#And let’s not mention all the times you manipulated people. Especially vulnerable folk like minors

[vampstel]

Seeing Dream finally get torn to shreds by other creators is such a nice welcome gift for the new year. Thank you for the unexpected DSMP reunion. We love to see it

[sp00kybitme]

Okay so this is really personal but I feel like I need to share it in order to better my health because being upfront about your trauma is a good way to heal from it. So buckle up because this post is gonna be a real doozy:

So let's start by backing up about 4 years ago in the summer of 2017, I was 17 since my birthday follows the year number and I was going through my own personal turmoil, dealing with my already medically diagnosed PTSD, OCD, Anxiety disorder, and severe depression. I had falling outs with most all of my irl friends due to my declining mental health but the decline started around august as my therapist who worked the best for me was leaving the clinic. She was openly queer and I related a lot to her since I felt like for once I wasn't alone yet after she left I was distraught. Also at the time I had a falling out with my father and my brother was a recovering drug addict so you could say shit was really complicated around that time and my head space was not well.

So back in 2016 I was able to get a PS4 and I hadn't used it until 2017 due to being more focused on my mental health but I caved and began playing Overwatch and there I met some folks who made life seem somewhat normal for once, no high end conflict, no drama, just simple fun with friends is all I wanted and for a while I actually had that! That was until the coming month september.

So September was when I started breaking off from big friend groups and settled with 2 people, let's call them Z and J for context, So Z was someone who I would say had undiagnosed mental health issues and J was someone who was mutual friends with Z because they went to high school together. Z and J were some of my only friends and we as people really bonded over stuff and I felt like life was actually turning up after losing so much shit that year.

So just for preface/context: at this time I identified with she/her pronouns and went by the term pansexual/demiromantic but now after much time I identify with they/them pronouns and am at least asexual, as for romantic I'm still figuring that out. So November rolled around and I noticed conflict immediately, Z and J were subtly arguing and J was using a victim complex mentality to guilt Z into caving yet at the time I was an oblivious 17 year old who was just desperate was friendship to the point of trying to always be a mediator.

Z was always talking about how lonely they were and how every relationship they had never worked out and at the time I was not out about not being cisgender and so they perceived me as a girl. Throughout September to november they would CONSTANTLY ask me out to the point of it being a desperation and a guilt trip and at this point I was afraid. I had lost EVERYONE in my life here and it was so frustrating but for a month I would keep my boundaries up and say no because I genuinely wasn't interested in a relationship and I didnt feel taht way about Z but they continued to push me and eventually I gave in and I remember the exact place it happened.

So we all 3 had a daily routine of getting on and playing Overwatch for hours just to talk shit and goof around so that day we were skirmishing on the "Temple of anubis" map and I said yes and in retrospect it was a horrible time to do that because it was in front of J and in turn made them feel loke a 3rd wheel. I wanna say that me conceding into a relationship while having no attractiom or interest was wrong of me and that I apologize for but again I WAS pressured as a minor. Also I forgot to say that Z was 19 and while that kind of age gap isn't inherently the worst, I was still an emotionally vulnerable minor being coaxed into a relationship.

So things went on relatively the same except for the fact that J was beginning to sound more spiteful and ended up getting upset easier and volatile which I blamed myself for but we'll get more into J very soon. So Z and I were noticing the change in behavior but tried not to bother J with it because they always didn't wanna talk about it. J confided in us at one point by telling us about their living situation being troublesome, they claimed they had no privacy, were verbally abused by their mother, and had relatives who were also abusive. We both had empathy for J and I was strongly affected by that since I had a strong disconnect from my father at the time who was abusive in a religious way.

We tried to keep things relatively normal at this point for the sake of J but Z was always trying to be bluntly romantic with me and I wasn't interested although they did ask me for "thigh pics" (lemme preface by saying I was still a minor at this point) but I was coaxed into that and virtual s*x which I was extremely uncomfortable with but Z had a strong tendency to victimize and guilt trip and I just wanted friends and had PTSD from friends levaing me and calling me selfish. It's not something I'm proud of but I genuinely was THAT scared of losing friends. In instances where J would get spiteful and resent Z, J at one point left our group chat and group and didnt reply to us because they attempted s*icide. We were HORRIFIED to find that out and really tried to keep a close eye on J into the new year.

2018 rolls in and now is the year that I consider my worst, I will TW// onward for talks of verbal abuse, emotional manipulation, talks of s*xual assault, s*icide, homophobia, and gaslighting. So after J's s*icide attempt I felt even WORSE in a relationship that itself was already one sided but I powered through as to not upset Z. The friendship dynamic we had at this point was gone as it only seemed to be arguing and fake excitement. One thing we all did in the game was idolize specific characters and obsess over them for mental comfort to the point that we got emotionally distraught over their deaths in game, genuinely very unhealthy for all of us. One thing J would do at times was purposefully pick me and Z's characters in game in commit s*icide in game with them just to upset us and would sometimes mentally torture Z by forcing them to be the character Z hated which only screwed up Z's Mental health. J would also alwsys victimize and act like they weren't being treated fairly and that all culminated in January.

January 2018, J began putting the thought of a polyamorus relationship on the table as in J, Z, and I would all be in a relationship together which I wasn't too keen on but was open to if it made everyone happy. Z wasnt interested at all and for the span of 2 weeks of January, J kept trying to manipulate and coax Z into a relationship and had me try to convince Z as well which I didn't know was wrong but granted I didn't understand Poly relationships until years later. Z eventually half caved and gave it a try but a day later Z backed out because they felt uncomfortable. I was a bit irritated at that time and so was J but I didn't personally know why because I was very oblivious to love and how it was supposed to be. We also would play 1v1 type games for fun until this time because both of them were seriously bothered by losing in 1v1 games and would gloat when they won. I personally didn't care as much and would joke around for the most part just to have fun. After this month we stopped playing 1v1 type games.

Early February came and we all began hanging out in skirmish (which means like a map where you just freeroam for 30 minutes until it refreshes), sometimes we would do ship dynamics with each other for fun and at the time we were joking around. Me and J joked around about two male characters (Junkrat and Roadhog) being together and if you have seen the two characters then you'll know why. Their dynamic as friends is flawed but a popular one yet nonetheless I liked their dynamic as a relationship at the time. Around this time, Z was beginning to do what I would call "selective homophobia" as in they would like some gay ships and despise others. When Z was presented with a WLW (lesbian) ship, they would be 100% supportive yet when a specific MLM (gay) ship was presented, they would make gagging noises as if they were trying to throw up. I should also mention how often Z would send Overwatch porn to group chats and how it made me incredibly uncomfortable, especially as a minor.

J would ultimately hold the blatant homophobia against Z and tried to turn me again Z for it. During this time, J was messaging me privately to try and convince me that Z was a bad person and that I should break up with them. Ultimately I agreed and broke up with Z over this and me and J distanced myself from Z to just hang out together. I was personally distraught in just finding out that a friend I was close to ended up being Homophobic all this time and emotionally it broke me a lot. At the time, J was there to help me emotionally and that initially helped me build trust with them. Eventually in mid February they asked me out and since they had helped me so much mentally, I felt out of a sense of obligation that being with them was something I almost owed them.

Side note: I wanna bring up this point as just a weird coincidence: February itself has always been one of the worst months for me every year, something horrendous has happened to me each February of each year and its weird because of how often I can recall this still being the case.

So After being around J for so long we started to just joke around and have fun as friends. They actually showed me their face for the first time over a video call which actually surprised me because they looked different then I thought they were but nonetheless I enjoyed their company because I felt like I had a friend. March rolled around and my birthday was coming up, my 18th birthday which was more of a big deal to J than me. They wanted to see me in provocative pictures and were constantly talking about how excited they were for it and I didn't understand why really. They were also 19 btw and they seemed way too excited for something as simple as that kind of picture. The day rolled around and I felt uncomfortable, I was told to send pictures and I did which admittedly made me uncomfortable as hell yet I still did and I was given positive affirmation for it. Little fact about me is that one thing I didn't get much growing up was positive affirmation so getting that made me feel like I was actually doing something right for once.

Over the next few months, J went from supportive and well intent to showing their true colors. As time went on they began to get more and more controlling with the things that I did as an individual. It went from supoorting the fact that I struggled with PTSD to using it as a reason that I shouldn't be making other friends besides them. From being supportive of my open mindedness with sexuality to coaxing me into spewing hateful rhetoric. Their family was actually really supportive of me at first, the thibg they had said about their mom turned out to be a lie used to play on my sympathy because their mom adored me as a person and constantly would ask if me and my mom needed anything. They sent us two big care packages through the mail with food and money for food and I originally was against that not just because I'm genuinely horrible at taking gifts but because they had my physical address and knew where I lived in case they wanted to "visit". The care packages meant a lot to me and my mom because we've been low income since I was little and having the luxury to live in a house or not have to worry about food consumption was something I never had.

During late spring, J began to be a lot more forceful with me by manipulating and gaslighting me into thinking many toxic things. I was afraid at this point of both J and being alone again. They would tell me that I should start acting more feminine and "like a girl" and that was REALLY triggering to me since over a big part of my life, I was questioning my gender identity and being forced into this feminine box made me hate myself. They would tell me to wear "panties", talk higher pitched, and even tell me to be a submissive partner who just lets them lead and me follow. I'm naturally a more dominant person in general so it was like I was disregarding a huge part of my identity. I was almost silenced into this role that J wanted me to be. They would force me to do lewd things online and while you could say that I shouldn't have been worried since it wasn't irl, they knew my address and last name.

One instance I remember was that J asked about my deadname and I told them and then questioned why I would change that name since it "was more feminine and fit me". It was upsetting to hear that but at least they didn't deadname me after finding out. They also kept telling me that I wasnt allowed to be attracted to anyone but them. I wasn't allowed to protest because they would threaten killing themselves and actually send a picture of them with a knife to their throat as if to threaten me.

A detail I left out intentionally was something that disturbed me the most about them and really makes me think they have a serious form of some kind of dissociative mental disorder. (Context: I'm not stigmatizing folks who have Dissociative disorders, my mother has one and the symptoms J exhibited make me think of someone who experiences detachment or disillusionment. Im not going to diagnose them but my instinct makes me believe that it could be something similar yet they have never been medically diagnosed.) J would constantly talk about a friend they had in elementary school who had taken their own life and how the spirit of this friend still keeps near them since they were close back then. This friend almost seemed to become a way to manipulate me later on in 2018.

This friend of theirs almost seemed to be a way to seperate themselves from how they treated me or avoid blame. This friend would threaten me that if I didn't let J r*pe me that they were gonna commit s*icide and that it would be my fault for not doing what they wanted. They also would threaten me to do what J said or else they would "possess" me. I'm someone who has had bad experiences with spirits so I didn't want to have more hell. J themselves would sometimes get extremely angry when I stood up for myself or expressed stuff I was really interested in and would threaten to track me down, assault me, and kill my mom. They also began pitting me against my mom because I would talk about how my mom was getting worried about me being hurt but J said that my mom was faking it and manipulating me and I almost believed J but I know my mom and I know she cares too much about me to do something like that.

Around September, I was practically an emotionless shell. I wasn't excited about anything, I wasn't angry anymore, I was barely feeling much of anything but a deep seeded sadness. I lacked in a lot of places and repressed any emotion I had so deep that I couldn't react to anything anymore. I think J began to notice because they started to actually act concerned after a while but that was flickering like a light switch. One of the last instances that I broke down was august of 2018 when I began crying heavily over microphone and begging them to not hate me. They had no reaction, no remorse , no empathy and when their mom came in they just left me there crying without affirming me at all.

During this time, I was sending hundreds of nude photos a day to appease them and they would get off and go to sleep and during the night I would secretly cry and look at queer based things in private to try and keep some semblance of my identity in tact. I actually started watching Sanders sides around July 2018 and enjoyed the series and how nice the fanbase seemed and it somehow helped me get through this rough period of time.

October was probably some of the worst time because I ended up missing my favorite holiday, Halloween which was the only time I personally enjoyed being myself because the element of the holiday made me happy. That halloween I spent on overwatch with J, overall miserable and hating myself. I also forgot to mention that J would dictate what I wore, they would hate that I wore boxer briefs and men's cologne and deodorant, they constantly questioned why I was trying to be masculine when I was AFAB but again I was also closeted with my gender identity and this shoved me even more into the closet when they would argue with me about it.

November rolled around and I had practically been at my breaking point, J was trying to convince me for weeks to move down south to live with them and their family and I was practically being forced. I have a fear of flying and I kept saying that I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my disabled mom by herself and my mom also hates flying. J was trying to get things their way and forced me too and I was looking into flights even though I was deadset on not going. November 11th 2018, I wasn't replying to J's texts right away because I was actually standing up for myself. They began HEAVILY threatening to end their life and I remember sitting there and crying without emotion then I hung up on them and told them to stop calling and texting me as they had begun to text and call me incessantly. I said I needed a break and finally let out a breath when they said ok.

Around late November, I felt as though I had misjudged Z and unblocked and messaged them, apologizing for being a dick to them. They initially forgave me and I was just going to move on but they asked if we could play in a public chill server and I accepted just to try and get my mind off of J. As we entered into the game, J suddenly started spectating and Z left instantly out of fear. I only talked to Z just to apologize and give context as to what happened, I was desensitized and just needed a friend. J messaged me apologizing frantically and saying "if you've moved on to date Z, just tell me so I can move on" and I said "no, I just needed a friend right now and I need my space. Don't talk to me for a while, respect that one thing." And thankfully, I was actually left alone.

December rolled around once again and at this point I had finally blocked J and moved on from everything, J's mom had messaged me on Facebook and told me that I was a "filthy cheater who just used J for their kindess and didn't care about them" but I did actually genuinely care deeply about J yet he abused my compassion by gaslighting me and putting me into this false sense of security. Before I could reply, she blocked me so she never actually took the time to ask me. I was feeling guilty for leaving J but I was reassured by Z during that time period and Z had apologised for previous comments as well. Z ended up introducing another friend to the group, we'll call them A. We would first play Overwatch but immediately switch to Minecraft which I had bought when still with J to play with their family. Around this time I had begun to cling to Z uninitentionally due to recovering from my trauma and needing that affirmation that I wasn't some terrible abuser, as J had manipulated me to think I was. Z was getting a bit bothered by this yet they had never publicly told me nor did they understand why I clung to them in the first place. Z knew I had PTSD and I had told them exactly what I had just described earlier about what J had done to me and Z was initially very empathetic though I was never told that my clinginess was bothering them because I was in recovery mode. Eventually towards the end of January, I was told by A that they knew why I was so clingy with Z. At first I was confused because they both had known that I had PTSD but A proceed. "The only reason you're so clingy with Z is because you're secretly still in love with them, I can read you like an open book and you would do best to stop denying your obvious feelings for them" Hearing this made me personally disgusted, appalled, and upset mentally. Z kept to the side during this discussion and didn't go against A however they didn't deny A's words.

I retorted by speaking about my trauma and how it made me cling to people unnecessarily but then A proceeded to invalidate my trauma by implying that I was over exaggerating what I had gone through. I felt awful and I forcefully distanced myself from them both only to go back once again out of fear of being alone. This continued for a while until July 10th, 2019 when I finally distanced myself from Z for good. I made my own account on Instagram and over the span of 2 years, I built up a community of people who liked my work and I got my sense of individualism back give or take. I recently changed accounts because this era in my life is brand new and I couldn't be happier with where I'm at.

This post is more so a form of being vulnerable and a bit of exposure therapy. Sure im not a perfect person, I can't even publicly out my abusers but I think it would do more harm than good. If anyone wants to have a warning for their accounts, at least on YouTube, message me on my Insta in my bio. I'm sorry if this was long and possibly upsetting but I wanted to just get this out. I dont know who would be seeing this but if you read this far: thank you, honestly its upsetting to have to go through so much bullshit and I hate talking about it because it's difficult to really put shit out there without feeling like its some tupe of attention thing. I don't want to post this for sympathy, I want to post this for me, just to feel better about where I'm at and also face my trauma head on to heal from it. I'm not saying this to compare who's life is worse or not but I am posting this to better myself.

Thank you again,

Spooky

[iabsolutelyresentthiswebsite]

Rey’s Parentage Reveal In The Last Jedi is OBJECTIVELY Inaccurate

So buckle up, my folks. We’re about to take a trip down Logic Lane with a few stops along the way at The Force Awakens Way, Force Vision Terrace, and Skywalker-Solo Circle.

Where to begin?

Ah, I have it.

So, since The Last Jedi allegedly gave us an answer as to who sired young Rey and (spoilers) they’re supposed to be junk traders who sold their daughter for drinking money and then died in the sands of Jakku, a good portion of the fanbase has been up in arms, some simply dissatisfied, but some to the point of a vehement rebuke of the information, for various, very justified reasons. 

However, there is the minority of the fanbase that is satisfied with the information and moves on from it, pretending like everything is okay...which it isn’t.

Because who was said to be her parents is objectively inaccurate based on The Force Awakens, cinematic tells, and logical deductions from the current two movies in the Sequel Trilogy.

I’m not going to lie so I’m going to come right out and say it, I am emphatically Anti-The Last Jedi because of several things that are wrong, unexplained, or simply bad about the movie. Like, if I could personally strike it from canon, I would. However, I have another whole series (#the last jedi sins) you can read, if you’re interested. I am here to talk solely about how Rian’s vision for Rey’s parentage is inherently incorrect.

As has been discussed dozens of times, it was originally intended for Rey to be the daughter of of Leia and Han, in early concepts for The Force Awakens. However, so much has changed anyway, so I will not be staking anything on that debatable evidence. Instead, I will go for the more tangible evidence that we can all see.

Aside from the fact that The Force Awakens did, in fact, emphasize many, many, many parallels between Rey and Luke’s emergence in the saga, causing most fans to speculate who her father was, there is even more to talk about. You can read my extensive dissertation on that here, or just go to my blog and /tagged/rey-skywalker and see everything I have on it.

In TFA, Rey had a Force Vision of her, being held by the hand, calling out to whom we’re lead to believe are her parents, yelling at them to “Come back!” as they fly off of Jakku in a spaceship. 

Drunk junk...traders have their own, high-class spaceship? That’s fucking news to me. Like Rey, for all intents and purposes, lead a similar work life to her parents, and she had nothing...how did drunk junk traders have a spaceship? 

Apparently, they had sold their daughter for drinking money, also. 

W-why d-didn’t they sell their spaceship first? 

Now I get it, some people are turds, but...really? You sell your own daughter before you sell your ship? Your flesh and fuckin blood? 

Moreover, she was allegedly sold to Unkar Platt/Plutt for drinking money. 

But...nowhere in The Force Awakens did I ever get the impression she was a slave, which is what is implied from being “sold” to someone in exchange for money. It makes that person a slave.

Slaves, typically, aren’t allowed to go wherever they please, when they please, live wherever they want, and give what they choose to their master. The fruits of a slave’s labor are typically considered the property of the slaveowner. 

Also, slaves don’t usually sell things to their slaveowner. That’s not usually how slavery works. I mean, yeah, she’s selling it for food and supplies, but...it’s still not usually how slavery works.

For me, Rey was someone who was simply trying to survive after being abandoned. In this little settlement, she works/scavenges for food and supplies.

Also...thinking about it...if she’s a slave...doesn’t that make all the people selling stuff to Unkar Platt/Plutt slaves too? Because she was exactly like them. 

Furthermore, she could not have been a slave because when Unkar took interest in BB-8, she chose to not sell BB to him. Slaves- objectively- cannot do that. The slaveowner will take whatever their slave has, whether they like it or not. 

Unkar sent someone after her to get the droid, but that establishes Unkar has henchmen, not that she is a slave. Because she would have been obligated to agree to BB-8′s sale as soon as he was interested, if she was a slave. 

So she’s not a slave, therefore she could not have been sold for drinking money. She must have been abandoned or left there by someone.

Someone who cared about her, probably because in the Force Vision, she was wearing pauper’s clothing, but it wasn’t dirty or damaged. It was just clothing, basic clothing. Her face and hair looked clean. I’m actually watching this on repeat while writing this because I’m making sure my memory is clear and yeah, she looks in good health and hygiene. So her parents obviously did care about her. Certainly more than to sell their daughter before selling their ship for drinking money. 

Also, going back to the very beginning, her parents were allegedly junk traders. But drunks. If they were able to own and pay for the upkeep of a ship that size, they had to have been pretty well-off or at least comfortable. They would have had 

1. no need to sell their daughter to get drunk

2. been successful enough to actually have the money to do those things.

So, something is definitely amiss there. All of it is amiss from a logic and storytelling perspective. 

Additionally, it is canon that Kylo Ren does recognize her in The Force Awakens. In the novelization, there is a mention of Kylo Ren saying or thinking ‘it’s you’ when he interacts with Rey. That is completely unjustifiable if she is some nobody from Jakku. Kylo knows her. That is proof enough that Rian’s interpretation of her parentage is objectively incorrect. It directly contradicts text canon. 

Since we’re talking about Kylo anyway, let’s delve into the reveal again. I talked about it at length here, if you’re interested for a more in-depth analysis.  

When Kylo was trying to get Rey to know the “truth” about what turned him, although it makes no sense and is inconsistent with characterization and plot elements, he removed his glove, in a gesture of vulnerability and honesty when they touched hands. However, when he “validated” that her parents were nobodies, he kept his glove on and immediately pressed for her to make a decision to join him, through coercion, saying that she was nobody and has no place in this. It was clearly dishonest and manipulative, seeing as she wanted someone to “show her her place in all this”.  Also, look at the look in his eyes! There’s something else he’s not saying. (This is why Adam Driver is such an amazing actor!) He either never saw her parents or was manipulated just like Snoke manipulated Rey to believe he could be turned. 

And Leia sent Rey to acquire Luke from Ahch-To, even though she had been looking for him for fifteen years. Why her? Yeah, she’s Force-Sensitive, but so is she...but that hug in TFA? That’s more than an “I just met you, but I feel you” kind of hug. Leia buries her head in the notch of Rey’s neck, that’s a clear sign of familiarity. Most people only do that with people that they deeply, intimately know. Rey, on the other hand, keeps her chin on Leia’s shoulder, but as the hug goes longer, she moves her chin into the nook of Leia’s neck...there’s a familiarity growing inside Rey too. Leia knew, but Rey’s coming to know. This is body language and basic psychology, my guys. I’m not even reaching here. On Ahch-To, when Luke turns around, the look in Luke’s eyes is soft and haunted when he sees this girl standing before him. He already knew. 

With all of this in mind, she can’t be a nobody. Kylo wants her on his side..there must be some reason for that...especially because it is canon he recognizes her. She was never a slave and her parents couldn’t have been drunk junk traders because it fails the logic tests. And all the parallels made between her and Luke...can’t be a red herring. Why would they be there, if there was no point? It’s bad storytelling. 

In conclusion, Rian Johnson did not watch The Force Awakens, nor does he understand basic storytelling practices or logic. There is no logical precedent for her to be Rey Nobody, so she must be Rey Somebody. Even Rian admitted that they may undo what he did in VIII in IX, probably because he might have realized how much he fucked up with not making her Rey Skywalker/Solo/Kenobi. Rey’s parentage in The Last Jedi is objectively inaccurate.

[luwianskies]

Worldbuilding, A Confluence of Storms : The world of Asum

On a world who’s surface is 90% water and no continents, island clusters dot the blue of the oceans. On these islands live people, human and other, who must learn to share the limited space or die. And they all need to share the waters with the cephalopod-folk who command the blue realm.

(please ignore the terrible quality of this image...)

Consequences of the geography

What to say about Asum? Well, most of the ‘action’ in the story will be taking place on that cluster of islands in the lower right corner. That’s Aidorai (eye-door-eye), currently the most influential ‘nation’ on Asum. But, I’m going too fast, lets look a bit wider for now...

As we can see, not a lot of land to be had on Asum. This has direct consequences on the wildlife of the planet, most of which is either migratory or well-adapted to its home islands. Both flight and swimming are the most common travel forms, with only humans (and some species of arachnids) building ships for transportation. But by far the lifeform that has taken the most to travel and water is fungi. Some of the smaller islands are actually colonies of lots of kinds of fungus and slime molds working in concert to keep themselves together and attached to some island or rocks. Once they become too large, they break away from the islands and simply drift out to sea, releasing spores into the winds to breed as far as possible. Should they encounter land again, they might get a chance to grab on to new territory. This is undesirable to most islanders as they might disrupt the ecosystems of their islands, so most are diverted away from them. But not before they first explore these ‘floaters’ for potentially useful strains of fungus that could be repurposed in a controlled manner. Materials made by fungi is actually the Asumian equivalent to plastic, mouldable and in many cases strong and capable of floating. This makes it an ideal building material for ships and permanent buildings (few as they are). Imagine entire ships and buildings grown in one piece!

The other immediate consequence to the lack of land is that the weather can become monstrous in its power, with storms being true disasters no matter where they go or how small they start out as. Islands with tall mountains or volcanos are therefore prized as much-needed higher ground to escape the storms and tsunamis that hit the coasts, and hit them hard. During a storm, and by mutual agreement by all peoples, any and all ships are welcomed and their crews evacuated towards the mountains. Magic helps a great deal in protecting and transporting the ships themselves to somewhere relatively safe, but the people always get priority. This has essentially become a kind of universally recognized naval law, one where hospitality is a must, or have other people see you as untrustworthy and hurt your trading options (not to mention being denied the same courtesy when you need it...)

Also rare and precious on Asum is fresh water, and it can be viciously fought over by everybody except the Havisiai (have-ih-see-eye)more on these later). Fresh water is actually the most common source of conflict on Asum between human peoples, with everybody sending out ships to retrieve pieces of icebergs that float of towards the equator from the poles. Wars have been fought to settle claims over particularly large chunks and who gets to have them, and various kinds of magics have been invented to preserve them as intact as possible until they can be dragged to an island and broken up for distribution. Competitions over these being as fierce as they are, it has also motivated the creation of a great variety of ship shapes and sizes, as well as strategies to lay claim and gather the icebergs. Some choose lots of small and fast ships while others a few large and intimidating ones. They are as myriad as the people who make them. This may very well be considered Asum’s most popular ‘sport’, the testing of ships against each other...

The Peoples

I mentioned earlier the existence of many peoples, including non-human ones. Asum is an amazing world that has not one or two but four separate sapient species.

-Humans, no different from us save perhaps for much bigger lungs and the chests to go with them (for swimming and diving, holding the breath for longer), better night vision and the occasional partially webbed digits.

-The Havisiai: sapient cephalopods, with six tentacles, 3 genders and a visual-color language that is a pleasure to see even with no understanding. They are also very touchy-feely and have a tendency to taste people to get to know them, as well as having no sense of personal space or knowing when not to talk about any given person’s bodily processes (which they find fascinating and revealing about people). They are more solitary than humans but social enough to cooperate in hunting and building underwater shelters from predators. Their tool-use is rudimentary, but their mastery over water with magic makes them both formidable allies or enemies at sea and makes tool use rather superfluous. They call themselves ‘the Unseen Seers’ (a reference to their camouflage abilities), but are very flattered but the name the people of Aidorai have given them : ‘Havisiai’ means ‘Honored Beautiful People’ in Aidor.

-The Blue Sailors: These are sapient pterosaurs, nomadic/migratory and very chatty. As their name suggests, they are very blue, mostly stemming from their diet on a particular kind of clam that produces a blue pigment. Slightly larger than humans and Havisiai, they are in near-constant travel save for their breeding seasons which they spend on the same island cluster every year (on the map above, on the right above Aidorai, the smaller cluster). Although hey prefer cliffs, they can walk on flat ground perfectly fine on four limbs, and they manipulate objects with their feet and mouth while balancing on their wing-arms. They also have little us for tools but very much appreciate the ones humans give them, especially for grooming as it compliments their own magic-use well. They are very social and have connections between most of their families across the globe. Coordinating between them to avoid overcrowding small islands is a necessity, particularly when human populations are added to the equation. Their willingness to communicate means they can also be asked to send messages between humans, and ‘courier’ is their favorite outsourced job to humans. Their travels sometimes puts them in conflict with the final sapients of Asum....

-The ‘Dragons’ : These are not McCaffrey’ dragons. They do not breathe fire, though they do know how to start them. Nope, these are a kind of giant sharovipteryx, who speak in a combination of sign and whistle-and-clicks language and fly on four wings (their legs are their biggest wings). Communication with them on cordial terms is very recent for humans as they initially only paid attention to the sounds, but since then has improved greatly. They are the largest of the sapients and there aren’t that many of them. They occasionally clash with the Blue Sailors over space on the same island clusters, but since their breeding season is not the same as theirs, these are relatively minor. Unlike the Blue Sailors, who are blue because of their diet, the dragons have a limited chameleon-like ability to control their coloration with pigments in  their scales/skin. Some albinistic individuals lack this ability however, which makes them very visible during hunting and travel, and makes them vulnerable to solar radiation (sunburns and cancers because of it, ow!). The best way to get a dragon to like you is to offer one of the pink individuals some body-paint to cover themselves up with. They will love you all the more if you give it to them in a way where they can apply it to themselves without help. The most common is a water skin filled with paint and tipped at the opening with a sponge for easy smudging. Being that there aren't that many dragons, if you help one, others will hear about it and probably think well of you. No one is sure how capable they are with magic, but most stories about them depict them as very proficient. Only time will tell... 

Its gotten late now, so I’m gonna stop here and continue tomorrow with my favorite subject in the context of Asum : magic! and how it works! bwahahaha!

--luwianskies

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Hey folks, here's the last cool growth hacking study I prepared this week for my blog. Sharing it here and hope it will help other founders 🤓---Snapchat was created by a trio of Stanford University students in 2011, and it quickly disrupted the industry of multimedia messages and content sharing. Retrospectively, we can see that Snapchat’s ascension was based on three marketing pillars: target audience fitting, focus on engagement, and a word of mouth growth engine. Most of Snapchat's growth hacks have flowed organically from those strategies, such as target audience pivot, a sense of security, social obligation, FOMO (fear of missing out), one-to-one communication at scale, instant onboarding.In early 2011, Reggie Brown brought the idea for a “disappearing pictures” app to Evan Spiegel because Spiegel had prior business experience (a year before this, he launched a failed startup called Future Freshman, providing students and parents with valuable advice about the college application process). Spiegel presented its first incarnation as part of a project for his product design class.Unexpectedly, the project didn't go over well at Stanford, and many students mocked the concept, but Spiegel didn't give up in the face of criticism. Brown and Spiegel instead pulled in Bobby Murphy, who had coding experience. The three worked closely together for several months, and on July 8, 2011, launched Snapchat as "Picaboo" on iOS. The app was primarily for making a photo (the ability to send video snaps appeared a year later), which can be edited to include filters and effects, text captions, and drawings and sent privately to selected contacts, or a semi-public "Story." There was also a much larger public story called "Our Story."Mere months after the release the company received a cease-and-desist letter from the photo book company with the same name ("Picaboo"), so the guys had to rebrand their app as Snapchat. At the same time, Reggie Brown - beyond the idea, he designed the famous mascot "Ghostface Chillah" - was ousted from the company. He initiated a lawsuit against the company a year after rebranding. Snapchat has since settled the lawsuit in 2014 for $157.5 million.Moreover, along with those issues appeared the guys faced the fact that their app had no real traction and popularity among millennials they tried to attract. Initially, they introduced the app only to a few friends and family, then they moved to their Stanford University community, and finally even tried to pitch it directly to the people in their city.Having the MVP (Minimal Viable Product) running, they tried a lot of channels and instruments to get users. They showed the app to people one on one, giving tutorials, explaining why it was fun, even downloading the app for them. They went to shopping malls to hand out flyers advertising Snapchat to passersby, saying things like “Hey, would you like to send a disappearing picture?” They tried to reach journalists to get some coverage. Brown even toyed with positioning the app as a sexting tool. “Picaboo lets you and your boyfriend send photos for peeks and not keeps!” reads a draft of a press release he wrote. Unfortunately, nothing worked. By the end of summer 2011, Picaboo had only 127 users.Finally, as it happens, luck came to their rescue. It turned out that Spiegel's mother had told his cousin who was in school about this app who later showed it to his classmates. The app became an instant hit and rapidly spread throughout Southern California. By early 2012, it's active user base had increased to 30,000. The guys swiftly got the hint and pivoted the app to Generation Z teens. Since that key discovery, teenagers have been Snapchat’s core user base. All of their further decisions were rooted from this target audience refocus.As marketers know, the teenage audience has specific vulnerabilities to exploit and triggers to manipulate - Snapchat, with its core features, used these vulnerabilities and triggers to craft some powerful growth hacks.First came a friction-free creation growth hack embedded into the product that favored teens because of their natural impatience. After launching the app, the camera was immediately activated, encouraging instant photo-capturing. Traditional photo-sharing apps like Instagram opened a feed to consume media, requiring an additional tap to create. Beyond that, disappearing photos mean less digital clutter, removing the cognitive overhead of dealing with them and saving memory on phones. Those may appear like minor inconveniences, but in reality, even the slightest friction can have a large impact on teenage audience.Second came a sense of security growth hack. It was a pure marketing feature that made it seem like nothing would be permanent on Snapchat. Even their positioning slogan was “On Snapchat, nothing is permanent.” Of course, that was not true, but that was positioned as a core feature until 2014 when FDA (Federal Trade Commission) prohibited Snapchat to "misrepresent the extent to which it maintains the privacy, security, or confidentiality of users' information." It’s no surprise that in the early days the app was known mostly by webcam models (aka amateur porn stars) and teens who didn’t want to be caught using the same social network as their parents (Facebook aka “Evil Corp” for Gen Z) to sext/text each other.Third, came a social obligation growth hack. The team embedded read-receipts: each snap would include a read-receipt, informing senders that their message was viewed. This subtle indicator has significant impact on the dynamics of these interactions, creating a social obligation for recipients to reply quickly especially for teens. That read-receipt subconsciously turns a simple question “Did you get my message?” into a commodity: “do you respect me?” and ”are you ok with me?”Fourthly, FOMO (fear of missing out) growth hack clicked with the school students organically as well, working particularly well on girls in schools who are constantly on their phones. All core features of Snapchat have enhanced everyone's FOMO: 10-second maximum snaps leaving friends craving more to know what is happening in your snap, a 24 hour storyboard, meaning friends can replay stories over and over but only for the next 24 hours, and location stickers that communicate jealous “jet set” lifestyle, even if it's just down the road.That growth hack combo led to higher response rates and more expedient replies, increasing usage in schools. During the school year that social obligation feature even displaced sexting. By that time 80% of Snaps were sent during the day (the school day specifically), suggesting that they were less about sex.At the same time, the guys embedded a viral growth engine right into the product. I’m speaking of their fifth growth hack: one-to-one communication at scale. Group messaging and social network “feeds” are channels for one-to-many communication. These messages are implicit broadcasts, not directed to specific individuals unless mentioned. In turn, consumers of the message have no obligation to respond and in some cases, may be hesitant to reply in a public forum.After crafting a message, Snapchat users must select who to send it to;they get the option to submit it to one or many individuals, yet recipients can’t discern whether a message was sent to just them or several people. And this is the growth hack of Snapchat. It enables a single message to have a broad reach while maintaining the intimacy of one-to-one communications, which leads to a higher volume of outgoing messages and increased response rates as users feel obligated to return the favor.Using the teenagers’ extended curiosity along with the scaled one-to-one concept added fuel to the viral growth of the Snapchat. Most teenagers learned about Snapchat before ever having to download the app themselves) by seeing friends use it or even taking part in the experience by jumping in for group selfies. The app’s usage reflects the way high school works, and the group behaviors that are well-established with teenagers. Just the term “group selfies” prompts conversation. Thus, the app entitles groups to gather around a phone to view a Snap before it disappears. In 2012, 30% of Snaps were sent to groups.This popularity and word of mouth between teens was an integral part of Snapchat’s growth not only within peer groups, but also with its original users’ parents. Ass kids moved to Snapchat, their parents quickly followed, and the service became a way for teens to communicate with their parents too. Since 2012 Snapchat’s growth channels have been comprised word of mouth (68%), invites (19%), and press (9%).In the beginning of 2012, to manage all this growth hacks and keep the focus on the target audience, Snapchat hired a community marketing manager, their first employee, and by October of that year, the user base had increased to 1,000,000 and the app processed over 231 photos shared per second.- - -Bonus: Snapchat vs Instagram vs WhatsApp vs Facebook 2019​