#Like obviously I am missing huge amounts of context but also I don't care

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

Look the damage the lion swap and clone arc has done to the narrative and the plot and the characters has been discussed to death, but we don't talk enough about the damage specifically done to Black Lion's character and judgement

Black Lion of all should have known that Kuron is not Shiro and that Haggar is using him given that 1) It's a telepathic lion who can route through others brains and 2) HAS THE REAL SHIRO INSIDE OF IT!!!!

Like there's no way it didn't atleast suspected something was up, especially given the fact that it is the one who saved Kuron!!! And yet not once did it warn Keith or Kuron or literally anyone and go 'hey, something is not adding up! You might want to take a look?' And it certainly not because it actually cared for Kuron and wanted to give him a chance, no that certainly isn't the case considering it didn't even care that Kuron was killed off and his body was being used to revive Shiro, no not at all. Not Fucking At All!!!

And then the lion swap, good God i can't even- Black Lion is supposed to take someone who is level headed right? Wrong apparently, cause out of everyone it chose the impulsive loner guy who was currently having a mental breakdown. The guy known for dipping and doing whatever he thinks is right, and does infact doing exactly that which nearly killed all the teammates. Yeah that guy. Oh and by the way Black didn't even tell Keith that Shiro is in there, the guy he's having the breakdown over. It also just completely screwed up team roles in a way that team never really recovered from. There's that too

Can i be mean for a second?

[cube-cumb3r]

Retrospective analysis of the bedrock bros /rp

(TW for brief descriptions of abuse and mention of suicide.)

We need to reframe the discussion of bedrock bros. Usually it tends to boil down to an argument about who betrayed who, which often misses the point as to why it happened in the first place. I will make an effort to not be antagonistic towards Techno, even though I'm clearly biased in favor of Tommy, in looking back retrospectively at what would lead to the fallout during the Green Festival.

Firstly, it’s relevant to point out that at the time Tommy agreed to team up with Technoblade, Dream had isolated Tommy away from his friends in exile, he had been emotionally and physically abusing him for what is implied to be weeks, possibly months, and after finding out that Tommy had been hiding gear from him, Dream had blown up all of Tommy's items and the entirety of Logstedshire, telling him to "think about what he's done." which is what lead Tommy to finally attempt to escape his exile for good, after surviving a suicide attempt. After escaping, he found Technos house, stole food and gear out of his chests, and dug out a room under his house for shelter.

It’s also relevant to point out that at the time Techno discovers Tommy living under his house, he had just been captured by the butcher army of new L'manburg, a considerable amount of his tools, weapons and items had been taken by them, he'd been executed without trial, and he'd beaten Quackity in a bloody fight with only his pickaxe, then he'd escaped back to his home in the arctic with most, but not all, of his usual gear missing. and because of this, he had a plan to get his revenge on New L'manburg.

(By the way, the way their storylines perfectly got woven together completely seamlessly with Technos butcher army stream and Tommy’s team-up stream? Chefs kiss. This is peak Dream SMP writing for me.)

Techno discovers Tommy living in his floorboards and gives him an ultimatum, either Tommy allies himself with him and aids in the destruction of L’manburg and Techno offers to help Tommy get back the discs in return, or Tommy has to leave the premises. And throughout the discussion Tommy restates several times that doesn’t need Techno’s help to get back the discs, and he's planning to do it on his own.

The reason Tommy initially declines the offer multiple times is because he still holds a grudge against Technoblade for aiding in the second destruction of L’manburg, and he also holds a grudge on Tubbo's behalf for his firework execution. When Tommy declines the offer multiple times, Techno tells him to leave. Which he does! He wanders out into the snow, but Techno keeps pushing with his offer regardless.

Tommy: Y-you'll help me get back my discs if I team with you-

Techno: I'll help you get back your discs, Tommy.

Tommy: I won't help you but you'll help me. I don't wanna destroy L'manburg. [overlapping]

Techno:[overlapping] You'll help me destroy the government-

Tommy: I won't help you destroy the government, but you'll- you'll let me... [glances back at the house].

Techno: Tell-tell you what, we’ll do some minor terrorism from which the government can- [stuttering] you- you know what, Tommy? We-we’ll get the details on the way, we’ll get the details on the way, Tommy. Alright?

Tommy: Technoblade, I am a huge fan of minor terrorism.

Techno: That’s just what I wanna wanna hear. Tommy-

Tommy: Not major terrorism, though. No- I don’t, I don’t wanna take down no governments. [...]”

"Tommy Teams with Technoblade in Exile" (18:37-19:13) [link] (I also made a longer transcription of the conversation here)

Even though Tommy desperately needed protection as Dream without a doubt WOULD later come looking for him, he still initially declined, repeatedly. Yet Techno kept insisting even when Tommy told him no and even walked away. Therefore, it’s arguable that Tommy only agreed because Techno was willing to "compromise".

Later in the stream, when they’re together in the wither bunker, it's VERY obvious that Tommy is under the impression that Techno wasn’t planning to destroy L’manburg at all.

Tommy: What!? Ok-, look at me in the eyes, look at me in the eyes! We’re just getting the discs back, alright? We’re not-

Techno: Yeahhh.... [overlapping] We’re just- getting the discs back-

Tommy: [overlapping] -I don’t wanna take down no government, I do not wanna upset Tubbo! [overlapping]

Techno: -by any means necessary!

Tommy: [overlapping] No, no... No, no, no, no, no!-

Techno: [overlapping] By any means necessary!

Tommy: Not by any means- by-… Well, I guess by any means necessary. But not-

Techno: Yeahhh!

Tommy: [stutters] Technoblade, look at me, dead in the eyes.

Techno:

Tommy: Although they have wronged me, they have wronged me, it is because of Wilbur*, not because they chose to. We will not. Upset. L’manburg, and we will not. Upset. Tubbo.

Techno: [stutters] w-we’ll negotiate the finer details later, Tommy. We’ll negotiate the finer details later- [...]

*Tommy might’ve meant to say Dream here, seems more likely in this context. However, I can't say for certain.

"Tommy Teams with Technoblade in Exile" (22:40-23:14) [link]

That is why I don’t think you can make the argument that Tommy used Techno for his own gain, unless you’re implying that him seeking shelter any way he could get it when he needed it the most, knowing he’d never go through with the destruction of L’manburg, is somehow exploitative. And not only is that arguably a bad faith argument, it’s also inaccurate because Technoblade wasn’t upfront about their deal. He had even deliberately given Tommy the impression that they had compromised.

That being said, I wouldn’t at all imply that Technoblade only pressured Tommy into joining him for his own gain. In fact, he wouldn't gain much from allying with him because Tommy had very little to offer in the first place. Both in terms of both manpower and resources, or even as a strategist, especially not in the state he was in at the time. Therefore, it is more likely that Techno felt as if he were, albeit a bit reluctantly, taking Tommy under his wing.

It's also important to stress that Technoblade was not aware of the extent of torment Tommy had just experienced in exile, and was therefore not aware of how urgently Tommy actually needed shelter and protection. This is because Tommy could never bring himself to tell Techno, because at this point in time he had not had the time to process and make sense of what he had actually experienced. it was obvious he didn't even know how he felt about Dream, or realized he was a victim of abuse. The only thing he had told Techno before they allied was that he and Dream had, in his own words, "had an argument".

During their time together Techno did not only offer shelter, but also protection, food and armor to Tommy, he hid Tommy as best he could when Dream came around, and he listened as Tommy attempted to make sense of what had happened to him. obviously, Techno noticed that to a certain extent, Tommy had clearly developed some sort of severe trauma as well, and he calmed him down when Tommy had panic attacks. So it would be untrue to say that Techno didn't care at all.

But the fact still remains that their allyship and friendship was always conditional, and not even that, and I apologize if I come across as repetitive, Techno was never upfront about what those conditions actually were in the first place. And we could speculate that if Tommy had managed to tell him the extent of what had actually happened to him, or maybe Techno had just happened to like him a little bit more in the first place, maybe he would have offered shelter unconditionally. But nevertheless, these miscommunications (both the intentional ones and the unintentional ones) was what was gonna doom their allyship (and their friendship) from the start.

[ssamie]

epilogue. “your girlfriend’s kinda hot”

kozume kenma x fem dazai!reader

(bsd x hq)

tw: mentions of suicide and suggestive themes + dirty jokes

masterlist.          suicide freak!

"hey uh, welcome to my stream i guess" he said as he spared the camera a quick glance "im not really playing tonight because an incident has recently occurred in this household" kenma said with a tired sigh 

nobody else knew it, but the said 'incident' was y/n accidentally setting half of their living room on fire 

the reason? apparently, she wanted to try burning herself to death in the furnace. obviously, it didn't work. and all that's left from that is more shit for kenma to clean up and a trip to yosano-san. 

kenma is stressed. and y/n is still alive. both of them are facing problems. 

"can you please wear a maid outfit- no."

kenma shook his head as he continued playing, glancing at the chat once in a while to read the veiwers' questions and comments

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: how about cat ears?! 

user: ^^ cATBOY CATBOY CATBOY 

user: u suck at this game wtf

kuroo.tetsu: hey kenma ;) 

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

"first of all, i do not suck at minecraft thank you very much" kenma scoffed 

"second of all, go away kuroo. im still mad at you" 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: LMFAOOO kuroo what did u do?? 💀💀

user: he probably broke kenma's pc 

user: PLSS he's the one kenma’s throwing shade at on twitter 

kuroo.tetsu: STOP THE SLANDER 😔✋🏼

user: rooster head lookin ass 

user: ^^ NOT THE HAIR 

kuroo.testsu: 😃😃

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

kenma sighed as he continued building a cute little cottage. he was currently vibing, just building y/n a cute cottage for her to probably burn later on. 

and he decided it would be nice to go on stream since his oh-so-lovely girlfriend was still out for work. 

ah yes, kenma has somehow kept y/n alive all those years. 

barely. 

hence why his phone was being bombarded with messages from her, all of which being blurry selfies. 

the photos had her sporting a huge grin while atsushi panicked in the background. 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: ayo, ur phone's blowing up 

user: do you have a girlfriend? 

user: KODZUKEN LET ME SUCK UR TOES 😋😋🤩

user: ^ ayo chill 😃

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

kenma simply ignored them and continued on with his task. all was going well until a loud slam was heard.��his cat-like eyes widened as he heard a familiar voice singing from downstairs, it was undoubtedly y/n. 

kenma chuckled nervously and muted his mic. 

but of course, cute dumb catboy didn't actually mute his mic. haha <3

he ignored all the questions in the chat, all of them being  speculations that he has a girlfriend. which he does, but they simply did not need to know that <3

"kenma~" she yelled out "i have a surprise for you!!" she said, followed by menacing giggles. 

kenma glanced at the camera before hopping off his gaming chair and peeking his head out of the door. 

"y/n, im streaming!! stay down there!" he yelled out in panic 

"aw, you're playing hard to get aren't ya?" she chuckled 

kenma deadpanned as he saw her limping up the stairs, with her bandages torn and unravelled, same with her clothes. he didn't really think much of it since this is usually how she comes home. 

its most likely just due to work and/or another suicide attempt.

"so, kenma.. you'll never know what just happened to me today" she started off with a goofy grin 

"im streaming, atleast let me turn it off first-" 

she paid no mind to him as she peeled off her ruined coat and pointed to her poorly bandaged stomach

"i got stabbed!" 

"you got what?!"

kenma furrowed his brows as he immediately rushed over to his side, cradling her face and waist as he inspected her injuries

"are you okay, kitten?" he asked worriedly 

"yep, apparently it wasnt deep enough to be fatal" she sighed dejectedly 

"please don't be sad about that." kenma groaned "can you undress?" 

"ara ara~ whats this?" she cooed "you're getting real bold, kenma" she smirked at him 

she unbuttoned her shirt and started pulling down on her skirt "but since you asked so nicely-" 

kenma simply sighed and shook his head. "i was gonna prepare you a bath but now im considering leaving you here to die" 

"but the second option would've been better though" she smiled at him 

"oh my fucking god." 

kozume kenma. (22)

╰─▸ university student, stock trader, pro-gamer, youtuber, ceo of bouncing ball lpt. 

╰─▸ y/n's struggling boyfriend. definitely needs a pay after all he's been through.

╰─▸ currently panicking because his girlfriend got stabbed.

l/n y/n. (22)

╰─▸ operative/member of the armed detective agency. 

╰─▸ kenma's girlfriend. kinda dumb, very hot to compensate for it. still hasn't died yet. 

╰─▸ currently bleeding and wounded. also hoping for severe blood loss.

"kenma, did you know" she mused in a teasing tone "lack of sleep and too much stress could possibly lead to poor memory and lack of awareness" 

kenma looked up at her with a look of confusion. he was currently kneeled down before her while she was sat on the bed as he cleaned her wound up with a damp towel. 

"why are you telling me this?" he asked 

"i just thought it probably applied to you" she snickered 

"why? i didnt forget anything-" 

he cut himself off with a huge intake of air. he slowly turned his head to look at the screen which still had his stream going on. to make it worse, the camera was on and they were both clearly in the camera's field of view. 

to make things worse worse, his mic was on the whole time and the live chat was in shambles. 

"i hate it here" he sighed 

kenma laid his head on her lap as he continued on patching her up, honestly not caring that this whole scene was being recorded for thousands or millions of people to see. 

"well, atleast the internet could finally see my beauty before i die" she laughed 

she ran her fingers through kenma's hair as he grumbled under his breath. kenma was a pretty private person. he made sure not to overshare, given his current 'influencer' status. and he was planning on keeping his relationship a secret, though it seems he can't do that anymore. 

"might as well say hi" she shrugged 

so of course, she then decided to walk up to the camera looking utterly dishevelled and roughed up. 

for context, the newly wrapped bandages around her stomach was being stained already by a crimson red hue and it was only getting worse the more she moved, undoubtedly messing up her wound. 

"hi, im kenma's girlfriend and if i see you flirting with him i will make you regret it" she grinned 

"y/n!" kenma groaned from the bed "you're close to dying right now, turn the stream off" 

ignoring him, she proceeded to read the veiwers' comments, laughing at some of them while she joked around. 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: heLLO?!?! 

user: GE HAS A GIRLFRIEND NOOO

user: bruh, did i just hear that right? were you fuckin stabbed? 

user: ur kinda hot tho

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

kenma furrowed his brows as he reluctantly walked up behind her, reading the comments with varying reactions 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: well damn, hot bloody girl comes in and suddenly im lesbian

user: kenma looks so done

kuroo.tetsu: hi y/n ;) 

user: HER NAME IS Y/N

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

"jesus christ shut up, kuroo" kenma grumbled out with a sigh 

"yup! yup! im y/n, and no, i am not a criminal. i swear." she shook her head 

"i got an injury from my job, that's all." she cleared up 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: tangina nyo sana ol

user: MSKAKAKKA

user: THIS IS LOWKEY ICONIC

user: time to scratch another gamer boy off my possible bf list 😔

user: girl wtf happened to u

user: that's wack bro 🚶‍♀️

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

"great question, random person from the internet!" she beamed "see, what happened was.." 

"i went on a certain mission and got severely injured. though, when i called for help nobody responded" she said 

kenma furrowed his brows at her words. "why didn't anybody respond?" he asked. she sighed and fiddled with her torn bandages, pouting her lips as she does so. 

"well, when i told them that i was finally on death's door, all they said to me was 'congratulations!' and all that.." she said "what's your take on that, hm?" she asked kenma 

"im not surprised" he said 

she grinned at his words and leaned in for a kiss. "you're so mean to me, kenma~" she whined 

she licked her lips as she held his blushing face in her hands, she nuzzled their noses as she leaned in closer to him. 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

kuroo.tetsu: oh shit 😳

user: we all know where this is heading ;) 

user: sana ol talaga punyemas 

user: AYO CHILL 

user: why we goin so fuckin fasstttt 😳

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

kenma hastily turned the camera off as soon as y/n's lips touched his. 

"kitten, were still- hmph-" 

he was only silenced as she slipped her tongue in his mouth, smirking lightly as she ran her fingers through his hair 

"thanks babe." she said as she pulled away, giving him a soft peck on his cheek and a nod "anyways.." she hummed as she turned the camera on once again 

she looked through the chat while kenma slaps his face to get rid of his blush. 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: ur fuckin freaky 

kuroo.tetsu: oya oya 😼😼

user: MS MAAM I JUST MET U AND I LOVE U ALREADY WJABSJSJJS

user: not me blushing chiiilllleeeeee 🏃‍♀️

user: KENMA IS FLUSTERED

kuroo.tetsu: kenma, i didnt expect this from u 😼

user: im so fucking JEALOUS GRR😡

user: girl r u bleeding rn 😃

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

upon reading a certain comment, she subconsciously grazed her fingers against her bandaged wound. her eyes slightly widening as she felt a concerning amount of wetness seeping through

she glanced at kenma who was still calming himself down and inspected her wound 

"oh my.." she muttered, though she couldn't help but let a smile slip through 

so like any normal person would do, she simply ignored her bleeding wound and the fact that she was getting a bit lightheaded. haha <3

"anyways, let's answer some questions!" she beamed 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: what's ur full name

user: what's ur job miss girl 

user: are you possibly looking for a gf, because i am more 

than willing to take the spot 🚶‍♀️

user: how did you meet?? 

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

"alright, those are all very nice questions" she chuckled. kenma, who's now calmed down, sat down beside her to look at the chat. 

"first, im l/n y/n" she mused "nice to meet ya" 

"second im a detective! mhm, im cooler than your fathers" 

"third, it depends, belladonna" she cooed as she sent the camera flirty smirk "are you perhaps willing to join me in a double suicide?" 

"oh god.." kenma grumbled. he pouted at her and shook his head in disapproval. "don't flirt with random girls" he whined 

"why not?" 

"uh- because i am your beloved boyfriend, is that not good enough of a reason??" 

"... anyways, we met at a cafe way back in high school" she said with a smile "also, i asked him to join me on a double suicide" she said 

she was smiling and nodding as if it was the most normal thing in the world, all while kenma nods along 

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: wtf are u okay 🗿

kuroo.tetsu: teenage romance 🤩

user: cute ❤️

user: im concerned ❤️

user: ur a detective?? cool

user: LMAOO I'LL GO ON A DOUBLE SEWER SLIDE 

WITH U MOMMY 😩😩😋

user: ^^ SAME 😩

user: CHOKE ME WITH THOSE BANDAGES MOMMAE 😩

user: u r still bleeding 🚶‍♀️        

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

kenma was simply glaring at the chat as more compliments and flirtatious comments came flowing in, all of which were directed to his girlfriend. 

"this is why i didn't wanna let people know about you.." kenma grumbled 

"aww, why not?" she asked with a playful pout 

"people are flirting with you." he sighed "also, stop asking for my girlfriend's onlyfans! she doesn't even have one!" he snarled

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮

user: LMAOO CATBOY IS ANGRY 😩

user: y/n-senpai spit on me 😡😡

user: drop the onlyfans 

user: chupapi munyanyo 😩

╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

"anyways, i'd hate to ruin the mood" she chimed in with a sluggish giggle "but im so wet kenma" she whined out 

a menacing smirk was etched on her lips as kenma spluttered in response, a bright red hue covering his face almost instantly as he faced her with widened eyes 

"y-y/n! why would you say that?!" he whisper shouted 

"cuz i am" she whined out as she grabbed his hand and trailed it down her abdomen 

she faced the camera and gave them a shit-eating grin as kenma mumbled out incoherent words 

"y/n we should-" he cut himself off as he felt the concerning amount of blood drip down his whole arm 

kenma's face paled as he looked up to see her smiling like a kid in a candy store, completely unbothered. 

"y/n, you idiot! why didn't you tell me!" kenma exclaimed 

"um- my girlfriend is bleeding. excessively. so uh- bye i guess" it was all he said before hastily ending his stream and turning off his computer. 

"y/n, let's get you to a hospital" he said as he reached down to carry her away. though she simply slapped his hands off and closed her eyes. 

"nope. this is my time, kenma. don't ruin it for me" she said 

"you're fucking dying!!" 

"well, would you like to join me?" 

"no"

"damn." she muttered in response 

"so...wanna fuck?" she asked sheepishly 

"for the love of god-" 

this was so messy :/

[imdisappeared]

I'd really like to have a look into Druck's finances.

Weird take I know but hear me out. It's the thought I have whenever I see people complain a lot about social media stuff and why we haven't seen this person in so long or why an opportunity to show sth cool or interesting via social media content was wasted. Because I get the frustration (in parts at least) but I also suspect there could  be a bigger problem at hand besides just 'not caring enough' or 'lazy writing' (although this might still be a part of it I am not denying that): Are there actually enough people there to properly do this work?

I myself work in a field that's not directly film and media production (so I don't wanna speak on it like I am an expert as I am surely not but if anyone has some insights please tell me I am curious) but my field is in many ways adjacent to it and I can say one thing for us: There are never enough people in place for the work that has to be done (I am currently doing a job on my own that could easily keep at least three people busy without being bored for a second) and any type of pr stuff is dramatically underfunded, the social media part of it being the worst of the worst. Social media is mostly treated as something you are supposed to be doing on the side of your actual work without any effort instead of the work it really is, the work that needs a well planned concept and proper execution. As I said I don't wanna project this directly onto Druck bc for one I don't have any established knowledge about that field and I also think media production is at least doing a bit better and actually having people employed for social media management (I do know it in cases of other channels in the funk network Druck is also a part of) but on the other hand the people who decide where the money goes often even in media have the mindset that social media is an add on and nothing else (especially in a public funding context like it is the case for Druck).

And 'a bit better' does not mean great conditions. I can still very easily imagine that there are not enough people in place for the amount of work that needs to be done. And that amount is huge in my humble opinion, especially if you wanna do it really well.

In an ideal scenario all the characters do have  a realistically frequented instagram presence (feed and stories plus even engaging with their friends on their posts if you wanna be 10/10) that fits their personalities, adds a little to the plot (without making people who don't follow social media content religiously miss out on essential things) and add interesting side infos and just fun.

If those people were real of course they would most likely post on a friday night. So just to illustrate let's do an example with yesterday's events to make it more realistic: 1. 'bonus material' for the clip that they in fact posted, illustrating what these three are up to like the stories of Lou and Constantin getting to Ismail's place, the nail polish choosing thing, Ismail posting the pictures at night plus they could've added even more of this like a selfie of Ismail and/or Lou getting ready on their own, some vague posting afterwards maybe 2. Finn and Josh hanging out outside posting some silly stories and being goofy 3. the cash queens having a girls' beauty night where they do treatments together being completely unhinged and Zoe joining in on it 4. Kieu My posting a flawless mirror selfie from her room and Zoe, Fatou and Isi all commenting on it in the first 15 mins how gorgeous she is (while all of them also text her if she is fine and not too stressed from studying) 5. Yara posting about the shitton she still has to do even on a friday, joke complaining about her asshole classmates leaving her with all the work, Ava and Nora reposting her story blessing her for her queen behaviour and promising they will be better in the future 6. Sascha posting a song to his stories.

Would I absolutely love if this was what the case? Obviously!!!

But imagine doing this amount of content at least once or twice every week (not necessarily having to cover everyone of course but still a lot of them), plus a smaller amount every day because it just makes sense, someone always posts something. That's WORK.

You have to very early plan this out, basically as soon as the script is done. You have to constantly be in touch with the writing and directing team to make sure the content you produce fits the story and its tone, you have to make sure to adjust if sth changes. Then you draft the stuff you want to do (What do you need to convey over texts? Which additional text messages make sense and add sth to your concept? Are there voice messages needed? Where do you post pictures, where story clips? Who interacts with whom, why and how?) you schedule when you need the actors (for which clips do you want social media material? Is there time to also do some stories and pictures when filming these clips? When do you need to call some actors in additionally for extra content?). If you really wanna make sure you get the type of content you need for your concept you better be there while that content is made and give directions where needed, you also need to be on set at times to get content you might need that's not directly actor related. If it's not (always) possible to be on set you have to give really good instructions beforehand and/or live with some things that aren't 100% how you needed them to somehow make them work. Then you create/collect the content you can do by yourself (pictures without people on them or direct relation to sets, spotify songs to post (I don't think they really do that but it would be great and their music is so good it would make so much sense), memes), you create the text messages, you select the pictures and videos that work the best from the massive amount of stuff you at this point, edit them and make sure everything fits the instagram format. Then when everything is done and you have the okay of various people you schedule posting. Which is an entirely different beast. I bet they have to use tools where you can schedule your accounts in advance but those need to be operated and supervised too and things can go wrong (posting too early, to late or not at all). Add running the youtube and now official druckaddicts accounts and add the huge amount of community management that comes with it. Voilà. Work. Lots of it.

Again: this is speculation. I don't say this is exactly how their process is (as I said I'm not in film production but I have done pr and been on some other types of productions so I at least don't pull this entirely out of my ass) but I wanted to shine a light on how complex such a process can be and how many problems therefore can occur. The more you want to include the more difficult it gets. And - to come back to why I even started this - the less people you have to do it the worse. And it is not hard for me to imagine that they don't have enough people to realistically do this bc not employing enough people is a sad standard under late stage capitalism. And by 'enough' I also mean people get payed decently and don't have to work abhorrent amounts of time. If you underpay it means you want something you actually can't afford and if people have to constantly work overtime it means there are not enough people there (even if your employees do a great job. It's not good for them). I often joke about 'The Druck intern has to do this or that again' and as funny as it is it is also fucking sad because it is like this in so many places. And interns are NOT there for shit like that. It's highly exploitative.

This is not me wanting to excuse that Druck often fucks up social media content. The format is so highly dependent on the social media aspect that it NEEDS to be done well for it to work. That is literally their job. I also don't think people who are not happy with the social media content are out of line. But I would find it really interesting to know where that mistake is made. Is it really just some people who don't know what they are doing or don't care enough? Or is it actually a problem of not having enough funds to adequately hire a team to do this in a really great way. Could be either could be a combination of both. So if someone wants to send me Druck's financial budget my inbox is open.

[acciocriativity]

The First Meeting ||Harry Potter

Pairing: Harry Potter x You

Summary: Your life takes a 360º turn when you discover that you are a witch and that you are going to study and live in a world completely different from yours. In the midst of so much change, you meet a boy who is feeling the same. 

 

Word Count: 2.4k

N / A: This is the first fanfic that I am posting on Tumblr, so it would be very important to me if you leave your opinion here and also English it's not my first language, if I made a mistake, I'll like to know and correct it.

 The day started rainy, which is not surprising considering that I am in England, more specifically in the city of London. However, I, as an immigrant from hot lands, consider rainy days bad luck, because something always happens wrong. 

And to my despair, today was supposed to be perfect. 

It was only a month ago that I discovered to be a witch and for my happiness, it has nothing to do with pointy noses and pure evil. Apparently the only similarity is the hats, since in the two moments I was around real wizards, I saw several people wearing them.

 My family, for the most part, being a completely devout Catholic, did not accept my new reality so well, not to say it was hell on Earth. In short, if I went, I wouldn't be able to set foot in the house again, as they weren't going to house a sinful witch. 

That bearded gentleman was kind enough to help me find another place to stay, while my parents would think better of it. Although I was unable to thank him or at least speak after being expelled from my home, or old home.

 

I've been staying at the Leaky Cauldron ever since, but because of the latest events in my life, I just went out to buy the materials. Being a witch had cost me a lot and I wasn't ready to face that until yesterday. It took me a long time to decide whether to go to Hogwarts or not, but now the certainty that I made the right choice was growing in my chest. 

 Right after having breakfast at one of the bar tables, I waited seated by the person in charge who would accompany me to Kings Cross station, where I was supposed to catch a train. I knew about it the same day that I discovered the magical world but only today I was anxious for that. I must admit that I imagined that we would fly, obviously all the stories lied to all the non-magical children on Earth.  

A few minutes later, a man in a turban appeared through the door and walked towards me, his expression showing no particular emotion when entering or even seeing me sitting, but what scared me was the fragility and fear in his voice.

- Miss Garcia, good morning, are you ready to leave? - He leaned on one leg while looking around worriedly. 

- Yes sir .. is everything ok ?? The bathroom is on that side - I knew it was inconvenient but I couldn't hold my curiosity as I watched his expression change.

- It will be a short trip but we must go now, to not risk losing the train, let's go - his posture was suddenly rigid and his face looked shaken but this time, I kept my thoughts to myself.

 At least he was kind enough to help me with the two suitcases, which were quite heavy due to the amount of books that were inside, I got some History of Magic extra books to learn more about that world. 

And he was not wrong, the path was fast despite the light rain and wet streets. We didn't talk beyond the formalities, I just found out that he is one of my teachers that year, Professor Quirrel and nothing else.

As soon as my feet took a step into the station, the man said goodbye with a nod and left to go his own way with a weird expression, but I didn't care about that for more than 2 seconds. 

I took a deep breath and started to walk following the small crowd of people who would possibly go to work in another city, since I didn't know the way to the platforms. Honestly, I didn't think it would work until I saw the license plate numbers, and I quickly hurried on, because mine was ahead. 

- 7 ... 8 ... 9 ... 10 ?? - I stopped walking at the same moment I realized that mistake, there was nothing between 9 and 10 - I don't believe it ... 

 I stood leaning against a wall looking around as if looking for someone, but in fact I wanted to find a miracle or at least an angel who could tell me what to do in that situation. 

Millions of thoughts crossed my mind within 2 minutes, most of them negative, until something drew attention out of my despair, or rather, someone. A red hair had just gone through the wall, it was so fast I could hardly believe my own eyes. 

Two more people did the same before I managed to close my mouth and walk over there, in shaky, uncertain steps. They hadn't noticed me and I thanked them mentally for it, because I wouldn't be able to pronounce a single right word. The good news is that they were certainly wizards, by the way they dressed and the most logical conclusion is that they would know the right way. 

 I waited for everyone to cross to get closer to that wall, I couldn't hear the conversation but I noticed that the right way to enter is to run. Again I took a deep breath and looked around to see if anyone was noticing me, with the station full, my answer came as a quick no. 

 I closed my eyes and ran about three short steps until I felt a sensation unlike anything I had felt so far. The stone wall seemed to have turned into a wind wall and I easily managed to get to the other side. I immediately opened my eyes after hearing the sound of a train and when looking to the side, there he was. The Hogwarts Express was written right in front of the locomotive.  

 It only took me 10 seconds to notice the difference, the clothes were definitely different and there was an absurd amount of children and teenagers, as I was walking closer to the train entrance, more people were showing up, in a way I didn't know how to explain.  

 The trip was smooth to Hogwarts, I found an empty car as soon as I arrived but soon the seats were being filled and I ended up sharing my cabin with two more girls, I soon noticed that they were sisters and that was the initial topic of our conversation. They were nice and helped me get into the current context of the wizarding world, explaining the basics about Hogwarts as well. 

- And he's here, the boy who defeated you-know-who's going to study with us! - the oldest of the brunettes spoke excitedly with a huge smile on her face. 

- One of my friends told me earlier that she met him in the hall, what is he like? - the youngest asked even knowing that none of us would know the answer. 

 This topic remained for a while, until they decided to take a walk on the train while I read, enjoying some quiet time. Honestly, I wouldn't like to be in this boy's shoes, not only because of the tragedies in his life, but also because of the amount of attention, comments and theories about him.

But I cannot deny it, I would like to meet him, who would not be curious after everything that was being commented on? 

 People got in and out of the car where I was sitting and I tried to have a decent conversation with everyone, but then when two older students came to tell us that we should change clothes, as we were arriving. I preferred to wait because a hurried crowd of students wanted to go first, so I ended up being one of the last to get dressed, but one of the first to leave the train. 

 All the way the view had been impressive but nothing had prepared me for the vision I had when I approached the lake, where we were supposed to go. It was dark and it wasn't raining, the moonlight reflected on the water of the Black Lake like a mirror and I was almost sad to see that we were going to cross by boat, because that image would be blurry. 

I could only see the outline of the huge castle on the other side, but it was enough to see all the splendor of that place and for a few seconds I was paralyzed absorbing the beauty of everything around me, until a voice brought me to reality. 

- Only 4 people on each boat, kids! - I glanced at the giant man, who was talking animatedly to some students, before I sat down in an empty space.

 As soon as we reached the other side, we gathered in a small group on the castle entrance stairs to hear one of the teachers. I remained behind and silent as I was paying attention, until I saw someone passing by and right after I felt a foot stepping on top of mine for several seconds. 

- Hey! Can't you see I'm here ?? - I said indignantly but as low as possible looking at the red-haired boy beside me.

- I ... I'm sorry, I didn't see you - he replied without even looking at me, his face turning as red as the color of his hair.

 I thought about replying but as the teacher was still talking, I just preferred to nod, accepting the apology. Only then did I realize that I caught the attention of two more students, a curly haired girl who cast a disapproving look at the redhead but smiled at me gently and at another dark haired boy, who noticed my gaze and shifted his look to the other side immediately. 

 It didn't take more than 15 minutes before we were inside that incredible hall, instead of a concrete ceiling just like outside, above my head was the most beautiful starry sky I have ever had the pleasure of seeing, with floating candles to complete the view. To my relief, it didn't seem like a common thing for most first year students, who talked quietly among themselves so I didn't look like an idiot admiring alone. 

We were instructed to stay in a queue, I had no idea what was going to happen so I was distracted looking at the stars, which never seemed so achievable until that moment. I wish I could go up there and take at least one, but it would be impossible. 

 We walked slowly until we stopped in front of the other students, who were spread out over 4 tables, my eyes never left the illuminated sky and as a result, I didn't notice that I was too close to the boy in front of me.

I got my first embarrassing moment of the year in less than 10 minutes, because I stepped on the cover of the boy in front of me. All the consequences of that went by very quickly before my eyes. In a second I was out of balance and fell, but that's not the worst part. I accidentally pulled his cloak back, the boy fell out of balance and fell with me, his back to me. It hurts, too much. No more than the weight of my humiliation and shame, but it still hurts.

 My face took on a pinkish tinge as I silently prayed that no one noticed, but that's not what happened. Today was definitely not my lucky day. I could hear half the room laughing and half whispering, so I knew for sure that I had made a big impression on people and a bigger one on the Hogwarts floor. 

- Sorry ... I was distracted - I spoke as quietly as possible looking at the ceiling and again at him.

 He didn't look at me for more than 2 seconds before looking away in that same direction and back to me again. His nod was minimal but noticeable and he soon stood up, which I had forgotten to do in those few seconds.

 What surprised me more than anything in the last month was his hand extended to help me, it didn't take me long to accept the help and so I got up and straightened my clothes trying not to show shock. This was an act of kindness that I couldn't expect from my brothers, considering how angry they would be in a situation like this, but other than shame, I couldn't see a hint of anger in his green eyes. 

- I'm really sorry ... - I said again, loud enough that only he could hear me. 

 The director had called everyone's attention, so most had stopped laughing although that redhead from before just stopped after the mini punch that the brunette gave him. 

- It's okay, it will just be another reason for people to talk about me behind my back - he gave me another small smile on the side but his tone was not the happiest. 

- And why?? I don't know who you are - I was curious because I had not met anyone important in the magical world until then.

 I could see a flash of surprise in his expression but before he could answer me, the names started to be called and little by little the children walked to the stool, where the hat was placed on their heads. After that he didn't answer me, no one else had the courage to say a word because they were very anxious to get their turn and also curious, like me, to know which house the famous Harry Potter would go to. 

- Potter, Harry - called the teacher with a serious but serene expression and a different look in her eyes. 

 From then on, the students' not-so-low whispers started again and I, who was already at the Hufflepuff table, could only be surprised to notice that the boy I dragged to my shame was actually Harry Potter himself. I didn't have the courage to look at him for more than 5 seconds, because again the embarrassment consumed me but this time harder. I only looked at him again when the Gryffindor table radiated in cheers and laughter as soon as he was drawn there and then our eyes met for the last time that night.

Harry Potter Masterlist

[copperbadge]

If you don't want to open this jar of annelids, I won't blame you at all, but... As a professional fundraiser, do you have any opinions about Jane Sanders' legal troubles? Particularly, I'm thinking about the concerns about how donor funds and bequests were handled. That was a big deal in the local media around the time that she originally resigned, but got swallowed up later in squabbles about personality clashes and the relative value of real estate.

Well, just a reminder, I am not technically a professional fundraiser – I don’t meet donors or deal directly with solicitations, so I’m less knowledgeable about this kind of thing than, say, a gift officer (who meets with high-net-worth prospective donors and helps structure large gifts). I work with gift officers to target and triage possible new donors. 

That said, I do know a few things about large structured gifts and how they are stored as data, so I have, if not opinions, then at the very least information.

And some opinions, I guess. I’m only human. :D 

(There is a readmore below, read more!)

It’s tough to know without seeing the school’s actual facts financials – which normally might not be that difficult, schools do make that kind of thing public in a limited way. But with Burlington closed and the records in the hands of law enforcement and financial institutions, that’s a no go. From following the story, without being a local or actually involved, it certainly looks like at the very least Jane Sanders mismanaged the school’s existing finances and made some poor decisions. Criminally negligently poor? Harder to say. 

I will say that the poor decisions she made are extremely common poor decisions in higher education. A lot of schools turn to what’s called a “capital campaign” when they want to raise a lot of money fast: they start building on campus, or buying new land for campus extensions, either during the fundraising for the buildings using a line of credit or shortly after raising the funds. In the case of Burlington this was a hugely risky step to take because Burlington had no endowment (basically a savings account earning interest, with the interest as spendable income) on which to rely if things went south, as they obviously did. At a guess I’d say she wanted to start attracting a much wealthier class of student, and the way she went about it was by trying to make Burlington seem much more Ivy League and much less Hippie Haven. 

If I had been in her place, my number one priority would have been an aggressive campaign to build an endowment – though possibly Burlington was the sort of place that aggressively did not want an endowment, it was a very unusual school and endowments come with a lot of issues. A lot of schools currently are under pressure from students, in my opinion rightly so, to divest their endowments from funds that support companies involved or implicated in genocide, ecologically unfriendly activities, weapons manufacture, etc. School administration tends to push back hard because unfortunately those are often the most lucrative investments.

Capitalism. Yum. 

Despite knowing that Burlington’s kind of weird, I would be willing to bet that the board that brought her on hoped she would create an endowment; with her connections and an aggressive team and a little luck, she probably could have built a $100M endowment (respectable for a small college) within ten years. Though, reading some of the articles, they were talking in the $6M range for a campaign, which even for a small university with a minimal fundraising shop seems like a very low bar to set themselves. So it looks like she may have sought the easier road there. I think the board’s hopes for an endowment and her refusal to work on creating one is borne out by the fact that the board claims she wasn’t “attending to fundraising”, but that’s just speculation.  

There’s a lot of talk of how she may have misrepresented pledges made by donors who did give. I don’t know what to make of those, because the wording surrounding those misrepresentations in the news is pretty vague. The problem is that fundraising bodies keep their books in such a way that it often looks to outsiders like they’re misrepresenting income or saying they raised more than they did. This is both for tax purposes on the part of the donor and also for certain methods of tracking that the organization employs. 

For example, a donor pledges $1M, structured to pay out over five years, with perhaps twice-yearly payments of $100K. So the school is, in fact, only getting $100K every January and July. But the pledge was put into a contract and notarized, so it’s a legally binding document (technically, we don’t generally sue people who don’t pay, we just revoke their gift and wish them luck). So the donor can claim the $1M all at once, can get credit in the news by us for the $1M, and we say in our records that they gave $1M “with X outstanding” (X being a number that drops every time they give us $100K). We also get to claim we have that $1M even when we don’t. 

This does occasionally lead to “ghost gifts” – I found one the other day where a guy pledged $10M and then never gave us a dime. In 1982. It even had a note attached to it from 1992, “We think this may be a ghost gift. The paperwork has gone missing sometime in the last ten years.” Presumably that $10M has been wiped off our books. I certainly hope so, anyway.  

We also have what’s called “gift expectations” where we can record what we expect to get from the donor the next time we solicit. That’s not legally our money, naturally, but it is a field in the database, and at a small school like Burlington it’s entirely possible that a gift expectation just…went into the wrong data field. So they said “we expect this person will give us a million dollars next time we ask” and somehow that million got put in the “definitely they said they’d give us this” field instead. I mean it looks like the damn thing was kept on a spreadsheet, so it’s not like it would even be hard for that screwup to happen – our databases generally have failsafes that prevent this kind of error. 

It is entirely possible that Sanders falsified information about giving, or that the information was mistaken, but it’s also possible that what we see as falsification of pledges is really just counting chickens before they’re hatched, and that may have been how the bank read it (and that may also have been how Sanders intended the bank to read it, which circles back around to whether this was intentional). Donors say that they didn’t pledge the amounts that Sanders says they pledged, but donors have been known to abandon sinking ships before now, especially since if a donor said they’d give the school a million and then never gave it, they could be on the hook with the bank for that $700K the bank says Burlington still owes, I’m not sure of the legal situation there. That also depends on whether or not they signed the paperwork and, if so, for what amount (which again, all this is either in the hands of the feds or the bank at this point). 

To be clear, I’m not defending her. I’m just saying, for context, that fundraising book-keeping is fucking weird.

It doesn’t seem as though the land deal itself benefited Sanders personally (I may not have all the info) so while obviously she was well paid in her time at Burlington, I don’t think she threw the college to the wolves to get hers. So it doesn’t appear to be malicious. 

I think in the end it’s evident that Burlington College was in trouble before Sanders got there. She was hired in the hopes it could get out of trouble. It failed because Sanders made spectacularly poor decisions and was backed by a board that was either too weak to protest, too inexperienced to understand what was happening, or too uninvested to care – these things don’t happen in a vacuum and the board should also have put a stop to what she was doing long before it did. 

But I think, most of all, this highlights the plight of small, weird schools like Burlington. With no endowment, with a lowered ability to fundraise because of it, without an elite reputation to attract wealthy students and with a weird student body who probably aren’t making the kind of bank a big school with a business school attached to it is, Burlington was primed for failure in this century. And with universities becoming more monolithic as college degrees become more and more requisite, we will probably see more small schools fail – especially small schools with no endowments or small endowments. It’s like trying to climb out of poverty in a minimum wage job. There’s just no way to get a foothold, and one bad move can close it down for good. 

So I guess uh the moral of the story is, everyone needs an endowment, and if someone tells you they have a Catholic orphanage to sell you, make sure you can cover your debts before you buy it.