#10/10 best $40 i've spent

[uselessgaywhovian]

so how's everyone else's saturday night going

[doyoulikethissong-poll]

Dido - Thank You 1998

"Thank You" is a song written and performed by English singer-songwriter Dido. The song made its first appearance in 1998 on the soundtrack of the movie Sliding Doors (as did poll #28). It was later included on Dido's 1999 debut album No Angel, and was released as a single in September 2000. The same year, American rapper Eminem sampled the track for his hit single "Stan", which helped propel "Thank You" and No Angel to mainstream success.

Following the success of "Stan" in Australia and the UK, where it hit number one, No Angel was finally distributed in other markets outside North America in late 2000. No Angel rose to the top of the Australian albums chart on its sixth week, dethroning The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem. By 2003, No Angel had sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, and was the second best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. As of 2015, No Angel was the 27th best-selling album in UK chart history. In 2019 it was listed the ninth best-selling album of the 21st century in the UK. It was also among ten albums nominated for the best British album of the previous 30 years by the Brit Awards in 2010, ultimately losing to (What's the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis.

"Thank You" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, and held that spot for three weeks, and became Dido's first and only top-10 single in the US. It was one of the biggest sleeper hits of the year, debuting in January and remaining on the chart until the end of September. It spent 40 weeks on the chart, and in November Billboard published that "Thank You" finished as the seventh biggest song of the year. Additionally, the song reached number one on the Billboard Adult Contemporary, Adult Top 40, and Dance Club Play charts. In the UK, "Thank You" reached number three, becoming the singer's third top-five single in the UK.

The song was produced by Dido and her brother Rollo, from the band Faithless (poll #109).

"Thank You" received a total of 85,5% yes votes!

[twig-tea]

2024 BL/GL/QL Round-Up Post

Since I did this last year, I thought for posterity I'd post another reflection on everything I watched that completed in 2024. For me, that means anything that started in 2023 but the last episode was in 2024 is on this list, but anything that was still be airing after 31 December 2024 11:59 my time (EST) is not on this list, even if the bulk of the show did air in 2024.

A few stats:

[The image is TL;DR for what follows lol]

I watched ~150 discrete pieces of new QL content in 2024 (series/films) that I tracked [It gets complicated with specials and split seasons but I did my best to be consistent]; plus 10 things that I would consider "adjacent". For contrast, I listed 110 pieces of discrete content in 2023; that's a 45% increase year over year!

This clocked in at an est. 900 hours of new BL/GL and adjacent content (up from ~600 in 2023--which also tells us that the content I tracked was a little longer overall because that's a full 50% increase in terms of hours spent).

The new content I watched came from 9 different countries [same as 2023]: (Cambodia [1], Philippines [2, down from 3], Hong Kong [1], Japan [32, up from 18 in 2023], Korea [20; was 19], Myanmar [2, up from 1], Taiwan [12, up from 6], Thailand [75; up from 56], Vietnam [4, down from 7]), China [5], and then 3 joint effort productions from Thailand/Korea [2] and Thailand/Taiwan [1]

This means just under ~47% of the content I watched on this list is from Thailand [close to the 50% in 2023]

So many more shows had multiple or varied distributions this year, but like last year ~85% of my content was on 3 platforms: YouTube [38%; down from 40%], GaGaOoLaLa [30%; up from 23%] and iQIYI [17%; down from 21%] Note: I'm in Canada and my access routes are sometimes affected by that.

As unbelievable as it sounds with all that, I did actually drop shows this year! I dropped 9 shows, which is I think more than I've dropped in my entire previous 20+ years watching queer asian media combined (that might be an exaggeration but I do really hate dropping shows); 4 Thai, 3 Filipino, 1 Taiwanese and 1 Japanese (listed at the very bottom of this post if you want to be messy). I didn't track any dropped shows in 2023.

And if you're wondering how many shows there are in the world in total, I am aware of an additional 11 shows I just did not have time to even start (2 from Cambodia, 4 from the Philippines, 3 from Thailand, and 1 each from Korea and Myanmar). That does not include the vertical short reels that I didn't track this year--see @ellsieee 's tracking post for these--as well as several GL shorts from JPC media YouTube channel and Sastra film app YouTube channel that I just have not had time to try or even keep track of, though I do peek in on them to see if there's anything that looks particularly good, and I do always link these folks in my GL round-ups.

All of this doesn't include re-watches or catching up on old shows, or non-QL queer media, or non-queer media (the hets sometimes do deserve rights); but does include films as well as shows.

I hope you all appreciate that with this much content, and with my general brand of being unable to make decisions, I really struggled to narrow down a top 10 list. What follows is the best I could do lol

Top 25 QLs I'd Recommend From This Year:

[Links are self-indulgently to what I thought was the most relevant post I'd made this year relevant to that series/media, mostly spoiler-free pitches]

She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat S2 (Tsukutabe) [GL]

Love in the Big City

Love For Love's Sake

Tadaima Okaeri [anime]

Ossan no pantsu ga nandatte ii janai ka (Oppan)

Marahuyo Project

Knock Knock Boys

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo

Love is Like a Poison (Doku koi)

Ossan's Love Returns

Twilight out of Focus [anime]

At 25:00 in Akasaka

Cooking Crush

Cherry Magic [anime]

Cherry Magic Thailand

Takara no Vidro

Soul Sisters / Twin Rabbits [GL]

Perfect Propose

Unknown the series

Paradise of Thorns [film]

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days

The Secret of Us [GL]

Mr Mitsuya's Planned Feeding (Mitsuya-Sensei)

The Time of Fever

A Man Who Defies the World of BL S3

I tried to put these in some kind of order but honestly if you asked me to rank them the numbering would change all the time and I would combust. The ones I liked best are closer to the top of this list. I also debated back and forth on whether Paradise of Thorns counts as QL so many times. But in the end I decided the main character was queer and queer romance of a sort was at the heart of the drama, so I've left it in this list even though technically it should probably sit with the 'adjacent's.

Worth noting that though only ~20% of the content I watched was from Japan, ~45% of my favourites were from Japan.

+5 notable pulp offerings worth mentioning:

Bagan Beginning (Myanmar)

City of Stars (Thailand)

Gym Affairs (China)

To the Ex Who Hated Me (Korea, GL)

Under the Oak Tree (Vietnam)

I think I'll do a top 10 GL post separately since we had enough content to warrant a top 10 (yay!) but this is already long enough. I just want to take a second to acknowledge that this year was so much better than in 2023 when I didn't feel like I could recommend any of the new GL shows. Thank you content creators for better and more GL in 2024, please keep that energy for 2025!

Bonus: Not a QL but worth calling out:

How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies (Thai film)

I saw both this and Paradise of Thorns in theatres during the Toronto International Film Festival and they were both so powerful! Extremely different tones but they surprisingly hit on similar themes, and very beautifully filmed. HTMMBGD was a complicated film filled with very rounded and complex characters, and I still think about it all the time. Very excited for more folks to have access to both of these soon.

Sidenote: The fact that I watched 45% more shows in 2024 than I did in 2023 and still managed to keep my rec list to 30 (*cough1cough*) does seem to back up the general feeling that though we had more content, we didn't have a proportional rise in good content. I do want to crunch those numbers in another post.

Double Plus Bonus: Best Older QL Content I watched for the first time in 2024:

Life as a Girl / Joshi-teki Seikatsu (Japan, 2018; I'm so sad I missed out on this one for so long due to misinfo, it is fantastic! Thanks to @so-much-yet-to-learn for helping propel me to this one)

Iron Ladies (Thailand, 2000; thank you for the rec, @happypotato48)

Nacchan's Secret / Himitsu no Nacchan (Japan, 2023; thank you @furritsubs for making this watch possible)

Can I Buy Your Love From a Vending Machine / Sono Koi, Jihanki de Kaemasuka? (Japan, 2023; thanks to @nicks-den for making this watch possible)

I Fell In Love with the Villainness (Japan, 2023; watched because of a convo with @pilanthitasanilaphat)

Doi Boy (Thailand, 2023; this one I had on my list and just had to work up the energy to watch, but it was a beautiful film and I'm glad I did)

BL Metamorphosis (Japan, 2022; another thank you to @furritsubs)

Dear Dad (India, 2016; thanks to @neuroticbookworm for the rec!)

Salty Blue / Kakenuketara, Umi (Japan, 2023, thank you again @nicks-den!)

[I can't believe I forgot this at first] The Miracle of Teddy Bear (Thailand, 2022, thanks for going on that journey and writing great meta with me and for calling me out for forgetting @lurkingshan!)

There is so much good content in the world and despite my best efforts I haven't seen everything! So grateful to the fansubbers and people who write about past shows so that those of us who missed them the first time still get a chance to see them.

In terms of my output based on all this input, I continued not lurking this year, and have enjoyed it very much; see my Top 10 posts from 2024 here as well as the content I linked in my recommended shows above--going through the process of adding those links really highlighted to me how much more I've written this year, and how much more motivated I am to write about shows I love. It's no surprise I had dedicated posts for most of my top shows! To highlight a few specific projects this year that I'm proud of, I participated in the Love in the Big City Book Club read and watch-alongs organized by @lurkingshan, which was such a fun project that I am grateful for, and I started my GL Odds and Ends posts (tagged with #gl recs) that I am still feeling out but am really enjoying seeing the impact whenever someone watches a show because they found out about it through one of my posts. I also made an appearance on several episodes of @the-conversation-pod and had an incredible time trying out different things in a quarterly 'Dispatch' and having some really rich conversations with @bengiyo and @shortpplfedup. I love this corner of tumblr that we've carved out for ourselves as a QL watching community, and I just want to say to everyone I've interacted with in 2024: Thank you, and wish good things for you all in 2025!

Full list of 2024 shows under the cut for anyone curious! [Mostly in order it completed but may be slightly off--if a special aired immediately after the final episode I only list them as one thing and count the airing of the special as the end date, for example].

Bagan Beginning

Love Senior the Series

After SunDown

VIP Only

Twins the Series

Last Twilight

Night Dream the Series

My Universe

Bake Me Please special episode

Sahara Sensei to Tori Kun / Mr Sahara and Toki-kun

Love for Love's Sake

7 Days Before Valentine

Happy Ending

PitBabe the series

For Him the series

Cooking Crush

The Sign

Chaser Game W

Playboyy the series

Perfect Propose

Ossan's Love Returns

Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna S2 / She Loves to Cook and She Loves to Eat

Cherry Magic Th

Dead Friend Forever

Sukidoya / Although I Love You and You / Sukiyaken kedo dou yaroka?

Healing Thingyan

Love You in Every Multiverse

Cherry Magic (anime)

Please Teach Me

Anti Reset

Jazz for Two

Blank the Series

A Secretly Love

To Be Continued the series

Love is Better the Second time around / Koi wo Surunara Nidome ga Joto

City of Stars

Sea You Soon

Human Too

Man Who Defies the World of BL s3

Gray Shelter / Gray Currents / Grey Current

Gym Affairs

1000 Years Old the Series

Love is Like a Cat

To the Ex Who Hated Me

Lady Boy Friends the series

Deep Night the series + Special Episode

Unknown the series

Memory in the Letter

You are My Star

Lonely Girls

Boys Be Brave / Roommates / I Can't Confess

Blossom Campus

Two Worlds

VIP Only special episode

Pray In Love

I Fell In Love with My Male Best Friend

Friend With Benefit

Stay By My Side special episode

23.5

You Made My Day

Living With Him

City Boy Log pt3

Anti-Reset special episode

The Time of Huan Nan

Xiao Xiang Yi Jiu

Inverse Identity

At 25:00 in Akasaka

Only Boo!

Tadaima Okaeri

Love Bully (Club Friday)

Blank the Series S2

Marahuyo Project

The Two of Us

Blue Boys

OMG Vampire!

My Stand-In

We Are the series

Ossan no pantsu ga nandatte ii janai ka / Oppan

Wandee Goodday

Under the Oak Tree

The Rebound

Love Enemy

Love in the Apocalypse

Bad Guy

My Marvellous Dream is You/ Dream the Series

Century of Love

Knock Knock Boys

Be Your Star

Meet You at the Blossom

BOYTOY

The Secret of Us

Ayaka is in love with Hiroko / Ayaka-chan wa Hiroko-sempai ni koi shiteru

My Love Mix-Up!

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans

Love Sea the series

Cosmetic Playlover

City Boy Log s4

Sunset Vibes

Mr Mitsuya's Planned Feeding

Takara no Vidro / Takara's Treasure

Paradise of Thorns

I Hear the Sunspot

The Time of Fever / when your temperature reaches my fingertips

4 Minutes The Trainee

Twilight out of Focus

Happy of the End

The On1y One

Live in Love

Heaven'sxCandy

The Two of Us s2

Addicted Heroin

I Saw You In My Dream

Monster Next Door

Our Golden Times

Affair

First Note of Love

Battle of the Writers

Reverse 4 U

Unlock Your Love

Chaser Game W s2

Let free the Curse of Taekwondo

Uncle Unknown

The Hidden Moon the series

Love in the Big City [the series]

Smells Like Green Spirit

Red Whisper

Eccentric Romance/PT is Love

My Damn Business

Apple My Love

Dominant Yakuza and Wimpy Corporate Slave

The Nipple Talk

Kidnap the series

Every You Every Me

Jack & Joker

People Come Later

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days

The Loyal Pin

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru 2

Love is Like a Poison / doku koi: doku mo sugireba koi to naru

Bad Guy My Boss

Haunted Hearts

Seoul Blues

The Renovation

Love Sick 2024

Love in the Big City [the film]

Spare Me Your Mercy / Euthanasia

Soul Sisters / Twin Rabbits

My Hot Butch Roommate

Whisper Me a Love Song / Sasayaku you ni koi wo utau

Boys' Christmas

Bonus: FuFuKnows bi-weekly shorts [every other week they post a short film, almost always a QL storyline; there were 23 in 2024]

And those QL-adjacent shows I mentioned [these are all adapted from QL media or starred QL actors or were part of a QL franchise but did not have a canon queer romance at the core of its storytelling]:

The Spirealm

Close Friend 3 - Soju Bomb

How to Make a Million Before Grandma Dies

Man Suang

High School Return Of A Gangster / I, a Gangster, Became a High Schooler

Kimi to Yukite Saku: Shinsengumi Seishunroku

Hoshikuzu Telepath

A Balloon's Landing

Peaceful Property

My Strawberry Film

The shows I dropped:

Time the series

Beside You

Sugar Dog Life

The Whisperer

Kiseki in Tokyo

Q18

Sky Valley

The Fate Trap

Dear Miss Becky

And as a shout-out in penance, the shows I had on my list to get to but haven't yet watched:

A Blue Sky (Cambodia)

Ending Friend (Cambodia)

Pretty Boys (Philippines - requires an access fee on VivaMax+)

Oh My Boo (Philippines)

The Perfect Heartbreak (Philippines)

Where I found You (Philippines)

My_ the series (Myanmar)

What's In My Bag (Korean GL - requires an access fee on Vimeo)

Complicated (Thai)

Club Friday: Hot Love Issue (Thai)

2nd Chance (Thai; not to be confused with Second Chance, this was a smaller 3-episode short series from this year)

Thank you for reading!

[felassan]

Game Informer "Hub" archive

This post was like their index/contents page of links to every article.

(Please note that in some cases article titles were updated at some point after first being published, e.g. the "A Deep Dive Into Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Expansive Character Creator" article is the same article as "Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Character Creator Is BioWare's Most Robust Yet".)

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard Exclusive Coverage [note: the inclusion of the listing for GI's final piece of coverage on DA:TV - the art book announcement - was not captured in time by the Wayback Machine from what I can see, and so while the article itself is still available to read, it does not appear in this record of the Hub. it would have appeared here first before the listing for the article on Bellara, which is below]"

"Everything We Know About Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Bellara Lutara We spoke to BioWare about Bellara Lutara, the first companion players will recruit in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 22, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"Here's The Main Voice Cast For Dragon Age: The Veilguard The protagonist, Rook, will have four options to choose from. by Charles Harte on Jul 22, 2024 at 11:24 AM"

"BioWare Leads Discuss The Making Of Dragon Age: The Veilguard Corinne Busche, John Epler, and Mark Darrah dive into BioWare's long-awaited RPG. by Alex Van Aken on Jul 19, 2024 at 02:43 PM"

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard Is 'Respectful And Referential' To Previous Games Without Making Them Mandatory Game director Corinne Busche tells Game Informer it's about managing assumptions. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 17, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"A Deep Dive Into BioWare's Companion Design Philosophy In Dragon Age: The Veilguard BioWare says these companions are the series' best yet. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 15, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"Yes, Dragon Age: The Veilguard Has Nudity, And I've Seen It And we're not talking implied nudity here. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 10, 2024 at 01:00 PM"

"Companions Can Romance And Form Relationships With Each Other In Dragon Age: The Veilguard Giving a cold shoulder to a companion might nudge them into the warm shoulder of someone else. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 08, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard Will Feature A ‘Robust’ Transmog System At Launch You won't need to compromise fashion for function in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 04, 2024 at 04:00 PM"

"Here’s How Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s ‘Unbound’ Option Lets You Customize Difficulty And More Using the Unbound difficulty option, you can customize parry timing, enemy health, and more. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jul 01, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Character Creator Is BioWare’s Most Robust Yet We spent nearly 40 minutes crafting a Rook in BioWare's best character creator yet – here's what we learned. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 27, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"Dragon Age Cover Story And Shadow of the Erdtree Review | GI Show Our flagship gaming podcast covers Dragon Age: The Veilguard, our Elden Ring DLC review, Concord, Supervive, and more. by Alex Van Aken on Jun 27, 2024 at 01:57 PM"

"Breaking Down Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Classes And Factions There are three classes and six factions to choose from for your Rook. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 25, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

"Ahead Of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, The Entire Series Is On Sale For $10 You should at least give Dragon Age: Inquisition a go ahead of The Veilguard this fall. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 21, 2024 at 08:20 AM"

"Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Leads On The Name Change And Solas’ Role In The Story Though Solas name isn't a part of the game's title anymore, he still plays a major role in The Veilguard. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 20, 2024 at 03:00 PM"

"A Deep Dive Into Dragon Age: The Veilguard’s Combat, Abilities, Skill Tree, And More With Veilguard, Dragon Age has completed its long shift from real-time strategy combat to full action, and we spoke to BioWare about that transition. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 18, 2024 at 02:10 PM"

"The Dragon Age: The Veilguard Digital Issue Is Now Live! If you subscribe to the digital edition of Game Informer, you can now read all about our trip to BioWare for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. by Kyle Hilliard on Jun 18, 2024 at 12:30 PM"

"Get Your First Look At Dragon Age: The Veilguard's Real-Time Action Combat In First Gameplay Trailer More than 20 minutes of flashy Veilguard action, coming right up. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 11, 2024 at 10:21 AM"

"Cover Reveal – Dragon Age: The Veilguard The latest issue of Game Informer features an exclusive, in-depth feature on BioWare's return to the Dragon Age series, 10 years in the making. by Wesley LeBlanc on Jun 09, 2024 at 02:00 PM"

[source]

[sequinsmile-x]

would like to suggest a hotchniss christmas fic that's basically the song "i saw mommy kissing santa claus"

omg YES. YES.

Here you go bestie xo

-x-

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

Evie Hotchner sees something on Christmas Eve that she doesn't think she should have seen.

AKA - the one in which I've written exactly what you think I've written.

-x-

Warnings: None

Words: 2.1k

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

“You excited for tomorrow, Mommy?” 

Emily smiles and puts the book she’d been holding down on her lap as she turns to her daughter, “I am, baby. I love Christmas.” 

Evie’s smile gets wider, the three year old no closer to sleep than she was when she’d brought her up to bed 40 minutes ago, “Me too!! Lots of presents.” 

“Lots of presents,” Emily chuckles and kisses her forehead, thinking of all the gifts hidden in the attic that she’d promised to help her husband with once the kids were in bed. 

“And it’s Zaccy’s first Christmas,” she says, her eyebrows furrowing, the serious look that she’d inherited from Aaron spreading across her face, “Will Santa know about him?” 

Emily runs her fingers through her hair, an old trick that had helped to send her to sleep since she was a baby, and she tugs Evie closer, the love she had for her little brother enough to make Emily want to cry.

When she was first pregnant with Issac, she’d worried about Evie’s reaction to becoming a big sister. Since she was a tiny newborn, she’d always been all about Emily, desperate for her mother’s affection and attention at any given moment. It had made those early days long, when she’d refuse to settle for Aaron - something that Emily knew upset him - and she’d sit up in bed with Evie asleep on her chest because it was the only place she’d sleep for longer than 10 minutes. When they brought Issac home, the final missing piece to their family, and Evie was complacent about him at best,  Aaron assured Emily that their little girl would be fine, that there would be an adjustment period for all of them, but that she loved her little brother even if she didn’t know it yet. 

He was right, just like he was more often than Emily would care to admit, and Evie was obsessed with her little brother now. Sometimes they’d find her asleep on his bedroom floor, curled under her bedding that she’d pulled in after her with her favourite stuffed animal in her arms. 

“Yes,” she says, kissing her forehead again, “Santa knows about Zaccy, don’t worry,” she smiles as she thinks of the 6-month-old sleeping in the next room, “And remember what we said - he’s small so he doesn’t understand it all yet.” 

“It okay, I open his presents.” 

She chuckles, “Okay, sweet girl, you need to go to sleep.”

Evie sighs like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders, “I’m too excited to sleep.” 

She hums and continues to run her fingers through her hair, smiling to herself as she tells her daughter the only white lie she’d ever tell her, “But Santa won’t come if you don’t sleep.”

Evie’s eyes go wide before she squeezes them shut, her grip on Emily’s shirt getting tighter, “I go to sleep now.” 

Emily kisses the top of her head and picks the book back up, holding it with one hand whilst the other still plays with her little girl’s hair as she reads to her. She slowly feels Evie get heavier as she falls asleep, her grip on her shirt loosening just as Emily finishes the book. She sneaks out from under Evie and tucks the covers around her, dropping a kiss against her temple before she slips out of the room, making sure she’s quiet as she pulls the door closed behind her. She checks on Issac and Jack, relieved to find them both asleep, and heads downstairs. 

She smiles when she walks into the living room to find the presents all gathered around the tree already, toys and books she’d spent weeks agonising over all wrapped up and ready for her three kids to tear into them all in seconds. She sometimes had to pinch herself when she thought about the fact that this was her life. She had a family of her own, one she’d built together with the love of her life, and she was able to give her children the Christmases she’d always wanted when she was a kid herself. 

Aaron would always gently make fun of her and her love of the holidays, his smile wide and full of love as he patiently stood next to her as she picked out decorations and sparkling lights. It never went further than a playful comment or a raised eyebrow because he knew how important it was to her. 

She hears his footsteps behind her, and she turns, “Sorry, honey, I would have helped but Evie…” she trails off when she sees him, her words turning into a laugh as she’s met with the sight of him in the Santa Claus outfit they’d bought and hidden with all the gifts. He’d insisted on it, his eyes full of excitement as he said he’d surprise the kids with it, something she knew was his own attempt to give them what he’d never had, “Why are you wearing that?” 

He shrugs and pulls the fake beard down, “I wanted to check that it fits,” he asks, and she watches as he turns as if he’s trying out a new suit for work, “What do you think?” 

She hums, love for him thrumming under her skin, “It looks good.” 

He chuckles and raises an eyebrow at her, “Santa? Really?” 

She rolls her eyes and slaps his shoulder lightly, smiling when he captures her hand and kisses her knuckles, “No,” she exclaims, her nose scrunched up with disgust, “Not like that.” 

Aaron leans in to kiss her, “I know that look, Issac exists because of that look.”

She shakes her head at him and wraps her arms around his neck, her fingers curled around the bobble on the end of his Santa hat, “It’s not the Santa suit,” she says, stamping her lips against his, “It’s you being such a good Dad.” 

He hums against her lips, “Love you.” 

She pulls back just enough to speak, her lips skimming his as her breath skips across his face, “I love you too.”

She kisses him again, and they get lost in each other, both of them too distracted to hear a quiet gasp from the doorway followed by their little girl's footsteps on the hardwood floor as she runs back upstairs to her bedroom.

__

Emily wakes up at the sound of a bedroom door opening down the hall, closely followed by thundering footsteps. 

“Incoming,” Aaron says from behind her, his voice rough from sleep and misuse as he encourages her closer with the arm thrown over her waist. She has just enough to turn and kiss him before the door opens, Evie and Jack speaking in unison from the doorway, Issac smiling widely in Jack’s arms, his tiny hands already reaching out for his mom.

“Merry Christmas!” 

Emily and Aaron both sit up as they smile at their children, beckoning them over to the bed as Aaron switches on the lamp on his nightstand.

“Merry Christmas,” Emily says as she opens her arms up to take Issac from Jack. She kisses the baby’s cheek several times in a row, “It’s your first Christmas, sweet boy,” she kisses his cheek again, “Are you excited?”

“He was already awake when we went into his room,” Jack says as he settles on the bed in between his parents, “He was just sitting there like he was waiting.” 

“Were you waiting for your brother and sister?” She smiles as she settles Issac into her lap, “My patient little guy.”  Issac was Aaron all the way through, his quietness in comparison to his older sister already pronounced at only 6-months-old. Emily had lost sleep in the early weeks of his life for an entirely different reason to Evie’s, so used to how her little girl had cried for hours at a time that she was convinced something was wrong with her newborn son. She turns to look at Evie who was sitting in Aaron’s lap, her attention focused on a loose thread on the hem of his t-shirt, “Are you okay, sweet girl?” 

Evie shrugs and doesn’t look up at her, and Emily and Aaron exchange a concerned look. He adjusts his hold on the toddler so she’s looking at him. 

“Do you want to go give Mommy a Christmas cuddle?” He asks, trying to pull a smile out of her by tickling her, and she shakes her head fiercely, holding on to him tightly. 

“No,” she says, the tone in her voice cutting deeper than Emily thought possible as she looks up at her, “Mommy was naughty.” 

Emily furrows her brow, the serious look on her little girl’s face a vice around her heart as she tries to figure out what she’d done wrong to upset her, “What do you mean, baby?” 

Evie shakes her head again, “Can’t say.” 

Aaron looks at Emily and doesn’t miss the hurt flashing across her face, and he knows he needs to fix whatever is going on before it ruins their first Christmas morning as a family of five, “Princess, you can tell us anything, you know that.” 

The little girl sighs and looks up at her father, her lower lip sticking out as it wobbles ever so slightly, “Mommy kissed someone else,” she says, turning to look at Emily again, “I saw you kissing Santa.” 

Any concern she’d had that she’d somehow upset her daughter without knowing how disappears in a second, replaced with amusement she has to swallow down. She keeps her eyes fixed on her daughter, knowing if she made eye contact with her husband she’d laugh, and that would only upset Evie more right now. 

“Baby-”

“I saw you,” Evie says, her arms crossed over her chest, “Last night.” 

Aaron tries this time, desperately trying to think of how he could explain this to his little girl without running Christmas for her, without shattering the illusion of Santa years before he’d hoped it would happen. 

“That wasn’t the real Santa,” Jack cuts in, missing the look of panic in his parent's eyes as he tries to help. 

“Jack-” Aaron warns, but Jack carries on undeterred. He’d mentioned this year that he knew Santa wasn’t real, which Emily knew Aaron found harder to accept than he’d anticipated. They’d sat him down and explained that it was important for his brother and sister to still believe it, and he’d nodded along, pleased to be in on the secret, his smile wide at Evie’s excitement when they’d gone to meet Santa in the mall a week ago. 

“The real Santa is busy, right?” Jack says, cutting over Aaron. Evie nods in response and Jack carries on, “So he has Mommy’s and Daddy’s help out with putting out the presents - that was Daddy you saw Mommy kissing last night.” 

Evie’s frown loosens a little, her eyes flicking back and forth between her parents, “Really?” 

Emily looks at Aaron and he shrugs, both of them grateful that their eldest had come up with an answer when they hadn’t been able to, “Yeah,” she says, reaching out and tucking some of Evie’s hair behind her ear, “Really,” she looks up at her husband and winks, “Daddy’s the only person I want to kiss.” 

Evie sighs in relief and finally slips into Emily’s lap, “Merry Christmas Mommy.” 

She smiles and holds her close, one arm around her and the other around Issac and she drops kisses on top of both of their heads. She looks over at Aaron and Jack, both of them beaming at her, and she sighs contentedly, “Merry Christmas, baby.” 

“Right,” Aaron says, throwing the covers off of his lap and standing up, “How about some Christmas pancakes?” Jack and Evie exclaim and scramble off the bed, both of them already in the hallway before he can call after them, “Jack, make sure your sister is careful on the stairs.” 

“Yes, Dad!” 

He turns and looks at Emily, his smile turning into a smirk as she stands up, Issac on her hip, “So-”

“Don’t even say anything,” she replies, raising her eyebrow at him, her cheeks warm with embarrassment, “I can’t believe she saw that,” she blows out a breath, “Thank fuck Jack can think on his feet. We’re going to have to be more careful next year.”

He hums and wraps his arm around her waist, tugging her close to kiss her temple, her cheek and then the corner of her lips, “We’ll keep the Santa kissing strictly to the bedroom.” 

She rolls her eyes as she pulls away from him, “How many times do I have to say it was not the Santa costume I found attractive, but you being a good dad?”

He chuckles and wraps his arm around her shoulders, taking a moment to run his knuckles down Issac’s cheek before he starts to lead them out of the bedroom. 

“I believe you, sweetheart,” he says, leaning in to kiss her cheek, “Thousands wouldn’t.”

[888-fr]

mass pinglists (& moral superiority for not using them)

There's been concern lately over the newest update announcement that at some point, far into the future or at least after New Year's 2024, mass-pinging as a concept will be retired from Flight Rising. On one hand, there's people worried about this.

There's people who are also, frankly, being wildly vitriolic about those who rely on mass pinglists, disbelieving that anybody could ever be affected by mass ping tools shutting down. They're also out here openly calling skinmakers/G1 collectors/dominance organizers delusional for thinking the things they do are in any way, shape, or form, an important part of the site.

Which like, if people don't use user-run tools like GASP or the G1 pinglist, that's fine! That's your playstyle. But I don't understand where the attitude is coming from that the concerned groups are only a 'loud minority', and that they somehow don't contribute massively to the game as a whole. (The same people, by the way, who call G1 collectors & UMA makers a plague upon dragon society for being an elitist rich boy's club, then turn around and say they're not at all a driving force in the site's economy.) Which one is it? You can't have it both ways. Do these people spend thousands whaling for their perfect XXY G1 wildclaws then hundreds buying gem genes for their fancy showoff dragons? Or are they at best a negligible population in the game, whose activity and monetary contributions to the site are far outweighed by the tens of thousands of 'nice, normal, sane' players who log on once a week to hatch a nest and post on forums once in a blue moon?

There's 825 pages of user-made skins on the site right now. At 50 items per database page, that's 41,250 skins. 41,250 skins that had to be submitted with blueprints that can only be bought with gems.

Let's give these numbers the benefit of the doubt and say each skin was only submitted once, using a 10-print blueprint at 5000 gems, and each accent was only submitted once as well, using a 10-print blueprint at 2500 gems. That's 136,875,000 gems sunk into blueprints - if each individual usermade skin on site has only an average of ten copies on site. (Which is categorically not true, I've had multiple skins print over 300 copies. And I am just one person, and far from the most successful skinmaker on site.)

This is 1,368,750 USD in skin blueprints alone, by the way, using the most barebones and least generous numbers possible. We're not accounting for skins that sell more than one run, or the fact that no skin artist sells their skins to the public at print price (you can add another 30-40% to that number if you want to estimate how much money is actually spent to circulate those skins). Even if none of these artists pay money to buy gems, these gems are coming from somewhere. Even if you, as someone who doesn't care for G1s or never even heard of GASP, never set foot into these places, these gems are still circulating and being sunk into the site. And it helps no one to scoff and say you doubt there's no real impact on anything if all of this goes away.

There's 51k items on the site, and over 80% of them are skins. There's 5k users actively signed up and using GASP - more than the average amount of users logged onto the site at any given point that's not a new breed release or anniversary update.

Are you getting the picture yet? It's not self-absorbed to say that the UMA market has a very real impact on the game economy. It's just numbers.

I need to get my thoughts out about the new mass-ping update somewhere. My thoughts on the actual tool are entirely positive, it's a great change for the site and not one I ever thought I'd see. But there's people worried about the future of tools like the GASP & G1 sales pinglists for very good reason.

I think game economy is a very real concern if you're a dominance participant, a skinmaker, an old dragon collector, a G1 hatcher, an ID hunter, or anyone else whose community relies on mass ping lists. You aren't wrong for feeling this way. I'm sorry people are dismissing very valid concerns about the state of your community out of some misguided 'i don't do this and neither do my friends, so everyone who does must be a loud overexaggerating nitwit' attitude.

[logansgaar]

obviously this isn't something visible without CGI since the actors don't actually age at the same rate as their characters, so we have to use Vampire Logic and the suspension of disbelief when it comes to the super soldiers (and Asgardians for that matter). The characters don't look the same age as their actors anymore, their actors have matured but they're still more or less the same as when we first met them.

I wonder if in-universe that characters who don't have delayed aging ever look at Steve, Bucky, Thor or even Loki and think what the fuck you're a baby

Sam is the best guy to illustrate this point.

Sam was 34 during CATWS, and Steve and Bucky were both around 27-28 physically (accounting for the delayed aging of the serum negating any time Bucky spent out of ice, which I've seen most people estimate as being no more than 2 years in total over the entire 50+ year span, and Bucky was 26 when he got his serum in Oct 1943.)

By the time Endgame rolls around, Steve is meant to be 38 but if I've got the math right with some estimation on how old he looks as Old Man Steve vs how old he actually was by then, it's ~40% slower than baseline humans. So in-universe he only aged about 6 years in the 10 years between meeting Sam and Sam dusting back into existence. Meaning before he dipped and came back as Old Man Steve, Steve looked about 33-34.

As of TFATWS, Sam is still 38, which means by the MCU's present day, which is 2026, Sam is 40-41.

Bucky on the other hand (and please remember I mean Bucky the character here, not Sebastian since that's literally impossible) who by the way was not aging at all for 5 and a half years (the Blip and the 6 month freeze in Wakanda) aged about ~2.5 years the entire time between CATWS and TFATWS, so he only looked about 30 during the show. Even by 2026, he's only looking about 32 at absolute max.

In-Universe, Sam has witnessed two of his friends barely age a DAY in a decade. Like how is that not a massive mind fuck. There must come a day where it just hits Sam all at once that Bucky looks really fucking young, he's in his 40s now, even with the Blip, but Bucky still hasn't physically reached the age Sam was when they met 12 years ago in DC.

Don't even get me started on how Thor must look to Bruce, Tony, Natasha, Jane, Darcy and Clint, since Thor in-universe still only looks 27 aka the age Chris H. was when he was filming Thor in 2011. Super soldiers age slower but Asgardians practically come to a stand still once they hit maturity.

Edit: also to add to this, I'm not sure but it doesn't look as if the serum Isaiah, John Walker and Alexei have slows their aging down at all. It seems to be just something Steve and Bucky's has? (We also know Bucky has a different serum, so his aging might not be the same as Steve's was, in the comics at least I think the Infinity Serum stops his aging completely but don't quote me on that.)

[octuscle]

Full time barista here I’ve always been envious of the men on stage especially the heavy weights. Don’t want to over work the chronivac but help me become a muscle bull as big as jean pierre fux.

Mate, I understand you only too well…. There are few things hotter than the real heavy beefcakes. I've tried it long enough myself… But I didn't make it either. Jean Pierre is a pretty good role model… But I have an idea…

Friday morning. It's 06:00, you have to hurry, in one hour you have to prepare the first coffee. You don't have time for much more than a few situps and pushups. In the bathroom you have to hurry. You need longer and longer to conceal your receding hairline. You are now 40 years old, slowly you just notice that you are getting older. If you go out tonight to party, it will take you almost the whole Saturday to recover. The cosmetic industry has nothing effective to offer against the wrinkles in the corners of your eyes. And even if you don't need to be ashamed of your body: You won't gain much more muscle in your lifetime.

Shit, at 07:00 o'clock people are already queuing up. You hate it when you can't open the store in peace. But as it looks, it will be 10:00 o'clock, until you have the first moment of rest. In fact, it's even 10:30 when your colleague thinks you can take a break. If you need it, he adds with a wink. You look fantastic today! You take a mineral water and sit down in the warehouse. In fact, you feel pretty damn good right now. You drink the water in one go. You don't have much time for a break. And you have to piss again before the lunch business starts. Your lower jaw drops as you wash your hands. Fuck, what happened to you. There are no more receding hairlines or laugh lines. You look ten years younger than when you got up today. The only difference is that you look as if you'd spent the last ten years doing little else but lifting iron. Your T-shirt is almost blown up by your biceps and pecs. And your jeans look like they're painted on your monstrous legs. How could you not notice that? As you tie the apron back on your way back to the counter, you wonder why you were just amazed. Since your 20th birthday, you've spent every spare minute at the gym, investing every penny you earn in protein and supplements. Hell, if you didn't look the way you do, you would have wasted a hell of a lot of time and money.

The calm in your coffee bar begins to subside again. The lunch business is starting up. There's a beefcake in your line that makes you jealous. Yo, bro! he greets you. It's nice to see that there are real men working here, too. What you can recommend to him. You suggest the protein bomb. A scramble of 10 eggs with 400 grams of chicken breast. He grins and nods. And a liter of still mineral water. The bro shares your taste. While you type everything into the register, he asks you if you're all-natural. Of course you are. With the money for the meal, he slides you a card. In case you want to think about it.

It is 17:00 o'clock, when you tie off your apron. Fuck' according to your watch you have walked 12,000 steps today on the few square meters behind the counter. But it also looks like it's been a pretty good day so far. You're 20 now, and the idea of opening your own café with healthy and, above all, protein-rich food came to you when you were 16. That's when you started getting into high performance bodybuilding. And a place like this was missing at that time. And then you built this place with your mentor and trainer as a straw man. But you can't stand behind the counter for more than ten hours. Even if you are the best advertisement for your products, you have to work out at least four hours every day. Otherwise you don't stand a chance on the big stage.

You might not be one of the big ones yet… But you are on a really good way to get there. You met Jean Pierre Fux once at a fitness fair in Germany. A great role model for you. And he said that at your age he would have been a linnet compared to you. The prerequisites for a brilliant career are there. Enjoy it and make the best of it!

This and other hot pics @anton227ludwig

[pissterdaniel]

Thank you so so much for the ask @fern-foxx, I would love nothing more than to info dump <3.

PREPARE FOR 6130 WORDS THAT WILL MAKE YOU REGRET EVER ASKING ME TO DO THIS!

First things first, I have spent the last 4 hours formatting a response to your ask, only for tumblr to turn around and shit itself, and not let me post it. So I am restarting and trying it in the form of a proper post.

I think I had too many photos and links. So have put all my links in a linktree for your and tumblr's convenience (otherwise this post couldn't happen). Will just do a number coding system.

I have only gotten into figure skating recently. It started when some friends got me to watch Yuri on Ice and it's all been downhill since then.

The competition series I've been watching is the Grand Prix. This is on from October to December and is an elite level competition.

There are 2 programs that each skater competes, and I will go more in-depth later. But basically, there is the short program which is first - this is 2:40 +/- 10sec and the free program which is 4:00 +/- 10sec.

There are 6 qualifying events across the world, and skaters will be assigned either 1 or 2 competitions depending on how well they did at World's in March as well as some other criteria.

The competitions and when/where they were held this year:

Skate America - Oct 18-20 (Allen, TX)

Skate Canada - Oct 25-27 (Halifax, NS)

Grand Prix de France - Nov 1-3 (Angers)

NHK Trophy - Nov 8 -10 (Tokyo)

Finlandia Trophy - Nov 15-17 (Helsinki)

Cup of China - Nov 22-24 (Chonqing)

These are held in the same country every year (in 2022 Finlandia replaced the Rostelecom Cup in Russia for obvious reasons). The Junior Grand Prix has 7 qualifying competitions held between August and October and the locations of these change every year.

And then there’s the final:

Grand Prix Final - Dec 5th-8th (Grenoble, France)

The final is held in a different location each year and hosts both the seniors and juniors.

There are 12 skaters in each competition, and they'll get points based of how they place. At the end of the 6 competitions, the top 6 with the most points will go to the final.

The points:

1st - 15pts   2nd - 13pts   3rd - 11pts and so on... until 7th which is 4pts and 8th - 3pts.

There are various tie brakers in place, the first 2 are highest placement and if that ties -> highest total score (the list really keeps on going there are so many in the event all the tie brakers are tied).

Okay, now you understand how the Grand Prix works, we can go a little more in depth.

The Assignments

I said that these are based off of their placements in World's of the last season. The top 12 are guaranteed 2 assignments, the top 6 of these are called "seeded skaters." These are carefully assigned so that #1, #2, and #3 don't face each other at an assignment, and #4, #5, and #6 don't face each other. You can imagine that it would be unfair to have all the top skaters at 1 competition.

I made this helpful table to show who the top 6 at World's were in the men’s category:

The first number was their total score, second their short program, 3rd their free program, and then it has their 2 assignments. Shoma Uno placed 4th but retired that season so it bumped everyone up and the free spot went to Deniss Vasilijev. I won't share my women's table cause it is a total mess with several dropping out last minute.

The top 24 on the ISU (International Skating Union) world standings and season's best list also get 1 spot. Once all of those spots are filled, there is this sketchy ‘Host Pick’ rule. The host country of a competition gets to pick 3 of its own skaters to be at its competition. This could be giving someone with 1 slot an extra assignment or giving it to a local skater to draw in crowds. But the thing is, host picks don't have to meet the minimum score requirement?!?!? More on that later...

Other things that will put you in the pool for assignment consideration - are if you medal at the junior grand prix and are moving into the senior division. Or if you are a previous seeded skater who didn't participate in the last season due to heath/injury. After that, they look at the top 75 season's best list who meet that minimum score requirement.

The minimum score requirement is different for every division and changes every year. It is calculated by taking ⅗ of top score at the previous World's. In my table you can see that Ilia Malinin won with a total score of 333.76, so the minimum score for men in the 2024 Grand Prix is 200.26. (This year it was 133.77 for women). This minimum score also must have been achieved at an official ISU event (world championships, grand prix series, challenger series).

It is also worth noting that there is a limit of 3 skaters representing the same country at an assignment. Though there can be more than 3 if they make it to the final. See this year's final being 5 Japanese Women + Amber Glenn from the USA.

Now I want to tell you about the program requirements (for single, senior skating).

The Short Program

duration: 2:40 +/- 10 seconds

jump elements: 3

spin sequences: 3

1 step sequence

Both men and women must perform a double or triple axel, and a jump combination with 2 jumps. In addition to this, men must perform any triple or quadruple solo jump, and women any triple. The solo jump has to be different from the ones in combination. Because of their body shape, men can generally make more rotations in jumps than women, barely any senior women do quads after their body changes.

Both men and women must do 1 spin with a flying entry (any position), 1 combination spin with at least 2 different types of spins (camel, sit or layback). For the 3rd spin - spin in one position, men do either a camel or sit spin with 1 change of foot, and women can do any position but no change of foot. The position has to be different from their flying spin. As for rotations, for it to count you need a minimum of 8 rotations if you are not changing your spinning foot, and 6 if you are doing a change of foot.

The step sequence is a showcase of difficult steps and turns across a large surface of the ice, usually lasts at least 30 seconds.

Spins and step sequences get a level between 1 and 4 based off how complex and well executed they are. With 4 being the best and the standard for high level competitors.

The Free Skate

duration: 4:00 +/- 10 seconds

jump elements: 7

spin sequences: 3

1 step sequence

1 choreograph sequence

Both men and women must do 1 axel at any point. There is a maximum of 3 jump combinations allowed, with 4 other solo jumps. Most of them will do a jump sequence, which is when the second or third jump in a combination is an axel. Only 1 combination is allowed to have 3 jumps, the rest can only have 2.

Only 2 triples or quads can be repeated twice, of that, you can only repeat 1 quad (but can repeat 2 triples). This is to stop people from just doing their most high scoring jump over and over, this rule is colloquially known as the Zayaking rule. Elaine Zayak did 4 triple toe loops at World's in 1982 and it was changed after then.

As for spins, for both men and women it's 1 spin combo, 1 spin with flying entry, 1 spin with only one position. Change of foot and flying entry are optional extras for all spins, there are no restrictions like with the short program. 6 rotations must be achieved in the fly spin and spin in one position, and 10 rotations in the combination.

Step sequence same as above.

The choreograph sequence needs at least 2 artistic skating movements such as the spiral, spread eagle, or my personal favourite -  The INA BAUER.

The Ina Bauer

Amber Glenn (USA) Cup of China free skate 2024, my gif

You can see the blades are parallel, the leading foot faces where you're going, and the knee is bent. The other leg is straight out behind you, slightly staggered. Most of your weight is on the front foot, and it requires really good turnout in your hips. It is named after Ina Bauer (b.1941 d.2014) a German skater who invented it. Did you know that this Friday the 13th is the 10 year anniversary of her death? Catch me at the rink doing as many Ina Bauers possible. Anyways, there are 3 different types of Ina Bauer, the easiest being inside Ina Bauer meaning you are on the inside edge of your blade and go in a circle like this:

^ This is my very beginner level Ina Bauer, I don't quite have the strength/balance/flexibility to move up the Ina Bauer food chain yet, but I have only been skating for a few months and will master it one day.

There's also an Ina Bauer on a straight line. Then there’s the hardest which is on the outside edge, this is a very good example:

Cha Jun-hwan (KOR) 2023 ISU World Team Trophy free skate (1)

See his Ina Bauer goes along the outside of an invisible circle, and mine faces inside? And a straight Ina Bauer is just a straight Ina Bauer, like the one Amber Glenn is doing in that first gif. You don't have to do it in a layback position, you can just have a straight back for it to count. It's not about back flexibility but rather hip flexibility. RAAAAGH INA BAUERS, I live for them.

One of my favourite moments from this year's Grand Prix is when Kevin Aymoz of France does an Ina Bauer into a triple axel in his free program!!!! How cool is that?!?!

Kevin Aymoz (FRA) Grand Prix Final 2024 free skate, my gif

Skaters get more points on jumps if they include a difficult entry/exit, so this boosted his grade of execution (more on that later!) It's also a good example of an Ina Bauer with the straight back. Kevin Aymoz is one of my favourite skaters, he's a bit of a gay icon.

Now I will tell you about...

JUMPS

There are 6 types of jumps you'll see in professional skating. Most of them will be triples, except for the women's axels where doubles are more common. Men will do some quad jumps but very few will do the harder ones like the flip, lutz, and axel. Then there's Ilia Malinin of the USA who can do all the quads and make it look effortless. There’s also the occasional double as the second/third jump in combination or as a solo jump if something has gone really wrong. (Solo doubles aren't even allowed in a senior short program)

All jumps look the same in the air, and land on the same foot backwards with an outside edge. What makes them different is the way you take off. There are toe jumps that use the toe picks, and edge jumps which use your edges.

Diagram (2)

You can see that the figure skating blade is not flat but rather curved in a sort of arch shape. If you are leaning inwards, you'll be on your inside edge and outwards on your outside edge. The toe pick be spiky so you can stab it into the ice to launch you far and into the air. Consequently, if you lean too far forward on your skates you can trip over your toe pick and fling forward (I have done this many a time). You are also supposed to land on the bottom part of your toe pick and then place your foot down. But if you land too far forward on your toe pick you also fly forward (I couldn't walk after I fell like this on Saturday lmao).

Most skaters will jump and spin anticlockwise, so the following information applies to them. But for the few that go clockwise, reverse the lefts and rights.

The 6 jumps, separated by type are -

Toe jumps:

Toe Loop (T): Right outside take off. Entered from turn. Left leg extends back, toe pick strikes ice.

Flip (F): Left inside take off. Entered from turn. Right leg extends back, toe pick strikes ice.

Lutz (Lz): Left outside take off. Entered from a long straight 1 foot glide. Right leg extends back, toe pick strikes ice.

Edge jumps:

Salchow (S): Left inside take off. Entered from turn. Legs sweep to form / \ shape.

Loop (Lo): Right outside take off. Left leg crosses over right, X shape.

Axel (A): Left outside take off. Only jump that takes off forward. Entered from back outside edge, left leg steps forward, right legs swings through to launch you.

For counterclockwise jumpers, all jumps land on a back right outside edge. Which means for jump combinations (where your landing edge has to be your take off edge) there are only 2 jumps that can be used as the second/third in combination. These being the toe loop and loop because they take off from that right outside edge.

This is unless a Euler jump is performed. This is a single jump used in combination to connect 2 jumps as it will take you from the right outside edge to the left. Interestingly, from the 2026-27 season onwards, Eulers will no longer be allowed in the short program, only the free. They will also no longer count as a listed jump nor add any base value to jumps (currently worth 0.5).

I've mentioned jump sequences in the free program requirements, but to expand on them. They are when your take off edge is different from your landing edge. I.e a small step is done so long as it doesn't disrupt the flow. Though since the 2018-19 season, only axel jumps are allowed as the second/third in a sequence. Also prior to 2022-23 sequences would only get 80% of the total base value for the jumps, but now it's full value.

It was also only in the 2018-19 season when the number of jump elements in a men's free skate went down from 8 to 7 (women's was already 7), and from 2026-27 onwards both disciplines will be going down to 6. That same season in 2018-19 the men's free skate went down from 4½ minutes to 4.

I should have mentioned this before, but figure skating seasons are from the 1st of July to the 30th of June so they span 2 years (not really, but that’s why I am using '2018-19' etc). The season starts with the Junior Grand Prix qualifiers in August - October, then the senior Grand Prix qualifiers in October - November with the final in December. December to January is when most countries hold their nationals. January is also the European championship. February has the 4 Continents (which is everyone BUT Europe), and March is the World Championships. When the Olympics are on in Februarys the 4 Continents are moved to January.

There's also The Challenger Series which is a step below Grand Prix. These competitions are required to take place between August 1st and December 15th. There are several competitions worldwide, but they don’t have a final. Sometimes Grand Prix skaters will compete in them to boost their rankings as they count towards the season's best list and can be where you get your ISU minimum score requirement that we talked about earlier.

Redirecting this back to jumps, here is a table of base values. You can see them ordered from lowest to highest to give you a sense of what’s easier vs harder.

Speaking of base values, I think it's about time I introduced you to...

The ISU Judging System

Now this can be EXTREMELY confusing at first, but in time it will make sense, and I hope I explain it well enough.

Both the short and free scores are broken into 2 sections. You have your Technical Score (TES) and your Program Component Score (PCS).

Technical Score - every element you perform has a base value (BV) that is added to your score. This is the easy part. Now where it gets complicated is with the Grade of Execution (GOE). Each judge (there's usually 7 - 9 in big comps) assigns a number between -5 and 5 based off how well it is executed.

Now bear with me here...

The highest and lowest GOEs from the judges are discarded, and the rest are averaged. The GOE average is then multiplied by 10% of the BV. This is your final GOE for a skill, this number is then added to the original BV to give a final FINAL score for a skill.

EXAMPLE:

The quad lutz had a base value of 11.5.

The 1 and 3 are discarded. (Highest and lowest)

(2+2+3+2+2+2+2) /7 = 2.14 - the average GOE

11.5 x 0.1 = 1.15 - 10% of the BV

2.14 x 1.15 = 2.46 - total GOE

11.5 + 2.46 = 13.96 - final skill score

Personally, I love how much maths is involved!! It's fun to just calculate these things even if the score sheets give you the final skill score anyways. It is really exciting once you understand how all of this works!! (yes, I am autistic if you haven't guessed already)

I would also like to note, that the current +/- 5 GOE system used to be +/- 3 but was changed in the 2018-19 season to make improper technique and falls have a bigger impact on scores.

Now the program component score (PCS). There are 3 categories: Composition, Presentation, and Skating Skills. A brief definition of all of them: Composition is the connection of your skills, use of the ice, and understanding of how the music relates to your program.

The standout example of this that I have to show you is from Kaori Sakamoto's free skate, I just LOVE how her jump take offs are on beat to the music!

Kaori Sakamoto (JPN) Grand Prix Final 2024 free skate

She actually got the highest PCS score out of the women in the Grand Prix Final!! It's easy to see why.

Presentation is engagement and expression with your music, and I guess general prettiness? Skating Skills is "a good range of steps, turns, and movements with blade and body control" tbh, I don't have a good understanding of what these look like, I guess it’s just vibe based. This is like an artistry score. It is just as important to have graceful skating that tells a story, as it is to have good technical abilities. The judging system and jump base values are always changing to try and balance this, and there a few systems in place to make this possible too.

Before 2022-23 there were actually 5 PCS categories, the 2 they got rid of were transitions – “intricate footwork, positions and movements that link all elements”, and interpretation (of the music) which I don’t fully understand, how many categories do you need in order to judge if a skater understands the music lol. This also meant that the factors increased in 2022-23 as they axed 2 categories.

So, for each of the 3 PCS categories, the judges assign a number between 0.25 and 10, and it goes up in increments of 0.25. Just like with the GOE, the highest and lowest numbers are discarded, and the rest are averaged. These averages are then added together and multiplied by a factor.

This factor is different for every discipline, because it is supposed to be as equal to the TES as possible. The women's factor is lower than the men's because they generally have a lower TES. And the short program is lower than the free skate because there are less technical elements.

The factors are as follows:

Mens Short Program: 1.67

Mens Free Program: 3.33

Women's Short Program: 1.33

Women's Free Program: 2.67

(the factors for pairs are the same as women's)

Let's look at Kaori Sakamoto's GPF free skate as an example, specifically her composition score:

The 8 and 9.5 are discarded, and the average is rounded to 2 decimal places equaling 8.93. This process repeats for the other 2 categories. These numbers are then added together (8.93 + 8.82 + 8.86 = 26.61) and multiplied by the factor. In this case, the women's FP is 2.67, so 26.61 x 2.67 = 71.05.

The maximum PCS possible:

Men’s short program: 50.00

Men’s free skate: 100.00

Women’s short program: 40.00

Women’s free skate: 80.00

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of how the judging system works! There is a little more to it, I will go into more into detail now. If you look at the detailed results from a competition you may see various symbols/letters next to skills. I will tell you what they mean and what they do to a score:

q - Jumps landed a quarter rotation short, doesn't affect base value, but will give you a negative GOE. The 'q' was introduced during the 2020-21 season.

< - Jumps landed between ¼-½ rotations short. Results in only getting 80% of the BV.

<< - Jumps landed more than ½ short a rotation. The jump will get downgraded. A 3Lz with a << will only get the BV of a 2LZ.

e - Edge call on a flip or Lutz. Remember how the flip takes off from an inside edge and the lutz an outside edge? Well, if you do it from the wrong edge, you will get an edge call and only 80% of the BV.

! - Edge warning. This means there was an unclear edge take off on a flip or lutz. There is no reduced BV, but the GOE will be less than 0.

V - For a spin that does not meet requirements, like a lack of rotations or variation in position. 75% of BV.

F - A fall. -5 GOE. There is also a -1 deduction for your first and second fall, a -2 for third and fourth, and -3 for 5th fall onwards.

+REP - Used if you do more than the allowed 3 combinations or 2 combinations + 1 sequence in the free program. The first jump will get 70% BV and everything after that doesn't count. It is also used for repeated single jumps; they'll also get 70% of BV.

+COMBO - You will see this in the middle of a combination. It happens when the skater steps out after landing a jump and still takes off for the next jump. Remember the point of a jump combo is to take off from the same edge you land on. This results in the following jump having no value.

* - Invalid element, skater receives 0 points. This is for any element that breaks a rule. Like a single or double solo jump in the SP, an extra jump element done (only 3 in SP and 7 in FS allowed), repeating a certain triple/quad jump in the FS more than twice, if there is no axel done, the last jumping pass will be invalid too. Also used alongside +REP to invalidate extra jumps in combinations. Before 2016-17, an invalid jump in a combination would invalidate the entire combination. And from 2026-27 onwards, the same type of jump can't be included in the FS regardless of rotations (currently more than 3 of the same jump can be included if you do 3 triples and a double for example).

x - This is the only good symbol! It is placed after the last jump element in the SP or the last 3 jump element in the FS (provided they are in the second half of the program). It adds an extra 10% to the BV of your jumps. As the program goes on skaters will get more tired so are rewarded for doing difficult stuff at the end. Consequently, this system was heavily abused until a rule change in the 2018-19 season. It used to be that all jumps in the second half would get the extra 10%. You can then imagine people would just stack their programs to have all the jumps in the second half. This was then changed to better balance program composition.

There are also other deductions besides falls. It's -1 for every second up to 5 that your program goes overtime. -1 for costume parts falling on the ice, -1 for costumes that don't meet requirements, -1 if you take more than 30 seconds to get into your starting position after your name is called, -2 for illegal moves (back flips were recently legalised, if you want to watch programs with back flips, I recommend Adam Siao Him Fa of France).

If you do want to watch figure skating, I will quickly explain what the thing in the top left corner is. It's relatively straight forward

The squares at the top represent the 12 elements that make up the free skate (short program will have 7 squares). The green means they successfully performed an element, the red means they performed it, but it got a negative GOE. Now you also know what it takes to get a negative GOE thanks to the information above ;)! If there is a dark grey, it means it’s under review still (?). This bar will fill up as they go through the program.

It will tell you the most recent element performed, as well as the BV for it, and their GOE. This is the GOE after that multiplying the average by 10% BV nonsense. Under this you'll see the skaters TES go up throughout the program, and underneath it is the leader's TES.

AND THAT CONCLUDES THE ISU JUDGING SYSTEM, THAT WAS A LOT BUT HOPEFULLY YOU GET IT NOW!

I will also share with you a helpful table I made in preparation for watching the Gran Prix Final. It has the finalists with their assignments, how they placed with qualifying points, and their total score earned in both assignments. As well as their personal bests and age. Interestingly, the men and women have the EXACT same average age of 21⅔. Which is super interesting cause usually the women tend to be younger than the men. Though this year the minimum age for the senior division was upped to 17. Last year it was 16 and before that it was 15 for quite a while. This was to protect minors more because of how intense it got with doping etc. I think it's a great change because I don't want to see tiny children when watching seniors, its also unfair cause the younger women can go hard out and learn quads before their body changes which is dangerous.

Adam Sia Him Fa qualified in 4th but had to drop out because of injury, Mikhail Shaidorov was 7th so he got moved up to replace Adam.

I really love looking up the skater's profiles on the ISU website, because some of them have the most insane listed hobbies. Check out Camden Pulkinen. Emo ass king.

Now I want to tell you about some of my favourite skaters!

Kevin Aymoz - France

Kevin Aymoz (FRA) Grand Prix Final 2024 gala exhibition, my gif

I have talked about him before. I love how dramatic his programs are, they have a lot of flair and camp energy. He was at Skate America and Finlandia Trophy and made it to the final! Unfortunately, he fell a few times and came last. He did get bronze at the 2019 GPF though! Did you know in 2021 he was in a French documentary called Faut qu'on Parle (we need to talk). It's about 6 elite athletes who come out for the first time and share their experiences of being queer. One of his listed hobbies is "catching pokémon" okay icon.

Amber Glenn - USA

Amber Glenn (USA) Grand Prix de France 2024 gala exhibition, gif credit below

LOOK AND HOW GORGEOUS AND HOT SHE IS. First off, SHE WON THE GPF CAUSE SHE'S SO AMAZING. Her assignments were Grand Prix de France, and Cup of China. Amber is a mental health advocate who is also queer and has ADHD, I love her so much. At the end of competitions, they will sometimes hold a gala exhibition. This is a showcase that some of the competition skaters partake in. It's a chance for them to do whatever program they want without the pressure of being judged - it's truly just for fun! Amber’s gala this year was to HOTOGO! Would definitely recommend checking it out. Here are some gif sets of it here on tumblr (3 4 5). Her hobbies are Magic the Gathering, anime, and cosplay. (It's funny cause when a skater lists anime as a hobby, you just knowwww they've seen Yuri on Ice. In this case, Amber worked with the creative team on the movie before it was cancelled). She was also the second American woman to land a triple axel at World's, the first ofc being Tonya Harding. Amber is a little bit of a legend, at age 25 she's kind of come out of nowhere and is starting to skate really well consistently. It was so cute when she found out she won the GPF. There's a camera where they can see the other skaters in the back, and the Japanese women did her FS finishing pose. It was such a sweet moment of amazing sportsmanship between these women. I will put a link to the clip posted on reddit here (6).

Matteo Rizzo – Italy

Matteo Rizzo (ITA) NHK Trophy 2024, my gif

Assigned - NHK, and Cup of China. He's just a silly guy. For starters, his SP music is a song called "Two Men in Love" an extremely gay love song. But then his FS music is.... "Fix You" by Coldplay? It's the contrast that I find so funny. His hobbies are Formula 1 and "airplanes" I too love planes. All of these things combined made him stand out to me as a bit of an icon. He also kind of looks like Christophe Giacometti from YOI, he's got the eyelashes for it. The gif is from the kiss and cry after his skate when he did this super funny gesture that absolutely sent me. What can I say, the man loves cars.

Jason Brown - USA

Jason Brown (USA) NHK Trophy 2024 short program, my gif

Skate Canada and NHK. Did you know that he came out as gay on Dan's birthday in 2021? My friends and I joked that Brown was fitting name cause he was dressed like a shit for his SP in that gif. I call him JJ if he slayed, cause his energy and mannerisms + the way he addresses the audience reminds me JJ from YOI but if he were gay. Also has a super camp gala exhibition, and won the junior GPF in 2011.

I love the galas that have a gimmick. Like Mikhail Shaidorov who did a Kung Fu Panda one in a giant panda suit. He somehow managed to land a triple toe loop in that costume too! Mikhail is a really good jumper. This season he made history by becoming the first skater to land a quad as the second jump in combination with his 3A + 4T!!!

Mikhail Shaidorov (KAZ) Grand Prix Final 2024 exhibition gala (7)

He also has assistants come out in his gala and for the Grand Prix de France, Amber was one of them!

Amber and Mikhail Grand Prix de France 2024 exhibition gala (8)

Where you can watch the ISU stuff will depend on your country. I can watch it all for free on the ISU Skating youtube channel since I am in New Zealand and no other broadcaster covers it. The youtube videos are geo blocked in countries that have networks with a monopoly over the rights.

If you are also a fan of Yuri on Ice, I have some cosplay content recommendations too (if not, just skip this). I have fallen IN LOVE with these 2 particular cosplayers (Vehn and Svatti - yt channel: Weeb Chapel) who had a YOI skit series, here is the playlist on youtube (9). Svatti who plays Yuri also does a hilarious Chris which you can see in their Kiss Marry Kill in Character (10).

Cosplayer Svatti as Christophe Giacometti in "Yuri!!! on Ice KISS MARRY K-WORD!" youtube link in linktree, my gif

Svatti's Chris is also in the background as a voice in the Viktor and Yuri Google Questions Interview (11). Now I don't usually consume Otayuri content cause I find their age gap weird, but they have a gorgeous Otayuri CMV (cosplay music video) that I keep on watching (12). I have also started just watching all their other cosplay content. YOI is the only anime I've seen, but I really just love Svatti and Vehn (former username Mishkali) so much I'll watch anything with them. They are so attractive, and my gender envy is off the charts with everything they do, and Vehn’s Victor drives me fucking crazy in the best ways possible THE ACCENTTT. If you know of them or watch it and want to chat HIT ME UP!

My favourite CMV however is this one (13) by Rintamasuunta. The production BLOWS MY MIND DUDE. Even if you haven't seen YOI you should still watch it. The sets, costumes, choreography, ah too good. One of them is even an actual skater and you get to see them do parts of the routines in costume! I keep rewatching it time and time again.

One last Yuri on Ice thing - Joel Minas on youtube has recreated some of the programs in full. It is just so impressive to see them bought to life. Here is his playlist (14)

And there we have it folks!! There's a lot more that I could have included, I have so many more thoughts. I'm sure y'all are familiar with the feeling of being in the trenches of a hyper-fixation. You ask for an info dump; you get an info landfill that took a couple days and many MANY hours to assemble (WORTH IT!). I may or may not have taken it a bit too literally when you asked to hear what I've learnt so far WELL HERE IS EVERYTHING. Are you regretting your life choices yet? If you or anyone else has any questions or wants to discuss figure skating, CONTACT ME PLEASE I LOVE TO YAP (evidently)!!! Also, if you have managed to read all of this you are insane, and I love you.

I still spend most of my days thinking about skating. I am at the rink 2-3 times a week and have started lessons. I hope to get really good at it someday. Researching competitive figure skating is so so so fun! I just love learning about the all the rules/the technical side. I have so many pages of notes. Finally, I will link some resources I found helpful if you want to do some further reading.

They’ll be in the linktree (sorry it had to be like this, tumblr just couldn’t take it) https://linktr.ee/pissterdaniel

Resources

15 Brilliant youtube video that breaks down the 6 jumps with examples to help you identify them

16 The soyouwanttowatchfs website has a lot of guides for people getting into figure skating

17 ISU Technical Panel Handbook 2024-25

18 ISU Technical Rule Book 2024 (160 pages of goodness)

19 Table of base values (a couple of seasons old as still has 5 PCS categories listed, but should (?) still be valid, it has +/- 5 GOE so is after 2018 but before 2022. I feel like one of those people who works out the date a globe is from, which honestly, I’d be into because I love geography (it’s the darn autism again isn’t it)).

20 Extremely detailed table of base values 2024

21 Short program outline

22 Free skate outline

23 The ISU website in general, good for detailed scores and skater profiles

Lmk if there are any issues with the links OR IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS, I'VE SAID IT BEFORE AND I’LL SAY IT AGAIN PLEASE CONTACT ME

Okay that is it, I just want to get this out there now, getting this from my word document to a successful tumblr post has taken 7 hours dear lord.

Hope this is a sufficient info dump @fern-foxx, it’s 6130 words. Thank you for your ask xxx

[derxwnakapsyla]

Hello there! My name is Derxwna Kapsyla, and you might know me as the mastermind behind projects such as "Yitria Resurrection", "Touhouon Asteria", "Touhou Pupet Play ~ The Adventures of Ayaka", "Chronicles of the Omniverse"- Wait, you don't know that last one? Never mind it then! Today I'm here to talk about something I am extremely passionate about- map design!

It is easily my favorite aspect of game development, and I feel like I'm pretty proficient at it. So, I would like to open up map making commissions to help people out on their own projects! I've got well over 10 years of experience, getting my start back in the ancient days of Binary ROM Hacking with Advance Map being the hottest tool on the block. I like to make sure the maps I make are of the highest standards I can possibly muster, so I have a fairly sharp eye for detail.

I also love communicating ideas with people and helping them reach a desired solution (If I'm able to)! If you're interested in taking a shot on me, I welcome you to message me on here, or DM me on Discord! I look forward to getting a chance to work with you! I promise, I don't bite- I'd much rather use an Ion Cannon. Also I just lost my job recently so I could really use some supplementary income while I try and find a new job...

Things to know about Derxwna:

I've been working with game development as a hobbyist for over 10 years, with an exceptional passion for map design.

I like to make sure that anything I make is the best quality I can possibly produce.

I do have a degree (of sorts) in Game Design, Programming, and Animation.

Spent a good majority of my time playing Wind Waker just trying to compare terrain to Ocarina of Time.

You will not find a person more offended by the tile errors in vanilla Pokemon games, I guarantee it.

What I am offering:

Map design for 2D environment based games.

Map critique and feedback. (This is free!)

Eventing on a small scale.

Redesigning your own maps.

What I am not offering:

A whole game made from scratch (Unless you're paying massive $Revenue).

Complex scripting maneuvers.

Unique tilesets. If you have a unique tileset you want me to use, send it- but I will check if you are allowed to use it.

Trainer battles.

Advice on how to spend your FSA. I answer those questions enough at my previous workplace.

Examples of my work:

-- Touhoumon Asteria -- https://imgur.com/a/hsAjnuk

-- Yitria Resurrection -- https://imgur.com/a/fveRkMc

-- Adventures of Ayaka -- https://imgur.com/a/tYAV8u7

-- Other Map Creations -- https://imgur.com/a/ZzqvrdV

Prices

-- Map Size --

Small map (30x30 or smaller): $10

Medium map (60x60 or smaller): $35

Large Map (100x100 or smaller): $60

Extra Large Map (100x100 or greater): $90

I am willing to take on a multi-map endeavor. Prices will be discounted for bulk purchases. I am also willing to very slightly haggle on the tiers above Small Map, but prices will not go below $10 above the previously listed tier.

-- Eventing --

Depending on event complexity and quantity, additional fees may be incurred.

-- Additional Pricing --

Gen 4 or 5 theme: +$40. I am not comfortable mapping in this style. I can attempt it, but only if you provide a tileset of the exact tiles you want.

When it comes to payments, I am flexible with how I receive them. I understand that people are not comfortable giving an entire lump sum for commissions. If you'd like, we can work out a payment plan of sorts, or you can pay a portion up front and pay the rest upon completion. If I do not or am unable to finish the map, I will refund the amount paid up front. As a note, if you are looking for a rush order, an additional fees may be incurred.

Contact Information

The best ways to reach me if you are looking for a commission, or if you have any additional questions are as follows:

The Eevee Expo Forums

Discord: DerxwnaKapsyla

Tumblr

This is where I would put my Twitter account- if it was unsuspended.

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/derxwnakapsyla.bsky.social

The best times to reach me are between 12 PM and 12 AM PST (GMT-7).

[the-wardens-torch]

Falerin Arcita: Then and Now

I couldn't help but steal this idea when I saw @lynxden reblogging a bunch of very sincere and heartfelt versions of it from various folks that were a pleasure to read.

Aside from job-hopping and changing hairstyles a few times, very little has changed about my boy. I still have all of the free fantasias SE has given us over the years and never bothered with mods. But Fal's consistency has always been a source of comfort for me. He's seen me through the deaths of both my parents, three jobs, a new house, a nervous breakdown and recovery, losing a cat and adopting 2 new ones (one of which I had to bottle feed,) 2 bouts of COVID, multiple back injuries… You get the idea.

So here's the very oldest screenshot of him that I could find, from waaaaaay back in... 2.3, I think? Protect, Stoneskin, TP, gear getting destroyed when you got materia from it, and whatever they called that thing where you needed a representative from each stat to do limit breaks, I think?

So what's changed?

He started as a Bard, but then when HW hit and it became the Bow Mage, I found out that I loved Summoner.

I enjoyed doing the mental gymnastics of working Summoner into his backstory... but then EW did a total teardown and rebuild that I sort of hated.

After that there was a dalliance with Dancer for about 2/3 of an expansion - which I didn't bother working into his backstory because I was Too Tired by then, and he's always been the one who plays/sings the music rather than dancing to it.

...and now I'm full circle back to Bard.

As for his backstory… That hasn't changed much either, and I never have decided exactly how much he's aged. I have THOUSANDS of words worth of stories for him, but most of them are just slice-of-life, dialogue or introspection. No big action set pieces or thrilling dramatic turns, or explicit smut, just… living. His is a story of how many forms love can take, and learning to move past one's own shame and guilt over expressing that love selfishly. Now if I could just get those stories all up on Ao3 which would be easier if I didn't have 10 years worth of them that aren't in chronological order. I'm about 40% done with that.

His story has been more or less constant- I've just fleshed out the details. The most notable additions to his story have been that he spent part of his childhood in a burlesque house, he found a Bard soulstone thanks to @adeat's character Reonora Aestethe who is now his best friend (who is chatting with him in that first screenshot,) he met and is and trying to form a relationship with his estranged father, spoke with Bahamut's ghost, befriended a still-imprisoned Tiamat (who saw that coming?) got to talk with the spirit that keeps him alive, and most importantly he reconciled with his old friend/crush Alain whom he hurt a long time ago.

At any rate, I love my son who would be 10 years old if he were my actual son, and I'm glad he hasn't changed much aside from him becoming a more mature and better person. I appreciate you if you read this!

[zaynes-nieve]

What's your wishing strategy to get all of Zayne's cards without whaling? I want to be more solo Zayne focused in the New Year. Mostly so I can get his new myth and hopefully a rerun of this year's. I don't mind skipping the other LI's banners but where I know I'll falter is skipping Zayne's lunar banners. I'm willing to spend but tbh I need to have a limit💔 I'd be so grateful for any advice at all! Btw I asked someone else this question so if it shows up again, I swear I'm real and not a bot lol!

Hi!!! Yeah, I've had to ask myself this question a lot when pulling myself the best way really is to save. In a pay to win fashion. It's getting the pass definitely and then also getting the secret level of promise, which comes with permanent deepspace wishes. I also believe that with some of those events, it'll give you 20 wishes. Ten are limited, and ten are permanent. At least, that is how I remember it. Also, the game will automatically use the limited wishes you have first, so I also wait with those events that have the 10 wishes in the market to pull on those banners. I typically check and make sure I've spent all the in-game currency I have before I turn to paying with real money. And then it's better to do it through groups of ten than singles until the very endish if you're really low and dont want to spend more than you have to. I typically when I turn to money check how many diamonds I have, if i have enough where I don't need to buy more than a ten pack I don't. Honestly, I've been pretty lucky with my pity and have managed to get him the first time, but when I do get another LI or even just a 5 star card, I already have of him. That does typically put a hurt on the wallet. I give myself a cap of 60 dollars for the Lunar, in case my luck is really abysmal, but I don't typically spend more than 30-40$ along with the pass and the saved up wishes if I need to use money. If you want to make sure you have wishes saved up and still be able to spend your diamonds on something else, you can buy deep space wishes in the store for 150 like the regular ones. So you can also just slowly amass tickets while using the arum pass. Which gives you 3,000 a month as long as you check in on top of the weekly and daily, check-ins, and weekly and daily loot boxes. Also, I am the biggest hypocrite of this, but doing the others' trials and the general trial is a good way to get gems. I like just hit 30 with Xavier cause I'm so bad at remembering they give gems too, but it certainly helps. If you have any questions or need some further insight, please let me know! I'll try to the best of my ability to assist. Nice to meet you, fellow Zayne fan!

[prometheus023]

The Disciples of Skuldak - 5th Ed Word Bearers

whoop I did not mean to take this long to make another post

Following on from my 5th Ed World Eaters army, I'd like to introduce you to one of my largest 40k armies, my Word Bearers.

This has been a really fun project as it has been designed from the start to be an excerise in efficiency. To help show newcomers to the hobby it doesn't have to be expensive or time consuming (unless you want it to)

As such, this army is comprised exclusively of old, second hand Chaos Marines and vehicles that are as cheap as I could find. So quite a lot of them were pretty beat up and clogged with paint when I first got them. But if you arent picky, you can get a marine for as little as $2 AUD. Thats how this army has 160 of them after 18 months.

They're lightly cleaned up, using spare parts to repair as necessary and then painted with contrast colours over a leadbelcher base coat. If I can't finish ten of them in an evening, then it's taking too long!

I'm not going to post them all in one hit, but let's check out Skuldak and go from there!

A former Dark Apostle turned Daemon Prince, Skuldak delegates most of the warband's activities to his lieutenants. As there is no official record of any Word Bearer legionnaires with that name, its unclear if he joined the Word Bearers after they retreated into the Eye of Terror or chose the name upon his ascension to daemonhood.

Seeking to emulate their master and demonstrate their dedication to the teachings of Lorgar, many of Skuldak's followers engage in the practice of inviting daemonic possession. The results are unsurprisingly chaotic. (Also I just love the diversity of this old plastic kit)

Heres 25 of the regular, rank and file Chaos Marines. A perk from buying low cost, second hand Warhammer is sometimes you find a cool Lil treasure amongst them! Like this old second edition Icon Bearer from the mid 90s!

Now before that gets too repetitive...

Vehicles!

A Predator Destructor and Annihilator, respectively. Again, both mid 90s second edition models that are a hybrid of plastic and metal pieces! Worth a small fortune if you're getting them in mint condition. If not... well these two cost me the same as a brand new Predator would have. That's a win!

We then have a Chaos Vindicator that I picked up for around $10 because it was caked in paint that I scraped off with a hobby knife!

That's about all Tumblr will let me cram into one post, so stay tuned and I'll have another group of vehicles and units from this army up soon!

One of the best things about this army to me, is how it gives tired old models a new life. The kind of minis your parents would throw out because it was a phase, or you would eventually discard because you paint better or moved onto a new faction.

Here, they're part of an army we make available at every game day for new players to borrow and learn to play with. And if anything breaks? It's completely chill! It's easy fixed and not as if someone dropped a $100 model I spent 40 hours painting. That It's also a really fun, easy scheme, I think it's easy to see how I've just kept adding to it!

[imaginespazzi]

Omfg I am in the same boat as you. I was going in wanting Liberty to win it and I was in a 70/30 split between that. But holy shit, Napheesa Collier you are insane 😭 so much Husky on Husky crime tonight between Stewie and Phee 😭

STEWIE WAKE UPPPP. I can’t even go on Twitter rn bc I know they’re COOKING her 😭

Phee… you are literally the best player in the world currently 😭 10/16 shooting with the game winning shot. 6 blocks and 3 steals… I have no words

Minnesota deserved that win over the Liberty. I’m not even mad, just more annoyed with NY.

Sabrina and Stewie shot a combined 14/47 lmao. Can’t expect to win a game when your best 2 players fucking shoot atrociously.

YOU GET ME! I as very 60-40 towards the Liberty in the sense that I was very much like I need the Liberty to win the whole thing but Phee to have some great games but I'm just so disappointed with the collapse that it's slightly tilted my viewpoint because I refuse to root for a team who just doesn't seem like they want it.

AND M.V.PHEE is out in full force. Like her defense on Stewie was so good and the couple of times she switched on to JJ or Sabrina, she really showed why she's DPOY tonight. And the Liberty should be scared because while Phee was great offensively too, she can be on a whole other level.

I've spent a lot of time defending Stewie on twitter but I fear tonight, I simply cannot. A missed free throw followed by a missed layup is just embarrassing unfortunately and not something I can defend. I hope this game lights a fire under their asses and teaches them something about complacency because otherwiese Minnesota deserves to sweep and very much could.

[ouchlord-vivaldi]

First DLC Playthrough Thoughts

It's awesome. Amazing. More of Elden Ring and often the best of it all. The world is epic in every way and all I could ask for. Wild bosses and creature designs galore, crazy puzzles and dungeons like the best of my favorite Zeldae, creepy lore surprises and so on.

I spent about 40 hours doing most of the stuff there was to do, including 9/10 of the main bosses and a few of the dragons (not the big one yet). It took about 80 hours to 100% the main game so I would really say this is about half its size if not even slightly more.

The difficulty was very high. I have most of the shadow blessings and played the DLC from level 335-345. I am not great at FromSoft as my reflexes are fairly slow, so I usually grind high to levels to compensate. I did so here and had only a few truly frustrating moments, all of which I came back to later. Only a couple puzzles required going online and those look-ups were justified when I realized how absolutely impossible to guess the solutions were.

I have yet to collect of a few trinkets and defeat the hardest 2 bosses, and will likely do so later on. Also never defeated any flame baskets. I should note I have never beat Manus or the Orphan of Kos, so I've never actually finished a FromSoft DLC. I think someday I will do this one, but for now it wouldn't be too fun so I'm stopping for a while with the memory of an absolute joy of gaming and not pushing it.

I have no real negative criticisms. It has fewer really nasty frustrations and impossibilities than even the main game, and though I'd like to have learned more about a couple non-present characters, the lore they added was epic there's no real complaint beyond personal taste.

Looking forward to the videos and lore discussions and returning to the game once I know of more stuff to do and try. Always happy to talk about it with anyone, answer questions, and give subtle hints about stuff if people want that instead of looking stuff up.

Enjoy your playthroughs!

[blubushie]

Is there a reason you're so open about your sex life?

Yeah actually. I've had a lot of shit happen to me in my life.

The first person I ever had a crush on was another boy, and my best mate. We'll call him Nate. I knew I liked boys before I knew I liked girls, cuz up until I was 12 I'd never really spent time with girls at all—I didn't even know any girls my age—but I did have Nate. I met him when I was 10, and he taught me to ride horses and work stock. So growing up that was one helluva secret to hold. And he knew that I liked boys, and he jokingly called me a faggot and a queer and we laughed about it. And when other kids would hang shit on me at school, he didn't. In private, sure, with love. But in public, he stuck up for me. Cuz I was one of the Good Ones™, and his friend.

When I was 12 I was abused by a man in his 40s. And I heavily repressed my feelings towards other boys because I figured that that was the path it led down. "Gays are paedophiles. Queers wanna touch kids. They're dangerous." And I figured that if I just ignored it, I'd never end up a monster like he was. And when I told Nate about this, he said the same thing. "They're all like that. They're dangerous. You need to be careful or people will think you'll do the same. And I know you won't, cuz you're one of the Good Ones™. But you have to be careful." Nate was the first and only person I told about my abuse until it went public. He kept my secret for 3 years. He held me and I cried.

Nate was the last man outside of family who's held me. I haven't been held by another man since I was 12. I haven't been hugged by another man outside my family since I was 15.

At 14, I met another kid we'll call Lake. He was fun, and cheerful, and bubbly. And he was also gay. Very very openly gay. The feminine kinda gay. Talks like a girl kinda gay. Not my type, but I admired him. And I envied his bravery in being so out and not caring about what people thought of him.

Or the risk.

At 15, Nate got me drunk. We'd been working calves all day on the local station where his parents lived as hired hands. He snuck a slab from his parents' outshed on the station and we took our horses out and sat in the shade of a gum and drank. I'd never had alcohol before except at Mass, and I got pretty tipsy. And the sun was setting and it struck these orange streaks through his hair, and reflected real pretty off those eyes, and I decided he was very very handsome in that moment and in drunk brain, I should kiss him. So I leant over and pecked his cheek.

He went off on me.

It turns out that it's ok to be gay, as long as you're gay for the right people. And the right people is anyone who isn't the person you're talking to. Cuz he turned to me and I saw a rage in his eyes that I knew meant whatever kinda friendship we'd formed over 5 years, it was dead in the water the moment I kissed him. He looked at me the same way he looked at all the other queers, same way he looked at Lake, with that "I don't mind gays but I wish they'd be a little quieter about it" face. And then he slogged me.

We scrapped. And at first I thought he was just being an idiot, cuz I was 15 and he was 17 and we were both teenage boys and we biffed sometimes. But after a few seconds he got on top of me and stopped pulling his punches, and I was trying to tell him to stop and that I was sorry and he didn't. He kept hitting me. And he called me a faggot, and a queer, and a freak, and that there was something wrong with me and he had to beat the faggotry outta me cuz I had a skull too thick for my own good and if he didn't teach me a lesson now I'd do it again and the next bloke might just kill me for it.

He gave me a good slog to the side of the head and rung my bell real good, and then he kicked me in the stomach and got on his horse and rode back to the station. I laid there maybe ten minutes trying to breathe through all the blood in my nose and making sure he didn't knock any teeth out. That was the first time I really genuinely got a bashing.

I never talked to him again. I saw him once on station, and tried to talk to him and apologise, but he just walked away. I stopped visiting the station after that.

I made friends with Lake. We both went to Catholic school, so he got picked on a lot for being gay. But he never let it get him down. And I started standing up for him when I saw kids treat him like shit. Because he was my friend, and he was one of the Good Ones™. But deep down I envied him. I wanted to be him. I wanted to be able to walk with my chin high and strut like a fucken peacock knowing I'm hot shit and that nobody could touch me. But internalised homophobia is a hell of a thing, and deep down I also knew I'd never be like him. Because my issue isn't just me being attracted to men, but also being intersex and a dozen other different little things. But to Lake, that didn't matter. To Lake I was cut of the same cloth. We were confidants.

Eventually with time I realised that there's no such thing as "one of the Good Ones™." Being attracted to someone the same sex or gender as you isn't a fault. It doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. But I still hid it. I wasn't brave enough to be open about it, I was scared of judgement, I was scared of punishment for something I couldn't control, so I kept it a secret.

The third person I told was my girlfriend. She took it in stride. I thought she was afraid that I'd made her my beard when I was definitely attracted to her too, but she was actually the one who explained bisexuality to me. And everything clicked. But she was also aware that I was squashing down my attraction to men because I was afraid, so she made me watch Brokeback Mountain, and that's actually how I ended up genuinely coming to terms with my sexuality. I didn't want to be so afraid of loving that I'd never loved at all.

I never acted on my attraction, cuz I'm a loyal bastard, but when she and I split I stopped trying to hide what I am. I am a man who happens to be attracted to men. I am also attracted to women. And that's ok. That's not something to be ashamed of, it's not something I need to hide, it's not something I have to keep secret.

I'll never be the loudly out gay man. I'll never be the loudly out bisexual. I don't wear pride pins, I don't flaunt my sexuality, I don't wear rainbows. If anyone looked at me they wouldn't assume I like men, let alone immediately know.

I'll never be like Lake. But I don't have to be like Lake. I just have to be me. And through talking about my experiences, maybe some other young man who's in the same shoes I used to be in will look at me and realise that all he has to be is himself. And if that man likes men, then so be it.