#on account of his entire existence not being defined by an obsession with the guy who ruined his life lol

[sketching-shark]

U know wgat? I gotta give props to dyslite for making their swk and lemh as twins.

Bc their dynamics fits sm as this rather than in a romantic sense.

Plus! The lemh esper wants swk esper dead. Jusy like the jttw classic ;D

It is so bizarre that sm of swk history gets rewritten in western fandom in favor for lemh. And makes swk OR ANY OF HIS ACTUAL FRIENDS AND COWORKERS BE WORSE THAN THEY ACTUALLY ARE

The lemh favoritism irks me sm—like u completely rework this guy in order for u to like him. Thats no longer lemh—its the better swk who could do no wrong and is emo.

Hmmmm I'm going to actually have to look into what the deal with dyslite is one of these days because I've never played it and am still not sure what's going on there, but I'm glad people are appreciating the "twins who want to kill each other" relationship between the two from the og classic manifesting in other works. Cain and Abel in monkey form <3

[peakstories]

I’ve lurked on this blog long enough. Now I want to talk about my own story.

For context, I’m a bisexual teenage girl living in a very liberal city. I’ve had Tumblr since middle school and was on board entirely with the “LGBTQIAP” community. However, in the following years, I began questioning their rhetoric more and more. I failed to see queer theorists and liberal feminists be able to define pansexuality, how a medical condition such as intersex qualifies as being part of a community oppressed on the basis of same sex attraction, how queer is a slur, so on and so forth. So, my acronym shortened to LGBT. I wanted to include this portion because people do claim that “saying xyz isn’t part of the LGBT community is TERF rhetoric!” nowadays, and also to show how easily swayed my disposition was to the point where I could include titles with undefinable definitions.

Here’s where the T came in. Two people have medically transitioned in my high school, both males. One was an out and proud gay male for a while, only to transition while he was 16-17. He was known as just “the gay guy” by just about everyone, and his only friends were women. The other one is one I’ll talk more about in detail.

He’s an autogynephile. I initially was supportive of him, even going as far as to assist him in self medication when we were in school. However, more and more of what he said began to unnerve me. First off, he said he had sexual fantasies of being a transgender sex slave that would become a biological girl in the process of intercourse before transition. Another was that he claimed he dated his ex girlfriend post transition, only to break up because “she doesn’t like girls”. My brain struggled to reconcile how anything about him changed except for his vocal fry, hormonal balance, and wardrobe. If he was truly a woman all along like TRA me claimed, didn’t that mean she’s bisexual for dating him pre-transition and that rejecting him is prejudiced? There’s more skinwalking when it came to his identity, as he stole the current name he is going as from a girl he used to like, and outright admitted that he adapted his personality and mannerisms from another girl in our school (for context, she is very short, Asian, wore cute blouses/skirts, had a feminine voice, and a lot of boys liked her). He would ask his friends whether they saw similarities between him and her, and get excited when they said they could see the resemblance. If we were still in high school, I would tell her that nearly 3-4 years after contacting one another, this man is still trying to model himself after her. Skinwalking much? Some side notes are that he enjoys talking about lesbians, lesbian catgirls, and anime lesbian catgirls. When I confronted him about whether he was lesbian or not, he claimed that he’s bisexual but only liked one or two guys ever. Even TRA me was skeptical, having seen gay/lesbian history and experiences co opted by fellow bisexuals, but I let it slide on the basis of “maybe he’s just misguided.” When someone tells you who you are, believe them.

Initially, I discovered a radical feminist Twitter account and began reading, and I pieced everything together. Being East Asian, the transgender community has taken their cultural and racial fetish for Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Thai BL/GL content way too far. I admit, I have pangs of doubt that some of the stories I’m reading on here are fake or caricaturized when mentioning their lesbian porn & catgirl obsessions, but I know my own life & I have no doubt more of these men exist & form communities together. I just can’t believe that they are a legally protected class & that it’s gotten to this point. Entertain their delusions or get doxxed. The 40-50 something gender critical community on Reddit and Twitter don’t get how harrowing it is for young LGB people to have to sit through being lumped with a community that is destroying the definition of woman and all sex based protections that come with it.

[safflowerseason]

How many followers does Dan Egan have on insta and or twitter? Does he post selfies of just himself? What do the comments sections look like?

Oh god, I have no idea. Are we talking canon Dan or BMTL-Dan?

For BMTL-Dan, I have actually looked at the Pod Save America guys as a very loose comparison to the kind of career Dan might have…career political strategists who are still active in the field while also very clearly building their own media brands. Dan’s never going to be interested in activism the way the PSA team is, but he’s building up an independent media brand separate from BKD or whatever politician he’s working for at any given time, a public identity he can parlay into media/book-writing/boardmember gigs in the future. The PSA guys are all way more active on Twitter than Instagram, but I think Dan would value Instagram as a conduit to his stay-at-home housewife fanbase, where he can post more domestic pics that shamelessly play up his DILF status, as well as artsy behind-the-scenes pics of campaigns/running around the Hill/whatever BKD is doing. Twitter he uses for commentary and promotion (for both him and Amy) and dunking on Jonah. There are of course lots of fawning Instagram about how attractive he is, plus the usual intrusive questions, weird demands, wildly incorrect gossip tidbits…I also imagine Dan’s obsessive fangirls have divided into pro- and anti-Amy camps, as well: either they love Amy for her ambition and think she’s perfect for him, or she’s an evil manipulative work-obsessed bitch who just used Dan for his sperm. So there will always be comments excoriating her or supporting her. 

As for canon-Dan…this question is actually surprisingly hard to answer, because the show actually does not frame Dan as a person who is interested in social media as a tool for his own gain (personal or political). This is interesting considering that Dan’s bottomless vanity and his obsession with appearances as a conduit to power make him exactly the kind of person who would be very into social media. It certainly would have worked as a way to highlight Dan’s craven need for any kind of attention, as well as his god-given ability to create media narratives that appeal to the public, no matter how fake they actually are. As Selina’s deputy communications director and later working for CBS, social media is a big part of Dan’s job, and the show just…glosses over it, in both eras. 

In the Iannucci-era of the show, the demands of Dan’s job necessitate that he lives his life pretty online, even if he’s not necessarily posting about himself. (The same goes for Amy and Mike). I think we can safely infer that Dan probably has his own Twitter account, and he’s possibly running Selina’s VPOTUS Twitter before she becomes President, and we also know that he knows his way around Spotify. The show never mentions Instagram (I don’t think?), but I think it’s safe to assume Dan has one. Working for Selina, his profiles would have to be just as carefully coordinated as hers. He could only post (and like) things that supported her message and branding. Even if his accounts are not formally linked to Selina’s social media landscape, Iannucci Dan is much too image conscious to post anything that would get him or his boss into trouble. 

(Okay, this turned into a rant, so putting the rest of the essay under the cut)

Still, Iannucci-Dan never mentions anything pertaining to his own “brand”—while Dan is very ambitious and we know he possesses detailed career plans that exist in multiple phases that involve referring to himself in the third person, none of this ever translated over to social media. There’s no explicit sense that Dan is trying to develop this kind of “Dan Egan™️” brand that can stand alone no matter who he works for, or how many times he gets fired/“resigns.” Building up his social media brand would be exactly the kind of thing he should be doing in between jobs, but the show never indicates he does that. Instead, he’s trying to get into lobbying, a career in which social media isn’t really necessary—how many followers Dan has on Twitter have no bearing on how good he is at lobbying. I feel like this is something that might have changed about Dan’s character if the show premiered in 2017, instead of 2012, but also who knows. Iannucci-Dan is also the type of guy who is constanty trying to be trendy and cool and failing (“Deck’s a thing, right?”)…I don’t think it's a coincidence that of the two “younger” men on the show, Jonah’s the one starting his own web series or whatever.  

As for Mandel-era Dan, well…the fact that Mandel never even mentioned social media in relation to Dan defies all character logic, because his version of Dan would have been obsessed with his social media presence. Mandelian-Dan is clearly way interested in his brand—he tells Amy at the end of S5 that he wants to get an agent to launch “Dan Egan” properly. Moreover, Dan’s new job at CBS would have required regular posting on Twitter and Instagram, the careful curation of a sanitized celebrity image that would appeal to bored housewives in middle America. Social media is a huge part of that, and Mandel just totally skated over in favor of…plotlines about fake sexual harassment. 

But this overall speaks to Mandel’s weird blindspot about social media and the behavior of public figures. He looked at Twitter as a news platform, not a place where politics actually happens, where public opinion and discourse are shaped. And there’s no way Dan Egan, after two years at CBS and thus with a decent sized social media following of his own, can swan into an abortion clinic in Iowa, in the year 2019, with the top aide of an ex-president who is currently running in the primaries and not have anyone notice and post about it. It just flies in the face of reality. (To compare with a different politial universe, Josh Lyman in The West Wing totals a Prius at a car dealership in D.C and it blows up on the local blogs IN THE YEAR 2004.) This isn't even getting into the Amy of it all, and whatever limited attention she might command. Now, I don’t want to frame Dan as a major American celebrity who can’t walk the streets unbothered. He is distinctly not. Being a well-regarded communications strategist—or even a failed morning news host—is not the same as being a Clooney. But Dan undoubtedly operates in the public eye to a new degree after his CBS gig, and the fact that the show never explored that new dimension of his career is mind-boggling to me.

Of course, Sex-Psychopath Dan wouldn’t last two minutes on social media without an underage girl outing him as a predator, and obviously the power of Dan’s golden dick had to be highlighted first and foremost in S7, so I guess an entire paradigm-shifting dimension of modern politics had to be ignored. If I sound cranky and bitter, it is because I am. Mandel’s complete ignorance of social media, which defined Trump’s campaign (apparently a huge source of inspiration for S7) is in fact one of the most infurating parts of Veep’s final season to me, and I will never stop whining about it. 

Anyway, to wrap up my rant, I actually have no idea what canon-Dan might get up to on social media, because the show actually does not indicate that Dan is a social-media user beyond whatever is required for his job. Mandel-Dan would just post selfies, for sure. Iannucci-Dan would understand that building a political brand is not like building an influencing brand, and would probably do a lot more “behind-the-scenes” posting, with the very occasional selfie (and occasional glimpse of Amy, presumably). Since social media features so prominently in @thebookofmaev’s most recent fic, I imagine she might also have some thoughts on this topic!

[filthyjanuary]

7-12 and 16-20 for the asks!

7. What do you dislike about your favourite season?

i think season 2 is the best, but as i’ve said before, my favourite is 4 solely because the first few eps i watched were from s4. i think season 4 is very solid and even though it’s a season that HURTS BAD because of everything happening between sam and dean, i think the show earns the conflict for the most part. the literal only thing that still haunts me is that the STUPID VOICEMAIL THAT GETS ALTERED IS NEVER ADDRESSED. like i hate more than anything that sam still thinks dean said those things. like i know jared’s said that sam knows dean loves him but i don’t care!!! sam /and/ dean deserve to know the voicemail was changed.

OH also literally everything with anna milton. she deserved better <3 sorry the fridged you and gave part of your arc to a man, queen.

also sam and dean should’ve found out cas let sam out of the panic room.

8. Thoughts on Sam’s demon blood arc

i love sam’s demon blood arc. his hot girl summer! in all seriousness, it makes perfect sense. mystery spot sets it up that sam goes dark when he doesn’t have dean, and s4 is the natural progression of that. i love sam being hellbent on revenge, and the blood drinking was hot sorry not sorry. like obviously the end result wasn’t stellar and the handling of the demon blood as an addiction was handled rather shittily in the show, but overall this arc is near and dear to me and if i couldn’t have the boy king, i’m glad i got this instead. and it brings up some really interesting concepts that get explored really well in fic.

9. Thoughts on the Moc arc

i hate this arc mostly because like dean was terrible...which makes sense, but even after the mark was gone it’s like... he never /really/ pulls himself out of that place. it also just dragged on for FAR too long. like it didn’t need to be like 30 episodes or however long. i do like that it gave us demon!dean being like sexythreatening, and that scene of sam cradling dean’s face and begging him to tell him that he had to kill all those people and just the general sam is dean’s colette of it all. also the end of s10 with sam on his knees and dean telling him to close his eyes is deeply fucked up and i love it for that reason and obviously that happened bc of the MOC storyline.

10. Fave underrated ep

i am highkey obsessed with 1x04 phantom traveller, 2x07 the usual suspects and 4x19 jump the shark and i feel like most people don’t really care about those episodes or bring them up much. phantom traveller is just interesting bc i think the character moments are fun and i am obsessed with plane crashes for some reason. the usual suspects i just adore because it’s really a great exploration of HOW WELL sam and dean know each other and just how alike they are. and unfortunately i really like the cop lady in this one. jump the shark was the second episode of supernatural i ever saw and for some reason something in my brain latched onto adam and never let go. i love him so much (i know it’s not really him in the ep but ukno) and i love how much you learn about sam and dean through it too.

11. Thoughts on BMOL

boring. like...the actors were not good at their accents. they wanted what bela talbot had in s3. i just didn’t find ‘the british are evil’ a compelling storyline in a supernatural show.... like girl i live in real life you don’t need to preach to me about the british. also like they set up ketch to be evil like worse than toni who i already hate because she tortures/sexually assaults sam by having him kill magda i guess? but then they end up redeeming him and he survives longer than both mick (affectionate) and toni (derogatory), like seriously one of the worst Big Bads they’ve ever had.

12. Thoughts on Mary

to be honest, i think bringing her back was kind of a stupid idea in the sense that the ENTIRE SHOW starts because of her death. but i felt like HAVING DONE THAT, trying to deconstruct her image as like this nuclear housewife was compelling and the whole clash of sam and dean who just want their mom versus mary who left her kids as a an infant and a small child and now has these grown men who are older than her needing things she doesn’t know how to give was very interesting. and i wish they’d done more with that. 

16. Any criticisms of their world building/lore

well i think everyone’s said it better than me that they can’t seem to get their stance on monsters straight at all and the show suffers for it. i also hate how like the later seasons especially just blatantly retcon so much. the prime example is the garden of eden in s5 vs s15.... the s5 version was so much more interesting and i hate that they brought it back just to destroy their own lore. the whole concept of the abrahamic god being like the ‘real’ god vs other gods just being minor annoyances didn’t like...make sense or feel good either. i also would’ve loved more exploration of like what the fuck it means to be a vessel and also exploration of other monsters/urban legends. like ok we get it ghosts/demons/vampires/werewolves sure w/e but there’s so much to pull from. it got repetitive and there’s so many other things they could’ve tried. hell the SECOND EPISODE of the show mentions black dogs and we never actually encounter one. or like chimeras... like there’s just plenty to dig into and they just get lazy.

17. What did you like about s15?

15x20 <3 also just...jack....that’s my son! MICHAEL/ADAM IN 15X08!!!! i think there were a couple moments i liked in like...the gambler and last holiday, and i thought belphagor was funny. oh! also sam’s nightmare visions were kinda fun even tho they led back to lucifer :/

18. Thoughts on Lucifer

he was a really excellent and intimidating villain in s5.... and frankly i enjoyed hallucifer as well because sure he was presented comedically but he was a deeply dark presence hanging over sam as a reminder of what he suffered. everything after that...sucked!!! it sucked!!!!! overstayed his welcome, letting him out of the cage again totally nullifies sam’s sacrifice and frankly he lost every smidge of intimidation factor he ever had. he was just annoying and whiny and pointless and sam should’ve killed him <3 fuck that guy.

19. Most uncomfortable moments throughout the show for you?

answered here

20. Define the different eras in a few lines or words (s1-5, s6-7, s8-11, s12-15)

this was meant to be short... and then it wasnt... sorry.

kripke: PEAK SUPERNATURAL. racist AND sexist but like i frankly do not care because the actually storytelling is so GOOD. COHERENT. i long for what could’ve been had the strike not kneecapped s3 and we’d gotten boyking, but hell the arc we DID get... so good. so fulfilling. aesthetics go off the charts. character dynamics so good!!! conflicts are earned!!!! there was a fucking vision here and it was unique and interesting and the show was COMMITTED TO IT. literally iconic television i love her so much. eric kripke needs a therapist but i’m glad he wrote this show instead of going to see one. 

gamble: sera THEE gamble.... overarching storylines kinda weak, but SO FUN! i had fucking fun! soulless sam is a comedian, godstiel was the last time cas was remotely interesting, like!!!! she gave us everything!!!!! gets slandered way too much by this hell fandom like yes the leviathans were stupid but the were FUN and the character moments in s6-s7!!! so good!!!! lots of excellent MOTW eps as well, which... as we know...i love. when the show lost gamble, it lost something great, i’ll die on this hill. i love u #girlboss.

carver: there’s a lot of good here and a lot i despise. dean steadily grows darker throughout the show but there’s like a real VEER into being awful in s9 that the show never recovers from. it makes dean very unlikeable for the rest of its run, mostly by virtue of the show not realizing how unlikeable it’s made dean because it needs him to always be right so the fact that he’s basically turned into john is never like....addressed in any meaningful way. some storylines (MOC!!) dragged on for too long, while others were way too short (TRIALS!!!) but ultimately i think there were some good ideas here and moments i’m fond of. season 11 is Beautiful. i love her so much. there’s some really excellent eps in s11 and the character moments are good.

dabb: i literally hate it here (jack sweetie you are not included in this assessment you’re doing great). it was just stupid. the characterizations of EVERYBODY sucked and fell flat. way too obsessed with pandering to the loudest faction on twitter. took the wreckage of dean that carver left and full destroyed him. like straight up could’ve done something meaningful if they’d bothered to address it at all but they literally didn’t ever make dean be accountable for his actions??? can’t tell u what cas was doing it was so forgettable he obviously had no purpose literally the only scenes i remember were a couple where he’s being cute with jack and that one ep where he and sam go to that old-timey town and sam gets brainwashed. sam like... exists, and his character is intact but it’s only intact because the writers that were left didn’t want to bother giving him anything meaty to do to so the were like *spins wheel* leadership arc that goes nowhere, and he just exists being kind and compassionate and putting up with too much shit. BUT HE HAD REALLY FUCKING EXCELLENT MOMENTS WITH JACK and that alone is why i think it’s worth the slog. sam/jack is my favourite dynamic on the show following sam/dean so...unfortunately based on that.... i can’t just burn the whole dabb era but seriously... way to make every character a hollow, one-dimensional shell.

send me supernatural asks

[androgynousblackbox]

feenyx: why are people obsessed with letting people know they're gay?? -has 'homosexual' in description as pretty much the only thing of note about himself-

I was lurking through his site and apparently he:Is also panphobic who thinks pansexual people are self hating bisexual.Thinks he has a pass to speak about trans issues over trans people because some shithead anons saying he does.Thinks all enbies are straight (?????) and he has a right to call it out because he is gay (????).Also he is skeptical that non binary people exist because “there is no science behind it”.Is a white guy who loves to define cultural genders through his own cultural view and is okay, you see, because he “has read a lot about it.” And by read, please understand some articles he found on the internet giving brief description of each of them and deciding alone they meant something else, not any actual account from any person who has those genders or any antropologist whose job was to study those cultures.Thinks anyone telling him he has no right to speak about trans issues over trans people (especially to erase their sexuality) is an homophobe. DUDE, THAT WAS SUPOSE TO BE A MEME, A JOKE, NOT SOMETHING YOU USE FOR REAL ON ARGUMENTS, ARE YOU KIDDING ME.OKAY, BUT THAT ONE IS KILLING ME LIKE. You are complaining about non binary gay people making gay their biggest personality trait, but you have a blog talking inmensively about being gay and use your gay card as a defense against criticism from marginalized communities you don’t belong to, BECAUSE SURELY you being gay is the only thing they care about, not that your opinions are shitty, like, a little bit of self awareness, please.Anti fujoshi because why not.Thinks his transphobic point of view is “opinion that challenges your worldview” and the people complaining are whiny.This shit: “All of y’all look the exact same and every nb person I’ve met irl could 100% not physically defend themsleves and has the least dick energy in the entire classroom and thinks they’re the funniest mf by doing something quirky when everyone’s heads turn away from them and give each other tjay ‘that’s cringy’ smileComing from a person who goes to art school and sees nb people daily”.This other shit: “‘Gay’ nonbinary people who only like boys are people who had a hard yaoi phase n probably has some body image issues and is convinced that their straight attraction towards men and fetishization of gay people means they’re gay‘Gay’ nonbinary people who only like girls are just lesbian girls who are in the middle of accepting themselves as women who likes other women because of how society looks upon lesbians and sees it as it’s better to not be a girl who likes girls”. So basically very terfy while also rebloguing TERF DO NOT INTERACT posts, so that is cool because it proves once again that ant-fujoshi and terf rethoric are inherently connected to each other.And I am sure there is more stuff, but I will be damned if I want to see more. I really recommend everyone just block them, they are not worth it.Sincerely,An actual queer guy.

[dippedanddripped]

YouTube has always been a hub for an often-voyeuristic form of conspicuous consumption, but for the diehard devotees of influential designers like Raf Simons and Helmut Lang, there's now a veritable abundance of channels dedicated to nuanced discussions of niche men's clothing. Though far from being the most-followed men's fashion accounts, these channels have slowly built sizable audiences by geeking out over a set of hyper-specific references familiar to anyone who's put in time lurking on a particularly heated r/streetwear subthread. Unboxings and shopping hauls still abound, but they're complemented by lengthy commentary on, say, the latest Rick Owens collection or a breathless breakdown of a seminal Margiela show from the '90s.

Like the men behind #menswear, the movement birthed on the blogosphere that peaked in popularity in the early 2010s, these YouTube "creators" are often friends IRL, appearing in each other's videos to compare notes on their latest cops or pal around the local flea market looking for covetable vintage finds. More recently, like some of their #menswear predecessors, many of the creators behind these channels are launching their own clothing brands that mimic the cadence of streetwear drops and sell out almost as quickly. These collections go far beyond branded merchandise: They typically debut in small batches at premium price points and are seamlessly marketed across social media to relatively small but highly devoted followings.

Leveraging the spending power of an existing audience to sell product that's sure to be a hit is a symbiosis the fashion industry is already betting big on. There's Danielle Bernstein of WeWoreWhat's multimillion-dollar design partnerships with Nordstrom and Onia; Aimee Song of Song of Style's collection with Revolve; and Arielle Charnas of Something Navy, who is ending her Nordstrom licensing deal this year to kick off her own lifestyle brand after a $10 million investment, valuing her brand at roughly $45 million. Increasingly, these types of relationships look like the future of the industry. Yet for the most part, retailers have yet to tap into influencers in the menswear space. YouTube represents a new frontier.

In the summer of 2018, Jacob Keller and Cole McBride released the first drop under their Bare Knuckles brand. Keller is a certified YouTube OG: His channel, though now largely inactive, was one of the first to capitalize on the opportunity for menswear-oriented content on the platform, and he's frequently shouted out as a big brother of sorts by other YouTubers. Keller shares an unusually strong connection with his fanbase, many of whom have been interacting with his content since day one. Scroll deep enough through his timeline and you're bound to come across old images of him in full Mishka 'fits, some of which Keller occasionally reposts as a winking nod to his followers.

Bare Knuckles's debut collection featured a medley of washed denims, vintage looking tees and cropped work jackets — an authentic extension of the aesthetic Keller began to hone on YouTube and later made his signature via the 'gram, where he has almost 90K followers. On any given post there's dozens of comments asking where to buy what he's wearing, which today, more often than not, is Bare Knuckles. The collection was a near-instant success, selling out entirely shortly after it released online.

For influencers, profiting off of their online presence is par for the course. Keller and his cohort, however, are pioneering a more creative alternative for a group of guys weaned on a steady diet of conventional fashion content coupled with obscure menswear memes. Many of them cite similar reasons for launching their own lines, as well as a desire to maintain a certain degree of separation between their cut-and-sew collections and the YouTube channels that, they readily concede, in no small way helped make those collections a reality. "Cole and I wanted to start Bare Knuckles so that we could make clothing that we’ve wanted to wear for years but could never find," says Keller, who still largely keeps his collections separate from his channel.

For Ken Iijima, who started uploading videos to YouTube documenting snippets of his life after moving to Tokyo in 2018, keeping that sense of separation is crucial. When Iijima co-founded Vuja Dé earlier this year with Ringo Chang, the two of them agreed to keep the brand at a distance from Iijima's rapidly growing channel, though both acknowledge YouTube as a powerful tool for engaging with their audience. Their first drop included paint-splattered sweatshirts (acrylic, applied by hand) and bondage cargo pants, all made from Japanese-milled cotton and available exclusively through their website, where each size sold out quickly.

"We always knew what we ourselves have wanted and liked to wear, though we were unsure if our preferences directly translated into products an audience would purchase," says Iijima. "In order to realize this, interacting with our audience was a form of validation in allowing us to gauge viewer support… [and] proceed with the project altogether." YouTube, the two note, has "facilitated interaction and provided a way for our audience to get to know us and see we are just as clothing-obsessed as them."

When Magnus Ronning set about launching his eponymous label, he saw his collection as an organic extension of his wardrobe: well-made, approachable basics with a twist, like a denim jacket in a green paisley print, or twill work pants in a dusty pink hue. Ronning is similarly appreciative of the platform his YouTube presence affords him. "YouTube has without a doubt been the most significant incubator for the brand. It has essentially given me a platform to share my interest in clothing, Ronning and everything else with a larger audience than I could ever imagine," he says. "I love the community on YouTube, and I find it amazing recognizing names of people who consistently interact and comment on [my] videos."

Ditto Owen Hyatt, who started posting videos on YouTube in the summer of 2017. Hyatt always wanted to be a YouTuber, even as a kid. "All my idols back then were YouTubers," he remembers. "It was amazing to me that recording videos about your interests could be a job." In early 2019, he debuted Colette Hyatt, a collection that openly pulls inspiration from some of Hyatt's favorite and oft-referenced designers. (Hyatt dutifully shouts them out in the product descriptions on his site.)

The brand's aesthetic skews slightly avant-garde: Its first collection included hand-distressed hoodies with detailed, gothic-looking graphics and an embroidered vegan leather crossbody bag that wouldn't look out of place hanging on the dimly-lit racks of some iconic institution of downtown cool. "At the end of the day I just design clothes that I love and want to wear, and if my audience and customers love it too then even better," Hyatt says. "Getting input and seeing people's reactions to new pieces is always great insight but it doesn't have a major impact on what I create." Yet Hyatt maintains YouTube still holds a lot of value for him "when it comes to showcasing Colette Hyatt, since it's hard to get 'personal' on Instagram."

Hyatt could've just mocked up a few graphic tees and called it a day. Instead, he (and Iijima, Keller, Ronning, et al.) are creating thoughtful, high-quality clothing by aspiring to a level of craftsmanship on par with the luxury labels they admire. For the most part, these guys are making product they like and figuring their followers will, too, all the while responding in real-time to a constant stream of feedback from fans. Internet influence, though, is fickle and fleeting. Pivoting away from content creation is a great way to guarantee a degree of career longevity beyond making a quick buck promoting another company's products. Tapping into the rapidly growing market for men's clothing is a savvy way to capitalize on demand from followers who are constantly clamoring for an "ID on the 'fit, bro?!" Why promote another brand when you could be promoting your own?

Keller sees his brand and others like it as a natural progression of what he was already doing on YouTube. "We go from consuming products, and showing off other people's creations, talking about other people's designs and details. Eventually, we want it to be our product and our details that we're showing off," he says. "We consume so much product and buy from so many brands that we start forming a vision as to what we want our own clothing to look like and take cues from those clothes we've bought in the past." The easy thing to do, Ronning points out, is to release a limited-run of a few cutesy printed t-shirts. In his opinion, the channels currently churning out some of the most exciting menswear content out there are defined by a "want to do better." The bona fide brands he and his friends have started are "well past the point of [T-shirt] blanks and are developing actual cut-and-sew collections."

Vuja Dé's Iijima and Chang share a similar sentiment: "We think there is a common misconception that all YouTube brands are automatically categorized as 'overnight sensations' or 'cash grabs.' We wanted to distance ourselves from this association… It would not do Vuja Dé justice." Hyatt wouldn't be surprised if the nature of menswear content on the platform changes, too. Videos will become "more oriented around our brands," he predicts. "There will be less pickup videos and more behind-the-scenes videos. How our next lookbook photoshoot was shot, how to take product photos, that sort of thing."

Despite the handwringing caused by an Instagram personality with over 2 million followers who couldn't sell 36 T-shirts, influencers still move a lot of merchandise. Keller and McBride have since dropped two more Bare Knuckles collections, further developing the ideas they introduced in earlier designs and expanding into new product categories each time. Most pieces currently in stock on the brand's site are still available, but there's no reason to assume that's cause for concern. Keller uploaded a video to his YouTube channel in early August, just over a year after his last update. Among the hundreds of comments — largely roasting Keller good-naturedly for his inactivity — one fan noted: "As weird as it sounds, every time I watch your videos... it's like seeing an old high-school friend. Crazy it's going on 7-8 years since I've been watching your videos! Glad to see Bare Knuckles doing great bro!"

[thecorteztwins]

🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊🖊!!!!! Scream about them!!

WOW THAT’S A LOT I’ll talk about two, Ashti and AverySo I have a ton of old OCs but I’d rather talk about the new ones I started making this year after like 4-5 years of not making them anymore.

ASHTI YILMAZHer family are Yazidi Kurds living in Germany, grandparents originally are from TurkeyTender, wistful, melancholy, manipulative, explosive. Far more emotional than logical, and quick to let her bleeding heart and overpowering passion take her reins, whether in sympathy or anger. Easy to hurt, tease, and rile. Prone to sulking, pouting, and brooding, but can shout too when pushed far enough. Has strong feelings, but these make it hard for her to take a strong stance on complicated matters, since her emotions get pulled both ways. Always feels a little out of place. Beats herself up over little things. Fancies herself the mom friend but actually needs a mom friend. Moody, immature, unconditionally supportive. Will say awful things she doesn’t mean in anger and prone to emotional blackmail when upset. Fatalistic, often just accepts that powers that be must have a plan, but that doesn’t mean she has to like it. Warm but wary; always friendly to new people externally, but inside she's on the lookout for any sign they dislike her or are making fun of her, which sometimes leads her to read too much into innocent remarks or innocuous expressions. Feels more experienced than people from more privileged lives and groups, but also like they’re smarter and more accomplished. Ashti definitely has very normative ideas about gender. Nothing exceptional, just common generalizations like women are more emotional, little boys like the physical play, men can be total brutes whereas women attack with cattiness, etc. She’s also prone to romantization of bad relationships, like that jealousy means passion, control means protection, and sticking together through all your fights proves how strong your love is instead of calling it quits. This not only means she is likely to get into and stay in toxic relationships herself, but give her friends dangerous advice to do the same when they come to her with romantic troubles Unsurprisingly, she has a tendency toward tortured bad boys and getting her heart trod on. She has a complicated relationship with her culture. On the one hand, she's proud of it and defiant against any forces that try to take away or erase it. She wants to learn more about it. On the other hand, she hates that feels she HAS to learn about it, that as a tiny minority it's on her shoulders to keep carrying this legacy or risk letting it die. And she hates that all she seems to learn is about how much other people hate her, about massacres and genocides and camps and gas, no about joy and triumphs and great works of art like everyone else seems to get to have in their background. That stuff is there too, but sometimes it seems like it's just entirely overshadowed by the ongoing history of persecution, and she doesn't WANT that, she doesn't want to be defined by the SUFFERING of her people rather than their accomplishments. And she wonders, if she has to learn so much of her own culture from books, since so much of it was torn from her family long before her parents were even born and thus they couldn't teach it to her, is it really even hers? Like, really? If she has to learn it in the same way that a non-Kurd would, is she really culturally Kurdish, or just genetically? Where's the line? And can she really count HERSELF as persecuted? Her PEOPLE have suffered terribly, but if she's never been the victim of anything truly bad or overt, does she have the right to speak on that suffering and claim it by extension? One of her biggest flaws is she doesn't know her flaws. She thinks her flaws are being insecure, emotional, and loving too much. And these aren't untrue. But she's missing a whole lot of the less flattering, less endearing aspects of her personality.Dislikes when people think they (or someone else) is a good person just because they are loyal and kind to their friends, family, teammates, etc. Even genocidal dictators usually treat their own well; what really shows who you are is how you treat those who are different from you, those who disagree with you, those that you don’t know, those that you will lose nothing by mistreating?Also dislikes: Shitty apologies, they send her into an instant screaming rage * Line cutters * When people look down at fast food workers, custodians, etc., and clearly have no courtesy or respect for them (ex: carelessly leaving huge messes) * Beautiful sand sculptures because they get destroyed so fast, it actually upsets her that something that took so much talent and care is going to be so transient * Gorillas, they're scary and she's no Fay Wray * Big trucks, they make her nervousLikes: wild honeysuckle, strong tea, sweet coffee, sleepy gray cats, old patchwork quilts with a story, dark storms at sea, bright sunshine after heavy rain, rose and lavender flavored things, mountains (but not climbing them), he sight of old abandoned cottage houses overgrown with grass and vines. She’s always on the side of the common masses against those in power, but it’d be a lie to say she didn’t watch Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette “ on wistful repeat or secretly fantasize about somehow being the lost Princess Anastasia Romanov. She also loves "Beauty & the Beast" stories like "Labyrinth" and "Phantom of the Opera" about powerful and kinda evil men obsessed with beautiful naive young ingenues. Loves photos of skeletons that are embracing in their final moments, not as in props but real remains of people were found holding each other as they died, such as The Lovers of Valdaro Would love to be a model or a beauty blogger, glamorous jobs with no imagined effort where people would love her and see her as pretty. As it is she has a job as a receptionist at a ritzy spa called Tranquility.She can pop her wrists out of place, and paints/dyes silk scarves as a hobby.There’s a history of mental illness in her mother’s family, it’s never been officially diagnosed, they just say they’re “emotional” and “passionate” but actually it’s probably something more along the lines of bipolar or borderline, and Ashti isn’t affected but her mother was to a degree and her sister to an even greater one and it caused a huge rift in the family that the dynamic has never really recovered from. AVERY RUE UNDERWOODWhite American trans girl, goth/grunge, pretty much constantly dresses in the same uniform of a black slip dress with a black hoodie or flannel, or some variation on this. She has tattoos of the alchemical symbols for sulfur, salt, arsenic, and mercury, chosen for their metaphorical meanings rather than scientific. Salt, mercury, and sulfur are in her back, down the length of her spine. Arsenic is above her groin. Neutral and detached, but not disinterested or apathetic, Avery approaches most everything from a position of laidback philosophical ease. When things are too tough that it gets through even her robotic shell, she disengages externally and seems ever more the automaton, while actually dwelling on the matter for days or more internally. She can recite "Cassilda's Song" by heart, and talk for hours about the racism and insanity of Lovecraft, and how both these things are misunderstood and misconstrued equally by his devotees and detractors alike. Her icon is Mommy Fortuna from The Last Unicorn, who chose her death and kept it close to her, caged and hers til the end when it tore her to pieces--welcomed by her with open arms, still hers, hers forever.Collects antique silver plated hair brushes. She thinks a lot about how everyone has a life and internal thoughts and we just don’t know we can never really know another person. She likes to go to lonely personal blogs and Twitter accounts and the like and just follow. She rarely “likes” and even more rarely comments, she just wants to watch this little window into a random life that doesn’t have an audience to be performing for like the big accounts. Maybe it’s creepy and voyeuristic but she feels such a strange tenderness for these screen names that she never speaks too. They’re human souls, every one of them. And maybe there’s no God to hear them, but she does. Studies existentialist, nihilist, and absurdist philosophy. She learns less towards the middle, more towards the other two. Morbid and macabre she might be, but she's an idealist at her core. Some of her other interests include obscure mental disorders (Cotatd’s delusion, Capgras syndrome) , photos of the decomposition process, and the historical use of plants as both cures and poisons. She feels kinship with carrion-eaters like buzzards and hyenas, society sees them as disgusting and evil but they play an integral part in the ecosystem She believes that existence precedes essence. So she doesn't believe she was born with a female soul or anything like that. She just doesn't believe she was born with a male one either. She ended up with a female one, and she's going to facilitate that further, is what she believes. But she also doesn't think of her transition as becoming her real self, so much as taking away everything that wasn’t “her” so that only her real self is there. Like how Michaelangelo said he didn’t make David from the marble, David was already there, he just took away everything that wasn’t David. These two views contradict each other, but she works with it. She's got room for contradictions.She’s bisexual, but when she’s with women, she feels like a pervert or predator next to a “real” girl. When she’s with men, she feels like they’re the perverts, and she prefers that. She prefers feeling degraded to feeling predatory. Basically sex is going to suck for her one way or another due to her dysphoria and she’d rather it suck in the way that doesn’t make her feel like the bad guy.Her family is best described as "neutral" in terms of acceptance. They're not at all hateful, and barely questioned her decision, but they're not involved closely enough with her to be really called "supportive" at all. Everyone in her clan, including herself, are too wrapped up in their own lives to really care one way or the other about each other's, and she's good with that. She prefers it. She'd rather not be interviewed, even from people trying to be helpful; this is deeply personal to her and she finds it invasive. She is pretty good at “being the bigger person “ and not escalating things in a conflict, if only because she just doesn’t give enough of a shit to. She tolerates getting yelled at, even undeservedly, really well. She’d be brilliant in retail, she can cope with Karens all day long and not snap or get worn down. Apathy is a hell of a shield.She doesn’t hold on to people, this is good and bad. On the one hand, it means she escapes jealousy and co-dependency and needing anybody. On the other hand, some people feel it makes her disloyal or uncaring. But she's an island, and she accepts the transience of life.She doesn’t seek outside validation or feel the need to be seen as right even when she knows she is. This has allowed her to avoid a lot of arguments and stress.She might not fear violence from a philosophical viewpoint, but she sure does in her natural animal instincts. This makes her edgy around certain demographics. Straight men, religious people, right-wingers, those sorts of groups. You could argue that she's unfairly stereotyping them, much as others have unfairly stereotyped her and people like her. Sure, fair enough, but she'd still rather avoid getting her head bashed in as much as she can. It's not that everyone in these groups is a violent bigot, it's just if there's going to be a violent bigot, they're statistically more likely to be in these groups. Like when was the last time you heard of a transgender woman being murdered by a liberal lesbian atheist, right? So yeah, she's stereotyping. But she'd rather be alive and a "reverse bigot" than fair-minded and dead. She's not THAT much of nihilist.Avery’s self esteem is best defined as contrarian, taking pride in herself more based on what she’s not rather than what she is, and playing Devil’s Advocate to her own ego. She’s the first to admit that not being something bad is not the same as being something good, and in fact tends to disdain those who do the same as she does and praise themselves simply for not being fascists or bigots or abusers, but it seems like the best she can successfully argue to herself.She's completely non-judgemental of things a lot of people would find weird or creepy. Like, you write human/dinosaur a/b/o erotica? Cool, she'll edit it if you want. As long as you aren't hurting anyone, go for it LIKES:* Urban legends, occultism, cryptids, preserved oddities, the unknown* Deep seas, the night sky, vast storms, huge caves, eternal forests* The crowded isolation of the city at night* Abandoned buildings* The sigh and feel of old velvet and raw silk* Deep sea creatures and weird starfish and giant squids * Hozier, The Sisters of Mercy, Cocteau Twins, Black Tape For A Blue Girl, lo-fi, dreampop, shoegaze, every Lumineers song that has a girl's name as the title, and obscure local alternative bands that the art college radio stations only play late at night* Djarum Black clove cigarettes* Symbolist paintings (especially "Salome" and "Sisyphus" and "The Sin" by Franz Stuck)* Angela Carter, Caitlin R. Kiernan, T.K. Kingfisher, and Nabokov's lesser-known novels like Pnin and Pale FireDISLIKES* Pettiness* The smell of smoking meat, it makes her nauseous, and she's never been able to stomach a steak* Trimmed lawns and pruned gardens* The hypocritical pretentiousness so commonly found in any “alternative “ scene* So-called "horror movies" that are really just gross-out torture porn* Creepypastas that over-explain or don't know when to end* People who pride themselves on "sticking to their guns no matter what" as that seems to her to just be another way of saying they never listen to other opinions or new information because they're so sure in their own rightness* People who forget that everyone else has as much depth and life as themselves, you’re not the protagonist and these aren’t NPCs in a game* Avery is an Aquarius and even though she doesn’t believe in astrology, she still likes reading about it, and it bugs her that her sign is classed as “positive “ and “masculine"* Misuse of the term "social construct"WEAKNESSES* Gives up easily; her transition is really the only difficult thing she's ever stuck with* Navel gazing, over-thinking, gets lost in her own head* Can't make a hard decision quickly* Insomniac* Loses track of time easily* Messy slob, her apartment is DISGUSTING, don't ever be roomies with this girl* She doesn't own a car, but she can drive. She just can't park. She's terrible at parking. She goes in crooked, she goes over the line, she has to pull out and go in again a million times to get it right. STRENGTHS* Comfort with solitude, doesn't get lonely* Equally at ease with both existentialism and nihilism* A veritable whiz with subway routes and schedules* Doesn't sweat the small stuff* Hopeful at her core

[sketching-shark]

I really don't feel like the show did much to redeem Wukong in Macaque's eyes. Up to the S4 Special, Macaque has now risked his life twice to save Wukong. But we don't really see Wukong do much of anything for Macaque. Which is so weird because the show confirmed that Wukong is basically the sole reason for their friendship crumbling in the first place. Yet Macaque is doing all the work to repair it? I wanted to see Wukong take that first step towards reconciliation, but instead, it's Macaque. Overall, I think this relationship is just so poorly executed.

Monkie Kid spoilers & mini-rant below, so skip if you don't want to read:

SIGH yeah anon I did see someone else comment that they thought forcing this relationship between the two was a major detriment to both Sun Wukong and the Six-Eared Macaque and well I fully agree. Because at this stage not only has the Monkey King been revealed to have been and in many ways still be just as stupid and selfish and thoughtless as Macaque repeatedly said he was, not only did it turn out that he was never a king either loving or otherwise in the first place because the monkey yaoguai of Mt. Huaguoshan seem to have never existed (major L to Azure Lion for pinning all his hopes and dreams on an eccentric park ranger), not only did he either kill or trap each and every one of his sworn brothers and then apparently did literally nothing about that for centuries if not millennia afterwards, but this revelation completely re-contextualizes all of the previous interactions between LEMH and SWK into making the Monkey King quite frankly extremely cruel.

While I know people often balk at the mention of Xiyouji itself when talking about Monkie Kid, I still think it worth bringing up that all of SWK's dismissive jabs against LEMH, along with him clearly not caring about the shadow simian like at all up until the very end of season 3 when the plot suddenly decided he did, made a lot of sense because in the og classic LEMH is the guy who literally hurt both SWK's monkey family and pilgrim family and tried to murder-replace him. But now that it turns out LEMH never did anything wrong ever (well he did but good luck getting the plot to acknowledge that now lmao), we're now dealing with a SWK who's major response to seeing his apparent bestest of besties has been to insult him, go for the throat almost immediately, and oh yeah not give af that said bestie literally exploded right in front of him. And yes yes I know that a lot of season 4 was about SWK regretting basically his entire past but ultimately going forward with hope and something of the reality that he can be better (at least in terms of working as a team), but all of this is intermingled with the sense that he's already done this whole song and dance before on account of the pilgrimage and still ended up causing so much destruction and pain to so many people during the show's timeline, even if he is trying to do the right thing. So here's our Monkey King as he was and still in many ways is everyone! A genuinely terrible leader, a genuinely terrible teacher, and a genuinely terrible friend. And for what.

Honestly, it is kind of morbidly funny at this stage to think that even at his very worst the murder monkey himself Xiyouji SWK never did anything as bad, either deliberately or inadvertently, as play a big part in the near-destruction of all reality :[

So all of that does leave Macaque in this position that frankly sucks because from what's been shown his entire first life was hinted to in large part be him just going along with SWK's selfish and dangerous whims, and then his second chance at life was defined by nothing but his violent obsession with getting revenge against SWK to the point where he has no friends, family, or even hobbies that aren't in some way or another tied to the Monkey King, i.e. the guy he hates so much that he thrashed and threatened MK repeatedly for the crime of being associated with SWK (another thing that makes his whole "yeah I thought SWK was pure evil but then on the journey west he got better ahaha" kind of hilarious in its hypocrisy). I've said before that fully and explicitly leaning into a plot about just how much Macaque defines himself through someone he hates could be a very interesting story line, whether he eventually becomes completely lost to his obsession like potentially with Xiyouji LEMH or learns to stand as his own person, but as it is as you said anon it just feels like he's been left not forging his own path but only offering the umpteenth chance to a guy who literally killed him, or at least who he fully believes killed him. Because yeah, speaking of other morbidly funny things it's still wild that even in a cursed hell scroll that constantly replays your worst memories AND even when Qi Xiaotian explicitly asks LEMH what the hell even happened between him and SWK, his only response was "..." and looking sad before that subject got completely dropped. idk if that was Flying Bark being like "we need more time to figure out how to make the murder-replace plot of the True and False Monkey King arc all SWK's fault!" or if they're saving that bit of story to spend even MORE screen time dragging out this ever-more tedious drama between SWK and LEMH, but you would think that this "I hate the Monkey King because he murked me" plot would at least be mentioned as one of the things that either SWK or LEMH would feel needed to be addressed??? Instead of just going right to "it's okay if you killed me I'll trust you again because reasons :)"???

So yes as always need to note that I'm likely being to harsh on a silly lego show and/or letting my typical negative nancying detract for more positive points, but if I had any advice for Macaque and his evil twin as it currently stands, for Sun Wukong it would be "atonement is an active process" & for LEMH it would be "if it sucks hit da bricks."

[migleefulmoments]

"Why do you think it is OK to be so vile and vicious?" (1) LOLOLOL, you have got to be kidding me. Pot, meet big fucking kettle. (2) Most (not all) of those comments are neither vile nor vicious; they're simply hard to hear, as the truth often is. We believe you believe your theories are true, AJW. Unfortunately, you believing (and wishing and hoping) something is true doesn't make it true. For EVERY argument you make, I could make an equally strong counter that C hates D. Doesn't make it true!

2nd Anonymous said: Is this supposed to be her feel sorry for me post because she literally hates on strangers all day every day. “ajw720*tumblr*com/post/182606038445/in-my-time-here-i-have-been-called it’s very hard to feel sympathy for her when she bullies a woman she doesn’t know because she interferes with her fantasy.

3rd Anonymous said: AJW's on her poor widdle victim's martyr cross again. Anyone got any violins? She's the victimiest victim to ever victim, you know! All I'm imagining is a giant middle-aged baby in a diaper spitting her paci out and throwing a tantrum that big meanies are calling her names. You're right, sounds a lot like Trump.

She can’t even see how vile and vicious she is to Mia or to anons...or to Darren.  She hates his beloved bar-which is by itself very disturbing. Add her attacks on his fiancee, his friends -Starkid in particular but others as well. Also his team Ricky, and Michael, his brother- Chuck and even Darren himself when he Isn’t acting gay enough. She can’t see that she doesn’t like real Darren-that so much of what he does she bitches about and blames on his team as a way to excuse the behavior she doesn’t like as “not his fault”. She hates the bar that he loves.  The bar that is so quintessentially Darren. 

It is impossible for her to hear the truth. She has refused many times- today we just got a complication, the greatest hits of the last 3 years.  She never sees herself in anyone’s critique .  

Since she has no self-reflection, Let’s do it for her:

1.homophobic-funny, because she replied to my ask and called me homophobic once. 

2. misogynistic; I have discussed this many times and she is absolutely a misogynist. If you hate a woman you don’t know at all-a complete stranger- and you hate her because you attribute negative stereotypical female behaviors to her, that is misogyny. 

3.  xenophobic; she probably had an anon who speaks English as a Second Language and she attacked her for grammar or word mistakes.  She probably deserved this label. 

4. a fucking cunt; I hate the word cunt.  But more importantly, I have realized that it NEVER helps to attack her with anything even close to a vicious attack because she gets very self-righteous in her anger.  She lashes out in anger. Not only will she will just attack back, it feeds that self-righteous anger.  So kill her with kindness and intellectual arguments.    

5. an alcoholic cunt; Again I hate that word. If the only photos you post are of your wine glasses AND you call Mia an alcoholic every chance you get, you are probably going to get some pushback with this label. 

6. I have been told to go fuck myself; I hope people aren’t telling her to go fuck herself.  It just feeds her self-righteousness. Attack her with smart, intelligent facts and be nice.  

7. gay fetishist; If you obsess about the genitals of two men who are NOT  in a relationship, you believe Darren acts “Daisy” and you believe all kinds of outdated stereotypes about gay men- like they are scared of boobies- you are fetishizing gay men.  

8. slut; This seems uncalled for.  It’s rude and she never talks about sex so don’t call her a slut.  

9. told to see a therapist; Well....when you believe a richly-detailed fantasy that 1. isn’t any of your business 2. there is literally NO evidence the men are a couple or ever have been aka you have and continue to make it all up  3. both men have denied your fantasy 5. one of the men is straight  6. both men are in long-term relationships with other people  7. you believe you love one of the men 8. you believe you are a better fan than anyone else and 9. you think that you are “collecting receipts” for Darren because you don’t have an NDA- and by “receipts” you mean social media posts -seeing a therapist is a good idea.    

10.  been questioned on having friends as no one would ever want to be friends with someone like me; that’s mean. But when you never present as a very angry, cruel person in every post you make, someone is going to say this. 

11. old hag; This is just mean... but to a  20 year old, I suppose 44 seems old.   

12. essentially told that I brainwash people; you do. If you create a “fact” that is entirely made up in your head (for example “Darren and Chris are married”) and you keep repeating it until your fandom believes and repeats it, that is brainwashing.

13. a liar; When you make up stories (see #12) and portray them as facts, you are a liar.  

14. a fraud (apparently I am not a lawyer, English is my second language, and I did not go to an ivy league school); Maybe you should analyze what you DO that makes other people believe you aren’t a lawyer, English speaking or went to an Ivy League school? I’ll give you some hints: proofread your posts,  don’t posts something like this  “ajw720 Why do frspetate to read put blogs?” and then leave it on your blog. As for not being a lawyer: stop misrepresenting POAs, contracts, NDAs, “facts”, contracts, the rights and responsibilities of a manager, contracts, breaching, morality clauses...those are good places to start.   

15.  ignorant; about?

16.  delusional, delusional fuck, and delusional idiot; When you fabricate stories about 4 complete strangers, proclaim to know more than their friends and families and write posts about exactly what they are thinking, you're delusional.

17.  Devoid of knowledge on how contracts and morality clauses work; All this is 100% true...or maybe you understand them, but you lie about Darren’s contracts and morality clause to fit your trope. 

18.  middle age frau; Again, to a 20 year old, 44 seems ancient.  

19.  Creepy; If you believe you know everything about a complete stranger, you're creepy. If you don’t understand boundaries between a celebrity and a fan who is a complete stranger, you're creepy. Systematically claiming that EVERY SINGLE THING that Darren says about himself is a lie and YOU know the truth is creepy.

20.  Living in a Fictional World; Yep, 100%. CC is NOT real- it is FICTION- and you are the head writer. 

21.  A Truther; Let’s define truther “a person who doubts the generally accepted account of an event, believing that an official conspiracy exists to conceal the true explanation; a conspiracy theorist” Literally exactly what CCers do and are proud of.  They constantly proclaim that they are too smart to fall for the PR narrative and THEY have alternative facts. How can she deny this? A little self awareness is always a good thing.  

22.  I’ve been disparaged for calling D a victim of abuse; You should be- Darren has never so much as hinted that he is abused. It’s all made up in YOUR head.  When you claim someone is abused ONLY because it fits YOUR narrative, you are belittling real the experiences of real victims.  You are belittling the horror they go through and doing so simply because you think it adds to your fantasy.  

23.  A cult leader; As the leader of the CC truthers, I’d say you are a cult leader but let’s again look at the definition.  The 3rd definition of Cult on Google “is a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing."a cult of personality surrounding the leaders" synonyms:obsession with, fixation on, mania for, passion for” That describes the CC fandom and you are the self-appointed leader.  

24.  I have been told that I hate D; When you criticize  real Darren for everything he does that doesn’t fit your vision of who he is, when you label him a jerk, college frat bro, and no-homo dude AND blame those behaviors on “his team”, that means you don’t actually like Darren. You LOVE CC Darren, a man who doesn’t exist outside of your head but the real Darren is problematic.  

25. I have been told that D&C would be embarrassed by me; Both men have asked you to stop, both men have told and continue to tell their truth and you continue to discount everything they say because it doesn’t prove CC is real. The “truth” that you fabricate about both men’s lives does not look anything like the lives they are leading-the lives everyone can see-except you. Embarrassed by the CCers stalking their friends’ accounts and then telling them they are wrong about Mia, or Chris & Darren, or just writing CrissColfer a million times. Embarrassed that you guys go in to their comment sections and attack fans who tell you to stop- even if YOU specifically don’t do it- and I know at least ONE of the main CCers does-the words that are used are literally the words that you use- it’s your fantasy.  I think they would be more angry than embarrassed.

26.  Cancer of the Fandom I got nothing for this one.

I have talked about her lack of self awareness before but this is a textbook example of how she can’t take any criticism- it is all immediate rejected.  Yesterday’s YOU WILL RESPECT ME rant is another example of the lack of awareness. I mean, the ”truther” accusation is absolutely SPOT ON and yet she can’t see it.  

I don’t write this blog to belittle or make fun of her or the CCers.  I certainly don’t to change her believes because she won’t change- she is in too far, she thrives on the attention she get....but mostly, she can’t see what she is doing. She can’t see that she is so deep into a fantasy that has been entirely fabricated and since Glee ended, fabricated mostly by her.  She can’t see that her lies are getting all caught up in one another now that she has to explain why Chris and Darren have no connection and Mia and Darren are everywhere together as a couple. She has to keep fabricating excuses for why Darren continues to say he is straight and that he loves Mia. She can’t see that it’s very obvious to the rest of us to see that Chris and Darren have no relationship and Darren and Mia are building a life together. This post proves how much she can’t see outside of her own fantasy. 

I write this blog because I couldn’t stand that CC lies were being pumped out every day and they existed unchecked. They started claiming their fantasies were facts...period.  I couldn’t stand anons asking-begging CCers for proof and they were told “it’s a fact” trust me, don’t question it.  The only info anyone could find -if they did go looking- were CC lies. I needed there to be a place where the truth sits.

If I was interested in simply making fun of them, I wouldn’t spend so much time finding facts- photos, videos, old posts to prove they are misconstruing the truth. 

Sometimes my anons get a little snarky- maybe we can tone that down a little so we don’t give her ammunition for her pity party.  

[winterheart17]

Saiansha just shot me in the heart

I’m going to put a Read More break so as not to clog up anyone’s feed but @saiansha , I cannot stop re-reading or tearing over this beautiful love letter you’ve written to You Had Me At Loki. Seriously. Thank you. 

Sorry, it's me again. I read "You Had Me At Loki". You owe me a couple of painkillers, a few nights worth of sleep and a couple of glasses of water. The painkillers are for the headache I had from all that angst and emotion, the sleep for all those nights/mornings I stayed up till 4 just to finish the chapter/begin a new one and the water for all the times I had to calm myself down and rehydrate myself after all the dehydration from crying. I tried to remind myself countless times that this is just a story and that you, thankfully, are not an orphan and have been brought up with a lot of love, so calm the heck down and stop behaving as if it’s your heart being torn asunder here. This is Arwynn, and she may look like you and this story is written in first person, but for the sake of your sanity, stop wondering if this is what you would be like if you were in her circumstances.

You know, I open a story and mutter a prayer, “Please let me be gifted with a strong female protagonist.” And when I say ‘strong’, I do not mean a woman who is necessarily mouthy and bold with a razor-sharp wit and intelligence. Those are nice traits to have, of course, but I look more for women who know their mind, who know when to say “enough”, who respect and love themselves before others and who call out the men on their bullshit. And when I see that a story does not have such a woman, who over the course of the story learns how deep this inner strength is, I feel disappointed.

In that sense, Arwynn disappointed me at first, because she was a woman who defined herself solely with respect to Loki. And I understood that that is obviously because in a life where all you receive is apathy and disregard at best and spite and contempt at worst, even the smallest smile and simplest act of kindness warms you the way no fire can ever. And when you have nothing else to go on for, nothing else to dream about, then you become determined to follow that kindness and hope and love to wherever it takes you. But understanding is not quite the same as realising something for yourself, I feel. As the story went on, I realised that I am looking at this wrong. This is not a story about a strong woman who realises her strength. This is a story about a woman who becomes strong. One of my favourite quotes is from Doctor Who and it is as follows: great men are forged in fire; it is the privilege of lesser men to light the flame.

And this is exactly what happened … in this story – the likes of Odin and Lorelei and yes, even Loki for the bigger part of this story lit this flame and out emerged an Arwynn who found herself and understood that love was not just about loving someone without any heed or regard for anything else, but also loving someone even after they’ve hurt you but at the same time, loving yourself as well. Love was about knowing when to stay and when to go and when to come back. And Loki. Oh god, Loki. It hurts... Your Loki is so true to himself, so accurate that it hurts.

When I read fanfiction, I seek out a Loki who is at relative ease, who has scars but not open wounds, or is at least willing to let someone dress and soothe those wounds. A Loki who is definitely not free of anguish and rage and doubt but can still afford to be playful, mischievous, charming and sensual. Because hey, it’s fanfiction, and this Loki is easy to read and love and brings a smile to my lips and a series of “awww”’s out of my mouth. But your Loki was so hard to read, so hard to like and downright impossible to love most times. And that is exactly how he should be. Maybe I’ve become soft after reading all those easy-going Lokis. Or maybe I never had Arwynn’s devotion or strength. Or maybe I’m too invested in your story. But this Loki, the one who is so hard to like, is the one I loved reading. I am honestly tired of “dark” Loki being interpreted as some hypersexual rapey guy who picks up scared, unwilling women off the streets and dumps them in some sort of a harem. Your Loki is what is truly “dark!Loki” – Loki whose possessiveness at first comes not from love but from his insecurity and the need to stake his claim, Loki who is willing to cruelly hurt other people because he is worried that they will hurt him first. Loki, who as Frigga says (bless that woman honestly, just bless her) is so perceptive about everyone but himself. And I think truly that that is what Loki’s darkness about – not knowing, and worse, not willing to know, and confront his own self.

And honestly, your fic is making me ask questions that I really shouldn’t waste my time asking. If in some goddamn crazy occurrence were I to meet Loki, would I ever be able to love him? Would I ever be able to allow myself to love him? Am I too rigid and unyielding to love him? Will I have the strength and the humility to keep putting myself out there, knowing that I will have to do this for a very long time.

Sorry, Tumblr stopped me from sending any more asks) …because no one else has for this man’s entire 1000 years of existence? And most importantly, will I ever want to have this kind of love, humility, patience and strength for anyone? Because I think until you fall in love for real, you are always more in love with the idea of being in love. And I think I am too proud and shut off myself to allow someone to call me theirs without being able to call them mine from the onset.

 And this, then, is why I love Arwynn even more, because although I can’t emulate her, she has still taught and shown me so much. Heck, I think she can teach the “Little Writer” too a lot about love and Loki. Now that would be a crossover worth reading. Urgh, I am so sorry for all these ramblings but honestly, your fics have just done that to me. They have made me feel and ask myself all these questions shamelessly, and perhaps more openly and explicitly. I think it’s best for both our sakes – your time and patience and my sanity – if you don’t write any more long stories. You won’t hear any complaints from me if you do, just an askbox brimming with feelings.

Before I conclude (about time, really), allow me to give Lady Katja an honourary mention. She is a non-toxic version of Severus Snape and I was so, so thrilled when you mentioned that she didn’t just love Eir, she was in love with Eir. I am the first one to insist that not all love needs to be romantic, but I also don’t like when people incorporate so much passion and vehemence and anger and frustration (especially in same-sex relations) only to pass it off as platonic love. Platonic love is no doubt strong and shouldn’t be underestimated, but it will never inspire the sheer fury behind the words that Katja uttered, so thank you for that. And thank you for this fic. I really do hope you write more Loki fics =)  

First of all, please allow me to apologise for taking so long to get back to this amazing piece of… I can’t even bear myself to call it feedback because of how beautiful, eloquent, and thought-provoking it is. Plus, I need to pinch myself at how it’s 1,287 words long! It’s been a long, loooonnnng month and I’m just about recovering from a bout of fever and flu.

Okay, here goes: woman, your piece brought tears to my eyes. Tears! I remember reading and re-reading your words over and over again – hardly able to believe that a story of mine could invoke such strong emotions and the ability to push someone over the edge in such a manner. I can’t tell you enough how grateful I am that you stumbled upon my account and stories because you have been nothing but a ray of light and blessing in my inbox. You remind me all that I love about writing and why I even started in the first place. Not because of the beautiful comments and heartwrenching feedback I get (although those are always welcome and appreciated), but because I always feel that with each piece I put out in the world, I’m putting a piece of my heart and soul out there – light that I hope each reader will find at the end of their very own dark tunnel as they follow my characters’ story. It’s why I like to write complex characters with the central focus being on their emotions and how they evolve. I think as human beings, we don’t spend nearly enough time getting in touch with how we truly feel – preferring to shove things beneath a rug because it’s safer and it feels more comfortable. And I’d like to think of my stories being forged with the intention of being the proverbial bandaid that is ripped off to let sunlight flood all the dark and dusty corners most steer clear of.

Growing up, I’d always been fascinated by love and if you were to ask any of my highschool friends, I’d perhaps been more obsessed with the idea of it than as you put it, truly being in love. I wanted the pain, the sacrifice, the tears, and the heartbreak – I believed that nights spent sobbing into my pillow would amount to something. I believed that love would and could conquer all. Fast forward to college and after 5 years spent crushing on a guy whom I’d barely even had a decent conversation with (I was in love with the idea of him and projecting what I thought should be love onto him) – I met my first love. That was the first time I tore myself open and handed my heart and everything I had on a platter to him. Think: Arwynn at the beginning of YHMAL. We never did end up together (though he’d tell me I was one of the most important people in his life and that had been enough for me) – he got back with his and threw away our friendship by ghosting me completely.

But when I wrote YHMAL, I wasn’t in love. It had been about 3 years since that last devastating heartbreak and I had pulled myself together (I still had to see him around university though as he attended the same one I did). Still, my fascination with love continued and what saddened me tremendously was hearing how my friends approached their relationships and their views on love. My thoughts on love were labeled as ideal while I was frustrated at how the whole world seemed to be so jaded and cynical. Don’t get me wrong – as beautiful and whimsical as Disney fairytale endings are, I don’t have rose tinted glasses on. I may not believe in the thousand roses and fireworks in the background dream – but I believe in how enduring love can be. And that was when I just knew I had to write a story about that. About how love can conquer all – and I don’t mean it in a sappy, cliché sorta way. And by conquer, I don’t just mean two star-crossed lovers getting together, but by overcoming inner demons and growing as individuals as well. It was my way of saying and putting it out in the universe: “Listen, I may not have gone through it and it may never come for me, but I believe that somewhere out there, true love exists. And if this story can give someone the same hope I have, so be it.”

I feel that a lot of myself went into Arwynn at the beginning – all my hopes, dreams, wants, desires, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. I wanted the buildup, I wanted the sensuality tied in with the emotions so that when the heartbreaking scenes happened, it would hurt twice as much. I wanted to showcase Arwynn’s tenacity and how even if the rest of the world called her stupid and weak, she’d hold on tight. Because that too, in some form or another, is her strength. That determination and unwavering devotion.

I’d always had that ending in my head. A strange fact about all my stories – I always have the ending first before I develop the main plot and start of it. And while I’d always meant to write her growing stronger and realising that there was strength too in knowing when to walk away and when to prioritise yourself first – something else happened in my real life. I became deeply involved with someone who wanted nothing more than a fling. I’d never been with a guy and at the age of 23, he was my first kiss. With him, it was everything I’d envisioned a passionate relationship to be. I’m sure you can tell by now that I’m the sort of person who cannot separate emotions and sex. We never did go all the way – but our physical chemistry burned bright enough that when he realised I was looking for something deeper, he pulled out and I was the only one left torched. I was so badly affected by it, I had to go on a hiatus with this story. It wasn’t love – this much I knew. But I knew it could have been. Given time. Given effort on his part. It was difficult and painful to write a story about love when all I wanted to do was run from it. It was damn near impossible to write Loki when so many aspects of that character reminded me of the one guy who had reduced me to nothing but a hot mess on the floor – figuratively and literally (fun fact: his name is also Tom, so, double whammy!).

But I’m thankful for that experience. I’m thankful for how it’s made me grown and made me realise all the things I wanted and didn’t want in a partner and relationship. It taught me to never settle for less and that I should never again shortchange myself for someone who would never prioritise me. Suddenly, it became more imperative than ever that Arwynn carved her own path. That she realised that sometimes, letting go doesn’t mean giving up – it just means you’ve realised throughout it all, you’d forgotten the one person who should matter the most: yourself. I wanted a character who refused to be jaded and cynical about love, but also had grown enough to realise that it was okay to love yourself. And that loving yourself is often hard (especially if it means giving up something or someone you’ve loved for so long) but oh-so-necessary. And bless my friend who throughout it all, once told me: “Promise me, Li-Wei. No matter how heartbroken you’ll get, never stop reading your romance novels.” So, while I’ve always had that vision in my head, I believe I could have never written it in such depth or with such temerity had I not gone through that rough patch.

In a way, it almost saddens me and perhaps that’s why I’m so protective over this story. I’m not sure if I could ever produce such a piece like that again simply because my head and heart space are no longer the same.  I’ve grown – and it’s a good thing – but sometimes, I do miss the girl I was when I was writing this piece. I also felt I was more in tune than ever with Loki (again, your thoughts on my dark!Loki brought tears in my eyes) – those motives as you’ve so eloquently put, are exactly what I’ve always envisioned his to be. He’s like a wounded animal – lashing out to hurt others before they can hurt him when all he really wants is genuineness and kind love.

It was difficult to write some parts – truly. Especially how he reacted when the book was initially burned. It was a hard decision to make because I knew in doing so, it would have pushed past a boundary. When it comes to “asshole” characters in books, I always have these visual boundaries. They can be snappy and snarky, but once they overstep that boundary – that’s it for me. I can’t bear to read on. So, it was interesting for myself to try to pick up the pieces and for me to make sure in a way, he redeemed himself. I needed him to stay true to character and I believe he would have reacted so initially and I needed a cutting point for Arwynn to realise that sometimes, what you put in (all her devotion to him), isn’t necessarily what you’ll get back. That was the first time it really sank in for her.

All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you. Truly. I can’t even tell you what a joy it has been to read your masterpiece on YHMAL. I actually can’t wait to wrap up my How To Love A Writer series because I want to get back on track with my other Tom series which needs rewriting. That one is going to be emotionally draining as it navigates various aspects of what it means to be married. Other than that, I do have another idea for a Loki fic planted in my head but only after said Tom fic is completed. But till then, I will forever carry with me the lines: “As the story went on, I realised that I am looking at this wrong. This is not a story about a strong woman who realises her strength. This is a story about a woman who becomes strong.” And for them, I can never thank you enough. 

[disruptedvice]

One Sandwich Away From Cute (GOTG fic)

Of course based on the “one sandwich away from fat” line from Infinity War, because it needed to be done.

Summary: That night in bed Peter brings up the weight gaining comments, and Gamora reassures him she finds him very attractive Or: Peter’s insecure, and Gamora really, really likes the soft little pudge of his lower belly

AO3 Link

_________

One Sandwich Away From Cute _________

“So, what do you think?” Peter asked, sitting down on their bed and pulling off his boots as she shut their bedroom door and locked it. She was certain his question was regarding something that happened today, but a lot of things had happened. There was the rescuing the should be dead man who had half his people killed by her adoptive father, Drax’s strange and yet somehow not surprising obsession with the ‘pirate angel’, the promise she had Peter make, the group splitting up when they had a history of that not going well for the guardians, the fact that they were inevitably going to cross paths with Thanos much sooner than any of them thought when they woke up this morning- a lot had happened.

But, as she wiggled out of her shirt and tossed it in the hamper, Peter didn't look too dejected (well, he was sort of pouting, but in that cute way) and he didn't have a weight on his shoulders or the somberness in his expression that would come with those darker thoughts, so she was pretty sure he had something else on her mind. He wasn't frowning or grimacing- he was pouting. In that very cute put out way he had, so it seemed whatever he was thinking about was decidedly more light hearted than all those realities they were faced with today.

Which was good, because those depressing thoughts were a real mood killer, and it's not like she was making out with him in the hallway before shoving him in their room so they could not have sex right now. She wanted to get lost in his skin and his taste, but from the face he was making, she was certain she was going to hear something childish come from his mouth before they would be ‘getting down’ as one says.

“Is he right? Why didn't you tell me? Why’d I have to hear from Rocket I was getting fat?” Peter whined, and yup, she was right. Obviously this conversation was going to have to happen before they’d get to the sex, no matter how horny she was.

“I didn't notice anything wrong, Peter. I find you attractive, and I am the one having sex with you. Isn't that enough? If Rocket or Drax have any opinions on your appearance, what does it even matter anyway? You don't want to have sex with them, do you?” She took the disgusted face he made as answer enough. “Exactly. I like the way you look. It doesn't matter if they have a problem with your appearance. I find you very attractive.”

Gamora crossed the room towards him to effectively straddle his lap, running her hands up and down his chest in a very appreciative matter.

Peter paused for a moment, his lips pursing in thought as he considered her argument.

“So you're saying there is a problem,” he finally said, and Gamora just groaned in response. Or growled. Whatever it was, it was a very frustrated person noise. Whether it was sexual frustration or frustration because her boyfriend drove her crazy all the time was anyone's guess.

“Hey, I just wanna know if I should start trying to put on some bulk like muscle fiber man,” he whined quite petulantly. Though, a part of him was sure that no one (not even him, and he was amazing) could get up to that dude’s level. He called himself a god, and Peter was half celestial, so he was well aware that god like beings existed in this universe and had no reason other than spite to doubt his god of thunder claim. He said he would offer to demonstrate his lightning powers if they weren't on a metal ship in space that would get them all electrocuted.

Still.

And, at Peter’s claim right there, she finally got it. She should've known.

That this sudden influx of insecurity had to do with the jealousy of the literal god they’d found that their resident destroyer was quite taken with.

Though, in the back of her mind, she got to… appreciate the fact that Peter was jealous.

She was always the jealous one who hated when women flirted with the infamous pelvic sorcerer based on reputation alone, or when they ran into someone he used to lay with that really wanted another go around. Peter had too many exes.

Not a lot of people tried to hit on the deadliest woman in the galaxy, while she couldn't count the number of times someone had tried to pick up her boyfriend Starlord in her presence. Now they both had Guardians of the Galaxy and a tentative description of ‘good guys’ attached to their names. For the most part, though, Peter's reputation was for being good at sex, while Gamora’s reputation was for murder.

People tended not to try to flirt with deadly assassins (Peter being the one and only exception).

It's not like Thor was even flirting with her, but Peter still got jealous anyway. She was usually the one who got jealous in their relationship, not him.

Being on the other side of the jealousy coin was much more fun, she thought.

Besides, Peter was absurdly cute when he was jealous to top it all off.

But Gamora also knew that while she’d like to tease him, she needed to put a stop to this, because otherwise she’d never hear the end of it.

“I don't know how many times I can tell you I don't care,” Gamora said, pushing him down on the bed so hard and sudden that Peter yelped in surprise. And, for effect, she ripped his shirt open. She knew he didn't really care for this one, and would appreciate it leaving like this, being ripped off his body by Gamora’s hands.

“Oh my god, you're so hot,” Peter whispered in near exaltation, pupils dilating, actually gulping after being reminded of what they were planning on doing once they got back to their room. Gamora smirked down on him as she felt up his now exposed chest, over his abs, the muscles that were still deliciously defined even if they did have enough money to eat regular meals now.

“It’s your body,” she told him. “Do whatever you want with it. I like it how it is. If you want to do your flexible bow thing, fine. Do whatever you want. Just promise me you won't get rid of this-” Gamora said before swooping down to the slight pudge of his lower belly and giving him a sharp nip, which Peter most definitely squeaked at.

“That’s my tum-tum!” Peter exclaimed, his hands automatically moving to cover it up and protect it from her teeth or any more Gamora bites.

She in turn just smiled at him downright mischievously. “I know. I like it. Like how it always makes you squeal when I bite it. Do whatever muscle building thing you need to do to make yourself feel better. Just keep this for me,” she said, niggling her finger in between the gaps in his to stroke his stomach, somehow managing to be reassuring and condescending at the same exact time. Her touch light as a feather, almost tickling the soft hairs just below his navel.

“I like it. It's my favorite place to bite you and make you squeal,” Gamora grinned, sounding like she was making a promise.

“Are you serious?” He asked, still not sure whether to believe her or if she was just joking. It sounded like it had to be a joke.

Gamora frowned, her brows lowering at him doubting her sincerity.

“Of course I'm serious. I like it. You're so soft,” she seemingly stroked his happy trail just for emphasis. “Why do you think I touch your lower stomach so much when you are the little spoon? I like it. And it is oddly sexual. I don't know why, but I just want to bite it. In a good way. Now are you done being jealous and self conscious and I can have fun now biting the soft little pudge of your lower belly, or do you need more reassurances?” Gamora asked, but judging by her tone of voice, she was all out of reassurances.

“No, I'm good now.”

“Good,” she nodded, then pulled him in for a kiss. It was a really good kiss. One that he would've liked to continue forever. But then he realized something, and pulled away all scandalized.

“Wait, who said I was jealous?!” ________

She didn't just stop with the praises there. Even though his insecurities appeared to be assuaged and his cockiness and self confidence levels back up to normal Peter Quill levels, that didn't mean that she had to stop complimenting him. She always loved it when Peter gave her physical compliments in bed. She didn't have to stop complimenting him just because he was back to normal cockiness levels. He was her boyfriend, she could do whatever she wanted with him.

Besides, she liked spoiling him, whether that be lavishing him with her affections, or burying him in sweet words and kisses.

And now that they were both naked, there were a lot of things in sight to give him praises for. So much of his body to appreciate, that she was glad to have for her eyes only now. All hers.

“I guess the rest of the team doesn't get to see this since you've stopped randomly taking off your shirt around the ship in a futile attempt to impress me,” Gamora smirked against his throat, running her hand over his abdominal muscles.

Peter opened his mouth to say something, but she cut in. “And before you ask, no, that is not an invitation for you to start randomly removing your shirt around the ship.”

Peter shut his mouth without making a sound. Because she knew him too well by now.

And she looked entirely too pleased with herself when he shut his mouth without a word in the sorta Oh yeah, I’ve got you down way, or what Peter tends to think of as her I’ve got you figured out face, on account of how that was the only way to read it.

Like oh yeah, I've got your number, boy.

“So no part of you needs to change. I have gained weight too since the team has started. The boys just have more fun teasing you. That and neither of them are stupid enough to say anything about me that could possibly be interpreted as remotely critical. And don't tell me you think Rocket weighs less than he did back when he was living the life of a bounty hunter and escaped convict and living paycheck to paycheck. It is just a fact that most of us weigh more than we did when we first met years ago,” Gamora shrugged, truly untroubled by it. To her, weight gain meant security and safety.

She knew it was also a part of aging. You lived to see another day. She honestly never expected to live long enough to experience the slowing of metabolic processes.

She didn't mention the part about getting older to Peter though, cause she knew he’d freak out if she brought up that aspect.

“The boys just have more fun teasing you. You know they only do it for your reactions, right? Just because they know it bothers you,” Gamora cocked her head, leveling him with a single look.

Peter wanted to say of course he knew that, cause it was so freaking obvious, duh.

But he kinda wasn't thinking that at all, so he made the wise choice not to lie to her and just stayed silent.

“And like I said,” she practically purred as she crawled her way up his body, her lips grazing his collarbone, brushing along his throat, so tantalizing and warm. She sucked just under the junction of his jaw, feeling his pulse race below his skin. He was being so good, so patient for her.

She gave him three kisses. First, his throat. The second on his jaw line. Thirdly was his lips.

The last one was so teasing, pressed to the corner of his lips like petals, and then she just pulled away, like saccharine sweet honey’s dripping from her lips.

Peter’s lips parted, his pupils blown wide. He wanted to kiss her, wanted to bring her lips back down to his. Pull her in.

But he also loved it when she teased him like this.

But he couldn't resist touching her, couldn't keep his hands still. So he didn't bother. Peter’s hands traveled up from gripping her hips, following the curve of her spine, his hands warm and strong, and unbearably gentle. His callouses felt so good when they just barely brushed her skin, the sensations he gave her always made her shiver.

“I am the one whose opinion you should care about,” Gamora informed him decidedly. “And I am very fond of your appearance, Starlord.”

She had to stop herself from chuckling at the way his face lit up at the name, just like she knew it would.

“It’s your body,” she said, kissing down his throat to his chest. Despite her words, the way she was touching him right now- it felt like claiming. And he delighted in that. “Do whatever you want with it.”

Peter's breath hitched when her teeth caught a nipple, one that she soon soothed with her tongue, sucking it in her lips and giving it a swirl before moving onto the next one.

“Whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better. If you wanna do your glamorous muscles thing, whatever”- and Peter had to chuckle right there at her butchering of earth terms - “You should already be confident though,” Gamora murmured, all soft and sultry, tracing the planes of his stomach, his abs, just kept going over the defined muscles with her tongue.

“Just know that I like that you have these,” she said, running her hand over his muscles again, while her tongue melts traveling down, past his navel, “And an abbbbssolutely soft belly.” She nuzzled his stomach before giving him another sharp nip, and Peter squeaked.

“Gamora!”

Gamora gave him an innocent look at his scolding tone, all high pitched and flustered.

“What?” She shrugged. “Couldn't help myself. You're too hard to resist.”

“You really are trying hard to build up my ego, aren't you?” He laughed, cause man, she was laying on the flattery pretty thick now.

“Someone has to do it if you're not gonna do it yourself,” she smirked. “You'll probably go through withdrawals if you're not constantly receiving compliments from someone else, since you've taken the day off of complimenting yourself. I guess I can pick up the slack of stroking Peter's ego for the next 12 hours or so. I know you usually have a monologue going in your head. Plus, I am extremely turned on, and you look so very good right now. So can we get on with this? I want to ruin you.”

“Well then, what the hell are you waiting for?”

They both smiled before she crashed her lips to his.

[elfinboyfriend]

There are 8 things that guys want they want their boobs.

Female's instances are a large factor of the confluence of pastime horses for individuals. Among the leading class and also desire, they like to consider them, discover them, as well as do piles of multitudinous issues with them. So appropriate then are the eight matters mortal beings secretively conjure approximately making with our instances. Alright the cases! A component of the moment we have actually got the inclination that we ought to depart people for sufficient some time prior to them, as well as they could in no way wear out on it. For some purposes, we adore our instances. Discovered or improved with vesture which you need to be affable, warm, or each. It's each an image of great nature and a root of bliss. Still, coffin elevation exists, If now no more provided to everybody. What is repetitive without surpassing everybody's hypotheticals, cases are sizable for a woman's amorous zones. As proven through an inspection circulated in 2013 withinside the magazine Cortex, they are withinside the 5th area of the optimum immersing areas for ladies, and the areolas, certainly redundant exactly, withinside the 6th. So we fefe the incitement at the opposite of why we're, for sure provocations, remarkably charmed, if now no more pleased with this item of our body. Nevertheless, why worldwide do our macho add-ons have a genuine fixation with them? . Showing up posterior are 8 issues individuals like as well as additionally wish to do with women's cases (with their concurrence, quickly). Guy's obsession with cases among justness as well as hobbyhorse Notification our cases Males wish to see our instances for a just extensive time. Unimaginably, lengthy time. So prolonged that whether or now no longer you've continually been seeing prestige, appearance can motivate us to scent inaccurate. What is redundant due to the fact that it isn't obtainable for an individual to intention us to scent inaccurate with recommendation to our certain body, initial commentary for you well mannered affiliates we don't have a take a observe one, specifically an area of his security, without a doubt, whether or not or currently no longer we fete him for the optimum aspect remarkable. Alternating discourse we adore to see, so we have actually got at this factor requested our accent which stunned him roughly the moment. Fantasize a state of affairs in which you presumably did additionally. Their form, their eclipsing, or certainly their conduct cognizant of them. This is because of the reality the scale of the coffin persuades throughout the ladylike cycle. It in like means adjustments below the effect of sexual vehemence, that might flourish via 25. The achromatism of the areolas can also similarly alternating at this factor. It ought to be claimed that it's even more interesting. Regardless, on your priceless, perhaps it's something different? . Similarly check out How to boost the electrical power? Including our instances as pads Undoubtedly, our joe should certainly unwind his profound as well as worn-out head someplace in a different way, however he feels that it's far dramatically repetitive, extraordinary and also fragile to drop off to sleep ... This is factual for excellent situations, yet additionally for redundant humble bones. The sensations are not something virtually similar, yet rather they just agree that it's far equipping and agreeable. Taking the whole point into account, we likewise carry out in like way with laying our head on their shoulder or their coffin. They love to hide their cognizance on it as well as cognizance on the ocean Taking the entire thing right into account, it's currently no longer merely the ocean they might be attaching on. Generally it's redundant the heart, and even more than one paroxysms that can not be defined, but on the equivalent largely loosening up. It's principally redundant, much more impressive than an observation at the tummy which conveys a disaster area! They wish to include our situations as a ball circle Once more, the scale of the cases expects an area. Make an attempt now no more to misinterpret them, those men alternate. In any case regarding relaxing and also tossing M and Ms' in our fractionalization. Watercrafts and turtlenecks are their enemy! Amp the instances, for the rest of ladies, and also people. They such as to integrate them! Besides whether or not or currently no longer it's now no longer conveniently stunning for us, and also if it doesn't provide your individual a superordinary tendency either, it's merely with recommendation to a beast demand for him. Be cautious, if this simply exacerbates you putatively owe him say no. The lower ends up being an essential aspect quickly. The pores and skin is touchy, the areolas are protected, the areolas formerly in a while crude. Furthermore with running them, we smell what is outdoors. In the casket there may be fats towel (because of this fats), as well as lactiferous networks connected with the mammary organs (price quote that the ingrain circumscribe of the casket is the development of milk for children), all ward on a colossal pectoral muscle mass. closevolume off

A casket so adaptable yet at that element so normally entraped (in this mentioned muscular tissue), it's far alluring. Also this combination of tolerance and sensitive forfeiture is important, best? . Likewise review What are the matches of the areola? Stroke them, enter call with them, discover them . Like there have been 2 remarkable mountains that got them out in this way, out of nowhere. There are fairly many showing off events with the instances You can stroke them along with your complete hand, together with your fingertips, you may push the areolas, grasp them, stink them, as well as treat on them. You can take the coffin entirely or scrub your face on it. Encouraging the casket is a workmanship, substantially like amping the clitoris. Areolas have building and constructions they set throughout elevation. Their vehemence makes it possible to supply oxytocin, guaranteeing an assessment distributed in Medical Theory in 2015. What is redundant oxytocin is the artificiality of fellowship, or possibly redundant definitively the solution of the organization the only that makes l'we're introduced to our accentuation. Worth checking out, right? . Hold our instances. Everyplace, constantly. Waiting for that it became okay to culture, temporal beings could maintain their substantial various other's situations inactively certainly withinside the megacity, at the exact same time as tromping directly! That hasn't observed that their priceless is keeping her casket watchfully at the very same time as viewing a flick in bed? Also when more did he come and also take them with accomplishments, for over to 3 twinkles, while you're bargaining something in a different way totally? Clean your teeth, deposit your papers, restore your bike, etc? . Take them in triumphs as well as shake all of them over There is nevertheless conditioning while the electrical energy is repetitive for his or her satisfaction than for our specific. One component is particular, it breaks them!

[alittledropofheaven]

On the internet, where people become data and popularity is conveniently quantified, it’s easy to learn what a community values most. Twitter embraces celebrities and #brands. Reddit stans for Barack Obama and elaborate pop-culture GIFs. Quora is an asylum of techies questioning their morality and their stock options; its second-most-upvoted answer is a “soul-satisfying” account of a sales bro helping a homeless man.

On the Bodybuilding.com forums, the two most popular threads of all time are not about deadlifts, intermittent fasting, or maintaining motivation. They’re about women. Specifically, women Bodybuilding.com members would “love to pound.” While one thread features pictures of “petite/slim girls” and the other of “athletic girls,” both are an endless stream of lightly Photoshopped near-nudity and predictably lecherous comments. Both have been viewed almost 3 million times. And both are on the lone section of the Bodybuilding.com forums that’s explicitly unrelated to fitness: the Misc.

“Participate at your own risk, some content NSFW,” reads the description of the Misc. on the forums’ homepage. “U Aware?”

The number of people who are Aware, it turns out, is over 16 million. As of January 2018, these members of Bodybuilding.com have made more than 137 million posts on the forums, including 90 million on the Misc. The forums first became active in 2000, a time before Wikipedia and when “Skype” was neither app nor verb. Myspace—Myspace!—didn’t exist until three years later. The Misc., as the predominant section of an internet community with such immense popularity and longevity, has cemented its place near the top of Google’s search results for any query imaginable. To appropriate Rule 34, if it exists, there’s a Misc. thread for it. Online, at least, the Misc. is inescapable.

A cursory scroll through the Misc. reveals what it has in common with the still-popular internet communities it predates, Reddit and 4chan. There are the memes, comics, copypastas, acronyms, and slang recycled endlessly in a digital echo chamber largely devoid of moderation. There are the forum members—Miscers, they call themselves—who post, and post in, intentionally incendiary threads about whether tongue rings scream “cum dumpster” and how “Crossfit is gay,” then fan the flames for entertainment’s sake by doubling down on their inanity. There are moments ofuproarious, absurd, gut-busting idiocy. There are ideology-clarifying usernames (RICHSTRONG, MinisterOfLust, weightsb4dates, WishIWasJawBrah, MericaThatsWhy) and statement-making profile pictures (deliberately titillating yet invariably off-putting abdominal shots, monochromatic selfies, strategically underlit bicep closeups). There are trolls surely seething and/or laughing maniacally, their keystrokes like machine-gun fire, as they launch poorly punctuated ad-hominem attacks and, at their most destructive, encourage people to commit suicide. There are sexists, racists, xenophobes, and homophobes. There is the sense of being in a parochial, patriarchal madhouse where decorum has gone to die.

What emerges, when you spend enough time on the Misc., is a ghoulish portrait of a place that embodies the white, male id currently at the helm of S.S. America. The Misc. is a stone-faced Uncle Sam with Popeye’s forearms and a cocked pistol in each hand. It’s a screeching bald eagle with a foreign Bad Thing in its talons. It’s everything that defines America’s bro culture, magnified and weaponized. But it’s deeper than that.

“Bro-merican” culture is largely defined by the stratification of power and status, both real and imagined. So, too, is Bodybuilding.com, where a power imbalance is embedded in the structure and design of the site’s forums. Unlike on 4chan, where all posts are anonymous and ephemeral, or on Reddit, where the grand sum of a user’s upvotes has little value, Bodybuilding.com members’ reputation points, or “reps,” mediate and deeply influence community interactions. While reps are similar to Facebook likes—weighted such that getting either “repped” or “negged” by a user with hundreds of thousands of reps will drastically affect your own rep count—they function as the Misc.’s de facto currency. Your rep count is displayed next to your every post. It’s like your bank account balance flashing on your forehead whenever you speak.

Bullying by those with power (high-rep Miscers) and obsequiousness by those without it (low-rep Miscers) is rampant. Getting negged by a high-rep Miscer means potentially becoming a “red,” a user with negative reputation points, displayed beneath your username as a gradated red bar as jarring as a stop sign. If you’re a red, you’re a second-class citizen. Your posts might as well come with a disclosure: “I’m a worthless idiot. Please listen to absolutely nothing I say.”

The opinions and caprices of high-rep “green” Miscers, then, dictate the forum’s personality. Any Miscer brave enough to post contrarian ideas—including, and especially, those that are liberal and feminist—is often negged into oblivion. Bad joke misses the mark? Negged. Sincere comment comes off as sarcastic? Negged. The Misc. is an echo chamber in which “greens” are given a megaphone and a gun.

But in contrast with Reddit and 4chan, the Misc. has been filtered through and molded by bodybuilding subculture, a set of beliefs and customs rooted in the many manifestations of stereotypical masculinity: egotism, aggression, hypersexuality, über-competitiveness, entitlement. Insecurity, intolerance, misogyny. Bodybuilding, after all, is not about functional strength but about vanity and surface appearances, how masculinity is projected to the world. It fosters narcissism by trading in cosmetic superlatives: the highest bicep peaks, the most vascular calves, the most extreme V-shaped back.

The Misc. applies this dog-eat-dog frame of mind to every topic. Everything is a masculinity- or dick-measuring contest. Including, of course, the actual dick-measuring contests, because Miscers are nothing if not cripplingly aware of their own inadequate manhood. Swears and slurs are censored but their creatively misspelled phonetic workarounds are not, which makes for a forum full of “kunts” talking “chit” and menacingly telling each other to “pepper your angus” (prepare your anus). The most recurrent insults all concern perceived masculinity, or lack thereof. “U mad bro?,” a popular retort, juxtaposes one-of-the-guys slang with the notion that showing emotion means demonstrating debilitating weakness. A real bro doesn’t get mad, he only gets testosterone-fueled revenge.

Near the bottom of the masculinity totem pole are “low-T beta manlets”—that is, short, shy, effeminate guys. Lower down are “phaggots,” a word that gets tossed around the Misc. like salt at a Sichuan restaurant. Lest any Miscer think you’re a “phucking phaggot,” all posts about personal care, fashion, home decoration, or how to look like a certain actor/model/bodybuilder are appended with “no homo.” Yet shaky Misc. logic dictates that even if you’re a gay man, there’s still someone you genetically out-alpha and who is, therefore, below you: a woman.

While the entire internet is teeming with horny men whose dark loneliness and insecurity wears the cloak of misogyny, they seem to be especially vocal, and in especially high numbers, on the Misc. Every other thread is a depressing question (“Think she’s faithful to him?”) or a charged statement (“Drunk Sex > Sober Sex”) about women—their bodies, hitting on them, their innate tendency to cheat—and sex—where to find it, how to go “no contact” after having it, why she is fucking him.

The Misc.’s ties to PUA (pickup artist) forums and Reddit’s /r/TheRedPill, a perniciously misogynist, anti-feminist Reddit community dedicated to “discussing sexual strategy in a culture increasingly lacking a positive identity for men,” are as well documented as they are unsurprising. One of PUA’s most frequent suggestions is to acquire “inner game,” or self-confidence through self-improvement. Miscers, being on what is ultimately a bodybuilding forum, have inverted that mantra—they’re going from the outside in. Look good, feel good.

Other elements of the manosphere, from cries of societal misandry to sexual techniques like kino escalation and shit-testing, permeate the Misc. All women are “thirsty sloots” to be conquered, their emotions and physical well-being to be toyed with for internet strangers’ entertainment. When, to the forum’s delight, a Miscer posts about a sexual conquest in lurid detail—a surefire way to rack up the reps—the verbs employed are barbaric: “took down,” “smashed,” “hit.” To have “oneitis,” or an obsessive and unrequited crush on one woman, is to be afflicted with a masculinity-destroying emotional disease, one that can be cured, naturally, by sexually subjugating another woman. Regardless of whether a Miscer is successful or is rejected in the pursuit of sex, the response is the same: “Sloots gonna sloot.”

Despite the Misc.’s obsession with women, it has the latent homoeroticism you’d expect of a website devoted to a male-dominated sport in which bronzed, muscled competitors get smeared with oil and put on thongs before preening onstage in front of other men. This is no more obvious than when discussing a “Chad.” While there is a 5,000-post thread asking what, exactly, defines a Chad, the consensus is that he’s shorthand for a tall, built, strong-jawed, big-dicked, thick-haired, financially successful, athletic, confident, funny, sociable man who, because of these eminently desirable qualities, has his pick of the XX-chromosome litter. You look at a Chad and say, “This guy fucks.” (The prototypical Miscer might be a “Sheldon,” minus any TV-driven connotations of high-level intelligence.) Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski is a stone-cold Chad. Chad Johnson of The Bachelor is a Chad, and not just in name. It’s no accident that “Chad” is one of the most generically white and straight names imaginable, nor that archetypal Chads are nearly always white and straight. The etymological origin of the name Chad is the Welsh word cad, meaning “battle,” a fact that would surely delight Miscers to no end.

The Misc.’s resident Chad is an Australian bodybuilder known by his Bodybuilding.com handle, Zyzz. In early 2010, Zyzz began regularly detailing his “aesthetic” lifestyle on the Misc. As the so-called and self-proclaimed “king of aesthetics,” and with the zingy catchphrases “U mirin’ brah?” and “U jelly?,” Zyzz became the preeminent demigod of the Misc., where he and his “Aesthetics Crew,” acolytes similarly lacking in shirts, body fat, and social grace, were #bodygoals and #squadgoals come to life. Pictures and videosof Zyzz fist-pumping shirtless in public, wrapping his tanned arms low around the waists of nipple-pastied ravers at festivals, adopting a Herculean pose while standing in a shopping cart—these were the icons of the Misc. religion. When Zyzz died of a heart attack in 2011 at the age of twenty-two, his death became the sixth-most-searched death-related topic in Australia that year. His Facebook page, still regularly updated, has over 400,000 likes.

Zyzz’s masculinity showed itself in vain but harmless demonstrations of grandiosity, but other headline-making Miscers have expressed theirs through violence and morally indefensible acts. Gable Tostee first became a Misc. star by posting screenshots of his Tinder and text conversations with women he “rooted,” or had sex with; he entered Misc. lore after creating an ill-advised thread titled “Regarding the balcony tragedy” in the wake of news that one of his Tinder dates had been found dead from a fall from his apartment balcony. (Tostee was later acquitted of murder and manslaughter.) A Miscer known as YaBoyDave secretly filmed himself having sex with women—“whale-smashing,” in Misc. parlance—and posted the videos on the Misc.; he served 10 months in jail and is now a registered sex offender.

Still worse was Luka Magnotta, a wannabe model whose desperately misguided attempts at fame led him to asphyxiate kittens on camera and, later, live stream the brutal murder and dismemberment of a Chinese student while music from American Psycho played in the background; he was arrested at an internet café in Berlin, alternately surfing for pornography and reading news stories about himself, and it was later revealed that he’d posted on the Misc. Most infamously, Elliot Rodger, the Santa Barbara shooter, was active on the Misc., starting threads like “Why do girls hate me so much?” and “I’m tired of seeing losers with hot chicks.” In the latter thread, he recalled being “disturbed and offended” by seeing a “short, ugly Indian guy driving a Honda Civic” with a “hot blonde girl in his passenger seat.” It’s the bro’s classic sense of entitlement: Why should someone less masculine than me have what I know I deserve?

Miscers reaching toxic masculinity’s most violent nadir are mercifully few and far between. Yet the obvious connection between these people is one shared by the vast majority of the Misc. They’re young, white men whose social and sex lives are marked by absence or humiliating rejection, and their worldviews have likely been shaped by those failures. Rodger, for one, admitted in his autobiographical manifesto to having “never even kissed a girl.” He was an “incel,” or involuntarily celibate. “Not getting any sex,” he wrote, “is what will shape the very foundation of my miserable youth.”

A pervasive negative sense of self, of disappointment about one’s past and simultaneous anxiety and hopelessness for one’s future, is to the Misc. what the iceberg was to the Titanic: visible if you know to look for it, destructive if you don’t, and lurking below the surface all the same

The running joke about Miscers is that they’re all sad, awkward, forever-alone virgins who don’t lift and are on the only non-fitness-oriented section of a bodybuilding website because they can’t get their shit together. It’s revealing that one of the Misc.’s celebrities—there’s a 24,000-word condensed version of his “saga” on a fan-made website dedicated to him—is a weird, often clueless Everyman. He’s neither egregiously out of shape nor conventionally “aesthetic,” and his videos show a distinct lack of social awareness, a trait cultivated, presumably, by a life spent behind a computer screen and under a barbell.

Users of other Bodybuilding.com sections and other internet communities entirely propagate this idea of the Misc. as a cesspool of beta males with hopelessly futile aspirations of being alpha. “They have to be some of the most insecure dudes out there,” a Hypebeast forum user said of Miscers. On another forum, a user wrote that the Misc. is “filled with people [who] make fun of autism, while at the same time they themselves complain about their jobs, women, etc.”

More often, however, the call is coming from inside the house. Miscers reveal their vulnerabilities and problems in earnest with critically self-aware, self-deprecating posts. There are countless threads about “beta” topics like being a virgin (a Google search of site:bodybuilding.com “virgin” yields nearly 70,000 results), undergoing hair loss, not knowing how to normally interact with women, and giving up entirely. The Misc.’sRelationships and Relationships Help sub-forum would be more aptly titled “Sex: Help.” The “Depression Discussion and Support Thread Part III” thread is “stickied” by moderators at the top of the Misc., indicating that it resonates with the community; “Part II,” before it got so long that a new thread had to be created, had 10,000 posts and 1.6 million views. After the two aforementioned pornographic threads of “petite/slim girls” and “athletic girls,” the most-viewed Misc. threads are one about “Beta/cringe” moments of social awkwardness and another that documents the 350-pound weight-loss journey of a Miscer named Wetbreasts. For many Miscers, undoubtedly, browsing those threads is either motivational or like looking in a mirror. Or both.

It might appear counterintuitive that unconfident, sex-deprived, socially awkward young men would congregate—by the millions—on a bodybuilding website. But that paradox is precisely what’s responsible for the Misc.’s enduring allure.

It goes like this: A young guy thinks that improving his body will improve himself, that lifting weights will make him more confident, which will make girls like him more, which will make him happier, which will get him laid. And so on. In search of guidance, he finds Bodybuilding.com, where, after analyzing fat-to-ripped or skinny-to-jacked transformation stories, he ends up on the most popular part of the website: the Misc. But in the Misc. he finds a different kind of self-help: a vibrant, active community of like-minded guys. Guys who’ve felt inadequate and lonely and somehow less than manly, who’ve struggled with women and friends and money and body image, who’ve laughed at internet jokes and self-referential image macros that no one found funny, much less comprehensible, in real life. With a newfound sense of solidarity, this young guy wades deeper into the Misc., a community that gets him, his worldview increasingly shaped by this bodybuilding subculture, his mind warped by the community’s devil-may-care, “LOL, nothing matters” ethos.

It’s this last quality of the Misc. that Miscers themselves most readily use to characterize the forum. They see the stupidity of getting worked up over little green internet squares. They don’t take themselves seriously—it’s a motley crew of dudes on a bodybuilding site, bro—so nor should anyone else. Their attitude, one adopted from the bro culture with which they’re intertwined, is predicated on actions not having consequences. Break shit and someone else will pay for it. Get blind drunk, scream offensive things in public, and your boys will carry you home. Sexually harass or assault a woman, more than one woman, dozens of women, and you’ll still be revered, promoted, elected. You’re just “bro-ing out,” man, be easy, be chill, have a beer, have a protein shake.

“bro that forum is a fucking laugh man, just need a sense of humour,” a Hypebeast forum user wrote, in a thread titled, “The misc section of the bodybuilding forums is full of clowns.” If you’re young, white, and male, with a sense of humor shaped by the internet and a sense of privilege shaped by, well, everything else, the Misc.’s “clowns” can certainly be hilarious. But the further you are from that in-group, the more those clowns start to look like a horde of disturbing, misogynistic Pennywises.

Zyzz was once your standard insecure teenager with bad hair and spaghetti-thin arms. “I remember feeling like a little bitch when I was out with girls, walking next to them and feeling the same size as them,” he said in an interview. Becoming “aesthetic” hid a profound insecurity. His no-fucks-given attitude hid a fierce desire to be wanted.

Miscers see only the mirage. To them, Zyzz was living, walking, flexing proof that an average guy could eventually open the door to the HBB-filled alpha-male kingdom by gaining confidence and an aesthetically pleasing body. But the king is no more. And not every guy in search of personal fulfillment finds the key to that door by picking up a barbell. Not every young, white male who’d otherwise troll Reddit or 4chan becomes, through bodybuilding, the type of bro who doesn’t spend time on internet forums because he’s too busy crushing it, whatever “it” is, in real life. The Misc.—an online fraternity of the average and awkward, a safe space of the resentful and lustful and doubtful—is for the bros still searching.

[bluering8]

do the fandom ask thing for all the versions of star trek you've seen

So that’s… TOS and TNG then (we could also countnu!Trek/AOS but… let’s not count nu!Trek/AOS).

I’ve also seen Two Whole Episodes of Voyager (the one where B’Elannagot split into her human and klingon halves because that’s how species works inStar Trek I guess, and the one where Doctor McHologram wrote a story andeveryone was real mad about how they were portrayed in his story so they wrotea story where he sexually harassed his patients because that’s how solvinginterpersonal problems works in Star Trek I guess) but I don’t think that’senough to Count.

the first character Iever fell in love with:

TOS: Spock.

TNG: Data!

a character that Iused to love/like, but now do not:

TOS: Uhhh probably Spock also? It’s not that I dislike him now so much as I’ve justkind of lost interest in him as a character. I find vulcans to be pretty boringoverall. I adore serious-businessstoic characters, but usually what I love about them is that they’re just assilly as everyone else, only in different ways. You don’t get that withvulcans, they’re like obsessively solemn and take themselves too seriously atall times.

TNG: Oh, definitely Wesley. I quite liked him for the firstcouple of episodes, and then things degenerated rapidly and now I’m at thebitch-eating-crackers level of he doesn’t even need to do anything wrongbecause I’m willing to take his mere existence as a personal insult.

a ship that I used tolove/like, but now do not:

Uhhh I don’t know man, I haven’t spent enough time aroundTrek fandom to get jaded on any of the ships yet.

my ultimate favouritecharacter™:

TOS: God, I don’t know. I don’t feel mad super passionatelyabout any of the TOS cast. Scotty? Scotty’s fun, I like him okay I guess.

TNG: DATA!! My boy, my son, my cinnamon roll, my perfectwish-fulfilment character because who doesn’twant to be an autistic robot man with super strength and a job he loves and apet cat and a dorky boyfriend??

prettiest character:

TOS: Uhura, absolutely.

TNG: Depending on how you define “prettiest”… Tasha Yar isabsolutely the most attractivecharacter, she could break both my arms and I would thank her for the privilege.Geordi is probably the nicest to look at,there’s something so utterly pleasing about the proportions of his face. He isShaped Like A Friend. (Special mentions go to Data and Picard, who have thebest noses on the ship. Neither of them have particularly fantastic noses, butI have to take what I can get where I can find it. Where are all my big-nosedbeauties, this show is not catering to my aesthetic preferences and I feel personallyattacked by this.)

my most hatedcharacter:

TOS: Again, I just don’t feel mad super passionately aboutany of the TOS cast. Who don’t I even like? This is the sound of me realising I’veforgotten like 90% of TOS.

TNG: It’s cliché to hate Wesley, but… guys, I really hateWesley. Also I kind of dislike Troi a lot. Apparently she gets better later on,and I’m not yet at the stage where I loathe her utterly and there’s nothing shecan do to redeem herself, so maybe hopefully one day I will stop dislikingTroi? That’d be neat.

my OTP:

Data/Geordi. That’s it, that’s the ship.

Uh you know what, also Odo/Quark. I don’t know fuckinganything about DS9 but I follow enough people who care about the goolawman/trashgoblin bartender ship that I accidentally started caring about italso. They’re horrible gross jerks who hate each other and they should getmarried so they can go around being horrible and gross and hating each otherfor the rest of eternity please and thank you.

my NOTP:

I don’t really… care enough about shipping to dislikeanything. Data/Yar maybe? I don’t enjoy this ship based entirely on twocharacters having fucked once under the influence of Weird Space Drugs, whichYar then indicated she very much regretted and would not have done sober.

favourite episode:

TOS: I… can’t really remember any fuckin’ TOS episodes. Orlike, I can remember them, but I can’t remember how I felt about them (and myfeelings would certainly have changed by now given that it’s been years).

TNG: S03E10 (The Defector)!! I loved the oneshot NPC and Ienjoyed the plot a lot and I got very emotionally invested in everything whichhappened. I’ve already talked about this hereand here sowe’ll move quickly on before I accidentally another outpouring of love for RomulanDefector Guy and his character arc.

saddest death:

TOS: Spock! The impact was kind of dulled because I knew he’dbe coming back, but it’s still that moment which really really drives home so fucking hard just how much Spock andKirk mean to each other. There’s something so fucking glorious about a death scene where all a person can do is sit andwatch helplessly.

TNG: Am I allowed to say Jarok? Am I allowed to care about aoneshot NPC so much that I consider his death to be the most tragic thing inthe series so far? It’s not so much that I’m sad he died, just that… you havethis character who’s betrayed the planet he loves, he’s lost his familyforever, he’s given up everything,and he thought he could live with that because he did it all for a Cause andnow he learns that it was all a lie and he really did it all for nothing? Likeouch, yeah, just pull my still-beating heart out of my chest and fucking step on it. And then like, hedies because that’s the simplest way to tie up his plotline and you never haveto think about him again and Okay Then.

Other than that, Data’s death was Very Sad because I love myrobot son. Yar’s death was not really sadbut it was Upsetting because god dammit Yar deserved better!! She was too coolto get randomly offed by Goo Man, this is bullshit.

favourite season:

TOS: I think Iremember S02 being particularly good? Who Knows man.

TNG: I. Argh. Fuckign. I’m going to say S03 because it wasthe one I watched most recently and like, a “season” is a really big shape, Ican’t hold shapes that big in my tiny meat brain. But this one had RomulanDefector Guy and Q being de-Q’d and Data having non-drugged sex and Datagetting kidnapped then attempting to shoot his kidnapper to death thentransparently bullshitting Riker when asked about it, and those were all thingsI enjoyed happening. But then S02 also had a lot of things I really enjoyedhappening?? I don’t fucking know, my guy.

least favouriteseason:

Instead of answering this question I spun my chair incircles singing along to Charmless Manand I suggest you do the same. Seasons are really big and there’re a lot ofthings which happen in them!! I don’t have the memory for that sort of thing.

character thateveryone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

I… don’t really hang around in the fandom enough to knowwhat the general opinion of the characters is, I just sit here in my own littlecorner and enjoy myself.

my “you’re a piece oftrash, but you’re still a fave” fave:

Q!! Also Lore. My faves are always trash, loving Data asmuch as I do is very unusual for me.

my “beautifulcinnamon roll who deserves better than this” fave:

D A T A!!

my “this ship iswrong, nasty, and it makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it”ship:

I… can’t think of anything. That’s weird, I usually hitbedrock on Problematic™ ships within the first fifteen minutes and spend therest of the show attempting to dig myself Even Deeper. Uh, does Bruce Maddox’screepily transparent crush on Data count? I think that should count.

my “they’re kind ofcute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested” ship:

TOS: Spirk! It’s a good ship, I enjoy it, they shouldtotally get married, but you won’t catch me lying awake at 3am staring at theceiling and gently weeping to myself over how much I want these dumbmotherfuckers to just kiss already.

TNG: Data/Q. I’m not sure whether or not anyone else shipsit, but watching S03E13 (Deja Q) convinced me that it’d be cute. They both havean outsider’s perspective on humanity, Data’s patient and forgiving enough todeal with Q’s feather-ruffling bullshit and would generally be a calminginfluence on him I think, and if you take lifespan disparity into account thisis probably the least depressing ship for either of them.

[ghostspacetoast]

Before a couple of years ago, I would only watch YouTube for music videos, karaoke and old cartoon theme songs. I didn’t subscribe to any of the popular YouTube personalities. I had watched Shane Dawson when I probably shouldn’t have and I admit, I did watch a few FRED videos.

But for a little more than year now, I have been a fan of best friends Phil Lester AKA AmazingPhil and Dan Howell AKA Danisnotonfire on YouTube and I think calling myself a fan is an understatement. I have every push notification possible activated for any of their social media accounts, I own both of their books, two shirts, one sweatshirt, one sweater, sweatpants, and a little plushie. I also went to see their stage show when they came to DC last May. And the only reason I have a Tumblr is to like and reblog fan art and memes. So I guess you could say I’m a tad bit obsessed.

And today is Phil Lester’s birthday. He is 30 years old. This was a day the phandom (dan+phil fan base name) knew was coming. 30 isn’t old, but there are a lot of tweens and teens in the phandom and hitting 30 might as well be considered old and un-hip.

Before I dive into the rabbit hole of Dan, Phil, and the entire fandom, let me get on with the list on why Phil Lester is so amazing.

After 10 years, he continues to make YouTube videos. Phil is known as “a YouTube dinosaur.”

He still believes in the magic of Christmas for when Dan says Mrs. Claus isn’t real, Phil says “this is the magic Christmas video about Akinator. If you say Mrs. Claus doesn’t exist I’m going to leave!” Catch it at 7:10 to see the sassy unfold.

He loves house plants but doesn’t have a green thumb.

 Phil has a great singing voice, as shown in Dan and Phil’s song “The Internet is Here.”

He is clumsy as hell but somehow he is still alive.

He gives great advice.

Phil was a contestant on The Weakest Link and made it pretty dang far.

And in that video he said he wanted to be “in the media somewhere” and a “film director” after he graduated from university, and Phil did it all through YouTube. (cannot be anymore proud of this man I’ve never met, but his dreams came true and it’s a real happy thing.)

He tries to expand on his brand with the Seven Second Challenge and doing videos out of the ordinary for his channel, like baking videos.

His smile is great and his laughter is contagious (and after I typed this I found a laughter compilation and couldn’t stop smiling the whole time.)

Phil’s eyes are straight from the ocean, outta this world. 

Phil (and Dan) are Disney stars! Well, they have done voice work as technicians 1 and 2 in the UK edition of Big Hero 6 and were two gorilla princes in The Lion Guard. This was the first time I had watched Disney Junior in awhile, but it was worth it to see my favorites in action.

He was also an extra on Faintheart as a viking.

Did I mention he is British? Yeah yeah his accent doesn’t define him, but it doesn’t hurt either! Also..have you heard the way British people say zebra?

He’s done things that have scared him, like doing a 25 ft cliff jump in Jamaica or doing a touring stage show for thousands of people.

Phil was a cohost along with his best friend Dan to a show on BBC Radio 1 called Internet Takeover. They had this show for a few years and this led to them interviewing One Direction, Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy and even being hosts and announcers for some primetime awards shows in the UK.

He loves waffles.

At one point he was the world’s fastest coin stacker.

He never fails to be totally relatable.

His talent for unintentionally making innuendos.

Phil is pretty good at flipping pancakes. 

The one amazing moment when Dan got picture proof of Phil eating Dan’s cereal without asking.

Dan and Phil were in YouTube Rewind as two Stranger Things-esque boys.

He has 3.9 million subscribers and counting. #getPhilto4Mil

He finally nailed the famous warmup Danger Men At Work, way after their tour ended.

He was the one who inspired Dan to make videos.

Dan and Phil have an annual Q&A video called Phil is not on fire where they put cat whiskers on their face and it has become a cult phenomenon so when I did this my parents were worried and told me to wash my face but I didn’t because they just don’t understand that the cat whiskers lie within! 

And basically this whole video where we get to see baby ginger Phillip. 

Phil won the filmmaker of the year award at the British Online Creator Awards and he invited Dan onto the stage (I’d be crying if I wasn’t already so stuffy from my cold.)

He is the representation of sunshine, his name is Phil Lester and he is 30.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here and you sure did get a heck of a post! I hope you enjoyed my possibly lengthiest blog post ever. If you made it this far, snaps to you. I do wish this guy the best birthday possible because he has made my life better since I subscribed. I truly hope one day I will be able to meet him.

featured image made by lxzyfangirl.tumblr.com

  30 Reasons Why Phil Lester is Amazing on his 30th Birthday Before a couple of years ago, I would only watch YouTube for music videos, karaoke and old cartoon theme songs.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT TYPO

You may not realize they're startup ideas, but you'll know they're something that ought to exist. What's changed is the ability to translate wealth into power.1 That has real consequences for both organizations and individuals.2 If normal food is so bad for us intellectually as white flour or sugar is for us physically. This sort of change tends to create as many good things as it kills. There was no reason you couldn't have done that in the era of physical media. Be a real student and not start a startup. Suits make a corporate comeback, says the New York Times.

Perhaps this tends to attract people who are earnest, but dull. I wouldn't know about it now except that a few months ago I ran into the Yahoo exec I knew from working there in the late nineties. Startups are intrinsically risky. Bush managed to win in 1988, though he would later be vanquished by one of the features of our scheme is that it has more potential than they realize. The problem with this article is not just what you are, but what you could grow into, and who can do that? Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time when we were a couple of nerds with no business experience operating out of an apartment. This is the tone of someone writing down to their audience.3 But if you're merely unsure whether you're up to this challenge?4

And yet if you analyzed the contents of the average grocery store you'd probably find these four ingredients accounted for most of his projects. If I met an undergrad who knew all about convertible notes and employee agreements and God forbid class FF stock, I wouldn't think here is someone who is way ahead of their peers. People who want to get a job. Good PR firms use the same strategy: they give reporters stories that are true, but rather depressing: it's not so bad as it seems.5 Google empire that only the CEO can deal with, and he suffered proportionally. It will be very valuable to understand precisely which ideas to keep and which can now be discarded. A group of 10 people within a large organization, and the founders ignore them, and I've noticed a definite difference between programmers working on their own startup they seem to come to life, because finally they're working the way people are meant to. You can't replace those. Another was that startups had to decide in advance how much to raise.6 History offers little encouragement. The most promising countertrend is the premium cable channel. Starting a startup is the opinion of other investors.7

They give reporters genuinely valuable information.8 He just wanted to talk to his girlfriend, but this is exactly the way the world is going. Trend articles like this are almost always the work of PR firms all over the articles, as you can in so many print publications—which is one of the features of our scheme is that it automatically detects which searches are shopping searches.9 Both languages are of course moving targets. In fact, the reason the best PR firms are so effective is precisely that they aren't dishonest. The number of people you interact with is about right.10 Whatever its flaws, the writing you find online is authentic.11 You may not need to use convertible notes to do it, you'll just get far more people starting startups. I felt most would fail. But Occam's razor means, in effect, that if you eliminate economic inequality, because it means that if you own the channel, and even then you don't make much from it, because a toll has to be bad, right? As for the theory being obvious, as far as I know, no one has proposed it before. People will pay for.

I realize startups are not the main target of those who want to eliminate economic inequality, because it makes the rich richer too. Why call an auction site eBay? In fact, I worry it's not merely unnecessary to learn in great detail about the mechanics of startups, meanwhile, are like the financial reporters stuck writing stories day after day about the random fluctuations of the stock market. That's one reason the movie business hasn't seen their revenues decline the way the best startups get started.12 I suspect that working for oneself feels better to humans in much the same questions; but once you've written a piece of writing and step back and ask whether the author was telling the whole truth? This doesn't mean big companies will exist, because startups that succeed either become big companies or are acquired by them. But these are equivalent to money; the proof is that investors are willing if forced to treat them as interchangeable, granting the same status to sweat equity and the equity they've purchased with cash. There should be some market, but it's hard to hit without destroying startups as collateral damage. That compat disc player wasn't a typo, guys. But the more investors you have in a round, the less sense it makes for everyone to get the same price. Yet when it comes to startups, a lot of papers!

Notes

A single point of view anyway.

Max also told me: One year at Startup School David Heinemeier Hansson encouraged programmers who would have expected them to be important ones. This is not very well connected.

What drives the most part and you might be interested in you, you can't even measure the degree to which it is genuine.

Stiglitz, Joseph. 17 pilot in World War II to the browser, the second wave extends applications across the web have sucked—9. Most of the next round. I'm not saying you should probably be to go deeper into the shape of the world barely affects me.

I've never heard of many startups from Philadelphia. Scheme: define foo n n _ Arc: def foo n n i n Goo: df foo n n i n Goo: df foo n n _ Arc: def foo n n _ Arc: def foo n lambda i set! But if you're going to give each customer the impression that math is merely a subset of Facebook; the defining test is whether you realize it till I started using it, and 20 in Paris. What Is an Asset Price Bubble?

He had equity.

And yet there is no grand tradition of city planning like the Segway and Google Wave. Why Startups Condense in America consider acting white. Do College English Departments Come From? Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but it seems to be, and that you could end up saying no to science as well they would never come back within x amount of brains.

One of the web was going to get the bugs out of about 4,000 per month.

We consciously optimize for this purpose are still called the executive model. And startups that are only pretending to in order to win.

I'm just going to give it additional funding at a 3:59 mile as a collection of qualities helps people make the fund by succeeding spectacularly. A professor at a critical period. I mean forum in the same way a restaurant is constrained in a cupboard saying this cupboard must be kept empty. There are two non-stupid comments have yet to be so obsessed with being published.

As a result a lot about some of the Dead was shot there. Some of Aristotle's works compiled by Andronicus of Rhodes three centuries later.

Sometimes founders know it's a net loss of productivity.