#I want people to find my blog but folks I am BAD at marketing

[yourthirdparent]

OH MY GOD okay so a beloved follower of mine sent me an ask about my tristan mclean headcanons like in december but i accidentally deleted !!!!!!! the fuckcing ask !!!!!!!!!!!!!! so i'm making it a post. hope you don't mind. also sorry for the wait

most of my thoughts are things i can not share on this blog (this is the Normal blog for Normal things and not the fucked up torture i subject this man to on a regular basis. tbf i hardly post about it on the Bad Posts blog either but like still. can share it on ao3 though check out sleep by imjustheretoreadonefic (don't do that it's not good)) but you can ask about that (if you want, which you probably won't because it is not most people's thing lmao) on my sideblog, yourfourthparent!! BUTBUTBUT i do have some thoughts and headcanons and such that are at the very least decently presentable!!!!

starting off first: i think he's bi! i think he figured out he was bi when he was pretty young (probably somewhere in his teenage years, probably like 15 max) and when he was in his 20s he was very involved in the queer community (his 20s being. in the 80s. sorry.) and was like a big activist. that is until the curse.

the curse being him hitting his big break. stars in some film that wasn't supposed to really blow up but it like Fucking Smashed and suddenly he was like all those guys who do one role and then are suddenly in Everything. cuz he sure is in literally everything. once he starts blowing up ofc he's got folks to help manage his image and at some point they're like haha [lip bite] you gotta stop with that gay shit or straight audiences won't find you marketable. you're already native and folks can hardly handle that let alone you being an active queer activist. you gotta cut that shit out so you can be the next batman or whatever. and tristan's like Well at least i'll make money to support myself and my dying father!

newsflash his father dies of cancer before he gets a chance. tristan's doing his best to avoid thinking about his father's death so he moves out of oklahoma blah blah yk how it goes.

he has piper when he's 33 ! everything's set and he's settled and then piper comes along and like. he's alright. he can handle this. he can be a good father (he's white knuckling the bathroom sink while he says this)

yeah he's terrified of being a shitty father. he does his best to keep her away from the press and keep her Okay for the most part but in order to do that he doesn't get to see her much etc etc. you know. you've read hoo. bleh

when piper starts dating jason he's like Oh cool ! i am about to break down ! cuz like. hey man. he is so not prepared for the reality of The Passage of Time. wdym his daughter is 16. fym tristan's almost fifty. that's so fucked up how is this allowed.

anyways he and jason are like Besties (*shoving my Bad posts to the side*) like they're such good friends they hang out so often even after jason and piper break up they're just Hiding it then. like they have weekly chess meetings and they talk about books and their lives and jason concerns tristan So Much oh my god tristan is so scared for this poor boy What are those tattoos young man Who are these "wolves" that raised you What is this "legion" Are you in a gang Little private school boy are you in a gang. What do you mean your first language is latin.

ngl my obsession with tristan came from my obsession with jason. i made a post like ages ago about how silly it'd be if tristan was jason's gay awakening and i just kept. thinking about them hanging out. and it spiralled and now i'm insane about him sorry. jason will always be my number one but Oohhhhh tristan consumes me.

anyways live tristan reaction when he finds out jason's mom is beryl grace in the middle of showing jason and piper a million old movies (beryl is in one and jason sees her and immediately freezes and tristan's just talking through the movie (hes silly sorry he talks through the whole thing. piper actually likes it because she has a hard time following movies so tristan explaining everything is good but jason is vaguely annoyed by it. he loves tristan to death don't get him wrong it's just that he can't concentrate on the kovie with tristan spitting fun facts a million words a second) when he looks over to see if theyre still watching and he just sees piper fretting over jason who's looking at the screen with a thousand gard stare.

let's go misc things that i want to mention somewhere but don't really fit uhhhh

i have this idea where tristan used to be a drag queen. i don't have any of the details down not a single one but i think about him talking to piper and her friends about the old days when he was a queen. mentions something offhandedly about how he wants to wear more feminine clothing and someone's like "oh are you like. yk. a gamer" and he's like "oh nonono i'm not trans trust me i explored my gender plenty, wore makeup, padded my bra, did drag for a few years, changed my name—" and they're like "you did DRAG ???" and he's like "OH yeah LOLZ i was terrible lol. my team keeps trying to bury it from public view for a reason. those looks were NOT serving !!!!" (he doesn't talk like that but i'm being silly rn)

(you just knoooooow jason was jaw on the floor immediately looking up TRISTAN MCLEAN DRAG TRISTAN MCLEAN DRAG QUEEN PERSONA NAME TRISTAN MCLEAN DRAG QUEEN TRISTAN MCLEAN— the SECONDDDD he got a chance. like staring so hard at old ass pictures of tristan doing drag and realising like Oh maybe i am bi. piper dumped him because she found his search history /j)

i think when his father died he cut his hair but then when it started growing long again it reminded him too much of the past that he Didn’t Want To Think About so he just. kept it short. and it's been short ever since. BUTBUTBUT when piper decides she wants to reconnect with her culture (which she's been mostly separate from because of tristan's own avoidance of it due to memories of his childhood and his father and blahblahblah) it sort of motivates him to do it too. like if piper's gonna do it after tristan entirely cut her from their culture then like. he can too. and it was a big part of his life when he was younger so like. he knows shit. i'm not good at this btw sorry i just have ideas UGSFHADGSF but anyways when piper starts reconnecting he decides to do it too and his first step with like Getting Comfortable again is growing his hair out. it's a smaller step yk he just doesn't cut his hair it's nothing active. (ofc when it starts getting properly long he has a few moments. he has to really confront his grief over his father's death and just the fear of that alone is enough to make him want to cut it again. piper stops him before he does but he has a few moments where he questions if it's worth it)

ik i just said earlier that he's not trans but like sometimes. with characters. i have headcanons that complety contradict each other. that is to say Transfem tristan mclean headcanon. she changes her name to t. just T. t wynn mclean. she goes by t cuz it's something she's already used to (jason called her that all the time before she came out).

these are all the ones i have off the top of my head agh pleaseplease feel free to ask more about any of these !!! (or critique them lmao half of them are. things i suck at explaining because they exist only for hyperspecific scenarios wherein nothing happens but tristan talking to jason or piper LMAO) you can also send in your own headcanons about him or jason or piper because EYE WANT TO READ MORE ABOUT THEM RAAAAGHHH seriously there's so little stuff that features him especially and if you have literally anything at all i would lovelovelove to read it all !!!!!!! sorry for deleting the ask btw i really didn't mean to LMAO sorry to my honourary mutual (i'd tag you but i'm afraid of misremembering who it was LMAO sorry mate 💔💔)

[waitmyturtles]

Hi,

I am writing in context of my comment to your recent KP rewatch post. I have only just started to look at your older posts, and I must thank you very much for actually being the first place where I find proper in depth-criticism of Only Friends. As I mentioned, the show is very dear to me, and when it aired I only saw a lot of ranting and 'Boston is being punished for being poly' commentary, which being poly myself, I just couldn't see at all, as I never perceived Boston as poly rep. Also thank you for bringing Jojo's comments on Boston onto your blog, because I was not aware of those, and they recontextualize the anger of many people a lot for me. But maybe a main reason why I didn't even think about something like that is because I perceived the show absolutely not as a morality piece but as a depiction of a questionable queer friends group and their antics. I always saw the title as ironic, as the cast never gave found family vibes style friends group to me, but instead always showed how deeply problematic they all are.

There is much more I want to say here, and maybe I should make a proper meta post of my own once I have read more of your (partially also reblogged) posts on the matter.

For now I just want to add that I don't see any of the main cast as without major flaws, and I am hoping for a second season that is as messy as the first (messy not as in bad, but continuing to play to the characters' flaws and work with that), as the current stable situation doesn't seem to me like something that will remain. And all that I say as someone who usually doesn't like messy.

To end my rambling, thank you very much again for making your blog such a goldmine of excellent discussion, and insightful meta. I love it.

Thanks so much for the compliments, I appreciate it, @the-iron-queen!

Very interesting to hear that folks were interpreting Boston as poly. Yeah, no. I did not ever go there in my interpretations of him. The polyamory that I’ve seen in Thai shows is limited to the second season of Gay OK Bangkok (Aof’s and Nong Big’s triad) and 3 Will Be Free.

I saw Boston instead as simply having casual sex, and being judged for it. I’d posit that he was judged both by the characters within the show, and — and I say this with a fair amount of seething bias — by the creative team of the show itself. To the point you made about Jojo’s own quotes of calling Boston a slut, I think the character of Boston was likely written with judgement of casual sex in mind. (Which, wtf.)

My review of Theory of Love covers my strong distaste for judgements against casual sex, in part because I subjectively and personally think that judgements against casual sex offer judgy individuals false states of moral superiority that ultimately ring as hypocritical and disingenuous to me — especially if and when those judgy individuals jump at the opportunity to have casual sex themselves. In regards to Only Friends, what I felt was truly disingenuous about the whole show was its original marketing on being a progressive show about casual sex, depicted by actors who seemed to be ready to leave the confines of their branded ships. We got QUITE the opposite instead — the ships shipped together in a seeming condemnation of casual sex outside of monogamous relationships. The way Boston was condemned and left behind by his friends and Nick just seemed kinda unnecessarily brutal.

But this is me taking into account not just what the show internally is saying, but how I also think the show was conceived of and created externally. Den Panuwat, OF’s screenwriter, also had monogamous relationships as end goals in his more recent show of Playboyy, and I’m watching his first screenwriting work now in War of Y, and I’m not terribly impressed by his art. I do agree the “friends” of Only Friends end up in a non-committal and arguably “messy” place, but other than being judgmental dicks, I don’t know what their motivation was to be disloyal assholes in the first place — the show never told me that. It was all just kinda meh in the end.

@the-iron-queen: I’d recommend watching both seasons of Gay OK Bangkok, 3 Will Be Free, and Theory of Love for much more sophisticated conversations about sex from Thailand. I don’t know why more recent Thai BLs are just putzing out on this topic lately, but there’s a short history of really good shows that delve into this, and if I’m not mistaken, I think a few Japanese BLs are also treading well in this territory right now that I need to catch up on. I hope my back catalogue of Old GMMTV Challenge posts keeps you entertained, good luck!

[synecdochereads]

Six of Crows – review

Someone said, “heist movie but it’s a fantasy setting,” and I’ve been on the lookout for this book ever since. I finally found it in the clearance section of Half Price Books, and then—couldn’t read it. I got through the first chapter, I started the second, I put it down, and I didn’t pick it up again. Not sure why, but frankly this has less to do with the book than with me. I’ve been erratic about reading for, oh, years now – either I can’t focus for more than a few pages at a time, or I spend every waking moment with my nose in the book. There’s no middle ground. There’s no telling which way the cards will fall.

All of this to say, it’s not the book’s fault that it took me so long. But then the show came out, I watched it gleefully with my mom, and somehow having seen the characters onscreen made it easier to slip into their heads on the page. Two days later, I’ve inhaled the entire book as fast as I could get away with, and I’m in love.

This isn’t a regular book review – I’m terrible at ranking things, and the five-star system gives me anxiety. It’s mostly just some Thoughts™ neatly sorted for clarity, and hopefully reading over them will help you decide if you should pick this book up and fall in love with it like I did.

Mind the cut!

Characters

I am in love with them.

It probably helps that I’ve been looking forward to this book for ages, I’ve seen lots of gifsets and the occasional meta post, and of course I did watch three out of six crows swan about being fantastic for an entire season of a show that’s not even about them. But it’s not just that. There are a lot of technical literary ways you can analyze characters – arcs, themes, etc – but quite apart from all of that there’s just…are they compelling? They don’t have to be, for a book to be good, but it sure does help. And these six characters are so compelling.

(Also really likeable, which is even less necessary for a good story but which I do personally value. And I like these kids, I really do. Even Kaz “I commit atrocities without shame or remorse” Brekker. Wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley, or even a well-lit avenue! But I care about him and want him to succeed.)

It’s hard to devote equal time to six character arcs while also running a fantasy heist. Bardugo doesn’t try, but even the crows who get less screen time have complexity and depth. They’re all well fleshed-out, with full and distinct personalities and all that – on a technical level, these are really well-crafted characters. Top notch. Plus everyone struggles with different traumas and goals, and handles them in different ways, which gives us wonderfully varied arcs as they each move toward a deeper understanding of themselves, for better or for worse.

It also gives us really varied dynamics – some of them hate each other, some of them love each other, some manage to do both at once, some are just along for the ride. It’s as they pull at each other’s ragged edges that the story forms, in their different desperate needs and in what they can and cannot be for each other.

The show smoothed over a lot of the sharp edges and grey morality, most notably in Kaz. Kaz Brekker is a bad person. He does bad things for selfish reasons. His arc isn’t Learning To Be Good, it’s an ongoing question of whether he might, for the sake of the first person he has (quite accidentally) let himself love, consider maybe perhaps being slightly less of an amoral monster. I’ve seen this book described as “fantasy Leverage episode” but it’s really more Ocean’s Eleven, if Danny Ocean was a vicious bastard and everyone was seventeen.

And that’s great. I love that so much! Especially because the other crows run the gamut from shining idealism to casual self-interest (with a fun detour into “shining idealism but the ideal is violent bigotry”), so we really do get a morally complex story, without any easy black-and-white answers. One of the most kind-hearted people in the whole story has committed multiple murders and dreams of becoming a pirate. Kaz Brekker may do bad things for selfish reasons, but a lot of those selfish reasons boil down to “survive.” It’s complicated! It’s compelling!

Plot

It’s a fantasy heist, what more do you need?

Plots and counter-plots, double-crosses and last-minute improvisations. Magic, though it’s used as just another tool, as impressive and as prosaic as the gunslinger’s pistols. Dramatic climbs, elaborate disguises, cunning grifts, and some good old-fashioned sleight-of-hand. Six wildly competent teenagers, one impossible job, and four million fantasy dollars waiting for them if they can pull it off.

Well, okay, that’s just half of the story – maybe two thirds. The rest is flashbacks, showing us how these characters met and how they came to be the people they are; and stolen moments in between the action beats, where we see how they’re changing each other. It’s woven in really deftly. Our knowledge of the characters expands in time with the forward momentum of the plot, so that both parts of the story – the sorrows of the past and the edge-of-your-seat excitement of the present – get their hooks in you in tandem.

Worldbuilding

There are two settings in this book: Ketterdam, where we begin, and the Ice Court, where the bulk of the action takes place. The wider world outside these two cities is sketched in, alluded to in offhand comments and minor details of backstory. In theory, reading the Grisha trilogy would fill in those sketches, but I suspect it doesn’t matter. This is a heist story, after all: one entrance, one exit, and all the traps laid firmly between the two.

You know that thing authors do sometimes where they use the aesthetic of a real time and place, in the names and the architecture and so on, as a sort of worldbuilding shorthand? I’m a big fan of that. Ketterdam is clearly based on post-medieval Holland, perhaps in the late 17th century or so – a city of canals and commerce, with a ruling merchant class and a thriving criminal underworld, and a stock exchange at the heart of the wealthier district. The similarities feel like they’re just skin-deep – I don’t know that much about post-medieval Holland, but I’m pretty sure Bardugo has her own plans for the political situation in the wider world, which I assume is relevant in the Grisha trilogy. Here it’s not, and we have just enough detail to get a quick feel for the city, with extra importance granted to the politics of the various criminal gangs Kaz needs to worry about.

If I’m honest, I would have enjoyed a bit more detail in the worldbuilding. Ketterdam is vibrant and crowded, but it feels shallow; the only information we get is what relates directly to the characters’ actions. We’re told that it’s a big and complex city, but I don’t really have any idea what goes on there beyond, vaguely, “trade, gambling, and tourism.” But that’s probably just me. I’m unreasonably invested in worldbuilding. And anyway, we do get everything we need to understand the actual story.

The same is true in the Ice Court, the frozen capital of the Fjerdans. It’s a beautiful place, white and gleaming, and the parts that we see are incredibly vivid. We get scant glimpses of history and religion, the faintest suggestion of politics, and exactly enough of the city layout to understand the heist. We do, however, get a much deeper understanding of Fjerdan culture than we did of Ketterdam’s, because one of the crows defines himself utterly by the Fjerdan worldview, and his arc is largely about the difficulty of losing his place in that world and not knowing if or how he can ever get it back.

So yeah, we really do get everything we need to appreciate the story and the characters. I would have liked more, because I like worldbuilding, but what we do get is varied and satisfying.

Themes

I can’t really go in depth here without spoilers, so this’ll be a pretty vague section. I haven’t gone full lit-major on this book and I don’t especially plan to, but at a glance, the central theme is the tension between, in short, love and vengeance.

In long, several of the crows have the choice to embrace love as a force for healing and joy, or instead hold onto the (often violent) goals that have driven and defined them for so long. If they embrace love, it’ll mean letting go of the driving purpose that has kept them alive, and risking their whole identity (and possibly their lives) on a new purpose. It’s scary! It might ruin them! And it’s really not as easy as “love conquers all.”

(Big advantage of an ensemble cast: you can explore the same theme in different ways, with different outcomes, without having to settle for a single “answer” to the question posed by the theme. I really love it when that happens, honestly.)

It’s also not just romantic love! I mean it mostly is, but one of the crows has an arc that’s really about self-love, about learning to trust and prioritize not just your survival, but your happiness, your goals, and your ideals. About putting yourself first, not in a selfish way, but in a healthy, loving way. It’s really lovely, and although it has no bearing on the plot (it’s an internal moment of revelation), it’s one of my favorite things about the whole story.

[phati-sari]

Hello PS! Hope you are doing well and everything is going okay on your end. First of all, I was to convey my heartfelt thanks to you for this awesome site and your amazing posts that keeps fans like me enthralled and escape from reality. I am interested in knowing your thoughts on why IPKKND became such a smashing hit and why are we so much invested and drawn in to this story? I know you are not too keen on us giving you options so I will just stop with an open ended question ☺️ Thank you somuch

Hi!

Awww, this is so sweet! Thanks :) I’m glad you like the blog!!

IPKKND was made in the era of saas-bahu serials -- serials that were defined by what we now call kitchen politics: issues that women encounter in shared households. They’re relatable and sometimes fun and reassure the audience that their experience is not out of the ordinary. 

Into this landscape came IPKKND -- a youth-based romantic drama that focussed as much on the depiction (and to some extent, validation) of lust between the lead characters as it did on True Love. A drama in which the male lead had more to do than stand in the background and provide reactions, a drama in which the female lead had agency (I’ll come back to this).

It’s difficult to see in retrospect but 4Lions broke and subverted many tellywood tropes with IPKKND. I’m not saying that it was the first Bad Boy meets Good Girl story, or that it was the first time we were shown an Angry Young Man with a Heart of Gold. They’d tried much of it with Geet, and Pratigya was being played at around the same time. But the way it told this story changed the landscape of tellywood.

IPKKND balanced everything it wanted to do quite well. It told a story about two families but balanced it with stories about the Alpha and Beta couples. Compared to serials that came before and after it, IPKKND didn’t get lost in its sub-plots, didn’t introduce characters just to forget about them, and was generally a very focussed, enjoyable story until it reached the end of its original story arc. And then it ended. I believe this is one of the most important aspects of its lingering success: that it ended before amnesia or an evil twin had to be introduced to extend the storyline.

IPKKND is one of the most syndicated shows in tellywood. It’s been successful in most of the markets it’s been introduced to. There’s a kind of universal appeal to this story. I think it, again, comes down to balance. Khushi is presented as the Every Woman -- the female audience is encouraged to see themselves in her. But she has a lot of agency.

There’s a tendency in shows to present the female lead as someone things happen to. By this I mean that the female lead is often a bit like a billiard ball -- she goes through life in a set direction and external forces change her trajectory. People are mean to her, they plot against her and misunderstand her, but she doesn’t cause any of it and is always blameless.

Some folks go through life this way -- framing events as though they have little to no agency and things happen to them and around them rather than seeing themselves as actively involved. This framing works for that audience and I definitely see it in much of the interpretation and analysis of this show. It’s present in 99% of the fanfiction written around it.

But IPKKND puts Khushi and Arnav at the front and centre of their story. They make things happen. Their (often bad) decisions and actions cause much of the conflict in the serial. Shyam is just there as a catalyst and as a vehicle for Devi Maiyya’s will -- Arnav and Khushi destroy themselves and their relationships more thoroughly than Shyam could ever dream of doing. (After all, his plans usually fail!!). 

So I think this is one of the reasons for its popularity. Whether the audience recognises it or not, it’s IPKKND is framed slightly differently from other serials in the same genre.

Another contributing factor is Arnav -- he straddles the line between Angry Young Man and Abusive Jerk admirably for a tellywood character. There’s something about our social conditioning that tells women that slightly aggressive (and a little angry) men are more desirable (I guess the idea is that they’re strong and they can protect us). But with that comes the expectation that, however much of an ass he is to others, he will be caring and loving towards those he loves. The challenge is to convince him that we belong in that inner circle. IPKKND plays into this with gusto.

The alpha-male lead is caring and protective towards his family, particularly his sister. An atheist, but he keeps a permanent temple in his home for his family. A self-made businessman and workaholic, but he always leaves work to come home if someone needs him. A rich and powerful man, but he rehearses apologies in the mirror. Arnav represents an ideal that is rarely found in reality, but it’s an ideal many of us (unconsciously?) strive for. Khushi certainly does.

She’s almost immediately attracted to the Bad Boy aspects of Arnav. He’s so forbidden, so outside the realm of what she’s expected to be attracted to, that she’s drawn to him. And Khushi isn’t some paragon of goodness either -- there’s an answering darkness in her that makes them perfect for one another. She helps him heal from a trauma and he becomes her anchor.

And while I say all this, we have to recognise that IPKKND is far from perfect. It can be problematic in its normalisation of abusive behaviour and its refusal to examine exactly how and when Khushi went wrong. It places too much emphasis on some things and not enough on others. It does not, in my opinion, depict a relationship we should aspire to -- men like Arnav are more likely to genuinely be abusive than have a heart of gold hidden deep inside and shows like this teach us to keep digging rather than cut loose and find someone else.

But in the end, IPKKND transcends its tropes to become something more. It’s the combination of the story, the clever use of tropes and motifs, the brilliant cinematography, the high production values, the balance of comedy and romance, the balance of family and individual subplots, the amazing casting, and the fantastic acting :)

[wallwriterstuff]

Am I allowed to place in a request for Mr svelte tracker boi Demetri? I need my greek boi fix. 😅😂 My stimming (due to my slight autism and anxiety) has been kinda bad lately and I was wondering if you could do some headcanons on how he would be with a reader who has that going on? (For example, some of my stimming signs are restless, uncontrollable finger twitches sometimes, and sudden limb movements and facial twitches I can't control 😅) Thanks! Also, sorry if this is too touchy a subject!🙈

You most certainly are allowed and I cannot express how hard I fangirled when I realised it was you in my ask box. I played it very cool but just know I was dying inside from the moment I saw your username come up XD 

TW: Mentions of anxiety and sensory overload. If that’s a little personal to you please be cautious about reading this one!

I’m incapable of writing short things it seems so it’s another long one.

Self-stimulating behaviour, known more commonly as stimming, usually involves repetitive movements and/or sounds. Though it is most often associated with autism (I know when I first saw the word stimming that was where my mind immediately went to) everybody stims in some way, shape or form to relieve stress, tension, anxiety, boredom etc. Some ways are less noticeable than others such as nail biting or finger tapping, while others can be more obvious and disruptive to your social/daily life like licking certain objects or scratching at skin.

I learned all this from doing a bit of reading before taking on this request and if you want to know more then the link to the article I read is right -----> HERE <------ ! It’s informed my ideas for this headcanon request and though I’m open to discussions about the topic to help educate myself and anyone else who wishes to learn more, what I will not tolerate is any sort of hate or discrimination based on the links to developmental disorders and mental illness that stimming has. This blog has and always will be a safe space for anyone and everyone and a little respect for one another will help keep it that way. Be kind folks!

So without further ado, how would Demetri react to you stimming I wonder?

Part 1: Headcanons below the Keep Reading Line Part 2: Teeth (fic) Part 3: Control (fic) 

·         He honestly wouldn’t really notice for a while because, well, humans aren’t exactly designed to be as flawless as vampires

·         Impromptu nosebleeds, migraines, sneezes…they’re just glitches in a faulty system so why is the way your leg just bounced up off of the floor while your sitting any different to those other equally as involuntary things

·         He’s struggling right now to, after all he just met his very human mate and it’s quite overwhelming for him to have to adapt to all these new feelings and situations he finds himself in, but he deals because he can

·         Some days, you just…can’t

·         Getting attacked by a man with some bizarre fascination with your neck is bad enough but being whisked away by strangers is somehow even worse. At least in the first scenario once it’s over it’s over, now you’re just living an anxious person’s nightmare in a new place full of new people

·         Volterra was beautiful, but it wasn’t home. No cosy apartment, no neighbours cat to feed, no monotonous shifts at work…

·         Actually, most of the time you’re left utterly alone to navigate an unfamiliar castle, and the times you aren’t alone is when there’s a man claiming to be your eternal lover in front of you

·         Try to convince me this man doesn’t rip the band aid off and profess his love for you with dramatic flair just TRY

·         Your days are filled with endless boredom where you’re doing nothing at all until someone checks on you, and then fight or flight kicks in because oh HELLO Mr Vampire guard are you here to give me lunch or kill me?

 ·         Demetri had thought that perhaps you were okay with that, since you hadn’t really outwardly reacted beyond the way your cheek twitched up into a smirk once or twice as he spoke. Hell, you’d even winked at him…right?

·         You did that a lot so he really genuinely thought that maybe you were just trying to flirt with him, build a relationship with him. Your constant little winks and the way your fingers twitched when he was nearby, like you so desperately wanted to reach out to him…

·         It took a few weeks before he realised how wrong he was

·         You’d reached for a sip of water and your arm had just whipped outward from your body

          + You’d absolutely drenched him with your entire glass of water and could only stare in abject horror wondering what the supposed vampire would do next, since you’d interrupted him rather smugly detailing his plans for your first date

·         Silence

·         There was just silence

·         It only made your anxiety worse and the muscles in your face just spasmed without your permission and - god did you just smirk at him again, oh no        

         + “I’m glad one of us finds this amusing. If you did not like the idea there were other ways to tell me so.”

 ·         You almost want to cry from sheer embarrassment at this point because the date really had sounded like it could be fun and now you’d just straight up thrown water in his face like he’d insulted you in the worst way imaginable

·         So you come clean and tell him about your stimming

·         He’s really worried at first because autism? Anxiety he’s heard of but autism sounds very dangerous, are you dying? You’re probably dying. He’s going to lose his mate –

·         Another involuntary finger twitch from you forces him to calm down because your anxious enough without his worrying on top, so he kind of brushes it off and makes no big deal out of it

·         Squeezes your hand and kisses your forehead to try and reassure you all is forgiven, even if he does have to go change a very expensive looking designer shirt and god you’re so sorry

·         Of course, that kind of makes it worse for you because anxiety brain is activated and your 99.9999% sure he’s actually furious with you still and has only pretended to forget it while he’s plotting his revenge

·         You see him late at night when you struggle to fall and stay asleep, reading in the low lamplight at his desk across the room, his laptop propped open and a notebook before him but you’re too scared still to ask what it is he’s reading so intently (probably good suggestions on places to bury your body welp)

·         It’s a complete surprise to you therefore when he does take you out on that date he promised you not two weeks later

 ·         He’s chosen a nice overcast day so he’s in the least conspicuous clothing he owns

            + Demetri’s least conspicuous clothes still consist of the most chic and expensive brands you know of and he sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the quaint little market stalls he’s brought you to see

·         Despite the gloomy weather the people of Volterra are out in full force though, swarming the market stalls and chattering and laughing as flashes of gold and silver from jewelry hit your eyes, bright coloured fabrics following

·         It’s all just too much

·         There’s people everywhere and so much noise, so many colours and lights and people brushing past you…

·         Your fingers clench tight around his, his hand immersed in a glove to keep his freezing skin from chilling you too much

·         He squeezes back lightly, eyes shifting to glance down at you with the kindest smile on his lips

         + “Keep squeezing my hand whilst we find somewhere quieter to stand.”

·         Your fingers seemed to take turns pressing into his rock solid skin, an odd sort of comfort coming from the fact you know you can press down hard and he won’t so much as register the sensation, and Demetri squeezes back, just firm enough he knows you can feel the pressure of his palm on yours

·         He takes you to a quiet little side road where the noise is much more faded and there is so much free space around you you feel like you can finally breathe again

·         He still hasn’t stopped squeezing your hand, taking turns with you as you take some steady breaths and try to focus your senses a bit, one thing you can feel, two things you can see, three you can smell...

 ·         “I hope you can forgive me, I did not expect the market to be so busy today with the weather like this.”

·         His apology takes you completely by surprise because how would he even know you struggled with crowds? You barely know each other?

·         Seeing your surprise Demetri rather sheepishly admits as to what exactly he’s been reading all those nights you’ve seen him at his desk, and you’re a little overwhelmed to realise he’s been reading about you

·         Medical journals, mummyblogs, charity websites and more, if it had any information about autism and stimming he’s browsed through it and taken copious amounts of notes, observing you religiously to see what might be relevant to you and how he can help ·         +  “I read somewhere you self-stimulate to calm yourself when you are anxious or your senses feel overwhelmed, is that what happened?”                                    “Well, yes, actually, I…I…”

            “And did it help? Taking you away from the source of stress and letting you squeeze my hand like that?”

·         It had actually, you felt much calmer and Demetri’s obvious acceptance and willingness to help you manage your stimming and anxiety today were one of the first little moments you fell in love with him, looking back on it 

·         He didn’t stop there either. Together you sat down and made a list of all the things that you found most often triggered your stimming, and all of the things that brought you joy so he could figure out things to avoid and things you might like for your future dates

·         Within hours of arriving home you’d gotten a whole new daily routine set up so you weren’t left to languish and wonder what was going to happen next

·         Three days later an express shipment of your favourite smelling scented candles arrived alongside a Bluetooth speaker, supplies Demetri insisted were necessary for nice calming baths on the days your anxiety was playing up

·         He started doing mindfulness practices with you in the evenings

·         He never touched the volume controls for his laptop, speaker or TV, leaving it to you to control the volume so you could set it to a level you were comfortable with, and he religiously policed the noise on his floor to           + “Where are you going? The movie just started…”                                                    “To tell Felix to turn his music down.”               “You’re vampiring again Metri, I can’t even hear that.”

·         When he signed you up for Yoga and meditation classes at a centre in town you drew the line and told him he was going overboard, but bless him he had tried

·         Overall he’s a solid 15/10 for effort, even if some ideas are still experimental - you’re enjoying the deep pressure massages a lot though – and he sometimes goes a bit mother-hen trying to get you out of situations he thinks you’ll struggle with, when actually you’re coping just fine today

·         You love him dearly for it

[pebblysand]

[SEPTEMBER ‘21] - THE LIFE/WRITING UPDATE NO ONE ASKED FOR (AND SOME QUICK LINKS)

well, hello hello, welcome, it is september first and hogwarts is back in session, haha! where’s your letter, did you get it? i hope so!

in true gryffindor fashion, i’m a summer person. i like parties, the beach and hot weather, so i’m currently working hard, trying to delay the inevitable return of autumn and the dreaded back-to-school mood by staying in sunny southern france for a few more days. i’ll be back in dublin on saturday where, as per usual, rain has been scheduled to occur upon my return lol.

Anyway, before diving into more life/writing updates, here are some quick links to different blog pages you might not see on mobile :

to read my fics [updated]

to read my original work

fic recs

to read my tumblr rants about stuff

[NOTE: i am currently not accepting prompts. i already have a backlog, folks.]

Castles (chap 9) ETA: optimistic? 19 September. realistic? october.

links extended a/n-s: chapter v ; chapter vi & vii ; chapter viii

[more life/writing updates under the cut]

what i’m reading:

i’m actually quite happy with my book reading this month. i read a friend’s short-ish (27k) story, as well as two full books, and started a third. i wanted my holidays to be a time of catching up with missed reading opportunities, and it definitely was.

first, i read three rooms by jo hamya. i picked this one up because it was recommended by my bookshop, was written by a BAME author, marketed as a ‘millenial’ literary fiction novel which i’m always a sucker for, and the cover looked intriguing. the story is that of an unnamed narrator in her early/mid-twenties, navigating the end of her masters degree and her first job in london. to be honest, as i previously said in another post, i don’t particularly fancy myself as a book critic so i don’t really like to say negative things about the books i read. as an author, i know how hard things can hurt when people are talking about your writing sort-of behind your back and i’m always paranoid that the author might one day see what i’ve written, lol. this being said, what i will say about this book is that while not bad, it wasn’t really a fit for me. the writing is very good, crisp and quick just the way i like it (though if you get irritated by the current trend of not using quotation marks for dialogue, you might get irritated by this), but i just found it hard to relate to the characters. i think you will like this if you like books that are more about their setting and their world rather than plot or character. the author is really good at describing current britain, life in london, the book is brilliant at describing the millennial ‘world’ of social media, politics, etc. but its main character seems to just aimlessly float through her life without any sense of self or purpose, which i personally found very frustrating. the book addresses issues of class, poverty, temp contracts, housing prices, discrimination but it feels very much like a matter-of-fact statement rather than an actual argument to change things. the other characters are mildly more purposeful but very single-purpose and while the novel is interesting but it didn’t really make me feel anything beyond an intense desire to grab the narrator by the shoulders and scream: do something! three stars.

then, i read incendiary by chris cleave. full review here. this book is just unreal and the best fiction i’ve read in close to a year. if i could give ten stars i would.

i’ve now started an american marriage by tayari jones. unless you’ve been living under a rock, this has probably been recommended to you a billion times already, but what can i say, i’m always late lol. i’m only about 100 pages in but seems promising.

in terms of fanfic, i honestly haven’t read much bar this one fantastic spooks au of which i really wish there was more of. i have trolled all of livejournal and dreamwidth to find the rest and came up empty. tragic.

what i’m writing:

funny how the girl on a writing break still managed to put out circ. 9,000 words in a month, lol. granted, pick me choose me love me was written in july, but still.

this being said, i do feel like i took time off and i do feel way better than i did back in july. looking back, i was exhausted and burnt out and felt like i was mostly writing to fulfill people’s expectations, rather than to make me happy. i’m now feeling much more confident with my words. the story that i did write this month was a self-indulgent bit of fun because it was written for a fandom no one cares about, and rather liberating, if i’m honest. i think i needed to write something for me and my audience of three again, and it was great. i genuinely love that story. i do think that if you want to give it a try, it might be one of those that can be read without having watched the show in question because it’s about a side character so a lot of what’s in there is original rather than show-related. if you do want to read it, it’s here: listening to that angel choir.

in terms of upcoming projects, i’m happy to announce that i’m actually excited to get back to castles, which is exactly what i wanted this break to achieve. i’m waiting until i get back to dublin to get back to work but i’m ready to dive back in and honestly can’t wait. as i said above the cut, i would love to put it on the 19th September but i’m not sure that i’ll manage to whip out next chapter this quickly. it’s not unheard of, so we shall see. also, castles is turning a year old on 16 sep, which is absolutely fucking insane. i certainly did not think it would be this massive of a project when i undertook it, lol. the numbers on it both in terms of wordcount and appreciation/hits give me vertigo so i try not to look at them but honestly, i can’t thank you all enough. i know i always say this but i come from very small audiences and fandoms and the amount of love i’ve been getting this past year thanks to all of you has meant the world. thank you.

in terms of one shots, i’ll be mostly focusing on castles this month, so i probably won’t write anything else. this being said, for those of your on tumblr, just be aware that you might see me repost some of the tumblr ficlets that i posted on tumblr these past few months on ao3 soon-ish. i initially decided to keep them on tumblr alone because they were too short but i’ve been having anxiety about tumblr collapsing and these things disappearing into the ether. so, don’t be alarmed, they should be the same, just reposted.

what i’m doing:

honestly, this month has been amazing, especially the past three weeks. i’ve been able to relax, see family & friends, went hiking, had my birthday, hired a boat - it’s been fab. as alluded to before, i’ve also been having fun rewatching spooks, which is definitely a series worth watching, even ten years after it ended. i find it even more fascinating in light of what is going on in afghanistan at the moment, and of course the presence in the show of rupert penry-jones whom i think every straight woman with a pulse fancies, is an added bonus.

anyway, i hope you’re all doing well. see you next month for pumpkin spice lattes (yeah, look, i’m a basic white girl) and the beginning of my seasonal depression.

lots of love,

pebblysand.

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

this is an outta nowhere question but what are your thoughts on Joker in Smash about a year since he was added? I've heard some folks say the reason the Persona fandom got so toxic is bc Smash got involved and I wanted to know what you thought since you've been in it way longer than P5 and Joker in Smash

Short answer: Yes AND No. 

Long answer (it’s me of course it’s gonna be under the cut due to length 8U):

I’mma be honest, there’s always toxic fans. I know Smash Fans (and Nintendo fans in general) haven’t exactly been peaches, esp when it comes to Twitter (which I think is also an issue atm). But there were toxic fans before than and there’ll be toxic fans later. It’s just life tbh. (dunno where to put this but I’ll put it here: Twitter nowadays is like 2012-2015ish Tumblr, different being Tumblr was a bit more hiveminded and if you disagreed with a popular fandom opinion you.....were kinda bullied let’s be honest so no one could really say their opinions. While Twitter now it’s not a hivemind but instead two sided extremist that you need to choose. Both toxic and similar but just a taaaaad bit different, I’d probs take the two extremist sides over the hivemind if I had to chose tho...even tho Tumblr had better content during that era than Twitter right now imo but that’s in general and not Persona only. 8U Tumblr’s REALLY calmed down since the porn ban I’m not gonna lie, and ironically that’s roughly around the time that Twitter started getting shitty. So like....kinda saying there’s a correlation, I think a lot of toxic tumblr people probably migrated to twitter, and while there’s toxic fans everywhere it feels like a lot gather on Twitter so it really highlights the fandom there sadly). 

From my experience (which is from P4 PS2 era onward, I missed the pre-P4 P3 PS2 era stuff but apparently there were waifu wars which from what I’ve found I probs would’ve just classified as “shipping war” stuff rather than waifu wars....and it seemed liked standard shipping war stuff from back then), the bigger a fandom grows the more fans it obviously attracts, but that also means more toxic fans too. And that’s why I say yes and no for the smash community, yes because they did attract more fans (and their community seems to be a bit toxic atm, like I get expressing your wants to a company and I support that! but the INSTANT you don’t get a specific character announced for the fighter pass and instead of just being like “oh golly darn :(” but instead “***** this place ***** Nintendo you all suck ****** *slur* *slur*” yeah no that’s a little....you gotta take a step back buddy, so yeah I’m sure there’s a bit more toxic fans in that fandom atm but they are also a BIG ASS FANDOM so I’m not surprised), but it’s also just the cause and effect of the fandom getting bigger in general.

It happened when P4 got it’s anime (btw anime fans ya still valid and are a Persona fan, just keep in mind if you wanna talk lore just know you did watch a very abridged version of the game so be aware you might have somethings wrong cause of that.....cause I’ve seen it happen.....DX btw let’s play watchers are also real Persona fans and I’d say even people who just like Joker in Smash are at least Joker fans and that’s ok too enough gate keeping guys DX), it happened when we started getting spinoffs, kinda with the P3 movies (only really cause FeMC fans were salty or P3 fans upset what was cut/changed, but it wasn’t on any toxic level tbh just normal complaints, I think the fact it was a movie instead of an anime bypassed newer fans than with P4/5 animes), it happened when P5 solidified it into the mainstream gaming market (I’ll stand by P4 helped break Persona into it via all the other avenues of mainstream, with P5 finally latching the main series into mainstream games.....I say mainstream cause spinoffs are looking the same as pre mainstream which.....>.> *shrugs* could be better imo), it happened with P5′s anime, and it happened with Smash Bros. And tbh I’m sure it happened or will happen with the Steam community (and Switch/Xbox if it ever goes there too) and P4G (P4 fans go through the same cycle of BS constantly, most of which I believe originated with the anime generation, that it’s hard to tell if there was an uptick or not). And it’ll probs get an uptick again with P6, and then P6′s anime. And maybe manga cause maybe P6 fans like the P5 fans and won’t listen when people say “don’t get attached to the manga name it’s probs not gonna be used so hold off till the anime” but hey let’s have drama for no reason cause we need it. 8U (obvie you can still like the manga name, it’s more for people complaining about name changes or not getting why Atlus just didn’t keep the manga name even tho an explanation is probs within arm’s reach and they were warned beforehand)

*sighs* Sorry back on topic, each time the fandom grows so will toxic fans. Tbh I feel like the phrase “toxic fans” are thrown around a lot. And it’s esp used for only....”haters” it feels like and I don’t think that’s right (cause it can be fans too), it just feels like ANY negativity (even constructive and kept reigned in by certain users) is viewed as that. Like take me, I’m sure I’m probs labeled as a “toxic fan” due to be being a Megaten/Persona fan but disliking P5 and talking shit/calling it out. But I try my damnedest to do that in the appropriate places (ie my personal blog, maybe a confessions place, or a thread/board that’s expressing negatives only OR it’s explaining/expressing pros and cons type of stuff, I find that to be the best because it keeps people who want to vent away from people who want to gush so no war happens, not saying I am perfect or you HAVE to follow this or you are toxic, it’s what I decided to ascribe to and find it works well and good enough and it gives me a better fandom experience). Aka, I don’t go on twitter to someone’s fanart of Yukari or Makoto and trash the character because I’m not a freaking asshole (or in this case a ~toxic fan~). But this also applies to the “fans” as well who will talk about something they like (character/game) but the ONLY  way they can raise it up is by tearing down something else (other character/game), it’s really rude and also toxic as well. Negativity is not inherently bad all the time, and Positivity is not inherently good all the time (with positivity it’s more of giving yourself a break from it rather than saying something positive can be bad at times, tho I’m sure there are times that-that has happened but it’s 2:30 am and I don’t want to think of an example for that). It’s how it’s used/expressed. I see the Twitter community trying to combat the “negativity” by trying to only spread “positivity” and I’m afraid 1) any negative expression, even constructive, will be scorned (I guess I’m afraid of us going back to a hivemind mentality again), but most importantly 2) the people trying to head it are going to be burned out and it’ll hurt them mentally (I do not want it to happen obvie, but I know personally it can wear you down which is why I’m concerned). Don’t get me wrong I love what they are doing/trying to do, but I think we’re generalizing the word “negativity” and “positivity” a bit too much and it’s just raising a few red flags for me (I’m just hoping I’m being paranoid/overanalyzing in this case). 

Uhhh there was one last thing I wanted to address.....Oh yeah gate keeping. I know you asked about Smash but this stuff is kinda related and hey think of it as a history lesson for the Persona fandom (or at least Nusona cause I didn’t have a game system in the 90s ;_; plus wee little me wouldn’t have been able to find P1/2 fandoms back then due to me not really using the internet like I do nowadays till around P3 was probs released). Plus you know how long winded I am so this is kinda what you sign up for, 3 am ramblings of overexplaining~! But gdi I will try to cover all the bases and get my point across in....some fashion. 8U

But yeah, Gatekeeping in relation to the Smash fans, cause I see Persona fans shit on new fans that got into Persona through Smash (I know above I said Joker fans are valid Joker fans rather than Persona fans, but I’m assuming they’ve yet to play/watch Persona and are just aware of Joker and are a fan of him vs the fans who saw Joker and then watch/played the games to get into the fandom. One set is a fan of a character vs the other set got into a franchise because of said character. Like I wouldn’t say I’m a FE fan cause I liked Marth/Roy in SSBM, which is why I have that distinction myself BUT if you wanna call yourself a Persona fan that’s valid, you’re valid, it’s whatever, I don’t really care about the details that much, I just have two categories for convenience). Anyway I don’t think it’s fair to shit on them. Same as I don’t think it’s fair to shit on anime only or manga only fans. Or if they got into the fandom through Nusona (Oldsona is P1/2, Nusona is P3-5 atm). Or Oldsona. Or another Megaten game. 

Maybe it’s cause I came from P4, where it got shit on cause it wasn’t (”dark”) like P3, it wasn’t (”dark”) like Oldsona, it wasn’t “dark” like other Megaten games, it got shit on every way to Sunday for daring to try to have a more lightened mood at times (3 murders happen, we see 3 dead bodies, a 6 yo dies onscreen, we have characters going through intense existential crises, we deal with characters mourning through death as well as other relatable struggles, basically shows our teammates die one by one in the final boss, having a chance to hear Naoto’s death scream on the phone if you don’t stop Adachi, just the “you didn’t save the person” phone calls in general, talks about society’s toxic gender roles and how it can negatively effect a person both to an extreme extent and minor, god forbid they eat an animal cracker to lighten the mood, and this isn’t counting the dark shit that happens in the spinoffs). As if P1/2/3 don’t have comedy, or any other Megaten game, all the demons are freaking weird of course there is comedy. Oh and it also got shit on for going mainstream first, and not even counting that it got shit on for spinoffs (which P3 was included but no P3 gets a pass for some reason), and the fact that it was shit on for not being P5 (before and a little while after P5 came out) because it wasn’t “dark” like P5 (fdksjafajkfljafj P5 has it’s moments, esp with Shiho, tho P4D did it first and went through with it, but seriously each game has it’s own light and dark moments and one isn’t better than the other only cause they have more of one than the other). And....*sigh* let’s just say thank god that I was able to buy other Megaten games right before the flood gates of shit came in, cause I dunno if I would’ve wanted to give it a chance if I had to hear my fav game shit on constantly. I say I dunno cause tbh I was craving more after P4 so badly I still would’ve probs gotten into it regardless of the fandom, I wanted more from the franchise even if it wasn’t 100% like P4. 

But tbh I don’t blame P5 fans, anime fans, or Smash fans for maybe not wanting to get into the rest of the series. I get old fans of whatever feeling like they are...I dunno being invaded? By new people in the fandom. Or their afraid of new fans not fully understanding the franchise (hey guys that’s where you teach people instead of try to passive aggressively try to get them to leave the fandom I dunno maybe make posts to educate instead of trying to push away??? 030). And change is hard and yeah. And maybe you don’t like the new game (keep in mind there’s a diff between saying “*insert* Sux” and “I don’t like *insert* because...” one’s shitting on something and the other is constructive), but hey shitting on the game they like is probs not gonna win them over to your fav game sflkdjafkjafja Educate and be helpful, don’t gatekeep and drive people away. That’s a sure fire way for us to lose this franchise (remember we almost lost Atlus all together, but it was able to get a 2nd life thanks to P4 saving it....tbh probably wouldn’t have ever gotten P5 nor SMTV nor any spinoffs if not for P4′s success with its game and anime, this is both a history lesson and a word of warning since it already almost happened once). 

Tldr; Smash didn’t help but it’s really just the fact the fandom got bigger and bigger fandom means we also end up getting more toxic fans mixed in. Twitter now is basically 2012-2015!Tumblr (diff is Tumblr’s was a hivemind vs Twitter’s now extremist two sides only thing), and Tumblr’s porn ban probably migrated a lot of their toxic fans to Twitter which probs hasn’t helped any fandoms on there. Negativity in general isn’t an issue, it’s if you’re being an outright asshole where it’s an issue. Don’t be an asshole in general, if you need to vent then vent where you need to, if you wanna gush then gush were you need to and without bringing anyone/anything down obvie. You are a Persona fan, regardless of where/how you started. Don’t gatekeep for the love of god, or so help me Jack Frost will sneak into your house and smack you in the face with a snowball (and if he doesn’t then I will.....jk...half jk 8U). Also *sprinkles of (allusions to? I dunno I tried it’s 3 am and my 2nd try on answering this and the first one was just as long) Silly’s Persona fandom history lessons throughout the post*

[vios-rockland-corner]

Rockland: Cops

The date of this post is 5/16/20.  Please note that information revealed at this time via Patreon or any of the creator’s blogs may be subject to change after this date.

Pretty much every town has to have some form of police to keep the peace, and Rockland is no exception.  Problem is, we know Rockland is a rather dangerous place with criminals getting away with a lot more than they should.  What are the cops in Rockland like then?

(Spoilers below for Rumors of Rockland Article 1)

I’ve mentioned the police in different posts here and there when appropriate because we know they exist. We’ve never actually gotten any real confirmation though about what they are like.  Only recently do we have the confirmed name of at least one cop in the Rockland canon: Roy.  Roy, for those who don’t know, was actually created to be part of the Mark of Belial game even before the Rockland universe had been fully conceptualized.  It’s been quite a while since then, but if I recall correctly he was portrayed as more of a tough cop who took his cases seriously and didn’t like people like the news nosing into his business when he’s trying to do his dang job.  Not only could I be wrong though, his character could be revamped to a different personality for Rockland.  All we know right now is apparently the local drug dealer thinks he looks pretty fine (I don’t disagree with that from old illustrations.  I eagerly await Roy’s return).

Lately I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how effective the police operate in Rockland and what these officers even think of their hometown.  We know they do their job to an extent, otherwise we wouldn’t be getting a Mark of Belial game in the future.  How well and often they do their job is an entirely different question though. Couple of questions I’d had:

1)     Are the bulk of police people who’ve grown up in Rockland and lived there their whole life?  Or do more of them move or transfer there from other divisions?  Is it a mix?

If they’ve been long term citizens, there’s a higher chance they’re more familiar with certain groups, missing casings and other strange things around town.  Maybe people move or transfer to Rockland assuming it’s easy work at first but then find it’s a lot MORE work than anticipated due to the sheer number of dangerous individuals living there (this may even drive new officers away).  Or maybe it’s the opposite and it feels like there’s nothing either to do (like a lot of illegal activities have just been expertly kept quiet), or that there’s nothing someone of the law CAN do (like they feel there’s too many unknown variables for them to effectively protect everyone, or restrictions in the system).

2)     Are they aware of the town “abnormalities” or just think it’s a regular tourist trap?

This is huge.  What the officers themselves are aware of is going to greatly affect what they think of Rockland.  For example, if they’re a person who’s more conscious of the dangers in town and have a strong sense of justice, they may not have a whole lot of love for their town but still feel the urge to keep it clean.  Depending on how long an officer has worked in Rockland though, the persistent crimes that don’t get resolved may start to wear down a person, making them become pessimistic or lax in their duties because “nothing they ever do is enough.”  If an officer is completely in the blind though, they may just see Rockland as an easy going place where you’re just expected to get a couple calls here and there about speeding, theft and reckless drunks.  

3)     Do they tend to greet folks with a friendly face or do they tend to assume most people in town are up to no good?

This kind of works off of the previous question too.  The state of the officer’s work may affect how approachable they are.  If they’re only used to handling smaller offenses and feel more relaxed, they could be friendlier.  Of course, if an officer is completely unaware of Rockland’s darker nature, then how they treat residents relies solely on their own personality.  Officers with a lot more work to do or who have a lot on their mind though may not be as willing to entertain folks.  

4)     What do they think of tourists?  What do they think of people who have just moved to town?

If an officers knows that a fresh face coming in is more likely to either end up as a potential victim OR another psycho, they might not be so keen on outsiders stepping into their turf.  Then again, maybe they like to see new faces because it’s a breath of fresh air for them. Gets their mind out of their current world and helps them remember that not every place is like Rockland.  

For tourists, the officers probably aren’t going to question why they’re there.  It sounds like a tourist town, so that’s self-explanatory. With a new resident though, they may wonder why they moved to Rockland of all places.  Now sometimes there isn’t any particular reason.  It may just fit some criteria for the mover, but otherwise there’s no special meaning or attachment.  If an officer knows how Rockland operates though in the shadows, they might not be able to stop thinking, “Of all the places you could have gone…”  I don’t know either if an officer will attempt to watch a tourist or new resident more carefully for their protection…or if they’ll actively turn a blind eye because they’re expecting the worst (and don’t want to feel as bad IF something happens to them).

5)     Do they knowingly let things slip under the radar or are they simply out of the loop?

This is similar to my second question, I know.  I’m just kind of re-emphasizing here that there has to be a reason why so many people don’t get caught in Rockland.  If the officers are knowledgeable about all these activities, what stops them from protecting more people?  Apathy? Do they not have the resources to stop all of these folks?

6)     Are they restricted by their higher ups or by certain groups around town?

Now maybe the officers themselves don’t take as much action as they should due to their own personality and views.  But what if you have an officer that’s incredibly gung-ho about keeping everyone safe? What’s stopping them?  Well their higher-ups may withhold certain information from them or directly order them to keep their distance from some situations. These higher-ups could either be corrupt themselves, or being coerced to do so by certain groups of Rockland.  We know there are people in the Black Market business and groups like the Professionals around.  These sinister groups may have a strong hold over Rockland that makes it difficult for the police to perform at full capacity.

7)     Are they usually pretty lazy or do they crack down harder in Rockland than they would other places?

This is just another reworded question for emphasis.  The officer’s personality, what they know, what duties they aren’t restricted from performing and how much their workload is all affect how serious they are going to take their job.

 Let’s talk about one particular viewpoint we have from someone who commits illegal activities in Rockland: Tyler.  One of the weirdest things I have to say is that surprisingly selling drugs is probably on the lower end in Rockland of “illegal activities.”  Yes, it’s definitely illegal, but if you’ve played “The Misfits: First Blood” demo I think you’d agree that there are FAR worse things that happen in this town.  

When Tyler mentions getting out of being arrested by the cops by either providing them drugs or a sexual favor, it’s a little more insightful than you think.  This tells us that the local drug dealer doesn’t feel threatened by the cops.  Now we don’t know too much about Tyler yet.  He could be joking around here.  He was half-joking about selling the MC drugs only because he WOULD but he didn’t have any on him at that time.  Or he could just be a little prideful.  Now the tone he uses doesn’t feel anything like “disdain” or “annoyance” towards the cops.  He’d gladly go down on Roy, so there’s even a weird compliment there. He’s just not afraid of them. Maybe that would change if a cop was directly in front of him?  Lots of people like to talk a big game when they’re out of earshot from authority like that.

Now if what Tyler says is NOT a joke though, then that means the cops in Rockland are either easily persuaded or just don’t take their jobs seriously.  That does not necessarily bode well for public safety.  Maybe these cops don’t take the drug dealing as seriously though because they have bigger fish to fry.  Who knows.

Never thought I’d analyze a scene where a guy talk about blowing cops, but there you go.

It should be noted that I’m sure lots of these cops have individual personalities and a mix of long-term resident vs. newbie, knowledgeable vs. in the dark, and lazy vs. dutiful means that one common depiction won’t necessarily reflect the entire police force. Depends on how many active officers we’ll end up meeting or hear about I suppose.

I am indeed fully aware that even with a capable police force though, crime will still happen. It’s impossible for the police to nab every single criminal at the perfect moment and keep things clean. Unfortunately people get away sometimes, or you just have to be at the right place at the right time to catch/stop them.  Maybe there’s nothing unusual or weak about the Rockland police force after all. Rockland itself is just too much.

I don’t know when we’ll see our first cop in Rockland.  We will probably see or hear more about some in the Rumors of Rockland installments first before Mark of Belial I assume.  I’ll just have to wait patiently.

[doof-doofblog]

"Have I Made A Terrible Mistake?"

Monday 25th May 2020

Good Afternoon folks! I hope you've all had a good week! My week has been pretty busy with me getting the news of going back to my second job, trying to get everything sorted before they reopen! I realise that this post is late again, but again I shall post up 2 separate blogs today, this will cover last night's episode and I shall post another one later tonight covering tonight's episode. I'm sure you've all seen the recent trailer that dropped over the weekend, I'm sure it covered up everything in the episodes for this week, looks juicy! Anyway enough babbling, shall I get right to it?

Firstly, let's start with Jean ... at the beginning there she was said she was expecting a letter from Stacey. Is she still thinking she's going to hear from her? We know she's been desperate to hear from her daughter, she still doesn't know exactly where she is. It's clear she's not mentally stable right now and something is definitely not right. Could it be her bipolar again? Even Mo and Kush are aware now that's she's acting as if Daniel is still around. Is she still grieving? Is it her way of coping? However in the previous episode we saw her lay the table out for him and then during that episode, she had his closed placed on his bed ready, as if he would be using them. It's frustrating that something can't be done to help her, and even Kush isn't wanting to call Kat or Stacey to let them know about Jean's current mental state. I do think at some point Kush is just going have to bite the bullet and ring one of them and tell them what's happened. Could it mean that Kat or Stacey could be in for a return very soon?! The way Jean's story-line is going, I think it's going to get worse before any one realises how much danger she is living on her own. It REALLY irritated me when Suki piped up and insisted on being there when they let Kush into the house! Honestly, does she have a thrill of seeing Jean so vulnerable? Honestly, she makes me sick! All she really cares about is her bloody cardigan! Oooo she winds me up so much!

Honestly, Martin needs to stop flirting so much with Ruby and try and help Kush out with Jean as much as he can! I don't understand why Martin has been left in the dark about Jean, he was a member of her family once. I'm sure if he was to know he'd do anything to help and find out what's wrong with Jean. Kush needs to tell him as soon as possible! Martin and Stacey may not be an item anymore, but that doesn't mean he ignores his once Mother-In-Law and his "so called" best mate! And it certainly doesn't mean that he has to move on to his ex's best friend!! Honestly, I think this thing going on with Martin and Ruby is the one thing that's frustrating me the most! It just doesn't seem real. I don't know? Am I looking at it too much? Am I thinking about it too deeply? I'm not sure, but please, tell me what you think! Do you agree with me? Or do you think that Martin is literally just moving on with his life?! It's just with his past with the Slaters, I never thought he'd turn his back on Jean, especially when it's the time she needs people around her the most. But erm ... Can I just say ... was I hearing things? Did Ruby just make Max think they would spice things up in their relationship by having a threesome? That was the impression I got!!! I could be completely wrong, but can someone confirm for me that that was what they were talking about?! If so, I found it awkwardly funny to watch! I don't know why I'm having these thoughts, but I'm convinced that Ruby isn't talking about a female friend. I bet she'll play it up and get Max excited to experience something new in his relationship with her, that when it's revealed that she meant a male friend, he'll flip! That would be funny to see! I know it sounds a bit weird, but this is Soapland - you never know!

Awwww poor Tina! Something is telling me that she could end up homeless? She knows that they're selling the Vic and bless her, she assumed they'd all find a place together as a family. But does this mean that she could potentially end up living on the streets if she can't find a place to live in time? I doubt very much that Mick and Linda would ever see her living on the streets. But does Shirley really have something in place for them both? Or could Shirley end up turning to Phil and ask him for help? I don't know when Mick and Linda will be leaving the Vic, I'm sure it'll be within the next few episodes. But who know's what's going to happen to Tina and Shirley once they do leave. Will they all leave together or could someone be left behind?

Oh god, things just keep getting from bad to worse for poor Keegan doesn't it?! It started off so well for him when he received the news that the charges were going to be dropped. Everyone was feeling supportive for him and telling him that he could finally move on and look to the future. He was focusing on his business again with a brand new look for his van. Karen even gave Tiffany Shaki's trainers to pass onto Keegan, which made them finally reconnect. However, once Tiffany tried standing up for her husband after Keegan gets mistaken for a drug dealer by some thug, she is once again being told not to stick up for him. She can't do right from wrong. I feel this relationship is going to come to end soon, there is tension and everything that has happened to the young couple in recent months has put a strain on their relationship. Tiffany even admitted to Karen that Keegan has changed and she can't seem to help no matter how hard she tries. I loved that scene though, I thought it was one of those meaningful lovely chats between Mother and Daughter-In -Law, even their relationship has come a long way since Keegan and Tiffany married. How are they going to react once they find out what happened with Keegan's van? I did feel sorry for Keegan when they destroyed and vandalised his van, but to then rob Shakil's trainers from him must have been heartbreaking! And with all those market people standing and just watching, none of them even bothered to help! Just shouted and hollered at the gang for them to go away, no one actually stepped in to help and tell them to do one! Where was Jack when you needed him?! That would've been a perfect opportunity for Jack to rush in and stop the vandals and help Keegan again, but no!! Would that have been too easy?! What's going to happen with Keegan now? Something tells me he's not going to start again with his business, could he even get the vehicle fixed? Will he blame Tiffany - seeing as it was her who stood up to the gang member?  Surely Keegan's luck has got to change at some point, this horrible bad luck that he's continuing to have, can't last forever. Something has got to give!

Oh! Sharon is back! As much as she says she wants to give things a go with Phil and that she still loves him, I've got a funny feeling that she's only saying that so she can get him to buy the Vic for her. Once she has it, that will be that! It's just a feeling I've got, but I will gladly put my hands up if i'm wrong! I do sometimes let my imagination run away with me! Through out the episode she was doing everything she could to stay out of Karen's way. In the cafe and in the Vic she left the room as soon as she saw her with Kayden. Of course she's still a grieving mother and it must be hard for her. She looked a little ... concerned maybe ... when Linda told her that Karen would be leaving with Kayden in a couple of days time. It looked as if she wanted to know more information, but unfortunately that was all Linda could give her. I don't know what the word is that i'm looking for, but as if she needed to know more about the fact that her child could be leaving. But then once Linda found the bag of Dennis's belongings and Sharon found a present that Dennis left for his younger sibling, only then did Sharon realise she's made an awful mistaken. Dennis would never have wanted his Mum to get rid of his younger brother, he would have wanted her to give the child a fantastic life, not just for her or him but for his brother! Will Sharon be able to stop them leaving before it's too late? Or will Karen even agree to giving Kayden back? I'm intrigued as to what could happen next ... but then if she does want the child back, what does it mean for her and Phil? Would Phil be able to bring another man's child up ... OR (ANOTHER POSSIBLE PLOT TWIST) ... Could the child actually end up being Phil's? I know she did a DNA test earlier when she was pregnant, but could it have been wrong? Could there have been a mix up? Who knows? Either way, I hope Sharon realises and acts before it's too late, it would be awful to see her live with a decision she may regret.

Thank you guys for being incredibly patient with me, I do appreciate it! I shall be back later tonight with another post following up on tonight's episode! Enjoy! Thanks again everyone! xXx

[videcoeur]

I am not dead I swear

But yeah, as everyone know, I work in marketing and nov/dec/jan are the busiest months of the year for me (rip my life) Christmas is nice and all but I gotta write a lot and do a lot (gift shopping, meet up with folks irl) which keeps me insanely busy.

Please don’t send me passive aggressive asks asking me if my blog is dead or, and I quote, if I ever will reply to my rps.

If you reach a point where you are so fed up with waiting for a reply to one of our thread that you feel the need to do this, please drop the thread :) I haven’t technically deleted any of my current threads from my drafts and/or discord. Here and there I may attempt a reply, but as you noticed, I’ve been pretty quiet lately, only pumping out adopts here and there to make some spare change to afford christmas and my trip in January.

Until February, expect my activity to be at least this spotty. While I do want to reply to my threads as writing is my passion and I’d love to be rping 24/7, I work in marketing so I’m already writing a lot for my job. When the day’s over, I wish I could keep writing, but after writing anywhere between 4 to 8k words a day, I’m pretty worded out.

Which is why I can make adopts and not write. Drawing doesn’t require my brain to function much. and it’s something I enjoy and that relaxes me. So I’d really appreciate if you, whoever you are that I owe a reply to, stopped sending me messages about when I’m gonna reply and making me feel bad for posting adopts. I blocked your last two asks but I’m pretty sure they’re from the same person and you’re just using a vpn or something.

Please stop, it’s christmas for everyone, I’m a 30 years old adult with a very busy schedule and I’m trying my best :’) I don’t need to be made feeling bad because of a hobby. 

Also, as a side note, I only owe like 6 people and there’s at least 4 of them I’m convinced you’re not so if you keep this up I’mma find you and block you thanks. 

Thank u for understanding

[mst3kproject]

521: Santa Claus

Ever since they included a Christmas episode in the first Netflix season, I have been slowly coming to terms with the fact that this blog will not live long enough for me to do all the Christmas movies on Christmas.  Might as well get on with it. This one goes out to @casualcollectorlightme.

It’s Christmas Eve, and Santa Claus is setting off on his annual trip to take gifts to the children of the world.  He’s anticipating trouble: a demon named Pitch has been ordered to stop him.  If nobody gets any presents, then the children of Mexico won’t see any point in being good, and will turn to evil en masse!  Can Santa, with his friends Merlin the wizard and Vulcan the smith, thwart Pitch’s wicked plot and save Christmas?

My favourite thing about this movie is its weird portrayal of Santa, and for once I actually can explain why it fascinates me.  If you’ve ever seen the movie Mothra, you probably had a good laugh at the bit set in the foreign land of Rolisica, which shows us what Japanese people in the 60’s thought Americans were like (if you haven’t seen it then for heaven’s sake do so – it’s funny as hell).  Santa Claus is kind of a whole movie about that, because when it was made in 1959, Santa wasn’t really a thing in Mexico.  The film was an attempt to import him, and so we get to see our beloved Christmas traditions through the eyes of a people who aren’t very familiar with them.  

We begin with a tour of Santa’s workshop, which is not actually at the North Pole, but floating in space somewhere above it.  In American Christmas movies the toy factory would be staffed by elves, but this one goes for another short, energetic option: children from around the world, in the form of a parade of offensive stereotypes embodied by tone-deaf six-year-olds.  This is very strange, not only because they all seem to be singing in the snow rather than working, but because we find ourselves unavoidably wondering who these kids are.  Where are their parents, and how did they end up in Santa’s custody?  Are they orphans he took in, or is this some kind of mass kidnapping operation?  Do they get an education?  What happens to them when they grow up?

When you give it a moment’s thought, however, this setup actually makes more sense than elves.  What the hell are elves, after all?  Where do they come from and why do they work for Santa?  Nobody ever asks that, because it’s just part of the mythology (and when movies do try to offer answers they’re almost always weird and disappointing).  You might as well ask why the Easter Bunny is a rabbit. That’s just how it works.  If you haven’t grown up hearing about it, though, the idea that orphaned children get raised by Santa, helping to bring joy to the rest of the world… that's messed-up, but it works.

The same applies to Santa’s collection of magical surveillance equipment, which looks like something out of a Salvador Dali sugar high. American Christmas films, like the classic Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer or even Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, rarely go into how Santa sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake.  Again, he just does.  Because Santa was something new to the Mexican film-makers, though, they felt like they had to explain it.  Their attempt tried for whimsy but took a wrong turn and ended up smack in the middle of fucking creepy.

It’s creepy in several ways, too.  I mean, the giant lips that speak in the voices of children’s wishes are an awful image, but there’s also the fact that Santa is spying on you directly.  He’s watching your dreams.  He’s listening to your whispered conversations.  He’s reading your fanfiction.  The Three Naughty Boys discuss how they don’t believe in any of this and Santa speaks to them, informing him that he knows very well what they’re planning!  Santa is Big Brother, always watching – and this is true of the ordinary concept of Santa Claus, too!  We sometimes make jokes about this but it seems harmless to us because we never delve into the details the way this movie does.

This thread of explaining things we don’t normally think need explanation runs through other areas of the movie as well.  Why does nobody ever wake up and see Santa Claus?  Why don’t our dogs bark at him?  Because he’s got a sleeping powder and a magic flower that can make him invisible. If that were as far as it went, then it wouldn’t be too strange.  I can see similar things appearing in something like a The Santa Clause sequel… except that there, they would probably have been made by the elves.  Since Santa Claus does not have mechanically (or dentally) gifted elves, it needs to provide another origin. Hence the inclusion of Merlin the Magician and Vulcan the Smith, which seems like a weird juxtaposition of mythology to us, but as far as the Mexicans know they’re all ‘American’ so they’re close enough.

Santa Claus also feels obliged to confront the awkward question of class differences.  Santa is supposed to be an egalitarian figure: he doesn’t care if you’re rich or poor, only if you’ve behaved yourself.  Poor kids should therefore get just as many presents as rich kids, which is manifestly not true in the real world.  Most American movies just pretend everybody is middle-class and ignore the issue completely.  Santa Claus tries to do something with it and the results are once again, weird.

There is, for example, the never-named Rich Boy who is tired of toys and just wants to know his parents love him.  Santa makes his wish come true by drugging Madre and Padre into heading home from their Christmas Eve out, and the question of whether he got any other gifts is never brought up.  The nearest thing the movie has to a main human character, however, is adorable little Lupita, whose father is out of work.  She wants a doll for Christmas and frankly any doll will do – she struggles with the idea of stealing a rag doll from a craft market, but puts it back, and Santa rewards her by bringing her a doll her parents could never afford.

And that’s nice, but what message does it send to all the well-behaved children in the real world whose parents can’t afford to buy them anything fancy?  That they weren’t good enough?  That they didn’t write a nice enough letter or say a nice enough prayer?  That Santa just doesn’t give a shit?  There’s a reason most Christmas movies don’t touch on this.

The specific doll Santa brings to Lupita also kind of bugs me… it’s just not a good present for a child like her.  Lupita is around five or six years old.  She needs a doll she can cuddle, play with, and carry around with her, like the one from the market.  The one she gets is as big as she is and wearing a fancy dress.  That’s not a toy, that’s a piece of décor.  It’s the doll that sits in the rocking chair in your grandmother’s living room and which you swear you can see move out of the corner of your eye. It’s not huggable, if she takes it anywhere it’ll get dirty or broken, and there’s a cynical part of me that thinks her parents probably sold it the next day so that they could buy food or pay the rent on their hovel or something.

Then there’s Santa’s adversary.  American Christmas movies pit Santa against bad weather, other supernatural entities like Jack Frost, and ordinary grouches like Phineas Prune.  In this movie, the villain is the devil.  This does, I guess, make a certain amount of sense, since Santa is dedicated to rewarding well-behaved children while Satan wants to collect the souls of the wicked, but we’re just not used to this meeting of religious and secular imagery.  Christmas is a Christian feast pinned to the ass of a much older Pagan solstice festival and it has never managed to really do away with this duality.  Most people keep the Christian and folk sides of Christmas pretty separate, but here we see them collide head-on.

Finally there’s the stuff that’s just plain terrifying.  Like the creepy laughing reindeer.  Or the rather complicated explanation of why Santa must make it home before sunrise.  When the sun comes up, the mechanical reindeer will turn to dust, leaving Santa unable to return to his palace in outer space.  What will happen then?  Why, he’ll starve to death, because Santa and his helpers subsist on sweets made from clouds and stardust, and cannot digest normal food!  Wait, the toy-making children, too?  What does happen to them when they grow up?  Can they return to Earth and start eating burgers like the rest of us, or do they remain children in Santa’s bondage forever? I told you this movie was weird.

Santa Claus is not as enjoyable in its own train-wrecky right as its Martian-Conquering cousin, but it is my favourite of the MST3K Christmas episodes. The movie itself is cheerful and the host sketches are a positive delight.  I particularly love everybody’s joy at the terrible Secret Santa presents, and their all-inclusive seasonal song that distilled tumblr to its essence decades before tumblr ever existed.  The very best part, however, is the awesome Christmas mods they did for the bots.  I love the snowglobe in Tom Servo’s head, and here I am once again helpless to articulate why it’s so damn funny. 

[toxanhela]

the author of the post below blocked me lol

i’m talking this post 

so i’ll have to answer like this

if you wanna know, i am one of those people who quit posting art because of the lack in response on tumblr (and i deleted all of my art and left only one that got a ton of notes). you can try to calm yourself by repeating “it doesn’t affect you, you don’t understand” over and over, but it did affect me very deeply and i understand it on a personal level. i am one of those creators who quit you’re so passionate about, @reddeadrevival

i used to blame others for my lack of notes as well. i’m pretty sure i used to reblog posts like yours that fucking demonize people who don’t reblog. however, after a lot of thought i realised that i didn’t get what i want because of the reasons i stated in my previous response (and more)

1. fandom-wise, i was all over the place

2. my style isn’t striking enough on it’s own to keep followers around just for it

3. in general i’m simply not that good, my skill is average

4. my art doesn’t have a solid theme or focus

5. i only posted on tumblr

6. i never tried to put effort into spreading my work myself

i realised that i am the only person who is responsible for my success, and my failure to become an artist on tumblr suddenly became a lot easier to cope with because i realised it’s not random and it’s not about other people. i’m in control, and it’s reassuring

How else do you want us to “advertise” ourselves? 

on twitter, or literally on any other website on the great internet that has fandom activities? DA maybe? you’re putting all of your eggs in one basket right now which is tumblr, of course the attention will be limited

you’re allowed to feel underappreciated, upset, you’re allowed to have any kind of feeling. however, you are not allowed to say that the people who don’t reblog your stuff are responsible for those feelings, this is guilttripping. you are the only one who is responsible for them, you’re feeling them on your own accord

so let me get this clear: first you say things like 

You’re part of the problem. I don’t care if it doesn’t fit your aesthetic or you think that a like is “just as good”.

“If no one’s reading/seeing it, why write/make it?” is a very common thought and is why a lot of blogs quit. Which is why a lot of fandoms are “dying”.

and then go on and say “none of us are demanding“? i literally can’t see your posts with A HUGE FONT AND BOLD LETTERS as anything but demanding. you are demanding attention to your work. you are saying people that don’t want to reblog are “part of the problem”, and in saying so you’re implying that they have to contribute to solving that problem since they’re supposedly a part of it

hurt when people complain about the lack of content when IT’S THERE we’re making it but barely anyone is sharing it

share it yourself then. when someone is complaining about lack of content, recommend your favourite blogs to them instead of just complaining that noone’s reblogging shit

There’s always something you can do.

here’s a thing: i don’t have to. noone is obligated to do these things. everyone can enjoy content whichever way is comfortable for them

and yes, sometimes works are worthy of a like, but not worthy of a reblog. sometimes you are, in fact, just not good enough, and if people feel this way - they are in full right to not reblog you and then complain about lack of content, because it happens so that your content isn’t entertaining enough for them and that’s why it doesn’t count. i’m sorry but it just how it be, reblogs will only get you this far, skill is also very important

main point: you don’t understand your relationship with your followers and non-creators

they are consumers, and creators provide the goodies. consumers get to be picky, they are allowed to treat your work however their heart desires, they have no responsibility here. i’ll do an analogy as well:

two customers come regularly to a certain bakery. customer 1 tells their friends about this bakery and how tasty their cakes are, and maybe couple of their friends did come to the bakery, and some even became regular customers. customer 2, however, just enjoys it peacefully for themselves. maybe their friends don’t like sweet stuff, or maybe this customer just isn’t the type of person to give advice to their friends and is just reserved like that. somehow, the word about customer 2 gets to the bakery owner. they come out an start yelling: “People like you are the reason why independant bakeries all over the city are dying! You aren’t allowed to complain about the lack of family bakeries if you do nothing to help them!!! You are part of the problem! Yeah your friends don’t like sweets, but you could make new friends who do and advertise my bakery to them! No pressure tho, I’m not demanding anything from you and I do really appreciate you buying my cakes :) It would be nicer if you brought in more customers tho >:)”

what customers 2 reaction is going to be? they’re going to be like “what the absolute fuck” and fuck outta there to another bakery with a chill owner. it is the bakery’s responsibility to make ads, do sale campaigns, give out flyers and whatnot

and i know that creators on the internet are doing it for free, but that’s why it’s called analogy. your “customers” are paying you in likes, they are paying you in the currency of attention that you clearly deem valid judging by your posts about not getting enough of it

furthermore: nobody gives a shit. people just move on

sorry to break it to you, but this is what consumers of content think:

- this creator’s works are getting small amount of notes? well, if i truly think that this amount of notes is too small for what they did i will reblog to stop the injustice, however if it seems fitting i’ll just smash that like button and move on

- this creator stopped posting their work? oh, it’s sad because i really liked them, but there are literally millions of other creators on the internet so i’m just gonna move on to another creator

- this fandom died? oh well, too bad, i really enjoyed it, i might complain a bit about the fact, but i guess it’s time to move on to the next best things: there are god knows how many fandoms out there, i’m sure i’ll find something for myself

followers and fandom very rarely truly give a fuck about you. and they don’t have to, you’re not entitled to anyones emotional involvement. even if my favourite artist in the whole world stops creating, i’ll be very upset, but i will move on to another creators, because i have tons to choose from

as a creator, you are disposable

it sounds cruel, but it’s true unfortunately. i had to understand it the hard way, so don’t repeat my mistakes

i gained this “consumer” perspective when i quit posting art, and it has been very enlightening, i see the picture very clearly now. when you’re a creator yourself, you are more inclined to reblog stuff because you feel the injustice of creators not getting attention more vividly and personally, and you are less likely to understand that your consumers actually don’t give that much of a fuck, even if right now they say they do

so in a way you’re right what you’re saying that i don’t understand, because i’m currently not posting and have more of a consumer perspective. but at the same time you’re wrong, because i used to be a creator and thought exactly the same way you do. i have the best of the both worlds baby B)

i can go on forever about all this, but hopefully you get the point

only relying on word of mouth in this day and age won’t get you any results fam, i’m sorry, you gotta make an effort because the market is overflood and noone gives a fuck

tl;dr: stop guilttripping people who are kind enough to enjoy your shit and take responsibility for spreading your work, because it’s noone fucking elses responsibility but yours - not your followers, not fellow fandom folk - IT’S ONLY YOURS

[clubpassim]

Women In Folk - Cindy Howes

Hi there!

Katie here, thanks for tuning in for another entry in the Women in Folk Blog! Today’s interviewee is Cindy Howes!

Cindy works at 88.9 WERS at Emerson College in Boston as the Marketing and Promotions Manager. She hosts on Folk Alley, which is a 24-hour folk radio station, as well as Basic Folk, her folk-music podcast. Cindy actually grew up in the area and went to Emerson College for radio. When she first arrived there, she was told she had to pick a show she wanted to work on, and what she told me might come as a shock to some…

 “In high school, I really liked 90’s alternative music, but unfortunately, they didn’t have any shows like that. I knew a little bit about folk music because my friend’s sister took us to Club Passim to see Mark Erelli, so I thought, ‘this is close to what I like, I’ll put this down as my second choice.’ My first choice was a metal show, but they ended up giving me my second. The two were very different!”

Metal. After which we mused about how different her life would have looked like if she had ended up as a metal radio host.

After graduating from Emerson she wound up in Pittsburgh working at public radio station WYEP for 11 years, but as fate would have it just this past February she moved back to Boston to rejoin the WERS team. Welcome back, Cindy!

Another fun fact about Cindy is that she worked at Club Passim as a night manager for 6 months after college, which further solidified her place in the folk world.

(The next part of the interview discusses her role as a woman in the radio industry)

[full interview under the cut]

Club Passim: Talk a little bit about your experiences as a female in a male-dominated profession/field.

Cindy Howes: I feel very lucky. When I was working at WYEP I had some really great co-workers, specifically Rosemary Welsch who has worked there for 38 years. Just having her presence on the programming staff and having her general influences was very inspiring to me and helpful in an immeasurable way. There are some really wonderful women in the industry, but...it is a lot of men, you know?

Most of the men I come across are professional, but occasionally you do cross paths with people who aren’t. Having to navigate those situations isn’t always the simplest. You have to ask yourself, ‘What is safe for me in those situations? What is appropriate to do, yet still makes me feel safe and comfortable?’ That’s the conversation we’re starting to have now.

I’m an older millennial, but still, in my generation, things were different from how they are today. Younger generations just won't tolerate unequal treatment and disrespect, and that’s awesome! It’s really exciting to see this cultural shift.

CP: Do you notice a difference in how you’re treated by artists, venues, audiences, and industry professionals before vs. after you interview them/they hear an interview you do?

CH: Yes, though I’m not so sure if it has to do with gender. I think it more so has to do with ego.

In public radio, you have to fight for recognition. Every little bit counts, and when someone misses something or gets your name wrong, that can be really upsetting. Musicians will sometimes underestimate the quality of the interview they’re going to get from me. They’re used to other radio stations asking them the same 10 questions, so when they do an interview with me, they’re usually pleasantly surprised by the substance and depth of the questions.

I will say though, I am frequently told when meeting someone in person that I don’t look the way I sound on the radio. I look different than what they expected I would sound like. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing! Usually, they assume me to be older than I really am.

CP: What do you do in a situation when you feel disrespected by the artists/co-workers you’re surrounded by?

CH: I have to weigh the situation. If it’s something where I don’t want to rock the boat, I’ll work through it and try not to take it personally. I’ve found that when that stuff happens, it’s usually more about the other person than it is about me. Also working in radio and the media industry, you have to learn to let a lot of stuff go, so it’s just a matter of figuring out what battles you want to fight.

I’m normally pretty calm; I usually won’t explode at someone. Although there have been times where something disrespectful or hurtful is said to me and I’m so affected by their comment that I’ve had to give up an interview I was about to do. If a situation like that arises, the first thing I do is remove myself from having to be in public so I’m not distracted and don’t misspeak. 

CP: In your opinion, how can men be more aware or informed about their women peers and co-workers?

CH: By intently listening more. Try to put yourself in marginalized people's shoes to see what it’s like to give up your privilege. I definitely have privilege myself, and so I try to do it too. I imagine what it would be like if my appearance was different, my skin color was different, my country of origin was different. Everyone should try to think outside of themselves more.

CP: Do you find that your co-workers do a good job with this?

CH: I’ve seen progress for sure. All my co-workers are wonderful now. In the past, some have been better than others. Women radio hosts were usually on in the mid-day and evening, but never hosted the morning show or afternoon drive; the most popular show times. However, when I arrived in Pittsburgh in 2007 things were already better. In Pittsburgh, they now have 1-2 stations that have women on in the morning. While it’s still not ideal, it has gotten a lot better for women. I don’t know if I can say the same for people of color, though.

CP: What message do you want to display as a woman in the radio business?

CH: Treat women like people.

CP: What words of wisdom/encouragement do you have for aspiring women in this field?

CH: It is not your fault. Things will happen to you and you will feel like you’re being treated differently, treated lesser-than because of your gender. But know that it isn’t your fault and that things have been changing for the better.

CP: Any final remarks?

CH: I have a feeling that women who are in their late teens/early twenties right now are much smarter and more confident than before. There’s a lot more body-positivity these days which is beautiful to watch. They walk with confidence through this world. In my generation, we were very insecure, and it showed.  

The more that young women realize their worth, the better off we all are going to be.

                                                          ~

Powerful words, spoken by a powerful lady! Thank you, Cindy. What an inspiring and uplifting interview this was. While it is crucial to talk about our negative experiences, it is just as crucial to recognize how far we’ve come and the ground we’ve covered together. Conditions for women have definitely improved in the passing years, but there is still much to equalize across genders, color, and borders. 

So remember to check your privilege; there are always folks who have it worse than you do. 

Thanks again to Cindy, and thank you for reading! Stay tuned for the next installment of the ‘Women in Folk’ blog!

Katie

[wanderlust-and-road-dust]

F’nor Azril

THE BASICS ––– –

Name: F’nor Azril. Formerly Fonn Byquist, but due to her leaving her people she’s adopted the Mi’qote mechanic of naming, not initially understanding the apostrophes in their names. She’s stuck with it though, as she finds bears to be a good representation of her solitary wanderings and stout self reliance.

Age: Seasons come and seasons go, so why count them? 87

Birthday: 30th Sun of the 5th Umbral Moon

Race: Viera, Rava.

Gender: Trans woman.

Sexuality: Pansexual.

Marital Status: Single.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ––– –

Hair: A burnished copper that abruptly shifts to black tips. Recently shorn short after an incident with an ink pot, though she kept one long braid on her right side that she fiddles with on occasion. Usually brushing the end against her lips and chin as she’s thinking.

Eyes: Left eye Cactuar green. Right eye a startling vibrant purple, which she’s blind in. Usually keeps her right eye covered with a patch, or wears glasses to aid her ailing eyesight.

Height: 5 fulms, 10 ilms.

Build: Wirey, in a word. She’d look scrawny if not for lean corded muscles defining her arms and legs. F’nor’s physique is reminiscent of tough roots. Long hours of traveling by foot the length and breadth of the map, she’s in peak physical condition.  

Distinguishing Marks: A smattering of freckles across her cheeks and the oddity of her purple right eye. Beyond which F’nor is relatively free of any other distinguishing features. Perhaps ink smudges on her face, ink stained finger tips from absentminded quill work. Or a myriad of minor nicks and scrapes from hard travel, but they quickly heal and fade in due time.

Common Appearance:  Almost always in her orange poncho and traveling moccasins, she stands out like a sore thumb. Though often her poncho isn’t quite as flashy due in no small part to the large quantity of road dust she accumulates on her wandering.  Sometimes wearing an eye patch, sometimes wearing glasses, sometimes she just forgets either until reminded. An idle stance of crossed arms and bemused curiosity finish her ensemble.

PERSONAL ––– –

Profession: Vagabond story hoarder, cartographer and amateur botanist.

Hobbies Reading, collecting and sampling tea, retrieving odd little artefacts. 

Languages: Common, Vieran

Residence: Wherever she happens to find herself in the evening. Sometimes a travelers lodge, other times at a campfire by herself.

Birthplace: An out of the way corner of the Golmore Jungle.

Religion: Better to acknowledge the gods than to deny or doubt they exist.

Patron God: Azeyma, though she honestly falls under the patronage of Oschon more so.

Fears: Large crowds of people, confinement, spiders.

RELATIONSHIPS ––– -

Spouse: None

Children: None

Parents: As a Viera who has left the fold, F’nor is dead to her parents

Siblings: None

Other: None

Pets: A toad named Hopalong and her trusty chocobo Farstrider.

TRAITS ––– -

Extroverted / In Between / Introverted

Disorganized / In Between / Organized

Close Minded / In Between / Open Minded

Calm / In Between / Anxious

Disagreeable / In Between / Agreeable

Cautious / In Between / Reckless (extremely so)

Patient / In Between /  Impatient

Outspoken / In Between / Reserved

Leader (unless someone has a better plan or is more qualified) / In Between / Follower

Empathetic / In Between / Apathetic

Optimistic / In Between / Pessimistic

Traditional / In Between / Modern

Hard-working / In Between / Lazy

Cultured / In Between (rather informal and not much for the strictures of civilized societal hierarchy and the like) / Uncultured

Loyal (extremely so) / In Between / Disloyal

Faithful / In Between (this one is more to do with faith as in belief than faith as in loyalty) / Unfaithful

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ––– –

Smoking Habit: Sometimes after a hard days travel a pipe of weed is nice to unwind with, especially by a campfire with a good book.

Drugs: No particular habit for drugs.

Alcohol: Has a soft spot for harder spirits, particularly earthy and smokey flavored drinks. Like whisky (difference between Whisky and Whiskey is one without the E is Scotch and with the E is every other Whiskey besides Scottish Whisky. I don’t really know how that translates into game lore, but I’m sure there’s a distinction somewhere. There’s not an overly in depth dive into the alcohols brewed by the various races and regions. Or at least that I’m aware of)

RP HOOKS ––– –

Not all who wander are lost: F’nor likes to wander. To explore, to rove off from the beaten path and travel paths less traveled. The world is a wide and wild place dramatically different from the sweltering confines of the Golmore jungle. As such she can be found wandering the byways of Aldenard exploring ever outward from Limsa Lominsa. Currently her travels have taken her into the winter locked lands of Coerthas where she was not properly prepared for the cold and as such promptly turned back around to the Shroud of Gridania to better outfit herself for the horrendous cold. Though not one for staying in anyone one place long, who knows when she’ll move on to another portion of the world?

A message in a bottle? How curious... - A chance encounter of finding a stoppered bottle in a tree she was harvesting for mirror apples has piqued F’nor’s curiosity. Opening the bottle to reveal the contents to be a vague and crude map she’s avidly been tearing her way through every tree, bush and rock looking for more of these mysterious bottles. If you chance upon a madly muttering Viera diving head long into a bush or peering into every knothole on a tree, odds are good you’ve ran into F’nor. Treasure finding and the satisfaction of solving these vague scraps of parchment are one of her most favored past times. Not only does it set her off on a whirlwind adventure, usually on the spur of the moment, it usually has her go to places she’s never been. Truly a win win situation. If you have a map and are willing to share the journey with her, she’ll happily tag along for the journey alone. The trifles and baubles dug up might interest her, but she’ll happily abide by map owners claim for the rewards.

Tale as old as time - Besides seemingly wandering aimlessly and mapping her travels, F’nor’s rambling jaunts across hill and dale serve a greater purpose. Though the reason is equally vague as her meandering. She’s on the hunt for stories, folk tales, anecdotes and myths of the regions she roves through. If you’ve got some time and are willing to spin a yarn or two, F’nor’ll be more than happy to share her fire and company to listen to you.

Ramblin’ Woman  - Once primed to a subject matter, F’nor has a tendency to just... well... run at the mouth. Sometimes she’ll wax poetically. Other times she’ll just talk for what seems like hours. There’s no rhyme or reason to when she’ll set off like a chocobo in search of choice gysahl greens. Just prepare for a veritable deluge of talk about whatever topic has currently caught her fancy. That’s not to say some folks can’t get a word in edge wise, she’s attentive and will let whomever she’s bludgeoning with words have a chance to speak. She just fully intends to have her say first. At length. Much to many a persons dismay. Seemingly a rather quiet individual, she’ll often blindside a random stranger who just wanted to sit in peace and quiet by another seemingly quiet stranger. However if you’re up to the challenge of mincing words with the quirkily gregarious Viera, have at. She likes a good talk, particularly if it’s something she’s fascinated by. Truth be told, that can be just about anything. She’s an avid hoarder of information.

Absentminded Woolgatherer - Lost in thought, head in the clouds, feet off the ground. F’nor is likely off in her own little world thinking about who knows what. Caught in the rain without cloak or other rain protection, she’ll blithely wander around, gaze fixed inward as she plods on. Sometimes she’ll wander into an inn or market stall and blink in surprise and wonderment as to how she got to be where she is. Sometimes if she’s particularly caught up in her own thoughts she’ll run into you, your chocobo, that tree over there. She’ll bounce off random objects and reorient herself and go careening off until she runs into the next object in her path. Hells, she might even wander into a stream, cross it, and walk around with squelching boots without noticing what she’s done. She didn’t mean to startle you. Oh and if she doesn’t apologize, sorry. Thoughts in chaos and all that.

CONTACT INFORMATION and OOC NOTES ––– –

  ‘eyo and hello and hi and all that jazz, greetings etc. F’nor’s and old hat of mine that has been rattling around the byways for a long and long time. I’ve been role playing in a variety of different formats for... an astonishingly long time now that I think about it. Pen and Paper since I was twelve, other table top rpgs, video games and what not for a good going on twenty years now. Yes, that means I’m 32. Or turning 32 this year. I honestly stopped counting somewhere in my twenties. Honestly that’s just an excuse for me to say I forget regularly how old I am exactly. I’m in this community to have fun, to build wonderful stories. To revel in shared experience and craft truly remarkable things with you. So, why don’t you come and join me on this adventure? It’s a long road and best shared with good friends, good food and good drink.   Side note, I’m not really into ERP. Romance might happen, things develop organically. Might go the way of a pleasant night of shared company that gets a little more intimate. But I’m just flat out bad at it and even gets a bit tedious. There’s only so many ways one can write about sexual encounters before it gets repetitive. If that’s your thing, fine and good, just don’t try and drag me into it. Please and thank you.   You can find me here on tumblr on either this blog or my other inspiration blog @fnorazril. You can also get a hold of me on discord as well as Transdimensional Shambler#0179. Not to mention Balmung of FFXIV, though more often I’m on Mateus bumbling around chasing a courier.

[theonyxpath]

Let’s start serious and move towards our yearly Thanks blog at the end.

I’ve heard from a lot of you asking if the recent messages that White Wolf have posted on their social media are something that will be bad for Onyx Path. As of this writing, everything we’ve heard from over there is that it’s business as usual between our companies. We are still going to be sending projects over for approvals, they are still the ones who OK our pitches for new WW-IP projects, and we’re still running our successful Chicago By Night KS, the first licensed V5 TTRPG supplement.

So fear not, True Believers!

I mean, I just had to channel Stan Lee there, after last week’s MMN blog.

Which was, oddly enough, the least commented-on blog I think I’ve ever posted. Very strange, but I’m just assuming you were all in mourning for Stan, too.

In case you missed it last week, here is the lovely graphic our own Impish Ian Watson made to show what game lines are wholly Onyx Path‘s, the ones at the top, and which are licensed from whom:

I actually didn’t think we’d need it again so soon, but there does seem to be a fair bit of confusion out there, so feel free to point to this if you need to explain things to a friend.

And that’s one of the awesome Chicago By Night full-page pieces up there at the top, illustrated by the amazing Michael Gaydos. More Chicago Kickstarter news – we’re headed into the last week! – down below in The Blurbs!

    Trinity Continuum: Aeon art by Sam White

    A bit of related news:

One of the first times I ever heard of Matthew Dawkins, who is our Chicago By Night developer, was when he interviewed me for his YouTube channel a whole bunch of years ago. From then, his Gentlemam Gamer videos have taken deep dives into many of the White Wolf (and other) games, and were very helpful in explaining aspects of V5 during this last year.

Now, Matthew has agreed to create a series of Gentleman Gamer videos for our Onyx Path games starting with the pantheons in Scion 2nd Edition, and you’ll also be seeing Matthew in other ways too, as he helps ramp up our online gaming presence. More on that in the weeks to come!

BUT DON’T WORRY, his dulcet tones are still going to be appearing weekly on the Onyx Pathcast – which this coming Friday features Dixie interviewing Jacqueline “Jax” Bryk with a one-on-one covering not just her work with us, but throughout the TTRPG biz, and how she has become one of our industries leading lights for safe play game writing.

    Trinity Continuum: Aeon art by Marco Gozales

    And now, the thanks!

Let’s start with the newest member of our Monday Meeting team, Dixie Cochran:

I am thankful that the whole Onyx Path team gave me the opportunity to work on these books in a greater capacity this year. I am thankful that Eddy, Matthew, and Rich are always supportive and willing to answer my many questions, and that Rose Bailey recommended me for this job as she moved on to a new stage in her career. I am thankful for all of my amazing Chronicles of Darkness and Exalted developers, writers, and fans, who continue to do amazing work and be a wonderful community. I am also thankful for lovely editors and indexers, Word’s “track changes” function, and Oxford commas.

From the art and layout side of things, there are these points from Mirthful Mike Chaney, in no particular order he tells me:

Thankful our first Storypath IPs are really close to being done and ready to release.

Thankful our non WW stuff has been continually well received…

Thankful that Wraith 20 is almost done… and Scion…

Thankful my wife is still as into 40k as I am… now if I could only get her into D&D 5e.

Thankful that the midterms weren’t an utter shitshow.

Thankful that I still get to work with all of you and still get to make game books after all these years. 

Our marketing guru and developer/writer extraordinaire Monica Valentinelli shares these thoughts:

I’d like to thank fans for their continued support and enthusiasm. People are really excited for the games we make, and that’s the reason why I do what I do.

Here’s Eddy Webb, with his thanks:

I continue to be thankful for all of the fans of Realms of Pugmire.

I am thankful that Monarchies of Mau is shipping (and ahead of schedule!)

I am thankful to find so many people who are really excited about our upcoming Storypath games like Scion, Trinity Continuum, They Came From Beneath The Sea!, and Dystopia Rising: Evolution.

And I am thankful that there are still people who love and support Onyx Path Publishing.

Mighty Matt McElroy takes a long sip of coffee and sez:

I want thank everyone who has had the time and energy to introduce an Onyx Path game to someone new. Whether that is inviting someone to join your gaming group or running a demo at a convention, this past year has been an amazing opportunity to meet new gamers around the world.

Our behind-the-scenes keeper of the flame, LisaT has these thanks to share with all of you:

I am thankful again this year for the opportunity to work with so many talented and creative people. And this year I had the opportunity to meet a number of them face to face along with many fans of our products. I’m looking forward to meeting even more of you at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia in just a couple of weeks. So if you’re in town stop by and become part of what I’m thankful for for next year!

Impish Ian Watson, lord of Bloodlines modding, also does some other stuff he has thanks about:

I’m thankful that, after years toiling in the word mines, the Trinity Continuum and Æon are almost done, and we’ve done a significant chunk of the next two supplements, plus Aberrant. I can’t wait for people to see the fruits of our labours.

I’m thankful to Trinity‘s Kickstarter backers for having faith in us.

Let’s see what sort of thanks Mr. Dawkins has to share:

Yo Gentlemaniacs, it’s Thanksgiving night, and this is the happiest time of year for all the maniacs, brother! You know, me and all my little Gentsters, we got a lot of things to be thankful for. Number one: we’re thankful for being happy and very healthy. We’re thankful for having time to share with our loved ones. We’re also thankful that Gentlemania is still the strongest force in the universe. And after the turkey’s done, after the blessings are all done, I can tell you what the Gentleman is mostly happy about: it’s SURVIVOR SERIES TIME! And I’m thankful for my team of Gentlemaniacs!!

That, and Onyx Path are pretty cool.

Uhhhhh. He may be cracking under the pressure. Hard to say.

From me:

I sometimes sit at my desk, stunned by the realization that I still get to do this after all these years and I’m thankful for that – a lot! Thanks to our creative freelancers who continue to find delightful new ways to verbally and visually describe our game worlds, and our full-time folks who orchestrate all this rampant creativity into the formats and pages that we all love to read and play. Thanks to all of our associated partner companies that give us the reach to deliver and communicate this thing we do to all of you!

Which, of course, actually brings me to all of you and all of our community who have supported us through our growing pains, lo! these many years, and even through pains not of our choosing! Without this intricate eco-system that includes all of us and all of you, we just would not have been able to keep building all our game lines and worlds!

Thank you.

Many Worlds, One Path!

  BLURBS!

KICKSTARTER:

Lo the darkness that lies like a pall over Chicago.

The V5 Chicago By Night Kickstarter has passed 200% funding and continues to knock through Stretch Goals like the El through a sleet storm! Congrats to the whole team and all our backers, as we continue to build the Chicago Folio with Cam, Anarchs, and Independent sections and the Let The Streets Run Red Chronicle Collection, as well as activate additional projects too!

We’d be thrilled if you’d give it a look here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/chicago-by-night-for-vampire-the-masquerade-5th-ed/description

And here is a Q&A Matthew and several of his writing team held on his Gentleman Gamer YouTube channel that goes into a lot of their thinking about Chicago By Night and then they answer questions from the chat: https://youtu.be/v8YbbzEPuiI

  Next up, we’re working on the Kickstarter for They Came From Beneath the Sea! (TCFBtS!), which has some very different additions to the Storypath mechanics we’ll be explaining during the KS.  They take an excellent 50’s action and investigation genre game and turn it to 11! Our current plan is to start on Dec 18th but run it extra long into January!

  ELECTRONIC GAMING:

      As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is both rolling and rocking!

Here are the links for the Apple and Android versions:

http://theappstore.site/app/1296692067/onyx-dice

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onyxpathpublishing.onyxdice&hl=en

Three different screenshots, above.

And our latest, the dice for Werewolf: The Forsaken 2e:

  ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue you bought it from. Reviews really, really help us with getting folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Endless Ages Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Rites of Renown: When Will You Rage II (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Ascension: Truth Beyond Paradox (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: The God-Machine Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Curse of the Blue Nile (Kindle, Nook)

Beast: The Primordial: The Primordial Feast Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: Of Predators and Prey: The Hunters Hunted II Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: The Poison Tree (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Songs of the Sun and Moon: Tales of the Changing Breeds (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: The Strix Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Forsaken: The Idigam Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Mage: The Awakening: The Fallen World Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Masquerade: The Beast Within Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Werewolf: The Apocalypse: W20 Cookbook (Kindle, Nook)

Exalted: Tales from the Age of Sorrows (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Tales of the Dark Eras (Kindle, Nook)

Promethean: The Created: The Firestorm Chronicle Anthology (Kindle, Nook)

Demon: The Descent: Demon: Interface (Kindle, Nook)

Scarred Lands: Death in the Walled Warren (Kindle, Nook)

V20 Dark Ages: Cainite Conspiracies (Kindle, Nook)

Chronicles of Darkness: Strangeness in the Proportion (Kindle, Nook)

Vampire: The Requiem: Silent Knife (Kindle, Nook)

Mummy: The Curse: Dawn of Heresies (Kindle, Nook)

  OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the Screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there!

https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

And we’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

  Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

Here’s the link to the press release we put out about how Onyx Path is now selling through Indie Press Revolution: http://theonyxpath.com/press-release-onyx-path-limited-editions-now-available-through-indie-press-revolution/

And you can now order Pugmire: the book, the screen, and the dice! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=296

    DRIVETHRURPG.COM:

This Wednesday is a cornucopia of delicious choices!

Featuring: electronic wallpapers previously only available to Kickstarter backers for Changeling: The Dreaming 20th, W20 Shattered Dreams, V20 Beckett’s Jyhad Diary, Pugmire, Dark Eras, and Prince’s Gambit on DTRPG!

Followed up by Monarchies of Mau symbol t-shirts on our Red Bubble store, as a lead-in to next week and the release of Mau in PDF and PoD versions to the public!

  CONVENTIONS!

Rich, Lisa, Matt, Eddy, Dixie, Danielle, and other Onyx Path writers and developers will be at PAX Unplugged in Philly, November 30th – December 2nd running demos of Scion, Monarchies of Mau, Exalted, and more! http://unplugged.paxsite.com/

Start getting ready for our appearance at MidWinter this January in Milwaukee! So many demos, playtests, secret playtests, and Onyx Path Q&As you could plotz!

  And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM FAST EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

C20 Novel (Jackie Cassada) (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Scion Ready Made Characters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Jumpstart (Scion 2nd Edition)

Geist2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Redlines

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Witch-Queen of the Shadowed Citadel (Cavaliers of Mars)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

  Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

  Development

Hunter: the Vigil 2e core (Hunter: the Vigil 2nd Edition)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Night Horrors: Shunned by the Moon (Werewolf: The Forsaken 2nd Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

CofD Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

  Manuscript Approval:

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Wr20 Book of Oblivion (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

  Editing:

Signs of Sorcery (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Aeon Aexpansion (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

C20 Players’ Guide (Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Adventures for Curious Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

In Media Res (Trinity Continuum: Core)

Tales of Excellent Cats (Monarchies of Mau)

  Post-Editing Development:

Ex Novel 2 (Aaron Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

  Indexing:

    ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE:

  In Art Direction

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – Sketches coming in, and they look good.

Geist 2e

The Realm – Fulls contracted. Talking to Gong and Gunship about availability during holidays.

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

Chicago By Night – KS moving along.

C20 Player’s Guide – Contracted.

Aeon Aexpansion

They Came From Beneath the Sea! – Getting more KS art since we have a little time, gonna start on KS assets.

Lost 2e Jumpstart – Art contracted – sketches trickling in.

EX3 Lunars – KS art contracted.

Signs of Sorcery – Contracted – sketches trickling in.

  Marketing Stuff

  In Layout

M20: Gods and Monsters – With Josh, progressing.

Pugmire Roll of Good Dogs and Cats

  Proofing

Scion Hero – Pre XX errata fixes.

Scion Origin – Corrections are in.

Ex3 Dragon Blooded

CtL2 Jumpstart – Awaiting more corrections.

Trinity Core

Trinity Aeon

  At Press

Monarchies of Mau and Screen – And dice and buttons, all shipped to backers. Waiting for PoD proofs.

Wraith 20th – Fixing some issues with the front cover emboss. Everything else good to go though.

Wraith 20 Screen – Printing.

Scion Dice – At Studio2.

Lost 2e Screen – Printing.

Scion Screen – Printing.

Changeling: The Lost 2e – Printing.

Fetch Quest – Proof coming this week.

Exalted 3rd Novel – Out to backers, getting errata.

VtR Guide to the Night – Inputting errata and prepping for PoD.

PtC Tormented – I think we hit errata shutdown on Wednesday.

  TODAY’S REASON TO CELEBRATE: 

Thanksgiving! Not necessarily the “school” holiday of pilgrims and first winters and all that, but the holiday of togetherness and actually looking at how things are in your life and being glad (thankful) for the good parts and the parts that you learned from. And MST3K new season dropping on Turkey Day!