#it would have to be for the later issues though bc the issue 1 cover would be kind of boring tbh

[themyscirah]

I know I JUST changed my theme yesterday but this one is even better so like. Bleez hours ig 😈

[savi-our]

Anti-Harem with OP Mage MC pt. 2

Right so... this is longer than i intended and more detailed than intended, i humbly ask for your forgiveness for this reading more like a fanfic one-shot 😭 Theres just so much you can do with this idea and i wanted to do the SF brothers justice, this is less anti-harem centric and more daily life of MC centric so do what you will with it - id love to hear some thoughts on this though, im genuinely considering writing a full blown fic abt this prompt and writing out ideas here helps convince me. Also watch me turn SF Sans into a closeted fangirl in real-time bc i CAN and i WISH TO and i WILL... tee hee 😍 HT for next part maybe? idk hdafejkkl

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Months passed since the new recruit arrived, and you had spent most of those months avoiding the household all together, not that any of them were in any hurry to seek you out. Actually - apart from passing glares and avoidant glances the skeletons had seemed to avoid you all together now, and it didn't take you long to realize that it was the newbies doing. It seems the brothers had already begun to switch all their official mage dealings with the newbie, and you overheard them one night speaking of how nice it'll be once you were gone. It hit you hard, the unbridled JOY that came from those words. The first smile in months had graced your expression, this annoying assignment would be done soon, and you didn't even have to look for a replacement. Of course there was a technical issue there, the recruit was weak, you doubted they could handle the responsibility, but you'd be damned if you had to be reassigned to the brothers again due to their own poor judgement. You set up barrier upon barrier on the furthest borders of the property, weaving old and powerful magic unseen by the untrained eye, as invisible as a spider thread in the deep dark of night.

The day came sooner than anticipated, a sunny morning wrapped in late spring dew when an official courier brought you the sealed reassignment papers, you wasted very little time. There were no goodbyes, nobody to see you off, no see you laters. You just packed your bags and left, deciding to celebrate your release from this mock hell with a feast of your own making. 

Days passed easily after that, your new assignment had been similar in that you were still expected to deal with monsterkind. As the official top ranking mage you were expected to oversee the immigration process of the newer species - finding them homes and determining the new borders, on paper that is - in actuality you were there in case it all went to shit. You were there to evaluate how big of a threat these newcomers were, and if all of it went down the drain, expectation fell to you to play both judge and executioner. It was all a terrible diplomatic hassle, endless meetings with diplomats and officials from both sides, meetings with the kings and queens, correspondence between the Archmage and the people on the ground, endless evaluations and negotiations. Where they lived, were they safe, were they able to integrate, political and financial concerns, provisions and temporary shelters were now your everyday cause for headache. It was there you met a pair of somewhat similar faces.

 Black and Mutt were skeletons, and that fact had not given you the best first impression - unbecoming of you perhaps, to judge a book by its cover, but months of threats and insults could change even the most unbiased of people. The two were a tad different from the others however, something you found curious if not a bit strange, they were… respectful, if not a bit stiff. Charged as part of the Royal Guard - they worked closely with the rulers of Mtt. Ebbot, so you saw them often escorting officials to and from meetings. You had no reason to approach them, coming from the other side as you were, you technically outranked them quite a bit in the merging hierarchy, but it was one stormy night that made you all grow quite a bit closer in an alarmingly short period of time.

A pack of fiends had snuck their way into one of the lesser guarded shelters outside of Mtt. Ebbott, cunning creatures that fed off of magic. They were hardly a threat alone, even an apprentice mage could take on two by themself - unfortunately due to that fact they tended to gather in numbers, the recorded largest amount was around forty if you remembered right, this however, this was beyond your imagination.

You should have predicted it,it was your miss, your meager miscalculation, of course they would be drawn here, a cave sealed off for centuries, brewing magic for centuries, a breeding ground for anything magic, broken for the first time in centuries. You responded quickly, but by the time you got there it was already chaos, the loud thrum of magic permeated the air and both monsters and humans were rushed off of the scene, the ground was bloodied, a sign that you were already late. You assessed the scene as you rushed past the terrified civilians, you would need to clean it up quickly. 

The resisting force had taken damage but they were holding, human and monster guards stationed at the furthest gate fighting off the onslaught of fangs and burning eyes. You took notice of the two skeletons fighting beyond the gate, they worked well together, soldiers of significant skill - you sped past them, an order to pull back immediately flew past your lips and you moved further into the swarm, Black had called after you but you tuned it out, as daunting as the situation seemed it was still below your paygrade.

It was a single spell, a light that lit up the sky, a deafening bang that rattled the ground and the job was done. Your hands stung from the forced speed of the cast, but you remained unscathed as you stood among the scattered ashes, burning flesh permeated the air. You sighed, the ever present mountain of paperwork on your desk was bound to double in size.

It was all damage control after that, rushed orders to your subordinates and rebinding of the barriers, but when you stepped past the gate once again to scout out the surrounding for any remaining threats is when the two skeleton guards approached you, they demanded to go with you- well the shorter one did anyway, it made your brows raise - there weren't many people left in the world that demanded things from you. You looked them both over, amusement in your eyes, and agreed, a challenge to keep up on your tongue.

After that things had slightly shifted, the skeletons greeted you upon meeting, saluted you upon leaving, you began to notice more monsters approach you with official papers or directives, it was an odd thing, mainly because you reflected on how joined it seemed all of a sudden. Before the attack you were mostly responsible for the human mages and soldiers on base, now it seemed your responsibilities grew their own legs and danced around the monsters as well. You saw more of the skeletons, Black in particular seemed curious, even though he never admitted it or outwardly showed it, it was subtle but you noticed, he often joined you for your nightly rounds even when not required to, it was a bit awkward at first, silent patrolling of the grounds, you had nothing to really speak about, and it seemed neither did he. You could not for the life of you figure out why he took such a sudden interest in your company but you also were curious how long he would keep it up, besides, having him accompany you seemed to put the other monsters at ease.It was on one of those rounds when you finally addressed him, he seemed surprised that you had, shoulders stiff, back straight as he looked at you with wide eyes.

“Don't you have more important things to do?” You asked, the question seemed harsh, but its harshness dissipated by the lightness of your tone, echoed by the stone hall in the moonlit night. He had opened his mouth but it was a moment before he responded, seemingly not expecting conversation, he turned away clearing his throat as he set himself to rights.

“OF COURSE NOT, THE SECURITY OF THESE GROUNDS IS OF THE UTMOST IMPORTANCE. CONSIDERING THE DISASTER FROM TWO WEEKS AGO ITS MORE EFFICIENT TO DO IT MYSELF.” 

You hummed, continuing to walk, listening to the sharp sound of his footfalls a step behind you.

“Would it not be better to split up then?” You asked, your tone still light, your eyes observing him with a knowing glint.

“W-WELL YES, BUT FOUR EYES ARE BETTER THAN ONE, AND IT WILL SAVE TIME IF WE DO SPOT SOMETHING AND NEED A MESSENGER.”

And your guess proved right, his reasoning was weak at best, there was no need for both of you to do rounds together - you could clock a threat miles away even in the pitch black, and you knew for a fact that Black could handle himself well enough, and yet he seemed to want to be in your shadow all the same, you chuckled, but did not voice your thoughts. 

Your relationship seemed to steadily improve after that, every now and again you would walk the shelter grounds together, and every now and again you'd exchange conversation albeit a short one, but it beat the awkward silence that was there in the beginning.

Mutt was different, he didn't seem to hold as much intrigue towards you as his brother, he was more so there by default as he seemed to almost always stay by his brother's side, in fact the only time you saw either of them apart was when Black joined you in securing the premises. The taller brother was an enigma, you had not heard him speak once since your assignment, a part of you wondered if he even could. But he didn't seem outwardly volatile either, more so apathetic towards the goings on around him. That opinion switched one busy day where a scheduling error had made the three of you take an overnight shift guarding a group of pompous diplomats. It was a nightmare, twelve straight hours of listening to empty boasts and endless rants about the economy, even you had begun to space out, this was probably worse than those month long scouting missions in Siberia you were forced into back in training.

 You noticed the brothers were reaching their limit as well, you worried Black would leave indents in his skull with the force he was gritting his teeth and you were sure Mutt was half asleep as he wobbled on his feet, skull falling every odd minute or so. 

It was a couple hours later when you found out you were scheduled for two more babysitting sessions except they were both at the same time, and both had human and monster envoys, Black seemed to mirror your frustration as you checked and rechecked the schedule. 

One way or another you had organized a lower ranking mage qualified for escort duty to take your place for one of them, and Black had given his brother the order to attend the same one as you as he himself took the other, rushed words of “IT’LL BE QUICKER IF EACH OF US TAKES ONE.” after which you parted, the vote of confidence made you chuckle.

It was another four hours when you wondered if Mutt had passed away standing on his feet, he hadnt moved in a good hour or two, and skeletons didn't need to breathe so he remained deathly still. He stood behind the officials chair like a statue carved from marble, quite an unsettling sight considering the early hours of the morning and the sharp looming shadows casting off of him. The human envoys seemed to agree with you, considering the nervous glances being cast his way amidst the conversation, and you couldn't help but find the situation amusing. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep or the frustrations of your job but you decided to hurry the meeting along with a mischievous play of magic, lest you join Mutt in his nap. A moving shadow here, the caw of a crow there and what do you know, suddenly all business has been magically taken care of.

You had woken the looming skeleton with the good news and watched as he attempted to stifle a yawn, he had checked his phone and noted that his brother had not been graced with the same fortune as you. You had asked if he would wait - a nod, you offered your office - a moment of silence, but after a while, another nod.

It was another hour at your desk, finishing up some paperwork when you heard gentle snoring on your office couch, a comfy thing that had served you many times for a bed in the days where your job kept you from home, the sound made you blink slowly to the skeleton that occupied it.

Your own exhaustion made you zone out in thought, the sight had an enviable peacefulness to it, it's perhaps why you didn't notice the phone that fell with a quiet thump out of Mutts pocket. It vibrated, once, twice, then for a third time, screen lighting up repeatedly. You rose from your seat, bones popping as you sighed and made your way over, if it was Black then it was probably asking where Mutt was, you should wake him.

Is what you thought anyway, what ended up happening was you being trapped in an iron grip stuck to a dead asleep skeleton. It happened so quickly and out of nowhere that you didn't even have time to process it, the long hours awake didn't help either. One second you're reaching for his shoulder and the next you're halfway on top of said skeleton, limbs wound around limbs. You blanked, what even was this situation, you never took Mutt for a cuddler, his grip is crushing, impressive for someone with no muscle, wait hold on.

You attempted to pull away, but the answering growl and tightening hold let you know that the skeleton didn't agree with that choice of options, subconsciously or not. Waking him up seemed a thing that you should do, but the option flew right out of the door once you thought about how this would all register with him once he woke up, it was embarrassing really. You attempted once again to move off of him but he turned, and dragged you along with him further into the couch. Ah, you had made it worse. Couch cushions pressed in your back and a very large and a very asleep skeleton pressing you into his ribcage, it seems he intended to keep you for a body pillow, now what.

The door slammed open and you blanked once again, this was a nightmare, you prayed it wasn't some disgruntled diplomat come to complain to you about something. You attempted to lift your head to see but the grip on you made your back pop and you groaned, breath knocked out of you.

“MUTT! WHAT IN TORIEL'S NAME ARE YOU DOING GET OFF THIS INSTANT!! NOW YOU DOG! OFF!” The yelling was familiar and for a second you felt relief, and then dread all over again as vertigo hit you. In his panic he had rolled, rolled right off the couch and onto the cold hard ground and had taken you with him. You groaned again as you attempted to get your bearings, lifting your gaze only to be met with bright purple, you blinked and watched as slowly but surely confusion turned into realization and then straight into horror, the brightness of the flush on Mutt’s face was there for half a second before he was gone, disappearing into thin air. 

It took you a while to process the whole thing , even longer to reassure Black that it was an accident on his brother's part and that you were partly to blame for the situation as well. By the end of it all it was safe to say that you were exhausted, so you had locked up and went home, it was the morning after that you noticed that the lanky skeletons phone was still innocently laid on your carpet. You snorted, wondering whether or not the silent guard dog would come knocking on your door before late, or if it would be his ever principled brother in his stead.

[sunflowers-and-scales]

Hi hello I am finally following up on the tag you left for me to say I would love iPad kids lore pls pls tell me what is up w them !! Your art for them is so so compelling

(Also if I’m sending this to the wrong blog feel free to just answer on the right one akdbsksj)

heyo this blog is fine!1 i don’t really like to spam it in theory but idrc LMAO ,,,

LONG POST UNDER CUT

SOME IPAD KIDS LORE WOW 💥💥 gonna make a masterpost here bc i dont feel like tagging you in like six different posts we’re getting up close and personal/j

IPAD KIDS UNIVERSE: these guys live in an alternate future type thing wherein the politically powerful/wealthy essentially flex their power & money through cybernetticlaly enhancing their kids. this comes to pass mostly through childhood injuries—it becomes the cultural norm not to fix/heal “broken” or “unsuitable” body parts, but to replace them mechanically.

THE IPAD KIDS ARE:

MERCY: Mercy grows up the son of two politically powerful parents and friend to Ayano, whose parents are also quite well off. (i’ll get to their friendship lore later). he’s pretty throughly brainwashed to believe that the way things are is the way things should be, & is constantly derided through his childhood for his “poor” appearance. this leads to some pretty severe self image issues, and he doesn’t protest—and in fact is excited by—the prospect of getting his face replaced by a high-tech screen mechanism (as a “present” for his 16th bday). however, the replacement procedure goes wrong & his vocal cords are damaged. in order to cover up the error, his parents essentially dispose of him, dumping his body in a rural mountain range and deactivating his mechanical enhancements. however, he’s not yet dead! by sheer luck, avery find him as he’s wandering the forest she’s hiking in, unable to see, speak, or walk properly. she brings him to her adoptive brother nico who helps fix his sight &. recode his screen implement, though they can’t fix his vocal cords. entitled, sheltered and not really understanding the situation, he tries to go back to his family who once again try and have him covertly dumped, even announcing his death to the media and announcing a charity “in his name”. somewhat reasonably he enters a depressive spiral from here. he also reunites with Ayano and the two of them are kind of freaky in a fun situationship type way.

AYANO/AYAME: ayano grows up pretty well off & is really attached to mercy as a little kid; they’re basically best friends/joined at the hip/always holding hands yk the drill. however, following an incident abt age 12 in which the two get a little too rowdy & fall out of a tree, breaking their arms, mercy’s parents deem Ayano a Bad Influence and cut mercy off from hanging out with him. from there, ayano kind of spirals into a series of bad habits & bad decisions, as he’s pretty isolated and hates the customs his parents have tried so hard to brainwash him into accepting. he’s also super pissed about losing his arm, as his prosthetic doesn’t work as naturally and he can’t climb very well with it on. in an act of rebellion, he destroys it, which gets him kicked out of the house and sent to live with his aunt in the mountains. there, he realizes he’s bigender and starts dressing more creatively, trying to drop his smoking habit, and semi-permanently abandoning the prosthetic altogether. by coincidence, he and mercy have ended up in the same place—and after a mild confusion over not recognizing each other, the two reunite and get into the aforementioned freaky situationship.

NICO: the oldest of the group, nico makes his living as a mechanic, fixing his clients’ things out of a workshop in his garage. though he’s a skilled engineer, he wasn’t able to attend college as he’s pretty much had to support himself since his teenage years (as his parents both passed due to health issues & he spent much of his early teenage life supporting his mom before she passed). he’s now the semi-willing adoptive brother-slash-dad of two teenagers with extremely different personalities. very chill guy who’s hard to upset; thankfully, nobody really wants to due to aforementioned chill guy status. very patient but straightforward with sadboy mercy.

AVERY: avery lives with her adoptive brother nico ever since she hopped in the back of his pickup truck several years ago and just, like, never left his house. her parents are both out of the picture for unknown reasons, but she was pretty adamant about staying with nico and he wasn’t going to make her leave (he might not admit it, but he gets lonely too!) she’s very cool and good at coding but given as she’s like 13 she’s not the main focus of the angst LOL. she lives in Normal People land so the whole cybernetic enhancement thing never affected her personally.

[gregoftom]

Re: Greg hating Shiv.

I do agree they have a very unfriendly relationship and it is 100% over the fact that Greg chooses Tom (or rather Tom chooses him lol) that veers close to hate because of who she is and how she treats everybody, especially Tom.

However, I can totally see a world where if Shiv and Tom were an actual team instead of her treating him like shit, the 3 of them could be a fucking powerhouse, covering every angle and take everything from under Logan/Ken.

Because at the very beginning of the show we see Greg choosing Shiv over Rome with the papers thing in ep 1 (which is also the thing that killed Greg in Rome's mind, he didn't do the one thing he asked so Greg was dead to him after that).

So potentially Greg was totally down to do Shiv's bidding and then he got close to Tom and became Tom's Greg and nobody paid any attention to what either of them did.

I love the scene at Caroline's wedding when the 3 of them are talking about Comfrey and making fun of Rome. The potential that trio had was totally untapped with how fucked up Tom and Shiv are, so naturally Tom and Greg gravitated toward each other, which is turn makes Shiv not give a fuck if they don't serve her purposes.

Even in s4, Greg was willing to negotiate with Shiv and all she did was threaten him (which we all know doesn't work lol) because at that point she is the one that hates Greg for having a rapport with Matsson and obviously supporting Tom all this time.

I don't even like Shiv but that scene at the wedding has such a grip on me for some reason!

i think that's the point though - shiv and tom and greg are supposed to all be at odds. i do not think there would be quite so much of an issue with ts relationship if greg were not around. like obviously they would have their fights, tom would be miserable, shiv would be bored and unable to be vulnerable with him etc. the events would still happen, but i think greg is a huge wrench in the works as well. america decides helps show this too, when tom moves into a room and greg makes to follow, shiv tries to physically block him from getting to him lmao. the show makes pretty pointed parallels and cinematography to indicate that tg are having at the very least an emotional affair and i don't think shiv would ever tolerate something like that, and she wouldn't tolerate someone else being chosen/preferred over her and like. that's not exactly a nice feeling anyway lmao, so...

i mean i don't think he Hates shiv or anything he doesn't want her dead lmao but you know. he doesn't like her. he dislikes her and that's fine bc she dislikes him too. wrt the beginning of the show he ended up choosing her because she appeared much more personable than roman and like he probably thought she could potentially be nice to him, and perhaps he gravitated more towards females because he's used to having his mother and like, she's not the nicest in the world to him but she's pretty decent so it makes sense.

and i mean even if greg hated somebody he would try to negotiate with them first of all, because it's easier and it's efficient and it gets him with good backup, that's just how he is naturally. no matter who the person was he would try to do the same thing i think. but yeah no there were multiple reasons imo that she ended up doing what she did instead and threatened him, but that wasn't the particular reason greg did what he did. he did it for tom, shiv was just the only person who could have saved herself. like, if she had offered something instead of threaten him she could've saved herself. but alas lmao.

i really like that scene too but i think for different reasons askJADLKJ like. i feel like shiv is being pretty cunty to greg and tom is Kinda joining in BUT he's giving greg these looks like. these kind of affair looks lmao. little smiles and bursting with happiness almost as though he knows what is going to happen later on.

[sporadicspores]

well despite having 10 other tavs and two durges i still need to play, i ended up caving and completely making a new file/save for Vrisryn since their main campaign is just... corrupted as hell at this point lmao. it was funny at first with little glitches like the whole Astarion-confessing-to-being-a-vampire-on-the-first-long-rest thing (which works since Vrisryn def noticed he was a vampire right away anyways) and minor stuff like the companions just forgetting that they had a high approval rate together. but by the time i got to Act 3, it was like... painfully bugged, to the point of their entire romance with Halsin being skewed/glitched, and major parts of companion quests weren't executing properly. with the whole point of restarting it being to 1-to get a fresher grasp on their character/make more in-character choices and 2-to be able to play the epilogue properly without glitches, it felt like i had to restart again. (thank god i love them so much and would replay their run 1290823980482394 times)

that being said, i was able to fully take the time to flesh out their Act 1 clothing, stats, armor etc! and i realized i never made any real proper post or introduction for them before posting the first chapter of their backstory/fic, so... behold! the refreshed Vrisryn (or Vrysryn as they're named in my game to avoid save issues lmao)

i decided to go for a more civilian looking outfit since they would have been in Baldur's Gate, not the wilderness they considered home when abducted. they were traveling to bring research findings and samples from the Underdark to the Lodge of the Society of Brilliance on behalf of their circle, as well as to fulfil some personal curiosities and make a bit of coin by selling/trading herbs and tinctures in the city. routine stuff mostly, that landed them unfortunately in the illithids capture. and ofc i had to use the autumnal druid dye from astralsprout on nexusmods bc i mean. look at them. that dye was made for them. typically though, when traveling they would roam in druidic armor or their camp clothes, which consist of a long overcoat and simple garments:

in my canon/work, they also don't really take their headpiece off like... at all, not until like Act 2.5 at least and even then, it's only around Astarion, Karlach, Wyll and Shadowheart. it isn't until Act 3 when they've finally reached the Elfsong that they let their guard down fully about their Spellscar, and their headpiece is used to help cover it since it takes the shape of antlers and stems from around the same area that their headpiece lay. The Spellscar appears in a similar fashion to the spores that typically surround their person and effects during travel/battle, so as long as their headpiece is attached, it's rather difficult for anyone who isn't familiar with Spellscars to notice that that's what's going on with them when it appears.

also the foreshadowing of this shot given the weird temporary triangle of angst they fall into with Gale and Astarion cracks me up but we'll get to that in many future fic chapters lmao

anyways this was really just for me to be able to dump some pics and keep a timeline of stuff as it develops in this playthrough. i'll do a more proper introduction post later and i'm gonna try to remember to reblog this whenever i get around to finishing my own character sheet of them in my style so i can show the differences between how they appear in bg3/how i see them and how they actually appear! stuff like them having top surgery, their Spellscar/it's effects, and other little details that bg3 simply can't convey. even if it's just for my own sake i'm excited to share more about their character on here :3 it's crazy to me how they started as simply an over-glorified self insert and then within 10 hours developed into a whole different, realized character with a HUGE backstory. that bg3-inspiration pipeline goes crazy when you're on hiatus in your own dnd campaign i suppose lol (also gonna try to post my next chapter of spores & stars later next week! just gotta push through finals and the end of this semester, then i plan on letting the oc brainworms consume me during the entirety of my break before summer classes begin oTL)

[nathank77]

3/26/24

6:29 p.m-Updated and Added to/Edited

I went to my endo today, I really love my doctor. He actually thinks I'm smart. He doesn't see me as, "psychotic," at all. He was impressed with my list of questions, and said I covered most of the things he was going to bring up.

He also said, I would be a good fit for a medical position bc of my intelligence. He didn't ask about my hallucinations, I didn't bring them up for a reason cause I got to lie to my PCP.. and I don't want to lie if I don't have to... either way it was a nice compliment. Especially given how people view me once they know i have psychosis.

Anyways, he prescribed, two different drugs for my cholesterol Atorvastatin 10Mg which is a percription and then a supplement called CoQ10 10mg. This should solve those issues on my blood work. I'm going back in 6 months and I'll have monthly bloodwork with a comprehensive metabolic panel and my thyroid. My ultrasound is April 1st to look at my thyroid. So everything is all set up.

Only thing I'm nervous about is he wants me to go to an eye doctor to assess for Graves eye disease as there are levels of it. And I could be like level 1 where it's not noticeable visually. He wants to cover all bases.. they measure your eyes with something on your eye lids. It's noninvasive. He has been trying to get me to go for years but the doctor he referred me to never called. I got the number and I'm going to advocate for myself.. even though I don't want to go. My eyes look the same as they did in 2013 before I ever had Graves but it doesn't always show. He said he thinks I have it but that's its a lower level but I know he is trying to scare me to make sure I do it. I get it, it's the final base in standard of quality care to make sure I'm completely healthy. I'm terrified of the eyelid measurements...

I'm more scared that they'll confirm that they moved a little. Good new is- as long as my levels are normal they won't change at all. Bad news is treating your thyroid is imperfect and for all I know my levels will sky rocket from every other day Methimazole. Good news is it's been 7 years untreated, it's not exactly like it's going to make it worse quickly and everything takes times.

Back in the day they used to do surgery on the eye muscles. Thank God that's stone age at this point... nowadays they do tepezza, which are like 8 infusions... that will fix the muscle if they are enlarged.... the infusion is in the arm THANK GOD.

Problem with tepezza is there is a law suit against it bc it can cause hearing loss and tinnitus... appearantly it wasn't listed as a side effect... but now it is. It happens in about 16-20% of people. All the other side effects seem mild. The benefits outweigh the risk... so I'll do it if I have to.

My doctor thinks I'll be in remission by September and off Methimazole... but remission isn't perfect. I could go right back to being hyper 1 month later, 6 months later, a year later or even 10 years later...

Either way tepezza is something i have to pursue assuming my eyelid measurement shows signs.... cause of remission being this thing that can end abruptly...

My thyroid will get smaller and so will the lump... so that's good but it won't go away.

He said once I call the eye doctor and get in to call him and they will expedite the appt..... so I could be seen as soon as possible. Now I'm debating when I should do my bloodwork. The 16th or the 23rd.

The 23rd is the day I started my new dosage which was 5mg every other day. If my test results come back a certain way. I assume me being hypo. He is going to adjust it to 5mg once every 2 weeks.

I guess we will see. I'm scared about the eye thing but I mean I guess worse case i will get hearing aids sooner. I'm already right on the line. Well right under the line. If it gets any worse I'm getting them anyways.

I'm more scared of the eyelid measurement than the tepezza or hearing loss. Either way I know he has my back and I'm in good hands.

I am scared of tinnitus though, I don't want any more hallucinations.... but hopefully I don't get more hearing loss, and if I do hopefully that's the extent of it. Just please no tinnitus.

[goldentigerfestival]

So fun fact I learned (recently, unfortunately LOL) is that if you have the game on Steam, you can actually change the text to full JP. If you don't have it on Steam I don't know that it's a possibility, but if you do have it on Steam, you can go into the game properties and select the language you want. Other than that I've used YouTube playthroughs when I needed to grab stuff quick when I want clips/screenshots, or I'll use Hyouta when I need a line really quick.

The volume in the English version is definitely an issue, I have no idea what happened with the studio volume when they recorded new stuff, but the new skits/lines in particular have terrible volume. I only played DE in English one time and it was... a very sub par experience for several reasons (including Yuri, Don and Leblanc having their voice actors changing mid-dialogue and/or in different scenes, plus the volume, plus the acting largely with Grant for Yuri being completely flat and lacking emotion...). The DE had more issues than the 360 version too, because there's that stuff plus like, the dialogue inconsistencies because they didn't go back and fix the old dialogue to match new content, and they didn't fix any of the old typos or uh, very funny sounding English at some parts.

You did reblog that! I have a whole post in itself about the Nordopolica scene too, that I linked in the post that covered that section of the game. But yeah, the thing that always got me most about Yuri in the dub is that... the translators are good? They have a lot of stuff that's pretty much 1:1 and there are a few human errors from time to time (such as subject matter mishaps), but overall the translation is actually generally accurate. That's why I can tell when specifically Yuri's lines get changed that it's intentional, because it only happens to him, and it's a lot worse when he's talking to Flynn (though Flynn also puts himself down/is harsher toward himself in the localization as well, which is another huge point against Flynn by the narrative itself in the west). It's even worse when him and Flynn aren't getting along, and they ramp it up and make it sound like Flynn is some antagonist or villain.

Nordopolica in particular as a scene isn't like... oh no Flynn's a bad guy now. It's like, oh no our ally is in trouble and we need to get him back. I hate when I see people cheer Yuri on for this one sided verbal beatdown against Flynn because it's not supposed to come off that way in the original? Yuri is angry at Nordopolica and Yormgen, but at Nordopolica he's also hurting. He's angry, but he's worried, heartbroken, and upset. In Yormgen, he's angry, but he doesn't just take it all out on Flynn and act like that most of the way through. He cools off pretty quick, in part because he asked Flynn to explain himself, Flynn did, Flynn felt guilty about it, and that was enough for Yuri to cool off and not press him further. He also spoke with genuine relief that Flynn was himself again at the end of that conversation, which in the dub felt... kinda flat to me?

The cat got your tongue part in Nordopolica makes me absolutely reel though, because the impression changes from "god please just say something, anything, talk to me, what the hell is going on" to "oh what you can't say anything back bc I'm right?". The whole vibe is just... eugh.

Ironically enough in regard to your original post here, I always feel like it's Flynn who gets bullied in the dub and it makes me so uncomfortable sometimes lol. Like damn I would not wanna be Flynn in the dub.

I do hope that maybe the voice direction in the studio was fixed to some degree for the remaster, because yeah, it was ten years later, and I imagine different people were working there, maybe minds had changed about how to convey stuff, etc. It's possible they actually paid attention to the original delivery and did what they could for the new stuff. I don't remember the DE English deliveries since like I mentioned, I only played DE in English once (and that was multiple playthroughs ago LOL), though I do hope something changed along the way. Given that even Higuchi (the general producer of the game) brought up localization inaccuracy due to lack of communication on Twitter some time ago, I can only hope things improved like he hoped they would.

In my perfect world, they'd re-release Vesperia in the west and re-dub Yuri and Flynn's stuff so it actually properly reflects the intent of the original, but alas I know I'm asking for too much. I just hate that it had to happen this way to one of the most popular games in the franchise and to one of the most popular characters in the franchise (i.e. Yuri and subsequently affecting Flynn). x.x

Flynn actually does that twice in Vesperia with pronouns! He starts with boku in front of Ioder, I believe when Ioder orders him to join Yuri's group to fight Alexei, and he corrects himself. Over time Flynn also naturally starts to use boku around Yuri's friends and relax more around them. My little boku boy! 😊

Yeah, my issues with the dub are 100 percent not because of things they can't translate. As a fan translator I know the struggles of trying to convey things that don't translate at all into English, so I don't blame them there. For me, that's also why tone is extremely important and why not changing dialogue matters so much. Things don't gotta be word for word identical, but Yuri's dialogue in particular loses its intent when changed, and when they don't change it and when they generally speaking translate it in the right general ballpark, they change his tone completely and thus still change the intent.

As a Fluri shipper where that ship is my go to for a fluffy and happy heart, that oasis scene was like, peak "I care too much about you to not scold you for this", not him being a jerk.

Also yeah, Flynn was angry about Ragou, even more so in JP. You can tell he was struggling to not do anything and Yuri could tell, so he warned him against it. Plus, Yuri doesn't want Flynn dirtying his hands and ruining his chances as a knight. Yuri knows he can dirty his own hands because he's got nothing going for him. He can do what Flynn wants to do and not risk losing any status or position or possible futures. Sometimes I genuinely wonder if Yuri wouldn't have done what he did if Flynn hadn't expressed so much anger. Like, I sometimes wonder if him seeing that Flynn was so angry about it was the final straw that pushed him to do it and had him make up his mind when he heard Flynn's explanations.

Really, I like to think (and half joke) Yuri couldn't be proven guilty in a court of law about Cumore because technically he didn't even touch Cumore. Cumore backed himself into that pit, and there were no witnesses to prove Yuri had done anything to him. ...But, you know, they wouldn't really care about evidence or innocence or anything anyway, because Yuri's a poor man criminal. Intent to kill? Shhhh, can't be proven, nobody heard it but the dead guy! And Yuri didn't literally use the words "I am going to kill you"! No evidence!

The murder is okay joke is like, yeah, it's a little haha funny the first time, but I feel like the way it's propped up in actual discussion also kinda takes away from the fact that... Yuri is very much extremely not okay with murder. Maybe I'll end up writing a separate post on this sometime because it's a Big Deal for me lol, but Yuri is extremely wracked with guilt over killing even the most vile of people. It weighs on him and destroys any self worth he may have even had at that point, which... was already dirt low. At the end of the game in the credits, you can see him visiting the spots where he committed those murders. He's extremely guilty about it and it weighs on him knowing he has to live the rest of his life with those mistakes. It proves Flynn right that he shouldn't have gone to those lengths, because it's eaten away at Yuri. It haunts him that he did those things. In Tales of the Rays, there's even this mention in Flynn's bio that Yuri tends to stare at his hands intently a lot, and Flynn will just go up and talk to him normally. It's literally a callback to how guilty Yuri feels about what he did and how it's damaged his self worth. I know it's a silly little harmless meme, but I think part of my issue is that most of the fandom actually seems to believe he thinks that way, when he only does it as a last resort and throughout the course of the game, never recovers from it. I get the support behind getting rid of such awful villains! I get that Yuri doing things we all wish could happen in real life feels good! But I think the general, at large, fandom perception of Yuri's own feelings on it has gotten largely lost in the "that's so cool" viewpoint.

...Did you see how on the Aselia wiki, Flynn's bio starts with "somewhat of an antagonist toward the beginning of the game"? I just. I lost my mind when I saw that. Because first of all, no. Second of all, at the beginning?! When he's literally letting Yuri and his group break into Ragou's mansion and do things illegally??? It's literally because of the attitude Yuri gives him in the dub that makes Flynn look like some antagonist, because the context in the beginning when you meet Flynn is 100 percent that he's an ally in a tough position, and your side helps him out by doing things in a way he can't.

Still losing my absolute mind about that line to this day. An antagonist is someone who is in some manner against and opposing the main character. Flynn is an ally. He had an oopsie in the middle of the game where he was starting to become that, but he course corrected quickly enough. I mean in the grand scheme of things? The only antagonistic behavior Flynn ever had was at Nordopolica. He admitted at Yormgen that he didn't realize the Weasand of Cados stuff was going on and that that was his fault, not because he specifically did it, but because he wasn't paying enough attention to his own subordinates, basically. Prior to that, the oasis was just "hey maybe don't do something that could get you killed or locked up for life maybe kinda sorta just a little".

I understand how people can ship things like, on the side I guess? and still hate a character in question, because I do have ships where I do like the dynamic but hate one of the characters, across any sort of media, really. BUT I do think if you really absolutely adore a ship and if you would sell your entire soul to it, you should prooobably not hate a character involved in that ship. But also, misconstruing canon events is part of the problem with poor Flynn. Most of the people I know/have talked to do love both characters, but I guess that's also because I don't really engage with instances where I see Flynn hate, so I don't really end up around people who don't like him.

I used to eyebrow raise at Yuri haters, but when I got older, understood more JP and yadda yadda... I can like, get it nowadays if people did look at English Yuri and hated him for his awful attitude. I would still advocate for him and be like, look he's much nicer and goofier in JP which is the source of the media and how the creators intended him to be! But like, if someone hated Yuri and their only experience was the dub, I can see why. With Flynn, if people hated him for other reasons, like sure, I can get that... but the reasons I always see are just because "cop guy" and "how dare you scold Yuri". It's never like... actual "here's an in depth reason I don't like this character based on actual facts".

Also, yeah, as a Fluri lover, I do hate the whole vibe of like... Flynn is a bad boyfriend/friend and shit. It's even worse because I engage and interact with the JP fandom on other socials, so going from the fandom portrayal of the two of them interacting in JP to the portrayal in the west is genuinely just jarring sometimes (whether it's memes, art, fic, what have you). It's not like, all bad on the west and I don't often see the abusive boyfriend dynamic, but the general portrayal of their interactions is definitely handled differently.

The thing is, writers/artists in the west are accurately portraying English Yuri, and that's part of what really highlights the fandom perception difference in their relationship for me. And I know it's nobody's fault in the west because that's what they were presented with and it's what they know, but that's exactly why I advocate so deeply for localization not changing intent, because then an entire audience has a totally different vibe. I just wish we all got to have the same experience.

I have this joke that JP Yuri would punch English Yuri in the face if he ever met him. It's a double joke, because it's the obvious plus the fact that Yuri just... really wants to punch something at all hours of the day and that's actually consistently retained across Vesperia media (a fact that got... completely removed in the English version... Wha'da'ya know...).

My theory in why people gravitate toward depressed mess Yuri and not daddy issues Flynn is that... Yuri in the dub is the "cool" one. Flynn is a more realistic take on the bad reactions someone has to something traumatizing in their life, which makes him less appealing for some because it's not an escape of sorts. Yuri is treated by the narrative itself as a cool and positive outlook on his behavior, when in actuality, if I had a friend treat me the way English Yuri treats Flynn, I'd be like okay you need to sit down and start talking to me about this attitude.

I totally get wanting to ignore when you don't like the common take on a character but that take is so popular. I've never really like... engaged on a wide spectrum with the Tales fandom at large until about a year ago. I was always like, on the outside edges of the fandom? With no centralized Tales accounts anywhere? I grew up with Tales, but I never really... interacted with people at large. But even like that, I've known about these Flynn opinions and wished I could just ignore them, but I can't really do that when it's common. Nowadays I don't really seek things out. I post what I post, and if people come to my blog and like my content, there's a good chance they already love Flynn, so it's this sort of... just let the people who share my opinions find me, and I'll meet like minded individuals without risking finding a lot of the stuff that upsets me.

No worries about not responding to everything! I do just... write a lot and I'm horrible at compressing my thoughts or using few words to express myself lol. I'm sad to see other fans have worsened your opinion of Yuri because it's the worst when people who love a character are the ones who make you not like them as much. Character purity really does suck most of the time and is almost always to the detriment of the character in question because it erases their human complexity. Yuri isn't perfect and he makes a lot of mistakes. I hope one day you can like him more again! At the very least, I'll in my corner patting his head when he makes his mistakes and letting him be human.

Maybe I'm due for a third replay of Vesperia, because I'm really not seeing how Flynn is a "bully" to Yuri in the first act or how he blames him for not being able to change things. Maybe it's cause a lot of us project onto these characters (ESPECIALLY Yuri) so they take Flynn calling Yuri out for not doing anything as a personal attack.

The truth is Flynn was getting shit done in the knights. He was working his way up. Yuri walked away from their shared dream - not Flynn. Naturally, there's going to be some bitterness between them at the start of the game and well into Act 1. Meanwhile, Yuri sat on his ass in the lower quarter because he didn't know what else to do. Yet he still got smarmy with Ioder and Estelle in Capua Torim when they wouldn't disclose information.

Imo, Flynn had every right to call Yuri out, and if we factor in their backgrounds pre-canon, it fits perfectly with his character. He's still got some lingering irritation at Yuri abandoning their dream.

Yeah, it sucks that Yuri had his hands tied because being a knight means sitting on your hands in the face of political corruption, but Flynn has a point. What has changed since Yuri quit? Yuri can't be throwing stones in glass castles and not expect Flynn to keep his mouth shut.

I know a lot of bias is because we see the game from Yuri's point of view, and (yeah, I'm gonna say it) some lines in localization definitely push Yuri to be more antagonistic towards Flynn than the original (refer to uh, Yormgen and Nordopolica for best examples). But I just don't think Flynn's as much of an asshole as people think he is at the start.

There's also the Mantaic scene where Flynn lectures Yuri about killing Cumore. Flynn didn't take action because Yuri's his friend, but you know if it were anyone else, he would've had them arrested immediately. People say this is hypocritical of Flynn cause he lectures Yuri, but give that scene a rewatch. It feels less "killing is bad" and more "don't kill ppl because that makes you a criminal, and criminals get put in the slammer." There are countless points in the game (DE at least) where Flynn urges Yuri to tell Ioder about his good deeds because he knows full well that will pardon his crimes of killing Ragou and Cumore.

I also am not of the opinion that these two are absolutely toxic for each other (which... okay) and should practice social distancing whenever they're in the vicinity together.

Flynn's got some screws loose, but being a "bully" to Yuri is not one of them.

[marvels-bitch-boy]

hey i’m the anon that requested “nat’s boy” the one about the friends episodes & i just want to say that it turned out perfectly dw!! i love everything about it and u also did the bit of angst really good too :) i’m so happy it’s gonna have a 2. part bc honestly it could be a great little series even! anyway i love it <3 thanks for writing it!!

So...You've all been asking, and begging for PART 2!!!!

welll.....it just so happens that I have finished it! Here you go!

Masterlist , Part 1

Nat's Boy Part 2:

A/N: so sorry for this taking so long! but I had a lot on my plate with college decisions and then moving halfway across the country. But I was able to finish it! I'm sorry it's so short but please know I did what I could!

Word count: 943

You arrived back at your apartment to see the fiery redhead from before laying peacefully on the couch with a thin blanket covering her. Even though she presumably arrived later than her usual time you had decided to catch dinner with a few interns from the Stark industries college reach-out programs with Pepper and Tony accompanying you. You knew that Natasha would have waited up for you but you figured she would have eventually gone back to your shared bed. You supposed that tonight however it must have felt barren and too spacious even for her. 

You sighed as you took your shoes off and quietly set your keys and bag down before making your way over to the couch. You contemplated lifting her up and carrying her to the bed like you usually would but the fight from earlier echoed in your head. You thought back to the first time you met. How she had smiled at you, you thought it had been one of the most beautiful and genuine smiles you had ever seen. You started to question her words to you. Her actions. 

Shaking your head you attempted to knock the doubt out of your brain. You wanted to trust her and you wanted to believe that she loved you the way you loved her but the thoughts seemed to linger. They whispered as you went to your shared room and got changed, they whispered as you went to the bathroom and did your nightly routine. They whispered as you climbed into the empty bed and felt the cold encase you as you stared at the ceiling. They continued as you got out of bed and made your way back to the couch in the dark of the night. The thoughts were screaming at you as you picked Natasha up and carried her bridal style back to the empty bed. Once you set her down and saw her melt into the bed the whispers faded into the background. The second you felt her arm gently lay over you and her face snuggle into your shoulder ever so lightly the whispers stopped. There was silence. You let the calm silence lull you to sleep as the red-heads breathing seemed to match your own. 

—

 You woke up before her, for the first time since you two had moved in together you were the one who was up and was watching the city come alive. You made your way out of the bed carefully, you didn’t want to wake her for a number of reasons. One was that you didn’t know what to say after the fight the day before. You didn’t know if she wanted to talk to you about what you both said. You didn’t know if she wanted to ignore the issue and pretend as if it never happened. So. You just got up and went along with your morning without waking up the woman in question. 

As you were in the kitchen making your morning cup of coffee, you could hear the footsteps coming down the small hallway. You knew what was coming and it terrified you. You didn’t dare turn around and face the being the steps belonged to. After feeling arms wrap around your waist you froze for a moment and your mind went blank. It was like a void took over your brain. You know what you see when a plane flies through a cloud?... yeah that’s what your mind felt like. Suddenly your hand was scalding hot and you yelped out in pain. Natasha broke away from you and quickly turned on the sink as you thrust your hand under the water. It only took a few minutes for her to clean up the mess and for you to place burn cream on your coffeed hand. She bandaged it up and then gave you a soft hug. You didn’t return it though. She slinked off of you and took your head in her hands. “I’m sorry…” she looked deep into your eyes and was waiting for a response. You attempted to hold your ground but looking deep into her eyes you were stuck. “I am too, I’m sorry I’ve been making you feel this way without even knowing.” you release a sigh and continue “I feel so stupid, I mean of course these things would effect you”. Natasha rubbed your cheeks with her thumbs “You don’t have anything to be sorry for, I’m the one who decided to be jealous, I didn’t trust you and I was wrong for that…” she took a deep breath “And I’m sorry for making you feel like I only wanted to get into bed with you, I swear I didn’t!”. You let her words hang in the air for a moment before you took her hand in your good one. “I know… I’ve been hurt before and-and well I just- I couldn’t believe that you of all people I let in did that…It made me feel stupid”. You’re both staring into each others eyes, tears pooling in the corners of them. 

“I love you, and you are one of the smartest man I know. You are so kind and you only think of others. I would never want to hurt you.” She looked at you with hope in her eyes. You planted a soft kiss on her forehead and spoke up “I know you wouldn’t. I know because I love you too” The words that you both were too afraid of speaking to one another slipped out and you knew you couldn’t take them back. That wasn’t a problem though. You both knew you wouldn’t ever stop saying them.

tags: (let me know if you want to be added too general tags)

@diaryoflife

[actualbird]

each nxx boy was Not Like The Other Kids back in elementary to middle school but for like, wildly different reasons

wc: 889

luke pearce: there is a violence in this child somehow

luke is a very much friendly boy but his main issue is that hes ridiculously codependent on mc. one time in middle school she was absent and at home resting off a bad flu and luke looked like he wanted to set the world on fire because how DARE GERMS DO THIS TO HER!!

he also keeps getting his face busted up somehow, it's because he does stupid shit like jump over 4 steps on the stairs at once or he wanted to do a sick wheelie on his bicycle. but the other kids dont know that, they assume he fights bears on the weekends because sometimes luke can get Scary at the drop of a hat, usually when somebody is dumb enough to insult or bully mc, and the nature of kids is to blow everything out of proportion. i heard luke pearce created a hole in the ozone layer. i heard he killed a man with THAT THUMB!

teachers pick up on that hidden energy beneath his straight A grades and sunshiney smile and, to joke-ify this, a text post that applies to luke pearce

-

artem wing: awkward to the point many untrue assumptions are made

he works so much, TOO MUCH. many teachers have told his mother "hes a lovely student. please tell him to relax, though"

artem also has the added buff of being intimidating intense even as a 10 year old and he DOESNT MEAN TO he just does NOT know how to interact with the others

i see teen!artem being in a hoodie with the hood up most of the time, hes That Introvert but also hoodies are just nice if one is the type of person who finds comfort from being more covered, clothing wise, and artem seems to be that type of person.

however, the constant hoodie does make him seem even more intimidating and also like, MYSTERIOUS...

[cn server spoilers] it's canon that artem got enrolled into high school a little later into the semester and everybody had their cliques already and he was awkward and didnt know how to get his own friends. nobody treated him badly tho. but he just like, looked SO AWKWARD ISOLATED VAGUELY MISERABLE that many teachers thought he was being INTENSELY BULLIED. i posit this has been a pattern ever since artem was in kindergarten

teacher: artem, are the other kids being mean to you? :(

artem: no? what?

teacher: oh you poor thing :(

artem: huh?

-

marius von hagen: rich kid honor student with a too-cool family

hes extrovert bonanza and also sometimes he likes being the class clown eventually but he puts ppl off bc 1) von hagen and 2) nobody has seen him even look remotely interested in any class sans art and yet he keeps acing everything, it's NOT FAIR

marius' academic excellence + his status = sparks jealousy and regular childlike hatred in some classmates. it's canon that he got picked on by the other kids sometimes and yep, he Does, but any and all bullying simply makes him work so much harder out of SPITE. may cause a vicious cycle of him spite achieving and others getting more and more miffed kJBKSJGS

also kids r always staring in barely concealed awe whenever giann picks him up from school in a REALLY COOL CAR and giann looks REALLY COOL, COOL ADULT VIBES, and marius is always like GIANN!!! DONT RUFFLE MY HAIR, IM NOT A KID ANYMORE!!!

actually u know that scene in Into The Spiderverse? this one?

giann and marius. it's one of marius' most embarassing moments in his life but nobody picks on him for it because giann is just, and i cannot stress this enough, SO COOL

-

vyn richter: PEAK Weird Kid representation

of them all, i think vyn would be the best rep for Weird Kids, he was going into the forest to collect pebbles and leaves to dump in a bucket and stir together with rainwater to make a potion but only for his favorite horses at the stable (which the horses drink bc they love vyn). he'd make up elaborate stories for imaginary friends because there werent too many people he liked talking to growing up and this is how he cultivates a habit of talking to himself. also i think he like, Doesnt Blink Much, like a frigging owl. it's mostly bc vyn likes observing but it unnerves the other kids IMMENSELY

all the boys are academic over achievers but vyn REALLY takes the cake because he gets into bougie extracurriculars too: archery, fencing, classical piano. it's wholly impressive but also intimidating kJBJKSD child prodigies, i figure, must be difficult for other kids to connect with. vyn is simultaneously relieved and sad about this bc on one hand, hes scared that tho others will turn on him. but on the other hand, hes a lonely child

back to Weird Kid representation: remember that one scene in lilo and stitch where lilo puts a bunch of fork voodoo dolls into a pickle jar and shakes em up? thats vyn.

vyn's father: son, what...what are you doing?

vyn, shaking the jar VIGOROUSLY: my classmates need to be punished

[notquiteaghost]

congrats on making a public inquiry on a line of interest situated in the middle of a venn diagram of like four things i've been thinking about a lot lately, your prize is this ask that is so long that in the time spent writing it and checking info someone less annoying may have directed you to some of it! this is all like easy enough to google but just in case it feels less uuhh to have someone with an approximate knowledge on some things offer you some pointers: here are some pointers

(i AM ALSO a thousands of CD's type of guy, but i've not done any big digital management of them since the last time i was regularly using ipods in the 2000s, n i am kinda Prepping for big digital management around my current standing main hyperfixation (participants of a season of an old korean idol reality competition show, a collection of Too Many Gotdamn People who have made Too Much Gotdamn Music) but i don't actually currently own a lot of the physical media there, so none of this are pointer from like. oh here is a workflow i am using etc, but)

answers to your two questions are 1) file sizes really depend on lots of factors but rule of thumb is that in a collection of 'normal song' mp3 file size averages out to 5-7MB a song, and a 3-4min mp3 file being >10MB is surprising

and 2) re: storage prices, 1TB (~1,000,000MB, so probably ~166,666MB 3min mp3's) in external harddrive will run at about £50 in western digital brands atm (western digital is what i've been occasionally looking at for my data management thing bc i've seen it mentioned specifically as more reliable than seagate, which i have had issues with; anecdotally, my mum's WD elements has lasted her about a year longer than her seagates kick the bucket). prices atm on curry's stack up at £80 for 2TB, £108 for 4TB, £180 for 8TB

refurbished is an option when it's 'rectified' and sold by the company itself; for WD, those prices atm stack up at £30 for 1TB, £35 for 2TB, £55-60 for 4TB (their page for these are https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/recertified) (i do not know enough about this area and would wanna look up specific reviews on a company's rectifying track record before purchasing myself, so obv do the same)

answers to questions you DID NOT ask but may have later on if you do set out on the CD Digitization Project that i have answered preemptively bc i am ANNOYING:

tagging music with correct info is often the most time-consuming part of this shit, so a tagger is your friend. the musicbrainz database should have a lot of stuff covered, so their tagger picard might well do (https://picard.musicbrainz.org/, also has some good plugins for like formating multi-disc albums etc if you wanna scan through those), but tagscanner (https://www.xdlab.ru/en/index.htm) can also pull from discogs if needed, though you may still need a discogs account + to make an api key do use that

i was like. spike will probably appreciate it if i provided ways in which their dad could still be autistic about music in a digital format, but i'm having a hard time pulling up music players that meet my vision / make it clear if they do re: you can see cd booklet, and also this info seems to not typically be in databases. i'll carry on looking for players in this area bc i ALSO want this, but suggested desktop windows players other than windows media player / grooveshark / vlc (which are all fine, but imo none are the most intuitive for regular heavy listening) are my best friend foobar2000 (https://www.foobar2000.org/, also has a tagger that pulls from musicbrainz and maybe discogs?), musicbee (https://getmusicbee.com/, tagger plugins available), and aimp (https://www.aimp.ru/); deadbeef (https://deadbeef.sourceforge.io/) is created more to get your hands into with the technical stuff, but it's got custom metadata fields. really after you've looked to see if you think your dad would want a particular feature, unless space is a major consideration then it is just well what looks nicest.

file backup! backblaze (https://www.backblaze.com/) allows an external hard drive to be added in an image backup of a machine, which is the only good way to do a (pseudo-)sync backup without paying for cloud subscription or setting up a NAS etc; at $70/year it is obviously A Cost but way less than premium cloud drive subscription, so if it feels useful to know,

if the NAS mention / video at the end of that post wrt turning an old computer or laptop into a media server (so thing that is plugged into a wall that has files on it + a media player --> other computers / phones / etc on the same network (which can be outside the home too) can connect to that player and files) was interesting lmk bc i've also been looking into that a lot mostly as like, storage nerd aspirations, it's just a whole other thing that's irrelevant if you're more interested in just bunging stuff on an external drive (i've send this as an ask with the intent for you to keep it On File, so sent me another or a dm to lmk!)

you are not at ALL annoying you are a godsend!!!!

the thing abt my father is he is actually better at tech stuff than me (he ran his school's website & also michael's website, in the 00s, when that meant he built them from scratch) (he's still a little bitter abt his school outsourcing their website to whatever service every school uses nowadays. he used to add little falling snowflakes in the winter n april fools jokes n such), so yes i was very much anticipating saying to him like. find a backup storage method you like and i will do the legwork of actually ripping n sorting everything

i did NOT know taggers even existed but holy shit yes i will definitely need one. i do not anticipate him ever actually getting rid of his physical copies – smth he has already done is buy a ton of plastic wallets n move the CDs & booklets into them so instead of ur standard plastic jewel case taking up all that space it's effectively as thin as the actual CD – & also he no longer has a computer (i do not get this decision either. he just uses his phone????) so i doubt he'll need music player software. my thought is really 'he needs backups spare CDs and a CD writer so if any die they can be replaced'

however i will definitely look into the music player software, and maybe also forward this info to my brother (if it's even news to him, he's the kind of music autistic who has a £200 pair of headphones). thank you SO much <3

edit: just saw ur second ask n shdgdhd yeah i am gonna bookmark this post, my askbox is a pit things vanish into forever

[centralsaints]

mcl headcanon masterpost pt.1 - armin

let's start this off with my long term favourites; the twins. this is armin's part, and alexy is next!

will start this with his full name being armin frederic lemaire

if you name a joint, he has probably dislocated it at least once in his life. he’s always been hypermobile, having chronic pain (mistaken as growing pains) and fatigue, being prone to dislocation. that later becomes a diagnosis of hypermobile ehlers-danlos syndrome.

that makes him also prone to getting migraines and headaches regularly, explaining the whole hating bright lights thing

he has had an eating disorder on and off since he was about 15; partly diagnosed, he meets the criteria for OSFED, so his ed is a bit. weird and all over the place. it’s mostly periods of restriction with a fear/disgust of food, followed by periods of binging and eating more or less normally. he’s closer to atypical bulimia, in terms of specifics, because the binge/purge episodes aren’t that frequent. he went inpatient once, and still jokes about how he was the only guy there. only his family knows about his eating issues as of now.

another thing about the ed is that it was already kind of in the making when alexy had his unaliving attempt, but that was really what kickstarted it all.

around UL, with nathaniel going absolutely off the fucking rails, armin and amber struck an odd friendship. they both could clock the other on their fucked up eating issues, but neither said anything for a long time, until amber did. they agreed to try and recover together.

his favourite pokemon type is ghost (thank you anon, idk anything about pokemon but i wanted to include this)

he plays animal crossing with kentin (who doesn’t like admitting that he plays it because it’s very relaxing for him) and jade.

he’s a gemini sun, cancer rising, libra moon, same as alexy.

he has add (adhd inattentive type) and his most common stims are bouncing his leg and chewing his pens. his object permanence is also absolute shit, if its out of sight, it doesn’t exist.

he doesn’t untie his shoes when taking them off or putting them on, and has ruined many perfectly good pairs of shoes that way.

he has made tik toks starring rocket the ferret

his playlists are lo-fi music, video games and movie soundtracks, and like. twenty one pilot.

his nose is crooked from when he broke it around 11 years old

he also bruises really easily (mostly due to his EDS) and his legs are always covered in various bruises. he’s also very clumsy, which doesn’t help

he doesn’t like alcohol; he doesn’t like the taste, the way it makes him feel and the aftermath; it doesn’t take much to affect him and he’ll sleep for an entire day. but he’ll sometimes drink in social situation just to not feel left out.

he’s bisexual. the less obvious stuff; what’s his type?? I know having a “type” isn't really a thing and u like who u like. with that said i think hed like slightly androgynous looking girls (soft spot for shaved heads. its soft;;), girls who are very very feminine but in an out of the ordinary way (think lolita, hyper pop fem vibe, goth girls in corsets, etc), guys who work out (he has a weakness for back muscles), in general people who stand out in a crowd be it with their appearance, style or their attitude

no i still have absolutely no idea how he would come out. i think he probably didn’t. he just started talking about it naturally, because it wasn’t a big deal. i think one day, either his mom or alexy made jokes about oh, when would he finally take this one cute girl on a date, and he just said, or maybe it’ll be a boy. it just happened like that

ref post for his fashion sense

he can do a killer winged liner. look, man’s into cosplay, of course he can.

he’s played mystic messenger ironically at first and then ended up actually liking it

he actually can draw, because he spent all middle school drawing anime characters in all his notebooks

he always sits kind of awkwardly (proof is the episode 12 illustration lmao) because 1. bi people can’t sit right (source: me) and 2. he’s just. really lanky and has long limbs and doesn’t really know what to do with all of it

this one is from an anon last year: “I have this weird hc about the twins. Alexy sleeps with like a million pillows and blankets , while Armin tries to sleep with pillows but throws it out every time even though he's asleep.” and i love it. he also probably sleep in very weird positions which leads to him waking up hurting a lot of the time

he also has a weighted blanket that he and alexy kind of just. get turns using when they both still live at their parents house. it helps armin’s pain, and alexy’s overstimulation issues. when they leave, armin gets the weighted blanket

armin has a dimple on his right cheek when he smiles

he helped alexy dye his hair until they moved out and started living separately

he has his driving license, but alexy doesn’t

he’s scared of dogs (he probably met demon at one point bc i like him and cas being friends, and he was so nervous about it, poor boy

he likes taking ice cold shower in the evening because the cold water and then sinking in a warm bed make him sleepy and actually helps him fall asleep

he probably played dnd at one point

he smokes ouid occasionally, at first it was recreational, but it kind of helped with his joint pain so

i think this is all of them? i might be missing a few ones i never wrote out or that are buried in my files but i honestly don't feel like going through the dozen unfinished fics and compilation documents that mention armin in my drive or i would still be here next year

[bitter-sweet-coffee]

imagine of Storm had to have legal custody of Jet because he's only 14

this is sorta what happens in my canon actually!

basically, the way babylonian customs work is that the heir-leader can form the next generation of babylon rogues when he (yes, he) turns 16, preferably 18 though. however, there were a couple things that went wrong with our birds:

1. Storm (who is not the heir-leader) was born first. like, too many years early, his dad is young and tbh kindof a dilf but i will make another post about him later!

2. the mechanic is supposed to be the youngest, but Wave was born in the middle. Also uh, they usually don't want girls unless they're the second-in-command (Storm's position) because it would make the leader-intercessor dynamic "more successful" because heterosexuals etc etc but once again the ages didn't work. Also, mechanics are supposed to be the power type whereas second-in-commands are flight type so they can scope out and help with the planning/collaboration with the heir-leader but Wave (despite being ridiculously strong) is not the power type, Storm is.

3. Jet was born last and also he's trans in my canon so his family just fucking gave up at that point and dropped him off with Storm's dad (who is hated by the other Babylonians bc fuck tradition he was never raised traditionally either and skipped a few steps since his older brother was supposed to have kids and was the traditional second-in-command but he died which is why Storm has 0 knowledge of babylonian culture and traditions in ZG and why he's also the least defined/trained bc he wasn't raised to be an heir he wasn't even on the table neither was his dad so it was an oopsies but OKAY NO MORE LORE TANGENTS MOVING ON)

One more thing first though 😜 Wave's dad also yeets (but we love him okay??? ok) and he didn't have a choice so instead of being burdened with her step-daughter Wave's stepmom also dropped her with Storm's dad.

What's the issue? Well, while Wave and Storm are ready to be full-time babylon rogues, they gotta wait for Jet to turn 16 first... oh and btw they don't get any of their old money either so they're living off of Storm's single dad's prison guard salary that's off of Prison Island 😎👉👉 oh and Bean is there long story just go with it but dw he disappears at one point to do his normal shenanigans

Wave pulls a sneaky and basically prevents Jet from ever having to experience actual AFAB experiences by like, illegally letting him transition at a dangerously young age. But also Jet's dad doesn't stop it because like... he does need a son. Like, they'll all die out and their insurmountable wealth dating back to the dawn of fucking civilization will be given to the mobian government or like, GUN... so fine. Transphobia on the backburner for now, give me a son and we won't talk about it. Wave also uses this as a perfect opportunity to fuck up her own body for a while for funzies and that's gonna have consequences later in one of my fics! But I digress once more

What was I supposed to be talking about....? RIGHT! STORM ADOPTING JET!!! Well, the rogues don't really follow the standardized legal system but they're all allowed to have the airship when Storm turned 16 based on babylonian custom so that's when they start fucking shit up for fun around the world, and also stealing because they don't really have money besides required amenities (so like I should clarify rn that the rogues get money but they have to request it and log their expenses So stuff like gas, food, entertainment within reason, medical emergencies, etc... are covered almost always, but if you want HRT or a nail appointment they're gonna use the request letter as toilet paper)

When Wave turned 16 they were allowed to compete in global or international extreme gear events (mechanic needs to be a certain age— another reason why she hates Tails so much in riders because Team Sonic got to skip all protocol and legal requirements despite being heroes and law-abiding at least in appearance, meanwhile the nomad rogues who don't even count as citizens are forced to oblige. ANYWAYS!) They could do national competitions and off-track races and unofficial stuff to build up their rep but anything comparable to like, how we treat the Olympics or PanAm are off the table until Wave was old enough. Technically this is a win for the rogues because normally you have to wait longer since mechanics are supposed to be the youngest member (bright innovative minds, also as the power-member the careers of the heir-leader and second-in-command will last longer and give them more time to gain experience and seasoned skills). However, since the birth order got fucked up, Jet is a LOT fucking younger than when his ancestors started racing on a global scale (12 instead of 16/18 like WHAT?!? king shit)

So, as a summary of everything I rambled and all the things I didn't develop for the sake of word-count and also just my fingers:

the rogues don't really do the whole "legal custody" thing that everyone else does, but yeah, storm's age and sometimes wave's age counts as custody for babylonian regulations 😌 more like group project supervision with -3 braincells but it counts!!! hash tag found family

[fuckyeahscienceparty]

Fighter (Lover)

Call me fighter, I'll mop the floor with you

Call me lover, I'll take you for a drink or two

You'll get older, and maybe then you'll feel some control...

-

HOO longest thing i've ever written lads :V hope y'all enjoy! title/description based on fighter by jack stauber bc i thought it was very fitting lol

-

Engie let out a strangled yell as he finally managed to land a solid hit on RED's Spy with his wrench, the familiar sound of crunching bone and the squelches of blood that accompanied it filling the air and splattering his overalls in French flavored crimson.

Not a very pretty way to die, and he almost felt bad for the fella, knowing from.... rather painful experience how excruciating it was to go through respawn after having your skull caved in. But almost was the keyword here, especially considering the fact that the bastard had unfortunately managed to sap both his dispenser and his sentry in the process, leaving him not only vulnerable to his fellow REDs but without the resources to actually get things up and running again.

What was extra unfortunate was that before he could get to either of them, they'd both managed to practically destroy both affected buildings, causing his dispenser to spark and sputter to a halt and his sentry to explode, sending components and pieces of shrapnel flying everywhere and barely giving Engie a chance to shield himself while hanging on to less than half of his health points.

Great. Just great.

He let out an annoyed grumble, anger rising in himself as he began to at least attempt damage control by basically tearing the sapper off of his dispenser with his bare hand. He didn't even care about all the little metal bits in his skin that tore through his shirt and were starting to make blood ooze out, staining his already sullied uniform. What he cared about was making sure that RED didn't take their final point and not having sentry up, even if it was just a level 1, was going to make that exceedingly difficult.

That being said, if he made it out of this alive, he was gonna have a field day getting all these stains out he mused to himself as his pried open the side panel of his dispenser. He reached for his toolbox, rummaging around for his wire cutters, twist on connectors, and a new set of wires to replace the ones the sapper had fried as he heard a chorus of bullets being fired from somewhere around the next point over.

He frowned. Those were much closer than they were 15 minutes ago. Better pick up the pace.

With a deft hand, he pulled out the wires and snipped out all the unsalvageable ones, tossing them in his toolbox to properly dispose of later. Twist on connectors wasn't exactly a Good fix to all the problems he knew that damn shock box had caused, but it would be good enough to last him until the end of the round.

...He hoped, at least.

After making quick work of the internals and closing the panel back up, he flipped the switch back on, waiting a few agonizing moments before the dispenser beeped at him a few times and whirred back to life.

Engie let out a weary sigh of relief as it slowly started healing his wounds, giving it a couple whacks with his wrench to get it into somewhat working order. It may have been knocked back down to level 1, but hey, at least it actually started up again! Finally, he had one thing was working in his favor!...

...But only the one thing. Now was the issue of getting his sentry back up, and with his dispenser back at level 1, just waiting around for metal wasn't exactly going to be an option this time.

After scanning the battlefield a few times, a disgruntled noise escaped him. Pyro was nowhere to be found. Just his luck. He grumbled to himself more as he picked his dispenser up and moved it to where he thought it would be at least a little less visible so he could go search for an ammo kit himself, keeping a hand on his pistol and his wits about him as he ventured into a nearby building.

He hated to leave any of his buildings unattended without Pyro around to cover for him (usually in return for a joyride into town the following weekend along with the sugariest fruit flavored item they could get from the local candy store), but he really didn't have the time to sit around and hope for the Chance that they'd 1). be in his field of view and 2). not be too busy to play guard dog for 5 or so minutes (5 minutes they could very understandably use to set some REDs running for the hills. or a fire extinguisher).

And as much as he would love to just waltz into BLU's resupply and pick up all the things he needed with little to no effort, he was currently stationed at second to last and the time it would take him to get there and back would be more than enough time for the REDs to not only destroy BLU's hopes and dreams but also to give way for his teammates to complain about how he hadn't been there to defend them.

(As if he wasn't doing enough for this damn team already.)

So taking a gamble with getting an ammo box was objectively his best bet at the moment. Was he happy about it in any metric? Absolutely not. Sure, he knew his way around the place and he actually knew that the building he was currently in housed the largest ammo kit you could find out in the field, but he also knew that other people knew that too. And that meant that there was a very real chance of running into one of them and not only failing to defend BLU's points and having to put up with his teammates' negging but also dying and gettin sent through respawn in the process.

But that's as if anything was really going his way today.

He hopped up the wooden stairs two at a time, knowing that the ammo kit was somewhere up on the top floor. He'd actually passed by the Medkit on the first and as tempted as he was to heal himself up a little, he also knew that any more time he wasted in there was time that could be used getting a sentry back up.

When he'd reached the second floor, the ammo box was just where he expected it to be, sitting next to a window that looked out over the battlefield, giving him a front and center view of BLU's second to last point. He could just about see a sliver of his dispenser, silently relieved that it was still there. From what he could see, RED and BLU were still fighting it out over the mid point, both teams having captured and then recaptured it several times already, only for the other to take it back.

Currently, it was still BLU's but something told him that if he didn't hurry, that was going to change soon.

He quickly scooped up the ammo box, eyebrows furrowing when the top of it came off with relative ease. Odd. You usually need to do at least a little prying with these suckers to get the tops to pop off. He then rummaged around in it to make sure it had what he needed, confusion deepening when he realized that there weren't any syringe cartridges in the box.

And that's when he heard a slight rustling from somewhere just out of his peripheral vision.

He immediately dropped the box, bullets and miscellaneous parts spilling everywhere as he turned around and reached for his pistol.

However, he ended up getting a spray of syringes to the arm, letting out a strained cry as he instead grabbed his pistol with his other hand and randomly fired it in the direction of where the syringes had come from.

His guesswork was pleasantly met with a very loud "FUCK", his eyes finally focusing on a very irritated looking RED Medic who now sported a bullet wound in his non dominant shoulder.

"You wanna dance? Let's fuckin' tango, buddy," Engie muttered mainly to himself, only just about bearing the pain as he tore anywhere from 4-7 syringes out of his arm and dropped them to the floor.

He tried to shoot his newfound opponent again but his bullets made splinters rather than punctured flesh, Engie fully aware that his normally serviceable aim was probably off thanks to the searing pain in his... well, everything, cursing under his breath regardless.

However, before he could even process what to do next, the enemy Medic made a dive for him, the two of them tussling to the floor and struggling with each other for the right to end someone's life.

Engie was able to momentarily able to wiggle his arm out of the other's grasp, managing a solid hit on RED Medic's face that he was pretty sure ended up breaking his nose.

That really only seemed to make him angrier though, the two of them continuing to wrestle it out until Medic finally managed to come out on top, having practically straddled Engie's chest as he pinned down both of his arms to the ground. The both of them struggled to take in air, Engie still making feeble attempts to escape his captivity with little success.

If this weren't a life or death situation, he probably would've told RED Medic that he was rather handsome, even with a broken nose and blood dripping out his mouth and onto Engie's shirt. Truth be told, Engie had always thought him attractive and if the two of them weren't enemies by uniform color, he probably would've asked him if he wanted to go out for a drink some time.

But even if life or death prevented him from attempting to woo the man who he'd just shot, Engie couldn't help but be immensely frustrated with himself, eventually just letting out a wheeze of defeat as he gave out from exhaustion.

"Just- just fucking do it please, I'm really not goddamn having it right now," He growled out, causing RED Medic to squint and tilt his head at him. After all, it wasn't every day that your enemy practically begged you to off them after they (quite understandably) just tried to strangle you.

"Hey, Stitches, you hear me? Just cut my head off or steal my organs or whatever, make my godawful day into an even more godawful one," He reiterated, Medic unable to suppress a chuckle despite how tired he was.

"Sorry- steal your organs? Do you really think I'm going to do that?" He grinned incredulously.

"Dunno. You just seem like the type," Engie said dryly, Medic letting out a cackle.

"Well just because you made me laugh, I'll make this quick. You don't seem particularly happy right now," Medic vocalized, shifting so that he could pin both of Engie's arms down with one hand and reach for Engie's pistol that had gotten knocked out of his grasp in their scuffle with the other.

Stronger than he looks. Engie couldn't tell if his heart beating faster because he was literally about to die or because an item was added to the list of "reasons why I want to take my enemy out to dinner."

...Might be both.

"Golly gee, what gave that away?" Engie deadpanned, feeling the muzzle of his own pistol pushing against his forehead. RED Medic chuckled again.

"No hard feelings, right my friend?" he smiled at him, almost apologetically. At least Engie thinks it's apologetically. Kinda hard to tell with all the blood that wasn't in his body.

He closed his eyes, bracing himself.

"Nah. None at all."

...

BANG!

...And not even 20 seconds later, he suddenly materialized in BLU's main respawn room, immediately grimacing from the skull splitting headache he was saddled with; the unfortunate side effects of being shot in the head. Respawn could only do so much, after all.

He moved to open the resupply cabinet to just get what he needed and get the hell out of there before he was startled by the intercom crackling to life, Engie's stomach sinking when he heard the very familiar "YOU FAILED" accompanied by almost comically sad music.

Had he really been gone that long? He didn't even hear the Admin announcing that mid had been capped, let alone second to last, and surely he would've heard it even if he was being held up by RED's local handsome devil.

But his teammates slowly filing in with various injuries seemed to confirm their defeat, Engie sighing as he reached into the cabinet for a bottle of aspirin instead of a case of bullets.

"Hrr Mrnrph!" Pyro mumbled out as they made their way in, Scout with his arm around their shoulders for support as he hobbled in as well.

"Yo, Engie, where the hell were you?" Scout frowned, clearly peeved about losing that day's round.

"Yeah, maggot, we thought you were on second to last! Their damn Scout somehow slipped by us and ended up capping both of ours after RED capped mid again," Soldier added, Engie sighing. Of course this was going to be blamed on him.

"Sorry, fellas. Spy managed to sap both my sentry and my dispenser and their Medic got me when I was tryin' to get supplies. I was hoping y'all would be able to hold mid long enough for me to get back but that. Obviously did not happen."

"Oh, so it's our fault now?"

"Hey, I'm not sayin' it's anyone's fault, I'm just sayin' that they got the best of us today. We'll give it another go tomorrow, like we always do."

Scout obviously seemed unhappy by the notion but decided it best to shut his trap when Demo gave him A Look because even Scout knew that Demo was not one to fuck with. Engie knew he didn't actually intend real harm, he just tended to run his mouth with things he didn't necessarily mean. Didn't make his life any easier, though.

"Listen, I think we've all had a long day. Let's just get patched up an' relax before tomorrow," Demo interjected, the rest of the team making various sounds of agreement as the final members of their menagerie made their way in.

As he walked past, Medic gave him a conciliatory look that Engie could only give him a knowing smile in return for. They both knew what it was like for the entire team's failure to be blamed on their shoulders alone. Usually it was Medic who received the brunt of it, especially when he'd just been transferred in, but Engie was no stranger to complaints on his off days about how he should've been better or how could've done more.

It made him want to tear his own ears off. Not only because it was annoying as all hell because you didn't see him out here blaming the entire team's loss on one damn person's slip up, but because it was the kind of shit that he told himself when he was younger and it brought him back to times he didn't necessarily want to remember.

He was suddenly brought out of his brooding by Pyro walking up to him, Scout seemingly having limped his way back into base on his own.

"Mrr rrhrrh hrrph phr nrr rphmm hrr rr phrrhrrk phr rrr," They mumbled out sadly, holding their arms out to offer an apology hug and very much looking like a kicked puppy. Engie let off a soft "aw."

"Shucks, Firefly, it ain't your fault. Can't expect ya to baby me all the time, can I?" He joked, pulling them in anyways. Only a monster could refuse Pyro hugs, after all.

Pyro squeezed him tightly, nearly lifting him off the ground despite the fact that they were only a couple inches taller than he was as Engie was momentarily overwhelmed with the familiar scent of kerosene and singed rubber.

When they finally let go, Engie gave them a gentle pat on the head.l

"You go inside now, hey? I gotta check if my dispenser's still out there and you probably got your own injuries you should have Doc look at," He told them, Pyro nodding at him and giving him an affirmatory wheeze. They then gave him another quick squeeze before waddling their way inside, boots squeaking every so often.

Engie sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Oh well. Nothing he could do now but prep for tomorrow.

He sat in respawn for a little while waiting for the aspirin to kick in and only decide it was time to get going when he finally felt like his brain wasn't trying to squeeze itself down his spinal cord.

After making the trek to second to last, he was pleasantly surprised to see that his dispenser was still on. And also there at all.

(To be fair, RED and BLU had been fighting over mid for so long that RED's Scout probably hadn't bothered to destroy what wasn't shooting at him in a desperate attempt to end the godforsaken match already. He couldn't say that he'd blame him.)

He was also surprised, though not as pleasantly, to see someone waiting for him. Specifically, someone in glasses and a tie that, even though it was covered in blood, had a face that was both painfully smug and oddly endearing.

Though they were technically now in ceasefire until battle tomorrow, he still instinctively reached for his pistol, blinking and looking down when he realized his holster was empty.

"I believe you're looking for this?" RED Medic asked as he picked said pistol up off of his dispenser, Engie nodding cautiously.

"Relax, dummkopf, I'm not going to shoot you. The bullet that was in your head was actually the last one in the magazine anyways," Medic snorted, demonstrating by pulling the trigger while pointing the weapon to the ground and coming up with nothing but empty clicks.

Regardless, he still offered it to Engie butt first, Engie himself still wary but a little less hesitant as he took a few more steps forward and took it in his hand.

"Apologies. I actually meant to put it back into your holster before you went through respawn but I didn't have adequate time. You pack quite a punch," Medic smirked lightly, Engie's attention suddenly being drawn to his still broken nose.

He grinned sheepishly.

"Heheh, yeah, mama taught me well... No hard feelin's though, yeah?" Engie sticking his pistol in its place and his hand out to the doctor, Medic letting out an amused huff at his own words being used against him.

"No hard feelings," He assured, shaking Engie's hand.

"I should probably be off now, I can practically hear my gaggle of idiots begging me to heal their boo boos from all the way out here," He then snorted, Engie letting out a chuckle.

"All good. I should prolly get the ol' girl back to the workshop. Damn sappers always do a number on the internals," He grimaced, thinking about all proper rewiring and circuit board replacement he was going to have to do, not to mention normal maintenance and cleanup.

"As I've heard. Our own Engineer has some particularly... colorful words on what he thinks of your Spy."

"Bit of a wily bastard, that one. Can't say I blame him," Engie shrugged, leaning against his dispenser for support and suddenly feeling face flush as Medic did the same, the two of them now so close that their elbows touched in the middle.

If Medic noticed, he didn't immediately let on, merely smiling at him.

"That we can all agree on, I think. What is it with Spies and deciding to be bastards? Is it a profession thing, does it just come naturally to them?" He said mirthfully, leaning in close enough that their noses were close to touching.

...Never mind, he absolutely noticed.

"'s gotta be, right? I mean, it's the only explanation for why they're all so dickish. That or the ones we've been in contact with just happen to be persnickety lil fucks," Engie grinned, Medic laughing loudly in response.

It only made him grin even wider. Medic's laugh had to be in a class of its own. Borderline obnoxious in nature but somehow brash and unapologetic while still being absolutely ridiculous.

Man, was it just something to die for (which he.. technically supposed he did).

"Ah, look at me, babbling about. I really should get going before I waste any more of your time," he said when giggles finally stoped threatening to rise out of his throat, Engie feeling a sudden pang of disappointment in his chest. He merely waved him off with a soft "shucks, weren't nothin'" as he tipped his hat, Medic giving him a firm pat on the shoulder.

"It was nice talking with you, Herr Engineer. Perhaps we can meet again some time," He smiled before turning to make his leave.

Engie closed his eyes. This was a bad idea, this was a bad idea, don't do it, don't do it Dell, don't FUCKING do it-

"Hey, uh. Stitches."

Medic paused before turning around again.

"Are you... free this weekend?"

An amused glint suddenly appeared in Medic's eyes.

"Well seeing as we all have weekends off, yes, I should be. Why do you ask?"

"You, uh. You wanna grab a drink with me, this Saturday, maybe? I know this pretty good place not too far out and uh. I dunno, 'd be fun to uh. See ya again outside of work, I guess," Engie stumbled out, putting a hand on the back of his neck.

"...I'd like that. I'd like that a lot," Medic smiled, Engie's face lighting up.

"Great! Uhm. I uh, I guess. Meet me on y'all's second to last at about 6? I know how to avoid all the cameras, so," Engie offered, Medic raising an eyebrow at him.

"...Hey, when you live out your days fighting people to the death for an old dinosaur who would skin you alive and turn you into the coat given the chance, finding out where her cameras and all their blindspots are isn't that much of a hassle. We're actually in one right now. Wouldn't've asked you out otherwise," He shrugged, Medic holding his hands up in response.

"I'm not one to judge. Whatever gets me out of playing team mama for the night. I'll just tell them I joined a book club or whatever. And if they don't believe me... well I think a saw to the skull might convince them," Medic said, suddenly pulling out his Ubersaw with a malicious grin.

Engie had to physically restrain himself from saying "hot" in response.

"Heheh, yeah, I bet it might. I'll uh. See you later then," He coughed out, moving to put his dispenser into compact mode and pack it back into his toolbox.

When he stood up with it resting on his shoulder, however, Medic was standing right in front of him, nearly causing it to slip out of his hands.

Medic barely stifled a laugh at his shock, gently removing his hardhat and leaning down to give him a kiss on the forehead.

"It's a date then," He hummed cheerily before putting Engie's hardhat back on his head and making his return to RED, leaving Engie with his hat slightly askew and his face moderately flushed.

And that's when if hit him. A date. He had just asked his actual, literal enemy who had shot him in the head about 30 minutes ago, on a date. And he said yes.

He didn't know if he wanted to scream, punch something, or throw himself off a bridge. Probably all three, if he was honest.

Despite all that, he practically forced himself to turn around and begin making his way back to BLU, readjusting his tool box every so often so it wouldn't slip out of his hands. What the hell was he doing, breaking contract like this? He means sure, he wasn't particularly one for rules anyhow, he's pretty sure he's committed more than a few atrocities against the heavens in his lifetime, and the Admin wasn't always on his case for every little infraction he'd ever made anyways. But between her and God, it was the Admin he feared more and he knew that if there was one rule that the she enforced, it was that cross faction relations were NOT tolerated and were more than a warrant for termination.

Termination of contract or termination of your life? Depended on how nice she was feeling that day.

Needless to say, he was very frustrated with himself.

But then he remembered how drop dead (haha) gorgeous Medic was even when he was bleeding all over Engie's shirt and the way hearing his laugh had made him felt and the way that glint made it look like he had stars in his eyes and...

...Aw hell, if he was going to get fired (or die! both was very possible) for this he might as well go down after having had a good time.

Now all he had to do was make it to Saturday. While also not giving anything away.

Piece of fucking cake.

[itshardcandy]

Stormy Night

Kim Seokjin x Reader

Written for my fav moot bc I love her @a-noona-mous ❤️

~1.3k words

Genre: Strangers to lovers (kind of), fluff

Warnings: None, except for one (1) awful pun

-----

“Noona, I need your help... again”

The grumpy guy from last night leaned over the counter,

“You know that book you recommended yesterday? I already finished it and I need a new one”

He explained, an innocent smile gracing his lips. You sighed and pulled of your glasses,

“You know, you’ve been coming here for the last two weeks straight; by now I would think that you know what kind of novel I’ll recommend”

You replied. You watched the gears in his head turn a little at your statement. This guy had basically been harassing you for the last two weeks; coming in every night and asking for new books to read. If your professor didn’t make this library work a requirement for your research position, you would have gotten the heck out of here already because sitting behind this counter for 8 hours a day had not been as much fun as he promised it would be.

“But I like hearing you talk about them, first”

He schmoozed and you couldn’t help but smile. He was kind of cute, though, the harasser; tall, broad shoulders, handsome face with beautiful, full lips... You had to respect his determination; and since he had never really been annoying our outright rude in his clumsy advances, you humoured him.

“You like hearing me talk about the fluffiest, most cliché romance novels ever written? That’s a first” You joked and he huffed, as if you had insulted him,

“Of course, you always make it sound so romantic”,

“Well, that’s the point, isn’t it? Of a romance novel?”,

“I guess but most of the time it sounds stupid and overrated. Most of the time I think ‘Why beat a dead horse’ but you always find a new perspective. I like that. It’s inspiring”,

“Huh... thanks, I guess”

You were taken aback at his sincerity. You had not expected such a reply and you had to admit, it made your cheeks feel a little hot. You prided yourself on the fact that you were able to enjoy romance novels for what they were and not what they were made out to be and it was refreshing to have someone recognise the same thing.

He smiled at you, knowing he had said something good right there,

“So, will you show me a new one?”

You leaned back in your chair and regarded him carefully. This felt like a defining moment in your, up until now, friendly and professional relationship. Were you ready to succumb to his flirting? You definitely had some real good reads in mind for him but they were a little more on the raunchy side and you weren’t sure what kind of message that would send, or what message you wanted to send, in the first place...

“You know what? I think I have something... let me check where to find it”,

“Ah Noona, I knew you wouldn’t let me down”

You smiled and caught him winking before you turned your attention towards your computer screen to check the shelf number for that particular thing you had in mind. He waited patiently as you typed the criteria in extra slowly.

“Ok, it’s in the back, far end of the hall to the right, shelf number 36 section D. It’s called “Stormy night”. You’ll find it, I’m sure”

You explained and he nodded,

“Alright, I’ll try my best”

He walked a few steps backwards, holding your gaze for a few seconds before he turned and walked right into one of the shelves.

“Ow, fuck...” he mumbled and rubbed the back of his head before he awkwardly checked whether you had noticed. Of course, you had; you thought about warning him but you also needed some entertainment once in a while. You hid your laugh behind your hand and watched him disappear into the maze of shelves.

A few minutes later he still hadn’t returned and you wondered if he had gotten lost. Which was of course a little unlikely but you could never know. You rose from your seat to have a better view of the room but you couldn’t spot him anywhere. He was likely strolling around between the tall shelves in the back, trying to find the book. You sighed and sat back down and tried to focus back on your work instead of his orientational issues. He would have to be fine on his own for now. Suddenly the phone rang and you jumped a little at the sudden noise.

“Jeez...”

You mumbled before picking up,

“University library services, how can I help?”,

“So uh, I think I’m lost”,

“Lost?”,

“Yeah, see... the cute librarian at the counter gave me directions to one of the shelves but I just can’t seem to find it”

Oh, you realised. It was him calling. You covered the speaker with one hand and tried to laugh quietly.

“Well, we can’t have that. What kind of help do you need, Sir?”,

“It would be great if you could send someone out here to help me find it”

You could hear the smirk in his voice,

“Of course, where are you right now?”,

“I’m at the right shelf, I just need help with finding the book”

He said and you shook your head in disbelief while chuckling to yourself,

“I’ll send someone over”,

“Can’t you come yourself?”,

“Well, I’m really busy at the moment, I don’t know if I can abandon my post like this...”,

“What if I ask really nicely?”,

“I guess I can make an exception, you sound like you’re in dire need of help”,

“Definitely”,

“Stay put, I’ll be right out”

You hung up and left your place behind the counter, smoothing your skirt and blouse as you navigated through the shelf maze.

You spotted him soon enough, leaning against the dark wood, watching you approach,

“So, you can’t find the book, hm?”

You teased as you walked up to him and he pushed off the shelf, standing at full height,

“Yeah, this is all so confusing”

He gestured to the mass of books and smiled,

“It’s right over here...”

You walked past him and stopped in the middle section, tracing the books with your finger until you stopped over ‘Stormy Night’. You pulled it out and held it up in front of yourself. He smiled brightly and took it.

“Wow, Noona, you’re so good at this, I never would have found it without your help. Although...”

He said and looked at you expectantly,

“Need something else?”

You ask, expecting to be part of another fetch mission,

“Actually yes, there is something else I forgot to ask for, earlier”,

“I’m all ears”

He stepped a little closer and gazed down at you, making your cheeks heat again.

“Your number”

He said with the most serious expression and you burst into laughter,

“What? My number? What would you need that for?”,

“To ask you out obviously”

Now he was smiling again and you cleared your throat and tried to seem unbothered again,

“Well, uh. I did not expect that, to be honest”,

“Really? I thought getting you out here to help a clueless patron would be a clever rouse and you would be prepared for shenanigans”

He straightens his posture a little,

“I was prepared for shenanigans but not to be asked for my number and a date”

You say and he puts the book back onto the shelf,

“Well, you should always be prepared when you see me”,

“For a date or shenanigans?”,

“Why must one exclude the other?”,

“I see... well, I guess I’m down for both”,

you pull your phone out and his eyes grow big,

“Really?”

“Yeah, here’s my number”

You show him the screen and he quickly pats down his pockets for his own phone to copy your number. After he typed it in, he looks at you, squinting his eyes a little in question,

“You know, I’ve been calling you Noona this whole time and I don’t even know your name...”

You grin and prepare yourself for an awful joke,

“I guess you could say I’m... anoonamous”,

He chuckles and takes your hand,

“Well, it’s nice to meet you anoonamous, I’m Jin”

[enderspawn]

It's alright if u don't wanna answer this cuz this argument gets people really riled up but do you think c!Techno is a tyrant or nah?

Cuz many c!techno apologists argue that he isn't just cuz he's an anarchist but I've also read a lot of essays that go against it and it'd be really interesting to see ur opinion on this

i think he, in some contexts, can most definitely be called tyrannical, yes. a tyrant? no.

to avoid spamming ppl w discourse we've all def heard before (and bc this ended up MASSIVE (like 2.3k ish), but fairly in depth bc i didnt wanna speak out of bad faith and wanted to be EXPLICTLY clear-- oops), the rest will be under readmore

so heres the thing i want to preface: i used to really LOVE c!techno. i joined beginning of s2, right when exile started, and he was arguably my favorite character. since then though i've fallen out with him a LOT, to the point i almost... actively despite him at times (though mainly in a toxic kind of way which i can acknowledge is flawed).

in short, his actions started to speak louder than his words and i lost investment in his personal character struggles because of the actions he took (doomsday was my breaking point. i get feeling angry and betrayed, as well as seeking revenge against lmanberg, but his actions went too far for me to CARE and it hurt so many more characters as well.)

so when i speak, i come from a place of disliking him but also somewhat understanding the position c!techno apologists come from: i used to be one of them myself.

NOW, do i think he's a tyrant? no. for reference in my analysis, i try to look up the definition of terms to make sure they are utilized properly. while "tyranny" and "tyrannical" can have multiple uses, tyrant itself is a more specific term. to combine the top two definitions, a tyrant is referring to "an extremely oppressive, unjust, or cruel absolute ruler (who governs without restrictions, especially one who seized power illegally.)"

techno's position as an anarchist, imo, DOES indeed make him unable to be a tyrant. tyrants are rulers with very clear power over others from a structural way. anarchists are about the lack of structure or power over others and instead viewing the people around you as equals in power.

in forming the syndicate, they very explicitly worked to not designate a leader and instead make it so that no one would have any power over the others systemically. techno may have taken a integral role, yes, but it doesn't make him suddenly "the leader", its a role that wouldve had to be filled by someone (even if it was democratic to decide who to invite, they'd need someone to hand over the invite itself yknow? like no matter WHAT there needed to be A ROLE)

one could argue that he IS a leader in the shadow hierarchy of the syndicate (which, yes, is a real and professional term used in management courses despite sounding like it comes from a 4kids yugioh dub) in that everyone CONSIDERS and looks to him a leader without him having any actual structural basis behind it, but to argue that allows him to be a tyrant is in bad faith i believe. especially because to the people he would be "ruling", he ISNT oppressive, unjust, or cruel. they are his friends and support network and critical for a lot of his personal development (since feelings of betrayal and trust issues are critical to his character and why he acts the way he does). I wish we were able to SEE this develop more, but oh well.

but like i said: tyrant is fairly specific in definition. TYRANNY, and thus TYRANNICAL are not as limited. I've discussed their definitions here. originally, i made that post because i was angry at a take i had seen that claimed that, like you said, because techno was an anarchist and not part of any government or leadership position, he couldn't be tyrannical. to which i heartily disagree.

for something to be tyrannical, they simply must have an overarching/oppressive power over someone or something. it would not be inaccurate if i were to say that something is "under the tyranny" of a concept, because what it means is that something is under the power of another thing/concept. you can frankly call anything tyranny if it is widespread/overarching and you don't like it. mask mandates? tyranny, its forcing me to act in "rigorous condition". hell, theres even such things as tyranny of the majority in which people agree too much on one thing and it gives them unfair power or tyranny of the minority where people with minority opinions have too much power (thats a very grossly oversimplified definition of both, but it covers the base idea well enough for my point)

the point im making above isnt meant to be taken as "anything can be worked to be defined as tyranny thus it is a meaningless claim", it is that tyranny (and again, thus tyrannical) are very open and nonrestrictive terms.

to make it easier to define, alongside the definitions provided i want to add an explicit clause that is (imo) implied in the original definition: tyranny is... well, bad. that is to say if someone has power over a group but literally everyone is fine with it and agrees to it, its not tyranny. thats just a group of people getting along and one happens to have power over another. a leader does NOT equal a tyrant (as discussed above), so leadership should not be equated with tyranny.

thus as an example: wilbur acting as president (before the election) may have been "unelected" with power over his citizens, but no one was upset with that power. thus, he is not a tyrant and not acting tyrannically (as well as the fact his power was, arguably, NOT rigourous or absolute but thats another topic for another time). SCHLATT however IS a tyrant, as his power was absolute (he did not consult his cabinet) and forced people to comply instead of them complying willingly, thus he was acting tyrannically.

now to finally get to the damn point of this essay: where does c!techno lie? honest answer? it depends slightly on your perspective, but it depends a LOT on the future of the syndicate.

techno is incredibly clear in his goals: no governments, no corruption. in fighting with pogtopia, he is actively working to topple a tyranny-- he isn't tyrannical for doing that.

when he strikes out on nov 16th, it is because he opposes them forming a new government. when they oppose him and disagree, he launches an attack against them. is this tyranny? maybe, but probably not. he IS trying to impose his own physical strength and power (as well as his resources) over the others to stop them from doing what HE doesn't want them to do.

however its more nuanced than that:

1. hes lashing out emotionally as well as politically. he feels betrayed by those he trusted and he believed that they would destroy the government then go (i'm ignoring any debates on if he did or did not know that they planned another government, though it is a source of debate). but typically idk about you but i dont call tyranny for someone fighting with another person.

2. he also may be acting with good intent again, in HIS EYES. if tubbo was part of manburg, whos to say he wont be just as bad? he, in his pov, is likely trying to stop another tyrant before they rise.

3. and finally, and tbh the most damning from any perspective: he gives up. he quickly leaves then RETIRES without intent to try and attack again until he is later provoked. tyranny is defined by it not just being power, but power being USED. if he doesn't use his power to try and impose any will, then he's not tyrannical.

Doomsday I am also not going to touch very in depth on for much of the same reasons. My answer is again a "maybe", depending on the weight you personally place on each issue:

1. he's lashing out as revenge for the butcher army and as revenge against tommy for "betraying" him (though this one we explicitly know he was ignoring the fact tommy did not want to go through with it, however he still did trust and respect tommy regardless so his feelings are understandable anyway)

2. he sees new lmanberg as corrupt and tyrannical (which is undeniable: house arrest for noncompliance, exile without counsel, execution without trial, etc), and thus obligated to destroy it

but also, theres the implicit understanding he's doing this to send a message: do not form a government, or else. its a display of force that also works to warn others unless they want a similar fate. phil even explicitly states that he is doing so to send that message, so one could assume techno is doing the same alongside his personal reasoning listed above.

what i just described is the use of a oppressive and harsh (physical) power in order to gain compliance from people (that compliance being 'not making a government'). does that sound familiar? exactly. it follows the definition(s) of tyranny given previously. technoblade is acting in a way that is, by very definition, tyrannical.

so the debate shifts: is he valid in doing so because he is trying to PREVENT corruption and tyranny. like i said, new lmanberg was undeniably corrupt at points. i held nothing against techno for trying to topple manburg, so does that apply to new lmanberg as well? short answer: i dont know. it depends on your specific opinion of what is acceptable. its like the paradox of tolerance: to have a truly tolerant society, you have to be intolerant of intolerance. to have a truly non-tyrannical society, do you need to have a tyranny enforcing it?

personally (and bc im a lmanberg loyalist /hj) i say it is. regardless of the corruption of new lmanberg, they are also giving a threat to EVERYONE. even those who are innocent, they are presented with the exact same threat and rule set: if you make a government, you will be destroyed.

(which, small divergence here, is part of why debating c!techno is so frustrating. so many times you end up hitting a "well it depends on your political views" situation and there ISNT a correct answer there. im here to analyze characters for fun, not debate political theory)

so: the syndicate then. this is where this debate really "took off" and i think its due to one very specific miscommunication about its goals and plans. the syndicate, upon formation, declares itself to stand against corruption and tyranny. when they are found, the syndicate would work to destroy it. so heres the golden question: what do THEY define as corruption and tyranny? if you were to go off c!techno's previous statements, seemingly "any government" is a valid answer. however, he also states he's fine with people just being in groups together hanging together.

what then DEFINES A GOVERNMENT for them? what lines do they have to sort out what does "deserve to be destroyed" and what does "deserve to exist freely"

this is a hypothetical i like to post when it comes to syndicate discourse:

i have a group of people. lets say 5 or so for example. they all live together and build together. any decisions made that would impact the entire group they make together and they must have a unanimous agreement in order to proceed, but otherwise they are free to be their own people and do their own thing. when you ask them, they tell you they are their own nation and they have a very clearly defined government: they are a direct democracy. does the syndicate have an obligation to attack?

there is absolutely no hierarchy present. there is no corruption present. but, they ARE indeed a government. is that then inherently negative? my answer is fuck no (see the whole "difference between a tyrant and a leader" thing above).

but THATS where the issue of this discourse LIES. in some people's eyes, the answer to that is YES. techno's made it clear "no government" is his personal view, but does that spread to the syndicate as a whole? do they act preemptively in case it DOES become corrupt? is it inherently corrupt because its a government, regardless of how it is ruled? the fact of the matter is because of how little we've seen the syndicate work as a SYNDICATE, we don't know that answer. so we're left to debate and speculate HOW they would act.

if the syndicate were to let that government exist, then they are not tyrannical. they are showing that they are working to stop tyranny and corruption, just like in pogtopia again.

if the syndicate were to destroy/attack that government, then they are tyrannical. simple as that. they are enforcing a rule of their own creation without any nuance or flexibility under the threat of absolute destruction.

miscommunication in debates comes, in my opinion, in the above. of course theres more points of nuance. for example:

would the syndicate allow a government like i had described with early lmanberg, where there is an established hierarchy but everyone in the country consents to said leadership? on one hand, there is no tyranny or corruption present which is what they are trying to work against. on the other hand, theres more a possibility of it occuring. perhaps they'd find a middle road between the two binary options of "leave or destroy" i am presenting, such as checking in occasionally to ensure no corruption occurs.

but if they were to destroy it without, for lack of a better word, "giving it a chance" they would be, in my opinion, tyrannical. they would be going aginst their words of opposing corruption and instead abusing their power to gain compliance.

your/others opinions may differ, again it depends on if you see it as worth it to possibly stop future tyranny or if a hierarchy is INHERENTLY a negative thing.

part of the reason so many blog gave up this debate, beyond not getting very clear answers for the syndicate, is because of the nuance present. there. is. no. right. answer. every single person will view it differently, because there is no universally agreed upon truth of right or wrong here. BUT, i hope this helps shed some light on the discussion and my thoughts on it

[fitzefitcher]

faction conflict soapbox, pt. 1

okay so it seems like for the most part, there are a couple consistent schools of thought here:

school 1: I'm tired of the Horde being the Bad Guy 24/7

school 2: I'm tired of faction conflict, in general

school 3: Really Deeply wish that the Alliance's crimes would actually be Addressed, At All

school 4: Nuanced Wild Card:tm: opinions that I'll have to tackle individually lmao

so let's get started, obviously this is going to be a long-ass post, so I'm going to preemptively break up my answers to these into separate posts, for readability and also for my own sanity lmao. this will be under my essay tag but also the tag faction conflict soapbox, for blacklisting reasons.

school 1: I'm Tired of the Horde being the Bad Guy 24/7

@lokaror: i dont tend to have much of it these days. But i hate the "Horde is always the bad guy" stuff. When faction war happens its rarely with too much nuance on either side. The group that is primarily outcasts banding together seemingly always having the bad apples chafes too. But i also see from alliance side that it can be just as raw the other way.

The alliance sprang up out of need to for mutual defense, and the horde is the horde because they also need mutual aid and defence. We can't really put too much real world ideals to either, but at its core its always a tinder that can be lit. No way around that.

@chryseis: Long time blood elf player! I still love the horde (even though most of my favourite lore characters are alliance lol) because it feels like more of a community than the alliance with their high king. However I'm getting super sick of the horde always being the bad guy, and the fact that blizz has used the same evil warchief plot twice! Having said that, some of my worst/funniest online interactions have been with men on twitter who play alliance and genuinely (1/2)

Believe that anyone who plays horde is a terrible war criminal and not someone playing a computer game lmao (2/2)

@arkhamarchitecture​:  Feels a lot like Blizzard can't resist making the Horde the villains and even when the Alliance does wrong, it gets written off and excused, like they're not allowed to be the bad guys. Which in turn makes a lot of Alliance players treat the Horde like Blizzard is biased in our favor just because the story is always about us? Even though the story is about our side apparently being full of godawful people? It's really infuriating.

I think a core issue w this is the way that the game often presents the Horde and its various characters without the same empathy that it gives to its Alliance characters (note I said "empathy" and not "nuance" or "character development," we'll get back to that later), so it's not that horde people are incapable of inspiring empathy or aren't empathetic themselves, clearly they are and have evoked that reaction enough from players to arrive at this conclusion, it's that the same sort of steps taken with portraying alliance characters aren't taken with horde characters. like, I've already covered this a bit in my sylvanas essay, but like, we're not really given any opportunity to understand what's going on inside her head, so the actions she takes feel nonsensical, unecessary, or even needlessly cruel, and seemingly as players interacting with this game we have to make a lot of extra effort in order to even attempt to understand it. like, example, the "before the storm" novel portrays her as this horrible, conniving, manipulative Evil Dictator, for not wanting to share vital information about azerite with a faction whose leader has effectively done nothing to curb the warmongering tendencies of its other leaders, when in fact, it's very understandable why she wouldn't wanna do this. But again, the author (Christie Golden, bc of course it is) very explicitly portrays her as Bad Bad Evil Zombie Lady for Daring to think that they can't trust the same faction that seems to take issue with the mere concept of the horde having the Audacity of thinking they Deserve to Live lmao. Like, clearly this is Happening, but's never talked about or formally addressed.

likewise, with Garrosh, our other Bad Bad Evil Dictator Warchief, despite all the weird, wretched, horrible shit he was doing, it unfortunately makes a really terrible kind of sense if examined further.

why did he turn away from the horde leaders? because they had all uniformly rejected him from the getgo. cairne said he'd never accept him, vol'jin said he'd kill him, sylvanas made it clear she would never respect his authority. all before he'd done a single solitary thing as warchief.

why did he turn to war so quickly and so strongly? because nothing else was working. thrall's horde had tried diplomacy for years, and it amounted to nothing, because no matter what he did, no matter how far the horde ran from the eastern kingdoms, the alliances wouldn't stop chasing them and trying to kill them. the alliance would never see them as actual people, they'd only ever see them as twisted monsters and bloodthirsty, mindless beasts.

why did he turn to such violent, inhumane methods? bc the entirety of his first real brush with warfare was in northrend, against the scourge, an enemy that will keep getting up again and again and again until they're utterly annihilated. and before that, all his experiences with conflict were with demons, who were similarly impossible to kill.

like, obviously none of these reasons make it okay for him to do what he had done. just because something is understandable, doesn't mean it's acceptable. but it's never portrayed as understandable. it's never addressed, at all. there is no nuance attached to any of his actions- it is only ever portrayed as Evil, as Manipulative and Conniving and Violent and Warmongering, even though there is a whole slew of reasons for how and why we got here. there is no emotionality, there is only cruelty.

edit: whoops, forgot a relevant ask. added now.