#to the female streamers because I have a lot to say

[guckies]

Due to the hate Baghera has been facing I would just like to remind everyone that attacking other qsmp members is not okay and of the fact that the casual misogyny in mcyt/streamer still continues to this day from when I first saw it in 2018ish is disgusting.

We know casual misogyny is common in the minecraft fandom so why aren’t we doing anything to stop it.

So here are examples of people affected by this casual misogyny,

1) Sylveey was known in smplive, smpearth and mcmondays communities she was constantly bullied for no reason because she was supposedly a pick me girl. At one point I even blocked her without ever having watched her streams because I foolishly believed what these people would say.

2) Nihachu know mostly for dsmp was typically shipped with Wilbur even after they asked people to stop, along with her chat having people commonly ask her about Wilbur rather than her own stream. Not to mention she wasn’t typically considered in lore due to the ship with Wilbur and unwillingness from other members of dsmp. Techno and the syndicate helped her be involved when the community dismissed her. There is people who sexualise her.

3) HannahxxRose i have seen anti-Semitic remarks about her and her appearance in mcyt fandom, why would that ever be okay. Her lore like Niki’s was also not as respected by the fandom although she made an effort. One time I even saw that she received hate for winning an item that she used in lore because the fandom wanted a male member to have it.

4) I haven’t seen a lot in a while about Captain Puffy, but I recall that many had the audacity to call her trolls annoying when they were on the same level as what Bad and Skeppy would do.

5) Rarely I will see hate surrounding some of the female hermitcraft, last life and empires members however those fandoms has been really good at being positive and involving everyone. Seemingly the only fandoms to be able to accept and embrace female mcyts. They are some of the biggest communities with very little casual misogyny because it’s not all about lore 24/7 like the fandom wants it to be. *Check Replies*

6) MCC a fun game has been turned sour by fans of majority male streamers harassing mainly Scott and female mcc participants because their streamers lost.

3 out of 6 of those involved people from the dsmp when it was almost popular. There were only 6 afab members (at the time) during the dsmp. 9 if we’re counting those who came out as gender nonconforming or nonbinary yet even 2 out of those 3 were pushed to the side and given hate for no reason.

Again and again female streamers are put down and subjected to this casual misogyny because they aren’t receiving the same treatment as their male counterparts in their communities.

So far there are only 2 female qsmp members i hope that there are more female streamers who are encouraged and asked to join. That this doesn’t deter them because I appreciate them and love seeing this representation in qsmp. I do not enjoy the constant harassment they receive for being apart of it.

Stop praising male streamers for the bare minimum when female streamers have to do twice the work.

TL;DR

- female mcyts are constantly disregarded, harassed and typically only liked for their male counterparts. This is what casual misogyny looks like because 3 out of 6 female dsmp members faced it at the height of dsmp. It is happening again to one out of two female members on the qsmp. So why do they have to do twice the amount male streamers do. This is going to deter female streamers from qsmp which is horrendous because how can you celebrate culture without them.

[solecist]

more context for 악어(acau)'s translation (troubles? future troubles?)!

@blockgamepirate mentioned pronouns in context of translation in a reblog and that got me thinking about a bunch of things lmao but mostly about 반말 (banmal).

악어 decided really early on into his experience with the translator to try to use banmal bc he felt like the translator was picking up on it better, and he probably thought this because of two things:

banmal is usually shorter than 존댓말 (jondaemal) which is the polite/default way of speaking. and when i say default i mean my parents sometimes use it to refer to each other. it's more than just politeness, it's also a certain amount of respect? with younger people (high school, college, maybeeee graduate student age) people tend to use banmal with friends. older people use banmal to talk to children, and children use banmal except when talking to older people. i think the easiest way of showing just how much shorter banmal is, is to use "안녕" (korean "hello") as an example. "안녕" (annyeong) is actually banmal! you absolutely wouldn't say this to someone you've just met - you would say "안녕하세요" (annyeonghaseyo) which is jondaemal. but do you see how the second is three syllables longer? there's more of a margin of error with three more syllable and that's why the machine translator doesn't work as well with jondaemal.

The most casual way of speaking banmal uses pronouns. korean doesn't have gendered pronouns really, and the pronouns it does have seem. rude? generally? children use pronouns a lot and adults use pronouns when speaking to children but otherwise.... if you're not friends (and young honestly have yet to find an midsized (40+) adult regularly use pronouns) calling someone "you" is like. an insult. it works (that is, it doesn't feel like an insult) in 악어's stream for me because it felt like he was speaking in a significantly simpler/slower register after a while? like the register you'd use for kids. but i did want to put it out there! because if you're trying to learn korean through 악어's stream, you're probably listening to him use banmal! and that's just something to be aware of.

more pronoun thoughts! in terms of gender - korean doesn't have gendered pronouns. the closest you get in third person is something like "that girl" so machine translate will almost never get it right. it will default to masculine (in my experience) or the first person ("i" "me") so that's something to keep in mind. honestly my dad often defaults to masculine third person pronouns because he forgets pronouns are gendered in english and that there's more than one of them lmaooo. korean does gender relationships A Lot (oppa is the one that most people will know - brother from female speaker to older male listener) but pronouns wise there's. no gender oop.

i just wanted to put this out there because as 악어 becomes more a part of the qsmp community, we'll probably slowly pick up on the more regular patterns of awkward machine translation from an east asian language to english, and more specifically from korean to english. and if it's confusing that's ok! assume good faith - 악어 from what i can tell isn't a streamer who'll use insults a lot or curse, and his normal way of speaking to his audience is very soothing/polite/jondaemal, so i hope that people keep watching him throughout this introduction period!

[chrisevansonly]

𝑨𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝑪𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎𝒔 (𝒇𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒊𝒄2)

☁︎lando norris x female reader

☁︎there is one thing that lando loves more than you, and it’s your famous apple cider

☁︎fluff and very cute lando<3

☁︎fic number 2 for my fall celebration! thank you everyone for your love and support, it means the world to me<3

Pitchy singing and the occasional yell could be heard from Lando’s gaming room as you stirred your fresh apple cider gently around the steel pot. October was your favourite time because you were able to get fresh apples from the markets, and lots of cinnamon sticks fresh and locally sourced. Though if there was anyone else on this planet who loved your apple cider more than anyone: that award would go to your boyfriend.

Lando turned towards the door to the sound of knocking, a smile on his face when he saw you, and then an even bigger excitement moved in noticing the special mug you had in your hands.

“Is that what I think it is?”

You shrugged

“It could be…”

Meanwhile the chat was blowing up on twitch, questions pouring in on what had captured the brit’s attention so quickly, Lando turning back only momentarily

“One second chat, y/n’s just brought me something delicious!”

You laughed walking over

“Just finished it now, should still be hot so be careful”

“It smells so fucking good”

He was never apologetic about how honest his reviews of your apple cider were, it didn’t matter who was around, there was no stopping what came out of his mouth.

“I’m glad you think so babe”

Leaning down to kiss his cheek gently you waved at the camera, it wasn’t your first time on stream so by now most people knew who you were. You slid a chair over, placing your own mug of cider down and pulled your legs up to your chest.

“Someone is asking why you have such a hyper reaction to this lan”

“Well excuse them.”

Lando crossed his arms a look of disgust on his face, he was quite literally the definition of sassy, and you loved it.

“Not that any of you deserve to know, but y/n’s apple cider is by far THE best on the planet, it’s sweet, it’s cinnamony-”

“Cinnamony…?”

He glanced at you

“It’s my word okay? Anyway as I was saying”

You had to cover your mouth from laughing, not wanting to pause his rant again

“This tastes like fall in a cup, it’s october in a cup okay? this tastes like nothing any of you will ever know because it’s special,all for me, it is the bomb.com”

When he was finished he took a sip, closing his eyes as you shook your head at his antics, leaning forward to check the chat

“Someone said ‘y/n’s apple cider is lando’s roman empire’ why thank you, i take great pride in it”

“It’s better than the roman empire”

Scooting his chair over he smiled, pressing a kiss to your lips, the taste of cinnamon and apples on your lips

“Thank you, it’s delicious as always”

“You’re welcome baby, there’s a whole big pot of it downstairs if you want more at anytime.”

Standing up you gave him one last kiss, waving to the screen to say goodbye to all his streamers before going back downstairs to get ready to bottle the leftover batch sitting on the stove still. Lando would speak to anyone and everyone about your skill of fall drinks, from hot ones to cold ones, but nothing would ever come close to the special cider you made for him every October for him to enjoy.

You’d almost considered selling some at your local farmers market but your boyfriends look of betrayal and disgust was enough for you to hold off on that venture for a while. The cup hitting the sink had you snapping out of your daze, Lando smiling in your direction.

“All done streaming my love?”

“Yeah, kept smelling how good the kitchen smelt, couldn’t be up there any longer”

You reached your hand up to brush some of his curls away from his face

“I’m just getting ready to bottle the rest of the cider, want to help?”

He nodded, always eager to lend a hand when he could

“Bottling them for me right?”

“Honestly I was thinking about taking some to the markets”

There was a noticeable silence that fell over the room, biting back a laugh you watched as Lando narrowed his eyes at you

“Unfortunately that’s not gonna work”

“Oh it isn’t?”

He shook his head

“No because you see this is my special cider, and if you start selling it, I will die of dehydration.”

The snort that escaped you tossed you into a fit of laughter, your hand holding your chest

“You are so dramatic baby”

“This isn’t a joke to me darling”

When you calmed down you looked up at him and smiled

“No markets, got it, this is Lando’s cider only”

“That’s more like it”

You pulled away from him, sliding some bottles in his direction

“Well then get to bottling babe, we’ve got a lot to do”

Lando may be dramatic sometimes but he would die for that cider of yours, he didn’t care who he needed to beat out for fresh apples, who he’d cut off on the highway to make it to the one farm that had the best cinnamon sticks, if it meant getting his cider all to himself he would do it in a heartbeat.

Although he loves you like no other, you’re starting to think this little fall drink is now Lando’s greatest love…and you’re okay with that.

[icarlyspanishsubtitles]

this idea was inspired by Cillian Murphys golden globes cute lipstick on his nose moment. also congrats to him he’s a wonderful actor!

warnings: kissing, female pronouns, fluff!

Non-Transfer lipstick 💋

I was my boyfriend alex’s plus one to the streamy awards! he had been nominated for best Minecraft Streamer of the year award. currently i was in our hotel bathroom getting ready for the event.

when i saw a figure come in the room, and feel arms wrap around your upper torso. a soothing smile came onto my lips leaning my head onto his shoulder. he mumbled quietly

“you look so beautiful mi vida..”

as he leaves a small kiss onto the side of my head.

I smile turning around kissing him rather passionately, as my hand lays on the side of his neck. I let go and leave him in a lovey state of absolute shock.

”what was that for?”

he laughs softly but no less than rather cutely.

“well when I put my lipstick on I won’t be able to kiss you.”

I murmur kissing him gently again. he nods understandingly leaving the bathroom to get changed, as I put my lipstick on. I come out of the bathroom looking at him with pure love.I put his bucket hat on and he kisses my cheek.

”just because you can’t kiss me doesn’t mean I can’t kiss you”

I smile softly rolling my eyes.

me and alex are sitting in the audience, as I hold his knee knowing he’s a little anxious. the award he’s gotten nominated for is about to come. I sigh and tap his shoulder,

“hey look at me.”

he looks over at me smiling a little, a anxious fake smile.

“this year you’ve done a lot. all of your friends are so proud, and I am so proud ok?”

I sympathize smiling a little. I feel his tightened face turn into a soft peaceful look. he kisses the corner of my mouth, sitting back feeling more relaxed.

“and the award of the best Minecraft streamer this year is..”

I feel him tightening his grip on my hand…

”Quackityyy!”

I smile brightly hearing my amazing hardworking boyfriends name! my boyfriends name! we both stand up, I hug him tightly hearing his laugh from my impact.

I put his face in my hands admiring his cute face, but then leaving a kiss on his cheek, with him scrunchg his nose slightly while he smiles. I sit in my chair watching him while he stands up to accept his award. as he gets up there I say in my head

“oh fuck.”

I see the light red kiss mark I left on him, I immediately want to crawl in a hole filled with my own embarrassment. I cover my mouth with my hand when he starts talking,

”ok before I say anything I just wanna say I’m aware of the kiss mark on my face”

he laughs softly along with the audience. i was thankful he remembered that I wasn’t wearing non transferable lipstick.

“I just want to thank everyone for their support, this award is insane to me to think I just have to make jokes to get it. you guys deserve so much love and thank everyone. also thank you to my girl friend for not leaving me when I forget to come to dinner because I’m too busy playing games.”

I laugh softly smiling. god he was cute.

“but also I then my girlfriend for just being there for me. she’s absolutely amazing.”

he says giving me eye contact while smiling, I hear a lot of people in the audience awe which makes me laugh a little.

we get home very tired as the whole night we were just sitting down, which is kind of hard not to fall asleep to. I get out of the uncomfortable nice clothing, and get into alex’s hoodie plus my shorts. he lays down next to me one arm going over my waist, the other to his side and our legs tangled together. I caress the side of his face with my thumb.

“your speech was sweet, i’m really proud of you.”

he smiles gently and leans over to be able to reach me better. i lean in to the kiss, and he suddenly pulls away.

“maybe next time, wear lipstick that doesn’t leave a mark?”

i roll my eyes at him, trying to hide my smile. idiot.

thank you sm for reading! hope your day is good! feel free to request 💌💌

[blackterrae]

Ideas for Black!Reader Fic

I am going to try my hand again at writing. And I wanted to share some people and fandoms that I love. If you don’t know these shows/actors/franchises/movies/streamers I’m putting you on! For the following:

Princess Bride

Alice In Borderland

Johnny Depp- All his characters

Artemas (singer [i like the way you kiss me])

Cameron Monaghan- I know that there are fics out there but it’s only always his Jerome/Jeremiah roles never just him or Cal Kestis

Anthony Carrigan- I loved Anothy as Victor Zsasz

Paul Dano- There are Riddler fics but not as many for his other roles

The Entire Cast of Hawaii Five-0 (2010) - Don’t even get me started on how good this show is! And the cast looks amazing!

Chicago Med/Fire/PD- These shows have so much potential for fanfic storylines!

The Game (2006)- Has great potential for slow burns and fluffs.

Star Wars franchise (1977-present) - I know I said Cal Kestis but there are also other characters like Anakin, Luke, Obi Wan,Boba Fett (etc.)

NCIS franchise- I honestly love this franchise and it’s characters!

Hamilton

Any/All Sports Men- Jude Bellingham,Lewis Hamilton,LaMelo Ball,Allen Iverson(etc.)

Berleezy - He’s handsome and he’s funny!

Coryxkenshin- I literally love him and his videos!

Albert Aretz (Flamingo)- Look … he may be the epitome of mediocre white man but I like what I like!

AMP- Duke Dennis, Kai Cenat, Agent 00, ChrisNxtDoor,Davis, and Fanum ( all I gotta say is love a black man from infinity to infinity🗣️)

Beta Squad- A British YouTube/ streamer group!

SOMEBROS- Berleezy, Rico, ,PG, Joe (etc.)

WWE- come on now, do I even need to explain!!!

Four Brothers- All the cast but Garrett Hedland in particular!

Peacemaker - Don’t get me wrong I love Adrian Chase but I want to see just as much Peacemaker x black!reader fics because 2 words… JOHN CENA

MAWS- New animated Superman show! Love!

Smallville - The entire cast is hot! Tbh I fell hard for Tom Welling when I was younger when he was in Cheaper By The Dozen. Plus they literally whitewashed Vixen. COME ON! Vixen is a black female hero btw. She was also with Jon (Green Lantern) at one point.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited (2001 and 2004)- I mean I literally can’t find any Jon Stewart x black!reader fics and he was with a BLACK WOMAN!

Warner Bros Franchise (minus the looney tunes & space jam)- There are lots of popular franchises that this company has from Fast & Furious to The Matrix!

Peaky Blinders- Saw a Tommy shelby x arms dealer black!female reader fic on my previous account but even then I couldn’t find it again on that account. So it’s gone with the wind. And the cast (i.e the actors and other characters they’ve portrayed). Example: Cillian Murphy as Johnathan Crane.

The Bear

FBI (All)

The good doctor

Tiktokers: Vinnie hacker

Blue Bloods

Will Poulter- I haven’t really seen any Adam Warlock fics

Slashers

Stranger Things

Cruel Intentions

Burnt

Dave Lizewski

Eddie Redmayne

Macgyver (2016)

Fresh Prince of Belair

Guardians of the galaxy- Explanation? Do I really need one?

On My Block

Descendants (characters will be the actors age in real life.duh)- Love Boo-boo Stewart & Mitchell Hope!

Matt Rife

Joey Bragg (Liv &Maddie) - What can I say I love dorks!

The Boys- Haven’t seen that many fics about the characters and a black reader

Once Upon A Time- I love dark fairytales sometimes because they remind me that not every story has a happy ending and you have to learn from them. But this series is good for any theme really.

Walker Texas Ranger (1993)

Top Gun

Nicolas Galitzine

Magcon: Whether you saw their vines on YouTube or vine, you know who they are

Dolan Twins

Mission Impossible

Euphoria- Entire show has great storylines with the potential of drama in fics

Shameless- Especially Carl Gallagher and Lip Gallagher

Creed- Michael B Jordan need I say more

Keanu Reeves- There are very few fics about Keanu but I’ve seen a few of his John Wick x black!reader fics (chef’s kiss) but never see any of The Matrix Fics!Also Ted (Bill & Ted)

River Phoenix

Batman Beyond

Rider Strong

Danny Gonzalez

Timothée Chalamet

New York Undercover

Past-Present Singers & Rappers/ Groups -Bow Wow, Tupac, Lil Baby, Nelly, Omarion, Prince, Michael Jackson, Jon B,Usher, Central Cee, Måneskin, New Edition, BTS, James, PRETTYMUCH Bay(etc.)

Anime(Any kind!)- Would love to see other shows, I know hunterxhunter,aot,one piece (etc.)

Bridgerton- There is very little Bridgerton stories catered around a black reader.

Marvel- Now that’s not to say that there aren’t any in fact there are many but I never see (Tobey Maguire Spider-Man stories and it seems like everyone tends to focus on the famous Marvel characters like The Avengers but not on other aspects like X-men or better yet, heroes that haven’t even gotten their own movie but are just as amazing like Squadron Supreme , it’s equivalent to DCU’s Justice League.

Secret Invasion- Not gonna lie , I’m feening for Gravik.😳

DCEU- Another franchise that pushes its other characters to the side. For example, Hush (Thomas Elliot) is literally the epitome of Bruce Wayne gone bad!

Ross Lynch- There are so many roles that Ross did so well in Like Teen Beach Movie or Sabrina.

Highschool Musical Franchise (2006- present ) I’m not just talking about HSMTS (2019), I mean even further back than that. I don’t see any Troy Bolton x black!reader and that’s crazy. I also can’t find any Zac Efron x black!reader

Interview with a Vampire (1994) and (2022)

Austin Butler- He did well in his role as Elvis!

Vikings - There are a good amount but still!

Transformers

Suits

Saved By The Bell

The Goldbergs

Parks & Recreation

Leverage

The Outsiders

Heart of Stone

New York Undercover (1994)

Addams Family

Victorious

Matpat

ICarly

The Real Bros of Simi Valley (2017)

Think Like A Man (2012)

One on One (2001)

Scorpion (2014)

The King of Queens (1998)

G.I. Joe Franchise

Terminator

Beware the Batman (2013)

Any and all Asian Idols/Actors

Seal Team

Mortal Combat

Bill and Ted

Barbie

Detroit: Become Human

Will Trent

Tokyo Vice

Growing Pains

Graceful Family (Kdrama)[Any Asian Drama shows or movies would be great as well]

The Regime

Batman: The animated series

The Sympathizer

The Invitation

Jawbreaker

If anyone needs ideas for these franchises/movies/shows/actors , then holla at me! I got you!

Also add more to the list if anything that you would like to see comes to mind.

Also tag black writers who you want to see this!

@sheabuttahwrites @shinsouscatpisssmell @cocoamoonmalfoy @heathenarmyimagines @cinewhore @cocoamoonmalfoy @stxxllaaa @glitterjuju @lilvampirina @breanime @blackmissfrizzle @afro-hispwriter @stargirlfics @lavenderursa @clydesducktape @pettyprocrastination @theblvckvenus @plantvenuss @punani @n-slayaaaaa @infernalodie @halfofmysoulsblog @iridecsense @tomhardydallasstarsgirl @supremethunda @thekrazykeke @canumoveurseatup-no @hiatuswhore @avintagekiss24 @ohcaptains @iguessweallcrazyithinktho @xsapphirescrollsx @sunflowertuliplily @bakarilennox @batfamily14 @ramp-it-up @blackreaders-assemble @royallyprincesslilly @funnyexel @blackterrae @slashisms @artemisthewh0re @shelbydelrey @toocriticalharlow @v-era-18 @vampsired @queenimmadolla @sinnerlillith @greengoblinswifey @apocalypse-shuffle

[atthebell-moved]

i think it's also super unfortunate bc for a lot of people this is their first con, and it's hard to convey just how poorly run it was.

they had one of the biggest convention centers in the country at their disposal, that has for the last ~5 years hosted 130,000+ people, and still fucked up space logistics.

they had the stats and feedback from their OWN PRIOR CONVENTION in amsterdam and still railroaded dsmp events and fucked up meet n greets along with fucking up security for huge ccs.

they (should) have enough staff who know how to run a convention of this size, including everything from queue mechanics to accessibility concerns.

they should have the basic pr understanding that it looks bad to have disabled people getting crushed against walls bc of crowding and under-staffed line management.

they should understand how bad it looks to place the one, singular panel about female streamers in a ballroom that max fits 200 people, misgender and use the wrong pronouns for several of the ccs, then mistake one of the streamers for another in an instagram post and only correct that mistake ~4 hours after posting it.

gonna put the rest of this below a cut bc its just rambling and everything i personally saw as an attendee. this post is LONG viewers beware you're in for a scare

huge thing off the bat: they should be poaching staff from vidcon, comic con, etc. i'm confident that in the next 5-10 years sdcc is going to be bleeding attendees and experienced con staff will want to go somewhere new. steal those employees. offer them better pay. get their experience instead of having random twitch employees plan an event for like 40k people (can't find the numbers rn, it's prbably closer to 50k).

another thing: they should be poaching from or at least learning from theme parks. queueing mechanics are no joke-- disneyland has spent decades figuring out the best way to set up lines & maintain a good experience for park attendees. defunctland has some great videos on this, but suffice to say, nothing twitchcon did this time worked.

i think a lot of it's been obfuscated by people who weren't at the con or folks who didn't see each separate meet n greet, but here's how those were set up & why exactly they went horribly.

first thing: all meet n greet lines started as one big line. you walked into the second floor area, you got into a huge line, and then at the start of the actual meet n greet area they directed you to each line. for the first two days this entailed just. letting people through whenever there was space in people's lines. so rather than setting up long queues for each streamer, there was one huge line. this fucking sucked for people trying to see smaller ccs, because they were stuck in this huge line full of people trying to get into already-full lines. at one point we saw michael mcchill's line with like three people in it and there were probably three hundred people in the one huge line. there were probably michael mcchill viewers in there! but they were getting shafted by the giant fucking line.

lumen and i went to the first meet n greet at 9:30 on friday, which worked differently than all the others (and saturday's were spectacularly worse for other reasons). we figured karl, sapnap, gnf, and ranboo would fill up before we got there, so we were ready to hop in smajor's line. i'll note that con staff at this point clearly had no fucking idea what they were getting into, and there was not nearly enough of them.

the way they were doing lines at that session was that they had already filled up the aforementioned four ccs' lines, so they were opening the front of the ropes to just corral people into the other ccs' lines. someone opened it for us to hop in scott's line and that's what we did, but other folks thought they could still get into the other lines and got stuck waiting in front. we found out later that what they did was take a bunch of people into overflow queues to the side of the meet n greet area, where they were left to rot, because staff forgot about them or there wasn't enough time. later they (kind of) fixed this problem, but not the larger problem that the meet n greet lines were not big enough and were set up poorly from the start.

here is the entire second floor; i've circled the meet n greet area

i would estimate that the entire area for the meet n greets took up the size of like. a small soccer field. like max 1500 sq ft. probably smaller honestly but everythings becoming a blur.

this is the meet n greets including the entire room they were in, bc they shared space with the food court and artist alley (which was, btw, way too fucking small also)

meet n greets should have had their entire own floor. even for non-mcyt folks there were enormous lines and probably really frustrated people.

to add to this, for every meet n greet they didnt have enough lines. not joking. they were combining streamers lines. so sneeg & boomer shared one line (insane, bc they were the two biggest mcyt guys at that meet n greet session and it was while everyone who didnt make it to the dsmp panel was gunning for something else to do), hannah & tapl shared a line, and im pretty sure karl, gnf, and sapnap shared a line. i dont remember what their deal actually was, and im positive this was partially by ccs' request (i think karlnap + gnf wanted to be together for meet n greets, and same with hannah & tapl, though i doubt boomer and sneeg have talked enough to have requested that).

to add to this, i have no doubt that part of the accessibility issues with the meet n greets was because of the lack of space. there was no clear exit at the start of the con, and even later it was unclear which direction to go.

the other unfortunate thing (that twitchcon staff should be planning for) is that ccs want to take their time with each person and chat, but if they do so they meet less people. this is how you get ranboo meeting ~1200 people for 4 hours at vidcon. not to say he sucks for that, but its not feasible for anyone to do that, and im sure he was completely dead on his feet from that.

lumen and i also went to hannah's meet n greet on saturday, which went marginally better in general bc we arrived an hour and ten minutes early. we still waited a long time, but we got to see her & tapl and it was cool. however they had the same problem as friday of way too many people and instead of letting people into specific lines they just. kept the huge line. towards the end of the line they started putting people in overflow, which again, is where they waited to rot.

today we went to eret's meet n greet as our final hoo-rah (lmao) of the event. we showed up probably an hour and twenty minutes early. we got to the front of eret's line maybe five minutes before the end of the session. they had put us in overflow, and at this point actually were asking who people were there to see and were keeping count to send people away, but some of those people had already waited in line for probably 30min or more. sunday was by far the best they managed but still not good at all.

other HUGE problem with the lines: they did not anticipate mcyt fans showing up in droves. apparently con staff thought people would disperse to various events rather than congregating at particular events and this is part of why they didn't place dsmp events in larger venues. second part of this issue of anticipation is that they didn't plan for how many people would wait in line, despite how big a space was. well over 2k people waited in line for the dsmp panel. twitchcon did not even account for any kind of line (friday was a complete shitshow, you dont even understand) and were left floundering.

something else to note is all twitch communications said lines were to start 30min before events. on friday people were lined up 3 hours before the dsmp panel. these two things do not compute, and they mean staff were not watching the lines and directing them properly from the start, which helps explain why they lost control entirely.

so yes the mobbing that happened on friday is quite honestly unsurprising.

for sat and sunday, they realized they needed to get their shit together, so first thing is that they made a little area for disabled & priority people to sit to get into the glitch theater before everyone else, and there were way more staff present alongside security. they also had signs and staff throughout the line making sure people understood where things started and ended, how far into the hallway they were allowed to be, and when they had no hope of getting into the event. some level of improvement, but there was also some ridiculous shit they were pulling.

during several events yesterday they had like ten staff members holding pieces of rope together, like kindergartners, and were using them to bodily block line movement and crossing. so for a bit they would open a path into the theater for people waiting in line, then they would stop that line and allow cross traffic, because again, this was a full fucking hallway where people needed to walk. this was by far the stupidest thing ive ever seen and ive worked for colleges where organizers didnt remember students need to eat food.

not about lines anymore, but to address the foam pit, im gonna clarify a few things because people seem confused.

firstly, there were actually two foam pits on the con floor (and a ball pit by the entrance, but its irrelevant here). one was at the wendys booth, where people were hitting each other with foam french toast sticks over a foam pit. this pit was higher than the lenovo one but still a little iffy. they did not shut it down after adriana was injured at the other booth.

the booth that was a genuine problem was the lenovo booth, where they had a foam pit that i would say reached maybe 3/4 up my calf. i would generously call it a foot and a half high including the foam bits. people were similarly handed sticks to hit each other with and loud announcers said a bunch of shit into microphones. anyway. i took a photo of the foam pit today when it was not being used (although the booth was still open! people were still using the lenovo products to play little games three feet from where adriana broke her back!)

it's hard to see but it is not deep at all, and whats underneath is just the con floor, which is concrete and maybe a single layer of carpet. at most some of those foam bits reach a foot and a half, maybe two feet.

according to some folks the safe depth for foam pits without soft landing pads is like 6-8 feet deep (possibly meant to include the soft landing pads, im not a gymnastics person) which means it was a fraction of how safe it should have been. also i cannot get over the fact that they kept the booth open after someone BROKE THEIR FUCKING BACK and that wendys kept their pit running what the fuck is wrong with these people.

anyway the big thing i want to stress is that twitchcon is absolutely liable, at least morally, for this, but lenovo is absolutely on the hook for it as well. im not sure exactly how convention safety works for this, but i would guess its mostly on the exhibitors to provide proper safety. would not be shocked if the convention center is also liable, but again, im not a lawyer. i havent seen many people talking about lenovo being at fault so i want people to know thats part of it as well.

i also wanna address some of the more stupid/baseless rumors i've seen. the stuff about drink spiking seems to be because of advice some folks were giving out about not taking drinks from strangers because of the possibility of having your drink spiked, not the reality, but people took that out of hand and spread it like it had happened, and other folks used tweets from 2019 twitchcon where that did actually happen and it became a huge rumor. i have not heard a single cc or attendee from this year say their drinks were spiked.

second thing: sykkuno was not kicked out of twitchcon, he was asked to leave artist alley bc there was a huge crowd forming around him. this is a small thing but its bugging me that its being spread. it sucks that he couldnt hang out there but he's way too big of a streamer to be wandering the con without security, this is why they're supposed to let ccs on the con floor & into artist alley before/after everyone else is gone. that's what they did at vidcon at least.

third thing that's REALLY been bugging me: there is absolutely no confirmation that that person stole gnf's water bottle. they took a pic touching it on the table and then a pic of them holding an aquafina water bottle, which is the water they were selling throughout the con. if they actually stole it i suspect there would be a video. regardless, even if they did, they definitely did it as a reference to the smplive confession (which is itself a reference to a kpop stan copypasta. no one stole cooper's water bottle.) and not to be creepy, and they doubled down to get twitter clout. the smplive situation is also just entirely different, i know y'all think the serious stream jokes are funny but mcyt stans were just starting to exist and thats why that stream happened. all these streamers now think stans are fine so that would never happen. go watch lumenvale's video essay for the love of g-d.

another thing: most people were wearing their masks. i don't know where the idea came from that people weren't but i guarantee you 99% of mcyt fans were wearing masks the entire time, and most other people were as well. they made you verify your vaccination status or turn in covid tests also; i keep seeing straight up lies that they weren't checking for this but they absolutely were.

"unaccompanied minors" is also a meaningless thing to say; 14+ minors did not need to have an adult, and teenagers are perfectly capable of going to a con by themselves. sometimes they will be annoying or weird but that does not mean they need to be followed everywhere by a parent. i can also guarantee that a solid number of the freaks stalking ccs outside hotels and outside the partner lounge (no one's talking about that but i saw that personally and it was def happening, fucking creepy!) were fully grown adults.

also this is just a little thing but they had an affiliate kiosk with a little gift bag (that included shoelaces lmao) and they also had a pronouns bin at it that had literally like three she/her pins. lumen and i dug through it for several minutes to find a single one and i saw women digging all three days bc they apparently just. didnt buy enough she/her pins. which is a bad look already and then combined with the issues with one block at a time is just heinous.

random note at the end bc i just remembered it but they also had a huge line outside to get into the convention center and then a huge line for badge pickup and a huge line to get onto the floor, which only opened at 9 despite the building opening at 8. anyone who wanted to get to morning meet n greets early got kind of fucked by this and i dont understand why they had so many lines outside and then sucked at the lines inside. fucking nuts.

[thankskenpenders]

MORE behind the scenes Sonic info and other tidbits from the BumbleKast as I continue to get caught up. These range from September 2022 to early December. (This means there are spoilers for Frontiers in here.)

They're doing episodes even more often now, so I've got a lot to catch up on and I'm sure most of y'all do too!

1. The IDW comics are, in fact, canon to the games now. Ian was a little coy when first asked about it, saying he "would not argue against it" if people said the IDW comics were canon to the games now. "I have made it clear that the comics follow the lead of the games, so… as long as there's no contradictions anywhere, we're good." So, yeah, come on. The comics are canon.

2. Ian apparently pitched another idea for incorporating Sticks into the IDW series last year that was once again shot down, although he says this only makes him want to dig his heels in and try harder. (I'm assuming most of you are already aware of her shout out in Frontiers, confirming she's out there, somewhere...)

3. If Surge was a streamer, Ian thinks she would just grief people on Fortnite

4. On the October 7th, 2022 show, Ian says there is a behind-the-scenes answer for how the depiction of Silver's future in '06 can fit together with Rivals and Rush... but he can't talk about it right now.

It's hard to convey his tone through text, so just imagine he's saying all this with a big, defeated shrug:

"Here's the thing. Working on something else, I actually did get a straight answer, and it was... frustratingly simple. And, it's like, 'That works. [sigh] Okay!' No, I can't get into it - that's all private work stuff - but maybe it'll come to light eventually. But... there is an answer. And it works. And I kinda feel dumb for not thinking of it."

I honestly have no idea what this could be if it's something Ian hadn't considered, because he has talked about popular theories and readings before, such as the reading that Blaze was transported to the Sol Dimension at the end of '06. Maybe we'll hear about it in the comics, since Silver and Blaze are both back right now, or maybe they'll be the subject of a TailsTube episode.

5. Froggy is not sentient in any way he really is just a frog

6. Unrelated to Sonic, Ian was asked "who is best pony" and he said Fluttershy. My longest yeah boy ever dot jpeg

7. With Surge and Kit originally being pitched as purely synthetic beings before Sega suggested they be cyborgs instead, Ian says they would've struggled with whether or not they're even real, as opposed to the end product where they struggle with not knowing who they were before Starline modified them

8. When the female cast of Archie Sonic stopped getting drawn so busty all the time that was, in fact, a very specific editorial mandate from someone at Archie. Sega, on the other hand, has never cared.

9. Now that we're back to Classic and Modern being part of one nebulous timeline and the divide being more of a branding thing, Ian explicitly confirmed that the Classic-themed IDW Sonic comics are set in the past of the mainline IDW Sonic comics. They're set sometime after the events of Mania, and before all the Modern stuff. Just don't think too hard about it

But hey! If it's any consolation, this now means all the Classic characters like Mighty, Nack, and Honey are out there off-screen in the world of the regular comics, even if the casts are remaining separate for branding reasons for now. It also means Shadow is out there being held in a pod in a maximum security off-shore military prison during the events of all the lighthearted Classic comics lmao

10. Ian reiterates yet again that he's still pushing to try and get the Freedom Fighters back in some capacity where he can (as are others). He also says that he's pushing for them to return as a group rather than requesting individual members because he believes that's the best shot at getting any of them through Sega's approval process.

(I can't remember when the last time this came up was, but Ian has also implied that he thinks their best shot is to return as Classic characters since their one game appearance is Spinball.)

11. Ian outright confirms that the forward-looking character arcs in Frontiers are reflective of what he would like to see out of the main cast moving forward in the games. Not surprising since that's, like... the whole point of those arcs! But nice that he wants it to only be the beginning.

Ian does also say, however, that he's not guaranteed to return as the writer for future games since he's still a freelancer, but to editorialize here, I don't see why they wouldn't want him back for the next project.

12. On the subject of Amy's characterization in Frontiers, Ian personally pins her general seriousness mostly on the fact that she's the companion for the first island, where the mysterious and somber tone Sega wanted for the story is being established and Sonic is still trying to figure out what to do. He says that she'd probably have been more bubbly if she was interacting with Sonic on the second or third island, after he starts to get his bearings. I hoped this was the reason why she felt a little dry compared to Knuckles and Tails, so it's nice to hear this isn't the new direction for Amy or anything.

13. While "officially" Sage's name is just an anagram of Sega and a reference to her wisdom, Ian seems to be cheekily implying that it's also a nod to the annual Sonic Amateur Games Expo. Hell yeah.

14. When asked to clear up some Frontiers lore from the Egg Memos, Ian explicitly confirmed that some of the Ancients left the Starfall Islands and went on to devolve into the Chao as we know them today over the course of tens of thousands of years. He says, however, that this doesn't mean that Ancients and Chao are literally the same species, comparing it to the difference between humans and australopithecus. But yes, they're related.

[blockgamepirate]

I've gone through a lot of emotions since Shubble's stream, but the one that I feel the most right now, after going through several layers of mental barriers, is actually RELIEF

For years we've been watching this guy and his interactions with people and feeling this sense of frustration and unease that we haven't wanted to talk about because it would have had such bad implications on a popular streamer who so many people love and who's best friends with the streamers we love, and always having to go "oh it's probably just a bit" or "they probably talked about this off stream" or "he probably just doesn't realise what he's doing" etc. etc.

Always thinking it wasn't worth the drama to call out his behaviours as shitty

Not worth pointing out how he constantly managed to convince everyone that he was smarter than anyone else and always right, making his friends feel stupid and insecure even when they were actually right and he was wrong

Not worth pointing out how weird he was around his female friends, not worth pointing out how he would bring them into social situations only to then dismiss them, ignore them and push them aside

Not worth pointing out how controlling he was towards all his friends

Not worth pointing out.... except in private, with friends we felt safe talking about these things with

We have Discord logs of these discussions going back three years, these discussions about how we saw him do something shitty on stream to one of his friends that we cared about and how shitty it made us feel... but it would have been wrong to say that publicly, to parasocially accuse a famous stranger of being a bad friend. It wasn't our place to make that callout

And we could never know for sure if he really was a bad friend or if it just seemed that way because all we saw was his streamer persona

So yes, THANK YOU SHUBBLE

I just feel like my own trust in my own feelings and rationality has been validated

(Obviously it's a bad idea to think you can tell when someone you literally don't know is actually secretly an abuser; this sort of thing is constantly used as a weapon to cancel streamers some people don't like. Including by manipulative CCs who are very talented at making themselves seem like the victim and rallying their fans against their enemies)

(But maybe it's good to learn to recognise some warning signs anyway, even if you don't outright accuse them of anything)

[olderthannetfic]

I think a lot of the lack of femslash criticisms also miss the fact that fandom emerges from canon and will reflect, for better or worse, what is already in that canon. So if we have a majority male cast, with the main character being male and the rival being male and the mentor-figure being male and the villains being largely male... I mean, just in terms of numbers and which relationships have the most emotional energy, fandom largely will have majority m/m. And genre fiction, which fandom tends to gravitate towards, is heavily biased towards male characters.

(And even when male side characters get a lot of shipping... usually they're fitting other common popular fandom tropes or they're essentially more fanon than an actual thing people ship-ship. You probably aren't going to be shipping the Female Love Interest™ with another side female character except in a Pair The Spares or background ship sort of way, but Those Two Guys are probably gonna get shipped and typically they're going to be dudes. And even those kinds of het or slash ships can come across as deceivingly popular when they actually aren't, because they're more like popular fanon so they pop up a lot in fics but only in the background rather than the main focus, and those are same ships I often see being brought up as "if you can ship two background men then why aren't you shipping this femslash ship!" wank alongside anomalies like Klux)

Even the Among Us fandom which has the gender-ambiguous characters often interpreted as male. Yes, from what I can tell m/m is way more popular but in terms of genre and setting which will influence how people write for it, it's mostly male characters. It's essentially The Thing In Space and The Thing had a male cast while Alien is notable for being an exception by having a female protagonist in that kind of space setting, and even then, it was still majority male characters in terms of raw numbers, all of which will influence fanfic writers and artists. Plus from what I've read there's often some kind of gender fuckery going on with the Imposter so m/m might even been entirely accurate for a lot of those fics. So while there are perhaps valid criticisms about the lack of female characters in those genres in general that fandom then reflects, it's unreasonable to suggest it's just fandom hating women. Plus everything we've already covered around how it's also related to what a majority queer women (and trans-people-who-were-AFAB) with potentially complicated feelings about female bodies find hot and fun.

But go to the magical girl genre and it's majority femslash, just like how even on ao3 any buddy-cop show with a male and female lead will primarily be het. And when there is a female relationship given the most focus, or when it's canon, the fandom will obviously be majority femslash even on ao3. And I get that it's frustrating when the genres you enjoy have a dearth of women in them or shittily written women, and I agree that we should do better with that, but it's not fandom's responsibility to do so (and it's not like there isn't an entire subgenre of fix-it fics that aren't "what if this female character was written well"). It feels kinda mean to say it, but if you want femslash right now you might want to look in different genres where the protagonist and the most significant characters related to them are all women, and one without a canon male love interest (or a really boring, blank slate one no one cares about).

--

I don't watch Xena for the dudes, definitely. Haha.

Re the Among Us thing, someone said a lot of the fic was clearly inspired by streamers anyway, so that's where the genders are coming from.

[hey-i-am-trying]

It is really telling that whenever I saw people talking negatively about an egg it was always one of the fem eggs. Either Em or Sunny or Pomme or Lullah or sometimes Leo. They were always “too dramatic” “too sensitive” “too whiny” in comparison to their male siblings, as if that isn’t textbook misogyny. Anyway, Empanada was one of my favorite eggs and I think she had girl’s night parties with all of her moms and Sunny and any of her sisters that wanted to join.

I will not say that there was 'no' hate towards masc eggs. Richas would get random hates comments(some pretty racist one too, not gonna lie). When Bobby was alive he also receive some shit comments. Some people said on twitter that Dapper should have died after Purgatory to make Bad sad, they even wrote fanfics about Bolas killing Dapper(yeah,I saw that shit).

I think the problem is the frequence and consistency, the fems eggs were attacked for the most stupid fucking reason in a almost daily based. And is honestly a reflection on how this community treats the female streamers too, they are okay to be there if they are just going to do what the masc stremers or eggs want, they can sit pretty and not express strong emotions about any topic.

In the eyes of this mysoginistic community:

Fems are not allowed political opinions even if it is fictional politics (still mad about Baghera during the election arc, come fight me).

Fems are not allowed to be angry or upset, even of someone dies but they are especially not allowed to be upset if it is with a masc friend or family member.

But they are also not allowed not care, they can't be cold.

They also can't interfer in masc people's lore.

But also, if they don't interfer, they do not care for that character and they are a fake friend that actually never cared.

Fems are not allowed to have different opinion than their masc friends.

If they have a strong personality, they are whiny, bossy and too arrogant.

If they have a quiter personality, they are taking up space.

Fem streamers also have to deal with the most pathetic stuff, like complaints about Mouse's and Bagi's voices, because the entire existence of this women should cater to the audience

Also see what happend when you mix mysoginy with racism and xenophobia because oh my god if Teaduo didn't had to deal with this shit a lot.

Twitter just likes to erase that it was Tina that started the to flirt with Bagi, they like to say Bagi

(or when then they say that the Bagi's fans forced the ship to happen, which is hilarious when most of us either shipped her with Baghera or Niki in the beginning).

"oh, no, this latin women is too imposing and loud to her soft-spoken asian friend to do anything about the minecraft couple they both are rping in" Get a grip

The women and fem eggs of this island deserve all the girl night parties, they also all deserve a gun, they are also deserved much better, so much better.

[wildpeachfarm]

Talking about the radfem movement, I think the problem is that everyone is treating it like they did with the start of the incel movement, and they are comparable

the radfems and the incels are two sides of the same coin, they started out with good intentions, helping people (turned only men) with loneliness and feeling like they can’t help themselves, and helping people (turned only women and soon only biological women) fight against injustice that makes everyone miserable (men have to be masculine, women have to be feminine) and turned into a us against them movement. The them being anyone who tries to reason with them.

I am older and saw the start of the incel movement where they were just made fun of and now the radfems are coming out of the just being made fun of stage and a lot of these impressionable younger CC’s can get caught up in it and then influenced their impressionable young audience.

if you want to see where the radfem movement is headed realize that the incel movement is why we have the men’s rights people and alpha males

oof I could talk about this forever

I think there is definitely a greater beast of a redfem movement just happening in the general internet sphere right now for sure (and I'm sure irl too but I've just seen it amongst more chronically online individuals). And it's always good to keep that in the back of your head when you start encountering that "its us against them" type of language in a way that can be steered towards something ultimately damaging. It definitely depends on who you're raised around but especially on tiktok (again more of that chronically online crowd) I see a lot of young women beginning to speak rhetoric that is making me concerned.

I don't think CCs are necessarily facilitating a place for this to take place at all, and I'm not going to say that Hannah is either because she hasn't.

I do think however, that if you're taking a place in an online space as a CC and pushing very actively for feminism or women's rights or anything like that (all very good causes and things that should be discussed) there is probably always going to be radfem people who attract to it because they think they are fighting for the same things. That is just bound to happen with a lot of these female CCs who advocate for women a lot and very passionately. I've seen it happen to feminist youtubers, other twitch streamers, and tiktokers. It's bound to happen.

I mention Hannah as an example simply because I am seeing people I used to know become very close in her community and even hannah herself following their twitch account- when I have seen them already start down the radfem path which of course worries me a lot for everyone involved including Hannah.

I doubt its even something she's aware of but I think with the rise of this type of stuff, it will only be a matter of time before female CCs will need to address it or perhaps change their approach due to the changing internet environment and language just like language changed with the incel movement.

[fiyasgideon]

Hi there. Any mdtb AU fic recs (modern setting preferably or unique settings) that you could share? Thanks :)

Sure thing! I'm gonna try to list some of the less popular (around 500 or less kudos) fics that I love so there's a higher chance people haven't read them yet, and also, so they'll get more love.

Forward by @raendown

Modern AU where Madara meets Tobirama again at a soccer game. Very cute and Raendown's works are all amazing. Honestly, they have a ton of good Modern AU's, so I'd just go check their profile out and search their Modern AU tag.

Get Yourself Someone Who Can Do Both by Gracelte

A funny modern AU Valentine's fic where every year for Valentine's, Madara pretends to go get stood up at a restaurant to get free meals.

The Boss's Sweetheart series by Sylencia

An overall amazing series, I think the second one is my favorite just because of the scene they make at their date and how Madara tries to make up for it afterwards.

In Need of Good Food by @wisiaden

A very funny food fic where Tobirama has a ton of food allergies, but doesn't let that stop him from enjoying renown chef Madara's food.

To Whom it May Concern by Honks

A very cute and funny Modern fic with an online crochet teacher Tobirama, who goes by Suiton, and a Madara who is a very good son who is just trying to help his mother out by emailing Suiton questions about his pattern videos.

Of Fungi And Voyria by @messier-47

This is actually a Stardew Valley au, though no knowledge of the game is needed (as I have none and still enjoyed it). It's got some heavy themes though, so mind the tags. Totally worth it if you can read it though, it's what got me into Messier's fics (which are all amazing, especially the spice).

Two Of A Kind by midnightfeast

This is a MadaTobi fic in a kinda loose way, as Madara is an inmate at a prison, and Tobirama is a horse, but they bond. It's cute, and a little funny seeing Madara become the Horse Girl tm. Definitely worth a read.

Angel of Vengeance by Makiaru

Modern cop Tobirama who requires help from a hired killer Madara for a special case after something happens and his suspect walks free, allowing them to kidnap his younger brothers.

And now, for some spice!

No Matter the Distance by Sylencia

Modern AU long distance relationship with some nice phone sex.

Play Games With Me by Sir_Thirst_A_Lot

A funny modern gaming streamer Tobirama and Madara fic with lots of fluff and UST.

Working Relationship by CreativeSweets

A modern superhero au with kleptomaniac Tobirama and superhero Madara falling for each other. In mask or out of mask? I won't say. It's a good story on its own, but it does have some spice in it.

Ride For Me by Pengress

A spicy fic set in a modern sex club where Madara goes to let off some steam by himself. Tobirama likes what he sees and maybe wants to show Madara how much better things would be if he let Tobirama join. For now though he can't touch Madara, so he'll have to get creative.

All in the Technique by @illogicals-blog

Tobirama moves back home and rejoins the Uchiha owned dojo where Madara has become an instructor. Lots of UST, and many innuendos about working out.

Send them Packing by @ellionne

A funny modern female Madara exacting revenge on some men who decide to spread fake stories about sleeping with her by pretending to have a dick they apparently "forgot" to mention in their stories, and a sec shop worker Tobirama who is all too willing to help her, in more ways than one.

If there's a Modern AU fic you like that I didn't list, it's either because it's something I've already linked before in a previous rec list, which you can find here or here, or it's from Raendown or Sylencia, who pretty much dominate the Modern AU tags, and you should definitely just go to their pages and read all their fics.

[simpliao]

hi darling, how you doing? i’m so in love with your domestic series, i can’t stop reading it!! also i feel like schlatt saying he hates sharing has been a bit of a theme,,,,, if possible, could you write something about him being jealous with some nice fluff at the end? thank youu 🤍

your hero in shinning armour ; (irl) schatt x reader

– part one , – part two , – part three , – part four , – part five , – part six

summary : so what if it was a stupid fake relationship in a stupid game? knowing he couldn’t stomaching his lover with someone else even in a fake world was enough motivation to hijack her stream.

info : jealousy, fluff, swearing, sugary sweet pet names, minecraft, and an afab + she/her pronouns reader.

a/n : it's always wonderful to hear ! jealous schlatt is honestly one of my favourite things in this world, it fits with my own hc's of his character being insecure with his relationship; and his undying love and yearn to show off the most gorgeous thing in his life.

Schlatt was always a believer in privacy; he hated when other people harassed him to know his business. And yet, there was one personal aspect of his life he felt the urge to always overshare; his beloved wife. Perhaps it stemmed from his mere denial that he could ever land such a woman, one of strong will, refreshing sense of humour, and looks that could instantly have him on his knees. It was more likely that he felt the need to assert and remind everyone in the damn world who owned his pretty girl's heart, not to say she didn't have his over lock and key either.

She made numerous appearances on stream, and having been a guest in every podcast he owned while also appearing on others alongside him. And yet for a lot of their careers it was just that: appearances. They each had their own friend group that they interacted with and made content with, hardcore fans would know, but newcomers or part-time viewers could easily not know of her marriage to the other big Internet personality. It wasn't that they were ashamed to show off each other to viewers, every other tweet or post from either would be a photo of their lover usually in candid photos. It was just that marriage can feel suffocating, draining even when you see the same person all the time at all hours of the day; not to say that either of them regretted it.

They both needed time to be their own person and not just 'that one streamer's husband/wife', this was their way of keeping their relationship outside of work. And it generally went pretty smoothly, schedules needed to be rearranged for it to work, but in the end everything worked out. Or at least it should have. Although the fact was they both discussed their big projects amongst each other, not everything tended to get mentioned; likely because there was just so much to talk to and one could only talk about work for so long. This happened on Y/n's part, with so many things she balanced in her online career, it was bound to be that she forgot to mention something.

And really she didn't think it was that big of a deal, she was a minor character in a role-play smp composed of her friends and friend's of those friends, and it involved a fake relationship that she genuinely thought nothing of. They followed a loose-ish script, she was here on a favour from a friend that figured she could play the role of innocent female that had an arranged marriage but actually falls in love with her arranged husband role pretty well. The problem was that she was playing the role too well.

Their interactions spread like wildfire, and the ship between her character self and her friend's grew exponentially that in inevitably ended up on Schlatt's timeline. He followed a few fanart accounts that he found especially talented, and one had retweeted a very good piece of art that depicted his wife in a romantic scene with someone who was not him. When they had first revealed their relationship, he thought that all other ships between his lover and anyone else died out; because she was married. Although this seemed less than dead, and scrolling through the tag of their ship name (just knowing it existed made him shudder) he found many detailed artworks (and some discussing fan fictions) about this.

He of course ran to his darling about it, trying not to sound sour about it. She was laid out on the couch, cuddling with Jambo whilst mindlessly scrolling through her phone. "Hi sweetheart, hi Jambo– what the fuck is this?" He took a seat near her legs, while extending his phone for her to see; it was the fanart he had originally seen. "Oh, yeah, I'm like married on the SMP I told you about." She had set down her phone and moved her position upright as she moved Jambo off her chest to hold him like a baby, their baby. She thought nothing of it, but seeing her husbands (half) jokingly pouty face she made sure to lean in and kiss his cheek. "It's sorta like the Dream SMP you were apart of, people marry each other for story purposes and whatever. I'm only there as a favour, we both know the kind of fanbase doing Minecraft content can attract nowadays." A light chuckle left him, but he was certainly still salty. "I trust you toots, you know the thought of you with anyone else irks me."

In said tag that he scrolled through until his eyes burned, there were very real stream clips of his Y/n jokingly flirt with this guy. He wasn't mad at her, and he certainly wasn't going to stop based on his own insecurities; she was just doing her job. However... That didn't exactly stop him from messaging this SMP's creator on Twitter.

I want to join your SMP.

Back and forth was exchanged, going through this creator, their friends who managed the story and being practically begged to not drag them into some kind of controversy (his name alone had a chance to stir uproar). And with some convincing, maybe just a little bit of 'if you have me you know viewers will spike', and he was scheduled to make a surprise appearance and literally crash her Minecraft wedding; all while only the SMP's creator, and a handful of others knowing. Y/n and her fake fiancée not having been told.

The day of the lore stream, inside the Schlatt household nothing seemed amiss; in fact it seemed to be oddly cheery. An ear-to-ear smile retained on his face, she knew he was hiding something but couldn't imagine what it could be. "You seem in a good mood today. Wanna share what's got your spirits so high?" She questioned lightheartedly, she loved seeing her husband happy but he just wasn't the type to be for no reason. He set down his steaming mug of bitter black coffee upon the counter, moving in closer to cradle her movingly. "I reminded myself that you're mine." A soft awe escaped the smaller woman's lips, completely oblivious to what should happen once she starts work. "I told you about how I'm marrying this guy on stream today right?" A soft mhm left his lips, "at the end of the day you're mine." She hummed in agreement to this, his comment flying over her head cause how was she supposed to know he was going to crash their wedding?

The stream was going fairly good, in-game text having been turned off to look more cinematic; the notification of a jschlatt joining the game completely not shown. The reasoning behind their union being that of alliance between nations, and just as she'd say those fateful words that she hadn't uttered since her actual wedding; a tnt explosion went off.

And who else's Minecraft character came running in but that of her husband? "WHAT'S UP FUCKERS?" Immediately was heard after he had joined the discord call, having joined the server mere moments before. The name of her lover slipping off her lips in surprise "Schlatt?" This was not apart of the script. "Y/n! Darling, who is that?" "I could be saying the same thing, get your hands off my fucking wife!" Maybe some part of his over the top persona was real burning jealousy, despite the fact they were all interacting in a children's game. It unravelled into a duel to the death, and a subplot he made up along the way that they'd been sneaking out to meet in the dead of night, and that they were true soulmates. He described himself as her hero in shinning armour, proclaiming that he would save her from the forced matrimony. It was adorable, and playing along she didn't miss a beat. "It's true... I'm sorry, I never really wanted to marry you." And the whole thing ended with Schlatt up and killing her would be husband and running away with her.

Once the cameras stopped running, each left their home offices (he didn't want to actually go to their rented out office space out of laziness) and met up in the kitchen, cheeky grin akin to that of earlier that morning. A small smile upon hers, "so that's what had you in such a good mood?" "Maybe a little." He was quick to wrap her up in his arms, catching a glimpse of the wedding ring that she never took off; a flood of warmth and glee washed over him. His own wedding band reminding him of who always waited at home for him. Even just the quick peck of her lips was like a surge of dopamine; just having her around tested his self control. "Were you jealous, by chance?" Her teasing words spoke a rhetorical question, she already knew the answer to that. She expected him to vehemently reject the notion; but with those eyes of pure devotion he spoke without a speck of sarcasm.

"Yeah, I really was." A toothy grin accompanying his words, hands gripping at her upper arms in a gentle hold. "I... It's so fucking stupid, I know. I watched your stream clips and you looked so radiant and... I was scared he'd make you happier than I would. I know maybe ruining some part of whatever narrative they were trying to write was slightly extreme, but I'd do anything not to lose you." Her eyes had this soft gaze upon him that made everything feel okay, "I'm sorry I ruined your stream sweetheart, know that I asked permission first." "There's nothing to be sorry about, if anything I'm sorry." She huffed out, a feeling of guilt overcoming her heart. "I should've asked you how you felt about it first, no one could ever make me happier than you can. Please don't worry yourself over it, and I'm sorry for making you feel like that."

It may have felt slightly dramatic and cheesy, lord knows Schlatt would never let this kind of tender moment between the two ever get let out as to not damage his macho persona. But he was human too, and at the end of the day sometimes he needed those sappy sweet words of reassurance; he knows he isn't perfect but it's nice to know he's enough.

[sdr2lovemail]

If you're pokemon requests are still Open could I request a fic with Iono and a female reader? Reader is the opposite of Iono she wears a lot of dark colors is really shy and has a Umbreon for a partner. Iono introduces reader to her stream. I love Iono, my streamer gf

Iono is such a fun character. Her stream was so cool as a trailer too! I hope you enjoy Anon!

Iono Introducing her Girlfriend to Her Stream!

“It’s time!” The door to your dorm bursts open. On the other side stood Iono with her usual wide smile.

Looking up from your homework, you open your mouth to respond. Before you got the chance, your girlfriend continued. “I know what you’re thinkin’! Oh, my dear, Iono. What time could it possibly be? Well, it’s time for the ‘Iono Zone!’” Her covered hands move to squish your cheeks.

“Oh.” You blinked. “Do you need help on set again?” 

Iono pulls back as her magnemite hair clips swirl around her head. “Yes, I do! But not in the way you might think, nyohoho!” She winked. “You will meet me at my sweet set in thirty minutes. I already called you a taxi, too.” 

The gym leader sprints out your door before popping her head back into the door frame. “Make sure to bring cutie Umbreon with you!” 

You arrive at the ‘Iono Zone’ set with Umbreon at your side. Though your girlfriend is nowhere to be seen, a producer runs to your side.

“Perfect, you're here early. That gives more time for hair and makeup to work.” The producer grabs your wrist and drags you further into the building. Your pokemon follows in a panicked run.

As you sit in a chair, two stylists get to work. “ But I already have makeup on. And I’m just here to help Iono.” You’re silenced as lipstick is applied to your lips.

“Relax, it’s just a bit of a touch-up. It’s so the cameras pick it up better.” The producer sighed. “We won’t have to do much. Your look is already so bold!” True to their words, the makeup artists apply light fixes. Their touch was gentle yet not enough to calm your nerves.

Your heart began to race, and your palms became clammy. “Cameras? Iono didn’t say anything about cameras!” Umbreon ran its head against your leg in a soothing attempt. 

The producer covers their mouth with a hand. “Oops. That was supposed to be a surprise. If Iono asks, I didn’t tell you anything, okay?” 

As if summoned by her name, Iono pops up next to the makeup table. “‘Ello!” The producer leaves rather quickly. “Alright, cutie! It’s time for the world to be entrapped by your beauty!” She nudged the stylists to the side, nuzzling up to you.

“But, Iono! Are you sure this is a good idea? What if your views drop because of it?” 

“Views-shmiews! I wanna show off my sweet, sweet girlfriend! Besides, who wouldn’t be interested in their favorite streamer's private life. It’s gonna draw in viewers like Venomoth to a flame.” She exclaimed. “If they love me as much as they say, they’ll be happy for me.” 

You fiddle with your fingers. You’re not quite sure what to say. Iono means the world to you. All you want is to see her happy. Though is it worth it to be in front of the cameras? In front of her many viewers? 

A smooth hand falls atop yours, calming your fingers and racing thoughts. Iono’s face holds an earnest look. “If you really don’t wanna do it, I won’t make you.” Her thumb grazes your knuckles. “Your comfort comes before, like, a million views. No! Way more than that!” 

“I…” You start, not meeting her bright gaze. “I’ll be on the stream. This is a big part of you. I want to do this with you.”

With a squeal of excitement, Iono leaps from the chair. “For reals?! Yesss! This is gonna break the internet!” She leans forward to press energetic kisses against your face. A nearby makeup artist reprimands her, saying she’ll smudge your makeup. They’re ignored as Iono keeps kissing you with newfound vigor.

“This’ll be a high-voltage stream everyone will wanna see! Come on! You too, cutie Umbreon.” 

Sitting among the vibrant colors of the ‘Iono Zone,’ you feel out of place. The dark palette of your outfit clashed against the set. You run your hands against Umbreon’s sleek coat, trying not to think of how many people are about to see you.

“Okay! Ze plan is simple. I’ll introduce the show like normal, get the audience reaaaal warmed up for yah.” Iono points her sleeve-covered hand toward you. “Then, you’ll give ‘em the old razz ‘n dazz! After that, the chat’ll be explodin’ with messages, so we’ll spend the rest of the stream answerin’ ‘em.” 

Your thumb rubs against the golden hoop on Umbreon’s head. “What if they don’t like me? I mean, we’re both so different.” 

“Say what?! The net loves that kinda stuff. That whole opposites attract thing, ya know. All you gotta do is show ‘em that cutie-pie smile of yours. They’ll be trapped in your love ball!” 

“If you say so…” You trail off.

Iono leaps to your side, giving you one last smooch on the lips. “There! A super duper special kiss for good luck. Not that we’ll need it, haha!” She stands and faces one of the many cameras. “You’ll do great!”

A producer counts down before the cameras start to roll on Iono. She starts the introduction as usual, and her bright and cheery energy infects the room. You can’t help but feel warm seeing Iono do what makes her happy.

“Now, we’re gonna play a super rad game! Do you guys know what it is?” She gives no time for viewers to respond. “I’m gonna tell ya! Who’s Iono’s super secret guest star? I wondah!” 

The chat rapidly scrolls by, yet Iono still manages to read it. “Alrighty! I’ll tell you, guys, about my super secret guest star. You’ll hafta guess who it is!” She laughs before winking at the camera. “Though I bet you won’t get it!” 

She takes a moment to read that chat. “Do we know them? Hm, I’m not gonna say, nyohoho. First clue: They wear lotsa dark colors, like a Gastly stalking the night.”

‘It is Chairwoman Geeta?’

‘It’s gotta be Gym Leader Larry!’

‘lol imagine if she brought an actual gastly’

“Hm, I haven’t seen the right answer yet.” Her eyes flicker to yours for just a moment. “Second clue: They have the most cutest smile ever! I’m electrified every time I see it.”

‘Definitely isn’t Larry…’

‘Ooo could it be a girl?’

‘maybe it is a gastly’

“Wowzah! We got our first guess. She’s, in fact, a girl.” The chat begins to rapidly fire messages. One, in particular, catches Iono’s eye. “Khe?! Did someone get the right answer already? I thought I was being supes sneaky with the clues.” Her hair clips circle her head.

‘Tell us who it is!’

Iono flaps her arms side to side, pulling a mock hurt expression. “Geez, you guys are so impatient. Well, if you reeeaallly wanna know who it is, I’ll tell yah.” She sets her hands on her hips, giving the camera a wide smile.

She skips over to you, and the camera follows. “Dun-Dun! My super secret guest star is none other than my cool girlfriend! Say hello to the stream, cutie!”

You flash the camera with a nervous smile and you introduce yourself and your Umbreon. The chat spams with questions, comments, and Iono themed emotes. 

‘No way! Iono got game!’

‘How cute, they’re like total opposites!’ 

‘Who asked out the other first?’

‘I bet Umbreon and Bellibolt are such good friends!’

Iono brings her chair closer to yours. “I know it’s hard to believe, but she was the one that asked. Even with her Whismur personality, nyohoho! Oh, tell ‘em how. It was just the cutest thing ever.”

The camera pans closer to your face, and your heart feels like it’ll beat out of your chest. “I just asked.” You laughed nervously. “I don’t remember doing anything cute.” 

A sleeved arm slings around your shoulder. Iono’s body rests upon yours. “What? Everythin’ about it was cute. You didn’t even bring up the bouquet of flowers you brought for me. It was bigger than an extra-large Voltorb!”

A heavy flush covers your cheeks. The chat spams with heart emojis and comments alike. “Uh, well, then they should know how adorable you were. Your hairclips practically flew off your head and your face was so pink.”

Iono’s face pulls a shocked expression, her hair clips spinning in great succession. “Wah! I just couldn’t help it. That confession had my heart totally electrified!” She scoots closer to you, as close as humanly possible. “Just wait until I tell the stream the other stories about you. They’ll be caught in your love ball just like I am!”

[wellspokenrambler]

Rambler @ PAX East 2024

Hi folks! I just got back from PAX East over the weekend and, while I didn't really take part in the Expo Hall besides a couple of stalls, I did go to a decent number of panels - and thought it was worth writing up my thoughts on each of them. The only thing I love more than playing video games is hearing people talk about video games!

(I didn't take notes while I was there so this will be certainly more of a "vibes"-based assessment and why each one appealed to me personally, so apologies if you came here looking for a more objective description of each panel! I'll put links to the VOD of each panel where available)

Panels and thoughts below the read-more (it's long as heck! get ready):

Metroid: A Community Retrospective and Look Toward the Future

Having only played Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Metroid: Dread in my time, I wouldn't call myself a hardcore fan - but they are both games I've really enjoyed, and Samus Aran's pivotal positioning as a female character in video gaming history is always fascinating to me, so I had to check this one out.

It's so surreal to see the ways that a community like this had to adapt to long "dry spells" without any official new material for their fandom, and the joy that follows when something like Dread comes along to reaffirm their love for it. I don't know that I learned anything new from this panel myself, but it was still heartening to hear the panellists' clear passion for the games, and it does make me want to dip my toes into other Metroids (at the very least, the other two Prime games!)

Unlocking the Positive Potential of Gaming for Kids and Teens

I hadn't originally planned to go to this one, but met two of the panellists (Dr. David Bickham and Sam Schamm, MA) while eating brunch by the food trucks, and hearing them briefly discuss the subject matter fascinated me enough that I decided to pop along to it.

This was a deeply insightful panel on the ways that gaming can meaningfully help young people and foster their learning, agency, critical thinking, and other useful life skills - as well as thoughts on how to help them through the risks associated with gaming such as toxic multiplayer communities or, for want of a better word, the addictive potential of gaming. Having previously worked in a job which involved helping teenagers make informed decisions about their futures myself, it meant a lot to me to see serious academic thought being given to the subject given how prevalent gaming is as part of a child's social life these days. Excellent panel!

Mental Health and Gaming - Creating a Safe Space for Yourself and Others

While a difficult topic, I am nevertheless glad that I went to this panel as it covered the way that streamers and other "community figures" can navigate the creation of a safe space in the form of their community while also maintaining effective boundaries within that space. Of particular interest to me was reframing some of the language that often gets used in this context e.g. "trauma-dumping" and unpacking our own biases when dealing with uncomfortable situations.

If I had any minor criticisms of the panel, it would be that some of the suggestions occasionally felt like they veered a little too far into the side of... I guess trying to fix the lives of strangers? Now, in the interests of fairness I shall state my own biases that lead to this feeling, because it is not that I do not care about what happens to people: it is precisely because I've had to manage my own proclivity towards hyper-empathy in the past that I tend to take a step back from my emotions on that regard these days. Caring is good, but caring to the point of self-destruction helps no-one, and that to me feeds into what the panel was saying about boundary maintenance.

My own community is a small handful of regulars and a couple of hundred followers so this has not been something I need to worry about yet, but the panel has hopefully given me some tools with which to manage those situations if they ever arise, and for that I am thankful.

How Our Favorite Characters Have Real World Impacts on Us: A Look into Fictional Characters and ParaSocial Relationships

FASCINATING panel. I originally went to this because of my memories of being in the Gorillaz fandom and the weird and wonderful (and sometimes ugly) ways people interacted with the idea of the fictional band members in that space... But the conversation proved to cover a broad spectrum both of what constitutes a parasocial relationship AND what constitutes a fictional character; the panellists made the case that the personas of content creators and streamers themselves counted as fictional characters, and I think they are absolutely bang-on with that.

From my end as a Z-list Player of Games Online, even I am presenting a more polished version of myself there than I would have in the rest of my life - it's not "not me", but it's certainly not all of me, and that is enough to make "Well-Spoken Rambler" a somewhat distinct entity from the person who portrays them.

The inclusion of internet personalities into their definition ALSO meant, however, that at the Q&A I got to name-drop one of my favourite journal articles that I've read this year: The one-and-a-half sided parasocial relationship: The curious case of live streaming. This article holds deeply interesting connotations to me because of what it implies about the "half" of the one-and-a-half... which is that of course, behind the fiction of a "creator" is the person who creates, and that person is just as capable of developing fictionalised ideas of the people in their community (though with a more removed and likely self-aware perspective on it). The panellists had heard of the article and mentioned it was on their to-read list, but agreed it tied in well with the themes of the panel!

(... And yet the reason I was able to re-find the article so quickly is because I had linked it to a creator in a Patreon Direct Message a couple months ago because I thought it would be interesting to them... The irony is not lost on me. More on that later.)

Debate Club with Mari and PeeGTV

This was just a fun old time! I wasn't familiar with Mari or PG before watching this panel, but they have such a fun rapport here that I want to try and watch them more regularly now that I know of them. Jenna Stoeber acted as a firm but fair adjudicator of the panel - and I am definitely not just saying that because she is a recent convert to the Rambler channel and was pleasant and kind when we bumped into each other on the expo floor. She did a great job letting both sides of the debate (Millennial horror vs Gen Z horror) shine. If you listen closely around the 34 minute mark, you may hear a familiar little British voice raise a point about how you can't judge a horror by its synopsis!

Thinking Differently Together: Neurodivergence & Gaming

Folks... I am so so glad that there is a much greater emphasis on self-advocacy these days than there used to be. Look! Look at all those ND creators talking about their experiences and being listened to!! Look how it has a VOD so I can just link it and you can all see it too!!! Conversations like this one in a major event like PAX are a hopeful sign to me that progress is being fought for and won.

Only minor critiques for this one are:

could have used some discussion about more than just the usual ADHD/autism bracket that is discussed when it comes to neurodiversity (but then I think that about most ND discussions)

would personally have liked some chat about accessibility concerns while creating/streaming and neurodivergent (e.g. personally had to tweak my lighting because it was overstimulating me while I streamed)

Otherwise great panel!

Bridging the Gender Gap (13+)

Another great panel for encouraging diversity in the games industry - I appreciated the intersectionality of this one as well as the honest discussions about the ways in which things still need to be made *considerably* better throughout all corners of gaming. The panel also discusses actionable steps which could be taken to improve on these issues.

Surprised at myself for not having much to say about this one! I just think the panellists did a really good and succinct job at talking about the subject.

A Hunter's Dream: Bloodborne and Transness

I enjoyed this panel a whole lot - Having watched a playthrough of Bloodborne last year, hearing two trans women discussing the different trans allegories and interpretation of the characters and themes and lore of the game felt absolutely correct, even if it wasn't "canon".

If one was being pedantic one could call this the least polished of the panels I went to, but I honestly don't think that matters tremendously because both panellists were so utterly sincere about what they were covering that it carried the panel. You could easily tell just how much the subject matter meant to the two and it in turn meant a lot to me that they were willing to share it with a bunch of strangers as we were.

And then...

Um, Actually: The Panel

Hoooooo boy.

So remember earlier when I mentioned the irony of using Patreon DMs to grab an article about nonstandard parasocial interactions?

[ID: a meme image of Morpheus from the Matrix saying "What if I told you the guy I sent that article to is at a PAX East panel"]

So of course the panel for the Dropout show Um, Actually was being hosted by its two new presenters, Ify Nwadiwe and Brian David Gilbert:

Ify had been a wonderful host so far, and I really enjoy his work in general (especially his stint recently on Very Important People), so I was looking forward to meeting him.

...And then there's Brian, who has been streaming on Twitch for just under the past four years and who in that time has been subject to hundreds of my fun facts, insightful commentaries, and helpful actions (which he very much appreciated). That, alongside regularly taking part in Patreon livestreams, has led to a strange situation where I would not consider us friends, but we... don't not know each other? but we also don't know each other? Which is why the "one-and-a-half-sided" description in that article and the panel about parasocialness appealed to me (and why I sent the article to him too).

So of course when this panel got announced I wasn't gonna miss it. I really enjoyed what I've seen of Ify's hosting and Brian's fact-finding so far, and I wasn't gonna miss the chance to see the two chat about it - nor to potentially meet the guy who helped me raise £500 for ASAN last year.

But, turns out I wasn't the only one enthused by the panel, because it was Absolutely Rammed, like, an hour and a half before the panel started. I got lucky in that I managed to end up somewhere in the middle of the pack and got into the panel at all, but good grief did it remind me how I don't do well in crowds (even well-managed crowds, thank you PAX Enforcers xx).

It caused me to reflect a lot on the perceived casualness with which I interacted with Brian on Twitch versus the material reality of the level of interest from a LOT of people which he manages. It's the kind of thing which makes me wish to never become famous, because I don't know that I'd have it in me to manage that level of attention from everyone - even the very occasional instance of people recognising me online FROM Brian's streams and acting like it's a big deal always throws me off a bit (this has happened to me several times, I'm not even kidding!)

But then of course the Enforcers got us all in neatly and sweetly, and the panel was a delight! It was fun to hear Ify and Brian (and Jenna!!) talk about working on the show and the kinds of things they enjoyed putting in and what to expect next - such as another new season after the current one, as it deserves.

There was also a live session of Um, Actually questions which was at the time enjoyable, but since then numerous allegations of cheating and defamation have come to light against one of the participants, Gabe Hicks, and it is disheartening that something as grievous as this could have been going on that very weekend. I hope that justice and reparations can be made for the people affected by this, and I am going to move on out of courtesy to those involved.

After the panel, a meet-and-greet line formed for both Ify and Brian outside of the theatre and I was able to join it - it also felt important to me that I follow the proper procedures and not assume any privileges, since I know full well how that kind of thing can read and wanted to put my best foot forward, so to speak.

The play-by-play of our eventual meeting is as follows:

I greeted Ify first on purpose to let him know that he was doing a great job as the new Um, Actually host and I liked him in VIP

I then went to greet Brian, but at that point he had very blatantly already cottoned onto who I was and seemed very enthusiastic that I was there. I didn't feel any sense of star-struckedness, it was more like that sense of when you talk to someone online and then meet them in person - surreal, but not stressful.

Jenna took that moment to gently interrupt so she could rendezvous with the two men before the line ended - seemingly because of our vague familiarity and prior assumption of goodwill on our parts

I made sure to pass along some greetings from a few Discord servers formed around Brian's Twitch streams I was in, which Brian appreciated, and gave him a small gift which I brought with me - a small bottle of vivid iridescent nail polish (Ciaté London's "Forbidden Fruit", sadly out of production now), since nail painting and structural colour is somewhat of a shared interest of ours

Brian made sure to specifically compliment me on my shirt, to which I admitted the reason I wore it was because I knew Brian was the only person there who would appreciate it fully: it was from a game of Tee KO we played on Patreon at the end of 2022, which Brian won using a VERY existential t-shirt illustrated by myself:

(sidenote, after repeated success with these silly skeletons in subsequent games of Tee KO, I am very close to just selling my own legally-distinct skeleton shirt if I ever have a merch page)

Finally, I asked if we three could cap off the meeting with a video'd selfie, to which they graciously obliged me:

Having filmed what can only be described as a Cannes-worthy masterpiece, I said my goodbyes to them and made my way to the next panel...

The PAX Panel Show

...Which was just in the same theatre as the last panel, and with Jenna hosting and Brian on the panel. What a glorious event! I am so sad this one didn't get recorded - a truly deranged set of questions, including Portmantoad (guessing which video games have had their names spliced together based on the description of the resulting fusion), Ornstein and Sullivan (guessing whether a named character was from a Fromsoft game or from an opera), and a whole bunch of real-world questions about farming?? Joke's on all these city-slicker panellists, I grew up on a smallholding! So I was... actually no better at those farm questions than them. I can't tell you about industrial farming practices, but I can tell you how to hold a chicken! (gently, like a big hamburger).

After the panel, I approached Jenna one last time at the con and suggested that, given the inherent strangeness of our interactions (wherein we have become Twitch mutuals but still at best distant acquaintances) it would be funny if we took a selfie but made out like she was "the fan". She saw the funny side of it:

[ID: a tweet by Well-Spoken Rambler @wellspokentweet reading "Always a pleasure to meet a fan, @the_jenna", below which is a selfie featuring Well-Spoken Rambler and Jenna Stoeber. A reply from Jenna beneath this reads "HONORED TO MEET YOU, BIG FAN <3" in all-caps.]

Play What You Don't Know with DesiQuest

This was my last panel of PAX, and a bit of a last-minute wildcard! After relaying the above events to my good friend Hamish, he told me that his friend Omar would be doing a panel the following day, and that I should go and see it. And I am very glad I did!

It was really heartening to learn that a podcast like DesiQuest exists - a D&D actual play featuring an all-South-Asian cast and touching on the disparate cultures and themes that connect with them and their audience. As someone who is of Sri Lankan descent but without the cultural upbringing, it's something that appeals to me personally as another way to try and reconnect with that heritage. Definitely catching up on this one over the week!

I also got to say hi to Omar from Hamish, and it was a nice bonding moment cut short by my having to BOOK IT to a water taxi and conclude my time in Boston for good.

...

Phew!

Well, thanks for reading all of that if you did! It was a weekend that was at once fun, interesting, and thought-provoking. I still don't consider myself someone who seeks out big events, but being much more free and able to take part in those kinds of things now is super refreshing and I hope at some point (though not in the immediate future, boy was that expensive) I will be able to go again! Or at least do other events like that. Possibly something a bit quieter, but conventions don't usually run in flavours of "quiet", haha. Perhaps next time I'll bring business cards to recklessly self-promote better with.

See you around!

-Rambler

[milktearosethorn]

hi i am a bit confused, what does 'parasocially uplift men' mean exactly? the example could be praising dream for beating misogyny on twitch?

Ya! Basically I mean that a lot of the time people only want to talk about misogyny in their community and female streamers when they want to make the men they stan look better. Like another example in dtblr is passing around that clip of Captain Puffy talking about being friends with Dream (Which was really sweet! I liked that moment a lot!) but then it was crickets on any other clip from that stream of hers (Or future streams). I still haven't seen anyone mention that it's her 12-year streaming anniversary today (Which is INSANE, I had no idea she was around so long!). Obviously it's unrealistic and dumb to closely police people's watching habits but when patterns like these start forming it needs to be called out.

Any type of argument that's like 'DSMP vs QSMP who treats women better 🤔' is fucking asinine because women have been treated like shit in both servers and trying to prove one is better than the other only minimizes their pain and struggle to use as cheap ammo in a fandom war. It's really demeaning and almost feels like gaslighting to deny the problems in your community because you want to hide the dirty laundry. Like I will say with my whole chest as a long-time viewer that Hannah used to be harassed for breathing too close to the Dream Team, vented openly about it on her streams, and only recently has the community started to treat her better. (I'd say that post face-reveal and meet-up is when people finally stopped foaming at the mouth about the Dream Team's female friends)(And many people have come forward to apologize to Hannah for their past behavior, which she's said means a lot to her. So remember that it's never too late to make things right if you've done wrong.)

What happened to Baghera was fucking unacceptable and I only hope that more women being added to the QSMP will help her broaden her support network so it doesn't happen again. (Remember, Niki has openly stated that during the peak of the sexual harassment against her, the ONLY other member of the DSMP who supported her was Captain Puffy and her mod team.)

And then there's also not being able to talk about women and their content without bringing up their male friends. Like I love Tina and Foolish streaming together but it's becoming a huge problem in Tina's chat and she recently had to get more mods to deal with it. If you can't support a female content creator when she's not streaming with one of her male friends, then you're not really her fan, point blank.