#This is going to be my main account where I will upload both my original art and fanarts

[camilovesdraw]

Adrianna? Adri? Idk

[freezerbnuuy]

I've decided that I will no longer be making CC for Sims. Not for any mental health reason or anything like that, don't worry! - I'm nearing the end of my SimLit project and I've been obsessively playing this game for the past 8 years. (TL;DR: All of my CC will be staying on SimFileShare, Patreon, and MediaFire, and my Resources tab on my blog has links to my SFS archive.)

The likelihood is that I will eventually stop uploading here and being active here altogether, since I do just want to move on from this game and community to focus on other things! (Don't worry, I won't delete my account this time and it will remain here!)

As I said fairly recently, I've almost finished my story now, and once I've done that I am going to take a long break from this game and likely never come back to it again. I've been playing obsessively since 2017, writing Sims stories since 2019 and making Sims CC since about 2022, and there comes a time where you need to stop.

Perhaps with a finite game or series it's a bit different, but with a game like this one that apparently will never die, I really do need to know when to pack it in and play other stuff . : P It's okay if it's one of a few games you play, but I have other games and hobbies I'd like to get back to... I have been writing my story since 2022, and although it's been pretty niche and it's lost a lot of its original following, I've stuck with it and I have to admit that a small part of my reason to start making CC and play on PC is because I wanted to get into CC-making as well as being able to not be as limited in terms of SimLit. Of course, after years of constant play and a long time working on this project I won't have much reason to stick around because I have completely lost interest in the gameplay side of this game, and for a game I won't play or use for any reason there's no point in making CC for free if I can't have any fun with, or get any use out of, that CC.

Do not worry! I will not be deleting any CC. My Resources page has links to my SFS archive and I won't be deleting anything from anywhere my CC is uploaded. This also links to my tutorials both on and off Tumblr, and I have the Tumblr tutorials reblogged to my personal CC finds blog so I can be absolutely sure I won't lose access to them again.

@velkhanaa is my main acc, I have many years of videogame screenshots + new screenshots uploaded there and some little details on my BG3 playthroughs, but I don't use it for any purpose other than uploading screenshots.

Terms of Use for editing my CC is here, it's fairly open and I am one of very few pose makers who will let you upload edited poses (by following the terms of doing so written in the linked post). Do with that what you will!

Thank you for everyone who supported me, reblogged from me, used my CC, wrote nice comments or tags or tagged me when using my CC, it means the world to me that there are people out there who try to support free creators and smaller simblrs. I won't tag anyone because I don't want to force a response out of anyone but thank you to shanisims, crazy-lazy-elder-sims, xldkx, azeterna, hellodahliah, and sadraccoon061 for the reblogs and the support all the time I've been here < 3 You people have made it fun even when other people tried to ruin this community with paywalling, prejudice and toxic shitty attitudes!! Once I have finished my story I'll post something here.

[a-revised-history-of-erdas]

Welcome to a new Erdas 𖥔

Hello and welcome to the official source for A Revised History of Erdas!

You can call me Bay (she/they). This blog is for all things regarding my revision and expansion of the Spirit Animals series. Here, I discuss the project from a professional standpoint, accept asks and announce new uploads.

Included in A Revised History of Erdas

Here is a rundown of everything you can expect from this project.

A master document (henceforth simply referred to as the "masterdoc") detailing everything there is to know about the altered world of Erdas, from the geography and religion to the plot changes and character designs. This is intended to serve as the reader's guide to ARHoE.

The revision of the main series, arcs one through three. These will be referred to as the original book name, followed by Revised (e.g., Wild Born: Revised).

Tales of the Four Heroes, a collection of short stories that offers a glimpse into some of the unseen adventures of Conor, Abeke, Meilin and Rollan during and after the Second Great War.

Vow, an additional chapter of The Book of Shane that reveals how the Redcloaks came to be.

The revision of Essix's chapter in Tales of the Great Beasts, in which she befriends one of the first Greencloaks in Amaya.

Wyrmslayer, a novella centred on Abeke and Uraza in the aftermath of the War with the Wyrm.

The fourth and final arc, Path of the Heroes, in which the Four and their spirit animals must face a new adversary with their bond tokens.

An as of yet untitled book that jumps forward in time to the next generation -- the Four Heroes' children.

Standalone short stories set in this universe.

AUs that branch off from this primary AU.

Art that is commissioned for this project.

Things you might be wondering

Who is this blog run by? This blog is run entirely by myself, @bayofwolves. I write the posts, answer the asks and manage the account overall.

When do you post? Posts are scheduled for Saturdays (and sometimes Sundays) at 4:00 p.m. PST. There will not be a post every week, but when there is, it will fall on one or both of those days.

Why are you making this project? I have wanted to continue writing for Spirit Animals ever since The Dragon's Eye was released and the series was concluded. Fourteen years old at the time, I was unwilling to part with the world and the characters that had been a huge part of my life for the past four years. Additionally, I wasn't entirely satisfied with where they left things. In fact, I wrote to Scholastic to tell them so, and to request that they continue. I never heard back, of course, but that didn't stop me from taking matters into my own hands and beginning to work on the idea for a fourth arc that had taken shape in my mind. That original idea is now abandoned, but many years later, it inspired me to re-imagine what a continuation of my beloved childhood book series could look like. I created the concept for Path of the Heroes, and one thing led to another until I had plans to rework the whole universe of Spirit Animals. This all started because I never wanted it to end, and because I was unhappy with where and how it ended. A Revised History of Erdas is my attempt to make it feel more complete, to reconcile with my brokenhearted child self. Essentially, this is a passion project that was many years in the making, and a love letter to the books that shaped my childhood.

Where can I find samples of your writing? My Archive of Our Own is currently bare, as I haven’t written a standalone short story in a while. I do have some in the works, however. In the meantime, you can read the final chapter of The Return: Revised here.

When are you going to release [x part of ARHoE], and where can I read it when you do? At this point in time, I cannot predict when I will finish writing any part of ARHoE. This will likely change as work on the project progresses. I lead a busy life as a young adult and write when I can find the time (and motivation). This means that progress will be slow. However, rest assured that this project will be completed before I die. All stories will be posted (chapter-by-chapter, if applicable) on Archive of Our Own. As was previously mentioned, I will announce new uploads right here on this blog.

How does the content of this blog differ from that of your main? The most important difference is that this blog is dedicated exclusively to ARHoE. My main is where you'll find more varied and personal content, as well as discussion of the original Spirit Animals series. I do sometimes talk about this project on my main, but those posts are simply me brainstorming and coming up with ideas. It's casual, and nothing I say on there is set in stone. On this blog, however, my posts are polished and final. All the topics you see discussed here are fixed elements of ARHoE.

Can I send you an ask about [x]? Questions about anything in the universe of ARHoE are very welcome, but keep in mind that there are some things I can't reveal before certain volumes are released. Anonymous asks are on for those of you who prefer them. Send in as many as you want; I love answering them.

And just for fun...

How long have you been a fan of these books? I first started reading Spirit Animals in 2014, at around the same time Fire and Ice came out. I was ten at the time!

Favourite character? My favourite character is Abeke, followed by Shane, Irtike, Conor and Tasha. I have identified strongly with Abeke since I was very young; she will always be close to my heart.

If you lived on Erdas, what animal would you summon? It's a hard question for me because I love so many different animals, but I think my spirit animal would be a sea wolf.

Useful links

Archive of Our Own (TBA) Ask a question Main account

Thank you all for your endless kindness and support! Each and every one of you in this little community means so much to me. I hope you enjoy my work!

[trainerlynda]

[The Ghostly Dragon's main event! Demons]

[A video has been uploaded to Lynda's account, do you want to watch it?]

[Lynda steps out onto the main stage for her event, the wings that were apart of the costume before are now gone, however, in the lights he looks paler than before, almost ghostly... black lines down from her eyes mimicking that of a Giratina, his eyes are completely closed...

She takes wide steps as the music begins to pick up into a low drone, Espie isn't even on her shoulders at this moment... where is he?

"Life's a pill that's hard to swallow..." He starts to sing, low and echoy and... extremely haunting, her arms open up wide palms facing up as he continues to walk forward, "All my demons scream the echos..."

Will-o-whisps begin to follow her, purple and red in color dancing as if an Infernal Parade is going on... are there white eyes in the middle of them? "And I'm cleaning blood off a bathroom wall" he steps of the stage and begins to float above the arena, not losing or gaining height- "A fractured heart and a shattered soul lays there..."

More will-o-whisps begin to dance around her, his shadow grows long and menacing, shaped like a Origin form Giratina with ghostly wings and glowing red eyes...

"Next to hers..." The shadow grows taller still, a sharp grin splitting its face as it begins to loom over Lynda.

"Are you alive or just breathing? Is it living when you're dreaming? I'll be gone..." More force is added to her voice, becoming scratchy and harsh, he starts to spin slowly, "And karma will leave a note..."

"Are you alive or just breathing? Does god know it when you're kneeling? Cuz when I'm gone..." The music begins to pick up faster, Lynda stops, in the middle of the arena now, her shadow splits into two, one still the Origin form Giratina while the other looks to have taken on the Altered form, she 'looks' up to the crowd...

"When I'm gone..." Suddenly, mist begins to steam from the stage, rapidly filling the arena and coating the ground, an Icy Wind starts to billow around Lynda, sending cold shards of ice around to glimmer and gleam in the stage light, the music is quickly picking up to something-

"I hope you can see-" Lynda's eyes open, sclera pitch black, the only thing showing that her eyes are open are the bright green glowing iris' "Ghosts."

The two shadows dive down, snatching up Lynda as two pokeballs fall from her sides, they both pop open and Draga and Espie come out, causing the mist to split as they hiss and roar at the billowing shadows holding their trainer hostage! Though keen eyes would notice that Espie didn't come out of the ball, Draga's wings had cleared the mist to show Espie was on the ground, quite the stage trick.

Espie and Draga fight side by side to save Lynda from the shadows, Shadow Balls and Dark Pulses fired at the towering darkness, Lynda dancing in the air as if being puppeted by the two ghostly shapes, stiff and sharp movements with unnatural twirls and spins, six ghostly wings are on her back now, clearly shaped like Origin form Giratina.

Espie and Draga seem to be struggling to get her back, when a Frostlass and Hisuian Typhlosion come onto the scene, the Typhlosion firing off a Infernal Parade and the Frostlass pushing the attack forward with a Blizzard, the attack strikes the shadows and Lynda drops from their hold, Espie and Draga quickly fly over to catch him together, caught by Espie's psychic and brought over onto Draga's back.

The two shadows lose their mass, revealing them to be two Gengar, nervously chuckling to themselves, helping Lynda onto the main stage, he begins to sing again, "You can take back all of my darkest days... you're the only one who's worth the pain..."

"I'm not afraid anymore..." Lynda does a small spin, "Oh I hope..."

"I hope that you can see-" Her eyes open up again, they look back to normal now, "Ghosts!~"

Him and her pokemon do a bow at the crowd, causing them to erupt into cheers and whistles.]

[decadenceandrot]

Pinterest is a special kind of site that will probably exist past the death of our universe.

I’ve been on Pinterest (and tumblr) for a WHILE. Probably about a decade give or take, regardless of the account I use or if I’m lurking and just viewing things or posting myself. On one hand, Pinterest has all the expected “arts and crafts”, “interior design” inspiration, varying “aesthetics”, fashion, food inspo, and the usual inspirational quotes. But if you stay a while and start looking, you’ll see that almost every form of artistic form (or Fanart) has been uploaded there. I’ve known some artists say that they know they’ve “made it” when they see their art on Pinterest. Unless it’s 18+ cuz that site is fairy stingy with even HINTS of adult fun times What’s funny about this brings me to another aspect of the site: the COMMENTS. Now, comment sections aren’t new, and there’s nothing particularly amazing about Pinterest comments either. On art posts, a lot of people will who the artist was in the comments. What’s funny about comments on Pinterest is the time in between comments and ESPECIALLY responses. There are comments on pins from almost a decade ago with questions that got answered A MONTH AGO. No one says anything about it, and no one really cares either. It’s a liminal space of things just EXISTING, all simultaneously easy and hard to find. I also want to add that the translation feature in the comment section has been better than Twitter, Instagram, or any google translate I’ve used thus far and I find that HILLARIOUS

If you see the art, you’re one hop and a skip away from the full fledged Pinterest experience. This is where you see the memes, snippets of reddit posts, and ESPECIALLY tumblr posts. A lot of the tumblr posts are also in the original tumblr format too, which makes for a WILD viewing experience on a site that so clearly compresses the images so that some of these are too blurry to even read, yet people pin them anyways. There are the obvious biggest-gaudiest-patronuses, i-am-a-fish, the whole CATEGORY of superwholock, and so on, but ultimately there’s kind of EVERYTHING. I’ve found some of my best memes and most cursed images there, along with finding tumblr posts that aren’t even ON tumblr anymore.

This is where I get to my point: Pinterest is the catch-all. EVERYTHING ends up on there, one way or another. Pinterest acts as both a blank slate that can offer ANYTHING you seek, but at the same time is an archive that is void of any sense of time or space. Pinterest is the archive where things go to perish. If something is gone from the main web or social media or the like, so long as it can be an image or short video, it will somehow be on Pinterest in one way or another. FINDING it is the only struggle you will face. It serves as both a place to keep that which is archived there alive, but also as the digital tombstone of what was. Pinterest is where all things end up, and it is the place where all things die.

Pinterest is a wild place. You should visit sometime.

[penwrythe]

Working on moving on from Twitter also how do social media work yeah????

So, the last week and this week have been wild, eh?

My stress levels have increased badly over the past few days just seeing the fallout of the latest Twitter debacle. I feel now is the time for me to just let go of Twitter completely.

If you follow me on Twitter (either through Worldofrelics or PenwrytheArts), I thank you for following, sharing, and liking my art. I'm not a large artist, but I am thankful for every small interaction I get for my art! Even with a few (even major) setbacks, I still had fun interacting with other artists there.

I know I don't have to write all this over the Twitter thing, but I have spent six years there as PenwrytheArts and another year and a half as Worldofrelics. I want to say thank you to everyone who supported me and my art! And, also, if you are also stressed over this whole thing, remember you are not alone. Things will be okay!

Now then, what's next? Well, I just started backups on my accounts and, hopefully, if Twitter does not do another fuckywucky, I'll get them soon. I'll slow down on art and lore posts on my Twitter accounts, only to post the occasional reminder that I'm on other platforms. Since Twitter deletes inactive accounts after 30 days, I cannot make either of my accounts into art archives. I'm looking at WordPress as a place for uploading an archive of my art and the Internet Archive to upload my art and tweets from Twitter.

Once the archives are created, the reminders will cease and I'll just let Twitter's inactive account policy take my accounts.

Tumblr (Penwrythe) is where I will be the most active. For my other accounts, I'm thinking about reviewing how I upload my stuff online.

Tumblr (main) will have most of my activity once I close down my Twitter accounts.

Tumblr, Newgrounds, Blogger, Cohost, Pillowfort, and Artfol will have a combination of both final art and work-in-progress stuff since they have blogging formats like Tumblr. All these will have similar posts between them.

Gallery-wise for completed art: that will be my portfolio, Behance (once I figure out how to set it up), Instagram, Newgrounds, Toyhouse (for characters), and WordPress. World of Relics content is included in all this by the way, but I like the idea of creating WorldofRelics dev site to show progress, either on Tumblr or WordPress. WorldAnvil is its current home for lore and worldbuilding.

And while I'm currently on DeviantArt, I'm debating on whether to delete it or just keep it as an archive with no new uploads at a certain point. I'm still not sure about the state of that site since they still allow AI art to be uploaded there, along with other issues I have with the site.

Not only that, I'm looking for somewhere to upload stories from World of Relics, like Altostratus. I'm looking at AO3 (for original fiction), WordPress, Wattpad, Toyhouse (I think they allow written work), and WorldAnvil (maybe, some of its story features are behind a paywall, tho). Tumblr, Cohost, and Pillowfort are also obvious choices, but I want to keep my stories on at least three websites to avoid having to visit 10 sites just to make a spelling correction from the original draft.

Anyway, that's the plan going forward! Once again, I'm thankful for everything! Good luck to those who are also moving from Twitter, as well!

[thesinglesjukebox]

DRAKE FT. SEXYY RED & SZA - "RICH BABY DADDY"

Okay, we'll admit it. The main reason we came back is that, if we didn't, we would've gone a year where we didn't cover a Drake single, and that just felt so wrong...

[4.81]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: This should be the slammiest of all the dunks. Drake -- you know him, he's well past his peak but can still afford a banger when he puts his account to it! Sexyy Red -- the summer was hers! SZA, the biggest star out! Miami bass music! The title! All the names are on the poster, promising a good ass time, but we never get there. It's a summer blockbuster pushed to October for a reason, and is way too frigid to get this writer's ass moving. First kid on YouTube to upload a [BASS BOOSTED] edit moves this joint up a point, although the bass was the whole fuckin' point in the first place. [3]

Tim de Reuse: You can call it "a consequence of being overplayed" or "so many people copied him that now he sounds boring" or whatever. All I know is that trying to think of words to describe Drake in December of 2023 is like pulling teeth. It's standard atmospheric pressure -- it's a medium-sized red delicious apple -- it's a glass of tap water. I am listening as hard as I can, and I cannot hear anything. [3]

Andrew Karpan: The first thing I think about when I think about "Rich Baby Daddy" is the uncredited voice of Jessica Domingo, because it's literally the first thing on there. Processed to sound almost as if being sung behind a waterfall, Domingo's voice registers at the very volume and pitch of distance, a recurring gesture for voices like these in the Drake oeuvre. The best part about these songs is that they are always the sum total of their parts, so they can really be appreciated like this; something Drizzy himself realized a while back too, when he started sorting and rearranging them for curatorial effect. In a sea of wobbly fashionable Miami bass, the bars he picks up here from Sexyy Red don't feel out of place next to his own unrelated internal monologue, nor next to the patched-in haunted refrain from SZA, a miracle get that impresses because it is impressive. His otherwise unexplained deliberate misreading of a decade-old Florence + the Machine record that acts as a kind of perplexing coda eventually begins to make sense too, if you listen to it a few hundred times like I did. [9]

Katherine St Asaph: In three years we're going to learn that this was originally a SZA solo track that Drake hijacked for himself, like Rihanna's recording of "Consideration", right? I need to believe this so I can justify this score to myself. [5]

Michelle Myers: It's a dark truth that many of Drake's best songs involved vampirically swagger-jacking some up-and-coming rapper with local buzz or a viral track. Here, he attempts to harness Sexyy Red's gloriously blunt charisma and ends up utterly upstaged. Red lets herself soften against a skittery, femme club beat, her voice crackling warmly as she interpolates her own damn song. SZA sounds like a 1996 album-cut hidden gem sped up and resurrected by a Zoomer with 15 million TikTok followers. And then there's fucking Drake, increasingly bitter and out-of-touch, having long lost whatever soft-hearted charm I saw in him a decade ago. His verses are the musical equivalent of thirtysomething white ladies who write songs about skinny jeans and side-parts, embarrassing for all of us. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: A soundtrack to the approaching millennial midlife crisis that's so candid in its thirsty stabbing at relevance that I can't help but cheer for it, or feel sorry for it, or both. On a formal level, "Rich Baby Daddy" is nowhere near as elegant as its obvious predecessors, "In My Feelings" and "Nice for What," but after repeat listening, that messiness, that feeling of being pulled in several different directions at once, starts to feel like a deliberate choice. The guest stars, who were recruited with that in mind, go even further by alternately supporting and undermining Drake's intended displays of mastery over female sexuality. Sexyy Red pays her requisite homage unflinchingly, with a leisurely cadence more suited for a block party than a marquee album, while SZA disrupts the prebuilt Madonna-whore duality by crashing out of the gate with "I need a dick and conversation," all while sounding like she's being launched on a lily pad toward the heavens. The strip-club-in-a-water-level sonics add some emotional texture to what would otherwise be an explosion of untrimmed id, somewhat easing the transition into the stupid-on-paper "post-nut clarity" outro. As laughable as that concept may be, it evokes the yearning post-adolescence of "old Drake" as much as the Florence interpolation does, and just like Mr. Last Name Ever himself, I can't call myself immune to the periodic desire to go back, back to 2009. [8]

Ian Mathers: I know we're not predisposed to like Fucking Drake around here, but the processing on his chorus vocals is the most off-putting I've heard in a while. And not because they've cranked the Auto-Tune or whatever up too far -- I've heard and loved more pronounced examples of that -- but because they've somehow managed to produce the world's deepest whine. At least he's barely here, ceding most of the track to a high-effort-for-low-reward Sexyy Red performance. SZA is much better but barely shows up, which is probably the right move. And then Fucking Drake comes back to just "sing" Florence + the Machine for a bit! Every bit of shit we've ever talked was justified. [2]

Tara Hillegeist: Not even Drake sounding the most alive and enjoying-himself and hands down the funniest guest bars anyone's ever contributed to a Drake chorus can fully save this song from the depths of antipathy carved into my psyche by several years of Fucking Drake too many, but credit where it's due: I haven't left a track from Degrassi's own Jimmy Brooks feeling this genuinely entertained by what I just heard since "Started from the Bottom". And that's impressive, considering this is a track where I had to hear him mumble-singing soulfully about the emotional impact of post-nut clarity. [6]

Will Adams: So many elements working against this -- abrupt instrumental breaks; SZA's verse sounding like it was pasted on with Elmer's; left-field Florence interpolation; Drake in general -- but Sexyy Red's hook is indelible. Sometimes that's all you need. [6]

Crystal Leww: "Shake that ass for Drake, now shake that ass for me" are some of the funniest instructions ever doled out on a Drake song, which is an accomplishment if you consider how long Drake has been around. Drake is essential to this song if only for those lines. [6]

Aaron Bergstrom: I am willing to consider shaking my ass for Sexyy Red. Under no circumstances will I shake my ass for Drake. [3]

Nortey Dowuona: Drake is a bad rapper. No matter what his stans, Lil Yachty, DJ Wackademics, or me in 2013 will tell you, dude is an inescapably clumsy, artless witless hack whose only talent is in co-opting more complex and dedicated art to make it more comfy and accessible to people who would never sincerely engage with what he does. Kanye has been sadder and more earnest. Phonte has been more honest and clever. Lauryn Hill did his whole schtick so well both he and Kanye keep riding off her songs. The only thing he had is that he made music that women liked, that spoke to women in a way it could never do so for dorks like us. And now he's making flat, wan Earl Sweatshirt songs for people who hate Earl and people who hate women period. Sexyy Red's verse is clumsy too, but it's charming and earnest, and the SZA verse is entrancing, vivid and stunning. The line "I got a feeling this is more than what we both say" contains more genuine worry, fear and hope than this hack has done in his whole career. Please, pretty please, buy SOS on vinyl, buy a record player, learn a trade, call your mom and tell her you love her, tell her you are so grateful for staying with you and loving you. Hell, click off this website. Just do not play a song where the most heterosexual man on the face of the earth tries to convince you that he can teach you to -- [3]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I've spent the past few months thinking about lovers' rock and pagode romântico through the lens of bell hooks' idea of "loving Blackness as political resistance." It was "Rich Baby Daddy" that made me start doing the same for Atlanta bass. Drake seems as good enough a launchpad for all this ruminating -- how often have I seen men refer to his "softer" songs as being "for the girls"? How much of romance is coded across gender lines? Of course, Drake is a manipulative shithead, and it's Sexyy Red who provides the most loving lyric we've heard in any of his songs: an ostensible call to embrace something approaching bisexuality. Too bad Drake opts for another beat-switch gimmick as an excuse to exert his fragile masculinity. Like, how are you gonna follow up, "Shake that ass for Drake, now shake that ass for me" with "You ain't even know how to suck it right." [5]

Brad Shoup: I know how this sounds, but this needed... more Drake? More of the first-verse Drake, anyway: skipping and bobbing, fully devoted on a threeway Miami bass ballad that has exhaling synths straight out of Cupid & Psyche 85. Hell yes, give me all you got. Instead, he dips until the beat switch gives him something properly sluggish. How do you fuck up a verse that interpolates Florence and uses the phrase "post-nut clarity"? He was positively panting earlier; now he's talking about sex like he's issuing a Q3 performance review. [5]

Alfred Soto: Drake drawls shit like "You ain't even know how to suck it right" like a PE coach in a locker room and disappears to let Sexyy Red shout undeserving orders. Nice life! [2]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Here, Drake turns his complete inertness into an advantage: he does his best Sexyy Red impression here and sings some truly brain-dead riffs on Florence + the Machine, but otherwise abandons his own song in favor of his more interesting guests. It's an interesting move from a guy once known for using features to take over songs completely -- interesting more in the meta-pop context than in the song itself, of course, but a decade and a half in to our coverage of Fucking Drake, we ought to be finding new angles when we can. [5]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[seriously-mike]

The marketing goons for this thing are on crack. Seriously. I have no idea what kind of shit they're smoking, but they're running a scam and only barely trying.

“With the Pro plan you get 1,000 photos per month, so about 10 regular photo shoots, which means $2,500 to $15,000 if it was a real photo shoot. So about 100x to 500x cheaper than booking a real photographer.”

Out of those, you'll have to throw away 900, because they'll generate with the usual AI glitches like fucked up anatomy, improbable clothing and jewelry, etcetera. Also, forget group shots. You can't do group shots by AI without the help of Photoshop and multiple prompts unless you want an attack of the clones.

Next is adding [ textual inversions ] as a feature, which are AI embeddings which help remove anomalies

Well fuck me. They realized what people are using in their local Stable Diffusion setups to minimize glitches, get consistent details and generate deepfake celebrity porn. Con-fucking-gratulations. I explained that a month ago.

Photo AI is dubbing itself the “world’s first AI photographer” allowing users to upload 30 or more photos of themselves or someone else to train the program.

Uh... they're building a textual inversion from those photos. Basically, they'll pound them into fairy dust, as per usual AI dataset building, link it to your account and let you use it for semblance of consistency. If you drop a lot of photos from the same angle, you'll get something laughably useless and be disappointed.

The company says it can be used for passport-style photos

This is where you know they're pulling a scam. Never, never, NEVER EVER use AI generated photos for your passport or any other official document. Even if the AI is programmed only to remove the background and correct brightness/contrast. The generation process also goes through the parts of a photograph marked as off limits and messes with them. I tried swapping the background on one of the photos from my December shoot and despite masking out the model, the generator distorted her face. I'd have to drop both the masked-off original image and the AI-generated output in Photoshop, put the original back on top of the output and make sure everything lines up to make it work.

The pro plan costs $29 per month allowing users to generate 1,000 AI photos, the premium plan costs $99 per month and allows for 5,000 generations, and finally, the business plan costs $299 per month giving the user 25,000 AI photos.

So, to recap: they want you to pay thirty bucks a month for a Stable Diffusion-based generator limited to photorealistic datasets (or even a photorealistic dataset of potentially dubious quality), upload your photos that will be at least used to build a textual inversion of your likeness (which, to work, requires you to take photos from different angles, and I doubt they'll tell you to do so anyway) and I won't be surprised if they plug them into the next iteration of their main checkpoint model on the sly. You will be limited to a thousand photos per month, of which you'll discard more than half because you don't know how to write prompts and even if you do, Stable Diffusion being Stable Diffusion is gonna go off the rails anyway. In a word:

SCAM.

[waffle-sorter]

So.

For somewhat more than two years now, I've been seeking out stories of fictional trans people. (I don't know why only the fictional ones - my best guess is that it has to do with how people build stories compared with how they assemble memories or other people's accounts.) I started in AO3's "trans character" tag, and have since branched out to original stories, both professionally published and freely uploaded to various sites.

Now, granted, I don't read everything - in particular, anything marked as smut is going to have to do a lot of persuading to get me to click - but I have noticed some trends. The vast majority of these stories seem to more or less fall into one of the following categories, the first being far more common:

The character has always known they were trans; or at the very least, by the time the story begins, they have already figured out that there's something gender-related about themself that they don't like. These stories usually focus on the character either coming out, or seeking to have various restrictions relaxed while trying to not come out; either way, most of the conflict is about navigating the community's reactions and options.

The character is in their mid-teens to mid-twenties, and suddenly finds out that they're trans, usually by being either magically transformed into a girl or compelled to dress as one. The type-1 plot often occurs, but generally as a b-plot; usually the main arc is more internal, as the character tries to grapple with questions about what their situation means and what they want to do about it.

(These are not exclusive categories; I can think of two off the top of my head where, after an adult realization, the character remembers some moment of clarity from their childhood.)

Now, I don't know the actual statistics, but from what I've heard only a minority of trans people realize in early childhood. And certainly people who figure themselves out as full adults are not unheard-of. And yet... I can't think of a single story I've found that matches more than one or two particulars of my experience. For example, I can only come up with two where a character took more than a week or so to come up with a "new" name to go by. And I'm fairly sure "Unknown Number" is the only one I've seen that involves a (very different) slow, introspective realization before any other significant transition steps.

[patchdotexe]

2009 on youtube was a wild west. anybody remember youtube streams? not, like, Youtube Gaming, i mean youtube used to have an official built-in version of rabb.it/hyperbeam/etc. like you could just.. browse rooms and join them and chat with people while playing videos

that was how i met my longest-running rp group. there was a whole group of, like, gimmick accounts of "i'm This Character and i'm going to comment on videos in-character! also we have a stream room where everybody hangs out :3" and my long-time friend ran one of those for Ninten. and i made an oc and made her a youtube account (which i dont think i have access to anymore, agh) and joined the stream and would rp with everybody

and i met. so many people through that. and also it was a whole nest of drama which ended in me being losing contact with basically everybody from that era except for One Person i have friended on discord and dont talk to because we're chronically awkward and i was a walking disaster when i was 13

(wait oh my god they were ALSO part of Contact. their character made it into both fic attempts, even. i dont think we're tumblr mutuals anymore since we remade though ahaheh ;;)

um. anyway. the whole.. origin.. of KL was that whenever somebody was inappropriate in chat or played a Bad Video or changed the background to Something NSFW (because anybody in the stream could upload an image url to change the page background!!) my response would be

IMMAKUROUSU: you DARE bring [thing] into my lair?! you must DIE

so when the group splintered and my corner of the squad made our own stream room, eventually it got named Kurousu's Lair

..anyway, this was where the rp that i fanfic-ified into Contact happened. in a youtube stream chat. one of the IAms was a big Homeworld fan and was doing a villain arc with his guy who was like, the leader of the Hiigaran Empire and friends with Ninten before he got possessed or something, and so he set up a rp where earth got sieged by the hiigarans and a handful of survivors banded together to try and stop Jaraci before humanity was completely wiped out

and so that guy, who also roleplayed the other main protag Elohim, uploaded a video that was his character's theme song and it had a bunch of Homeworld concept art and space photos and stuff and gave us the annotation link so we could put funny speech bubbles on it of ellis yelling and being very normal about everything

all of that is long gone now. the only bits of that era that remain are me telling stories like this, some ocs, some accounts, and that video.

(i remember this specific image being, like, contextualized as them maybe stealing one of the hiigaran ships? and ellis yelling at elohim over it. my memory is basically gone past that though, and the annotations have been wiped for a decade by now.)

[llilyrose]

isolated frames + artist's notes below cut!!!

((for the people who want the photos and the nerds who like behind the scenes stuff))) ((((i am nerds))))

pssst...... . theyrge free to use with credit... spreadd my influence

thumbnail

oooh the troubles. im not logged in to my youtube account on mobile, which is where i made everything, so i had to upload the video to the google drive and download it from there onto my pc.

the thumbnail was the first thing i made for this project!!! you'll see the signature twohats coins in the middle (also seen in the achievement) with the little rings coming out and the starbelt above it.

the rings + starbelt combo represent the universe (who i also interpreted here if you're curious). the starbelt is a passive symbol and the rings are an active influence. you'll notice them throughout the different frames in the rest of the animatic.

.

"the calculator will make / the same mistakes"

The bottom portion is the beginning of the game where Siffrin makes a wish at the favor tree. It's meant to represent both Frin and Loop; The lyrics are referencing the fact that Siffrin made the same mistake Loop did long before them, starting the cycle over again. Something something because they're the same person and the calculator will never change without outside input.

the top portion transitions to the Loop hangout!!! i wanted to be smart about using the favor tree's leaves as a transition sequence and thought I'd tackle one going from light to dark. I used the Loop Hangout sequence here because I wanted a good excuse to use it in the next line of lyrics, but also because transitioning from one siffrin to siffrin and loop would be poetic and get across the message about their branching paths.

Originally it was going to be a sequence showing loop vs. siffrin's deaths against the king but i wanted something more seamless. the starbelt is there to look pretty and also because i think the King's time freeze turns everything to night for religious reason.

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"yeah i see it in / its face"

i had to turn the contrast up for these shots! i didn't like how undramatic the originals looked in the context of the animation.

here's what they looked like before:

they didn't really match the intensity of the mood i was going for. surely you understand my dilemma

siffrin's pose went through quite a lot of change but i landed on something i liked. again, the star belt is there just to create some sort of detail that framed the characters as the main focus while making sure the canvas didn't come out super boring/empty

while drawing loop's eyes here i took some idea from marshall's ghostlight loop eyeshape because i was kinda OBSESSED with drawing those type of eyes and they're shaped like Me so i had to. help.

"i see it in its face" siffrin is hiding from the truth but loop figured it out a while ago. he's holding out hope and they're trying to get something, anything through to him. this was perfect for the loop hangout gwagh

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"hold on tight to this time this place"

sasasaap siffrin my friend C:

the animatic shifts between loop and siffrin povs after abt every 2 lines. i got this idea because i had sasasaap siffrin in mind for "hold on tight... everything you know" and had mal du pays in mind for "you were born... that is where".

This is Loop after beating the King in the true ending. happy with all their friends. "hold on tight to this time this place" -> hold on to the memories of your friends, to the happy moments you spend with them, because they will be ripped away over and over until you'll never be able to get them back.

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"everything you know / will be erased"

tying into the last line, this is loop after making their wish. there's no going back anymore. everything they know will vanish, their party won't be theirs anymore, their memories along with themself won't even EXIST anymore. everything will be erased, and that's why they have to hold on to those past memories. separate this timeline from their own. (what a shame that we know this timeline is the only timeline that exists... still holding out hope, are you, loop?)

the star belts and rings are back and this time very much so intented to be referencing the universe. i alao just think star belts are good in space settings, and wanted to mimic the opening sequence of the game

lighting gets harsher in the second photo on purpose (the star's closer to their body, of course it would light them brighter)

.

"you were born inside your head"

bounce to siffrin's perspective

MAL DU PAYS EDITS OF THE PARTY MY FRIEND. I LOVE MAL DU PAYS DEARLY (see the art/poem i made if you don't believe me coward)!!

mira was tweaked from the edit i did of lélu, ocean's miraloops au version of mal du pays, and the rest of the party try to immitate that style. in the future I'll go back in and make them fully animated sprites for our collective leisure.

this scene is meant to be mal du pays immitating the party. "you were born inside your head" -> you're not a real person without your memories, all the memories you have technically don't even exist in the first place, + your home isn't real anymore either. it's also about mal du pays itself, born from within siffrin's mind and existing only within the memories of his time in the loops.

the extra lighting + details were meant to add atmosphere to the existing piece, like the "oooooo" and the soft track backing the sung lyrics. i was playing around with animating these and making them into sprites before finishing the pmv but i knew that if i did that i would abandon the project altogether probably and/or set it back by a long while. so instead we're waiting for me to do that after the fact.

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"that is where you'll be when you are dead"

the end of the mal du pays fight scene!!!!!! i need better names for these shots heeeeelp me.

specifically the part where siffrin's giving up. mal du pays has done its job and is finally putting it and siffrin to rest; sif just wants a moment of peace, just wants some kind of clarity, but in the end he accepts that he won't get any further than he already has and that all his issues are things he has to live with.

he will stay inside this prison of his own making until he gives up or otherwise can't move forward. he just wants out.

(side note: siffrin's hat is all curled up! it's a small detail i noticed on one of id5's reference sheets, where siffrin"s hat curls up in certain moments only. i thought I'd include it here.

those reference sheets helped me with drawing a lot of her characters! for example, siffrin's gloves and hair came from a siftuation and hair example sheet respectively. i saw the phrase "komaeda hair" and could not help myself. i am a wavy/curly hair fiend)

.

"you are just a boy / you are no man"

we're cutting back to the loop wish pov; here's them actually eating the star!!!!

the first image is my favorite out of the whollllleeee pmv. the lighting before they take a bite. HELP me.

ignoring the gendered words used in the lyrics, I'm trying to paint loop as sympathetic here. they didn't deserve ANYTHING they went through, the absolute torture they got wringed in!! they never had a MOMENT to stop, to breathe, to process what they went through, to deal with any of it in a healthy way. on the inside they're still a person, still a siffrin, someone distinct with thoughts and feelings.

the lighting kinda sucked to figure out but at the same time i had a lot of fun with it??? i didn't want to draw siffrin's hat but i realized after making the "everything you know" images that loop doesn't even have their hat in the prologue. heeeelppp me. i didn't wanna go back in and change it because i spent a lot of time on it there so it stayed.

yeahh these are my favorites. i already said that. but still. the dramatic lighting was fun! i colored from dark to light which isn't usually how i shade things but it made sense in my head here.

.

"and nobody you know will / understand"

these lyrics are meant to be taken VERY literally. literally nobody they know (or used to know) understands them. nobody knows who they are, who they used to be, the constant inner battle they're fighting.

their family doesn't know them anymore. their family is scared when they first meet, even!!! they've spent all these loops trying to hide from themself and everyone they know so obviously they would be so so so uncomfortable "meeting" everyone again, acting like they don't know them.

THE BACKGROUNDS SUCKED. OH MY LORD. IT WAS SO BAD. HELP ME. THANK YOU MY LEAF BRUSH AND MY PEN BRUSH (FADE) YOU ARE SAVIORS I WOULDN'T HAVE MADE THESE WITHOUT YOU. I don't know how to make backgrounds anything other than lineless.,, lines in backgrounds take attention away from characters if you're not careful and that's the exact OPPOSITE of what i wanted to do!! i had to leave space for text also. these shots were composition hell. help me. help me. save me.

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"you are just a boy / you are no man"

"and nobody you know will / understand"

direct continuation of the last sif part with them drifting in a mind void after the mal du pays fight

because i feel like the awakening happened a little more gradually than it did in-game? they'd fully given up by that point and the reason he woke up wasn't because of the loud noise around him, but because their party was trying to break through the mdp haze. likely mirabelle healed the timefreeze-like state he was in to get him to wake up

this scene is SUPER metaphorical!!!!! the lighting made it a bit difficult, and the lack of any source media to base it off of didn't help, but i made do.

it took me forever to think of what i was gonna put here. for the whole pmv i had some sort of idea of what i wanted to make for each scene (barring this scene and the last loop scene) but this one ESPECIALLY i was clueless about. i asked around and got some good ideas (thanks dasner!!!) but knew i wanted to do something with siffrin and figured that i should do a continuation after the mdp fight.

it worked out in the end because the last frame made both of the "paths" in the pmv coincide while also just looking pretty.... winning I'm winning !!!!!

when i first posted it these were my least favorite scenes but I'm really warming up to them. they're just so pretty. wow i really made those huh. i really made them. that was me. boggles my mind.

.

so uh yeah that's it. not much to say after all that!!!

I'm very very proud of how this turned out, and I'm really really happy you guys seem to like it too :)

i was gonna show you guys the storyboards for funsies but I've already inserted 28/30 possible embeds onto this post!!! ouchies!! owzers!!! sorry!!!!! I'll have to remake this pmv using the storyboards. give me 10 seconds.

(I'll link it here when i post it)

[trips and drops this] oh god oh ngo not my isat pmv ive been working in for rhe past three days no no nobon

[hintofelation99]

The Justice League Hangs out with Duke

Bruce: Duke, it's time we had the talk.

Duke: Uh... nope. No thank you. I'm not getting the sex talk from Batman.

Bruce: What? No! The Robin talk.

Duke: But, I'm- I'm the Signal now? Isn't it a bit late for a Robin talk?

Bruce: Son, it's never too late, not for this.

Duke: Um. Ok.

Bruce: When Dick, Jason, and Tim first started as Robins they created a tradition. A tradition that continued with Stephanie, Damian, and now you.

Duke: And that tradition is?

Bruce: Taking down the Justice League. By being annoying and slightly terrifying.

Duke: OHHHHHH. Is that why no one from the Justice League talks to me?

Bruce: Yes, yes it is. But don't worry. I made an arrangement that will allow you time alone with league members to continue the tradition. You have a week to prepare.

——————

Duke: Cass, what do I do?

Cass raises an eyebrow at Duke.

Duke: For the Robin tradition thing. I have to take down the entire Justice League in a night using creative, outlandish, and original methods. But it's already been done by Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, and Steph. So what do I do? How can I be better than all of them.

Cass smirks: Take them down too.

Duke looking at Cass like she's crazy: What?

Cass: Take. Them. Down.

Duke: Holy shit, you are terrifying.

Cass just smiles and leaves.

-> One Week Later <-

Wonder Woman, Superman, Flash, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Black Canary, Martian Manhunter, Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, and Steph gather in the Watchtower.

Duke: Hey guys, Batman just wanted to go through some training exercises with everyone. He'll be a little late. Harley and Ivy escaped Arkham and are trying to grow penis shaped shrubs in all the public parks. But, don't worry he asked me to go ahead and start with out him.

Green Lantern: Why are you leading this meeting?

Duke: Batman is running late and he wants me to practice leading meetings.

Green Lantern, glaring suspiciously at Duke: Are you about to do that stupid Robin tradition where you torture all of us?

Duke: What Robin tradition? Also, I'm not even a Robin? I'm the Signal.

Green Lantern continues to glare at him.

Superman: Calm down Green Lantern, the Robins never do this in front of each other.

Every League member seems to relax at this.

Duke acting confused: Uhhh, yeah. Ok, we have a few housekeeping things to do according to the list Batman left. So, I'll have everyone pair up for sparring while I handle these individually.

------

Everyone is in the training room working out or sparring. Duke approaches Tim.

Duke: Hey Tim, Bruce wanted you to look in to that Bludhaven case. Is that ok with you?

Tim: Yeah, why wouldn't it be?

Duke: Oh, I just thought it might be difficult considering what Dick did.

Tim: ...What did he do?

Duke: Wait, you haven't noticed? Oh no, I'm sorry I shouldn't have said anything.

Tim: Duke. Tell me what he did.

Duke: Well, Jason said that he replaced all your coffee with decaf.

Tim: THAT BASTARD. No wonder I've been feeling so tired! I'm going to kill him!

Duke: Wait, just stop! I heard that he hid all of it in Green Lantern's room.

Tim: Wait, why there?

Duke: Something about you being afraid of him.

Tim: WHAT?! I'm not afraid of the Green Nightlight! I'm gonna find that coffee then make Dick pay.

Duke: Oh, well cool, good luck!

------

Green Lantern: Um, what are you doing in my room?

Tim: Where is it?

Green Lantern: Where's what?

Tim: You know what I want. Give up now or face the consequences.

Green Lantern: WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

Tim: Fine. Consequences.

------

Steph, sparring with Duke: So, what's it like being the first meta bat?

Duke: Not too bad, but I could do with out the whole 'predict the future' thing.

Steph, laughing: What? You can not see the future.

Duke: I bet you $50 I can

Steph: Your on.

Duke, makes everything around him light up and uses a weird voice: In the next thirty minutes Green Lantern will flee the Watchtower in fear. Soon after Dick will be attacked by Tim.

Steph, snorts in obvious disbelief.

Steph: That was so fake-

Green Lantern runs out of the tower looking terrified.

Steph: No way.

Tim tackles Dick and they start fighting like three year old's on the floor.

Steph, handing Duke $50: Holy shit Magic Man.

Duke makes things light up and does the voice again: Oh my god.

Steph, looking excited: What?!

Duke: The- the sushi. The sushi you brought today, it's made from-

Duke pretends to choke back a sob.

Duke: It's made from the fish who was the maid of honor at Aquaman's wedding.

Steph: HOLY SHIT.

------

Steph and Aquaman sit beside each other for lunch, she pulls out her sushi and looks at Aquaman sadly.

Steph: I am so, so sorry for your loss. But just know that her sacrifice is not in vain.

Aquaman, looks confused for a second then sees the sushi: NOPE. Not this again! I'm leaving.

Steph: Wait! I'm sorry!

Aquaman leaves as Steph tries to chase him down.

------

Jason is laughing and filming as Dick and Tim fight.

Duke, whistles: Man, imagine if that video went on YouTube.

Jason, looking confused: What?

Duke: I'm just saying if the video of Red Robin and Nightwing fighting like kids ever got on YouTube, it'd go viral. Oh and they would be so pissed!

Jason, laughs: Too bad B would kill me if I uploaded this.

Duke: Yeah, I guess so. And you can't upload it here because then Superman would get in trouble.

Jason: Why would the boy scout get in trouble?

Duke: Cause he always uses his YouTube account on the Justice League computer. So it'd look like he uploaded it and B would find out that Superman watches cat videos while he's on monitor duty.

Jason, smirking: Huh, so you're saying if I upload this on the League computer I'd piss off Bruce, Tim, and Dick and get Supes in trouble?

Duke, acting innocent: Huh, I guess so.

-> A Few Minutes Later <-

A call from Bruce comes up on the main computer.

Superman: Hey Batman, what can I do for you?

Bruce: You, Red Hood, cave now.

Jason: What? Why me?

Bruce: Because I saw that little home video you uploaded of your brothers.

Jason: What, that wasn't me!

Bruce: I could hear you laughing while you filmed.

Jason: Dammit.

Jason and Clark leave for the cave pouting like kids.

------

Duke: Hey, Black Canary?

Black Canary: Yes Duke?

Duke: I'm sorry to do this on such short notice, but I'm very worried about Dick and Tim.

Black Canary: Why?

Duke: Well, Tim keeps claiming that Dick is out to get him. Something about Dick messing with his coffee? And Dick feels like he's just being attacked for no reason and is worried about Tim's health. Is there anyway you could intervene?

Black Canary, looking sighing and looking exhausted: Usually I have three days of preparation before dealing with bats.

Duke: I know it's just-

Duke gestures to Tim and Dick rolling on the floor fighting.

Duke: They really need help.

Black Canary: Alright, I'll see what I can do.

Black Canary attempts to intervene only to get pulled into the fight. Now the three of them are tangled in a huge, confusing fight, that's filled with yelling and hair pulling.

------

Duke: Damian! Quick!

Damian: What is it Thomas.

Duke: I think somethings wrong with Dick and Tim and maybe even Black Canary. They're all fighting and won't stop! Can you help me contain them so that we can figure out what's going on?

Damian: Fine. I shall help.

Duke: Ok, just try to herd them into this containment cell.

Damian joins the fight managing to get everyone, including himself, into the containment cell. As Damian is trying to leave Duke closes the cell. Damian angrily yells and bangs on the sound proof walls.

Duke: What? Sorry, can't hear you! My hand slipped!

------

Wonder Woman: Very well done Signal.

Duke, acting innocent: Hm?

Wonder Woman: You tricked Red Robin into scaring Green Lantern away, then into fighting Nightwing. Once that fight broke out you tricked Red Hood into uploading a video to the internet using the Superman's credentials. By uploading that video he caused both himself and Superman to face Batman's wrath. You also used the fight to trick Stephanie into annoying Aquaman to the point of leaving. Then you involved Black Canary in the fight, which was her downfall. And, as a final touch, you managed to get Robin into the fight and trapped all in a containment cell. You successfully eliminated 9 foes with one trick.

Duke: You mean 11.

Wonder Woman: What?

Duke: 11. You see, I didn't trick Red Robin, I tricked Nightwing. I had a week to prepare. In that week I convinced Dick that Tim needed to cut back on the caffeine and that Dick should help by switching all of Tim's coffee with decaf. I also convinced him to hide that coffee in the watchtower, in Green Lantern's room. So that was all true.

Wonder Woman: But, that still does not make 11?

Duke: It does. Because This morning I moved the coffee. I replaced the Flashes decaf with Tim's ultra caffeinated coffee. You see Tim has it specially manufactured to increase the caffeine levels. And, while Flash doesn't usually drink his coffee in the morning, he's always running late and forgets, he does drink coffee during training breaks. Which is now. So in about five minutes we will have an incredibly caffeinated speedster in the Watchtower. And since you're the only one around right now with a chance of catching him, that's your problem.

Right as Duke finishes Flash runs by, majorly hyped up on caffeine.

Duke: Checkmate.

------

Martian Manhunter: It appears that I am the last remaining League member.

Duke: Yeah, I don't really understand this tradition but apparently every Robin ends it by picking a favorite league member.

Martian Manhunter: Out of all the League members, why have you chosen me?

Duke: Your smart and have a lot of cool powers. Also, I dunno, I hear you sometimes feel like an outsider with the league. Cause, the whole martian thing. And I know it's not the same but, sometimes I feel like an outsider with the bats, being the only meta and all.

Martian Manhunter: You have chosen me so that we may bond over our lack of connections?

Duke: Uhhhh, yeah?

Martian Manhunter: Hm. Very well, I assume that this is your “Robin Weakness”. Apparently every Robin has one.

---------------------------------------------------

<- Previous |

[maxwell-grant]

Having asked your thoughts on designing Frankenstein's daemon, might I now ask your thoughts on bringing Count Dracula from the written word into illustration? (I'm definitely in favour of the 'Hairy Old Mountain Man of Horror pretending he's people' look from the original novel; one of the small tests too many Draculas fail to pass is an absolutely tragic lack of the Evil Beard and/or Wicked Moustache explicitly described by Mr Stoker).

Unlike with Frankenstein, where I think the design needs to be painstakingly thought out in order to achieve the best balance of the creature's traits for horror and tragedy alike, I think with Dracula you can actually just take an approach of "whatever works". Because as I mentioned before, I think much of the appeal and longevity of Dracula is how the character's both a layered villain as well as a shapeshifting narrative force that can be tailored to whatever you want to do with. Granted, there are bad or dissappointing Dracula designs, of course there are, but in regards to the leeway you get for reinterpretation, you get a lot more of it with Dracula than with other literary icons.

Like with Frankenstein, I'm gonna bring up how I'd tackle a less grim, more comedy-centric Dracula first, one that's less a force of horror and more of a charismatic villain, and I think to that end I definitely agree that people are sleeping a lot on the hairy old man barely-passing-off-as-humanoid of the original story. Despite very much loving these performers, I'm actually not a fan of takes that mold Dracula too closely to people who've portrayed him, like Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee, partially because I think it's a waste of an opportunity to create your own Dracula design. Since I can't draw (yet), I'll do what I usually do and make a board of images to try and convey some of my thoughts on one way I'd design Dracula.

(Pictured: Kiwi's design for Dracula, Hotel Transylvania concept art, Nandor, Castlevania Dracula, Charles Dance in Dracula Untold, Vladislav, a Transylvanian rug)

I used the images in my other Dracula post and I’ll post it here again because I absolutely adore @kiwibyrd's designs for Dracula and it's main heroes, in particular I love the way it strikes a good balance at making sure Dracula looks distinctly separate from the humans, but not too much that he couldn't conceivably operate in society as just a harmless old man. I also adore the mustache and bushy eyebrows and pointy ears and I think these three are wonderful features to keep on any Dracula design. I'm also very partial to the Hotel Transylvania concept art, even if it makes me incredibly depressed to look at all the great designs they had for Dracula that they threw in the trash because they somehow decided making him look like Adam Sandler was the idea to go with.

I deeply adore What We Do In The Shadows, both the movie and the show, and Jemaine Clement's Vladislav is one of my favorite (maybe even my actual favorite) on-screen Draculas. But I also enjoy Nandor just as much, and I think it's really great that as a character he's completely different from Vlad while also being ostensibly a take on Dracula, and in particular I bring up his Jersey look because "Dracula in common clothing" is a criminally underrated concept for a joke.

As a character, I'm very partial to comedy takes on Dracula that play him up as a decadent aristocratic supervillain, the kind that can get away with talking in third person. I also have this idea for a version of Dracula who dresses ostentatiously in finely-broidered Romanian or Transylvanian patterns, maybe even wearing a rug as a cape, claiming that he's carrying the legacy of his people on his back. And of course he's lying, he's not Vlad Tepes and he's not even Romanian, he is just a parasite pretending to have a history to be proud of, but good luck getting him to admit that. And finally, I'd like this version to be played by Charles Dance, and I consider it a tremendous crime against humanity that he has yet to play Dracula proper even despite being in a film with the character's name on the title.

So that's kinda how I would design a take on Dracula for something more comedic or more based around him as this guest character and personality on-set. Now, if we're talking a more serious version, I think the possibilities increase, and I won't be getting into all of them because I may prefer to keep them to myself, but I'll elaborate a few ideas.

For example, the edition of Dracula I personally own comes with these really scratchy, really creepy B&W illustrations related to the story, that I can't find scanned online so I'm uploading them here so you can look at. They don't necessarily depict the scenes but rather some of the story's moments, like Van Helsing staking Lucy, Renfield in a straightjacket, Dracula as a coachman, and they are more focused on conveying the horror of the concepts at play.

Dracula never looks the same way in any of the illustrations, in fact you kinda have to piece him out of them by trying to find teeth or capes or eyes or bat-features to see where he's hiding this time. In the first, it's the half-man half-bat, in the 2nd, he's the shrieking bat silhouette next to Renfield, and in the latter, he's the gaping jaws and eerily humanoid eyes in the wolf. The effect to me almost feels like if you were to look at a bunch of tv static and then see a humanoid shape form for a split second before everything went back to normal, something like you'd get from Slender Man or other modern creepypastas, and I’ve argued before that Dracula’s form of horror is a very modern one. 

In terms of illustrations of Dracula that keep up the original traits while still pulling off horror, I definitely have to hand it to the one at the left of the image above, drawn by regourso on Deviantart (account deleted at present). Going back to Castlevania’s many takes on Dracula, two in particular that stick out to me would be Castlevania: Judgment’s armored dress Dracula, who’s got this great twisted heart/rose motif going on in his outfit, and Dracula’s final form in SOTN where he just sits in his throne and his cape twists into all these monsters, particularly how it’s depicted by witnesstheabsurd’s depiction. 

I’m not particularly a fan of how Dracula’s “final form” in these games is usually just some big demon, and part of what I like about his final form in SOTN instead is that, while it’s not a particularly challenging final boss, I do find it interesting the idea of us never actually getting to see what Dracula’s true final form looks like, only an ever-shifting pitch-black torrent of teeth and claws and bloody veins pouring out because that’s ultimately what Dracula is and brings to the world.

On the flip-side of the rotten old monster, we have the charming seductor Dracula, and while I’m really not a fan of how various adaptations have convinced people that “the point” of Dracula is that he’s a seductive force and an allegory for Victorian xenophobia and I’m reeeally even less of a fan of adaptations that make Dracula some misunderstood tragic hero (and I think I’ve made rather violently clear my feelings on interpretations that play up a romance between him and Mina), that the seductive force part exists is impossible to deny, so conversely, while on one hand we can have Dracula as the gargantuan whirlwind of predatory violence, we can also go for Dracula as the tantalizing lover.

I’ve seen a lot of opinions proclaiming Frank Langella as the best Dracula because he was the best at actually being seductive while still playing Dracula, although I haven’t yet seen his performances. If I had to point at one picture I look at and do buy for a second the idea of Dracula as a romantic character, it would be that particular still of Raul Julia in the left of the above image. And it’s strange for me to think of Raul Julia as attractive because I mainly associate him with his brilliant comedy performance of M.Bison (I know it’s far from the highlight of his career but, look, I grew up with Street Fighter, I can’t help it) but those eyes are definitely looking pretty convincing to me, if nothing else. 

And I’ve included this still of Sebastian Stan in the right because, during a conversation between me, @krinsbez and @jcogginsa about who could be a good fit for Dracula, jcog suggested Sebastian Stan, partially because he’s Romanian, and I’ve learned recently that Stan was actually interested in playing the character in Blumhouse’s upcoming remake. And you’d think I’d hate this idea  considering how much I don’t care for tragic anti-hero Draculas, but who says that’s what he’d have to play? 

Do you have any idea how much actors, who are traditionally known for heroic or supporting roles, usually LOVE it when you give them a chance to cut loose as the main villain?

I’d want Sebastian Stan to put all of his charm, all of his talent, all of his good looks and etc, into playing the absolute most vicious, bloodthirsty and irredeemable Dracula put on screen. Someone who is exceedingly, eerily good at being a lovable protagonist, who’s all smiles and charming eyes and politeness mannerisms and maybe even a funny accent, and then it isn't as funny when he's flying through your window intent on kidnapping babies to feed to his brides, except he may take a moment or two to do so because he's feeling pretty hungry himself right now.

Now, admittedly this is kind of a lot to juggle in regards to a single character, which is why my answer for questions like these inevitably has to be “depends on what I’m going for”. That being said, if I was going to try and cast someone who I think could both look the part of Dracula, as well as respectively, play “cartoon aristocrat” Dracula, “mercurial embodiment of evil” Dracula, as well as realistically be an attractive, even seductive performer who can charm viewers even as the character descends into horrible villainy, and juggle these performances even?

I think I’d have to go with Mads Mikkelsen. Not specifically because of Hannibal (I actually haven’t watched it yet), although it’s definitely a factor, the thing that actually made me pick him specifically is, other than his looks, his voice, his reputation for playing sinister characters, the fact that he loves the role and wants to play it, or how many people are deeply in love with this man, or that people already joke that he looks like a vampire, was watching him in Another Round, and specifically that glorious final scene where he’s just dancing to his heart’s content and just, moving with such spring in his step and such joyful vitality even though he’s past his mid-fifties, and that was the moment where, in regards to how much you all love this man, I went

And now I am going to add “casting Mads Mikkelsen as a dancing Dracula” to The List of Reasons Why I Became a Filmmaker.

[thevindicativevordan]

On Livewire

You know Leslie is probably the most popular and well known female Superman Rogue mainly because they use her so heavily in outside media.

Which makes sense given her debut in Superman: The Animated Series, but it still kind of fascinates me. They didn't bring her into comics continuity until 2006 apparently, with Gail Simone and John Byrne (Byrne of all the creators!) being the ones to finally fold her in. Even after they brought her in, they still have never given her that much attention or focus which is a disappointment for me frankly, because Livewire is honestly fantastic in Scott McCloud and later Mark Millar's Superman Adventures runs, and I would say with complete sincerity that those two are probably her best writers. "Millar writing a female character well?" you scoff at in disbelief. I know, I was shocked too! But she's funny, clever, and a huge pain in the ass for Supes. Reading how she was used there, and rewatching her STAS incarnation recently, really made a big realization for the character hit me like a lightning bolt (couldn't resist):

She's basically an evil superpowered Lois Lane! I know I can't have been the first one to realize that, although I haven't seen anyone else actually outright state it anywhere, but c'mon it's so obvious! She's a reporter of a sorts as well thanks to being a disc jockey, her debut in STAS even has her interviewing Lois and Clark! She's got strong opinions on Superman that conflict with the general opinion about him (Lois being pro-Superman when everyone else is more hostile towards him at first, Livewire being anti-Superman when everyone else has embraced him as their hero). She's rude and abrasive, and doesn't care if her opinions offend people, which sure does remind me of Lois at her meanest.

Livewire to me is an examination of what Lois would be like if she abandoned her morals or never really had them in the first place. Leslie doesn't care about the "truth" which is the big difference between her and Lois. Lois can be headstrong, willful, and outright rude, but it's all in service of her pursuit of higher ideals. Livewire doesn't care about that, she carries about getting people to pay attention to her, and getting the recognition and wealth she believes she's owed.

What I'd Do With Livewire

It wasn't until I had that big realization about Leslie that I figured out what role she should play with regards to Clark: She should be Clark's old college ex who was the one who got him into journalism in the first place.

Clark's college years are unexplored territory narratively, typically we jump from his childhood in Smallville right into his debut in Metropolis. Now I know Clark dated Lori that mermaid back in Pre-Crisis during his college years, and while that's a fun bit of trivia, it doesn't really add anything meaningful in the same way that I think Leslie and Clark dating could. So I'd rather go with Leslie because I think she makes for a better foil for Clark and because the two of them would benefit from having a deeper connection established, plus Leslie could get fleshed out as a character more.

I like the explanation that Clark chose journalism in part because it challenges him in ways his powers can't, but in the comics they've rarely bothered to explain how he chose that field in the first place. I would have meeting Leslie at college be that big moment where he starts to figure himself out. She's assertive and confident, and Clark is attracted to that for similar reasons he's attracted to Lois. Leslie would start out as an optimist and idealist in the same way Clark is, and the two would bond and go into journalism together, with Leslie being the one who really believes in the field initially. They'd both be big believers in the duty of the press to inform and the presses ability to shape public opinion, with Clark attracted to investigative journalism and Leslie attracted more to broadcast and digital journalism. They start to date and for a moment, Clark seriously wonders if this is the one.

The big break between them comes when Clark and Leslie go on a trip around the world during their senior year of college. That trip would be where both of them learn how crappy the world is. Clark always had some idea of how bad things were because of his powers, but the trip is where he really starts to realize that there is a real need for someone of his powers to step up, and that there are hard limits to just how much he can accomplish as a member of the press. That same realization is what shatters Leslie's idealism and optimism. She loses faith in the ability to make a difference, to punch through the wall of public indifference, and as a result she gives up that dream. Instead she decides that if you can't beat them, join them: she switches instead to telling the masses what the powers that be want them to hear in exchange for money, to saying whatever the masses will give her attention and prestige for, embracing tabloid journalism that prioritizes clicks and engagement over information. Ultimately it destroys the relationship between Leslie and Clark with her viewing him as a sap and him viewing her as a sellout.

I think that origin really would help flesh out her worldview and motivation a lot more. She's a former idealist who has been broken by the world in a similar way to Poison Ivy. Leslie thus acts as a foil to Clark and Lois in that she's someone who let the world rob her of her idealism and sold out on the truth in exchange for material success. She's what Clark or Lois could've been if they took Lex's offer to work for him, and they should recognize that to some degree. Clark should have conflicting feelings for her, not romantically that relationship is dead, but in terms of sometimes he wonders if he's just wasting his life trying to fight for truth and justice. So few people seem to care about those principles, why hold on so tight to them? Why not just look out for his own self-interest the way everyone else seems to? It's the refusal to give up even when it looks pointless that makes the two of them different, and makes Clark a hero and Livewire a villain.

How I'd Like Livewire To Operate

There's a lack of imagination in how Livewire is used on the comic side as I see it.

Like most Superman Rogues the typical Superman writer doesn't seem to have a clue what to do with her beyond generic "villain" stuff, but that does a disservice to what Livewire brings to the table. Livewire does want to fry Superman to a crisp, but that's not what her daily goal is to accomplish. More importantly, she wants respect and she wants money, and the way she gets both is not by trying to rob banks, it's by leaning into her background as a media personality combined with her new powers. Unleashing electric bolts is honestly the least impressive part of her powerset in terms of her ability to manipulate anything and everything technology.

The Internet? Livewire can crash the entire thing with ease, or restrict access to portions of it. She can do the reverse and smash through firewalls and encryption like it's made of paper. Imagine Livewire shutting off the power grid or causing it to explode, secretly using your "smart" tech to record your every move, uploading ransomware to every piece of technology in Metropolis, emptying the bank accounts of anyone who annoys her, or bringing Metropolis to it's knees thanks to the "City of Tomorrow" being a test ground for the Internet of Things, so everything is connected and thus easily manipulated. Smart cars crash into each other, elevators randomly drop, trains are unable to stop and simply accelerate onward unceasingly, plans attempting to land find their instruments on the fritz, anything and everything is Livewire's to control. But terrorism, while entertaining and occasionally profitable, isn't Livewire's main focus either.

One of my favorite Superman Adventures stories with her had Livewire manipulating TV broadcast signals so that any time there was a male news reporter on screen, the signal wouldn't come through. Stuff like that, where Livewire is making life hell for people in a way that isn't immediately life-threatening is what I envision as her day to day operations, but her bread and butter is fake news. What Livewire is REALLY good at doing is manipulating the public due to her journalism background plus her powers. She can make fake videos that look totally authentic, fake articles that seem to come from credible sources, fake voice recordings, she can make anyone appear to do or say anything through the Internet, and then she can upload that to the devices of every single person in Metropolis.

You can get stories about the mayor being framed for taking bribes, local activists cast as grifters, and supposed upstanding citizens such as Lois Lane and Clark Kent appearing to take orders from criminals like Intergang on what stories to run. Basically you lean into the journalism aspect for Livewire stories where Clark and Lois have to investigate to see whether what Livewire is putting out there is fake or legit, with peoples lives and reputations at stake (including frequently their own).

And when Superman and Livewire actually do clash physically? I don't care how it gets justified, Livewire simply being that powerful, her lightning being "special", she has the ability to manipulate Superman's bioelectric field, whatever: she can hurt him. When she hits Supes with lightning, it burns. It's painful as all hell. Livewire needs to be a threat and I'd like her to be treated as a powerhouse since I don't see a reason why that shouldn't be the case. Livewire is a really cool Rogue, there's a reason she's managed to keep getting used long after the DCAU ended. I hope the comics creators start utilizing her to her full potential.

[typhin-hoofbun]

I have a "main hub" for my writing, which is an FA submission that shows the three main characters, and has blurbs for each story along with links to the first chapter (I upload both plaintext and PDF, since some people prefer one over the other).

Princess originally had a scene where she details being abused during her captivity, including sexually, but I've taken it out. There will still be references to it scattered about, but much less detailed. I was admittedly being "Horny on Main" when writing that one, I suppose... The series did start out with the intention of being something like a "reference sheet" for Princess, detailing the world she's from, the kind of dragons that world has, how she became a dragon, and why she's treated as a pet even though she's intelligent and can talk. I was originally including the more sexual aspect as a form of "giving the audience what they want", as well. >.>

Princess and Flopsy also both have some graphic violence in them. Flopsy mostly only does "comic book style" fights, where enemies are knocked out with sometimes broken bones, but there's a few times where she has to go further. In both stories, such violence is treated as a serious affair, and the psychological effects are a large component of their path. Flopsy actually ends up in therapy. (Technically, all three have had some therapy, but Princess didn't get to have much before she went back to Terra.)

Princess Book 1 needs a proper rewrite one of these days, it was my first writing project shared publicly. Because of my disability, I didn't know if I'd be able to keep up with writing, so most of the chapters try to end on a sense of "Possibly the end". They tend to be episodic, and there are "story so far" recaps at the start of the first several chapters. I was worried that someone would see a chapter be posted, try to read it, be unable to follow what was happening, and be frustrated before they were able to get a chance to see if they would like it. Eventually I decided, "If you click on something that says 'Part 10' and are annoyed you don't know what's happening? That's kinda on you."

Google says a novel is about 80k-110k words on average, so when I was gearing up for a "major major arc, likely as long as everything I've written so far" and then realized I was already at about 105k words, I realized I had "Book 1" and "Book 2". Now I'm on "Book 3", which is going to be my most ambitious project yet, and will likely be an end to that series. Flopsy is getting into the meat of Book 2, and Vayryn isn't planned to follow a book structure but is at around 85k words, I think? While I'm not "forcing" myself, I have a "it would be nice" goal of hitting 500k words by mid-January, when I hit my two-year anniversary of writing these stories. ^_^;;

...The weird part about my mom reading is that she read the version that still had Princess going into detail about being paired with a male dragon, and that was her favorite part. >.> "Romance" novels, I guess. I have toyed with the idea of writing an explicit "Chapter Zero" that recounts her capture, transformation, and breeding, but I want to make sure Book 1 is properly cohesive first.

Part of why I don't want to make the main story explicit is because I don't want to tempt mom into making an account and seeing all the OTHER stuff I have. Not that I have much that's adult, but I do sometimes favorite stuff. And it's just weird to have her see that activity. ^_^;;

Writing is like drawing.

You can words together good put however you want, and it is not inherently bad or wrong. You should just do it if you enjoy it. And not if you don't.

You might fuck up the grammar of your language or something, or write about a subject that someone finds cringy.

But asking yourself whether your writing is good or bad, or thinking it must be bad because no one is reading it, is a fruitless and needlessly self destructive activity you should abandon immediately.

The real truth is that no one reads anything. Statistically.

The books and stories that get read a lot are outliers and shouldn't be counted.

It's also generally harder to read the works of someone you know. It feels too intimate, and too risky. And doesn't come with professional or popular recommendation.

Most people only have time and bravery to read best sellers, whether that's on the New York list or by ranking of kudos on AO3.

So, for those of us without the power of a huge publishing house or a rabidly active fandom behind us, getting readers is really grim. Super slim pickings. And does not reflect on the quality of our writing.

But again, there's no such thing as "quality of writing".

And, as per a previous post, it's perfectly fine to want to show it off and to ask people to read your work.

Just, don't take it personally if they don't. Or, at least, don't blame your writing. Blame them.

[mack3030]

Things the Sims 4 Community Can Do About Paywalls...A Post...

[This is going to be a bit long, so you may want to save it and read it when you have time, or just...you know, buckle in.]

I thought I would ring in the new year by talking about something that I feel we as a community need to finally decide on. (It’s been debated since 2017 or so, and it’s now 2021...) I’d like, if possible, to try to suggest some real solutions and choices that we can make that will hopefully create a better and more honest community out of all of us.  Now I would like to start by making some postulates. In geometry, postulates are facts that do not need proven with a mathematical proof. They are assumed to be true. Thomas Jefferson and the founding fathers would call these “Self-Evident Truths”. I would like to use these as a bit of a basis for my arguments. 

Truth: The Sims 4 has been enough of a cash cow for EA.  If you buy the base game ($40) plus all expansion packs (40 each x 10) + all game packs (20 each x 9) + all stuff packs (10 each x 17) you would come to a total of seven hundred and 90 dollars ($790) plus tax. This is of course, without sales, bundling, etc, which many people DO take advantage of, but STILL. That is a TON of money for EA’s pockets.  EA makes a majority of its money on the fact that the Sims 4 is an “incomplete game”. It “completes” the game further and further by adding more “expansions” to the game to the point that it seems almost useless to buy the base game alone without adding to it. 

Even with sales and other things, it’s easy to spend over $500 dollars on the sims 4 game + expansions. Still a lot of cash for a game that is years old. This is just money that is spent on the game that goes to EA. This does not account for:  * Money spent to buy a new computer because your old one wouldn’t run the sims.  * Money spent supporting CC artists who have donations open or early access.  * Money spent on access to sites that have ads/paywalls/exclusive sims 4 CC such as Leosims, etc. (Which are the problem, frankly)

We should be able to respect the fact that a majority of us paid a hefty amount for this game. It is unfair, and frankly greedy to REQUIRE people to pay MORE just to unlock or gain access to specific user created content. 

I am not talking about a VOLUNTARY support or donation because they like what you offer. I am talking about FORCING people to pay if they want to ever be able to use the CC or mod you offer. 

Now, the typical defense for this is “Well, I’m an artist! I spend time/effort/etc working hard on these meshes, the code, etc to make this content!”  Which leads me to point #2. 

Truth: Mods, CC, and other content for the Sims 4 are useless without the game. Once they are created/uploaded to the game, all copyright to those objects IMMEDIATELY transfers to EA. 

I teach art in a Missouri public school. Our state standards dictate that when art students are in middle school grades, they have to learn about copyright, fair use, and creative commons. While I am not a copyright lawyer, I have had to learn enough about this subject to teach it. So allow me to break down a few facts about copyright: 

First, when ya make it, ya own it. There’s not a process to apply for a copyright. The moment you create something that is 100% your own work, you hold the copyright to it. 

Second, when you make something that is created based off of or USING someone else’s intellectual property as a reference or resource it is a fan creation. In art, we call this “fanart”. It is not 100% your own work. Someone else’s intellectual property is involved. 

Fan creations always have tread a very thin and shadowy line when it comes to different companies and the legality of them. You can easily search google for various articles explaining it, but to summarize it in a short method: 

Most companies do not actively go after those who create fan creations unless they are making profits that could instead be going to the creators of the intellectual property. If the fan creation is discovered to be making profits and/or taking the intellectual property in a direction the creator does not approve of, they have legal options to pursue (court, cease and desist letters, etc). 

Third, Copyright can be transferred from person to person. In most cases this is done through a written document that both parties sign, however there IS an exception to this that EA uses to allow itself to transfer your copyrights to your content to them: 

EA’s agreement with you is non-exclusive, meaning that the moment you hit “agree” on the sims 4 terms and conditions, you have handed over your rights to any CC you create for the game. 

If you want to maintain full creative rights over the mesh/mods/etc you make then, you have to not make that content for the sims 4 and make your own platform to host it on. This is way easier said than done. 

Truth: There have been various examples in the past of CC creators who have stolen meshes, bases, bits/pieces of work, or “inspiration” for CC from other sites/companies, who have been called on it publicly. 

The most recent event concerning this was drama concerning itsbrandysims and their use of meshes from imvu/secondlife (you can see my opinion on the subject HERE), but there have been other documented cases. Leosims, for example, has been listed as an example of someone taking meshes from secondlife creators and reuploading them (when it was told to me, I was shown THIS thread as evidence). Another well known creator was accused by a former sims 4 cc creator (who now makes content from second life), and was called out in THIS post in 2019. 

The horrible part of this? Many of these creators are charging people (often at not so great rates as well), for STOLEN content. Content they don’t even own, that they ripped from another place. This should not be accepted by a community that loves a game as much as the Sims 4 community.  Truth: EA has provided a way for people to make money while not hiding content behind paywalls entirely, and the INTENT of this was to OFFSET COSTS.  Almost every post about content locked behind paywalls features this post found on the Sims Forum from 2017. In it, SimGuruDrake, who was the community manager at the time (she has since left the Sims 4 team for another job).  Most of you who have seen this discussion topic before know this post by heart, but I’d like to highlight one important aspect of it: 

One thing that is always important about communication is the intent behind it. The intent for people to be allowed to make patreons and allow early access wasn’t so people could just make money for themselves, the idea was to offset costs to buy programs to make the content. For example, a yearly subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud (which has photoshop, illustrator, etc) costs a couple hundred dollars US a year. If someone was using photoshop to help them create their CC in addition to blender or other free programs, EA/Maxis wanted to allow the creator to not have to pay for making the CC out of pocket.  Can EA/Maxis control what people spend the money they make off of patreon on? No. But it should be noted that the intent of this action was to help people pay for supplies for their hobby more than to make a business out of it. 

Onto the next truth! Truth: There is an image that disputes this post above, however the authenticity of it and timing of it are very disputed. 

This image is often thrown around by people who lock content behind paywalls, but I would like to take a second and try to provide an honest assessment of it.  First of all, I have a bit of a problem with the fact that the original person who “messaged” SimGuruDrake this question has not been identified. This image was not posted on the tumblr of a CC creator who claimed “Hey I reached out to a sims guru and this is the answer I got!” The main pages that have this image are either tweets from CC creators using it to defend their stance on paywalls (ex: here), or tumblrs/tweets “debunking it” (ex: here, here).  I even reverse image searched this image using google, and another platform and could not figure out where this originated from. Of course, I’m not an expert, but...still. 

The fact that the origin of this picture is unknown casts doubt on it. If it were a well known CC maker who is known for being honest, that’s one thing. But the fact that we don’t exactly know where it came from is suspicious. Because frankly, anyone with some decent editing ability could photoshop this. 

Here’s my imperfect edit, but I’m just a self-taught graphics nerd and I am not as dedicated at faking screenshots as some. (And the crap photo quality didn’t help.) Another common issue is that at the supposed “time” that this question was being asked, some state that SimsGuruDrake had already left the Sims 4 team. I will admit, this photo is within the correct timeline, as SimsGuruDrake did not officially depart the sims 4 team until February 2018. (There is a post on the sims forums that has a timestamp that confirms this.) But, if you were in the process of leaving your job within the next month (as a two week/30 day notice is common when leaving a job), would you REALLY be answering questions in DMs on twitter, or be focusing on packing up, and training your successor?  The last thing that really makes me doubt the validity of this picture is the fact that it’s not really easy to message the sims gurus on Twitter. This appears to be twitter from the screenshot (although there are some things that are a little out of place from the current UI): But when I attempt to direct message a sims guru I get this message: 

I even tried seeing if I could reach out via DM to Drake herself, (who now posts under a different twitter) to see if it was possible: 

Could the policies have changed since 2018? Possibly, but I feel that opening up direct messages is just asking for Sims 4 team members to get angry messages, so this could very well be a long running EA policy. I have also reached out to her via a twitter tag (as of 1/2/21), and will update y’all if I get a reply:

Okay, so now that we’ve gone through all of this, let’s talk about the last truth that’s really important:  Truth: Putting content behind paywalls has generally been considered disgusting by many in the sims 4 community, and TAKES AWAY the choice of people to support CC creators they love/appreciate WILLINGLY.  A few notable posts sharing the disgust with this practice can be found: HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE). And these are just what I can find from a simple precursory search.

Okay, Brainiac. So what can we do to solve this problem? 

Well, there’s a few methods we can employ, and sadly, it’s going to take a bit of a commitment and concentrated effort from the community. 

Step #1: Make the COMMUNITY the VICTIM instead of EA. 

Now when I say this, I don’t mean we’re actually victims, but mean that instead of constantly saying things like “WHEN YOU DO THIS YOU VIOLATE EA’S TOU!”, thus making EA the “victim” of the crime. We change the dialog to saying “When you lock stuff behind paywalls, you cheat the sims 4 community and disrespect their choice to support you or not.”  Because let’s be honest. Maxis/EA really doesn’t give much of a care about if people aren’t following this rule. You can report people to the team, but as far as most people have seen, it doesn’t get anywhere. But if we make it where the community is the party being “wronged” it is much harder for those who have paywalls to not be scared. Because the community, in the end, has to be with them.  DepthofPixels had a really amazing post about this HERE. 

Step 2: Decide to not support anyone who puts their content behind exclusive paywalls and do not hesitate to spread the word about why you choose not to do so. 

By that, I mean

not paying any patreon accounts that don’t offer either their content 100% for free, or offer early access.

And sharing about why you choose to do that on your social media. Something I might suggest would be to make it a bit personal and share something like:

Instead of spending $15 a month to get exclusive content from Leosims (or any other patreon/paywall creator here) I’m spending that $15 supporting creator x, creator y, and creator z, who don’t put their work behind paywalls! 

Link their patrons, share why you like their content, and why you take the stance to make the community better. Make it a positive thing, praising the people who are doing RIGHT by the community. 

Yes, you may not get their content for a while (although there are some different places (

x

,

x

) to find them *cough*. But in the end, is it worth supporting someone’s content when they’re treating the community badly? 

Step 3: Report creators who actively steal content from IMVU/secondlife to those respective companies, and all others to EA. (Even though nothing may happen.)

Here’s the deal. When people steal from either of those sites, they are infringing on someone’s copyright, as well as Imvu/secondlife’s copyright as well. It’s not okay, and they should be held accountable for it. Here’s the LINK for submitting a ticket to Secondlife. I haven’t been able to find one for IMVU, but maybe someone else will find one. Let those companies know and allow them to handle those specific creators.  As to the other creators, EA may not handle them at the moment. But IF (and this is a wishful thinking “if”) there were suddenly a flood of messages about certain creators...? I think they might have to pay attention to some of those messages. There is an official report form, but it might even be worth tweeting to SleddingGuruFrost, who is the current community manager asking about their stance on paywalls.  And last but not least: 

Step 4: Make sure that those who are doing the right thing and not putting their work behind paywalls feel appreciated. Show them some love via a tumblr ask, or by tagging them on twitter, or by going up a tier on their patreon (or pledging for the first time). Celebrate these heroes who are creating content and not forcing it on us. 

Us asking for people to give us a choice to support them isn’t being greedy, or disrespecting their time. We just want transparency, and respect from those who create content for the game we love so much versus them treating us like we’re just a source of income. I know it might seem a bit hard to do this for some of you, and for some it may seem like I’m preaching to the choir, but we have to decide where we stand on this issue and stop letting those who abuse this system keep doing it. We can make a difference if we decide as a COMMUNITY to work together.

With commitment,  ~Sunny