#And I think I prefer this smaller format for linking

[magicwhiskers29]

When I said it was weird to be posting art before writing, I meant I was nearly done writing, but not actually quite... until now hah

[brotherconstant]

GIFMAKING TUTORIAL: PHOTOPEA (for Windows)

Screencapping

Gif Width/Size Limit/Ezgif

Loading Frames

Cropping and Resizing

Rasterize/Make Frames

Sharpening

Coloring (not detailed. Links to other tutorials included)

Exporting

Obligatory Mentions: @photopeablr ; @miwtual ; @benoitblanc ; @ashleysolsen Definitely check out these blogs for tips, tutorials and resources, they're a gold mine. Finally I recommend browsing the PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL / PHOTOPEA TUTORIAL GIF tags. DISCLAIMER: English is not my first language and I'm not an expert on what I'm going to discuss, so if anything's unclear feel free to drop another ask.

1. SCREENCAPPING -> PotPlayer (the one I use) or MVP or KMPlayer

INSTALL PotPlayer (tutorial)

Play your movie/episode and press Ctrl + G. The Consecutive Image Capturer window will pop up. Click Start to capture consecutive frames, Stop when you got what you needed.

Where it says "Image Type -> Format" I recommend picking PNG, for higher quality screencaps.

To access the folder where the screencaps are stored, type %appdata% in windows search, open the PotPlayerMini64 folder (or 32, depending on your system) and then the Capture folder. That's where you'll find your screencaps.

Admittedly MVP is a lot faster but I prefer Potplayer because it generates (at least in my case) higher quality screencaps. MVP kind of alters the hue and it made it harder for me to color my gifs. Still, if you're interested in how to use it, I recommend this tutorial.

As for KMPlayer, every tutorial out there is outdated and I couldn't figure out the new version of the software.

2. GIF WIDTH/HEIGHT, SIZE LIMIT, EZGIF OPTMIZER

At this point you should already know how big your gifs are going to be. Remember the ideal gif width(s) on tumblr are 540 px / 268 px / 177 px. These specific numbers take into account the 4 px space between the gifs. No restrictions on height. Here are some examples:

You can play around with the height (177x400, 177x540, 268x200, 268x268, 268x350, 268x400, 540x440, 540x500, 540x540 etc) but if you go over the 10 MB limit you'll either have to make your gifs smaller/delete some frames.

OR you can go on ezgif and optimize your gif, which is usually what I do. The quality might suffer a little, but I'm not really (that) obsessed with how crispy my gifs look, or I'd download photoshop.

Depending on the gif size, you can decrease the compression level. I've never had to go over 35. It's better to start at 5 (minimum) and then go from there until you reach your desired ( <10mb) gif size. Now that I think about it I should have included this passage at the end of the tutorial, I guess I'll just mention it again.

3. LOAD YOUR FRAMES

File -> Open... -> Pick one of your screencaps. The first one, the last one, a random one. Doesn't matter. That's your Background.

File -> Open & Place -> Select all the frames (including the one you already loaded in the previous passage) you need for your gif and load them.

(I recommend creating a specific folder for the screencaps of each gif you're going to make.)

WARNING: When you Place your screencaps make sure the Crop tool is NOT selected, especially if you've already used it and the width/height values have been entered. It will mess things up - I don't know why, could be a bug.

You can either select them all with Ctrl+A or with the method I explained in the ask: "when you want to select more than one frame or all frames at once select the first one, then scroll to the bottom and, while pressing Shift, select the last one. this way ALL your frames will be selected".

WARNING: Depending on how fast your computer is / on your RAM, this process may take a while. My old computer was old and slow af, while my new one can load even a 100 frames relatively fast, all things considered. Even so, I recommend ALWAYS saving your work before loading new frames for a new gif, because photopea might crash unexpectedly. Just save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting. Trust me, I speak from experience.

Now you can go ahead and delete the Background at the bottom, you won't need it anymore.

4. CROPPING AND RESIZING

Right now your screencaps are still smart objects. Before rasterizing and converting to frames, you need to crop your gif.

Technically you can rasterize/convert to frames and then crop, BUT if you do it in that order photopea will automatically delete the cropped pixels, even if you don't select the "Delete Cropped Pixels" Option. Might be another bug, unclear. Basically, if you crop your gif and then realize you cropped a little too much to the left or the right, you can go ahead, select the Move Tool (shortcut: V) and, after selecting ALL YOUR FRAMES, move them around on your canvas until you are satisfied. You won't be able to do this if you rasterize first and then crop, the excess pixels will be deleted. I don't know why, I found out by accident lol.

CROPPING

(Cropped pixels: the gray/opaque area outside of the selected area. That area disappears once you press enter and crop, but the pixels are retained, so you can move the frames around and reposition them as you like. In this case I could move the frames to the left and include Silver's figure [curly guy in the foreground] in the crop)

After deleting the Background, you will need to select all your frames (using the Shift key), use the C shortcut on your keyboard to choose the Crop tool. Or you can click on it, whatever's more convenient. Once you do that, a dropdown menu is going to appear. You need to select the "FIXED SIZE" option, as shown in the following screencap.

Once you do that, you can type in your desired width and height. Do not immediately press enter.

Your work area should now look like this. Now you can click on one of the white squares and enlarge the selected area until the edges are lined up. You can then move it around until it covers the area you wish to gif.

WARNING: to move the big rectangle around, you're gonna have to click on a random point of the work area, PREFERABLY not to close to the rectangle itself, or you might accidentally rotate it.

See? When your cursor is close to the selected area it turns into this rotating tool. Move it away until it reverts to your usual cursor, then you can start moving the rectangle. Press Enter when you're satisfied with the area you selected.

RESIZE

This isn't always necessary (pretty much never in my case) - and it's a passage I often forget myself - but it's mentioned in most of the tutorials I came across over the years, so I'd be remiss if I didn't include it in mine. After cropping, you'll want to resize your image.

IMAGE -> Image Size...

This window will pop up. Now, should the values in the Width and Height space be anything other than 540 and 400 (or the values you entered yourself, whatever they might be) you need to correct that. They've always been correct in my case, but again. Had to mention it.

5. RASTERIZE & MAKE FRAMES

Now that your screencaps are cropped, you can go ahead and convert them.

LAYER -> Rasterize (if you skip this passage you won't be able to Sharpen (or use any filter) on your frames at once. You'll have to Sharpen your frames one by one.

Photopea doesn't feature a timeline and it's not a video editor, which makes this passage crucial. When you select all your smart objects and try to apply a filter, the filter will only by applied to ONE frame. Once you rasterize your smart objects and make them into frames, you can select them all and sharpen them at once. Unfortunately this also means that you won't be able to - I don't know how to explain this properly so bear with me - use all smart filters/use them in the same way a photoshop user can. For example, you can sharpen / remove noise / add noise / unsharp mask... but you can't act on those filters in the same way a photoshop user can. When you work on smart objects you can change the blend mode - which is critical if you decide to use a filter like High Pass. If you simply apply a high pass filter on photopea you won't be able to change the blend mode and your gif will look like this (following screencaps). Or rather, you will be able to change the blend mode by clicking on the little wheel next to "High pass" (circled in green in the 2nd screencap), but you'll have to apply the filter to each frame manually, one by one.

Then you can rasterize/make into frames, but it's extremely time consuming. I did it once or twice when I first started making gifs and it got old pretty soon haha.

Layer -> Animation -> Make frames. This passage will add "_a_" at the beginning of all your frames and it's what allows you to make a (moving) gif. As I said in the ask, if you skip this passage your gif will not move.

6. SHARPENING

Some people prefer to color first and sharpen later, but I found that sharpening filters (more or less) dramatically alter the aspect of your gif and already brighten it a bit (depending on your settings) and you may end up with an excessively bright gif.

Now, sharpening settings are not necessarily set in stone. The most popular ones are 500/0.4 + 10/10, which I use sometimes. But you may also need to take into account the quality of the files you're working with + the specific tv show you're giffing. I've been using different settings for pretty much every tv show I gif, especially in the last couple months. Some examples:

followed by

OR

AMOUNT: 500% RADIUS 0.3px followed by AMOUNT: 20% (or 10%) RADIUS 10px

You'll just need to experiment and see what works best for your gifs.

Some gifmakers use the UNSHARP MASK filter as well (I think it's pretty popular among photopea users?) but it makes my gifs look extra grainy, makes the borders look super bright and it clashes with my coloring method(s), so I use it rarely and with very moderate settings. Something like this:

Again, depends on the gif and on what you like. I've seen it used with great results by other gifmakers!

REDUCE NOISE

Sometimes - and this is especially the case for dark scenes - your gif may look excessively grainy, depending on how bright you want to make it. Reducing noise can help. Keep it mind, it can also make it worse and mess up the quality. BUT it also reduces the size of your gif. Obviously, the higher the settings, the more quality will suffer.

These are my standard settings (either 2/70% or 2/80%). It's almost imperceptible, but it helps with some of the trickier scenes.

ADDING NOISE

Adding noise (1% or 2% max) can sometimes help with quality (or make it worse, just like reduce noise) but it will make your gif so so so much bigger, and occasionally damage the frames, which means you won't be able to load your gif on tumblr, so I rarely use it.

You'll also want to create ACTIONS which will allow you to sharpen your gifs much faster.

HOW TO CREATE AN ACTION ON PHOTOPEA

The Action Button (shaped like a Play button as you can see in the following screencaps) may not be there if you're using photopea for the first time. If that's the case click on the magnifiying glass next to "Account" (in red) and type "actions". Press Enter and the button should immediately show up.

Once you do that, click on the Folder (circled in yellow)

and rename it however you like.

now click on New Action (circled in red). now you can press the Recording button (circled in green)

Now

FILTERS -> Smart Sharpen

and you can enter your values. Then you repeat this passage (WITHOUT pressing rec, WITHOUT pressing new action or anything else, you just open the smart shapen window again) and, if you want, you can sharpen your gif some more (10%, 10px, or anything you want.)

Maybe, before creating an action, experiment with the settings first and see what works best.

When you're satisfied, you can PRESS STOP (it's the rec button, which is now a square) and you can DOWNLOAD your action (downwards facing arrow, the last button next to the bin. Sorry, forgot to circle it) .

You need to download your action and then upload it on your photopea. When you do, a window will pop up and photopea will ask you whether you wish to load the action every time you open the program. You choose "Okay" and the action will be loaded in the storage.

When you want to sharpen your gif, you select all your frames, then you click on the Play button, and select the Action, NOT the folder, or it won't work.

Actions can also be created to more rapidly crop and convert your frames, but it doesn't always work on photopea (for me at least). The process is exactly the same, except once you start recording you 1) crop your gif as explained in step 4, 2) convert into frames. Then you stop the recording and download the action and upload it. This won't work for the Rasterize step by the way. Just the Animation -> Make Frame step.

7. COLORING

Now you can color your gif. I won't include a coloring tutorial simply because I use a different method for every tv show I gif for. You normally want to begin with a brightness or a curve layer, but sometimes I start with a Channel Mixer layer to immediately get rid of yellow/green filters (there's a tutorial for this particular tool which you will find in the list I mention in the link below)

[Plus I'm not really an authority on this matter as my method is generally... fuck around and find out. Two years of coloring and I still have no idea what I'm doing. 70% of the time.]

Simple Gif Coloring for Beginners -> very detailed + it includes a pretty handy list of tutorials at the bottom.

8. EXPORTING

Now you can export your gif. Some gifmakers export their (sharpened) gifs BEFORE coloring and then load the gifs on photopea to color them. I'm not sure it makes any difference.

FILE -> EXPORT AS -> GIF

(not colored, just sharpened)

As you can see, unlike photoshop the exporting settings are pretty thread bare. The only option available is dither - it sometimes help with color banding - which, and I'm quoting from google for maximum clarity:

"refers to the method of simulating colors not available in the color display system of your computer. A higher dithering percentage creates the appearance of more colors and more detail in an image, but can also increase the file size."

SPEED

When you export your gif, it will play at a very decreased speed (100%). I usually set it at 180/190%, but as for every other tool, you might want to play around a little bit.

GIF SIZE/EZGIF OPTIMIZER (See Step 2)

And that's it.

P.S.: worth repeating

Save your work as often as you can, even while coloring or before exporting.

[eregyrn-falls]

Organizing a Stan Twins-centric Multi-Artist Lyric Comic!

There's a song I've always wanted to see as an AMV or a lyric comic for the Stan Twins, and years pass, and I've never been able to tackle a project that big. So, I wanted to try to organize it as a multi-artist lyric comic!

The song is "Trouble", by Avicii. (See below.)

What is a multi-artist lyric comic? One where people sign up, and each artist is assigned a line from the song. Artists will then do 1 page for their line, and at the end, it's all put together. Here is an example from GF fandom in 2018. (Here is a video version that someone put together with the music.)

This song has 28 lines of lyrics, but it also has some instrumental breaks, and I've thought of a way to fill those that would allow more people to participate (particularly if someone was unsure if they could take on a full page).

Here's the song:

There's a lot of details to go into, so to keep this post from taking up too much dash real estate, I'm going to put more detail below a read-more.

Here is a link to a Google form you can fill out to indicate interest. (But we do urge you to read over the details below!)

The goal would be to complete this in time to make it public on August 31st or Sept. 1st, 2023 -- in line with the actual last days in-story of the show. Therefore, the due date for final art will likely be around August 15th or 20th.

I hope folks will find this intriguing! I think it could be a lot of fun!

@mercury-falls and I are the point-people for this, at the moment!

All right -- the way I've always seen it, the first verse of the song is very Stan-related, and the second verse is very Ford related.

Here is a Google Doc with the lyrics.

My idea for the instrumental breaks was to have people contribute smaller pieces of art that look a bit like Polaroid snapshots. If we can get the lyric comic combined with the music, think of the collection of Polaroids accumulating the way they do at the end of the show's opening credits.

There are two main ways artists can contribute to the project:

For lyrics, full landscape illustrations (which include color, lettering, and a background)

For instrumental breaks, polaroid-style illustrations (smaller, simpler pieces in square format). We will use these in a video edit of the comic and have them accumulate like the show’s intro during the breaks. (We will also figure out a good way to display them in the lyric-comic post itself.)

Your art should be canon-compliant, and can depict any time period of the Stans’ lives (past, present, and near-future)! Do with your art as you best see fit with your lyrics, but keep the focus on the Stans and their relationships with each other and other GF characters. Both original content and screenshot adaptations are welcome!

We also welcome collaborations between artists on full pages! We encourage every artist in the project to help and support each other if they are comfortable. On the interest form, you can tell us if you are interested in volunteering to help others with inking, coloring, or creating backgrounds! Or, you can tell us if you think you will need help.

On the form, you can indicate your preference towards the Stan or Ford verses. But once we have the team of artists doing lyrics chosen, we will randomize the list and then contact people in order, to ask about preferences for lyrics. If you aren't chosen for one of the full pages, we would still like to have you involved for the Polaroids! (And you can indicate willingness to be called on to do a page if others drop out.)

We will have check-in dates through the summer, with goals for people to report on the subject of their piece; to have a sketch or layout ready to show; and to show progress closer to the end.

We will be setting up a Discord server to help share information, and to allow people to post WIPs or just generally discuss things, and keep motivation going. If you really don't use Discord, though, and don't want to sign up for it, that's okay. We will put whatever instructions and details we have in a Google Doc, and will share that link for reference. And we can always communicate via email.

I (Eregyrn speaking!) have been involved in a LOT of fan projects over the years. One of the key things to ask of people who sign up for a project is: communication. That is, if you're having difficulties, just let us know! If you need to drop out, just let us know! Don't feel guilty that you signed up and then had to drop out. The thing that is hardest on organizers of projects like this is when people sign up, but disappear and don't answer DMs or emails. Believe me, I've been in that position where you feel guilty and don't want to admit that you have to drop out -- but it's always much easier on the organizers if you just let them know, instead of keeping them guessing! This is just something to keep in mind when you're signing up -- life happens! It's okay! But please try to let us know if something comes up and you have to bow out.

Here is the link to the Google Form, that you can fill out to indicate interest.

[videogamelover99]

[Gravity Falls] Waking Days Ch. 1: Waddles

Summary: Bill Cipher is reborn, but not in the way he would have wanted. Stuck as a mortal and relying on those who brought his downfall, he realizes that maybe he didn't lie as hard as he should have. [AO3 Link] Characters: Bill Cipher, Mabel Pines, Dipper Pines, Stanford Pines, Stanley Pines, Jheselbraum the Unswerving, The Axolotl Pairings: None (past BillFord) Rating: T

A/N: Welcome to my self-indulgent, Bill Cipher-centric character exploration that is this fic! First off, thank you all so much for voicing your support over this story. There's so much planned that I want to share.

The format for this story will have an episodic feel. I originally planned these chapters to be 7k-8k words long, with one "episode" per chapter, but dividing them into smaller chunks might be the way to go.

ALSO! I'm currently looking for a beta reader! Preferably someone with a few published fics, but I'm really open to anyone who can read finalized versions of chapters and give me some notes. Send me an ask if you're interested!

Thank you for going on this journey with me. Enjoy!

---

Deep in the redwood forests of central Oregon lay a small little town called Gravity Falls. With a population of a few thousand, low on tourism, and high on mosquito bites, the town was hard to find on any of the maps, and some might have claimed that the town hadn’t even existed. 

Fewer still knew of the oddities that made the town their home, passerbys had nothing to say outside of an “eerie feeling” and a glimpse of tiny men in pointed caps in the corner of their vision. 

But the town was real, and the oddities were more real still. 

In the outskirts of that town, down a dilapidated forest path, in a clearing sat The Mystery Shack, an old scientist’s lab turned tourist attraction. It was in this house, on a stiff, plushy couch, framed by the light of a seemingly empty water tank, that Bill Cipher, the monster with one eye, harbinger of chaos and trillion-year-old mind demon awoke, in a body that was not his and whose irritating human instincts he deeply resented. 

“Gah!”

“Screee!”

"Ow!"

Instincts like rapid breathing, sweatiness, and overall shakiness usually meant one of these dozen organs wasn’t working properly. Unfortunately, after waking up for the dozenth time in this manner, Bill had to admit that the organs weren’t the problem. 

Not that he could remember what the problem was. Whatever dream or nightmare had caused this current inconvenient bout of terror, whatever remnants of it were blank, fuzzy static on a rotting television screen. 

It was more annoying than anything. 

Bill started his nightly routine of picking himself off the floor. The blanket he had was tangled around his legs, which were somehow still on the sofa. After a moment or two of clumsily getting the appendages to move, Bill managed to heave himself upright.

Bill rubbed his eyes, he had two now. So weird. 

"Oik!"

Mabel's pig sat on the rug next to his head, staring blankly.

"What're you looking at, huh?"

"Oik!"

"None of your business."

"Oik oik!"

"No, what do I look like, a snack machine?"

"O-oik!"

"Ha! So's your mother!"

Waddles chose that moment to get up and trot away, done with the conversation. Well, good, Bill was done with him, too.

He stole a glance at the water tank. Still empty. Figures old Frilly wouldn't be there when Bill had a bone to pick with him. Maybe he should put some mercury in the water. As a surprise.

What was the point of stuffing him in this body, anyway? Did the ol’ salamander really think it would do anything? Was it to scare him? To torture him? To tell him how awful and evil he was and all those other meaningless statements that Bill had found hilarious in his time? 

Crimes against the second dimension? It was a crime that the place had existed the way it did. A rotten, broken building called for a demolition. He’d just had the detonator. 

Why would you do this?

Ugh, not again.

I-I wish I was dead! I wish I wouldn’t have to see what a monster you’ve-

Bill pulled himself up onto the couch and raised the blanket over his head. As if that could block out the incessant voice that only showed up at the worst of times. 

He would not sleep again.

—

Dipper walked into the kitchen and came face to face with his Great Uncle Stan trying to rinse a semi-cooked egg out of his hair under the kitchen sink. 

“Wow, Grunkle Stan, are you okay?”

“Huh?!” Stan turned around, anger barely concealing his twitch of embarrassment. “Oh, it’s just you. Gimmie a hand, kid.”

“What happened?” Dipper asked, angling the faucet to better rinse out Stan’s scalp. He’s done worse things for his Grunkle. Barely. 

“That triangle freak happened, that’s what. When I get my hands on him I’m gonna-” 

Ah, Dipper should’ve guessed. Bill had developed a bad habit of pranking Grunkle Stan wherever he felt like it and then conveniently disappearing in the aftermath. There was that incident with the freezer a few days ago. And the stick of butter last Sunday. Not to mention the spider incident. Ugh. 

It had only been a few weeks since Bill had become the Mystery Shack’s unwilling resident, but even in that short time, he had managed to establish himself as Stan’s worst nightmare. Dipper had a feeling it wasn’t the pranks that got to Stan as much as it was that the demon had managed to one-up him in the trick department so many times. 

“Look, just- gimmie word if you see the little devil. We’re gonna have a talk.” Stan clenched his fist in emphasis.

—

Mabel came out of the elevator and was confronted by her Grunkle Ford in a futuristic super suit, pointing a sci-fi gun in her direction.

“Mabel!” He quickly lowered it. “I’m so sorry! It’s the reflexes.”

“What’s that?” Not at all fazed by the near-death experience, she pointed at the gun in question. It didn’t look like the one that shot lasers, and it didn’t look like the one that was basically a giant magnet, so it must’ve been new.

“Oh, this? I was just testing this when you walked in.” Ford trained the gun on an apple sitting on his desk. “Would you like to see how it works? It’s quite fascinating.”

She saw the familiar hazard sign on the side. “Ooh, does it fire radiation, like in that one movie with the green guy? Dipper and I have got to sit you down for one of our movie nights! Culture has come a long way since you fell through that portal.” She added sagely.

Grunkle Ford winced. “Maybe later.”

She hesitated for only a moment, looking down at her shoes. “It’s because of Bill, isn’t it?” she said quietly. 

“That’s not something you should worry about.”

“I don’t want you to not spend time with us just because he’s there,” she insisted. “We can tell him to beat it if you need us to.”

“It’s not a discussion I should be having with you. It’s just…never mind. Would you still like to see how this works?” He lifted the gun.

“Sure!” She could brag to Dipper about it later.

Ford once again pointed the gun at the apple and fired. A bright blue flash lit up the room, and a small blue box formed around the apple, trapping it inside. Mabel walked up to it and poked it lightly. The box fizzed but stayed where it was. “Cool! A box gun.”

“My newest invention,” Ford said, picking up the box. “A weapon that locks its target in a perpetual state of quantum uncertainty. I call it ‘Schrodinger’s Pistol’.”

“Wow. So the apple is like, dead and alive in there.”

“I’m surprised you know it.”

“We got taught it in school once. It was about cats! I didn’t think it would be dead cats, though.” 

“I see. However, a more accurate description would be that the apple both does and does not exist in this box. To affirm one or the other, we would need to remove the box and check, but until then it would remain in flux.”

“So if we open this box, can I eat it?”

“Well, I suppose if you time it right…” Grunkle Ford hit a switch on the gun and pointed it again. A little meter on the side went up and down up and down up and- he fired. The box disintegrated, leaving behind the apple, the same as it was before. “There we go. Perfectly safe to eat. Probably not full of radiation.”

As Mabel chomped down on the apple, Ford tucked the gun into his belt. “So what did you come to me for?”

“Oh, yeah,” Mabel tried to chew. Bits of apple few in different directions. “Have you seen Waddles? He likes to wander down here sometimes. I’m sending an audition for our school band, and I need a backup dancer. The makeup takes a long time.”

“I’m afraid I haven’t seen him. Why do you need Waddles for you to do your makeup?” 

“Not my makeup, silly. His!”

At that, Ford looked slightly concerned. 

—

“There! That should do it.”

Jeselbraum the Unswerving, now in the brand-new human form Ford was still getting used to, backed away from the rift, and watched as the clock-like device buried itself in the bark of the tree the rift had originated from. Lines of metal filaments shot out from the device, embedding themselves in the tree and the ground beneath it. They glowed faintly. The clock chimed.

She gestured for Ford to back away, and he did so, staring at the device in wonder.

String-like tendrils hot out from the filaments, weaving together like a transparent tapestry until they formed a bubble around the clock. As more and more strings shot out, the bubble grew until it contained the tree in its entirety, including the tear in reality that had been causing Ford so many sleepless nights. The strings vanished, and the bubble settled, rippling a little in the wind.

“It’s a time bubble,” Ford said, a hint of wonder escaping him. “But it’s…artificially made?”

“Yes.”

“And it was made by that friend you mentioned?”

“No. He had suggested it as the best course of action,” Jess’s smile turned a little bit smug. “But it was made by me.”

“Ah,” Ford turned back to the time bubble. The tree and everything surrounding it had frozen, time moving at a microscopic degree not perceptible by the human eye. “What a simple solution, delaying the decay as much as possible. I don’t know why I haven’t thought of it.”

“It won’t hold forever,” Jeselbraum’s smile faded. “And it’s only a matter of time before more cracks start forming on this side of the dimensional break. Bill Cipher’s realm cannot be contained, and sooner or later it will implode on itself. He knew that very well, which is why he was so desperate to get out.”

“But if crossing into our dimension would only bring the decay along with him, what was the point?”

She shrugged. “Hindsight is 20/20.”

Ford couldn’t help but laugh. But soon the anxiety returned. “I need to ask you something.”

“Hm?”

“Do you think it’s possible for something to pass through that rift? Into our dimension?”

Jeselbraum pondered the question for a moment. “I suppose it is. And if such a thing happens it will only widen the crack. Think of it like a piece of fabric: if you have one with a tear in it, when you wear the garment that tear can only grow. The only way to repair it is to find the right thread, which…”

“Is currently impossible.”

“Yes.” Jeselbraum scowled. “And if the rip in this dimension continues, it will not just be your dimension at stake.”

—

Bill peered past his distorted reflection into the tank. The Axolotl peered up at him, its beady little eyes blinking once, twice. 

It looked just like an ordinary axolotl, but Bill knew better.

“Laugh it up, Frilly,” he muttered. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not gonna work.”

And what do you think I am trying to do?

“You know what!”

Clarification would be helpful.

Chiding. It was chiding him. Like he was a child.

“You’re the one who should be-!”

“Uh, who are you talking to?”

Bill turned around. Dipper was growing up at him, one arm clutching that blue book he always carried. His own little journal. I knew the kid was obsessed but this is embarrassing.

“Someone your limited human mind wouldn’t even comprehend the existence of.”

“So…yourself? Didn’t pin you as that kind of crazy.” Dipper leaned to the side to look behind Bill. Of course, it was useless, because Dipper saw nothing but an empty tank filled with rocks and fake seaweed. The Axolotl only showed itself to those he wanted to, and right now, what he wanted to do was torment Bill.

“Kid, I’m every kind of crazy.”

“Lucky us.”

“Yeup. So, figure it out yet?”

Dipper frowned. “That code. You weren’t just messing with me, were you?”

“Maybe I was, maybe I wasn’t. Who knows!”

“You do.”

“Ha! Got me there.”

Dipper scrutinized him for a moment. Bill just grinned. Finally, the boy stomped his foot in frustration. “Ugh, I hate you!” Bill laughed.

“Hey guys,” Mabel walked in, in a brand new sweater that sported a small white goose holding a knife, covered in pink glitter. She held a chocolate bar in her hand. “I heard evil laughter. Nothing’s on fire, right? Have you guys seen Waddles?”

“Nothing’s on fire. And no, I haven’t,” said Dipper, “Bill?”

“Sure I did.”

The two twins waited for him to elaborate.

“He’s a pig. Pink, round, the works.”

“I meant today!” Mabel cried. “Have you seen him today?”

Bill flopped onto the couch and searched for the TV remote. “Nope!”

His view of the screen was quickly taken up by Mabel, her hands on her hips. “I’ve got a word with you, mister.” 

Bill made a face. “I told you, I haven’t seen your codependent pig. Ain’t transparent, Shooting Star, get out of the way.”

Mabel did not get out of the way. Instead, she became more in the way, stomping her way closer. “Grunkle Stan looked pretty egged up today. Literally.”

Bill grinned at that. He was pretty proud of that trick in particular. “Oh yeah? Sounds like a case of bad luck. Maybe it’s raining eggs, like that one time in 1376! Ask the gnomes. Or the flesh-eating termites that live in your walls.”

Dipper gave the walls a wary look. Gullible.

“We know it was you,” said Mabel. “Grunkle Stan was pretty angry.” She snatched the remote away from Bill, triumphant in the face of his protest. “You need to say sorry.”

It took a bit for Bill to process what she was saying. Then he laughed. Longer than usual. “Good one, Shooting Star!” He wiped a fake tear from his eye. 

“I’m serious,” said Mabel, “if you’re gonna keep living with us-”

“Here’s something I’m letting you in on, kid. A great big secret you’re now privy to. Ready? I don’t apologize. That’s not what I do. What I do is cause unimaginable torment and unending nightmares to the people I don’t like. You know, fun times all around! Saying ‘my bad!’ kinda defeats the point, doesn’t it?”

Mabel stomped her foot. “I want you to say sorry!”

“And I want that remote,” Bill shrugged. “Hey! I know, let’s make a deal. You give me the remote and I tell you where your little pig went.”

Mabel blinked. “You will?”

“Sure! Just shake my hand-”

“Do not shake his hand,” said Dipper. 

“Fine,” Bill held his hand out. “Your end first, Star.”

Mabel eyed him with suspicion, but after a beat of silence handed him the remote.

“Well?” Demanded Mabel.

“He went out,” said Bill.

“Out where?”

“Out,” Bill pointed at the door.

“Oh no,” Mabel’s face fell “You let him go outside?!”

“Hey, he’s a free pig, he can do what he wants! Although…” Bill trailed off. “Gotta hand it to ya, kid, you sure know how to keep your pets on a tight leash if you know what I mean. Word of advice, if you’re gonna force your minion to do all your bidding, don’t let him run around all willy-nilly on the off times. Makes them start questioning things.”

“I don’t force him to do anything,” Mabel snapped, suddenly defensive.

“Sure, yeah. Bet he loves being shoved into a princess outfit and paraded out on the street. Or forced to lie on his back for hours as you make a macaroni replica of him. Or made to learn the polka. Don’t need the animal rights brigade showing up at your doorstep!”

“But he loves doing that stuff…” Mabel’s voice took on a strange, thick quality. Suddenly, Bill the conversation a lot less funny than how it started. The dream he had that night had taken the joy out of pretty much everything.

Maybe he’d make her go away. “You sure about that?” He looked pointedly at the door. Mabel seemed to get the message, heading toward it.

“Waddles! Waadles!” Mabel raised the chocolate bar again, a waver in her voice. “I’ve got your favorite snack!” She ran out the door. 

Dipper kicked Bill in the shin. 

“Ow! Hey!”

“Don’t say stuff like that to Mabel!” said Dipper. “She’s gonna take you seriously!” The boy ran after his sister. “Mabel! Mabel, come back!”

Bill flipped to the reality TV channel. Nothing like watching dumb idiots getting at each other’s throats to make him take his mind off…this entire day. 

Where was that pig, anyway?

—

Stan settled the new welcome signs next to the porch and checked his shoes for traps before putting them on. No laces not tied together? Check. No superglue on the soles? Check. 

It wasn’t like he asked for this.

I did, damn it. I knew it was a terrible idea to keep him here. 

They could’ve…well, not killed him. Dumped him in the nearest asylum maybe. One with tight security. Hey, got another one of those psychopathic crazies, no need to thank us, don’t ask questions, just take him!

Stan picked up the poster boards with gaudy Mystery Shark advertisements and slammed the door harder than necessary. Of course, no one listened to him, the guy with any common sense.

It was late afternoon when he was down to his last poster, tired from all the walking. Dipper had, for once, offered to do this for him, but Stan had already given up the Shack to Soos, and this was…nostalgic, in a way. He looked down at the sign, tracing the old, hand-painted groves he’d hastily carved out the first few years he’d gotten this place. Years of hard work had paid off, after all. 

Stan shook himself from the memory, remembered that Ford was here, the portal was dismantled, and the Stan of War 2 existed, and felt ridiculous at how emotional this sign made him all of a sudden. Well, time to leave these feelings in the woods, where they belonged!

He raised his hammer when he heard it, the tell-tale growl of some kind of animal. 

His grip on the hammer tightened. The sign and the nail dropped, forgotten. 

“Darn coyotes, scram, you hear me!”

The growl did not falter. It got louder as if the thing that made it was getting closer. 

It was a strange growl. Instead of a continuous roar, it was like multiple shorter sounds, layered on top of each other in a disjoined, continuous harmony. These sounds felt familiar. 

Stan did what any sensible man would do in this situation, and hightailed out of there. 

He didn’t get very far, tripping over a large tree root and falling face-first into a large pile of wet leaves.

“Oh, come on!”

He tried to stand up, but his shoe was stuck, wedged between two of the roots. He tried to rip his foot out of the shoe, but not dice. It was like his foot was stuck to the sole. 

Like someone had glued it in.

“Are you kidding me? That little-!”

The bush next to him shivered, the growl was louder, and he could finally make out what it was. It was…

OInK.

oinkOinkOINKoiNKoinKoinkOINKoinK!

“Aaaagh!”

The forest was silent once more. 

—

“Mabel, what are you doing?”

“Shh.”

Mabel sprinkled some more chocolate in the corner of the back porch. Dipper watched, as in front of his very eyes, a small group of ants emerged from the crack in the floor and carried one of the pieces away.

“Mabel, that’s not gonna help! You’re just attracting more bugs.”

Mabel made a frustrated noise and crumpled up the remaining bar, stuffing it in her pocket. “But he loves chocolate, Dipper! Waddles can’t live without chocolate! Why isn’t he coming back? Do you think something happened to him? Do you think…do you think I’m the one who made him leave?”

“Hey, come on,” Dipper put an arm around his sister. “Don’t listen to Bill. About anything. But especially this. You’re a great owner, and Waddles loves you. We’ll find him!”

Mabel sniffed and wiped her eyes with a chocolate-stained hand. “Promise?”

“Of course, Dum Dum.” 

Mabel looked out into the moonlit trees beyond their house, the dark forest surrounding the Shack seemed quiet, today. “Grunkle Stan’s been out for a while, too. Do you think maybe he found Waddles?”

They listened as the wind settled between the trees, rustling the leaves and bending the tall redwoods at their tops.

And another noise. It sounded like a growl.

“Did you hear that?” Mabel asked.

“Yeah,” Dipper looked out into the treeline. “Could be a coyote. Or a mountain lion.”

The growl was louder. Whatever it was, it was coming closer.

“Waddles is out there!” Mabel bolted toward the trees, only for Dipper to grab her by the elbow.

“Mabel, hold on! We don’t know what it is!”

“What if it has Waddles?”

“Waddles is a smart pig, a coyote wouldn’t get him.” Dipper let go of her sleeve once he was sure she wouldn’t run away. 

The growl came again, and the hair on Dipper’s arms stood on end. Whatever it was, it wasn’t a wild animal. That growl just sounded wrong. “M-Maybe we should get inside.”

The brush underneath the tree line shook menacingly.

“Like, now.”

Together, they bolted inside and locked the doors. 

“But what about the Grunkles?” Mabel asked.

“They have the key,” Dipper assured her. “And survival skills, they’ll be-”

The growl was closer, whatever it was, it was prowling outside.

“We should turn off all the lights,” Dipper said. “Maybe then it’ll leave.”

The twins ran through all the first-floor rooms, turning off each light. It was following them, the growl carrying from the front porch to the kitchen and through the corridor into the living room, where they came face-to-face with their previous enemy, watching TV while hanging upside down from the couch.

Dipper shut off the light and pulled the plug on the TV.

“Hey!”

Dipper tossed the plug aside. “Did you not hear the monster outside?”

“The only monster you’re gonna worry about is the one who’ll rearrange your liver if you don’t plug that thing back- Wait. You hear that?”

The three of them went quiet. The growl came, closer than ever, behind the door to the front porch.

“If we keep very quiet,” Dipper muttered, “It won’t know we’re here.”

“Great plan, kid, file that under-”

“Bill! Shut up!” Dipper whispered harshly.

There was a noise behind the back door. It sounded like-

SNIFF, SNIFF. 

For a moment, there was only silence.

“Huh,” Dipper said, “maybe it left.”

SCREEEE!

“Aaaaah!”

Dipper and Mabel grabbed onto each other as something slammed against the door, old hinges creaking under the pressure. 

Dipper and Mabel scrambled behind the couch next to Bill. “Can’t you do something?!”

“Oh, yeah, lemme just turn your little problem into a nice party hat and- oh wait, I can’t! Gee, I wonder if it’s because someone killed me and made me lose my powers!”

The monster slammed harder into the door. DIpper flinched and grabbed Mabel’s hand.

“So what’s the plan?” Mabel asked.

“I, uh,” Dipper’s voice got stuck in his throat as the unknown creature let out a distorted, hungry roar.

“Set it on fire,” said Bill.

“We’re not doing that,” Dipper said. 

“Fine, you got any venomous snakes lying around?” 

“We’re definitely not doing…whatever that is.”

The growl faded into an eerie silence. 

“Do you think it’s gone?” Mabel whispered.

Dipper strained to hear anything outside of the house. Nothing but the wind and the trees creaking outside.

Carefully, Dipper climbed from behind the couch, Mabel following suit. He walked over to the door and pressed his ear on its surface. He then peaked through the blinds. The porch was empty, and so was the surrounding clearing.

“Haha, it’s gone!” Dipper breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Whadaya think it was?” Mabel asked.

“No idea. Some mutated wild animal? A creature we haven’t seen yet?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t run after it,” Mabel joked.

“Didn’t need to!” Dipper grinned. “The security system, remember? Soos updated it recently, it covers even more ground now. Whatever it is, it was caught on tape, we just have to play it back.”

“Then let's do it!”

The office didn’t look that different than it had a year ago. The room was filled with Stan’s old knickknacks, but there was a Soos touch to things in the corners, evidence of the new Mr. Mystery’s influence. The gaming system in the corner, for one, and the little anime figurines on the desk. There was a photo of Melody on the wall, standing on a Portland beach and smiling at the camera. Another photo was of Soos, Dipper, and Wendy in front of that jacked-up go-cart Soos made for his web show. 

“Okay, here we go,” Dipper found the remote and wound back the tape playing on the monitor. “Huh, that’s…weird.” 

Dipper went frame by frame through the tape. Just a few seconds after Mabel and Dipper locked the door, a strange distortion came over the TV, making the porch appear fuzzy and pixelated. Like the tape itself was corrupted.

The fuzzy spot in the tape moved off-screen, seemingly circling the Shack, before coming back around and lingering on the porch.

“It’s censored!” Mabel said. “Like-”

“Looks like your little Mystery Monster’s got a knack for practical illusions!”

The twins both jumped and Bill’s sudden, grating voice. He was standing near the door, staring at the monitor with a curiosity Dipper didn’t like.

“What do you want?” Mabel snapped. Dipper was surprised by how harsh it sounded. Out of all the Pines, Mabel by far had the most patience with Bill. A worrying amount of patience. 

Bill seemed surprised too, but only for a moment. He shrugged, pointing a thumb back a the entrance. “Unfortunately, your WEIRD HUMAN FLESH is also stupidly tasty. And now I’m stuck as one of you! Getting eaten by your guest of the week would just be embarrassing.”

“Do you know what it is?” Dipper asked.

Bill came closer and squinted at the screen. “Fella’s got a knack for bending light, something only 51 species on your planet are capable of.” Bill tried counting on his fingers, then gave up. “Could be a badger.”

“Badgers are capable of bending light?” 

“You’ve never met enough badgers!”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, it’s gone now,” Dipper sighed, “I should’ve gotten a glimpse while I had the chance.”

“Eager to be badger food?”

“It’s not a badger!”

“Guys,” Mabel said, “I think Dipper’s getting his wish.”

Something was creaking out in the hall.

“It’s just the floor, the wood is old,” Dipper said.

“Yeah, and bendy.”

“Yeah, and…” Dipper trailed off to see what his sister was pointing at. There, on the floor, two of the planks bent up, as if something underneath was trying to get out. That strange growl came, quieter and more distinct. It almost sounded like-

A nail from one of the planks came away and bounced off the wall. 

“It can burrow,” Dipper whispered in awe.

“Less gawking more running, Bro-bro!” Mabel yanked him by the hand and they ran out of the office, Bill not far behind. 

Dipper found his footing. “Gift shop! If we get into the basement, maybe-”

The planks came away, and wood splinters rained on the three of them. Dipper turned to see what this new monster they’d encountered was, and froze in his tracks.

Mabel beat him to it. “Waddles?!”

[innumerable-stars]

Pearl Promo Post

(written by @naryaflame)

Summary:  Like Sir Orfeo and Sir Gawain, this is a late Middle English poem (written in a North-West Midlands dialect of Middle English).  A grieving father experiences a dream-vision of a beautiful maiden.  She tries to explain the glories of heaven to him, but he cannot comprehend them, and on trying to join her, he wakes up.  He is left consoled and reflecting on his faith.

Tolkien encountered the poem as a student, and both taught and translated it as a scholar.  Its elegiac tone will feel familiar to fans of Tolkien’s work, and while the text itself is dense, it’s well worth reading, re-reading and unpacking.

Why should I check out this canon:  If you’re interested in the texts Tolkien read and absorbed, and how they shaped the tone and content of his mythology, this is definitely one for your list. It’s is a smaller, more reflective Tolkien text: there's no cast of thousands, no epic adventures, but still plenty to explore. Who sent the Dream Vision? Who is the Pearl Poet – are they also the Gawain poet, or are they someone else? Is the poem an elegy, an allegory, both? Something completely different? Where is the Pearl-maiden, what is her name, and what are the circumstances where the boundaries between life and death might thin to allow for communication?

I think this text lends itself beautifully to unusual fanwork formats, so if that’s your thing, definitely get hold of a copy!  You could potentially go for some in-universe meta here (people much brighter than me have pointed out that part of the poem reads like a lapidary). For art, you could try out something like a medieval illumination, or an illustration in the style of a stained glass window - or calligraphy of a passage you particularly like.  If you’re into the idea of Middle-earth crossovers, there’s plenty of pearl imagery in the legendarium to provide you with links, from Alqualondë to the Sleeper in the Tower of Pearl (some online scholars have even found connections between the narrator and Gollum!)

Where can I get this?Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, together with Pearl and Sir Orfeo was first published in 1975, so there are several editions available – try your preferred bookshop, online retailer, or public library.  The 1975 edition is available as a PDF on the Internet Archive.  There is also a free copy of Tolkien's translation on Allpoetry.com.

What fanworks already exist?  None that I could find!  You could be first!

[accessibleaesthetics]

Hello! First, I'd like to thank you for this blog, it's really helpful and informative!

Second, I have some questions about image descriptions and plain text:

1.) If an image has an alt text, should I copy and paste it in a post when reblogging or is it accessible as is? What about if there are several images with alt text in a post separated by text? I'm guessing if I post an image myself it's best to have both alt text and a description, but I've seen you do just alt text, so is it enough?

2.) What if another user posted some images and the text under them is generally describing the images but is not marked as image description. Should I write an image description in my post when reblogging? Just say that the images are of what the OP talks about?

3.) If there is a post that is made of multiple additions and reblogs and several undescribed images. Is it accessible to just describe them in order of appearance in my reblog? Or is it confusing and I should just tag it as undescribed instead?

4.) Is plain text needed when any kind of text formatting is applied or are there exceptions? And again, if only some posts in a chain need plain text, is it accessible to just list them all in a reblog or is it confusing?

5.) this one is more minor, but is it ok if my avatar and banner are only described in the pinned post or should I put them in my bio as well?

If you answer this or leave some links to the answers, thank you greatly for your time!

You're so welcome!

1.) This one is tricky. As you've noticed, I've decided to consider images with alt text as accessible enough to be on this blog becasue they come with a built-in expandable written ID, and even do it myself when it's short enough. However, some people still very much prefer image descriptions for various reasons. You can also use them together by putting a short description in the alt text that ends by directing people to a longer description (when needed) in the body of the post.

2.) This is what I like to refer to as "functionally described." Once in a while I will reblog something without an image description and tag it #functionally described as an indicator to people that the text in the post fully described the image or images in it.

3.) I usually described them in order, yes.

4.) This one is also tricky. Some will say yes, but there are certain cases, such as headings, where I've yet to encounter someone who benefits from making a smaller plain text version of the large text. I hope some day to meet one, because in theory they exist. I am also a bit more lax with things like bold or italics in moderation, because the research suggesting that can hamper readability for those with dyslexia is really more for huge chunks for text. But again, doesn't necessarily hurt!

5.) That one is up to you! I do it in my bio to make it as easy to get to as possible, but I think a pinned posts is good too. Honestly, I wish they'd let us add alt text to it, it would be a good use for it.

[drabblesandimagines]

Work is challenging this week so I'm not sure I'll get anything up again till over the weekend (I swear upon you Tumblr gods the last two 400 requests are coming!) I have, however, been thinking about my masterlist cos it's got pretty long and wondered if anyone had any huge preferences.

Let me know if the comments if you have any other ideas too x

[midnightshade]

So, with Kinktober started, I really have been trying my best to be all-inclusive and provide multiple Reader types in hopes that more people will be able to enjoy my fics, regardless of identity or body type.

That being said, the Mahito fic showed me that anything above 3k can be a real pain for formatting, and Tumblr mobile really struggles to process anything at that length when you're trying to format the piece.

An individual 3k fic can easily turn a post into a 15k long ordeal when all sections are included, and despite using dividers to try and keep everything neat, it still becomes a slog to scroll through.

I still would like to continue doing multiple reader types, but I'm not entirely sure how I should best format everything.

What way is equally more convenient for the reader while also being easier on me? Is it difficult to scroll through a long fic. to find your reader type, or do the sections help?

I have provided a poll down below so I can gather opinions. Let me know what you think will be best and feel free to specify in the comments.

When you respond, take into consideration that I do not have a computer at this time and, therefore, can only use the Tumblr app.

Thank you for your participation ♥︎

[aggravateddurian]

Dark Future Arsenal - Assault Rifles

Returning to Dark Future Arsenal. Today we'll focus on the Assault Rifles. Cyberpunk RED does not have a specific category for Precision Rifles/Battle Rifles, so I've not touched weapons like the SOR-22 or the Achilles yet.

I use headcanon, based on my knowledge of real-world firearms, what canon information is available, my visual inspection of the firearms, and their performance in game, to make educated guesses about how they perform, their place in the weapon sandbox, and the lore behind them. Let me know if you have any suggestions or ideas!

Burst Fire

Burst fire is a feature many of Cyberpunk 2077's weapons feature. I wanted to incorporate this feature, so I've written some rules for this. Using the autofire skill against a custom DV table, based on the autofire table, this reflects that a rifle in Burst mode will be harder to control than single shot, but easier than autofire. While the number next to the autofire skill represents the maximum you can multiply by for your DMG roll, I am using this to specify how many rounds that weapon fires in Burst mode.

Some weapons use Burst Fire as their primary fire mode, such as the JKE-X2 Kenshin.

Nowaki

The Nowaki is a weapon that canonically was used in the Cyberpunk 2020 era, though the WAA bullpup was apparently Arasaka's standard rifle (it doesn't appear in the game, so we must assume that either they weren't present at AHQ on 20 August 2023, or Arasaka found the Nowaki preferable and issued that to their troops more often than the WAA.

Excellent quality by default, and with a smaller-than-normal magazine and without suppressive fire, the Nowaki is a peculiar gun in that it's othewrwise a normal AR with a rather high price tag (inflation sucks, yo).

Masamune

The Masamune is basically the HK416 to the Nowaki's M16A1. The Masamune is canonically capable of autofire (per Cyberpunk Edgerunners), burst fire and single shot fire, and is an excellent quality weapon. In the 2050s? It would be exceedingly rare to see outside of gov or corp hands, hence the price tag. However, its flexibility justifies the price tag. I could see edgerunners boasting that they own one of these.

Umbra

The Umbra is canonically a piece of junk made from soft metals that will melt under the standard operating conditions. It's basically a Saturday Night Special in AR format. But it has a big magazine, suppressive fire, and Autofire, all for 200 eddies! Good for gangoons, or for noob edgerunner characters. Like all poor quality weapons, it'll jam on a critical fail, but I'm thinking that if an Umbra jams, the weapon becomes useless, and needs to be discarded.

Ajax

The Ajax is basically an American-made AKM, based on what I can find out about it. The Ajax features a heavy round that travels at a lower velocity, and it kicks like a pig in autofire, much like an AKM. It looks like an AKM as well. I've used a lot of headcanon to make this weapon stand out. In exchange for having a higher DV for autofire, it has 6d6 damage, but also only deals 1/2 damage to armour SP. It'll tear up unarmoured flesh though, no worries about that.

Copperhead and Sidewinder

The Copperhead is functionally the AK rifle of the 2070s. Though in my current document I compare it to the AKM, I dare say it's closer to the AK-74. It appears to fire an intermediate round, is select fire, generally reliable and has enough of a bang to be worth it. Much like the AKM's 7.62x39mm round compared to the AK-74's 5.45x39mm round, the Copperhead would probably have better armour penetration than the Ajax, but lower damage.

The Sidewinder is a smart rifle adaptation of the Copperhead. It only shoots Smart rounds (500 eb a pop, per the core rules) and cannot fit any attachments, not even a bayonet. The Sidewinder is unique because it has an internal targeting scope. Provided the player has any cybereyes, and a smart link, the Sidewinder will handle the rest, making it a good option for players who aren't big on cyberware (such as low EMP players, Nomads, or players who would be canonically wary of cyberware).

Kyubi

The Kyubi's capabilities in the game appear to be similar to the FAL, but more specifically the British L1A1 SLR. It is canonically a weapon that is highly accurate, designed for expert marksmen and competition shooters. I personally believe that this weapon would be fairly powerful, so I might've gone overboard with all the special features. Basically, it can only use the 20 round magazine (because it might be overpowered otherwise), it has a unique holosight that improves close-range accuracy, and it has unique match-grade ammo (produced internally by Tsunami Defense Systems). It's expensive to purchase and use, but if your character's a sniper who doesn't want the debuffs I'll be giving to people who use the HMGs or Sniper Rifles, and you operate at fairly close ranges, perhaps the Kyubi's better than an SOR-22 or an Achilles.

[wtficedance]

what do you think of the 2003 controversy about the Israeli team of Galit Chait and her partner winning bronze at Worlds and 20 of the 24 dance teams signing a petition saying judging was unfairly biased by politicking from her father Boris, the head of the Israeli fed? And that the Lithuanian team should have been on the podium instead? Galit is a tech specialist now, and her father still runs the Israeli skating fed, so nearly the entire field of a competition could speak up and call foul and be dismissed anyway, no repercussions

Q #211:

Hi anon,

I think you mean 2002 Worlds but yes another strike against the 6.0 system after a very contentious Olympics. I do think it’s a very unique circumstance because there are very few times in ice dance (or skating as a whole) where a weak, non-traditional skating federation controls the narrative and is influencing the formation of judging blocks. Normally in ice dance it’s highly influenced by coach even more so than fed. The whole incident was emblematic of all of the issues with 6.0 (blind block judging and alliances, politics entirely dictating scores in face of errors, a complete and utter lack of movement in standings except in block realignment, smaller federation teams like Drobiazko/Vanagas repetitively getting screwed and being unable to build momentum) but it was only because of a few reasons that it actually resulted in change:

D/V were VERY well-liked in ice dance

Chait/Sakhnovski were not and her father was essentially widely despised

Americans Lang/Tchernyshev took point on organizing the petition

all of the traditional powers in ice dance (Linichuk, Zhulin, Tchaikovskaia, Dubova, Zazoui, Gorshkov, etc.) had teams who were being slowed down by the Israelis

Anissina/Peizerat & Fusar-Poli/Margaglio didn’t compete at Worlds and would’ve been on the podium otherwise, it wouldn’t have generated nearly as much controversy if D/V and C/S were fighting over 5th

North American media were able to leverage the fact that D/V were getting f*cked over by the Eastern Block to apply that logic to Bourne/Kraatz

C/S only won ONE segment: FD

So yes, I do believe that D/V were deserving of bronze at that worlds but I don’t think it was a highway robbery, more of just a boiling over point.

My hot 6.0 ice dance take is that there was so little actual criteria when it comes to the free dances that it is hard to actively differentiate teams beyond a certain point. And a lot of the “well X was clearly better than Y” is truly just preference unlike the CD and OD where there was a clear emphasis on footwork, linking movements, edge quality, crispness, etc. That’s why it’s a little frustrating when commentary under IJS is like “well these teams are evenly matched in everything so its really just down to PCS” because while that was basically true for 6.0 it SHOULDN’T be true under IJS. Especially because all of the top teams since the inception have had very different strengths and weaknesses with their respective rivals. A lot of the things that we value in modern, IJS ice dance are completely different than under 6.0. For example, you’ll here commentators talking about the amazing quality and speed of a dance spin and in a 6.0 FD it will literally be 4 rotations max, where in modern programs they’re at minimum 9 and almost always closer to 20. Lifts are another animal as well beyond just “this is not aesthetically pleasing / this is aesthetically pleasing.”

I don’t think we will ever see something like this replicated because of (1) the Gadbois monopoly means that MF would largely have control over results and it’s more likely that Gadbois teams would be screwed over internally and you would lose all camp backing if you tried to petition, (2) there’s now a lot more money going into each result, and money trumps uniquely intimidating personalities, (3) it was riding the wave of the biggest scandal in skating history at the time and basically everyone in ice dance was sick of 6.0.

So yes it’s not the most ethical that Chait is so involved in sport but as Israel’s whole skater development program is C-list Jewish Canadians, Americans, and Russians, I highly doubt they’re going to be relevant in the next few decades that Chait will be involved. Hope this helps!

[writingmochi]

no pressure at all. i look forward to the day in which i can finally indulge in isobel ~

i hope there comes a day, one day soon, where you no longer feel icky about that name. you deserve to be free from the weight of it.

and that is perfectly fine. conversations with depth are always good since they have so much substance. it was very wise on their part to have you understand this kind of conversation early on. light hearted conversation can be good, but also burdensome sometimes. like small talk. i know of no one who truly enjoys this kind of conversation as it is often empty and void of substance…

the premise of this fic seems rather interesting. it can be hard to fit so many events into one fic. may i suggest breaking it up into a few parts? i know that a word count so large can often look daunting to others, similar to a really long movie. i believe many people prefer to binge watch television shows rather than sit down for a really long movie because they have the option to stop whenever they want. even if they do not plan to, having the option changes a lot. perhaps after you have finished the grand story, you could determine where you wish to break it up depending on the events in the story. 10k fic? maybe a three part 3k fic or two part 5k fic might look more appealing to a general audience? just a suggestion of course ~

i think it is nice that you chose an “unconventional” fandom interest. it makes it that much more interesting and unique ~ the genre reminds me of a horror fic i read for enhypen and bts a few years ago. i love the genre, no matter how obscure it can be ~

signed, 🩻

lissie: take your time by the way cause isobel is such a long read!

i mean, i'm okay with people using the shortened nickname of my name. but to me, it's just reserved for people who i know personally and who i know in real life. so it's icky for me if an internet person who i don't really know uses it. as much as i wanna indulge in many banters with people behind a screen like you, i also have to make my boundaries too. especially because parasocial relationships are becoming a common thing with social media and also create real-life problems.

i've uploaded it around the same time as you send me this ask! i divided it into smaller sections cause it is very helpful for the pacing, especially since i divide them based on the hours so people can stop at the end of one of the hours if they want! i think a one-shot with divided sections is the right format for me and i've been using it since the beginning of my writing journey! thanks for the suggestion though :D

oh definitely, especially since the five night's at freddy's movie trailer has been released and #fnaf is currently trending in hellsite! i like the mystery of the story/lore and it's interesting for the general public to know more but warning though: not all of it is canon. even in my finished fic, some information is still fanon and my own interpretation of the current story that is being told...

ooh, do send me the link if you found either or both of them! i would love more stories to read :]

[mercurymusing]

Extra note after seeing staff's response to what's apparently the new panic.

My takeaway from the original post wasn't that they'd be getting rid of the chronological followed only dash. Wasn't actually worried about that. I'm fairly confident they'll keep it around, even if it gets deprioritized.

I'm frustrated by the increasing invasiveness of the algorithmic features and the way they're being forced on longtime active users that have already strongly indicated their preferences. I'm personally inclined to think that onboarding new users into a default still barely functional algorithm driven environment will be bad for retention, engagement, and site culture, but I'll admit that some people are into that junk!

What's really setting me off here are the bits about post and conversation formatting and "navigation". We've already seen the beginning of that, with the change to direct links to posts. It's already breaking critical functionality! Functionality that directly impacts access to "high-quality content", "user participation in conversations", and "users returning to Tumblr"!

The ability to jump to a reply on a post in the full context of the blog it was posted to is an incredibly powerful feature in so many ways. It lets you see any tags that were added (half the conversation, navigation tool for related content that Tumblr should be developing), see the chronologically adjacent posts that give context to the content and conversations, and makes it easier to explore existing archival content!

Do they or do they not want to leverage the decade plus of content they've got? Do they want to encourage interactions with smaller creators that have built up portfolios, or do they want a site filled with flash-in-the-pan disposable viral content from established popular blogs? The whole reason they're pushing this product strategy is to increase revenue, because it costs so much to run the place. It costs so much in part because of how many damn posts we've all made in the last decade.

If they're already paying to host all of that junk, why not make it easier to explore? If you can't access a blogs archive without being logged in, and you can only see that archive one post at a time, then it's basically invisible. It might as well not exist. We could all (users, creators, brands) just go use snapchat for fuck's sake.

(I'll acknowledge the theoretical bandwidth issues of loading entire years old chunks of a blog every time a user just wants to see a single post, but come on. Make the single post view the one you get from the blog link and the in context one the version from the whitespace, if you must. And if that's your reasoning, just admit it! Don't try to pretend it's a UI issue for new users! That's insulting for everyone involved!)

(I get it, the prev tags stuff could get stupid. But it was a little quirk of site culture that did more to encourage conversations and networks of mutuals than half the shit staff has tried to do deliberately. Rolling a UI change out that seems to have killed it entirely by accident is just so half-assed.)

And look. There are so many neat ways they could explore reblog chain tree visualization that would improve navigation. Full collapsed subthread forum/reddit style views that retain tags. Or imagine the dot reblog graphs with more info and seamless zooming to different levels of detail.

Instead they seem to be pushing towards a version of tumblr that prioritizes bare original posts, with replies and reblogs tucked away in the notes. And that bit about "[e]xpand[ing] ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts." Reblogs and replies are too hard, so we're just going to do fucking quote tweets? Seriously?

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[poetfilm]

#POETFILM ... ind. multi muse blog. original character focused, with secondary canon characters. triggering content may be present, but will be tagged. minors, non-mutuals, and personal blogs, do not interact.

— written and directed by dillon. i'm also the producer, cinematographer, wardrobe department, set department, and catering. they don't pay me enough for this but they won't let me leave either.

current priority muses ... alice harmon (oc), clint barton (canon), jane lu (oc), jess mariano (canon), noah ripley (oc), trilogy - bea, fabian, and iris (ocs).

activity level ... always slow due to chronic health conditions, sporadically present, but usually more available on discord! a little bit more selective with following new people right now just because i like a smaller dashboard, but even if i don't follow back immediately, this does not mean i won't in the future, especially if i can see us becoming friends! patience with me is always very appreciated. (updated 01/24/25.)

links — original characters. canon characters. thread tracker. inbox prompts. plotting & starter calls. tag references. blog updates.

guidelines ... basic stuff applies, i don't think we need to rehash it all. don't follow if you're under the age of 21, if you write threads involving noncon, incest, sexualization of minors, or participate in any form of bigotry (z.ionists, racists, tr.ansphobes, etc. this is not the place for you).

there's a few fandoms i'm not keen to interact with, just out of personal preference. i don't feel like listing them all, but the main ones i normally avoid are a.soiaf/h.otd, t.lou, wwe/kayfabe, until dawn, the boys, glee, and s.tranger t.hings. (if you have these fandoms on a multi, i may still follow, but prefer not to interact with those particular characters!) i won't be following anyone who utilizes the k.rp tag, writes h.arry p.otter, a.merican h.orror story, v.ivziepop, or depictions of real people (including but not limited to historical figures and celebrities). for more details about dni stuff, you're welcome to (politely) message me.

i'm not familiar with some stuff like animanga or video games (and honestly, most of other fandoms too), so you'll have to forgive me there, but i may be willing to interact with certain characters if we're friends and have plotted! please know that if there is any media that is popular here, i usually take at least 2-10 years to getting around to viewing it so you can just explain it to me in the meantime.

i don't really do any formatting, but don't mind those who do. my only preference would be that you refrain from using alternative fonts (like the fancy kind of text) in threads with me because they aren't always compatible with my brain's ability to like, absorb them (for lack of a better term). i don't mind anyone using them for tags and such though!

triggering content will be present ... feel free to let me know if you need anything particular tagged; i always try to do so for the obvious things, but may need reminders. many of my characters (both original and canon) deal with subjects involving past abuse, exploitation, physical and mental illness, addiction, and more. although i don't write these topics in graphic detail and usually only refer to them as past events or backstory, i don't recommend following if these are significant concerns of yours. regardless, i try to depict these themes with sensitivity — i may not be as knowledgeable in some areas, so you are welcome to respectfully correct me when needed! horror themes will occur with some characters, but i won't offer them to anyone who doesn't feel comfortable with the genre!

my own triggers are images and graphic depictions of sexual violence, self-harm, suicide, and images of slugs or snails. i would very much appreciate if these could be tagged! thank you!

regarding shipping ... i think shipping is fun but it tends to be situational and dependent on each character, as well as the dynamic. nevertheless, feel free to let me know if you like a potential ship, i'd love to hear your ideas. it is also totally fine with me if your muses flirt or have unrequited crushes (or vice versa). you can send ship related memes even if we haven't plotted, i don't usually mind unless we've already ruled something out!

sexual content won't be a frequent occurrence, but will be tagged as "usfw /" or "suggestive /" if it happens. i don't write smut very often and will only really do so for certain characters. generally prefer to keep that content on discord either way. i'm okay with discussions about it when it applies!

conclusion ... thank you for being here and making it to the end of the rules page! i'll finish this off with a little bit about myself: i'm dillon (dill or dilly is okay too, if we're friends). chinese-canadian, lesbian, audhd, probably other things too but who knows. i like snoopy, beastie boys, wikipedia, soup, and ellipses. i've been on this website for too long and now they won't let me leave. my discord is available to mutuals if you ever want to bother me about anything, but be warned that i will absolutely take the opportunity to bother you (threat).

[doomerpatrol]

Comic Log: 52

The massive collaborative project between Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, and Grant Morrison, as well as Keith Giffen and a whole swath of artists. Published on a weekly basis through 2007, 52 itself follows the year without the "Trinity" (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman). Instead it focuses on more obscure or supporting characters in the DC Universe on a week by week, sometimes even day by day basis. We get seven (by my count) "core" plots and then, linking them all together, we get a fair amount of additional pages and smaller stories (briefly checking in on people like Green Arrow, or the Teen Titans, or the Justice Society).

My broad feelings on 52:

it is a very cool idea that is mostly well-executed, with an interesting spread of genres (Zen-inflected international noir, bloody cosmic odyssey, royal familial tragedy, mystical detective fiction, mad scientist wackiness) so it never feels too samey.

the art is generally solid though not my absolute favorite, carried by strong breakdowns courtesy of Giffen - there’s a diversity of styles, which is…not really my preference, but many of those styles are well-executed

it's interesting to see creators with such diverse focuses and instincts working together; the notes in the trade paperback collection give insight into certain decisions (as well as what the writers are still frustrated by)

the best parts are those core plots, and often I felt like the additional connective tissue was basically unnecessary other than to give a sense of what these other characters were doing during the "timeskip" - fanservice, in short

my main exception to the above point is the updates on the Trinity (well, Wonder Woman is a bit shafted, but what else is new), which are generally fun, sweet, or interesting - I especially like the detail that none of the three are seen in costume, and Batman's trip to the desert and Nanda Parbat is a great addition/prelude to Morrison's run on the character

I think a re-read would probably be pretty rewarding given how many twists there are throughout (most of which are well-seeded or reasonably justified after the fact)

A DEFINITIVE RANKING OF THE CORE PLOTS OF 52

The Question: Out of all of these storylines, this is the one that I think you could carve off into its own trade paperback or limited series and it would work basically just as well - BUT weaving it into the other storylines, and the week-by-week/day-by-day format, is mutually enriching. Has me really excited for the new Question ongoing series. Its zen and existential themes, inherited from the great Denny O'Neil series to which it is functionally a legacy sequel, also tie in nicely to the overall theme and idea of 52 as a series: the embrace of potentiality and change, that to go on living is the perpetual, repeated asking of a question. What are you going to become?

Plus we get redheaded dyke Batwoman!

Ralph Dibny: A bit undercut by editorial interference, and it *really* relies on its finale to pay off. But Elongated Man's investigation of some oddities surrounding his wife Sue's death, and his subsequent (apparent) near slip into mystical madness, is a compelling look at grief and how we honor and remember the people we have lost. Comes with an excellent last-act twist and a bittersweet resolution that I'm fond of.

The Black Marvel Family: It's an excellent grand tragedy. The middle, Osiris-heavy section spins its wheels a bit and the resolution is too neat; the emotional closing of the storyline is about Adam's relapse into unleashing his rage on the world, the disintegration of Isis as his (perhaps unhealthy) paragon of virtue, the confirmation of his belief that the world is hard and cruel and not worth taking care of. However, once Isis is gone, Adam's reversion to type results in a loss of emotional agency, turning him into a problem to be solved with overwhelming force by other characters. Still, I love the arc of the story, and the Sobek twist is NUTS.

The Space Trio (and Lobo): The wayward trio of Starfire, Adam Strange, and Animal Man don't have the most natural or developed rapport, though the genuinely insane addition of Lobo to this cast adds some levity. And this story feels oddly isolated from the rest, which makes sense because it focuses on characters trying to return home from outer space. However, it is an adventure with a lot of cool antagonists and out-there concepts, something of a cosmic rollercoaster, and the way it all wraps up (except for Starfire, who gets the short end of the stick throughout) is very funny.

Booster Gold: Very solid superhero stuff with some intriguing time travel twists and turns. The arc of Booster Gold going from showboating selfish bastard to the champion of the multiverse is very fun, if familiar.

Oolong Island: This is pretty madcap, with some focus on some *really* obscure characters, but it also feels like it exists purely to provide some connective tissue for the Black Marvel story (as well as something to care about once he goes insane with rage), which makes these pages less engaging to me than the ones they're supporting. Also, I find the depiction of "The Great 10," China's "public servant" superheroes, kinda questionable!

Infinity Inc.: The story of Lex Luthor bringing superpowers to the masses via his "Everyman" project has some really standout moments, like the pictured execution of a fledgling speedster superhero by Luthor. But it flits between incredibly dark and exceedingly schmaltzy at a whim, and hits the same beat for a long time (generational division, Steel squabbling with his niece). It's all a little Saturday morning cartoon for my tastes right down to the moral lesson about adult/child communication; next to the Question stuff, or even the Booster Gold and Oolong Island stuff, it feels really unadventurous.

[nickgerlich]

Notes To Ponder

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, then in the social media arena, there has been a lot of flattery going on in recent years, and there’s no end in sight.

Back in the old days, when Facebook was squaring off with Twitter, and MySpace had already been relegated to the dustbin of digital history, it was all about how long your posts could be. Twitter limited users to 140 characters, while Facebook allowed 420, although if you posted a Facebook Note, you could go long-form if you wanted to. Think blog or endless rant.

Images then became the cause du jour, with Facebook leading the fray. Twitter was so streamlined in its early days that third-party apps popped up to handle all of the things that Twitter couldn’t or wouldn’t, which basically meant photo sites that provided users a link to a pic, as well as schedulers. I once scheduled a tweet to happen while I was getting a colonoscopy, but that’s probably TMI. I just wanted to see how it worked. (It worked just fine, and I was just fine also.)

Instagram came along in 2010, with the focus on the image first and foremost. Native filters, most of which were terrible by today’s standards, became all the rage, and the square format photos (a throwback nod to Polaroid, of course) set the app apart from everyone else. Facebook, threatened by this upstart, did what any smart company would do: They bought it in 2012.

Twitter then launched Periscope, a stand-alone app that allowed users to go live with video posts. These had to be done in portrait—meaning vertical—mode, which was prescient of what would come to pass a few years later. Facebook quickly copied it, but allowed for landscape—meaning horizontal—videos as well as portrait.

Moving along, SnapChat became popular with its disappearing stories. Instagram responded by adding a me-too version. Then TikTok gained traction here with their short-form videos, which Instagram quickly copied as Reels. They were then rolled into Facebook as well. And just last July, Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, launched Threads, their Twitter—I mean X—rival, at a time when many X copycats were landing in the App Store. Threads has been the one with the most staying power, though.

But as much as TikTok has been in the headlines lately, it is Instagram with its two billion users, roughly 2X what TikTok has, that makes it the gold standard these days with all manner of imagery, from stills to stories to reels. They’ve got it going on.

And now comes rumors that TikTok is about to launch TikTok Notes, an odd name for a photo-intensive app that is designed to take on Instagram’s original intent. Never mind that TikTok’s future in the US is completely up in the air for now (and certainly dead in the water for state employees in 34 states). TikTok plans to duplicate posts from its users adding still photos, populating the new Notes app with initial content, and then hopes that it becomes a parallel channel for engagement.

Remember at this point that Instagram has managed to do it all in one, even though there has been much uproar over its algorithm deprecating still photos in favor of Reels. I felt that pain in the last year, because I prefer to focus my posts on stills. I neither have time nor interest in shooting lots of videos, as well as posting something less than polished.

So here we are now, with the looming possibility of yet another app and yet another time suck. I currently maintain steady streams on my Facebook, Insta, and Threads, and occasionally have dabbled in LinkedIn. But I have been terrible trying to keep my LinkedIn going, because I still see it as the site you use when you’re looking for a job. I’m not. I just don’t have enough bandwidth right now for a fourth app to maintain, much less even entertaining TikTok and its spawns.

At best, all this me-tooism is finding us slicing the pie into ever smaller pieces. That’s OK as long as you can find your tribe and have fun doing it, and the sites can make money. Furthermore, it helps bolster arguments against monopoly power that have been hurled at Meta. No, competition is still alive and well. It’s just I can’t contemplate too many competing platforms at the same time.

Besides, I would probably run out of photos and words to post.

Dr “I’ll Sit This One Out” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[justahopelessaromantic]

The Blue Smudge (Scene 1: "But I must not think about that. This paper looks to me as if it KNEW what a vicious influence it had!")

Fandom: South Park and The Yellow Wallpaper Ships: K2 (Kenny/Kyle) AU: The Yellow Wallpaper AU Links to Cast of Characters Page and Scenes 2, 3, and 4 Accompanying Playlist for this Fic on Spotify and Youtube Disclaimer: The author of this work does not condone/endorse the messages, themes, and concepts presented by South Park. Considering how said work is melodramatic gay fanfiction written in theatrical script format of all things, I'm sure this seems reasonable to assume. However, it’s astonishing how many times I've stumbled upon people in this fandom who are wholehearted believers of almost everything the show says, and, quite frankly, I would rather evaporate from this plane of existence than potentially be presumed as a bigot or, god forbid, a centrist. Summary: "I get positivity angry with the impertinence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are everywhere." (Or:) According to most food safety experts, margarine, when exposed to the elements, lasts for roughly one month before going bad.

SETTING:

A Victorian-style nursery during the daytime with a twin bed. It’s plain and barren, yet livable, though certainly not considered suitable for a baby by modern-day standards. The furniture looks like it's been hastily rearranged and sanded down recently in a vain attempt at accident-proofing the room. Optionally, the room has a single tiny window covered by metal bars. A crib sits right at the edge of stage left, the smaller side facing the audience. Having a working physical door or even a door frame is preferred; however, it can also be portrayed by actors exiting and entering offstage. The room is covered in slowly peeling wallpaper that’s possibly molding, preferably with a swirly, repeating pattern all over it. It’s a gross, faded shade of yellow.

MARGARINE hunches over in the crib. KENNY sits cross-legged while staring towards upstage, chin resting on top of his hands while swaying almost undetectably. KYLE is neatly folding clothes Kenny haphazardly shoved into his suitcase. The only other packed item is a bottle of prescription pills the audience can clearly see. It's quiet for a bit until Kenny pipes up in a soft voice, almost sounding shy.

KENNY

…You don’t…have to, like…stay, you know. I won’t make you-

KYLE

Kenny, for the fifth time, you are not weaseling your way out of this one, bud.

KENNY

(Slightly offended and flustered)

Oh my god, why do you always think I’m gonna-

(Pausing for a beat before giving up)

…some butler, you are. Badmouthing me and not folding my stuff until…uh…how long have we been here?

KYLE

Well, you’ve been here a week, and I’ve got here…I wanna say…Wednesday?

KENNY

(Unreadable)

A…You said a week?

KYLE

Think so.

KENNY

…That doesn’t sound right.

(Slapping his thighs before getting up to stand over Kyle, hands now on his hips)

Whelp! Point is, your customer service is super and there’s still no mint on my pillow! I have half a mind to call corporate and have your license revoked.

(Leaning over to shove his face in front of Kyle’s)

What do you say to that, smart guy?

KYLE

I’d…

(Shoves Kenny’s face away with the palm of his hand playfully)

Say…that that’s not how butlers work, and that I’m the farthest thing from one.

KENNY

Oh, my deepest apologies, good sir. How would you prefer we address you?

KYLE

I hesitate to say indentured servant, honestly…I guess you see me as a…

(Quietly and fondly)

…Caretaker, of sorts.

Kyle looks over at a visibly uncomfortable Kenny who immediately turns away from him and starts fidgeting with his hands, occasionally glancing at the wall. Kyle jumps right into lightening the atmosphere, poking at the fully unzipped parka Kenny is wearing.

One whose only folding today, because someone wouldn’t let me do laundry yesterday, ‘cause he won’t take off this damn jacket-

KENNY

(Flinching and tugging his sleeve away)

…that just sounds like a butler with extra steps.

(Nervously laughs, carefully zipping his parka up once Kyle starts speaking again)

KYLE

(Suddenly snippy)

…Alright, fine. I’m the butler. Give me five good reasons why I shouldn’t go tell-tale heart on your ass for playing hostage all day!

(Starting to fold again)

Like it’s really such a crime to put a roof over your head that isn’t leaking.

KENNY

Hey, man! We might not have the nice chardonnay in our cabinets, but that house has three things your penthouse apartment doesn’t!

KYLE

(Deadpan in some way or another)

You can’t have a penthouse for a college dorm room, Kenny.

KENNY

(Ignoring Kyle, holding up fingers in the air as he counts)

One, a tv with twelve, count ‘em, twelve whole channels! Two, a lack of discipline.

KYLE

Kennith, I am begging you to have even the slightest sense of decorum.

KENNY

And three! My family.

KYLE

(Sarcastically)

Oh, gee willikers. Deadbeat dad, sleazeball mom, and a brother who’s missing in action? I sure am missing out, huh, Ken?

KENNY

(Ignoring him)

And you do have to admit! As nice as this place is, it’s a little…

KYLE

Kenny, unless you got someone to forge your signature on those medical waivers I sent you, I don’t-

KENNY

(Lightheartedly but slightly judgmental)

Oh, don’t act like this was a favor, dickhead! You sweet-talked me into being a lab rat, so you didn’t have to deal with my bitching-

KYLE

(Slamming the clothes in his hands down)

You crawled through my fucking window in the middle of the night, crying your eyes out over all this horrible pain of yours that I somehow happened to miss-

Without warning, Kenny whips around to face upstage again and crosses his arms, rapidly tapping his foot and wagging a finger at it. He anxiously cuts Kyle off.

KENNY

You know, my aunt would kill to get her hands on this wallpaper.

KYLE

(In slight shock, sputtering)

…What?

KENNY

My aunt she…

(Breaking out in a smile and rambling frantically, gradually winding down into semi-peaceful introspection)

…she loves freaky shit like this! Me and her used to sneak my dad’s Playboys into the room we shared when I was younger. Genius was never sober enough to catch us. Although, now that I think about it, I do believe my mother busted my ass about it at one point! I don’t really remember much, but I know my aunt’s cover story sucked ass, which is wild, ‘cause she was an awesome liar! Pretty sure I got away with it though. Maybe she just trusted my aunt? Those two were always whispering shit to each other, figure they must’ve been close. Wonder where they got all that stuff to chit-chat over. Like, I always figured the world took away everything there was to talk about by the time a girl got that old. I asked my auntie what she was saying, but she said it was grown-up stuff and she’d tell me tomorrow, but she was never really around by then, and…

(Shaking his head and hands before picking back up in energy)

Oh! Shit, okay- The point is, after we put Karen to bed, we’d get under the covers, with, uh- with a flashlight, and she’d show me all the different angles and lighting they used, and the way they put the pictures and articles together- You know, the formatting? She got to the bottom of every dirty trick they used to keep us horny bastards hooked!

(Sounding proud of himself)

She taught me everything I know. She- she did the thing you do, when- whenever we do homework together? That thing where you don't tell me the answer, you just point out stuff and you ask me questions, until I just, like…get it, yaknow? She used to call me her little junior detective. God, it was so killer! See…

Kenny briskly walks over and starts tracing the pattern with his fingers to the space above the crib. Meanwhile, Wallpaper Girl slowly slides up, pressing her body against the wallpaper. By the time Kenny gets to her face, she’s standing upright.

Okay, so, most of this stuff’s the same, but these lines over here. They sorta, like…they sort’ve…crawl around, you know? They keep looping into each other, until they get here.

(Stopping above the crib and gesturing playfully)

They get all tangled up in this creepy face up here. Kinda like…

(Giggling to himself)

…like little baby spiders, hatching from their web sack or something! And then they just kinda…

Kenny pauses to audibly catch his breath for a beat, continuing with much less enthusiasm and trailing off at times. He sounds both embarrassed with himself and disturbed by his findings.

…kinda just…off themselves…over here…Like they're…jumping out a window...You think they put the crib here so it looks like it’s catching them? You know, so the kids don’t freak out?

KYLE

…

KENNY

You know, I never got a chance to show her the pictures I got from Grazier, remember that ol’ bastard? She woulda gone gaga over those things, ‘m tellin’ ya.

KYLE

…

KENNY

(Reaching to dig through his pocket)

You know, I think I actually-

KYLE

(Uncomfortable, with caution and concern)

Kenny, that!...uh…that…pattern’s copy and pasted, dude. It doesn’t change.

KENNY

(Glancing between Kyle and the wall in growing disbelief, optimistic yet wary)

No…No, that’s not it. It’s gotta be on purpose.

(Quietly, yet still speaking with determination and purpose)

…Amber’ll get it.

KYLE

Amber?

KENNY

Yeah, my aunt.

(Clasping his hands together and reaching to tear it off)

C’mon, help me get it down so I can surprise her with it when I get back!

Kyle immediately goes to tug Kenny’s hands away. Kenny is unfazed.

KYLE

Wh- wait, wait, what, no! No, for the last time, Kenny! We’re not tearing down- You didn’t even tell me you had an aunt, I’m not gonna let you steal...we’d be liable for-

KENNY

Of course, I told you. I told you when I snuck into your room. What the hell did you think I was crying for?

(Pausing for a beat)

…I mean…I mean not that it was…It’s not…It’s not like it was a big deal or anythi-

LIGHTS OUT.