#sl controls

[thecoolerliauditore]

on one hand, very glad my suspicions of burnout and gimmicks as a result of fear of losing viewership were wrong at least as far as we know. im glad the CCs are having fun and their enjoyment is being prioritized, even if i am still not entirely convinced everyone's on the same page.

on the other hand, it's melancholic but this is pretty much the nail in the coffin in me having any interest left in future installments of the series. for those of you concerned: I am forever haunted by my brain diseases and will be continuing to post, write and draw 3L - SL for the rest of my forseeable life (plus completely disconnecting from any need I feel to interact with WL and beyond leaves me with more time to work on. certain larger scale projects I have had plans for)

i respect grians decision-making and he would know better than me how to run a youtube series, however I do question how much of an oxymoron it is to not care about viewer feedback for a youtube series run on viewership (and when so many of the recent behind the scenes decisions we've been privy to - such as Scar and Grian's hesitancy to team up based on comments calling them "boring" -- imply the opposite regarding the cast's mindset). it makes me concerned for the longevity of the series going forward, since those not happy with the direction that I've seen have all been very passionate and old fans, but I've also seen an equal if not louder support for this season, so I digress.

Part of me wonders how much of the "we want last life 2" sentiment (<-- something I've previously spoken about how I don't agree with) the cast has been exposed to, since it felt strange to me that it was even bought up. I have had a thought about this and the consequences of "don't maintag your negativity" e.g. the reasonable people know to hide their critical posts, and what that leaves a creator with are the unreasonable people, and if it's only that feedback that gets processed, then inevitably things tend to go in weird directions. Were any of us actually "tired" of Desert Duo interacting? Were any of us mad at Gem for killing Grian in SL?

It's frustrating to see crit posts get flagged down with accusations of disrespecting or attacking the CCs, or "we don't want you here anyway, just leave," when myself and all the people I've spoken to being not avid haters but rabid fans who feel frustrated and actively want to continue liking the series. Not to mention most of the people also being active members of the fandom ontop of that -- we claim that fanart is important and makes the series even more special than it already is, yet people seem more than happy to sacrifice that just for the sake of not seeing critical opinions.

t-shirt that says blah blah blah. but I reserve the right of feeling disappointed.

[angeart]

Howwwww did you angst the world tour?? 🎀

this question made me giggle so much oh i'm glad you asked :3c there was so much yummy grian angst in the hc world tour!

it's all about grian and his penchant for destruction. he doesn't even mean to! he's not trying to be pesky; quite the opposite. he's curious but restrained, trying to be good, trying to follow instructions. he's not malicious at all! he's just there to see what people were up to, open and friendly and curious, eager to look and learn and praise. not a bad intention in sight... and yet things seem to break wherever he goes. everything he touches goes wrong.

the guilt churns, acidic and overwhelming, and grian's miserable. why is he like this? he's trying so hard, why is this the only way he can ever be? why can't it stop?

spoilers for grian's world tour video below <3

plantie pointed out to me how, during the tour of scar's train, when grian got rid of scar's arrows—the glitched ones that doc put there—he was so desperate to point it out after scar just glossed over it. as if he wanted to show that he can do something good. he can be helpful, he can fix things instead of just breaking everything.

but then we have all the other things, right? grian can't escape it.

when he was with etho and the mushroom farm exploded, he sums it up in a wretched if confused apology: "i'm so sorry. the two times i tried to use it, i broke it :( and created a water source floating— which i don't know how it happened— and flung the TNT, which i really don't understand—"

they move on, but it's so clear it lingers.

etho isn't blaming him. he's amused and brushes it off and moves along, unbothered, but grian himself can't wrap his head around it. about that propensity to breaking things, even unintentionally. the way nothing is safe around him.

he tells etho: "i can't stop thinking about your mushroom farm. why does everything i touch break, in new and unexpected ways?"

(not to mention when etho's showing him frogger and grian plays, almost instantly etho goes: "uh-oh, the game's broken", with a little huff of laugh. it wasn't exactly tied to anything grian did, but still something i wanted to point out, since grian was there for it <3)

and then grian goes to zedaph, right?

the very first game zedaph shows him. the very first. grian plays the way he was told to, the way he was meant to, and— he breaks it.

zedaph just laughs and moves them on.

(just sprinkling in a side note that zedaph's furnace minigame also didn't seem to work the way it should've—)

by the time grian gets to pearl's, it's starting to be a pattern that's so clearly eating away at him, making him anxious. he doesn't want it to happen again!

and yet.

pearl invites him to play her wordle game, and grian mindlessly goes and pushes the wrong button trying to start it... instantly stepping away with a quiet groan of a dread-filled "...oh-" followed by: "i just— ruined it already."

there's something about the mood switch. the way he seems more restrained and tame, silently upset with himself, trying so hard not to mess things up further. questioning why this is happening again. why he can't stop making it happen.

he walks over to the reset game button and asks, carefully: "can i press reset? is it gonna hurt? 🥺👉👈"

pearl reassures him he can, with a sigh noting that it'll just take a while.

there's an almost hysteric laugh from grian, followed by an exasperated, upset scream. "everything i touch breaks! when i went to e— i broke etho's thing when i went to— not frogger, his— his mushroom farm i— it blew up."

"you blew up his mushroom farm?? how? what did you do?!"

"yeah, i— i broke zed's game, instantly, pretty much, it's—"

"oh my gosh :("

"sorry 🥺"

pearl is quick to reassure him, though. "well, luckily for you, this is— you doing that (pushing the wrong button) does not break the game. it's just, you now have to wait for it to reset."

she makes sure grian knows that he didn't mess up anything terribly here. he didn't break pearl's game. it's okay! it's fine!

and then grian right clicks to open the book, and instead makes bonemeal pop out of a composter.

i think at this point pearl is a little bit taken aback by how wrong everything really seems to be going around grian. she makes sure to say, "it's fine," again, just so grian won't start worrying about it all again. "you're clicking on everything that people do not usually click on today. but it's okay. it's still not broken! it's not broken, it's alright, it's okay— i've got failsaves for people like you."

it's so sweet how she really tries to soothe him— and yet she can't help but let out that last remark.

people like you.

those few words surely lodge in more than all the reassurances. they're like splinter, proving grian right.

eventually, he gets to skizz.

during the tour of skizz's base, skizz shows him a horse statue and starts talking about how he lost his first horse at an event that grian was also a part of. and grian's stomach instantly sinks.

he asks hushedly, a bit confused, trying to remember: "was i there?"

skizz laughs. "you were absolutely there, dude."

which leads grian to ask, uneasily: "did i do it?"

skizz waves his hands, quick to easily reassure that no! that's not it, grian didn't do it!

grian lets out an oh with such palpable relief, and goes on to explain about how, "i remember witnessing it, but sometimes it's hard to disentangle whether i did it or not. coz i tell you what, on this tour i've broken everyone's stuff."

nobody was upset with grian when things broke, but here he is, several hermits down, still unable to leave it to rest. because it's him. it's him who did all of that, somehow, and he didn't mean to, but it doesn't matter. it happened anyway.

and now he can't even tell what is and what isn't his fault anymore.

the guilt is deep rooted, leaving anxious assumptions and dark, jagged precipices. how much did he destroy? what else should he be feeling guilty about? how far does this go?

he keeps breaking things, and it's such a blur that he can no longer tell what is and what isn't his fault.

the tour continues, and he delves into skizz's pyramid. and it's just— it's just a tunnel to swim through. nothing to mess up, besides potentially dying to suffocation, right?

and yet you can hear skizz shrilly exclaim: "oh he's going to end up breaking something!!"

and, (plantie's words: ) grian hearing that and just wondering, is that all i'm good for? is that all i'm known for? is that all i am?

there's no room for doubt; not really. that is what grian does, all the time, whether he wants to or not. he breaks stuff. he just— he doesn't mean to. and this tour is one big show of how powerless he is against it. (how everyone expects it from him anyway.)

despite it all, grian perseveres, trying out skizz's game, stubbornly dedicated and trying to win. (to pass; to have something to be proud of, at least—) and he gets to the powdered snow section.

there, he jumps across to a pathway that he was meant to circle to through the snow instead.

it's not breaking anything, not really. not even the rules. it's not cheating! he's just— he just did something skizz did not expect, but that was entirely possible within the game's design, even if not intended. he exploited it to his advantage; a risky, tricky shortcut.

and yet skizz remarks with a laugh: "this is what grian does! he breaks games!"

no matter what grian does... is that all he'll ever be?

is that all they'll see?

he fails getting through skizz's game, is thanked for play-testing, praises it all, they talk it all away, and...

and then grian goes to tour mumbo's base.

and fails to even die properly to his llama—

and then mumbo shows him his archive machine, and instantly panicks when grian gets curious about it, begging him not to touch anything. and grian says: "your stomach just fell through didn't it?" and after mumbo's immediate agreement, he adds: "and rightfully so. coz, almost everything i've touched on this tour has broken."

there's not a sliver of surprise to mumbo's anxious rushed: "yeah, yeah yeah! please stop now." because, of course things have broken. of course what grian touches is bound to go wrong. of course—

and then mumbo very carefully tells grian what to do with the machine.

grian does as he's told.

mumbo looks up and pauses, a frown crossing his face as he takes it in. he notes that grian probably did it too fast—

(something went wrong)

(something broke)

mumbo says: "i can't believe you come along and every single thing in my base starts [going wrong/breaking/malfunctioning]"

and then grian mysteriously ends up with an extra book from mumbo's machine, much to mumbo's dismay. grian's confused, cogs spinning as he tries to figure out what did he mess up this time to result in this.

it's clear mumbo wants grian away from his machine. it's not safe. (grian isn't safe.)

"maybe just give that to me and maybe just step away from the contraption. and then— maybe just leave me to—"

grian's upset and bewildered voice cuts in: "i didn't do anything wrong this time :(("

he's trying so hard.

he's trying so hard to be good and do things right and not mess anything up.

(it isn't working.)

(it's never bound to work, is it?)

mumbo ushers him away, and ends up showing him another cool invention—an elevator. except the second mumbo hits the button, a creeper shows up and explodes it. (it's midday.) (it wasn't even meant to be there.)

this one isn't grian's fault at all, but with everything that's happened— well, it's easy enough to link it to grian's presence. like a bad luck omen.

apprehensively, grian asks if the elevator broke, and mumbo—a bit bewildered by the reality of it—says that no, it seems to still work. "amazingly," he tacks on, disbelieving.

grian's relieved. "ohh, i thought we were in big trouble there!"

besides himself, mumbo anxiously agrees: "augh. i was like, if every single creation that i show breaks in some fashion, i'm just gonna quit."

because this isn't normal. none of this is, least of all everything at once. it simply doesn't happen.

(not when grian isn't there, anyway.)

mumbo notes that he needs to work on his lighting, and grian nods wisely saying it's a perpetual issue, but the anxiety is digging its talons in now, unrelenting. (what else is going to go bad in grian's presence? what else will he mess up? what else will he break? why is he like this?)

another remark that comes after this is mumbo's nervous: "i've actually just built up the automatic sorter which does this—which you're not gonna touch. we're banned from touching any redstone contraptions!"

and what can grian do but oblige? (but he can at least look, right?)

but does it ever change anything?

does it matter?

-

at the end of the day, the others don't think too much about it.

they all say their part, pass their judgment, wave their hands, dismiss, move on. it doesn't keep them up at night.

... i think it might keep grian up at night.

a cacophonous collection of word snippets, aimed at him or woven around him, digging under his skin until it bleeds. a noose of inescapable fate, a tightening band around his chest that promises he can only ever be one thing:

a vessel for destruction.

it doesn't matter if he wants to be.

shackles and chains and a cosmic inevitability written into his skin, etched into his bones, tangled into his bloodstream. and an ever-rising guilt like stormy sea, far above his head now, drowning him.

(maybe he's not meant to be near other people and their things.)

(maybe he's not meant to touch games that were constructed with so much effort and love and passion poured into them.)

(maybe he shouldn't—)

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bonus screenshots from discord DMs (with extra sprinkles of hmtb mentions):

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bonus hmtb quotes because i kept thinking about it:

He always destroys the things he loves most, after all.

and:

He destroyed everything he touched, and when there was nothing left, he destroyed the only remaining thing: himself.

-

[m0e-ru]

well what else would he use that brain for

[glamrockmike]

What character in fnaf do you wish got more attention/ characterization?

resisting the urge to say my usual suspects (gregory and vanessa) in favor of a character who’s always been kind of a sleeper favorite of mine, because i just recently realized the amount of fandom and canon attention he gets is really minimal and typically reduced to him being grouped together with the others of his line

funtime freddy (and bonbon) is my favorite funtime animatronic and one of my favorite freddies and it makes me so sad he’s barely developed in sister location, although the breaker room is so much fun. he’s so cool and mysterious in count the ways and in ucn too! in the rest of canon (except fnaf 6 which i haven’t played)…ehhh not so much. fourth closet i am talking to you. i just think he’s super silly and has a character that’s worth exploring, and in my opinion it should have been explored more in sister location. i kind of feel that way about a lot of the funtimes now that ive played through sl myself and found it to be pretty small and quick minus night 4, but it is a great game and installment in the series.

free my boy he’s done lots of things wrong but i don’t care. give him six seasons and a movie

[discordiarequiem]

The REAL issue I have with Solo Leveling Arise is Jinwoo's fancy flips at the start of boss battles when I press dash because that's totally needed! Waste a couple seconds on my record for some sick moves Jinwoo!! Stop styling on me and fight please???

[clumsycapitolunicorn]

.

[saintofanything]

i understand pulling when we are 1 behind but 2+ is just padding their stats and hurting our own

[seriousbrat]

Your anon doubting whether Snape ever protected Lily from anti-muggleborn taunting at school has me wishing we saw a lot more of that friendship in The Prince’s Tale. Because Snape was *openly* calling her his best friend as late as fifth year when the first war was in full swing, they’re not sneaking around meeting in abandoned classrooms, which must’ve caused them both a huge amount of grief. We get a hint of the peer pressure Lily faced - ‘none of my friends understand why I talk to you’ - but I can’t imagine the Slytherin common room was a remotely nice place for a poor half blood who refuses to deny or abandon his association with a muggleborn Gryffindor. But we don’t see enough of that relationship to really understand why Lily likes him enough to keep swimming against the tide (Severus obviously clings because he tragically has nobody else).

me too!!! my fave dysfunctional friendship of all time 🥺 I wish we could've seen more of them but it just means I've got to write it myself!

Also, yes absolutely. I might talk a lot about the problems in their friendship because that's so interesting to me but they wouldn't be nearly as interesting if there wasn't also good aspects to it. And honestly despite everything I think it's admirable that they both defied peer pressure in order to openly remain friends for so long, especially at that age. Personally I think it would go against Lily's morals to abandon her friend because he wasn't popular or cool, which is why she stuck by him. Before Sev was scouted by Mulciber I imagine he was shunned by Slytherins as well as the rest of the school, so I don't think Lily would have abandoned him just because her housemates thought he was a weirdo.

You're right that on the face of it, it seems strange that Lily would like him, and as we know her Gryffindor friends didn't understand it; but I think the bonds of childhood friendship can be very strong. As kids they had a lot in common, being the only magical children in Cokeworth. Sev was clever, he was Lily's introduction to the Wizarding World, and they were the only two people who had one foot in Cokeworth and one foot in Hogwarts, so nobody else could really understand them the way they did each other. Nobody else had that wealth of unique shared experience. Also, I really do believe that she liked him as a person haha, and that Sev has likeable qualities if you get to know him-- but only Lily ever really did. So she saw a side of him that nobody else did. If you have a bond like that with someone, years of history and inside jokes, it's easy to overlook the negative and make excuses for it.

[normiebutch]

lowkey. femme who’s just a tiny bit controlling

[yourflame]

UGH i forgot how cute her second life model is. mannn

[saprosappho]

ordered sls free toothpaste bc supposedly it’s supposed to clean up the dry skin around my mouth if i use it for a couple weeks and there was a minimum free shipping amount that i of course fell for. and because the toothpastes were like 6 bucks i was like damn :/ kind of spendy for little tubes. but needs must! guess i better get four so i meet the shipping minimum! anyway they were full sized toothpastes and i have so much fucking toothpaste now

[univiresque]

i think that like… the host by bong joon ho should be required reading (watching) for dungeon meshi fans. not out of a disrespect for dunmeshi lovers bc it really is so so good i just think that if you liked dunmeshi the host is something with like similarly important themes of eating and being hungry and survival. i am not a guy who watches movies often so maybe this sounds a little hollow but like the host by bong joon ho is like. one of the best films ever maybe. unparalleled

[fudanshi-joseph]

"oh it's so cute that you're that jealous for me" i remember as i watch them pack their bags and leave

"you can be mean to me" i remember as i listen to the door close

if only people were so fucking for real

like have you ever tried not lying to yourself and the people around you 🤔

yeah for real i dont even have anything to add to this because it really is just this

we keep getting into relationships with people who say they want this stuff and then we discuss it further and they consent to it and push/encourage us to do it for real and then when we do they cant take it

[bikeaospedacos]

Descubra o novo RockShox Flight Attendant 2025 com Launch Control, agora compatível com MTBs rígidas e personalização via app.

[hostilemakeover]

stole a reaper off the streets (family i've been playing on and off for years, daughter developed a crush the second she became a teenager - when judith ward dropped dead on their front lawn. so... she's gonna get him.) still need to figure out exactly how to de-reaper him properly.

[infiniteseriesofhalfways]

oh no, there's a url available and i want it so bad but also dont know if i can part with this one...