#tumblr do not eliminate me challenge

[bratzforchris]

the bratzfornick 141 writing challenge

hi everyone! me and @nicksbestie been looking for new fics to read and so many of you are so talented, so what better way to have new reading material than hosting a little challenge to fuel our delusions 😋

here are the basics for the challenge: pick 1 character, pick 4 story elements, and create 1 fic! more details below!!

the following rules are things you must follow. otherwise, you will be eliminated from this challenge. 

no being rude or hateful to other creators. this includes us, as well as others participating in the challenge.

no copying or plagiarizing ANY work. this includes challenge submissions as well as other stories that have been posted to tumblr/wattpad/etc. if you choose to use one of your works from another platform, please make sure that you have proof it is your own work

no submissions that revolve around anything weird or illegal (abuse, incest, illegal age gaps, highly graphic mental illness, hard drugs, age play, homo/transphobia/racism/abelism/etc, bathroom play, etc) 

5k max word limit. in order for us to be able to thoroughly read all of your submissions, please keep your word count to 5k or less and use paragraph breaks!

when you post your fic, please tag @bratzforchris and @nicksbestie and use the tag #bratzfornick’s 141 writing challenge 

characters (pick 1)

matt sturniolo

chris sturniolo

nick sturniolo

nathan doe

story elements (pick any 4): you may mix and match these to your liking. you are not required to do one from all four categories (for example: two locations, one trope, one genre OR two genres, two tropes, etc)

GENRES: 

Fluff

Smut

Angst

Age regression (not age play. your work must be 100% SFW and innocent to fall into this category)

TROPES:

Friends to lovers

Enemies to lovers

Little x caregiver 

Friends with benefits

Chronically ill x healthy

Mafia x goody two shoes

Academic rivals

Lovers to strangers

Nurse x doctor coworker

Fake dating

Grumpy x sunshine

Royalty x bodyguard

Major character death

Angel x demon

Singer/band member x fan

Arranged marriage

Locations/Settings: 

Alternate universe (AU)

College/university

Concert

Outskirt small town

Big city

The forest/woods

Home

Library/bookstore

Vacation

Haunted/abandoned house

Office

Hospital

Plot Ideas: 

Accidental confession (it slips out when drunk, caught in the heat of the moment, etc)

Revenge (fake dating, sleeping with an ex, etc)

Getting used to a new diagnosis/disability (a doctor who is so used to coaching patients through their new diagnosis that they struggle with theirs, getting used to new dynamics with a partner)

Forced proximity (one bed, locked in a room, etc)

Redemption arc

Taking care of each other (cleaning wounds, cooking, holding the trash can while they’re being sick)

Hiding a big secret

Fight that turns sexy

Language barrier (a Southern partner not understanding Boston slang, an actual language barrier, etc)

Chance encounter

Caught in the rain

Dare 

create 1 fic: please follow the rules, characters, and story elements listed above! as stated before, you do not have to pick from all four story categories, just four total. write as many fics as you’d like for this challenge. 

don’t forget to tag BOTH of us: @bratzforchris and @nicksbestie and use the #bratzfornick’s 141 writing challenge in your submission!

Submissions close May 15th, 2024! Most importantly, have fun! No actual monetary or material prizes will be given out for this challenge→it’s all meant to be fun and creative. Good luck and have fun! We can’t wait to see what you come up with ♡

[floydstruly]

how you mince my heart.

synopsis : two house wardens vie for your affection send their people after you when you escape their grasp, first one that captures you wins.

cw. not proof read, mild depictions of violence, non explicit obsession (?), yandere themes (???) idk how to tag its my first time posting on tumblr (did this for funsies, no idea how anything works)

pairing: gn! reader x vil schoenheit, slightly azul (floyd, jade and rook too if you really squint)

He takes a deep, sharp breath in–his chest rising and falling quietly as he drums his fingers along the edge of the wooden chess board. He waits, and waits, and waits for Vil to make a move. But he doesn’t.

Instead, Vil stares at him through his uncharacteristically uneven bangs, his hairs out of place and his make up a mess, yet still, he manages to be beautiful. The soft dark circles under his eyes reminisce a night of challenged sleep.

Vil sighs, turning his head away from his opponent and mindlessly pushes a rook forward three spaces onto a board–consuming his knight. It takes Azul by surprise to see him so distracted–well, of course he was, he hasn’t been the same since you left him. Azul lets out a snide, mocking chuckle and sits back in his seat, it creaks from the shift of weight.

“You seem stressed.” He remarks offhandedly as he takes his knight off the board, he’s down to one. He glances around the room, it’s oddly quiet in the Monstro Lounge without Floyd and Jade, he only hopes that they are capable of carrying out his wishes.

Vil shakes his head. The door to the VIP room swings open with a harsh thud, Floyd saunters into the room and drapes himself over Azul’s shoulders. He whispers something in his ear that causes Azul to tense up, odd. Azul’s opposition raises an eyebrow and uncrosses his legs–as if trying to listen into their not-so private conversation.

“Ahh~ betta, what’re you doing here?” Floyd drawls out lazily and smiles, how incredibly eerie–Vil pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance, glancing back between the knight he eliminated earlier and back at the merman.

“Playing a game.” He answers simply, urging Azul to make his next move with the snap of his wrist, “I would hope I win.” He adds, there's a hint of growing pride in his voice.

He will not lose.

It’s cold.

The sun is setting and you are tired beyond belief, your lungs feel as if they are being burned, your clothes were ragged and torn from all the times you had to push past brushes and trees. Along with that, you were bleeding–lower and lower, your blood trickled down your body in a way that made you feel almost queasy.

You haven’t the slightest clue where you are headed–but when you look back and see Night Raven College getting smaller and smaller, you know you should not stop. Not until you are far enough to escape the prying eyes and the caging arms of the student body entirely.

You feel a false sense of hope when you see the tippy-tops of Royal Sword Academy, like a radiant beacon–the sun, even, you are so, so close to freedom.

But you trip over a branch, crack! You land face first into the wet, muddy ground, the sticks press into your bruises and cuts–if Vil were here, he would certainly scold you for all the wounds that you’ve accumulated. But he isn’t, not if you can help it at least.

You hear a rustling and immediately, your heart sinks. Surely, no one would have followed you up here, would they? No, no, at least–that’s what you think until, from the very corner of your eyes, you see a feather rushing past you in the trees. It bobs up and down, the colour is all too familiar to you.

You scramble to get up in a panicked manner. Behind you, another one–another student, a quick glance back and you could tell from the mismatched eyes that fell slightly behind the hunter hiding among the trees.

“Stop following me!” You were almost positive they heard you, but there was no response. You huff and squeeze your eyes shut, blindly running forward as fast your worn out shoes could take you–which was not very far.

An arrow broke through the tense air, it was careful, calculated–Rook never missed, that was for sure. The tip of the arrow caught the fabric of your torn uniform, the blade too close to your neck for comfort, you fell over; exhausted, defeated.

With one final effort, you mustered all the strength you could to pull the arrow out–but then another barrage came, all precisely landing dangerously close to–but never directly into your flesh. You felt the air get knocked out of your lungs when another weight pressed down onto your body–Rook held your arm above your head with a triumphant smile. You breathed in once more, oh, how it hurt you to do so.

“Ah, I’ve bested you, Monsieur Mastermind!” Rook’s grin is joyous–too joyous for someone who hunted you down as if you were just a rabbit to him.

“So it seems.” The two share a laugh when Jade finally catches up to the pair of you. Unsettling, you shiver and let your body give in to your fatigue, “care for a rematch?”

Rook shakes his head, one by one plucking out the arrows he rained down upon you and hoisting you over his shoulder, you try to kick and scream–but is silenced when his hold on you gets tighter, the pressure almost feeling as if your bones would break as well.

“Oh, I’d be delighted–perhaps to a different prey to chase. This one, Roi du Poison, will not allow me to let go of.”

“A shame.” Jade’s voice trails off, their faces start to blur together, you’re too tired to listen anymore.

He glances over at the previously swung open door and as if on cue, Jade walks through it, the soles of his shoes tapping on the neat floor of the Monstro Lounge with a hollow click, a solemn expression plastered on his face. He takes a bow, hand to his chest.

Vil’s gaze wanders to his phone, it glows dimly at a text notification from Rook, a photo of you passed out over his shoulder, walking back to Night Raven College. Vil smooths out his hair and clothes.

“Checkmate.”

[777-maple]

How I manifest everything

From someone who has been doing this for 3 years.

Table of context

1. EXCESS POTENTIAL

2. DO NOT GIVE A FUCK

3. FIND THE METHOD THAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU

4. DISCIPLINE

5. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO MORE

6. 4V1

7. HOW NEGATIVES ARE ACTUALLY HUGE SIGNS

8. AFFIRMATION TAPES

EXCESS POTENTIAL:

Every time I've been overly fixated on manifesting something, it never quite works out. I've come to realize that relying solely on a manifestation for happiness creates a sense of lack. So, when the manifestation seems elusive, and I start feeling hopeless, I remind myself that I can find happiness independent of that specific outcome. I can be content right now and for the rest of my life, even if this thing never materializes.

Take the scenario of people manifesting their significant others. Relying entirely on that person for happiness isn't healthy. Even outside the realm of manifestation, your partner shouldn't be your sole source of joy. If the idea of not having them makes you believe you'll never be happy again, it's time to shift focus. Instead of obsessing over manifesting them back, it's about working on your self-concept and having a healthier perspective on relationships. I love my boyfriend, but if he left suddenly, I'd be sad, not thinking my life is over. It's about having a mindset that even if this particular thing doesn't work out, I'm still deserving of happiness and that happiness will come to me one way or another. And this may seem counterintuitive, however this is not me saying that you won’t manifest your desire and that you should be okay with that. I am saying that you need to be happy with or without because the 3d should never dictate your happiness.

DO NOT GIVE A FUCK:

Mastering manifesting requires not caring about the drama in the 3D world. Imagine unwanted things happening, and you just shrug it off, saying, "I don’t give a fuck." Add a bonus of "This will work out anyway." If your specific person hasn't replied, don't panic. Embrace the "IDGAF" mindset. "I don't give a fuck that they haven't texted back; they love me, and they'll reach out any minute now." After dropping this wisdom, distract yourself from the negativity. Watch a show, dance, listen to music—anything to divert attention. It's about cutting the drama and letting the universe do its thing. Repeat this as many times as necessary.

I applied this recently when two friends were dating, and I believed they weren't right for each other and I hated the way she treated him. Despite seeing them be all couplely in the 3d, I persisted in imagining their breakup. I would affirm occasionally “They are in the process of breaking up, I know that they’re about to break up”. After a week, they stopped hanging out, and eventually, they unfollowed each other. It took about two weeks.

FIND THE METHOD THAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU:

Honestly, none of the typical manifestation methods clicked with me. Affirmations gave me a headache, visualization overwhelmed me, meditation wasn't my go-to, and scripting bored me. So why don’t I like the holy grail of robotic affirmations? I appreciate affirmations, but I can't do them robotically 24/7; it's too stressful. I tried robotic affirming for two years without success. The key is finding a method you enjoy, not just focusing on its efficiency. If you don't enjoy your chosen method, find one that brings you joy. I have seen probably hundreds of robotic affirmation success stories, but since I never enjoyed affirming 24/7 it never worked for me. Ill get into my preferred method in a bit. But find one you enjoy.

DISCIPLINE:

Discipline used to be a challenge, but I realized it's crucial for manifesting. I stay disciplined by choosing a method, setting a 90-day goal, and eliminating distractions. I unsubscribed from manifestation coaches, delete twitter, tumblr, fb, and block tarot readers. Manifestation shouldn't become a distraction. Don’t let manifestation become your new Netflix. I no longer follow my favorite manifestation coaches, not because I dislike them, but because they served their purpose. I honestly do believe this step is crucial but a lot of people may not want to do it.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO MORE:

One day, it hit me that I rarely entertain opposing thoughts like “This won't work.” Instead, I find myself thinking, “I need to do more for this to work.” Identifying your specific limiting belief is crucial. In my case, I fell into a cycle of trying new methods because I believed I needed to do more. The pattern went like this: new method -> progress -> less progress/opposite results -> need to add a new method -> progress -> burnout -> giving up. Manifesting operates effortlessly 24/7, so consciously manifesting should be the same. Pick one method, stick to it, and trust it.

1v4:

Here's the affirming method I swear by (shoutout to GOATEDMANIFESTING on YouTube and TikTok– the only coach I actually care about and relate to 100%). I maintain a mental diet by monitoring my thoughts throughout the day. If a negative thought contradicts what I'm manifesting, I stop myself and affirm the positive opposite four times. For instance, if I think "He's getting bored of me," I counter it with affirmations like "No, he loves spending time with me; he's always excited to be around me." Repeat that four times, let go, and continue with what you were doing, all while keeping an eye on your thoughts. It's like facing four opponents in a fight – depending on the strength of the limiting belief, it might take some hits. If four people keep beating you up, even if you survive the first round, you would eventually give up.

HOW NEGATIVES ARE ACTUALLY HUGE SIGNS:

Everything only has meaning if you give it meaning. After observing the process of manifesting something new multiple times, I've noticed I often hit a sort of rock bottom. In the beginning, it involved a few days of confidence followed by uncertainty and worry. But persisting through it always led to improvement and successful manifestation. I've learned to assign a new meaning to these tough days – they're a massive sign that what I'm doing is imprinting on my subconscious. It's like my subconscious is "fighting back" against this foreign idea, but if I persist, it'll absorb and manifest. The resistance might show up as opposing dreams, intrusive thoughts, or even the opposite appearing in the 3D. Take it as a sign that after persisting, your subconscious will be impressed and manifest. Just stand firm during this time. Stand on business.

AFFIRMATION TAPES

This is my preferred method but imma just link a video that explains it better than I ever could plus I am tired of writing.

CONCLUSION

There is so so much more I have learned like how I don’t listen to depressing music anymore just shit that makes me feel confident, motivated or happy.

I have been obsessed with law of assumption for 3 whole years now and I know I still got a lot more to learn however this shit got me movement with my sp in 9 days after 2 years of hot and cold. It got me an A in my college algebra class even though it should be a B. It got my friend to end it with his toxic girlfriend. It got my other friend to end shit with her toxic best friend. I change my appearance and my confidence is through the roof and this is the first time in a while where I am completely content with my life.

There is a lot more I could talk about but thats for another day, these are just the main 7 points.

[trippisimmies]

Welcome to the casting call for the Sims Next Top Model !!

I wanted to do something incorporating other simmers in this community so I decided to do "Next Top Model" show but in sims ! I am looking for 10 sims to compete in modeling challenges! If you wish to participate keep reading

What it's going to be like: I'll be picking a theme and basically posing each sim and posting the pictures, then you guys will be voting for who gets eliminated each week ! I'm still planning out some other details on how to do this...

Rules :

Spots are going to go to the first 10 entries! (You can DM me to reserve a spot)

Your sim must be human and YA+ , there is no other requirements on this. They can be male, female, elders etc.

CC is fine just make sure to send the links to me !

You can choose a backstory for your sim, as to why they wanted to come on to this competition, but this is totally optional !

You dont have to create all their outfits, since they will never have the same one.

Rewards:

1 month of Discord Nitro

Game Pack , stuff pack or kit

or we can see other possible prizes !

Submit by making a tumblr post with some pictures of your sim and @ me in it !

Feel free to ask or message me if you have any questions! Thank you for reading and I hope you consider participating !!

[b-ubbleberry]

' 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓑𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓕𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓼 𝓔𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓽 '

To celebrate the occasion of hitting my 332 follower, I m honored to host my second event 'the best friends event' . My first event was 'the fashion event' in which condidats was challenged to make a moodboard with a fashion brand of my own choice . And today, here I am coming with a totally new idea, ofc after checking and doing my own research. I decided to host a new event under the name of 'best friends event' .

𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓬𝓮𝓹𝓽 :

The word 'best friends' refers to a strong bond between two or a group of individuals. A best friend is like the sun, always shining and brightening up your world, lifting your spirits when you feel down. They are like a compass, guiding you through the darkest of storms, and always there when you most need them. A best friend is a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, a hand to hold when you fall, and a heart that beats for you and yours. They are family, chosen and loved, a friend you can count on in any and every situation. A best friend is a gift, a treasure, a blessing, a light in your life, a love that's strong and true, the kind of friendship that will last a lifetime, through the highs and lows.

𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓣𝓸 𝓙𝓸𝓲𝓷:

1. Like and reblog the event's post and mention three of your moots. Comment 'joining' in the comments section to claim your entry as a participant .

2. You are demanded to make a mb with the duo that you will get after spinning the wheel .

3. Make sure to tag me on the moodboard and use the #best friends berry-event , do not copy other's moodboards because if you do, you will be eliminated .

Start: 05 may 2024

Deadline: 31 may 2024

𝓟𝓻𝓲𝔃𝓮𝓼:

Dm me later to claim your prize .

For 🥇: a s/o, 500 reblog, 30 like, 2 set of dividers and a pack of aesthetic symbols .

For 🥈: a s/o, 250 reblog, 15 like, 1 set of dividers and a pack of aesthetic symbols .

For 🥉: 125 reblog, 7 like, a set of dividers .

𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓯𝓾𝓷:

For fun, I will make for the 6 winners of my choice a matching mb so they can match with their besties 🫶🏻 .

Tags(n/f): @yeritos @p-oisn @minjuszns @miublogsite @miumiudaga @mingisito @mjngs @fairytopea @obrigados @aegsll @gigittamic @compyuqiter @ourdadai @f-lustra @fairymiese @f-loqweres @f-eori @i-kyujin @estrellicas @eunsite @egorls @endlesslywe @v6mpcat @i6gyu @i0410 @i9hyein @hyetori @venrthaa @daddldee @yeribbon @yenagorls @yumjins @pommecita @poicelain @p-osse @pliestar .

F/n: finally I m making my second event I m so proud and I would like to thank everyone who supported and still support me through my first year in Tumblr. Special thanks to my besties @yeritos , @p-oisn and @winteryeoni (I missed u baby:(() thank you guys because yall are really my only besties here 🫶🏻. Enjoy making moodboards yall because the whole propose of this event is making friends and enjoying .

[total-drama-brainrot]

Island Assistant Noah AU, where Noah got himself eliminated on purpose, but Chris + Chef somehow figure it out... The day after Noah's elimination, everyone is surprised to see that Noah's back... Chris reveals that inside the contestants' contracts: "Anyone who gets eliminated on purpose, will become Chris Mcclean's Assistant."... And Noah has to be decent at his job, or he won't get paid... Noah stays Chris' Assistant all throughout Island, Action and World Tour! 🌎 (I'm sorry if I'm asking this twice; I don't remember asking this!)

OKAY!! SO!!

You did already ask me this and I did have an answer in the works to the original ask, but because Tumblr's mobile app is my number one enemy, I accidentally posted it. So, really, it's super fortunate that you asked this twice!

But! Because I'm a smart cookie, I took some screenshots of what I had typed out in the original post, so I can just re-type it out here and carry on! (I'd post just the screenshots, but they're full of typos because I'm just awful at typing on a phone.)

So, here's my answer:

Yes!! Give me a Noah who thought he was being so sneaky and cunning by intentionally getting himself eliminated, only for it to backfire horrendously!

The producers would've known that the contestants were being sent to Camp Wawanakwa instead of the resort their contract heavily implied they'd be going to, so they would absolutely anticipate at least one of them trying to pull a stunt like Getting Themselves Eliminated Intentionally- either as an act of defiance against the trickery (of Camp Wawanakwa not being what was advertised) or just to be spiteful.

Noah being the one to do so is just happenstance.

(It was more so expected from the likes of Duncan or Izzy, who are outwardly anti-authoritarian and not afraid to confront perceived injustices.)

If I may, I'd suggest having the contract outline that whoever intentionally gets themself eliminated has to work as a base-level intern, and that their "pay" is them working off whatever expenses the show invested into them as a competitor (travel costs, lodging, food, ect.). So Noah ends up stuck in the role of an unpaid intern for however long it takes him to "earn his keep" so to speak. But it's a Sisyphean task, since his debt is ever growing- he's forced to stay at Playa des Losers as an intern, and his daily cost of living is just added to the expenses he needs to work off.

At first, he'd be outright resistant to doing any of his tasks as an intern, because why should he? He didn't ask for the job, he didn't (knowingly) sign up for it either, and it's not like he's gonna be paid for his work. That is, until the producers threaten to pass his debt off to the rest of his family to "pick up his slack"; Noah's not heartless, and he cares a lot about his family, so he concedes to actually doing the work expected of him to save the rest of his brood from having to compensate for his short-sightedness.

(Let's say this turn of event takes about a week, meaning that from the time of his own elimination to the threat to his family's financial wellbeing, only Justin and Katie have been eliminated. Since, at least during Island, it's established that a challenge and subsequent elimination ceremony happens every three days.)

Now, the thing about lazy people- of which Noah undoubtedly is- is that they're downright innovative when it comes to figuring out shortcuts for any type of labour. Now that he's invested in doing his job, Noah uses that big brain of his to quickly figure out how to get all of his allotted tasks for the day completed to near-perfection, in a manner that's both efficient and easy. It gets to the point where he's completing a full day's work in an hour, spending the rest of the day doing what he loves; nothing. The other interns are just as annoyed as they are impressed.

Word quickly gets back to Chris about his miracle intern. But he's either too preoccupied to actually listen to who it is, or no one thinks to explain that his most productive labourer is the ex-competitor he'd contractually conned into the position.

Needless to say, Chris' interest is piqued.

The host issues a request to have the mystery intern shipped out to the island so they can work on the "important stuff" instead of doing menial tasks on the Playa, and is met with staunch refusal on their part. Which is odd, at least to Chris, since the interns send to be far too scared shitless of him (or, more notably, Chef) to ever outright deny a request like that.

It makes more sense when Noah's literally dragged kicking and screaming back to the island. Of course the only person ballsy enough to defy Chris' whims is the same contestant who got himself intentionally eliminated via deliberately pissing off his teammates. But he's back, now, so he might as well be put straight to work! No use in wasting labour, after all.

(Again, this probably happens over the course of a few days at most, since showbusiness is such a hectic and fast-paced line of work, so let's say that Tyler's the only new elimination in this timeframe.)

Again, Noah utilizes his higher-than-average smarts to figure out how to streamline his expected tasks because he's lazy, inadvertently proving himself as a Valuable Asset to both Chris and Chef since he's surprisingly good at what he does (even if what he does is very little by design). Chris is quick to offer Noah an ultimatum; he can either be promoted to being Chris' Personal Assistant, thus meeting the demands of his previous contract (and, of course, entering a new one under different pretences) and finally being paid for his work, or remain as an unpaid intern indefinitely and receive penalisation for his slacking off- since, despite the fact that he's gotten all of his work finished, he's still technically on the clock for the allotted work hours and should be acting as such instead of lazing about.

It's not really much of a choice. Noah reluctantly takes the promotion.

That's how he finds himself in the position we all know and love; Chris' Personal Assistant.

Because of his new promotion, he's expected to be at least within the vicinity of Chris at all (reasonable) times. The problem with that? Chris is hosting the show he got himself eliminated from in the most socially destructive way possible. Noah's now contractually forced to, at the very least, tiptoe around the prior teammates he knowingly and intentionally made hate him and dearly hope they don't notice him.

...Thus begins an AU's worth of shenanigans wherein Noah is desperately trying to fly under everyone's radar as an intern.

(I'd carry on into what he does during Action and World Tour, but this post is already fairly long, so maybe another time?)

[fraudulent-cheese]

So i watched episodes 3 to 8 of Pahkitew Island

Again, watched these with my buddy @rockin-it-rusty! And, holy shit these episodes have got me genuinly wondering why Pahkitew's so hated.

I'll go over the negatives first; the challenges are kinda eh. The Truth or Scare one is great, and the cave one is interesting due to it's hints at the Fake Island reveal (as heavy handed as they were), but most of these were just pretty out there to me? They mostly felt like an excuse to put the characters in situations mostly. Just have Topher make a narration joke, give Max and Scarlett an interaction, have Sky and Dave dance around eachother all due to a thing the challenge made them do. I don't mind the first two much, but the last one gets super repetitive man. Glad they mixed it up a bit by making Shawn try to wingman Dave though, i like their friendship! im a bigger dashawn shipper now oops

ANYWAYS IMA TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTERS NOW BECAUSE LET'S BE HONEST, THE CHARACTERS CARRY THE SHOW!

Amy... Ok im very mixed on her. On one hand, she serves her role as the mean twin relatively well. But on the other, that's all she really is! Her one trait is being mean and hating her sister, and that's all she really does! Granted she has a thing? Where she gets sayings (?) wrong, or just gets words wrong (she says parfait is german. it's french. i would know) which! could hint at something! (maybe less smart than her sister?) but they don't do shit with her outside of her swimming back to the island in episode 5. god i wanna rewrite this season so badly now to give her a bigger role. idk shoutouts to Twinning with a Twist for redeeming her while still giving her some edge ig.

Rodney. i uh

I haven't thought about him since his elimination honestly. I just doooooon't care about him it's crazy. Most forgettable guy in the entire series.

Sammy! Ok back to the siblings rambles! I wish the show leaned into her scheming more. Girl in five episodes pulled identity theft and did nothing else. Why. Her relationship with Jasmine is adorable, and i wish she got Jasmine to call her by her actual name, and a personality too! It's really a shame man :(

Sidenote, but like her team fucking hated her for some reason??? Like what. I know it's because of that one scene, but really?

Ella!! My sweet girl Ella!!! She didn't do anything wrong man she just likes singing leave her alone!!! Chris really fucking hates her and it's pretty entertaining at least, but i'd say his beef with Topher's funnier. She has a nice singing voice, and i love how passionate she is about fairytales and stuff. You could do so much with the Prince thing and the show... didn't. Like what even was that. Conflict that wasn't one that lasts an episode. what

Gotta say though, her elimination was fucking ass, Max 100% should've been kicked instead of her.

Topher. Ah the opher. He's a special case, even in the context of Pahkitew Island itself! Because the dude's not here for the game. He's here to meet his idol, Chris Mclean (he really knows how to pick em, huh). I like the progression he's got, from wanting his approval to straight up wanting to host the game instead of him. I'll admit, my opinion's a little skewed since i am mutuals with the Topher guy on Tumblr, but i like him regardless!

His relationship with Chris is easily one of the more interesting parts of the season, mostly because a 30-something year old dude having beef with a teenage fan is hilarious, and you could definitely spin it in a sad way from Topher's perspective.

It also helps that he's genuinely funny! His few interactions with the other campers are also pretty fun, he dgaf about them it's great.

Im kind of mixed on Dave, i'll be real. On one hand, im glad they ditched the whole "he doesn't like anyone on this Island" trait three episodes in because that would've gotten. SO ANNOYING. SO FAST. (hell i'd argue it was already annoying), and him being a hopeless romantic could be a fun trait, if done right. It also helps that he's really pathetic and i find that funny. His friendship with Shawn's fun too!

But on the other hand... Yeah, even before the finale the Skave plotline's really boringgg. They just dance around eachother for half the season for like! No reason! Please just have a conversation, even if it takes other people to sit them down to have it! I know why they didn't because the finale needed them to not actually talk about it but at least have Sky tell him she'll explain later or have him not be a coward and ask her about it himself!!! ack!!

Also the thing with him and Ella went literally nowhere. I have 0 feelings about it because it's just there for some reason. Idk they just really wanted to shoehorn in romance for every girl this season huh.

Scarlett's a really underutilized character pre-Island reveal. The bulk of her interactions with the other campers are with Max, who has a ton of screentime for some reason (which i don't personally really mind but i'll explain later) which honestly sucks because she's a fun character! I want to compare her to Twilight Sparkle at the very start of MLP. She's smart, she knows it, she can communicate with her teammates just fine and just chooses not to usually. I like her alot! Im just... really disapointed that she's so in the background usually; if anyone's a wasted character in tdpi, outside of the Twins i'd say it's her.

Her legit wanting to kill Max is great though. That's how i'd react to him irl. Don't get the Max saying she had a crush on him three episodes in, or the quip Chris made during the team switching tho.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, MAX! I swear, i was convinced i'd find this guy annoying pre-watch but uh... I like this guy! No really, i do! He's like Mal, only the narrative doesn't take him seriously in the slightest and it's hilarious to watch! Im like Sugar in that one clip, i am laughing at this buffoon's intelligence, and his stupid catchphrase, and his "evil" plans, and his general delivery! Max is funny!

Even when the Scarlett "minion" thing kicked in i still found him funny! Don't get me wrong, i wish he'd gotten out earlier (ESPECIALLY when he was supposed to get kicked in the episode Ella got eliminated into) or just gotten less screentime in general, but in the season proper, yeah he's a funny guy! Big gimmick, but i like him! Please don't add nuance to him, i don't care

Jasmine... certaintly exists! I'd call her the Season's rock, the one character that's emotionally intelligent on the show. She's fun in general, and also the only one noticing things going wrong with the robotic island. As said before, her relationship with Sammy is great to see, and i wished we'd see more of her and Sky's friendship and uh. For there to be more between her and Shawn? Because the only things i've retained is that they blushed at eachother once and then trust issues party because he hit her once during a challenge and that completely broke her trust in him - which, could be an interesting aspect of her character to explore since if that's all it took for her to pull a 180 on Shawn, the girl must have a complicated relationship with trust. That's an interesting flaw! It also shows up with her rapport in Sky in the later episodes of this batch, and. GOD. I wish it was developped man!

The issue? Yeah it's dragged on so longggg man! It's frustating to watch frankly because i really wish they'd resolve this conflict quicker since it's like. The same thing every episode :( to my knowledge it's solved in episode 9, but it did NOT need to be dragged out for 4 episodes.

Unrelated to her charater, but her height difference with the other campers is kind of ridiculous. In some shots the characters look so small compared to her it's crazyyy

Ok, now. Sugar. I'll be honest? She's great! She's just a menace and doing her own thing and it's fun to watch! She's also interesting in terms of backstory since she's canonically a pageant queen; her relationship with Ella is greatly impacted by this, since she heavily suspects her of lying to her face when it's just. Ella being Ella. Similar thing to her opinion on Topher; she doesn't like him for his sucking up to Chris, the host (something that Rusty probably agrees with). I fucking wish she was more popular because then people would look into her more, but alas. She's a female, plus sized character in Pahkitew Island, so considering the Fandom's biases, it was never going to happen. U_U

OK TIME FOR ZOMBIE BOY. So, Shawn. He's definitely more present in these episodes than he was before, and, again, i think he's fun! He's a weird little guy. He's got interesting skills (his camouflage, legit parkour, general athleticism) and his personality's interesting as well compared to the other guys. The zombie thing is fine, actually, because they do different things with it over the course of these episodes. Not much to say about him, he's a solid character to me and i wish he had more interactions with the cast outside of Dave and his pining for Jasmine. Who he's talked to like, five times at this point? Again, they probably should've talked stuff out faster than this for me to actually enjoy it. Oh well.

And finally, Sky. She's an interesting case for me? She's fine, mostly. She's the Normal Person™️ of the cast to me, and that means she really struggles to grab me. It's made worse by her main plot being a basic romance plot where the gimmick is that she's a reasonable human being and Dave isn't. And neither are able to have a normal fucking conversation about it either. The mixed signals thing could've been interesting, but this is Fresh TV writters, so of course it didn't end up that way. I assume the episodes without Dave are the ones where her personality shines more? Because so far she's just been really reserved and calm. And said she'd "focus on the competition only" And then. Doesn't. Really. God i wish this season treated it's female characters better :(

OK SO OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Im mixed on alot of the character decisions

god i wished these people talked more

the screentime is not well split among the cast

the romance plots and pacing of the Island plot are the weakest parts of this season

the challenges are fine

Why does Chef have 5 lines total.

Pahkitew Island does NOT deserve the overly negative rep it gets in this Fandom, at least based on the first 8 episodes.

[queenlua]

TUMBLR MARCH MADNESS CHALLENGE 2K24

It is presently the Most Exciting Month Of The Year for my people (Kentuckians and/or college basketball addicts), and you're all invited to partake in the festivities:

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE TUMBLR MARCH MADNESS BRACKET CHALLENGE

(that link allows you to join the group; the password is "thenewpdf")

I promise it is very fun to play even if you know 0 things about basketball :) Full FAQ under the cut.

Cutoff time for entries is 9:15am PST on Thursday, March 21st, so get those picks in!

(also: feel free to reblog this widely! the more who join in, the merrier!)

What is this?

The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination tournament played between 64 different college basketball teams in the US every March (hence the colloquial name "March Madness").

To "play along," you can fill out your own bracket, where you guess who the winner of each of those 63 games is going to be, and then submit it to the group (that little link at the top of the post). As the tournament proceeds, you'll get updates on how well (or poorly) your bracket is doing compared to everyone else's, and if you guessed more games* correctly than anyone else, YOU WIN!

(* technically you get 1 point per game guessed correctly in round one, 2 in the next round, 4 for the next round, doubling until the end of the tournament... but yeah just try to guess More Games Correctly, and know that it's weighted to give more points if you pick the champion, the final four, etc)

I don't know anything about basketball!

That's totally fine. There's literally a button on the tool that auto-generates a plausible-looking bracket if you want to put in 0 effort at all. (Bonus: if your bracket ends up winning, you get to gloat about how your little button-press outperformed all the stats nerds and tryhards. And if your bracket loses, you can just blame The Algorithm.)

I also HIGHLY encourage filling out your bracket on the basis of: which team has cooler colors, which team has better mascots, vibes, etc

What do I get if I win?

Glory! Bragging rights! Fake internet points!

(if we happen to share a fandom or something i guess i could write a fic for the winner—this is tumblr, after all—but i'll note my primary fandom is a 17-year-old video game that sold exceptionally poorly, so uhhh, hope you're the exact same kind of weirdo as me if you're angling for that)

Can I invite people outside of Tumblr?

nothing would delight me more than a full assortment of oddballs from every corner of the earth coming to join in my little bracket pool. please invite everyone you know

Thursday is soon!!! Can I get an extension???

Not up to me, alas. The brackets are released every year on Sunday, and the tournament starts Thursday, and once it's started, you can't enter anymore!

But my pseudonymity!

I signed up with a fake name and a throwaway email and it seemed to work fine.

[ohtumbly]

Top Object Summit (TOS): A Tumblr Novel Object 'Show'

Day 2

The objects woke up from the campsite the next morning. Every member of the two teams gathered around each other and checked if everyone's here.

The Land Team

Birthday Card

Buoy

Cash Register

Encyclopedia

Lapis

Nut

Orange Pop

Potato

Reflector

Sugar Cube

Yo-yo

The Sky Team

Dime

Ice Cream

Jelly

Jotter Book

Lamp

Magnifying Glass

Microwave

Nine of Hearts

Skiffle Board

Tape

Zipper

Chilly's hat popped out in the middle of the snow and then came the rest of his body.

"Get up everyone! Get yourselves a good meal while I set up the next challenge."

So the objects had a not-too pleasant meal of plain processed food from cans and packaging. They were bland and weren't too filling, that even a few of them ate the food objects.

"I should have gave them something better." Chilly thought to itself.

Magnifying Glass looked at them with a sour face. "Eww...Why did you eat our friends?"

"These food are all we had and they weren't that good." Jotter Book replied in return, with his hands full of jelly. "We had no other choice."

Magnifying Glass approached Chilly and stared into its coal eyes.

"Chilly, what do we do with dead contestants?"

"Okay, just watch me."

Chilly the snowman sculpted the dead objects made of snow and then tapped them with his twig arms. The snow sculptures turned into the objects brought back to life and in tip-top condition.

Chilly went off to prepare the next challenge with the objects away.

The afternoon has come in and the contest was set. Chilly returned to gather the objects there.

"Alright contestants, I've set up the next contest, so come out and follow me."

They went a little higher up the mountain to a snowy slope with lots of trees.

"Here we are. This challenge needs a lot of teamwork, and one log."

"The first part is to cut down your team's tree and slide down the slope on it. When you get to the frigid lake down there, make some paddles out of this log but leave some of it for your team to get on. The last part before the finish line is a deep pit of snow. Cut the log into slices to get across the pit and get all your members to cross the finish."

"The team that failed to finish before the other will be up for elimination tonight."

"So y'all ready everyone?"

The objects slowly picked up their saws and carving tools as they stared at Chilly with a straight face.

"Now get logging!"

The contestants have set off running to the trees.

The two teams began cutting the trees, rocking their saws back and forth as the bark gets stripped off and the trees turned thinner and thinner.

Minutes later, The Sky Team's tree was the first to fell. Jelly who climbed up the tree to cut it, was a poor victim of a last moment before death.

"Wait, no- AAAAH!"

And with a sugary splat, Jelly hit the snow and was smashed under the tree.

Dime got covered in grape jelly. She just sighed and got on with the challenge.

The objects all got on the log while Tape has ran off to find Chilly and bring Jelly back to life.

And so they did.

"Hurry everyone, the other team has already cut their tree!" Tape shouted, running back to the log with Jelly.

The tree cut by The Land Team fell on Nut.

"Haha, these guys can't stay away from falling trees." Chilly laughed watching the madness unfold.

Lapis counted for every member of the team. "Where's Nut?"

Nut pushed the fallen tree up with his strong arms, his iron body with barely any scratches.

The Sky Team has gone off with Tape stuck onto the back of the log. The Land Team was getting everyone on the log.

"We don't have much space." Says Cash Register. "Sugar Cube, I need you in my drawer."

And with all of The Land Team on the log, they slid down the slope.

"The Sky Team reached the end of the slope and here they are! The cold lake."

"We should cut this log into something like a canoe." Suggested Tape. "The log couldn't fit us and the ride was uncomfortable."

"No problem ya'mate." Skiffle Board responded. "I'm good at making canoes."

Nine of Hearts cuts a piece of their log into a double-sided paddle with her magic while the other members turned what's left of the log into a canoe fit for the entire team.

"Why do we cut this to a canal?" Asked Magnifying Glass.

The Land Team arrived into the scene.

"You can turn the log into all the paddles you want. I can float across the water." Said Buoy with a boost of confidence.

"Would you feel cold?" Asked Lapis.

So The Land Team cuts most of the log into paddles for every member while keeping the rest for half of the team. The other half hopped onto Buoy and they crossed the lake.

"Yeah Lapis, i-it's c-c-cold," Buoy stuttered floating on the cold lake, "...b-but we can make it."

"The other team is far at the end of the lake!" Shouted Birthday Card, looking at what's ahead while paddling on the log.

The Land Team paddled faster and the gap between the two teams were closing in.

"Here comes The Land Team!"

Soon, the two teams had reached the snow pit. The Sky Team has cut the canoe into pieces to hop across, but the gaps in the canoe made them sink in the deep snow. Lamp, sank into the snow with the piece of canoe she's standing on.

"Lamp! Get out of here!" The team shouted at her.

When Lamp went back to the first end of the snow pit, the other team members tried pulling her out.

Dime, however, pushed Microwave into the snow pit. She grapped Jotter Book, hopped on Lamp's lampshade, then onto Microwave, threw Jotter Book into the snow pit, hopped onto his back and reached the other side.

"Dime! You can't treat our teammates as disposable tools." Said Ice Cream. "That's not nice."

"We're objects." Dime replied with a sheepish grin. "We have a purpose for uses."

"We have to pull Lamp, Microwave and Jotter Book out of the snow!" Magnifying Glass added on.

The members of The Sky Team continued to pull them out of the snow pit. Nine of Hearts tried to get Jotter Book out of the snow with her magic but he was too far away for her. It leaves an open chance for The Land Team to get to the finish without having to use their log.

"Look! We can use them to get to the other side of the snow pit!" Suggested Reflector with her eyes sparkling.

"Yeah. Let's do it." Said Cash Register, and Sugar Cube popped out of his drawer.

"I'll stick with using the logs." Orange Pop countered.

"While The Sky Team was still trying to pull their team members out, The Land Team went on hopping over their heads and across the line. Orange Pop has stuck with using the log."

The Sky Team has finally pulled out Lamp and Microwave when Tape found Orange Pop laying out paddles.

"Look! We'll cross this part of the pit to get Jotter Book out!"

So Tape got on the logs. Orange Pop heard the sound of footsteps and looked behind. He kicked the paddle Tape was on away from the others.

"Hey!" Tape shouted as she was about to fall.

"And Orange Pop made it! The Land Team has all of its members at finish line first. The Sky Team will have one of its members leaving."

"The Land Team will advance up the mountain for now."

"Thanks Chilly." Reflector winked, as the moonlight shone on her and back.

Vote for one of the members of The Sky Team to be eliminated from competition. Poll in the reblogs below:

(You can tell me who you voted for in the replies)

[picochu007]

The Strategist Everyone Ignores - An Appreciation Post and Analysis

This is my first Tumblr post and I decided to start with this 💀 Great decision, really.

I feel like, despite being one of, if not THE most competent strategists from gen 1, barely anyone mentions how amazing Sadie's gameplay in TDI is. This is an appreciation post towards all the many traits that make Sadie one of the most amazing strategists in TD history, and if you say anything negative about Sadie, like, ever, I WILL cry and that IS a threat because my dad DOES work at Nintendo and his sugar daddy DOES work at Fresh TV, so he WILL make Damien the first boot next season if you make me cry.

Now, let's go through Sadie's amazing gameplay this season:

Episode 1: Not So Happy Campers - Part 1

Sadie joins the show in the first episode of the show, which already proves her strategic prowess. Like, girl competed before characters like Priya were even BORN, they have NOTHING on her.

She immediately shows a love for summer camps, which fulfills two very important roles:

She shows that she is good in a summer camp setting, making herself out as a more valuable teammate right out the gate.

She immediately praises Chris' decisions, which would make him biased towards her. As we can see in the final 4, whether the hosts like you or not can literally decide your survival.

All in all, this was a great strategic play.

But that is not all. When she realizes she will be apart from Katie, she realizes her easy alliance will immediately be broken up. In order to form a new one, she complains, which induces sympathy from the rest of the cast, which could be amazing for her social game.

She then interacts with Courtney for an easy alliance early on. Katie, meanwhile, achieves NOTHING in her ENTIRE LIFE.

Episode 2: Not So Happy Campers - Part 2

In this episode, she convinces Chris to let Katie and Izzy switch teams. Another amazing play. Remember, Katie is an easy alliance member for Sadie to use as a pawn, and while Katie was doing jackshit on the Gophers, Sadie was busy starting her manipulation process on Courtney to make her another alliance mate eventually. Thus, she would want both Katie and Courtney on HER team, which makes this an overall great strategic play.

She then does perfectly in the challenge. Or, she would have, had she not needed to piss. This is another amazing point of strategy from Sadie.

Despite messing up the challenge due to her human flaws (which make her more relatable to fellow contestants AND the audience), she is still able to escape elimination. Had she murdered one of the Gopher girls, Ezekiel wouldn't have made his sexist remarks, and her pawn Courtney would have been in danger. Luckily, she refrained from committing (wo)manslaughter, which only served to increase the quality of her gameplay.

Episode 3: The Big Sleep

This episode is a bit quieter for Sadie, but we do see another one of her strengths here. She plays an amazing game of staying under the radar, which is not praised enough, honestly. Had she gone into a rage like Eva, she might have been eliminated, but he stellar gameplay let her and Katie both survive the elimination ceremony.

Episode 4: Dodgebrawl

This is the only episode where Katie surpasses Sadie in gameplay, but it's not Sadie's fault that Katie's good with balls 🙄 Still, she manages to stay under the radar once more, letting Tyler be a much bigger target.

Episode 5: Not Quite Famous

Sadie attempts to participate in the challenge, but is shot down, which is great for her. If the others choose not to let her compete, she can easily fly under the radar as always. And if she was chosen? Well, we know she would have won her team the challenge. No need for Harold, just, as a human being, Sadie's got it all covered.

Episode 6: The Sucky Outdoors

You might think "Yes! This is where Sadie's gameplay falls apart!", but you are WRONG. About EVERYTHING. EVER.

As you may have noticed, Courtney shot down her dance last episode and encouraged Tyler, who threw a ball in her face, in episode 3. All this proves that Courtney is an active liability in her alliance. Also keep in mind that Courtney has sucked major ass in 3 out of 4 challenges so far. Courtney is a horrid leader and an even horrider alliance member, and that is why she split from the rest of the Bass. She knew Courtney would only cause the Bass another loss.

However, one thing Sadie's strategy could never have accounted for, is Katie hating overweight people. Through their fight, Katie made it abundantly clear that she is a volatile, untrustworthy alliance member. Not one worth keeping around.

While she graciously decides to continue her friendship with Katie, she also knows that Katie, like Courtney, has become a liability. That's why Sadie runs faster than Katie and reaches camp first, to make sure that Katie is eliminated.

She pretends to be sad about Katie's elimination, but in truth, it's all going according to her master plan. Heather could NEVER.

Episode 7: Phobia Factor

Another great alliance-building day for Sadie. First, she repeats her strategy from episode 1, pretending to be in a weaker state for sympathy. This works, and she quickly gains a potential ally in Bridgette.

But that's not all, of course. During the rest of the episode, she does some alliance-building with Lindsay. You might be thinking that this decision is stupid, but Heather did mention her alliance with Lindsay in episode 4, the only alliance officially confirmed yet. With this information, she can attempt to get in good with Lindsay to hopefully join their alliance during the merge portion of the game.

Really, another genius play. Courtney could NEVER.

Episode 8: Up the Creek

Sadie builds her social game a bit more this episode, choosing to ally herself with both Duncan and Harold. Her social game this season is honestly amazing. So far, she has potential allies in Lindsay, Heather, Bridgette, Harold and Duncan. Her alliance would be HALF THE MERGE CAST if everyone in it reached merge.

Alejandro could NEVER.

Episode 9: Paintball Deer Hunter

Another amazing episode where Sadie shows off her strategy of staying under the radar. She makes no enemies or pulls attention to herself this entire episode, and think about how this episode turns out.

Heather stays in the game because Cody is useless after being mauled by a bear. Now, let's think about who kept that bear from going back to its cave a few episodes ago. That's right, it's Sadie. Had Sadie let the bear enter the cave, we might have lost Heather this episode, and Sadie's alliance-building with Lindsay would have been way less useful.

Again, Sadie harnesses elements of the game no one has even considered by this point to give herself an advantage. Scott could NEVER.

Episode 10: If You Can't Take the Heat...

Sadie performs well in the challenge, continues to stay under the radar, AND deepens her alliance with Harold, who has been proven to be great at challenges and awful at the social part of the game, making him a perfect shield for her to use.

Mal could NEVER.

Episode 11: Who Can You Trust?

Her one bad strategic decision winds up catching up to her this episode: Abandoning her alliance with Courtney. This ends up being awful for her.

While Sadie has allies in Bridgette and Harold, Duncan is more likely to side with Courtney, and DJ and Geoff are just Duncan's followers this season. Courtney's rivalry with Sadie is thus a threat to Sadie's stay in the game.

Sadie tries to combat this by trying to give Courtney permanent brain damage (relatable), but her plan fails, and Sadie is eliminated. She leaves in tears, but knows that she at least still has her best friend, Katie.

But this is not where Sadie's gameplay ends. No, her strategy this season continues EVEN PAST HER ELIMINATION.

Episode 22: Haute Camp-ture

This episode shows Sadie's strength of character. She starts no drama with Courtney, is content with her life despite losing, and even faces the first enemy she had in this game, piss, when Izzy pisses in the pool. But Sadie comes out of that experience STRONGER.

Sadie also displays a dislike for Heather, which just proves how amazing she is. Despite hating Heather, she was actively planning to join her alliance, because Sadie KNOWS how to seperate her feelings and the game.

But her strategy only continues.

Sadie knows how this is gonna end. She knows that the only way for her to gain anything by the end is if someone stupid enough to waste their money on a giant party wins. Like, say, Owen.

And who is Owen's biggest threat? Who is the only one who could rival Owen's social game? That's right: LESHAWNA.

Sadie orchestrated Leshawna's elimination to increase Owen's chances of winning. Speaking of...

Episode 26: The Very Last Episode, Really!

We know that Owen is the canonical winner, and a huge part of Gwen's loss is that she just kinda gave up halfway through the race for a sec like a total dumbass.

Now, what does Sadie do this episode? She supports Gwen. You might think that this means she did not mean to support Owen by eliminating Leshawna, but as always, you are WRONG.

She switches to Owen's side when he mentions her true goal: the party. She is just keeping her options open, ready to betray Gwen the moment she gets confirmation that she could get what she wants.

But that isn't all. By betraying Gwen during the finale, she messes with her head and makes her lose motivation. And what could a lack of motivation lead to? GIVING UP. Sadie messed with Gwen's head enough to ensure Owen's win.

Sadie's Impact On Total Drama: World Tour

While this appreciation post about TDI, her contribution to WT, while important, is not grand enough to warrant a post on its own.

Let's consider the following, though: Sadie wants to compete in another season alongside the rest of gen 1. As such, she needs to start drama, drama that will keep her protected and drama that she is uninvolved enough in to let her stay under the radar.

We know Sadie has spent time with Gwen in between TDA and WT. And what did Gwen do in between TDA and WT? Develop a crush on Duncan. I am entirely convinced that Sadie planted the seeds for the love triangle to give herself an advantage in the game.

No other character has done this! She prepared a strategy for a season she wasn't even guaranteed to compete in! Just think about it. Without the love triangle, Heather would just NOT have won.

Sadie directly impacts TWO out of THREE wins of the gen 1 cast.

Conclusion:

Sadie is one of the best strategists of the entire franchise and deserves more respect.

There is more Sadie does, but I'll be off to take my meds now.

[thyandrawrites]

For the shipping bingo board, Rin/Isagi, Kunigami/Chigiri & Nagi/Reo :3

Woo, a fun one!

Rinsagi:

Listen. They are The ship because they are divorced and soulmates at the same time. I love that energy they have going on. Their dynamic got sidetracked with the neo egoist arc and kaiser's introduction as isagi's new foil/rival, but imho bllk peaked when these two were still navigating how to coexist with each other and simultaneously come on top of each other. What I like about their dynamic is that is balanced. While isagi makes an effort to understand rin and work with him instead of for him like everyone else, isagi also doesn't coddle him or tries to fix him.

They are equally deranged for football and their skill levels are different, but on the field they push and challenge each other in ways that other dynamics simply don't, imho. I never get the feeling from them that either one has fully caught up to the other, and that's part of why I like them so much. They barely tolerate each other, yet they're the closest thing to actual teamwork this manga will ever have. What I love about them is that despite being polar opposite in basically every respect (personalities, family curcumstances, attitude towards others), they're also very in-synch because on the field they see the same view and think the same way. Everyone always says that kaisagi is the dbhwks equivalent of bllk, but to me that's rinsagi. Enemies that have way too much in common and don't want to admit it.

Plus I find it funny that they're both lowkey-highkey touch averse so that makes imagining them as a couple fairly fun :')

Kunigiri:

This is where I'm conflicted because this is a very very small fandom, and the bloggers who actively talk here (here being tumblr or discord) as opposed to just... Sharing things are almost all kncg shippers. For the sake of finding fandom friends, I tried liking this ship. Believe me, I did! But it just isn't hitting for me. And the thing is, I can see the appeal. They have the same tragic angle of friends separed that nagireo and bachisagi do, except it's even more tragic because one of them is almost eliminated! Plus the whole "came back wrong" potential angle! I should be shipping them! I live for angst and for hurt/comfort! But I just... I don't know. I find them a bit bland, and it doesn't help that I hate with a passion the nickname "princess" and you just cannot avoid it in this corner of the fandom

I guess I will try harder, maybe eventually I will find out the fic that will convert me

Nagireo:

This is where I reveal myself as unhinged because they have completely hijacked my brain. I STARTED SHIPPING THEM AS A JOKE. because it was funny. And then I read episode nagi. And then somehow they became my biggest comfort ship ever??? They can barely communicate. They actively make each other worse (at least as far as blue lock themes go. They'd be fine in a different manga). How did this happen.

Ahem. Without writing (another) essay on them (check my meta tag for those), I will say that I am absolutely feral about these two. They're fun because they are so Weird. They're the best friends to lovers trope but they can't talk to each other at all. Miscommunication is their daily bread. They're rivals who can't help being wrapped around each other's fingers. One moment they're trying to progress as their own individuals, the next they're back to being codependent. They exemplify so many of the themes of blue lock and one day I'm gonna write a whole essay on it. Like I'm not even kidding, reonagi, bachisagi and rinsae are all faces of the same coin. I'm convinced Kaneshiro introduced them all to drive home the idea that the best striker in the world cannot live for someone else's success, and those three dynamics are different stages of self awareness in that respect. In that respect I think all three are integral to the series and that's why they're the most nuanced dynamics of the show

But as for nagireo itself? I know they will make me miserable eventually because I want them to be a team and that will never happen (well, if you don't take into account how they're both likely to make it to the u20 proper at least). But still. If I didn't like pain I wouldn't be shipping them in the first place I guess

[leastdatablebracket]

I’m deeply sorry people were accusing anyone of pedophilia on this tournament. Tumblr users be normal about being a petty little hater challenge.

Anyway as someone who hates a lot of the “the problem is they’re underage” characters and submitted a couple I can see how it’s hard to beat them and also less fun than complaining about romances you just don’t like so I think it’s fair to remove them if that’s what you decide

Yeah and I'll probably add in more characters to replace them. Do a whole Round 1.5 with new matchups where the eliminated characters are replaced. That way, characters like Lorenz and Randy can race actual fair matchups.

But, yeah, I see everything people say and having people accuse others of fucked up shit is just depressing and makes me not want to do the tournament.

[starryeyes2000]

Creators Club Update: 10/15/2022

Thank you for all the enthusiastic responses. I’ll try to have this up and running by the first of November. 

Today I’ll lay out random ideas for your consideration, please reply to this post, ask me, or direct message me your ideas or questions. My assumption is our group will evolve as time passes.

This group is open to all creators (writers, visual artists, etc), readers, and those who appreciate these creations. All fandoms are welcome. All story types are welcome: original works, original characters, alternate universe, canon strict, OTP, x reader, and so on.

We support, nurture, and cheer on creative endeavors as well as give them visibility.

Different levels of participation are okay. Schedules change. Health changes. Good flows into our lives, challenges flow into our lives. Participate as it feels right to you.

Activities for your consideration:

Bi-weekly we spotlight a creator on our blogs via a bio, a link to a fic of their choice. Other possibilities: pinned post of this spotlight, reblogs, making graphics, leaving comments. These actions would be up to each member; for example, I suck at graphics but am comfortable leaving comments.

A blog dedicated to the group. This could be private or open to any Tumblr user. Here members can post requests for help (beta reading, a sounding board when writer’s block creeps in), announcements, buddy writing (encouraging each other to hit a goal by a certain time), reblogs of creators latest updates, etc.

Mature content: How do we respect each other’s preferences?

Name for our group.

Two tag lists follow. The first are those who asked to be included. The second is anyone who reblogged or liked the original post. Let me know if you want to be moved to the first list or eliminated from either list.

Please pass along the invitation to any interested.

I suggest two tagged lists are maintained: Members and those who’d like to be on our notifications list.

Participating Tag List: @themaradaniels @asirensrage @megandaisy9 @bardic-tales @mytardisisparked @munstysmind @karimac @mishkatelwarriorgoddess @residentdormouse @maybenow22 @writingpotato07 @illegalcerebral @imma-eat-him @heirsoflilith @dogmomwrites @morgan-stardusts-god @chickensarentcheap @darknightfrombeyond @smurphyse

Notification Tag List: @resowrites @arrthurpendragon @blind-the-winds @ryutabs @z0mbicide @wokenhardies @calicojackofficial @gooseygooseyartstuff @creepypyromancer @infernogoddes9 @perasperaadastrawriting @metallideth01 @diemohnblume @ayzrules @cosplayingfangirl @fogblitz @ultrarebelheart @reesespieces10123 @yourfriendlywriter @aalinaaaaaa @jurassicobsessor @miss-galaxy-turtle @andiebeaword @kalonae @aperrywilliams @elejah-wonderland @justiceandwar98

[digital-roots]

Doing the tdi simulator and i want to share some highlights rn (which are mostly abt Cody)

- Owen was the first to get eliminated

- Leshawna has gotten close to getting eliminated FOUR TIMES already

- Cody is the best player in Screaming Gophers and is in two alliances: One just with Izzy and one with literally everyone else EXCEPT Noah (whos the only person that disliked him so far)

- Noah and Trent are close but Cody gets Noah eliminated, making Trent dislike Cody and leaving the alliance

- so Cody (who everyone else in the Screaming Gophers like) gets Trent eliminated right after Noah (Its shown that Cody voted both Noah and Trent out too)

- Im actually really impressed at how Cody is doing what the fuck why is he being so smart

- also i want to point out that he still has his two man alliance with Izzy. (Anyone here watched the Izzy isnt crazy conspiracy video. What if he knows)

- oh god Cody dislikes Beth shes gonna be next

I've been trying to put a readmore here but tumblr wont help im sorry yall

- Geoff and Bridgette hate each other :(

- CODY FUCKING OVERCOMES HIS FEAT TWICE. I DID NOT BUFF HIS STATS AT ALL BEFORE I MADE THIS

- Cody and Justin just had a MAJOR fight

- this has quickly spiraled into me liveblogging abt Cody boybossing his way into victory

- the entire time most of the Killer Bass fucking despise each other

- Gwen, Izzy and HEATHER all feel an unbreakable bond towards Cody. He gets bitches!!!!!!!!!

- im going insane HOW does he do it. Cody literally Screaming Gophers' saving grace

- OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHH CODY JUST HAD A MAJOR MELTDOWN

- whats gonna happen to his reputation??????

- Sadies impressing her team :)

- Tyler just got eliminated and i forgot to mention how he had two alliances in the beginning. And he left both of them

- Cody and co havent seem to change anything (oh and btw heather and beth have an unbreakable bond now)

- OHHHHHH NEVERMIND CODY HAD ANOTHER MELTDOWN AND HE JUST LEFT HIS ALLIANCE. CODY WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING

- Sadie has also been close to elimination three times now bruh

- Cody and Izzy still have their alliance. Maybe he's trying to focus more.

- the screaming gophers have been winning back to back so much damn

- Cody and Beth fought but then they made up after

- Sadie literally competing with Leshawna on who can get the most amount of almost elimimations

- AAAAANNNNNDD FOR THE FIFTH TIME SADIE ALMOST GETS ELIMINATED

- Courtney and Ezekiel of all people have an unbreakable bond

- can the killer bass win one time guys. Can the screaming gophers stop being infinitely better than them

- Beths impressing the rest of the team....

- oh and the alliance is falling apart....ever since cody left gwen and heather left too

- SIX ALMOST ELIMINATIONS. HOW DOES SHE DO IT

- despite being a boyboss cody still sucks at sports

- FINALLY. SADIE FINALLY GETS ELIMINATED.

- holy shit katie voted for her what a twist

- its literally so pathetic that the Screaming Gophers has 7 members while the Killer Bass has. 3

- ohhhhhhh shit yeah this is the part where it gets grouped to guys and girls now. Uh oh Cody only has Ezekiel and Justin now

- THE GUYS WIN THE CHALLENGE

- ok merge time

- Harold and Tyler return!

- wish it was either Trent or Noah tho

- Cody has so many unbreakable relationships its unreal

- of course Heather gets a torture where its literally just listening to her own voice

- izzys final torture is literally just getting pelted by water balloons and She LOSES how embarassing

- Everyone else thinks Izzy was cringe and all vote her off

- and ofc Justin wins cologne

- i am not fucking kidding CODY GETS THE INVINCIBILITY GIFT BASKET. HE IS LITERALLY CANON TDI HEATHER IF SHE WAS ACTUALLY WELL LIKED

-if cody actually wins i might get mad everything thats happened so far HAS to be because he'll lose

- harold elimimated Cringe

- Cody at the very least is still pretty weak theres been numerous times where hes almost cost his team (and despite it still winning)

- oh and ofc he wins invincibility again. Cody you goddamn rascal

- Literally only Heather and Gwen didnt win the challenge (Gwen got voted off)

- oh cody and justin have an alliance now

- leshawna :(

- oh shit cody only has heather now

- huh ezekiel has actually won a lot of challenges i just realized

- codys noticed ezekiels winnings. He does not like that

- Heather chose a chipmunk for the challenge and she LOST that mustve been a hilariously long time wrangling that chipmunk

- OH. MY. GOD.

- CODY FUCKING GOT ELIMINATED.

- Ezekiel was the enemy he found out about too late

- Im so mad this simulator game has made me feel so much for Cody that i'll miss him so much im never seeing boybossing Cody ever again

- Im actually rooting for Ezekiel now what

- Ezekiel got eliminated.

- everyone hates Katie wow

- the final four are Courtney, Heather, Justin, and Tyler

- Tyler naurrrrr he was so close :(

- JUSTIN LOSES!!!!!! HEATHER AND COURTNEY FINALE!!!!!!

- HEATHER WINS TOTAL DRAMA!!!!!!!!!!!

- fuck this Cody aint in total drama action

- oh my god. This was a lot.

Here all the placements btw

- Katie and Sadie have the most votes wow

- Screaming Gophers literally won 7 times in a row. Unreal

- I think i need to lie down that took so much out of me

[modernmonkeymind]

We all want to be entertained, distracted from our lives. There's nothing wrong with a Netflix or YouTube binge, but perhaps its not so great that its become the default for us, or at least for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love me some TV, but watching the crew of the Discovery getting themselves into trouble, or the Click (wholesome though he is) making jokes about goofy memes doesn’t actually accomplish anything, and it takes time that could be used in more fulfilling ways.

Social media can be a great resource, and a serious distraction. I decided to back away from social media almost entirely once I realized I was letting people I didn't know piss me off, especially when I wasn't going to change their mind (hello Dunning-Krueger, didn't see you over there).

To challenge myself and get my head on straight, I'm embracing Cal Newport's Digital Detox for March, eliminating social media and all streaming video. I'm letting myself have access to a limited number of sites, primarily 84000, Suttacentral, and the Storygraph. I'm also planning to post to Mastadon twice a day (a poem and 3 good things), and Tumblr. I'm not restricting podcasts, audio books or music. I'll be using Basecamp, Meetup, and Zoom for personal development and to keep commitments I've made. I'm planning to revert my phone to something akin to what Steve Jobs originally intended, a sort of smart dumb phone that can make calls, texts, access messaging apps, maps, the app for my smart scale, One Bus Away, Streaks, audio, YNAB & my bank, and thats about it. In other words I'm making my phone a tool again. The question of course, becomes what to do without access to technological pacifiers. The answer really is most anything that doesn’t require a computer or smartphone, but some of my favorites these days include:

Meditation: I've been practicing based on the teachings of the Nalandabodhi, and Shambhala lineages recently and plan to meditate for seven minutes in the morning and/or evening, in addition to short sessions sporadically throughout the day. I'll also be single tasking for the most part, using activities like reading, walking, reading/composing poetry, and painting, as meditative practices.

Yoga: I got into yoga asana because I was stiff and not very grounded, and I decided to train to teach for similar reasons, since yoga is so pigeon holed as something only bendy acrobats can do. I've not gotten on the mat in a few years at this point, but want to get back to it, inspired by my teacher starting to teach again earlier this week after an extended health crisis. I'm planning to just do a couple minutes to start, probably just Sun Salutations/playing around.

Walk: A great form of exercise most anyone can do, and it doesn’t have to cost a thing as long as you have a decent pair of shoes and appropriate clothes for the weather. I've been taking daily walks more regularly recently, but most of the time this is a bookstore circuit that leads to lots of temptation. Going forward I'm planning to walk more in nature and go to libraries instead. I'm setting a 12k goal in Streaks, and shooting for 20k. I've already been hitting in this range most days which has helped with some serious weight loss.

Read: I’ve always got a couple books going. At the moment the list includes a commentary on the 37 Practices of a Bodhisattva, and Donut Economics by Kate Raworth. Books are magical things. You can learn most anything you might be interested in (I highly recommend Raworth's book), you can learn about another person’s experience of life in their own words (Montaigne basically invented the personal blog before the internet or computers were a thing when he thought up the essay format). You can also exercise your imagination and relax with a good novel (the human imagination has one solid advantage over TV & movies in that it isn’t restricted by a budget!) The plan is to dial back and do my best to only read one or two books at a time instead of the four or five I've usually got going. I'm also planning to read more poetry after my interest was reignited by Sister Jina's wonderful collection, which leads to the next item.

Write: Mostly when I say write I'm thinking of journaling and composing poetry by hand. I'm shooting for spending some time every day writing, but not worrying about getting a polished poem at the end. Just fifteen minutes of concentrated work.

Paint: I've taken a couple classes on watercolor and messed around a bit with acrylics. I'd like to spend some time each day painting, actually focused on having something to show for it each time, though that could be childish goofing around. I'd like to take a shot at using acrylics to recreate ukiyoe, get inspired by Zen/Chan watercolors, and take a shot at Sumie, though I definitely want to take a class in the latter at some point sooner than later!

PLAYING WITH MY CAT: Do I need to explain?

NOTHING: Seriously, we've become so obsessed with "productivity" and "getting things done" that as a culture its as if we've forgotten what it is to be alive as a human being. I'm going to try to do this more often, whether standing in line, walking somewhere, or just having nothing in particular to do.

I'm not expecting March to be easy, but thats kind of the point. I'm getting rid of some things I enjoy , but the fact that something isn't easy just means its more worth doing. I'll be journaling about it, and plan to post here once a week.

[foxytunes]

hi tumblr! im gonna make this title short, so:

here is the full transcript of what mephone wrote to walkie talkie or whatever her name is. i forgot lmao

notes at the end

Good afternoon, mysterious gal with a big idea:

Sorry about any typos that might come up during this message. I'm typing this message quickly as I and two of my contestants are hopping into this rocking, shoddily-made boat. As per our agreement, I will be arriving shortly to greet the eliminated contestants. (Were they there this whole time?) I would appreciate it if you gave me a big, exciting countdown as I neared the shoreline. I'm sure they'd get a real kick out of that. I will also be bringing two of my contestants to both bear witness to today's event and to help me prepare a new element of the game, now that we have entered the merge. It's all flying by. Exciting, I guess.

When I arrive, please have my challenge constructed for me so we don't waste any time. (I hope you're well equipped to do some construction on your own!) It should be fairly simple. We need some ziggidy-zaggedy balance beams of different colors for the contestants to traverse. At the end of these we need bags of rocks. Preferably gray ones, but I'm not too picky. They'll be tossing them at these bag tied up on big poles. (Absolutely have them match in color with the balance beams! That's stage two. That's what professionals do!!!)

So what's that so far? We need the balance beams, the rock bag, the big poles, and uhhhh. RIGHT yes okay the bags for the poles. Those need to be filled with letter blocks. (THE BLOCKS MUST ALSO BE COLOR-COORDINATED!!!!!!!!!) They should be able to walk forward from their final station, drop these letter blocks in front of them, and stack them to make a secret word. And it's a good one. Huh. I'm quite impressed with myself. I don't think I've made a single typo in this message yet. Anyway, onto the secret word. I think we should have the blocks spell out:

T-R-A-N-S-F-E-R-M-A-S-I-O-N

notes

this is all just taken from what i could see. i typed this all out by hand so lmk if i made any typos heheh

i liked when wt was like "i copied it verbatim" or whatever she said bc cabby like yeah that stuff haha