#there's obviously more important things in the apology video than this

[douwatahima]

sorry to invoke james somerton again but i just watched his "apology" video and the way he addresses the criticism to his utena video has been scratching at my brain. for this who don't want to watch (which is so so fair), here's what he says:

"we ended up making a lot of videos we didn't want to make because people were asking for them and so there were a lot of videos we made that we didn't want to make and i think those videos are very clear on which ones those were. one of them never got officially released, it was released to patrons. some patrons have shared it to other people before all the videos went private and a lot of people hate the analysis nick and i did on it and so maybe it's good that that never got properly released because maybe it would have hurt people and i don't want that."

so, not directly saying he's talking about the utena video…but he's talking about the utena video lol. the thing that really gets me is like…look. full disclosure. i used to be subscribed to james somerton long before this whole thing blew up. i wasn't necessarily a big fan of his video style, but he talked about a lot of media i enjoy and i liked his analysis (that wasn't really his, but i didn't know that at the time) so i followed him.

the thing about him was he was always asking his followers for shows he should do videos on, especially anime, and then not long after making those posts he would post videos of "things to come" including like…every anime people suggested. not all of these shows ended getting videos made, but the point is james really set himself up as the queer anime video essayist; constantly promising videos about every show people told him they wanted.

and a lot of people loved that about him! a lot of the big names talking about anime on youtube are people doing season by season breakdowns or people talking about big shonen titles, and here was someone consistently pushing out long form analyses on less talked about shows! great! but to find out that not only was a lot of what he said plagiarized, but also that a lot videos were just shat out to appeal to his audience without any care or passion? just to get more views and more money on patreon? that's literally crazy when you're talking about something usually as involved as video essays.

on top of that i'm about 95% certain him doing an utena essay was a patreon tier goal (hence why that video was released there first). he literally heard queer anime fans asking him en masse for a video about one of the best queer anime of all time, decided to set it as a patreon goal, and then literally boxed himself into doing a video on an anime he didn't care about because he promised it to the people who payed him to be the "queer anime guy".

and the thing is he 100% didn't need to do that. he didn't need to "make a lot of videos he didn't want to make because people were asking for them". i follow a ton of video essayists who get requests for videos all the time! that doesn't mean they have to, or even should, make them if they're not passionate about the topic! video essays, when actually done well and with integrity, are hard work. that's why most good video essayists take a lot of time between videos! to think that this guy just took every possible suggestion, dangled them like carrots in front of his audience, that made a bunch of passionless, mediocre videos to solidify his station as the queer video essayist to watch is just…upsetting and disheartening tbh.

anyway if you want some actually good analysis of revolutionary girl utena, my favourites are "is revolutionary girl utena still relevant?" and "why revolutionary girl utena still slaps" by stushi, and "the shadow play gays" podcast (note: this podcast is run on the same feed as another podcast called "bitter jurors". you may have to scroll back a bit to find "shadow play gays", it started in 2021 if that helps, but i promise you it's worth it).

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

yooooo!!! you’re my favorite ethan winters artist i just wanna say that first and foremost, thank you for the wholesome content of my comfort character and father figure 🥹🫶

i’m really curious bc i feel like i see a lot of people against mithan (not me personally, i’m p neutral on them!) but i’m curious to know all your thoughts on them! thoughts on their canon relationship, their fanon portrayal, the backlash against them/mia accusations, and your headcanons? i’m just really interested!!! hopefully that’s not weird :”)

have a good day!! sparkle on!!! ✨💖

i heart mithan... i think that they can be so cute...

i personally hc them t4t and i like to think that the dated in highschool before they both had fully transitioned

mia likes to bake and ethan likes to scrap book and he always likes to take pictures of mias cakes/ baked goods and has a album for them 😭

i am a multishipper so i draw a lot of ethan ships so my girl is left out sometimes and im sorry mia 😔

i actually really like their relationship, its a really complex dynamic that i like to talk about with my friends

i think the issue is that when talking about mithan or mia in general, theres just SO MUCH misinformation that its honestly a pain the butt to talk about

people still think that she was responsible for the creation of eveline, people still think that she experimented on eveline, people still use examples of her attacking ethan as if she did it on her own will instead of being mind controlled

in reality she was just someone who oversaw the transportation of evie. im not excusing her or anything because obviously she knew what she was doing, but people really try to accuse her of doing something she didnt and it bothers me alot lol

the problem with the fandom is that people either try to water her down to girlboss who did nothing wrong and fail to acknowledge the complexity/ moral grayness of her character and the other side is misogynists 😭😭😭😭

its hard to talk about her without people either going "stop trying to villainize her and make her look bad!" or people ACTUALLY villainizing her and acting like heisenberg would have treated him better 😭😭

mithan is such a sad relationship because they loved each other so much and that ended up being the reason their relationship fell apart (sort of... its not like the broke up... ethan kinda just straight up died)

i get a lot a trouble for saying this, but mia is a selfish person.

its not a bad thing! well i mean it is but it doesnt make her some evil witch who is somehow worse than the guy how made a werewolf american ninja warrior. its just a major character flaw she has! which is good! mia being a flawed person who makes mistakes and morally gray decisions make her a more interesting person!

she is selfish in the way that she wants to keep her family with her no matter the cost. even if it means lying to ethan about her job so that he wont think different of her. here is a interrogation from the re7 DLC, which is easy to miss!

she isnt necessarily trying to apologize for the things she has done, she is more of a, "u wont need to forgive me in the first place if we just forget it all and move on"

she doesn't try to redeem herself for what she has done, she tries to move on and return to the normal life that she wants so bad. which is fine! everyone copes a different way and she has to right to move on from her trauma. the problem that lies in this is that she has a shared trauma with ethan who still has no idea what went on in dulvey and still effects him till the present (he is mold! this is a important thing to know! most people would want to know if they were a walking corpse)

she played a direct part in what happened in dulvey, and im not referring to the email, she did not send that. she never wanted ethan to come in the first place. she tried her best to send a video to him, begging him to forget about her because she wanted to protect him, BUT it didnt send.

he got involved because she was involved. its honestly a series of really really unfortunate events.

THOUGH! she did know what she was getting into. im tired of seeing the narrative that mia was innocent and didnt know what was going on or was simply a bystander. she knew what she was doing, she knew eveline was a bioweapon, she knew eveline was a child. she used a MACHINE GUN! she knows how to use weapons and was obviously trained for it.

she tried her best to keep everybody out of the mess, ex: warning the bakers not to take them in, warning ethan not to find her, sacrificing herself for ethan in the later half of re7

but again, those are the consequences of HER actions

her consequences just happen to get really big and end up hitting ethan on the head like a metal sheet 😭

their relationship is really so interesting, it makes me really sad to think about sometimes 😭they both went through something that nobody else would ever understand, in the end they really only have each other. they get moved to an entire different country and the dulvey incident gets covered up with a "gas leak"

its really tragic because their marriage definitely had some flaws and bumps. and i know im repeating myself but its because people always take this in the worst way possible but just because i say their relationship was rocky doesnt mean im saying they dont love each other!!! thats the entire basis of mias character!! saying she doesnt love ethan would destroy her entire character!

you can see in the re8 DLC how fondly ethan talks about mia! he loves her so much, though im not sure if his comments in the DLC are him narrating current (post re8) or his thoughts before everything went down and he died (pre re8)

everything mia did was because she LOVED ethan. she would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, she is not a cruel person. she hides the truth of her job from ethan pre re7 because she loves him and doesnt want her job to drive them apart. she CONTINUES to refuse to tell ethan the truth post re7 because she wants to move on a live a happy normal life with him and knows something like her being directly associated with the connections would probably cause (more) problems. she refuses to tell ethan that he is mold because again, hard to live a happy marriage with your husband after you tell him hes a bioweapon.

obviously i dont think it was right that she did this, thats what makes her selfish! she did it for herself! she did it for her family! she thought it would work out, she thought that they could move on and be happy together.

the issue is that ethan didnt want to forget. he wanted to know what happened, he wanted to know the part mia played, he wanted answers! which is reasonable! he knows to some extent that mia was partially responsible for his involvement and he was always suspcious that mia was lying to him about her job which is implied when mia says "you were right, i did lie to you"

she doesnt learn, she doesnt stop lying, her lies get bigger and worse and it sucks yeah but it makes her so interesting!!! she keeps doing stupid things under the idea that this is whats best for her and her family, that if she hides this everything will work out and it will be for the better but its not!

just because telling your husband hes dead and a bioweapon is a hard subject to bring up doesnt mean you DONT bring it up. people shouldnt use that as a reason to excuse mia 😭, its a very bad excuse and honestly highlights how horrible their communication skills were. you cant just not tell your husband that he is actually infected with the mold and not tell him for the tree years between post re7 and pre re8.

im not saying these things to put mia down, or try and villanize her. these are all just actual things her character does! she isnt evil, but she isnt a knight in shining armor either. we need to be able to have talks about complex characters without crying everytime someone points out a flaw. characters have flaws! and mia just happens to have a lot of them!

im not mad at her, i dont dislike her because i think this way of her. shes a fictional character! you can like characters that are morally gray, or villains that drink blood and make corpse soldiers. they are fictional! pointing out the flaws of a character does not mean i dont like them.

i wouldnt call her "the real villain of re8" but i wouldnt treat her like a damsel in distress either. she is a competent person, she knows what shes doing, she has her reasons for doing them. she made bad descions with good intentions behind them! they can coexist and we should let them!

i like mithan! its a complex relationship because they both love each other so much but hurt each other in the process

talking about them is just a pain in the butt because talking about mia is a pain in the butt lol

i really hate how she keeps getting sidelined, its super frustrating to see mia get put in a cage in every game 😭

its even more frustrating that mia straight up just disappears???? in the shadows of rose DLC... like she just stops taking care of rose and theres nothing said about it. no reason or explanation. i dont think mia would ever ditch rosemary because she didnt care about her, but we probably will never know because capcom sucks at writing and they probably forgot the mia ever even existed.

all in all, i think the fandom is really just full of misinformation which make people either think mia is some horrible evil person, or its full of people who think that saying mia messed up is the equivalent of comparing her to wesker lol.

i really love mia, shes a incredibly fun and complex character, its just hard to enjoy her sometimes with the people in the fandom haha.

also ive got no idea what u meant by "the backlash against them/mia accusations" so sorry if i didnt answer that!

thank u for the ask! sorry for the long response!

[nerdofspades]

Bruce looked at the pop-up on the Batcomputer's screen.

"Explain," he growled, glancing down at Tim.

"Not much to explain," Tim answered, pulling up lines of code. "It showed up ten seconds ago."

"I'm starting a full diagnostic," Barbara said, voice filtering through the speakers. "So far, I'm not seeing anything."

"And yet..." Time trailed off glancing at the window again. It had a video queued up to play and the words "IMPORTANT: PLEASE WATCH. DO NOT DELETE" in large text at the top.

"There's a new folder labeled 'a gift for Batman,'" Tim said. "Not something any of us made."

"Clearly."

"I'm still not finding any viruses, corrupted files, or spyware," Oracle said. "The new folder was programmed to stay in a hidden partition for a few days after it was placed. Then, obviously, the pop-up to catch our attention."

"Folder also has a text file named 'security notes,'" Tim said. "Maybe our new hacker is friendly?"

"It's starting to look like it," Oracle agreed. "The video is clean. It should be safe to watch."

Bruce sighed. "Then let's see what they've got for us."

-

The video opened with a dark room. The background hidden in shadows, while the foreground was well lit, letting them clearly see the tired teen in the center of the frame as he took a heavy swig from his mug before putting it down.

"Pulling up facial recognition."

He ran a hand through his messy black hair and then down his face, pinching his nose and hiding the bags under his blues eyes for a moment before he dropped his hand and finally looked at the camera.

"I really don't want to do this," he said, "but you need it." He glanced longingly off screen in the direction of the mug he'd put down.

"First of all, I think I should apologize for hacking you. Or asking my friend to, technically. I just. You need to know about this and I didn't know of another way to get it to you that would be secure.

"I did at least make him promise to make a record of how he got in so you can patch that.

"That out of the way... to business? I'm Danny Fenton, for the last year or so I have also been the hero Phantom in Amity Park. My parents are Jack and Maddie Fenton. They are ectobiologists and ghost hunters. While extremely biased and not actually that good at catching ghosts, their tech is easily the best in the business."

"That's a positive match."

"Running a search on Phantom."

"I- fucking shit." Danny put his head in his hands again, running them back through his hair before leaning back, almost collapsing into the chair.

"This kid has... gotten into some shit."

"Everyone knows you're the League's strategist, Batman. And. I'm strong enough. I can handle my problems, that's not what I'm worried about.

"It's been about a year and I've already been mind controlled once." Danny laughed. A dry, broken, almost desperate laugh. "And that was just some lowlife that wanted to rob jewelry stores. I'm still not worried about. It's not why I'm sending you this. The magic relic he used is broken and gone now."

"Well that explains one of his problems."

"The others?"

"An attempted kidnapping and fairly standard property damage. I want to see some footage of those fights before passing judgement."

"Even more standard given he doesn't seem to have a mentor. Batman, he was fourteen."

"No. I. I've seen a version of the future. One where I go mad. Where I snap. And the Justice League can't stop me.

"I don't know if I- he kills everyone. I don't know who, if anyone, makes it out. But it's not anyone that could really do much. I... I saw ten years after he- I snapped. Earth was little more than rubble and ash. Only one city was left holding out and it was about to fall- was falling when I got there.

"I've managed to change the time line. What broke him didn't happen here. But. I can't guarantee nothing ever could.

"So. Yeah. Next best thing is making sure you're prepared. All my powers. All my weaknesses. Everything I know of that could possibly hurt me. Schematics and blue prints for anything you could need to fight me, track me, keep me out, keep me contained. All nice and giftwrapped for your convenience.

"Uh... that's everything. Why is it always so awkward to end a video? Hopefully we never see each other? I guess? Pretty sure us actually meeting is gonna be a bad sign.

"You know what. I'm gonna turn this thing off now before I say something stupid."

-

"Batman, who's 'Phantom'?" Superman asked, glancing up from the Watchtower computer he was working at. "Aren't we supposed to vote on new members?"

Batman grunted. "He's not a member, just someone who understands the need for contingencies."

"You know what, I'm not gonna even ask."

"Probably for the best."

[antiqua-lugar]

also as a quick note, "Who is James Somerton trying to fool"...exactly who he was trying to fool before, impressionable young queer people and anyone who watched his content without paying too much attention.

One of the most astounding things about Somertom is how blatant his lies were if you knew anything about the subject and how obvious his misoginy, queerphobia and racism were. He was also very open about how he DEFINITELY was the only queer voice worth listening to, to the point that he accused Nebula of being unable to accept a visionary like him.

He still got caught but he kept getting away with it using the same tactics. It was everyone's fault but his, the haters were out to get him for no reason, he was getting death threats and that's obviously more important than whatever controversy he was on...

And now he released an apology video where he actually did nothing bad, but if he did it's because he just cared so much about the queer community and because he is neurodivergent and has epilepsy and memory issues and also he is poor and his mother died and doesn't everyone deserve a second chance?

He seems also to be carefully deleting any comment that points out everything else he did not address and liking comments that think he should get a second chance.

If he manages to pull through he is probably gonna start a narrative where everyone deserves a second chance and everyone who brings up his past behaviour is just a bully who is not letting him grow or a desparate hater and "he apologized to everyone involved so what else do these people want from him :(".

hbomberguy and Todd In The Shadows' videos were amazing, but the world moves on and people have a tendency to forget. That's who he is trying to fool.

[autistichalsin]

I have seriously started typing and then deleted it four times, because I am so frightened that any tiny miswording will get this post mocked, or have people doubt my sincerity. I think I'm going to just have to tell myself to go ahead and post it, hoping that it will stay in the circle of people who know me well enough through my posts to read this as it is meant to be read, and to quietly acknowledge that if anyone uses this as a chance to mock or snark, it says more about them than me.

So here goes; this is a message to all of the survivors who read my posts.

First, to the ones who have reached out to me: thank you. You may not realize it, but you're actually kind of giving me a gift when you do that. Because when you do that, you're not only telling me that you trust me enough to share this with me, which honestly makes me feel honored, but you're also helping me. You're making me feel less alone, too, and you're sort of... well, if you guys deserve healing (you do), then I guess I do, too, even if I still have this voice in my head that maybe feels like what happened to me was a weird karmic punishment for not being able to protect my loved ones when they had certain things done to them. You make me feel less alone in the weird journey I'm taking. And it's a gift to be given your stories, and trusted with them, and to be able to turn the absolute utter bullshit we were given into something good. Seriously, please don't ever apologize for sending me your stories- you're helping me just as much as the other around, maybe more. They're a gift, not some kind of, like... burden.

(Honestly I think that the proliferation of terms like "trauma dumping" have really worn out their welcome. Like, there's a conversation about boundaries to be had for sure, obviously don't go and tell people about heavy things without their permission, but that term has caused so many people to be afraid to share their authentic lived experiences with people who do want to know, who have given their consent. We need a new term that conveys the importance of consent before bringing up potentially harmful topics, but that doesn't stigmatize people asking for help. Do you guys remember that TikTok video a few years ago with the therapist saying her clients were "trauma dumping" on her? That term has got to go.)

Second, to anyone who may be lurking and wants to reach out, too: I'll be here when you're ready! And until then, know that the posts I make are for you, too.

Third, to people who aren't survivors who are on this page: thank you for being here, too. Thank you for contributing to these conversations that help remove the stigmas, that help us feel seen and supported.

Every single message I get, whether it's a request for a headcanon or fic, or a survivor's story, or something else, is really something I treasure. Whether it's a serious message or something silly, I love hearing what you guys feel you need to say! It just... I don't know. There's something that makes me really giddy about seeing an ask. Someone wanted to tell me, in particular, these things, and read my response, in particular, to it. It feels so much more personal and sweet and authentic than what Twitter cultivates.

Lastly: I JUST REALLY FUCKING LOVE YOU GUYS A LOT, OKAY????

[albeitinzane]

sooo i'm watching james somerton's apology video (an unlisted reupload because i do not want to give him money!) and i'm only 2:31/43:01 in but i already have so many thoughts about how manipulatively worded this video is so i thought i'd make a blog post about it, maybe see what some other people thought.

james tries to frame himself as a wellmeaning, albiet privledged, white cis gay man. he tries to say that he was trying to be a voice for the queer community because he wanted to uplift more marginalized members of the queer community. i think this is inherently false.

the way james repeatedly presented himself to his audience was that he was the only person talking about the issues he was discussing (while stealing other people's words, but we'll come back to that in a second). he literally said "people thought i was crazy until i explained it and then they came around to seeing it my way" (maybe he didn't say it exactly that way, i'm paraphrasing, but you get my point). him trying to say that this is not what he did is so obviously untrue. he DID do that. multiple times. he propped himself up as the only gay creator talking about the issues he discussed, and rarely promoted other queer content creators. if he wanted to be a spokesperson for the queer community, he would have at least mentioned other queer people who talked about issues he found important, rather than just stealing their content and reposting it as his own. it's disingenuous to call himself a spokesperson when he never highlighted the people he was supposedly speaking for.

it wouldn't be bad, per se, if james was actually trying to be a spokesperson for the queer community, though i think that even if that motivation were true, it'd still be misguiding. while allyship from more privileged members of the community is important, it feels like a bit of a white savior complex for him to claim that he wanted to be a spokesperson for the queer community. plenty of other people are much more qualified to be spokespeople for the queer community, and i personally think that if the queer community did have a spokesperson, it would make more sense for them to be a black trans woman instead of a cis white gay man.

and back to the stealing part. if you wanted to be a spokesperson for a community, you'd respect them. you'd credit their work. you'd make it clear where you were quoting them, and you'd promote their content, not just the content you're citing or borrowing from, but other things that they create that you find meaningful or interesting. james never did this. if someone made an intelligent article about queerness in media, he wouldn't promote it. he'd steal it, and use it along with some stock footage with an intro he bought to make a video where the only acknowledgement the article would receive is a vague "based on" credit, assuming they'd get anything at all.

so, no. i don't believe james is telling the truth. he had many opportunities to come clean. he was called out before, and instead of being honest, he chose to lie. and i hope that the best job that he can find in the future is being a fry cook at burger king, where he can experience just a tiny taste of the exploitation that he utilized to make thousands of dollars off of small queer writers.

[ave-immaculata]

How can a woman discern the character of a man she's seeing? At the end of the day, can we only take him at his word that he is what he claims and will carry out his promises in marriage? I don't know your relationship history, but I'm hoping you might have some insight.

I definitely think there are things we can do beforehand to help discern, but ultimately there is a leap of faith involved and there's not a foolproof method or test or anything. More than anything, offering the relationship to God and asking for discenment is important - I've also noticed that to distinguish words vs. reality, it's important to have witnessed:

- him angry. him overworked. him stressed out. how is he when he's angry but you're calm? how is he when you're both stressed? how does he approach conflict resolution? how does react when you're angry or stressed?

- his work ethic. especially if he's kind of trad leaning, does he work hard? when he's off work, is he willing to run errands with you or do something that isn't lay on the couch and play video games? what about when it's the third day in a row? what about when it's the eighth day in a row? is he looking at his career path and taking it seriously? is he willing to make a budget? how does he spend his money? is he willing to learn new skills and make sacrifices?

- his spiritual life. does he initiate prayer with you? does he come to Mass and Confession (for the latter, even if you're not going)? is he familiar with the faith and growing in it? can he talk about it?

- him in groups. is he a good role model to those around him? does he serve them? do they ask him for advice? when he's criticized, how does he take it in the moment and afterwards?

- him when it's just the two of you: does he try and overstep your boundaries or take advantage of you? does he depend on you to be the one to recognize when you're crossing a line? does he act inconvenienced or upset when you say things are stopping?

Does he know and take your feelings and preferences into account in his planning and decision making? When he says he's going to do something or be somewhere, does he follow through? If something comes up, does he make excuses or apologize? Is he quick to forgive you when you apologize? Has he seen you without make-up? How does he react to seeing other young women with no make-up/undone? Has he seen you ugly cry?

Obviously, there are predatory and manipulative men who will do everything in their power to present the "right" answers to those questions and minimize the times where that mask has slipped to make it seem like no big deal. We can only prepare ourselves to carry out the promises of marriage, and even then, it's unknown because it depends on our continual cooperation with God's grace.

Also, the recommendation here is obviously not to provoke your boyfriend to anger or intentionally run him ragged or put yourself into an occasion of sexual sin. In my experience these all presented themselves organically, and sometimes one area is weaker than the others and you might need to determine if you think you can live with that for the rest of your life.

If there is something in your gut that, even though he has every reason to be trustworthy and you've known him for a year and a half and seen all those sides of him, you still feel like something is.. off...? Then there's something off. Even if it turns out he is a wonderful young man and not dangerous or mean, that doesn't sound like the man you should marry. Similarly if you feel completely seen and safe and ready to go after 6 weeks, just look into love bombing really really quickly and take a breath before you make any big decisions.

I know this is well and truly scattered but I hope it was helpful!

[rinahch]

|| YANG JUNGWON ||

Fluff / wholesome:

Sandy cheeks - @hoonvrs // PROMPT ! playing in a playground with jungwon ( based on his video ) // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Photobooth - @okwonyo // ☆ ☆

Lover’s tv - @hanniluvi // NOW CALLING . . . a christmas movie night with your lover was a great idea, until someone fell asleep before the movie could end… // ☆ ☆ ☆

What is your plushie doing in my place - @enmayz // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

See you later - @palajae // ☆ ☆ ☆

Hoodie season - @goldenhypen // ☆ ☆ ☆

Heavy sleeper - @deckiss // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Senarios / headcannons:

Attractive things Jungwon does - @aakomii // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Boyfriend Jungwon who… - @nhularin // ☆ ☆ ☆

Jealous:

The devil said? - @delcakoo // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

You’re mine - @goldenhypen // ☆ ☆

I’m your cat, meow! - @en-dazed // PROMPT: in which jungwon is jealous of a cat. // ☆ ☆ ☆

School:

Kiss my lips - @diorctrl // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Super shy - @en-dazed // SYNOPSIS: jungwon isn’t used to having company when he’s studying - especially when the company is one of the most popular girls in school. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Love grows (where Jungwon goes) - @soobnny // synopsis. showing affection isn't jungwon's strongest forte, but when he sets eyes on you, it's obvious he has to figure out a way to make you reciprocate his feelings. he’ll take giving you homegrown fruits and vegetables from his garden as a good first step. from then, it’ll be one gift at a time. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Strawberry lips - @idiswhadidis // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

You’ve got to be kitten me - @star-sim // summary: jungwon yang, the stuck-up class president, had a secret: at night, he transformed into a cat. when you, the class's residential troublemaker (and one of the people that jungwon simply couldn't bring himself to understand), accidentally discovered his secret, jungwon found himself questioning his role in the school hierarchy. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I’M A FEMINIST, OBVIOUSLY, BUT I WOULDN’T REALLY MIND HIM SAVING ME. - @leaderwonim // jang y/n hated yang jungwon. perfect, loved by everybody, class president yang jungwon. people only liked him because he was a man and he was charismatic. however, when she’s being picked on by the girls at school, yang jungwon comes to her rescue, and weirdly, she didn’t mind it? // ☆ ☆ ☆

Angst:

When you brake something important to him - @nwjws // synopsis - you didn't mean to break jungwon's ipad, and he didn't mean to let all his stress and anger out on you. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

I must apologize - @angel1kisses // In which your childhood best friend suddenly turned into your Enemy , not knowing the reasons which were way more complicated than you thought // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Friends/best friends:

Put your head on my shoulder - @mochamvgz // the only thing in your mind while getting on the bus is sleep when you bump into yang jungwon. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Big stories:

Anti-romantic - @strzlun // summary- Jungwon experiences rejection but soon finds love with someone who hates the idea of it. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Idol:

 Surprising bf! Jungwon on tour - @misojunnie // ☆

So this is love (delusion) - @weoris // ☆ ☆ ☆

Special au’s:

Closer - @palajae // SUMMARY ▸ your house’s prefect, yang jungwon, is the textbook definition of a ravenclaw. as a fellow housemate and friend, you’re certainly willing to help him out when he needs it. but when jungwon asks you to be his date for the yule ball, you don’t expect the trouble that follows. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

In my head - @nwjws // synopsis - you’ve hated jungwon ever since you two met on the train to hogwarts back in first year; he’s self-centered, lazy, and always coming out for you. now in your seventh year, you’ve been named head girl (woohoo!). unfortunately, the head boy position was given to the one and only yang jungwon (boohoo…). with no other choice, you’re forced to face the annoyingly attractive boy and work with him for the rest of the year - if you can even last that long. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Princess treatment - @angel1kisses // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Babydoll - @angel1kisses // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Romance? In potions class? No way - @bearseulgs // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

The next generation - @en-lov // ❛ there’s something about jungwon that frustrates you, is it him being the chosen one’s kid or his overly nice personality? “but i am the chosen one’s kid?” he chuckled, smiling brightly at you “yeah, that’s exactly why i don’t like you ❜ // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Don’t go - @soobnny // synopsis. you never would’ve expected meeting your class president under these circumstances, but here you are, in a barricaded classroom with your hand in his. when night falls and the undead sound a little quieter, jungwon makes it his responsibility to check for any possible routes of escape, but it’s a little hard when you’re begging him not to go. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Vampire:

Love bites - @aisclosed // vampirism comes with unusual cravings and unique solutions // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Red eyes - @ynsvnte // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Sweet venom (literally) - @yeonzzzn // spending a lazy night with wonnie until he craves your blood and you crave eternity… // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Comfort:

A better Christmas - @filmofhybe // ☆ ☆

Idol x Idol:

Weverse crush - @srjlvr // YOUR favorite hobby after a busy schedule is going on weverse and trying to get jungwon’s(your classmates) attention so bad! what happens when it does actually happen? you get excited of course! but what happens when you get a reply from him every day? OR in which you caught jungwon’s attention with your posts on weverse and now, regardless of his tight schedule and millions of fans who’s trying to get his attention, he’s only searching for your posts every day. // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Enemies to lovers:

He fell harder - @yeonzzzn // jungwon and you have always been competitors from children to adulthood, mostly when it came to gaming. so when the gaming club you both are apart of joins a competition, the two of you are put on the same team… // ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

[randomthefox]

Okay let's talk about Vanilla the Rabbit and her characterization. I feel this is important considering the IDW comics recent portrayal of her and how it's. You know.

Awful.

And yet people defend and praise it because I legitimately don't actually know I assume they all just hate the video games it's "funny" or "badass" or whatever stupid crap. So I think a deep dive on how Vanilla is ACTUALLY SUPPOSED TO BE WRITTEN as per how she is in the VIDEO GAMES is warranted.

This won't take long because she's not actually in very much of the video games. (Which makes her wildly OOC portrayal in the comics even more egregious.)

I'll be ignoring Cream for the most part although you could easily assert that we can infer a lot ABOUT Vanilla as a person based on her daughter, since children are in many ways a reflection of their parents for better or for worse. But stuff like how Cream is very overly formal and polite can obviously be chalked up to Vanilla's parential influence.

In Sonic Advance 2 Vanilla is a damsel in distress with no dialog so there's not that much that can be taken away about her aside from basic body language in the ending where she's basking in victory with Cream or showing appreciation to Sonic for saving her in the final ending.

Vanilla's only other game appearance and wherein she actually has dialog is in Sonic Rush. It's 22 sentences. Vanilla's entire verbal contribution to the entire Sonic series is 22 sentences. Again, the fact that the comic gets her so ridiculously wrong when there's so little TO get wrong is honestly very impressive. Anyway.

Vanilla welcomes her daughter home by asking her if anything interesting happened today. Because Vanilla is aware of and has no problem with the fact that Cream goes out and about doing her own thing all day, and her question shows that she's interested in finding out about her daily activities with is very encouraging although it does lowkey suggest a bit of laissez faire which I'll touch on more as we go. Cream brings a complete and total stranger home, and Vanilla greets her politely, being completely nonplussed about the presence of some random new person she's never met before being welcomed into her home.

Vanilla upon learning her name preemptively apologizes for any potential bothering that Cream did, which shows she's probably aware of Creams habits of interaction with other people. Considering Cream pretty much ambush befriended Blaze and then dragged her back home with her, Vanilla seems to be pretty much In The Know when it comes to what is typical for Cream.

Vanilla insists that Blaze stick around and have some tea, which Blaze is mildly disturbed by how open and welcoming these two have been to her so far (this reflects more on Blaze and her character journey in this game rather than saying anything about Vanilla). However we can infer from this that Vanilla is a pretty good judge of character, detecting that Blaze is a trustworthy individual she can except to be safe with in her home but also seems to pick up on the fact that Blaze is pretty high strung and thus uses a soft touch to try and get her to unwind. Blaze does ultimately accept the invite for tea, much to her own disbelief.

It's then implied that exposition took place of Blaze explaining to the bunnies of what her situation and goal is. I can actually imagine this vividly being portrayed in a comic, probably on a page turn. Smash cutting to Blaze sitting at a table with Vanilla sipping tea while Vanilla calmly reiterates the explanation she was just told.

Vanilla, having been rescued by Sonic, affirms Creams suggestion that Sonic is The Guy. And Cream herself of course has first hand experience with Sonic's abilities, but Vanilla agreeing with it seems significant to me since they could have just as easily not included that otherwise redundant line from Vanilla.

Vanilla is the first one to try and get Blaze to accept help from others which will be her primary character conflict for the rest of the game. Amy picks up that baton later, and Cream slow burns her into accepting help from others throughout their entire journey.

Vanilla then VOLUNTEERS CREAM to help escort Blaze around. This is, I would say, PRETTY SIGNIFICANT. Blaze is still ultimately a stranger from a strange land who has honestly been fairly awkward and aloof bordering on standoffish. And yet Vanilla entrusts her daughter with traveling alone with her while she quests for an unearthly set of magic emeralds. Ultimately this is with the intention of bringing Blaze to Sonic, even though Blaze rejects the suggestion of needing his help, but it's still Vanilla straight up sending her daughter off with some random woman they just met to do god knows what even as Blaze insists she doesn't want their help all the while. Eventually they wear Blaze down enough to accept the escort.

This is the laissez faire parenting style I was referring to. Cream is honestly a very independent and active child with a lot of agency to go off and do her own thing, and here we see Vanilla blithely encouraging it. Of course considering Cream's ability to protect herself and others, indeed Cream took it upon herself to help rescue Vanilla during Sonic Advance 2, this seems not so much irresponsible as it is entirely reasonable. This also demonstrates most effectively that the IDW comics are slanderous bullshit insofar as the Rabbits are written. Cream LIKES and is SELF CAPABLE OF going on adventures, and Vanilla cheerfully supports this. It seems clear to me that Vanilla is not INDIFFERENT to her daughter, but just has faith in the girls own reliability.

Sonic and Tails then later visit Vanilla

"what a welcome surprise" =3

also funny to me that she greets Tails firstmost.

So Vanilla assumes that Sonic and Tails are there to visit Cream. Implying that is more often the reason they would be visiting.

Now obviously the reason Vanilla doesn't recall Blaze's name in this scene is for story contrivance reasons. The mystery of Blaze is a driving element of Sonic's story, so if Vanilla were to just explain who she is and what she wants during this scene it would basically negate that. However I feel like we could infer a degree of ditzyness from this. Not in the sense of her being dumb, but more it feels like she might have her head in the clouds.

Vanilla's reaction to Tails aggressive questioning and their sudden absconding is a surprised anime sweat drop and to muse that "Creams friends" are "busy." This is supposed to be humorous of course because at this point Tails and Sonic don't know if Blaze is a danger or not (and indeed when they do finally come upon Blaze and Cream they tell Cream to get away from her because they assume she's a threat), so while they're taking the news as a serious concern Vanilla merely thinks they're in a hurry because they're "busy."

So that's literally everything, Vanilla has those 22 sentences of dialog in the entire game and she never appears again in the entire series. Sonic X is not in continuity with the video games, don't talk to me about it get that shit out of my face.

Like I said there's not really a lot to go off of. But there isn't NOTHING either. There's conclusions you can reach about the nature of her character based on what's in the script which can be expanded upon. The comic just MAKING UP an entire personality for her based on fucking NOTHING isn't okay. You can't just throw out the entire characterization she has in the video games and replace it with something new and call that good character writing.

[vilsoo]

prize counter girl ☆ six

➥ michael afton x camgirl!reader

you’ve been a camgirl for only a few months and everyone loves the content you post. when michael afton porn surfs to relieve his stress, he comes across your videos. the more he jerks off to your content, the more he’s addicted. but it wasn’t until, a few months later, he sees your familiar face as the new employee working at the prize counter.

chapter warnings. none

notes. once again apologize with the slow paced updates 😔but thank you bbys for reading and enjoying <33 next chapter will be steamy and hopefully worth the wait

pcg materlist • previous • chapter seven

tags. @jaeeeeeeyito @xuilyie @matchafroggy @soft-spirit-ren @corrazon @ghostisinvis @milk-bulb @yukkomi @michaelaftonshusband @mikeesz @queen-simp @m00n-drifter @akazxii @setethstuff @roody-y-a @halparkebitch @erensslut @aftonpartner @astrobunny @woahhajime @chiroomii @matchakittycat @sanzu-s @gggwyniee @vintagexparker @wh0rephobic

Working for the first three hours went surprisingly easy for you. The arcade was half-empty this Friday morning and everyone obviously doesn't show up until about noon, where things start to get crazier. If working full-time on some weekdays allows your mornings to start off calm and quiet as this, you had no complaints.

It was better than sitting around at home all day and not getting anything done.

It was lunch break. You head to the arcade dining area, noticing Michael arranging some pizza boxes on the table until he noticed you approaching. By now he's more alleviated and composed around you, like how a well-behaved, professional manager should act in the workplace. But deep down, he always ends up in a sinking feeling, like knots tied in his stomach. Too much guilt, too much pressure, too much underlying feelings. The only way to subdue them, but not get rid of them entirely, was to maintain that professional impression.

"Hey. We've got pizza for lunch. You know, the usual."

You sit across from him at a booth, setting down your water bottle to grab a napkin, a paper plate, and then a slice. Michael follows suit, eyes darting at random corners to avoid prolonged contact or getting caught staring at you. At least there wasn't any lingering awkwardness or some kind of tension floating in there compared to before. Michael is finally at ease enduring the silence where a single word doesn't have to be spoken. But he did want to engage in conversation with you anyway.

"So. How's the arcade so far? Any problems?"

Your softened gaze settles onto his face. "No, thankfully. The arcade was half-empty. Everything seemed very peaceful to me."

Michael gives a small chuckle. "Yeah, there's obviously not a lot of people in the mornings compared to our afternoons. But you still did good out there with assistance."

"Have you been watching me?"

The little smirk forming at the corner of your lips while asking the question made Michael almost choke on his pizza. The slight playfulness in your tone. The subtle head tilt you gave him. Already teasing him right at broad daylight that his cheeks could be turning hints of red anytime now. The flashbacks of you as a camgirl, dirty talking on your livestreams...

"No, not— Not like that! I'm your manager so, like... I just gotta look out for you, you know," he sputtered.

You had this hearty laugh at Michael's reply that he was suddenly amused by. "I was just kidding, Michael! I don't really mind you watching me. I mean, it's important to hear from you on how to improve my performance and other stuff. So thank you for that."

Michael gulped down a portion of his pizza along with his agitation. He decided to not say anything else— just embrace this beautiful kindness you've been giving each other everytime you're together. If only he could offer much more to you besides his generosity...

"Oh yeah. You mentioned before that during power hour is when things get crazy, right?" you suddenly inquired.

Michael was opening his can of Dr. Pepper. "Mhm. But this time you won't be alone at the prize counter. At around 4pm is when I'm stationed there— we'll be together."

"Well that won't be a problem for me at all," you beamed. "Also, what do you usually do in the mornings?"

"Just some adjustments over at Parts and Services. Sometimes you'll see me fixing the arcade machines, too. But sadly I can't stop by to talk to you."

There was this brief glimmer in your eyes; a doe, coquettish expression you gave while sipping on your fountain drink with a straw. "You must really enjoy my company, huh."

Michael's heart raced once again after mentally repeating what he just said. His face was starting to heat up again and he was struggling to maintain eye contact. If you were taking in his words with different undertones, he might as well be subtly flirting or hinting his little crush on you. And hell, you wouldn't be that oblivious of knowing. How many times has he blindly admitted to you so far already?

He nearly stammered again. "Uh— well, you know— It's encouraged for us to build good relationships with our employees. This is a family-friendly pizzeria, so..."

You stifled a soft chuckle, your knuckles pressed against your lips and your eyes squinting away from Michael's face. "Oh my god, Michael. It's okay! You know you don't always have to feel so pressured to act that professional around me. Especially when we're on break— c'mon now."

Michael dipped his head down to rub the back of his neck from how fucking flustered he was. There was discomfort in his stomach and his skin started growing hotter. It was sad enough to say no matter how many times he feels confident enough to be around you, he always lets himself down with embarrassment, especially internally.

"I know you've had a rough morning," you continued, "and it sucks not being able to get a lot of sleep, but... what I really meant is that you don't have to hide away your struggles from me with the rules you stick to as a manager or with your professionalism. If you want to build a good relationship with your employees, you gotta communicate. Obviously, I won't force you to open up to me or whatever, but only when you feel ready. We can always take it slow."

Michael kept his gaze down at the table, your words of courage and advice hanging over his head. Suddenly, he found himself tugging a small smile at the corner of his lips. His heart fluttered at how much you cared for him more than anybody at this goddamn job. Charlie was enough to keep him company before nightguard duty, but even though she's gone now, she never sought out his internal anxiety like you did.

What did a loser like him ever do to be eating pizza with a girl that cares more about him than himself?

You really cared a lot for him. As if his secret crush just couldn't get any worse— your interest in becoming closer with him was a good sign. But he can't let himself admit anything yet. Not until she's ready as well— it's all strictly platonic as of right now. Or at least, that's what it seems at the surface. But digging down deeper, there is this spark below the surface. Some kind of tension stirring— something that just couldn't be reached just yet.

Michael scoffs softly, finishing the last bite of his pizza. "You know, I've never received this kind of, um... kindness before, so I— I don't really know what to say besides that I appreciate you. So much. Your company is just what I need to keep me going."

As lunch break progresses, the tension was alleviated once again. It was as if most of the stressful weight finally got lifted off his shoulders, even though there is much more he needs to get off and confess about. But not right now. The both of you finish up your lunch while other employees were finally starting to come by on their breaks and grab a slice of pizza with drinks.

"So about power hour... What's gonna go down tonight?"

"Well, it's gonna be after school hours and kids are gonna be running around here," replied Michael. "A lot of young adults also come here for our happy hours, billiards, lazer tag, bowling— you know. My father strayed away from making the pizzeria have kids-only entertainment and made it inclusive for everyone."

"Yeah. That's what I really like about it," you acknowledged.

"Me too. On weekdays it's not really that crazy compared to Friday and Saturday nights. I mostly see more adults and arcade couples here more than kids. And it still gets hectic."

You scoffed. "Arcade couples?"

"Yeah." Michael inched closer to you in his seat and spoke lowly. "A couple weeks ago, one of the employees caught a couple, uh... having sex in the neon hallway that leads to the restroom for employees only."

Your jaw dropped in bewilderment. "Holy shit, no way. I just know that was very awkward and uncomfortable for the poor employee to walk into."

"Oh, it was. That was the first time that ever happened at the pizzeria, too. Like damn— there's kids here, you know."

As you two were wrapping up, Michael randomly thought about couples for some reason. Of course, one thought leads to another thought, and that thought ended up being you again. He often wondered about your past relationships, but that was absolutely none of his business. And even if he were to ask no matter how close the two of you get, hinting something like that would be extremely risky. He can't go too far into her personal life.

   "I'll see you later, Michael. Take care," you say as you leave the arcade dining area. Michael kept subtly watching you with mire lingering thoughts in his head until you left, relaxing back in his seat and finishing his drink. But it wasn't until someone else decided to sit across from him.

". . . So. I see that you've been getting along quite well with Y/N," William says, feigning an enthusiastic smile. "See why I hired her? Her charisma and enthusiasm is just what we need here. What you need too, apparently."

Michael choked on his own words again, struggling with a proper response after surprising him like this. He didn't know how to take in the question since most of everything he says just sounds ominous or sardonic to him. As much as he wished to walk away from this conversation, he couldn't bring himself to even stand up. He couldn't deny to him that you and him were just together awhile ago. He was about to make an effort on drifting the attention on both of you together away as possible and now his very own father was getting suspicious.

"I, uh... I didn't know what to expect from her. She's just... good at what she does," Michael ruminated. There were a million more compliments to say about you but it could never see the light of day. Or— not until the right time. But on the other hand, William should never know. As much as he doesn't want to turn away from his rules and lead the both of you into trouble, he needs to learn to not let the cat out of the bag sometimes.

"You were so nervous the first time you met her. Why's that?"

All Michael could reply with was a weak shrug, keeping his thoughts to himself. Stay calm. Don't be a dumbass and blindly admit things nobody needs to know about.

"I don't know, father. I guess I just get tongue-tied a lot. But I'm not that nervous or awkward around her anymore. We're building a good work relationship— just what we need here as you always said."

"Hm... Work relationship," William mused. "It better stay that way, Michael. I don't want you or anybody else here flirting around in the workplace. You know our fraternization policy; romantic relationships are strictly prohibited. Especially when employees are in two different positions. We're a family-friendly place and our job is to entertain these kids."

"Wait a minute— Flirting around?" Michael frowned, pretending to act baffled from such an accusation. "What makes you think we were doing that? We're just really close coworkers. Nothing else."

"Sure... keep telling yourself that," William rolled his eyes, mimicking Michael's laid back position and keeping his arm over his head to lean on. "I've just never seen you act like this because of a girl. So I had my suspicions."

"Father, I swear. You trusted me before with the nightguard shift so I need you to trust me as a manager. I would never take advantage of Y/N or any employees in anyway, nor would I violate your policies."

"Well, that's exactly what I expected from you." William taunted, sighing deeply. "As much as I adore our newbies here along with Y/N, I don't want this 'relationship' to be distracting for both of you. She's not just your little eye candy walking around here to keep your life interesting, Michael. Got that?"

Michael pursed his lips and exhaled deeply through his nose. He already endured an unnecessary amount of exasperation and agitation and decided to not argue more.

"Yes, father. I understand..."

When Michael went back to work the next few hours, he thought about what's going to happen now knowing that William will be watching the close interactions between you two. This was exactly what Michael was afraid of— he knew he shouldn't have left his guard down. But... if you could do something as scandalous behind closed doors without letting anyone bat an eye, perhaps he could do the same, too.

ALL WORKS BELONG TO VILSOO © . do not steal, plagiarize, translate, or repost any of my works outside tumblr. copying my layouts or themes will not be tolerated either.

[capitalisticveins]

Tumblr might have deleted my ask because it was too wordy. It is too long...my apologies, but I'm only trying to understand your POV genuinely so I'll retype. I do not mean any hostility (tho I know impact is more important than intent).

Alexis is a character that had a friends-with-benefits relationship with Sam. He ended it because she wanted more (within his right). In the midst of a fatal crash, Alexis turned him against his consent while he said 'no.' She never apologized. This is all we have without headcanons (avoiding the 'she was in a panic' or 'she did it to hurt him' headcanons on both sides). We have no backstory on her. People try to fill in this behavior with headcanons.

Cutie is a character that was in a romantic relationship with Geordi. He ended it because Cutie spent their years-long relationship canonically ignoring and going against Geordi's consent (or pressuring him). An act so egregious that Cutie's job did not use what they consistently do to a defenseless and unempowered Geordi on powerful, convicted murderer Quinn to find a victim. Cutie would apologize, but according to Geordi would still continue to ignore his consent (including proceeding to violate him in bed minutes after a tear-filled plea for them to stop). Ignoring the headcanons of social anxiety or having an abusive childhood or them having autism (because those are only headcanons), all we have is that they come from an empowered family (that's all we know). People try to fill in this behavior with headcanons.

You get upset with people liking one consent-ignoring character (that did so once (still horrible) horrifically 13 years ago and avoided the person since; valid! I don't like that), but say you don't trust people that don't like the other consent-ignoring character that spent over two years before and during their entire relationship violating their partner as well. I don't get that. Is Cutie excused because they are a self-insert? Would one line alluding to a hard childhood be enough for you to think Alexis has depth and background for her actions? Is one video of therapy is enough to think Cutie is deserving of Geordi again after that? Would one video of Alexis in therapy do the same?

Here’s the thing

I’m so damn sure

That on this blog with over 1,000 posts

Not once

Have I ever

Said that Cutie’s actions are excused

I may come off as rude here, and I apologize in advance. I just came back from a day long trip and my legs hurt and I already answered this but Tumblr ate my post before I could finish but whatever

Cutie is VERY obviously in the wrong in their situation. What they did is inexcusable and it’s incredibly evident. What my POINT is is that they have an explanation. NO this doesn’t excuse what they did, and NO, it never will, but at the very least we have a reason, which adds to depth and character

Alexis does not have this

ALEXIS, from the very moment her name was muttered, has been portrayed as an antagonist. She’s a villain in both Imperium and Prime Universe, and has never been put in a positive light, even by Erik himself.

She has no reason given for what she did, and has no character other than being villainous for the sake of being villainous.

The single reason we’re given why Alexis doesn’t try to interact with Sam is because she CAN’T invoke him

I don’t like Cutie because they’re shitty and toxic and needs help, I like Cutie because they’re INTERESTING. They’re not like almost every other listener on the channel who’s damn near perfect and never has an issue with their relationships. They have a sense of individuality, they’re different and after losing Bright Eyes and Fred, they’re probably the only troubled listener we have left.

Alexis can literally die and we’d still have other antagonists. She’s not interesting. Her Imperium counterpart is slightly more interesting than her, and that’s only because she ACTUALLY shows up.

[timdrakesbussy]

Goblin Destroyer: How the Internet Revived an Obscure Local Band

This is something that suddenly appear in my mind when I was waiting for a public transport near my campus but like ... Stardew Valley's aesthetic looks like they're in the 90s in rural Northern America/Western Europe (though still cmiiw since I don't live in neither of those regions).

So then I thought about Sam's band and the real life band called "Panchiko" where the internet basically rebirth this band. (If you want to know about the band, here's a video)

And I randomly think about some kids somewhere in the SDV-verse came across Sam's band's LP (I'm gonna go with Goblin Destroyer) and asked online forums about it but none got anything so far. Doesn't help the fact that the LP was credited only with their first names which are very very common names. The names in the back of the LP only says Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian with their roles which are drummer, guitarist/vocalist, and keyboardist/synth in that order.

OP then gave more information, like how the label seemed to be from either the late 90s or early 00s and it was obvious that they were from the Republic of Ferngill. Small problem though, Ferngill Republic is not a small place. Sure, it's not a big country, but it's still going to be hard to find the people who contributed to this record, especially since it was decades long. Regardless, this was a step forward. 

I personally think they would not take too long (like Panchiko irl) because of my personal headcanon of Sebastian being chronically online even to his fourties.

The forum was very popular with many tried to remaster their songs or figure out just who they were. So then Sebastian rolled around and was like, "Holy fuck, I can't believe you found a copy of this. Thought they threw them all away in Zuzu City back in '98."

AND PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED AND ASKED IF THIS USER HAS A CLEANER COPY BUT THEN HE WAS LIKE, "lmao I'm the Sebastian credited in the back of the LP. Sadly, no. I do not have the cleaner copy, but I think my husband do keep some in his previous house when we still lived in the Valley."

Obviously, people were skeptical because the internet lies a lot. But they still gave him the benefit of the doubt because this was more information than they previously tried to dig. It was true that Goblin Destroyers were from Ferngill, specifically Zuzu City, and it was correct that they were from the late 90s.

Few months went by without a follow-up so most people just brush him off as hoax because that's what they usually did to lost media, claimed to know and kept it somewhere but unattainable for some reason.

That is, until another user joined the forum and introduced himself as Sebastian's husband who has the cleaner copy back in his old home. The husband was apparently, a very important piece in the band because he was none other than Sam -- another name crossed off the list.

Sam apologized and claimed that it took him longer to find than he expected and to compensate, he and Sebastian did a digital remaster for the LP and will put it to streaming services alongside their previously unreleased tracks.

With the band finally found, some questions arrived. Most of the questions were about Abigail, the drummer of the band, and also about them in general. The only things they knew so far were that Goblin Destroyer was a prog metal band from the late 90s, Ferngill, and that two out of the three members are married to each other.

The two claimed that they had no idea where Abigail was; the last time they saw her was when they still lived in their hometown. Sebastian then mentioned that she joined something called "The Adventurer's Guild", and one of the last things they did together was go to the forest and watch Abigail's improved swordsmanship. That was almost twenty years ago. They just hope that wherever she is, she's alive and well because she was their best friend.

They then ended the forum with pictures of them when they were young and some band photoshoots, needless to say that social media will be filled with their pics for a few months or so because of how attractive they were. The couple also added a recent pic and well, they're still handsome as hell.

It took them a while to finally return as a band; they were not the young adults in a small town who were bored and annoyed with how their parents coddled them anymore. They are middle-aged with a family and jobs, so yeah, it took a while for them to perform again. Eventually, though, they were back as a band. At least a duo for a few months, releasing a new single after twenty years.

Goblin Destroyer did not tour or participate in any music festivals until they were hit by a surprise, Abigail finally returned to the band. She revealed that she's been busy with the guild for over twenty years and is a mentor, so she was so out of touch with the news. She also revealed that she figured out that they went viral through her mentee, who told her about it.

Finally, the band was back in business. This was the dream that Sam had thrown away, and to actually have it tenfold decades later was exhilarating, to say the least.

[didhewinkback]

OMFG I just read something old and MANNNN. You got me feeling all types of ways holy shit. The most I’ve ever felt reading a series holy cow. You are so fucking talented. Wowza. Please continue with the blurbs I feel like they are part of my life now.

Also does the fans know about Y/N and Harry’s current relationship? How did they feel when things were first announced after the wedding was called off and their relationship was exposed for the first time?

omg helllloooo you angel on earth !!! this message is soo lovely and kind and idk what i did to deserve it. i am so grateful that you took the time to write me and that you love the story so much!! i appreciate this message more than you knoow.

sorry this took me ages to answer as an apology i essentially wrote you a blurb pls see below

so per harry and erin's teams' agreement, the public never knew a wedding was supposed to take place. anyone who worked it had signed a pretty ironclad nda & all guests in attendance knew to stay silent about it, though some of erin's friends did try to go to deuxmoi at one point months later but that got shut down pretty quick. when the press release about the engagement ending came out, there was obviously endless speculation about it, discourse, tiktoks etc. people had a lot of feelings about harry and erin's relationship, they either absolutely loved the fashion power couple or they absolutely hated it and it was best to avoid any and all discussions on the matter, made easier by the break up being announced when you were on pause and doing your best to ignore any and all celeb news (though you did do some google searches at 3 am when you couldn't sleep but it immediately made you feel terrible so you avoided it like the plague, knowing if you needed to know something, harry would tell you)

as for your relationship, you both kept it realllly low key and private for the first year, wanting the broken off engagement to become old old news before anything got speculated about the two of you, harry was pretty adamant about ensuring no one connected you to the breakup. it was much easier than it sounds, he can really disappear when he needs to and it was important to both of you to protect what you had, shield it from prying eyes. his relationship with erin had been highly publicized and he had no interest in doing that again and you couldn't agree more, you've got no interest in that world or leaning into the public eye, so that first year was quite lovely, going on dates around london, moving in together around his birthday, 8 months into dating officially but conventional timelines never applied to you both. if you ever were spotted out together by fans, any speculation got shut down pretty quickly, people recognized you as his lifelong childhood friend and had no reason to assume otherwise, which worked in your favor when his tour started up again and there was tiktok upon tiktok about how "yes you've been to more shows than usual but jeff's at every show and no one thinks he's dating harry so why would they think it about you??" you avoided it all but roxy loved to take the piss, sending you screenshots every so often when you would show up on her for you page with a text "cannot seem to escape this bitch" to which you would reply "just how many videos of h's concert were you watching to get this on your algorithm?"

its in december 2021, the start of his few months off before the work craziness resumes, a lazy sunday morning. you're lounging on the couch, half heartedly clicking through netflix when you hear him come back into the house from his coffee run, hearing snippets of the phone call he's having getting louder after he kicks his shoes off and makes his way towards you.

"Yeah, I'll talk to her 'nd get back to you." he says, as he turns the corner, still bundled up with his beanie and hoodie pulled over his head, brow furrowed as he listens to the other end while still balancing the coffees and bag of pastries in his hand. "Yeah, for sure. Okay I'll call you back. Love you bro, bye."

He hangs up the phone, placing the treats on the coffee table before taking out his airpods and shuffling over to you. He hovers over where you lay, resting his hands on the back and arm of the couch before leaning in.

"Hi," he murmurs with a soft smile on his face, leaning in to kiss you.

You shudder when you pull away, the frost from outside having seeped into his face. "You're cold," you say with a small frown to which he immediately rolls his eyes and nudges his cold nose down the side of your face, pressing kisses all along your cheeks, forehead, jawline, until you push him away with a giggle. He smacks one final kiss to your head before pulling away, tugging his hoodie off his head and taking his beanie off to shake out his hair.

He leans back to grab the coffee off the table, handing you your cup while throwing the bag of pastries onto your lap before he grabs his own cup, lifting your legs temporarily before settling on the other side of the couch, placing your ankles over his lap. He leans back, resting his head against the back of the couch and closing his eyes for a minute, taking a deep breath. You assume you're the "her" he mentioned on the phone earlier but you opt to give him time, peeling open the pastry bag to see what he picked up.

"Got something weird to talk to y' about." he says, making you pause in your rifling efforts as you look over at him, finding him in the same position, his eyes still closed.

"Oookay."

He squeezes your ankle once, opening his eyes and rolling his head along the back of the couch to look at you.

"There was a pap yesterday. Last night. On our walk. Don't know how but - here." He pulls his phone out of his sweatshirt pocket, quickly unlocking it before handing it over to you.

You feel an uneasy pit in your stomach as you swipe through the photos, though there's nothing bad or damning or embarrassing about them. Objectively, they're quite lovely. The two of you bundled up through the blustery London night, his arm wrapped around your shoulders with yours around his waist, him pulling you into his chest as you laugh, his chin resting against your head, then pressing a kiss to your hair. You both look happy, really, really happy, completely unaware of any eyes on you. You keep scrolling through and - ah. There's the most revealing one, the two of you smiling up at each other before he pulls you into a kiss with his hands cradling your face.

You can feel his eyes on you, intently watching every emotion that passes over your face, thumb rubbing circles along your ankle. It's so weird, is the thing. To see this intimate moment between you two captured by a complete stranger who you had no idea was watching you. You've somehow managed to avoid this happening up until this point, the combination of lawsuits he has against paps in London and being able to blend in with the crowd having worked in your favor for the last year. It's a bizarre feeling, to feel like you got too complacent in your own life, should've been more aware of your surroundings. But also? Fuck that. You're not going to live your life differently because of what other people are doing or thinking. They're the ones with the issue, not you.

"'m so sorry," he says, 'Had no idea -"

"No no no," you say quickly cutting him off, as you hand him his phone back, sitting up and taking his hand when he offers it. "No need to apologize."

"Daily Mail and a few others got a hold of 'em, that was Jeff earlier. He and Sadie wanted to see if we wanted them to run any kind of interference." he says, small frown on his face as he plays with your palm, fingers drawing mindless patterns. "The photos are getting published regardless but like they could try to keep you as a mystery woman or summat -"

You snort, shaking your head as you rest your forehead on his shoulder, his arms wrapping around you and pulling you close. It takes a second of rearranging your legs before you're sat on his lap, his hand rubbing up and down your back. You pull back to look at him, hands coming up to cradle his face. He leans into the touch, turning to plant a kiss to your palm.

"You okay?" you ask quietly.

He nods. "Just don't like getting caught off guard like that. Don't like that people who don't know us will get to -"

"Yeah."

"And I don't want to fuck things up for you. Like your job or -"

"Everyone at work already knew. And those who didn't met you last week. Most people are barely on the internet there, I'm not stressed. " you say, sliding your hands to rest on his shoulders as he nods, brow furrowed in thought.

"'s gonna be intense for a bit. Might be good to hop on a call with Jeff and Sadie, see what boundaries we can set, control what we can control."

"Yeah, that'd be good," you say, your mind whirling as the reality of the situation sets in, photos of you kissing your boyfriend splashed all over the internet. Christ.

"Hey," he says gently. "Talk to me?"

"Sorry," you say, shaking your head. "I'm good. Just - it's a lot. It's definitely gonna be weird, nothing I can't adjust to but still just. Bizarre."

"Yeah." he says, his hand coming up rest at the back of your neck. "You look really fit in the photos if that helps."

You laugh, watching as the smile grows across his face, his thumb catching on your jawline.

"It does, thanks." you say, smiling back at him.

"'m really sorry this can't be easier. Being with me -"

"Shut up." you say, surprising a laugh out of him. "Please. This is nothing. Easy to ignore at the end of the day. All that matters to me is you."

"Same here," he says, taking a deep breath, lips twitching up. "All that matters to me is me."

"You're so stupid, I knew you were gonna say that -" you say, laughing as you slap him on the chest, trying to twist out of his hold but he pulls you back in.

"'s you, 's you. You know 's you darling, come here." he murmurs, smiling when you press your lips to his, gripping your neck a bit tighter as he kisses you back. You know you have to call back his team, figure out some logistics but that can wait. All you want is right here.

---

so yes, the photos get published, the fans freak out. lots claiming they always always knew, many spending their time trying to piece together the relationship timeline, no one connecting it back to erin thankfully. it helps that she is busy with her new billionaire boyfriend, (you almost clicked on their architectural digest tour the other day before deciding against it). but you both really ignore it all, keep going about your lives, nothing really changes because you don't let it. you both still want to keep your relationship out of the public eye as much as you can, it doesn't stop fans or paps from taking your picture when you're out together but its easy to ignore it, just focus on each other, ignore the noise and the crazy corners of the internet.

he rarely talks about you in interviews, confirming you're together, maybe a brief mention or two of his girlfriend but refusing to go beyond that. it's only in his zane lowe interview in late 2024 that he goes into a little more detail when describing his inspiration for his new album, but at that point he's calling you something entirely different :) :) :)

---

[39oa]

hi! i’m slowly getting interested in f1 but i don’t really know how to start. so i was wondering if you had any content to recommend (except for the races of course) to get into the fandom, or anything else that could help, really.. thanks :)

oh anon i would love to help!!! are there any drivers/teams you're already particularly fond of or things you want to learn more about? i feel like it'd be easier to narrow down content if i understood your interests better since it's really something you can mold entirely to your own tastes and there are a million different ways to Enjoy and Consume the sport LOL. tbh i call myself an f1 fan but i mostly just rep oscar and in reality enjoy junior formulae more as a whole because i find the process of getting to f1 more intriguing than actually being in it... so it's really whatever you make of it! i'll try to divide my notes categorically so hopefully that helps a little bit but lmk if there's anything specific you're looking for :') and as always apologies in advance for my rambling 💔

getting into the actual sport

having a baseline understanding of the sport is obviously useful but i'm not sure how much you already know so i'll assume you can find super basic info about how seasons and points work! if you want to delve just a Bit further then:

i think chain bear is a decent youtube channel for easy explanations on some technical aspects and little things you may not have picked up on yet that will help when watching races

drive to survive is of course Not Great but it can be a nice and quick window into learning names and faces, even if a lot of it is ridiculously simplified or overexaggerated. it's basically like using duolingo for learning a new language in that it should be regarded as a semi-reliable supplemental material readily packaged for convenient consumption. if there are specific drivers you're interested in you can always pick and choose eps to consume decent Background Lore for, e.g. you can just watch s1e8 if you're a sharl fan

honestly not to shill for official f1 media but i do think f1tv is a pretty decent streaming platform when getting into the sport... definitely not saying you should subscribe to it (if it's even available in your country!) but just as an aside and maybe for future reference i do believe it's very friendly for new watchers because live races have different feeds that let you track race data (gaps, tyre usage, granular sector data during quali, etc.) and it also lets you switch between driver onboards which can be cool. moreover it has pre-race/post-race shows, technical analyses, archives of past seasons, all the f2/f3 content, documentaries, etc. so it's a pretty complete package! although a good amount of stuff gets x-posted to the official youtube channel so it's not a big deal

if you like podcasts, i think beyond the grid is cool because it has a fun variety of interviews (current drivers, retired drivers, tps, engineers, etc.) about both past and current events so you can basically seek out whatever you're interested in learning more about. otherwise i don't really listen to f1 podcasts regularly because i have weirdly low patience for them compared to hockey, but my friend told me that shift+f1 does yearly primers so that could be something useful to check out! (here's the 2023 season preview, i haven't checked it out but i thought i'd link anyway)

keeping up with news

obviously an important part of fandom is trying to keep up with current affairs, so if you haven't already then i would of course follow the f1 youtube channel + twitter account (or whatever other social media you use), f1 nowadays is extremely effective at marketing itself so it's not like hockey where you're fighting for your life waiting for the unfunniest puck personality video in existence to drop every 8 months. not that all f1 driver content is necessarily funny but there's probably a touch more investment in maintaining the illusion! anyway.

if you use reddit then r/formula1 is honestly probably the best aggregate source of f1 news and up-to-date info, i don't read everything there but it's pretty useful and easy to navigate. plus sometimes when i want to cause myself irreparable psychic damage from something that already pissed me off i can venture into a 500-comment section to get my blood boiling even more... 10/10 would recommend

other than that it's really like — follow official channels for any other drivers or teams you're fond of tbh, i do have a few motorsports journalists in my twitter list but since i respect the fact that some people don't enjoy endless news spam i'd maybe just recommend chris medland if you want a succinct live feed during races for the moment? f1 journalism is kind of godless so you don't *need* to follow that many reporters on a whole.

driver personality content

unfortunately i'll be showing my age when i say i don't have a tiktok account but now that i think about it that's probably a great source of information because it seems like f1 fandom is thriving over there!!! regardless the official f1 youtube does have a lot of little driver personality videos you can watch to get to know them more, and again i'd recommend checking out official team + driver channels for more tailored longform content. for ex just from very recent mcl fan pov they have an unboxed series with behind the scenes of select races and also loads of fun minigame content; every team should have at least SOMETHING to nibble on but certain teams are definitely more marketing-savvy than others (aka big 3 + mcl) 🥲

official f1: f1 has a yearly series called grill the grid with just mini quizzes that all the drivers compete in, some are less interesting but it's overall not bad content. the channel has a playlist for the 2021 gtgs which includes the iconic sebvettel world champion video LOL... actually if you sort the f1 channel by Most Viewed there are probably some fun classic videos in there (looking now it's a lot of crashes but you can ignore those lol), like press conference highlights and other convenient top 10 lists. for a random rec i was just nostalgically revisiting the 2019 rookie of the year video and it was getting to me a little bit!

sky sports f1 will also occasionally have good interview/inside content that you can check out, a lot of it is geolocked though (same with canal+ content in france). but for example i felt so much experiencing this random alex interview from last week... he is truly guy of this world

fan compilations: again if there are any drivers you like then you can just search up their names and there will be a ton of comps with Funny MomentsTM, sometimes it helps to just pick a guy and see how you feel about him as you consume content because your true interests will organically develop and surface eventually... sorry i feel like i'm writing a manifesto on fandom in general which is definitely not what you asked for LOL. but like twitch quartet (aka charles, george, alex, and lando) have a ton of silly streaming highlights you can find on youtube, lando has a gaming company called quadrant that he does videos with which can be uhhh hit or miss depending on how much you enjoy Lad Culture, etc...

really it's so easy to get hyperspecific with content once you pick a team or driver so i'm not sure what else to recommend on a general level but that's what i've got off the top of my head! fandom definitely skews a lot toward rb/merc/fer/mcl so it's easiest to consume both video content and fic for them, but if you're willing to go trawling for interviews then you can really get invested in anyone... fandom culture also varies so wildly depending on how you follow the sport and which drivers you invest in emotionally. my closest friend is a "chirlie" as they say and it really is an experience rife with organizational trauma and TFW You're Beholden To The Stranglehold Of Your Legacy so that's always a great pick if you're craving maximum narrative evisceration, or if you're in it for the fic then you could literally just get really into maxiel, but i'm basically chilling in my land of rookie stonks and sit down to watch non-mcl content maybe once a month.

honestly i only follow like 3.5 f1 fans on tumblr because i'm objectively terrified by the size of the fandom HLSHDFLKH so i mostly consume things in a vacuum and talk to like one friend 😭 but there loads of cool creators out here and you can always find a few gifmakers/fanartists/etc. and just follow the rabbit hole from there!!! best of luck and hope this helps >__<

[avabananas13]

Why Did It Have to Be Me? (Ch. 2)

Summary: Summer break was hell after your step-brother Billy died, you and your sister Max both falling into a depression. Now you’re entering your senior year at Hawkins High and are trying to get back out there and get some friends other than Steve and Robin. Who knew one of those new friends would be resident ‘freak’ Eddie Munson.

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of harm, mentions of death, slow burn, hurt/comfort, eventual friends to lovers, Mayfield reader

Pairing: Eddie Munson x fem!mayfield!reader

word count: 1.8k

A/N: Hi! Here is part 2 to Why Did It Have to Be Me! I hope y’all enjoy it. Also, this is the first fic I’ve ever written so I’m sorry if it’s like really unorganized or whatever. I feel like that’s an important disclaimer. I also know I said in the last part I was planning on this being based off the ABBA song of the same name. I don’t know if I’m still going to go with that premise or not, I obviously will try my hardest to keep up with that but if it starts to drift I really do apologize as I get caught up in writing. Anyways, heres part 2. I hope you like it!

You can find Part 1 here!

You had very few interactions with Eddie the rest of the week. You would spot him in the halls at school and every now and again at the trailer park but neither of you really acknowledged the other, besides an occasional nod and smile from Eddie. It was now Friday and you had your movie “date” with Eddie tonight. 

You were really nervous for some reason, probably because you would be going over to Hawkins High's resident drug dealer's trailer to watch a movie. You went to school that day hoping to get some details from him but by the time lunch rolled around, nothing. Maybe we’ll talk in O’ Donnells class, you think to yourself. You take your usual seat next to Robin and Max joins soon after.

“Are you ok Y/N?” Robin asks with a confused expression.

“I’m fine it’s just that-” as you say this all three of you are startled by a sudden boom on the table

“Hey sweetheart, what time works best for you tonight? I got a hellfire campaign but I should be free around 9. Is that good?” sweetheart? Why the sudden pet name? “Yeah, 9 works. What movie are we watching?” that being the more important question on your mind. You used to love horror movies like Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween but ever since summer break you haven’t been able to handle the genre. 

“I was gonna swing by family video after school and pick up some options. Anything I should stay away from?” you were glad he asked this so you could have a chance to tell him to stay away from the horror movies. “Well, I assume you’re a horror movie fan but if we could stay away from that, I would really appreciate it.” he nods and smiles taking in your suggestion. “Sure thing princess” again with the pet names. He winks and returns to his table, where Dustin and Mike are now permanently seated. 

“Um I’m sorry but what the hell was that?” Robin leaned in with a slight chuckle

“Y/N why didn’t you tell me you have a date with Eddie Munson??” Max questions, saying more than she has this whole week.

“Well it’s actually not a date. He just wants to hang out,” you can tell that there’s some sadness in your voice but you decide to brush it off “besides, I don’t think I could date someone like Eddie. He’s so out there and I really do not want to be seen this year, the more unnoticed I am the better.” you explain. 

“Y/N you looked totally smitten with him when he was over here” Robin says and Max nodded in agreement. You just roll your eyes at the statement. Sure, you found Eddie to be attractive but you did not want to bring any more attention to yourself, dating the ‘freak’ wouldn’t exactly help with that.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. In Ms. O’ Donnells class Eddie smiles at you and you smile back at him before turning your attention to the front of the room. You can feel his eyes on you during the rest of class but you don’t feel creeped out by it, all you can do is have a small grin about it.

After class you feel his hands on your shoulders behind you. He leans in and whispers to you “see ya tonight sweetheart” you dont think you’ve ever heard his voice this quiet before and it sends a shiver down your spine. Before you have a chance to respond, his hands are gone and he is on his way out of the school.

9 o’clock rolls around but you’re still sitting in your trailer. There was no sign of Eddie being home so why would you go over there? 9 turns into 9:30 and 9:30 turns into 10. Eddie is now an hour late. Finally you hear the screeching of wheels and heavy metal music. Eddie has finally arrived, about time. You let out a nervous sigh and head out your front door and Eddie is exiting his van at the same moment.

“Hey princess! Ready for movie night?” he really needs to stop making a habit of having these conversations with you through yelling. You nod your head and walk over to Eddies. He waits for you to get to him and once you do he puts his hand on your back to guide you into his trailer. 

His trailer isn’t anything spectacular. It’s pretty much the exact same as yours except for the obvious fact that no girls live here. Mugs and trucker hats are everywhere. You assume these belong to his uncle.

“Ok so I know you said no horror, and I respect that but I figured I would at least pick up Nightmare on Elm. We totally don’t have to watch it or anything but if we do and you get scared I’ll be right here!” At first you were pissed that he went against your wishes but his follow up made you blush so hard that you weren’t so opposed to the idea. “What else did you get?” trying to discover all other options. 

“Let's see… I also got The Goonies, The Dark Crystal, and The NeverEnding Story'' you can’t help but giggle at the last one after remembering Dustin's performance over his cerebro. “What’s so funny? Not a fan of Falkor?” 

“No, no Falkor is great! I just had a funny experience with that movie over summer break”  

“You wanna tell me about it?” he asked shyly. You really did want to tell him all about your life and the truth about what happened at Starcourt but you knew you couldn’t. That would put him in danger. There wasn’t any harm in telling parts of the truth though.

“You know that kid who just joined your group? Dustin. Well, he sang the song with his girlfriend while using this weird communication system he made. You might have an evil genius on your hands,” you say with a giggle. He can’t help but laugh too. “You’re telling me Henderson's girlfriend is real?” you nod while laughing.

“Suzie! Yes she is real. I heard her voice for myself. I don’t know if she's hotter than Phoebe Cates though” you say still giggling. Eddie just shakes his head with a smile. There are a few moments of silence before either of you remember what you were just talking about before. 

“So… what movie should we watch? Is there a certain time you need to be home? We could watch 2 if there isn’t” Eddie says, breaking the silence.

“No, my mom doesn’t really care where I am. If I choose one, you choose the other. Deal?” you say, smiling hard you can feel yourself blushing. 

“Ok well then my pick has got to be The NeverEnding Story” he says confidently. You burst out into yet another fit of laughter at his choice. “You’re up sweetheart” you can never stop yourself from blushing at his pet names. 

“What about… Nightmare on Elm?” Eddies furrows his brows in confusion, knowing you didn’t have any intention of watching a horror movie tonight. “Are you sure? I don’t have a problem with it but if it gets to be too much tell me, alright?” you nod and smile in response. 

You sit on one end of Eddie's sofa and he’s sitting on the floor at the opposite end. You are nowhere close to touching yet there is still tension there that you could cut with a knife. You can’t help but think just how attractive he is. His smile is the most attractive thing about him though. Whenever he smiles your stomach flips. You get through the NeverEnding Story and he goes to put in your pick. 

You get visibly nervous when you think about this being the first time you’ve watched a horror film since your brother's death. You are bouncing your knee and you suddenly feel a dip in the sofa and a hand on your knee. “We don’t have to watch it. It’s ok. Really.” Eddie says in his most calm and soft voice. 

“No, I’ll be fine. I just haven’t watched a horror movie since… well y’know.” you say looking down at your hands that are placed in your lap. Eddie looks at you with a sympathetic expression. You both sit in silence that feels like it last hours but realistically wasn't any longer than 30 seconds. 

“If you want, you can sit next to me. When you get scared you can just turn your head away and I’ve got you,” he starts to blush and look in ever direction but your eyes as he says this. You smile widely at his suggestion. 

“That sounds great, Eddie. Thank you” you say making eye contact with him. He just smiles back and rubs the nape of his neck awkwardly trying to hide his cherry red face. He finds a spot on the sofa next to you and you immediately rest your head on his chest and curl up, melting into him. He pulls you in and rests his chin on your head and the movie starts. 

You wake up with the sun beaming down on your face, nearly blinding you. You sit up and once you regain your vision you realize that you never made it home last night and you were still on Eddie's sofa. A wave of confusion hits you as you realize Eddie is nowhere in sight. You stand and stretch with a wide yawn. Your shirt lifts up a bit as you stretch and of course as you do this, Eddie walks into the living room. His eyes going straight to your bare abdomen. 

“Uh morning. princess” he says trying to recover from the sight of you. You face and return the sentiment through a sleepy voice. 

“I see I never made it home last night, hopefully I wasn’t too much of an innoconvince. I totally didn’t mean to fall asleep. You could’ve woken me up and kicked me out too you know-” you ramble not letting him get a word in, even though he is desperately trying, he eventually decides to fuck manners and interupt

“It really was no trouble sweetheart. You fell asleep and looked so,” beautiful he wants to say, “peaceful I couldn’t even imagine waking you up” he decides on a more appropriate word, not knowing how you would take the beautiful comment. Either way, you end up blushing and try to fight back a smile. You sit in silence for just a few seconds before you respond

“You’ll have to let me return the favor sometime, let me know what I can do to make it up to you” you suggest. Eddie has a few ideas as to how you could make it up to him but he decides on a more friendly answer, “Come to hellfire next week.”

“It’s a date” you respond with a smile, and leave.

Thanks for reading! 

Taglist: @ynmunson

[klysanderelias]

Do you have a favorite Vtuber?

Please also tell us why.

All right, wall of text time.

The short answer is not exactly, I watch vtubers for a lot of different reasons. I have a shortlist, and I have one or two I actually spend money on supporting, but I don't think I could name a favorite. If you're looking for names, I'd shout out Finana Ryugu, Mai Tsukimiya, Hakos Baelz, and Pavolia Reine, with Mai Tsukimiya closest to 'favorite' based on my support/engagement.

Now, the long answer.

I follow vtubers for a couple of key things - body doubling, relaxation, let's plays, music, and 'other'. A lot of these don't really interact well - if I'm trying to find a comprehensive let's play of a game I want to experience, I'm looking for a different thing than when I'm trying to find something to put on when I'm going to sleep. Plus, there are a lot of vtubers who are part of an agency like Hololive or Nijisanji that have a certain level of obligation to play specific games, so suddenly everyone I follow is playing the new pokemon, or hitman, or (ugh) Hogwarts legacy, because the agency made a promotion deal. And it's important for me to remember a lot that Vtubing is a job, especially the bigger you get, and that's more than just 'I need to make money doing this.' It's also 'I have a boss who makes decisions about what I am and am not allowed to do, and if I say something on stream I may have to make a ten minute apology video if my handler decides it might hurt the brand.'

I do want to talk about that - I don't like a lot of the subculture that vtubers inhabit. I don't like the way that it vaguely reeks of 4chan memes, or how if you scratch the surface you'll find incredibly toxic and disgusting behavior in chat. I don't blame the streamer for basically any of it, but there are vtubers out there who play more into it that I would like much more if they didn't (basically anyone in vshoujo, but also gawr gura and amelia watson, for example). And I'm sure there's more that I don't know about because like, if they don't stream in english, I'm obviously not gonna know what they're saying unless it gets clipped and translated. I will say, Finana Ryugu specifically gets a pass from me, and I think if she streamed more games I was interested in, she might make it up to being my favorite. I will never forget her anger at her chat for calling certain gacha characters 'traps', and her banning the word from her stream, and then like a day later being forced to apologize for it. I've more or less given up on trying to find 'progressive' or 'leftist' vtubers because of the culture (plus y'know, no one talks politics or ideology at their job), but she strikes me as a genuinely kind and thoughtful person.

For the things I watch vtubers for, number one is probably body doubling - if you're not familiar with that term, it's basically 'having someone else in the room to help someone with ADHD start and execute tasks that they otherwise wouldn't be able to'. It's kind of like having a podcast on for me, or chatting with someone while doing the dishes. It's having the stream on in the background and not really paying much attention to it.

Next is relaxation - sometimes I'll put a streamer on just to fall asleep to. I don't do the ASMR stuff really, but just having noise on in the background helps me sleep, and there's a number of people who have very calming or pleasant voices. Ceres Fauna is a shoutout here - I think she's on the edge of the 'elmo voice' crowd, but she's great to fall asleep to.

I also listen to a lot of music from vtubers, either covers or original music. I'll voluntarily admit I like Mori Calliope - when she's not trying to be edgy or playing into the subculture, her music is genuinely good. In general I think vtubers shouldn't be forced to sing, but I have a bunch of songs from vtubers I listen to a lot.

Let's plays - obvious. I have to shout out Hakos Baelz' playthrough of Resident Evil Village, she struggles with horror games and her experience with RE8 was extremely fun to watch because she was able to enjoy herself and get through the scary parts. This is also what's hardest to find for me - there aren't a lot of vtubers who play the kind of games I'd like to see.

I also like listening to vtubers who stream in other languages - most non-english vtubers stream in Japanese, but I like listening to the indonesian streamers from nijisanji and hololive as well (and ID streamers like Reine and Moona have some extremely good songs).

There aren't many vtubers I actually support financially, I think the only one is Mai Tsukimiya. I think she's very sweet, is small enough that I feel like I'm supporting a person and not a company, and I've bought some of her merch and enjoyed it.

Anyway all of this is to say that it's complicated, but I follow a lot of let's players and vtubers and have Opinions about them.

This is different from a list of recommendations, though. I think everyone I've named (and quite a few I didn't) are worth checking out, but obviously there's a lot of variance in terms of what they stream, how they stream, etc.