#not better or worse just different

[bibliotheksbewohnerin]

Please tell me more about the cursed bread living in hell and surviving a kidnapping.

Okay so, Bernd das Brot is a very beloved German kids TV character. He's a white bread with short arms (quote: 'my arms are too short!'), he's got a deep, monotone voice, seems depressed, and is always caught in some sort of predicament he doesn't really want to be involved in. His favourite pastime is memorising the pattern of woodchip wallpaper.

Bernd first appeared in a show along with other (puppet) characters, but these days he's best know for the night-time loops on the childrens' TV channel KiKa, which run after the scheduled programming has stopped, after 8 p.m. I think? I remember the joy when my brother & I discovered this when we were on holiday and watching TV in a hotel room. Our TV at home switched from KiKa to Comedy Central in the night, but not this one - suddenly, boom, Bernd das Brot all night. It was glorious.

There are a few different loops that get switched out every few months, but a reoccuring theme is that there is an off-screen voice (supposed to be the producer, i think) that instructs Bernd to participarte in stuff, usually present different genres of TV shows, do ballet, etc., and Bernd tries to escape this TV studio that he is imprisoned in (which is really just a bright, timeless space), but when he runs out on one side he just reappears on the other. His personal hell.

My favourite loop is the one that parodies Star Trek, Star Wars and LARP / DnD.

The TV channel KiKa is located in Erfurt, and there are statues of the most popular characters all over town, so of course there's one of Bernd. (here seen with the blogger for scale)

The abduction story has a very serious background, just as a warning:

In 2009 (and I'm just summarising the wiki article here) he was abducted by squatters of the "Topf und Söhne" factory in Erfurt, who demanded the factory, which went out of use in 1994, to be turned into a memorial and the history to be researched & preserved instead of glossed over. During the Holocaust, 'Topf & Söhne' made crematoria for concentration camps Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald, amoung others. The whole area was due to be demolished and used to build real estate and apartment buildings.

Bernd turned up a few kilometers out of town unharmed, only 11 days after being abducted, the squatters unfortunately got evicted a few months later and the former factory was demolished immediately after. The only remaining building is the adiministrative building, which now houses a memorial & museum.

[yonghoonsleftnostril]

I think my favorite thing about being a multi fan is watching how the different fandoms perceive each other and perceive the treatment they get from artists.

Like not meant in a bad way at all. It's just funny hearing how different the expectations are from solo stans vs people who follow a lot.

Being a multi also makes it harder to be delulu. It's still fun to make the jokes with friends but when you get the same message (nearly copy/paste) from multiple idols on the daily it really makes it easy to remember that while it is a unique industry and there's a dual parasocial relationship not present elsewhere, for sure, but it's not as strong as some fans think.

[lesbianlotties]

one more sudoku will fix me im so sure

[chrxnicdaydream]

can we as a society please stop calling Dazai the “demon prodigy” like it’s canon??? IM BEGGING

his canon nickname is so underused too… i mean c’mon, the “black wraith of the Port Mafia??” idk if i’ve ever even seen it used in a fic 😭

[frownyalfred]

hello. I’m going to say it because apparently a lot of DC creators on TikTok won’t.

You’re a valid fan even if you don’t read the comics. 100%.

And you don’t owe anyone an explanation on what you choose and don’t choose to read from canon/fanon.

[fagidarity]

my last sin… is that i hate you.

i. hate. you.

[tofixtheshadows]

I see a lot of people headcanoning that Marcille and Kabru will become friends postcanon over a shared love of gossip, but to me the biggest thing they have in common is that they're both deeply concerned with the inequality between the races.

I think before anything else, as the two people closest to the throne, they'll probably end up banding together over their shared desire to fix the divide between the races. Marcille has to give up on her dream of magically changing humanity, but she can help Laios achieve it Kabru's way, through political and social change.

[bonefall]

Maybe I'll make a post on this at some point but like, something deeply fucked up about TNP and Po3 that people have totally forgotten about is how badly they try to whine that "Tigerstar Had Good Traits :("

Firestar does it, Brambleclaw does it, and they keep doing this after it becomes this GRAND irony that Firestar almost gets Tiger'd to death in a fox trap because he was too trusting. Bramble gets his pity award of keeping deputyship and then cries to his son about how No One Saw The Good In Tigerstar :(

And it's wiiiiild that no one else in this fandom has done anything with the fact that Leopardstar broke the Warrior Code to appoint Hawkfrost, who had no apprentice, an extremely aggressive and warmongering Tigerclone who says things like "Tigerstar wasn't the worst cat to look up to." ONLY qualifying trait was being kinda like Tigerstar.

And she practically did that the SECOND Mistyfoot went missing. And then Leopardstar continued to be one of the most violent and xenophobic leaders through Po3, joining with WindClan to attack ThunderClan.

What I'm getting at is that like, a few years ago, with books like "Blackfoot's Reckoning" and "Shadow in RiverClan" it's like they suddenly decided to retcon in a bunch of "redemption arcs" in hindsight. They just pretended like there was this grand high reckoning with TigerClan, when there literally wasn't, and if anything that caused SERIOUS problems for the cast that the authors didn't fully acknowledge as such.

And now ppl haven't actually read the main series and are just working with their recent memory of all these retcon books.

But TNP and PO3 are still there, and you can go and see the ACTUAL timeline where Leopardstar is really not apologetic at all, and Blackstar is a useful stooge for the very next wannabe dictator that strolls in, in spite of the new side content that COMPLETELY mischaracterized them for their plots to work.

[closetsof-backlogged-dreams]

give me a merlin that's more devoted to magic than to arthur. give me a merlin that is willing to put justice over arthur's well-being. give me a merlin that, instead of being obsessed with arthur and what he could do, who he could become, is obsessed with returning magic to camelot. give me a merlin that loved arthur, but not more than his destiny.

give me an arthur that loved his father more than anything. give me an arthur that believed in everything his father did. give me an arthur that would allow the oppression and genocide and discrimination because he believed it just. give me an arthur that loved merlin, but not more than his legacy.

give me an arthur that's a worse man.

give me a merlin that can't be devoted to a such a man.

give me a storyline where the "two sides of the same coin" may complete each other, may be able to slot their opposing shapes together perfectly, but can turn those jagged edges on one another just as easily.

give me an alternate timeline where merlin gives up on arthur.

give me an alternate timeline where arthur gives up on merlin.

give me an alternate story where they end the show having destroyed one another, because it was never going to be a happy ending for either of them. then arthur dies, and magic returns to camelot, and merlin, by the end, learns to be happier than he ever could have before.

(then give me arthur returning. give me them hating each other, but still forced to be around one another. give me them relearning those opposing shapes, those jagged edges, and once forced to slot them together again, relearning how to love each other a millennium and a half later. give me them being forced to resolve all the old feelings of betrayal and regret and turmoil without a battlefield splitting them down the middle. give me reparations, give me atonement. give me it all.)

[mostly-just-sasuke-blog]

yeah Itachi's story is tragic. You know what would have made it more tragic? Imagine if after killing his family he found out that the entire coup was a lie. That there never was coup. Can you imagine how he would feel if that happened?

That's what itachi did to Sasuke.

Like Itachi, Sasuke also had to live with the knowledge that he killed his family. Like Itachi, Sasuke was manipulated and pushed into a corner to do it. But at least Itachi didn't have to live with finding out everything was a lie. Not that Itachi could live with what he did. Itachi took the cowards way out and used Sasuke to die. And then he just expected Sasuke to live with it. Itachi really took his pain, doubled it, and handed it to Sasuke. And Sasuke, who thought he'd finally be free to live his life with Itachi gone, now found out that not only was he not free, he was left holding an even bigger burden for his family. And Sasuke didn't have a way out. There wasn't a convenient younger brother to pawn it off to. Not that sasuke would have ever done what Itachi did to him to someone else.

You can argue trying to provoke Naruto into killing him at the bridge fight is similar. But the whole reason Sasuke did it is because he doesn't believe Naruto and the rest of team 7 actually care about him or his family. A belief reinforced by the fact that 2 of the three actually were trying to kill him. Also different is that Sasuke really was ready to engage in a real fight, he wasn't just trying to manipulate Naruto and put on a show. Sasuke has more integrity than Itachi and Sasuke values free will. That's the difference between Itachi and Sasuke. Itachi was an ego-centric Machiavellian who doesn't see his own hypocrisy, and Sasuke is a really good, decent person put through the worst circumstances you can imagine who is trying to hold onto his humanity.

[colinfeatherington]

man I just keep thinking about it. why did colin have to ice her out after the wedding… I just feel so bad for penelope laying alone in that martial bed night after night after he seemingly forgave her for being whistledown and they get married and have such a beautiful dance and she thinks this is it, it’s resolved but he couldn’t accept her continuing to be whistledown so instead they live this silent strange life together for weeks and go to family functions together but not and they live these parallel lives instead of a life as a couple. I’m not saying colin doesn’t have a right to be upset or process his emotions but the method and timing and time it took… it’s hard to accept rn

[xysidhequeen]

Equilibrium

So the Dead on Main server caused me to spontaneously spawn an entire outline for an AU because I wanted a Dark Danny fic. So. Here's a snippet of what I'm working on.

It had started out subtly. The beginning of the end. 

The GIW had crept into Amity Park, buying up empty office buildings. Making themselves known. 'Researchers' they called themselves. 

They could always be seen whenever there was a ghost attack. Not running, not helping, not hindering. Just. Watching.

The first red flag that became obvious in hindsight was when they'd reached out to the Fentons. When Jack's long winded rants on ghosts didn't scare them away. When they started taking notes.

The second red flag was the government contract sent to the Fentons a week later. 

But still, the GIW didn't do anything. They bought up the empty buildings, filled them with strangers in white suits. Amity Park gradually learned to ignore them. They were harmless, some weird government branch that had an interest in ghosts. It wasn't interesting after months of idleness from them.

Amity Parkers lowered their guard, answered the seemingly innocuous questions posed to them. 'How long have ghosts been attacking?' 'Have you ever been injured by one?' 'Have you noticed anything strange?' They were simple questions, questions any Amity Park resident could easily answer. 

Eventually the GIW became another quirk of Amity. Something expected, normal even.

Then the 'clinics' started popping up. They were free to use, offering simple health care for any Amity Park resident. Common colds, ear infections, broken bones, vaccinations. You had to do a blood test to use them, but no one minded much when they were free. And injuries were so common with the ghost attacks. Ghosts never seemed to care about collateral, except Phantom. But he was the one ghost who protected them, so that was expected. 

Amity Park became welcoming to the GIW. Open to their questions, freely giving information. Even Phantom was willing to stop occasionally when a question was called out to him by one of the white suited men or women. 

Yet still, the government contract remained. The Fentons handing over blueprints of weapon after weapon, prototype designs shipped off. Research papers handed over by the box full.

The GIW presence increased slowly, over the months that became a year. Their clinics and offices multiplied. Empty buildings and shop fronts were bought as soon as they went on sale. Soon it wasn't uncommon to see a person in a white suit everywhere you went. 

No one ever noticed how they never employed Amity Park residents. How they never hired, how there was never a help wanted sign posted or an ad made to ask for workers. No one wanted to look that deep.

Willful ignorance was easier than admitting they'd been invaded.

So the Amity Parkers kept answering questions. Kept visiting the clinics with their doctors who often asked questions unrelated to the reason for visiting. 'Have you noticed yourself becoming stronger?' 'How much sleep do you need, on average?' 'Have your eyes ever glowed?' 'How long can you hold your breath?'. 

The clinics began offering more services, addressing more issues. All still for the small cost of a vial of blood. It became normal to visit a clinic rather than a doctor for anything. Flu? Clinic. Broken bone? Clinic. A nasty burn from an ecto-ray? Clinic. 

Some people started vanishing, but that wasn't unusual in a city. People ran away or died all the time. It wasn't many, really. Maybe a one or two a month. There was no pattern in the victims, so it was presumed they were unrelated. The cops were stumped. No one paid attention to the fact that every single one of the missing had visited a clinic days before they vanished. 

Then came the blackout. Or maybe it came sooner, it was so hard to tell when it started. When it became impossible for anyone in Amity Park to reach out to someone out of it. At first anyone who mentioned it was called crazy, conspiracy theorists. 

But soon it became more obvious. Friends or family out of the city could no longer find any Amity Park resident on social media. Couldn't even find a mention of the city existing anywhere on the internet. They blamed it on the ghosts at first. They did weird things to technology, it must be them. Right?

Then they stopped being able to call out. Cell phones would no longer make or receive calls from anyone who didn't have an Amity number. They started to get restless. 

Then came the roadblocks. Anyone trying to leave Amity found that all roads out were inexplicably blocked. Construction, they claimed. All the roads at once, yes. There had been earthquakes that destabilized the roads all around Amity. So they said. 

They had been trapped, and they never saw the jaws closing on them until it was too late. 

It didn't take long, once the revelation that they couldn't leave, couldn't call for help, spread. 

The military moved in, penning them inside their city. Checkpoints were placed at every road in or out of Amity. You could only leave if you were in the company of a soldier or a GIW operative. 

'Quarantined' they were told. Because of what they weren't told. Something highly contagious and dangerous was all they were given. Hospitals were taken over by men in white suits. Doctors and nurses were sent away, fired. New ones were shipped in, strangers. 

More people started going missing. They all knew who took them but they couldn't say it. Couldn't admit it. Didn't want to. 

Curfews were enforced. No one was allowed out after sundown, businesses had to shut down an hour before. No one was allowed out until dawn, schools were forced to start later. Anyone found breaking curfew was apprehended, sent to a holding facility. They weren't seen again. 

[dailyedgeworth]

today, i drew the ponyo!edgeworth in a bucket in medibang

[sysig]

A very normal scientist doing very normal gene splicing experiments (Patreon)

[comradekatara]

my greatest flaw is that i would lowkey ship sokka/azula if i wasn’t so convinced that azula is a lesbian. bc just think about it. they’re both these hyper logical calculating masterminds with debilitating perfectionist complexes to hide their perceived worthlessness, so they’re constantly achieving, and while they never feel any real joy in winning, they get actually suicidal the second they fail at anything. they think everyone who can’t keep up with them is some sort of idiot because they refuse to live in a world where they are in fact more intelligent than most people, including the adults around them. they love making the most insufferable puns you’ve ever heard and get offended if no one laughs. they have daddy issues and mommy issues. they share so many of the things they have wrong with them. so like. just imagine how amazingly awful they would be as a couple. they would indisputably make each other worse , but in the most disastrously entertaining way possible.

[zeb-z]

Arthur Bennett was chemically made in a lab for me to go insane over I think. he’s got a guilt only an older sibling could have and a drive for vengeance that is half driven by his own self hatred. yet still he strives for peace. he’s desperate to cling to any humanity, any hope. he’s aware he’s fallible. it doesn’t save him