#also I found this by following a reading list order from twitter

[fallingstardust]

Exploring the comics is a blessing you know?

[thatsonemorbidcorvid]

5 minute read

Women who are groped on trains in East Asia face the further threat of their assault being filmed and uploaded for sale online. In a year-long investigation, the BBC World Service's investigative unit, BBC Eye, has gone undercover to unmask the men cashing in on sexual violence.

It was the morning rush hour in Tokyo. The train was packed and rocky.

Takako (not her real name) was on her way to school. The 15-year-old tried to hold on to a grab bar.

Suddenly, she felt a hand pressing on her behind. She thought someone had accidentally bumped into her.

But the hand started to grope her.

"That's when I finally realised - it was molestation," Takako recalls.

The hand quickly disappeared in the crowd. "I couldn't do anything about it." She arrived at school in tears that day.

That was her first time being sexually assaulted on public transport, but Takako was molested almost daily for more than a year on her commute. On countless nights, she went to bed crying. "I felt like there was no hope in my life," she says.

Many women like Takako are targeted in public by sexual predators. In some cases, they face another violation - the attack is filmed and the videos are sold online.

Most videos follow the same pattern - a man secretly films a woman from behind and follows her on to a train. Seconds later, he sexually abuses her. The men act discreetly, and their victims can seem totally unaware. These graphic videos are then listed on the websites for sale.

In a year-long investigation, we traced the men behind three websites which sell and produce thousands of these sexual assault videos.

An epidemic in Japan

Encountering sexual abuse almost daily, Takako found herself unable to speak up during the act due to fear and shame. But every night, she covered her mouth with a towel and repeatedly practised in front of the mirror how to call out a harasser: "This person is a 'Chikan'!"

"Chikan" is a Japanese term describing sexual assault in public, especially groping on public transport. It also describes the offenders themselves.

Chikan perpetrators typically take advantage of crowds, and the victims' fear of causing a scene. In Japan, speaking too directly and openly may be seen as rude.

Thousands of arrests are made every year for Chikan offences, but many more go undetected and unpunished. Saito Akiyoshi, mental health professional and author of a book about Chikan, says that only about 10% of victims report the crime.

The Japanese police encourage victims and eyewitnesses to speak up, but the crime is far from being eradicated. The problem is so widespread that even the UK and Canadian governments warn travellers to Japan about it.

Chikan has been normalised by its prominence in Japan's adult entertainment industry. One of the most popular types of pornography in the country - the Chikan genre - has spread to other Asian countries.

Chikan websites

One Chinese-language website called DingBuZhu (which means "I can't hold it" in Chinese) immediately caught our attention.

It's a marketplace for Chikan videos, filmed secretly on mobile phones in crowded public places, such as trains and buses. They are shot across East Asia, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Some videos cost less than a dollar. The site even once allowed users to order tailor-made abuse videos.

We also found links on DingBuZhu to two other websites - Chihan and Jieshe - with the same type of content.

There is a Telegram group with 4,000 members who share tips on how to sexually abuse women.

One name kept coming up on the Chikan websites - "Uncle Qi".

He was hailed as the guru in this community. Dozens of abuse videos were labelled as his work. On Twitter, he put up teasers of the websites' videos to his 80,000 followers. But who was he?

The Telegram group we had been monitoring revealed a clue. One day, an admin claimed in a series of messages that he had abused a woman with Uncle Qi.

The messages were accompanied by photos of a woman standing on what appeared to be a metro platform.

Within hours, we found a match for the location - Ikebukuro station in Tokyo.

And there were more leads pointing us to Japan.

The websites listed a Paypal account receiving Japanese yen which was linked to a Gmail address. When we put the address through Google Contacts, the profile picture that came up was a young man with an elaborate hairstyle and theatrical makeup.

A reverse image search put a name to the face - Noctis Zang, a 30-year-old Chinese-born singer living in Tokyo. He was the frontman of a metal band called The Versus.

Noctis had a glamorous public image, but we soon found something hidden behind it.

In early 2022, The Versus' photographer had alleged on Chinese social media platform Weibo that Noctis built "porn websites" alongside another band member, Lupus Fu.

He had posted pictures of a notebook, which showed some accounting and video categories similar to those on the websites. The photographer had also posted a video which appeared to show Noctis's browsing history, with links to Chihan, Jieshe and the admin pages of DingBuZhu.

Could this rock singer be Uncle Qi?

Unmasking the admins

Posing as a music talent scout called Ian, our undercover journalist met Noctis at a fancy rooftop bar in Tokyo.

They first talked about music, but the chat soon moved on to the subject of sex. When Ian said his company used to make porn films, Noctis's eyes lit up.

The two met several more times, and they even celebrated Noctis's birthday together.

Noctis introduced Ian to his fellow band member Lupus Fu, whose name had been mentioned by The Versus' photographer. Lupus, also from China, was studying sociology in Japan.

Ian said his company planned to invest in porn sites and asked if they knew anything about this business.

Noctis confessed he had "some exposure" through a friend, "Maomi", who had created his own porn sites with "metro" content.

Ian then casually brought up DingBuZhu.

Lupus and Noctis both laughed: "That's Maomi's website!"

They revealed that the person behind the Chikan websites was a Chinese man in Tokyo nicknamed Maomi. They said Maomi was reclusive and paranoid.

Noctis and Lupus also admitted that they played admin roles for the websites.

They spelled out their business model.

"In China, sex is the most suppressed," Noctis said, "Some men are very perverted, they just want to see women getting…" Lupus finished the sentence: "screwed over."

Lupus said he was in charge of promoting abuse videos on Twitter. Noctis revealed that he had uploaded more than 5,000 videos on the websites, received payments for the business and taken 30% of revenue. The rest he had transferred to Maomi.

Lupus also said he could help connect Ian to Maomi.

The Chikan club

On a quiet back street in the red-light district of Yokohama, a storefront decorated like a metro station catches your eyes. A sign spells out its concept: "legal Chikan trains".

In this sex club, called Rush Hour, customers can pay to enjoy the Chikan experience legally.

Its manager Hasuda Shuhei welcomes us on board. "We let people do things that can't be done outside. That's why people come here."

Inside, a sickly-sweet smell of cleaning products permeates the air. Private rooms are decorated like train carriages and equipped with a sound system that plays train announcements. Even the club's membership cards look exactly like Japan's transportation cards.

"I think it's important for men to be able to pay to vent in place like this, so they don't commit rape and other forms of sexual assault," says Hasuda.

Mental health professional Saito says that the matter is not as straightforward as Hasuda claims. He says that most Chikan perpetrators are aroused by the idea of domination over and humiliation of their victims.

"They do not treat their victims as equals, but as objects."

It's an opinion that rings true with Takako.

After months of assaults, she fought back one day. As she felt a hand reach for her skirt in a packed train carriage, Takako shouted at the top of her lungs and grabbed the assaulter by his wrist.

Takako took the man to court, where he only got a suspended sentence, even though he had previously been caught for Chikan offences.

Disappointed by the outcome of her case, Takako went on to start an anti-Chikan campaign, producing colourful badges reading "Chikan is a crime!" People can wear them to show they will not keep silent.

"It's a deterrent for criminals," says Takako, who is now 24. There is now an annual anti-Chikan badge design contest among Japanese high school students.

The hamster

Maomi means "kitty cat" in Chinese. However, Lupus said his personality was more like a hamster. "He's harmless, but cautious of everything and he sometimes overreacts."

Lupus was right. Maomi repeatedly refused to meet Ian.

But on Chinese New Year's Eve, Ian's luck changed. Maomi agreed to a meeting at a karaoke bar.

The air was thick with cigarette smoke, the sound of clinking glasses and Chinese pop songs.

The person who turned up was not who we expected. A skinny young man wearing half-rim glasses and a dark trench coat, Maomi looked like he could be a college student. He said he was 27.

Showing an interest in investing in his business, Ian asked how much he made.

"Our daily turnover is around 5,000-10,000 Chinese Yuan (US$700-$1,400; £565-£1,130)," Maomi said proudly, showing the transactions on his phone. "Very stable income, right?"

Ian acted impressed, and mentioned the name Uncle Qi.

Maomi admitted: "I am Uncle Qi."

But to our surprise, he revealed Uncle Qi was not just one person.

He managed a team of 15 people, including 10 in China who made videos under the same name. Maomi received 30 to 100 videos from them each month.

The videos were then sold on the three websites which Maomi confirmed he owned. They had more than 10,000 paying members, mostly Chinese men.

"The key is to be authentic. It has to be real," Maomi said. He later told us his websites even sold videos of drug-facilitated rape.

Maomi talked about his business as though it were any other budding start-up. He described his team as "passionate" and "brave". He even casually mentioned he had been training others to carry out and film sexual assaults.

But there was one thing he never mentioned - the women in his videos. It was as if they didn't matter to him at all.

Maomi exposed

We wanted to know Maomi's real identity. At another meeting with Ian, he opened up about how he got into this business.

Like many boys, Maomi liked Superman, anime and video games growing up. But when he was 14, he started watching sexual assault videos like the ones he sold now.

He knew his business was not risk-free.

"I am so cautious," Maomi said. "Safety first." To avoid scrutiny from the Chinese authorities, he planned to naturalise as a Japanese citizen.

However, as careful as Maomi was, he made a mistake.

When Ian asked where to send the investment funds, Maomi pulled out his bank card and handed it to Ian.

The card revealed his real name - Tang Zhuoran.

Later, we confronted Maomi with our allegations.

As we approached, he tried to cover his face and walked away. And all of a sudden, he snapped, hitting out at our camera and crew.

The next day, by coincidence, we spotted Maomi at the airport. He was leaving Japan.

Uncle Qi's Twitter account, where he openly promotes the abuse videos, is still active.

Twitter did not respond to our request for comment. Instead, they sent us a poo emoji, which has been an automatic reply to any inquiry directed to their press email since March.

We also put our allegations to Noctis and Lupus. They did not respond. We have since learned they no longer work with Maomi.

On a spring day, we meet up with Takako to tell her about our investigation. Appalled, she says: "We women are just content in their videos. They see us as objects. They don't think we have a heart."

Takako advocates for tougher laws against these crimes.

Japan is set to reform its sexual assault laws. However, campaigners say these changes don't go far enough.

But Takako will not give up. "We will not cry ourselves to sleep."

Additional reporting by Chie Kobayashi, Ryuzo Tsutsui, Hanae Arrour Takahashi and Joel Gunter

[zedecksiew]

BLOGGIES 2023 BEST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR

On 31 January 2024, the tabletop-roleplaying-game community voted for the Best Blog Post Of 2023.

Contenders were drawn from the winners of four categories. Links, as well as their very excellent acceptance speeches---more exhortations and manifestos, really!---found here:

Theory

Gameable

Advice

Review

+++

Anyway---you voted. Results were very close; I was constantly worried about a tie. Nevertheless, a winner emerged:

Congratulations are in order, and an acceptance speech follows.

+++

(Like an idiot, I didn't plan for, and therefore didn't have the time to make a bespoke prize for the overall Bloggie winner. So they'll just get a full quadtych of lino prints. Fortunately these don't look too bad together!)

PLATINUM BLOGGIE FOR BEST BLOG POST OF THE YEAR:

🔮Re-inventing the Wilderness: Part 1 - Introduction🔮 from SachaGoat

Sacha:

As an (award-winning) blogger who only started 6 months ago - I want to use this "acceptance speech" to share the 5 steps that will start your blog: 1. You don't need a cool blog name. screenname(dot)blogspot(dot)com is probably available - you can move it later if you think of a cool name. The trick here is to set it up so your ideas can go live as soon as you're happy (or tired of editing). 2. Post something. Dust off your notebook (or note-taking app) and turn those musings into a structured post with paragraphs and context. Don't have anything ready to go? Take your latest game session and write a play report or spotlight a specific moment. This will take less time than your ttrpg prep. 3. Share it! With your gaming group, ttrpg friends, community discords, xwitter/bluesky, reddit, forums etc. 4. Don't worry about the rest. I don't have a fancy blog template. I've yet to compile a sidebar or blogroll. I don't have a newsletter or patreon. 5. Continue. Your readers will contribute with comments. You will be shared in community newsletters. Peers will write posts inspired by your posts. Your ideas will be used at another gaming table. (And if you're lucky, you can win the next BLOGGIES.) If you've shared your prep with a fellow DM… if you've contributed opinions on a ttrpg discord or forum… if you've read a blog post and have a thought that builds on it… if you have any tabletop advice or ideas … 👏 Start 👏 a 👏 blog This finally brings me to the "thanks". Winning the 2023 BLOGGIES is such a wonderful welcome to this creative niche. Many thanks to the creators who encourage the community to blog (especially around June 2023, I can actually see the thread that motivated me to start). I also want to thank a community whose collective enthusiasm and support nudge me to release the next post. And finally, everyone who voted for my post over the amazing nominations this year - a huge thank you.

+++

On a personal note: I am really thrilled at this final result.

The BLOGGIES can come off as clique-ish. Voting is public, but "public" on the Internet generally means a circle-jerk between subculture friends, a popularity contest.

This thing began as a jokey riff on those best-tweet-of-the-year polls over on Twitter. While Prismatic Wastelands grew it into a celebration of OSR blogging culture, it still has NSR / POSR inclinations---the specific community soil it sprung from.

As host this year I tried to extend the BLOGGIES' reach. Canvassing for nominations outside the OSR space got a couple of indie-RPG designers on the finalists list. Am proud of that; we have much to learn from each other.

I made prizes---hoping that, one day, with enough dangling carrots, these awards will eventually be tasty enough for non-POSR cliques / communities to attempt a takeover? We'll see.

Ultimately: I am glad to water this sapling and watch it grow slowly. Community is made by growing trees, not building greenhouses.

+++

SachaGoat snagging the final win is a vindication.

Sacha's blog is new. We don't share any Discord servers. We've never spoken, hitherto; the first time I messaged him ever was to tell him he'd won the Advice category.

The BLOGGIES fulfils its purpose: to introduce folks to quality blogs; to preach the gospel and importance of blogging. Its shade is spreading.

I'm glad to get to know Sacha and his blog. (Obviously it's been added to my must-read list!) I am honoured to be passing the torch: Sacha has agreed to host BLOGGIES 2024.

Thank you, everybody. Here's to growing trees.

[menheramar]

Otogi No Uta Masterlist

This series has like 3 fans so I figured I'd make it easier for people to get into it. The story is told through a series of "movements," CD dramas, and a manga. It also has cute comics, posted on the official Mute Twitter. This list will focus on collecting sources for English speaking fans.

If you don't know anything about the series, you should start by reading this twitter thread by nemuruoogarasu! Feel free to look through the unofficial wiki as well, you can learn a little more about each band and character there. The series is mostly based on the bands and the characters, so pick your favorites :)

After that, listen to some of the songs. I have a playlist compiling them from the official channel here, and I have listed them below as well. There is no specific order you have to listen to them in. Be aware that some of the songs are not uploaded in their entirety, as some have to be purchased through the official drama CDs. The full mp3 files can accessed through amazon.jp.

Story

The story is a bit confusing to follow, and as of writing, not everything has been translated. I will be updating this as often as possible.

Basically, Otogi no Uta is about several bands fighting with special music powers in "Live Battles" against each other. This is in order to obtain "The End," a thing which can grant any wish. Those who posess music powers are called "Utaibito," which could roughly translate to "Melody User," "Musician," or "Music Person" in english (though I left it as is in the manga).

Comics

As of now, most of the comics are untranslated. They don't follow the main plot, and mainly consist of cute and silly interactions with the characters in their mute forms.

Some mute comics have been translated on the wiki, and most of them can be found on the official Mute Twitter. (I ran out of hyperlinks in this post but they are both linked above.) A few have also been translated by me and are at the end of each manga chapter.

There is also a series of short comics from the official website explaining some of the concepts in Otogi no Uta. I've translated them here.

Manga

The manga serves as a backstory for each band and character. You should probably get to know the characters a little through the wiki first so you are not completely lost. Each two chapters go over the backstory of how one of the bands formed and what their goal is and set the group dynamics and personalities.

Also to note, each chapter title corresponds to a song by that band! All chapters have been translated by me.

Ch 0 - Prologue (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 1 - Ensa no Roubitsu Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 2 - Ensa no Roubitsu Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 3 - HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 4 - HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 5 - Kazoe Uta Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 6 - Kazoe Uta Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 7 - Weltreise Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 8 - Weltreise Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 9 - Reine Seele Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 10 - Reine Seele Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 11 - Jyuroku Yaman Hana Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 12 - Jyuroku Yaman Hana Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 13 - Rinnegyo Kei Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 14 - Rinnegyo Kei Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 15 - LOUDBRAVE Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 16 - LOUDBRAVE Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 17 - Epilogue (tumblr) (mangadex)

Movements

There are 45 "movements" (and 2 overtures and 1 prelude), starting here. Make sure you don't miss the tabs on the top of the page to read all of them! I believe it goes over all the bands meeting up to participate in the live battles.

Songs + Drama Tracks

From my understanding, the drama tracks that aren't part of a "vs" CD go over mostly the same as the manga but more in depth.

Note: The wiki has auto translated lyrics for untranslated songs! A lot is still untranslated, but I'll do my best to gather everything here. If you find any links to translations, please send them my way, I'll be sure to add them!

Shuan no Gokumon - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Togabito no Shirabe - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Ensa no Roubitsu - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 01 Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 02

Hitoribōshi - Issun-Bōshi Komo Yūgi - Issun-Bōshi Kazoe Uta - Issun-Bōshi Issun-Bōshi DRAMA TRACK 01 Issun-Bōshi DRAMA TRACK 02

Blinzen Parade - Bremüsik Gutes Fest! - Bremüsik Weltreise - Bremüsik Bremüsik DRAMA TRACK 01 Bremüsik DRAMA TRACK 02

Rosen Melodie - BLASSKAIZ Ritus - BLASSKAIZ Reine Seele - BLASSKAIZ BLASSKAIZ DRAMA TRACK 01 BLASSKAIZ DRAMA TRACK 02

HaPpY uNBirThDAy♠ - AlicexToxic (translated lyrics) HaVE A NicE tRIP♧ - AlicexToxic HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ - AlicexToxic Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 01 Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 02

Liberty - Momotroop Imperfect - Momotroop LOUDBRAVE - Momotroop Momotroop DRAMA TRACK 01 Momotroop DRAMA TRACK 02

Note: I will be shortening "Mushoku no Sora to Warau Ito" to "MSWI" Ochiyuku Hasu No Hanabira Rinne Wo Mitsumete - MSWI Nehan Jakujo - MSWI Rinnegyo Kei - MSWI MSWI DRAMA TRACK 01 MSWI DRAMA TRACK 02

Jyuroku Yaman Hana - Kashin no Okina SPECIAL VOICE DRAMA

Fantasie Nacht - Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club Kaimei no Doukoku - Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 01 (translation) Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 02

Hitorigoto - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Keep on… - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Rinne no Kubiki - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 01 Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 02 Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 03

Möbius - BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic ♢WoNdeR PaRTy♦ - BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 01 BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 02

Oshimai wo Kono Te Ni - all (translated lyrics) Medorē (DJ Remix) feat. Issun-Bōshi - connected the songs of 7 units from the 1st series by Issun-Bōshi Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS - DRAMA TRACK 01 Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS -DRAMA TRACK 02 Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS -DRAMA TRACK 03

[cordcorvid]

hi! i hope this doesnt come off as a bother or anything . but do you have any mask making tips or tutorials you could reccomend ?? (like for materials, jaw movement, and how to see out of there) im planning to do a raven named Goose :D

ive been finding some resources here and there, but i thought it wouldnt hurt to ask !!!

Absolutely not! I'd love to answer all your questions. :D I have not looked at that many tutorials, I mostly looked at pinterest pictures of raven costumes to see what I can come up with. One that really inspired me to get things going is actually another Tumblr user I found on there who has posted some helpful tips that I followed along with! They too have a raven costume and they got their resin base from the same manufacturer (Crystumes, they have a website where you can shop for their blanks) Since this post is awfully long, I'll do a read more from here on:

The tutorials I followed the most is this one by Rah-Bop:

Rah-Bop has some tips about adding feathers, making foam-feathers, adding claws to your gloves, making gloves or feet. In terms of material: I used the hinged resin base by Crystumes which by itself cost me +/- 200USD, they sent me a pair of customizeable glass eyes and a tongue.

Crystumes has some additional tutorials specifically regarding their masks on their website! Crystumes also lists some of the materials on their website that I used and where to get them (Like the apoxie clay to do the eyelids, the glass eyes etc.) I did mess the eyes up though the first time I did it so I had to order them from delviesplastics.com (As suggested by Crystumes) Since I ordered the base with hinges I'm not sure how to do them myself but I will have to figure it out for the second fursuit I'm cooking! In terms of other material I bought some long rooster feathers and hair jewelry off of Etsy. I bought a pair of long faux leather gloves from Ricardo (which is a swiss second hand online shop) but you can buy the gloves anywhere else or even sew them yourself by tracing your arm and hand on a piece of paper, then trace the pattern twice on any somewhat stretchy material like faux leather or spandex and sew those two together for one glove each. I bought black fur in another Swiss textile / sewing shop named Alja (not sure if it's actually Swiss) since it's cheaper (around 60$ for 4 yards) than to ship fur from America to Switzerland (Which amounts to 100-200 for the same amount). But if you can afford it: Take a look at Howl's Fabrics or Big Z Fabric. Both websites offer samples! I personally don't buy from them as the shipping costs for me are devastating. I suggest looking at general "furring" tutorials or "how to fur a fursuit head" tutorials on youtube. Most of them will tell you to make a duct tape pattern on your base, draw on the patterns then cut those patterns out on fur, sew the fur together then glue to the base. Crystumes once made a twitter post about it as well I think but I'm not sure I'll find it. When cutting fur in general just make sure you keep the scissors as close to the backing as possible to avoid cutting any fur fibers in the process, it will be visible otherwise. I made a fur top / shirt by tracing one of my long sleeve t-shirts onto the fur I bought and went with that. For the back of the head I used an 80s Mullet/Rockstar wig I bought from another Swiss online store. Other fursuit makers mostly sew fur even to the back of the head but my personal Raven fursuit is literally just a mask with a wig to cover the back. Which in turn makes the whole mask less hot. To keep the mask ON my face and to keep it from slipping down I used the adjusteable part of a biking helmet or climbing helmet. and attached it to the mask by using a lot of hot glue, I eventually had to use some stronger glue as it kept falling off. Since the mask was fairly big when I bought it and rather uncomfortable I used thick felt sheets and glued them inside the head as padding material! Foam works as well, whatever floats your boat. I went with felt since I could easily cut some feather patterns into them as a nice easter egg. Not sure anymore what exactly I used to cover the holes by the beak that I see out of, but it was some kind of very fine dark and flexible grid that I bought from the swiss equivalent of home depot. In terms of being able to see: The crystume base has holes between the beak and the eyes that you can look out of or you can even look through the mouth, both works pretty well and the mask allows for a lot of visibility from within- Out of all my fellow furry friends I'm the only one that doesn't necessarily need a spotter since I can see pretty well. In terms of clothing I pretty much sewed nothing by myself and only assembled a bunch of my own outfits that would fit the raven costume. Sometimes I did buy some costume specific stuff from online clothing stores or went into the thrift shop to buy some costume specific clothing pieces. In general, for your first raven costume just go with the flow and try to keep it budget friendly, as your first will unlikely be perfect. And that's about it! Not sure if I missed something but I tried to cover everything as much in detail as I could. Hope it helps!

[wilanserulia]

Hi, I'm Wilan! I'm a freelancer artist from Italy, and I work with digital media. I specialize in illustration and character design. I'm also a FFXIV Gpose enthusiast, and I write fanfic for my OCs in my free time.

And well, in this blog you can find stuff I create, which is usually either about my TTRPG OCs or my FFXIV OCs.

• My art: #art • My gpose: #gpose

I'm mainly active on tumblr, but if you use other socials you can also follow me on: • Twitter • Instagram (art) • Instagram (gpose) • BlueSky If you just want to check out my art: • ArtStation • Cara • deviantART If you want to read my fanfics: • AO3 For anything else: • Linktree

More info about my OCs under the divider!

FFXIV

I've been playing FFXIV since its original launch in 2010. I'll happily tell details of the story of the two characters I play to anyone who will listen to me, through gposing, art and writing.

Wilan Serulia

Wilan hails from a small island off the coast of La Noscea. The fisherman's life, however, never appealed to him, his gaze ever pointed beyond the horizon, his traveler's heart aching to explore the world. Fate had other plans for the fledgling adventurer, however. Hydaelyn chose Wilan as her Champion, her Warrior of Light, and he's been slowly buckling under the growing weight of the many responsibilties placed on his shoulders.

Tag: #Wilan #Aldarulia (ship)

Delen Aldanea

Born in a Garlean-occupied Terncliff, Delen grew up under imperial dictatorship until Eorzea's champion killed Gaius van Baelsar in combat, when she managed to escape while the colonies under his command scrambled to re-establish order. After reaching the shores of Eorzea as a refugee, the Werlytian girl was taken in by the very same Warrior of Light who felled the Black Wolf, who gave her a place to stay. Free at last but still stuck in her traumas, in Limsa she would meet a friend who would slowly but surely help her move forward with her life and enjoy what her newfound freedom had to offer.

Tag: #Delen #Aldarulia (ship)

TTRPG

I've been playing TTRPG for, like, 15 years now. D&D 3.5, Pathfinder, DnD 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Fate RPG, and most recently Fabula Ultima. Over this decade and half I've created plenty of characters and, boy, I can't stop talking about them if you get me going. I have way too many OCs to list on a pinned post. I did however list them here. But I'll introduce a few more recent and prominent ones anyway.

Viria

Born from an affair between a desert elf and a human woman, the mixed-race child has been unwanted by her human family ever since she was born, her very presence an uncomfortable reminder of her mother's infidelity. She ran away from home in her teens, around the time she started to develop her magic powers from her elven bloodline, met a similarly outcast half-orc girl and turned to a life of delinquency for a while under the destructive influence of her companion. But in the end she came into her own thanks to her found family, who accepted her for who she was and taught her a better way to be herself, and she blossomed into a bright and cheerful young woman.

Tag: #Viria

Hoshiko

Living a cyberpunk world where lovecraftian mythos were revealed to be real, Hoshiko Yukimura is a brilliant student of the University of Prague, enrolled in the faculty of Arcane Studies. Her natural pre-disposition for controlling magic made her a candidate for an elite corp of soldiers called Vakyries, and under the many pressures of the academy, society and her own family, Hoshiko caved, put aside anything she could consider childish or immature and dedicated herself to the pursuit of her studies. That is, until a botched ritual called an unknown creature into this world. The entity, inhabiting the cat-like construct intended to serve as a familiar, luckily seems to be benovelt toward Hoshiko, grants her a mysterious power, and is bringing chaos into the orderly girl's life, somehow pushing her toward healthier life choises in the process.

Tag: #Hoshiko Yukimura

Nora

A woman from one of the many nomad tribes of Numeria, the robot-infested wasteland of Golarion. Nora's unique appearance, a tiefling resembling a Balor, with goat horns, red skins, and two leathery wings sprouting from her lower back, is the result of having being conceived in the neighbouring land of Sarkoris under the corrupting influence of the Worldwound, the colossal planar rift connecting the material world and the Abyss, plane of the Demons. Nevertheless, being but one freak among many, Nora became a formidable warrior and a capable mercenary. It was during a job for the Crusade where she witnessed (and barely survived) the might of the Storm King Khorramzadeh, lord among balors and master of electricity. The encounter awakened something in Nora, that once channeled manifested a whip of lightning and command over lightning, earning her the title of Daughter of the Storm.

Tag: #Nora

[saintsugu]

ive taken the past few days to gather my mental bearings and try to properly formulate my thoughts. as a survivor of csa, i do not take these topics and criminal allegations lightly.

- starting with the two (2) threads that i wrote on twitter: writing has always been a form of therapy for me. I began writing on Twt, rather than just post on this blog, for a reason. It was separate from the the friends i’ve made on here. I’d be able to write things that about trauma that i’m too ashamed to admit. I could discuss topics that have been prevailing factors in my own real life without feeling worried about being shamed. I get that these are taboo topics (and for good reason), but I don’t know where the conclusion formed that just because i was discussing / consuming these topics through fiction, automatically meant that i was getting off on the idea of it happening in real life; especially compared to the possibility that maybe i was using it to cope.

Everybody has lines they’re not willing to cross. I get it; I have those too, believe it or not. for me— as a survivor, discussion of underaged content falls into the same category alongside of noncon, stepcest/incest and cannablism. None of which i support in real life yet all of which i have at some point consumed via fiction. Now obviously, these standards aren’t the same for everyone, but in my mind there is no difference. I would never accuse someone of being a r*pist if they wrote noncon. I would never claim that it’s dangerous for them to interact with women in their real lives.

People deal with trauma in different ways. When I first started to write dark content on my old blog, i dipped my feet into dubcon. I didn’t care much for it. But then in the months following, i was SA’ed by my best friend. I then began to write graphic noncon. And i felt a bit better— a bit more in control. I was now choosing when and where i was viewing and consuming fiction with these topics, rather than when i had something i did not want forced onto me.

It’s taken me a long time to begin to process certain things that took place in my childhood. Having to process something, that happened more than a decade ago, entirely alone with zero support from anyone i know is difficult. I found a way to help myself cope. My methods may have been unsavory and uncomfortable for people, but not to the extent of graphically telling me how to k*ll myself in my inbox. Yes, I did write and consume underaged fiction in order to cope with my personal trauma. I fully own up to that. At the end of the day, fiction is just fiction.

Concerning the ‘expose’ post, the OP also claims that this was not to start a witchhunt, just to shed light to the situation; all the while, they were in my inbox telling me to kill myself before even making a post. Alright. People have had no issues calling me the f slur, making transphobic remarks/purposely misgendering me, and of course, graphically telling me how i should end my life. They’ve sent hundreds of asks claiming they care about the situation, when in my opinion—which might not mean much, no matter how you feel about me, if you resort to threatening, hate mobbing and threatening me irl, you are not handling things in the right way either.

In regards to the minor in my following list, i don’t know who she was or if her pinned post had changed. when i read the expose post i immediately unfollowed her and checked to be met with the fact that she didn’t follow me and we had shared a total of zero messages between the two of us. I am unsure if her pinned post changed or if I had foolishly followed her without checking to a full extent. Either way, we had no interactions. That might sound like a copout but unfortunately, i have no other commentary i can share on the matter.

at the end of it all, i can only control my own boundaries. i tag everything accordingly and that is the most i can do. drawing and fictional pieces cannot be considered cp.

[recurring-polynya]

Hey! I hope this is alright to ask, but do you have a specific poet whose works you associate with RenRuki?

Boy, did you send this ask to the wrong person.

I am not a poetry person.

I mean, nothing against poetry, I am very happy for the poetry-enjoyers, there's a lot of good poetry in this world, but I can read at most 3 or 4 lines of poetry before my brain just shuts off. I have a good friend who is very into poetry and reads a lot of it, and I have tried, it's just not interesting to me. I know it cannot possibly be related to my auditory processing disorder, but it's roughly the same experience as listening to an audiobook or podcase-- of being aware that information is being directed at me, but being completely unable to ingest it without deliberately focusing on it in a way that is both taxing and deeply unpleasant.

Furthermore, the handful of poems that do stick with me to any degree are...not...topical. I sat down and tried to think about Poems That I Can Name, and came up with the following list:

Two Corbies (a medieval Scottish poem about crows eating a knight's corpse)

Dulce et Decorum Est, by Wilfred Owen, a WWI poem I read in high school about watching someone die by inhaling chlorine gas

Ozymandias, by Mary Shelley's husband. In my head, I thought this was a very long poem, like on the order of Rime of the Ancient Mariner, and it's 14 lines long.

Pachycephalosaurus, by Richard Armour, which I know by heart and will recite at the least provocation, much to the chagrin of my spouse and children.

That William Carlos Williams poem about plums, but only because it's a Twitter meme.

I mean, I will read a poem if someone posts one to Twitter or Tumblr, usually by either Mary Oliver or Richard Siken, and I will often say "yes, that was a nice poem," but and if pressed, I could probably name as many as ten poets, but please don't ask me to "associate their work" with anything.

The closest thing I have to a poem that I associate with Rukia, is actually from an Oh Hellos song that feels like a poem to me, which is:

But Death, she is cunning and clever as hell And she'll eat you alive

I do like many of the Bleach volume poems, but one of their major selling points is that they are short.

I am sure someone is reading this post who has read my fanfiction and saying, Polynya, if you hate poetry, why does it come up in your stories so much? Are you a fraud???

a) of all, yes, of course, always. I don't know jack about doing make-up or hand-to-hand combat, and I write about those things at great length, also.

b) A major theme I like to explore in my writing is the various ways people communicate with one another and how some are more effective than others and that some communicate things that were not, in fact, intended to be communicated.

At some level, I think Renji wishes he were the sort of guy who could express his feelings for Rukia through a romantic poem, but he also feels, deeply, that he is not, and that he is so far from being such a person that it's embarrassing for him to even try. (I love to imply, from time to time, that Renji considers Izuru to be peak boyfriend material and that he's a big nothingburger in comparison, this is very charming to me). Once every hundred thousand words or so that I write, I will give him (1) charming poetic thought, isolated from any actual poetry, which serves to help him process his own emotions and are not for anyone else.

On the other hand, I don't think Rukia wants poems written for or about her! I think that (like me), the idea of someone writing a love poem for her would make her want to claw her own skin off. Poetry is so deliberate. It is wrapping a message in an extra layer of intention, like gift wrap. To many people, this is very romantic, for example, I love the idea that Byakuya and Hisana exchanged poetry, both that they wrote themselves and or that they found in books that they curated for one another. I think Rukia prefers to be regarded at some subconscious level. Poetry is too direct, too raw. A proper love poem to Rukia is in the ringing of swords when fighting back-to-back, it's in a stride shortened to keep pace, it's in an a cabinet full of spicy pickles that the owner can't eat himself.

[strawberryrat]

I don’t normally do long posts about my interests on here but with the mtg 30th anniversary announcements that happened today I was trying to check them on twitter and saw that they for some reason decided to not put the announcements in a thread but by responding to one post multiple times.  This was really confusing to sus out the full timeline chronologically for me and my friends so I watched the actual video on youtube after it was uploaded and made a post organizing it all in order on discord and thought I’d put it here as well.  As well as speculate and ramble on things I found of interest, especially on the vorthos side of things.  All the stuff in order and thoughts about them under the read more:

2023 - The next set, Wilds of Eldraine, will start the next major story arc which will span the next three years of magic and be split into three smaller one year arcs starting with the “omen paths.”

Jurassic Park cards are coming to collector and set boosters of Lost caverns of Ixalan.  At least a thematic crossover, neat.

Khans of Tarkir, the entire original draft set, is coming to Arena!  That means fetch lands will be on Arena finally which is wild, plus a lot of nostalgic cards for me since khans block is when I started playing standard instead of just random tabletop jank with friends.  The rest of the block won’t be on there but still kind of excited.

2024 - Ravnica Remastered and Ravnica Clue were both unexpected, interesting sounding at least.  Dominaria remastered was a really fun set to draft and unlike time spiral it’s actually affordable and still around to be played.  Hopefully RR follows suit.  Ravnica Clue will also be typing into the first set proper of the year Murders of Karlov Manor, which also means it’s the first time in this post I can rant about Vorthos stuff!

First thing of note, no Teysa in any of the art revealed so far which is concerning, hope she’s not dead!  Second, we’ll be seeing a Ravnica set without a guild focus, which after March makes some sense as large chunks of the under city were upheaved to the surface, the golgari guild might be... just straight up dead?  And all the other guilds are recovering from what happened. The line up of characters on the above splash are are interesting though as we (going from left to right) seem to have a new character in the form of an Izzet Viashino; Aurelia, leader of the Boros; the totally inconspicuous Massacre Girl; and in center a new character who seems to be a detective using what appears to be Dimir memory magic, I knew the Boros and Azorious had detectives and while it makes sense to see one in Dimir, I believe this is the first time we’ve seen one under Dimir employ, at least based on the magic; next to him is Judith, a high ranking Rakdos performer; and finally the gobbo, the myth, the legend Krenko!

After that is going to be a set of Fallout franchise commander decks themed after the various in universe factions which joins the list of crossovers I was not expecting.

Then the next one I have a fair bit to say about, Outlaws of Thunder Junction.

Old Rutstein from innistrad has apparently crossed some Omen paths in this Wild West inspired set to put up shop.  Not the legend I was expecting but I’m a sucker for Innistrad rep!  The real big hitters come from the next image though:

In a line-up I never would have expected we have some ambiguous and not so ambiguous silhouettes, going from left to right again we have (heavy speculation) a large tinybones the trinket thief; more speculation, a gorgon who I dearly hope is the return of Vraska and if we’re very blessed, Jace next to her, but nothing about that person’s silhouette screams any character we know of so I’ll keep my hopes in check (but damn do I want them to return rootin and tootin if they aren’t going to be coming back on Ixalan);  front and center is Oko, returning in the last set I would’ve expected and even getting the extra splash art over the gang; next to him is a new character with some claw weapons I’ll have the image of below this rant; and finally TINY RAKDOS? No idea what he’s doing outside of Ravnica but that’s unmistakably him.

The new character looks cool, and they said they did cultural consulting to avoid negative or offensive representation in the set so time will tell how well they choose to represent a fantasy version of a very dark time in history.

After that during the summer we’ll get Modern Horizons 3 which will have double faced cards.  Nothing too much to say about it other than hopefully they reprint the other fetches and there’s a lady in some of the promotional art with hydra imagery that looks familiar but I can’t quite place.  I want to say it’s something relating to progenitus though?

There’s going to be an Assassin’s Creed set of cards that, from how they described it, will be sold in what sounds like reskinned theme boosters for all the different games and times those games cover, which will be a new approach for universes beyond stuff.  Also it will be modern legal.

Bloomburrow comes next and I adore the aesthetic!  I read a lot of Rewall in my teens, I’ve been reading some of the mouse guard graphic novels when I get a chance to pick one of the books up recently.  Woodland animal people is my jam.  There’s a squirrel necromancer in some of the promotional art and a confirmed return of raccoons in black border!  It will also feature the start of the second year long mini arc of the upcoming larger narrative, “dragon storm.”

And to wrap the year up of paper releases will be a new horror inspired plane, (also my jam) called Duskmorne.

Wrapping things up in general for the year is Pioneer masters on arena, which they’ve said will catch explorer up to all the major cards in pioneer needed to match paper tournament decklists, etc.  Also they’ll be working towards bringing fnm and other lgs events into giving bonuses on Arena, such as experience, when you attend them which is something that’s good to see finally.

2025 - Starts with Innistrad remastered, I’m basic, I like Innistrad, I hope this set slaps but as with this and everything to come we don’t have much more info than a loose idea of what it will be themed after and a name/ code name.

First real set is “tennis” which is going to be a multiplaner death race spanning three different planes.  Which is honestly not a concept I ever would’ve expected but the part that get my brain whirring is the fact that the three planes it will take place on will be planes we’ve already seen before, two that have had full standard sets but no returns before, and one which has been featured on cards but never given a set before.  Speculating on what those could be is wild because the sets without returns could be anything from newer planes like Amonkhet to Capenna, to older planes like Ulgrotha or Mercadia.  The third plane though has a lot of fun possibility, they could troll us with finally showing more of Vrynn, it could have Regatha, Shandalar, Segovia, or some other niche random plane.  My most out there bet though is based on one of the concept arts for the dragsters having a spirit and skull motif possibly being Ulgrotha based, anything past that, sky’s the limit.

Afterwards is “ultimate frisbee” and we’re finally returning to Tarkir!  They stated they’ll be looking to join the best of what people loved about khans and dragons and since dragons of tarkir was a major part of what made me take up the game, I’m excited.

Then is the big summer set for Final Fantasy.  They said it will be a tent-pole set like lotr was this year which means a full draft set, it will also be coming to arena, plus presumably commander decks etc., and they’ll be making cards covering all the mainline numbered final fantasy titles. (so no crystal chronicles rep 😔)   To be honest I’m really surprised they’re going to try and cover that much in a single set with a couple supplementals.  But the thing that was most exciting to me about the announcement was that the arena lead stated that following what they saw with lotr, they expect it to bring in a lot of new players and want to create things on arena that better suit newer players playstyles, since 1v1 competitive is seen to be off putting for a lot newcomers.  So they are hoping to implement content either around the time the set comes out or in the year following with some amount of single player content, achievements, and if possible multiplayer modes, which has been asked for for so long at this point and said it wasn’t in the cards, I hope they can deliver on it.

After that starts the final miniarc and beginning of the end of the next major arc with “Volleyball,” a space opera inspired plane, the concept art seems interesting, no idea what to expect overall.

Next is “wrestling” which will be the return to Lorwyn/Shadowmoor.  Honestly so glad to hear there will be a return, the vibes and aesthetic of the original block is sublime, I adore it.  Going to be interesting to see how they cram so many sets worth of ideas and identities into a single set but they also stated they’ll be taking the kamigawa approach so who knows how much they’ll keep themselves beholden to.

2026 - The two last sets they announced are in vision design, there’s nothing they could show or talk much of outside of basic “here’s the idea.”

First is “Yachting” which will be a return to Strixhaven/ Arcavios, I can only hope with less complexity creep than the first time. And finally “Ziplining” which will be the finale set for the big arc ala War of the Spark or March of the Machine.

Thanks to anyone who decided to read through all this, hope it helped if you didn’t have time for the full vid or didn’t want to piece stuff together on their twitter page.  If there was anything that I missed that seems important, or lore stuff any of you all would like to talk about, I’d love to hear it!  I keep up with the lore more than I play nowadays and while the product fatigue is real, I do enjoy the speculation from some story stuff in at least the near future of sets.

[detroitbecomeonline]

DBH MODDING (6) - TOOL PROBLEM SOLVING

Hello everyone and

Dear Diary

Here is another mod diary entry because I don't know how to stop myself. It's 29/01/2023 and I took a little break from modding since my brain was about to snap in half like a crab leg. In case you missed it, here is my last entry. To see all my entries, go here.

I was working a lot on my DBH fan comic (Zeno) and I ran into a few modding problems along the way, which resulted in me putting off my learning progress. (It also delayed the release of the next part of Zeno, but I digress.)

In the latest block for Zeno, I have introduced Connor's new look as seen below. (These are some bonus shots, so enjoy hehe, please don't save and post this elsewhere, it's a treat just for you:)

If you would like to edit your own designs for Connor, you can get up to all sorts of things. Keep reading to see my first tie edit. :)

I started with editing Connor's tie, and this was my first test:

I gave him stars... Because he's a star. <3 I won't go into how to edit Connor's suit, because it's actually all the same stuff as what I talked about in my last entry.

Here's how to make shapes on GIMP.

The following text-based information was provided by Jamie in order to help me out of the crashing pit I threw myself into. Thank you SO much.

I was having trouble with my Tool that kept bugging out and crashing. I LEARNED THAT I HAD TO GO INTO THE GAME FILES AND DELETE THE .MODS FILE EVERY TIME. I can't believe this LMAOOO

However, if you run into any problems like your game crashing when you try to load it up (that isn't helped by deleting the .mods file), it's most likely because you have extracted a QD file, made it into a DDS, imported it, but not edited any other QD files that it's attached to.

There's a byte in every container for each texture entry that tells the game whether or not it's going to be QD format or DDS. Aaron's Detroit Tool always adds textures in DDS format and gets around that by changing the byte in the container to tell the game to read it as DDS instead of QD. Therefore, the container is successfully loaded because that specific byte in the container has been updated. However, if you go to load another container that tries to access that texture, that byte is unmodified, so it goes to read the (now DDS) texture file as if it were still a QD file and that results in a crash.

If you mod any QD texture in a container, you must also mod those textures in other containers that share that same texture. Attempting to load a container that shares the same texture that hasn't been modified will crash the game.

After my time in the modding community, I've learned a few of the big names and leading modders, so here is a list of who I have found.

LeonX - Basically the Kamski of the modding community who got everyone started - YouTube

Otis_Inf - The free cam legend - Twitter - Patreon

Speclizer - The first map swaps - YouTube

dragonbane0 - The King himself, basically Markus - YouTube - Twitter

aaron1a12 - He made the texture Tool - Twitter

vrtuellereality - Basically rA9 because everyone's seen her work but where the hell is she? - At least used to have Twitter and Instagram? Very popular accreditation on Pinterest/Instagram

Reicito - As seen in the model swapper credits

Kayla1507 (@kayla1507) - Tumblr - YouTube

Jamie (jamsied, @jamdbh) - My biggest help - Tumblr - YouTube - Twitter

Ami (@connorinabeanie) - Tumblr

I hope your modding adventures are going well! Next on my agenda is SWAT Connor, which you all know I'm absolutely feral to do.

~ Trinity

[lemonhemlock]

Oh no, I feel like sometimes I am not explaining myself in your ask! I’m sorry. I don’t mean that Alysmond shippers will hate her as a character, I think many people across the board are excited to see what they do with her because there are lots of possibilities. I meant more that a subset of the people who currently call themselves Alys stans, yet don’t engage with her character beyond explaining why Alysmond is the correct ship and anything else is unholy, will be complaining about her being “ruined” no matter what happens. But you are definitely right, even if she is painted very differently from the tame, sweet peasant girl vibe, as many people will also claim they love her and always wanted this story for her.

it's no problem, friend, you don't need to apologise. 🤗 i feel like we're trying to say similar things here - in my reply i meant that the evolution of this ship within fandom has been driven not so much by the character of alys as she appears in FB and TWOIAF but by this latest internet phenomenon of morality policing

alys rivers has never been a staple within the asoiaf community or a fan favourite - and that's absolutely fine & normal, as she is an episodic character in a background historical plot that's only tangentially relevant to the main series - it's more thematically-relevant, that is. sure, there were a few people who liked her after reading FB, but she only became A Thing and gained stans after the end of HOTD when fans of aemond went online and found out he has a canonical love interest.

so, because a lot of these people were mainly anti-helaemonds, they latched onto her for dear life as an instrument to bully and harass degenerate incest shippers or what-have-you. there are definitely shippers for whom alys could have had absolutely any personality and they still would have liked this pairing. if aemond had canonically become involved with any other girl from any other noble house or social class, they still would have acted in the same way.

because it's not the fictional character that needs defending from evil cheating enthusiasts. no one is making them be so nasty to other fans other than their own hang-ups and insecurities that they project in order to feel better about themselves

Anonymous asked: I think what confuses me about the reaction to a ship like helaemond is that noncanon ships have always existed in ASOIAF. They’re everywhere! So many characters, and usually someone has thought about them fucking at some point. So the singular anger towards this one ship is baffling to me. Is it just because they have canon partners? Is it because of the incest specifically (yk, in the incest family?) The cheating aspect? I don’t know. It’s a mystery for the ages. This one singular ship with a relatively small following keeps some people up at night. Sorry to send you yet another ship ask, thank you for taking the time to answer everyone 🤗 I love to read your thoughts and analysis, we are grateful you share!

perhaps it's a combination of all those things, but then again aegond doesn't seem to garner the same caustic reaction. i don't know if it's because it's a smaller ship but i have seen people admit that a reason they don't like helaemond is because they're afraid it has a fair shot of becoming canon.

which i find, again, ludicrous, bc 1) if the writers have that on their bullet list of objectives, acting like a miserable person online isn't going to influence that in any way. 2) if the writers were swayed by the popularity of one ship, then helaemond should have breached containment by now and taken a hold of the collective consciousness. and if the general public loved it to such a significant level, there's not a damn thing a handful of antis on the internet could do about it. 3) as it stands, it has a niche following. the normies have long moved on because they lead regular lives and don't talk about the same fixation daily. the idea that ryan condal is scouring twitter and tumblr to see what his fave helaemond blogs are writing (ergo it's the antis' job to silence them via ostracisation) is, again, goofy.

and now for some old related asks under the cut

[🎵 i'm sorry mama i never meant to make you cry but tonight i'm cleaning out my closet 🎵]

Anonymous asked: "I'm not an anti" either but the statement that Alys, who also gets a cloudy handful of lines in a shoddy confusing storyline that grrm wrote for his least favorite character is a "very important" character seems just a tad biased to me. You can love her and want more for her story in the show and see her role expanded (I know I do!) but to act like grrm himself wrote her as anything other than a plot device for aemond's "downfall" arc seems a bit silly. I wish she was a fully-fledged character too! Alas, her and Helaena are both not. And both hold similar levels of non-significance to the bigger picture. Hopefully we'll see the show change that.

I’m putting this old ask first up, because it’s sort of related to the one I answered above already. 

Anonymous asked: JUST LOOK I'm interested in something that not many people think about in the fandom, BUT since you started talking about possible scenes with Daemon and Alys, I REALLY want to know how she will interact with Criston hahaha Given how he is shown in the series (don't say incel, don't say that), because again, according to rumors, he felt something for her (yes, Mushroom did his job). And the fact that, for example, in Alicent he can see some kind of saint / immaculate woman / martyr, what will happen when he directly starts interacting with Alys? (no, I'm not talking about sex, but such a light flirtation, maybe?) I'm rather curious if he's going to have some sort of internal struggle to give in to temptation or not? (gods help him) And just when Criston finds out about Alys's relationship with Aemond, knowing what he experienced in a brothel at age 13 and knowing that he is engaged to Baratheon's daughter... OH BOYYY I'm just imagining a similar scene like with Sansa where she heard Lisa and Littlefinger having sex...help

Criston/Alys could honestly go in many different ways. We know from Criston’s own mouth that he engaged in a fair share of dalliances before becoming a Kingsguard, so he would know how to charm the ladies. There’s also the implications of what being forcefully celibate for such a long time would do to you – forcefully in the sense that he is obliged to abide by it becaue he wanted to be a Kingsguard first and foremost for the prestige of the position, not in the sense that he willingly wanted to give up sex. It’s fair to say that he could have easily found himself a girlfriend if celibacy weren’t a requirement for his job. So, in that sense, there could be some tension going on there if Alys starts flirting with him, just like there was with Rhaenyra. As to whether or not he gives into it, well, the books tell us he does not, but that could very well just mean that no one found out if he did. He did break his vows before with Rhaenyra. Basically, I think you could make a compelling argument for both; the writers can go with either option here.

But I don’t think he’d be very happy if Aemond were to flaunt his relationship with Alys when it jeopardizes their political and military alliance with the Baratheons, so I expect there to be tension in that regard.

Anonymous asked: I don’t know how many helaemond shippers said they did not want Alys in the show, but I find it funny that this is the ship always being accused of things over and over. It’s the same people who said helaemond fans would harass Alys’s actress, and here we are; it is the self proclaimed aemond wives making videos about how wrong Gayle Rankin is for the part. I can’t even call them alysmond shippers of course because I don’t think they care about her as a character at all. I know you have covered your own issues with casting and it’s not a one size fits all, everyone will have opinions. But when the entire video and post and tweets are about how she doesn’t look like Alys, how it should have been JBF or Eva Green or whoever, it feels redundant. I’m not surprised it’s the hardcore Aemond girlies who are coming after her, but it’s frustrating to still see this stuff blamed on people who enjoy a random crackship 🙄

Anonymous asked: The thing about all these Alys actresses, fancasts or otherwise, is that not even Emily or Katie McGrath (who seems to be the most popular fancast for her) for example would've looked old and mature enough next to Ewan (in the sense that there could've been an obvious difference regarding their characters' age based on appearance alone). He himself doesn't look like a 18 years old teenager but people tend to mainly complain about the women instead which is not very fair. I mean, if they'd wanted to highlight Alys' age in the show then they would've needed to go for a 45+ years old actress, someone who could actually look old enough to be his mother, aunt, etc. if you get what I mean. But most late 30s-early 40s years old actresses already look very youthful (younger than a medieval 40 years old) and this alone makes most of the complaints void as there wouldn't be much of a difference between them and Ewan/Aemond in order for the general audience to notice and say "ooooh the age gap is too big, that's a problem". However most of the ridiculous complaints about Gayle are simply based on her not having a conventional type of beauty like the actresses mentioned above and like most of the fan arts that have been depicting Alys as (classically beautiful face like a supermodel, big breasts, fancy dresses that a lowborn wouldn't wear or have access to and so on) making it harder for the Aemondwives and Ewanwives to self-insert into her. They've created a totally different character their minds and when the reality contradicts them, they lash out. Next time they will complain about her characterization in the show being different because it will be different than the fanon one they've been creating (and sadly a lot of antis who are team green have been contributing to this misunderstandings thanks to the ship wars they've been engaging in, pretending Alys is this or that when there's no confirmation in the text just to make their ship look better).

It's true that most late 30s – mid 40s actresses tend to look better than the average woman of the same age anyway because of beauty treatments and the like, but they face ageism in the film industry even so. Which is why casting an older actress still translates into a 45+ woman getting airtime in one of the most viewed shows, getting exposure in front of the general public, where previously maybe she found it challenging to get jobs. Especially as a romantic interest.

Now I know the public and TV executives are allergic to seeing older women in that kind of storyline, so the chances of that happening were slim, but, at the same time, I would like to point out the existence and popularity of ROMANGERRI on the same network, on air in the same year and on a well-to-do, expensive, critically acclaimed show, no less (J. Smith-Cameron is 65, btw). So it IS possible. Sometimes you have to educate your own public, not just give into demands all the time.

Anyway, I want to touch on an additional point, because I remember people in my inbox trying to convince me that Gayle looks older than her years anyway so it’s fitting she was cast (she doesn’t look old at all, she looks absolutely normal). I don’t know, either these commentators are very young and, thus, kind of divorced from what a 30-year-old looks like or people have lost touch with how regular people look like and they expect everyone to be airbrushed or something.

Anonymous asked: I never thought I'd be obsessed with prophecy in HOTD and etc, but I'm very interested in it in the series and how the writers will develop it further. I love digging into these kinds of puzzles. And very excited about what else Helaena will predict. And Alys too! Because the series shows the importance of prophecies, for example, like the same Viserys and Rhaenyra, who believe, or vice versa, Daemon, who denies it. Most likely I'm the only one, but I would really like to see some parallels between Helaena and Alys in terms of their abilities. Because in F&B, only Alys was featured as a "magic figure" with the ability to foresee. And since we now have two such figures, I would like to think that this was done for a reason. For example: we know that when Helaena speaks a prophecy, it literally comes true in the next episode, but no one believes her words and ignores her. Also, I think that it is Helaena who may predict that Aemond will die (which of course may not be true). Will it also be with Alys? In the Deadline article, she is only designated as a "healer" so far (while all her magical abilities seem to have been only rumored) I'm wondering what powers they will give her, will there be the ability to see visions? Will she also speak in riddles like Helaena or will the predictions be more clear? Will they believe her, unlike Helaena? Because I keep thinking about that moment where Alys saw WHERE Daemon but she didn't see Aemond's death and it's quite intriguing because she really didn't see EVERYTHING or there was some intent... So many questions, so few answers. All in all, I'm looking forward to how they'll tackle the subject of prophecy in 2s.

Not much to add here, it’ll be interesting to see the type of magic they decide to use with Alys. It has to be a balance between real ability but not something that makes her overpowered, otherwise they’ll only end up creating plot holes if they turn her into Dr. Manhattan. The decision to also give Helaena prophetic visions when there already was a character that could have fulfilled that niche is not something that we know how to explain with certainty before the show ends. We don’t know what their plans were or still are with Helaena and how her powers are going to interact with the plot – whether she’s just meant to be a tragic Cassandra figure or more.

A tangent about Helaena and her being a dragon dreamer here:

Anonymous asked: re: other anon: I think people overestimate Helaemond as a ship. i’m sure you’re right and at some point, someone suggested that alys might not be in the show. but i doubt it was indicative of many shippers, as that’s a large leap to take and wouldn’t make much sense story wise. i know some helaemond fans are very vocal about it, but the fandom itself is quite small. there were some gen audience fans who latched onto the idea back in the fall, but they’re long gone now. Compared even to other ships in this fandom, it’s teeny tiny. ofc we are all welcome to like and dislike whatever characters and ships we choose, but i think it’s hard to pass a judgement on a minor character who gets very little time. saying helaena does not care for her kids or her family, that she would not try to help them? as you pointed out, she doesn’t seem to understand her dreams for what they are. this could be explored in the future, or it could be left as is. who knows what they’ll choose for her.

Anonymous asked: I know you're tired of all of these but I would like to address that last anon basically implying that Helaena should just be a victim and not have a bigger role. These people do not like her at all to wish that. The show has her as the first dreamer on screen, do they think that would not be explored at all? And so what if she does take over that arc from a certain character? Are they also going to complain that Helaena, a character who by all means should rightfully have an arc and not just be fridged after a tragedy, be explored in this matter? If she is paired with Aemond, it brings her into the centre of the story. So if they really like Helaena, why do they want to see less of her? They also keep on bringing up the book when it is barebones and the accounts are hearsay. Helaena could arguably not be the beloved by smallfolk figure they think, not with how the maesters' accounts are biased. I'll never understand people complaining about Helaena's character in the show, but completely ignore the other characters being whitewashed. Sometimes I feel like these people just want Helaena to be a victim because they have to use her tragedy as a sympathy card and argument for team wars. We all know how these people react when god forbid a woman shows agency, is flawed, and has motivations.

Anonymous asked: That ask you got saying that anon can't respect and empathize with Helaena because she won't do anything to save her family despite having visions of the future reminds me of this one person from team black saying that Helaemond can't be a thing, especially on Helaena's part, because if she had truly cared about Aemond she would've told him he was going to lose an eye, so how can shippers claim she cares about him when she let that happen? It was such an insane thing to say lmao, you can't even say anything against it because it's so ridiculous. I swear this ship gets the most insane comments against it, it's sad but also funny at this point. And also the comments regarding Helaena herself keep getting more and more deranged.

The thing to keep in mind is that she is not portrayed as a prophet in the books. Nor does anyone suggest that she was via hearsay or rumours mentioned by the maesters. That was a clear addition from the writers’ side. Whether it’s clumsy or well-executed – we have to wait and see because we just don’t have enough information yet. It has to be done in some way that doesn’t modify the plot too much because a lot of things are set in stone – so to complain that she is an ineffectual prophet or that she’s useless because she doesn’t /save/ anyone… she literally CAN’T save them because the authors won’t allow it. Now I have to ask: why are people directing their ire at a fictional female character though, instead of criticising the quality of the writing? If someone doesn’t believe this is a productive writing choice or a believable adaptation change, then say so, instead of wording this complaint in a misogynistic way and using it as a vehicle to irritate her fans.

Of course, Helaena is not a real person, so her feelings will not be hurt by people excoriating her, but it’s telling how some fans are incapable of mounting a meta-textual critique, and so easily confuse the Doylist and Watsonian perspectives of analysis: Helaena doesn’t save Aemond or her children even though she has prophetic visions => she must be a bad, unfeeling, selfish person, those are her character traits (Watsonian) vs Helaena can’t save anyone because the plot points and endings are set in stone (Doylist). I’m highlighting this point because there are fans like this who will literally go to war and fight in the trenches, making fandom spaces inhospitable, because they are 100% convinced they are the depositaries of the one true text interpretation, when their own critical thinking skills are fundamentally lacking.

Anonymous asked: Hi, love your blog, especially your analysis of HotD characters. I wanted to ask your opinion about one aspect of Aemond's (and by extension, Alicent's) character that some people in the fandom love to bring up. They claim that he is a character deprived of love and that his "mommy issues" are the main reason he falls for someone like Alys. Some of them even believe that he actually has romantic feelings for his mother and that's why he chooses an older woman with a similar name??? to be his lover. And after Gayle Rankin's casting some people on Tumblr were saying that she was cast thanks to her physical resemblance to Olivia Cooke (I don't see it at all) which, according to them, was intentional because of the reason above. Personally, I disagree. First of all, Aemond's relationship with Alicent is probably the only somewhat healthy relationship in his life. Alicent is not a perfect mother, far from it, but she obviously loves and cares for him (the Driftmark incident being the strongest example and Aemond himself acknowledges this in Storm's End). Therefore, it's definitely wrong to claim that he is deprived of motherly love and that his "mommy issues" will seal his fate. Moreover, we still don't know for sure what is going on between him and Helaena, but regardless of the nature of their feelings, I do believe, based on what we've seen so far in the show, that they care about each other. Idk, I just don't buy this explanation that Alys was his replacement for Alicent and a source of an unconditional love and acceptance he never received from his family members. Also, after the scene with the brothel madam I'm not really looking forward to this relationship because of all the implications. If there is something that could at least partially explain the nature of Alysmond (and even then a lot of it remains mysterious) it should be that scene from episode 9, and not the lack of love from his mother, sister or even brother(s). I only hope we will get to see more scenes between Alicent and her children in the next season, especially before Aemond leaves KL. I'm really interested in his interactions with Alicent and Aegon after the Storm's End incident and his relationship with Helaena in general, romantic (I'm actually starting to root for Helaemond after witnessing shipper wars on SM lol) or not. Sorry if this was too long:). Thanks for your time.

Thank you for your kind words & sorry for taking so long to reply, but life happens, you know. :)) and better late than never. Now, what you’re describing in the first part is definitely alimond (aemond/alicent), which can appeal to you (or not) depending on how freudian you like your ships. Alys and Alicent are basically the same name (it’s the same root), both are brunettes (though Alicent is more of a red-head in HOTD), both MILFs. There’s material to work with. One can make it happen if one is dedicated enough of a writer. I don’t think Gayle looks like Olivia either – I think they picked her because she seems to be a versatile actress, not because of physical similarity.

That being said, I never bought the Aemond-is-not-loved interpretation. I think there was something wacky going on backstage that got translated via a pervasive lack of communication. I’ve said it before but not allowing or discouraging the child actors / young adults to keep from exchanging notes on their character with the adult actors is not good showrunning or directing. Sorry to Miguel Sapochnik, but I’m just built different. And I think that’s kind of what happened with Leo and Ewan – something just got lost in the handover. Little!Aemond is bullied by Aegon but seems very close to his mother – he confesses to her his reason for being upset and accepts being comforted by her. Alicent spends the rest of the episode trying to fix his bullying issue: she is unsuccessful with Viserys, mildly successful with Aegon (who is a scatterbrain, but seems to at least stop for a moment and consider what she has to say) and very successful with Criston, who takes it upon himself to indirectly reveal Jace and Luke’s bastardy in a public setting and to break up Aegon’s alliance with the Strong boys by siccing him on them. Not to mention the lengths Alicent goes to in Driftmark to get justice for her son – these are not the actions of a mother who couldn’t care less. So, you know. I think Ewan is a talented actor but this unconditional love line must be because the showrunners were inconsistent in the briefs they gave to the actors. Like, you would not be hearing incongruent, looney-tunes-type shit like this in Succession, where characters change their life story and personality from week to week.

[cyarskj1899]

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OPINION: Kanye let his antisemitism DESTROY his net worth

OPINION2 WEEKS AGO

OPINION: Kanye let his antisemitism DESTROY his net worth

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‘Cause karma is my boyfriend

Karma is a god

Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend

Karma’s a relaxing thought

But for you, it’s not sweet like honey

Karma is a cat purring in my lap ’cause it loves me

Flexing like a goddamn acrobat

Me and karma vibe like that

–Taylor Swift, who’s had her share of beefs with Kanye West, “Karma”

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Started: “I can say anti-Semitic s—- and Adidas cannot drop me,” said Ye (his legal name now) on the Drink Champs podcast earlier this month. Ye had worked with Adidas since 2013 on his Yeezy line of super expensive, super popular sneakers, and thought he was untouchable like most overpaid, over-indulged “artists.”

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Going, as of Tuesday:

“Immediately” in adidas-speak translates to “a couple of weeks of silence after we originally said we’d review our relationship with Kanye because we had a whole lot of money numbers to crunch.” Karma comes in various guises, and she often travels with her equally stealthy pal, schadenfreude. What you put out there WILL come back to you, even if it does take adidas a full nineteen days to make it happen.

Adidas didn’t drop Kanye West to stand against anti-semitism.

They dropped him because their stock was falling hard and an analyst told them to in order to salvage their stock value they needed to drop him.

Nothing heroic about what they did.

— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) October 25, 2022

It’s been reported that adidas got an estimated 4% to 8% of its sales from Yeezy products, according to investment bank Cowen. For Ye, it was an even bigger deal, accounting for $1.5 billion of his net worth. But I mean, what’s a Jewish life worth to a sneaker company founded by anti-Semites?

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Wow hope this widely available information about the Nazi origins of @adidas doesn’t go viral and cause a massive international boycott in light of their recent silence in the face of violent antisemitism by their partner Kanye West. pic.twitter.com/LTPsKGHYzg

— Bess Kalb (@bessbell) October 24, 2022

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We’d been seeing accountability for Kanye’s hate speech from plenty of others before adidas finally made its announcement Tuesday morning. Gap, Balenciaga, and Vogue Magazine all announced they were cutting ties with Ye. And now Forbes joins them by dropping him from their Billionaires’ List.

Kanye West is no longer a billionaire after Adidas cut ties with him, Forbes reports.

His loss of Adidas has caused his net worth to plummet to $400 million and he is no longer on the Forbes billionaire list. pic.twitter.com/8SzyQqJVjC

— Pop Base (@PopBase) October 25, 2022

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Hopefully, more artists and sportsball people will end their own relationships with adidas. They only did right by themselves, and the last time I checked, there are other companies that make sneakers and track pants. BYE, YE!

Tara Dublin is a woefully underappreciated and unrepresented writer currently shopping a super cool novel that has nothing to do with politics while also fighting fascism on the daily.

Follow her on Twitter @taradublinrocks.

Editor’s note: This is an opinion column that solely reflects the opinions of the author.

TARA DUBLIN

TARA DUBLIN IS A WOEFULLY UNREPRESENTED WRITER WHO THINKS MORE PEOPLE WOULD READ HER COOL ROCK & ROLL LOVE STORY INSPIRED BY DAVE GROHL THAN ANY GHOSTWRITTEN GOP CRAPBOOK, AGENTS & PUBLISHERS. FOLLOW TARA ON TWITTER @TARADUBLINROCKS

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[tea-with-evan-and-me]

hiii! i’m a new fan of evan, but you could you please let me know the timeline of his relationship with Frances and why people don’t like her? thank you :)

they dated from 2020-2022. some people say they met at a party, through a mutual friend, through social media.. no one really knows, because neither of them have shared this information.

essentially, everything we know about their relationship is because of frances, but even at that, it's not much. frances already had an online presence on tumblr/twitter prior to them dating that people obviously dug up and continued to follow once they realized her and evan were together. for instance, people found tweets that she had made where she boasted about being a sugar baby. talking about prior sugar daddies she had, wanting to doxx them, etc. and overall just making herself seem to be a spoiled, immature brat. she would also say things during her relationship with evan that made it seem like she felt entitled to him buying her things because he was her ''rich boyfriend'' and joking about how she should get pregnant. she baited their relationship, teasing tiny glimpses, in order to gain a following on social media and she clearly wanted to monetize it - she would talk about things like making a patreon, and she was selling tarot card readings. i mean, the list goes on - she didn't paint herself in a positive light on social media, and that's all we really have to go off of.

[hollymbryan]

Blog Tour + #Review: CITY SPIES: CITY OF THE DEAD by James Ponti (w/ #giveaway)!

Welcome to Book-Keeping and my stop on the Rockstar Book Tours blog tour for the fourth installment in the City Spies series by James Ponti, City Spies: City of the Dead, which releases next Tuesday, 7 February! If you’ve followed my reviews before, you’ll know what a huge fan I am of this series, so I’m thrilled to tell you all about this latest installment. You can also find my review and a giveaway below!

About the Book

title: City Spies: City of the Dead author: James Ponti publisher: Aladdin release date: 7 February 2023

In this fourth installment in the New York Times bestselling series from Edgar Award winner James Ponti, the young group of spies go codebreaking in Cairo in another international adventure perfect for fans of Spy School and Mrs. Smith’s Spy School for Girls. Codename Kathmandu, better known as Kat, loves logic and order, has a favorite eight-digit number, and can spot a pattern from a mile away. So when a series of cyberattacks hits key locations in London while the spies are testing security for the British Museum, it’s clear that Kat’s skill for finding reason in what seems like randomness makes her the perfect candidate to lead the job. And while the team follows the deciphered messages to Egypt and the ancient City of the Dead to discover who is behind the attacks and why, Kat soon realizes that there’s another layer to the mystery. With more players, more clues, and involving higher levels of British Intelligence than ever before, this mission is one of the most complex that the group has faced to date. And it’s also going to bring about a change to the City Spies…

Add to Goodreads  Purchase the Book Check out the Book Trailer

Grab the rest of the City Spies books now!

About the Author

JAMES PONTI (he/him/his) is the New York Times bestselling author of three middle grade book series: City Spies, about an unlikely squad of five kids from around the world who form an elite MI6 Spy Team; the Edgar Award–winning Framed! series, about a pair of tweens who solve mysteries in Washington, DC; and the Dead City trilogy, about a secret society that polices the undead living beneath Manhattan. His books have appeared on more than fifteen different state award lists and he is the founder of a writers group known as the Renegades of Middle Grade. James is also an Emmy– nominated television writer and producer who has worked for many networks including Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, PBS, History, and Spike TV, as well as NBC Sports. He lives with his family in Orlando, Florida. 

Connect with James: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Goodreads | Amazon

My 5-Star Review

If you’ve followed my reviews for any length of time, you may know just how much I love this middle grade series. My son and I have both read them all (though he hasn’t yet gotten his hands on this latest one!), and we’ve also read, both separately and out loud together, Mr. Ponti’s Dead City series, which we also love. (He has also read the Framed! series, though I have not.) Naturally I was going to jump at the chance to read and review book four! (You can find my reviews of book one here and book two here.)

While I suppose you technically could read this as a standalone, I would highly recommend reading the first three books first -- you’ll get a much better feel for the characters, and they’re totally all worth reading! In each book, a different one of our “city spies” (their codenames are each the cities in which they were found) is the alpha, or leader, of the mission. In book four, it’s Kat’s turn, and she leads in several missions throughout the book, which take the spies from London to Berlin to, ultimately, Cairo and Luxor, Egypt. Kat has always been a favorite character of mine -- she has Asperger’s and is able to see patterns amid all the chaos of life. She’s truly brilliant and refreshingly honest and plain-spoken! The spies continue hot on the heels of Umbra in this installment, and there’s a surprise addition to the City Spies team that no one was expecting. I literally read the entire book in one sitting; I just couldn’t stop flipping the pages!

I highly, highly recommend this series for all middle grade readers (will be especially good for reluctant readers!), as well as anyone who just enjoys a good spy thriller (one appropriate for kids, of course). This installment continues the unbroken string of five-star reviews for each book in the series. And with *that ending*, I can’t wait to read book five!

Rating: 5 stars!

**Disclosure: I received a copy of the book from the publisher for purposes of this blog tour. This review is voluntary on my part and reflects my honest rating and review of the book.

About the Giveaway

One (1) lucky winner will receive a finished copy of City Spies: City of the Dead by James Ponti! This one is US only and ends on 6 February 2023. Enter via the Rafflecopter below, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Blog Tour + James’ Tours

Here’s the schedule for this second and final week of the blog tour, as well as James’ schedule of tours for the book launch!

Blog Tour, Week Two:

1/30/2023 - Nerdophiles - Review 1/30/2023 - Eye-Rolling Demigod's Book Blog - Review/IG Post

1/31/2023 - Wanderingwitchreads - TikTok Review/IG Post 1/31/2023 - Review Thick And Thin - Review/IG Post

2/1/2023 - @ChristenKrumm - IG Review 2/1/2023 - Two Points of Interest - Review

2/2/2023 - Book-Keeping - Review/IG Post 2/2/2023 - @bookmama85 - IG Review

2/3/2023 - OneMoreExclamation - Review/IG Post 2/3/2023 - @froggyreadteach - IG Review

James’ launch tours:

Monday, February 7, 2023 at 6:00pm CT Virtual launch event hosted by Blue Willow Bookshop (Houston, TX) In conversation with Kelly Yang (author of NEW FROM HERE and FINALLY SEEN)

Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at 7:00pm ET In-person event hosted by Little Shop of Stories (Decatur, GA) In conversation with Laurel Snyder (author of ORPHAN ISLAND and CHARLIE & MOUSE)

Thursday, February 9, 2023 at 6:00pm ET In-person event hosted by Malaprop’s (Asheville, NC) In conversation with Alan Gratz (author of REFUGEE, GROUND ZERO, and TWO DEGREES)

Friday, February 10, 2023 at 5:00pm ET In-person event hosted by RJ Julia Booksellers (Madison, CT) In conversation with Lauren Tarshis (author of the I SURVIVED series)

Saturday, February 11, 2023 at 3:00pm ET In-person event hosted by Books of Wonder (New York, NY) In conversation with Sayantani DasGupta (author of THE FIRE QUEEN series), Chris Grabenstein (author of DOG SQUAD and THE SMARTEST KID IN THE UNIVERSE), and Karina Yan Glaser (author of THE VANDERBEEKERS series)

Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 2:00pm CT In-person event at St. Louis Public Library hosted by The Novel Neighbor (St. Louis, MO) In conversation with George Jreije (author of SHAD HADID AND THE ALCHEMISTS OF ALEXANDRIA)

Monday, February 13, 2023 at 7:00pm CT In-person event hosted by Wild Rumpus Books for Young Readers (Minneapolis, MN) In conversation with Jacqueline West (author of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE and LONG LOST)

Tuesday, February 14, 2023 at 5:30pm ET In-person event hosted by Quail Ridge Books (Raleigh, NC) In conversation with Kwame Mbalia (author of the TRISTAN STRONG series)

Thursday, February 16, 2023 at 10:30am ET In-person event hosted by Politics & Prose (Washington, D.C.)

Saturday, February 18, 2023 at 2:00pm ET In-person event hosted by The International Spy Museum (Washington, D.C.)

Saturday, February 25, 2023 at 2:00pm ET In-person event hosted at Lake Highland Prep School hosted by Writer’s Block Bookstore (Orlando, FL) In conversation with Jerry Craft (author of NEW KID and CLASS ACT)

[cherrynasb]

NASB2 Tournament Hosting Guide draft 1.

The NASB2 Tournament Set Up Handbook

For online & Offline events by Cherry 

Contact me for more information via email @ Cherrynasb@proton. me , Twitter @ Cherrynasb, or Discord @ Chufuga. 

This is not a guide on how to use challonge, start.gg or other bracket sites. Simply the best way for any organizers to host online or offline nasb2. 

Introduction 

As all of you reading this likely know, NASB2 is a pain in the ass to set up events for. Between controller issues offline, to mystery ping bugs & Infinite loading screens online, nowhere is safe. My goal with this is to make creating a proper NASB2 event easier to navigate by providing the cheapest accessible hardware, answers to common troubleshooting questions, and solutions that are simple & realistic for Tournament Organizers of ANY size to scale up to any size event. The solutions I offer can work for a 7 person local, and can work for even a super major as they have been tested to work at events such as Heatwave 6, Frosty Faustings 2024, & Combo Breaker 2024 as well as many others. 

Table Of Contents 

Competitive Rulesets 

Stage Lists 

In game setup 

Online Set Up Offline Setup

Other Rulesets

Doubles

Squad Battles

Resources: Stream Overlays, Servers, Tournament Hubs, Player Ban lists, Seeding help & More 

Competitive Rulesets

Stagelists 

“The universal singles NASB2 stagelist & ruleset is 4 Stocks, 8 Minute timers, No Items, Shadow Skins are banned from play.” 

NASB2 is fortunate to have a group of tournament organizers work directly with beta testers on helping to select the competitive stage list, stock count, and timer for competition. These stages have their own tab in the game called the “ranked stage list” the stage list can be found on the stage select screen by tabbing to the most to the right list. 

The stagelist in comp nasb2 is currently the following stages. Irken Armada Invasion, JellyFish Fields, Food Dream, Technodrome Takedown, Rooftop Rumble, Periahs Keep, Miracle City Volcano, Harmonic Convergence, & Tremorton Joyride.

The starter stages or Game 1 stages are Irken, Jelly, Food Dream, Techno, and Rooftop. The Counter Pick or Game 2 onward stages are Pariahs, Volcano, Harmonic, and Joyride. 

This means all tournaments online or offline in any region are expected to run the exact same ruleset for 1v1s. This includes counter pick bans, stock count, and other information. Game 1 ban order is Higher Seeded player bans first followed by the second player banning 2 stages. Then the 1st player bans 1 more stage leaving one as the first selected stage. After game 1 the winner has to ban stages. Depending on if the round is best of 3 or 5 determines the amount of bans a winner may have. In a best of 3 (first to 2 wins) the winner bans 3 stages. If the ruleset is best of 5 (first to 3 wins) the round winner bans 2 stages. Both versions also use Standard DSR. This prevents players from counter picking to any stage on which they have previously won a game throughout a set.

The universal NASB2 stagelist & ruleset is 4 Stocks, 8 Minute timers, No Items, Shadow Skins are banned from play. 

Shadow Skins are banned

These skins are banned especially online due to the effects on the skins causing difficulty for players to have a clear visual on things such as attack animations or other options. If a player is a random main, and happens to be given a shadow skin from selecting random, both players must restart the character choice with the non shadow skin selected. Random mains will be instructed to instead use a virtual die with 29 sides (28 until Iroh is released) to select their character. If an opponent would rather be a gentleman to allow Shadow Skins this is allowed as long as both competitors agree to the use of the skins.

This situation should realistically only happen online, or at a local level tournament if a save data being used has these shadow skins unlocked. These skins are unlocked via the story mode and otherwise are unable to be played on. 

Items & Supers 

No items are allowed in competitive play. These should be set to off. NASB2 Allows the use of supers in competitive play, they are balanced and tuned to be used fairly in tournament play. 

In Game Setup 

General Game Setup 

NASB2 has some settings by default you’ll be required to change. These are important to do so that matches can run smoothly with as little hiccups or interruptions as possible. All of these settings can be accessed from the main menu by pressing the start/settings button on your controller (or enter on a keyboard). 

Head to the first setting tab named General, and make sure the in game volume are all at 100. This should be done for both Online and Offline events. Setting these volume bars to different levels may cause some very distracting audio on certain legal stages. If volume is too loud, feel free to adjust on PC using the Windows Volume Mixer. But these settings MUST stay in game at 100 at all times currently. 

At the bottom of this general tab, turn off the “Camera shake” feature. This mode being left on is very distracting and can also be nauseating for some players and spectators.

Display in Game Setup

Next scroll one option down in the settings tab and make sure the default resolution is the same as your display, “vertical sync” is off, and the max frame rate is either “60 FPS”, or “120 fps”. Whichever the PCs you own can run more reliably. Then make sure “anti-aliasing” is off, and the quality settings are set to “low”.

Make sure the resolution is also the same as the monitor. If you are experiencing performance issues you can run the game at 1280x720 for better performance. 

Online Set Up

Offline Setup 

Controller setup offline is the most complicated aspect of NASB2. PS5 controllers and Gamecube Controllers when paired offline tend to have small issues with double inputting, the game tabbing out and minimizing when a PS5 is plugged in etc. While most seasoned players are aware of how to avoid these, I’ve worked on making the process more streamlined. On steam go to NASB2 and go to properties, then press “controller”. 

From here make sure your steam shows the same settings as this. This makes sure that PS5 doesn’t cause any conflicts. 

Next to ensure no issues with GameCube Controllers and keep matches on schedule, you’ll need to download Delfinovin. Its a GCC software that has games detect the controllers as Xinput. Install the application. Then open it. It will take you through some extra installations and then open. From here you’re done! Enjoy a far less stressful experience for both your Tournament Organizers & your players! 

Equipment for Offline Play 

One of the more difficult aspects is having cheap but powerful equipment for events. I recommend these mini-PCs. They were used at the Major Tournament Heatwave 6. They cost about $250-$300 each, are small and portable AND are capable of running nasb2 on low settings very well. They are a tried in the field solution, are cheaper to obtain than Steam Decks, and do more for cheaper than other portable solutions. You can also upgrade them to be more powerful for the price of a steam deck at $500 and they are very much worth it and something I personally will be investing into.    

Online Lobbies

For Online Lobbies you can set it to any size. But make sure to set the visibility to Private. The game is very active and its smart to not allow anyone in your lobbies without permission. 

When in a lobby in order to watch a match you must be in the spectators section at any point before the match starts. You can not join a match in progress. The easiest way to send invite codes to players is via lobby passwords 

Multiple players are allowed to spectate at once but it's easier to just stream a discord view of the matches for your commentary squad. 

Common Online Lobby Bugs 

A major issue that occurs is a bug mainly known as “Ping Bug”. This is extremely common for some competitors who use AT&T internet in the United States. At the beginning of a match right after the screen says 3…2…1 Go! A players ping will spike rapidly from a normal amount to an unstable 200+ amount. Players are currently instructed to simply just SD and begin the match again until a successful launch of the game occurs. 

During these attempts you may also run into a bug called “The Infinite Loading Screen Bug” this evil duo tend to happen in combos. If a match has the ping bug, after a game finish you may get stuck on an infinite black loading screen. The solution to this is to unfortunately have all players and in-game spectators close their game, make a new lobby, and hope it doesn't happen again. Developers are working on troubleshooting this bug, but it is incredibly hard to figure out how to cause the bug to occur in order for it to be troubleshooted. 

In Game Rulesets 

When you enter an online lobby, or head to a stage/character select screen, tapping the swap ruleset button may swap to a different ruleset than the intended one. This is not a bug, as it is intentional but it often happens by accident. (The swap button is the same as the one displayed where it says “Hold” in the top right. On controllers it is usually the top face button. Think Y for Xbox, X for switch, and Triangle for PS5. On PC its default is X key.)

If you are only intending on running one rule type its best to delete unwanted extra rules so no accidental swaps occur. (I’ve found this to be VERY helpful at the local level.) To delete a ruleset just go to the ruleset page in settings by pressing start or if you are on the character select/stage select hold the reset button. When you reach the ruleset page select the ruleset you’d like to remove, and press “delete ruleset”.

Other Rulesets 

Doubles

A group of TOs and Beta testers are working on a doubles ruleset revamp. But for now, its still a work in progress. It will be added here in the future. But for now it uses the same ruleset as 1v1s but with team attack and share stock enabled. 

Squad Battles 

Same rule set as universal ruleset 1v1s with the additional rules of:

 No duplicate characters 

3 stocks instead of 4

Random is allowed for multiple picks

Resources

Overlays 

When running a stream, if you’d like an easy to use, pretty, and customizable scoreboard overlay I recommend  Tournament Stream Helper On GitHub.  

It also allows you to download assets like stock icons, stages, and character renders. This tool is open source and assets are collected by community members! 

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