#overexposure can really do a number on you...

[57sfinest]

theoretical entroponetics: the post

okay. LONG post incoming. i have summarized all available information on the pale, separated into confirmed objective truth & in-canon speculation that may or may not be true, and then appended my own very detailed theory on the pale! this post is meant as a resource; please feel free to add things of your own in replies/reblogs (please tag me if you do!) or point out any errors i may have made. you’re welcome to use any of my personal theory in your own work but please credit me if you do!! (and tag me in that/send it to me, i really want to see what you do with it!)

Here’s what we *know* about the pale, according to in-game and concept art: 

It erases data, at least the kind stored on radiocomputer filament and magnetic tapes.

It has no dimensions of its own- pale latitude compressors serve to force dimensions on raw pale and allow navigation. 

The pale is referred to in the context of entropy

It arrived with mankind, but not immediately- there are 8000 years of written history, but the pale was first recorded 6000 years ago, implying that pale either didn’t start forming immediately or that it was so insignificant/distant that it went unnoticed for 2000 years. 

There exists a group of people who are actively trying to expedite entroponetic collapse; the ideology is called entropolism

To this point, pale isn’t immediately visible. Pale has molecular structure, but manifests as a waveform, and only becomes visible at a certain distance from the origin, once wave frequency is sufficiently high. 

During pale exposure, people experience “sense objects”: visual or auditory hallucinations and/or vivid physical recollections of memories. These hallucinations may originate from their own consciousness or someone else’s. c

People require physical and mental examinations before interisolary travel and are allotted a certain number of days per year as their pale exposure threshold. 

Overexposure results in a pale “addiction”- these individuals crave pale exposure, and it’s unclear if this addiction can ever be broken. It’s also unclear whether there is a point at which pale exposure becomes lethal, but given that it dissolves matter, we can be fairly certain that a given length of continuous exposure will kill. 

Radio signals, cold plasma torches and anodic sound are all used to manage the pale to permit travel through it. Plasma torches destabilize the molecular structure of the pale to create gaps, anodic sound widens and maintains these gaps, and radio signals rationalize the pale into recognizable dimensions.

Radio signals are, in return, susceptible to corruption by the pale, resulting in entroponetic crosstalk, where signals from the past or the future are transmitted to the present. CCP is one such phenomenon and is directly related to the formation of new pale through magpie interpretation.

There is a dedicated Union for people who work in and with the pale (the Pale Workers Union). They have two slogans; “The light purifies; The sound absolves; The pale no more” and “Son et Fureur” (sound and fury)

Here’s what we may choose to believe about the pale, based on the thoughts and beliefs of in-game characters:

In conversation with Soona, the pale is described as a “curdling milk” phenomenon: “repulsive, but natural”

In this same conversation you can theorize that the churches were meant to contain the pale origins; out of the seven churches, six were destroyed during the suzerain or the revolution

The phasmid and whatever other lifeforms it’s communicated with believe that entroponetic collapse is comparable to an oxygen holocaust (i.e. the great oxygenation event), implying mass extinction due to a toxic overabundance of sapient thought

Harry refers to it once by saying “The wolf is at the door. It’s going to eat the sun.” so take that as you will

It’s likely that Tiago’s “Mother” is some manifestation from the pale, if you choose to believe that the 2mm hole is in fact a pale origin point (the concept art does confirm it’s a pale origin, but the game offers other explanations, so I won’t say it’s the only answer)

Inframaterialists believe that revolutionary action (NOT thought) may create a counter-force that will prevent the spread of pale; it’s unclear if any reversal is possible.

The world will be fully consumed by the pale in 27 years (I put it here because you may or may not believe that shivers and harry are reliably sourcing this information)

And now my personal speculation about the pale:

A quick and easy point: it’s confirmed that the pale has a measurable EMF “exhalation” frequency that varies with proximity. Strong enough EMF pulses can actually tamper with magnetic storage- radiocomputer filaments! Electronics! Fortress Accident data loss! This gives us a tangible explanation for why pale can delete data :)

This may also explain its ability to cause radio interference- radio frequencies are just a subset of EMF frequencies, so it’s possible that pale exhalation on *just the right frequency* is what’s responsible for the entroponetic crosstalk we get on radios sometimes

The pale canonically has an atomic structure, but it also has wave properties, so it’s possible that the pale has wave-particle duality on its subatomic level, like photons do

Based on this, entroponetics is likely a very similar field to quantum mechanics, which might be an interesting source of ideas for anyone (like me) who wants to explore pale-related possibilities

The pale could be a manifestation of raw patterns. That’s why math “forces dimensions” on it- it rationalizes or “tames” the patterns, which allows it to be manipulated to a certain degree.

There are several references to the pale that refer to mathematical concepts and patterns, saying that the world dissolves into “a tangle of azimuths and cosines” as it blends into the interisolary pale- more on this later

Steban comments that the pale is commonly theorized to be nostalgia or “historical inertia”, but it’s largely agreed that it’s “the past” in a broad sense. Thinking about the idiom that history repeats itself, it could be that history/the past is part of the pattern that comprises the pale, and that it’s also the type of pattern most readily perceived by people (people don’t viscerally *perceive* math, for example, but we experience memories)

To first define entropy: Chemically speaking, “the measure of a system’s thermal energy per unit temperature that is unavailable for doing useful work. (per encyclopedia britannica).” Physically speaking, it’s a measure of randomness or disorder in a system. Less work/less order = more entropy; it’s a physicochemical “winding down” of a given system

It’s commonly thought that pale is the entropic force, but what if it’s the opposite? (Keep in mind the chemical definition: less ability to do work = more entropy) Consider: the pale as less entropic, a cleanup force, recycling the potential lost by death and destruction in the universe. This in part explains why a dead person’s memory is present in the pale- their potential has been recycled into the pale in the form of their memories (their life’s *pattern*)

Enthalpy is a related concept to entropy and is defined as the total energy contained within a system. Holding the system enthalpy constant- saying the universe will always have the same amount of total energy, no matter what, according to thermodynamics- results in an entropic tug-of-war between the pale and the world. The pale wins through sheer inertia (again, inertia is mentioned specifically in game)

Overall: think of the world as “cooling”, losing heat and energy through war and death and complacency. Think of the pale as steam and heat, melting down old materials to start it all over again. (Kim says, *through entroponetic interference*: “it’s been a long, cold winter.”)

Consider: the pale as a sinusoidal function, eternally repeating. The pale recycling the universe to start a new cycle, “spending” itself, resulting in pale not being present in the beginning. Then, as the new things begin to settle- with the advent of the human mind, specifically- the pale reforming, slowly reclaiming potential, eventually ending the cycle to start again.

In comes CCP and magpies. Consider: CCP as a backwards transmission from the next “cycle” (after all, pale has no sense of time). Magpies as *pattern-sensitive* people who are able to decode CCP into something useful called novelty. They reach into the potential of the next cycle to build the potential in their current one- this paradox could be what creates more pale, because (and this is where it gets weird, I apologize) doing this retroactively increases the total amount of energy/work/potential in the current cycle to have been reclaimed by the pale for the next one.

Think of the pale as the compost bin for every single thought in the universe. The pale is the exact right size to compost every little atom and thought in the universe, and can hold nothing extra. But magpies reach into the future, the next cycle, and bring in extra. This paradox forces the pale to grow to accommodate the additional material, which also increases the starting potential of the next cycle. This process allows each cycle to accumulate minor changes from the previous one, which can snowball over many cycles.

Furthermore, to the inframaterialists’ point: revolutionary action would be such a radical shift in inertia that it would increase the potential in the world, forcing the pale to pause/shrink to “balance the equation” in terms of pale-vs-world thermodynamics. So maybe they’re right after all :)

And some diagramming, to explain the utter bullshit I’ve just dropped:

[imiya]

Tilly & Finley Wild Manes Review

since i got a hold of these girlies lets investimigate- apologies for overexposure

first, individual pics of each of them. here's finley:

who is themed after a pool party, of course. when i bought her at target, the self checkout display called her Isla, which makes sense as a working name for her... island.

she is white with grey hooves and a muzzle. she has blue eyeshadow with green eyes and blonde eyebrows, matching her blonde hair with a purple streak.

i will color correct these photos for the wiki, but for now, here's the raw photo of her clothes

all of the clothes are unhemmed and simply printed-on fabric with two velcro connections. my finley also had a plastic tab keeping the front attatched (which i snipped so i could remove it). you can see her mermaid tail and flamingoes on her clothes. the clothing is very thin, i don't think it might fray any time soon, but it does seem lazy for a fashion horse toy. thankfully, the hair makes up for it, we'll get there later.

each of these horses came with a brush and a non-brush accessory. finley's is wearable! she has a visor made with this magenta translucent plastic. i didn't take any pictures of it on her, but it does indeed fit on her head.

she comes with this purple brush, which you can tell is hers because of the flamingo printed on it.

and now a quick tilly rundown...

she's a brown horse with a brown muzzle and hooves, red eyeshadow, yellow eyes, and blonde eyebrows. her hair is more of a dirty blonde than finley, and her color streak is described as "periwinkle". the self checkout register called her Serena, which... yeah, i can see why they may have changed that. a little on the nose.

as you can see by her brush's symbol, she's very clearly tennis-themed. her accessory is unfortunately not wearable, instead it's a water bottle with a tennis racket printed on

horse gotta hydrate

if that all wasn't clear enough, her outfit has a tennis racket on it, too! there is no hemming, the "collar" is printed on. her outfit looks like a blue polo and a teal skirt.

okay, now the part people actually wanted to see. what the heck the figures look like

it's gettin' hot in here, so take off all your clothes...

both finley and tilly have the same exact model! i assume the horses (ponies? horses. fillies?) all have the same bodies. i think i can feel a few spots where the plastic feels slightly more rubbery/pliable than the others, so i do fear we may see discoloration as time goes on.

all of the legs are articulated at the shoulder or "hip" (sorry horse fans, it's a knee or something?), but only the front left leg is articulated in multiple places.

thank you girls, finley has her leg fairly straightened out whereas tilly has it bent. i haven't noticed the joints being unusually difficult to maneuver or maintain position, which bodes well for pictures. i did have a little bit of trouble getting them to balance in my photobox (likely because the bottom bows inwards a bit), but the little extra range of motion is nice. you can also twist the joints a little bit, but not super extremely.

but can she sit?

sort of? i know horses don't really naturally "sit" very well, but she still looks goofy. her neck doesn't move forwards so it's not a very great-looking pose for her to hold, but she can balance like this on her own.

hey, look at me when i'm talkin to you

thanks. side view of her in that same pose.

her head can turn, it's on a ball join, i believe it's similar to the g4.5/g5 mlp joints but a little more restrictive. i intend to dismantle a finley for research, so ill be able to share that when the time comes. it can rotate and move up and down slightly.

more motion... one of the back legs is in a mid-walk position which made her a little awkward to balance. you can see the company name and "made in china" stamp on the inside of this leg.

it's not very clear in this image, but there's a stamp with numbers and letters on her stomach. i don't know what this means, as finley had the same code! you can also see the hooves have horseshoes with "WM" (wild manes) on them.

before we get into the manes of the wild manes, a quick little look at their eyes.

the paint looks great! it's not stippled like i've seen on a few other dolls recently. the eyes are also sculpted in, so we hopefully won't have wild misplacement like we do on the newer MLPs. they both have stars and two eye shines, and the eyelashes are the same. the only differences here are the colors.

okay. mane time.

the hair is SUPER soft. i agree with the replier who said it's Kiwi Nylon. i am very happy that the hair is so nice and hope that the others in this set are the same way! the way it's packaged in the box makes it so there are three or four rubber bands holding it in place, and it leaves the hair with the "memory" of that. i did wash and condition the hair in these photos, which also seemed to help with the small qualms i had with the hair right out of the box. it seemed a little oily and tilly had a doubled-over plug. finley didn't seem to have any rooting troubles!

all of the hair is a few rows up the back of the head with a section for bangs. you can see that they wove tilly's bangs with the longer hair that's part of her mane to hide the parting in her head, which is likely expected for a doll but a cool detail. her bangs are NOT gelled down!

here you can see five to six rows of hair on the back of the head. it's not a lot of surface area, but the hair seems thickly rooted for what it is!

here i've parted the mane on Finley so you can see the hair a little more clearly. it looks like the streaks of hair are only on the outside of the rooting.

i've been a little afraid to peel back finley's bangs lest they become unsalvagable, but here's finley's bangs peeled back.

there's still a few rows here. when i dismantle her, hopefully i can showcase her rooting pattern more clearly.

i think that's all the pictures i've taken of them so far... i got these girls at Target, and you can order them as well as Bailey and Cocoa off their site right now! i'll be updating the fandom wiki with pictures of the accessories and hopefully the rest of the girls are as high quality as these ones!

[poryphoria]

transition timeline. or something. idk i wanted to make a cohesive visual timeline of all the different iterations of crackpot that tend to show up in my work, since hys appearance swings wildly from points in time

+ i have notes on each one C:

•pre-job- fresh out of nursing school, constantly exhausted. doesn't know what to do w hys hair/doesn't have time to give a fuck so hy leaves it in a ponytail most of the time. dyes it bleach blonde to look more like the mother that raised hymn but it's naturally black. freshly on t so hys voice is mid-transition & a little squeaky/cracky. HATES hys face, the cleft lip that runs into hys crosshair is a genetic thing & reminds hymn of hys bio parent who was a huge POS

•freshly hired- WAY more comfortable in the anti-dissonance helmet. gives hymn more confidence, bright-eyed and bushy tailed abt hys awesome new job. extremely friendly w/ everyone despite hys anxieties, trying as hard as hy can to make a good first impression

•post-facemelter- this was the first step in hys disillusionment with the nexus core. MASSIVELY traumatizing, marked hys dissonance poisoning moving on to the second stage. became far more closed off, irritable and jealous- really only interacted w sheriff, phobos & the team working w hymn on the enmeshment program, + gonne/hofnarr if hy HAD to. stopped trying to play nice w people for the most part. became FIERCELY protective & defensive of hys work, developed a sunk-cost fallacy mindset over the enmeshment program (+ dissonance causing hymn to spiral into fixation over it)

•arena mode- phobos bought hymn the jacket somewhere around this time. doesn't wear it 24/7 BUT does wear it frequently enough to be noticeable. starts skulking around nevada central in hys offtime to repay some debt to phobos hy was loaned for hys work- it's between here and the facemelter incident that hy starts getting some. Weird. ideas. about hymnself & the dissonance-induced nightmares + hallucinations hys constantly plagued with. sort of internally developing buoyancy as a belief system, but doesn't talk about it with anyone

•post-nexus collapse (directly following)- suffered a pretty severe head injury in the chaos of the initial zed outbreak, high-tailed it for the streets & eventually started using the sewers as a safe place to recon (couldn't reach hys apartment without getting mauled). some asylum patients/people from the enmeshment program team eventually seek hymn out, sometimes toting zeds behind them- this is the very small beginning of hys faction!

•mask change- marker of complete rejection of hys old identity. the new mask is made out of hys old anti-DR helmet, hammered out & fit to shape. cult is growing in numbers, starts aquatically adapting around here (webbed paws + a tail), finally has space to start figuring out the weird...powers? given by overexposure to dissonance. (teleportation & etc)

•present day- you know hymn! this is the one following the events of project nexus, you know the story from there

[spinningbuster98]

Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) Part 1: Sonic's the name, Special Stages ain't my game!

Yep

We’re doing this

So the very first time I played Sonic 1 was on Mega Collection Plus (my third Sonic game overall) on my PS2 (rest in peace buddy) back in roughly 2005, though I don’t have many memories of playing this game, I usually spent my time playing Sonic 2,3, Sonic & Knuckles and Triple Trouble (for some reason)

Heck now that I think about it I think I have more memories of playing this game during high school on my iphone (the Whitehead version) more than anything else!

Green Hill is a classic, there’s really nothing I can say about it and no amount of overexposure due to nostalgia pandering in recent years can take that away. It’s a great and elegant way to introduce the player to the core mechanics of the game, through a level that is simple yet complex enough (for the standards of the time anyway) to warrant replayability. When you really compare it to the stuff that was prevalent among platformers at the time, Green Hill really is unique. Instead of being a linear romp through tough platforming challenges, it’s a much more expansive level that is much more lax in platforming and that allows the player to do whatever they want, either blasting through it at top speeds or explore it for fun, and it’s not so much the fact that it’s “non linear”, as at the end if you think about it it’s still a matter of going from left to right, it’s just that there’s so much more to see and do here

So naturally after that strong start we gotta dial it all back and just put out a perfectly standard platformer level. I don’t even hate Marble Zone, but I can’t deny that it’s mostly due to the music giving it a really unique and memorable feel that I can’t quite describe, otherwise well...I’ll get into that next time ok?

I wanna say that Spring Yard is an improvement but it’s not all the way, as while the level is faster than Marble, it just lacks the elegance and fluidity of Green Hill, the level is much more “uneven” in terms of flow, just when you’re about to go fast you’re stopped by an arbitrarily slow and uninteresting platforming section

And just because I don’t know where else to mention this: the Special Stages

I don’t hate Sonic 1′s Special Stages

I loathe them

Even putting aside how the idea of collecting 50 rings and making it all the way to the end of the stage essentially without taking too many hits pretty much further plays against the overall idea behind this game being a fast platformer, the Stages themselves are all kinds of horrendous

People can bitch and moan about the Half Pipe ‘till the cows come home, but you at least have control over there. They’re not the best controls, but you do have FULL control over where Sonic goes there. Here you just gotta pray that physics are on your side and that you don’t knock the wrong tiles in this endlessly rotating spinning wheel of pain, which makes it feel like 90% of my failures and victories here are partly out of sheer luck rather than skill. Then you factor in that you only have a pretty limited number of tries to get all Emeralds, that when you fail a Special Stage the next time you retry you’ll get transported to the next one in line rather than having you retry the one you failed, thus making it harder on you to truly practice, AND the fact that all of this pain is just so you can get a slightly different ending where the Emeralds just make a few more flowers bloom in an already flowery area? Yeah no, getting all the Emeralds in Sonic 1 is a pretty miserable experience and one that is not worth it all that much.

[skepticalarrie]

i totally agree with your take about the letter i see louis right now as an artist that just wants to continue creating music "but like he always says that but he would appreciate being number 1!!" he really never ask as for a number 1 spot that is our way of saying thank you to him for releasing music and as a form of support and with all the interviews he had where he says tiktok is shit well i can see where he is coming from some fans see feel pressured to make him trend in tiktok or whatever trending social media platform to reach the gp yeah i understand that too he already shared that he participates in team planning so whatever bmg has planned for him has gone through him i don;t see why theyre asking for too much like they wanted louis to be like what you said the things he used to do in 1d i mean let's be honest here louis isn't releasing music to make more money it's mostly for the fans so whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy im really tired of arguing about this to other people so its nice to see ur take

Yeah I think Louis saying how nice it is for fans to also be part of that may have caused this reaction, but at this point, I think people are just trying to fix something that doesn't need to get fixed. Like I said, I think it lacks so much perspective and nuance because I bet these are the same people trending #FreeHarry because they believe his team is holding him captive and making him do stuff just for fame. So they're trying to turn Louis into the same thing, charts, numbers, fame, overexposure. Louis is not Harry, Louis is not One Direction... I think people truly missed his entire journey as a solo artist and how confusing and hard it was for him to understand that looking for a hit single was not his goal. And only when he got rid of this concept was when he was able to finally do the music he wanted to do, that's when he left Syco. It's pretty disturbing to think fans are kind of trying to drag him to this same place he felt so unhappy and lost at some point.

We all want Louis to succeed as much as possible, FITF is such an amazing album and I get the feeling like people need to know him!!! he's amazing!!! people are missing out!! lol I truly do. But every marketing strategy has a brief, every career has a goal. And for everything Louis has been saying lately, this is absolutely not what he's going for. Yes... some of the promo was weird as fuck, especially some interviews, I really don't understand the purpose of it. So we all have different ideas of what should be done and something different to complain about. But the point is that Louis kind of just wants to tour now and do his thing without anyone bothering him, without Sony breathing down his neck. That's BMG job and I think they're pretty decent so far. Louis looks so happy and so proud of the album. So, really, people need to take a step back and understand what they're saying when they write open letters like that, what is being implied, what are the consequences of getting what they're asking for. Because it feels like quite a lot of fans lately have been having a really hard time accepting what Louis is and what he wants, it's so much about what fans want him to be.

[septembersghost]

Everything you said regarding haylor is right. This is why I have a pet peeve when people use MR to haylor edits. If anything they were both midnight rain and that's what drew them closer. They were constantly looking for light in other people to balance the darkness. Their relationship itself and the parallels between them as individuals is what makes us still talk about them. Not because we think they are meant to be. Harry and Taylor fandom has the biggest crossover of fans because there is an undeniable/unintentional mirroring that fans are unintentionally drawn to. I lost the count regarding the number of people who compared HsH and 1989 era and overexposure(though T had it worse because of misogyny). There is an unintentional parallelism in their music even when the songs have nothing to do with each other. They are the BIGGEST male and female pop artist RN and through their music we know they struggle with similar issues (listening to AIW and Dear Reader back to back is one hell of an experience. ) Which is why they need partners who can give them stability and comfort. T knew it after 1989 era and found it. And considering the way HsH era has gone I won't be surprised if harry came to a similar understanding. (And I hope he finds it someday). Like you said they were meant to meet because without these dead end streets Taylor wouldn't have met joe.

people have used "he was sunshine/i was midnight rain" for...harry...??? "chasing that fame, he stayed the same"????? how

i love what you said about them both being midnight rain, they really are - and this JUST made me connect ttds/midnight rain to changes, the song harry gave to cam. "there is a town, somewhere down a country road/I see it now, I take it everywhere I go/the river sways, I can almost hear it now/as if to say, "You're not the only one who wants a way out"/so, I go 'cause I don't wanna feel like I don't know you anymore/I memorize those roads.../God bless the young hearts sippin' cheap wine/Gettin' drunk with their friends for the first time/Thinkin' nothing's gonna change/'Til everything changes/They never leave/They're all havin' babies now/Watchin' daytime TV/Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town/So, I go/'Cause I don't wanna feel like you don't know me anymore/Don't recognize my face," and that's very connected to love of my life too: "take you with me every time i go away, in a hotel usin' someone else's name.../i don't know you half as well as all my friends, i can't pretend i won't be doin' everything i can, to get to know your creases and your ends, are they the same?" it's: the road not taken looks real good now, and it always leads to you and my hometown. and it's: i guess sometimes we all get just what we wanted, and he never thinks of me, except when i'm on tv. they are the midnight rain, the one dreaming to get out, escaping, and finding themselves haunted. "we're just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me..."

They were constantly looking for light in other people to balance the darkness. this is very interesting in them too, because they're often perceived as light/bubbly/upbeat people (and they both do have that sparkle and those bright aspects!), but then we know from the songs they've written and things they've shared that they grapple with their darkness and loneliness too.

Their relationship itself and the parallels between them as individuals is what makes us still talk about them. Not because we think they are meant to be. Harry and Taylor fandom has the biggest crossover of fans because there is an undeniable/unintentional mirroring that fans are unintentionally drawn to...There is an unintentional parallelism in their music even when the songs have nothing to do with each other. exactly! the reason why many fans love them both and connect in similar ways to their music is because that mirrored expression and empathy and artistry draws us in! there are themes and emotions they both express that we connect to. the expressionism in how they craft their lyrics and how they present their art strikes something in us.

listening to AIW and Dear Reader back to back is one hell of an experience. oh nooo, i've never done this! you're no good alone /// a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there /// why are you sitting at home on the floor, what kind of pills are you on? /// my fourth drink in my hand, these desperate prayers of a cursed man...ouch 💔

yes, they need that groundedness and quiet and comfort to balance everything else out. the person who only wants sweet nothing. without all of the exes, fights, and flaws, we wouldn't be standing here so tall. all of the dead end streets led you straight to me, out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar...and i think that makes so much sense, that you need someone constant and who gives you a sense of peace and freedom and completion to be your whole self, and who loves you in the best and the worst of it. the person who loves you for you, in the noise and the silence.

[the1975attheirverybest]

I fully agree with you. I definitely have empathy for Taylor’s mental struggles but her narrative is very calculated and exaggerated (and very old…) Also, she wasn’t just canceled bc of Kimye. It was her extreme overexposure and the feuds with journalists and various other musicians like Niki Minaj and Katy Perry…. She also didn’t hide for a year. she just didn’t attend events for a couple of months while working on new music. She postponed her album for a year and didn’t suffer any significant financial or career setbacks. she was able to return with a number one album and a sold out stadium tour… And got away with avoiding to do any promotion. All of this is also very rich considering what her stans/ her lack of public support caused this year. You’d think she’d have empathy for Matty (no matter how serious or casual their relationship was…) She keeps selling very black and white narratives that actually DO paint her as a victim. She keeps trying to make some kind of feminist statements but all I’m seeing is her following a very 2010s #girlboss capitalist narrative 🤷🏼‍♀️ it’s possible to enjoy her music and acknowledge her achievements and still point out how horrible her public persona is.

Yeah exactly! And I will say, (have always said, will always say) that a lot of mainstream media outlets were extremely unfair to her just because she’s a young woman doing what young women do: figuring out who she is, dating (a very normal amount of men btw), living her life etc. and it’s very sexist how they spoke about her, wrote who it her, questions they asked in interviews, critiqued her body etc. those things I’ll always defend her on. I don’t have to be a fan to see how gross that was.

BUT, as you said, she then turned it into this girl boss narrative in a way that paints her as some kind of underdog or whatever. She only wants to be seen as such when it’s to her benefit, but she doesn’t really do anything for actual underdogs.

I’m saying let’s exercise critical thinking especially with stuff that is being purposefully pushed on us/ we are getting overexposed to. You can acknowledge someone’s shortcomings and still like them (lmao I’m a matty healy fan so very familiar with this concept) but people equating my discomfort with her public persona and her “brand” with like my wishing she would die or whatever is very stupid

[blindalleylnd]

Harry is so over exposed. It comes off as money hungry and fame hungry. It’s giving kardashian. Esp with Pleasing which he does almost nothing to promote, like I’ve never seen another celeb do less with one of their products. Honestly at this point him and O deserve each other.

I knew harry wouldn’t be a good actor cuz he couldn’t fake being happy with Olivia or chemistry with her on the pap walks.

He has no real personality anymore. He pretends to be one thing in interviews, one thing on stage, and one thing in pap pictures. The reason his fandom is toxic is because of the way he and his team run his image with no real insight into who he is and constant contradictions.

This new album also sucks. It screams commercial ear worm. Type songs like watermelon sugar. I think he’s losing his die hards for more fickle fans and it shows with the DWD box office numbers. If he would have just been fun friendly goofy harry that answered questions thoughtfully and wasn’t involved in all this manufactured drama the movie would have made a lot more money.

The answers he gave in Venice and how he acted was horrible. If this is his longterm girlfriends big night and he can’t even show up in a supportive way that’s shitty but it’s also his job and his boss. Why would any serious actor or director want him in a film again? He didn’t even turn out the numbers he was projected to and makes all of this into a circus.

Also the fact that they just continued love on tour for the new album and did these weird residencies where it’s the exact same show every night? So bizarre. Even the clips of him be “cute with fans about their signs” are the same five things over and over again.

He needs to hide away for a bit but everyone around him gives him horrible advice and are addicted to his fame. This is not how you create longevity.

Ok there’s so much here I’ll try answer everything.

I agree with the overexposure and I think him and his team can’t really know how to handle it because it’s always been all positive about him negative press needs to be controlled or it gets bigger and bigger. I wouldn’t compare him to the kardashian, they know what they do and how it has to be done. Harry and his team don’t, Olivia even less because she’s desperate and never had this kind of attention she acts hungry to the point anything is good as long as her name is out there and she can be pictured with him. On the other hand harry seems (or is) a total hypocrite because that’s not what he always professed.

About his acting skills I’ve heard a second big report about him being banned or kept distant from Hollywood because of his bad acting. Interesting.

The personality aspect I agree if there’s anything there he for sure never show it and this is cause of many problems, even his complains about invasion of privacy and so on it all depend from the fact he’s never sat any boundaries to the point everyone thinks they know him and everything about him.

Personally this last album is not my favourite (I never even listened to it entirely tbh) and the never ending tour is very forced at this point he seems to be the first not interested in doing it, it’s like pushing things as much as possible until never again.

About Venice don’t even make me start because what was that???? What was he thinking?? That was so pathetic, you’re either on it or you’re not but pretending to be pissed off in hope of big selling is so pathetic like everything else around them!

I truly wonder if he’s really this blind.

He needs to stay away from everyone family and friends included and getting help from a good therapist!!

[columbocorners]

I do think overexposure is a reason people are so bitchy about people enjoying gator as a character. Which like, I get- the fargo tag is mostly him, that's gotta be so annoying if you're a fargo fan (much like its impossible to peruse the stranger things tag if you dont love eddie munson 🙄). It's stupid really, because it's not really an objective annoyance, it's fandom related*. A lot of people don't seem to have the ability to block those 'OMG MY BBY HES SO PRECIOUS' people and instead fume about it until they've decided everyone who enjoys that character is like that. I've been on both sides of that in the last 15 years. Everyone needs to just calm down, smoke some weed if you partake, and remember it's all fiction. (*not to say people don't have legit reasons, ie sexism racism ect, to dislike the character, but that's not the reasons I've been seeing. Plus hes deliberately written like that for a reason, story wise. Its kinda the point. These are the kind of attitudes being challenged by dot's humanity)

NO EXACTLY BECAUSE IT LOWKEY IS OVEREXPOSURE and if I'm honest I also think it does not at all help that there has been an underwhelming amount of attention on fargo season five in general, because like. the ratio of content even on tiktok astounds me that there was next to none and I am hopeful that people will talk more about other characters

hell lowkey it would surprise people that I made the gator edit I did as a slight after thought because I began to like him more in terms of recent episodes where his behavior didn't just feel like he was antagonistic and you got to see more of them and ironically it was like, the less interactions he had with his dad and with other people who definitely clocked his shitty behavior, the more you saw him grow further from the path of " trying to be him " with dot, witt, etc. especially dot ngl

like I have seen this even in other fandoms I like and the most I have hoped to combat it is through doing fanart of dot and characters and trying to even think up edits ( thankfully a whole scenepack for the ENTIRE season was put out by an editor who I contacted who said they would do it and finally I can do dot and ole munch stuff )

but in general, I love gator, I get the hate but it's like, every fandom really will just have a moment of a lot of charas being overlooked and at least in some of the bigger fandoms this happens but lowkey also smaller fandoms like

I love alice wake from the alan wake franchise, I have been priming myself to draw here but there is like lowkey a veryyy small number of people who talk about her even though her documentary videos in alan wake 2 are so fucking emotional and get to me a lot

and hell, like you said it isn't even people hating folks who like him for that reason, it's just lumping every single enjoyer into one and I do not dig that the original folk who made the link just even tried to be like " oh gator is not even a physical abuse victim because his abuse was rarely shown compared to dot" and I will say to that: fargo season five is DOT's story, it's her abuse, and just because we don't see gator's own side of it doesn't mean we should ignore the glimpses and subtle details in his interactions and scenes where it heavily shows how much gator has been morphed by the people he was forced to grow up with and stick by, even as an adult

like he is apart of the discussion just like every other character and he is very much an example of people I even know who are like that, who ironically are my own siblings who I still live with

[kwamiwayzz]

Why I Left...Then Eventually Came Back (Vent)

Geez...I don’t know how I came to this, but I wanted to vent this out after looking at the last thing I posted before I abandoned took a long-ish hiatus from this Tumblr. 

It’s gonna be kinda long since it’s gonna go over a bit of history on the way I felt towards shipping Elsanna back when I was still deep in the fandom and why this account was made...

Warning: A lot of personal baggage under the cut [and I guess you could put mentions of suicidal contemplation] 

A bit of background on how I even got around to shipping these two in the first place. I’m not the kind of person to ship things so easily; it may come from the fact that I’m partially asexual/aromantic, who knows? I’ve had smaller ships on the side throughout high school and part of college like KiGo, FlutterDash, Korrasami, and Pearlmethyst (and I guess Bubbline sorta counts?) but the only major ships I’ve ever had in the past were Negitoro (MikuxLuka - Vocaloid), YumiKuri (YmirxChrista - Attack on Titan), and eventually Elsanna (ElsaxAnna - Frozen 2013). 

In my junior year of high school I had this huge crush on a friend who I thought I could trust with my feelings despite knowing they could never be reciprocated. She said it was fine at first but not long after she kind of turned around and said she was uncomfortable around me and didn’t want to be seen with me. I was really confused as to why she wasn’t honest in the beginning, but as a young teenager who was still getting used to the feeling of constant rejection it didn’t sit well with me and I panicked a lot because I got really scared of losing a friend also. She wanted to distance herself from me which I reluctantly agreed with, the went on a horrible breakdown that nearly led me to wanting to commit suicide. Holy shit...and this happened when the school year was starting also. 

I went along my days hoping the year would end. I was honestly so dead on the inside and didn’t think anything would help me get out of that even though my friends were there trying to cheer me up. I came across Frozen and after seeing the way the sisters interacted I don’t know...I guess it came from what I wanted in a relationship; not necessarily romantic, I just happened to ship it in a romantic way also. So, naturally I gravitated towards that and it distracted me and helped me get out of a 2-month long depression. And it really made me happy...for awhile.

Fast-forward, I came across some buddies on what’s now known (and possibly now-dead) as the ECC, the ElsannaCollabCorner, out of enthusiasm for wanting  write and collaborate with other people in this ship. It was pretty fun, I met awesome people like canitellusmthin, not-rotting, the-wandering-quill, and many others, despite not contributing as much as I would have liked (I was still iffy on my writing skills for that particular ship so it was difficult for me to actually put something out there).

I ended up making this account, and to be honest, I also may have lied a bit to some people on the ECC when I mentioned this account is my first experience on Tumblr. It’s not. Previously, I had another account which I’ve long abandoned due to it being associated with so much negativity directed towards Frozen/Elsanna. And I thought making this account would be a fresh start being involved in the fandom. 

There was a particular issue that I noted to myself time and time again that explains why I kept disappearing, then reappearing again and it mainly came from me trying to distance myself from the ship and the Frozen fandom in general because of how unhealthily attached I got to it. As much as I loved this pairing (and still do to a certain extent) I hated the way I got super stressed out over not being able to find new content or finding out other people who I’ve followed who shipped it, have lost interest/left the fandom. The biggest blow, I remember, was when one of my favorite EA artists, Patronustrip, had packed her bags and left the fandom completely due to her issues with the fandom itself, issues with the movie franchise, and slow disinterest in the pairing. To me, she was a bit like the Frozenmusings of the EA fandom, so having to see her leave on a bit of a bad note was really depressing, especially since I still wasn’t over what happened to me in junior year.

It was pathetic and horrible and the ship that was once seen as something I took comfort in to get away from heartbreak back in high school, from both rejection of that person and losing them as a friend afterwards, ended up turning into the equivalent of me being trapped in a ridiculously unhealthy, maybe abusive, relationship. That was how I spent most of my college freshman days and in the end I knew that I had to get away from it. 

Even after my messed up attachment to this pairing started to dwindle significantly, it didn’t feel right coming back to an account that mostly revolved around Frozen/Elsanna. And seeing nothing but that on my dash...I don’t know...stressed me out in a way? In the end, EA stuff just feels like a bit of a chore and it might be due to the fact that I’m so overexposed to it or that I’ve been spoiled enough by it that it doesn’t really feel like EA anymore. 

That’s why after I recently started shipping Saber/Irisviel, it really put things into perspective how spoiled I was being in a popular ship like Elsanna. A large fandom can sometimes attract not the greatest people and those people end up making the ship itself look bad. Lord knows how many times I’ve dealt with seeing bullshit Kristanna vs. Elsanna or Helsa vs. Elsanna bitch fights that went on when I was still in the fandom. Like, KA fandom has their stupid moments, but there were times I sometimes felt like the EA fandom would shift the blame away from themselves (some people, not all). So, in a way, the fandom was one of the few things that drove my interest away from both the pairing and movie for a while. It was a combination of that and me getting sick of running into certain NSFW art and fics that would clog up my dash even though I could easily blacklist it (kinda). It wasn’t always on Tumblr, but some people I recall on Reddit have made remarks on just taking whatever even if its low-quality, which I understand in way but doesn’t entirely apply to EA since the fandom is technically in abundance. I have other issues with the fandom as well, looking back as someone who is no longer really in it anymore, but I’m not sure if I want to go into detail about it right now for the sake of not extending this post any longer

I ended up coming back after curiously wondering what’s been up with some people I’ve been following, and after spending time away from my previous fandom, it’s kind of refreshing that I’m no longer really tied down to it anymore.

In the end I guess I came back because I missed the interactions I would have with some followers and having fun with that on Tumblr. I know I have my other account but I tend to be quiet on that one since I don’t focus on a specific fandom over there. I might not be into EA as much as I used to but I didn’t really have to abandon this account entirely...or the people I somewhat talked to on here. 

TL;DR: Left because EA was becoming toxic for me, needed to take a break, came back because I wanted to know how y’all were doing :) 

[twopoppies]

Re: Harry’s overexposure, it’s getting so much worse and he’s still got two movies coming out. His residencies trend every night, he and OW are everywhere. It’s already overwhelming to me. My family is mainly non fans and he’s come up in dinner conversations. Celebrities are falling over themselves to name drop him. That stupid Anne Hathaway fanfic movie has been announced and you know that’s not the last of that. I’m not trying to clutch any pearls here but there will be backlash for this somehow, it always happens when people get too big. And this year has been relentless. 1D was overworked as they’ve all said and wasn’t sustainable. I don’t think this is sustainable for Harry either and I don’t think it should be. And I agree with you the RS king of pop interview was a big mistake. Xx.

Well, that backlash has been going on for a bit. But DWD is definitely going to make it hit the fan. I really hope MP can squash some of that, but he/they wanted him to be number one. That’s kind of what happens when you get there. Remember how everyone turned on Ed Sheeran after Divide? Suddenly he was cool to hate. Harry will be fine, ultimately. But I do think a lot of that will depend on how they handle the storm that’s brewing at the moment.

As for him being overworked… I don’t know. I do think he loves being on tour. 1D was less about constantly touring and more about constantly touring while also writing music/recording in hotel rooms/doing interviews/doing pap walks/doing promo for the next album as soon as the last tour ends etc etc. They just literally had no time off. And little of it was their choice. I just think Harry’s life and schedule is very different now. Yes, he works a lot and he’s doing a million things, but he at least seems happier and healthier than he ever did in the band.

[ganymedesclock]

While you're on a sonic kick, can we get some more knuckles and echidna peoples headcanons?

Oh, can you.

Angel Island was originally designed to house a large number of people; Marble Garden Zone is what remains of the old village. In its heyday this temple complex was lived in and managed by close to fifty people living in and around it together -

The patterns seen on the ancient echidna characters in Sonic Adventure are cold branding tattoos. Knuckles has one- the white crescent mark on his upper chest- but he doesn't remember getting it, and he doesn't know the context of the ancient tattoos. Later in life he makes it a personal priority to find out and chooses to get some but tweaked to acknowledge the other connections he's made in his life. -

The Master Emerald may have drastically slowed down the rate at which Knuckles ages. He doesn't really have hard answers but he has vague memories of not changing much for what felt like a long time but now that he's around a bunch of other people he's not... not growing. He's not sure if this is the Master Emerald deciding it'd be cruel to leave him immortal if his friends all age or if he's just spending more time away from it. -

Generally guarding the Master Emerald is sort of like being roomies with a very sleepy cthulu. Sometimes it starts 'talking' to him. Sometimes it disrupts Hidden Palace. Semi-regularly it'll just change the direction Angel Island is going and Knuckles has no idea why. If he's close to the Master Emerald or a piece of it, he also tends to have really vivid and strange dreams. -

The echidnas have a pretty strong mentality of ancestor worship and respect due to the dead. This is not lost on Knuckles, in particular since Sandopolis and some parts of Red Mountain's interior are a pretty clear reminder of what happens when you don't settle your dead properly in an environment charged with some of the purest chaos energy around. Ghosts are also in general a bad experience on him since they kind of jangle the same telepathic channel he uses to sense the emeralds and their movements- so he's more aware of them than most people... and they're more aware of him. -

Incidentally Knuckles' quickest stress response is "left hook" so don't take him through a haunted house. He doesn't want to punch the actors and the actors don't want to get punched by Knuckles -

His knuckle spikes are actually not entirely natural; they're a form of partially crystallized growth related to overexposure to/synergy with the Master Emerald. This causes minor arthritic problems in his hands, though he can mostly shrug it off with only occasional soreness thanks to an active lifestyle that wears the spikes down and breaks up the chunks of crystallized bone deeper inside his body (think like how some martial artists use micro-fractures to toughen up their hands). They grow continuously if not worn down, which means that he can actually replace a spur over time if it snaps off, but doing so is sore and itchy. -

The main spoken language by Sonic and co. is not Knuckles' first language. He tries to talk to himself in the echidna language sometimes because he doesn't want to forget it, but as it's dead to most of the world, he doesn't get terribly much practice. -

He's reluctant to talk to researchers or historians looking into his people's history because he feels vaguely guilty for not knowing more than he does but he actually starts doing a lot better emotionally when cajoled into doing so. This is what gets him more into 'treasure hunting'; the option to look into more ruins and explore contexts that aren't just his people's and one specific window in history. -

Even if he's sure it's safe he feels guilty just ditching the Master Emerald, though, which is a fight he is never really going to win because it's a rock without needs and he is a person with needs.

[griseldagimpel]

On Strategy: Swaying an Apathetic Public

With the way things have been going in the U.S., I wanted to do a post on strategies for moving an apathetic public. References to historical and current atrocities below.

One strategy is the Sympathetic Victim strategy. Back before the Civil War, abolitionists would circulate pictures of child slaves who were white passing, which got white people to oppose slavery.

A few years ago, Orlando, FL passed a law making it illegal to give food to homeless people. So a pastor-vet in his nineties went and did just that. He got arrested, was released, and went right back out the next day and broke the law again. This time, he didn't get arrested.

Now, the thing about the Sympathetic Victim strategy is that it draws upon existing societal biases. It's a tool, but it isn't sufficient to fix society. And it requires both exposure and control of the framing.

There's also a really complicated balance between shock and overexposure of shock, and I don't know the key here. You can look at gun control in the U.S.; Sandy Hook was shocking, but it took multiple years of the massacre being repeated at other schools before legislation got passed just recently at the federal level.

Another strategy is Mass Disobedience. This has two prongs. One is a variety of Sympathetic Victim where the victim is sympathetic because they're a relative of the Apathetic Public. The more people breaking the law, the more of the Apathetic Public impacted.

The other is to clog up the system. I've cited fan fiction as an example before. Even if the courts ruled that fan fiction was a prosecutable violation of copyright law, the courts straight up can't prosecute everyone who posts fan fiction to the internet. There's safety in numbers.

Additionally, there can be backlash from a previously Apathetic Public if they see the prosecution of unjust laws. For this to work, the prosecution can't be 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Now, the more of a foothold fascists get, the harder this becomes. The more prisons, the less due process, the more the system can handle. And the public has to be able to act. Further issues are that breaking unjust laws WILL be used to disenfranchise people.

Neither of these strategies are perfect - they both have very real drawbacks - and they aren't the only strategies out there, but I hope this post has been useful.

[megandzane]

The way royal fans talk about harry tells me all I need to know like theyd rather have him go back to that place so he can continue playin third wheel to his brother rather than heal. His healing is uncomfortable to royal fans because harry is breaking that fairytale image? Well too bad. Fuck outta here. It bothers me specially when they do the faux concern thing of saying he shouldn’t air out his business and speak against charles or William. To that all I will say is 1) he has actually spoken pretty kindly about them. He could have gone way harder against them. Sure he has said he’s hurt but it comes from an understanding place, he even has said he gets how difficult it’s been for them too. he doesn’t sound angry to me, he jus sounds like he wants to share his experience. 2) as someone who comes from an abusive family myself the only people I’ve ever heard pull that “it has to stay in the family” line are the main abusers or the people in the situation who are complicit and benefit from the silence. So miss me with that... because no. I hope he gets it off his chest lol! Also all the royals fans saying this operate on the assumptions that Charles and William are not out there airing family business too which they r, they are just cowards and don’t say it with their full chest so they have to leak thru others. lol. The only thing I’m worried about is maybe the general public getting tired of it because I know a lot of ppl don’t love the Royal drama but then I remember the only ones who are getting constant updates are us fans and people who read the daily mail. So by the time the memoir comes out late next year people won’t have thought about any of this for a while so I think it will be fine. Idk! Love ur blog 💜💜💜

I agree with all of this. I’ve been saying for a few years, for so much of these people it’s projection. Harry’s never hidden how much he wanted to just be a regular guy, but they ignore that. They use the fantasy world of the royals to escape. They are mad that he’s not the character they’ve created for him .

It’s not Harry’s job to protect the image of those who are happy to throw him and his wife under the bus. He has a right to speak for himself. He had a right to share his truth.

You make a really good point for number 1. He’s never trashed them, even when critical he still shows so much empathy for the fact that they are still trapped in that environment. He was empathetic to the fact that Charles was treated the same way by his own father. And the fact that they are still so worried about what he’s going to say concerns me...what are y’all trying to keep hidden??

I know people want Harry to expose them all, but I really can’t see him revealing anything super explosive in his book. I don’t think it’s his style. And the money is going to charity, it’s just about him telling his story. But if he did air out the family’s dirty laundry, they really have no room to talk because they always do that. I’d really like to know why it’s more acceptable to cowardly leak things via “ sources “ than own what you say.

I come from a toxic family as well , Toxic people hate being called out on their toxicity. They do everything they can to silence and gaslight their victims. So the backlash and smears are not at all unexpected. Toxic people don’t want you to succeed without them, because now who are they gonna blame?

I’ve seen people on here address concerns about the timing, and fears of overexposure. And that is a valid concern, but that’s a really good point about supporters’ perception being different , most of the general public isn’t looking for articles about them. The Oprah interview was huge because that was on prime time and broadcasts in multiple countries. But there was very little noise from the general public about Harry’s interview on Armchair Expert or really even TMYCS.

I also think them living and working in the US mediates the risks.

The US doesn’t have that same hype around the royals, that really exists in england only. The US media report on the story, they don’t create multiple articles about one event and look for negative spins.

By 2022, I think enough time will have passed from the Oprah interview , podcast , and Tmycs. And it’s very possible that by them they will be in the news more for their work with Archewell than because of the royal family.

Thanks for the kind words about the blog 😊

[random-mha-thoughts]

Mama’s Boy/Lover’s Boy (Bakugou x Reader)

Pairing: Bakugou x Fem!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Inspo: “Down for You” by Cosmo’s Midnight/Ruel

Summary: Bakugou hates being dragged to fancy parties for many reasons, but only one thing makes it all worth it.

Word Count: 2,322

Tags:  @yuki-osaki​ @liviitehe​ @iamsoftsodonttoucheume-blog​ @bunnythepipsqueak​

a/n:  I absolutely adore this picture, ngl that was the whole inspo for this.

It's not fair that a whole Katsuki exists while I'm bleeding out and my hormones are out of whack.  I'M A LOYAL SHOUTO HO, STAY IN YOUR LANE KATSUKI!  DON'T TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY INSTABILITY LIKE THIS!

When I was at the last few paragraphs, I realized I would've loved to let Baku lose his shit and almost crash the entire thing like in Murphy's Law (man I loved writing that), but that wouldn't be good.  We love a good chaotic fluff monster.

This turned out a lot longer than I thought it would, but I really like how it turned out!  Definitely more fluff than I expected, but who's mad at that?  I'm bleeding out of my uterus and my mom and dad got me feverish and sick and I definitely needed this, so I KNOW you Baku stans are gushing at this too.  Thanks to @rubyred-imagines​ for one of the story beats here!

Spice might be incoming in the next day or two ;3  Not sure which character yet, but it's gonna happen!

"Babe, your face."

"What about it?!"

"Stop looking like you want to kill everyone."

"But I do!"

"I know you do, but don't look it."

Katsuki walks into the grand hall, muscular arm linked through his dazzling girlfriend's slender one.  He really doesn't want to be here; he hates these high-class, uptight gatherings, he hates this constricting tuxedo he has to wear, he hates how he barely knows anyone here, and he especially hates that he could've been on a date with her alone instead of being surrounded by these suffocating faces.

His lovely girlfriend announced this unfortunate outing a few weeks ago right before Katsuki was going to suggest the idea of having a date night, since they haven't had any quality alone time together in a while.  Her eyes lit up when she reported that she RSVP-ed for both of them to attend her company's fancy dinner.  And his plans were crushed like that.  He wanted to grumble and refuse, but she'd yell right back at him anyway, being the stubborn person she is.

She reminds him of his mother.

"You're just like my mom," Katsuki rolls his eyes.  "She used to drag me to her company dinners all the time, too."

"We won't stay for long, I promise," she pats his arm with her perfectly manicured fingernails.

"She used to say that too, and then we'd be out for hours," he mumbles to himself.

The girl looks up at him sweetly.  "And you'll be a good boyfriend and stay here with me the whole time, right?"

The blond growls low in his throat.  "I don't even belong here, you were invited, not me."

"Katsuki, you're my guest, of course you belong here."  She leans up to whisper in his ear, "Besides, you're more handsome than any of the guys here, show them all up."

That makes Katsuki smirk.  "Damn right I am, babe."

The couple find their table after an irritating amount of time.  Every few steps, some other pretentious stranger from his girlfriend's company sweeps over to exchange empty kisses and the same empty conversation.  Katsuki thinks it's some kind of script everyone practiced from, no one deviating from the script or else the entire simulation might fall apart.  Actually, he would like to say something inappropriate just to relish their horrified or disgusted faces, but he for the sake of his precious girlfriend, he keeps his mouth shut, teeth grit, and smile plastered each time he's introduced to a new face.

"Do you really know everyone here, babe?" Katsuki mutters in her ear as they finally approach the table.

"Not everyone," she hums in response, "I don't know most of the employees from the other two companies here, but I know the higher-ups through my boss."

He briefly remembers her saying this dinner was for a big merger deal between these three companies.  His girlfriend works tirelessly for her boss, usually taking on more than she can handle and coming home late most nights.  She'd been promoted from just being a regular company worker to being in a near-the-top position right under the main board managers.  He admires her dedication, but he's always worried about her health and energy level.  He may be a Pro Hero, but she's the real superhuman in the relationship.

Katsuki does the gentlemanly thing of pulling the chair out for his lady and pushing her back in before settling in his seat next to her, purposely shifting closer to her than the person on his other side.

"What manners your boyfriend has," one of the older ladies at the table coos at the couple.

"Thank you, I'm very grateful to have him," the girl smiles politely in response.

Katsuki's heart melts at the pride dripping from her voice as she compliments him.  "And I'm very lucky to have her."  It felt like the right thing to say as he squeezes her hand under the table and briefly glances into her eyes.

The two don't tear away from each other until someone else approaches his girlfriend and she stands to greet him briefly.  Katsuki surveys him in case he would do something ballsy to his girlfriend.

She turns and places a hand on Katsuki's shoulder.  "This is my boyfriend, Katsuki Bakugou."

Hell yeah, I am, you better not pull anything, dumbass.  He stands and shakes the other man's hand, polite but stiff.

"Nice to meet you.  Your girlfriend is honestly a powerhouse, she's amazing," the man gushes.

"Yes, I'm aware," the blond replies tersely.  He's on guard because he doesn't get a good vibe from this man.

Sure enough, he goes on a little too animatedly about how much his girlfriend does for the company and the rest of the company.  It comes off to Katsuki as fake and kiss-ass.  Nonetheless, his girlfriend accepts all the compliments like the graceful goddess she is.  He realizes this boy is one of his girlfriend's juniors as they descend into a conversation surrounding work and future projects.

After dismissing him, another group of his girlfriend's underlings rushes over with compliments and "Oh my gosh, senpai!  You look amazing!" and the like.  Each time, she would accept the praise, introduce him, before launching into more work-related subject matter that Katsuki learned to tune out eventually.

Honestly, he's annoyed at how everyone here is overwhelmingly toxic.  All the subordinates or peers are kiss-ups and her superiors are pretentious stick-up-their-asses that look down on his girlfriend.  He can't stand that his lover is surrounded by this atmosphere all day.  They don't know the genuine type of person she is, other than that she's kind and easy to walk all over.  No one seems like they care enough to carry genuine conversation, and he'd rather not tune into that energy.

Instead, Katsuki directs his attention to his lovely girlfriend.  Staring at her face, he recalls how painstakingly long it took for her to paint her face with makeup to look this flawless.  He's sure she would've had a mental breakdown while doing her eyes, especially putting on her eyeliner.  She was chanting to herself cutely to get them even, almost coaxing her shaky hands in front of the mirror to perform some kind of magic.  If he had done the wrong thing and hurried her or teased her habits, she would've unleashed all her anger on him.  He's learned that the hard way.  In the end, she was able to achieve this masterpiece on her face without making herself look like a completely different person, highlighting her natural beauty.

Scanning downward to her dress, he remembers fondly going shopping with her last weekend.  Her hair was in a topknot as she fumbled through the racks for a dress to wear.  She had dragged him along because she trusted his opinion on fashion choices.  While he would've liked for her to choose a scarlet red gown, Katsuki knew she'd look infinitely better in the sapphire blue number she's wearing now.  The skinny straps holding the dress up leads down to a not-too-plunging neckline that suits her shoulders, collarbone, and chest perfectly.  The dress cinches in at the waist to emphasize the figure he knows she has before falling straight down from her hips, and the mid-thigh slit on one side is subtly sexy without having her risk overexposure.  Finishing the entire outfit is a classic pair of nude pumps, a dainty gold necklace, matching dangling earrings, and a clutch matching her shoes.  Her hair is curled in waves cascading down her back with some stands hanging over one shoulder.

Katsuki can't help but smile unconsciously.  He can't wait to someday place the finishing touch she deserves: a simple but elegant ring on her left hand.

After all the formalities, the two finally sit down and start eating the dinner courses that have started gracing their place settings.

"I know you wanted to go out for date night today," his girlfriend begins gently, "But we can imagine this is a fancy restaurant with just us two, and everything else is just a backdrop."

"Shouldn't you be paying attention to what's going on?" Katsuki quirks an eyebrow.

She waves her hand and takes a refined sip of her wine.  "I've already heard them practice this speech too many times."

The devilish blond smirks and slinks closer to her.  "That's not something a good employee would do, is it?"

"I'm not working right now," she smoothly responds back, replicating his energy.

The organizer of the dinner finally takes the stage and starts his speech.  Katsuki keeps his gaze on his beautiful girlfriend, admiring her delicately picking and eating at her plate.  She's so precious to him, he doesn't care if he's making heart eyes and everyone can see.

When the speech finishes, his girlfriend's glass also empties and she indicates that she's going to get another.  It leaves him on edge, he hates being alone with all these strangers even for a few minutes.  He doesn't want to tell you this, but if one of these people try to small talk him without you here, he might actually break something.

"So, Bakugou, what do you do?" the same lady from earlier chirps at him.

He whips his head up.  For fuck's sake.  "I'm a...public safety worker of sorts."  He tries so hard to sound polite for his girlfriend's sake.  He also can't resist scanning the room for her as a safety reflex.  With all the shady people around, he doesn't trust that something bad won't happen.  And he also wants your comfort in these uncomfortable situations, but he'll never admit that either.

"Oh, I see."  The old lady seems satisfied with his tone, barely noticing his fidgeting as she launches into a whole story about her grandson wanting to do something like that, and all the tangents related to that.

Katsuki is relieved that he doesn't have to talk for the rest of the time, just nodding along  and humming to prove he's passively listening.  He finally spots his angel a few tables away, groaning internally that she was stopped by someone, keeping her from coming back to him.  It seems they were having a deep conversation at first, but suddenly the man cracks a smile and a joke that makes her cover her mouth in respectful laughter.

Katsuki's annoyance is cut through at her wholehearted display of emotions.  The entire night, he's been complaining about how much he hates everyone here, but it's only now he realizes how relaxed she looks in the entire situation.  She's completely in her element; he'd get easily drained by all the suffocating small talk, but her?  She thrives off this, she gains energy from it.  Although she comes home late, overworked and tired, she still faces every day with a smile on her face.  She makes it look so easy to talk to people, striking up and following conversations with everyone in the most endearing and poised way possible.

Katsuki smiles to himself, warmth washing over him.  Yes, just like his mom, but it makes his girlfriend all the more stunning and admirable in his eyes.

His girlfriend finally returns to the table, her recently-acquired glass already half empty.  "What did I miss?" she asks, buzzing with both energy and alcohol.

Katsuki leans his head on his palm.  "Nothing much."  He's still basking in the glow of his wonderful girlfriend, casually sipping his own wine absently.

She turns towards the clearing in the center of the room and takes his free hand.  "Let's go dance, babe!"

Any other time, Katsuki would have sternly declined, but he can't resist her today.  Without a single complaint, he rises and lets her drag him by their entwined hands to the dance floor.  Guiding his large hand around her waist as her one hand plants to his shoulder, she raises their joined hands and starts swaying them to the classic orchestral ensemble's upbeat performance.

The man doesn't know if it's the overwhelming feeling of pride he recently uncovered, or the way their bodies press together gently as he inhales her floral perfume, but he can't find the words to describe everything he wants to say. He settles on simply smiling warmly down at her as he whispers, "You're amazing, you know that?"

His girlfriend's cheeks flush and she erupts into giggles.  "What's with the sudden compliment?"

He shakes his head.  "I just realized it, that's all.  Just like my mom."

"You sure are a Mama's boy, aren't you?"

He scoffs at the idea.  "I love the old hag, but I'll never tell her that.  Besides, I'd say I'm whipped for a different woman in my life."  He brushes hair behind her ear, her earring glinting against the light, and places a kiss on her perfect temple.  "You look stunning tonight."

His girlfriend's eyes close in half-lidded affection.  "I'm sorry this isn't the perfect date night you wanted."

The blond leans his forehead on her's, slowing their pace to allow time to pass much more leisurely around them.  "I get to dance with you, I think that's a definite win."

"I guess so."

Katsuki comes to realize that he can be forced to come to all of these events.  All that matters is his enchanting lover and her smile.  When the night is over, he can't wait to let her take her heels off and carry her bridal style to their car as everyone watches in envy and awe.  He'd let her recline and rest her weary feet, telling her stories of his adventures of night outings with his mom to lull her to sleep in his passenger seat.  And then he'd carry her sleeping figure up to their bedroom and wake her gently so she can clean herself up and change into her cute pajamas, just so they can cuddle in each other's warmth until they fall asleep.

Maybe he's not a Mama's boy anymore.  More like he's a Lover's boy.

[tombeachw]

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