#how to burn a cd is important

[notthatalex]

People are laughing at me now, doing long-time archival of fanwork I care about, but in the future bc of digital dark age, only my blorbos will have survived

*no one is laughing at me

**I have librarian/archivist disease

***I am not the only one doing this and I am not even doing it particularly well

[kissami]

UN ÁNGEL- Cloud strife Headcanons

sum. Need boyfriend headcanons for cloud? SAY LESS.

warning: modern cloud, oc cloud srry I love him soft, might be a little self insert because of the stuff I like but that’s all

femreader! with she/her pronouns

song of the day: igual que un ángel - Kali uchis

boyfriend Cloud who knows your order by heart at your guys’ favorite coffee shop and no matter how many times he does it, it never fails to make you blush and impressed.

Boyfriend Cloud who never fails to make you ticklish especially during intimate moments that you can’t help but burst out laughing.

Boyfriend Cloud who sometimes can’t handle all the attention and affection so he distances himself but can’t help but miss you even more.

Boyfriend Cloud who loves picking you up from university on his motorcycle to show off especially knowing that Reno would be there. He is still very bitter that Reno was your first kiss in fifth grade and not him because he was too busy helping collect Tifa’s shopkins from the grass at recess.

Boyfriend Cloud who loves going to Aerith’s flower shop because he helps her make your bouquets extra pretty just for you. #bestfriendprivileges

boyfriend Cloud who has recurring nightmares of losing you to Sepiroth. No not the “I’ll steal your girl,” kind of way. More like he murders you and Aerith at the same time. Perhaps something from a past life?

Boyfriend Cloud who loves watching studio ghibli movies with you especially ponyo and spirited away. Let’s not get started on his love for Princess Mononoke.

Boyfriend Cloud who goes with you at the bookstore for now on to carry your books because he found out that a guy put his number inside of a book after catching it for you when you accidentally dropped it from your stack pile.

Boyfriend Cloud who’s COMPLETELY and UTTERLY obsessed with you. Not the annoying obsession, but the obsession that makes your tummy in knots and the cute things he loves to do for you. Whether it’s making you lunch for school/ work, leaving cute notes on your door handles, or literally dropping everything instantly for you when you call.

Boyfriend Cloud who hid in the bathroom after you guys had…yk…and too embarrassed to come out. If only he knew you were on the bed breathless and wanting more.

Boyfriend Cloud who baby trapped you. With a cat. Her names Honey and every time there’s an argument he uses her as an excuse to visit you. “We can’t let our cat have separated household problems,she needs both of her parents so please answer the door.”

Boyfriend Cloud who had no idea him getting a lip piercing would be in the way of kissing you for it to heal correctly. He ran out of the piercing shop and only agreed to come back to get a matching eyebrow piercing with you instead.

Boyfriend Cloud who not only made you a playlist, but this mf burned a cd for you, made tifa draw a one in a million piece of art for you for the cover, has a sticker of it on his car, and even bought a necklace that had the Spotify playlist code. So whenever a person flirts with him, he’ll hold it up and say, “scan this and read the description. That’ll be my answer for you.”

Boyfriend Cloud who didn’t understand why you were so obsessed with kpop, especially BTS. Him and jungkook have beef apparently. He also buys you albums all the time and even sacrifices himself to let you use his phone to make sure you guys get tickets to concerts.

Boyfriend Cloud who WILL call your work to call off. He doesn’t care, cuddles are more important.

Boyfriend Cloud who forces you to drink water whenever you hang. You always complain about headaches and he makes sure when you’re with him you’re hydrated.

Boyfriend Cloud who is addicted to Dr.Pepper. You gave him some when you two went to watch Barbie in the summer and it’s his holy grail. “We need to head to Costco, I ran out of my pepper.”

[magewritesstories]

[ ɢɪʟᴍᴏʀᴇ ɢɪʀʟꜱ ] ᴅᴀᴛɪɴɢ ʜᴇᴀᴅᴄᴀɴᴏɴꜱ

ᴊᴇꜱꜱ ᴍᴀʀɪᴀɴᴏ — ᴛʜᴇ ʙʟᴀᴄᴋ ᴄᴀᴛ ʙᴏʏꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ

♠  Jess is the black cat boyfriend no debate

♠  his favourite activities are browsing bookstores in New York to find the most ridiculous books and having movie nights at with home-made pizza

♠  his gifts are usually consist of annotated books and/or CD’s he’s burned for you

♠  so touch starved, like so touch starved, his love language is definitely physical touch

♠  would do just about anything if you just bat your eyelashes at him

ᴘᴀʀɪꜱ ɢᴇʟʟᴇʀ — ᴛʜᴇ ꜰɪᴇʀᴄᴇ ɢɪʀʟꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ

♦  study dates, study dates, study dates

♦  probably mistook your flirting for picking a fight until Rory told her that you were flirting with her or you just straight up told her you wanted to kiss

♦  loves to do things for you just because, carrying your bags, making you coffee/tea when you working, because you deserve to be pampered, her love language is acts of service no doubt in my mind

♦  when it comes to gift giving it’s usually offhanded like, “Yeah I saw it in the store and bought it, no big deal.”

♦  she’s pretty stubborn so getting her to do things is hard but she ends up doing them because it’s you, and she would do anything for even if she complains 70% of the time

ʟᴏɢᴀɴ ʜᴜɴᴛᴢʙᴇʀɢᴇʀ — ᴛʜᴇ ᴀᴅᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀᴏᴜꜱ ʙᴏʏꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ

♣  he takes you to so many places, sometimes it’s places he’s been other times he spotted a new restaurant on his way and he decides to take you there next time the two of you go out.

♣  his favourite thing to do is go shopping for you, particularly enjoys buying you clothes and accessories and then seeing you wear them

♣  Logan’s love language is definitely gif giving, and more often than not the gift are expensive (read: birkin bag.)

♣  whenever he plans dates it’s the out there stuff he thinks you’ll enjoy doing, but he doesn’t mind having dinner at home with a good movie or some music either

♣ he would also do anything for you, even the things you ask him to do halfheartedly or jokingly

ʀᴏʀʏ ɢɪʟᴍᴏʀᴇ — ᴛʜᴇ ᴋɪɴᴅ ɢɪʀʟꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅ

♥  her favourite kinds of dates are the calm ones, like browsing bookstores and going to museums

♥  she loves to sit with you on the couch until ungodly hours just talking about random things or having deep conversations, although the ones about the future are her favourites

♥  love language is words of affirmation, mainly because growing up Lorelai thought her how important communication is in all her relationships

♥   Rory doesn’t really like dates in crowded places, she enjoys the occasional concert or outing to a busy place, but low-key dates will always be superior in her opinion

♥ getting her to do something she doesn’t want to is impossible, she’s very stubborn and when she doesn’t want to do something it’s very hard to convince her to do it

[magentas-dystopia]

Something I really lament is the move towards digital media. Slowly we start to never own the things we like. Even if we "buy" a digital game, or movie or show. It's locked behind a certain platform or service. Once it shuts down we lose it forever.

(me when big booby anime girl explosion Is taken off of Netflix)

I also feel like there's a certain charm to owning physical media, like things you can hold and the satisfaction from pressing a clicky button or putting a disc or cassette in and seeing it work.

(oooh so classy so retro so.. expensive in the modern day)

More people should try to make copies of what they own digitally, or try to buy physical media before it's lost from streaming services and digital storefronts forever. Like the case with certain games like Godzilla 2014 and Transformers War for Cybertron. They don't exist digitally anymore. Only hard copies exist outside of emulation and at insane resell prices like... INSANE ones for a mediocre Godzilla game

So yea. Buy some more CDs of those albums you have on replay! Buy a DVD of that niche obscure anime you like! And most importantly PLEASE PLEASE START MAKING HARD BACKUPS OF SHOWS YOU LIKE THAT YOU PIRATE!!! media preservation is important!

(me downloading every episode of Daredevil onto my hard drive to burn to a DVD later so I can give it to all my friends)

This is now going to be a Comprehensive guide on how to rip a CD

POLL TIME!

Burning and Ripping Disc's❤️❤️💕💕🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍⚧️

STEP ONE:

BUY A CHEAP BLU-RAY/DVD DRIVE FOR YOUR WINDOWS COMPUTER

here are some I recommend!!!

i personally use this pioneer one :)))

DVD drives in general are relatively cheap from 30-20 smackeroos, but Blu-ray drives are around 80-100 bucks depending on the manufacturer but offer better support for copying HD video such as on a Blu-ray.

STEP TWO:

FIND A PIECE OF MEDIA YOU ENJOY.

in this case its gonna be a CD!!

i really enjoy Vespertine by Bjork, but i wanna have it on my computer just in case anything happens to my CD. SO. ill open Windows Media Player

(she hasn't changed since 2011 <3333 be urself girl)

NEXT

ill insert the disc into the player. and it'll start playing!

Pause the disc and go into Rip settings

NEXT!! select the format!

if you want to conserve space and don't mind sacrificing audio quality select MP3! if you want to hear the same level of audio quality as preserved on the CD, select a format labelled LOSSLESS. I recommend .WAV files as they'll work with most devices including an android phone or iTunes on PC (more on that later ;3 )

NEXT!

create a folder on whatever u wanna save ur music to! (u can call it whatever u want the world is your oyster bestie)

THEN!!! FINALLY

go into more options on the Rip Settings menu!

select ur folder and press Rip CD!!!!

the fun thing of this now, is that you can pull these files on your computer and put it onto your Android device so you can listen to your hearts content without lugging around your CD in a player at high quality without any subscription service with free reign of who you can give your download to!

But Magenta! what if i have an iPhone?

ohohoo fear not bestie because iTunes on PC has an even EASIER way to do it

because simply putting in a disc with iTunes downloaded prompts THIS

(oooo so new age)

and if you have apple music on your iPhone this will sync to your phone if you logged into iTunes on PC!!

thank you for coming to my TED talk

[solar-sunnyside-up]

hey! sorry to bother you, but is there anything a teen without transportation in a rural area can do on their own? im pretty isolated, and theres barely anything around me.

Hey ya sprout 🌱

**A disclaimer Punk comes with some risk socially. Particularly if your in a rural area this risk goes up bc people Know You and also typically these spaces have a different vibe to alt ppl in general. Some activities are more or less risky and I'll try and do my best to give you a range of stuff from the whole spectrum! Of course this is a generalization of rural areas. Some palaces will be more cool then others depending in so many factors I couldn't go into here**

Rural solarpunk

Your gunna been to pick a topic, sorry babe. In order to not burn yourself out and in order to feel like you have an impact your gunna have to pick a cause to chip away at but I'll give you ideas! And remember just bc your focusing on one thing doesn't mean your ignoring or not helping others. Everything is interconnected and any help, helps all!

So let's give you some ideas to focus on:

Libraries- as a teen in particular you'll have access to a library at school, but depending on how big your town is you might have a public one as well. Become their biggest supporter! They are a great safe space, even conservative ones are still a good place to go for archiving/loitering purposes. They give you spaces to print stuff, to build clubs and community.

Archiving- if you cannot leave your house due to access you can always do stuff online and hear me out, i know when we do stuff online it feels like half points. Like we arent doing anything. I feel that with this blog, it feels so passive no matter how hard you work youll feel lesser. But Archiving is vital to humans! Think of the anthropologists wholl thank you down the road! Plus it does actually give you a way to have a physical representative of work your doing. Dvds, pirating media and archiving them to drives, collecting vinyls/tapes/cds!

DIY- To fight against fast fashion (although that barely exists in the towns I've been in tbh) and to stick out** you could make your own patches, battlejackets, gloves, etc.. They are statement pieces you can wear whenever your in town/at school/social spaces that ppl know what you stand for and who you are. Depending on who/where you are this might be risky so take what you can bare ok? You don't have to wear these items too you can just make them for later on!

Little libraries/little pantries- in a rural space you have more Gruella tactics you can take if you do them in random abandoned spaces. You could build a waterproof little pantry and stock it and leave info somewhere about it for ppl to drop off/pick up items. Stock it with mittens! With canned goods! With books! You might be able to do a space like this at school/library depending in how cool your town is too!

Zines- You could look into making a zine and even if it's digital you could have the QR code for download in places (stickers on lamp posts, flyers in school bathrooms, hidden in a churches pamphlet stacks >.>) making a zine is a cool task that is time consuming and informative and fun!

Vandalism- like I said you can often print off stuff at Libraries, or usually you can find a place to print stuff off near or at post offices depending on how modern your rural space is. if you have your own printer this will reduce your risk by quite a bit though! Create/find stickers or posters you want to toss across town or even school. I'd recommend starting off with some stickers and see how their handled, dipping your toes is important with these kinda things. If your really feeling it, and you know some abandoned places Moss Graffiti is also a good option! I've know ppl who have converted old abandoned stored to skate parks (I honestly have no idea how they built the ramps out of concrete but damn!! Good job guys!)

Also I'll leave you with 2 book recommendations as well-

Moxie - a RIOT GRRRL story about a girl who gets so fed up with her conservative town she makes a feminist zine and distributes it via girl bathrooms (even having a basically me too stickers and encouraging ppl to put it on boys lockers who have assaulted them). I know there's a movie, didn't seem to capture the same vibe tho so book!

Braiding Sweetgrass - this focuses a lot on reconnecting and adding story to nature around us and having science along side spirituality

[arowrath]

spotify's current price for premium in the US is $10.99/month, which is a dollar more than before they raised it for the first time recently. the average mcdonald big mac in america costs approximately $5.15. at the new price, you are losing the equivalent of 1 mcdonald big mac every 5 months, which is a tragic loss. however, if you cancel spotify premium, you will be gaining the equivalent of over 2 mcdonald big mac every month, or 25.6 mcdonald big mac per year.

you are a 14 year old tiktok user living in america. (no you're not, i know. we're playing pretend right now. come play in the sand with me. do you want to build a sandcastle). it just so happens that the 13th of april is your birthday, and you just had a birthday and got some birthday money. you've been getting really into [popular artist of ur choice], and you want to listen to them while you're on the bus to school, so you buy spotify premium. you start with the 3 month free trial and when it ends you remember how unbearable the ads are and renew your plan. you have this plan until you go to a four-year college, when you get the student plan. once you leave college, you split the family plan with 3 friends (you have 3 friends after leaving college, so you're already winning). you keep this for a year before becoming disillusioned with streaming services and cancelling your spotify premium plan for good.

in high school, you used spotify premium for 52 months, at $10.99 a month. in college, you used the spotify student premium plan for 48 months, at $5.99 a month. and before you began downloading music off the internet, you used the family plan for 12 months and paid one quarter of the price, $4.25. overall, you have spent $877.03 on spotify premium in less than a decade, not accounting for price changes. this is equivalent to over 170 mcdonald cheeseburger. if the average american eats fast food 1-3 times a week, and you mcdonald cheeseburger two times a week, that's 85 weeks of cheeseburger. 1.6 years of cheeseburger.

or let's say you're a tumblr user. you run a blog where you mainly post about various 80s and 90s rock musicians, and you enjoy listening to music. you've been thinking about getting spotify premium because you're using the free version and the ads are annoying. you figure even though it's $11/month, spotify premium is probably the better option.

a year of spotify costs you $131.88. five years is $659.40. a decade is $1318.80. 60 years is $7,912.80.

or maybe, you post about your desire for spotify premium and your tumblr mutuals immediately start keeling over and sobbing and writhing in pain. your friend stresses the importance of physical media and the fun of piracy, and you decide to believe them and you go to the nearest record store. the store i'm currently looking at online, which i won't say the name of because it's fairly regional, sells cds. most of them seem to be around $13 new or $8 used. you don't really care about buying things used as long as they work, so you tend to go for the used options, but you can be talked into a little treat every once in a while. you burn some CDs from your favorite popular artists, because you know they won't miss the $50 you just saved yourself, and then every month you buy yourself a cd or two from the record store.

after a year, you've bought 13 used cds and 2 new ones for a total of $130. after five years, you've spent $650. after a decade, $1,300. and in sixty years, when you're in your elder years, you'll have spent a grand total of $7,800. but unlike in the alternate universe where you spent $7,912.80, you own all the music you bought (or burned onto CDs). you can pass things down to your grandkids/pet fish/guy down the street who's really into vintage technology who will be excited to inherit them. or over the years if you're less interested in an artist's music you can sell them and get (some of, if not all of) your money back. and when spotify takes your favorite artist's music down or when your phone suddenly breaks, you can still listen to your music. music that you paid for.

you're an american. will you buy cheeseburger and rock and roll disc as god intended, or will pay the devil $10.99 a month to steal your soul?

[mixtape-racha]

boyfriend!felix thoughts

in a felix brainrot after his insta stories with hyunjin icl | sfw and nsfw under the cut

warnings: mention of alcohol, sub!felix, use of "mommy", voyeurism, pussy eating // minors dni, 18+

sfw

boyfriend!felix who buys you a pandora bracelet for your first birthday/christmas as a couple, and then gets you a new charm for said bracelet every anniversary

boyfriend!felix who coordinates outfits with you for every event - even if its just similar colour schemes, or matching shoes, all the way down to identical outfits

boyfriend!felix who surprises you with holidays to australia - you thinking you'll be visiting his family - but really the two of you rent a camper-van and go on a roadtrip to visit all the places he wanted to when he was younger

boyfriend!felix who helps you prepare for presentations and gets a little too into character - coming into the living room in a cardigan and glasses with a clipboard, marking down everything you did right and anything he feels you could edit or work on (which he happily helps you do)

boyfriend!felix who makes a point to call or text you at every opportunity if you go out for the evening - checking in on where you are, who you're with, how much you've had to drink. he gets worried letting you head home alone from a bar, so is always on call to pick you up if you need it

boyfriend!felix who takes you to any concert he can - an artist you love, a small and upcoming artist you has free tickets to their first proper gig, anything. he loves the way you sing the songs to each other, or sway to the music like you're in your own world. he knows gigs are your favourite place, and is more than happy to indulge you

boyfriend!felix who adopts animals with you so often to the point that you have a collection of plushies and bracelets that you received for adopting sharks, penguins, polar bears, lions, etc.

boyfriend!felix who has a note in his phone of all his most important dates, so he could never, ever forget. the top ten all include you - from your first date, first kiss, the day he asked you to be his girlfriend, to the first time you stayed over at his, or the first time you wore his clothes

boyfriend!felix who's love language is making playlists and mixtapes. you can't even count the amount of spotify links or burned cd's you have courtesy of your lovely boyfriend. he truly has one for every occasion, and a cd for each year you've been together

boyfriend!felix who always, without fail, remembers your dog's birthday. you never have to remind him or hint, he just knows - he actually remembered it before he remembered your birthday, and always comes over equipped with treats and toys and a birthday cap and a doggy-safe cake

nsfw

boyfriend!felix who gets off on the idea of the boys watching you fuck him with his favourite purple dildo and making him show how much of a needy slut he really is in front of his closest friends

boyfriend!felix who spends hours between your thighs just mouthing at your pussy to the point where its so normal that you could be playing a hame on your phone while he's down there whining and mumbling to himself

boyfriend!felix who is a complete service top. he gets off on your bossing him around and telling him what to do - it makes him feel stupid in the best way and makes his head all fuzzy

boyfriend!felix who found out he was into cock-stepping when you accidentally knelt on his bulge while trying to climb over him in the sofa - if he jizzed in his pants when you did it again, no one had to know, right?

boyfriend!felix who has genuinely cum in his pants to your voice. you sent him a voice message while he was away on tour, and of course you were getting yourself off, but just the sounds you made and things you said made him cum without realising

boyfriend!felix who wants to be used as your personal sex toy. just tie him up and use him, honestly. he genuinely doesn't care if his needs are being met, just meet your own and trust him when he says he'll enjoy it

boyfriend!felix who sometimes gets so needy that he practically makes out with your pussy through your panties. no, don't bother removing them. they're already so wet and warm with your slick, whats the harm in keeping them on? and honestly its one of the best orgasms you've ever had

boyfriend!felix who has only dommed once in your relationship, but its was exhilarating for both of you. he had you cuffed to the bed frame with a blindfold on, and the hottest part was the way he described everything he was currently or going to do to you in the sexiest way possible

boyfriend!felix who no matter what positions you're in, holds you as tight as he can. he knows you get off on feeling every single muscle in his body working purely just to give you an orgasm/ the muscles in his arms as he holds you, the muscles in his abs as he thrusts, the muscles in his legs holding himself up, the muscles in his tongue as he wrestles with your own - god, its so hot

boyfriend!felix who fucks you in a hotel hot tub on your first vacation as husband and wife. its a rooftop hot tub that you stumbled across, and headed back to you a 2 in the morning when you knew it would be empty. it was risky, it was exciting, it was fantastic. and if thats where your eldest son was conceived, well... no one needs to know that, do they?

taglist: join taglists here @pretty-racha @chubbyanarkiss @taeriffic @mits-vi @chanssmiles @5kayzee @queen-klarissa @torixx80 @fawnpeaks @bangtanmix73 @savluvsmingi @boi-bi-ahaha @skz-streamer @demetrisscarf @4evrglow @demetrisscarf

[safety-pin-punk]

Punk 101: Burning CDs

People seemed to like my post about how I started burning CDs again, and @olyve-oyle requested that I make a ‘how to’ for people who like to have physical copies of their music, so, here you go!

Disclaimer: There are tons of ways to get music illegally. I’m not going to explain those here for legal reasons, but there are plenty of resources out there that describe how to get music off of youtube, spotify, and tidal. However, Im always going to suggest that you buy your music, if able.

Supplies:

CD-Rs (not CD-ROMs, CD-ROMs are read only disks and you cant save new data to them once they have been created)

CD-RW Drive on your computer (you can also buy one that connects to your computer or laptop since a lot of computers dont have one anymore) RW stands for Read/Write, its what lets you burn a CD

An application like itunes (free accounts are perfectly fine) Windows Media Player also works, but I personally use itunes

Optional but Suggested: Cases

Optional: Craft supplies to decorate cases

Step 1: Obtain Music

There are a couple legal ways to do this. 1. Buy a CD (I typically get mine from thrift stores or my Dad’s old collection to make my own playlists) 2. Buy specific songs you want online. These can all be uploaded to you computer or itunes account

Step 2: Create Your Playlist

Any playlist will work, but it’s important to know how long your CD-Rs burn for. Most typically burn for 90 minutes, so keep your playlist under that. Heres the one I used for this *Note I just threw random stuff together*:

Step 3: Burn To CD-R

Admittedly I only know how to do this on itunes, so heres images showing how, and the settings that I use when burning

Step 4: Decorate

I like to use craft paper and sharpies. Just don’t draw on the bottom of the disk

Step 5: Listen To Your New CD

Punk 101 Masterlist

[blorbo-adoption-poll]

Penny poll Bracket 2 Finals

Penny Lamb/Jane Doe (Legoland / Ride the Cyclone) vs

Penelope (The Odyssey)

Propaganda under the cut

Penny Lamb/Jane Doe (Legoland / Ride the Cyclone)

• Okay I am not the person to be propaganda making for her but she's so cool she died once and then came back she's also a bit uhh deranged is a good word

• Penny Lamb (and her younger brother Ezra) lived in a hippie weed growing commune until she was thirteen and snuck out to a walmart, eventually leading to the entire thing burning to the ground. Then they lived in a tiny town named Uranium City and she got relentlessly bullied and even set on fire until she was given a cd by another girl from a band called Seven Up. She formed a parasocial relationship with the singer, who then turned into a misogynistic rapper. She travelled from northern Saskatchewan to Florida to meet him and thank him for basically making her life tolerable and enjoyable, and then ended up tearing a chunk of flesh out of his face with her teeth all at the age of 15 years old. Two years later after a concert with her school choir, she was beheaded on a fair rollercoaster called the Cyclone, becoming a Jane Doe until she was voted back to life. While she was Jane Doe, she wore the head of a porcelain doll as to not freak the other kids out!

• she was born a hippie, she bites and maims a famous rapper with hot coffee, she has a little brother obsessed with german philosophy, she plays the ukulele, she has a fuck ass bob. she gets fucking DECAPITATED by a roller coaster but survives because she is so offputting. what else do you need in a woman

• Where do I START with Penny. Basically she grew up socially isolated on a community pot farm until the age of 13, where she and her brother ran away to Walmart and started pretending to revive him from seizures because of how much attention she got. She was eventually driven back home where the entire community was drug busted burned to the ground, their parents being arrested, friends taken away, entire home destroyed. Instead of being sent to foster care, she’s and her brother are sent to a catholic boarding school, where they live mostly unsupervised. Penny is relentlessly bullied for supposedly being a lesbian, and diagnosed as bipolar and manic depressive while her brother (three years younger than her) sells his adhd medication to college kids to make ends meet. Soon after having her backpack lit on fire by bullies, she starts to fall into a deep depressive episode, not coming out of her room for days, until a catholic girl takes pity on her, and gives her a hiphop/boyband CD for her to listen to called 7-up (important later). Penny obsessed on the lead singer Johnny moon to an unhealthy degree until the band breaks up and Johnny rebrands to JK47, a misogynist gangster rapper who penny can’t stand. Penny and her brother run away from middle of knowwhere Canada to Florida to meet him so penny can win him back and remind him of how much she loves him and how cool he used to be. This doesn’t go well, as he doesn’t drop his gangster persona, calling her the same insult all her previous bullies did, leading to her throwing hot coffee on him, tearing a chunk off flesh out of his face with her teeth, and subsequently being arrested and later out on probation. Penny ALSO gets her own movie (in the play) and tells the audience this very story in a presentation with goofy puppets. Penny’s story is funny and absurd but at the same time incredibly tragic and heartbreaking. She also appears in ride the cyclone where she’s revealed to be the identity of Jane Doe (who had her head cut off before she was found dead in the rollercoaster accident with the other choir kids and was therefor never identified)

• she is a femamist lesbian and I am in love with her

• She's known as Jane Doe throughout the musical because she doesn't know who she is in death, her head is a doll's head because she lost her real one in the rollercoaster disaster that killed all the characters, she's the one who wins the prize of coming back from death which is when we learn her true name Penny. Her song is absolutely *beautiful* (The Ballad of Jane Doe) and she is the Penny of all time because I love her

• Girlie already lost her head we can’t take her victory too :(

Penelope (The Odyssey)

• She waited about 20 years for her husband to come home she used her huge brain to keep the suitors away for ages I just think she's neat

• She is LOYAL. She is SMART. She is HARDWORKING. She waited for TWENTY YEARS. Penelope is a QUEEN (literally). PENELOPE SWEEP

[sisterspooky1013]

Gaslight: You Send Me

Rated X | Read it here on AO3

Note: when I started writing this story, I knew that Scully was going to have a memory of Mulder that would come to her in a dream, tipping her off to the fact that there was someone important she knew before her accident but couldn’t remember. I needed to be able to “see” this dream/memory, so it’s the first thing I wrote. I figure I may as well post it, so here is that memory you’ve seen glimpses of in full.

Scully plunges her hands back under the hot, soapy water and sighs. Her belly is full of good food and good wine, her heart full of hope and the promise of something exciting and new. She runs a scrub brush around the perimeter of a pan and then lifts it out to rinse it with fresh water before setting it on the drying rack beside the sink.

She smiles to herself at the adolescent buzz in her bones, the expectant tightening in her stomach. She’d forgotten how it feels in the beginning: sickly sweet and terrifying, the best kind of fear. From that first tentative kiss it’s only gotten better with each passing day, and she’s found herself almost embarrassed by the way her belly tumbles when he catches her eye across his desk and holds it for just a beat longer than necessary.

Even the invitation for this evening, dinner at his apartment, felt loaded and thrilling. They’ve kissed dozens of times, made out until her chin burned from his stubble, and, most recently, his hand found its way under her shirt. Not since she was sixteen and still a virgin has a boy feeling her up over her bra been so incredibly arousing that she touched herself later just thinking about it. But it’s not a boy, it’s a man. Mulder. Her Mulder. Her partner, now something more.

He’s in the living room fighting with the CD player. The selection of decidedly romantic albums he’d pre-loaded into the eight-disc changer had been abruptly interrupted by the Beastie Boys during their meal, making him blush and her laugh, and he is now presumably ensuring that they don’t suffer any such interruption during whatever he has planned for the rest of the evening.

She feels a rush of heat to her pelvis at the thought.

She’s ready. More than ready, beyond ready. She’s wanted him for so long, she can’t quite decide if this feels more like an ending or a beginning. Perhaps that’s not his intention for the night at all—he seems to be set on taking things slow. But seven years is slow enough, in her mind, and if he doesn’t make the move to activities beyond necking like teenagers, she will.

She hears the CD player click and whir, and the slow wail of soul music floats into the kitchen.

Darling you send me. I know you send me. Darling you send me, honest you do.

She sways her hips gently to the music, running her hands over the bottom of the sink to find forks and knives. She doesn’t hear Mulder enter the kitchen, but suddenly he is standing right behind her, his hands resting on her hips. Her heart leaps, and she forces herself to lean into him rather than stiffen and pull away. Seven years of habits die hard. He moves with her, threading his arms around her waist. His body feels warm and firm against her back, solid as a rock. He is her rock, her safe place, her one reliable thing in a world that’s always changing before her very eyes.

Mulder removes his arms from her waist and wraps his hands around her forearms, sliding them down and under the water until his fingers are interlaced with hers. She lets go of the butter knife she’d been scrubbing and he lifts their joined hands out of the water, crossing both their arms around the front of her body as he walks them two steps back into the middle of the kitchen. Dishwater runs down her elbows, but it somehow feels romantic rather than obnoxious.

Letting go of one of her hands, he twirls her around to face him, then pulls her body flush to his. His free hand finds her waist, and hers his shoulder, and they begin a slow dance. She glances up at him, feeling both charmed and foolish, and sees him smiling down at her with that familiar impish one-sided quirk on his mouth. Her heart swells and she looks away, resting her cheek on his chest. She closes her eyes and breathes him in: the orange-vanilla musk of his deodorant, the warmth of his skin through his T-shirt. His heart pounds urgently against her ear and she smiles, relieved to know that he is also at least a little bit nervous.

He presses his lips to the crown of her head and then holds them there, singing along to the music as his voice vibrates in his chest and his breath tickles her scalp.

At first I thought it was infatuation, but ooooo it’s lasted so long. Now I find myself wanting to marry you and take you home.

A flash flood of every emotion shocks through her veins, heightening her senses. Fear, excitement, arousal, love. Of course she loves him, and she hopes he knows even though she’s never been brave enough to tell him. She hopes he can feel it, as intuitive as he is.

He drops her hand, touching her chin with his still-damp index finger until she looks up at him. His pupils are bottomless pits, his mouth slightly parted. This way he’s been looking at her, not bothering to hide his wanting, is as potent as a drug. She rises up, using posture and tiptoes to bring her mouth close enough to kiss. And he does, again and again. Sucking at her lower lip, cupping her bottom eagerly in his palms, arching his pelvis into her so she can feel him stiffening.

They walk clumsily to his bedroom, kissing all the way. She tugs at the hem of his shirt until he removes it, then touches the button on his jeans. He hums, deep and throaty, and she suddenly becomes aware of how wet she is. She can’t wait for him to discover her, to see just how much she wants this. She pulls off her own shirt, unclasps her bra, and his mouth is wrapped around her nipple by the time her bare back hits his bedsheets.

He takes off her pants, looking up at her as he tugs them off her hips, and she can feel her own heartbeat between her legs. His thorough inspection of her panties with his eyes, and then his hands, and then his lips, is agonizing and perfect. He’s so deliberate, so thorough, as he is with all things. She can’t bring herself to rush him, as much as she wants to, but when he drags her panties down her legs, bunching up the damp fabric in his hand and licking his lips as his eyes rake over her vulva, she sits up and reaches for him.

“I want you,” she confesses shyly, feeling his abdominal muscles twitch against her fingers as she pops the button on his jeans.

There is a flash of regret on his face, but it’s short lived—there will be time for that later. She pushes her hand under his boxers and squeezes him firmly, enamored with the way his entire body slackens in response.

He stands at the foot of the bed, she sitting on the edge with her open legs bracketing his, and pushes his jeans and boxers down to his knees. She leers at him, openly gawks as she runs her comparatively tiny hand over the thick length of him, and then looks up with a coy smile. He laughs nervously, running his fingers through her hair and cradling the base of her skull in his palm.

“You’re so beautiful,” he says reverently, and now it is she who laughs.

“Right this second?” she asks, flashing her eyes to his stiff cock hovering inches below her chin.

“Always,” he says with a sigh. “Though I will admit that I’m partial to this view, yes.”

She blinks languidly, considering taking him in her mouth, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair.

“Lie down,” she directs him instead, and he does.

She drapes her body over his, their bare skin hot and electric as she wriggles up until his shaft is nestled in the valley of her thighs. She rocks her hips gently forward and back as he cranes his neck up to kiss her, humming and sighing. She’s so wet, and they’re so ready, he finds his way inside her without the use of their hands. She pauses to acclimate to the sweet, stinging stretch of him, taking minutes to kiss between each added inch until she sits fully impaled in his lap.

Mulder sits up, cradling her face in his hands and kissing her firmly, urgently, as her hips begin to flex.

“Fuck, Scully. I love you,” he groans, and she feels herself rise up to meet him.

“Mulder,” she whimpers against his mouth, a plea and a proclamation and a confession all at once.

She kisses him back, just as urgently, just as firmly. Her lips feel swollen and bruised, and her fingers dig into his neck as her hips snap, grinding her clit against him on each thrust. It’s frenzied, but still somehow feels so romantic she could cry. Because he loves her, and she wants this so, so much, and she never thought it was possible for them.

“I’m gonna come,” she whispers, and he places one of his hands on the bed for stability as she unravels around him, their open mouths held against one another.

He gasps and arches up into her, and she can feel him, hot and forceful. They continue to rock against one another until the height of intensity has passed, and then Mulder slowly reclines back onto the bed, taking her with him.

She rests her cheek on his sweat damp chest, her heart rate slowing steadily. She notices the music again, the same song that must be playing on repeat.

You thrill me. I know you, you, you thrill me. You thrill me, honest you do. At first I thought it was infatuation, but oooo it’s lasted so long. Now I find myself wanting to marry you and take you home.

She lifts her head, propping her chin on his sternum, and finds him looking at her. He smiles at her and she smiles back, then crawls up his body until he slips out of her. She kisses him once, twice, three times, then tucks her face into the crook of his neck.

“I love you too,” she says softly, her heart hammering again.

She feels his smile widen by the way his cheek presses into her nose. His hands rub wide circles on her back, and a wash of contentment overcomes her.

You send me. I know you send me. You send me, honest you do.

Tagging @today-in-fic

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

Comte Drama CD Translations, Track Five: A Night of Great Love

I'm not a professional yada yada yada, these are just my rough transcriptions of each track in the CD because I need fodder for my simping. More beneath the cut as usual. Also just a heads-up, this one's got spoice so it will be slightly nsfw (nothing too explicit but like, it's there).

The title says it all for this one (did I go soft? maybe a little bit don't look at me). Here we go!

Comte: We’re finally alone.  [KISS SOUND] Now you’re all mine…for putting up with it…I’d like you to praise me for not touching you until we got back to our room. From now on I’ll be doing away with the gentleman’s facade…and I’ll spoil you rotten. …I won’t hide it anymore. My feelings for you, my love, my instincts as a man…

What a way to start this track out like thanks I'm already inches from having my way with him, sweet words be damned.

"Praise me for not touching you until we got back to our room." DISAGREE YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN GROPING--

Mn [KISSES]…come now…say it. I told you long before what my name was… …That’s right. Good girl. My name, Abel, means void/emptiness… When my eternal life was at its most unbearable, I wondered at what an ironic name it was.  But now, when you say my name…I get the strangest feeling, one I’ve never felt before. At the very least, it feels more important/meaningful than before.

It seemed out of the question that I could ever love my name. …You changed everything. Not just my name. The meaning of the word eternity and future, and the joy of loving someone…you’ve taught me all the happiness of being loved. …So you must accept mine in return. Accept what? Of course…my love-- -----

These are all things that were revealed in the main story route, so nothing really new here. Love the good girl bit tho and 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺😭 "You've taught me all the happiness of being loved." AND I WILL FOREVER MUAH MUAH ABEL

(KISS SOUND) Tonight I intend to make you call my name until your voice is hoarse/wretched… (MORE KISSES) About vampires…no, I’ll teach you all about men. (why not BOTH--) I’ll teach you every pleasure you don’t know. There’s no need for fear, all you have to do is leave everything to me. Haah (KISSES MANY OF THEM)…everywhere I touch you, you react so sweetly… Sweet, gorgeous, and dense like a noble flower…it makes me want to steal you for my own right away…

Love that my only protest to all of this is "who says you're the only one gonna be doing any touching" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I waited nearly three years for you Abel don't try me rn

Also I know that last line is a bit strange, but that's about as much as I could decipher--it was one of those trickier lines that seemed to have a kind of metaphorical/idiomatic element to it. I think it might be speaking to the larger metaphor in Ikevamp of humans being like flowers who either wither or are eternally preserved basically, not unlike her wedding gift to him.

If I were to bite you here and now…in exchange for that momentary pain, you would know unimaginable pleasure. …What’s with that expectant gaze? Are you testing me? …What a naughty woman you are, to stir up a vampire--and a pureblood, no less. Are you…sure you’re ready for an endless life and endless pleasure? …Mn…haah (KISSES) …It’s all right. I don’t really want to bite you. …I just wanted to give you a little lesson on how dangerous it can be to toy with a vampire.

Respectfully MC is a stronger woman than me, if he pulled this shit on me I'd be a vamp tomorrow, we are not the same. Although in fairness I do appreciate that he respects her hesitation

(KISSES) Mn…ah…that was such…a cute sound you just made… Every time we kiss, you just get rosier and sweeter…Seriously, how far do you plan to test my limits before you’re satisfied? I’m burning up…I want to make love to you, be so deep inside you (and melt away)… Mn (KISSES)…ha…ah, the sweet scent is getting stronger… If we go on like this, I’m not sure I can play around much longer…I feel like I’m losing my mind. …You shouldn’t let a foolish man like me take advantage of you any further. For now, I’ll accept just this much.

Okay but like. Can we talk about that last line in the former bit and the first one in this bit because. MC do we have a kink for Comte being a little dark and sexy vampire hours? Because YEET SAME AAAAAAAAAAA

Consider me well and seduced, v hot for me 👀💅🏼 Although asjkhldgldsjhg this highkey makes me want to tease him so badly, he just seems so reactive

That last line I think was supposed to be an extension of the self-deprecation from the last track, and tbh it made me v sad :< don't fret Comte, I'm here because I wanna be ;-; nothing wrong with being a little needy

…I want you…I really want you…I mean it. …Touch me, and see for yourself. …You know what I mean, don’t you? My heart is racing, desperate for you. Unable to resist every flagrant urge, I take the woman I love… The more I touch your smooth skin, the more difficult it becomes to resist that pleasure… That’s why it’s so hard for me to hold back. 

Like. If I try to describe how this makes me feel all I'm gonna do is bark, so I'm just gonna spare y'all that--

Also dying at that bit where he goes "touch me and see for yourself" because. Come on. We all know what we were thinking. And he was like "See? My heart's racing" I BET IT IS, COMTE. I BET. IT. IS. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

So now…mn…ahhh…haah… (I cannot convey to you the overwhelming eroticism of this voiced **cough** moaned **cough** line. It must be heard to be known and felt. --R.I.P Minnie, 2023) Instead of biting you, I’ll leave a sign of my desire here on your neck. …When we became lovers, you told me that you didn’t mind being beside me, even if I was hesitant. Trying to choose the right future, worrying until the last minute. Because if I do bite you, sink my fangs into this delicate flesh and grant you lifetimes…it’s something that only takes an instant. The moment I make up my mind, I can turn you right here and right now. To be with the woman I love whom I found in eternity, and to make her eternal with me…there is no sweeter temptation for me. But right now…I want to forget about the flow of eternity and indulge in happiness with you. …This time, let me give you a gentle kiss. (KISS) Mn…Even if I can suppress the bloodlust, I can’t hold back my love for you any longer. Tonight, I want to know every part of you more deeply than ever… I want to be deep inside you…I want us to seek each other and to make you mine. (GET IT TIGER) The night is still long. I’ll give you as much as you want, so that you don’t even have a moment to breathe.

More barking, also -> "To be with the woman I love whom I found in eternity, and to make her eternal with me…there is no sweeter temptation for me." this is what hope looks like. I'm gonna tell my kids this was the twilight saga KIDDING but fr 🙏🏼 my hopes and dreams epitomized.

[captainofthedauntless]

Hello!! I just wanna say first I love your work and your doing amazing and if possible I'd like a to request something.

It's my birthday today, and I was wondering if you could write the bayverse tmnt boys and how they would celebrate your birthday or their birthday's if that's ok? I love you and have a great day👋

Hi lovely! Happy Birthday :] I hope it's still the right day LMAO

(Thank you BTW! You are so kind and that means a lot.)

Post-movies HCs below!

I think they all go a little apeshit for birthdays TBH. They are very aware of mortality, risking their asses all the time, and love any excuse to celebrate life.

(Since you didn't specify romantic or platonic, I'll try to do a bit of both! I think the guys would make an effort to know their brothers' partners anyway, so if you're with one they're probably all excited to celebrate with you LMAO)

Don's a sweetheart, okay? Like, to his core. He's sweet and thoughtful and caring, so if you're important to him then it's important to him that he do everything he can to make your big day as special as possible.

This guy totally keeps a list of all the things his loved ones mention through the year that might make good gifts. Things you need fixed, things you need replaced, stuff you want to do- he writes it all down (literally or mentally, I'm not sure). So when your birthday comes around, he's got ideas ready and waiting!

The remote for your TV that only works if it's held at a Very Specific Angle, with a muttered prayer and a sacrifice of chicken nuggets? Replaced, and it probably controls your lights now, too.

You mentioned your computer running slow? He gives you a very professional looking purple coupon for one free computer cleaning, courtesy of DuzMachines LLC, signed by the CEO himself, Donnie Tello. (He looks way too amused by it, honestly.)

Or your hidden passion for table tennis that you only brought up off-handedly six months prior? Well, you better be ready to stretch your wrists, because he assembled a table for it and found a net and paddles and he and Mikey have been practicing to kick your ass.

If you guys are dating, he makes absolutely sure that he gets some solo time with you, away from his family. He leaves all of his tech in the lair (except for his phone and an Absolute Emergency Only panic button, because he's been doing this "save the city" thing long enough to know that if he actually goes off without a way for his brothers to get a hold of him, he'll come back to something on fire or someone bleeding or some sort of bomb going off in Central Park) and takes you for a nice drive. You guys go out in the middle of the night when the traffic is as easy as it'll ever get, and he puts you on DJ duty, and you spend a couple hours just driving around and enjoying each other's company until you end up parked in a quiet spot and he's pulling out a cooler bag of your favorite dessert to share with you.

He stutters a little, but he tells you how much he loves you. How happy you make him. How grateful he is to get to be yours. He kisses you so sweetly that it's even better than the dessert, and when you finally break apart you're smiling and he looks absolutely lovestruck.

"I mean it, you know that?" he says softly, cupping your cheek is his hand and squeezing ever so gently. "I love you."

Leo is micro managing the shit out of his family. Every inch of the lair will be cleaned and prepped for celebrating, okay? If he sees a single pizza box out of place he will be a bitch about it.

He really, really wants to have everything perfect for you.

He's really big on meaningful gifts. He works with April to get you a nice copy of one of his favorite books and writes a heartfelt little note on the first page, wishing you a happy birthday.

Or maybe he's painstakingly curating the perfect playlist of songs that make him think of you and burning them onto a CD, writing your name on the front in that perfect handwriting of his that makes it look like he cares about each letter.

He's the one coordinating all of Mikey's big plans for your big day, too. Leo makes sure everyone's at the lair and settled on time, makes sure that every gift is accounted for and wrapped, makes sure that you know exactly what to expect so you're fully prepared when you walk in to a very happy (read: loud) family gathering.

If you're dating, it's even worse. Everything gets double and triple checked. He makes himself and everyone else a little insane.

And then you come in and grin at him and suddenly the mismatched wrapping paper and clashing bows are more charming and homey than they are frustrating.

Leo makes absolute certain that he gets you alone at the end of the night. It looks like a really natural transition to you, but you know from the big fake yawn Mikey puts on that he isn't nearly as tired as he claims- and knowing your boyfriend, you suspect he had a hand in the comfortable privacy the two of you find yourselves in.

You almost call him out on it, but he's looking at you with so much love it makes your heart ache a little, so you decide to skip the teasing. (For now.)

He gave you a gift with the rest of the group, sure, but now he digs out a cute little box. When you open it, there's a bracelet in just the right metal to contrast gorgeously with your skin, lovingly shaped and formed and perfect.

He's nervous, but it only takes you looking up at him and going "Oh, Leonardo," for him to smile at you again.

"I'm happy to make adjustments to it, if you want."

"If you think I'm letting this out of my sight long enough for that, you are spectacularly incorrect."

He chuckles, and he helps you put it on, and he presses a kiss to your forehead so tenderly you think you may melt right into the floor.

He immediately gives in to you tugging him down to kiss his lips, too.

Obviously, Mikey has exactly zero chill. He goes a lot apeshit. We're talkin' hand-painted banner with your name that goes across the entire living area, a table cloth in your favorite color, every single game and activity you have ever mentioned enjoying all stacked up nice and neat so you can pick whatever you want. You want to play Twister? You bet, baby- he'll even go easy on you. More of a Charades person? He's rounding up the whole crew to play, and Splinter is damn good at it. Mario Kart? You get first dibs on characters and cars. (He will not go easy on you, though. He has a reputation to protect, birthday or not.)

Do not get me started on food.

This guy goes ham. April gets a novel-length shopping list, with your favorite snacks and all the ingredients for your favorite meal and your favorite dessert and he's making mixed drinks that have edible glitter in them. Booze optional- he's a mocktail master, alright?

Leo happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Mikey does a test run of your meal. Leo proceeds to be stuck because Mike needs a taste tester, and "C'mon, Leo, it's gotta be perfect!", and "No no, just one more tweak, 'kay? Then you're free to go be boring."

(It was not just one more tweak.)

Now, if you're more lowkey, he tries- really really really tries- to keep it chill for you. He does. But he doesn't know how not to do a little something, so you're still getting some Chef Mikey action. Sorry.

If you're dating? Hooooo boy. You are getting smothered in as much affection as you can stand- and he's pretty good at gauging that, so it's only good vibes here. No overload from Mikey, not on your big day! But if you're receptive, you're getting texts right at midnight (despite him being on patrol, BTW) full to the point of bursting with emojis. He follows that up with good morning texts when he gets up. Then it's you coming down to the lair and celebrating and eventually, when things start to slow down a bit, he tugs you away to a secluded corner of their home for cute smooches and big hugs and "Happy birthday, Angel."

("You have a good day?" he asks, eyes big and hopeful and sweet, and when you say yes he scoops you up and spins you just to hear you giggle.)

Raph is actually the only one of the four with any kind of chill- mostly because he is terrified of ruining your day. Birthdays are a huge deal to him, and if he screwed up yours he would legitimately feel guilty until the day he died.

So he keeps it pretty simple. He's a crafty guy, so he might carve you a little wooden decoration for your place, or make you a bowl out of clay, or knit you a big blanket in your favorite color. It's thoughtful, it's either useful or gorgeous, and it's easy for you to carry home.

He's the one that keeps Mikey in check- tries to keep some of the bigger, crazier schemes in line, but he does it without raining on Mike's parade.

And if anybody catches an attitude on your big day? They have this guy to deal with. He takes zero shit. Seriously, Leo's getting bitchy? He gets one (1) warning look. Vern turns up and does anything even remotely annoying? Raph's behind you, silently threatening anything and everything Vern holds dear. Mikey gets too noisy? Raph's bumping his shoulder and having some silent sibling communication. It's all so subtle it's almost off-brand, but it's his way of making sure you have a good day. He's protective!

And if you're dating? Please.

He's doing whatever you want. You need a massage? You're hungry? Tired? Like two degrees too cold? He's got you.

You're having the perfect day if he has to cut his own arm off to make it happen, okay?

He's perceptive, too, so you probably don't have to ask for much.

The gang tries to sing and you look a little uncomfortable? "Happy Birthday to you, blah blah, cake time." And he's winking at you and passing you the cake cutter and it's so no-bullshit that everyone takes the hint but it makes him the center of attention long enough for you to relax again.

(And if you're not a cake person, he totally has Mikey organize another treat, just for you. He helps Mike in the kitchen, too. That shit is made with so much love.)

The night ends with the cuddles of your life. He gets kinda quiet, and it's easy to think he's just tired, but you look over at him and he's staring at you and he looks like you're built out of stardust.

"Shit," he mutters, nuzzling into you and hiding his face in the process. "Love you."

[sage-nebula]

When someone tries to downplay how important Sonic and Tails* are to each other I just . . . on the one hand, I can understand it depending on what Sonic media they grew up on. Shows like Sonic Underground or SatAM (and likely the comics that spawned from SatAM), or even more game-accurate ones like Sonic X, were shows where Tails' importance was greatly watered down, or Tails wasn't present at all. Even in the "dark era" 3D games, the cast was often too robust to focus on Sonic and Tails' relationship. If these shows, games, and comics were someone's first exposure to the series, I can kind of understand thinking that Sonic and Tails don't really have THAT close of a relationship.

But just because it can be understandable . . . doesn't really make it right lol, especially if you look at other things surrounding the "dark era" and the current iteration of the characters.

SatAM shoved Tails to the side, but AoStH had him as a main character Sonic would let the world burn for, and the OVA had him as an important character, too. 8bit Sonic 2 is all about Sonic collecting the Chaos Emeralds as ransom for Tails's safety, and the second scene in Sonic's story in SA1 has him bolting to Tails's side after a plane crash. In both Colors and Lost World, Tails was used against Sonic by their enemies; in the second movie, Sonic panics when Tails is injured and switches rapidly between begging Tails to wake up and yelling at the G.U.N. soldiers to get medical attention. In the IDW comics, Sonic yells at Silver to release him so he can make sure Tails is okay after a crash, and Tails protects Sonic from Kit and Surge more than the other way around. Oh, and lest we forget, the Chaos Emeralds gave Sonic a vision of West Side Island to make him go there in Origins (and the Sonic CD ending implies Amy also predicted this meeting with her fortune cards), and Ian Flynn has said, "Sonic needs Tails, and that's just a cosmic truth."

So I don't know, man. I can understand if you grew up on media that downplayed their bond that you don't care about it as much, or maybe you don't like Tails very much so you have trouble seeing how important he is to Sonic's story. But it always kind of just boggles my mind a little bit, when people downplay it. And saddens me, too, because it's one of the few actual examples of a platonic love story in media, and I love that. We don't have nearly enough platonic love stories in media.

But those are just my midnight musings. It's sleep time now 😴

(*I seriously mean how important they BOTH are to EACH OTHER. Sonic needs Tails every bit as much as Tails needs Sonic. They each have their own hobbies and their own individual relationships with others in the cast, but they're each other's family and best friend and they mutually benefit from their relationship the same amount. "Tails idolizes Sonic while Sonic just sees Tails as another friend" just isn't true on either side. Tails hasn't idolized Sonic for years and years; the only characters who still mistakenly think he does are the villains, and Tails HIMSELF says in Frontiers that he KNOWS Sonic isn't perfect. In that same game, Sonic expresses how weird it feels not having Tails with him and shows hesitation over letting Tails go solo that he quickly tries to cover so he can support Tails instead, because he knows this is important. Additionally, in the IDW comics, when Sonic's feeling antsy before the showdown at Angel Island, he flat out says that the one person he wants to be with when feeling that way is his wingman: Tails. Theirs is a mutually beneficial partnership. Tails deserves to have that recognized. He's earned it.)

[buckybarnesss]

on fire: a teen wolf novel chapters 10-13 chapters 7-9 here chapters 4-6 here chapters 1-3 here

after a little break i am back with a new installment i'm doing 4 chapters today because this book only has 19 chapters.

once again: kate argent is her own warning.. there's an entire flashback chapter of her and derek when he was a teenager. she explicitly grooms him.

Our intrepid heroes are still in the goddamn woods. We shall never leave. Allison is cold and so Scott snuggles with her to share body heat. Classic trope but I have read many missing persons cases. Hypothermia can happen even when you don’t think it can. 

And we have yet another example of Derek being characterized as kind of a dick. He and Stiles find a campfire as Derek tries to track the scent of the Alpha and/or locate Scott. Stiles is just having a bad time as he’s winded from trying to keep up with Derek. Derek leaves him there. I reject this. No. Derek never left Stiles anywhere like this. Especially not with danger afoot. It very much stands in contrast to Wolf’s Bane when Derek crawls over broken glass and fights Peter, distracting him from Stiles.

The Queen has finally arrived. We finally get some Lydia narration. She also comes with Danny and some random dude Damon. 

It had been kind of annoying Danny hasn’t been involved that much considering he is Jackson’s best friend.

Have I mentioned that I don’t particularly care for how Danny is handled in this book? First you have Stiles assuming they should send Danny to the pay-by-the-hour motel because he’s gay and now Lydia’s narration is stereotyping the poor guy. “Dark-haired, with that cool Hawaiian vibe he had.” Danny was right to leave y'all.

Danny says he doesn’t have Lydia’s phone number which I sincerely doubt. 

I want to throw hands with this line “He gave her a completely non-sexual once over.” It’s giving gay-best friend trope vibes which to be fair was at its height in the 2010s and let’s face it this is how Lydia was often written pre-character development (and even after). Especially in the Sterek fandom. Don’t y’all try to tell me otherwise. I was there, Gandalf. 

There is this little section of Lydia’s I think deserves some commentary. The way this book has a subplot for Allison and Scott revolving around how they want to sleep together and the way Jackson and Lydia think of their relationship, especially their sexual relationship is interesting. Now, I’m no pearl clutching Puritan on this subject but the way that sex is handled in this narrative strikes me as too adult for their age. But this passage makes me change my perspective a little. These are kids acting too adult because they feel pressured in other areas of their lives to be adults without the experience and emotional capacity to do so. That fits in with Teen Wolf’s narrative. 

“Are you going through his stuff?” Danny queried, and she have him her best patronizing look, “Please,” She said, “You must know that I have a drawer here.” Damon looked even more impressed. Very few teenagers could claim the very adult perk of having a drawer containing their belongings at their boy -- or girlfriend’s house. Not that many teenagers had the need. It spoke of changing clothes, spending the night. Adult stuff.  Sex.”

Jackson’s computer wallpaper is Lydia which is sweet but then she says she picked it out herself which is less sweet. 

Jackson’s computer password is fucking Captain. You deserve to be hacked, Jackson.

Now Lydia brought Danny and his hanger on Damon from her house to Jackson’s because they’re looking for a CD Jackson apparently burned for Damon to use to DJ for a party. The 2010s of it all came out and kneed me in the solar plexus. Even Lydia was wondering why Jackson didn’t just make a shared playlist. But she searches through Jackson’s stuff stalling a little so she can snoop. This is all important because we finally get to the actual plot of why Jackson was lured away and missing in the first place. People want to rob the Whittermore’s while they’re out of town. Jackson at this point is still being held at gunpoint over in the preserve. 

The would be robbers -- henceforth referred to as Thing One and Thing Two -- assault Lydia and threaten her demanding to know if there are other people in the house. Lydia truly gets a raw deal no matter what.

Meanwhile, Derek’s left Stiles and is trying to follow the scene of the Alpha. He uses the word “shedding” to refer to how he left Stiles. I cannot impress enough how he would not fucking say that.

Derek’s out of luck though because the scent he comes across is old. He is at the place he found Laura’s body where he has a Moment of Anger before he moves on he picks up on Jackson’s scent. He recalls how he dug his claws into Jackson back in Magic Bullet and feels a tiny bit bad. He finds a half burned article about Jackson and does what I deem a Derek thing to do and that’s pocket it because he’s “keeping tabs on Jackson”. It’s stalking, Derek.

Narration switches back to Stiles and of course he gets weird quickly and Stiles what the fuck? Stiles doing something like this during the later seasons wouldn’t be out of the norm. He’s paranoid, hyper vigilant and suspicious at that point but here? Season 1? Stalker.

“He had tried calling Scott a couple more times, then Allison, then Lydia. He’d had her phone in his possession when he deleted the picture she’d accidentally taken of the Alpha. Of course he’d also inputted her number into his own phone; how stalkerish was that?”

Derek reappears and scares Stiles. Stiles observes “He was kind of sweaty, and he looked glummer than usual.” Stiles refuses to be normal about Derek. 

They have a little tiff except it’s them being worried about the same thing but in opposite directions. 

“Stiles crossed his arms and hunched over, shivering and trying to make himself inconspicuous, in cast the Alpha spotted Derek and decided to attack him. But Derek was a Beta werewolf too, like Scott. Why wasn’t he part of the Alpha’s pack? Maybe he is. Maybe he just hasn’t told us, he thought. “Or maybe it’s some kind of trap,” Derek said, “Something the Argents cooked up.” “You mean that Allison’s in on it?” Stiles asked, sounding incredulous.  Derek slid a glance at him. “Why do you sound so surprised? You know what the Argents are. What they do.``

And so we have arrived. The part of this book I remember the most. The Derek Hale Flashbacks. We go six years into the past. 

This is definitely where the idea of Kate Argent working at Beacon Hills High comes from and it makes a lot of sense. It even works even better given the context of season 2 where the Argents actually infiltrate the school as a tactic. 

Holder puts Derek on the swim team which is funny in retrospect because of how the swim team is important to the story of season 2 but Derek is established in season 3 as having been on the basketball team like Peter.

Holder also does a little world building on werewolf customs and pack dynamics here which the show lacks in detail. The way Holder does it is far more patriarchal than what the Hales actually are in the show. There’s a focus on Derek’s father (unnamed even here), the contest/rivalry between him and his cousin Josh, entrance into manhood and Uncle Peter. 

I am still deeply amused by Holder making the Beast of Gevaudan an ancestor of the Hales when the show took the route of making it far more deeply connected to the Argents.

The deepest of sighs at this : “Unlike Laura, who was popular, he didn’t have any human friends, and he didn’t want any.” I just have the hardest time with isolationist, anti-human Derek. Season 3 Derek called and told Book Derek to fuck himself. Derek had a posse of generic human friends.

Kate preys on Derek while she fills in for the main coach as he’s on paternity leave. Also Kate’s up here just brassily using her actual name.

Like Derek’s about 16 here so I can easily buy him noticing a pretty young woman in close proximity to him but Holder does a good job in making it clear that while Derek’s attracted to Kate superficially her interest in him makes him uncomfortable. Derek’s narration says things like “Flustered, even a little frightened.” and “He practically ran out of the school, looking over his shoulder.”

Holder then parallels Scott and Allison once more which is a, um, choice by describing Kate’s hair in the moonlight and Derek almost wolfing out. 

Apparently Laura and Derek shared a Subaru Forester. Which Hale lesbian bought this?

Now up until this point I’ve mostly avoided talking about Laura and her presence in this book because I was saving it for this scene. Laura Hale is a ghost in the narrative in the show. She’s seen maybe three different times outside of being a corpse. She’s never actually named in any of those short appearances and no one talks about her. Here she’s mentioned several times by Scott, Stiles and Derek. Plus now she’s shown in Derek’s flashbacks. I don’t like her all that much here and I think this might be where some of Laura’s fanon characterization comes from. 

Anyway, Derek and Laura are at a diner together eating hamburgers. Derek drinks Diet Coke. Look, I don’t see him as a Diet Coke drinker but that’s not the point here. Derek mentions Kate and how he thinks she’s so beautiful. Laura has this moment where she seems concerned:

“Is this...woman a student?” Laura asked. “No. She’s the new lifeguard. Ms. Argent.” Mr. Braswell’s replacement.” “School lifeguard?” she said, looking mildly shocked. “A teacher?”

After this though Laura’s characterization takes a nosedive. She refers to Kate as a slut when at this point in time Kate hasn’t really done anything necessarily wrong. Derek only really tells Laura of thinking she’s pretty. Laura’s never even met her.

She goes on to tease Derek about his crush -- the word mateable is used 🤮 -- and Derek shuts down. “Suddenly, he didn’t feel like talking to her about it anymore.”

I hate it here.

The next scene is another flashback I recall vividly. Melissa and baby Scott being abused by Mr. McCall. This fuckface trying to convince Scott that his asthma attack isn’t real and it’s all in his head. I want this man to die. Interesting that later when Rafael McCall is introduced he’s still The Worst.

Catch these hands. “Scott didn’t want him to yell at his mom because Scott had asthma. It wasn’t her fault. It was his, Scott’s.” 

If Melissa McCall had killed him no would have charged her. 

Back in the present we return to Scott and Allison. They’re still cuddling but realize they’re supposed to be looking for Allison’s keys. Her phone rings and they have a mishap which sends Allison down the incline. She takes him with her.

They recover but Allison has now lost her keys and phone. Bad day all around for Ally A.

Scott finds Allison’s phone using his wolf powers but he can’t let her know that so they use his phone to call hers. 

Her ringtone for him is apparently a band called Kids of 88. I had never heard of them so after a quick search their biggest hit was in 2009 My House. Which again -- sex.

Scott went to get her phone but he’s prevented by an invisible barrier. Wolfsbane. He makes up a lie about his leg being hurt because like how else do you explain not being able to touch a bush?

They sit down and Scott’s having thoughts like “Oh I wish Derek were here” so you know it’s not great. Allison talks a little about how she’s close to her parents.

They are fucking kissing again. Stop it. It’s not the time. 

Scott decides to text Stiles and says Stiles knows his username and password. We all know. It’s the ever iconic Allison. Jackson and Scott truly deserve each other.

I forgot Jackson was still being held at gunpoint while all this has been going on.

Jackson makes an attempt to escape but yet another guy is waiting at the Porsche. How many people are there? Two here, Cassie probably and then the two at the house. So 5 people in total it appears. Geez. 

His escape fails and he’s taken hostage. Jackson never has a good time. 

All of Chapter 13 is Kate and Derek. Shall we brace ourselves?

“One by one the other swimmers left, and he’d remained behind, torn between disappointment that she hadn’t done it again, and complete and utter relief that she was staying away from him.” Holder writes young Derek having the instinct to know Kate’s attention isn’t good.

Now Holder does do some interesting bits of worldbuilding but like I said earlier it seems so patriarchal. Surrounding challenges and fighting. His view of humans in the book is one of paternalism. 

Kate is going in for the kill now and I’m crawling up my own spine. She makes herself come across as demure. She’s playing meek and turning the whole thing back on Derek giving him the illusion of choice as she grooms him. She purposefully is coming across as more of a peer than an adult figure with authority. 

“She swirled her fingers in the water. “And this isn’t really my style, you know?” I don’t come onto men like this.” Men. She thought of him as a man. He licked his lips, completely tongue-tied. “I wish you’d say something,” she murmured. “I’m kind of dying about it now. I’m sorry if I misread your intentions. I won’t bother you again.” “I know we’d have to be careful. Outsiders might not understand.”

Excuse me. Earlier Derek mentioned his rival -- his cousin Josh -- apparently Peter’s sister-in-law’s kid. Here he mentions Laura had made out with Josh the previous Wolf Moon. Did Laura make out with their cousin?!?!?!?!?!? There’s no other Josh in this book. Like I get they’re not blood related if Josh is Peter’s sister-in-law’s kid (which lol okay bro) but what is happening here on this day?

Kate wants Derek to come home with her for privacy -- ew. So Derek calls Laura to negotiate. Hence the whole conversation about Laura making out with cousin Josh. Laura says “This is so you can do something slutty.” I deeply dislike this characterization of Laura.

And now we’re in Kate’s narration for the flashbacks. I need a shower after reading her thoughts. God, I hate Kate.

Holder goes into detail about her ideas on werewolves. It’s interesting. There’s competition for rank within the pack, challenges and rituals. I want to do a post specifically about it maybe, but I am offended on Talia Hale’s behalf here. It’s very focused on males. The automatic assumption that the Alpha is Derek’s father.

 I cannot say fuck Kate enough. “Some kids in high school are babies and others are all grown up, ready for the real world. Like you.” The classic manipulation tactic of oh but you’re so mature for your age or oh they’re such an old soul. 

Wishing Kate Argent a go ahead and die.

[blubberquark]

Computer Literacy

Computer literacy is the most important social problem of today. At least, it’s the most important problem relative to the amount of time we spend talking about it. That makes it the most underrated social problem, and probably the one where we can achieve the most long-term improvements per unit of effort spent, but for some reason we don’t.

As computers have become more and more important, most jobs are now impossible to do without some sort of IT system in there, and that has resulted in people who used to be competent, confident and creative in their jobs throwing their hands in the air, saying “it’s a software problem, what can you do“ as automation increasingly dictates their workflows and makes them unable to even do things they used to be able to accomplish manually.

Somehow, the modern world is full of computers, and they are more important than ever, but as software has become more complicated and more difficult to use, people have become worse at using computers.

Over the last twenty years, we didn’t really get better at computer use. Instead we got used to not being able to understand what’s going on. We are also used to not being in control. Programs update themselves. Web apps change their UI. Web sites change their URL structure and invalidate all your bookmarks. Phones become obsolete in a way that makes it impossible to even run the versions of apps that used to work.

When I talk about complexity, I don’t mean the “internal” complexity of software, as in code complexity, build dependencies, software architecture, and all the tooling to manage this somehow. I mean user-visible complexity: Software is no longer an .exe file on your hard drive, but a self-updating app with a small icon that needs an online account and starts itself when your computer starts. Data is no longer a file on a floppy disk, but a collection of rows in an SQL database somewhere in %APPDATA%, or worse, a collection of rows in an SQL database in the cloud behind a REST API that is actually not REST but just RPC over HTTP.

Computer literacy is a moving target. That makes it difficult to teach. I suspect that the software industry wants it that way.

In their quest to “simplify“ software, vendors turn every application into a black box or a walled garden, denying users ways to re-use knowledge gained from other apps. Can you share the document you are editing with your friends by sharing the URL in your browser? If it was a file, you could save it and share the file with a friend. Online, all bets are off. Maybe the URL thing works, maybe the application has its own internal sharing system that requires your friends to make accounts, so you can “connect“ with them, and only then can you select them from a drop-down menu to share your document with, or maybe the application automatically scrapes your friends from facebook.

When I was in 7th grade, I had “basic computer lessons“, sponsored by Microsoft. We learned how many bits there were in a byte, how to send e-mail with hotmail.com, and what to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for. What we did not learn was how to uninstall software, how to burn a CD, or how to send e-mail attachments. The “child-proofing” software installed on the school computers prevented us from accessing the file system.

Important tasks such as

connecting to a wireless network

printing on a shared network printer

getting your PowerPoint to display on an external screen or projector

verifying that an e-mail is indeed coming from your friend or your bank

were left out.

(Aside: Why don’t banks sign their mail with PGP?)

In the mean time, what has gotten worse was not education. It was software itself. Software has gotten more and more hostile to computer literacy. Some software is actively hostile to deep understanding now, and increasingly it’s also becoming hostile to shallow understanding and muscle memory. Good luck with your new iPad air, we have moved all the buttons around, and have hidden basic functionality behind gestures. Tapping this does nothing, maybe try swiping it, pinching it, shaking it, with three fingers, swipe from the edge of the screen, whoops you switched apps now. It’s no longer possible for an end user to understand software. It’s no longer possible for third parties to even write “the missing handbook” of Slack or Google Docs or Spotify or Dropbox or indeed the iPad. It will be obsolete before it hits the shelves.

Related: http://contemporary-home-computing.org/turing-complete-user/

[losrtphu]

LUNA SEA B-PASS 1996 21 Q&A [TRANS]

PART 2

original scan

link to part 1

What's a dream that you've had recently?

RYUICHI: I had a dream where i was put on fire. i was on the rooftop of a building and i was talking to the sky and a random guy came and burned off my left arm.

SUGIZO: I don't remember.. i have a lot of dreams though.

INORAN: When we we're recording i was asleep dreaming about arranging songs.

J: I'm still dreaming now. I'm a boy who's always dreaming (laughs)

SHINYA: I always dream when i go to sleep so i don't know (laughs)

How would you describe what God is?

RYUICHI: Someone who knows everything

SUGIZO: God is the creator of everything, and all knowing. but his form might be all humans as well.

INORAN: ...I wonder where he could be

J: God's real form...i feel like it would be something inside all of us not a figure like Christ or Buddha

SHINYA: Something that is really important/precious. i have a really strong sense of faith so I've never missed hatsumoude (first shrine visit of the year).

What is something that lasts forever?

RYUICHI: I still haven't found it.

SUGIZO: The idea of space. but there might not be anything that lasts forever, but on my level of thinking i would say space

INORAN:hmm... i would definitely say love

J: That is something that I've always been searching for

SHINYA: Something that is endless would have to mean that it's something that you have to pursue but i guess that would also make it impossible to reach.

How do you spend most of your nights and from what hours?

RYUICHI: The time that i do spend in my house is very short. around 12pm i take a bath, have dinner, watch a video on cars. yea i probably do those the most.

SUGIZO: I am always up until the sun comes.

INORAN: I turn the TV because there's always something always going on , but by 4am I'll definitely have NO energy

J: Around after 12pm I'm usually drinking and rolling on my sofa listening to music.

SHINYA: I space out while thinking about a bunch of stuff, while watching TV.

Favorite 3 CDs that you've been listening to during this recording period（TN: genuinely thought i was going insane because only shinya names CDs, everyone else just names the artist for some reason???)

RYUICHI: I haven't had any to listen to recently. I've kind of stopped listening to CDs.

SUGIZO: what I've been listening to is "ICE" and "DREAM DOLPHIN", but "TRICKY" has been my favorite since last year

INORAN: There's quite a lot so i cant pick what's my top 3, but i would probably say john Coltrane's album

J: Smashing pumpkins, Silverchair and John Osborne (TN: I'm guessing he means Ozzy Osborne)

SHINYA: none. when recording i only listen to our music, if i were to say which, style, mother and Eden.

Whats the first thing or person that comes to your mind when i say "quiet/still" ?

RYUICHI: I know a woman who is the exact meaning of the word silent, if i were to say an object..maybe a clock and i would also say that the waves of the sea feel still.

SUGIZO: The moon. the thought of death. I feel that if something is quiet/still it is like death, and not in a negative way but in a beautiful way

INORAN: I don't know...i think stillness coexists with movement

J: Me... why are you laughing??(laughs)

SHINYA: I think i would say God. i feel like he has a very still/quiet image.

Name a moment in the past when you've been the most angry

RYUICHI: I get pissed off when I'm denied to live the way i want to.

SUGIZO: Betrayal in human relationships, there's so many people that i would kill if i met them again. 　

INORAN: I get angry often so i honestly don't know (laughs)

J: Around high-school because i had to suddenly decided my own future

SHINYA: At the Budokan live a typhoon blew away the set, i genuinely went insane. (TN:pretty sure this was also their first Budokan live)

Name something that you want right now

RYUICHI: I know perfect things don't exist, but i want an honest love

SUGIZO: Sometime for my mind to go blank.

INORAN: Endless time.

J: Myself, time to be alone as myself.

SHINYA: A medicine that that makes me able to be awake all the time, sleeping is just a waste of time.

Name a book/s that you read often

RYUICHI: I think i have a lot of car books, the books are western so they have a different feel.

SUGIZO: Phillip k.dick books.

INORAN: I don't read books.

J: A book called それから(TN: no Eng title but I'd translate this as "after that/and then") which is a collection of stories by Akemi Edo

SHINYA: The books that i have, have lately been collections of short poems, its more like "Oh i have nothing to do so I'll just read"

A person who has your ideal lifestyle

RYUICHI: No one, I guess that would mean that person is myself.

SUGIZO: Jim Morrison, or Mike Tyson. I think after he came out of prison his performance has been amazing.

INORAN: The life that I'm living right now is the most ideal.

J: Someone who doesn't give up no matter what life throws at them.

SHINYA: Someone who enjoys life, as in, no matter what they do they have fun, i think that's wonderful.

What makes you want to hug someone?

RYUICHI: I really love casual gestures. gestures that come out without knowing.

SUGIZO: When I love that person so much I can't help it.

INORAN: When i want to hug them.

J: There's lots of different cases so...i guess when i want to hug them (laughs)

SHINYA: After a performance. i can't explain it well but after I've used everything up/got everything out of my system i start to feel like i need to hug someone. (TN: proof -> 1:40 https://youtu.be/VAQ20Qoqgm0?si=QWOcF5rK2Md42-CF&t=101)

What do you think is a sin?

RYUICHI: I don't think anything outweighs the sin of lying to yourself.

SUGIZO: Betrayal, and also suicide.

INORAN: Betrayal.

J: Lying.

SHINYA: It's not something you can count, because living as a human at the core is a sin, if we can all live while being conscious of our actions i think the world would be a better place.

What have you lost recently?

RYUICHI: I think when you stop lying to yourself you have to make sacrifices....so there would also be a time where you have to lose friends or partners.

SUGIZO: Time (laughs)

INORAN: There are probably a lot of things I've lost, in order to gain something you need to lose something.

J: Nothing.

SHINYA: Even if i had lost something i don't really care, if I've gained something I've probably lost something in the process (laughs)