#search up the video AND LO AND BEHOLD

[spaceagerabbit]

my inability to like things a normal amount and needing to know everything there is to know about the stuff i like being the reason i find out that norman reedus is in lady gaga’s ‘judas’ music video. AS JUDAS.

HELLO?????

[dashiellqvverty]

the state of my newsies youtube playlist in 2023.... was looking for the corey cott like workout tips video i think its gone

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

the vitriolic hatred most people have for things that look weird is so upsetting to me sometimes :(

[stupidsexpotflanders]

Dr. Chase,the physician from The Land Down Under

In the Season 8 episode "Dead and Buried",Chase appeared in a TV show playing a stereotypically Australian doctor on some skit(there was no Watsonian explanation given for this,I love how bonkers House MD can be). Despite the embarassment when House and Taub found the video,Chase's "first and big role" was massively beneficial to him.

It started on early clinic duty,due to a mistake. Chase was approached by some random teenager who saw him online. She was wondering why the actor was dressed like a doctor in a hospital waiting room;

In response,Chase claimed to be an aspiring actor wanting to make it in show business. He donned a fake but convincing American accent and a beautiful smile. The girl,now smitten by the not-so-fake doctor,asked to take a selfie with him;

The other professional at the scene were fuming and confused at the same time. Chase was hidden in plain sight,there was no way to convince the other patients the guy was an actual doctor;

The way out of clinic duty was discovered,and Chase was over the moon. He looked up the girl's social media,lo and behold,she not only posted the pic with him but also said she wanted to see more of him;

Chase created social media profiles for his character,totally separated from his professional/personal ones(that were very low-key and private,especially after the nude pic fiasco. As for professional fame,Chase didn't need more than he had - Princeton-Plainsboro was cozy and high-stakes enough). The character was named Robert Chase as well. Between the fact that his name was already common and the fact that "Doc from Down Under" had way more fame than "Head of Diagnostics/House's Successor",it would make him being hard to found out with search mechanisms(this particular tactic made Robert love the fact that the surname Červený was far too complicated for the immigration officers that recieved his father in Australia. Robert Chase vs Robert Červený says it all). To top it all,the real "Dr. Robert Chase" might look like an elaborate goof;

Now,onto how Dr. Chase would be able to keep the facade and his medical career. His main method of testing the candidates to Diagnostics Fellows is to have them pretend to be R. Chase - regardless of gender,race or any characteristics. Of course,he's keeping tabs on both the new doctors and patients - same doctors see the same patients. It has a double usefulness - the candidates have to be skilled with deceit and quick on their feet while able to be coordinated by Chase himself;

When it comes to the cases themselves,Chase goes see the patients sometimes,but always in a disguise(glasses,a thick beard,make up to look 10 years older and a British accent(canon have him an American accent for no reason,so let me make Chase a fake Brit!);

Oftentimes,Chase is seen making videos of the Doctor. After a while,his videos had extremely simplified explanations of complicated diseases. The simplifications were done by someone who deeply understood the pathologies,anyone with medical knowledge would see it. The cherry of the cake was when American Accent Chase played the dumb person who needed said explanations(but still struggled to understand them). His underlings found it annoying but overlooked it,because Chase was generally competent and nice overall;

Last but not least - Chase got away with all that BS because competence levels and he was fucking his boss. Foreman is just as batshit,he's classy about it tho.

Just gimme Chase being just as chaotic as House,but in different ways,please!

[wolf08]

To my fellow fic writers,

I just had an experience with plagiarism of one of my stories and thought I'd share in case this helps someone else.

Okay story time:

I received an email from AO3 about a comment from the "Esquire Bot" on my biggest Naruto fic, A Twist in Time. The comment started with "Unfortunately, your work may have been stolen by content farms" and proceeded to link to a YouTube video that had allegedly plagiarized my work, as well as steps I could take to initiate it getting taken down.

Maybe this is common knowledge and I've been living under a rock (probably), but I was skeptical of this Esquire Bot at first and refused to click any links in the email. So I searched up the video manually and, lo and behold, the video was indeed a plaigarism of my story. The video was called "What if Sakura saved Naruto in the Chunin Exams Part 1" or something like that by a youtube acct called Kestral Fiction. It was published one day ago. The video was literally an automated voice reading out the first four chapters of my story, with random images from Naruto playing in the background. There was no credit to my work whatsoever and the video had racked in 50 views and a couple of comments so far.

I followed the steps outlined in the Esquire Bot's email, which explained how to make a copyright claim to YouTube. I cross-referenced the steps with those outlined by YouTube for reporting copyright to make sure there wasn't anything scammy about the steps, just in case.

Long story short, I followed the steps and they worked. The video was removed within a couple of hours.

My take-aways:

AO3's Esquire Bot is legit. Thank you AO3 for supporting this type of service. Doubtful I would have found out about this otherwise.

YouTube acts fast when you submit a copyright claim. Only the author/creator of the work is able to submit the claim though. And you do have to provide a bit of personal info about yourself in order to submit it.

Look out for "What If" style videos about fandom content. Apparently they're a common format for plaigarising fanfics.

This era of content farming and AI is so frustrating for creators. I feel like I'm out of the loop on how to best manage this stuff (recognizing that it's probably impossible to catch every instance), maybe partly because I've been out of the fic space for awhile and partly because issues like this are evolving so fast nowadays.

Anywho, thought I'd shout my story into the void in case it helps someone. Take care out there. ❤️

[unsociableandtaciturnbarbie]

Bridgerton is just socially acceptable Jane Austen Fanfiction, change my mind.

I have a friend who is really into Dungeons and Dragons and one of the most interesting things I’ve learned from her because of this is how mainstream role playing games have become. There’s a TV show on Amazon Prime called Vox Machina that’s actually based on a Dungeons and Dragons campaign called Critical Role that was streamed on Twitch and as a Podcast on Spotify. In other words, a game of roleplaying between a few friends has become a popular TV show for people who don’t even roleplay to enjoy. Naturally, when I heard about The Good Society, I was curious to see what content is out there on the internet. So, I searched it up on Spotify and, lo and behold, a podcast of people playing The Good Society does exist. Each episode is approximately 4 hours long, and I unfortunately do not have the time to dedicate to listening in full. However, the latest episode (from December of 2020) is titled “Zombies”, so I had to at least give it a brief listen (Here’s a YouTube link to a video of them playing through this episode, but I listened in Podcast format: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiAgFD4DMw&t=9256s). In the episode description itself it’s called a “one-shot” which I feel like I only ever hear applied to fanfiction (more on that later though). 

I started by listening to the first 10 minutes. In those we got an ad break, a brief introduction of the players, and also a song meant to give an overview of the game containing the lyric, “ballers gonna ball”? Then they start to move into the full description of characters, kind of along the lines of what we did in class today. At this point, I learned that they were combining legitimate expansion packs with names like, “Sense, Sensibility, and Swordsmanship” and “Pride, Prejudice, and Practical Magics”. I really needed to see what was going on when they threw all these things together so I just skipped to a random point in the podcast and tried to figure out what was going on. I landed around the 2 hour and 33 minute mark where they are in the letter writing part of the game. This was really interesting because the letters are very “in character” interactions where the players are all talking in accents and using not super modern vocabulary where the rest of the game seems like just a lot of friendly chatting and hanging out. I stuck around just for long enough to find out that they’ve come up with a character who’s going to bring some zombies into the house that’s central to their game. At this point I’d listened to ~30 minutes of this episode so I called it a day, but it was definitely fun to listen to them really get into character and then work together to set some things up and then get in character again and it kind of made me want to play too. 

All I could really think the whole time I listened (and when I first was reading about this game) was that it felt very fanfiction-esque? These characters felt a little more different from Austen characters than our characters, maybe because the players are more experienced and had more time to develop the characters’ personalities, but when we were playing in class today, I felt like if you changed a few names we were just writing Elinor Dashwood/George Wickham fanfiction. When I first heard “Jane Austen roleplay” I thought it was a crazy idea, but the more I learn about it I feel like it’s just Jane Austen fanfic in a collaborative way and I kind of love it.

Having heard about the Dungeons and Dragons show I started to think about what a The Good Society show would look like, but then I thought: Bridgerton exists. Would the writers of Bridgerton call what they did roleplaying? Probably not. But I bet they did sit down together and do almost exactly what we did in class today, coming up with characters and relationships and finding ways to sort of connect them based on that. That kind of got me thinking about the like levels of social acceptance of these things, so I made a meme.

The template here being where as you go down the diagram the description is supposed to be of cooler and more “mind-blowing” things, but all of the items are sort of interlinked as like small steps up from one another. Seriously though, why don’t we call Bridgerton Jane Austen fanfic? I don’t mean to suggest that all regency-themed things are Jane Austen-based; she did not invent the regency. But, the tropes and character hallmarks utilized by Austen show up again and again in fanfic, in romance novels, and yes, even in Bridgerton, whether it's in the meddling mother characters or the brooding rich men. I'm not sure whether we like to pretend we're totally original or admitting to writing fanfic is still too socially unacceptable, but on some level, the background in which modern-day regency romance is set is the world created by Jane Austen, and I think as long as the regency romance genre is around we’ll always be able to find a new bit of Austen within it.

[thunderblessedhero]

HOW ARE YOU ALL ALIVE???

N: Hoooo boy. You all… are probably in severe need of a recap. A lot has happened in the last… what, two hours? And even before that…

August: okay but I get to do the recap cause I was in the middle of it all!

Blake: hey, hey, hold on- I was missing for well over a month and presumed DEAD! I probably have like, a billion questions to answer, let me do it-

Hugh: Oh my god, we can ALL do the recap together, you idiots. We all kinda have our own piece of the story to tell, anyways.

N: Right, right, so where do I start… Well, a few days ago, I managed to find Zekrom again. After seeing what happened in Opelucid, we both decided it was time to end Team Plasma once and for all.

August: and while N was busy tracking them down, Hugh and I were following their trail! basically, after a LONG week of traveling, we made it to Humilau City and found their frigate hidden close by. Cheren, Hugh and I raided it, hoping to dismantle whatever super weapon they’d used to freeze Opelucid… but at one point we got chased off. except for me! I stowed away to find out where they were going. I told Hugh to rendezvous with Cheren and these ex-Team Plasma guys who were also there hoping to destroy the weapon at the giant chasm. also, their super weapon was Kyurem btw- from what Drayden told me, its the third piece of the original dragon. yknow, the thing Reshiram and Zekrom used to be a part of. basically its the husk that was left over after they split… and the DNA splicers- the artifact that Team Plasma stole and modified- could be used to fuse them all back together.

Hugh: The frigate landed, and while August went after Ghetsis and Kyurem, I raided the ship in search of my little sister’s stolen Purrloin. I… found it, but it’s a Liepard now and doesn’t recognize me. But… I’ll worry about all that later.

August: while I was fighting Ghetsis, N and Zekrom came flying in seconds before it tried to kill me.

N: Zekrom had picked up on Kyurem’s pain and tracked it- that’s how we managed to get there, in the nick of time no less. But… I wasn’t prepared for what Ghetsis- my… father, had planned. He used the DNA splicers to fuse Zekrom and Kyurem…

August: I tried to defeat it, but the thing was too strong. we were seconds away from losing when- lo and behold- RESHIRAM decided to show up to the party

Blake: uh huh, so basically, I didn’t die, which is good! Plasma just faked it to make an example out of me- originally I think they… were going to genuinely kill me, but Colress convinced Ghetsis I could still be useful in helping them find Reshiram.

Blake: they, uh… I’m not sure what they used to make that video look legit, but I have my suspicions. as far as I’m aware, they still have Nox, whose illusions are close to perfect, so- that’s my guess, at least. I just… really hope he survived that hit.

N: ….

Blake: …anyways, while I was being held captive that Colress freak ran some experiments on me. I lied and told them I couldn’t call Reshiram to my side on a whim, so he just opted to experiment on my chosen abilities to try and make me summon it.

Blake: it was… pretty messed up, not gonna lie. I’m not gonna go into detail about it. but it did help me tap into some of my powers. I can summon fire in my hand now, but more importantly, I learned to communicate with Reshiram across long distances via telepathy- not that I told any of this to Colress, of course. so then began me and Reshi’s silent planning- I told him to keep his distance until the time was right. eventually, I learned about the Kyurem project, and what they were planning to do once they got their hands on Reshi.

Blake: when the frigate landed in the giant chasm, I had NO idea August was even on board or planning to take on Ghetsis. my plan was to let Kyurem start its little region-freezing spree, wait until it needed a moment to recharge and catch its breath, then swoop in on Reshi while it was weakened and take Ghetsis out.

Blake: but as you can probably tell, that… didn’t end up being what happened. I heard the guards shout something about seeing Zekrom fly in after them, so Reshi and I jumped into action. It… it was rash and stupid, I know, but ever since I learned about N being back in Unova I’ve been worrying myself sick thinking about what might happen if Ghetsis caught word. of what he might do to him.

Blake: I managed to stun Black Kyurem, but not for long. it… well, the moment I arrived Ghetsis was quick to finish what he started.

August: Kyurem absorbed Reshiram, too, and now…

N: The original dragon is off on a violent rampage around Unova.

Hugh: Yeah, I got there just in time to see that monstrosity blow a hole in the chasm and trap Ghetsis under a pile of boulders. It’s not following his command anymore, by the looks of it, but it’s definitely not on our side either.

Blake: it was like the dragons were all struggling for control in one body…

N: And now its off in the far north of the region, flattening mountain ranges- thankfully there’s not a lot of civilization out there, but its only a matter of time before it reaches a city or town.

August: after everything ended, Keldeo found me again and said he knows someone who might be able to help. and like, we need all the help we can get obviously, so now we’re following him to wherever this backup of his is.

August: aaand now you’re all caught up! here’s to hoping whatever Keldeo wants to show us can help us split the dragons again. the DNA splicers were destroyed with Ghetsis, so… this could be our only hope…

[spricket-central]

aw mannn, not you too, Poppyseed! :(

i was taking a video of her cleaning her ovipositor and lo and behold, an egg popped out of the base.

i AM relieved to see just how quickly it passed though. that was almost instant, start to finish.

im definitely nervous though, because Breadcrumb was CONSTANTLY grooming her ovipositor like this and, again, she ended up fatally eggbound...

however, despite this similarity, i have noticed an interesting difference: she appears to be lacking the "flap" that Breadcrumb had (and Baguette, unfortunately, currently has) at the opening of her "Egg Hole."

heres a picture of Poppyseed from just now:

and heres a picture of Baguette from last night:

notice how Baguette has that small "flap" sticking down at the base of her ovipositor, and how it appears to be absent on Poppyseed. this could be a positive thing for Poppy, as the flap seems to make the eggs harder to pass when theyre emerging from the egg hole.

anyway, im unsure what all of this means, to be honest. as ive said before, sprickets are NOT common pets, and the amount of research thats been done on them is extremely limited, so i dont think id have much luck searching around for any information on this phenomenon. for all i know, the hole is supposed to be there, and its just the flap that causes problems. I'll have to look into it i suppose, but i dont think I'll have any luck finding answers.

heres one more Poppy Pic™️ for the road:

sprickets look so goofy when they curl up like that, lmao. weird armadillo 🤔

[eshasunrise]

The Process

Does anybody else enjoy doing things from scratch, even if you have absolutely no logical reason to?

Like, I enjoy making curries. Vindaloo, Biryani, Karahi, I've gone out of my way to make them as close to from scratch as I could. This is pretty straightforward, as you generally want to make your own masala to match your preferences and adapt to the different dishes.

Then came Japanese Curry.

Japanese Curry is based off of British Curry, which came in the form of Curry Powder, a pre-made spice blend. The Japanese company S&B made their own variation, which they made into a curry roux to melt into stews, leading to what we know as Japanese Curry, or Kari Raisu (literally just Curry Rice).

Now I've had Golden Curry before. It's pretty good, especially when spiced up. But, for some ungodly reason, I decided I wanted to make my own Japanese Curry Masala.

Now I dunno about y'all, but I typically get my recipes from one of three locations: Youtube, DuckDuckGo (formerly google), and cookbooks. And I need to tell you, there are barely any recipes for making Japanese-style curry powder. And for good reason; the standard stuff is cheaper in the short-term than buying the spices, and way easier than making the roux.

But I wanted to do it anyway.

The first place I found was JustOneCookbook's S&B imitation. It was quite detailed, but was a fair bit complex. I wanted to compare. Fortunately, now I knew S&B sold their curry powder in individual tins, so I googled the ingredients list. This gave me a decent start, but I still wasn't satisfied, so I browsed a few more links before heading to Youtube. Eventually I came across Dia's Culinaria's video on it, which was noticeably different from the other recipes, but it did account for common additives, and it served as a nice baseline for what I would need. A few ingredients stood out to me. First, was fenugreek. This one was a bit of a wild goose chase. First off, when looking up Fenugreek, if you're in the states, you're likely to find a bunch of ads for overprice medicinal fenugreek supplement, which as far as I know, does nothing. Trying to narrow it down doesn't help much, as both the seeds and leaves are used in curries. Eventually, I figured out thanks to Wandercooks' recipe (one I had skipped over earlier) that it was the seeds generally ground and used. This didn't help obtaining it, however. As mentioned before, most fenugreek is sold medicinally for upwards of 40x the cost. I had to find it elsewhere. Eventually, my family made just enough money to head out of town to Winco for groceries. And lo and behold, there they were in the pour section: fenugreek seeds, for more than I'd normally want to spend, but in adjustable quantities, and far cheaper than the med stuff. We picked some up and now all I had to do was measure them out, toast them, and grind what I needed.

The next notable ingredient was Orange Peel. This wasn't on many, but the S&B/imitation style used it. I don't want to deal with dehydrating an orange peel, so I figured I'd zest an orange add that zest to the roux. Simple as.

That was when I remembered that I didn't know how to make the curry in the first place.

That led me to Youtube. Obviously, I could have turned the masala into a roux, and added it like I would a boxed style, but I had just made Gumbo, and was quite confident in my Roux-dimental skills (sorry). I wanted to do this properly (by my own, self-afflicted measure of proper which in no way applies to anybody else). So I looked for recipes. Most were as I remembered from my initial search: using the box and fancying it up. Eventually though, I found this adorable video. It didn't help too much, but y'all should watch it anyway. It's a great idea and the curry looks great.

Anyway, I eventually stumbled upon J.Kenji Lopez-Alt's video on the subject, which really helped. He decided to use H&B's curry powder, which was convenient since I had just made my spice blend all ready to-

I forgot to actually measure and make the masala.

Okay, so back to the spice recipes. Aside from Dia's, most recipes used the standard ratio of 1:1 turmeric:coriander, with fenugreek and cumin close behind. Using that, I loosely measured out the fenugreek and fennel seed, using a bit more than was listed since it would grind down to less, toasted them with a large-ish bay leaf and star anise. Mash them up in a mortar and pestle (please just use a spice grinder. My obstinance is not a roll model), add the other spices, and I'm good to go. That blend is in the pantry now, waiting.

So now I'm nearly there. I've got a carrot, two potatoes, two chicken breasts, an apple, an onion, a large quantity of garlic, the rest of my whole ginger, and some extra-spicy chili powder ready to go. Just need my mom to pick up an orange, and I'm good to make curry.

Well, I also need either my dad or brother to run the dishwasher so I can make rice in the pressure cooker, but that's pretty straightforward.

Anyway, I'll come back tomorrow evening with my results. May my semi-pointless labor bare fruit.

[lgcmedia]

Can we talk about V&A’s Tee for a moment? We as a nation have been sleeping on Tee Pongsak for way too long.

I always knew he could dance ever since Future Dreams. Back then, I already said Tee could easily be among the new generation of K-pop’s best dancers.He looks like he would be a singer and so when he started rapping during ‘Trauma’ I was shook.  I was not expecting that from him at all. He has rhythm and flow, which are pretty hard to train, so good job to Legacy for bringing out the best in him.

Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant when I heard there would be new additions to V&A, but after seeing them I fell in love with them all. I had to know more. As I looked them all up, I found myself searching for Tee the most, and lo and behold! I found a lot about him! Watching his videos over the years, he has changed so much in terms of his personality compared to when he first joined Legacy. He used to be so awkward and shy, so it’s nice to see him opening up more now that he’s with V&A. He seems like a good person with lots of talents, and I’m looking forward to getting to know him more in the future!

[ + / - ] In my opinion Tee doesn’t fit Versus’ concept and I think he’s out of place in the group.

[ + / - ] Yes another Tee fan! It’s hard to find Tee stans. I was really impressed with his presence during promotions and I loved watching him rap and dance!

[ + / - ] He’s alright. Nothing that will make him stand out from the rest of the team.

▷ load next 15 comments?

[placetneplacet]

This morning I realized I never went back to the Tee, Cheewin, New and Aof friend YouTube video from last year after it got subtitles, so I decided to go look for it.

I knew it wasn’t on one of the studio channels and I was fairly sure it was on New’s personal YouTube channel, but I had zero luck trying to discover New’s personal YouTube channel just random searching on YouTube…

I had to go on fake Twitter and search New’s Twitter, because his personal YouTube is not linked in his bio and lo and behold…

This man never subtitled it!

Friends, it’s not a competition, but between you and me, Jojo and Aof Gmmtv subtitle their friend YouTube videos.

I watched without subs and enjoyed what I understood, but you know, New, if you have time or the inclination, I will absolutely forget that I went on this rabbit chase and will no doubt end up looking for it again and would be thrilled to discover it had subs any time in the future. But like just if you want to…

[whumble-beeee]

Whumptember 2023, Day 4

“Where Are They?”

Kidnapped | Left behind | Desperation

@whumptember

The Bee’s Whumptember Masterlist

CW: mentioned kidnapping, mentioned character death (they didn't die but the characters don't know that lol

~1560 words

(This is going to be a direct continuation of my story from Day 3: This Can’t Be It, now from Sibling’s point of view (I’m really proud of that story so go give it a read if you have time))

-------------

Sibling ran, faster than they had ever run before, faster than they thought was possible, across rooftops, over alleyways, speeding above sidestreets and hurtling over any rooftop obstacle that got in their way; away from Whumper and their goons, away from their problems, away from the person who held them back as Whumper whispered sweet threats into Whumpee’s ears, dangled him over the side of the building, threatened his life. Away from Whumpee, who could still be halfway over the side of the building for all they knew, his panicked eyes searching for them and looking at them with fear, hope, love, trust that Sibling would get him out of this situation. That Sibling wouldn’t let Whumper kill him over some stupid unpaid debt. But they didn’t. They ran.

Now Whumpee could just be a splatter on the pavement.

The rush of air against their skin had never felt more nauseating, their lungs screaming out in pain more and more as if the organs themselves were protesting Sibling's cowardice, demanding they go back and make things right.

They were finally in another gang’s territory now, and their tail had stopped chasing. Whether it was because Sibling managed to lose them or they just didn’t want to get caught chasing someone on Electric Underground turf, they didn’t care. It’s not like they would stop running until they got to the safehouse anyway.

The quickly punched in the code to the rusty old keypad and slammed open the door, paying no mind to the various panicked and suspicious looks they received as they frantically made their way through the room, searching. The panic and adrenaline rising in their chest made them feel like they were about to explode.

“HAS ANYONE SEEN CARETAKER?!” Sibling cried out, which only earned them some very annoyed and disgusted looks from some very annoyed gang members. Then a loud crash could be heard from the kitchenette across the room, and a small yelp. Then, a thankfully uninjured caretaker emerged, rubbing at a fresh bruise on their arm.

“Sibling? What the fuck man, you can’t just run into a gang hangout and start screaming–”

“They took Whumpee!”

Caretaker froze in their tracks. They looked around the room, then back at Sibling, confused. “What? Who's they? W-what happened, where's Whumpee?”

“The Ravens, they took Whumpee, they might have– might have killed him, I don't know, I don’t know where they are now, I didn’t–”

“Woah woah, wait, shut the hell up.” Caretaker raced over to Sibling, literally slapping their hand over Sibling's mouth. “Let’s maybe talk about this somewhere more private?” Caretaker gestured to the few other people in the room, and lo and behold, they were all either fully staring at them, or at least badly pretending they weren’t, unconvincingly reading or book or half playing a video game level that had barely been restarted. They all knew about the Emerald Ravens. Everybody did. Their wide eyes and sympathetically horrified expressions showcased that well enough.

“Ah yeah, right…” Sibling agreed. They let Caretaker guide them to what amounted to a janitor's closet, the walls lined with cleaning supplies and rags, and other stores that looked like they could be used for more… nefarious purposes. The literal axe in the corner proved particularly intriguing to Sibling.

"Okay, start over." Caretaker said when all fell quiet again. "What happened to Whumpee?"

"I- uh…" Sibling's stomach started doing flip-flops at the prospect of telling Caretaker everything. But they had to. For Whumpee. "Okay… so me an' Whumpee, we were on the rooftops, and I was showin' off a little for him, teachin' him how to jump across the large gaps, you know how I do all the parkour stuff…"

Caretaker gazed at Sibling, unimpressed. "Yeah…?"

"So uh, we were doin' that, and then outta nowhere, these four fuckin' Ravens just showed up behind us like fuckin' magic, cornered us, and they started messing with Whumpee, threatening him with knives an’ shit, trying to get to me and eventually they just up and dangled him over the edge of the damn building–"

"Wait wait, Sibling, slow down. What?" Caretaker exclaimed. "What do you mean you got jumped by the Ravens? They don't just jump people… They dangled Whumpee off a building? What did you do?"

Whumpee closed their eyes and took a deep breath through gritted teeth. This was what they'd been dreading. "I owe them some money. The Ravens. A lot of money." Sibling spat out quickly. "I assume they saw me with my kid brother and thought it'd be a good time to scare me straight and collect, show me they weren’t playin' around. Using him."

Caretaker stared, horrified. "So they killed a 19-year-old kid because his sibling couldn't pay up? How deep in are you?!"

Sibling could feel the pinpricks of tears on the edges of his eyes. "...I dunno–"

"What do you mean you don't know, you were THERE!" Caretaker yelled. 

"I know why they were there, Caretaker! I just don't know–" their voice broke as they thought of the last time their amazing, trusting brother had gazed into their eyes, right after he'd completed that first jump. He was so proud. Sibling's breath hitched. "I dun-dunno… what happened to Whumpee…"

Caretaker had to pause to regroup all their thoughts. "You don't know–… but weren't you–"

"I ran a-away, okay? I ran away! They were dangling him o-over the edge an' he was screamin' and cryin' and begging me to save him, and I was yellin' at Whumper that I'd get them the money, but only if they put him down and, and… and leave my little brother out of this, he’s got nothin’ to do with them. They said they wanted the money now, so I couldn't save him and they were gearin’ do something to me too so I just… I ran. So fast. Didn't look back, I dunno what happened afterward, I didn't see…"

Sibling felt salty tears streaming down their face. They just wanted to crawl up into a ball and die.

"Wow…” Caretaker, for about the hundredth time in the past five minutes, stared at Sibling absolutely dumbfounded. “You're a real piece of shit, Sibling."

Sibling laughed despite themself, and half-strangled cry that barely choked out among the quiet sobs. They were so tired. So tired. Not just their joints and muscles, which hadn't stopped screaming out since Sibling finished their mad dash here. Their thoughts, their very mind just felt like it was shutting down.

"I know. Huge piece of shit. I didn't deserve him…" Sibling wiped the snot away from their nose with a snort. "I dunno if he's even alive, Caretaker. They coulda just… let him go, and…" Sibling half-heartedly pantomimed a falling body with their hand, falling down, down, down before splatting out on the closest shelf.

"They also could have kept him alive…" Caretaker pointed out. "Use him to make sure you pay out, to show they're serious. That'd be the smart thing to do."

Caretaker didn't voice possibility that even if the Sibling did somehow manage to pay out, Whumper could still easily kill both Sibling and Whumpee. And probably would. But Sibling looked downtrodden enough without the notion this could all end with them both being tortured and killed.

"So… my little brother is either abstract sidewalk art… or being held ransom by one of the most uppity gangs in the city…" They buried their face in their hands with a loud groan. "God, I'm such a huge piece of SHIT!"

Caretaker stayed silent, deep in thought, allowing Sibling to cry themself out while they tried to figure out what the hell to do to save Whumpee.”So… what’re you gonna do about it then, Sibling?”

Sibling glanced up from their hands. “Whaddaya mean?”

“What. Are you. Gonna do?” Caretaker spelled slower as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“They killed him, you get revenge, and if not, you need to get him the fuck out of there. Either way, you can't sit around in an Electric Underground storage closet whining and crying. You gotta do something! Avenge your damn brother, because whatever's happening to him is your fault. So what’re you gonna do?” Caretaker got increasingly aggressive as their speech went on, gesticulating around with their hands until they were literally jabbing Sibling in the chest with their finger.

Sibling stared at Caretaker desperately. They grabbed Caretaker's hands with both of theirs, both to stop the assault and as a plea for help. “I– I–... I’m gonna ask you for help…”

“Uh-huh, and I’m agreeing. I always got your back. What next?”

“Then we maybe get some reinforcements…” Sibling looked to Caretaker for approval. Caretaker rolled their eyes and nodded, motioning for them to continue. “And figure out what happened to Whumpee. If he’s dead, or-or kidnapped…”

"There ya go," Caretaker praised with an almost painful exaggerated back pat. “You got there eventually. Though, you forgot the part where you’re certainly gonna have to find money to pay them back, though… but baby steps. So, where to? Where are they?”

Sibling hissed inward with a grimace. “If Whumpee’s still alive, which he fuckin’ better be…” Sibling looked to Caretaker sheepishly. “...they’d’ve brought him to the Emerald Raven headquarters.”

Caretaker clenched his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose with a groan. Of course that's where they'd take Whumpee. They really were doing this weren't they? 

“God, you’re really such a piece of shit… C'mon, then. Let’s go save your brother.”

[auideas]

Hi! If it's not too much trouble do you have any ideas/prompts for like a youtuber/influencer/celebrity au sort of thing?? I've been searching all over but I can barely find anything,,

Hey there! It's absolutely no trouble at all -- we'd love to help

This AU category is definitely one that needs a bit of love. We actually had a similar request earlier this year asking for YouTuber AUs, so here's the link to the set we made back then. Additionally, here are some links to some associated tags (such as YouTube AU, Vlogger AU, Video Game AU, etc.) -- maybe some of them will help!

Additionally, here's a completely new set of prompts that extend into some of the specific areas you mentioned. Looking forward to seeing what you're able to make with this new content!

(Plus, A. Admin Kasi maaaaaaaaaaay have written an entire Wattpad story about a YouTuber when she was 14 so like the memories being brought up are painful)

Admin M:

Being Character A’s bodyguard was supposed to be an easy gig -- after all, how much trouble could a celebrity cause? That’s what Character B thought when they took the job...as it turns out, they were very wrong. Long story short, Character A told the paparazzi that Character B was their new significant other just so they’d get off Character A’s back about the fact that they weren’t in a relationship with anyone. The hell is Character B supposed to do NOW??

Rival influencers Characters A and B acted as pleasantly as they could to one another in public settings (especially online) because as everyone knows, being nice to one another is usually better than ripping each others’ heads off. That fact didn’t stop them from hating one another as viscously as possible, though, and this relationship slowly builds until Character B can’t take it anymore and finally lets it slip that they despise one another. Can the two find some common ground and rebuild their careers?

Characters A and B were once great friends who used to game together all the time. Over the years, however, they slowly drifted apart and forgot about one another. While Character A kept gaming and gradually started to stream, Character B abandoned their online life altogether. After 7 years passes, Character A amasses a huge following and hosts an event with their subscribers. Thousands of fans show up, but the only name that Character A recognizes is Character B’s in the crowd. Three things could happen as this story continues: 1) Character A can’t place where they met Character B before and Character B gets upset, 2) Character B may not remember Character A and is also upset, or 3) they remember one another and Character A decides the best way to rekindle their relationship with their busy schedule would be to just feature Character B on their streams [needless to say, Character A’s fans enjoy their casual flirting and wish it would turn into something more].

Characters A and B are high school influencers who have a rivalry and compete to publish similar content in their small town. They believe that going to college would open up opportunities for them and they wouldn’t have to deal with the other, but lo and behold, they’ve accidentally chosen the same university. Do these two rivals partner up, change schools, or do the carry their vitriolic rivalry to this new battleground?

When Character A lost their parents at the age of 3, they wrote it off as a tragic event and forgot about their previous life. After all, Character A’s new parents seemed to love them with all their hearts. The fact that they forced Character A to become a childhood influencer was a bit annoying, sure, but they still liked the work they did. At the age of 14, they host a panel at a convention to answer questions and someone comes up to the microphone. They’re older than Character A, but they look so, so familiar. Character B reveals that they’re Character A’s older sibling who was adopted by another family. Character B tries to convince Character A that their new parents are just using Character A to get money and that they needed to run away while they still had the chance. Character A only starts to believe Character B when they’re being manhandled out the door by security. That couldn’t be true...could it?

Characters A, B, C, and D have never encountered technical issues when they played and streamed their favorite game, so they expected that experience to carry over to the sequel in the series. On the first night of the beta, however, they feel a bit strange. They attribute the issue to nerves since they knew this would be their biggest stream yet and decide to just sign on and get started. 15 minutes in, however, the feeling increases and they pass out only to wake up inside the game. This would be a weird type of drugged-up trip, but looking down at the palms of their hands revealed the stream information...they were still live, and the chat was going nuts. TL;DR -- the group gets stuck in a video game, but somehow, their streams are still running. Can the group survive this video game world while the real world watches their every move 24/7?

A. Admin Kasi:

Happily living alone in their apartment, Character A is curious about their new neighbor. They’re quiet, reserved, and for some reason they look exactly like the celebrity Character A was in love with as a teenager. There’s no way it could be them… right??

Character A was walking on the streets of a big city when a random “influencer” decides to embarrass them on their knowledge. Turns out, Character A does not like to be messed with and decides to get back on the influencer for making them look like an idiot in viral video.

Streaming was supposed to be a fun way to make more friends and share Character A’s unique personality. During their first stream, a viewer compares them to a supposedly famous streamer that Character A had never heard about, but once they went to their page the streamer was… there’s no way? Why is does the streamer look and act exactly like Character A??

Because of an insane fan sending death threats, a well known celebrity decides to go undercover as the opposite sex in an exclusive boarding school. Their roommate, who had never really had an interest in that celebrity is really shocked how out of touch their new roommate is and can very obviously tell something about them is out of place.

Character A always wanted to forget about how they dated Character B in high school after their relationship crashed and burned. Now, ten years after their relationship, Character A receives a back stage ticket in the mail, for Character B’s upcoming sold out show.

Character A was in something very small and obscure many years ago. It was long forgotten in their minds until they meet Character B, someone from a small country where that one small thing Character A did is incredibly popular. Having learned this, Character A travels with them to the small country where Character A is a massive celebrity.

Classic fanfic trope of celebrity sees fan at concert and falls immediately!

[peaceful-mokeyfraggle]

Fraggle Rock 40th Anniversary

I can’t believe that Fraggle Rock is turning 40 this year! When watching it, it doesn’t seem to be that old, but wow! 40 years… January 10, 1983, to January 10 of this year. I remember my first memories of Fraggle Rock. I was about 10 years old when I saw a Fraggle Rock video recommended on my YouTube feed. It was the song, “I’m a Little Stewpot” from the episode “Boober Gorg”. I watched it with zero context and with zero knowledge about the Fraggles. I was a little skeptical at first, but I grew to love it all the same. I have always loved many of Jim Henson’s projects such as “The Muppets Take Manhattan'' and his 1986 Christmas special “The Christmas Toy”. I was obsessed with “The Christmas Toy'' at the time, and my favorite character was Apple the Doll, performed by Kathryn Mullen. I searched online to see if Kathy Mullen performed any Fraggle Rock characters, and lo and behold, Mokey Fraggle showed up in the results. From the looks of her, I could tell that I would at least like her. But after listening to Mokey sing “Ragtime Queen”, I grew to love her. That day, she became my favorite Fraggle. I didn’t start watching full episodes until I was 13. The more I watched Fraggle Rock, the more I could relate to Mokey and the rest of the Fraggle Five. I loved the Fraggles so much that I started to draw them and write stories about them. Fraggles are so much fun to draw. I had a full wall in my room dedicated to my Fraggle drawings. I even made up a new word, Fraggle-tabulous. I wrote a few of my own songs, and I am currently working on a new one. It's just a hobby of mine. But I do savor all the moments while drawing, writing stories, and composing new songs for the Fraggles. I have over 40 Fraggle OC’s that I’ve created over the past year. Some of them are very old characters, way back from when I truly got into Fraggle Rock. Last November, I saw a trailer for the new reboot, “Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock”. After seeing that trailer… after a few years of forgetting about the Fraggles, it got me back into Fraggle Rock again. I have Jim Henson and all who have worked on Fraggle Rock to thank for my love of Fraggles. Like the Trash Heap says, “You cannot leave the magic.”

[woodchuckvirus]

Just another random humble brag that I wanna do again---

So, I’ve started listing stuff on ebay to sell. Pokemon cards, ofc, and I’ve sold THREE!! Which is cool. But so far it’s been for a pretty low sum. $15 at the highest.

So, I have some old PS2 games that I considered selling a long time ago but never got around to it. Decided, hey, I’ve learned how to use ebay! New skill unlocked! I decided it is finally time, I will sell a video game.

The game in question was Silent Hill 4. Like... ofc I appreciate the Team Silent crew and all that good stuff. The music is still amazing for this game, but otherwise, dang I just did not get into this game at all. I quit like halfway through it when I realized the game was going to have me repeating all of the levels again for the second half of it. So I never even finished it. Knew I was never going to pick it up to play again. I figured, if I kept this game, it was just eventually going to get broken or thrown out. So I figured I should sell it and let someone else get more out of this thing than I ever could.

I check ebay’s sold listings for this game, and it’s selling for like $130 fookin’ dollars. Like SSSSSSSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT..........  People are buying this retro-ass PS2 game for THAT MUCH? People really dig SH4 THAT much???

So okay then. Hip, I dig.

So, it’s not so much the “I sold a game,” it’s that I succeeded in selling the game. The reason I put more weight into that is because it’s kind of a challenge to actually get something to sell on ebay...! Because there are SO many other people selling things on that platform, too, you have to get your item seen and outdo the other prices so that someone will decide to buy your game rather than the literal dozens of other identical ones being sold at the exact same time as yours.

The first step is to check the most recent Sold listings to see what people are ACTUALLY buying it for. Because you can list an item on ebay for just about any price, but that doesn’t mean people will buy it. Some people have this game listed for like $400, and no one is going to pay that much for the dang thing. So I check and see what the average selling price seems to be. Yeah, it’s hovering around that $130 mark.

So the next thing I do is put it up for the lowest buy price; i.e., competitive pricing. Most importantly, if I list this at the lowest current price, then when anyone searches the game and sorts the results to show the lowest price first, mine will be at the top of the list, giving it more views.

I take all the photos, etc., list the game for $120. I wait a couple weeks. Honestly, I think it was about two weeks, and people kept viewing the listing. I’ve come to notice that when a listing gets around 20 views, that’s when it’s on the brink of selling. Lo and behold, it sold!!!

I packed it up, shipped it out, and the buyer got it yesterday.

And I sold a dang PS2 game for $120. After ebay’s taxes/fees and shipping cost, I ultimately got $103 for it. But dude. DUDE... I sold a video game for $100... that’s fuckin’ sick.

Suffice it to say, I think I got a handle on this whole ebay thing.

[thefaithofnatti]

Hi! I'm Natti, a 19 year old Catholic and I wanted to start this blog to share my faith.

You may have seen me send in a few asks to @angeltreasure but I finally decided to start my own blog to share my experience and have my own little corner of the internet.

I'll leave my story under the cut but feel free to reblog so I can meet more Catholics on here, send in prayer requests, or just interact in any way because I love talking to people!

I talked a bit about this in an ask but I grew up Catholic. I think it's a big part of my Mexican identity and something that's ingrained in me.

Personally, I've always felt connected with my faith and I could see it throughout my childhood, and throughout confirmation where my friends and those my age were going to church or youth group because they were forced to by their parents and then there was me who genuinely enjoyed it and felt close to God.

Then I moved across the country for college and I stopped going to church for a bit. I never made an effort to look for a parish near me as I let other things in my life take precedence to God and it wasn't until spring of this year that I did a quick Google search and lo and behold, there was a church at the plaza near my school - and a Catholic one at that!

I started going to church again and it provided me a lot of comfort while I was away from home. Coming back this Fall for my third year of college I suddenly felt a pull.

Something was calling me to strengthen my faith.

Again, I'd always felt pretty true to my faith and to Jesus, I considered myself a practicing Catholic in the most basic sense of the word, but something was calling me for more.

So I listened. I bought myself a Bible (a bilingual one too) and read things online and watched videos and let myself be pulled closer to Him.

I recently went to confession after many years (my struggle with confession is a whole other story for a different day) and I felt my heart truly open up for the first time in a really long time. I sent in my experience to @angeltreasure because I wanted to share it with someone and they responded with "He has found His lost little lamb" which reminded me of this passage:

Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent." - Luke 15:3-7

I truly feel like I was a lost lamb that has strayed but when He called I listened and now I have found Him again.

That's my story for now! I feel a little out of place starting (continuing?) this journey at 19 - a little too old for a teen/child and a little to young for an adult - but I'm hoping that you guys join me as I continue to expand my faith and grow closer to Him 🤍