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#like i said lots of good psas are happening on twitter about this
andoutofharm · 1 month
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good conversations are happening on fob twitter right now about this so I thought I’d bring it here too (especially since I’ve sort of already talked about this some): if for some reason you get to meet pete or patrick, especially due to waiting for them after the show, BE RESPECTFUL towards them AND your fellow fans. you are not the only person there and you do not deserve your “moment” more than anyone else, especially in a large crowd of fans.
also for the love of god DONT just reach out and touch or grab or hold them. you do not know them. leave them alone and be respectful.
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ynscrazylife · 3 years
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hi there! so i saw that you write about the mcu and dceu which is super cool bc i have this amazing idea of a story between me, the avengers, the guardians and the justice league (platonic ofc!) i was thinking about the three teams were preparing my birthday in a yard and while they are preparing everything, bruce banner is picking me up and him and i could get closer in a romantic way (mostly because he's my fav), and when i arrive everyone is suprising me and then we have a lot of fun 1/2
The Surprise Party | avengers, guardians, justice league fluff fic
Summary: Ignoring how they’re from different universes, the superheroes throw their friend an amazing surprise birthday party.
Authors Note: Thanks for requesting & happy birthday!
Request to be on a taglist (or multiple) here! (Taglists are at the end of the fic)
MCU Masterlist #1 | MCU Masterlist #2 | DCEU Masterlist |  Main Masterlist
PSA: Do NOT copy, steal, translate, plagiarize, republish, etc any of my works on Tumblr or any other platform. Also, do NOT claim any of my works as your own. All of these works are either requests I’ve gotten that people have wanted me to write or original ideas I’ve had for works. If you happen to take inspiration from anything I’ve written and want to write something inspired by that, please a) ask me first and b) IF I say yes, credit me as inspo in your post by tagging me and link whatever work of mine that inspired you. Thanks.
header c @/gagalacrax on twitter
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There was a reason why the Avengers, the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Justice League didn’t all get together: with that many superheroes, in one space, chaos was bound to break out. That chaos could be, quite literally, anything. From Iron Man challenging the Flash to an arm wrestling contest to Aquaman attacking Groot when he thought he was an enemy. Long story short, it just wasn’t a good idea . . . Until they found out that besides saving the world, all three teams had one thing in common: Y/N Y/LN.
Y/N had, to everyone’s astonishment, been on all three teams. Born as a Metahuman, she had started out on the Justice League team. Then, on a solo mission, she accidentally entered a black hole and bam! she found herself in another universe, and quickly bonded with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Eventually, it was determined that the Guardians couldn’t help her return to her home world - or universe - so she bid them goodbye and sought out the Avengers.
Y/N was the reason they had met. The reason that they knew of each other's universes. Now, seeing as her birthday was rapidly approaching, she was the reason they were coming together once more. Each superhero had their own connection with Y/N and adored her. Batman and Captain America were like father figures while Black Widow, Mera, and Wonder Woman were her mother figures, Furthermore, Aquaman and Thor were her mentors, Starlord, Iron Man, and Superman were like her big brothers, Gamora and Scarlet Witch were like her sisters, and Falcon, Rocket, Groot, Hawkeye, and Drax were her best friends.
There was someone else who fit into Y/N’s life in an entirely different way, though. That was the Hulk, aka Bruce Banner, who Y/N had a growing crush on. Coincidentally, his role in their birthday surprise was to be the distractor. He’d take Y/N out and about, staying as far away as possible from the Avengers Tower, while the other superheroes set up.
As expected, the planning hardly went smoothly.
Tony and Barry got into another confrontation, this time over Y/N’s choice of music (which went on until Mera and Wanda butted in with the music Y/N actually enjoyed), Arthur began to get on Natasha’s last nerves, and Rocket almost started eating her cake . . . and that was only a bit of what happened in the first half of the day.
Meanwhile, Bruce kept Y/N occupied. He took her out to her favorite breakfast place and breakfast was on him and then they filled the day at a carnival park. Bruce happily accompanied her on all the rides she wanted to go on (despite almost Hulking out multiple times) and even won Y/N some stuffed animals by throwing rings. He even got her lots and lots of cotton candy and then let her ride on his back when she got a stomach ache. All in all, though, it was a fun time. So fun that Bruce almost forgot that they had a party to get to!
Which is exactly why he frantically texted the groupchat that they were on their way and had to practically drag Y/N away from wanting to go on the ferris wheel for the third time. When confronted with questions, the lie that there was an emergency mission slipped off the brunette’s tongue -- probably not the smartest lie because Y/N had declared weeks before that if there were any missions on the week of her birthday, she wasn’t going -- but it worked long enough to keep her distracted, even if she was too busy with pouting and grumbling.
As they got closer and closer, Bruce could barely contain his excitement. Not only had he had a fantastic game, he was about to spend the night partying with the woman he had a crush on and celebrating her birthday. Who knows - maybe he’d even ask her out?!
When they got there, Y/N was ready to march inside and suit up, but Bruce tugging on her arm made her stop. Ignoring her endless questions and cries of frustration, he took his time leading her through the tower and into the backyard so the superheroes would have time to hide. Bruce let Y/N go before him and the moment she opened the doors, everyone jumped out wearing party hats and yelled: “SURPRISE!”
To say she was surprised would be a total understatement. In fact, she was so surprised that she stumbled back, directly into the scientist, and with his quick reflexes he steadied her and lightly nudged her forward and out of her shocked state. She had let out the biggest gasp that any of them had ever heard, her eyes went wide, and her hands flew over her mouth.
Slowly, she walked forward, overwhelmed by the sight before her. Not only were all her teammates - her friends, even family - together, but the place looked amazing. There were streamers, a big sign saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY, balloons, even a fake throne that Tony and Bruce had constructed earlier that week!
“Oh-oh my god, you guys . . . Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She cried out, jumping up and down.
Everyone smiled. “Of course, sweetheart,” Arthur said.
“Go sit on your throne - presents are up first!” Tony added.
Y/N immediately ran and jumped onto the big throne.
“Aren’t presents supposed to be last or something?” Clint muttered to Steve as they walked over.
“Yeah, but Tony keeps boasting on how good his present is,” Steve replied.
Everyone mingled on over there and Tony presented his birthday present, which was definitely over-wrapped, first. After the squeals she emitted, the others were next. Everyone had gotten her their own birthday present, but Arthur and Mera went over the top when they joined together with their powers to make Y/N something super special.
Afterwards, they spent the rest of the time absolutely PARTYING! They had a dance contest which JARVIS was the judge of and Y/N won, but the next round Y/N co-judged with JARVIS and they determined that Rocket and Barry were tied for first place, Peter and Clint tied for second place, and Bruce got third place. Then, they moved onto playing games (Y/N and Bruce teamed up and they CRUSHED everyone else, because they already had experience working together at the carnival that day) and finally, it was time for cake. Y/N got the biggest piece and, of course, Rocket and Arthur fought over the cake (Groot smacked them).
They partied until the sun came up, where everyone either fell asleep or had someone fall asleep on them. In the morning, everyone awoke, only to see Y/N still asleep, her head resting on Bruce’s shoulder and a blanket wrapped around them both. It was the most adorable sight they had ever witnessed and Bruce carried her to bed while Natasha took her shoes off. The superheroes left her to sleep in and she came downstairs a couple hours later, a breakfast full of waffles, pancakes, anything you could imagine waiting for her.
Permanent Taglist: @natasharomanoffismywife @hehehehannahthings @paulawand @blackbat2020 @cerberus-spectre @marrymemcgrath @celestialbarnes @kathryndimitrescu @snipyloulou @big-galaxy-chaos @cc13723things
MCU Taglist: @stephanieromanoff @summerlovingbaby @ineffablebean @okkulta @procrastinatingsapphictrash @prettysbliss @caseyfish @sarahp-stan @thewidowsghost @basiclesbianbitch @mycosmicparadise @kidswhofightmonsters @xtraordinaryfangrl @peggycarter-steverogers @username23345 @ima-gi--na-tion @yori-nakajima @hi-i-1 @mmmmokdok @xxxtwilightaxelxxx @mads-weasley @tenaciousperfectionunknown @afraid-to-be-me @lilclownx @acertainredhead @natromanoffxox @lilymurphy03 @thanossexual @avengersz-biotch @kozumekoi  @mjaudrey
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psych0midget · 4 years
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Bookshop AU
Andrew had thousands of followers.
He wasn’t sure how it had started. He was the owner of a small independent bookstore and he regularly hit the gym. Nothing more, nothing less.
Or at least, that’s what his life mainly consisted of before Moriyamas opened a store right in front of his one. Moriyamas was one of the major book retailers in the USA, wherever it opened a store, the other bookshops of the area closed. Andrew’s own shop didn’t stand a chance. 
That’s where Roland came in. It was just an off-handed comment, nothing anybody sane would ever take into account. But Andrew could not afford to close his shop, he had to pay the tuitio for Aaron’s med school. 
Roland said: you’d definitely sell more books if you showed your abs to your costumers. The fact that Roland had said that while he was feeling Andrew up in the storeroom of Eden’s didn’t matter. 
What Andrew did: he created an Instagram page. It was called ABS (AndrewsBookStore, you pervs). He posted photos of himself. And his books. The fact that he was often shirtless or wearing a skin-tight black t-shirt that showcased his muscles was secondary. 
The descriptions under the photos mainly consisted of his book recs. Short. A bit caustic, but straight to the point. He never forgot to add a discount code. Any customer that walked into the store would get a 20% discount on the book Andrew had promoted if they showed him the ig photo and the code before paying. The fact that the words he used as codes were frequently outrageous just made the whole thing more fun. 
Surprisingly, his ig page took off. Not only did he gain thousands and thousands of followers, but his revenue triplicated.
Nicky became a permanent fixture in the shop. Once an occasional aid during Christmas time, now he efficiently manned the register. Nicky flashed smiles at costumers who showed him Andrew’s photos to get a discount and was patient with those who blushed and stammered when asked to say the code word.
He had also hired Kevin, his roommate. And makeshift photographer who helped Andrew taking photos for Instagram. He’d probably have to hire someone else before November. But that was okay. The shop would not close.
The only price he had to pay was having to wear a tank top at work.
-
Neil was a simple bookshop clerk. At Moriyamas in Palmetto.
He loved books. A lot. Or else he wouldn’t work in a bookstore. And yet he hated the job. Hated the competitive work environment. Hated his boss Riko. Hated how things had changed since Kevin had left.
Pity that he needed the money. 
One of the very few highlights of his days was the costumers. In particular, the costumers who mistook Moriyamas for ABS (they were both on Fox Avenue, but Moriyamas was at number 32 while ABS was at 23) and showed him one of the photos and said the discount code. 
The first time it had happened, Neil had no idea what to do. An old lady had shoved her phone right into his face. On the screen a photo of a good looking blond man reading a book.  He was lying on a bed, his face half covered with a copy of TSOA. The arm that was not holding the book was raised above his head, his well toned bicep on display. Neil knew his face was turning red. Redder than the cover of TSOA the costumer was brandishing.
Neil still had no idea what was going on, especially not when the lady started saying lewd words she claimed were the discount codes.
He called Jean for help. Jean calmly explained to the old lady that she was in the wrong bookshop, ABS was down the road, on the left.
Neil, who barely even knew what Instagram was before Jean told him, went home and downloaded the app. Created a profile and went looking for ABS’s account. 
He found the photo the old lady had showed him that morning, the one with TSOA. Neil was a good liar but he rarely lied to himself. He could admit he noticed that Andrew’s t-shirt had ridden up a bit. He could admit he noticed the slip of exposed skin on his hip. He could admit he stared at it for almost half an hour. (Which was unusual to say the least) 
Another thing Neil enjoyed were the book recs. Andrew Minyard had good taste and he knew what he was doing. He promoted both new books and classics, he put trigger warnings on them, his book recs were short and funny, his dark humour made Neil crack quite a few smiles. 
Neil followed Andrew’s page and went to sleep. 
In the following days Neil got more than one costumer mistaking Moriyamas for ABS. 
Riko was getting tired of it. Instead of wiping out the competition, the Moriyamas shop of Palmetto struggled. And they struggled against a “stupid decrepit bookshop owned by a psychotic midget on steroids”. These were Riko’s words. 
Neil had no idea how he ended up filming videos where he recced books while exercising. And wearing shorts. Oh and uploading them on Instagram. 
Actually, he knew how he ended up doing that. It had something to do with Riko threatening to lay him off.
Moriyamas was copying ABS’s strategy and Neil was the unwilling accomplice.
Unsurprisingly, Neil quickly gained many followers. With the money Riko had invested in sponsoring his account, well, it was inevitable. 
Neil was waiting for the day Riko would tell him to start wearing shorts at work (it took exactly 11 days and “Neil’s Legs” trending on twitter after he uploaded one of his videos) 
Surprisingly, people followed him also for his book recs. He received hundreds of messages from people thanking him for the awesome books they read because of him. And in return they gave him other book recs. After all, Neil was happy with his Instagram.
Even more surprisingly, ABS (Andrew fucking Minyard) followed him.
-
Andrew was not sure why he followed Neil Josten.
Rationally, he knew he needed to keep an eye on the Moriyamas. He needed to do it for his own bookshop and for Kevin’s sanity. And that’s why he followed Josten.
His treacherous mind said it was also because Josten’s book recs were awesome. And so were Josten’s thighs. He’d be happy to be choked by them and suc- Wait, no. No. No. Let’s not get there. 
Let’s start over again. His treacherous mind said it was also because Neil’s book recs were awesome. Damn him. Andrew had read some of the books Josten suggested just for the sake of it. He hoped they’d be shit, but fuck, Josten knew what he was doing. 
Nevertheless, not much changed. Josten’s blog, or rather, the Moriyamas’ wasn’t a problem for Andrew. ABS was still doing great. Admittedly, Moriyamas’ discounts were higher than ABS’, but Andrew now had a number of loyal regular customers. His account was still doing great. 
One night Nicky made him rewatch Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly for the umpteenth time. The following day Andrew also reread book and decided to promote it. Who said he only had to talk about new releases on his account? 
In the photo Pride and Prejudice was artfully placed (or so Kevin said) on his bicep. In the description box he said that P&J was the Classic par excellence, the Classic TM and that he hoped Jane Austen could forgive him for the photo.
Two days later Andrew was casually scrolling through instagram when he saw it. In the new video Josten was promoting Wuthering Heights.  Because “people who say Pride and Prejudice is the best classic really have no taste”. The video featured Josten and a punch bag. It was gloriously rich in close ups of Neil’s butt.
This is how the cold war between ABS and Moriyamas began. 
Andrew replied with Fight Club. The description said “Recommended for jocks who like throwing punches for no reason at all. The favourite book of white men TM who think they are Brad Pitt, but actually have the emotional depth of a spoon. Read at your own risk”. 
Neil replied with The Catcher in the Rye. In the video he was doing squats. And panting into the microphone. Andrew might be wrong because he was too busy looking at Neil’s stupid face, but he was pretty sure Josten said something like “perfect if you’re looking for a book where the protagonist is a self-absorbed entitled brat” and “the true favourite book of white men TM”. 
The video ended with “psa, if you ever meet someone who says that this is their favourite book, run.” And then Josten winked. He winked. 
Fans quickly started noticing what Andrew and Neil were doing. Some talked about rivalry between bookshops, others inevitably started shipping them. 
And yet Neil and Andrew kept their videos going on. They argued which book of Neil Gaiman was the best and which vampire saga the worst. It was a photo of Andrew lifting stacks of books. And then it was a video of Neil doing squats balancing a pile of books on each hand.  It was Josten saying Aristotle & Dante was his favourite lgbtq+ book and Andrew answering that he’d never read it, but it couldn’t possibly be better than TSOA.
Andrew would never say it out loud but it was fun. He was having fun.
Andrew still suspected Josten kept on replying to his recs just to promote Moriyamas. Nothing more, nothing less. It was probably Riko who told him what to rec. Josten was a puppet.
Andrew should’ve known. But when Neil started reccing shitty books, Andrew was still a bit disappointed.
Week after week, the quality of Josten’s recs lowered. He was promoting mainstream books (but not the good mainstream books) and influencers’ rubbish biographies. 
He was about to unfollow his blog when Josten slipped into his DMs.
What the message said: I cannot accept the fact that you haven’t read Aristotle & Dante yet. When’s your next shift at the shop? 
What Andrew did: sent him his work schedule. Like an idiot who’d never had a mum telling him not to divulge personal info to strangers on the internet. Oh no wait- Andrew hadn’t.
What Neil did: walked into Andrew’s shops with a copy of A&D and a cup of coffee. Placed them on the counter in front of Andrew, smiled and left. 
Andrew could’ve complained that the coffee was too bitter and- who even gifts books to someone who owns a bookshop? He could’ve complained, but he was too busy staring at the post-it on the book. 
“Hire me before Riko makes me rec Fifty Shades of Gray xx” 
That that afternoon Andrew walked into Moriyamas with a copy of a random book in his hands. The post-it on its front cover said “You start tomorrow at 9. Don’t be late.” 
With Neil’s videos and Andrew’s photos, ABS’ account (unsurprisingly) became one of Instagram’s most popular book accounts. Andrew’s bookshop became so popular he managed to buy the Palmetto Moriyamas shop after their sales plummeted and they were forced to close the store. 
As concerns Neil and Andrew. Well. Their relationship would still be secret if Kevin -who still managed the ig account- didn’t accidentally post the wrong video. 
It was supposed to be a video of Andrew doing squats with Neil sitting on his shoulders and reading a book. 
The video that got posted to ABS’ 3 million followers instead featured Neil sitting on Andrew’s shoulders and laughing so much he lost his balance. He was about to fall to the ground when Andrew caught him in his arms and Neil, who hadn’t stopped laughing for a second, kissed him on the tip of his nose.
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vb-hcs · 4 years
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haikyuu reacting to stan twitter
(haikyuu spoilers)
hello ^u^ !! if you see this i hope you are doing good !! i decided to write how i think the MSBY Black Jackals would react to their stan twitter ! i don’t know very much about stan twitter for athletes but i tried my best lol. thank you for reading <3
warnings: swearing, stan twitter-ness (?), mentions of sexual harassment
hinata
when he first debuted (?) he didn’t really didn’t know how to respond to stan twitter
it made him really flustered !! he didn’t understand a lot and he wasn’t sure why people were so interested in his team outside of the sport
he warmed up pretty quickly by responding to a lot of tweets and he felt a lot more connected to it all !!
took him a while to warm up to the memes about him tho lol he wasn’t sure if they were in good humor and regardless they can be pretty embarassing >:0
(adding to what i said before) sooo responsive !!! his twitter replies are so full he loves interacting with fans 🥺 theyre like best friends
oh to be a hinata stan. they’re either mutuals with him or have gotten at least one response from him
(idk if i should say social bb or social butterfly 🥺 social caterpillar.)
would be the type to post a bunch of baby photos of himself >:0
in on a lot of the memes !! especially the ones about his teammates hehe
i think he would avoid anything hateful for the most part but sometimes he can’t stop himself from looking at it. not in a bad way but more of a competive way !! he wants to improve on whatever people are talking shit about so that he can prove them wrong
i feel like he’d be the type to respond to a hate tweet with something like you wanna kiss me so bad. i can tell it only happened one time but everyone was like what the fuck it wrong with you ahvsbdbdb
bokuto
warmed up to stan twitter pretty fast actually !! it was a bit to get used to but people showing him unconditional love and hyping him up? yes ma’am
the second most interactive !!!!!!
(might rival hinata for first !! hinata just has conversations tho)
gets called a himbo a lot but doesn’t know what it means. takes it as a compliment
(they all get called himbos constantly)
bokuto stans eat well !!! soo positive and he’s super involved with his fan base !!
gets a lot of comments asking him gets he gets soo thicc !
he loooves sharing is workout routines and regiments !!!!
posts hella workout videos and loves it when people talk to him about how they tried it out (and are completely exhausted)
has saved so many memes of himself !! has so many reaction pictures you’d actually think he’s a narcissist. he’s not he just appreciates people making them he theyre funny 😔
atsumu
didn’t get used to stan twitter incredibly fast but he did assume it came with being kinda famous so he was the most prepared
knows what himbo means and he was kinda upset at first but then thought about it and realized that’s fair
the third most interactive !!! pretty chill but kinda flirty 🤢
his stans a borderline feral (i wonder where they get it from) like for the most part they’re chill but the second he starts acting up it takes them all out 😔
hates memes about him !! they’re are only a couple exceptions that he thinks are actually funny
the rest he finds really embarassing so it’s a miracle if he interacts with one
was so pissed when Onigiri Miya got verified before him (and when HES the reason they blew up so much bc he was constantly tweeting about them >:0) (or so he tells himself hehe)
people made jokes about it for WEEKS (even his teammates joined in). when he finally got verified his stans made a whole event about it (trended hashtags, etc.)
sasuka
is not a fan of stan twitter it makes him uncomfortable
he appreciates the support and all but he like his privacy and does not understand why people are so interested in him he automatically assumes they’re creepy
fourth most interactive !! replies when he can but only to normal comments and compliments. nothing too over the top
(once in awhile he will and it’ll be something like if you could step on me that’d be great and he’ll be like thanks.)
(don’t comment horny stuff on peoples social medias [or in real life] this has been a PSA.)
for the most part he only uses his twitter for promotional stuff but still uses it sometimes
his stans are super laidback and chill !! vv respectful of his boundaries
found out what a himbo was and is deeply offended
pretty well known on twitter for his roasts of his teammates. most of them go viral
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shijiujun · 3 years
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this is very random but i’m feeling kind of frustrated/confused now and i truly regard you as fandom jiejie so i would like to rant a bit and seek your advice(?) recently, i found out that i got blocked by another tumblr that’s quite popular in the cql fandom for creating gifs etc. i don’t know who the person is and have never interacted with the blog; i only found out because i couldn’t reblog the person’s post (which i saw on my feed because someone i followed reblogged it). i was curious why but i realized that the person is probably against mxtx/danmei books etc, which i sometimes post about, for i guess homophobic/fetishizing reasons? but i’ve never followed or interacted so i’m really not sure why i got “noticed” like that. anyway, like i respect the person’s choices and rights to block people, but i haven’t been in the fandom for long and basically never encountered something like this before, so i’m slightly bothered by it. i’m guessing it’s quite common and i know i should probably just ignore/avoid the person (since they blocked me anyway) but i’m too easily affected. how do you usually deal with people like that? thank you.
oh oh hi! hahaha damn am i fandom jiejie?!?!?! sarah is my fandom jiejie ;-; 
anyway oomph sorry you found out about the block from that specific person and are feeling terrible about it! not easy to realize you’re blocked by someone
ehhh actually there can be a few reasons why ppl block i mean in general:
1. it could be an accident, tumblr fucks up q regularly
2. users have beef against each other (unavoidable, i mean we’re placing a lot of opinionated ppl squeezed into a room)
3. you just dont wanna see their stuff or opinions on your blog - i mean this is very understandable, whether out of like genuine like damn this is really not content i wanna see or i really hate the subject matter - both ways go and unfortunately-
unfortunately, it’s all part and parcel of being on social media and on an online space! i know this is hard to hear but everyone escapes to their blogs or accounts right and especially on tumblr where everything is slightly more curated, people create their blogs and create content for mostly themselves first - and we all do things to make sure our dashes stay the way we want them to look 
i for one use the block button very liberally - sometimes just because i disagree with someone and feel that there is just no way i can see their further posts on the matter, or you know, when i get triggered with pet peeves hahahaa sadly i am that kind of person XD i come onto my blog to be happy, and if anything makes me the slightest bit annoyed/uncomfortable, i don’t feel guilty at all about using the button 
i’ve also blocked for my own sanity for e.g. if a blog i see keeps reblogging the same post in the span of 48 hours (talking about like more than five times, and i’m personally totally okay if it’s a timezone reblog for fics or psas or infos!) for notes i mean, their blog, they can do whatever they want and i am in no place to judge, but it made me really competitive and i felt like it was really toxic to keep staring at notes so i blocked for my own sake because i have zero impulse control
and sometimes it’s personal, sometimes it’s not! in your case i think it may help? idk, because these things are stressful and i don’t deal well with like anger HAHAHAHA:
1. don’t take it personally and don’t think too much about it or about why or what you posted that could have made them block you - this blog is for you. and the ppl who follow you in a sense, so if anyone is unhappy that’s on them to block etc. - and don’t think about you getting ‘noticed’, posts turn up in searches all the time as well and it could just have been a particular post 
2. blocking in my opinion is so much better than the user coming to fight with you via anon or rallying other ppl to bully you for your posts online - trust me, this gets ugly, and if it ever happens you’ll wish they used the block button instead - we should be happy there’s a block button! in fact i’d like a mute button like on twitter - i like this blog but this blog’s posts for now idw to see but i still like their overall stuff just not during this period when this bij is gg mad over shan he ling (i’m talking about others when thinking about me btw HAHAHAHA) - blocking is like “i reject you but politely tyvm” rather than “here’s why i rejected you and you must hear all the reasons and i will add more once you fight back”
yep, not pleasant at all
*also gonna take the opportunity to remind peeps to pls block me if your other alternative is to sneak into my ask box for a fight or write a vague personal post hating on me tyvm, 慢走不送*
3. we can’t please everybody!!! idk either ppl ignore me, or at least half of them may have blocked me - i dont blame em hahahaa i do get into ask fights when anons especially come into my ask box looking for one HAHAHA - i mean, i use the block, can’t expect others not to, but just have to get used to ppl just blocking i think!
4. of course if a blog i follow and like blocked me i’d definitely be sad but... what can you or i do? 
5. all content is fine as long as it’s made with thought i feel - all opinions are good as long as they are made with thought and also you and i for that matter are able to stand behind it when someone comes knocking so like obviously if something hurtful is said, then the following angry responses may be expected, but also if you’ve put thought into your posts (i don’t mean like thought THOUGHT but more like when u post anything that can be controversial for e.g. or could potentially be hurtful it’s always good to kind of adjust a little before posting anything) then you should just stand behind your own posts and be who you are online
6. it’s too much to speculate on why ppl do anything, just blog and be happy :DDD
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latin-dr-robotnik · 3 years
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What's going on with Sonamy? You're not the only one who made a post about it, but I don't see anything in the tags...
It's still there, the fourth or fifth post from the "recent" tab.
Someone made a post coupled with a comic and stuff asking not to ship Sonic and Amy together. If it was just that it would've been fine, OP mentions their reasons why they don't think it's a good ship (age gap argument and "Sonic doesn't even like her in the games") and it's a valid take to have. But then OP doubles and triples down by insisting shippers are weird people supporting a weird relationship (porting the age argument to a real-life relationship, for example), and then actually tagging the post as the ship just to "get the message across" to fans and expecting to get hate for it but OP "doesn't care".
Again, if it was just the "I don't think this is a good ship because of these two reasons" it would've been totally fine, the SonAmy tag tends to disagree on stuff from time to time. But by targeting the fandom, implying people here are adults supporting a weird and almost pedo-like relationship... that's where it crossed the line to me. Let's not forget the case of "I'm gonna poke the bear expecting a certain outcome but I'll act like I don't care if it happens" (to me it looks like a lot of sandbagging for a post) or the public shaming that post incites by taking a supposed PSA stance as a moral authority. It kinda reminds me of DeviantArt drama from like a decade ago.
I think I made my post clear that it's not about the ship itself (we are so used to discussing the age gap and the canon status of the ship, I have a handful of asks about it from years past), but don't talk smack of the people here, not just because there are friends of mine, but because they are real people behind each screen, and you have absolutely no idea how they are like. At first I joked around saying this was some Twitter-level shit, but then I saw aquilis-main making some points about policing other people's stuff and using established characters to voice your own views, and well, here we are now.
I said what I felt like saying, I'm not going to delve into it much more.
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flyingcatstiel · 4 years
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Cap - Iron Man Rec Week 2020 - All New Monday
All New Monday, June 15th: Recently posted works that feel like they were created in 2012. A stony fic recs for @cap-ironman community. <3 
and a partridge in a pear tree by JenTheSweetie [T, 2,100 word count]
"Adults do that now? Really?" Steve said, doubtfully. "Really," Tony said, seriously. Tony and Steve get up to shenanigans. Christmas will never be the same.
Steve effortlessly trolling Tony is one of my favorite things. ;)
The Libertine by Sineala [NC-7, 6,167 word count]
Steve and Tony have both made certain assumptions about each other. You know what they say about assuming things.
Maybe not the very first Ults stony fic I read, but definitely the most memorable. They are just so ... soft. 
monopoly v. twitter by starklystar [G, 9,36 word count]
Captain America @steverogers PSA: To all concerned citizens, Tony Stark and I are not dating.But, if we manage to donate 5 million dollars for the @mariastarkfoundation Children's Fund, I'll consider asking him out ;) 5:04 PM - 12 May 2013, 6.3M retweets 4.3M likes. OR: Tony Stark's hidden superpower is businessman extraordinaire, and Steve Rogers uses Twitter for the greater good.
To see Tony through besotted Steve’s eyes is a real treat and instant stony feelings booster.
Scaramouche's Bite-Sized Prompt Ficlets  by Annie D (scaramouche) [T, a collection of 9 oneshots, some fics refer to later canon events but all are tooth rotting sweet)
An excellent collection of yummy stony pick me ups. 
Stuck in a... by Annie D (scaramouche) [NC-17, 13,005 word count]
Steve gets into a serum-enhanced rut. Tony figures that there’d be a long list of people who’d volunteer to help Steve out, but there’s only one person Steve wants.
I just love how Steve and Tony negotiate their boundaries, the consent and talk about the unexpected feelings in this fic. *clenches fist*
take my heart clean apart by mistymountainking [M, 13,889 word count]
He’s tired, so tired of waiting, tired of touches with no meaning, tired of holding his breath when Steve’s in the room, tired of keeping this love to himself. “I can’t—I can’t, if you don’t mean it.” *** Tony comes home exhausted after an SI event. Steve acts as welcoming committee. It's an old, careworn routine they've perfected over the years, but tonight ends up going in a very different direction.
Emotional wringer of a fic, so, so good.
Talking Bodies by itsallAvengers [T, 13,268 word count]
Coincidentally, the physical effects of romantic and sexual desire match up very closely with the physical effects of fear. But it's not a problem-- it's not like anyone is going to be able to hear the way your heart speeds up, or see the minute dilation of your pupils, are they? They'd have to be some sort of Superhuman to do that. And what's worse than a Superhuman hearing that quick pulse and seeing those dilated eyes and concluding that you're in love with them? A Superhuman hearing that quick pulse and seeing those dilated eyes and thinking you're terrified of them.
This is such a neat set up for an emotional roller coaster of mutual misunderstandings, so much like them too.
through a passive landscape by Mizzy [M, 10,446 word count]
The New York Times once described parking structures as "the grim afterthought of American design" and Steve couldn’t say he disagreed. The building they were searching was pretty damn ugly. But something uglier was about to happen inside. 
A little bit of identity p*rn and a lot of heart to heart talking goes a long way, and I’m here for all of it.
Warmer Than Iron by kdm103020 [T, 16,000 word count]
The morning Steve finds Natasha Stark naked in Iron Man’s bed, he immediately realizes three things.
This was my very first Steve/Natasha Stark fic and it was utterly delightful. 
I also have a stony fic rec tag with more stony recs, my last year Cap-IM rec posts are here. 
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charcubed · 4 years
Text
Frank Hudson, Greta, Margaret, & Mary
(PSA: If you’ve been tagged in this post, it’s because I’m crediting you or linking to a meta you wrote! I particularly linked a lot of things at the end I think could be tangentially related. No pressure to read all of this!)
Please allow me to take you on a journey in which I present a theory:
Mary is Frank Hudson’s daughter from a relationship with another woman, and part of her motivation (as a villain, as Moriarty’s agent/possible successor) is to get revenge on Sherlock for having killed her father all those years ago and ruining the drug cartel empire.
I was calling this a crack theory, but uh, given that I’ve now written thousands of words connecting weird dots, I’m gonna say maybe this is potentially not as far-fetched as I initially thought.
Before Sherlock series 4 came out, we were given this delightful niche little “clue” in a Youtube video on the official channel:
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It’s always struck me as odd that this was specifically shown in a video advertising / leading up to series 4... when it seemingly never connected to anything. Why this, of all things?
Let’s review what we know about Mr. Frank Hudson.
• He was sentenced to death in Florida; Sherlock ensured his execution. (ASiP)
• He was executed for double murder and the execution was via lethal injection. He was arrested for “blowing someone’s head off.” (TSoT)
• According to Mrs. Hudson, about their relationship: “It was just a whirlwind thing for us. I knew it wouldn’t work, but I just got sort of swept along. And then we moved to Florida. We had a fantastic time, but of course I didn’t know what he was up to” and “It was purely physical between me and Frank. We couldn’t keep our hands off each other.” What Frank was “up to” included a drug cartel and “all the other women.” (TSoT)
• Mrs. Hudson was a typist in Frank’s drug cartel (and an exotic dancer, which is in YouTube videos in-universe). This is also the scene where she’s present to hear enough to figure out that Mary shot Sherlock; in the original script, it’s made obvious that she was eavesdropping even after walking out. (HLV)
• We’re also given repeated reminders in TLD that Mrs. Hudson was/is somewhat of a badass. She tells Sherlock “you’re not my first smackhead, Sherlock Holmes,” and whether or not any of that (the revolver, the kidnapping of Sherlock, the car) is actually literally real, I take it mostly as a blatant reminder that Mrs. Hudson has a past filled with “not good” people.
A lot of this info is given in more comedic moments... but I think because it is repeatedly mentioned with consistent detail, especially largely in season 3 when Mary arrives (partially to mirror John/Mary’s doomed relationship), it shouldn’t be swept aside.
Speaking of Mary, let’s get into it. 
In ACD’s The Sign of Four, Mary Morstan’s story centers heavily around the loss of her father. That’s also the story that involves the Agra treasure, and Mary notably receives 6 pearls in the mail as part of the mystery. Keep all of this in mind because it’s going to be relevant as we go.
First, let’s roll all the way back to The Abominable Bride.
(All transcripts I will be quoting are from the inimitable Ariane DeVere.)
Giles, & Morse Hudson
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The abominable bride herself–who I trust we all know mirrors Mary at this point lol–stands on the balcony and aims her guns at people on the street while saying “You?” / “You, or me?” One of the people she aims at is this man, who is listed in the credits as Giles. I always found it odd that he was named, so I decided to look him up in relation to Sherlock Holmes.
“Giles” connects to Giles Conover, the criminal in the 1944 Sherlock Holmes movie The Pearl of Death. That movie is loosely based on ACD’s The Adventure of the Six Napoleans. In the movie, Giles (who is not in the ACD story) stole the Borgia Pearl and hid it in a bust of Napoleon. In case there’s any doubt, we can know for a fact that Moffat and Gatiss are familiar with this movie because they referenced it in TGG previously; the Golem assassin is a nod to The Creeper.
So I was like, why that movie specifically? What’s significant, and how would that connect to the bride?
And as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now... they later referenced that movie again in TST. The writers called back to both the ACD story and the 1944 movie, very specifically. 
Referenced movie details I noticed in TST include the following: Sherlock calls Lestrade “Giles.” The Borgia Pearl (movie phrasing, as opposed to “the black pearl of the Borgias”) is mentioned multiple times; we’ll go back to that. We are also pointedly told by Ajay that one of the members of AGRA was killed via a broken back, which is how a murder happens in the 1944 movie.
As for TST’s references to the original Napoleon story by ACD... there are many, but there’s one thing they pointedly didn’t reference (unless I missed it) that I find interesting: in the ACD story, 3 of the 6 busts were at the shop of a Morse Hudson. Beppo, the criminal in the story, worked at Morse Hudson’s shop to have access to the locations of those 3 busts. Even in The Six Thatchers version on John’s blog, Beppo is the criminal but Morse Hudson was not mentioned. 
So I thought... alright, Morse? What morse code have we seen in the show? Well, there’s UMQRA, from The Hounds of Baskerville.
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I poked around and some genius anon on @inevitably-johnlocked​‘s blog once said that if you encode UMQRA with HOUND using a vigenere cypher, you get BAKED. Mary bakes her own bread, according to Sherlock’s deductions in TEH. The abominable bride, in the above scene, shoots at/into a bakery. 
Edit: @rosie_ww on Twitter aka @silverybees​ pointed me to this, from THoB:
SHERLOCK: You’ve been to see Mr Chatterjee again.
MRS HUDSON: Pardon? 
SHERLOCK: Sandwich shop. That’s a new dress, but there’s flour on the sleeve. You wouldn’t dress like that for baking.
(Friendly reminder that shortly thereafter we find out that Mr. Chatterjee has other women)
Does this morse code / BAKED business necessarily mean anything by itself? No, and of anything in this post, it’s the biggest stretch. But it’s still kind of wild, because let’s recap so far:
• We have Morse Hudson in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, a story which is heavily referenced in TST
• TST heavily connects to Mary / AGRA (we’ll get to how specifically)
• TST also heavily connects to The Pearl of Death, which connects to TAB
• And not only that, but The Pearl of Death connects to the exact scene in TAB where the bride shoots @ Giles and the bread shop. The bread shop could connect to the UMQRA morse code in the show... meaning “Morse” (code, and therefore Hudson) could then connect to Mary.
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Morse Hudson -> The Six Napoleons -> TST -> The Pearl of Death (“Giles” etc.) -> TAB (“Giles”) -> Mary, the bride
Oh what a tangled web we weave. That’s a Hudson to Mary.
But let’s keep going. Better stuff to come.
The Black Pearl of the Borgias In TST
Let’s play the game of following the trail of the Black Pearl. Shout out to @miadifferent​ and @impossibleleaf​, because their combo post here I came across was very helpful for showing me the best way to write this out to make it easily understandable. I will be quoting / paraphrasing them below!
The first time we hear about the Pearl, it’s from Mycroft, who connects it to Moriarty’s final activities:
MYCROFT: In the last year of his life, James Moriarty was involved with four political assassinations over 70 assorted robberies and terrorist attacks, including a chemical weapons factory in North Korea and had latterly shown some interest in tracking down the Black Pearl of the Borgias, which is still missing by the way, in case you feel like applying yourself to something practical.
We also learn that the Pearl is somehow connected to London.
HOPKINS: Interpol think, the case of the Borgia Pearl trail leads back to London, so..
So we have Moriarty -> Black Pearl -> London...
And next up, there’s Sherlock’s “fake” deduction about Greta Bengtsdotter (who has always very obviously made us all think about Mary.)
SHERLOCK: Your wife is a spy. That’s right. Her real name is Greta Bengtsdotter. Swedish by birth and probably the most dangerous spy in the world. She’s been operating deep undercover for the past four years now as your wife for one reason only: to get near the American embassy which is across the road from your flat. Tomorrow the U.S. president will be at the embassy as part of an official state visit. As the president greets members of staff, Greta Bengtsdotter, disguised as a twenty-two stone cleaner, will inject the president in the back of the neck with a dangerous new drug hidden inside a secret compartment insider her padded armpit. This drug will then render the president entirely susceptible to the will of their new master, none other than James Moriarty. Moriarty will then use the president as a pawn to destabilize the United Nations General Assembly which is due to vote on a nuclear non-proliferation treaty tipping the balance in favour of a first strike policy against Russia. This chain of events will then prove unstoppable thus precipitating World War 3.
The name “Greta” is derived from the name Margareta, which comes from the Greek word margarites. It means pearl. Further versions of this name are Margarita / Margaret / Maggie.
Thus, we add her in: Moriarty -> Greta -> Black Pearl -> London
So when Sherlock finds the AGRA stick in the busts of Margaret Thatcher, he says to Mary...
SHERLOCK: I was so convinced it was Moriarty, I couldn’t see what was right under my nose. I expected a pearl.
Sherlock expected to find a pearl (Greta / a spy), but instead he found AGRA/Mary’s identity. He actually found what he was looking for, but he just didn’t recognize it.
And it actually still makes sense:
Margaret Thatcher’s bust -> Black Pearl -> Greta (“pearl”, spy) -> Mary (spy) -> AGRA memory stick
That’s how it went in the plot. It’s a subconscious connection.
So what’s ACD have to say about all that then?
This is the point where I remind you...
In ACD’s The Sign of Four, Mary Morstan’s story centers heavily around the loss of her father. That’s also the story that involves the Agra treasure, and Mary notably receives 6 pearls in the mail as part of the mystery. 
So all of this does have connections back to ACD canon; who is surprised?
But what do we know about Mary’s past from the show’s canon in His Last Vow? Let’s look at some other reminders.
SHERLOCK: By your skill set, you are – or were – an intelligence agent. Your accent is currently English but I suspect you are not. You’re on the run from something; you’ve used your skills to disappear; Magnussen knows your secret, which is why you were going to kill him; and I assume you befriended Janine in order to get close to him.
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MAGNUSSEN: All those wet jobs for the CIA. Ooh! She’s gone a bit... freelance now. Bad girl.
Mary’s not English; she could be Swedish, she could be American, but regardless–Sherlock deduced she’s a linguist in TEH. And either way, she’s worked for America.
Americans crop up a weird amount in BBC Sherlock (and ACD canon too really), and usually in negative contexts. I just want to highlight one American connection from The Abominable Bride, about Emilia Ricoletti:
SHERLOCK: So she decided to make her death count. She was already familiar with the secret societies of America and was able to draw on their methods of fear and intimidation to publicly – very publicly – confront Sir Eustace Carmichael with the sins of his past. 
HOOPER: He knew her out in the States. Promised her everything... marriage, position – and then he had his way with her and threw her over, left her abandoned and penniless.
Also, where was it that Mr. Hudson had his drug cartel? Oh yeah. Florida.
We’ll go back to that.
More Margarets In BBC Sherlock
So we’ve officially got one connection where Margaret relates to Mary. TST makes that pretty clear. 
Now, where else have we encountered the name Margaret in the show?
Three places (at least, that I’ve caught):
1. A Study In Pink.
The first victim of Jeff Hope the serial killer is Sir Jeffrey Patterson. He was having an affair with his personal assistant Helen, despite being married to his wife Margaret Patterson. 
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It’s a well-known fact in this fandom that the victims in ASiP are considered mirrors for John Watson, highlighting things that would lead to his own unhappiness/death–possibly even by suicide. (TJLCE video)  So, let’s say Jeffrey Patterson is a mirror for John.
Helen the personal assistant (who says “I love you”) is, perhaps, a mirror for Sherlock. She’s wearing a deep purple shirt.
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Does that connect Margaret Patterson, who insists her husband was happy, to Mary? 
MARGARET PATTERSON: My husband was a happy man who lived life to the full. He loved his family and his work – and that he should have taken his own life in this way is a mystery and a shock to all who knew him.
[looks at John’s unhappiness in HLV after a month of marriage, looks at series 4 theories about John faking his suicide / trying to commit suicide, laughs nervously]
Well. Moving on.
2. The Hounds of Baskerville.
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Project HOUND was a CIA Classified / American project that Major Barrymore was involved in. The Major is apparently a fan of Margaret Thatcher, and the password to his laptop is Maggie. Sherlock types “Margare” then hesitantly backtracks and writes Maggie and it works. It’s worth noting that in the script it was drafted to just be Margaret.
3. The Sign of Three. 
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MRS. HUDSON: My best friend, Margaret – she was my chief bridesmaid. We were going to be best friends forever, we always said that; but I hardly saw her after that. [...] She cried the whole day, saying, “Ooh, it’s the end of an era.” She was probably right, really. I remember she left early. I mean, who leaves a wedding early?
So in BBC Sherlock, the name Margaret is connected to...
• The Margaret Thatcher busts in The Six Thatchers, which connects to Mary/AGRA/pearls/Greta the Swedish spy
• Margaret Patterson, the wife of a mirror for John who was the victim of murder that masqueraded as suicide. This Margaret insists that the John mirror was happy in their marriage, but the John mirror was having an affair with a Sherlock mirror
• Project HOUND, of the CIA. I find this exceedingly interesting because the name "Margaret” has connections to Moriarty/Mary, and this could mean it’s safe to guess that this case is/was connected to the wider Moriarty web. We see Sherlock hallucinate Moriarty when drugged by the fog, sure, but otherwise Moriarty’s handiwork supposedly isn’t involved in this case... but maybe it was indirectly, by Mary in the CIA. Just ruminating.
• Margaret was Mrs. Hudson’s best friend, who left the wedding early when Mrs. Hudson and Frank got married
Re: that last bullet point, here is what I am suggesting as a possibility: Margaret was one of Mr. Hudson’s “other women.” Margaret left the wedding early because she was sad about the marriage, obviously, but maybe she wasn’t in love with Mrs. H like we would naturally assume (per Sherlock leaving the wedding early because he loves John). Maybe Margaret was in love with Mr. Hudson.
Maybe Mary is the daughter of Margaret and Mr. Hudson, and (as previously stated) she’s motivated to get revenge on Sherlock for killing her father and ruining the drug cartel empire. Who knows what would’ve happened to her mother Margaret, in that case, too.
This is speculation, of course, yes. Yet [waves to all the ridiculous web of connections I’ve delved deeply into, and the Frank Hudson hangman] can you blame me?
But, maybe you’re wondering... why would I think she’s the daughter of a Hudson specifically, even aside from all this Margaret stuff? 
Well.
Hudsons In ACD Canon
Where is the name “Hudson” used in ACD canon, other than for Mrs. Hudson?
Three places (that I’ve caught; my ACD canon knowledge is limited):
• Morse Hudson in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons, as discussed above; not mentioned in BBC Sherlock canon for some reason, yet strongly tied to the story that inspired TST.
• A name drop of “Hudson” in The Adventure of the Five Orange Pips.
Quick run-down of some aspects of this case: the client, John Openshaw, asks Holmes for help because a series of mysterious letters seems to be connected with the recent suspicious deaths of his uncle Elias and his father Joseph. The letters included 5 orange pips, and KKK on the envelope. When his uncle received his letter, he burnt a bunch of secret personal papers. One paper survived; it’s on that paper that we see Hudson’s name, associated with the KKK, and otherwise oddly unrelated to the case.
Holmes moved the lamp, and we both bent over the sheet of paper, which showed by its ragged edge that it had indeed been torn from a book. It was headed, “March, 1869,” and beneath were the following enigmatical notices:
“4th. Hudson came. Same old platform.
“7th. Set the pips on McCauley, Paramore, and John Swain of St. Augustine.
“9th. McCauley cleared.
“10th. John Swain cleared.
“12th. Visited Paramore. All well.”
Here are other ~features of interest~ in this case to me: Openshaw’s uncle Elias was a planter in Florida for many years. Florida is mentioned by Holmes as a “notable” state where the KKK formed a branch; the others are Tennessee, Louisiana, the Carolinas, and Georgia (hello to Tbilisi, Georgia being in TST seemingly at random). It is also mentioned that the fear of someone or something is what drove Elias from America to England. There’s also a very random name drop of “Mary” in this story that doesn’t relate to the case, told as part of Openshaw’s story, in which I can only assume Mary was a maid?
OPENSHAW, QUOTING UNCLE ELIAS: “They may do what they like, but I’ll checkmate them still,’ said he with an oath. ‘Tell Mary that I shall want a fire in my room to-day, and send down to Fordham, the Horsham lawyer.’
The fact that the name Mary manages to be in this cracks me up.
The orange pips / secret societies in America / etc. all heavily tie into The Abominable Bride, and the women’s hoods were visually reminiscent of the KKK. Sir Eustace’s line in TAB of “Death” (when he receives the pips) is a direct quote from Elias in this story when he receives his pips–and a quote that Mary echoes in TST when she completes Vivian Norbury’s sentence in the aquarium.
VIVIAN NORBURY: I’m just like the merchant in the story. I thought I could outrun the inevitable. I’ve always been looking over my shoulder; always expecting to see the grim figure of...
MARY: Death.
So, in summary we have: a name drop of Hudson in a story that factors in Florida, Georgia, pips, secret societies, the KKK, and even a name drop of Mary.
• Hudson is the criminal in The Adventure of the Gloria Scott.
This case is the one Holmes credits as his first case, and it inspired his future profession. He’s telling Watson the story. It happened in his university days and centers on his friend Victor Trevor (TFP says hi, lmao). More specifically, it centers on Victor Trevor’s father. I won’t go into all the details, and the plot summary on Wikipedia is good if you’re curious, but–
A quick run-down of some ~features of interest~ in this case: Mr. Trevor the elder is being blackmailed by the criminal Hudson because of their old criminal past together with others. Hudson is threatening him with exposure / public shame, and Mr. Trevor is forced to employ him. Victor gets pissed about it and eventually upsets Hudson enough that Hudson leaves in a very “this isn’t over” kind of way. Later, Mr. Trevor dies from a stroke after receiving a letter that threatened him via a skip code. It is a skip code of specifically every third word, beginning with the first.
Full skip code message: "The supply of game for London is going steadily up. Head-keeper Hudson, we believe, has been now told to receive all orders for fly-paper and for preservation of your hen pheasant's life."
Decoded message: "The game is up. Hudson has told all. Fly for your life."
(It’s not a game anymore...)
Who do we have in show canon who recognizes a skip code on sight of specifically every third word, beginning with the first?
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All together now: Mary.
(Bonus points for “Save John Watson” being the phrase Mary says in her creepy posthumous DVDs. Bonus points x2 for the fact that this text was sent by Magnussen, the “Napoleon of blackmail,” to Mary when he was supposedly trying to find Sherlock’s pressure point. But anyway!)
Another feature of interest about the Gloria Scott case: Holmes deduces that Mr. Trevor was once connected to someone with the initials J.A. whom he wanted to forget, guessing it was an old lover. Mr. Trevor momentarily faints in shock. Holmes guessed this based on an old arm tattoo that Mr. Trevor had tried to get rid of, where the initials are blurry. This later turns out to be wrong, because Mr. Trevor’s previous name was James Armitage–J.A.–when he was a criminal, and that is the reason behind the tattoo. (JA? AJ / Ajay? Much to think about)
The J.A. tattoo deduction was referenced in The Six Thatchers, when Sherlock deduces that the client had a Japanese girlfriend he is now indifferent about. 
SHERLOCK: You’ve got a Japanese tattoo in the crook of your elbow in the name ‘Akako.’ It’s obvious you’ve tried to have it removed.
KINGSLEY: But surely that means I wanna forget her, not that I’m indifferent.
SHERLOCK: If she’d really hurt your feelings, you would have had the word obliterated, but the first attempt wasn’t successful and you haven’t tried again, so it seems you can live with the slightly blurred memory of Akako, hence the indifference.
I’m bothering to highlight this in TST because after Sherlock explains it, the client remarks upon it being “simple”... and that’s when Sherlock immediately launches into his ~fake~ long-winded deduction about his wife being Greta the spy, as I already talked about above. Wild.
One last fascinating thing about the Gloria Scott: this case is referenced in 2 other ACD stories–The Sussex Vampire (John texting in TST), and The Musgrave Ritual (TFP). Gotta love that.
So, uh, what if Mrs. Hudson’s “case” (getting her husband executed) was one of Sherlock’s “firsts” that inspires him to become a consultive detective full-time? We’re told in ASiP that he ensured Frank Hudson’s execution “a few years back.” The inexactness of that year amount drives me bonkers, but I think it’s potentially plausible.
Short Coda: Ghost Stories...
In Mr. Trevor’s reply to Holmes’ (incorrect) J.A. tattoo deduction, he includes the following line:
“Of all ghosts, the ghosts of our old loves are the worst.”
Mark Gatiss talked a lot about ghost stories. In the Sherlock Chronicles book (which I own) teasing series 4, he said, “I can certainly give you one word. Ghosts...” and in this interview he said “There’s a conspiracy theory about everything and they’re almost the modern equivalent of ghost stories. And the great thing is, you can have all the tropes of a ghost story. . . There are lots of people in happy marriages who turn out to have terrible secrets or to have done some awful deed in the past that must be paid for in the present. In Doyle’s stories, those are the ghosts you need to worry about.”
And here are the lines we get from Holmes in The Abominable Bride about ghosts (that aren’t literal):
You may, however, rest assured there are no ghosts in this world... Save those we make for ourselves.
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We all have a past, Watson. Ghosts – they are the shadows that define our every sunny day. Sir Eustace knows he’s a marked man.
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The avenging ghost – a legend to strike terror into the heart of any man with malicious intent; a spectre to stalk those unpunished brutes whose reckoning is long overdue.
While typing, I’ve now galaxy-brained my way to the realization that Mrs. H was canonically an “abominable bride” to Frank Hudson and literally murdered him (with Sherlock’s help), just like the women in the special. She’s also shown as one of the women ignored/disparaged in the special (”I’m your landlady, not a plot device”) but just isn’t shown in the crypt/society. So that’s, uh... interesting.
In (Semi-)Conclusion: A Summary
We have the following significant points at minimum: 
• A Frank Hudson clue in a series 4 video
• One reference where Mary is undeniably connected to a Hudson who was a criminal in ACD canon (skip code)
• One ACD Hudson who was heavily connected to The Six Napoleons story, aka The Six Thatchers
• One ACD Hudson name-dropped in a story that heavily connects to The Abominable Bride, and Florida
• A bizarre pile of evidence that all Margaret mentions in the show could relate back to Mary the ex-CIA spy, in some way or another
• A Margaret connected to Mrs. Hudson who could’ve been in love with Frank Hudson (in Florida)
• The overall theme of s4 being ghosts from past deeds and un(happy) marriages coming to haunt people. And lest we forget, “ghost” Mary literally haunts Sherlock and John after her “death.”
Does that cover it? I feel like that covers it.
Of course, I absolutely could be reading into a ton of things that are unrelated, but... Who is to say ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  
Random Related Stuff
Not required reading, but while poking around, I’ve found other things that could or could not connect to the above theory. I’m just gonna... info dump it right here. It could all be meaningless, it could all connect, it could be unrelated! You decide! Lots of meta links involved below, so credit where credit is due.
• I knew I wasn’t the first to come up with this concept/possibility of Mary being a Hudson. While building this post, I ran a search and came across this old one by @the-7-percent-solution​, who posited there’s a letter game at play of AEIOU involving Mary’s monstrous regiment of various characters and connects Amo/Love to Mary. I love this concept, and while I do think there are other elements/aspects in play for the plot besides just this, that post still has pieces that can work nicely; doesn’t matter that it was written before TFP aired.
• Frequently thinking about how Sherlock said “Mrs. Hudson? Leave Baker Street? England would fall,” because what does Mrs. Hudson do in TLD? She leaves Baker Street.
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• All of the above cursed elements haunt me. (Arwel’s Instagram post was April of this year.) Note: there’s another tweet Arwel jokingly posted of this photo years ago, but that tweet’s caption was connected to Brexit based on dates / my memory (i.e. “England has fallen”), so I’m not including it lol.
• In TFP, when Mrs. Hudson is vacuuming, she’s listening to Iron Maiden’s “The Number of the Beast.” The lyrics we get are “666, the Number of the Beast. Hell and fire was spawned to be released.” The other time 666 is mentioned was by Mary in TST, in reference to Rosie.
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• Mrs. Hudson is in the center of the 221B promo pic for series 4, as noticed by @sherlocks-salty-blog​.
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• This cursed pic of Mary’s "ring from her past” on top of a series 4, episode 3 script (??) that Amanda took has haunted me since she tweeted it. Mary wears this ring on-screen in TEH, and you can see it when Sherlock deduces her.
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• The Gabrielle Ashdown passport (in TST) is from America.
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• Janine (who many of us notice is likely involved with Mary / Moriarty of course) often wears pearls, as @sherlockmeta​ noticed. Mary also wears pearl earrings in series 4 promo shots but never in s4 episodes (that I can find/remember). I also always think that Mary and Mrs. Hudson are dressed very similarly in s4 promo images (see all promos here).
• @raggedyblue​ discussed how Sherlock’s window deduction in TLD sounds a lot like Mrs. Hudson’s kitchen in 221A, and how a sheet of paper being pinned/folded is an opposite element in ACD’s The Sign of Four. The re-folded paper was a map leading to the AGRA treasure, and Mary found it in her father’s desk. Brilliant catch. Of course, in the show, the paper says Miss Me which is also heavily connected to Mary.
• The mystery of the little girls with blond and braided hair, as compiled by @ebaeschnbliah​, is also going to haunt me. I suggest reading the post, but minor summary: during s4 setlock, there was filming with Ben and Mark at Ogmore Castle with a little girl "wearing a skirt or dress, and her hair was blonde and in pigtails,” and she was running circles around Sherlock. There are two separate reports from people who saw this and mentioned it had to do with Mary; at first glance it bears similarities to Eurus scenes we got in TFP, but seems different in description. This also brings to mind the little girl with blonde braided hair in TEH at the bonfire, who notably wears a bright red jacket just like Mary. And there’s also a doll with blond braided pigtails in Magnussen’s mind palace.
• @gosherlocked​ has posts about “The Children of Sherlock” (part 1)(part 2) that highlight how children are frequently victims in this show. Metaphorically, I find this interesting if Mary plays a role of a “wronged child” avenging her father, regardless of age.
• Let’s talk music in TLD–or at least, one piece of it. When Mrs. Hudson drops the teacup, Mozart’s “Andante From Piano Concerto #21” plays. That specific second movement was used in the 1967 Swedish film Elvira Madigan. Sweden, of course, immediately reminded me of Greta the spy (aka Mary) being Swedish. After I realized this info, I ran a search to see if anyone else had mentioned this movie and I found this post, where @tjlcisthenewsexy​ and @possiblyimbiassed​ discussed how it’s a story of 2 doomed lovers who die via suicide-by-revolver. This is significant because Sherlock drops a revolver to catch the tea; death replaced by (gay) love?
• Speaking of Sweden: in The Game Is Now, Sherlock is abroad in Sweden. This is mentioned more than once: first, in this audio message between Sherlock and Mycroft (“Sweden sends its regards.” “It does?” “No, not really.”). This audio message also includes “This is not an international game of sardines.” Fish reference? Aquarium?
The second Sweden mention is visually, in this video. See below. (Also, in both, the characters say “real people,” which I can’t help but feel is a fourth wall break of them being fictional?) 
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I hate this Sweden stuff specifically. Thank you.
This post is so much longer than I expected it would be, thank you for reading all of this if you did, Johnlock is real, Mary is a villain, etc.
Come yell at me on Twitter @CharCubed! 
Also, I made a secret sideblog @frankhudson​ to just reblog meta or info I might want to be able to find later lmao. Feel free to poke around if you want.
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pumpkinpaix · 4 years
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Hello! and PSA
*waves* hi everyone! so uh, I’ve kind of had a bit of a surge in followers recently, and I thought I would make a bit of a PSA/intro post with a bit more targeted info than my about page.
anyways, I’m cyan! statistically speaking, you are probably here for one of the following reasons:
my fic
my meta
my gifs
my translation
all of the above
this is pretty much an mdzs blog on main these days, but I also rb a lot of other misc things because I have never been good at keeping my interests separate. it’s also my personal blog, so expect some of that? i am very all or nothing ahaha. my opinions change very quickly as I process new information, so like, something I said last week or yesterday might be different now! I’ve seen several people going through some of my older posts, and I’m just like oh dear, I said a lot of things six months ago that I no longer vibe with. /o\ please keep that in mind as you go diving in my blog!
i don’t have a BYF or DNI policy, but I reserve the right to block anyone for any reason because this is a personal blog first and foremost, and I do need to be better about setting my boundaries and curating my own online space! on that same token, you are free to follow, unfollow, block, whatever, even if we’re mutuals. <3
you’re free to come talk to me in my inbox or dms, but please be aware that there’s a very high chance I will never get back to you /o\ it isn’t personal!! I am just very mentally ill and have many difficulties with keeping up social interactions or talking to people.
in the interest of trying to be more open about myself, my brain, and what that means for me in an online/fandom space, I’m gonna do a boatload of mental health talk under the cut (or, if you’re looking at this on my blog proper or somewhere where the cut doesn’t display, it starts right after this paragraph), including mentions of self-harm/thoughts of specific self-harm etc, just so you are warned! I’ve been thinking recently that it’s good to try and take steps towards being more open about my issues, both for my own sake and others’. It’s long, because one of the fun things about my mental illness is that I am hyperverbal ahahaha (if that... wasn’t already obvious orz)
so if you’ve read pfmmpd, you can kind of get a sense of what I’m working with. a lot of how i wrote lwj was drawn directly from shit happening in my own brain, but like? dial that up from the specific issues that lwj had in that fic and apply it unilaterally across the board to almost anything you can think of.
I hesitate to describe my OCD as debilitating, but only because my specific cocktail of compulsions and anxieties and triggers push me to be hyperachieving and hyperfunctional. I consider myself pretty fortunate (?) in that regard. on paper, you could never tell how absolutely batshit my internal landscape is! which is very good for me practically in that I can hold down a job, keep scholarships, graduate with honors, have good prospects for my future, hold onto relationships (usually yikes) etc. but the fact of the matter is, I’m like. oh boy.
to give you a peek, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that have triggered me to varying degrees of severity within the last like, week or so:
my dog
a chinese folk song
my mother reading a chinese haiku to me written by a young gay man
a chinese reader of my fic lovingly and gently giving me a history lesson on china and on mdzs while praising me
stepping on a piece of snow that didn’t collapse in the precise way i expected it to
writing meta
reading meta
ruminating on my triggers (honestly, I played myself)
seeing a twitter thread going around tumblr with decent information but the OP is someone who was exceedingly cruel to a good friend of mine
visiting my grandmother’s grave
deciding to visit my grandmother’s grave
discussing the concept of cuddling my partner whom i love and have been with for four years
self-harming (truly the height of irony, being triggered into self-harm and then getting triggered by the result of the self-harm hahahahahaha)
dropping off a package
trying to explain queer-coding to my parents
talking about stressors in my life related to covid19
having a very pleasant conversation with a person i admire
editing my translation
the fact that the “close” button on my accessibility sidebar on the translation website is the wrong color
choosing between eating all the shiitake mushrooms in my soup and purposefully giving myself a bad reaction or throwing one out and wasting food
thinking about playing a fun game with my partner and a mutual friend
my mom asking me to take a photo of some tea for her
my mom asking my opinion on a photo she was photoshopping
animal crossing
writing this fucking post HAHAHAHA
like!! it goes on!! endlessly! obviously, these triggers are not simply “bad” things. the chinese folk song and the haiku were both really beautiful and i love them! but I did spend a good amount of time curled up on my floor in the dark sobbing as i played the song on repeat. the haiku was one of the last straws that ended up with me screaming and crying and hurting myself. the snow??? like wtf the snow thing. I stepped on the snow and it felt wrong and my brain just started screaming SMASH YOUR KNEECAP. ???? (I didn’t, for the record, and I would never.) I love my partner very much! I love my friends very much, and my mother, and my grandmother etc. my triggers are infinite, unpredictable, and bizarre.
I’m saying all of this because I want to be clear that MDZS/CQL fandom specifically triggers me on a daily basis, sometimes very very badly. this is just a fact! it is no one’s fault! I have decided it is worth it for me to stay anyways. it is impossible for me to request people tag for certain things because I myself have no idea what my triggers are until I encounter them. It’s like a fun mystery boss encounter! sometimes it’s low level and i’m well-equipped to handle it. other times it’s a one-hit KO. We just don’t know! there are lots of very cool content creators in this fandom that I can’t follow because it would make my dash that much more high stakes. the original source canon material triggers me! all the events leading up to Lotus Cove massacre? I was shaking at work for three hours after consuming it for the first time.
Meta specifically is something I know a lot of people like me for, but it’s 100% the most triggering activity I participate in for this fandom. like, that suibian meta post I wrote that’s currently going around? Probably took me four or five hours of concentrated effort to write because I was compulsively panicking and rewriting and editing and panicking more and qualifying and editing and qualifying some more and then debating whether I should post it or not and then fighting with myself about my wording and then immediately regretting it and then every time someone commented on it (regardless of positive or negative!) my anxiety spiked. I started a reply to a response on that post and had to stop after a few minutes because I was already starting to trigger myself over it.
this is actually a pretty good outcome when it comes to meta! I recognized that I was hurting myself before I got any further, and I only spent like, five hours on it! it was good exposure therapy for me! the bad outcome is. well. bad, as you might imagine lmao.
I like writing meta. I like talking to people about it too! I like participating in fandom, I like writing, I like translating, I like all of these things. they’re just also really hard for me! there’s a couple meta requests sitting in my inbox right now that I want to get to, but it might take me like. a long time because of. you know! *gestures* Everything takes me a long time. that first chapter of the translation took me literally five months from beginning the project to posting a final edited version. It’s just over 1k words. D8
I try really hard to be chill and kind in public and I largely think I succeed on the kind part (I hope!). If you thought I had even an ounce of chill before this, perhaps I have disabused of that notion entirely now lmao. I’m not saying this for pity, but like? just so we all know what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt when I don’t engage with them or feel snubbed if I never reply to them. and also like, hey, if someone relates it’s like hooray, high fave, solidarity! we’re not alone in this world! or maybe this will help someone understand OCD a little better! I don’t know. I hope this post is a positive thing. BUT! I’ve spent three hours on it already, and i’m definitely starting to compulsively spiral, so instead of going back and editing it over and over, I’m just going to post it. thank you everyone for your understanding! I hope you enjoy your time on my blog! (*´▽`*)
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tfw-no-tennis · 3 years
Text
mtmte liveblog issue 9
back at it again, and its time for the shadowplay arc, HELL yeah
oh I'm so excited i love this arc lets DO this
oooh its nightbeat and quark!! way before they become relevant, which is so cool
‘one of those recepticon fanatics’ lmao imagine if they were...the recepticons. just doesn't have the same ring to it 
god i fucking love all the politics of mtmte. i love how they’re talking about the senate here before we really get to See how bad they were (we heard a bit about it from whirl a few issues ago, and now here)
love how nightbeat is pretty much agreeing with the decepticon ideology here, even if its clear that he isn't Actually a decepticon - it just drives home the fact that, in this story, The Decepticons Were Right About A Lot Of That Stuff (or at least, they had a reason other than ‘destruction’ for rebelling). 
AND THEN THERES RUNG!!!!!!! WITH HIS MODEL OF THE LOST LIGHT....god i fuckgin LOVE the continuity in this story bc the first time reading this ur like oh ok rung is old yea makes sense...but then later all the time travel stuff happens and then its like OHHHHH 
damn poor rung nightbeat can rlly tell he's lonely just by looking at him vbhjdkdfhbjsjkdf geez. also nightbeat that's ur mystery stick bf from the future js!!
quarks extreme POV on all of the stuff is so interesting, and makes so much sense bc of Course he would think that as a non-combatant scientist who, due to his functional value in current society, wouldn't really benefit much from a revolution - in fact, he’d probably lose a lot. and that’s the sort of thing where you’re like, ok well think about everyone else dude, have some perspective - but at the same time, quark did suffer a pretty terrible fate, so his fears weren't entirely unfounded...augh, its so fascinating...im sorry I'm not gonna shut up about space robot politics this Entire time
HOW did nobody notice that dead body before now
ratchet spray-painting the hands he stole from pharma to match his own paintjob is like...kinda gruesome if you think about it hvbhsjkdfbkjdf
i love rewind sooo much oh my god 
he rlly stashed rung’s comatose body in a wheelchair behind the bar hbkjdhfbshjkdf rewind 
rewind and chromedome’s tag-team explanation....ough hhhhh THEM 
wait a sec, rewind, you have medical records in your database? that is, at least according to regular medical laws, very illegal lmao. my favorite long-running theme in mtmte: the fact that hipaa and osha laws on cybertron are either basically nonexistent, or just universally disregarded 
what the actual fuck is up w/cybertronian time units. that shit is wack as hell 
ooh i love how chromedome looks different in the flashback - no shoulder tires! - that's a cool detail
how come prowl just said ‘minute,’ rewind was busting it up w/all the wack ass fantasy time units just a second ago. geez
also goddd i love the scenery of pre-war cybertron, its SUCH a cool setting like, visually and aesthetically and politically
like, i adore details like the sign in the bg that says ‘everyone’s shape serves a purpose.’ really adds to the ‘society on the precipice of civil war currently controlled by an increasingly-desperate faction who are doling out propaganda like crazy in an attempt to maintain their image and control over the populace’ vibe
good ole murder mystery setup. love it!
pre-war prowl is such an interesting character. actually prowl in general is such an interesting character...I kinda wrote him off during my first read of mtmte (and even a little during my second readthru) as just this dude who’s an asshole (espec bc my prev tf experience involved watching tfa as a kid, and this prowl is very different from tfa prowl lol)...but prowl is SUCH a multi-faceted and interesting character, even in the relatively little we see of him in mtmte 
plus it was interesting to learn later that prowl was one of the characters that jro wanted for mtmte and didn't get, and MAN i wish he got prowl bc I would've loved to see what jro would've done w/prowl on the lost light, that would've been amazing. like, just imagine the arc he would have...I have no idea what that arc would BE, but I know it would be awesome. plus I’d be really interested to see how prowl would factor in, relationships-wise, amongst the crew of the lost light. so much potential!
anyways. I'm in a very talky mood tonight it seems. its currently 4 am so that kinda explains it. ok, moving on!
chromedome and prowl bantering....in their own morbid forensic-cop way...
skids bvhjdbsfjasf. speaking what we’re all thinking: is prowl gonna keep showing up in mtmte despite not technically being part of the cast??
swerves drawing of prowl lmaoooo
AND THEN REWIND IN SOME OF MY FAVORITE MTMTE PANELS....fuckgin cracks me up every time god. rewind was rlly about to flip their entire ass table just to demonstrate that prowl is a serial table-flipper...and then he cant even make the table budge and he just stares at his hands like ‘how could you betray me like this’ hvbajkhhsfdhksdf PEAK hilarity
drift hvbshfdjbasdfj his forcibly cheery expression even tho he’s being harassed by rodimus, who is a big whiny toddler w/drift lmao 
rodimus is the type of guy who, upon drift not replying to one of his texts, would post a whole twitter thread being all like ‘these days u cant trust any1 to hav ur back...u think u kno someone and then they just ghost you...(1/14)’
again, rewind, HOW and WHY do you just Have medical reports, oh my god, somebody please call a hipaa agent I’m scared, 
ratchet interrupting the story to give a quick medical PSA....that's Such an on-brand thing for Me to do that I feel like jro is assigning me ratchet kin as I read this
also, hey, its sonic and boom, those two decepticons from delphi! nice little continuity there
AND HERES ORION PAX SUPER COP
can’t believe idw made my dad optimus prime into a cop. smh. shouldn't be that shocked tho, I feel like half the idw characters are cops
orion rlly hit them w/the omae wa mo shinderu arrest strat
orion: I cant believe you're beating this guy up. anyways, now I'm gonna beat YOU up,
when ratchet puts his hand over drifts mouth and then gets spray paint on drifts face bhjdfsvsdjhfgbjdskf
pre-war ratchet and drift ;_; ratchet’s little inspirational speech...the fact that he tells drift that he’s special...the fact that drift remembered all of this even after 4 million+ yrs...it gets me bro it GETS me
ALSO the layers in the fact that drift then goes on to become a well-known murderous decepticon...so this little scene of him and ratchet in the past gives a lot of context to ratchet’s general attitude towards drift - ratchet clearly feels at least somewhat responsible for all the blood on drift’s hands, since he saved drift’s life way back in the day
the whole relinquishment clinic thing is such cool worldbuilding, bc of course that's the kind of thing that would develop in a society of robot aliens who are only allowed to work within the rigid confines of their alt mode 
I love the whole matrix thing bc its kinda like being the pope or st but also you have a ton of political sway, so its a super important position, so of Course the corrupt senate would want full control over that power, and would assassinate the current prime to try to get their own guy in 
god vhbhjsdkbgshjdf rodimus is such a dick lmao poor drift
HHHHH I love that the cybertronian version of an autopsy is taking the dudes body apart into the smallest components and laying them all out. that's so fucking cool
hmmmm chromedome maybe you should Not be interested in mnemology, how about that,
oh god. time to start being sad about op and senator shockwave. oh god
senator shockwave more like senator sexy 
also the first time I read this I thought I had just missed his name and like halfway thru the story I went back and scoured the pages looking for it hbvhsjdfbshgfdsbj then I was like oh ok so we’re maybe supposed to just know who this guy is from another comic? but NOPE it was very deliberate and I only realized very close to the end that they were setting up some sort of reveal
its funny bc normally I'm not a huge fan of stories where politics play a huge role but I fuckgin love it here, the politics and worldbuilding is all so interesting and also balanced out with a healthy dose of cool sci-fi hijinks, so
lmao there's chromedome being obsessed w/people making the ‘pfft’ sound 
also wow yet more hindsight, maybe you Shouldn’t be so interested in the Institute, chromedome, 
OHHHH shit I forgot abt the red alert stuff happening at the same time as this :( :( :( 
AUGHHH what a fucked up situation. god 
oooof i gotta continue now!! what a solid issue, I love the shadowplay arc
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poemsforpersephone · 4 years
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REVIEW FOR THE HANGED MAN BY K.D. EDWARDS
I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review (but i also have it pre-ordered like, twice, so you can really honestly believe me when i tell you i love this freaking book).
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PSA: if you haven’t read The Last Sun yet, don’t read this because there are minor spoilers kind of for the first book. There are also minor spoilers for The Hanged Man too.
Once every so often there comes a moment when something enters your life and takes you on a path you never could have imagined. One day in January last year I listened to The Last Sun on a whim, because it looked cool, it had good reviews and a talented narrator. I had no way of knowing that a year later i'd be taking part in a street team quest dedicated to promoting it. I didn't know all the cool people I'd meet, all the art we'd produce as a team, as a fandom on the whole. I've been in a lot of fandoms in my life, and created a lot of content, but i have never been as enthralled and caught by a book series as i have this one. I won't talk more about the street team, as tempting as it is, but if you want to learn more check out KD's twitter, it's full of great things!
On with the show.
The Hanged Man is a revelation. There is so much world building going on, so much detail added to an already detail rich world, that I know i'm going to have to read it a few times (which, hey, works out! I will have like four copies by the end of this haha). The additional information we got about the sun court, about the companion bond, about the other Arcanas... I can't even put into words. There are things that happen in this book that I kind of assumed would happen but like, four books down the line, and they were done so well too, so smoothly that even though I didn't expect them, I didn't question them, but i'm not going to spoil anything within this review because this book is a book you have to experience yourself. Trust me.
The action and fight scenes are some of the most well written, fast paced, heart pounding action scenes I’ve ever read. Ever time a fight came up or a chase occurred I was absolutely glued to the page. This was present in The Last Sun as well and it’s one of my favourite aspects of the series as a whole. As with The Last Sun though, despite the action scenes trying to steal the show, it’s the relationships and the characters in The Hanged Man that are a major driving force and the central reason as to why it shines so brightly.
Rune and Brand will always have a major share holder place in my heart, but there is an entire cast now vying for positions. Quinn and Max continue to be so freaking adorable and brave and smart that I could cry. Quinn's character arc in this book especially is so so good? Addam is just?? Such a pure soul? Such a kind person? I cannot get over how he's a real character that we get to enjoy and treasure. Lord Tower is. Well. You guys know how he is but he has some moments in this book that made me a lot less suspicious of him and a lot MORE suspicious of him at the same time. He is a conundrum but i love him. Mayan got more of a role too, and I loved every part of it! Queenie is still in the background a little and I'm convinced she has secrets!!!! If she does, I can't wait to see what they are. I loved Lady Death!! I hope she's sticking around she is super cool and almost exactly what I was hoping her to be.
Also, the introduction of Anna, Corbie and Layne was so well done! I won't say much here for fear of spoilers bc there are some BIG ones but I can't wait to see how things in that area progress.
But talking of Rune and Brand... oh my god. I will never get over their bond. Never. It's impossible. They're?? Everything?? There were moments in this book when they made me laugh and moments when they made me cry and moments where I wanted to scream. I still ship it to high heavens. Friends to lovers trope is like, the best invention ever, and I'm holding out for some lovely polyamory because i've long believed that the best way to end a love triangle is to involve everyone! More people more fun amiright??? (can u tell its 1:15am dear lord) but whether or not anything will come of that only time will tell. Either way, romantic or platonic, nothing will rival their love for each other and that is the foundation of this series. The most solid, well built foundation ever.  
Rune is just. So powerful. And so wonderful. His progression through two books alone is awe inspiring, i can't even think about where we're going to be another three or four books down the line. I love how powerful and confident he is, I love that he knows his strength, that he knows when to play certain trump cards. KD knows how to do character development, he's shown this time and time again, and oh my god I cannot wait to see what Rune becomes.
So, where do we stand. Sometimes you read a book and you don't worry about the characters because you know they'll be fine, but i am constantly worrying about everyone, because the writing feels like it's real, like you're living it, like you're watching people you care about face off against such high odds. I have my theories about where aspects of this series will go but I also very much doubt whether any of them are correct, because KD is playing the long game and I am but a lowly sleep deprived reader, but i am so so excited to go on this journey. I can't wait to see where it takes us. I could prattle on for another five hundred paragraphs about how much i loved this book, but i think i've said all that needed saying, so i'll leave it at this. Read this book, folks, you won't regret it.
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People saying Reginald loved Luther the most really need to shut the fuck up. Like? Have you been watching the same show?? I deadass saw someone say that Luther “Went through literally nothing!” and I am fucked off. So here is a quick list of all the shitty things Reginald did to Luther that I wrote while high as fuck on caffeine and sleep deprived as hell. 
1.) Tattoo
Now. I get that they all (save Vanya) had to get the tattoos. I even get that it wasn’t supposed to be a punishment. However. It serves as an example of Luther’s shitty childhood, because no matter how you look at it, he was forced to get a painful tattoo at age 13 by his father. That’s abuse. I get that they all had to get the tattoo, but already your arguments against Luther are invalid because he was evidently abused. His childhood wasn’t perfect, he wasn’t an invulnerable golden boy, he was abused just like the other siblings.
2.) His body transformation.
This is the thing that bothers me the most about this fandom.The blatant body shaming. It’s such a large part of the culture of this fandom and it’s barely acknowledged. All the pictures of overstuffed teddy bears, and calling Luther “monkey boy” and every single fucking meme about him just like “go back to the moon ape man uwu” that make me fucking sick to my stomach. I literally have never encountered a fandom where body shaming is so fucking common that no one bats an eye when a character straight up calls someone a monster because of their body. I understand not liking Luther as a character, that’s totally fine. Having opinions and preferences is not what I have issues with. The problem is when you use those opinions as an excuse to invalidate traumatic experiences. When it comes to the moon memes, I get pissed off, obviously, because it’s pretty shitty. But in the grand scheme of things, there probably aren’t many people who relate to that or see themselves in it. The body shaming however? I know so many people who identify with that, including myself. That scene, where Luther is shirtless and staring at himself in the mirror? I felt that shit. I related so fucking hard. So when people make fun of his body insecurity (yes I have seen it happen) I get sort of personally offended. I saw someone on twitter who said that he went through nothing except “oh i’m a monkey now” and I was like??? Even if that were true, that’s a pretty big fucking thing to go through. Luther is honestly so strong, because I don’t know if I would have been able to handle that. This got away from me a bit, considering this was supposed to be about Reginald, but I feel like it needed to be said.
However, a bit of a counterpoint to my main thesis, I don’t think we can actually call this abusive. Let me be clear, Reginald is a bad father. He is abusive. There is no denying this, but as much as the fandom wants to make him into a two dimensional cardboard cutout, he is more complex than that. It’s easy to classify someone as all bad, but its rarely the truth. And although what Reginald did to Luther was shitty, (in this particular instance) I don’t think it was necessarily abusive. Because he did it to save Luther’s life. I want to say that it was just a shitty thing to do, that he shouldn’t have done that experimental procedure on Luther without his consent, but it’s not that black and white. If it had been me, and I was about to die, my mother definitely would have done whatever it took to keep me alive. Because she loves me. And she is the furthest thing from abusive. Therefore, because we aren’t explicitly shown why Reginald did what he did, unfortunately it can’t count towards the overall argument. Make no mistake, I’m not defending what he did. I think, based off his character, its actually pretty likely that it was an abusive action. Because intent changes things. And a reasonable hypothesis would be that Reginald only saved Luther because he needed him, and not because he loves him, but because we aren’t privy to what his intentions were, the evidence is inconclusive. I’d say we can mark this down as a possibly, but I’m being pretty generous in an attempt to be fair.
3.) The moon
Now, what I’ve been waiting for the whole time. This, unlike the previous point, is without a doubt a demonstration of Reginald’s abuse towards Luther. He had just performed an experiment on Luther that changed his body forever without his consent, leaving Luther struggling and insecure. So does he help his son through this? Nope, he yeets him to the moon. Isolation is one of the things that seriously fucks with someone’s head, and I know its often overlooked because of Five’s 45 years in the apocalypse, but it’s impossible not to have some hangups about 4 years of isolation. Trauma isn’t a competition, and if any of the antis actually bothered to analyze the show, they would notice that the first time Luther actually talks about his trauma, he says “I only spent 4 years on the moon”, literally minimizing his own trauma like so many toxic members of the fandom, and yet everyone seems to think that he can’t stop ranting about his bad experiences and never shuts up about his trauma. 
Second, the picture of Luther’s notes to his father. I know a lot of people are just talking about how Luther is apparently a poet, which I love, but I think the thing really worth analyzing is the note that clearly states “PLEASE! SEND! MORE! FOOD!” because has anyone realized the implications of this? Let m break it down, there are two possible conclusions that can be drawn based on the evidence. Number one: (lol, get it?) the more likely scenario, Reginald frequently forgets to send Luther food, therefore he feels he has to remind him. This is utterly heartbreaking, because it also shows how Reginald was willing to essentially punt Luther up to the moon with promises of doing some good, and then almost forget about him entirely. And yet, some people still don’t think Luther was abused?
Number two: At some point Reginald did something that lead Luther to believe he wouldn’t send food without prompting. This is unlikely, but is possible. It is possible that throughout childhood, Reginald was neglectful to the point where Luther assumed that he wouldn’t send food without a reminder. Like I said, this is unlikely, not because Reginald wasn’t neglectful, but because at that point Luther still worshiped his father as a result of the brainwashing, and therefore probably wouldn’t assume the worst of him. 
In conclusion:
I’m sure there are more easter eggs throughout the show that indicate Reginald’s abuse towards Luther, but its 3AM and honestly I can’t be bothered to find them. Feel free to comment if I missed anything. I just got really fucking sick of the fandom making light of Luther’s trauma, and even saying that he wasn’t abused when he clearly was. I’m not saying he had it the worst, but I am saying that he had it bad, just like everyone else. Claiming that he didn’t go through anything just because you don’t like him personally is ignorant and stupid. This has been a PSA.
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I want to say just a few words about how I feel about the human!Cas endgame question. I know this is a hot-button topic and mostly I want to say that I will always tag my “human!cas” and “castiel’s endgame” stuff so you can blacklist that tag if you want to follow me for other stuff (Cockles!!) but not end up reading something upsetting to you. I feel very strongly that you have the right to your feelings and opinions and the right to express them on your own blog. I know you feel the same about me, and just so we can all do that respectfully and still share all the other things we agree about and love I wanted to let you know that I will tag and I will NOT mind if you avoid.
This isn’t a vagueblog b/c I actually have so many folks on here and Twitter that make this point that it can’t be for a single individual so please, please don’t think I mean you specifically. I’ve got a ton of friends in the Cas stan camp b/c I am such a total Misha stan. And if I had to pick one of TFW to stan it would likely be him (or Dean? see, I can’t choose). I know that for a lot of those friends the idea of human!Cas is hurtful and offensive. I can’t honestly say I understand it BUT I DON’T HAVE TO AND THAT’S OK!! Your feelings are yours and you are allowed to feel them and talk about them as openly as you choose. Your interpretation of a character is still yours and it’s fine if it’s different from mine.
I want to put this out there as a kind of PSA, though, b/c my preferred endgame of the show DOES involve Cas choosing (CHOOSING!!) to become human for all that he’s learned and loved about humanity (and Humanity). It’s just how my brain works and how my heart works. It’s probably because the best love story I know and the one that moves me the most is Paradise Lost. I wrote a long post about the 17th-century epic poem and Destiel. In it, there’s a moment where Eve has fallen and become human and Adam hasn’t and he doesn’t hesitate even a second before choosing to fall with her.
It’s interesting, because there are two camps of people who read the poem two ways. People like me, who bawl their fucking eyes out at how beautiful that level of devotion is, and people who think Adam made a grave error in giving up Paradise (and all the special privileges therein) for a partner who he could replace with another rib. It’s not clear who Milton thinks is right. Doctrinally, for the church at the time, the latter group. For storytelling, well, I think he’s in the former himself. I see this sort of aligning with the “Castiel’s endgame” debates, not in that anyone thinks Dean is replaceable, but in the inherently negative association with Cas giving up the gifts from heaven that have made him special and who he is. I get both sides!!
Personally, I think Cas would still be who he is even without all his heavenly “bells and whistles” (as Dean said, apparently) because time on earth has also made him who he is: “The things we’ve shared...they’ve changed me.” And Dean, for one, thought that was a bad thing (you can see his face go, ”oh God, I ruined Cas...and now he’s dying!”). But Cas did not mean it that way. So although I love love love angelic Cas and his glowy eyes and enormous and beautiful wingspan and his desire to fly around healing babies and comforting the sick...I also like human-seeming, movie-night-attending, waffle-ordering Cas. A major appeal of his character to me all along was that he was both--a thing enemies saw as a weakness but which proved his strength, ultimately.
My favoring an endgame human Cas is not because I want him to lose those qualities in particular, but because I firmly believe he can’t stay both at the end of the story. If the show had done a compelling narrative where Dean was slowly, slowly becoming more and more angelic and there was a possibility that the show would end with them in Heaven together, I’d be considering that too. (Actually, that’s the only workaround I can possibly imagine for Cas staying an angel AND being with Dean once Dean dies.) But the setup hasn’t done that but has, instead, asked us to consider the nature of Castiel and his in-between state. He needs resolution to his story and, personally and intellectually, I favor that being his decision to become human. 
I don’t mind if you don’t. I won’t go after you for disagreeing. But I want to warn gently that as the end of the show approaches I will be talking about that as a positive thing that I want to happen so that, if you choose, you can skip out on those posts. I love you all and want you to have a good experience here too.
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mxnark · 4 years
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CONVEX - ADORE U - COVER
5000 mina
Recommended for you! 
it's been a rough couple of days since she had gotten the notification.
since then, there have been other updates from other colleges about her applications to them. some were yes, few were no's, but she only cared about the one waitlisted since she knew her parents would be the one to care about it the most about that school. after all, it was the best in the country. even if she didn't have much opinion on it, she wanted to at least get accepted from the school as a way to let her parents know she's good on her own. if she lets them know of her acceptance, maybe her mother would stop being so overbearing. whether or not that was possible, she wants to convince herself that she'll at least get less pressure if she showed that she was good enough somehow.
as she reads articles for an answer on what to do in this situation, she sees the common psa that every article says. being waitlisted does not mean no. do not give up all hope yet. it was easier said than done, not to mention it didn't exactly mean a yes either and that's what they care about in the end. she doesn't even bother trying to stare at the status after she got it. she's afraid to be reminded of her own failure, nor does she want to reflect on her own faults that led to this decision.
she didn't think she was bad at hiding emotions because her parents had never pointed it out. however, she was clearly not doing as well as she would since chohee, one of her friends, pulls her out of their literature class when she was busy thinking about the whole situation again. the both of them arrive at the bathroom, making sure no one was in there but the both of them.
"what's up with you?" chohee asks her. "you don't look seem like yourself."
mina frowns at the accusation. "what do you mean?"
"you're usually more excited during this class," she explains herself. "you didn't even say your response to the prompt allowed. you always do that."
"i'm just," she sighs, "tired. i'm tired."
she tilts her head. "what do you mean by tired? did you get enough sleep or-"
"i don't know!" she answers abruptly. "i didn't get much sleep, but there's also a lot going on in my head, okay? i'm just tired of everything happening to me."
there's a short silence that follows after she speaks. "do you want to talk about it?" she asks.
no point in hiding it from her since they were practically taking some minutes away from class because of it. "snu waitlisted me."
"that's not a big deal," chohee replies immediately, making mina frustrated. "being waitlisted doesn't mean that they don't want you."
"but it doesn't mean i'm guaranteed to be there, either!" she argues. "being waitlisted means that i'm not guaranteed a spot unless someone ends up falling out of it. it means that i'm not a priority." she looks down at the ground, the frustration of the situation making her more upset than it should. she didn't want to look up at her friend while she was crying. it would make her feel immature. "that i'm not good enough." she whispers.
"well, kang mina's not the best at everything, is she?" she asks. "you don't have to the picture-perfect student in order to get a spot there."
"then why do i have to wait to get it?" she asks, still looking away from the girl in front of her.
"because shit like this takes time, mina and you need to remind yourself that." she has a point, but it's not something that makes mina feel better. "all you can do now is wait for them to say what will happen next."
mina decides not to respond to that, afraid that if she says one more word, she'll probably bawl her eyes out. she didn't want to show a moment of vulnerability to a friend who has only seen her as the tough girl she comes off to be. she wants to say 'my parents will make me feel like shit for this.' 'how long will i have to wait until i get an answer that i want?' 'what will i do with my life knowing that my mom will never leave me alone because i'm not the bare minimum of who she wants me to be?'
chohee must have noticed this because she continues to talk. "if it makes you feel any better, i don't know exactly where i'm going either."
it doesn't do anything big, but it does catch mina's attention.
"i've only sent a few applications and more of them were rejections than they were at least waitlisted," she continues. "not to mention, i only applied to those schools because my dad told me i should. i was actually thinking of taking a gap year in order to make more money for even just community college."
it takes away the urge to cry, but she still doesn't feel like looking up at her. not yet.
"but i also want to take that one year to learn more about myself, you know?" she says with optimism, something mina thought was admirable. "i don't exactly know what i want to do with my life yet and i want to be able to get some time to actually think about what i want to do rather than write papers about some random thing at the top of my head, you know? and i know two guys from the theatre department that are taking a gap year to focus more on theatre. probably to add experience or more service hours. but either way, it's more added time to help you figure everything out."
mina looks up finally, feeling a bit calmer to talk to the other now. "are you telling me i should think about taking a gap year?"
she shakes her head. "it's a suggestion," she corrects her. "i know your mom is super strict since you basically talk about her as if she was a witch." that earns a snort from mina. "but, even so, you'll legally be an adult by the time it's decision day and it's ultimately your life in the end, not hers."
she shrugs. "i mean, i guess." she's already aware of the fact, as shown through her arguments with her mother about how the latter always bothers her about her future. it's the fact that it won't be easy to convince her about that decision since she'll be lucky if she's left with just an argument and a "go to your room!" and after not so recent events, she's not even sure if she wants to unleash her mother's full wrath. she's already experienced 100%, but she doesn't want to face her mother's rage being over 9000.
"i'll think about it," mina decides finally. "but thank you for talking to me."
chohee smiles and pulls her friend into a hug. "anytime. it's all up to you, though. remember that."
there's an obvious fake smile on her face when they pull back. "don't remind me."
the both of them laugh and mutually agree to head back to class. when they arrive back at the classroom, they see that the majority of them are just on their phones if not talking to the teacher about something. they both walk back to their seats and chohee's the one to ask what's going on.
the one person in their table group but not friend group answers that question. "one of us complained that she was teaching us too much for the day, so she decided to chill out and give us all a break."
mina couldn't believe what she was hearing. "no offense, but that sounds really stupid."
"hey, if it's free time, i'm not complaining," gaon, one of the girls in her friend group, responds to that, earning a nod of agreement from chohee.
there was no use in complaining about it because it does sound like a luxury. mina quickly takes out her phone and earbuds to distract herself with her favorite hobby: watching multiple videos on youtube. she would go to twitter, but she doesn't really have that much to talk about that will be entertaining to her mutuals. she'd go on instagram, but she didn't want to be bombarded with reminders about how everyone else in the school has gotten accepted into a university when she has not (regardless if it's on her rinsta or finsta, she knows she'll see at least one post about it if not on someone's story). plus, if it's youtube, who knows where she'll find herself?
she looks through her subscriptions to see a few new videos. however, one that definitely caught her eye was a new video from one of her favorite dancers. however, what interested her more was that it was a dance cover. when she clicks on it to watch the video, she had a lot of thoughts on her mind. 1. this dance is super basic and she didn't understand the multitude of comments saying "OMG QUEEN YOU'RE SO FAST 😱😱😱😱" , "YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE A MEMBER OF THIS GROUP SINCE YOU POST VIDEOS AT SONIC SPEED OMGGGGGGG!!!!!!!", and other ridiculous comments coming from an audience of middle schoolers or younger; 2. it reminded her of the fact that it's been a while since she actually got around to learning a new dance and actually performing it for a group of people and that fact alone made mina think more than she should. she thought a lot about how back in the day, she always made attempts of making cover videos, only to feel discouraged because she had a hunch that no one was going to notice it in the end anyway. but, to be fair, that was during a time where she had no friends and a lower self-esteem and she likes to think that she's somewhat improved a little more since then, thanks to the support of her friends.
all of a sudden, she gets an idea and she quickly taps on gaon's desk to get her attention from her game. gaon pauses the game and looks up at mina curiously. "you have a gym membership, right?"
"...yes," she answers with slightly squinted eyes, her voice sounding as if she was getting suspicious of her friend. "why?"
"i have a plan and i need to tell you and the rest of the group during lunchtime, but it involves going to the gym afterwards."
"are you finally thinking of working out as a hobby?"
that catches her off track. "wh- no. i'll tell you more about it later."
gaon shrugs. "alright. since it's friday."
mina smiles. "thank you, queen."
"no problem, weirdo," she answers before she gets back to playing her game.
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mina expected her friends to think it was a good idea to start posting content on her own youtube channel. she's lucky that she has yet to post anything on there yet, as she mainly uses the website to watch her favorites.
"i need a distraction to get my mind off of the stress in my life," was her reason. though she was sure they would be up for the idea even if she didn't have a valid one.
"i think we all need a distraction to get our mind off of the stress in our lives," daeun says, gaining everyone's laughter as a response.
truth be told, this idea has been in the back of her head for a while now. she's thought about it since she moved back to korea. but due to the lack of friends at the time, she only thought of it as a thing to think about often. but the older she gets, the more she considers the option. but it was during lunchtime where she was making a channel layout with her friends that she decided she was going to do it.
so she stands in an empty gym studio that her rich friend gaon asked to borrow for the occasion, the rest of her friends either behind the dslr camera or to the sides where they were not seen on the monitor.
"i'm shocked you're learned this choreo despite all the workload we've had," daeun comments. "not that i'm complaining though since it's convex."
"why this song anyway?" gaon asks.
"the more recent the song, the more attention it gets," mina answers. "plus it's cute. it sounds really fun."
"fair," gaon nods.
mina looks over at chohee who stands at the side with a phone and portable speaker in her hands. she shows fives fingers before an okay symbol to check if the other was ready. when she gets a thumbs up, she goes into position by walking to the little bit of tape on the ground that she freshly placed, crosses her arms, and looks down from the camera.
"one, two, three," gaon clicks on the record button. she looks over at chohee, continuing the countdown by mouthing the next three numbers. "four, five, six." at six, the music plays.
one of the best things about living in a strict house is how when she's home alone, she's able to lipsync to her favorite songs to herself because if she goes any louder, she knows her mother will basically lecture her until mina's ears fall off. having had this song play constantly on repeat thanks to gaon, she was able to get some of the words in her head since she was not shy to singing at the top of her lungs in her car. so she lipsyncs them to the best of her ability. even if she messed up, it wasn't like the people were going to point it out. she's going to be a dance channel, not a lipsync one.
the dance comes to her naturally. though she uses the little reminders in her brain for certain parts of the song, she's able to do the rest with muscle memory thanks to her practicing whenever her parents were out. when she was learning it before she got the notification, she only thought about showing it to her friends. but with this? it was like gracefully patting two birds on the head with one stone (she does not condone animal violence at all). there's a smile on her face when she does the moves and it's not only for show since the song is about love and the group members had smiles on their faces when doing this dance. it's been a few months since she's had an audience to perform for, even if this one was a bit smaller than it was in the past (half the school to be exact since she'd only perform for school performances). but no matter the people, it just felt relieving to be able to dance again after weeks of stress breakdowns over upcoming assignments she procrastinated on, tests she barely studied for, or recommendation letters that have yet to be sent by her teachers. she was able to relax, even if she wanted this dance to be perfect.
the chorus finally hits and that's perhaps her favorite part of the song and choreography overall. when she jumps off the ground, she imagines herself like mario hitting a question block with the top of his head while simultaneously pushing away a paragoomba, even if that's never happened in the classic games before and she isn't throwing her hat at one. nonethless, her imagination is key when it comes to this dance. she taps her chest to match the consonants of "내 말-" before bringing her arms above her head to hit each other at "-은", kicking out her left leg as she does so. and when she goes down on both feet for a second before standing straight to continue the dance? she'd be lying if she said she didn't find that absolutely satisfyingly cool. whoever choreographed this deserves her highest praises.
she ignores the little giggles from her friends when there comes parts where simply just stands, such as at the beginning of the rap bit in the bridge. there's no reason to why she does it besides the fact that she didn't really choose one member to focus on for the choreo. it was just a bunch of them really. if they were in the center, she was most likely going to follow along with their moves.
when the song reaches its end and she bends down on one knee to mark it, she pants as she waits for gaon to click on the record button. when she does, she falls to the ground in relief and her friends begin to cheer for her before they all collectively each take off one of their shoes and throw it at her, making her squeal in response. as she covers her head and laughs along with them, she quickly stands up and walks to the camera, clicking on the gallery button to see the footage. however, the longer she looks at it, the more she cringes.
"can we do that again?" she asks, disappointment and exhaustion in her voice. everyone collectively groans, but they comply because they understand that she wants to make a good first impression on the internet.
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she's never really understood the struggle with video editors until now. before this, she would only use imovie for group projects with her friends and even then, she was doing the bare minimum with what was given to her. but considering that this was going to be a normal thing for her, she'll have to learn to do it more often.
inserting the sd card onto her macbook, she looks at all the six takes of her doing the dance, half of them being less than the whole song due to her making small mistakes halfway during the choreography that frustrated her to the point she groaned about it before giving up and wanting to restart the whole thing. it was an exhausting process, but she knows that she'll have to get used to it in the end. unlike school performances, she doesn't have time to perfect the dance until she finally records it. and while her impatience makes it difficult for her to accept it, she'll have to take it as an opportunity to learn how to be more tolerant of this.
the sixth take is probably her favorite though since it was the latest and best version, as it was the result of her sharpening her moves and preventing herself from forgetting what to do at certain parts of the choreography. when she imports the clip onto the project, she takes the audio of "adore u" next and she actually bought it with her own money instead of using a youtube mp3 converter site. that's a mina point for being a decent human being!
now was the harder part: syncing the song with clip. truth be told, she's never actually done this part before, but she was told by a senior last year that if she were to ever consider making cover videos on instagram (ha!), she'd probably have difficulty syncing the video with the audio on a phone editor. she supposes she's lucky in this case since this is on desktop, but she doesn't know if that will make this process any easier for her.
with a pair of headphones and a lot of determination, she gets to work, shortening the take a little at the beginning to make sure that it would make the job of syncing it easier, she drags the audio file below the video and clicks play to hear how it sounds, only to be greeted with the sound of echoing. when she hears it for the first time, she frowns and clicks stop after hearing a good three seconds of it. she quickly zooms into the project to try and see if she can spot the same waveforms and match them up together. it doesn't take long until she plays the audio again and hears a slight little echo. this was beginning to get a little frustrating so she tries to move it up one more time and thankfully, she managed to do it.
however, despite the good (not great, but it's not too bad) lighting of the gym studio, she still feels like the video looked a little bland. it didn't help with the fact that she was working with probably one of the most basic video editors. she should be at least a little grateful that she even has a video editor and that it's not as bad as movie maker, otherwise she'd have to suffer from cringy nostalgia from the fonts. but when she goes through the filters and sees how they look with the video, she realizes that she doesn't... really have anything but what she's already put down already.
it's nothing to worry about though since being upset about it wasn't really going to lead her anywhere. all she can do is take a good screenshot of her first position and make it the cover photo with photoshop and hope that it'll at least get someone's attention on the website. after taking the screenshot, she mutes the video to only get the music as the audio for the whole thing.
it's done! and it didn't take that long either! relieved with how simple it was (for now), she clicks on the button on the export button and clicks on the export button immediately, not even bothering to give a creative name for the file because it's the least of her worries for now. as she waits for it to export, she goes on twitter to look at what's going on with her mutuals and favorite celebrities. liking reality show clips and quoting some with a keyboard smash because she apparently thinks they are so funny despite the straight face she keeps while watching it.
when the imovie notification appears in the corner, she quickly looks at it excitedly only to see an upsetting message.
exporting "my movie" has failed.
"bullshit!" she whispers to herself, going back on the editor and attempting to export it again to see if it will show anything else. she goes back on the internet shortly after, continuing to go through her timeline when the message pops up again!
at this point, she's going to pull out her hair! she goes to the finder app and selects a bunch of random pictures she saved from twitter and puts them in the trash, majority of them being images of her biases so she won't deny that it hurts her a little. after she empties the "apple trashcan", she goes back to export it for the third time and rather than going back on twitter, she stays on the app so she can watch the progress circle load and finally get her video exported.
it takes a little longer to export this time, which gives her a little bit of hope as she sees the circle slowly filling up. but right before it could even fill the whole thing, it disappears and she is about to lose her mind when she sees the popup once again. all of my efforts. all of my pictures that i could've kept forever. all of them are gone because this stupid editor thinks i'm a clown! beginning to be even more frustrated, she goes back to her finder to delete the barely finished drafts of the video, even more downloaded pictures, and one game that she barely touched after finishing it to throw it all in the empty digital bin. when she clears the trash once again, hearing the sound of crumpling paper in both of her ears, she exports the video, this time taking the opportunity to title it with something: if this video does not export, i WILL eat you.
it's one more segment of staring at the circle as it slowly fills up and when she sees it being completed, she lets out a sigh of relief. finally! four times! it took four times! if she ends up having to do any more times than that in the future, she'll probably get more gray hairs than both her mom and her dad combined.
not wanting to waste any more of her time by having to deal with her stupid laptop, she opens up photoshop, takes the screenshot, and chooses a random font before writing "adore u" in a bigger size than "convex" in a smaller one. it doesn't look like it could blend in with the lighting, so she calls it a day as she saves the image and goes on youtube to upload it.
she could be a bit more descriptive with the description, but she wants to be professional (for now) since it is her first video. so in the description, she simply leaves her instagram username and her twitter username because she wants the minimal clout for the one random person who wasn't her friend to follow her on both. before she could press the publish video, she remembers to drop a few hashtags on the bottom. #CONVEX #ADOREU #ADOREUCOVER #KPOP
when she clicks the publish video, she closes her laptop and stretches her arms, letting out a big sigh from all the "work" she did. she'll plug the video on her local twitter and her ig story later but for now? she was going to chill out and bingewatch fruits basket (the new one).
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musashi · 5 years
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what happened with musajirou? i'm on their blog and they're making it out to look like they're a victim of bullying. which is super manipulative if they in fact bullied you and your friends? just to be clear, i 100% believe your retelling, and you dont have to respond to this if it's a situation u would rather keep private. it doesnt involve me personally, except that i will block them if they were shitty. just super unclear what happened bc their retelling is just " TR fandom is toxic bullies"
KSDL;FSDJF;GKLFSD omg
a few years back, me and some friends made some PSAs about the general problems the pokemon fandom has with reposting art. most japanese artists who use mediums like pixiv and twitter to share their art are not okay with their art being reposted without permission, and the pokemon fandom in particular is REALLY bad at respecting this. 
we talked primarily about rocketfandom because that’s where we’re most active, and some members of rocketfandom took this VERY personally. i don’t know if they’re just thirsty for notes or what, but a lot of people just COULD NOT HANDLE the idea of being told to not repost art. and it wasn’t like we mentioned anyone by name! it’s such a wide-spread problem, and so many people circulate that art without knowing, it can’t be blamed on any group of people. i reblogged SOOOO much reposted art when i first joined tumblr, hell i reposted a lot of it myself.
james-team-rocket, musajirou, & buchichiu were the most vocal about their disdain for this idea that artists were to be respected. the latter two used the classic, ‘well I’M an artist and i’m fine with it!!!!!’ defense. so i blocked them, because i block people who annoy me. we have not interacted since then.
prior to this, most of them were a source of annoyance to me and a lot of my friends, anyways. jez (james-team-rocket) would reblog queer headcanons attempting to “disprove” them with canon evidence. musajirou would reblog innocent posts from me and my friends and just leave ridiculously negative garbage on them all the time. after we all just rolled our eyes and blocked them, they started vaguing about us on private apps thinking word wouldn’t get to us. a number of them, most notably musajirou, badmouthed my friend jessica pretty bad, even though she’s really never done much beside get on to make goofy jokes every once in a blue moon.
jez has a habit of making personal posts where she rallies her followers to bother me in order to circumvent blocks. at one point she smeared another rocketblogger i was friends with, claiming that this blogger called jez out directly even though it was ME who was doing the calling out. jez purposefully screencapped my her blog in such a way that it looked like this other blogger was at fault when it was ME!!! naming names and picking fights. why? because i’m untouchable. i block everyone, i stand up for what i believe in, i scare people. consistently, these members of the fandom tend to only go after folks they view as easy to cut down and bully. that blogger jez framed ended up nearly run off the site for things that had nothing to do with her. the lot of them then tried to appeal to said blogger’s senses by sending her asks in the vein of we know it wasnt you, honey, it was that evil bitch musashi.
we were also able to connect musajirou’s IP to a number of troll accounts. these accounts were meant to directly smear the kind of rocketbloggers me and my friends were--they were incredibly hyperbolic accounts that loudly sang jessie’s praises while consantly bashing james. this was in response to me and my friends calling out the misogyny in the rocketfandom, how the woman in the ship was often villified while the man was treated like a Soft Baby Boy Who Could Do No Wrong. when they weren’t this, they were loudly queershipping, reblogging rocketshipping posts to derail about how ‘lol they’re gay sorry!!!!!’ in an attempt to make fans who interpreted the rockets as not cishet look like ~crazy faggots lol!~
eventually, these accounts devolved into outright homophobia. unsurprising, lmao.
and again i’d like to reiterate, i blocked all these users LONG before all of this. their temper tantrums have and always will be responses to things i say on my own blog far away from them. it’s wild how the people in rocketfandom wildly recognized as toxic & ones to avoid are the ones calling people who don’t engage with them bullies. almost makes me wonder if maybe they’re the problem! xD
yeah i name names and yeah i don’t forget. nasty fuckers get remembered! you can call me a bully all you want, if it shuts your ass up and keeps you away from this website then good, it’s a much healthier place without your negativity and my dash has been a much brighter, dare i say MUCH GAYER place since i blocked y’all in 2017. stay mad! 
EDIT: forgot to mention jez also sent her friends after me lol... here’s one of the better messages i got from one of them:
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heterophobia is real because some lesbian on the internet wants you to not repost art
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branch--chief--faba · 5 years
Text
Branch-Chief--Faba
It's me, the former owner of branch-chief--faba. 
Someone I know pointed out the post @trash-troll made and after reaching out to them they did imply me with their post. So let's start out with the obvious; me writing this post means I'm alive.  Though I should add 'barely' to that. 
Trash-Troll showed me screenshots of people talking about me. And after them convincing me to do it I've decided to write my version of what happened or more importantly.. how I feel about the whole thing. I am not here to debunk anything.. because it will become a he said/she said thing. Let’s just go into this wall of text by saying both parties fucked up.
The end of 2017 and all of 2018 were pretty bad for me, mentally. I was hurt and lost and I didn't know what to do. A year prior to that I made the blog.  It was fun! I never had so many people reaching out to me and willing to spend time to me. That was a whole new experience and in hindsight I didn't know how to deal with it. This isn't me debunking or saying something did or didn't happen but I guess I was in over my head. I had never been popular or even had friends before. Or friends who weren't forced to hang with me because of college or them being co-workers. You know how proud I was that people found me cute or pretty when I posted a selfie? Yeah that never happened before. It boosted my self esteem sky high. 
I did some things that in hindsight weren't smart or downright stupid. I let people play me. I fought battles for people I should have never fought. I was just so afraid that if I didn't do it- they leave and I'd be alone again. I didn’t purposely stick my nose in other’s business. I just wanted to help and now i feel that some people really took advantages of that. In that sense this blog was both a blessing.. and a curse for me. I was so obsessed with keeping everyone happy that I forgot my own happiness and I forgot to look further than the tip of my nose and to please some people I hurt some others, unintentional at the time.. but I understand now and I’m sorry.
I can only apologise for it now. I am to blame for my actions even though they were inspired by others and sometimes it was peer pressure.  I admit that I should've been stronger when i was in a discord made to slam a group of people. I've been a fool and absolutely stupid. You know those PSA’s when they tell you doing nothing is as bad as the bullying? Yeah. At times i was the bystander... and I wish I could undo it but I can’t. 
I feel like (now that I've seen screenshots..) that sometimes I was set up to vent about a person only for it to be shared. Was it fair for me to vent? Yes and no. In my eyes- I was hurt by a few people and I thought the person i was talking to (this venting only happened one on one, never in a group.) was someone I could trust. I know better now and I feel stupid. I said things in pure emotion and in confidence. I was angry and hurt and I just wanted to vent those feelings. Again, I'm the fool for walking into such an obvious trap. I don't blame anyone but myself. I should’ve know better. I really should. However, this isn't just about me. 
There are things people did that are wrong too. Things that hurt me. I will never forget me finding the courage to call someone out on how their actions harmed me mentally and them saying that 'It was my own fault for being too emotionally attached to them'. That's painful and that hurts, even today it haunts me to my core. 
I won't forget that I was doxxed, that i got daily anons to kill myself, that they wish I had cancer, etc.  Even though I enjoyed writing Faba up till that point I just had to slow down. I had up to 1000 asks at the end of it and a lot of them were nasty anons. I deleted one and two came in it's place. Eventually I just had to stop for my own sanity.  I know people suggested and would suggest now that I just should’ve turned the anons off but again. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I thought that turning them off would mean people wouldn’t like me anymore, because there were good anons too! I figured ‘why should they suffer because of a few’ and in hindsight.. I should’ve just turned the anons off. I know hindsight is 20/20 but.. 
It was around that time almost everything went sour and I still don't know why. This is not me being a idiot, I really don't know why. I am still so socially awkward and figuring out human emotions is hard for me. Sometimes I don't understand until someone tells me 'Hey I'm mad at you because you did X or Y' I'm working on it though but it's not easy.
I won’t forget how a duo of a cis man and a cis woman reached out to someone and pretended to be a gay couple. And I will never forgive myself for not stopping it.  And if you were the victim of this and if you read this then I’m so sorry. Know that I am absolutely disgusted with myself.
I will not forget how a new discord was made without me.. and the reason I wasn’t welcome? I was a supposed transphobe. I am not. Since deleting I’ve had A LOT of time to myself and I came to few conclusions about my gender and my sexual identity. DO NOT even think about use my dead name. I can’t believe someone would say that about me. 
I know people think I’m just some money hound and out for that but I’m not. I don’t give a single shit about money. I care about happiness and I’m not getting it and because of it I’m not growing as a person.
I won’t forget how hurt I was by the actions of a few. And I can’t forget because I feel it .. even today. It consumes me and I already hear people laughing about it. Because ‘haha look at this dumb fuck, right? It’s been a year.” but I just can’t. It’s etched so deep inside me that it makes me sick. 
I know you know who I'm talking about it. And I know you know it's you. I’m doing a favour and not tag anyone I’m going to leave the responsibility to owe up to your actions to you and if you don’t.. then that also speaks volumes about you as a person.  And those people I'm talking about need to take a good hard look at themselves. Instead of posting that 'the evil is defeated' gif or celebrating someone deleting out of despair. Because this is not the only story to tell. There are LOADS more. Trash-Troll showed me. Please just be kinder..
I cannot change the past and I will never deny myself having some part in it.. but no one should feel like I do over fandom stuff. NO ONE. And no one can really help you if you see someone get doxxed, bullied or threatened and you sit back thinking 'eh they deserve it' no one deserves it. I know we live in an age where internet is part of our lives. But for many the internet is a safe space where they can just be a little looser than usual.  Just block people.
What happened after I left this blog? I started by deleting my Discord, there were too many bad memories attached to it so I just dumped the whole thing out. I send a message explaining why I did it and send a few people who I thought I could trust my new discord. That not a single soul accepted my new friend request.. yeah that stung pretty hard. So, after keeping it up for two months and resending the friend requests.. I just deleted that one too. 
I stopped using my other socials, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I had to quit my job. If you can recall it wasn't a job that required a lot of thinking so my thoughts were allowed to run wild. Sometimes I started working and I just didn't know how I got to the end of my shift. It was just.. there. I'd black out thinking about the whole mess. I was feeling numb for months, nothing would bring me joy or sadness. It was like I was stuck in the ocean. Just below the surface and not being able to reach out. I could see people on the shore and I could swear they could see me too, but it was safer to let me drown. 
I deleted all my tumblrs too. All of them. I didn't want anything to do with this place. I moved to twitter for a bit when I got lonely but that didn't stick. I had a few odd conversations but Twitter isn’t really the best place to talk about things I figured. 
I tried to get myself to draw and write again but I couldn't.. I just couldn't.  I tried but every time I opened a word document or put pen on paper I'd get antsy and panic-y.  I couldn't bring myself to create anything at all. Not writing, not art, nothing. Even drawing original characters or other fandom stuff. I couldn't. 
I was and still am too afraid to share anything with anyone.  My brain goes through a whole series of 'what ifs' when i'm trying to write or draw. "What if they like it and we get talking and I mess up again." or "What if I put a lot of effort in a work and people will ignore it on purpose because they know it's me?" those kinds of thoughts.  
My whole memory is warped. What really happend and what did my brain make up. I am not saying I’m not to blame for things, either partly or wholly but I NEVER had the intention to hurt people on purpose. I’m not hiding behind anything but fact remains that I am socially malformed. I don’t understand things. I spend the first 16 years of my life basically talking to no one and when I did.. I was the ‘weird kid’ or I heard my peer saying ‘Don’t talk to the freak.. so weird!’  I was never raised to be social and then I was dropped in a very social group full of very colourful people.I didn’t know how to handle it and it drove me literally nuts. 
I feel into a deep depression and the last two months of 2018 are a haze for me. I barely remember anything. I don’t remember Christmas, I don’t remember New Years. It’s a blur.  I almost died a couple of times, it's no secret. And for that I have the permanent reminder...  I'm glad I didn't do it though.
Now it's 2019 and 2019 is almost over; how am I doing now? 
Not much better. I still have the fear to create. I want to but I can’t. I still barely touch my socials because of my paranoia of people finding me and the whole circus starting again.  I use my instagram because of cosplay commission stuff and I only use my Twitter to support some artists on there. Even then I keep this ‘neutral-someone-everyone-can-like-persona’ just this safe ‘brand type’ posts. 
I'm only back on Tumblr for this and I won't be coming back. This isn't a revival tour. It's like one last song to send everyone on their way. 
Please leave others alone. I truly am not on Tumblr and do not plan to come back not now or ever. I do not have a sneaky hidden blog. All the blogs I used to own are either dead or I just gave it to people who used to own blogs with me.
It's very painful for me to write this all out. I know I'm missing a lot of parts. To summarise;  while I did some things that I'm not proud of. I cannot believe the lengths people went to to make me feel horrible about myself. 
I cannot believe you guys would share some things about me that I wanted to keep private. That I thought was pretty private and you would understand.  I'm sickened by the lies told about me and disgusted that it's still going in 2019, almost a year after I deleted everything. 
I gave my new discord to people and those people never accepted and that's fine, it hurts but it's fine. I never bothered them or sought contact. I will admit that I once accidentally send a snapchat to someone.. but I promise that was an honest accident. I didn’t mean to. But I just don't get the feeling the same thing is happening and I have proof from people that I'm right.  
Can you not post my trauma for all to see? That's not justice that's just being a dick... I have no other word for it. Being an evil dick. I never spoke badly about any of you after the whole thing. I will admit that .. in my anger when it all was going on, I did vent to people and TRUST me I regret that. I thought it would stay between us but it leaked.. 
Do the same for me and please have the decency to apologise for the things you did and just..  stop putting my private shit online without my consent. What I shared, I shared because I felt I could trust people. It was never about sympathy because I do not want it. 
You gain nothing except the satisfaction that you gave me a kick again by sharing it. Which is a horrendous move. You’re not getting even, you’re winning at being a dick.. 
I want to be left alone. I want that confirmation of 'hey we're leaving you alone now'. I want to go back before I was paranoid. It’s not a fun thing. It’s maddening to think something behind EVERYONE’s action. Deep down.. I know better but I can’t stop. It’s a problem and I’m working on it.
I want NOTHING to do with Pokemon OR it's fandom.  I won't be purchasing games or other media from it. I just gave away my copies of the 3DS games to people who wanted them. The whole thing is too triggering to me. 
I wish I could pick up a pencil or pen and draw and write again without having a panic attack and I wish I could show myself on my private social media again without people watching me. 
I know you guys doxxed me before using my Facebook- It's not weird of me to think people could do it again.
I don't mind it, if you hit me up and talk to me via this blog. You can reply to this post or just us DM.  My only rule is to be civil. I am being civil too even though I feel empty, numb and sick. 
And finally.. I apologise for EVERYONE who people thought were me. You don’t deserve that. No one does. 
Well I guess this mystery is solved, what happens next is wholly up to you. I am not going to reach out myself. I made that promise. 
I’m posting this because I have nothing else left to lose. Please show me you’re capable of human decency.  And some things only God can forgive. That goes for me too. 
And just to proof it’s me; I will be tagging this post as I always did; using my old tags. 
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