#which would mesh nicely with the linked theory

[jackatt14]

My answers for the Aro-spec Awareness Week Q&A!! (Even if it's kinda last minute)

Here's the link!!

1. Where are you on the aromantic spectrum?

Aromantic Allosexual (AroAllo/AlloAro)

2. What are some other labels you have tried out?

none!! other than the general label which is Aromantic. but,, when I found out abt the AroAllo label and discovered a like-minded community,, I started using that!! (tho,, I tend to introduce myself as only Aromantic to ppl irl. as it's a label ppl are familiar with. for the most part anyway. there's ppl who still mix up Aromanticism and Asexuality lmao. or who never heard of the term Aromantic.)

3. How long have you identified as aro-spec?

since I was a Junior in highschool!! so that would be 2-3 years

4. How old were you when you first heard the term?

iiiii have no idea lmao. im gonna assume like,, 13-14?? maybe younger than that?? im not sure. I just know that when I was a teenager,, I was learning abt other sexualities and genders other than the main ones

5. Are you SAM or Non-SAM?

I consider myself to be SAM. as I don't view sexual or romantic attraction to be the same. while I can get behind how sexual attraction and romantic attraction could coexist in theory,, I personally don't see it that way. seeing as I don't experience romantic attraction

6. Do you wear a white ring?

no,, but I wish!! (would I wear it all the time?? depends on the texture and how well it fits my small fingers lmao)

7. Are you out?

yes and no. my mom knows abt me being Aromantic,, but I never told her the Allosexual aspect of my identity out of fear of being judged. I've told friends abt me being Aromantic,, even specified how I'm Allosexual,, but not to my acquaintances. I only just lay out how I'm Aromantic. then there's my mom's side of the family who I haven't told at all. and I don't think my mom has told them either. id like to keep it that way

8. What are some aro headcanons you have?

I have none!!

9. Are you romance favorable, indifferent, adverse, or repulsed?

I'm romance indifferent. bc I'm someone who absolutely LOVES romance in media. I'll read fanfics,, watch TV shows/movies,, write stories,, ship characters together,, listen to love songs,, etc. but,, strangely enough,, I find romance to be boring sometimes

the rush and drama that comes with 2 characters falling for each other and confessing is exciting. when the paring actually gets together,, however,, I then lose interest. bc I realize that they're just gonna turn into every generic romantic couple in society. what made me interested in the first place was their dynamic. and now it's ruined or isn't as enjoyable compared to when they were pining for each other

then there's having to see things like kiss scenes. for the most part,, I'm fine with them,, other times I'm not. seeing characters mesh their lips together in often weird angles and motions makes me so uncomfortable/disgusted that I have to look away

THEN,, there's the fact that I have no desire to be in a romantic relationship at all. if I hear that friends of mine are in romantic relationships,, then I'm like "good for them". they're happy,, and it's nice seeing my friends happy. but,, I personally do not need a romantic relationship to be happy. nor (as mentioned before) have I ever experienced romantic attraction. I've mistaken obsessive behavior as romantic attraction,, along with sexual attraction as romantic attraction. and those are not the same thing

10. Are you in a QPR? Do you want one?

yes,, I'm in a QPR!! and I'd possibly like to have others in the future

11. Are you in a romantic relationship? Do you want one?

no,, I'm not in a romantic relationship and I never plan to be in one. I shall mention one last time (maybe) that I don't experience romantic attraction. the idea of going on dates,, performing romantic gestures,, expressing romantic affection/affirmations towards another,, makes me uncomfortable. it's something I've never desired,, and something I don't see myself ever desiring going forward. I only want to have friendships and QPRs.

12. Tag at least one aro-spec blogger on Tumblr to help grow connections

@aromanticofficial (??? idk no pressure or anything lmao)

13. Do you know any facts about aro history?

no,, unfortunately

14. What piece of media that you like has a canon aro-spec character?

Issac from Heartstopper

15. What's your ideal friendship?

a friendship where we can have a casual sexual relationship (aka FWBs or Friends with Benefits) and there's no romantic feelings involved. however,, I'd like to also have normal friendships that aren't sexual. I'm hypersexual so it makes it difficult for me to see my friends solely in a platonic light. which can be frustrating and affects my relationships negatively. I don't want to always fixate on my friends for the sake of sexual activity.

16. Did you have a good discount chocolate day? (The day after Valentine's Day)

I didn't even know such a day existed lmao. I don't like chocolate tho (I only like white chocolate)

17. What are some issues you have faced from being aro-spec (If you're comfortable answering)

Amatonormativity,, being told that the LGBTQ+ community has "too many labels" from my mom,, and having to deal with ppl falling in love with u anyway lmao. I don't have any aromantic friends I can confide in or relate to,, so that's frustrating as well. and I'm tired of Asexuality being lumped with Aromanticism. as while yes,, there are ppl who are AroAce. and that's cool,, but they aren't the same thing. please make room for us AroAllos. we exist too

18. What are some positive experiences you have had from being aro-spec?

I have a small friend group (and many acquaintances) that accept me for who I am and support me!! and I'm grateful to have those ppl in my life :))

[potential-fate]

I sorta loathe the ts2 fat morph....

which has apparently become a project of it's own.

so I mentioned this vaguely somewhere, but thought I should make a generalize post about it. Mainly cause it'll probably affect any cc I make in the future so... there's that.

Anyway.... because I've spent the last few months sorta adding fat morphs to some of my really old clothing, I quickly realized that I didn't have to deal with EA's "fat" morph. There is literally nothing stopping me from just... making it look better/how I want it to.

Anyways, long story short, I'm picky. There are a decent amount of nice bodyshapes out there, and while I like them, I don't like having multiples of the same outfit (it's the same reason I ended up going with Sunshine hair.) I like sticking to the game's original setup, which in the case of fit states, is unfortunately limited.

I also spend most of my time posing and doing story posts, so I'm not a fan of the much larger bodyshapes, even though I love them in theory.... because they clip a ton, and make more work for me later. So I wanted something that I liked 🤔 but also didn't fuck with the in-game animations too much.

Also, I just sorta like the pear-shaped chunky body type (it's not at all cause it resembles mine lmao nope.... not at all.)

anyways, idk if anyone is even still reading this, but uh... yeah.

I guess this is me, introducing the "sorta chunky, sorta pear-shaped, 'still not really a fat morph' in my opinion because game limitations" bodyshape/fatmorph? (Or, in short cause filename size 'pfate pearshape'.)

At least as an idea. idk if anyone is at all interested in this. but if they are, I can share whatever people want about it/resources for it? idk it's not like I have WSOs cause I honestly don't know how to use them let alone make them. I tend to just make my morphs by hand.

But on a technical note, I think I have most of the Digi Marvine feet naked meshes defaults changed to this, and some other stuff too. mainly Club Crimson stuff, because frankly, I'm still using the files I had from 2012 so none of them had morphs at all (though I'm sure someone somewhere HAS added morphs to them.)

[[ TL;DR is this: I felt like I needed to make a post about it, cause some of the stuff I'm gonna be sharing coming up has fat-morphs based on this. things like defaults that either didn't have morphs so I added them, or they had morphs but I edited them anyways because I was defaulting them with specific sims in mind (like Jorah, Alex or Ginevra) and I wanted a post that I could link back to for reference on those posts. ]]

in any case, if I make a default and change the morphs from ones that already exist, and you WANT the defaults with the original morphs, that's very easy to switch out and I will gladly do it if you ask lol. otherwise I'll probably edit things as I see fit since uhm. well I make cc 99.9% for myself 😂😅

Other age turnarounds under the cut, cause this is too long already.

EU Bodies (Left: Maxis Standard/thin, right: Pfate-Pearmorphs)

TU Bodies (Left: Maxis Standard/Thin, right: Pfate-Pearmorphs)

CU Body (Left: Maxis Standard/Thin, right: Pfate-Pearmorphs)

CU body changed the least from the original fat-morph, then the elder femme frame, I would say? cause the elder frame already had a sort of pear shape (that sorta inspired the other femme ages.) the others are varying degrees of change, with AM being the strongest change by far.

[sixteenthshen]

post-finale stuff

Possible spoilers. Beware

Last night, I happened to check the scriptwriter's Weibo and saw that she had liked this fan's post. It's the only non-work related Weibo post that she had liked, so of course, I went to read it. 

The fact that this is the only fan post she's given her approval to must mean that it is on point and she agrees with the characterisation. I thought it's pretty good, so I've gone ahead to translate it here. I own 0 rights to this. I just thought it's a good perspective that may help others like me who struggled with the ending. 

I think I've mostly made my peace with it now, and to sum it up:

Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to doesn't mean they don't love you with all that they are. 

A-Xu never once blamed Lao Wen for how things turned out because he understood that. And he’s clearly a better person than I am (lol).

Let me be clear about my stand - the real victim of how the drama unfolded in the last six episodes is WKX. When we feel our hearts ache for ZZS, it's because the show let down WKX (the character). If your heart is only hurting for WKX during episodes 33-34, you should try to ship WKX with someone else, ok? If you think the last six episodes were great and that WKX was very romantic (and only romantic), then I honestly don't know what to say. 

I ship wenzhou. That means I like both Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu. I want them to love each other, be good to each other and live happily ever after. And I want them not to be OOC. 

The rest behind the cut. Spoilers for the whole drama. 

------- 

First, the source. Here is a link to that Weibo post, by 爱吐槽的栗小姐. I will delete this if requested by the OP - because this is really in a grey area imo. But I think the intention of a public post is for it to be shared? (especially something like this, which argues a point) 

Secondly, the poster does try to be fair in her post, but as the problem here is WKX's ruined characterisation, ZZS's character is analysed primarily concerning this issue only. There's quite a bit left to ZZS's character and backstory that isn't relevant. I believe that's why the post doesn't elaborate on it, or so I hope.

-------

Ever since WKX faked his death, I received three to four waves of fellow sister fans' mournful wails: "Lao Wen actually faked his death; does he have a heart?" "They were supposed to be of the same heart and treat each other with honesty. How did they regress?" "What happened to their innate soulmate-ness?" "Why does A-Xu always say to face things together, yet Lao Wen always keeps his plans from him?" "A-Xu loves Lao Wen, yet Lao Wen only loves himself"…….

Wait. What have you guys misunderstood about the meaning of soulmates? 

Soulmates are about values, but a person's behaviour… that's methodology FFS! 

(Do they no longer teach this in political affairs class in high school anymore?) 

Wenzhou, these soulmates, are incomparably compatible and mesh well in terms of values. According to the scriptwriter, the entire jianghu wants and tries to get the pieces of Glazed Armour, save the two of them. Not only do they not care for the peerless martial arts, immense power, nor the massive wealth that the Glazed Armour represents, they don't even care for the power they hold in their hands –Ghost Valley and the Window of Heaven. Both of them willing to give it up without a second thought. 

Before they met each other, they were so tired of (ZZS) and so angry at (WKX) this earthly world that they didn't even want to live on anymore. 

After they met each other, they gradually began to feel the warmth in this world again. How nice it would be if they could live in seclusion, hand in hand and just bask in the sun. 

In this world, where everyone else is fighting for power or wealth, they are true soulmates. To intelligent people like them, whether or not they're honest about their identities or secrets is merely a matter of formality. They had already determined their attraction to the other's soul early on and have never doubted it. 

There may be some here who would criticise loudly at this point, "Then can't you be more considerate for your soulmate (the actual phrased used is "spiritual companion")? A-Xu has said many times, let's face everything together, I'll bet that you will be honest with me. If you really love him, then why can't you care for his feelings?" 

----- You guys, you've never been married. 

If two souls meeting can naturally resolve all behavioural conflicts and disagreements, then the theory of "breaking in" * would not exist. 

Let us take a look at what kind of a person WKX and ZZS each are.

Wen Kexing, he's a lone wolf. 

After his parents' death and his entering the Ghost Valley, his smooth sailing life suddenly fell off a cliff. Ever since then, the only person he could rely on was himself. That deep-seated hatred is carved into his bones, yet he can't speak of it to anyone else. He isn't the same type of person as the rest of the ghosts in the Ghost Valley; he isn't the same type of person as A-Xiang, who he raised. If we talk about the world and everyone who lives in it, he doesn't have any fetters or feels any (positive) emotions. 

His supposed craziness is a form of indifference. He's indifferent to others' lives, nor his own, because he just doesn't care. (T/N: I think he does care for his own life, but only for revenge, after that, he's indifferent. Indifferent isn't suicidal. I don't know why some fans seem to be confusing the two. Although he didn't plan to, if he somehow manages to stay alive after getting his revenge, WKX will continue to live on, even if it's only to keep A-Xiang happy because he is indifferent.)

Growing up like this, being solitary became his style. He's used to doing everything alone, used to making his own decisions, used to digesting all his emotions himself. 

Every time he argues with A-Xu, he digests his emotions himself. The next day, he faces A-Xu with a smile again. 

This is how he loves, to take it upon himself to face danger, difficulty and pain alone. It's how he had supported A-Xiang all these years in the Ghost Valley and what he's used to. 

While Zhou Zishu, he's a lead horse (of a herd). ** 

Since a very young age, he's taught to take responsibility. He's used to bearing everything on his shoulders, be it the responsibility of his family or the responsibility for the Four Seasons Manor, even the responsibility for saving commoners from disasters. 

Unlike the lone wolf, the lead horse is ultimately a social animal. 

Regardless of his identity as the Manor Lord of the Four Seasons Manor or the Leader of the Window of Heaven, he's always the one to lead the herd and rarely fights alone. So, A-Xu not only has leadership ability but more than that, he also knows how to be tolerant and accepting of the differences of his team members. You can see the various ways he managed to influence Lao Wen along the road; he's firm when he needs to be and soft the other times. It's absolutely textbook in managing your lover workplace management. 

Zhou Zishu believes in communication whenever there's a problem, that they should be open and honest. So, teamwork is what he's used to. 

Does it mean that when a horse and lone wolf fall in love, that there won't be a breaking in period? 

Obviously not. 

I guess this is where some may say again, "isn't this part of a character's arc/development? The two of them quarrel time and time again. Did WKX not grow at all from it?" 

Of course, after meeting each other, they both grew and saved each other.

When he first left Window of Heaven, A-Xu was lonely with regret. Unlike the lone wolf who's used to doing everything alone, a lead horse without the last of his herd has no way to bear the bone-deep loneliness and merciless self-recrimination.

ZZS wandered around this world aimlessly until Lao Wen started pestering him, until he picked up Zhang Chengling, right up until he felt he hadn't singlehandedly destroyed the Four Seasons Manor. This lead horse finally regained a goal in life. He gained a partner and a lover. Lao Wen sticks to him, Chengling relies on him, and the abandoned Four Seasons Manor became like-new in his hands. He finally reconciles with himself. 

When he first came out of the valley, Lao Wen carried a rage strong enough to burn the world down. But when he met A-Xu, he also met the beauty of the world. 

When the Four Sages of Anji died, WKX understood how he caused innocent suffering. When Gao Chong walked to his death knowingly, he understood that although some may desire power, they could still be righteous and upstanding people. When he learned of everything Long Que sacrificed to protect his family***, he finally relaxed his guard. 

There were so many types of good people and things that he saw along this journey that he hadn't seen in the Ghost Valley. When A-Xu told him he was a good person as they basked in the sun, he genuinely wanted to return to the human (vs ghost) realm and be a good man. 

Along their journey, A-Xu made up for the morals and values that WKX lost in the Ghost Valley and showed him a new world outlook. He appeased Lao Wen's anger, tempered his extremism. The process wasn't easy, but not that difficult either, because, in the end, Lao Wen is kind at heart. 

But in the end, being a lone wolf is how he survived and succeeded in a place like the Ghost Valley. When A-Xu was so heavily injured and needed a lot of rest (for Wu Xi) to save his life, Lao Wen suddenly recalled his enemies and how such an excellent opportunity to take revenge just fell into his lap. Everything was in place, and all he needed to do was hide it from A-Xu; he could leave for a short while and have it settled quickly. Upon returning, he could then live happily ever after with his wife. To a crazy lone wolf, why would he not take a gamble? 

What he couldn't predict was the news would've been leaked (to A-Xu), and he didn't know that by doing so, he would've forever lost his love. 

Both of them were using their own methods to love the other person. Zhou Zishu is more forgiving and accepting because being forgiving is in his blood. While what WKX learned in his years in the Ghost Valley is -- love needs to be protected, like how he has A-Xiang, who he considers a sister, call himself master (to protect her). 

Only when faced with painful consequences can a person's deep-rooted habits and approach to things change. So I don't think faking his death ruined the characterisation of Wen Kexing, but I regret that the last two episodes did not have a scene to show us Lao Wen's heartbreak when he learns the truth. 

Until I know what it feels like to have lost you, I will only love you in my own way. 

T/N: 

*I can't think of the correct phrase for this as I don't read all that much about relationships >< please let me know if you know of it. Here, I'm referring to the process of wearing something new (like shoes) that will hurt at the start until it becomes soft and comfortable. 

** I did some side-reading, and omg, A-Xu is TOTALLY the lead mare. Although he's not the stallion and weak/dying for most of the show, he's the head of their little family, and he expects "to be obeyed", aka, I'm not going to learn how to cook. Call me for dinner. Kthxbye. 

From Rutgers' website: A herd of wild horses consists of one or two stallions, a group of mares, and their foals. The leader of the herd is usually an older mare (the "alpha mare"), even though one stallion owns the herd. She maintains her dominant role even though she may be physically weaker than the others. The older mare has had more experiences, more close encounters, and survived more threats than any other horse in the herd. The requirement of the lead horse is not strength or size; if this were so, then humans could never dominate a horse. Dominance is established not only through aggression but also through attitudes that let the other horses know she expects to be obeyed.

***I think this is important here because WKX wasn't crying for his loss. I think a big part of him was realising not everyone in the world was callous and turned their backs on his parents, that he could've gone his whole life without ever discovering what sacrifices some people have made. Good people suffer quietly and in silence. It's a big moment to realise he was wrong about many things that he had let hatred blind himself to the world. Because although he was sad about the Four Sages and somewhat shocked by Gao Chong's death, he hadn't truly faced up to his actions until now. 

(screenshot of the scriptwriter liking the above post) 

------

To add: 

I'm not sure how many of you read my "opinion" posts, but I've been struggling to find a way to accept the last six episodes of Word of Honor.  I first tried looking at open forum postings, comments, and Tumblr posts. None of it worked because it was just arguing and emotions and no one made points good enough for me to accept things. 

So I gave up and went back to reading Chinese sites. I found many posts discussing the plot. Some I liked, some I didn't, but none satisfied my need for a reasonable explanation. I felt they had biases (both ways), or else it lacked logic. After a time, I realised that I should be looking for WKX-stans (or pro-WKX fans) because they would be more motivated to explain his side, but also because well-written posts by wenzhou-fans & ZZS-stans made me super sad.

I'm sorry, but those who keep trying to explain why the ending was good completely missed that episodes 32-34 are the real problem to those who don't like it and only focused on 36. I can understand if people don't think those episodes are a problem, but no one could provide an articulate and sensible reason. There are just too few well-reasoned plot-focused posts in English (sorry). I've seen too many examples of WKX-fans arguing with people who are upset about the ending, backed by nothing more than "look how much WKX suffers, woe is him. And how romantic is this????" *dies* 

Lastly, if you spot anything inaccurate, let me know & I will correct it.

[otomegema]

Title: Convergence Theory, ch. 3 summary: Transitional chapter GET. Aka, the one where reader meets Gojo's students a little more and I show off some of her powers and set up some future uh-- issues. That might effect the would-be couple. I'm just rolling with it. pairing: Gojo Satoru x Reader rating: mature Ao3 Link (We are uh-- up to ch. 11 on Ao3 just fyi)

Weird did not even begin to describe the feeling that went through your chest and flipped in your stomach as you closed the door on your hotel room, bags in hand, and went downstairs to meet your new roommate in the lobby.

No.

New fiancé.

A fact Gojo was delighting in explaining to the hotel staff, animatedly conjuring from the depths of his mind some new bullshit on how you met. How he proposed. Some of the girls at the station were near puddles of envy. Others, happily told you how “lucky” you were as you handed off your keycard and checked out.

You had managed not to scowl the entire time, but just barely.

“You’re gonna have to send me a spreadsheet of all these lies just so I can keep up.” You muttered, swinging your bag into the open trunk of the car that had arrived to pick you both up. Oddly, the driver was not the same as the one from the other night. The man in question looked nervously in his rear view mirror, but also with an intense amount of curiosity.

“I already forgot um. Besides, not like we need one for the Gojo clan. They already know how we met.”

Gojo didn’t bother to get the door for you this time, sliding into the back seat without waiting for you to finish loading the car. You took your own spot, mirroring him in taking out your phone to check your latest messages. The driver would occasionally exchange looks with you in the mirror. You gave him a polite smile.

“Principal will wanna meet with you,” Gojo said abruptly, “I had my guys put in your rec already. Just let him know you want me as your mentor and when he brings me the request I’ll sign off.” Gojo didn’t even look up from his phone, “Old man will probably faint. I haven’t agreed to babysit anyone in—“

He paused, but only for a second.

“—Awhile!”

“Too busy?” You asked.

“Too much of a pain in the ass. And after, you can unpack your stuff at my place. I have a room on campus too, probably will spend the majority of my time there when I’m not on mission.”

“When we are not on mission.” You added with a smirk. Gojo sighed.

“Yeah, yeah. You enjoy this while it lasts, I’m already planning our next ‘date’ and you can bet before I’m done with planning the third one the family will demand a visit.” Gojo grinned, “When was the last time you’ve been?”

You groaned, the sound drawing a chuckle from Gojo. He knew damn well when the last time you were invited was.

“Do I get to plan any dates?”

He scoffed, “Why would you wanna?”

It was a fair point. You shrugged and turned to look out the window, admiring the view of trees and the greenery that surrounded Jujutsu Tech. Your days as a student were long over, but there was still so much protocol, so many hoops and tests and missions to jump through. If they had warned you being a sorcerer was like being a forever-student… maybe some of the others had it right. Ditching the school and the rules and wandering as independents. There was an allure to just throwing in the towel— but how would anything ever change if you just left?

You wondered if Gojo felt the same way, his personality not exactly meshing with the idea of a dutiful and obedient Jujutsu sorcerer. He was smiling lazily to himself as he typed on his phone and you found yourself content to just enjoy the silence.

The campus was not foreign to you and so you rebuffed Gojo’s offer to walk you in. Besides, if they came in together it might be too much of a tip off. There was no rule about the relation between a potential first-grade and their mentor, but given his tendency to rub the higher ups the wrong way, you didn’t want to risk any bumps. It was bad enough whoever that driver was had clearly heard you both talking. He seemed to be a staff member.

Passing through the halls though, you had the distinct feeling you were being watched— and definitely not by Gojo. If he was keeping tabs on you, you’d never know.

The cursed energy signatures were familiar, young and new, yet strong. You slid around a corner, barely flexing your Limitless to teleport around behind your spies, hiding out of sight.

“Wha— did we lose her?” The young boy with the pink hair gaped, rushing around the corner and then back, “I don’t see her!”

“Dummy, she probably heard you mouth breathing a mile away.” The girl muttered, slapping her fist into her hand with a disappointed grunt.

The other tall young man said nothing, his eyes drawn down into almost apathetic sleepiness.

“Why were we following her anyway?”

“Didnt you hear, Megumi? She is Gojo-sensei’s wife!”

“Fiancé, Yuji. Not wife.” The girl corrected.

“Fiancé, wife, girlfriend— whatever! Point is, how did we not know about her?! Who marries a guy like that anyway, she has to be crazy strong!!”

“She didn’t do so well on that last mission.” Megumi added, his voice flat. You winced slightly at his assessment. That was your cue. Shifting your energy, you appeared behind Megumi, forcing a tense, but still sufficiently bright smile unto your lips.

“That’s because my rat future-husband was busy showing off for his students!”

Megumi, to his credit, only stiffened. The other two openly shrieked at your arrival, the boy Yuji swiftly switching to an expression of awe.

“She moves like Gojo-sensei! I didn’t know she could do that!”

“Lots of people can do this… can’t believe he gets away with acting all high and mighty…” you grumbled.

You swore you heard a muffled sneeze from somewhere behind you, but your attention was suddenly wholly on Gojo’s two more animated students as they crowded into your space. Nobara Kugisaki— that was the girls name. And Itadori Yuji. The other boy you knew even before the mission was Megumi Fushiguro. Gojo’s longest running student and “ward” of a sort. Plus, he had affiliation with the Zenin. The Gojo clan liked to pretend it was as important, but even with the Six Eyes, there was no contest over which clan held the most power.

“Aren’t you a Gojo too? You have the Limitless right?” Yuji continued, smiling. This was Sukuna’s vessel? He seemed far too simple and far too sweet.

“Distantly. And yes.”

“That is so cool. You must be super strong.”

“I’m— I do okay.” You said, finding the praise a bit hard to accept. Sure in comparison to other third, fourth and even some of your fellow second-grade sorcerers you were notably talented— but how could anyone even judge such a thing when your true comparison was Gojo Satoru?

“When that curse hit ya? I thought— yikes. She is done for. But you barely had a mark on you!”

“Yeah, how did you dodge it? Oh! Can you do the thing?!” Nobara extended her hand, pressing her palm outward in what took you a minute to understand was a mimic of Gojo’s barrier technique.

You smiled faintly and lifted up your own hand. Nobara grinned as she tried to reach out and touch her fingertips to your own and she was stopped just short, hovering and wavering slightly in infinitely slowed movement.

“Neat.”

“I wanna try!” Yuji exclaimed and you happily demonstrated for the young man as well. Shockingly, you had to increase your output a little to repel him.

“I can’t have it up all the time, but it does help in a pinch.” You said and were surprised when Megumi finally spoke up.

“You make it sound like that somehow makes it less powerful.”

Had you? Your tone when talking about your abilities was always reserved. Cautious. You had no reason to gloat— no right to it. You masked your inner reflection behind a terse smile and offered your hand to Megumi.

“You wanna turn?”

The boy flushed.

“I’m… I’m good.”

“Are you going to be around campus today? Are you coming to our lesson?” Yuji asked, Nobara perking at the idea too.

“Maybe. I have to meet with the principal, but I’m sure I’ll see you all later.”

Satisfied with that, they wished you luck and departed, Nobara and Yuji falling again into animated conversation as Megumi steadily followed behind. It would be nice maybe to take part in a lesson or two… you hadn’t given the idea of teaching much thought, but just working with Gojo’s students you were starting to think you were getting the appeal of it.

Especially if you were one who loved to be adored, you thought with a scoff, wondering where Gojo had run off to if his students had been following you.

Dealing with principal Masamichi was a short affair. You accepted the recommendation news with humble gratitude and made your intention of being mentored by Gojo known. You were prepared to ignore the tension that seemed to permeate the atmosphere the moment you did so.

Masamichi simply stated he would let Yoshinobu know of the transfer. There would be no objections from Tokyo.

You could only imagine that your former principal would have something to say about all this— but he and the higher ups had done little to assist you in achieving first-grade status. Perhaps now they would realize they did not hold the keys to every door forward in their world.

Feeling strangely smug and self-satisfied, you left the office and set out to find the three students. It wasn’t difficult. Barely expanding your awareness of energy brought the familiar bright ray of Gojo into your mind. He was easy enough for you to find, you’d been doing it unwillingly all your life.

Near the outskirts of the woods that surrounded Jujutsu Tech you found Gojo shockingly studentless, sitting on the ground and playing what you could only imagine was an extremely high level of Candy Crush.

“Aren’t you suppose to be teaching?”

“I am! Kids are chasing a couple of third grade curses around the woods!”

“… and what are they learning?”

“Optimistically? How to dodge. Those things shoot out some kind of energy thing that definitely looks like it would sting.”

Gojo rapidly tapped across the screen, ending the level in record time before stashing his phone and leaning back on his palms. He tilted his head back at you with his usual smirk.

“You get your semi-grade one status?”

You nodded.

“Perfect!” He stood, brushing off his pants, “Now we can start your lesson! But first, I wanna see your baseline.”

He cracked his knuckles and then lazily stuffed his hands into his pockets.

“Hit me with your strongest technique.”

“…what, like right now? Now, now?” You shouldn’t have been surprised honestly, Gojo was a loose cannon in every sense of the word.

“Now, now, babe.”

You scowled, the furrowing of your brow only seeming to make him smile brighter.

“C’mon. You won’t get me and you know it. Just hit me with your best Limitless technique.”

“My best Limitless technique is non-combative.” You said wryly, wishing you had chosen to wear slacks that day instead of a skirt. Your own uniform was a modified version of the Jujutsu Tech one from your time spent as a sort of “adjunct” instructor. This was definitely not your practice outfit.

“Is it?” Gojo asked, humming thoughtfully. Was he being purposefully obtuse? Most likely, yes.

“Show me your best combative technique.”

You knew what he was getting at. Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue. It was, without utilizing reversals, the strongest technique a Limitless user could achieve— or at least Gojo had made it so. You could do it, sure, but you were not sure on how long you’d be standing upright after you did. All your previous attempts to master the technique usually ended in you taking a sudden and unplanned nap. At best, the output was a little weaker, but sometimes you could hold unto consciousness and only be tapped for the rest of the day.

“I’ll faint.” You said quietly and Gojo lifted his hand to cup his ear, grinning.

“What was that?”

You huffed, “I’ll faint.”

“I don’t think you will.”

“I’m sorry, is this your technique or mine?”

Gojo gave a small shrug, “Obviously mine. You're just a knock-off.”

“Ya know, I activated my Limitless abilities before you.”

“I mighta heard something like that once— Now hit me.” Gojo took a few steps back, crooking his finger at you, “Come on, come one. Don’t be so boring. I have to know what your capable of it you are going to come on missions with me.”

“This is a terrible idea.” You grumbled, but swung out your shoulders, breathing out slowly to mentally prepare yourself if anything.

“Maybe! But like I said, I gotta know just how weak you are.” Gojo said, mirth in his voice— and mocking.

“I’m not weak.” You snapped out before you could real in your tongue, feeling your neck flush.

“You just said you can’t even do the base technique of our ability without fainting.” Gojo gestured his hand out as he gave another little shrug, “Kinda seems super weak to me.”

“I’m not you.”

“Not with that attitude you aren’t."

Okay. Fine. He wanted you to hit him? You’d hit him. Your cursed energy had already flared up, irritation giving way to anger as you opened that channel within your memory and your emotions— focusing it until all that bitterness, all that rage was nothing more than a battery for you to use to fuel your own jujutsu.

You knew Gojo would be fine, but for a moment, you nearly faltered. Having someone ask you to basically collapse them apart with the cursed equivalent of a black hole? Not exactly a normal every day occurrence.

“C’mon! Stop thinking about hitting me and hit me! Unless you wanna renegotiate our deal… hell, maybe it would be easier for both of us if I just paid your rent instead. I don’t know how I’m gonna manage to get someone so pathetic to first-grade.”

You were going to kill him.

You were going to rip the eyes from his skull and spit them out at the dinner table of the main family, teeth and gums bloody.

“Cursed Technique Lapse: Blue.”

The cursed energy ripped not out from your body, but in. Focusing around Gojo as it manipulated space, dividing it down to the negative and seeking out to rend him apart. The area of effect was like a circle, but you pinpointed at his eyes regardless. Targeting what excess energy was left to his face.

The blast of blue sent clouds of dirt and grass into the air— or what was once dirt and grass. Having been nearly crushed into nothing, the debris shot around in fine powdered ash. When the air cleared, Gojo was standing where he had been before, entirely untouched.

Except for his blindfold.

One end had twisted, the fabric swirling up so tightly it was risen up against his forehead and revealing one bright, blue eye. It had gotten caught in part in the curling shrinking energy of the technique, but not enough to destroy it.

You let out a breath, stunned to find you were still standing.

“See?” Gojo said cheerfully, “Just a little motivation and you—“

The last thing you saw before everything went black was the ground suddenly rushing up to your face.

The low painful rumble of your stomach woke you, awareness of your body coming back in small waves. There was something soft tucked under your head… and your legs were elevated, knees curled around something.

You opened your eyes to the bright, unforgiving sky above and groaned loudly.

“Rise and shine, honeybun.”

His very voice made you wanna faint again just to get away from him.

“Really. Honey bun. Here, eat.”

A packaged sweet was tossed unto your stomach and you sat up enough to recognize the thing your legs were swung over was Gojo’s own lap. His phone was in one hand, the familiar blips and tones of a game audible. His other was rested on your knee, pressing down to help support your efforts to sit up.

He had taken off his jacket and put it behind your head, the white sleeves of his shirt beneath rolled up around his elbows. Judging by the absence of his blindfold and the return of his sunglasses, he hadn’t been able to save the item from your rending.

You flushed, attempting to pull your legs away and recognizing with a sharp sound that he could easily have seen up your skirt at that angle. Gojo’s hand tightened on your knee, keeping you in place.

“You should let your blood settle back before you try squirmin’ so much.”

If he had looked he did not make mention of it, focus fully on his game. Your stomach grumbled again and you tore open the honey bun packet and into the soft, sweet bread in short time.

“You really did faint.” Gojo said lowly, “Not the greatest. We’ll need to start with getting your cursed energy output higher. You can call on it in a pinch, sure, but it’d be better to have an ongoing source rather than relying on me teasing you into snapping off something halfway decent.”

“Ya know, anyone else and that move would have turned them into soup.” You said, not in the habit of defending yourself, but something about Gojo making the assessment set off your nerves. Why would he compare you to a level only he could achieve? It wasn’t fair.

“I know! I mean— it was good! Don’t get me wrong. Just not good. Blowing shit up is great and all but not if it blows you up with it. Leaves you vulnerable to reprisal if the curse isn’t alone.”

You shrugged, “I guess I just always figure if I take something out with that, if there is anything left the other sorcerers will get it.”

“… so it’s a sacrificial play, for you?”

You nodded. Gojo switched off his phone and shoved your legs off his lap, standing up. He didn’t offer you any help as you wobbled unto your own two feet.

“You got some serious hang ups.” Gojo said and you couldn’t very well argue.

He tugged his blindfold from his pocket, holding up the tattered piece of fabric for your inspection— as evidence. Your eyes widened. You didn’t realize until now the full extent of the damage, the way the cloth was shredded in the center as if a wild animal had tried to claw his eyes out. You had been so focused, so preoccupied… no wonder the damage wasn’t fully resembling of the true Lapse: Blue technique.

“Here. A souvenir.”

“… sorry.” You mumbled, reaching out to take it. Gojo quickly moved, pulling the blindfold from your reach at the last moment with a chuckle. You rolled your eyes and went to take it again only for him to repeat the same trick, earning a wary smile from you as you snatched at his hand and he allowed you to take it the third time.

“I never—“ Gojo began and stopped, humming to himself as he seemed to reconsider his words.

“What?”

“Well, I was just thinking I picked the best possible choice for this charade!” Gojo began, “It may really take you the whole year to fall for me.”

You smacked him with the torn piece of fabric, earning a startled “ow” from him and the satisfaction you must have caught him off guard to get through his barrier. You seemed to be able to do that a lot. Showed what he knew letting his powers wane around you.

“In the meanwhile, there is no time like the present! Let’s go!” Gojo reached out, grabbing your arm by the elbow before you could recoil away.

“Go—”

The forest disappeared, the world refocusing in the middle of Tokyo. The sounds of birds and wind replaced with the sound of tire treads on wet pavement and the faint, constant roar of the city scape.

“—where?”

Ah— yes.

To an abandoned apartment building.

That radiated cursed energy.

Of course.

[mittensmorgul]

Can’t everyone use tumblr how they want?

YES!

This site is exactly what people make of it for themselves. That was the exact point of that post. The fact that people reacted negatively to it at all proves my point. Seriously.

I have a number of other anons that are clearly from people who don't actually follow me, and are only here in a reactionary fashion having seen it on someone else's reblog, or else heard about it in passing and decided the best reaction to an ultimately harmless and rather bumbling post was to take personal offense and bring anonymous hate to a stranger on the internet. (and at least one not-anonymous "go kill yourself" type comment on the post itself)

THAT was the point of making that post.

For people who might be new to this fandom or new to tumblr in general (or even for people who have been here for years), your experience here is exactly what you make of it. I haven't seen that sort of vitriolic kneejerk reaction to anything I've written or posted in years. That post touched nerves. So it was a bit of an experiment, and I'm sorry to everyone who experienced any of that negativity second-hand. NOBODY should be made to feel like shit when engaging with something that is supposed to be fun. But I've learned over the years that that's exactly what some people consider fun.

There are new people to this fandom since the absolute free for all of the weeks after November 5th. We all reveled in those weeks before the show collapsed in on itself two weeks later. It was like 15 years worth of Hiatus Blogging followed by... well... some of the worst genuine hurt and disillusionment I've ever experienced or witnessed inflicted on a fandom by a piece of media.

There have to be at least a few people who floated into this fandom during that emotional roller coaster who want to make sense of it all, who were at least curious enough about how a show could've brought the characters to that emotional moment in 15.18 before effectively ignoring it all and burning the entire 15 year narrative to nothing just two episodes later.

Some folks stuck around to dig through the ashes of fandom in search of carrion, and that's fine. Some have zero desire to ever engage with the show or the fandom beyond mocking it for ever having existed at all, and that is also fine! But some folks? They might be wondering why anyone ever saw anything in this narrative to begin with, and they might be interested in knowing that there is this vast collection of information available to them (funny that none of my self-righteous anons even mentioned those, outside of one pointing out that my phrasing introducing that section of links was easily interpreted as condescending... which... yeah... again that was the point, and no I will not edit that language. none of us are free from sin).

Tumblr hasn't "changed." It was always this way. This site is not a monolith. Fandom is not a monolith. Even smaller groups within fandom aren't monoliths. Things that are considered "tumblr standard etiquette" do not exist across this entire website. And even within the supernatural fandom, and even within the tumblr-destiel-portion of the fandom there aren't "rules" dictating how you interact with anyone. Well, the one specific rule we should all be able to agree on is that you don't bring hate to real actual human beings, and yet...

There has ALWAYS been the option to engage with fandom here on whatever level an individual chooses. And that hasn't really changed since the finale aired. Anyone who thinks that Tumblr or the fandom has "evolved" or "changed" has likely just fallen in with a different fandom bubble then they'd existed within before. None of the bubbles have actually popped or disappeared. But which one you experience is entirely your own choice. You curate your experience here.

That was the point, illustrated by the vast array of comments I actually got on that post, structured with a little bit of everything including "tumblr mom from 2014." Everything pisses some people off, you know? Even the perception that some stranger on the internet might dare to lay down an arbitrary "rule" that zero people actually have to follow. See what I mean?

Because if any of the people who kneejerked at it actually followed me, or knew me at all, they wouldn't have kneejerked. They would've seen the point.

So your experience is what you make of it here. There are resources for people actually interested in engaging with the narrative or the fandom or the history of it. People mock "tumblr moms" or "fandom moms" all the time, but there wouldn't ~be~ a fandom without the people who actually build those resources. I.e. adults with the time, money, and personal investment in actually sustaining the fandom, instead of running around with torches trying to burn it down at every new whiff of perceived ~drama~ to latch on to.

For example, all of the scripts we've been acquiring and sharing with the entire fandom free of charge. I know that the fandom bubbles who seize on those scripts like hungry vultures to cough back up out of context "gotcha" posts postulating whatever theory of the differences between script and screen will dredge up the most drama or outrage in their fandom bubble... they haven't even considered how those scripts were acquired and made available to them. To them, they are "leaks." They are gifts that fell out of the sky and landed in their laps. There isn't even the barest curiosity about their origins or relevance beyond whatever social nourishment they derive by making up stuff and spouting it out with unearned authority. It's sad. But if that's how they enjoy the fandom, it's nice to remind them that none of the fandom they cannibalize would exist without the rest of us, too.

Yes, even the people you disagree with. Even the people who ship the things you find disgusting or repulsive. Even people who have an entirely different experience to your own. Even the people who are only here for those gotcha posts.

Fandom is not by nature a nihilistic shitshow, or no fandom would survive the amount of drama the 1% try to bring to it. Here have a fanlore article about this phenomenon. Right now, in Supernatural fandom, it feels like more than 1%, but I promise it really is only 1%. They're just really loud. There's actually other avenues to participatory fandom available to anyone who chooses to find them. Parts of this vast fandom that aren't focused on that 1% of reactionary leg-chewing at every turn. None of them are (as the linked article confirms) truly 100% free of unnecessary drama or bad behavior (including ME, I mean I MADE THAT POST!), but on tumblr you can curate your own experience. Fandom actually can be fun without burning down the thing you claim to be a fan of, or attacking other real human people for having the audacity to exist on the internet in a way you might believe is out of touch or pathetic. Seriously, nobody deserves to experience that from anyone over a fucking television show. Like seriously, take a step back and examine your life and your choices at that point.

Tumblr was exactly the same as a fandom community when I joined as it is now. Throughout my entire time here, I've curated my own personal experience to exactly what I derive the most personal satisfaction from. During that time I have had numerous friends and mutuals lament that their personal experience had become so toxic, but they were afraid to trim those blogs from their dash for fear of having no content left to engage with at all. For years there have been follow lists and blog recs and people desperate to find a more "peaceful and fun" fandom experience. People grow exhausted and embittered when their entire experience of fandom is an emotionally draining drama train. It's like pandemic doom scrolling, but for the thing that should be a respite from that sort of mindset, something that's supposed to be entertainment. The show did enough to us all, we don't have to turn around and re-inflict it on each other day in and day out on tumblr dot com.

So if even one person saw my post and thought well shit maybe I actually want to engage with a wider swath of fandom and see what's there, after seven months of post-finale drama, this whole other region of fandom is still here, still being the curators of the archives, the creators of stories and art and meta and gifs and videos and actually caring about it all that will keep this fandom going long after the current round of exhausting drama inevitably plays itself out.

The amount of in-group language in the negative replies I got was unsurprising. It's like folks are living in an alternate universe that doesn't mesh at all with what I experience on this exact same hellsite. Almost like we exist in entirely different bubbles of fandom, with entirely different purposes for existing at all. Everyone on this hellsite gets to pick which bubble (or bubbles) to take up residence in. Some people simply forget that their personal bubble isn't the universal defining experience of this site. Unfortunately, I doubt my little disruption to their bubbles will actually make any of them see that, but you anon... I think you did.

You are highly encouraged to engage with fandom EXACTLY THE WAY YOU CHOOSE. You have the ultimate power in controlling your entire experience here. Tumblr and Supernatural Fandom on tumblr is not Just One Thing that everyone who wants to participate in must conform to one specific code of ethics or behavior to be part of. And that NOBODY has the right to tell anyone else they're doing it wrong (including ME! I am 100% including myself in this!).

It's not MY job to dictate how anyone else experiences this fandom, as much as it was not the job of the people who reblogged my post (which I did not personally shove into their eyeballs with a demand for compliance... how did any of those people even *find* my post?) solely to tell me how *I* need to change how I experience the fandom, you see? Don'tcha love hypocrisy!

But the point was made for those who care, and a lot of people got to update their block lists (I still don't block anyone, as I said I curated my fandom space here and generally don't follow folks that don't personally make me happy and enrich my life by engaging with their content. However other people choose to engage with *my* content (any of it, going back nearly 50k posts over the last decade) is their business entirely. Sometimes I just feel the need to draw out people who are all too eager to expose their own whole asses in public. Mission accomplished.

[whyarewecalledtheshipname]

so I watched this theory video, and I basically rambled in the comments because it meshed p well with my own interpretation of the whole yozora thing so far. I’m linking the video bc that’s the basic premise of my own ideas, and I’ll be copy/pasting my comment here bc yeah:

“This is the theory closest to my own ideas about yozora. I personally don’t think “Sora” is the Star Girl’s name despite what Yozora says (“Why are you using Sora’s name?”) because it seems too obvious.

In my opinion, the whole Sora-as-the-Stargirl’s-name clue is more of a red herring, although the connection—specifically, the connection Yozora makes between the name “Sora” and the Stargirl—is obviously important.

I do acknowledge that the whole “Sora is the girl’s name” thing could go either way. It could end up being her actual name, or it could not.

Everything else about this theory hit all the points I agree with though! I’ve been waiting to see a theory like this, and I found one only a year late lol.

I interpret Yozora’s situation as similar to Sora’s situation in Chain of Memories. In CoM, Sora was looking for someone important to him: Riku. But the more time he spent in Castle Ovlivion, the more his memories were changed and tampered with (by Namine).

By the time he finally meets and confronts Namine, Sora believes Namine is the person he had forgotten and was trying to find. Only for Namine to disprove that. Sora then assumes, based only on visual “clues” and vague feelings/memories from his heart, that the person he forgot/is looking for is Kairi. And Namine never says no, but she never says yes either (but that’s a slightly separate issue).

To me, Yozora seems to be in a similar situation. His memories/feelings have been changed, due to his heart being replaced. Somehow, Yozora knows he is supposed to be looking for someone. This could be because “he was told to”, and who told him could end up being a person or his heart’s lingering will or whatever you’d call it.

If a person was the one to tell Yozora to “save Sora”, then Yozora would therefore assume “a person named Sora” is the person Yozora is looking for. (And therefore leaving star girl’s name unknown)

If it was Yozora’s heart that “told him” to “save Sora”, the assumption would be the same. Yozora would naturally associate the name “Sora” with “the person he’s looking for”. (Which would likely also mean the girl’s name is Sora)

A Twitter account I saw theorized this misinterpretation of clues and feelings could explain why Yozora acts the way he does towards Sora: cold one instance, warm the next. Why Yozora fights and threatens Sora, only to smile and/or promise to save Sora afterwards.

It’s actually reminiscent of Sora’s behavior towards Namine in CoM. Because Namine was literally a stranger, Sora could only be distantly concerned for her when he wasn’t busy being plain confused. He talked about her as if talking about a random girl, because that’s what Namine was.

And throughout this whole time, Riku is the one Sora treats/talks about like a close friend/someone important to Sora. Because that’s what Riku was.

And yet, by the end of Sora’s story, he’s become so confused and mixed up that Sora believes Namine is the close friend he’s been looking for. And yet, his language doesn’t reflect that, at least not consistently. Similarly to Yozora, Sora speaks to Namine as if she’s just this nice girl he met, but in the same breath he tells her that he promised to protect her, how they were such good friends, etc.

We’ll have to wait and see what becomes of Yozora and his “mission” to “save Sora”. To see if Yozora ever realizes KH Sora is not the person he’s looking for, and everything else that remains unanswered. But I love rambling about CoM and wondering wtf is going on with Yozora atm 😁”

A big chunk of this is based on steam’s theories on their twitter ofc and as always I’m not claiming to be the sole person to ever Think Things.

[spaceorphan18]

Kurt Duets Ranked

Part 2 of my Kurt Performances series, we move onto duets -- which will probably the least exciting of conversations, because this isn’t going to be much different than my Klaine Duets rankings.  I didn’t go check that, however, so we’ll see how I feel about them now that more time has passed.  

Meanwhile, the thing about the duets section is that while there are a ton of great songs in this one, it feels limited.  Glee didn’t like to stray from what it knew worked, and therefore, we get Kurt having only a handful of duet partners, and only two of them make up a majority of the songs.  It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get more Kurt and Mercedes duets, but even more unfortunate that Kurt didn’t sing with a larger variety of people.  I mean, could you imagine a season 4 Kurt/Santana duet? Or something season 1 or 2 with Kurt/Quinn?  Lots of possibilities, little room for experimentation.  

That said - I do enjoy a vast majority of these songs, and like the solos, most of them complement Kurt’s story nicely.  

Kurt Duets Ranked:

27. Candles (Original Song, 2x16)

You guys can’t seriously be surprised by this, right? As with all of these numbers, I went back to listen to see if I’ve changed my mind.  Nope.  And here’s the funny part - I actually do like this song.  But the arrangement, production, and context of this number is terrible.   My theory is that Original Song had so many songs in it that they were rushed to get this one done.  Coupled with the fact that that the arrangement was redone (by Darren? - idk, Darren’s usually better than this.) and probably rushed means that it was just sloppy by the time they got to production.  

From a music point of view, the arrangement is not complementary to either of their voices, and both of them clash on harmonies and go out of tune multiple times throughout the song.  On top of that, the emotion of the song is completely off.  It’s a break up song -- purposely more tailored for the Finchel story line at the time -- but doesn’t mesh well with Klaine’s getting together story.  It feels awkward and out of place, and one of those times where I think who ever picked this song made a bad choice.  

I know there are those out there who like it -- and that’s great! Don’t let me slow you down.  But it will remain a weak link in an otherwise solid discography.  

26. Get Back (Tina in the Sky with Diamonds, 5x02)

While this is way, way better than Candles, I do think it’s a weaker number for Kurt, and Kurt/Rachel, seeing that you’ll see they have some fantastic numbers coming up on this list.  Not a favorite Beatles song of mine in the first place, not helping is the fact that this song should have a grittier and harsher sound than either of these relatively more classically trained vocalists can give it.  

There is some fun with the choreography (weird NYADA piano tuning thing aside - that’s not how you tune pianos...), and Kurt and Rachel’s voices mesh just fine, but the rest of songs on the list just offer a bit more.

25. Memory (Old Dogs, New Tricks, 5x19)

This one is... rough.  And it makes me sad to say that about a song picked specifically by Chris Colfer.  For Kurt’s part, it’s a perfectly adequate rendition of Memory, though I think it lacks any of the deeper emotion that Kurt normally brings to his solos.  But marring it further is the addition of June Squibb (who doesn’t have the same caliber of voice) and the fact that the scene itself is a bit of forced sentimentality.  I get what Chris was going for in the script, but we’ve barely met these people, and they’re not memorable enough for us to get a tug on the heartstrings that this song wants us to have.  The scene just kinda falls flat. (I’m sorry Chris!)

24. Lucky Star (Old Dogs, New Tricks, 5x19)

I promise, I’m not picking on Chris, even if the two songs he specifically wrote for himself are down here at the bottom.  At least this one has more entertainment value even if I think it’s not a great performance.  Kurt flying around as Peter Pan is super cute, and the song choice works relatively well with the scene.  Once again, though, June Squibb’s Maggie is not a vocalist (And that’s fine - she’s a super cute old person), as well as this is bogged down in that weird sentimentality Memory was going for.  It’s not really good, but at least it’s entertaining.

23. Story of My Life (The Back Up Plan, 5x18)

On a list featuring the what works and doesn’t for Kurt’s performances, this one just... oy.  First of all, technically, the boys sound fine.  Their voices mesh just fine, as usual, though Blaine’s voice is better suited for these slightly melodramatic boy band numbers.  It’s a fine song to listen to in the car.  Watching the performance, though, is rough.  It’s done that way intentionally, to fit the context of the story -- and while it’s supposed to be comedic, to me it comes off as awkward and cringeworthy.  Kurt has some odd performance choices, but normally a good performer, and this makes him kind of a bumbling idiot for the sake of the story, to the point where I rarely ever watch this one.  I get what they were going for, and enjoy the song as just a song, but am not really a fan of the actual performance.

22. It’s Too Late (Jagged Little Tapestry, 6x03)

This one I definitely have some mixed feelings about.  The song is fine, albeit a little on the pop-y side, though that’s intentional for the theme of the episode.  And it’s the first time one of these songs directly commentating on the story that’s actually going on with Kurt.  On the one hand, the angst of the scene is played well, and these boys pining for each other works for this part of the story.  On the other, the vocals are a tad on the generic side (though these boys always sound great each other), and I’m still not sure I understand what was going on with the fantasy element during the middle of the song.  Still, it accomplish the feel the story needed, which is why it gets bumped up here.  

21. I Am Changing (New Directions, 5x13)

We only get two Kurtcedes duets on this show, which is a damn travesty.  But what makes it harder is this one is, well, a little one sided.  Mercedes freakin’ brings the house down with her half of the song -- clearly Amber Riley deserves all the credit she got for doing Dream Girls.  Kurt, on the other hand, sounds a little rough here.  I’m not sure if it’s because Chris’s voice changed during the show, and it actually got deeper, or if it’s due to the weird production values of season 5, but Kurt’s solo verse is a bit harsh and unrefined, and not in a good way.  Mercedes saves it and steals the show, and when the two come together they sound fantastic, but this one gets dropped a little further down because it’s just not a strong one for Kurt.  Add to that the fact that they’re trying to make Rachel and Santana be friends again, and the song is unfortunately a weaker one.

20. I Believe In A Thing Called Love (Frenemies, 5x09)

Look, I love Elliott, and I love that Adam Lambert came onto the show.  He and Chris had some great chemistry, which actually does show through this performance.  It’s fun and crazy and a bit out of Kurt’s normal repertoire, but that’s okay, because Kurt lets loose a little, and it’s really fun to watch.  No - Kurt can’t match Elliott when it comes to the heavier rock material -- this is much better suited for Lambert than it is for Colfer, and there are times when Kurt kind of gets overshadowed and out performed, but that’s fine.  We get to see Kurt pole dance - I think that’s justification enough to have it where it is on the list.

19. White Christmas (Glee, Actually, 4x10)

Believe it or not, out of the three Christmas duets Kurt and Blaine have, this is my favorite to listen to.  I love this song, and I love this arrangement.  They sound gorgeous on it as it highlights the strengths of their voices when singing together.  My biggest issue is, really, with the scene overall.  Look - it’s not easy choreographing people who aren’t used to doing routines on ice skates, and I get that.  But due to that fact, the performance ends up being a lot of shots of people who aren’t Kurt and Blaine, and that’s a shame.  The other two Christmas duets are much more in sync than this one, and this one is really being held back by the technical difficulty.  Still - I like the song, and the context that it’s in, which is why it’s as high as it is.  

18. Let it Snow (Extraordinary Merry Christmas, 3x09)

While lower than it perhaps deserves, upon watching it again, I know I’m placing it higher on the list of Klaine duets.  It’s an incredibly hard number to do with all the dance steps and vocal runs, and the two of them nail it while being in character as their characters and as the Christmas special characters.  I’m kind of in awe at the technical ability of this one, and it’s a shame the writers didn’t always play to Kurt and Blaine’s (and Chris and Darren’s) strengths.  It’s not a personal favorite of mine, nor does the song hold much weight with their story, but it’s an incredible embodiment of what makes Klaine - Klaine, and showcases how well they can work together when given really good material.  

17. You Make Me Feel So Young (New, New York, 5x14)

This is one of those songs that I go back and forth on, and really could write a dissertation on it, because I think there are a lot of elements both internal and external going on, which makes the onscreen performance... weird.  But I feel like that would get way too long for the likes of this already too long post.  So, I’ll say this.  Vocally, they sound fantastic together, which is why I think it deserves to be up there on the list.  It’s also one of the few times that we get to see genuine domestic Klaine being themselves with each other, which is also very cool.  My issues with the acting and directing of the scene are very nitpicky, and it all lines up with my growing consensus that one of the weaker elements of season 5 were the musical numbers, but if y’all want more, I’ll do another post on just this song specifically.  For now, I’ll just say that I enjoy the good things about the song, even if some of it leaves an awkward taste in my mouth.

16. Animal (Sexy, 2x15)

Animal is one of the few truly comedic performances Kurt gets to do.  Between the silly sexy faces, euphemistic foam, and overkill addition of plastic balls, it’s hard to take this one very seriously, but that is the point.  Both boys sound great on it, and it’s a lot of fun to watch -- being cringy in a good way.  I really don’t have any criticisms of it besides I just prefer the others on the list just a bit more.  But we’re getting into that territory where I think all of these songs are solidly good, and on any given day, I could rearrange the whole list.  

15. 4 Minutes (The Power of Madonna, 1x15)

The second, and original, of the Kurtcedes duets, this is the first time in the show that Kurt gets to turn his sexy on, and it’s really awesome that they give him the chance to shine in such a way.  Despite the fact that Kurt is doing the occasional weird hand gesture and choreography in this one, he and Mercedes play off each other incredibly well, and it’s a shame they never let these two really get to do anything once the juggernaut of Hummelberry came along.  No, the song isn’t the best for Kurt’s voice, but sometimes it’s the spectacle of what’s going on during the number rather than how it sounds.  

14. Love is a Battlefield (Tested, 5x16)

Showing that not all Season 5′s numbers were, well, not up to par as everything else, we’ve got this Klaine duet, which might be one of my favorite pieces of choreography and showmanship on the show.  I really don’t like the song, at all, which I know goes against the grain of a lot of you, but it’s a testament to how powerful this number is visually that I’ve ranked it so high. (It’s about anger sex guys, and more sexual than the scarcely few sexy time-ish scenes we actually got.)  The boys sound great on it, and the layered acting in it is pitch perfect.  I love this duet, even if I’m not a fan of the song.

13. Ding, Dong, The Witch is Dead (The Purple Piano Project, 3x01)

Well, there is a reason Hummelberry was what it became, and this showcases that to perfection. The song isn’t worth much story wise, but it does show just how wonderfully these two play against each other, as well as sounding great together.  This song is playful and light and the perfect showcase for what real talents they both are.  I have my issues with Hummelberry (really, I do) but I can’t deny that they’re standout performers together, and everything about this number comes together to show that off.  

12. Perfect (I Kissed a Girl, 3x07)

Look, this list is subjective.  Yes, there are a few that stand over the rest and a few that are really not that great, but most of Kurt’s duets, like his solos, are really all solid performances.  And I just happen to really love this song.  I’m not going to defend Blaine’s questionable rapping or the context this song is performed in the episode.  But what I will say is that I love what the lyrics have to say about Klaine’s relationship at the time, and the fact that they both (but especially Kurt) sound so great here.  Plus, I enjoy jamming out to this one in my car.

11. Daydream Believer (Dreams Come True, 6x13)

This just happens to be one of my favorite songs ever, and I’m so glad this got to be the last Klaine duet.  I have no issues about how well they sound together.  As cute as they are dancing with the kids, I do wish the context would have been totally different -- I wish that they were singing this to each other -- or their own child.  But I still think it’s a pretty meaningful song, and I love it, so here we are.  

10. Just Can’t Get Enough (I Do, 4x14)

I unabashedly love this song.  Sure the song is rather repetitive and is going on during other people’s plot lines, but every time I hear this one, I just want to get up and dance along with it.  The boys sound great on it, and they get to be rather flirty in the moments that the camera is actually on them.  If only the had more screen time, I probably put this one higher near the top.  

9. Somebody Loves You (Transitioning, 6x07)

A lot like Just Can’t Get Enough, this duet is flirty and adorable and I love everything about it. They sound great together and, as usual, play off each other well.  On top of that, the song itself plays nicely into the Klaine story of the moment, which I appreciate.  It’s not a perfect performance, but an incredibly enjoyable one, and that’s what matters.

8. American Boy (The Untitled Rachel Berry Project, 5x20)

Are either Kurt or Blaine suite for Rap and R&B? No, not really, but do I care? No.  As you’ve probably noticed, I love these flirty duets, this is one of the best ones.  Sure, they don’t really capture the style or tone of the original very well.  But they’re having a lot of fun out there and being adorable while doing it.  And Kurt simulates having sex.  I mean, do I really need to say more?  But really - I actually enjoy this song a lot, so there we go.

7. Popular (2009, 6x12)

This is easily the best performance of Kurt’s limited performances in season 6.  Kurt and Rachel haven’t head a duet together since Season Five’s Get Back (interesting right?) but they’re able to turn right back on the magic that was going on in the earlier seasons.  This song is near perfection -- the acting is solid, the performance is layered -- being both comedic and a commentary about the both of them, and they sound wonderful together.  This is truly a treat for the end of the series, and I’m a little sad the rest of the season didn’t put as much effort into its musical numbers.

6. Come What May (Girls and Boys on Film, 4x15)

The thing about Come What May, for me, is that it’s deeply a romantic song - and shot (intentionally) in a very movie-like way.  I love so much about this, from the staging, to the bit of flashbacks setting the tone at the beginning, to the misdirect and reveal that it’s really Kurt’s fantasy and not Blaine’s.  Vocally, there are a few weaker spots towards the beginning, but that can be overlooked when visually and lyrically there is so much wonderful things going on here.  I love when a performance can have layers to it -- and this one say so much about Kurt as a character and the head space that he’s in, while being deeply romantic without being vulgar, that it firmly takes a spot near the top of the list.  

5. Got to Get You Into My Life (Love, Love, Love, 5x01)

The thing that’s so great about good Klaine duets is their push and pull of each other.  This duet has a ton of that -- each of them playing against each other in such a flirty way.  They sound great, they look great, the number has a ton of energy, and the bright tone is a nice change from all the somberness that came along with season 4.  It’s a visual treat as well as a aural one, and nearly flawless in execution, which is why it’s ranked so high on the list.  

4. Rockstar (New, New York, 5x14)

Is this really one of Kurt’s best duets? Technically, probably not.  I don’t really care - I. Love. This. Song. Really, I listen to it all the time, and it’s just a song I never tire of.  It’s really Adam Lambert’s show, and Kurt is kind of dancing around like the littler brother of the rockstar that is Elliot ‘Starchild’ Gilbert.  And I do think Kurt and Elliot’s voices mesh rather well -- even if Kurt’s overshadowed a bit here.  But that’s all fine - because this song makes me happy for no other reason that it does, and that’s a fine reason to be near the top of the list.  

3. Baby, It’s Cold Outside (A Very Glee Christmas, 2x10)

I keep trying to think of reasons not to put this as the number one Klaine duets.  I keep looking at the list thinking that something else about one of the other duets will stand out more, and I just can’t.  This scene and this performance is damn near flawless.  I’ve already talked about this scene at length, and I really don’t have anything new to add, but here’s the thing -- this song sounds wonderful, the game of cat and mouse they play with each other is one of the best scenes on the entire show, and I can’t say enough at how brilliant and layered and amazing this scene is.  Hands down, best Klaine duet, and one of the best overall duets on the show.  

2. Happy Days Are Here Again/Get Happy (Duets, 2x04)

The thing is, about this duet, is that it’s iconic.  Just hands down iconic.  Not only were they able to take an old school mash-up done by Babs and Judy and make it their own, but they gave it the same amount of power and emotion the original had as well. I don’t think it’s easy to sit on a stool and make any kind of song engaging but these two are able to do it.  They sound flawless on a technically difficult song.  There’s subtly and nuance in the performance.  There’s balance and give and take. And contextually, it fits in nicely with where each of the characters are at.  On top of that, it’s a really great arrangement of these two songs in the first place.  I have nothing but good things to say about one of my favorite songs and favorite performances on the show.  And while Hummelberry has so, so many issues as a friendship -- their ability to make amazing performances together was not one of them.

1. For Good (New York, 2x22)

I went back and forth on what the order of the top three would be -- they could easily be interchangeable they’re all so good.  But here’s the thing about this one.  I feel like this one just takes an extra step up in, well, everything -- the performance level, the context, the layers of emotion woven through this song, it just hangs itself up a little higher than the rest of them.  Yes, Kurt and Rachel sound as good as they ever do -- playing off each other and meshing with each other brilliantly.  But this song is a grand musical theater piece that they pull off masterfully.

But on top of that... The weight this song has is given is higher than pretty much any other song on this list.  it’s a perfect fitting song that punctuates their paralleling journey throughout the season.  This song is a final statement and thesis of everything that became before it, and because of that, I’m ranking it as the best of Kurt’s duets.  

[spidersanctuary]

Follow up rat questions! Is it okay to house male rats together? And do you have suggestions for affordable/inexpensive housing for about three rats? Im seriously considering adopting three rats from my local humane society but wanna get their housing secure first since i dont make much money (full time student). I think ive seen people make temporary housing with plastic tub/containers and that would be ideal but if a rat mansion is reccomended i dont mind paying up

I will happily answer this but these are definitely also things you should be researching on your own, a lot of research. Here are some things to get you started. If anyone wants to add to this post, you’re welcome.

Emiology - Things you should know before owning rats (give the entire channel a look, for instance I just watched a video by them commenting on online rats for rat adoption and red flags to watch out for

Rat Care Guide

Rat and Mouse Gazette FAQ (and other articles there)

Yes, housing male rats together is okay, per se. Or rather, housing same sex groups in general is okay, and the caveats have more to do with age and the pre-existing relationship than the sex of the animal. In the pages linked above, the articles on rat introduction have a lot of info on this. In a nutshell: If you have juvenile rats who grow up together, they will generally get along just fine later in life. Introducing juveniles to adults is a bit more iffy (though quite doable), and introducing adults to adults is very iffy, and it does not really get less iffy if you have males or females.

You know, I actually made a DIY cage, but looking back on years of using it, I have to say it’s more trouble than it was worth. DIY may be in theory cheaper, but a good store-bought rodent cage should come with all the following benefits: 1) multiple doors in sufficient sizes, both to get the rats in and out and also to reach in and clean or customise, 2) being easy to accessorise, in terms of attaching new platforms/hanging mats/tunnels/etc. 3) being safe, in terms of bar spacing and escape-proof-ness, 4) being easy to disassemble in case you have to move or do a deep cleaning or something.

Maybe if you’re lucky enough to live in an area with these storage cube wire panels in the right mesh size (no larger than 1.5 cm, I’d say (EDIT: Something like this? )) you could give it a try. These plastic bin DIY cages you mention: know some people make these complex cages out of them, interconnected bins, but there are several problems with this. Unmodified bins don’t work because they have shit ventilation (which is important for rats) and are frankly too small. Plus, where do you attach platforms and accessories to? Etc. What some people do is basically turn the plastic tub walls into these cut-out windows covered with hardware cloth/chicken wire, essentially using the plastic bin only for the structural stability, and I suppose that could work, I have not tried this. But I have worked with hardware cloth and it’s an absolute pain. Oh, also: rats will gleefully chew through plastic.I just pictured a determined rat trying to chew on the edge of a plastic ‘window’ and then hurting itself or getting stuck between the plastic and the chicken wire while trying to squeeze out, and it’s not a good image. You do not want this anxiety in your life, and honestly, with ALL the modifications you would have to make to make the DIY cage rat-worthy and safe, you honestly might as well just save up for a decent store-bought one.

As tempting as it is to try to find a cost-effective solution for this, I do recommend to just buy a nice cage made for rats/chinchillas/degus instead. I honestly wish I had done that instead.

This CritterNation is a good example of a cage for like…a couple of rats, provided you use the space well i.e. fill it with interesting stuff for them to explore and hang around in. It looks easy to clean, it’s decently big, it has wheels you can use to move it around, it’s both large in terms of floor area and tall enough so that rats can jump and run around but also climb up, it has decently-sized platforms (and you can always add extra ones). A new one might cost over a hundred bucks, but it’s also pretty common to find people in online ads giving away cages for cheap, just be sure to clean them well. I would call this a rattie starter home. A proper rat ‘mansion’ would be something like twice its size.

The good news is that unlike the cage itself, accessories for the cage can actually get real cheap. (At least notwithstanding the urge to hopelessly spoil your rats constantly..) A lot of things can be repurposed into platforms (for instance I have a ‘fridge shelf’ in my cage, of course you have to cover up the wire, rats need their platforms to be solid and smooth or they can hurt their feet). Dollar store plastic baskets are super cheap and great, just put them everywhere. Fancy pet store hammocks are expensive but you can make basically the same thing out of rags or clean washcloths, I tend to just fold them together and pinch the ends with cable binders and attach that to the cage. Reused cardboard boxes (firm ones) will go a really long way. Accessorising is not a one-time thing, because switching up the cage interior is a good way to keep the ratties engaged (yet another reason why it’s good to have a cage that’s easy to customise, as opposed to me, who made a DIY cage with areas that are extremely uncomfortable to reach if I want to attach a hammock there or something).

I do have to warn you that it’s a good idea to have quite a substantial rat fund in case of an emergency. Namely: Vet bills. Though rats don’t really require regular checkups or the like that you’d get for dogs (for vaccination, for example), the vet costs can stack up really high if something happens. That’s something you need to keep in mind if money is an issue, so it doesn’t catch you off-guard.

[franeridart]

dude your recent demon & angel kiribaku art reminds me a little bit of aziraphale and crowley from good omens!! like aziraphale would be angrier as baku obvs but still i thought of it and it made me happy lol

A lot of people have mentioned that in the tags/under the post and that makes me!!! super happy!!!! Good Omens is one of my fav books and Crowley one of my fav characters, so the comment feels nice! I wasn’t specifically thinking about them when drawing it, but possibly a bit I was influenced anyway!! I wonder if what made everyone think about them was Kiri’s sunglasses? It’s not noticeable but I did give him glowing eyes too after all haha

Anon said:Have you ever thought about how op a TodoBakuDeku fusion would be? (if they could stay together that is lol!)

Never thought of it tbh, but at this point I’m pretty sure with a lot of work on Baku’s part they’d be able to stick together long enough! He wouldn’t find it comfortable but they’d def be one of the strongest three-people-fusions in the class - not the strongest, tho, since they all have the same sort of straightforward offensive power when it comes to their quirks, I think I could find three people who’d make a stronger fusion... Baku Kiri and Momo, for example, would be even more impressive imho! Since all their quirks cover a different field, and their minds/personalities mesh well enough to have the right amount of planning and instinctive reaction/self-preservation and safety of others/pride and self-doubt/lawfulness and chaotic acting and so on. Even just as a team, without counting them as a fusion, I think they’d make one of the most balanced ones! Compared to that putting Todo Deku and Baku in the same place is just a recipe for disaster more often than not haha

Anon said:no, i move slow, I wanna stop time, I'll sit here til I find the,, inspiration to draw,,,,,,

LMAO it’s a song about art block after all, I feel every word in it a whole damn lot hahaha

Anon said:Art block or no art block, I love everything you come up with 💜

AW HECK ANON you’re so sweet!!! Thank you so much!!!!! ;O;

Anon said:Mixing thei hero names? So uuuh King Riot?

We still don’t know Baku’s hero name, so anything might be, really! It’s why I didn’t outright have Kiri mention any idea, I got no clue myself where he was going with it haha it’d be cool if his hero name were Ground Zero, because it’d mix well with Red Riot imho (Red Zero or Ground Riot or Red Ground, they all sound nice!) but what if Baku’s hero name ends up just being Katsuki, after all? How do you mix that with Red Riot? (the answer is Red Victory, or Akatsu!! from akai (red) + katsu !! ngl I’ve thought about this a lot lmao) anyway so many possibilities so little known facts!

Anon said:I love the details on Kiri and Baku's skin. Great job!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Anon said:!!!!!!!!!! fran oh my god your zine piece is so beautiful!!!!!!!

Sob thank youuu!!!! I’m glad you liked it!!!! ;O;

Anon said:i just got my zine and the art and writing was so lovely, i loved your comic at the end. an amazing way to end the zine♡

THANK YOU!!!! I’m jelly, I still haven’t gotten mine ;O; I hope the comic was easy to read even in printed form, I’ve been worried about that for months hahaha rip at least there’s the pdf

Anon said: i’m in love with your kiri bday art!!!! with the colorless art like that, are we allowed to color it? of course no posting it, but just for fun.

If you promise not to post it, I’m cool with it! Thank you for liking it enough to want to do that!!! Seriously tho don’t post it if you do

Anon said:Can you draw more kamisero? g u d q u a l i t y s h i p ma' dude.

Maybe? Currently it really isn’t between my top priorities but who knows

Anon said:FRANNNNN!!!! Your comic for the Take My Hand zine!!!! I'm gonna cry! It's so beautiful and the boys are so perfect! Your art is so amazing, I was so thrilled to see your piece. Not to mention the detail you put in. Their hands killed me! With Bakugou's palms and Kiri's arms! Ugh, I just can't, I love it so much. <3 Thank you!

I’M SO GLAD YOU LIKED THE HANDS it’s weird bc that one panel is probably my fav in the comic and I was so sure no one was gonna really notice it but!! So many people did!!!!! It makes me so happy oh man ;O; <3<3

Anon said:Hey coulda maybe make a traitor Kaminari comic?

Nope! No traitor arts here, sorry! SInce I don’t believe any of the theories to the point of finding them outright laughable, any art I could ever make about it would just come out looking either fake or ridiculous and no one wants to see that lmao

Anon said:your take my hand comic!!! it's so good!! thank you for doing the boys so well ;;;

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOUUUU!!!!!!!! <3<3<3

Anon said:I don't know if you remember, but a couple months ago I asked if it'd be okay for me to write something based on a few of your art pieces. Would that still be alright? Your art is gorgeous and makes my brain think and brings joy to me all the time ^^ would absolutely link to the art and credit you. that's not even a question :)

That still depends on which art you’re specifically talking about! And thank you so much for the compliment!!

Anon said:I don’t know if you read fan fiction, but I have one to suggest to you! It’s called, “It’s Obvious When You Lie”. Only three chapters are out so far, but it’s really good!

I’ll add it to my marked for later list then!! Thank you so much for the rec, I don’t easily try out ongoing fics so this was very nice of u!!!

Anon said:In the body switch AU Todoroki sees how fucked up Midoriya feels around Bakugou('s body?) and realizes wow fuck this guy has traumatized my bf. I wonder what I can do to fuck w/ him so the day before they switch back (So Bakugou can't do much in retaliation) he takes Bakugou's body and does the stupidest bullshit ever as revenge

HECK anon sorry but nothing like this would happen ever as long as I’m the one writing the AU! For three main reasons! One, I don’t think Deku is traumatized at all! His relationship with Baku at the moment is actually pretty damn neat and on equal footing, you go you two, growing so much!! Two, Baku and Todo are friends!!! And Todo would never be a dick to Baku instead of just talking to him, if he had a problem with him!! Three, even if one and two weren’t true, Deku has no need for knights in shining armor fighting his battles for him!! He’s a strong independent boy and if he hasn’t fought Baku over this it’s probs cause he doesn’t want anyone to fight him over it!!! Also in this specific AU Todo and Deku aren’t dating, so the scenario doesn’t work for me! Sorry!

Anon said:Have you ever thought about krbk wedding?

I have! And I’ve talked about it on here a few times too! Lately I’ve been thinking about it again tho, from a designs point of view, because!! There’s that very neat post going around tumblr about that wedding photos in which one of the two grooms has a white tux with a cape, and I’ve been thinking about a variation of it for Kirishima’s wedding suit :0 something red instead of white, but generally similar! It’s a lot of effort to draw it so I still haven’t, but yeh!!

Anon said:Hello! I read this fic about your cat comics and the author said to send you some love in their end notes so here is some well-deserved love: your art is beautiful! It's why I became interested in BakuShima and I would not have loved these characters as much if it weren't for you. You also seem to be a very nice person, your mind is beautiful and I am glad you exist <3

G O DS this is such a nice ask!!!! thank you so so much!!!! ;O; <3<3<3<3

Anon said:Non chiedo una risposta a questo messaggio, anzi. Volevo solo dirti che trovo la tua arte FANTASTICA, e non sai quanto i tuoi comic e tutto il tuo lavoro mi ha strappato più di un sorriso in brutti momenti. Sapere che sei italiana mi ha fatto totalmente impazzire. Continua così, hai del talento vero. E grazie!

NUHHHH GRAZIE A TE PER ESSERE COSI’ GENTILE OMFG !!!!!!!!!! ;A; <3<3<3

Anon said:Okay okay okay! I adore your art! Could you maybe... draw some KiriBaku fantasy? If it’s not too much to ask! It can be as simple as can be! Your art is just really cute!

Yes I can and yes I will!!! Definitely and in the near future, did you know one of the app games JUST revealed a fantasy wolf Baku as a special halloween chara?? It’s just fantasy Baku with wolf ears and tail, but he’s adorable and I’ve been wanting to draw him since I saw him this morning ;O; so cute!

Anon said:Pssst. Singer Baku, Guitarist Kami, and Drummer Kiri. A good hc if I do say so myself.

It IS a great thought!! Drummer Kiri and Singer Baku have always been a weakness of mine too, so heck!! What a good image! If we put Jirou on bass and vocals too and sero on keyboard and mina on guitar, you make my fav band right then and there hahaha

Anon said:I'm not in the BNHA fandom at the moment but your art still continues to give me the warm fuzzies

GODS ISN’T THIS A NICE ASK!! I’m happy I can make you enjoy even characters you’re not specifically into! Thank you so much for sticking around!!!! ;O;

Anon said:i just got into bnha and fell in love with your art, started going through your sketch tag, and then realize that youre the person who made a bunch of haikyuu comics i loved a while ago so im! very glad to rediscover your stuff!!

HOLY GODS THAT’S NEAT!!! Welcome back!!!! ;O; <3<3<3

Anon said:I love it when you draw kiri with his hair down 💕💕💕 so good, so pure 💕💕💕💕

Oh boy thank you!! ;O; he’s so much easier to draw with his hair spiked for me, knowing people like the way I draw his hair when down means a whole damn lot!! 

Anon said:Hello! First I love your account and artwork! Second will you ever be drawing Mako and Taiyou again? They are so adorable! Also Bakugou and Kirishima seems like amazing dad's!

Thank you!!! And yes I will! I have another ask around here asking about them, so maybe soon! Just gotta find the right idea to draw, I got a bunch but they’re all way too long for my curret attenton span level sadly hahaha rip

Anon said:lmaaaaooo my boi kaminari be having an emotional awakening

Kaminari is like, he’s always somewhere subconsciously known that Baku’s objectively pretty, but since he knows him so well and he’s always around him and most of the times they’re bickering and making fun of each other he’s never actually realized, so now he’s like oh, NOW I see it hahaha

Anon said:hi u probably get this enough but I wanted to give u all my appreciation for ur art thank u for sharing it with us I love everything u post ♡♡♡

THANK YOU!!!! It might be greedy of me but this sorta asks are never enough for me, so seriously thank you for taking your time to drop by and be so nice!!! <3<3

Anon said:Could you please draw more of the body swap au? Or what if a different pair of students were to switch?

I’m not gonna draw any other switch with other students, because before settling on Baku and Todo I went through a lot of possibilities and came to the conclusion that nothing would be as funny as Baku and Todo switched are (or at least nothing Horikoshi hasn’t already done himself lmao) so there’s that. I might draw more of them switched, but to be honest with you the only idea with that concept I have right now is Bakugou forgetting he’s suddenly taller and continuously walking into things around the dorms, so there’s that as well hahaha

[silkdrita]

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The EFF supports this legal position, though it stopped tracking warrant canaries in 2016 other highly regarded companies and organizations think warrant canaries are helpful only for informing you after the damage has been done. So the theory goes that when the warrant canary dies-that is, the notice disappears from the website because it’s no longer truthful-so does privacy. These are digitally signed notices that say something to the effect of “We have never been served a warrant for traffic logs or turned over customer information.” Law enforcement can prohibit a company from discussing an investigation, but in theory it can’t compel a company to actively lie.

Warrant canaries: Many companies proudly display “warrant canaries” on their websites.

This is unnecessary for most people, though, and it can reduce speeds.

Multihop connections: For added encryption and obfuscation, some VPNs can route your traffic through multiple servers.

#Things like tunnelbear for mac free

Custom ad blockers: Although this is a nice feature to have in a VPN, you can find a number of trustworthy and free browser extensions for this purpose.Stealth modes: A stealth mode helps circumvent networks that block VPNs by making your encrypted VPN traffic look like it’s some other type of data.Additional payment options: Cryptocurrency, cash, PayPal, Amazon Pay, bank wire, gift card balances, and even jars of honey are accepted for payment, but since a VPN doesn’t guarantee anonymity (see the section on limitations), we don’t think such an array of options is crucial for most people.Some other steps to increase privacy, such as turning off JavaScript, can lead to such a poor online experience that you’re unlikely to keep using them. Be aware that although the above tools can minimize your digital footprint, they have limitations.Use the Tor Browser to research, for example, medical information or other sensitive topics that you don’t want advertisers to link to your identity.Otherwise, your router may be remotely exploitable due to known security vulnerabilities, which would let an attacker take over your entire home network. If that’s not possible, make sure to change the default password, keep your router up to date, and disable any remote administration features. Consider using a Wi-Fi router or mesh-networking kit that does not allow administration over a web interface and that auto-updates.Currently this function is an experimental feature in Chrome. Go to Preferences, scroll to the bottom of the page, select Network Settings, scroll down, and select Enable DNS over HTTPS and Use Default. If you use Firefox, use DNS over HTTPS (DoH), which protects your privacy relating to which websites your browser is requesting from some third parties while also improving performance.Note that you can manually turn off these extensions for websites with features that work only with ad tracking allowed, a feature generally not available with VPN apps. We have some favorites, including the EFF’s Privacy Badger and uBlock Origin, which both minimize tracking from websites and online ad networks, as well as security vulnerabilities. If you are choosing to use a VPN to avoid being tracked online across various ad networks, some browser extensions can be helpful.

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(iOS and newer Android devices are automatically encrypted if you have an effective passcode.)

Encrypt your laptop, in case you lose it or someone steals it.

It’s preferable to use an an app or a security key rather than SMS as your second factor.

Enable multi-factor authentication, a security feature you can find at most major sites, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

Reusing passwords means that if one of your accounts is compromised, others can be, too.

#Things like tunnelbear for mac password

Use a password manager to create and manage secure, unique passwords for all your accounts.We also touched base with blockchain privacy expert and Clovyr co-founder Amber Baldet to discuss the privacy advantages and pitfalls to consider when paying for a VPN with cryptocurrency. We discussed what to look for-and avoid-in VPNs with security researcher Kenneth White, co-director of the Open Crypto Audit Project, and with cryptographer and Johns Hopkins University professor Matthew Green. We got answers from Joseph Jerome, then the policy counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology’s privacy and data project, about how accountable VPNs were for their business models, privacy practices, security protocols, and protections, and how that related to trustworthiness. We spoke with Trail of Bits co-founder and CEO Dan Guido about the security challenges inherent in VPNs and the limitations of security audits and reports. We interviewed Electronic Frontier Foundation director of cybersecurity Eva Galperin about limitations of VPNs and tips for selecting the appropriate VPN based on individual circumstances.

[xeternalflamebryx]

These are my top picks for "possible" newcomers I would personally love for Super Smash Bros Switch (not matter how crazy lol). Fo these characters stack up? Who would you like to see in Super Smash Bros Switch? 6.PHOENIX WRIGHT: Ok, so here's a character I am actually pretty torn on. On one hand, 3rd party characters allowed in smash should have some sort of impact and legacy in the video game industry. And it doesn't help Mr. Wright's case that we already have 2 of the biggest heavy hitters to rep Capcom, but....man I am bias lol. I absolutely LOVE the ace attorney series as well as the character himself. His series is practically a second home on Nintendo with nearly all his games on the platform. And if there's anything the crossover Capcom games proved, is that Phoenix Wright can make up as an insane fighter. Plus a court room stage with different witnesses on the stand (maybe even Nintendo characters as witnesses for fun) would be flawless. 5. KING K. ROOL: There has been a pretty big demand for more representation for the Donkey Kong series, and I agree. I feel the King would be a nice fit for that gap for not only for DK but having more villains as a whole (more on that later). He may come across as just a slow, heavy fighter but i feel King K. Rool has a pool of weapons, gadgets and traps that they can supply him from all his previous boss fights. He'd be more than just a inspired Boswer character in my eyes. 4. DECIDUEYE: I am simple man who sometimes just needs "order". When I look at the current roster and see a fully evolved fire and water starter....I just need my grass starter, its honestly THAT simple lol. And honestly, just based on his design alone just screams "make me a fighter". Not the strongest points, buts that's all I got. 3.CRASH BANDICOOT: With the announcement of smash switch as will as it's big E3 presence, I feel a new 3rd party character just makes too much sense to ride the hype. One of them being Crash Bandicoot. NOW, I am not basing this off the fact that N-sane trilogy made it on the switch, but rather N-sane trilogy's "existence" instead. The remake has spark new life into the franchise, inviting both old and newcomers. Crash was always seen as popular icon, but his relevance faded away after the whole Activison dilemma. But as of now, especially with a rumor new game in the works, I believe it is time for "crash, to smash". 2.DR.COYLE: This one may seem a bit odd, but let me explain. The game Arms is in a interesting state. Its...successful, though it is not a "splatoon hit" in terms of Nintendo exclusives. Yet it is far from a failure, as basically any Nintendo fan owning a switch would recognize the series, deserving a rep in smash. With this grey area, I feel this gives the Arms franchise the freedom to pick any character they want rather than just relying on Springman. Which is were the main villain, Dr. Coyle comes in. She plays a surprisingly big role in the franchise behind the scenes: artificially creating 2 of the playable characters from the game, bringing back another one from the dead, behind the creation of the the final boss and even the mode "party crash". Dr Coyle has a ton of involvement to the arms franchise that shouldn't be ignored. And top of that, as I mentioned with King K Rool, smash bros is in dying need for new villains. Just imagine smash bros first modern day, female, villain. 1.TRACER:.......OK..........let me REALLY explain this one lol.....In terms of third party characters, I feel like we really hit our peak with all the classics such as sonic, megaman and so forth. I believe it is time for a 3rd party from franchise that gain a strong prescience in modern gaming yet will mesh perfectly with Nintendo characters. Overwatch has done what most modern games cant say they have in terms of popularity and a cult following in such a short time. And their mascot Tracer would fit perfectly to represent that "new fresh air" that Overwatch surrounds itself in. As she will be a representative for the competitive online shooting genre for smash. And for Overwatch never being on a Nintendo console....This is a BOLD prediction with nothing  but my own speculation but here it is....I believe Overwatch is going to be ported to the Nintendo Switch with the upcoming new online services. (Complete with gyroscope options and Nintendo exclusive skins, emotes,sprays ect for the heroes). I predict this will be announced at E3 with Tracer's reveal. (ya know, if this pipe dream even has a remote chance) **HONORABLE MENTIONS** MS PACMAN (COSTUME) It legit blows my mind that despite all the character gender options in smash, the most both obvious and famous one doesn't appear. This should of been in the wii u/3ds version EASILY and I hope it happens. SONIC (REWORK) As a huge sonic fan, I always loved both modern and classic sonic equally. But with the huge success that was sonic mania and Sega big push with classic sonic recently, I have a theory. It would only make sense to rework sonic into his "classic self" the same way that Link might be updating in smash. Sega knows how much classic sonic is being received positively just by their promotions and marking alone.  If they really want to keep this momentum, I can easily see a "classic sonic" in smash with a mania theme stage. PYRA(CHARACTER) I actually dont know too much about xenoblade chronicles 2. But I fully aware of the massive success that game was and I personally fond of her design. I would like her in smash, and even add Mythra to boot lol. Perhaps her presence will get me into her game like Shulk did with his prequel.

[taekookismylifeline]

trust my heart when it beats for you (yoonseok/taekook/namjin)

Summary: Jung Hoseok has had an awkward Thing for Min Yoongi for four years of his school life. He is certain that the only thing that gets in the way of them and everlasting love is the fact that Min Yoongi doesn't know he exists, but that all changes due to one drunken text message: a pick-up line.

Ready to flee to another country under a false identity in mortification, he finds himself ruining their blossoming friendship and confessing when Yoongi asks why Hoseok had tried to flirt with him. However, things take a turn after his confession when Yoongi starts to (awkwardly) flirt back.

For @btsim, merr chris!

Link: (x)

Chapter 1 - that boy doesn’t know my name but maybe he knows he’ll be mine

“Oh my god, you are pathetic,” Taehyung cackled loudly in Hoseok’s ear causing him to wince. “Quit ogling him playing with his ball. Get a job. Contribute to society.”

It was their first few days back at school after their summer break and the two were perched on a bench located outside of the school’s basketball court waiting for Jimin to join them during their lunch period. Their attention had naturally been drawn to the moving object that was being repeatedly passed around the court. Through the holes in the fence that surrounded the court they could easily make out the players.

“Oh, like you can talk,” Hoseok scoffed in amusement, shoving Taehyung playfully. “Wipe your mouth, would you? You’ve still got some thirst on your lip where you’ve been drooling over Jeong-”

“Hey, shut up!” Taehyung panicked slightly as the words left Hoseok’s mouth. “I was not drooling, I was merely... Observing them playing basketball. They’re good players. Especially Jeongguk.”

Hoseok rolled his eyes fondly and accidentally kicked his bag over onto the dusty gravel from where he was swinging his legs. Taehyung laughed at him in mock-spite and held the straps down with his feet, preventing Hoseok from picking his bag up.

“Hey, Yoongi, Jeongguk, Namjoon!” A voice rang out from opposite the court and caused them to look towards the sudden noise instinctively.

It was Jimin who was sauntering through the courts, instead of around the outskirts which was the route that Hoseok and Taehyung had taken. They both watched in a unanimous silence as Jimin effortlessly approached the small group of boys that they had been surveying and begin to jostle with them light-heartedly.

Hoseok was well aware that his jaw had dropped and was probably hovering inches above the ground as Jimin threw an arm around Yoongi’s shoulder in an effort to obtain the ball before laughing and walking away. He was only dragged back into reality by Jimin’s sports trainers entering his peripheral vision.

“Hey, guys, sorry about being late; I know you can’t function without me. Miss held me back because of ‘suspected plagiarism’ in that maths mock last term.”

“You’re welcome for that, by the way,” Taehyung smiled and pulled Jimin down onto the bench, sandwiching him in the middle of the two.

“Yeah, but there was no point in copying beforehand, I had to change loads of answers and ending up flunking,” Jimin complained before swiftly moving on. “So, what’s going on? Why does Hoseok look like he’s seen a ghost?”

Taehyung shot Hoseok a warning glance and then covered for him. “Oh, that loser. He’s just distraught that I trod his bag into the dirt.”

Hoseok managed to drag his eyes away from Yoongi’s figure long enough to look at Taehyung and pout. He reached down towards his bag. “It’s a nice bag.”

Jimin scoffed at the state of it, covered in smudges of chalk dust. “Was a nice bag.” Hoseok nudged him in the ribs and he let out a genuine noise of surprise before recovering. “So, what are you both up to this weekend? Seokjin’s having a party on Saturday for fresher’s week, yet another ‘freedom from school’ theme no doubt.”

“That’s the third one this month,” Taehyung commented, taking out his water bottle from his bag and offering Jimin a packet of rice cakes. “This one’s gonna be massive, isn’t it? There were quite a lot of people last time, I think he progressively invites more people.”

“I don’t think he does,” Hoseok thought aloud. “I think that the people he invites invite more people. I don’t think he really likes big parties, his real leaving party was really only family.”

“A character study: with Jung Hoseok,” Jimin commentated and then proceeded to burst out in a fit of laughter at Hoseok’s disgruntled expression. Taehyung howled at the sound of Jimin’s laughter and then Hoseok snorted so hard that he was certain his eyes had bulged.

They must have been making quite a lot of noise because when their giggles faded out, Hoseok found that a certain group of people in the basketball court had halted in their playing to stare at them. Hoseok’s breath caught in his throat as he locked eyes with Min Yoongi’s through the mesh fence. He had a silent, intense stare yet their eye contact was extremely brief as Yoongi looked away just as quickly as he had glanced over. It was so sudden that Hoseok had neglected the process of breathing and found that he was practically gasping for air when he next remembered to inhale.

The bell rang, signalling the next lesson had begun, and resonated across the field. Jimin stood up and stretched, making sure to avoid kicking over Hoseok’s bag in fear of provoking his sadistic wrath. Jimin called them both to follow him as he dashed into the courts to catch up with Jeongguk who was walking with Yoongi and Namjoon.

“You have the same reaction every time Jimin talks to Yoongi," Taehyung laughed. "They’ve been friends for over a year now, get over it! If you wanna get to know him, I tell you, Jimin’s your inside man. This is our last year, you may as well try,” Taehyung spoke in hushed whisper as if he were churning out a particularly gripping conspiracy theory.

“And, I tell you, it’s not gonna happen. Remember last year when Jimin wanted to introduce us and I got so nervous that I told him it’d be too awkward? He’ll be suspicious if I change my mind. Anyway, I don’t think Yoongi likes me anyway. We’ve barely ever spoken. The only way I’ll ever talk to him is if I get the misfortune to be in a group with him this year, or partner work or something but I dunno if we take any of the same lessons. It’s weird, ‘cause I wanna talk to him, of course I do, but the thought of actually doing it makes me want to knock myself out.”

Taehyung laughed, and then choked on the last of the rice cakes. “Okay, same here. But what do you mean, you don’t think he likes you?” Taehyung was incredulous, as if the thought of anyone disliking Hoseok was inexplicable.

“Well, he’s got that vibe that screams: ‘Don’t talk to me!’ And he never even acknowledges me. I can count the times we’ve had eye contact on one hand - and it’s gone up by one, by the way, he looked at me when we were screaming. Oh, God, he probably thinks I’m a freak.”

Taehyung snorted, shaking his head in disbelief. “Okay, that’s ridiculous. So, back to him never acknowledging you, do you ever acknowledge him?”

Hoseok paused which gave Taehyung all he needed to know. Hoseok threatened Taehyung with a raised hand as Taehyung choked out a bout of laughter. He tried to defend himself in a non-violent way when he saw that Taehyung held no fear for him. “W-well, that would be so obvious - and I wouldn’t know what to say,” Hoseok stuttered. “And, besides, if Jimin’s my inside man, he’s yours, too.”

Taehyung’s laughter died and he exhaled loudly, Hoseok turned to look at him as they made their way through the science corridor to their form group and saw that Taehyung’s eyebrows were hunched together. He was thinking. “You know what? Screw it. Something’s got to change, the closest we’ve ever gotten to talking to our crushes is this year when their side of the year mixed with ours. Jimin doesn’t know how lucky he is to be transferred into their side of the year. If that had been us at the start then it would have made everything a lot simpler.”

The only response he received was a non-committal grunt from Hoseok who was only half-listening to Taehyung’s speech. This was probably the thousandth time that the same series of complaints had taken place, but still nothing had shifted. It was like they were both stuck in a stasis and were unwilling to move.

“I’m serious, Hoseok,” Taehyung seemed to sense Hoseok’s thoughts, “I’m determined that something will change this year, but we’ve got to be the one to cause it. Let’s be honest, they don’t even know that we exist, so we’ve got to change this.”

Hoseok nodded in agreement, slowly warming up to Taehyung’s sudden burst of energy. “The only things I know about Yoongi are what Jimin tells me, and that’s barely anything. I know that he plays piano because of that concert back in the first year, but how am I supposed to approach him with that? It’s creepy, and I don’t want him to know - think that he’s got an admirer, or a stalker.”

They had paused outside of the classroom door whilst no one was surrounding them. There was a very visible crease in Taehyung’s forehead whilst he seemed to be brainstorming, and then a veil of calm crossed over his face, his eyes glinted. “I’ve got it! They’ll be at the party, Seokjin’s party! Jimin will probably invite Jeongguk, so that means Namjoon and Yoongi will be there, too. So, that’s where we’ll break the ice!” Taehyung had slapped his hands together a little too enthusiastically and triggered a high-pitched buzzing noise in Hoseok’s ears.

Hoseok chewed his cheek thoughtfully. It wasn’t a bad idea, and they were probably going to end up going anyway. “Why... Why, you’re a genius!” Taehyung laughed at his melodramatic reaction.

“So, we’re going on Saturday, right?” Hoseok nodded in confirmation. “Okay, so that only gives me... three days to get an outfit together.” Taehyung was certainly thinking ahead, Hoseok hadn’t even considered which clothes he would be wearing. He would need to do a thorough check of his wardrobe; he couldn’t even remember most of the clothes he owned.

He must have looked slightly panicked because Taehyung tilted his head. “...Want me to come to yours a few hours before to help you?”

“Yes, please-” Hoseok was cut off by their teacher who had yanked open the door and greeted them with a quirk of her eyebrow.

Apologising profusely, they made their way inside and sat down at their usual table, their friends greeted them but when receiving a half-hearted response they realised that the two wanted some privacy. Taehyung and Hoseok lowered their voices to a whisper.

“Wanna get tipsy before we go to the party?”

“Oh, fuck yes, I’ll bring the alcohol.”

“Thanks. Just don’t bring bee r- you threw up last time.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. To be fair, I did drink a lot of it.”

“And whose fault was that? Bring something that doesn’t smell as rank on the breath, I don’t wanna scare Yoongi away.”

“Yes, fine, I’ll bring wine or something, we don’t want to make Yoongers scarper away as if he’s never tasted beer breath before.”

“‘Yoongers’? Please stop.”

“Never! Also, you are gonna ask him out, right?”

“Jeez, one step at a time please, my heart may give out. Are you gonna ask Jeongguk?”

“No - I don’t trust myself. I’ll either open my mouth and vomit on him or ask him to marry me. I’ll stick to being suave.”

“Oh, god, this is not gonna go well,” Hoseok groaned and then was silenced by his teacher coughing at them in a disapproving manner. The unnerved feeling in his stomach did not settle, not even after school and after he had had dinner. It was a bad feeling, a knot of nerves. A premonition, probably. But it didn’t particularly bother Hoseok as he was far too busy focussing on smooth one-liners that he would be sure to use on the object of his affection: untouchable, unobtainable, awkwardly adorable, veins carved from silver beating under the seemingly soft skin of his hands Min Yoongi.

Perhaps, after Saturday, Yoongi may start to acknowledge his existence if he mustered up the courage to talk to him. It was a dim hope, but a hope even so, and that was enough to fuel Hoseok’s enthusiasm.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/netgear-nighthawk-ax8-ax6000-wifi-6-router-review/

Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 WiFi 6 Router Review

WiFi 6 is the newest Wi-Fi standard, and it promises faster speeds, enhanced security, and a whole host of other benefits. Rollout has been slow, both in terms of devices that support the new standard, as well as routers that’ll form the backbone of your faster network.

The Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 is among a handful of WiFi 6-enabled routers available in India right now. Let’s take a closer look at this futuristic-looking router to see if it’s a future-proof networking solution for your home.

Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 design and specifications

We’ve seen some routers designed to blend in with their surroundings, but it’s safe to say that the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 is not one of them. It has a visually striking design that resembles a spaceship with “wings” that extend upwards on either side.

Each wing contains two “high-performance” antennas. Thankfully, the wings can be folded inwards when you want to put the router away. To be clear, the router works even when the wings are folded, but there’s likely to be some impact on its performance.

All the ports are at the back of the router, and the status LEDs are on the top but towards the back, which is a bit odd. What’s worse, the LEDs are really faint, and at times we really struggled to see them especially when the room was well lit. There’s a physical switch to turn the LEDs on/ off (right next to the Reset button), but no way to control their intensity, not even via the software settings.

Right next to the LEDs are two physical buttons — WiFi and WPS. The latter is self-explanatory, letting you quickly add a Wi-Fi device to the network using the Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS) protocol, while pressing the former for a couple of seconds toggles Wi-Fi off or on. We are not sure about the utility of this button, especially since it toggles the main Wi-Fi network; mapping it to the guest network would’ve made a bit more sense.

You get five Gigabit LAN ports, one WAN port, and two USB 3.0 ports. You can aggregate two Gigabit LAN ports for higher speed if your device supports that, and Netgear says aggregation can work for your Internet connection as well, by utilising one of the LAN ports in addition to WAN, if your ISP supports that. This means the router supports Internet speeds of up to 2Gbps. Of course, no ISP in India offers anything near that yet, but it’s nice to know you have that option for the future.

Thanks to WiFi 6 support, this router is future-proof in a bunch of other respects as well. You get theoretical Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1.2Gbps over the 2.4GHz spectrum, and up to 4.8Gbps over 5GHz. There’s support for beamforming and 160MHz channel, with the promise of Gigabit Wi-Fi speeds to devices that support these underlying technologies.

WiFi 6 also brings a host of other improvements, including OFDMA support, which is designed to ensure that the slow devices connected to this router don’t bring the entire network to a halt. This router also supports 4X4 MU-MIMO, which means you can have a total of 8 Wi-Fi streams (4 in each band) at the same time, which increases the total bandwidth available to devices. All this means that — in theory at least — you should be able to stream high quality video simultaneously on multiple devices, while still having enough bandwidth for, say, competitive gaming, provided you have a fast enough Internet connect, of course.

The router is powered by a quad-core CPU running at 1.8GHz and we could hear a fan power up every time we restarted it. We didn’t hear them at any other time, though that might change if the router is really stressed with dozens of devices flooding tonnes of data onto the network at the same time.

Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 getting started, software, and features

Getting started with the router using the Web-based interface on a PC was pretty simple and we didn’t face any problems during the initial setup. You can also download the Nighthawk app to set up and administer the router, but it requires you to create a Netgear.com account, which was a red flag in itself. What’s more, the amount of control that you get beyond the initial setup is pretty limited, and you’ll need to use the Web-based interface to modify anything of significance.

By default, separate networks (SSIDs) are created for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels, though you have the option to merge them and let the router figure out channel allocation for each device. You can also enable guest networks, again with the option of having separate 2.4GHz and 5GHz SSIDs.

Advanced users will be happy to note that nearly all the features you would expect are supported. This includes Dynamic DNS, port forwarding and triggering, remote management, and even a built-in VPN server. There’s a Traffic Meter that lets you monitor overall Internet usage and, optionally, alert you by flashing an LED Amber/ Green when the user-defined limits are reached, or disable Internet access altogether.

The aforementioned Internet and WAN port aggregation capabilities are also prominently featured within the settings. The USB ports support Netgear’s ReadySHARE, which lets you easily share any connected drive or printer with devices on the local network or on the Internet, run a DLNA media server, and even lets a drive serve as a backup destination for the computers on the network. However, we plugged in a 128GB pen drive to the port, as well as an SSD and neither were detected. A Samsung laser printer we connected to the router wasn’t detected either.

The only available QoS control level is “automatic”, which, when enabled, uses an online database to optimise traffic on your network, theoretically giving priority to apps that would require faster access to the Internet. We would’ve liked more granular controls to this aspect of the router’s performance.

There are no meaningful parental controls, though you have the ability to block websites based on keywords and domain names. You can also block services based on the ports they work on.

The router is listed to support Alexa and Google Assistant for things like quickly toggling the guest Wi-Fi network with a voice command. The feature worked as advertised with Alexa, though we didn’t have the same luck with Google Assistant, despite managing to link our Netgear account as required.

Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 performance

Testing this router wasn’t easy due to the dearth of WiFi 6 devices in the market. The only ones that we had for an extended amount of time were an iPhone 11 and a Samsung Galaxy S10e. We decided to run a bunch of file transfer tests between these devices and a PC connected to the router using wired Gigabit Ethernet. We compared the results to what we observed when running the same tests with all devices connected to a Netgear Orbi, which is among the fastest 802.11ac routers we’ve tested.

While there was no visible indication on the iPhone that we were connected to a WiFi 6 network, the Samsung Galaxy S10e showed a tiny “6” overlaid over the regular Wi-Fi icon. The phone also showed the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000-powered network as capable of peak theoretical speeds of 1200Mbps, compared to 780Mbps for the Orbi.

As for actual tests, with the Samsung Galaxy S10e placed a couple of feet away from the Netgear Orbi with a clear line of sight between them, we were able to transfer a 25.9GB file from our computer to the phone using the popular file sharing app AirDroid in 9 minutes and 45 seconds. When we connected both the devices to Netgear Nighthawk AX8-powered WiFi 6 network, the same transfer, at the same distance from the router was completed in 6 minutes and 30 seconds.

With the iPhone 11, the AirDrop transfers were even quicker, taking 8 minutes and 07 seconds to transfer the same file over the 802.11ac network, and 5 minutes, 02 seconds over the WiFi 6 network.

We then tried transferring files between the two phones, with the two still just a couple of feet away from the routers. With the Orbi, the file transfer was completed in 15 minutes and 05 seconds, with the Nighthawk AX8 enabling the transfer in just 10 minutes and 45 seconds.

To mix things up a bit, we moved both phones about 25 feet away from the routers, but still with clear lines of sight between all devices. Transfer time using the Orbi-powered 802.11ac network dropped to 19 minutes and 15 seconds, while the Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 enabled the transfer to be completed in 13 minutes and 4 seconds.

Though Netgear optimistically lists the Wi-Fi range of the Netgear Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 as “very large homes” (instead of an actual figure), in our experience, the range was only slightly bigger than that of an individual Orbi node.

Verdict

There will be a time WiFi 6 will be ubiquitous, and the Wi-Fi experience in our homes and offices will, hopefully, be a whole lot better. Unfortunately, that time isn’t here yet. While we are starting to see some WiFi 6 devices hit the market, it’s still very much limited to top-end devices, and very select ones at that.

So if you are looking to buy a premium router with a budget of about Rs. 25,000, you have a decision to make. If you want to buy something that will serve you well for the next three to five years, you could buy something like the Nighthawk AX8 AX6000 and be pretty happy with the experience.

Its day-to-day performance is very good, the range is better than that of most routers, and you get a product that’s future-proof. However, if you have a very large home and you value getting Wi-Fi coverage in every corner today, you’d be better served by a premium mesh Wi-Fi solution like the Netgear Orbi.

Price: Rs. 24,999

Pros

Excellent performance

Very good range

Future-proof

Cons

Expensive

Limited QoS and parental controls

Barebones app

Ratings (out of 5):

Design/ build: 3.5

Features: 4

Performance: 4.5

Value for money: 4

Overall: 4

[bradybuncher22-blog]

Auteur Theory

The auteur theory is a theory that was created in the 1940s by a group of French film critics called the Cahiers du Cinema. The fathers of the theory, Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc had a specific approach to film criticism in which they appropriated that the film directors were responsible for the style and theme of a specific film and not the film studio. The french originated this theory by studying american films, and more specifically Hollywood studios. Andrew Sarris adopted and theory and became a proponent for it. Andrew Sarris was in fact the one who coined the term “auteur theory”. It later grew into the idea that an audience member could tell who directed a movie simply by watching a few specific scenes. Every directory has a style or theme that they love to impose and use to exemplify their beautiful ideas in their work.

 There are a few directors in particular who really have a specific style that is easy to spot when watching one of their pieces of work.

 One of those directors is Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino loves show gore and blood in all of his films. The quickest way to spot a Tarantino film is when you see people piled on the floor, clutching their wounds, swearing like a sailor while blood is gushing everywhere.

This scene from “Reservoir Dogs” is beyond gruesome and deranged. It shows Madsen’s character, who is quite literally out for blood, as he butchers what was a former constituent. The blood running down all over the face is such a dark and terrifying sight. The contrast of Michael Madsen dancing (which is another one of Quentin Tarantino’s tropes) to some upbeat music before he inhumanely removes his former coworkers ear is also quite the picture.

 While that showed just how dark Tarantino’s films can get, it did not do justice to how bloody his scenes can really be.

This short clip really exemplifies the violence and gore that Quentin Tarantino loves to visual bestow upon his audience. This scene is simply grotesque. From the vomiting to the blows to the woman’s jaws, this scene is a serious attack on all the senses. Tarantino loves to use gore and violence to really shake his audiences and it is the easiest way to distinguish a Tarantino film.

 Christopher Nolan is another great example of an auteur. Nolan loves to mess with the laws of time in his films. Momento solely revolves around the aspect of time and works using flashbacks and present moments to tell a narrative that works in reverse. Inception deals with time as how it is affected completely differently during dreams compared to real life in the film.

This scene from Interstellar is so powerful. It shows how when Matthew Macconaughey went into space and was traveling at the speed of light time had less of an affect on him. He then had to catch up on how much life he missed through messages and memories he never got to see while he was traveling.

 Christopher Nolan does not just use narrative to mess with the laws of time. Nolan has a very specific sound that creates an eerie sense that time is speeding up. The shepard tone is used throughout Nolan films and makes every single member of the audience have this ratcheted up, almost anxious feeling.

The video above really goes in depth with how Nolan uses shepard tones and how they are an illusion and how they make the audience feel.

 Wes Anderson is perhaps the biggest autuer director that is currently still working. He loves to use the rules of third. Anderson is huge on film image. He loves to use vibrant colors in all of his films and loves to show symmetry. Every single frame of Wes Anderson’s movies are a gorgeously painted portrait. Symmetry is when the shot is made up of similar parts on all sides. Wes Anderson does this by either centering his shots, which easily creates a sense of symmetry, or by using the rule of thirds. The principle of the rule of thirds is basically that there are two horizontal lines and two vertical lines that divide the picture into nine grids as seen below.

The beauty of this shot is the division by lines. In the first row is all of the ground and the last column is the totality of lighthouse. The way these physical features show up on the lines that divide the picture is what causes an affect that appears simple yet relaxing and fitting.

 The color scheme Wes Anderson uses is also very appeasing to the eyes and creates a peaceful sensation. Anderson uses a color palette in his shots that all work with each other. They blend in to the scene and match up very soothingly with each other. Either Wes Anderson uses a bunch of vibrant colors that really pop when next to each other or he uses a lot of pale and washed out colors that mesh together when seen in one frame. Knowing these tendencies, lets take a look at some of the shots from Wes Anderson movies.

This image is a perfect example of both color scheme and the rule of thirds. The lamps and bed posts are both on the vertical lines and it even has symmetry with the head of the actress being perfectly dead center in the canvas, so to speak. The vibrant yellow is also incredibly bright and gives this image a very shocking and happy feeling.

This image is another perfect example of Wes Anderson’s use of imagery. The color palette is shown at the bottom. All of the colors speak very soft tones and work off each other which creates a nice compliment. The rule of thirds is again represented here as the lines in the back on the window perfectly line up where the nine grid layout would be.

In conclusion, every single one of the directors is a great example of what the auteur theory is in their own ways. Tarantino using blood and violence, Nolan using the concept of time, and Wes Anderson using film imagery all worked out to become their own version of an auteur.

 http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/gustafson/FILM%20162.W10/readings/wollen.auteur.pdf

 Link to information on auteur theory above.

[texanredrose]

Fanfic ask: 4, 9, 15, 20, 23, 44

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

No, not at all. There are some that I can’t believe I got involved in, but I have no regrets; each experience has taught me something or exposed me to fun ideas that can play in other universes to create something unique. Plus, I stay on the fringes of fandom anyway, so I don’t deal with the stress and drama nearly as much as others.

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

That I’ve completely lost investment in the show, to be honest. I’m always hesitant to write for active fandoms because of the potential for ongoing canon to destroy really cool fan theories (*coughthatarebetterthanwhatthewriterscomeupwithanywaycoughcough*) but, now that I don’t rightly care about the show itself and consider it closed, I’m far less inhibited in my writing. Plus, I’m not spending time watching the show, which means more time for writing! Aside from that, I’ve met some really cool people along the way, and I live for the unique experiences of listening to someone I would literally never even know existed were it not for the internet and this one show or comic or book. For someone who remembers when phone numbers were only seven digits long (unless you were calling long distance), this concept still trips me out, and it’ll always be my favorite part of fandom in general!

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Technically, the majority of the ships I enjoy are rarepairs, though there are some that veer more towards the mainstream side. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any ships where the content is so small it might as well be a toy boat in the ocean. 

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Bee’s Schnee. Bee’s fucking Schnee- let me tell you something about this goddamn ship. In the week leading up to writing Partners, @alexlayer sent me a link for The Gentle Art of Making Enemies by fiestyslapofpain, and I saw the tags and was like ‘idk, man, I’m not big on the poly thing, I don’t really get it’ but I liked the story overall, it was an interesting twist on canon events. Then, I sit down to write some serious Yangst with Monochrome in mind and I just… couldn’t… fucking… do it, I couldn’t, I couldn’t be that fucking mean to Yang, so I figured ‘okay, I’ll make it Bee’s Schnee, and it’ll be a nice little twist to end on’ and then it just… kept… fucking going! And the more I wrote their dynamic, the more I adored it, until I finally acquiesced and claimed it as my OT3. So… yeah. Bee’s Schnee. I still can’t believe how much I adore this ship now.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

Shit, just one? I know that sounds really egotistical, but I do genuinely like most of the stories I’ve written (even when I flub the execution, in my mind)! Top pics per fandom, though, would be Symbolism, Nature & Nurture, The Kingdom, and Black Cat Song. Respectively, I enjoyed turning a NSFW premise into something almost entirely innocent, I had fun playing around with the concept of parenting from a human and alien standpoint, writing Ingvar was so much fun but doing the whole ‘meeting the parents’ schtick with the way I’d set the universe up provided additional challenges and I really love the overall message, and getting a chance to entirely rework not one but two fictional landscapes to mesh together while creating a unique lore all its own was something I hadn’t done before and it felt massively rewarding when I finished it.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

I’m actually hesitant to answer this question straight (lol) because I don’t like the idea of promoting a ship over promoting healthy relationships, and there’s a difference, especially in fanworks. Really, I’m fine with most ships, provided they’re treated in a reasonable and respectable way, but sometimes both of those concepts are tossed to the wayside for the sake of creating more content, and I think that’s a slippery slope. I’d much rather see more depictions of healthy relationships between characters than one or two specific pairings, and that’s not to say that the pairings themselves have to be healthy and perfect off the bat (speaking in respects to fanfics, specifically). People are, by our very nature, problematic creatures who grow and change over time, and that should be reflected in fanworks; very rare are the unions between people where neither party changes much because they mesh extremely well from the get go. After seeing my friends who are now married or in the process of getting married or with long time partners and considering marriage, I’ve noticed (rather jarringly, since my military service made for some very long stretches with minimal contact) how they’ve changed over the years, and how their partners have changed. That’s part of being in a relationship; growing together with your chosen partner, and it’s a real thing of beauty. I’d much rather see these real aspects of relationships reflected in fanworks (and the source content, tbh, but I digress…) than a massive influx of content for a specific pairing. (Though, that being said, more Elderburn would be fucking fantastic, lol.)

[daemominus]

Here I go again with another theory regarding Hell Gates and demons on Earth and all those juicy bits.

I’ve always said that Limbo falls apart and out of existence, and recently I’d figured that Hell Gates left open around other parts of the world were the gateways through which demons could cross between realms. Of course I couldn’t leave this well enough alone so I went and came up with something a lot more interesting and potentially more exciting (and for roleplaying that’s a Good Thing 👌).

What I’ve got figured now is that Limbo isn’t eradicated, but in the process of losing its connection to the Hell Gate, and the demon king as consequence, it becomes so unstable that as it tears at the seams, it meshes with the human world, or Earth, or whatever you prefer to call it, allowing demons to appear to humans in the flesh, and more or less bringing at least a part of Hell to Earth. Limbo as a separate reality doesn’t exist anymore, but whatever small thread of it hanging on serves as a link between Hell and Earth. That alone is quite enough to leave the door open, and that’s how demons straight from the belly of Hell cross into the human plane. This is pretty one-sided unless you’re a human who’s really talented at dark magic or knows things you shouldn’t about bending your grounded, Earthbound rules. Vergil might probably be able to do this. Might. Probably. I don’t know yet, and if he did I suspect he would not be keen on it.

When he intended on freeing humanity of any demonic presence, he unwittingly made it worse. There’s no curtain to hide the demons from frail human eyes; and though Vergil had meant to expose the truth to humanity, he hadn’t counted on it becoming something permanent. Demons are free to pour onto Earth on the slightest whim, nothing binds them, and Earth has no barrier to guard against them. It’s a headcanon of mine that Phineas makes it to Earth post-game, and now there’s a means through which that can happen. In fact, he could come and go as he pleases. Actually, having this connection between worlds helps Vergil out a lot in regard to his role as lord among demons. He can better enforce himself this way, and news from down below would reach him faster (if he’s got followers willing to do this).

Of course this totally opens up the possibility for guilt because he’d have fucked up major, causing something he wanted to prevent, and he’d realized that he hadn’t been as meticulous in his planning as he’d always imagined. He’d have made a mistake with chaotic consequences to it. While angst is great and I’m not one to turn it down, I actually don’t want him to feel guilty. I want to keep him falsely blaming others instead of himself, feeling like he’s the victim who did everything right but Life just has it out for him. Technically, he’d always be prone to feeling guilty over the decisions he’s made, but having my canon follow these new concepts would make it very obvious to him that he done fucked up. But, yeah, I can still totally have him deny it. Gosh I already started drifting r.i.p.

But now come the Hell Gates. Because I am really into the idea that there are more spread across the world and that it’s not exclusively a Limbo City thing. With Earth completely open and vulnerable to demons, I imagine a few would crawl out to set up Hell Gates of their own in isolated regions of the world. Naturally, humans wouldn’t know, but it’s something that Vergil would learn of eventually. And I’m talking Big demons. I’m talking about three-hour boss battle demons that don’t give a shit about Vergil and want to do their own thing in a world ripened for terrorizing and ruling. These demons shouldn’t be fucked with but would Vergil fuck with them? It’s likely. After all, he still wants to get rid of these fuckers and protect humanity so duh he’s gonna want to clear the air of their stink. Like jesus put on some deodorant before you just let yourself in uninvited to his home????? I think it’s important to note that these demons would clearly be capable of opening up Hell Gates on their own. So maybe I’d exaggerated a bit, but, my point: a demon capable of opening a Hell Gate is not a demon to be underestimated, even by a nephilim. Such an ability is rare, despite how trivial the subject of Hell Gates might sound. Vergil is lucky to have that power in Yamato.

Uh but anyway I’m not suggesting there are big baddies out there already established in their territories or whatever. Gates might not even be up. However, the possibility is very real, and---I’d honestly need a whole separate post to discuss this in detail but let me just stress right now that this is a concept I would like to have develop.

These changes play a lot better into my vision of the world post-game. I’ve always meant there to be chaos, a daily and consistent fight for survival on the part of humanity while Vergil basically poses as their savior who slays the invaders. If Dante’s doing the same thing, then they’ll butt heads eventually, though I see them staying away from each other---at least, Vergil would actively avoid Dante. But anyway, the situation mostly works out for him. The demons that bend to his rule are naturally going to fulfill his commands. If he wants them out of a specified area, they’ll leave. Or he’ll kill them, whether they listen or rebel. He doesn’t fit in a world changed so much, as if he’s surrounded by a bubble no matter where he goes. Paradise, for instance, or the whole block it belongs to, is devoid of demonic activity. But everywhere else? It’s not safe for mere man. People must take their chances, but as time goes by the demons have learned to hide and calculate and take advantage of opportunities. Also, remember, not every demon that surfaces is a savage beast. In fact, a lot of them would be highly intelligent and perhaps even capable of blending in with humanity. Unless they are masters at masking their essence, Vergil would know the difference between a human and a demon under a human guise. Earth is by no means a war-torn mess; the balance that once existed is thrown out of whack, but life must go on. Humans are resourceful and persistent, thus they survive. A number of the demons on Earth are kept in check, but those that are outside of Vergil’s control can very well do what they please. What you have now are humans and demons living together, basically, though there is no effort made to coexist.

I actually wanted the post-game world to resemble classic DMC in this way (and I’m mainly remembering the anime, which I honestly wasn’t impressed by, for this concept) in which these two realms are so closely linked that people gotta fucking hire mercenaries to clear a parking lot that’s become a hot spot for like the same group of frat boy demons to hang out past midnight. It sounds fake but no this is what the world’s come to. And having the intangible gateway between Hell and Earth as a result of Limbo’s collapse is really the way I see any of this happening. Demons are constantly coming in and I honestly have no idea how Vergil is going to patch up that tear in fabric of space??? Maybe that’s where the other Hell Gates come in---if they’re all shut down, after they’ve been opened by some visiting wise-ass, the ripple effect might be enough to snap that thread serving as the gateway. Or maybe Earth is permanently fucked over and there’s really no way to fix what’s been done. I’m fine with either, but if the latter is the case then boy do I feel the absolute worst for Vergil for having made a terrific mess of things for all parties involved. Fucking wow. Nice. And that wouldn’t even be the reason he has regular nightmares wtf BUT ANYWAY.

Tl;dr: Hell’s on Earth, demons are pouring in, maybe there are other Hell Gates out in the world that need closing, fucking “devil hunters” are becoming a thing, you don’t know if the homeless guy sitting at the park bench is a man or not, and Vergil is sitting pretty amid all of it. Paradise is restored to luxury, he has his legion at his feet, and if someone should catch him tearing a demon to shreds they’re gonna want his fucking phone number on speed dial so he can do them a quick solid when they’re in a pinch. He’s not gonna give it but. You know. Not gonna live with regret and guilt though because he’s already going through too much of his own hell. I think I actually forgot to mention how badly he would be affected by Hollow Vergil’s direct link to Hell now that there’s relatively easy access to it--