#I'm very sorry mobile users

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Just scrolling through your blog (loving all the AU's by the way) and I gotta say, I'm not sure I understand the full on hatred Freddy and Gregory are getting (although I feel like I should mention that the GGY story does heavily imply that Freddy is specifically more involved in protecting "Dr. Rabbit" than the other animatronics are, even though his code is found in them as well.) I haven't gotten the full details of what your version of sb and ruin is (you've written a lot and it's all great) but if it's anything like how the games played out? Then their biggest crime is not going back to repair the other glamrocks once the pizzaplex shut down.

Gregory had to face each animatronic on his own, a little kid against a giant robot wanting to kill him. The excessive force makes sense. Especially since they ARE robots and can be repaired. Sure it would still effect them given how sentient they are but the damage he did to them was a lot less permanent than what they could have done to him. Yeah he owes them an apology but he has more reason to be wary of them than they have of him. And Freddy? Yeah he probably could have done more but at the end of the day his one goal was keep Gregory safe and get him out of there. All he did was let himself be upgraded.

As for Cassie? Personally, I'm of the view that the moment Gregory gets cut off by the mimic in the elevator he is booking it to the pizzaplex, mimic be damned. He's waking Vanessa, unplugging Freddy from the charging port and dragging them there. Sure it's Roxy who opens the lift doors to check on her, she's already down there, but I'm certain it's Gregory and the others who find a way to get them out, all while Gregory is begging for her to be okay because this is EXACTLY what he wanted to avoid. He's probably having a breakdown, the moment he sees Cassie is okay he'd probably collapse and hug her and Cassie would be understandably suspicious but his reaction is not what she'd expect which would catch her off guard.

Because, here's the thing I think people overlook or maybe just don't see fit to mention, Gregory had no reason to wait for Cassie to get into the lift before dropping it. If he wanted to trap the mimic down there he could have disabled it beforehand. If he wanted to tempt the mimic into the shaft and then drop the elevator on top of it? He could have waited until Cassie got out at the top and then done it, the increased height would have definitely done more damage to it. Though considering how it tosses a forklift so hard it imbeds itself into the cave wall? When Roxy had a hard time lifting one off her? This thing is much stronger than a regular animatronic and could probably survive that easily.

The mimic on the other hand? Needs Cassie dead, has been mimicking Gregory all night and has access to the systems through the network once Cassie disabled MXES for good. It didn't need the concrete wall destroyed, it could have left through the other side of the room and went for the elevator shaft the moment Cassie turned off the computer. But it didn't. Because with Cassie as a witness it loses its chance to disappear without people knowing about it. If Cassie escapes she can cut it off, she's the only one in the Plex capable of accessing both the V.A.N.N.I network and tampering with the security nodes. If she gets out she can turn them back on. If she's dead then the mimic can be long gone before anyone else with that ability arrives.

(sorry for the ramble, once I got started I couldn't stop.)

You're good on the rambling lmao I'm gonna go through this paragraph by paragraph to make sure I get everything for you

I completely understand why you'd think I hate Freddy and Gregory given what me and @/jellycreambloodlust (affectionate) have talked about a lot lately. I don't actually hate either of them and I don't think I'd ever take a story in the direction of killing either of them, but ya know, it's all in good fun. I'd kill off my favourites if it was fun too lmao I absolutely don't hate either of them at all I promise. I've also not read GGY and since it's written by Andrea Cradenza-Tubehell Waggener, there's a very slim chance I ever will. I've read the wiki summary of the story though so I kind of know what goes on in it, I just don't know the details and stuff, ya know?

Interesting to know Freddy is implied to be protecting Doctor Rabbit though! I was thinking about this a little bit ago and that was my guess on how Freddy would have been on Gregory's side during he events of SB if you considered GGY to be canon. That's cool, I'm glad I got that one right! Anyway!

In terms of Gregory, I don't see much fault with his actions to be fair. You're absolutely right, this is a kid in a giant pizzaplex full of animatronics that want to kill him. It's a fairly reasonable response, and tells us a bit about how he thinks when he has to handle big problems. If you look at it from the lense of him being recently freed from Glitchtrap, it makes even more sense for him to do that, as he knows what each one of them is capable of and the less weapons Glitchtrap and Vanny have at their disposal, the better. It also explains why he chose to save Vanessa and how he knew what to do, and we already know Freddy is his favourite so of course he'd choose him to protect him.

From the other side though, you can kinda understand why they'd all be upset. It's not their fault they're being controlled, and before Ruin came out, I said they would probably not blame Gregory for it at all once things calmed down again. Having damaged body parts is completely different to an animatronic than it is to a human, yeah, but you also have to consider how these parts were taken. Roxy is a racer, so she was hit with a go-kart. Chica loves food, so she was crushed in the kitchens with all the food waste. Monty is said to stand by the Lucky Bucket a lot, so he falls from the Lucky Bucket. The things that mean the most to them, are the things that got them destroyed. Then some kid comes along and takes their strongest parts away to stick them on Freddy. They're not saved like Freddy is, they're seen as weapons, tools and opportunities, which would really fucking suck.

They have a right to be upset about it I think. Gregory isn't entirely in the wrong for doing it either. It's a complicated situation, especially if you remember that Roxy is a security node, who most likely was keeping the Raceway and Salon shut on purpose, and was potentially using those eyes to keep track of Mimic through the floor. We can't be sure that was the purpose of the eye upgrade, but the provided reason for it doesn't add up and the logs surrounding Roxy are worded as if they're just grasping at straws to explain her behaviour. With a threat like Mimic in play, taking Roxy's eyes is probably not a great plan! Can't really blame Roxy for being pissed off about that one!

Neither side here is really at fault given the circumstances, and I think if the animatronics were to be freed, they'd have come to that conclusion on their own too. I'm with you on Gregory's actions being understandable, I agree with you there. I definitely don't hate or blame him for it. I'll get to Freddy in a minute though.

Yeah I don't think Gregory dropped Cassie either. It would be an interesting story regardless whether he did or not, but you're right. It absolutely doesn't make sense for him to have done it. The way he talks even changes part way through that ending dialogue, I don't think it was him. Especially now that I know there's a staffbot encounter that Gregory sometimes talks through in an attempt to reach Cassie. It just doesn't make a lot of sense

When we've been talking about it lately, it's been almost entirely from Cassie's perspective. Unless Cassie figures it out, she's probably going to believe that Gregory is the one that dropped her right at the end. That's the scenario most of the recent talking has been about. Cassie believing it was Gregory and trying to get justice for that. Like I said, it's all in good fun, ya know?

I feel Cassie is pretty smart, and the question of why would stay on her mind for a very long while. I think with some help, she would be able to come to the conclusion that it probably wasn't Gregory, but in a situation like that, I don't think anyone could be one hundred percent sure. I mean, there's always going to be some doubts, right? She was betrayed twice in like... ten minutes by the same voice after all, I think that's fair enough.

And to consider it from Gregory's side? That's a hell of a situation to be in, I'm not sure how you'd come back from that. I mostly mess around with scenarios where Gregory has no idea Cassie is down there at all, possibly even getting an alert weeks later as if it's just happened, so Cassie not trusting him is completely out of nowhere for him. It's an interesting scenerio to have Gregory, Vanessa and Freddy show up to help too and there's so many ways that one can go, but I feel like with Roxy being a security node, they maybe can't actually get down there now. The MXES isn't completely offline now, right? That door won't open until it's offline. So now they'd have to scramble to try and see what's going on and try and get in contact to help from up top which is probably hell on earth

I mean, knowing what she does, would Roxy even let them connect to her? Probably not! Which also probably doesn't help! It probably feels like they've gotten no closer to actually helping than when they were back home trying to get in contact with Cassie! Awful! Hell of a situation! I feel like Gregory's first thought would be to bust the door down though which probably ends with another forklift stuck in a wall or nearly flattening Roxy as she gets out with Cassie, but he's trying his best! He's got to do something, right? It's better than feeling helpless!

Now uh... well then there's Freddy. I want to start by saying once again, I don't hate him, and I haven't read GGY.

With that said, if you look at what he does in the game, including all of the aspects of him that are clearly just there for game design purposes... He's to blame for almost everything. Unless he is still acting on whatever GGY programming he has, he's to blame for a good chunk of the game. And honestly? I find him more interesting in this light.

To briefly explain, he just does basically nothing. This is a game design thing, I'm aware, but as this is usually framed as a choice on his part, I choose to treat it as such. He leaves Gregory alone for the vast majority of the night unless specifically called on to help. He is fully aware that the others aren't acting as they usually do. There's no way he doesn't know what happened to them as he's actively helping Gregory do this stuff. He chooses when it's okay to make exceptions to the rules, and when not to, for example, he takes Gregory to the staff tunnels where he shouldn't be, but won't open the VIP door for him to leave unless he has a VIP pass, same with the loading docks etc etc. In this situation, he is the only responsible adult available, with the task of keeping this child safe and getting him out of the pizzaplex, and he consistently chooses not to do anything unless Gregory specifically asks for help.

What I'm saying is that the game would have been over in five minutes if he'd actually been trying to help.

Which is interesting to think about! Why is he making these decisions? Does he not feel as if the others are a big enough threat to him? Is it habitual as he often doesn't follow kids around during the day given there's way too many to do that for? Is he doing something else that we don't know about? How does he feel about the others if he's prepared to leave the Pizzaplex at a moments notice like that? He clearly loved Bonnie, so is it all to do with a sense of grief? That it doesn't really matter anymore now that Bonnie isn't there or something? And fuck, how does everyone else feel, knowing that Freddy didn't even once stop Gregory from destroying them and didn't once try to help them? How do they feel knowing that he left them when they needed help?

Even factoring in GGY's coding being a potential reason for this stuff, if the actual, untampered with Freddy is in there, knowing what's going on, is he trying desperately to stop it? Is he trying to help? Or is he just sort of nodding along like "yeah that makes sense"? Or has he just given up completely? Who's to say?

So I definitely don't hate him. I won't say he's my favourite or anything because he absolutely isn't, but I don't hate him. He's interesting to me, just not in a way the majority of the SB fandom seems to like, which is fair enough. We all like what we like and we all have our own interpretations and stuff, there's no wrong way to have fun, right?

I hope this clears some stuff up and I'm also sorry for rambling lmao

tl;dr:

I don't hate Gregory at all, don't blame him for his actions in SB and don't think he dropped Cassie in Ruin. I blame Freddy instead.

[gearbit]

Catch the Wave by Kz (livetune) - 16th Anniversary Fan Film

Art/Animation - Omutatsu Movie - Eneki Remix - Guiano Vocaloid Edit - Bibi

[vargaslovinghours]

Hello, you are feeding my newly formed Vargas addiction and I am pleased. May I have Scriabin being a lil bitch? He is one and we all know it.

Glad to hear it lol ♫

Sorry but you just missed Requestober this year and I’m on hiatus for the moment :P I always encourage going through the backlog though, because luckily, he is always a little bitch ♥

[natewriteslol]

housewardens with a reader who, despite being magicless, she is very good at robotics and after a few months she can create a robot that can use elements in combat too?

Reader is gender neutral!

Riddle:

-He honestly was highly impressed that you found a solution since you're magicless and the redhead wondered if you could possibly combine both magic and your inventions

-A little bit wary of another tech genius because of the incidents surrounding Idia but he quickly corrects himself because he shouldn't make assumptions just on the basis you two share a talent

-After seeing your inventions perform in battle he is giving you all of your kudos (and is a lil intimidated) and often tells others about your endeavors regarding your gadgets if your name pops in the conversation

-As for your robot, as much as he doesn't exactly hate it BUT is a little bit scared however M.O.R.T.O.N (Mobile Object-Oriented Technological Operator Network) has done so many useful things that he couldn't help but let him live in peace and not chew you out but please make sure you control M.O.R.T.O.N and you will have no problems

-Overall, thinks you're really cool and admires you because you are stellar at something he has no clue about :)

Leona:

-Polar opposite of Riddle and shamelessly assumes you would be like Idia because he is not at all messing around and assuming that you're harmless

-Especially after seeing how your gadgets were able to perform against magic users, he is very wary of you openly and asks Ruggie to keep an eye on you

-And I'm not gonna lie to you Y/N... once seeing M.O.R.T.O.N... he is not pleased whatsoever because he is enormous AND can control elements...you're done because that isn't something to joke with

-But eventually, he warms up to you? Kinda? Warm is more like lukewarm since he sees how you and Idia are absolutely not like one another and that you genuinely want to help others with your assets. Especially since your little doohickeys have gotten him out of a pickle or two

-Lowkey defends if you're getting flack for your hobby and is more open to robotics now

Azul:

-Another person who is wary about your contraptions because of Idia, he is NOT trying to get kidnapped and experimented on again

-However, he sees your technological prowess and begins to start cooking (never let him cook pls)

-Azul could absolutely use your tech as a way to benefit himself and his business from cooking, serving, managing and it would cut costs in half! All he had to do was to get them from you after all there was no way you would notice since you had an abundance of different gismos

-You did notice.

-So you sent M.O.R.T.O.N after the Monstro Lounge to retrieve your gadgets, which in return you got a bouquet and apology which you decided to forgive since Azul felt genuinely sorry for disrespecting you

-Which allowed you to come to a compromise of giving gadgets safe for Azul to use and a cash payment to you

Kalim:

-Number one fan honestly

-He sees virtually no problem because you're such a nice person and all of your gadgets have been helpful on their adventures and although Kalim is airheaded, he still understands people's concerns

-But he always defends you and tries to reason with them especially because M.O.R.T.O.N has done so much to defend the school which includes the haters of your inventions

-Secretly also tries to play with M.O.R.T.O.N and talk to him despite you telling him that he's not going to respond but the white haired boy SWEARS on the Great Seven the robot understands him

Vil:

-Again, another person who is wary because of the whole Idia situation (I'm sorry Y/N 😞)

-But be warms up to your helpful and kind nature quickly and realizes that you're just trying to be innovative rather than a menace to society and wanting to take over the Earth :)

-Especially when you use your sweet little bots to deliver him some gifts and other things, he finds it very endearing

-As for M.O.R.T.O.N he is both impressed and a bit spooked BUT he thinks that it's super cool that you're able to be so powerful as a non-magic user! Adapting to ones environment is one of the things Vil finds extremely admirable and a skill those who want to succeed need to possess

Idia:

-...secretly a little bit obsessed with you guys share the same hobbies because he has never met someone who is just as invested in robotics as him

-He mainly admires you from afar however that does not last for long as it was only a matter of time before you met the infamous Idia who kinda gave robot mechanics a bad rep on campus

-But genuinely you were so amazing and nice to him and even decided to ask for his advice on certain areas and he was really happy

-Eventually once you guys become close enough Idia would open up about how he was a bit intimidated by you and striking up a conversation, but your guys' shared interest really allows you to connect and open his shell a bit

-Absurdly impressed with M.O.R.T.O.N as he had always thought of the concept but never created a robot that could control elements

-You guys eventually team up to create robots that make campus life a bit easier, making you a bit of money and you two become better friends and repair some damages from...previous incidents involving robots that won't be named

Malleus:

-Doesn't really care about the judgement from other people and is a major influence into people not projecting what happened with Idia

-"The Child of Man is their own seperate person, if we judged every person who has a slight similarity to another, there would be no progress nor acceptance in this world."

-Finds your hobbies very fascinating and intently listens about your inventions from your homeworld "Earth" and how they connect to your inventions present in their universe

-A big fan of M.O.R.T.O.N and he is extremely proud of his friends' talent that could rival magic users

-Is always lending an ear to listen to your latest breakthrough or gizmo you have cooking up :)

[felassan]

Snippets. 🐺💜 DA:TV spoilers under cut.

Kala has heard rumors that there may be merch pins coming of Assan and Manfred [source]

(Previous comment for context - Dev Brenon: "You can sprint, there is also a dash/dodge move you can do for short range mobility - though I don't tend to use that much when exploring.") A user asked on this, "Will it be a push-to-sprint key, a sprint toggle, or other (to be explained later)?". Brenon replied with some more detail on this feature: "Right now it's a pseudo-toggle, you press it once (while moving) to start sprinting and then as long as you keep moving you keep sprinting. If you let got of the movement controls, you stop sprinting." [source: the official BioWare Discord]

User: "if a choice i made 30 hours ago affects me.. best believe im restarting the whole game". Brenon: "Uh oh''. User: "UH OH???". Brenon: "I mean... we do have "decision saves" before big choice moments, but there are still a bunch that depend on a whole mess of stuff you've done earlier... so... yeah... RIP :P" [source: the official BioWare Discord]

They hope to get a bunch more BioWare-themed emojis for the Discord [source: the official BioWare Discord]

Trick Weekes has been signing DA:TV stuff with "with love and appreciation for your patience" [source]

Carly: "theres so much id love to say, but i unfortunately can't , that being said, i hear y'all and love working on a game for such passionate people and hope y'all enjoy when it does come out 💕" [source]

Actor signing attendees report that it was amazing and that we're in good hands with this acting cast. You can see more photos from it here [source].

Dev signing attendees report that it was packed. You can see another photo from it here [source]. and here is a photo of the sign from it [source]

Another photo of the booth [source]. Sometimes at the booth the devs had a Solas statue [source] (this is done by Dark Horse). I think Dark were also displaying somewhere a Varric and a Cassandra statue too, and I think these were the ones that Dark Horse do too (Varric, Cass), but I can't find the image or video where I originally saw this anymore, sorry >.<

The companion tarot-style art from the website was shown on the big screen at the acting panel [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee: John Epler said that this is the best group of companions written because of their relationships with each other, not just Rook. They can become friends, lovers, rivals with each other. Zach thought that Lucanis was the coolest character he gets to play. It sounds like he mentioned Illario [I'm assuming] by name. Lucanis is quick-witted. Neve is a bit of a romantic. Jessica found voice acting freeing as it felt like playing pretend when she was little. In her role, she felt like she could embrace being very powerful. Neve is passionate. On Emmrich, "wisdom, calm to group, warm-hearted, loves learning". Emmrich has some fantastic lines. Along with working with Varric to track down Solas, Harding has also been working with Rook and Neve. Ali talked a lot about how much collaboration there is between BioWare, the actors and the material they're given to work with. Harding has been through some things and has more of an edge to her, but they can't talk about it! [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Jessica Clark: "A lot of the time, we kind've really all bonded in the way that we were intended to, you know? And that's why we've been so excited all week and all weekend, because we can be like 'oh my god you're here', 'oh my god you're here, you're here, you're here', finally, you know? You know, I know on a lot of projects people are like 'oh yeah, we're all like, we love each other', but we really do, we really really do, and it just evolved so organically, and there was something magical about it just being our voices in the beginning, you know, like, sort've taking anything else out of the [equation.]" [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Nick Boraine: "I think I've been preparing for Emmrich all my life. I was very attracted to the role initially, and I was so, I was so, I was overjoyed when I got it, because I think it was, the writing of Emmrich is really fascinating, it's this, this man that is obsessed with death, on one hand, but on death as a comfort, death as a transition, death as something that is not scary, and that, that ability to enable people to transition and the investment that he gives in that sphere, which we don't give in our own lives. I was immediately attracted to that and I thought that that was, I'd never seen that before, so to go in these two ways, to talk about death and to talk about it in a way that is kind, and that the transition becomes a kind transition, that was fascinating to me, and I think, will be fascinating to you too." [source]

A few more details from the actor panel, from an attendee - Zach Mendez: "[before they started shooting] I did kinda get an idea about how passionate the fanbase was, which made me really excited. I don't wanna say nervous, because I don't say I'm nervous, I say I'm excited. And so, before the first day of shoot, I was very excited. And luckily, you know, Ashley and them, didn't have me do too much on the first day. I played a lot of darkspawn. I darkspawn-ed my ass off, though. I want you guys to know, I really. And when I got home, I thought to myself, 'Zach, did you darkspawn hard enough?' I was just worried. You know, and within an hour I got texts from Jeff, who's a part of this cast as well, and G, telling me what a great job I did, and then I'll never forget, I got a call from Ali Hillis down here, and I'll remember that conversation, because for thirty minutes she made me feel like I was welcome in the Dragon Age family, and it gave me so much confidence moving forwards. So thank you, Ali, so much, I still remember that." [source]

[Character limit text break!]

Varric and Manfred: "not romanceable" [source] ?

Neve mostly eats deep-fried fish [source], it makes up the bulk of her diet [source]

Bellara loves pan-fried fish [source]

John on SDCC: "thank you to everyone who came out to the signing. thank you to everyone who came out to the panel. thank you to everyone who said hi, swung by the booth, or otherwise expressed how excited you were about the game. absolutely amazing experience. was wonderful to see you all" [source]

There's a lot of lovely concept art for DA:TV [source]

Trick Weekes: "One of the things I was proudest of was inviting leads from other teams/departments into writing peer reviews and having them later say, "Wow, those critiques went deep, but everyone stayed professional and compassionate the whole time." My junior-most writer knew she could tell me I was wrong." [source]

Violet: "As we get closer to DATV, I just want to send out a reminder Var lath vir suledin 😭" [source]

Derek on the casting department: "They really did an incredible job! Every single one of these folks deliver such amazing performances." [source]

Derek: "a lot of great talent doing awesome stuff from KY nowadays. I count myself extremely lucky that I can work on such an amazing project with such a wonderful team straight from my home state!" [source]

Michael Gamble: "i know a few people on the DA team, and i want them to have a nice time." [source]

User, on the recent word count news: "Sooooo , when will I (we) get to hear all these words". Michael: "hopefully when the game is out." [source]

User, on the news of no microtransactions: "This is great news that I hope survives past the review period". Michael: "it will" [source]

User: "What class have you been playing as in DAV mostly?" Michael: "mage. i light everything up. everything." [source]

DAMP / multiplayer mode is not returning [source]

Ghil: "Im very sorry for the teasing tweet but to be very real, i really miss playing veilguard and to stop THERE and have to wait over a year is killing me tbh. Im bothered. My crops are dying. I am withering. I want to know what happens" [source]

A user asked a question around if there are dialogue options and choices available in the game that indicate a mixed or less favorable positive perspective on Solas. Bria, a Councilmember, shared: "As an Egg Cracker, I was pretty satisfied with what we saw. I don’t want to go into spoilers but I was able to play my Rook the way I wanted when it came to the Sad Egg Man." [source]

User: "would you be able to tell us if you can change your perspective while in a fight? Those circles we saw on the video were kind of hard to see from that angle". Ghil: "Like a bit- no promises but they told us a lot of stuff like that would be in an accessibility feature. I get pretty motion sick so I remember talking about backing it up a bit." [source]

Kala: "The amount of gasping, screaming, @/ElbenherzArt having to lay on the floor, @/hattedhedgehog and @/chaosbria having to stand up from excitement and us just being in shock the whole time. Yeah 🔟 😎" [source]

Kala shared that there are moments in the game that she knows people will freak out about [source], that in terms of marketing, she knows that the devs have more things planned [source], and that she found Bellara endearing, despite not usually vibing with optimistic and energetic characters [source]

Kala shared that she feels that the Lighthouse is way cooler than Skyhold [source]

Also, in early May 2024 Zach appeared on a podcast:

Zach: "I'm very excited because it looks like at the end of this year, the video game that I've been working on for about three or so years is gonna come out, and I'm really excited for that. I'm gonna come back on and I'm gonna promote that, you guys, you will have no choice, I'm coming back on." Host: "Does the video game feature dicks?" Zach: "I can't say too much about it, but it, it doesn't ignore dicks, you know what I mean? It doesn't, you know what, there might be, yeah, there's, it's a sexy video game, it's a hot video game." Host: "So are you a character?" Zach: "I'm a character in the video game." --- Zach: "I'm gonna come back on to promote the hell out of that, because I'm really excited about that. I'm still working on that, and that's been, like, I'm super grateful for that, because that's been going on for like three years and it's been consistent work." --- Zach: "I'm super excited about it [...]" "Other people help you make really amazing things, when humans get together they make pretty stuff, and this game looks amazing"

[source (acting career segment. source link isn't work-appropriate. I don't recommend the podcast)]

[ms-demeanor]

Hi, sorry to bother you, but we spoke a few months ago about Tumblr Support’s response to seizure and eyestrain inducing ads. And while it is good to report that they’ve added a feature to report those ads, I wanted to ask for some advice

I’ve messaged staff no less than ten times about this feature not working. The same ads show up on my dash, over and over again, no matter how many times I report them. I’m up to date with my software, and still I’m put in danger by being on this site, and I can only use mobile as I do not have a desktop

Should I just quit tumblr at this point? Staff really don’t seem to care. I tried my best to give them my patience, but this has been disappointing for months now, and none of it is getting solved regardless of how much people message them. Is there anything we can actually do about it? Nobody outside our sphere is taking notice

Some of this unfortunately just has to do with the way that ads are served. Reporting the ad will get that instance of an ad removed after a certain number of reports, but depending on how that ad is served, you might be seeing the same flashing visual ten times and the ad system considers it a different ad each time (think of it like ads on a bus - you are reporting the ad on bus 249, but not the ad on bus 250 even though they are showing you the same image; sometimes the flashing image will be one campaign - so all on bus 249 - and it won't get served to you again, sometimes the flashing image will be scattered in a dozen different campaigns with different names and metadata perhaps with the explicit purpose of getting past user reports because advertising is a garbage industry full of horrible shitheads). Unfortunately I'm not sure there is anything that can be done beyond reporting the individual ads in terms of getting them removed; online advertising is generally minimally supervised by humans, which is how you end up with things like starvation-bait diet ads getting blasted all over the site with a terrible history of pro-ana networks.

Since you're using tumblr exclusively on mobile, it seems like your two other options are:

Turn off autoplay which should (in theory) stop any video (including ads) from playing in the app unless you allow it. Here's how to do that on iOS and Android.

Use the app exclusively from your mobile browser with an adblock enabled (won't work for iOS, changes the user experience pretty drastically).

There's one possible other option that I am not *recommending* I am simply stating that it is an option to explore: you could look into an adblocker like AdLock that does global video blocking on a mobile OS. The reason I'm not recommending it is that these kinds of adblockers cost money and are not known for being very reliable. It is something to investigate more if you are out of all other options

It seems likely that you've already turned off the autoplay, so that's probably not useful advice. If you haven't tried using tumblr in a mobile browser with ads blocked, that might be worth giving a shot before you give up on the app as a whole.

It's a really shitty situation and I'm sorry you're dealing with it.

[cripplecharacters]

hi there, i really appreciate this blog! i was wondering if you had any advice when it comes to writing characters who use mobility aids (manual wheelchair and cane) and things that are like, pet peeves or cringey to see written? other than the big ones like “wheelchair bound” or having people just grab their chair or otherwise be disrespectful. i’m thinking more “little things that make it seem like the author is clueless” lol. thank you!

Hi!

You can check out our main #mobility aids or #wheelchairs or #canes tags for the general info! If you have a more specific question, feel free to send another ask:-)

I will talk about my own cane pet peeves because oh boy:

The most glaring, obvious, author-is-so-clueless-it-hurts thing I have somehow seen multiple times is when the writer/artist doesn't understand the difference between a mobility cane and a white cane. Usually in the form of giving their blind character the same kind of stick I use for my mobility issues. Of course, a person could need both for different disabilities! That very much happens. However, it's absolutely never the case in this kind of scenario. This one is an example of a lack of basic research so bad that it circles back to being kinda funny.

The writer not knowing which side the cane would go on for the character. Obviously, in real life, there's a whole lot of hyper-specific scenarios why someone could use it the ""wrong"" way and why it would work for them specifically, some users can also use either hand for the cane; it all depends on why they use it. The problem that I have is when the writer doesn't have a single clue about any of it and just gives their character with a bad knee and nothing else the cane on the same side. Again, shows lack of basic research.

As a certified knob cane hater, I can't just not talk about them here. They're so bad. So non-functional. Don't serve their function as a mobility device because they literally aren't one! That's a fashion accessory. Unless your character has a wrist of steel and doesn't mind that the aid meant to help with stability does the exact opposite, I guess.

I know a bunch of people will disagree with me, but I think the whole sword cane thing sucks. Sorry. The only time I don't roll my eyes on this one is when the writer is also a cane user. I always felt like it checked out two tropes that I hate, the "abled character pretends to be disabled and is actually dangerous" and the "abled writer thinks mobility aids are boring and has to stick a gun in them to justify their existence".

The cane that somehow makes the user non-disabled. Sounds contradictory, I know. I mean the kind of scenario where the character is Weak and Frail™ but then they get the cane and are suddenly just fighting, running, jumping, doing god knows what. Like, did they author forget what the cane is used for? Obviously it will depend on the character's disability how much the cane mitigates symptoms, but this writing choice always feels bizarre to me. My cane is here so that I'm not in as much pain or to help my gait disorder, it certainly doesn't turn me into an abled man who just happens to have a stick in hand.

All these tired old person or similar jokes/comparisons are probably not that funny. We get it, older people use canes. It's not even cringy or whatever, it's just so unbelievably boring it's hard to react to it with anything else than an eye roll anymore.

Apologies for the extremely late reply! I hope it helps :-)

mod Sasza

[factual-fantasy]

18 Asks! Thank you!! :}} 🎪

@pink088

Guuuuurl does it look like I missed the boops? XDD

(I DID miss the super boops and revenge boops tho. I was trashed on the couch and stuck on mobile all day so I wasn't able to send any back to anyone💔💔)

Uhhhmm... oh jeez lemme try to remember-- I'm assuming you mean the order I got everyone in the game..?? Cuz other than the goofy little comics I've been drawing there isn't much of a story beyond that-

Uhhh so I started with Midori(Sprigatito) obviously, thennn... I think I caught Grim(Gastly).. then I caught Gloria(Ralts). Thenn..... arrhrhhgh I thiiiink I went looking for eevees, but I found Anastasia(Shiny Kricketot) in the process and kept her. Then I picked one of the eevees I caught at random and kept him. Then lastly I found a Mareep(Bonnie) by surprise and kept her.

My memory is very poor but I thiiink that's mostly accurate <XDD If I misunderstood your question don't be afraid to send another ask! 😅

@pbjfox37147878

Sorry, I don't take requests.. But hey! You already got a solid concept going and some artistic talent, you can always make it yourself for free! :0

Not really.. I've had a surprising number of uncomfortable experiences with the fandom recently so I've decided to take a step back from Octonauts for a while..

@psype

:DD Thank you! I'm glad you like them! :}}

And yeah that's how I pictured her XDD its becuase I use her the most out of all my Pokémon-

Now she's not bossy and doesn't have a leader or "I'm better that you guys" complex, none of that! She's just very intelligent and usually very level headed and calm. I can imagine that she's gotten the team safely through a lot of complicated situations and her plans/advice have rarely led the group astray.

Plus since I use her so often, I like to think that she's one of the most powerful Pokémon on the team. If not the most powerful. So whenever the group was met with a great danger, Gloria was probably the one to rescue them <XD

So the whole group kind'a gravitates behind her and lets/wants her to take the lead most of the time. Especially when things get complicated or dangerous!

@nerdyskullcap (User in ask)

I took a peek at their blog, but I couldn't find any original art of the Conductor after quite a while of scrolling through that tag.. I only found reblogs of other peoples Conductor comics.. <:(

XD That description of Gloria is very fitting! I use her the most out of all my Pokémon and she rarely loses! XDD

This was a cool read, and hey! Some of my Pokémon have some of those attacks! :000 Gloria has draining kiss and Bonnie has discharge! :D

@cat7890

I'd like to think they've never fought before.. maybe some little bickering on a bad day, but never anything serious.

They have good communication and just generally get along really well and like a lot of the same things. So there's rarely conflict between them! :0

Thank you! I'm happy to hear that you like my artwork! :}}

As for your question.. I'm afraid I don't understand/cant explain it--

Lets say I wanna draw Mario. I imagine what the drawing might end up looking like in my head, what pose I'll draw him in and what colors I'll use.. And then I just.. draw it. It might not look exactly like what I pictured but its probably close enough.

If that doesn't answer your question, I'm afraid I either don't understand your question or this is just an art thing that I don't know how to explain. <:( Sorry, feel free to send another ask with more specifics if you have them!

@sleep-deprived-fr3ak

If Bill ever became a lawyer? All hope is lost XDD

@raven-bearden-the-interviewer42

I haven't really thought about the details of the crews travels and adventures.. but I'm sure that when Louis got cursed and became a crab monster? That was probably pretty memorable XD

Probably this one honestly <XD I cant think of anything more cursed off the top of my head-

@fawncr33k

I suppose that would be fine, but I wouldn't prefer it. As I've said many times,, just comments guys! Asks, reblogs, tags, how ever you type them. I just want comments.👍

@neo-metalscottic

No problem! Getting asks are usually a pick me up :}}

As for the Dry Bones thing, that's what I meant by "not sure how it fits into the AU yet" 😅 Who'd they fight? Why did they fight? When did this happen? No idea. Its all just a neat concept with no structure yet :// And beyond the awkward living situation with the Dry Bones today, I haven't really thought about how the Koopa culture has been changed by the war. That's just way too much thinking and I'm way too sick to bother trying to figure it out atm- 💀💔 But maybe someday I'll think it through!

Now Luigi, I had this idea that he had a bizarre encounter with a 1-UP and was later bitten by a Goomba. Over the span of say... 5 days or so..? Luigi slowly got weaker and weaker until eventually he became bedridden and actually died- He came back to life moments after but it still completely shook Mario and Luigi's worlds for a sec there-

I had intended to draw a comic about this, and I made a sketch about it in the past.. but around the time I thought of this idea my Mario phase was kind'a passing over so I didn't feel like making it- <XDD

As for a potential sequel, I would like to see Wario, Waluigi and Toadsworth. Not sure why Toadsworth wasn't in the first movie- he absolutely should have been. That deep voiced purple..? council..? toad guy?? Totally should have been Toadsworth :/

And my request for the Wario bros is that they are taken seriously. 😅🤣

@cherrycreamfairy

I'm doing okay so far today, thank you! :}

@littlelightfish

I haven't really figured out the details about how Tuna and Louis lost their limbs- 😅

But I'm considering that Louis lost his arm (I assume you meant his arm-) in some kind of work related accident a long time ago. It must have been a fishing accident somehow..

As for Tuna, either some kind of natural disaster/accident or.. someone "removed" them... O-O

I do not :/ I'm not even sure what homestuck is.. I thiiink its a webcomic-

@nemo-draco

Oooo! :00 It looks cool! :DD

And thank you, I'm hoping I get over this soon too 😅

[wheelie-sick]

sorry if this comes off as rude, but i just wanted to ask so i know what to do if this happens. if someone with a cane or something similar drops it, is it polite to pick it up for them as you might with any dropped object or is it rude because it's a mobility aid/extension of their body?

don't worry your question doesn't come off as rude at all! whether or not someone would want you to grab their cane is really something that will depend on the person

I've seen people say that they appreciate people picking up their cane when they drop it, I've seen people say they don't like it, and I've seen people with no strong opinion in either direction.

I know personally I don't like it when people grab my cane for me because it's an extension of my body but also because I'm immunocompromised and as a stranger I'd have no idea whether you're sick, what your hygiene habits are, etc. so I'd have to disinfect my cane.

on the other hand many cane users struggle with bending down or are downright incapable of it. for them, picking up their cane on their own might be very painful or impossible.

the best thing to do is really just ask. if you need a script, "would you like me to grab that for you?" and "do you need any help picking that up?" both work and are questions that I don't see anyone being upset by. I'd avoid picking a cane up without asking but it never hurts to offer help.

tldr; it varies a lot, ask!

other cane users are welcome to add on with their thoughts!

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

I shouldn't have to make this post but Nintendo fans are trying extremely desperately to position the company whose cock they love the taste of in a good light and are generally doing this by spreading misinformation about the legalities of emulation so let's go over a number of the fabrications shall we?

Emulation is illegal to monetize This has so far been one of the really big ones that's taken traction, usually partnered with the sister lie that yuzu was paywalling access to early access builds. These are both lies, and are untrue. yuzu is far from the only modern emulator to be monetizing itself, plenty of mobile emulators do it, but developing an emulator for money is entirely legal. We have pretty much all of our emulation precedent set thanks to a series of lawsuits in the very early 2000s thanks to Sony suing an emulator called Bleem. There's a lot to say about Bleem, but Bleem was a commercial emulator. You could buy Bleem, in stores. At no point was there ever a court decision that Bleem was wrong to do so (despite Sony's best efforts).

Emulating current generation software or hardware is illegal. This is also wrong, and kind of fundamentally misunderstands a lot when it comes to emulation. Once again, Bleem was at the time emulating current generation software. It was a generation in its twilight, but Bleem first released in March of 1999: the Playstation 2 was not out yet. The reason why current generation software does not tend to be emulated is because we do not really have the tech or processing power to do it yet. The Switch's lower specs are entirely the reason it has had an emulator developed well ahead of the PS4 or the Xbone.

Yuzu's early access build allowed people to play Tears of the Kingdom ahead of release date This one is a couple of different statements packed together, and while I'm given to believe there's a chance other games may have been playable ahead of release, this specific statement is a lie, and maybe the funniest one on the list because it's a lie that's not even backed up by the lawsuit.

The lawsuit is extremely clear in its language that it was modded instances of Yuzu that could play Tears of the Kingdom ahead of release date, not publicly accessible builds of Yuzu. Nintendo's argument here lies in Yuzu being open source: part of the lawsuit alleges that Yuzu is responsible for any and all acts of piracy done by its users, whether or not they used official or modded builds of Yuzu. This is, of course, a fundamentally fucking insane position to argue from. It is not a particularly uncharitable reading of this as an attack on open source software to begin with, as this precedent would make any developer liable for ANY illegal action taken by someone who modified their code. Supporting this, in my opinion, makes you an asshole and liable to be clocked in the fucking mouth.

4. Literally anything involving this screenshot.

I've seen this screenshot maybe three or four times with different takes on what exactly Illegal is happening here and I'm pretty content to just call it vibes at this point. Whether this is an intelligent screenshot is a different matter, but no one has been able to point to anything actually illegal being done here. There is already precedent in allowing one to make their own back-ups of software they own, even if decryption or bypassing copy protection to do so, which is a large majority of software. Switch games are not the only games that are either encrypted or have copy protection, and this is both not the earliest generation to do it AND its not the only industry that does it.

The only point of interest here is the date, which I've seen literally no one bring up, but this correlates into another point: personal piracy is still not something Yuzu is liable for. It's a dumb thing to broadcast, but it doesn't change anything material about the software.

5. Yuzu folded because Nintendo had a smoking gun

I, I just, I'm sorry this one isn't just a lie its a really naive and incompetent view of the faults of our legal system. If anything, the settlement seems to indicate the opposite. If Nintendo was sure they had Yuzu dead the rights, they wouldn't have fucking settled. Both parties need to agree to settle! Nintendo is actively interested in trying to set legal precedent that emulation is illegal, because Nintendo is great at saying obviously wrong things with a straight face.

This could be a reason, but remember, this was a civil lawsuit, not a criminal one. Civil lawsuits have a difference in how evidence is handled, and it's pretty likely that Nintendo just has more evidence than user does on account of being able to afford a larger legal team and having planned for this lawsuit in advance, regardless of how strong that evidence actually is. It's why most of the arguments in the lawsuit read kind of insane. Civil lawsuits are not handled "beyond a reasonable doubt".

There's also the fact that legal cases can be extremely expensive, even when you know you are absolutely in the fucking right. I want to link this video by James Stephanie Sterling as evidence of this. They were completely in the fucking right, and the lawsuit still took an incredible amount of time and monetary expense to argue, and that's against an opponent who you could reasonably confuse with a scarecrow. This is ultimately how Sony eventually "won" against Bleem. Bleem never lost any of its lawsuits against Sony, in fact Sony ballsed it up twice against Bleem, but Sony continued to file lawsuits against Bleem and its company over and over, until Bleem literally could not afford it and went bankrupt.

There's also the matter of precedent. If Yuzu had taken this court, and lost, it would be really bad. There's a lot in this court case that you don't want precedent leaning towards, and due to, uh, America's current political climate and judicial regime, there's a fair chance the judge would have just sided with Nintendo anyways. Settling the lawsuit, while to be entirely clear, sucks complete ass for Yuzu as they were basically eliminated, protects the sphere of emulation as a whole.

So what was the salient parts of Nintendo's case?

The parts of Nintendo's case that hold the most weight have to do specifically with the encryption keys used to de-encrypt Switch games, and how those keys interact with the DMCA. There's no legal precedence to back this up, this is thoroughly untested grounds. This is actually where the buck stops with the Bleem cases: this one never went to a judgment for Bleem and hence never established precedent.

There's a pretty reasonable chance that Nintendo had a chance to win the lawsuit off of the back of this point. This doesn't make it a guarantee, but it's the part of the lawsuit that's actually important.

What happened with the settlement?

Well Nintendo got to legally extort the Yuzu devs and their parent company for $2.4 million. This is, strictly speaking, chump change to Nintendo but I in particular hate this part of lawsuits with a passion. In addition, as per the conditions of the agreement, all copies of Yuzu that were released and in development under the purvey of the company must be destroyed, the company and its devs can no longer work on Yuzu in any way possible, and they cannot work on any other emulation software. This is why Citra also closed down by the way: it was an unfortunate emulator in the cross fire. This in and of itself, is a tragedy, since this is basically court mandated brain drain. Undoubtedly Yuzu will be forked and someone will continue development on "Zuyu", but the loss is still felt.

Why should I care? Piracy is illegal.

This is where I'm going to wax philosophical for a moment, but Frankie my dear, I do not give a damn. Nintendo could have had full legal rights to do this, and I would still be of the opinion that Nintendo's legal team are ghouls and shouldn't feel safe showing their faces. This is how I felt when Nintendo shut down Emuparadise. Whether something is illegal does not impact whether it is right. Laws exist in a state of being able to be both just, unjust, or both.

Emulation is extremely important in the preservation of gaming as an artform, something that the game industry is extremely against in all forms. There's money to be made after all, and attempts at making sure that games are available to play are often attacked and criticized. This is part of the reason I'm so against the existence of copyright law. It doesn't matter what the intent of a system is, but it does matter what the system does, and it's transferred an overwhelming amount of power into the hands of large corporations while largely screwing small creators over.

I do not believe art has a price tag to it. I do not believe that art can and should only be enjoyed by the people a company has decided to sell it too. I do not believe that companies like Nintendo should be able to throw their legal weight around and ruin people's lives. You should be able to play Mother 3 and Shin Megami Tensei without having to wait for their parent companies to decide they actually want to sell it to you.

Piracy does not inflict meaningful damages to Nintendo. Despite Nintendo's whinging, Tears of the Kingdom sold over 20 million copies in half a years time, something that we can estimate to have made Nintendo about $1.4 billion in revenue. We live in a game industry which does not care about its game devs: it's perfectly willing to underpay them, to overwork them, and to eventually let them go. Nintendo is not innocent here. They have a history of mistreating their contract workers, and I personally know that these are not the only allegations that hold water.

In short, fuck Nintendo. Pirate all Switch games until the end of time.

[autism-autobot]

LMK Angst Fic Part 5

Author's note: I think there need to be more platonic and friendship cuddling in media and in the world, so here we are. (Definitely not touch starved nope not me!)

Part 4:

It was around three in the morning in the celestial realm. Nezha had become accustomed to sleeping beside Sun Wukong every night and had even begun to enjoy it despite the reason why they started doing it. He had always thought of Wukong as a good friend and companion, which he didn't have very many of thanks to his workaholic attitude. Him and Wukong had even become quite comfortable with each other.

Nezha was aroace and Wukong still considered himself spoken for since his previous marriage had ended in death and not divorce. So it was as platonic as could be. However, they were both touch-starved and emotionally neglected as children, so there's that.

Wukong and Nezha had grown used to falling asleep snuggled up next to each other, with limbs tangled in weird form around each other. But neither of them were exactly still while they slept, so Nezha wasn't immediately concerned when he couldn't feel Wukong next to him when he flopped his arm around beside him to try and find the monkey he'd grown so close to.

Until he heard the whimpering.

That can't be good.

Nezha bolted upright in the bed. He searched the dark room for his friend's ginger-colored fur. He found it at the edge of the bed.

After clambering over to Wukong's side he gently and quietly asked:

Nezha: Wukong, are you awake? What's the matter?

SWK: *sobbing* I-it's my head! It's hurting! It hurts so bad! Please-

Nezha: Shhhhh, Wukong. It's alright. I'm here, it's okay. You'll be okay.

Nezha had become accustomed to Wukong's post-circlet migraines and various other symptoms of Wukong's traumas. It seemed as though even after Wukong had learned to cope with the physical damage done to him, his body had not, and was therefore having it's own posttraumatic episodes.

Nezha had found ways to sooth him luckily.

Nezha laid Wukong in his original position on his side of their shared bed and put an ice pack on his forehead. He then lit some incense and lightly wafted the fumes in Wukong's direction so he could smell it. That was more to soothe the monkey's panic than anything.

After laying back down beside Wukong, Nezha wrapped an arm around his chest.

Nezha: Are you comfortable enough?

SWK: I think so.....*gasps*

Nezha: Wukong what-

SWK: Hot flash. Don't worry, it's already over. Gosh, that felt bad.

Nezha: It will be alright my friend. I am here.

SWK: Thank you. For everything.

Nezha: No problem, I quite enjoy your company. I just wish you weren't in pain as often as you are.

SWK: You and me both.

~~~

They slept for a few more hours before getting up. Sun Wukong tended to be very weak during and after a migraine, as was the design of the circlet he once wore. Nezha helped him to the downstairs living room and set him up on the couch.

SWK: Ow.

Nezha: Sorry.

SWK: Nah, it's fine. I should be the one saying sorry to you.

Nezha: Whatever do you mean by that?

SWK: You're always having to help me out with stuff and getting me out of trouble.

Nezha: That is only half true. Besides, I do not mind taking care of you.

SWK: But don't you think of me as weak for needing help like this?

Nezha: No, not really. If I did, however, I'd be the world's biggest hypocrite.

SWK: What? How so?

Nezha went into the adjacent closet and pulled out a wheelchair, it was the active kind too, unlike the bulky ones you'd find in the hospital.

Nezha: I haven't told you this before, I probably should've by now but, I guess I share similar insecurities.

Nezha: I am disabled. I'm an ambulatory wheelchair user, meaning I can walk about easily at times, while others I cannot.

Nezha: That is also why I have my fire wheels, sash, and staff. They are mobility devices. Albeit they are a bit atypical.

SWK: Cool!

Nezha: Really? You think they're cool?

SWK: Well, yeah! I think that type of stuff is pretty interesting. I get why you wouldn't exactly want to show it off though.

Nezha: Thank you. Perhaps if you are ever needing some help after a migraine or other health complication, you can use one of my many wheelchairs! I hardly use most of them anymore, it's nice to have backups. Just in case.

SWK: Thanks for the offer. Maybe I'll give one a spin after I feel a little bit better. I still feel like my head will explode if I sit up.

Nezha: Alright then. I'll park this one next to you so you can have an easy transition when you are ready.

SWK: Thanks again.

Nezha: You are quite welcome.

Part 6:

[eschergirls]

Hi everybody!  

It's May (my birth month!) so it's time for another site update and to thank all our wonderful Patreon supporters!

First, we're still updating the site layout to be more user friendly.  Mobile users should have noticed that the site is a lot easier to navigate and no longer has the floating widget that blocks most of the image.  The desktop web browser layout is next to get an overhaul which I hope will make the front page more engaging.  We'll also be adding a tag cloud and a glossary and index of tags so it'll be easier for people to look through the archives. The glossary should explain what some of the terms like "boobsocks" (clothing that encases each breast separately like socks), "boob flounder" (both breasts on one side of the body), etc... mean.

If anybody has any other suggestions to improve the site's usability and readability, please let me know.  I'm very interested in feedback. 

A reminder, for those who want to follow us without using Tumblr, we have an RSS feed. (For newbies, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication and is basically a feed you can read using an RSS reader. Simply copy and paste https://eschergirls.com/rss.xml into an RSS reader and it will keep you up to date on Escher Girls!)

Second, as usual, I've been working through restoring all the broken/poorly formatted/un-alt-texted posts from the past.  That's like 10 years of posts, so it takes a while.  This month my major restorations are these 3 "Legacy of the Phoenix" Marvel Max covers which has that infamous "peeling thong" image, this Magic Knight Armageddon card of a sexy elven Spartan, and the entire "Chronicles of the Dragon Knights"/"La Geste de Chevaliers Dragons" tag which includes 2 posts that have lengthy discussions from commenters about the work and what they think of it which may or may not be interesting to people. There's also a submission and redraw of a Tetris girl by Junodog.

I'm still working my way through the Tumblr inbox backlog, so if you submitted a post a long time ago, you might see it pop up in the near future.  I'm really sorry how long it takes for me to get to older submissions, Tumblr's inbox works in reverse chronological order so things get buried really easily.  I'm also still appealing the many incorrectly flagged posts on Tumblr, but the responses are automated and arbitrary (the algorithm seems to have a hard time knowing what actual nudity is because they constantly flag single coloured full bodysuits as nudity xD ).

Anyway, now I want to thank all of the wonderful Patreon supporters.  I really appreciate the support on Patreon and Ko-Fi because it helps me keep the site independently run from having to rely just on Tumblr or any other platform, and allows us to make site upgrades and make the site more accessible to people with disabilities.  Your support helps me pay for the domain, hosting, and other upgrades. <3

So I want to give a huge sincere thank you to everybody who supported Escher Girls on Patreon in April!

Thank you so very much to:

Anne Adler Cat Mara CheerfulOptimistic  Chris McKenzie Em Bardon First Time Trek Greg Sepelak Ian Cameron Ken Trosaurus Kevin Carson Kim Wincen Leak  Manuel Dalton Mary Kuhner Max Schwarz Michael Mazur Miriam Pody Morgan McEvoy randomisedmongoose Rebecca Breu Ringoko  Ryan Gerber Sam Mikes Sean Sea SpecialRandomCast  Thomas 

And of course, thank you so much to everybody in general for reading the site, engaging with it and leaving comments, and submitting stuff to do the site.  Reading your comments often makes me laugh quite a bit, and makes running the site very worth it. :)

Thanks so much to everybody again!

Ami

If you have any issues with the site or suggestions to improve it, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know!

If you wish to support Escher Girls, you can subscribe to our Patreon at: https://www.patreon.com/ami_angelwings or donate through Ko-Fi at: https://ko-fi.com/amiangelwings.

[quillusquillus]

at this point I'm tempted to predict a future schism between mobile and desktop internet users, even more so then there is now. It used to be that there were the internet-savvy people and the non-internet-savvy people, where "non-internet-savvy" meant "doesn't know how to do anything except send e-mail at best".

These days we exist in a delightful sea of many many people existing and exchanging ideas on the internet, but more and more I see that things designed for mobile use are very much designed to make the user think as little as possible and consume as much as possible, all the classic things they said about TV numbing your brain etc etc in the pre-internet days. Basic internet skills like browser extensions, privacy controls, ad blockers, and knowing when a company's "sorry, you have to do xyz to use our site!" is unnecessary bullshit designed to make you their product, are falling by the wayside, with younger people with no computer simply not having access to that knowledge unless they explicitly go diving for it

It's pretty easy at this point to foresee a possible future that cycles back around to the "mainstream uncritical TV-watching consumers" versus "weird squirrelly computer nerds" era of the turn of the millennium, when knowing how to add animated gifs to your Geocities was rare technical knowledge and having a home computer was something only those who were kind of nerdy did. So many websites are redesigning themselves now to be the most compatible for mobile use, because that's where the bulk of users are and therefore the profits, with several websites I've used in the past (RIP DoInk) going fully app-only and becoming unusable on desktop. I'm seeing my first full-production music videos produced in vertical format, looking absurd on anything other than a phone screen. YouTube now literally has two faces: Shorts for mobile users and "classic" youtube (which also throws Shorts at you because those get more views and more profit). Sites geared to app-based use overwhelmingly censor adult content more than browser-based (in my experience), thanks in part to Apple's app store approval policies and iron grip on what you can install on your own iOS device, which also excludes all the people who want to quietly get their freak on.

Perhaps over the next decade this polarization might continue into a central hub of mainstream, corporate-controlled mobile-oriented sites that provide the main sources of knowledge and entertainment (again, we've gone back to TV), and some secondary, more "underground" hubs where the nerds and the freaks and the weirdos hang out. I mean it's already like that right now but as a certified nerd freak and weirdo who has gotten pushed away from mobile-oriented spaces it's interesting to imagine it more extreme, what the internet cultural tapestry might become, further along this path

[murumokirby360]

A vintage Motorola phone (from the 90s; "Motorola d368") [feat. my Paper Dolls]

DeviantART version → [CLICK ME!]

Hello, July. 🌧️☔ Sorry, I didn't make a promise to do some improvised item review because No. 1 - I'm still trying to find a decent GPU Card with a cheap price 🔍🤔, No. 2 - My homeland suffered from the devastating (if not deadly) typhoon⛈️🌪️🇵🇭 days ago, and No. 3 - I'm selling non-functional PC stuff that was staying on shelves for a year to make myself a decent profit and buying a new GPU card, with additional adjustments to prevent a similar tragedy. 💵🖥️ (Or maybe, I'll just buy my own laptop instead as an alternative 💻) As of now, I'm still a helper from my parents' small business without paying a salary (at the same time, I'm still looking for a suitable job. Although, its rainy season so maybe I should get a home-based job? Who knows? 🏠🧑‍💻🤔), as they are focused on earning for renovating our home.

• Nevertheless, I'll be continuing to share my family's throwback items from the past, with another Mobile Phone of the 90s. This right here is the "Motorola d368" 🇺🇸📲 released in 1999 during the peak of Motorola above's popularity competing against Nokia and other cellphone brands, not to mention that their brick-shaped CPs will soon be decreased into small and slimmer packages. I mean, take a look when I compare it with my current Honor 8C 🇨🇳📲smartphone. While the specs of this phone were nothing new and a 90s spec standard, what's special to me was my mom used to be a "Motorola" user who owned two phones (including this one) before she switched to "Nokia" 🇫🇮📲 in the early 2000s. Furthermore, I could never forget the ringing sound when either received an SMS text or someone's calling from her former Motorola phone. And does it have games on her Moto (a nickname for "Motorola") phone? As far as I know, Nah. 🎮👾❌ Playing pixel games on her old solid Nokia phone(s) never gets old (than a boring and modern revamped Nokia phones). Nowadays, the Motorola brand had brought back to death after its bankruptcy 🇨🇳📲, and it doesn't have the popularity as before (save it for their iconic "Motorola RAZR", which is pretty rad to look at and owing it, to this very day), meanwhile, both "Samsung" 🇰🇷📲 and "Apple" 🇺🇸📲 (as well as other phone brands that we're budget-friendly) dominate each other with their impressive future-proof specs and features, since 2011; That's 13 years, and its already celebrated 10 years of rivalry. But, what about Nokia? 🤔Well, it had a similar fate as Motorola. So yeah... 🤷‍♀️

• As for this phone, you could see it already a "relic" status, with a missing antenna that went broken, the battery for this phone was long gone, and the phone itself was yet another decommissioned much like the previous old Nokia I'd already tackled on Sept of 2023 [CLICK ME!]. Well, your spotlight moment is over and its time for you to go back where you belong; the box of family memorabilia. 😊🤗

Well, that’s all for now! And the end of my topic.

If you haven’t seen my previous topic, then please → [CLICK ME!].

Tagged: @lordromulus90, @bryan360, @shadowredfeline, @coda-archive, @leapant, @rafacaz4lisam2k4, @alexander1301

[spiderfreedom]

i notice a lot of tumblr users seem convinced apple is the only company that uses unethically sourced electronics materials and foxconn, and i'm sorry to say that's not true

every nintendo console since the gamecube has been produced by foxconn

sony's playstation consoles are produced by foxconn

the xbox consoles are produced by foxconn

like basically every major tech company you know of has worked with foxconn, xiamoi, nokia, sega, google, the blackberry

and that's just foxconn, that's just the people putting the stuff together. (to read more on this, I strongly recommend the book "Dying for an iPhone", which is a history of Foxconn and Foxconn's relation with Apple)

resource extraction is an even uglier game with fewer players. I'm sure you guys have heard about the congolese protests recently due to the mines expanding

nothing about the technology supply chain is clean or ethical. now, lots of supply chains are unethical and involve slavery or exploitation in some way or another - see the supply chain for textiles. but whereas an especially motivated and well-off person could buy from small farms for wool, the capital requirements to extract rare earth metals are so large that only large firms can afford to do so. firms with no incentive to increase the price of these operations by voluntarily caring about safety or ethics. the countries that are being extracted from are so poor and exploited that they have no real way to fight back, either.

i know we've all grown up with console wars and mobile phone wars and nintendo vs sony vs microsoft, nintendo vs sega, android vs iphone, but i'm sorry to say that it's all marketing, and all these companies play the dirty game of forced labor in their supply chain.

i can't tell you what the solution to this because 1. i am not an expert in international business? and 2. when transnational entities get involved, things very quickly become way out of the reach of what an ordinary citizen or even groups of citizens can do. foreign policy and business is out of our sphere of influence.

that's not to turn everyone into doomers, but to give perspective. there's no ethical console war here. if you're a student and you want to make this your career path, study economics, law, transnationalism... I recommend the book "Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry," which is from 2006 but still relevant. (if you are in university, check jstor, your uni may have the book!)

[cripplecharacters]

hello! so, i currently have an oc in the works. i dont have much for his character yet, and hes kind of a blank slate at the moment, however, whilst trying to develop him i had the idea to give him a disability; its something i dont do with my characters very often, and i feel like it could give some depth and realism to his character. however, i..... dont know where to really start with it? i have the vague idea that i think id like him to have crutches, so some sort of leg disability, but just going off that its been hard for me to find any condition that feels quite right. im unsure about making him an amputee either; seemingly the "go to" for anyone who wants to make a physically disabled character. i want to try and represent a disability thats less fetishized by the general public, and looking through this blog here its definitely apparent that a lot of people are tired of seeing basic half amputee characters with overly functional prosthetics; i wanna avoid that. sorry this has gotten a bit rambly, but basically what im asking is,, do you have advice for what i could use as just. a general starting point in this? im terribly uneducated and lost at the moment and id love some help. thank you :]

Hi!

It's great that you're interested in writing a disabled character (with care)! I'm always happy to see more writers/artists/creatives do that.

You mentioned wanting to give him crutches, which is cool! Mobility aid users in media make me happy. However, you mentioned crutches as meaning a leg disability, which isn't always the case — and while I don't have statistics on it, I believe that most crutch users do not use them for leg-only problems, and a lot of them have the not-so-fetishized conditions. Here are some suggestions of what you could give your character, which hopefully gives you some ideas. If you need, you can get back to us with a more specific question after you figure out what exactly your character has! :-) (smile)

Cerebral palsy — probably the most common reason for using crutches in non-elderly people, and the most common (physical) disability in younger people in general. If your character has diplegic (meaning lower limbs affected) CP, he could use crutches and if he has hemiplegic (one arm and one leg affected) CP, then he could use a single crutch or a cane. Cerebral palsy is generally extremely underrepresented when compared to how many people have it IRL! Just be aware that there is a lot of research involved just about the condition itself — multiple types (spastic/ataxic/dyskinetic), different kinds of body involvement, tons of different mobility aids and orthotics to learn about. There is also hereditary spastic paraplegia, which is not the same as CP but similar and progressive.

Spinal cord injury — the general assumption is that all people with spinal cord injuries are fully paralyzed below the neck or waist, and that's not the case. If your character has an incomplete SCI on any level or just a very low level injury, he could be using crutches or switch between a wheelchair and crutches. It's essential to research SCIs to have them be more than “legs don't work, but that's literally it”. SCI can come with severe nerve pain, spasticity, atrophy, and a lot of other things. Worth noting that spinal cord injury could be traumatic, but could also be congenital (spina bifida) or illness related (polio, transverse myelitis, spinal stroke, or cancer, for example). You could think that it's overrepresented in media, but SCI is generally just used as a “default condition” for why a character is in a wheelchair, and a lot of these representations are unfortunately very shallow.

Paralysis — in the monoplegic sense here. Much more rare than the rest of the things here, but your character could have a single paralyzed leg, largely due to nerve damage. Could be traumatic or illness-related (e.g., cancer, infection, or multiple sclerosis).

Stroke (and other traumatic/acquired brain injuries) — stroke can cause a million different symptoms and depending on what happens to your character exactly, he might need crutches! A big portion of stroke survivors deal with hemiplegia and could use a crutch on their non-affected side, for example. Some kinds of stroke might cause your character to have troubles with balance and require a mobility aid to not fall. Of course stroke will also cause other symptoms for your character (it wouldn't be too realistic to only have him have problems with his legs) for example speech issues, headaches, or seizures. Stroke can happen to anyone, and it wouldn't be weird to have a younger character with it. Very common in real life but very rarely represented in fiction.

Limb difference — you can definitely write a character with a limb difference or an amputation without fetishizing it! The main concern with the fetishization is the concept of the robotic limb that works just as well as or even better than a meat leg, and thus the character is “fixed”. But your character could just… not use a prosthetic. A lot of congenital amputees, people with limb differences, or with high level (above knee) amputations might do that. He could also have a leg length difference, which could cause him to need crutches (for example, Morteza Mehrzad has one of his legs significantly shorter after a pelvic injury, and he uses crutches among other mobility aids).

Chronic pain — very broad category for too many specific conditions to count. Neuropathy in the legs and/or lower back could be a reason for using crutches, for example. Unhealed, or poorly healed past injuries. Arthritis in knees or hips. Hypermobility that makes him unsteady or dislocate joints. Pain in bones or muscles where he can't fully weight-bear.

Gait disorders — another broad category (sorry). Your character could have problems with his gait and need aids for that. It could be caused by dyspraxia (I have it), ataxia, progressive muscular dystrophy (there is a lot of different types), Parkinson's disease, or a lot of other things! Could also be injury related.

And of course you could have multiple characters that are disabled to make sure that there is some variety :)

I hope that the above list gave you some ideas for your character :-) (smile) if you have more questions, feel free to send another ask

mod Sasza