#or add a meme image response like someone did

[robinsversion]

The most ironic thing to come out of having not one but multiple of my posts about the James Somerton situation that’s been blowing up over the past couple weeks, is people plagiarizing the additional commentary I put in the tags of those posts ON THE SAME FUCKING POSTS THEYRE USING THOSE TAGS ON

#y’all know I can see that in my notifications right? #it would be one thing if you indicated ‘previous tags’ in some way and commented on them #hell if you really like them screenshot them and add them to the post #and say ‘op you can’t just leave these in the tags’ like normal people do #or add a meme image response like someone did #(that made me crack up) #but to add them with no indication that they aren’t your original words #like #do you realize WHY Hbomberguy and more importantly James somerton started trending on here? #you were obviously reading through one of those tags to see my posts #hbomb would be disappointed in all of you #anyway #james somerton #hbomberguy #why are you booing me i’m right

[annellspethraven]

It all started here. I woke up and looked at 'my' Discord server for the bloated tic of a fanfic (hey that rhymes, neurospicy two seconds!) I write with my partner SonaBeanSidhe, Aran Thranduil's Dining Hall. There hadn't been enough tea yet so the natural response was 'wth is this?' Well, THIS was going to Hoover my next two days and counting. Just visit the post, dear friends of the writing persuasion and you would see (I'll save you time because I'm nice this way) that there are many screenshots supporting just what the meme says: This Instagram OP knows a writer who found herself in a steaming pile of mess with the Google Docs TOS (which is really also the Google Drive TOS, making it somewhat difficult to locate said TOS. I'll save you more time. Here:

This information comes from https://support.google.com/docs/answer/148505#zippy=%2Csexually-explicit-material So, it was the act of sharing the files, not having created or stored them that triggered what had happened. Okay, still not reassuring. In the meantime, I was concerned enough to post what had happened to r/FanFiction. Within minutes, my post had been frozen by the mods there. I can see their concern. I believe they had only seen the meme-like first screen of the Instagram post, and it does come off like a bad Snopes Fail. They asked me for more proof. The first thing I did was a search for previous instances of Google having frozen Drive accounts previously. They are limited, but they exist. The concern here had to do with the current lack of information as to why the action happened, and whether we who collectively authored and had shared Docs with explicit content were about to have our Drive accounts fall before the scythe of an overzealous AI rollout on the part of Google. Which led to the second part of this. My first response to the mods was as follows:

A little while after I sent this, an update appeared on the Instagram OP's account (easy to find) so I added this:

The salient point of the update was that the author had received restored access to her Drive, but NOT the Doc that had started the entire difficulty. I waited for a response. And waited, and waited. In the meantime, I had no means to add to, respond to, anything to my original post or defend myself against some fairly sharp initial criticisms leveled against me by individuals who clearly hadn't read anything beyond the initial meme. Special. While I understand a sub this large likely has a lot of messages to field, I also felt that given they managed to freeze my post in a matter of minutes, they were really taking their time responding. So I weighed in on Instagram with a message of support. If nothing else is taken away, please take this: Back up your files. It's easy to create an alt Google account; this other account will have its own Drive storage. Share your folders and files with yourself. If you don't already realize, in Docs under the File dropdown menu the third option is Make A Copy. If you have shared the original document 75 times, you won't have shared that copy at all. Consider backing up your works to Indie platforms like Get Hermit, Ellipsus and The Quill. There may be others. Your own external hard drive is also a very good idea. But wait, you ask. What about just using MS Word, or having copies as a PDF file in the Adobe cloud? Not so fast, my friend. Look at Microsoft and Adobe's TOS regarding sexually explicit content...you'll get an unpleasant surprise. I did. In the meantime, a third update came from the OP on Instagram shedding far more light as to what had likely gone wrong. She had shared the Doc with she guessed 18-20 people as beta readers. The belief is now that one of these persons actually turned her in to Google via their abuse form. To quote one of the commenters on that update: "I heard from an agent that Google will only do this to your account if someone reports it. Google isn’t scanning docs for explicit content (except maybe images), but yeah, for this to happen, someone had to report her document to Google." This felt like a relief...and yet is still packaged inside a cautionary tale. How many of us have shared by 'whoever has this link'? I have, or rather, I had. I revoked all such permissions to all large stories and folders in favor of my few trusted long-time friends and beta readers. The works are on AO3. I don't need those Docs links to be free floating all over the place, not after seeing what can happen. I was on vacation in England some years prior when I realized I had lost the ability to send out all outgoing Gmail. It took me several days to figure out what had gone wrong and nearly lost me my ability to receive Covid test results at a time when that was a travel necessity...almost disastrous. Fortunately I had multiple email accounts and could work around the problem. Which brings me to the last of this.

While including the subreddit mod's responses here may seem retaliatory/petulant on my part...I'm at best miffed at their shortsightedness, maybe mildly insulted, mostly shaking my head at the fact that there is something to have been learned here that could have affected any one of us. No one was spreading misinformation. Something had indeed happened. The source of it had been unknown at the time of posting. Had they left my post alone I would have gladly redacted as it unfolded; the reason for placing it on that sub was not to create a giant stir but to let others know of the risk of this happening at all and to encourage backing up that which most writers invest a considerable amount of their emotional well-being; the safety of their written works. Yes, I'm neurodivergent. No, I don't always see the world as others do. No, I still don't think this difference allows the response to be interpreted as much other than a slight and working against the interests of authors (I'm on their side and last I checked, readers need the authors to have the things that are written in order to have the things to read. Just saying). Whatever, what really matters is, if you feel this is worth sharing, share, take away the important bits, and if someone out there just wants to write it up in 3 sentences so it isn't a tl;dr, do that too.

Have a Googly day, to all near and far, in these times in which we live...>.>

#google docs #google drive #terms of service #writing #fanfic #slash fanfiction #smut fanfiction #service provider #beta reader #Instagram

[sylleblosscm]

@inimiicus​:

character meme: ardyn jazz hands

---

Opinions

First impression • I have to level with you guys, as one of those bi of sexuals you’ll hear a lot about this month, I just. When it comes to the over-the-top, super camp, sassy villain who is also genuinely scary, my response is automatic. I see, I love. He was already great. Aspirational. Iconic. An absolute treasure to behold. A gift to my eyeballs. Ardyn didn’t need to be more than that for me to appreciate him, and at first, I didn’t think he would be.

Impression now • Like the great philosopher Cloud once said: hoo boy. You know when a property fucks up a character so severely that they’re kind of obligated to give them a redemption story down the line, and it’s so obviously hamfisted that people respond with, “wOw, tHaT FixEd eVerYtHiNg!”? That, but unironically for Episode Ardyn. Not that Ardyn was especially broken to begin with, it was just frustrating that we never got a full grasp on his motivations or place in the narrative. While giving the villain a Tragic Backstory™©® in order to make them sympathetic is a hamfisted and annoying move most of the time, XV really pulled it off for me. After learning the kind of person he used to be, what was done to him, and the existence he’s been forced into, he doesn’t really come off so bad anymore. Especially if you reject Bahamut at first, and witness the cruel and inhumane lengths he’s willing to go to, to see his own will done. Much like with Regis, I’m left wondering what I’m supposed to be angry about. He’s up against a literal god. And clearly XV isn’t interested in being that kind of jrpg (though it really should have been, salt, salt). Not only do we have context to his behaviour, but it actually shifts the dynamic of the entire cast, world, and story, because the villain no longer seems villainous, and the hero doesn’t feel quite so much like a hero, as much as he does a helpless pawn. (But that’s an entire other rant I may go into someday.) I suppose in the end, all I really want for Ardyn is justice for his character. Not to harp on Dawn or anything, but I really liked that ending for him. He found peace in death or whatever; more important is that he did it on his own terms, regaining his agency in his final moments. He chose how to go, was able to reconcile with his brother, and take his justice from a cruel and unforgiving god that was willing to raise 114 generations of his own blood to slaughter. Honestly, call me captain of the Ardyn Defence Squad, because I’d go to war for this greasy weirdo, Man Of Every Consequence.

Favorite moment • It’s a tie. “For what sins must I atone??” SAY IT AGAIN FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK. But also, probably the entire talk with Bahamut, because again, that’s the thing that shifts his character from Sassy Villain to genuinely devastating. You really get an image of just how helpless and powerless this seemingly all-powerful man is in the face of his destiny. And it’s all capped off by knowing that he became this way because he wanted so desperately to help others. I just can’t fault him for that. And finally, the moment he kills Luna. I hate that for Luna a lot, but I love how she reaches out and tries to offer her help. You see this perfect, unbreakable facade of carelessness crack, and it elicits one of the few honest-to-goodness reactions we ever see from him. He’s disgusted, afraid, and a little hopeful all at once. All because someone was kind to him for the first time in a couple thousand years. 

Idea for a story • I’m still hung up on anything that lets him and Luna be besties. He needs a friend. I’d also like to see a deviation in canon where he instantly regrets harming Luna and manages to help her somehow, sparing her life and forcing him to reconsider his actions and accept her help.

Unpopular opinion • Honestly, if what I’ve already said thus far isn’t too unpopular, then there’s nothing I can add that would be so. Ardyn began as a great villain and ended as something between that and a sympathetic antihero. I just want more for him. 

Favorite relationship • I really, really wanted to see more of his relationship with Somnus. It was intriguing and nuanced, with neither side wholly in the right or wrong, and their rivalry stoked by forces well beyond them. I like that Dawn gave Somnus the chance to truly apologise, and I like to think that, in kinder circumstances, they could have been an amazing team. 

Favorite headcanon • That, after daylight returns, Ardyn’s rightful place in Lucian history is cemented; not just as the Accursed, but as the man who was almost King, but for his boundless compassion, and willingness to put himself in harm’s way to save others. It’s what he deserves. 

#( trash man <3 ) #inimiicus #answered; #⋆｡˚ ☁︎ ˚｡⋆｡˚☽˚｡⋆ -- i was just in the middle of an inner monologue / ooc

[spectacles-house-of-horrors]

AND NOW...

A gallery, of all the dumb GIFs I've made with Aseprite and ScreenRecorder, in no particular order. Please enjoy the art and your complimentary Chardonnay.

Please listen to this song while admiring the artworks, we appreciate your courtesy.

(This compilation features one GIF with some pretty big blood and violence, so content warning for that.)

A take on the classic, 'This man, 🐟 react him' GIF. Featuring a Swarmer from the game Deep Rock Galactic. The server I made this and most of these GIFs is pretty big on the game.

A GIF made in response to a friend's repeated work incidents of people calling him "Ma'am." I chose Battle For Dream Island's Ruby slapping Balloon into instant death an appropriate comparison to the sharpness of the ma'ams.

GIF made after a pretty funny VC in a Discord server. One of my friends exclaimed this quote with such fury I made it into this GIF of Fanny from BFDI again. I even drew an emote of it.

Textless reaction GIF of Deimos and 2BDamned from Madness Combat backing away. Made into a GIF at the request of my friend Taur.

Yet another BFDI GIF, this time my friend Taur's character Cindy and her notoriously bad cooking were brought up in conversation. So I took the opportunity to add some text to this already existing GIF.

Never ending loop of the intro to Anger Foot's trailer. Given the same caption as a famous cat GIF. Made after showing a friend said trailer, as he quite likes silly cat memes like the Kicker GIFs.

I saw this GIF of a Hummingbird zooming right up in front of the camera, so I just added some text to it.

GIF made for a server after the heavily anticipated goals for Markiplier to release his tasteful nudes OnlyFans. The stock dancing of this GIF was just too perfect for the occasion. (Though we sadly never did such a thing.)

Someone posted this GIF of The Henchman from Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number using his special skateboard execution, so I took the opportunity to make it into a version of the 'Fuck you, eat Christmas Tree!!!' GIF that I was obsessed with at the time.

GIF made specifically for a rather Palm Tree OC filled server. Palm tree ladies that you can no longer have.

Saw this GIF on the PVZ Wiki showing the special effect of, the PVZ2C plant, Acidic Citrus' Plant Food in Big Wave Beach. I added this GIF and got barely any responses to it.

Another GIF about one of my friend Taur's OCs, this time Gleeberry, and her potentially disastrous Wonder Hugs. Made in the middle of marathoning The Amazing World Of Gumball.

Another GIF taken from a Fanon Wiki, specifically the one for Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion. This image of the parasitic Spooper's animation looks kinda strange on its own, so I just made this image as a joke, and no one commented on it.

Last and latest GIF made earlier this evening as of posting. Was watching some PVZ Heroes videos in nostalgia and saw Leaf Blower's unnecessarily hilarious death animation. So I gave a caption to really fit the severity of his screaming.

Thank you for taking this tour with us-me, thank you for taking this tour with me. I myself enjoyed this as another way to procrastinate instead of getting through my art block. Please leave your empty glasses in the woodchipper before you leave, and have a nice day!

-Spectacles' House Of Horrors

#gif #tw bl0od #shitpost #i'm procrastinating

[turnaboutstevie]

I posted 24,296 times in 2022

That's 1,854 more posts than 2021!

51 posts created (0%)

24,245 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@littlemisspipebomb

@thatgaydemigodnerd

@catgirldick

@girlbuoy

@hotvampireadjacent

I tagged 930 of my posts in 2022

#for kat (bc i love her) - 10 posts

#my art - 10 posts

#first kill - 9 posts

#winx club - 9 posts

#winx - 8 posts

#🍃 calm - 8 posts

#show to mum - 7 posts

#memes - 7 posts

#firstkilledit - 6 posts

#tw dolls - 6 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#he's like 'well if you learned to drive you wouldn't need to worry about bus and train prices' as if £30-£50 an hour driving lessons is any

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Been trying for a few months now to compile free versions of books on HIV/AIDS and unfortunately haven't had much luck yet, but I'm not giving up. When I have a good amount I'll make a masterpost, but since its World AIDS Day, here is a pdf of "HIV/AIDS: A Very Short Introduction". It won't tell you everything, but it's a good place to start!

Anyone with pdfs they're willing to share of any other reliable books on HIV/AIDS- please message me! I'm trying to compile a central folder with as many as I can in for easy public access.

60 notes - Posted December 1, 2022

#4

241 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

#3

i like making memes to remind people to look after themselves

(ur free to repost this w/o credit, but please add an image id or alt text if posting publicly. accessibility is important!)

[ID:

One image, with a purple gradient background. On the left side is a stock photo of a white man in a blue shirt and brown trousers. He is holding his right arm out, as if gesturing to something. There is text in the image, in yellow font with a black border. There is a top line, a central body, and a bottom line. The text reads:

"WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU:

drank water?

took a break?

got some fresh air?

released the tension in your muscles?

NO MEME HERE, PLEASE TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF"

END ID]

594 notes - Posted August 21, 2022

#2

"if I was some paint did I splatter on a promising grown man // and if I was a child did it matter if you got to wash your hands" is SO important to me as a pair of lines.

Mayers response to Dear John being that he "didn't deserve it" and it was "humiliating" always made me see red (haha) because. you don't get to treat anyone, especially not someone half your age, like that and then act like you're a victim when she's honest about how much it hurt! Her "paint" splattering on him- staining him with her art- when he was so "promising", he carries that stain on his reputation to this day.

And then that second line. He shouldn't be able to wash that stain out!!! She was a child and he took so much from her, right down to (as she says later in the song) her girlhood. He wanted to absolve himself of what happened in that relationship, but that's not a privilege he has earned, because he tore her to pieces, and she was only a child. It's been 13 years, she's now the age he was when they dated, and she's still feeling that pain. She's still grieving. She can't wash her hands of it, even though she's the innocent party. Why the fuck should he be able to?

656 notes - Posted October 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

what's your blorbo show? the show that has so few characters who AREN'T your blorbos that the characters who aren't don't even count. The show where you're spending most of your watching time going "there they are! the specialest person in the world!"? I'll start, mines Merlin

12,363 notes - Posted April 14, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[storiesforallfandoms]

juxtaposition ~ eminem

word count: 1209

request?: yes!

@girl-toxxic​ “I don't know if you've seen the cat meme from "she did ballet and he was a punk" so I came up with this for an Imagine, Em and Reader go out to spend the day and there are a lot of hugs, kisses and fluff and they They are having such a good time that they do not realize that there are paparazzi and they take a lot of cute photos and one of them that goes viral on the internet is where Em is serious and hugs Reader, while she is all sweet giving kisses on his cheek. AND ADD SOMETHING MORE, LOVE THIS IMAGINE.”

“hiiii, I love your contents!! can I request a eminem x reader? reader is a softie. that's all you can do the rest. tysm!!”

description: after being caught out together, their fans start to realize that they are exact opposites and decide to make memes about it

pairing: eminem x female!reader

warnings: swearing

masterlist (one, two)

They say opposites attract, but I never thought it was an actual thing. I always thought it was just a trope used in books and movies for a cute plotline. And then I started dating Marshall, who was the polar opposite to me. Publicly anyways.

Marshall’s public persona for years was that of a serious, cold rapper who liked to drop more explicates in one sentence than he probably should’ve. In private he was much sweeter than anyone would ever believe, but no one ever really saw that side of him besides the people closest to him (so mainly me). Then there was me, who was constantly a happy and positive person - in private and in public. It was like a whiplash in personalities whenever someone met the two of us together.

Going out in public was always somewhat amusing. The looks we would get when I was being all touchy feely and Marshall was his stone cold self was priceless.

On a day the two of us were out running errands, my usual desire for affection hit me suddenly. I took Marshall’s hand in mine and placed my head on his shoulder. We stumbled a little as we walked in our awkward position, which made me giggle.

“You’re gonna cause us to fall over,” Marshall teased.

“That’d be a sight,” I said with a giggle. “I’m just feelin’ all warm and fuzzy right now.”

“Don’t you always?”

I looked up at him and stuck my tongue out. His cold façade broke for just a moment as a smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

We stopped at a crosswalk to wait for the light to tell us we could walk. Marshall wrapped his arms around me, which surprised me because it was an unprompted public display of affection and he usually wasn’t big on that. I wasn’t about to fight it, however, and leaned into his embrace. Just before the walk signal flashed, I quickly kissed his cheek then pulled away from him to cross the street together.

It was a moment that I didn’t think too much about. Forgetting how extremely famous he is, I just thought of it as a quick moment of affection with my boyfriend while we were out running errands. Looking back, I should’ve been more aware of any potential paparazzi around us, but it was honestly the last thing on my mind.

It was Marshall’s daughter, Hailie, who made me aware that our picture had been taken. She had sent me a text with a picture attached, the message reading, “you and dad have become a meme! 😂”

It was the picture of the two of us at the crosswalk, Marshall with his arms around me and me leaning up to kiss his cheek. Of course whoever had been there had managed to catch the one moment of the most PDA that Marshall and I had ever shown. I really should not have been as surprised as I was.

Above the picture was a tweet from a fan account that read, “Em and (Y/N) really are the real life versions of that one line in Sk8er Boi”. The picture had a white bar above it with black text that included the aforementioned like from the famous Avril Lavigne song: “He was a punk, she did ballet, what more can I say?”

I couldn’t help but giggle to myself as I looked closer at the picture. Whoever had taken it had managed to perfectly capture Marshall’s serious looking face, while also getting in the slight smile I had on my face while I kissed his cheek. It was the perfect picture to show how polar opposites we were, while also just being funny to see Marshall looking so serious while being so sweet.

Marshall was sitting on the other side of the couch watching football as I received the message from Hailie, and my giggle caused him to look over at me and raise an eyebrow.

“What are you laughing at?” he asked.

I moved closer and held my phone up so he could see the image. I saw his eyes looking over the screen before he looked at me and said, “I don’t get it.”

I laughed. “It’s just a joke. It’s pointing out how different the two of us are in the image. So like you’re all serious and I’m all soft. I think it’s funny.”

I rested against him as I went on scrolling on my phone. Marshall didn’t say anything else about the image, but I could feel hid body tensing against mine. I knew he was thinking about something, and I was almost positive I knew exactly what that something was.

After nearly an hour of the silence, besides the sounds of the game coming from the screen, I tilted my head back to look up at Marshall. His eyes were staring straight forward at the TV, not making any acknowledgements that I was there at all.

“Penny for your thoughts?” I asked.

He shrugged in response. I sat up so I could actually look at him. “Marshall? Come on, what’s up?”

He shrugged again, but this time he added, “Nothing.”

“You forget that I know when you’re thinking about something. Is it about the meme I showed you? It’s just a joke, I didn’t mean to upset you with it.”

“You didn’t upset me,” he said. “I’m just thinking.”

“That’s usually pretty dangerous,” I teased. “What about?”

He didn’t respond at first. I didn’t want to push him, so I was about to let it go, until he said, “What if I’m not right for you because we’re so different?”

It caught me so off guard that my first reaction was to laugh a little, but when I saw the serious look on Marshall’s face I realized that he was being serious.

“Look at us in that picture,” he said, nodding towards my phone. “I look like I’m almost mad to be there, but you look all happy. You should be standing next to someone who is going to mirror your happiness in pictures like that.”

“Babe, this is just your public persona. I know that you’re happy to be with me, and you’ve mirrored my happiness in plenty of pictures. You really don’t have to worry about anything.”

“Maybe you should be with someone who is genuine even out in person, not someone who has such a negative public persona.”

I sighed and cupped Marshall’s face so he would look at me. “Listen here, you are not that persona you put on for the cameras. You have your reasons for that and I understand them, but just because you put that face on when we’re out in public does not mean I deserve someone better. There’s no one better for me than you, Marshall. I adore you so much, and you are the sweetest person in the world. Don’t let something like this get to you.”

For added measure, I pulled him forward to kiss him. He smiled at me as I pulled away and put an arm around my shoulders to pull me back into his side.

“That was corny as fuck,” he said.

I laughed and playfully elbowed him in the side.

hi i know it was short i’m sorry i hope you enjoyed it though

#eminem #eminem imagine #eminem x reader #marshall mathers #marshall mathers imagine #marshall mathers x reader #imagine #one shot #request #drabble #blurb #fanfiction #fanfic #fandom

[undertale-data]

[Image Description: an Undertale textbox with “INTRODUCTION AND DEMOGRAPHICS” in all caps in its middle. To its left and right are a radar screen and an egg, sun, and "WED" from the Dating Hub. End I.D.]

Our sample size consisted of a total of 2651 responses. We did not set any sort of age restriction to take the survey, and no other qualification than self identifying yourself as part of the Undertale fandom.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “AGE OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order, the results: 31%, or 812 responders, are 13-17 years old; 44% or 1160 are 18-24; 15%, or 398, are 25-30; 6%, or 158, are 31-40; 0%, or 6, are 41-50; 3%, or 91, preferred not to answer, and 1%, or 25, are 12 and below. End I.D.]

The age group most represented is composed of people between 18 to 24 years old (also known as emerging adults), corresponding to 44% of all participants. They are followed by teenagers aged 13 to 17 years old (31%) and young adults aged 25 to 30 years old (15%)

(Many more demographics under the cut.)

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “GENDER OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order, the results: 374, or 14%, are male; 1144, or 43%, are female; 789, or 30%, are nonbinary; 167, or 6%, identify as ‘other’, and 177, or 7%, prefer not to say. End I.D.]

In terms of gender, most people identified as female with a total of 43%, followed by nonbinary with 30% and male with 14%.  A significant amount of people responded with “Other,” explaining their identity (or questioning) more in depth.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “UNDERTALE FANDOM AND LGBT+ IDENTITY”. In clockwise order, the results: 1949, or 73%, identify as LGBT+; 293, or 11%, do not identify as LGBT+; 280, or 11%, are questioning; and 129, or 5%, prefer not to say. End I.D.]

Considering the great amount of LGBT+ representation present in Undertale, we decided to ask people whether they identify themselves as part of this community. The majority, 73%, has declared to be a part of it. It is relevant to add that 5% chose not to say, and 11% were questioning. It is possible that media containing well developed representation draws more people to it; many people said that the reason they liked certain characters was being able to feel represented as a minority.

[ID: a pie chart titled: “LOCATIONS OF UNDERTALE FANS”. In clockwise order its results: 1788 responders, or 67%, are from North America; 420 responders, or 16%, are from Europe; 141 responders, or 5%, are from Asia; 94 responders, or 4% are from South America; 83 responders, or 3%, are from Australia; 11 responders, or 0% are from the Pacific Islands; 22 responders, or 1% are from “Other” locations; 92 responders, or 4%, selected ”Prefer not to say.” End of ID.]

The internet has made the game known all over the world, which motivated us to look into the way its fans are distributed around the globe. It is important to consider that since this survey is in English, people were more likely to respond to it if they understood the language, whether it is their native language or not (like Vessel #1, who’s writing this paragraph). It would be interesting if other communities did a similar exercise in the future by translating the survey. 

Having said that, we present the results. To get these numbers some of the answers were distributed into their corresponding existing group, and at least three new categories were created.

North America: 1788 votes 

Europe: 420 

Asia: 141 votes

South America: 94 votes

Australia: 83 votes

The most represented area is North America, which is no surprise considering it’s composed by a majority of native English speakers. It should also be noted that considering Toby Fox is from the US, it makes sense that people with a similar cultural background would more likely hear about Undertale and join the fandom. Europe follows with 420 votes, which could be due to their usage of the English language either as a native language or a frequently taught second one. Asia has a similar situation, however, if we take global population estimates (e.g: 141 per 4.561 billion in the case of Asia compared to Europe with 420 fans in an area with a population of around 746 million people), we can see that the density of Asian fans is drastically lower. After that we have both South America and Australia with a similar amount of votes. In those cases, knowledge of the English language may also factor into the density. Common social media used around the world could also be a factor but we do not have enough data to draw any conclusions.

92 people preferred not to specify and 50 people answered the survey with “Other”, giving their explanation. A few of these responses were put in bigger categories (Canada is in North America, for example). Besides them, the most notable group were Pacific Islanders, making up 11 people, 3 more than Africa. Due to their sizes, further investigation is needed to know if this is a replicable result or just the product of the places the survey was able to reach this time.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “YEAR FANS FIRST EXPERIENCED UNDERTALE”. In clockwise order, its results: 937 responders, or 35%, experienced it in 2015; 687, or 26%, experienced it in 2016; 231, or 9%, experienced it in 2017; 181, or 7%, experienced it in 2018; 123, or 5%, experienced it in 2019; 145, or 5%, experienced it in 2020; 88, or 3%, experienced it in 2021; 231, or 9%, don’t know when they experienced it, and 25, or 1%, have never experienced Undertale. End I.D.]

We asked about the exposure to the source material. After all, to be a fan of something, you should know about it. The biggest proportion of fans experienced Undertale for the first time in 2015 and 2016, with those two years amounting for more than half of our sample. As for people who have only started playing during this year, they represent 3% of all participants.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled “YEAR FANS FIRST EXPERIENCED DELTARUNE”. In clockwise order, its results: 1585 responders, or 60% of those responding, experienced Deltarune in 2018; 275, or 10%, experienced Deltarune in 2019; 213, or 8%, experienced it in 2020; 126, or 5%, experienced it in 2021; 115, or 4%, don’t know; 253, or 10%, have not played but want to; 77, or 3%, have not played and don’t plan to; and 7, or 0%, do not know what Deltarune is. End I.D.]

Many people are familiar with Deltarune as well. Most of them played the first chapter of the game as it was released in 2018, and other people followed in the next few years. Among the people that didn’t play, 253 manifested interest in playing in the future, while 77 stated they knew of the game’s existence but did not plan on playing it.

[Image Description: a pie chart titled "HOW FANS FOUND UNDERTALE". In clockwise order, its results: 870 responders, or 33%, saw someone play it online; 576 responders, or 22%, were introduced by a friend; 539, or 20%, saw fancontent first; 195, or 7%, read reviews or recommendations on social media; 63, or 3%, came through the Kickstarter before release; 50, or 2%, came through a different fandom; 34, or 1%, came by following Toby Fox, Temmie Chang, or other collaborators; 221, or 8%, came through another way; and 101, or 4%, don't remember how. End I.D.]

33% of responders found Undertale by watching someone play it online.  The next largest categories were those who were introduced by friends or saw fancontent first, comprising 22% and 20%, respectively.  These statistics are indicative of the love that fans have for Undertale: they want to share the game with others, whether by creating and sharing fancontent, or just by talking about the game positively enough to inspire others to give it a chance.  In the “other” category, many fans mentioned specific fanworks or AUs as their reasoning for giving Undertale a chance.  Other common answers in the “other” category were through the soundtrack, through memes, through connections to Homestuck, and through curiosity about the infamous fandom.  One humorous response that stuck out said, “I was searching for the word ‘sand’ and had wrote ‘sans’ by wrong.”

#undertale fandom census #undertale #demographics #results

[shallitickleyournerdbutton]

After the heartache of the Volume 8 finale, I would like to return to a happier point in the show and suggest some memes/jokes that I like to think the students at Beacon would have had. More closely inline with the RWBY Chibi-verse, than the actual show - where Nothing Bad Ever Happened.

"Who's child is this?" being used to refer to Ruby - the youngest student at Beacon - when she's left unsupervised and/or doing something odd.

"I'd let Glynda punish/whip me for one corn chip."

Every now and again "Missing - Have you seen this person?" posters for Professor Peach will pop up around campus. No one knows who it is that keeps making them.

Vomit Boy candids being taken and shared any time Jaune is Suffering™️ on some form of transport.

The Great One plush of Pyrrha exists in-universe... and becomes the go-to prize for any stupid competition between the students. There's at least a dozen of these dolls on campus now, owned by various people and won as "spoils of war."

There's a dedicated chalkboard in the combat room for tallying how many times Nora has launched someone into the stratosphere. Notable mentions are listed on the board alongside her of other people who have achieved this feat - including Yang, Yatsuhashi, and Glynda.

(She launched both Port and Oobleck one day when they kept annoying her. Sometimes, their screams can still be heard if you listen closely enough.)

"There's that old guy again..." "Oh, shopkeep? Yea, he's everywhere. Don't think too much about it."

This leads to "Don't think too much about it." becoming something of a slogan for every time anything unusual happens.

"Candy canes, kids! One for Sun Wukong, one for Yang Xiao-Long, ooh four for Coco Adel, you go Coco!"

"I--"

"Andnoneforweissschneebye~"

Team STRQ having something akin to legend status at Beacon, whispered in hushed voices for fear and reverence of their names. There's a war between the students regarding team JNPR as their successors vs. the students who insist JNPR are not anywhere near worthy of such a title.

"How many team CRDLs does it take to beat Pyrrha?"

Blurry fancam-style videos of the Qrow vs. Winter fight out in the courtyard being traded around like baseball cards with other students. Some try and manufacture a "rematch" of this with the materials they've got - trying to get Ruby and Weiss to fight each other. 

That weird sing-song "HellOooOo~" that Yang sometimes does being mimicked by everyone. And I mean everyone.

Any time there's a significant lull in conversations or classes, someone often asks "Why are we here?" which never fails to make everyone in the vicinity groan.

"Ozpin is compensating for something" jokes about his office chair - including at least one popular response being "it's the war crimes", without them knowing just how accurate they actually are.

"On a scale of Ren-Nora, how excited do you want me to be?"

"Ladies Love Lavender" referring to Lisa Lavender having her own in-universe fandom mostly comprised of women. (Lavender being associated with lesbians irl, and I just think this would be funny.)

The sight of Ren just picking up and carrying Nora away from something is so commonplace that other people start doing it to their friends when they Need To Stop.

"Why is Blake's bow so big?" "Because it's full of secrets."

Blake being a closet faunus being such a poorly hidden secret that by the time she finally takes off the bow no one actually even notices. 

The betting pool surrounding exactly what it is in Ozpin's cup - coffee being one of the least popular options, and souls being the top choice.

Using Yatsuhasi as a unit of measurement. 

Photoshopping adorable images of Velvet onto various "cute" animal memes.

Everyone wanting to be spanked by Coco Adel. 

"I'd let Fox blow me up too."

"Why is Weiss' hair so long?" "To reflect the length of her father's crimes."

Everyone mimicking Pyrrha's memetic "I'm sorry!" anytime they apologise for anything. Even going as far to do it while apologising to things that don't require apologies - like inanimate objects.

"Are Port and Oobleck, you know... 💅?"

In fact, just that 💅 being used to refer to a large number of people at Beacon. Actual LGBT students picking this up and using it towards grimm when they're attacked to question the sexuality/homophobia of the grimm targeting them over their peers.

Threatening Neptune with water anytime he flirts with a girl who is clearly Not Interested in him.

No one knowing who, exactly, the other two members of team SSSN are - with wild theories abounding about who they may be. Popular choices include Shopkeep, Zwei, and Professor Peach.

This persists even after their tournament fights where they're shown. Scarlet and Sage are perfectly content with this, and participate.

"Arslan's/Pyrrha's back must be aching from constantly carrying her entire team."

And the respective responses of, "Reese/Nora are alright."

Similar jokes about Glynda also carrying the entire faculty/academy on her back.

"Salutations!"

The war between the "Irondaddy" fanbase, and his haters - who refer to him with various derogatory versions of his name. "Metalpenis", "Coppercock", "Chromeshaft", etc.

Anytime someone is doing something ~questionable~ donning a pair of glasses and/or imitating Oz or Oobleck pushing them back up their nose with accompanying menacing body language. (Kubrick Stare optional.)

Mercury having a foot fetish, courtesy of the people who caught him sniffing shoes at the festival.

"Did <character> just die?" "You know, it was really unclear." any time someone takes some insane damage in a fight and isn't seen for some time afterwards.

Everyone trying to locate and get a pic of the ~mysterious~ fourth member of team CMSN, who has only ever been spotted once - her tournament fight in the first round. Beacon's version of "Where's Wally?"

The Sympathy Fund for Emerald and her one-sided crush on Cinder. "She could honestly do so much better."

People offering themselves up as tribute to spar with Pyrrha/Yang/Coco/Sun just so they can be beaten up by the hottest people on campus.

"I drink milk!" being used as a defensive argument in wildly inappropriate contexts.

Naming grimm really boring names and attempting to keep them as pets. 

The innumerous times Port has allowed a "zoo-break" to happen under his watch and everyone having to assist in recovering his prized subjects.

"Where the fuck are all the fourth years?" "Ozpin's soul collection."

Candid shots of Glynda Suffering™️ being shared similarly to the ones of Vomit Boy.

Ranking people based on their Patience Levels - Pyrrha, Ren, Glynda, Emerald, and Fox being frequent top markers based on the bullshit they put up with from their respective teams.

"Saint Pyrrha" being a common nickname for her, and her neverending niceness towards people who absolutely do not not deserve it.

Weiss' "Hey!" being replicated amongst the student body and slowly growing more and more high-pitched in its replication until it eventually just becomes a shrill noise. Even so, everyone still knows what it means - and Weiss is absolutely unamused by all of this.

In fact, a lot of early!Weiss' comments being mercilessly mocked by everyone - "I'm a victim!" being one of them.

Renowned fear permitting amongst the student body regarding Yang's red eyes meaning Serious Business. Morphs into references of "going full Yang" to mean having rage-fuelled temper tantrums.

"Never miss a beat, never miss a beat" becoming a mantra for focusing on a task. This inspires several remixes of Neon saying it, and again with no one knowing who it is making them.

By all means, feel free to add any more that you all think of! I could use a laugh!

Also, check the notes for additions!

#rwby #rwby vol 8 #ruby rose #weiss schnee #penny polendina #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #jaune arc #pyrrha nikos #lie ren #nora valkyrie #coco adel #velvet scarlatina #cinder fall #emerald sustrai #glynda goodwitch #ozpin #oobleck #professor port #sun wukong #neptune vasilias #professor oobleck #winter schnee #qrow branwen #professor Ozpin #james ironwood

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

*body slams your ask box* Request? REQUEST! How about... Red Son being taken around town by any character of your choosing because he's been stuck in his workshop too long and that boy needs some fresh air and maybe some nice snacks.

YA DARN RIGHT HE DOES

And I know just the person for the job- hgakskKHGAWKFM;OWE

2k

_______

It had not been his intention to keep the phone.

Truly it had been nothing more than an accident, but somehow it ended up in his pocket, and somehow she figured it out, and the moment he’d hacked it open, all the information had been previously deleted aside from a single number saved with a green heart and a text message: AND HE FINALLY MANAGES TO OPEN THE PHONE, GIVE THE MAN A PRIZE! (The prize is the phone. You’re welcome)

He had returned the text with something less than polite without really thinking, and then the back and forth had started.

Now he wasn’t… used to talking to anyone with as much frequency as the Dragon Girl messaged him with. It was… exhausting some days to simply even consider picking up the phone. Other days he would become immersed in a project and simply… forget, only to pick up the phone three days later and find two hundred and sixty-six unanswered texts, all just as cheerful and snarky as the last.

Red Son himself was a morning person as well as a night owl, but somehow regardless of when he responded she always seemed to be awake at that exact moment to message him back immediately.

He wasn��t sure if he was exasperated and annoyed by it, or appreciated it.

(Those moments when he’d finally gather up enough energy and drag himself away from his projects to text a two word response, that was already much too real and close to a furnace spilling over it’s molton hot secrets, and she’s be there and listen and he’d suddenly have that little extra energy to add a fire emoji to combat her forty-two assorted dragons and hearts.)

(He appreciated it more than he should have.)

The conversations weren’t anything very meaningful subject wise. She wouldn’t try to pry any personal details out of him like he would have expected from an enemy given the chance, but instead they were mainly just pictures of food, an assortment of animal videos, memes, and images of half-built and fully built bikes. It took him longer than he would have liked to piece together that she built them herself.

After that there were long discussions of places to buy the higher quality metals and pieces so they could build their equipment required in the creation of their vehicles. He found himself offering to build her specific parts she couldn’t find more than once. She would seem to notice he had offered without actually thinking of what it would entail and always turned him down.

Again, something he wasn’t sure he was annoyed by or grateful for.

The first time she called him, he nearly burnt a hole through his desk. If it were not suitably fire-proofed by him personally, (due to previous accidents in the past,) it likely would have been a charred stump. He still wasn’t sure how the phone survived. She probably had them made fire-proof, that sounded like something she’d do.

“How’s my favourite Fire Demon?”

“Why are you calling me?”

“Missed your screechy voice cracks.”

“My voice does not crack--”

And before he knew it that became a regular thing. To have her on call, to watch her streams as he worked. To listen to her voice when the silence would let his thoughts get too loud. It felt almost like… having real company, something other than the bull clones, or brief summons to his parents, someone that… cared.

A dangerous word. Care.

He didn’t care.

(He did care.)

(She acted like she cared.)

(They were enemies though, so it didn’t matter.)

(It didn’t matter.)

(When had he started to feel this lonely?)

(It had been that way for a long time, he’d just forgotten--)

The phone rang and he answered it without looking at the caller. He didn’t need to, it was just the green heart emoji on the screen he hadn’t gotten around to changing yet.

“I saw that!”

“Saw what?”

“You subscribed to my channel, Red Boy!”

“I haven’t the slightest idea what you’re talking about, Dragon Girl.” He had to fight to keep the smile down.

“You diiiiiiid! Oh! I’m gonna have so much fun telling Mk about this~”

And that was another thing. All the Noodle Boy propaganda. She talked about him so often Red Son almost felt like it was a group chat rather than just the two of them. He wondered if the Monkey King’s successor would be interested in a group chat--

No.

No. Absolutely not. Things were already out of hand as it was. A group chat would be… no. That was taking it too far. If it was just the two of them he could pretend this was just an accident, that it didn’t mean anything. Add a third and he knew denial wouldn’t help him, especially if that third was sunshine Noodle Boy. No.

“DBK Fam’s been real quiet since New Years,” she commented in one call. “Everything okay on your end?”

It was odd. To be asked that.

“Red Son?”

“Fine,” he managed to force out through the lump in his throat. “I’m not sure what Mother and Father are planning, they haven’t really been keeping me in the loop.”

It took more than he would have liked to admit that.

As always she seemed to know. And let the subject drop fairly quickly after that.

“What are you doing right now?”

She asked that every once in a while. Red Son’s answer remained rather unchanged for the most part throughout the weeks.

“Working.” Blunt, to the point, he forced his wrench to move to secure the bolt as he said it, making the word come out a strained grunt.

“Still?” spoken incredulously. “Dude, have you even left your shop at all this week?”

It wasn’t the question that made him pause so much as the tone in which it was asked. The incredulous surprise, and the… concern. Worry.

He glanced down at the phone, currently laying flat face up on his desk, on speaker mode as he worked. The little green heart emoji stared back at him.

“I picked up a few bolts not too long ago.”

“Red Son, that was two weeks ago,” what would ordinarily be a deadpan voice was marred by something higher and tenser. “Are you telling me you haven’t left your workshop at all since then?”

“I don’t need to leave,” he told her with more honesty than he should have. “I send the Bull Clones out for anything I need, and I’m able to continue my projects uninterrupted so long as no human comes knocking on my door, or my mother doesn’t pay another surprise visit. It really is simply convenient.”

“Don’t fire demons need to get powered by the sun or something?”

“I have windows.”

“Do you?” her voice was unamused.

“I have… a few… small windows.”

“I’m staging an intervention,” she said flatly, startling him.

“What?”

“Get ready to go, I’ll be there in ten.”

“You don’t even know where I--”

She hung up on him.

He stared at the phone for a solid two minutes, unsure of how serious she had been when she said she would be over in ten minutes.

A part of him simply wanted to go back to welding and dismiss her… threat? (It felt like a threat. A friendly one, but a threat nonetheless.) But knowing Dragon Girl she was probably completely serious. Then again, no one knew where this specific workshop was since his mother hadn’t bothered to come find it yet, so it was likely the threat did not hold any weight.

He still found himself letting his hair down from it’s three-day old messy tie to hazardously comb through it anyways.

“Just a precaution,” he told himself. The tie had been getting uncomfortable anyways. He glanced down at his grease streaked darkened work clothes. Changing seemed like too much of an effort when she probably wouldn’t…

No. She definitely would.

Could she?

She was persistent, she would probably find a way to the workshop somehow. It might at least take her more than ten minutes however. He could simply wait for the Bull clones along the perimeter to alert him if she did appear and change then if need be. For now he would simply continue with what he’d been in the middle of doing.

He probably should have been less surprised when the door was kicked open with a loud BANG and enough force to make it shudder on its hinges, making him nearly jump out of his skin.

“GET UP, FIRE BOY, WE’RE GOING OUT!”

It took him a moment to catch his welder, flailing wildly and just managing to snatch it before it fell behind him. He turned it off quickly and smacked the edge of his visor to open it so he could see and give the dragon girl an incredulous look. “Wh-wha--how--? What--? How did you even--?” he spluttered as she swaggered forward into his previously secluded--how had she even found it--workshop as though she was a common visitor rather than a first-time intruder. “How did you get past the Bull Clones?”

“Do you even technically need to use a welder? She asked, instead of answering as she reached his work table and leaned over his half-welded metal pieces.

He slid it away from her with a grunt of effort before snarking back. “Do you even technically need to drive?”

She cackled at the comparison--he was not proud of the laugh, it was annoying--and gave him a grin. He’d forgotten how different it was to be in the same room as her in person. Video call just didn’t capture the way she seemed to fill the space with every move she made, effortlessly garnering attention like it was the easiest thing to have eyes on her and she couldn’t care about them in the slightest.

They were so different. She had the attention he fought so hard for and couldn’t care less, and he felt invisible unless he was shouting at the top of his lungs and sparking into a bonfire.

He wasn’t shouting now though, and she was looking right at him.

“Ready to go?”

He blinked. “Huh?”

“I gave you ten minutes, are you ready?”

They both glanced down at his grease stained overalls and sleeveless turtleneck that had seen better days. Red Son grimaced.

“Come ooooon,” she complained, leaning even closer, Red Son responding to the action by leaning back in his chair, further away. “You’ve been in here for days. It’s time for the Bull Prince to get some Fresh Air!”

“Fresh what-now,” he deadpanned.

She ignored him.

“So get up! Fix that greasy head of hair of yours,” she leaned over and ruffled his hair forcefully until he swatted her hand away with an outraged noise. “We’re going out!”

“I already did fix it,” he muttered, smoothing his hair back down with a frown.

“Well, come on then! Out we go!”

She picked him up off his bench with no visible effort and set him on his feet before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the door. The Bull Clones did absolutely nothing as he was dragged past them, and it wasn't until they were on the sidewalk that he processed what was happening.

“W-wait--”

Even though he didn’t say it as loud as he should have, she stopped anyway, turning around to look at him intently, startling him with her complete attention which he still wasn’t used to.

His ears heated and he looked away. “The Son of the Demon Bull King should not be seen in public in such attire.”

She tilted her head to look at him for a moment, then shrugged and said simply. “Then you’re not the Son of DBK today.”

“Pardon?” was all that came out, incredulous and confused. “What do you--?”

She only smiled like she had been expecting the argument and pulled out a hat seemingly from nowhere pulling it over his head firmly, obscuring his view.

He spluttered, and while he was distracted pulling it up enough so he could see, she removed her jacket and draped it over his shoulders, slinging her arm over his shoulders and pulling him close. “You’re my friend! Red Son!”

He stared at her.

She beamed right back.

He glanced back at his workshop, then at the jacket hanging off of him precariously, and finally back up at the Dragon Girl.

His throat felt a little dry and his skin prickled slightly.

Very quietly, because he didn’t want to risk the Bull Clones overhearing, and because he knew she would listen regardless of how softly he spoke, he responded.

“Okay.”

With the green hat, Dragon Girl’s  jacket, and the attention grabbing loud girl leading him around, no one spared him a second glance, but with her smiling back at him every few seconds and chattering to him, listening to his contributions to the conversation… Red Son found he didn’t mind it so much.

Dragon Girl dragged him around like they had somewhere to be but without any actual destination. They simply entered any stores she saw his eyes lingering on, or ones she thought looked cool. They exited one with an array of snacks and drinks and found a bench to sit on so they could enjoy their spoils.

He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he’d devoured at least half of the large supply of snacks.

“We should invite Mk next time,” Mei said, leaning back against the bench, arms behind her head.

It was an offhand comment, one with very little actual intent behind it, more of a musing than an actual suggestion, though it implied that there would be a next time which he found himself not… hating the idea of. Walks in the city with snacks included after a long day sounded… nice. She mentioned Noodle Boy a lot, there wasn’t any clear intention to actually invite him, and there wouldn’t be until Red Son showed he was comfortable enough.

“Hrm,” Red Son said, his mouth full.

Mei glanced at him in surprise. “That was a yes.”

Red Son swallowed the last bite of his snacks and carefully folded the wrapper so he had an excuse not to meet her eyes.

“Neither of you are… terrible company…”

“Wow,” Mei said, but she was grinning wildly. “Thanks.”

He scoffed, not bothering to lean away when she brought their faces closer. “Just so long as…” He swallowed, suddenly unsteady. The food in his stomach churned. He stared down at the wrapper in his hands that, a small square, squished until he could’t fold it anymore.

“Hey,” her voice was light.

He glanced at her.

She had her usual smile, although this one was slightly softer around the edges, something reassuring about it. “Me, you and Mk. That’s the party.” She offered a hand, curled into a fist. “We won’t try to make it bigger.”

He chewed on the inside of his lip.

“Not until you’re ready.”

She held her hand steady until he exhaled carefully, then reached over and tapped his fist against hers.

“Alright.”

Somehow… it wasn’t all that hard to trust her.

And it was worth it anyways, when she grabbed his hand and dragged him to the noodle shop to barge into Noodle Boy’s room and declare an impromptu movie night. That lonely feeling clawing at his insides lost its hold and slipped away, overtaken by the laughter and voices of his two not-nemesis's.

It was weird, wasn’t it? He found he didn’t mind this kind of weird though.

Mei gave him a ride back to his workshop later, dropping a bag of snacks and water bottles onto his desk before waving goodbye and racing off in a flash of green.

The phone in his pocket buzzed.

~Red Son has been added to the group chat~

~RawrXD has changed chat name to “PARTY OF THREE BABY WOOOOOO”~

RawrXD: RED

RawrXD: BOY

RawrXD: IN

Mmm...Monkie: RED SON

RawrXD: THE

RawrXD: HOOOOUUSE

Mmm...Monkie: :D!!!!

RawrXD: WHAT IS UUUUUUUUP

~Red Son has changed their name to “I.Am.With.Peasents”~

RawrXD: HAHAHAHHA

Mmm...Monkie: D:

RawrXD: We gotta get you that on a T-shirt for hang out nights

I.Am.With.Peasents: Hello, Noodle boy, Dragon Girl.

RawrXD: WELCOME TO THE GROUP CHAT, FIRE BOY >:D

RawrXD: THERE’S NO ESCAPING US NOW MWAHAHAHAHA

Red Son settled down on his bench and found he didn’t mind that so much.

#KNOX WRITES (me) #Prompts #Asks #Skellebonez #Traffic Light Trio #Mk #Monkie Kid #LEGO Monkie Kid #Red Son #Mei #I COULDN'T JUST NOT ADD MK OKAY #I HAD TO KEEP IT BREIF OR ELSE THIS WAS GONNA BE TEN TIMES LONGER BUT HGKAMSDOFAWEF #THEM #CAN'T IMAGINE A RED SON AND MEI WITHOUT AND MK SORRY/NOT SORRY AT ALL SKSMDOFWE #ALSO MIGHT'VE WROTE THIS THREE TIMES IN THREE DIFFERENT WAYS SO I'M CALLING IT AND THROWING IT INTO THE VOID WITHOUT EDITING ANY SPELLING #RIP TO Y'ALL HAHAHAHA #HGASLK;DFJ;AGHOIFAWEF #PROMPT 2 DONE THANK YOU SKELLE THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN #ONTO PROMPT 3 #Literally always need more Red Son and Mei friendship #and more traffic light trio #love them

[wheatley-imagine-scenarios]

A and A

Okay I'm just gonna give context first because this is gonna end up getting posted and maybe two people will know what's going on. It's a Q and A where one person know the question and answers it (in this case being GLaDOS), while the other two (Wheatley and Rick) don't know the question and have to answer for themselves based off of the first person's answer. Get it? No? Well too bad, here's a script:

'Out of the three of you, who is the least vanilla?'

GLaDOS: It wouldn't surprise me if it was Rick, but I'm going to assume me.

Wheatley: Uh, I don't think I'm gonna stand a chance-

GLaDOS: *nods towards camera*

Wheatley: So I reckon it would be a toss up between you two.

Rick: I think it would be me cause I've got really strong legs.

GLaDOS: Please extrapolate as to what your legs are doing in these situations.

Rick: Kicking.

GLaDOS: Oh. My god.

Wheatley: *laughing even though he doesn't know what's funny yet*

GLaDOS: So the question was out of us three, who is the least vanilla. So, who has the most exotic sex.

Wheatley: Ohh.

GLaDOS, to Rick: And apparently you would be kicking.

Wheatley: I was right, it definitely wasn't me.

GLaDOS: I mean, you had such vanilla sex that you procreated.

Wheatley: Yeah,,

GLaDOS: You basic bitch.

Wheatley: I did sex for what it was made for and nothing else.

GLaDOS: God, you fucking catholic-

Rick: How 'bout you catho-lick my balls.

'How do you feel about frogs?'

GLaDOS: I like them, but I don't know what to do with them.

Rick: I mean, I've considered just, just cutting them right off, honestly.

GLaDOS: Wow. Harsh.

Wheatley: I wanna see how far I can stretch them.

GLaDOS: Oh no, they'll die.

Wheatley: 30 centimeters.

GLaDOS: Holy shit. That's a wide frog.

Wheatley: Thank you.

GLaDOS: The question was 'how do you feel about frogs?'.

Wheatley: Very stretchy!

GLaDOS: Apparently so.

'On average, how many times do you get recognized in public?'

GLaDOS: Honestly, almost every time I go outside.

Wheatley: Specifically only when I get my hand stuck in a pringles can.

Rick: *laughing already*

GLaDOS: That's very embarrassing for you.

Wheatley: I know,,

Rick: It only happens to me

GLaDOS: Mhm

Rick: On a wednesday

GLaDOS: Oh?

Rick: At 12 pm exactly. It happens for about an hour, but it's very intense.

Wheatley: Every wednesday?

Rick: Wednesday. Intense.

GLaDOS: I don't want to-

Wheatley: IN A TENT?!

Rick: What was the question??

GLaDOS: Oh, it was 'when do you get recognized in public?' And I guess it's just that every time you get your hand stuck in a pringles can, someone's like "there he is."

Wheatley: E v e r y t i m e. "Oh not again- Aw fuck they're watching me"

'How long is your big toe?'

GLaDOS: I think it's quite average.

Rick: Sounds kinda like a willy.

Wheatley: It does-

GLaDOS: Oh, I wouldn't choose something as silly as that.

Rick: It's fucking massive.

GLaDOS: I have noticed that.

Rick: Yeah. Painful.

GLaDOS: *turns to Wheatley* How about you?

Wheatley: I don't believe in it.

GLaDOS: It's a quantifiable fact.

Wheatley: Nope. Don't believe in it. Don't trust people who believe in it. Until I see it with my very own eyes.

GLaDOS: You have.

Wheatley: Well, it could be an illusion, could be mirrors.

GLaDOS: They just wanted to know how big your toe was.

Wheatley: I,, don't have any. It's just a slab of meat down there. So it's just like- *slaps table with hands to simulate feet slabs* Plat plat, like a duck.

GLaDOS: So, you just have hooves?

'What are your thought on this image? *shows barney meme that maybe I'll add later*

GLaDOS: It fills my body with an indescribable amount of dread.

Rick: Where as for me, I see it as more of a responsibility. A duty.

Wheatley: I think it tastes like yummy ice cream.

GLaDOS: You can taste it?

Wheatley: Mhm!

GLaDOS: What kind of ice cream does it taste like?

Wheatley: Purple.

GLaDOS: That is,, good. The question asked your thoughts on this image *shows the image*

Wheatley: Ohhhh,, Purple!

GLaDOS: Where as you find it to be a responsibility.

Rick: I do.

'Has a girlfriend ever pegged you?'

GLaDOS: Not yet, but you know, if the situation arises.

Rick: I've done it hundreds of times.

GLaDOS: Holy shit.

Rick: Hundreds.

GLaDOS: Jesus Christ.

Rick: I have a problem, and I need- I need help. You know what, once we're done with this, I'm gonna do it again.

GLaDOS: Can you at least wait until you get home?

Rick: No, No! I'm gonna do it in your garden.

GLaDOS: Not again.

Rick: Yes!

Wheatley: I don't believe in it.

GLaDOS: Is it like a masculinity thing?

Wheatley: No, I'm a coward?

GLaDOS: *struggles to keep composure* This was the question *shows them*

Rick: *starts wheezing and dying of laughter*

Wheatley: *nods* Yeah-

GLaDOS: You don't believe in it, but mostly it's because you're a coward.

Wheatley: Yeah, I choose not to believe in it cause I'm scared.

'Favorite food and least favorite food'

GLaDOS: I'll go with zucchini and pizza

Rick: For me it's a lot of milk.

GLaDOS: And?

Rick: Just milk.

GLaDOS: Both?

Rick: Just milk-

Wheatley: Milk and milk.

GLaDOS: That's a fucked up relationship, then.

Rick: Just milk me up.

Wheatley: Fish and chips, and a really long hot dog.

*both start wheezing*

Wheatley: Like, too long.

GLaDOS: Why one and not the other?

Wheatley: Well one's very intimidating and then the other's a really long hot dog.

*both laugh again*

Wheatley, nervously: What was the question, GLaDOS?

GLaDOS: The question was 'what is your least favorite food and most favorite food?'

Rick: I do hate milk, I don't drink milk.

GLaDOS: But apparently you love it as well.

Rick: But I also love it, it's just a terrible love-hate relationship.

'How does one get a boyfriend?'

GLaDOS: Just give them a little lick *shakes head slightly towards camera*

Wheatley: Just one little lick?

GLaDOS: That'll do it *mouths 'it wont't' to the camera*

Rick: I like to get one of those sticker machines where you click the thing and it spells out names and stuff, so I just spell out, you know, 'Property of me', 'my shit, hands off' and then I just stick it on, on most things.

GLaDOS: Wow. Genius, that is legally binding.

Rick: Yeah.

GLaDOS: Incredible.

Wheatley: I stuff my mouth with it like a little chipmunk.

GLaDOS: You stuff your mouth with w h a t? What do you stuff your mouth with?

Wheatley: And I save it for winter.

GLaDOS: So to be clear, you are voring potential boyfriends.

Rick: *laughing*

Wheatley: ,, y e p.

GLaDOS: And storing them for the winter.

Wheatley: I- I don't want them to leave.

GLaDOS: That'll do it- But- They survive?

Wheatley: Yeah, I feed them.

GLaDOS: Ohh.

Wheatley: I put a little,, Chex Mix in there.

'You ever want to have kids?'

GLaDOS: Probably not my own.

Rick: I see them all the time and it drives me nuts. I wish I could just chuck it outside and leave it out there.

GLaDOS: Thank you, finally someone said it. What do you think?

Wheatley: I only play with my wife's, I just play with hers.

GLaDOS: True, and good-

Wheatley: Yeah, I don't have one of my own, so I just play with hers instead.

GLaDOS: *processes and takes a deep breath* CUCK

Wheatley: *WHEEZES*

Rick: :O h u h

GLaDOS: I almost passed out just then, I got such a head rush, that just threw me so much.

Rick: She hasn't said 'cuck' in 10 years.

GLaDOS: The question was 'do you want to have kids?' You play with your wife's, but you don't have your own.

Wheatley: I-

GLaDOS: That's not your kid??

Wheatley: Oh, and you said 'cuck', I thought you said 'cock'.

'What's your count?'

GLaDOS: Uh, six?

Wheatley: I've had just the one, but it's a really good one.

GLaDOS: Woah. Congrats.

Wheatley: Thank you :)

GLaDOS: If it ain't broke.

Rick: Six entire ducks

GLaDOS: OH MY GOD- That's six entire crimes.

Rick: At least.

'Do you stand up to wipe your ass after you poop?'

GLaDOS: No, because I'm not a freak.

Rick: Well, I'm a nasty freak-

GLaDOS: I know.

Rick: I will just go wild.

GLaDOS: I am aware.

Wheatley: Where as I happen to know that GLaDOS is lying. I saw her do it.

GLaDOS: That's illegal.

Wheatley: I filmed it.

GLaDOS: That's illegal.

Wheatley: And, I've already published it online.

GLaDOS: Oh my god.

Wheatley: With subtitles.

Rick: Oh, nice, that's very inclusive of you.

Wheatley: Yeah, all very descriptive as well.

Rick: I appreciate that.

GLaDOS: You know what? Now that I know it's inclusive, I'm okay with it. The question was 'do you stand up to wipe?'

#this #this was almost an entire script #minus like two questions that either didnt fit or werent that good #wheatley #glados #human wheatley #human glados #rick #rick adventure core #human rick #portal 2 #incorrect quotes

[phantomphangphucker]

Phic Phight: [REDACTED] “Oh Goddamnit. DANNY!”

Prompt Creator: @mr-lancers-english-class

Even Danny’s school projects cause ghostly issues and Lancer really should have seen this coming.

Alright fine, Lancer knew this was a bad idea. He knew it. And yet... here they all are, with each of his students doing their self-chosen presentations. And as he should have expected, Every. Single. One. has been on Phantom. Sure at least there’s been some variety. Star’s piece on his fashion and how that reflects on his personality and the era he died was actually fairly interesting (if it wasn’t for the fact that Phantom spiced up his jumpsuit with t-shirts and whatnot sometimes then this would have been a very boring one). Kwan also surprised him some, apparently he’s spent the past year or so sneaking photos of Phantom eating and did a piece on Phantom’s rather peculiar food tastes (who dips their pickles in milkshakes???) as well as effectively providing proof for the existence of ectoplasmic food (there’s no way any earth apples are neon green on the inside). Dash’s wasn’t even correctly calculated, trying to figure out how far Phantom could throw footballs based on his known strength and if he could kill someone by tackling them (disturbingly the answer -regardless of Dash’s bad math- was decidedly yes. Daniel seemed particularly disturbed). And Paulina’s was quite literally a badly written self-insert ship fan fic; the added drawings of what their child would look like only made it worse (Daniel left, not that Lancer could blame him. Lancer’s also glad for the ghost fight interrupting the presentation). Emilie’s was... disturbingly about ghost hunger and purposed the thesis that Phantom, for the good of the town, should eat the aggressor ghosts (he actually had to cut her off for getting too graphic).

But the single most interesting thing was that a ghost apparently caught wind of this and literally Every. Single. Presentation so far had words that were permanently replaced with [REDACTED], which, needless to say, caused some chaos when Samantha gave the very first presentation.

-

Lancer clicked his pen, crossing his legs and resting the evaluation sheet on his thigh, “alright, Samantha. Feel free to start whenever you please, though soon would be preferred”, by ‘preferred’ he had meant required, but no need to be mean. He chooses to ignore the goth teen's eyeroll.

Predictably the projected screen doesn’t work when she opens her file so Lancer has to spend ten minutes fiddling with the outdated tech that they wouldn’t give the school funding to replace. Eventually, he does get it up and running showing Ms. Manson’s title screen reading ‘Phantom And Hate Crimes Against Blood Blossoms’. Lancer’s positive ‘blood blossoms’ are a type of flower, figures she would do something nature-focused. She’d make for a great herbalist or botanist someday. He does catch Daniel and Tucker giving her ‘death glares’, as the kids call it, though; Samatha doesn’t look any less smug. The second page has what he thinks was supposed to be a detailed drawing of a flower but it’s severely pixilated, almost as if it been blurred; Samantha looks visibly upset so he’s going to assume something when wrong with the file or pasting format. He’s not marking on artistic capabilities though, so effort is effort there.

She quickly clicks to the next page, where the actual writing of the assignment is and looks decidedly pissed; Lancer even quirks an eyebrow since at least two-thirds of the words are a very bold noticeable [REDACTED]. Lancer watches her yank out her physical copy while glaring with murderous intent at Daniel -Lancer will have to dock him marks if he messed with another student's project- before looking at the physical copy in bafflement for a few seconds. Half the class shrieking when she drops the papers and basically launches herself over the desks at Daniel, “OH YOU LITTLE FUCKER!!!! HOW THE FUCK!”.

Lancer’s sighs and stands, “language, Ms. Manson”, moving to pick up the papers and quirking an eyebrow over them looking the same. Sighing again and eyeing Daniel, who’s being choked -or throttled perhaps?- by Samantha yet is grinning innocently. “Daniel, messing with other students' work is against student policy”, sighing yet again, “and I’ll let Star go while Samantha fixes her document”, summoning up the blonde while glaring at Daniel. Some days that boy was more trouble than he was worth but he was also insanely bright and had a heart of gold. Lancer knows he’ll do good things someday, and that’s why he still tries with him.

Half the class is snickering or laughing now and Star is very clearly trying not to laugh as she sets up.

However, as soon as it opens up the class is met with a very familiar sight. [REDACTED] litters every single page; he checked. And Star’s physical copy was in the same state.

Kwan blinks, “okay seriously, what is going on”, before scrambling to grab out his own physical copy; the rest of the class going wide-eyed and following suit. Lancer just puts his head in his hands and sighs very audibly while shaking his head. Why could nothing go right? Sighing again as the class erupts into noise.

“Mines all weird too!”.

“Same here!”.

“Okay there is no way Fenturd messed up everyone’s work”.

“And I actually tried on mine! It was about the merits of Phantom getting armour!”.

“Oh damn do we just get auto hundreds now? Please please please say yes”.

“Oh damn, Phantom would actually look awesome in armour”.

“I know right”.

“Can we just skip class entirely now?”.

“Oh my Zone a ghost messed with or work”.

“Holy Shit”.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! You don’t think Phantom did do you?”.

“Why the heck would he do that? How would he even know??????”.

“Oh I hope Phantom was inside my computer. That would be so hot”.

“Oh I don’t know, maybe someone told him or he overheard shit. He’s a ghost, he can be invisible. Heck, he could be here, right now, invisible”.

“Invisible and laughing at us”.

“No! No! Hold up! What if he doesn’t want us writing about him or maybe someone wrote some sus shit and he just nerfed us all for good measure”.

“That would mean Phantom totally read my stuff, aw Hell yeah man. That was some boss shit”,

Lancer sighs and stands up, “alright that’s enough”, sighing again because why did this have to happen to him, “and I apologies for blaming you earlier, Daniel”.

Samantha snaps, “oh no, I still blame him”, and continues glaring at the teen. Lancer suspects Samantha would continue blaming the boy even if it was firmly proven he wasn’t at fault.

Addressing the class again, “here’s what we’re going to do, you’re going to read off what of your projects you actually can and allude to the rest. Please reframe from repeating what you know was there beforehand as I’d rather not have whatever ghost responsible -Phantom or otherwise- come here pissed off”, glaring at few students who look slightly encouraged rather than discouraged by that prospect, “anyone who does will receive automatic zeroes”, ah and the encouraged looks have deflated. Good. Gesturing at Star, “you’re already up here, so do continue”. Better to not bring the clearly infuriated Samantha back to the front until she’s had some time to calm down.

Star nods and clears her throat, thankfully everyone quiets down. “O-okay, well, um”, gesturing at the screen, “I did my piece on Phantom’s sense of fashion and the cover image was one with him dressed in one of the Spook Sense stores meme shirts....”.

-

Lancer shakes away the memory, he honestly slightly regrets giving this project. But regardless right now is Daniel’s turn and Lancer is honestly slightly fearful of what his file is going to look like. Thankfully all their files were saved to his computer before the [REDACTED] debacle, so no one could go back in and edit theirs to add [REDACTED]’s for an easy grade. Lancer’s still not exactly sure how he’s supposed to mark assignments that were anywhere from one-fifth to one-third [REDACTED]. That word will be burned into his head after this grading period.

Lancer moves to find the boys file, but stares when clicking it crashes the computer. Not once. Not twice. But thrice. The fourth time rebooting the computer he inspects the file and is a bit dumbfounded, “Daniel, your entire file’s corrupted. The file type has even been changed to redacted, which I’m fairly sure, isn’t actually any possible file designation”. Everyone’s silent for a bit before bursting out into laughter.

“Just what the Zone did you write, Danny!”.

“Oh we so have to know what this is now”.

“Danny has the forbidden knowledge! We haft found him! The keeper of things forbidden and Ghostly! Haza!”.

“Ha! It was probably so lame that Phantom wanted to save him the embarrassment”.

Lancer sighs, but Daniel gestures Tucker up, “hey Tuck, feel like trying to fix the file”. Tucker chuckles and walks up, though apparently glaring at the boy. Based on Daniel’s smirk he finds this quite amusing.

Tucker does manage to make the file viewable at least. Lancer nods and leans back in his seat, “thank you, Mr. Foley”, while the file loads on screen.

Tucker sits back down with a head shake while Daniel stands at the front and gestures to the screen, “aight, as you can see from my not redacted title-”, that earns a couple laughs, “I did mine on Phantom’s portfolio of crime. Every single time our dear Phantom broke ghost law. Including such wonderful things as, that time he caused not one, not two, not even three, but five, prison breaks in one day. Or that time he invalidated a Observant spectator duel by bringing an inflatable sword”. Samantha slams a hand on her desk, “IT IS YOUR FAULT YOU DICK!”.

Lancer has some serious questions as Daniel clicks for the next page, the entire class going dead silent as a screen comprising of almost nothing but the word [REDACTED] shows. Lancer sighs very audibly. Eventually the class starts up again.

“Fenton... actually has forbidden knowledge”.

“If it wasn’t for the teacher computer saved thing I’d think he was fucking with us”.

“I mean... he is a Fenton, right?”.

“Okay the fact that this entire presentation is on ghost crimes is concerning alone. But they’re forbidden ghost crimes at that”.

“Shit I wanted the tea. Damnit”.

“Better question, how does Danny know?”.

Daniel clicking the button to go forward is very audible. And, Chicken Soup For The Soul, every single page is [REDACTED] to the point of being completely and utterly unintelligible. There are occasional lines pointing out how Phantom apparently ate confetti at a ghosts third wedding (which is apparently illegal for some reason) or that time he beat someone up with a violin that had a pie inside it (Lancer can see this one, Lancer himself has smacked a ghost with stranger).  Literally the only photo that isn’t blurred beyond recognition is one of Phantom in a prison uniform (Paulina was very vocal about liking men in uniform here). Lancer is absolutely positive the end of his conclusion ‘[REDACTED] are a bunch of [REDACTED]’ is an insult.

Samantha chucks a boot at his smirking face, “YOU IDIOT. Of course they were going to block you from talking about them. Ancients, I can’t believe you”. Tucker’s busy laughing into his hand.

“Oh my Zone, they know too”.

“They’re really earning that weirdo trio title, huh”.

Daniel snickers as he sits back down, “they broke into my room and wrecked that epic puzzle I was working on. They shoulda seen this shit coming. Literally”. Tucker snorts, “they probably did but couldn’t do anything else about it. They can’t stop you and your endless bullshit”.

“Damn fucking straight”.

Lancer isn’t going to claim to know what exactly they’re talking about but apparently Daniel effectively orchestrated this entire fiasco just to annoy some ghost. Lancer is honestly more impressed than disturbed. A for effort but an A- for making everyone's work nigh unusable.

End.

Prompt: For the last project of their senior year in high school, Mr. Lancer is letting his class do presentations on literally whatever topic they want. He is very, /very/ sure that this is going to go poorly, but that's a problem for later...

#Danny Phantom #phandom #phic phight #phic phight 2021 #danny #mr. lancer #sam #star #tucker #basically danny's entire english class #comedy #school projects #danny's a little shit #messing with the observants from afar #my writing #fan fic #phan phic #have a fic suck my dick #phantomphangphucker #gothmoth #thetribalmoth

[1ddiscourseoftheday]

Wed 7 Apr ‘21

Louis left Tulum and went to Mexico City, and we got airport pics from both ends: the gathered fans were told by his bodyguard that they should keep their distance but that yes, pictures would be allowed. Thank you Louis! We got to see him a little for the first time in so long, in videos of him walking by (and getting ready to walk by) and blurry pics of him with his guitar, and Oli and Charlie- I’m excited to someday see the footage of whatever they’re working on. But for now, finally some proper pictures of the long long hair, or at least the below the hat part, all flippy and like...LONG! It’s on his SHOULDERS! Early pics had some interesting shadows around an elbow, prompting a flurry of NeW TaTtoO?? excitement, but when more pics were posted we could see that no, his elbow remains the same, false alarm. Once that tattoo kerfuffle died down the interest refocused on his shirt, which featured- a whole damn pile of skulls!

Louis went through a long phase of wearing skull shirts a while back, and the fact that it was during a period of a lot of very pointed t-shirt messages (and that he kept doing it more than ever despite knowing what we were reading into it) seemed to reinforce the theory that he did in fact mean things by it, and seeing him say yes to fan photos while wearing this shirt for the occasion… well! WELCOME BACK public Louis, we MISSED YOU! Yesterday’s shirt was for the band Obituary- is the band name a nod at the fact that Syco, generally considered to be the main target of previous skull shirts, is now dead and gone (rest in pieces assholes:))? Is Louis drawing attention to the livestream that band did a few days ago for their album ‘The End Complete’, and if so, is that also about Syco or about… something else? Inconclusive, but if we were meant to find their song “End It Now”, that can truly only be about one thing!! Am I to believe that SBB himself, Mr “I like to draw the fans’ attention to the lyrics of things” just, whoopsy, missed that! I mean, you would think every band on earth has lyrics about “ending it“ with the number of times he’s made that mistake, damn… he just never learns. Poor Louis, gosh how embarrassing! Lol. Anyway, I’ve seen people wondering lately what will happen when all the fans that have joined us in this time of lockdown and of no real contact with Louis will react when their version of Louis has to compete with the real one- and him barely being back at all but immediately reminding people that he is not a dad FFS feels like an excellent beginning, this should be good! BUCKLE IN friends! The real Louis is sooo much more fun than the boring made up one, just get ready to enjoy the chaotic energy and trying to keep up with him….

Oh also Louis liked a Snuts tweet about being underdogs as they fight to get the release week UK #1 for their new album, and a charity says they reached out to Louis AND LOTTIE to play in their celeb footie match PLEASE, HOW CUTE WOULD THAT BE? Come on Tomlinsons, say yes!

Liam has a big interview in Glamour to promote his BAFTAS performance! If *I* were doing the piece I would have really gone hard on the Two Liams angle of the performance (in which Liam will be accompanied by a hologram of himself) but alas they are boring and only interviewed one of him- maybe the part where he says “you're on stage, you're a certain type of person, and at home you're a certain type of person” sort of counts? The “that's always something I've really struggled with” makes it not so fun though, but that’s a Liam interview for ya; worrisome and makes you want to hug him a lot. “I didn't actually realize this for a long time, but I often give a little bit too much away,“ he says, and today is no exception. We catch up on the time since last we heard from him, when he told us he was going to take some well-earned time off and try to focus on writing new music; he continues to have difficulty with downtime unfortunately. Oh Liam, I do wish it were easier for you to take a break! He says, “I stopped working and I had a full, proper month off [and that was] really hard. And it was all a bit dark for me for a little bit... not being able to go anywhere, not being able to do anything. It really, really hit home. And I just found myself sat in the same place day in, day out. And I was like, okay, I really do not know what to do with myself” and “for me, learning to relax has always been quite a hard thing to do because I feel like if I'm not moving forward, then I must be going backwards.” He goes on to say “so, in a way it's kind of a blessing in disguise, as this has all kind of taught me to relax a little bit more. And to not be so worried about that, like the world is not going to fall over if I don't do something today,” and I wish I believed him, but that’s Liam’s way, to be like oh I need to add something upbeat and end on a cheerful note! So IDK. He also talks about drinking too much, at the beginning of lockdown especially, and how he’s dealt with it by getting back to working out and dieting. There’s nothing there that he hasn’t talked about before (he’s publicly addressed both his struggles with alcohol dependency and has talked a lot about his disordered eating though he hasn’t himself named it that) but after publication Glamour edited the piece to omit the part about his drinking-- I’m guessing the augmented reality app people didn’t feel it fit their ideal image (sigh). What that leaves is him saying how nice it was to be able to eat what he wanted during lockdown but that having the boundaries and rules in place of restricting his food again has made him feel better about himself, which if you ask me is still plenty distressing. Oh Liam :( <I’ve never wanted to hug someone so bad/ Spongebob meme> On a slightly more cheerful note, he tells us he feels supported and heard by a manager that he’s close to, and by Louis, and that those relationships are good for him (the interviewer does ask about Bear, but financee Maya is not mentioned even once in this article). The piece ends with a startling response to a comment about his upcoming performance: “I'll see you wherever you want me in your house, I guess.”

Niall posted about his Masters (golf) fantasy league and he was seen out and about! He was photographed in London driving a car the size of a house and on the street carrying one of his dozens of different reusable water bottles, with his hair floppy and down- is it a new haircut or just unstyled??- and shorts and little roundish shades. Hello Neil! There was a rumored sighting of Harry in London as well but no pics and like we know he’s there anyway so… shrug. And iHeart award nominations are up, and they’re pitting louies against harries, ouch. Will it be nasty (well when isn’t it even without this voted category, sigh), or will the louies simply steamroller everyone as per usual? Only time will tell, but if so harries can console themselves with their likely wins in the Male Artist of the Year, Best Lyrics (Adore You), and Song of the Year (WS) categories.

#I mean given that the only other time we’ve seen Louis in like 6 months he was wearing a shirt with a giant H on it #I don’t know what I expected why am I gasping I already knew that etc #dirtbag Louis is real! The hair and shirt combo ksljfklajl wow that is some Heavy Metal Parking Lot realness #hey idk who needs to hear it but: LIam's attitude towards food #IS NOT HEALTHY #charlie lightening #oli #7 apr 21 #long post #klsaskdfj srsly SORRY #I thought about doing a two parter but the newbies should learn all about Liam so they too want to hug him #so why separate him out of a post I know people will go bananas for the louis part of #skull shirts #skull shirt #louis t shirts #louis coded clothing #when you can't remember your own fucking tag #I think it's the first one though #oh! and #SBB #of course

[mimzy-writing-online]

Why I’m Blind and What I See

Someone asked: “How can you have functional color vision but not functional other types of vision? Does the color not create a sense of depth? Genuine question not trying to be rude or anything - sorry if it came off like that :/“

I would like to say that they’re not being rude (at least, not for me) because blindness is something I enjoy talking about and this blog exists to educate.

The question was first raised in someone else’s post asking for advice writing a colorblind character. However color perception is one of the few things my vision performs well in, and upon commenting on this in my tags, someone asked the question above. By the time I finished writing my answer it was quite long and to avoid hijacking OP’s post as well as make this accessible for everyone to read, I decided to make this its own post.

You can find OP’s post here asking how to write colorblind characters

So in this post I explain some reasons why someone might be blind but still have some functioning color vision, and then I discuss the three main causes of my blindness and how that personally affects me.

In the retina you have two kinds of photoreceptor cells: rod and cone cells. 

Cone cells pick up light from within the visible color spectrum while rod cells pick up light outside that spectrum. Cone cells have a higher population density in the center of your retina, making them responsible for your central vision. Cone cells pick up details of visual acuity. They work best in good lighting. 

Rod cells are responsible for your night vision because they perceive lower levels of light. Their population density is higher in the peripheral edges of your retina and makes up the majority of your peripheral vision. They are particularly good at tracking movement.

Of cone cells, there are two kinds of cells, one which manages red and green light perception, and one which manages yellow and blue light perception. Together they manage the full spectrum of color in between. There are a whole host of retina conditions one can experience but they all work differently and begin differently. For example, retinitis pigmentosa begins affecting the peripheral vision first, leading to tunnel vision. Macular degeneration affects the central vision first. The conditions experience different symptoms but there is overlap.

As for me personally, there are three major factors to my vision loss, but the primary cause is neurological.

I am nearsighted (myopia) and I experience exotropia. My exotropia is caused by weakened muscles around my eyes and for this reason my eyes don’t line up correctly and instead focus slightly outward, causing double vision. In my case it appears rather slight in that they only slightly don’t line up, so most people never notice. It doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with my eyes unless you actually test it. The problem is that everything I see comes in two images that partially overlap rather than separating into two separate images with one in higher focus than the other. So imagine two Rs or two Us that are overlapping horizontally and why that might make reading an eye chart more difficult.

The problem was first discovered when I was 19 in an eye exam when my optometrist covered one eye and observed how my uncovered eye jumped slightly inward. Covering the other eye, it did the same. With special prisms in my glasses it forces and enables my eyes to work together better. However, I am very susceptible to eye strain from those weaker muscles. Exotropia also compromises my depth perception so that without correction I cannot see anything beyond thirty feet. A building thirty feet away from me and a mountain on the horizon look the same distance to me. Everything within that thirty feet is still slightly altered and inaccurate, but more manageable.

The primary cause of my vision loss however is a neurological condition called visual snow (or called snow vision sometimes). What’s happening is that my brain is processing the information my eyes have given me and decided that’s not enough and decided to add extra stimulation in the form of static. Imagine an old TV with a low quality screen that has a slight bit of static overlapping the image. That’s me on a good day, and then on my worst days it’s more like that TV has been left on with nothing to play and all I see is black and white static.

That static doesn’t actually exist, and yet I always see it. Because it depends on visual stimulation in my brain, it’s more active in lower lighting with more noticeable static that is blue instead of black and grey, where each grain is much larger than normal and the density of the static is higher and moving at a faster rate.

Because of the static I perform at 20/70 or worse on eye charts, and that is at my absolute best in both situational lighting and day to day health.

A diagnosis is very difficult to get. Because it’s neurological, the cause doesn’t show up in eye exams like cataracts, glaucoma, retina degeneration, and detached optic nerves do. Nor does it show up on brain imaging scans such as MRIs as studies have shown.

To be diagnosed with visual snow, you must experience visual static for three months without it being associated with migraines and experience at least two out of five sub-symptoms. Here is a link to learn more about symptoms.

I experience all five of those symptoms but my most severe is photophobia or light sensitivity. My brain is over processing light at an exponential rate to the point that I experience severe pain in bright lighting. Because of this, my day time vision looks like a white field with shapes and little more. This is day blindness and to manage it I wear extra dark sunglasses. Unfortunately I can’t have both visual correction and extra dark lenses, so I have to choose between debilitating pain and nothing but white fields with moving shapes, or no correction and mild pain with my visual field being more grey and black from the lenses with some shape and movement perception.

So indoor lighting is the absolute best for my vision, and therefore why I perform as visually impaired and not legally blind in eye exams. 20/70 with static interference and mild pain from light sources is the best I’ll ever get. Outside of that, in both daytime lighting and night time, I am beyond legally blind. But by legal law, the best situation and best correction is what my blindness will be measured at, not my how it impacts my daily living.

For that reason using technology, reading indoors, playing video games, and perceiving color are still things I can experience. But my depth perception, my light sensitivity, my visual acuity is still fucked. Because the cause is primarily neurological, the only tests I perform well on are medical imaging of my brain or eyes, and my color perception.

So that is more or less what I see and why I see it. If you have questions you can ask either in the comments or in my asks inbox.

This blog is dedicated to educating about blindness and how to write accurate blind characters. Included is other writing advice, writing memes with image descriptions, more specific asks raised on the subject, advice about school, and talking about mental health and disabilities outside of blindness.

#blindness #actually blind #snow vision #visual snow #disability #mimzy things #anonymous #this will get linked to my masterpost for writing a blind character I think #this is something I would like to be accessible to others

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Divide”

Hello, everyone, and welcome back! It feels good to be doing some normal RWBY-ing in this strange world of ours. First, some supplementary materials.

Number One: In response to any (valid) questions along the lines of, “Hey Clyde, it’s now been a full year since Volume 7 was airing and you still haven’t answered my ask about it. Or the ones about Volume 6… what’s up with that?” I’ve created what I hope is an informative video detailing the problem:

(I assure you, the Earth, Wind & Fire was a happy accident during the screen recording.)

Needless to say, there’s a lot and I’ve known for some time now that I will LITERALLY never get through all my asks. Which doesn’t mean I don’t want you to send future thoughts in! Just know that as we head into Volume 8 territory I’ll most likely prioritize those, as well as any Volume 7 asks that aren’t woefully out of date. But I do want everyone to know that I read all the asks I receive, appreciate them immensely, and think too much about hypothetical answers, even if I don’t have time to actually write them out 💜

Number Two: There’s a bingo board this year!

Jury’s out on whether I’ll remember to update it, but at the very least this serves as a decent glimpse into my — and others’ — expectations going into this volume.

Number Three: I’ve collected a list of things I’ve heard about Volume 8 from what seem to be reputable sources. I did this because RT is developing a tendency to talk up certain points and then fail to deliver, either because something was taken out of a volume/moved to another, or because RT apparently has radically different ideas about what including something means. So this might be handy to keep on file and ask ourselves two months from now, “Did RT actually deliver on what they promised?”

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

I was also going to include a list of all the threads that need to be continued/wrapped up, but honestly that would have taken too large a chunk off my life. Let’s just throw out the highlights:

Are we really going to have Qrow gunning for Ironwood?

Clover is dead regardless. Press ‘F’ to pay respects

Oscar bb you got shot please acknowledge this

Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this

Penny is a Maiden now. I feel like the fandom has been sleeping on this (myself included)

Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake.  

Ren spill your deep dark secret already and it had better be something more than just ‘Oh no Nora might someday die :( ’

Salem is here so how the actual fuck is the cast surviving this?

Will Ironwood likewise survive his descent into antagonism? Yes or please yes no?

I think that’s all the biggies. I strive to keep lists like this in mind while analyzing, but honestly RWBY has a hundred moving parts that are abandoned or changed or simply retconned at the drop of a hat. So an attempt will be made.

Number Four (last one I promise!): Normal disclaimers and reminders for Recaps apply:

Please don’t fill up the already full inbox with flames. It’s still 2020. No one has time for that nonsense.

There will absolutely be typos and wonky parts because I try to get these out the same day an episode premieres. I have now been working on this for ten hours, nearly straight, and have no more energy for edits. Apologies in advance and RIP to my Saturdays.

I reserve the right to use stupid GIFs and memes at my discretion.

I strive to keep my focus on recapping/analyzing but salt tends to worm its way in… If you’re a die-hard RWBY fan with little patience for criticism, let alone (at times) snarky criticism, please proceed with caution.

No wait I lied, this is the last thing:

Okay, got that out of my system LET’S DO THIS!

We start not with the episode itself but rather Rooster Teeth’s (RT’s) strange non-promotion of it. If you follow my blog you may have caught the post where I pointed out that there was nothing on RT’s website to suggest that one of their most popular shows—if not the most popular show—was premiering today. Nothing on the main page. Nothing on the RWBY page either, not unless you count the Volume 8 poster background (easily mistaken for the Volume 7 poster) and the trailer buried all the way down past Episodes, past Merch, in the Bonus Features section along with videos like Live From Remnant and the volume intros. RT… the promotion of your feature show is not a bonus. This should be front and center! Honest to god, five minutes before the episode dropped I was checking the website for a Volume 8 section, a countdown, anything that would tell me the episode was imminent without relying on fans on tumblr to keep me in the loop. We got nada, zilch. I’m not sure whether that speaks more to RT’s iffy management of the series or simply the website’s horrible design—RIP losing RWBY on Youtube—but I was surprised when I saw the episode a few minutes after 11:00am. At that point I honestly expected to hear about a dely.

So that’s the mood I entered the premiere in, but truly? We start off strong. Things take a pretty severe nosedive later on, we’ll get to that, but I was impressed with our beginning and that probably has a lot to do with the fact that we start with our villains.

We open on a Cinderella character, Cinder, and thus I’m immediately pleased that we’re getting something about her backstory after all this time. Seven years! She appeared in episode one, folks! To say we’re overdue is an understatement. There isn’t a whole lot to go on, just a younger Cinder sadly scrubbing the floor, poised under a spotlight. What we learn, or potentially learn, is based far more in cultural knowledge than this scene. We know Cinderella’s story, which includes the abusive family, the longing for more, the eventual escape, and thus we’re able to read all of that in this image, despite the image itself not telling us any of this overtly. That means we could be wrong in our interpretation, but if we’re not it’s an easy shorthand in an already packed story.

What I’m really impressed with is the sound bridge between the scrubbing and her nails on the back of Neo’s chair. Fantastic way to confirm that this is Cinder as well as showcasing just how far she’s come. The sound of her labor has been replaced with the sound of her power and given that Cinder’s power is stolen, tied to a grimm arm, the property of a genocidal maniac… that’s messed up. It’s a Cinderella story gone wrong.

So yeah, Cinder tells Neo to head straight into the creepy, grimm infested blood cloud to see Salem and Neo is like, ‘Uh… no thank you?’ lol.

RT does a good job this episode with her expressions, ensuring we know exactly what she’s thinking despite an unwillingness/inability to speak.

Poor Neo might be in too deep, but I quite like the overall atmosphere of this opening. Say what we will about Salem’s awful characterization, at least she has style. This woman knows how to make an entrance and, piggybacking off of the Apathy, RT knows how to infuse horror elements into their fantasy. The red and purple coloring of the clouds, spiked whale teeth peeking through, bright orange in the background looking like explosions… that’s all 👌 Including the intro card.

The only thing I want to gripe about is this:

I’m sorry, why does the whale grimm have landing pads? Or something like it?? The whale otherwise works because it’s poised between the natural and the fantasy synthetic. It looks like a real grimm whale on the outside, but is sporting a throne room, a control panel, and other unnatural elements on the inside. It’s a visual indicator of Salem’s ability to control and change grimm. Now though, the additions are wrong, infringing on the line between organic and tech, the line between what helps the grimm individually (giving monkeys wings) and what just helps Salem. Every other aspect of the whale straddles that line wonderfully, adding to the creep factor, like a grimm version of the Uncanny Valley: it’s not quite a whale anymore… but landing pads? That looks ridiculous. Why does Salem even have that? How many ships are her people feasibly using? Why are there five?

Take it away, please.

Cinder waltzes in like this is a normal home visit, but Neo has an appropriate ‘What the actual fuck?’ face going on.

They approach Salem on her throne where Cinder immediately kneels, greeting her with, “My queen.” I mentioned during my trailer breakdown that I think Cinder is lying her ass off here, and I still think that based on a line we’ll get in a minute, but now at least we have a sense of how she can pull this off. A woman who started out as a (presumed) servant is going to know how to mimic subservience, even if her heart isn’t in it. Salem is very good at playing the girl who will still kneel and scrub the floor for you. She will scrub the floor, she’ll do everything you want, she’ll just be plotting her own rise to power while she does it.

There’s quite a bit of interesting cinematography in this episode, not all of it good, and I think one of the mistakes is here when we get a closeup on Salem’s mouth as she greets Cinder. A closeup like that should be reserved for more significant dialogue—“Rosebud”—and yet we get this shot again when Cinder tells Emerald to be quiet. It’s awkward and coupled with the numerous eye closeups we got in the trailer, I think RT is playing a little fast and loose with the camera. Each shot should add something to the scene, not distract from it. If you don’t have a reason for including a technique like that then leave it be.

Back to the actual dialogue though. We knew that Salem knew Cinder was alive and now it seems that she just expected her to come back? I’m slightly lost. It feels like we’re missing something here. Cinder goes off to secure the lamp, fails, nearly dies, wanders on her own for months, and then randomly shows back up on Salem’s whale doorstep, yet Salem isn’t angry at all? Did she have faith that Cinder would return when she has something to offer? Did she just not care about Cinder, considering her return an unnecessary but otherwise welcome surprise? That would make the least sense given that she holds the key to accessing Beacon’s relic… but that circles right back around to why Salem is seemingly indifferent to Cinder’s comings and goings. Surely she can’t actually believe that Cinder is loyal?

“So I trust you wouldn’t return to me empty handed,” she says. Yeah, trust means nothing in this show, Salem, didn’t you watch Volumes 6 and 7? Again, I simply don’t know. I suppose I’ll just chalk it up to confidence, that if Cinder did bail Salem knew she could track her down again. Deciphering her motivations and beliefs is a lost cause when the show continually gives us so little.

The important thing now is that Cinder does indeed have an offering and you can see that Salem is somewhat surprised at being handed the relic.

Cinder, of course, takes credit for the victory and we’re given another wonderful shot of Neo. ‘YOU took it?’

Oh, Neo. Best get out while you still can.

Tyrian appears having obviously made his way to Salem’s ship sometime between her arrival and now. The exchange is pretty standard for this group. He insults Cinder for failing and needing this victory to make amends, talks about how any win against Ironwood says more about his lack of intelligence than her skill, and Cinder… doesn’t have a whole lot of comebacks, actually. I’d say Tyrian won that verbal spar, enhanced by a better use of the camera when we get his tail looming menacingly towards Cinder and Neo.

He goes on to say that Watts was a “necessary sacrifice” so, uh… I’m just going to toss out the ask I answered yesterday. Based on our intro I’d say Watts is still significant to the volume—hacking Penny is my guess—but by the end? He could be in trouble.

(As a side note: I plan to analyze the intro next week. It’s just easier when it comes first.)

Tyrian also calls Neo “little one” which I just found absolutely hilarious. In an on brand creepy manner, that is. Not that Neo couldn’t kick his ass, but there’s something wonderfully chilling about having the serial killer use an endearment towards a potential victim, one that comments on her size while he’s looming.

In contrast, Cinder refers to Neo as a “valuable asset” and we get our third mood of the episode.

Who’s going to start a Neo reaction image collection?

It’s true enough on the surface—who wouldn’t want an ally who can turn into anyone else?—but we’re still bumping up against question of why Salem needs this. She’s immortal! She has an endless army! Magic! This scene works well with a villain who needs a skillset like Neo’s to succeed, but Salem doesn’t. RT is doing a great job writing a story thus far, just not the story we’ve previously been given. This isn’t the story they set up.

This will come back up when we reach the RWBYJNOR group. Just wait.

Before that though, the gang’s all here as Emerald, Mercury, and Hazel show up, all in new outfits.

I think I like everything except for the weird Xs on Emerald’s jacket—it’s way too distracting and frankly makes an otherwise good look ugly—and the fact that she’s showing her midriff in Atlas. Hazel doesn’t have any sleeves! Oh my god, why doesn’t anyone dress for the weather in this show?

Frankly, I found their reunion to be kind of lackluster. I mean, there was nothing wrong with it. Emerald does sound briefly excited, she does run, and it’s in character for Cinder to cut her off… it just didn’t resonate with me emotionally. I thought after two volumes of thinking she’s dead, then working through the knowledge that she’s alive, that I would feel Emerald’s shock and relief more, but I didn’t. And I’m not entirely sure why. I don’t want to level any accusations at the voice acting because frankly I know next to nothing about that skill (and from what I’ve seen it’s usually praised in the fandom), but I will say that throughout the premiere I was noticing it more than I ever have before. The lack of emotion here and some awkward deliveries later, like when Yang goes, “Ruby, there is no way Ironwood will cooperate with us” and I immediately thought, “Wow, that came out stilted.” These observations stick with me because, as said, voice acting usually isn’t on my radar. It’s not something I’ve studied or had practice analyzing. If you’d never told me that Ren or Qrow’s VA changed then after a year hiatus I literally wouldn’t notice… but there’s something about this episode that didn’t sit right. Anyone else get that sense, or was it just me?

Regardless, the arrival of our other three villains really doesn’t amount to much, though I’m happy for all the Emerald and Mercury fans who get to see them in new outfits. The focus is still on Cinder as she delivers a line indicative of her true motivations: “That power will be mine.” Yeah, she’s not loyal to Salem, she’s just power hungry. Of course, Salem immediately takes note of this and raises her hand, in another nice use of the foreground, reminding her that she hasn’t given that order.

Cinder is shocked, angry even, but quickly covers it up with her “Without you I am nothing” line. If I caught it right I think she also calls Salem “Ma’am”? Hilarious. Again, skilled at playing the servant.

Also, before I forget, it’s worth noting that almost everything from our trailer appeared in this episode. Yeah, there are a few details like Nora attacking some tech and the group on their bikes, but on the whole we’ve already seen the majority of our promo material and will likely get most of the rest next week. It makes me both interested and nervous for what another twelve episodes are going to hold.

Salem opens her whale, or opens a portal type view in it, something that gives us a long-distance look at Atlas. I don’t know what exactly is going on here, but it’s pretty so I’ll take it.

She also delivers the frankly badass line, “Just because you’re more valuable to me than a pawn does not make you a player.”

She waves them all away with perfect ‘You mean nothing to me’ attitude and we sadly leave our villains.

Sad not because I don’t love my farm boy, but because things are about to get a whole lot messier.

Oscar has made his way to a camp of civilian survivors… all of whom are just hanging out in the supposedly deadly cold. Yeah, there’s a single fire, but at least four of them aren’t anywhere near it. Three of them also aren’t wearing gloves. What was that survival rate again?

A nice if gruff dude gives Oscar soup—water?—while showing off his… badger claws? I don’t know what kind of faunus he’s supposed to be, but he feels like the sort of two second, minor character who could easily become a meme lol.

Oscar thanks him (my polite son!) and hands the bowl back after a single sip. Which is impressive because I would have assumed the guy was giving me the whole bowl and just taken it. Hell, I’ve done that even when I didn’t assume it’s all for me. A Starbucks barista once approached me with a tray and a plate of samples, I knew I was supposed to take just one, yet for some reason my hand went to take the whole goddamn plate. He had to tell me off, then I was trying to explain that I didn’t actually want or think I should have eight shots of cappuccino all to myself, I don’t even like coffee, he clearly didn’t believe me… it was awkward. So good job, Oscar. You’re less awkward than me (though that’s not saying much).

Now a question, Oscar. Darling. Brilliant boy who has been through too much: why the fuck aren’t you talking to Ozpin? This will be A Thing later when he presents a lack of time to talk as justification for keeping more secrets (we’ll get to that too…) yet here is time! You’re just sitting there for who knows how long, with plenty of privacy to hide a supposedly one-sided conversation so the Mantle citizens don’t get weirded out or suspicious. Talk to Ozpin. Our headmaster gets two lines in this episode, utterly inconsequential lines like his airship scene, lines that feel like they exist to say, “See? He’s still included in the story!” even though he absolutely is not. Two volumes of mostly silence, a perfect setup to start the reconciliation process, but we’re going to put it off again?

Instead Ruby randomly and conveniently appears. I want to know how she found him. Oscar isn’t wearing a tracker. He clearly didn’t call them because he’s surprised when Ruby shows up. He fell alllllllll the way back down to Mantle and then wandered to a random part of the slums. You’re telling me they flew over the entire city—after beginning this search thinking he was in Atlas—and somehow managed to spot him from up in the air? C’mon. I would have rather had a beginning where Oscar makes his way back to the group himself, giving him and Ozpin time to hash things out.

“Need a lift?” Ruby says, eliminating that potential. Sigh.

Oscar immediately starts beating himself up when he gets onboard, saying that he “was stupid to think the General would listen.” Nah, you were stupid to buy into Ruby’s nonsensical confidence and for telling Ironwood he’s as bad as Salem. Sorry, Oscar, but everyone is written badly these days. I will, however, say that I am THRILLED at the group’s reaction to his return. Ruby says that she’s “just glad you’re alright.” Nora has a wonderfully tender moment where she hugs him gently rather than her usual glomp.

That? That added a year to my life. Everyone else seems relieved that he’s okay too, so kudos there. After four years of Oscar being an outsider in the group, this is one of the few moments that feel like he’s 100% accepted. Really glad to see it.

Now let’s see if it sticks after they learn Ozpin is back...

They fly to the Happy Huntresses’ base and I again feel like I’ve missed something crucial. When did they team up? I mean, RWBYJNOR was working directly under Ironwood up until the last hour and Robyn ran off to fight Tyrian/Clover in the last couple episodes. When did she have time to explain her (briefly) changed allegiance and why would the Happy Huntresses trust the group without that? Did Robyn share that Blake and Yang went behind Ironwood’s back for her? Do the Huntresses instinctively trust them because they’re now wanted by the military? How did they even run into each other?

Again, I think we would have been better served to have an episode before all this. Let Oscar make his way back and let the group struggle with the magnitude of their situation on the airship, before they find new allies. Transferring directly to, “They have help and a secret base and a plan in the works!” makes me feel like I missed the real premiere last week. You know, the one where Salem unexpectedly arrived and we left the group like this.

This is where we’ve ended up though. The group is cozy in this hideout, getting info from Joanna, and my only other thought is, “Why is she giving all this exposition?”  

Shouldn’t it be May? I mean, we were told that she was going to play more of a role this volume, a promise that’s pretty important imo given her status as a (so far off screen) trans character, so why not put her in the role of mediator between the Happy Huntresses and RWBYJNR? Giving her that setup as a leader among her people as well as lots of lines would be meaningful. A trans character just existing and being a part of this fight! May could obviously still fill that role—I’m well aware that we’re only one episode in—but it just seems like a missed opportunity to me. Out of all the undeveloped Happy Huntresses, our premiere focuses on the one who has the least importance to the fandom.

As said, Joanna talks a fair bit but what it basically boils down to is trying to get everyone to the crater below Atlas. It’s apparently not safe, but it’s warm, which is what matters right now.

So… let me get this straight. You want to gather everyone into a not safe crater, by leading them through an army of grimm, so that they can wait there in case someone moves the Staff, thus dropping an entire city on top of their heads? That’s the plan? Which admittedly isn’t Joanna’s fault. This is another instance of RWBYJNOR having information that a leader does not and they should really consider speaking up about it. But of course they don’t.

Also, how long does everyone have in regards to the cold? Shouldn’t there be dead civilians by now? The time it would take to find the Happy Huntresses, team up with them, get settled in the base, and find Oscar says that things should be pretty grim right now (pardon the pun), yet every non-aura user in this city seems content to just hang out in the snow. Either the cold is deadly enough to justify moving everyone to the crater, or it’s mild enough to let everyone survive this long, not both.

After hugs are given everyone obviously wants to know what happened to Oscar. His response?

“It’s a… long story. I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.”

That’s a check for the bingo card! We’re halfway through the first episode and we’ve already got another secret. Yes, this is a secret. Oscar actively chooses not to tell anyone that Ozpin is back—something Ozpin himself comments on—and then skillfully draws attention away from himself with “I get the feeling there’s been a few of those tonight.” Indeed, all eyes go to Penny. Oscar’s plight is forgotten, which is what he wanted. His justification?

Ozpin: “You’re not going to tell them?”

Oscar: “You and I aren’t done talking yet.”

Along with this look.

Oscar no. There’s so much wrong with this I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s create a list.

As said, you had plenty of time to talk to Ozpin and chose not to. Miss me with this excuse.

You are now doing to your friends exactly what you and your friends did to Ironwood, which in turn is what Ozpin did to you! I can’t believe we’ve got Oscar critically side-eyeing him when they are still—still—repeating the behavior they drove Ozpin away for.

What is there to even talk about now? Oscar didn’t punch himself/Ozpin (lol) but he did steal Jinn’s name from Ozpin in the first place. You got what you wanted, drove him away, and have been lying and keeping secrets ever since. The only thing they should be talking about involves apologizing. Any further criticism—which is what Oscar’s expression and curt reply suggests—is beyond hypocritical.

Seriously, what needs to be discussed? There’s no reason not to tell the group unless Oscar wants to talk about whether they should tell them. There’s no good ending here...

Don’t you think it would be nice to know that Ozpin is back and you’ve got super magic powers while making plans to save the entire world?

This is all especially stupid given Oscar’s “Salem wants to divide us” reminder to Ruby in a moment. Oscar, you are doing the most to divide the group right now. By not forgiving Ozpin. By refusing to work with him. By keeping him secret from everyone else.

This is bad, friends, I worry for what the rest of the volume will bring…

The story is done with Ozpin for now so I guess I will be too. The group continues filling Oscar in and we get some shots of the base, including a rather prominent poster of what I assume are two Happy Huntresses. Did they die in battle perhaps?

It’s a little strange.

Oscar: “Where’s Qrow?”

Me: “Likely still making bad decisions.”

No one knows so they just drop it. Which I kind of get, only so much you can do to find him if he’s not out on the streets like Oscar, but it still reads as kind of iffy that two nieces look down at the ground for a hot second and then move on with their plans, content to leave Qrow to whatever fate befell him. In a minute we’ll see Yang firmly take Ren’s side regarding helping the people they can in Mantle, which frankly comes out of nowhere for her. I think an easy motivation would have been Qrow. Ruby wants to save the world, Yang wants to find and save their uncle, and that just happens to align with Ren’s desire to save the civilians who need immediate grimm and cold help. Don’t get me wrong, I like that there’s finally some division between the sisters, I just wish it hadn’t come about so abruptly. Ren had setup for standing up to Ruby. Yang did not.

But I’m getting a little ahead of myself. Joanna lists the grimm horde and no heat as the major threats to everyone. The group agrees.

Me: What about Salem?

Joanna says that this is all doubly dangerous because there’s “no more military protection.”

Me: Oh, so now you want the military?

This is all so disjointed. Even more-so when Joanna mentions that Ironwood has stopped all evacuations to Atlas, likely due to the “hard light shields” that are the only thing standing between Salem and the city. Thing is, the show never makes this connection, I just did it myself based on this scene and the one that comes later. The show presents Joanna’s line as a pure condemnation. Ironwood won’t let more evacuees in because… he’s just evil, I guess. Yet there is a justification here, namely that continuing the evacuations even while he’s stuck without Penny leaves him wide open to a Salem attack, the death of everyone currently safe, but that argument is never presented to the viewer. I don’t need people to agree with Ironwood’s perspective, I just wish that perspective was offered as an option. The show is very good about acting like RWBYJNOR’s opinion is the only justified opinion, or simply the only opinion at all.

After everything is laid out Weiss goes, “We’re never going to sleep again, I just know it.”

I could make a crack about the lack of continuity and how the group should be collapsing right now… but that was a funny line. It can stay.

What is far more of a problem is the fact that no one is talking about Salem. Okay, that’s a lie. They do talk about her, but in a roundabout way like her presence isn’t impacting every decision they make. That’s the real issue. They’re acting as if Salem isn’t here right now, like she’s off far away, maybe approaching slowly, and they’re arguing over how best to prep the world for her eventual attack. There’s no emotion here—let alone action—to reflect that the series’ Big Bad has arrived and is poised to murder them all. Literally what is this? Ruby is yelling about warning the world and, ignoring the continued question of why that’s a good thing when the world can do nothing to stop Salem and knowledge of her continually drives people to horrible acts, she has yet to acknowledge that… she’s the world? Ruby is the world in this conflict. She, Mantle, and Atlas. Salem is here for you all. Right now. You are, this instant, in the situation you want to warn others about, so why don’t you try to do something about it? Or at least acknowledge it. Ruby wants to warn the neighborhood about a potential fire while her house is actively ablaze, and the fire could have totally killed her by now but decided not to for… reasons.

“Ruby’s right,” Nora says. They have to tell the world so “they can prepare.” How? How are they supposed to prepare for this? The story cannot continue ignoring Salem’s immortality.

“Ruby’s right,” is all Blake says and I’m starting to thinks that’s why her character exists now, to agree with Ruby. It’s great that she’s getting a little distance from Yang, but man.

As Ruby asks whether Pietro can get Amity up and running despite it not being finished (called it) we start an incredibly odd sequence of flashforwards to their individual missions. I’ve seen a lot of praise for this already and though I agree that, in theory, it’s a good way to save time, I found the actual execution to be jarring. Upon thinking back through our timeline, it became clear they were flashforwards, but while watching I thought they might be flashbacks (especially since that’s more common).

Some of the shots, like Nora’s, just look awkward when you’ve got the exact expression and pose transplanted from one scene to another, like she’s a cardboard cutout behind a green screen. To say nothing of how the flashforwards ruin any suspense (I use that word loosely) in the conversation itself. If the question is, “Will they decide to go to the military compound?” then that question is answered when we see Ruby scoping out the compound, not when the group actually decides on the course of action.

It just made an already muddled scene worse for me, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue.

And of course, Amity can be used despite all the info last volume claiming that it wasn’t finished. Pietro suddenly acts like it is finished and the only thing standing in their way is Ironwood providing access. If that were the case, he would have used Amity weeks or days ago like he wanted to! When was it finished? Not after Watts commented on how incomplete it was. When did they get back the resources they needed from Robyn? It’s as ridiculous and retcon-y as I thought it would be.

Yang points out that Ironwood will never listen to them and Ruby counters that “he doesn’t have to.” They’ll just take the access from him. Because why wouldn’t they in a series where they’ve already stolen two airships? Stealing from the super evil military that Joanna wishes were helping them right now is just the group’s go-to plan nowadays.

Pietro isn’t sold on this plan though. He lists at least three obstacles they’d need to get through “and then… oh boy, I might need to think about this some more.” “And just to clarify,” Oscar says, “This is the easy option?” Um...no it’s not? We also know there’s an access point in Ironwood’s office so… why not go there instead? They really think the Academy is less guarded than the military base? There’s a potential justification here along the lines of, “After Neo and Cinder broke into his office Ironwood will have the place on high alert,” but unless I missed it the group doesn’t assume anything like that. They just listen to Pietro point out all the ways they can’t get into the military base and jump straight to that being the best option. It feels like a transparent way to create conflict for the group. We’ll just have them taking the most dangerous route despite an easy route being offered alongside it. Why bother mentioning his office at all? Just have the access in the military base. Boom, done.

It’s that conflict and the fact that Ruby tends to hear “You can’t” and digs in her heels. You can’t go to Atlas. I’ll just steal a ship then. You can’t defeat Salem. Watch me. You can’t break into this base. Guess what I’m doing! She’s dangerous in her fairy tale, meta-driven insistence that everything will turn out her way because she wants it to.

Speaking of, we finally—FINALLY—get someone challenging Ruby. Sort of. Not actually but it’s the closest we’ve ever gotten:

Yang: “Ruby, when we came here we said we’d follow your lead… but things haven’t exactly worked out.”

Now, there are two things to take away from this moment. The first is how utterly shocked Ruby and the others are. I mean, take a look at these expressions.

Ruby straight up can’t believe what she’s hearing. Weiss put her hand to her mouth like this is the most dramatic thing to ever happen to her. Oscar looks down in a ‘Yeah, I agree but please don’t look at me and make me admit that’ way. And Nora looks indifferent in the screenshot but animated she goes sort of stern, likely pissed that Yang would dare say that given her own agreement with Ruby. This not only reiterates that Yang’s challenge came out of nowhere—seriously, how did we move from following Ruby no matter what to this? Last volume she asked a single question along the lines of, ‘You sure?’ and when Ruby said ‘Yes’ Yang was entirely on board—but also demonstrates that no one has EVER said no to her before. Ruby is amazed that someone would challenge her. The act of challenging Ruby is, in and of itself, shocking. This group has gotten so used to following Ruby blindly that the teensiest little pushback is greeted with this.

Because it is teensy. This is the second takeaway: Yang barely challenges her and that challenge leads nowhere. She doesn’t accuse Ruby of anything, she doesn’t question her continued authority, she just broadly implies that things could be better. We followed you, now things are bad, take from that what you will. It’s incredibly mild as far as criticism goes, making the shock all the more, well, shocking, but it also amounts to—wait for it—nothing! Because Yang didn’t truly challenge Ruby’s leadership. She’s still in charge, she’s still calling the shots, and they’re still listening to her. We might have gotten some change if this division had been allowed to play out, but instead Jaune comes in with a, “Let’s go for both!” solution. It let’s both groups get what they want which, in turn, releases them from the need to grapple with whether they’ll listen to Ruby when she’s advocating for something they don’t agree with. We have now lost the chance to see whether, when push comes to shove, Ren and Yang will cave to Ruby’s will or stick by their own beliefs.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s more conflict than we’ve gotten in years, but that doesn’t mean it’s particularly compelling conflict. It’s good by RWBY’s standards, which doesn’t necessarily make it good. The actual issues at hand—Ruby’s dangerous arrogance, the group’s loyalty, her choices up until now—are just swept under the rug. For all the visuals we get insisting that there’s this great divide in the group… there’s really not. Not in any way that matters.

Also, Ruby is an idiot. Okay, that was mean, but she really is in this scene. She’s actually not an idiot overall because she was written as wonderfully intelligent in the early volumes, but now? Lately? She makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

“But that’s how Salem got this far,” she cries. “By dividing us!”

Ruby… oh my god, Ruby. No one should have to explain to you that dividing people means turning them against each other, not literally dividing your team to complete separate tasks. This girl honestly thought that because there was this teensy disagreement and that half the team would complete Plan A while she and the other half completed Plan B, both of which notably work towards the goal of, “Protect people from Salem,” that this was somehow what Salem wanted. That is was dangerous. Honestly, it’s a scary look at her view of leadership too: If everyone doesn’t 100% agree with me and do what I say, that’s an objectively bad thing that the grimm queen wants, right? Does Ruby think that unification means following a single person (her) without question or variation? That would explain a lot...

The fact that Oscar needs to explain the difference to her is not good. It really doesn’t say great things about this version of Ruby. Though he was comparing Ironwood to Salem last volume, so really they should all be wearing dunce hats.

Penny offers to take the relic directly to Salem in exchange for her leaving the kingdom alone. I honestly didn’t expect that. If anyone took that risk I would have put my money on Ozpin (but of course, during all this talk of the women he knows best, he’s kept quiet). Oscar is again the voice of wisdom, pointing out that they have no reassurance that Salem will keep her word. At least Penny is thinking about Salem as a threat though, so kudos for that. When this plan is shot down she volunteers to get Ruby past the military security instead and, uh, she’s a little intense about it.

I’m not entirely sure what is going on with Penny. She disagreed with Winter but then seemed to come around to her point of view, enough to help anyway. They had another (stupid) disagreement about the value of individual lives, so that helps to explain why she’s teaming up with RWBYJNOR (if you ignore that Ironwood is also trying to save individual lives...). Did watching Fria die shake her up? Is it being the Winter Maiden that’s not sitting right? Does Penny have lingering feelings about the framing that haven’t shown up until now? Her status as a ‘real girl’? We’ve got a lot of reasons that could definitely explain this sudden need to fight, but we’re not told which—if any of these—is the driving force.  

We’re then given a lot of little details. Someone points out that if Salem gets the staff and “create[s] anything else” then Atlas will fall (so yeah, let’s move the people underneath it). We still don’t know what exactly the Staff does because “creation” is kind of broad and “powering a city to float” doesn’t seem to sit within that category at all. Pietro gives Yang the keys to his lab so they can get the bikes. We see the group dividing in the flashforwards, something I do like, especially since the show has gone out of its way to break up most of the usual duos. Nora in particular is pissed at Ren for his choice.

“Oh, I’m saving Mantle because I actually believe we can do this.”

#yikes. Well, I did say I wanted a conflict other than ‘Oh no, one of us might die’ and it looks like I got it. But Nora, the only reason you can do this is because the plot is in your corner: none of you are collapsing from two major fights, you didn’t lose your aura so the cold isn’t a danger, the military is barely a threat all of a sudden, Salem is helpfully hanging out in her whale instead of killing you, and the story decided that Amity can function so long as you all are the ones who get to use it. That’s why you can do this. Ren, who follows in-world logic and doesn’t want to risk a whole kingdom’s worth of lives on a pipe dream, thinks differently, oddly enough.

As they leave though Penny gets a call from Ironwood. I know precisely what the fandom is going to say here: “This evil man is just trying to use Penny to open the vault!” Of course he is. He needs it open to save everyone he can, Penny included. Plus the concept of “using” her is a double-edged sword. What do we think the group is doing right now? Using her to get past the security. Penny’s power is a tool any way you slice it. Granted, Penny volunteers to help the group, but notably here Ruby speaks for her. Penny seems torn and Ruby takes the scroll away with, “She’s not going anywhere until you change your mind about Mantle.”

Sorry, Ruby, but coming from you that sounds less like a reassurance for Penny and more like just an order for Ironwood. Remember Harriet? We’ll stop attacking you provided you do what we want. Ruby has yet to learn about compromises, let alone acknowledge that she might be wrong. How about you let Penny decide where she goes, especially since by all logic she should have a lot of loyalty to Ironwood. She knew him before she ever met you. She’s worked with him since she was rebuild post-Volume 3. Despite what Penny has said, if the story would just let her think about his actions for a hot second—making her the protector of Mantle, sticking up for her after the framing, sending her to the party, teaming her up with Ruby, etc.—she might realize that the ‘He doesn’t want me to have friends’ and ‘He just treats me like a tool’ assumptions are just that, unfounded assumptions. But no, Ruby speaks for them both because Ironwood is evil now.

“If she makes it through our defenses,” Ironwood says, “everything that follows will be on your hands.”

That’s true! Kind of like how it’s own Qrow’s hands that Clover died. When you insist on making a bad situation worse you hold responsibility when the shit hits the fan. You know though that Salem won’t get through their defenses now, somehow, so that there’s no chance RWBYJNOR will be blamed for it. Or, by that point Ironwood will be so crazed that anything coming out of his mouth is dismissed, no matter how accurate it might be.

We then transfer to the Ace Ops who are, despite what the fandom theorized for many months, clearly upset about Clover. Also pissed. Which they have every right to be. Their friend and leader was killed. Imagine for a moment that Ruby had been murdered by Tyrian with an allies’ help. Exactly what do you think the group would do? Swallow it quietly and get over it? Ha.

I’ve already seen some speculation that Clover survived due to details like showing us the bandage and his room being listed as for a “Patient,” but he looks pretty dead to me.

He got gutted through the chest and left out in the snow for who knows how long. We saw him slip away. Qrow screamed over his dead body. He’s not breathing now. If RWBY suddenly claims he survived this, I’m calling BS.

Most of the other visuals we get here were already dropped in the trailer. Winter is pretty injured from her encounter with Cinder, likely permanently based on her new outfit. Ironwood had to replace his arm—and I am calling BS on that “Losing his arm is reflective of him losing his humanity” commentary from RT. Please go read up on a couple decades worth of ableism in media and then get back to me.

We get Ironwood’s line about the light shields and, notably, a whole lot of empathy. Regardless of what he might want Penny for, he still called her with compassion. He’s watching the Ace Ops mourn their friend. He’s talking about protecting his kingdom. The first thing he says to Winter is, “Thank you, Winter. I don’t know what I would do without you.” Ironwood has a heart! It’s always on display, which makes this scene utterly ridiculous.

I literally don’t know how to respond to this. The gunshot made me jump, both because it’s a gunshot and because, again, what the fuck? I know I said that next volume RT might just have Ironwood descend into full villainy, shooting whoever he pleases now that he’s shot Oscar, but I didn’t actually expect them to do it. Because he never should have shot Oscar in the first place! I wanted the story to let Oscar grapple with it a bit and then quietly backtrack, acknowledging it as the mistake it was. The concept that Ironwood, empathetic Ironwood, rational Ironwood, always thinks before he acts Ironwood, let’s kids yell at him Ironwood, tried to team up with Robyn Ironwood, did everything Ruby wanted Ironwood, won’t kill Watts after he destroyed his arm Ironwood would shoot this guy just to shut him up is absurd. It was absurd then, it’s absurd now.

That being said, there’s a possibility he didn’t actually shoot the council member, but rather just (“just”) gave a warning shot down the hallway. I say this because the reactions to this are pretty tame. Everyone looks startled, yeah, but after the initial shot there’s nothing that I would expect if there was now a guy bleeding out on the floor. The council woman doesn’t scream. Winter doesn’t seem overly shocked. No one is running to try and help him. Basically, if Ironwood had just killed a political figure in front of six witnesses, entirely unprovoked, I would expect a bit more of a reaction than this. This feels far more like a, “Damn he’s not joking around, letting off warning shots to get people to leave him alone” not “WOW, our general just killed someone in cold blood!”

What I really hate though—beyond just assassinating his character—is how many fans think my friends and I are delusional for calling it character assassination at all. I hopped onto the RWBY tag for five minutes this morning and was bombarded with posts about how Ironwood needs to be murdered horrifically, anyone who likes him is sick, the Ironwood stans are as bad as Adam stans, you’re an idiot if you want him redeemed… because apparently the concept of a story writing a character badly doesn’t compute. I’m not here to argue that Ironwood didn’t do these awful things (regardless of whether he actually killed the guy or not). I’m not here to argue that they’re not awful. I’m just here to say that we never should have gotten these scenes in the first place, or if we were going to get them, we deserved an actual descent into murder at the drop of a hat territory. I’ve already explained extensively on this blog how early Ironwood was not accurate foreshadowing for this, and Volume 7 certainly wasn’t setup, but it looks like the majority of fans aren’t interested in examining whether any of this adds up. Which makes my job, as someone trying to examine this series somewhat objectively—in as much as that’s possible for any single viewer—as well as simply enjoy it as a show, really hard. It’s bad enough when a story keeps taking the characters you love and villainizing them, and doing that badly, but then when you turn to the community and see them rallying around the idea that you’re awful for being dissatisfied—you’re the bootlicker, you’re the blind stan, you can’t see what’s ‘really’ going on here… that sucks. For those of you happy and satisfied with Ironwood’s arc, that’s great! I’ve also seen a lot of posts hyping up the complexity of his character now. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying what we’ve been given and I’d never want to imply that just because it’s not what I wanted it’s somehow wrong. I’m honestly thrilled that after a year of worry so many people have adored our premiere, including this scene. I just wish that I could say RWBY had given me something I didn’t want in a persuasive manner and that the fandom as a whole was a bit more welcoming of differing criticisms.

Not that I didn’t already know the RWBY fandom had its flaws, but still lol.

That’s basically it for our premiere. Nice note to end on, huh? Our final scene is of Salem using the lamp to set her bloodhound grimm on the city. Why doesn’t she just go herself? What was she planning to do here in Atlas in the first place, considering that getting the relic was a surprise? Who knows. Little about this holds together. But we do end with another awesome shot, so small favors.

It’s always strange concluding a recap, but even more-so when it’s a premiere, during a historical moment in the U.S., amidst all the nonsense that is 2020. So for now I’ll just conclude with three quick things:

The updated bingo board will be listed at the end of each recap, provided I don’t forget about it lol. Today I’m checking off tone (not nearly enough freaking out about Salem), the team keeping secrets (Oscar), and major plot point dropped (Amity is suddenly finished). I could also probably check off the cold not killing civilians and getting Amity up and running, but we’ll see if any changes with those.

I’m including my Ko-Fi link at the end of recaps now. Not with any expectations. Not with anything resembling pressure. I thought long and hard over whether to include it at all—let alone mention it here—because I love doing these and never want anyone to feel like it comes with strings attached. But life is a little harder and weirder than it was last year, so I figure it can’t hurt. Feel free to pass on by and I won’t be bringing it up past this note.

Far more importantly: thank you for reading! :D

(Bonus 4. Editing this was an absolute nightmare — damn you, tumblr!  — so I apologize if anything is super wonky when I finally post.)

See you next week! 💜

[Ko-Fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #mymetas #rwby recaps

[iampikachuhearmeroar]

sometime in this last week, or this week coming, my blog has turned/turns 10. god. a decade old. a whole ass chunk of my life i’ve spent on this hellsite. when i began on here, i was a kid. a lost, lonely, depressed and anxious 15/16 year old kid. a kid scared of her future. a kid confused about her future. what to do for uni. to change schools or not??? to do drama/acting at uni or english/philosophy or to move 8hrs away to another regional uni to “escape” her “washed up, dead end hometown” that was so typical of all the pop-punk music that she was listening to at the time.

she was a tad overdramatic, loud, “funny” (as described by her school friends) and terribly forgetful in regards to homework and school assignments. she was angry at the world, most especially the catholic school she was fucking sick and tired of attending. but she was convinced that since she was the so-called “funny girl”, that she simply couldn’t be depressed or anxious. she believed herself unloveable because she didn’t look like a weird mixture of hayley williams and emo-pop queen lights. but now, i no longer believe that i have to look like the women that i looked up to in the ~emo scene~. fuck beauty standards. i am loveable.

in the years since joining tumblr, i’ve managed to get through business college, my undergrad degree and, well, failed out of postgrad due to obvious burnout and health issues amongst other things. although i’ve lost many friends irl and many followers/mutuals online on here. for those who’ve stuck around to see me get through all of this, thank you. to all the friends/casual mutuals that have since deactivated or only followed me for a short time then unfollowed; thank you.

like obviously i was never/have never been a massive popular blog on here, like thebootydiaries or vampireapologist (who has since deactivated a couple of months ago) with tens of thousands of followers. my follower count is still close to the 8,000 range at 7,892. obviously that’s still a lot of people (and of course, porn bots lmao and many, many non-active blogs), enough like one super old post from like 2012 tumblr pointed out, enough for a small to medium sized city or town, or something like that. i don’t know how many people i’ve really reached. i really don’t know how i actually amassed this small army of people.

i am aware though, that on other platforms like snapchat (lmao does anyone even use it anymore in 2021???)/instagram/youtube/tiktok etc, i’d PROBABLY be considered as some type of ~micro influencer (🤮🤮)~. hell, i actually had a bot slide into my notes about being one on here on this hellsite back in 2019. i don’t know if i’ve ever actually ~influenced~ anyone on here with my shitposts (when i started making some) or my personal posts. i don’t know my reach. even though, now, i do occasionally get featured on buzzfeed listicles (although pay me buzzfeed along with the OPs of those original embedded posts), i still don’t know how many people i’ve reached… and even with my very occasional checks of google analytics lmao. on top of this, grappling with the loss of followers at times is much, much easier than it was when i began on here and the first few years following that. i know that my follower count doesn’t determine my worth and stuff.

but over these 10 years, i have grown. i turn 26 this year. back in 2011, 15/16yo me never thought she’d be here. she was partially down the suicidal thoughts hole, with things about ~picturing her funeral and wondering who’d bother to turn up. if only she could pretend to be dead for a day to see who’d give a fuck~ and 16-18yo me was defs down it with her HSC hellscape thoughts in 2012/2013. that 3rd floor tafe/tech women’s bathroom window drop and the thought of scarring her class for life (and that cool dude from catholic school that she crushed on who ended up at tafe with her) with jumping out of it onto the concrete below. instead, she just posted on fb about ~being a failure~ etc which ultimately did lose her a bunch of facebook friends lmao. it was practically the same thing. her mental breakdown after the end of her hsc, where she let her earrings go green and get infected in her ears because “fuck self care, bc what the fuck is it??? i’ll never get better! let me fucking wallow in my self loathing bc it’s the only thing that i’m fucking good at!!!” so i no longer have my ears pierced. oh! it was just all too fucking much!!

i am happier today. i no longer have those semi-suicidal thoughts. hell, i almost died in 2020 from a fucking bowel aneurysm, after my stomach tumour excision surgery. that forced me to put things into perspective. i appreciate the little things . i appreciate the very few friends that i actually have. yes. i’m still depressed and anxious. some days are still shitty and hard. but nowhere as hard and shitty as they were back when i began on here 10 years ago.

how the fuck last 10 years have gone past, with my ass on here; clearing out my blog and caring more about doing that than my uni work (lmao whoops); having made some lifelong friends both internationally (from the US) and long distance domestically in australia, it’s been a long ride; i honestly have no fucking idea. obviously over these past 10 years, i’ve debated with myself over and over and over again whether i should delete/deactivate this account or not. would it make me healthier??? more than likely. but then when i have meltdowns or just inner ramblings i have to get out somewhere, where else to post??? on fb?? obvs not. it’s “attention seeking” or the like on there. no one will read them. no one will resonate. but on here??? even if i got/get one “like” in the notes or one “yo i feel this” response in the tags or replies, it feels like i’ve reached someone??? okay yeah. i know this place IS NOT therapy and i’m not using my followers as amateur (or probs even actual professional) armchair psychologists…. which is a thing i think people need to stop doing internet-wide: but that’s a whole other post that i reblogged a few days ago lmao. i really need to get another therapist, actually lmao.

but it’s the community i’ve found hard to leave. i have what feel like friends, when i’ve never been employed (still as of yet); and when all of my irl friends/acquaintances are working and doing the whole ~adulting~ and ~grown up life~ thing right. it’s also the frenzied rabidness of spite with hating staff’s godawful ideas. the memes. oh the memes. and also the RaWrInG 20s XD emo scene reemergence on here that’s kept me here. the messy petty drama from time to time of big blogs fighting it out.

this place really is bizarre and fun sometimes. and also the fact that i can still hide behind the ridiculous “roaring pikachu” URL that i made all those years ago. i am anonymous. it’s freeing. but on fb it’s all like “WHY WONT YOU ADD A BANNER IMAGE AND TELL US 20 FUN FACTS ABOUT YOU!!!!!???? LET PEOPLE WHO HAVENT SPOKEN TO YOU IN 10 YEARS KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU BECAUSE WE’RE ALL FRIENDS HERE!!!” and the same goes for Corporate Hellscape Facebook™️ (linkedin) but in the professional sense instead. y’all know fuck all about me really. besides my posts. and i love that and live for that. okay yeah. y’all know more about my mental health than my fb feed obvs… which is probably a terribly unfortunate thing. but still.

over the last 10 years then, my superiority complex for being ~so original and intelligent~ or whatever the fuck i had in high school, has all but ebbed away. i’m not that smart just because i went to uni. hell, i literally did NONE of my in-class work and none of my philosophy readings in uni….. so i have fuck all idea of how i got through undergrad like that lmao. i’m not original when so many people can articulate the same thoughts that i have, but like, sometimes better, on a post (even though sometimes/most of the time the Tumblr User Hot Takes Tuesday™️ takes on here are fucking awful lmao). but still. originality is not something i really have anymore. or really had in the first place lmao.

so will i deactivate after these 10 years, like i’ve been saying for so, so long??? i honestly have no idea. but just know. thanks guise. have a nice gpoy selfie day XD. grab your wands. your tardises. grab your war paint. grab your whatever the fuck other fandom specific stuff that was one that hella cringe post from 2011 til 2015 random tumblr. that relic is as old as time itself. just as this mysterious roaring pikachu is for someone whose too loyal to leave this W E B B E D H E L L S I T E that’s just as much of a train wreck as she is. lmao.

#life #about me #shut up ilona #tumblr is legit my fucking life now #motivate me to deactivate this blog to leave the hellsite forever 2021 #trigger warning: suicide mention #tw: suicide mention

[ranmanjuu]

—gen z mc with uesugi-takeda + misc. forces

ahh, i’m so glad people liked my gen z oda hcs! lol it’s usually pretty slow from my writing blog experiences until now, but i’m rlly happy! i was planning to do u-t and the others but then i decided to stop at oda and continue another day. thx for the asks tho! and yeah, i do take requests but it’s more of a pasttime, since this whole blog is just my stupid ideas written out and shared out there.

also someone said that a gen z mc could be old enough to romance the warlords, like, early twenties. and yes, very fair if u wanna romance ur mans with memes and existentialism go for it!! i just think it adds more to the comedy side of this child they have to babysit, while not fearing death or any consequences from their dumb of Ass decisions. someone who fears no death and armed with no braincells is a fool, but a Child who fears no death and armed with no braincells is also a fool, but more bizzare and has That Vibe y’know

@niphredil-14​ and @arthotsglasses​

tw: s*icidal, violent jokes treated in a light manner

also spoilers to some things of their characters

—kenshin:

who is this,, , sassy lost child??

he first saw you prepared to throw hands with ronins who were being Elite Dickheads. ofc, armed with nothing compared to the sworded-adults, he had to interfere.

no matter how cold he treated you, masking his secret !!!-like concern, you seemed so unfazed through it. you still interacted with him like normal,,,,, why?? do you want a death wish?

and each time he threatened you with,, anything, you responded with, “the only one who gets to hurt & kill me, is ME”

...... what?

he’s convinced you’re the biggest fool of a person. and he’d be right but even so, he has a weirdly strong need to protect you as you two got closer. you’re often with sasuke, so it’s harder to avoid you.

even with all the Horrible jokes you make on a daily basis, if your passionate side with everyone having equal rights of being treated as human, for him it shows a side of you that makes you seem precious and pure and kind hearted.

and the overprotective side increases.

which is, ,, a bit problematic sometimes cause you have the tendency to target and piss off anyone in a 10 meter range by just one (1) sassy comment, along with your lack of impulse control and blurting out everything in your mind. it’s made you a lot of short enemies in the sengoku period, and kenshin would always be ready to slice them down behind you.

sasuke has to tame him down with his Masters degree in kenshin-wrangling.

at banquets, kenshin would often have you beside him. if you’re too young for sake do age for drinking exist in sengoku? probably not. it’s more of sasuke advising for him to not give you alcoholic drinks he’ll have you pouring for him or just munching away at pickled plums or food.

—shingen:

(ngl i kinda had a hard time with this since it’s erasing a big part of his overall character,,, flirting)

once he heard the news that oda had taken in somone as young as you during honno-ji,, ,,,he’s in a very “how dare that demon >>:( taking such a pure soul,....”

and when you’re taken to kasugayama as a captive, you’re,,, surprisingly very calm and whelmed. you don’t have much sign of fear or anxiety in your overall demeanor meanwhile you’re busy dissociating and spacing out to feel those

you actually don’t seem to hate your captor. but shingen isn’t sure if your ‘fingerguns’ is a good thing or not cause it depicts you pointing guns @ him,, (dw is good shingen)

while yes being held hostage—no matter how good you’re being treated—isn’t ideal and kinda not very cash money, you consider shingen v chill. man has a kindheart!! “i diagnose you with good vibes.”

if he ever sees your righteous side, as everyone else, he’ll deeply admire you. he himself is someone who believes in such as well. and hearing the circumstances in the modern world regarding those things (blm, etc.) his heart truly does go out for you. he feels sympathy for such a young person like you having to take action

also your dirty humor around him, echigo’s player, kind of makes him question where and how you learnt it

and,, his illness.

through getting straight to the point and not falling for it each time he changes subject/dodges the question, you managed to get to the bottom of his illness. shingen himself thinks it’s not something you have to burden with knowing—you’re so, so young.

but that doesn’t matter to you. the world’s given you such a shit time, you’re mature enough to understand the situation at least.

and as he finishes his explanation, all there was is silence. it felt wrong to say any of your usual quips,, so all you did was slowly came there and hugged him.

that was more than what he’d ask for.

—sasuke:

oh hell yeah

you are in your element with him. the chillest guy to talk to, and probably the first one you’re the closest to

your phone was dead after like 2 days of use, and you were miserable while hideyoshi, like a typical parent, told you to go outside and into town. sensing your bad mood, sasuke asked what’s up. you deadpanned, “my phone game ended and now i’m ready to commit not breath.” you oslemnly look out in the bustling streets and clutched your fist like an Anime Protagonist, “those boomer memes were right all along... i am absolutely Miserable and Useless(^TM) without it.”

in response, you could’ve sworn he did the Anime Glasses thing as well, “then we at team Moderately Awesome Sengoku Ninja are happy to announce the launch of a DIY phone charger, made with the electricity from a fruit and the main functionality of a solar panel. and has more durability than samsung’s.”

there were Stars in your eyes now. with a big grin, you thank him, “i’d die for you, sasuke.”

“then perish.” he said with a blank look. (yukimura, in the bg: ???!!!??!??!?)

the next day he consentually breaks in through the ceiling and gives you the weird contraption. you’re now saved, soul-wise.

the memes start coming and they don’t stop coming from the two of you. in any situation. whether it’d be at a teahouse, or at a battlefield that can determine your life and death.

and you can have discussions about current world events, or the past ones, with him and he’d understand completely what you’re talking about. it’s those rare nights when you’ve been thinking and have a deep conversation with him in his room, and as an adult, it makes for interesting results as well.

the others are endlessly confused, but you’re both so unapologetically yourselves.

and he’s super protective if the circumstances are tough. he feels bad for dragging another person in the sengoku with him—much less when they’re so young like you.

if you’re enough of a lil shit, once you’re taken into kasugayama, in the nights where you can’t sleep because brain at what would be 3 am, you’d probably trudge over to his room and wake him up to tell him what kind of mind-blowing shit you realized.

—yukimura:

when he saved you from falling to your death, your reaction already set off weird Vibes inside him. what do you mean, “you stopped me from fleeing this fleeting world by the sweet embrace of death” ?!?!?! are you crazy?? yes

he doesn’t waste time getting blunt with you at all either.

once he goes into azuchi as a merchant, he silently observes you talking to sasuke for a bit. what’s with your weird language?? and crude humor???? never in his life has he met someone in your age act like that wtf

even so, he still operates on the basis of ‘‘if sasuke trusts you, i trust you’’, no matter how utterly concerned you make him feel

you have a dirtier mind than him! unsurprisingly. along with everyone else, you often tease the poor soul, a nd you’d gladly tell him what the innuendoes mean ( 69, etc.) and maybe sprinkle in some gay jokes in there

and why do you keep mentioning this “bromance between him and sasuke” ?? what us,,, a bromance????? and why is sasuke in it??

he takes you out to teahouses to eat chestnut dumplings and other desserts with you. you always seem to target the one he doesn’t like the most and have a bit of banter

your relationship is built on banter but what’s different rlly

he treats you much more maturely than other people your age. as in, he doesn’t pull back his punches in words most of the time. you don’t seem to around him also, it looks like.

and, he’s also very protective of you. he regards you as his little sibling, as rat as you may be. and he does care about you—he might just be a bit unwilling to say it

—yoshimoto:

you think he’s very chill, if a bit unique but who were you to judge. and he is, if you ever meet him in echigo or even azuchi

his big liking to art and something of apathy to people is osmething you can respect. there’s something about that kind of Vibe that you find oddly a mood.

and oh boy oh boy you wasted no time pulling up your phone and showing images of what art is in the future. whether it’d be a screenshot of anime, fanart, aesthetic-like ones, palette-themed—the whole shabang. 

and, somehow, you were left ranting to him  about how some artists in the future get it so shitty for theft, reposting, not crediting, the list goes on (please be a decent human being to artist, sincerely the author) and he can’t help but just listen in silence and kind of thinking about how you’re so passionate about the Struggles of artists. and it isn’t something he sees often in the sengoku era—where war rules most things.

and he does find art from the modern times interesting, how they’re so different and vast in styles. and not only that, it’s not like the future only has one major style like then, each hand can draw such different pictures and still have beauty in each. he appreciates and admires that.

and he does tell you his thoughts ^ while you give your own insight. it’s so fascinating to see someone like you having strong opinions on this.

because, well, rn art is a big thing in our lives as we’re stuck inside. a part of entertainment is looking at any media of art—and he finds his view of art and yours quite the same. you two came from a time of turmoil (one moreso than the other) but still think art isn’t exactly irrelevant just because it isn’t a cure to diseases or the Ultimate Weapon.

you had to Surgically Remove him from your phone so you can use it and to stop him from draining your battery looking at the art

and he often drags you out to town and admire pieces when you’re holing yourself in too much. your comments are always unknown to him, “radical”, “that’s one i can vibe with ngl”, and the list goes on.

and you occasionally call him pretty boy as a compliment rlly

—kennyo:

when you first saw him at honno-ji, and he won’t forget the one (1) line you gave him, all you said to his warning of ooo spooky demons was, “that’s lit fam gtg tho”

and that alone was enough to stun him for a few seconds

honestly you told the others of your meeting with kennyo before they told you it could be kennyo. just a throaway line of “oh yeah there was this dude with a scar across his face.” / “,,, ,....that’s kennyo. he’s really dangerous actually—” / “oh, poggers”

you’re probably kind of half the reason the oda forces found who dun it.

and it was an eye for an eye, kennyo himself found out that you were their child chatelaine, and very close to the others. as per his villain-schedule, he kidnaps you .

he laments about how “such a pure soul such as yours is not to be stained by the demon’s hands”

oh how Wrong he was.

you were the definition of the opposite of pure. and you seemed unfazed, which surprised kennyo but shrugged it off. he was willing to face you screaming and panicking, along with shouldering the sin of doing the deed. but instead, he was met with a raised eyebrow and, “this is unexpected and probably not welcomed but what am i doing here.”

he was stunned for a moment before explaining what he can. 

“......... fuck.”

he cringed ever so slightly at your curse. but your attention seems to stray so quickly off of the fact that you were bounded and helpless, to the fact that you have the man doing unspeakable things to civilians and you absolutely don’t approve.

throwing your common sense to maybe be civilized, you went off on a rant of how human rights and how to not be an ass to him. all he could do was just listened, shocked to even cut you off.

when he did, he gave the whole ‘unsaved demon’ shtick, and you weren’t taking that kinda shit. he believed he was truly unsaved—you knew that. but that doesn’t make it okay.

eventually, he left you with a cold end of the conversation.

he admires your spirit in a way—but with what he’s experienced,,, it’s a bit of unreachable for him.

if at any point you saw the soft side of his with animals, you just gaped at him for a split second and whispered, “the gap moe is strong with this one.”

also old man died inside when you said that you’d fight god, along with many things.

all in all, to him, you’re insufferable. but weirdly,, fascinating.

you’ve totally ok boomer’d him once cause he rlly looks old

—motonari:

,,. if your speech to kennyo was bad, he’s going to rant hell.

motonari already knew you were interesting even when his men just spied on you. your behavior, so brash and impulsive, is going to be so fun to have, he thinks.

through some planning to stir up more chaos, he kidnaps you and brings you unto his ship. same as kennyo, you showed no clear sign of surprise, and that’s when he decided you were either used to this in any way, or a fool. both answers, he liked.

you’re kind of really confused on why he’s doing what he’d doing. “i get it, i like to stir up chaos myself but it’s harmless,, most of it—but not until the people are in danger, bitch.”

and by that line, motonari leans towards you with a deadly smirk, “now, i can bite, ‘kay kid? you don’t wanna be in the receiving end... do you?”

“do it, coward.”

and before he could let out even a wheeze of laughter, you continued on on a lecture of, again, not being a dick and letting people live their life in peace. and much less all of this damage, for what? chaos?? yeah you wanted to see the world burn but it wasn’t literally.

however, his patience was running thin. he shuts you up forcefully, and leaves.

even so, after a cooldown period, he still talks to you (,,,, well, that’s kind of a generous term) because, right he was, you were so fun in his eyes.

an interesting observation he made,,, was that you picked up on his big dislike of physical contact. and he’d think with how annoying you were at times, that you’d weaponize it. but you didn’t—in fact, you kept your space (not that you were planning to get close) and respected his boundaries.

he thinks you a bit of peculiar for that decision, some wary, and perhaps naive.

one of the days—the more dangerous ones—he was planning to take you to the oda as bait or something. and you weren’t taking it like that. two days before arrival, a storm racked up. you stood upon the edge of the ship with the rest of the crew watching you like you were a madman.

“the oda won’t want me if i’m dead, would they now?”

motonari stands in his composure, guffawing, “all i need is to make sure they believe you’re alive, kid.”

a smile that showed absolutely no fear and 1000 percent spite spread in your face, “not unless i decimate my own body until all the trail left is my blood. the only one who gets to do that shit to me, is me.”

finally, a look of wavering shows in his face.

you were saved last minute,, and the rest is history.

#ikemen sengoku #cybird ikemen #ikesen #ikesen kenshin #ikesen shingen #ikesen sasuke #ikesen yukimura #ikesen yoshimoto #ikesen kennyo #ikesen motonari #ikesen uesugi takeda #*writing #gen z mc #god i hope my Lack of Ability isn't shown in how other characters are written longer than others #and how i might've badly Fucked up their characters #i've done like.. 3 routes and that knowledge is all i have #stans pls don't @ me #pretty sure i had more i wanted to add here but #aha brain's memory go brrrrrrrr