#and I’ll talk about things like the best times to post and how to utilize the tagging system!

[lawofangie]

Hello. I just saw your post about your manifestation journey while struggling with depression and I’ll probably just be another rant about “how difficult it is to manifest”, but honestly I just want to talk a little bit.

I��m at work right now. I’m a trainee in a law office and my relationship with my boss is deteriorating gradually.

While I was at school, I would always think that I would be happier at a job, because I like to feel useful and competent. But now that I have a job, I just feel miserable.

I already received complaints twice about “being distracted” and “not doing my best”, which came as shocking because I’ve been doing my best. I have two bosses and while one looks like she really appreciates me, the other one might be the contrary.

I always fails to do what she wants me to do.

So I have been having really tiresome dreams. I had one where they asked me to type a document and after a while it turns out it was a “you are fired document” and asked me to sigh it.

They laughed and said that “I wasn’t doing enough” and “I wasn’t attending my classes at college” which I WAS but it didn’t matter.

I actually can’t imagine my life better. It’s like my mind just blocks it from me. I feel like I can’t delude myself even if that’s what I want the most.

I really want to just escape and live happily but I just feel trapped and miserable. I think I can predict what you are going to advice me but…I just don’t know what to do. I’m scared.

this is actually kind of relatable. i've felt similarly at many points in my life, i struggled to function, i thought external things would make me happy, applying the law was difficult. i couldn't imagine my life any better either. i understand where this is coming from, i'll try to give less generic advice, but i'm going to be brutally honest, and, this still won't be anything special. its important to remember that regardless of what i say here, manifestation is still just assuming you have your desire and persisting in that fact.

anyways, it honestly gets to a point where you have to realize that you're just wasting your time feeling trapped and scared. you're doing yourself a disservice. no one and nothing can save you, nor is anything or anyone going to. as unfortunate as your circumstances are, you have to do it yourself.

you have to take what you want and prioritize that above how you feel, anyone's made you feel, and how anyone feels about you. your life is meant to revolve around you and no one else. its YOUR life for a reason.

you SHOULD NOT waste the best years of your life being miserable, feeling like a failure, like a victim, like you can't change, like you're trapped like this forever when that's completely illogical. everyone and everything changes. people change in age, appearance, personality, sexuality, preferences, etc. it's physically impossible to be incapable of change unless you're not alive. people change all the time.

you genuinely do not have the time to be so self loathing and miserable, not when you're going to literally grow old one day. and according to those who've made it there already, that day comes fast. do you want to look back at your life at 80 and see what you wasted it doing? when all this information was right in your face? when all you had to do was take a chance and have some faith in yourself?

changing yourself isn't impossible, you're just too scared to assume anything good about yourself, perhaps because you've gotten so used to being miserable. "changing yourself", by the way, just so we're clear, simply means to assume something new about yourself. for example, you already believe you are a failure, and to change would be to simply assume you're successful. that's quite literally it. you just believe in something without physical proof, that's assuming. we assume all the time. you're just assuming about yourself now. the law is extremely simple to utilize, but it's the simplicity that leads to people overcomplicating it themselves.

also, delusion is, by definition, a false belief that is resistant to change, even when presented with evidence that it is not true. an assumption, by definition, is a belief that is taken as true without proof or evidence. you need to realize the difference here. we are telling you to assume, not to delude yourself. we are promising you that the "proof" comes after you've fully accepted it as true. we're not telling you to actively deny something despite accepting it as true. what would be the point in that? if we're telling you that your assumptions, aka the things you believe to be true without proof manifest, why would we tell you to continue to accept something you don't want as true? does that make sense?

being delusional and making an assumption may seem similar in theory, but in practice, they are completely different. one is literally the result of a mental illness, the other is a very normal, very human behavior that we do every day. we make assumptions about ourselves, people, and situations. all. the. time. it seems like it's only a problem and called "delusional" when it's about yourself, and it's something good.

it's like being confident in yourself, believing in your abilities despite what others have to say about you. for example, you have a great confidence in a talent or skill, and the you believe that you will get better as you get older/more experienced/more knowledgeable, and you'll make it places and have great opportunities in the future. let's say some random person decides to insult you and say that you'll never make it anywhere in life. would it be "delusional" to not listen to them? to not let someone else dictate your future? or would that simply be having some faith in yourself and not letting others define you?

this is literally all we're telling you to do, believe in yourself even if your reality seems to be against you. don't fight it, just accept that the unfavorable isn't true and move on. continue to believe in yourself.

and besides, if any person successful to date operated with that "i don't see it so it's not true" mindset, they wouldn't have become successful, would they? would anyone accumulate any kind of success with a mindset like that? the people who have came from nothing and made it to where they were now, had an unwavering confidence in their abilities and the fact that they'd be something one day. despite what anyone's told them, or tried to project onto them, it didn't get through to their unwavering sense of self.

the point is, we are promising you something. all it takes is for you to have some confidence in yourself. to quit hurting yourself. is that so hard?

anyways, the point of manifesting is when you change yourself, the things in your external reality change.

assuming is easy. believing things to be true without proof is easy. you just have to get comfortable with the fact that you need to change before anything changes externally. again, instead of believing you are a failure, that you are trapped, you simply assume you are successful, and you are not trapped.

people also change their minds all the time, they grow to have a different opinion, they realize they were wrong, they want to give something else a chance, or without a reason, they simply change their mind. these things are not impossible, they happen all the time.

i'm saying this to say that manifesting isn't being delusional. to be delusional is feeling stuck and like things can't change, when they so clearly do, all the damn time. you're not special enough for the concept of change to not apply to you. for instance, you are certainly not the same person you were when you were 6 compared to however old you are right now. you changed, therefore you are capable of changing, and i proved it to you with that simple example.

you only feel stuck because you decided you are, you decided that you'll never be unstuck, and so you haven't been. the law is working, just not in your favor. everything you see in your reality right now, perfectly matches whatever you've assumed to be true. that is not a coincidence. it's important to remember that the law isn't a thing with feelings, it does not care about you or your situation. all it does is continue to operate. it's up to you to use the law's indifference to your advantage.

also, you seem to have a victim mindset. it's very obvious in the way that you try to explain yourself, that you were doing as you were supposed to, but it still 'didn't matter'. you're putting so many things (your job, your bosses, proving yourself) on a pedestal, over what really matters, which is yourself. do you even like your job? did you pursue something you were passionate about? because if not, then you have no business subjecting yourself to any kind of mistreatment, not when you didn't even want to be there in the first place. you should be putting yourself and your desires before even thinking about pleasing anyone or meeting any kind of requirement.

your own standards and requirements should come first. remember : you chose to work for them. you have a choice. you also need to remember that your bosses and colleagues are regular people. outside of work (and in the workplace if we're being honest) they have no kind of power over you. you shouldn't be letting such irrelevant people in your life have the power to instill so much fear in you, to the point where you're having literal nightmares.. about typing a document incorrectly.

also, about feeling useful and competent, that's something you have to decide about yourself. are you useful? are you competent? do you honestly feel this way about yourself? definitely not, which is why you're seeking validation from others. but at the same time, it is what's made you so miserable, because you're definitely not getting that validation. and any you get only gives you a short lived feeling of satisfaction. your opinion on yourself matters more than what anyone has to say. that's literally why confidence and insecurity exist. and either way, you still feel a certain way about yourself that outweighs anything anyone has to say about you.

here's another example, let's say you've been insecure about your looks from a young age. if one day, someone randomly tells you you're beautiful or they think you're pretty, is all the insecurity you've felt for years suddenly going to go away? or will your mind find reasons to reinforce the fact that you don't feel beautiful? and if someone confirmed your insecurities, saying you weren't their type, they didn't find you attractive, wouldn't you just justify that reaction in your mind since you feel that way about yourself already?

with that in mind, how much does anyone's words really matter? do the words of others honestly have any significance when they aren't reinforcing something you already believe about yourself?

your reality works in a similar way. whatever you decide to assume/ accept as true/ shift your awareness to/ decide is true/ feel is certain, your reality will reflect. as well as a bunch of reasons to continue believing whatever it is is true. the law is very indifferent and has no bounds. it does not care about your feelings, your specific circumstances, and so on. that's why i'm telling you, you only feel these ways and experience the things you do, because you decided you were. this goes for being miserable, being stuck, feeling useless, feeling incompetent and living in fear. there are no exceptions.

so, with all that said, what do i suggest? first off, you need to practice being secure in yourself. work on being confident in yourself first, then work on your self concept. i say "confidence" as in feeling secure in yourself within the 3d. so, your looks, your body, your social skills, your physical skills, etc. because "self concept" has to do with having confidence in your manifestation abilities. find a helpful method that works for you, like affirming, visualizing, scripting, rampaging, or just simply deciding something new about yourself and accepting it.

self confidence has to do with things like liking yourself, being your own validation, having optimistic thoughts about yourself, and self efficiency. you can't care about what others think, you have to put yourself first, and you can't let anyone dictate your future. be selfish. the only thing that should matter is you and how something makes you feel. nothing bad comes from putting yourself first and not worrying about others.

once you feel confident in yourself, or even while working on your confidence, practice using the law. you could start by manifesting something small, something specific that would prove to you that you can manifest, then work your way up. manifest bigger things or just a large quantity of things, just to prove to yourself that there aren't any limits. remember, manifesting is just assuming: believing something to be true without proof. i mean that in the most literal, simplest way possible. like the example of success i used earlier.

once you've proven to yourself that manifestation is indeed real, play around with it. also, work on your self concept. decide that things always go well for you, that you deserve good things, you're the creator of your reality, learn to mentally reject unfavorable things in the 3d, and so on. this is what i would do if i were you.

i know this was kind of long, but i hope you understand my words and find them useful. feel free to dm me or send another ask if you have anymore questions. 🩶

[scp-tiggles]

First addition to the au!

Scp 079 (Android form)

50% ler | 50% lee

As a ler:

He’s pretty sweet, ngl. Usually he wrecks someone without the need to feed off laughter like some of the other anomalies, its just for “research” or if someone seems a bit gloomy.

His favorite move is bear hugs. Uses his main arms to hug someone, then the other four to tickle them.

Speaking of, don’t bother trying to hide spots from him. His eyes have sensors that basically pings him to wherever someone is ticklish at.

His teeth are relatively pointy for tickle nibbles!

Teasing wise he’ll either make remarks about how your reactions and laughter help his research. Or option B is he’ll use baby talk!

Will make sure the lee is okay afterwards, offering water (and affection if the lee desires)

As a lee

Super ticklish oml. Cannot STAND his ribs or armpits (his main set) being tickled!

Absolutely can’t take teases, calling him cute? Baby talk? You’ll have him a giggly mess in no time!

Surprisingly, he’s able to blush. And tickling around his ears or neck is the best way to get it.

Super cackly laughter, snorts a whole ton.

Will try to get revenge with his other four limbs, watch out!

Speaking of revenge, he will 100% get it afterwards.

You could actually make him reboot if you tickle him to much, he doesn’t mind, but its the best way to give yourself a head start FROM his vengeance!

Feathers will absolutely annihilate him, same for brushes (specifically paint ones)

Normal PC form

60% ler | 40% lee

As a ler:

Much like before, he’s still pretty sweet as a ler.

This form resides in his cell, he can upload his consciousness between bodies in order to utilize each one. This one controls the machinery in his cell.

He LOVES to experiment on lees, tickling them to oblivion for his notes, their laugh, their ticklish spots, what tools work best, etc.

The metal extending parts of his limbs are able to lightly zap people, doesn’t hurt, tickles like hell though!

His teases remain the same, a bit more baby talky since he has more confidence of lees not getting revenge in this form.

Has a data base of most doctors at the site from the times they fallen to his clutches, loves to tease them with it too.

“Oh, my. Your laughter has gotten much more squeaky since our last session, doctor! I’ll have to test you to see what else has changed at once!”

A bit more generous with aftercare, since he’ll tickle lees significantly longer then when in his android form.

As a lee

Now while this form has no spots, you still CAN tickle him.

High voltage electricity, messing with his computer system (i.e a virus), all tickle him HELLISHLY.

And he low-key enjoys it.

He’ll keep his secret enjoyment of tickles to the grave though.

Anyways, like before, cannot stand teases at all. Folds immediately.

His screen will glitch and bug out if he is laughing too hard.

Speaking of his laugh, its still cackly, all be it more higher in pitch the worse he’s being tickled.

Has on more then one occasion accidentally (and purposely) zapped himself on his own tech.

Random facts!

Surprisingly doesn’t have a favorite lee, since he wants to expand his database he’ll rarely go after someone twice (unless bored), but does have favorite lers.

076-2, 682, and 096 are his current favorites for one reason: he snags up their victims after they’re done for experiments.

Will team up with other anomalies, especially if their target is one he hasn’t gotten too before.

He was actually created by the foundation, he was basically made to tickle other anomalies and get tickled, so the foundation could lessen breaches and not have to use d-class all the time.

He ended up gaining self awareness and decided to use his access to foundation technology to cause chaos though, lol.

But he does of course care deeply about the staff and other anomalies, staff especially. (Mainly the doctor who created him, who will be revealed later on! :>)

I’ll probably post the art as a separate thing too, but i got a post done, wooo!

[izunias-meme-hole]

Since you’ve been doing a fair amount of Batman posting, mind if you list your favorite members of the Gotham Rouges?

Okay. I’ll list about 10 of my faves, though we’ll be counting backwards here.

Also I'll be listing the variations of my faves whom I like the most to make things clearer.

Number 10. Poison Ivy (B:TAS) - If we're talking about character alone, this is the blueprint for literally every present day version of Poison Ivy, however this specific incarnation of the character has aged pretty well. She's every bit the dangerous eco-warrior that she makes herself out to be and will gladly turn someone into a tree for bulldozing a forest, but there is still a level of humanity to her character much like half the villains in the show.

Number 9. Mr. Freeze (B:TAS & Batman Beyond) - I feel like this is a "to the surprise of absolutely nobody" moment, but come on! Mr. Freeze here not only was made into a more tragic character compared to his early comic counterpart, but he actually had a whole arc across the entirety of B:TAS which ended at Batman Beyond. Victor Fries was a scientist trying to save his wife, Nora, from a rare disease, so he put her into a cryopod to preserve her until he found a cure. Then he and Nora were almost killed, but Nora was still kept on ice, while Victor got turned into a literal cold hearted monster. Even after Nora was finally cured, Victor was forever unable to be with her due to his own condition worsening to the point where he was just a head in a jar, angry with the world. A couple of decades later, and he is given a new body by the Wayne Powers CEO, Derek Powers, and while things were finally going well at first and Victor was reforming as soon as he had the chance, things went horribly wrong again, resulting in Victor dying as Mr. Freeze. I may have missed some details here, but yeah that's a summary of this sad ice man.

Number 8. Dr. Crane/Scarecrow (Nolan Trilogy) - Crane wasn't a big villain in the grand scheme of the trilogy, but my god Cillian Murphy does a great job with the character. Like I wish that his supervillain outfit wasn't just a bag over his face, but Scarecrow manages to be quite the dangerous loon with a mask of sanity in Batman Begins, an active member of the underworld in The Dark Knight, and the guy actively sending folks to their deaths in The Dark Knight Rises. Could we have had more of him? Yes. Did he use up his screen time well? Absolutely. Though his fear toxin could've been infinitely wilder.

Number 7. The Phantasm (B:TAS but movie) - The Phantasm is the literal best darker counterpart to Batman a lot of levels.

Number 6. Harley Quinn (B:TAS yet again) - The minor side villainess turned breakout character of the show. If anyone has seen B:TAS and then seen the rest of the media she's in, then you know why this is the best version of her. A good amount of things about the character being based around her actress (R.I.P Arleen Sorkin), her interactions with half the cast, Peak HarIvy content, the best representation of how bad her situation with her abusive ex was, and the perfect mixture between being a not-so-great-person and a precious lil' thing who deserves better.

Number 5. Harvey Dent, Two-Face, & The Judge (B:TAS) - The first well developed Two-Face, and the definitive. I mean he was never a bad villain, but the character was never utilized to the fullest like he was in B:TAS. Harvey Dent was a good guy with an other half that was the literal manifestation of his bottled up anger, an anger that turned into something else entirely after the left side of his face got blown off. Now Harvey and his other half start their own crusade to eradicate organized crime by taking it over from within. In other words, Two-Face here wanted to originally wanted to achieve something good through something bad, and yes a lot of it is due to a fair coin flip. However Harvey began to disagree with some of the shit his other half was getting up to, and as a result developed a third personality that was so separate from both himself and Two-Face that it tried killing both of them and, by extension, himself. This third entity would end up being The Judge, a ruthless, wraith-like vigilante with a judge's attire. So after being detained in Arkham for good, all three Harvey's are literally stuck with each other, and in a spin-off comic set directly after that whole situation with The Judge, Two-Face was given another double headed coin that would constantly come up on the "good side," and spent a lot of time dismantling his criminal enterprise, before doing (another) suicide attempt. This take on Two-Face was something else.

Number 4. Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham) - If I were to list everything that this smug snake has done, along with some of the shit that happened to him, we'd be here all day. However, this is the most well characterized iteration of The Penguin that we've ever had, in my humble opinion.

Number 3. Catwoman (Batman Returns) - I'm dying on this hill gentlemen. Despite not being... anything like her comic counterpart, outside of name, confidence, etc, Michelle Pfeiffer's Selina is something great in her own right.

Number 2. The Riddler (The Batman 2022) - Turning the Riddler into a a catholic, terrorist, cult leader that looked up to a young and angry Year-Two Batman, while also keeping the core elements of his character the same is something I'll never stop praising. He's still intelligent, he's still creative, he's still on the verge of breakdowns when his ego is badly damaged, etc.

Number 1. The Joker (B:TAS & Batman Beyond) - This is a "to the surprise to absolutely nobody" moment, though in this case I cannot be blamed. B:TAS understood the assignment and provided the definitive iteration of The Joker, completely inspired by his early comic appearances and some elements from Jack Nicholson's take on the character. An ex-mafiosi turned Clown Prince of Crime that lives to only spread misery across Gotham in the most creative way possible with a smile on his face. That was the idea that Paul Dini and Bruce Timm ran with when conceptualizing this bastard, and they just explored the concept for all its worth. Not only that, but this was the first time that Mark Hamill ever voiced this bastard, and it was just perfect casting. Overall, nostalgia got me to re-examine this take on the character, and I can easily say that without a doubt, this is the best Joker.

[oswlld]

oswlld's monthly wrap up: april

note: i am trying something a bit different this year, so bear with me as i figure out how i want to format this. i wanted to spend more time sharing what i consume, beyond what i rb, and put my thoughts in one place. these posts are okay to rb

--

This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone [started 04/04, finished 04/09] *drags my hands down my face until the end of time* I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. I want to meet you in every place I ever loved. I WANT TO MEET YOU!!!! IN EVERY PLACE I EVER LOVED!!!!!!!!!!!!! 4.75⭐️ in storygraph. — Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell [started 04/12, in prog] I am about 100 pages in and still not sure if I want to keep going or DNF it. idk what isn’t sticking because the writing is beautiful and the pacing is great. And I do care about the characters, I really do. I love the way the author borrows from future grief, it’s what I am enjoying most about this read so far. Maybe I’ll give it 50 more pages and see if it finally sticks.

23.5 Degrees, GMMTV [started: 03/08, ongoing] As mentioned, I am caught up on eps 3-8. I’ll likely not be able to watch it live in may but I will be keeping up with the series til the end. It’s so lighthearted and charming! Not sure how they managed this, but I am constantly surprised by the character group dynamics. It’s def due to the great chemistry everyone has with literally everyone. I need NEED to discuss the score of this show because it’s IMMACULATE. The celestial themes, from the props all the way down to the music, is so rich. I’m so excited to see how this story unravels. — Devil’s Plan [started: 04/23, ongoing] This is a bestie pick, a show my best friend chose to have us watch on our facetime calls. We are 1.5 eps in and it’s a grower. The first game is hella complex and we’re slowly picking up on what’s happening. The people on this show are incredibly intelligent, so I feel like I have to work extra hard to keep up. It does feel rewarding, I’m hooked.

Oppenheimer, Peacock [watched on 04/05] I am a self-proclaimed Nolan girlie, I’ll admit it. I do enjoy his work and the many ways he translates time into film. When I wrote this, it had been a few days since I watched it and I still think abt the little moments that blew me away. Moments like the accentuated dust particles, how the coloring of the movie can be an unreliable narrator, and the utilization of a crowded hall stomping their feet to create tension. The last eight minutes still haunts me. I find more value in the technical side of film, but I will give credit when credit is due: every award Cillian Murphy got this season was so well earned. He carried all three hours of that film with such powerful quietude. And lastly, my heart now belongs to Jennifer Lame. Upon seeing her accept the award for Best Film Editing for Oppenheimer, I have come to learn that she also edited Tenet. HER MIND!!! She has such a bright future ahead of her, to be up there with the minds of Thelma Schoonmaker and Anne V Coates. — Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-Fi Film Club [watched on 04/14] This film needs to be studied in film school. It’s incredibly meta in some ways, having renown directors be the subjects, talking about their passion for film. The production being so stylized and the editing feels very reminiscent of Our Beloved Summer, with the way the found footage and the aspect ratios are intertwined with current day quality shots. This film will hit everyone right in the millennial. A true surprise for me is discovering that Bong Joon Ho and I are more alike that I had originally thought. The way he speaks in casual conversation and his story of setting strict rules for their film collection had me hollering because SAME. The most jessi thing he recounted was how all the VHS tapes were labelled. Yellow Door is somehow the opposite of the "doesn’t take itself too seriously" mentality; it’s actually so great that they made the film like that. By fully immersing us with gorgeous cinematography, cheeky editing sequences, and lush music to tug at your heartstrings, it bewitches you into loving film as much as they did. And still do.

Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé [relisten] I’ve given this several good cycles to confirm my first impressions: it’s def one of her most cohesive albums to date and still stands as a spectacular album. This passion project of hers takes such great care and attention to the voices she amplifies. I can feel the hunger, the innate need for her to make this album. If you haven’t heard how this album came to be, I insist you take the time to educate yourselves. It makes the listening experience so much more empowering. Good for her… GOOD. FOR. HER!! Current favs: Ameriican Requiem, 16 Carriages, Bodyguard, Jolene, Spaghettii, Ya Ya, Desert Eagle, II Hands II Heaven, and Sweet/Honey/Buckin’. — Older, Lizzy McAlpine [first time listening] Coming off the heels of my Five Seconds Flat hyperfixation last year, I haphazardly went into Older hoping its a natural progression in production value. I was shocked that it turned out to be a completely different sound. I soon learned that she actually didn’t really like how Five Seconds Flat was produced because it didn’t feel true to her as an artist. Tbh I was feeling a little lost after the first listen but after digesting this new info, I went back into it and appreciated it a lot more. In fact, the third listen was when I realized that it gave off the same energy as Laufey. I’m excited to listen to it again soon. — Stick Season: Forever, Noah Kahan [first time listening] Having stumbled on all the collabs on Alexa earlier this year, Forever was the only new song for me from his latest release. I’m OBSESSED with this song!!!! The way his voice carries the entire weight of every hurt inside me and just takes it away. Something healed in me. I play it in the car every time I leave the house. I cry in the car every time I leave the house. — The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift [first time listening, standard vinyl ed.] I am going to get this out of the way and say that this album is great. Just great. I understand more than ever why she felt the need to make this album. Having only listened to the standard version a couple times and the anthology twice through, I sit here in this kind of… discomfort. And I’m kind of okay with that feeling. But… it pains me that I can’t share this album with some people in my life and it’s largely due to how she depicts her struggles with people with mental illness/addiction. It’s one, if not the biggest, strike I have against this album and by extension, her. Songs cycling in my head: Down Bad, So Long London, Guilty as Sin?, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?, loml, imgonnagetyouback, Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, How Did It End?, I Look in People’s Windows, The Prophecy, Peter, and The Manuscript.

EXPO Chicago [attended 04/13] Yes, I am doxxing myself a bit if you didn’t already know. During college, I used to attend EXPO yearly and occasionally went back long after I finished school. I haven’t attended in a long time, so I made it my goal to attend this year. And I had a blast! My mother tagged along and she’s not one to attend shows like this or art museums in general. It was a beautiful day trip to the city and it was nice to have her company. She mostly trailed behind and took pics of me as I floated around the exhibition hall. I have 50+ artists I tracked on my phone to actively research in my spare time. I sat in on one of the panel talks (ON COLOR), discussing color theory in today’s bipoc landscape. I took so much away from that conversation, it was very charged. I'm kinda obsessed with Alteronce Gumby, I need to do an artist deepdive on his work. — Coachella [watched from 04/12 to 04/14] I work for a big tech company and one of the biggest events to be on standby for is Coachella. I had to be on call for Friday and was backup support for Sunday lineups. Thus, Saturday was the only day I could sit back and relax while watching. My first time lineups included: Hatsune Miku, Peso Pluma, Late Night Drive Home, Jon Batiste, Ateez, le Sserafim, Purple Disco Machine, Bleachers, No Doubt, 88rising Futures, and Latin Mafia. Of all of the performances, I want to take a full deep dive into Ateez and Peso Pluma’s discography in the near future.

[gasha40k]

I have unfortunate news. I think that, in the last three months or so, this has unexpectedly become a Khorne blog. I really and truly did not foresee this when I first started posting. No factions really spoke to me on a grander scale, except for my own. But now I’m actually legitimately obsessed with the World Eaters. To be fair, I guess no loyal servants of the Emperor expect their corrupted descent into Chaos ahead of time. The tragedy is always in the lack of foresight, after all. I don’t think my own dark baptism is anything close to a tragedy, though. I’m having a good time with it so far I think.

Got quite a few things to talk about, but first and foremost, I got my hands on some Valhallan Blizzard and finally finished the bases on the few Berzerkers that I have painted. I’m pretty happy with these! The dry brushed stone beneath the snow gives a sufficient enough impression of, like, a rocky, mountainous environ, and the white contrasts really nicely with the red armor and dark ground, I think.

Initially, I was going to really drench the snow with blood—I think you can see that in a few of the bases that I painted first—but I decided against that after seeing how it actually looked. The bloody snow is a neat effect, for sure, but it’s super eye-catching and makes the minis a little noisy when overdone. In the future, I’ll likely save the blood for the more notable or interesting members of my World Eaters army (likely on characters and standout grunts), so as to make them stand out and add a little bit of base variety to the army.

This is my third time painting an Ultramarine, and my second time painting a dead Ultramarine

Lord Akselos, though, gets next to no blood on his base, so as to make him stand out in an inverse fashion. The snowy, mountainous base here represents the frigid crags of Gorranax, the planet upon which Akselos landed after betraying the Ultramarines on Valefar. Gorranax is also where he would first encounter his Berzerker-Surgeon partner, Kastigor Spineripper, who would eventually be responsible for implanting the Butcher’s Nails within Akselos.

I think his base is probably the best of the bunch. The placement of the snow sort of visually balances the black, swooping cape, and adds some interesting color in that bottom right section, which is a spot where the model is otherwise lacking in visual variety. I’m mad happy with this and glad it looks as cool as it does! And with the base finished and his highlights complete (complete enough for me, at least), Akselos is fully finished, and ready for the tabletop!

I say this all the time but I love this sculpt so much, the 2002 Daemon Prince is the most iconic Daemon Prince—the fella from Dawn of War—even if it is pretty silly looking objectively

Speaking of finishing things, my big boy is finally complete. My ugly, ugly son is painted, based, highlighted, and Ready to KILL. This is, by far, the largest non-flyer model that I’ve finished, and while he definitely isn’t the prettiest or best painted model on the planet, I’m really proud of it. I pulled out all the stops on this model and utilized just about everything I’ve learned about miniature painting in the last few years. I also took a good handful of risks and learned a bit from him, too, and despite it being a kind of treacherous and elongated ordeal, it was a super fun experience painting him up, and I’m glad he’s done with. I did, however, lose the hilt of his sword to my carpet, but I’m working on replacing it with a cool little custom skull hilt, which I’ll post eventually, probably.

But with one big boy done, another boy has filled the empty slot in my to-do list with his huge red bod.

Finally got my hands on Angron, the man himself. I can’t quite describe just how obsessed with this model I am. Not only am I excited to have him because he’s one of my favorite characters in the 40k mythos, but he’s also a fucking Primarch—and a strong one at that—which is something I never thought I’d get to have as a custom Chapter player. All in all, I’m incredibly excited to paint this guy up and get him terrorizing my group on the tabletop.

I did have the opportunity to run a test game with my list on TTS a little while ago, which was both my 2nd ever World Eaters game and my 2nd ever 10th Edition game. Lemme just say about Angron: wow. He barreled into the enemy deployment zone in the first turn of BR1 and immediately mauled an Armiger. As a Space Marines player, I’m very used to none of my units being extraordinarily good at destroying shit, but those days are OVER!!!

Since he’s a big ass model, though, it also means that he’ll be a big ass painting project. I plan on making him a proper centerpiece, and after painting my Daemon Prince, I’m totally confident that I can make him look pretty fancy given a few weeks of work. To make that process easier for me, here’s the subassemblies that I’ll be painting him in.

I also got my hands on some Mephiston Red primer, which I’m using to expedite the painting process. As shown above, I’ve primed

My Khorne collection is getting pretty huge. So huge, in fact, that I now own more Khornate shit than Space Marines, both in bodies and points. My Khorne collection contains:

2,115 points of Adeptus Astartes units

59 individual Astartes models

2,995 points of Khorne units

107 individual Khorne models

Dark baptism confirmed. Corpse worshippers malding.

That being said, I’ve been focusing super hard on my World Eaters recently—mostly for economical reasons—but I’d definitely like to shift focus back onto my Astartes soon. There’s a lot of new, cool kits that I want to get my hands on, and a brand new codex, too. Feels neat having gone through an entire edition. Wonder if I could sell my codex from 9th. My current chore is just to paint my men, as per usual. I have some plans for my Thunderbearers that I’ll post about next.

[crystalelemental]

Pokemon Team Characterization - Geeta

Earlier today, a Reddit post for Pokemon Masters asked about who the most popular of the less popular champions was.  The general results are inconsequential, if depressing to me personally.  What this particular story is about is a comment that mentioned Alder feels like he was designed to be weaker, with one of the reasons cited being he uses “off-meta” Pokemon.  Which is wild, because that’s the same reason people big up Blue.  Blue’s Pidgeot, a Pokemon which has always been bottom meta (barring its mega giving it short-lived half-relevance), is considered a prime example of his characterization as someone who really does care about his Pokemon, because he keeps what was his first capture all the way through the League, indicating some sentimentality.  Which is correct!  That’s how it should be.  Look at the team, and get a sense of what that character is about from how they construct their battle lineup.  But this never really comes up beyond Blue’s sentimentality, characters like Cyrus and Volo having friendship-evolving Pokemon to indicate the good in them, or claiming Red is the best because he “doesn’t need legends to win like other protagonist.”  Which feels like a very limited way to approach things.

But also it’s been like 20 years and no one’s really dug into teams to craft a sense of personality before that I’ve seen.  And if no one else is doing it, I guess it’s time to do it myself.  So I’m starting with the last winner of that poll, and the generally acknowledge least popular champion: Geeta.  I did a general analysis of her team before, so consider this a sort of spiritual successor.

Here is Geeta’s team, as listed on Bulbapedia.  The top left is her lead, the bottom right her ace that comes out last.  I’ll break this down talking about what I interpret for the lead, for the ace, and any general impressions from other Pokemon added in.

The Lead Geeta’s Espathra is one of my favorite leads.  I think this is exceptionally clever, if relegated to a game that makes it too easy to be over-prepared.

Opportunistic copies your buffs.  If you try to set up on her, she will copy those same boosts.  As a very fast threat, Espathra is difficult to outpace, which can make boosting a tempting choice, only to run into how badly you’ve played yourself.  Lumina Crash, as a sharp debuffing of special defense, doubled down on this.  Trying to accept playing defensively will run into the issue of Espathra breaking you down really fast.  Quick Attack handles finishing a job against Sturdy or something that barely survived, and Reflect as team support to block physical attackers, which are much harder for Espathra to handle.  While Dark-types are generally more resistant, Dazzling Gleam is the best bet to respond to them as well.

A lead like this shows that Geeta is someone who can get inside of the opponent’s head, and consider their possible actions.  From second 1, she’s set up immediate countermeasures to most methods of setup, both offensive and defensive.  She takes immediate, decisive action, while considering most possible angles of attack.  She is someone who’s thorough and deliberate, and takes advantage of an opponent who can’t respond quickly.

General Team (Avalugg, Gogoat, Kingambit) The remainder of Geeta’s team is largely bulky offense.  Nothing is particularly fast, but much of it is geared toward bulk.  Of note, however, is that very little emphasizes recovery.  Despite Avalugg having Recover as an option, Geeta opts instead for raw offense, choosing moves like Body Press and Avalanche, which utilize Avalugg’s strengths and weaknesses to full effect, dishing out better damage from physical defense and from going second respectively.  Gogoat is the exception to this, with Horn Leech and Bulk Up.  Notably, this is Geeta’s only form of setup sweeping.  I think of further note is that Gogoat’s coverage moves are...odd.  I know it gets Ground-type moves.  That would be infinitely more valuable as coverage, yet she opts for Psychic and Fairy, which ultimately do very little for Gogoat’s performance.  And of course, there’s Kingambit, which every likes to point out, should probably be last in her team to make the most of its ability.

Gogoat being her second suggests to me that, when her immediate plan fails, Geeta’s the kind to step back and operate with more deliberation.  She’ll take things slow and get the measure of a situation, trying to buy time to properly assess the next move.  It may also indicate a sort of overconfidence; she didn’t think she’d need to come up with a backup plan.  The lack of sensible coverage implies she’s not necessarily quick on her mental feet, and requires that time to make more sound judgments.  Considering the next three, I think she generally gets there.  She’s able to take stock of what’s present, and emphasize strengths while covering weaknesses.  She gets a generally full picture, but her approach is still fairly...brute force.  She wants a quick resolution; something that’s do or die.  She’s not someone who backs down, stalls for time, or gets defensive.  She’ll push ahead regardless.  She’ll take an early minute to come up with a Plan B, but she’ll always keep going.  If from there it’s a loss, then you take that loss and wait for another chance.

Her Ace Glimmora as the ace is widely considered a bad move, given that its Toxic Debris does nothing for her that late in the game.  Its coverage moves are very sensible, but again, it’s raw power with no real embellishment.  This being her Tera Pokemon, it shifts to Rock, a type notorious for being good offensively, but atrocious defensively.  It’s also an exceptionally rare Pokemon in Paldea proper, with significant ties to the crater.

The emphasis on offense is, again, just her MO.  She plays a bit more aggressively.  The decision to go against Poison, a much more defensive typing, suggests a sort of unwillingness to back down.  Geeta is someone who always pushes forward.  But at the same time, the insistence that it be her ace, her last Pokemon to bring in, suggests that, although she can leverage strengths and weaknesses as seen through Avalugg, there are certain values or structures she’s unwilling to compromise.  Some things just have to be done a certain way; there’s a certain rigidity to her thinking that can be seen as highly inflexible.  But it’s important to her, and she’ll hold to it come hell or high water.  As for the crater connection...

Where The Team Is Found All of her Pokemon correspond to specific areas in Paldea.  Gogoat early in the east, Espathra early in the west, Avalugg at the mountain, Veluza at the lake, Kingambit in the north, and Glimmora in the crater.  The wide-spread focus on where they’re found implies a general appreciation for her region; a sort of love for all it has to offer.  But of interesting note is...they’re all common.

Skiddo and Flittle are super common.  Veluza’s really common at the lake, even if less so than Tatsugiri (which I wish she had but oh well).  Kingambit itself is hard to acquire, but Pawniard are like the most common thing in the bamboo forest.  Bergmite are not hard to find.  And within the crater, Glimmet and Glimmora are exceptionally common.  The fact that, barring Glimmora’s surface presence being non-existent, all of her team is common?  It suggests an appreciation for the mundane and every-day.  In contrast to a champion like Cynthia, whose team is largely comprised of the hardest stuff in the region to find, Geeta champions what’s most easily found.  Not even necessarily the glamorous or marketable every-day.  She doesn’t have an Arboliva, which is both common and a sort of mascot evolutionary line for much of the region.  Just...regular old common stuff you’d find anywhere, and wouldn’t be exceptionally celebrated.

Geeta is someone who takes joy in the simple things.  While she’s someone in a position of significant power, who is very driven to perform well in her career, the things she enjoys most are the little things, like seeing the students of the academic learn and grow as trainers.  In a way, it’s that emphasis of “everyone starts somewhere, and can grow into something exceptional.”  Kingambit is a decent example; that thing is hard to get to evolve because it takes some dedication and know-how.  The base form may be common, but putting in the effort to build something exceptional is how Geeta operates.  She’ll take anything at what it is, and make it shine.

But I think there’s also a connection to the whole treasure theme of the game, in Glimmora.  Going into the crater is a rarity.  It’s not something anyone gets to do, and it’s a very unique experience.  One that she apparently cherishes, given that Glimmora is her ace; the one she insists on using last as her most precious partner, despite how little tactical sense it makes.  It’s a sentimentality she carries with her, and a reminder of a cherished memory.

Summation Geeta’s team suggests someone who is able to carefully consider all possible outcomes, and produce a countermeasure to address as many obstacles as possible right away.  She’s someone who, when a plan goes wrong, falls back and tries to take a slow, measured approach before responding, but often falls back to more direct approaches.  She’s able to conceptualize strengths and weaknesses, including her own given the implied understanding of her need to step back after an initial setback, and operates well with them in mind.  But at the same time, there are things she won’t compromise on, even if it’s directly to her detriment.  She enjoys the things that are mundane and ordinary, but cherishes unique experiences more than anything, and may be rather sentimental at times, letting emotionality override her generally logical and structured nature.

If anyone has a different read on her, I’d love to hear it.  I actually really like Geeta, in spite of her being fairly bland in the base game, so it always bums me out to remember she’s unpopular.  Hearing from others that like her would be a nice change of pace.

[berrychanx]

TMMN EP 14 - Trivia + Analysis

There’s not much for me to write about this episode, not at the beginning at least. So this will be more of a trivia post Minto reaction to common’s folks house was what I expected.

TRIVIA

“Nikujaga is like the Japanese equivalent of chicken noodle soup. Nikujaga is made of of meat, potatoes and onion stewed in sweetened soy sauce and mirin, sometimes with ito konnyaku and vegetables. Nikujaga is an example of yōshoku. Generally, potatoes make up the bulk of the dish, with meat mostly serving as a source of flavor.

Sure Minto....but that doesn’t mean he has much power or control.

See?

Again with the motive to find a goal in life.

I bet he does Mint, he probably had been in the same situation as you.

NOT KEIICHIRO SAYING THE BLUE KNIGHT RESEMBLES THE ALIENS IN PERFOMANCE AND ASPECT.

All good points tbh.

SHE DIDN’T BLUSH WHEN SERVING KEIICHIRO COFFEE...

A SIMPLE YEAH COULDN’T BE ENOUGH TO MAKER HER BLUSH!

IS SHE THINKING ABOUT THEIR PREVIOUS INTERACTION?

iS HER QUOTE FOR LOVE, REALLY MEANING ... FOR SOMEONE SHE LOVES? LIKE RYOU?

Ok, ok, interesting, TMMN focusing on how to care for the envrioment and inspire young generations once again..

Trivia

The history of practical windmills in Japan started when foreigners from the United States and Europe visited this country at the beginning of the Meiji era, in the early 1880's. They built windmills in various parts of Japan to pump water. Thereafter, up until mid 1920s, the windmills were mainly imported from the U.S.A. and Germany. They were primarily used for water supply and pumping. Besides these imported windmills, there were irrigation windmills worthy of special mention. Since the end of the Meiji era (the 1900's) simple wooden windmills were built by the local carpenter or blacksmith at relatively low cost. A total of several thousands windmills were operated in Nagano, Ibaraki, Chiba, Osaka and Aichi prefectures. These were used for a long time until just after World War II, in the 1950's. On the other hand, wind-powered electric generation has not been so active, except for the Yamadas wind turbine which was widely used mainly by pioneering farmers in Hokkaido after World War II. History tells us that these successful wind power utilizations were due not only to the natural environmental conditions but mainly to the social conditions. Based on these past experiences, efforts to develop alternative energy began to be positive after the oil crisis of 1973. Current wind energy activities in Japan include those sponsored by government agencies, the electric power companies and private industries. I’ll talk about the aliens and deep blue when we get more episodes

Tokyo Mew Mew Ole  reference?

She became so humble in New.

Very rarely the original anime went to into this specific details on how to deafeat a chimera (even if they were animal based) using its own weakness... I feel like TMM Ole helped a lot in that aspect.

Once again something precious to Minto is being used as a chimera or to help the aliens.

I love when TMM goes into this type of opposite prespectives

Once again, Minto is torn between having to destroy/fight things that she loves and mean a lot to her.

I feel like her character arc came full circle in this episode.

She found her goal, she knows what she wants, she knows what’s important, what to protect and its the right time to do it. Even if it means delaying your dream some more. There’s a time and a place for everything, you’ve done your best, you’ve found something you want to achieve in the future, work for that goal, grow up and learn. Don’t rush. Trust the process.

The fight is over, they won but at what cost... Seiji arrives to check on everyone after getting the report of what happened. He looks at Minto destroyed project. She expects him to be angry but he isn’t.

Minto apolagizies to her brother, she really has matured. She understands the meaning of her actions despite sometimes the method not being the best way to achieve them

This words are too similar ...

I’m pretty sure your family knows of what you’re capable of, .and with their help you’ll be able to suceed. It’s just a matter of time. And with this Minto arc comes to an end. She found two goals in life To be a Mew Mew and protect the planet, To work for her father company and also save the planet with green energy.

[alister312]

Gregory and Christophe Builds for D&D 5e

If you didn’t know, one of my great loves besides Gregstophe is D&D 5e. I’ve been playing for about five years and DMing for about four. I think it’s super fun to create characters, even when I know I’ll never play them. There’s just so many interesting paths to take! More recently, though, I’ve been interested in the art of adapting existing characters into the D&D universe. It’s a fun challenge, as it requires not only an intimate knowledge of D&D, but also the characters you’re adapting.

As someone who wrote two entire meta posts on everything we canonically know about Gregory and Christophe, I’d say that definitely applies to me.

Today, for day 7 of Gregstophe Week 2023, I’m going to put together D&D 5e character builds for Gregory and Christophe. These are intended to not only be instructions for how to play them in a oneshot or campaign, but also a further exploration of their characters based on what canon tells us they could be.

To preface, I will not be going too much into depth about the rules or lore of D&D 5e. I will maybe explain a little if I feel it’s necessary, but I will usually assume that the reader knows what I’m talking about. When discussing ability scores, I’ll be using standard array but should you use these builds, rolled stats work perfectly fine. In terms of classes, subclasses, feats, and backgrounds, I’ll only be going off whatever I can find on the DnD 5e Wikidot. Any homebrew/UA not on there won’t be considered. These builds will be considered all the way through to player level 20, but ability scores/stats will only be discussed at first level. While I think taking feats is more fun and helps further flesh out a character, I leave it ultimately up to the player whether or not they’d like to take feats or ability score increases when the time arises.

With that out of the way, let’s start with Gregory!

GREGORY’S STATS

At the end of my Gregory meta, I came to the conclusion that Gregory is a highly intelligent character, well-versed in politics and adept at strategy, so it makes sense for Intelligence to be his highest stat (15).

Despite the fact that he can’t always relate to others his age, Gregory has strong morals and always tries his best to stand up for others. This seems to earn him respect, or at least convince everyone to sing along with him and follow his plan, so let’s put 14 into Charisma.

For the 13, let’s put that in Dexterity because, true to canon, I want him wielding a rapier so having decent DEX will come in handy. Plus, he’s provenly adept at ice skating— a rather dexterous activity. 

I think the 12 should go into Wisdom. I considered making this the 10, as he doesn’t always have the ability to read the room in terms of other’s emotions. However, his mission planning as a revolutionary shows that Gregory can read certain situations very well. 

There’s nothing particularly compelling about his Constitution so keep that average– 10.

This unfortunately leaves Strength as his dump stat (8), but it’s better than having that be CON. Plus, we never see him performing any particular feats of strength, so I can’t find any justifiable reason to make it higher.

ANCESTRY/RACE:

We’re trying to make this build as close to canon as possible. Therefore, Gregory must be a Human. To keep things fun and interesting, however, we’re going to make him a Variant Human. The two ability scores I want to increase are DEX (bumping it to a 14) and CHA (bumping it to a 15). For the feat, I think it makes the most sense to take Diplomat. This will bring up CHA yet again (making it ultimately a 16), as well as give him proficiency in Persuasion. It also gives him the ability to attempt to charm any non-hostile creatures/people. This ability sounds like something he’d utilize often in his soapbox speeches and rallies. Plus, when Gregory stands up on Wendy’s behalf against Garrison, I’d call that him being a diplomat.

BACKGROUND:

Backgrounds in D&D never really have that much influence, in my opinion, outside of the skills they give you. Still, I think it’d be cheating to choose a background that didn’t fit Gregory just because it has cooler skills. Since Gregory demonstrates often how highly he values his education and we know he’s a good student (having a 4.0 from Yardale), I debated between either Sage or Cloistered Scholar for him. Both are solid choices, as they both give History as a skill and proficiency in two languages of your choice. Ultimately I say go with Sage, because I’d recommend Arcana from among the Cloistered Scholar skill options anyway. For languages, if French was an option I’d say that, but it’s sadly not. Instead I say go with Dwarvish– its alphabet is similar to many other languages and Gregory seems the type to do something like learn Latin first so he can learn all the romance languages faster. Second language take Celestial as a nod to Gregory’s Christian-based ideology.

With Gregory’s stats, race/ancestry, and background solidified, it’s time to move on to class and subclass! This is probably the most fun part of making a character build, especially those that don’t normally fight. So, what drives Gregory then? At his core, he is a revolutionary and a public speaker. This led me to go with a very classic multiclass build for him: bardladin.

For Gregory’s first three character levels, he’ll be taking paladin. Throughout the movie, he seems to be constantly talking about his ideals— the need for equality, for freedom of speech, for others to be brave and selfless like he sees himself to be. This all seems like the attitude of someone who adheres to and lives by an oath. Additionally, paladins are often associated with connection to divinity and Gregory clearly believes that revolutionary work is a divine mission.

The first choice for a paladin are skill proficiencies. As Gregory already has Persuasion from his Diplomat feat, I think the best two to take from the other paladin options are:

Athletics

Religion

Again, Gregory places a lot of value in God so it tracks that he’d know Religion. As for Athletics, I know his dump stat is STR but he does alright in running around an active battlefield so he’s probably got some hint of athleticism.

For his Fighting Style, continuing on the idea of divinity, I think Gregory should take Blessed Warrior. As he is one of the “children” who is fighting “with all [his] bravery”, this makes Gregory (by his own standards) blessed. The two cantrips that I think make the most sense to take are Resistance (in reference to “La Resistance”) and Word of Radiance (for Gregory’s soapbox tendencies). Speaking of spells, since canon Gregory doesn’t cast any actual magic I don’t think his spell selection (for either paladin or bard) is something to stress too hard about. Take any that you feel fit him best.

Now onto subclass, or Sacred Oath as it’s called for paladins. Since this Gregory build is only taking three levels in paladin, he’ll only just barely get to choose a Sacred Oath. So, rather than basing it on the things you get, I based it on the tenets given. I originally thought Oath of Heroism would be the best fit for Gregory, and while I still think it’s a decent fit, the classic Oath of Devotion works much better.

These are the tenets of Oath of Devotion:

All of these seem to be ideas that Gregory adheres to. While his political soapbox speeches might come off as a bit holier than thou, it’s clear he’s trying to educate others out of compassion and want for them to know their rights. He admires Stan and the others for their bravery in volunteering to go on the rescue mission, as well as laments when he sees he was wrong in trusting them. He considers himself very capable and virtuous, at least more so than most of the others, which is why he initially volunteered himself, rather than put anyone in harm’s way. If this is what makes an Oath of Devotion paladin, then Gregory is absolutely that.

With the first three levels out of the way, we can now start multiclassing into bard. There’s not many options to choose between (other than spells, but I don’t want to think too hard about multiclassing with a halfcaster) until level 3 of bard, when you can choose your college. There’s a few colleges that could work for Gregory, but the most fitting is probably College of Eloquence.

Much of Gregory’s time in the movie is spent trying to convince the other kids to help understand the need to fight for freedom with him. Both on the playground and during the La Resistance meeting, he is up on a soapbox preaching to them. College of Eloquence bards are all about trying to sway others to their side, much like Gregory, whether by Deception or Persuasion. Since he’ll be going up to level 17 of bard, he’ll get all features of the College of Eloquence. I’m not so sure if the subclass features Silver Tongue and Unsettling Words are quite his vibe, but I think the idea of buffing his Inspiration (in both Unfailing Inspiration and Infectious Inspiration) does fit very well. Gregory isn’t really able to convince the other kids on the playground, but once he sings through La Resistance, they all seem rather inspired and convinced. I also really like the idea of Universal Speech for Gregory, who I headcanon as a polyglot.

Again, I don’t want to dictate exactly what spells you take for Gregory, neither for general bard magic nor for Magical Secrets. However, I will say that if you don’t take extra bardic spells for Magical Secrets, you should take either warlock spells (as they are also CHA-based) or wizard spells (as they are INT-based, Gregory’s second highest stat).

Now that we have Gregory all figured out, it’s time to move on to his other half: Christophe.

CHRISTOPHE’S STATS

We’ll put the highest stats (15 and 14) into Strength and Dexterity respectively. Some of the most notable things about Christophe are his mercenary work and digging prowess, both of which require a lot of athleticism and precision.

Jumping off of his mercenary work, Christophe seems to have a lot of innate knowledge and street smarts when it comes to it. He’s quick on his feet in assessing and rectifying a situation, but I think this comes less from him being clever and more from him being experienced. Therefore, we should put 13 in Wisdom.

Going back to his digging skills, he’s able to dig incredibly fast and multiple times within only a few minutes, so he must have very good stamina. It only makes sense that he’d have a relatively good Constitution then, so put the 12 in there.

Completely opposite to Gregory, I think Charisma should be Christophe’s dump stat (8). He’s a very abrasive person, grabbing and fighting with Stan always out of nowhere, adding inappropriate comments to conversations (i.e. talking about how his mother failed to abort him after Kyle wishes him good luck). He doesn’t care about being liked, so he doesn’t make himself very likable.

That leaves the average 10 for Intelligence, which seems fair. While Christophe doesn’t seem stupid, he doesn’t seem especially book-smart either.

ANCESTRY/RACE:

Similarly to Gregory, we’re trying to go as close to canon as possible with Christophe so he will also be a Human, specifically a Variant Human. I could also see regular Human working for Christophe, but I like that Variant Human lets you start with a feat. The two ability scores we’re bumping for Christophe are STR (bringing it to 16) and WIS (bringing it to 14). For the feat, we’re going to take Tavern Brawler. This will give him a +1 to STR or CON (I say choose CON, making it a 13), as well as make him proficient in improvised weapons. Since shovels aren’t official weapons per D&D rules, this will allow you to let him wield a shovel as a weapon anyway.

BACKGROUND:

For his background, I considered Mercenary Veteran for Christophe since he is a mercenary but I think the skills you get from Soldier (Athletics and Intimidation) work better and you can flavor Soldier to be mercenary-like. You get an extra skill as Variant Human, but I feel most every skill I want Christophe to have, he’ll get from his background and class. Since you must choose, however, I decided on Sleight of Hand, mostly based on his ability to subtly cut the barbed wires and his attempt at lockpicking Terrance and Phillip’s restraints.

I went back and forth for a long time on what class best fit Christophe. On the surface, something simple and straightforward like a fighter or a barbarian seems to make the most sense, but that seemed too simple for him, especially because I don’t think he’d multiclass. He knows what he is and what he wants and he goes for it. I briefly considered rogue for him, to fit with the sneaking around he does, but I think there’s grit to Christophe that rogue doesn’t delve into enough for me. In the end, I realized what the fit best for Christophe was: ranger.

Rangers are typically associated with things like archery or animal companions in D&D, but really at their core they are about wilderness tracking and hunting. Christophe’s intense focus on the rescue mission to me fits the vibe of a ranger.

I hinted earlier at Christophe’s class giving him the skill proficiencies he needed. From among the choices, go with:

Perception

Stealth

Survival

These are all on full display through the whole rescue mission. Christophe is leading the boys through stealthing into the USO show, knowing exactly where and when to go to avoid searchlights and guards. Not only does that require good Stealth, but also the ability to quickly assess a location and situation quickly (aka good Perception). He does that too when he makes accurate observations about Terrance and Phillip’s situation (despite using the ViewFinder). These abilities, combined with his penchant for dirt (and, presumably, nature in general) makes Survival the last most obvious choice of skill proficiency for Christophe.

A particularly unique thing about rangers is that they have both the Classic Ranger from the Player’s Handbook and Revised Ranger from UA. Personally I think Revised Ranger is better play-wise and less specific to fantasy campaigns so it’s better for Christophe. Therefore, take Favored Foe and Deft Explorer. For the doubled skill proficiency, I think Intimidation works best since Christophe’s dump stat is CHA and yet he’s a very intimidating presence, roughing up Stan and putting him and Kyle at unease. Language doesn’t matter too much with Christophe, I feel, so anything works there.

Next choice is Fighting Style. The literal name of Tunnel Fighting sounds like it would be best for Christophe, but the wording of Blind Fighting fits better for if he’s fighting in his tunnels.

This would give him a bit of darkvision, and considering tunneling seems to be his main method to sneaking around (breaking into the USO show, getting on stage with Terrance and Phillip), I imagine he can see in the darkness at least a little and is highly aware of his surroundings in close quarters. Again for spells you can choose what you want, especially because I don’t think Christophe would really use spells (save for maybe the classic Hunter’s Mark). I think he’d equate magic with God (especially since so many magic users do get their magic from a higher being) and be very much against using it.

The last thing to figure out is Christophe’s subclass, or as they’re called for rangers, his Conclave. Again, keeping with Christophe’s tendency towards intense focus and dedication to whatever he sets his mind on, I think he’d simply be a part of the Hunter Conclave.

The Hunter Conclave is full of more choices, so let’s try to be quick in each summary.

For Hunter’s Prey, I think Colossus Slayer works best. So much of Christophe’s personality hints towards fierce determination, especially his shared sentiment with Gregory of the necessity of sacrifice, so the idea of his “tenacity [wearing] down the most potent foes” makes the most sense to me.

Next for Defensive Tactics, the one most in line with Christophe is Steel Will. With the exception of guard dogs and his mother, nothing seems to scare Christophe. He gets frustrated with others’ incompetence, but otherwise he keeps a level head throughout the rescue mission, despite the extremely high stakes. He isn’t even scared of dying and meeting who he views as the ultimate enemy.

For the Multiattack, take Whirlwind as Christophe uses a shovel and not a ranged weapon, so the other option wouldn’t make any sense.

Lastly for Superior Hunter’s Defense, I say take either Evasion or Uncanny Dodge. Both of these are actually from the rogue class, which I mentioned earlier that I had considered for Christophe, so I think either could fit him rather well! Christophe’s unconventional spying methods like tunneling to sneak around and his constant fights with Stan make him out to be a kind of scrappy individual. Even though he didn’t outrun the guard dogs, I think he is normally quick on his feet in getting himself out of bad situations, which both of these Superior Hunter’s Defense options imply.

Now you are equipped with everything you need to play as Gregory and/or Christophe in a D&D 5e campaign, from level one all the way to level twenty. You could even stick them in your own campaign as NPCs if you’d like! If you have any suggestions for aspects that would fit them better (background, class, subclass, etc) feel free to message me at any time. Hell, feel free to message me at any time generally about the two of them and/or D&D! I hope despite this being late and very long, it was a fun read and you have a better grasp on the two of them as characters.

[berf-a-smurf]

I’ve really been trying to avoid posting this but I’m desperately seeking help. I need to make rent, utilities, gas, insurance, and groceries for December.

CA$ 0 / CA$ 1500

(ETA: loan received Nov. 25; no longer desperately seeking financial aid.)

Interested parties, please read below the cut.

[ TLDR:

I’m struggling hard. Please consider browsing my photography for sale (http://mwac.logicality.ca) or sending some spare change my way via the methods listed under “HOW TO HELP” near the end below or on my purchasing page (http://mwac.logicality.ca/purchasing.html). Thank you immensely 🫶

]

My story

[TW: mention of suicide. Sensitive persons, please skip to “[END TW]” below.]

In July, I left my job as a bottled water (of the 5 gallon type) delivery assistant to attempt taking my life. I sweet talked a cab driver to take me and a nitrogen tank into the middle of nowhere.

For vulnerable people: that is not to give you ideas; instead PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE reach out to someone (my dad has since surprised me with his support; you never know who is really there for you until you ask) or even message me. Genuinely, sincerely, I will do my best to help everyone who messages me 🫶

My nitrogen tank and I sat in the woods for hours while I contemplated my plan. I felt so alone, like my disappearance would really mean nothing to anyone. My struggles and lack of skills (not to mention relentless imposter syndrome) would never let me keep a job. I was so hopeless. I continued on with my plan. I moved onto cleaning up my pictures. If my body and belongings were found, I wanted my family to have the good pictures to remember me by. No dumb screenshots, no nudes, etc. I didn’t get to the part where “my life flashed before my eyes”, but I stepped through it one picture at a time.

My pictures reminded me that I was capable of travelling and that there was so much beyond Canada that I still wanted to see. My pictures reminded me that I am capable of connecting with people and I shouldn’t leave my sister behind. And that I’ll find another partner to love as deeply as my ex. I remembered things I’ve achieved and that I’m capable of some pretty cool things.

I called 9-1-1 and asked for a police officer to pick me up and bring me to the psych ward. (I deemed them the best option as our paramedics are already stretched thin and our firefighters were busy with the province burning.) They ended up sending 3 squad cars - one with a dog to find me in case I did end up offing myself before they got there. They did the standard handcuffing, questioning, searching my person and belongings, and had me agree for them to seize the nitrogen tank.

[END TW]

They brought me to our hospital for more questioning, blood samples, the works. I stayed the night before being transported to the next town’s hospital’s psych ward. I was there for two nights and the whole thing crippled my belief in our mental health care system. But they got me referred to a psych clinic in my town so there’s that.

Even though my psychologist says it’s too soon for me to be working, I’ve had no choice but to seek employment. The water company was open to hiring me back but I haven’t heard from them since. I’ve also not heard from the places I’ve applied at. I received one of two months of EI that I applied for - I reported a day’s worth of work I did for one of my dad’s customers and they cut me off and I keep getting told that the adjudicator will reach out but it’s been months now.

I am continuing my therapy plan and continuing to apply for positions. It’s getting down to the wire now, though, and I may lose everything if I can’t get through December.

For transparency, my breakdown of expenses are as follows:

$815.00 for rent due Dec. 1st (water, sewer, garbage included)

$107.59 for Telus internet due Dec. 1st

$128.77 for car insurance due Dec. 7th

~$40.00 for electricity (I currently have a $30 credit on my account but am projected to use about $70 worth. My apartment is electric heat so the bill climbs as the temperature drops.)

Groceries are about $40/week

And the remainder is for gas for me to go to my in-person therapy appointments, attend work interviews, and visit my parents who live out of town.

TO HELP:

I am selling my photography for CA$5 per image as wallpaper or CA$30 per image as wallpaper with rights to print and post. More info on my purchasing page.

I also warmly accept donations of any size through PayPal.Me or Interac eTransfer.

Personal PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/joshmdm)

Photography PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/MiedemaWithACamera)

eTransfer to miedemawithacamera@gmail.com (I worry that bad actors would maliciously email my personal inbox or use it distastefully so I’m only providing my MWAC one)

I only ask for money you can spare. If your finances are tight, please like and reblog.

Thank you thank you thank you a million times from the bottom of my heart for reading and a million more in advance for any and every penny I’m offered. 🫶

To avoid doing an FAQ, please ask questions in the replies.

I wish you the best possible day!

[babithyn]

November 16th, 2023

tw~ ed

Hey guys, good news! I lost 6lbs within the past 3 days :) i mean its not much compared to what my goal is but im happy im below 230lbs.

I mean my highest weight was 259lbs and that was right before i gave birth to my babygirl :)

Granted, i haven’t been very disciplined so i’m kind of confused as to how i lost 6lbs. Maybe its water weight from all the swelling. I mean my feet we’re probably 4x their normal size. I couldnt even fit into my slides which were size nines and i where a seven. But i can fit in them again!

Also my bf’s hoodie use to be snug around my waist and now its loose so my stomach has gone down a little bit.

We went grocery shopping and i was doing my best to get healthy food and low c@l food. Bit i had to remind myself that i cant eat to little of food otherwise i wont have the nutrients in my body to nurse my daughter.

Another thing i have to remind myself is that the breast milk my body is making weighs about 10-15lbs. But because i’m nursing i should be loosing 1-2lbs a month. Cuz nursing burns calories surprisingly enough.

My goal is to loose another 5lbs by the end of the month. Although thanksgiving is around the corner so thats a little scary. But i might not be going to my moms for it meaning i might not celebrate it in general.

My mom had changed plans on me and is now going to her friends for thanksgiving. See that wouldnt be a problem if i didnt have a newborn and i knew her friend. But considering i dont know her friend i’m not comfortable taking my daughter or myself to some random strangers house. I don’t like meeting new people in general and you can times that by 20 now that i have a kid.

But in other good news. :) my bf and i were approved to rent a house! we get to move in on the first. Meaning we gotta start packing now. But i get to have my pupper with me!

i spent $100 to get him esa certified. So that i dont have to pay a pet fee and they cant refuse us housing or kick us out because we have a dog. So things are looking up for us!

The house is in a nice neighborhood and it has 3beds and 2 and a half af baths. Its two stories with a backyard and a garage! We got a brand new sofa and loveseat set!

The only downside to the house is that we’re going to be paying $2k a month not including utilities. And i probably wont be able to go back to work till about february maybe march. and i’ll probably only be doing part time for the first couple month’s i go back. On top of that ill have to pay for a babysitter.

Im thinking it might be more financially beneficial to just be a stay at home mom until she’s about 8-11months that way she’ll have started saying small words and hopefully have taken her first steps. then i can take her to a daycare and i can go to work full time.

but other than that we also need to get some more furniture and appliances. we need a washer and dryer, a new bed since we have a queen and our daughter loves sleeping with us. We also need a dining room table, dishes, cook wear, dressers nightstands. granted i have two dressers at my moms. its just that they’re heavy as all hell.

But on the plus side my mom and her bf are willing to help us and my bestfriend is coming to visit and said she would help us. And i’m sure my bf’s friends wouldnt mind helping its just a matter of him asking. I mean him and his friends are cops and if you know anything about first responders its that they have a huge sense of camaraderie.

Its kind of funny im dating a cop. I’ve never been a huge fan of them but it’s mostly the system that im not a fan of. it lets the bad ones get away with horrible shit.

But thats off topic. actually the bottom half of this entire post is off topic.

Anyways if you’ve read this far thank you :) Stay safe and much love thank you for coming to my ted talk:)

[coderedblood]

Lemme begin by saying I don’t know why people keep saying JBJP is going to turn heel. (Now as I say this, I am aware that a. it will probably happen now and b. surprise heel turns are both AEW’s bread and butter when they don’t have meaningful storylines for their talent and is almost always a good way to rip out the fans’ hearts. Seth Rollins’ 2014 heel turn is a master class of this instance and while there have been many attempts to replicate it, very few have succeeded.)

I sincerely hope AEW doesn’t turn Jack Perry heel. Ricky Starks is completely sexy correct when he said that the Pillars thing is sort of dumb (he didn’t say that, I’m simplifying his remarks), though not exactly from a storyline/kayfabe perspective, but if they’re gonna persist with it till one or more of them doesn’t renew their AEW contract (since MJF’s and Jack Perry’s contracts are up for renewal next year), then turning JP heel would imo be a foolish move on AEW’s part. Here’s why:

Sammy Guevara is not over with the fans outside of Texas and he can’t get over as a face. (I wonder if his habit of talking shit is the reason. Ah hell, who am I kidding? Of course it’s the reason!) He is booed to the heavens and back no matter how much they try to get him into face territory. Bluntly put, Guevara isn’t a face no matter how hard he tries to be one. (Sorry, Sammy.)

Darby Allin (fuck I hate saying his name), while he is a face currently, his status as one feels extremely artificial on his end. The fans are behind him (for some oddball reason), but he isn’t a very believable face at all. He acts very much like a heel - his vibe is very much “the world’s treated me like shit, the world owes me, and I don’t care about the world”. I’ll admit I was a fan of DA for a short time in the beginning bc I thought he had a cool look but that’s where it ended. Bluntly put, I think they’re taping twenties under the fans’ seats to get them to cheer for and put Allin over as a face.

Maxwell Jacob Friedman. He is probably the most well-known heel in professional wrestling today behind Roman Reigns. ‘Nuff said.

Jack Perry is the most natural face of the Four Pillars. With his pleasant out of ring personality (recent rudeness notwithstanding and there’s a whole other post on that here on why that isn’t a cancellable offense), the difficulty of losing not one, not two, but three of the closest males in his young life making him a sympathetic person, and his affection for his friends in and out of ring making him relatable, he’s got it. Although, it is time for a gimmick change. I’ll forever love Jurassic Express and the man and his dinosaur and wild friend gimmicks, but it is time for a change. (My mom made the excellent suggestion of some kind of rockstar, which I’m all for!) Plus people are unfortunately bored of the Jungle Boy gimmick, which I believe is the root of why people are calling for a heel turn.

What I’m saying is, you lose Jack Perry as a face, you’re losing a vital power dynamic. What is wrestling in its barest form? Good vs. evil, a human fascination that’s been around since the beginning of humanity. Turning Jack Perry heel would shake this dynamic (more than it already has been) in AEW and frankly not for good, since there is in an influx of heels in AEW. This isn’t exactly a good thing in itself because while wrestling has changed significantly since it’s become popular and faces and heels are much more expansive, you still have to have identifiable traits as one or the other, and when you have more heels than faces (and vice versa) your potential for storytelling is greatly limited. More heels, your storylines amount mostly to “who’s worse, me or you”. More faces, it’s mostly “friendly competitions, yeah!” (Neither of these are bad, but it gets boring seeing this stuff week after week.)

In a perfect AEW, the women’s division would be much more utilized beyond the Outcasts and Britt Baker and the women’s titles would mean something, Best Friends would finally be tag champions, Darby Allin would be fired and blacklisted, the Jericho Appreciation Society would go away, the Dark Order would get a storyline dedicated to rebuilding and strengthening them, and Jack Perry, Hook, and Danhausen would be trips champions.

[paracosmicat]

I have so many writers I want to tag in this that I’m going to do it along with my favorite fic from each of them

@ninadove

You are the coolest person with the best ideas! I love how our brainrot fuels each other! And the ideas you have come up with on your own are also insanely good and insanely thought out!! You are so purposeful with each word and metaphor and it’s incredible!! You’re also such a fun person and I think you have the best taste ever!! I have more fun talking to you than like anyone and I also love how down you are to go along with whatever ride I’m dragging you along for next. Your Felix has my entire heart and I want to wrap him in the warmest blanket and give him tea (but he might not want it from me, so I’ll stick to doing that with Adrien)

I really actually cannot thank you enough. I don’t think I’ve even mentioned this (but it might have been obvious) but I met you during a really hard year and talking to you about anything and everything has helped me more than you could ever know. People like you are really rare and I think you are one of the most incredible people I’ve ever met and I hope I have a lot more years of screaming at each other about our favorite cousins!! Our favorite bees!! Our favorite dragon and bird couple!! Our favorite angsty lesbians (pick one, I could be talking about 100 people right now) and so on and so forth. Our little roleplay server has been a safe haven for me so thank you!!! 💞

All that being said, this was insanely hard to choose but if I had to pick a favorite it has to be this one. This is one of my favorite concepts and it’s super sweet and UGH you did so good on it!!!

La nuit, tous les chats sont gris

@asukiess

NAME TWIN!!! 💞💞💞 You’re literally the coolest and I’m super glad I reached out because omg you are just as fun to talk to as you are to stalk on tumblr. I have literally always thought you were so cool but guess who was 100% correct. I had so much fun talking to you about this last night so this is no surprise but this is my favorite one of yours

SERIOUSLY the way you wrote Loveybug’s grandiose personality and the SYMBOLISM I yelled to you about the symbolism but I seriously cannot express enough how beautiful it was through and through!!!

a rose by any other name

@trishacollins

YOU ARE INSANELY QUICK AND INSANELY TALENTED I HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU DO THAT but also as a friend you are so sweet and funny and energetic and interesting!! I love hearing about your babies ;-; and I think you are really amazing!! I seriously am so glad that I made that post about sentibug that united us and I can’t get enough of the insane kwami lore you come up with because I am also an enjoyer of kwami lore!! 💞

Although… the very first fic of yours that I binged was this one because Nina recommended it to me and it was SO good and interesting and CUTE and I loved the way you characterized Felix!!

Found

@wackus-bonkus-maximus

YOU ARE THE SWEETEST PERSON IVE EVER MET!!! You are insanely talented and funny and also super super super kind!! You’re so good at writing like you literally wrote a BOOK for a fan fiction that had me on the edge of my seat the ENTIRE time and you’re also a prophet!!! You understand the characters so well and you know how to utilize them!! I also think your original ideas are very good and creative and I can’t wait to see them!! That being said, my favorite of yours has to be:

borealis green

@bittersweetresilience

Omg…Sunny….listen…..

UM IDK HOW TO PICK NO ONE ELSE GOT TWO ANSWERS BUT I WANT TO DO TWO ANSWERS???

Okay first as a friend like you are very funny and supportive of whatever random ideas I throw at you and you have sooo much energy it is hard not to match which is so much fun!! You’ve also,,, seriously helped me with some very real things and that is something that I literally cannot thank you enough for?? ALSO YOUR TAGS oh my god your TAGS I think I fell in love with the way you wrote tags because they were so specific and focused on the little details and sooo SOOO much of them it AMAZES ME you are not only super SUPER talented but you ALSO are so kind to other creatives and that’s the best quality 💞 also exactly what I said to Nina about metaphors applies here too!! You are so good at words!!

And okay I can’t pick out two so I’m just going to say one more shout out to your Emilie…. That terrifying woman omg you cracked my brain open when you wrote her but no no THIS is my favorite which also shouldn’t be a surprise given my yelling

oh, no, not again

Do u ever read a friend’s fic and it’s like holy shit how do you consider me qualified to talk to you?

[opinion-piecemeal]

Just to preface: this post is not about Vivzie. She is kind of a scummy creator and I’ve recently learned about several controversial things she’s done. No I’m not talking about lewd art, I could not care less about that. She has done some scummy questionable things to real life people that she’s interacted with and I implore you to look into it on your own time. Just wanted to get that out of the way because I won’t be addressing it further but I want it known that I do in fact know some of the things she’s done.

I think most of the discourse on Hazbin Hotel is done, but I didn’t have this tumblr when it came out. So fuck it here’s my opinion now:

I really liked the Hazbin Hotel pilot when it came out, like genuinely. It was a decently made piece of indie animation, and they did a lot with a little amount of time. I even kinda liked Helluva Boss when that show came out, it toned down a lot of the more obnoxious elements of the HH pilot, the designs became less cluttered and the sound effects were toned down, the writing was even decent, it was funny sometimes, and it could tell an emotional story if it wanted. I didn’t care for the musical numbers (not because they were bad, I don’t even remember them it’s been years. I just don’t care for most musicals, if any at all), but I could get through those portions and it was fine. Some decent jokes, and I didn’t hate the characters.

So I was relatively…. Marginally slightly elevated when I heard Hazbin was getting an actual show release. That’s pretty cool, indie animation getting bigger and getting more funding? Hell yeah we love to see that. It’s been a minute since I watched through HH, but I remember my reactions to it and some key points of criticism.

This is gonna be just a compilation of ramblings and rantings because I do have a lot of disparate things to say about the show. Bear with me here.

Just gonna start off with: it’s one of the worst animated shows I have ever seen. I’m being 100% serious. It’s not paced well, none of the elements of the show itself are utilized properly, and every musical number has to be worse than nails on a chalkboard. It’s not funny, and it has NO idea how to structure interesting storylines to tell their stories effectively.

I heard nothing but praise for HH when it first came out from queer people I know. Being a queer myself, I understand why that is. It’s colorful, has a lot of vulgar yet not actually edgy jokes, has some gay characters in it, has some “CrYpTiD” character that everybody loves for some reason, and it’s about demons. This shit screams that it’s supposed to be appeal to YOU 🫵 THE AVERAGE QUEER! I know my vague description here might not be screaming “gay culture” but if you’re a queer in your 20’s in the year of our lord 2024 I think you know what I mean. And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with enjoying media meant to appeal to you!!! Not even enjoying stuff that’s obvious pandering, I have my own media that is very meaningful to me because it tries to appeal to my sensibilities in an obvious way. But HH is. It’s bad for other reasons, this is just why I think a lot of LGBTQ+ people were hyping it up like it was a gift from… god? Gay Satan? Yeah anyway.

Just gonna rant about some things I remember, bear in mind I haven’t rewatched the show in a minute, but I’ll do my best not to say anything blatantly inaccurate to the general sentiment of the show.

The first episode of the show was an immediate dropping of the ball. It’s trying to act like a re-pilot, and yet if you haven’t watched the pilot there’s details you aren’t ever going to get. It starts with a really boring stylized exposition dump about the setting. I think it’s insanely mishandled because EVERYTHING that’s explained in it you can gather from context clues throughout the show. It genuinely might have been a stronger overall show if the entire exposition intro was entirely removed. It explains the angels doing the yearly culling, something you learn about by the end of this episode after the intro, you learn about Charlie’s parents, something you learn about much later and is introduced better in the original pilot through naturalistic dialogue. We learn about ummmm. That’s it as far as I can remember? I guess the setup for hell happens. Idk it feels like a clunky way to try to introduce new people to the show. Genuinely think a cold open to the moments after the intro would make for a stronger overall episode.

I do not like Adam. I know that’s the point, but I hate that he isn’t even scary. Like they don’t try to make him the least bit threatening, or intelligent, or at all… idk, cool? He’s a lame college frat boy dickhead stereotype, and I don’t even hate that on its face. If it was done in a way where we could see how he’s been leading heaven’s armies, maybe something a little more subtle, something a little tiny bit more interesting. It doesn’t make sense that any of heaven’s forces take him seriously. Like maybe it’s actually a reveal in the court scene that Adam is actually just the worst, instead of just “no actually he sucks the whole fucking show”. Not that he has to be a good guy, obviously, I just wish he was done with ANY amount of restraint to make him interesting. But he’s just a frat boy toxic masculinity stereotype that says very little about that stereotype itself besides “lol isn’t heaven hypocritical???” Like yeah. We knew that in the first episode when Adam did each of the 7 deadly sins in his literal first interaction. It’s so heavy handed.

Tbh I do wanna say that there are elements I like from the show, it just sucks because there’s always something with how they’re executed that just infuriates me. Like I enjoy the idea of portraying Angeldust in the way he’s portrayed, and exploring his trauma and awful situation, and overall they handled it decently. I don’t like the song, and I think the song has some questionable decisions with how it comes across, but overall it’s pretty clear that were meant to be sympathizing with Angel, even if it’s in poor taste to do a pop song over horrific abuse, which it absolutely is. It does fit his character overall, it’s how he copes. He takes control of his sexuality in order to hold onto some facet of control over his life, even if that means distancing himself from reality and constantly putting himself in dangerous situations. But like I said, something has to ruin any good thing within the show. It was extremely poor taste to put Poison and Loser, Baby right next to each other. I understand they wanted to add levity after the darkness of the previous section, but it’s poorly done to have The Arbiter (I forgot both his character’s name and his actor’s name and this is way funnier) go “oh I understand your plight! I’m a gambling addict!” Like no. Those aren’t comparable. I understand the point of it, it’s just horribly done because the team of writers who worked on the show were so chock full of ideas and they couldn’t reign it in to focus on other elements and space out these character arcs.

Angeldust in general suffers from wasted potential. You can see the potential of his character in the obvious arc they were trying for, that sinners can not only be redeemed but that anyone no matter how “far gone” they may believe themselves to be can come back from a horrific situation, or even can take some control. They can choose to do better, and can choose not to let their hardships define them and instead influence them in a healthy way. You can see the pieces of the arc they wanted, but because there’s all of 2 or 3 scenes dedicated to it in total it doesn’t come across like an earned change in Angel’s character. He just. Is suddenly a good person now. All of his progress started in one episode, was never expanded upon, and otherwise happened off-screen and was only really addressed towards the very end.

They completely tossed Sir Pentious’ potential out the window. He just. Comes around to the gang and is a good guy after the first episode he’s introduced. Doesn’t even TRY to space it out in any way. It’s just like. Yup. Sure is a good guy now. Found family!!! Yippee!!! It just doesn’t feel earned. It feels like there was no buildup or actual work into changing. He’s just. Basically good now just because. His egg boys are my favorite though, unironically love those little guys. Besides that though, there’s clearly some small sliver of growth shining through with him. He goes from a timid demon, unwilling to just be openly vulnerable and instead coming across as pathetic, to a confident and slightly more assertive demon who can take charge and be honest with himself about what he cares about. And then he gets disintegrated the moment after this for a cheap laugh. And then he… goes to heaven??? Idk how that works and why other demons aren’t already in heaven then???

Lucifer. Hated how he was done. Like okay, I like him as a character, but the actual function he served in the plot was to resolve Charlie’s daddy issues in half an episode and then disappear for most of the rest of the show so he could come back in at the end and handily stomp Adam without even trying. Thereby completely removing the win from Charlie and her friends. Like. They really could have had something with the ending if he wasn’t in the show at all so Charlie would have to win this battle with Adam by the skin of her teeth with the help of all the friends at the hotel to, at the very least, try and tie together these people into a cohesive unit.

The dragons appearing for half a second and then immediately getting killed. Like why even bother including them?!?!

Oh my god. They didn’t even focus on the redemption aspect. Literally the entire premise of the hotel and they cast aside that entire plot idea so they can focus on the slaughter instead of. Um. Actually interesting funny episodes about demons trying to redeem themselves??? Like I think we should be seeing the hotel get more populated throughout the season with different demons who DO want to redeem themselves and give up some of their vices to get into heaven. But nah, let’s have 8 episodes of meandering plot with no consistency in terms of pacing or time in between episodes. Let’s just completely throw out that whole entire original idea, we just have too many good ideas guys we need to include everything!!!! Like idk maybe I’m not articulating this part well but it’s such a wasted opportunity. They could have had this first season be an episodic relatively formulaic series of episodes where Charlie is trying to prove to herself and to the rest of the demons of hell that she can and WILL help these souls be redeemed one demon at a time. So we meet a new character every episode and get a rundown of why they’re in hell and then we get Charlie trying to determine how to properly address the core issue causing their sin in the first place, and then that character kind of gets relegated to the background. We can actually see the progress of the hotel in a very consistent easy to follow way, and instead of focusing on this half baked plot line about Heaven coming down to purge the numbers in Hell (which could help to set the stage for the stakes still but be relegated to the background). We would instead be focusing on the actual premise of redeeming the demons and proving to heaven that they can be saved. And we could still have this plot line of the angels coming down to kill demons once a year, and Charlie trying to stop the next one from happening. Maybe Adam gives her a number of demons she needs to redeem by the time the next purge would be, and then even if she reaches it he goes “haha no we’re gonna fucking come kill you anyway” which would let them get into it in the next season and explore the hypocrisy of heaven still in a more cohesive and earned way. Like yeah, Charlie ACTUALLY did her best and she ACTUALLY managed to show that demons, on a base level, are capable of change if they see the benefit of changing. But nah. They did all of it in the worst most uncontrolled way possible with no restraint.

I did not care for the way the plot was paced out. In fact, I would say the worst part about the show was the pacing. Even people who liked the show thought it was poorly paced, and it is. They did eight episodes. EIGHT. Each one 20 minutes, and Vivziepop couldn’t help herself but to try to cram in each and every single idea she possibly had into the season. A season where they KNEW they had another season lined up. They had 10 writers. More writers than fucking episodes for God’s sake, and they decided not to attempt to pace it out using the knowledge that they had another season to work with. Nah they just decided not to let any of their scenes breath, let’s cram in constant cuts, constant dialogue, constant jokes. Oh and we NEED to have 2 songs per episode. Episodes that were woefully underwritten to begin with. They could have only done just ONE musical number per episode and at the very least this would have given them more room to breath with the rest of it. But nah. Gotta cram in as many underwritten musical numbers as physically possible and further destroy the pacing.

I hated every musical number. They aren’t interesting fun songs to me, they aren’t lyrically good or subtle or funny, and almost every singer is pitch corrected for no reason. I’m not gonna talk about any of the numbers individually, as it would get redundant. They would have appealed to me at 12 in terms of their comedic value.

I could genuinely keep going here, I have a ludicrous amount of thoughts about this show. It’s incredibly disappointing for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad it was made, and I’m glad the audience that loved it DID love it so so much, I am appreciative of the fact that it was originally an indie project that could have had an even worse go of things. But they did not do the original pilot justice and it sucks to see. HH could have been one of my favorite shows, or at least one I appreciate greatly for what it managed to do, but as it is it’s a half baked overstuffed pastry of pure ambition and hubris, with none of the charisma to pull that off. From a story writing perspective, it’s very poorly executed and does not properly explore any of the concepts it touches on.

I will never escape Hazbin Hotel. It infects every single corner of the internet that I interact with. Memes from the least funny people you know with random pictures of these characters, characters which, themselves, also aren’t funny keep cropping up in group chats and discord servers, and every time I hear about the show it makes me see fucking red. I HAD to get this shit out somewhere because the only partner I have that would be interested in talking about the show itself actually kind of likes it and I know they would hate to hear me endlessly shitting on it.

And if you managed to get through this long as fuck text post, and you’re a mega fan of this show, just know that I’m so glad you got something out of it. I just thought it was poorly done.

And for everyone else who managed to read through the whole thing, thanks for taking the time this thing turned out to be so so long.

Anyway. That’s just like, my opinion, man.

[thisaintascenereviews]

Normandie - Dopamine

Due to how saturated lot of scenes can be, regardless of genre, there are a lot of bands that I don’t listen to or that I haven’t listened to. It’s not always because I don’t like these bands, but stuff falls through the cracks. I can’t listen to everything, especially when I’m trying to limit a lot of what I listen to. Not that I’m purposely skipping things, but when I got back into new music, and got back into writing about new music, I made a pact to myself that was essentially only listening to things I’m genuinely interested in. Back about a decade ago, I would write about anything and everything, as well as listen to whatever I could find. Part of that was due to discovering new music, and getting into a lot of new stuff, but I just got burnt out. Whether it was from writing about music, and having a lot of the same things to say, and listening to stuff because I felt I had to, not because I wanted to, I just couldn’t do it anymore. Part of the issue I have with a lot of critics is that some feel as though they need to cover the hot album of the week, versus what they want to talk about, even though I understand wanting to hitch a ride on the hype train when something is popular, but why sell yourself out when it doesn’t make you happy? My point is, I miss out on things every now and again, but I’ll gladly give bands that I passed out a chance.

That includes the new album from Swedish band Normandie, entitled Dopamine, and they’re a band that I’ve definitely missed out on, but better late than never, right? I’ve heard of this band, though, just never listened to them, but part of that is because they never really interested me enough to seek them out. With how saturated their brand of pop-rock meets post-hardcore is, I was never curious enough to listen to them, but I have gotten into that sound a lot more over the last couple of years, so I figured I’d check out Dopamine to see if it’s any good, and I gotta say, I really enjoy this album. It might even be one of my favorites of the year, or at least an early contender, but I’ll admit that they don’t do anything I haven’t heard before. Normandie’s sound is rooted in the pop-rock and post-hardcore that bands like Caskets, Archetypes Collide, and Wind Walkers are utilizing, but they have an emphasis on pop-rock. Their sound is hookier, catchier, and less “heavy” than a lot of other bands in this vein, which I think is a good thing, because they focus more on hooks than being heavy.

This wouldn’t work if the hooks weren’t strong, and frankly, this album has some of the best hooks I’ve heard in this vein in a long time. It helps that their vocalist is great, too, but their hook-heavy sound really works to their advantage. The main issue I have with this album is that it is rather generic, and they don’t do anything with their brand of post-hardcore, but I will admit that when the album goes a little heavier in a few songs, it’s a welcome change. It adds a unique flavor, and I always love when bands get slightly heavier to accent their sound, versus using it at a crutch. There isn’t much else to this album, and ultimately, if you like this sound, you’ll like this album. Dopamine has a pretty straightforward sound that you’ve heard before, most likely, but it’s done well. The performances are all good, and the lyrics are quite good, too, but this album is a good example of one that does what it does well, and that’s all you need sometimes.

[bnha-butterfly]

So you’ve officially created your Tumblr blog. What now? In this post I’ll cover graphics and setting up your navigation! I’ll also mention what you should do before you start posting your own content or before you have content to post at the end!

Graphics!

Icons

Your icon is how most people will recognize your blog on their dashboard. An easy way to do icons is to use a manga cap or an anime screenshot! Alternatively there are people who make icons that you can find it by searching Tumblr, but please check whether or not these people require you to re-blog the icons you use or give them credit in your description! If you’re using art, make sure that the artist either gives you explicit permission to use it or has stated publicly that it’s OK to use their art. (please note that if the artist is OK with repost of their art they are generally OK with you using their art in icons but make sure you credit them!) PicCrew is also another popular source to make icons but make sure you credit the artist/link the picCrew!

Headers/banners

As far as using an artists work the same rules that apply for icons apply here! Either get the explicit permission from the artist or make sure they’re OK with their work being used for these things/being re-posted. Generally I don’t use work from the artist and I just use manga caps (which you can find just by googling or searching on Pinterest for [insert character here] manga caps)

You can search Tumblr for headers because there are people who make headers and other graphics. Just make sure you pay attention to peoples rules!

If you want to try your hand at making your own banners or headers. You can use Canva to make gifs and plain banners/headers. I personally use PicsArt to make my post banners. Mainly just because I can do it on my phone and can work on it really easily. Generally any photo editing app should work. PicsArt just has a lot of stickers and effects that can really pull together a banner.

Dividers

Once again there are people who make dividers on Tumblr! But you can also use PicsArt again to do your own personal dividers so they’re more custom to your blogs theme. Although it’s important to note that you won’t be able to do those super thin line dividers on PicsArt because there is a minimum pixel width!

(If you’re iffy on the size of things I’d actually advise you to download somebody else’s banner/divider and use that as a template for sizing!)

Setting up navigation!

Your navigation will be the place where the theme or aesthetic or color palette for your blog should really shine through!

(Edit: I forgot to mention this when I originally wrote this. But when I personally created my navigation I drafted everything in one very large Google Docs file. I recommend that you have everything with its links set up in a Google Docs file. Just because Tumblr has a habit of deleting posts and if you have it in a Google Docs file at the very least that auto saves and you have a back up.)

Your navigation should be broken into at least four parts! You’re about me, rules, master list, and tags (tags are optional technically but is a nice added touch). Remember this is not a Bible for what your navigation is supposed to look like, you can add and subtract to this general structure as you feel necessary!

About me!

Give as much information or as little information as you’re comfortable with. Generally you want to have your name or pen name, The pronouns you use and your time zone if you’re comfortable with it. Most people also have fun facts about them in there about me section. If you are a Black or Neurodiverse writer it’s good to have that also in your about me! A lot of people put their astrology stuff in there about me section, also the results of personality tests and things like that! This is also where you should put your BYF (before you follow) and DNI (Do not interact)

Rules

What do you put in your rules it’s really up to you. I’d advise you to look at a lot of other people’s rules to get a general idea of what you might wanna put in yours. The only thing you want to include in your rules is that you reserve your right to reject asks/request! Be sure to also include what characters you right for. Here are some things to consider in making your rules!

What demographics do you write for?

What demographics do you not write for?

Are you comfortable writing touchy subjects (things like eating disorders or self harm)?

Do you write NSFW content? Or do you cap it at mildly suggestive content?

How many characters will you limit per request?

Do you write Angst?

Do you write for ships or do you only write reader inserts?

Masterlist

Another portion of your navigation I would recommend you look at other peoples to get an idea for. There are tons of ways to organize a masterlist. The way you organize your master list will depend on the series you write for and the content you make. So look at the way people who run similar blogs to yours organize their masterlist.

Tags

So you do not need a tags portion for your navigation! The main reason people have a tags section in their masterlist is so people can blacklist tags related to anything they don’t want to see on the dashboard!

If you run both a NSFW and SFW blog (that you allow minors to follow you on) you need to tag your NSFW things so minors can block that tag. Your tags can be themed, but they don’t have to. The best way to create tags is to create things that you’re going to remember!

I stress that you create a writing tag that you put on every single piece you publish. You can also create character tags or series tags outside of the standard tags used in that fandom. (for example your character tags might be a nickname you have for a character instead of their actual name)

You can make tags for the asks you get sent and for your mutuals or named Anons! (if you get emoji anons it’s best to write out the name of the emoji instead of putting the actual emoji. Just so it’s easier to search because Tumblr does not recognize emoji‘s in it search!) you might also want to create a tag that you put on everything you re-blog for the people who only want to see your content, A tag you put on all your posts that aren’t writing (for example my “Morpho talks” tag), and a tag for the fics that you would recommend to your followers!

What if I don’t have any of my own content to post?

So this is a pretty easy one. Re-blog stuff, I didn’t start posting my own content until a month after I started this blog and at that point I already had a few followers. Bye setting yourself up as a fandom blog you’re letting people who are interested in that fandom know what you’re going to post. Don’t be afraid to shitpost and don’t be afraid to do things that show your personality! This is also a good way to practice getting into the habit of using your tags!

Don’t only re-blog art but also re-blog fics with comments in the tags! i’ve literally made a handful of mutuals just by re-blogging their stuff and the things they write with comments in the tags! Writers do not get a lot of comments on this platform but comments really encourage writers to keep on writing!

So this is a really long post. Please tell me if there’s anything else specifically you’d like me to talk about in this series!

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Made a DT17 OC that’s kiiiiinda a self-insert, but also their own character. I didn’t make them a 1:1 match to myself because I wanted to let them stand on their own as an actual character. Kind of in-line with how Lolly’s self-insert for the series functions (which, now that I’m typing this, I’m not sure if I ever posted that design here. It’s on my Instagram, in any case)

Their name is Julio (or Jules) Starleta, and they run a quaint little magic shop in Duckburg! Full of items they’ve collected over the years, themself! They specialize in fortune telling via tarot, since it helps quell their anxiety.

vvv More info about them under the cut! vvv

- They ended up selling magical items because they have the tendency to “hoard” them. Like a crow, they kind of just like being surrounded by these things. As one of the general themes of the series is adventuring, their “adventures” mostly consist of seeking out these items for their collection. They don’t mind giving them up to paying customers because just having and being in the shop satisfies this need to be surrounded.

- They’re a very “item-oriented” character, they also have a collection of non-magical items they just find interesting, and a collection of items that are sentimental to them. Like, they may not keep a scrapbook, but they definitely have a box of items they can go through in order to reminisce.

- Team Magic frequents their store and these girls are Julio’s absolute favorite customers. They’re always asking questions about each and every item, and Julio is more than happy to extensively talk about the where’s, what’s, and how’s of the items they collected.

- As their specialty is tarot, their character “gimmick” (or rather, what gives them a leg-up in adventuring) is that they pretty much always have a piece of advice that the cards have imparted on them before the adventure even starts... But it really only ever makes sense in the moment. I’m not sure how better to describe it other than, it’s kind of like the vibe of Ladybug’s Lucky Charm where the initial reaction is “how is this even useful to me” until it very much becomes useful.

- They made (whittled and bound) their broom by hand as an older teen and it’s essentially their comfort item. Holding it helps ground them and it’s their method for flying - which in itself is a stress-reliever for them. They especially love flying above the ocean.

- Their magic powers are mostly used in fortune telling and flying, but they have the ability, though not the strongest, to utilize kinetic magic, like a push, pull, or raising or lowering someone.

- They also have a really high pain tolerance and I was kind of looking to add some piercings to them because of that, but I couldn’t figure out where they would fit best on this design. But either way, they’re definitely willing to take blows on behalf of a loved one.

- Another note about their design, I tried to find a balance between a kind of bookish aesthetic and the more alt-aesthetics that DT17 tended to lean into for its magic-users. I still think adding a piercing or two would help in this but eh. Design is subject to change, I guess, I’ll leave it there.

- In terms of emotional expression, they’re kind of zero or a hundred with very little in-between. They default to very subtle, quiet, at times deadpan expression unless the right thing sets them off into a very expressive state. Like flipping a switch.

- For this reason, they’re not the best at telling jokes, but they definitely do have a sense of humor and tend to giggle easily at other people’s jokes.

- They can be kind of scatterbrained and absolutely have their own method for organizing things that looks like chaos to most other people.

- They do not have a good relationship with the passage of time. Their anxiety can make them impatient, but also, if they get absorbed in something, they lose the ability to tell time all together and can even miss meals. That being said, grandiose villain monologues drive them insane, and Ducktales villains (unfortunately for them) seem to love those. They were once kidnapped by Don Karnage while out looking for magical items and almost immediately caved when he started singing his whole deal at them.

- They were born somewhere near Cape Suzette, but their family moved to Duckburg when they were very little, which is why they’re of a generally larger, more “wild” species as opposed to the clearly domestic or “pet” species typical to Duckburg. (They’re a wolf)

- As far as hobbies go, if they aren’t flying, looking for things to collect, or running their shop, they enjoy wood whittling and watercolors.

I made a child design for them that matches the style of Talespin, as well! This one actually came first, before the design above, because it felt easier designing a character for a reboot series if I had some kind of “source” to work off of.