#this was an accidental aesthetic curation

[thisischeri]

instagram: cheri.png

[faultsofyouth]

I'm a tea and weed girl with fuzzy socks and a cute wardrobe I'm like a sketchbook OC

[ghostlykeyes]

Hear me out

Grunge bf kayn with a hyper feminine gf , like his gf loves sanrio and cute stuff 🫢🫢🫢

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HEARTSTEEL KAYN: ULTRA-CUTE PARTNER HEADCANONS ♡ Gender Neutral ♡ SFW ♡ No TWs ♡ I am so fucking rabid for the idea of this combo...demon bf/ hello kitty reader SUPREMACY

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KAYN

At first, the pairing confuses people, but those that see you and Kayn together recognize that somehow you just work. You soften Kayn's sharp edges in a way that he only lets those closest to him see, and Kayn helps highlight the fact that even though you look innocent and soft, there's more to you than that.

Both you and Kayn recognize how much work it can be to curate and present an aesthetic. That's part of what helps you two mesh so well, even though on the surface, you're entirely different. There's a mutual respect for the other, stemming from understanding.

Though he keeps them stashed in a bathroom drawer, Kayn's got a matching set of soft bunny-ear headbands for when you sleep over. Usually he just bobby-pins his hair back to wash his face, but when you're there, he'll pull out the cute headbands so you can match during your morning/night-time routine. For the sake of his image, please, please don't ever show anyone your bunny-eared, spa-masked selfies.

Kayn has you saved as 'prince/princess' in his phone. Fitting, since you're the patron saint of all things cute and soft, no?

The guys tease him whenever they catch Kayn with your things around the apartment, like when he's washing your pink Starbucks cups or pulling your cinnamoroll pajama pants out of the dryer. "Changing your look, Kayn?" They'll smirk, but he just rolls his eyes and sneers. "It's (y/n)'s, obviously," he bites. He's not really embarrassed, though—truth be told, he loves the way your life has leaked into his enough for others to notice. Besides, those nerds are probably just jealous that he bagged such a fucking perfect cute pastel angel.

Obviously, Kuromi is Kayn's favorite, if he has to pick one. You won him a little Kuromi figure from a claw machine, once, and he actually keeps it on top of his dresser, in full view for everyone to see. (It's probably the cutest thing he owns, and though he might not admit it, he fucking treasures that little figurine.) He sometimes says he's your Kuromi, though not usually in earshot of others. The similarities are uncanny—a proclivity for black, a tendency for mischief—they even have almost the same birthday!

Whenever you're in his room, Kayn sets his LED strip lights to pink for you.

If Kayn's going to be gone for awhile, touring and the like, he always gifts you a Calico Critters set the night before he leaves. "Try to take good care of them, yeah?" He smirks. "I don't wanna come back to the mouse family in the middle of a custody battle."

Kayn stashes a plushie in his underwear drawer, so you'll always have something to snuggle with when you stay with him (besides him, of course).

The visual contrast when Kayn lets you borrow a hoodie or jacket is nothing short of jarring. Here you are, this adorable thing in Mary Janes and a pastel skirt, sporting a bleach-dyed hoodie with a death metal logo. Kayn, of course, thinks the contrast is fucking adorable.

Kayn gently teases you about your bedroom—"I didn't even know this many pink things existed," he'll say"— but the truth is, he loves being in there with you. The softness makes him feel totally surrounded by you. It's gentle. Safe, even. Drinking from Sanrio glasses and slipping underneath a strawberry-printed comforter to spoon you may not be his usual style, but you make it feel so natural. (Sleeping in your bed, though? Kayn doesn't love that as much. He moves around in his sleep enough as is, but now he's got to worry about accidentally shoving your favorite Hello Kitty off the bed? Not fun.)

Kayn's favorite cutesy thing to buy you is sleepwear. Those pastel, soft-fabric cami and sleep shorts combos? Fucking delicious. There's at least three sets of your pajamas stashed in his PJ drawer, and Kayn bought all of them.

[arminsumi]

it's disheartening for writers to see "part 2 when??" comments, you know why?

because there's a lot of effort and thought behind one post. it takes far less time to read than it took for us to curate it.

the idea comes, we pen it down. then we look for inspiration to build upon this idea. we make notes on dialogue, pacing, structure. we highlight important aspects, underline the main feeling and hidden messages and subtle details we want to incorporate. we make sure everything aligns with the character to make sure they're not ooc or two-dimensional. and that's just the beginning stages of one fic idea.

then we write it. now for me, personally, when it flows easily i take two hours to write. but then there are some fics that take months. actual literal months. because the idea does not flow easily, but i hold onto it because i know it has potential. then i write multiple versions, sometimes they're 1k+ and i scrap them, all 1k+ words in the trash, just to make a "better" version which will go into the end post.

then we continue writing it, and some fics that get big wordcounts make us nervous because of all that editing and proofreading we have to do, which alone will take a long time. for me, editing can take more time than actually writing it. i have so many finished pieces in my drafts that aren't published or stay untouched because there's a complex jumble of 5k words that i need lots off energy to meticulously edit. errors, misspellings, restructuring. editing is sometimes such a nightmare that it deters me and then fics get avoided.

then there's the final touches. the banners, the warnings list, the layout, the aesthetics, etc. sometimes making banners takes a long time because of finding the right pictures and editing them too. or finding color schemes/combos that please the eye. a lot of artistic effort goes into post layout alone. there's so many tabs open it's a mess, and i constantly open and close and reopen and close, various sites for various tools to make everything look proper and neat and good for the eye and pleasing to the mind. and let's not even get started on the warnings list. it's probably my least favorite part, because i have to be very careful and proofread with a sharp eye to make sure i don't miss something that could cause the reader to accidentally have an uncomfortable experience.

and then it's published.

this baby post raised in the drafts, something that we put so much thought and care into, and now can you imagine the frown a writer makes at "part 2" comments? this whole post took a long time to make, and to just ask for more makes us feel like we're not satisfying you enough or we didn't do enough even though we did everything. it's appreciated that you enjoy it and want more, but it's still disheartening and even discouraging. imagine if you went up to your favorite author after reading their book and said "when is the sequel?" without saying anything else. it's weird. it makes us feel bad.

so please try to refrain from asking "part 2 when??" and maybe say a simple "i like this because xyz" or appreciate something about the post. even two emojis can give us an idea of how much you liked it or what you thought of it.

reblogs and comments or any feedback on the content we made is so super appreciated. writers want to know what you thought, it's fun to see reactions or understand what aspects you enjoyed. engagement is inspiring and motivational.

[randomstranger24]

I’m certain a lot of people think I’m some deranged lunatic and will be skeptical and or just won’t believe anything I have to say. I totally get it and if it were me on the other end, I think I’d draw the same conclusion as well. It’s more than reasonable, but I promise there is a much bigger picture and I think you deserve to at least know another perspective. 

Not sure where to begin. I’ll start off first by saying I won’t be referring to anyone’s names or occupations to conceal anyone’s identity including my own.

I owe a big apology not just to the BoC fans, but also to Mike and Marcus, not that they would even give a shit, but if so, I’m sure they’d hate my guts. Yes, I am the original creator of the “Thrift Store Tape" and no, I am of no relation to the brothers, (no surprise there). I do feel spiritually connected to their music though if that’s of any consequence? (no surprise there either) I’m sure they’ll never see this, but I realize I could be viewed as an untalented hack and a giant piece of shit. This, I understand and I accept it. I never had bad intentions, I promise that, but it’s like they always say, “The road to Hell is paved with good ones”. 

Here’s how this entire thing got started. Regardless of what anyone might assume, I never in a million years set out to intentionally deceive people into believing this was some long lost BoC record. Hear me out and let me explain from the beginning. 

For years prior to all of this, I have been experimenting with recording my musical creations onto VHS and cassette tapes in attempts to capture those warm fuzzy lofi aesthetics, but Sometimes the final product is actually disappointing because you’d be surprised how good VHS tapes actually hold sound. So, fast forward 2018, one of my housemates at the time, who was actually the one who helped manage a Red White And Blue thrift store. This was the catalyst of what sparked this idea in my head after my housemate mentioned all the blank VHS tapes that were being donated.  

I Purchased a whole bin of tapes and started dubbing my music, (both old and new) onto the donated VHS tapes to send back to the thrift stores to be re-donated in efforts of someone finding them. Kind of like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea in hopes someone finds it. I would donate several of these VHS tapes and would leave my dubbed mixes over top of older shitty movies. I had the idea of rummaging through and curating all of my “Old Tunes” sound-alikes and Vaporwave tracks or anything sounding adjacent and placing them on several tapes.  

I probably dubbed well over a hundred tapes over the years since 2018, both used and blanks

I ended up donating most of them to several different thrift stores. Mostly old generic shitty “dollar-bin” movies that nobody really wants and generic kids cartoons. I would never destroy a collectible VHS or anything of value, so no worries there, but I doubt anyone will ever find the ones sent out and even if they do, they’ll most likely throw it away or something. I have a few tapes that escaped that were made with music that accidentally got deleted years ago and I would pay top dollar to get back, but that’s another story for another day. 

Anyway, So, my other friend (Not housemate), who, (we’ll just say, is an independent filmmaker of sorts) had the idea which kind of spawned from mine to do a found-footage VHS horror film project also known as “Analog Horror” or the genre at least. Now, keep in mind, this is the spring of 2020 during the height of the pandemic lockdown. So, time is all we had. 

I had the idea of using an ARG for people to solve to lead them down a “Rabbit Hole” as part of an interactive movie project. It would start off pleasant and would progressively get more sinister and darker and even more disturbing the further down you went. My main intention and goal was to hopefully have this project be the subject of topic on a big name youtube channel like “Nexpo”. I figured the music and aesthetic would all be “Old Tunes- BoC-inspired” and would give it a more suitable twist. I figured any fans that would ever come across it would take notice instantly that it was “BoC-inspired” or at least the music. I also figured the BoC cover tracks would add a few disturbing layers to the mystique of this “Rabbit Hole” mystery.  especially since we wanted to catch those "Backrooms" "Liminal Space" vibes.

I’m sure folks will be skeptical and that’s okay, but just hear me out on this and yes, I’d be thinking the same way too, so I certainly do understand any skepticism. 

Originally, the inspiration for the name “Strange Soup” Mixtape was used in the original upload in efforts to connect ties to this twisted bizarrely disturbing video titled “Blank Room Soup (Dark Web Video)”.

Now, you can do a google search about this video. It was a strange mysterious viral sensation for quite a few years after emerging on 4chan and has been a part of other “Rabbit Holes”. We ended up deleting the original video so that another one could be uploaded in place of it. 

The idea was to incorporate it as part of this story, but we needed to scratch other ideas altogether because the numbers did not properly equate to the letters we needed to start the ARG and time was running out. We also needed the upload date to fall in line with the project. The creation of these ARG’s are not easy to create. Believe me when I tell you. I’m just some uneducated moron, so figuring this stuff out took trial and error. Even with the help of my friend.    

Now, if all would have gone as planned, we would have opened another account uploading another tape in connection with the thrift store tape. We were in search of materials to craft out costumes like the one’s seen in the “Blank Room Soup” video and wanted to utilize the office space at my friend's school.  

Originally, this is how this should have all played out in order for this horror project to have worked. We needed The first video to be uploaded at a certain date in order to maintain validity for the ARG storyline so it could be incorporated into the film project. The goal from the start was never to deceive people into believing this was a “long-lost BoC record”. I’ll explain more below.  

The next step, after a week or two, was to have all of us post the link to the video in “thrift store finds facebook groups” in order to drum up the mystery. He and I shared the link on a few of the forums online such as Reddit and so on. The forums had absolutely nothing to do with music or ARG’s. Just thrift store finds and VHS collector’s groups. We wanted to build the mystery up and clue people in eventually. The original video sat on youtube for quite some time. It had like maybe 60-75 views after a month. That view count just stayed stagnant. Then one day in, I think late March out of nowhere, I got the messages in the comments. They were friendly at first with some people just mentioning it was “Boards of Canada”. I thought to myself, “Oh shit, they found the video”. Soon the view count just kept on climbing and Soon enough some folks started becoming hostile. I convinced my housemate to make a response video explaining everything. We all thought this was the best course of action because of how unbiased he’ll be for the simple fact, he has no idea who BoC is (Well, he does now lol) and he is not a musician, like, at all haha. 

Me and my filmmaker friend were excited at first that at least we had an audience now and could run with it. So I figured the response video my housemate put out would quell any outrage and save our project in order to move forward but, boy, was I dead wrong.

The views kept climbing up and the comments kept coming. People were becoming hostile and outraged. Things got way too real and I started to panic slightly. I have a bad anxiety disorder and it triggered it for sure. I just had all these thoughts like, “What if I get sued by the band?” I had nightmares of the brothers coming after me and them telling me how much of a piece of shit I am.  

BoC fans are some of the craftiest people you’ll ever come across, lemme tell ya lol.

They had somehow figured out the metadata from the original deleted video that was uploaded months prior. After it was confirmed and revealed to me they could dig this info up, I was in a full blown panic attack. I started hyperventilating. I messaged my buddy and told him what was up. He was against it at first, but I told him, “hey I have to delete this whole channel, they’re going to find out where I live next and who I am!” I just had the worst thoughts imaginable. 

So, I hit the “Killswitch” button and within minutes it all vanished like a bad dream. I was genuinely worried at first that I could potentially face legal backlash, but my friend explained to me that I wasn't out there putting any BoC label on it or even labeling the tracks and attempting to make any money from it.   

Some time had passed and the dust settled a little bit. I was kind of shocked to see people had ripped the original audio from the video and were sharing it to facebook and reddit and soon uploaded to Youtube. The “Dan Fingerman” channel was the first to reupload as I read through the comments and to my surprise they were all mostly positive. Some people thought for sure the music was BoC and others were skeptical, but most of them didn’t believe for a second, but yet still they kept talking about how much they enjoyed it. Even “David Firth” the creator of “Salad Fingers” left a comment at some point stating he liked the music, but didn’t care for the BS backstory. I was so happy that this music that had been sitting around for years on end had finally found a home somewhere. 

This music is only meant for a small niche audience. Most folks will not appreciate it. I think where I really fucked up, was becoming addicted to the excitement of seeing people enjoy the music that I had accumulated over a decade. Believe me when I tell you, there is more where that all came from. It is ridiculous the hundreds of unfinished or hidden tracks I have stored on several harddrives, VHS and cassette tapes, but I am happy to finally put it all to bed today.

Here’s where I need to really step up and take accountability for my ignorance and selfishness. 

Again, I was truly happy that people were actually enjoying the music so I did a foolish thing and ran with it like an idiot. All the hate and backlash that I will receive after all of this is all well deserved. Yes, I’m a giant loser, I'm an idiot, a talentless hack with no life. I’ll take the “L”. I just wanted to purge the last of this music and put an end to all of it once and for all. I think this was much needed and I can now move on with my life and stop obsessing over creating music that sounds like BoC. I can go back to writing and producing dark progressive black and death metal like I once used to lol.     

The day I discovered BoC’s music is the day it changed my life forever and how I saw the world through a new lens. I became obsessed with wanting to replicate their sound. I think it is more than relevant to talk about it to help illustrate my madness. 

Growing up in my teen years I was an extreme metal fanatic. I listened to a lot of black and death metal bands and played in many metal bands as a guitarist. My biggest influences were bands like Slayer, Immortal, Death, Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Gorgoroth, Deicide, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. You name it, If it was extreme, I was probably into them. I wanted nothing to do with any music that wasn’t extreme metal. I was very narrow-minded back then. That’s not to say I’m no longer a fan of metal, I’m just not as closed off as I used to be. 

As the years went on, I would watch my favorite front men from the most prolific metal bands give interviews and mention their musical influences and would always be blown away by how far away from metal their influences actually were. One of them would mention Radiohead in multiple interviews and naturally I got curious and started trying out “Radiohead" and soon fell in love with Thom Yorke’s experimentations. I think this is where my taste began to shift. I started getting into the “chill trip-hop’ genres and bands like Portishead, producers like DJ Shadow, Flying Lotus, and J Dilla. So pretty much the recipe for being receptive to BoC was already in the making. 

Eventually I stopped playing in bands after I learned how to play every instrument: Bass, Piano, drums and so on. It just got too hectic with everyone’s schedules to keep the dedication. I wanted so badly to learn how to write, record, and produce my own music. At the time I had a friend who used “Frooty Loops” to make Industrial beats, but that was about it and he would never teach me how to use the program. I wanted so badly to make my own black metal album and perform and record all the instruments as well as sing vocals.            

“Opeth’s” front man Mikael Akerfeldt influenced me in other directions from the metal genre and 

I eventually outgrew those desires and over time I became more interested in collecting vintage things like vhs camcorders, tape players, and record players. This really set the stage for me. Some years later, I was surfing Youtube in 2008 in search of videos on the drug `DMT" and a slideshow video of psychedelic imagery started playing and that’s when I was introduced to BoC's "Roygbiv" for the first time. As I was listening, it was like something inside of me was born. I’ll never forget that day. 

Now, I grew up in the 80’s and I distinctly remember “PBS” and the shows that would air back then like Reading Rainbow and Sesame Street. As I’m listening to Roygbiv, I was in this state of disbelief. How did they manage to pull that off? These sounds of rich warm vintage analog tones of the mid 70’s TV bumpers on public broadcasting networks. It took me right back to my childhood and unlocked this part of me that had been missing my entire life. I had shivers down my spine. From that moment, I instantly fell in love. I just had to find out who the creator of this music was. I did some digging and one comment read the band name and I sought out more of their music. The next track I listened to was “Bocuma" and it buried into my soul even deeper. I had both tracks on repeat all day. It took me back to the simple days of my childhood of the early 80’s. I just had to find out what software they were using. I wanted to learn how one could possibly recreate something of the past with such an unreal haunting aesthetic.  

I eventually found out this music was released in 1998 and that, of itself blew my mind as well.

I was so certain the music was from the present day using “present-day-computer-technology”.

Eventually, I got my hands on a computer and started to dabble in music production and also learned how to convert analog to digital and vise/versa. I had read on multiple forums and interviews of how they could achieve their signature sound and naturally I followed.   

I would damage and degrade tapes to record on them and I had some incredible results and as mentioned before, a lot of disappointment because VHS has such a good HIFI sound. Almost better than any digital. 

I would fall asleep and dream of melodies and try to figure them out. It got to a point where it plagued everything I did musically. Everything I would make would always end up sounding similar to their music. This is why I am happy today, to purge the last of it and move on with my life.  

Am I mentally ill? Perhaps? Am I a lunatic? Far from it, but I needed to get all this out of my system. I am sorry for everything and I hope you can just enjoy the music for what it is. It was never about clout or recognition. I'm not here to profit financially. All I ever wanted was it all to find a home. Thank you so much for even listening and giving it the time. I owe so much to them. They opened my eyes to a whole other artistic realm. Special thanks and gratitude all goes to the brothers for all the inspiration over the many years. Thank you Mike and Marcus. Your music has settled deep within my heart and I will take it to the grave. Thank you so much and Thank all of you for all your kind words that I probably don’t deserve. Thank you for taking the time to read. I am so grateful. 

[astraltrickster]

Realization: public domain works make for a great illustration of the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism.

You can't infringe copyright on a public domain work; there is no copyright to infringe. You can repost, for example, a NASA photo wherever the hell you want. You should label it accurately if you're trying to use it for science rather than art, and it's a good idea to disclaim that you used public domain materials if it's very recognizable lest you accidentally imply you are the (nonexistent) copyright holder, but you can't get hit with a copyright suit for leaving it too recognizable when using it in a photomanip, or a collage, or a moodboard, or taking a chunk of it and making it into a digital paintbrush; you don't have to make a fair use argument that it's sufficiently transformative, you can just Do It and no one will care. You can list yourself as the creator of that photomanip/collage/moodboard/brush pack, no matter how minimal the edits may be, because you are; you built something transformative out of the public domain material, even if the only transformation was compiling, curating, and arranging a collection of public domain images in an aesthetically pleasing way.

But if you were to take a NASA photo and claim or imply that you took that photo yourself? THAT would be plagiarism. Claiming that you had ANY involvement in taking that photo as it originally was presented is a lie for clout. You didn't take it - that was whoever was operating the telescope/camera/whatever additional tool(s) may have been involved. You didn't order or direct it - that was NASA as an entity or a researcher working there. The closest thing to involvement that you can claim is that, well, if you're an American taxpayer then you contributed probably less than one penny toward getting it taken - hardly anything equivalent to the claim that you grabbed the camera, marched yourself out to the photo site, and recorded that image personally. It is not about property - that image is no one's property - it is the dishonesty of the claim that is the problem. It is a form of misrepresentation.

Copyright infringement is about property. Plagiarism is about dis/honesty. These things are a Venn diagram - they overlap - but they're not inherently the same thing.

This is why you can be a copyright reformist/minimalist/abolitionist and still recognize that repeating other people's research, uncited, implying that you are the one who came up with the concepts, is a huge dishonest dick move, and just one illustration of why legality =/= morality - many forms of plagiarism are, in fact, perfectly legal; and many forms of copyright infringement are thoroughly harmless, especially as media giants try to nickel and dime us all harder and harder by the day (see: streaming services wanting to charge per head in the room).

[l-tothe-og]

(sapphic lucemond) aemond and lucerys aren't together yet, but they like each other and they are mutuals on twitter/tumblr. lucerys accidentally posts a tweet/post about her crush on aemond on her main account, when she meant to put it on a private side account. aemond is too dense to realize it's obviously about her, but it still worries her enough to ask lucerys about it 👉👈

<3 in a sapphic lucemond mood this week <3

@/lucerysv: how do i tell a girl i like her and that she's out of my league and that she should date me anyway and that she is so pretty i want to die looking at her and that i am so sorry and that her hair is so pale and long and beautiful and that and that and that... asking for a friend

@/baelatarg: ??? luceeee???? who are u talking aboutttt

@/joffthedragon: Big sister being this desperate on main is insane.

A scream of rage-tinged embarrassment wracks through Luce like a sob. The tweet she meant to post on her private Twitter had been on her main account. It was only up for about fifteen minutes, but fifteen minutes was enough for both Baela and Joff to get the jump on mocking her. It was also long enough for hundreds of people to see it, screenshot it, share it, and never let her live down her thirsty vagueposting about Aemma.

Her aunt, thankfully, had not been one of the people to jump in the comments, qts or her mentions.

That being said, Aemma was not one of Luce's reply guys. She was her elusive DM dropper. Every once in a while, in between being a thirst trapping carefully curated anti-aesthetic queer influencer and the subject of Luce's fantasies, she found time to send Luce a meme, quote, or link to a thought-provoking article.

Often, those DMs led to long conversations that carried on through Twitter, then text, and finally, when Luce's fingers were tired but her mind was wide awake, they would culminate in a phone call.

Being family, they saw each other often enough, but there was something different about Aemma's voice, steady and soothing on the phone, just the two of them. They talked for hours, frequently enough that Luce and Aemma went from family to... something else all over the phone.

When Luce sent the tweet, she meant it as her last cry for help. She'd been trying for weeks to tell Aemma she liked her without telling Aemma that she liked her. She couldn't say it outright, could not face rejection from the one person she had post notifications on for, and family dinners with. So, she went to her followers.

Now deleted, the tweet only served as a warning to make sure she wasn't on her public account before going heart-brained on the kyeboard.

Luce threw herself down in bed and groaned into her sheets. She'd embarrassed herself. Even worse, she still had no ideas on how to get Aemma to pick up on her hints.

Her phone vibrated next to her face. Luce picked it up and saw she had an unread Twitter DM.

Aemma: Who's the girl?

Luce groaned again into her pillow and thought deeply about throwing her phone out of her window, and then jumping out after it.

Luce: u saw it?

Aemma: Before you deleted it. Coward.

Luce typed out a response telling her aunt to take the word coward and shove it Luce could lick it out later, but deleted it before sending. She wasn't a coward, but she wasn't exactly dauntless.

Luce: it was embarrassing! i sounded deranged

Aemma: Why did you post it, then?

Luce sat up in bed. She paused for a moment. There was her opportunity. All she needed to do was confess. "I wanted you to see it." She could say, a lie, but the truth, too.

Aemma: Nevermind. I know you. No impulse control.

Luce: i have impulse control

Aemma: Not enough to keep your crush on this random girl off the internet.

Luce: she isn't random

Aemma: No?

Luce drew her knees up under her chin. She could see Aemma's taunting smile, her daring little smirk.

Luce: No.

Aemma: Even if she isn't random, she definitely isn't out of your league.

Luce: but she is

Aemma: Impossible. And she doesn't deserve you if she's ever made you feel like she is.

Luce chuckled lightly. Aemma defending her against herself made her feel warm inside.

Luce: the only thing she makes me feel is <3

Aemma didn't open the message for a few minutes. Luce worried that she grew tired of hearing about Luce's crush, or found her love life so boring she wandered away from her phone to do anything besides read more about it.

After a while, a message came through.

Aemma: Lucky girl.

The message was almost cold in its bitter curtness. Luce smiled. Impulsively, she typed out a response.

Luce: Lucky YOU

The second she did, she began to overthink it. What if she was right before? Aemma didn't give a fuck about her or her crush. What if she was reaching out for drama? What if she found Luce to be annoying and pushy and fucking weird for romantically subtweeting her on accident?

Her message was read, but Aemma hadn't answered. She didn't even react to the message. She just left Luce on open, long enough that Luce had to place her phone on her bed. Her hands were shaking.

Then, her phone lit up.

Aemma was calling her.

"What did you mean by that? Lucky me?" Aemma asked as soon as Luce picked up.

Luce took a breath, shaky, not yet relieved.

"The tweet was about you."

"The thirsty one?"

"Oh God." Luce whispered. She brought her thumb to her mouth and ripped off part of her nail. "Um, yes."

"You think I'm beautiful?" So did her nearly a million followers. Aemma, with one violet eye and the other a brilliant sapphire, two of the most gorgeously tattooed arms, and hair so soft one could feel it from a picture, was the most beautiful woman alive. Bar none.

"Of course."

"You think I'm out of your league?"

Luce bit down hard on her thumb.

"Yes."

Aemma laughed softly.

"I think you're an idiot."

"I agree." How could she ever have been optimistic enough to think...

"A beautiful idiot." Aemma murmured.

Luce blushed. She pressed two fingers to her lips and traced the curve of her cupids bow, comparing it in her head to the sharp corners of Aemma's mouth.

"You think so?"

"I do. A beautiful idiot, whom I always thought was out of my league." Luce's heart stopped. She laughed breathlessly.

Never the best with words, Luce let Aemma guide their conversation from there.

She told Luce the way she fell for her: in the replies, the DMs, and then, in her dreams, where they often ended up together, snoring while still on the phone.

After a few hours, they ended their call with plans for a date the next day.

Luce got a Twitter motifcation of a mention just before she went to bed.

@/AemmaTargaryen: @/lucerysv just @ me next time

[bookthroneking]

so! since I occasionally get a craving for sincerely messed-up literature, I decided to move most of my posting about horror books to my horror sideblog, @angels-to-others and keep this blog as a general literary posting space. I've tried to curate a more chill and aesthetic-oriented vibe here at bookthroneking, and I wouldn't want to accidentally scar anyone, so if I post about anything horror-related here, from now on it will be kept to a minimum and to mainstream horror like Stephen King or House of Leaves. if you want to see more unsettling and cutting-edge literature, feel free to check out my other blog! (just be warned that I post somewhat upsetting content there, like body horror, medical horror and transgressive art, so tread carefully.)

thank you if you've interacted with this blog so far <3

[arthurhwalker]

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i Review

The hype for this device is warranted. That said, some of the features are incomplete, or "coming soon." There's a lot of really great reviews of the device that talk specifications. In short, the specs are great. This review is going to about how the device fits into my own use case, and the features that mattered to me most.

Yep. I'm going to make it all about me.

Text Entry

Being able to use two screens in landscape, one above the other, or side by side in portrait mode is a show stopper. It's really difficult to have that set up, and have it fit comfortably in your daily carry bag. Being able to set a document window to cascade between both screens in stacked landscape mode is done by tapping five fingers on the screen. It's so good.

Also, it comes with a Mystery Triangle. No idea what it's for, but it is magnetic and has instructions on it for assembly. I found at least one thing it can do, but probably isn't intended for.

Pen holder?

Pictured below: 65w Charger, Lenovo 2-channel quiet Bluetooth mouse, keyboard accessory, stylus, and Mystery Triangle.

The Bluetooth keyboard accessory is excellent. Best of all, the keyboard is included. Literally, the best travel sized/weight Bluetooth Keyboard accessory I've seen is just quietly bundled with the Lenovo 9i.

Key travel, latency (I type very fast if I want to), and feedback are great. I know the device is designed to take pen input, but I love making text with it. They way the keyboard rolls up into the stand to protect the keys from havoc while traveling in my bag is really nice. A lot of thought went into the accessories for the Yoga Book 9i.

The effort paid off.

Pen Entry

You make some sacrifices here, but I'm not convinced it is Lenovo's fault. Being able to draw on the deck display while using the lid display to view your reference material is awesome. Pen input is pretty good, but I'm still wrestling with getting tilt and other functionality to work as I'd prefer. It doesn't seem to matter which application I use, there is a little jitter.

The device will take pen input on both screens simultaneously but that experience is heavily dependent on the applications, and what pen protocol they are using. Overall I'll be doing my finishing work at 300 dpi at home on my Thinkpad with a Wacom Cintiq. Will I do front end digital art, pixel art, and sketching on my Yoga Book 9i?

For sure.

It's an 8.5 stars drawing experience that feels like a 10 because the displays are both OLED, and vary closely matched in both color and brightness. I haven't applied any film to the deck, but the included stylus has pretty good resistance without it. My other favorite stylus works great, too.

User Experience

Microsoft's software products have been in steady decline for over a decade. I didn't think Microsoft had anything left to ruin after Windows 10, but they broke new ground with Windows 11. User experience isn't anywhere on Microsoft's list of priorities these days, and anything Windows 11 does well feels accidental.

Fortunately, Lenovo goes all out to smooth things over wherever they can. They have software running that helps curate the experience for the user. In some cases it does better than put lipstick on the pig that is Windows 11. With screen gestures and touch input particularly, I forget the pig exists.

There are many "coming soon" features that promise to make the experience great, utilizing both displays for function and neat visual aesthetics. If Lenovo does all they've promised with regard to features, the user experience would go from good, to great.

The bad news is that the display scaling is kinda stuck at 200%. You can change it, but you have to change it for each display, every time you log in. When you turn your computer on in the morning to get started working, you'll be changing the scaling, if you don't like it at 200%

For me, the 200% scaling is perfect, and I imagine it will be a for a lot of people. If that is not ideal, it becomes an arduous daily chore to open the display settings, and change the scaling to the desired amount. It is likely that Lenovo will fix this with an update.

If you're having this issue, head to Lenovo's Forums and hit this post. It has some work arounds, but also reply in line. Bump it up. Thanks.

I'll update this review if I find a silver bullet or if Lenovo issues and update that fixes the issue.

Darkness

During the Pandemic my spouse was ill (not with COVID, something else). Being able to sit next to her in the dark, and continue my work without disturbing her was pretty important. At the time I had an Thinkpad X1 Carbon that I had Lenovo's power management settings on it. With the screen brightness bottomed out, and the machine set to run quiet as I could get it, I was able to continue working.

After my spouse's recent surgery, I found myself in a similar situation. She basically needed to sleep for a month to heal, and I needed to be able to watch over her, and continue my work.

Using the Yoga Book 9i in a dark room to make text is great. With the backlighting turned down to nothing, the software keyboard (Lenovo's, not you Microsoft) is perfect. It can be set to give feedback, and a little noise, or nothing at all. The OLED displays turned all the way down are perfect for viewing text, without adding enough illumination to a room to disturb a sleeper.

It's also really cool looking in the dark. Perfect for writing science fiction.

My ears ring constantly after having COVID, and now I'm pretty sensitive to coil whine from devices. The Yoga Book 9i is almost as quiet as a fanless ARM SOC. Almost.

Sound

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i can be really quiet, but it can also be really loud. If you were using it to run Dungeons & Dragons at a venue, and needed something to play music and sound effects, this device has the best sound on a portable device I've heard. I have one other Lenovo Yoga with a sound bar hinge from a couple years back. The sound on it is really good, but nothing like the Yoga Book 9i.

You can take the Bluetooth speaker out your bag if you're carrying one.

That said, make sure you fully update all the sound drivers. My Yoga Book 9i came with a lot of crackle pop out of the box. Once I updated all the drivers, the sound was perfect. I didn't need to touch a thing.

You will absolutely annoy other people at the coffee shop while watching cat videos on YouTube.

Mobile Workspace

I've been carrying a Thinkpad X12 Detachable Tablet, a Thinkvision M14 portable display, Lenovo Pen Stylus, and Lenovo Bluetooth Mouse as my standard portable workspace. It sets up nicely on a coffee shop table, and let me do my things while I'm traveling.

It's a really nice set up, fits well in my bag.

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i does the same thing without all the hunting for accessories. Everything you need comes with it. Also, you aren't stuck with two landscape displays stuck side by side, or with extra stands to make your preferred viewing experience work.

It also takes up less space on the table, and I don't have to bring another keyboard as a sidecar to render digital artwork with the pen.

I haven't run into battery life issues with the Yoga Book 9i. I really expected to find myself searching for an outlet more often, but it hasn't been a thing. I assumed the magnetic stand and keyboard accessories would mess with it my bag, and I'd find the device running fans and being crazy in standby mode. Nope, it's been fine.

If it sounds like my expectations were low in terms of the hardware, it is because they were. I was pretty sure I'd buy one, review it, and return it. I'm keeping mine, and riding out the bumps as Lenovo updates and completes software features. I think it'll be worth the wait.

Accessories

All that's missing is the perfect bag or sleeve for the Yoga Book 9i. I'm using a Waterfield Designs Sutter Tech Sling right now, and it is pretty ideal. I have a number of Lenovo's other two-compartment cases that worth pretty well, but nothing that is "the one."

Other than that, carry an extra big microfiber cloth. With three Thunderbolt 4 ports I haven't found the need for dongles or docks unless I'm at home.

Bundled Software

Lenovo ships this device with a Smart Note and Journal application. You can take a Smart Note on the Lock Screen, save Bookmarks, and there is a Smart Reader app in the works. I usually dismiss bundled software, but Lenovo gave these apps some great features.

I might not use Journal, but I will be using Smart Note.

Branding

I've owned or laid hands on every version of Lenovo's Yoga Book devices over the years. My Yoga Book Gen 1.5 (Ruby Red) and Yoga Book C930 still get used, because they are that good. I've had the Android version of the Gen 1, Windows Version of the Gen 1, and used the LTE (Eurozone) Yoga Book C930.

Is the Yoga Book 9i a "Yoga Book" as Lenovo has defined them? Yes, and no.

The Yoga Book 9i is not a 10" ultraportable that defies the traditional categories of clamshell vs. tablet / detachable device. It is a 13" clamshell laptop that comes with the best wireless keyboard and mouse offerings, and the second best stylus Lenovo offers. The stand accessory that bundles everything up is awesome.

It does not fit in my vertical computer bag designed for 10" - 12" form factor devices. It would be unwieldy to hold like a book, in hand, and read text from the displays.

It does provide a computing experience you can't get anywhere else. Lisa Gade didn't even try to explain this in her review. You'll either look at this device and wonder who it's for, or know instantly that you need one for your use case. Like other Yoga Books of the past, there is nothing to compare the 9i to.

There are other dual-screen devices, but they don't compete with the Yoga Book in my opinion. They are not necessarily better or worse, they just don't provide the same experience.

Have a question?

Find me on most social media platforms, @ArthurHWalker

Pictured Below: One use of the Mystery Triangle?

[evethedestroyerr]

Good evening!!! So I much prefer to be a pictures-only blog. I never write posts or engage with people or answer asks I get because I like my blog to be a peaceful space for me to unwind and just focus on curating my little collection of beautiful images. AND I CANT BELIEVE I HAVE TO MAKE THIS POST!!!!!!

I just unfollowed SEVERAL MUTUALS FOR REBLOGGING NAZI CONTENT!!! So now I feel the need to make a g**d*** PSA THAT if you 1) are a Nazi 2) romanticize Nazi Germany 3) see nothing wrong with reblogging photos of Nazi soldiers, Nazi art/propaganda, Nazi couples, etc etc etc for your Tumblr aesthetic- PLEASE DO ME A FAVOR AND BLOCK ME!!!!! Absolutely despicable and I know that being a trad/cottagecore/Pagan blog there is insidious s*** I need to watch out for, but seeing SEVERAL mutuals reposting this content absolutely shocked me.

My husband is from the Netherlands and his great grandparents on both sides were Holocaust survivors. They had parents, brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles killed in the Holocaust. If you search mine and my husbands rare last name on the database of Holocaust victims, it shows you pages and pages and pages of names. Those names are my husbands extended family, now mine too, someday our children’s. His great-grandparents made scrapbooks with photos, copies of their IDs/documentation they had to carry, and typewritten pages telling their stories. The strength that these people had to go through what they did is astonishing. I’m so honored to be part of a family with such an inspiring history and it gives me perspective when I’m feeling low about my first world problems how lucky I am to be safe and free in such a beautiful country.

Nazi romanticizers make my blood boil. S**t is absolutely disgusting and if you are willing to shrug off the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi regime and reblog a picture of a Nazi couple with the caption “goals!!!!” or heart emojis- which were the posts that I just saw on my dashboard- you literally need f****ing psychotherapy and I don’t say that lightly. I don’t know if it’s these extremist niche corners of the internet and some people being just so terminally online and unable to think critically beyond these pretty pictures that they’re fed. But actually get help. Before you block me save this link and spend some time learning about what those pretty pictures you reblog really symbolize.

I post from a queue only and up until now I had THOUGHT I did a pretty good job of vetting the blogs and tags that I follow. But if anyone notices me accidentally engaging with nazis please be a doll and shoot me a message. AND once again if you are one of those accounts (if there were several that I just noticed then there are probably more I’m unaware of) BLOCK ME!!! You are f***ing sick and I despise you!!

[disastardly]

ask game shit 🧡🦖🐸

🧡 A color you can’t stand?

I generally enjoy all colors, but anything too puke-y? Like not just muted, but anything that makes me think of diapers, vom, etc. Too visceral.

🦖 Favorite extinct animal?

Dodo bird, by far. I kept trying to roll other ideas around in my head but it always comes back to the dodo bird. Look at this idiot (affectionate):

It can't fly. It's 3'+ tall. It weighs as much as a medium dog. People thought it was a myth and didn't immediately notice that they accidentally hunted it into extinction. Only one known soft tissue sample exists.

🐸 Describe your aesthetic.

"Came Back Wrong" Art School Barbie: a little witchy, a little punk, a little eclectic/boho, always curated to high heaven (if I'm leaving the house). Lots of pieces that I've either had for a million years, picked up at thrift shops, or got at weird little boutiques irl/online.

[roosterbruiser]

I humbly request some landslide crumbs

and some Landslide crumbs I will give you!!

here's a bit of Stevie/Faye content for you

Stevie was Maggie’s cat. She’s a Persian, or something like that, and she was the first big purchase Maggie made when she got some money. She painstakingly created the perfect environment for Stevie--bought air filters and an electric litter box, bought the vet-recommended food based on Stevie’s age and breed, curated ridiculously expensive furniture dedicated to Stevie entirely. Stevie loved only Maggie from the first day Maggie brought her home. No one else was able to cuddle her, let alone touch her. 

When I first picked her up from the boarding facility, over a month since Maggie died, she howled and mewled the entire drive to my house. She was lying in the dome carrier Maggie had spent an arm and a leg on, crying and crying. My ribs, the cracked ones, ached deeply with every breath I breathes. My left wrist was slung across my chest and it hurt badly enough that I’d been prescribed hydrocodone. I’d hit my head very hard on a tree branch when landing and sometimes I still got confused--things felt fuzzy, even a month later. Possibly what caused the most discomfort was the frostbite on three of my toes on my left foot. The doctor’s considered it a mild case and they were healing, scabbed over, very ugly. I had to clean each of the toes individually and wrap them nicely or I would get an infection. 

“Stevie,” I’d called to her from the driver’s seat, narrowing my eyes at the road. The sun was blinding, “shhh, girl.” 

Stevie was desperately moaning. I tried to turn the radio on, but suddenly couldn’t remember which button turned it on. 

“Oh, fuck, come on!” I’d yelled, exasperated. 

It was exhausting to be hurt, exhausting to have a dead sister, exhausting to pick up the pieces of the life that had imploded so randomly, so terribly. I’d been pushed over the edge then and there, somewhere on Pacific Coast Highway. I pulled the car to the side of the road, held my scabbed and bruised face in my hands, and screamed into my palms. 

“Do you think I want this?” I yelled to Stevie, who was blinking at me from inside her kennel, “Because I don’t!”

Our parents had told me to just forget about Stevie--surrender her to the boarding facility. She would be taken to a shelter and would be adopted quickly since she was a purebred. I knew, though, that Maggie would’ve keeled over again if Stevie wasn’t taken care of.  

Now Stevie lives with me, in my house that I’m always renovating. Mingled among my antiqued furniture--my velvet sofas and solid wood tables and ornate rugs--are the expensive pieces Maggie had bought for Stevie. The chrome litterbox lives in the laundry room, plugged into an outlet, beneath the quartz counter that houses wicker baskets and glass bottles of white vinegar and baking soda. Her four-tier cat tower lives in the sun room, a blob of flower-shaped levels and bright green rope against the rattan patio furniture I’d carefully selected. Stevie’s food bowls were even a stark contrast--pink BPA-free plastic dishes--against the original wood flooring in my home. 

This is all to say that nothing Maggie bought all those years ago matches the aesthetic I’ve curated. I cannot get myself to switch any of the items out, even if I’ve looked before. The self-cleaning litterbox reminds me of how busy Maggie always was, one foot out the door all the time. The tower reminds me of her exuberance--her love for bright colors and feminine things. Her uncharacteristically cheap plastic bowls are reminiscent of Maggie’s tendency to accidentally kick or trample things on her way out the door. They are little fragments of her. 

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

📖Persuasion📖 by Jane Austen: Listen- & Read-Along, Chapters Three & Four

Doubling up this time, and maybe going forward, because this is where be plot starts, and I don’t want to lose the momentum of the narrative. Also, I’m making an executive decision to schedule these posts for Tuesdays and Thursdays, in addition to my queue (which is 99.999% of everything I post).

Chapter Two Discussion starts here.

Here’s the Discussion Start for Chapter One.

Audio of Karen Savage’s Reading on YouTube, starting with Chapter Three (Three and Four, together, ~ 26 minute listen at normal speed).

Moira Fogarty’s reading at LibriVox (Chapter Three and Four, together, ~ 30 minute listen)

Text of Chapter Three and Chapter Four at Project Gutenberg

Synopses:

Chapter Three: Mr. Shepherd, his daughter Mrs. Clay, and even Miss Elizabeth Elliot gang up on Sir Walter, in order to persuade him to let Kellynch Hall to Admiral and Mrs. Croft, arguing that navy folk are very careful and responsible in taking care of physical things. But Sir Walter is doubtful, because life at sea makes people age before their time, and turn ugly, and he’s afraid that having a sailor about the place would ruin his ✨Aesthetic✨. He’s eventually convinced, however, because an “Admiral” is a person of rank (as opposed to an ordinary “Mister”), but “Baronet” still ranks higher, and that strokes his ego.

Chapter Four: Anne, listening in on this conversation, realizes that the long lost love of her life, a Frederick Wentworth, is Admiral Croft’s younger brother-in-law. And if the Crofts are going to be living at Kellynch Hall for the foreseeable future, there’s a very good chance that Frederick will be coming to visit. And she has to go for a walk in the garden to cool off and have a flashback, and think about her life.

What stood out to me:

(In General) After I finished my most recent reread of this, I realized that Austen structured this novel much like a modern mystery writer would, only without the usual murder or other crime (well, there’s a bit of crime, revealed toward the end, but that’s not what this story is about). The mystery, here, is figuring out how different people feel about each other in relation to how they act (focusing mostly on Anne and Frederick, naturally, but not exclusively them), and every one of them is working with a limited perspective and can only see part of what’s going on.

Jane Austen is still writing in Omniscient Narrator Mode, in that she slips in and out of different characters’ perspectives, but she is very canny in which details she lets slip to the reader. And Chapter Four is where she starts laying out her breadcrumb trail about who knows what, when.

Favorite Quotes:

From Chapter Three:

By the report which he hastened over to Kellynch to make, Admiral Croft was a native of Somersetshire, who having acquired a very handsome fortune, was wishing to settle in his own country, and had come down to Taunton in order to look at some advertised places in that immediate neighbourhood, which, however, had not suited him; that accidentally hearing--(it was just as he had foretold, Mr Shepherd observed, Sir Walter's concerns could not be kept a secret,)--accidentally hearing of the possibility of Kellynch Hall being to let [...]

Sure -- Admiral Croft heard about this opportunity by accident -- of course he did. I believe you Mr. Shepherd, honest, I do! [*cough*]

From Chapter Four:

He was not Mr Wentworth, the former curate of Monkford, however suspicious appearances may be,

[I appreciate your authorial wink at the audience, Miss Austen. Nicely played]

but a Captain Frederick Wentworth, his brother, who being made commander in consequence of the action off St Domingo, and not immediately employed, had come into Somersetshire, in the summer of 1806; and having no parent living, found a home for half a year at Monkford.  He was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit, and brilliancy; and Anne an extremely pretty girl, with gentleness, modesty, taste, and feeling.  Half the sum of attraction, on either side, might have been enough, for he had nothing to do, and she had hardly anybody to love; but the encounter of such lavish recommendations could not fail. They were gradually acquainted, and when acquainted, rapidly and deeply in love.  It would be difficult to say which had seen highest perfection in the other, or which had been the happiest: she, in receiving his declarations and proposals, or he in having them accepted.

A short period of exquisite felicity followed, and but a short one. Troubles soon arose.  Sir Walter, on being applied to, without actually withholding his consent, or saying it should never be, gave it all the negative of great astonishment, great coldness, great silence, and a professed resolution of doing nothing for his daughter. He thought it a very degrading alliance; and Lady Russell, though with more tempered and pardonable pride, received it as a most unfortunate one.

This, here, is my biggest regret of all three film adaptations, prior to Netflix’s most recent (which I don’t think counts at all): none of them actually show this flashback of Anne and Frederick actually happy together, and it’s what I miss the most. I’d love to actually see Anne laughing and carefree and happy with the man she loves, so that we can have that as a point of comparison to how she is now. I wouldn’t even want younger actors to play the younger characters (actors in their mid- to late-twenties are already hired to play nineteen year olds), just show her “in the bloom of youth” by how she acts, so later (after *mumble*, a few chapters from now), we can recognize the change when “the bloom of youth” returns.

She was persuaded to believe the engagement a wrong thing:  indiscreet, improper, hardly capable of success, and not deserving it.  But it was not a merely selfish caution, under which she acted, in putting an end to it.  Had she not imagined herself consulting his good, even more than her own, she could hardly have given him up.

This is another bit I’d love to see in the flashback: have us hear Lady Russell convince Anne that withdrawing her acceptance of Frederick Wentworth’s proposal would be for his benefit (”You know, my dear, navel officers don’t get promoted as quickly if they have wives at home. The military professions would rather have their officers be single men” [or something to that effect]).

for she had to encounter all the additional pain of opinions, on his side, totally unconvinced and unbending, and of his feeling himself ill used by so forced a relinquishment.  He had left the country in consequence.

Ouch.

[c4nonball]

I’m actually really sick of curated aesthetics. I’m tired of putting on whatever I have and being told by someone that they “love my style” and then subsequently feeling like I have to keep up whatever style I accidentally concocted. I hate the idea that you have to not only look a certain brand of put together but also that you must look novel every single time. Like oh my god stop stop stop who cares none of this mattersssss. I know clothes are a good way to express yourself but not to the point of it consuming you whole ahhhh

[pythonscrypt]

oh my fucking god the number of posts i've accidentally reblogged to my (highly and meticulously curated aesthetic) sideblog. i don't even know how it fucking happens. none of you have ever seen anything like that in your notifs ever i promise

[guessimabasicnerdgirlnow]

I need to tell the whole story. It’s probably not that interesting to anyone but it’s always good for me to have this stuff saved on a blog

The story of how I acquired a new blorbo

It all started when I decided to rewatch Homecoming. I have been meaning to do so for a while because I couldn’t remember much of the movie, and mostly because I wanted to take a better look at the supporting cast. Back when I first watched it they didn’t mean much to me, but it’s apparently a side effect of becoming a Venom fan that I grew attached to some of Peter’s friends. I don’t even know them all that well I just love them. So I had to

But truth be told I have a bunch of movies I want to rewatch. Or watch for the first time. Look, when I watch things, I devote my whole mind to watching it. For the 2 or something hours of a movie’s length I will be entirely focused on it. It’s intense. I call it when I am watching a thing without being entirely focused “passive watching”, and I don’t passive watch something I want to watch. That is for telenovelas and whatever whichever family member has the remote control decides to watch when I am hanging in the living room. My stuff, I always actively watch. But actively watching is tiring so I can’t just do it any time. It’s an Event. It needs to be planned.

So, in short, I have this long ass list of things I want to watch and rewatch that I never get to. It’s why I prefer reading. In any format.

(I am very autistic, yes, in case I haven’t mentioned it)

But one fine night I had a dream. I don’t remember exactly what it was like but something in it made me decide “today I will rewatch Spider-Man Homecoming”. And I woke up with this thought. It’s not a thing that happen often, I think the mouse is using dark magic or something to advertise in my dreams. But I decided that day’s adventure would be it.

So there I went to the mouse’s streaming land and found out they don’t have it??? Apparently all Spider-Man’s movies are scattered across the services and there’s no logic but whatever. I did find it and I did rewatch it and I did catch some easter eggs and it was fun. But while in the mouse’s streaming land I took a look at what they had there and that’s where it all went downhill.

I have said before I play a bunch of phone games to satisfy the “gotta catch them all” instinct, right? They haven’t made a slime only of those, unfortunately, and Spider-Man Unlimited is dead rip. So while hunting my beloved slimes in them, I run across all these characters, some which I know or have heard of, some which I don’t. And there are some short bios, and sometimes I have to use them, and the card game has all those cool illustrations…

That was probably their plan all along.

I am not immune to hot characters with cool aesthetics and I’m at a point of my life that I seem to crave all the power fantasies (that’s part of why I ended up here after all) so

I may or may not have already had a vague crush on Black Bolt when I saw that the Inhumans show was in there and then I found out it had only 8 episodes which seemed manageable to actively watch…

It’s all Ultimate Spider-Man (cartoon)’s fault, really. All those crossover episodes bore me, so I could use the distraction from it.

I also can blame the postponing of the recent comics, you know. A long time ago when I followed ongoing manga I was used to living off of 20 pages a month or something, but I don’t remember how to do it. And some fics I followed ended recently, and I am having another writer’s block, and…

So here I am.

That’s the story, that’s the context. The actual post, what I wanted to share comes next.

So, uhm, I find googling stuff related to an hyperfixation embarrassing. So while I already learned that if I wanted to get into some new comic I should look for a curated list, from someone with similar interests to mine, I was not about to google it, so I counted on marvel complete reading order, aka the one that helped me get here (and half accidentally skip a bunch of stuff because I did not realize that Venom’s page referred specifically to Eddie and not the symbiote with anyone else, sorry Mac), even though I also already learned that it includes some useless cameos and other uninteresting stuff. But it feels less “judgemental” than google and its habit of trying to guess what I will type, and it conveniently links to the marvel reading app, so yeah.

Well, at least I thought so. Sometimes with older comics it doesn’t have a link, and I guessed that meant the app didn’t have them. Thank god for pinterest’s (usually dumb) algorithm to have picked up this new hyperfixation and giving me spoilers so that I realized I seemed to skip an event very relevant to my interests. And also for pirating sites, my beloved, for having the issues that the app lacked. Because the most interesting stuff so far was on these issues with no link! I feel so betrayed by everyone!

(And now I am wondering if I make a new blog or put this stuff here too. When I made this blog, I planned to dump any comic related stuff here, but I actually don’t like mixing stuff. But does it count as mixing when the stuff is in the same universe? Damn it)

Anyway. The reading order site pointed me to one issue of Planet of the Symbiotes. Because, as I said, it counts useless cameos, I try my best to filter those out when I can figure them out. I should probably reread pots anyway, it’s a five stars. But this time, it just pointed me to it for this panel:

which I loved because every time someone says “sonics” I inevitably think that my boy would be a nightmare for the slimes. Then again, his sonic powers can probably kill everyone, slime or not. Ah, those power fantasies…