#a lot of the people on the server don’t know what he is capable of

[plutoisaghoul]

Will we see the power of the Crow Father rise again with election?

Will the rest of the server finally see his side of causing pure chaos?

We will see in the upcoming weeks…

[yuurei20]

Hello! I’m so glad I’ve found your blog! I always like looking at TWST theories but have found it hard to find ppl talk about it without any spoilers of stuff not in the ENG server yet! I was so happy when I stumbled across one of your vids on YouTube by chance and saw that you don’t talk about Book 7 at all, beyond what is already released in English.

Speaking of theories, I was wondering if you knew anything about the theory of Ace betraying (will betray or perhaps…already has?) the Prefect. I don’t know if it’s a popular theory but I’ve seen it mentioned once or twice

Hello hello! ^^ Thank you for this question! ♡

For the origins of this theory, I think it may have come from a comment in vol. 1 of the official Fanbook!

"Trappola is the name of a classic Italian card game, and means 'trap'." - Twisted Wonderland Fanbook vol.1

And, the "classic Italian card game" being referenced? Is "the earliest known trick-taking game where the Ace is promoted above the king." 👀

But Ace being a "traitor" and being "promoted above the king" have both already come into play, when he punches Riddle in the face after forming a plan to overthrow him in Book 1.

I looked into a few JP-server communities to see if there is maybe some secret connections being made behind the scenes, but for how popular this theory is I found a surprising number of reassurances that it is all unfounded rumors! Just people having fun ^^

I, too, have been unable to find anything in-game to insinuate that Ace is being built up as a traitor!

(Although he does lie a lot!)

And there was an interesting summary on kamigame.jp! (Conveniently, this particular page has not been updated with anything beyond what has been released on EN.)

The summary points out how, thus far, every 1st-year student's unique magic has been introduced to us when they were saving someone from someone else: Jack trying to help Ruggie, Deuce protecting Epel, Epel saving the prefect/the STYX staff member, etc.

Kamigame brings up Rapunzel's magic from the movie, and how she was capable of both healing wounds and reversing aging, i.e., turning back time: one of the few things we know of that Malleus cannot do.

The game has also made a point of establishing that "Not even Styx tech can turn back time."

Is it possible that Ace's unique magic, too, is going to manifest in a situation where he will be saving someone from something? Perhaps the prefect, like Epel did? Tying into the timeloop theory? 👀

If we want to try and bring the "traitor" theory in, the best theorizing I have been able to find is people asking: what if Ace betrays the prefect by doing what is best for them, even if they do not want him to do it? By saving them in some way that will be detrimental to himself or to the world, for example: sacrificing himself, or something, or someone, in order to save the prefect or to return them home?

As there has been nothing in-game to insinuate that Ace is secretly, consciously and maliciously plotting some grand betrayal, that might be my favorite interpretation of the theory ^^ But it is still just a theory overall--just people having fun!

[jimhopperlova]

- Power Damage (18+)

18+ MDNI!!

Pairing(s): helping!jim hopper, helpless! fem reader

Summary: when reader comes home after a long shift at the diner, she finds her power is non-existent. she asks the local chief to help, but find out he helps in more ways than one.

Warning(s): large age gap (reader is 22, hop is 41), masturbation (f receiving), unprotected p in v.

i hope you enjoy! ive wrote something similar to this, but this ones a lot better. more love making than actual sex.

‘10 minutes and i can take a nice hot shower.’ you said to yourself, finishing up cleaning the tables you had. you had to be the busser and the server of course, cause why not? you sighed, continuing to look at the clock ahead of you. no, you can’t. the more you look, the more time went by slower.

it was nearing 10 o’clock, you of course having the closing shift. you didn’t mind as your boss was a nice gentleman. he always offered you free food, made sure you were comfortable in any setting, and if any customers got out of line, he was right there in tow. you couldn’t ask for a better boss.

“alright, looks like it’s your time to go. get outta here. get some rest.” speaking of, your boss had said to you as you finished your last table. you smiled brightly, the shower sounding more and more better as the day went on. you quickly put the dirty dishes and rags away where they needed to go, and quickly hung your apron up on the employee break room door. you hurriedly grabbed your winter coat, hat, and gloves. ‘warm shower, warm shower.’ you shouldn’t ask for anything too much, because then your hopes are shattered.

“what?! no!” you had managed to see that your power was off. the lightswitch didn’t work, and the oven didn’t work either. you wouldn’t be able to be warm. you did everything you thought you could to steer away from this very moment. you lived in the midwest, weather was always the worst. when people say it’s bad, it’s worse. and when people say weather is nice, its bad. there was no way of fighting off the inevitable.

great. now what? you weren’t about to sleep in your cold car nor your cold house. start a fire in the house? probably not the smartest idea. go over to everyone’s homes you know of and beg mercilessly to stay at their house until your power’s back on? better idea. but you knew that you would need to get the power back on, so you had managed to helplessly drive to the police station. you didn’t know of anyone capable of helping.. not even a handyman. maybe you can be desperate, especially when talking to the chief.

chief jim hopper was a regular at the diner. he stumbled across you one night when you were his server. clearly you made an impression on him, but of course, you are oblivious, so you didn’t really understand. until tonight when you are talking to flo, hoping the nice old lady would understand.

“listen, i.. i stumbled across a situation and i don’t know of any handyman in town. is there a way you guys could help me? i know you’ll probably tell to screw off and suck it up, but.. i really need your guys’ help. maybe give me a directory?” you asked flo in the most desperate voice you could. you were shaking of cold, and this situation just made things worse.

“ms, our hours are closed. we are only open for emergencies,” flo spoke to you, you looked at her in despair. but this was an emergency! you couldn’t be warm to save your life. maybe you could stay here overnight? pretend to be a criminal. break something. “but.. i can see what i can do.” flo then spoke. you looked at her with a smile, probably thanking her a million times. you sat down on one of the chairs, hugging yourself to try and keep yourself warm. you then watched as a door opened, and out came a tiring chief. you wanted to say hi, but things were more important right now.

“(y/n), what are you doing here? everything alright?” the chief had then asked you, and you could only smile lightly. things were alright you supposed, but you’re freezing in your boots. literally!

“oh, hey jim. yeah, uh.. everything’s fine. except my power’s out, as well as my pipes are burst. maybe i’ll just stay at a motel..” you told yourself. you hadn’t even considered that. you involuntarily facepalmed yourself at the thought of a motel. how dumb could you be?

“well.. i’m just headin’ out now. maybe i’ll stop by and check it out.” jim mentioned. you looked up at him with a wide smile. coming to the police station was the smartest idea you could have thought of.

“sir, you have a call waiting for you-“ flo started to interrupt, basically telling him not to help you. all hope was gone. he had a job to do afterall, not bother with your stupid pipes. oh. you didn’t think that could be dirty until you truly thought about it. your face emitted a deep blush, and tried your best to ignore it.

“it’s alright, flo. this shouldn’t take long.” jim said again, looking down at you as in a ‘let’s get out of here before i get pulled back into the office’. you smiled up at him and stood, leading him out to your car.

“thank you, jim. it really means a lot.” you told the chief who could only smile softly, heading to his blazer. you hopped in your nova and headed towards your home. you didn’t think anything would come between you and jim, so you only treated him as a friend. but you basically owe him a shit ton of favors for doing this for you. you didn’t know what you would do without the chief.

“yep. busted,” jim muttered as he looked underneath your home. you cursed to yourself, shaking your head. god damn it. curse your mother for having old pipes. your mother practically gave you this house in her will, and you had a three bedroom ranch house at the age of 21. being an adult sucks. “and the powerlines are froze. until they thaw out, you’re kinda stuck.” jim explained further, and you shook your head. of course. could this get any worse?

“shit. uh.. okay. i guess i’ll drive around town to see if any motels have vacancy. thanks for helping me, you didn’t have to.” you told the chief who could only shake his head and run his hand through his hair.

“save the gas. the one motel in this town is full. almost the whole town is outta power,” jim explained again, bearing the bad news. so the night really could get worse. you cursed to yourself about a million times before jim could only laugh. you looked at him in bewilderment, wondering what his problem was. “you don’t have any friends or somethin’ to crash with?” he asked you, his hands placed on his hips. you shook your head, hugging yourself again.

“nope. i’ve only been here for a year, if you can’t recall my sob story when you were last at the diner,” you explained to jim. you had a bad time shutting up about how you ended up in hawkins, especially when they ask you about how you ended up here. when someone was new to the town, it sparked up the whole entire town. you didn’t stop explaining where you came from for about a month. “i have coworkers, but they have kids and their house is full. that is if they have power. honestly.. i just need a warm shower.” you laughed softly, and jim lightly scratched the back of his neck, almost in thought.

“well.. my place is trashed. but if ya need.. you can stay. granted, i still have power and water when i get back home.” jim spoke. those were the words you needed to hear after a long debate in your mind of where to go. you smiled brightly and looked at jim with probably the biggest smile.

“oh my gosh, thank you so much! thank you, thank you, thank you!” you told the man and hugged him tightly, despite if he wanted to or not. you let him to and looked up at him. “i’ll go grab some clothes. i’ll be back.” you told him before heading inside your cold home. seconds later, you emerged with a backpack full of clothes for tomorrow and your pajamas.

“leave your car here, you’ll be safe.” jim told you. you couldn’t help but laugh and hop in the car next to the chief. the drive to his place was silent. you couldn’t quite place if it was a good quiet, or a bad quiet. but it was definitely an awkward quiet. meanwhile, jim was deep in thought. his mind continuously wandered about whether it was a good idea to bring you to his place or not. the last thing he wanted was to be judged, especially by you.

for some reason, you were never able to escape his mind. those small little talks and bright smiles at the diner did him dirty. maybe that’s why he continues to go there when he isn’t swamped with paperwork. your bright eyes and that widened smile pulls him right back into the diner, always making sure he left you a generous tip. you were young. and see, that was another problem. he was a 40 year old man, watching over the town, protecting it. you were merely 22, high hopes still ahead of your future. and maybe that’s why he has hesitated asking you out on a proper date.

finally, you two arrived at jim’s trailer. it seemed kinda homey on the outside. however, inside it seemed like a druggie’s fever dream. pill bottles, beer bottles, beer cans, dirty clothes, just.. everywhere. you weren’t expecting the chief to be clean by any means (he’s a busy man), but you didn’t expect it to be this dirty.

“s’cuse the mess,” jim spoke before he looked around and tried his best to move some stuff around so it wasn’t so messy. he didn’t expect to bring you to his trailer tonight, but if he had to be honest, he was glad he had the opportunity to. “you can place your coat and stuff on the couch for now.” he also instructed. you looked around and didn’t know what to say. nice place? nice.. bottles of beer? instead, you took the latter.

“uh.. thanks again for letting me stay. it was really nice of you.” you said awkwardly before disgarding your coat and hat and mittens. you placed them on the couch, feeling the warm air. finally.

“course. not a problem. uh.. bathroom’s over there. i’ll let you take the bed tonight.” jim spoke and you immediately looked at him. ‘i’m used to sleeping on the couch, anyway’ jim had said to himself internally.

“no, its okay. i can sleep on the couch, i don’t mind.” you smiled brightly before excusing yourself to the bathroom. you shut the door behind yourself, and looked in the mirror. you didn’t look too bad, but you didn’t look hot either. the stress made your forehead vein pop, and hopefully after the shower it would be alright. you sighed before disgarding your clothes you had on that day and grabbed the pajamas from the backpack, placing them on the bathroom counter. you turned on the water and felt the way the warm water graced your fingertips. ah. not enough hot water, though.

meanwhile, the chief was sat in his usual spot in the recliner. beer in hand, he channel surfed the tv. he was doing well, he thought. refraining from your good looks, doing his best to not stare too long. but.. could you blame him? it was you. and now you were in his trailer in the shower. naked. he tried his best to let the tv distract him from going in there and spying on you. he really was dirty.

finally, you came out of the shower. you were in a white plain t-shirt and some plaid pajama pants. the perfect outfit to keep warm. you noticed jim was sat in his recliner, watching tv. he was still in his police uniform, and obviously.. you thought the uniform was hot. his pants made his crotch area tighter, so if there was any chance he had any attraction to you.. you would know. the unform defined his muscles well, and he always demanded respect in it. you didn’t know, but you knew a power play was hot.

“i’m uh.. done. it was really nice, thank you,” you told jim softly, slowly reaching to couch and sitting down. jim looked over at you and nodded, going back to the tv. fuck, it was going to be awkward, wasn’t it? what could you do to break this silence thing? “uh.. how’s your job treating you? good, i hope?”

“what?” jim asked and looked at you. you shrugged and looked over at him, hoping to let him know you were just trying to start a conversation. “it’s uh.. same old song and dance. how ‘bout the diner?” he asked you, taking a drink from the beer can. he then reached for the pack of cigarettes, lighting one up. another thing you’re attracted to. the way the cigarette was in between his lips. fuck, you really wished you were that cigarette right now. “hello?” jim had piped up again, and you had to bounce back from your trance. you laughed and shook off the thoughts.

“sorry, uh.. was thinkin’. um.. it’s alright. i mean, it’s gotten better. i got a pay boost, and new clientel has been tipping better.” you told him. you smiled over at him, and jim couldn’t help but smile back at you softly. cigarette still in hand, he took another hit from the cigarette, letting the smoke exhale from his throat. he looked relaxed.. but stressed. you weren’t sure what that was, but you knew that he was kind enough to let you stay in his trailer. you shouldn’t pry.

“that’s good. glad you’re getting what you deserve,” jim spoke. a few more minutes and more staring at him smoking the cigarette, he finished what he was doing and stood from his recliner. he shut the tv off before turning to you. “alright, it’s ‘bout time i head to bed. please, just.. sleep in the bed. it’ll make me feel better.” jim ordered you. you sighed and nodded, standing as well.

“i’m sorry, i just don’t want to be a bother..” you said softly before jim could only think, ‘why would you be a bother?’ nope, personal feelings had to stay far away from his mind. “goodnight, jim. thank you again.” you spoke softly and slowly made your way to the bedroom. jim couldn’t help but watch as you walk to his bedroom. those pajama pants fit you well. he shook the thoughts away again and started to disgard himself of his uniform.

you fell onto his big bed. it was massive. it was cozy, and even smelled like him. despite the piles of dirty clothes and pill bottles everywhere, it felt nice. it would feel way better if he was next to you, though. you sighed and decided to try and fall asleep. an hour passes though, and you’re still awake. not only were you in a foreign place (you didn’t sleep well at places you never stayed at before), but your mind was wide awake. it wouldn’t shut the hell up. thoughts of jim coming in here and making sweet love to you wouldn’t leave. you did your darndest to not masturbate in his bed, but maybe it would relieve some pressure.

you sighed and slowly rolled out of his bed and slowly made your way out to the living room. jim looked asleep on the couch. you ducked behind the corner hoping to not wake him. he looked way less stressed. his eyes were closed, the way his belly went up and down from breathing.. at peace. but you could now get a better visual of him without his uniform on. and for some reason.. it turned you on even more. you swallowed past the lump in your throat and swaddled your way back into his bed.

thoughts danced in the front of your mind, not escaping the wandering of your eyes. what if jim came in here? what if he confessed his feelings and made sweet sweet love? you kept thinking of how he would taste on your lips. his beard would tickle you a little and he would taste of beer and cigarette smoke. but when his head ducked lower, the beard would tickle you even more. lower on your stomach, lower above your navel.. lower on your cunt that is aching to be touched. you swallowed and decided to give it a shot.

your hand ducked underneath your pajama pants, circling around the nerve that wanted to be touched the most. you imagined jim’s finger there instead, the thick digits circling around it. praising you on how good you were doing, confessing his love to you. you let out a soft moan, the thoughts swirling around in your mind. before you knew it, your finger danced around your entrance. you entered one finger inside of you, clearly that not doing much. thoughts of him telling you to beg for it, for him to add just one finger.

“please, please, jim..” you sighed out, begging jim in your mind. you didn’t think you would be loud externally, but it was loud enough for jim to stir in his sleep. he awoke to soft moans coming from his bedroom, curiousity getting the best of him. he stood slowly and walked over to his bedroom, almost forgetting you were in there. but the sight in front of him added a glow to his eyes he hadn’t seen in a long time.

sure, he has pleased lots of women in his spare time. but none of them could have compared to you. the way your hand was underneath your pajama pants, the way your eyes were closed with pleasure.. the way you moaned his name. and my, was that the sweetest way he could have heard anyone say his name. it was almost angelic the way you sounded. he had to palm himself at just the sight, but it came to a shock that he was already hard. what did you even do to him?

“please, i need you, jim..” you moaned out. fuck. jim was at a loss of words. he took a moment to run his hand through his hair, thinking what he should exactly do. he wanted nothing more than to replace your hand with his, whisper sweet nothings in your ear.. however, this was different. he had to remember his morals. “jim.. i’m- i’m gonna cum.” you shrieked out. he wondered if this was some kind of trick, and you weren’t really lost in your mind. except, you really were. you were oblivious to the fact that jim was spying on you. you know what? screw his morals.

jim slowly made his way inside the room, trying his best to not startle you. he wanted to surprise you if you really were about to cum to the thought of him. but when you heard footsteps, your eyes shot open. there was jim, standing there. right in front of the bed. had he been watching you? before you could make any excuse, his hand cupped your mouth. you looked at him with wide eyes, honestly afraid of what he might say. what he might do.

“shh..” jim shushed you, his eyes dancing down to where your hand rested. it was still there, but paused. he looked disappointed. “keep goin’. it’s okay.” he had whispered, and you looked at him confused. you didn’t dare question what he just told you to do. your hand started to rub circles at your clit again, that feeling of cumming being lost. you were startled, and you didn’t think you could muster up that feeling again. especially when he was watching you now.

“jim.. i need.. your help..” you whispered at him, looking at him with doe like eyes. the glow in them.. jim couldn’t resist. he slowly took your hand away, and instead replaced it with yours. his large fingers started to dance around your clit, adding that pressure you were so desperately after. you hummed softly, your eyes shutting softly. the same thoughts filled you, but with the man that was doing this to you, it made it all that much better.

“feel good?” jim whispered in your ear. you nodded desperately, your hands gripping at the sheets. you couldn’t control your moans at this point. you opened your eyes and looked at jim.. he was mesmerized by the way you reacted to his touch. he was curious to see how you would do with himself inside you. he slowly laid down next to you, so he had better access. the motions continued, but you needed more.

“jim.. i need your fingers.. inside me..” you spoke desperately, looking up at him. jim could only accept and nodded softly, one finger sliding inside of you. you moaned softly at the way his finger already managed to find your g-spot, it feeling all too good. he thrusted his finger inside of you, of course slow. he wanted you to be prepared for his cock.

“want another one?” jim asked you, and you nodded. he smirked softly before he looked down at you. he was simply drunk off the way you moaned for him. the way you yearned for his touch. “beg for me..” he instructed and you immediately obliged.

“please jim, i.. i need another finger.. need to feel you..” you moaned out, looking up at him. the two of you locked eyes, and you felt like you were about to cum. that familiar feeling was started to rise, but you needed just a little more to help. “p-please. need your finger to cum..” you begged once more, and immediately he obliged. the second finger added more than what you bargained for. you practically came immediately. “f-fuck, jim- i’m.. cum-cumming..!” you shrieked out, your hands gripping at the sheets on his bed. you were full of him.. his bed, his scent.. his cologne.. and now his fingers deep inside you.

“that’s it. you’re doing so good..” jim praised in your ear. he felt himself get even more hard at the way you spasmed around his fingers, if that was possible. his cock now ached for you. he wanted to be deep inside you, claim you as his. he didn’t care how young you were.. at this very moment, you are all he wanted. and will continue to be, no matter what anyone had thought. once you finished on his fingers, he slowly slid them out of you and licked up the juices. he looked down at you, and noticed how relaxed you were. normally, he would just stick his dick inside and be done with it. but it was.. you. no, he was going to savor this.

“jim.. need.. more of you..” you had managed to whisper out, despite how exhausted you were. you really did want more of him. no matter how overstimulated you got, you needed him inside of you.

“don’t worry, it’s comin’ sweetheart. just need.. to savor you..” and before you knew it, his lips captured yours with his. it was deep, hard, passionate.. and he tasted just like you thought he would. except, a more.. whiskey taste. you were drunk off his lips, the two of you moving in sync. your hand had then palmed at his boxers, feeling the way his cock ached for your touch. you were in heaven. “shit. don’t do that. i need to be inside you..” he hummed against your lips, not wanting to stop. your lips were so addictive. they tasted of coffee.. not only were mornings for coffee and contemplation, it seemed nights were too.

you moaned softly against jim’s own, your hands traveling from his boxers to his chest. hairy. but you didn’t care. he was groomed exceptionally well. his hairy chest fit him, and you were glad for that. eventually, jim took things to the next level. he laid you down fully onto the bed, him on top. he broke the kiss to look down at you, his blue eyes meeting yours. you looked absolutely beautiful.. he wanted you to know this.

“so.. beautiful..” jim hummed out softly before his head ducked down to your neck. he left feather-like kisses, before he left some on your collarbone. you moaned softly, before his hands had found the bottom of your shirt. you helped him take it off, and you didn’t think jim could look more happy until now. his head ducked down to your breasts now, twirling one nipple with his tongue. he made sure the leave equal attention to the other as well, making sure you were left satisfied.

finally, he was getting somewhere. you watched as he started to slide down your pajama pants and underwear. he flung them somewhere in the room, looking down at you. you looked up at him in wonderment, hoping he would do more. you nodded up at him, in hopes he would.

“please, jim.. please.. need to feel you..” you spoke softly, and this was all he needed to hear. he disregarded his boxers, leaving him naked in the moonlight. you watched as he stroked at his cock. it was thick, veiny.. it looked like the perfect puzzle piece.

“i got you. you’re all mine,” jim whispered out before spitting on his hand for lubrication, and then slowly thrusted inside of you. your eyes got big, and he wasn’t even fully inside you. “oh.. fuck. i’m not gonna last long.” jim admitted with a soft chuckle. you fit him so well. so wet, so tight.. it was fucking perfect. you are perfect.

“oh.. jim..” you moaned out softly. you looked up at him, watching the way he shut his eyes softly. when he felt you were well adjusted, he slowly thrusted in more. and eventually, slow thrusts in and out. he then leaned lower down at you, hitting that spot so.. perfectly. “mm.. jim.. it feels so good..” you moaned out, his lips captured onto your neck. his thrusts were gaining at a decent pace now, but he didn’t want to just fuck you. he wanted to make love with you. his hands found yours, and he gripped them tight. your eyes were now shut softly. you then realized.. this was the best sex you have ever had. it was more emotional, more intimate.. chief jim hopper really did have a thing for you.

“fuck.. baby, you’re so.. good. so fuckin’.. perfect..” jim moaned in your ear, getting high off of your own moans. the way you called out his name. the way you accepted his cock inside you. the way you wanted him, and the way he wanted you. with these thoughts in mind, he was getting close, and you were too. again. “i can feel you gettin’ tight.. you gonna cum for me?” jim had asked you, and you immediately nodded.

“y-yes, jim.. i’m gonna cum for you.. fuck it feels.. so good..” you had moaned again, feeling that familiar feeling in your tummy. before you knew it, you were spasming around his cock, you milking yourself on his cock.

“shit, baby. so good, so fucking.. good. can you take my cum?” jim had asked you, and of course you nodded. you wanted his seed deep inside you. you wanted to be his, and wanted nothing more than for him to claim you. with that, he felt himself become undone. your scent, your moans, the way you fucking breathed.. it was over. he emptied himself deep inside you, spasming around your own aching cunt. after he was finished, he laid on top of you, but not fully. he didn’t need you to be struggling to breathe.

“jim.. that felt.. so good.” you managed to break the silence after a few moments, and all jim could so was chuckle. he placed a kiss on top of your head, making sure that you knew you really were safe. with him.

“you’re more than welcome to stay again, y’know. anytime you want.” jim had whispered in your ear. that was his way of telling you his true feelings about you. he wanted you. and you were now grateful for those old pipes your mom put on the house.

[the-curse-of-neoclones]

Moderneopets Artist Mistreatment

Edit as of 11/16/23 10:40 AM NST:

Removed names where I failed to do so before. I'm very sorry to the affected parties, this snowballed so far out of my intended scope.

Edit as of 11/16/23 5:30 PM NST

Please see this post for a small update.

As of 11/16/23 10:10 PM NST, Hazer the site owner has formally and publicly apologized to myself and Velu, the other affected artist. As far as I'm concerned he has officially handled the situation as best as he could, and I hold no further qualms with Moderneopets. I hope to hear of its management continuing in this direction.

The following post is left up for archival purposes only.

*****

Hello, I’m wren. I'm an artist responsible for some of the pet assets on the neoclone, Moderneopets. I'm just going to get into it.

Hazer was extremely lucky to somehow cultivate a dense group of largely professional artists to work together to make assets for his site. When it comes to his own management as a site runner, he’s largely hands-off of the art department, which is a good thing! If he can’t be active in the art panel enough to know what goes on in there, he shouldn’t be running it— we have many strong, capable artists on the team who are passionate about recreating the neopets style, who work together on every pet that has been released ever since critique became a requirement. 

It makes sense that, with a project this large, Hazer should have to designate moderators to enforce rules when he is absent. Choosing to bring on moderators was also a good decision. Unfortunately, he chose poorly. 

Art panel issues should have separate Art panel moderators to take care of them. People who are not overburdened with generic moderation duties from the many other channels of the server, for example. In the same vein, artists should not be moderators. When an artist has an issue with another artist, who happens to be a moderator (which has happened many times, with many people— If the mods actually open threads for all complaints they receive, they should have evidence of this & if they don’t they are not being truthful), the artist would likely not feel comfortable approaching that same artist-slash-moderator to complain about what happened. It breeds an aura of fear and discomfort any time there is an issue with an artist/mod, and that is why the two moderators on the team should have to choose one or the other if hazer wants to cultivate a healthy atmosphere in his panel. 

I’ve created many pets for this website. Neopets has been a passion of mine since the third grade. I’m also one of those professional artists I mentioned— my work is also art, industry or otherwise. I care about breaking neopets down into their core, recognizable shapes. I care about keeping them on-model and in the spirit of the original TNT art team, with improvements made where I and the other panelists think they make sense. I have redlined for other artists to an even greater degree, just as other artists have redlined for me and helped me finalize each pet into something simply good: something that made sense to get put on a little passion project website for other people with a similar passion to enjoy. I found the panel to be a community of likeminded artists with which to discuss our favorite childhood petsite while we made art for a clone, as if we could pretend we were making art for neopets-dot-com. It was nice. 

It wasn’t perfect, though. In fact, shortly after I joined in 2021 I took a hiatus because the art panel was fairly dead. I came back a little while later to see we had several new species, as well as an art director, and lots of activity! That was very exciting. Over the next year I would reach out to the panel or, if nobody was sure of how to proceed, I would reach out to the art director to propose ideas for how to make the panel a little more functional; quality of life updates, if you will. I don’t take credit for all of these alone, there were other artists with similar ideas all communicating to the director in private, but some examples: 

A designated “collab” zone where artists could seek out other artists to complete pets with. 

“The Purge,” in which the team was whittled down to ~25 current, active artists to refresh the team and allow for new artists to join. 

“The Approval System,” which I first sat down with in my workshop (public to all artists) to hammer out the details with as many other artists as wanted to give their input— a method for pitching new ideas to eventually break through the “new species/color freeze” that had been plaguing us.

Speaking on the approval system: like most things that required Hazer’s direct input in the art team, it was left without response for a very long time. Artists with ideas for custom species or colors would occasionally murmur about their excitement for the system to get a look-over by hazer, to see if our approval system pitch would be approved. But hazer is busy, as we all know, and the pitch sat for a while. We had new & returning artists on the team to keep everyone busy. 

What I would expect from a years-old panel of artists, when new additions arrive, would be some manner of tutorial. New artists would need to know the pipeline (here’s your workshop, you can post WIPs and anything else in there; here’s how you ping for critique, here are the spaces in which to ask for it; make sure you always ping before your work is submitted on-site), and there would likely be some acclimating on both sides. What I did not expect (but should have), was pushback from new artists on things that hadn’t had pushback in a long time. Why can’t [x] color be a posechange? Well, we’ve created many already and none of them were posechanges. Why can’t I use colored lineart? Well, that isn’t in line with the style standards set by this color; see, nobody else is coloring their lineart. 

Suddenly there was a divide between veteran artists, the director, and the new blood. The divide felt greater when Hazer came to his new artist’s aid to say, approximately: “Eh, if someone wants to go above and beyond and make better art, they shouldn’t have to adhere to the guidelines.” Then he threw the art director under the bus for not somehow knowing that his intentions were always to keep the panel loose and unstructured. But don’t worry, that isn’t the first bus and won’t be the last.

My personal investment in the panel waned around that time. I think a structured “work” environment with easily accessible rules and deadlines is necessary to any project of this size. If we didn’t want to enforce color standards, nor prioritize certain colors for release, and anyone could just submit whatever Nice Art they wanted, why not open it up so any user could submit pet art? Why have a panel at all? Isn’t Hazer taking any opportunity to dunk on Leopets because he wants his site to be better? How is this different? 

But I stuck around. This was a hobby I really enjoyed, after all, and I really believed it could get better. It had a good core, and despite my grievances with individual artists, none of them were bad people. 

But I noticed some trends. New artists would receive feedback that they didn’t agree with and retaliate by bringing in their emotions or personal preferences. Any disagreement where multiple veteran artists stepped in to say their piece would escalate to the point of very long messages on both sides, and would need to be left to hazer to give a final input. Often he didn’t come around to it, because he’s busy, as we know. I didn’t step in to every argument; they became cyclical after a while, and I didn’t have the time or energy to spend simply tapping the proverbial sign (or style sheet). I would try to give positive suggestions when I could, for example: I don’t think this color needs another alt for just one single design, but we did talk about eventually making this color that your design would fit into really well. 

I’ve done my time having arguments on the internet. I really just want an art environment where the rules are set and people actually enjoy following them, because I do— I see art rules as helpful guidelines at best and obstacles to cleverly navigate at worst, which is still fun. But of course not everyone is going to feel the same way, that’s normal; that’s life. 

On 11/9 I was given this message by Hazer: 

It reads:

Hello wren,

I am reaching out to you today to inform you that effective immediately you are being dismissed from the Artist and Consultant Panels. This decision has been reached through discussions and based on repeated offences in the form of user harassment and subjecting the panels to a toxic atmosphere, after multiple reports and concerns brought up to us by other users.

While we understand concerns regarding panel management, there is a distinct difference between criticising and condeming the way the panel does things and criticising and condeming users that are on the panel, and we believe this line has been crossed one too many times, further supported by concerns brought to us.

We appreciate the passion and drive of our team—all of them—and we understand you have been very passionate about the panel. Given some of the messages we see, we have also concluded that due to things in the panel not working out as you have wished, it has caused you much stress and upset as well, which we do not want. All in all, we've decided that the atmosphere of the panel and your own enjoyment of the website are hampered by your presence on it. Because of this, we have decided it is best to have you part ways with the staff sections of the website.

Effective immediately after this message, we will be permanently removing you from the panels. While normally we do a temporary removal, in this case we've seen that your compatability with our management and handling of the panel will not improve, and it will just bring stress to both sides.

We understand you have put a lot of passion into the projects you have been working on for release in Moderneopets, and in lieu of that, we offer you the option of having the project(s) still be released even after dismissal. Rewards will still be granted for releases per usual, and credit will still be given. If you decide, due to dismissal, you do not want your unreleased work to be released on Moderneopets, simply state it as such, and we will discard all progress on projects you have been working on to respect those wishes.

This decision is final and will not be revoked.

Best wishes to you,

The Moderneopets Team

[end caption]

My response:

It reads: 

No warnings huh?

[end caption]

Hazer didn’t have an answer for me. I was already removed from the panel. 

This came as a shock. I’d been there for over two years, I felt I had a good rapport with the other artists, I felt I’d been a helpful and active addition to the team. Like I said, I’ve done my time having arguments on the internet… what toxic behavior? Discussions over style guides? Giving redlines to people with permission? Working with the whole team to bolster several new color releases? I had an entire species that Hazer wanted ready to go since March— I just pushed through the Swamp Gas release, I just created the Mystical alt? 

No warnings?

Let me reiterate: I have never been spoken to by any staff about my behavior. Hazer, his then-four moderators— none of them have ever been in my DMs to issue a warning. I have spoken TO the mods about others’ behaviors, and nothing ever came of it. The one time (and I mention this for full transparency only) the art director came to talk to me about something I said, it was stated clearly that it was not a warning, and even so I adjusted my behavior around said issue accordingly. And that was well before the purge. 

But, don’t take my word for it. Here it is from hazer himself, speaking over his mods who were busy telling the rest of the panel that they always issue warnings: 

It reads:

No in this case I do agree that this has been an abrupt situation and I understand the blind-sided-ness of it. No official warnings were given out regarding the actions that resulted in the removal of artists today and that’s on fault of myself and deebs not working things out properly despite the moderation team bringing issues to a us a few times – also due to our lack of availability recently.  [end caption]

So… What happened? Well… here it is from Hazer, in longform: 

For those who use screen readers, above are several enormous discord screenshots; I've placed it in a paste bin here: https://pastebin.com/dHLiBRTF

Two other artists immediately stepped down. Hazer admits here in his message that he and the mods had multiple tickets opened about my behavior, that they had known they wanted to remove me. They never gave a warning, never talked to me until the moment of my dismissal, but they had known it was coming for months? 

Why did Hazer and his gang of mods let me continue working on art for their panel? Why did they let me work so hard to pull Swamp Gas together for an official release? Why did they let me put together a whole custom Alt and workshop it for so long? I’ve been active this whole time. Why did you let me keep working if you knew you wanted me gone? 

I am a professional artist. My work is art. Hazer made the knowing decision to exploit my time and effort for his website. He’s not paying me, he’s not paying any of us. It’s volunteer work. But I did not volunteer to be mistreated like this. To not even be given a chance to defend myself. To him, artists are disposable. To him, if someone has worked on your team for years but speaks up when your friend tries to overturn the system, even civil discussion is cause for disposal. Civil discussion negates years of effort, passion, time and care. 

I didn’t have to make art for you, Hazer. And you don’t deserve the team you have. How many artists have voiced their discomfort with your actions? How many artists are taking a break from the panel because of how you handled this? Ah, wait, you wouldn’t know… you’re busy. 

Hazer and his mod team are just another corrupt group of individuals unfortunately heading what could have been a fun and promising petsite. Everyone who speaks praise of modneo does it by and large because of the new and unique art. Hazer was extremely lucky to cultivate a dense group of largely professional artists to work together to make assets for his site. 

If Hazer wants to show any sign of his potential to be a better person, I believe he needs to formally apologize to his site for the misuse of his power and the mistreatment and exploitation of artists on his team. He needs to apologize to you, the players of his game, the subscribers to his patreon, for allowing this to happen under his watch and under his word. You know you fucked up, hazer. You shouldn’t have sided with your friend without any actual evidence of misconduct. You shouldn’t have spoken about me like I was a toxic, subhuman hindrance to your art team. You shouldn’t have treated me like that. I didn’t deserve it. None of us did. You can apologize to me and the other lost artists publicly.

[dbnightingale24]

Sneak Peek to ‘Pavlov’s Dog’

A Ransom love story

~~

Warnings: MINORS DNI (18+), swearing, cheating, drinking, angst, Ransom being Ransom...uhhh, that’s all you have to worry about...for the preview.

“Welcome to Fish, my name is Jonathan and I’ll be your server tonight,” the waiter smiles at the both of you as he approaches the table, “can I start you both off with drinks?

“I’ll have a water-”

“She’ll have a Mai Tai and I’ll have a bourbon on the rocks,” Ransom interrupts with an irritated sigh.

“Coming right up,” the waiter smiles before walking off.

“Ya know, we’re not going to get anywhere if you’re tense the entire time,” he mutters as he looks over his menu.

“I don’t know exactly know what it is that you want from me.”

“Would it helped if I fucked you in the bathroom?”

“Stop it, Ransom!” you snap quietly as he lets out a full bodied laugh.

“Jesus, it’s just drinks, food, and conversation. Relax.”

“Says the one who isn’t married. How the fuck do you even know you like me?”

“I’ve liked you for a while.”

“Yeah okay.”

“I mean it.”

“How long is a while, Ransom?”

“Remember in first grade? When Tommy Smotts was picking on me about my clothes?”

“You...you remember that?”

“I think about it every day.”

“You never said anything...you never spoke to me.”

“Why would I? You were nice and, in the world we live in, there’s no room for nice people. I kept waiting for you to turn into this bitchy party girl, like every other girl did, but you just kept being sweet and kind. Then you met Jack.”

“If you liked me, why didn’t you say anything? Why’d you let Jack scoop me up?”

“Why not? It wasn’t my business or concern. You’re both adults and capable of making your own choices-”

“But you wanted me and, from what I’ve heard, you’re the king of getting what you want.”

“You’re different.”

“How so?” you ask as the waiter places your drinks down.

“Can I start you two off with some appetizers?”

“No, but keep the drinks coming. We’ll be here for a while,” Ransom smirks, his eyes never leaving you.

What the fuck have you gotten yourself into now?

**

“He’s such a liar! That’s not what happened at all!” you laugh as your next round of drinks are brought out.

“That’s what Jack said!” Ransom laughs.

“He’s a fucking liar! That’s not what happened at all! He locked us out of the Air BnB because he’s hard headed, then talked me into scaling the side of the house because he was afraid he’d fall and break something.”

“You scaled the side of a house for him even though it was his fault?”

“In my defense, I was in love,” you shrug as you take a sip of your drink.

“So, what do you know about me?” Ransom asks as he sits back a little, signature smirk playing on his lips.

“I don’t know anything about except that you like to fuck.”

“What have you heard about me?” he chuckles.

“A lot of unkind things.”

“I can take it.”

“You’re a scumbag, you only lookout for yourself, you’re a cheater, a liar, you have a terrible temper, you had a hand in Harlan’s murder, you treat women like trash....the list goes on.”

“Yet, you chose to start this relationship with me.”

“It’s not a relationship, Ransom. We fuck and that’s it.”

“Then why do you stay whenever I tell you to?”

“I’ve been asking myself that for the last few months.”

“Because you like me too.”

“I like the way you fuck me.”

“You’re still gonna hide behind that after everything?”

“I’m not hiding from anything, Ransom. I’m married to someone else, and in all honesty, this shouldn’t have ever started.”

“Then why did you let it start?”

“You caught me in a vulnerable state.”

“And the second time?”

“You caught me in a vulnerable state,” you smirk and he laughs.

“Well, what do you want to know?”

“Why you want me.”

“I like you.”

“Ransom, that’s not a fucking reason.”

“It is for me. I’ve never been infatuated with someone for this long, it only makes sense that I should act on it, don’t you agree?”

“It wasn’t enough for you to stop the wedding.”

“That’s what you think.”

“Ransom-”

“I like you, Y/N. I like you a lot and more than I should. I’m not going to tell you to leave him, because it’s not enough for you is it? I don’t want to commit and you don’t wanna commit to me because you have no reason to.”

“Ransom-”

“But you’re still here though, aren’t you?”

“So what?”

“You want to explore this as much as I do.”

“I don’t want to explore anything with you, Ransom,” you sigh as your phone starts going off. “Jesus Christ.”

“You can answer him.”

“I don’t want to answer him. God, how is this my life now?”

“You can always come with me.”

“Ha ha,” you mumble before taking a long sip of your drink. “It’s late, I have to get back.”

“We haven’t eaten yet.”

“What is this Ransom? Why are you fucking with me?”

“I’m not, I told you; I like you.”

“You don’t-”

“You love to dance around while you cook, you think pants are ridiculous and that’s why you’re always wearing dresses and skirts, you love horror movies but have to watch something funny after or you can’t sleep, you love football and baseball, you’ll listen to anything but you favor 90’s grunge, you spend the first half of your Saturdays watching cartoons, you spend most of your holiday time volunteering at shelters, should I go on?”

“...how...”

“I pay more attention than you think, sweetheart. That crystal blue earring and necklace dragonfly set Jack got you for your two year anniversary? That was my idea because he doesn’t pay any fucking attention to you and doesn’t have a fucking clue what you like,” he mutters, frustration very apparent.

“Then why didn’t you say anything before now?”

“I told you why.”

“And I don’t believe you.”

“Y/N-”

“You’re the one that wanted to do this. Answer the question.”

“I just...”

“You just what?”

“You were never gonna give me a chance, Y/N. Between my reputation, my shitty family...you have more reasons to say no than yes.”

“You didn’t even try.”

“What would you have said?”

“Then? I honestly don’t know. Now? No.”

“Why no now?!”

“Ransom, that can’t be a serious question.”

“You like me-”

“I don’t know you! I just...you just...it’s complicated, Ransom. All of this is so complicated. I just wanna go away.”

“Lets go away together,” he suggests as if it’s not a big deal.

“You’re hilarious, truly. You could be a fucking comedian.”

“Lets fucking go. It’s not like Jack will notice. He barely pays attention to you now,” he mutters.

“Thanks for that,” you snap as your phone goes off again. “Fuck, let me just...hello?”

“I’ve been calling you for over an hour!” Jack snaps. “Where have you been?!”

“I do have a job, ya know. I decided to treat myself to dinner.”

“You haven’t been home-”

“Can we not do this? I put up with your shit last night and I don’t fucking feel like dealing with it again tonight.”

“Y/N...I’m sorry, alright? I didn’t want it to happen that way. I really...I wanted to get it right.”

“Funny how you always want to get it right and still fuck it up every single time.”

“Just come home, please? I’ll make it up to you-”

“It was our fucking anniversary and you embarrassed me, yet again, in front of the people you insisted we have over. There’s no way can make it up to me. It’s done. Four years of this shit-”

“Stop it. You know I love and would do anything for you-”

“No, I don’t know any of that, because you’ve never shown or proved any of that.”

“Just come tonight and I’ll-”

“Why should I, Jack? Give me a good fucking reason.”

“Because I love you,” he sighs and you can tell that he’s tired.

Yeah well, you’re tired too.

“I don’t feel like doing this with you, Jack. Not today.”

“Please just come home-”

“What for?”

“You’re my wife, Y/N. You should already be-”

“Me being your wife doesn’t seem to stop you from all of the shady shit you always fucking do.”

“Please-”

“I don’t know, I might stay at Daisy’s again.”

“I don’t like you staying over there! She stays out all night and-”

“So do you,” you laugh incredulously, “at least she pays attention to me.”

“Sweetheart-”

“I gotta go, I’ll talk to you later,” you sigh before hanging up.

“Ya know, he’s gonna text me soon. Should I tell him I have plans or...”

“I can’t keep doing this with you, Ransom. I-”

“Why not? It’s not like he’s being faithful to you, so what’s the big deal?”

“Because this isn’t who I am, Ransom. This is never the life I wanted! It’s not...it’s not the life I thought I’d....” you sigh as you wipe away a lone tear.

Why can’t you be more selfish? Why can’t you jus walk away from all of this?

“Lets go away together, just you and me,” Ransom suggests again.

“That’s not funny-”

“I’m not joking.”

“We can’t just go away-”

“He isn’t going to notice, baby. I know you don’t want to face that fact, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s just that: a fact. Tell him it’s for work, and we’ll go wherever you want.”

“Ransom...this isn’t a relationship.”

“It can be.”

“No, it really can’t. We can’t keep-”

“You like me, babe.”

“Whether I do or not-”

“You do.”

“Ransom, I’m married. It doesn’t matter that Jack is an asshole, this isn’t me. Sleeping around and having a “relationship” on the side...God, what the fuck is wrong with me?!”

“You’re unhappy.”

“You’re never going to commit to me-”

“You don’t know that.

“Well would you? Would you walk away from all of it just for me?”

“Would you?”

“I’m not the one with something to prove, Ransom. You have reputation, I don’t.”

“That’s fair,” he sighs as he leans back.

“I need to get home.”

“You need to eat.”

“Ransom-”

“Another round of drinks?” the waiter asks with a smile.

Before you can even think, Ransom is answering, “she’ll have the crab-stuffed lobster and I’ll take the surf and turf, and yeah, we’ll take another round of drinks.”

The waiter just smiles and nods before walking off.

~~

taglist: @maroonsunrise83, @emerald-evans, @whxre4cevans, @companionjones, @fuckingbye, @autumnrose40, @pono-pura-vida, @nomadstucky, @whiskeytangofoxtrot555

[x-i-l-verify]

Trick or treat!

One good turn deserves another!

-

If you want a rec... hm, well, it's not a "rec" per se, but I'm sure you see me posting a lot about it, so I figured I'd explain what the Dream SMP is just for clarity's sake. ^^;

So, to quote tumblr user existentialterror: "The Dream SMP is a private multiplayer Minecraft server. A bunch of Twitch/Youtube streamers roleplayed on it regularly from 2020-2022. It grew a 'plot' based on improv which later became somewhat scripted in advance. There are arcs, seasons, worldbuilding, and factions."

I personally describe it to people as this strange, unholy mix of Game of Thrones, Homestuck, and Loony Tunes, but it manages to still be compelling somehow despite all its many flaws (the story could have seriously benefited from having whatever the Minecraft RP version of a Dungeon Master is, that's all I'll say about it). It's also the single most nuanced and fascinating study of morality and perspective I've ever seen in a fictional medium (one that was absolutely wasted on its target audience because a lot of people - especially younger people - aren't capable at looking at stories through an objective lens anymore), because the DSMP has no single main protagonist. Every character is the "main character," and their story intertwines and intersects with the other characters', creating a vast web of character conflicts and interactions. A character can be the flawed hero of their own story, and a despicable villain from another character's POV. A silly little guy to one character, and the worst person imaginable to another. Basically, "Villain" by Stella Jang is the DSMP theme song. And I think that's neat!

Characters include:

A violent anarchist pigman who somehow manages to be the most open-minded and based character in the entire series.

A sentient slime monster who pretends to be human by saying things like "I have so many bones! I have like 300 bones in me like everyone else!" and "Hello, fellow meat brother!"

An anthro fox who suffers from prophetic nightmares and serious daddy issues.

A sweet, silly demon who spends half the series being a chaotic menace and the other half either being mind-controlled into a cult leader or being traumatized by what he did under the influence of said mind control.

A former king who spends most of the story sleeping to escape from the crushing disappointment of reality and who reshapes his dreams into what he wants reality to be courtesy of a deity he befriends while there.

And many more

Also the fandom is full of very talented animators. :D Here are just a few of the super cool animations they've made over the years. (Links because the rest of the videos are unavailable outside of YT dangit)

Requiem | Fundy Lore [DSMP animatic]

Tightrope | GeorgeNotFound Lore [DSMP animatic]

Folding Chair | BadBoyHalo Lore [DSMP animatic]

The Search | Season 2 Lore Recap [DSMP animation]

Put “trick-or-treat” in my inbox and I’ll give you either a) a meme or two related to a fandom you’re interested in (if I don’t know you as well I’ll go random/miscellaneous) or b) a random book/movie/game rec. Feel free to specify, or to ask for both!

[magicshopaholic]

Here me out...Namjoon x Lia...while I love Kaya, I feel like she's on the same serious level as Namjoon. Perhaps after he PhD studies, she can let loose...Also, I don't think she's dealt with her SA trauma all that well so the liveliness she may have had prior to the SA may have not completely come back.

Lia can bring more levity to Namjoon's glumness when he's dealing with the weight of the world on his shoulders....but your most recent fics of Kaya and Namjoon have me rooting for both of them. I also loved their chemistry especially during that birthday surprise in New York? I can't remember the state but it was in the US...also really curious to have the backstory of how they ran into each other. I can't recall if you went into detail but I remember Jin mentioning that Namjoon ran into Kaya as a chance meeting.

Oooo

I can tell you’ve thought a lot about this ♥️ We don’t know much about what Kaya was like pre-SA - but I imagine she would’ve gone through some amount of therapy and is dealing with it even now, so it’s possible it could have changed her personality in some way. Namjoon is perceptive enough to notice signs of her slipping into a dark place and would probably know just how far to push for information and bring her back from it.

Coming to Lia - she definitely has some of the more nurturing qualities that I think you’re referring to about bringing Namjoon out of one of his slumps. Ironically, that was actually what I was talking about when I said she might find him emotionally unavailable - she’s probably sensitive enough to understand and empathise, but I don’t see her being particularly philosophical herself so I’m not sure if she would really know how to deal with it too much.

I think his protective nature is capable of making her feel a bit suffocated too. Kaya, despite taking pride in her independence and all, does sort of lean into it and likes having that security - possibly exacerbated by her past. Having said that, you never know how people react in a situation until they’re actually in it so under the right circumstances, they could probably work. Being the same age - and in the same location! - could change things for sure.

Rooting for Kaya and Namjoon is so easy, haha! Yes, the fic you’re referring to was set in Connecticut, Kaya’s hometown, and was the most slice of life I’ve ever written for them. Their initial meeting is summarised here - and an excerpt was posted a few weeks ago on the Discord server 💜

[sortofaflynn]

Eve grinned, watching the small User scuttle around Encom. Clearly up to mischief, and definitely having snuck or broken in given the late hour, but credit where credit was due the small User was having far too much harmless fun for Eve to want to stop her. "You know-" she lit up a screen, settling on it in her owl avatar so the small User had a reference point to interact with. "-normally I'd be worried about what someone's looking to do when they're this close to the server room and it's well past the start of most Users' rest cycles, but if you cover Mackey's office in that silly string you're carrying I'll hide you from the cameras." She thought for a moment, preening one wing absently. "Actually, most of the board members would deserve it. Just don't get Alan or Eddie - I'll mark their rooms so you know where the ones to avoid are, pick any of the other offices at random and go wild."

From @evecolourshock - looking to start off with Violet and Eve being chaotic allies and causing problems for the Encom Board because someone was talking shit about Sam, if that's alright with you?

And Mischief she certainly was up to.

With her all black attire and very unsuspicious backpack full of things like the key she took while Sam was asleep and lots of empty space to take things that belonged to people she didn’t like and pretend she didn’t know anything about it, Violet looked about as much like a criminal as one could possibly look. Minus the stripes or orange jumpsuit, of course. That would be crossing the line of suspicion a little too much, not that anyone would suspect someone other than her to be the culprit. But sneaking around was more fun, and if anyone actually wanted to get her in trouble for it, they’d have to waste their time looking for proof of the obvious, and that was just hilarious.

Upon hearing the sudden voice, Violet jumped back a little. She would never admit she was startled if Eve asked her, but she totally was. After her brief moment of shock, Violet’s eyes darted around and finally settled on the one lit up screen. There she is. She thought before running up to said screen, wanting to get as close as possible to the source of her voice so she had a higher chance of being able to fully understand what she was saying. Sure she had an avatar, but there was nobody for Violet to lip read from, which was a little over 50% of how she understood spoken communication, so it made things a bit hard. She definitely didn’t want to constantly be asking her to repeat herself either. That was always embarrassing, and she almost always gave up halfway through and resorted to just nodding or saying “Mhm” repeatedly.

“He was at the top of my list already.” Violet smirked, finding it hard to contain the delight of having Eve on her side with this one. Mackey was the source of a lot of the shit talk that had been bothering her anyways, so she knew she had to hit him extra hard. He also severely underestimated Violet’s capabilities, and there was no better way of proving him wrong than letting those capabilities be his demise. She laughed at the thought of it, moving her shoulder length hair back underneath her hoodie so her identifying blue streaks wouldn’t be visible. “Don’t tell Viva, but this is why you’re my favorite.”

[guckies]

i think you need to consider the fact that people aren’t being hypocritical here, but instead a lot weren’t here in the first few months of the server. they don’t know what those early egg relationships were like for many this is the first they’re seeing of them.

and second, a character hitting their child who they have an established relationship and boundaries with- who are capable of telling them to stop and have other trusted adults they can turn to if they need to- is very different than a character hitting their child that they’ve only had for a few days who isn’t aware that they have anywhere else they can go. that’s what at least what had made it cross the line for me.

i understand this is an issue that’s important to you but please realize that it’s also very important to a lot of us, and people have their own ways of dealing with it. telling people to not use specific words that describe how this mirrors real life situation just because it’s fiction might seem like the best thing to do for you, but for others that’s diminishing an important story to them.

At this point I feel like I’m repeating myself over this post. So this is a lot of words and the last time I’ll talk about Roier’s specific situation.

I’m not saying people are being hypocritical but rather that they need to judge the abuse all in the same sense and not just nitpick when there is a case of abuse right in there face (especially when their main povs have been guilty of it before). Plus in the examples I was talking about, I never talked about the relationships at the start, like Bobby and Roier, apart from mentioning the neglect cases. Cause the slime and Mariana’s stuff is still continuing with codeflippa, Richas’ stuff was wasn’t that long before the eggs went missing and Dapper’s stuff happened before the eggs went missing.

This is an important issue but I’m saying that the uproar about one physical abuse situation when other abuse situations that have happened were swept under the rug is really weird because it does mean some of y’all are basically picking and choosing when you want to talk about abuse especially those who don’t main Roier at all and have only just started talking about it because it’s one of the new eggs.

As well this is fiction and it can be an important plot point but looking for signs of abuse and throwing the word abuser for abusive actions is a bit wild. If we’re considering and holding others to the same standard when talking about abuse this would mean these people are also considered abusers:

BBH is an abuser for knowing and letting Dapper continue s/h with the vulture - neglect

Cellbit and Forever are abusers for emotionally disregarding their child by not listening to his wishes over paintings that cause him distress - Emotional

Codeflippa is an abuser to slime for the identity fraud of his dead daughter and emotional distress as a result of her leaving despite him panicking worried she’ll never come back. - emotional

Anyone who has neglected their child is an abuser (namely: Quackity, Maxo, Spreen, Wilbur and etc.) - neglect

Slime and Juannaflippa’s relationship plays a lot into slime’s past abuse that he doesn’t address - historical

Those first three are the most recent examples with the eggs which happen basically just before the disappeared(codeflippa is involved cause she basically sees herself as an egg yet hers happened during the egg disappearance).

If we wanna talk about abuse without the eggs involved then it would mean:

Bbh is an abuser for admitting to psychologically torturing his friends(red team) by hunting them down and killing them continuously in purgatory; and for disregarding and fighting about Foolish’s feelings when he messed with Leo’s room - physical and emotional

Aypierre and Maxo were in a toxic emotionally abusive relationship with each other. That Maxo found almost impossible to leave and never really felt free from until his death. - emotional and domestic

Elquackity is an abuser for basically everything he does to target and harm the islanders and their eggs. - physical and emotional

Cucurucho and the duck for the misinformation, isolation and keeping them on the island - Emotional and somewhat physical

(somewhat old) A manipulated Mike is an abuser for trying to kill Fit just because he thinks he will hurt Pac who was trying his best to tell him to stop while being somewhat isolated by Mike. - physical(fit) and emotional(pac)

(older example) Bbh and Aypierre are abusers for lying about disguising themselves and torturing Foolish to get information out of him all while playing as his friend- physical and a little bit emotional

(older example) Foolish is an abuser for emotionally manipulating Jaiden for like a day over the lie he told regarding the Tazercraft arrest -emotional

(older example) Mariana is an abuser for emotional manipulating Slime into having make up sex after every fight - domestic

Although some of them are older, I put the type of abuse they did and it doesn’t erase anything cause all of that still happened. Like that is so many cases of abuse that have been done by characters with (mostly)good mental wellbeing that aren’t ever talked about or considered by the fandom because they don’t look like what typical abuse is despite these characters doing abusive actions. So when you’re reading that do you hear how wild it is to call a person an abuser for every abusive action they do.

Also I never said that it was okay, I said these Minecraft things don’t always translate the same to the things they are comparing in irl, which is true. Especially when in minecraft they have easy access to deadly things that can kill, destroy and trap players in an instant. I mean these eggs still have access to “dragon magic”(creative mode) even if some don’t want to use it. Nothing on this server is normal, so comparing one case of minecraft rp physical abuse to irl physical abuse is a bit bonkers. Since it doesn’t translate with everything you’re comparing so you wouldn’t be able to judge it fairly to irl abuse.

Along with all this Pepito is aware of others on the server, we don’t know if these eggs are actually real and Roier isn’t actually being a proper parent. Roier is giving Pepito a lot of tough love and acting like the eldest sibling who has to take care of the younger siblings, which how he acts with most of the eggs. This isn’t to say some of the things he’s done to Pepito isn’t abusive but at least know the difference between some of the actions. Yes he has the responsibility of being a parent but he didn’t choose that and he’s wasn’t just gonna be selfish to the point were the kid will die because he doesn’t want to take care of the kid. So he’s gonna take care of the kid but if Pepito was really scared of him and didn’t want to be there then Pepito would run away cause Pepito has seen others and talked to them, do y’all not remember when everyone was talking to Pepito on the first day.

Plus there are so many things going on in Roier’s head to the point if this was an actual irl court case he could plead insanity due to the fact he doesn’t believe these eggs are real and cause of the emotional fight or flight response from when they were trying to kill eachother a week ago. It doesn’t excuse everything he is doing but when comparing it to irl he isn’t actually a full blown abuser.

Abuse is an important issue but my point is that you can’t just pick and choose when to start caring about abuse in the story especially when those with different main POVs who are speaking about the physical abuse never spoke on the abuse cases involving their main. Abuse needs to be treated with the same judgement across all accounts especially in a story like this.

[infinitethree]

There are times that, actually, Aster kind of hates most of his life.

One of the biggest reasons for that is that it can feel hard to breathe among the main population of the server. Too many of them look at him like…

Well, they look at him like he’s something to idolize. Something to put up on a pedestal and marvel and/or swoon over.

The idea of being together with basically anyone makes his skin crawl. He already feels a hell of a lot like he’s an imposter in the majority of situations; the last thing he wants or needs is to have to lie to a significant other.

Plus he’s just. Aggressively not interested.

The little chat he had with Theo after he’d gotten the earrings from the eldest and youngest Was-Taken brothers, in which they commiserated over how little they wanted to touch any of that…the years have only made that more and more true.

Aster is, ultimately, a fairly public figure. He also is carrying the burden of multiple secrets that could shatter the server– secrets that he has to hide from those he holds dearest.

So, when he wants to actually be able to breathe somewhere truly private…he retreats to the Council HQ.

The fancy rooms no longer bother him on a visceral level. Maybe it’s because they’re so familiar now– a sign of absolute safety.

…Or, almost absolute. There’s still the risk of Daz showing up to be a fuckin’ bastard.

Less so, lately. Daz has been more than a little preoccupied with teaching Lee and dealing with all of the fuckery surrounding the Scribe.

One of their rewards for their first deal was what, at first glance, looks to be a Magic 8 Ball.

It technically is. But it’s also so much more than that.

It’s the way that they can ask a questions to the Scribe. There are limitations, which Aster is pretty sure are listed on a piece of paper taped in the back of an innocuous book on the bookshelf in the potions room.

He hasn’t bothered to keep track of them. Being smart about this kind of thing isn’t his forte. He’s here to be brawn, and he’s very, very good at that part.

Not that he’s stupid. He’s just…very aware that Daz can, does, and will run circles around him.

Again, though; the bastard has been busy lately.

…It’s weird that it’s been so quiet without that jackass deliberately antagonizing him. Keeps making him feel like things are getting dangerous.

Uhg. He glares up at the ceiling of the main room from his place flopped on the couch. He doesn’t like that he’s not really even able to find peace here anymore.

Especially because the damn Observers are here. They’re not asking anything, though, so Aster sure as fuck isn’t going to offer them more than he’s obligated to.

Well isn’t this just pathetic!

Prime fucking damnit, that’s the last entity he wants to hear from. He’d take a million weird and invasive Observer questions over the Scribe deciding to focus their attention on him.

Oh, don’t look so sour. Due to some recent events– don’t worry about it– I’ve realized that maybe you’re not as much of a lame stick in the mud as I thought!

“My face and voice are broken. I can’t not look like this,” he points out, still not fully used to having to curb his snark for literally anyone.

Smartass. Look, do you want a deal or not?

His eyes narrow. Not bothering to get up from his relatively comfy pose, he tells the horrible entity likely capable of destroying everything he knows and loves, “Aren’t you supposed to give me reasons why I should do it? Isn’t that your whole thing– make me an offer I can’t refuse?” There’s a beat, and he tacks on, “Y’know, like the Devi?”

Laughter comes from the Scribe. Oh, man, this is why you’ve caught my eye! Not a lot of people would sass me. Even the brains of your operation is scared shitless, but you…see, I know you’re not stupid enough that you think it’s a good idea. You’re just…that kinda person. 

Almost against his will, Aster has learned to read tone well enough to get the impression that they don’t consider his boldness a bad thing.

Weird! Usually gods or whatever the fuck the Scribe is are touchy about respect. They certainly seemed to dislike when Daz got too mouthy, after all.

They continue, You’re right, though. So, Stardust, I know something has gnawed at you for a long time now. 

He does not take the obvious bait, and instead patiently lets them draw the suspense out for their reveal.

Don’t you want to know more about that bastard that dragged you into this mess? I mean, really– he doesn’t just have a few cards he’s holding back, he’s got a whole fucking deck he’s hiding! 

He is curious, but at the same time…it’s a horrible, almost violent violation of Daz’s privacy.

Daz has kept a lot of things secret, presumably for a reason. Going to someone else to pry his life open is liable to result in a nasty situation that Aster can’t possibly recover from.

Oh, and Lee wouldn’t forgive him. There’s that, too.

But despite how much he dislikes Daz as a person, he liked the idea of ripping his defenses away even less.

That armor is pretty much the only thing standing between Daz and a total mental breakdown. Daz going off the deep end is pretty much the worst-case scenario for the entire server.

Still, he’s not so dumb that he turns it down right away. “That’s an interesting proposal. What is it that you want from me?”

A new perspective. He’s hogging the spotlight and it’s getting on my nerves. Sure, yeah, he’s– interesting and nuanced and whatever. But variety is the spice of life, and you have proven to be capable of quite a bit of spice!

None of that makes much sense to him. Beyond the metaphor, he’s pretty sure the implication is that they’re all just entertainment and Daz is grating on them by now.

He has no fucking clue what they mean by him being spicy, though.

“That’s your motive, not what I would have to do,” he sighs.

Their voice is flatter this time. Impatient little shit, huh? Fine. Make things interesting, same task as that bastard. I want a reason to turn the camera away from him for once. Even if he has to be in the fucking scene, I’ll accept a change in POV. 

That makes him sit up. “Camera? Are you recording us?!” In a manner of speaking. Don’t look so surprised, it’s obvious! And, look– there’s a big secret that’s hovering over Sanctuary. You find that out, and I’ll give you a VIP tour of what’s really going on.

“I don’t–” And a wish! No rules, no limits. A single, solitary wish that you can use to get anything you can imagine. Reality will bend to your will. I’ll even let you trade it, if such a weighty prize doesn’t feel right in your own hands.

He swallows.

He doesn’t want the rest of it, especially not learning more about Daz, but…

A wish, huh?

Considering it makes him feel a bit sick, but he asks, “...What are the limits. Not the wish– you said that already. I mean the rest. What am I not allowed to do?”

As long as you give me something interesting, I don’t care what it is or how you do it.

“And…what are the consequences if I can’t pull it off?”

There’s a low, ominous laugh. You’ll forget this ever happened and I’ll make your life worse. 

There aren’t a lot of people that know better than Aster that Daz would accept this. Not only that, he’d come up with a masterful plan to make everything work out wildly in his favor.

Fuck. He hates this, but he can’t refuse it.

He gives a soft, humorless laugh of his own. “Alright, Satan. I’ll shake your hand.”

Excellent. A pleasure doing business with you, Stardust.

The camera suddenly snaps to the Showrunner.

They’re hovering over what looks like a representation of the Council HQ, and Aster himself, on the stage.

A wide, almost manic grin is on their TV-screen head. “Gentle audience, I’ll need your help with this one. You can suggest things you want him to see– things from the bastard’s life.”

The lights suddenly dim, and they add, “But be aware! My favorite little monster’s presence might be shown, but not perceived. At least, not yet.”

They roll over mid-air so that they’re on their back. “This is your chance to peek at any moments you feel didn’t get a proper scene! Not just within his backstory, but beyond. Prologue, sequel, even a sneak preview of upcoming attractions if you want to be so bold. Whether or not Aster sees inside his head will depend greatly on what makes things more fun.”

A loud giggle escapes them and they kick their feet in excitement. “Ohhhh this act is gonna be killer!”

[unravelingwires]

Unhappily

One of the things I say about my political philosophy is that if I hadn’t met the queer community early, I’d be a radical feminist. I usually let people draw their own conclusions about why, but it’s not that complicated. I really, really hate men.

It’s not that I dislike every individual man I meet. It’s not even that I disrespect or distrust every man that I meet: I grew out of that tendency in high school. It’s just that men have an irritating habit of trapping you in the “young lady” category, which I have little or no tolerance for.

Being a young lady is fundamentally different from being a woman. To be clear, being a woman is not the goal, precisely. A woman is not a superwoman, capable of handling her husband with a smile and better than her colleagues, is not a girlboss or a sitcom wife or an action heroine or anything in between. The thing that makes being a woman divine is that a woman is real, made of flesh and haphazardly placed veins. A young lady is made of tulle regardless of if she’s wearing any.

I think of being a young lady less as an identity and more as a state of mind you can be forced into. Sometimes the grouping is overt. You may be 16 with a vendor telling you he’d “buy those earrings for you myself if I didn’t have a wife” or 19 with the father of your friend trying to hug you instead of any of the men in the group. A lot of the time, though, it’s subtle. It’s a man reading a gorgeous piece of writing and asking where the male perspective is. It’s becoming a server whenever someone sufficiently Indian enters the house. It’s your mom telling you to forgive your uncle because he’s used to girls your age thinking he’s the smartest person in the world.

The worst thing about all this is that while a man may initially nudge you into position, it’s you who has to accept the ruling. You smile, let him walk over you, then complain to your friends later. You know about social decorum and safety, so you don’t kick up a fuss. Whilst being a woman has nothing to do with being larger than life, I have tried my whole life to fill up any space that I’m in. Occasionally having my personality flip because a man looked at me wrong is a nightmare for my ego.

The reason why I’m not a radical feminist– as opposed to not being a TERF– is that I don’t have much of a tolerance for the radfem idea that men are inherently violent or unsafe. It lets men off the hook for their behavior. At the end of the day, I’ve met too many tolerable men– friends whose company I enjoy, teachers who were good at their jobs, professors whose research I inherently respected– to believe men are inherently anything. This, unfortunately, has made me angrier. If men aren’t inherently one way or another, it takes away my ability to shrug off the ones in my life who act like their brains have been eaten by weasels.

I was talking to my friends one day trying to figure out why I hated sexism more than other forms of bigotry, and I realized that, well… sexism makes me feel stupid. I have no tolerance for stupidity in myself or others. Call it an ego trip, call it what you want. I’m just very, very tired.

[dollar2host]

WordPress Plugins and Cybersecurity: What You Need to Know

Your website for your small business might benefit in many ways from the addition of plugins.

You can use them to make the loading time of your WordPress site faster, to make your content more shareable, to collect email addresses from visitors for use in your marketing list, and to perform better in search engine results. To add insult to injury, many of the very best WordPress plugins that can boost your website and your business blog are available at no cost.

It is essential to conduct research on the reliability and safety of any plugins you intend to use. Plugins are vulnerable to abuse since users can and do exploit them. In most cases, this is accomplished by inserting malicious scripts into plugins that have holes in their security.

What damage are these malicious scripts capable of causing? There is the possibility that the site might be taken over, spyware could be installed, and cryptocurrency mining could occur, in addition to the theft of consumer information and credit card data from online retailers.

This is not to imply that WordPress is a vulnerable platform. The researchers only discovered three flaws in the core program between January and July of 2021, and all of those flaws have now been addressed; however, because there are tens of thousands of plugins available from almost as many publishers, the chances of a security vulnerability occurring with plugins are larger than the chances of an issue occurring with the platform itself.

Is Your WordPress Plugin Open to Threats?

Choosing plugins is kind of like buying a car. You want performance, of course, but you also want something that’s safe, reliable, and easy to maintain. You choose a reputable car dealer and read reviews, so you don’t buy a lemon. You should get top-rated plugins from a reliable source so you don’t end up with a malicious plugin or one that has known security vulnerabilities.

Security experts consider WordPress.org’s plugin directory to be the safest source for plugins. With more than 59,000 plugins, you won’t run out of options, and the site solicits feedback and reviews from users.

Check those reviews before you download not just the star ratings but also the user feedback.

See what people like about the plugin. Read about any issues they’re having with the original plugin or updates. Get a sense of how well the publisher supports the plugin.

Also, check out the number of active installations to get a sense of how many users trust the plugin. A good plugin can have just a few hundred users, but a plugin with thousands of users has earned a lot of trust.

Hold on; I Thought My Web Host Was Responsible for That, Didn’t He?

Your website’s web host is responsible for a good deal of the server’s security, including both the physical and digital protection it provides for your website. There is a possibility that the security protections for your website are included in the hosting plan that you have selected. For instance, the Managed WordPress Hosting plans offered by Dollar2host include CodeGuard, which performs automated daily website backups; SiteLock, which scans your website for malware and removes it; and SpamAssassin, which prevents spam from being sent from email accounts associated with your domain.

You will save time thanks to these layers of protection, allowing you to focus on particular security needs for your website. These specific security needs include keeping your version of WordPress, your themes, and your plugins up to date, as well as ensuring that upgrades do not cause your website to become inaccessible (this is another reason why daily backups are so crucial).

Keep in mind that the safety precautions can differ depending on the web provider and the hosting plan. If you have any questions about the safety options provided by your plan, you should contact the customer service department for clarification.

Make sure everything is compatible with the most recent version of WordPress.

So, you’ve found a plugin that has a lot of users and has received positive ratings. Check to see if it is compatible with the version of WordPress that you are using before you download it. (For the sake of both security and performance, you should always make sure that your own website is using the most recent version of WordPress.)

You need to know the version of WordPress you’re using right now in order to test whether or not your plugins are compatible with it. You may locate it by navigating to the dashboard of your WordPress site and hitting the Updates tab. You will get a notification that informs you whether or not you are now operating the most recent version and provides the version number.

Maintain an up-to-date version of WordPress and all of your plugins.

WordPress and its plugins, like everything else written with code, receive regular updates that include new features, upgrades, and bug fixes. Sometimes, these issues manifest themselves as minor quirks that have an impact on the way a plugin looks or performs. Sometimes, these are vulnerabilities in the site’s security that need to be patched in order to prevent hackers from accessing the site.

Hackers are aware of any new security updates whenever publishers make the announcement. They then start looking for websites that haven’t implemented the fixes yet, and they frequently use bots that are able to scan large amounts of content rapidly and locate susceptible websites.

You still need to upgrade your WordPress installation and your plugins, even if you are satisfied with the most recent versions of both. You should make use of the feature that allows you to arrange WordPress and some plugins to update themselves automatically. Regarding the remaining aspects, you have a few alternatives available to you in order to stay up to date.

Create your own personalized update schedule manually.

If you are able to commit to monitoring your site for updated messages at least once a week, then this strategy has a chance of being successful. If you have a habit of putting off less important activities when you are busy, you should not follow this method. You run the risk of leaving your website open to attack.

It is recommended that you learn how to perform manual updates even if you ultimately decide against doing so. It’s normal to be concerned that installing an update would render your website inoperable, especially if the plugins you use haven’t been kept up to date to support the most recent version of WordPress. You should create a backup of your website before manually updating it, and you should also be prepared to delete the update if there are any issues.

You will go to your dashboard in the same way that you do when you check to see which version of WordPress you are currently using. To view the most recent updates, select the link labeled “Updates” in the left column. You’ll be able to view the update status for WordPress, as well as for any plugins and themes you use. You are able to bring any that are out of date up to date here.

Include a plugin for added safety. Wait, can you please explain why you require a security plugin?

A security plugin provides an additional layer of protection for your website by doing a scan of your website to identify potential vulnerabilities, such as outdated plugins and uninstalled WordPress updates, and by notifying you via email anytime your website is in need of an update.

You are still responsible for making the modifications. However, by doing so, you will not overlook any problems that may arise in the time between your regularly scheduled upgrades.

You have the option of adding a security service such as SiteLock to your website if the service is not already included in your hosting package. A daily malware scan, automated eradication of any malware that the scan finds, protection against bot attacks, and a content delivery network that automatically secures your website with the most recent TSL/SSL certificates are all included in the basic plan.

Other SiteLock security solutions provide protection against DDoS assaults, database scanning, firewalls for your online applications, and continuous malware scans as opposed to daily ones.

Configure the plugin to receive automatic updates.

Consider using the Easy Updates Manager plugin in the event that some of your plugins do not come with an automatic update feature. Plugin ception is, indeed, a plugin that will update your other plugins. You have the option of updating some, all, or none of your plugins automatically with the free version. This is the most effective method, particularly if you manage more than one website or a site that gets a lot of traffic and uses a number of different plugins.

Dollar2host

Dollar2host.com

We provide expert Webhosting services for your desired needs

Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube

[thetoxicgamer]

MrBeast Announces Creator Esports League He’s Not Actually A Part Of

Eight of the greatest influencers will play in a variety of competitions over the course of the first season as part of the Creator League, which Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson has unveiled. Despite announcing the league in his most recent video, Mr. Beast isn't actually associated with the competition. When the info for the Creator League arrived in my inbox my first thought was that this was finally the news of MrBeast getting involved in esports, something he has said previously that he is interested in. But upon further investigation, MrBeast isn’t actually involved other than being paid to announce the league and give away some of his chocolate to those who buy in. The Creator League does feature some of the biggest influencers in the world, so why they chose to spend a ton of money on getting MrBeast to advertise it seems a bit strange, when just using the people they have signed up would create a massive buzz around the product. But the team at eFuse, who are organizing the league, seem confident it is money well spent. “We wanted to amplify with one of the biggest megaphones, if not the biggest megaphone, in the world with MrBeast's reach,” says Matthew Benson, founder of eFuse. “You're absolutely right, these creators that are a part of the Founders Edition and the first season of Creator League are probably more than capable themselves, but if you're gonna go for the big shot and a big splash with this cool opportunity, might as well make it as big as you can go. So that was kind of the mentality.” The Creator League is a tournament series that will feature teams led by top influencers. There are some big names involved, although some of them are not exactly veterans of the esports scene. There are some names esports fans will know with OpTic Gaming being represented by Seth “Scump” Abner and Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez, then Fortnite pro Cody "Clix" Conrod is also involved. Then there are a few personalities who create gaming content, but not necessarily in the esports space such as Minecraft player Sapnap and the streamer collective OTK. TikTok star VinnieHacker is best known for his non-gaming TikToks, but does play a lot of competitive games on his Twitch. But there are a few influencers who seem a little out of place, iShowSpeed is a streamer who will occasionally boot up FIFA for a few games and IRL streamer CdawgVA sometimes streams some games, but both of their main content areas are well away from the esports space. And perhaps the strangest inclusion of them all is TikToker and musician Bella Poarch. These creators will each lead a team in the Creator League, which kicks off with a Fortnite custom map tournament. There is an open qualifier for the tournament, which features a $50,000 prize pool with the top players getting a spot on their favorite creator's team. After the open qualifier is done there will be a launch show where the creators will draft their teams, and from there the league will get underway with the final of the first split taking place in early October with a $200,000 prize pool. However, creators do not have to actually play in the tournament if they don’t fancy it, so it may just be a lot of fans competing. At a minimum, the creators will actively manage their teams and broadcast games on their channels. A key part of the creator league is the Community Passes, which you can buy for $19.99. Each creator in the tournament has their own pass, and you can only have a pass for one creator, although you can buy multiple passes for the same creator if you want. The pass gives you the ability to vote on some areas of the tournament, including the players that are signed to the creator's team, the rules for the competition and what format future tournaments will take. There’s also the promise of exclusive access to the creators, including Discord servers that feature AMAs and potential in-person experiences with them, although specifics have not been revealed. There will also be weekly community tournaments for pass holders and giveaways, but unless you are really good at Fortnite or very lucky they might not offer much value. I’m struggling to see why you would want to buy one of these passes when the initial tournament qualifier seems to be open to everyone and all the action will be broadcast for free. So $19.99 for some voting power, access to smaller tournaments and the potential to interact with a personality seems a bit steep, however, the team has said they know they need to offer value for people who buy these passes. “I think what we've tried to do is wherever you fall on the spectrum of your competitive skill or your fandom, we want to provide value to you in some form,” says Benson. “So there's all kinds of different value adds and at the end of the day it's a decision that individuals have to make, but we feel confident. And I think another point that's important to know is the value that's listed day one is not the value that is like stagnant, we're always going to be adding more and more and more to try to prove out the value.” No doubt the Creator League will bring in a lot of viewers purely on the star power of the people involved, but if it wants to have any kind of longevity then I expect they will have to add more value to the $20 passes, otherwise, they may quickly have a lot of people who feel they didn’t get much out of their purchase. Update - 3 September 2pm BST: After the announcement it was revealed that the creator passes are actually NFTs. CdawgVA has announced that he was not aware of this, and will be pulling out of the Creator League. Read the full article

[n0resistance]

Wild Flowers

don’t care

where they grow

     There are 3 things that keep me grounded. They keep me in solace with my attention deficit disorder. I was diagnosed with it when I was 7 years old, but my mom didn’t want me on medication, and just thought I had too much energy. Instead she made me do every activity she could get me in. Started with painting, reading monologues, dance class, cheerleading, flute, violin. Whatever to make sure I wasn’t bored. I still don’t have to take medicine thanks to her. However, I still very much have a difficult time paying attention. If it’s boring, like math, or lord of the rings, or office work. It’s just really that difficult. I need music or something else to get my attention to finish the task. 

     I discovered my thing though, you know the thing you have to do to keep you grounded, I discovered it about 10 years ago. It’s actually 3 things. After spending 4 months in Italy and realizing that study abroad is what my body really needed. My body and mind were over productive and over stimulated living in New York City from 18-20 years old and I always felt like I was behind or failing. It was a lot of first experiences but a lot to take care of. An apartment, 16 credits, a job, I brought Scrappy to the city. After living in Italy and learning the ultimate self care I found that cooking, biking, and writing were the things I needed to do to take care of myself. I took cooking classes in a guy’s apartment in Rome. He was my guidance counselor’s cousin who was an architect but loved to cook. Us students just had to pay for the groceries, and he taught us how to make a full 3 course meal including; appetizer, dinner, and desert. I learned how to get by with little to no money, cooking was the way. I found sincere happiness that I wanted to bring home. I learned Italian and wanted to document all the experiences I was having, so I began to bring a journal with me everywhere. It was just diary entries. I actually finally got rid of those journals. I discovered that not only did I absolutely love to write, but I needed to write for my mental health. Biking I did not do in Italy, but when I came back to New York, and had little to no money to ride the train, I brought a yellow bike I won from Old Navy and barely paid for subway rides. You know when people tell you, oh you save so much money not having a car. Well being someone who never really was well off, it doesn’t feel like I’m saving, yet just never had it in my expenses. Living in a city gives you that lifestyle choice and a journey of uncomfortability. Taking trains, Uber, bikes, and then you realize you gain a lot from being uncomfortable. 

    I graduated with Hotel Management, I still do work in a Hotel just never got into management because of how much you work. It’s not really a side gig. Then after studying acting and doing theater and film, I got into bars because they were way more flexible with more money.

I’ve lived in the Manhattan, LA, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. For fun I like to backpack. I’ve been humbled. I really like having a flexible schedule, not working in a office, and making time to have a life or do art. So with persistence and working multiple jobs, and finding the right ones, and putting energy into taking care of animals since my dog died, I’ve found the balance I’ve been looking for.

Working in Hospitality can really suck. People don’t really get it. You’re not in grad school with this amazing career like being a doctor, or a nurse, or saving the world. You’re a server or bartender. Your passion is art. You provide entertainment and live off tips. It’s a pretty great living most of the time, if you find a good spot. You can pay your bills you find like minded creatives but you have this feeling of incompetency because there’s so much more you’re capable of. It’s also a hard lifestyle. You’re body gets tired, you work weekends, you need support from your partner and family. The other day I had a dog client, she’s a retired sweet lady. She asked if I was a full time dogwalker. I told her I wasn’t because I don’t want to ruin it. My dog died and being around them was important to me, so I got into it, but attaching NYC stress with it and making it a business just takes the joy away from it all. So I work at a brewery. It’s my extra income and I’m grateful for all the dogs I’ve gotten to take care of. She asked me what school I went to and I said Pace University. She asked do you use your degree, I said well I graduated in Hospitality so yes, and I definitely use it when I have to. The reason I work in bars is to do more film stuff. It’s hard to make people understand your reasons for unconventionality, that it makes you happy and you’re not consumed in work when you’re not there. Being a manager you have to work atleast 10 hours and a lot of the time it’s just not for me. I can’t put effort if I don’t care. Luckily I actually care about people and problem solving so I’ve been able to stand that portion of it for this long. I just want to do things of my interest. 

     What is life without travel, restaurants, and bars. Right. Although you don’t feel like you do enough, and hospitality workers work a lot, we do a lot. It’s a choice, it wasn’t forced upon us. It helps with having autonomy. I like the idea that I can save as much as possible buy a flight, quit my job, come back and work the same job at a different spot, that’s probably better until I feel like I want to do something else. 

    The only thing with producing shows, events, traveling, working really hard in hotels or bars, is that it always ends up in burn out. My routine daily meditation is writing, cooking, and biking. I can do it everyday. Feel like I have a routine, and can go anywhere. If not biking atleast journaling and cooking. When I traveled to the Philippines, Australia, LA, I always asked can I cook? Any moment I spent a lone, I wrote. I wrote a lot. My thoughts, of what I wanted. The best thing about writing, or journaling, is that you have thoughts and things you want to manifest, or bring to awareness. If I look back on my journals, I have achieved what I wanted. Really it looked like making x amount a year, having a flexibility, making a project and having it hit, and luckily I’ve achieved all those things. Falling in love with someone I’m actually compatible with. But what we’re searching for is a feeling. A feeling of peace, of safety, sustainability, and seeing if you can see something grow. 

    I’m okay with living anywhere really. I don’t need much to be comfortable. I’m lucky to have skills that will get me a job anywhere and a boyfriend who I know is a good fit for me. I know we’re in this together. But because my life is “unstable” where I don’t own my apartment, I switch jobs every 3 years, sometimes every year, and do the most unstable thing which is acting, I’m really lucky to have my 3 things that ground me. 

    You see it’s not 1 thing, it’s 3 things. Because of course someone with ADD will tell you 1 thing is too boring. It can’t just be writing, or cooking, or biking. It needs to be 1-3. 1 for exercise, 1 for art, and 1 for nutrition. Just like flowers need soil, water, and sunlight.

     Back in January I was telling my friend how I was upset about the drug addiction that happened in the suburban town we grew up in. Deaths, tragedy, and how it just ruined people that we loved’s lives. I asked him it’s weird that you can both be brought up in the same house and taught the same values but the personality of people can really change the out come of their lives. Like if they love adrenaline, or have an addictive personality, or the easiest thing to do which is eat bad. It was inevitable in our town since we were surrounded by fast food and it’s all so cheap plus the combination of not much to do. I asked, in a psychology sense, why does one sibling go one way and the other go the other? My friend said, “Well Toni, it’s survival of the fittest.” That basic. Some people don’t have the thing in them that gives them the desire for self care. Even though they have the best grades or have so much potential.

Like eating vegetables, or doing yoga, or not consuming alcohol or drugs. Because they know it’s bad for them. They hang on to the highs, almost too much. They don’t have the self awareness to get out of their bad situation, like to move out of town and experience something new. Get away from toxic people. They don’t have the drive to make more money. In that case, they have the weaker experience, and it’s sad. Because you can be so excellent at so many things, but if you never want to learn the basic need to take care of yourself or protect yourself from harm. You you end up suffering. It’s sad how people can’t get out of their own way. I also very much see it in myself; but I moved to a place where you either thrive or die.

Luckily I was cut off after school and figured out how to survive. Like I did in college, I still feel like I’m always behind and failing. If I go back and think of what could’ve happened. I’m better off. 

    Just getting out of negativity, a small mind set, and exposing myself to other people and cultures. It does something to you, and makes you want to do more. I’m thankful for that. As long as I’m a live, I will cook, bike, and write. Because not only does it make me sane, provides self care, it makes me thrive in all of my being to be a better human. At the end of the day if we all focused on ourselves and our own happiness. With a healthy hobby, friendship, doing self care routines; we actually cause every person who loves and is around us less stress. Ultimately, that makes the world a better place. The freedom of it, is that you can thrive anywhere. Because Wild Flowers Don’t Care Where They Grow. They just grow.

#howtolove #alltheplaces

[bobbinacrosstheequator]

The People

There was a one-to-one ratio of staff to guests which, coupled with the expansive space for 11 guests, made for luxurious cruising.

Carolina, our naturalist guide, is a native Galapagosian (made-up term). At 42, Carolina is has fantastic experience and knowledge both in dealing with tourists and also with the geography, wildlife, and environmental details she imparts on us eager learners. As appropriate, she answers questions when asked, rarely doesn’t know the answer, and sometimes puts us off because it’s a topic that she’ll cover at an upcoming evening talk or on an upcoming walk. She clearly has a good rapport with the crew and various folks on land at our stops, and is patient with extended discussions based on snippets of a topic different guest bring on board. She’s confident, capable, entertaining and delightful to be with.

Omar Gutierrez, the captain, is low key and quiet (possibly because his English is limited) but has a presence that inspires confidence. He’s often in the background keeping an eye on things. After chasing the dolphins for us on day three and inviting us to the bridge for crossing the equator, he is making sure we have the best experience, while staying safe and getting where we need to be.

Roberto is the primary server and bartender, thus winds up having the most interaction with us. His English is terrific, he’s helpful, conscientious, attentive, and he exemplifies gracious service. We’ve come to associate him with the wonderful juices and teas that show up when we get in from a hike or snorkeling trip respectively, or in the bar area in the afternoons.

Benicio is one of the first crew members Jill met and he introduced himself as the cabin boy (not what we would have called him, but we went with it). Actually, most of the crew help out with lots of jobs. The cabins are thoroughly cleaned each morning, and inevitably when we go to our cabin one or two more times during the day we find blankets or towels folded, garbage emptied, wet beach towels removed, etc. Both of us could get used to this service…Benicio often helps out on deck or as we’re getting in or out of the pangas with a “Galapagos handshake” (this wrist-to-wrist grip that provides a safe transfer between wobbly panga and firm boat or landing site.)

The cook/chef (Carlos) and assistant cook/sous-chef (Lisbeth) do wonders in a small galley. We’ve had a wide variety of food, teas, juices, baked items and snacks. We won’t be complaining that we weren’t well fed!!

Wilfrido, Djalmhar, and Andres (sailors, with formal merchant marine training) serve as deck hands, man the pangas, and do the multitude of tasks that keep a boat of this size and luxury operating, safe, and comfortable. All are friendly, and while we don’t chat much due to the language barrier, they are catering to our every need and keeping us afloat. Even while on the job, they help to entertain us in the pangas, once offering Steven the tiller; another time Andres making the face of a scoundrel as he reved the motor. One time, Wilfredo caught on that Sarah was trying to get a good photo of the Passion and took the long route to return to get her a good view. Djalmhar seems to be a background guy, but is always at the ready as we’re embarking and disembarking. During snorkeling, they are always close by to make sure we don’t stray and pick us up when the activity is done.

The two engineers (Wilmar and Jorge), are largely out of sight, but do show up now and again to help when we’re headed out on or coming back from an outing.

The 11 guests on board are in four groups (including ours). Seven of us booked through Wilderness Travel, two through Andando and the family through Vaya.

Two retired doctors from MI and CA (Dave and Dan) and one almost-retired doctor (Lou) from NH are brothers traveling together sans wives. The twins (non-identical in looks and personality) are about six, or so, years older than their brother. They’ve done quite a bit of traveling together, sometimes with wives, sometimes bach-ing it – an interesting and enjoyable group.

Jonathan and Alicia are from the Bay Area of California and are starting an Ecuadorian extravaganza with the Galapagos cruise. Jonathan works as a corporate attorney and Alicia is retired from managing clean energy programs. They’re very interesting peeps, chatty and engaging.

Christina, an OB, and Paul, an engineer, and their two sons Steven and Julian are a super nice family from Albuquerque . Christina and Paul had been to the Galapagos pre-kids, and wanted to share it with their sons before Steven heads off to college next year. It’s nice to have kids on the trip to mix it up a bit, particularly when they’re great turtle and shark spotters and so very well-mannered.

All in all, we agree that we had a winner of a crew, fabulous guide and a wonderful group of fellow adventurers

[just-a-turtleduck]

[ Like Brandon and Diana, Wanda also avoids romantic commitments as her vision of an ideal partner is fundamentally incompatible with the structural realities of her life:

I want someone who is successful, to be honest, and is a man. I like a man, anything about a man that isn’t a man I don’t like. Like that crying stuff or… you know what I’m saying, all that weakness, I don’t really like that because I’m not a weak person. Like, I’m one of those people, you know how some people don’t mind if their husband doesn’t make more than you? I would. I don’t settle for nothing less.

Unwilling to marry a man with fewer resources than herself—and nostalgic for a traditional masculinity of stoicism and strength—Wanda is part of a growing trend of working and lower-middle-class women who are now less likely than middle-class women to marry (Edin and Kefalas 2005; Goldstein and Kenney 2001; Martin 2004). She would rather be alone than “settle” for something that might ultimately fall short. When I asked Wanda to identify the hardest part about growing up, she did not mention the long hours she worked as a server, the difficulty of taking a full course load in community college, the scariness of taking out loans to finance her education, the monthly struggle to pay the rent on her studio apartment, or even the seeming impossibility of find a (black) man who makes more money than she does. Instead, Wanda turned to her past, measuring her progress toward adulthood in terms of her ability to set herself free from the “pathological” family patterns of her childhood and create a healthy, strong adult self. She reflected:

I would have to say just where I grew up and, like, how I grew up. And the fact that, like, my parents, they’ve been addicted to so many things. I don’t hold that against them, whatever. Like, my brother having to grow up by himself when he was thirteen, you know. And then my sister was raising us, my older sister. And so it’s like not growing up with some kind of foundation. It’s like you can get definitely, if you’re a weak-minded person, you can get stuck thinking this is the only thing that you’re capable of doing. Like you’re not capable of doing more.Wanda struggles to prove that she is not a “weak-minded” person like her parents. She confided, “There’s a lot of comparisons. For example, when I was younger my mom and my dad were on crack… So I mean I compare that to me smoking weed, do you know what I”m saying? And then when I was younger, like probably, like, sever or eight, my mom, she used to always go out to the club all the time. I go out to the club all the time.” Her thinly veiled anger toward her parents for not being able to beat their addictions—or get on their feet financially—comes out when she talks about having to take out loans for college: “I feel like it’s their fault that they don’t have nothing.” Wanda steels herself against becoming her own parents by policing her own potentially destructive behavior—smoking marijuana, going out to clubs—and psychically willing herself to overcome the family legacies that she views as pathological: “If my mentality were different, then most definitely I would just be stuck.”

jennifer m. silva, from coming up short: working-class adulthood in an age of uncertainty, 2013