#i will try to stop taking lazy screenshots and actually put some effort in

[tricktster]

So I once again have a lot of new followers, meaning that it’s time for my periodic disclosure that I started this blog back in 2015 to promote *deep breath* my Explicit Sans/Reader Undertale fanfic, Chill or Be Chilled.

If you’re rolling your eyes at that title, that’s totally justified because it was super halfassed, much like I initially expected the whole fic would be. If you’re rolling your eyes at the words “explicit,” “Sans,” and “Reader,” buddy, you aren’t alone, because I never would have chosen that particular combo of content and characters if I hadn’t been up to a scheme to bilk you fuckin’ rubes for all you’re worth.

I’m kidding. Kind of. Like, I didn’t really think that it would ever go anywhere at the outset: I began writing a few months after I graduated grad school and immediately thereafter got incredibly, INCREDIBLY sick, leading to a month long hospitalization that absolutely destroyed my path to get a paid job in my chosen field for about a year (I had to wait months to take a qualifying exam that’s only offered twice a year due to the hospitalization.)

So there I was, recovering from medical trauma, bored and aimless, unemployed, wildly depressed, and suddenly trying to scrape by in my manhattan apartment without a revenue source or student loans to facilitate my doing so. At the time, I was just like “eh, I’ll try my hand at writing fanfic, how hard could it be? and like, maybe i can get some people to donate money if I get enough clicks… and then I can use that money to buy food that isn’t just toast/ketchup sandwiches!!!!!”

What can I say? It honestly wasn’t my wildest scheme; it was 2015, I was seeing tons of thirsty Sans content on tumblr, I’d actually played Undertale so for once I had some context for THE popular tumblr fandom of the time… aaand honestly, I just thought it would be hilarious to write an entirely earnest sex scene where one of the participants was a literal skeleton. I studied screenwriting pretty seriously in college, I knew how to write dialogue and set up a vague narrative arc, I figured I’d write like 15 chapters and maybe get 50$ from generous readers if i was lucky.

Weirdly, even at the very beginning, this plan seemed to actually play out as I hoped? I was only giving it like 40% effort and I was writing absolute fluff for the most part, but I still picked up a few hundred readers and even got a few donations that permitted me to enjoy both pasta AND sauce at the same time!

The thing is, like I said, that I spent my undergrad years writing and critiquing screenplays. I knew that what I was writing could only be engaging for so long without some force driving the narrative, and it turned out that I couldn’t turn the part of my brain that was constantly analyzing plot structure off. And like… I liked writing fiction again. I’d stopped doing that once the 2008 recession turned all the entry level positions that could eventually lead to a writer’s room gig into unpaid internships, forcing me to abandon my dreams and instead pursue the goal of Being A Rich Corporate Asshole. I was actually pretty good at that last part (still am), but I missed writing fiction; more specifically, I missed writing GOOD fiction. I discovered that in spite of my initial lazy intentions, I couldn’t just keep halfassing it.

So, I decided to full-ass it. I began outlining and seriously working on my character development, and since I was the one writing it, I decided that it would be the kind of story I’d actually want to read - sure, there would still be some fluff, I’d still write a few skeleton sex scenes (and I wasn’t wrong, those WERE hilarious to write), but there would also be action and eldritch horrors and quippy dialogue and a billion plot twists down the road that I’d have to earn by laying the groundwork down up front.

Once I decided to fully commit to telling a story, I started having a ton of fun with it, and the quality improved exponentially…. and now, years down the road, I am the author of a 484k word, 176 chapter undertale fanfic that is currently the 884th most kudos-ed work on Ao3, which doesn’t sound that impressive until you consider that’s 884 out of 8,713,596, which puts it in the top .0001 percent. And that, unless I got the math wrong, is a batshit bonkers insane percentile to be in. It took some fuckin’ WORK, my dudes, but as a result I can now say with full sincerity that I am incredibly proud of the explicit Sans/Reader Undertale fanfic that, as one anon once pointed out, I kind of wrote as a joke for an audience of myself?

Anyway, I’m sharing all this because like after years and years of having this information in my head I just managed to FINALLY explain to @wrexie the exact layout of the location that like 70% of the story takes place in - I never managed to shake the screenwriting instinct to keep the location budget manageable - and now I feel like my soul can finally rest. Unfortunately, I was able to do that by sharing google maps photos of a mansion that I drove by a lot in high school, and it seems super invasive to the owners to plop that in a public post, but if you’ve read it and you FINALLY want to understand where all the rooms are in relation to each other, DM me and I’ll send you a screenshot lol.

Also, if any if this intrigued you, you should probably give the fic a shot, the link’s at the top of this post. As I mentioned, the first few chapters are pure fluff, but the plot starts to pick up steam pretty early on… and then you hit chapter 44, the pandering is officially put to rest, and from that point forward it’s a goddamn blast.

[karasunology]

⸙ ˚₊ ➷ KUROO TETSUROU & KOZUME KENMA BEING A DAD HEADCANONS ! ❞

✎ . . . all those dad headcanons are making me so SOFT 🥺✨🥺 do you think you could make some for kuroo, akaashi and atsumu as dads if u haven’t done them already??

❝ ― submitted by @ nonnie <3 ❞

✎ . . . i'm happy that your requests are open ! and for dad headcanons?? i am right here to serve my braincells for you ma'am. what about dad! sugawara & kenma? thank you in advance 🤓😘

❝ ― submitted by @ nonnie <3 ❞

-ˏˋ ➶ character(s) ━ kuroo tetsurou & kozume kenma <3

[ trigger warnings ━ slight manga spoilers !! ]

✎ . . . DAD HEADCANONS.

[ SUGAWARA KOUSHI & OIKAWA VERSION. ] [ BOKUTO KOUTARO VERSION. ] [ MIYA ATSUMU VERSION. ] [ IWAIZUMI HAJIME. ]

-ˏˋ playing soleil's tape ˊˎ-

[ 📼 ] . . . someone send me cute dad suggestions because i am running🏃out of ideas💡 i'm also finaly done with dad! akaashi hcs in my notes, so feel free to request ( even non-dad related ones ) because i lowkey have no life👉👈🗿

KOZUME KENMA.

➜ it would come as a shock to him honestly ─ you guys used protection and he was atleast careful despite having lazy smex half of the time

➜ but what shocks YOU the most was that he didn't want to get rid of the baby ─ he just couldn't, it was a child he co-reated with the love of his life, how could he ?

➜ you were quick to come with an agreement with him, his soft smile tugging on his lips to form, the smile 80% of the time would come out only for you ( shoyou & kuroo )

➜ he was also lowkey excited, he texted shoyou and kuroo about it as they both congratulated him and were already trying to do dibs on who'll be god father

➜ and you've noticed that he was bit more affectionate with you when you were in your pregnancy, his head on your lap as you play with his hair ─ which he usually doesn't like people doing?? and would every now and then kiss your tummy while playing his games

➜ i want to h*ld his hand

➜ and k*th him

➜ he's like a mother cat on pregnancy, but with you ─ never lets you do work, saying that he already has it under all on control, very protective of you and literally hisses at other people coming near you LMAO WTF MAN

➜ tries to be as knowledgable for your pregnancy as much as possible ─ just like the other dads in my hcs, they want YOU to feel comfortable with EVERYTHING and want YOU to feel supported

➜ has already bought EVERYTHING you needed, even extra ones and has booked appointments left and right

➜ like mans hasn't done this much effort after volleyball ngl

➜ but just like everyone else ─ he's terrified, he doesn't know alot of these things and of course you're the only woman he has ever gotten pregnant and he doesn't have any experiences in these type of thing whatsoever

➜ doubts were not uncommon ─ if he ever was going to be a good father to his child, if he was even a good fiancé to you, was he even worth to have a child with ?

➜ this bb boy CRIED when he heard you guys were having twins, TWINS; like as in a girl and a boy

➜ when kaori and kazu were born, kenma wasn't aware that he could fall in love all over again

➜ is this even worth mentioning because everyone probably knows this?? he s p o i l s  them big time

➜ whenever he's working late at night, he'll always be the one telling YOU to go back to sleep and he'll be the one to take care of the kid for the night

➜ and by kid, i meant kazu because somehow??he??got??his??father's??sleeping??schedule??

➜ and it's how he sleeps by

➜ sometimes whenever you wake up, you find yourself alone in the bedroom and whenever you look at either the game room or your childrens' room, you would always find kenma lying with his children on couch-bed ─ kozu and kaori on each side of his head, kaori having her small little fingers holding and sometimes tugging onto her dad's hair

➜ and sometimes you would also join them

➜ but most of the time, you would head to the kitchen and make some breakfast

➜ and usually kenma would wake up and put his kids back to their crib and he'd go look for you, finding you cooking as he would wrap his arms around your waist as he hugs you from the back

➜ i just wanna get myself a gamer boi kenma

➜ since he gets a lot more clingey whenever he wakes up

➜ whenever he's streaming USUALLY, kozu would sleep on his lap like a cat while kaori is sleeping in his head?? Idk how??

➜ while his fans literally PAY him to show his adorable kids, some even commented how they're all so cat-like and alike with their father

➜ one time while streaming, he was probably ranting tf out of a game he wasted his money on and warning his fans not to buy it because it's basically a scam

➜ and while he was in the middle of ranting, his daughter comes in while holding a blanket on her as she rubbed her eyes looking so much like a small kitten, he literally STOPS DEAD ON HIS SWEAR WORD AS HIS EYES WIDDENED while the people in the chats are either fangirling how CUTE his daughter was or DYING because mans was almst about to swear and interrupted himself

➜ before he could react a bundle of energy comes into the gaming room, you hot tailing on his tracks as you came into the room while trying to retrieve kozu

“ kozu!! don't come in there ahH ─ ” you blushed as you looked at both your boyfriend that has an amused eyebrow cocked up, and onto the camera before laughing and smiling at it since his fans ADORE YOU

➜ when you finally got your hands on your son, you smiled at your daughter as you signaled her to come over to you

➜ but before she could come to you she was already lifted at her father's lap

“ it's fine, i'll have her with me ” he said as he nodded at you, placing her gently in the middle of his lap as his arms encaged her while he played his games

➜ before leaving with a pouting kozu on your arms you threw a peace sign at the camera for his fans, closing the door on the way out

➜ let's just say that it lowkey went viral because it's literally so cute

➜ sorry i just HAD to reference that interview that got viral before

➜ one time where you fell asleep with both of your children curled up to you in the bed, kenma just finished a long stream as he walked to the bedroom hoping to fall asleep ontop of you yet finds two cute cat looking children cuddling you

➜ he quickly took a photo or two and made it both his home and lockscreen before sending it to shoyou

➜ and then sliding himself onto the covers as he, himself, nuzzled himself onto your warmth

➜ the relatable dad, idk why but i really see him getting along with children especially when they're teenagers ─ i just, i COULD SEE IT

➜ especially kaori😭 since she inherited his introverted and somehow shy side??

➜ kaori : *slids down the chair after coming home from school* i wanna die

➜ kenma : same

➜ he would introduce video games to his children AHH

➜ would even play violent games with them because why not?

➜ you'd prolly have to scold him after though

➜ the biggest achievement was when both of his children listing game consoles on their christmas lists

➜ and it was on the top of the list

➜ but kenma, being the kanbe(kambe??) daisuke he is, he bought all the things on that list

➜ he knows his kids are supposed to be studying at school ─ he knows it, he really does, that's why he made them go to school

➜ but he couldn't help but play along with his children on the imessage games when he DEFINITELY knows that they were in the middle of history class

➜ and you'll just find out it through the family gc seeing them spam the chat with games and screenshots of their scores while comparing them😭

➜ he always knew how to communicate with his children ─ perhaps it was because of the reason that they are his children

➜ but whenever his daughter comes to him complaining about human interactions and wanting to stay home while his son complains about school being in the way of gaming ─ he's just like : WE SEE EACH OTHER

➜ baby boy is a lazy bum, but he will never hesitate to participate and contribute to his children's life ─ not only through things, but also with just his guidance and presence

➜ your pregnancy may have come across as an accident, but it was never a mistake to kenma.

KUROO TETSUROU.

➜ after getting married for two years now, you couldn't help but want to start building a family with kuroo

➜ LIKE WHO WOULDN'T?? this is kuroo tetsurou we are talking about

➜ unlike oikawa and bokuto ─ YOU were the one having the baby fever

➜ your friends and colleagues already having or talking with their partners to start or adopt

➜ but of course you were lowkey insecure, why wasn't he even mentioning that he wanted a family with you? does he think that it was a waste of time? or maybe he doesn't want to start it with you ─ maybe you were the problem?

➜ but unbeknownst to you, tetsurou also wanted to start a family with you ─ he wanted a lot of children, actually. but he doesn't want you to feel pressured ─ since you guys are still youthful, there's still a lot of time to think about it

➜ and most of all, he doesn't want to start a family with anyone else BUT YOU

➜ whatthefucksanaol sir eye ─

➜ and he's already talking to bokuto behind your back about wanting to start a family with you ( and of course kenma )

➜ but BOKUTO IS JUST SCARILY GOOD AT ADVICES

➜ it's quite eerie honestly

➜ you, thinking it was only just a slight baby fever with all your friends wanting them as well, tried dismissing your thoughts

➜ but your mind said nO❌🚫 RIGHTS✅💢

➜ and kuroo could notice the slight change in behaviour with you, it was subtle but he was quite perceptive

➜ with his cat eyes intently watching you as you tried avoiding his gazes because all you could think is HAVING A BABY WITH THE SAME EYES AS HIM FIIFJJCJC

➜ HELP ME

➜ it was fine until he confronted you about it

➜ kuroo ─ for me, is someone to face a problem head-on, it's just his personality, so it wasn't a surprise that he seriously yet carefully and nonchalantly confronted you while you guys were about to sleep as you layed your head on his lap, taking in his warmth

➜ and that's where mans dropped the b*mb💣

“dollface? is everything alright with you?”

➜ just imagine kuroo's concerned voice is all that you could hear along with the palpitations of your heart as he caressed your cheeks, brushing off the hair covering your face as he puts down science pun book he had on his hands on the nightstand

➜ now i can't help but imagine that scene from the special/bonus chapter from bj alex with chanwoo and MD on the bed, that scene where he tries to confront chanwoo about that bruise on his face? ughshshsj

➜ all he heard was that you wanted to start a family with him👉👈 and now he's seconds to going FERAL and push you down the matress

➜ 😳🔞

➜ SIR CALM DOWN PLEATHES

➜ I CAN'T TAKE IT

➜ but mans was quick to get himself back to reality, a bashful smile tugged on his lips as he nodded at you, kinda disappointed that you had to be the braver person in the relationship to bring out the topic and it wasn't him

➜ mans is competitive okay

“ . . . why don't we start now? ” he slyly grinned, y'know, that cheshire cat grin

➜ let's just see you guys didn't sleep at all that night

➜ kuroo was, though not surprisingly, good and knowledgable with pregnancy, not like he secretly researched about it that one time when you guys got a pregnancy scare that started all his wild thoughts about you carrying his child um ─

➜ and this is kuroo we are talking about lmao

➜ i think he has his insecurities but was never doubtful of himself being a father, LIKE MANS HAS TAKEN CARE OF A WHOLE ASS VOLLEYBALL TEAM ─ but he knows there is a difference between being a father to his child and being a good one

➜ i wanna m*rry him too😡

➜ you gifted him a daughter, his first born. the first time he saw her, GOD WAS THIS THE BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN HIS LIFE

➜ like who knew you guys could create someone so beautifully mashed of both him and you ─ but you disagree, as even by the youngest age of four months or three, you could see the literal resemblance of your husband on her

➜ and it was uncanny, her eyes were the ones you dreamed of your children having ─ molten golden ones of tetsurou's, her cat-like grin and sly personality

➜ she was always quick to lean on her father's warmth, and that made kuroo CRY and you kinda jealous

➜ but nevertheless, you knew that there were plenty of times to make one that loves you just as much taiga loves tetsurou

➜ and you did get it, second born after only half a year, was tamaki, which has taken both your personality and tetsurou's, while having your appearance.

➜ but you were quick to notice to comment that tamaki has gotten kuroo's shy personality while he was young, he would always shy away from his sister that kept clinging onto him since she has never had a playmate other than her uncles from nekoma's old volleyball club

➜ kuroo was to say the least, really happy when he sees your two children getting along with each other since he, himself, has grown up alone with no sibling and without a mother

➜ and as he looked at you playing tamaki and taiga as tamaki got you all wrapped around his finger while taiga was looking for her father, he couldn't help but smile

➜ believe it or not, taiga first said your name ─ not tetsurou's

➜ in your face kuroo

“ come on, say dada !! ” your husband patted his thighs to make a sound as he sat on the bed while your daughter just ─ once again, leaned on his touch, nuzzling her face onto his warm thighs while giggling

➜ he dropped his phone to the bed whining, “ mama! look at her ─ ”

“ ─ mama!! ” your daughter imitated his words, both leaving you guys stunned and wide-eyed as you laugh in shock while tamaki was jealous you gave his sister more attention and now tugging softly at your hair,

“ . . . mama? ”

➜ KUROO WAS SO DONE, HIS COMPETITIVE LOWKEY PETTY ASS WAS DONE

➜ also belive it or not, tamaki was the one who got his father's sleeping habits of having two pillows on both sides of his head

➜ HE'S THE TYPE OF DAD THAT USES A VACCUM CLEANER TO STYLE YOUR DAUGHTERS HAIR LIKE THE ONES ON THOSE VIDEOS ON YT SNSJJSNZZ

➜ and it actually??comes??off??nice??and neat??

➜ at the age of 7, your daughter was already picked to represent her class on a science fair AND YOU BET TETSUROU IS SO PROUD OF HIS DAUGHTER

➜ would be such a supportive dad

➜ visits tamaki and taiga's volleyball games ─ like atleast all over them, and would bring along his old teammates to it maybe just to relive old memories because you BET that they're attending nekoma

 ➜ would always have these little traditions and inside jokes with them and you

➜ especially science ones

➜ what do we expect? HE'S LITERALLY A DORK

➜ AND SO ARE HIS KIDS

➜ they just vibe with each other ngl, like kuroo is just a down-to-earth guy and could get along with BOTH your extroverted daughter and introverted son, since he was both of them in a moment from his life

➜ uncle kenma would always bring in gifts for them because they're literally now his cats because they are now cats

➜ sorry i don't make the rules

➜ my husband, kenma, does😋

➜ your kids LOVE HIM though, especially tamaki being a bit like kenma ─ both, growing a soft spots for each other

➜ whenever some of his old teammates would visit, taiga is always on uncle lev's back while yaku scolds him to put her tf down or else she'll fall

➜ tamaki on the other hand, is just safely sitting beside his uncle kenma while he watched him play games ─ which he has also grown to love

➜ doesn't let your kids forget to eat and makes them eat even if taiga's in the phase of wanting to be sexy gorl tingz ─ DADDY KUROO SAYS NO RIGHTS🚫

➜ overall, kuroo couldn't ask for more, he was so proud of his children no matter what they do through and through and of course you too ─ for carrying his children, bringing them into the world and being patient with them

#kuroo tetsurou x reader #kozume kenma x reader #haikyuu!! headcanons #haikyuu headcanons #haikyuu smau #haikyuu social media au #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu drabbles #kuroo tetsurou scenarios #kozume kenma scenarios #kozume kenma smau #kuroo tetsurou smau #kenma x reader #kuroo x reader #hq headcanons

[soulmate-game]

Okay, I’m not sure if what I was trying to say in my last post was said very well.

I completely understand the tagging situation from the First Wave with the DC fans. That’s discourse that is mostly solved and we can’t do anything about those who are forever gonna be bitter or lazy. I’m not talking about that stuff.

The stuff I want to prevent/limit is the hate that comes after our fandom deliberately. And yes, I know I can’t stop it. None of us can stop bitter, antagonistic people from being bitter and antagonistic. None of us can stop people who just want to be angry.

I’m not talking about stopping them, though.

I’m talking about what we can do to protect ourselves as creators and consumers in this fandom. As people who love and appreciate what the creations and people in this fandom have to offer. In simplistic form, I’m saying we need to learn how to shield ourselves from bullies. And there are methods we can use to make ourselves less of a target to the people who go after us, and methods to cut their attacks off short. None of these methods are fool-proof, but they will work to filter out a good majority of the shit we would otherwise be showered by, like a big umbrella against Assholery. Sure, the wind might still blow some in our face and we might splash in a puddle or two by accident, but at least we aren’t soaked.

So let me list the various things that can help you shield yourself from hate/harassment/antis who might just be out to get you.

1) leave the fandom.

The most effective, but least attractive method possible. This is limited to being a last ditch effort, if things have just gotten too hard to handle. I’m covering it first though, because we have to acknowledge that it is a viable method. If you feel trapped, hated, bullied, I’m sure all of us in this fandom would prefer you take a break and leave us for a while in the sake of your own health and safety then stay where you are miserable. This is less of a problem for us though, because mostly this option is gonna be for fandoms where the discourse and attacks are internal. Maribat is largely a peaceful and supportive/healthy environment once you’re inside our little bubble, the main discourse comes from outside in. So let’s focus on the main point of this post— how to keep our bubble from popping.

2) Make it apparent right away that you are Unapologetic.

Whenever you post content or are approached by someone about the topic of your fandom, don’t you DARE ever apologize for liking what you like or posting unproblematic content. You need to make it clear right off the bat that you are not gonna be swayed, bullied, or shamed out of your fandom. Stand with pride and make it clear, but don’t be verbose about it. A simple “Don’t like, don’t read” is classic but sometimes if you’re posting/talking during a more confrontational period of the fandom, you need to up your game to reflect that. The funny thing is, people can easily be intimidated by swearing if it isn’t directed at them or clearly antagonistic. If you’re swearing in a joking, casual or even in a manner that shows you’re not taking yourself too seriously, people will usually avoid picking fights with you. For this, my favorite lines to use on my work include;

“Don’t like, I don’t fucking care. I fell down the rabbit hole.”

“Don’t bother reading if you’re not into this, this shit bitch-slapped me and dragged me along on it’s adventure.”

“I’m addicted to this fandom, don’t bother trying to save me. If it bothers you, I don’t give a fuck. Save yourselves.”

3) Don’t approach or interact

Unless someone comes at you first, never try to persuade someone away from hating us. That just makes you a target in an empty field, for the vultures to surround and gang up on. If someone approaches you with provocative but not overly insulting or intelligent language— I.e; trying to start a fight, vague insults not always relating to the fandom itself, trying to insult your character/judgement— do not respond. Delete the message, block the account, and surround yourself with fluffy good stuff to forget the wanna-be harasser. These people are often not brave enough to outright start a fight, and want you to get defensive first so they know the weak points in your armor to exploit. Defensive statements declare your own insecurities, don’t get defensive. It gives them a way to win without having to defend themselves or feel vulnerable— it’s like exploiting type differences in Pokémon. You wait for an unfamiliar Pokémon to expose it’s type, then snipe it with the moves it’s weak to. Then, you have a near sure-fire win even with under leveled Pokémon on your team.

Don’t be a proud Infernape that gets sniped by a weak-ass level 5 Piplup. We’re strong, don’t show them the chinks in our armor.

4) Have a support network. Even if they don’t know they are your support network.

The fandom as a whole serves this purpose, and this is mostly gonna be a tactic you use when the discourse is inside the fandom, but there can be uses for this in discourse from outside the fandom as well. If someone tries to act like they like your story/art “but...” they passive aggressively state things they “would prefer” or they try to make it sound like you made stupid mistakes (a tactic to make you insecure about yourself) instead of kindly pointing out errors or offering constructive criticism (ex: “you know you put your trigger list somewhere where it’s useless right? Love your story though.)—THESE ARE ALL PROVOCATIONS. They are trying to make you insecure so that you change things about yourself, your work, or jump through hoops to try to “make it up” to them when you did nothing wrong and there are no problems to fix. Do not fall for it! Instead, politely as possible, bring the issue into a public space where you feel safe/trust the people in that space to keep the bullshit from escalating. For me, I straight up explain my reasoning for the placement of my trigger list as if I’m advertising a particularly boring but important product that I’m selling, then offer places for them to bring the issue into a discussion with others. I send them to a discoed group or right here to my tumblr, and I immediately make the issue into a big discussion (do YOU think there is anything to change? Let’s ALL talk about it) so that I am no longer isolated and easy for them to harass. They might refuse to join the discussion and further try to pressure you, but do not cave. Merely say that a public discussion has been started, and if they are actually, legitimately concerned about the way you do things then they can debate it in a public setting. This way, you have back up. 9/10 people who try to target you this way will back off and never enter the conversation you started.

5) Do not fight back.

This sounds counterintuitive, but a lot of the time once discourse gets this bad, arguing/defending/ trying to prove your point only fuels their rage more. I have found that people hate very little in this world more than they hate being wrong. And people who hate being wrong will fight to the bitter death about their opinions, no matter how invalid or hurtful they are, in the favor of their blissful ignorance. Remove yourself from harmful discussions or those that seem to be going in circles as soon as possible, and try to surround yourself in your support group. Never let people make you feel stupid, your opinions illegitimate, or your likes/dislikes invalid or evil.

6) Try to learn how to recognize bullies in disguise

It’s too much for me to try to cover here, but you need to PLEASE look into how to spot gaslighting. Tactics of gaslighting are often used to attack others and try to make them feel like their own opinions are invalid or their mindset untrustworthy. People will often approach you in the guise of friendship/support/ “I am not into this, but...” and while this is not always a red flag, we have to keep our eyes open for any signs of this person or their approach being rooted in anything other than legitimate curiosity or kindness. Not all suggestions that say they are out of concern actually ARE. Keep an eye out for warning signs, and cut off interaction once things seem like they may lead to an argument or you being in a vulnerable position if you continue interacting.

(Brief mention of s**cide and threats in the section below)

7) If all else fails, BLOCK THEM.

No hesitation, we don’t need this shit. They make a second account? Block that too. Don’t respond, only take screenshots or reblog if it is directly harmful information that can/should be documented (words that encourage suicide, threats, insults that seem a little too specific for comfort) and give the evidence to someone you trust to look out for you. A therapist, a family member, or even the authorities if you deem that necessary. Just don’t handle it alone.

We are not responsible for other people’s actions, opinions, or anger. Take the steps to protect yourself instead of trying to reconcile. Sometimes, reconciliation isn’t an option. Both parties have to be willing to reconcile, and it is clear they have nothing in mind but hurting us. So raise your shields and protect yourself and your friends, we’re not gonna lose a war to petty jerks.

#tw: harassment #bully prevention #bullying prevention #steps to protect yourself #maribat #ml x dc #mlb x dc

[fwns]

First time crying because of a pokemon game

Literally no one:

Me: I’m gonna write about pokemon shield because it’s a great game and i love it

Man the last time i got to review something was probably 7 years ago during high school english class. I am by no mean a writer, yet again a game reviewer. This is just my honest take on the game bc it saddens me to see that a lot of people are shitting on the game especially with the dexit, short game, lack of action and the paid DLCs just announced. I‘ve been playing pokemon for 10 years or so (my first game was saphire) and despite the flaws this game has, i truly enjoy it.

1.) First of all. dude u gotta appreciate the visuals of the game!! LOOK AT THOSE!!

The screenshots above are from some of my favourite areas in the game. The concept of wild area is really cool and it makes the pokemon journey more realistic like the ones we used to see in the anime or how we imagined it. That it would take days to reach a city and u need to set up a camp whenever you need to rest or fill your belly. Also getting chased by strong wild pokemon in the wild area really got my blood pumping lmao

2.) THE SOUNDTRACKS. THE FRIGGIN. MUSIC. I’m such an aficionado for great music whether it’s an album, movie scores, and even games like these. Seriously the gym leader battle theme is an absolute banger (especially the crowds’ chants!!). Like it makes my 12 yo character more fired up to kick a grown up’s ass in front of a packed stadium and live tv.  The last time i was this excited to kick a gym leader’s butt was when i was battling winona years ago bc my dumb ass haven’t quite figured out the concept of type advantages.

^more appreciation for the gym leader battle theme. From all the shits this game has received, i haven’t seen a single complaint about the music so explain this, science side.

3.) I love how in this game some of the NPCs have actual character like our rival hop, leon, piers, marnie and bede too. BUT ESPECIALLY OUR RIVAL HOP. SERIOUSLY HOP IS BEST BOI AND ONLY DESERVES THE BEST 😭😭😭. Hop is (i assume) childhood friend/neighbour who happens to be the little brother of the current champion leon. Now this may seem like a usual pokemon protag - rival trope, being the protag is a nobody who just stepped into the world of pokemon trainer and the rival being someone related to someone important in the region (like how green/blue, barry, and hau was). Being a champion’s little brother is quite a big deal for hop but hop isn’t the snarky arrogant rival like green was. Instead he’s just a happy kid who dreams of surpassing his brother and want to form a healthy rivalry/friendship with you (he’s kinda a mix of barry and hau imo). Throughout your journey, hop helps you with the ropes and just generally be there as a friend...a real good friend.

And just like the previous games, as the story progresses you get to battle hop quite frequently and in order to advance further in the game (and keep those pocket money to buy varsity jackets) you gotta beat him over and over again. The thing is, unlike some other rivals who were like ‘wow ur so strong! k i need to train more bye’ hop actually TALKS TO YOU. Sure he did acknowledge our strength, but after he would talk to you abt other things like the next city/gym leader or even abt his life atm. I really appreciate the developers for making details like this bc through the dialogues you can actually see the depth of the characters and it makes you actually think. Like for example from my battles and dialogues with hop, i can see that he’s quite pressured bc of his background as the champion’s brother and people have high expectations of him, yet he keeps on losing to you (his rival). There is even one point in the game in which hop fell through a downward spiral bc he keeps on losing to you (the protag) and another NPC rival. You can ACTUALLY FEEL the stirring of emotions through the battles with hop and the dialogues bc at one point he even said something like ‘i don’t wanna drag leon’s name through the mud bc i’m too weak’ and i was like NOOOOO WHO HURT YOU 😭😭😭😭 (but then i realized it was partly me oh god i’m so sorry hop). Never in all my experience playing pokemon game that i feel bad about beating a rival, i do hope in future games they would let the rival beat us....well probably during an offscreen battle :p

Also, for the longest time we finally have our champion doing actual champion duties (?) like protecting the region from catastrophe. Like i understand that this is probably where the ‘lack of action’ comes from because let’s face it, team yell isn’t actually a threat to you or the region, and whenever a ‘real threat’ comes up, leon would beat you to take care of it first. Tbh there are moments when i was like ‘damn leon let me in on the fun too!’ but then again i realized there are actual adults in this game with their actual jobs (champion, researchers, gym leaders) who can actually do their job without relying on a 12 yo to do everything for them which is pretty realistic if you think about it

but don’t worry, in the end we’ll get to play a big part in saving the region too :))

4.) THE GYM LEADERS AND GYM BATTLE IN THIS GAME ARE JUST *chef kiss* the developers really put all their effort in this. Although i admit some of the gym challenges are kinda ‘lazy’ like just pummel through these gym trainers before facing the leader (especially on the last gym???really????). But the battles against the leaders are never boring.

WE FINALLY GOT A DARK TYPE GYM LEADER WOOTTT!! Plus he’s that one dude from the pop punk band that we love during our middle school years.

God i wish i had a big brother like piers, not only he’s one of the most challenging gym leader in our journey but he also helps us not just once but twice. At one point he throws an impromptu concert to cause a riot for us to be able to get through a heavily guarded area

gOD i love that chaotic energy 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

Last but not least...man...MY BEST BOI RAIHAN!!! JUST BEST GYM LEADER, DRAGON TAMER (lol sorry lance), A GENIUS, 100% WILL TREAT YOU RIGHT, JUST 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻💦💦💦 💕 💕 💕💯💯💯 

just thank you gamefreak for creating him 😭😭😭😭👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 

OH AND GYM BATTLE UTILIZING WEATHER EFFECTS??? that’s some solid strategy there. I’m not a really strategic pokemon trainer, so i usually just pummel through every opponent lmao so when i saw this man controlling dragons and the weather i just 😮

AND THE FRIGGIN SELFIE GAWD 😭😭😭😭 LIKE WHO THOUGHT SNAPPING A SELFIE IN THE MIDDLE OF A SANDSTORM HOLDING A GIANT ASS POKEBALL IS A GOOD IDEA??? BUT THIS MAN SOMEHOW MAKES IT WORK. Also pls give me that camera bc the quality is bomb.

Well this turns out to be longer than i expected but i really just pour out how i feel about this game. It’s true that it’s not perfect and there are some aspects that can be done better, but as a long time fan of pokemon I REALLY ENJOY THIS GAME. I can see that the developers really work hard for this game to be able to cater to both old and new fans, and we all know that it’s impossible to please everyone. And for those of you who begs to differ or have different opinion about this game it’s perfectly fine and i’m not hoping to change anyone’s opinion. But PLEASE STOP HARASSING THE DEVELOPERS AND NEW FANS ESPECIALLY YOUNGER ONES! because we all know people who shames others’ interest are the worst kind of people :))) And if you have the time and money i suggest you give this game a try.  Well that’s all i gotta say, have a good day/night everyone!!

#pokemon #pokemon swsh #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon shield #my honest opinion about swsh #going back to the good ol' days of blogging #i've been an avid pokemon fan for years now #pokemon hop #rival hop #pokemon piers #gym leader piers #gym leader raihan #pokemon raihan #pokemon swsh spoilers #gamefreak #nintendo switch

[jo-the-unknowable]

TUA ramblings #1

When I first watched The Umbrella Academy I had so many thoughts about the characters and the story that I wanted to write a bunch mini essays/meta analyses and I had all these ideas and I even started an outline but then I realized that takes things like Spare Time and Organization and Ability to Follow Through which I unfortunately lack so instead I’m just going to start posting some thoughts/observations in a totally disorganized random way.

I’m currently on my fourth watch of the series and I noticed something that’s probably not that big of a deal or a huge revelation to anyone but it made me Sad™ so I’m here to rant about it.

In season 1 episode 9, “Changes”, Klaus almost has an addiction relapse until he’s distracted by his newfound ability to make Ben corporeal.

(yes I’m using screenshots instead of gifs because I am Too Lazy and also I don’t know how to make gifs leave me alone I’m good at other things)

Obviously we’re all aware that Klaus Just Wants His Family to Take Him Seriously For Once (and yeah I get that it’s complicated because he’s an addict and he’s probably let them down a lot but it still really hurts that they overlook him and push him to the side over and over again and generally just don’t see him as competent or capable of being serious or making any substantial contributions and don’t notice when he’s been kidnapped and is missing for an entire day but that’s another story) and that’s a major trigger for him acting out (see: the “Klaus Get Out of the Van” Incident) but what I didn’t realize the first three times through (and maybe it’s really obvious and this is just me being unobservant as hell which happens frequently lol) but this scene comes directly after this one where Allison needs a life-saving blood transfusion and all of her brothers volunteer which is a beautiful but also comedic moment (in my defense, the first few times through I was distracted by the hilarity of Diego fainting at the sight of needles - blood is fine; knives and stab wounds? great; scenes of carnage? A-OK; but needles? nope that’s too much for him). But the part that stuck out to me was when Klaus volunteers to give blood.

It did strike me as a little odd that Pogo would say that the first time I watched, because Klaus is sober now?? He’s been sober for almost two days?? If you ignore the timeline of actual detox which I assume you’re supposed to do because of the fact that Klaus is cheerfully walking around and teasing Luther about his love life one (1) day after quitting cold turkey, there shouldn’t be any drugs left in his system? And I know you’re not allowed to donate blood if you have a history of intravenous drug use but that’s because of the risks of HIV and hepatitis so like... what gives, Pogo???

I think I initially explained it away as some concerns that he might have some residual drugs in his system (which might still be valid I guess) but today I realized that actually I think it’s just that Pogo doesn’t believe Klaus is really sober. There were a few hints that other members of the family don’t believe in Klaus’ sobriety (Luther at breakfast and Five in the scene on the staircase where Klaus tells Five he’s addicted to the apocalypse) but for some reason, maybe because I tend to think of Pogo as this benevolent, all-knowing being, it just didn’t occur to me that even Pogo would not believe Klaus was sober. And Klaus is trying so hard, he’s still very new to sobriety and extremely fragile because of that, and he was finally trying to Be There and Step Up For His Family by donating blood to Allison to save her life but Pogo rejected him because he didn’t even believe Klaus was sober. And that leads directly to Klaus going to look for drugs because “people still don’t take me seriously” so what’s the point? Why put forth all that effort when not only does no one recognize how much effort it is to stay sober but they don’t even believe that he’s sober in the first place?

Anyway now I can’t stop thinking about this and it’s making me Sad™.

#the umbrella academy #tua #klaus hargreeves #tua meta #umbrella academy spoilers

[prorevenge]

Loud, messy, and generally annoying roommate learns his lesson

So I had a roommate over this last summer, as we subleased an apartment in my hometown from a friend of my roommate's who was traveling for the summer. It worked out perfectly, because he was able to give us a cheap enough rent that I could work a factory job in town and still save enough money to put towards tuition for the next year of college.

Now for a little backstory. This friend of mine, we'll call him "Alex", for privacy. I don't like the guy, but I'll still respect his privacy. I use the term "friend" fairly loosely, as we come from a small town (about 5,000 people), so everyone knew everyone, and Alex and I graduated together. We never hung out together outside of the classes and extracurriculars we had together, but I had never had any issues with the guy before this.

So, fast forward to the first week of living together. All was ok at first, some minor annoyances, but nothing major. However as time went on, things started to pile up. Literally, and figuratively. It started with some minor annoyances. We're both guitarists, and would occasionally play together. I'd been playing consistently for about a decade at this point, he'd been playing on and off for a few years. However, when we started living together, he started playing more, probably motivated by seeing how much I played. Nice, right?

Well the biggest problem with this was that he worked the 3rd shift at the same factory (midnight-7am) and I worked the first shift (7am-3:30). So he would play his guitar in his room (right next to mine) at all hours of the night while I was trying to sleep. His typical routine was to crash as soon as he got home, sleep until 3 or 4, (usually he was awake by the time I got home, but not always) make himself food, and then divide the time between then to either play video games with his friends online, or play guitar. Loudly. I typically tried to be in bed by 9, but was almost always woken up either by his guitar, him screaming loudly during a League match, or him clambering loudly around the apartment to get ready for work. I swear it sounded like he was wrestling Macho Man Randy Savage himself in the living room and kitchen at 11:30 at night every night. On top of all of this, he would have his girlfriend over occasionally, as well as other girls I'm assuming he had met on Tinder (as I saw him swiping through occasionally). And the walls between our rooms were very, very thin. I had many conversations with him to try and explain that the noise was bothering me, but he responded with "Sorry dude, just get carried away sometimes. Have you tried headphones?" (yes, that's an exact quote, and yes I had tried headphones, but to no avail. They were too uncomfortable to sleep in). I was exhausted at work every day, relying on the Monster they sold in the break room every day to get me through (so yes, I do blame him for my current addiction to monster). So like I said, things started to pile up, figuratively in that regard, and it was getting old.

On the literal side of things, Alex was a slob, and his things would LITERALLY start to pile up. He'd leave his change of clothes in the living room when he'd change before work and wouldn't pick them up for a week at a time. His room started to smell, and soon, so did he. I don't think I saw him take out the trash in his room once, and I would constantly have to enter his den of despair to retrieve dirty dishes, as he liked to eat in his room while watching anime or playing League, and just leave the dishes on his nightstand. I also started noticing food items going missing from the fridge. Again, I approached him about it, and again, was given an apology and a promise to clean up. But that promise remained unfulfilled. The last straw finally came around mid June.

At work, there are small lockers that employee's can use to store their things. They aren't assigned, so it's a first come first serve basis. You write your name on a sticker and put it on an empty locker, and you are responsible for getting a lock for the locker. I got a simple padlock with a combination, and took the last available locker, recently vacated as one of the employee's got moved to a different assembly department within the factory. I gave Alex the combination and told him he could share it with me so long as he didn't mess with my stuff. Things in there started to pile up as well. Mainly work gloves and safety glasses, as he would put them in there at the end of his shift, and then forget and just get new ones. Our factory handed out gloves and safety glasses for free, so I'm sure he never thought anything of it.

This was just another minor annoyance until one day I left my wallet in my storage locker, and didn't realize until the next day, as I was on my way to work and stopped for gas, and didn't have my card to pay for it. No biggie, this has happened before. I get to work, and as I'm walking in, Alex is walking out. After my shift, I grab my wallet and go to get gas when I notice there's $60 in cash missing from my wallet. I know this because it was money I had set aside to go to a concert later that summer (the last Warped Tour, bittersweet, I know). I went home and confronted him about this when he woke me up clambering around in the kitchen again, and he denied it (of course), even though he's the only one with the combination to my lock. So I decided I was done. Over the next week, I tried to think of a plan, and had a eureka moment when my boss asked me to switch to second shift for a few weeks while another coworker from that shift was taking advantage her years of accumulated vacation days. Perfect.

Finally, ON TO THE REVENGE.

I started with small, reasonable things, like not washing the dishes, hiding the few that were mine in my room, and washing them and putting them away as I used them. The apartment had its own washer and dryer, but the guy we were renting from took his laundry supplies with him, asking him to use our own. Fine by me, I had bought the detergent and dryer sheets anyways. I promptly moved those back into my room as well, and started only doing my own laundry. At work, I had made a new friend who agreed to let me stow my wallet, keys, and phone in his locker during the work day, as I was now temporarily on second shift and my things were usually gone by the time he came in for his shift. Alex's laundry started to pile up. By the look (and smell) of it, he was rewearing clothes several times without washing them. I have no idea what he started using for dishes, I can only hope he wasn't eating off of the gross used ones. He never came and talked to me, and I'm not sure if it was out of laziness or if it was because he knew he didn't have a leg to stand on. But sadly, the smell just kept getting worse, and my efforts seemed to just accelerate his degradation into grossness. But I still had one more card to play.

See, the best thing for me about moving to second shift was that I would now come home at midnight and be able to sleep peacefully while he was gone. When he came home at 7, I would be waking up to start my day. And start my day, I did. First thing I did was make myself some breakfast. Usually a nice fruit smoothie in the blender, the loudest appliance in the kitchen. I would then go into my room, crank up the volume on my amp and jam out to some music, singing along to Mayday Parade, All Time Low, Sum 41, and a myriad of other bands I was listening to at the time in preparation for Warped Tour. I'm not a bad singer by any means, but I'm no Jason Lancaster. I would also occasionally invite my then-girlfriend over during that time, and we were, by no means, quiet. This seemed to be the last straw for Alex now. He stopped me one afternoon before I left for work, and asked me to keep it down while he slept, as it made it hard for him to focus and stay awake at work.

I responded in my most fake-sincere voice, "Sorry dude, I guess I just get carried away. Wanna borrow my headphones?" After a few more days of noise, I think he got the memo. He bought his own laundry detergent and dish soap, and slowly worked his way through the massive pile of shit in his cesspool of a room. By the time I switched back to first shift, he was the quietest, and most considerate roommate ever. However, the smell didn't leave the room, and I was concerned, so I called the friend we were renting from to ask if he had a carpet shampooer I could use to get the smell out. It was at this point the friend told me that this wasn't the first time this had happened, and apparently Alex had rented the apartment the previous summer as well, and the friend came home to find it filthy. Lucky for Alex, the person he was sharing the apartment with left to go back to school early for a university job orientation, and the friend came home to find Alex trying to clean the last of the apartment, blaming the smell and the messiness on the roommate who had left. The friend started to put it together and thanked me for letting him know, and that he would take care of the smell when he got back, but I insisted.

The Pièce De Résistance came when I sacrificed a couple hours of sleep to go into work while he was on the assembly line, grab his phone (which he kept unlocked) from the locker that still had my padlock on it, and found very incriminating text messages from the various other girls he had probably brought back to the apartment. I screenshotted them, send them to myself, and then deleted the evidence that could trace back to me. When I got home, I sent them all to his girlfriend, another girl I had graduated high school with, and that I was ACTUALLY friends with. I also sent screenshots to his "Tinderella's", who's numbers were in the screenshots of the texts under the contact names. And that was the end of that.

Alex was no longer allowed to stay at that friends apartment, but hopefully I taught him to respect his roommates. Because after sharing an apartment with him, with my own separate bedroom, I can't imagine having to share a dorm with him. As for his girlfriend, she dumped him immediately, and Alex spent less and less time at our apartment for that last month, probably going to his Tinder girls' places instead. In retrospect, I should have found a way to mess with his Tinder to stop him from getting matches, but I'm not sure what I could have done, and I think I made the poor guy suffer enough.

Anyways, sorry for the length, I'm not the best at condensing stories. I have a few other, more juicy revenge stories I'd be happy to post another day, I just had to deal with a roommate conflict earlier today (I'm an RA) and it reminded me of this situation. So I hope you enjoyed!

(source) story by (/u/LeoDGTV)

#prorevenge #by /u/LeoDGTV #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

[littlemisssquiggles]

Hey squiggle meister. What're your thoughts on the flood of people on YouTube who are constantly ranting about the series. And how it's dead after Monty died, and how it's so much worst than before. Etc etc

Tobe honest with you Key, I really don't want to answer this question.I mean it's alright that you asked and I'm going to answer you however I'mgetting a strange sense of deja vu here. Wasn't it not too long ago that youasked me to give my opinion on a similar condition that was happening pre-V6?

Thiswas the issue back then and yet here we are again. You may wanna grab yourselfa snack and settle in because this is going to be one long response post. Let’s just say,this squiggle meister had a lot to let off her chest regarding this particulartopic in the FNDM:

Ihave actually had a small listen to some of these critiques on YouTube and toput it bluntly, I couldn't bring myself to finish most of them. I am a RWBY fan whoalways advocates respecting each other’s opinions regardless of whether or notwe share the same sentiments about the series. I am also a RWBY fan whounderstands that the series is not a flawless show and has suffered more than its fairshare of shortcomings throughout its last arc trilogy. 

Nevertheless, in spiteof this, I’ve also acknowledged some noteworthy improvements in the quality of the show that honestly deserves more praise.As someone who has been with this series since its humble beginnings, I have beenthere for each transformation the show has undergone and in doing so, I haveseen RWBY evolve.

Whilesome of the show’s changes haven’t entirely been welcomed by its fandom (withits main change being something completely out of the showrunners’ control) I’dbe lying if I said these changes didn’t contribute to the show’s success insome shape or form.

Speakingfor myself, initially RWBY earned my attention because, like most RWBY stans, Iwas a fan of Monty Oum before and when I discovered that he had his own seriesproduced by RoosterTeeth, I was interested. I didn’t care what the story wasabout or what it looked like. All that mattered to be me back then was that itwas something from the creative mind of Monty Oum so I expected somethingepically action-packed.

At the start, I joinedthe RWBY fandom becauseof Monty however as the seriesprogressed, my reasoning for sticking with it and staying loyal to the showtranscended my past loyalty to the franchise as a by-product of anartist/animator I admired so much.

Thisbrings me to my main point. You want my honest thoughts onthe YouTube RWBY Rants, Key? To be frank, I’m tired of it. It is exhausting listeningto the tirades of these proclaimed RWBY YouTube reviewers who do nothing butgripe and express their disdain for everything the show does wrong according totheir standards. I am so fed up of seeing this happen time and time again.

Andwhat’s sad is that I don’t think part of this is even due to the show or theCRWBY’s fault. Do you know you are more likely to find a video shitting on RWBYas opposed to one that genuinely outlines its positive elements or at leastpresents a fair and just constructive argument of the good and bad of the show?Do you know how many RWBY hate videos the YouTube algorithm has recommended to mesince V6 concluded? It’s ridiculous.

ButI also know I can’t do anything to stop it. So long as RWBY exists, there willalways be these so-called ---I guess we can call them the ‘hate parade’ type of fans who wait like vultures to a carcass to pick apartthe show whenever a new season comes out.

Anddo you know what the sadder part about watching these videos is?

Thesevideos try to give the allusion thatthey are coming from a practical standpoint---as if the things they’repointing out in their reviews are genuine problems with theshow and that their personal advice to the showrunners are valid enough torectify these problems they indicated about RWBY.

Herein, lies my personal peeve with these types of reviews. The best kind of criticto me is one who can point out a flaw in something, justify why they believesaid thing is a clear flaw and then use their own understanding to outlinetheir concept for a possible solution to that flaw that they respectfully leaveopen to the creators of said property to take their advice or not.

However,this is not the case with these YouTube RWBY Rants; at least from the few I’veviewed. I’ll admit, there are some genuinely good RWBY Reviewers on YouTube. Ofthe top of my head, Thatkaitodan, MurderofBirds are two and believeit or not, I actually like some of EruptionFang’s reviews from time to time. Imay not always agree 100% with everything he says in his breakdowns but in myopinion, I can’t get too mad at the things he says in his reviews/video essaysbecause he’s able to justify it in a manner that I’m able to see where he’scoming from. Even if that justification comes from a place of unbridled rage.Referring to EF, I know he’s been receiving flak from FNDM members regardinghis recent views on Adam’s conclusion and Bumblebee; however if I’m beingcompletely honest here, I feel some of that bashing is unwarranted.

Inall fairness to EF, at least I’m able stomach his opinions a lot better than thatof other RWBY Youtubers. As I said, EF is able to properly defend his pointswell enough for me to grasp the validity of his statements which is the least Ican say for some of the others I’ve listened to.

Oftenat times, on the adverse side of RWBY YouTube, I find myself listening toYoutubers who spend more time outright bashing everypersonal gripe they have with the show as opposed to presenting a good argumentthan gives hindsight to why these problems are such an issue to them. 

Theworst kind are the ones where this Youtubers point out flaws in the show andtry to give solutions to what the showrunners can do to fix these problems. Butmost of the time it’s done so rudely that it comes off more obnoxious thanhelpful. As if these Youtubers are proclaiming to know and understand moreabout the animation production process than the actual people running the showwho have the qualifications and past industry experience

I’llgive you two examples. Not naming names but I recently watched two videos fromtwo RWBY Youtubers---one critiquing the shows character designs while anotherwas a Youtuber’s final video explaining why they were quitting the RWBY FNDMfor good.

 Inthe characterdesign critique, the individualexpressed their disappointment in the recent designs for the RWBY girls and thevillains as of the Mistral Arc. They then proceeded to offer their own tips for how the show could have helped to spruce up someof these designs. However rather than attempting to make their own alternatedesigns to the character outfits, this Youtuber just slapped some rather poorlylaid out flat base colours on top of screenshots of the characters in question.Which from a digital art perspective is…admittedly…lazy.

Iunderstand that not everyone in the world is a designer, much less is a characterdesigner or at least knows how to draw. However…if that is the case then whyare you, as the individual who clearly doesn’t appear to have the design skills,commenting on the work of a studio with a full production team of artists whodo have those required skills and experience and can probably rationalize theirreasons for going with the final designs presented in the show. You get whatI’m saying?

Ifone is going to critique the show’s overall character design then the least youcan do is make the effort to back up your claims. Illustrate your own designsfor RWBY character outfits. Create a mock-up 2D/3D screenshot illustration withproper lighting and atmosphere to see how your design ideas holds up againstthose elements of a scene and then compare that to the actual show’s productionwork. This reviewer didn’t even bother to attempt to maketheir own original designs or even redraw the current designs in their ownstyle and test out their suggested colourpalettes to see if it would fit with the overall design aesthetic of thecharacter.

Youmight be asking now: But Squiggles are you saying I need to know how to draw tocomment about RWBY?

To which I say: No.Being an artist is not a requirement that you as a fan need to really have inorder to comment about something you love. HOWEVER, if you are the type of individualwho has the massive chops to try and dictate a production studio with a team ofeducated and/or industry seasoned artists on how they should handle designingtheir characters without you yourself having the design knowledge to supportyour critiques then… you wonder why the CRWBY often get upset with these typesof fans and don’t take their comments seriously?

Contraryto what others might say, I am not a believer that RWBY is dictated by thedesires of its fandom community. That’s a comment I’ve been hearing buzzingabout since V6 ironically in the face of the recent hate crowd to gather fromwhat transpired with the Bumblebee pairing in the recent season.

Iunderstand that there are fans making the argument that the showrunners onlymade this pairing canon because its popular with its shipping community. Thesame can be said about Neo’s return to become Cinder’s protégé.

Admittedlywhile I might find the CRWBY’s decisions to be questionable at times, this still doesn’t prove that they are run by theirFNDM. If something happens in the show, it’s because it’s something theshowrunners and has wanted to do for some time and picked that current volumeto do so. The mere fact that that thing just so happened to correlate withsomething the fans wanted to see is just a matter of coincidence.

Thatbeing said, I will admit that I’ve noticed one or two members of the CRWBY castwho are guilty of encouraging certain ideas without the show itself officially confirming it in its narrative as yet.

In light of that, Iwill admit this. Regardless of whether or not you as a member of the CRWBY teamsupport a particular ship with all your heart, if other fandoms have taught meanything is that as a cast member you should NEVER encourage anything within yourown fan community. It never ends well and I’m seeing this repeated in RWBY. Butthis is not what I’m here to talk about right now. Moving on.

Inrespect to the video from the individual who was leaving the FNDM, I actually didn’tfinish watching their video because the instant they mentioned Monty Oum and their disdain for the CRWBY not living up to hislegacy and all that stuff, I couldn’t.

Ahyes, the classic ‘RWBY Animation hasn’t been the best since Monty passed away and the RWBYAnimation team are terrible because they can’t replicate Monty’s animation’ debate.How many times is this dead horse going to be beaten?  According to this RWBY Youtuber, ‘replicatingMonty’s style of animation is easy andit is appalling the RWBY Animation Team can’t replicate Monty’s style afterfour seasons’.

Thiscomment not only annoyed me as a fan but also as someone who has studiedanimation before. Again, how many times will this poor dead horse be dug up tobe bludgeoned?  Will these fans everallow Monty’s name to rest peacefully without bringing it up to tarnish theefforts made by the CRWBY to finish the story he started with them?

Iget it. MontyOum was a good animator.He wasn’t the best animator. He wasn’t some genius animation prodigy. He was a creative mind who had his own way of thinking and doing things andfrom that, he established a style about hisanimation that shined through his work. If you were to show me an animatedpiece done by Monty and the same piece animated by another person, I caninstantly tell you which one is Monty’s because Monty had his own style.

That’sthe appeal of Monty’s work, on my opinion. That’s what he became known for by hisfans. However, even though Monty was great at animating fight scenes, his way---hisstyle is NOT the only wayto animate a fight.

Recently,I took the time to go back and count the number of fights that happened overthe volumes. I did this because as of V6, I couldn’t help but feel as if theCRWBY might be shying away including moments where the characters areactually engaged in combat. I omitted the character shorts because onemandatory element of the Character Shorts is a fight scene. I just wanted tohighlight the individual seasons alone.  

Someof this numbers might be a little iffy depending on what I counted as a fight,but here’s what I gathered.

THE VALE TRILOGY

RWBY V1C1:2C2:0C3:0C4:0C5:0C6:3C7:0C8:2C9:0C10:1C11:1C12:0C13:0C14:1C15:0C16:2

Totalfights = 12 Fights

RWBY V2:C1:1C2:0C3:0C4:1C5:3C6:0C7:1C8:0C9:4C10:0C11:4C12:4

TotalFights= 18 Fights

RWBY V3:C1:1C2:2C3:1C4:1C5:2C6:1C7:1C8:0C9:1C10:2C11:2C12:2

TotalFights = 16 Fights  

THE MISTRALTRILOGY

RWBY V4:C1:1C2:0C3:1C4:0C5:0C6:1C7:1C8:0C9:2C10:0C11:0C12:1 

TotalFights = 7 Fights

RWBY V5C1:0C2:1C3:0C4:2C5:0C6:0C7:0C8:0C9:1C10:3C11:5C12:1C13:1C14:0

TotalFights = 14 Fights

RWBY V6:C1:3C2:0C3:0C4:0C5:1C6:0C7:1C8:0C9:0C10:1C11:3C12:1C13:0

 TotalFights = 10 Fights

Why I bring this upis throughout V4 and V6’s runtime I’ve seen one or two all-stars inthe new CRWBY animation team. While not all the fight scenes from the MistralArc were the best, there were definitely some good ones that I stood out to me.

OneV4 fight that keeps being overly praised is the Tyrian vs. Qrow dual. Many fanstend to vouch that fight as the best fight of V4. The only reason that fight isso popular is because it was one of the more important fights of thatrespective season.

However,I’m being completely honest, the Qrow vs. Tyrian one on one was good but itwasn’t the only good fight of V4.

PersonallyI took enjoyment in the small sparring match between Yang and Tai Yang.Believe it or not, I felt like that moment, though small, was well animated andI’d actually give props to the animator behind that small scene. There was a nicesense of rhythm to that small fight that I quite liked.

Notmany folks will agree with little ole me regarding that scene but this just goesto show, we all have our own personal preferences with what we consider to be agood fight sequence vs a not so good one.

Often at times, Ifeel really sorry for the series animators cherry picked to handle the combatmoments for the current seasons because I feel like those animators suffer the most pressure and scrutiny in the eyes of the FNDM. I feel like some FNDM members are sofocused on nagging atthe current CRWBY to capture Monty’s old style of animating fights that they aren’t really giving these new animatorswith their own styles a fair chance toshine outside of Monty’s shadow.

Again.I get it. RWBY was Monty’s brainchild. He’s the creator andno matter how far the current CRWBY takes the series, he will always becredited as its creator.

HoweverRWBY has come a long way since Monty’s days. The show haschanged.The overall look and visual style of the series has changed.Even the production pipeline and the software used to animate the series has changed.The CRWBY hasgrown allowing a greater mix of artistslending their talents to breathe life into the series.

Butwhat seems to kind of still be stuck in the past are some members of the FNDMcommunity. The ones who only watch the show because they are waiting to see thecurrent RWBY recapture that essence of Monty thatthey claimed the show lost after he died.

RWBY is dead after Monty passed away? In some ways, this isboth true and false. The truth is that RWBY did die. The old style that the show was being produced on was laid to restafter its creator unfortunately passed. The false is that RWBY didn’t end withMonty because it’s being continued in its current new style by the people whohelped bring it to life in the first place alongside Monty. The same people whoare diligently carrying on Monty’s project in his place. RWBY isn’t dead. It’sstill breathing. Still going. Because a story still needs to be told.

Ratherthan being judged for how well they can interpret a good fight sequence, theseanimators are judged for how well they can replicate Monty’s style. And when theseanimators don’t live up to that expectation, that’s when the shit storm begins.I myself have been found guilty of comparing the past animation to the present.However now I realized that I was wrong in doing that.

Ithink it’s high time some of these fans let go of the past and accept that theaction fight scenes of RWBY are never going to reflect Monty’s style anymore.

Montyis unfortunately not around to guide the current team with this. And they are doingtheir best to find their own style. To some extent, they found it in V6 becausethe fights in this last season were a tremendous improvement from V4 and V5.

Ifeel like there are some genuinely talented animators workingnow on RWBY who know how to create and sell a great fight and if left to theirown devices, they could really dazzle the audience with their own way of doingthings. I feel like since V4, the CRWBY have been experimenting with how they craftout their fights especially in the new Maya pipeline but it wasn’t until V6where I feel they finally found their footing again.

I think most fanscould agree that the fights in V6 were much better compared to theirpredecessors. One of the best one on one fights was the Neo vs Cinder clash. Whoever was the animator responsible for thatscene should honestly be given more opportunities like thatwhere their work can shine through because that fight was well done. Thesame can be said for the Maria vs. Tok oneon one fight despite how short it was. But the thing is, none of those fightsfelt like Monty’s style to me. It didn’t feel like someone was trying to copyMonty but rather it was someone who probably took a little inspiration Monty’soriginal work and the rest was them bringing their own unique spin to it.

Ifthe CRWBY have been trying to replicatethat Monty style in their fights for the past arc then I’m starting to thinkthat that is what’s been holding them back ratherthan aiding them to move forward.

Thisis why I find the whole point about replicating Monty’s style being easy to be ludicrous. Replicating someone else’s style,depending on the medium is not something you can just do on a fly. It’s noteven something you can perfect in a matter of years. It’s something that takes adeep understanding of the art form you’re using (in this case being animation),time, strict discipline and most importantly of all, guidance and critique from theperson who’s style your copying or someone else who is a master of said style and/orhas a great understanding of it themselves.

That’swhy sometimes you might hear behind the scenes tales about animation studiostaking sometime during their production pipeline to train theiranimators on the style or quality of animation they are trying to emulate in acurrent project. DidMonty do that with the CRWBY? Did Montyget the chance to pass his knowledge and technique onto otheranimators? Did Monty even get to see his story grow to what it is now?

Sadly,no.  Monty was a creator who didn’t evenlive long enough to see his own idea flourish for the six seasons it’s beenrunning; now moving onto its seventh season. As far as I know, Monty passedaway as early as V2. Most people don’t even get the chance to see their ideascome to life but Monty was among those fortunate few who was given the shot tomake his idea a reality.

RoosterTeethgave Monty that chance after he worked with them on some of their otherprojects like RvB. He had made himself a household name within their companyand among that, he had made friends and had formed an in-house family with thecolleagues he worked with both on RvB and RWBY.

Saywhat you will about RoosterTeeth and the CRWBY. The original CRWBY who workedwith Monty between V1 and V2 were the people who knew Montythe most. They were his friends. His family. This is all the more reason why itdoesn’t give us, as fans looking in from the outside, the right to use Monty’sname to disrespect the people who knew him better.

Imay not always like what the CRWBY Writers do with the story but I respect themboth as writers. I respect Miles and Kerry because they are the showrunners. RWBY’s plotstarted with Monty, Miles and Kerry.

TheRWBY hate parade need to stop acting as if RWBY was made by Monty alone.Monty did not make RWBY by himself. Shit, he didn’t even create the plot byhimself.

Montyis credited as its creator because RWBY was his brain child and he will foreverbe remembered as the man who conceptualized this idea. But Monty did not writethe story of RWBY himself. He wrote this story with Miles and Kerry. 

Whatfolks seems to be misunderstanding or downrightneglecting is that Miles and Kerryhave been with RWBY since its start. They are the two people who worked withMonty in developing the story of RWBY

Itis depressing that Monty only got to live long enough to see two seasons of hisbrainchild come to life.

Insteadof honouring Monty’s legacy by showing support to the people who worked with himto make RWBY happen, folks instead use Monty’s name to slander the CRWBY.

Tothe people who are guilty of this, how can you call yourself a fan? Howcan you call yourself decent human beings witha legit conscience by using a dead man’s name to disrespect the people who werehis colleagues and friends just because you were displeased with something theychose for the show? How is mouthing off the CRWBY and claiming that Montywouldn’t have consented to the direction they’re taking RWBY in a definition ofyour loyalty to Monty?

Howwould you know what Monty would have consented to? How would you know whatMonty would have wanted in general?

Didyou know him personally? I doubt any of you did. So why claim that in yourhateful comments?

RWBYis not the Monty Oum show. I've mentioned this before and I will say it again. RWBY is acollaborative effort. Monty may have conceived RWBY on his own buthe birthed this series through cooperation with RoosterTeeth and the talentedpeople who formed the creative team that made this show with him.

Andit’s those same people who are busting their asses volume after volume to keepthe show going. The CRWBY could have easily cancelled RWBYafter V2. It’s not the first time RoosterTeeth has cancelled a series undertheir name. They could have hung up the towel after V2 and called it quits. Butthey didn’t because they wanted tocontinue the show. They wanted to keep moving forward and finish the story theymade together with their friend Monty.

RWBY’sproduction takes time,thought, passion and effort. If the RWBY YouTube Critics community wishto be the type of people who want to tell the showrunners how to properlyhandle their IP, then at least back up your points with the same level of time,thought, passion and effort that is put into the show. 

Andbefore anyone jumps at me and is all like, Squiggles, do you know how long it takes to makea YouTube video essay on my own time? To which I answer with, do you know howlong it takes to produce a full season of an animated production on a studiobudget and a strict deadline within a studio that is juggling multiple IPs?

Anyone can point out a flaw insomething or rather what they perceive to be a flaw in something. But it takes morework to point out that flaw, justify why it’s a flaw by your standards and thentake the time to suggest how it could be improved while throwing in your own workto help boast your claims. But no RWBY Youtuber Critics, at least from the onesI’ve seen, wants to do that. They just want to run their mouths and what’sunfortunate is that they will gather an audience of individuals who do the samewhen it comes to the series.

It’salright if you give your opinion but where it crosses a line is when a fantries to tell the showrunners how they should run their show. It’s even worsewhen they try to do it WITHOUT backing up their claims. You want to downplaythe effort and thought that someone else made without producing your own toargue against theirs?

You want totell the CRWBY how they should write the show? Where are your own retellingsof the show? Where are your own plot breakdowns? Your own scripts possibly accompaniedby storyboards and/or animatics to give others a taste of how your ideas wouldplay out?

You want totell the CRWBY that their character designs are terrible and need rework? Where your own conceptsheets containing dozens about dozens of drafts of redesigns that could betaken?

You want totell the CRWBY that their animation is terrible, that animating like Monty iseasy and the animation of CRWBY would look 100x better if they did x, y, z and123?

WellSkippy, why don’t you prove it? Where is your rendered animation that youpersonally modelled, rigged, textured and animated in your own spare time to backup your proclaimed assessments.

Youmight be telling yourselves, Squiggles why do all of that? That sounds like a whole lotof extra work just to prove points for a critique where I’m trying to tell theCRWBY what to do?

Towhich my response will be, EXACTLY.

Ifthe RWBY Hate Parade wish to make a mockery of the extra efforts the CRWBYmembers put into RWBY, then where is their extra effort? If they at least dothat then maybe I can respect them a little more as people who know whatthey’re talking about because they have the skills and knowledge to back uptheir arguments. 

But how am I as the outsider listening in on some of theseYouTube rants supposed to take any of these people seriously when all they’redoing is making lengthy diatribes slandering the work of others and trying topass off as someone who knows more about animation and how it’s done thansomeone who does.

Dothese fans believe that makes them seem witty?It doesn’t. It makes them seem very disrespectful.

Idon’t understand the fans that are like this and I’m not sure if I want tounderstand. I don’t even wish to discuss them furthermore because at the end ofthe day, I can’t speak for these fans. I can only speak for myself and I knowwhere I stand as a fan of RWBY. If there is one advice I can give to my fellow FNDMfam is that weneed to stop drawing attention to the hate parade. Too often do Ihear more about the negative side of the RWBY community and their opinions ofthe series than the actual good that show and its FNDM has spawned. 

Weas the people who still love RWBY and are willing to accept and stand by it andits showrunners, flaws and all, need to become more vocal aboutshedding light on the positives of RWBY

Eitherthat or just ignorethe haters. Seriously, we need to stop giving these guys anaudience. Similar to how the RWBY Hate Parade spend their time mostly pointingout the negative in the show, we the FNDM often at times draw too much attentionto these folks.

Ina sad way, we’re kind of sending traffic over to them. Giving them moreattention that they don’t deserve.

Thesetypes of fans can talk but we don’t need to listen to them. Because for all theflak they give the series and its showrunners, the RWBY train is still moving;strong and unaffected.

Why?Because I’d like to believe the CRWBY don’t pay attention to the hate paradebut more focus on what they wish to do with the series while looking out to thesmiling fans who help spread good word about their show. And really, isn’t thegood still that’s very much there all that really matters? 

Soto conclude finally, this answer took me way too long to write. Sorry to haveyou wait so long Key. This answer took me some time to put together. Apologiesif it’s a very long-winded answer. I really don’t like discussing any negativestuff in the FNDM. 

I acknowledge that it exists and it’s pretty much alwaysgoing to be there but that doesn’t mean I should give it any attention. But forwhat it’s worth, I hope I said enough to make my full peace with this topic.Cheerios!

~LittleMissSquiggles(2019)

#squiggles answers: rwby #rwby #oscar pine #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiao long #monty oum #crwby #roosterteeth #keyenuta

[renegade-is-in-my-blood]

Hey. Let me tell you about something that has been bothering for a while now. Few months ago while aimlessly scrolling my instagram feed I came  across this photograph shared by one of my favourite activist/photographer /artist instagram story – Jack Harries ( I would also recommend checking out his twin brother Fin Harries – truly inspirational guys) This is the photograph that blew me away:

Amazing right? This photo lead me to Natural Geographic page where I found bunch of alarming articles about plastic pollution. Of course like many of you I knew about this problem before but I never really realized juts how fucked up this situation got and the powerful images they shared truly hit me hard.  Check out some of this articles to learn more.

  There is a bunch of sad environmental videos, photographs or stories I could share with you but that’s not really my goal in this article. What I want to share with you is the ways we all could make a difference and show you some heroes that have been doing their part and don’t get much recognition for all of their hard work.

So here we go:

First of all I want to point you to this website called worldenvironmentday.global and their project BEAT PLASTIC POLLUTION with inspiring slogan if you can’t reuse it, refuse it.

They came up with amazing idea of organized clean up. Basically you can join a clean up event in your location and help get rid of and properly recycle plastic. Here you can learn more about clean ups and also about this app called Litterati which is simply an app tool to help you encourage others to collect plastic.

If you are more of a leader than follower you can organize your own clean up event and register it at this page and share it with people in your location with map of where exactly will the clean up be. Here is how you can register and start and make a difference.

With this organized clean ups I must introduce you someone. His name is Afroz Shah and to be fair I don’t know much about him but I aspire to be like him. This guy does the most amazing clean ups I have ever seen, he does post on his instagram page his clean up results of the week and there has been lot of weeks since he’s been doing this.

This was the picture I saw that led me to Afroz as he was the one of the volunteers. This truly restored my faith in humanity and I feel such satisfaction and relief that there are people who care and do something about plastic problem.

Here are some other photos I screenshoted that supports my theory about unknown hero:

I highly recommend you visit his instagram page HERE  and see for yourself the amazing things he did.

If you’re not into big events such as this you can still do your part by following many eco-friendly tips you can find on the internet and here are some:

The whole point is to reduce the amount of plastic you use every day, and if you are for some reason unable to stop using plastic the least you can do is reuse it. I understand that not all of the time you have your canvas bag with you, or your reusable bottle so you buy cheaper plastic version of this, but I’m sure you could find some use for them afterwards.

The sad thing is how cheap is to get this plastic option instead of ecologically friendly ones and trust me being a drop out student in between jobs, working part-time in KFC – money is heavy step back in my eco life as well. I feel so guilty every time I need to purchase a plastic bag and the amount of plastic waste I create on my own is upsetting. The least I can do is recycle it I – have bunch of plastic bags under my table that separates my plastic, paper and glass trash and once in a while I need to find a recycling bin and separate them. You would think that medicine a pharmacy students would have better access to recycling, but nah – if you want to recycle you must make an effort yourself what is such a difference from my primary school where each of our classes had recycling bins so kids could learn to dispose their trash properly.

This leads me to another topic and that’s leading and teachings kinds to reduce plastic waste. I would recommend you check out this stunning video called Oceans of future by Greenpeace. It’s important we grow sence of responsibility and ecological thinking in this kids. I’m so grateful my parents did that with me.

Since I was little we would always separate plastic or milk cartoons from other trash and recycle them later and my parents do that till this day. They actually fill the truck of our car with plastic and need to drive to recycling bins, because there are none in around our new place.

We would always need to turn off the lights when we would leave the room (sometimes not even when we leave the room – it’s so annoying when your dad turn of the lights off when you’re in the bathroom almost every time), turning the water off when you’re brushing your teeth, washing dishes or shampooing your hair. This might sounds ridiculous to you cuz I believe this things comes naturally to people and I find it useless to even mention such small things but I remember skyping with my grandma when she was living and working in america. She would always ask me if I tun off the water when I’m brushing my teeth and I always found it so weird she would ask me something like that. Of course I do. But the family she was staying at don’t find it as natural as I did and it was upsetting my grandma a lot.

We would always make fun of our family’s plastic bag full of plastic bags we would take whenever we went shopping, but once I moved out and lived on my own I realized how clever this idea is and now I have my own plastic bag of plastic bags.

I feel it’s important to put this sence of responsibility into kids and you can always do it in some fun kid friendly way. My parents would for example give me and my sisters bag and we would have to collect trash around our building – make a competition out of clean ups – who collects the most?

There is just no wrong or too little way to save the world.

How to be more eco-friendly if you work for larger corporations?

I currently work for large fast food chain restaurant KFC and let me tell you the amount of waste our single small store creates is alarming. The amount of food and plastic waste is unbelievable and the sad fact remains that single-handed part-time worker in such corporation can’t do literally anything without risking their jobs.

We do have separated trash bins for plastic, bio and mix waste, but we also have to throw all of the meat out once it reach its expiration period of extremely short 30 min! As a former vegetarian the amount of chicken meat, energy wasted for its preparation and basic situation of world hunger depresses me a lot. So what can I do  as an individual ? Girls gotta eat and pay bills.

Sadly I did not figure out answer to this question yet besides to push the big bosses into doing eco-friendly changes for whole restaurant chain. We did switched to paper to-go cups instead of plastic and we also use paper bags what is incredible step forward, but the amount of plastic straws is still bad and hopefully we would also make some changes like our competition did hat really pleases me :

Being a middle european I don’t really understand the demand for straws or ice, but switching to reusable metal straw could make a difference and prevent this from happening:

Of course I understand that if I refuse plastic straw at 27th June 2018  7pm from a cashier at fast food restaurant who has to offer me one I’m not gonna save the world – but if the fast food stops/reduce offering one – this might be actually a huge step  forward.

Why do I even write this?

Let me be so full of myself and believe that one day some big animal in some firm would come across this article, or some family member of their would mention Beat plastic pollution project to them and light up a spark of thought process in someone who actually could make bigger impact on environment.

Spread the word, get inspired, some people are really trying to make a change – why not be one of them ?

I’m not saying I’m perfect, I still occasionally buy plastic bag or bottle, I don’t always recycle materials that should be recycled and sometimes I’m just lazy and put plastic into mix trash can. But I also switch to bamboo toothbrush instead of plastic, I ordered bunch of canvas shopping bags (that would get deliver to me in plastic bag – how ridiculous is that? There should be something done by this issue as well, or the recipes – most of us don’t need them and sure as hell don’t have any way to reuse it – you might refuse it but that doesn’t mean it’s not gonna get printed anyway) and the least I can do is trying to be better and spread the word to people who care and even to those who don’t .

Also not every time is our effort met with actual results. I’m talking about fake recycling bins where all of the garbage ends up in same place without any recycling whatsoever. So if you see something like this in your building call out the authorities about it! Some of us are actually trying for crying out loud !

The amount of waste that ends up in oceans is just heart breaking. I grew up in a country without access to ocean and I only got to see sea or ocean at our summer family holidays and the memories  have from those trips do not meet the sad reality of how bad ocean pollution got.

Simple hard-working individual can not make a difference unless the individuals with actual powers makes changes to preserve the earth. But I feel like I’m slipping back into depressing side of this issue but I really want to point to positive effort of many people involve in helping solve this plastic pollution problem.

There is a note at our fridge in our dorms shared kitchen that states: “Our problem is that we believe someone else is gonna save the world” after one neighbour of mine got upset about number of plastic people from our hall were throwing away.

If you wat to make a difference but don’t know how to start here you can take  pledge at national geographic with simple tips of what to do to reduce your plastic waste.

Take your pledge

  Thank you so much for your attention

xo Natalia

    Beat Plastic Pollution Hey. Let me tell you about something that has been bothering for a while now. Few months ago while aimlessly scrolling my instagram feed I came  across this photograph shared by one of my favourite activist/photographer /artist instagram story - …

#beat plastic pollution #eco #eco friendly #enviroment #hero #plastic #plastic pollution #pollution #story #thoughts #tips

[aibidil]

2017 Feel-Good Drarry Fic

A few days ago I posted a rec list of 2017 Drarry fic that tackled Important Issues. But not every fic has to be important or political, and I wanted to also put together a list of some fics that have made us smile, laugh, cackle, awwww, and generally feel good about life. Thank you to everyone who puts a smile on the collective face of the fandom. Again, this is not a “best-of” or “favorites” list, and it is unavoidably subjective (and thank you to everyone who contributed ideas to the list!), but I hope you get some joy from these fics. Humor, fluff, crack, and smiles ahead (in no particular order)!

Pretty Fond of Not Very Good Ideas by @lqtraintracks: Harry Peterson, Orderer Extraordinaire, and his trusty sidekick, Ray. Or: Harry's been hit with a memory charm, but it's okay because he realises he's bent for Draco Malfoy.

It looked a lot bigger in the picture by @ravenclawsquill: Draco is determined to experience the full novelty of an authentic Muggle holiday. Harry doesn't quite understand, but when does he ever understand Draco? (Or, the time Harry and Draco accidentally went dogging in a car the size of a matchbox.) 

I Can’t Take It! by @xx-thedarklord-xx: After the war, Draco Malfoy became an author. A best selling author whose books move the hearts of those who read them. Which wouldn't be a problem for Ron if all of them weren't about Harry! It was obvious to him that Malfoy was in love with his best friend but why was it that no one else seemed to think so? He was going to get to the bottom of this and get Harry to stop mooning over the blonde idiot at the same time. Perhaps, they just needed someone to come along and get them to fess up. For the safety of his own sanity, Ron was going to help Malfoy ensnare Harry. That is, if they can get along long enough not to kill each other.

It’s Our Party and We’ll Fuck If We Want To by @firethesound: It's like if a tree falls in the forest, Harry thinks. Sneaking away to blow his boyfriend in a coat closet at their own housewarming is only a bad idea if they get caught, right?

A Hyperactive Fruit, a Nasty Neighbour and a Love Story by @synonym-for-life: Potter’s pet Niffler is wreaking havoc in Godric’s Hollow and Draco, the Assistant Head to the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, is the one that has to deal with it. Repeatedly. The fact that Potter keeps coming to Draco’s office in grey jogging bottoms - repeatedly - does in no way help the matter. 

Just Friends (Or Why Draco Malfoy Shouldn’t Have Sex in His Office) by @unadulteratedstorycollector: Harry and Draco are Auror partners, friends, and um... well, that's it. Yes, Hermione, that is it. At least it is until Harry catches him doing a certain something that he can't get out of his mind.

Mugglewear and Broomstick Skills by @callingdrarry: The eighth years attempt a game of football in Muggle Studies. What is meant to be an insight into Muggle sports turns into a fashion show of ridiculous outfits and Harry nearly losing his mind.

when life hands you (lulu)lemons by @carpemermaidtales: Harry grows bored with his usual running path, and finds himself a surprising new jogging partner when he takes a different route. 

The River Thames on a Sunday by @lqtraintracks: A slice of their life in London. Harry jogs. Draco tinkers about. There's rimming. And tea.

Better Than an Origami Bird by @o0o-chibaken-o0o and @jadepresley: A series of letters in which Harry and Draco argue, play truth or dare, get kinky, and are a couple of very naughty (or very good, depending on who you ask) boys during class.

The Sleeping Beauty Curse by anonymous for HD-Erised: When Draco Malfoy falls into a cursed sleep and can only be woken – at least, according to the Daily Prophet, that impeccable source of truth – by ‘true love’s kiss’, Harry Potter knows there’s no way on earth he’s the answer to this particular riddle. Is he . . .?

The Full Monty by @magpiefngrl: Harry poses for a naked Auror calendar and Draco goes batshit crazy with lust.

Fervor by @goldentruth813: Draco hates being woken up in the middle of the night. But he likes sex, and he loves Harry. So maybe it's not so bad after all.

Divination for Dickheads by @seefin: It doesn't actually turn out to be the worst birthday present he's ever been given.

Can I kiss you? by @rose-grangerweasleyisbae: Teddy had been over the moon when Harry had allowed Draco to tag along with the annual Weasley beach weekend when Andromeda couldn't come. Draco not so much. Would Teddy's cousin and godfather ever get along?

Shatterproof Plan by digthewriter: Teddy drags Draco to Australia for Christmas. Draco is down on himself for being forty and still single. They see Harry. Angst. Past relationship drama. Happy ending.

There’s No Espresso in Azkaban by @sassy-cissa: When Harry finds Draco working in a Starbucks, he finds coffee has suddenly become more interesting.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Cake Rota by @gingertodgers: Harry and Draco are drafted onto the office cake rota.

The Slickening: From Devil’s Snare to Penetratio Totalus by @aibidil, @bixgirl1, @carpemermaidtales, @femmequixotic, @noeeon, @shiftylinguini: Sometimes help comes from the place you least expect it.

Moon-Eyed by @l0vegl0wsinthedark: Draco Malfoy, Head of Veela Affairs at the Department of Magical Beings, does not do people favours. Harry Potter, recently turned werewolf, is not “people” – not to Draco anyway. Does Draco plan to fall in love with Harry when he decides to help him? No. Does he end up falling in love with him anyway? Pft, what do you think?

He Whose Hand and Eye Are Gentle by khalulu: Draco reads poems and sometimes writes them. Harry receives poems and sometimes reads them. Rutherford delivers poems via the scenic route. Wombat snores. Eventually, all comes together, with help from the foxes in red bibs and the sumo referee.

Shades of You by @bloodyflammable: Draco certainly never intended to be a style consultant for the seriously fashion challenged, but after the war and the reparations his family had to pay, it was clear he would need to earn a living. However, if having to earn a living meant he got to admire Potter’s arse and shoulders in well-fitted clothes, it wasn’t that bad. Or was it?

Group Chat by @jadepresley: A screenshot of a group chat conversation between Draco, Harry, Ron, Pansy, Hermione and Theo.

Like Cinderella, But With Cock by @l0vegl0wsinthedark: ”Oh, shit,” he groans, “This is like Cinderella, isn’t it?! Like Cinderella, but with cock. Cock instead of slippers.” Where Harry’s hexed so that he can’t lose his erection until he sleeps with his soulmate. If only those were easier to find.

November Third by @queenofthyme: November third. It should have been a day like any other. Except it never was. Not for Draco Malfoy. Every November 3rd, the universe seemed to grant Draco Malfoy a chance with Harry Potter. A chance for what exactly, it wasn’t always clear. But something more than their rivalry. Something more than the empty words they shouted at each other across the schoolyard. Something that grew into a little bit more something every year.

Howlr by @partialtopotter: Howlr is the new dating application enchanting Witches, Wizards and Everyone in between. Are you looking for the one or a one-night stand; it’s all here folks. Howlr is sponsored by Weasley Wizard Wheezes, the same team that brought us the Spellular just two years ago. Ginny Weasley, famed chaser for the Hollyhead Harpies, swears by the app, ‘guaranteed to make sparks fly,’ she says. The magic awaits you!

It’s Joggers Season (or so the Muggles say) by @carpemermaidtales: Everything about Draco’s life since May has been one bloody long exercise in subverting everything he’s known, that’s expected of him, in an effort to get as far away from the mistakes he’s made—the wrong choices he was forced into. He’s returned to Hogwarts to take his N.E.W.T.s and everything is different—namely, Harry Potter strutting around in clingy joggers that Draco can’t get off his mind.

Quietly, as Requested by @shiftylinguini: Harry was trying to pretend Draco’s warm thigh against his own didn’t make his heart thump and his cock start to fill out inside his usual lazy Sunday attire ― which consisted of a t-shirt with a hole in the armpit and the world’s oldest, rattiest, ugliest and most comfortable pair of joggers. In comparison, Draco was wearing a buttoned up shirt and a pair of crisp, black trousers, which made him both seem impressively attractive and also entirely overdressed for this kind of occasion. Harry lifted one knee, trying to shield the view of his slightly tenting joggers, and the state he was rapidly finding himself in. Perhaps inviting Draco to Sunday Bad Movie night at Ron’s wasn’t that smart an idea after all.

Tackson Pollock [ALIYTM oneshot] by saras_girl: It’s a wet Sunday afternoon. What are a beetle and a Gryffindor to do? 

Dance Magic, Dance by @jet-playin: Only one person can make this Halloween night worth Harry's ridiculous costume, and he's not here...

Christmas lights to melt your heart by phrynne: The light does not move. It does not flicker, does not fade. He has the strange feeling it’s waiting for him. Basically, what the tags say + Harry is romantic af + Draco is clueless.

The Romantic Prawn Who Loved Christmas by @bixgirl1: When Draco, forced into sharing a room with Potter for the year, finds out that Potter has a sleepwalking problem, he expects the odd conversations and the weird games of chess. What comes as a complete shock are Potter's other activities...And why he seems so intent on having Draco join him. (Relax. It's just like a holiday Hallmark movie! ...With, uhm, sleepwanking.)

#drarry #drarry squad #drarry fic #drarry fic rec #fluff #humor #crack #feel good

[melissenpai]

the best character creator

do u want to make characters but cant draw for shit or ur hands are tired of holding a pen?? have you ever raged at character creators bc they only have 10 hairstyles and 5 outfits??? fear no more because here’s Kisekae!!!

the models start like the default girl on the left, but w some effort you can make your husbando, cute gremlins, pokemon gijinka or whatever u want!!!

ok but, what is Kisekae?

Kisekae is a flash game/application that works mostly as a character creator, using a mix of interchangeable parts, bits you can move around freely, and lots of sliders to change sizes and positions. Think of it as the 2D version of the Sims/Spore creators.

ngl it started as a k-on hentai game back in like 2011?? there’s still k-on girls and lewd stuff around but the focus is far from it now.

HERE is the sfw link and HERE is the nsfw one. careful w the hentai ads. You can also download an offline version from the creator’s Enty site

IF U WANNA TRY IT OUT CLICK THE READ MORE FOR A SMOL TUTORIAL

so u wanna learn about the suffering that is kisekae?? dont listen to people who say it’s the lazy tool for people too lazy to draw just like drawing, you can make a quick sketch in 10 mins or spend 6 hours adding detail and makin sure everything is PERFECT

so after this disclaimer lets bring it on!!!! click on a link and wait for the randomly generated k-on ocs to load

maybe when you open it for the first time, the tabs look like this. THIS IS BAD it means it loaded on the easy mode.

click here to unlock the Expert mode. it sounds scary, but it’s actually been the default mode for years. now you should see a lot of tabs.

LETS TALK ABOUT THE IMPORTANT STUFF FIRST

SAVING.

This is the save tab. “SAVE” and “LOAD” save the entire scene in a .txt (all models, background, items etc). "Export” shows the codes of the selected models, so you can copy them and store them somewhere. You go to “Import” to paste codes and load characters. The small pencil button opens a window to save and load entire scenes in the app’s cookies. It’s very handy but you will lose everything if you clear your cookies. The last two buttons save or load ALL the data you have in the game, aka all the scenes you saved with the pencil button.

KISEKAE DOESNT HAVE AN UNDO BUTTON SO SAVE OFTEN IN CASE YOU MESS UP

TAKING PICTURES

fOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT DARE TAKE SCREENSHOTS there’s a handy way to save better quality pics. First slider is the zoom. It’ll be your best friend to get closer and edit faces and hairstyles and details and such. See that 05/05? That’s the PNG quality, so make sure it’s always at 5/5. The squares button next to the PNG one will make the background transparent when you snap a picture. Very cool, bc kisekae backgrounds are kinda ugly. The icon on the far right lets you select a region of the screen that’s great too

STOP THE AHEGAO

Next. If you click on the model’s clothes you’ll notice they disappear and they get surprised. The automatic emotions were good when it was a porn game but to actually create content it’s just annoying idk why it still automatically loads like that tbh.

Anyway, go here to set the facial expressions to manual mode. The “Select/All” switch makes you edit all the models at the same time or just one.  (Note: as pochi adds more tabs, they can get moved around and be put in a different group. just keep looking thru the pages until you find the icon you want)

HAVE ONLY ONE MODEL

You’ll most likely don’t need all 9 models at the same time, so you can go here to deactivate them. tbh it’s placed in a really weird place... a year ago it wasnt as confusing idk why Pochi added this update :/

TIME TO HAVE FUN

My recommendation is clicking on everything to see what happens. That’s honestly the best way to learn how to use it. Instead of explaining how to make good looking stuff (i cant do that bc. there’s not a single way of “doing things right” this is artistic expression u do what u do) i’ll jsut give some tips and tricks

1. HOLD SPACE TO GO OVER THE LIMITS OF MOST SLIDERS. It works wonders. Make heads smaller, shoulders broader, eyes thinner, hair pieces larger, bend time and space with the unlimited power of space key.

2. HAIR PIECES ARE NOT HAIR PIECES. BELTS ARE NOT BELTS. RIBBONS ARE NOT RIBBONS. Think of them as shapes to make stuff. Use hair pieces to make capes. Use the lines in the facemark section to draw a new nose. Make entire pieces of clothing out of belts and ribbons. The only downside is that if you move the head, hair pieces and ribbons move with them so making clothes out of ribbons turns your characters into statues

3. CLICK ON CLOTHES TO CHANGE STUFF. If you click on some clothing pieces you can change some things like unbuttoning shirt buttons, opening sweaters, putting sunglasses on their head and removing parts of scarves.

4. THE DEFAULT PALETTE IS UGLY. please do use a custom one

5. YOU RAN OUT OF SLOTS? Use the free floating items on the 3rd set of tabs. You can have extra belts, ribbons, arms, furniture and speech bubbles. Even load external images. But keep in mind extra stuff is not attached to characters, so it won’t move around with them or save in their individual codes.

6. USE OTHER PEOPLE’S EXPORTS RESPONSIBLY. There are lots of people on deviantArt and the Pochi forums (official Kisekae forums) that make character, clothing or hairstyle exports for other people to load and use on their creations (like Sims mods!). However, most dA people have rules if you want to use them on something you upload, so make sure to read each user’s rules!

7. TECHNICALLY THERE ARE NO MALE, MUSCULAR OR BIG BODY TYPES. You can force it out, but we’ve been forever cursed with the hip size being linked to the leg size. So your guys will either have feminine hips or scrawny ass legs. There aren’t any muscle options apart from abs, and the most similar thing we have for chub is a pregnant looking belly. You can always edit it with photoshop later or suffer and make muscles and fat with belts and hairs.

Have fun suffering with Kisekae!!! Feel free to ask me questions on how to do X or Y, or request me to expand more information about stuff like what each tab does.

CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL GUIDE!! It does explain a bit what each tab does, and also explains the keyboard shortcuts. It’s in japanese, but nothing google translate can’t fix if you need it.

#kisekae #tutorial #kisekae tutorial #my posts

[moonlitazure]

Welp, since I just love calling out bullshit when I see it...

I’m too lazy to go through an organized, itemized list of why your call out is bullshit, @assassincraft , so I’ll just point out any flaws, fallacies, or inaccuracies as we go through. Frankly, you don’t seem worth the time to put a full on anti-callout over, but I’ll make an exception here. Just for you, friendo.

We’ll start out with Bun’s section.

So, I’m not posting the screen caps over. Simply because they’re a fucking mess. Half of your screenshots repeat 80% of the same messages over and over, and there is legitimately something like five or more like that in a row. 

The important thing to take out of this section is that there’s two problems with your start here.

First off, this call out isn’t about Natsuki, it’s about Junko. If you plan to call someone out over receipts, at least explain what your receipts are for properly.

Second off... The FC someone uses is nobody’s fucking business but their own in the first place. This whole thing is like getting pissed off that I use Lillie from Pokemon, who is white with blonde hair and green eyes, as the FC for Sayuri Nakamura, who while her mother was blonde and father has green eyes is still technically Japanese. 

Sayuri would look literally near identical to Lillie based on how I picture her, hence I use Lillie. If you dislike my, or anyone’s, choice in FC simply don’t follow them.

.... Kay, so, I already can’t take this call out seriously, because clearly you and your friend are fucking idiots who can’t even use Google. 

Gyaru is not fucking blackface. Gyaru refers to a culture/style of fashion conscious girls in Japan, which has several sub styles. You might be thinking of the sub style of GANGURO, but even then the traits of ganguro style are heavy tans and blonde hair. Junko is canonically a gyaru, simple as that. If someone headcanons Junko as having been involved in ganguro at some point, a style that has NOTHING to do with black face, that’s their business.

You have many valid points in this, and I will give you some credit for it. However, you have one major issue in your entire argument that makes the whole thing flawed.

Race =/= Ethnicity

Korean and Japanese are not races, they are ethnic backgrounds. You can hold prejudice against one group, but that does not automatically make it racism. You can’t even make the argument that it’s racist because it’s ‘claiming them interchangeable’ because Bun, in your own screenshots, outright says that she is fully aware they’re of a different ethnic background, and that her rational for using the face claim is solely because her appearance fits Junko better. 

She is not claiming the FC is Japanese, nor saying the FC is playing Junko. It’s a fucking icon of a person who looks like Junko. There’s a world of difference between that and a movie/play/show completely miscasting a POC. To claim any correlation is asinine. 

Hello, Slippery Slope fallacy, fancy seeing you here. Okay, so I’m going to be frankly blunt here. Your entire argument in the second part there is harmful at best, and stupid at worst.

First off, not everyone holds the same values you do. Just because you find something racist doesn’t mean every POC out there will. You are not the only POC out there. Just like I am not the only trans person out there. You do not, and CANNOT, speak for every POC just like I can’t speak for every trans person out there. 

Trying to pull that card does not make your argument stronger, it makes your argument weaker. It makes you look arrogant, and it’s this kind of bullshit that makes it so I can’t be taken seriously when I try to talk about a trans issue. Because people like you pull blanket statement cards like this, give off the impression that you speak for your whole community, and subsequently invalidate any attempts for your community can argue for itself by making people think ALL of the community is like you.

I’ll get back to this point in a moment, actually.

On to Pom’s section.

Okay before I continue I’d just like to say it again; learn not to repeat shit in your screen caps. It makes this whole call out a fucking bastard to read, and makes it hard to take you seriously.

Except??? Pom wasn’t even siding with Bun??? Nor did she attempt to rationalize the choice at all???

Just because someone doesn’t blindly side with you doesn’t mean they side with someone else. In fact, they specifically said they didn’t WANT to take sides. YOU were the one who tried to force a friend to take sides between two friends. I don’t even know Pom and I can tell  you that she’s not the bad person here. You’re just a shitty friend, and Pom is lucky she doesn’t have to deal with you anymore.

Hello again, Slippery Slope! I said I’d come back to that prior point, and this is the perfect place to do that.

“Because you take no sides on racism, you’re enabling a racist.”

You know, you keep throwing out that word, but I don’t think you actually know what racism means. 

Now see, I’d like to assume you know what antagonism means, so we won’t bring that into our little lesson here. But despite the actions Bun took already failing to meet the key criteria of racism (based on a belief that one’s own race is superior), let’s look at the definition of the other two words, shall we?

See, things like discrimination... those have to have ill intent behind the actions to even exist. What Bun did was not an act of discrimination.There was no intolerance, no bigotry, no favoritism in her actions.

Oh, look... a word that doesn’t apply to actions, inherently. However, for the sake of your argument, let’s just say it does apply to actions. Calling Bun’s action prejudice requires it not be based on reason... Except, she gives much reason through all your examples.

So, let’s take your prior statement, and rewrite it to what you REALLY meant.

“Because you don’t blindly agree with my side, you are a bad person.”

Now see, had you said that, maybe I’d have an iota of respect for you since you were at least being honest. But no, instead, you hid behind racism as a shield to try to look morally superior. To cause drama and try to ruin the reputation of someone whom you disagree with.

Fuck’s sake, I fucking hate vague posting, and even I think Pom had every right to vague about your ass here.

Know what? I’m done. There’s a third person involved, but you couldn’t even be assed to put in the effort to call them out properly, so why should I waste my own time any further. It’s the perfect parallel, really. You were too lazy to do any research into anything you were talking about, you were too lazy to actually write a call out one of the people you claim to be calling out, so now I’m feeling too lazy to continue to bother with this.

TL;DR: Learn to do actual research and put some proper thought into a call out, and stop trying to virtue signal by hiding behind a buzzword like racism, when in actuality you just disagree with someone’s thoughts or actions. All you’re doing is making yourself look dumb, and trivializing the concept of racism, making people take it less seriously.

Fucking Leafy’s response to iDubbz was more well thought out than your call out. Peace.

Enjoy Arbys.

#;drama #drama tw #racism tw #;ooc #;psa