#am i still actively adding to this even though its posted? yes

[delopsia]

Bestie i need more headcanons on cuddle bug rhett 😭🐛

I feel like I could go on about Rhett being a cuddle bug for HOURS

When you first get together, Rhett is very, very hesitant to touch you. Not out of a dislike for it but because he tends to forget how strong he is, and he's mortified that he'll hurt you. He's had a lot of instances in the past where he's hugged someone a little too hard or otherwise caused some sort of accidental harm.

But once you establish that you're not breakable! and that he isn't going to break your spine simply from hugging you from behind; all bets are off.

He used to always argue that he's not touch starved, saying something about lack of physical touch not bugging him in the slightest, but in reality, he's just grown so used to it that he doesn't see the signs anymore.

That argument went out the window when one day, you reached up and cradled his cheeks in your palms, and his face softened with a realization that he'd never had before.

Touch is a very intimate thing for him. He never had a lot of it growing up, and for a while there, it was only a thing he could find in his weekend hookups. It's something that makes him feel safe, feel real, like he's not just an invisible being whose only purpose is to work.

Rhett's favorite thing is to have you lying on his chest. There's just something so comforting in having you on top of him, safely secured in his big, strong arms. He could lay like that for hours if you'd let him.

There is a designated kiss for every occasion. Hello and goodbye kisses, just picked you up in his truck kisses, cheer-me-up forehead kisses, bedtime kisses, I didn't expect to run into you here kisses, giggly nose kisses because it's cold out and our noses feel like they're made of ice. For everything you do, there is a reason for a kiss or two.

Kisses your injuries, too. From bruises to cuts to old scars, they all deserve kisses!

He loves it when you kiss the scar on his chest. He's never really paid much attention to it until you started doing that, and now its become one of his favorite scars.

Autumn and Spring are his favorite seasons. Not because of the weather but because sometimes you misjudge the weather and wind up snuggling into him for warmth.

Laces your pinkies together when you walk. It's subtle, just a loose little link that doesn't result in hot, sweaty hands after a few minutes.

Drops everything to cuddle with you if you ask. It doesn't matter what he was doing beforehand; he's already halfway across the room with his arms open wide. Do you want to cuddle on the couch and watch a movie? Go to bed and take a nap together? Hell, he'll even carry you there!

Recently, Rhett's been introduced to the theaters with big couches instead of tiny seats, and he's been hooked. A movie with his sweetheart, in a comfy loveseat where he can cuddle with you and not spill the popcorn?? Sign him the fuck up.

It's a bit of a drive, considering Wabang is close to nothing, nothing, and more, nothing, but he doesn't mind it. That just means he gets to spend more time with you!

He won't admit it, but he really enjoys being the little spoon. Especially if you let him tuck his head up under your chin and go to sleep there. It's nice to feel small and delicate every once in a while.

Turns into a damn glue trap when he's drunk. Once you let him touch you, he's not coming off.

The good thing is, that means he's the last person to go missing in a bar. The bad thing is, you literally cannot get him off of you. He's hugging you from behind, sleepily kissing your cheek as he fusses about how he's sleepy and wants to go home.

And what do you mean that he can't snuggle into you in this booth because you're in public? That couple over there might as well be having sex against the wall at this point, and they're not bothered! So why can't he cuddle you??

"Just one kiss?" Rhett pleads, batting those pretty, long lashes of his, "please?"

"Rhett, I've already given you one," you regret the words the very second they come out of your mouth because his eyes drop to his lap, disappointed. You might as well have just backhanded him.

What's worse is you know he's not doing it intentionally. He just doesn't know how to control his expressions when he's drunk. If he's feeling it, you can see it written all over his scruffy face.

Reaching over, you take hold of his jaw and tilt it up, pressing a soft peck to his lips.

The corners of his eyes crinkle as he giggles.

It even works to get him out of those petty bar fights. All you have to do is run your hand up his back, speaking gently, and he's backing out of it. Might have a few more choice words for who he's angry with, but it works. Perry calls it the Magic Touch.

In the event that you tell him no, he does one of three things, he either pouts, accepts it, and moves on, OR he turns it into a game of 'who's gonna crack first.'

He always cracks first.

All you have to do is cozy up somewhere, open up your arms, and he's gone.

It's rare that he gets to join you, but bubble baths are his favorite way to wind down with you. It always starts out with him sitting across from you, legs tangled up as you talk about everything under the sun, but as the water starts to grow cold, he scoots over to sit next to you.

Play! With! His! Hair! There is no quicker way to make the man nearly purr. Sleepily blinks at you and smiles all big and wide while you do it.

Shamelessly loves the sparkly bath bombs you use every once in a while. he gets a real kick out of seeing the glitter on his skin the next day, and you usually get a picture of his shimmering hand with the caption, "darlin', I'm sparkling in the light again."

This past summer, Rhett got the big idea of putting a hammock behind the house, tucked safely into the shade of the trees. Really went all out and got one of the bigger ones because, hey! Potential cuddle spot!

Sometimes you'll find him out there, knocked out cold with his hat flat on his face, and you'll climb in and join him in his afternoon cat nap. He's too deep of a sleeper to notice your arrival, but he's always grinning like an idiot when you wake up. "Didn't expect to wake up with an angel in my arms."

Does that thing where he places his hand on your lower back as you step past him. He doesn't even intend for it to happen; it just winds up there, gently pressing into you until you're out of reach.

Nuzzles you with his nose like he's a dog. It's the first thing he does once he's got you in his arms, nose wiggling against you as he finds himself a nice, comfortable spot. It tickles, and your giggles only make him do it even more.

Who would have thought a cowboy could be so cuddly?

[idontevrnknow7]

cannn I request a Jax x fem reader nsfw!! With Jax having a breeding kink,, due to him being in this weird digital version of heat, due to him being a rabbit, also reader is Ike very girly so skirts and stuff!! Also.. Jax begs , yuuuup!

ofcccc!!!! sorry it took me a while to post I had a lot of school to catch up on but now I'll post more on!

includes:fingering, biting, breeding kink, Jax is in heat

jax

you

It's annoying going from a normal man to a rabbit in a digital world who goes into heat. Jax hates the feeling of always being hard and the urge to hump his pillow as he thinks about someone. You, in your skirts and girly stuff, just thinking about him fucking you drives him crazy. “God why am I like this?...” he laid on his bed until he heard a knock at his door. “Crap” he gets out of his bed and tries to make it not noticeable that he was hard. As he opens the door. It's you, “Hey Jax! are you coming to the activity today? Caine wants you to!” as he looked you up and down, wearing a skirt and a pink top on. ‘God she would look so good with my seed in her’ he thinks as his cock gets even harder and feeling that he could snap at any moment.

 Jax sighed "ugh fine I guess..." jax walked behind you as he was in his thoughts thinking about you of course. After the activity he started to walk back to his room trying to get away from people before they noticed something was wrong. "Jax wait up!" ad Y/N rushed next to him. "what do you want Y/N?" Jax looked down at you "Well wanna come to my room? I have a new outfit and I need your opinion" Jax looked away for a sec "ugh fine only for a second" Y/N then walked to her room happily with Jax trailing behind her

after she got her outfit on and showed him, "um you look good I guess....but um I need a favor from you" you looked up "yes Jax?" as he looked up at you "i-i need you doll, look what y-your doing to me.” You blushed as you can see his bulge through his pants "Jax....are you saying you want to do...it?" Jax blushed and looked away “yes....please”..... Jax pleaded until you nodded to help him with his heat, since you did like him. Jax got up and pushed you on your bed.

He was breathing heavily and reached up your shirt to feel your breasts. You yelped as he squeezed. “Hha jax-” he attacked your neck with kisses and bites leaving a bunch of hickeys that you would have to hide from the others. "@#$! Y/N you're so pretty with those hickeys on you. Now they will know that you're mine ." he then took off your skirt and panties and shoved a finger inside you "hah jax~" you moaned out his name and he then added another finger then you moaned as Jax bite your inner thigh leaving it bruised but not hard enough to break the skin. hearing you moan made his cock twitch in his pants as they began to be very tight around his cock as it was throbbing from not having attention. you felt knots in your stomach about to burst until he took out his fingers "h-huh? Jax?". as you looked at him in disappointment "can't have you cum yet doll~"

he then took off his overalls and stroked his cock a few times to get it ready to enter your cunt " you know how long I've been wanting to do this" as he lined up his tip at your wet folds. “Looks like it will be a tight fit…..you can take it though right? “ then his hips began to push forward as his tip harshly made its way past your walls. “Hhha…its…huge…jax-” 

“f-$#@” as he began to slam his hips forward “look what your doing to me doll…” as he was pounding into you. Already feeling ready to cum into your pretty cunt. He went down and sucked on your tits leaving bite marks all over your chest "god your so p-pretty when you moan my name" As he continued to pound into you as knots were increasing in your stomach about to burst. “J-jax im about t-to- '' you were interrupted by you moaning as you released your orgasim and jax still kept going until he started to get sloppy notifying you that he was super close. “G-goddamn…y/n i-im about to cum” as he finally slammed into you as he released all his warm cum into your tight cunt, filling you up. Then he got off you and laid next to you. “Geez doll you made me feel so much better for now heh.” you turned over to look at him “i didn't know you could go in heat. Or had a thing for breeding” he looked away “yeah….maybe you can help me for now” as he smirks at you. Jax pulled the covers on top of you ad him and cuddled 

.

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Kinger bursted into the room “JAX Have you see-.” as he just stares then slowly turns around. “oh um...i'll….just…go…..”

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A/N: Thanks for the request! I know it might be a little crappy but its my first time writing so! I hope it's good:) have a good day/morning/night.!!!!!!

[cravingpepsimax]

hyperfixating over a new ship that i am terrified to post about on main so i’m bringing this blog back

anyways stancest is so peak that it makes other ships better. billford immediately becomes ten times better with stancest. without stancest, bill’s stan-like behaviors are either coincidental, or an active attempt at manipulating ford by reminding him of his brother that he Very Platonically misses. and then, unrelated, ford develops a crush on bill, and then they start doing their whole “mutually unrequited” thing where they’re both interested at opposite times. this is fine, this isn’t illogical, and is enjoyable in its own right.

but with stancest? oh my god. that extra layer immediately adds so much to it. beyond ford’s regular resentment/longing of stan, he’s also had to deal with a feeling of guilt and disgust at being attracted to his twin, and STILL being attracted even after they hadn’t talked for a DECADE, even though ford genuinely feels like stan has ruined his life. and, yes, these conflicting feelings would exist in a platonic context, but the extra layer of “oh my god i’m attracted to my BROTHER what the fuck” intensifies it SO much more and makes it so much richer and creates so much more depth.

and then, there’s bill. bill, who also calls him sixer. bill, who’s also confident and trickster-y. bill, who’s also charismatic. bill, who ford thinks of as a partner, who helps him discover the unknown, who will also get him out of this random small town… and, importantly, bill, who is not his twin, and is thus, totally fine to be attracted to. it even adds to the whole “world’s most insane situationship” thing by making bill ford’s rebound LMAO

it’s like adding a pinch of salt to a dish — it seems relatively inconsequential and it may not be adding too much directly, but it intensifies the flavors that were already there. within the context of stancest, two undeniable, but seemingly unrelated aspects of bill and ford’s relationship are tied together, and it makes it so much more narratively satisfying.

[polyamorousmood]

I have a new bf, we've got together 6 months ago, but considering I have a relationship of 15+ years with someone else, it feels new still to me. He is not the first addition to the polycule, as I also have a girlfriend for 3+ years. The long-term partner and the girlfriend are both nesting partners, and considering the new boyfriend lives on the other side of the country by himself, I have been going there practically every other weekend for "alone time".

I have two challenges, though:

* the boyfriend is new to polyamory and struggles with not being my only partner, but tries his hardest for my sake

* the girlfriend seems to have some serious issues with jealousy and fear of being abandoned

The long-term partner has been the real MVP through this all. They have mediated between me and my girlfriend and shown their utmost support when I wanted to go away.

Meanwhile, I have been trying my hardest to make the change of my allocated time easier on my girlfriend by giving her some extra quality time in the form of dates and gaming sessions and movie nights. It never seems to be enough though.

She has been acting out every time I go away, spiralling in self-deprecating pits of despair or being overall catty and mean towards me. This has led to the new boyfriend feeling like she hates him personally and him not wanting to visit me because she's there. Moreover, it doesn't exactly sell him on the whole idea of polyamory. The long-term partner is also getting exhausted by this: they can recall having struggled when we first opened the relationship, but, as they themselves say, "they weren't this bad."

I am a little lost. Have you got any ideas on what I can do to improve this situation?

Cheers, 🧜🏻

Heya,🧜! So first I'd like to summarize what's happening. You had two partners, and things were pretty good. But the addition of a third who requires special consideration has destabilized the relationship with one of them. Its an over-simplification, but in its simplest form, this is the problem.

Second thing is should also glance over this post from my jealousy tag. Not 100% will apply to you, but there's a lot of overlap. And yes, it does link to 6 other things. They are also likely helpful.

Third thing is all these names for partners does NOT jive with my brain. So for the purposes of answering this ask, I'm going to call Long-Term Partner "Lit" (LT from long term, with a vowel to aid in pronunciation), and newest partner I'm calling Newsboy, because that's the funniest nickname based on the information I have available to me, lol. Out of fairness, girlfriend will be called Gif (GF, with a vowel added for pronunciation [except not really because of the Gif vs Jif debate]).

There are a LOT of things here. So many that even I, with my extraordinarily long answers, cannot get into all of them. Therefore, I hereby present The Bulleted🚅 List of Things to Keep in the Back of Your Mind🧠:

Regardless of how well you can address Gif, polyamory may still "not be for" Newsboy.

Even if someone can do poly, doesn't mean they can enter any polycule. It is no one's fault if a given relationship isn't a good fit. No one here is a bad guy.

Just because no one's a bad guy, doesn't mean everything is reconcilable.

Judgement is rarely helpful.

Nothing I say is gospel. It is my perspective. Consider whether it makes sense for you and how yourself.

Got it all safely shelved and accurately labelled in the mind back? Good. Okay. Now onto the shit to actively think about. Some of that shit may seem to be opposed to some of those points. I'm going to ask you, as the reader, to find the balance/middle ground/duality of man where applicable.

Lit 🕯️

You are, I'm assuming, least worried about Lit. That's good, blah blah blah. Just make sure you're not taking them for granted. You seem like you're in good communication and shit, so I won't spend too much time here, but their feelings of getting kinda burnt out on this is important too. Consider offering them a deliberate respite of some kind from this drama. (ex: 48 of not mentioning it; relief from mediator duties; etc). In any case, continue to check in with them.

Newsboy📰👦

6 months is long enough he's got an idea of what's up with the poly shit with regards to what he's chill with and what's really difficult. If you aren't already, I'd probably start talking the realities of what a relationship long-term would look like. This helps him both set his expectations appropriately and negotiate any major points. I would include shit from the next section, like what you expect Gif to be doing and what you guys are trying to work on that. You don't have to include every gory detail, of course, but he should know its a WIP.

Gif 📷

Gif clearly has work to do if she's going to stay part of an expanding polycule. Your role in supporting her doing that work will include but is not limited to: offering additional reassurances where you can (sounds like you're doing this) and having tough conversations.

And what a can of worms that is. Therefore, I hereby present, in no particular order, The Bulleted🚅 List of Bullet-Biting Discussions💬🗨️ You're Gonna Have to Have:

What can reasonably be achieved at this stage in your relationship. What changes might need to be made to your relationship, expectations you both hold in the relationship, or how might the ideal vision differ from the constraints of reality?

What behaviors of hers are out of line. With actionable steps on how she can do better. There's only so much she can do about her knee-jerk feelings, but she is in control of her actions and might need to put more work into curbing the cattiness or dealing with her emotions more independently, for example.

What behaviors of yours you can improve for her. With actionable steps on how you can do better. You did say you were trying to work with her, but maybe you're going about it in a way that doesn't really help, or you're missing some key component. Maybe what you're terming "cattiness" is Gif trying to drop hints and she's annoyed you don't seem to care, for instance.

These will probably be recurrent in your life for a bit. But as always, how you have the conversation matters. In addition to my usual advice, I want to emphasize here that it will, based on my understanding, likely be a tough thing to navigate. It sounds like everyone needs Gif to do a better job managing things, and I don't think its helpful to seriously undersell that. But at the same time, you can't be coming at her like she's the snake in your otherwise perfect polyamorous garden. I hope you find a way to approach the conversation that finds the balance between support and accountability. What I have found helpful in this, personally, is to make it clear that while, yes, its tiresome for you, you also really want it to feel good to her. Offer suggestions as things that might help her first and foremost. But, y'know, if this were an easy conversation to have you wouldn't be asking my advice, so...

You ���

While you're working on this, accept right the fuck now its going to suck a lot of the time. Progress is necessarily difficult. Make your peace with the fact that Gif is going to be pissy every other weekend when you leave, and you'll have to deal with it. Make your peace with the fact you're going to have to revisit these problems. Make your peace with the mess. Progress can be made, but first it has to be difficult, so roll up your sleeves and do the work. Pay attention. Praise your partners when they handle something well (or even just slightly better than usual).

Remember always: We love this life. We do it for love. 💙💖🖤

[gatheredfates]

Greetings everyone! If you're thinking to yourself 'Wow, it's been a bit since Sea updated the Compendium', you'd be right! I've been (unfortunately) dealing with that demon we call burnout. However, I am determined not to let it win, even if it's capping my own creativity/drive at the moment, which is why I bring you an update to the Compendium. ✨

If you know of any communities I have missed, please reach out to me via my Discord or the Google Form.

However, as of 09/29, the following communities have been added to Sea's Community Compendium for XIV Creatives.

EVENT / COMMUNITY SPACES

The Cursed Carbuncle—The Cursed Carbuncle is a Cabinet of Curiosities & Oddities which sells alchemical reagents, curios, cursed items, intriguing artefacts, luxury objects, occult, rare books, taxidermy & unusual finds.

LORE

How Rare is that Job?—An Unofficial, Opinionated Look At Class/Job Rarity For FFXIV Roleplayers, created by Mis’to Raesthe on the Odin Server.

MISC

Leyla's Gposing Guide—This website is an ongoing comprehensive gpose guide that helps you every step of the way from the vanilla gpose menu to using shaders and posing tools/plugins, complete with screenshots and video guides, as well as pose/edit-along videos. It's also meant to allow many people to submit their own guides and tips.

So You Wanna Start Roleplaying in FFXIV—(Specifically, on Crystal Data Center). But It Sounds Really Scary And You're New And How Does This Even Work Anyway? A FAQ by By Nevivi Nevi/Lenneth Andrew of Balmung.

Have you thought about joining our Tumblr Community? You can find it here!

Want to submit? You can either fill out the google form here or send me an ask with the relevant information!

Is my space suitable for the Compendium? Most of the time, yes! Below the read more is some more information/stipulations. This is all publicly available on the document.

Below are the following things I do not accept on the Compendium:

Personal/Single-Character LFC ads. (Though these get posted to the SEAFLOOR Tumblr Community when I find them!)

Content intended for or can be used for bullying, harassment and OOC gossip. E.g. ‘Secrets’ blogs, receipts, callout posts, etc. This does not include IC tabloid blogs or other ventures used to generate roleplay.

Communities that do not have an RP/writing element (large-scale exempt).

Anything I find personally distasteful or goes against the spirit of this project.

Common-sense rule applies.

I want to put my community on the Compendium but we have an application process. Is this okay?

Yes! Just note somewhere in your application that's a requirement. The only thing that is mandatory for the Compendium is that you must be open to new members or have a public-facing/accessible facet. There's no point advertising a community if no one can join it in some way!

I want to put my Community on the compendium but I only have x number of members —

Also totally okay! People don't start with large communities. Activity is a must but, whether your server has two or two thousand members, if you're looking for new people to join, I'd love to help you find people.

I want to put my community/resource on the Compendium but I worry its too niche?

Okay, and? If your Eorzean Fishing Alliance has four members but you roleplay every second weekend, I still want to know about it. The same goes for resources; if it's relevant to the game, it'll be useful to someone.

How active does a community need to be?

If you find a community has not been active in about two/three months, send me a message and I'll take a look at it. Communities have ebbs and flows, especially event spaces that may take hiatuses depending on member interest/life events. I'm not strict in my implementation provided a space isn't dead. If a link or anything is broken, contact me asap!

I have [insert a question not stated here]?

No drama! Send me an ask or use the #Compendium channel in my Discord!

[markantonys]

considering i've become an avid galadriel/adar shipper when they've only had a few scenes together all told, it's interesting to look at them to pick out the key ingredients of what is most likely to get me hooked on an enemies-to-lovers and specifically a hero/villain ship. yes you guessed it, i'm gearing up for a compare/contrast with mat/tuon, who had abundant screentime and yet sucked absolute ass throughout all of it in my opinion. i AM an enemies-to-lovers & hero/villain shipper at heart, so honestly a writer has to actively try pretty hard to make me dislike one, and boy did RJ put every ounce of his effort into the task lmao

anyway, some of The Key Ingredients Of Compelling Hero/Villain, To Me (many of which i remember discussing with @butterflydm during her queen of attolia read, since gen/attolia are also a well-done example of hero/villain and hit on a lot of these same ingredients, though i'll keep this post to comparing just the other 2 ships for the sake of not yapping even more than i already am)

1. equal power balance

whether it be in terms of rank, influence, physical fighting abilities, intelligence, whatever, i like it best when the Hero & Villain we're shipping can go toe-to-toe with each other, and when they take turns holding the power in a given situation. among galadriel and adar's few scenes, we've had a good mix between galadriel having the upper hand and adar having the upper hand. we've even had scenes where who has the upper hand switches mid-scene (such as galadriel holding adar captive but then adar verbally getting under her skin and unnerving her).

by contrast, tuon ALWAYS has the upper hand over mat in all their scenes. always always always. RJ had a weird aversion towards letting tuon be put in a vulnerable position or letting her be genuinely challenged, and so all the time they spend together is tuon treating mat like a pet dog and mat going along with it because he's desperate to win her favor (contrary to all his established characterization). this does not make for a compelling, narratively tense hero/villain ship buildup; it's a boring, static dynamic that gives you secondhand embarrassment for mat and his utter lack of self-respect. what makes it even worse is that the natural dynamic SHOULD be an equal one, because pre-COT mat is just as clever as tuon, just as stubborn, just as strong (physically and mentally), and because tuon holds the cards when they're on her turf in ebou dar but mat should logically hold the cards when they're on HIS turf in the roadtrip. but for whatever reason, RJ just........ignored all that and made tuon bizarrely infallible and butchered mat's characterization to make him tuon's yes-man and rob their dynamic of all its natural balance and conflict and push-and-pull tension.

2. mutual respect

this goes hand-in-hand with point #1. when you start with a pair of enemies who hate and oppose each other, the best ingredient to use as that first foundation layer to begin building romance off of is a grudging mutual respect. adar and galadriel may hate each other, but they take each other seriously and consider each other a force to be reckoned with, which ties back to them having an equal power balance.

and on a more personal level, adar does seem to have some true respect for galadriel, seen in moments like him greeting her formally in elvish and being surprisingly polite to her and serving her up a nice dinner (though of course he's also trying to butter her up so she'll confide her plans in him; still, there is an element of genuineness in his behavior, it's not all manipulation the way sauron's interactions with everyone are). and sam has said in interviews that adar respects her and in some ways craves her respect too since she represents his lost place among his fellow elves.

not sure if galadriel has any respect for him haha but his s1 line "i'm not the only elf who's been transformed by darkness" really hit her hard and their s2 convo about sauron added to that, so that she does see how he holds up a mirror to her, i think, and in that, there's sooome amount of, if not respect, at least recognizing common ground (more on that in point #4). she also may have gained some respect for him in this week's episode after seeing him at the orc funeral (more on that in point #3). and i'd say that to me, Villain respecting Hero early on is more important than the reverse, especially if we're gearing up for a "Hero inspires Villain to be better" version of hero/villain romance rather than a "Villain makes Hero worse" version. (for me the latter version feels better-suited to tragedies or dark romance stories or fanfic, whereas the former version is more thematically and tonally appropriate for an in-canon romance in something like ROP or WOT, stories that at their core are about hope and light triumphing over darkness. thinking more about mat/tuon on this point since obvs adar/galadriel isn't and will never be an actual in-canon romance, but mat/tuon is and thus it should feel thematically and tonally compatible with the overall canon story.)

anyway, mat and tuon do not have mutual respect. tuon considers him a joke and a toy for a looooong chunk of their acquaintance, only realizes "huh maybe he's an actual person with a brain?" when she sees that he has a big army willing to follow him, but even then, this does not change her behavior towards him in any way and she continues to treat him like her lapdog who will never even think of disobeying her. and mat IS that lapdog who will never think of disobeying her, because RJ decided to remove his spine between WH and COT. mat does "respect" tuon but only in a warped sense of "i need to appease her at all times or else she might enslave me" (and that's on his good days; on his bad days he genuinely buys into the "the empress is inherently superior to lesser mortals" bullshit). mat's "respect" is borne from fear and author contrivance and OOC writing, and tuon doesn't respect him at all. and so the power imbalance and the respect imbalance sets us up perfectly for a "Villain makes Hero worse" version of a hero/villain romance, aka the opposite of what would feel thematically and tonally appropriate with the story of WOT.

3. witnessing each other's vulnerability (especially Hero, and audience, witnessing Villain's vulnerability)

bold, star, and underline this point because it is ESSENTIAL. in order for Hero and Villain to start viewing each other differently, they MUST be allowed to see each other be vulnerable. they must be allowed to see the walls come down and gain a new understanding of the other person from it. otherwise how could they ever have a reason to second-guess their hatred and start changing their opinion of their enemy?

once again, adariel passes with flying colors in only a few brief scenes. a lot of stuff gets laid bare in their conversation about how sauron hurt both of them (even if they're both being careful in what they choose to say or keep hidden), but the moment that made me most insane was this week when galadriel is sneaking through the camp and, unbeknownst to adar, witnesses him crying over fallen orcs and partaking in a tender funeral ritual. the "unbeknownst to adar" aspect is so key, because unlike their sauron convo, adar isn't putting on any masks or curating what he wants her to see or hear. it's just his pure, unfiltered vulnerability which galadriel gets to see, and we can see that it really surprises her and gives her pause, and perhaps does a little something to change the way she sees him and orcs more broadly.

and once again, mat and tuon fail spectacularly. it comes back to RJ's aversion to letting tuon ever be placed in a position of vulnerability. mat never gets to witness her as anything but the cool, controlling empress. he never gets to see behind her mask. and the audience doesn't really either, because even in her own POV, even in her own head, tuon is constantly masked-up and rarely reveals vulnerability. so we aren't given evidence to suggest that tuon is a real person under the mask and might be worthy of loving and being loved, and we CERTAINLY don't see MAT being given any evidence to suggest that. he just randomly decides he loves her for no reason when all he's ever seen from her is arrogance and coldness and shitty treatment of all the people around her including himself.

4. some point of emotional connection/common ground that transcends the battle lines they've drawn with each other

galadriel and adar have both loved and then been hurt and used by sauron. for galadriel especially with the pain being so fresh, all season we see how hard it is for her to cope with and we see that no one around her really gets it, not even her closest friend, but the convo with adar - she's having her pain understood and validated and shared for the first time, and that's huge. as the actors have said, it's also a very depressing and fucked up point of commonality to have as the thing tying them together haha but having that initial trigger for an emotional common ground is important in making it possible for the relationship to evolve into something less hostile. (which does not happen in canon, but it's easy to see a path where it could.)

i feel like mat and tuon enjoying playing stones together and bonding with olver is RJ's attempt to do this, but considering how incredibly vast the ocean between them is and how polarly opposed each is to everything the other stands for, those points of commonality are way too shallow to create a connection meaningful enough to begin bridging that gap in a believable way. because TRUE emotional connection has to come from vulnerability, and RJ never lets tuon be vulnerable!

that's all i've got for now! thankfully, most of these problems are not hard to fix and i have faith wotshow will do so, given how good it is at characterwork and relationship development and emotional stuff. also, worth noting that a big factor in my galadriel/adar shipping is simply that the actors have amazing chemistry (it never occurred to me to ship galadriel and joseph's adar even though they acted brilliantly opposite each other - their barn scene was my favorite moment of the season - but i INSTANTLY shipped galadriel and sam's adar because they just have a different sort of spark between them), and so casting alone could do a heck of a lot of legwork for mat/tuon. donal!mat is sooooooo charming and shippable, i truly look forward to seeing a tuon who sparks really well off him!

[queer-here-and-in-fear]

FUCKEN STEAM COMMISSIONS: ROUND TWO

hello!! these are my steam commissions, for when i want video games but. dont have any fucking money. because i am a jobless teenager <3. help a teenager get her paws on video games!!

reasons why you should commission me:

its fucking art fight! everyone else is busy

i have gotten better!! rejoice

i have an ACTUAL CASHAPP now. BLESS.

im pricing these losely baby, based off hopes and dreams!! simple pieces are like. 5~ dollars. a bit harder are like 10-20~ dollars. shading + coloring cost NO EXTRA and are for free on any piece, bc i do that anyway!! unless you SPECIFICALLY REQUEST i dont add them. bonus, if you just.. cant afford the suggested price, tell me and i lower it. its money either way man, no heat.

any edits are FREE unless they get HEAVILY, HEAVILY excessive and are you actively changing your mind, and not a mistake I made!! even then its only like. 2 bucks.

you WILL get the piece back like. day of - two days after, depending on when you commission, how many commission and my schedule. thats a pretty good turn around, i think!!

im only adding slots if a BUNCH of ppl commission in rapid succession.

if i cant draw something i will just. tell you. so no chance you get especially bad shit. and if you hate a piece i will most likely just. not make you pay and take the free art practice. if i see you using it though i WILL kill your ass.

examples (YES. this is mostly tss fanart. however my autism is irrelevant to this post /silly):

more under the cuttttttt!!! and if you have any questions just dm me, i dont bite!!

note: these are from about the last ~8 months and show a LARGE variety in skill. but they are in MOSTLY chronological order, luckily. these are just any pieces i feel particularly proud of!! and YES, its STILL mostly sanders sides fanart.

[roboticonography]

it's getting really upsetting to see certain corners of the fandom demonize peggy. do you have any thoughts on the matter?

Oh, if only this were a new thing, anon!

I’ve been in the MCU fandom since before there was an MCU to speak of. Shitting on women characters and the actors who play them has been going on forever. People posted about how they hated Pepper Potts, saying she wasn’t a good partner to Tony because she didn’t constantly enable his erratic behaviour, or sacrifice her safety to accommodate his trauma. They posted about how Pepper should have died in Iron Man 2, for the good of Tony’s story, and when Iron Man 3 came out, they said the same thing. It was fucking exhausting.

People also posted about how they hated Natasha Romanoff, how they hated Jane Foster, how they hated Wanda Maximoff, how they hated Sharon Carter. 

And yes, there were Peggy-haters then too. They called her a “karate-kicking fucktoy” and a “vengeful feminazi” and those are the most polite terms I can recall. They complained that she was too powerful, they complained that she was too feminine, they complained that she was pointless without Steve, they complained that she talked about Steve too much. And so on, and so forth, ad infinitum.

Now, to be clear, I am not talking about some of the very valid criticisms people had about the Agent Carter series - its writing, its casting, etc. I am also not talking about the very valid criticisms people have about the larger MCU related to representation, or lack thereof, across multiple fronts. I believe it’s possible to enjoy a piece of media and still have issues with some (or even many) aspects of it, and I enjoy reading posts that grapple with those issues. I’m not even talking about venting about a popular character you can’t stand: that has its place, though I’d argue that the place is probably not in the tag for that character. (I guarantee you, your “unpopular opinion” is never as unpopular as you think.)

I’m talking about misogyny. The same tired, rehashed, played out bullshit woman-hating that has existed in fandoms, so many fandoms, for at least the 25+ years that I’ve been active in them.

And that’s still what’s happening.

Many of the posts I’ve seen that fall under this category are expressing anger that one character or relationship or storyline or interpretation of canon is getting airtime, while another one, one they like better, is not. I’m not going to argue with anyone about that. You like what you like, and you're entitled to be annoyed if you don't get it. But if your argument is sound, you should be able to make your point effectively without calling the character the grossest euphemism for vagina you can find, or speculating on the exact sex acts an actor had to do to keep her character popular.

Other posts I’ve seen are just absolute buckwild conspiracy theory nonsense. The only thing I have to say about that is, yikes. Get well soon.

Tumblr, like other social media platforms, recognizes that they get more engagement if people are forced to play in the same sandbox, which is why it probably feels like you're seeing a disproportionate number of hate posts. And anyone who writes for money on the internet knows that hate clicks are often the juiciest clicks, and so they will write articles and listicles and polls with titles and subjects designed to get your blood up. It’s become increasingly difficult to avoid seeing other people’s ridiculous opinions. But that’s still the strategy that I find best helps me enjoy fandom. 

So if “certain corners” of the fandom are not to your taste, anon, then my advice is this: block, blacklist, and just don’t engage. Don’t feed the trolls. Instead, put that energy into positive interactions. Make art. Comment on things you liked. Find your friends, and have conversations that inspire you and amuse you, instead of ones that make you angry and tired.

Thanks for the ask! Take care.

[holly-fixation]

Everyone loves a good old fix-it AU, and in the case of Final Fantasy VII, it usually involves burning all the BAD things at Nibelheim: Jenova's body and Shinra Manor (at least the basement).

Though I am guilty of this same easy plot line, I cannot believe it to be true in universe. Fair warning, what follows is a break down of in game Canon, analysis, and my own headcanons on what would happen if Jenova's body burned.

In game canon:

Everything that lives and dies on the Planet returns to the planet. The Planet gives life to the next soul born. This keeps the Planet's circle of life rolling and the Lifestream strong. The Lifestream is every soul that has died on the planet, becoming this sort of consciousness soup as you see in the Who Am I sequence of FF7.

Why does this matter?

Every soul that dies on the Planet becomes one with the Planet. And this poses a problem when a malevolent alien lands on the surface.

In the videos Gast recorded in Icicle Village, Ifalna explains that Jenova spread a virus and that the Planet would never be able to fully heal itself as long as it exists. The surviving Cetra "defeated" and "confined" Jenova to the Northern Crater/Cave. And despite its confinement, "it could still come back to life at some time."

In the game, Sephiroth's goal is to become a god by summoning meteor, which would force all the planet's energy (the Lifestream) to one place for him to absorb.

Adding just a little bit of content from Advent Children: Geostigma, the virus that spreads S cells, is assumed to be connected with close and long proximity to mako. Mako is refined Lifestream for energy generation. Sephiroth is dead at this point.

Also, Sephiroth's plan in Advent Children: "The last thoughts of geostigma’s dead. Those Remnants will join the Lifestream and girdle the planet – choking it, corroding it."

Analysis/My head canon:

Defeated and confined do not mean killed. "It can come back to life" can easily mean "it can regain control of itself". Think about cryo-stasis where a body and (hopfully) a mind can be kept suspended with minimal aging usually up to a certain point, say waiting for a cure to be discovered for a person's terminal illness (yes I am using Mr. Freeze's wife as my example but hear me out). What I'm saying is, Jenova's probably not DEAD dead at the Northern Crater.

The Cetra probably were probably warned by the Planet that if Jenova were to die, it's virus would enter the Planet/Lifestream itself (like Geostigma). So my conclusion has always been, (even from my first play through of the game when I didn't even know about the scenes with Gast and Ifalna or the movie), Jenova is alive from the moment she landed on the Planet. In stasis? Yes. Mobile? Hell no. Psychologically active? No in game evidence and though I do love the idea, (this will does not apply in this post though).

So long story long, Jenova's burned body may lead to early Geostigma/Jenoav's specific virus and rotting of the planet from the inside out. It may accelerate Jenova's plans instead of halting them indefinitely. And God forbid whoever in the fix it burns the body also throws her remains into the mako below, she might rebuild her body using the Lifestream itself. After all, Sephiroth wanted to absorb the Lifestream to become a God. Why wouldn't Jenova be able to do the same?

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[mille-marteaux]

Touhoumon Purple (pinned post)

This is a pinned post! There is newer blog content below this point, but the rest of this post is contained beneath the Read More button.

Last update: March 19th, 2023

Documentation, downloads:

Changelog:

New documentation hub and landing page. It's included as a link to a Google Spreadsheet. While this is primarily the same as the contents of the text files, its easier on you for not having to juggle like ten tabs or whatever.

Mandatory Strength boulders have been pre-moved by default. Optional ones for items still require the HM, however.

Starters now evolve at level 30 instead of level 36. Learnset levels are adjusted for starter Chibi forms and evolved forms, including stone evolutions.

Red UFOs exchanges changed. They are now used for IV maxing NPCs near Mossdeep.

There are four NPCs with different IV spreads.

One is all 31. This is for most casual users in-game.

One is Attack 0, rest 31. This is to minimize self-damage from confusion on puppets that aren't using their Attack stat. Very min-maxy.

One is Speed 0, rest 31. This is even more niche and min-maxy than the last; the only use case for this is for purposefully slowing puppets down for Baton Pass. Gen 3 will sometimes use Baton Pass as a neutral turn switch, similar to U-Turn.

The last is Attack/Speed 0, rest 31. This is very niche and min-maxy. This is again for Baton Pass, but also minimizes confusion self-damage.

EV training NPCs in the Frontier changed. They now give 4 EVs in their listed stat per battle. This slows the process of EV training down but makes it way easier to make specialized EV spreads.

All TMs are now in Lilycove Mart, as well as the "rare" berries

Tori can now evolve into Chibi versions of the birds in the sprite

Yes, this does some absolutely ridiculous things to their movepools. blast burn mystia lets goooooooo

Tewi, Attack Tewi, and Defense Tewi can now all fully slide Attack and Defense could already slide, so this just makes it funnier. Use a Power Shard on Attack Tewi to turn her into normal Tewi, etc no advent though she can keep that movepool to herself

"Energy Ball" has, finally, been renamed to "Focus Blast"

Evolved Koishi now holds PP Up at 50% and PP Max at 5%

Reisen II buffs, finally -- Typing is now Heart/Fire -- Stats are now 65 HP, 60 ATK, 80 DEF, 130 S.ATK, 65 S.DEF, 85 Speed -- Her level-up movepool is unchanged, but she can learn a huge mess of special moves via TM now. This makes her usable if you want to, but you have to invest in her pretty heavily depending on what you may want to run -- Her primary ability is now Magnet Pull -- Gained Pickup as a secondary ability

Added another above-curve item, similar to Elder Pain and Psycho Wand -- It functions as a Quick Claw that always activates. Due to its relative ease of obtaining compared to the previous two items, there is only one way to obtain it unless playing the Sandbox version

This is actually the final update to this hack because I'm sick of binary hacking. It's tedious, slow, annoying, and things can just break. I'm tired of making multiple gigabytes of backups just because I want to change some images or text around.

This project is done! Complete, finished. There is nothing more that I can reasonably fit into this game anymore that I want to include.

I want to be done with this project.. so I am! Unless something is broken, I guess. If it literally does not function by my own fault, I'll fix it, but I'm not adding or changing anything else from this point on.

The shift to a Google Sheet is because we anticipate the current hosting, and by extension website, to go down permanently.

While backups are in place whenever a new hosting plan is picked out, this will continue to exist as a central information hub just so you don't have to thumb through multiple text files and wiki dive.

As of the time of posting this, the documentation is not 100% complete - I have yet to do level-up movesets and TM/HM compatibility, but I intend to work on that soon enough.

There are a few more things cooking right now, so stay tuned!

[translationandbetrayals]

My journey with Idol’s animes and mangas - Part 2

I’m back with this journey, but before the anime review (I still don’t know why i added mangas in the title, I’m barely trying to read “Oshi no Ko” in chapter 50 and “Oshi ga Tonari de Jugyou ni Shuuchuu Dekinai!”in chapter like… 5?)

I want to try and explain a little bit of japanese idols, as far as I know, because if someone of this class reads this, i doubt they know japanese idols besides japanese members in korean groups.

  Disclaimer that I forgot last time: my posts respect the Japanese names’ order.

The idol history usually is told to start in the 1960s traced to Yoshinaga Sayuri, who was an actress, but also to the Takarazuka Revue, and the starting in 1962 with Johnny’s Entertainement creating the group Johnnys being then said to be the first active idol group in Japan, and also Kitagawa Johnny being credited as the idol trainee system’s creator. 

On the other side also told it basically started as an effect of the popularity that the french film “Cherchez l’idole” got in Japan. But as a last this year was made a TV Movie (titled “Idol”　「アイドル」with sarcasm i need to say “what a creative title!”) about the one artist who Japan considers the first idol, Ashita Matsuko, an idol in the war’s period (specifically the movie is set in 1936), I cannot actually tell more because I haven’t been able to watch it yet, i only know is based on Matsuko’s real life.

Besides this kind of complex start point (with the information I’ve found in these years as idol wota). We can definitively say that the gap between the 60’s and 80’s are the golden age of idol, traditionally talking, with all the icons we get from this period, like Matsuda Seiko, Nanno, Moritaka Chisato, Sakai Noriko, and the group Onyanko Club.

This being also possible because of Japan’s economic bubble and the commercial interest on them growing, in this times idols weren’t close to the fans, and you can really notice this with Konno Junko from Zombieland Saga (as far as I know because I haven't watched this anime). The 90’s bring a declive in the interest on idols due to a shift in attitudes caused by Japan’s economic collapse. The idol interest also shifted from amateurs to professionals (partially because of a rehaul on Matsuda Seiko’s public image). This period was called The Idol Winter Period” アイドル冬の時代 and we got icons as Amuro Namie and SPEED, even though they never referred to themselves as idols.

In the 90’s we got the chidol boom, as the elementary aged idols were increasing.

The lasts years of the 90’s and the 2000’s bring more popularity to idols again, specially thanks to Morning Musume and the posterior creation of Hello! Project (excuse me to be a little out of this more academically moment to say that I love this conglomerate), this also started to bring the “Idols warring period” アイドル戦国時代 (which i’m not clear if it continues today) getting groups like AKB48 in 2002 (and posteriorly their sister groups), and having more groups since 2010 like Momoiro Clover Z, Dempagumi.inc, and more.

  This was a short history about idols, must say that Johnny’s Entertainement are STILL relevant today, yes, since the 60’s.

Anyways the idol industry is big in history, and in variety, this is a message to promote you to listen and hopefully you find one that fits to you liking.

NOW! To what I am here

Today I’ll review the anime I watched because one of my favorite idols had a character in…

  SHINEPOST

  LET’S START

First of all, the anime is a Light Novel adaptation, the novel titled “Shine Post: Nee Shitteta? Watashi wo Zettai Idol ni Suru Tame no, Goku Futsuu de Atarimae na, Tobikkiri no Mahou”... I cannot say a lot about this point, I wish I was able to found it translated to english or spanish.

Moving on, I’ll try to not spoil it, but the supernatural tag MyAnimeList gives us is really intriguing at first; it has its reason to exist, and is pretty good, not really heavy, but it helps a lot to understand the characters.

To resume it, is that a group called TiNgS is going to reach their first anniversary and haven’t being able to fill yet a live house

 (being this the smaller spaces to have a concert) while their rival group who debuted basically at the same time, HY:RAIN, has a confirmed Nippon Budokan concert (we know thanks to OshiBudo this place is IMPORTANT to idols), so TiNgS got a mission, to be able to fill the Nakano Sun Plaza’s concert hall or they would disband, 

to reach this mission they get a manager, it seems a bit weird to me they didn’t have one, but anyways, this manager will help them to release the best of each member to complete the mission.

    I said I watched it because of an idol voicing a character in it, 

but I must say I got trapped by the story way before her voice appeared in the anime, so, IS A GOOD ANIME.

  Shows a lot of effort from chika idols to reach their dreams, and at the same time their problems, specially thanks to this supernatural point, when you realize what it does, you can understand all the story as it is going towards the climax of the episode.

  We see the girls rehearsal, handing pamphlets of their concerts, 

planning what to do with their manager, and even working their own self-trust, on the trust of their group mates.

We also get flashbacks about why they are there, why they decided to become idols (spoiler alert: it’s because of an idol).

And going towards the 9th episode IS ALL SO WOW, you get it in the 8th, but it flows nicely in my opinion.

Story wise, I would lie if i say i didn’t cry or i didn’t get mad (I’m really mad at one specific character, but isn’t that mean, is in a way understandable, but still kinda mean). I really recommend it.

The songs are good! From TINGS (this way to write the group’s name is a hint for the story); and also from HY:RAIN, and i’m not saying this being “biased” but i like a bit more HY:RAIN’s songs.

The animation is nice, the way they used the 3D for dance scenes is, in my opinion, nice. I just have one thing I dislike; and is the fact that I DON’T SEE ANY MICROPHONE! not even diadem ones.

  This one is the exception about microphones.

The images we got at some endings I find amazing, some are like Paris themed.

  The SHINEPOST twitter account gives us 1koma, which amplifies (i want to think so) the lore, or at least I think so. And those are SO CUTE and funny, even though I don’t understand most of them!

Character development is good.

I gave it a 9/10 on MyAnimeList, but I think it might be 10 sometimes.

  Do you want to ask me if there’s anything (in slang) fruity? Well, I want to say no, because… I don’t have any reason really, I just (and surprisingly enough) didn’t had a medium amount of focus to even make up ships, but! the friendship that Momiji and Rio have is so pure and lovely.

 And Yukine is like a mom for TINGS, always helping in even the most ordinary things. 

Aoba (even tho small amount of screen time) is for real a big sister (like, really she has her own little sister in her group) but also mom-like i think. 

I'd say they’re all family, and the interactions between both (and others) groups that the 1koma give us have that energy.

  All said here, see you next post.

I really hope you make a space and watch SHINEPOST (legally, here)

  -CaMHH

[daemonhxckergrrl]

re: your ask from greyr4t about win10: as you said in your answer its free, just needs a key for 'activation.' ime activating win10 has been worth it. like you mentioned, it isnt strictly necessary, one can make do fine in a somewhat limited capacity with the watermark in the corner forever (unless your monitor is an OLED then have fun with 100% guaranteed screen burn in lmao. or unless always seeing it enrages you disproportionately. as in my case). but having windows activated is honestly just nice, it makes many things easier and is more sustainable in the long run... worth the extremely minor hassle as like a QoL thing imo. you also brought up that its possible to circumvent microsoft (and its brazenly insane asking prices 🤬) & buy cheap keys online from third parties. i wanted to talk about how i did shit, hopefully it helps the original asker directly or at least comes in handy to know

so i bought my (shady bootleg, yes, but perfectly functional for years now) win10 activation key for even cheaper than what Synthia listed as a price point- iirc, under 5 bucks USD. (might be higher now w inflation, but id be surprised if its much more than around 10.) if things still work how they used to, you can do this on ebay. technically ebays policies dont allow it, so the accounts selling these keys come and go frequently due to getting shut down by ebay after popping up. thus, dont necessarily be put off if the seller hasnt existed for long, as often thats just how it goes (or it did. hopefully this sort of thing is still going strong🤞); do trust happy reviews. now, there are a few TYPES of activation keys– priced slightly different, nothing big– that correspond to different editions of windows 10. so basically its home edition, pro edition, and "pro for workstations". might be worth finding a brief summary of each to determine which edition best meets your needs. (there are more editions beyond the main trio, look into those too if you want, but the tldr on em is theyre for like niche markets w/ highly specific use cases.) fwiw, i got pro & am happy with it. another thing, from personal experience: may or may not be obvious but you're gonna wanna save a screenshot of your key somewhere safe and accessible. additionally though, label the screenshot somehow so you know what it is later, and if youre a disorganized scatterbrain like i am then put that in multiple places you can reliably access so if/when youre having trouble tracking it down you know where else to look; it came in handy for me to have access to it in places both online (cloud storage like google drive or dropbox for example, or even just saving the email copy of the ebay mssg in the designated folder in your email for the ones containing info you wanna save) & off (physical note on paper, stored in the files on one or more personal devices, etc). theres a huge chance youll need it again in the future– like say if you want to upgrade certain hardware– and likely more than once. final advice: highly recommend looking into comprehensive ways of "defanging" and/or "lobotomizing" windows, as they say. i.e., a tip that gets circulated is doing the initial setup for windows w your pc in airplane mode / ethernet unplugged so you dont have to make a microsoft account so they cant create a profile on you to collect your data to sell off & target ads at you (which is obvi totally reversible later if you decide the benefits of having an account outweigh the drawbacks). shit like that, plus the loads of guides out there– many here on tumblr itself– on extensive fucking around in various settings to disable bloatware / preserve privacy / other useful stuff, that can get pretty granular. i think ive even seen Synthia herself reblog posts like that here a couple times, maybe? perhaps try checking relevant-seeming tags from the tagging system in her pinned, or do a blog search for the term 'windows' and see what all there is to find

phew, anyway, jesus christ! sorry this got to be such a long writeup!!! some of this blog's aggregate of resources have been a big help to me, so i wanted to try to pay it forward a little <3 and, Synthia, if you wouldnt mind, tagging the original asker in your response to this anon so that greyr4t is more likely to see all this would be very much appreciated by me!! ty in advance!! thanks also for your careful curation of useful info on this blog, plus the helpful posts and guides youve written here for us yourself 👍🌈

hi anon ! thanks for writing all this up !! lots of great points here - hopefully they help you out @greyr4t ! the airplane mode one is real important too if you care about privacy (and the fact you can't choose to make a local account during installation unless you are disconnected from the internet is awful and yet another dark pattern-type tactic.

i'm glad my blog's been good for you <3 (though i do need to go through and make all the important stuff a bit easier to access at some point)

iirc there's some reblogs on general privacy stuff (probably under one of the REPO tags and like "net privacy" or similar) as well as my own firefox post, and maybe more will happen in the future when i get to them

[wildbearadactyl]

Howdy, it's your girl here to aid us all in the "oh no where have our users gone" stage, in fact there is an alternative that is not closed source and not run by a corporation; that is basically one to one minus a small handful of features that are coming in future updates, that has made a pledge not to paywall things thus far. Lemme introduce you to Revolt, yes I will die on the hill of it as an alternative, and yes I am more or less copying from another post I made. Fair warning, this is probably more useful to Desktop and Android users than iOS users; as the iOS version is relegated to the browser app presumably due to Apple's strict store policies. However, it is on their roadmap to have a native iOS app in the future. For now, you can do the typical just installing the webapp via Safari. Also don't use the windows store version for desktop, just go to their github that's listed on the download page and install it from there, UWP is a mistake. Ahem, Revolt is more or less Discord before they went public with quite a few added benefits and a very good philosophy surrounding it and its design. It's missing a small handful of features, but the creator is also on record saying paywalling content is against everything the project is about. Many of the Nitro features that Discord has, are already working and totally free to use with Revolt; such as custom profile images, cross server emoji use, and gif profile pictures. It's open source, as well, so in the even of the main branch making a change that isn't liked; just like with Audacity it can be forked. It's overall a passion project, that has a secondary goal of providing proper competition to Discord. The UI is quite literally just Discord before the change over on mobile, and the Desktop app is pretty much identical. It also comes with some things Discord does not have, such as a completely customizable theme for the app using Hex Codes or a Colour Picker for each part of the app. It even gets as granular as allowing you to use custom CSS, though disclaimer I am currently not aware of how deep that goes. They even have a selection of different fonts for you to choose from. On their roadmap, currently, is also end to end encryption for private messages and group chats; so for privacy conscious people like myself, this is a very nice thing to see. They also have stated bluntly they will not be selling or leaking data to advertisers. They are based in Europe, and therefore bound to the GDPR. The app is currently still in development, and has been for a few years now, so it will have some growing pains associated with it.

Here is a screenshot of the current Desktop UI from their Github (and given I use the app I can confirm this is exactly what it looks like), though, it translates 1 to 1 just like the old Discord Mobile UI did.

And, here is a link to their FAQ where they mention their lack of intention to paywall features, along with giving other reassurances and of course being a FAQ.

I have zero affiliation with Revolt or its team, I am just a FOSS enthusiast, and am really excited to see an actual alternative to Discord that doesn't totally reinvent the wheel; and that is not owned by a corporation (see to Guilded.)

I greatly encourage you all to at least look in to or try Revolt, and beyond that to actively seek FOSS applications in general where you can. It's the only real way we can reclaim the internet from corporations.

sustainable.

[molemanninethousand]

Resuming with commentary posts on my battles, am I, now? Why, yes; yes, I am.

The decision to make this video in the form and format in which it now exists came very sporadically in a sudden stroke of inspiration following roughly a year of inactivity from MERB, after which it was immediately and rapidly produced. As of MERB #51, the next battle was intended to simply be Petyr Baelish Vs. Bigfoot, which had been part of long-term plans for years beforehand as evidenced by the cryptid's silhouette teased among other characters at the end of MERB #42. The idea was amusing enough on paper, but come time to actually make the battle, I found Bigfoot exceedingly difficult to work with as a figure, leading me to keep putting off on writing it, and by July of 2022, the amount of time that had passed without a battle from me was well-past the point where the initial concept for MERB #52 wouldn't have cut it as a hiatus-breaker.

As such, I revamped plans while still refusing to outright go back on the in-video promises of both Littlefinger and Bigfoot, using V.V. Argost from The Secret Saturdays as a more specific and less nebulously-defined version of the latter while formatting the video as a meta-commentary on my own poor scheduling, using it to establish a roadmap going forward and adding additional characters whom I was interested in using yet had no solid conventional matchups for (or whose would-be matchups would be incompatible with others I was now planning in one particular case). The first MERB News is something of a pet personal favorite among my older videos, after all.

I remain extremely grateful to Justin Mike Buckner, now known as Mr. Jay, for playing Joseph Smith here in what is definitely a solid candidate for the single best verse in my entire series, partially on account of its unrivaled length but definitely solidified by his performance. Skeep Tieel as the Crypt-Keeper is another highlight in this lineup, and Finn McCool as Argost warrants mention as well in terms of vocal talent from fellow YouTubers here. Even though he's only a cameo in this, it was also cool to have Yobar in an actual completed video after his MERB debut as Nom Anor in Sonic Vs. Star Wars ended up being relegated to audio-only status.

As stated in its outro, every character I had planned to use in the seven battles announced through this video is hinted at in its lyrics; this is no longer the case, but only on account of plans being expanded to include two more battles, with the "season" (which has occupied half the time my series has existed at this point, I know) currently intended to end at #60.

I'm well-aware that despite it serving as an announcement of a major return my quantity of output since this video has remained severely wanting, which I'll admit has had to do with me relapsing into investment in cartoon girls being [REDACTED]. As of this posting, here's hoping once more to pick up the pace going forward, and that the resumption of my activity here on Tumblr will help keep me motivated in that regard...

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

So I (finally!) bought a pair of really good noise cancelling headphones, and it has changed my life! It's the fanciest thing I've bought in years, so to recoup some of the cost, I’ve researched & written a little essay based on my experiences with extreme noise sensitivity.

Hypersensitivity to sound is something I’ve dealt with all of my life, but I only recently found out it's medically known a Hyperacusis. (Please note this is a separate condition from Misophonia.) If you consistently struggle to cope with noise, the info below could be helpful! I’m including a link to my ko-fi, and I will be answering questions in the notes.

(skip to the bottom to read fun facts about my tax return and/or street organs vendettas!)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional, this is based solely on my experiences as a patient, and on what I have read and been told by professionals. Please notify me if you have corrections or concerns about accuracy!

BACKGROUND: Sensitivity to sound is a common type of sensory issue. While anyone can experience such issues (most people, for example, might be bothered by loud music in a crowded restaurant), some people are more sensitive than others, to the point it becomes a quality-of-life aka a medical issue.

If you consistently struggle with environmental stimuli that other people aren’t bothered by (background noises, bright lights, certain textures and tastes, etc), to the point it causes daily discomfort or limits the environments you can be in, I recommend reading about Sensory Processing Disorder.

SPD and sound sensitivity are both super common in autistic folks (like me!), but allistic (non-autistic) people can experience them too. Weep, ye prisoners of mortal coil, for none are safe, nothing sacred, not in this thy most accursed tomb of human flesh!

Anyway.

SOUND SENSITIVITY or HYPERACUSIS: Noise issues are particularly difficult to navigate in a world that is increasingly...noisy. The relatively new phenomenon of constant overhead music in restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls etc—all of this means that public spaces are increasingly inaccessible to people with auditory issues.*

As a kid, nothing quite triggered sensory overload/meltdowns for me like the constant exposure to noise I couldn’t control—the background chatter of other kids in the lunchroom, the constant noise in public spaces, being trapped in the car with the radio on.... I had so many fights with my siblings about the car radio, and who got to choose the music.**

But it’s not just loud sounds that are the problem. As an adult who lives alone and works from home***, I’m lucky enough to be able to avoid loud environments most of the time. This does wonders for my general levels of anxiety and discomfort. But even in a mostly controlled environment, I still experience problems. Because part of sound sensitivity is that even normal or quiet sounds can feel loud and intrusive. Here are some “normal” sounds that can cause me discomfort (ranging from annoyance to outright pain, depending on the day):

refrigerator/AC/ceiling lights humming

dishwasher/washing machine noises

ceiling fan making that damn ceiling fan noise

faint sounds of traffic

riding in a car

other people having a normal conversation in the background

someone talking to me in a perfectly normal inside voice

Unfortunately, even in a “controlled” environment, many triggering noises can’t be controlled. And many parts of life can’t be lived in a controlled environment. This presents...some incredibly freaking annoying problems. Luckily there are solutions!

Sorta.

There are sorta some solutions.

They are imperfect, but they help.

TREATMENT: And now I have something rather shame-faced to admit. In all the years of managing my symptoms, it never once occurred to me to see a hearing specialist for my issues with sound. I wasn’t even aware that treatment options exist, because none of my other doctors mentioned it. Instead, I’ve spent years finding my own coping mechanisms and tools, with help from therapists and psychiatrists, but without ever consulting an audiologist/ENT. It was only while researching this post that I found out that was even an option, holy shit.

So it turns out I am going to be making an appointment with my local ENT practice. shit.

Apparently treatment options include sound/acoustic therapy, systematic desensitization/exposure therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, sound machines, and other options that I had no idea even existed, goddammit.

MANAGEMENT: In the meantime, here are my current coping mechanisms. I’ve relied rather heavily on hearing protection, which is very useful when used in moderation. Unfortunately, it can cause its own problems: it’s important not to overuse hearing protection, because in the long-term this can increase your sensitivity. So again: a useful tool, but be careful not to overdo it.

With that in mind, here are some of the coping strategies I’ve used over the last decade to manage my symptoms. This is not a perfect system and you should contact your local ENT clinic for better, long-term solutions, but in the meantime here are some tips I use to just get myself through the damn day:

Regularly spending time in a quiet controlled environment, to allow my nervous system to decompress.

Wearing earplugs, (I use two different grade, depending on the level of noise prevention I need), and always carrying an extra pair in case I need them unexpectedly. I bought a 50 pack for $7 and put spares in all my bags and jacket pockets.

(I mostly use Mack’s Ultra Soft, but there are so many types and materials and brands, including foam, silicone, wax, custom moldable etc. Even if you have trouble wearing things in your ears, you might be able to find something comfortable.)

Similarly: hearing protection earmuffs, the kind used in gun ranges and on construction sites. I bought mine online for $10. they look like normal wireless headphones, so I've never gotten comments when wearing mine in public (other than “cool heaphones” bc i added skull glitter stickers).

Sometimes I wear the earmuffs on top of earplugs, when life is just too damn LOUD.

Listening to music w/ earbuds or headphones is a great way to balance out background noises, especially if you can find soothing playlists that help you concentrate. Also useful to put in just one earbud when you need to pay attention in class/at work.

Pro tip: if your hair is long enough you can wear wireless earbuds without anyone knowing.

White noise, rain noises, ocean noises etc can be helpful! Some people like whale songs although personally this activates my primal fear response

Active noise cancelling headphones: the reason I wrote this post to begin with—I finally bought a pair! As in, a really good pair! As in, a depressingly expensive pair with noise cancelling technology that actually WORKS, holy shit. I probably need to wear them a little less at home (bc overprotection causes problems in the longterm) but they have absolutely transformed my ability to go out in public and i never ever want to take these suckers off again please take a power screwdriver and nail these to my head, bury me in the sweet sweet shroud of silence. holy canoli and cream puffs I want to marry form a civil partnership with these headphones. Plus they have a bunch of features, like being able to control the level of noise cancellation, so I can hold a conversation or be aware of some ambient noise for safety reasons.

Oh, and also they play music I guess?

Sorry sorry I promise this post wasn’t supposed to be me shilling for Big Electronics. I’m just excited, I’m an excited flabby little ball of expired flubber. ANC headphones aren’t a perfect solution, and I still sometimes wear earplugs underneath, and I will always be uncomfortable some of the time, but for me it’s been a big step.

Unfortunately the cost of good quality ANC technology means this isn’t an option for everyone, and the (much cheaper) gunshot protection earmuffs I mentioned earlier still provide an impressive amount of protection and bang-for-your buck (maybe even an equal amount of protection, if you can find ones that fit well). But if noise consistently prevents you from enjoying public space and life in general, and you’ve already tried earmuffs & earplugs and find they don’t offer enough comfort/convenience/protection, and if you’re in a position to save up for a one time non-necessity purchase of $150+, noise cancelling headphones are an option to be aware of. (Please always check the return policy so you can try before you buy. I ended up buying and returning 2 pairs before finding what worked best for me. And please look for a retailer that offers an extended warranty. You want those motherforkers to last).

There are cheaper options available, including some under $50. The ones I tried didn't work as well as my hearing protection earmuffs, but some people report good experiences, so that is something to consider. it's always good to know your options! Passive noise canceling is another affordable alternative.

Medication: A final tool in my toolbox, which for me personally has helped as much as every other method combined. Like, a lot, it’s helped a lot. It turns out some anti-anxiety medications can also help sensory issues. There’s not much research on this, and I only discovered it firsthand when a medication my doctor prescribed for anxiety ended up significantly helping my sensory issues. I no longer need medication for anxiety, but my psychiatrist still prescribes that same medication off-label for my sensory stuff. Ask your psychiatrist to research your options (they will probably have to do some digging to find relevant research, but you deserve to know all your options, even the obscure ones). Fyi, the medication I use is in the benzodiazepines class, but there are other options for those concerned about dependency or side effects.

(I'm also told anti-anxiety supplements may be helpful, though I haven't tried this yet. If you're on prescription meds, always talk to your doctor about contraindications before taking anything over-the-counter.)

So there you have it, my main coping strategies for sound sensitivity! They are not a replacement for medical treatment (except that last one which is in fact...medical treatment), but I find them helpful and I hope some of you will too! I’ve struggled for a long time, and I’m very pleased to have reached the point where I can just do things in public. Eating out in loud restaurants? I can do that now, and even enjoy it, holy shit! I can comfortably travel in cars for hours at a time, and walk around shopping malls and grocery stores with overhead music, and, and —and just exist. It is so so freeing, to feel like maybe, after everything, you are actually allowed to just exist in a world that wasn’t really designed for you.

Again, be careful not to overuse hearing protection—the goal is to allow you to be less uncomfortable and to function better, but if you find you are becoming more sensitive to noise, it is time to dial it back a notch. Or maybe consider listening to music (at a reasonable volume) to block out background noise instead.

*(This also includes people with hearing loss and related issues, btw. While that’s not my area of knowledge, I would welcome it if any of my HoH followers want to share their experiences.)

**A sign of sensory issues that parents often miss is when a child complains about music being too loud—but has no problem listening to their own music at high volume. This is because music that is already familiar to the listener (and that the listener enjoys) is much easier for the brain to process, since it knows what pattern of sounds to expect. Loud music that they get to control can be soothing for people with sound issues, especially when it blocks out background noise and sensations. This is why repetitively playing the same songs can be a helpful form of stimming.

***(working on this blog, actually. since it’s my only source of income, my 2020 income tax return literally lists my occupation as ‘Tumblr Blogger.’ Oddly, my parent didn’t feel this achievement was worth including in the holiday family newsletter.)

bonus fun fact: Charles Babbage aka “father of the computer” may have been autistic and hypersensitive to sound. He definitely had a huge problem with public noise pollution, and spent his later year waging a war on street musicians (and organ grinders in particular).

(bc like, yeah. screw organ grinders.)

Sometimes when I’m out in public and the overhead music is particularly unbearable, I’ll take a moment to look up to the sky and scream out: “HE TRIED TO WARN US! THE FATHER OF COMPUTERS TRIED TO WARN US!!! we should have listened, sweet heaven we should have listened!”

except i don’t scream it, i say it very quietly under my breath

(i have issues with noise)

so yeah that is my short essay. and here is the ko-fi goal

k ciao i gotta go pick out glitter stickers for my headphones

[dracononite]

i dont want this to sound mean because i absolutely dont mean it that way.

but genuinely how do you feel comfortable setting prices for your comissions so high? do they sell out?

i ask because to sell comms i have to criminally undervalue my art (legit 8$ for a full body drawing) but no one ever buys comms if its more expensive.

how do you do it.

It's not mean! Artists pricing their work fairly is something I strongly advise and would like to advocate for more often, because I used to undercharge a fair bit as well. I don't take offense to people thinking my prices are high, because I know they're not anywhere close to industry standard, and that plenty of people can afford my commissions, because I do get a consistent stream of clients.

I'd like to get a little more in detail with commission pricing since I know it could be useful advice to artists who have less experience. But it's the end of my work day and this all might be somewhat scattered, so TLDR: I'm comfortable with how I price my commissions because of the time and skill that I put into them, and because I need to price them like that as art is my full-time job.

Now for the long version... To start off with, this is all based on my multiple years of doing art as a full-time job. I started doing commissions in 2017, supported myself through college with my art, and now am financially independent with an apartment lease. In the end this is all from my opinions / perspective, but I do have experience.

I base my prices on an hourly rate that I determined using this wonderful Twitter thread on accurately pricing commissions as a full-time artist. This may not be what you specifically need, but I recommend anyway since it's a great example of pricing your commissions in a way that's fair for you.

Once you've calculated an hourly rate, it's just a matter of timing how long it takes for you to finish a commission-quality piece from start to finish and using that to figure out what the base price of that specific commission type should be. Then you can consider things like add-ons (rendering, additional characters, etc) and upcharges (deadline fee, multiple correction rounds, etc.)

Adjusting your prices to your needs, demand and turnaround time can take a lot of finagling. I constantly adjust my prices, though I try to bump them up by a small bit every few months to account for my growing portfolio and audience, economic inflation, and how much I need to charge in sales taxes. Yes - add sales tax to your prices if you make any substantial amount with art. You can do so easily on Paypal and Stripe invoices! Otherwise, you're gonna get slammed with owed taxes come tax season, since taxes aren't automatically being deducted from your "paychecks" and sent to the gov like salary jobs. Trust me, it's happened to me, and I'm still paying off my 2021 taxes.

Also, doing the actual art is only half of, well, doing art as a job. The other half is what I call "housekeeping" or "agent" work - communicating with clients, building and updating a website/portfolio, posting finished pieces to art galleries, building a recognizable online presence/brand/aesthetic, and actively advertising your work in a way that gets both old and new eyes on it. And you need to keep in mind that this is work too, that you need to be paid for.

Adding all of that on top of what you might originally price your work at may seem excessive or intimidating, but everyone deserves a living wage. Learning to keep that in mind will help your confidence in pricing your work fairly.

Now for a few more tips:

Advertising can be hard because of social media algorithms and economic hardships, but you just gotta keep at it. Learn what type of posts work for you! I recommend using concise, clear language and easy-to-read layouts. Keeping a kind of consistent "template" to your advertisements can help people recognize that it's you before they even start reading.

As you grow your audience and portfolio, you can build a good reputation by being consistent and honest. Communication and turnaround time are huge. I personally give an estimated turnaround of 1-2 months to allow for sick days, weekends, delays and other obligations. Having a solid terms of service is really helpful too. I'm a-ok with anybody referencing mine, even copy/pasting it and adjusting it as you need. Feel free to!

Having small income on the side has been a huge help to doing art as a full-time job, if you're at all interested in it. I get pocket change every week from lineart base sales on my Ko-fi shop, but it really adds up. Patreon is a bigger investment since it operates on a monthly subscription basis. Personally, I use about half of the monthly pledges I get to pay for manufacturing stickers and postage. Even if you don't have a LOT to offer, if you want to do art for an audience and have people looking to support you, Patreon or similar sites might be worth looking into. Monthly sketch dumps, speedpaints, streams etc for a few bucks is more appealing to people than you might think, especially if it's things like storybuilding or character designs. People like getting invested in things!

I hope this helps you in some way, and maybe others out there too. It's taken me years to get to this point, so don't get discouraged! Underpricing art has become such an issue, especially on sites like Amino and DeviantArt that it's affecting artists' self-esteem and view on how they should price their work. But there are always people willing to pay for art. Art is a luxury and should be priced as such! It should be available for those who are seeking it out, not for everyone.