#the redditors are right btw

[youve-always-had-me-cas]

The Reddit blackout is really funny because I fucking hate Reddit, I can't stand it, I will rant about the flaws in Reddit's Moderation system at the drop of a hat and as someone who used to mod a >300k subreddit believe me there are so, so many of them, but finally the admins of the website who have been profiting off the unpaid impossible labour mandated of their moderators by the structure of their website for years are getting the exact same treatment mods get every day. Your users are demanding an impossible thing of you. They hate you. They hate you. They want what you are offering them but their sense of justice is irreparably skewed and they will not listen to a single thing you have to say anymore. But unlike the people stuck trying to hold a community together under these absurd constraints they do not control you made this horrid mob of people and fostered this culture for decades this is entirely one hundred percent your fault.

[some-pers0n]

Demoman is one of the characters in the fandom I feel most people straight up ignore or don't know how to write. Blunt, sure, but I do stand by it. Demoman is such a fascinating, intriguing character with the most fleshed-out backstories, yet is oftentimes relegated to being Soldier 2.0, only now with poorly written phonetics.

In other words, hey! I'm a fanfic writer who has a ton of opinions as well as a neurotic need to analyze every character they come into contact with. Pleased to see you're reading this. I've already done a little doohickey essay like this with Medic a while back. The purpose of these long rambles is half of me combing through every instance of the character and pulling them apart to see how their character works...and also me not-so-subtly venting and complaining about mischaracterization. Shocking how a fandom where the main characters are all very clear-cut stereotypes with some slight subversions here and there can't seem to get them.

This essay will go through Demo's beginning and all the way to his latest appearance in the 6th comic. I'll touch on how his character shifts and is expanded upon. I doubt he changes as much as Medic has over the years, but I think it will be interesting to see. I'll just go over bits of characterization, try to rationalize it, and then try my best to sum up all of the traits by the end and try to describe his character in the most canon-compliant way.

With that preamble out of the way, let's begin. This is also 7k words btw just...be aware of that, okay?

Before we actually get into proper character stuff, I wanna lay the groundwork first by exploring the types of characterization I see from Demo. Pick them apart. See what they're really like.

So, of course, there's the popular Redditor opinion of Demo that's mainly shaped by the way people play him in the game. There, people will describe Demo as being generally a bumbling drunkard. It's not too uncommon to see people say that he's an angry drunk. A man who is more concerned with alcohol and drinking himself into a stupor than anything else. I've also seen people say that Demo straight up can't read, which...euhhhhggg. He feels more like an alternative version of Soldier at times, which, again, isn't accurate to his character.

I don't care at all for this characterization. I do think a good chunk is rooted in racism and it's generally very uncomfortable for me to look at for too long. This characterization is pretty shallow and empty, which makes for a boring and offensive caricature. Reddit moment.

The second one is more interesting and the version you'll see more on Tumblr. It's this...odd version of him. I can't exactly put my tongue on what is off about it. It seems more accurate to his character. He's a foil for Soldier a lot of the time (Boots n' Bombs is his most popular ship let's be real) and generally isn't exactly seen on his own. Sure yeah there's the oddball art of him and him only, but let's be real most of his tag is mainly just him being in the background or saying a jokey-joke.

I actually fell back into Ao3 for a bit to skim over some fics to see what kind of characterization there was of Demo there to refresh my memory, and some of the common throughlines was shockingly that he doesn't drink a lot. "He rarely drinks!" I remember reading once. That's not right, no. He's an alcoholic. Like that's a core part of his character. Another fic had him being called "Cyclops" as a pet name. Ew. Anywho, other than that it's Demo being pretty into cryptids, having the Eyelander as a buddy guy, etc and etc. It's fun, but also it's missing...something.

Then, it hit me: Demo rarely is seen as an individual. He reminds me of Heavy in that regard, where most of his appearances have him be the straight-man to another character. Most of the time he's secondary and just a folly for the other characters. It's disappointing in that regard. Like you see a lot more stuff for characters like Scout, Medic, etc and etc with their own unique characterization stuff and getting their own attention.

So...then what is Demoman's character, exactly? Well, that's what we're here to see. It'll be pretty interesting, no?

----

So, funny thing is that Demo didn't change nearly as much as Medic has over the years. Sure yeah, the concept art of Demo was more of the generic stereotypical Scotsman. White, ginger, sideburns, that whole thing. Cartoony and fun design, but eventually they went with the Demo we all know and love today.

Looking at the concept art, it all seems pretty standard for the tone that Invasion was going for at the time. Nothing really to note there other than Demo's face being a stock angry grr grr expression. It is interesting to see how the idea of him wearing an eye was a constant even from the beginning though.

This then brings us to the voicelines. Ahh, good ol' characterization. Demo here is characterized as being jovial and having fun. He's throwing out insults left and right, damning them to hell and laughing at them as they die. Usual typical mercenary stuff. This is just personal headcanon material, but I always rationalize the way the mercs act on the battlefield as being a result from adrenaline and generally being drunk on blood. They aren't as mean when off the clock, but it's worth noting that these are how these characters act when a gun's in their hands and they're exploding people left and right.

TF2 really likes basing the characters off of the class they play as and how they act. Scout is fast moving and his gameplay is oftentimes getting right in someone's face and bolting, which is reflective in his hotshot personality. It's only reasonable that Demo is an explosive, fun, and generally cocky guy when out and battling. He's lobbing grenades and sticky bombs left and right. He isn't afraid to yell to the Medic he just blew up that he's been shagging his wife and calling the Scout he just chopped the head off "twinkle-toes". He teases and such when it comes to the other team.

However, the voicelines also very curiously give us a really fascinating look into his character. He's an alcoholic. He loves his scrumpy, which is not whiskey, shockingly. I thought it was whiskey for the longest time, but no! It's a cider! His stock melee is the bottle he uses to drink, now turning it into a quick weapon. His model in the main menu is him holding up the bottle itself. His default melee taunt is him taking a swig from the scrumpy bottle. It's a core part of his identity, let's be real. It's a part of the whole Scottish stereotype he has going on.

The game of course follows this. There's a lot of lines where he's slurring and babbling in a cartoony drunken way. A good portion of it is just him making vague threats...but a lot of it is also sad. He calls himself a one-eyed bloody monster. He weeps and cries. When jeering, he says he's hit rock bottom here. Interesting new development.

Apologizes for pausing to ramble, but I don't get why people try and sand down the edges to Demoman's character by making him out as though he isn't an addict. He is. That's something that is made abundantly clear. The iconography of alcohol follows him like his own damn shadow. I dunno. It bothers me.

I digress. There's some other bonus stuff I think is quite interesting. Most of his battle charges involve the other team. "Let's gettem lads!" and all. I think it's neat how he views his teammates as just that. Teammates. Those he fights alongside with. Another thing of note is how he occasionally has lines that are...odd in a way. Poetic and dramatic. Something that subverts the typical characterization. When he loses at rock paper scissors, there's a chance he'll say "Oh, 'tis a dark day", which. well then okay buddy.

So to recap: for characterization in-game, Demo is an alcoholic Scotsman who is generally pretty witty and functioning despite the incredible amounts of booze he drinks. He is energetic, bombastic, and generally hearty and having fun. He's not taking things terribly seriously and is generally just going about and blowing stuff up. However, there is a very noticeable streak of sadness to his character. When drinking, he reveals undertones of self-deprecation and hatred. Why? How?

...well, you just need to take a gander at his character card.

Erm excuse me what the fuck.

I honestly do not understand the logic behind this backstory. Like in a practical sense. Like, yeah!! obviously this backstory is sad and such! I really actually like this backstory and honestly I love writing him in the context that this happened to him. It's just that...I can't wrap my head around the idea of this being Demo's backstory given that everyone else has pretty silly little blurbs here. I think the darkest it gets is Soldier going to Germany years after WWII ended to kill people.

This??? Sure yeah TF2 gets a lot sillier and more cartoony comedic as time goes on, but even with the current tone where is the funny? I ain't complaining, I love me my angst, but this is so jarring to see. I suppose that explains why they retcon it later, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Hey, at least it gives us an explanation to why Demo is sad. We can pretty easily gleam a reason for his current behaviour in the game from this: his messed up childhood. To begin, Tavish Finnegan DeGroot was abandoned by his parents and left to live in an orphanage. Eventually, he was adopted and brought up by some foster parents, who he then murdered in an attempt to blow up the Loch Ness monster. This was when he was six years old. Actual child. 

He then went back into the orphanage, where he would tinker with bombs. Why? Insert whatever headcanon here, but for me I think it's a feeling of fascination, yet also heavy guilt. Perhaps revenge. Either way, he loses his eye from these experiments. Eventually however, he's brought back into the family when word spreads of his excellence when it comes to manufacturing bombs. The use of the word "lovingly" feels exceptionally sarcastic, but that could be in part to how his parents are later characterized. Either way, this is a result of the DeGroot tradition, which, and I quote, is wholly unnecessary and cruel. It even cites it as him being reintroduced into his family as the "end of his unhappy childhood".

...so yeah. Pretty safe to say the reason for his alcoholism is to cope with that. He feels the guilt over that and will breakdown into sobs over it even. Yikeesss... It can also mean that he feels as though he's held up to incredibly high expectations, having the entire DeGroot family lineage to live up to. Again, later on he's being nagged at for not being as hard-working as his father, who, in good ol' TF2 fashion, blew up the Queen for a nickel. It does certainly feel that way, no?

So this introduces a new wrinkle to Demoman's current characterization: he's an alcoholic who is happy and has an upbeat and fun personality (at least on the battlefield), but underneath it he's hurting and feels ashamed of who he is. He drinks to cope and manage it, yet it only seems to exasperate problems at times.

Can I safely say that Demo is the merc with the most fascinating and intriguing backstory and personality thus far? Sure yeah I love Engie a lot as well, but Demo's character actually feels like it is a result of the backstory written for him. Like all of the other mercs sure you can go on and on about stuff with them, like Scout and Spy and their whole deal, Sniper and his parents, everything with Heavy, etc. Demo?? Right off the bat there's something to chew on in terms of actual character writing.

What an interesting character! I sure hope later installations of the story will follow through on this and give him ample screentime!

Anywho, time for the Meet the Demo video. Again, a departure from the Meet the Medic video and how I rambled on and on about that one, but it was mainly due to MtM being something to mark a drastic shift in Medic's character from serious and angry to more silly and mad scientist-esque. Meet the Demo, due to it being one of the Meet the Team videos made so early on, doesn't really get the benefit of a short with a story, but I digress.

This one is stylized more like an interview, which, in canon, means he's telling this all to The Director and all. It opens with the title screen before the horns section seep in, cutting to a clip of Demo running while explosions go off behind him. A freeze frame cut before a voice-over of Demo comes on with the iconic line "What makes me a good Demoman? If I were a bad Demoman, I wouldn't be here discussing it with you, now would I!?"

Okay so just more confirmation and all of Demo's personality in-game. According to his bio, he has a short temper and all, which could explain him getting louder when asked that question. I don't think it's a joke or him exaggerating, since he seems genuinely pretty upset by the suggestion. He would have to be good at his job in order to be telling you this, yeah? Why even bother asking? It's an interesting bit of characterization that somewhat expands on that short temper.

More generic footage of him running about while explosions go off before coming back to the interview of him explaining a bomb in its simplest form. "One crossed wire, a wayward pinch of potassium chlorate, one errant twitch... and kablewie!!" Seems like filler dialogue, but I always like taking note of the fact he uses the chemical compound term as opposed to something more colloquial. It's just headcanons, but I really enjoy thinking that Demo is pretty damn smart and really gifted when it comes to making bombs and general chemistry. It's a clear passion and love of his and I like touching on it when I can.

The next couple seconds are shots between him taking a good swig of his scrumpy and then blowing up a level three sentry. It's just showing off his capabilities as a class. Nothing special (other than being cool and showing he's competent at his job). The real interesting part is his breakdown where he's on the verge of tears, exasperatingly telling the camera that he's...off. He knows it. There's not too many black Scotsmen, especially ones with a busted eye. "They've got more fucking sea monsters in the great Loch Ness than they got the likes of me" he says.

But, he perks up! He talks over a clip of him baiting a group of BLU mercs into a sticky trap. The voiceover is also really fascinating here. The way Demo talks reminds me something out of an Aesop fable. It's a very curious and fascinating way of talking. I wish this bit of characterization stuck around since it's pretty fun. "Come and get me I say! I'll be waiting on ya with a whiff of the ol' brimstone. I'm a grim bloody fable...with an unhappy bloody end!" is really cool.

The video ends with him taunting the mangled corpses followed by a rendition of the main theme with bagpipes. I should probably also mention Drunken Pipe Bomb, his theme song. It's an upbeat and fun piece with a mixture of the typical TF2 sounds (funky jazzy drums and bass guitar) as well as a Celtic flair, what with bagpipes, whistles, etc and etc. There's also a kickass surf rock section. It's quite the battle theme and definitely reflects a lot of Demo's character as being an energetic, explosive type of character who is proud of his Scottish roots.

So that's pretty much it for SFM bits for now. How about we take a step back and look at the first-ever actual TF2 comic: WAR!, where Demo really gets a big break for his characterization. We don't care about the Saxton Hale or Jarate ones. WAR! my beloved...

But first, the actual WAR! update. It was the sixth major content update released back in 2009. Remember when this game got actual content updates? Me neither. The update was based around the rivalry between the RED Demo and the BLU Soldier to excuse why they were adding new items for the both of them, with Soldier in the end winning the little contest and getting the Gunboats.

For canon lore, the update serves to introduce the idea that the RED Demo and BLU Soldier had a comradery at first. Friends! Interesting piece of characterization to have Demo explicitly go against RED and become friends with Soldier. The two of them do bounce off of each other quite well when they're paired up, I will say. They're both heavy-hitters in terms of gameplay and their personalities are quite loud at times.

For added voicelines, there's a bunch of the Administrator denouncing their friendship as well as domination lines for both Solly and Demo whenever they kill each other. Demo pretends he hates Soldier, but asks if he's okay, tells him that he loves him, and generally is like "but we're still friends though, aye? :]" He does care a lot about their friendship, which is pretty sweet and cute. Sure hope that lasts.

In the WAR! comic, we see Demo in a mansion. He's loaded! It's also confirmation that the mercs are given quite a lot of money, but apparently not enough for Demo's mother. She's nagging him about not working and saying that he should be ashamed for being so lazy, to which he rebuttals, saying he has three jobs and has made millions annually. Apparently not enough for his mother, since Demo's father worked twenty-six jobs.

She also brings up an interesting piece of information. "No demoman worth his sulfur ever had an eye in his head past thirty!" which implies that missing an eye is a family tradition to lose your eyes when working this job. Would this also imply that Demo is not thirty by this point, since he still has the one eye? Eh, whatever. 

Demo taking care of his mom in this old, nagging state is pretty neat characterization, as well as him holding down two other jobs besides mercenary work for RED. He's very capable and talented! He's also extremely caring and sweet. Even when his mum is complaining and griping about him not living up to his father, he gets her tea and takes care of her. He does respond with a lot of "I know mum" when it comes to that. He's heard it all before. She keeps saying the same stuff. I like thinking he knows fully well he can't live up to the extreme work ethic his father had or truly impress his parents and is pretty bummed out about it, but that's just headcanons.

Anywho, Pauling's there. She's there because the Administrator wants to break up the friendship between Demo and the BLU Soldier and instead have them be pitted against each other. While Soldier needs to be tricked and insulted by Demo and told that he's a civilian (something that he hates apparently), Demo is more coerced and convinced.

He's still loyal to their friendship, but, aye, there's something different about that sword there. Here's an interesting bit of characterization: Demo being a sword guy. There's a lot of medieval stuff relating to Demo, what with DeGroot's Keep, the Eyelander, his general way of speaking at times, etc and etc. It's fun and I think he takes great interest in medieval-period stuff, but, again, headcanons.

Demo feels conflicted. How could she make him choose between his best friend and this cool ass sword?? He doesn't give an answer, but Miss Pauling further pushes him to choose violence when leaving even more stuff for him as well as telling him that Soldier said that he'll join the fight. It's then assumed that Demo agrees by that point.

It's interesting to compare and contrast Demo and Soldier. Soldier, despite hearing all of these mean things, still wants to be friends with Demo. It's until "Demo" calls him a civilian, something personal and sensitive to him, is when he decides to betray him. Demo meanwhile is more swayed by things that he loves, but the final push is that betrayal. He only acts when he's finally told that their friendship has been severed. Curious how their loyalty is strong in those ways.

...I should probably sometime mention the actual retconning of his backstory however. Hoouhhh boy let's go. So, for the 2011 Halloween update, there was a comic alongside it. This comic had some cute gags, like Heavy giving a little boy he scared seven grand. However, the main attraction is the rewritten backstory for Demo.

I mentioned earlier, but I honestly can't blame them for maybe trying another crack at a Demo backstory that isn't as bleak and miserable. I do really like the original one because I'm a sucker for angst, but this backstory does work a lot better tonally when you're just trying to write some goofy stuff, especially if it involves Merasmus at some point.

The story retcons the whole thing and seemingly makes it so that Demo has always been with his parents and the reason he lost his eye was not because of some brutal accident but rather a currrseeee ooohhhh spookyyy. He's hired by Merasmus to sweep up the place a bit, with him being exceptionally clear to young Tav to not touch any of the accursed tomes. He does, of course. Nothing too much in terms of characterization. It's more just saying "Hey Demo's eye is cursed and that's why he lost it but! hey! it comes back once every Halloween!!"

Again, I can't really knock this version of events. They're simple, but goofy and fun. It's all up to whatever you're trying to accomplish with Demo methinks. If you want silly and whimsical stories, you can have that backstory. If you want gut-wrenching angst, probably should take the initial one.

Aanndd that's virtually it for Demo being important. Demo doesn't get too much plot relevance later on. He's just kinda done with. He shows up in Expiration Date for a quick gag where he returns with a bunch of beer, shouting and cheering while being unaware of how they all just learned they're going to die in three days. He then shows up again during the bucket scene and doesn't do much other than mouthing somethin' (I can't tell you want tbh). A new thing is that he plays piano! That's fun! He then kinda watches Scout try and ask out Pauling and he yells for him to describe what she looks like, which is just what Demo currently sees her as (drunk, blurry, etc). He then fights in the big battle yada yada and shows up at the end with the beer again.

The MVM trailer I suppose is a thing to be noted. Here, he's a BLU Soldier and is playing cards with the Soldier of the same team. Seems like regardless of teams, there's some sort of bond between the two of them. All that happens is that Demo is down to bust up robots with the rest of the RED mercs. Pretty much it.

It is quite unfortunate to see Demo relegated to a role so passive in the story and comics. I've mentioned it before, but I do have an ever so slight grudge against Soldier for taking up the majority of the screentime when it comes to the comics. Yeah, he's really fun to write about, I can't blame the writers for doing so, but also like...c'mon... In the end, we're left with a good chunk of the mercs being underdeveloped in exchange for a ton of Soldier trivia. Props if you like Solly though; your fave got the best treatment.

Ah, but still! Demo has some moments in the comics! Let's go through them! 

Uh. Upon checking most of the comics before the mainline ones, it appears he does not say even a single word. Or even show up in a good portion. Well that's disappointing. I thought he at least said like...one thing. The most he does in terms of characterization is put on a crown in A Fate Worse Than Chess, and even then that's just a silly cosmetic. Damn.

It's fine though! Because now we have the mainline comics! Hot damn finally some actual casual Demoman TF2 writing! Let's get a look and see what his normal usual personality is like! I wonder what fun shenanigans he's been up to.

The first time we see Demo he's babbling about his job being replaced by robots and looking utterly dishevelled and depressed.

Okay. That's...yeah pretty in line for his character thus far. An alcoholic who is struggling with some stuff and oftentimes will have a very vocal breakdown in front of others.

The way that he's characterized here is rather fascinating though, I'll say. He's depressed. From what we can glean, this is what his life has been like since the layoffs. He's gained weight (what with Soldier's very blunt "Hello fat Demoman!"), hasn't shaved, his clothes are dirty, and beer bottles are scattered in the living room. Even the Eyelander is like "dude you need to let it go" when Demo mumbles about robots replacing jobs. He's presumably lost his two other jobs and has just been laying on this couch, drinking booze and watching TV and nothing more, despite his mum's nagging.

This is a side of Demo we don't really see. Sure, yeah, we see the hot and tempered side (ex: Meet the Demoman and the general game) as well as the sad and weepy side, but it's never to this degree. Like full on depressive episode. Yikes. Sure yeah he gets dragged back into the plot and instantly gets back to himself (albeit more orange than actually black)(I keep forgetting how whitewashed Demo was in these first few comics), but it's played for laughs and gags.

What an interesting piece of characterization, no? I've seen a fair amount of major depressive disorder, BPD, PTSD, and or bipolar headcanons slapped onto Demo and tbh I can't blame them. I'd be really interested to see some fic explore that in greater detail. I'm too busy writing Engiemedic yaoi to do anything for now though. Womp womp.

The ending bit of the comic has Demo and Pauling mainly chat with each other. Oh yeah!! Demo and Pauling! They've got a couple pretty neat lines. For the usual contract it's just jokes about his alcoholism, his eye, and a couple about his mom and just general gags. In the Tough Break update, she's out drinking with Demo and nearly spills the beans about her job. Fun. I really like the Miss Pauling characterization where she regularly hangs out with the mercs. It's cute.

In the comics, she talks to Demo more like an actual equal than, say, Pyro or Soldier. She talks to them like they're children roughhousing in the backseat. Demo sits up front and the two go back and forth. Demo is the more mature and reasonable one here. Another thing that's a common bit of characterization in the comics is that Demo isn't...drunk. He's not slurring nor acting in a way that makes it immediately clear he's inebriated. He's pretty lucid. This can be from the fact that he's a very high-functioning alcoholic, but it also makes him out to be actually pretty all-there for most of the time. I've seen far too many fics where Demo is in a perpetual state of shitface drunk so that was a nice refresher.

Demo reappears in the second comic, where we get some pretty neat characterization. He's out on the town in disguise. I keep forgetting about that "What do you see?" "Not a damn thing. Let's switch places" gag that's so funny. Whatever. He is the voice of reason when it comes to Soldier. The straight-man character. He's not really...drunk here. He's not slurring his words nor is he exactly doing anything. He steps in front when Soldier starts yelling at an elderly woman, instead approaching her with a calm and kind demeanour. He holds Soldier back when he goes to strangle Scout for. I guess just being there.

So there's Demo when he's just doing stuff normally, I suppose. He's generally pretty level-headed, albeit because he's up there with Soldier. He's the Normal One when posed next to a guy like Solly. A little disappointing, but there's probably more in comic 4.

Ah the Swordvan comic. Demo and Pauling head over to Sniper's house to retrieve him. An odd bit of characterization is that Demo just takes one look at Snipes' house and goes "Welp, nobody's here. Let's get out". He doesn't seem terribly thrilled to be here, further backed up by him saying that there's just gonna be fingernails and jars of piss and he straight up says "good riddance" like what is his issue with the bushman??

Now that's kinda interesting. Demo sees Snipes as being kinda just gross and a raving lunatic. He could easily be in-place for the audience and just saying what we're thinking, but I think it's interesting to see that Demo, the guy often portrayed as being the weirdo party guy, being very straight-forward. He think Sniper is some sadistic madman and just wants out. Unfortunately, he's given a neckfull of Sniper's homemade family moonshine, so he can't get out quite yet.

A very common thing in these comics it seems is Demo being the voice of reason, which is pretty interesting. The straight man to everyone. When he wakes up to Pauling spitting on him to wake him up, he goes "eughhh gross, but, hey, it worked!!" before then is knocked out. He then stays quiet for the rest of the scene, unless of course you're counting the deleted pages. There's no dialogue, but Demo breaks free from the ropes binding him, yells at Sniper, then pushes past before then inserting three syringes-worth of the moonshine into himself and passing out. Alcoholism joke as per usual. Shockingly the first one we've gotten so far.

In the submarine ride down, Demo's passed out with his scrumpy in hand. Again just a gag about him drinking a lot. He then kinda stays in the background for the rest of the comic, only appearing really once to hold a vat of liquor, before then coming to in the final shot where he holds Sniper's dead body. Heyyyy Demo I thought you thought Sniper was a weirdo freak.

Nothing too much to say from this comic then. It's just establishing more and more that Demo plays a very...straight-man character role when it comes to the comics at least. He's reasonable, level-headed, and often just says whatever comes to mind. He's kind and will instantly rush to someone's aid when they're hurt as well as just generally being pretty good-hearted. Nice!

Comic 5 mainly just features a gag with Demo's liver being so overworked that he starts turning his other organs into alcohol distilleries. The whimsy. The line that I find most fascinating from this comic is from Spy.

Like oh okay so he straight up doesn't eat anything other than alcohol and aspirin. Water literally poisons him. Probably just a throwaway gag, but geez. It does say that he is kinda in pain all the time, at least to the point where aspirin is one of the few things his body can handle. Someone out there can probably work with that and make it angsty. Other than that, not much else for Demo.

Comic 6! The final one! Home stretch here folks before I can wrap this up and give a thesis on whatever the heck Demo's character is. Demo, again, is mainly just here for gags. It's the one thing I do really wish that the comics did more: explore Demo's backstory. Like you don't even need to keep the original one, but it's still fascinating to bring up the fact he has a family lineage at all. Instead, he's mainly just a straight-man character. But, hey, whatever. I'm just the one analyzing these silly comics and jokey joke characters for gay melodramatic yaoi fanfiction.

There's a gag about Demo's liver coming back to him after leaving. These soap opera drama scene could parallel the type of shows that he was watching when having that depressive episode, but that's maybe a bit of a stretch. He then gets included in that fun group shot, where his pose mimics that from the Meet the Demo, before then gets a one-on-one scene with Medic. 

These two are such a fun duo I wish Jaggerbombs was a more common pairing. Ah well. Medic catches Demo up on everything whilst he's stitching up wounds. The medi-gun is broken so they're doing this the old-fashioned way. Demo has a gag where he's still drinking, only that it's hydrogen peroxide instead. This then leads to a scene where Demo asks why Medic never gave him an eye. Reasonable methinks. Medic responds saying he did.

Demo gets upset. He raises his voice for the first (official) time in the comics. Again, his temperament. I think it's a reasonable thing to be upset about tbh. Like imagine being told after all this time you could've had your eye back. He then learns that, no, the procedure has been done before, but rather that it never sticks because of how his eye socket is cursed. Demo asks how he can't remember this, to which Medic goes "Hooh :] It's because I scooped out a part of your brain" because of course he did. He then forgets the entire conversation + probably Medic entirely.

Aaannnddd that's pretty much it for Demo. That's his last speaking role. Just a quick, simple gag about his eye being cursed, his alcoholism, and generally being the straight-man for others, even if he does have a couple silly gags too. Seems like a culmination of everything he is in the comics.

To conclude: Demo is a character I feel can take on two main roles depending on what kind of tone you're going for. If you want angst, you've got a character who carries the guilt of murdering his foster parents as well as the burden of being a DeGroot, turning to alcohol to cope with his sadness and general inability to deal with it all. If you want silly goofy stuff, you have Demo being a straight-man or a neat party guy if you like the bit from Expiration Date where he brings back beer and such. Of course there's nuance. I find it best to try and find a balance between these two opposing sides. It just takes time and practice to really get a hold of his personality methinks.

I do wish he was more in the comics though as his own person, y'know? He's very reliant on others in order for his character to function, whilst most others have scenes where it's just them doing something. I wish he was used more than being the guy who drags the others back to reality. Damn it sucks to see that the fics where he's mainly just the straight-man are kinda right in that regard.

But for character traits? Hm, let's see. I find it's just trying to make sense of what's given to you and seeing what best fits for the tone of story you're trying to go for. However, for me trying to write him? Well...

His alcoholism is a central character trait. He is definitely 100% an alcoholic, regardless of however people try and sand him down. I personally really like sticking to the idea that he straight up can't eat anything but booze and aspirin because I think it's funny but also sad, but that's me. I think him having a flask of scrumpy on his person at all times is a neat headcanon as well.

Another big trait with Demo is his frequently shifting mood when drunk. He can swing from loud to weeping in a couple moments. I wouldn't say he's particularly angry nor aggressive, no more than any other character at least. He's most volatile on the battlefield, but otherwise at the base I feel it wouldn't be an uncommon sight to see Demo partying until dawn or holed up in the living room and sobbing. Poor guy.

In spite of what many think, Demo is certainly not lazy. He's a workaholic is anything. He holds down three jobs and rakes in a lot of money in order to live up to his name as a DeGroot. It could be because he likes working that much or that his mother just nags him to push himself that far. That also ties into his self-deprecation, another core trait of his, but that's pretty obvious to see.

His heart is another big trait. The guy loves. He cares for his mother even when she nags at him. He sticks by Soldier's side until he feels as though he's been betrayed. He takes care of the Eyelander and treats it like a pal. He generally cares a whole heck of a lot about people and other things. He wears his heart on his sleeve and says what he means. He doesn't feel a need to really hide who he is as a person. He's loud, fun, and just naturally pretty sweet and kind. I don't think he's ever really "mean" outside of the game stuff. There's also the whole "being hired to explode people" part but ehhh that's just the silliness in him :]

Demo also being generally pretty...normalish. He's a guy who's really just going through it when you take the angst option. He oftentimes will try and hold back others from doing something stupid when sober. I feel like when he's drunk he's more willing to get in on dumb shit, but still. However, this doesn't mean he's wholly a normal person. I think you can do a lot of headcanons here where you bring out some traits that are otherwise not talked about too much.

There are a lot of liberties to be taken with Demo's character as per usual. A ton of writing a character to be, well, in-character is just getting down their voice and mannerisms. Understanding their personality and motives is just half the battle. Demo sometimes speaks like an old-timey medieval knight or poet or whatever. He's generally pretty well-spoken and whatever. For the love of god if you want to write him, you don't need to include phonetics constantly. Please. It's so much better that tu'try toh spell everay whurd like tis. Oftentimes people will just know what the character sounds like regardless. Just try and mimic his way of speaking more and you'll do wonders for actually making that character sound like, well, that character.

I've neglected to mention Demo being a black man a lot because, well, it never really pops up a lot in canon. I think the most recognition we get for Demo being black is him just saying that he's black. He's a black Scotsman and that's about it. It's curious since I've seen a number of fics where it's all period-typical racism angst and whatever, with Demo being used as a way for the author to get up and proudly say that they think that racism is bad by having Demo being called a slur and getting upset. How progressive. 

I dunno. I never really personally touch on period-typical bigotry stuff myself due to the fact that this is Team Fortress 2. Rocket jumping was invented before stairs. Besides, this is the late 60s/early 70s. The civil rights movement happened by this point. Not everyone walking the streets is gonna be some abrasive bigot. I don't know why people want to try and make it "historically accurate" to begin with since this series has never been period-accurate to begin with. I don't particularly think TF2 is a great series to go on about tackling period-typical bigotry either. Literally if you want Demo angst you've got the actual mountain load of angst with his backstory right there. Obviously of course people are allowed to write what they want and I do fully believe that sharing stories and portraying bigotry is important, but why with TF2??? Do people just really look at a POC and think their existence is inherently political and they need to make it clear they think Racism Bad, even though the tone of canon really doesn't match that?? Ah well. I'm just rambling.

Regardless, Demo is just a character where you can take a lot of different avenues with. Maybe you can explore his trauma and try and write about how he feels trying to live up to his family name. What about his issues with his now-deceased father? Maybe you can forgo that and have him be a partner in crime to Solly or whomever else, with the occasional glimpse into his more sensitive self. Really, it all just depends on the story you're trying to tell. Ultimately, writing Demo with a healthy mix of comedy and angst is probably what is best done if you just want a pretty in-character version. He can be out on some grand adventure to take down Nessie with a merc or two AND have it be a story about him coming to terms with his past. That's just a me thing though lol.

Demo, like the rest of the cast, is an easily moldable piece of clay. All of the mercs at their very core are just funny character archetypes. They can be whatever you want them to be. It's just best to work with their original characterization and personality in mind, y'know? Fanfic writing is mainly about having fun anyway.

Speaking of which, enough procrastinating for me. I need to get back to writing my yaoi...

[bang-bang-gang]

i think redditors or twitter users posting about claudio being not booked right and how he should be a main eventer will forever be the funniest thing btw. his role should be the kamille to yuta’s mercedes. also whenever yuta is on screen baby that IS the main event i can’t help it if you can’t see that, clearly claudio sees it, he loves that man sooo much

[yeast-infection-enthusiast]

Normal couple: we want to start a family, it might happen soon :)

Average r/childfree redditor: oh so you two are rawdogging? You are getting creampied? You are getting your pussy destroyed by your husband every night? There is cum inside you right now? You have a breeding kink, yes? Btw I am normal about women and have a healthy relationship with sexuality,

[smoshblr-aita]

AITA for embarrassing my coworker

I (18 male) currently work a minimum wage part time job while I’m saving for a car (ugh). This job is essentially just an assembly line to put food on trays. So one person puts on the ticket and the silverware and sends it down the line, the next puts on dessert etc etc. Well today I was 1 so I was putting on silverware, liners, creamer, sugar, salt, pepper, and silverware. It’s one of the most difficult stations and I tend to need to focus to read what each individual ticket needs (soup spoon, sugar sub, no salt, etc), we had a somewhat new guy alone on 3. His only job was to put butter on every tray, mustard on any tray with a sandwich, and soup on any tray that wanted it. I was somewhat a little salty probably because 3 is my favorite station and the one I’m an expert at but I had to be put on 1 because the person originally scheduled for 1 called off last minute. So we’re moving at a good pace, I’ve got the trays mostly backed up to the end everyone is doing their best. The manager keeps calling down like “need a mustard” “need a soup and cracker” “you put on the wrong soup” so on and so forth all mistakes by the guy on 3. No biggie it’s only his like 4th time working 3 alone (after like 2 weeks of training) and it’s not slowing us down too much. Plus I get it’s embarrassing to have the manager call out every mistake outloud in front of everyone, but quite frankly that’s just how it is since he needs the mistake corrected and needs to stay at his own spot on the line. So we’re in a lull where I’m not pushing trays because I had to replenish the stack of trays in front of me and switch out my silverware container so I’m not constantly pushing trays down. Again no big deal I can get us backed up again within 30 seconds. But instead this smug little jerk turns and yells down the line “HEY (my name) CAN I PAY YOU TO GO FASTER. HOW DOES TEN BUCKS SOUND” and my response was to yell back “HEY CAN I PAY YOU TO DO YOUR JOB RIGHT” my manager looked like a deer in headlights I’m pretty sure he thought might punch the kid (oh the new guy he’s like 16/17?ish, not much younger than me but not older for sure btw) well after trayline he came up to me (3 not the manager lol) and said that I really embarrassed him and did the “it’s just a prank bro” type defense where he said he was joking and I reminded everyone he was doing a bad job and what I said was too mean spirited. I basically laughed in his face. Because I thought my comeback was good. But then both my manager (who usually really trusts me) and another coworker who I usually get along with really well told me that I was a little harsh and he didn’t really understand how trayline works and he looked like he was crying after I insulted him back (I didn’t see because when I push trays I’m usually looking down at the ticket) and my manager implied I better go easy on him in the assembly for dishroom which really got to me since I don’t think my manager has every taken any one else’s side besides mine if I’m involved in a conflict, I’m one of his go to trainers and I know every station, he wanted to make me an assistant supervisor. So just the fact that he thought I jumped the gun with my retort is really having me doubt myself. I probably would have just polled my friends but I just got home from the above described shift and saw that the smoshblr aith is up and figured I could toss it in here to see what yall think.

Oh btw I put on anon which I feel like a little ruins the fun for me because it’d be cool to actually have discussions with moots about it being me but since I made the choice to put my age in here so I could feel like a real Redditor I’m keeping it on anon lol

[theladyofbloodshed]

Hey Chelsea! how are you today? I read 'A Court Of Tangled Flames' a while back and absolutely loved loves loved it!(ps:I recommend it every chance I get, and so do a million other redditors💗) and I just finished reading 'Consumed By The Flame' and LOVED that as well. I immediately wanted to start on your current In-universe NEZRIEL mates fic but I realised it wasn't complete and I don't think I can bear the heartbreak of a cliffhanger right now lol(still on the verge of saying fck it and just reading it) and I was wondering how many chapters you planned on for it?(this is purely from a curiousity point of view btw)

Just wanted to throw some Love your way! Thank you for writing such amazing fics *mwah*

Hello hello!

Thank you so much for the kind words. It means a lot that you recommend it to others <3

I plan to write Nezriel until just after the war. I'm up to chapter 53 in the book and there's 82 but I don't follow every single point. I'm not sure how many chapters this fic will have but it will follow a similar path. I do have another Nezriel one where they choose each other in universe when Nesta has enough of Cassian favouring Mor. It's set as if ACOSF doesn't happen when her and Cassian are still in a will they won't they situation - but that fic is completed.

And my biggest piece is a rewrite of ACOSF with a Nessian endgame with Azriel and Eris (and Tamlin) as her buddies.

Happy reading! :-)

[quaranmine]

Missing 411 guy?

David Paulides, the guy who is the creator of "Missing 411" which is basically a conspiracy about suspicious clusters of people going missing in National Parks in the United States. He is also the bane of my existence for the past year as someone who is researching a story about someone who goes missing in a National Forest.

To start with, if you've ever been even on the fringes of "irl spooky stuff" videos on YouTube, you might have encountered this. There are a lot of youtubers and podcasters who cover this guy's content without understanding What and Who they are giving platform to. Sometimes, people don't even mention him but will relate the cases that he covers in his books or use the same conspiracy points as him. I would not be suprised if you watched a Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher video (which are fine btw) and then got recommended something related to Missing 411 in the sidebar since it's a similar genre. It's super popular to the point where its outgrown its creator. I can't stress enough that many of you have probably encountered this content, at least in passing, without knowing what it was.

So to recap, Missing 411 documents cases of real-life people who have disappeared or been found dead in national parks, national forests, etc and claims that these cases are unusual and mysterious. It frequently talks about missing person "clusters" and things like that. There is often an overt, if not outrightly stated, implication that something supernatural, crpytid, or UFO/alien related was involved. For starters, David Paulides has written a ton of books trying to prove the existence of bigfoot. Now, I have no issues with people believing in bigfoot, or cryptids, or aliens, but I do have an issue with people co-opting real life tragedies and twisting information to push this as conspiracy. I simply do not think it is helpful or respectful to talk about missing and dead people (and children!) like this. Also, with the high prices of his books ($100-200) he just reeks of grifter to me.

To me, Missing 411 "criteria" is a stretch at best. You will see cases "mysteriously" connected because both of these people wore red when they went missing. Both these people's bodies were found near water (as if many National Park do not have water features.) Both these people's bodies were found near granite rocks (like, the most common rock type in mountains lol.) All these cases involve the weather turning bad! (um, yeah, that's a big reason why people get in trouble?) He frequently claims that bodies being undressed is highly unusual, without ever acknowledging paradoxical undressing. Or he claims laughably weak connections between people like "these two women who went missing in different years are connected because they both had three letter names that started with A." I haven't personally listened to this talk but there is a data scientist mentioned in his Wikipedia page who examined the case data and found nothing out of the ordinary in them. If you don't want to watch a video (I don't either right now) then he also wrote this article. From a different person, this article from a podcast is also good.

David Paulides does not present Missing 411 cases with accuracy. He has been known to cherry-pick data and purposefully omit data to make them seem more unusual. Many cases he covers are either already solved, or have extensive information available. He does not retract information or admit when he is wrong. Even if he does present a particular case accurately, he has such a bad track record with reliable research that he cannot be trusted as a source. There used to be someone on reddit who would deconstruct cases he covered. In this post they found several instances of cases of Paulides missing sources and coming to incorrect conclusions.

Note there's a few differences in the sources I just linked. The data scientist and podcast skeptic both said they found the data to be accurate, while the redditors have found evidence to the contrary. The data scientist also says he found Paulides' presentation of information respectful, but I personally find all of this highly disrespectful. But despite these differences I think we can all agree....the claims of Missing 411 are pretty ridiculous.

Also, let's talk about David Paulides himself. Before becoming a writer, he was a cop in California. He was a cop who was fired for corruption (well that's hard to do), because he was caught soliciting donations for a fake charity he set up. That's straight from his Wikipedia page. He continues to use his past as a "dectective" to attempt to make his claims sound more reliable. There was also a redditor who pulled up some other career highlights from when he was a cop in the 80s, by looking at court transcripts and news articles. His job used to be entrap gay men by pretending to be gay, getting them to invite him home with them, and then arresting then. He and his unit were also accused of police brutality many times in the 80s, with Paulides testifying in defense of his unit. And he has not changed btw, he's a Qanon stolen election covid denier type of nut right now on his YouTube channel (according to reddit. I am not watching this man's videos.) So yeah, I think his character speaks for itself.

Anyway, I'm tired of hearing about this guy and seeing 411 related content pop up around YouTube, Reddit, Tiktok, etc. Pay attention if you watch things related to "creepy and unexplained real life disappearnaces." I do not think he is a good person, I do not think he can be trusted, and I do not think that his work actually benefits the families of the missing persons in question. These are real people. He turns them into spectacles to push ~unusual~ circumstances and paranormal activity.

[womantichrist]

a principal killed himself at Disneyland after he was put on administrative leave following an argument with his wife that led to him being chard with child endangerment and battery and some people on reddit are like "wow, it's pretty fucked up to go to Disneyland with the intention of killing yourself and potentially traumatizing children" and some redditors are getting sooo upset.

I've seen redditors get very upset at the suggestion that the male suicide rate is only higher than the female suicide rate because women tend to choose methods that will cause less trouble/trauma for others, which leads to them being saved more often, btw.

but this. this right here:

average redditor. this kind of comment is all over that website.

[powerpuff2003]

@thetiniestbnuuy OP blocked me and deleted my reply. I was saying this is a good example of a certain trans subculture. Usually white transfems, usually identify with porny terms like "femboy" and often don't even identify as trans women.

They make it impossible for us to call out this subculture. They act like we're attacking trans or GNC people by doing so. But I'm a MtF trans woman myself and I'll say it: "femboy" does not just mean a feminine boy or a GNC AMAB, femboy is a subculture. That specific subculture is often predominantly white, noticeably racist, misogynistic, ironically transphobic, filled with lolicon artwork, and has close ties to neo-Nazi cultures and websites (especially 4chan). This subculture cannot be beyond criticism and callout.

This is about r/196 and the surrounding subcultures, BTW. A lot of them self-identify as progressive or liberal or left-wing, but basically pride themselves in being "deradicalized from the alt-right pipeline" (read: still bigots deep down). They worship misogynistic racist white male leftist content creators i.e. Vaush and generally maintain a deeply racist and sexist atmosphere. Most of all, these communities are almost exclusively male. And whenever a member transitions they NEVER make friends with cis women or with integrated trans women so they retain a cis man's view of the world.

Like I get called "terfy" for criticizing Redditor "transfem" culture but like I'm a trans woman myself? I feel like they use being trans or GNC to shield this subculture from rightful criticism. It was really hard for me to grow up as a teen trans girl & I mostly hung out with cis queer women cause in trans circles I could only find these people :(

Like this is a very specific trans subculture and once you know what it looks like it becomes much easier to avoid those spaces & find better trans communities. Hope this helps.

[viktoriakomova]

I saw your tag about true crime fans on Reddit and I just wanted to know if you have any #thoughts about the Bryan Johberger case? Personally I’m not convinced of his guilt or innocence either way but it is disturbing how redditors demonize the defense team for doing their job and want to just send him to the firing squad asap (sorry this is non gymnastics related feel free to ignore lmao)

oh girl im so glad u asked me this lmfao

i think hes most likely guilty but it really disturbs me how the peanut gallery thinks throwing constitutional rights to the wind is fine just because theyre really emotionally attached to the case

ive gotten in several Fights in the comments with people on that case's subreddit to the point where i just lurk and downvote and dont engage anymore 🤡 like people are really sincerely convinced that they have a 0% chance of being accused of a crime they didn't commit and the State would never come down on them with all its might for unjustified reasons. lmao and lol.

like people suggesting that him waiving his right to a speedy trial is "retraumatizing" the victims' families because it will be dragged out longer and he CLEARLY did it so he's doing all this on purpose because he LOVES THE ATTENTION (that comes hand in hand with him literally staying in jail in the meantime but nope he just loves media scrutiny he's an attention whore!). meanwhile his lawyers NOT doing that, given all the evidence they have to plow through and the fact that its a CAPITAL MURDER CASE, would be a goddamn cupcake of an ineffective assistance appeal. but they dont know that because they learned everything they know about the legal system from law and order svu, and they dont understand that if this trial is bungled he'll walk away scot free! and they probably think double jeopardy is a moral outrage too lmao

and then there was a whole Thing about the issue of whether the trial would be broadcasted/streamed, and/or whether video recordings would be allowed. and people were like "transparency !!!! free press!!!!!" girl please be serious this isnt about free press (there are press passes for all major trials like this, btw) and you know it, this is about YOU consuming it as entertainment, integrity of the criminal justice system be damned.

same goes for stuff i saw from people during the kristin smart trial. like its literally written in black and white in the fifth amendment to the constitution that you have a right not to testify against yourself and people on twitter were still like "WHY CANT THEY FORCE HIM TO TAKE THE STAND!" and then once he was sentenced to "25 years to life" people were like "THATS WAY TOO LENIENT" bruh firstly thats the legal maximum and secondly he's realistically never seeing the light of day ever again lmao. if you dont understand what things mean just dont say anything!

the intersection of bloodthirst and self righteousness is crazy lmao. it dovetails quite nicely with gymtwt and the gymnastics subreddit in fact, like a lot of the rhetoric during the nassar sentencing (he literally did not have a trial i cannot stress that enough, he pleaded guilty) was deeply disturbing to me even though i also obviously believe he's terrible and should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

[thedevilsrain]

What if the characters from From Eroica with Love had social media??? 🤔🧐

now this is the kind of ask i need on a sunday night

james - redditor. IP blocked from r/economics. hes literally that guy who said "why doesnt china just invade and annex siberia" and when somebody said nuclear war they said "oh right". i dont use reddit btw

bonham - redditor, but hes like, those guys who actually reply with useful things. he always something to say that he got from r/todayilearned

dorian - wide social media presence. literally this guy

eberbach - he only has whatsapp and his photo is a picture of ID that he scanned. every message he sends has perfect grammar and he signs them with emails

mischa the bear cub - hes on tiktok and his @ is mischa1121021

[scaryarcade]

The Syscringe people actually taking that very silly bio seriously and trying to make an issue out of it is exactly why no one should ever take them seriously. That's just so embarrassing it's making me get second hand nausea.

YEAH im so like. on the one hand i generally dont want to make fun of anybody for not being able to correctly interpret someones tone on the internet. the way i talk is pretty silly and under normal circumstances id never have an issue with somebody who cant tell when im being serious or not...

EXCEPT if u post my awesome bio to a cringe sub and treat me saying shit like "i will live forever" as some kind of actual real life problem. then you forfeit your right to not get made fun of

^ this person is complaining about my carrd link btw. Dear redditors i am very sorry for having whimsy in my heart and for saying words like Swag and Dope on the internet

[subdee]

I posted 617 times in 2022

83 posts created (13%)

534 posts reblogged (87%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@subdee

@hxhhasmysoul

@ff7ogzine

@tofucasserole

@hxhladieszine

I tagged 614 of my posts in 2022

#hxh - 230 posts

#general lefty stuff - 88 posts

#hunter x hunter - 50 posts

#ff7 - 49 posts

#the internet - 29 posts

#ff7ogzine - 28 posts

#hxhbb - 26 posts

#hxh manga spoilers - 24 posts

#art - 24 posts

#hxhladieszine - 23 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#and if you had a more free society you might choose to organize it around gathering hazelnuts instead of farming to have a less stratified..

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Last Time on Hunter x Hunter

New HxH chapter is out but it’s been quiet at least among the fans I know... it seems because no one remembers what happened last time.  :P

Probably this would be a good time to go back to the HxH subreddit because I bet the redditors are loving this chapter dedicated to mafia flunkies fighting each other using absurd powers and are digging up their old reference charts and theories and putting them up on the wall like Pepe Silvia as we speak. 

(It’s Zhang Lei, BTW.  Zhang Lei will win the succession war.  And Sakata is the Silent Majority nen user, working directly for Zhang Lei or possibly for Onior on his behalf.  Although if 8th prince Lazurus won the succession war with the help of the Spiders that would be a pretty good plot twist.  You heard it here first!  )

Ahem.  Anyway here’s your recap of what’s going on in the manga currently... spoilers ahead!!!!

(All images from this reference chart, thank you nerds of reddit!) 

There are three mafia groups based on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th tier of the boat:

See the full post

77 notes - Posted October 23, 2022

#4

I’m trying to stay focused on the local battlefield as a way to stay semi-calm. Kansas voters are in a unique position in red states in that they get a direct say on whether or not to protect abortion. August 2nd will have a vote on an anti-abortion amendment to the KS constitution. If the amendment fails, abortion will remain legal here. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled abortion is protected under the KS Constitution. So it’s either the amendment or nothing for the forced birth assholes. They can’t simply pass a law like other states have. This vote isn’t just important for Kansas. It’ll have major ramifications for the region. Missouri will ban all abortions. But if choice stays legal in Kansas, then the Kansas City metro will still have clinics available. Plus, it’s not a bad drive from Oklahoma City to Wichita, or from Omaha to KC. Polls show a majority of Kansans want abortion to remain legal. There’s a good chance we’ll win this one. Enough of a chance that I’m allowing myself to hope. Kansans for Constitutional Freedom is the main group organizing the “Vote NO” fight in Kansas. They’re a coalition of Democrats and Republicans, Planned Parenthood, ACLU, and other groups. If you have a few bucks to spare, please consider them.

Via metafilter

90 notes - Posted June 24, 2022

#3

Phantom Troupe thoughts

SPOILERS FOR MANGA CHAPTERS 395 and 396!!!!!

...Ahem.  I haven’t checked the main tag or been on tumblr much in the last few weeks so forgive me if this is old news but... catching up on Hunter x Hunter and can’t believe that in the year of our lord 2022, we finally have canon confirmation that the Sheila conspiracy theorists were right all along!!! 

Sheila confirmed member of the OG phantom troupe!!  Also the book she gave little Kurapika and Pairo in the “Kurapika’s Memories” chapter, that inspired them to want to leave the tribe and attempt the Hunter exam, was probably “Dino Hunter” because it looks the same and Sheila only reads one book apparently.  

See the full post

129 notes - Posted November 27, 2022

#2

For US people: government is giving out another round of free COVID tests... This time we all get eight.

277 notes - Posted May 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

The 80,000 warnings about the ao3 spambots on here are making me realize... do people on tumblr not know what an SEO scam is??????

Everyone warning each other to not click on the links... I mean yes this is just good internet advice, don’t click random spammy links, but if the point was trick you into clicking they would be doing a better job of pretending not to be bots, don’t you think?

The purpose of these comments is SEO optimization... just trying to increase their pagerank in search results on Google or Bing by making a lot of different pages link to them.  

These aren’t a big deal if they hit the accounts of active writers, who have plenty of tools to get rid of them.  The game is to hit the accounts of writers who aren’t  checking their emails, and won’t bother to log in / mark as spam.  Then the comments stay up and help with getting their links on early pages of search results or making them look more legitimate. 

Anyway here’s something for the AO3 engineering team to do - figure out where these bots are coming from and block the domain.  Since ao3 is mostly volunteer labor we just wait until someone’s free to work on it or the board votes to pay for it, though. 

912 notes - Posted December 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[nerdliker7000]

Infos

May add more or less later I just made this in a few mins or whatever

Someday I'll just move all this info to an flist link LOL

Hi. I'm Lucky.

This is my nsfw blag.

As long as you're an adult idc who interacts I guess

Btw I'm aroace and every attraction I have is ficto. Basically. When I say "me" I'm saying my projection of myself in the fantasy. Also I'm intersex and I guess I'd say male aligned in that sense. I gotta peener. A wee wee. If you even care.

I'm basically mostly gay, but to me fetish comes before sexuality so sometimes I'm attracted to women on the basis that they're a part of a fetish scenario I like 🤷‍♂️

Uhmmmm I'm into / have the capability to be into anything that's not scat or farting. Basically I have a fetish for fetishes. No idea how to explain it. The fact that something is sexual is usually enough to get me at least a little into it. I can also give myself fetishes if I try hard enough LOL so. Never say never ✌️

But as for my favorites...:

idk how to say this one good. I like nerdy geeky boys but like, trashy gamer boy types. 4channer and redditor types. Boys who don't shower and are bigoted as hell and run their mouth.

^ that being said. Degradation and bullying and mild threats (if I'm consenting. Out of left field this will probably startle me a little??)

Everyday formal wear (usually like what uniforms tend to be. White button down. Black tie. That sorta thing)

Glasses. Nuff said

Braces and other orthodontic stuff. I blame my own many years with many types of teeth gear for this. Also tooth brushing??? Like brushing someone else's teeth. I don't know man.

Really hard sex -> really sweet aftercare. Big fan of basically babying someone right after

Remember how I mentioned boys who can't take care of themselves well I like taking care of people. In love with the idea of putting a boy in his place for talking down on me and making him chicken nuggets afterwards. Humilation can tie into this like running a bath and washing him almost like a kid which just pisses him off because it's embarrassing. God I love bratty shitty boys

Oh yeah btw I'm a switch and that is very much central to my fantasies usually. Roles will flip flop all over the place.

Anyways uh micro

Mascot style charicters. Like think Kero CCS or vincini pkmn. Just lil guys.

Fucked up disgusting monsters and demons that are so scary 😨 ??

DRAGONS

Sounding & general dick penitration

^ related. Cock vore. Sorry

When it comes to ladies... big boobies mommy types. Good lordy. Sorry to be basic on this front

Sentiant goo / slime

Transformation I guess? One of those nonsexual fetishes mostly I'm just really fucking fixated on the idea

Bsdm but that's vanilla to me

Sweet sounding really cruel doms

Cruel sounding mean subs I already basically said this but dog damn it

Impossible biology (this one applies to basically everything I'm into. There has to be some presence of cartoon logic I don't really care for someone being in medical danger cus of someone's dick size)

Size dif

ALL DICKS. Micro. Ftm dicks. Small. Med. Large. Hyper. I love them all.

Dirty talk especially excessive blathering of a sub who's just brainless on pleasure. Speaking of

Fucked silly

Pet play and similar. I guess it's just an extention of humilation in a way

Fighting (phys)

Masks

Weird monster dicks

Eggpreg but in the BALLS

Popcorn round traits I like in charicters that arent exactly fetish but boy howdy my type: (some repeats of above)

Blondes, royalty, powerful presence, elegant femininity (looks good on anyone), mean, serious or aloof, curly hair, glasses, brown eyes, freckles, piercings, crazy fucking murderer twisted fucking cycle path, has optional nonhuman form, dragons and dragonlike creatures, smart, uhh idk

[seven-oh-four]

i just came up with something big. i think i have the perfect idea for the next awful animated children's movie, something to rival the emoji movie

Reddit Movie. follows a snoo who wants to make it big someday and reach number one most karma. it's perfect it'll be so bad. just imagine it. his parents are lurkers and don't approve of his aspirations so he sets out on an adventure to prove them wrong. there'll be like a police chase scene where the police are the moderators. the power-moderators are like, superheroes or something bc spez would never portray them in a bad light. someone will mention "that side of the internet" and all the characters shudder and you're supposed to laugh there but it's not funny. that's the funny scene that gets put in all the trailers btw. and then at the end the redditor learns that friends and community are more important than reddit karma. but he's only known his friends for like a few days because he met them in the movie's runtime but they act like they're best friends and have known each other since childhood anyway. and maybe he'll fight karma bots or something. and keanu reaves would be there you can see it right? this movie could absolutely happen

[barbiegirldream]

I started off today by getting up to walk to work in the freezing cold and have Techno in my ear celebrating hitting 10 mil. So now I wanna finish today by love posting about my mutuals and stuff

Dteamblr has been one hell of a ride. I know i’ve picked a lot of fights this years it’s been great. Thanks everyone who was entertained. And special shout out to anyone who stopped and stared at a post of mine!

Anyways I really hope some of you guys have each other blocked or parasocially hate one another. it would be funny for me personally: 

@sephtictank shoutout for being the first person in the fandom i really talked to i hope you have such an awesome 2022

@dreamquackity you’re so funny Mish like honestly. And being able to hop into the dms and chat with you had been so fun this year much love mwah mwah

@dreamonline my fellow dwt2 redditor we are both so based and red pilled for real. we’re doing this fandom thing right 

@gotham-ai a comic book nerd who’s also into Dream that’s really all you need to be the best type of person. have a very happy new year

@angeloncewas you really are a voice of reason around here. like i don’t know how you remain so fair and level headed but my respect for you is immeasurable. i love chatting with you we’re always in the discourse trenches together lmao 

@mushroomkarl most of our talking is done through replies to posts and I think that’s very on brand for us. I hope you have a very good new year and keep telling your stories about work! liveblogging about retail is my favorite thing to read

@strandedcrow Crow you’re the best Canadian I know I think people have the stereotypes all wrong. One day you’ll get that answer about Dream’s favorite Publix food. Your art is amazing btw 

@starrynyxa you have me so invested in the omegaverse like it’s so cool to think about gender and stuff like that. i will achieve my true status as an alpha one day i’m sure of it

@charsecretclub Char my favorite Dteamblr swiftie i wish only the best for your new year and I really appreciate you on the dash. the sweet animal pictures really break up the horny or the discourse

@more-like-reyna Rey you and I understand each other on another level. paris is great this time of year you’re so right 

@everybodyscupoftea Leigh i’m so glad you reblogged my battle box post. you’re so smart and I really like talking to you. Next year i pledge we’re gonna talk so much more 

 @dreamhot Leee hiiii I’m still semi intimidated by you. I think you’re so cool and I love your art so much. It’s been really nice talking with you this year 

@lostinmcyt Lost we’ve just started chatting but you’re already one of the funnest people i’ve met on here

@fxllingout Cait my favorite Punz simp. You’re so kind and funny to talk to and I love it when you get into the discourse. I hope the Leafs win a bunch of games next year!

@jorgenotfound Jorge you and I understand glizzie like no other thank you for being there with me. All of your posts make me giggle. I love seeing you on the dash. you deserve only good things

@redrosedream Red my beloved i hope you have the absolute best new year in the world and that your job is everything you want and more. you’re so lovely and i just wish all the best for you 🥰

@cgnf Saturn you and I share a brain i swear you deserve all the best for 2022 first year and an adult and it’s gonna rock i’m sure of it 

@stevebucky i wouldn’t dox myself for just anyone lmaooo. i stand by it when i say you’re the funniest person i know. no one makes me laugh like you oona. thank you so much for sharing your brain with us 

@cryptodream Ciara my problematic bestie you and me hand in super hot hand. I hope the new year brings less brain dead anons and more fun ones. 

@prettyboynotfound Kara you might have wished me misery but I wish you sunshine and happiness ✨ you make me laugh so often and your tags are what i look forward to on my unhinged posts /gen sometimes i make them with you in mind 

@youremykitten i’m in love with you. he he V you’ve been the best person to get to know this year. Honestly if I ever was going to want to meet a mutual irl it would be you just to give you a hug. We never miss. You’re so based and funny and I miss you when you’re gone. so i hope 2022 is just such a pog year for you ily 💖

If I didn’t give a message it’s cause i couldn’t think of anything to say but my mutuals you all mean a lot to me. And i’m gonna try and talk to you more so next time i do one of these I will have things to say!!!