#never had that problem prior to 2021

[sarasa-cat]

Me: refreshing email every 5 minutes to see if my much deserved gift to myself has cleared the hold up at customs inspection.

[lowkeyrobin]

TUBBO ; colors

summary/prompt ; the world is mostly black and white until you meet your soulmate

warnings & mentions ; language, cheesey end, reader is described to get overstimulated and nonverbal in very excited situations, set in mix like late 2021 around bench trio meetup

word count ; 1.5k

masterlist

Meeting up with your friends in real life was like the plot to a corny fanfiction to you. It was so unbelievable, yet true now.

You'd been hoping and planning to make a trip over with Ranboo, but each time, something had gone wrong. Whether it be problems meeting at the same airport or having scheduled other important things prior, school, etcetera. It never seemed to work out until now. Ranboo already got to the UK yesterday, considering you guys sadly couldn't get tickets together so close to the departure date.

Boarding that plane was maybe the scariest thing you've ever done.

The anxiety courses adrenaline through your veins, causing you to nearly stumble over yourself.

The world had been desaturated for as long as you could remember. At least you could enjoy your video games, being in full color. God, it was almost yesterday that Tommy and Tubbo were teaching you all the colors you didn't know yet. It was like training a toddler.

Thank God screens were out of bounds of this weird infection thing. You didn't know what to call if. You loved color, you loved every shade of every color, really. It was that sense of driving out somewhere you don't go often, and you stare out the window to take everything in.

As you sit in your seat, your leg bounces rapidly, your carry-on backpack resting at your feet. You look out the window, seeing one of the wings up in front of you a couple of seats as you mumble to yourself.

"Oh, Jesus Christ, I hate this already"

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

Finally, after the longest, and probably most turbulent, flight of your life, you step out into the world, seeing the outside of Brighton airport and it's parking lot. Phil would be here soon to come pick you up, running late due to traffic.

You sit on a bench outside the building, next to the front doors with your nearly month's worth of luggage around you. Your backpack was filled with your laptop, other device needs, and some clothes and hygiene things. Your suitcase, thankfully big enough, heald all your clothes.

You see Phil wave out his window as he pulls up to the curb, shouting a happy hello. You stuff your things in the trunk with Phil's and Tommy's bags, also planning to stay down near Tubbo's at least for the weekend. You then hop in the passenger's seat, being jumpscared by Tommy who was hiding in the back seat.

"Holy shit!"

Tommy laughs, and Phil tries his best to hide the smile tugging at his lips. "Don't scare them to death, Tommy, please"

"Are you so excited right now?" The blonde asks you, you reply with a happy, silent nod, becoming overstimulated already due to the happiness and the chaotic nature of Tommy already, driving you nonverbal. The jet lag and tiredness also did some damage on you, being teleported to a new time zone.

"They're wearing red!" He smiles, "You're wearing red, we're all triplet-ing!"

You all laugh and giggle, which you assume the two were both wearing red. Tommy was wearing his usual red baseball shirt, and Phil had a supposedly red sweatshirt on.

Phil drives you three all the way down to Tubbo's house, maybe an hour of driving max. When you step out of the car and move the seat forward to let Tommy out, you're greeted with a warm hug from behind, gifted from Tubbo.

"Hi! Oh my fucking God, I can't believe you're here!" He smiles, jumping a bit as he looks up at you.

"Hi!" You smile, doing the same as him, wrapping him in another hug just to make sure he was real.

Ranboo, Aimsey, Billzo, and Freddie stand a few feet away, then wrap you guys in a group hug, Tommy and Philza included.

When you open your eyes, now not engulfed by your friends, the world around you was now painted with color. Tubbo's hoodie was painted a nice forest green color, you saw reds, blues, and yellows on Ranboo's hawaiin shirt, and Aimsey's beanie was the famous red it was over the screen.

"Holy shit" You mumble, looking around to take in all the new scenery.

The group look at you in confusion and see your bright stare, able to tell that you'd gained the wonderous sight of color. You hug Tubbo again, just excited to see him before you get your things from the trunk of Phil's car, and he pulls them inside, placing them in the room you'd be sharing with Ranboo.

Phil departs, needing to run some errands and meet up with some other friends before heading to his hotel. He does a little bit where he abandons Tommy and kicks him and his stuff out, and drives off, nearly late for his lunch with Jack, James, and Charlie.

The day is fulfilled with a Halloween stream, and your little friend group being titled the Cricket Crew. You were officially the third, after Aimsey and Tommy, of that group to gain sight of colors, and it was awesome. You never noticed how colorful your wardrobe was, other than outfits you wore on stream.

You don't think about it much, just too caught up with your friends. But the question of who gifted you your new colors stayed on your mind.

It wasn't until you were getting ready to change into pajamas to have a little movie night with Tubbo, Ranboo, and Tommy, who was going to be picked up around 11 by Wilbur to stay at the hotel nearby, that you thought about the color thing again.

Who the fuck is your soulmate?

Clearly it was one of your friends, but you didn't see any mixed emotions between any of them, at least you could mark off Tommy, obviously, Aimsey, and Bill, who made a joke about how he was thankful he wasn't your soulmate earlier. That left Freddie, Ranboo, and Tubbo. There was just so much happening in that moment that you really couldn't pinpoint one of them.

You decide to leave the detective work for later, wanting to enjoy showing your friends the true masterpiece that is The Breakfast Club. You sit down on the couch in next to Tubbo, who was laying sideways as per usual, whom also made sure to move his legs so you had room to sit. Tommy sat beneath you, leaned against the couch. Ranboo sat criss-cross in front of Tubbo, making sure not to block his view.

Tommy made remarks, jokes, and commentated throughout the movie, causing the other three of you to do the same. After the movie, Tommy leaves, leaving you, Tubbo, and Ranboo to watch Tubbo's choice for the next movie, The Lost Boys. He had it on his watch list for some time now and wanted to watch it.

During the first Act, he ends up making a little comment about all the colors and how cool they looked on the screen. You almost didn't catch it at first, but you did. Ranboo hadn't, though, making pulling Tubbo into the kitchen a little more discreet.

Tubbo tries to act dumb before giving himself up, unable to hide from your pressing nature.

"Uh, yeah, when we hugged, I noticed it. I just didn't say anything cause I was scared and I wanted to focus on us being friends and I don't wanna ruin that-"

"Tubbo..."

"Hm?"

You wrap him in a hug, "Sorry"

"For what?"

You shrug, feeling the apology was nessacary.

"You have really pretty eyes by the way" He smiles

You roll your eyes playfully, "Shut up"

"You're supposed to love me! You're my soulmate, you little shit!"

"That's not how that works!"

"Wow, drama" Ranboo speaks from the doorway, leaning against it while holding up his recording phone. "Sorry, I had to record this. I didn't know he'd confess so soon" They shrug.

"Ran!" Tubbo exclaims, cheeks dusting pink.

"You were in on it?" You ask them, which you recieve a nod in response. "You little asshole"

Ranboo raises his hands in defense, "Don't blame me! Tommy was the one to suggest making it special"

You shrug, patting Tubbo's cheek before you three return to the couch. "It was either you two or Freddie, glad it was the best option, I guess"

"Hey!"

✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

The next morning, around seven or so, you sit on the back porch, enjoying the fresh air and the sunrise, which you could finally enjoy in all it's glory. Hues of blue, grey, pinks, purples, and reds fill the sky in which you stare at. You hear the door open and close with a click behind you, and the familiar brunette best friend sits next to you.

"Why are you awake?" He groans, rubbing his tired eyes, "It's too early"

"Says you. You wake up in the evening, if you're lucky"

"I- Quiet, I won't be taking Tubbo slander"

You look back up at the sky with a little smile, "Isn't it just so fucking pretty?"

"Not as fucking pretty as you"

...

"Get out"

"This is my house!"

[rocketturtle4]

Only Friends, Shipping Culture, Cross-Generational Differences, Themes and Endgame

Strap in, folks. This is a long one.

What finally pushed me to make this post was a very interesting discourse between @lurkingshan, @waitmyturtles, and @twig-tea here around the way this show has subverted norms to a lesser extent than first hoped and how the fans themselves, and the creator’s interactions with these fans, have impacted the creation and completion of the show, as well as the way themes built through the series may now feel less clear after the latest episode.

I wanted to offer my understanding and perspective because it differs somewhat, but it is also very much informed by this post and the larger Tumblr discourse around Only Friends and shipping culture that this show has sparked. I will note, for the record, that I have been much busier since about episode 5 of OF than I had been for the first episodes (or than I was for BMF), so I have missed a lot more of the fascinating discourse that this show has sparked than I would wish.

Let’s do this.

Shipping Culture

I had never heard of this before joining Tumblr this year (in May) despite watching 50 BLs before that, due to being completely disengaged from the actors as individuals prior to joining Tumblr, and while Tumblr has opened my eyes to how much fanservice is part of these people’s lives and jobs and the problems surrounding that phenomenon. I remain largely disengaged from the actors personally. I do not have Twitter, Tik Tok or Instagram, I rarely watch BTS and even my revelation that First is the most beautiful man ever to exist (and I say that as a person who is both aro and ace) has only got me to watch one First & Khao Armshare interview (The Eclipse one). I have also never purchased merch or event tickets so I am in fact, not a good fan in terms of profit making or engagement.

I do, however, love the shows an awful lot and may engage with BTS more once I have fewer things to watch…

All this to say is that my firsthand knowledge of such things is limited at best, but I am still here to say:

I think Only Friends is doing excellent things here, even if all the ‘couples’ end up together.

Is it burning them to the ground like so many hoped? No, but I have watched 47 Thai BLs at this stage and not many of them explored relationships beyond the pairs in any way, shape or form, and OF HAS DONE THAT.

Of our main six characters, NONE of them have only kissed their “other half.” They’ve literally all at least made out with one other person from the core six, and thus far Mew, Boston and Nick have ALSO kissed other people.

This is, in my humble opinion, A PRETTY BIG DEAL.

I am currently watching Not Me (for the first time, haven’t finished, no spoilers please), and I have been informed somewhat reliably that the original novel included a Gram/Black plotline that was cut/altered (to Gram/Eugene/Black love triangle), and I posit that was due in part because they couldn’t have Gun even KISSING Mond even if he was also kissing Off. Black and White would have been a great way to shift things even a little by having the branded pair be together while ALSO having half the brand with someone else at the SAME TIME. Can you imagine??

And yet as recently as 2021 that didn’t happen.

Sometimes change takes time and patience and I think OF is doing really good work, even if it doesn’t go as far as we might wish.

EVEN IF all our branded pairs end up together unsubverted (which is not what I am hoping for but EVEN IF), this show will have still begun paving the way for more varied storylines and pairings in shows

The Clash of Generational Lenses

Speaking of the end game, lets talk about a little thing called hope.

I had a very interesting discourse back around, hmmm episode 6, with @shouldiusemyname and @plantsarepeopletoo , about the sheer confusion I felt about Tumblr’s idea that every one of these characters should end up apart simply because they’d done bad things or something? (this is extremely generalized. I was missing a lot of nuance from both Tumblr and my own lens hence the unpacking then and now).

Now I went into this show fully prepared for this to end sadly and I largely viewed this expectation of  sad as everyone ending up broken up and alone. I don’t normally watch sad by choice, but I was willing to try this one because Jojo’s stories are SO beautifully compelling that I knew it would be worth the journey. I have watched Love of Siam (not Jojo but sad) and Gay Okay Bangkok (complicated), two very different shows reflective of their times and their creators and from the beginning, Only Friends did not feel like those (although the links to Gay Okay Bangkok and the exploration of real queer relationships has been fascinating and I am very glad I watched that one before OF).

So why was there this, almost prescribed hopelessness, being projected onto these very young characters who were just in the process of finding themselves? Why were these young people’s flaws and choices so linked to the idea that they would end up alone?

Now @shouldiusemyname told me the following (in the context of a much wider discourse):

Ahhh I like this cos this is something I take very much for granted and I think it’s a generational gap thing. This is a reaction to the way we were brought up (again generalizing cos sometimes it’s necessary). There was no alternative to monogamy and being queer meant that you can’t have that for 2 reasons: 1.    Law doesn’t allow 2.    Socially unacceptable cos being gay was seen as what kind of sex you were having as opposed to relationships. If you don’t have the gay sex, you’re not gay. This is also the reason for being anti het norm. We couldn’t have that so we needed to find the alternative and have ALL of it.

We were both generalizing A LOT, but this idea was MIND BLOWING to me at the time.

(For the record I am born late 1990s, Shouldiusemyname is born early 1980s (and Plantsarepeopletoo is born late 80s so we have variety covered lol!))

Because while, (as @waitmyturtles for example has pointed out on multiple occasions) the imposition of purity culture and monogamy on queer culture (and in general) is wrong, the idea that no queer people are desiring commitment or monogamy is also wrong. (I am not here suggesting that even in an ideal world where queer people TRULY HAD equal rights they would magically all want monogamous long-term relationships because that’s just not true. In addition hets regularly oppose the het norm as well, long-term monogamous relationships are unwanted by many of them).

I come from a strong biological background (which unequivocally supports more than two sexes and more than two genders, do not come back here and make this about that, got it!) and am currently doing a PhD in Palaeontology so a lot of my relationship understanding is informed by a wider understanding of breeding, monogamy and nonmonogamy in reproduction across the animal and plant kingdoms just by exposure (and yes reproduction in the plant kingdom is very much included, some plants have both male and female parts, it’s fascinating!). And monogamy is present in a hugely wide range of species, it’s not soley something humans came up with just because of religious norms. Addtionally, there is the development of consistent monogamous and/or committed polygamous relationships (historically, most commonly men with multiple wives) across a huge number of cultures throughout history largely for the fostering of children. Most of this influence has been more irrelevant for the queer community because of their inability to produce children in monogamous pairs*, and children are a huge sticking point for the NEED for long-term stable relationships. So, without this sticking point (combined with the aforementioned factors around law and discrimination), relationships are viewed as less permanent. Thus, I had to unpack my own casual assumptions that relationships normally have a long-term goal. (*Generalizing hugely, obviously there are lots of variations that can produce biological children without assistance, but these points most strongly apply to same-sex relationships)

For example, I find the way this plays out in a show like What Did You Eat Yesterday particularly fascinating, and have realized since starting Season 2 that I had missed a lot of this subtext in the first season because, to me, the idea that the central couple would stay and grow old together was a given. PARTLY because of monogamous cultural lenses, but ALSO because they loved each other and wanted to be together, so why wouldn’t they assume they would stay and grow old together?

I also realized that I am further sheltered in this mindset by not just my age but by the acceptance of my wider family of non-marriage as a concept (or even just not having to have children) as normal and okay. My Grandfather (in his 80s) is one of 10 children and has multiple siblings (my great uncles/aunts) who 1 never married or 2 married but chose never to have children. While I am not going to pretend that my uncles/aunts were never judged for such things, that judgment was NEVER part of my upbringing and we visited my single and/or childless great-uncles just as often as those with children.

I seem to have gotten sidetracked…What is the wider point I am making here?

Ah yes

Only Friends is so interesting because it’s shot like it’s set in the 80s & 90s, before the turn of the millennia, with so much homage paid to the queer stories and reality that the youth of this time grew up with. But the generational change that the last two decades or so have brought is inarguably huge, and so these characters, all born after the turn of the century, are not truly from the world that, in some ways, it looks like they’ve been placed into. @wen-kexing-apologist did an extremely comprehensive post about gay cruising culture and Boston that was extremely relevant to his character and the story being told, but it also was a specific throwback to something that is different in the 2020s. Not because people like Boston don’t exist, but because the turn of the century brought with it so many things that make this exact thing more complicated.

And OF has been showing us why! Surveillance, SO MUCH surveillance, every character has been recorded or recorded other characters or shared recordings of other characters, sometimes all of the above, and this surveillance does have a deep impact on the relationships today’s young people engage in! Not just the queer community but all young people of today are under near constant scrutiny and surveillance, and the young people born in the last couple decades have grown up like this, queer or not.

One last thing to mention here is the specific, observable, phenomenon that has been going on in Thailand, it is clear when you look at media like Love of Siam (2008) and compare it to ITSAY (2020) (which I haven’t even seen yet gah but I still know this is a great example). The phenomenon of BL, for all its flaws, has wrought change in the psyche and culture of the people of Thailand, ESPECIALLY the young people, and this is absolutely informing our six main characters views on relationships because they would have gone through high school with this as a major part of their culture.

Themes and Endgame: I Think Hope is the Point

All this draws me back into how I think OF will end, because it’s been at the heart of the show throughout, and that is hopefully, Only Friends will end hopefully.

Jojo has (I believe) stated outright that his primary goal for this show was to represent his community in truth, the messy non-het non-monogamy of queer youths in their 20s has been playing out across our screens, but the thing that has been keeping my attention riveted on Only Friends is the heart of it all.

The journeys of growth and discovery on this show have been magnificent. @thegalwhorants has been pointing out the intentional parallels of language this show has been using to highlight some of that growth, and that is just one very interesting fraction of the way this show has used words, music (@plantsarepeopletoo), colours, styles and more to represent the transformation characters are going through as they grow into themselves before our eyes.

A few very brief examples:

Mew’s switch to wearing Ray’s wardrobe when he is trying not to care but cares so much about Top.

Ray’s changed wardrobe to match the style Sand picked out for him even as he tried to choose Mew and couldn’t, because he’s already moved on, even when he couldn’t accept it.

Nick’s whole makeover to catch Boston’s attention later even catching Dan’s attention and the way that in that scene with Boston outside in ep10, Nick had returned to his shorts and t-shirt because he finally felt seen the way he sees Boston.

One’s sense of self is often built in part, around their relationships (family, friends, sexual and romantic), ESPECIALLY in collectivist cultures, and so much of our 20s involves growing and learning who you are through these relationships. I have seen arguing about toxic friendship groups and how they all need to just let each other go, and maybe that is the best endgame, I don’t know. Sometimes, growing together can be so much stronger, and sometimes, growing apart is the only way to move forward.

But these last two eps in particular (but honestly every moment of this show) have left me with the feeling that hope is the point. Because things HAVE changed, the world is moving and the things possible in 2023 are often utterly unthinkable to the youth of the 1980s, 1990s and before. The world is growing, acceptance and love have always been there but, surveillance or no, it’s so much easier to find now.

To be queer is no longer to be isolated, not in the way it once was, it is not a sentence of aloneness. Nor a stamp of irrevocable pain. Are things good now? HECK NO, you look at any statistic: homelessness, mental health, suicide rate, poverty; Being queer makes your life harder.

No matter how hard you try things might get worse and while that’s true for all people, queerness compounds that and often makes the consequences of your choices harder through isolation.

But the isolation is less now and I think OF wants to show that

You may do many things and sometimes these things will hurt no matter how careful you are, Not caring isn’t the point, Not feeling isn’t the point, God every character on this show feels so MUCH

This episode had moments of complete heartbreak

Complete regret

And complete Joy

And there is much more still to come

So when I think about endgame, I think about hope, and the lessening of isolation for all, and this does not mean 3 perfectly happy couples in perfect monogamous relationships wrapped up with a neat little bow, It means six individuals who have learned and grown through friendship and love, this may mean healed relationships, it may not, this may mean healed friendships, it may not. (It may mean Top, Mew and Boeing in a throuple but maybe I’m the only one hoping for that lol). We’ve clearly got more drama and pain to come but I am confident now that things will end with hope.

I do not know how Jojo and co will show that, but I trust them, and I can’t wait to find out.

[venuscnjunctpluto]

Megan thee stallion and astrology ⭐️

Credit: @insertlanasong

(Im in no way blaming dv on where the stars were in the sky. the gremlin and all these other male bullies are accountable for their OWN actions)

*Lilith in 1st: I’m not gonna stfu about this placement. When I say men are intimidated by us and we don’t even have to speak. Megan constantly gets told she’s acting like a man and trying to play a man’s game for being openly sexual. These same people lust after her all day long. It should be noted how many men online and in the industry seemed to gang up on her for someone nobody gaf about all like that and who had a history of violence. With Lilith in 1st people are waiting for your downfall and you have to be mindful of who is around and why they’re there. 

*her aqua sun she’s definitely been very giving and she’s been promoting charities for cancer, I think she’s trying to open some hospitals, organized a clean the beach event, and advocated for victims of abuse esp black women.

* Megan has a Leo mars and people have compared her performance energy to Beyoncé who also has a Leo mars. I do enjoy this placements ability to put on a show

*Shes a good representative of Taurus rising women as she can go into multiple spaces. She’s recently visiting the White House and her classy Venusian energy fit in well.

* megan stated in a live that she can’t stay away from Virgos and her ex friend Kelsey was one also Moneybaggyo. She has Virgo in her 5th which could explain her gravitating towards them because of the fun and excitement that house brings.

*Megans bf Pardison has Venus square Lilith (which represents his relationships w women and she’s Lilith prominent) his mars in her 7th/8th house cusp and hella 10th house synastry. She’s known as the hot girl coach and was introduced to the public as looking for a fun time and not taking men seriously. But of course 10th house synastry makes you wanna go to show that person off esp Venus.

*I love Nickis music so barbs pls don’t come for me (idgaf) but nicki has been arguing w herself. She’s a sag sun and Venus so these placements are likely In Megan’s 8th house. People like to debate what the planet person feels but it’s alot of mutual energy. Megan seemed to be a fan of nicki and they seemed to get along. Then something clearly happened and nicki started throwing shot after shot at Megan since 2021. And to this day *in my tiktok voice* nicki is arguing w herself in the public eye coming after Megan HARD. I’ve had an 8th house stellium with this guy and it’s gone very similar it’s a love-hate until it’s straight up hate after a certain point. It’s been weird to see this considering nicki has never so overtly came after somebody this much esp somebody she co-signed and collabed w. And nicki is a sag Venus (aka a bisexual which Megan is as well) so I wouldnt be suprised if this could be a scorned lover situation.

Torey Lanez’s pluto squared Megan’s sun, moon, and mars. His Lilith conjuncts her sun plus his mars in her 1st house. That man was obsessed w her and he already had a clear anger problem that he admitted to during an interview. My cousin has sun square pluto w her bf and he’s very controlling and insecure when it comes to her.

7th house synastry though very comfortable Can also be be open enemies. For ex: Megan thee stallion after that gremlin shot her you had numerous MEN coming to attack her (Of course with Lilith in 1st) . I would like to name three of them. Drake, Joe Budden, and Dababy all Scorpio placements. Megan is a Taurus rising w unconfirmed degrees but I bet she has 7th house synastry w all of them. Drake has Venus, sun, and mercury in Scorpio. Joe Budden has a Scorpio mars and Dababy has a Scorpio Venus. They all came for her at one the most difficult times of her career just to drag her down even more. Drake and Dababy publically lusted after her and Joe budden was drooling in his seat interviewing her prior to his comments about her. Im a late Aries rising and I’ve had issues w many Scorpio placements because they had some underlying issue w me for no reason. Scorpio In the 7th is very difficult because if our enemies don’t know if they wanna harm us or literally f*ck us it’s insane. She even said something similar in a freestyle.

I hope she keeps glowing cause her vulnerability and strength is inspiring🫶🏾🫶🏾

[katboykirby]

I don't want to sound like a cunt, but I don't like how Solmare has changed how they do things so now we're only getting the most recent Birthday events brought back for revivals.

What I mean is, it's currently October 2023. Satan has had three Birthday events since OM first came out: his Birthday in 2020, his Birthday in 2021, and his Birthday in 2022.

Now that it's October 2023 and we're getting closer to his Birthday again, the "Happy Birthday Satan 2022" event has been revived and has been brought back. It's playable for the 3-4 days before his Birthday on the 20th. This in and of itself is great.

But what about his Birthday event from 2021?

What about his Birthday event from 2020?

Satan has had three Birthdays since the launch of the original game. But we only get to have limited, temporary access to his Birthday from the last year and the last year only. If you're a new player who wasn't around in 2020 or 2021, you'll never get to see those event stories, and you'll never be able to obtain those Birthday cards.

Like. Do we see why that is a problem? This isn't just about Satan - every card from every Birthday event prior to 2022 is now completely unobtainable in the game. No one will ever be able to get Lucifer's 2020 Birthday UR or Barbatos' 2021 Birthday UR, etc. And we all see why that's a bad thing, right?

And the thing is, Solmare used to revive all the Birthday events. If you're a new player you might not have been around for this, but we used to get every single past Birthday event brought back, every year. For Mammon's birthday in 2022, they brought back his 2020 Birthday event and his 2021 Birthday event. But they aren't doing that any more.

So for a significant number of players, all those cards (both SSR and UR Birthday cards) are unobtainable forever. What might be even worse, the Birthday stories (as in, the main Birthday Pop Quiz stories) might now be lost media. Because Birthday events aren't put into LD like regular events. You can't return to them to re-play them to obtain the event cards or read the story.

They're gone. Forever.

And I really, really hate that. Yes, I was present for Satan's birthday in 2020 and I got to read that birthday story. But that was three years ago now. I want to read it again, because I barely remember the majority of it. I have a lot of friends who started playing OM months or even years after I did, and some of them haven't seen any of the 2020 or 2021 birthdays at all. If you started playing with the release of Nightbringer, you haven't seen any of them.

And jesus fucking christ, that makes me so god damn sad. I don't understand why Solmare has made so much of their own content completely unaccessible.

[sophieinwonderland]

It turns out, I'm still not done venting about the SN's smear document and the grievances with my November posts they used to defend contextualize the fakeclaiming and misgendering posts from the admin about me.

A recent post from Lunastus reminded me of this bullet point.

This threw me for a loop because this quote isn't even mine.

It was from the Lunastus Collective who coined the term.

Sure, I reblogged it and defended it, but it wasn't my quote and it's so weird to see this attributed to me.

But with this latest round of drama SAS started, I also want to talk about the drama surrounding the word endogenic and its coiner.

Recap for those who missed that ridiculous drama: The LC coined the term in 2014. In 2021, SAS found a 2015 article that loosely associated the word "endogenic" with Freud supporting the fantasy model. SAS specifically claimed that "the term 'endogenic' can be traced all the way back to Freud's work in 1956!"

But on further investigation, every paper prior to that used a similar but different term, endogenous.

In the end, "endogenic system" is a term 100% coined by the Lunastus Collective.

Endogenic was never used to refer to systems before that.

Now, rather than admit they were wrong, SAS and their entitled cronies doubled down and claimed the words were still too similar, then had the gall to demand an apology from the LC for the baseless made-up manufactured drama.

I've seen some argue that their issue was less with the term and more with the response. That they felt their feelings were being dismissed. (And that part, yeah, was mostly me.)

The problem is that not all feelings deserve to be validated. Not everyone who feels they're in the right actually is. Sometimes in life, you're just on the wrong side, and humoring your feelings will do more harm than good.

Personally, I think The Lunastus Collective deserves an apology for the harassment they received over SAS's smear campaign.

Now, coming back to the latest round of manufactured drama today... let me tell you what these experiences have taught me.

These people don't have "morals." They have friends and enemies.

If you're lucky enough to find yourself on the former list, expect them to loyally turn a blind eye to your wrongdoings for as long as they reasonably can. And when they can't, you can depend on them to make a 20-bullet-point list of things your victim did to deserve it. (Much of which will be fabricated, twisted or taken out of context.)

If you're an enemy, expect them to comb over every word you say. Expect them to twist your words and outright lie about you. Anything to justify their hate of you and manipulate others to feel the same.

This is, unfortunately, their modus operandi.

The thing is, I think they overplayed their hand this time.

I don't think people are really buying the whole "wanting anti-endos to be ostracized is literally worse than death threats or suibait" talking point they have going on.

It's comically overdramatic and, frankly, minimizes the real harm of death threats and suibait in favor of a cheap talking point.

Obviously, people who hate me will continue to hate me and the usual suspects are jumping on it hard as always.

But their posts about this aren't generating much engagement, which SAS's usually do. Usually a couple days into one of SAS's smears, I might have lost a few followers that will take me a whole day or two to regain or I'll get a couple hate anons relating to it.

This feels different. Especially if people were buying the severity of the allegations SAS and pals are trying to push. I have no doubt everyone would be rightly enraged if I were sending actual threats of violence.

But I'm not seeing that here.

I hope this means people are waking up to the lies and manipulation tactics they use, and will start thinking critically about SAS's past smears of both myself and other systems. Admittedly, this might be too much to hope for.

Anyway, you can all can go home now.

This one's a bust.

But maybe you'll get me next time. 🤷‍♀️

[thevaudevilledemon]

Duck Musings: The Tragedy of Magica De Spell

Tragedy and the Disney Ducks go oddly hand in hand, and we have examined this in several characters, Gladstone Gander and Donald Duck specifically. When it comes to the most tragic character though, I may have to put my money on Magica De Spell, and this isn’t just me being a simp, though I’ll admit that is part of it.

The comic that sparked this Duck Musing was this scanlation by lettheladylead of a 2021 comic by Giorgio Cavazzano titled “Magica De Spell: Origins of a Witch”, which is... pretty much what it says on the tin, the origin story of Magica De Spell. In it, we learn about what happened to her parents, why she is interested in the Midas Touch, and even where Ratface came from. It’s... kind of a sad comic.

Magica’s parents were killed in a spell gone wrong when she was just a baby, probably barley hatched, and from some of the artwork, it appears that they were more focused on the spell than on Magica. After, her Aunt and Uncle took her in, but tried to repress her magic, since this is the same magic that took their loved ones from them. Magica left after learning the truth and deciding to finish what her parents began, and never did seem to return to her Aunt and Uncle.

It is worth noting that there is an alternate backstory as to why Magica wants the Midas Touch, in the comic “The Pact of the Moon”, it is revealed that Magica was not originally evil, but she forced to make the Midas Touch spell by, what I’m assuming is the Witch Council. This lead her to becoming greedy and unscrupulous, again, not a very happy backstory. She also laments about her niece Minima, and how she hopes her niece doesn’t follow the path she herself has went down.

All of this ties into the tragic situation of her current life, always after Scrooge’s dime, always outwitted by the old man, always one step closer but two steps behind her ultimate goal. One of my favourite comics is “The Journey is the Reward”, where Magica does steal the dime, but ends up returning it because, she literally does not know what to do when she’s done. It kinda reminds of that scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden was talking about always calling his Dad and asking him on what he should do next. It adds a lot to the tragedy of having an ultimate goal, when you don’t really know what you’re gonna do once you have completed it.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention Magicstone, the strange pairing of Magica De Spell and Gladstone Gander. I’ve mentioned “A Gal For Gladstone” prior, but the big tragedy of the pairing, I think was best explored by, once again, Sarah Jolley, otherwise known as ModMad, specifically in their comic “Enough Time to Fall”, because they’re right, it never would work. Even if Magica stayed in her disguise, it would have to disappear eventually, and what then? It hurts because, in A Gal for Gladstone, they were both genuinely happy, and her plan failed because she was genuinely concerned about Gladstone’s safety. One true moment of joy, and it had to be snatched from her.

I wrote a piece of fanfiction titled “Stuck Together Duck” in which, Magica De Spell and Donald Duck get stuck together, and bond a little, because when you look at the two of them, they are quite similar. Lost their parents at a presumably young age, raised by extended family (Donald in part by his Uncle, but mostly by his Grandma, and Magica entirely by her aunt and Uncle), niblings they look after (Yes that is the neutral term for niece and nephew), honestly, it feels weird that this pairing isn’t more popular, but I digress. It goes to show that, at the core of the evil sorceress, is something a lot more tragic than one might initially think.

It’s also worth noting that Scrooge, doesn’t seem to hate her. In several comics, they work together to stop a bigger problem, like a comet hurdling towards earth, or another magic user stealing Scrooge’s dime. Scrooge has also helped Magica in situations where she would, or has, lost her magic abilities, and in one comic, it’s shown that the two of them send birthday cars to each other. So maybe Scrooge sees something in Magica, and I don’t mean that in a shipping way, though feel free to take it like that.

Well, I made a Magica post that referenced three of Magica’s ships. I think I’m done for now.

To wrap up, Magica De Spell is easily one of my favourite characters, and really getting a chance to explore this aspect of her character was fun, and also a little heartbreaking. Maybe someday, Magica will get a happy ending to her story, maybe her nieces will find a path to follow that she can be happy for, maybe she and Scrooge will become genuine friends, we can always hope... and write fanfiction. Lots and lots of fanfiction.

[bigskydreaming]

Bit of a vent post, bit of a housekeeping post, bit of a 'so that's what's been happening in Kalen-land' post:

So I have officially done everything that can be done to prepare for our relocation to a different site while they do construction on this one for the next year, which should be....any day now. Since it was originally supposed to happen on October 2nd, lol. Oh, bureaucracy.

If I wrote a memoir of the last two years specifically, 'Oh, Bureaucracy' would be the title, actually. So obviously its no secret that Moukie & I have been struggling for a long time, even after my surgery back in December 2021. But pretty much all of that has to do with our struggles to hack through bureaucracy to secure some actual stability and longterm living situation, since....oh, January 2022. We've finally secured a five year lease to stay in this place (with the exception of the next year, at a different site during construction, as I mentioned), but like....we only JUST got that agreement officially in writing, signed & notarized & all that...last week.

After being told it was basically a done deal but they couldn't finalize anything or put anything in writing until the building sold and the property changed hands and one city service took over oversight of this particular property from another one....pretty much every month since November of last year. They changed dates and timelines on us so many times it was like every three week we'd have a completely new timeline we were looking at for when we could expect to have everything finalized or for the relocation to happen, etc. Most recently, we were told with complete certainty that everyone HAD to be out October 2nd, that construction would be starting immediately after that, nobody would be allowed to stay in the building.

October 31st, and we're still here, lol.

So that's been a fun non-stop rollercoaster ride of stress, lol. The problem, of course, is that before my surgery (12/2021), I'd quite literally been homeless for at least the five years prior to that. Fortunately I never quite made it to the point of having to sleep outside, though there were plenty of times it got close, and spent most of that time living out of cheap motels & extended stay housing while working towards getting enough money together for my surgery, but as far as any landlord or potential renter is concerned, I was for all intents & purposes homeless during that time, and that's....not great when trying to secure housing in the middle of a pandemic right after basically starting your life over from scratch after the surgery to fix the problem that basically derailed your entire life, lol. Not to mention my credit score was practically nonexistent, all my credit cards were maxed out to pay for the surgery & insurance, my driver's license had been expired for years due to not being even able to drive while I had my issues w/my jaw & everything related to that, and getting it back was easier said than done because I'd had like, two unpaid parking tickets at the time of my medical issues beginning & they kinda completely dropped out of sight, out of mind, only to multiply w/fees that were fucking ridiculous to contemplate & going down to the DMV or traffic court to try and argue them down, while my medical issues were still ongoing, was a nonstarter due to how little travel I was capable of in that state....

LOL. Not a great starting point when rebooting for Kalen 2.0 - and of course I'm not going to get into why we had to use my ID & everything for renting & all that, instead of Moukie's, just trust that there were Reasons.

And of course there are programs to help people out with these kinds of circumstances, which is basically what we've been doing since January 2022....navigating that labyrinth of red tape, because actually ACCESSING those programs, proving eligibility, meeting all requirements, keeping consistent with all requirements throughout the months of waiting on a verdict from higher-ups your file's been passed up the chain to....MUCH easier said than done. The hoops are just. The stuff of legends. Especially when you're still having trouble consistently staying stocked on the meds you need to be productive & functional, or even just keeping your phone active. Oof. All of that was very Not Fun.

Which segues into a bit of that venting I was talking about, because over & over the past couple years we've had well-meaning (and not so well-meaning & largely just obnoxious) people asking us in response to our donation posts like, well why don't we just move to a cheaper city? LOL. I just. I wish people would stop to think that maybe if there's such an obvious solution that someone hasn't availed themselves to yet, there's probably a REASON for that.

We actually had several. For starters, there's the fact that I still have stuff related to my jaw to deal with....I still have no teeth, lol, and haven't really been able to even START getting the bone grafts I need to be able to get implants at some point, so I'm not stuck with dentures for the next fifty years....and it took me literal years to find dentists familiar with my situation, willing to work with me on payment plans & longterm strategizing, etc.....not that easy to just start over with all of that in another, smaller city. Not to mention if I do have any problems with my prosthetic, LA's one of the only places that has ANY surgeons that deal with this specific kind of jaw replacement surgery, so I'd always have to come back here for any further medical related stuff.

But then there's additionally the fact that all those programs meant to help people like us who are literally trying to restart their lives after medical issues, homelessness, etc.....they're pretty much all specific to their own city. They're all contingent on each individual city's resources, services, populations and a million other details.....so moving to a different city basically means having to start all over again with applying to THAT city's housing aid programs & navigating THAT city's bureaucracy from its beginning & forfeiting however much time or progress you've put in already in the city you're currently in. And frankly, most cities don't HAVE as good of aid programs as LA does....its just...it takes fucking forever to actually make full USE of such programs, as evident from the fact that after almost two years, we're only FINALLY to the point where one of those programs has been able to actionably help us secure longterm housing.

(And also there's the fact that when we don't even have enough money for groceries, how cheap do people thinking picking up and moving to another city actually IS? Like. You need starter money to even GET there & get on your feet or you wind up in an even worse situation than we were in).

But honestly, we didn't have it so bad, we have been able to stay housed & working various odd jobs for the past two years....its just been long, and stressful, never actually knowing when or even IF we'd get to the point where we stopped worrying about being kicked out at any given moment, and there were times that looking for housing or trying to deal with bureaucratic red tape was the equivalent of a full time job, in terms of hours required.

All of which is to say....be aware when assuming the worst of various donation posts & their posters, that except in the case of actual scammers, no matter what you may think of how a particular donation request was worded or described their situation, its almost always VASTLY more complicated than can be summed up in a couple of easy to read paragraphs that might actually get people to help. I promise you, if super obvious solutions seem evident to you, they've occurred to the people living with that situation 24/7, and there's a reason that they haven't tried that solution or maybe they even did & for whatever reason it didn't actually work out.

And that said, all of this is also to say just....thank you again for everyone who's helped us out over the years. I know it often seems unending or like we're never getting our acts together, lol, but trust me, it feels that way to us too, times a million, and like....we're working on it. Its just. Much easier said than done. For every hurdle cleared, there's usually another one waiting to pop up like a fucking whack-a-mole game from Hell. Since January 2022 we've been consistently working towards a longterm, stable housing situation and this is it, this is what we were working towards.....we've been fully approved for relocation to the other site for the next year & then returning to this one after construction/renovation, w/a lease agreement for the next five years.....and that's the dream, honestly.

Genuine stability, not having to worry about whether we'll have to move at any given moment, actual housing security....allowing us to FINALLY focus on building our lives back up, instead of constantly grinding just to keep a roof over our head & make sure nobody's about to kick us out....and having the room to breathe & for the first time in literal years (in my case, almost seven at this point) actually prioritize something OTHER than figuring out where we stand on paperwork, filing, tracking down various liaisons to bug them yet again about an accurate timeline for when we'd be notified of whether or not we'd been approved for this program or that one, when we'd actually be relocating, when we had to make x payment by to ensure we didn't lose our qualified status, etc.

And I, for one, definitely can not WAIT to give more of a shit about the absolute stupidest shit imaginable instead of like....warily checking the hall to see if new eviction notices popped up overnight. LMAO.

Anyway. Like I said, we finally have our agreement in writing, we know where we're relocating to, and as soon as that actually happens - which they keep insisting should be any day now, sigh - we'll finally be in a much better place. As part of the relocation program we landed in, our rent at the other site is covered during the year this site is under construction, so already just from that alone we'll be much better off financially.

Moukie's been sending around a donation post this month, and we'll probably keep it circulating up until the day the movers arrive and they finally pull the trigger on us leaving this site, because for the last three months they've been insisting that October 2nd was absolutely going to be our last day here, and we planned around that timetable....meaning that since October 2nd came and went with us still here, our only jobs at the moment are whatever freelance ones we can scrounge up, since the new place is far enough away a commute to & from a workplace around HERE wouldn't be viable, so I can't even go look for a new one to replace the last one until we're actually in the area we'll be spending next year in, lol. So in the meanwhile we've basically been surviving off donations since freelance work is painfully dry at the moment, and as it is, the company Moukie does editing work for still hasn't paid them for their last job yet, which was back in September, I believe? Its ridiculous, but it is what it is.

So yeah, we'll keep that post circulating a bit longer til we're out of here for good, basically just for food money until we're settled in the new place & can grab a new 9-5 and I would say something about that damn patreon I'm always claiming I'll make except I am a Proven Liar Not To Be Trusted On That Subject at this point, but hey, once we're in the new place, maybe that will finally change.

That's basically everything I set out to ramble about, I think, so....I'm done. Wait. Lemme check - yeah, no, that's it, I'm good. I've said it before but it'll never stop being true: we would not have survived if it weren't for the kindness of strangers & the help of mutuals & followers & we really are so much more appreciative of it than I can ever adequately express. I know that can come across as lip service, but genuinely, people here have done more for us and to help us and to see us succeed than our families ever did and we've been reduced to ugly-crying more than once as a result. Its gotten bad, guys. Like. When I go all out, it's not a pretty sight. I've got that pale Irish skin that gets all splotchy when I'm emotional, my nose gets all stopped up, I make scrunchy faces like a baby that KNOWS its not as pretty as its parents keep trying to pretend and is out to prove it....its a whole mess.

And on that note - and imagery - I'm officially done here. Thanks for reading!

[golbrocklovely]

Sam and Colby going to Jake’s party made me think that maybe when things got bad between them , it was more Snc and Corey being on worse terms and having some fight and Jake just sticking to Corey , because he was always closer to him? Idk. Because Snc are bad at cutting bad people out from their life, but I doubt that they would forgive Jake if he would really did something really really bad for them. Even Colby wouldn’t I think … idk… just thinking.

Bit honestly I hope they will never reunite with Corey and for fuck sake i beg you never Elton. I can tolerate Jake… but not those two

i always believed that whatever happened between snc and jake was just petty, dumb shit and that nothing truly serious happened. but i figured whatever did happen caused them to need a break from one another.

this is my guess about all of it (so obviously take it with a grain of salt):

i think when jake and corey moved in with snc, they thought things would be like it was in the old trap house. however, snc weren't gonna let them go buckwild crazy bc now this was a house that they owned, not rented. i think once snc went from roommates to landlords (in a way), that started the riff in the friendship. we also gotta remember that it wasn't just them splitting off, jake/corey and snc, it was also the entire friendgroup. slowly but surely, everyone stopped being friends for some reason. my personal guess is that once snc stopped making the content they used to make ie the paranormal content with jake and corey, mix that with the pandemic and not seeing one another, i think that caused everyone to reevaluate their friendships. mike had his issues with some of the friends, kevin ventured off too, aryia moved, most moved onto knj's friendgroup, ect ect.

and you could tell things were changing or had changed. by kat's bday of 2020, not everyone was showing up. and then definitely by sam's, no one came over. i also believe that snc changing up their content made some of their friends jump ship. i think some of their friends didn't believe that snc would be succeeding if they changed their format, and if snc don't succeed, neither do their friends since so many of them at the time relied on snc's clout.

by 2021, things changed a lot. i think by that point, jake had alluded to wanting to move out and have his own place so that he could be loud and obnoxious without it being an issue (which is what seemed to be a problem in the house for some reason that he never explained). so he moved out. and then corey followed suit not long after that.

now with corey, i think he had plans to move out eventually, but i think snc not doing paranormal content and moving on to other things pushed his hand. corey barely made his own content around this time. realistically, he relied on snc and their constant posting to give him any attention since he couldn't keep up or bother to post his own content often enough. and once snc stopped doing haunted stuff, i think corey knew he had to jump ship and find someone else to lean on. and that's where elton comes in at.

ppl forget that there was a period of time that elton didn't want to do tfil. back in late 2018/early 2019, he stopped tfil. he literally ended it and said that he wanted to make documentaries. he made one or two and no one cared about them, which is why he came back out with tfil and did those trips with snc, corey, and andrea. elton lost the love he had for his own brand and only brought it back bc he had no other options.

elton had done paranormal stuff before on his other, personal channel (which is now the overnight channel). granted, a lot of them were faked or had edits in them to make the content more interesting, but he did do that stuff prior to snc doing it. while elton moved onto paranormal stuff, snc switched to 25x25, which elton saw as a copycat to tfil - even tho it never was.

corey had to move on with elton, not only bc from he said he wanted to make music and get back into dancing (which… how's that going for you) but bc elton was doing the one thing that brought corey attention: paranormal content. ppl knew corey for the paranormal content he made with snc, so jumping onto someone else's brand that was paranormal related worked for him.

and things only escalated once snc went back to paranormal investigating when 25x25 didn't work out like they hoped.

i think jake and corey were very close since they became friends, and it only made sense that once they moved out and kinda pretended snc didn't exist (for one reason or another) to rely on each other. but again, i don't think jake ever really had a deep issue with snc. maybe in the beginning when he first moved out, but i say after a couple months he probably was fine with them again. plus, friendships go thru ebbs and flows all the time.

as for corey and snc….. that friendship will probably never be fully mended. i think corey only sided with elton in the beginning bc he had to. but by this point, i think he's equally lost in the sauce as much as elton. they both love to think that snc stole ideas from tfil/elton when that just didn't happen. and now they're in a race with snc when they aren't even in the same game as them lol

i don't see elton or corey ever really being friends with snc again, or vice versa. if they do become friends, there's gonna need to be a LOT of talking to get thru all the bs that occurred.

also… snc are gonna have to deal with half the fandom hating elton for forever sksksk

[smokingtiger]

I really liked your post about shipping and I feel the same. I was on twitter the other day and a Jikook account posted that in 2020, dispatch wanted to reveal Jikook’s relationship. And when I asked them to give me the link to that article, they told to look for it myself. I made a little research myself because I was curious. I asked my mutual army and he told me that in 2020, dispatch posted that “two members in the same group were dating, and this group is well known”. They didn’t specify wether the group was bts or if the members were Jikook. This showed me how these shippers just change everything to fit their own narrative. Taekookers always claim that dispatch knows about Taekook but won’t reveal because the company pays for their silence. I don’t get how these people think. In JK’s recent Vlive, someone was heard talking in the background, and Taekookers claimed it was Tae, while Jikookers claimed it was Jk. It’s always a battle between these two ships. They made the fandom toxic.

I know what you're talking about, at least regarding the Dispatch couple reveal. I don't know if it was 2020, I think it might've been a little earlier, but yes, back in the day on K-pop twt we all heard about this announcement but it never came. Back then many people had theories, some believing that whoever it was, their company had most likely paid off Dispatch in hopes of keeping this relationship under wraps.

Now what I find to be a more interesting part about this 'Jikook' theory is that there was a 'leaked' Dispatch couple list screenshot, which revealed the names 전정국 & 박지민 among a list of other actual confirmed and genuine celebrity relationships. I see this screenshot all the time, whether it be on Tumblr, Twitter, TikTok, etc... This screenshot is often used as confirmation material. However, as someone who was very active on Twitter during that time, I had never seen this screenshot prior to late 2021 (and I'm a 2015 ARMY), so my only question is, where did this screenshot come from?

I think the problem with a lot of ship discourse on this platform is that people usually quote what they've heard in a shipping echo chamber. People are willing to believe this screenshot, but not one person can really cite where it actually came from. Like, have you guys been on Pinterest? BTS fans are scarily good at editing, what makes you think that they won't edit something like this too?

"It came from Dispatch!" Okay. "It came from a well-known leaker!" Do you guys... have the link to this leaker? How do you know that they're actually authentic?

Who knows, maybe I'm wrong, but if any Jikooker reads this and knows, please send me the legitimate source of this screenshot -- the true 'patient zero' of this Dispatch debacle.

With the whole Jungkook Sleeping Weverse live, I've seen people pick apart the audio like you said, and half the time it's literal white noise. I feel like some of these people are clawing at their wallpaper like "THE VOICES! THE FUCKING VOICES!". For all we know, that could be a fucking mouse or something scurrying about and you just called it Taehyung.

Jungkook's other most recent live, where he goes out of the frame and starts talking to himself -- at least that one has legitimate audio. The first translation (Getting Bam bc Jimin left) that circulated around has been proven to be horseshit by other Korean translators, but some other translations, such as Jungkook talking about his light, moving his luggage, or Jimin possibly moving the light, have a little more veracity to them. Nothing has been confirmed and not even Korean translators (Jikookers or not) can agree on any particular translation -- and they shouldn't have to! Like this is Jungkook literally mumbling to himself, like, who gives a fuck what he says under his breath?

I have always stated that I have no problem with people having their speculations or finding certain pairings cute, hell, I even have an ask post in the defense of creative shipping (which I know some might find to be a bit controversial, but to each their own, no one needs to agree with me) -- but this, this isn't evidence. This is picking at crumbs and attempting to make a six-course meal out of it.

It's sort of funny, my first post on this platform (other than a reblog) was about shipping, and yet the problem is so persistent on this website like a fucking tumor that I just have to make more. How sad is it that I had to tell people to stop being nitpicky during FESTA?

I'm just tired of these people pulling things out of thin air. Half of the shit that taekookers and jikookers argue about... never happened. But since it's all about community, they feed on and regurgitate the same false information over and over. Like if you think something is real, stick to instances that ACTUALLY happened with objective truths. I'm talking about stuff like Jikook said this (and it's confirmed and said in an interview with written or video evidence) so based off of the context it just seems sort of sus but I can't say it makes them real 100% and not like Taekook is real because this is how Taehyung feels and I just know he feels that way because look at his EYES! He hates BigHit and everyone in it because they are trying to keep him from his baby! Company cuts are to stop their love from thriving!

Lunatics.

Tumblr definitely has a problem with shippers more than every other platform that I've been on. It's sort of nice that a user can curate their own content, but they also can't properly filter out or avoid the crazies that infest the website. Instagram is nearly on the same level, but to be fair, it's a bunch of fourteen-year-olds who still can't differentiate a hickey from a pressure mark left by a bag or by a member's own hand. Also, a bunch of people on IG still subscribe to bullshit theories by Taekook-lives (my sworn enemy atp), and I could talk for hours about how harmful they are to both Taekook and BTS themselves. Hell, they accused Jungkook of lying on his fucking birthday, and also they constantly misrepresent and abuse the Korean culture and language for views. Definitely gross.

But yes, toxic shipping has been around forever, and we finally got to see some shippers scramble with the Paris incident. Whether or not that event was real or staged (who gives a fuck), it was scary to see how conspiracies formed over night to try to dismiss any evidence that might prove the contrary. I have a few posts and asks over Taennie as well where I sort of discuss my thoughts and feeling about shippers and fans, not really about the alleged relationship itself.

Jikookers on Taennie | Speculative Pros & Cons | Privacy

But thanks for stopping by anon... it's nice to know we're not alone in this crazy, crazy world.

[mariacallous]

Late last week, on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula, a concerning sequence of earthquakes suddenly turned into a full-blown volcanic crisis. A burst of intense and frequent seismic shaking, accompanied by a convulsing crust, suggested that a huge volume of magma was rapidly burrowing its way toward Svartsengi, the site of a major geothermal power plant and, close by, the coastal town of Grindavík, home to 3,500 people.

The region now nervously sits atop a vast sheet of magma simmering just half a mile belowground. At some point, likely within the coming days, it will probably erupt somewhere along a 10-mile-long line stretching from northeast of the town to a little ways out to sea. The two big questions, exactly where the eruption will get started and how severe it will be, are impossible to answer. But scientists watching the area closely have other questions, too: How did these eruptions go from safe spectacle to a potentially town-smothering danger? And why, after so much recent and violent movement, is the magma now just sitting there?

In some ways, this is exactly what magma here is expected to do. “This activity is very much in line with much Icelandic volcanism,” says Mike Burton, a volcanologist at the University of Manchester. “But the specifics of each crisis are always unique.” And much of the problem this time around has to do with the location this batch of magma has decided to camp in—and why it’s never obvious where an eruption on the peninsula may occur.

When people usually think of eruptions, they picture a mountain-shaped edifice with lava exploding out of a central vent at the summit or bleeding out of its flanks. Iceland does have those sorts of volcanoes, but the Reykjanes Peninsula also specializes in fissure-style eruptions: cracks in the ground that open, often with little warning, when magma below forces its way to the surface.

Magma cracking through the crust creates specific types of earthquakes, and along with the changing shape of the ground you can broadly track where this magma is going and how much magma is involved. But when molten rock reaches the uppermost section of the crust, it can very easily push those rocks aside—and the seismic activity often drops off just prior to an eruption commencing somewhere in the area.

“In the preceding Fagradalsfjall eruptions, we had a pause in the earthquakes some days before the eruption started. Just based on that, I would expect the same, but of course that's not a guarantee,” says Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a volcanologist at the University of Leeds.

That makes it extremely difficult to know in advance precisely where the next fissure will appear. Fortunately, the seismic storm that has rocked the peninsula in recent days has indicated that it is probably going to emerge within or somewhere very close to Grindavík, a vital clue that ultimately allowed authorities to get people out of harm’s way before any lava saw the sky.

Curiously, the peninsula’s past three eruptions (in 2021, 2022, and this summer) all emerged from closely spaced fissures near to the isolated Fagradalsfjall mountain. These outpourings filled up uninhabited valleys with crimson and tangerine rivers of molten rock and were often watched by curious onlookers from the surrounding hills, poked at by scientists, and celebrated by Icelanders as a showcase of their geologically dynamic country’s natural splendor.

But earlier this month, scientists tracked what appeared to be a huge volume of magma gathering below the Svartsengi area. It quickly rose toward the town of Grindavík last Friday night, stopping just shy of the surface and consequently prompting the town’s swift evacuation.

Even knowing that the next eruption could happen in one of several places on the peninsula, including somewhere a little closer to urban infrastructure, this development still shocked scientists. “The extension of the seismic activity under the town of Grindavík and the shallow waters south of the town did come as a surprise, simply because previous volcanic fissures have not extended so far southwest,” says Þorvaldur Þórðarson, a volcanologist at the University of Iceland.

Why the sudden shift? Scientists suspect that the 2021 eruption kicked off a decades-long period of fissure eruptions across the peninsula; something similar happened 800 years prior. This possible fourth eruption is certainly part of that new era. But it isn’t clear how the magmatism at Fagradalsfjall and Svartsengi are connected. These are not clearly segregated volcanoes, but rather volcanic networks with poorly defined boundaries.

“Some have thoughts that the systems are linked at depth,” says Edward Marshall, a geochemist at the University of Iceland—either directly, with magma flowing between the two subterranean mazes, or indirectly, where they trade pressure. But any geologic connection between Fagradalsfjall and Svartsengi is tenuous at best, making understanding why magma ascends at the former several times, then switches to the latter, a tall order.

This investigative effort is further complicated by the current crisis’s additional idiosyncrasies. Over the past few years, Thorbjörn—a volcanic mound close to the Svartsengi geothermal power station and Grindavík—has occasionally inflated, perhaps due to the movement of magma somewhere below, but this has always ended without incident. The events of the past week “certainly mark a break in that pattern,” says Tom Winder, a volcano seismologist at the University of Cambridge.

Initial estimates hint that the amount of magma involved is more substantial than the peninsula’s past three eruptions, and it also flowed into the Svartsengi area at an astonishing speed. “Why the magma inflow rate appears to be so much higher this time, and indeed where it was sourced from, remains an important open question,” says Winder. Considering the seemingly hefty volume of magma, the potential for a long-lived eruption, or an otherwise very prolific eruption of lava, is high—but paradoxically, as with many eruptions, it could be that only a fraction of that molten rock sees daylight.

That the magma hurriedly rose toward Grindavík late last week, then paused just beneath its now-empty streets, has engendered both curiosity and anxiety. The reasons for this interlude are not quite clear. During the 2021 eruption, there was a three-week gap between the magmatic curtain invading the shallow subsurface and the emergence of the eruption itself. The same may transpire this time. Or it may erupt after you finish reading this article—there is no surefire way to know.

That there will even be an eruption isn’t certain. Presently, based on the proximity of the magma to the surface and the constant seismic rumbling, Iceland’s Meteorological Office suspects that there is a very high likelihood of an eruption, somewhere along that 10-mile-long line of deformed and quaking ground, in the coming days. But there is nevertheless a small chance that the magma cannot find an escape route and remains belowground for the foreseeable future.

Forecasting the nature, timing, and—in this case—location of upcoming volcanic eruptions are exercises in reducing uncertainty. Volcanology, as a research field, has made huge scientific and technological leaps in recent decades, giving researchers an unprecedented level of understanding of the nature of Earth’s magmatic depths.

But just think about weather forecasts. Weather is something scientists can directly sample, observe, and study, and forecasts a few days into the future can be very accurate. But the weather in several weeks’ time cannot be accurately predicted. Volcanologists have to deal with something that, until it erupts, is out of sight—so, for now, forecasting the style, onset, and duration of the next Icelandic eruption is exceedingly difficult.

The peninsula, though, isn’t helpless. The two things Iceland’s scientists and emergency responders needed to do—monitor the magma around the clock while using that data to make sure harm to life and property is minimized—are being efficiently acted upon. The residents of Grindavík are being kept away from the volcanic risk, and a protective wall is being constructed around the Svartsengi geothermal plant to redirect any incoming lava.

Whenever and wherever the outburst in this region begins—if it happens at all—the events of the past week have “brought home how fortunate we have been over the past three years,” says Winder. Sadly, it seems it was only a matter of time before this new eruptive era turned from a delight into a plight.

[limelocked]

the more i read about the 2006 palestinian elections via wiki page rabbit holes the more i think the language surrounding it is so EXTREMLY weird considering where we are now with a divided palestinian government where theres not been legislative or presidential elections for soon 18 years even tho the attempt has been made at Least twice and has been embraced by both hamas and fatah in 2021 only for the scheduled election in may the same year to be suspended indefinitely by soon 18 year president abbas whos term was supposed to end 2009

from what im reading hamas and fatah got a ye old american split in 2006 where hamas got 44% of votes and fatah 41% which was a shock for israel and usa who favored fatah, this in itself would have not been a problem if not for

SURPRISE! PEOPLE GETTING INVOLVED THAT HAVE NO RIGHT GETTING INVOLVED!

the quartet on the middle east is a group of the usa, russia, the un, and the eu which for some reason was in charge of mediating between israel and palestine (please observe the usa bush administration in the room with us as well as the marked lack of middle eastern representation within the mediating parties)

the quartet said that the election was free and fair but

where youd fucking think it was the non-violence part that hamas had problems with or the recognizing israel part and maybe it was but im reading the wiki page for the Road Map of peace which is what this is talking about and good fucking god dude its so bad but if you insist on not reading the article which you should its terrible just know that famous war criminal george bush of 9/11 fame and a hardline israeli president (who as defense minister was found by an official israeli enquiry to bear personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre) was calling a lot of the shots and being dicks about how palestines parliament should look like and who should get to do all the violence (israel, against palestinians)

so yeah the quartet was kinda asking for a lot and hamas which had branded itself on reform and change to the at the time kinda pathetic government (re: Road Map from 2000-2004 holy shit) said we're not gonna do all that to which fatah said well then were not forming a unity government to which hamas went well were gonna form a government anyways and they did which was followed by a year of tension and conflict between hamas and fatah, international sanctions levied against the palestinian government, and the blockade of gaza (which hamas had not yet taken over)

in 2007 a unity government was created. according to leaked documents authenticated by the guardian and published together with al jazeera; abbas and the PLO conspired to form this government and if it didnt meet the quartets conditions abbas would dissolve government and set up an emergency government, which happened when hamas allied forced and fatah allied forces clashed in gaza, believed by IISS to have started over suspicion by hamas that the fatah allied presidential guard (loyal to abbas and expanded by the us) was going to take over gaza

concluding statements: the way the media talks about this time is either that gaza exclusively voted for hamas without mentioning that hamas won the majority in all of occupied palestine, or its talked about as a coup done for shits and giggles with no contributing factors. whats almost never talked about is the external involvements prior to and after the election

abbas has the constitutional power to call an election as the president, he could just do it still, thats a thing he could do

[jaywritesrps]

I saw this post on L Chat and I wanted to share here cause it was very accurate. I am going to cut some parts too invasive, but the rest is a good point:

"Okay, can you all chill a little about Sophia and Ashlyn? We know nothing more than what we know already, and there's too much here that is just stuff people create in their heads and others believe for nothing. Many of the info you are spreading we will never know if it's true or not cause it's not our damn business.

About Sophia's lovelife, herself and her friends talked a couple of times about this subject. She said herself that she had two major flaws: she is too gullible (as in she can see the other person flaws, but she ignores it and chooses to focus on the person's positive traits rather in the negatives) and she is/was a people's pleaser, which makes her doing whatever it takes to fit in on the expectations on her (you can get these infos on her both podcasts and in her interviews. But if you don't feel like looking cause they are a lot, watch the interview she gave to Michael Rosembaum in 2021, which is one of the a few times she talks about CMM, and the one she gave to Jameela Jamil two months ago) Hilarie confirmed this in one of the early episodes of Drama queens when she told that one of the problems her and Sophia had in the first seasons of OTH was cause Hilarie said straight on her face what was going to happen in her relationship with Chad Michael Murray and Sophia got pissed at Hilarie for trying to warn her. Many fans pointed that pattern too at each new relationship she made public.

Now focusing only in her marriage with Grant, this happened with him too. Many fans pointed out that she seemed a lot more into him than he was into her. You could see she was putting too much effort and not getting the same in return. In Grant's defense, I think he was relief when she asked for the divorce, cause he was very quick to erase any sign of her existence or their marriage in his IG. Prior the rumors of her being with Ashlyn started, and even prior to Cannes, many of her likes from IG were about stopping letting people making you feel small and unwanted, or to stop letting other's define you or tell you how you should feel or invalidate your feelings. So the marriage was faded to die, Ashlyn was just the last drop.

With that being said, this relationship between them is far too new to anyone say anything yet or to determinate how their dynamics are or even if Sophia or Ashlyn are repeating their patterns.

So far, the solid things we have are:

1) they are a couple

2) they went to Rapinoe's retirement party as a couple

3) they went to Big Sur together

4) they did tattoos together

5) they are balancing schedules to spend time

6) Sophia looked happy in the events she went and in recent podcasts while Ashlyn is avoiding the drama from fans, that are fed by cryptic messages from Kyle Krieger, focusing on attacking solely Ashlyn (If you think about it, we didn't heard Ali's side of the story directly from her, cause the only thing she did was posting a vague message and let the internet helldogs create stuff. But she didn’t really said anything, which per se is weird overall)

7) it looks like it's a serious deal for them

Anything outside of these is pure speculation. We didn't even have one picture of them as a couple to try a guess of how they are, the only thing out is just posts on social media that is being taken out of context to stir more drama and people online are falling very quick in this non-sense, already claiming that Ashlyn is broken and Sophia is paying her bills, or that Ash is going to live in California with Sophia or that Ashlyn was fired from Gotham.... None of these are true and it's also none of our business. I know this is a forum and a place for conjectures, but conjecutures are just guesses, nothing more nothing less, they are not true and we can't know if they are because none of us have the big picture, and probably not even Sophia and Ashlyn have that figured out just yet. So chill out, okay"

[dogtoling]

your oc lore heavily revolves around krakening you say 👀?? I really enjoy your splatoon ocs and i remember peppermint has a kraken condition of some sort (btw she’s one of my favourites i love her :3), but I don’t know much about your lore for it besides the contents of the kraken special post. can you share anything further about it, or point me to any posts where you’ve talked about it before?

Thank you! it makes me really happy when people like seeing my OCs. And to be fair Peppermint seems to be the one I draw the most lately... her lore specifically centers around the Kraken a LOT. Honestly, as for stuff about it, I don't really have much more than the Kraken post out in public (everything lives rent free in my brain). This comic i started making the other day taking place in like 2021 is extremely relevant to this topic... it's going to have at least one continuation, and i find it funny that the kraken was revealed to be re-added to the game literally 1 day after i posted this

But the gist of it is that yeah Peppermint does have Kraken syndrome, which triggered in around 2014 - she'd been playing for like four years OBSESSIVELY and she was kind of insane about turf wars. Per my story, her main was the Krak-On Splat Roller (and later the Custom Range Blaster) but uh... canonically, we don't know ANYTHING about the turf war scene prior to 2015 and whether those weapons existed at all yet, so you have to use your imagination on that. (I WISH WE KNEW, BY THE WAY.) She was genuinely going to pursue becoming a professional ink battler, but obviously her body said otherwise because involuntarily Krakening because you got too stoked about the match or got a bit too heated about an enemy player is kind of bad. Like really bad on every possible level.

So needless to say, she had to quit very much to her dismay and it was a primary reason why the blue team (which Engel was also part of!) ended as a whole. Doctors were busting their ass trying to figure out what the hell was triggering the transformations and why it was so easy, given that the drug was probably fairly new at the time and she was likely one of the first people out there to have Kraken Syndrome (Krakening like 6 times a day will do that to you), at least two years before cases of it would start more commonly popping up.

She's had meds for it for years and they seem to work fine, so it's not really a problem for her (except in the mornings sometimes and if she like, forgets to take them.) but she did go like the entire Splatoon 2 era without attending turf wars pretty much at all just because she was really worried things were going to go south, and again, none of her teammates really play anymore. She returned to Turf Wars for the first time in forever last year sort of on impulse as her and Amber happened to land in Splatsville just in time for the Rock-Paper-Scissors Splatfest and decided hey, why not. (then proceeded to be on different teams, so never mind.)

Um, she's been using the Splat Roller lately and enjoying more of a support position instead of Kill Everything Immediately, but now her actual main is coming back, WITH THE KRAKEN... I don't think she's going to be taking up on that offer and I don't think she's super thrilled about it.

however, here's a bonus picture of her from like, 2018-2019? having a kraken moment in her house.

[dizzyduck44]

Daniel Ricciardo’s blessing is his curse 🍯🦡🇦🇺

Daniel is in his 14th season of Formula 1. He has had a long career in the highest tier of motorsport. However the questions that surrounded him at McLaren seem to have followed him to Visa CashApp FFS this is seriously what you called the team!

The thing is every driver seems to reach for the F1 seat, but Daniel’s seemingly lack of ability to adapt driving style is being compounded by the grid he currently drives on. You see, either competitively or for fun most of the drivers have had to adapt to a different style of driving. Some at a stupidly young age.

Let’s look into it

Max Verstappen - spends his days off driving any kind of race car Red Bull will let him. Seeing him take his Dad round the Nordschliefe says it all really.

Sergio Perez - drove just about every form of junior open wheel car on his way to F1.

Charles LeClerc - like Daniel seems to be all F1. Do we question he’d be a beast in a Ferrari sportscar though?

Carlos Sainz - again seems to be all F1 but remember Dad has a track on the family farm. He has been driving allsorts, on dirt, since he could sit in a car seat

Lewis Hamilton - never competitively but again over the year Mercedes has given him opportunities to drive all sorts of high powered sports cars for promotion. Even a superbike.

George Russell - says he tested a DTM car, again gets to play with the Merc sports cars

Lando Norris - went from karting to Ginetta then to open wheel. Add a go at the Daytona 500, all competitively. Embarrassed himself at the Race of Champions. Now seems to love ice karting (weirdo).

Oscar Piastri - another one straight through to F1, however only ever driven one F1 car but I don’t worry he wouldn’t adapt

Fernando Alonso - Nando has the full set right? F1, Indycar, WEC, Daytona, Dakar. Won Le Mans. Next!

Lance Stroll - has done a couple of races in IMSA.

Esteban Ocon - drove in DTM prior to F1

Pierre Gasly - drive in Formula E prior to F1

Alex Albon - has done a season of DTM

Logan Sargeant - straight through to F1. Again only driven one F1 car.

Kevin Magnussen - various stints in sportscar series throughout the years inbetween F1.

Nico Hulkenberg - Le Mans champion, Indycar test.

Yuki Tsunoda - straight through to F1. Only ever driven 1 F1 car.

Valtteri Bottas - ice rallying. Need I say more!

Zhou Guanyu - another open wheel all the way to F1. I’m gonna give him the credit of having driven the Renault a number of times before moving to Sauber.

So you see what Daniel is up against.

Not a winter break goes by when you don’t see half the grid in a go kart. Shout out to Lando and Fernando who seem to do it midseason and all the drivers who happily jump in for promotion days. (80% of the grid). One of the biggest shocks for me was when Daniel went karting with Jenson Button in 2021 and admitted he “hasn’t done this is years” 😬

So we are getting to the core of the problem. With a grid of drivers who turn their hand to anything, sometimes for a laugh, Daniel has never really pushed himself out of what he knows. And it’s biting him.

What is of further concern for him, is Liam Lawson is hovering (he should already be in a seat but I digress). A driver who went for F2 to DTM and nearly won the championship in the first season (I’m still bitter). Then into an F1 seat and was up to speed almost immediately.

The trouble is now it’s too late to throw him into a sportscar to give him the experience, because I’m not sure he would get back into F1. If Daniel thinks the Max and Lando’s were a handful to deal with, who needed a bit of maturing to hit their stride, the Oscar Piastri’s and Ollie Bearman’s of the world are terrifying.

Daniel needs to find the solution on his own. Before it eats away at his mental health and confidence. 6 laps in a NASCAR round COTA is not gonna cut it.

I think I know what’s happened and I and he are afraid to admit it. Ask Jenson Button about the point you sit behind the wheel and no longer want to take the risk or push the limit. I worry he has hit the mental block of I can’t learn another way and the idea of taking a high powered sportscar out terrifies him.

And who’s going to let him lose in the Red Bull if that is going on in his head?

Fingers crossed he shows up and shows out in Melbourne

[duckprintspress]

“Aim For The Heart” Creator Spotlight: Lucy K. R.

Today, as we inch toward the finish line on our crowdfunding campaign for Aim For The Heart: Queer Fanworks Inspired by Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers,” we have a modern setting alternate universe retelling from Lucy K. R.!

The Three Mic O’ Tears by Lucy K. R.

About the Author: Lucy K.R. (she/her) is technically in existence. Every time she is free, she writes. Sometimes when she is not free she also writes. This has occasionally created problems. She is fortunate to be supported (read: enabled) by her enthusiastic fiancée Tomo, a loving OG family, and a lively found family as well.

Eager for a change after a decade of waitressing, Lucy K.R. took the chance in March of 2021 to make her first steps into the world of published work. Prior to the success of the largely-fabricated German translation of the short-story found in this collection, ‘die Karaoke-Königinnen’, she was best known for her work on Mageling: Rise of the Ancient Ones and in the Duck Prints Press anthologies “And Seek (Not) to Alter Me” and “She Wears the Midnight Crown”.

In her stories, Lucy K. enjoys writing evil ideas as gently as possible, portrayed through unexpected lenses. She would like to acknowledge that she has never written a biographical statement that did not turn out weird, beg your indulgence, and express her hope that you enjoy her work in this anthology. The people at Duck Prints Press have been a delight, and she is deeply grateful to be included!

Links: Personal Website | Twitter

Story Teaser:

“The plan is to pay you back for the slight, not to ruin your life,” Ash agrees with such dead certainty that Dart feels a thrill of terror and excitement all jumbled up, merged into the same creature.

“You seem very sure you’ll win,” Dart offers, tilting her own head in return.

“Ooh,” Portia’s lips quirk into an even cheekier smile.

“Cute,” Artemis comments, appraising eyes still fixed on Dart.

“So, in order of offense?” Dart asks, feeling her inner performer awaken at their attention. “Ash first, then Portia, then Artemis?”

“You seem very sure you’ll make it to the last dance yourself,” Ash returns, even as Artemis strips off her jacket and neatly folds it, nodding her approval.

“I came here to sing karaoke,” Dart takes the opportunity to roll up her sleeves. “Nothing and no one is going to keep me off that stage.”

She’s never fought anyone before. She’s never had to. But she said it, and she meant it—nothing will keep her off that stage. She lifts her fists, only to be tutted at by Ash.

“Wrists straight, dear,” she says, lifting her one good arm in demonstration.

“Ah,” says Dart, and fixes her posture.

We’ve posted this and 18 other teasers at our campaign page, and shared a lot more info to boot, so if you’re looking for a fabulous anthology this summer, make sure you check it out!