#neo was the one who made them do the nails

[teriri-sayes]

Reactions to The Incomprehensible's Chapter 326

Brief summary: Raon's perspective on the time that Neo exploded. Raon calms down the fluctuating mana, letting everyone use magic. Explosion ends, and the source of the world appears.

==========

We still do not know if Cale's plate actually broke, but the following hints at it:

Cale hadn't fainted yet. He hadn't lost consciousness. Dragon Mila's hands were seen trembling, pulling out thin beige threads, trying to connect it together somehow.

I guess we'll know next chapter the extent of damage Cale's plate has.

As for DHB, we also do not know if he is still alive, but Raon and Eruhaben managed to stop his soul from breaking by casting their shields on him. Cale's frustration at DHB's actions though... 😂

Raon could see his human's mouth open, even though he couldn't see Raon. His human spoke in annoyance. "…Dragon Half-Blood… you bastard, who… won't… even listen… to your name… You must never die……." Raon felt like Cale was talking to himself. "…Do, do you think I'll die, like this……?" Raon grinned at the faint sound of the voice. "As expected of my human!"

Cale and DHB were not the only ones with... um, sacrificial tendencies? Even Eruhaben was fine with dying. 🙁

The dragon bit his lip. He couldn't help but shudder. Cale was- Dragon Half-Blood was- Raon was- With no one knowing what would happen to them all. 'I can't be the one to survive.' If anyone dies, I should be the first one to die. Because- Dust and magic spread out in Eruhaben's hands.

And when the explosion has ended, the source of the world arrived. But... you're late! Why only now?! No, wait... If she's here, could she possibly mend Cale's plate? Cale seems annoyed at her arrival though, because he felt that she was planning on using him as...an air purifier. 🤣🤣🤣

Raon's Present attribute was surprisingly OP. He wanted to change fate, and willed it. He made the mana of the world obey him and stopped it from fluctuating, thus allowing everyone to use mana.

There were lots of touching scenes too. 🥰🥰🥰

What am I supposed to do? Raon turned his head involuntarily. The one I always watched and learned from, yes. You were the first to show me the light of the world. Even the stars in the night sky. From the one who first showed me, I must still learn. Raon tore his gaze away from the explosion and looked at a person. His eyes locked with Cale's.

Cale was truly Raon's dad. 🥰🥰🥰

Toward that light, Raon unleashed his magic. A shield. The best he'd ever done. The most used, the most practiced. The magic he was most confident in. It was a secret, but he thought his human looked the coolest when he used the shield. In other words, Raon had practiced and studied the shield the most. And this shield was the power he needed most right now.

How cute!!! Raon secretly admired his human's silver shield, so he diligently practiced using shield magic. 🥰🥰🥰

Raon looked beyond the translucent black shield to the platinum shattering. The platinum somehow clutching the epicenter of the explosion. The light that seemed unbreakable. No. The light that would fight tooth and nail to keep it from shattering. 'Similar.' Like my human. Me. My family. That light looks like us. That must mean the Dragon Half-Blood is one of us.

This scene too! DHB was family to Raon. 🥰🥰🥰

Raon ignored the blood running down his nose. His head felt hot. He ignored that too. It's not like I want to be like my human. Can we learn from the mistakes of adults? What hurts hurts. What's hard is hard. Raon will be a dragon who knows how to say that, who knows how to stop when he's hurt, who knows how to not push himself too hard. And he will be a dragon who knows how to protect those he loves.

Ahahaha!!! 🤣🤣🤣 Cale, your influence on Raon is just... He's becoming a mini-Cale. Even down to the "it's gonna hurt and be hard, but I'll still do it to protect my loved ones"... 😑

If there was one difference with Cale, it was that Raon believed he was not alone. He stabilized mana in order to let everyone use mana and create shields to protect the castle walls. The scene where all the dragons, ally and enemy alike, created shields to protect everyone from the explosion, and Raon making it all possible, impressed Eruhaben enough to think that Raon was truly like a true Dragon Lord.

Ending Remarks Frankly, I forgot what Cale's plan with the source of the world was. 😂 Neo was dead, but the world was still a mess. Raon only temporarily stabilized the mana, so it would up to our tired and hurt Cale to resolve the fluctuating energies of the world together with the source of the world.

Come to think of it, where's Clopeh in all this? Did he manage to record everything? But what about the moments that time stopped? Will the video recording device capture that too? Next chapter would be Cale creating another legend, in Aipotu this time, so I hope our Clopeh could capture everything for the future Cale museum. 😂

[astranne]

FAKE DATE ME? !blue lock

mikage reo x gn!reader

notes // honestly, blame vera for this. i'm not a reo simp, rin thoughts only but here we are... with a reo work.... ugh. as always not edited because i'm lazy and i wrote it during lessons. this completely escalated so uh, have almost 1k of reo just being a simp

wc // 911 words

tagging // for all my reo simps <3 @stellumi , @lilikags , @keqism , @wanderersbell , @venexus

Listen- it was not his fault! He was desperate, the pressure of the public and his parents heavy on his shoulders, all while he only wanted to play football with Nagi. The only reason why his dreams weren't crushed, was because of Blue Lock, as insane this project was.

It saved his life, well, more like his life as a striker and opened so many possibilities. He wanted to play football, he wanted to be the best and he was. Part of the first Blue Lock Generation and survivor of the Neo-Egoist League, he really was one of the best.

And still his parents tried to persuade to take over business, to become the head of Mikage Corporation but he didn't want to! Why was that so hard to understand? He wanted to play football, he wanted to win the World Cup again, he wanted to play against the best because he was part of the best.

In the end, no matter how many times he argued with his parents, he always ended up in one of his many fancy suits, right besides his parents, hair slicked back and a polite, cold smile on his lips. The people around him, old men with too much money to spare and their wives at the age of their own, barely adult children tittered around him, hiding insults behind admiring words and compliments.

They mocked him for his choices, all while going purple because of their jealousy. Others showered him with compliments, trying to gain any kind of favor for their own, untalented sons, or trying to push their brain-dead daughters in his direction. All of this didn't interest him, not when he played in one of the best European clubs as a regular, not when he was the next head of a rich company, not matter how much he hated it.

But he got tired of it, women trying to hang on his arm, simply because he was famous and rich. Richer than most football players. Their interest was not in him, but his fame and money, of course it bothered him and of course he didn't want to do anything with them. He gently pried their arms off, dodging their sharp nails, ready to dig into his meat to leech off and feed their greed.

All this happening to him was the reason why he was here now.

Here, standing in front of you, blurting out his proposition and watching you blush, stammer words and fumble with your hands. That is until you fall silent and agree with a silent 'yes'. How could you not? You, who had a bleeding heart and saw how your friend suffered under the attention he got, the unwanted gazes and whispers following him, while all he wanted to do was playing soccer...

He didn't announce the 'relationship' right away, fearing you would be overrun by the press, his fans and other unwanted people. But coming to sense, he knew that if the paparazzi found out, it would be much worse.

And so he posted a picture on his social media accounts, your hand in his, with a cheesy caption.

Of course, his fans went crazy, trying to find out who your new darling love was, but Reo quickly made it known that he wanted to protect you from the vultures of being famous, just a tiny bit longer.

Instantly he was portrayed as the sweetheart boyfriend, oh so considerate of his partner's feelings, trying to keep his relationship as private as he could.

He hoped that this would be enough, enough to stop his noisy parents breathing down his neck, enough to stop the touchy women on galas, enough to stop everyone.

Mikage Reo was naive. Very naive and too hopeful. Not only did his fake date gather too much attention to just split off, oh no- he also gained feelings for them, like an idiot.

His heart was beating so fast, as if he was in the middle of an intense game, the tip of his ears constantly red, always when you were near him, laughing with him, smiling at him and be his, no matter how fake it was. He was desperate, trying to get closer, reasoning with himself that this has been just so no one would find out, trying to deny that he was in love, trying-

Why was he even trying? He knew he fell for you the second you agreed to help him out, completely selfish (or so he thought). He fell for you hard and fast, with no way backing out of this and he was in a relationship with you! It was almost perfect and so he started to pretend, pretend it was actually perfection and he could call you his official and true partner.

He was trying to hide it, to hide his affection, his crush, his love- and yet he clearly failed, when everyone around mentioned how good the two you were looking, finally stepping into the light of the public, together, two as one.

Whipped he was, some said. Others mentioned words such as 'being in love', 'completely besotted' or 'utterly infatued'.

It was true, how could he deny it? How could he still continue to pretend, while the whole world whispered about him being oh so in love?

He couldn't. And so he confessed, stumbling words and eyes on the floor, fearing your rejection.

But he had nothing to fear, you loved him as well.

ASTRANNE 2023

[vi-writes-things]

Piece of Mind

By Vivian B

———————

Kira furrowed her brow, not entirely sure she understood the customer correctly.

“I’m sorry, what would you like, ma’am?”

“Just a finger”

“Only a finger?”

“Yes…”

Kira stared at the customer; a tallish woman, blonde hair sitting around the shoulders. She looked more or less like an average, if slightly upper class, customer that Piece of Mind would see.

———

Ever since the Anatomical Exchanging and Modifying Act was passed, anybody could now use technology to enhance themselves legally and without taxation (taxing the use of technology in this way was apparently more of a debate than anything the ‘god made man in his image’ crowd could come up with). funds were made available, scientists and engineers got to work, and pretty soon Bio-Enhancing services were cropping up all over Neo-Terra and all of its satellite colonies and dominions.

The sentiment behind the act was to ensure everybody could have a body they could be proud of, that wouldn’t hurt them physically or psychologically. No longer were the circumstances of birth something to either begrudgingly accept or try to deal with.

It should’ve been a utopia of bodily autonomy.

And then the finance bros jumped in and created franchises.

———

Kira searched through the anatomical databases… they had arms, forearms, shoulders(?), hands, muscles, tendons, veins, arteries, nerves, skin-grafting and even the growth rate of nails.

They had no fingers.

Kira should’ve told the customer that they didn’t provide services for fingers, that they could provide hands at the very least. She didn’t want to draw the ire of the boss, however…

‘IF I HEAR ONE MORE CUSTOMER HAS BEEN TURNED AWAY BECAUSE OF SOME BULLSHIT EXCUSE, YOU’RE ALL FIRED!!!!!’ screamed the angry post-it note on the wall of the break room. The manager, Jones, had left it there after one very drunk customer tried to fight Mathide when they refused to administer breast augmentation to his less than enthused spouse. After several holes punched in the wall, Jones had reluctantly decided not to fire them, just dock a week out of their pay…

Kira couldn’t afford to lose money or get fired. She was so close to finally being able to afford a full-body enhancement. She was this close to freeing herself of the body she was born in and becoming herself…

“I’m afraid we don’t have fingers only in our database…” Kira cautiously explained to the customer. “I’m going to have to consult with my colleague…” she said before nodding her head apologetically. The customer seemed to understand, or at least not scoff at the fact Piece of Mind thought about nerve endings and veins, but not fingers.

———

“Just a finger?” Mathide asked, their furry brow raised.

“That’s what she wants…” Kira sighed, massaging her temples. If she had known this problem would come up today, she wouldn’t have sampled the margarita mix gifted to her last night.

“Who the hell wants just a finger changed?” Mathide scoffed, reaching a paw for their coffee. It tasted godawful, but instant usually does. “Not even, like, the hand… just a finger?”

“She said there’s a wart she doesn’t like…” Kira responded. “Apparently getting it frozen off never crossed her mind. I can’t just refuse her, Jones will skin us alive when he gets back from Titan…”

Mathide took a sip of the coffee, their fur standing on end. Too hot…

“But it’s a finger! What does a finger even cost?!”

“Well we know a hand costs 500 credits…” Kira said, trying to do the math in her head. “We just divide that by 6 I suppose…”

“Shouldn’t the size of the finger come into play? You know how much Jones haggles people…” Mathide said.

“Since when did you care what Jones would do?” Kira chuckled darkly, dodging the empty cup thrown at her expertly.

“So we divide 500 by 6, and charge her that?”

“Sounds like the best way to go forward.”

Mathide looked at their phone and crunched the numbers. “That’s 83.33 credits…” they said with a frown.

“Great, so that’s the price we charge.” Kira said, bending down to look at the calculator. A primitive part of her reckoned standing next to Mathide would make the numbers make sense.

“But the cheapest thing we offer is altering the growth rate of nails…” Mathide explained. “That’s 90 credits. Jones wanted to charge even more but a creditcent more and that would be illegal extortion.”

“Well we don’t have much of a choice. That fucker didn’t even think about what a finger would cost…” Kira sighed. This was the last thing she needed. “Either way, Jones will kill us…”

Mathide looked up at Kira standing over them. They could sense she was stressed. Their tail involuntarily curled around her ankle gently. It was the least they could do as a friend.

Kira smiled in return. She gave Mathide a ruffle of their ears before turning to face the door.

“Need a hand?” Mathide asked, standing up. Despite being a cat hybrid, Mathide had an excellent way with customers.

“Thanks” Kira said as the two of them emerged from the break room.

———

The procedure went surprisingly smoothly for such a hassle. The atomic replacer machine was calibrated to a hand, but the customer was asked to place only the finger into the slot. The machine could recognise what body parts were placed inside so there was no risk of the finger being replaced by a small second hand.

As Kira oversaw the procedure, she felt a pang inside her. A kind of heavy feeling that clung to her heart. People like this lady could come in for something as trivial as a finger and pay as if it was pocket change. Bodies were as valuable as toilet roll to them.

Not to Kira, though. She spent 26 years being stuck in a body she never asked for. She wasn’t skilled enough to build a machine for herself that wouldn’t blow her up or turn her into soup.

Mathide got lucky. They had a friend who was an expert biohacker. They were able to hook Mathide up with their dream body. Unfortunately, that friend left for Androma a long time ago, and Kira still had nerves about going to the unregulated biohackers, despite Mathide’s reassurances.

For now, all she could do was bide her time, watch more rich assholes get custom made fingers…

[chaikachi]

Listen as a RG shipper who has been burned by other shows with ships I don’t wanna put my tin hat on. But NEO??? Has been using Oscar A LOT to mess with Ruby. And assuming she turned into Ruby to trick Oscar to get the lamp back in V7 👀👀👀 also I just rewatched V5 and when they all have a sit down he just stares at her and Ruby giggles and I’m like “HE THINKS SHES PRETTY AWWWW” like I’m not calling it shipbait bc I have no idea if they will become Bee levels of canon and I’ll be fine if they don’t. But MAN do they care about each other A Lot in canon to the point where the Optical Illusion character uses them to hurt each other. Like Yang? Her big sister totally get it. Penny? Neo knew when she died with her first body that’s her best friend after or alongside Weiss but Weiss isn’t dead. But OSCAR!?? The guy she only met THREE volumes ago HES the one who shows up? Not her UNCLE or JAUNE but FARMBOY????

Neo ships it (evily) is all I’m saying

I don't wanna get peoples hopes up in case crwby somehow swerves off course or we just don't get to see the end of the show, but I genuinely don't think it's shipbait at this point.

First want to bring up the v5 thing. Yes he stares at and giggles at her, firmly believe that boy had a case of love crush at first sight... but Ruby ends up mirroring very similar tone, dialogue, and body language later on in the fumble scene.

Oscar: Ah, sorry! Ruby: Heh, sorry-

Putting behind a read more cause i'm riled up with new rwby/whole loaf of rg bread zoomies and don't feel very coherent rn aha.

There is a post somewhere on this site that i can't find anymore which goes through all the BB/RG parallels (a shorter copy of it exists here on twitter) and that list since v9 just keeps getting longer.

Like... Sorry, Blake's biggest fear in v3 was that her past would come back and hurt those she loves. She is proven right to fear that when Adam shows up and attacks Yang and then because she can't handle that guilt, Blake runs away??

Vs.

Ruby, being terrified that if she carries on the path she's headed down, more of her friends will die. And Neo uses Oscar (and Little, who strongly parallels him) to prove Ruby's fears right which also leads her to 'running away'? Because the thought of hurting him, of losing him is just something Ruby can't bare????

Bro.

The ship parallels themselves are so specific and are absolutely worth mentioning, but RG itself stands so strongly even on it's own. The narrative orbits and constant, consistent emphasis on how much Ruby and Oscar care about each other is deafening at this point.

Just about everyone in the main cast has gone through huge portions of their character arcs in the previous eight volumes. Except for our protagonist... until now.

The scene we get in v9e8 where Neo uses Oscar as the last nail in Ruby's coffin ties him directly to her fatal flaw. They could have used anyone else. It could have been Yang. It could have been Qrow. It could have been her team partner Weiss. It could have been Blake, someone that's admitted to looking up to her. It could have been Penny a third time.

But. It. Wasn't.

It was Oscar.

Oscar, who was the first illusion Ruby saw when falling. Oscar, who is the only person she's close to that she didn't get to properly reunite with in v8. Oscar, who's absence in the Ever After has been SO STRONG to anyone that's paid attention to their dynamic up until now.

Ruby's fatal flaw is her grief, and by extension, loneliness and guilt. Ruby has shouldered all of this weight for so long alone and every volume up until now shows us that there is one person that made her feel like she was actually on equal footing for once. Maybe not completely alone. That she had someone looking out for her as much as she looked out for them. Oscar. And when Neo, the illusionist, uses Oscar's death against Ruby? That is her first of two breaking points.

I'm sorry - and i gotta emphasize this isn't directed at you so much as a general declaration - but at this point any anti, meaner, or non-believer that tries to tell me there is not very clear evidence in show pointing to RG needs to stop telling me to take off shipping glasses and has to just put like... normal reading glasses on lskd;jlfks

It is just... undeniable to me at this point. Despite still hearing people refer to them as siblings when it's like... if they wanted to emphasize the sibling bond, YANG WAS RIGHT FREAKING THERE!!

If Ruby is getting a love interest in show (cough cough she already has one) there is literally NO ONE else that fits the bill. They wouldn't introduce someone new this late in the game, and of the rest of the remaining cast, she has not been shown as close to any of them in the ways that tie to her character arc as strongly as this one does.

Ruby is the protagonist, Oscar is the deuteragonist. The core of this story orbits around both of them as the the chosen warrior destined to defeat Salem and barer of Oz's curse, respectively. Their individual character arcs also tie to and parallel each other's consistently: Oscar, who is trying so hard to hold onto his identity despite the merge vs Ruby who has spent this entire volume trying to push hers away.

Yes, all other Ruby ships are valid, don't get me wrong. But from a canon, narrative perspective, Rosegarden is the only one that is being pushed this aggressively.

And I can't be convinced otherwise at this point 🤡

[opinated-user]

The weird thing about lily is that she's not even good at lying even though she does it so frequently.

A perfect example is her newest way to spin Courtney's claims while, of course, presenting herself as the victim. She now says Courtney would threaten to lie about lily raping her to get her to do what they wanted.

The issue is--why would this not be the first thing Lily said when Courtney started talking? If Courtney has a history of saying all these horrid things about her, why did she wait to mention that until months later? You'd think that be the first thing she'd say in response to Courtney's words? You'd think that might even be something she brought up while telling her audience how shit Courtney was to her all those times she mentioned them before they came forward.

But no, it's something that's been alluded to and drip fed via ask awnsers for 2 weeks, months after Courtney has come forward. It makes it hard to believe it's anything but a lie.

for months, this is what LO had said about Courtney: -that he ruined his life running after some boy. -that he ruined his life by running after a pedophile (but this was supposed to reflect badly on Courtney and not on LO for blaming a kid for the actions of a pedophile).

-that she's a crackhead, addicted yunkie.

-that they regularly hang out in "neo nazi forums".

-that they were a spoiled princess who dig her nails into her arms during fights.

-that LO "beat the shit out of her" thousands of times. in fact, that Courtney was beaten down regularly by everyone in her life and he's still mad about. but she never suffered any abuse, trust me! -that they're a psychopath. -that they lie for attention.

-that they're a scammer because he didn't post receipts for cat food.

-that he is a child molester because he displayed common signs of CSA by replicating it with another child her same age and then stopping entirely out of her own volition. but this is no sign of any CSA he went through still.

-that she's a murderer because he defended himself from a person that attacked them first and that person later had a miscarriage. -(btw, we only know those two last things because Courtney themselves said them publicly, so we can totally trust Courtney's word when it comes to bad things she did but never when it comes to bad things that LO did. this is not a double standard at all. and this doesn't contradict at all the saying that Courtney lies for attention, trust me, this makes sense if you squint hard enough). -that she burned her pokemon cards when they were children. -that he threatened her life with a knife in three different ocassions and sometimes even in front of their parents. -that she was quiet and well behaved, something their parents liked. ...

...

...

...

-oh and he SA me multiple times growing up, did i forget to mention that?

mmm. you tell me how that sounds. i'll say this though. LO will use anything she can to smear her detractors and i do mean anything. she has tried to use an abusive partner that Brittany had as something against her. she has used domestic fights that Brittany had with her roomates. she has literally one screenshot of Lizzy saying something questionable, with no context mind you, and she was showing it to everyone around for months right after Lizzy made her own allegations. she has used Lizzy's parents supporting while she was going through college as something against Lizzy. she has used Courtney liking twilight as a preteen (the target demographic for twilight) against him. she has used all the mental issues and addictions that Patch has been struggling against as another reason to not believe him. all these little things that anyone could see as completely mundane, irrelevant or not the fault of those people at all, LO has used them against them. as another reason why they're liars or abusive or hate her for no good reason. so. you mean to tell me that the this woman who has done this since forever, this woman, would not use something that big the first chance that she has? futhermore, do you mean to tell me that the woman who claims was SA abused by her sibling would then go out to make this comic specifically about that sibling?

mmmm.

[gofancyninjaworld]

The List of Predictions for OPM Webcomic Chapter 146

Thank you to everyone who has made a bet. I was hoping that in a great irony, ONE would have put up a continuation, but so far, so bad.

Here's the list! Keep your numbers safe, and we'll see what shakes out!

Number

Prediction

1 Dr Bofoi is already dead. Bonus: Genos gets framed for his death.

2 Who's ex-hero hunter ex-jobhunter Garou hunting now?

3Dr Kuseno is not dead (light edition): Saitama did take him to get medical care after all.

4 Dr Kuseno is not dead (dark edition): Destro and Erimin have done a touch of 'recovery' work

5 Overgrown Pochi remembers that he was a guard dog, hulks out and incinerates the invading robots. All 4 million of them.

6 Tatsumaki returns triumphant and not a moment too soon. Man, what would you guys do without her?

7 Blast finally deigns to show up in this version. Bonus: he meets Blue.

8 Metal Bat gets out of jail.

9 McCoy finally finds some ethics.

10 Turns out that Saitama did follow Genos after all.

11 Saitama goes home and arrives just in the nick of time. Bonus: Somehow King still gets the credit for destroying the robots invading the HA.

12 JOKER: ONE declares that he's ending the webcomic.

13 Webigaza is toast. :(

14 Watchdogman is finally no longer mysterious.

15 Tank Top Master puts on an extra tank top and wades back into battle.

16 Accel gets a reality check.

17 Dr Bofoi has some explaining to do.

18 Zenko is real!

19 Saitama saves the day. Somehow.

20 Lightning Max (and other wounded pro-heroes) find the tender mercies of the Neo Heroes to be far from tender.

21 King shows off his muscles!

22 What's Drive Knight up to?

23 Pig God and robots. Are they tasty?

24 Black Sperm discovers his inner Dimple.

25 Garou and Metal Bat meet for the first time. Bonus: they hit it off!

26 Genos finally has a showdown with his nemesis.

27 Zombieman comes back in style, showing us his hard-earned abilities.

28 Webigaza is saved! Phew! :)

29 Never mind the robot apocalypse, what about Flashy Flash versus the Abandoned Masses? Fight!

30 Saitama gets a new hero name at last!  Bonus: it's also naff.

31 My kingdom for a sword! Atomic and his disciples are back, all blazing fury and blades.

32 Darkshine finds his courage to fight.

33 Suiryu saves Suiko.

34 Mr. Fuzzy is pleased: this is all going according to plan.

35 Just because the suits aren't sold to you doesn't mean they're free: the Neo Heroes find out what their organisation really wants from them.

36 Mental health break: Saitama's cactus did survive after all!

37 JOKER: The OPM webcomic is set to be collected and commercially published as a spin off.

38 Saitama and Blue come to an agreement.

39 ONE is extra evil: time skip to the aftermath. How long can this man keep teasing us?

40 The Organization formally makes its demands.

41 The most reluctant hero in the world, Speed o' Sound Sonic, does something about the apocalypse.  Bonus: he rids the world of A.

42 Mr. Fuzzy never saw this turn of events coming.

43 For once, Flashy Flash gets to play the main character to his heart's content. He isn't, but let him have it. :)

44 We catch up with Child Emperor and find what he's realized.

45 Raiden gets humbled anew.

46 God cube, God cube, getcha God cubes right here! No bets on who has one or how they're using it.

47 Bang stops clipping his nails long enough to do something about the pesky robots. The HA really owes him one now.

48 Genos discovers the secret of strength. This one really should have been a joker, but I could only have two.

49 Puri Puri's infinite receptacle of love versus a thousand robots. Who wins?

50 Genos gives Dr. Kuseno the decent burial he deserves.

51 One small bright spot: all is well in City Q.

52 Amai Mask comes out of hiding to help.

53 The easiest bet: there is a giant fight between Genos and Metal Knight's robots.

54 We finally find out who the Rampaging Cyborg is.

[kendrixtermina]

Misleading Claims about Gaza I’ve seen flying around

So I want to speak to a set of claims I’ve seen flying around that, while not 100% lies, get presented in a hugely misleading way.

I, a rando with an internet connection, was able to find with a simple google & wikipedia search that they were severely taken out of context.

1. They threw a gay person off a roof

Never happened.

This is a clear echo off of roof-related execution done by ISIS meaning to conflate the orgs in the mind of an uneducated westerner who doesn’t know how ME political groups are different.

There was indeed one (1) case of a person being accused of being gay & then executed (not by being thrown off a roof) – but that was among a long list of other crimes, & their relatives say it’s a pretext/slander to cover internal hamas power struggle.

Not great, part of a larger tendency to be repressive toward some rival factions, but hardly „systematic persecution and executions of gays“.

While it’s not exactly Amsterdam, there is no systematic or legally encoded persecution. There are cases of ppl being shunned or kicked out by their family, but you can say the same about, say, Alabama.

I’ve come across various posts by LBTQ people who travelled there and were not especially harassed. One even wore a flag pin.

A common thing you hear is that ppl are too busy just surviving & ending their more general oppression to worry too much about stuff like holding a pride march.

2. It’s forbidden to teach the holocaust in Gaza

This should have you very suspicious if you’re aware how little control Palestinians actually have over their education system and how they’re often handed textbooks with pro-zionist curriculums that present the Nakba as good (!) - to the point that arab students in mixed town hear their teachers call them the „enemy“ & younger palestinian educators often have not heard of famous palestinian writers & poets.

Indeed the claim probably goes back to a single dispute about a single UN course on human rights where Hamas officials expressed concerns about a curriculum that might include the holocaust for fear of indoctrination & zionist propaganda.

(Not an unreasonable fear, if you’re aware of the racist textbooks issue.)

During the discourse, there was an individual Hamas official who made some statement to the effect that the holocaust was probably just another lie made up by the Zionist to justify taking their country.

The man hasn’t been in power for years, btw (a good thing, seeing as he seems ignorant & incendiary) – genuine L for that guy & Hamas for hiring him. Not defending him at all, that guy is an idiot. But its NOT a comprehensive ban on the subject at all (indeed many Palestinians you see online seem quite well-informed)

But note how the claim is often presented in a way to evoke western neo-nazis who have long been motivated to explain away the biggest argument as to why their ideology is a bad idea.

Can you really compare these situations, though?

Make no mistake: The holocaust defo happened.

But why do I know this? Because I’ve read books by survivors as well as accounts of US & russian soldiers who found the mess. I’ve been to Dachau on a school trip & the walls of the gas chambers still had nail marks on them. I’ve been to that house in prague where all the walls are covered in victim’s names. My grandmother saw the infamous auschwitz human skin lamp with her own eyeballs. Heck, her father in law narrowly survived by jumping out of one of those death trains.

Now, does an older arab guy in a besieged, impoverished enclave have access to that proof? It’s not like he can travel to europe & go to a museum.

Also, as someone who went to an european school, I remember being told precious little about the middle east and some of it was stereotypic bullshit. So why would an arab guy living under a much worse-funded education system know much more about european history?

He’s used to the zionists spouting 2+2 = 5 lies, propaganda & spin all the time, so if he doesn’t know a lot about europe, he might jump to the conclusion that this thing they use to justify the conquest of his home is probably a lie as well.

Quite different from an european neo nazi denying mountains of proof out of wounded pride. (or because he actually thinks it was nbd but can’t say so publicly)

It’s kinda like the way radfems refuse to believe that men aren’t making up all their problems...

Again, it’s an L for that hamas guy, kids have nothing to fear from learning accurate facts about foreign countries, I'll always be against censorship & pro free information.

But one (1) idiot politician saying something offensive does NOT equal the subject being explicitly banned from discussion in all gazan schools.

The claim also leaves out the context that since Hamas also provides schooling & welfare there’s a bit of a rivalry/power struggle between it & the aid orgs (golly gee, I wonder why a population utterly abandoned by the international community would distrust foreigners...)

Something that was very telling about the post is „liberate gaza so they can finally learn about the holocaust!“ like its this all-important thing - I mean, it IS very important… if you’re european or jewish, cause in that case it massively impacted your civilization and your own family history. But it wasn’t the only mass murder nor the worst by method (rwanda) or number (stalinist purges) & doesn’t have this magic objective value, europe isn’t the navel of the earth & the ppl aren’t wrong not to want eurocentrism shoved down their throats.

I do think everyone should be taught about the evils of discrimination but probably a more natural place to start might be the armenian genocide, since Palestine used to be Ottoman. Or examples of discrimination in the arab world (including against jews)

I mean in that instance the guy was most likely being paranoid & advancing some power strugle agenda, & I’d say he was in the wrong, but the touchiness & concern about indoctrination has a reason & one instance of complaining about one course does NOT equal a general ban on the subject in schools. (many of which, are, after all, run by international orgs)

Frankly, a people living in a walled ghetto probably already know more about the evils of discrimination than anyone who doesn’t.

Also, it’s very ironic for Israel to go accusing others of denying atrocities when even mentioning the Nakba can cost you your academic career.

There’s no Israeli teens going to Nakba Museum and indeed school books portraying it as good that are forced on the arabs as well.

Imagine if a Romani, Jewish or Polish person in modern day Germany were forced to look upon textbooks full of common Nazi apologia like „Hitler built the Motorways“, „But Dresden!“ and „We only lost WWI cause the socialists backstabbed us!“ (For the record, all of those are all bullshit.)

3. When Israeli settlers pulled out of Gaza, the first thing they did is raze the synagogues

Again, this is deliberately phrased to remind westerners or diasporic jews of neo-nazis throwing molotovs and the like (if only our governments did as much against those as they’re presently doing to slander anti-war protesters… ), to trigger immediate sympathy for Israel & portray gazans as a bunch of vandalizing hatecrimers.

As the previous claims, this is „very loosely based on a true story“ as in it technically did happen but there’s a lot of context missing, such as:

Israel demolished TONS of Mosques & Christian Churches during the Nakba, or worse, turned them into warehouses bars & factories.

Settlers did horrific violence to ppl in Gaza. In one example, a house was burned with a toddler still inside. Settlers mocked & harassed the kid’s grandfather

When they pulled out, they destroyed the entire settlement, infrastructure & farming equipment so the locals couldn’t use it

They even considered destroying the synagogues themselves but then left them as the only buildings standing & tried to have them declared unesco heritage (possibly a ploy to maintain a presence in the strip after all or leave a backdoor to return, creating a strategic incentive to destroy them so the settlers wouldn’t have an excuse to come back)

We are talking about blocky cement structures a new as the settlements, NOT historic buildings (unlike the destroyed Mosques & Churches)

religious symbols & cultic objects were removed when the settlers left. Obviously. Why would they possibly leave it?

So what do we have left?

Some people vented their rage at empty concrete buildings that had no religious items in them, had no history and were never going to be used again. - which they were somewhat justified as seeing as symbols of domination leaving their mark on „their“ home, like a cat’s territorial piss markings, so it might as well be interpreted as an act of defiance against colonial power.

Still technically vandalism against a religious building, not very diplomatic, do not recommend etc.

but at the same time rather different from the idea suggested by „the first thing they did is raze the synagogues“… for once thing, there was nothing else left to raze cause the Israelis already did it themselves, it was retaliation for Palestinian sacral buildings being trashed & a response to finding out that israelis would destroy good farm tools rather than let them have it, and it was an interchangeable concrete block empty of actual synagogue stuff. - whereas without the context you are probably imaging hooligans singling out the synagogues out of useful, intact buildings, a unique historic building being thrashed or the cultic objects & holy books being broken & desacrated, similar to historic cases of nazi arson or russian pogroms. That just didn't happen.

The double standard, too, is very telling: This act of vandalism means gazans are evil hatecrimers out to get all the jews & means they can't be negotiated or made peace with, but Israelis’ much more widespread & systematic destruction of churches & mosques is assigned no such interpretation. Golly gee I wonder why.

Again, the point here is NOT to portray local government as perfect & flawless (what government is?) or to say that none of this stuff was bad. But sporadic events are being inflated into nonexistent systemic patterns, as well as misrepresented to appeal to very particular tropes & cliches to blatantly manipulate ya'lls emotional reactions.

[canyouplzjust]

Jane Lane's Falling Rain

In the Grid we sat around the living room of Les's austere apartment firing questions at him, watching him wade through The (data) Stream, while I tried to feel safe after escaping Centerpoint Station following Corvath's ominous words. Echoing in my head was the way he had warned us that we were making waves, and that the Black Skulls were probably on their way to clean up the mess we made. Any by clean up he meant kill anyone we were nice to, and then kill anyone who's body they want to take and play with later. Fuck Max and fuck the Black Skulls, they'll never catch us. I also keep running back the moment of total loss of control I experienced when I took the anti-Dictator gag off of Corvath, and he simply told me to kneel. My knees quivered while I was on my way down. Is this what I've been doing to people this whole time? Jesus H Christ. No wonder they love me. I'm going to tell Hardy to just breathe and maybe he'll finally get the respite he needs.

We learned a lot in the Stream, and Les was projecting a portion of the results into the room, so while I knew we weren't seeing everything he was seeing, it was still really cool to have the holograms illustrating everything we were learning. Very sci-fi, and Les looked like a pro doing it. He gave a final call, "Anything else," he asked before closing down the display. "Can you search for my sister," I blurted out, and a random request returned quite an unexpected result. "It looks like you have a club here, named after you and your sister, its called Jane Lane's Falling Raine," Les showed us what he found and we all sat around confused for a moment. Well, I was confused about how my sister got here, and I assumed the others were considering that I might have lied to them about being in The Grid before, but I guess those thoughts were fleeting because the next question I got was when I wanted to go check it out. Did I think it could be a trap? I think everything is a trap - that's how I'm still alive. But it wasn't a trap, it was a Pandora's box of emotional and sexual confrontation with a dj and a disco ball.

It is around this time that I should take a moment to explain who Cyph is because I met him and I liked him and I hope he stays around for a while. He's Les's ex-boyfriend who clearly never got over him, but he's also kind of a mooch because he's been staying in Les's empty apartment while we were in, well, while we were gone. It has either been 3-5 years for Cyph, I have been insistent that its best not to nail people down about time frames, but I am apparently the only one who feels that way. Whatever, he's a card and his accent is adorable, and he def knows how to party. He actually said he was gonna mention the club to me, because it was weird that I was there with Les, and seemed different, so I guess we're going to investigate that together. I'm not trying to take Les's inventory, but he seemed awful cagey with Cyph and I can't figure out why. Sure, he's a little shady and he looks like he would only have to make one phone call to get crack if we were in my city, but there's just something I trust about him. He's got the disposition of a puppy but the reflexes of a cat. Seems valuable to me. Also his new bf is both hot and cool, my two favorite things.

So, we got dressed to go to the club, and it was a lot of fun, making our outfits from digital scratch. I could see the character designer Les peeking out through the seams of the Neo, and I was really impressed by what she could do, and how effortless it truly was. Did you know she's like a totally famous game developer back on Earth? I don't really play video games, but I'm in nerd-culture enough to have heard about them, and have seen her name once or twice. Certainly a more glamorous life than mine has been for the last 15 years, I can tell you that. Well, I stepped into the glam of a neon red dress (it actually glowed), and I talked Didi out of wearing dread-falls and Rory looked like an actual angel. (pic below)

On our way to the club, in the Johnny Cab, we were buzzing with excitement. We rolled up and I led the line of adventurers with a stride, to the door under a big hologram of myself, flickering between positions like a neon sign. The man at the door looked confused to see me, but I barked at him and he moved like a dog. And we were in! The club was bumping, daytime and nighttime don't really exist here, but it felt like midnight and the music was pitch perfect. I don't have to explain that we did a lap and found the VIP room, and waited for this infamous "Jane Lane" to show her face. Well, she didn't. I was invited into a back room, so i left everyone to their own devices, and I asked Didi and Hardy to stay close. The others, well, their own appetites took them off in different directions.

Les scampered off to charm some evil looking high elves pushing Fair Gold around on a small table. I don't know if his plan was to get spit roasted in a semi-public setting, but it sure seemed like it was going that way while they were licking their chops and pulling him onto their laps. Across the dance floor Rory was making out with the goddess of excess (I didn't catch her name), and her ethereal grinding turned the party UP while I was in the green room, pulling out my .45. Rory's expression of romance inspired Cyph to seek the pleasure he truly wanted - and he walked right up and punched one of those chauvinistic, sadistic elves right in their stupid face. Les was won over, it was like that Tiffany song was happening to him, even if it was just for a moment, and Cyph was a hero.

Oh, yeah, so of course it was Raine. Of course it was my sister who never played the game and she looked like a ghoul and she looked like an echo of a person. I told her she had to stop being me, and that she couldn't have my life, and she said that she could take my life if she wanted. She had a crazed look in her eyes and didn't seem whole enough to have any judgement or compassion. I pulled out my gun to get some space between us, but she rushed me and knocked it out of my hand. In the struggle she stabbed me in the ribs, and didn't stop screaming until I told her to calm down. When the crying had died down to a whimper, I asked her how she got there and she told me that I brought her to DIE. She said "You carry me everywhere you go," and I knew that it was true. Raine was distraught about her meaningless existance, so I told her about what she had been doing in the real world. I told her that she had saved my life, that she had never given up hope on me, even when everyone else had, and at the end of my ten year battle with drugs, that she was the one who got me into rehab the final time. She was the one who got me into rehab every time, actually, and hearing the value her life had to me seemed to imbue this Raine with a little bit more fortitude than she previously possessed. Good. I told her I was going to meet my friend Morpheus later and that I'd ask him to help her, that she could feel better and it wasn't always going to be so empty. Then I called out to Didi in the VIP room, Raine knew her, too. She appeared concerned about the wound, but played it cool while we got Raine dressed and got her makeup done. Just like a friday night at home in so many ways. Raine came out with us to the dance floor and then we just had like a normal night at the a club. (with my face on the outside of it) Les, Rory, Hardy, Cyph and Aeon were all there on the floor, and soon we all felt ecstatic within ourselves. It was a moment of actual fun, carefree connection, and the blood was hardly visible on my red dress anyways. I was looking around the room and I caught a vision of Max across the sea of frenetic movement. I wasn't high, it was him. We locked eyes for a few seconds before he dashed off towards the back of the club. I followed him as fast as I could, but there was no one in the darkness under the stairwell, just a solitary pay phone illuminated my the light of my red neon dress. It rang. I grabbed it immediately, begging to hear the sound of Max's voice. It wasn't the Fallen Master, it was real Max. I knew him.

"Max? I'm here for you. I'm coming for you." "...." "How close am I?" "You're close," and he was gone. Click.

I scrambled the others to try to look for him, but he wasn't anywhere. But we were close, I knew that now.

Before we left, Didi and I went upstairs with Raine to put her to bed. I told her she could keep using my face for the club, but that she would feel better if she worked on being her own person. I told her that Morpheus would get in touch with her, and that her club was really awesome, and she had done a great job cultivating it. Then we sent her to bed, shuffled out the front doors, and we all climbed into the Johnny cab to go back uptown. And get breakfast, obviously.

[spidertalia]

Introduction (2.0)

Welcome to my Blog! Here you'll find all my Hetalia related art, as well as occasional ramblings and rb's of other people's lovely art.

A bit about me:

I go by Spider!

I'm 22

I use they/them pronouns and some neos ONLY. no she or he

I'm from Florida, USA (unfortunately). EST Timezone.

I'm autistic AND I have ADHD. Understandably, I do struggle with social cues a lot, so please reach out to me if I say or do anything to let me know. Most likely, I won't realize when I've potentially said or done something to upset someone, so please let me know.

I draw quite often

I am always open to new friends! However, I am generally bad at reaching out first, so please do message me if you wanna be friends!! I promise I'll respond.

Language-wise I only speak English, but I am slowly learning French. (Emphasis on slowly)

I own five reptiles!! Three snakes and two bearded dragons (I do post them occasionally on here, pls filter out tw snake if needed). And I technically co-parent my brother's bastard gecko.

My other main fandoms (that you won't see on here) are ATLA/TLOK, Taleblr, FNAF, Spiderverse and The Owl House. I am currently watching Criminal Minds and Percy Jackson and The Olympians, and I do have somewhat of an interest in Jurassic Park, the Monsterverse, Fionna and Cake, PJO and What We Do In The Shadows.

My top ten favorite movies are Across The Spiderverse, The Batman (2022), Venom, Five Nights at Freddy's, Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, Godzilla Minus One, Into The Spiderverse, Kong Skull Island, Jurassic Park and HTTYD.

I also really enjoy rock/metal/goth/punk/alt music. My favorite musical artists are Nickelback, Delilah Bon, Babymetal, Måneskin, Ice Nine Kills and Rammstein- but I also enjoy artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, JT Music, Hanabie, Band-Maid, Lesbian Bed Death and Nine Inch Nails. I like horror movies, online korean webcomics, goth fashion, cats, horror related media and animation. I'm a fledgling goth (or baby bat) and tend to enjoy drawing characters in goth or alternative fashion, so expect some of that here!

About my Blog:

My favorite characters are APH America and APH Canada. Outside of those two, I also like Japan, Ukraine, Romano, France and Prussia, mostly. These are the characters I am most likely to draw

I'm a multishipper with no absolute 'favorite' ship. I like Rusame, Amepan, Romerica, CanUkr, Prumano, Spamano, Spaprumano, Sufin, Prucan and FrUk. I'm pretty neutral on Gerame, Nedport, Asakiku, Giripan, Spafra, Itapan, and a few others. Generally pretty open to most pairings though.

I do not like any -cest pairings whatsoever. I am not going to argue about this. Please do not tag any of my NA bros art as ship; I will block you.

I do have a Statetalia AU and have made all 50 states as OCs. You will see them occasionally here. (If you also like statetalia please be my friend I'm 100% serious)

I will generally put a clarification on posts as to whether or not I mind it being tagged as ship.

I ramble and rant sometimes about my life on here. It will usually be tagged as 'spider talks'.

I don't usually do requests, but if you really want to see something from me, please send it in an ask!

My ask box is open. I highly appreciate asks.

You may rarely see a suggestive/nsfw piece of art on my page. I do not draw such things often, but please do filter out cw suggestive and cw nsfw if you do not want to see that.

I do not write on ao3 anymore, but I highly recommend those who have one to check out this fic! It's rusame and my favorite hetalia fic of all time- characterizations are on point.

My main (Non-Hetalia) tumblr

My Deviantart

[themetallicnemesis]

My robotnik amy timeline of events isn't well defined yet but so far it looks like this:

1- Toodler Amy found all alone and taken in by Robotnik because of her strenght

2- Grows up and through one of her tarot readings she gets the idea that she and Sonic are destined by the cards to be mortal enemies, which makes her take a more active role in fighting him → She and Metal bicker and push eachother around a lot over who gets to fight the blue freak during the CD events. Sonic wins anyway

3- Sa1 events happen and yaaaay new friend Gamma :D. She let Gamma escape with the flicky because even if she didn't care about the dumb bird, she cares about Gamma, and if Gamma wants a birdy then he can have one, she just can't say no to that little face 🥺. She had no way to predict that would lead to the death of all E-series robots → Now she feels guilty both for their deaths + for never caring about the flickies even though her friends are made of them → Never tells any of this to her papa because she doesn't want the blame to fall on her

3- Sa2 happens. Yaaaaaaay new friend Shadow :D, she would be doing his nails rn if they had the time and he let her. She still gives the "Give humanity a chance" speech to him, but it's now more something along the lines of "Yeah humanity sucks, you're right, not even my own parents wanted me... But there's always people out there who make it a place worth living" → New friend Shadow also 'dies' → #girlunwellness

4- Neo Metal happens and while Eggman gets trapped in the base she manages to escape. She's very unwell by the whole thing (she never thought Metal out of all people could betray them like this), and her life crises gets interrupted by a little bunny girl and a big cat asking her if she saw their chao and frog anywhere. → Upon noticing she wasn't recognized, Amy ends up agreeing to help them search for their friends, if they help her "Get back inside home, it's no biggy really guys, i just locked myself out and forgot the keys! Tee-hee!" #girl lie

5- After Neo Metal, Amy ends up dragging Metal's broken body and hiding out with Vanilla and Cream, promising that she just wants to turn over a new leaf! Scout's honor!🤞 Don't tell that meanie Sonic tho, he would never believe me :(

But she's actually just desperatly trying with very little success to fix Metal on her own, so that they can go back to Eggman and everything can go back to being perfect as it should be. Eggman has to take Metal back again if she manages to fix whatever glitch that made her act like this right?? Right?

6- There's no glitch and the fact that Eggman barely even looks for her during the time she's gone made her notice that not even her papa cares about her, so she ends up not even bothering to leave Vanilla and Cream's place and is just super despodent the entire time she's there. A striking and worrying difference from her usual bursts of anger

[cupids-cringe]

OK SO BEFORE I SHOW THE ALTERNATE DESIGNS FOR THE HLVRV HEADCANONS I WANNA SHOW OFF THIS IDEA I DEFINITELY STOLE FROM MERKLINS AND THAT WAS THAT SINCE OUT OF THE GAME PLAYER HAS NO INVENTORY ON HIM AND WOULD LIKELY HAVE A BAG TO STORE HIS TRINKETS

AND

YES!!!

YES HE WOULD!

i gave him a satchel with little wing decals that he stores all his cool trinkets and the occasional bird that sneaks in to hide all cozy and his crowbar- before he eventually gets told he can't take a WEAPON everywhere with him in the real world- thankfully theres no xen aliens here so not much reason for one anyway

AND WITH THAT OUT THE WAY, ONTO THE WAVE 1.5 OF MY HLVRV HEADCANONS

to start i have alternate designs for Player, Kittle Freeman and Loverboy which are edits of their drawings in the previous post and then i have Neo and Spork

i'm currently working on something else but i would LOVE to do characters like Darnold, Benry, Sleepless,,etc because accidental multiverse hoppers have a lot of family and of course the episode 2 Gordons

(notes and Neo & Sporks below)

Player

- literally just the HEV suit, used this as a base for Kittles design

Kittle

- made his hair a bit messier and more spiked in comparison to Players original hair

- a bit of blood and stuff splattered on him from how Kittle is definitely one of those players who would go killing random things hes spawned in after hes done and/or ‘got home from work and is going to take his frustrations out killing random ai and blowing stuff up’ without consequences (until yknow  the ais sentient   and theres consequences)

and also due to godmode would just go through the maps not taking any damage when he was shot at or activated a planned sequence but still getting splattered with blood

- the circuits on his eyes are also further down his body and suit and would spread faster and cover more when he gets angry or overwhelmed (for a while now i’ve liked to think the circuits can react to his emotions so something really strong like anger would make the circuits freak out and branch out more) 

Freeman

- based on his suit in In Your Dreams!! he matches with his family now!!

- the spiralling pattern on his cane is squid tentacle inspired and the paint glows in the dark cos i thought that was neat

- grey hairs,, unlike Doc its, unfortunately, stressed induced rather than a side effect of green goop

Loverboy

- so. many. PINS. this is still just a HANDFUL of his collection!

- his hairs filled with a lot more heart shaped curls and he often ties it in a lower ponytail or wears down, sometimes he puts hairclips and little decorations in it to match his pins!

- i think the several hundred hearts do a good job explaining themselves-

-and of course like B he has his name written on his earrings

NEW ADDITIONS: NEO AND SPORK!!!

Neo

- sort of mashed together 2 different refs i had of them and took the bone pattern from the trousers of the 2nd and instead turned it into a patch he stitched on, along with a clown patterned patch (this is specifically the clowngender xenogender flag)

- decided to make their hair a bit less spikey and more flowy ?

- pronoun badge!

- the shoes are based on his 1st design, the trousers are a little more blue just to try and break up all the dark greys and make the nails and shirt seem less out of place, kept the classic playstation hoodie

- his nails actually match with Swaps!

Spork

- i gave them earrings now- The one shown on the right (left??) ear is a pin and i did draw the other but it didn't look right as Sporks hair actually covers their ears so i drew over it

(and it was a lightbulb like on their hlvrv sprites)

- added a few more buttons to the cuffs of their shirt also

- i gave them a pocket with a notebook that they use for random notices, ideas and as a schedule diary

- (usually) safety pins worn are a way for the wearer to let people know they're a safe person for people who are often discriminated against or afraid, its a way to show you are safe, a symbol of solidarity and thats why i gave Spork one

[bathoarchives]

Backyard Stories: Conversations With The Performers

In collaboration with Backyard Stories for their 'Neo Soul vs Splash' Jam session, we interviewed the event's main performers to learn more about their interests, journey as musicians, and experience with Backyard Stories.

Backyard Stories was founded in 2017 by Thoriso Bogwasi and John Swaki Lechiile through their love for music and desire to create and provide a platform for artists to share their experiences and creativity in an intimate environment. The first edition of Backyard Stories took place in John Swaki Lechiile's backyard. A very important aspect of the music show is that the use of alcohol and drugs is prohibited to ensure people fully enjoy the show. (source: meraki magazine)

What is your favourite song to sing/perform?  

Ayanda: How does it feel by D’Angelo

Miss OJY: Titles ( it’s an original song that hasn’t been released yet)

Ame Royal: My favorite song to sing, Make Me Cry by Pip Millet...challenges my vocal range

What do you do to calm yourself down if get nervous right before a performance?

Ayanda: PRAY

Miss OJY: I pray and ask the Lord to take over because truthfully speaking, I can’t do any of the things I do without him. I take deep breaths too and remind myself that I’m going to nail the performance and that I am worthy of being on that stage

Ame Royal: Deep breaths, self-affirmation

How would you describe your experience at the neo-soul vs splash jam session event?

Ayanda: It was absolutely amazing I struggled at first because getting to work with a lot of new people is quite hard for me as I’m a shy and introverted person by nature but they were all amazing people who really made it easy to work together and enjoy so it was definitely worth all the anxiety.

Miss OJY: It was amazing probably one of my best performances so far. I had so much fun dancing with everyone and geeking over my fellow artists’ performances. Every single thing about the jam session was amazing truthfully speaking. I can’t wait to attend another one of Backyardstories’ events.

Ame Royal: It was really fun, it felt like one big family at a get-together, the audience was interactive, and the atmosphere too was so surreal..my favorite moment was definitely after singing the first song of the set..my anxiety was high at first but the reception I got from the crowd was amazing...the dancing with the audience too, it was more than evident that everyone was having fun

How did you discover backyard stories?  

MJ Austin: Backyard stories discovered me honestly..But I often heard that there was some kind of event that’s alcohol-free that took place in a backyard

Sarai: I actually didn't know about it until I was inboxed to be a part of the show by the page manager.

Tsholo: They contacted me the end of last year to be a part of the show, which is how l got to learn about them properly.

Which performance would you say was your best and you felt like you outdid yourself

MJ Austin: It would be my rendition of Mon Soleil by Princess lover It was in french and inside, I incorporated a poem and from the planned execution to the real one,i must say,i went all out in pouring out my emotions into that one And the crowd’s response to the performance wrapped it all up

Sarai: I wish-Carl Thomas

Tsholo: My performance of strange by Celeste has to have been my favorite. It was such a magical moment on my end. The crowd seemed to feel the song alongside me. I believe it was good performance and l enjoyed every moment of it.

How would you describe your experience at the neo soul vs splash jam session event?

MJ Austin: Everyone was so friendly and easy to approach The amount of work,dedication,every artist and instrumentalist put into this,is immeasurable and I honestly can’t wait to be part of Backyard stories again

Sarai: Intimate, enjoyable and fun

Tsholo: It was definitely an interesting and exciting, mostly because of the other amazing artist who would give input in the creative process which kept things flowing and interesting. The genres were something new and fresh especially splash being a genre that is as popular amongst young people. It was a beautiful experience overall, everyone from the directors, fellow artist ,the master of ceremonies, the bands and all the behind the scene people really outdid themselves.

What did you think of the theme neo soul vs splash when you heard of it for the first time?

Simon's playground: It was very interesting concept. Honestly i scratched my brain on how its going to work but i made a interesting comparison, being that splash is basically trap but for Africans. The way the beat and bass is arranged simply gave me that vibe. That just made it slightly easier for me to visualize.

Mohau:I thought "oh that's something."I was a bit sceptical of the concept because i had never seen these two genres put together before.

Lemo and Gole: Because we mainly perform pop & mainstream pieces, we were excited for the challenge. To be honest, we had no idea what neo-soul nor splash sounded like so we were definitely in for a shock the first time we heard the music being provided for us

Your favourite performer of all time?

Simon's Playground: Jimi Hendrix

Mohau: Yebba!!!

Lemo and Gole: The both of us listen to very different genres of music. Lemo listens to a lot of mainstream, hip hop- G Eazy being her top pick. Gole listens to indie, the likes of Far Caspian 

How would you describe your experience at the neo-soul vs splash jam session event?

Simon's playground: it was inspirational and such a good learning and teaching curve. it is quite rare to get musicians who sing and play for themselves. it gives one the power to control musical narrative which was definitely the fun part for me. not to mention the many wonderful artists i got to work with. people who definitely made my dream come true.

Mohau: Very exposing - but in a good, growth, leaving the nest kind of way.

Lemo and Gole: It was definitely one we wouldn’t mind experiencing again, minus the heat of course. But we love musicians. That was the best part, networking.

ame royal

The neo-soul genre is slowly emerging in Botswana, who is your favourite neo-soul artist in Botswana and why? : Mpho Sebina..her voice is so angelic and captivating..a lot of emotion goes into all her music..how she excels in other genres too, the versatility is beautiful.

Are you currently working on releasing any music any time soon?: Yes, I've been working on a song titled 'insan3'..it will be released in a few months

ayanda

You’ve performed at quite a handful music events, which one would you say holds a special place in your heart? :So far backyard stories tops the chart by a mile

Are you currently working on releasing any music any time soon?: Yes I am

miss ojy

You are performing for the second time at backyard stories, how was your experience performing for the first time there and when was it? My first time performing for Backyard Stories was during their Harmony Chapter late last year. It was honestly a beautiful experience for me. Having people who barely knew who I was, enjoy my performance to the extent that they did , brought me joy. The backyard stories team made sure that everything pertaining to my performance ran as smoothly as possible which made my job easier. Being able to perform my original song “Titles” for the first time made me very nervous but I got the chance to share my story through the song and I believe that helped me connect better with the audience

MJ Austin

We learned that you participated in my star, which year did you participate and how has your participation in the competition benefitted you as a musician?: Both 2020 and 2023 and from the experience,I’d say i grew vocally,gained exposure and also received opportunities to perform in open mic sessions and of course Backyard Stories

sarai

We've learned that you incorporate RNB soul and gospel music, who or what would you say has influenced you to get into these genres: My upbringing as well as cultivation from my own personal experiences which have caused me to desire to incorporate 2 of my most preferred genres. My biggest influencer is my mother. Rnb has just also been one of the genres I've gravitated to the most from songs I've listened to growing up.

simon's playground

You are part of a collective called Calluses, how did that come about and what do you want to achieve with lebeko panashe and malum carlie in the future? we are musicians with the love of self-expression through our instruments. we are interested in making feel good music that might literally just be instrumentals relative to neo soul jazz vibes. alternative music of sorts. we plan on achieving a place where live music is adored by all. especially underappreciated genres such as jazz, rock, funk, neo soul, etc...

mohau

you are only 17, one would say you are quite early in your journey as an artist, what hopes do you have for yourself as an artist in the future?

I hope to have my music being listened to by different people around the world, not just my music but other projects as well because I want to touch people's hearts with the work of my hands.

lemo and gole How long have you been performing together and what is your favorite thing about performing together?:

We used to sing at our parents’ tuckshop when we were younger But together, with instruments was around 2013 when Lemo learned to play the ukelele

tsholo

Are you working on releasing any music anytime soon? I wouldn’t say very soon but a song is in the works.

Photos are courtesy of @princemarguson, @saigotheeditor and @backyardstories

[gunsatthaphan]

Sooo I just finished watching ViceVersa and it was SO GOOD. I’m actually impressed at the plot and acting from the leads (also Neo is literally the funniest person on earth, he’s so unserious) and I was wondering is there anything else I can watch them on? I saw a comment that said the actor that plays Talay is actually quite new to all of this and this is his first series or something like that? His acting is really good honestly,even better than some who have been doing this for years so I was actually impressed. Thank you in advance!

hard same anon. The show was amazing!!! Sea's acting was phenomenal and no, this was not his first show. He made his debut in Never Too Late, which aired at the beginning of this year. I liked his character in that one too but he really nailed the Talay character. I was very impressed. He's clearly a natural.

Jimmy was the asshole in Bad Buddy before VV but maybe you already knew that lmao.

In case you're looking for more Neo content, he's been around for a while and you can find him in shows like Cause You're My Boy, Wolf, Tonhon Chonlatee, Fish Upon the Sky and The Eclipse.

xxx

[spinningbuster98]

Mega Man Zero 4 Part 4: Changing the World

The first of these final stages is tough as nails but goddamn I love this music! And the one for the teleportal base which is supremely underrated!

This moment between Kraft and Zero is, to me, incredible and serves not only as a great way to cap off Kraft’s character but also to give us a brief insight into how Zero views himself:

Kraft may have been swayed by Niege to turn against Weil but instead of joining the good guys he decides to take drastic measures that cause the death of countless innocent people.

This may seem stupid on the surface but it’s just that Kraft is a man driven to desperation by the world he lives in and as such only believes in extreme solutions

Weil controls the world and there doesn’t seem to be any way to stop him and all is hopeless? Better do everything he says then

Living under Weil is a fate worse than death? Well allying yourself with Zero and the gang would be pointless since it’s not like they’ve made any progress at defeating Weil up until now, and the humans of Neo Arcadia are all cowards willing to backstab each other and their own creations just to survive...except we saw earlier that even those humans can change for the better, but Kraft didn’t witness that scene so he doesn’t realise that there’s still a glimmer of hope, it’s tragic

Zero appears unusually somber at having to kill Kraft after listening to his side of things and gives us what is seemingly a rather cynical view on himself: he’s just a warrior, a war machine, someone built only to kill and destroy, someone who essentially has no past, no ideals and no real desires of his own. Thus he relies on other people he considers admirable to give him those things and he in turn grants them his strength. As he admits here: he’s doing all of this because X believed that peace between humans and reploids was possible and he trusts X’s judgement thus he’s going to fulfill his wish as well as Ciel’s. In a way he’s similar to Shadow in Sonic Battle but generally much less cynical and more optimistic and open about the people he trusts.

He’s so depressed at having had to kill Kraft (whose status as a war machine who’s confused about his place in the world and isn’t fully sure on what he should do to make it better reminds him of himself in a way) that he even compares himself to Weil in front of Neige, which is ludicrous and Neige herself doesn’t agree but it goes to show that, beneath that tough, stoic demeanor, Zero does have his moments of vulnerability and insecurities but soldiers on in spite of them. This entire sequence is my go to example to show that Zero is NOT an emotionless puppet in his own series, at least not in the second half, and is IMO Zero’s greatest showing as a character.

...well...SECOND greatest showing

We are finally approaching the end of our journey, people.

It is not always a happy thing.

[chaikachi]

Do you think part of the reason why Ruby was so upset at Blake and Yang in particular isn’t because she’s genuinely mad they got together (or homophobic as I’ve seen some people joke) but because she’s /jealous/ that they were able to take enough time for themselves to even think about their own personal relationship, when meanwhile Ruby has been fighting for her life since the end of volume 3? Like maybe Ruby would love to stop and talk to her friends and sister about her potential love interests (as a girl her age should get the chance to) but she doesn’t have /time/, and seeing Yang and Blake kiss just made her realize what she’s been denying herself in order to be the Heroic Leader. idk I’m in my rosegarden feels and I bet watching Yang and Blake be so close just makes her feel more alone than ever.

LMAO I'VE SEEN THE HOMOPHOBIC JOKES 🤣🤣 how anyone actually believes that allegation is very funny. But yeah I agree. Since the very beginning of the show, Ruby has just wanted to be a normal girl with normal knees who can "paint her nails, try on clothes, and talk about cute boys" with her friends (Note: Oscar has been called cute twice already in show). And Ruby has not had the chance to do so at all because she hasn't stopped moving. Even leading up to v9, everyone else had other things they were focusing on and she's just been trying to hold everybody up. Never taking time for herself to sort out her own struggles. So she's feeling alone and left behind. I went over it a bit in the Treasure Analysis about the framing at the end of v9e6 where the Bees are warm and cozy by the fire, Weiss is warm with her cup of tea, and Ruby is sitting cold by herself by the window across from an empty chair. All alone in crowded rooms without the one person that makes her not feel that way.

The volume starting with Oscar as the very first illusion that Neo uses - and RG being the only pair that was split up in v8 that didn't end up reunited in v9 - sets up his absence very strongly right out the gate. And that absence just seems to grow with each episode.

As much as I do love RG, I don't know that Ruby necessarily knows she likes Oscar or has reached that point. At least not yet, but distance makes the heart grow fonder (as we have seen with Renora and the Bees) and I have a feeling we're not ready for how close they're going to end up when everyone is back in Vacuo.

Part of her upset here in the Ever After, is that she is crushed under the weight of so many things that she doesn't even have time to entertain such an idea as a crush. In any other circumstance, Ruby would have been elated about so much of what they're experiencing. She would have been excited for the bees just like she had been in v6 and she would have been all over this fairytale nonsense in the Ever After.

But she's tired. Weiss is snapping at her every other hour, Jaune is a broken husk of himself and needs their help more than he can offer it in return, and the Bees got to spend time sorting out their feelings and find comfort and support in each other... while Ruby is just dealing with all of this on her own.

She doesn't feel seen. She doesn't feel wanted. She doesn't feel prioritized. The only person that ever asked 'what about Ruby' is in another dimension and the only one in Ever After that noticed before she broke was Little (who has VERY STRONG PARALLELS to Oscar as I just brought up in a recent ask).

This volume is very rough emotionally on our characters, but I'm really optimistic for Vacuo being an arc of resting, rebuilding, and recovering for all of them. But especially for Ruby. Because there ain't no way all of what was brought up this last episode can be resolved in the 3 we have left until the season is over. But at least Oscar is waiting for her with open arms once she gets there. 🌲💕

[its-a-rat-trap]

my huge fixation on the rats has come back again so out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite tracks, and why?

Oh man sorry it took me so long to answer this! It ended up being harder than I thought to narrow down a list of my favorite songs but here’s (some) of my current faves at least!

Lookin’ After No. 1 - A bit of a cliched inclusion but it’s still (imo) the best example of their early punk/post-punk sound, and you can really hear how well Garry and Simon meshed with their playing. Plus I’m an utter sap and it makes me very emotional to think of Bob going from writing “Don’t give me love thy neighbor / Don’t give me charity” to. yknow. putting on the entirety of Live Aid. 

(Also don’t eVEN talk to me about the Music Machine gig, every time I think of Bob singing “Don’t wanna be like you / Don’t wanna live like you / Don’t wanna talk like you at all / I’m gonna be like me” in the face of the neo-nazi skinheads who just punched him in the face I go INSANE)

Joey’s On The Streets Again - Look I know that if we’re picking “Top songs Bob wrote about the Ireland of his childhood” then Rat Trap is understandably always gonna be at the top of the list but consider: Joey is just a better song, especially the last verse of it.

Also the Self Aid Joey performance? SO FUCKING GOOD genuinely my favorite live performance of this song that they’ve ever done

Wind Chill Factor Minus Zero - The lyrics just do it for me. I feel like a lot of people don’t think of Bob Geldof as a great lyricist but he really is and this song is just full of little clever lines like “You start to laugh (No) / You say you’ve won (No) / It’s just I lost (No) / That’s not the same (No)” that just make it SO satisfying to sing!

Also gotta put a shout out to “Real Different” for the same reason, every time I hear Bob sing “I'll fill my pocket full of stones and I'll throw 'em at the light” I just go feral asldkfjals

The Elephant’s Graveyard - You know that quote about (I Never Loved) Eva Braun that describes the song as something like the happiest most upbeat song about Hitler you’ll ever hear? The Elephant’s Graveyard is exactly like that but for police brutality and the Rats fucking made it work. 

Obviously if we’re talking about social justice themes in their songs Mondays and Banana Republic are gonna top the list but listen. Listen. Bob wrote a song specifically about anti-black police brutality in Florida that calls out the double-standards of the US justice system (“Justice isn’t blind / It just looks the other way”), made the campiest beach-themed music video for it, and somehow they completely nailed the combination. 

House on Fire - IT’S JUST A FUCKING BANGER OF A SONG! Seriously between the brass instruments and Bob’s voice it’s just such a fun and funky song, and it’s a great example of the Rats playing around with their sound in their later albums in a way that just works perfectly for them. 

Also it has more good mouth-feel lyrics in it, like the line “Doing halo hula-hoops, executing loop-de-loops / Takes a lot of skill and bad taste” is just sooo satisfying to sing !!!

Trash Glam Baby - Obligatory COB inclusion alksdjfklas I almost went with She Said No instead but they really nailed that old-school rock sound with Trash Glam Baby and I absolutely adore it. I love the little references at the start of the song, I love the reprise at the end, the video absolutely fucks, this was everything I needed from 21st Century Rats and more!

Do The Rat / D.U.N. L.A.O.G.H.A.I.R.E. - Because I couldn’t pick just one, special shout-out to both Do The Rat and D.U.N. L.A.O.G.H.A.I.R.E. for being fantastic b-side tracks! I love that Bob and the rest of the band were having fun fooling around with their releases like this. I love all the puns in Do The Rat, and the little convo at the start of D.U.N. L.A.O.G.H.A.I.R.E. both makes me laugh and makes me a little emotional now that Garry’s gone.