#(Restricted) don't buy the shit they sell

[iii-days-grace]

@ao3userglitchesaintshit

ach i had another mick post going but my dumb greasy baby will have to wait until it's not 2:00 AM where i am

[polymoth]

Oooh I want to pick a fight with someone spreading some psuedoscience garbage in the neurodiversity channel of a server I'm in but I also really shouldn't rock the boat

[genericpuff]

CHAD ANON-

Alright so I've been meaning to post about this for a couple days, but we gotta talk about what's been going on in the /r/webtoons subreddit the last couple days.

Every now and then, the heavens part and an anonymous creator will descend with their experiences with Webtoons. And they're almost never good. And that's good in the long run, because that means we have more ammunition to support Webtoons being an ass platform that benefits no one :))

Obviously the anons here are risking a lot posting this sort of stuff, so before I go ahead, let it be known that I'm gonna try and keep speculating to a minimum and just touch on what anon has provided. When it comes down to it, this post hasn't been verified in any way, so it might not even be 100% real, though there's a lot of evidence to suggest it is based on the responses from other users that validate many of the points anon makes.

I will also mention that any opinion I have regarding the contract outside of what's been provided by anon is from reading other accounts from creators who have spoken up and just generally being a community member for a long time who's been around the bend and heard a lot of shit from Originals creators. I am not an Originals creator and I have never been offered any of these contracts.

So let's get into this!

The contract 'evolving' over time was definitely something that a lot of us were at least semi-aware of, as it seems that a lot has changed since 2020 as verified by many creators who have spoken up on their contracts (or at least said what they could in light of the NDA's that WT uses to prevent them from saying anything). But I had no idea the extent to how far WT was going with it, how much they were trying to get away with. Automatically having the ability to buy 100% of the creator's IP? That is a huge, massive no-no. I've had some creators heavily imply to me in the past that they've sold off portions of their IP, but WT being given the automatic pass to buy 100% is severely unethical.

For anyone out of the loop, IP means Intellectual Property. It means whatever content is being made, it belongs to the person making it. Lore Olympus is Rachel Smythe's IP. City of Blank is 66's IP. Of course, copyright law gets dicier when it comes to stuff like fair use, trademarking, etc. but for the sake of this topic, IP just means "if you made it, you own it". Webtoons typically buys digital print rights, meaning if you sign on as an Originals, that means you can only post that comic that you sold to the Originals section. It doesn't mean you can't use other platforms for other comics, just that for the comic you sold, you have to post exclusively to Webtoons.

Webtoons is essentially trying to take that from creators by going "if you sign on as an Originals creator, you don't just lose your distribution rights, you lose all of your rights." They might still be able to run Canvas comics separate from Originals, but whatever they sold to Originals is no longer theirs to own. And the kicker is that it's, of course, for a very low fee. Buying out 100% of someone's IP should NOT come cheap, but WT is undoubtedly offering pennies in the hope that someone bites for that 'exclusive' Originals offer.

This. This is a big one. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm pretty sure this is massively ILLEGAL.

Just like with the IP rights, creators should not automatically have their printing rights taken from them by a digital publisher. They can make offers, sure, but they can't force creators into giving up their rights for physical publishing when they themselves are not a physical publishing house. Some series do get physical prints through other publishers like Random House (ex. LO) but a digital printing platform should NOT be able to restrict the printing rights of a creator who has only sold their series for the purpose of digital distribution. Especially because, again, printing rights are usually sold for massive gains for the person selling them - not a portion of month's rent for people living in a shitty New York apartment in 2024. That is what Webtoons thinks your printing rights are worth.

This is one that I've been very certain of for the past little while, particularly due to my past discussions regarding LO's merch. Because let's face it... it isn't good.

But I don't hold Rachel accountable for this shit because she's not the one making it, it's almost certainly some in-house designer at Webtoons or some other third party through Random House Worlds. Sure, it says "By Rachel Smythe" but that's more so just for marketing at this point, because no one wants to buy merch made by Chuck the Penguin House merch guy.

Remember when I said LO's partnership with Inklore / Random House Worlds was gonna be purely for cheap merchandise in the realm of cookbooks and card decks?

Yeah.

Point is, it's clear a lot of creators who are part of Webtoons' merch program may not even have any say or choice in the matter. Of course, I don't know what Rachel's contracts specifically are like, so I won't speculate on that too much, but there's a lot of evidence to suggest that she may not own as much of LO as she used to. She was definitely a part of the older contracts from 2018 at one point that didn't have the more predatory tacked on bullshit like the Minimum Revenue Threshold, but... she's renewed her contract since then. So it begs the question of how much LO has suffered not just on her account of being bad at managing a team and writing a long-form story, but at the hands of Webtoons dipping too much of their hands into her work.

Oh look, another highly unethical if not outright illegal thing! Digital print publishers can't be your agent! Repeat after me -digital print publishers CANNOT be your agent! As anon explains here, it would make it far too easy for publishers to steer their creators into directions that only benefit the company. Agents are like lawyers for artists, their job is to protect writers, actors, artists, anyone who's trying to enter some kind of media industry. Most publishing agencies won't take unsolicited manuscripts for publishing, which means writers need agents who are willing to vouch for them and help them connect with publishers. Webtoons being the publisher AND the agent for creators... seriously, that's fucked up. It means Webtoons can direct creators to do whatever benefits the company itself, not the creator. But hey, we already knew that was the case as soon as we saw "Webtoon would be able to automatically buy 100% of your IP" LOL But if you needed more to support the sheer predatory audacity of Webtoons as a company, there it is.

This is the sad reality for a lot of content creators. Comics aren't a new industry, but webcomics are and a lot of the people going into them are either extremely young or just never learned how to navigate the professional world. We talked about this issue last week and now here it is in action - a lot of creators don't even realize they're supposed to hire lawyers for contracts like these, and those who do... can't afford them.

And again, I'm very aware that this reddit post isn't exactly substantiated by anything beyond anon anecdote (such as a copy of the actual contract) but a couple other people in the thread who were offered contracts also came forward to express the similarities - and differences - between what they were offered and what OP was offered.

(these responses are actually gone now but that's why we have the power of screenshotting as the thread was happening LMAO yay me)

This thread is also being discussed on Twitter:

For those who are as old and falling apart as I am (/hj) and remember when Youtube was still coming into its own as a platform, what Webtoons is doing to webcomic creators is very similar to what businesses like MakerStudios did to Youtubers back in the day - signing creators into predatory contracts with the promise of fame and fortune, just to pull the rug out from under them with shit pay, shit management, and less perks than they had just doing it all on their own time and dime.

Webcomics, as a blooming industry, are now going through the same problem as Youtube did back in the late 2000's/early 2010's. No one knows how to navigate the industry. A lot of people and businesses don't even know how to profit off it, at least not sustainably (and for some platforms definitely not ethically). Very few people have come out of this industry with the money and fame they were seeking in the long-term, both because it's easy to burn out quickly but also because there is no long-term yet due to this being such a new industry... and those who have come out with those victories are often people who are still just pursuing the traditional comic publishing ways of glory, by seeking out agents, signing print deals, and doing everything that any other freelance or contracted comic creator would do, because it's safer and offers more structure than what webcomics are offering on their own. There are no regulations, no protections in place looking out for creators, it's basically just a free for all of young people looking to monetize their creations and businesses willing to take advantage of those people for a quick buck.

I don't think any of this means that webcomics have to be exclusively relegated to being a "stepping stone" for traditional print comics or grander media like film and television. They're a medium in and of themselves, a very accessible medium to boot, that welcomes anyone regardless of their status, technical skills, or background. They're wonderful for that and I think more people should be willing to give webcomics a try as a medium if they want to express themselves on their own terms.

But as I've talked about in the past time and time again, there's still going to be a separation between doing webcomics as a passion project or a hobby, and doing them as a profession. When it comes to the latter, you have to be willing to treat it professionally. You have to recognize that there will be those out there who will take advantage of you for money, because that's what the professional world is all about. This is unfortunately something a lot of creators just don't realize, because we're going through those same growing pains a lot of Youtubers have gone through (and still go through) - learning how to navigate our passion as a job, with all of the legal mess, dotted lines, and legal stipulations that come with it. And we're in the midst of that learning now, by seeing the actions of companies like Webtoons that only seek to exploit creators rather than foster them. It unfortunately will take more creators getting screwed over before anything changes. But we have to be willing to talk about it, every single time. We have to be willing to separate the creator and their own faults from the faults of the platform that's hosting them - a creator can be both lacking in their own skills as a creator as well as lacking in support which makes it impossible for them to hone those skills.

And yes, I say all of this because it concerns the criticisms I make of creators like Rachel Smythe. I think there are a lot of things she does that are indicative of her as a creator and her inability to act professionally in this industry, from LO's rampant misogyny and objectification of women to her own misfires when interacting with her fandom. But there are also just as many things that can be potentially traced back to the platform - it's hard to make better content when you're constantly being exploited and hung out to dry.

Like anon, I too hope that more creators will be willing to stand up and speak on behalf of themselves and their peers, to push back against these contracts. It's gonna suck. It's gonna be hard to want to make those moves when just about every creator is just trying to put food on the table. But for every anonymous creator who stands up and speaks, for every person who isn't willing to sign those contracts and talk about the reasons why, for every storyteller who uses their skills to spread the message, the power they have grows. We have to make it impossible for Webtoons to continue to ignore.

After all, it would be a real shame for more of these stories to come to light just as Webtoons is seeking an initial public offering in the stock market. Wouldn't that just be so unfortunate for them? :)

[fuck-customers]

I swear. whenever multiple young people come in, with one of them trying to buy something age restricted ie vapes (like the one thing that all of the kids want to get no less) and then I have to ID all of them, it always goes the exact same way:

Me: I need to see all of your guys' ids for this.

Buyer: But it's only for me.

Me: I have to see everyone's ids to sell it to you, even if it's just for you. (No telling if they'll just give it to an underage friend right in front of me and get me in extreme trouble.)

One of buyer's friends: Actually you don't need to, it's not even for any of us it's for [someone who isn't in the store].

Me: I can't sell it to you, since you brought up you're giving it to a third party that I can't id or otherwise verify the age of.

Then the buyer's friend starts a several minute argument or they get really pissy and do the "have the day you deserve" shit. Happens literally every time without fail and it happens to me multiple times a shift. Like come on... if you want to buy something legally protected like that, the last thing you want to do is talk even more about it and bring more people into the equation. And yes the id rule is stupid. But I ain't risking getting in trouble if some kid gets ahold of anything, I don't have $5k to spare for a fine.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[shortpplfedup]

Well that was fascinating and enlightening. I'm still not sold on the pacing of this thing, but the emotional throughline is solid and the characterisations are on point. The theme of this episode is 'escape', as Neung and Palm run away into a whole new emotional minefield. We also meet Palm's mother Mam, yet another woman who tells him to maybe try giving a shit about himself and also puts Neung to work, so I am inherently predisposed to like her despite her being a specific kind of nightmare fuel.

I really wanted to meet Palm's mother to put all the pieces together and now that we have...oy vey. She seems like a fun lady but ain't a mothering bone in this one's body. It may be for the best that Mam didn't raise Palm, but she feels bad enough about it to at least offer him shelter, even if she makes him work for it. Mam's benign self-centred neglect is a stark contrast to Thanya's devotion, and honestly makes me want even more for Palm to be cared for and looked after. At least Mam is appalled by Chanon's use of Palm in this way.

I have to say I'm impressed with Neung. Even totally out of his comfort zone, he manages to find a niche and make himself actually useful. I've never agreed with the takes that Neung is a spoiled brat; all his 'bratty' behaviour has been in reaction to Palm, in an attempt to navigate the now-clear-to-me monster crush he has on him. Neung is a skilled manipulator but Palm isn't really manipulable so to get his attention Neung does try stamping his feet a bit. Sometimes, Palm is annoyed, irritated, even angered by it. But sometimes, like this episode, he is endeared. When Neung calls him a fool again, in Mandarin this time, he can't help but give a small rueful smile.

Because Palm is quickly coming to terms with rather a lot of things this ep. It seems like he's decided that as long as they have to be on the island, away from all the rules and restrictions placed on him by Chanon, he's going to allow himself to enjoy just being with Neung. He flirts with him, he holds his hand, he teases him into hugging him on the motorbike, he takes him on a little date. He never exactly crosses the line, in fact when Neung asks why he kissed him on the roof, he...well...lies. Or rather, he doesn't tell the whole truth. He wanted to make Neung feel better, that much is true. But he lies when he says it didn't come from his feelings about Neung. And when Neung scolds him for it, telling him not to do it again because a kiss is supposed to be meaningful, the look on Palm's face makes it clear that it was absolutely meaningful for him. He's having the time of his life...

But he hasn't forgotten danger is lurking. He keeps telling Neung he's safe there, but that gun is constantly on him. He's trying to get Neung's mind off all the things he can't do anything about in Bangkok, but he brings up the spectre of Thanya himself. The way this episode isolates them completely by showing us nobody except them and Mam, you almost forget that they sped away from the scene of an attempted (?) hit! That they last saw their respective parents shot and bleeding and have no clue what happened and no way of finding out. They've both opted for distraction, and a little affaire de coeur is the best kind. Neung is a tad confused by Palm's new openness, and is trying hard not to read into it, but he can't help but be charmed.

Stray Bullets

Those loan sharks harassing Mam concern me. I don't think she'd sell her own son out to save her own ass, but I'm not sure she wouldn't.

All the cinematography in this episode is gorgeous. A big hand for the D.P. Rath Roongrueangtantisook.

The cowherd and the weaver girl get another mention. Once is notable, twice is foreshadowing.

Pond's body is CRAZY. Phuwin is no slouch, but Pond...chisos.

Neung declaring he wants to buy the beach so tourists can't ruin it...oh baby, you've not grasped certain things yet huh.

The way Neung was handling that gun made me nervous as hell.

I've noticed Jojo's use of English language music lately, first in The Warp Effect and now in this and it only strikes me because I don't usually get English language music in Thai dramas.

That scene where they change out of their uniforms stuck out like a sore thumb to me. Like...why is it there?

Seeing characters like a bus tout really make Thai dramas feel so homey to me. We're all more alike in the global south than you'd think.

Did Palm raise himself? Who the hell took care of this kid?

You can't tell me that Ai'Neung from Palm didn't thrill Neung down to his toes.

Palm curled up on the tiniest corner of the bed as far away from Neung as possible is so gay panic it's delicious.

Having Phuwin deliver that 'ben dan' pretty much straight to camera was a nice touch.

Looks like we'll be on the island for 3-4 eps, and I like giving them that time to breathe, but next week we check back in with the mess in Bangkok.

[sir-dyke-genderpunk]

CW FOR DRUGS, OVERDOSE AND ALSO VOMIT BUT THIS NEEDS TO GET AROUND

HEY. FUCKING LISTEN. THIS IS SO FUCKING IMPORTANT FOR THE SAFETY OF SO MANY PEOPLE. If you see the Vance Delta 8 brand being advertised, do not buy it. For the love of fucking god please do not buy it, at least not online. Most YouTuber sponsors are scams (not the YouTubers faults they need money somehow), but it made me fucking disgusted to see this brand sponsoring YouTubers and trying to get more people into their shit. This brand is DANGEROUS.

I'm a chronic stoner. I'm friends with a bunch of chronic stoners. I've also done drugs a lot harder than pot. After taking a 2/3rds of a Vance brand edible, I threw up more than I've ever thrown up in my ENTIRE life. It was fucking grotesque, not to get graphic but there was a pile of vomit the size of my entire body on the pavement when I was done and I had to get carried back to my dorm. This isn't a normal reaction to have to what should be akin to a marijuana high as someone that smokes every day and eats edibles frequently.

I wasn't the only one one who had a bad experience though, out of the group of people I was taking the gummies with, every single person has a similarly bad experience. At least one other person threw up just as much as I did when taking them a separate time. Another person who took them didn't know where they were. One of my friends is convinced he almost died, but that could've been the drugs making him paranoid. They would also make us sweat PROFUSELY when we took them, a pretty clear sign of lacing or otherwise taking a drug you did Not mean to take.

We definitely shouldn't have kept taking them after the first experience, but considering how well branded Vance is as a company, we first thought we might not be dosing it correctly ourselves. But every single time, without fail, one of the things I mentioned above occured until we finally decided to stop taking them. And that was fine, until the person who originally bought them sold them to another person (who I also know is a stoner) who ended up having a paranoid episode and needed help getting back to their dorm.

That's why I don't feel right not doing everything in my power to get the word out. I felt so fucking guilty knowing that those edibles got sold to another person I was aquatinted with on campus. I cant sit here and watch YouTubers I genuinely enjoy advertise this brand in good faith.

In hindsight, we assumed we had actually bought something like spice or k2. Could be laced too I guess, but it made sense to us at least considering our reactions along with the fact that LOTS of information on their website is nondisclosed, and also that Delta 8 is synthetic ""fake weed"" and so is k2. I'm not an expert though, this was just the theory we had to help us come to terms with what we went through.

Hell, the first red flag should've been how easy it was to get delivered to our college campus while none of us were old enough to legally buy at the time.

So imagine my shock when I saw YouTubers happily advertising this brand a few months later as being an eco-friendly, healthy alternative to just buying a cart or some edibles at your local dispensary. This is legitimately so fucking scummy.

I'm not saying every batch of Vance gummies is laced with spice or some other shit. CLEARLY not everything they sell is a dud because they wouldn't even be able to have these sponsors if there wasn't some amount of testing done legally. The sponsors usually use them at least a little, so it seems none of the sponsors have yet had bad experiences. But drugs are serious fucking business. And not only do they have these potentially dangerous drugs in circulation, once again they were also exceedingly easy for us to order even though none of us were 21. Who's watching YouTubers the most? Kids. Teenagers.

None of the videos I've seen Vance sponsor for have even been age restricted. Even if a YouTubers primary demographic isn't kids or teenagers, it is impossible to not know that a large portion of the audience is inevitably going to be kids in the early to late teens especially. Brands like this know who they're advertising to when they do things like this.

Who's to say for every 50 batches of Vance gummy packages there's not 1 dud package? Or that the company isn't giving out real shit to exclusively YouTubers? It's always better to be safe than to be sorry, especially when it comes to getting kids potentially hooked on drugs. I'm pro-drug use, pro-harm reduction, and pro-complete legalization, and I still think it is completely morally reprehensible for companies to be advertising drugs--but ESPECIALLY drugs that could be laced or dangerous--to children through the use of their favorite YouTubers.

Not to mention these sponsors like to subtly imply that buying from Vance and online stores in general is a safer alternative to shopping at dispensaries, something that is objectively so untrue it gives me tunnel vision when I think about it for too long. Dispensaries need to be CERTIFIED to be able to sell anything. All of their products must be lab tested or they can't sell them. They aren't allowed to withhold information from you. Not to mention MANY dispensaries (at least in the US) are Native-owned small businesses. Every single bad experience with a drug I've had was from drugs that I bought online. Chances are if you don't have to go to the dark web to find it, it's probably either a scam or dangerous.

Please please please spread the word about this. I feel like I've waiting for something bad to happen to either one of the people sponsoring these gummies or someone who bought some after seeing a YouTube advertisement. I don't want anyone to have to feel that guilt, and I don't want to see anyone hurt or worse over a shady YouTube sponsorship.

Don't buy Vance Delta 8 products for your own safety.

[medicinemane]

And maybe you'll be like "but if you don't trust businesses, how can you trust welfare?"

I fucking don't. My mom trying to get on food stamps fucked me up because a lady I never met without my permission got my SSN from my mom and started editing my files. My heart still races to this very second whenever I think about it, it kinda messed me up bad and I'll never ever ever see any kind of recourse

And I'm terrified that I'm gonna lose my medicaid just cause I inherited some money from my grandpa

And I've never even applied for disability cause it kinda doesn't matter finding out if I'd qualify or not cause of my depression, when the rules are so restrictive I don't know if I've even be allowed to keep my house

I do not fucking trust these things on a personal level. I feel like out of a lot of people I have the most to fear from them cause I'm on the edge of having things work, and that gets you punished

...but I need medicaid in order to have insurance (and when you strip out the finance side of medicaid, I love medicaid... they're honestly incredible insurance... I just... I just... dental is like 90% of why medicaid is so important to me, ever since I found out this state pays for it I've actually been able to do cleanings which is important to me cause I can't always get myself to brush)

And I think things like disability and food stamps are pretty damn important on a personal level, and honestly are also good for the economy cause they get people spending... it's practically a free cash infusion into the economy, cause these are people who need to buy stuff

There's just so much important stuff welfare does that it's worth dealing with government

No, what I want is more accountability so if someone gets my SSN from a 3rd party like my mom they're held to HIPPA styles standards where that's not ok to access my files without my permission (She changed my fucking address and tried to get medicaid to investigate me for fraud! Never even met me)

Like have some accountability there and in every situation

Secondly I want less punitive focused rules. I'd frankly prefer bezos get on disability than smack down some poor sod cause they got $2000 in the bank or cause their friend lets them live with them for free

If there's gonna be a cut off on these programs, it needs to be a solid step above the poverty line, cause... by definition I assume poverty line denotes kinda the minimum expected income people can reasonably live off of, and if you take away benefits people are gonna lose a chunk of money to covering that stuff themself, so you need a buffer before you kick people off

I don't fucking trust the government for a second, I've actively been fucked by them and on a personal level I avoid everything but medicaid and only that cause everything but the money is pleasant to deal with and I kinda need it (honestly if I was rich I'm not even kidding that I'd rather give medicaid like $400 a month than some insurance company, I sincerely like them as insurance)

But I'd trust them a lot more if they were less punitive, less out to hunt me down and gut me cause someone handed me a fiver or cause I started to get on my feet, and if government employees had concrete rules they had to follow that were actually transparent and enforced

Like 90% of my problems with welfare go away if they're held accountable and there's less "catch the welfare cheats" mentality going around

I don't trust the government in the slightest, but sadly there some jobs it kinda has to do, so I'd just rather force it to be an open book where the public can keep an eye on it and if they step out of line there's consequences (sort of like I don't trust most mega corps but happen to sometimes need stuff from them... did you know literally every cell service provider has been illegally selling shit like your location data to random people like bounty hunters, and the FCC just slapped them with a fine that's 0.02% of their yearly incomes and debated even doing that? I even can offer a source on that)

...I don't trust much of any authority cause they constantly fail me and kinda screw me. Don't trust doctors either, but I still gotta go to them, you know? ...they're just... they're real bad at listening... so many systems need systemic change

(You know who I really don't trust is the cops. I could point to so many examples. My uncle doesn't trust cops either, and he's an ex Fire and SWAT paramedic, he worked with them and we still got into a long conversation where he basically tore into them far better than I can)

(I don't trust authority that's not accountable)

[thwackamabob]

I wrote this after writing a whole angry thing where I got combative over stupid shit on the internet, which isn't useful or fun for anyone involved, so instead i'm just going to be positive: If you only listen to ultra-massive pop stars (taylor swift, harry styles that sorta level. People who only play stadiums. Yes that includes artists who don't sell loads of albums but are massively popular live (which is a whole other thing i'm not getting into here)), try and find other artists who don't. Who play smaller venues for less money, and if they're local, usually way more often. I'm not saying this out of some sort of "grrrr pop is bad" thing, I'm saying this because if you find someone you like, you will have a much better and cheaper time being a fan of them. From a quick google, the restricted seated tickets on Harry's last tour were £62 once you add in all the fees, with things going up from there to around £300 for the most expensive. I am seeing my personal favourite band next year for £40 including fees. That is for standing right near the front of an arena, and it is the single most expensive gig I have been to in the last 5 years. One of my all-time top 3 gigs was £9 in what is basically just a cafe's basement. And that's not 50 years ago pre-inflation or whatever, that was about a month ago. The music industry isn't a meritocracy, you need to be good to ""make it"" (and ""making it"" often means you have time and resources you wouldn't have if you didn't) but it's mostly luck (and the occasional bit of nepotism). I see people say constantly that they wish they were old enough to experience their faves when they were young and relatively underground, and whilst that's not possible, there are artists who you will love and some who will one day be like that for the next generation who are playing in a sweaty bar somewhere. Additionally, if you're of a more leftist persuasion, the money from these gigs isn't going through massive promotors and ticket companies to artists who, quite frankly, could live forever off of what they've already earned, it's going to allowing people to devote a little bit more of their time towards making art instead of scrabbling for survival. If the artist is small enough (let's say below 500 cap venues?) when you buy merch, they'll probably be selling it themselves, so if you want to say hi, you just... can. idk how to end this. basically, support smaller artists? it's better for them and for you?

[demigirlboss2girlrotboogaloo]

I hate people talking about how artists should be compensated for their work being used in training neural networks because like, okay, let's say we make that a thing. You have to pay a royalty if you use someone's work in your training set.

You've just made copyright law but worse!

All this does is, just like all copyright law, let trillion dollar corporations get away with basically anything cause they can afford to buy anything they could possibly want or need to, and since they're technically compensating the artists what moral critique are you gonna throw at them? Except now, independent research efforts become impossible. Finding high quality training data for personal hobbyist efforts becomes impossible. You don't stop AI from becoming a problem, you just make it a problem that we have no recourse for fighting back against. Right now, Google and Microsoft are getting their shit stomped in by randos with commodity gaming hardware going "haha LLaMa go brrt", and there is absolutely nothing they can do to stop it. That's why we have shit like that stupid open letter to stop AI research, signed by Elongated Muskrat et al., and why people like Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which Microsoft wears like a skinsuit, and nothing about which is open in any way shape or form, are calling for intense and restrictive legislation surrounding AI. Because they know they can afford the royalties. They can afford the lawyers. They can afford the fines. We can't. Nvidia can plagiarize art for promotional materials. Disney can put straight up stolen artwork in their Star Wars books. But if a small-time homelabber just trying to build an LLM that can turn any text into biblical scripture, or an image generation model that inserts anime girl Danny DeVito into images, gets hit with a cease and desist, or cops at the door? They aren't going to be able to afford to risk trying to fight that. When you call for regulations on AI, when you call for people to stop making these "evil plagiarism machines", you are not demanding that corporations stop exploiting labour, because if you were you'd be calling for a full-blown dismantling of capitalism as a whole. What you are demanding is that hobbyists and independent researchers be driven underground to the annals of the dark web, and the only legal options for AI of any quality become those owned and controlled entirely by trillion dollar corporations that made their fortunes selling your data to begin with.

[leporellian]

thoughts on broadway and/or the tonys and/or musical theater in general

fuck i never did get around to this LOL here we go

broadway... compels me in some weird way. like for every single complaint musical theatre fans lob at opera- 'it's too much about spectacle!' 'it's too elitist!' 'it's funded by rich people!' (which that last point in and of itself is. Have you ever been to europe. but the way in which opera criticism is uniquely USAcentric is a convo for another time) are all... like... right there in musical theatre on broadway.

arguably those are even more of a problem over in musicals. musicals have Brand Identity. when you think of wicked, every wicked production is specifically built to look the same, with no real difference in direction or performance besides individual casting. (and also that infernal dragon, for some reason, that they never even really actually use except for like one moment where it wiggles around a bit. a lot of my memory of seeing wicked in 9th grade is just remembering how absolutely disappointed i was that they had a big dragon animatronic and they never used it in a satisfying way! like, what the fuck! anyway, again, tangent.) even if there isn't a cohesive brand there's the matter of rights settlements, and certain creative restrictions, and on top of that there's the fact that it is incredibly hard to go watch broadway musicals if you don't have transportation and monetary access to them. (and don't get me started on whatever the fuck "bootleg trading" is. like man they're even inventing capitalism in new places. hello.)

opera meanwhile is the wild fucking west. most of the standard rep works are in the public domain. there's only 1 standard rep opera i can think of off the top of my head that has any creative restrictions in the performance license contract, and given the one creative restriction with that one is "please have black people play the black characters and don't do blackface you freaks jesus christ" i'm totally down w/ it. if you want to go watch opera, there's thousands of recordings on youtube and on specialty sites like operaonvideo.com that just act as a huge performance archive. opera is genuinely one of the most accessible art forms there is with the advent of the internet.

(man remember when hamilton had basically a free raffle for 10 dollar tickets every week or whatever that was? meanwhile the opera company in my college city literally just sells 11 dollar tickets to students and every time you buy one from them it acts like it now has a blood debt to you. crazy.)

broadway is like genuinely so capitalistic it baffles me, godbless. and i do WANT to understand musical theatre better but a lot of the time it just sort of whizzes past my head and i have no idea what to make of it. (that, and theatre kids are.... Well. Yeah)

THE TONYS are equally baffling, but instead of broadway which feels like some strange dystopian world, the tonys have a distinctly alice in fuckin wonderland shit to me. there are opera award shows but none of them are nearly on the same level as the tonys. it's cool that the trophy spins around i think. i think its very obvious the tonys largely exist as a further marketing mechanic and not as like... actual awards, but to be fair thats the point of all awards shows at this point anyway. (well, that and making a lot of people very angry.)

looking at this year's nominations for example. here are some of my thoughts: i forgot about the some like it hot musical, i genuinely have no idea who the audience of that is meant to be. CORN MUSICAL??? who the fuck made a CORN MUSICAL and WHY? &juliet terrifies me with its existence. the plays should unionize together. i dont know why i was surprised ben platt is there i thought he just kind of faded into the walls after the dear even hansen movie or something. isnt new york new york a frank sinatra song. oh shit the sweeney todd revival already premiered? (i dont keep up with broadway news) why is there a corn musical. also when i looked up the tony awards i accidentally typed in 'the toby awards' which is apparently an award show for building design. Anyway thats my analysis as someone who is genuinely so clueless about current broadway news

[verdigrispoisoning]

I spent an hour last night trying to get my legally acquired, physical copy of a movie, on Blu-ray, to play on my Blu-ray drive. You would think it's as easy as popping in the disk, starting vlc, and watching the movie.

It was not. It only took an hour because I had previous knowledge of how this shit works.

You see, Blu-rays, any Blu-ray you buy, are encrypted. What your (not-PC) Blu-ray player does, is that it gets to read something called Volume Unique Keys, or VUKs, which are then used to progressively decrypt the movie as you're playing it.

PC solutions do not come with the ability to read those out automatically, generally. There are a couple programs that can (MakeMKV, DVDFab, ...) but in overall it's not really a thing. In fact, VLC does not even come with the ability to play most Blu-rays by default in the first place: for that you need decryption libraries for something called AACS (an update of how DVDs used to be/are encrypted - the one for DVDs is fully broken, the one for Blu-rays is not) as well as potentially BD+. And those VUKs I mentioned are separate from the libraries that use them.

So what can you do to play your actually 100% legally acquired movie that you paid for and have a receipt? You run a program called FindVUK. All that does is that it reads the memory state of another program to piece out those VUKs from the whole mess, put them in a convenient file, and sync it online. The programs that it reads this from incidentally offer the ability to just rip a copy of the movie onto your hard drive; that is their main function/selling point. This is legal because Europe has legislation that says that you're allowed to make private copies of your media, even if this breaks encryption (don't quote me on that, check your local laws if you think this might be relevant to you).

Note that this is not the movie itself. The data contained in that file, for this specific disk, is shorter than this paragraph.

But we're not done yet. Because guess what, your player also needs to get certified, and have a sufficiently up-to-date program on it to read the disks. What if your player is old though?

Simple: the program to read it is contained on the disk, and will just update your hardware once you put it in. But in order to do that it *still* needs a known key, one that is handed out specifically for that line of players, and can be revoked by that update. What if it's been decided that your PS3 or whatever isn't permitted to run Blu-rays anymore? Sucks to be you I guess. Buy a different player.

Or I could download it via piracy. Right now. For free. With subtitles that weren't even on the disk if it's a foreign movie, probably. And then I'd have it, free from any restrictions, until I decide to delete it or bit rot claims the file.

I want to support creators. I get that if I want more of a thing that's commercially produced, I have to support it with money; that's fine. But you're making me pay to have a worse experience here.

ADDENDUM: one of those online DRM solutions actually depends on specific circuits in newer Intel processors! SGX is the name I believe. So what happens if you want to watch a movie but have AMD? You're once again SOL. Or what about if Intel decides to retire that technology (like it does in its newest consumer CPU lines)? Take a wild guess.

People against piracy fail to realize that no, I can’t just ‘buy it.’ They stopped making DVDs and Blu-Rays. They’re barely offering digital copies for download. I am not spending money I could use for food or bills to pay for a subscription service just so I can always have access to a beloved piece of media. Especially not when the service will remove media on a whim without concern for how the loss of access to that piece will make its artistic conservation nigh impossible.

For example, I recently learned that Disney+ had an original film called Crater. It’s scifi, family friendly, and seems cool - I would love to buy it as a holiday gift for my little brother! But: it’s exclusive to D+ and THEY REMOVED IT LITERALLY MONTHS AFTER ITS RELEASE.

The ONLY way I can directly access this film is through piracy. The ONLY available ‘copies’ of this film are hosted on piracy websites. Disney will NEVER release it in theaters, or as something to buy, and it may NEVER return to the streaming service. It will be LOST because we aren’t allowed to purchase it for personal viewing. If I can’t pay to own it, I won’t pay for the privilege of losing it when corporate decides to put it in a vault.

So yes, I’m going to pirate and support piracy.

[genericpuff]

saw a post criticizing lore rekindled a while back, and one of the points made was "it's unfair to rachel that someone else can profit off and make money off her work"

do you profit off lore rekindled??? i don't remember if you ever said that you were monetizing lore rekindled, so i'm unsure where this piece of information came from

I literally do NOT profit off Rekindled in any way shape or form, it's a Tumblr comic that's free to read, zero subscriptions, paywalls, or ads.

I did just recently open a Patreon and apply my Twitch channel to become affiliate, but 1. my Patreon doesn't have any paid members yet , 2. my Patreon won't be offering rewards that limit the reading experience of Rekindled (it's gonna be like random doodles n junk), and 3. I haven't even streamed since I applied for Affiliate and people are watching the streams for art and lo-fi, not for any sort of exclusive reading experiences that wouldn't also be accessible on Tumblr (you just get to watch me slowly work on Rekindled while playing FF XIV LMAOO) All of these restrictions I have in place is to prevent exactly what folks assume or accuse me - profiting off Rachel's IP. At the end of the day I just wanna create an AU fanfic project, even if it's created out of disappointment for what could have been.

I *do* spend a few hundred a month though for my assistant. So I'm working on Rekindled completely at a loss, out of my own pocket. So in that regard, even if I were to monetize any part of Rekindled... it wouldn't be for my own profitable gain, I'd maybe be able to cover some of my assistant fees 🤣 (but that's just hypothetical food for thought, because as I said above, I don't want to monetize Rekindled because of the potentially legal and ethical issues in doing so. Making money is also just not why I'm making Rekindled because it's something I wanna just do for fun! Money complicates things, turns shit into a job :'0) And let's be real, in that hypothetical scenario, I don't think any money I could generate on my free to read Tumblr project would come anywhere close to threatening Rachel's bottom line 🤣

And this isn't to throw anyone under the bus but when people get suspicious of Rekindled profiting off LO, I can't help but think of the actual fans of LO selling handmade LO merch on Etsy and LO-style adoptables and other arts and crafts dedicated to their favorite comic. And I'm not gonna judge them for that, more power to 'em if people wanna buy their cool stuff (and some of it is really REALLY cool, like I wanna buy their stuff too LOL), I just think it's ironic that people separate the two because... I'm not a diehard fan? Or because Rekindled has gotten popular here. Beats me. All that "popularity" is still just a niche remake of a niche comic in a niche medium. It's not Spiderman Lotus levels of big 🤣 but I know it probably feels that big to people who are engaged with this fandom and spend a lot of time in it.

There's an opposite side of being a yes man that perpetuates similar behavior on the other side - when you come up with reasons to rag on someone just for the sake of it because you can't rationalize them NOT being the all 100% pulp of evil LMAO (and I see people do this even to Rachel and it's not fair imo, like people who use the Lolita thing as a way to accuse Rachel of being a legitimate pedophile? Like no, I don't think we should be normalizing serious accusations like that. I think she's just misinformed in a lot of ways at worst and suffering from dark romantasy porn brainrot at best LOL).

Like, as an example, I've also seen people claim stuff like I'm in the fan spaces telling people not to read LO and to read LR instead? Which like... why would I do that, LR isn't for the fans anyways and I don't gain anything by being a dick in their space 🤣 If my own readers are doing that, that's out of my hands (but respectfully don't do this please!!! there's a reason I don't use the standard LO hashtags and only stick to the anti ones!!!!) but again (and this is a big assumption so take with grains of salt) I think people just like to claim these things because they feel it's just naturally the right thing to do when someone who has opinions they don't like actually puts them into action. Because now they can't say shit like "well if you think you're so much smarter than Rachel why don't YOU write the story!" and "you don't know what it's like to manage a comic!" so they grapple onto whatever other argument they can even if it's misconstrued or entirely pulled out of thin air and not backed up with any legitimate evidence.

Their perspectives make sense to them. My perspective makes sense to me. I don't blame people for being suspicious when they see someone like me pour this much time and effort and money into a project like Rekindled, they assume it HAS to do with something they can rationalize from their own point of view, like wanting to "steal" Rachel's work or profit off it or take it for myself out of "jealousy".

Sorry to disappoint y'all with a boring answer, but I'm just someone who was once a huge fan of LO and couldn't let it go. I'm just someone who's way too hyperfixated, with a lot of passion for making comics and experience to match. I'd still be making it even if I didn't have an assistant. I'd still be making it even if I was stuck working with nothing but paper and pencil. Because I love making it and I love what it means to me, and I love that it makes other people feel the same way I do about it.

And that's really all I have to say on that.

[signum-mortis]

posting this here because i'm losing my absolute mind over a thread whose last post literally says "Profit isn't evil. People need money to live" and I'm like YES BESTIE, THAT'S EXACTLY FUCKING RIGHT!!!!

BUT THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT'S BEING SHARED BY ANTI-CAPITALIST BLOGS AND IT'S LIKE YOU ABSOLUTE FUCKING CLOWNS YOU DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE POSTING THINGS SUPPORTING THE THING YOU SAY YOU HATE.

SO instead of putting this on a post that I know will lead to something fucking exhausting, I'm gonna put it here.

WHAT YOU HATE ISN'T CAPITALISM

CAPITALISM is the free exchange of money, goods, and services between individuals without your government or some other big entity getting in the way and DICTATING TO YOU what, when, where, and how you can USE, SELL, OR GIVE AWAY whatever you have! It's literally the indie artist you love Making Commissions. It's you supporting your favorite musician or band by buying their merch. It's the indie creators making fursuits or dnd dice or accessibility gadgets Big Corps don't care about. It's individuals earning and supporting each other with money. It's US putting our dollars with groups and people we support and withholding them from groups and people we don't.

IT'S EVERYTHING ELSE

IT'S CORPORATISM that all the big companies and conglomerates who are overfishing, overhunting, POLLUTING THE LAND AND WATER, buying up local family-owned farms and businesses, buying up homes to overcharge you on rent.

IT'S COMMERCIALISM that's GREED GONE WILD where Banks, Big Businesses (Think Walmart, Home Depot, and all the Conglomerates foisting stuff on us bc 'BUY OUR SHIT YOU DON'T NEED') engaging in the Exploitation of workers, customers, and OUR data. It's Google, Amazon, it's the cobalt mins engaging in Child Labor. It's Exploitation for the Dollar Sign.

IT'S CRONYISM where the GOVERNMENT decides who succeeds and who fails by either RESTRICTING YOU until you can't sustain your work, your business, your livelihood and have to SELL EVERYTHING OFF just to survive! This is EVERY Mom & Pop store closed by Covid while FUCKING WALMART WAS ALLOWED TO STAY OPEN. This is every small-time restaurant or brewery or farmer or convenience store SHUT DOWN DURING COVID while FUCKING MEGACORPS GOT TO KEEP THEIR DOORS OPEN WHILE WE WERE FORCED TO NOT WORK AND EARN MONEY TO PAY FOR OUR FOOD, RENT, MORGAGE, AND NECESSITIES! It's the Government BAILING OUT the BIG CORPORATIONS when they FAIL and leaving the rest of us to drown in the consequences of THEIR ACTIONS (Inflation, Over Regulation, GOV. SHUT DOWNS).

SO NO, YOU DON'T HATE CAPITALISM

YOU HATE THE ABUSE OF CAPITALISM

AND THE ABUSERS TWISTING IT TO ABUSE YOU AND EVERYONE AROUND YOU.

[moonlightperseus]

I believe that you think that but recently I was talking to a coworker and she said "lots of people really like whales." and I said "I don't like whales in a normal person way." And she agreed immediately. We'd worked like one full shift together before, and I don't work around anything to do with marine anything.

I THINK though I could be wrong, you're thinking of the shark episode? There's a case where a shark in an aquarium vomits up an arm and they're like "AHA, foul play afoot! Someone killed this man and fed him to the shark!" I haven't seen the really early seasons though so that could be a different thing. The "Mysterious death" I was referencing really isn't so mysterious, a man broke into seaworld, severely intoxicated, and either climbed into or fell into the orca tank- where at the time, Tilikum was housed. Tilikum who over his life span killed three people (There's only four reported deaths by killer whales in captivity and none in the wild), this man being his second victim, I believe. And look okay that is EXACTLY what I was looking into, I went to the seaworld website to find out the names of the orcas currently held there so I could google them on a third party website to find out if they have histories of aggression or acting out to determine if I'm getting a buddy or a grave stone. None of them had aggressive incidents listed, a couple actively stated that there were none, so that's a good sign. Bad signs, four out of the five are kids of Tilly's and while I love Tilikum and really respect him for what he did for killer whale rights, I am a little hesitant with those genetics. Another bad sign: Free Willy taught me that orcas like their tongues scratched and I'm not quite sure I can trust myself to not give them tongue pets if they come see me. I also I can tell you right now I would NOT get past the orca tank, you and me could be like spies on a super important mission and you'd have to like turn around and be like "What are you doing we need the FILES." And I'd be like "Look this is clearly a girl I think it's Katina isn't she cute? Judging by the eyepatch shape-" And then you'd realize that you should just finish the mission alone honestly, you probably don't have to kill me to keep me quiet, I'm probably dumb enough to let Katina do it. (I'm going to refrain from apologizing for all of *that* and you can just remember that you said I could infodump and didn't specify if there were restrictions)

That makes sense! I did have quite a bit of access just because like my sister was into them, my brother was. So we all watched the movies. I never watched agents of Shield (or even tried) but I DID watch the first season of Agent Carter and I DID find that enjoyable. Granted I will do anything for Peggy Carter on account of she could step on me.

I'm so sorry for you not having a Dollarama and also I know I already just straight up said I was Canadian but I feel a little outed for being Canadian. Anyway yeah it's not like a normal thing but the way Dollarama's work is they just like sell overstock of shit for cheap. I once bought a 24 pack of Prismacolor premier colored pencils WITH a bunch of bonus stuff for less than 4$. I've also, more recently, bought a deluxe hardcover Justice League comic from there for 4$. Prices went up so the comics are all 5$ now but when you compare that to full price (30 if you're lucky closer to 40/50$ for most here) it's banger. And I completely get that, like I said I don't even go alone to the one near me but it terrifies me. Last time I just stayed by my brother (buying pokemon cards) and didn't look at the comics at all, and another time I looked at them briefly because he was taking a long time and felt like everyone knew I don't even LIKE comics or nerd stuff and I was just there as a little sister and I had no right to be there (I quickly took back my place at my brother's side). Hopefully you can swing it sometime <3

Like when they branch off completely? Like big things like Heroes in Crisis (idk how good of a reference that is I think it's like all retconned now but) Where they had the main event in one series but that trickled down into individual comics? Or like zero year? I don't know how much I can elaborate on that one but like I read the batwoman one exclusively because it was in the New 52 run of Batwoman but now I have the volume of all the stories on my shelf?

I DO think that the arrowverse shows are better if you don't know the comics so that makes sense, and trust me I'm so good at attaching myself to things I get it. I LIKED supergirl a) couldn't tell what wasn't real, I've never read a supergirl comic in my life. B) Chyler Leigh- most specfically, Chyler Leigh with short hair, a gun, and a hint of lesbianism. Because I liked Lexi grey in Greys Anatomy but it hits different when they can fight well. But you are allowed to like things! I like my own little parts of it if I learn how to watch TV. That's all completely fair!!

I would like to! I've always liked the way they look! I just need to learn how to be a person again first and I do not know how to be a person at ALL right now. That WOULD be why I said don't/didn't, I assumed you might say that but didn't want to be presumptious.

It depends for me. A) sometimes my hobbies just take a break, like I'll just,,, not like painting anymore and I have to wait for it to wear off before I can paint again. Or writing won't work. Reading will be awful and I have no idea why. B) reading feels like a waste of time? I have three (part time) Jobs so a lot of time if I have downtime my brain is like EW you're gonna waste that on a book? And yes, because I like? Books? I also like reading is such a love/ hate relationship for so many people. Both my mother and sister used to love reading and now they can't pick up a book. And last winter I had this fun little thing called my ocd decided that books were making me sick and I couldn't read them anymore without starting to feel incredibly ill because the brain is a bitch. I can read again though! (Currently reading a 1979 book about a killer killer whale and I am a little bit fact checking it mentally) I hope you can also read again soon and also pick a fucked little Weirdo book!

I have some of the like BOO hollow line they put out but that's it- and the pin.

That's fair that's exactly what my collection looks like you're valid for that.

That's completely fair! And no rush or pressure of course!! And valid, I read the new issue last night, I found out it was out because I routinely just scroll "most recent" in the black canary tag and then proceeded to actually remember I wanted to read it at like 3am and read it then.

One thing about your girl? I love a good shark, so I am ALL for the megalodons that aren't going to get harmed at all they are all good polite little boys they will be fine (I need them to be fine I'm 80 pages into the book I mentioned earlier and 4 orcas have already died the megalodons will behave and leave them alone. I need this). I was a little less intrigued this time but not for like valid reasons- I didn't not enjoy it I think it's just that most off the issue was explaining sci-fi stuff and I was frothing at the mouth in the corner like "Sin sin sin sin sin sin sin sin". I'm definitely excited for the next issue still, I LOVED Sin being a pokemon fan that goes hard. I still don't like the relationship between Harley and Dinah, I know it makes perfect sense and I'm not mad mad about it but I'm just so biased from their injustice relationship (And even the Harley Quinn and the birds of prey comic) It's always a little disappointing when they don't get along perfectly. And it made me want to get back into writing black canary fics/ finish the couple I have in my drafts (I didn't but it DID get me to return to one). Please tell me what YOU thought because it sounds like YOUR brain did more thinking then mine.

I can't actually see the length of this but I know that I can't shut up so sorry about that, don't worry about speedy replies I understand, and uh, goodnight, good morning, bonsoir, bonne nuit, bonne journee. y'know the vibes <<3

okay before i actually respond to the content of this ask i have to say that i cracked open my physical bombshells copies tonight and um boy howdy i am so gay and also i forgot so many details that are just so delightful, such as; barbara!batgirl in bombshells continuity is a full fucking vampire and there is a panel of her giving mouth to mouth to dinah. bombshells has its own suicide squad of sorts thats made up of ravager (rose wilson) who is like a pirate, vampire barbara, enchantress in a cute witch's hat, killer croc and frankie charles who i am not as familiar with outside of bombshells but google says she was barbara's roommate at one point(i think i read the comic its referencing ive just got horrible memory). zatanna and john kind of adopt raven. kara has three moms from krypton and one is kind of evil. superman and power girl become circus performers. mera was diana's first kiss. and oh yeah one detail i think you might especially like. big barda is in this and she is in a wlw relationship with doctor light. anyways i just really love this series sorry i had to ramble for a minute

(here’s a somewhat shitty pic of barda and doctor light as a treat for you)

(also i think i might need to look more into doctor light her powers seem so cool)

you are so valid for being unnormal about whales btw. everyone should be a little over invested in an animal species in my opinion. it should be a universal human experience.

and yeah it WAS the shark episode i was thinking of. i must’ve blended it with memories of when i was learning about the seaworld Horrors (i’ve always found dolphins super cool and whales are adjacent to that. ((i did unfortunately go to seaworld when i was a real little kid BUT i was like. 6. i didn’t know of the atrocities then. and i remember like none of it except for a dog show that we saw there??)) but more recently ((god. fucking seven years ago.)) i went to dolphin research in the florida keys and i gotta say that was SUCH a cool experience. 10/10 would recommend. if i had the money and time i would so go back ((one day i will. on god i will go back one day.))) but yeah i think you are so valid for your love of whales, and frankly if you were to get killed by a whale i would not thinking it was because of stupidity but instead because that’s the literal hill you decided to die on and goddamn you absolutely knew what you were doing. (this is not me encouraging death by whale btw. please do not do that it does sound quite painful and i would miss getting messages from you)

if we were spies on a secret mission and you got distracted by the whales and stray behind i would simply circle back and happily listen to cool whale facts. maybe we should retire from the spy life and instead become animal activists. (there are no limits or restrictions! i love being infodumped at tbh like it’s so cool when people are very passionate about things((esp when it’s animals bc i love animals))and i love being included in that passion!!)

agents of shield was such a mess i wouldn’t recommend it but also i have a special place in my heart for it. much like arrowverse. (though i think about aos WAY less) and god YEAH peggy carter. when she beats people up with everyday objects >>>>>>>>

also jeez is that 30-50 for a single issue of a comic or for like a volume?? that’s so expensive i’m so sorry 😭 i think i got the bombshells volumes i have for like. <15USD each from amazon (i know amazon big corporation and bad however it is so goddamn convenient.) i’m glad you have somewhere where you can find comics for cheaper, even if it is a bit of a toss up on what youll find! i’ll have to keep in mind to check out a dollarama if i ever go to canada.

i’m spending my days off word for the majority of october going back to my parents to help with them moving & for a bachelorette party but i think when i have a day off where i am not making a 3(soon to be 2!) hour drive back to my parents i’ll try to force myself to go check out one of the comic book shops around me.

also idk how to properly describe it but like. hmm lemme see if i can get a screenshot of what i mean. when i was reading batgirl one of the overarching plots was war games which like. spanned over several individual issues of different series, aha this one is a literal check list. but like i’m not going to individually seal out all these individual issues they should just make a war games booklet or smth. (i still probably wouldn’t read war games but it was just an example i had recently from reading batgirl 2000)

yeah i do think supergirl was a lot of fun, especially like season 1 pre the move to the cw (though i do love that s2 embraced lesbian alex so true) but like the s1 supergirl/flash crossover is SOOO dear to me. also much like most of my dc experience i hadnt read any supergirl comics prior to watching the show but i will say i have read some after having seen the show and i did really enjoy them. the red daughter of kyrpton run especially was sooo good. kara becoming a red lantern <33333 i also know i read the supergirl being super run and enjoyed it. honestly supergirl as a character is genuinely pretty fascinating to me and i kinda want to read more of her comics i just cant fully remember which ones i already have read. (also her storyline in bombshells is SOOOOO <333333 shes adoptive sisters with stargirl. she had three moms on krypton. one of said moms turns out to be a little evil..... she kisses girls ((one specifically)) god yeah shes just <33333)

i will try to stop rambling extensively about bombshells (no promises tho) but genuinely if/when you read it PLEASE share your thoughts with me

also okay forgive me if im oversharing here but oh my god i also have ocd and mine also got in the way of my love of reading as it decided that i cannot use libraries or buy used books because they are Contaminated, unfortunately im still struggling with that some, but i made some progress in the last year ive bought my dad & sister some books from a used bookshop (theres this place local to me that lets you shop online and all you have to do is go and pick up the books you bought from their store which helped in making the process easier for me) and i was super proud of myself for being able to do that. having access to the library digitally has been huge for me in terms of reading bc god buying books new is not cheap. but anyways im super happy/proud of you for overcoming and being able to read books again, i know that shit is not easy, so yeah congrats 💕

and yeah i really need to find a good audiobook to listen to especially with how much driving im doing back and forth to my parents this month.

im gonna be honest i dont have a ton of coherent thoughts re the new bop issue other than i thought it was fun. it was cool to see john constantine and his dynamic with dinah was very funny to me. hes not a guy i like seek out but i enjoy seeing him in things when he does pop up (watching legends gave me some love for him). it definitely felt like an issue that was more establishing some stuff which i don’t personally mind but definitely not super noteworthy. though seeing dinah fighting is always a win for me. i’m also a little disappointed by the harley dinah dynamic, i much prefer when their dynamic is more friendly but im gonna hold out hope their dynamic could change in this overtime or at least give us some explanation for why their dynamic is as it is.

okay this reply has taken like. three days so i’m gonna end it here but i think i’m gonna crack open the first injustice issue while i eat my dinner at work so next time i’ll report my thoughts.

hope you are doing well! have a good [insert time of day] as well!

[spirit-pyrite]

This wasn't procedure.

Fuck- this was not procedure.

The implant had been set to bring the subject back when their body started to fail, sure! That checked out 100%! Subject had to be 80 something by the looks of it- autopsy could confirm later. They were lucky really, it looked like a natural death! There'd be plenty of data to work with once reconnaissance plotted all the jumps! But they weren't supposed to-

All the instances they'd found in the six months subject 17 had been jumping, the subject had generally tried to keep low. They'd lie or make vague statements, just generally try to pretend like they knew what was going on! Even if though they reasonably had no way of knowing. Recon showed that the time jumps would have been years apart and totally out of chronological order. This shouldn't have been any different! The subject should have woken from the jump in another unknown situation, surrounded by more unknown people, and just played along.

But they didn't. They had.

They had started crying.

A lot.

Decan Knuller was not good with crying people. He didn't sign up for crying people ok?! This was. It was fucking Time Travel!!! Quantum positioning!!! Science, goddamn it!!! He signed up for lab work, and testing, and extremally restrictive NDAs. Not crying people. Crying people was on precisely zero forms, thank you very much! This was just supposed to be another lab job. Or, well, a very important lab job, it turned out. "Groundbreaking". "History- Altering". "The greatest effort of our time"- "all time".

Sacrifice worthy.

That was the ethos behind how they chose test subjects. That the work was worth it, that it was the duty of the people to bring about this discovery, no matter the cost. The human cost. It would all be worth it in the end. That was what the government thought, anyways. Decan just had bills to pay and very serious contracts to uphold.

Which is to say, the thought that ran through Decan's mind next wasn't unfounded.

They didn't sign up for this either.

So he did something stupid. Really stupid.

"Hey, it's ok!"

Stupid, stupid, stupid!!

"G-Grandpa..."

What the Fuck! What! The fuck!!! Why would you say that!?

But subject 17 had already heard it, so there was no going back. Abby was glaring at him from across the medical cot, but 17 was staring up at him all glossy eyed, bewildered, and totally buying it. Oh my god, Decan, what the fuck have you gotten yourself into this time?

"Um. It's ok! We're all here, and we..."

Abby looked like she was going to kill him.

"all love you very much"

She'd have to get in line. Sorry boss.

Ok. Ok! No, he can make this work! They can sell this, right? They look like they're in a hospital, everyone is in their casual Friday stuff so they don't even look like doctors or some shit- besides Clark who is straight backed and spotless in his lab gear as expected. Still, 17 has no way of knowing anything is off. As far as they know, they jumped and now they surrounded by their loving family in the hospital. Or, uh. Deathbed. Yeah that was, um. Not great.

"I don't"

Oh fuck they were speaking now. At him.

"I don't know- I don't recognize you and. I don't want to- to die like this!"

Oh my god this was so much worse than the crying.

"I don't want to- I should know you! I-I should know all of y-you, and I don't! I don't want to die like th-this!"

Annnndd crying again. Fucking shit, oh my god. What now idiot? You tell him about your fucking beautiful history together? All the grandpa- grandson fishing trips?! You don't even remember their name! Or his name maybe, seeing as 'Grandpa' worked. Focus goddamn it! Make something up!

"It's ok grandpa! It's, um. It's alright-"

Already said that dipshit!

"all you have to know is that. I love you..."

Way to sell it. God, maybe he should have taken that improv class. He's totally out of his league here- this is so far from procedure. Saria is fidgeting anxiously, then speaks before he can say something to digs this little pit he's started deeper. Thank god. Save us Saria!

"We all... we love you very much! Um. Grandpa"

No! Saria you were supposed to fix things!

"We know you might not remember us but. We all r-remember you! Right?"

Oh shit start nodding. Yup! Yup! Totally remember you pops! Everyone else is nodding along too, holy shit. Abby's face has smoothed over into something sort of passably "concerned loved one". Decan can still feel her bubbling fury though, he's so fucked after this. Saria too, at this point. Sorry Saria, should have gone with something better than his stupid as shit lie.

"I remember how kind you were to me after Felis died. That kind of support was invaluable to me, even if I maybe didn't express it at the time."

Hell yeah, that was believable as shit. Leave it to Clark to be the only one not tripping over their own tongue. Just one more thing the bastard was unfairly good at. Wait, wasn't Felis-

"Oh! Um.. I-I'm glad."

Shit. Clark is supposed to be playing doctor. He does not look like "loving family". 17 is totally confused now, but at least they aren't crying.

"He had to rush to get here! Still has his work clothes on, ha ha. Um. He's your..."

Think of something holy shit. Why do you keep opening your mouth Decan?!

"Son in law"

Score! Clark can totally sell being his dad or something, he's good at this! He came up with the dead... wait. Isn't Felis Clark's cat? Oh that is so cheating. That has to be against the laws of improv.

"I'm so sorry, but- who did you... marry?"

Something is so soft when they speak. Trembling and weak, and not just because they're old and dying. It feels uncomfortably real for a second. Clark looks pale as a sheet, but 17 probably cant tell cause he's always pasty as fuck. OH FUCK.

WHO IS CLARK MARRIED TO.

"Um..."

He's looking around at the five of them, trying to decide who is best to claim his marriage to. Saria is the youngest of the group and totally looks it, that's a shitty call. But his other options are Rodriguez, who has progressively been inching their way out of the room and is rapidly shaking their head- coward- and the boss lady herself. And yourself, but that's incest so hopefully not.

"Oh- I'm. I'm so sorry I... I'm glad we could be there for each other."

What? Wait. Oh holy shit that's so funny. 17 must have come to his own conclusion in the awkward silence. Clark looks equally relieved and upset that he has been fictionally married to his real-life dead cat. Serves him right for breaking the improv laws. 17's head shifts to Saria.

"I'm your granddaughter!"

Bit too enthusiastic for the death bed maybe, but at least it makes sense and doesn't leave any more unexplained marriages. 17 nods in agreement.

"I.. I remember making pies with you for. Um. Well, when ever we could really. You'd always make pecan in the winter because its your- cause you knew it was my favorite!"

That's... probably also a personal anecdote. At least she'd caught herself before potentially making another inconstancy. They had no way of knowing what the subject's favorite pie was, cause they didn't know jack shit about them. Decan had forgotten their actual name at this point- it's been six months! So sue him! Everyone else probably had as well.

"I'm.. your daughter Benjamin"

Except for Abby cause she’s the boss and therefore infinitely more competent than any of them. Thanks boss lady, she'd probably realized that the rest of them wouldn't remember. Y'know, cause they were stupid enough to go along with this plan?

"You were such a good father to me and. Felis. When Felis died, you were so strong, and when mom died you- you're my pillar, and I don't know what I'll do without you. I couldn't have asked for a better dad."

That was... really touching. It settled over all of them, how emotion had leaked into the lab. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, but it was happening all the same. And it felt real now, death had seeped into the air. Or maybe they had spoken into existence. Clark's dead cat, Saria’s probably-dead grandpa, Abby's almost definitely dead dad. That speech was too heartfelt to not be something close to her- to be real. Abby wasn't that good at lying.

And then the person lying on the cot. Heart monitor slowing to a crawl. This person. This person who they had sent though hell. Who never got to live their life except for in dizzying, terrifying flashes. Only acting out the potential story that they should have lived, but never got the chance to and were instead forced to fake. To make it all up, all the love and the heartbreak and the memories that they should have had.

Decan wanted to feel like he had at least granted their last wish, given them something good at the end of it all. But it just felt like lying.

They were looking at him now. He was the last one left in the room without an alibi.

"We went fishing together. On Sundays, you'd take me fishing if the weather was nice. Boat fishing, ice fishing, fly fishing. Anything, just to go out together for a few hours. To do something..."

"To do something peaceful."

Benjamin smiled, then closed their eyes. They looked peaceful.

Decan just felt sick.

Everyday the lonely person wakes up they’ve mentally travelled in time. They awake to a new point in their life, sometimes in the past, sometimes in the future. Never before past the age of 30. Today, they wake up, 80 years old on their death bed surrounded by loved ones they’ve never met.

[twopoppies]

Hi Gina!

So, I had asked @hazzabeeforlou about any tips for someone going to their first concert bc (as I mentioned to them), I might be getting LOT tickets for my birthday. They were not able to answer, but they did direct me to you, so now I'm here asking if YOU have any tips for someone going to their first HS concert? Thanks 💚💙

Hi darling. Oh, that's exciting. What a great show to have as your first concert experience. I'm not really sure why Toni suggested me because I really don't go to that many concerts.

I guess all I can suggest is the following:

don't get pit if you're anxious about crowds or are very short (unless you don't mind being at the back of the pit where there will be more room and air).

People in the pit for Harry's shows are aggressive about getting to the barricade, so if you care about that, be prepared to camp overnight, have to run when doors open, and be shoved a lot once you're there.

Wear comfortable shoes. Fuck looking cute. If your shoes aren't comfortable you will want to die. If you're in the pit, you'll be standing for hours. If you're in seats, you'll still be standing for hours.

If you have don't have great seats, Harry makes great use of big screens, so you'll still be able to see.

If you want merch, take advantage (if you can) of merch lines opening a day early if they do that again. Lines the day of the concert are insane. And if you happen to wear a larger size, they sell out fast.

Find out what you can about the parking/uber situation is at the venue you'll be attending. Some require buying parking passes ahead of time and sometimes it's cheaper than buying the day of. If you're not Ubering, try to car pool. Parking is hella expensive.

Check the venue's bag/flag/sign policy. They're very strict about what you can and can't bring in. If your show is in the US @daisiesonafield-blog made some great posts for each venue's restrictions and rules.

If you have virtual tickets, have you ticket already downloaded on your phone ready to go before you get to the venue. Sometimes the internet connection is shit. Do the same with your vaccination card if they're still requiring those.

Try to eat before you go. Food there is always crap and always overpriced.

Sing and dance your ass off. Harry's shows are beyond fun and getting to just let loose and have a good time makes all the hassle worth it. If you can meet up with fandom friends, even better!

I can't think of anything else. If anyone wants to add anything, please feel free!