#there need to be Internet Identity Shenanigans in that of course

[mlbigbang]

2022 Adrinette Fic Rec List

It's the end of the year which means it's finally time for the ML Big Bang's yearly fic rec lists! We're really excited to bring you our contributors' favourite fics started this year to supply you with plenty of reading material while you're waiting for the Big Bang fics' publication in January.

Just A Friendly Movie Which Is Definitely Not A Date, Interrupted by @justmagicalgirl 1,027 words, General, 1/1 chapter

Marinette is starting to get convinced she and movie theaters are cursed. Turns out, it might not be as bad as she thinks. prompt: Love Square

"I just love it, your honor!"

Dating?! by @danae-darthnoire 2,679 words, General, 1/1 chapter

Marinette is happy. She's decided to be Adrien's friend first and foremost and they have grown closer than ever. What she doesn't know is that everyone else, including Adrien, thinks the two of them are dating.

"I love that Marinette doesn't realize that they're dating despite Adrien holding her hand, kissing her, cuddling her, and more couple stuff!!!! I reread it at least five times a month, it's so good!"

ladrien fan club by @xiueryn 10,913 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

In a twist of fate, Marinette falls out of love with Adrien and in love with her internet friend, Rien. Realistically, the chances of Rien also being Adrien should've been far too ridiculous for her to ever think about. AU. (ladrien brings two idiots together.)

"I love a good chatfic with some identity shenanigans and the humor is just great. it's such a funny approach to alternate identities with a lot of layers of absurdity to it but it works so well!"

these little words by @multimousenette 1,593 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

What do you call a string of people all holding up a brie? A cheesy pickup line! In which Marinette practices flirting by texting Adrien's lost phone.

"You will laugh out loud at it. It is angsty, fluffy, and the AO3 skin used to format it really just makes it so immersive"

Love is Blind by @jennagrinsoverml 26,742 words, Teen, 7/7 chapters

Tired of all of his potential girlfriends being blinded by his face, his fame and his name, Adrien takes a chance to compete on Love Is Blind: France, where he hopes that dating without seeing each other—or learning each other’s names—will finally help him to be lucky in love. What will he do when he realizes that his Lady is one of the contestants, however? And will he be able to win her heart where he’s never succeeded before? Meanwhile, Marinette is looking to meet the right guy after years of pining away for someone who has only ever seen her as a friend. She’s not entirely sure if she can fall in love with someone without seeing them, but the things that have always mattered to her most are the kinds of things that can’t be seen. What will she do when she realizes her heart is being pulled in two directions? And will she be ready to make a decision in time?

"love is blind, but so is, rather unfortunately, Adrien and Marinette. aka the reality show AU that introduces a new side to the love-square, because things haven't been complicated enough before. this fic is so fun, with a lot of romance, pining, and potential for identity shenanigans as they navigate the world of blind dating on live television"

and I do know why but with you I'd dance by @alexseanchai 2,407 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Adrien hasn't been in Paris since his father's arrest. But as a panelist at Paris Comic Con, the first stop for him and his foster kids is of course the bakery Marinette and her family still live above.

"A future AU, set at a convention where Adrien, a voice actor, meets a certain someone after a long time."

happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr by @alexseanchai 540 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

"Adrien and Marinette take a well-deserved nap together. Very well-written!"

For the Last Time by @thelibraryloser 2,500 words, General, 1/1 chapter

No matter how you meet him, you will love him. You will fall for every version of him, in every world, in every timeline. I need you to know that.

"Part of this is in first (or i guess second) person, which usually isn't my style, but this is great. Basically Marinette loses her memories and writes letters to herself. The one we see in the fic is the letter she wrote explaining to herself her relationship with Adrien. It should hurt really bad, and I did get sorta emotional reading, but it was cute too."

when things were good by @rosekasa 11186 words, Teen, 5/? chapters

after their breakup, adrien never thought he would see ladybug again. that is, until, marinette starts studying at the same library as him.

"putting this in here because, while the narrative is post ladynoir break-up with a partial reveal thrown in, the present narrative is adrinette focused. and my god this fic hurts. the emotions are written so well and youre left feeling so bad for both adrien and marinette, and you really understand both their own points of view."

At least I'm not a butterfly by @gideonfromthecrypt 1,848 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

"A month has passed since Marinette’s disappearance. No one really knows what happened to her. The days before her disappearance she was acting unusually: keeping her distance from her friends, well everyone in general."

"Marinette goes missing and Adrien is determined to find her. Meanwhile, Ladybug's been experimenting to find new ways to defeat their foes. The ending is surreal and unexpected in just the right way."

hella enchanted by @xiueryn 32,076 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Years ago, Marinette's father died and she was left with her awful stepmother. With magic forcing her to obey every command, she lived as a servant and gave up hope. When a man appears, searching for the very fairy that blessed her, Marinette decides to give life one more try. AU. (a different ella enchanted au.)

"One of my favourite aus that came out this year. I've read it a couple of times already. It has the perfect kind of journey/travelling vibes"

Seal It With a Kiss by @mostlovedgirl-writes 3,373 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

It has been months since Adrien started lodging at a farmhouse on the edge of the woods with a charming young woman and her three adopted children. In that time, he has yet to answer an essential question: would kissing his landlady awaken ancestral witch powers in her, thus making her a danger to herself and the children? And also, who the hell thought it was a good idea to plant a vegetable garden at the intersection of two ley lines?

"It's got magic, it's got a found family, it's got an amazing plot -- perfect deal"

Save You a Seat by @miabrown007 4,866 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Alya once read that you should invite random celebrities to your wedding — with the more than likely assumption that they won’t attend, only send you a card and an overpriced coffee machine. Luckily, the chances of Hawkmoth’s son reading his mail and showing up to the event are microscopic. Marinette will be busy enough trying to get to know the boy behind Chat Noir’s mask — if he does decide to come — she doesn’t need to worry about being able to look Adrien Agreste in the eyes.

"pre-reveal post final battle sweet sweet angsty shenanigans my beloved"

If You Give A Mouse Some Sunscreen by Jheqia 5,367 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Adrien is thrilled to go to Nino's birthday party at a pool, until the sight of Marinette in a swim suit brings other things to mind…

"This is so freaking adorablee! The whole fic is in Adrien's pov(we love that) and he sees Marinette in a swimsuit and short-circuits haha"

Irresistible by @jennagrinsoverml 4,871 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Adrien chances another glance at Marinette. She's looking at him again. Her cheeks are pink. Did she get too much sun? Or... does she like what she sees? He swallows. He's being stupid, right? It's stupid to get his hopes up when he knows she doesn't feel that way about him. But...what if she could? What if she's noticing that he's grown up and filled out. That he's not just her dorky kitty anymore? ------ When Adrien catches Marinette watching him at the pool, he seizes on the opportunity to show off for his Lady.

"this fic was absolutely irresistible!! ....did i mention I'm now somehow obsessed with pool fics? Anyway this was so nice and fluffy i might get a toothache:)"

dust, unsettled by @sunfoxfic 1,108 words, Teen, 1/1 chapter

Though Prince Adrien loves Ladybug, he still has his duties to his country, and that means marrying Princess Marinette. Marrying Marinette, of course, means having dinner with her.

"DID YOU WANT TO READ ADRIEN PINING FOR LADYBUG IN FRONT OF MARINETTE? DID YOU WANT TO READ THE ADRIENETTE SIDE/MARINETTE POV OF THE LADRIEN KNIGHT/PRINCE AU? DID YOU WANT TO READ SOMETHING THAT MAKES YOU FEEL THE URGE TO THROW YOUR PHONE AT THE WALL? WELL NOW YOU DO."

NSFW works

Blue Crayons by @talkstoself 66,854 words, Mature, 20/20 chapters

After the eventual defeat of Hawkmoth and spending five years away, Adrien comes back to Paris to find his friends don’t blame him the way he blames himself, in fact they’re happy to have him back. Nino and Alya are married, Chloé’s nice now (sort of), and Marinette even had a baby!

"It's an amazing take on a LadyNoir one night stand that shifts into Adrinette"

#miraculous #miraculous ladybug #ml fic recs #fic recs #ml big bang #ml big bang 2022 #adrinette #adrienette #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng

[blackfire-fanfiction]

The rottmnt brainrot is real

I now have 2 AUs (which I have started with only consuming the very basics of this fandom, so if they’re common I have no idea)

AU #1 - Internet Famous: The boys grew interested in posting on the internet, and through I-can-do-whatever-I-want reasons, I’m making it so they got permission from Splinter as long as they keep their identities a secret Donnie is a streamer who plays older games and some indie games (while dissecting the fuck out of the lore and stuff); Leo is also a gamer, but plays more detailed action games and whatever catches his attention on stream; Mikey has an art account on almost every social media, and when he gets more popular he gets Donnie to create a website specifically as an archive for all his work; and Raph (who I just created his internet persona because I think it’s funny) has a podcast series where he reads (mostly children/teen) books and then reacts to the chapter And of course Splinter is a cryptid because there’s no way he hasn’t been caught on camera going to get fast food

AU #2 - Cloaked Mutants Where Splinter manages to get a few cloaking devices and the turtles grow up going to school and participating in society. Mostly shenanigans because it’s the turtles.

I’m still building these AUs, but feel free to send in asks about anything! It really helps me fill in spots I didn’t know needed to be filled in

#rottmnt #rottmnt au #internet famous au #cloaked mutants au #random ideas

[katyspersonal]

a 0 for izzy thank you very much

Dear GOD! I am better off not knowing how long ago I received this ask and I just happened to forget about it..

Alright, so asks are from this ( x ) meme, and number 0 stands for everything from the asks list, so this will be a long one and hiding under cut! But first I will note that past some point in her story, Izzy uses she/her and he/him interchangeably, so pronouns bouncing might occur. Also here is my recent ref of her face:

1) What would their social media page/activity be like

Hmmm, it is a complicated one, because Izzy is a rebel! The way she'd protest the nonsense in the internet might vary from exposing the scientifical/logical fallacy from the pages of people like Laurence (hello Simon's colleague!) to refusing to engage with the social media altogether since it is all only illusion of a struggle that accomplishes anything at all. Perhaps transition from the former to the latter as time goes by. However, while she's in the internet, she'd certainly troll the 'leaders' by asking rather provocative questions. "Hey, Ludwig, if your god is so benevolent, how comes they condone violence and g3nocide? ;)"

2) What animal they remind me of

She is a multitude, but my initial impression of her was a hyena for some reason... Maybe because back then she was solid in my head as a very dominant female beast. By now, her connection with the beasthood leads her to interchange with female and male (but not the same way as Marika and Radagon; in Izzy's case, that's explicitly the same person and the same name, just with biological sex slider being moved back and forth).

My recent impression of Izzy was the noodle dragon; not a real animal, of course, but what I ended up making his beast form appear like. That's as reptilian as Izzy gets though; otherwise he lived his life way more in tune of being canine/feline, with rare insect features.

3) My thoughts on their design/aesthetic alone

Bwahaha! Jokes on you, Izzy doesn't have canon appearance! xD But my first impression, in my head, was that of Izzy being an effeminate person with two braids held by silly ribbons, despite a large build that could rival Gratia's. Only that back then, I imagined her/him as a blonde, but I decided pale 'brown' hair worked better. I later learned that Izzy's name MUCH more likely is a variant of George (Jiří) that I kept checking over ( x ) ( x ) and realised is very palatable. Everything finally fell into place later; a person raised as a man and even given male name, that can now finally get in touch with the femininity she was denied! Something I feel slightly connected with, because I feel like my first stepdad corrupted my gender identity by wishing for a son and consistently trying to replace my hobbies and clothes with masculine ones (that I was very receptive of as a curious kid).

Either way, I do like how Izzy looks for now in my head. As a woman, she is very muscular and strong but with 'silly' feminine attributes like ribbons and flowers that feel almost absurd. As a man though... I don't even know, this is the only vibe I PHYSICALLY can think of:

4) Physical headcanons (sleeping habits, favourite food, all that)

Izzy tends to feel her body's needs very well and naturally gets craving for whatever elements she is lacking. Even before beasthood shenanigans, she had developed habit of listening to her body and trusting the (seemingly) irrational sensations that she doesn't remember having ever failed her. She learned to not think of it too hard. But, her diet had a LOT of berries, fruit, mushrooms and vegetables before falling for beasthood naturally shifted her cravings to more carnivorous ones. Izzy is a garbage cook though, eating almost everything as raw as it can be. That led her to having mushroom poisoning multiple times in her life, but she never ate any that was life-threatening; simply ones way better cooked.

Izzy is an extreme kind of a night owl - naturally leans towards going to bed in early morning and waking up during early evening. Naturally, social life didn't welcome it very well, so she always had problem with being irritable during the day and struggling to fall asleep during the night. Nights of the Hunt are quite natural and convenient for her.

The scars on her face have all existed before any funny hunting business and were earned by her upon wrestling with wild beasts. It is a person that would try to fight a bear with her bare hands, and there is no guarantee that the bear would win! But, she does have multiple traumas (mostly clawmarks) on her body. Her body is also rather muscular from a lot of power-lifting and fighting training. Also, she was informed that "eating onions will strengthen your teeth" and has been eating them regularly for as long as she could remember, and otherwise taking good care of her teeth, so they are all very strong and white.

5) Social headcanons (what do they think of their friends/allies if they have any, what are they looking for in relationship, what people tend to think about them...)

Izzy has a fault of pulling the 'overfamiliar rudeness' on the people she barely knows, that guaranteed her making some people uncomfortable from the very start. She has a very poor comprehension of social cues and boundaries, doesn't help that she is rather rude. Not because she tries to be mean, but rather because she is blunt and honest! And, well, what will your honesty be when most people around you are idiots? Right, it will be letting them know that they are idiots...

She is, however, opposite of my Archibald; whereas he is polite and distant with people but secretly thinks lowly of them, Izzy is rude and disrespectful with people but tends to be neutral towards them or even likes them. She doesn't seem why they'd get hostile or upset over rude by honest remarks - it is okay to be stupid! It is okay to cringe and fail! It is okay to be selfish! These are human things, and Izzy doesn't see anything wrong with exposing how much humans suck in general and have petty fights over it. Moreover, she invites anyone to insult and expose her back, she would not hold grudges as long as it is fair and accurate.

Izzy has no idea what to gain from relationship or what she wants of it, really. She experienced attraction to someone more than once, but she just doesn't know what to DO with it other than simply care about this person above everyone else, protect them above everyone else and cuddle+kiss them more than anyone else. She wondered whether something was wrong with her for not seeing difference between 'very strong and intimate friendship' and 'romance' that apparently everyone else gets; doesn't help that she experiences sexual attraction to pretty much everyone she starts to trust. She thinks that maybe 'normal' relationship is not for her and her true essence lays within strong and intimate bonds with 'allies' instead.

However, Izzy is the most attracted to the 'contrast' for the lack of better term. She most likes either strong people that could kick her ass, or small and frail people she'd have to protect.

On a more complicated note, Izzy does avoid having strong and lasting friendship bonds, because he is the type to show his love and devotion by tearing one's enemy apart in the most gory way possible. But what if this 'enemy' is someone who simply needs another perspective and guidance towards what they missed? Devotion blinds Izzy's reasoning, which is inconvenient because he is as much a smart person as he is a strong one; so, he tries to keep his friendships a little shallow.

Izzy loves picking up every 'psychological test' she is offered, even if the tester doesn't feel very qualified. Whether it is an offering to draw something and be interpreted according to it, or some charlatan offering to read her soul with the cards, Izzy liked things like this. It comes from deep yearning for people who try to understand her, as opposed to turning her into what they WANT her to be... Even if it might be a fake action.

6) Psychological headcanons (tastes, fears, talents, regrets, how they deal with anger, just anything that comes to mind on the topic)

Many people would expect Izzy to be somewhat stupid and irrational because of how she behaves in society and her temperament, but that can't be further from truth! Izzy is quite open-minded, curious, flexible and even immune to manipulation. Even something she holds the most sacred and dear - if it is objectively not valid, she is willing to know the ugly truth about it! This mindset led her to be an easy target for the influence of Fauna the Great One beast - aside of devotion to her loved ones, Izzy holds nothing sacred or unquestionable, so to be the first to question the importance of humanity itself was only natural. I think there is a great courage in being willing to question even the most solid dogmas, though.

Izzy does like dark green color and flower/butterflies aesthetic, which he later found weird, considering his spiritual connection to Fauna. He believes all along it was a bittersweet reminder that was brought by the fate itself - like how even wolves like Fauna howl at the moon. He could write a beautiful poetry about it.

Izzy is scared of insanity, although many people in his surrounding would've considered it ironic in their disdain to his eventual beliefs. But people like Logarius or Alfred would make him feel cold in fear and disbelief. Although committing to beasthood as the new future of the mortals in the end, Izzy is still acting rational in his own animalistic way; but it is people who act without reason, without even very primordial logic who make him feel threatened. He will always try to identify motivation and reasoning of the person, even as a beast, and if he fails to do so, fear will settle in his heart.

When Izzy was able to break ties with her small family and joined the hunters, she enjoyed it quite a lot. She felt as though she could finally be herself - unapologetically, freely. She had a period of admiring cute things like ribbons, frills, beads, glitter and flowers. However, her violent and hostile upbringing took over, and she was ready to be one of the most eager hunters very soon. Until... well, you know. She feels regretful about having never been able to tell her father what exactly she thought of him, however! The bastard died just when she built enough of a character, and she will carry unsaid grudges within herself for god knows how long!

It is hard to predict Izzy's behaviour under the weight of anger, since his anger can be both cold and wicked, or hot and dangerous. But it will be a dangerous, merciless ordeal in either way, so if someone incurred his wrath, they better ask forgiveness. Izzy is, however, extremely forgiving and understanding, since for him humans doing horrible actions is a natural result of their nature. It is not 'being bad' that is bad; it is 'being bad' in the WRONG way that is bad!

7) Ship(s) with them that I like or at least consider

Izzy x Afflicted Beggar: I think Izzy would be the first (and maybe the only) person to not fear Garlan's strange inherited 'second nature'. Encourage him as a special person, even. That Garlan would've appreciated a lot, having to fear himself his whole life and wondering whether he should off himself for the sake of everyone. I like to imagine Izzy training him to control his transformation into a beast and back and 'eating rationally', and allowing him to fight her with teeth and claws when beastly urges get too much. Garlan would've never been able to live down the emptiness in his heart if they really had something intimate going and then Izzy just disappeared, he'd feel like he'd lost his one true shot of real love forever.

Izzy x Ludwig: They are enemies, as tomb prospecting hunters that discovered the kinship with the antagonistic Great Ones who could never get along and their mutual hostility rules the world. They hate each other, but at the same time wish each other to "come to their senses" and join another's side. I sometimes have mental image of them crying together and yelling at each other - Izzy saying she doesn't want to see him turning into a mindless marionette of the corrupt Moon Presence, and Ludwig saying he doesn't want to see him becoming an abomination to what humanity entails. They are both unaware that their respective Great Ones are both puppeteers convincing them that the opposing side is the 'evil' one, but I think it'd be really bittersweet if they could see each other among all this madness. Never had a place in the canon, though.

Izzy x Valtr: Doomed ship, do not take as real ship in any way. Based on Izzy having "joined" the League because she realised that Valtr knows some secret about the very nature of humanity that she doesn't. But, during her stay, she might have tried to flirt with him.

Izzy x Maria: Izzy of course started off as an Old Hunter of Gehrman's type, not as a hunter of the type that started with Ludwig and the Healing Church. So, back then, Izzy, Gratia and Maria were the only hunters of the type. But Izzy would surprisingly develop much more affection towards Maria than towards some other Old Hunter, fascinated by her complexity, combination of strength and wits, combination of masculinity and femininity. It is both seeing a kindred spirit in Maria and still wanting to get to know what is unique about her that would fascinate Izzy. To think of it, I guess Izzy's attraction had place in 'official' timeline; but Maria was opposing beasthood like a normal hunter is supposed to, so it was doomed.

8) Made-up connections with other characters that weren't in the canon (friends, enemies, whatever)

Ludwig - Like I said, they ended up being marionettes of the antagonistic Great Ones. Well... Izzy is less so of a marionette; Fauna suggests freedom. But that still brought her to care about her beloathed. Izzy thinks he is a complete idiot, but not an idiot by his fault, and hopes to one day see him admitting corrupt and through and through unfair governance of the Moon Presence. She just sees he is not a bad man in the slightest, and simply got tempted by the goals and ideals that can never be fulfilled.

Laurence - Now, THIS man she doesn't pity or root for the same way as Ludwig. Izzy can grasp that Laurence is aware what game he is playing and what God he is making deals with. Therefore, she feels anger and disdain towards him, ready to hold him accountable for everything. Izzy thinks he is a goddamn idiot that never could listen for a good advice and can only be FORCED to act right.... well, she is right, I guess...

Micolash - Izzy positively doesn't understand the guy... Well, until he can see that Micolash, likewise, has a link with a Great One who knows things way beyond normal human realm and what's sacred or cursed for them. Izzy finds strange solidarity with him despite having a slight respectful fear towards him (seeing what he does with animals was enough). Although 'where there is no sea, is dwelling of beasts', Kos and Fauna are nonetheless the deities antagonistic to the order of the Moon Presence, even if in different ways. Izzy does value Micolash as his own person though, he thinks Micolash is a powerful and independent spirit that will shape history likewise... It is just that rather than feeling true allyship, they are connected only on the virtue of 'enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Micolash doesn't feel the same, though - he has a great disdain towards "beastly idiocy". However, Izzy he finds a great aid; a great guardian, even, so he is willing to tolerate him.

Archibald - Ah, yeeeeah, this one. It is not canon, despite how obvious connection of the two people studying Darkbeasts should be xD I just think they could find a lot in common, and even both meet in Yahar'gul as fellow people denying Healing Church's restrictions. Who would spit on every "sacred" rule just to continue the one thing TRULY sacred for them - the research. Archibald finds Izzy's ways a bit extreme though, believing that beasthood is a useful thing to conquer, rather than the answer for humanity's troubles. As result, they have debates often, and Izzy at times accuses him of being a 'coward' that is not willing to abandon the subtle comfort of civilisation for the true knowledge. They are still of very respectable opinion of each other nonetheless, and are true friends.

Fauna - At some point, Izzy was nearly banished to never return from the dungeons for her revolutionary opinions and questions. Healing Church feared the apostates, and feared that they'd sabotage their progress before they could find a way to make everything work. But she found her way in Loran ruins, and had heart and mind open enough to comprehend the message of freedom and true light Fauna was trying to deliver. Long slaughtered by the hero that first forged Holy Moonlight Sword, Fauna lived on only in spirit, and found comfort in being able to continue his ideas through Izzy. She was the only one able to hear his calling in a while and not reject it. Izzy respects Fauna greatly, and can see clearly that out of the two antagonistic Great Ones, not he was the bad guy; he was willing to bring humanity the light of bolt and fire that lets them seek their own way, as opposed to the light of stars and moon, that had its own way planned for every mortal. Fauna, however, sees himself as the 'true' God and as the one worthy to be above Flora and beyond; therefore, trusting him is a risky activity as well. Besides, Fauna suggests the law of survival of the fittest; although one has a freedom, they simply become food for the stronger ones if they are not strong enough to hold this freedom. Izzy simply happens to see more reasoning in his plans for humanity, though.

Henryk, Garlan and Zacharia - Garlan is my name for Afflicted Beggar, yeah! Zacharia is the father of both Henryk and Garlan, the NPC in Bloodborne that has 'Night of celebration!' voice line. Like I said before, Izzy would be the one to accept Garlan for who he is and to help him to train his transformation and impulses. But, she would also strike a great friendship with Zacharia! Henryk, though... Yeah, he always resented how tainted his family was, and thanked every god he believed in that he came out 'clean' from Loran lineage. But he hated himself for not being able to protect Valtr from her sneaky plan, and probably hates himself for it even in death.

Valtr - Izzy noticed he knew something that she didn't, watching him extracting something she could not see from the bodies of his fallen foes and laughing maniacally. So, she used all her actor/actress skills to act on his good side, so she was able to learn his unique rune and see his idea of humans' evil. It was a giant breakthrough for her comprehending the very nature of humanity, and instead of killing Vermin, Izzy started to study it. Albeit limited perspective, but Valtr's vision was good enough, and Izzy forever developed centipede tendrils and legs.

Yamamura - They only met when Izzy completed his transformation into a beast. The storm-bringing beast Izzy, who was a noodle dragon eager to spread will of Fauna across the world via his spark magic. Upon complete transformation, his goal was the faraway land. Izzy managed to place the seed of confusion and detraction in Yamamura's land, but he still killed many people and destroyed many villages. That Yamamura could not forgive, so he chased him for a long while, having harmed him bad enough to not be able to fly that fast and that long. Izzy still had his hunter hat attached to one of his horns; and when Yamamura finally killed him, offered Valtr's Whirligig Saw for it, he got Izzy's former hunter hat as a trophy. However, there was some work to be done, to remove the traces of former blue ribbon, and to patch up the hole from the horn. In the end, the two never knew each other beyond just a beast and just a future hunter, but Izzy did speak his final words, saying it was too late and Yamamura's village was to inevitably witness the truth...

9) Headcanons about their past

Like I said, Izzy was raised 'like a man', in a pretty violent and unforgiving environment. In a strange way, it was an act of protection, in a heavily sexist environment where a woman was an incubator to birth more warriors at least, a useless waste of resources to be killed at worst. Izzy grew in the mindset that 'one gender is more equal than another', that further influenced her life decisions, but in a different way; she wished to abolish such inequality.

Izzy was quickly driven to the Old Hunters faction, who encouraged: they did not care about one's preferences or upbringing. For them, one being able to kill was enough, regardless of the way they choose. This kind of autonomy was all Izzy really wanted - a place to be free at as herself, as long as she could KILL. That Izzy already was good at... However, she didn't quite buy how Hunters and Healing Church cooperated, and how many things they prohibited. She was asking too many questions, trying too weird tools... As result, she was sentenced to no less but to be forcibly held in the dungeons until she'd 'understand her behaviour'. When upon her return, they offered her peace, Izzy's answer was simple - "When you leave someone in the darkness, be careful to ensure they never learn to SEE in it!"

Izzy hit several violent conflicts with Laurence (basically the fire wizard) and Ludwig (basically the Moon paladin), over proposing the will of a certain deity. But, she brought the seed of the doubt upon enough of people. Some of them still search all over Loran in order to find the same enlightenment she found, such as Joseph.

She learned her father was dead through third parties, and was very devastated. She had a word with him, about falling for the corrupted and unfair order of his society and culture, about forcing her to grow in a certain way, about being a 'coward'. She always felt and will feel bitter towards him for not being as strong as her; because her style is to curse the whole world but stand for what is right... And her father was... well, not that. She considered asking Micolash for his necromancer magic multiple times, to bring her father back and have a word with him, too.

10) Content about them I'd like to see more of

LITERALLY ANYTHING. I honestly do not understand how came this character was only worthy of consideration in like... what? 2017-2018? And then forgotten into nothingness? Like... You all have a beast mom/dad/gender-neutral, and you just gloss over it? Feels weird for me xD We should collectively bring back the tradition of making a fully fleshed-out character out of Bloodborne's namedrop!

But yeah, that's it for this character! Thank you for asking, though! Blegh... I honestly have a design for Izzy's armour and stages as a character in my head, I really wish I could share them right here. But... yeah, alas, drawing a full on fanart will take some time.

#bloodborne #ask replies #irreverent izzy #bloodborne headcanons #izzy is such an interesting character #one of the very first ones i started to flesh out actually #she had some progress as a character yeah #but yeah.... #again it is not the same way as marika/radagon of course #those two have some sort of splitting personality #izzy tho is always izzy just with 'sliders' moving if you see what i mean

[incomingalbatross]

Met online asks: the Psmith series, predictably?

I am at long last getting to this! (and what, no, I wasn’t expecting this one at all... :P )

So I think what stymied me here is that... Mike is almost certainly a lurker online. I can imagine Psmith being a Personality easily, but Mike probably spends his time in the internet as inconspicuously as he can. And they need to meet as equals, obviously, so you can’t have just one be Internet Famous at the start...

BUT. Once I started typing, it worked out pretty well!

So here we go:

Mike has Facebook and Twitter and so on, partly for keeping up with IRL connections but mostly to keep up with cricket and his brothers. Tweets almost exclusively about cricket (though also about TV shows he’s currently into), actually has followers who don’t know him IRL because he has Informed Takes

His Twitter account is old enough that it’s not connected to his real name, and he doesn’t identify himself either because he doesn’t like the notoriety of being the Youngest Jackson Brother when he’s not even playing... what do you even call it? Do you call it playing pro cricket, nowadays? You know what I mean. He’s probably still in high school

So yeah his online presence isn’t explicitly connected to the rest of his family’s. His brothers follow him, but they’re not very active on Twitter, and personal communication in the Jackson family is mainly over group text, so the fact that they’re related doesn’t really show

Psmith, meanwhile, has a Twitter account that jumps randomly from topic to topic, depending on whatever the heck he’s thinking about at the moment. It’s constant Psmith Monologuing thrown out into the void, just what the internet was made for

His Twitter display name is Psmith and his handle is something like @ therealpsmith. No one’s sure if it’s supposed to be his last name or if his name is P. Smith or what.

(It feels weird making up Twitter accounts for them in response to an ask from you... but this AU has different goals and so I do need different Twitter presences for them. And I can’t see Mike on Tumblr at all, so that’s not an option)

Since this is an AU, I think they can initially connect over cricket. Psmith follows Mike first, and tends to retweet a fair amount of his cricket takes with his own added commentary. After enough of this (since Mike isn’t so high-profile that he doesn’t notice a new regular interacter) Mike goes and checks out his Twitter

It’s not all cricket and a lot of it is diatribes about whatever’s annoyed Psmith today. But they’re witty and entertaining diatribes, and Mike ends up following him

Before long Psmith starts up a long thread about something Mike’s already been stewing over--a plot development in a TV show they both watch, maybe? Not sure

But anyway Mike starts commenting/retweeting/arguing with other people who disagree, because the thing in question is Stupid and Wrong and the fact that people think otherwise bothers him on a personal level

And then Psmith DMs him like “The cricket connoisseur has come to my aid! I am gratified by your assistance,” and then starts talking to him, personally, about why the thing is Dumb and Wrong

From this they start chatting/interacting more regularly. Mike is, obviously, less loquacious than Psmith, and I don’t think their friendship solidifies quite as quickly as in canon just because they aren’t doing things together, but they still click

At some point Psmith’s bemoaning the fact that he’s so constrained by Twitter’s character limit (unlike Mike, who is “the strong, silent type, admirable suited to the medium”) and starts talking about how to fully express himself he should really have a podcast

Mike: “Why don’t you, then?”

Psmith: “You are right. Why not? Here we see the strength of a true man of action--direct and to the point. Why SHOULDN’T I start a podcast?”

Annnd then he ropes Mike into doing it with him so he’ll have someone to talk to. Mike insists, however, on only using his first name, because he doesn’t want this to reflect badly in his brothers if it goes horribly wrong

So they start a nominally-about-cricket (since that’s their biggest shared thing) podcast, called simply “Mike and Psmith”

(There’s probably a joke somewhere in their eventual fanbase about it being “Mic and Psmith,” since Psmith’s doing 80% of the talking)

Between their dynamic and Psmith’s ability to talk, it’s surprisingly successful--it bounces all over the place, topic-wise, but they’re just fun to listen to

While they’re not, like, Buzzfeed Unsolved levels of well-known, they get a decent-sized fanbase

(There’s a long-running fandom debate over whether Psmith is actually Like That or if the show’s scripted. It will probably never be permanently resolved)

They also start a YouTube channel for playing video games and so on--partly because listeners wanted to see it, but partly because they just like hanging out and doing stuff together

Mike has not told his family about any of this, BTW, because he’s too self-conscious about being mildly internet famous, but one day Margery stumbles across the show. He’s in for a lot of teasing

I honestly don’t know how they meet IRL--I’m torn between A) them just video-chatting eventually, learning each other’s actual names, and meeting up at a cricket match, and B) them meeting coincidentally, in some completely different capacity, and recognizing each other by their voices

Either way, though, once they meet they keeping meeting and eventually end up room/flatmates once they both move away from home (if Mike’s planning to play cricket, would he go to college? Would modern Mike be planning to play cricket for a living? I don’t know these things so I’m leaving that vague)

“Moving in with someone you made friends with online” is not always a recipe for success, but it works out for them. They were already best friends, but now they can actually do stuff together! It really just solidifies their friendship for good

(Not that there isn’t friction--the number of Shenanigans Psmith drags Mike into has vastly increased, for one thing--but it all works out, in the end)

Their podcast is an essential part of their routine, by now. I’m not sure how it develops over the years, but it stays pretty low-key... the core of it is still just two best friends hanging out, and that works

(At some point in the future, the cast may expand to "two best friends and their wives, who are also best friends,” but that’s another story, and one I don’t know well enough to say for sure)

#psmith #mike jackson #isfjmel-phleg #ask games #thank you for this one! #it was fun once i got it going #and there REALLY should be a Part 2 with the girls but i don't know if it'll happen #(if anyone else wants to come up with that one please do!) #there need to be Internet Identity Shenanigans in that of course #too much wodehousian potential there to pass up #(and i almost went there for mike and psmith but i felt it should maybe be saved for psmith and eve) #this had less Emotional Drama than the psych one but i think that fits them okay? #not that i'm OPPOSED to Emotional Drama it just didn't come up the same way #also wasn't expecting them to become podcasters but i enjoy the mental images of that #and psmith needs to use the internet to talk SOMEHOW right #too good a venue to pass up #WAIT 'Nominally About Cricket' is their tagline

[the-bjd-community-confess]

Dear 'Anime Bad' Anon: I Want To Help I pity your situation, so please have a list of weebshit that isn't moeified, or wherein the cutesy art-style serves a greater purpose. (Note: though they won't be soft marshmallow uguuuu, they may still have issues in other ways. Some may have aged badly with regards to how society views or portrays groups or beliefs, some may have upsetting content and dark themes, and some may simply not be to your taste. Note: Anime is a genre, not a monolith, and the disparaging stereotype that it's all cute girls uwuing over their brother s-s-senpai!!! is as much of a disservice as saying all western movies are just vapid cash grab superhero movie sequels with no inegrity or thought put into them. There are indeed a lot of superhero movies, but they're not all identical schlock (megamind vs venom vs kick-ass),  but even more than that, there is a wealth of creative endeavor just beyond the veil of Marvel's cape: just as there are plenty of good anime if you dig past the isekai high school harem wish fulfillment genre that no one wants to keep making but people keep making because it prints money to a very small demographic of the animation equivalent of a mobile game whale thereby allowing this frankly quite-small industry to work on engaging and worthwhile series where the budget permits, Regardless,)

Mushi-shi: -Pros: gorgeous animation, tranquil vibes, episodic stories so you can cram in an episode between classes or on your lunch break. highly recommended by the literal-who typing this out. -Cons: some themes or stories may cause emotional distress, learning to tell apart Urushibara Yuki's characters is a learning curve.

Baccano-Pros: meticulously-researched 20s-and-30s-era mafia violence with a hint of the supernatural, as a treat, told anachronistically with flair and jazz music. practically made to be binge-watched. the novels are finally getting translated into english as well. -Cons: lots of characters to keep track of, fair bit of blood and violence, some scenes or themes may be upsetting, lots of jumping around between different time periods. See Also: Durarara, another series by Ryōgo Narita with a ton of characters and a plot with more threads an overpriced sheet.

Cowboy Bebop-Pros: incredibly well-regarded, space bounty hunters are cool, episodic series that slowly takes on a plot towards the end, fantastic animation, scoring, and even dub work.  -Cons: some scenes or themes may be uncomfortable, some parts have not aged quite so well, the smart doll version of the main character is ugly, you're gonna carry that weight.

Trigun-Pros: starts lighthearted, develops an increasingly investing plot as the series goes along. fictional westerns are cool. this world is made of love and peace -Cons: some scenes or themes may be upsetting, and probably will be. gun violence is naturally present, but that ain't all of it.

Hellsing (standard or Ultimate. or Abridged)Pros: vampires killing nazis. the original adaptation isn't bad, the second adaptation (ultimate) is generally viewed as an improvement. abridged is a youtube parody version that was so popular the voice actors reference it in convention interviews.Cons: a Lot of violence, even trending to the gorey side of things. Uncomfortable Themes Everywhere, but it's a horror-tinged action series about killing nazis, so that's to be expected. 

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood-Pros: while the original anime was quite good, the second iteration is a large improvement. does to alchemy what naruto does to ninjas: It's Basically Battle Magic. the plot starts on a strong note and doesn't let up from there. -Cons: there are distressing scenes and themes that may or may not be tolerable to the viewer. there are moments of cheesecake and even an occasional joke or a moeblob here and there, and it's not all doom and all gloom all the time, but this doesn't detract from the abject horror-despair that comes to permeate this series as it progresses. finally understand why people on the internet respond so negatively to the name 'nina'! 

[Mod: many more recs/reviews under the break, worth reading for those who like more obscure anime and animation]

Grave of the Fireflies-Pros: you will remember how to cry. it's a good reminder that one country's 'triumphs' often come at the expense of another country's people.  -Cons: this movie is incredibly dark, do not watch if you are in a bad headspace. see also: Barefoot Gen, a similar tale but this time from the perspective of an actual survivor from Hiroshima.

Michiko to Hatchin-Pros: an actually diverse cast of characters tangled up in a messy and very humanizing story, interspersed with Shinichiro Watanabe's particular flare for adventure. -Cons: some scenes or themes are very likely to be distressing. can be tricky to find, too.

Mo no no Ke (not the ghibli movie, though it is also quite good.) -Pros: incredibly unique art style and pacing that draws heavily from japanese theatre traditions, every screenshot is wallpaper-worthy. -Cons: may cause motion sickness. it is a psychological horror series, and one that does not need blood, nor gore, to cause visceral emotional response in the viewer. scenes and themes will be distressing- as really, that's the point.

Tokyo Godfathers-Pros: a transwoman, a (self-identified) homeless bum, and a runaway teen girl find a newborn in the baby on christmas. incredibly wholesome, somehow, and grounded in reality, with wonderful animation from the tragically late satoshi kon. -Cons: it is grounded in realism, and sometimes, people are dicks. mild transphobia warning, too, but in-universe- the transwoman herself is portrayed with kindness and allowed to be her own (wonderful!!!) person. still, viewer be mindful.

Kino no Tabi (the first series is my preferred, the second is shinier but lacks emotional impact- in my onion.) -Pros: mostly episodic, very unique series that can be gritty where it counts and kind where it matters. -Cons: some scenes or themes might be disturbing. finding it's not easy, either, and unfortunately, i don't think the novels are being translated right now, either.

Spice and Wolf-Pros: it's mostly about economics. there are shenanigans, a harvest god, and a slowly burgeoning romance, sure, but it's still mostly about economics. -Cons: there are moments of cheesecake and comedy, and moments that may cause distress to the viewer. it may or may not be to your taste.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica-Cons: yeah i know, it's moeblobs.  -Pros: you're gonna watch 'em die, though, in case that may interest you. it's quite a good subversion of the magical girl genre overall. somehow volks hasn't made an MDD of anyone from the series and i will never understand how that didn't happen.

Wolf Children: Ame to Yuki-Pros: watch a family grow together as a newly-single mother does her best to raise her twin children after the tragic loss of their father.  -Cons: keep tissues handy. certain scenes or themes may be uncomfortable.

Lupin III (Red Jacket, Ghibli, and the new 3D animation are all A+) pros: heist comedy elevated to an art form before half (or more!) of the people reading this were born. the english dubbed series that used to air on adult swim is a treat. cons: this franchise started in THE SIXTIES, so naturally, some shit has not aged well. certain series (fujiko mine) are darker than others in themes and material. the 3d movie that released recently is an excellent starting point.

Samurai Champloo-Pros: breakdancing samurai, a fascinating roster of characters, and a superb soundtrack by the tragically passed Nujabes. -Cons: it was made in the weird era of the transition from analog to digital animation and so the /series master/ was animated at a painfully low resolution, so even if there's a bluray out there (I haven't looked,) it will be an upscale, which doesn't always look the best. as well, there are scenes and themes that may make the viewer uncomfortable here and there.

The Works of Studio Ghibli Oh, I'm sorry, Ponyo too suffused with childhood wonder for you? My Neighbor Totoro not depressing enough?  In addition to the infamous Grave of the Fireflies, Studio Ghibli has made a wealth of movies that aren't aimed squarely at the kodomo (children's) sector. -Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind: climate change existential dread, the movie -Castle in the Sky: government obsession with obtaining weapons of mass destruction destroys everything beautiful, the movie -Pom Poko: human-caused deforestation and urbanization is destroying the natural world and all that live in it, the movie -Princess Mononoke: industrialization will be the death of everything beautiful in the world, the movie, with a side of sometimes everyone (and no one) is the villain when everyone is simply trying to survive -Howl's Moving Castle: The Physical Manifestation of Depression is a Liquid Ooze, the Movie, also War Is Bad It's not all depressing, but let it never be said that Hayao Miyazaki was subtle. Whisper of the Heart is a good coming-of-age story, Kiki's Delivery Service is a classic, Tales from Earthsea is divisive among fans of Ursula K. Le Guin but I personally liked it. From one studio alone there is a wealth of opportunities.

And that's really the point. These are just some from the top of my head. There are so very many options outside of the cute-girls-doing-cute-things genre that I couldn't list them all if I was here for a week. Or as Madoka Magica so ruthlessly showcases, even series that appear a certain way on the surface might not be what you bargained for once you look into them! These are all (I think) mostly older, mainstream-appeal series that should be easy to track down, too -- there are all kinds of singular animations like The Diary of Tortov Roddle, crowdfunded experiments like KICK-HEART, Masterpiece World Theatre renditions of classic (western) novels that never get talked about, films like A Silent Voice that confront social issues- and of course, series like Rozen Maiden that helped popularize this very hobby!

There is literally an ocean of content to explore from Japanese creators alone, and it opens up even more if you look into works from other parts of Asia- just look at how popular manwha have become, or Chinese animations like Leafie, a Hen Into the Wild! It's a genre unto itself, with all the breadth of content and inter-industry problems that come with it, and without any of the respect that similar art forms have been granted over the years. The way an entire culture's art form is often disparaged, disregarded, and belittled- and by extension, the way most of Asia's animated endeavors are often rolled up into that reductive dismissal along with anime and manga- is honestly Not Great, and there is absolutely a thread of xenophobia that runs through it. The industry has so very many problems (low wages, poor training, overwork of everyone ever, archaic financial modules, the exclusivity and breadth of merchandising necessary to turn a profit and how it leads to consumer burnout and disconnection over time, and yes, the way minors are portrayed not just in anime, but in Japanese media in general- and how much of that is actually bad (some of it is indeed,) and how much if it is cultural difference (I've heard people call the scene where the family in Totoro bathe together problematic because of the nudity, but I've also only heard people say that from the West)

-- none of the actual problems affecting the people who produce this medium are gonna improve when the general response to "animators frequently have to live at home to survive" is "that's what happens when you're a weeb."  It's 5am and I'm gonna point out the problems in the narrative around how we discuss this genre of entertainment because it's important, damn you! Regardless, thank you for coming to my unasked for and overlong TED talk about animation on a doll collecting drama blog, feel free to call me a pathetic weeb etcetera on your way out- but while you do so, might I suggest you also go watch a choice animated series! My current go-to is Bofuri, which is a cute-girls-doing-cute-things moefied isekai series that I refuse to apologize for watching. Be free. (The battle scenes are great and it captures the feeling of learning to play a new MMO with your friends better than most video-game-based anime I've seen in a long, long time. does anyone even still remember .hack? how about serial experiments lain...?)

~Anonymous

#BJD #ABJD #BJD Confessions #TrueBJDConfessions #Anime

[bluedrawsanddreams]

An Unlikely Miracle | (rewritten) Chapter 10

Warning: contains physical assault, language, fluff in the end

A/n: fun fact: I got the assault from the end when The Rock beat Mcmahon, and, to me, it was pretty epic. Plus...(glances around to see if Migo or anyone else is hearing me)...I got a surprise in the end. Just read to the end, and you'll see (grins like the Chesire Cat)

@louthegreatfurrry @somethingscarlet13

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Crash came into the city the next day; he had talked with Blue about seeing her some days prior. Spyro, Gex, Croc, Kloana, and Rayman wouldn’t stop asking so many questions about how Percy’s pregnancy happened. It was hard to keep up with them one at a time before she had to stop them all at once so she could answer one question before the other. Blue had explained to them what the stone that the S.E.S. had found did to Migo and Percy and what had happened to it before the rediscovery. She had honestly thought they would be disgusted by it, but they were nonchalant about it.

“It happens. There’s no need to be ashamed of it,” Rayman had told her over the Facetime app.

When Crash arrived at the town airport, Blue was the only one to greet him. The others were already in town, waiting for his arrival.

“Hey. I got your message. How’s Percy handling the drama?” Crash asked after placing a light kiss on her lips.

“People gawking at him whenever he’s out, the internet still going insane over this. The whole shenanigan.” Blue replied as they walked to the baggage claim.

“And his dad? He must be going mad about it.”

“Yeah. He sounded so pissed when he called.”

“Geez, the guy’s about to be a grandfather, and he thinks his son being pregnant is a bad thing. What else is he going to do? Fly in here and make him get an abortion? Like that’s ever gonna happen.” Crash chortled.

“That’s true. You have to be between 6 to 8 weeks for that to happen. Of course, I might be wrong.”

“Let’s not jinx ourselves with it, then.”

“Agreed.”

However, they hadn’t noticed someone glaring at them from a few meters before he left through the exit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, the S.E.S. had met up with Migo and Percy at the town center in the human city. Brenda had also joined them a while later. As Percy stood next to Migo, his coat was too small to cover up his bump, so he had to wear a comfortable sweater while his snow coat was left open. A few people would occasionally stare at Percy for a moment before they continued on to their business. It was a true miracle that Blue’s speech got them to stop harassing him for the time being.

“So, I got word from Blue and Crash. They should be here any moment,” Migo told the group. His arm was protectively wrapped around Percy as he sometimes glared at any bystander who’d stare at him for too long.

“Oh, and while we’re at it, can we be Uncles and Aunts S.E.S.?” Kolka asked excitedly.

Migo couldn’t help but chuckle as Percy and Brenda stifled their laughter. “Uncles and Aunts S.E.S.?”

“Well, we’re naming ourselves aunts and uncles individually,” Meechee chuckled in reply. “For example, Aunt Meechee, Aunt Kolka, Uncle Gwangi…”

“Uncle Fle-Fle?” Fleem piped in.

“Fleem!” They collectively scolded him.

“What? What’s wrong with it?”

“Anyways, any developments?” Kolka excitedly asked.

Migo and Percy glanced at one another before the red-haired man pulled out a photo from his coat pocket. An ultrasound of the baby at 28 weeks was revealed for the S.E.S. and Brenda to see.

The five instantly gasped with excitement and wide, shining eyes. “It’s so tiny!” Meechee squealed.

“Identity of gender?”

“Code color?”

“Boy or girl?”

“We haven’t told anyone yet,” Percy answered, shrugging. “Though…” he stopped to stifle his laughter for a moment. “…I have a feeling they’re going to want to find out now.”

As they talked, they didn’t notice a figure—enraged and already taken over by hatred—stomping towards them, his eyes mostly focused on Percy. It wasn’t until he got close to them he raised his hand to instantly hit Percy on the side of his face. The sudden strike also caught Migo, Brenda, and the S.E.S. by surprise as the white-haired quickly caught Percy to prevent him from falling over. A few people passing by had also stopped horrified at the unexpected attack.

“You ungrateful bastard!” It didn’t take long for the two to recognize the voice of Percy’s dad. “I gave you an opportunity to get rid of that thing, and you just threw it away?!”

Percy was too busy holding the side of his face that was hit, while his other hand clenching his belly as if he was afraid of letting it fall off, to even argue with him.

“You! What the hell do you think you’re doing here?!” Migo angrily demanded as he wielded Percy protectively. Brenda and the S.E.S., even though they didn’t know Percy’s father, stood in front of the two in defense.

“My son will not be having that abomination on my watch! I’ll pull it out of his stomach and get rid of it myself if I have to!” Patterson shouted.

Before anyone could even react, he suddenly pulled out a knife from his back pocket and held it out in the open.

“Knife! He’s got a knife!”

The crowd that had gathered around gasped and suddenly backed away in fear of getting caught up in the ensuing fight. Someone had shouted in Mandarin to call the authorities, but the loud shouting and crying out of terror were the loudest over the exclamation.

Migo also saw the weapon and held Percy closer to him. He had never thought his father would go this far to save his reputation.

“Now come on over here, son, so I can take out that thing from your belly…” Patterson said threateningly as he started to approach them, despite the S.E.S. and Brenda standing in front of them protectively.

Another step, though, and suddenly, a new heavy weight landed on his back, her legs wrapped around his waist and a determined cry emitting in the air at the same moment. Her hands started to grab at his face and hair randomly to prevent him from getting any closer to Migo and Percy.

Migo and Percy had no idea Blue could be capable of fighting like this. But the second they saw her on the elder Patterson’s back and grabbing at his face and hair, they understood why she is not to be messed with. The determined, raging fire in her ocean eyes, snarls and grunts leaving through her clenched teeth.

“Get ‘im, Blue! Kick him in the balls from behind!” Fleem hollered to her, pumping his fists in the air.

With Fleem’s shout of encouragement, Blue persisted to grab at the older man’s face and hair, sometimes successfully pulling on his hair and making him yell in agony. Despite the fact Patterson is bigger and stronger than her, Blue still refused to let go. At one point, she nearly poked him in the eye or nearly fell over when Patterson hunched forward to try and get her off, but she regained her hold and nevertheless fought him with every bit of strength she had left.

Unfortunately, the fight didn’t last long. Patterson suddenly got the upper hand, grabbed Blue by the back of her coat, and flung her off of him as she yelped, sending her rolling across the ground a few times. His attention returned to Migo and Percy, his hold on the knife still hard.

Just as he was about to ambush them, a lone trash can lid was furled right at the back of his head. The unforeseen attack rendered Patterson unconscious and sent him falling to the ground. Blue, Migo, Percy, Brenda, and the S.E.S. glanced up to find Crash glaring down at the fallen attacker.

“I dare anyone else to hurt my girl,” he declared to the older man.

It didn’t take long for the authorities to arrive and arrest Patterson for physical assault, threats of further violence, and illegal use of a weapon. The knife was bought at a gift shop nearby and is now confiscated for evidence research.

As a few cops shoved a mad Patterson in the back of the car, the others took statements from everyone that had witnessed the battle. They took the side of the S.E.S that Blue was protecting Migo and Percy from the elder man’s attempt and that Crash was only fighting in defense of her as well, so there were no charges against them.

“You okay, love?” Migo tenderly asked Percy, stroking his unharmed cheek with his thumb. Percy shakily nodded, his hands cradling his round stomach.

“...You son of a bitch, you dare do this to me?! I oughtta…!!!” Percy’s father continued to shout at him through the open window.

Blue only glowered at him with the biggest scowl she could muster. Without a word, she grabbed a trash can lid near her and slammed it on Percy’s father’s head, sending him to a pained yelp. Crash, Migo, Percy, Brenda, and the S.E.S. gasped and winced at her sudden attack. The authorities and witnesses also became stunned at her retaliation.

“Mess with my friend, you mess with me, motherfucker!!” Blue bellowed at him with all her might and slammed the trash can lid on Percy’s father’s head again.

“Babe, babe, babe, babe! Stop!” Crash rushed in and pulled Blue away while she tried to hit Patterson with the lid again. “Stop! Chill, chill! You got him, you got him! Hey, relax, Blue! You got him! He’s got the message!”

Blue only yelled and started thrashing the lid around until Gwangi and Fleem stepped in to help settle her down. “Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Chill, chill, chill, chill, chill! Chill, chill! You got him, kid! You got him, you got him, you got him!”

“Chill, chill! You got him good, Blue! You got him good! Hey, chill, kid! Chill! You got through to him!”

Blue soon calmed down once she was away from the window. By then, Percy’s father was completely in the back, his head not through the open window. The cop yelled in Mandarin, and the car soon rolled away, disappearing around the corner to the station.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days after, Percy’s father was forcefully sent back to the U.S. and given a restraining order and probation of 3 three months for assault, threats of physical violence, and illegal use of a weapon. Since then, Percy had been afraid that he would come back and try to kill his baby again. Migo did everything he could to make sure he was safe and alright, even though he was also terrified from the experience himself.

Crash had offered to stay around longer to keep an eye out for Percy’s father if he tries anything again. The two were relieved to accept that offer. That’s one of the reasons Blue loves him a lot.

A week after the attack, Migo and Percy had decided to spend time with one another to calm each other down. Percy sat on the couch, his arms around his stomach, occasionally rubbing it to calm the baby down. Migo came in and wrapped a heavy-weighted blanket around him before sitting down next to him. Percy nearly whimpered, but Migo held his close, bringing him in his arms as he tenderly shushed him in a soothing tone.

“I’m here. I’m here now. He’s not coming here again,” Migo whispered.

Percy only sighed through his nose and leaned his head on his shoulder, his arms still holding his belly. His eyebrows were furrowed with worry and fear. He had never thought his own father would go this far to kill his child. What did their baby ever do, besides just existing? It didn’t deserve to be seen as a monster, let alone be treated as one.

Migo had sensed his worry, even though there were no words. His hands moved from wrapping him in a warm hug down to Percy’s round stomach and rested over the bare skin. He could care less whether their baby is all human or Yeti. The only thing he knows is that they’re going to love that little life, no matter the circumstances.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Since Percy couldn’t get up to the Yeti village, he would have to stay down at the shared home near the human village. Migo had been going up the mountains a lot lately, which leaves Blue, Brenda, or Crash to spend time with him to keep him company. They, as well as the S.E.S., had no idea what Migo was planning, but they had been coming up with ideas at what he could be doing.

At one point, Blue had suggested it could be a proposal. There’s no way it could be, but she’s saying ‘what if…?’ She had seen the love in Migo’s eyes for Percy since she first met the group. She was certain, but she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

Aside from that, nothing else of some sort ever came up.

Percy sat on the couch with his laptop on the coffee table. As he worked on ideas for another episode, he would occasionally spare a few chances to glance down at his distended stomach before returning to the documents. He had been at it for a while, coming up with different names for the baby, though he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to stick with a Yeti or human name.

A soft movement appeared in his stomach, shifting against his hand. A small grin lifted on its own. "Trying to get my attention, little fella?" He softly said, stroking his abdomen.

The umpteenth kick this week in four months, he counted. Only half a month to go. To be honest, the entire pregnancy had been both a blessing and torture. On one hand, he just enjoyed feeling the baby move within him. It lets him know that they’re still alive, moving around as it grows. But at the same time, there were mood swings, which were hard to control; a few times where he’s forgetting something; and let’s not ignore strange cravings.

Migo stopped halfway down the hallway and saw Percy sitting at the coffee table, like where he has been for the past few days. With a mischievous smirk, he walked up behind Percy and wrapped his arms around him as he looked at the computer screen.

"Hey, love, whatcha got there?” He asked in a teasing tone.

“I’ve been looking over baby names. Started a blog almost five months, and it’s already popular.” Migo laughed quietly at that. “My followers had been offering me advice on how to deal with the pregnancy. Plus, they’ve been helping me come up with names,” Percy explained, motioning to the computer screen.

“Really?”

“Yup. And you won’t believe this, but, um…do you think we should settle with a Yeti name?”

Migo took another chair and sat next to him. “Well, whatever you feel like it. Why?”

“I just couldn’t help but think about what everyone’s going to think. Would they not like the name, or maybe suggest something different that we don’t like…”

"Hey, listen,” Migo tenderly cut him off as he took hold of his hands. “I care about you and the baby very much. And if anything ever happens to the both of you, that’s something I wouldn’t forgive myself for.”

Percy chuckled and relaxed his hand on his bulging stomach. "Guess I'm not the only one who is getting close to the kid. They've been really active for the past few months."

"'They'?" Migo asked as he gave Percy a surprised look.

"Haven't figured out the gender yet," Percy shrugged. "Even if I did, we'd still have to wait to be sure."

Migo grinned. "Hey, look. I don't care if it's gonna be a girl or a boy. The point is I'd still love our baby, no matter what..."

Percy chuckled again. "We’re getting really attached to the baby, aren't we?"

"Can't believe we are,” Migo replied. "Dad said this would happen to me one day. I didn't think he would be serious."

"Can’t imagine why. Anyways, here are the names they’ve given us,” Percy showed the laptop screen to Migo. As they scrolled down, names for the baby came up in their view.

“Wow. That’s a lot of names here,” Migo remarked.

“Yep, a whole lot. And there are some here that mean ‘miracle’. Which one do you think is good?”

Migo hummed as he studied the names. “I honestly thought ‘Marvel’ is a good one…”

“Film studio,” Percy stated.

“Yep, well, good luck finding one, ‘cause there is no way you would find…” Migo said as he got up from the chair.

“Found two,” Percy smirked in triumph. Migo grunted in frustration for being defeated this quickly. “‘Ender for a boy, and Alazne for a girl.”

“Pretty good for a girl’s name.”

“Thank you. You see, Migo, I'm always gonna be one step ahead of you. You've lost the ability to surprise me. Ya just plain boring.”

“Huh, weird take on a very loving relationship.”

“And it's all settled, so the only thing left is preparing a room for the nursery.”

“Yeah. Although…” Migo beamed shyly. “...you might wanna read the inscription on that paper in the book there.”

“Why?” Percy asked. His heart suddenly dropped. “Oh, no, what does it say?”

He quickly picked up the book from the couch that was resting next to Migo and read the front. A paper was stuck on the front. As he read it, the fear changed to confusion. "Percy Patterson, will you marry me…?"

When he turned around…Migo was kneeling in front of him, a box opened to reveal a ring with a small diamond on the top. Percy gasped with shock, his eyes also growing with the same reaction.

“Surprise,” Migo said a bit braver than before.

“I'm so confused...I don't know what's happening right now.” Percy nearly gasped, a few tears growing in his eyes. “Hold on, is this really happening? Is this part of some joke you made? Because if it is, I will dump you so hard…”

“No, please, Perc, look, it's really happening, okay? It's not a prank. I promise, this is real,” Migo continued.

“It is?”

“Yeah. Okay, here it goes,” Migo breathed deeply before he began. “Percy, I love you. I love how smart you are, how beautiful you are, and how you always see the best at the worst. And I love how much you work hard in your documentaries. You're kind, funny, and the best person I know and love with all I am. Percy Patterson...will you marry me?”

Percy, for a moment, didn’t know what to do at the moment. He had honestly thought that it was going to be a joke of some sort, but he wasn’t even expecting Migo to be this serious. His hands flew to his mouths while Migo spoke. By then, tears already streaming down his cheeks.

Time seemed to slow down for them. For a moment, Percy knew exactly what to answer, and he knew damn well what it meant.

“Migo Martinez…” he breathed, sniffling for a second. “...I will marry you.”

Awe and elation shone in Migo’s eyes, a few tears of his own also forming. He got up and slid the ring on Percy’s finger. It fit almost like a glove. Percy cupped Migo’s face and kissed him for a moment. Time was now frozen, so silent it sounded like fireworks were going out like the first moment Meechee was out in the city almost a year ago.

The two soon pulled away, their eyes staring lovingly into one another, as Migo stroked Percy’s stomach. “I love you so much.”

Blue’s shriek from outside brought them out of their trance and towards the front door. When they did, Blue, Brenda, and the S.E.S. suddenly barged in and slammed the door shut. They stopped to catch their breath, with Gwangi and Fleem leaning against their legs as they breathed heavily.

“Okay, I think we lost them for now, so we should be safe in here…” Brenda stopped when she saw Migo and Percy together, the empty box in his hand. Realization slowly dawned on the group. “No way. D-did you just…”

“Mm-hmm.” Migo held up the box.

“And did you say…”

“Mm-hmm.” Percy also nodded his head as he showed the ring.

In an instant, Blue, Brenda, and the S.E.S. all screamed with excitement and surrounded the two in a group hug.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laughed the whole time while writing the proposal. It was inspired by B99's 'HalloVeen' episode, and I have to write it. Glad to see you enjoy the chapter

#smallfoot movie #smallfoot 2018 #smallfoot au #smallfoot #migercy #migo x percy #mpreg #fanfic #blue writes

[sshbpodcast]

A Surprisingly Good Showing for Neelix in Season 1 of Voyager!

by Ames

We’ve launched into our next phase in the podcast and can happily report back that so far Voyager is better than the internet makes it out to be! Take that, internet shitpeople! One thing we made note of that we didn’t expect was how much really solid character work Neelix got. You’re going to see him in the tops list a couple of times – a feat that the fandom’s general distaste in Neelix made us assume impossible.

With only one real clunker on the list, it’s a fairly solid outing for your hosts at A Star to Steer Her By to review, so set course for the Delta Quadrant: we’re gonna do some deep analysis on the weirdly abridged first season of Voyager. Or at least tell you what we liked and didn’t like. Find them all below and check out our banter in this week’s podcast episode here (season wrap discussion at 1:08:24).

[images © CBS/Paramount]

Top Three Episodes

We’re going to start with the tops for a change and also to keep some Maquis members from immediately mutinying. Also, our favorite episodes of season one saw more agreement than the least favorites, so it’s the easier list:

“Faces”: Jake B’Elanna Torres gets a big chunk of meaty development in this identity crisis–inducing episode. Considering how much Jake disliked “The Enemy Within,” it is certainly telling how good this episode is that he put it on his good list and how good a job Roxann Dawson did with it. Extra points for Sulan straight up stealing a man’s face too.

“Heroes and Demons”: Caitlin, Chris Fan favorite character the Emergency Medical Hologram also got a hunk of meat to work with. Literally. This episode balanced some really fun holodeck shenanigans with some very smart character moments and a nice sciencey element to boot. We also appreciated the portrayal of Freya, Kim getting decked out in period garb, and all our new Danish holofriends!

“Phage”: Ames, Chris The first in our Neelix appreciation episodes, “Phage” asks some really hard questions about what people are willing to experience and what atrocities they’re willing to commit in order to keep on keepin’ on. Making Neelix such a sympathetic character was commendable and Ethan Phillips really holds his own while acting mostly from a bed. We are looking forward to loving to hate the Vidiians more in the future!

“Eye of the Needle”: Ames, Caitlin, Jake We are super here for it any time Voyager nails an episode that only it can, and having the rug pulled out from under you over and over again when it keeps looking like you’re gonna get home is the very epitome of a series 70,000 lightyears away. We loved our Romulan guest star Telek R’Mor. We loved the constant twists. We loved the time wonkiness and the general sci-fi-ness. Excellent episode all around.

“Jetrel”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake We get more really dramatic fodder for Neelix here and it is marvelous to watch. Ethan Phillips gets a heartfelt monologue in just about every other scene. Familiar face (if you can call being under all that makeup a familiar face) James Sloyan also encapsulates a very nuanced and intriguing Oppenheimer-style scientist, whom we can understand even if we cannot forgive.

—

Bottom Three Episodes

The tougher decision was picking a whole three baddies this season since pretty much everything in the season was at least okay. But we’ve got some varied reasons for just not caring for these episodes:

“Prime Factors”: Ames Not really a bad episode, per se, but we needed to put something on the list, and Gath was going to be the target this time. It just got sorta gross how much he was always leering at Janeway. The Sikarians’ need for stories seemed like a cop-outty resolution, and the ending with Tuvok going rogue was super rushed. That’s all.

“Cathexis”: Caitlin Poor Chakotay doesn’t get a ton to do this season (or ever?), and his moment to shine was spent being unconscious while Torres futzed around with his Native American trinkets. The Healing Wheel and basically all the indigenous customs are just plain going to make us uncomfortable regardless of how they’re handled just by the knowledge that the show’s Native American consultant was a hack.

“Time and Again”: Chris While we do love us a good time-travel paradox, this was one just underdeveloped. We never got a handle on if we should be siding with the protesters or if they deserved their initial fate because they didn’t get a chance to get fleshed out. And that child actor: let’s just say we kinda wish Paris had delivered on his promise and eaten him.

“The Cloud”: Jake Boy, there sure wasn’t enough coffee in this nebula, so this episode had to get heavily padded with little random scenes to fill out forty-something minutes. What we’re left with is a fairly slow slog, another bit of uncomfortable hoodoo from Chakotay, and almost exactly no stakes throughout. You can tune out for the whole middle of the episode and not miss anything noteworthy.

“State of Flux”: Ames What this episode fails to deliver is any bit of suspense over whether or not Seska is the saboteur at any given point. While being a secret Cardassian is a nice revelation, she is too obviously the culprit from the word go. Any possible illusions that maybe there’s going to be some kind of fascinating twist just weren’t going to pay off, leaving us ultimately feeling dissatisfied.

“Learning Curve”: Caitlin, Chris, Jake We see why the writers hadn’t wanted this episode to be the season finale: it’s a whole lot of nothing and thus ends the season with a whimper. All season long, we sorta forgot the Maquis were still a thing, and then this episode comes along, wastes the opportunity to utilize them effectively, and pairs them with too much cheese. Literally!

“Ex Post Facto”: Ames, Caitlin, Chris, Jake This noir-gone-wrong is the only really bad episode we can point to from the season; it just got so much wrong. The Scooby-Doo murder mystery is clunky, the resolution is laughable, the makeup is nonsensical, and the attempts to do noir just didn’t work at all. And we would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you kids and your awful dog.

—

Since it was a short season, most of the episodes are represented here, but we’ll be seeing future seasons at full capacity as we continue our trek through Voyager. Keep up with us as we push past warp 9 on SoundCloud or your favorite podcast app, chill out with us at Sandrine’s on Facebook and Twitter, and do keep writing Neelix this well!

#star trek #star trek voyager #voyager #podcast #star trek podcast #top three #bottom three #neelix #faces #heroes and demons #phage #eye of the needle #jetrel #prime factors #cathexis #time and again #the cloud #state of flux #learning curve #ex post facto

[aion-rsa]

How Camp Cretaceous Connects to the Jurassic World Canon

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The following contains spoilers for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.

At first glance, Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous doesn’t seem to fit in with the violent PG-13 dinosaur rampage thrillers we’ve come to expect from the Jurassic Park franchise. Its comical and lighthearted approach to storytelling and character development, not to mention the fact that it is (rather beautifully) animated, makes it seem as though this was meant to be a spinoff franchise similar to Lego Jurassic World. But as the story of six teenagers beta testing Jurassic World’s new adventure camp attraction unfolds, it becomes clear that Camp Cretaceous is not only canon, but could introduce elements that may influence future plotlines.

Camp Cretaceous begins a few days before the events of Jurassic World, but even before the Indominus rex escapes and the timelines officially converge, there are tons of references to the movies. (I love that Mr. DNA makes an appearance in the video game Darius is playing.) Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant, played by Laura Dern and Sam Neill in Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III are mentioned as having written articles lately, both on the subject of fossils, rather than real live dinosaurs. 

And it is revealed that Bryce Dallas Howard’s Jurassic World character Claire Dearing’s nephews were never going to spend much time with their aunt that day, as she had intended for them to go to Camp Cretaceous rather than with her assistant Zara. But the campers’ shenanigans (namely ending up in the raptor pen and being involved in a stampede) overwhelm counselors Dave and Roxie; they need more staff, especially if more children are going to join them.

Though this change of plan may have turned out well for Claire, as her nephews would not have been present to give her that much needed moment of inspiration to release the Tyrannosaurus at the end of Jurassic World, it had rather disastrous consequences for Zara, who probably wouldn’t have been eaten by the park’s Mosasaurus if she wasn’t playing babysitter.

But the established Jurassic characters are not limited to mere references and unheard voices on the other end of a phone call, because our old friend/enemy Dr. Henry Wu (played by B.D. Wong in the movies but voiced by Greg Chun in Camp Cretaceous) makes an appearance when the kids visit the genetics lab. He’s in a hurry, getting ready for Simon Masrani’s visit to view the new exhibit. But of course he has time to show off for all of camper Brooklynn’s Internet followers.

The genetics lab is also where we get to meet Bumpy, the most precious little asymmetrical Ankylosaurus the world has ever seen. Not that he stays little for long; Wu tells the teens that the baby dinosaurs are designed for accelerated growth. This is a known fact in the books written by Michael Crichton, but is only mentioned in the movies in regards to the Indominus rex.

Also of note in the lab: a mysterious eyeball specimen that is never really explained, and a frozen mammoth specimen. Woolly mammoths, along with other extinct non-dinosaur creatures such as Dimetrodon and Smilodon, are featured in some of the Jurassic Park games, so perhaps this is a nod to that. Or, you know, foreshadowing that it’s possible to clone things that aren’t dinosaurs…things like little girls named Maisie, as seen in Fallen Kingdom. 

A lab worker named Eddie hints that he worked for “the other guys” but never explains what he means by this. Combined with the revelation that Sammy, one of the teenagers, was sent to the island as a spy for Masrani’s rival bioengineering company Mantah Corp, this would seem to suggest that there might be another company out there trying to clone dinosaurs. It will be interesting to see if that has any bearing on the events of Jurassic World: Dominion.

Despite a few misadventures and near-death experiences with a Carnotaurus (possibly the same one from Fallen Kingdom seen outside the Lockwood Manor, the one with the scars on his face), everything is going pretty good with the first group of Camp Cretaceous campers. But this is Jurassic World, and we all know that the good times were not going to last.

The children are never the center of the action that we see in Jurassic World, but they are often on the periphery. After her escape, it would seem that our girl Indominus rex might have caused a little more–all right, a lot more–death and destruction than we realized, terrorizing the kids and eating some park personnel before going back to terrorize Claire and Owen and eating… other park personnel.

But it’s not just the kids getting to experience the fun (sure, let’s call it fun) that is the Jurassic World incident. During the beginning of Indominus’s rampage, when Owen is watching the team’s heart monitors blink off to indicate each death, counselors Dave and Roxie have a similar moment of horror as walkie-talkie after walkie-talkie turn from screaming to static. When Simon Masrani’s helicopter crashes, we realize just how close the six main characters have been to the events we see in the movie. It’s almost identical to the live action version as the copter tumbles through the air and smashes into the aviary.

Though events occur at the same time and on the same island, Camp Cretaceous is not telling the same story as Jurassic World. The campers are trying to survive a different set of catastrophes than Owen and Claire, and they have their own stories to tell. After the first incident at Jurassic Park, and especially after the whole San Diego fiasco, the world was introduced to dinosaurs as something more than fossils. Darius, Ben, Sammy, Kenji, Yasmina, and Brooklynn have literally never known life without cloned dinosaurs in it. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Does that give them a different perspective than the adults? Does it give them a better chance of survival? Let’s hope so, because with the way season one ends, it looks like Isla Nublar isn’t done with our campers.

The post How Camp Cretaceous Connects to the Jurassic World Canon appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2FPhe1E

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

[nancywheelxr]

oh no, Brainy accidentally finding the Gossip Spreadsheet

I will stand by the headcanon that while Brainy would find it weird and stupid and kind of creepy, he would absolutely use the opportunity to mess with them. It’s too good a chance to pass up.

He finds it by accident.

No, really. The search had been meant to be a simple scan of their systems, checking for any bugs or breaches on the firewall, along with the usual red alerts.

It suffices to say, the spreadsheet– it raises a couple of flags.

The Days of Our Lives is the title of the document, and Querl couldn’t figure out what it could possibly be about in a workplace environment. The only match in all the internet is with one of those so-called soap operas Imra had become strangely addicted to in her time here.

But that would make no sense.

So, for the safety of the country, it’s his duty to open it.

The first tab is named The Directors and it seems to be mainly about J’onn and Alex. Or rather, the ongoing bet if J’onn had legally adopted her or not and if he had become a vegan, tofu-maker hippie or not. Their reasons to think so seem to revolve around an incident when Alex had called J’onn Dad by mistake a few years ago and the rumor he would have been the one to walk her down the aisle on her wedding if it had happened. On the hippie instance, there are a lot of reasons listed, since his banning of lethal weapons to his resigning.

The second tab is named Supergirl and while the few debates on her true identity would be worrying, they are all so far off, he can’t bring himself to be concerned. Whoever she is, Cat Grant is apparently in the lead. Lena Luthor in a wig, tall girl from the cafeteria, and Russian spy are the runner-ups. Under that, they debate if Supergirl wears a wig or not– there are some good points, he has to admit. It almost makes him wonder.

The third tab is named Agent Dox if that’s even really his name and his interest is piqued. There are several points, but the main thing seemed to be trying to convince each other Querl is an alien. One of them remember the instance when he flew off to help Supergirl, but someone else argues it could have been some sort of experimental tech since it was an isolated incident. Another agent brings up the fact no one seems to remember exactly when he started in the DEO and how he works strangely well with the computers. The list goes on and on, with topics in favor and against the theory, and once again, it would be concerning if they weren’t blowing things so out of proportion– as it is, they sound too delusional to be taken seriously.

There’s a fourth tab named it’s like an ep of the freaking bachelor and Querl nearly laughs out loud when he reads the contents. Here, everyone seems to be weirdly invested in everyone else’s social life. More specifically, their relationships. It goes back all the way from even before Supergirl, but now? All they seem to be debating is the contents of the letter Winn’s left him. And since when he is friends with Supergirl.

At first, Querl is admittedly worried about the whole thing, and a little creeped out, but then again, humans are known to find speculating about the lives of their peers quite entertaining. And what else would be expected when you have a significantly large group of people that cannot talk about their jobs outside their workplace? They would certainly need an outlet and this at least is in no danger of breaching security.

That being said, while Querl doesn’t appreciate having his own personal life dissected like this, or especially because of his discomfort, he figures he’s allowed to have some fun with it too.

*

“Hey, man,” an agent, Richards, if he’s not mistaken, approaches him, trying to take a look at what he’s writing. “Whatcha doing?”

Querl looks up, hands artfully covering the paper. “Writing a letter. A solar flare is supposed to hit Earth in the next couple of hours and I need to send this before then if I do not want to wait another two weeks.”

Richards’s eyebrows raise. “A letter? To who?”

“To whom,” he corrects, “and the answer is to Winn. We have been keeping in touch.”

“No kidding?” Richards crows, endlessly delighted. “You guys still talk? Even with the whole Back to the Future situation?”

“Of course.”

“That’s– oh, man, okay, look I’ve gotta go, but nice talking to you, dude.” He leaves in a rush, furiously typing on his phone.

Querl bites back a grin.

“Is this really true?” Alex asks, coming to stand beside him.

“Oh, no, of course not. It would be virtually impossible,” he says, showing her the paper he had been writing in, “this is the photosynthesis equation.”

*

“So,” Agent Cruz says, drumming her fingers in the table while they wait for the computers to finish scanning the city, “any plans for the weekend?”

Querl pauses his own search for the alien DNA to glance at her, “yes, actually. Supergirl has mentioned there is a Bon Jovi concert in a nearby city, and since Mon-El has always talked highly of his skills, we have decided to attend.”

She gapes at him, eyes wide and awed. “You’re going to a concert with Supergirl?”

“Yes, that is correct,” he amends, “it was either that or another movie night.”

“Oh, that’s– you know what? I think I’m going to take my break now, you sure you can keep an eye on the scans?”

“It should not be a problem.”

Agent Cruz scurries away, cursing under her breath and nearly running into Alex, who leans against the consoles, frowning at the scene, “everything okay?”

“Yes,” Querl shrugs, grinning, “I was merely talking about the Bon Jovi concert.”

“Righ, about that– I’m thinking we should all meet at my place around noon? James is bringing snacks for the trip and I want to make sure it will all fit in the cars.”

*

“You know, I grew up in a small town,” Agent Jackson comments, watching the technicians install the new equipment, “never thought I’d see shit like this.”

Querl makes a noise of agreement, distracted.

“Aliens, spaceships, satellites,” he continues, “sounded a whole lot like science fiction back then. What about you? You used to this stuff?”

“Indeed,” Querl briefly looks away from his inspection, “where I came from alien life forms have been widely known for a long time. And technology has always been intrinsical to our daily life.”

“Is that so? Sounds like a bunch of smart people, then,” Jackson eyes him with interest, “does this place have a name?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t know it. We keep mostly to ourselves,” at least in this century. “Now, if you excuse me, I am busy supervising this installation.”

Agent Jackson apologizes heartily, then walks away, missing the snort Querl can’t stop from leaving his lips.

*

“You are doing this on purpose,” Alex narrows her eyes, hands on her waist, as she watches another agent stumble away, phone in hand. “You know they’re talking and you’re messing with them, aren’t you?”

“Are you implying I’m purposefully fueling their rumors while not confirming nor denying anything?” Querl asks, hands folded calmly behind his back.

“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Then, yes, for the past five weeks.”

Alex sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know why I thought the shenanigans would stop,” she fixes him with a hard look, “Agent Carter stopped me in the hall the other day to ask if you and Supergirl had eloped last week. The week before that, it was to ask whether or not you had an identical twin working on Black Ops.”

“I haven’t heard that one before,” he says, impressed. Querl had genuinely thought he had been aware of all the rumors floating around by now. “But in my defense, the more outlandish these rumors are, the less likely it is for Colonel Haley or any other superior officer to believe them.”

She shakes her head, struggling to keep a straight face, “they do sound like tin-foil-hat conspiracies.” Alex snorts, points a finger at him, “but if they get out of hand, you’re fixing it.”

“In 98.67 % of my simulations, it never becomes a problem,” Querl tells her, running the numbers once again, “but in the unlikely event it does, I will take full responsibility.”

“That’s good enough for me,” she shrugs, already turning to leave.

“Director,” he calls, “if I may– what did you tell Agent Carter?”

“Well,” Alex grins, “I think my exact words were wouldn’t you like to know?”

#look an ask #querl dox #brainiac 5 #brainy #alex danvers #supergirl fic #again #i keep imagining this liek #after alex corners him to ask about it #theres the sequence of scenes of his conversations with the other agents #and then back to him being like 'yeah thats exactly what im doing tbh #alex and brainy brotp

[katieskarlette]

Before the Storm:  A Reaction Post

I just finished binge-reading the latest WoW novel, and I have thoughts.  Quite a few of them, actually.  So here goes.

Short non-spoilery version:   Game tie-in novels are never going to be high literature, but for what it was, I really enjoyed this book.  I know Golden’s name has been mud around this neck of the internet lately, so this probably isn’t a popular opinion.  The contrast between Anduin and Sylvanas as leaders--and as people--was interesting to see, and the questions about how the living and the undead can (or should) interact were incredibly poignant.  There was only one significant lore development (at the very end, regarding a new variety of undead) that is easy to catch up on via a quick summary, so it’s not a mandatory read to understand Battle For Azeroth.  But as a character study and a fleshing-out of the world and how various issues stand going into the new expansion, it was a enjoyable read.  If you’re a fan of Anduin, Sylvanas, Genn, Calia, or goblins, definitely check it out.

Spoilers (as well as a mention of real-life death/grief) below.

I think sometimes fandom marinates in an echo chamber and, because of how seldom new canon material is released, we assume that because Blizzard isn’t releasing a weekly short story they’re letting unresolved plot threads dangle and fester.  Sometimes they do, granted, but there were an awful lot of things addressed (or at least mentioned) in this book that fandom has been wondering/worrying/complaining/speculating about:

The leadership void among the Darkspear.  The impact of losing so many soldiers and supplies in the war with the Legion.  What’s been going on in the Undercity while Sylvanas is away doing Warchief stuff.  The fact that none of the Horde leaders have families.  The reaction of the Cenarion Circle to their losses in Silithus.  The unpopularity of Gallywix among his own people.  The confusion and cross-faction misunderstandings about the disastrous battle of the Broken Shore.  The tension and lost trust after Genn Greymane and Admiral Rogers’ shenanigans at the start of Stormheim’s storyline.  Moira’s son not being a baby anymore.  The unresolved issues between Moira and Magni.  Velen’s grief over his son.  The fact that Tess and Mia Greymane exist.  Theramore.  Calia’s claim to the throne of Lordaeron.  The long-lasting impact of the Cataclysm.  The mixed opinions among the Horde about the way the goblins terraformed Azshara.  Kalec and Jaina’s relationship.  Lore from the priest order hall.  And yes, the fact that Anduin needs an heir.

I’m not saying all these things are settled or developed, or handled in ways I necessarily agree with, but it’s good to be reminded that Blizzard hasn’t forgotten about any of these elements.  (Wrathion, on the other hand...  Sigh.  Don’t get me started.  Suffice it to say he’s not even alluded to in the book.  Onyxia does get a passing mention in relation to how her scheming impacted the Wrynns.)

Anyway, moving on to the main theme of the book:  life, death, and all the corpse-gray areas in between.

It was hard to read sometimes because of how raw the emotions were and how hard the questions were that it asked.  I’m not sure that it would have the same impact on someone who has never grieved the death of a loved one, but for me it was quite emotional.  I got misty-eyed in several places.  

I found myself imagining what it would be like to see my much-beloved grandmother (who, by the time she died, was as hunched, emaciated and discolored as any Forsaken, although that’s not how I try to remember her) standing across a field from me.  To be able to speak to her again, tell her how much I love and miss her, to tell her what I’ve been doing in the last fifteen years...yet to see her as a withered, pungent, unnatural husk, to know she’d been denied the rest of the grave...  Faced with that choice, I don’t know how I would react.  I’m glad I never will--for a lot of reasons!

The book never said that Anduin imagined himself facing either of his parents under such circumstances, but I’m sure he must have.  (I mean, not that there was anything left of Varian to turn undead, but hypothetically speaking.)  Anduin’s a very empathetic person, and his own grief over his father was still so raw.  It certainly affected Genn, who I thought was written very well. 

I’ve never been a fan of the Forsaken, because their dark, mean-spirited, nihilistic outlook and the corpse/bone aesthetic don’t appeal to me. (It doesn’t in other contexts, either.  Give me cute jack o’ lanterns and chubby-cheeked ghosts for Halloween decorations, and skip the plastic tombstones and cardboard skeletons, please.)  This book gave a lot of insight into what it would be like to be undead, without the need for sleep, cut off from any living friends/relatives, with a body that’s slowly wearing out without the ability to heal or do physical therapy, knowing that you are repulsive and smelly to others, making the most of second chances while also perhaps yearning for the peace of true death, and being acutely aware of how fragile you really are.  It made the Forsaken more sympathetic and (excuse the pun) fleshed out.

I was also quite pleased to see acknowledgement of Forsaken who aren’t emotionless, gibbering eeeevil.  My lone, seldom-played undead alt, a lowbie priest, is that kind of a character:  holding onto the Light even though it now is painful to use, and refusing to stoop to being a monster just because she’s a walking corpse.  That wasn’t a viewpoint that was really highlighted in canon before.  (Of course, that means my little priest would be out there on the Arathi plain with a bunch of black arrows sticking out of her right now, so...)

I was disappointed that the book never mentioned Anduin bringing Elsie’s body back to Stormwind to bury beside Wyll.  I’m going to assume he did, because geez.

I still don’t know where they’re going with the new Light-infused variety of undead, but we’re not really supposed to.  It’s just a teaser and cliffhanger.  There’s a lot of story potential, anyway.  We’ll see.  I’m glad they didn’t remove Calia from the story completely, at least.

Speaking of cliffhangers, if that adorable gnome/goblin couple didn’t survive, I’m going to be majorly bummed out.  It was also interesting to know that goblins and gnomes can get married in canon.  Presumably other cross-species relationships can be made legal, too.

Anyone who’s emotionally invested in the Menethil dynasty has sure had a rollercoaster of ups and downs lately.  Yay, Calia’s finally in game!  Noooo, she’s not interested in claiming her throne!  Yay, she’s interested after all!  Nooooo, she’s dead!  Yay, she’s...undead?  And she's totally cool with the idea that Lordaeron belongs to the Forsaken?  (Which, I mean, it does, but it’s surprising to have her think that.  So many forum threads about this stuff suddenly became obsolete...)  And there’s a slim chance that her daughter is either undead or still alive out there somehow?  WHAAAAAAT? 

Oh yeah, she secretly got married to a footman, had a kid, escaped the Scourge, lived in Southshore for years under an assumed identity, and then presumably lost her husband and daughter when the town got Blighted (yet she’s okay with the Forsaken???), but we didn’t see the bodies so heaven only knows what plot twist could come of that.  

On one hand (the Watsonian one) it’s a tragic, awful thing for her to have gone through and I felt really bad for her.  On the other hand (the Doylist one), did she really need more tragic, awful backstory?  No.  No, she really did not.  It seemed like overkill, which makes me suspect they’re seeding a plot thread for the future.  Meh.  Hey, if she lived in Southshore, did she know the Rogers family?  Would Admiral Catherine Rogers recognize her as whatever her fake identity was?

On a related note, you’ve got Anduin who in the past was always like, “OMG noooo don’t compare me to Arthas!” and now is like, “Okay, Calia, I’m officially adopting you as my new big sister.”  Oh, the irony...

I should address the rainbow-striped elephant in the room:  There is no LGBTQIA+ representation in the book.  Anduin is specifically mentioned as having been attracted to the female dwarf Aerin, and he expects to fall in love with a woman someday.  Personally, I‘ve headcanoned him as bi, perhaps leaning a bit ace, while always expecting Blizz to have him marry a woman.  I do sympathize with those who had hoped that he might be canonically gay, and I strongly agree that Warcraft badly needs more representation in that regard.  In this book alone, it would have been so easy to have that blacksmith bringing a helmet as a gift to his long-lost Forsaken husband instead of friend.  But we also need a major Warcraft character to be unequivocally LGBT.  It’s way, way past time.  Get on it, Blizzard.

[Edited to add:  I almost forgot, another kind of representation I wish they had explored was that of physical disability.  As convenient as Anduin’s Magic Lie-and-Bad-Idea-Detecting Bones are, why couldn’t he have had some negative lasting effects of being crushed by the Divine Bell?  Chronic aches, maybe a limp at least?  Loss of a limb, even?  There is a narrative to be explored there, and as someone with a close family member who suffers from chronic pain and limited mobility it would be refreshing to see that kind of thing addressed.]

Moving on, I’ve never cared for Valeera Sanguinar that much, but I did like how she’s set up as Anduin’s super secret spy.  I wonder if she gets to wear pants now.

Big ol’ meanie Sylvanas made Baine and Anduin stop being pen pals.  *pout*  I loved how Magni called her “lassie,” though.  That takes balls of diamond, to be sure...

Speaking of the banshee queen, I tried very hard to read between the lines to see what their long-term plans are for her.  Just because the last line of the book is Anduin proclaiming that she’s beyond saving, that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try to pull off some kind of redemption arc.  If anything it just draws our attention to the question.  

Is Anduin right?  A big part of his plot arc lately is how he’s finding his way, making mistakes and learning from them.  Could he be wrong about Sylvanas?  He saw potential for good in Garrosh that never developed, so it’s not impossible that he could find compassion for Sylvanas someday...if she shows remorse and a desire to change.  And that’s an “if” bigger than the sword sticking out of Silithus.

I didn’t see any signs of her wrestling with her conscience.  If anything, the emphasis on how some Forsaken do still have feelings (besides hatred, bitterness, and anger) condemned her all the more by comparison.  Yet she does regret Vol’jin’s death, and she did respect him.  And her feelings were definitely hurt by her sisters’ responses to her, and you have to have feelings to have them be hurt.  But her lack of remorse for any of the vicious, heartless things she does, combined with her new penchant for killing her own people, doesn’t bode well for her to have a change of heart any time soon.

I also kept a close eye on Nathanos.  In his short story they made a point of saying that his senses were sharper with his new body, and that he felt a pang of regret for the first time since his death.  That could simply be an indication of his renewed state, or it could be a tiny sliver of foreshadowing that he’s not 100% on board with Sylvanas’ plotting.  Then again, that was set before Legion, and he spent all of Stormheim frantically trying to find her, and worrying about her, and just generally not being remotely subtle about how much he cares for her.  Heh.  Then again, he can care about her (in whatever way the undead feel such bonds, that is) and still think she’s going too far with her ideas about the valkyr, raising more Forsaken, keeping them up and functioning indefinitely without the release of true death, etc.  Interesting potential for conflict there, as well.

I don’t know that I even want to see a Sylvanas redemption arc, but it’s fun to try guessing what Blizzard has planned.  And such a plot twist would alleviate some of the “Didn’t we just do this same ‘overthrow a bad warchief’ plot with Garrosh?” syndrome, and allow them to keep around one of the franchise’s most recognizable characters.

I was also relieved to find no evidence that Anduin is being corrupted by the Old Gods, Azerite, or anything else.  He’s true to himself and the Light, as always.  I appreciate characters who stubbornly insist that there is good in (almost) everyone, despite living in a world that does its best to beat that optimism out of them.  It’s not blind idealism or naivete; it’s faith and its own kind of strength.

Sylvanas and Anduin are fascinating foils for each other.  The stark contrast between a young king who is still finding his place and a bitter, scarred, centuries-old queen, someone who comes to understand that death is not always the enemy versus someone who digs in her heels and refuses to accept it, someone who wants his people to be happy versus someone who kills them for not agreeing with her...  It’s intriguing.

Was it the best book ever?  No.  Did I enjoy reading it?  Yes.  Is it absolutely necessary to read in order to understand the story going into the next expansion?  Nah.  Would it have been a lot better with Wrathion in it somehow?  Of course.  ;)

And that’s my two cents.  (Er, well, judging by how long this post got, more like $2.50.)

#Before the Storm spoilers #Before the Storm #BFA spoilers #rambling about wow

[fearfilledvirgil]

Ivity and Anx: prolouge

Summary: Virgil and Roman hate each other to the core of their beings, but both become friends with a new stranger via the Sarrahas Project. Virgil takes to Creativity like Roman does to Anxiety, but they don’t know the true identity of the ones they are slowing falling for.

Warnings: Brief mention of suicide, mention of Deceit, mention of emotional and mental abuse, mentions of low self-image, mentions low self-esteem, few swears

Word count: 1137

Pairings: Eventual Romatic Prinxiety

A/N: So here it is, the long awaited prologue to my Famous Teen Roman AU. If you wanna be tagged for future parts, don’t be shy to ask. Also if you have a better name title please enlighten me because I’m helpless.

Taglist: @rileyfirstname

masterpost

~•~

Everyone assumed that everything was perfect in Roman’s life. He was popular, had good grades, was liked by the teachers, and his music carrier was starting to take off at the early age of seventeen. He had everything, right? No one could possibly guess that the one who seemed to have it all together was falling apart on the inside. He kept up the façade with bright smiles, dramatic poses and loudly voicing anything he had to say. It wasn’t clear that Roman was struggling so deeply.

Everyone assumed that everything was horrible in Virgil’s life. He only had one friend, no one knew what his grades were like, the teachers generally despised him, and there was a multitude of people who picked at his flaws daily. He had nothing, right? Everyone could guess that he was falling apart, it was just a matter of when he would finally try and off himself.

So what do they do to try and combat the daily shitshow they have to wade through? The internet. Of course, that probably was an obvious option. Everyone was online these days, and it was amazing, but sometimes it wasn’t.

Roman had a hard time with the internet. He had an Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter that all updated regularly. He even had a YouTube channel for his lyric or music videos, when they came out. Since his fame was on the steady incline, he couldn’t actually be himself online anymore. He had a manager now, one who monitored every post he made and comment he received, deciding what he could and could not post. It wasn’t like in the beginning, before he was even noticed by the record label, where he could freely flaunt his sexuality and ask for advice on his burdens. Everything from Roman was deleted, and Princey took hold.

Virgil loved the internet. Granted, he only had a small YouTube account for theory videos and the occasional cover, a Tumblr for general shenanigans and writing, and an MySpace account he rarely uses. He was free to talk about his emotional and physical state- and his sexuality- with no reproductions. (Except the occasional anon hate, but everybody got those.) His asshole shitshow of a father didn’t care what he did online, as long as he couldn’t see it. The only people who truly knew him, about everything he had to offer, were online.

And that’s where the Sarrahas Project came into play. Virgil had been one of the first to sign up for it. Hell, one of his online friends was one of the Sara’s that ran the project. Roman, on the other hand, fell into finding the Project completely by accident. He accidently saw it out of the corner of his eye on his recommendation page on Insta, and happened to be bored enough to click on the post.

And that’s precisely the moment both of the boy’s lives changed for the better.

The Project itself was simple. Those who were struggling with mental illnesses or disorders were paired up with someone else who was. It wasn’t perfect, and it wasn’t something that could replace professional help by a long shot, but it was something. It connected two people who were struggling, and sometimes knowing that someone out there is hurting like you are is what you need.

Virgil got assigned to one of the other firsts to sign up, but they apparently got the wrong idea from the project. Deceit, as he called himself, would drain Virgil every time they talked, so he eventually asked Sara (the Sara out of Sara, Sarra, Sarah, and Saraha) to connect him with someone else. It wasn’t until he told Sara what Deceit was like that he realized he was being emotionally and mentally manipulated by him. So Virgil created @flightorfightamiright, a new user to leave behind his old brand to get away from the toxic friendship that was with Deceit.

Roman got into the Project late, mainly because he didn’t have a Tumblr before he stumbled upon it. He was surprised that he was able to join eight months late and was connected with someone surprisingly soon. From his user of @shhhimcreatingrn, the one he connected with crowned him Creativity. He didn’t mind the nickname, and didn’t bother telling them anything else to call him.

Roman think he liked Anxiety, the boy he was paired with. He was the same age as him, but not stuck in the world of performing. He was really nice to talk to, refreshing, and he loved his stupid punny nicknames. They talked about everything, from bullying, peer pressure, and body image to gender, sexuality, and depression.

Virgil think he liked Creativity, the second boy he was paired with. He was different than Deceit, in that he let Virgil talk about his own problems first. Further, the two didn’t just talk about their problems. They talked about things like sexuality and mental illnesses, yes, but also Disney, theater, and puns. Creativity was a lot to handle in the fact he was very flamboyant, but he was easy and fun to talk to.

If only the two realized that they knew and despised each other in the non-digital world, where mean comments and rough pushes were exchanged with real names and fake façades.

Virgil hated Roman Prince. He is the popular one, the one that everyone wants to hang around. He signed his locker and every desk he sits, and payed the school to not wash off the graffiti. He’s cocky and arrogant, something that Virgil always disliked about the popstar. Princey- Roman’s stage name- bumps into people into hall without even apologizing. It had happened to Virgil multiple times, but that just might be because he’s invisible to literally everyone, except Roman apparently.

Roman couldn’t stand Virgil Sanders. He was stubborn and had such a thick skull that nothing could get through. He always darkened the room when he walked in, his purple hair and gothic clothes unnerving everybody. He bumps into people in the hallway without apologizing, and Roman only knows this because it’s happened to him multiple times. Roman has had multiple confrontations with the standoffish boy, one of which ending with a bloody nose and a bruised cheek.

Virgil thought Roman was a bully who didn’t give anyone but the popular people the time of day; but he also thought that Creativity was one of the easiest people to talk to who didn’t like being as popular as he was.

Roman thought Virgil was a bully who hated the world and everyone in it; but he also thought Anxiety struggled through so much shit that he deserved to have a tense outlook on the world.

Neither realized that fateful day they met online would forever change the way they thought about their most hated enemy.

next part

#cade’s writing #virgil sanders #roman sanders #ivity and anx #ivity and anx prolouge #prinxiety #sanders sides #famous teen roman au #i also already stole the handles of roman’s and virgil’s blogs incase i ever wanted to do anything with them #so yeah

[robotslenderman]

So hey, I realised I only told a couple of friends of how jury duty last year went, so I’ve copy-pasted (with minor editing) the shenanigans below. Content warning under the cut.

Content warning: the guy was a pedophile who tried to (keyword being “tried”) bait 13YOs into meeting up with him.

Having said that, I walked into this case expecting to be scarred for life and instead the whole thing was so ridiculous, the man was such a loser, the victims were so badass that the jury was like “this guy is a total joke.”

Especially after the fuckboy incident.

The trial ended up being pretty goddamn funny. Mostly thanks to the Crown Prosecutor, who had no fucks to give and was yelled at more than once by the judge for getting really sarcastic.

Here are things I wrote down over the course of jury duty:

The phrase, “Having sex with twelve-year-olds is overrated.”

“John* is now going to read about masturbation.”

That time we accidentally trapped two judges in a supply closet.

The random, partial handprint on the ceiling of the courtroom. Only one other juror ever saw it.

At one point I was exhausted and pretending to read from my folder and closed my eyes for a while. 

Afterwards, our jury officer went “ha ha ha I saw you but you were totally reading, right?”

“HA HA HA WHAT A COINCIDENCE YES I WAS!”

How awesome the victims are. Snips from the logs:

“Want to see a picture of my great penis?”

“What’s so great about it?”

“I love you.”

“Okay.”

“I love you.”

“I don’t.”

“Oh.”

“I’m not some Asian hooker!”

“I’m in love with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Because you also said that to my sister!”

“I love both of you!”

“[Not amused]”

“Please block me, or I’ll keep wanting to talk to you. Thank you for helping me get over you, Nina*.”

The fact that the accused was trying really hard to be dodgy and creepy by convincing another victim to keep it secret. Meanwhile the victim was just as determined to bring him home and have him meet her family.

“I love you, Audrey*.”

“My name is Adriana*!”

Meanwhile, the face identity the police set up to catch the pedophile was as dumb as a post.

And the accused fell for it.

Then later spent half his time on the stand insisting the fake identity was so dumb that there’s no way he could possibly have thought she was really thirteen.

(No, really, he actually used that as a defence.)

One of the victims had the name of a Mass Effect character.

The “fuckboy” meme.

First conversation after being appointed to the jury, wondering if it’s too late to escape:

“What do you suppose we’d have to do to get kicked off the jury?”

“Come in wearing a badge saying ‘It’s Okay To Say No!’“

“OOOOOHHHHHHHH!!!”

Explanation: the marriage equality vote was going on at this time and the “No” campaign’s slogan was “It’s Okay To Say No [to same sex marriage]!”

One of the jurors is a middle eastern guy who grew out his stubble for a few days before the trial and glared at the barristers when they were rejecting jurors in the hope that they’d “think [he] looked like a terrorist” (his words) and get rid of him.

It didn’t work.

After he told us this, he said, “I should have grown a beard and put three plaits in it.”

Watching the slow decline of our next door neighbours’ collective mental health.

Waking up one morning to find they’d posted jury duty memes on their door.

“Waiting for the jury to come to a verdict” 

[Picture of a skeleton]

“Look at all the fucks I give” replaced with “look at all the counts we have to decide”

A picture of a group of old white guys in suits laughing their asses off, captioned with, “And then I said it’d only take fourteen weeks!”

They’ve been deliberating for two and a half months.

Every time one of my fellow jurors ran into them they came back wide-eyed and traumatised, convinced next door had totally lost it.

“Ha ha ha, you must be new here.”

Next door’s jurors often looked over their shoulder and squinted at us suspiciously if we happened to glance in their direction when they went into their room.

Rumour has it that they’d lost it so much they’d become obnoxiously perky, in that “I’m about to go insane” kind of way. I wasn’t sure about this, but later one Very Happily opened a door for me with a massive grin and a bit of eyetwitching, and... yeah, it’s totally true, they lost it.

There was also a rumour one of their walls was covered in mugshots, but I never got to see it because of aforementioned suspicious squinting and cagey behaviour.

Occasionally, between sessions, a member of the jury will, out of the blue, say, “Fuckboy” and have the entire room crack up.

“Fuckboy 2.0!”

Wincing a bit and thinking, “Man, the Defence is asking the accused some hard questions!” only for the CP to basically go “hold my beer” and totally lay into the guy.

I will never, ever in my life see anything as awesome as the Crown Prosecutor laying into a pedophile ever again. It’s over. I may as well keel over and die now. I’m amazed the accused didn’t crack because he held this guy’s balls to the fire for three days.

Ladies and gentlemen and distinguished guests, the fucking Crown Prosecutor:

“So your aim with these meetups isn’t to have sex with underaged girls, but simply to get them to agree to meet you?”

“Yes.”

“... That’s it?"

“It’s a hobby.”

“Have you considered stamp collecting?” [Gets chewed out by the judge.]

“So the pinnacle of your sexual satisfaction is when they agree to meet, is that correct?”

“Yes. At my age, I don’t need anything more.”

[Vaguely smug] “Well, here we have Jane Doe* agreeing to meet up with you. That’s the pinnacle of your sexual satisfaction, that’s all you want from this conversation, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Great! Let’s have a cigarette!”

“In this chat log, we clearly see that this woman has claimed to be fifteen years old, and you’re now telling the jury you think she was lying. Why?”

“She’s in Rwanda, and claiming to have dated many white men. That’s not possible because I’ve been to Rwanda, there’s barely any white men like me there."

“So you must be hot property in Rwanda, huh?”

[Slightly put out] “Well, actually, yes!”

The accused kept insisting that no, cybersex didn’t turn him on unless the other person was turned on, no really, honestly, truly, he would never be aroused unless they were too and this was all for his partners’ benefits! Really!

He kept doing this until the CP blurt out, “Oh for god’s sake, if you’re so damn nice, why don’t you open a charity?”

(The judge yelled at him again.)

Reading the following sentence out in a completely deadpan tone of voice, as if describing the weather: “I suggest to you that you wrote the phrase ‘I want to suck your clit and cum -- C-U-M -- inside you’ in order to obtain an erection.”

He often read out sexually explicit excerpts like this. It got even funnier every time there was a misspelling, because the CP would absolutely insist on pronouncing it exactly as it was misspelled and also spelling it out.

“The victim said she was ‘spechless.’ I think she meant ‘speechless.’“

As he read out excerpts where entire sentences were made out of internet slang, bad spelling and acronyms, you could visibly see him age.

Srsly the other jurors thought this guy was boring. Boring. What was wrong with them this guy is amazing.

Fuckboy

The deadpan, srs bsnss dry humour of the Crown Prosecutor was only made even funnier by the contrast with his counterpart (the Defence Lawyer) being flamboyant and found of flourishing his cape every time he sits down.

The jury naming the DL “Happy Jumps” because he liked to spring out of his seat every time he was addressed and, when standing, would never stop smiling. Then when he sat down again cue the cape flourish!

(Even funnier because every single moment he wasn’t standing up he knew perfectly well his client was screwed and his face reflected it.)

I Would Now!!!! :)))) Like To Address The Jury!!!! :)))) To Inform Them :)))) That I, Happy Jumps, :))))) Speak Like This :)))) As If I'm Capitalising Every. Word. I Say. :)))) Complete with lots of. Hand. Gestures. :))))) And Emphasizing Every Other Word :)))) And Pausing. Inexplicably. In The Middle Of My. Sentences. :)))) Just So I Can :)))) Smile At The Jury :))))

He talks exACTLY LIKE MY FUCKGING DAD DOES WHAT THE FCUK

Except for the part he introduced himself to us and at one point said, “As the court case climaxes, I will -- wait, advances, I MEANT ADVANCES.”

The jurors naming one of Happy Jumps’ cronies “Benny” because of how much he looked like Ben Affleck.

At one point Benny got inexplicably banished to the public gallery.

It’s okay, he was invited back to the bar table later.

The moment Happy Jumps officially doomed his own client to never being taken seriously by the jury again:

“So, your screenname here is written as JohnDoefb*. John Doe* is your name, correct?”

“That’s correct.”

“What does ‘fb’ stand for?”

[Flinches]

“?”

[Incoherent mumbling]

“Could you please repeat that louder?”

“...”

“...”

“... ‘Fuckboy.’“

The entire jury lost their shit.

(Very, very quietly.)

#dusty talks #dusty goes to jury duty

[kyashin]

Voltron: The Fandom of You

Soooooo, hi. I want to talk about Voltron fandom, because I have some positive things to say about it. But first, I want to talk about due South.

due South is one of my favorite shows, and the fandom produced some of my favorite fan content. All around, it was a fantastic contribution to the universe. Well done, humanity.

For the uninitiated, the show is: Canadian Mountie Benton Fraser, the most upstanding and honest (and sarcastic) person imaginable, first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of his father; and, for reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, he remained, attached as liaison officer with the Canadian Consulate. It was a buddy cop show, and for seasons one and two, his cop buddy was an Italian-American dude named Ray Vecchio. Some people shipped it.

The show was canceled, and then, after enthusiastic fan campaigning, lovingly revived for two more seasons with Paul Gross––the actor who played Fraser––at the helm as executive producer. Unfortunately, David Marciano was unable to reprise his role as Ray Vecchio, so yikes! Now what? The entire premise of this thing was “sincere Canadian Mountie and cynical American cop shenanigans”. The solution was to replace Ray Vecchio. Literally. Like...in the show.

The first episode of season three has Fraser arriving in Chicago after a vacation in Canada to find this hot blond dude with a way different accent claiming to be Ray Vecchio, who is dark-haired and different-accented and just...you know...an entire different human being. Aaand let’s skip to the end of the episode where it turns out that Actual Ray Vecchio is undercover with the mob, so this new dude is gonna pretend to be him ‘til Vecchio gets back. New dude’s name is Ray Kowalski. People also shipped that.

But the fans who’d like, worked feverishly to get their show back on the air weren’t counting on having half the duo they wanted back erased from the show. !!!!!!!!!!!

Enter the Ray Wars. (Seriously, there’s a whole thing about them on fanlore.)

And a disclaimer: I wasn’t in the fandom for the height of the rage and fury, but I did saunter in as things were winding down, and even then some of the wreckage was still smoldering. That whole kerfuffle was Fandom Infamous for a super long time––and people who’ve been in Fandom long enough definitely know the Ray Wars by name AND reputation. For years, I’d see the Ray Wars held up by others as one of the ultimate examples of “intense fans” and just how Not Good a Look fandom can make for itself.

Here’s the thing though: the Ray Wars took place in the late 90s. No social media, no widespread understanding of fandom throughout the population. Fans were, like, on mailing lists and shit. The people who created AO3 were posting fic on web hosts like Geocities and Angelfire. Some people still called the internet “the web”, AOL was the gatekeeper to the internet things for a lot of people, and fans were figuring out that we could do ~*~*~*this*~*~*~ to make our user names look super unique and cool (not that I did that, just to be real, real clear). In that time, fandoms were very, super insular worlds with very tall, very robust fourth walls separating fans from creators and actors.

And for decades, these niche-occupying fans were accustomed to consuming very heterosexual content––shows and movies and comics and video games––and then writing whole-ass essays about how you could interpret this same-sex ship as legitimate within canon if you tilted your head 23 degrees, closed one eye, ignored the heterosexual ending, and stared long enough at these four screenshots from that one scene in episode 13.

You’d see flinches of contact between Fandom and The Established Source Material Creators sometimes. but it was rare. Anne Rice, for example, haaaaaaaaates fanfiction, and she’d go to great lawyery lengths to erase all she could find of it from the internet. Generally speaking, though, creators lived over there, and fans lived here, and we didn’t have much of an opportunity to interact with each other outside of, like, letters and conventions. There were still disrespectful fans, but you had to, like, make an effort to be a direct nuisance to the cast or crew.

Also, admitting to liking “slash” fanfiction as a woman back then got you “you just like slash because you’re too jealous to imagine your favorite male characters with women” at best and “that’s disgusting” at worst. ...Eh, there was probably worse, let’s be real.

So you can imagine the reaction many of us had when Paul Gross was interviewed about due South’s upcoming third season in 1997 and said of Callum Keith Rennie, the actor who’d play Ray Kowalski, “I tell you, slash fiction is going to go crazy when they see the new guy. He is really good-looking and sexy, the dangerous side of Fraser. It will be totally homoerotic.” THESE WERE THINGS AN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SAID. IN 1997. KNOW WHAT ELSE HAPPENED IN 1997? ELLEN DEGENERES CAME OUT. AND THEN LOST HER CAREER BECAUSE OF IT FOR A LONG-ASS TIME. WILL AND GRACE WASN’T EVEN A THING YET (1998). NEITHER WAS THE ORIGINAL UK VERSION OF QUEER AS FOLK (1999).

Like, holy shit???

And the thing is? He wasn’t baiting. The show intentionally included a LOT of subtext between Fraser and Ray Kowalski, to the point where the last episode of the show showed Ray having a literal identity crisis because he could tell Fraser wanted to go back to Canada permanently and like, “who am I without him” and then the series ends with the two of them sledding into the actual sunset no I’m not exaggerating that happened WHAT EVEN WAS THIS BLESSING IN 1999.

Were they canon? Eeeeeh. Kinda? It was 1997, I’d call whatever they were groundbreaking, at least for me. And the reason I say it wasn’t baiting is because all Paul said was, “Slash fans will like this,” and many of us did. So, y’know. Truth in advertising. Well done, Paul.

AND NOW IT IS THE YEAR OF OUR QUEERS, 20gayteen, and SO MANY THINGS have changed for the better for LGBTQ folks in the last two decades. Like, Voltron fandom is WILD to me sometimes (in a fantastic way) because some of the fans are actually young enough to have been born after the AIDS crisis, after Matthew Shepard was brutally murdered, after Don’t Ask Don’t Tell––after all these horrible, devastating wounds were inflicted on our beautiful queer family. There are actually fans in Voltron who believe, without a sliver of doubt, that a same-sex pairing can and will become canon.

That’s bananas to me. That there is hope like that! Belief like that! Because I was born at the very end of the AIDS crisis and I didn’t hear the word bisexual until I was, like, twelve, let alone have enough of a support system around me to embrace that label for myself. B A N A N A S.

So of course––of course––there’s a part of me that hopes a same-sex pairing will happen in Voltron. Just thinking about how Dreamworks almost made Miguel and Tulio a canon couple in The Road to El Dorado in 2000 makes my heart twinge with disappointment. (Yes, Chel is great, but.)

See, I’m super attached to Voltron even when the writing is clearly stifled and bridled in by the people whose job it is to sell lots and lots of Voltron toys. I read klance fic and reblog VLD fanart and I have one (1) friend who also watches the show. We talk about it sometimes, and I throw fanart of Shiro at her because he’s her favorite. She doesn’t ship anything, and I am a cheerful little klance-shipping demon. I am in a fandom of two, and it’s pretty great in here.

But.

Voltron’s a lighthearted kid’s show about humans and aliens piloting mecha lions in space to save the universe from space colonialism, and while I will be dizzy with glee if a same-sex couple becomes canon in this show, I want it more for the intended audience of Voltron: kids.

I met a kid last year at Osaka Pride whose mother said, “He came home from school and told me, ‘I don’t feel like a girl or a boy,’” so this young mother brought her child to Pride to learn more about the community that her baby might belong in. And that lovely little human stayed on the fringes at first, apparently shy, until their mother told them, “Go on,” and then they spent the next ten minutes literally jogging around all the booths and beaming at everyone: the trans women in neon dresses cooing at how cute this little sunbeam was, the booth folks selling rainbow-themed merch, the couples hand-in-hand without shame or fear. And when they came back to their mom, they were completely carefree. And I thought, I wish that had been me.

And maybe it could’ve been, if every single cartoon I consumed as a child wasn’t coding gay men as villains, overtly implying that LGBT people had a direct link to actual pedophilia, and aggressively promoting heterosexual romance as The Only Acceptable Way of Love. If I’d grown up in a world where Ruby and Sapphire were on TV being happily in love every week, I might’ve realized what was in my own heart sooner than college.

So there is part of me who understands why people are so emotionally connected to the possibility of a ship like klance becoming canon. I’ve felt that urgent hope, that wild hunger, again and again and again and again in my life, and the only time I’ve ever had that hope realized in canon was in 2016 watching Viktor and Yuuri skate together in Yuri!!! on Ice. I cried. A lot.

I understand the emotion fueling the very, very bad decisions being made. In the simplest possible terms, the people who repeatedly harass the Voltron cast and crew are people who want a thing and are prioritizing getting that thing over the mental health of real people. I think it’s a symptom of internet detachment. When one is flinging words into a void, one doesn’t have to see how they’re received. Their actions––if I haven’t made it clear––are objectively harmful, and I don’t condone them.

But what I want to say––what I wrote this whole thing to say––is that Voltron isn’t a terrible fandom, and it isn’t the first fandom to have loud, overzealous fans who cross the line and make people inside and outside the fandom alike think, Yeesh they’re/we’re all lunatics. Voltron fandom is not The Worst, because I guarantee you if The Ray Wars were happening today, there’d totally be people on Twitter attacking Callum Keith Rennie directly for daring to replace David Marciano. It could have been so, so much uglier than it was, and it was already Bad.

In 1997, the fourth wall still more or less existed, and LGBT content––let alone respectful content––was scarce to say the least, so Fandom Discourse at the time remained generally contained to fan-on-fan unpleasantness. Today, that fourth wall is utterly gone, and I think all fandoms have to adapt to that and learn a whole new code of etiquette. LGBT rep is important, but there are respectful and effective ways to get it that don’t involve harassing the cast and crew. The voice actors and creators and crew of Voltron deserve basic human decency, and to be seen as people first and content creators second. It’s entirely possible for the majority of fandom to interact respectfully with the creators––it’ll just take time and patience, like most things that last.

So listen, everything’ll be fine. Try to have patience with each other. To quote a manga I’ve been translating: “There will be times in your life when you won’t be able to avoid being angry. Don’t make little things bigger than they have to be. Laugh and forgive.” Or, in this case, laugh and ignore. If you like a thing, awesome! Tell people! Or don’t! And if you don’t like something, carefully consider the consequences of what you do after you realize, I don’t like this. I don’t ship sheith at all, but for the last two years I’ve managed to leave alone the fans who do ship it and not send Shiro’s voice actor and his family angry, threatening messages. It wasn’t even difficult, guys. I just, like, read some klance fic instead.

I felt compelled to make this because I keep seeing posts from Voltron fans calling Voltron fandom a raging garbage fire and sure, there’re people playing near dry kindling with flamethrowers more than is advisable, but Voltron fans have created and will continue to create some beautiful content and friendships just for love of a show, and that’s lovely as fuck. If you’re feeling ashamed of your fandom and you haven’t done anything wrong, remember that you’re fandom, too. Keep being respectful, kind, and good. The terrible people won’t go away, but they won’t define the fandom for you unless you let them.

Be kind to each other, and things will improve.

And if anyone tells you your ship is bad, don’t talk to that person anymore, because that person probably has some dry kindling and a flamethrower.

And hey, if you’re at the end of this post and you’re like: Wow, this was way too short, and I would like to read more things this person has written, there’s always my Team Voltron-in-Japan AU. It has klance and Nyma/Allura and I enjoy writing it.

Wow, I’m hungry. Bye! :D/

#voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender #fandom #due south #klance #sheith #other pairings #etc.

[lithargic]

Why Do Unique IP Addresses Issue and What Is Their Need?

In the event you have been and on the Internet for virtually any period of time, you may have noticed the definition of IP address. You might perhaps not know exactly what they have been or why they have been important, although you might have heard about them. Is it that unique IP addresses matter? Why are they essential? With this particular page we're going to answer the questions along with several different questions that you could have.

What Is an IP Address?

IP stands for Internet Protocol.  An Internet Protocol address, or IP address can be a exceptional identifier provided to every system at a system. An IP address functions two functions. It is used as a port identification for a system of machines and additionally, it serves to deliver a spot of the machine, much like a physical address to get business or a house. Because an IP address can be just a distinctive identifier, it lets computers to send out and receive data to and from special servers in a specific network.

There are just two standards when it concerns IP addresses. Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). After the Internet Protocol was developed, an internet protocol address contained a 32 bit number as well as also the system was known as Internet Protocol Version 4. IPv4 is in usage today but that the Internet has grown at an extraordinary pace and since IP addresses became increasingly scarce, a brand new model of Internet Protocol has been established. Internet Protocol Version 6 utilizes 128 bits for the internet protocol address. IPv6 was developed in 1995 and it absolutely had been standardized in 1998. It's setup continues today and began from the 2000s.

Why Is It Important to Possess a Particular Internet Protocol Address?

Whenever you set a website on the Internet you own quite a few of alternatives as soon as it has to do with hosting. The majority of people do not feel the cost or the hassle of rapidly getting their hosting company and preparing their host. So their available choices is to make work with of shared hosting or a dedicated host.

There could possibly be hundreds and sometimes even thousands of websites on an identical server. Together with so lots of websites on 1 server, most those web sites will often share one particular internet protocol address. You'll find some inherent risks once your web site is discussing an IP address with countless of different sites. Some times individuals do points on the Internet of course, if you're discussing an IP address using a website that is blocked or blacklisted, your internet site may suffer.

In case your hosting company provides a separate server, you're going to be in a position to have your own personal IP address for your site. This helps make it difficult for your site to become influenced from other webmasters' shenanigans. A unique IP address provides a layer of increased security along with security and reliability.

You may get more information on internet protocol by browsing what is my ipv4 website.

The Significance of a Particular IP Address When It Comes to Search Engine Marketing

First, let me specify SEO or searchengine optimisation. SEO is the process of trying to receive your webpages to rank highly in the search engines for keywords and key phrases that are various. It is divided to two classes, on web page search engine optimization and away from page SEO. On page SEO describes matters that you are able to do to your own pages. Things such as making use of your keyword in the URL, name, H1 tags etc.. Off site SEO identifies matters that are not done on your own internet website but can help your pages rank in the search engines. What that basically means is making hyperlinks to your webpages.

Therefore just why are IP addresses important when it comes to internet search engine optimisation? Matt Cutts, the head of Google's spam team, has said that"links to practically hosted domains are treated exactly the exact same as links into domains on committed IP addresses" That appears just like it really doesn't matter whether you're getting the links from specific IP's or maybe not. But he also has said that if you have tens of thousands of web sites and all those websites are on exactly the same IP address, the pr of these links will be diluted. In addition, he said that thousands of links from exactly the same IP address could elevate some red flags.

To steer clear of raising some warning flags together with the spam group of Google or building links, it's necessary to possess IP diversity into your link building attempts. One way to do this would be to make use of other people's sites to build links back to your website. You certainly can achieve this by engaging in message boards and linking back into your own site, guest-blogging on other people's websites, using Web 2.0 internet web sites, and basically using a number of different link construction practices.

If you would like to have your link network, which is among the methods of improving your search engine rankings, you'll need to be certain that every one of the internet sites on your network is currently about its own, unique IP. This will make conducting your private link network more high priced, however nevertheless, it is also going to ensure it is a lot better.

#whatismyip #what is my ip #what is my ipv4 #whatismyipv4

[howtohero]

#063 Coming Back From the Dead

Now, I think you’re all old enough to learn that sometimes, superheroes die. Most of the time superheroes die. In fact, discounting a few outliers who have achieved immortality through some means or another (magic fountain, genie wish, an all-powerful deity owed them a favor, licked a meteor to spite their obnoxious friend, etc.) superheroes (and humans at large) have a 100% mortality rate. But, and this is different from most regular humans, sometimes superheroes come back to life! They just stop being dead!

For some reason the only people who ever get to cheat death are superheroes and occasionally their loved ones. Superheroes can come back to life through a variety of means that include but are not limited to:

Unique alien physiology allows them to regrow vital organs after they’ve been destroyed but it takes a while 

Genie wishes

Their dead body was zombified and then given a zombie vaccine and instead of just reverting to being a non-zombified dead body they just became a non-zombiefied alive body

The power of rock

Children’s fan-mail

The stars aligned just right

Their dead body was unceremoniously dropped into a pit of naturally occurring resurrection juice

Their spirit felt that the funeral and memorial that was conducted for them wasn’t lavish enough so they came back to tell everyone off

Someone broke into Hell and stole their soul back

Time travel shenanigans

Their personality and memories were stored a floppy disk that could be inserted into a new body

Magic bees

Cute animal tears

Someone made a deal with Devil Dave the resurrecting demon (note: do not call him “Davel” he hates that.)

True Love’s Kiss™

Regardless of how they’re brought back being resurrected can be quite a shock. It will probably take this undead abomination some time to become reacquainted with being alive. They may need to relearn how to do basic things such as talking, walking, eating and even sometimes using the toilet. See, there are no toilets in the afterlife, it’s easy to forget that they have them here in the pre-afterlife.

A superhero’s (well anyone’s) first instinct after coming back to life is probably to log on to the internet and read up on all the stuff they’ve missed. They’ll probably want to binge watch all their shows, check up on their fandoms, check their emails, find out who the president is, check which of their friends are still alive, stuff like that. Unfortunately, they can’t do that. There’s just no time! At least not right away. See, the odds are pretty good that they were brought back to life for a reason, They’re almost definitely going to have to fight some super powerful bad guy. Which is a little bit annoying. Can you imagine how annoyed you’d be if you had to fight an evil space vampire right when you woke up? Well that feeling is amplified by like a 1000% when you have to do that right after waking up from being dead. But alas, a superhero’s work is never done, even after they die. Just do your best not to die again while combatting this big bad threat. That would be rather unfortunate.

Due to the high volume of superheroes that come back to life there are a few things that other superheroes need to take into consideration. If your friend who is a superhero dies valiantly in battle it is important that you lay them to rest without revealing their identity to the world. Odds are good that they’re going to come back to life and when they do they’re probably going to want to keep their secret identity. Additionally, it will look very suspicious if a person’s secret identity and superhero identity are both reported dead at the same time and then both magically come back to life at the same time later. Sometimes the simplest thing to do if you feel confident that a resurrection is imminent is to just pretend that the superhero isn’t dead at all. Say they’ve gone off into space or are just trapped in an alternate dimension. This way when they eventually return they can just pick up right where they left off and you only have to explain how one person came back to life. If the person is not a prominent public figure this is less of a problem as very few people will notice their death and resurrection and the few people who do might just assume that the reports of that person’s death were faulty and/or greatly exaggerated.

Another important thing to consider when it comes to the deaths and resurrections of superheroes is how they are laid to rest. If you want a person to be able to come to life you need to make sure that their body is laid to rest in a manner where such a thing would even be possible (for relative values of the term “possible”). The body needs to be kept intact, no cremations or slicing limbs off to hang on walls. Additionally, their body should not be launched into space or buried at sea (which isn’t so much of a burial as it is just hurling something into the ocean), if they are and they come back to life they’ll probably immediately die again and that just seems like a waste. In the same vein if they’re going to be buried they should be buried with some sort of communication device so they can give someone a call when they magically wake up in a wooden box buried six feet beneath the ground.

Another thing to be aware of, is that people might start worshiping you if you just come back to life. That’s the kind of thing sometimes happens. So if you want to avoid that you should prepare a PowerPoint presentation detailing step-by-step how you came back to life so people understand that they should really be worshipping the giant lightning bird who felt that you deserved a second crack at life. Of course you could just lean into it and set up a religion in your name. But that’s kind of a hassle. Better stick to just fighting bad guys.

Resurrections are basically just an accepted part of the superhero lifecycle. Superheroes just need to be taught from a young age that resurrections are a part of life. Education is key here.

#superheroes #superhero #comedy #humor #funny #creative writing #how to #lifestyle guide #guide to being a superhero #long post #ressurection #coming back to life #back from the dead #zombies #true loves kiss #starting religions accidentally #burials at sea #evil space vampire #afterlife #pre-afterlife #magic bees #Devil Dave #Davel #the power of rock #fan-mail

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

How a college meme group regained control after a hacker took it hostage

It's Troll Week on Mashable. Join us as we explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of internet trolling.

Facebook meme groups are the lifeblood of modern college culture. For one school, a power struggle between a hacker and shitposters became a bonding experience for a whole student body. 

If there's anything that this generation of young people can do without fail, it's shitposting. In an surprisingly nuanced entry on Urban Dictionary, a user defines shitpost as "any content on the internet whose humor derives from its surreal nature and/or its lack of clear context." Differing from memes in that a meme's humor "comes from its repeatability," a shitpost's humor stems from its tendency to ridicule a situation by making something out of nothing. 

The art of shitposting is best exemplified in this bizarre saga of an Iraqi hacker bent on obtaining passports, a college meme group held hostage for incomprehensible demands, and the girl whose tenacity for trolling reclaimed it.

SEE ALSO: The only good thing left on Facebook is private meme groups

What does Addman want anyway?

Berklee College of Music in Boston is a small school whose social culture, like many smaller academic institutions, is strengthened by memes. Its seminal Facebook group, Overheard at Berklee, functioned as a town hall for students to poke fun at the administration, promote their work, and share the most ridiculous snippets of conversation they overheard on campus. 

Brendan Cornish, a current Berklee student who provided the screenshots of the group's shenanigans, calls Overheard a "huge part" of the school's culture.

"It lets off-campus students like me feel like a part of the community, and it helps everyone develop a sense of Berklee identity," he said over Facebook Messenger. "It's fun to have a shared sense of humor in what feels like an in-group."  

But in March 2017, that all changed when one of the admins' Facebook accounts was hacked. 

Image: screenshot courtesy of Brendan cornish 

Under the compromised account, the hacker was able to remove all of Overheard's admin and moderation team, and establish himself as the sole controller of the group. He quickly changed the group's name to "The Iraq virus was here" in Arabic, according to Google Translate.

"Having difficulty telling if this was a move by the White House to make us live in fear or not," one member posted in the group. "Sad reacts," another member posted. 

"People were confused because it's mostly a meme page," Berklee alum and active Overheard member Alejandro told me over a video chat. He asked to only be referred to by his first name. "And naturally most of the responses were just people A: Being confused, B: Making memes about it, which became considerably easier with the first thing that Addman said." 

In his first public statement in his new digital domain, he announced, "I.m hacker. And. Hacked the addman."

Image: screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

From then on, Overheard members referred to him as  "Addman" or in some cases, "The Addman."

"Next thing you know, it's just shitposts. Everywhere," Alejandro said. "The entire group is flooded with memes. Flooded with memes about this mysterious hacker, flooded with people sending screenshots of them messaging him, and the hacker occasionally responding."

As people tried to figure out what the fuck was going on in their group, they inundated Overheard with offers for free grams of weed, jokes about alerting WikiLeaks, and attempts at sending Addman mixtapes. 

Then he revealed what he hacked the group for: "Photo passport." In return for "passport English," he promised to "give you drub." 

Image: screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

Image: Screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

That, of course, sparked a fresh wave of shitposts about what he meant by "drub." Some theorized that Addman had drastically misspelled "group," while others joked that he was offering drugs. 

Students began coming up with conspiracy theories about Addman; some believed that it was an elaborate hoax by another Berklee student who was ambitiously trying to pull off the ultimate shitpost. 

Sure that Addman was just another Berklee kid, Alejandro messaged the hacker.

"I thought it was fucking hilarious, I added the guy, sent him messages on Facebook," Alejandro said. "But I totally thought this was a fucking joke, and sent stuff to the guy. And then I went through the guy's profile and it had been there for a while. It was a real Iraqi guy."

Image: screenshot courtesy of alejandro

Image: screenshot courtesy of alejandro

Image: screenshot courtesy of alejandro

Image: screenshot courtesy of alejandro

How one girl tried to save it 

Amid the chaos, Berklee student Emma — who we'll refer to only by her first name  — was concerned. 

"I thought all of the memes that came out of it were funny," she said over Facebook Messenger. "But when he started deleting the other admins and changed the name I got a little worried. Everyone was just making light of this ridiculous situation." 

She decided to take matters into her own hands, and messaged him: "Are you into kinky shit?"

"I figured nobody was going directly to the source of the memeage and I wanted to try my best to get the group back," Emma said. 

Addman replied with his best attempt at sexting, messaging Emma gems like "Let's get your body up," and "Send me your picture in the bathroom to raise my appetite." 

She replied with a photo of her foot haphazardly pointed in front of her shower. As Cornish writes in his Imgur album chronicling the wild chain of events, "it is still unclear if Addman's appetites were raised." 

Image: screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

"I thought the whole thing was such a joke," Emma said. "It was probably 1 a.m. and I was laying in bed being a troll, lol." 

Addman, however, was determined to get his passport. His demands were unclear; at one point, he posted, "Hi I want Facebook account creation date2005 ... I will give you the group." 

His grasp on the English language also seemed to improve with every post. An hour after demanding a Facebook account from 2005, he posted, "Hello, I want personalized photo IDs and passports in exchange for that I will return to you to download personal IDs or passports in the comments." 

Who wouldn't risk some lighthearted identity fraud for adminship to a Facebook meme group? 

Undeterred by the threat of never getting Overheard back, Berklee students responded with an onslaught of shitposts. Running with the classic trope of ripping off young creatives, one member even offered to pay Addman in exposure.

Image: screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

Image: screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

Image: screenshot courtesy of brendan cornish

Image: SCREENSHOT COURTESY OF BRENDAN CORNISH

"It's almost surreal," Alejandro said, still astonished that it all happened.

This whole situation is like a testament to shitposting itself. When presented with absurdism, why not respond with absurdism? If anything, the Overheard reaction to being hacked exemplifies the Millennial and Gen Z love for nihilistic humor — the world may be falling apart, but at least we can make jokes! 

"This is just more new content," Alejandro agreed. "And new content lets you explore old memes and ideas that you couldn't before, so people are gonna jump on that immediately. It affected all of us because everyone's in that group, and it was so ripe for the picking." 

"You saw all the regular Berklee joke subjects brought up, but adapted to the situation," Cornish concurred. "No one missed a beat."

Addman shuts it down

But Addman wasn't as entertained. He archived the group eight days after triumphantly gaining control, perhaps after being the target of constant trolling. Berklee kids made another Overheard group, but according to Emma, it "wasn't the same." 

Image: shitpost courtesy of brendan cornish

"There were thousands of members in the in the original group," she said. "Alumni, current students, and even some staff. We didn't want to lose that as a community." 

Although many former members resigned themselves to the new Overheard group, Emma was determined to regain control. While filling in friends who were out of the loop it hit her: They had to "give one last shot of getting the old group back." She redoubled on her efforts to message Addman, attempting to harangue him into making her an admin. 

"He kept pushing for me to take off my clothes and send him pictures, but I wasn't having it so kept being like, 'Maybe after you do ME a favor and make me an admin with you," she said. 

One of the friends who resolved to win back the group with her made a collage of Addman's best attempts at sexting. Gems include, "I have brought my head into my confusion," and "I am now a young man in your blades." 

Image: connor mccoy/courtesy of emma

Emma played along — when he messaged her, "I want your body," she replied with: "I need your body, as long as you got me, you don't need nobody." 

Berklee vs. Berkeley 

It seemed like Addman, like many people, confused Berklee for the larger, more well-known University of California, Berkeley. That mix up in itself is a meme within the Berklee community — at the beginning of every summer, incoming Berklee freshmen try to join the UC Berkeley Facebook group, Emma explained. 

Knowing that Addman was clueless about what school he was hacking made it infinitely more funny. In the end, it wasn't the sexting or the shower foot photo that got Addman to relinquish. Instead, Emma promised to add him to an actual UC Berkeley Facebook group.

"Music school breeds some trolls," she said.

In September 2017, months after declaring Overheard Berklee his, Addman made Emma an admin. She unarchived the group, restoring balance to the school's culture. 

"Thanks four addind my love Emma," Addman posted in UC Berkeley's Class of 2019 group after she added him, passing him off to another college Facebook group to deal with. 

Although Addman promptly unfriended everyone from Berklee and left Overheard, his reputation and impact on the school's lore lives on. 

"You could almost do a BC and AD split with before Addman and after," Cornish reflected. "The whole thing kept me up until 4 a.m. that night, and whether this is pathetic or not, was one of my most fun Berklee memories." 

Who was Addman anyway?

There's something beautiful about how cemented college social interactions are in meme culture; no matter how cliquey or divisive a class may be, an opportunity to make memes will bring them together in a way that administration-sponsored orientation events can't. On a larger scale, it hints at just how sardonic this generation is. Who can resist a good shitpost, even in times of crisis? 

More than a year after the incident, Overheard at Berklee and its spinoff group have been untouched by foreign hackers in search of passports. But one question still lingers: Who was trolling who? Was Addman the real puppet master in all of this, playing the Berklee kids like marionettes? 

"I don't know how in on the joke he was," Alejandro wondered about Addman. "I don't know if he was serious, or if he was doing this just to fuck with some dumb college students? I don't know if he was just trying to have a laugh." 

Addman appears to be living his best life as well — in May, he changed his profile picture to a saturated selfie of him wearing a snazzy maroon vest. But he hasn't stopped in quest for passports. When I messaged him for a comment on this story, he responded in typical Addman fashion. 

"Do you want to group," he asked. "I want to get a passport and return you svez group." 

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#_author:Morgan Sung #_uuid:a7782a6b-accf-39cb-b8d1-b75495818fc7 #_category:yct:001000002 #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DTrEpEAL #_revsp:news.mashable