk to my knees. Charlotte didn’t say anything, just smiled with satisfaction.

But it was Sally whom I wanted to punch. “For fuck’s sake” I shouted at her. “Put the phone away!”

“What…?” Sally pouted, keeping her phone in hand. “This is a nice moment. Come on, for the memories.” She pointed the camera at us.

“Who are you gonna show it too?”

“Grow up.” Sally brushed me off.

I grunted, knowing she was right. It was nothing. Only one who thought this was extremely humiliating was I. And, by now, probably Charlotte. I glanced at her one last time, and she nodded down towards her extended socked foot.

As I bent my back and lowered my head closer to her, my heartbeat went crazy rapid, so much so I felt my stomach empty. I inched closer to her foot. But suddenly she withdrew it.

“First let me hear it.” She demanded.

I took a deep breath, trying to find breath to speak. “…Charlotte,” I said, my voice shaky. “You’re…” I forgot what she asked me to say. With the conflicting feelings moving through me, I couldn’t remember it. So, I said what I truly felt, laying out my honest opinion of her, minus all the loath. “You’re the…prettiest girl I’ve ever met. I’ve never met someone as confident, as attractive, or as smart as you. You’re honestly the coolest person I’ve ever known. And I’m the dumbest shit for thinking I could compare.”

I knew what I said was being recorded. I didn’t give a fuck. I felt a big weight lifted off my shoulders the moment those words left my mouth, like I’d been dying to say them since I met her.

Sally chuckled. “That’s the spirit!”

Charlotte didn’t make a sound however. She just put her foot forward again.

My mouth suddenly watered as my lips got closer to her socked foot. I made the mistake of taking a breath…and as if I needed more degrading, the smell of her stinky socks wafted through my nose. My stomach shrunk as I puckered my lips and pressed them against the top of her foot. Moah.

Honestly…I would’ve been better off kissing her ass. I don’t imagine there was something that would make me feel as low as I felt right now. I froze in place contemplating the fact. I must’ve stayed for too long, cause Sally said. “Earth to Lora.”

“Leave her…” Charlotte said jokingly. “She wants to kiss the other one.” She withdrew her foot, and put the other one right in its place, under my lips.

This wasn’t a part of the bet. I literally had no reason or under any childish obligation to do that. Doing it would make a completely different point. Thing was, I felt like making that point, even though I wasn’t completely sure what it was exactly. I leaned down, and gave her other foot a kiss, only quicker, then I quickly straightened up while I had the power to do so. I couldn’t meet her eye. Whatever tormenting look she was directing my way, I didn’t want to see it.

I rose to my feet.

Things were never the same after that. For me at least. I avoided hanging out with Charlotte—and Sally by extension—as much as I could. I just grew scared whenever I thought about being in the same room with her. Something changed after that stupid bet. And I didn’t know what it meant for our relationship. I was safe as long as I kept my distance.

But I couldn’t keep my distance forever. A week later, Sally called, invited me to hang out at her place, said she was thinking about watching a movie. She didn’t say if Charlotte was gonna be there, and I didn’t ask, cause of course she’d be there. I decided I had had enough alone time. They…both of them, were my only close friends, and frankly I just wanted to spend some quality time.

And while a part of me was worried about seeing Charlotte again after last time, another part was excited, god only knows about what! It was like our relationship had restarted, on different terms. But the thing was, I didn’t know those terms yet. And it was likely that it might just all be in my head. I knew Charlotte by now. She could’ve easily taken what happened that day as a silly bet between friends and thought nothing about it. However, if she teased me about it, like I knew she liked to do, I had no idea how I would react.

So, I stood on Sally’s porch, dressed in casual black T-shirt and jeans and with the bag of snacks they asked me to bring in my hand, and I knocked. I knocked and I stepped back, preparing myself for the possibility that Charlotte might answer the door.

The door opened seconds later, and, there she stood. Her red hair fell over her shoulders, and she wore, if I remembered correctly, one of Sally’s pajamas, a two-piece red velvet. She must be planning to spend the night.

“Hey.” I had to look up to meet her eyes as I said it.

Out of nowhere, she sneered at me. I wasn’t even through the door yet, and she was sneering at me. It was at this moment that I knew, something had changed. I didn’t know whether I was excited or scared about that, but she was surely amused.

She turned on her heel and walked in and said “hey” back to me as she walked to the living room. I closed the door behind me and followed her, mumbling swears under my breath at how naturally condescending she could act sometimes.

I walked into the living room where Sally was laying on one couch flipping through the Netflix menu and Charlotte on the recliner laying sideways, waiting. I sat beside Sally on the couch and dumped out the bag of snacks on the coffee table in front of us. “What are we watching?”

“Searching.” Sally said indifferently. She always took her time choosing a movie, which served as a pain in the ass for me and Charlotte both. And by the dull, sleepy look on Charlotte’s face, I’d guess they’d been searching for a while.

Waiting, the three of us sat in awkward silence, or maybe it was only awkward for me. My eyes kept reluctantly turning left, to where Charlotte was sitting. I took a good and long look at her. Why did her sight have such a captivating effect on me? It wasn’t like she’d changed. She was always attractive. I always knew it. But now, it was as if I was seeing her in a different light. I really acknowledged her for the beauty she was, however, not with as much spite as before. I felt like I needed to look at her.

Suddenly I found myself looking at a tormenting sight, her bare feet dangling over the recliner’s armrest. I kissed those feet. That was a fact that I had to live with now. It took me a moment to realize I was staring for too long, so I darted my eyes away. I randomly glanced at her face, and fuck…she was looking right at me, smiling with her brows narrowing in confusion. She caught me staring.

I didn’t know what to say, so I just smiled awkwardly like an idiot.

“What’s up…Lora?” She cocked her head, as if to ask if there was something I wanted to say to her. There was, there was plenty. But it wasn’t like I was about to reveal the hot mess raging in my mind.

I just shrugged and looked at the TV, my cheeks blushing with embarrassment.

Luckily, minutes later, Sally was able to find a film she liked. Neither I nor Charlotte disapproved. We didn’t really care. We just wanted her to pick a damn film.

I bent down to grab a bag of chips. Sally stopped me and said she wanted to take a picture first. I wanted to say—to shout, “IT’s fucking snacks. What’s the picture for?” But I knew better. Sally liked her pictures.

For a while, we just lay back and watched. I was happy. This was normal. Just spending some quality time—or just…time—with my best friends. Then, out of nowhere, Charlotte said, “I’m hungry.”

Both me and Sally looked at her.

“So,” Sally said. “There’s a shit load of snacks on the table just grab something.”

“No,” Charlotte shrugged. “I need real food.”

“Get up and make some then,” Sally brushed her off irritatingly.

“You’re a great hostess by the way.”

“Shsh…”

Both grew silent for a second, and I remained silent, not really wanting to get into any direct conversation with her. But I grew nervous, for some reason, feeling like there was something bad coming my way.

Sure enough, after a while, Charlotte said, “Hey Lora…”

I took a deep breath. “Yes.” I said, keeping my wary eyes on the TV.

“How about you go make a sandwich for the coolest girl you ever knew huh?”

Piss off. Say it. Piss off. Two words that could work miracles. Piss. Off. Trying to dish out orders wasn’t strange for Charlotte. Actually, ever since we met her, she dished them left and right. Grab me a coffee. Fetch my gym bag from my locker. Tie my shoes. Rub my feet. And, logically, I and Sally always gave her the same response: Piss off. I don’t think she ever gave them seriously; she didn’t expect us to just do as she said. She just gave her silly orders for fun, knowing our automatic response would always be Piss off.

But the words didn’t automatically fly off my mouth this time. They were stuck in my throat. Was this another silly order, or did she expect me to comply? Regardless of what her intentions were, I wanted to do it. I felt an urge inside me to get off my ass, go to the kitchen and make her a sandwich, just cause she told me so. Refusing her just didn’t feel…right… by this point. I felt like I needed to please her, this girl that I had verbally and submissively acknowledged as better.

Frankly, the only thing keeping me from doing just that was Sally’s presence. What would she think of me if I ran off to obey Charlotte’s order, especially considering the way she gave it.

But…all things aside, it wasn’t that weird was it. I was making her a sandwich. A sandwich. It was a nice thing to do. No big deal. Fuck it.

Without a single word, I got to my feet, that damn aching in my stomach hitting me as soon as I did, and made my way to the kitchen without daring to look at either of them. I didn’t just make any sandwich either. I poured my heart inside it. But in the end…it turned out just a sandwich, turkey, mustard, pickles, bread. You really can’t be that artistic with a sandwich—or at least I couldn’t.

When I walked back, I took a look at their lovely faces. Charlotte was…smiling amusingly, satisfied but not over impressed. And Sally was just raising an eyebrow at me. I didn’t imagine she’d be this shocked if it were anyone one else. But the fact that it was me doing a favor for none other than Charlotte, was what shocked her. With a dumb smile on my face, and a knot in my stomach, I handed her the sandwich, and she took it, nodding at me as if to say thanks. And just like that, I sat back on the Sofa.

Sally was still looking at me, her eyes darting between Charlotte, me, and the sandwich I made. Then she said. “Well…I’m kinda hungry too—”

“Piss off.” I said.

“Fair enough.”

We continued watching the movie. I didn’t feel one ounce of regret over what I just did. Hearing her yums at the food I made her felt good. For a brief moment, our eyes met, and she gave me a half amused half satisfied smile; she was pleased with my reaction. I didn’t want to question it. I’d understand it later, but for now, pleasing Charlotte filled me with joy. I did wish, though, that she’d make no further requests tonight. Cause A- Sally was here, and it wouldn’t take her much time to know that there was something weird going on. And B- I knew I didn’t have the power in me to resist. Almost half an hour passed with my wish fulfilled, then I heard her sigh, and I closed my eyes in anticipation.

I saw her flex her bare feet and shake them around before she said, “Practice today was so intense. My feet hurt like hell.”

I didn’t like where this was going. I seriously considered excusing myself to the bathroom at that very moment as an escape. But I couldn’t. I stayed put. The possible pleasure of fulfilling her possible demand beating the embarrassment over the weird looks I would get from Sally, who was already glancing at me out of the corner of her eye. Sally said sarcastically, a bit annoyed that Charlotte was interrupting the movie, “Should I book you a spa appointment?”

“Would they be here quickly?”

“Just let us watch the damn movie Charlotte.” Sally whined, and turned up the volume.

The request I was expecting didn’t come. Charlotte just watched the movie. A tormenting realization dawned on me. Was she…waiting for me to offer?

She was pushing me, maybe testing the bounds of what I was willing to do for her. Me offering would surely look weird. Especially that our last encounter didn’t exactly end on the best of terms. Sally wasn’t stupid; she’d know something was up. Or, worse, she’d think I was a pushover, too nice, all of the sudden, for no reason.

But Charlotte was expecting something out of me. And I was torn between meeting her expectations thus making a fool out of myself, and disappointing her, thus preserving my stupid pride in front of annoying Sally.

I wasn’t sure, until I saw her glance at me, smile briefly, then look back at the TV, looking as confident as ever as she cleared her throat and pushed a strand of her red hair behind her ear. She even gave her foot a light shake. It was that obnoxious confidence she had that I would comply to her unstated demand, that pushed me to my decision. “…I…” I ignored Sally’s eyes that snapped to my direction. “I can…give you a foot rub… if you want to.”

“I wouldn’t…” Sally said. “You heard her, she had practice today. Her feet must be sweaty.”

Sally please SHUSH. “They couldn’t be that bad.” I said curtly, doing my best not to sound irritated.

Charlotte pursed her lips, and narrowed her eyes, seeming to actually think about whether or not to accept. She looked so cute and irritating I wanted to kiss her and slap her at the same time.

Luckily, she didn’t leave me hanging, and she shifted back slightly in her chair and shrugged. “Okay.”

I nodded with a friendly smile, then got to my feet, all the while feeling Sally’s eyes drill through the back of my head as I made my way to Charlotte’s chair. I looked around, intending to find a chair that I could shift or something so that I could sit on it while I rubbed her feet. She nodded down, like she was pointing out the obvious, “Just sit on the ground.”

“But she can’t watch the movie that way!” Sally said through gritted teeth. “In any way actually.”

“So…” Charlotte snickered. “It’s a shit movie you picked anyway.”

Sally took a deep breath as she smiled, and I knew she was resisting to shout.

While holding eye contact with her, and feeling my legs already beginning to tremble, I sunk to my knees in front of her chair. The sight of her soles greeted me. Having them facing me like that, this close to my face, I grew both hot and nervous. It felt humiliating. I was kneeling in front of her again, this time to ease the tension out of her tired feet for no good reason other than that she implied she needed it. I felt subservient, and surprisingly, my heart pumped harder against my chest, excited about the fact.

Her soles parted, and her face came into view as she raised an eyebrow at me. “You planning to start anytime soon?” She said it in such a bratty and commanding way I felt like lunging at her, but instead I nodded politely and wrapped my hands around her left foot, and kneed my thump into her meaty sole. I winced as the sweat on her foot coated my palms. She saw that and snickered, then got back to watching her show.

I sat there and rubbed. I never gave a foot massage before, but judging by her relaxed sighs, I was doing an alright job. She didn’t shy away from directing me through the whole thing though. She told me where to rub, to switch feet, and to rub harder. I obeyed without a word. It was only right she told me how she liked her feet rubbed, since I offered.

After a while, I made the mistake of looking towards Sally, whom I’d been avoiding to look at since I began. Her eyes were firmly planted on me. She had a cold look on her face as she shook her head slightly at me, as if to ask me, “Da fuck is up with you?”

I couldn’t ignore her, so I just…shrugged and gave an awkward smile then returned my focus to Charlotte’s feet. What was I gonna say, “Serving our best friend makes me feel good?”

Cause simply, that was exactly it. Pleasing Charlotte was giving me joy I had never experienced before. She was the girl I thought I was, the woman I always aspired to be, as dumb as it may sound. All my life I’d been priding myself on being the best at everything. Her coming into my life and putting a quick end to that was a harsh slap to the face, but also, it gave me a sense of freedom and relief. I didn’t have to worry about staying perfect anymore. All I had to worry about was pleasing Charlotte. That thought was freeing, and just as humbling.

After about fifteen minutes, Charlotte turned to her left. “See.” She said to Sally. “She doesn’t have a problem with the smell.”

Sally pretty much ignored both of us by this point and was just focusing on her movie.

But I didn’t like the point Charlotte made. “It’s not that I don’t have a problem with it.” I snickered nervously. “They just…don’t smell that bad.” They did. I mean, not horrible, but they did have a noticeable faint scent—nothing compared to when she had her basketball socks on though. And, as surprising as it may be, it didn’t bother that much. However I chose to keep that last bit of info to myself.

“Really?” She cocked her head. “That’s weird. Are you sure? Take a deep sniff to make sure.”

I saw Sally’s eyes dart towards the back of Charlotte’s head, full of anger. She was probably sick of her attitude now. And…to some degree…so was I. She didn’t know when to stop did she!

“I’ll pass on that.” I’d been pushed enough for one day. And…in a weird way, I felt like I had quenched the urge inside me. I slapped my palm on the top of her foot and said, “All relaxed now?”

She pursed her lips, but smiled, seeming kind of disappointed I didn’t sniff her damn feet. She shrugged. “Sure. Thanks.”

“Welcome.” I rose up and headed to then threw myself on the couch, taking a long, deep and satisfied breath. Sally looked my way, and smiled subtly, looking relieved I was sitting beside her again.

Soon enough, the movie ended. Charlotte staggered to her feet, looking so sleepy she could barely keep her eyes open. “I’m off to bed.”

“Bye.” Sally and I said.

I kept my place on the sofa for some time, finishing my chips and watching the credits. “Good movie.”

Sally nodded.

She was awfully silent. She was rarely awfully silent, and it usually meant she had beans to spill. It would go without saying that I had no intention of hearing it right now, so I finished quickly then got to my feet. “Well I better get home then—”

A rough hand clutched the back of my shirt and pulled me back to the couch. I kept my eyes forward, feeling hers darting around my face questionably. I couldn’t ignore her stare for long, so I glanced to my side. “…You wanna say something—”

“Da fuck? Lora?” She shook her head with a chuckle.

“What?” I shrugged.

“Don’t what me,” she said. “What’re you doing?”

“Going home but you just stopped me.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Okay…” There was no avoiding this talk. “…I’m doing…nice…favors…” I put each word carefully, finding them as I go. “For our…mutual…friend, Charlotte.”

“Never realized you’re that nice.” She said sarcastically. “Would’ve taken advantage of that in the fifteen fucking years I’ve known you.”

“Well, you’re loss.” I shrugged and got to my feet again, and again was pulled back to sit. “What?” I whined.

“A week ago you couldn’t stand Charlotte. Ever since you knew her you couldn’t stand her—”

“And you’re the one who told me to grow up and be nicer to her. You said I was too sensitive for growing hot over her every word.”

“Yeah…” she nodded animatedly. “And I meant it. You had steam blowing out of your ears every time she teased you! But honey there’s a middle ground. You know…normal…the kind me and you have. Don’t act like you want to strangle her, but also don’t run to fulfill her slightest whims. You know how bossy she can get. Middle ground!”

She was making sense, sense that was hard to argue with without looking weird. Was she really explaining to me how normal friendships worked. I knew…bitch. I just…didn’t feel like having one of those with Charlotte. And Sally wasn’t going anywhere. She was my best friend. I couldn’t get into the details with her, but I could tell her a part of the truth. “I…” I took a breath that I knew I’d need. “I just…don’t want to be in Middle grounds…right now.” And I felt like I needed to add an important point. “…when it comes to her.”

I mustered my courage and looked to my side at Sally’s face. It looked puzzled, confused, with a questioning wince. “When you…were coming here…did you hit your head on something?”

I rolled my eyes and got to my feet. “Maybe.” I sighed. “Now…me and my retarded mind should get home.” I walked to the door. “Bye.”

It was a big relief to me that when she said goodbye to me a puzzled smile made it to her face as she shook her head. She was confused, understandably, but she didn’t think less of me, and for now I was thankful for that.

--------------------------------

End of Preview. Remaining chapters, along with the continuation of all my stories, are on my Patreon. Thanks for Reading.

Patreon: EggWhites

[withered-rose-unbreakable-lotus]

When I started making my channel stuff I was like damn, what do I do with it and all, but I think the more I try to record the more I see where I'm going to end up. I mean I want to play games but I can't do that now with the equipment I have, so I was like ok let's try other things I enjoy on youtube and see how it's like doing them myself.

I've started recording only my intro normally, and testing out everything else & I can already tell I eventually don't want to dwelve into asmr. I get stressed out and produce the sounds a little too fast and when I hear the footage back, i dunno, it's not relaxing to me. I thought this would have been the easiest, as i'd only grab stuff and scratch them but yeah, it's not as easy to record something nice. Then I was thinking of reading stuff to people in soft spoken voice. Old books, in the public domain, and also encourage writers who liked my voice to let me read part of their work if they like, like helping fellow writers too, to get more followers or even buyers in case their work is already out. The thing is I don't have the best mic yet. It does solid work, but it doesn't sound as much me as I'd like. It is me but I sound a bit more nasal and annoying. And I have heard my voice through other mics before, so I know that what this one does is highlight everything i hate about my voice. I've changed the settings and filters so many times but I don't think I can make it any better than what it is now, cause I lack important knowledge on sound production, and even though I had taken a lesson on that once there was good reason I dropped it. xD I'm downright stupid when it comes to sound. So yeah no reading, cause I sound awful, nb is going to be able to enjoy or relax to that. I also thought of discussing Genshin's archon quests but that would have been only once a month. Finally, I wanted to try movie reactions but I'm afraid of the copyright strikes (even though reactions are technically under fair use).

Those were the only things I was interested in doing. But, as it turns out, I think I'll put my fear aside and try only reactions, hoping for the best. Why? Because through reactions I won't have to worry about what to say as much. Overthinking leads to my ranting without being funny and I want to be entertaining. I can make people laugh a lot in real life so I want that to pass through my channel too. I don't want to be reading scripts either cause i get overwhelmed. So yeah.

I'll try to start with public domain movies cause I know there are people who enjoy those as much as me, like ooold old movies, but I will try newer ones when I feel a little more daring. I want to do anime and Japanese movie reactions too, I want more people to get into them as much as me xD. Music is out of the question, especially now that the law around their copyrights has grown stricter. As for game reactions...I can only play Genshin now, there isn't much I can do. If at some point I get a console (and money let's be real), I might consider playing there and then having a recap reaction or review and discussing it but that's all i can do.

It remains to be seen. I just hope I am not once again wasting my time. I suck at everything else so I might as well try providing laughs as a service to get paid? I don't know. I'm out of ideas and even though I've wanted to work behind cameras all my life, I want out of my current life so badly, I want to live my way so badly, I no longer care if a camera is on my face. And sure I'm using a model but it's still stressful to me, like how it looks, is it cute is it funny and whatnot.

[kirain]

Hazbin Hotel and VivziePop Drama

I've been hearing/seeing a lot of drama concerning Hazbin Hotel and it's creator VivziePop, and while I don't know her personally or really care what people think, I do hate slander and the spread of misinformation. Truly nothing in this world upsets me more than when people believe rumours while making no effort to fact check, and that's exactly what's happening right now. That said, I wanted to try and clear up some of the rumours going around about Vivzie and the show, because I think some of them are absolutely outrageous and need to be addressed.

1. Vivzie hired an abuser onto the show.

Now, I’m not here to burn anyone at the stake, especially since I don’t know anything about Chris Niosi (the alleged abuser), who I believe openly admitted to the allegations? Regardless, this is a moot point. He’s not credited anywhere at the end of the episode. So either he was booted before production wrapped up or he had nothing to do with the show in the first place.

2. Vivzie supports bestiality.

Admittedly I thought this one might be true, since she draws so many anthropomorphic animals. In the very least, I figured she was probably a furry, but I haven't seen any evidence supporting this accusation either. Near as I can tell, this rumour started for two reasons. One, because of her famous Zoophobia comic, which revolves around a therapist named Cameron who gets assigned to work with human-like animals. Ironically, poor Cameron suffers from crippling zoophobia, which makes for some pretty decent comedy. I didn't read the whole comic because, quite frankly, it’s not my cup of tea and I just don’t have the time. But from what I saw there are no examples of bestiality anywhere in its contents.

Two, this message, which blew up all over social media:

To me, this just proves that people are more interested in virtue signalling than checking to see if their claims are actually true. Everything about this message is 100% false, which I’ll touch on in my next point.

3. Vivzie is a pedophile and she’s drawn child porn.

This is hands down the worst allegation and holy shit, I really wish people would stop using it to defame someone when they don't have any proof. This is a life-ruining accusation and you're disgusting if you believe it based solely on hearsay. This rumour began to spread when Vivzie allegedly shipped the two underage characters in the above photo and drew them NSFW-style. At the time, one character was 19 while the other was 14, and the relationship was a very illegal student-teacher relationship.

This is WRONG! The characters were not 14 and 19, they were actually 18 and 19, the legal age of consent! Additionally, the relationship wasn't student-teacher. One character is a student and the other is Alumni (a student teacher). This one pisses me off the most because it’s obvious the person who sent that message didn’t even bother to conduct any research. They said, “He’s a teacher, she’s a child.” Both characters are MALE!

Since then, Vivzie has apologised for any NSFW art she drew in the past and stated that it's not a reflection of her art today, and I'm inclined to believe her. Almost every artist has drawn NSFW content at some point in their career, and hers wasn't even distasteful. Other than this one example, there is no evidence anywhere that suggests she’s drawn “child porn”. In fact, she’s never even drawn explicit NSFW.

Please stop spreading this rumour. It’s dangerous and completely incorrect.

4. Vivzie said the "N" word!

No, she didn’t. It was a fabricated tweet. That is all.

5. Vivzie is copyright striking every video that criticises her!

No she isn't. YouTube’s DMCA is automatically striking people who are using full clips without permission. Vivzie has gone public several times, telling people exactly how to avoid getting a copy strike from the algorithm, which is something she absolutely does not have to do. At this point, she doesn't owe you anything. In my opinion, she should just sit back and watch these channels burn.

6. Vivzie copies and traces other artists’ work.

This is another one I’ve seen going around, but I looked into it as thoroughly as I could and failed to find any concrete evidence to support the allegations. As of right now, there are only two examples of Vivzie “copying” or “tracing” other artists’ work, and both of them can be explained. The first is a gif she made with a character from her Zoophobia comic, which looked a lot like the girl from ME!ME!ME!:

Damn, that’s pretty incriminating. She obviously stole-- oh, wait. This gif was part of a ME!ME!ME! MEP (multi editor’s project) and Vivzie didn’t take full credit, despite the fact that it’s not even a direct trace. It’s supposed to look like the original, which she fully cited. The second example comes from a short dance sequence from her Timber video, which seems to have been inspired by several Disney movies. As Vivzie herself stated, that was an homage to the original animations. Lots of artists and shows do this, including the beloved Stephen Universe series.

Regardless, this doesn’t count as stealing character designs or plagiarising someone’s work. It’s meant to be respectful, an admiration of other projects. Other than these two instances, however, there is no evidence of her tracing or stealing other people’s art. From what I’ve discovered, all other designs she’s been accused of “stealing” are characters she bought and paid for. They’re quite literally HER characters.

7. Vivzie supports problematic creators.

I’m getting really tired of guilt by association. Vivzie follows and enjoys some controversial figures, but who cares? We can argue all day about whether or not the accusations against them are true, but it ultimately has nothing to do with the show or Vivzie as a person. I do the exact same thing, to be honest-- follow and listen to people on all sides so I can learn, understand, and form my own opinions. The fact that some people think this is bad, to me, is absolutely mesmerising. Vivzie doesn’t control what the people she follows post, and if they do something overly questionable she publicly criticises and denounces it.

From Vivzie:

Now that that’s been dealt with, I’d like to address some complaints/claims about the actual show.

8. Vaggie is an angry Latina stereotype and a lesbian stereotype. Vivzie is appropriating Hispanic culture and misrepresenting the gay for profit.

First off, I see a lot of people passing around yet more misinformation regarding Vivzie's race. So many people seem to think she's white? Well, I'm here to tell you they're wrong. Very incorrect. Vivzie is in fact Latina, and Vaggie is meant to mirror some of her own personality traits.

Second, who is Vaggie mad at? Context matters, and if we take a look at the episode, we see that Vaggie is literally only mad at two specific people: Angel Dust and Alastor. Why? Well, for starters, it's her girlfriend's dream to run a rehab hotel for sinners, and Angel Dust nearly demolishes that dream single-handedly. Vaggie has every right to be over-the-top vitriolic. Then there's Alastor, a known sadist, narcissist, and murderer who loves trapping people in his nefarious schemes. He invites himself in, effectively takes over the hotel, and pushes both her and Charlie aside. At one point he even sexually assaults her by slapping her butt during his musical number. So yeah, I think her seething ire is totally justified. Keep in mind, however, that when she's around Charlie she's calm, collected, and happy. I wouldn't call that a stereotype.

Thirdly, the lesbian stereotypes. I keep hearing this argument but I really don't see it. Both Vaggie and Charlie have so much personality and trust for each other. Maybe I'm wrong, but the stereotype I know always totes a more butch, tomboyish woman with a ditsy, innocent, naive woman. Charlie is optimistic, but she isn't stupid. She refuses to shake Alastor’s hand because she knows he’s likely trying to screw her over. She’s also not entirely innocent herself and uses words like “fuck” and “shit”. I also wouldn’t call Vaggie butch or tomboyish. She has a cute, girly presentation, complete with a pink ribbon in her hair, lace stockings, and a dress. She's protective of her girlfriend, as I think we all are with our partners, and there's nothing wrong with that. They're flawed characters, as every character is meant to be. This isn't a problem.

9. The show is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, blah, blah, blah.

I’m amazed this is even an argument. The show is supposed to be a dark comedy that takes place in HELL. You know, the place the worst of the worst end up after they die? What were you expecting? Everyone gets a shot or two fired at them, but that doesn't make them bad characters nor does it make the show itself horrible. Take, for example, Katie Killjoy, the news reporter so many people are up in arms about. She says she doesn’t “touch the gays” because she has “standards”. Well, here’s a newsflash of my own: we’re not supposed to like her! She’s an antagonist. Not to mention ten seconds later Charlie insults her and isn’t the least bit slighted by her pretentious attitude. The characters are strong and don’t take shit from anyone, because to some degree they’re all terrible people who can throw down when it’s called for.

Obviously if you don’t like the show or think it’s offensive, I’m probably not going to change your mind. That’s perfectly fine. You’re entitled to your opinions and you don’t have to watch the show. Just stop lying and stop trying to take it away from everybody else. Stop attacking Vivzie and spreading misinformation without checking the facts. I realise a lot of people probably aren’t trying to be vindictive and only want to do something good, but just remember this: the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

[spade-riddles]

I can't believe that Tumblr Gaylors are so gullible that they believed that 34 year old homophobic H*ylor shipper when she was pretending to be a 16 year old gay girl who was claiming TTB was trying to doxx her for getting her blog taken down with copyright strikes because TTB was talking to the police over the homophobes impersonation of her with the blogs TTB3 through TTB15 because the homophobe was threatening to illegally doxx people while impersonating TTB.

I freaking hate these asshole Tumblr Gaylors, that homophobe H*ylor literally admitted on her blog to impersonating TTB, getting TTB and Emspmd-blog copyright striked off of Tumblr AND to harassing a bunch of underaged queer Larries for weeks with doxxing threats and got their blogs taken down by Tumblr with copyright strikes too and not a single on of those asshole Gaylors gave a damn and some of them thought it was funny, the f*cking liars, they don't care about about other queer people, they only care about getting themselves as much attention as possible 🤬🖕

[kangaracha]

📥 🖊 🏅 😈 📚 💭 👩‍🏭 let’s gooooo

📥 What is your fave fic to receive comments/messages on?

HMMMMM my instant reaction was the pokemon fic but the more i think about it the more i think the answer is actually the bucky fic

🖊 Post a snippet from a current WIP.

damn well i've been meaning to send you a valleys sneak peek anyway so birds, stone.

A song finds its way into his head as rain begins to mist down again.

It comes to him from long ago, some winter he's forgotten, and it consists only of a clear, high voice, sharp as the bitter cold. Lover, come to find me in the dark, it croons in the back of his mind.

Nothing comes to him in the night, nothing but the whistle of the wind between buildings and cold water stinging his cheeks as it blows in under the eaves. He huddles down into his collar and bunches his sleeves around his fingers, drawing his cloak tighter. His breath heaves precious warmth into the air like steam rising from a kettle, but his body doesn't feel like it is boiling.

🏅 What is something you recently felt proud of in regard to your writing (finished a fic, actually planned for once, etc).

i've had to step back for a couple weeks while i finish my job and transition back into my horse stuff and all that, so just this week i've been really proud of the quality of writing that i'm producing. the hawkeye fic is a real solid fluff piece, and the one scene of valleys i've written has come out way better than i actually thought it would.

i'm also proud of myself for stepping away from valleys and coming back again. generally when i step away from my multichaps i end up accidentally leaving them for like two years.

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

sad endings? hopelessness? mostly i guess because i personally hate that in books and fics....and yet i keep goddamn doing it lmfao. anyway there was a 'people roo made cry' club once so uh...sorry babes.

📚 Do you read your own fic?

haha. yeah i do. guilty. my bucky fic is a work of goddamn art and if you guys aren't gonna read it i'll do it myself. i also reread my pokemon fic a LOT it's my therapy fic lmfao.

💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. that it's the best body of work by any author in the zombies fandom. lmfaooooo.

no i guess. there's a running theme in my zombies future fics that are canon compliant of things going downhill a bit after school; tightening restrictions again, protests, etc etc. so i guess that's my headcanon in all my universes. things get hard for them again after high school. and no, i haven't published the fic that actually explores this yet.

👩‍🏭 If one of your fics was going to get you arrested, which one and why?

i mean any of the disney ones, right. they're going to copyright strike us into the ground one day aren't they.

[canonicallysoulmates]

Supernatural Paleyfest 2020

There was a pre-recorded Supernatural Paleyfest panel- “officially” it comes out tomorrow however citicard and Paleyfest members got early access to the panel and...they got uploaded online. Thank you @lotluz for letting me know! 

I am going to be linking at the end of this post to the panel on Youtube, however I will give the disclaimer that Paleyfest is copyright striking these videos left and right so there’s no guarantee the video will still be up at the time that you are reading this but it will be officially up on the Yahoo! Entertainment site tomorrow, Friday @ 8/7c.

I don’t really have a lot to say about this panel, honestly, not the most interesting one I’ve ever seen, so let’s just get into it:

- I kinda hate that the host placed his screen right in the middle between Jensen and Jared’s 😂

- I absolutely love the fact that Jared and Jensen dressed up for this, you could tell they fixed up their hair, Jensen even had a jacket on, Jared seemed to be wearing a nice, black button up shirt- I have the feeling that they were all match-y match-y but we couldn’t see their upper halves properly to fully enjoy matching husbands. But they were the best dressed of the bunch, everybody went more casual except for Dabb who looked like he’d just rolled out of bed and also aged 50yrs. 

- The panel, I would say, was less information regarding the show and more reminiscing about it. But there were still some interesting moments. 

- Starting with the fact when they were asked about their final days of filming only j2 spoke about them, neither Misha nor Alex said anything about being there for the wrap up of the series. They did both talk about their characters final scenes later on in the panel, Alex’s is apparently something where he’s with the boys in the Impala or something along those line, Misha didn’t give a hint about what his final scene was but he did say that it’s a one of his fav moments and that he’s content with how his character’s arc was wrapped up. It just made me think of all the talk that’s been going around that episode 18 is Castiel’s last, I don’t wanna be optimistic but it does seem like that is the case….🤞

- Random but the host made a comment about wanting to see Alex guest star on Lucifer, that would be so cute I would love that! 

- All the people on the screen are liars- well, maybe not the host he doesn’t know shit but there are four people on the panel that are liars and I’m including my beloved boys in that; Dabb and Singer once again said that at its core the final scripts weren’t massively changed, that the story was always going to end this way...I don’t believe a single word of it. And one of the biggest reasons I don’t believe it is Jared and Jensen’s attitude change towards the finale especially Jensen’s. Jared said in this panel that the finale is his favorite episode, Jensen has said, including in this panel, that there’s a moment in the finale that’s his favorite, they both have an excitement surrounding the final episode that was not there pre-covid shutdown. And, I also don’t believe for one fucking second that Jensen just came to realize that he was too close or whatever bs he’s trying to spin to explain why his feeling towards the ending have changed when we know damn well he wasn’t happy at first, he has had a complete 180 in tone regarding the series finale and it started after the show was forced to shut production. I think the ending was originally going to be wildly different and not focused on the brothers at all but covid changed all of that and they had to change things up and focus more on the brothers and because of those changes Jared and Jensen have changed their tone.  (Dabb himself said in another interview he would have liked to have other characters show up for the final 2 episodes but he couldn’t because of covid restrictions)

- Singer and Dabb were asked how they approached wrapping up the series and Singer cracks me up, this bitch really be trying to imply that they knew the ending was coming because it was like a community decision 😂 Sir, we all know Jared and Jensen are the ones who pulled the plug on this poor suffering animal and the rest of y’all just had to go along with it cause as much as some of you might hate it there’s no Supernatural without those two. 

- They were asked their favorite moment of the show on-screen or off and Jared did his usual schtick of him meeting G and falling in love and blah, blah, blah, nothing new or original there it’s the same thing we’ve heard for years. He also said that meeting her takes precedent over other favorite moments he has of the show because if she watches the panel and finds out he’s in a hotel in Utah while she’s at home watching the kids and he doesn’t give her appropriate credit she’ll kill him….ever the romantic Jared, that sounds healthy. 

Jensen’s reaction to Jared bringing up G was funny though cause when they were asked the question and Jared said he’d start Jensen just went “you got a default answer” he’s such a little bitch I love him 😂 

- Jared, once again, compared finishing the show to running the marathon with Jensen ❤

- At the end they all had a chance to give a message to the fans and I just want to make it categorically clear: Dabb my support has never been for you. When I say I love Supernatural, when I say thank you for the show,  I am not including you or your shitty writing team or their shit ideas in the package. I am talking about Jared and Jensen/Sam and Dean. You can go fuck yourself with a metal lego that’s been left out on the sun all day. 

And that was the Paleyfest panel! Sort of, this is more an opinion filled rough summary of a 51min panel. I will say this made me miss Paley 2018, we got so much good j2 content that night. 

If you wish to watch the whole thing yourself you can do so here: Supernatural Paleyfest 2020

It will also be up for viewing tomorrow Friday on the Yahoo! Entertainment website. 

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 256: Fucking Superb You Funky Little Hero Eggs

Previously on BnHA: Aizawa and Mic’s frankensteined best friend Shirakumo, better known to us as Kurogiri, had his memories briefly restored through the Power of Friendship, and was all “YO Y’ALLS BETTER GO CHECK OUT THOSE HOSPITALS” before his head started steaming like a tea kettle and he randomly fell asleep. Aizawa and Mic were all “!!” and Aizawa was all “(ಡ ﹏ ಡ)” and Mic was all “Aizawa are you crying” and Aizawa was like “NO!!!” and then they left the prison and Nao called HPSC Lady who called Hawks and was all “eck-chay ethay ospitals-hay” because Hawks, as you recall, is still a secret agent and all that. Anyway so Hawks was all “EUREKA!!” in his head which doesn’t really add up but hey, and then the chapter ended with Dr. Ujiko dancing in sadistic glee as he watched Tomura get all mad scienced. It was pretty freaky. I could use some wholesomeness right about now so let’s see if this chapter will deliver.

Today on BnHA: Class 1-A shows off the fresh skills they learned during their assorted internships, such as “determination”, “enhanced search techniques”, and “becoming a literal blob of acid.” The Wonder Trio is a particular highlight, and All Might is all “my little baby off to destroy people :’)” as he watches Deku shred a robot to pieces using Blackwhip. We then cut to Aizawa and Mic, who may or may not be planning some rogue vigilante style investigations of the whole Noumu thing, or maybe they’re just brooding, but either way they’re interrupted by Mirio and Tamaki who come running in to get them to stop Eri’s quirk from going haywire, which, yikes. The chapter then ends with All Might handing Deku a notebook full of DETAILED, CATALOGED INFO ABOUT THE PAST SUCCESSORS AND THE FUCKING SIXQUIRKS. We just have to wait two more weeks to find out what that’s all about. 2020’s got some fucking zip to it so far huh.

so it’s about a quarter past 7 right now and it’ll be a miracle if I can have this recap up by 10pm tonight. surprisingly the wait for this chapter didn’t really bother me, but this Sunday/Monday release schedule is really doing a number on my punctuality. but anyways we’ll figure it out eventually. if memory serves, there’s about a 90% chance that this week’s jump will also be a double issue, so that gives me another extra week to get my shit together lol

(ETA: so that wasn’t too far off actually! I think a three-hour turnaround time isn’t bad for 3000 words lol. and actually it was more like two hours of reading/blogging and one hour of editing/photo cropping. anyway so in all likelihood either Sunday or Monday night releases will become the norm, depending entirely on how busy that particular Sunday is. not quite the same as getting the chapter on Friday and having the whole weekend to ruminate over it but we will adjust!)

anyway, so I’m somehow remarkably unspoiled for this chapter despite it having been out for nearly a week and a half at this point. so that’s something! let’s see what we’ve got here

yaaaay my babies

All Might was offering free cotton candy, yes? I didn’t expect we’d cut right back to this lol, but you sure won’t see me complaining. I want to see what everyone else learned during their internships, and also what with the break and the last couple chapters being Tartarus-focused, it’s been about a month since I last saw my little hero eggs, and of course I missed them I’m only human

omg

did the original dialogue really reference Skynet. Horikoshi truly gives no fucks about copyright. like one or two episodes ago the anime made some copyrighted reference which you could clearly hear in the Japanese but which the English subs hilariously glossed right over. I’m trying to remember what it was now. damn. anyways we millennials can never resist a good pop culture reference, facts

OH MY GOD AOYAMA

THEY’RE EATING THE COTTON CANDY

TOKOYAMI EATING COTTON CANDY IS THE GREATEST THING TO HAPPEN IN 2020 THUS FAR. LET ME TELL YOU, WE REALLY NEEDED THIS

SHOUTO EATING COTTON CANDY IS THE SECOND BEST THING TO HAPPEN IN 2020. IT WAS VERY CLOSE

I STALLED FOR TIME SO MUCH AND I STILL DON’T KNOW WTF TO SAY ABOUT AOYAMA’S NEW ATTACK OH MY GOD. JUST. I DON’T KNOW YOU GUYS. THIS BOY IS REALLY OUT HERE SLICING ROBOTS IN HALF WITH HIS BRAND NEW LASER PENIS. THE AMOUNT OF FUCKS THAT HORIKOSHI GIVES IS IN THE NEGATIVES I DON’T KNOW WHAT ELSE TO SAY

OH ARE YOU STILL GOING

is... what’s... ldkfj okay nothing to see here guys just the naked invisible chick getting all friendly with Aoyama’s beam boner. just manhandling his sparkle shaft. there are children reading this manga. I mean, they’re already mentally scarred from all the dead dogs and child quirk wine and whatnot, but still at what point do we put our goddamn foot down

anyway so somehow she’s redirecting his laser beam?? I guess with her light refracting quirk skills?? great job Hagakure with your help Aoyama can finally shoot lasers at stuff that’s behind him. you’ve mastered the power of making it so that he doesn’t have to turn around great job truly an internship well spent

“now I can yank light and warp it!” you go girl now you can whip that thing around like it’s a fucking fire hose I guess

YOOOOO MINA!!

THIS GIRL LITERALLY COATED HERSELF IN ACID AND DID A FUCKING BARREL ROLL AHHHHHHHHH. NOW THAT’S MORE LIKE IT, NO OFFENSE TO CAPTAIN DISCO DONG AND COMMODORE “I CAN DO EVERYTHING A MIRROR CAN DO” BUT THERE ARE UPGRADES AND THERE ARE UPGRADES, AND LET’S FACE IT, THIS IS THE REAL DEAL HERE

AHAHAHA I LOVE ITTTTT

is it too late for Mina to actually change her name to Acidman. what is she calling herself now again?? Pinky?? come on Mina strike some fear into the hearts of your enemies

and now All Might and the others are applauding. I don’t see Shouto’s cotton candy anymore. boy fucking inhaled that shit

oh wow, they interned under Yoroi Musha? if memory serves me, and I’m honestly not going to bother to check right now, isn’t that the samurai dude who somehow beat Ryuukyuu in the billboard charts? not that I’m still salty about that, oh wait I absolutely am but anyways

OH MY

IS THAT SOME KIRIMINA CONTENT UP IN MY PANELS. hot damn that is some cute fucking shit. Mina better not get any undue hate for this. everyone please remain calm this cute interaction does not threaten your ship in any way (unless you want it to in which case have at!!) and we can all have fun if we just play nice you guys

lmao All Might

“WE’RE ALREADY ON PAGE FOUR AND THERE ARE TWENTY OF YOU, WE DON’T HAVE ALL FUCKING DAY CHILDREN”

so Satou and Ojiro learned how to punch harder and stuff. again, it’s fine, we can’t all be Acid Men. but meanwhile they interned with some lion guy named Shishido whom I INSTANTLY LOVE so that’s badass. only one character away from Shishida though, but that’s Horikoshi for you

OH MY GOD

BLAH BLAH YES ENHANCED SEARCH TECHNIQUES ZZZZZ BUT FUCKING LOOK THOUGH AT THE FLASHBACK OF HIM YEETING THEM, YESSSSSS. THE OLD WAYS HAVE NOT YET BEEN FORGOTTEN, GANG ORCA YOU ARE THE HERO WE DESERVE

meanwhile Sero, Kami, and Mineta learned how to literally kill people with their quirks flkdjsflk

(ETA: btw I really love that Mt. Lady’s internship emphasized teamwork. now there’s someone who’s come a really long way her own self. anyway I stan and she had better join the other two in the the top 10 real soon. come on BnHA society get with it.)

damn Mt. Lady what the fuck. “if you guys work together you can suffocate and electrocute villains to death with ease!” the government’s plan really is working huh; these children have become bloodthirsty, ruthless killers in a shockingly short period of time

anyways so Iida as we all recall learned how to be more footloose and fancy free, and meanwhile Kouda learned “smooth communication” from Wash, the literal washing machine man whom I also don’t still harbor a grudge against for inexplicably beating my dragon queen in the hero polls, and once again that is a lie because fuck you Wash! you’re adorable but fuck you!!

man this is taking forever why are there so many kids in this class. for anyone wondering why Horikoshi doesn’t focus on class 1-A as a whole more often and leaves them as supporting characters, this right here is why. I love these children to death but we would still be stuck in the basement arc. oh my god I just shuddered

Tokoyami mastered “improvement on all fronts” because I guess he kind of peaked at flying when it came to new moves huh. that’s fine for now

and Kiri mastered “making baddies lose the will to fight real quick” which sounds like some bullshit you’d write while desperately trying to pad your hero resume, except that it’s accompanied by this convincing panel of him chomping a steel bar in two or some shit which YIKES

can confirm, if some demonic rock man came trotting up to me and snapped off some railing from some stairs and fucking snapped it like a twig with his GIANT FOSSILIZED DINOSAUR TEETH, I’d lose my will to fight pretty quickly too

and Ochako and Tsuyu learned “determination” smdh. Horikoshi did you fucking fall asleep towards the end of this segment or what

WHO IS MAJESTIC OMG

excuse me did she just create a bunch of fucking dynamites. is that what those are. is my girl encroaching on my young son’s turf. because if she is, ENCROACH, MOMO, ENCROACH! FEEL FREE TO FUCKING IMPINGE, EVEN!! god, and I know I was bitching just a moment ago about these “lessons” becoming increasingly vague and intangible and motivational poster-y, but I read Momo and “predicting and acting efficiently”, and my thoughts immediately ran to Nighteye and Mirio’s fighting styles, and I was like “YESSSSSSSSS” because, I mean. YES, though

meanwhile Kacchan has learned...

this fucking -- I swear -- YOU LEARNED WHAT YOUR FUCKING HERO NAME IS GOING TO BE YOU TROLLING PIECE OF SHIT. oh my god. Katsuki I swear to god I will take your internet privileges. NO SRIRACHA FOR A WEEK UNLESS YOU TELL ME WHAT IT IS

oh for fuck’s sakes

don’t mind him he learned boom with five b’s and three oo’s what did you all do this week. and somehow Todoroki learned how to be even more fabulous

so All Might’s looking on in pride and giving Endeavor some mental props, and waiting for Deku to go do his thing too

sdfkj he’s thinking about the day he gave Deku THE HAIR and that “[it] feels like ancient history now.” DOESN’T IT THOUGH?

OH MY FEELS

“you don’t look back at me anymore... and you don’t need to.” oh Aizawa’s dry eye has spread to me now huh. must be those January allergies. and that’s some nice bloop there kid. great jorb

someone tell All Might he’s not allowed to look on at Deku with this much fatherly love without giving me at least a week’s notice in advance

sigh. now you’ve done it you two I’m going to become a big cat blob of feels right here and it’s all on you. you did this

oh my god a whole big panel of reactions from the other kids and I’m ( ˊᵕˋ )

lol Kacchan can’t agree with anything even if it’s a compliment. and lmao, who the fuck was that who was all “TODOROKI FINALLY YOU’RE A FAST FUCKING HIMBO HUH!” like they really went and put that “finally” in there, like they were so fucking tired of Todoroki Shouto and his LANGUID FUCKING PACE all the fucking time, GOD, FINALLY SOME SPEED BOY WE WERE DYING OUT HERE

Mineta being happy for Deku also warms my heart, ngl. we’ve gone almost an entire chapter with Mineta not doing anything even remotely perverted, can it be, has Horikoshi finally chilled the fuck out. or did I just jinx it we shall see

also love how Deku is just reduced to an inkblot here and it still is him beyond any shadow of a doubt. and poor Sero, you are also being impinged on huh

lmao Mineta’s just socking Deku in the solar plexus out of comradery and Deku’s fucking vomiting on reflex and not even paying the slightest attention wtf

I love this panel there I said it

so he’s going over and thanking Ochako for “that time” and says he’s using Blackwhip a lot better now. I assume he’s referring to when he first unlocked it and went hog wild and she was all “smh” and went and hugged him to put an end to that nonsense

oh, right!!!!

I forgot about those!! looool Horikoshi’s 2020 resolution is to make everyone Spider-Man now huh. hey everyone guess what I LOVE THIS

oh my god this wholesomeness

I fucking can’t?? yo I’m seriously living for this? I don’t get why some people think Deku inhibits Ochako’s character growth tbh. or that her story is becoming all about him. if it is, then it’s in the same way that Bakugou’s is. Deku keeps inspiring her to be better, ain’t nothing wrong with that. yes she has the crush, and she’s honest with herself and in tune with her emotions enough to be aware of it and to acknowledge it, but she refuses to be distracted by it. I actually really like that, because it shows that romantic feelings can actually exist and not be the central focus of a character’s story or their development. and I think the fear is that it somehow will become the focus, but so far I haven’t seen that happening, so it seems unwarranted to me

anyway

shit’s cute

oh no Mineta’s doing something weird I fucking did jinx it I’m sorry guys. it’s a fucking fistbump dude relax

so All Might seems to be dismissing them now, and he’s saying something about how he reordered (?? rescheduled, maybe??) class so that Aizawa can watch later. that’s nice. he’ll need something to cheer him up, and if Acidman can’t do the trick I don’t know what can

and now we’re cutting back to the dorms!! dorm shenanigans yessssss

oh no shit wait

these are not playful dorm shenanigans these are depressed Miczawa shenanigans to bring me down. nnnn

but Aizawa fucking knows something is up now, shit. that’s right son your babies are in danger

KLJKLGLKSH

okay (1) HOW HOT IS AIZAWA THOUGH HOW DOES HE ALWAYS DO THIS

and (2) is “have a karaoke contest” code for “fuck shit up” or what. son of a bitch, having these two so personally invested in the Noumu arc now is such an unexpected and wonderful gift

MIRIO NO

(ETA: but you all know Aizawa was about to say “I’d go and fuck shit up” though.)

I LOVE YOU BOTH BUT THEY WERE HAVING A SEXY ANGSTING MOMENT, MIRIO CAN YOU NOT READ THE ROOM!! DO YOU NOT SEE THEM BEING ALL ANGSTY AND DARKLY CONTEMPLATIVE!! YOU TWO OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW WHEN LOVERS ARE BONDING OVER THEIR ANGST WHICH ONLY THE TWO OF THEM UNDERSTAND! FUCKING GODDAMN

NO!!!!!

[SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE] HORIKOSHI I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU LAY ONE FINGER ON HER PRECIOUS HEAD

NOOOO MY SWEET BABY GIRL

oh my fuck that sweater is the cutest fucking thing and this girl has had no shortage of cute outfits let me tell you. BUT ANYWAY SHE’S SCARED AND CRYING NOOOO. holy shit her horn is fucking huge now I don’t feel comfortable with this at all, and Nejire is Best Mom for not giving a single fuck and holding and comforting her regardless of the risk, I love her so much

OH THANK GOD

PALPABLE RELIEF. boys I’m sorry it was wrong of me to yell, you did the right thing interrupting their sexy brooding

BREAK ROOM AHHHHH THE SCOOBY SQUAD LIVES AGAINNNN

it means you constantly amaze him!! you have so much potential he doesn’t even know what the limit might possibly be! don’t act like you don’t love it. or stop being so suspicious and trying to look for the hidden meaning and just accept the praise for what it is. you did good. now ask him if he’s heard any news about Best Jeanist :/

!!

that’s right, he was researching and making faces a while back, are we finally gonna find out what all that was about??

DSLFKAJSLDKFH

HE MADE A NOTEBOOK FOR HIM AHHHHHHHH HE KNOWS WHAT HE LIKES THIS IS AMAZING

DOES HIM GIVING HIM THE INFO IN NOTEBOOK FORM MEAN IT’S UP TO DEKU WHETHER OR NOT HE WANTS TO SHARE THIS INFO WITH KACCHAN. HMMM. OBVIOUSLY HE WILL, BUT THAT’S A REAL POWER MOVE THOUGH, DAMN

“PAST SUCCESSORS / QUIRKS” EVERYONE, THIS BOOK CONTAINS THE SECRETS OF THE SIXQUIRKS. AND THE PREVIOUS OFA AVATARS. THAT’S FINE I’M JUST GONNA. ...I’LL BE FINE. FOR TWO WEEKS. FUCK

shit. well I know it was coming, that’s another reason why I didn’t feel particularly rushed to read this chapter lol. I kinda wish I’d had the foresight to save the Korean scanlation though, just to compare. ah well it’s probably still lying around somewhere

and lol and here’s the bonus page, and this one I did see floating around tumblr haha

I’m not sure how the three smartest kids in class are all present and yet not one of them had the foresight to consider that maybe, just maybe, this could be a bad idea. let’s let the kid with the combustible sweat handle the mochi I’m sure it’ll be -- [everyone immediately dies]. anyway so that’s some good friendly advice from Horikoshi there. happy new year friends!

[ask-de-writer]

KURIN’S FOLLY : World of Sea : Part 3 of 15

KURIN’S FOLLY

Part 3

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

23,699 words

© 2020 by Glen Ten-Eyck

writing begun  2006

All rights reserved.

Reproduction in any form, physical, electronic or digital is prohibited without the express consent of the author.

//////////////

Copyright fair use rules for Tumblr users

Users of Tumblr.com are specifically granted the following rights.  They may reblog the story provided that all author and copyright information remains intact.  They may use the characters or original characters in my settings for fan fiction, fan art works, cosplay, or fan musical compositions.

All sorts of fan art, cosplay, music or fiction is actively encouraged.

///////////////////////

New to the story?  Read from the beginning.  Part 1 is here

///////////////////////

“Very well.  Master Juris having declined to open the meeting, as Captain, I shall.  The Combined Councils of the Longin are now in session.  By default, the Purser, in her role as ship’s legal officer will chair the meeting and present the issue that has forced this emergency meeting.  Are you ready, Alor?”

In a heavy voice the gray haired, elderly woman replied, “No.  I shall never be ready for a duty this hard.  I will do it, though.

“Simply put, the actions of one person have placed the entire ship in jeopardy of dissolution, renaming and total crew Scattering along with the execution of at least three more of our crew.  The Wergeld agreement with the Grandalor that shields us from this disaster is now in danger of being dissolved.”

Master Juris snorted angrily, “The damned Wergeld!  It’s tied us to the Grandalor!  That stupid thing is an Arrakan Fleet custom. This is the Naral Fleet.  It shouldn’t even be recognized at all!”

Alor took the interruption in stride saying, “I almost agree with you.  The Wergeld is the only thing standing between you, Juris, and execution. If I had to choose between you and this ship, the choice would be easy.  It’s a pity that letting you swim to Iren will also cost us the Longin!”

Master Juris’ jaw dropped. “What do you mean?” he demanded.  “I’ve done nothing wrong!”

Alor shook her head.  Looking straight at Master Juris, she asked, “No?  What is the penalty for trying to influence an officer of the court by bribe or threat?”

He responded, “A swim to Iren’s halls, everyone knows that!”

Alor said gently, “When we were being investigated by the Naral Fleet Court for the piracy attempt against the Grandalor, didn’t you, as the senior representative of our Combined Councils, threaten to call an expulsion vote against Kurin?”

Still surly, Master Juris replied, “I was furious at her.  I still am. So what?”

Making a little come hither gesture, Alor coaxed, “And as the Grandalor’s advocate she was a what?”  As Master Juris’ silence drew out, she answered her own question.  “Kurin was an officer of the court.  

“Since you made your threat directly in front of the fleet’s judge, the case against you was prima facie.  Captain Sarfin had already drawn up your death warrant. I’ve seen the document.”

Incredulously, Master Juris demanded, “Then why am I here now?”

Alor pointed to Kurin and said, “There sits your answer.  When Kurin negotiated the Wergeld, she carefully worded it to include your offense without stating it directly.  You owe her thanks for your life, not hate.”  She sat, leaving Master Juris in shock.

Alor turned to Captain Mord and said, “I’m sick at heart.  Can you please carry the rest of this?”

Captain Mord drew a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “We were incensed and hurt when Kurin did not show up for her welcome party.  Now we know why.  Master Juris was given the job of sending her the invitation in the hope that the responsibility would help him set aside some of his ire.

“Instead of doing as ordered by this Council, he sent Kurin this note.”  He displayed the copy of Master Juris’ note for all to read.

Mistress Daeron took one look and said angrily to Master Juris, “You lied to us!  When she was late, you said that you sent the invitation and that she wasn’t coming.

“She had to chase us down with the Grandalor to keep her promise to come and help us.  Your lies had us all so angry that nobody even showed up to help her come aboard!”

The short, motherly woman turned to Kurin and said, “I don’t know how to apologize to you, Kurin. This was an awful thing.  We should never have trusted Master Juris.”

Kurin replied gently, “I understand.  He’s always been a  reliable man before, if sometimes difficult.  I would have trusted him myself, in your place.”

Mistress Daeron turned to Captain Mord and asked, “There’s more, isn’t there?  Something has endangered the ship, Alor said.  She’s not given to exaggeration.”

Master Juris rudely cut in and jerked a thumb at Kurin.  “That something is sitting right there. Your little white-haired saint.  She filed a Wergeld violation against us.”

The accusation actually made Kurin angry.  She stood suddenly, eyes blazing, white hair flying, High Cloud flapping for balance.  She pointed at Master Juris and exclaimed, “That is why I filed the complaint!  Even now, in front of you all, he lies about me.  The complaint was a provisional one, a preliminary to a violation complaint.  Subject to withdrawal if investigation showed good reason for the events.  He knows the difference but still tries to create more bad feeling!

“Alor, do you have an actual copy of the Wergeld here?”

She rummaged in her records and pulled out a few pages.  “Yes, Kurin.  This is it.”

“Would you please read out the portion of the rules of the Wergeld relating to behavior of the parties?”

Alor took a moment to find her place and read, “All parties to this Wergeld must lay aside all rancor and animus toward each other or this Wergeld is dissolved and all of its covered cases must go before the appropriate courts of law for settlement.”  She looked up with haunted eyes and surveyed the entire Combined Councils of the Longin and said, “These simple words are our doom or salvation.

“Master Juris, can you not see how far onto dry land your behavior is?  If we are not to be dragged to destruction in your wake, we have few choices.

“We can renounce you for endangerment of the ship, remove you from the crew roster and put you off on the first ship that we meet or the next Gathering, whichever comes first.  If we do that, your death warrant will be put into force.  You will swim to Dark Iren.

“Our second possible course is to declare you to be insane.  You will be, like Kurin’s mother, Lissa, entrusted with only the simplest of tasks and, by law, need to be watched at all times.  You will lose your Master’s Certificate and your shop.  Your accounts will be frozen against your recovery. When we judge that you have safe water under your keel, we can restore all except your Master’s Certificate.  That matter will be in the hands of the Fleet Craft Council.

“Finally, we can remove you from all posts of responsibility in the ship’s governance and try trusting your promise to behave in regard to Kurin and the Grandalor. If you fail us, we can decide which of the two other things we should do.

“These are now the only options that you have left open to us.”

“Me?” exclaimed Master Juris in outrage.  “If she hadn’t gone to the Grandalor in the first place none of this would have happened at all!  It’s her fault and hers alone!”   He thrust his hand violently at Kurin, pointing and trying to swat High Cloud off her shoulder at the same time.

Two things happened so fast that many there did not even see them occur even though they were all watching Master Juris’ outburst.  High Cloud’s claws rent large rips in Kurin’s shoulder padding as he maintained his place and jabbed with his beak at the offending hand.  Kurin’s knife, ten inches of the finest razor honed Lesser Dragon fang, leaped up in her hand and struck Master Juris’ wrist away.  At the same instant, Kurin kicked back out of her chair and landed in a combat guard, watching Master Juris over the edge of her knife.

A shocked group watched as Master Juris cradled his injured hand.  Blood was welling from the back of it where High Cloud had defended himself, striking to bone, and there was another cut to the bone on the side of his wrist where Kurin had entered the fray with her knife.

In quietly dangerous tone, Kurin said, “Don’t attack either of us again. Rookery Flock all defends its own.  That’s why there are no tame Wide Wings.”

The ship’s doctor was tending to Master Juris’ wounds and looked up curiously at Kurin’s statement.  “Rookery Flock?  Do you consider yourself to be a bird?”

That brought a smile to Kurin’s lips, and she relaxed her guard, putting away the big knife in her sash-belt sheath.  “No, Doctor, I’m not a bird.  Still, I am part of the Grandalor Rookery.  I’ve known High Cloud since just before he hatched.  I felt his mind beginning to stir in the egg.  I’ve taken my place and spent time caring for all the young ones and feeding them.  I do have a bond with them all that sometimes overrides my personal safety issues.  Dari has said that we humans who participate in the rookery life and are accepted by the adult Wide Wings are part of the rookery.  Who am I to question a Great Sea Dragon?”

Master Juris looked up from the bandaging of his arm and snarled, “How would you know what a Great Sea Dragon thinks?”

Kurin said offhandedly, “Blind Mecat remains fond of this ship, from her time in human form among us.  She asked me not to file a full violation complaint with the Council.  The message was relayed through Dari, who was nearby. Captain Tanlin and I had a long talk with her.  I like her.  She’s fun.”

Master Juris subsided with a muttered, “Hard aground and sinking fast.”

Alor overheard him and retorted tartly, “At last, you recognize your folly?”  Then, she turned to Kurin and said, “I think that we need to know what the basis of your provisional complaint is.  How hard aground are we?  Is it a sandbar or a reef?”

TO BE CONTINUED

<==PREVIOUS ~ NEXT==>

[friendlyneighborhoodwriterjan]

One small hop 7/10

Chapter 7: Assault on Asgard

You are right. Usually, you would need an army to assault someone or something. The only thing I have is one guy, me, and determination. Sounds pretty hopeless, but I will not give in to that thought for now. I freed a god from everlasting bonds (even though he was a mean old baddy and could endanger all human life). That’s impressive for just one guy. Heck, I did a better job than most of the Greek heroes. Seems like they all died, while I am alive and kicking it. Or they became star constellations, which is also pretty cool I admit. Once again, I wish I had paid more attention when the teachers tried to push that into my brain. Very unlikely though, because I was heavy on hormones and couldn’t be arsed. So far as that got me in life.

*

“Information is a weapon” the old lady croaked. (The talked exactly as much like a toad as she looked. “The only weapon I need is the one down my pants.” Someone in the last row shouted. Roaring laughter and a furious toad jumping up and down in front of the blackboard. Angered she even puffed her cheeks. If she had a long tongue to catch fish with, she would have been more toad than human. “Once in life, good sir, your weapon will fail you. Just like you will fail this class.”

And as I remember he really did fail the class. What did I learn from that? Probably nothing I’d assume, but maybe that one should not try to provoke teachers. That’s useful knowledge. But right, I wanted to storm a castle.

*

With my god-awful determination, I try to find a place which seems the most approachable and start climbing. Naturally, for I was never a great climber, let alone a warrior who could take on Asgard single-handedly, I fell. To my surprise, my magic slipper came back somehow. I did not notice before but the moment I did not hit the ground it was as clear as day. I would call them my “Magic Jordan’s” but you know how much I hate copyright claims. So, we will call them Hops instead. Catchy, right?

Back together with my shoes this will be like a walk on Sunday afternoon. Easy. I just walk up to the edge of the fence and for the first time I see Asgard in its full glory. Still no gold or anything, but stunning none the less. Stunning. How fitting. I almost shit myself when I see the arrows zooming in my direction. I, for one second, forgot that I was breaching foreign territory. Why did I not think about safety measurements? Maybe because I believed the Norse god as dead as the Greek ones. Prejudice once again shattered. Great work me.

They are alive and kicking, it seems, at least some are. I zig-zag my way over the second fence and towards the ground and the first houses. “I come in peace. I just lost my way.” But no-one replied. Only more arrows rained down towards my location.

“Hello? Please, don’t shoot any more arrows. I had luck so far but one is soon to … Ahh. Fuck that hurts. Fuck indeed. Damn arrows. Damn Vikings. Fuck you all. Strike home was what I tried to say. Stop it. I am unarmed.”

“You claim you are unarmed but wield a magnificent blade at your side. How comes? Trickery or fool’s play.” “My sword? The sword of Punishment? Sweet!” “You seem to be generally delighted by the sword you hold. A man who can respect steel is a man who can respect others. Now put your blade down and tell me who you are and how you came to fly our defense like it was naught?”

This guy who spoke oh so eloquently seems to be Heimdall. The famous protector of the rainbow bridge and wielder of the Gjallarhorn. A horn so powerful it will awake all the gods once Ragnarok, the fall of the gods, takes place. Myth says that Heimdall will be the last man standing at the day of the final battle. But he seems pretty alive to my layman's eyes.

“How is Asgard these days?” “It is not, or rather, will soon not be anymore.” “How comes?” “I am the first to wake again. I will have to blow the horn soon enough. Ragnarok is coming.” “So you will all die and the world will fall?” “Perhaps. Not everything that has been told has to be true.” “You mean, we could change Asgard’s fate?” “Its fate has already changed when a man came flying over its defenses. Pretty impressive, I might add. How is your wound doing?” “Just a scratch, really. Hurt like a bitch but barely cut me at all.” “Spoken like a true warrior. Asgard’s fate might fall into your hands.” “I fucked up with gods before, freed Hades, some Greek underworld god. Why should I trust you?” “I do not know who these Hades is, but if he is anything like this Zeus guy, you should have let him rot there.” “I was tricked you see. And Zeus was supposed to be a nice guy. Does really not add up to me trusting you.” “He came here to visit. Business relations. But his only business was women. He tried to lay hands on all the maidens in Asgard. That is until Thor has shown him outside. Seems like his thunder was mightier than the Greek allfather’s one. He ran with both legs in his hands.” “Weird saying. But I get it. Misogynist. Not one of the nice sort.” “Who or what is this Misogynist you talk of? Your people?” “Forget it.”

“It is time.” “Time for what?” “Time to wake them. Time to end it. Time for Ragnarok!”

[mysticdragon3md3]

Reactions to Jujutsu Kaisen ep3-5; (half of ep6).

. . .

7:35 PM 12/16/2020 Jujutsu Kaisen ep3

So...It's a it's a habit of Gojou-sensei to do people favors without them asking?  Like when he put Itadori's dorm room next to Fushiguro, because Gojou thought Fushiguro could use the "lively" company?  ^o^  ok.  But I have a feeling the hood on Itadori's uniform is going to turn out to be more to do with Sukuna, and we're just going to *think* it was because Itadori was always wearing hooded tops when Gojou met him.  lol  

I've been wary about getting into Jujutsu Kaisen ever since I saw a clip of Nobara Kugisaki, where she was just being really abrasive and representing that hackneyed stereotype of "girl of the group spoils everyone's fun and is just angry at everyone for no reason all the time".  I was not looking forward to her character.  But I finally managed to start watching this series anyway, and I loved it.  But now I'm at ep3, she's showing up, and I am not lookng forward to whatever stereotypes that Shonen Manga tends to slot girls into.  Shonen Manga, I love you, but 80% of the time you suck when it comes to women.  ~_~;  Either the girl is only cool if she's sexualized cheeesecake, or an ingenue (which I LOVE, but I do want more variety), or the abrasive, tsundere spoil-sport, which I am just _done_ with.  So please please PLEASE, Nobara, PLEASE don't be an abrasive annoying character!  ;o;!

And now she's asking some random guy to make her a model. (Why do I get the feeling her use of "watashi" is what got to the guy?) This is not a good start.  Please don't turn out to be some borderline himedere, all full of herself, and completely focused on her looks, because the only characteristic that some male manga-ka know to give to female characters is "obsessed with her appearance".  ;o;!?

"Be happy boys.  I'm the one woman in your group."  What the hell is that supposed to mean??  Is the manga-ka saying girls are trouble, so minimum number of them is better?  Or that "all guys are horny heteros who're desperate to be near any girls"???  Because either option sounds really bad. Unforunately, it's the type of thing I've gotten used to seeing in anime/manga.  ~___~;  (Just once, I'd love for some girl to be full of herself because she assumes the guys in her group are desperate heteros, but then it turns out they're all gay.  Knock those himedere's down a peg!)  But this is one of the newer Shonen Jump series I've seen in a long time.  Hopefully things have changed since years ago, when harem anime and ecchi Shonen series used to be the majority of series out there.  If Boku no Hero Academia is any indication, I've heard gender representation has been getting better.  And of course, the popularity precedent that Bleach's Rukia Kuchiki set has been great to see emulated (when a series doesn't misinterpret Rukia's appeal into "tusndere" anyway).  

Itadori is from Sendai!?  I should have paid attention!  I love Sendai because I'm a Date Masamune fan, but I'm wondering...This series and Haikyuu...  Is Sendai becoming a popular setting for manga?  I wonder if it's to boost interest in their tourism to help recover from the 2011 disasters.  I always thought that would be nice of the manga/anime industries.  ;u;  

Oh no...Itadori is a childish dork, buying weird souvenirs and eating up all the snacks he can...  Ya gotta stop being this cute, kiddo!  ;w;!!!  You already remind me of Ryuji Sakamoto, you don't have to score for the extra points with even more similarities to him!  ;w;  Gawd, Ryuji has made me weak for these adorkable boyish types...!  xWx!  

Ok.  Nobara is redeemed.  She's just as excited and adorkable as Itadori at the prospect of Gojou-sensei taking them sight-seeing.  ^o^  This is pretty hilarious actually.  LOL  Let me mention again that this series' humor is pretty great!  ^o^  

ROPPONGI?!?!?  Sensei!  Don't take a bunch of minors to Roppongi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  ...Oh, it's a cursed, abandoned building.  Oh thank globs.  

8:14 PM 12/16/2020 Well, Crunchyroll kept crashing after I paused the episode to write reactions.  But let's try again.  

8:21 PM 12/16/2020 Aaaaaaand Crunchyroll crashed AGAIN.  It really doesn't want me to finish this episode, huh?  Fine.  I'll watch something else.  I got my Yuji fix anyway.  (Even though I wanted to watch more.)  ~.~!

2:25 AM 12/17/2020 I tried to watch ep3 again.  After 20min in, Crunchyroll crashed again.  I got so fed up, I went to finish the episode on some YouTube bootleg. But I felt bad about it and I couldn't really find the full ep at regular speed, so I guess I'll just try Crunchyroll another time.  I should really just connect my laptop to my Tv and watch from there.  This Amazon Firestick crashes too much whenever I watch anything besides YouTube (and Netflix).  Even Disney+ stalls on it sometimes.  

But I will say that the parts of the episode I managed to watch more of so far, included that clip of Nobara from Crunchyroll's Twitter, that gave me the bad impression of her.  Listen, I'm as tired of the "passive good girl" female character, as the next woman.  But I also dislik the abrasive tsundere, angry for no reason, looking down on everything everyone does as instantly inferior, and just needlessly over-reacting with anger.  I mean, the "over-emotional woman" stereotype is just as bad as the "passive, martyr, support" girl stereotype.  And is it wise to immediately have this new character just hate and physically beat up the protag that we're already invested in?  At least, I like him best out of everyone.  And then this girl comes in, calling his need to use a weapon lame, physically beating him for asking reasonable questions, and just being an asshole.  Not scoring any points here.  I know stories are supposed to run on conflict and each time a new character is introduced, they're supposed to clash with the previously established characters or protagonist, but if all the clashing gets annoying, I've got better things to do. The sad thing is that I see her short straight hair, and I can't help but think this is another case of Shonen manga trying to emulate Rukia Kuchiki's popularity.  After Bleach, suddenly these types of no-nonsense, competent warrior, without the cheesecake, girls were popping up all over the place: Buso Renkin, Otomen, Attack on Titan, etc.  I just really wish people would have taken the right lessons from Bleach's Rukia Kuchiki, that even the Bleach anime got wrong in some filler episodes:  She's not angry for no reason!  She's not unnecessarily angry/violent!  The anime fillers only crossed that line because tsundere were popular at the time!  But it makes for an abrasive, unlikable character, female or not!  If some bishie came in, acting that way to a protagonist I was already attached to, I'd still think of him as an asshole and consider dropping the series for it.  And I've dropped HeroAca---one of the best series in years---for that reason already!  Don't think you're immune, Jujutsu Kaisen!  Just because Yuji is a freaking delight, I will drop you if Nobara becomes a problem!  

. . .

5:06 PM 12/17/2020 Tried again to watch Jujutsu Kaisen ep3 around 5pm.  5min into it, Crunchyroll crashed again.  Again at the commercial break.  What is it with the commercial breaks crashing everything?  It's happened on other websites with commercial too.  o.o?  Well, connected my laptop to my Tv.  I'll let my laptop handle the processing instead of my Amazon Firestick.  

5:07 PM 12/17/2020 Well, here we go again.  This must be at least the 5th time I'm watching this ep.  With luck, this time, I'll be able to watch the last 1/3 of the episode.

JUJUTSU KAISEN Episode 3 – Girl of Steel

5:14 PM 12/17/2020 Now it's either buffering for a long time, or frozen.  ~.~;  The universe really doesn't want me to watch Jujutsu Kaisen, huh?  Either that, or the universe really wants me to watch it thru bootleg sites/uploads, instead of thru Crunchyroll.  Damn it.  I hate doing that.  But I like this series, and Crunchyroll has been giving me problems for the past 2 days on just this ONE SAME EPISODE OVER AND OVER.  ~o~;;;;  Fine!  I'll go find some YouTube bootleg of this episode.  x_x;  YouTube never crashes on me.  

5:17 PM 12/17/2020 Ugh.  I hate watching on these tiny rectangles with giant random frames so the uploader can avoid copyright strikes.  Let me try Crunchyroll again.  

I had forgotten this.  I don't know why, but when another video streaming site had problems with buffering or being frozen, sometimes playing YouTube on another tab kind of "wakes it up".  

5:19 PM 12/17/2020 Spoke too soon.  Crunchyroll still isn't working.  Forget it.  I'll watch the tiny rectangle with giant distracting frames and muffled audio.  I just want to get through this episode finally!  It's been 2 days!  And the introduction of a character I've been wary of from spoiler clips, and now that I've actually been watching her introduction episode, I am NOT having a good time with her.  I want this over with.  

At least on YouTube I can skip through the parts of the episode I've already had to watch like 5 times already.  Adn it won't crash from searching.  

5:32 PM 12/17/2020 There!  Finally FINALLY finishedd episode 3!!!!!  

Shonen genre, I love you, but why do the female characters always have to be so annoying!?!  It's not an 1990's action movie!  They're just angry all the time and I feel like I'm spending time with an annoying asshole, when I watch series that forces me to spend time with characters unreasonably angry about anything and everything! And that's not even mentioning the horrible implication that females are all "moody and over-emotional". It's like, they know to set up protagonists as likable by demonstrating their compassion and warmth, but when it comes to the female characters, if she's not an ingenue passive hyper-fem support class, then she's an abrasive tsundere, because apparently it's still the early 2000s and all the horny fanboys want to get stepped on and yelled at.  -.-;;;;;;;;;;;;;;  Fucking A you guys...There are better partners, better people to spend time with, than that.  x_x;;;;;;;;;;;;;  

On the good side, if Nobara turns out to be a deal breaker for me on this series, then I won't have to feel bad anymore for missing out on Nendoroid Yuuji's preorder.  

. . .

1:23 AM 12/18/2020 Jujutsu Kaisen ep4

I"m gonna risk Crucnhyroll crashing (on my Firestick) AGAIN, because I really just want to watch more of this series.  

I love how Yuuji continues to be so enthusiastic about everything.  I know it's supposed to be "uncool" or humorously quirky while the POV "fish out of water" character learns about whatever "new world" they've gotten into, but it's endearing as hell.  When a character doesn't care about looking stupid, in favor of being unbelievably positive, I love it.  

Innate Domain.  I saw a clips of this earlier, and it reminded me so much of a Witch's Labyrinth, that I watched some Madoka Magica clips.  

I love when Nobara and Yuuji are in sync in acting weird.  

Does Fushiguro not know how to take compliments?  Was he never given any whiel growing up?

I know having a Shonen protagonist over-react to any little lack of empahy is a cheap trick of the genre by now...but I still love it.  ;u;  I know what you're trying to do, and damnit, it's working.  lol  

Gawd the animation in this series is so good.

I guess this is where we learn that Sukuna can regenerate his host.  

It's really unusual for a Shonen protagonist to despair this long in a scene.  I wonder what it's for.  

So using Cursed Magic is just focusing all your negative energy/emotions?  

Wow.  I guess this Curse can't think enough to know Sukuna's plan would be a good deal.  Or is it that Sukuna scares this Curse out of thinking clearly? I mean, they could think enough to play with their food.  

So it's true.  An OP character gets their appearnace earned after the protag/main cast gets put thru hell.  

"But healing with cursed energy isn't that hard for cursed spirits, unlike for humans.  Nither you nor this brat really understand what curses truly are."  I was going to speculate that a Curse is a "wish to destroy", but in terms of regeneration, it only makes sense for negative energy/emotions to rebuild a creature made of negative energy/emotions, like a Curse.  But does it make sense for humans?  I guess maybe considering humans can contain negative emotions/energies...  Well, I'm sure this series will have an interesting answer for their own world's logic.  

Ever since it was mentioned that Sukuna used to be human, and now he's talking about showing what "real sorcery" is with his "Domain Expansion" spell...  I wonder how a human sorcerer turned into a Curse.  Is this series going to eventually talk about humans turning into Curses?  I love when demon hunter series go into that territory.  

Oh.  This Curse had one of Sukuna's fingers?

Aw, it's over?  I think I kinda love this show.   But this ending theme is fun.  Tho I have to wonder how this concept fits into this series' tone.

1:53 AM 12/18/2020 Unforunatly, I can't watch more.  I should get ready for bed.

And hey!  Crunchyroll went thru a whole episoe without crashing!  ^o^!  

. . .

10:09 PM 12/18/2020 Jujutsu Kaisen ep5

Is this going to happen a lto to Yuji's uniforms?  lol

He mentioned pacts.  Is a pact going to have to happen now to get Sukuna under control again? I mean, Fushiguro uses Shikigami, so he must know about pacts.  Is that what this next fight scene is going to be about?  

Healing is a "Reversed Curse"?

The more Sukuna talks in fights, the more he souns like a trained sorcerer.  

What?  HE stopped.  

Nothing wrong with Emotional reasons to save someone.  

Fushiguro is really kind when he thinks no one will hear him about it.  ;u;  I love when a cast is full of really compassionate characters. Add another one to the count for this series.  

Let him talk!  Even if you don't understand!

Shikigami?  

Beurocracy hierarchy bs at Jujutsu Tech, huh?  Ugh.  When the higher ups can't be trusted, it's trouble.  

Zenin doesn't like beineg called by her last name?  Odd.  

Suspended?!?!????

I thought the rule in Shonen genree was to lay off "tournament arcs"!???

"True, pure beings"?  ~.~;;;;;;  Well, that sounds like trouble.  The world, especially people are blends of dichotomy and gray, co-existing.  People who deny that end up in trouble.  Always chasing some false misunerstanding.  

And well, damn  Another episode ending too soon.  Well, if every episode feels too short, then I must really like this series.  ;u;  I'm so glad.  Because the last series I got thru was a slog at times, but I pushed thru it because it was a popular series and I at least liked the deuteragonists.  I'm really happy with Jujutsu Kaisen so far.  

Even all my earlier bitching about Nobara, that scene of her and Fushiguro at the shrine or temple(?) was better.  I liked that they were in sync in their resolve to get stronger, and that their overall dispositions while in mourning didn't clash into some kind of annoying drama.  

Panda should try a dry shampoo.  Sometimes Fabreeze just ends up mixing with old smells and making fabric smell like damp old towels.  

. . .

10:42 PM 12/18/2020 Jujutsu Kaisen ep6

I should stop.  It's Figure Friday, I still need to do a photoshoot, I didn't draw yet today, and it'll be midnight soon.  x_x;  I'd love to watch more of this series instead tho.  ;o;  

I think it's saying a lot for this series that it's completely distracted me from DMCL even though I made it my static desktop.  lol  

. . .

11:06 PM 12/19/2020 Jujutsu Kaisen ep6

Did the opening sequence add a lot more cast members.

Did I mention I love the humor in this?  Even during a fight it just flows perfectly.  lol  And that cartoony sound effect when Sukuna kicked Yuuji down---LOL  Endearing as hell.

Forget the promise?  What?  Won't it not work then?  

Well, that explains why Yuuji suddenlly accepted the geas.  lol  He just wanted to hit Sukuna again.  lol

I'm gonna guess some kind of guilt?

It's interesting to hear Gojou talking about thsi indirect, in-system way of fighting the stagnant top level of thier jujutsu sorcerer organization.  I've had FE3H on the brain lately and yesterday I was listening to a D&D story time vid that made me think about the same thing.  You can't just assassinate the problem authority figures because the structure is still in place to maintain the same problem.  Plus, you'll be easily framed as a "villain", then no one will listen to your criticisms about the former authority figures/structure.  After loving Code Geass and Lelouch back in the day, it's so funny how I'm much more inclined to support these strategies of working within a bad system to reform it from within, which was Suzaku's strategy, not Lelouch's.  But I guess even back when I was watching Code Geass, I knew that I would only go with Lelouch strategy in such a bombastic, hyper stylized world; it wasn't realistic, even if some if it had merits that could be more gently applied to the real world.  What was really strange about this scene in Jujutsu Kaisen was that such radical ideas about overturning and being aware of the current power structure's corruption, was given such little weight in the scene.  Like they wanted us to forget about this so that when it comes back later in the overall plot, we can be shocked, but still feel that bringing up these issues fit.  

Love Yuuji and Gojo's casual relationship. ^o^  They act more like friends than mentor/mentee.

I forgot how gorey this series can be until everyone lit on fire.  ^^;

11:22 PM 12/19/2020 Aaaaaand Crunchyroll crashed at the commercial again.  Just at well.  It's really difficult to eat, watch, and jot down my reactions at the same time.  ~_~;  A shame.  I really wanted to watch more of this series.  

[lauraramargosian]

Lose You To Love Me: The Biebers and Selena Gomez carry no hate, these tweets prove all love.

The headlines striking the internet about Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, and Hailey Bieber are nothing more than clickbait drama.

Get ‘Lose You To Love Me,’ out now: http://smarturl.it/LoseYouToLoveMe

Lose You To Love Me wasn’t a hateful attack on Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber.

First, let’s open with, we have all been hurt in life. It doesn’t matter who you are, we all have to take our life paths and experience emotions such as rejection, love, hate, jealousy and even fear.

How many can relate to being in a relationship that didn’t go quite as planned? It can feel as though the world is coming to an end.

The phrase “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t,” is a life truth.

It’s said that it might be easier to deal with a difficult person than to venture into the unknown.

With that in mind, we can assume that Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber aren’t bad people.

Despite your fandom, remember two people can love one another and not be a match made in heaven.

For example, could it be true that one person may try harder than the other?

More so, what if one has different goals in life?

Selena Gomez dropped “Lose You To Love Me,” it’s her release of pain for someone she did truly love.

Lose You To Love Me doesn’t seem like an attack.

Before Justin made Hailey his wifey.

Hailey Bieber on Selena and Justin.

Hailey Bieber on Selena and Justin.

Well, do you see the maturity?

Despite rumors, she wasn’t being fake (to those who may want to throw that accusation out into the world, it’s entirely false).

However, wasn’t there a time when Baldwin and Bieber had limited contact?

Isn’t it obvious that Hailey looked up to the former couple thinking “I want that one day?”

Give clickbait headlines zero attention.

Unfortunately, the headlines have been nasty and untrue.

To be specific, those headlines alone should tell make you think “damn, being in the spotlight is annoying,” even if you are thankful beyond measure.

Similarly, you have likely dated someone in High School or as an adult and it didn’t work.

How would you ever know what you want in a man or woman if you didn’t “go down that path?”

The Last Letter to someone I loved, the devilish truth.

Most importantly, you also learn what you don’t want in a partner, your goals begin to develop and things begin to make sense inside the mind.

Unfortunately, the majority of comments on Twitter right now are downright embarrassing.

But that is the world we live in, celebrity, middle school, high school or adulthood, we are going to find people who carry negative energy.

To illustrate, I was once in a friendship that left me with no eggs in my basket, I loved hard, and it was too much.

I loved so deeply, I too was toxic to my friend. I thought that if we would not be friends anymore, my whole life would crumble.

Honestly, I tried to help this person as well, as did they and it became a circle of fighting, back to friends and back to fighting. It’s not healthy to be toxic, and that applies to all friendships or partnerships.

Lose You To Love Me is a song about moving on.

Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, and Hailey Bieber have moved on with their lives.

Everyone wants to focus on part of the lyric that speaks about “Bieber,” leaving after two months.

These are feelings and thoughts, the song goes deeper if you actually understand relationships.

It was a release, for Selena Gomez a new door opened, a new chapter and she is proud.

Next, the lyric about hating to love.

Isn’t it true that in the beginning, you hate your ex or friend because of how they hurt you inside?

Then, as time passes, it’s easy to say I’m sorry, it’s easier to say I’m glad we both found someone we deserve (at least for me, as I’m still besties with my first love because I live in a world where I end every relationship or friendship with the same respect from the beginning).

What’s the point of shading Gomez, or the Biebers?

Lose You To Find Me even talks about the rose-colored glasses we tend to wear while falling in love, this song is all about a journey.

In any case, before you pick up your phone and tweet out a hateful comment to either of these amazing souls, think about your life first.

Lastly, stop judging others because you don’t know, you do not know either of them, the truth is, you know what the entertainment industry shows you.

Sam Smith the thrill of it all involves mental health!

Try learning more deeply and you’ll come to find that charity, love, and forgiveness are embedded deeply within Hailey, Justin, and Selena Gomez.

Seriously, go read some good causes because the articles that are out today are nothing less than BS, just as Hailey Bieber responded after the rumors developed overnight.

Just because the headline says so, it doesn’t mean it’s true.

I could be wrong about some of it because I do not know them on a personal level.

But I know that most people in the world have good intentions.

Bad things happen sometimes and that’s life, we can’t change the roads we take or the people we once loved and lost.

Lastly, it’s true, it’s better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, otherwise, this amazing new song wouldn’t inspire others, and help them heal.

Music is healing, and that is the intention mostly importantly, it’s the main reason singers become known artists.

Where painful trials exist, there is art.

Blessed be.

The newest Selena Gomez song “Lose You To Love Me.”

The post Lose You To Love Me: The Biebers and Selena Gomez carry no hate, these tweets prove all love. appeared first on Positive Celebrity News and Gossip.

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[katesith]

I have feels about Felix... =/

And I can’t think of a better place to talk about it, so here I go.

I’m a pretty big fan of PewDiePie, and a HUGE fan of some of his friends (obviously), so it’s not surprising that the N-bomb from a few days back is a bit upsetting for me.  I’ve been trying to not care, but it’s just weighing on me, and I feel like talking it out, even if no one wants to read.  I’ve seen a lot of videos on the topic at this point (surprise surprise), and I want to link a few of them here.

These are some of the videos that really touched on my own feelings in a succinct way, and more than likely affected my opinion on the matter:

boogie2988′s “Gaming News: Pewdiepie Vs Firewatch; ...“

CinnamonToastKen’s “My Thoughts on What Happened“

Philip DeFranco’s “Why We Need To Talk About The PewDiePie Racial Slur Controversy and Fallout” and the video he made the following day

And, of course, Felix’s “My Response”

1st thing I want to note about all these videos: These guys say a lot of what I feel, and I will probably repeat some of it.

2nd thing: These videos all received an inordinate amount of views when compared to the number of views these creators receive on average.  Do I think this means the slur was blown out of proportion because PewDiePie is who he is?  Well, yes.  But, let’s be clear: I DO think it is important to call EVERYONE out on this behavior, regardless of context, ignorance, nationality, location, or whatever-else-have-you.  

This whole situation is so very upsetting to me, I think, because of timing.  Of course, if I heard anyone say the word “nigger” in the angry way that Felix said it, I would be upset.  However, I’ve seen the clip several times now, and it’s clear to me that he very much realized what he’d done immediately after doing it. Later, he stated he was trying to say the most horrible word he could think of in the heat of the moment.  And, well...I believe him.  It’s definitely one of the most horrible words I can think of.  (The problem with this is, of course: You were trying to say “asshole” but you said “nigger” to make it more horrible...so, you think a black asshole is worse than a normal asshole?  It reminds me of Eminem saying “He’s gay.  You’re a faggot.” in 8-Mile, while defending a gay person.  It’s like, wtf???  But, I digress...)

I also heard Ken say that, as a close friend of Felix, he has never heard him say the word before.  And, well... I believe him too.  Could I be wrong to trust them? Of course. I’ve never even met any of these people.  Am I biased?  Most definitely.  But then again, so is everyone who actually cares about this story. 

But I truly believe that Felix is not racist.  It will never make what he said okay, but it does matter. At least, it matters to me, because Felix is important to me, and many of the people who trust Felix are even more important to me.  And I cannot stand by a racist person, even if they were in my own family.  I just can’t.

My point is, the fact that he said a word like that one time - while it is disappointing, upsetting, disheartening, and maybe even unforgivable - is on its own something that I could move past.  Maybe someone who doesn’t like him anyway would never move past it, and he would be “nigger-guy” forever (sorry, South Park ref.)  But hearing him acknowledge and talk about it, with an apparent understanding of just how much it hurt all of us, and considering I’ve never heard him say something like this before (without the irony dripping), and trust that he never will again... Let’s just say I can get past it easily enough.  Hell, I’ve said some stupid, horrible shit in the heat of the moment; things I wished I’d never said.

Obviously, what makes this STUPID mistake so INFINITELY worse than a stupid mistake, is the WSJ scandal from last year.

Because of this history, hearing Felix say that word in that way hurt SO MUCH. The person he said it to didn’t even hear him.  The group of people that the word is directed at by definition are probably hurt every time they hear this word.  But this time it hurt ME too, and I know it hurt a lot of people who care about Felix, and who trust him, and as Ken put it, “stuck their necks out” for him during the whole Nazi fiasco.

Because WSJ, and many of the people who subsequently wrote about Felix were not only wrong, but seemingly malicious in intent.  EVERYONE who knew him, or watched his content, or cared about the fact that a prestigious newspaper could lie so blatantly just to hurt an individual, or even just cared about the integrity of YouTube creators in general... ALL these people stood up for him!  Jesus, even Markiplier made a video about it, and it was the first and only time I have EVER heard him talk about one of these internet dramas.

And since the majority of the world tended to side with the infallible WSJ, this brought hate on ALL of us!  People who refused to believe that WSJ could be lying, refused to check source material and do any research, and people like fuckin’ JK Rowling who didn’t know the first thing about the situation but got all up-in-arms over the fact that someone famous was accused of being a Nazi....they pretty much grouped us all together in the Nazi camp, or the I-Love-PewDiePie-So-He-Can-Do-No-Wrong camp (which some people seem to think is basically the same camp).

But it was important to us, because what happened to Felix at that time was SO not right.  It was so unjust, not only to bring just any human being down like that (for no good reason), but a person who represents a platform that is very important to a lot of people.  So we “stuck our necks out” and went against the majority because the majority was wrong.  We stood up for him...and we want to continue to stand up for him...

That’s why this N-bomb hurts so badly.  Because it is so indefensible.  Even Felix himself had absolutely no defense.  I have never heard him apologize like that.  We stood up SO strongly for this guy, and there are more people that hate him than don’t hate him, so it was hard.  But we did it, because it was right.  And now, how can we stand up for him anymore?  

All that bullshit that all those people believe has just been reinforced tenfold, and there is no argument against it.  What Felix said a few days ago most certainly does not make WSJ’s lies any less false than they were a few months ago.  But the people who believed the lies, and refused to believe the truth, now have more ammo, and it’s making me feel like an asshole for having defended Felix, when I SHOULDN’T feel that way!  We were RIGHT, and now we just look foolish!!  

GOD DAMN, WHY DID YOU SAY THAT YOU FUCKING MORON???

*sigh*  And now, for the first time, the creators of an indie-game are copyright-striking an entire Let’s Play series.  And they’re not even doing it because they feel their material was used in a way that did not constitute fair use.  They’re doing it because they don’t like PewDiePie and his reputation.  But, in spite of the reasons, the fact is that they’re claiming that a let’s play is an infringement of fair use.  Boogie says he is concerned this could lead to a LOT more of this kind of copyright-claiming on let’s plays.  Maybe even causing the Let’s Play format to be considered a fair use infringement by definition...

To put it bluntly:  PewDiePie said “nigger” and this might be the end of Let’s Plays as we know them.

This fucking sucks.

And I think I’m done now.  I typed a lot of words.  Thanks for reading them, if you did.  I don’t really feel better though.  =/

[atruegeno]

I don't even know anymore....

Its stuff like this that drives me to end my life. For those of you who care ultimaalmighty’s YouTube channel has been taken down so its a sad day for Ultima was youtuber that i looked up to anytime i was down he would bring me back up with his “EPIC REACTION VIDEOS” all was good until he got in a relationship with steph from starbot dubs to cut a long story short so i can get to what i have to say about this whole shit show of a fucking argument steph broke up with ultima and this drove ultima to “sexually harass” 8 other women what happened during their relationship is complete cluster fuck of info from that i am not going to get into there is info on this shit everywhere. Anyways why do i feel this way? why do i feel so conflicted? Why did i get a tumblr blog to post this? Because i am not on ANYONE’S SIDE!! in my opinion both of them have explaining to do beyond blog post and video that ultima made because both of which are biased and just divide the fan base of two of them and just makes everybody look bad on both sides im going to look at both and tell you my opinions on each

About ultima

Ok to be honest I actually side with ultima a bit more but even he did a fair share of things to piss me off. But lets start from the beginning ultima was in a relationship that he did not disclose until this shit started which is the first problem look i understand having a bit of privacy but not telling your fans about this until now was just plain stupid (this also applys to steph) and it made the uncoulded truth video come out of nowhere. Speaking of which that video was actually pretty well done and rather then make me lose respect for him i gained more than i lost because it takes a big man to step up and face and admit what you did wrong and actually try to fix it (even though it was not enough for ANYBODY!) and try to fix yourself by going to see a therapist its rare to see thats nowadays and i admire anybody no matter how big or small the mistake they’ve made i will always at least respect them for trying to make amends. Hell from what i hear he actually sent out private apologies to everbody he hurt so from the look of it things we’re turning around for him. However there was one thing that i can’t for the life of me agree with and thats the way he handled the attack from everybody make no mistake i do like it when someone takes the negative and turns it into a positive impact on themselves but the way he said it on twitch made him sound like a complete and total coward saying that he owes them for helping him realize what he did was wrong is kinda bullshit (for reasons i will talk about later) and the fact that he completely downed the chances of him getting another channel is just a slap in the face to fans like me who want to support him but don’t want to go on twitch to do it. In conclusion i feel like ultima does deserve a second chance and i hope all the best for him i just think he could have done better for his fans if he was a more open about the relationship from the start and did not completely rule out the possibility of another channel. Now for the part that made me want to post this

About starbot dubs and the victims

Now for the real side of the story i wanted to talk about because right now aside from steph i can barely stand any of these people but once again i will go from the top and then I’ll get to the reasons why. As i stated when i was talking about ultima steph should have also informed her fans about the relationship as well (the same points stated previously apply) one thing she should not have done is post the whole story on social media. Now before you say anything NO i don’t think she should have been quite about it but she should not have made public. She should have sent private message if she wanted to warn people without having ultima attacked and so the victims knew what he was capable of instead she posted the whole long story on Tumblr (yeah look whos talking) and hoped people understood that she didn’t want utima crucified. Now we all make mistakes (Ultima) and this definitely counts as one you cant just post somthing like that and hope that people don’t the guy. The people on internet DON’T CARE once they have a chance to shoot they will (i do realize that some people do care but you know what im talking about) which leads me to my next point how they handled it. Ok now we are getting to the good part the copyright strikes look these people have the right to there art ok i realize that (i consider myself to be artist) but in this case they abused the copyright system outright just to get ultima taken off YouTube which is the worst thing you can do in this sener because now people are going to rope them in with those hack developer’s on steam greenlight and don’t give me the excuse that “oh they did because he sexually harassed them” the reasoning does not matter they let him have those videos up until this happened. The moment this happened rather asking him to take the videos down (i don’t know if they did but if so link me the post) they chose to jump strate to the copyright system and take his channel down which put both them and starbot dubs underfire from ultimas fans. I love how they think people are horrible for thinking that “sexual harassment is on the same level as breaking a glass” when the real reason is probably because before all this happened ultima was a well respected youtuber with a loving fan base and if you think that everybody would just turn on him you might just have to rethink how the human mind works they are NOT stupid they just care about and are willing to look past that because to you he may be a manipulator to others he’s still the same stand up guy they know and love to the point where i saw someone who made a music cover dedicated to him (the music video is called Farwell Ultima not my cup of tea but still…damn) that alone says how much people care about him and to be honest i think they’re going too far with the hate and its actually coming off as bullying which is wrong concidering how much ultima has done he always encourages people to support the creater telling people to watch the original video first and wants them to subscribe to creater (also most of the videos he reacts to are fan suggested). Now lets get the part that REALLY pissed me off the ultima farwell stream i was there in the chat just before the stream started and it was going great there was a few haters but they quickly chased out (thanks to yours truly) but then THEY showed up vade maxoutoften hawker and dusty underline once they showed up everything went down hill they were attacking ultima and his fans calling anybody who said anything about them liars in the most immature way possible and the worst thing was once ultima started streaming they went silent and ran like cowards but it got worse when i checked they’re tumblr and the first thing i saw was a fucking fantasy version of the original blog post written by maxoutoften (its called a star story btw) which not only is twisted to make ultima seem like a piece of shit but also completely insalts the original post (even though I didn’t agree with it being poted in the first place) Speaking of maxoutoften when he was called out for causing shit in the chat he said that he didn’t do anything even though i saw him encouraging dusty to keep going the same applies to the other members of starbot dubs (except steph) they will bully ultima one moment but someone says anything they will ether

A. Say “well he harassed 8 women so its fair”

Or

B. Say they didn’t have to do with it

To both i say BULLSHIT! it is NOT fair to go and harasse ultima and his fans and you did have somthing to do with it you posted the blog and foolishly hoped that no one attacked him so you share some of the blame for it. And this makes you worse then ultima your doing the same thing that he did to his him and his fans and are trying to cover it up atleast ultima had the guts to admit to his mistakes but you will hide under any excuse you get. And now for the final thoughts

Final thoughts

Both sides in my opinion have made a lot of mistakes Ultima does deserved to be punished but not like this vade and the others need to stop being so immature and ultima should make another channel i know it seems like i was on ultima’s side but he didn’t do much to piss me off but what do i know im just some random kid on the internet right….maybe but i know this the only way i see this endding is for Ultima Starbot and the victims to get together and make a blog post about the whole story through and through and for them to reach some kind of understanding and move on it probably won’t happen but thats the only i see this endding peacefully (that or get everybody together and watch the video go home homura your drunk that will cheer them up) and if anybody at starbot dubs has a problem with this post and desides to attack me just remember your only proving my point