Needlemouse

[colour=#add8e6]His ears were ringing, and the smell of cake and flour was filling his nostrils, as the blue hedgehog groaned quietly, seemingly unnoticed for the time being, as the voices about him were busy fretting and querying and pondering on the events unfolding around them. At least he was laying on something comfy. Sorta. Not that he'd really know much about comfort at the present.. his head was pretty achy, all things considered. Did he hit something? As the ringing in his eardrums started to mellow out, at least, he began to make out voices and the like. It sounded like somebody was having a freak-out about a bakery and something coming through the ceiling? [/colour][colour=#0000cd] [/colour][colour=#eeefff]"Oh."[/colour] [colour=#add8e6]Well, that'd explain the headache. And the bakery bit would explain the smell. Just how far did he fall, anyway? He peeked open the one eyelid slowly, sneaking a glimpse at his surroundings, and more importantly, the source of the voices. Lots of party goods around.. somebody was having a party in a bakery? Well, that's a first. And the people talking were.. Horses? Well, they were kinda small, so.. ponies, then. Still, this was the first time he'd seen any kind of horse with wings. 'Least outside of a storybook. Plus he hadn't ever heard of any horse towns either. In the midst of the questions and puzzlement of the ponies' talking, he slipped off the sacks of flour, dusting himself off as he rubbed his forehead for a brief moment, and then aimed his remark at the crowd in general, an awfully laid-back grin on his face for some strange being that was clearly an outsider, his hand casually slipping down to rest at his hip while he leaned his weight onto one leg,[/colour] [colour=#eeefff]"Don't mean to interrupt your lil' panic over there, but anybody mind tellin' me where I am? It looks like I crashed some kinda party - literally, for a change."[/colour]​ Meanwhile, some ways out of town, a dark, gnarled place loomed, filled with old, twisted trees with harsh branches and equally devious flora, and even moreso dangerous fauna lurking within. None of the locals dared enter these woods, this so-called Everfree Forest, and yet deep within the shadows of those very woods, something was amiss.. a rumbling and a growling could be heard by the forest's inhabitants, sending the creatures scuttling to their dark corners and hidden holes.. as something had been awakened, and more importantly.. angered. It stomped and trampled forward, on its path, seeking whatever had drawn its ire, and showing little qualms with smashing down the tiny trees that lay in its wake with huge, purple and sparkling claws.

The thing I find funny is that Thoth's use of the Salem witch-hunt somehow implies that people are hunting down Bronies - it's essentially the same issue that keeps coming up over and over again when it comes to brony 'culture'.. which is that it isn't a culture. It's a fandom. And more importantly, it's the fact that bronies, like it or not, are a simple subsection to a much larger fandom; furries. Furries who also go around making outlandish and overdramatic hyperbole cries of 'fursecution', citing 'witch-hunts' and other such things to somehow imbue themselves with a sense of vindication. The fact, however, is quite simple and straight forward.. and for some reason it seems to elude furries all the time, and it's always disheartening to see how the lesson continues to not be learned: Don't shove your fandom down peoples' throats. It's pretty much exactly that. And nobody try to tell me that bronies don't do that - I think we all know better. Almost all furries (and furry subsects) are guilty of this exact same thing; constantly thrusting their interests in others' faces and demanding acknowledgement, tolerance and acceptance of their liking of something, rather than just accepting that, no, not everyone's gonna like it. And people are going to judge you for liking it. Don't wanna be judged? Don't advertise your fandom. The biggest punchline of the brony fandom is 'love and tolerate', and it is a punchline namely because bronies don't seem capable of realizing that it's a two-way street - particularly with the toleration thing. Tolerance doesn't mean everyone accepts what everyone else likes. Tolerance means you'll put up with it, whilst rolling your eyes, just so long as they aren't pushing what they like in your face, telling you to accept it - or worse still if they happen to hate what you like, also like it along with them. That's why it's called tolerance, not acceptance. Bronies need to learn to tolerate the idea that people are just putting up with them, and that some people just don't like them. It's a tough break, but it's what you gotta tolerate, and perhaps one day accept. Every single other fandom out there has had to learn this, from Sonic fans, to Trekkies, Star Wars geeks, Transformers fans, Dungeons and Dragons players, and just plain ol' nerds and geeks in general. Every single one of us has learned that our interests are a niche - not meant to be shoved out into the daylight, accompanied by screams of 'ACCEPT ME DANGIT!' Being a fan of MLP, or any of those other things, isn't a lifestyle. Therefor it doesn't need validation, or acceptance. It isn't a religious choice or a spiritual calling. It isn't your gender preference, be that a matter of what your perceived gender identity is, or which gender you are inclined to feel attraction or romantic feelings towards. These are things that warrant outrage and defense, because they are things that people genuinely face adversity over because it is their very life. Being a fan of a TV show, a video game series, or a series of books (religious texts excluded) is not. And therefor it doesn't require being fought for in some display of 'public acceptance'. You're a fan of something. Be prepared to be judged, often negatively. Tolerate the fact that you will never not be ridiculed for your fandom - because people have opinions, and not all of them are in your favour. In fact, most never are, regardless of what you like or dislike. Your message of 'love and tolerate' doesn't mean other people have to accept you, it means you have to tolerate the fact that they don't accept you, and that as such you shouldn't go making grandiose displays of yourself, unless you are prepared for the negativity that follows your drawing attention to yourself. So why this lengthy rant? Well, I ditched my community because, ironically enough, it peaked (at least dramatic stupidity-wise) around the 2004~2006 marker point. There's no secret that the Sonic community is one of the worst fanbases surrounding an anthromorphized character out there. However, it's also starting to even out a bit once more in the last year or two, a sense of balance and general 'yeah, okay'ness between the extremes of the fanbase and a respect of each others' variant viewpoints. The thing about that, though? As bad as the Sonic community got.. it still never got as bad as a lotta the stuff you see in the brony negativity department. And yes, yes, I know, I know, 'vocal minority', 'don't go judging the whole of us based on the few of us', and all that repeated shtick - again, let me remind you that these are all rationales used by the furry community for well over a decade now. But what's jaw-droppingly worrisome is the speed of which it got to this point. It took the Sonic community years to reach their breaking point of negative behaviour, and yet the brony fandom's hit it in just around two years.. ..and that's why the long rant. I figure, as someone who's been on the interwebs for far too long for my own good, seen far too much stupidity and negativity, and more than anything else self-righteous immaturity, I should at least attempt to highlight the things that can be done to at least try and make things easier - even if my advice is generally that of 'yeah, so you'll be ridiculed for the rest of your days, so what?' in nature. But then, what did you expect when you became a fan of something? Oh sure, in the last few years it's become something of a 'cool' thing to be into nerdy, geeky content like comics, anime, games and cartoons.. but do you really think that'll last? It's a fad. Within a few years they'll be back to mocking geeks and nerds, same as usual. And being someone who started out during that bleak period, I'm giving fair warning: the long winter will return. And those who try to cling to the warmth of public acceptance will freeze in it. The place of a fan of something geeky and nerdy is out of the spotlight. And if you are truly a fan of that something geeky and nerdy, you honestly won't care. Since your fandom springs from something more than a need to be accepted by others who don't enjoy it. It comes from a need to engulf yourself in the things that interest you, and to possibly share with others LIKE you. Ya do it 'cause that 'one thing' you like is something you cherish and adore, for whatever weird reason that it appeals to you on. And you do it for yourself, not for others. And thus you accept the stigma that accompanies your ickle obsessive need to gather comics/games/figurines/DVDs/old VHS tapes/etc, because in the end, it's not about impressing anyone other than some newbie nerd who's into the same things you are. And having lots and lots of stuff that you really really like. tl;dr version: You're a nerd. Stop whining about 'fursecution', 'witch hunts', or what the public thinks, since the moment you became a nerdy fanboy/girl of a niche you gave up the right to complain.

Required posting.

Aaaand I'm back!

Starting tomorrow (Wednesday, the 17th), I'll be busy packing, and then leaving for a trip. I won't be back until Monday.

lol Why thank you. I like yours too. I've been contemplating making a temporary Halloween signature.

And you appear to have none.

(╥﹏╥)7

Well, that answers my commentary at least. lol

Do ANY of Capcom's original star game-creating staff still work for them? Haven't they pretty much driven every single amazingly talented employee of theirs into quitting by now? I mean.. Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe's creator's gone.. Okami's creators are gone.. Megaman's creator, Inafune, has quit.. I'm pretty sure the entirity of the original Resident Evil team's gone as well. Heck, they even lost their leading face in the Western market over at Capcom of America due to him disliking their business practices. I guess what I'm suggestin' is: don't hold your breath? lol I mean, it could be awesome. Or it could be like every other Capcom release in recent years and a total betrayal of a fanbase. At least if your expectations're low, it mightn't sting as much if it is - and if it's awesome, all the more pleasant a surprise?

An old classic:

Why thank you. And a 4.8/5 for your nice-lookin', themed signature. I have no idea why not full marks. Maybe that last 0.2 was stolen. XD

Trying to finish The Witcher: The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski so I can move on to the continuation for Blood of Elves. Sadly, university keeps me busy most of the time. Plus I'll be needing to read Bram Stoker's Dracula for next semester of uni.

The funny thing is that Kim Schmidzt's conviction for piracy was perfectly timed - he was a few months away from releasing the Megabox, which would enter a contract with music artists to cut out the middle-man (i.e. the big-wig billionaire publishers who take the huge cut of the cake and only give a minor piece to the artists themselves) and allow them to get full revenue for people paying to download mp3s at lower prices than the ones iTunes currently provides, with a far smaller cut from the cash revenue at that. Musicians would've seen a 90% increase in revenue had it gone as planned. 'Course, the media companies can't have that. Musicians getting full dues for their own work means that the pirates win! And if the pirates win, who will protect the musicians from losing all of their money? Waaiiit..

Just gonna point out that the punishment for copyright infringement is undoubtedly more harsh than most other punishments out there - primarily due to the fact that the will of the law isn't being enforced by those seeking punishment, but the will of the billionaire media owner's wallet. [Case in point.] And then there's the subject matter of 'not everyone has access the same as you do'. I've seen quite a few authors, for example, who were happy to hear that their books were being pirated in countries that did not distribute them, or had strict informationary censorship laws that prevented them from being imported into the country (similar censorship laws are, last I was aware, currently in place in the U.S. due to the nation being under effective martial law - had V for Vendetta, for example, not been an American product but a wholly British one, it'd be illegal to import and/or order a DVD of the movie because its content would be considered 'incitement to defy the government and its laws'). Not to say that all piracy is good - just pointing out that such things as circumstances do exist, and that it's easy to condemn from a position where one has nothing to want for and it's easy to purchase whatever you please.

Ah, the media industry and their hyperbolic imaginary numbers.

Good news, everyone! We're actually back in business! Now, while we're still open for people opting for Cast characters, again, that isn't integral to this roleplay. Feel free to bring in whomsoever ya please, provided they were approved of for the main RP, or are pretty much designed to function for the main RP, but didn't make the cut for some minute reason (canon-smiting characters are a no-go!). So without any further ado, I henceforth re-declare the Crossover, once again, [colour=#00ff00][ACTIVE][/colour]

The pony's inquiries and curiosity would be met with little more than a sore groaning, followed by another from the party horn left straggled in the corner of the hedgehog's mouth. As if somehow suspended in the air, the long legs of the spiky, blue creature remained pointed upwards, with upside-down visage of the stranger caked in cake, and frosted with frosting whilst laying head-first atop the completely trashed-up surface of the party table which, through some small wonder, had managed to survive the impact with his head, in spite of that same spiky noggin having torn right through the roof and the floor beneath to get down to the ground floor in the first place.The hedgehog wobbled and wavered, all of a sudden, as the party horn rolled from his mouth to make way for an unconscious murmuring of, [colour=#0000cd]"..don't wanna.. ride the Choco-Coaster.. ngh.."[/colour] before he toppled over to the side, splattering further cake about him, leaving the blue-quilled fellow almost covered head-to-toe in cakes at this point. Further still, as if finally giving up under the latest little shift in weight, the table let out a creaking, cracking sound, before it collapsed in on itself, bringing the tablecloth and the rest of the pastry goodies down on the stranger that fell from above. [colour=#0000cd]"..ugh.."[/colour] It'd be hard to believe that this big of a mess was made within a mere few seconds, but there it was.. a new 'skylight' for the bakery, party treats scattered all over the place - the same with baked goods as well! - and at the center of it all that.. strange.. blue.. 'thing'. Even outside the dull thuds and clangs of the last of the debris was sounding out, met with a few shrieks of surprise and confusion from the various local pony that found themselves, or their homes, barely avoiding harm's way.

Jung Test Results Introverted (I) 61.11% Extroverted (E) 38.89% Intuitive (N) 63.89% Sensing (S) 36.11% Thinking (T) 52.78% Feeling (F) 47.22% Perceiving (P) 62.5% Judging (J) 37.5% Your type is: INTP [colour=black]INTP - "Architect". Greatest precision in thought and language. Can readily discern contradictions and inconsistencies. The world exists primarily to be understood. 3.3% of total population. [/colour]

*Infects! Infeeeects!*