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cheriladycl01 · 4 months

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Goodbye NewYork - Grid and Daniel Ricciardo x Sunshine Driver! Reader

Plot: Y/N constantly jokes about the fact that she would take a bullet for any of the guys on the grid... however in 2026 when the FIA decide to make a New York track, with it not being policed as well as they have in the past Y/N turns those jokes into a reality.

A/N: Yes i know its dramatic ... but that's why you all are here! You love the fluff and the angst and the drama.

Warnings: Violence w/ Guns

Credit to leatherman-love for the GIF

2017 Rookie season Interview Age 22:

Interviewer - So, how has it been driving for Mclaren Honda alongside a world champion like Fernando Alonso.

Y/N - Oh wow its been a fever dream. He's taught me so much, and excited not only to be racing with him next year but with Renault as our engine manufacturer!

Interviewer - And who would you say have you become friends with this year?

Y/N - I think obviously i would consider Nando and I very close, you know we've travelled together and he even invited me back to Spain with him in the summer break. Other than that I've found myself close to Pierre, Daniel and Carlos, I've known Pierre for a long time back since karting days, same with Max and Charles who will be joining us next year in Sauber.

Interviewer - Thank you Y/N we really loved watching you drive this year and we can wait for next year!

2018 First Full Season Interview Age 23:

Interviewer - Hello again Y/N how are you!

Y/N - I am good and yourself?

Interviewer - Yes, obviously you've had a great year in Mclaren but they've decided against continuing with you and Fernando next year. This leaves you moving to Toro Rosso alongside Rookie Alex Albon. You said at the end of last year you'd made fast friends with him, Carlos and Daniel. Do they still stand where Carlos is taking over the Mclaren seat.

Y/N - Of course I'm really happy for Carlos, I performed well in Mclaren this year, but i think Lando Norris is a promising rookie and Carlos is an excellent driver. It didn't shock me when the Red Bull Junior team reached out to me as I was a junior driver for Red Bull. Obviously I'm gutted I wont be racing with Pierre this year but I've met Alex and we get on well!

Interviewer - Any new friends?

Y/N - Erm not really new no. Charles joined us this year and has driven fantastically and is going to Ferrari next year. I cannot wait to see what he can bring in a competitive car

Interviewer - Still friends with Daniel?

Y/N - Of course, the honey badger and i are closer than ever, he had some big decisions to make going in 2019 and he needed someone to support him. He's just a ball of sunshine and I'm not being dramatic when i say i would die for that man

Interviewer - Ah your so funny Y/N its always a pleasure to talk to you. Well i wish you all the best for this year to come and hopefully 2019 we can see a P1 finish!

2019 Season Interview Age 24:

Interviewer - Ah and here we have my absolute fave to interview at the end of the year it is Y/N Y/L/N!

Y/N - Hello!

Interviewer - Woah may i say what a year its been for you, this time last year and we will roll the clip here, you said you were gutted to not be racing alongside Pierre but here we are at the end of the 2019 season and you've raced the last half of the season with him when Red Bull switched out drivers

Y/N - Alex is a very promising driver, you know he proved that he was a good driver in Toro Rosso and i think he is proving that in Red Bull, its a shame that Pierre had to go because i think he was just getting used to a car that is clearly built for Max's driving technique which is very different from the rest of ours. The pressure isn't easy to be the second driver in Red Bull

Interviewer - Is that why you turned down Christians offer to take Pierre's place and they went with Alex?

Y/N - Not completely no, I think I've pushed my car to the limit this year and we've learnt a lot as a team so we will come back bigger and better next year with some major changes to the team. I think I would do well in Red Bull but I want to prove myself first

Interviewer - Incredible, really and your friends how's that going?

Y/N - It's amazing, each year i get closer and closer to these guys and i genuinely can call most of them my friends, I've enjoyed getting to know the rookies over this year I'm really close to Alex, Lando and George. You know me and Lewis have shared some really funny moments this year, me and Seb went fishing in March... its been a fantastic year both on and off track.

Interviewer - How important are these boys to you.

Y/N - Oh they are most important to me, my whole heart goes out to them.

2020 Season Interview Age 25:

Interviewer - What a year its been with this pandemic, but we are finally here back in Abu Dhabi, and weve just completed the last race of the 2020 season and there's some exciting changes for you next year!

Y/N - Yes it was sooner than i was hoping for, but I was told that my seat was being taken by Yuki Tsunoda who will be a rookie on the 2021 Season. Where it was so late in the year, i wouldnt have had a seat and I think as a woman i would have struggled to get that seat back. So i grabbed at the Red Bull offer.

Interviewer - That's amazing news for you, has it however affected any of your friendships?

Y/N - Everyone, even Alex told me i would be stupid not to go for it so i did. I'm very thankful to Christian for this opportunity. I know there were other people who were thinking it would be there seat, but I'm in F1 to win.

Interview - There's also been some... rumors about you and a certain Australian going around the paddock.

Y/N - Yes Daniel and i started dating this year, it was actually really funny. I joke to him how I'm only dating him due to my Stockholm Syndrome of being in lockdown with him.

Interviewer - You were with Daniel throughout lockdown?

Y/N - Yes we were at the Australian GP when we heard about it, my flight got cancelled and then they shut down all air control and i was basically stuck in Australia, with the risk as well it wasn't worth it so i got tested and then Daniel offered me to stay with him. Obviously was longer than expected but yeah we came out as a couple.

Interviewer - Amazing honestly, who do you see having a good come back next year?

Y/N - Oh i think Mercedes will be strong, same with AlphaTauri, I think Ferrari also have a fantastic line up with Carlos Sainz moving there. Obviously my boyfriend is going to Mclaren and i couldn't be happier that he's keeping his seat and working with someone as great a driver as Lando

Interviewer - And how does that work, tension wise with him being ex Red Bull and you now being a driver in what was his seat only 3 seasons prior

Y/N - Obviously i know that with Max Verstappen being as good a driver as he is the pressure is insane in that second Red Bull seat and you are very much that ... a second. So I've talked to the team and said that you know, if I'm the stronger car and the better driver that I don't want Golden Boy to be prioritized. He really helped me make my decision in the end.

Interviewer - Amazing thank you for your time Y/N.

2021 Interview Age 26:

Y/N - Hello lovely people its so nice to see you without masks on!

Interviewer - Yes we agree! Congrats on some fantastic driving this year it really showed how quickly you can learn a car. You really rivalled Max Verstappen and Hamilton this year. 2022 will be your year. It's amazing how you helped steal that Constructors title from Mercedes. I bet Christian is very happy with your performance i mean we can tell he is from that long 2024 contract extension...

Y/N - Yeah its been a really amazing year of racing. Max has been an amazing team mate, you know he's really supported by move to Red Bull and we've had an amazing year with a really good lineup, a really good car and i cant wait for next year.

Interviewer - So, to the questions we really have to ask, obviously you and Daniel have been dating for 2 years now, and someone found a clip from when you were friends jokingly saying you'd die for him. Is that still the case now that he's progressed to boyfriend.

Y/N - Honestly i wasn't joking I would lay my life down on the tarmac and let someone run we over at 300mph if it meant anyone on the current grid was happy. They have each given me something so special and so close to my heart, whether that be a gift, or a life lesson, or a hug, or advise... they honestly most of them have saved me on my darkest days when i considered leaving the sport.

Interviewer - And how do you feel about Albon's return as he joins Williams Racing in 2022

Y/N - I mean i kept in contact with Alex for the whole season, I invited him to some of the races with my passes and yeah we've hung out with Lily his girlfriend who i get on with really well. So I'm extremely happy to be racing against him again.

2022 Season Interview Age 27:

Y/N - I'm really sorry but I'm gonna have to make this quick, because my plane will leave soon and I have to grab my things from the hotel.

Interviewer - Of course no problem. It's been a fabulous year with you coming Third in the Drivers Championship, just a few points behind Charles Leclerc... and having the second win for Constructors... how do you feel.

Y/N - Yeah there was some really close moments where it could have been me, Max or Charles. We started of the season a little rocky and some miscommunication but then Ferrari's strategy got worse while ours improved which meant Max and I were getting those crucial points.

Interviewer - Leaning away from the racing ... how are you and Danny Ricciardo now that he wont be in the 2023 season...

Y/N - We've come to an agreement with Red Bull that he will come to every race with me to be my race engineer ...

Y/N - I'm kidding but he will still be attending with me as he's gonna be a reserve driver so he'll be a quick standby option.

Interviewer - Amazing thank you for your time

2023 Season Interview Age 28:

Interviewer - Another win from Max Y/N, he's a three time World Champ now and you were close coming in second again. How are you feeling confident for 2024, or worried you loose your seat.

Y/N - Holy shit, you sound so cryptic and me and Christian have already been talking about a contract extension. I'm happy in Red Bull and he believes I'm driving on par with Max and I'd like to see a lengthy future with them.

Interview - So are we hearing 2024 will be your year?

Y/N - Yes i think working with Max has led me to learn the way he drives very well, I'm able to anticipate what he's going to do, and I can out maneuver him easier than most. I'm excited to see what 2024 will bring us.

Interviewer - And of course, I have to ask now that you've been with Mr Ricciardo for 4 years now, going strong and you have some amazing bonds with your fellow drivers on the grid are we going to see and F1 wedding anytime soon?

Y/N - Oooo i mean Y/N Ricciardo does sound nice, I think where he is coming back onto the grid this year, the timing wouldn't make sense but ... you know I think anything can happen.

Interviewer - Oh she's so cheeky with that wink ... Hello Charles how are you feeling.

2024 Season Interview Age 29:

Interviewer - Oh Y/N what an awful year this has been, i bet you and Max cant wait to say goodbye to this car. P4 in the constructers... what happened.

Y/N - I think Max and I struggled driving this car, which was both a skill issue on our half and a team issue of Red Bull's half, we had lost of changes of team members throughout the year, lots of miscommunication but I promise 2025 we will come back bigger and better. I'm so happy for Charles getting his World Championship finally and I'm incredibly proud of two of my sons getting their Maiden race wins... Lando and Oscar congrats. And on my other son, for getting his first Maiden podium and proving everyone wrong and having an amazing second season in Williams, well done Logan. Well done to Ferrari, Mclaren and Mercedes for Constructors Top 3, but watch out for us next year.

Interviewer - Amazing, its so nice to see how proud and close you are too the other drivers.

Y/N - Yes, i would change none of that.

2025 Season Interview Age 30:

Interviewer - And here we are with the first ever Female World Champion of Formula One, Y/N you've hit some amazing achievements this year. You've become a WDC, you got engaged to you soulmate, you hit 30 years old, you had such a great car and great races. How are you feeling.

Y/N - I have no words for this year, you know I was starting to think maybe my time is up. But my contract in Red Bull lasts till 2028 to match Max contract and you know I'm happy, still driving well clearly and yeah I've loved every moment of this year.

Interviewer - And do you think 2028 would be your retirement year?

Y/N - Oh i don't know about that ... I love racing and you know, Daniel and I are happy and obviously the F1 wedding will be soon. We've said we are happy to wait a while for kids, so we'll see how it goes...

Halfway through the 2026 Season.

BBC News:

And we bring some shocking news to you tonight. F1 Driver Y/N Ricciardo is in critical condition after being shot on race weekend here in New York City. It was reported that the drivers were all celebrating her recent wedding to fellow F1 Driver Daniel Riccardo last month in Australia. The race according to the FIA and surrounding authorities wasn't well protected and put a lot of the drivers in danger. Y/N celebrated a first place podium the same day she was shot, with fellow drivers Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri. More Updates will be shared at 10 tonight.

F1 Instagram:

Y/N Ricciardo, in critical condition after altercation at New York Grand Prix.

We are sending our thoughts to her family and the people affected at this time...

Comments -

landorizlover02 - omg this is so scary, the videos on twitter of them all celebrating in the paddock and then the screams

f149 - sources say Y/N actually saw the person before anyone else and pushed Daniel, Lando and Oscar out the way before stepping closer to the man so he would aim for her and not the others. Talk about fight or flight!

kimiisfoine - she is literally a hero ... I'm in shock.

carloschili - I've seen the video, and her face when she realizes something isn't right and then she literally pulls Lando behind her and pushes Daniel and Oscar away.

The drivers tweets -

@PierreGASLY - I'm deeply upset by the lack of protection at the New York GP, I hope that this teaches, the FIA when we are on street circuits like this extra security measures are needed. I wish Y/N a full recovery <3

@Charles_Leclerc - Y/N saved my life tonight and I will never forget that. Alex and I are sat here shaking in shock, i wish for her full recovery and send my prayers to Daniel and her family.

@RGrosjean - Y/N was one of the best people I've ever met on the grid, having scary crashes is part of the job. Never did i think that this would ever be possible. Wishing Y/N to get better!

@KevinMagnuessen - I wasn't there, but hearing the panic and lockdown annoucement is never something I want to experience again. #dobetterf1

@Carlossainz55 - Y/N is one of my best friends and the fact that his has happened to such a happy and bright individual is so sad. I hope to see Y/N soon and am staying in New York until i no longer can in hopes to see her.

@LandoNorris - I never thought I'd be standing behind someone who has acted like my older sister in this sport, who has become a true friend as she takes a bullet to save me from an evil individual. I am in the hospital with Daniel now, awaiting news on her.

@LewisHamilton - Y/N has been an exceptional individual both on and off track, I hope the FIA do better in the future to protect us as drivers.

@OscarPiastri - I have no words for what occurred tonight... no words.

.... more loading

"Y/N baby please" Daniel says as he looks at you, you'd just got out of surgery to remove the bullets. The doctors said that you were lucky that Max and the Mclaren pitstop worker had acted as quickly as possible to get the gun away from the man. Daniel held you as you fell to the ground from the pian holding the wound that was bleeding out.

"How is she?" Lando asks coming into the room with two coffees. Handing one over to Daniel.

"There was a lots of strain on her body, so they don't know if she'll wake up..." Daniel breathes slowly.

"When she wakes up, man... When. She's the strongest person I know" Lando sighs tears in his eyes.

"I fucking froze, I watched a she pulled me behind her after she pushed you and Osc away..." Lando cries a little.

"And I do it again Lan" a course and strained voice breathes out.

"Y/N! Hunny oh my god" Daniel cries smiling at you.

"Hey darling" you smile a little strained.

"I'll go get the doctor!" Lando says rushing out to grab a nurse.

"I love you so much, you are without a doubt the strongest woman I know!" he says kissing your forehead and cheek.

"I love you to baby"

"When do you recon i can race again" you ask after a silent moment making him cry out a laugh tears still falling from his eyes wondering how you can be thinking about that already.

"My little racer, huh" he sighs looking over at you.

"I love you, never ever do that again!" he says.

"I'd do it a million times over if it means you are sat where you are right now..."

A/N: This feels borderline social media au... and i kinda want to get into it... but I love writing out the angst and tumblr still confuses me with picture sizing and stuff so I'm not sure...

Taglist:

@littlesatanicassholebitch @hockey-racing-fubol @laura-naruto-fan1998 @22yuki @simxican @sinofwriting @lewisroscoelove @cmleitora @stupidandunnecessary @clayra-g @daemyratwst @honey-belden @moonypixel @lauralarsen @vader-is-hot @ironcowboycopnickel @itsjustkhaos @the-untamed-soul @beebo86 @happylittlereader @ziejustme @lou-larcher5 @thewulf @purplephantomwolf @chasing-liberosis @chillyleclerc @chanthereader @annoyingmoonballoon @summissss @evieepepi08 @havaneseoger08 @celesteblack08 @gulphulp @fandom1ruined2me @celebstories @starfusionsworld @jspitwall @sierruhh @georgeparisole @dakotatankbig @youcannotcancelquidditch @zzonsbeek @tallbrownhairsarcastic @mellowarcadefun @ourteenagetragedy @otako5811 @countingstacksandpanicattacks @peachiicherries @formulas-bitch @cherry-piee @hopexcroc @mirrorball-6 @spilled-coffee-cup @mehrmonga @bigsimperika @blueberry64857959 @eiraethh @lilypadlover @curseofhecate @alliwantisadonut @the-fem1n1ne-urge @21stcenturytaegi @dark-night-sky-99 @spideybv28 @i-wish-this-was-me @tallrock35 @butterfly-lover @barnestatic @landossainz @darleneslane @barcelonaloverf1life @r0nnsblog @ilove-tswizzle

#f1 imagine #f1 x reader #formula 1 x you #formula 1 #formula one #formula one fanfiction #charles leclerc #lewis hamilton #daniel ricciardo #daniel ricciardo x reader #daniel ricciardo imagine #daniel ricciardo x you #daniel ricciardo fanfic #daniel ricciardo fluff #daniel ricciardo f1 #lando norris #oscar piastri f1 #oscar piastri

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txttletale · 1 year

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what would you say are the flaws of thirsty sword lesbians? i got it in a itch.io bundle a while ago and i've been on the fence on whether or not to run a campaign with it since

things about tsl that suck

the name. its bad. im sure it was really funny to everyone involved when they pitched it in a brainstorming session and were like 'haha what if we actually called our game thirsty sword lesbians XD' but as the name of an actual game that you have to play and talk about with real people it fucking sucks. instantly dated. sounds bad to say aloud. awful

on a related note, the game has a particular sense of humour--a certain tone and tenor that was super in vogue among, like, millenials who livetweeted steven universe in 2018. there's a move in one of the playbooks called 'i ship it!'. there's another move called 'big dyke energy'. i personally find this shit incredibly grating and insufferable, but if you think it's fun, hey, more power to you. not necessarily a con i just wanted to be a hater

okay those two complaints are just me being a hater but i do have a much more serious one which is that the game's themes are at war with each other in a way that i find bafflng. like, 'you are queer people fighting against systemic oppression' is baked into the rules, to the point of forming an inextricable component of two of the playbooks--the game is built around the idea that you're going to be Fighting Oppression in a major way. like it is very unsubtle about that and often looks directly at the camera and says 'This Is About Homophobia'. but it's also a core part of the game that you're going to be doing, like, flirtatious swordfighting, getting seduced by and seducing Hot Evil Women, longingly gazing at your homoerotic nemesis. and this is also baked into the mechanics, there are special social moves you can only do while fighting someone! so you end up with this really bizarre paradox that to take both these elements to their logical conclusion you need to create a world where all the representatives/enforcers of Homophobia/Imperialism/Capitalism are sympathetic lesbians. and it's not doing something interesting with that either, this isn't the masquerade or helicopter story--it's not highlighting this or asking you to explore this--it's just kind of stumbled into this bizarre unforced error by not thinking through what the logical result of its mechanics & tone is.

now of course it's possible to play around that last one and figure out different things to do with it. the campaign i've been running has the players within a v. broad united front against imperialism, so i've made their homoerotic rivals are ideological enemies within that united front--but the fact that we had to work around the implications of the system as written is kind of a problem with the system!

and, since i don't necessarily want to put you off running TSL, here's my list of things about tsl that are good

the playbook design is incredible. a lot of the supplement playbooks fucking suck but every single playbook in the core book is like, peak PBtA playbook design--mechanically unique, thematically fulfilling, rich with opportunities to shape the world by implication when you design your character. they do really fun and interesting narrative things with the way the playbooks are designed and i like them all a lot.

the social move setup is my favourite that i've ever seen in a game--the phrasing behind the social moves means that you can never roll to 'make' an NPC do something or 'persuade' them to your point of view, only to make them 'give in to desire'--which is obviously phrased to enable seduction as a core gameplay mechanic, but it doesn't have to be played that way! other moves allow you to ask questions and figure out what NPCs want and what motivates them--you have a mechanical basis by which you can figure out that an NPC wants friendship, or security, or power, and the 'give in to desire' phrasing means you mechanically benefit from offering them that thing to get what you want from them. it really elegantly and cleverly circumvents the 'mind control persuasion check' problem that i've always found to be a deeply & profoundly antisocial way to model interaction (as inherently zero-sum, combative, dominatory) & leads to much more emotionally satisfying stories and tense and interesting social encounters

you know those are actually kind of the only two things. but they're really, really good things!

#ask #ttrpg

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ssspringroll · 2 months

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ok time for an info post about my edited stuff folder and also some new additions to it

a lot of these are pyxis edits, but the others are also creators who dont seem to be active anymore. but if anyone is the original creator of one of the things ive edited and you're mad at me for posting my edit... sowwy. ill take it down if you ask nicely ♥

ssspringrollIntergalacticSpotsM.package

edit of: https://pyxiidis.blogspot.com/2018/02/intergalactic-supernatural-overlays.html

description: so it turns out all these years, the fem frame version of the intergalactic overlay was a little different from the masc frame and i never noticed. so i made a little add on edited version of the fem frame overlay so it fits the masc frame.

before -> after (there's shoulder spots now)

its available in all the original colors. theres 2 versions of each color though, since there were slightly different leg opacities for the masc and fem versions and i couldnt decide which one to go with. they are very minuscule differences, the shoulder spots are really the main event.

feel free to recolor this in other palettes, id appreciate it actually. took a lot of fiddling to get those spots to line up right, please! please use my edit and make recolors!

this shows up in cas (for m frame only, theres no point for f frame, they already have it) as a separate cas part. the thumbnail is the same as the original, except i slapped the word 'EDITED' over top in big red letters. hopefully you will see it.

ssspringrollPrettyVisitorsHeterochromia.package

edit of: http://pyxiidis.blogspot.com/2017/04/pretty-visitors-eyeset.html

description: heterochromia. the meshes are by me (not that i can take much credit for them, its an ea eyeball thats slightly larger than usual. thats it.) but there are L and R meshes for each age (infant to TYAE) feel free to recolor in other eye sets, the mesh follows my usual TOU. the textures, obviously, are not mine. i don't know if i managed to squeeze every swatch from the pretty visitors eyes in there, but i know for a fact all the human colors, the pooklet colors, and some other alien colors are in there. I did not do the vampire colors. sorry. maybe some day.

found in face scar and neck scar (in skin details) but feel free to re slot them to other categories for your convenience. left and right cheek might also be a good spot for them. there are two cas items, L and R, so i wanted them to be sort of close together, thats the only reason i picked the spots i did.

incompatible with glasses.

demondays

edit of: https://pyxiidis.tumblr.com/post/177241795736/demon-days-vampire-stuff-by-pyxis-some-things

description: the original texture of the gradient limb overlays was bleeding out of the leg area a little bit, which clipped into the texture area of some wicked whims body parts, making unexpected splotches. i just trimmed it back a little so it shouldn't do that anymore.

eyes

edit of: https://pyxiidis.blogspot.com/2017/11/arachnophobia-accessory-spider-eyes.html AND https://www.patreon.com/posts/29118520 (v2)

description: converted for all ages. the meshes are addons and should be installed alongside the originals, the arachnophobia overlays (PYXIS_Arachnophobia_SpiderEyes_FaceMarkingDetails_upperRightArmTat.package, etc.) are direct edits of the original package files. Delete the old packages with the same names and replace them with my edits, if you want the overlays to be available for all ages. You don't need the overlays for the meshes to work, though.

An additional slot has been made available for infants -> children in the eye details section. The meshes will not be found in that category for teens and up, just the tots.

Waay'los' folder

this sections formatted a lil different. dont worry about it.

PYXIS_Siren_MermaidGills

edit of: http://pyxiidis.blogspot.com/2018/05/siren-mermaid-accessories.html

description: edited warehouse data so that necklaces can be worn at the same time as the gills. the mesh has not been edited, so compatibility with very close-fitting necklaces like chokers is not likely (gills are bulky and will clip) but i figured thats no reason to close off the option entirely. so necklaces are allowed now. also, i changed the categories. the packages claiming to be necklaces are found in mouth scar and the ones claiming to be rings are found in face scar (skin details section, towards the bottom near acne)

⚠ NSFW [MiniGiles]LoveBelow SkyrimFantasies Reptilia Male

edit of: i dont think this ones available anymore i will be honest. i can't find a link

description: tweaked positioning of the mesh so it lines up a little better with animations. also tweaked the weight painting and uv map. it doesnt animate quite right all the time, but it gets the job done. should still show up in the ww body selector (does for me, anyway)

⚠ NSFW ssspringrollReptiliaOverlays.package

edit of: this ones original content

description: gradient overlays for the reptilia body parts in the same basic rainbow palette as my overlay minipack. found in body scar (right leg). really nothing fancy, just for a little bit of personalization. should be color slider mod compatible

no custom thumbnail

ssspringrollHorns

edit of: https://flapjack-sims.tumblr.com/post/114810983191/horns-for-sims-4-ive-noticed-the-lack-of-horns-in (MESH) https://cherryvanillasims.tumblr.com/post/163956398575/flapjacks-thicc-horns-forehead-in-noodles (RECOLORS)

description: moved the uv map and textures so now the horns are compatible with hats (and any other accessories that use the hat texture space, like lots and lots of the wing cc thats out there)

changed the category to acne. there's two packages of these horns, i think the textures are ever so slightly different between them, but its negligible. I'd recommend the ssspringrollHornsEditedForMyBoy.package version, if you don't want to grab both (which you can, they appear as two separate cas parts)

no custom thumbnail. i dont know if these require the mesh. i dont remember.

Disclaimers:

Just because I've edited these pieces of cc does not mean I'm adopting them. I cannot promise I will offer support if something breaks.

Lots of these are edits of my own personal package files, rather than edits of freshly downloaded versions. They may have been batch fixed, re-slotted, renamed, or otherwise edited over the years I have had them in ways I no longer remember.

Okay looks like thats everything for now.

I will probably add to this pile eventually, but until then, bye bye.

shoutout to @/occultradio for requesting most of the edits that aren't in the Waay'los folder. i straight up did not notice the shoulder spots until they pointed it out and likely wouldnt have done any of the other stuff either if they hadn't asked lol

#my cc

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daughter-of-sapph0 · 1 year

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quick question, what's an era 2 tumblr user? we have eras??

it's sorta something I made up myself. tumblr has gone through various shifts in presentation and tone that dramatically affected how people use the website. honestly idk if anyone besides me actually uses this system, but I'm gonna use it anyway because it's funny

so Era 1 is from the start of tumblr until dashcon. this is where the dashboard had those weird lines on the side of reblogs, was the hight of superwholock, allows editing other people's posts, and was filled the overwhelming prevalence of fandom. back then, tumblr wasn't very mainstream and most people who used it were big nerds (affectionate). so there was a strong sense of community between people who had shared interests.

Era 2 starts after dashcon in summer of 2014. this was a disaster of an event that sorta boosted tumblr's popularity for better or for worse. this is also when I first joined in late 2015 as an undertale blogger originally (my first blog has since been deleted though). this is what I'd call the meme era of tumblr. it's when most of the most popular jokes are from. it's when massive inside jokes and tumblr references started. and it's the time where the most people were active. and it lasted until about late 2018 with the porn ban

Era 3 was kicked off with many users deciding to leave tumblr near the end of 2018 beginning of 2019. tumblr's policy on porn up until then had been "go nuts. show nuts" until it was bought by virison who tried their best to make it "family friendly". the whole thing was handled very poorly ("female presenting nipples") and didn't even get rid of all porn, just porn from sex workers and artists who sold nsfw content to make a living. most of those people left for sites like twitter, and many other sfw artists (and also people who just used tumblr for free porn) left with them. for a while, tumblr was pretty empty. but not entirely. there were still very close knit communities, arguably even closer than Era 1 even. and honestly, this is when tumblr was at its most usable. it was quiet. the only thing that you had to worry about was the occasional porn bot (and staff's growing authoritarianism, but we'll get to that). it's hard to argue when exactly Era 3 ends. I like to say it's when elon musk bought twitter, but I also think it might have started a bit before then. it's more of a slow transition that happened sometime between early and late 2022

Era 4 is the return era. when everyone who went to twitter came crawling back. this was sorta kicked off with staff starting to be more lax with their porn restrictions. but don't think that staff was having a change of heart and suddenly nice. for the longest time, they had been overstepping boundaries and abusing their authority, such as banning mainly Black and leftist users calling them "Russian psyops". it was also around this time that people discovered that there were several terfs on the development team, and that was likely the reason they didn't ban nazis and terfs despite both being in clear violation of the tos. tumblr staff tried to distract from this controversy by adding a bunch of gimmicks. the crabs for April fools, blazing posts, checkmarks, tumblr live. this for some reason actually worked, and a lot of people just forgot or didn't care about staff any more, and it actually brought in a lot of new users. I have no idea how long Era 4 will last. all the Eras have been kicked off with a massive change in how social media operates that becomes more dramic and impactful each time. so short of the us government completely banning tiktok for good, I doubt Era 4 will end any time soon.

sorry this turned mostly into a rant against staff near the end. as you can obviously tell, I'm sorta biased towards Era 2 and 3, as that's when I had the best experiences with tumblr. and a lot of the problems I have with the site today can be traced back to staffs stupid decisions and abuse of power and authority.

but yeah. I hope that makes sense.

#dostxt #asks #tumblr eras #tumblr era

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smash-64 · 5 months

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2023 Game of the Year Countdown #1 The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie Nintendo Switch, 2023

For a fourth time since 2018, a Trails game takes my #1 for the year.

Breaking from tradition, this Trails game has no sidequests. It has a very linear story, although technically there are three linear stories and you can jump from one to another for most of the game. In many respects, this is the “Trails in the Sky the 3rd” for the Cold Steel series. Not only is the story more linear, but we get redemption arcs from past villains, and we also get an absolutely disgusting amount of playable characters. Chrono Cross has 45 playable characters, and people often say that’s too many. Well…Reverie has 50. And each of them gets at least a little time in the spotlight. It’s fantastic for Trails fans, and I adored it. I put 150 hours into this game and I’m not sure I could have put less time into it.

Playing the game on Switch, there were definitely a few times the game chugged, so I can’t give the game a perfect 10. Many of the cutscenes in Crossbell City were bogged down by the sheer number of NPCs, and was noticeable to me, a person famously unconcerned with performance. I can see why people advocate for playing this on PC or PS4, but the portability of the Switch trumps all else in my mind. This is really the only downside I experienced with the game, although it did not affect my enjoyment at all.

Having three linear storylines to follow in any order you want is phenomenal. You can keep going with characters you love, and are never forced to stick with the ones you don’t for very long. And with having a linear story, the pace of the game is potentially sped up a little bit from the traditional Trails experience where sidequests can often lead to very long delays in the main story.

The story itself offers a ton. Obviously I can’t spoil a game that is the 10th in an interconnected, on-going series, but I’ll just say that once the main story is over…the postgame story is equally as interesting and gives fans a peek at some of the series-long questions and issues brought up in previous entries.

Combat is fairly standard as far as the Cold Steel games go. I love Trails combat and this game tweaks little, as nothing was broken. It’s perhaps a little bit more difficult than CS3 or CS4, since the Break mechanic was pretty OP in those two games and it has been toned down slightly, but you can still take full advantage of it if you’re smart and plan well. I also like how some of the accessories drastically increase specific stats, so min/maxing is actually fun in this game. I was able to get Tita Russell’s attack and HP to absolutely absurd heights in this game. She is no longer baby; she wants power!

As previously stated, almost every single character gets their time in the spotlight. Some more than others, of course, but the fact that we get 50 playable characters, yet every one of them gets a chance to shine is a wonderful piece of work by the developers and writers. I’d say that perhaps Musse gets very little, but she had more than enough focus in CS3 and 4. Even Machias gets his own episode, and he is so often forgotten that even I forget about him at times.

Music is good as always when it comes to Falcom. I appreciate some of the battle tunes, like Elegant Prowess, and the game has its own unique sound that sets it apart from CS3 and 4. Maybe not to the same extent that Sky the 3rd sets itself apart from FC and SC, but the tracks unique to this game sound different enough that they are easy to pick out. There are dozens of returning tracks as well, since we revisit quite a few places from previous entries.

My favorite character is Estelle Bright, and I was glad to see a focused effort to put her in the spotlight more often. She wasn’t in CS1-3, and played a more supporting role in 4 than anything else. Meanwhile, Lloyd and Rean ran the show. Estelle is not one of the main storylines in this game, but it’s nice to see her back with some of her famous one-liners.

Overall, I can’t really say enough about the game. It’s an amazing JRPG experience, but one that requires playing the 9 previous games in the series. Maybe that’s a daunting task to some, but the good thing about trying out a Trails game is that there is always another one to play afterward.

#game of the year #goty #countdown #trails innto reverie #hajimari no kiseki #falcom #nintendo #switch #nintendo switch

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saltminerising · 4 months

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IDK if my previous ask sent but... bought tons of tickets for roundsey last night. done that before, won low value prizes before, no biggie. today, i am banned for multiaccounting ~5 years ago, but i am listed as winner of roundsey... did i win the crown which made me get investigated? i feel bad, its like i wasted a ks item for the community without thinking. i never got to see what i won myself.

We got a lot of asks on this while we were paused, so they're all in this one post so it's not trickling out over 4 days on your dashboard!

The wild levels of clownery that the user who won the KS Roundsey prize (Gilded Crown) was immediately frozen for being a multi. :’)

i've been playing for 5+ years and had a second account in my first year because i was a stupid kid and i severely regret that decision. seeing that g from light got banned because staff investigated their account after they won the gilded crown? abysmal... i'm never putting a single ticket into roundsey again.

once again wishing staff would plunder goods trapped in banned-with-no-chance-of-appeal accounts to raffle them off. it just seems so reasonable.

the winner of the gilded crown getting banned for multi-accounting because the win caused staff to take a close look at their account, oh my god

So g won the Kickstarter item in roundsey, gets their account reviewed by staff, and gets banned for confirmed multiaccounting from 5+ years ago. Big ol F for that gilded crown </3

Well. the Gilded Crown went to a now-locked account for multiaccounting. If staff doesn't re-raffle it I'm gonna riot and I don't even care all that much about KS apparel.

How come people who are OBVIOUSLY multi-ing will win Roundsey prizes again and again, but people who haven't touched side accounts in years will be banned?

the roundsey gilded crown went to an acc that got instantly locked by mods bc they multid in 2018

THis Gilded Crown debacle makes me want to stop participating in Roundsey altogether, if they're gonna investigate winners for possible multiing. I had a couple accounts simultaneously as a kid and almost a decade ago but staff is soooo fucking trigger-happy about multiing and I've been living in fear since that even though I've abandoned those accounts entirely, they're gonna Figure It Out and ban me. Not fucking worth the 5,000 treasure per week for 10 tickets, not fucking worth losing my account. Fuck that lmaoooo

so, uh, about that gilded crown from roundsey

I think I'm more salty about the people defending/pitying G from light even though they chose to cheat, than the fact that the Gilded Crown ended up going to a multi-accounter.

how unfortunate that last weeks gilded crown roundsey winner got their account reviewed and banned by staff for multi (years ago apparently) after winning 😭 rip crown

Oh my god, the person who won the Gilded Crown got banned for multiaccounting before they could even log in to see it. Check dev tracker for the thread where people realized (page 7)

sooo an account made in 2022 getting banned for having funneled in 2017-2018... how does that happen

This is exactly why I've been against Roundsey being the only way to redistribute KS and Y1 items back into the game. It's a very good treasure sink, yes, but we need other ways to EARN the high-ticket items.

The gilded crown went to a multi (yet again) who immediately got banned lol

the ks crown got me a bit paranoid. if i were to win a big prize one day and got all of my account history checked by staff, i could only pray that ive never done a suspicious thing in their eyes throughout all those years

lmao at someone winning the roundsey gilded crown then immediately getting banned cus staff found signs of multiaccounting on the account (evidence in the roundsey frd thread)

I think instead of re-raffling the crown staff should log into that account, put the crown on the first dragon in the lair, and leave it there forever.

is anyone else kind of bummed about that roundseys winner getting banned for former multi accounting? like the obvious solution is 'just dont multi' but it's just not fun realising that even if you broke the rules years ago and stopped, theres no point saving up for bigger items like kickstarter stuff because that black mark is permanent and youll lose everything

So the guided crown was won but then the account was investigated and banned for multiacounting. So now the crown is forever on a locked account. Staff better re raffle it off. How many KS items are forever on banned accounts

Mfs can't even lie convincingly on why they get banned. Your account is from 2022, you couldn't have funneled stuff "back in 2017/2018". Hope they reraffle that damn crown and that people stop believing banned users on why they're (mostly) all innocent angels that made one mistake years ago without actual proof.

#banxiety #multi accounting #long post

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vixonspixels · 5 months

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Hi, I love your profile and sims! I’m ‘kind of’ new to the sims world! I’ve been playing since 2018, but not religiously. I just wanted to ask about your mods folder (sorry if it states somewhere on your profile these kind of questions aren’t allowed, i’m new to tumblr too and still understanding how it works). Feel free to ignore this question if it’s not allowed. I understand that by having lots of folders within the mods folder it can make the game lag. I just wanted to ask how your mods folder looks? As I want to keep mine tidy and be able to find certain cc easily. I’m also in the process of buying a pc as I am currently using a macbook and have so much cc it’s starting to not work… If you have any tips or suggestions with having a pc (if you have one yourself) and how your set up looks, I would really appreciate it. Thank you!! 🤍

Hello darling and thankyou so much! 🤍 Welcome to tumblr 💁‍♀️🤍

I think lag in your game mostly depends on what kind of computer/laptop you're using. I have just over 50gb at the moment and my game still runs as smooth as it does vanilla ( no mods at all ). I know some people who have 100gb+ and they don't have lag issues either. Again I think it boils down to the computer itself, and what it can handle

I personally chose to go for a custom built computer so that I could choose my own parts as I really wanted a computer that could handle a lot of mods and also I wanted my game to run nice and smoothly, my partner is a bit of a nerd when it comes to computers so he knew exactly what kind of specs I needed

When it comes to my mods folder I am super organised, that way when patch day comes I know exactly where everything is to be able to take it out of my mods folder until its updated etc. I'll pop in some photos of what my folder looks like so you can see below. Trust me it didn't always look like this 😂

If you're struggling with lag then a short term fix would be to have a good clear out of your mods folder and delete everything that you don't reach for often, you can even go as far as deleting swatches of clothes and build buy items that you don't like. I cleared around 5gb last week just by removing swatches from some build buy items that were high in mb's. For example, I had a bed frame that was 320mb in size so I deleted all of the swatches except for the one that I liked the most lol

What my mods folder looks like

The only suggestion I will give regarding picking a computer out is to take your time and do your research! I really rushed my build and didn't want to wait for the white case that I liked so I ended up with the black one I have now that doesn't match my set up at all haha

When getting your computer the main things to look out for is making sure you've got enough storage and a good graphics card, obviously everything is important but these two for me where the main ones I focused on. If you do go custom built for example, you can always upgrade your parts very easily, where as if its pre built I'm not too sure if the cases are universal to fit different brands of parts in if that makes sense?

I am in no way a pro, I had alot of help from my partner when it came to building my computer. If you need help when the time comes feel free to give me a message and I can run things by my partner to help you choose what parts or pre built etc

I'll leave a few photos below of what my setup looks like, I just got the aurora collection for christmas and I also have the razer quartz collection too ( I prefer the aurora lol ). I can easily recommend you some good equipment also if you're not into the aurora or razer products. If you're looking for set up inspo then I would highly recommend browsing through Pinterest, that's where I got the majority of ideas for the aesthetic of mine. Pink and white are my favourite colours, hence the colour palette haha

If you need any help at all with specs or anything else at all feel free to pop me a message or reply to this post 🤍

#answered

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thepinklink · 6 months

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It got too long and heartfelt in the reblog, so I decided it deserved its own post XD

BOOM. MY OLD ART FROM LIKE 2018/19???

This is my bestie's Harry Potter OC that I drew for her! I actually had some similar drawings of both our OCs, but they're not in my possession right now XD and maybe they'll never be! But it's cool to see how very far I'll e come since then.here's some of my more recent art, just so you can see them side by side XD

For me, personally, seeing them side by side makes me giddy. They're so different, it's hard to link them together, hard to look at them and think the same person drew them. But I did. And as someone who grew up with another fabulous artist (@/rustic-space-fiddle), | was always impatient, always discouraged to look at my own art and see everything it was missing. I wanted to draw like Rusty, but I was so very unskilled. I was very eager to reach the day when I could match her skill, when I could look at my art and see in it everything that I saw in hers.

And today, I can honestly, confidently, gratefully say that I have arrived.

Obviously, if you go check out Rusty’s art, you’ll see I am by no means as good as her. But I learned awhile ago that I’ll never be, no one will—not only am I biased that she’s the best artist in the world (because she is), but Rusty draws the way only Rusty can, and the way only she will. Others may draw similarly, others may copy her, but art is like a fingerprint. Each style and piece is unique to the person who drew it. Therefore, it’s unfair for me to compare myself to Rusty when I could never possess her fingerprint in the first place. But that doesn’t change the fact that I used to compare myself to her so harshly—and the fact that to a younger me, I have achieved exactly what I wanted.

2018 was not the year I started drawing. Was it perhaps the year of my first exploration into the digital realm? Yes, but before then, I was drawing horses. I love horses, and I loved them so much they were all I ever drew. My walls were adorned with dozens of drawings of horses. I’ve since fallen out of the habit of drawing horses so regularly, but all those drawings are what started me drawing. I learned to hold a pencil and put it to paper drawing horses, and then from there, I just started drawing everything else. I only recently started drawing in seriousness, in the grand scheme of things. A year or two ago. And then I was drawing people most of the time, and the occasional dog or cat. And there were many bumps along the way—my discouragement at my own ability, as well as my inability to draw digitally, as I was quickly coming to love. The iPad I used at the time simply didn’t support Procreate after awhile, so I was using my sister’s iPad.

There are also the artists which inspired me. Obviously, rustic-space-fiddle was—and still is—my number one support and inspiration, she was my goal. But then I got instagram and I saw people’s different styles, and while I don’t know where exactly the inspiration from them comes from, it’s certainly there, perhaps in the courage with which I now draw. The second biggest inspiration in my life has been, without a doubt, Jojo. Her art style, which I adore, is something I have tried to imbue in mine—I’ve been told before that it can be seen, but I’m unsure of that. Still, even if I do not draw in her style, I think I draw in her energy. In the way that I draw Legend, that style, that goal, that love for him and her art, I think it’s there every time I draw Legend, and even in the other things that I draw too. She may never know, but she is perhaps the only other artist in the world I have ever really hoped to be like.

Anyways. I guess what I am simply trying to say is I’m happy. I’m proud. I’m content with my art, in a way I once hoped I would achieve, and while I know I have many things to learn, I approach them without that lost hopelessness I used to feel, but with passion, curiosity, and the determination to grow better.

If you’ve read this far, thank you. You didn’t really have any reason to read this—even if we have talked, even if we are mutuals, I’m still a stranger whose ramblings about her art hold almost no weight at all. But you did anyways, because you were curious, because you cared, because it was interesting, moving, inspiring. Whatever it was, thank you :)

I’ve come a very long way. And I’ll go a very long way more. I hope you’ll be here to see it all!

#plink draws #plink rambles #sorry that was long #i was very moved XD

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wiiildflowerrr · 7 months

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Dork: 'The 5 Seconds Of Summer Show is a phenomenal bow out at London's O2 Arena'

'The 5SOS Show arrives as a victory lap to cap off the last decade.'

'It’s been seven years since 5 Seconds Of Summer last played The O2. In 2016, they were a very different band and have undergone quite a transformation on the journey back to the top.

Tonight’s performance, dubbed The 5 Seconds Of Summer Show, honours every version of the group so far, flexing their outstanding versatility over the course of a two-hour spectacular. Amidst a disjointed touring schedule (last year’s album ‘5SOS5’ was toured before its release, in conjunction with a late tour of 2020’s ‘CALM’), The 5SOS Show arrives as a bit of a victory lap to cap off the last decade.

The boys have long been vocal about their want to be taken seriously as a band, but in 2023, the show speaks for itself. Worlds away from the touching album preview show at London’s Royal Albert Hall this time last year, the ability to morph tracks old and new from those sentimental orchestral moments to these wildly fun arena bangers is a testament to the band’s skill and creativity.

Opening with ‘Bad Omens’ – the track they closed that last London show with – it kicks off a run of their more mature tracks: the nostalgic ‘2011’, lovelorn ‘Caramel’ and huge sax-solo number ‘BLENDER’. Where previous tours have seen the boys settle into this flow, with setlists comprising mostly of recent material, this one throws that out of the window, instead enlisting endless fan favourites and tracks that haven’t had live outings for years.

Older album cuts like ‘Babylon’ and ‘Why Won’t You Love Me’ from 2018’s big switch-up ‘Youngblood’ earn a place, but it’s ‘Sounds Good Feels Good’ – the album they were touring on their last stop at The O2 – that really gets its dues, with ‘Vapor’ and ‘Waste The Night’ getting the biggest ‘if you know, you know’ reaction.

5SOS know exactly what the fans want to hear, doubling down by rolling out an inflatable dice with heavily requested tracks printed on it across the crowd to select one, eventually ending up on debut album cut ‘English Love Affair’. One fan also took matters into their own hands by lobbing a DIY dice plastered with ‘If You Don’t Know’ on every side towards the stage; guitarist Michael catches it but unfortunately doesn’t cave in to the request.

It’s just one of the moments in the show that sets 5SOS apart from their peers. The set is divided by occasional video interludes, including one where the boys dress up as surgeons and diagnose the audience as 5SOS fans. Another segment sees drummer Ashton do a bonkers solo in a battle against the crowd for who can be louder, which ends in the other three boys returning to the stage to set off ketchup and mustard bottle-shaped confetti cannons following a vocal cue of “GET SAUCED”.

The whole show is outrageous fun, whether it’s these moments that call back to the nonsense of their old live shows or purely just rattling through the bangers; 5 Seconds Of Summer prove their longstanding relevance throughout the mammoth set tonight. It’s not just a performance that sheds light on the boys’ own skills, but one that also demonstrates the ways in which 5SOS and the fandom have coexisted for over ten years, something shown rather literally during ‘Best Friends’, 5SOS’ ode to one another, that turns that camera on the audience and encourages them to have a cuddle.

As 5SOS prepare to take some time off, The 5 Seconds Of Summer Show is a phenomenal bow out until further notice. Much like their discography, it’s consistently surprising, equally ridiculous and emotional, their growth as a band more obviously laid out than ever before.' X

#the 5sos show london #5sos #5 seconds of summer #calum hood #ashton irwin #luke hemmings #michael clifford #dork magazine #gig review #concert review #the 5sos show tour #2023 #get sauced

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inktae · 2 years

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it's been so long, but i used to talk to you as an anon called "titania". anyway, something randomly made me think of you and how much i used to enjoy your stories (i'm probably rereading some of them soon) and i just wanna say that i hope you're happy. :)

Hello there!!!

Soooo, yeah…. probably very surprising I’m showing up around here what, 3-4 years later!? Whoops 😅 really sorry about that guys.

But I don’t know… recently I’ve been thinking a lot of tumblr, and all the good memories I have from this place. Something just compelled me to come here today, and seeing all of the recent messages (yours included, Titania ❤️) of people that still remember me, after all this time, warms my heart and makes me tear up. It’s honestly amazing that the impact my stories had all those years ago is still present and fresh to some people. It makes me feel genuinely happy!!

I thought I owed you guys a quick update on my life and how I’ve been doing, and hey, if you also want to chat and/or just send me a message, it’s absolutely welcome :)

So… where to start!? A lot has changed since I was active in here, it’s been so long (can’t believe I’m almost 30 years old :D). I remember the years I was a BTS fanfic writer as a turbulent time in my past, which I don’t think I ever truly showed on here. Writing was an escape, and writing angst was my way of dealing with emotions I didn’t know how to manage (now I do, yay therapy). It’s probably the reason why I was so good at it — all of that sadness was inside myself and it was the only way I could let it out.

I don’t write anymore, haven’t had for a while (probably a couple years), but it’s something I want to go back to eventually. I suppose it’s hard to find motivation when it’s not an escape anymore, and it was more of a tool I needed to survive back then. Now that life is much better, it’s hard to find a reason to sit down and write for hours, getting lost in fantasy worlds. But hopefully I’ll find it sooner or later — it’s definitely a skill I don’t want to abandon. Just need to get into a new kind of mindset, I guess :)

So, as for life updates… like I said, a lot has changed! I believe I was still living with my parents when I was last active here (2018). A few months after that I moved out, became independent, and quickly realized how toxic my family life was. I obtained a new kind of freedom and learnt more about myself than I ever had in the past. Leaving my parents and lowering contact with them definitely changed me for the better, which I believe is why I stopped needing to write so much.

I lived with three roommates for a while, which wasn’t smooth sailing... I didn’t connect with them in any way, and I was still learning how to live on my own, which came with its own problems and unfortunately provoked lots of fights amongst us ^^’ so that was definitely a learning period heh. I left after a year to live with another friend, which went WAY better, and then, as life would have it, I met a very cute, incredible boy who is still my partner to this day and the most important person in my life.

We have been living together for a year and even have a dog together! a very stubborn, very rebellious but absolutely gorgeous 1 year old pup :)) honestly it’s an amazing relationship, it’s not perfect and we’ve obviously had some rocky moments, but we have healthy communication and we understand each other like no one else does. Sometimes I still have to pinch myself, because I never thought I would ever meet someone like him, someone I could connect with so deeply. We have been together for almost 2 years, and still going very strong. It's a very stable and solid relationship, we're both into therapy and communicating every issue (though I have to say he's way more emotionally mature than I am haha) which is amazing.

I’m also into spiritualism these days and spend quite a lot of time getting to know myself, learning about breaking down social constructs and inner beliefs, meditation and practicing mindfulness. It’s something I’m excited to continue exploring and it has led me to want a quieter life for myself in the future. Bf and I are actually making plans for the longterm to move far away from the city center, so we can live closer to nature and feel more connected to the earth (sounds like hippie stuff but I promise it's not lol).

To give you one last anecdote (a not so happy one) I did get covid twice and it was absolute HELL for me, even developed pneumonia which was no fun and quite scary. I hope none of you guys had to go through this and if you got covid (statistically speaking, chances are most of you did) I hope it wasn't as destructive as it was for me.

I think that's it! the important stuff, at least. Honestly, if you told me 4 years ago this was going to be my life I would have laughed in your face. I’ve come a long way (mostly thanks to therapy!!) and I have so many exciting plans for the future that I can’t wait for. :’)

So.. even though coming back here and being active as a tumblr writing is not in my plans anymore, I do remember this blog with so much fondness. It definitely saved me and protected me back then, it helped me feel less alone and played an important part in growing my confidence, mostly thanks to readers and followers like you, who cheered me on and believed in me even if you didn’t know me personally. You guys really have no idea how much you helped me.

I will read over the messages you guys have been leaving me these last few years, and like I said, if you want to chat and leave me a message you’re welcome to do so. I’m not writing fanfics anymore but I’d still be very happy to hear from you all.

If you read all of this, thank you ❤️ I wish you all well and I hope you’re all doing amazing!!

Mari

#thank you so much Titania for reaching out! it makes me happy you still remember me!#<33333

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aryasage · 2 months

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RISE—a debatable "analysis"

so, league of legends and the word alive just recently released rise (redux) as a celebration of the original rise, and it made me realise just how many versions of rise have been released over the years. and then, i thought, well. why shouldn't i go over all of them? it's not like anyone's stopping me :]

so, enjoy my thoughts on every version of rise that i could find! supposedly there was a nightcore version at some point but i couldn't find anything official so it will have to stay off the list for now. also jackeylove has some opinions to share from when each of these came out.

his text looks like this

my actual thoughts look like this

don't blame me for tumblr formatting options they all suck ok

RISE (2018)

youtube spotify

next year it’s gonna be me in the music video just you wait we’re gonna destroy this thing

nostalgia-wise, this isn’t my favorite worlds song. definitely not my favourite mv, but production-wise, i can’t imagine any worlds song that could top this one. although mako has worked on every worlds song since at least 2017 (i think 2016 too, but i can’t easily verify that) except for 2̷̨̫̫͓͕̀̓0̷̡̠̹̭͉́2̶̳͕̟̜̄̓̀͗́2̶̠͉͆̍, he absolutely popped off with this one in particular. the gravelly effect added to his vocals helps demonstrate the weight of the lyrics, and then when it’s taken off for telle’s RISE, it feels even clearer, like they’re breaking through all the barriers to go higher, to literally rise above it all. the bpm (177!) can be felt right at the start, a frantic pace demonstrating just how quickly you could lose everything, how fast you need to move, and the bridge has some of my favourite lyrics in all of riot’s songs. i love nearly all of the worlds songs, but the storytelling in this one is wonderful even without the mv.

RISE - Remix (2018)

youtube spotify

better than the original version no competition

rookie looked over my shoulder while i was writing this and laughed at me because he says the rap sucks. well FUCK YOU i’m writing all this in voidtongue from now on how about YOU suck fucking music snob asshole why are you so good at singing

on a lyrical level yeah sure rookie’s right; half of it is product placement. however. sometimes noise is good. i usually don’t like remixes, but here it works, because more going on doesn’t take away from the song; just makes it more hype. i don’t follow bobby or ikon much but his flow here is really clean and it’s just a vibe. i think recently i’ve listened to this version much more than the original just because of how much more energy it has, and while it doesn’t have the same feel, i still really like it

RISE - Live (2018)

youtube

honestly don’t even care it was that bad. we got to laugh about it and then we won so if anything it was just a good luck charm

good thing we weren’t in view at the start of the performance though i think rookie was crying although from laughter or just how bad it was i’m not sure

okay yeah. mako completely threw this one i have no idea what he was on

HOWEVER. telle did great. and yk what once bobby came on mako sounded fine.

it’s still obviously. not good. but it could have been worse. my main problem with it isn’t even the performance it’s the fact that riot turned the mics way down for opening ceremonies after 2018 which is a CRIME LET THEM SING LIVE (it was a bit better for rise 2023 but the other songs were still very loud on the backtracks. i get that some singers aren’t great at the whole projecting thing but come on you can’t tell if you can’t even hear them over the backtrack.)

RISE - UNSECRET Cover (2021)

youtube spotify

yeah i can vibe to this right about now

i like this version a lot but out of all the official releases i think i have to put it fourth through no fault of its own but just because it feels like there’s something missing. it’s gritty and it’s definitely a vibe but there aren’t the layers of production that you don’t notice until they’re missing, especially with how flat the RISE feels. of course, this makes sense—it’s riot forge, and production is all attributed to UNSECRET, but it’s a shame that by any other standards it’d be an absolute banger but here it falls just short. fun fact though, this was the version i put on my playlist for when i was writing nmftg (and no i haven't forgotten about the behind the scenes stuff i promised. it's coming soon i swear)

RISE - Demo

twitter

hm. so maybe he can sing

there’s a reason i heap so much praise on mako. these are demo vocals and just the layers here give me chills, not to mention how much of a sucker i am for strings. i would pay so much for a full album of a full version of all of his silly little string arrangements for all the worlds (and other riot songs, let’s be real) songs he worked on. you have no idea. can’t judge it as a full song but if it were it would be very high on my list

RISE - Live (2023)

youtube

0/10 should have been ME at the top of the rift i would have kicked gumayusi’s ASS

look, i’m biased. but seeing mako’s redemption was everything (and if you haven’t seen the clip he posted, absolutely check it out) and the orchestral instrumental slowing it down instead of the more frantic opening and hard beat gave it a more serious weight that felt especially appropriate for the revival of the song and the ongoing themes of 2023 worlds, with the Glory and the previous winners looking for redemption (even though wbg were complete frauds). it’s a perfect rendition for that ceremony and honestly like. thanks for not doing a season start cinematic riot the rise redemption was a banger you can tell just how much being able to do that performance meant to them and the emotions brought me to tears watching it live

i am glad they brought back season start song for this year though :)

also mako’s jacket was really really cool look

Rise (Redux) (2024)

youtube spotify

this is my personal anthem no i will not elaborate

telle’s vocals on this track are just so full of emotion that i can’t not love it. add to that my soft spot for rock and you get just a beautiful song. i can’t say whether or not it’s my favourite, just due to how new it is, but it’s undoubtedly great, and you should listen to it :)

anyway, i hope at least someone enjoyed my somewhat random thoughts! i love talking about music, especially riot's, and ranting about worlds anthems is what got me writing ppau in the first place, so it holds a special place in my heart. if people are interested, maybe i'll do something else talking about the worlds anthems! or maybe no one cares and this is going into the void. oh well. it was fun to write, especially with jackeylove's little comments. love him.

if you saw a typo no you didn't this is a thousand words of pure brainrot and nothing else

#ppau jackeylove #ppau nmftg #not ppau #at least not really #rise #music analysis #long post #lots of rambling

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ballet-symphonie · 10 months

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Mariinsky Asks

I was wondering if you've seen the pictures and videos of La Fille du Pharaon premiering at the Mariinsky. I've been waiting with trepidation. I have the video of this ballet staged by the Bolshoi and their make up was very problematic, to the say the least. Especially Aspiccia's maid in full on blackface. I don't think I've managed to watch the entire thing because it REALLY bothered me.

I was very pleasantly surprised with the costumes at the Mariinsky! Such stunning costumes! Probably their most beautiful. I didn't see the entire thing but, from what I've watched, no blackface to be seen and I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully this is a first step in the right direction. Maybe next thing they'll be changing around some other makeup in other ballets? (Especially in The Bayadere, I have to skip the entire part featuring children) Baby I steps? cannot speak for the cultural appropriation and aspects of Egyptian culture being used because it's not my place to but I'd be curious about it, too.

Sure its better because there’s no blackface but that’s the lowest bar ever. I’m not sure this is a ballet I’d really want to see. It’s not dramatically captivating, and some of the variations just look downright uncomfortable to get through (unless you’re Kimin Kim). I personally didn’t like the costumes, for how much money they must have spent, they looked a little tacky and overly shiny to me. I have also read reviews saying this ballet REALLY dragged with excessive pantomime. Like its 3.5 hours long- absolutely obnoxious. Haven’t found many clips of the pantomime, obviously because no one is interested. It is an interesting concept of reconstruction, but it almost feels like something that belongs in a museum and not on stage.

Hey, Ale, first of all big love to you for your great blog 🫶🏼 Concerning Anastasia Plotnikova, I feel like she’s kind of become the 2020 graduate with the most featured roles at MT. Others like Valeria Bespalova and Lizi Avsadjanishvili (before she left) seemed to stand out more at Vaganova. Still, Plotnikova seemed to get more soloist parts that seem to lead the path to promotions for new graduates (shades solo, odaliaques solo, variation in Paquita) while the others didn’t. I think the biggest part she’s gotten is the Queen of the Dryads. I don’t know if that’s considered a principal role? But I think at least a big soloist role? :D I just think it’s interesting how things for the 2020 class are working out. They are the first Vaganova class I followed as students already and to me, it seemed that they would take over the theatre like Khoreva and friends, only that their year had even more red diplomas. I was a bit surprised that it seemed that they were given opportunities so much slower than at least the 2018 year. I’m really interested in hearing your thoughts on the 2020 graduates, especially because I thought it was so fascinating that 5 girls danced Masha in the Nutcracker, when only two years later no girl in the graduate year was deemed good enough.

Plotnikova has definitely adjusted to professional life better than expected and is certainly making the most of herself and separating herself from the rather mediocre classes from 2020-2022. Queen of the Dryads is a good step forward. I theoretically would worry about her getting pushed aside for the 2023…but since the ‘big 3’ are all going to BT, I think we will be seeing more of her.

A red diploma doesn’t guarantee anything. There are girls who are soloists without one, and there are girls who are sitting in the corps for life with red diplomas. It’s important to remember that the diplomas take their dancing and their academics into account. For example, Elya Sevenard doesn’t have a red diploma. You need one to work in the theater of course, but that’s it.

Regarding the VBA’s Nutcracker casting, I truly have no explanation. Principal roles in public shows should be kept for the strongest students of the graduating class. Not juniors with 2 more years left and certainly no poaching MT boys.

What did you think of Bulanova’s recent black swan pas? I’m not sure she’s quite ready for a debut, although her turns were great as usual. Tbh I’d be more concerned about her odette in this case, but I’m hoping to see her in more classical leads. I really hope she debuts kitri soon, and i dream of seeing her as aurora although that probably won’t happen anytime soon lol

O/O is not a walk in the park and I don’t think she’s ready. Shakirova, who is also very much not the O/O type, found her technical shortcomings front and center in the White acts. I don’t think Bulanova would be any stronger honestly. I’d think about giving her a shot at Kitri, but I think she’s even worse suited for Aurora than O/O.

It looks like as of 4 April Mariinsky finally promoted some of their men, Roman Belyakov and Evgeny Konovalov are now first soloists! Also a couple of Tsiskaridze´s boys are now coryphees too

Took them long enough, it’s what they deserve.

Is it just me, or Lukina's dancing seems a bit "jerky" to me? Like I never feel comfortable when watching her, especially during more technical choreo like the Medora variation, etc. I feel much better watching Bulanova, but it seems that Lukina will be promoted first. Thoughts?

Lukina is generally not the strongest technical dancer and has had a string of injuries resulting in tendencies to be tentative with harder choreography. However, she is known to have powerful people pushing for her in the theater in addition to a comparatively better physique. On the other hand, Bulanova is seemingly fearless and will dive head first into anything she’s given but is subjected to heavy typecasting and is also more limited in terms of her options for a partner.

Did Alina Somova leave the Mariinsky?

This is very old news no? But yes, she’s at Ananiashvili's State Ballet of Georgia. Her husband is Georgian and has appeared in Ukrainian benefit galas in Zurich.

#ballet #ballerina #russian ballet #ballet ask #mariinsky theatre #alina somova #maria bulanova #anastasia lukina #Anastasia Plotnikova #la fille du pharon

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testing-12-testing · 1 year

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talk about beep-0 and why you like him

dude. dude

do you even. realize the dam you just blew up? the fucking floodgates you have opened asking Me this question????? Because Its a very good one!

Why do I like Beep-O? I'll try to explain. Sorry if this is a bit long, I want to be as detailed as possible.

Tbh, I've been really interested in Beep-O, ever since his first video in 2018. The weird way he spun around, his odd manner of "speaking", and the video in general just being confusing for lore sake turned a lot of peoples heads, including little me. He... intrigued me. The video itself suggesting Beep-O had tried to escape ADHOC? I ate that up. He was the most interesting piece of the puzzle of Fandroid lore at the time (atleast to me.). I liked him at the time because he was just. a mystery. a blank i could fill in with anything i wanted. pretty sure i even had an au at the time where he was a villian and was. scarily similar to 404 in terms of personality. i had so much fun making theories and thinking about what mightve happened to the poor guy.

And then the 2023 Fandroid era happened. Oh. My. God.

I literally regret missing his debut stream, I really do. so hard. That being said, when i heard the news, i still freaked out. this was the first time they brought on a "guest", and it was beep-o?!? The bot we all thought was dead for the longest time, sitting on stream with melody. just like that. and his status of living wasnt the only thing that had changed. He had had a design change, his old story was basically non canon (though i still use bits of it in my personal hcs, mwehehehe), and he finally, finally had a voice of his own.

granted it was just tts, and broke about halfway through the stream, but i was ultimately satisfied with how he was going to be potrayed, even if i was a little put off at first. His personality was... very standoffish (at least to melody). hes witty, and kinda rude, and sounds... incredibly tired. even with only having a tts voice. In an offhand comment, he mentions how he has to control all of the vital operations at ADHOC, now that the humans are dead. Things like temperature, general security, even control of military weapons such as missles? I realized then that hes really got a lot on his plate, and probably didnt even wanna be there at all (that part he kinda made obvious lol). that made me curious. curious as to where this character was being taken. a character i had wondered about for years.

he didnt show up for another couple streams, only being mentioned, which was fine. he didnt Need to be the center of attention at all times. we hear most of the same stuff. hes easily irritable, a but of a pessimist, and does Not take kindly to anyone putting Fandroid in some sort of danger (we know this bc fandrew is pretty much locked away forever now bc of the box incident.). beepo seems to hold some level of care for fandroid (not blowing up melody because fandroid would be sad, sticking them and Only them in the panic room to make sure they were safe). Fandroid doesn't really seem to see this, mostly just put off whenever beepo says anything slightly optimistic (which says. a lot. jesus beepo are you okay).

One thing I think people tend to pass over is that Beep-O TRIES. he tries protecting the adhoc bots. he tries assuring them that everything is going to be okay. he even tries helping MELODY, who hes had a running feud with for who knows how long! And nobody (atleast in canon) seems to appreciate it! They just write him off for being a little rude when hes obviously overworked and stressed due to an intruder being in the building for nearly a month now.

Hes got layers to him, hes not just a authoritative jerk to be a jerk. He Cares. HE CARES ABOUT THEM. IF THAT WEREN'T THE CASE, WHY WOULD HE REASSURE . WHY WOULD HE RISK HIS OWN LIFE TRYING TO RELAY MESSAGES TO MELODY? HE DOESN'T NEED TO DO THESE THINGS TO FUFILL HIS PURPOSE, YET HE STILL DOES THEM.

And while we're on the subject, don't even come at me with the "well hes a security bot, thats his purpose!" bc HAHAHA no. its something more than just his purpose (which. i will get into the specifics of that when i talk about hcs dont you worry. thats a whole seperate post though.)

anyways yeah im not gonna talk your ear off any longer than I have to. I just think Bypass Portals is a lot more complex of a character than people give credit for. That or i am just. reading into everything wayyyyyy too much which is entirely possible.

#adhoc labs #beep-o #bp-o #long post #littleglassbunny

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 6 months

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This post has been ages in the making. It was supposed to be a list of new comedy hours that I’ve seen/heard “in the last week or so”, but actually it’s been about two weeks since I started writing it and then had a weird sort of writer’s block where I was too physically and mentally tired from work (and also maybe rather sad about real life but it’s fine) to want to write anything. But anyway, here’s the post. Some comedy shows that I saw/heard a while and had things I wanted to say about them, just didn’t get around to it until now.

Olga Koch – If/Then (2019), Homecoming (2021), Just Friends (2022)

I heard Olga Koch’s 2023 show Prawn Cocktail recently, and liked it so much that I found the other ones she’s released. I think this is just about all the ones she’s done, since her 2018 show (which hasn’t been released) was nominated for a Newcomer Award, and no one did anything in 2020.

I really liked these. I think If/Then is my favourite of the three, though I don’t know if that equates to it being objectively the best one, the structure just really appealed to me. Talking about her computer science degree and seeing the world in terms of programming. There may have been a couple of times when the connection felt slightly strained, but I liked it anyway and mainly it worked. The actual stories are largely around gendered expectations, and how women get misogynistically praised for being “not like the other girls” if they defy gendered expectations, and obviously that resonated. There was some stuff about her grandmother that I really liked too.

Homecoming is largely about getting a British citizenship (she’s from Russia, grew up going to American schools in Britain so that’s why her accent is like that, she also discussed the weird position of being from so many different places), how she can dissect British culture as an outsider, her perspectives on immigration. Also quite a few stories about sex. There’s a lot of that all across the shows, and I enjoy it more than I usually enjoy stories about sex in comedy shows. Which is a bit, if told well.

Just Friends is mainly (spoiler alert, I guess) about how she met her boyfriend, and my least favourite of the three, mainly because it takes a lot for me to really love a show about how someone met their boyfriend or girlfriend. That was still good, though. Lots of funny stories, the throughline hardly took up the whole thing and was still fun. It had this theme of describing “ho culture”, which didn’t make a huge amount of sense to me but I think wasn’t really for me, and might make more sense to people who are not me.

Across all three, I really liked the way she put them together, embedding the themes at least two layers deeper than I would say the average show does. Also, all of them were just really funny. Like I said about Prawn Cocktail – it made me glad to know I can consider a stand-up show great even if it doesn’t have an incredibly Important Message involved (although there definitely were some Important Messages scattered across these other shows, and I appreciated those as well, also there was definitely some interesting messaging in Prawn Cocktail about the nature of curated “content” and its relationship to reality, so I’m not sure why I said it doesn’t have a message either). The individual stories are fucking funny, almost every time. They can make me laugh when I do relate to them, but they can make me laugh just as hard when I don’t (as in most cases, I’d say, Olga Koch and I have lived very different lives, aside from the unlearning of the misogyny around Not Like The Other Girls), which I think is even more impressive and probably a sign of genuine comedic talent, however that can be distilled. If you can get people to laugh because you said something undeniable funny, not just from recognition.

Her performance style is really engaging. She always seems hyper-aware of how she’s coming across, physically and vocally and within the context of all her complicated identities and relationship to the crowd, and she’s constantly stopping to examine that. I think that, along with the way she goes back and forth among topics and points, makes it hard to get distracted or bored when listening to her.

Urooj Ashfaq – Oh No! (2023)

This won the Best Newcomer award in Edinburgh this year, so I’m glad I got to hear both it and Ahir Shah's show, completing the collection of winners. I liked this one quite a bit. It wasn’t flawless, as people’s first shows usually aren’t. But it was good. The parts that were good, I thought, were really good. There were some really original in there (or so I thought – one of those ideas did turn out to also be in Olga Koch’s Homecoming show, but I think it’s very unlikely that there was intentional copying, just weird that in the same week I heard two people come up with the same idea).

Urooj actually lives in India, which gives her quite a different perspective from most comedians I hear. She’s one of only three comedians I’ve heard who live there, along with Anuvab Pal and Aditti Mittal. So she immediately gets a few extra points for doing it in her second language. She also seemed quite affected by suddenly being thrust into the limelight, in an unfamiliar country, for winning an award. Given all that, she did very well.

A couple of parts of her show required some explanation, because of cultural differences. Some reminded me of Aditti Mittal’s show in that way, having to explain to a Western audience that these things we’d consider normal actually are edgy comedy where they come from, talking about blasphemy or divorce. It’s really interesting, aside from everything else, to try to see what comedy is like in completely different contexts from what I’m used to. And the context affected most of the show, even the parts that weren’t specifically about culture. Because of course it did – everyone’s culture affects every story about their life.

Anyway, I think this show probably deserved the award it got. It’s my favourite out of all the Edinburgh debut hours I heard from this year: Alexandra Haddow, Tadiwa Mahlunge, Bronwyn Sweeney, Dan Tiernan, Mamoun Elagab, Paddy Young, and Lorna Rose Treen. Lorna Rose Treen’s show might have been better to people who like that sort of thing better, comparing sketch/character comedy to “stand there with a mic and tell stories of my life” comedy is apples to oranges. But I tend to prefer the latter.

Anyway, I hope she ends up recording more English-language comedy, and I’m quite curious to see what she does next.

Joe Wells – I Am Autistic (2023)

I didn’t realize until I started watching this show that I’d seen a clip of it before. It’s this clip that went viral a while ago, which came up in my YouTube recommendations and I think I’ve even seen it shared on Facebook. A guy saying he has autism and his brother doesn’t, and then explains all the ways his brother can live an acceptable life with the right supports despite not being autistic. He’s not the first person I’ve ever heard make a joke along those lines, but I think he did it very well.

I watched this show because it was advertised as Go Faster Stripe thing that was put up for free on YouTube, so I figured it was worth checking out. Didn’t realize until after it started that it was that guy from that clip, but this did very much back up my belief that it’s always worth seeing a full-length thing rather than just a clip. The clip was funny, the full show is much better.

He talks in the show about that clip going viral, and how weird that is, and what the reality behind it is. I enjoyed that, as a person who is strongly against the reductive nature of people consuming things in clip form instead of doing it properly (although, to be fair, until I recently I had only seen the clip of this show). I enjoyed this quite a bit. It also wasn’t flawless, I thought some parts were better than others. There was a whole thing about how weird it is that we don’t answer the question “how are you?” honestly, which I think is now about five years past the point at which we could say comedians had fully covered every angle on that one and it could be put to bed. But much of the show felt fresh and funny.

Oh, to balance out the fact that I’ve now accused him a couple of times of being unoriginal, I should say that in one part, he made the point that people are wrong when they think social media is bad for mental health because we see other people living better lives than us and get depressed about it. That’s not a problem, he says, but social media is bad for mental health because we see other people posting racist shit and get depressed about how many racists we know. This wasn’t a particularly funny thing to say, it just a really good point, that I have said multiple times in the last few years but have weirdly not heard anyone else say, so I liked hearing that reflected. Thank you, Joe Wells, for validating my beliefs. Because what do we listen to comedy for if not validating our beliefs? Facebook does not depress me because I see pictures of my friends with kids and wish I had a kid. That’s one of the few upsides, if I’m tired from work and feeling burned out, I can remember that some people have to do all that and then go home, where the responsibilities and the requirement to be around people is only just getting started. While I can cast off the responsibilities and requirement to be around people, and sit in bed playing Pokemon and eating eggs. Their kids do not depress me. What depresses me is realizing how many racists I know.

Actually, as I write this I’ve just remembered I have heard that point made once before. It still counts as Joe Wells being quite original, if I’ve only heard two comedians talk about something then that’s a small number. But Fern Brady said something similar in her Love and Chaos show. I guess it’s an autistic opinion. (That’s not actually true, lots of autistic people are also racist.)

Anyway, it was a funny show. Obviously a lot of it was, in fact, about being autistic. I’ve already heard a whole lot of the jokes about autism that can be made, given that I hang out a lot on the autism website. Despite that, he managed to make a bunch that I hadn’t heard before, so that’s impressive. I recommend it to the many people on this autism website who want to hear more jokes about autism. And like I said, it's free on YouTube:

youtube

Finlay Christie – OK Zoomer (2022)

This is one that I forced myself to watch with as open a mind as possible, because I’m trying to be less of a judgmental dick about gen Z comedians. I’ve seen Finlay Christe once before, when he did Dictionary Corner in an episode of Catsdown last year, and I believe my only comment on it was “Why was there a small child in Dictionary Corner?”

I also know that this particular gen Z comedian has been working on it for a long time. Because last year, when I was looking at all those pictures from that one Flickr account that’s been posting pictures from comedy gigs since about 2006, I saw some pictures from some Comedy For Kids event from years ago, and the picture of one kid was labeled Finlay. Which I figured must be the same guy, since the face looked similar, and it’s not a common name. He confirmed in the OK Zoomer show that it was, told some stories about his time as a child comedian (a literal small child, in this case) doing Comedy For Kids nights, and even showed some footage of one. This footage had James Acaster introducing him, which he described as embarrassing, because James Acaster was his comedy hero, he’d grown up looking up to James Acaster as an older really successful comedian so he hates that James saw the dumb shit he did as a kid. James Acaster. He was a big fan of James Acaster when he was a young kid. I guess I can’t resent Finlay Christie for being young enough to have been a fan of James Acaster when he was a kid, the passage of time isn’t really his fault. But come on. You can’t be allowed to be that young.

That instinctive way of thinking is the sort of thing I was trying to stop about myself, as I decided to watch this comedy special and give the youths a proper chance (well, one youth). And… a bunch of it was pretty funny. Not all of it. But he had some good jokes. Just, straightforwardly, said something that had clearly been written and edited beforehand until it was quite funny. Which is the sort of thing that I stereotypically don’t expect from gen Z comedians, right? I sort of think of them as all Tik-Tok stars who do dancing or crowd work instead of writing material. Well, this guy wrote material. I’d say that solidly more than half of it was quite good.

He didn’t write a lot of it, I noticed. It ran quite short for a full show that he took to Edinburgh in 2022; the recording I watched on YouTube was only 38 minutes. And that’s padded out with a few of those videos and things like that. I looked at the comments, interested to see the takes of the other youths on this youth, and saw a couple of youths say they normally only watch clips and don’t have the attention span for long-form comedy like this but he was so funny that they were willing to watch this long video, which made me briefly despair due to my above-mentioned hatred of our culture’s move toward consuming everything through stripped-of-context clips, but anyway, it’s fine.

To be honest, the part of his identify against which I ended up having the most trouble overcoming my bias wasn’t his age, but his class. Specifically, he dedicated a chunk of the show to sort of bragging about being posh. I say “sort of” because I guess it was meant to be “banter”, making jokes about how his “team” in life – as someone privately educated – is better than the other “team”, people who went to state school. But it doesn’t seem like a great position to take, really.

I obviously don’t hate all privately educated people, some of my favourite comedians are privately educated people. I was about to say I don’t hate them in real life either, but actually they’re barely a factor in real life, I think I’ve only ever met two privately educated people in person. I think private schools are less common here than in Britain, because on British TV they keep making jokes about how private school is for the privileged middle class and state schools are for poor kids. But I grew up solidly middle class, and yet don’t know anyone who paid for school before university. Well, almost anyone. I knew a couple of people, and everyone knew them as the wildly, ridiculously rich kids, so ridiculously rich that they lived in mansions and went to a private school. I can’t tell if private schools are more common in the UK, or if most comedians just grew up so rich that to them, anyone who didn’t live in a mansion was a poor kid, and that’s where the “state school is for poor kids” jokes come from.

Anyway, like I said, I like lots of privately educated comedians. Some never mention it (you wouldn’t know it about Alex Horne, would you?). Some are self-deprecating about it (Ivo Graham). Some use their experiences to write more informed material that criticizes the way the private school system perpetuates class structures (okay, I only know one comedian who does this, and it’s Andy Zaltzman). But not many privately educated comedians choose to brag about their status in their comedy act, even as a joke. Finlay was joking when he bragged about it. But still, it was fairly off-putting.

So it was a mixed bag, that show. He had some quite funny jokes about college and living in a generation that knows it’s doomed and sliding into DMs. He had some weird bits where he made fun of state school kids, which made it quite impossible to find him endearing. He then played some footage of himself as a child getting introduced by James Acaster and then making a dorky joke, which of course was very endearing. He said a few interesting things that dissected how comedy worked. I tried not to be a judgmental dick. It was interesting to watch, anyway.

Other gen Z comedian Leo Reich has a special coming out soon, I've heard a few things by him that I quite like so I will watch that. So see, I'm giving the youths a shot. Leo Reich actually featured fairly significantly in the Olga Koch show Just Friends, that I recently watched. He featured as (spoiler alert, genuinely, for the end of that show) the guy who helped her meet her boyfriend, that boyfriend being Sam Williams, a third gen Z comedian that I have now heard of, and Finlay Christie thanks Sam Williams for doing tour support at the end of OK Zoomer. So there, small world and I am plenty informed about the world of gen Z comedians. At least, about the ones who've hung out with Olga Koch.

Harriet Kemsley – Woman Child (2022)

This is another special that was recently released for free on YouTube. I watched it because I find Harriet Kemsley breathtakingly hilarious on panel shows. However, some comedians are funny on panel shows in a way that make me think I bet their stand-up’s funny. Harriet Kemsley, however, is funny that’s so specific to panel show formats (her way of interacting with others, and her odd takes on rules and format points), that I wasn’t so sure if she’d be as funny alone on stage with just a microphone. But I wanted to find out.

For the first little while, I have to admit, I thought I’d made a bit of a mistake with this special. It was about her husband (Bobby Mair, a comedian who’s also fairly funny on panel shows, he’s got a special on NextUp that I should probably check out at some point) and her marriage, and it was so slow and boring. Sometimes, I hear comedians do material about marriage and/or parenting, and I think I’m not enjoying this, but it’s not aimed at me, this sort of humour works because it’s relatable, so probably someone who is married and/or a parent would like it. But in this case, I was sort of thinking – I’m not sure this is interesting even to its target audience. I’ve heard jokes like all of this before.

But once she got past the first little bit, it got better and pretty much stayed on that upward trajectory, with maybe a few stumbles along the way. But the end, I felt like I’d just seen a really enjoyable stand-up special, even if it wasn’t perfect. This is despite the fact that she did come back to the not-my-favourite topic by telling stories of her pregnancy and then of parenthood, but I actually still enjoyed those.

A lot of the show ended up being about gendered expectations, how society views women, how this affects the way she parents a daughter. And that’s a type of parenting story that I can find interesting. I guess I’m more the target audience for that – I’m not a wife or a mother, but I am a woman, so I can relate to gender material more than to marriage/parenthood material.

However, a lot of it was still not particularly relatable to me. This was something that occurred to me while I listened to Olga Koch as well. It’s something I’ve thought of before, when listening to various female comedians who are particularly feminine (I think I first noticed it when I watched Katherine Ryan’s Netflix specials a couple of years ago). I can hear a male comedian tell a story about being a teenage boy, and even if there are some bits that I can’t relate to because they were specifically gendered, I can put myself in his shoes and find the humour in it anyway. While if I hear a feminine female comedian tell a story about having been a feminine teenage girl, I struggle to do the same. Something feels uncomfortable as I try to do that, I think because they so often tell this story as “this is what being a teenage girl was like, we all remember it, right, girls? We all remember trying to put on makeup and impress boys and wear nice clothes?”

And not only did I not do those things, but a lot of my teenage memories involve feeling uncomfortable under the expectations that I should be doing those things, getting in huge fights with my mother because I wouldn’t be enough of a girl, getting negatively judged by girls who did do those things right because I didn’t. Not all of my memories, of course. Lots of my teenage memories are about playing sports, engaging in various nerdy activities with my mostly male nerdy friends, and liking girls who didn’t like me back. So actually, I find lots of male comedians’ anecdotes about being a teenage boy quite relatable. I spent most of my teenage years trying not to think about what teenage girls were expected to be doing, and getting upset when I was reminded of it by people telling me I should do it. So when I hear female comedians talk about teenage makeup mishaps with an attitude of “I know all the women in the room remember this”, I instinctively don’t like it. I’m glad comedy like that exists, for the people who do relate to it to enjoy. But I find it difficult, and then I feel guilty about the internalized misogyny that makes me find it difficult, because I just gave several paragraphs of excuses for what boils down to me being more open to hearing things from male comedians than from female ones.

Anyway. Harriet Kemsley’s show did have a bit of that. But I think I’ve gotten better, in the last while, at not having an immediate negative reaction to that. So I made myself just listen to her stories, and that was worth it. She had interesting things to say about how it felt to be a girl who did want to meet the expectations of what a girl should be. And she had funny things to say when criticizing how absurd those expectations are, and when describing how much of a mess it was when she tried to do it. She then tied that into her parenting stories, talked about her daughter growing up in a world that has its own set of expectations, talked about still feeling the need to meet those feminine expectations as an adult but not wanting to pass that need down to her daughter. Tackled some serious subjects, remained pretty consistently funny while discussing them – I think that was the strongest part of her comedy show.

Daniel Kitson – Maybe a Ghost Story (2023)

I watched this when he livestreamed it on Halloween a couple of weeks ago (a show that was originally performed in 2022, and the version that was streamed as pretty much exactly the same as the 2022 version, it’d be great if that just becomes a Halloween tradition to do this every year), it was very good, I was going to add it to this but I’ve decided it deserves its own post. Which I will write another day. But at least today I’ve managed to finish most of the post that I started like two weeks ago.

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presentday--presenttime · 8 months

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Annihilation (2018)

This will be a review with spoilers, the movie is good, go watch it.

Its been a bit since I watched the movie, so some of my memories might be off.

Overall I think I was impressed. The idea of an alien "thing" crashing & slowly radiating has been done several times, but this interpretation is possibly my favorite.

It does get a bit goofy with its refraction talk, and a few other things that don't really make sense, but nothing was too crazy.

I also felt it was a bit all over the place in its symbols, it's refraction, cancer, evolution, memory loss, and mimicry. But that feeling was overall short lived, and I was always quickly immersed back into the world.

I felt the cast was a bit cookie cutter, and it being all women felt a tiny bit forced. But, it helped avoid any dumb romance subplot, or unnecessary sexual tension stuff that people would often add if there was men & women. But it was very much each person was a character I'd seen in other movies & they were all quite distinct from eachother. Very much felt like a cast for a movie instead of a collection of people.

Once we get into the "shimmer" proper, we have one time skip, and that's the only one afaik. I think they could have done a lot more with that, but I think they just wanted to avoid explaining a few things & then get on with the movie. Overall the movie was very much split into distinct "scenes" in this way, I understand why it's this way but I think it would have been better to stick to one or two ideas, instead of giving each character death its own "gimmick".

Between the initial time skip & finding the building with the video tape, is mostly just introducing the setting imo. Not much was done with this time, but I can see it feeling rushed without it.

Now, when we watch the movies, things start to ramp up. There are more creatures, and the spectacular scene of the "moving guts" & accompanying body.

I really liked the visual of the body in the pool, it sold the idea of rapid mutation in a body horror way very well. and obviously the scene where they cut him open is great also (if a bit nonsense)

It's not really explained why the previous team stayed in that building for so long, or why they eventually left. Not a big deal, but something I was wondering.

The next bits are a bit hazy, so I'll be jumping to the more important scenes.

The bear, was again great. The setup for them being tied up felt pretty forced, similar to the initial time skip, and the voice mimicking was also a bit nonsense. But a really spooky effect, and done well. The whole "don't tell them about my husband" thing was maybe my biggest pet peeve, cause you know exactly why it's in the story, and it never really made sense anyways.

the flower girl was probably my least favorite death, I kind of wish she was more lucid and less "ooh I'm so strange and mysterious". Like if she could rationally explain that the change to her body & mind isn't something she wants to continue living with, and she decides to "submit" to the shimmer, that would have been so much better than "look at me vaguepost and then walk away ooooOOooH". Overall wasn't really a fan of the whole flower section. Again, if they had done the "the flowers got human structure DNA stuff" as a major point, instead of a one-off, I think that would be really cool.

We get to the crystal beach, for some reason there are a bunch of bones & skeletons outside the lighthouse? I think it's implied that they are most of the previous team, but like why & how?

whatever, we get inside to the climax. the reveal that the husband is a fake! at the time I didn't really feel misled by the protag's initial interview answers, but ya. Either way, very cool twist, kind of goes back to the start of entering the shimmer, with the timeskips & mental decline.

Finally we climb in the hole, and meet the alien. I am sooo glad this wasn't a "ooh it's shiny particles, and some vague pretty 'thing'". We got an actual answer. AND it's an interesting one! there's a ton of questions to be asked about the alien, and I like how smart the protagonist is about it's behavior. It may not even be aware of it's actions, or that it's copying anything. How does the copied husband's brain work? really cool, love it conceptually.

I do think it's very separated from the effects of the shimmer, and don't really believe it's responsible for "changing" anything. It's a mimic, the shimmer is space pollution; or something like that.

The end end, is up there with my favorite endings. Him being honest, open about who he is, non-malicious. Him deciding on his own to hug her, is that because it's a human response? does he actually want to console her? The unhuman stare, I don't really know what it's supposed to mean but it invokes a lot of emotions. Again sooooo many questions about this 'person', and his future.

Overall, I think this movie took on a hard task, and did a very good job. It gave interesting answers, and didn't really fall short anywhere along the way. There were certainly spots where it was a bit less spectacular, but nowhere bad enough to leave a taste in your mouth.

I think this will be a classic. I do wish I had any chance of reading the trilogy (future quadrilogy?) books that the movie is based on.

spoilers #movie review #horror film #annihilation

#spoilers #movie review #horror film #horror #annihilation

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