#it does lead to a bit of a problem where just random reblogs get quite a bit of notes but my original posts that I’m proud of get maybe ten

[greetings-inferiors]

Really, you only have 300 Randy?

Idk why u expected at least 1000, i know you're not a celebrity but you have a vibe lol

Anyways, the number means nothing anyways, i ran though my followers and half are empty blogs and 1 tried to sell me healthcare lol

Stop, stop, you’re all too much.

Yeah the follower number’s the funniest part of this website, because it means Jack shit, but everyone forgets that for everyone except themself, so they’ll think others have massive follower counts when they don’t, and people who do have massive follower counts will get next to no interaction. If I mentioned I had a three hundred and thirty one follower tumblr blog to, say, my mother, or my friend who’s never touched tumblr in his life, they’d think I’m really well known, or be concerned that too many people see what I post, whereas if I told my friend’s girlfriend who is the most stereotypical tumblrina I’ve met (in the most loving way possible) she’d probably go “yeah I have a thousand followers and the last time someone reblogged a post of mine was two years ago”.

[picturejasper20]

Debunking common misconceptions about the Ben 10 Reboot.

A mutual of mine asked me if could write a post debuking common critiques people have of the Ben 10 Reboot. Some of these critiques are based of  misconceptions and misinformation about the show while others are more subjective, meaning there are a matter of personal opinions.

I’m going to divide this post in different sections. In each section i’m going to try debunking a misconception and explain why i think this isn’t correct. If anyone wants to give their opinion on the subject, feel free to reblog the post or leave a comment.

I’m going to add a ¨Read More¨ since it’s going to be a long post.

1) ¨The reboot only has fart jokes as humor¨

I’m not sure from where people got this idea that the only type of humor the Reboot has are toilet and fart jokes. Does it has some jokes that are based on this? Yes! But Reboot’s humor has more variety than that.

Many of the jokes come from the characters´ reactions to certain events, how silly some situations are and from the dialogue. For example: Episodes focused on Xingo as the antagonist have tons of slaptick and old cartoon humor.

Since the series doesn’t take itself too seriously, it uses this to its advantage to make fun of  tropes, franchises and popular culture. It also has many references to current trends such as youtube and social media, things that the new generation is more familiar with.

If these jokes land or not is up to debate but to say the Reboot only has fart jokes is a bit of a stretch.

2) ¨The Reboot has no plot or worldbuliding¨

This is one of the weirdest arguments for me because if you watch the show you’ll know this isn’t the case. The show has a main arc as well as some subplots. 

I think people get this idea due to how the show is mainly episodic in season 1 unlike the rest of the seasons. The thing is that even season 1 has continuity that is quite important if you want to understand the rest of the series. It introduces villains as well as secondary characters that become important in future episodes. It also has tons of character development for the main protagonists, so, skipping this season would mean missing out their character growth.

By the end of season 1, Ben gets a new Alien called Gax which is the same species as the original Vilgax. It turns out this alien was half of Vilgax’s original power and Vilgax was trying to get it back. The finale is has interesting surprises and plot twists that change the status quo of the series in some ways.

In season 2 is mainly about Vilgax teaming up with other villains to steal the Omnitrix from Ben. These episodes are quite entertaining and help to develop the main characters. What’s more is that Ben gets a new alien called Shock rock and isn’t able to transform into Upgrade, which becomes important in the season finale.

I could talk about Kevin’s character arc, Charmcaster, Glitch, the Forever Knight’s arc, Animo subplot and tons of other stuff. My point is that saying that    ¨the Reboot has not plot¨ would be a huge misconception about the show. It would make more sense if someone complained about how its episodic structure hurts and distracts from the main story arc and it would have helped the series to not have so many episodes centered around the characters going on random adventures.

3) ¨Shock Rock is a cheap copy of Ghostfreak¨

When i first heard about this complain it suprised me a bit. Look, i get why a person could think that "Shock Rock is just Reboot's Ghostfreak" since they share similar stories.

However there are a few differences between the two:

Ghostfreak was possesed by an evil entity, Zs'Skayr, who later escaped from the Omnitrix and did terrible things. This was so horryfing for Ben that for a long time he didn't turn into ghostfreak out of fear of their conection with Zs'Skayr.

In the original series it wasn't really explained how Zs'Skayr got inside the Omnitrix and for how long he was concious about being trapped.

Shock Rock was introduced as a result of a terrible glitch caused by the Omnitrix being rebooted. They replaced Upgrade's DNA pod and allowed Ben to give the aliens stronger versions of themselves.

Shock Rock isn't completely evil and never really tries to escape from the Omnitrix. All that they did was to build that tower to send a signal to the Fulmini. Once the protagonists reboot the Omnitrix again, Ben was able to transform into Shock Rock without any problem.

Both aliens are a bit similar but on a deeper analysis they have different execution in their respective series.

4) "Glitch is a copy of Ship".

This is one i get why people complain about it. Glitch and Ship have many parallels in common. (Both being mechamorphs, they are both sidekicks)

The main difference is that Ship acts like a pet and is able to transform into many electronic devices. On the other hand, Glitch lives inside the kart and can't transform in the same way that Ship does. (However he can in the future, years after developing his powers).

Their backstories and origins differ. Ship was born from a mechamorph that needed help after he crashed his own ship. Glitch was the result of Ben using Upgrade to reboot the Omnitrix in the season 1 finale which forced Upgrade to fuse with Ben's DNA to survive.

Another point i want to add (based on speculation) is that Glitch resembling is Ship seems to be very intentional. I think the creators wanted to Ship to appear again in the Reboot. So they decided to create Glitch.

Keep in mind that the Reboot makes tons of references to the original series and its sequels. It wouldn't be suprising if Glitch is a reference to Ship.

5) "Max is not clever/ is dumb"

I don't really got the impression of reboot Max being "dumbed down". He is one of the characters that acts almost exactly as he does in the original series.

I think this complain come from Max being less serious in this series: He isn't so strict with the kids and gives them more freedom to do what they want. He is also more open minded and has less "black and white" mentality that he had in the original series.

He is still almost the same character, just more easy going and down to earth in comparison. He still acts as a guide for Ben and Gwen. He still has a few arguments with Ben for not listening to him in some episodes.

@theangrycomet made a post a few weeks back about Reboot Max. I think people should check their post because they explain many things that i mention here in more detail.

Here is a link to their post: X

6) "They cancelled Omniverse because of the reboot"

This one is a somewhat old argument. Again, i don't know where people got this idea that reboot was the main reason they cancelled Omniverse.

I have been trying to find an article that could explain the reason behind its cancellation. All i was able to find were fans talking about how it ended because of the low number of toys getting sold. Nothing about the reboot.

It could one of the things lead to Omniverse being cancelled but not the only main factor.

If anyone has more information about this feel free to leave a link in the comment section or by reblog.

7) "Ben is out of character in the reboot"

This something i don't really get at all. Reboot Ben behaves pretty much the same way he does in the OS. He is still cocky, stubborn, competitive, impacient and gets into a trouble.

Is it because he appears to be nicer in this series? If it is because of that then i personally like this change. I found Ben to be more likable in this version. As well as capable of regretting his actions and learning his lessons.

Reboot Ben is a complex character. It has so much development that i would find it difficult for me to sum it up in just one post.

I think fans get this impression since they are more used to Alien Force Ben than OS Ben. That's why they believe Reboot Ben is acting OOC when in reality is he isn't much different from the OS Ben.

If anyone has a better explanation, please leave it in the comments section/reblog.

-----

Okay, those are the most common misconceptions i found after talking with some mutuals. While a few things are a matter of doing fact checking, others are based on my perspective on the series.

Keep in mind that i don't think the Reboot is perfect by any means. It has its issues like slow pacing in the first season or characters that are annoying.

However, if someone wants to give a serious critique, they should try doing a bit of research and fact-check to see if their points are valid. Otherwise,they might look misinformed at best and making bad faith arguments at worse. That's all.

[hermit-pistol]

Leone Abbacchio Fluff Alphabet:

And with that, the 600 follower special is concluded! I know that they took me forever to finish but I hope that you enjoyed reading them! Please like and reblog to show love, and read some Abbacchio fluff under the cut:

A ctivities - What do they like to do with their s/o? How do they spend their free time with them?

Abbacchio enjoys the simplicity of doing nothing and going nowhere. Honestly, some of his favorite activities that you do together take place in the courtesy of your own home. Don't get it twisted though, he still will take you out for the occasional meal and show you a good time!

B eauty - What do they admire about their s/o? What do they think is beautiful about them?

He admires your ability to stay calm. Other people he has known in the past would tend to annoy him with how high strung they were. He much rather prefers a partner that he can sit in comfortable silence with, and can just go with the flow of everything.

C omfort - How would they help their s/o when they feel down/have a panic attack etc.?

Abbacchio, to be fair, has had his own fair share of emotional baggage, so he knows what you're experiencing all too well. Thankfully, he also knows how to overcome the situation when these feelings grow to be too much. He'll whisper words and phrases of affirmation, assuring them that everything will be okay and that he will always be there for them.

D reams - How do they picture their future with their s/o?

His vision of the future is very uncertain, and in all fairness, he couldn't even believe that he'd made it this far in his life. His previous career as an officer and currently being in the mafia were certainly not considered "safe" jobs. He does want a future with you though, no matter how risky the job. He just won't think too far ahead.

E qual - Are they the dominant one in the relationship, or rather passive?

Abbacchio is very passive aggressive. He'll be very lenient when it comes to making decisions in the relationship but can obviously step it up if needed. Most of the decision making will be in the hands of his partner for sure.

F ight - Would they be easy to forgive their s/o? How are they fighting?

He bottles things up until they explode at the surface. He'll yell and most likely something will come out harsher than intended, this ends up with him being in a position where he has some serious explaining to do. Things will work out eventually, but things might be rough for a while.

G ratitude - How grateful are they in general? Are they aware of what their s/o is doing for them?

He loves you for showing him that living wasn't all that bad to begin with. Life hasn't been very kind to him and you know that. When he's having very low moments, you remind him of his team and you who both love him very much. You are one of the only reasons that he keeps on going.

H onesty - Do they have secrets they hide from their s/o? Or do they share everything?

Getting Abbacchio to open up and speak about the things that he's experienced in this lifetime will take a lot of coaxing and convincing. In time, he'll tell you when he's ready, but for a good while he'll be very selective with what he wants to share with you. Only when the time comes and he feels that you're worthy of knowing will he come clean. Be ready.

I nspiration - Did their s/o change them somehow, or the other way around? Like trying out new things or helped them overcome personal problems?

He has a hard time seeing the positives of a situation, and before he met you, he was truly unhappy with his life. It took him so many years to learn that seeing things from a different, more optimistic point of view really made a huge difference. He thanks you for opening him up to new experiences.

J ealousy - Do they get jealous easily? How do they deal with it?

Abbacchio does not mess around when it comes to you getting attention from other people. He may appear passive at first, but he’s had an eye on the two of you this whole time, don’t worry. If things get out of hand, he’ll just drag you out of there so fast you won’t even have time to process what just happened.

K iss - Are they a good kisser? What was the first kiss like?

Abbacchio is a very rough kisser, to the point where you have to remind him not to leave marks on your lips. There's a time and a place for everything, but it takes some reminders to let him know that a simple showing of affection shouldn't result in your face being all but ripped off. Other than that, he's got quite the natural talent.

L ove Confession - How would they confess to their s/o?

The funny thing that sets Abbacchio apart from the others is that he won't outright tell you that he loves you. He very much so believes in the concept of tough love, and even though he can be unbearable at some points, it's very rarely that he verbally expresses that he loves you. It's rather expressed in the actions that he does.

M arriage - Do they want to get married? How do they propose? What would the marriage be like?

He's going to wait for ages until he pops the question, so long in fact that you had thought about proposing to him just to get it over with. He'll ask for the help of his team to put the wedding together since he doesn't have much to work with in terms of family. When it's all said and done, he'll totally have to fight the urge to break down into tears when he sees you walking down the aisle. You just look so beautiful!

N icknames - What do they call their s/o?

Abbaccchio really doesn't need nicknames, unless you ask him to call you something specific. If not, he's content with referring to you by your name. After all, it is the most sincere form of flattery as they say.😳

O n Cloud Nine - What are they like when they are in love? Is it obvious for others? How do they express their feelings?

Only a few people can tell that something is up with Abbacchio (mainly, Bruno and Fugo) and once they figure out what's going on with their teammate they can't help but smile. They'll leave teasing out of it because they know that the others might go too far, but whenever you enter a room they share a knowing glance as they watch him clam up on the spot.

P DA - Are they upfront about their relationship? Do they brag with their s/o in front of others? Or are they rather shy to kiss etc. when others are watching?

He's not very fond of showing his affection in public, and sometimes this really gets on your nerves. There are times where he doesn't even feel comfortable holding hands with you, but you try to respect his wishes. You know that he's just a little awkward and shy when it comes to these things and that his actions in the outside world are completely different compared to when you share alone time.

Q uirk - Some random ability they have that’s beneficial in a relationship.

(I know this might be one you guys have heard of before but it can't leave my brain so-) Abbacchio can sing, and he can sing quite well. But he will never do so in front of people, and even in front of you. The only times that you can hear him is when he thinks that you have left for the store and sneaks into the bathroom. One time you had your ear pressed against the door so hard that it accidentally opened. He was holding a hairbrush like a microphone and was less than pleased that you had found him.

R omance - How romantic are they? What would they do to make their s/o happy? Cliché or rather creative?

It may not seem like it, but Abbacchio can be quite romantic. When the two of you are alone he might offer to give you a massage or might shower you in kisses of his own accord. Both of those might end up leading to something else, of course ;)

S upport - Are they helping their s/o achieve their goals? Do they believe in them?

He will always make sure to make sure that you have complete confidence in whatever you decide to pursue. If you succeed, then he will be the proudest man you've ever seen. Even if you experience some shortcomings he'll encourage you to keep trying and re-adjust your goals so they can be more attainable.

T hrill - Do they need to try out new things to spice out your relationship? Or do they prefer a certain routine?

Abbacchio doesn't really come across as the type of person that's spontaneous. While he doesn't like surprises, whenever he does have a nice gesture planned he wants to make sure that you're prepared for (possibly) one of the best days of your life. He hypes it up in subtle ways like "Pack your bags" and "Make sure to bring your swimsuit". 😉

U nderstanding - How well do they know their partner? Are they empathetic?

Don't let his emotional unavailability at times fool you, for he can understand your emotions quite well. He'll pay attention to details that could decipher your moods, like the slam of a door or heavy sighs as you shuffle your feet into the living room. Of course, he'll ask you how to make you feel better, but he secretly prides himself on his awareness when it comes to you.

V alue - How important is the relationship to them? What is it’s worth in comparison to other things in their life?

Abbacchio isn't the best at maintaining relationships with people, unless they're very special to him. You are easily one of the best things that's ever happened to him, and if you weren't in his life he'd be extra grumpy and then some. You are his rock, and he cherishes you every single day the two of you are together.

W ild Card - A random Fluff Headcanon.

When the two of you aren't busy, you insist on having a "couple's night" which consists of watching a movie together. He’s a bit of a “fun killer” when it comes to having a movie night, turning down almost every idea and suggestion that you have. You eventually decide on a basic horror movie, with Abbacchio grumbling through it the whole time. He does enjoy when you cling to him during the scary parts, though.

X OXO - Are they very affectionate? Do they love to kiss and cuddle?

Abbacchio can be affectionate when he wants to be (only when you’re ALONE). There are times when he doesn't want to be in the same room as you, and then others when he's clinging to you no matter how hard you try to escape. Catch him in a good mood and he'll even nuzzle his head into the crook of your neck.

Y earning - How will they cope when they’re missing their partner?

Whenever you've been away for a bit, Abbacchio will seemingly be unfazed by your lack of presence, almost to the point where it bothers you. Your man really doesn't show that many emotions, huh. When you walk through the door; however, he'll be there in the doorway ready to greet you and wrap you in a giant hug. You smile, knowing that he secretly missed you after all.

Z eal - Are they willing to go to great lengths for the relationship? If so, what kind of?

He's not the type of guy to give gifts or do anything extravagant outside of special occasions. If you're having a bad day he will bring you dinner and listen to you vent. If you're the one, he's willing to go the extra mile in maintaining the relationship and wanting to keep you as happy as possible.

[kanene-yaaay]

Go Virge, go!

Kanene’s note: TODAAAAAAAAAY IS A SPECIAAAAAL DAYYYY!!! DO YOU KNOW WHY?? THAT IS RIGHT! BECAUSE TODAY IS @why-not-a-tickle-blog BIRTHDAY!!!! Gooooosh!!!! I know I already did a whole speech before, mah friendo, but you’re just so amazing and lovely! Aaaaaa I’m happy for being your friend! <33

Okay, I got a little carried away! Enjoy the gift! x3

Warnings, fun facts, random things and stuff:

* This characters don’t belongs to me! They all belong to Thomas Sanders and his series Sanders Sides!

* This is a SFW Tickle-Fanfic, so, if you don’t appreciate this kind of content, please, look for another blog. There are a plenty of fabulous arts in this site!!  ^w^)b

* Oneshot. Something around 3.800 words.w-)b. Lee!Virgil and Ler!Patton in Human AU.

* Sorry for any spelling, pontuation and grammar mistakes! Any and every advice is very very welcome! \(-w-)/

* Since  it’s a gift: Essa fanfic não será traduzida, mals. Thankys for reading, my lollipops, especially you, Livvy!! Have a wonderful and incredible day just like you! 

[~*~]

Patton was confused. A lot.

 And that wasn’t even a whole brand-new thing in his life.

 Patton got confused quite frequently, being honest.  

He got confused when he accidentally fell asleep on the couch and woke up four hours later with all his house painted in the dark of the night and without a single drop of memory about where he is or who he is for some minutes. Patton got confused when his attention was caught in some adorably adorable video of kittens being the best thing in the world and quickly ran to Virgil’s room just to show them to him, not understanding why his friend can’t stop looking at him quizzically until Virgil finally asks why does he has a spoon in the knot of his cardigan and Patton jumps because HIS COOKIES ARE IN THE OVEN AND HOW MUCH TIME HAD PASSED-

 Oh. Wait. That is not what he was talking about. Focus, focus!

 Anyway. Life is confusing, feelings, thoughts, actions, trying your best, keep going, look at the refrigerator just to realize you have no idea of what you were supposed to be searching in the first place, humans…

 Yeah, especially humans.

 Patton stared at the figure of his friend laid on the couch, absently looking at his phone while a piece of smile adorned his face. The movie both decided to watch paused in the background as the one currently in the kitchen waited for the popcorn get ready, his hand held lightly his chin and a frown rest peacefully in his features, mirroring the same expression he always saw on Logan every time he was confronted by a problem whose solution seemed impossible to find.

 It was The Pose of all the incredible genius in the world, right? Therefore, in some moment about now the answers of all his questions should magically pop before him, unfolding and refolding in logic patterns just like in all the mystery series and books.

 Right about noooow…

 …

 Now?

 …

 Well, it didn’t work.

 Patton pouted, turning to pour the warm and probably delicious snack in big bowls that both would pretend they wouldn't be able to finish before even getting in the middle of the so expected movie. He grabbed the bowls and headed to the other room, reprising the entire day in his mind, a faint echo of Logan saying that could help basing his decision.

 Everything started in the morning with Patton arriving at their breakfast table only to find Virgil, but not his usual Virgil.

 That was a Virgil without his hoodie.

 Not that it was a totally strange thing! Usually by his free mornings he would prefer to wander in the house on his comfortable pajamas, however the thing today is… he wasn’t on his pajamas. He was prepared to fight the world – actually Virgil was just going to work, but he said this sounded more badass - on his black Slipknot shirt, jeans and the hoodie nowhere near to be seen.

 Besides that, today was predominantly cold. Cold enough for the one wearing glasses end up missing his favorite cat cardigan by the time he arrived their house, searching for the so dearly craved cloth in every little corner until Patton came across the scene of his friend - his best edgy, lovely friend cutely wearing it and being equally playfully bratty when tried ask it back, pulling out his tongue out as his form dazed in a chase the moment Patton’s promise of ‘physically fight for it!’ – which was a lie, obviously. He gave up the vestment the very moment his eyes locked in a Virgil playing with the cat ears sewed in it – flew from his mouth.

 And, after getting tired out, they cuddled! Okay, this wasn’t nearly a strange occurrence between both, albeit was one of those rare moments when Virgil was the one who initiated it, laying on his lap with a pout and a sharp look, as if he dared the other to say something (and Patton didn’t!! He swears!! Squeals. Do. Not. Count. As. Words.), feeling comfortable enough to even start a Poking War as they were accommodating themselves on the cushions, rays of giggles, squeaks filling the place for some heartbeats before both decided to metamorphose their last bit of routine into a movie night.

 Which was exactly what they were doing!

 Now, don’t get Patton wrong. He was absolutely delighted by everything! Knowing Virgil felt comfortable, safe enough to act nonchalant around him was so heart-warming he could almost feel himself melt in happiness!

 ….But…

 But there was this signal in the back of his mind. A particularly different gleam in the other’s eyes he had already seen before, however couldn’t quite place its meaning yet. Some words unpronounced amongst his lightly snarky demeanor. Some little thing that made Patton feel playful and happily bubbly as well, except he couldn’t really grab the exact information, the exact why or the exact memory.

 Not yet, at least.

  [~*~]

  Virgil was about to fucking quit it.

 No, actually, he was about to fuck quit everything when he woke up of his incredibly, horrible, wonderfully teasy tickle dream. The tingles of the dreamy tickles still ghostly buzzing on his body as he quietly giggled, burying his face in the pillows and kicking about everything on his bed, eyes firmly closed as the memories bathed his mind in a flow made to increase awfully his lee mood.

 And then one of his favorite artists posted some new things on Tumblr, which obligated him to see all their new posts and, who knows, accidentally click in the tag ‘My arts’ of them, which end up with him re-finding other works he had already forgot about, path that consequently leaded to some more reblogs and therefore another bunch of tickle blogs which, of course, made his lee mood at work almost unbearable.

 At least he had the cold to blame if someone questioned about the persistent blush spread on his features.

 After everything, finally: The calm and quiet of home, broken by his determined decision to try to make – somehow - Patton tickle him. His friend was soft and playful by nature, and he already knew Virgil liked tickles (quite of an interesting story involving a meme, a movie and the power going out. Heh. Do not ask about it.) so, I mean, the worst part was already gone, right? It wouldn’t probably be that bad. Virgil would just act naturally, smoothly following a few advices he found in some blogs discussing this topic and hope, for the sake of his life, the Universe wouldn’t follow Murphy's Law for ONCE.

 Of course, that didn’t happen. OF COURSE.

 Virgil tried first to be a bratty. He stole Patton’s cardigan and even ran across the house in an attempt to maintain his new possession. He stretched while laid in Patton’s lap: no hoodie, ticklish spots right there. In the last shot he even let himself giggle every single time his mind wandered to the dark corner designed especially for the subject. The one wearing smudged make up even started a poke war!! A poke war!! What kind of poke war doesn't evolve to a tickle war where he would, so sadly and despise his best efforts, lose spectacularly??

 He crossed his arms and DID NOT pout, blowing grumpily some strands of hair that fell in his vision’s field.

 “I would sell my soul for a tickle.” Virgil growled, his usually careful façade crumbling under the quite persistent thoughts of fingers spidering on his ribs, counting each one of them before lazily dragging the tip of the nails to his quivering tummy, dancing and poking unbothered by his squi-

 “What was that?”

 Virgil squeaked, jumping some centimeters in the air when the voice of his approaching friend filled the room, the words getting stuck in his throat, his head shooting in the other’s direction, wide eyes.

 “What.” He eloquently offered.

 “I was too far, didn’t hear what you said, sorry. Could you repeat, please?”

 Virgil tried – failing - to not blush. Patton was… actually being serious, right? That wasn’t any kind of tease, even if the traitor little demon he usually called brain unhelpfully unlocked all the memories of all the tickle fanfics he read that began with that exact same words. “Nothing. It was nothing.” He promptly ignored the way his voice came out slightly high.

 “Oh, okay!” Patton kindly smiled, putting the popcorn on the coffe table and looking for some space on the couch to lay down while Virgil pressed play, the show’s opening quickly filling the air and silence hanging between both. Patton stopped. Suddenly Virgil felt a shiver run across his whole body, his gaze turning to his friend, only to find the one wearing glasses staring at him intently.

 “You like tickles.”

 The word only was enough to jolt his body back to a sitting position, butterflies starting to wake up, proceeding to fly the most desperate as possible in his stomach, his brain fuzzing, crumbling for answers of How and When and What the Fuc-

 “What? NO! I mean, yes but how- when did you just…”

 “Oh!” Patton gasped and Virgil felt his whole face in flames once the realization of the shiny gleam in the other’s eyes, almost as literal stars shining, hit him. Maybe… Maybe something he had done before finally work? “That is why you initiated a Poke War? Were you trying to make me tickle you? Vee, you just needed to ask!”

 Yep. No. Nope. No way. That was definitely worse.

 Virgil tried to hide himself in his hoodie, deciding he could very much rather perish in his Lee Mood than stare at the pure love and awe gazed right in his direction. His lips curving in a shadow of a smile for a second when he pressed himself further on the furniture, noticing with a grumble leaving his mouth the only armor he owned was the cat cardigan. Hood pulled up and his face firmly pressed on his knees, he ignored the way his excited giggles started to bounce and dance in his throat, resulting in his own body bounce a bit.

 “Knock knock…” Virgil felt a light tapping on his knee.

 “Fuck off.” The hissed answer ran without letting he even think about it, too much occupied in pretending to not notice how much this position left his entire tickl- I mean, sensitive torso vulnerable and how much not seeing what was happening increased second by second the tingles and shivers crazily racing in his skin.

 “Gasp! Virgil!” The one dying in the cat cardigan internally rolled his eyes at the literally audible gasp his friend vocalized, almost being able to see the playful mood taking over his expression as it always has when they swore around him. “I should tickle you for this, Mister Potty Mouth!” Yes. Yes!! Come on, come on! “But I won’t.”

 Hey now, what.

 “What?!” His head shot upwards absurdly fast, a fact which, obviously, he would deny it to the end of his living and non-living days.

 “I don’t want you to feel like you have to hide or ignore your desire for tickles every time you have them! Especially…”

 ‘Please – see? I know how to use some freaking good words. - Please don’t say what I think you’re going to say, Patton. You’re cool, you’re a funny guy, you have good intentions but you have any ideas of what the fuck will happen??’ Virgil found himself almost pleading, the sentences already running in his head, but his lips firmly gripped in the fear to let out more than these simple words.

 “… Since I’m totally okay in tickling you! Oh, wait. Did you just squirm? Aww, Virgil!! That is so, so adorable! You’re blushing, too! Awwwwww!!! Okay, okay, okay, I’m… Imma gonna die of cuteness. You’re truly the most precious being I’ve ever met!!! Wait, what I was just saying…?” 

 ‘I will die! No! I’m already dying! See? You already accomplished what you wanted!! Let’s move on to the next damn part!’

 “Oh right!” Patton lightly hit the side of his head. “I’m glad to tickle you! Truly! All you have to do is…”

 ‘Dude, Patton, Pat-Pat, Popstar don’t…’

 “Ask me! Please, please, please!!” Virgil stared him dead in his eyes, crossing his arms, his cheeks so hot that he was surprised his face didn’t melt yet. “Aw, don’t give me that look, kiddo!” Virgil just narrowed his eyes further. Patton pouted, his ‘Puppy Eyes’ expression – more like an unfair weapon - showing and nailing cracks on Virgil’s resolution.

 They stayed like this for a while, until Patton abruptly lifted his hands, his fingers wiggling on Virgil’s direction, the movement so out of blue that catched his friend out of guard, a true yelp jumping from him before he grumpily growled and let himself fall on the cushions.

 “I can’t.”

 “Of course, you can, kiddo! I’m rooting for ya! Wanna see?” And then he started to fold and unfold his fingers, approaching them to Virgil inch by inch “Go Virge, go! Go, Virge, go! Goooo, Virgeyyyy, go!” Inch by inch. Close and then even closer. The boy with a wobbly smile in his face felt like he couldn’t tear his eyes from the movements, the butterflies seeming to freak out in his stomach in the rhythm of the cheers.

 He hides his face behind his hands. Patton was going to be the end of his existence.

 “Stohop it.” Dammit. He was breaking.

 ‘Come on, guy! You can do this!’ He internally whined.

 “Ooh, is that a beauty giggly giggle what I hear? The cheering should be working then, don’t you think?! We believe in you, Virge-poo! And we can’t wait for when we…” Virgil dared to spy the scene between his fingers, only to see Patton’s hands barely touching his sides, his fingers positioned in a claw shape. “… getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha, getcha!!” They suddenly moved, clawing unbearably away and terribly close at each couple of words.

 No. Virgil did NOT squeal nor squirmed closer to the fingers. Fuck you. Nobody asked. That is none of your business anyway.

 ‘Just… just don’t think about it! Pull it off. Like… I don’t know! Like a stupid band aid!’

 “It is going to be so much fun! I didn’t even tickle you yet and you’re already giggling excitedly! Think in all your wonderful, beautiful laughter flying everywhere when I finally tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle you silly!! You’ll be giggling up a storm! Happy gasp! Pun inserted!”

 Virgil obligated himself to take a deep breath and not stare the warm, teasy hands which were oblivious of the intern turmoil caused as they rested on his sides. Their tips very lightly, almost impossible to feel and – even more difficult to ignore - poking the ticklish skin, as if they simply couldn’t bring themselves to stay still. The one laid on the couch and yet hiding his face felt the urge to kick just to get off all the pleasantly nervous energy building up in his body.

 “Virgey-wiggly-wiggley…~”

 “TICKLEMEPLEASE!”

 Patton squeaked excited, the teasy grin immediately giving space to the joyful smile. “Of course!” He grazed his fingers up his sides to his ribcage, the nails lightly drawing circles around each one of the ribs, receiving a quick tasering in the middle of them before going up to the next one, letting for a piece of moment Virgil’s bubbly and more high-pitched giggles fill the room alone.

 The cat cardigan owner ran the tip of his fingers up and down, up and down, up and down his sides, watching in complete awe the way the other squirmed at each infinitesimal move. He stopped the movement on his right side, his eyes gleaming behind the lenses as accompanied Virgil adorably wiggling away from the reminiscent tickles, as if he tried to escape from the evil fingers scribbling in that exactly spot which connected his left side to his tummy and leaded cute, sweet titters escape from his gigantic smile.

 A devious plan shinned in his head.

 Patton ceased the tickling in order to give him a breath, smiling at the pout that didn’t take too long before blooming in the other’s features.

 He quickly poked his left side, immediately hearing quiet, bubbly giggles dance across the air as Virgil wiggled to his right, only to be warmly welcomed by scratches of one single finger on his lower back, making his breath stop so fast a snort escape. Virgil widened his eyes, his hands automatically clapping in his mouth at the same time a big, gleaming grin took over Patton’s expression. They stared at each other, fingers never stopping, squirms never ending.

 “No.” His voice was slightly wobbly, giggles beginning to intertwine his words as his friend scribbled softly again. “No no no! You are a- dON’T!- such a dork!!! No!!”

 They initiated the cycle again. Every time Virgil squirmed to escape from the left tingles to the right tickles one more finger was added to the attack, soon leaving the blushed poor victim kicking sporadically when the ten fingers resumed their light, tickly attack. “I’m going t-t-to kick you!!” and then was subdued to the snorts and squeals painting his fast titters.

 The one who wore the cat hoodie which moments before had slipped from his head in the ““fight””, now showing clearly the red strongly flaming his cheeks and the tip of his ears shook his head from side to side, the frown he tried to form being immediately won by the smile taking over his features. Virgil let himself embrace the feeling completely over, laughing freely, almost doesn’t believing this was actually happening.

 That it didn’t matter how much he tried to escape nor squirm, the tickling just followed his movements, just as all his (fake) protests didn’t stop the excited, evil teases pouring from the other’s mouth. Not to tell how only the big, happy gaze from Patton was definitely not helping in the slightest his current state at all!

 He was certain. There was no way out of this. He was going to melt and   d i e.

 And he was loving every single second of this.

 “Aww! Tickle, tickle, tickle, Virge!! Look at the happiness shining in your face!! Someone really, really loves some tickly-tickles, am I right? But don’t worry, Virgey-wiggley! I will give you all the tickles you could ever want! Like here!” He booped Virgil’s bellybutton “Here” A couple of fingers slid on his waistline “And here, and here, and here and everywhere!” Fingers flew quickly, traveling on his hips, collarbone, sides, behind his ears…

 The incapacity to know where Patton would strike next killed every single drop of coherent thoughts of his mind, which could only focus on the tickling and how much it was unbearable and everywhere and it  t i c k l e d . His giggles grew to chortles, his hands flying from his own face to lightly push Patton’s, dislocating his glasses and freeing surprised chuckles mixed with his own squeaks.

 “Virgil!!” Patton ceased the playful attack in order to retire the other’s hands off his face, before both knew they’re wrestling, laughter cutting their acts and weakening their movements. “Virge!! I will go to another spot this way!”

 In a blink of an eye one of his friend’s arms hugged his sides and Patton felt a malefic grin crawling his lips without even noticing its presence. Very much different from Virgil, who in the same heartbeat realized his mistake, using the opportunity of the instant of distraction to lightly push the cookie lover off him, quickly dashing across the house. All his instincts gleaming and sparkling the sign of ‘Survive’ in his veins.

 The only reason of what Virgil forgot about the numbness from spending so much time laid on his legs, resulting in trips that definitely made him lose some crucial speed as he encircled the couch, capturing with the corner of his eyes the scene of Patton jumping of the cushions and following his escape route. The crackling dancing in the air owned by nobody specific.

 His heart beat faster, the joy raced his nerves and made his tummy tingle in advance just for imagining the exact moment where two arms would hug him firmly yet gently from behind and his ears would be set on fire the very same moment Patton would say-

 “Gotcha, Giggly Storm! I gotcha, gotcha ya!!” Patton dug his thumbs right above Virgil’s hips, the remaining fingers clawing the poor, sensitive skin in his back, leading belly laughter to took over his friend’s sentence, his knees buckling and legs uncontrollable kicking as Patton sat with him on the floor, pressing his back on his chest and resting his head on his shoulder.

 “Patton!! Pahahatton, come on, no!” Patton just hummed, two fingers calmly walking on Virgil’s waistline. “Don’t you dare!! Don’t you fuckin- gah!” The nails began to slid in the length of the belly, going from a side to another as elected soft snorts and bouncy giggles.

 “Tickle, tickle, tickle, Virge!! Did you thought you could run away from the Tickle Monster? Poor unfortunate soul ~. Now the Tickle Monster has to give you a bunch of more ticklish tickly tickles just for this, don’t you think?!” And then Virgil felt the tickles speed up to scribbles and clawing and wiggles delivered in every inch of his tummy. Going in random patterns, drawing forms on his sweet spot, up and down, from a side to another, over and over again. Quick enough to make him sporadically squirm and kick, a rain of squeals, yelps and squeals flowing from his lips, yet soft and light enough to let him rest his head on the other’s chest and just enjoy the feeling.

 “Awww! Look at how much shaking your tum-tum is! It is probably so happy in receiving its so much craved tickle tickle tickles, right, Virgey-poo?” The answer was only a blushy Virgil hiding his face on Patton’s neck, giggling nonstop.

 “Nonono!! It’s not!” And, if that move only led to a now very exposed neck to be gifted with some special scratches? They both pretended it wasn’t on purpose.

 Patton just rolled his eyes, playfully exasperated, quietly chuckling when the other jumped with the quick squeeze delivered on his hip.

 It didn’t take long before Virgil let out his first ‘Stop’, which Patton happily obliged, don’t having the heart to move when he realized Virgil’s breath becoming calmer, his eyelashes closing as he snuggled closer to the one wearing glasses.

 The duo knew very well they would probably regret napping on the hard, cold floor later, yet none of them managed to bring themselves to care, especially when Virgil’s quiet snorts with the second tickle dream of the day lullabied Patton to an equally peaceful dream.

  [~*~]

  Random non-said thing: Patton only remembered that information because the movie they’re going to watch was one of the trilogy they were watching when Virgil gathered up enough will to tell him he likes tickling.

[depizan]

I was thinking about the post I reblogged about the loss of the Alliance in SWTOR, and some of my other disappointments with how faction is handled in the game, and how faction based MMOs in general tend to get stuck in this kind of "eternal conflict" mode. (Not that factionless MMOs don't get stuck in their own kind of weird "eternal conflict" mode, too. Look at Guild Wars 2 and the growing list of things that have tried to destroy Tyria.)

But there are stories that lend themselves to a faction model, and SWTOR does have - or does begin with - one of those. It's just that with no prospect of whatever conflict divides the factions ever being resolved, you have a weird permanent stalemate situation, kind of. The Sith Empire will never win, because that would make Republic players unhappy. The Galactic Republic will never win, because that would make Empire players unhappy. No actual solution to the conflict can ever be found because then it would be game over. (Also, no real faction shifting because how would you code that?)

Except... maybe none of that is true. There are games that have faction shifting of a kind coded in. Think of all the minor factions in World of Warcraft, some opposed to one another, some just independent. Sure, those faction shifts are mostly achieved with some kind of grind, but it does prove that mutable factions are codeable.

This might even solve the problem of the Smuggler and the Bounty Hunter being tied to specific factions when that leads to some very odd story stuff, particularly outside of each class story. It suggests a way to handle factional grouping and third faction classes without making those factions "better" because all flashpoints are available to them.

Here is Mac's theoretical redesign of SWTOR with a different handling of factions and playing into the story focus that is the game's best quality.

Republic and Empire each get three classes, Smuggler and Bounty Hunter are Underworld (a third, neutral to the others faction). Since the galaxy is supposed to be under a peace treaty - the Treaty of Coruscant - you design the game with flexible faction tagging and lean in hard to the Cold War set up.

You have degrees of faction, just like those minor factions in WoW. I'm going to borrow the middle part of WoW's faction set up for this. Theirs runs Hated - Hostile - Unfriendly - Neutral - Friendly - Honored - Revered - Exalted. We just need the middle chunk, from Hostile to Friendly. Hostile is typical enemy mob: bar is red, it will attack you on sight. Unfriendly is an orange bar, but will not fight you unless you attack. Neutral is a yellow bar, again, will not fight you unless you attack. Friendly is typical allied mob: bar is green, etc.

Imperial players can go to Coruscant, and Republic players to Dromund Kaas, but everything is Unfriendly to them, they can't buy anything (except maybe at the spaceport?), and there are no quests available to them. Underworld players start out one tick up at Neutral and have a few merchants and quests available. Ones that it makes sense would be available to random people. (This is to balance out Underworld space starting at Neutral to Pubs and Imps.) And, obviously, Pub space starts out Friendly to Pubs and Imps space Friendly to Imps. (Though I would be slightly tempted to have Korriban be neutral to the Agent class because, as a non-Force-Sensitive you don't really belong there.)

(As you can see, we're basically using a game mechanic to underline the state of galaxy. We can also set things so that people can't go fuck things up for their fellow players by coding it so that if you just go attack people on the opposite faction capitol, you get blipped to hostile and squashed like a bug.)

Now, we write the game like there is actually a Cold War happening. This means missions for Imps and Pubs that send people into "enemy" space (not, to start with the capital or Force User planets, though) where they have to accomplish their missions without attracting the attention of the other faction. We can take advantage of instancing to allow for diplomatic incidents, like thinking "well, they can't report I'm here if they're dead," without triggering the anti-trolling splat mobs. This is also where we introduce some side quests that give people the opportunity to work on becoming to Neutral with the opposite faction.

Smugglers and Bounty Hunters are off doing Underworld stuff, with some options to take quests that benefit the Republic or the Empire. (Giving them the chance to work on becoming Friendly with one or both factions.)

All class stories get written so that there are several potential outcomes. We're going to use the Agent story as a model here, and basically set it up so that everyone has a story line that ends with them still loyal to the faction they began with, now Underworld/Unallied, or loyal to the opposite faction. This gets paired with the ability for characters to keep doing things to make the other faction like them better and you're setting up defections or the decision to go neutral with mechanics and story.

You use the Cold War setting to ramp up general tension. Have more missions like that one on Republic Hoth where you can work with some Imperials. Or the times where a Sith Warrior can use Republic soldiers to their advantage. So the whole base game has this good overlay of people wanting peace and people wanting to go back to war (on all sides!). This lets you really flesh out the factions, and the good and bad people in them. Have a more positive sort of Gray Morality going on.

As far as Flashpoints go, you re-write The Black Talon/Esseles for proper Cold War subtlety. I think we want to use the intro flashpoints to give people a better idea of the kind of proxy conflict stuff, where you might be fighting what appear to be a third party (like pirates), but you get info (of the non provable kind) that they're working for the Empire/Republic. And maybe come up with some kind of mechanic where party members can get special communications based on faction. Like, the main (everybody) cut scenes for the Esseles talk about it being pirates that are attacking them, but the Jedi/Trooper characters get a quick comm call that the pirates are probably working for the Empire and after a particular person.

For all the shared flashpoints, you tweak them so they are truly shared. One queue for everyone, we still need to work out exactly how we're getting the different factions their special flavor bits, but there's more of that here. And maybe a kind of saboteur mechanic for things like what to do with the missiles on Cademimu, so that they can still be launched at a fleet for a DS option, but it's not in-character obvious that someone did it.

We can still have some Empire and Republic specific flashpoints, which we might allow Underworld characters who are Friendly with the right faction to do. (Or maybe not if we're keeping the ones we have. They've got a bit of a secret mission vibe. Maybe we add a fun treasure hunt flashpoint for the Underworld folks.)

The end of the base game becomes the Cold War going hot because of Revan (and let's say it's not the Republic at large backing him, but a smaller group within the Republic that's okay with his plan). Now we get proper fall out from someone wanting to commit mass murder, we get a good climax, and we can shift from writing eight class stories to three-ish main stories with class and faction related flavor bits. You'd have those fighting for the Republic (ex-Empire characters could get good flavor bits about fighting their old allies and some suspicion from their new ones - a suspicion ex-Underworld characters would also get), for the Empire (again, joined members get some good flavor bits), or who are with the Underworld now.

First expansion is the war, maybe with some of what we used to have in Chapter Three going on. I'm also kind of tempted to weave in some actual foreshadowing for Zakuul here. I'm not keen on Space Voldemort or the time skip, but other parts of those expansions seem worth trying to save. But maybe we have the player characters working with Lana and Theron like in the Revan expansion, but it's about hints that there's something bad coming instead.

Next expansion, Zakuul attacks, things go super to shit, Lana, Theron, some people from Zakuul and the player character(s) form the Alliance. Oooh, wait, lets go ahead and keep the Vitiate/Valkorian thing, and have killing the Emperor be the end of the first expansion (because he wants to eat the galaxy - he's gone mad, but the Empire as a whole won't acknowlege it and are following him off a cliff, the Republic isn't seeing him and the Empire as separate, even evil characters live in the galaxy, etc). Now, Zakuul invades because when you kill Vitiate, Valkorian keels over. Whoops.

(Zakuul is the backup plan. If he can't destroy the galaxy as Vitiate, here comes the uber-Empire! You just managed to off him, but the uber-Empire gets fired at the known galaxy anyway.)

Now we have one story going, with different flavors depending on the characters relation to the three old factions. Kind of like we do in the existing game. And we avoid bumping the player character up to a ridiculous level of authority by making them part of the leadership of the Alliance instead of the leader. Keep them more in line with the base game power level.

Not quite sure where we go from here, but basically you have this kind of flowing faction thing going through the game that meshes well with the story.

I don't know. Mostly I wanted to work out how you could do something more interesting with faction.

[olderthannetfic]

It does work... eventually

riotbrrrd

reblogged your post

“wishforsomewherenew reblogged your post “A New History of Fandom Purges” ”#fandom#i feel like i need to start adding...”

#fandom#good points of reflexion although I wonder#if a story places a black character in a position usually filled by a white character#will the audience react to it the same way?#I fear racism would stick us into a corner where people would suddenly find flaws to the archetypes they usually like#because we know people tend to be less indulgent with poc in general#so the snarky geek would suddenly be read as pedant and annoying#and the dashing thief would be read as a thief#which isn't to say we shouldn't try to give these roles to poc#we need poc in more diverse roles!#just saying I'm not sure white fandom would just naturally follow#there is work that needs to be done directly with the audience#but it's certain that this work needs to be larger and more thought out than deleting entire popular ships

In practice, it’s a mix. The canons where the dashing thief, woobie, or geek is black are sometimes less popular overall than a similar canon where that character is white. On the other hand, part of the issue is that fandom size is roughly correlated to canon viewership, and it’s rare for a massive, massive franchise to cast a black lead in installment 1.

Fandom trends tend to get set very early in a canon’s history, and expanding the cast later doesn’t always change them. Black Panther was never going to derail the Stucky train or any of the other big established patterns of MCU fandom. Neither was introducing Sam, though Sam/Steve did get pretty popular. New Star Wars is a rare case where there was a black lead from the beginning in a super mega franchise, and Finn/Poe was the biggest ship by far right at the beginning of that fandom. It dropped behind Kylux and Reylo later, but it’s obvious that people did like Finn. That kind of casting and role does work. If people did more of it, it would work better.

The trouble is that the vast majority of fandom meta acts like an average fandom should look like MCU or Harry Potter. In reality, those are extreme outliers that are completely irrelevant to how most fandoms operate. Most genre media with black leads is material with a much smaller viewership than a MCU movie. Those media have smaller fandoms, but the black lead is usually pretty popular relative to the overall fandom size if they are indeed a trope fandom likes for white characters.

The three examples I chose weren’t random. They were from the three shows I mentioned: Hustle, Leverage, and Almost Human.

Hustle is a small fandom, at least for fic, and a moderately popular TV series overall. The original team leader, suave con artist Mickey Bricks (played by Adrian Lester) was one of the more popular characters. Mickey/Danny tends to be one of the biggest ships, and Mickey/Danny/Stacy is reasonably popular too.

Leverage is quite a popular fandom, and Hardison, the geek, is a fandom fave The big ship is the OT3 of Parker, Hardison, and Eliot. The component ships are also popular, especially the canon one of Parker and Hardison.

Almost Human was a bit of a trianwreck, but the entire fandom is basically shippers of the woobie android Dorian (played by Michael Ealy) and grumpy android-hating cop John Kennex.

Yeah, fandom can be pretty racist, but give us a Caves of Steel ripoff, and we will always go for the ship of the woobie bot and the human bot-hater who learns to be a better man--and probably gives gratuitous speeches about it in the process. It doesn’t matter if it’s DRN or RK800 or R. Daneel Olivaw: this trope is fannish catnip.

In fact, DBH and Almost Human are an excellent case study of this: They’re remarkably similar, right down to Minka Kelly being wasted in a trite love interest role. Both have a black android, but in AH, he’s one half of the iddy buddy cop duo (and popular for shipping), while in DBH, the equivalent character is white (and similarly popular). The black android in DBH gets saddled with some pretty dire civil rights allegories as he leads the android revolution. He has more foils with less iddy ship fodder for each, and his canon het ship is not very popular. People do talk about the character positively, but they don’t write all that much fic about him.

Characters of color do get held to a higher standard, but a lot of the problems are often coming directly from canon, even if they’re sometimes subtle. The rare canons that do a better job produce fandoms that appreciate the characters of color.

It helps to have ridiculous episodes involving bets, rivalry, and public nudity...

Or hurt/comfort...

Or Leverage’s... everything.

The main issue is that we need 100x the amount of media with a black character in a lead or main ensemble role that is specifically the Fandom Fave role. We need that media to be big budget and omnipresent, and we need that to be the status quo for a decade. That wouldn’t magically erase racism, but it would have a dramatic effect on what fic gets written.

Look at Sleepy Hollow! That show jumped the shark like whoa, but no matter how much people complain about the evil fans who liked the canon ship, 99% of that fandom is actually Ichabbie shippers. Even on AO3, bastion of inexplicable white man slash, most of it is still Ichabod/Abbie or Ichabod & Abbie.

Right now, the status quo is that these sources are rare, and fandom theorizing tends to ignore them in favor of a tiny handful of the biggest fandoms in fandom history. We’ll get another Almost Human long, long before we’ll get a superhero franchise where something like Black Panther is the first movie out of the gate. (Though, to be honest, Black Panther has like 3x the fic of most of my fandoms, and most of it is about T’Challa, so it’s doing pretty well.)

I’ll be interested to see what happens with the Rivers of London TV adaptation. I suspect that will provide both the next big fandom fave who is black and a breeding ground for toxic wank so horrendous it drives half the fandom away--Because whatever standard fans hold characters of color to in canon, it’s a thousand times worse in fic.

[transbionic-shieldmaiden]

a really long post about my stupid HRT adventure

cw medical stuff, tumors.

context: there was a post about getting on HRT that I read but I decided this was too personal to go in a reblog. donut rebagel, but feel free to reply.

ohhhh man, so like obviously i’m glad other people have had a better time than I when it comes to getting on hrt but i really gotta rant about the issues i had, because I had a hell of a time getting it DESPITE NOT ACTUALLY RUNNING INTO GATEKEEPING. so, story time:

this got long, so have a read more.

So I have executive dysfunction, which I cannot recommend. For me at least it comes in a package deal with a bunch of plasticbrains things I’m very much a fan of (stims! hyperfocus! being trans!), but I’d still very much like to not deal with it. And I also have social anxiety. Which overall is not a great combination of issues for dealing with the medical system.

Case in point: figuring out I’m trans was the catalyst for getting me to actually seek therapy (at MIT medical, which -- sidenote -- is free for students and I can’t recommend them highly enough), but what this actually meant was I took basically an entire semester to make the phone call to get an appointment, which was scheduled for a month after the call*. So far so great.

Anyway, as my therapy continued I kept coming in and complaining about dysphoria and being like “man i wish i could start hrt! but i won’t, because that involves talking to strangers :(” and eventually my therapist was like “so like. regular medical, which can prescribe hrt, is literally one floor below us. i can walk you down and schedule an appointment right now.”

and i was like “uhhhh wait i didn’t actually want my problem solved that means i have to talk to strangers!!!” but like obviously this was the social anxiety talking because i did actually want hrt. so my therapist walked me down to medical and i scheduled an appointment with the one Trans Doctor (tee-em) at MIT medical (like seriously this woman is as far as I can tell the PCP for like half of MIT’s trans population, we stan).

so the way this worked out is I needed three appointments: one intake appointment which was largely informational, one appointment with a physical checkup and a blood draw, and finally an appointment once the blood draw results came in. So I went in to the firs appointment, scheduled the second once it was done, and then MIT medical stole my blood.

And when that appointment was done I...didn’t schedule the third.

Cue several months passing due to executive dysfunction and social anxiety.

So I finally get myself together enough to schedule the last appointment, and I go in...and it turns out I have abnormally low testosterone. And I was all ready to be like “Oh no...isn’t that a shame...how terrible...” but the problem is, low testosterone in conjunction with my other blood metrics...was possibly a sign of a brain tumor.

That sounds worse than it actually is -- the brain tumor in question would’ve been benign, so it wouldn’t have been cancer. It does occasionally lead to blindness however, and low testosterone from said tumor would obviously not be very visible once I was taking spironolactone. So we needed to make sure I didn’t have a tumor before we could proceed with HRT. I was sent to take another blood test, optimized for the time of day when testosterone levels peak, and was therefore in the strange situation of being a trans woman hoping for high testosterone levels on a blood test.

Alas, it seems I was truly too trans for my own good, for it turns out the second test was even lower than the first.

This meant I had to go in for another blood test, and I had to get an MRI. And of course remember that every appointment I make here means 3-5 weeks depending on scheduling, all while I’m engaging in the standard MIT pastime of drowning in psets. Which is not fun when you’re depressed from dysphoria, let me tell you.

The MRI rolls around and it’s in this area of the Boston metro area Where The T Dares Not Go. There’s a bus stop near the clinic, but I have only been on an MBTA bus once and I really didn’t want to miss my appointment. So I hop in a lyft and soon it’s time for me to go in the Big Science Tube.

So here’s the thing about the Big Science Tube. It’s loud, it’s cramped, and in my case at least you get pumped with Contrast Juice which like goes in your brain or something? idk i’m not an MRI tech. I actually found it to be a not entirely unpleasant experience, because it sort of feels like you’re in a cryosleep chamber or something and I’m a huge nerd. But it’s also...massively disorienting. You can’t move, your vision is limited to the inside surface of a white cylinder, the whole thing is making Noise and vibrating, there’s the Contrast Juice sloshing in your brain...Oh, and at least in my case they let me listen to satellite radio while i was vibing in the science tube. Thing is, I don’t generally like radio music, since I tend to like individual songs more than genres, so I picked the jazz station. I figured this would ensure fairly enjoyable music the whole time, instead of a weird roller-coaster of songs I like, songs I hate, and songs I haven’t heard (the vast majority).

While I stand by this analysis in general, I do not recommend jazz as the soundtrack to the big science tube.

All this is to say that by the time I got out, I was extremely out of it and loopy. Oh, I also forgot to mention: I did not sleep well the night before. My sleep schedule is a mess at the best of times, and I was very nervous. So I am...completely off the shits by this point, not to mention extremely hungry and thirsty. They tell you to drink a lot to flush the Contrast Juice from your system, so that works out OK. In theory.

I get out, stand by the bus station for a bit, and conclude the bus isn’t coming. I walk across the street to a McDonalds, figuring I could really use some food and liquid. Which was correct.

...Except the bus came and went while I was in there, and looking at the schedule on my phone revealed I’d have to wait another half an hour for another.

This is where I make a terrible mistake. I look at my map, see that Harvard...isn’t too far from where I am, and Harvard has a T station! Perfect! So I, completely loopy from the MRI, still dehydrated because I haven’t gotten nearly enough liquids from McDonalds, decide to WALK TO HARVARD. It was a 30 minute walk, through unfamiliar territory, and I cannot stress this enough: I. Was. Off. The. Shits.

So I walk to Harvard using my phone’s GPS and whatever brain cells were not full of Contrast Juice, somehow managing to navigate through this random neighborhood and over the bridge without getting too lost or getting hit by a car. As I reach Harvard, I realize that this is a bad place for me to be in my current mental state: it’s bustling, full of standard college craziness; i think there was a guy in a chocolate bar costume which I could not process at the time. Oh, and I’ve never been to the Harvard T station so in my condition I struggle to find it. And when I do get there...well, here’s the thing about the Harvard T station: It’s huge. There’s several floors of underground bus terminals and an absolute warren of tunnels. Perfectly navigable, if you’re sober or know the area.

I am of course none of these things.

Still, somehow I find my way to the train, but that wasn’t even the end of my problems! Because, you see, my dorm is twenty minutes from the nearest T stop! So even once I get back to MIT I still have lots of walking to do. I don’t remember how I got back at that point; I think it involved a lot of drinking fountains.

Anyway, I guess this was supposed to be about me getting HRT? So it takes a while for the MRI results to get back, but it turns out I don’t have a tumor. However, in the meantime my parents have been pushing for me to freeze some sperm cells, so that I can have kids someday. Here’s the thing: I do not want kids. I do not expect to ever want kids. And if that changes, I’d be quite happy to adopt kids. But my parents are offering to pay for it, and the risk-averse part of my brain is like “oh...maybe i should do it...just in case???”

It takes me a month to actually call a fertility clinic. In the meantime, I am struggling in my classes; dysphoria is not conducive to educational success. It was not a good time to be me, let’s just put it that way. Finally, I make the call, and uhhhh it turns out sperm freezing is really expensive? And you have to go in for an intake appointment...then do some tests...and then...

So at this point I say, fuck it! And I get on HRT the next week. In total it took me like...a year to get on HRT, depending on how you count it? And all this without anyone actually gatekeeping me on being an Invalid Trans or whatever. But it’s all good, because now I’m far happier and more together than I ever thought I can be. The moral of this story is: HRT good, executive dysfunction bad, and don’t wander through Harvard while completely off the shits from MRI aftereffects.

*this is the one issue with MIT medical; their services are great but also in high demand. the system is a bit better once you actually get into it though.

[dontatmethanks]

Part of your world

A Levihan fic (mermaid AU)

AN: Ahhhh! I’m so glad you guys liked this fic 😭💕 So I’m gonna give y’all what you asked for, here’s chapter 2!!!

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

Chapter 2:

It’s been three days they received Levi into their care, and Hange has maintained a vigilance that can only be compared to that of a mother bear. She made sure he was comfortable and fed, checking his injuries twice a day much to his annoyance. It was like pulling teeth when it came to giving him the pain meds and antibiotics, he absolutely refused to injest them.

“Levi, I swear they don’t taste like anything! All you have to do is swallow.” Hange urged him, thrusting the hand that was filled with the medication in his face. He moved away from her and growled low in his throat.

“ I’m not putting those in my mouth.” He seethes at her while glaring at the pills and baring his teeth.

Hange sighs and drops her arm, settling her bottom back on the rock she was sitting on.

“Mm, well I guess I can just give them to you through an injection then.” She says in a cheery tone as she pulls out a syringe from her kit next to her. When Levi sees the sharp glint of the need he immediately wrenched himself away from her, scooting backwards and hissing. His injured tail scrapes against the rocks which causes him to howl in pain. Hange drops the string back into the kit and throws her hands up.

“Okay, no needles got it.” And when he didn’t move or look at her hange shuffled a little closer , “hey it’s okay, I promised I wouldn’t hurt you right? I just want make sure you’re comfortable.” She says in a reassuring tone.

Levi looks at her this time and at her empty hands, then uncurls himself and moves closer to her before saying, “just give me those.” And pointing to the pill bottles sitting next to her kit. Hange smiled and nodded before retrieving the correct dosage. She reaches out to him with her empty hand and gestures towards his hand.

He blinks slowly and stares at her hand before hesitantly placing his hand in hers. She rugs him forward and he freezes as she drops the pills in his hand. She notices that his nails are pretty sharp but odd thing about the was that they were clean.

Levi snatches his hand back and shoved the pills in his mouth before she can stop him. He chews them violently and Hange just gapes at him when he swallows.

“There that wasn’t so bad huh?” Hange grins at him and he just wrinkles his nose at her.

“Tasted like shit.”

Hange laughs before saying, “you were supposed to swallow them instead.” And zips her kit closed, watching him slide into the water slowly wincing slightly. Leaning against the rocks he flexes his tail a bit before dipping his entire body beaneath the surface.

She decides to leave him alone for a while, Erwin needs her to get some paperwork done anyways. She collects her things before making her way out of the enclosure and up the observation deck and into the research building. The facility was built like a campus of sorts, and split into three large buildings that they called wings. The research building was on the left side of the main building and the building to the right was where the medical wing was and all the team training took place. Behind the buildings were extensions that lead to multiple enclosures that were modeled after zoos and sanctuaries.

She made her way to her office, which was conveniently in the research building, but before she would stop by Erwin’s office to brief him on her patient’s recovery.

“Dr.Hange.” He greeted her as she walked in and sat on the the couch near the door, sighing contentedly.

“How is the mer doing?” He asked, not looking up from the paperwork he was filling out.

“Oh Levi? He’s healing okay, enough for him to go in the water. His tail is what I’m more worried about, it’s gonna affect his ability to swim.” She explains to him in a serious tone. Erwin looks up at her and folds his arm on the desk in front of him.

“Ive seen the x-rays, he won’t be able to survive on his own like that.”

Hange nods. “So this won’t be a catch and release thing?”

Erwin only nods. Hange frowns as she gets up from her seat and dismisses herself to her office. She felt bad for Levi, they would treat him well here but the fact that he won’t be able to survive on his own is quite sad. They had a few patients like him who will be spending the rest of their lives here, retired from the wildlife. Hange hums to herself quietly looking through his file that was filled with notes she wrote during observation. She scribbled down every detail she knew about from his behavior to his injuries, his preferred food, hair color etc.

She was hoping for him to tell her about his life in the wild, if he had some sort of pod or wa he alone, but she couldn’t pry anything from him. He only spoke to her when he needed something, or when he was curious enough to ask about human objects. Smiling to herself she closed the file.

He would be taken care of, she’d make sure of it.

By the time she finishes her paperwork it’s already seven pm and her being a workaholic decides she’d stay overnight. She wanted to observe Levi tonight just in case.

Grabbing a couple of her books from the bookshelf in her office she made her into the observation deck. She wondered if the mer could read or even write, he seemed fluent in his English so she decided to test it out. Making her way into his enclosure she notices that he’s not anywhere near the resting area. She looked up at the setting sun and then at the water, he was probably exploring underneath the water.

Hange plops herself on one of the rocks near the edge of the water and rolls up the sleeves of the pants she changed into. She dips her feet into to the water sighing contentedly and moves them around a bit. There’s some movement to her right but she pretends to ignore it. A slightly webbed hand grabs her right foot and tosses it out of the water making her fall back a little, she cackles and wiggles her toes.

She moves back towards the edge and is met with Levi’s pissed face, thin eyebrows furrowed in annoyance.

“What are you doing you shitty human?” He grinds out.

Hange giggles and crosses her legs, “just making sure the water temperature is right.”

“It’s fine.” He glares at her, “keep your disgusting human feet out of the water I swim in”

“Okay, okay I’m sorry.” Hange giggles at his sour expression. “ How is your tail?”

Levi shrugs and looks away, crossing his arms over the rocky edge and placing his chin on top of them. “Hurts when I move it too much, makes me swim all weird.” He tells he in a bored tone.

“That’s because your missing a fin...you won’t be able to survive on your own like that.” She cringes when she explains it to him. She can see his face fall a little, he almost looks sad.

Hange clears her throat awkwardly and grabs one of the books she brought.

“I have something for you.” She tells him and he looks at her curiously.

“What is it?” He asks her.

“It’s a book.” She tells him moving closer and showing it to him. Her looks at it then gives her a blank stare.

“What the hell is a book?”

Hange snorts and the flips through the pages . “A book can be something to learn from or it can be a form of entertainment, this one for example is called an ‘encyclopedia of marine life’. ”

She stops at a random page and places it on the space between them. She point later at the picture of a sunfish before saying, “it tells you information about practically every creature in the sea.” Levi scoots closet to examine the page. “Except you guys, encyclopedias are outdated haha.”

Levi was just staring at the picture, he looked at her and then back to the picture.

“What does it say?”

Ah, she figured.

“Don’t worry we’ll work on teaching you how to read.” Levi looks up at her confusion plastered all over his features. She just smiles and picks up the book.

“For now I’ll just read it to you.” She says, “get comfy.” She places the book on her lap and flips back to the beginning and begins to read in a soft tone. He listens, head resting against the palm of his hand, leaning to inspect every picture she shows him. He forgets about the pain coming from his injuries, he forgets about the fact that he won’t be able to swim on his own anymore. He just hangs on to every picture and every word that comes out of her mouth. He take a good look at the woman who focuses on the page infront of her. He observes her facial features, dark brown eyes, hooked nose , soft brown locks of wavy hair pulled back into a shitty looking ponytail. He normally detests humans, but this human, he thinks....this one is okay.

By the time she gets to the twentieth page she stops and looks at him. He’s asleep on the rock next to her, curled Into himself, gills fluttering softly. He looks peaceful when he lets his guard down. Hange smiles and closes the book which causes him to jolt awake, rubbing at his bleary eyes.

“I think the hammock would be more comfortable,” she says to him gesturing at the hanging object behind her. “ for your tail.”

He blinks and nods.

“Need some help getting up there?”

He hesitates for a minute before nodding slowly .

He lets her help him onto the hammock, she is careful of his injuries. After he is situated she grabs the books and bids him a goodnight.

“Wait.” He stops her, clawed hand grabbing at her sweater. She stops and raises an eyebrow at him.

“Can you...can you uh leave it, the book?” He asks her in a small voice gesturing towards the encyclopedia, it surprises her how shy he sounds. She gives him a tender smile.

“Of course.” She says, handing it to him. He grabs it and tucks it under his arm, as if it were some sort of precious treasure.

“Thank you.” He whispers, eyelids drooping a little.

Hange’s smile only gets wider.

“No problem grumpy, good night.”

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

AN: So that’s the second chap for you guys ahhh! Thank you for all the nice comments,likes and reblogs you guys 🤧💕 I’m honestly winging this story but the inspiration is coming to me y’all the next chapter is gonna be so cute just wait 😤.

Anywayssssss, until next time 😘

part 3

[r6shippingdelivery]

Hey there! ♥ If you have some time and inspiration... can you do the whole ABC thing for Glaz? ♥ I never find anything similar about him and I really love your HC's ♥

Well, someone is popular! 😄I got these two almost immediately after reblogging the pertinent post, and before that I already got this ask 😂Hey op, seeing my same icon really confused me, for a moment lmao

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

He’s very affectionate, cuddling and kissing his partner, caressing their arms or thighs. That has led to round 2 more than once 😄 If not, he will make sure both of them are clean and comfortable.

B = Body part (Their favourite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

Glaz is proud of his body, but after being called a pretty boy more than once, he’s quite aware that his good looks work in his favour. That’s the main reason he usually shaves his beard, unless his partner states they like it. When it comes to his partners, Glaz has a particular weakness for the ass, loves touching the ass, getting a handful of those plump buttcheeks and push his partner closer for a kiss. Well toned arms are also a great turn on.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

When it starts to dry it’s a nasty mess, but otherwise Glaz is fascinated by seeing his cum (or his partner’s) splattered over their bodies. It reminds him of paint on a canvas, and he finds a certain artistic appeal to it.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

There’s a secret sketch book he’d rather die before showing it to anyone. He draws porn of his teammates and colleagues. Of his crush and/or partner mostly, solo or with him pure fanatsising or from memories of things they’ve done; but also from other colleagues, people he thinks could be a couple too, it’s fascinating and helps him with anatomy practice. Plus, it hurts nobody as long as the drawings never see the light of day, right?

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

He has some experience, not as much as he’d like but he’s not a blushing, innocent boy. So idk, average experience I guess?

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

For fast paced sex, he prefers doggy style or a variant, a position where he can take his partner from behind and pound into them. For more drawn out and sensual intercourse, spooning position to caress his partner’s body as he pleases, or good old missionary, so he can look into his partner’s face and kiss them. He’s also fond of lap sex: him sitting on the couch and his partner straddling his lap, getting hot and intimate with lots of kissing and petting, although then they have to take care to not stain the couch with their activities.

No visual aid cause Tumblr is a christian server now and would flag my post.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

He’s not a goofy person, although he takes things with some humour to defuse the situation if there’s any tension. However, he’s mainly a mix of serious and pretty focused on his partner during sex.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

He’s naturally not very hairy, so he usuallydoesn’t need to do much grooming, just trimming a bit from time to time.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…) 

He’s a man of few words, but he has no problems letting his partner know how much he loves them, and will look adoringly at them if the position allows face to face contact. He has a romantic side.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

When he masturbates, he usually doesn’t draw it out for long, except for those times he’s alone at night and he might edge himself until he can’t take it anymore.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Glaz is a biter, loves marking up his partner and doesn’t mind if they mark him back as well. I feel compelled to say he’s also into trying to have sex in empty but public spaces, like the common showers, or in the middle of a field during a camping trip, or behind in the training grounds if there’s nobody else around look, I wrote him like that more than once, I think I have to include it

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

Anywhere relatively private, although nothing trumps the comfort of their bed.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Whisper filth in his ear and you’ll make him go from 0 to 100 in a moment. It works even at the most inappropriate places. Under his calm exterior, he is a horny boi.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

He would never roleplay a rape scene, the moment he hears his partner mildly distressed he would stop, safeword be damned. Generally, nothing that can really hurt either of them (spanking is fine in that regard, but not too extreme, choking is out of the question, etc)

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

He loves to receive and has no problem reciprocating, although he sometimes tries to push deeper and makestheir partner gag. He feels bad about it but can’t control himself.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

That depends on his mood and whether they’re going for a quick romp or if there’s time to take things slow. As a rule, he’ll start slow and sensual and graduallly pick up the pace until he ends going fast and deep.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Did I already say he’s a horny boy and likes taking some risks? He’s more than fine with quickies, but also loves proper sex, turning it almost into a marathon and seeing for how long they can go at it.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

He’s open to trying new things, as long as both he and his partner are totally okay with it. And for the risks, the risk of possible discovery is mainly what he dabbles in, risk of injury is not something that appeals to him.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

If it’s not a quickie, he can last long. He’s also an enthusiast of going for a second round after a little wait, and that downtime is perfect to keep worshipping his partner and make sure they’re as horny for it as him.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

He has a few toys, and he sometimesuses them, but he prefers using them on his partner, as a warm up for sex or as part of his teasing during foreplay.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

Yes, he’s a fucking tease. From heated looks, “accidental” touches and caresses, and whispered dirty talk, he likes to have his partner burning for it long before they start to undress. And once in bed he’ll continue teasing. He loves watching his partner go mad with lust and pleasure, and if they beg that’s the icing on the cake.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

He’s not very loud, but he makes some pretty moans, espcially when he’s nearing orgasm. 

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

While Glaz has no problem letting his partner take control if that’s what they like, being the dominant one comes naturally to him. Which can surprise his partner the first few times, since his gentle approach and almost shy demeanor might make them think he’d be easy to lead around. Boy, they are in for a surprise!

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Slightly above average, nothing that will make his partner pale at the thought of taking it in. It curves slightly upward when erect.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

He’s young-ish and horny, keeps a sorta innocent appearance but he’s ready to go nearly always. I introduced the concept of sex fiend Glaz  a long time ago and I love it, so it fucking stays okay? xD

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards) 

Unless they’ve been at it for many rounds or he was tired from before, he prefers to enjoy the afterglow awake. Don’t expect much pillow talk, though.

[jui-imouto-chan]

Part 10 of the Mostly Human AU

Level Select:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

Getting through to the last of the suggestions from @manadrite ‘s most recent comment (as of posting this)! I love having suggestions, keep ‘em coming!

Connor isn’t one to get terribly scared. He actually gets a thrill from scary situations.

His sense of self-preservation is startlingly low, for a being granted with immeasurable intelligence. At least, that’s what Hank claims.

Furthermore, Connor loves Horror. From movies to novels to images, he loves things made to be scary.

- Connor may or may not have had a weird crush on Slenderman for like a week. 

Maybe it was the towering height and the lack of a face, or maybe it was the slim fitting suit that made the creature so appealing to him.

Okay maybe Connor has a suit kink.

When he sees Gavin in an officer’s clothing and finds the man slightly attractive, it’s clear that he just straight (pfft) up has a uniform kink.

Connor will take this newfound information to the  g r a v e.

Connor goes to see a horror movie with Hank and the twins, and he’s ecstatic. 

He puts all of the pieces together detective style to figure out how the protagonists are either gonna die or solve the problem while Collin and Conan grip their seats a bit too tight and while Hank mutters flaws about the movie under his breath.

“This scene does not include a lap dance.” 

“What was that?” 

“Nothing!”

By the end of the movie, Collin and Conan had migrated to partially hide behind Connor, and Connor points this out to them.

They lie and say they were getting sleepy, and were dozing off on his seat.

Connor goes with it with a knowing smirk and a wink, mischief twinkling in his eyes.

Connor goes missing one day.

They try to give him a call when he they don’t see him that morning, but they receive no answer.

Hank and the twins storm through the house, upturning furniture and looking under the beds, in the closets, outside. He’s nowhere to be found.

They call up all of his friends, but nobody knows where he is.

The DCPD gets at least fifteen calls all at once reporting Connor missing.

While everyone is freaking out, Connor is actually, in fact, not missing.

He is out for a walk, Sumo at the vet’s for a check up and grooming, and he spots an animal shelter/pet shop. 

There are dogs and cats in cages by the windows, and Connor gravitates towards them without thought to anything else.

He enters the shop and, after talking with the person behind the counter for ten minutes, is surrounded by animals, all vying for his attention.

He’d never seen a cat before this, and honestly, he now holds cats to the same regard as dogs. 

It’s his first time seeing a lot of animals, all of them immensely cute. He giggles when a rabbit nibbles on his pointer finger.

The employee who allowed this to happen is melting against the counter, everything is too much. Too cute. 

The employee pulls out a camera and records, knowing the manager would love to use this as an ad. 

Connor already gave his consent for any media that his interaction might appear in, so it’s all gucci, even though Connor’s too preoccupied with the animals to even realize he’s being recorded.

Connor is there for a few hours, all of the time considered blissful to the android.

The video was sent to the editor as soon as the employee got clips of Connor interacting with each and every one of the animals. 

It's edited impressively quickly, yet still professionally; the editor accredited it to “passion”. 

When the ad goes up on all of the shelter/shop ‘s social media, with Connor tagged in the photo, everything halts.

Connor finally registers that his phone, being sat on by two guinea pigs, is ringing.

He answers it, and is disappointed when he's told to return home immediately by Hank. Hank sounds angry, distressed, and relieved all at once.

The employee reassures him, telling him that he can return whenever he’d like.

There’s an issue when Connor is on his way home, however, as he gets attacked. 

A man tries to mug him with a knife to his throat, pushing him into an alleyway, and while Connor manages to push him away, he doesn’t anticipate the man having accomplices.

He gets a few surprise stab wounds that go into some biocomponents, but their timers are set to at least an hour before he shuts down.

He defeats his attackers and sends Hank his location, telling him that he needs emergency care needs to be taken to Kamski as soon as possible.

His systems kick him into sleep mode against a cold alley wall to preserve thirium, which leaks copiously from his many wounds.

Connor wakes up to the ceiling of Kamski’s “operating” room, vaguely wondering if the past few months had been the equivalent of a dream, if he had imagined all of the friends he’d made and all of the things he’d experienced.

The thought...saddens Connor.

Luckily, a few minutes after he awakens, he hears Hank’s gruff voice and a plethora of footsteps approaching the room he’s in.

Connor goes to sit up, but winces in pain. His movement brings up a prompt, asking if he’d like to interface with the android equivalent of an IV, though it contains a liquid that promotes self-reparation at the cost of his mental capabilities being lowered until his wounds are healed.

TL;DR, it’s the closest Connor can get to pain killing medication.

He accepts the interface and he suddenly feels...oddly happy?

Everything is moving around the slightest bit and Connor can’t help but smile. Everything was great and he was having fun, sitting on the table. 

He giggles drunkenly.

His wounds are slowly closing themselves, and he scoots to the edge of the table while humming an unknown tune. He smiles triumphantly once his knees finally hang over the edge, he kicks them and rocks his head side to side.

When everyone enters the room, he’s surrounded by people and get-well gifts and he’s just so happy. He really doesn’t think of the consequences of his actions.

So that’s exactly why he thanks them all with hugs and kisses, skin tingly and buzzing while his chest feels warm and full.

The members of Jericho are frozen when he gives them all kisses to the cheek, and then all of them simultaneously slap a hand onto their cheek and stare at each other with pink faces. Daniel and Simon both duck their heads while Josh pulls his hood over his face and rugs on the drawstrings. North is suddenly more occupied with poking Markus’ red cheeks and teasing him as he shakes.

Hank tries to fight him off, but eventually relents, ruffling his hair bashfully. Conan and Collin both turn their heads as he approaches their cheeks, leading to him kissing both of them on the lips, though he just laughs good naturedly when they both nod at each other and go to opposite sides of the room, ears red.

Ralph and the Jerrys are surprisingly shy when Connor kisses them, but Ralph gives him a kiss on the cheek back, while the Jerrys all rub their necks and look away with silly grins.

Luther and Kara let Alice take their share of kisses, and she presses a kiss to Connor’s nose.

Rupert tries to escape Connor, but the brunette grabs his sleeve and gives him a kiss to the temple. Rupert immediately tries to flee the room, and Connor waves. Rupert hesitates before waving back and running away.

Connor goes to give Gavin a kiss, too, but the detective shoves a homemade cupcake in his mouth before he can. He still manages to give the guy a hug, though.

Kamski approaches, by Connor’s hug and kiss for him are stolen by Chloe, who had just snapped out of her shock at seeing Connor surrounded by a goddamn harem.

She growls at everyone in the room, sans Alice, Hank, Kara, and Luther.

Kamski is kinda concerned?? People don’t growl like that, wtf.

Also, he’s kinda upset that she’s keeping him from getting affection from his own creation but he’s not about to let his head get ripped off today

Chloe says that there’s too many people in the room, it’s getting late, and that Connor should get some more rest so that he can recover completely.

She tries to sound pleasant, but she really just sounds threatening af

Once she’s sufficiently scared the fuck out of everyone there and gotten them to leave, she puts her hands on Connor’s shoulders and tries to explain that nobody is allowed to touch him bc he’s too precious and, “nobody deserves you. This world doesn’t deserve you. The G-Man in the sky doesn’t even deserve you u pure boi.”

He doesn’t remember a word of this in the morning, but Chloe doesn’t know that.

He goes home in Hank’s car, Sumo already back from the vet and now laying across his lap, and finds out that Conan and Collin are at registration for their next year of college 

(lol idk if thats something u have to go do at college, im 15 and clueless)

Next Level: College Care Packages and Birthday Parties (suggested by @supposedlymatureadult )

X | Continue to Next Level

O | Save Progress and Quit to Main Menu

————————————— •

I think I got carried away with the kissing but I just really wanted Connor to be overly affectionate. At least I didn’t go down the sexual route.

Leave suggestions in the notes or in my ask, along with any questions, comments, and anything else!

Side note: If you want to receive notice of this AU but not the other random things I post/reblog (don’t worry I‘m not offended if that’s the case), I’m marking them all with #Jui’s Mostly Human AU in the tags, so you can follow that instead if that’s preferable!

[piper-aileen-lenox]

██▒   GENERAL

NAME:  Piper Aileen Lenox ALIAS/NICKNAME(S):  Pip, Pipes, little red, kiddo, Wendy Clear (which is her stage name when she’s dancing) GENDER:  Cis woman. AGE:  23 DATE OF BIRTH:   June 13, 1967 (or 1995 if we’re doing the modern verse) OCCUPATION:  Disgruntled young adult. Struggling freelance artist. Waitress. Exotic dancer. Other assorted odd jobs

██▒   APPEARANCE

EYE COLOR:  Blue HAIR COLOR:  Red (with darker undertones) HEIGHT:   5′2 SCARS:  Yes. Fair amount of self harm scars across the tops of her thighs and some on her wrists as well. Other assorted ones from falling off of bikes or cutting herself on accident. BURNS:  Scarring left over from a cigarette being put out on her by a boyfriend. It’s on her side at the midpoint of her ribs OVERWEIGHT:  No UNDERWEIGHT: Yes. She has a habit of not eating some meals to save money, and the meals she does eat are not particularly filling or fattening. So, she’s actually fairly underweight. She also has a bit of a fixation on her appearance, and her interpretation of her appearance tends to be fatter than she is, which can lead to some restrictive eating. It’s...just a perfect storm, so eating is just really sketchy for her.

██▒   FAVORITE

COLOR:  Don’t make her chose. It’s too hard for her to chose. HAIR COLOR:  No preference at all. She just doesn’t like her’s. EYE COLOR:  She really loves darker eyes. Basically brown, hazel eyes. She thinks it’s like seeing tiny universes in peoples’s eyes because there’s so many different shades. SONG:  Right now? Let’s go with Love You Like an Alcoholic by The Taxpayers MOVIE:  Uh, hard choice for her. Let’s go with  TV SHOW: Not much for TV, especially because her apartment doesn’t get cable. But she likes the Twilight Zone and SNL. FOOD: Not much of an eater. But probably peach ice cream. DRINK: The cheapest alcohol she can find and coffee (preferably straight black) BOOK: Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger PASSED UNIVERSITY:  Tried art school in NYC, but dropped out shortly after starting HAD SEX:  More than once HAD SEX IN PUBLIC:  Too many times. GOTTEN PREGNANT:  Mostly just a bunch of close calls KISSED A BOY:  Yes KISSED A GIRL:  Yes GOTTEN TATTOOS: Planning on it, but not yet. GOTTEN PIERCINGS: Yes. Double pierced ears HAD A BROKEN HEART:  All the time BEEN IN LOVE:  She thinks so, but it’s probably more of puppy love or infatuation. It doesn’t make it hurt any less when they leave, though. STAYED UP FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS: Frequently. Mostly because of work, coffee consumption, and/or self destructive tendencies.

██▒   ARE THEY

A VIRGIN: Absolutely not. A KISSER: Yes. Including platonic kisses. Although, she won’t say no to being kissed... SCARED EASILY:  Of some things, not everything. Not afraid of spiders, for example, but very afraid of dying and not leaving behind anything memorable. JEALOUS EASILY:  Yes. She has really deep set self esteem problems, so she feels a little bit threatened by just about anyone. But she tries not to act on it most of the time. But she tries to take a stance where she’s not surprised if she finds out her partner is cheating on her. TRUSTWORTHY:  If you’re her friend or you’ve done something for her, she’ll do just about anything to help you out. But if you’re not friends? It’s a flip of a coin.

DOMINANT:  Sometimes, but if you catch her in a particular mood, she’ll indulge you. SUBMISSIVE: Usually, but depends how she’s feeling and who her partner is. (Although she’s pretty bossy) IN LOVE:  Not currently (although verse dependent) SINGLE:  She’s got a series of short lived boyfriends that she’s more invested in than they’re invested in her. But if we’re shipping or plan on shipping, obviously she can be single.

██▒   RANDOM QUESTIONS

HAVE THEY HARMED THEMSELVES:  As stated above, she struggled a fair amount of physical self harm when she was a bit younger, but it does still happen occasion now. She has self destructive behaviors that she doesn’t try to curb do to indifference to her mortality and believing that she shouldn’t be happy/healthy. So, drinking problems, occasional harder drug use (other than weed), unprotected sex, walking in unsafe places at unsafe times, meeting random hookups in dangerous ways, purposefully not eating or not sleeping. Just...not super nice to herself  THOUGHT OF SUICIDE / ATTEMPTED SUICIDE:  There have been a handful of half-hearted attempts when she was in high school that comprised mostly of her swallowing a bottle of Advil and seeing if anything happened. But she’s occasionally mixes drugs and alcohol she shouldn’t in hopes that she might not wake up. Has tried to strangle herself with a cord, but gave up before she started to actually choke. So, in general, lots of attempts that didn’t amount in much and in which she didn’t really fully commit. There’s an underlying fear of what comes after and if there’s an off chance that somethings might get better, so she hasn’t followed through, even though she thinks about it a fair amount. WANTED TO KILL SOMEONE:  Mostly herself. But the guy who took her virginity comes up a fair amount as well. She resents him quite a lot. DROVE A CAR:  Can legally drive but doesn’t have a car (although she failed her driver’s ed test twice) HAVE/HAD A JOB: An assortment of shitty, minimum wage or tip based jobs that she isn’t particularly good at. And no one is exactly jumping at the chance to employee her as an artist.

██▒   FAMILY

SIBLINGS: 2 older sisters, Claire and Chandler, neither of which she likes PARENTS: Dorothy and Peter Lenox CHILDREN: N/A PETS: None, but she really wants a cat

RULES:  repost, dont reblog!

Tagged by: @ninaromina​ Tagging: @coalessscence @dimenovelhero @diicktective @luxche @frxncaise @the-fires-dead @wellmeaning @strawpolls

[yeonchi]

Generic Name, Generic Update

Some of you may be wondering why the Ecchi Waifu Network hasn’t been deleted by now. I stated that I would hold off on doing so until after the third stage of the protest (to be announced, will reblog when details come), but even then, I’m beginning to have second thoughts on my decision.

Firstly, the tag links in the archived pages actually link back to the relevant tag page on the blog, not a collection of posts in the archive with that tag, so they are counterproductive. There may also be some links on the main Waifu Network that lead to some posts on the Ecchi Waifu Network, so I don’t want to break them unless absolutely necessary (then again, those posts have likely become irrelevant, so that’s a moot point).

Secondly, believe it or not, there is still a little bit of activity happening on there following the NSFW ban, namely people liking some posts that weren’t flagged as such. If people find that blog, whether through the posts or reblogs. I still hope for the main Waifu Network to get some recognition, since I’ve put the link for it in the Ecchi Waifu Network’s blog description.

Thirdly, the blog hasn’t been marked as explicit; even if I did, I’m kind of glad I removed that setting. You might agree that the content on there isn’t NSFW enough to be considered “explicit”, even if Tumblr’s definition of “female-presenting nipples is a bit silly”.

As far as I know, Tumblr are only preventing explicit blogs from being viewed by anyone (other than their owners), not deleting them altogether. Even though I’m not a fan of this method, I should give them credit that they weren’t brought out by Facebook and gone the way of the zucc (at which point I would’ve deleted the Ecchi Waifu Network straight away). If the Ecchi Waifu Network does get hidden (at this point it’s no longer a matter of if, but when), then chances are that I will be deleting it. I have no intention of appealing the flagged posts (or blog if the inevitable happens) because I have no ground to stand on for them.

The prospect of reversing the NSFW ban is pretty much a bygone thought at this point, but there is a final hope I’m going to try, which is namely the third stage of the protest that I mentioned. This will be a week-long log off that is currently being planned for 1-8 February. In conjunction to this, they are also planning on mass tweeting official figures related to this and leaving negative reviews on the app stores just as they did in the second stage (I didn’t participate in it because I don’t use Twitter anymore). Once again, I’ll reblog the details when they come out.

So how have things gone for me following the NSFW ban, apart from all the stock taking I did? Believe it or not, a porn bot followed me (on this account, maybe the Waifu Network as well) in the past few days. Don’t bother looking for it because it’s already deleted, but from what I can recall, it had image posts with a linked description saying “Gay Porn” or something. No dicks were seen in the images, but I only looked at the blog for a second when I first saw it and only found out it was deleted when I tried to check a second time.

Some people were saying that the porn bots were using SFW content to conceal themselves, so I’m not surprised if that’s the way they are going. I don’t know if the bot owner deleted the account or Tumblr did, but if it were the latter, I’d probably give them props for doing it, even if they were prompted to by the reports.

Every now and then, I check my followers on here and the Waifu Network and block those that post pornography, bots or not (though admittedly, I’m a bit easy on those who post/reblog anime fanart, ecchi or hentai). I’ve blocked quite a few of those blogs and I’m not surprised if they were affected by the NSFW ban. The reason why I do this is because these two blogs are intended to be for a general audience and I don’t really like the sound of NSFW blogs following me.

When I made my last post on the Ecchi Waifu Network before the NSFW ban, I had 220 posts backed up. The number of posts has now dropped to 151 since the posts with “female-presenting nipples” were hidden (for the record, the main Waifu Network had 673 posts just before the NSFW ban; excluding the posts I made after it, that number is down to 672, so it wasn’t a big loss). Some posts were rightly flagged for having said content, while some were wrongly flagged as there was little to no nipple exposure at all. Ironically, there were a couple of posts with nipples that weren’t flagged, which just goes to show how flawed their content flagging system is.

Like I said in my 2018 review post, I don’t really have any plans for new segments; I’ll just be posting random stuff when I feel like it, just like the old times when I first joined Tumblr. The backup archive of the Ecchi Waifu Network is also available from here.

Just a side note before I finish this post. As with other issues like English dubs and the gender of the Thirteenth Doctor in Doctor Who, the NSFW ban has become another one of those issues where supporters for change are derided by trolls, opinion-neutrals or people in support of those moves. Sure, you can’t please everyone, but these people, who don’t support both sides getting a fair deal, sound like they are proud of cucking the people that are disadvantaged as a result of those changes.

This is a thing I learnt after about four-and-a-half years of ranting about English dubs; to big companies who provide non-consumable goods and services (including video games or social media), you are not the customer, you are the product. Like politicians, companies can do whatever they want to their services if it means they can spend less money or make more money. They could care less about the opinions of the “minority” because it’s not the “majority” that has those opinions. You’ll probably be feeling the same way when a company does something you disagree with. The more you oppose or troll anyone that has opposing opinions to a company’s proposed change, the more it will come back to bite you when they eventually turn on you.

In other words, Tumblr couldn’t care less about us if it means they can still earn money. If you think that people like us, who oppose the NSFW ban and/or support the log off protest, are wasting their time, then don’t blame us if Tumblr decides to close down. People are saying that Tumblr is dead because of the NSFW ban; don’t be a part of the problem if it actually dies.

UPDATE - 15 January 2019: Tumblr has now given us a section where we can review the posts that have been flagged on our blogs. Well, at least that’s one thing they listened to their users for. There was only one post that was flagged on the Waifu Network, so I’ve decided to appeal that, along with a few posts on the Ecchi Waifu Network that don’t have “female-presenting nipples”.

UPDATE - 17 January 2019: All appealed posts have been restored. My numbers are back to normal now, so maybe that was a bug on their end.

UPDATE - 19 January 2019: As mentioned, here are the details for the third stage of the protest!

[secretsofthemasquerade]

What this all means? WoD prelude issues

Abuse will be mentioned

Disclaimer: I don’t want VtM to become a nest for gamer-gaters asshats, so let it be clear that I stand for feminism, positive representation and progressiveness. And further than that, I stand for meaningful, well written media. This is both beyond offensive, and badly written (and badly coded!).

Alright, now that you may (or may not) have read my spoiler free review of the WoD: Prelude vampire game (we eat blood all our friends are dead), this is the second part of this review. The one that really stirs shit, tackles what this all means, and talks about the problems surrounding the two authors. Good brew incoming!

There are a few issues that need mentioning; Zak’s reputation of being a dick (to say the least), white wolf saying they don’t give a shit, and one trans character in the game.

First, I must say I said what I needed to about Sarah (the second author of the Vampire gale) in a few reblogged discussions I had with her about it; you can read that here. She claims the “problematic trans character” is a reference to someone else, but as the anon in that ask pointed out, the name given to the character totally references someone else (and it’s not like Avery is a common first name, so the “coincidence” excuse is weak, to say the least). It’s probably a little bit of both tbh. White wolf stands behind their choice btw.

This is my random, worthless opinion on the trans character’s subject: I don’t think the trans community deserves to be treated like this, and I’m not going to police whether trans people can talk about their dicks (or lack thereof) or not. Sarah likes her characters bold and unapologetic, which is perfectly “none of my fucking business”, I just find that it gives too much of an excuse for people to actually ask trans people about their dicks (or not) which is a definite no-no when it comes to, you know, basic manners. Why encourage that? Most trans people do not want to talk about it to random strangers they’ve just met, so why have that be the main representation of trans people in the media? Sex workers who brag about their dicks and who are serial killers? I find it tasteless at best, dangerous (again, “hey, if this is what trans people are, i totally can ask about their dicks!” kind of shits) at worst. Not that sex workers who talk about their dicks are wrong in anyway, of course. Note that I have no problem with a character being trans, being a serial killer, or being a loud unapologetic bitch. I have a problem with what it may lead to, and how respectful of/to the community the character is. And it’s simply not written with the respect and the love the trans community deserves. The fact that Sarah herself is trans doesn’t make her a good candidate to write well-made (trans or not) characters. I’m all for more diversity in authors (cuz it’s still a bunch of white old dudes out there), but they still need to be good writers (or at least more decent than the shit that’s being published nowadays). Writer is a job. And this is were Zak and Sarah failed; they just didn’t work with basic decency, respect and research of the characters, and what they are, what they represent and what they mean to the community. The fact that White Wolf Publishing used the “but we have a X friend!” excuse only makes it more profoundly wrong. And you guys can’t even blame that on Europeanism (racism takes very different forms here than in the US, certain things are more blurred, and ethnicity is overall understood differently), even in France we consider the use of a token minority person to excuse controversial stuff to be just plain wrong (and god knows France can be very weird about the treatment of minorities). 

If you’re trans and knowledgeable of trans representation, please tell me off about this. It’s just my thoughts on the matter as someone who cares deeply about characters.

The other trans character, Morgan, exchanges like, four texts with you. So, this character’s existence gave nothing to my run. I need to replay the thing and see if other choices give us more interaction with this one, and I really have no problem with this one so far.

Now, the “unique aesthetic” that was brought to the game, I could find interesting modern artists on tumblr to draw for this game, and actually have their modern art be readable, as in, “really in accord with the game’s content (a quick sketch needs to be a quick sketch)”. I can also guess that it would come out far cheaper than whatever this guy took (I hear he sells his art pieces in the thousands? people, you’ve got too much money on your hands, give it to me instead).

The writing, however, I’m pretty sure (read absolutely certain) there are very knowledgeable wod fans out there who can decently hold a pen (half of the RPers I exchange with can come up both with a decent story and can write it out in a very.. literary and interesting way, and so without having to sort through the bs ramble that brings nothing, and without the “options” branches that lead to just a game over screen...).

Zak’s reputation of being a harasser and abuser doesn’t seem too far fetched from where I stand, especially since people who complained have said that White Wolf never contacted them back, even if they said they did. I can’t say deffo what he did or didn’t, but I can certainly assure you that the choice of White Wolf knowingly hiring the guy, then defending him, all while knowing all of this shit, and having one of their writers be one of the victims of the abuse, is not an innocent move from WW/Paradox.

We wanted fresh blood, fresh views, fresh takes, and they willingly hire a veteran known for beyond “problematic” behavior. And excusing all this shit because “but he’s an artist!” doesn’t cut it. Not from White Wolf. Not from a Scandinavian company. Not in the world we live in today. Not with the very talented people who are fans of the WoD and who can come up with something so much better, so much smoother, so much more respectful, and without all this negative publicity. This isn’t just some loud mouth rough corners guy (like I can admit I am!! let’s be honest I’m a harsh bitch lol), this is seriously.. wrong. It leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth, and tbh, Werewolf already has a reputation of being a game played by fascists, and LARPs are known hunting grounds for less-than-polite predators, why fucking continue this fucking shit? This isn’t what we want our hobby to be. This isn’t the kind of people I or anyone around me want to be associated with. Art is political in nature, but that doesn’t mean I am willing to accept the company owning the IP I love most hiring fucking extremist assholes. Everyone has a “problematic opinion” on something, honestly, that’s fine, I mean I get my share of anon hate for many of those, but can you guys straightforward tell me I’m a bad person doing evil and spreading evil into the gaming industry? (If I am tell me now so I can quit!)

TBH, I believe they hired Zak because he was a known “controversial figure”. To have free publicity. To pander to the GG community (EDIT: I failed here, I wanted to say “attract extremes”, Zak is not a gamergater at all). To get everyone angry about “the gay agenda”, “modern art” and more. They’ve succeeded. But it’ll blow up in their faces, and I really want us all to show them this is not acceptable.

What to do now? Be heard. Show your displeasing of such choices. Don’t let them have it their way with an IP you care about. They may own the rights, but ultimately, as Brucato (Mage RPG author), the games belong to us, the fans. Write to white wolf, boycott. Do not harass and insult, but tell them exactly what you think.

There are free visual novels out there, and cheaper princess makers who have more interesting outcomes, badges, achievements, easter eggs, all sorts of different endings if you fail/die, and all sorts of different failure paths that still let you play, and replay, and replay, without feeling frustrated, fucked over, and just plain trying to follow some incoherent druggie’s trail of thoughts.

Here’s a few things I recommend playing, to read how good characterization, art and horror can come around, as well as player agency and choices that mean you continue playing despite failures (linking steam, but gog works too for most of them). So here’s a few games you deffo wanna try out instead of these.

Long live the Queen

Actual “Princess Maker” games :)

Cupid (I can’t recommend @cupidvn enough, it’s  great free game, it has a few flaws considering it’s purely fanmade but overall, it’s very interesting and treats the subject with a good amount of respect)

This war of mine

Choice of vampire (free on web, available as a mobile app)

Vlad the Impaler A very awesome replayable story, you pick one of three characters who has one of two specializations mid game depending on your choices. Just. Get Vlad. It’s great.

I’d also mention an Actual Lone Wolf (by Dever!) video game/visual novel/cyoa. 

Heavy Rain (PS3) So many choices, and the game goes on regardless of what happens. The illusion of choice is so well made. Beyond Two Souls also does this fairly well, but the story is more linear 

The Last of Us (the MC is still a 40 something rough guy, but there’s more to it I promise! there’s no “choice” to be had, but the characterization is great)

And finally, I highly recommend watching like, all of Extra Credits videos about game making, characterization, illusion of choice and so on. They did a playlist. And other one about genres that might come in handy.

I’m very close to angrily make the text/choice/agency/multiple paths adventure we all need and deserve, and publish it for free... But I really don’t have the time, nor the funds, nor the skills, nor the legal knowledge to make it. So if someone wants to, know that I have a hot story that’s worth telling to initiate new players to the WoD :)))