#edit cos i linked the wrong video
Text
Two months prior to its release, would-be doyens of Swift’s Tortured Poets Department have taken its barbed track listing very literally, leading to intense, often nefarious speculation regarding Swift’s six-year relationship with the British actor Joe Alwyn, which seemingly ended in early 2023.
The album’s title, revealed onstage at the Grammy awards, was quickly linked to a December, 2022 interview with Alwyn and Paul Mescal in which they revealed that Andrew Scott started their group chat, the Tortured Man Club. (“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn said: you wonder if it’s undergone a recent revival.) Swift revealed the leading track list a day later: My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, So Long, London, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, to name a few, sending fans wild with speculation.
Swift, obviously, has every right to sing about her relationships however she wants to (no apologies to Eamonn Holmes). But in the absence of any music, some fans have spread baseless, dangerous and even libellous allegations about Alwyn’s conduct (which, for obvious reasons, I can’t repeat).
Last month, a brief fan-shot video of them dining in a New Orleans restaurant in December, 2022 was recirculated online with AI-doctored audio that made it sound as though Alwyn is saying “you don’t get to tell me about sad,” a line printed on the back of one of the new album’s four physical editions.
When Swift recently told a crowd that she was “lonely” when writing her 2020 album Folklore – some of which was co-written with Alwyn during the pandemic, a lonely time for most – fans took that as further confirmation of their theories. A live medley of three songs that all appear to reference cheating threw petrol on the fire.
Swift could make this stop. She is no stranger to airing her displeasure with the likes of Ticketmaster, Scooter Braun, Spotify and Apple Music, and, occasionally, politicians. Before she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) last year, she gave a veiled speech at one Eras tour date effectively asking fans not to go after John Mayer, whom she dated when she was 19 and he was 32 and is understood to be the subject of that album’s Dear John.
“I am not putting this album out so you should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I wrote a song about 14m years ago when I was 19,” she said in Minneapolis.
But for whatever reason – and obviously, no member of the public has any idea what transpired between her and Alwyn so far – this time she has opted to stay quiet.
Establishing a baseline for conduct is neither commercially risky nor unprecedented: just last week, Ariana Grande said, after the release of her post-divorce album Eternal Sunshine: “Anyone that is sending hateful messages to the people in my life based on your interpretation of this album is not supporting me and is absolutely doing the polar opposite of what I would ever encourage”.
It feels like the endgame of a cat-and-mouse act that’s gone too far. Swift’s gestures towards meaning have led every single thing she does to be considered a kind of marketing, a clue to be solved. It leaves a superstar who’s usually hot on her messaging open to misinterpretation: hints about her personal life are turned by some fans into witch-hunts for anyone perceived to have wronged her; her current silence on politics allows politicians to invoke her name, from the New South Wales police commissioner quoting Swift’s anti-haters lines while defending police to Joe Biden joking that the matter of her apparently much sought-after endorsement is “classified” on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
When Swift made a blandly neutral handwritten post encouraging US citizens to register to vote on Super Tuesday, some fans speculated that her unusual left-leaning handwriting was the real indication of her loyalties – suggesting they’re so starved of substance that they’re reading into empty messages because of this dynamic she has established. (The more likely explanation is the insane way she holds a pen.)
For Swift to only direct fans as to her wishes when it suits her, it weakens her status as a truth-teller. If the comparisons with Dickinson mean anything, she might remember that nothing in the world has as much power as a word feels like the endgame of a cat-and-mouse act that’s gone too far.
#taylor swift#anti taylor swift#joe alwyn#travis kelce#the tortured poets department#the critics are not going to be kind to this album#she's too rich & successful to be so bitchy & vindictive#laura snapes
80 notes
·
View notes
Text
Ok so this amazing video edit about the possible foreshadowing from s4 of Mike getting vecna’d in s5 got me thinking:
During the realization scene at the end of s4 episode 3, where Max and co realize Vecna is targeting her; there’s a brief flashback of her getting a random nosebleed in class (the clip is also in the video I linked, go watch if you haven’t yet and then come back to this post lol)
It’s in a classroom while a lesson is in progress, so there should probably be extras at the edge of the shot right?
Wrong. The camera focuses solely on Max and her nosebleed, she’s front and center, which makes sense… except wait, there’s one other person the camera briefly pans over to right before it cuts to a different scene-
-And would ya look at who it is:
Think about it: doesn’t it feel kind of out of place for a scene about Max having symptoms of vecna’s curse to randomly add Mike of all people sharing the center of the shot, and to take extra camera time to pan over to him deliberately turning around to notice Max?
Because the more *I* think about it, the more I realize that it has to mean something; they could’ve just as easily have had only Max and her nosebleed in the shot, and the flashback would’ve still accomplished the immediate point that was trying to be made, or they could’ve even just put some random extra off to the side of the shot turning to look over if they were just trying to emphasize Max’s off behavior, but instead they put Mike in the scene: another main character that seemingly has no direct connection to this whole Max situation. Not only that, but they took extra time panning the shot over to draw our attention to Mike looking over at Max!!
Why do that?? This is film, everything we see onscreen is deliberately set up exactly the way the producers want the audience to see it. They *chose* to put Mike in a Vecna related scene (and right in the center of it with Max! Who is literally getting vecna’d!!) that plot wise he had no relevance to. And especially with Stranger Things, if a clearly deliberate choice feels random or slightly out of place, it’s almost always because it’s being used to hint at or communicate something else going on beyond what a scene or a dialogue line appears to be at surface level.
Not to mention that Mike and Max are literally the same person in two different fonts 👀
So, in conclusion: Mike is fucked and he better start running bc all signs point to him being a target in season 5, and I’m honestly so excited bc we’ll FINALLY GET TO SEE INSIDE HIS BRAIN AND KNOW WHAT HE’S THINKING
#I haven’t seen anyone else talk about this yet which is insane bc it’s RIGHT THERE AHHH#vecna’s gonna out Mike to himself I’m sure of it#it’s giving dirty secret scene from IT#Will ur bf is in danger come quick-#byler#mike wheeler#mike gets vecna'd#stranger things 5 theory#stranger things analysis#mike wheeler i know what you are#and so does vecna lmao#max mayfield#platonic madwheeler#i LOVE platonic madwheeler#elli talks mike wheeler
438 notes
·
View notes
Text
NRCB's Writeblr Intro!
Hey all! My name’s Rene and it’s about time I actually introduced myself, huh?
I’m a transgender, neurodivergent writer from the Metro-Detroit area. I love writing fantasy, slipstream, magical realism, and poetry, and I love reading those same genres (if your story has dragons, giants, and/or bug-based characters/races, hmu!) I tend to world build a lot, then pants a plot that takes place in that world. I’m always interested in being tagged in tag games, and if you’d like to be added to my tag list, please let me know!
You’ll find my stories chock full of:
queer relationships between men
rampant optimism
ridiculous concepts taken seriously
questions about religion, purpose, existence, etc.
character-specific motifs
dramatic irony
mild horror
My interests include:
writing, of course! Ooh, and editing!
video games (LoZ, Terraria, Bully, SDV, Subnautica, FF1, 6, and 9 just to name a few of my favorites!)
tarot
religious studies
roleplaying
beading
making playlists/moodboards/anything about my characters!
Stuff about WIPs under the cut!
The Curse of New Royston
Main tag - wip: tconr
Current status: editing. again
Within the borders of the town of New Royston, Connecticut, one’s net worth proportionally affects their physical size. Sometime in the early 2000s, high school sophomore Gio Violett, a 20-foot-tall giant recently recovering from a near-death experience, meets Cricket Collins, an 11-inch-tall freshman who’s been living on his own since his parents left town with the intent to save up enough money to bring him with them. Together, the two of them resolve to try to break the spell over New Royston, but a variety of adversaries, from supernatural forces to the town’s political machines, stand in their way.
Pitch
Comic Sans PowerPoint
TCoNR Tag Masterlist (links lead to their intros)
waterlogged curseling 🌊 (Gio)
held in darkness 🦗 (Cricket)
self-appointed guardian 🍓 (Fletcher)
fear-laden medium 📒 (Eneas)
avoidant sleuth 🪡 (Caelan)
remedy provider 🕯 (Auster)
of two worlds 🌸 (Cameron)
ice-eyed warden 👑 (Theodore)
boundless learner 📖 (Margaret)
regretful fugitive 🎓 (Lionel)
the kindest soul 🩸 (Darryl)
TCoNR Short Stories
Flowerbed (2000 words - Fletcher, in his hour of need, meets the heir to the Violett legacy)
Oracle of the Stained Glass Windows
Main tag - wip: ootsgw
Current status: on the back-burner
Kilroy, a pacifist hippalektryon, lives with his herd in the area around the Oracle, a great stone hall of unknown origin that magically shifts itself to create wondrous stained glass windows dyed with different types of magic. Kilroy himself is featured in one of these windows jamming his horn into the gut of some unknown, pitch-black creature. One day, an attempt from Kilroy to avoid his violent, prophesied fate goes wrong just as he runs straight into Mar, the creature from the window. Mar helps heal Kilroy’s injury and Kilroy, shocked by his would-be adversary’s kindness, vows to find a way to avoid their mutually-destructive destiny.
OotSGW Tag Masterlist
two-toned warhorse 🪽 (Kilroy)
wayward academic 💥 (Mar)
The Sun and the Craftsman
You can read it @the-sun-and-the-craftsman!
Main tag - wip: tsatc
Current status: working on first draft
Darius had been one of many ordinary people pulled into Ashur’s world from his own—and at the nick of time. The portal had been his only way out from the law after exacting revenge on his parents’ murderer. But Ashur’s world wasn’t exactly a paradise either.
Faced with the threat of being sent back to the exact moment of his capture, Darius must find a way to get along with the ruler of this world—a powerful, god-like entity with an affinity for scorching sunlight, an insatiable hunger, and a magical mastery over flesh. And Ashur, in turn, must find a way to co-exist with this stubborn human who joins the long line of mortals who have attempted to truly understand him.
TSatC Tag Masterlist
sun-touched ☀️ (Ashur)
dual justice 🧥 (Darius)
stars below 🌠 (James)
10 notes
·
View notes
Text
Resource/Greatest Hits Masterpost
Resources
All my resource lists can be found easily (and probably with nicer formatting) on my Dreamwidth at https://thebiballerina.dreamwidth.org/. A wider selection and the most up-to-date versions of the lists will be there, though I do try to update the lists everywhere I post them.
Sideblog for Tumblr resource/advice posts: @random-useful-posts (There is an index in its pinned post.)
Sideblog for regular self-care reminders: @timelyreminder
Fanfiction Commenting Guide: Tumblr, Dreamwidth
Easy Fanfic Library (AO3 tag organization with downloaded fanfic): Tumblr, Dreamwidth
Hotlines and Resources: Tumblr (at my self-care blog @timelyreminder), Dreamwidth
Free (Legal) Digital Media: Tumblr, Dreamwidth
Writing Resources: Dreamwidth
Free Media Creation and Editing Software: Dreamwidth
Free mathematics resources (specifically for college/university students who struggle with mathematics, but may be useful to others as well): Tumblr
Calming Resources and Activities: Dreamwidth
With regards to the note in my bio about copy-pasting rather than screenshotting text, I highly recommend seeing the pinned post of @can-i-make-image-descriptions for advice on accessibility for Tumblr users. (They also have a post of description templates.) I'm not shaming anyone and I'm not perfect with accessibility, but please do not expect people to reply to something they cannot read.
Greatest Hit Posts
"Rating Band Names as Commands": the original post and my later laments, record of the firstborn I've been promised, the tag
Sleeping in summer as described by Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold", the comic: the comic, the music video, the tag
A Jigsaw trap for Sherlock Holmes adaptors writing Irene Adler: the original post, free ebook and audiobook editions of A Scandal in Bohemia, accessibility in murder traps is important, commentary on Irene being described as an "adventuress", polycule-playoff poll about the nature of the relationship between Irene and Sherlock, the tag
Fix-it Fanfiction Statistics and Leverage: The Power of Leverage (the original post and John Rogers' tweeted reaction), Fix-it Fanfiction by Fandom: The spreadsheets and nerd stuff, "The Leverage Test" tag
Where Else You Can Find Me
Dreamwidth: thebiballerina
Mastodon: thebiballerina on fandom.ink
Star Trek sideblog: @dilithiumkristal
I am a co-creator and mod of the Land of Myth Discord server for gen BBC Merlin fandom. See the merlingen community on Dreamwidth or message me for a link.
Other Notes
My profile picture was created by @sunshine--sketches. Check out the shop linked in their profile.
My username should be parsed as "the bi ballerina". If you have been misinterpreting it for years, you are not the only one.
Requests I Wish I Didn't Have To Add
Don't Harass People Based on My Words. (If an action is harassment when targeted at a good person, it is also harassment against anyone else.)
Tumblr has a rampant harassment culture problem. Most users do not recognize their behavior as harassment. Thus, if you just thought to yourself that this doesn't apply to you, please indulge me and take a moment to read on. It can't hurt.
These behaviors are wrong and unhelpful, even if they are targeted against someone truly horrible. Don't feed the trolls, don't bolster bigots' persecution narratives, and don't help cults further indoctrinate their recruits.
I do not condone any of the following actions. I will block anyone I find engaging in that sort of behavior.
Don't initiate direct contact with anyone because of a negative interaction I had with them or a criticism I made. This includes messages, asks, contact through other platforms, etc. (Basically, anything other than commenting in the relevant public posts.)
Don't use a negative interaction or criticism I made as supporting evidence in call-out posts or other methods of spreading assertions about others. I will not tell anyone what to think about a person, beyond providing/correcting factual context as needed, so everyone can form opinions for themselves.
Don't target individuals because of a trend I criticized, whether in media, fandom, society, or otherwise. Criticism of a pattern does not imply condemnation of any singular instance following that pattern.
Don't demand disclosure (or proof) of someone's private information for the sake of justifying/criticizing their engagement with specific topics. Private information includes identities, demographics, relationships, trauma, life experiences, etc.
Don't unexpectedly involve creators in negative discussions of their work. I do not want anyone to be bothered due to my personal opinions in a discussion that was intended for fandom alone.
What I Mean When I Discuss Art, Media, and Fandom
I frequently discuss media, art, fiction, and fandom, and the ways these things relate to real-life issues. That is probably the most frequent way you will see me discuss social justice issues on this blog, as I do not use this particular platform for activism.
However, the existence of a relationship between real-life issues and art does not mean that relationship is easily definable, consistent, bidirectional, or one-to-one.
Nothing I say is ever meant to suggest that preferences in fiction (whether creation or consumption) are indicative of real-life desires/morality. Fiction can cause real-life harm, but that does not mean fictional harm causes real-life harm. Discussion of fictional characters and their actions may be related to similar discussions of real-life people, but they are not the same thing, nor should they be approached in the same way.
I like discussion, not passing judgment on individual tastes. In this context, please just take me literally; my words are not secretly implying condemnation or endorsing harassment.
That applies in both directions: I don't support efforts to pass judgment in this manner. However, I also am not obligated to reassure people acting in defensiveness against my assumed intent/implications rather than my actual statements. (Furthermore, while you may associate specific implications with a word/statement, that does not guarantee that I mean those implications rather than the literal definition.)
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
2023 Postmortem: 10 Questions
Phew, 2023 is almost over and I for one am glad to see it go. Considering I felt last year was one of my more difficult years, 2023 must have thought I was throwing down the gauntlet and decided to up the ante. Various points throughout the year saw me reach my breaking point. Somehow I was able to pull myself back from no return, but at a great cost to my mental and physical self.
This has been one of the hardest ten-question pieces I've written as I was trying to find a good balance of talking about the difficult parts while also making sure to find the positive points that happened - no matter how short it felt like.
Buckle up, it's going to be a ride of sorts.
Author’s Note: If you are new to this or want to take a look back at previous pieces, you can click on the links here: 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022.
What made up your body of work this year? Which parts are you most proud of?
95 percent of my work this year was for the day job. Whether was researching various specifications for vehicles, dealing with various issues from customers, or determining what we needed to be keeping an eye on down the road in terms of features. Most of the year has felt like a slog with a neverending list of vehicles coming in and a shrinking staff that felt like we couldn't keep up. I felt even more drained than last year.
Towards the end brought some much-needed good news. A few new people came to our team and brought down the workload by a large amount. At least it doesn't feel like we are playing catch-up anymore.
A bright spot for the year was being added to our internal news service editorial staff. This allows me to help in the process of publishing stories by doing copy edits and going over changes with co-workers. It also allows me to keep my writing skills somewhat sharp.
Speaking of writing, there was barely any of it for the year. This year's ten-question piece is the first thing I have really written for 2023. It comes down to me not having the spark or desire to write anything. I haven't been lacking ideas. The past year in the automotive has been fruitful with electric cars making inroads, questions about fuel economy and affordability, autonomous driving, Tesla, and more. Yet, I haven't any desire to take these ideas from the head and put them out there in the world.
What were your top 5 moments of the year?
Being added to the editorial staff for our internal news service
Seeing both of my parents retire
Taking time off to help me recharge
Spending a bit more time playing video games
Making some inroads on finding a new job
(It was difficult trying to figure out the top five as it felt like a lot of the year was filled with so many negative things. Trying to scrounge up any good moments is quite hard).
What are you really glad is over?
I don't have a good answer to this as I have several things up in the air as 2023 comes to a close.
How are you different today than you were 365 days ago?
My mental health has been on a roller coaster of sorts. I'll have good days where it seems nothing could go wrong, and days where I find myself in the murky depths, wondering if I will be able to get out. I had many of these days throughout the year whether due to news, personal, financial, or other items. This explains why I spent a lot of my time in my apartment, sitting or lying down. Didn't want to have others experience the cloud of darkness. I know this is the opposite of what I should be doing - going out, visiting friends, and experiencing new things. But when you're caught between the rock and hard place, and no easy and quick way out - very difficult to get out.
If there is a bright spot, it is how much quicker I have been able to spot myself falling into the spiral and pausing it. I may do some journaling, go for a walk, listen to some music, or lie down to help reset myself. The more I catch myself going into a depression cycle, the easier it becomes to get out.
My usage of social media has gone down drastically throughout the year. A lot of this can attributed to Elon Musk's decisions on the service formally known as 'Twitter'. I have stopped posting there since late Spring after setting up accounts on BlueSky and Mastadon. I find myself using BlueSky more as there more people I follow from 'Twitter' who have come over. But it isn't the same as it once was and I cannot fully put my finger as to why.
Is there anything you achieved that you forgot to celebrate?
How much progress I have been making on the job hunt. I started this in earnest back in late Spring. While most of the opportunities I have applied for have either not gone anywhere or picked a different candidate, I have started to feel more at ease with writing out cover letters and presenting my best self during interviews. It still is quite stressful and takes a lot out of me. But with what I have learned throughout the year, I think the job hunt in 2024 will prove to be fruitful.
What have you changed your perspective on this year?
That it is ok to take a break from the news. Considering how this year has felt like a raging waterfall of news seemingly breaking every hour of each day, I had to significantly cut back on the news. I may read a summary of what happened during the day or just go dark, depending on my mood. I may not be as up-to-date as other people, but it does make me feel less like impending doom is coming.
This year has also brought forth how lonely I'm been since COVID-19 made its way to the U.S. It oddly stemmed from me binging many Unsolved Mysteries hosted by Robert Stack. The music and Robert Stack's presentation sent chills down my spine as they did when I was a young kid. I needed somebody to bring me back down to earth and comfort me. It's a ridiculous way to find out you're still dealing with loneliness, but it helped put it into perspective. I've only seen my co-workers only a few times this year, and have only talked with a close friend of mine throughout the year. The remaining friends haven't heard a peep from me since last year or more.
There is something you are taught when you start off in computer security; finding a balance between security and convenience. It boils down to determining the right amount of lockdown and ease of entry into a given environment. For example, requiring only one key to enter a vault full of gold makes it very convenient for a person to get in, but it also makes it very tempting for someone to rob. On the opposite, having seven different locks requiring a different way to open a house makes it very secure. But it also makes a pain in the butt when you're trying to escape a rain storm or worse.
I've realized that I have been focusing a bit too much on security for myself while negating the convenience aspect of being around people. I had good reasons as to why, but it also made me feel more lonely as time went on. Figuring out how I can best protect myself while trying to be more personable is a goal for next year.
The last thing I have learned throughout this year is that I cannot force myself to write. This was something I did a lot when I did freelance writing. No words being put on a digital sheet of paper meant no money to keep living. The downside to this was a major loss in quality and originality, something I would attribute to why I lost many assignments and gigs throughout my freelancing life.
Despite wanting to write as I mentioned earlier, I had no motivation or desire to force myself to pull words out of thin air. I realized that I still haven't fully recovered my writing skills to a point where I felt like I could start posting stuff regularly again. I don't know if writing will become a part of me as it once was years back, but I still have that desire to get my thoughts out there in the world. Maybe some writing rehabilitation through practice prompts and journals will help in the new year.
Who are the people that came through for you this year?
I have to give a big thank you to my family who helped me through some difficult times throughout the year. Also worthy of thanks are my therapist, the people who I talk to on BlueSky and Mastodon, and some close friends.
What were some pieces of media that defined your year?
Super Mario RPG
I remember playing the Super Nintendo version of Super Mario RPG and being charmed by its story, characters, and music. The recent remaster for the Switch only amps the charm. I spent a good couple of weeks playing and growing attached to the characters and wanting to see how the story went. When the 'the end' screen came up, I almost started a new playthrough. I may pick this game back in 2024 just to experience the joy again.
Unpacking
A game about unpacking various items and placing them throughout various rooms? Seem a bit tedious for a game, but it works so well. You're being told a story of a person through various moves during their and items. The varying locations and amount of items to place give you an idea of where this person is in their life and dreams and hopes. An idea that seems crazy when you read the description, but works so well when you play it.
Satisfied Mind by Jon Regan
youtube
When this song came up during my Discover Weekly on Spotify back in the Summer, it hit me in such a way that I cannot fully express. The lyrics of the song are a guide to what I hope to accomplish down the road.
Honorable Mentions: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom; The Case of the Golden Idol; Amen by The Heavy; Ancient DOS Games on YouTube; the Unf*ck series of books by Dr Faith G Harper; The Honjin Murders by Seishi Yokomizo.
What will you be leaving behind in 2023?
I don't have a really good answer for this prompt. A lot of the issues that came up in 2023 are going to continue into the coming year. At least I have some ideas to make them more bearable as I hope to leave them in 2024.
What do you hope to accomplish in 2023?
Originally, I was going to put [REDACTED] for the various items I hope to accomplish. This allows me to claim whatever I do in the coming year as one of the items on the list. Ultimately, I decided to scrap this idea for the time being. Instead, here is a small list of items I hope to work on in 2024.
Exercise: I was able to do a bit of exercise for a fair chunk of 2023 and it made me feel better both in terms of physical and mental health. Then I stopped doing it for various reasons, and my health has taken a bit of a tumble. Getting an Apple Watch for Christmas has reignited my desire to get back into exercising. Going to start slow to get myself back into it before I start to ratch it up.
Money Stuff: I made some headway on this at the start of the year by monitoring how money was being spent. That's all I got to without starting to set up a plan and I just ended up not monitoring it. This would prove to be a bad idea as unexpected issues came up such as replacing the front suspension on my car and draining my bank account. I'm going to start back monitoring my money, along with figuring out a plan to where I can cut back on some spending items and start stashing more money.
A new gaming computer: I was able to finally replace my old MacBook Pro with a new MacBook Air. It is really nice in terms of size, performance, and quietness. Now, I need to figure out a replacement for my current gaming PC. It is getting up there in age and will shut off when playing newer games. Whether I decide to build one or do a pre-built from somewhere is up in the air at the moment.
There are some other goals I would to accomplish like finding some time to travel and working towards a new car, but these depend on various factors like trying to find a new job to jump-start them.
I thought 2023 would be the year where I would be able to make some progress in various areas. But it turned it to be one of the toughest years to date. There are many things I haven't mentioned either because they were too personal or I am still working out how to talk about them. I find it tough to be hopeful at the end of this year and to look forward to the next considering what lies ahead - the next presidential election being a key item.
But I do know that I want 2024 to be an improvement over 2023, and to get there, I need to put in a fair amount of work. But also give myself time to rest and comprehend. The Christmas break for me has been spending a lot of time sleeping to try and regain some sort of energy,
Fingers crossed that 2024 works out.
0 notes
Text
“SO WHY DO U WANT 2 HUG THIS TRASH GRANDPA, BUNNI” post
Okay, i figured since, well, that one goddamn wifi event is That One Goddamn Wifi Event, I may as well make a short post about it so people who weren’t able to see it can understand how it fuckin Blew My Mind when I was a teenager and plunged me into the fandom hell for the most obscure unloved jerkass grandpa who may or may not even be the guy this vague tantalizing mystery plot point is even about, and AAAA
So yeah here we go, transcript of the event text (thanks, Bulbapedia!) and some general summary of the context of who da fuk dis Charon is, and hopefully maybe at least one more person shall now understand this tiny fandom for a tiny gremp!
~The Context Of Charon~
(skip all this if you just wanna get to the wifi event transcipt)
If you haven’t played DPPT and don’t plan to:
The villain team of Sinnoh is Team Galactic, a bunch of silly guys in space costumes with a rad jazz theme tune and a surprising level of competance in a terrifying plan to erase the universe and replace all emotion with infinate silence. Also, interesting moral ambiguity cos most of them are either oblivious or outright good, just being manipulated by the team’s super scary badass leader Cyrus who’s led them to believe they’re going to ‘fix’ the world to end all sadness for everyone. This weird complexity behind goofy nonsense hair people is what got me hooked on them as my faves!
So who is Charon in particular?
Diamond and Pearl got a third version called Platinum that fixed a bunch of glitches and unfinished graphics and expanded upon the rushed endgame, etc. It also (for some reason) added one single extra member to Team Galactic, as seen here on the second furthest from the right.
Charon is a grumpy grandpa and he literally does nothing in the plot. Its really confusing why he was actually added, he only gets more than two lines of dialogue if you pursue a secret sidequest waaaaay in the postgame, and he still gets like.. SIX lines of dialogue and not even a boss fight. Poor dude barely exists in this game!
So what’s weird is that this wifi event kinda contains more dialogue for him than he ever got in the main game, and it at least gives him a purpose for being here- to introduce the new transformations for Rotom that were added in this wifi event. But it just seems pretty badly handled cos he never even appears in the event and there’s a lot of fan debate that it isnt even meant to be him, blablabla. And he still doesn’t do anything UNLESS you get this wifi event, which is really unfair and probably contributes a lot to his unpopularity, okay sorry I’m starting to ramble...
Basically, all you need to know is that Charon is a grumpy grandpa who does literally nothing in the plot.
The Establishing Of The Grump Gramp
This is... kinda necessary to know why this thing hit me so hard in the emotions? This is why I don’t think it would work as well if Mystery Wifi Event Flashback Person actually ISNT Charon.
All we see of Charon in his VERY FEW non-optional dialogues is that he is vain, cynical, pompous, greedy and for some reason obsessed with talking like a complete tool. And he’s SO MUCH this that he doesn’t even have any loyalty to his fellow villains, he exists to be like.. The More. Everyone else is some degree of honorable dude doing what they do cos they believe in a good cause, Charon is that one teammate that’s too evil even for the rest of them. Or, like, at least too petty? He’s an eternally incompetant comic relief dumbass who never even has enough imagination to do anything genuinely evil, he’s somehow less dangerous than his morally ambiguous teammates! He’s just sitting here like ‘fuq yeh i luv bein evil cos i can swipe the pocket change outta dis vending machine’, then somehow it falls on him and shatters his old man spine. Meanwhile his boss is being all ‘I want to make a world of smiles!’ *collapses the universe into a black hole and literally summons poke-satan*
So ANYWAY the relevant point is that you can see why he’s THE SINGLE MOST UNEXPECTED person to suddenly get a sympathetic backstory!
Some transcript of his tiny non-wifi-event dialogues for comparison of how much of an absolute prick this man be:
” It seems quite obvious to me, Charon, the genius even the boss recognizes.”
"Humph. Saturn and even Cyrus fall to a mere child... Perhaps another option needs to be considered. One befitting the genius of Charon!"
[This is basically his only dialogue in a normal game run, aside from expositioning a few things that were said by other people in the previous version.]
Postgame optional dungeon text:
“What do they see in Cyrus? Immature, overthinking buffoon. He goes through the trouble of assembling Team Galactic for what? Ultimately, he destroys his own creation for his ludicrous vision. It's no thanks to him that I have to struggle with the pieces."
“The young can live with their dreams. I prefer to remain firmly in reality. And for that, money is paramount.”
“ With this Magma Stone, I will awaken the legendary Heatran! I will control the volcano's eruptions to extort money by the millions! Fear me! “
[cue him being defeated offscreen in a cutscene by someone else]
"...Uh, what are you saying? I know nothing! Extorting with Heatran? Merely the blathering of this harmless old man! All said in jest! Besides, among Team Galactic's Commanders, I was the most junior..."
[Seriously, you don’t even get to see what Heatran even is! its just an optional scene to go back after he’s gone and catch the thing.]
So yeah he does literally nothing
and all we know is that he’s a jerk and he betrays his evil team only to fail horribly at being his own villain
also that he has a Rather Specific Speaking Pattern, which will come up later in linking him to that wifi event BUT ANYWAY
literally the rest of the team walks away and leaves him to his fate cos he’s such a jerk
literally Jupiter says he’s ‘not fun anymore’
literally a man dressed in a boulder costume bitchslaps him with a giant frog
its like the biggest fuckin smackdown and the player didn’t even need to participate, he just self-destructed mid cutscene
farewell two paragraphs of dialogue granddad, we will probably never remember you ever
B U T
~ The Transcipt Of The Fabled Wifi Event ~
Extra context: this was probably the worst handled of all the horribly handled wifi events. Makes sense at least, sinnoh was like the beta test for whether such a thing could actually be possible in this series. i’m glad they’re more accessable nowadays, but what sucks is that now we don’t seem to even get as many Actual Events, instead they’re just a plain gift of a pokemon via trade without a fun cutscene :(
But yeah it was only accessable for a one month period when the game first released, and the item you got in the vent didnt have enough clues about where and how you were meant to use it in order to find the secret room, unless you already knew it was connected to Charon.
The item for the event is the Secret Key, which is somehow charmingly the least secret secret of all time
You take this to one random spot on a random wall in one of two separate Team Galactic HQs in this game, and the whole damn wall vanishes to reveal Charon’s Secret Lab/The Rotom Room
Here, you can turn Rotom into any of its new transformations.
And then, completely optional, is a hidden backstory for this one terrible granddad!
The notebook on the bottom desk explains how the transformations work, gameplay-wise, and also ‘hey this secret lab belongs to me specifically, Charon’
The notebook up to the top right on top of the box which you might not have noticed, and might have assumed would just contain more boring tutorials? Hoo boy dude, 99% OF THE EVENT DIALOGUE is in that thing! And you’d think a second hand flashback entirely through longwinded narration would be terrible but man somehow it really just worked for me. RIP my soul, cause of death: this
SO LETS GET GOING TO THE MEAT OF THIS POST, MY FRIEND
If you don’t feel like scrolling thru this textdump, I’d reccommend Chuggaaconroy’s excellent lets play of platinum, where he read out the journal here. (16:25, talks about the various wifi event failures first.)
Or if you watch this earlier episode (17:15) you can see the whole mini-dungeon where you can catch Rotom in the first place, which isn’t necessary to understand all this but its still super cool.
If you do feel like scrolling, here have the appropriate music, or the appropriate music: anime orchestrated version
+++
"It's an old notebook. There's no telling how old it is."
Our encounter was a sudden one. It was when I found my toy robot, one that I had earlier misplaced. At that instant, a Pokémon startlingly emerged from the lawn mower's motor! Clutching my robot, I stared, transfixed by the peculiar Pokémon.
The Pokémon hovered in the air, held aloft by a power unseen. As if curious and unafraid of my presence, it floated toward me. Crackling sounds accompanied it, as if from static electricity in the air. Remarkably, it seemed the Pokémon was the source of this power! In alarm, I flinched, certain that my face would be subjected to a shock. Much to my surprise, the Pokémon seemed to favor me with a smile.
Finally, I came to realize that the Pokémon only wished to be friends. I have decided to name this most wondrous Pokémon 'Rotom.' Simple though it may be, Rotom emerged to me from the motor of a lawn mower. Motor and Rotom... Surely the link is obvious?
Rotom is a Pokémon that is simply sensational. The fact that it can turn invisible is simply the beginning. What makes Rotom unique is its ability to enter and operate machinery!
Rotom and I became fast friends. We were perpetual companions. The electricity from its body forbade contact, however. We could not touch, let alone hug or hold hands, but we cared not. For we were bonded on a much deeper, incorporeal level.
A feeling of mischief got the better of me one day. Seeing Rotom hovering, I decided to startle it--normally I would not. Perhaps frightened, Rotom discharged power beyond its usual range. I fell, stunned, into the arms of unconsciousness...
When I came to, to my horror I realized that Rotom had disappeared. I searched high and low for my friend in dismay and desperation. 'Don't chastise yourself. The fault is mine. No harm done. Let us play as we always have.' Though my words poured out, my friend could not be found to hear them...
My search for Rotom carried me far from home. It was in the town's rubbish heap that I again found my old toy robot. Curiously, our eyes met, then the robot waved a hand as if in greeting. I knew then that I had found my lost friend. I ran to it and hugged Rotom tight, talking on and on.
The robot's eyes lit up happily as I held it. I'm certain that, within it, Rotom was emitting lots of electricity. Somehow, I felt I could understand Rotom's thoughts better than before. Also, I realized that we would remain friends throughout our lives...
"The notebook ends with this page..."
+++
+++
And this is his one and only trading card, and the biggest canon confirmation that he was indeed intended to be the mysterious author of Eighteen Pages Of How Much I Love To Hug My Friend
Don’t tell me he doesn’t become INFINATELY more interesting with this knowledge!
Fuckin hell I would give my left foot to see an expanded plot upon this man’s secret good side seriously HOLY SHIT would you ever have imagined he cared about anyone, let alone THIS MUCH?
Just sorry seriously i could talk for hours about this aaa dear god...
Oh and another minor transcript, you can get some dialogue from Rowan the first time you transform Rotom into one of its new forms. Its kinda interesting cos it gives some more Vague Potential Lore that inspires a cool headcanon that him and Charon might have known each other in the past? Cos he seems to know at least some details of that hidden journal...
"A Pokémon that slips into electric appliances, you say... Hmm... That is somewhat off from what I've heard about it. Hmm... This is what I've heard. Long ago, there was a Pokémon that merged with a toy robot. Should that Pokémon be recognized as a new species or not... Debates over the issue were about to start when they were rendered moot. The very topic of discussion--the Pokémon-infused robot--disappeared..."
Also that leads into another possible less-heartwarming interpretation of the whole thing that is actually EQUALLY interesting and ALSO makes Charon way more deep as a character!
The idea that maybe this heartwarming thing is completely in the past, and nowadays he actually is 100% a horrible prick.
Cos I mean, the one rotom you can find in the game is in that mysterious abandoned fancy old house, which is pretty heavily implied to be the notebook-writer’s childhood home where they met it. You can find a fragmented extra notebook page which seems to be the day before the start of the entries you can read in Charon’s lab.
It says "Som...hing so pecu...r shou... make off ...ith the mot..." , which was confirmed to be "Something so peculiar should make off with the motor..." aaaaaallll these years later in an episode of Pokemon Generations.
So there’s the interpretation that maybe this rotom you can catch is the same one described in the journal, which makes you wonder why its all alone here if Charon supposedly cared about his friend so much. Perhaps he really was a decent guy once, but when he grew up to be such an evil prick he abandoned his pokemon? or maybe it saw what he became, and ran away?
or maybe some other sort of mysterious thing happened to cause them to become separated? There’s so many potential interpretations of this whole thing, aaaa!! Why was such a tantalizing plot point wasted on a super hidden wifi!!!
But of course I like the version where trash gramp has one shred of redeemability in his soul and then hypothetically you could have a sidequest to reunite him with his tiny tangerine friend and convince him of the error of his ways and then EVERYONE CAN HUGS AGAIN
AAAAAAAAAAAAAA
srsly its got the power to make me never stop thinking about this damn wifi event for all these fuckin years
giv grandpa justice, dammit
#commander charon#edit cos i linked the wrong video#im sorry i talkd a forever again#i know ive blabbered this repetitive stuff in other posts but this is like a masterpost introduction for newbs to grandpa fandom i guess#plz join our fandom it is like three people#also i wanna see more cute gijinka designs for rotom seriously i never get sick of those#semi unrelated thought lol#i wanna find more rotom fanart in general i think ive reblogged it all lol#i can reccommend Ray from @daily-haunted-tv
21 notes
·
View notes
Text
Whumptober 2020 - Updated
Welcome to Whumptober 2020! We’re doing things a little differently this year so please make sure to read the Event Info carefully. We are also excited to announce the addition of an AO3 Collection, which can be found here.
We hope you’re as excited as us to watch the Whump Community come together once again for a month of bone-crunching creativity and collaboration!
(All 31 Themes + Prompts, Event Information, and FAQs are posted below the cut!)
No 1. LET'S HANG OUT SOMETIME
Waking Up Restrained | Shackled | Hanging
No 2. IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY
"Pick Who Dies" | Collars | Kidnapped
No 3. MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY
Manhandled | Forced to their Knees | Held at Gunpoint
No 4. RUNNING OUT OF TIME
Caged | Buried Alive | Collapsed Building
No 5. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING?
On the Run | Failed Escape | Rescue
No 6. PLEASE....
"Get it Out" | No More | "Stop, please"
No 7. I'VE GOT YOU
Support | Carrying | Enemy to Caretaker
No 8. WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO?
"Don't Say Goodbye" | Abandoned | Isolation
No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD
"Take Me Instead" | "Run!” | Ritual Sacrifice
No 10. THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED
Blood Loss | Internal Bleeding | Trail of Blood
No 11. PSYCH 101
Defiance | Struggling | Crying
No 12. I THINK I'VE BROKEN SOMETHING
Broken Down | Broken Bones | Broken Trust
No 13. BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT
Delayed Drowning | Chemical Pneumonia | Oxygen Mask
No 14. IS SOMETHING BURNING?
Branding | Heat Exhaustion | Fire
No 15. INTO THE UNKNOWN
Possession | Magical Healing | Science Gone Wrong
No 16. A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY
Forced to Beg | Hallucinations | Shoot the Hostage
No 17. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING
Blackmail | Dirty Secret | Wrongfully Accused
No 18. PANIC! AT THE DISCO
Panic Attacks | Phobias | Paranoia
No 19. BROKEN HEARTS
Grief | Mourning Loved One | Survivor's Guilt
No 20. TOTO, I HAVE A FEELING WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
Lost | Field Medicine | Medieval
No 21. I DON'T FEEL SO WELL
Chronic Pain | Hypothermia | Infection
No 22. DO THESE TACOS TASTE FUNNY TO YOU?
Poisoned | Drugged | Withdrawal
No 23. WHAT’S A WHUMPEE GOTTA DO TO GET SOME SLEEP AROUND HERE?
Exhaustion | Narcolepsy | Sleep Deprivation
No 24. YOU’RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE
Forced Mutism | Blindfolded | Sensory Deprivation
No 25. I THINK I’LL JUST COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE, THANKS
Disorientation | Blurred Vision | Ringing Ears
No 26. IF YOU THOUGHT THE HEAD TRAUMA WAS BAD...
Migraine | Concussion | Blindness
No 27. OK, WHO HAD NATURAL DISASTERS ON THEIR 2020 BINGO CARD? Earthquake | Extreme Weather | Power Outage
No 28. SUCH WOW. MANY NORMAL. VERY OOPS.
Accidents | Hunting Season | Mugged
No 29. I THINK I NEED A DOCTOR
Intubation | Emergency Room | Reluctant Bedrest
No 30. NOW WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?
Wound Reveal | Ignoring an Injury | Internal Organ Injury
No 31. TODAY’S SPECIAL: TORTURE
Experiment | Whipped | Left for Dead
Alternate Prompt List
Alt 1. Punctured
Alt 2. Falling
Alt 3. Comfort
Alt 4. Stitches
Alt 5. Stoic Whumpees
Alt 6. Altered States
Alt 7. Found Family
Alt 8. Adverse Reactions
Alt 9. Memory Loss
Alt 10. Nightmares
Alt 11. Presumed Dead
Alt. 12. Water
Alt. 13 Accidents
Alt. 14 Shot
Alt. 15 Carry/Support
Event Info
WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation challenge (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are 31 Official themes this year - one for each day of the month - which can be used, skipped, or combined in any way you’d like. They are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you don't have to include the exact wording into your work). Additionally, there are 3 prompts for each theme. These are optional suggestions and can be used in conjunction with the theme, or as options/alternatives. We want to give everyone as much creative freedom as possible, as well as increase event accessibility for folks with triggers and squicks.
Creators can PRODUCE work in any media they choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, and photo/video/audio edits. Creators can PARTICIPATE as much or as little as they want (i.e. you don’t have to do ALL the prompts if you don’t want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.
When uploading Whumptober content to your blog, be sure to tag the with:
#whumptober2020 …..(the event tag)
#no.1, #no.2, #no.3, …..(theme number)
#bruised, #stabbed, …..(the theme or specific prompt you chose)
#fandom or #OC
#medium …..(gifs, fic, podcast, art, etc.)
#teeth, #etc …..(trigger warnings & any additional tags. Keep in mind not to add “tw” in front but only use the word/trigger itself, because tumblr sucks)
#nsfw, #nsfwhump …..(only for nsfw content)
PLEASE BE DILIGENT WITH YOUR TAGGING. Only properly tagged posts are considered for archiving on the official @whumptober2020 blog. They must be tagged in the order above.
Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of participants in recent years, we cannot guarantee your work will be archived. A random selection of properly tagged posts from all genres will be reblogged each day.
Whumpers who produce content for 31 total theme days are considered event completionists and will be tagged in a masterpost at the end of the month.
Questions not addressed below can be directed to this blog as well.
Thanks for reading, and happy whumping!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What kind of content can I make? Can it be NSFW?
This is a MIXED MEDIA event! You can write fic, post meta, doodle or paint, create a gif set or photo edit, link a song, or get crafty with video - anything goes. As for NSFW, make what you like, we just hope that you’ll tag your work accordingly so that others participating in the event can stay safe :)
Q. Do I have to do all 31 Days? Can I post early/late?
Participate as much or little as you like, and post whenever! Just be sure to tag your posts properly (ex. #no.11, #psych101). Combining prompts into one piece of work is okay, and posting late is as well so as long as it’s in October.
Q. What if I don’t understand a theme?
Send us an ask! We’re happy to help clarify. That said, the themes are entirely up for interpretation :)
Q. Can I combine Whumptober with other creation challenges?
Absolutely! That’s like shooting two whumpees with one bullet :)
Q. Can I upload/repost my whumptober content to other social media platforms?
Of course! We’ve created an AO3 Collection to archive any fics posted there. The archive can be accessed here. The blog is the official archive, so please respect the boundaries of any closeted whumpers in your social circle :)
Q. Can I use prompts to write a new chapter for an existing fic?
Yes
Q. An existing fic I am currently writing contains many of the Whumptober prompts, can I use it?
If you are actively writing this fic at the moment with the whumptober prompts in mind, yes. If it just conveniently checks the boxes, then please don’t. You can, however, add new chapters answering one or more of the prompts.
Q. What kind of characters can I write for?
Fandom characters, OC characters, human, furry, alien, cyborg, whoever you like.
Q. Can I use a prompt multiple times?
Yes, but it only counts once
Q. If I’m not comfortable with one day's prompts can I use a prompt of a different day as a substitute and still be a completionist?
Yes, but please do not use a specific prompt twice. We have also created an alternate prompts list that you can draw from [here].
Q. Where can I post my work?
Post where and how you want. You don’t even have to (cross)post it to Tumblr. Just keep in mind if it’s not on Tumblr we will not be able to add it to the blog archive.
Q. Can I start posting early?
You can, but this is an October event and wouldn’t it be more fun with everyone doing it at the same time? That being said, you can post early, but we won’t be reblogging any work predating October 1st.
Q. Do I have to finish a fic I started/can I post WIP’s.?
Yes you can post WIPs. And you’re not obligated to finish it in October for it to count towards being a completionist.
Q. Is co-writing allowed?
Yes, absolutely, and it would count towards being a completionist for both/all of you :)
Q. Do I have to create 31 standalone pieces to be considered a completionist or can I write one continuous story?
One continuous story is fine. The challenge is to write something for 31 prompts. If that’s spread over 31 fics or just one, you are still considered a completionist. (The same goes for every other media you choose.)
Q. Is there a min/max limit on word count?
There is no limit
Q. Can I combine prompts? Is there a limit on how many?
No limit and combine as many as you’d like.
Q. Is a hc/angst focus ok?
Of course!
Q. What’s considered nsfw?
See this post
Q. What's whump?
See this post
Q. My interpretation of the prompt isn't whumpy at all, does that count?
No, sorry, but keep in mind that whump [see definition] is something very nuanced and different for everyone and emotional whump/angst is just as much part of it, as is physical whump and torture. So before you dismiss your idea, think about this.
Q. Can I start working on the prompts before October?
Absolutely! That’s why we posted the prompts a month in advance. We recognise how difficult it can be creating for 31 days in “real time”.
Q. How do I tag triggers?
tw at the end of the word, ex. emeto tw
Q. Do I have to use your tags?
Yes, if you want your work archived on the blog. If not, feel free to use whatever tags you want.
Q. Does combining prompts count towards completion?
Yes
Q. Can we @ you?
Yes but we mostly rely on the whumptober2020 tag
Q. Is there anything we are absolutely not allowed to write?
There are no rules, just be sure to properly tag your trigger warnings. And keep in mind Tumblr’s policies if you are posting it here (or the policies of whatever site you use).
Q. Where can I go for brainstorming help?
Here on Discord
Q. My characters are minors, is that ok?
Yes, but as with everything else, tags are your best friend.
Q. Can I cross post on other blogs?
Yes, multiple platforms and blogs are perfectly acceptable. You can also post different works to different accounts under different names, without posting them everywhere at once.
Note: This is a creation challenge, please don’t repost your old work under our tags (unless it’s been changed or edited for the event).
10K notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm on a giant pet tanget today, so here are some friendly reminders for anyone who wants to go into fishkeeping. These tips are mostly for beginners who are just getting started in the hobby!
All fish require a clean, fully cycled tank in order to thrive. Cycling a tank can take weeks or even months as the beneficial bacteria establishes itself. A good substrate can help the bacteria thrive.
Whatever you do, DO NOT PUT ANY FISH INTO A BOWL! Putting a fish in a bowl is incredibly cruel as it distorts their vision and stresses them out, weakening their immune system and making them succeptible to bad illnesses. A bowl also cannot fit all of the things needed for a healthy fish, so it's all around bad.
It is required that you perform a 10% to 25% water change every 1-2 weeks (depending on the tank size and how dirty the tank is). Bigger tanks are typically easier to clean than smaller ones. Whatever you do, DO NOT do a full water change unless it's absolutely neccessary (ex: if your younger cousin puts a whole tube's worth of acrylic paint into the water or if your fish passes away).
Testing the water parameters is CRUCIAL if you want to make sure that your water is safe. There are Master Test Kits available, but you can also use various test strips to check for stuff such as ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, and issues with your pH. Problems with any of these can actually spell doom for your fish, so be vigilant!
Tropical fish require a heater in their tank in order to survive. They cannot survive in cold water.
Goldfish are NOT for beginners. They require a minimum tank size of 40 gallons as they grow incredibly large (6-18 inches depending on the species you get). Goldfish also produce tons of waste, which leads to a bigger risk of ammonia poisoning. Honestly, large ponds are the best option for goldfish as you can give them plenty of room to swim as well as plenty of goldfish friends!
Betta fish live in large rice paddies and ponds, not mud puddles. They require a minimum of 5 gallons in order to thrive. On top of that, their fins are long and delicate so it's crucial that you steer clear of decor with sharp edges and strong filters. Real/silk plants, smooth stones, and sponge filters are the best option. Bettas also like darker aquariums, so floater plants are highly reccommended (just don't block the light completely; your other plants need light, too!)
Speaking of bettas, it's best to keep bettas alone due to how aggressive they can be. Though they can get along with larger snails, it might not be the best idea whatsoever especially if your betta is nippy.
Arowanas are NOT a good option for beginner fishkeepers as they can grow up to 4 feet long and are known to have powerful jumping capabilities. They can break through most lids and end up on the floor. Arowanas are also incredibly pricy, with some going for over $70,000!
Well, that's all I have room for right now! Let me know if I missed anything or if I got something wrong! I'll happily add more stuff and correct any mistakes if need be! You can add on to this list with your tips and advice, too!
Remember: the most important thing to do is conduct your own research on pets! Don't just listen to the pet store clerks; they might give you incorrect information on the type of pet you want. Speak with professionals and hobbyists, read books and articles, or watch videos on how to care for a pet if you'd like! Whatever floats your boat! :D
Edit: Sorotities and bettas in community tanks are a bad idea after doing some more research.
Edit 2: A Couple of Helpful Links
How To Set Up Your First Fish Tank (BYA)
Top 10 Plants for Beginners (Aquarium Co-Op)
228 notes
·
View notes
Text
i made a list of the vibes of the hermits i watch, so you might want to check some of them out! this is just mostly jokes, but i thought all of the more “serious” propaganda was missing something, so have what truly makes hermitcraft worth it; the players’ unique styles!
will be back on my dsmp stuff asap but it’s the first day of season 8 and i would really appreciate if you checked them out through the links provided :]
Grian; [ episode one link ]
vibes of a 17 year old mcyter, is actually 27 and married
noo not my red jumpah!
chaotic capitalist
someone is making the server better through order? *starts another war* whoops, hand slipped :D
he built a- he rebuilt his entire megabase in survival, above a giant lake of lava, in the nether, on hard mode, upside down??
“watching as scar dies over and over in my trap is peak comedy and i’m tired of pretending it’s not” but it happens like 5 times i every season
video editing is very main-stream and good for short attention spans!
*sad montage over losing stuff he’ll get back in 15 minutes because he’s rich*
pesky birdd! great elytra flier! amazing builder! will tnt your house! poultrymannn!!
wholesome, chaos incarnate, talented architect
why won’t mumbo respond to my messages it’s been two weeks :[ (clingy)
doors???????????? your house has doors???? no doors for you good sir!
will laugh a lot at a lot of things, esp when he’s with his friends
genuinely just so fun to watch
Mumbo Jumbo; [ episode one link ]
perfect british accent
mustache man (warning: he has no mustache irl)
*fails ten businesses in a row* iskall please help
redstone is his element
“it’s actually quite simple” i like your funny words magic man, now can you repeat how in the hell you made a that fancy vault work-
filmographer?? i think? met up with grian irl
him and grian have a robot son named grumbot. that has nothing to do with the vibes but i had to mention him because he means a lot to me.
tries to stay out of wars and server politics until someone (grian) drags him into them
minigame maker, makes the hermits competitive and that is scary (also very funny) e. g. button, hermit challengesss!
“it’ll be fineee” *que shot of everything on fire behind him*
makes his base a living being and then all his neighbors end up feeding it instead of him
conspiracy theorist. bumbo baggins. the usual.
very entertaining videos that help you learn more about minecraft mechanics!
GoodTimesWithScar; [ episode one link ]
wheelchair creator with literally the best vibes
so wholesome i. he is so cool he makes me so happy :’D
*extremely cool announcer voice* ooooo hello there my fellow miners and crafters, good timeees with scar heree, and welcome backk to the wonderful world of hermits and crafting, and we’re flying over-
commentates everything extremely well
spends tenths of hours on builds within a single video and doesn’t bat an eye
lore for all of his builds! he builds these amazing bases to tell a story!
“i wanna see white flags! white flags, outside your base, by-“ wait no wrong anti-rebellion army leader
all videos have a clear objective
mostly building, but he loves hanging out/helping his friends!
loves disney movies! wants to go to space! :D
kind-hearted, always makes everyone else smile
can be chaotic but usually just tries to have fun and make sure everyone else has fun too
*flies into a tree on half a heart* wait what why did i die D:
scar. scar please eat. you’re going to die for the tenth time this video-
the non-chaotic capitalist, has extremely creative shop designs
a danger to himself, but also the kind of person you can’t be angry at for long
BdoubleO100; [ episode one link ]
the guitar music at the beginning of his videos brings a smile to my face, it just has such an immaculate mood
*camera pans over him as said music plays* ladies and gentlemen welcome to another episode of hoimycraffff
the way he talks is extremely endearing
one of the best builders on the server - probably best builder of interiors in existence
able to make a palette using any number of strange blocks and then make amazing builds using it
built a whole castle as a backdrop, then built an entire giant mountain for said castle
extremely sensitive to short jokes, usually gets pranked by others because his reactions are always so funny
his daughters show up from time to time in his room while he’s recording and it’s so cute
*has no way to see the sun but still knows it’s nighttime* gotta go schleep!
scar, pointing at him “this is why we can’t have nice sunsets”
(scar dies because of mobs every time bdubs isn’t on the server to sleep)
likes to be accomplice because he isn’t the one being made fun of (/lh)
*shoots himself in front of a confused grian because he thinks the guy wants his face again when he’s actually just looking for a netherportal*
is usually the underdog so it feels good when he wins
they’re all actually such great friends so it’s genuinely funny to watch
he himself is amazing at entertainment and just a very cool guy
ImpulseSV; [ episode one link ]
what’s going on everyone, my name is impulse and welcome back to hermitcraft!
always speaks with a smile in his voice
has a good dynamic with basically everyone
great co-worker and always helps out if he can
had his base turned pink during the swap, and instead of changing it back afterwards, he dyed his skin’s hair and clothing pink to match it
very cool and original building style!
makes a lot of farms and sells what he gets in his few shops
makes money to be able to do more stuff and make more farms
blows up most his base ever so often to rebuild parts. you know, like a normal person does in minecraft survival.
the grind is never over
the guy who always gets all of the work done on the school project and proceeds to be chill about it
always has very cool side-projects going on and puts his heart into all of them
pog timelapses!!
Rendog; [ episode one link ]
*short, funny scene from the video at the beginning slowly fades out into great music
dogs howling as the half-dog half-cog logo comes up*
greetiiings cyberdogs and citizens of the interbubs! this is ren diggity dawg coming atcha, in another minecraft episodes varuuummm the hermit. craft. server. (hey!)
we’re kicking things off today my friends, from the- *location name on screen*
that intro gets me hyped every time
he’s a furry who talks in bro language it’s great i swear - very atypical but fun
he transformed an entire biome into a star wars planet for his base
his building skills and dedication are incredible
horny (just a little bit)
the only person who cared about mycelium in the whole rebellion
does a lot of roleplay-themed stuff and mysteries to be solved
“b-dubba-dubs one hundred”
extremely upbeat & sweet guy
adds -age after everything “biddage” “flyage” to make it sound Cooler
amazingly positive always and funny as hell
mcc winner!! wooooooooo :D
always tries to be where stuff is happening and interact with people
very entertaining editing style
Iskall85; [ episode one link ]
drives joke into the mud and then picks them up and does it again which is funny
starts videos with one-off bits
iskallman!!! the superhero literally no one needed and yet there he is
only has one (1) braincell when with mumbo
they both do and they’re hilarious together every time
like when they laughed at squeaky noises for ten minutes straight. guys please you’re adult men
bernie the leaf master
omega (something) of doom!!
encourages gambling (in a videogame)
he has so many jokes he keeps using i can’t possibly fit them all in here
basically a wildcard
i have no idea what he’s doing this season
i have no idea what he’s doing ever actually
tame chaos, confusing to the point when it’s funny again
really great builder as well!
mostly for younger audiences but his videos are a good watch in general
feel free to send asks about hc! i’m already loosely involved in hermitblr but yeah, my dsmp followers aren’t immune :] /lh /j
#long post#hermitcraft#hermitcraft s8#hermitblr#ruby's rambles#:]#all my personal opinions#just wanted to add to the hype lol
833 notes
·
View notes
Text
ASMR - chapter 2
Elriel fanfiction
About this fic:
Azriel can’t sleep
Elain has an ASMR channel
Match made in heaven (or you know, on youtube..)
______________________________
Since a few people seemed to enjoy the first chapter, I decided to continue this story.
You can find the first chapter here
And you can read the story on AO3 here.
_______________________________
CHAPTER 2
Flower Girl ASMR 1 day ago
I am so happy that I could help you sleep, @Shadowsinger <3
ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It is that tingly feeling you might get from certain sounds. You can also have visual triggers. Supposedly, if you find the right triggers, they will help you relax and they can even help you sleep.
I hope that sleep treats you with kindness from now on.
Azriel stared at his screen. She had responded. She had actually responded to his message. He had scrolled through her comment section again to see if she replied to all her messages, but she didn’t. She liked most comments, but she only replied to a few. It made him feel special, which was absurd. Why did he feel special because some girl on the internet had replied to his comment? She had probably already forgotten about it.
But Azriel carried it with him for the rest of the day.
He also carried with him the annoyance of some of the comments he had seen. This girl really needed to learn how to block some words. Especially: boobs, nudes, cock, jerk off, and cum. Azriel made a disgusted face when he thought about it. If they knew each other, he would help her with that.
But they didn’t know each other, so Azriel didn’t have to think about it. Those comments shouldn’t affect Azriel in the slightest. He had read way nastier things on the internet and never cared.
What was it about this girl?
Azriel was sitting at his desk. He was working at Velaris Times – a web-based newspaper that his best friend Rhysand had started a few years ago. He hired Azriel to work in IT and their other friend, Cassian, as a photographer. It was a pretty small newspaper, so they all felt like family there.
Azriel was feeling naturally energized for the first time in his life. He didn’t even need to down his usual three cups of coffee this morning. Cassian was sitting next to him, editing some photos for an article that their co-worker Mor had written.
“You wanna grab some lunch later?” Cassian asked.
Azriel’s eyes didn’t leave his computer, but he nodded in agreement. “Sure. Should we invite Rhys?”
Cassian snorted. “Nah, he’s on that weird health-cleanse, remember? Feyre probably packed him a kale juice and some broccoli.”
Azriel chuckled. Feyre was Rhys’s wife and since they decided to get pregnant, she had been all about healthy eating, to Rhysand’s dismay. He wasn’t even allowed coffee - it was all about the green tea! Some days, Cassian and Azriel ate their lunches at the office which always lead to Rhys staring longingly at their food. It felt like having a dog begging for scraps underneath the dinner table.
“So that’s still going on, huh? I thought he would have given up by now. There’s only that much kale you can eat,” Azriel said.
“Yeah, but he’s whipped. Remember when they first started dating and she served him soup from a can and he ate it like it was a gourmet meal.”
“Fair enough.”
“You know that I can hear you, assholes?” Rhys called from his office. They had been very aware of this fact. Rhys strode out of his office, wearing his usual uniform of a dark suit and a crisp white shirt. Azriel was happy that he worked in IT so he could get away with just wearing black jeans and a black t-shirt - and maybe a hoodie on cold days.
“Are you telling me that Nesta doesn’t have you wrapped around her little finger?” Rhys smirked and leaned against the doorframe.
Cassians ears turned red. “She could never get me to drink kale-smoothies every day.”
Rhys shook his head. “You were pining for her for two years before she even agreed to go on a date with you. She could probably tie you to your bed and get you to call her mistress if she wanted to.”
Cassian leaned back in his chair and gave Rhys a purely male grin. “It wouldn’t be the first time,” he said and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Oh for fucks sake,” Azriel groaned. “Too much information, Cass.”
Cassian shrugged. “Don’t be so sensitive, Az.”
Azriel glared at him. “I’m not sensitive just because I don’t want to hear about your sex life.”
“That’s because you don’t have a sex life,” Cassian muttered under his breath, which elicited a burst of laughter that sounded more like a snort from Rhys.
Azriel shook his head and tried to concentrate on his work, which was almost impossible when his two friends were still staring at him. He could almost feel them scheming.
“Hey, Az. How’s the dating going?” Rhys asked.
Azriel didn’t answer, mostly because the answer would be that it didn’t. He didn’t date. He was tired of going on dates with people he didn’t know. He wasn’t very talkative, so dates were basically his nightmare. And it was even worse when he agreed to download Tinder on a drunken night a few months ago. Dating like that just wasn’t for him. He didn’t want to meet someone on the internet like that.
“You want me to set you up on a blind date?” Cassian asked, and Azriel pretended not to hear him.
“Nesta has some great friends,” he continued. “What about Gwyn?”
Rhys nodded. “Yeah, Gwyn is a nice girl.”
Azriel stared at his friends. “I’ve met Gwyn.”
“So?”
“If I’ve already met her, it’s not a blind date.”
Cassian thought about it for a second and shrugged. “Eh, semantics. Should I tell Nesta to give her a call?”
“No. She’s not my type.”
Truthfully, Gwyn was a very sweet girl. She was cute and funny and determined, but she just wasn’t for Azriel. They had met a few times but there had been no attraction - no sparks. Azriel wanted to feel something from the start. He didn’t want to be in a relationship just to avoid being lonely.
“So, what is your type exactly?” Rhys asked.
An image popped into Azriel’s head. Usually, he couldn’t imagine what his type would be, but now, he saw someone in his mind. She had golden hair and cute little freckles on her nose. She was gentle, kind and calm.
It was Flower Girl ASMR.
Azriel closed his eyes, trying to get the picture of her out of his head. What was wrong with him? He didn’t want to date someone he had only seen in a few videos. That made him as creepy as those assholes in her comment section. He didn’t even know her. He didn’t even know her name.
“I don’t know,” Azriel muttered. “Could you please let me get back to my work?”
And after a few more suggestions of people they could set him up with (he kindly, but firmly, declined), they finally let him work.
That night, Flower Girl ASMR was hosting a livestream on YouTube. Azriel wondered if they might live in the same time zone since the live stream seemed to coincide with a reasonable bedtime for him.
Azriel joined the livestream just a few minutes after it had started. A few hundred people were already logged in. Flower Girl ASMR was sitting in front of a background that looked like the night sky; dark blue and full of fairy lights. Her hair hung in waves around her face and she was wearing a pink top that matched her complexion. Not that Azriel noticed such things, why would he?
She was brushing her camera with a make-up brush, making it look as if she was brushing his face. “I am so happy that you all could join me here tonight,” she whispered into her microphone. “As promised, I was going to host my first livestream when we reached one hundred thousand subscribers, which we did last week.” She smiled at the camera, one of those smiles that reached her eyes. Azriel could feel himself smile back. Which was stupid. She couldn’t see him. “Tonight, you can make requests or ask questions in the comments, and I will answer a few of your questions,” she continued. She was still moving the brush over the screen. The combination of her whispering voice and the visual trigger of the brush made Azriel tingle all over.
Most comments were very nice; telling her that she helped them sleep, or wanting her to say hello to them. People asked her about her favorite color and if she had any pets (lilac and no). One person asked her to do something called hand sounds, and Azriel had never in his life appreciated hands rubbing together as much as he did at that very moment. Maybe it was something with the setting on her microphone, but the sound was like a wave of pleasure in his brain.
He could feel himself relax. But then, of course, the nasty comments started.
HybernCoolKid
Show a little skin babyyyy. Those tits look perky af
MortalGraysen
Trying to look so innocent when you’re a fucking slut
Amarantha_utm
I would honestly rather watch paint dry
Azriel could feel his blood boil. He recognized the names from the video he had watched last night. Why didn’t she just block them? On the screen, he could tell that Flower Girl had seen the messages; her face fell for just a second. And one second was all it took for Azriel to suddenly feel very protective. He was just about to go tell them to go fuck themselves when he saw that he wasn’t the only one with that idea. The comment section was flooded with love for her and in just a matter of moments, the mean comments were drowned in a sea of heart emojis. Flower Girl smiled at the screen, silently thanking all of her followers for the love. But she didn’t address the hate. She just kept going as if nothing had happened. There were a few more nasty comments during the livestream, but the same thing happened every time; her followers love-bombed her. Azriel was happy to see that most people seemed decent enough, but god, she really needed to learn how to block people.
Before he could think about it, he clicked the link in her description that led to her Instagram. Her username was the same on that app, and it was mainly used to tell her followers when a new video was uploaded. Azriel quickly looked at his own feed, making sure that there was nothing embarrassing. There wasn’t. He didn’t post very often, and when he did he usually posted pictures of food.
He clicked the button for her DMs, and before he could talk himself out of it, he wrote her a message.
Shadowsinger
Hey! I just watched your livestream (it was great!) but I couldn’t help but notice some really rude comments. I hope you don’t find this weird, but have you tried blocking them? If you don’t know how, I could send you a link that will describe how to do it. God, this is weird, isn’t it? If this message makes you uncomfortable, just delete it. I’m sorry. But if you need help with blocking those douchebags, please tell me.
He sent it without even reading it and as soon as it was out in cyberspace, he groaned. What the fuck was he doing? She wasn’t his friend. She wasn’t his anything. Yet, there was something that drew him to her. Maybe it was the fact that she helped him sleep? Yes, that had to be it. It was either that or witchcraft, and Azriel didn’t believe in the occult.
Azriel was just about to put his phone in another room and go die from embarrassment when he saw that she had answered his DM. He was afraid to open it. What if she told him to fuck off? He would never be able to watch her videos again, and then he would never again feel rested.
FlowerGirlAsmr
Hello! I recognized your username from one of my videos!
I’m happy that you enjoyed the livestream :) I have blocked them multiple times, but they keep coming back. But thank you for offering to help me. That is very sweet!
Ps: The lasagna on your feed looks delicious.
Azriel stared at the message dumbfounded. She had answered him. And she didn’t tell him to fuck off. She had remembered his username. And she thought that his food looked delicious. He didn’t understand why he suddenly felt so nervous. Should he tell her that after watching her video he had the best night’s sleep of his life?
Probably not. That might sound creepy.
Shadowsinger
Yeah, I commented last night. Have you tried blocking words from appearing in your comments? If you did that, you might not have to endure such nasty comments.
(Yes, the lasagna was very delicious)
He was staring at his message. Did he sound stupid?
Yeah, he definitely sounded stupid. The lasagna was very delicious ? Why did he add that?
Stupid, stupid, stupid
But despite his stupidity, she answered.
FlowerGirlASMR
You can do that?? I had no idea! I am not very good at computers. Honestly, I have to google every single thing about YouTube because I understand nothing, haha. How do I block words?
Shadowsinger
I’ll send you a link that describes the process!
He sent her the link and waited for a few minutes, feeling happy to help her.
FlowerGirlASMR
I hope you don’t think I’m stupid, but I understood absolutely nothing :(
Is there a link for dummies?
Azriel laughed at the last part of her message.
Shadowsinger
Unfortunately not. But if you want, I could help you.
She didn’t answer him for a while after that. Azriel was staring at his phone, trying to will a message to appear. Did he cross a line?
FlowerGirlASMR
I won’t give you the details to my account. We don’t know each other.
Oh god. She thought that he was trying to scam her or something. Fuck.
Shadowsinger
I don’t need to log into your account.
He sent the message quickly.
Shadowsinger
I could guide you if you like? I work in IT so I’m used to just guiding people through these things.
FlowerGirlASMR
How could we do that? I’m not very good at understanding instructions when they are written…
Azriel had an idea and it was both brilliant and idiotic. He typed quickly before the logical part of his brain told him to stop helping this girl he didn’t know.
Shadowsinger
I could give you my number and guide you through the phone? I could share my screen with you so you could follow along like that if you are more of a visual learner. You could call me with a hidden number.
He added the last sentence to make her feel safer. And because he didn’t trust himself to have access to her number.
Again, he had to wait for a small eternity before her message popped up.
FlowerGirlASMR
That would be great! Could I call you tomorrow at 10.00?
He didn’t even check his schedule before typing “Yes.”
She answered with a smiley.
Azriel sent her his number and she said that she would call, and that was that.
“What the fuck am I doing?” Azriel muttered to himself and got back to bed.
He opened the youtube app, and one of her videos was the first one he saw. His finger hovered above the video. Would it be weird to watch her now that they had messaged each other? He decided to click another ASMR video instead. And then another. And then another.
After 2 hours, he realized that all ASMR was not equal.
So he gave in and clicked on one of her videos. Flower Girl ASMR’s face filled his screen. “Hello my lovelies, lovelies, lovelies,” she whispered, and Azriel thought that she was the loveliest person he had ever seen.
Five minutes later, he was fast asleep.
83 notes
·
View notes
Text
and at last, the post that maybe three people maximum have been waiting for...
em's comfort retro rally videos: a masterlist!
in a much-needed return to this blog's roots, and as an antidote to all motorsport- and life-related chaos, i now present to you: the first edition of em's favorite retro rally videos!
general disclaimer/info: these videos mainly come from the group B era of the world rally championship (wrc), which generally speaking was in the '80s. i am only human, so expect a lot of bias toward my personal favorites...which will become very apparent as you read this list hehe. also i'm not even gonna pretend to be an expert on this or anything. a lot of these are literally just based on Vibes
table of contents
i. my top 5 rally coverage videos
mainly coverage for television, recorded on VHS and uploaded to YouTube by some truly incredible people
ii. honorable mentions
not rally coverage, but retro rally videos nevertheless
often documentaries, mini-doc features, interviews
for all videos, i have indicated the language (most are in english fyi); if any links fail or videos disappear, send me an ask or DM and i'll remove the culprit/find an alternative link.
and now, onward!
(TW for occasional flash photography in many of the night sequences of the videos, as well as a gif included in this post)
i. my top 5 rally coverage videos
in which my bias toward audi sport, mouton/pons, mikkola, toivonen, and vatanen are put on blast for all to see 🥴 i am not an expert in anything i am just very good at research and a whore for aud—[SNIPED]. for the sake of brevity, i narrowed my favorites down to 5. maybe another time i will share all the rest!
also, a general note about the commentary: sometimes, the commentary around michèle and fabrizia can get... weird. keep in mind, they were the most prominent female team partnership around that time, and the first to nearly clinch a wrc wdc, and to modern ears, the commentators really didn't know how to act around them. personally, it wasn't horrible for me, i just ignored the weirder bits, but i understand if others might find it off-putting. also for the sake of your sanity don't read the comments.
5. Rally of the 1000 Lakes, 1984 | finland
link: overall coverage (eng)
podium: vatanen/alén/toivonen (full final results)
comments: this was definitely a rally for most of audi sport's drivers to forget: bar stig blomqvist, who came quite close to the podium finishers with a 4:14:01 to henri toivonen's 4:12:57! both hannu mikkola and michèle mouton had to retire from the race, which may lead you to wonder: why does this rank among my favorites? well, it's always fun to watch group b rally cars sailing through the air against picturesque scenery, and this video also contains an intriguing (at least for me!) look at the scrutineering process, with drivers at their most casual.
owie :( they were fine though!
4. Lombard RAC Rally, 1981 | britain
link: overall coverage (eng)
podium: mikkola/vatanen/blomqvist (full final results)
comments: hannu winning by 11 whole minutes even after rolling his car in the middle of the forest is actual legend behavior! anyway this was michèle's first wrc outing in britain, and even though she and fabrizia had to retire, they still did quite well, consistently running high in the leaderboards after the first few stages. and that's considering the fact that michèle had a bad cold for much of the rally and had to ask fabrizia to drive the car to service park for her at one point bc she was so tired. which fabrizia did... with a pencil in her mouth. lot of big names in one video—also, jean todt makes an appearance as a co-driver!
shamelessly poached off of one of my text post edits
3. Marlboro Safari Rally, 1983 | kenya
link: overall coverage (eng)
podium: vatanen/mikkola/mouton (full final results)
comments: ok can i just say how stunning the video presentation is?? the opening sequence is just!!! the shots of the wildlife! the sprinting giraffes! wow! anyway the visual of drivers in deck chairs just tickles me for no reason, and michèle please tell me what you ask for at the hairdresser's and also where you got that orange blouse (this is obviously not just specific to this rally, she always eats and leaves no crumbs). this was michèle's first entry and only finish in kenya (and of course it was a podium mwah). it was also her last wrc entry in the A1 quattro, as she switched to the A2 for the rest of her program in the '83 season. also this is one of my favorite podium pictures ever.
lksdjffnnkd there's almost too much to unpack... fabrizia somehow surviving in high waist jeans in a hot car... michèle's do-it-yourself shorts... this podium picture was the subject of a very frantic video chat conversation between myself and a friend at 2am a few months ago
2. Rallye de Portugal, 1982 | portugal
links: short recap (eng) | overall coverage 1, stuck in the middle of two other rallies. timestamps in descrip. (eng) | overall coverage 2, very vibey with cool music (ita... also peep walter röhrl speaking italian)
podium: mouton/eklund/wittmann (full final results)
comments: GOD I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH AAAA! michèle's first podium of '82 being a win? this rally being the one where there's footage of her going shopping with fabrizia afterward? (more on that later) them winning by 13 whole minutes? and that's not even considering THEE most poetic victory ceremony of all time! in fact let me talk about that bc the racing and the win aside, that's why it's so high up on my list! literally poetic cinema! it's night, they're standing on top of the car and floodlit and surrounded by cheering crowds but they may as well be the only ones there in their own little world, laughing at each other and barely even having to look to each other when they're raising their hands—like god! shut up! we get it you're besties 😭
i_just_think_theyre_neat.png
and now... last but certainly never least...
1. Lombard RAC Rally, 1982 | britain
link: overall coverage (eng)
podium: mikkola/mouton/toivonen (full final results)
comments: firstly, if you were to ask me about my dream podium, this would be it. hands down, across all series of motorsport, my comfort podium would be hannu, michèle, and henri in any order. (there's such a cute picture of them from this rally on pinterest, standing in order on a staircase. henri is not looking at the camera because he is laughing at something michèle is saying and it's such a Vibe but i cannot find it wah). the battle for second between michèle and henri ran down to literally the last stage, and their times are separated by seconds, which is just wild to me. the context of this rally deserves another post, which i honestly don’t have the energy to make rn, but just take my word for it that it threatens to destroy me if i think about it too hard! anyway this is just such an awesome rally and i’ve watched this video so many times haha
i love this rally so much that i actually had a character in a story i was writing attend the ceremony captured in this picture as a small child and made it a formative moment in her life. no, there is nothing wrong with me.
ii. honorable mentions
(is it obvious who my faves are? yikes)
'Group B - Avec Michele Mouton' (eng) - taken from a longer feature presentation about group b, a segment specifically about michèle. a friend once described its vibes as ‘a synth wave edit of an 80s anime set in a cyberpunk world about racing’
'1983 Audi Sport National Rally with Michele Mouton' (eng) - in which michèle takes journalist sue baker as a co-driver for a spin in an A1 and a rally win. fun behind-the-scenes video
'Intervista a Fabrizia Pons, la Regina delle Note' 1, 2, 3 (ita) - very thorough interview which is mostly fabrizia telling all sorts of stories, including the very entertaining story of how she found out she was going to be michèle’s co-driver. also what a badass title
'2008 Otago International Classic Rally' (eng) - THE BESTIES REUNITE THE BESTIES REUNITE!!! michèle and fabrizia reunite for a rally that fabrizia convinced michèle to join, they suffer some problems but there are plenty of wholesome bestie moments to be had
'Michele Mouton hurls Group B Audi Quattro up Goodwood hill' (eng) - i mean, self explanatory. the sound of the chirping tires? asmr could never. very short watch if you want a quick pick-me-up
'1990 Louise Aitken-Walker feature' (eng) - a video featuring a female rally driver from scotland and her point-scoring run at the rallye monte -carlo. i am convinced that louise was john finnemore’s inspiration or at least an influence for the character of linda fairbairn. no my hat is not made of tin foil what are you talking about
hannu rocketing around michigan back in 2017 (eng)
hannu flying around goodwood in 2015 (eng)
sometimes i listen to fabrizia's recent onboards (yes, she's still at it!) and this one is one of my favorites, from 2016 (ita)
39 notes
·
View notes
Note
OMG something is really cooking. we are spoiled with great moments of JaeDo in the video. Doyoung is quite touchy too. SUSSSS but am not complaining hahahaah
An anon
Dojae are quite intimate now on cam. I literally don’t know what happened but that was quite a shocking transformation.
Another anon
I dunno abt you guys but the sour face Jaehyun made when Jw sat on Doie's lap in the Fav comeback video is so funny like the guy legit annoyed hahaah
Another
I think this is the first time i see a jealous kinda reaction from Doyoung. While watching the cat ears game between Jae and TY. Boyyyy what a view
Another
Ah… Jaehyun is really an oddball. Vampire house was so hilarious that I spent nearly an hour trying to finish it cos I kept on replaying. Jae’s facials are coming out again, the exaggerated winks, the flirty comments, this is what I wanted to see and this is what I missed. All the members were great as well, the poems, especially the ones with the lyrics and words that were fit randomly in, like Mark’s suddenly proclamation of 2taes wedding. Jae and Woo had my favs in terms of actual poetry.
Another
it was fun to watch doyoung's face during jaeyong's turn with the kitten ears 🤣 idk if it's bc he doesnt like what he's seeing or he's still getting over his loss 😭
Another
https://twitter.com/jaedoloops/status/1456974329464320003?s=21 I haven’t watch video yet but wow lol
Another
Literally what is happening lol there’s news about Dojae everyday. I’m surprised at how we came this afar, like years ago we had to wait like 4 months to have a proper moment 😂😭
----------
Link
I need to finish the Vampire ep 2 as well, I will comeback to the poems later.
It is all but speculations on my part. It's hard to be sure. So just let's agree that we are theorizing here, and I can end up wrong with my hopes for a duet or an MC gig.
I suspect that there is a plan of slowly bringing JaeDo back because the changes feel gradual, you know? Jae and Do are allowed to play in the same team and stand together on group photos, then they get edited less, then neos start to say shipper jokes, then Mnet changes Taedo to Jaedo thumbnails. It also feels like neos are more active about pushing the two towards each other, like Jungwoo passing the camera to Doyoung to make him say something to Jaehyun.
At the same time, JaeDo are not really in the front. We pay close attention to their interactions, but if you look at everyone, there is YuMark, YuWoo, DoWoo, DoHyuk, JaeYong, JaeIl, etc. If before the absence of JaeDo was obvious, the editors and the boys tried too hard, then now it's "normal". The way I and many shippers who wrote me with "Why are they hiding so much?" question expected it to be. Everyone is cozy, why can't JaeDo be?
Finally, they can.
I'd like the return of the puppy Jaehyun and handsy Doyoung, I'm getting greedy.
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
try again, || jaehyun & reader
title: try again,
pairing: jaehyun x reader
genre: idol!au, angst-y (i guess)
words: 2.1k
prompt: you should know that I’m always on your side, please remember my answer is you.
note: inspired by the song try again by d.ear & jaehyun... i tried with this one, but it got hard to finish because i forgot where i was going with it.... i guess you can call this a drabble???????? also i have not revised this my 5th time yet. lol i will probably edit this as time goes on
Every long-term relationship goes through the “humps.” There’s three separate occasions: the three year hump, five year hump, then lastly the seven year hump. Many people tackle these hurdles, some fortunate enough to win and survive, but some wistfully slip.
You and Jaehyun failed the three year hump.
The obstacle was inevitable and surviving these challenges with him as an idol, periodically on tour when part of these issues arise didn’t make it any easier. The three-year mark resulted in a mutually angry break-up, only lasting a few months before he came back to Seoul. Healed from the fall, you thought that you were strong enough to face him. It was a lie-- the moment that you saw his face, you fell in love all over again.
Getting back together was easy. The two of you even made a pact that this wouldn’t ever happen again, and preventing it would require more communication and effort. Jaehyun was your end-game, despite the struggles of dating a celebrity, and the feelings were reciprocated.
So when the fifth year was approaching, it was no surprise that you could even feel it in the air that something was different.
Coming home everyday wasn’t the same anymore. The house echoed with silence; his slippers by the door remained vacant incessantly, and his roar of laughter isn’t here to fill the rooms with warmth. Your phone doesn’t ring with a text from him asking if you had gotten home safely nowadays, and expectations for video calls have dropped to none.
Jaehyun doesn’t “come home” lately, or at least, your home, but when he does, it means arriving during the late hours of the night and leaving at the brink of dawn. The incandescent grin that stuck on his face that comes as a package with the dimples that indent his cheeks were absent from your life now. His scent hasn’t remained in the house for months, evidence to his missing presence.
Sleeping without him proved arduous. Your eyes begging for slumber but your mind wouldn’t rest with the negative thoughts that swarmed your head.
Then there was speculation amongst social media-- every possible platform, and your phone overflowed with text messages from those who were “close” to you were all of him with new arm candy, a new beau.
It’s two in the morning, and you’re fighting with your inner self on whether or not to call in sick to work tomorrow. Snatching the carton of milk in the fridge, you grab a mug settled in the cabinet before pouring yourself a drink. Placing it into the microwave and tapping a couple of the buttons on the screen, the humming of the appliance is the only sound that floods the room.
The doorknob of the front door rattles, and he comes in with newly dyed blue disheveled hair wearing his clothes from practice, dropping his duffle bag by the door and his keys thrown into the bowl on the entryway’s table. There was no greeting nor kiss as he immediately makes his way into the kitchen.
“She’s just a co-star. We’re filming a music video, and afterwards she said she was going to grab us all coffee, and I felt bad if she went alone. I mean, there’s ten of us.” His eyes hasn’t even looked directly at you, yet somehow he knew what was running through your head.
“I didn’t say anything.” You mutter, attention wavering to the beeping of the microwave.
“You didn’t have to.” He’s standing what feels like hundreds of meters away from you. The light in the room is dim, nearly as though it reads the tension in the atmosphere.
“She’s pretty,” You say before gripping onto the warm beverage before hissing at the impact of the hot ceramic against your fingertips.
“What are you insinuating?”
You’re silent for a moment. “Maybe it’s time we should talk about us.”
Jaehyun is the guy who doesn’t say much. He’s a level-headed person, soft spoken, and sensitive yet reserved, but capable of opening his heart. He’s the one you admire from afar with his breathtaking features, a radiant smile that can wipe an entire nation, with his popular group of friends, and friendly demeanor. Even when he’s trying his best not to shine in a sea of people, he’s under the spotlight. It’s impossible for Jung Jaehyun to be just a regular person.
But recently, his heart just doesn’t feel open to you. He didn’t seem to glisten in your gaze anymore.
“What’s wrong with us?” He precipitously makes his way behind you. You don’t recall hearing the creak of the hardwood floor underneath his feet; your heart skipping a beat when your back bumps into his chest abruptly.
“Talk to me.” You gulp. He’s so close-- and what it seems like have been forever since you’ve been even this intimate; the slightest touch from him sparks nostalgia. “What’s wrong with us?”
“You’re never here anymore.”
You can’t look at him, you just can’t. You shouldn’t, because just seeing his face might bring you to the brink of tears.
Your lives were so different. He was an idol with fans throwing themselves at his feet, and constantly inundated by a plethora of talent and beauty. His ambitions weren’t aligned to yours, and it’s a miracle that the relationship lasted this long. You had such an average life, working a 9-5 job, occasionally going out on weekends to meet up with friends, and spending the remaining free time by watching movies or shows. He was out in different countries, exploring continents you’ve never even been before, and meeting thousands of people almost weekly out on tour.
It didn’t help that the relationship was always a secret. There wasn’t initially any regret about it being hidden, but the insecurities eventually began to gnaw out your insides when swarms of beautiful women flirted so shamelessly with him in front of you when you’d previously gone out on discreet dates.
“I’m sorry, I’m trying to be here more. There’s a comeback soon, so the hours at work are endless.” His baritone voice vibrates in his chest against your frame, something all too familiar but hasn’t appeared in a while.
Attempting to be empathetic was easier said than done when you’re angry with someone. Turning your body around, your stare sticking to his upper torso, refraining from looking into his eyes. From your peripheral vision, he’s indisputably exhausted, dark circles residing below his eyes after removing the day’s make-up from photoshoots and filming and visibly slimmer. It isn’t a competition but you were tired too.
“If... this is taking too much of your time,” The words get caught in your throat. “Maybe we should... let this go.”
His breath hitches, taking a moment to absorb the words you’re saying albeit his heart feels like it’s shattering. “It’s not taking much of my time.”
“That’s the problem, you’re not using any of your time with this to begin with.” Practicing in front of your mirror countless times before, you thought you'd recited every possible outcome of the conversation and what you’d argue to every response he had. You were confident until standing in front of Jaehyun. It lessens your assurance on the break-up because everything about him weakens your knees.
Jaehyun pulls you in, wrapping his arms around your waist before dropping his head into the crook of your neck, pressing a warm, gentle kiss against your skin. He couldn’t face you either. “Don’t do this.”
“There’s so many women out there that are better,” You sigh, swallowing the tears. He’s too great of a guy but you’d come to terms that maybe he wasn’t for you. “Someone else who can treat you better. You can’t give me what I want.”
Grabbing your shoulders, he obligates you to look into his eyes as he knits his brows. “Those women aren’t you. Tell me what you want, I’ll do it.”
“Jaehyun, it doesn’t work like that.”
“I don’t get what you mean. We’re talking about this and I’m trying to make it work.”
“That’s the other problem, I don’t want you to make it work anymore. You have to want this, do things willingly and not because I forced you to. It’s different now. I don’t think you love me the same way I do.”
He shakes his head. “You’re wrong,” his eyes are gradually brimming with tears, and you can almost hear the sound of your heart breaking, “I’ve always loved you, I never stopped.”
Jaehyun never cries. He’s all laughs and smiles but never manifestly melancholic. He was great at hiding it but never with you. Overtime, it felt as though the only mood he had was irritation and fatigue, and only his friends and fans were given the opportunity to see the beautiful side of Jaehyun. Seeing him unsteady with your decision made it difficult to leave. Even when the relationship fell apart the first time, he didn’t even seem like he cared. He wanted to portray himself as perfect-- and he was successful at it.
His hand reaches up to push a strand of your hair away from your face and moves it behind your ear. Cupping your cheeks, he leans in, his soft, plump lips capturing yours. He fit into you like the missing piece of a puzzle, and you craved for his touch. Your mind wanted to fight him, push him off and tell him that this was over with because you couldn’t take it anymore. With him pressed up on you against the kitchen counter, he’s the cause of your foggy head and you forget what your mind tells you to do.
Letting go, saliva strings between the two of you, but neither of you are bothered by it. His eyes held despair when they linked with yours, tugging you into his embrace. “These people that step into my life aren’t here for the mutual benefits. They’re all here for my name as a celebrity, they care about who I am only when it has to do with them. They expect me to be perfect all the time, and it’s tiring.” He takes a moment to take a deep breath, nuzzling his nose into your neck, inhaling in your scent.
“When I come home to you, you don’t expect me to be perfect. And I know you still don’t, you just wish I tried. You were never persistent about me being a certain way, and I took it for granted. I just thought you’d always be by my side.”
“You know that I’m always here for you.”
“And I took advantage of that,” He responds, and there’s a sudden wetness on your neck. “That’s my flaw and it’s my fault. I want to be better for you, please let me try again.”
The emotions from the past few months start flooding back, and anger fills your bloodstream, reality hitting you in the face. “What’s going to be different from before? It’ll all still be the same.”
“It won’t.” His voice is stern, and steady, removing you from his grasp. “Come to our showings, come to our concerts, our recordings. Let’s not hide this anymore.”
You choke on your spit. “What?”
Jaehyun’s expression doesn’t change; he’s serious about his idea. “I’m sorry it took me five years, but it’s long overdue. I don’t think I can lose you, you’re my rock. I need you here. Please, think about it.”
“What are you going to be doing on this lovely Friday night?” A co-worker of yours asks, reaching up to your desk an hour before you’d be released from your duties for the weekend.
“Honestly, not sure yet.”
She raises a brow, crossing her arms against her chest as she leans on the wall of the cubicle. “Hot boyfriend hasn’t had anything planned? If not, you should definitely come by to this new club that opened--”
“Sorry, she has plans.” Startled, the both of you turn your heads to the direction of the voice. Jaehyun’s standing in the walkway between the aisles of desks and cubicles that line up throughout the office, and you’re surprised he even finds yours. “Also, I’m not her boyfriend anymore. Didn’t she tell you, I’m her fiance.” He smiles cheekily, giving your coworker a glimpse of his dimples and raising the bouquet of flowers in his hand.
His hair is slicked back with gel, the blue dye washed out and a dirty blonde comes out from underneath. He has on a white button-up, a couple buttons undone, sleeves rolled up and shirt tucked in his black slacks. Jaehyun walks over to you, handing you the bouquet before bowing at your coworker. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sound rude. It’s our anniversary today.”
“Anniversary?” She glances at you questioningly.
“Yes. Happy 7th Year Anniversary, love.”
#jaehyun#nct#nct127#nct fics#nct fictions#nct127 fictions#nct 127 fictions#jaehyun x reader#jaehyun x oc#gyukultfics#ugh i'm embarrassed i wrote this#lol
357 notes
·
View notes
Text
Instagram whistleblowers reveal California College Republican hate speech in chatroom
Screenshots from a Discord server attributed to a statewide California College Republicans (CCR) chat exposed misogynistic, racist, antisemitic comments and threats of violence from various CCR members, including members from Cal Poly Pomona’s chapter.
A fallout within California’s collegiate Republican Party due to differing opinions caused CCR chapters to de-charter and form a new organization in 2019, the California Federation of College Republicans (CFCR). The split came after CCR published a 10-page platform that attacked university funding of birth control and abortion, the legitimizing of transgender people, and institutional support of Mexican and Muslim student organizations. The extremist platform claimed that members of the LGBT+ community were “murderous and degenerate.”
This bled into CPP’s own College Republicans and in Spring 2020, Aaron Santana Ruiz, president of CPP’s College Republicans switched the campus’ charter from the CFCR to CCR.
Instagram user, “abusiveccr,” who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, reached out to The Poly Post on Feb. 4 with screenshots of messages including two accounts alleged to belong to Santana-Ruiz and fourth-year chemical engineering student, Baron Boghosian.
Many of the user “Boghosian’s” posts include selfies of Baron Boghosian.
The same account, under a revised name “Big Gorilla”, also posted a video with the accompanying comment, “watch this you Jews” to the Discord server.
The video shows Baron Boghosian and others driving around during Halloween 2020, including on the empty CPP campus, shouting statements supportive of former President Donald Trump and ending with the group eating pizza.
On Nov. 6, 2020, the same account, posted numerous comments inciting violence.
According to the CPP Republicans code of conduct, “Grounds for removal and/or suspension of an organization member(s) are appropriate if and only if student behavior is not consistent with the California Polytechnic University of Pomona student conduct and discipline code.”
When asked why more reports had not been made, user “disenchantedccrmember” said, “I don’t think anything through CCR would happen just because most of these guys are in their minds, at least, all on the same side. They all share similar beliefs. They don’t like Jews. They don’t like people of color. They think women need to just be at home in the kitchen, so I think if any sort of action was to come, it would come through the schools. Probably through a mission of conduct at the very least…People who have brought up concerns have either been kicked out or they’re blacklisted, and they basically cannot climb up the ladders.”
User “abusiveccr” responded similarly.
“I do want to have a career in politics, and they wouldn’t like this … a lot of the people have connections with all the offices so that could spread.”
Instagram user “_alxlcastilo” commented under every photo “abusiveccr” posted.
Alex Castillo, CPP student and alleged user of “_alxlcastilo”, did not respond to requests for comment.
CCR member, Stephen Miller, had multiple screenshots leaked with his name attached. Because of this, he reached out to user “abusiveccr”.
According to Miller, he was invited to join CCR by Loyola CCR president and CCR state chair, William Donahue.
Miller said that many of the screenshots are old and, at his request, the individuals were “purged from the chat” by William Donahue. He added that even though the messages were his, the photos of the chats are “taken out of context.”
“I know that a lot of things were recently deleted on our discord because a lot of people were scared that their comments were getting leaked out,” Miller said. “People started talking about it, and then other people started running to delete certain messages that they were afraid could be construed the wrong way. Some of them, I wouldn’t blame them. They had no context and they were 100% wrong.”
According to Miller, CCR holds individuals accountable and that a decision to remove someone from the Discord server depends “on the severity of the comments they made.”
“We try to be nonconfrontational and not hostile about it,” Miller said. “Often times you can tell when someone is joking about something. They wouldn’t joke about something that was serious, obviously.”
According to “abusiveccr”, on Nov. 10, the user “Boghosian” was removed from the server after disrespectful comments toward Arielle Spotswood, a student at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and current co-chair of CCR.
Spotswood did not respond to The Poly Post request for comment.
When asked for comment, Boghosian said he has “no connection with CCR at all,” and claimed to vote for the Democratic Party. He added that he never had a Discord account and the profile depicting his name, along with the chats, are “completely false and fraudulent.”
Additionally, sources say the account named “Chancellor Santana”, allegedly that of Santana Ruiz, frequently posted in Discord endorsing Nick Fuentes, a 22-year-old far-right podcaster known for pushing white nationalist and anti-Semitic views onto younger listeners. Followers of Fuentes and Patrick Casey, the leader of the United States neo-Nazi group American Identity Movement, are called “Groypers.”
In January 2019, Fuentes compared the Holocaust to a “cookie baking operation.” According to Instagram user “disenchantedccrmember”, the icon next to Santana’s name is in reference to these statements. When reprimanded for the action, Santana Ruiz changed the image to a pizza.
User “disenchatedccrmember” added that they felt the need to create the whistleblower account to shed light on the controversy.
“We’ve reported them to even their advisor. We’ve reported to Michael Donahue … who is their advisor at Cal Poly Pomona and he said nothing, he’s done nothing,” said “disenchantedccrmember.”
Initially, Michael Donahue agreed to meet with The Poly Post, but on Feb. 10 rescinded the interview in an emailed statement.
“Due to your inquiry, I have investigated this matter with the concerned Cal Poly students and state organization. I have spoken with the Cal Poly Pomona College Republicans President, Aaron, and Baron, (who is in my senior design class at Cal Poly). As it stands, both Baron and Aaron have categorically denied these allegations. Furthermore, Baron is not a member of CPP College Republicans, nor is he a member of CCR,” Donahue stated, “I have found no evidence to support the claims that you have purported. As you know, anyone can change their name and picture on Discord. Anyone can create a new account or server with any name associated to it. Due to this design, as I understand it, there is no way to determine the identity of the person(s) who authored these posts.”
In a Feb. 8 emailed statement to the Poly Post, Santana Ruiz wrote, “While I do have an Instagram, I do not have a Discord. When I looked into these supposed chats that were ‘leaked’ it appears that they come from some social media application called Discord. I have never used Discord and the account is obviously fraudulent. The images registered to the account are not me and it’s frustrating that someone would use my name and an image of a cookie to slander me. (I’m not sure if that’s an attack on me for being mixed race).”
According to Kyle Shulz, former president of CPP Republicans, during the end of his term and under the administration of Santana Ruiz, a mass email subject, “College Republicans at Cal Poly Pomona: Hangout Meeting (Fri. 1/29/21 @ 6-9PM)” was sent to all members with links to both a private CPP Republicans Discord as well as the CCR Discord.
The CPP Republican Bylaws’ article H states that the president, “Shall be the official representative of this organization at all club involved events and activities.” The bylaws have since been removed from CPP Republican’s MyBar, but can be found here.
The server violates Discord community guidelines. The comments may also violate the student code of conduct policy at CPP under item 7, “Conduct that threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person within or related to the University community, including physical abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment, or sexual misconduct.”
In an emailed statement to The Poly Post on Feb. 9, CCR’s communication team wrote, “On behalf of the organization and alleged affected members, we can unequivocally say that these alleged Discord leaks are either doctored, edited, or manipulated. No records of these conversations or members exist, and there is no evidence they belong to CCR or any chapter. The alleged names/nicknames are not even in our Discord, and there is no evidence they ever existed. This is simply the nature of Discord.”
Before Feb. 9, the Discord’s link could be found publicly on the CCR web page masthead and included the lobby of members active within the attached server.
The link was pulled off its website on Feb. 8 for a short period of time, and then again permanently by the morning of Feb. 9.
Beginning as early as Feb. 5, the Discord server was purged of chats by moderators, until on Feb. 7 when the server was completely wiped clean. Members within the server were not informed and questioned the removed messages and chatrooms. While it is unclear who is the official moderator, both William Donahue and Dylan Martin, communications director, responded to their complaints.
The CCR Discord server contained student members from universities across all of California and there is no record of action to regulate, prevent or discipline comments that could escalate to threats of violence like user “Boghosian’s” had.
Shortly after Santana Ruiz’s email to The Poly Post, the account “Chancellor Santana” changed its name to “Mad World Mad World” and left the CCR Discord server and used the same meme that the account claimed to use when its chapter departed from the CFCR charter.
New University, University of California, Irvine’s campus newspaper reported on similar allegations on Jan. 12.
Additionally, this is not the first time CPP Republicans have been accused of hate speech and discrimination. In fall 2020, popular Instagram account CPP Confessions, an account where the CPP community can anonymously submit community news, reposted several controversial CPP Republican posts for its followers to see.
“This chat is an echo chamber for these people to have these vile, sick beliefs and they hype each other up,” “disenchantedccrmember” added. “One of my biggest concerns is that if they hype each other up enough that they will actually go out and commit acts of violence.”
As of this report, both “disenchatedccrmember” and “abusiveccr” accounts have been terminated. “I plan to continue until the end of the Unity election,” disenchatedccrmember said.
This unity election between CCR and CFCR was dated for Feb. 20, but the results have not been announced nor any news on the election been disclosed. More can be found at https://www.americafirstcr.com. William Donahue is running for chairman.
User “abusiveccr” cited that they would continue the account “as long as it takes… for all of this to hopefully end soon.”
Additional screen grabs with corresponding documents can be found here.
If students are facing harassment, they can reach out to the Office of Equity and Compliance. For reports on threats of violence contact the University Police Department. If students need to report a breach of student conduct, the Office of Student Conduct and Integrity can be found at https://www.cpp.edu/studentconduct/staff.shtml.
Edit 4/6, 7 p.m.: The names of individuals within the screenshots that The Poly Post did not reach out to have been redacted for privacy.
2 notes
·
View notes
Note
Kai is so beautiful! I don't know anything about confirmation though so all those terms are confusing! Do you have any links so I can learn? Thx
Thank you ♥️ biased but I think he is too. Technically conformation is how a dog "conforms" to a written standard, which I don't have to worry about. So what I look at is called structure. How a dog is put together to facilitate good movement (and look nice to me 😅). Good, to me, is efficient with no wasted energy, and not putting undue strain on any part of their body. Pip's mom's hound mix Maisie, for example, has bad structure not because of a breed standard but because her rear assembly puts her at risk for breaking down later in life. She's athletic but her body isn't built to keep up.
Balance is the big picture, how it all fits together and complements each other. There are lots of little terms that took me years to learn, and I'm still working on it!
Dogwise Publishing has a bunch of books in this stuff that look great! I've gotten a few. The book Structure In Action helped a lot. It has great illustrations and relates everything to practical concerns. Though, it's focused on demanding sports, while I want a stamina based super moderate (meaning nothing exaggerated) working dog, and/or just a healthy companion that won't develop arthritis/CCL tears/etc due to poor structure.
Most of what you'll find online is focused on the show ring. They're still good resources but not exactly what I'm talking about. Imo while show dogs in general are put together better than pet bred, and more working breeders could pay more attention to healthy structure... certain show trends and breed standards encourage what I see as extreme conformation. Movement is as important to me as it is to show breeders, but I wouldn't want to see the wasteful, attention-getting movement required for some breeds in my own dogs
The terminology is useful though, and most confo breeders have a WAY better eye for this stuff than I do! And everyone has different goals. There's nothing wrong at all with breeding towards a written standard, it just isn't the only way to breed with structure in mind.
And here's some examples! Just highlighting the things I mentioned in that Kai post, since it's why you sent your ask
Messy phone photo editing, sorry, not accurate or too helpful. I don't "hand stack" or physically position my dogs for good pictures/videos to evaluate structure. I should! I'm just lazy and haven't trained them. It does take training. These are called "free stacks." It takes a while to get an eye for how you want them to stand. The purple arrow in Kai's is because I'd like his front leg positioned farther back for an accurate picture of his shoulder angulation. In Kestrel's, I'd like her leaning into herself/forward more. And I'd like to have taken the picture from a lower angle.
Like I said, messy and not very useful 😅 but just to put visuals to what I wrote earlier. You can see that Kestrel is an improvement on Kai with a longer upper thigh that's more proportional to the lower. Her loin is shorter (his is actually worse than it looks there) so her back is better supported. In person you can DEFINITELY see how these little things affect her movement and make her gait more efficient.
Husky traits I love about them: overall balance for stamina, compact feet, short moderately angled pasterns, unexaggerated croup, nice shoulder layback (not just shoulder angle but how the blades actually fit against the body), square build (length to height ratio) although Kai is longer in the body than he looks there bc of his loin
If anyone wants to practice! This is Mars formerly Hershey from Kai's litter with Trixie the English shepherd, hand stacked by her amazing co-owner. All puppies look awkward and go through a million stages before 2-3 yrs old. But I like her so far!
You can at least get an eye for what we want a stack to look like too
Here is Persie formerly Dove as a little baby. Her straight rear has persisted as she's gotten older.
I don't have any of Gigi but her length to height ratio is GOOFY--loooong body and loin, even more than Kai 😂 It's all about really gradual improvement. I don't mind breeding slightly awkward dogs if they don't have glaring structural flaws that may cause issues down the road. Even a pet dog benefits health-wise from good structure
Anyways! That's 10x what you asked for and probably doesn't make any sense but there ya go
105 notes
·
View notes
Text
Belos the Cabinet Man!
MAJOR kudos to @funnyfany for introducing me to Cabinet Man by Lemon Demon, because as they said… This song is PERFECT for someone like Emperor Belos, and just in general slaps! Like, it honestly really describes my read on him? In fact, why don’t I peel and dissect the lyrics to see how they could easily apply to him;
The day they found me, I hadn’t yet been played
Inside my workshop behind my old arcade
Electric desires had unraveled all my wires
Now I’m in the box for safekeeping
These lyrics allude to Belos’ obvious motifs of technology, as well as him having a ‘workshop’, which ties to his work on the portal! But there’s also the concept of him being rather ancient, as well as needing to be protected because he’s vulnerable in the end; Such as by metal armor, instead of a box?
The news reporters reported that I died
But all my organs were living on inside
Circuit board to brain with two lungs collecting change
One big human heart gently beeping
The first line immediately makes me think of Perry Porter, but it also makes me think about what the ‘Unauthorized Author’ had to say, about Belos retreating into his castle, and people speculating that he had big plans while he let Kikimora and others be his public face. Again, there’s more machine-flesh imagery, as well as the obvious allusion to a giant beating heart. Two lungs collecting change can allude to Belos and his greedy hunger for power and bile.
You can’t win me, I can’t be beat
I won’t hurt you, unless you cheat
You can’t see me behind the screen
I’m half human and half machine
We’ve got Belos boasting how invincible he is, but it can also refer to how the Coven System is a lose-lose situation, that either you go off and be alone and persecuted as an individual, OR you conform and became safe, but lose your identity in the process!
We have Belos alluding to how he can be a merciful dude unless you really piss him off; And that line about cheating reminds me of how the Coven System seeks out only the most ‘worthy’ of people, and how this mentality has affected characters like Amity, who by consequence despise cheating!
Or how Boscha’s bullying is mostly rude remarks… Until she feels like her attention is being ‘stolen’ by others, then she resorts to some brutal and even dangerous tactics in retaliation! To Belos, he just wants people to fit into their little spots, he’s offering them a nice little role and function in society, an actual place, he’s not a bad and malicious dude! Just a messenger…
Similarly, ‘cheating’ could be seen as doing magic the ‘wrong way’, because otherwise, competition to join the Emperor’s Coven and be the best is encouraged, so long as you engage with the system properly and play by its rules! You’re just not supposed to do Wild Magic, mix tracks, that sort of thing; Otherwise you WILL be persecuted by Belos!
Then there’s the idea of Belos being hidden behind his mask, or just hidden in general (like when he spies on Luz, Willow, and Gus in his castle), and again, the biomechanical imagery! I can’t say for sure if he WAS human or not, because Belos definitely isn’t NOW, to say the least!
Thank God for business, they let me take the floor
I stood so proudly, like I was going to war
Players soon appeared and I quickly was revered
This must be what love would have felt like
The Titan is responsible for Belos’ power (allegedly), as he claims to enforce its will. Belos’ art depicts him as standing above the rest, and him being VERY tall definitely helps… Then you have him going on a crusade against wild witches, being worshipped by many others, and POSSIBLY a connection to my speculation on him being a lonely individual who was never properly loved in the past, and is confusing this with distant worship…
And really this just makes me think of other analyses of the Coven System as creating codependent relationships and hollow images to love VS that people actually are! Regardless, it also reminds me of Belos’ parasitic motifs, that last line, so you know!
Such dedication, they came from miles away
With eyes so piercing, they’d wait their turn to play
In perfect patient lines because I was in their minds
I could do whatever I felt like (Whatever I felt like)
Students from Hexside literally travel miles to Belos’ castle on a field trip, and we have Eda mentioning how Lilith was so excited to meet him as children! Kids looking up to Belos, seeing him as someone to adulate, a role model even (with Lilith invoking him in her motives for the curse)… People literally dedicating their entire lives (and even those of their children) to Belos and his Coven! And of course, we have Belos having the power to do as he pleases, be it going back on his promise to Lilith, letting Luz rescue her friends because he has the portal anyway, etc.; It’s an almost nonchalant disregard of others for what matters to BELOS in the end…
I’m happy for years and years
And only eating the occasional maintenance man
Only driving a few kids to madness
Maybe they were predisposed to madness, who knows?
Skipping over some repeat lines, we have Belos being at the top for a while, and of course, draining palismans for their bile to restore his health! Kids going mad easily describes people like Lilith, Boscha, or Amity, who base their entire self-worth on joining the Emperor’s Coven, being at the top, and/or fitting in, to the point where Lilith even curses her own sister, Boscha brutally bullies those she sees as a threat to her popularity, while people like the Blight Parents abuse and indoctrinate their kids for social status!
But then Belos speculates that, hey… HE didn’t make them do this! His system encouraged and enabled them, sure… But in the end it was their actions, which brings to mind how while influenced, none of these characters are entirely faultless either for their actions. Not only that, but it makes me think about how some people seem predisposed and outright embracing of what Belos has to say, as if even without his Coven System they would always be this kind of awful… Such as Warden Wrath, or again, the Blight Parents!
That last line really makes me think about how different characters coped differently with the pressure, with some remaining good people, while others enabled themselves to do terrible things. Perhaps Belos merely revealed what was already there? Because it still says a lot about other people that they chose to believe and follow in him when others made the decision notto.
I only want to have fun
But now they’re telling me my days here are done
‘Cause there’s a little tiny box they make in Japan
And pretty soon it’s gonna fit in your hand
Belos just wants to be at the top, he’s ‘just a humble messenger for the Titan’, and maybe like Luz in Episode 2 he just wanted to be special… But he’s also clearly past his expiration date and dying, too. Not only that, but we have a rival… Someone smaller than Belos both literally and in the metaphorical, underdog sense;
A foreigner from a different land, one who can teach others to cast magic within their hands through Glyphs! There’s Belos, an Old Soul, being made obsolete and redundant by Luz and her Glyphs, which potentially function as a work-around to his coven bindings and draining of bile! Not to mention how her ideals also make Belos’ seem rather antiquated, don’t they? Not to mention the idea of power and control being in the hands of the people, not dependent upon a singular source like Belos…
His short-lived reign is being actively threatened by Luz’s presence, which Belos acknowledges as having changed everything… And really, it just reminds me of how characters like Boscha enjoyed being at the top as a result of Belos’ influence, only to feel threatened when others come along and ‘steal’ that glory!
It’s getting lonely, it’s getting hard to breathe
The arcade’s empty, I think it’s Christmas Eve
Someone’s broken in, now they’re painting on my skin
Breaking me and taking my quarters
Bashing in my face with a crowbar
Kicking me and pushing me over
Now they see my blood on their sneakers
Literally the first thing we see of Belos is him having labored breathing… And again, there’s this idea that he’s being left behind as obsolete, he’s reclusive and retreated into his castle and doesn’t let others near him; He’s at the top, and it’s a lonely place! It’s the Eve of Christmas, Christmas is right around the corner, just as the Day of Unity is approaching, when;
The next few lines invoke the image of Luz breaking into Belos’ castle/the conformatorium… And if you go by the idea that the Castle is a part of Belos, Luz and co. vandalizing the treasury as akin to vandalizing Belos’ own body! Not to mention the three stealing Belos’ relics… And of course, Luz ‘bashing in’ Belos’ face/mask with an ice spike! Only to realize that there’s clearly a LOT more body horror to Belos than she anticipated…! Realizing that Belos is linked to the very ground and earth she stands upon, and boy can he manipulate it!
After that, the song ends with some repeat lyrics; But all-in-all, I would LOVE to see, someday, someone else (or maybe even myself) do an AMV of Emperor Belos, but with Cabinet Man by Lemon Demon! Compiled entirely of various clips that allude to the lyrics I mentioned earlier, that’d be a lot of fun and if I knew how to do video edits I could do it myself one day!
#the owl house#owl house#the owl house belos#emperor belos#cabinet man#lemon demon#lyric analysis#character analysis#the owl house amity#amity blight#the owl house boscha#warden wrath#the owl house luz#luz noceda
43 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
seungs
it's seungmin's fault
demidoodlefox
Drawing and Dreaming
fritavdemsurepharliape-blog
Lori Bigelow
mygirls07
BabySoul+Lovelyz
freedomis--x
INHALE