#and the fact that it was made at the cusp of the old era of games and the new era of games is what makes it special

[phenikas]

I miss her (Kat from the hit games Gravity Rush and Gravity Rush 2)

[salora-rainriver]

We're talking about Ads Again

Context for those followers of mine who weren't there: I made a post about tumblr ads being weird back in 2016 and it's literally still getting notes to this day. People responded GREAT to it. honestly, despite being like. ass old at this point and written by a literal high schooler, it's still pretty good! I thank my dad being in advertising helped significantly. I had an expert witness.

Tonight, I'm writing the sequel to that post. the sequel is this post.

let's just fucking dive into it or whatever.

why am I doing this?

okay for starters I made that post in goddamn 2016 and I refuse to believe my insights into the marketing world have not improved since then.

Also, the marketing world has CHANGED. Huge swaths of my old post are no longer relevant. What we saw with tumblr ads in 2016 was in some parts a passing fad, and in other parts the harbinger of a new wave of influencer marketing and corporate parasociality (I coined that term just now).

Honestly I've been thinking for a while that I should make an update post, but what with, yanno, adulthood, that's been kinda hard!

Well, I've missed a train, and it's Christmas, so I've finally found the time to do that.

What has Changed?

in my personal life... dad got fired! yeah it fucking sucks. the good news is he and his wife are working towards their retirement now, shifting away from the industry overall. Good news as far as life is concerned, but it does mean I no longer have as clean a connection to the Industry as I used to.

but more importantly, why he got fired. The fact is, dad's old! I know, shocker. More than just being old, though, his field (and my stepmom's field - they both did the same work) represents an older paradigm of advertisement. he did TV spots and posters, not ad reads for Raid Shadow Legends. He was great at his work, but we're in an era of data-driven, maximalist, google adsense, low-barrier-to-entry, super-fast and super-cheap digital advertisement.

Well, more specifically,

We're on the cusp of an extinction event poised to bring said era crashing to the ground.

Pictured: the current vibes in the ad world

Siberia is on Fire and Everything is Dying

So given that my typical source on stuff like this is currently unemployed, I decided to hit good ol google (well, google and duckduckgo. fitting given what we're talking about) to see if I could get any insights into what the current state of advertising is.

and the short of it is that everyone says the end is nigh. check this out:

Digital is dead, and so is TV. God fucking damn. BY THE WAY, I loved these two articles. Chris Gadek, a man I only learned about today, is clearly an excellent writer and his professional insights are probably gonna be way better than my amateur synthesis of the half-dozen different articles I read today, including his.

blatant shilling for random article writers aside, let's get on to my half-baked synthesis, starting with:

What Set Siberia on Fire

In small part, it's the same issues facing most major companies and industries in our late capitalist world: Hubris.

As this New York Times article points out, we've got a low barrier of entry into a gargantuan industry that's increasingly pumping out slop to follow a strategy of 'more is more'. And we've all seen the bizarre mobile game ads and shady scams that have resulted from THAT.

On top of that, we've also got the fucking digital privacy issue shaking up the entire world as consumers increasingly don't like being spied on (imagine that), and the EU starts rolling out heavy restrictions on the data harvesting that was fueling a bunch of this advertisement bubble.

There's also the ad fraud. Oh, you didn't hear about that? Well, it's nothing much, just that lots of bots are clicking ads to falsify click metrics, artificially inflating the effectiveness of said ads. look, it even has a wikipedia article

oh and Facebook did it. Facebook did ad fraud. :)

and I'm not even getting into everything that works to shake up or demolish basically every advertisement channel out there - the decline of cable tv and print newspapers, the increasing use of ad blockers, the crisis of consumer trust, etc etc.

In short we are looking at a multitude of micro-crises all working together to make the environment unlivable for most current forms of advertisement.

in other words: an extinction event!

Who's Gonna Survive

And just like in a real extinction event, whether or not you survive depends on how good you can adapt to the brave new world you've found yourself in. Old school advertising needs to drastically rethink their everything if they're gonna stay afloat, and every field of the industry needs to recreate itself. As my new favorite writer Chris Gadek says,

"These crises show that there are no safe havens. You can’t substitute one advertising medium for another. Rather than pivot, the advertising industry must adapt and learn to effectively use the channels at their disposal (TV included), factoring in the seismic societal and technological changes that have occurred over the past decade and beyond."

and what is that going to look like? what's going to be the new face of advertising?

The field seems torn, at first... but also aligned, at least when it comes to the core principles:

privacy is a big issue. Seems like a lot of advertisers are seeing an end to wanton consumer surveillance, and looking into less invasive ways to gather important and meaningful data

companies that rely on selling ad space and propping up their engagement metrics are going to be relied on less, probably, because the metrics themselves are being seen as less reliable (for good freaking reason)

regaining consumer trust is going to be a massive priority in the future.

overall, we're probably going to look at a massive downturn in ads, as people turn to a quality-over-quantity strategy in an attempt to stop flooding the attention marketplace.

that's the gist I'm getting from reading oh so many different articles of varying quality from so many different sources.

So, yanno, there may be some hope out there. If smart people start leading this industry (lol), we may get to actually enjoy ads.

Yeah. Enjoy ads.

Unironically.

I know, it's crazy.

PS: if you start seeing affiliate links on mainstream TV ads, thank our lord of excellent business analysis Chris Gadek for calling it early. God, that's such a crazy left-field idea and I really want it to actually happen.

[beingharsh]

At the same time that the money has tightened, original ideas have become harder to sell. The prestige-cable days of “Mad Men” and “Nurse Jackie” became the prestige-streaming era of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Stranger Things,” which has given way to the algorithm-and-I.P.-fuelled hellscape of superheroes, mergers, and HBO Max becoming plain old Max. More shows are headlined by movie stars, who come with large salaries and constricted schedules. Nabers doubts that “Swarm” would get green-lighted now, even though it just got through a year ago. “Right now, especially with the strike looming, people are afraid of weird stuff,” she said. “They want ‘Yellowstone.’ They want ‘This Is Us.’ Those shows are great, but not everyone wants to write that show.” Lila Byock, who has written for the HBO series “The Leftovers” and “Watchmen” (and had previously been a New Yorker fact checker), lamented, “What the streamers want most right now is ‘second-screen content,’ where you can be on your phone while it’s on. Or you can write an original script everyone loves, and then it’s, like, ‘Ooh, we can’t make this, but please take your pick of our upcoming Batman projects!’ ” Wrapped up in the economic issues and creative stasis is a sense that TV writing just isn’t that fun anymore. “It’s become a grind at every level,” Jacqmin said. Most writers’ rooms have gone virtual—a pandemic necessity that has become a cost-saving norm—draining the camaraderie that used to help writers learn from one another, feel vulnerable enough to pitch personal story ideas, or just vent. “We always had a Ping-Pong table near the writers’ room, and on every break we would have these completely bare-knuckle tournaments,” Byock said, of her previous jobs. “That was part of what made it feel fun to go to work. It felt like we were really building something together. It wasn’t just a punch-the-clock job. And, when you’re on Zoom, working on a show that you don’t even know whether or not is going to be greenlit—it’s just a completely contingent situation—it’s very hard to get to that place.”

[youcantkillamutant]

Deeper Into The Drink: Prologue

Author: youcantkillamutant

Fandom: ACOTAR (SJM)

Pairing: Tarquin x Black Fem!Reader

Summary: You’ve always known that Cresseida would do whatever it takes to protect the Summer Court. You just didn’t realize that you were a part of that equation. So you vow to do all you can to help Cresseida and protect your court, which is proving to be difficult, what with the scheming lords of Summer, human refugees from the war, sly overtures of kindness from the Night Court and the growing desolation of the neighboring Spring Court. And yet, you think you might have been able to handle all of that, if the High Lord Tarquin wasn’t so…himself. It would have been easier still if your heart didn’t take notice of that fact.

Warnings: Depictions of violence, angst, mentions of death, slow burn (as is my custom), no smut (probably), lots of IC slander

Rating: 18+

Words:1K+

A/N: Um… Yeah idk how to explain this one honestly? I’m in my “let’s get some critical thinking going about the IC and their shitty actions” era and just can’t deal with how dirty they did Tarquin. So…yeah. I just want Tarquin to have more people on his side honestly. This story is set post-ACOSF in terms of timeline. This is my first time writing in this fandom, so be nice. Don’t like it don’t read it and all that jazz. Not Beta’d we die like men. I own nothing, all characters belong to SJM.  

|  Read on Ao3  |

🐚☀️🐚

When most in Prythian thought of the Summer Court, they thought of the sea. Admittedly, your court had the most beautiful view. There was no continent to disrupt your view of the cerulean water, nor factories to dilute the sea salt sharp air with smoke, only rolling water and white crashing waves. The sea off the coast of Adriata was the picturesque view on every postcard and in every painting. Still, you knew it wasn’t the best view in the Summer Court, not by a long shot. No, that view started further inland, south to the mountains, in the fields of farmland in the heart of your Court’s territory. 

Those fields, full of summer ripe berries and crops on the cusp of harvesting, those fields were the best of the Summer Court. What was better than the rolling sea? A verdant valley and impossibly blue sky. A warm breeze that carried the scent of the sea but never the cold bite of it. Sun warmed cobbles and cottage glass glinting in the light. Home. 

When you were growing up in the farmlands of the Summer Court. You’d learned about Prythian, read about the marvels of the Winter Court and dazzling architecture in the Day Court, but even then you knew that you’d trade all the magic in the world to lay in the fields of your village, listening to the sounds of the cattle and the sea on the wind, letting your brown skin warm as the sun kissed as though delivering a blessing. 

You’d done just that as often as you could. Sometimes, with your parents, your friends, even a few sheep or two. Then a few years after you were old enough to feed the hens and stack the hay, Princess Cresseida arrived. She hated you at first, or perhaps she’d hated everything back then. She’d spent the first few days in your little village sitting in your family’s cottage, refusing the food your mother made and sitting in roiling silence. You decided to keep a wide berth from the princess, stories of her famed temper tantrums had reached the farmlands years prior, and you had no desire to be on the end of one. 

So you did your chores and sat in the sun and loved the land and one day Cresseida joined you. She didn’t say a word, not even when you handed her a trowel and motioned for her to join you on your knees as you weeded the garden. After the weeding was done, you moved on to the next chore and she helped with that too. And on it went. Cresseida became your shadow, trailing you around the house, into the fields and around the village. She never said a word, brown eyes merely watching and studying and cataloguing everything. You didn’t mind the company. You’d never really hoped for a sibling, content to play with the other village children until the sun dipped into the sea and mother’s called you all back home, but spending time with Cresseida made you wonder what it would be like to have a sister. 

And so, with that thought, you’d spent days thinking about what it might be like to have the Princess of Adriata as a sister. A bond, not by blood, but strong nonetheless. A support, a partner. A mirror, not in the sense that you were the same, at least not all the time, but in the way that you could look at a mirror and see every emotion writhing within you. The reflection deepening your understanding of yourself. You were so caught up in your daydreams that you nearly missed when Cresseida finally spoke.

“I never knew the farmlands could be so beautiful.” A sister. A mirror. 

“It’s the most beautiful place in all of Prythian.” You smiled then, as Cresseida turned to you with a raised brow in challenge. 

“You clearly haven’t seen the sea off of Adriata then.” You laughed, a light, tinkling thing and Cresseida quirked a smile. “The view from my room is the best.” You were both quiet for a while after that. You finished your chores, and it wasn’t until after dinner that she spoke in the bedroom you shared. 

“My father sent me here because he trusts yours. He told me that if I ever wanted to rule our people, lead our people, I needed to know them, see them.” You turned to her cot on your own, tracing the shape of her silhouette. “I thought he was wrong. I’ve only known Adriata, and I thought that was enough. All of my father’s advisors and courtiers and family are there, what more could there be about our Court that they couldn’t teach me?” Cresseida exhaled loudly. “I think I was wrong.” You could tell it pained her to say it. 

“Good, serves you city-folk right.” And for the first time since arriving at your village, you heard the Princess of Adriata laugh. 

The pair of you became fast friends that summer, sniping snide remarks and sharing gossip about the people in the village and the courtesans of Adriata. On her last day, she wrapped you in a hug and you breathed in the salt of the sea, tinged with the scent of ripe berries and fresh, fertile soil. The smell of a true Summer Court citizen.

“Don’t forget about me sister.” You shook your head. 

“Never.” 

She returned year after year to tend the land and talk with the butcher and baker and blacksmith about anything and everything. By her third summer in the village, she’d met everyone, helped with the harvests and truly understood why her father sent her to this village, to you. She discovered the knowledge you had been born with. The people that owned the land, loved the land, were worth protecting with her life. 

Years later, she held the memory of her first summer with you, sun soaked and dirty from harvesting, close to her heart, as she descended under the mountain.

__________________________________________________________

A/N: I guess I just wrote a love letter to the Summer Court? As a black American woman, I cannot imagine loving this country, but I wanted try for the Summer Court. I imagine the Summer Court as a beautiful place with sun, sea and rolling fields abound (after the mountain range). I imagine that, even in a world like Prythian, a land like that could be idyllic. I hope it wasn’t too much, but I’ll never know cause a bitch has never felt patriotic lol.

I wanted to play in the Summer Court sandbox because SJM cannot write a character of color to save her life and I want these babies to be happy. Cresseida is super interesting to me because SJM kind of let her embody the angry/snarky/unforgiving black woman trope through her (limited) appearances in the series and it’s lazy AF and boring. I think throughout the books you can see how passionate Cress is when it comes to her Court and for some reason (*cough* internalized racism *cough*) the IC finds it “annoying”. Well, I do not lol. I’ve had the idea for this story for a while now and it will not leave me alone so I decided to break down and write it. Tarquin is coming in the next chappie. 

I’ve been reading lots of amazing work from @moodymelanist, @separatist-apologist and the posts and delicious drawings by @queercontrarian as inspo and living for these Summer Court mood boards. 

I have no idea how long this will be, not even sure imma post this, but yeah…If you’re reading, I hope you like it!

Title is from Florence + The Machine’s song Swimming

oh and @yuhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is the Tarquin fic I was whining about! 🥴 

[devmir-sari]

. ✧ . * . ˚  ━━ ｢  ALP NAVRUZ,  CIS MAN,  HE/HIM.  ｣  welcome  DEVMIR SARI,  the  GENERAL  of  THE NIGHT COURT,  to  velaris!  it  is  well  known  that  the  32 /  620  year  old  ILLYRIAN  is  HONEST  and  LOYAL.  it  is  a  lesser  known  fact  that  they  are  also  IMPULSIVE  and  RUTHLESS.  however,  it  is  a gold siphon that flares to life in the blink of an eye, an undying loyalty to those who have shown their hearts, a silent plea for mercy that goes unanswered, and a promise to someone who is no more that is worn around the neck of a warrior  that  truly  define  who  they  are.  in  the  shadows,  their  alliance  with  PRYTHIAN   makes  them  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with.  truly,  who  knows  what  to  expect  of  them.  cauldron  save  them,  mother  hold  them. 

ABOUT.

There is nothing that compares to life in the Illyrian war camps. To those who have never set foot in one, the Illyrians seem barbaric and ruthless, but to those who have been there…they know the truth, and it’s far worse than what the outside world knows. Though Devmir is now in a position of power, he sits in the inner circle to the high ruler of the night court, his journey to get there has not been easy. Everyone he has ever loved has been taken from him and the horrors of war have destroyed the once childlike view he had of the world.

Six hundred and twenty year ago in an Illyrian war camp, a mother gave birth to the little winged child who would one day lead armies into battle and bow before the high ruler of this land. Devmir was a quiet and introspective child, but he was fierce with an Illyrian blade from the moment he’d learned to wield one and he was most at home among the clouds with the wind on his wings. Though his father was cruel and his siblings were fearful of the man, Devmir never looked away from the monster who hid behind the mask of a loving man. He knew the secrets that hid beneath the surface but he was never afraid. Everyone in his family knew that once Devmir was old enough, strong enough, he would stand up to their father and things would change. And so they did.

Devmir entered the Blood Rite as soon as he was skilled enough, becoming one of the youngest of his time to ever reach a Carynthian title by reaching the monolith at the end. When he returned home, his father was gone, in fear of what Devmir might do now. A new era for the Sari family began. By the time the war came around, Devmir was an elite warrior, his six gold siphons proving his power to all who fought alongside him. Friends were lost in that war but more were made and when they emerged victorious, Devmir had formed a brotherhood with the current high lord. 

He served his high lord until the day their new ruler, Rhaeya Einar, came to power. He swore his allegiance to her and kept his armies in line during the transition, knowing that it could be a time of unrest as the Illyrians adapted to a new ruler. While he was simply the general of the armies, Devmir always knew his place was at his ruler’s side. He would be faithful and true until his dying breath and everyone in the inner circle knew his loyalties ran deeper than anything else. Devmir would lay down his life for any of them if needed.

After Amarantha and on the cusp of another war, is when Devmir met Xamira. She wasn’t his mate and he knew that, they both did, but it didn’t matter. Devmir swore to give her everything she ever wanted or needed. She was one of the few people who had never looked at him as some Illyrian brute but had seen past his rough exterior into his soft heart and loved him for it. He promised Mira that once the war was over, they’d have a life together that they’d dreamed of. All the plans they’d made were going to come to fruition the moment there was peace in their lands and he could guarantee her safety. He gave her a gold ring before he left. He came home at the end of the war to the ring in a little box, blood stained and tarnished, and a reminder of how cruel war could be.

Since Mira died, Devmir has been different. He wears the ring on a chain around his neck always and reminds himself daily that he is still moving forward for her. That someday in the next life he will find her again and he will give her all the things he promised her in this one. Though his heart is kind, Devmir has no qualms about the ruthless and dark nature of his position. He knows what he must do to protect his home and his family and he is willing to cut down a path with his blade through their enemies if need be. Anything to protect Prythian. Anything to protect Velaris.

[ijustdontlikepeople]

17 questions, 17 people!

tagged by @thesewordsareallihavetogive (thanks Lauren ♥️♥️♥️)

Nickname: Annie, A

Sign: kinda a cusp? But generally I say capricorn

Height: 5’8”

Last Thing I Googled: the phone number to cvs 😂

Song Stuck in My Head: Angry - Paravi

Number of Followers: 875 (jeez)

Amount of Sleep: not enough

Lucky Number: 8s! Anything with an 8 at the end

Wearing: old nutcracker merch sweatpants from my ballet days, thermal shirt, giant black dog sweatshirt (I’m cold)

Dream job: literary agent

movies/books that summarize you: that’s ridiculously difficult … uh … maybe The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue but not in a super straightforward way?

Favorite song: I’m not great at picking favorites but I’m obsessed with the View Between Villages by Noah Kahan

Favorite Instrument: basic but I love guitar

Aesthetic:

Favorite Author: I’m a big Morgan Matson fan and this year I’ve been loving Emily Henry.

Random Fun Fact: the part of the way the library of Alexandria accumulated it’s wealth of books is because when ships would enter the port of Alexandria (during the Ptolemaic era) their scrolls and manuscripts would be collect and brought to the library where a copy would be made and then returned to the original owners. The library kept the originals

Tagging: anyone would like too ♥️

[elfi-nimwelana]

I remember reading some time ago that there were some frustrations at the general direction the community was taking, but I can't remember who in particular was expressing them. However, I'd heard that some members had decided to split off from the new iteration of Aristasia because they preferred the "previous version" (this all makes it sound like a computer program!). I want to start this story too by declaring that I have no intention to step on any toes or "expose" anyone who was or still is in that community. This is just my own personal experience.

Unfortunately my memory isn't very good, especially in terms of being able to remember specific years/dates, spans of time, and names or events, but I think I found the community around the tail-end of its days on Heartbook, in that transitionary stage between neo-Aristasia and Chelouranya. I don't even remember how I'd found them, really -- similarly to Miss Morrigan, I was having an extended existential crisis in my twenties and my mental health was rather fragile, so I think I was just sort of floating around the internet quite literally searching for a place to belong, and eventually I found Heartbook. I found the energy of the community comforting so I joined and after not too long I became a regular contributor… though I was very clumsy in terms of my etiquette. I don't think I quite made it into the innermost circle: that part of the community felt like a rather exclusive club that only three or four ladies had made it into, and after hearing about the speculation that several of those ladies may have in fact been the same person, I can see why it felt that way! They were all, however, very polite and kind to me whenever I slipped up. I'm still really grateful for that.

After a little while, maybe a year or two, the community shifted over to Daughters of Shining Harmony and from there rebranded itself as "Chelouranya". I remember the shift from a more "mature" idea to the more childlike-innocence focused one, and at the time I enjoyed it because my own childhood was sort of corrupted. It was a nice second shot at something that was missing from my life. Over the next leg of the community's evolution there was more and more talk of Japan (specifically its etiquette and many of its social philosophies). But with even more time came the focus on things like anime and "kawaii" culture. Now to be clear I didn't hate this, and I partook in it in my own way, but even then I felt the very palpable difference between how things were when I'd first joined and how they had changed. I enjoyed the new direction of the community enough but I also rather missed the "old days" (I say as though I was a member for ages), when the philosophical structure was a bit more… measured? That isn't to say that I found no dignity in the new version of things: I merely missed the past.

Around this time I began to fall off the map a bit, and so for this time I have no idea what went on within the community or with any new direction they were taking, but I fell off I think around the cusp of the "Cure Dolly" era (this is the only term I remember in order to distinguish this era). I was experiencing a surge of C-PTSD and it made me behave very inconsistently and I had a hard time sticking with things and keeping track of time: a year would pass before I realized I hadn't spoken to these or those people the entire time. I tried to sneak my way back into the community but because I was embarrassed at having fallen out of touch I tried to do so invisibly, I might even say deceptively, telling only one person of my identity. Needless to say they were frustrated with me, and I still don't blame them. This clumsy re-entering of the society made me even more standoffish and ashamed to partake, and so I fell off the map again.

By the time I felt I'd healed enough and become stable enough to be part of the community again, it had vanished from the internet. Everythying was now on archival sites and though I dug and dug, I found no evidence of it online. I was pretty crushed, but at the same time, I knew it was my own doing for not savoring my time there and for being unwise in the ways I did interact with it. I'd never agreed on absolutely everything about Chelouranya's philosophies and social ideas, but I recognized that it existed to make a space for those who were too wounded, or otherwise simply not naturally emotionally equipped, to fully live in the abrasive modern world; and that it did an excellent job of that. I thought -- and still do think -- that it's fine for them to have rejected many parts of "Tellurian" society while embracing that which was good about it. Sometimes that needs to be done. Unfortunately there were just so many inconsistencies in the way the community presented itself that after a time it began to feel less tangible and a bit more alienating. I don't really know how to explain this any better. That being said, I think they were alright with this: they had always prized quality over quantity, so if people left because they no longer felt connected, then it was for the best of the community -- as many know, Chelouranya prized the needs of the group over the needs of the individual. I don't feel that it's a completely wrong way to think, it's just very different, and something a lot of people would struggle to grasp, especially when it goes too far in one direction.

I have no idea where they are now but I do wish them well. I was pretty immature during my time there and it was an era of struggle in my own life, but I also felt that it helped me heal many wounds that little else could heal. I can also completely understand the frustration others have felt with the evolution of the community: when something precious is that mercurial and subject to change with little to no warning, it's painful and feels very much like an entire world Lost to time and whims.

I'm sorry this isn't really very helpful in terms of mapping Aristasia's history and is more of a personal account: this is all I can really remember, and I know it's a bit more feel-y than concrete, and that it doesn't really contribute anything new to the timeline of events. I know it's also a rather long account, and I apologize for all of this. I guess it was a story that I needed to tell: thank you so much for asking about my experiences there, and for listening to to that story.

Hail to the Sun in you! -Elfi

It appears as if Sarah Morrigan herself has stumbled across my post about her version of the scriptures and made a blog post to clear up some misconceptions and discuss what her place within Aristasia and, later, the independent Filianist community exactly was. I appreciate this post immensely, as I was previously only left with a few scraps of the old forum posts, book reviews by other people, and the aforementioned apology to fill in the information. So perhaps there wasn't nearly as much strife as it seemed like there was. I am also aware that Sarah Morrigan was one of the first people, in the internet age, to bring the Filianic scripture online and make it available to people. Even if it's something she no longer believes in. But, truthfully, the Aristasians/Chelouranyans/original Filianists themselves have done a lot to dissuade others from pursuing Filianism. Miss Sarah Morrigan's linked blog does point out that nearly all of those who were leaders in the earlier online Filianist movement, who fought hard to compile their versions of the scripture and learn the history and authorship are simply no longer Filianists. Their own research into what was taught at that big old house in Donegal seems to have turned them away from Filianism. If Miss Morrigan is still poking around my blog, I would love to talk to her about her time in Aristasia, if it's something she's still willing to talk about. It's no secret on my blog that I've admired her old posts, where she was so vocal about her distaste for where Aristasia went after Bridgehead. My inbox is always open.

[stephdrawsjohnlock]

why do you ship rimmer and lister? i don't judge you or anything (you should hear about some of my ships lmao) but i haven't noticed anything romantic between them? idk you don't have to answer this i'm just curious.

Hey Nonny!

No offense taken, and I'll try to be as respectful as I can in my reply as well!

Before I begin, let me ask you, without malice: Why do you ship what you ship? Does it matter if it's canon or not? Is it because it makes you happy, or is it because the dynamic intrigues you, or maybe you're using a character as a placeholder for yourself to help understand your own trauma? There's a plethora of answers here that honestly is different for each individual, and really there's no "right" answer.

There are people who ship Kryten and the Cat, or Mycroft and an umbrella, or Anderson with Sherlock, or Snape and Sirius... I personally don't get any of the ships, but they're not my 'ship, and really, not my place to shit on it. Shipping just makes fandom a bit more dynamic and interactive.

The short answer to your question, for me anyway, is because it gives me hope, as do all my current ships. I'm an older cusp millennial, and I haven't had a serious relationship ever in my life. A commonality with all my ships, I've discovered, is that I have a "placeholder" character that I relate to, and in turn it just... makes me feel like there is still someone out there for me, that I'm not to old to find someone to share my life with; A John to my Sherlock. A loveably annoying life partner Lister to my grumpy, "unloveable" neurotic set-in-my-ways Rimmer. A smitten Crowley to my fussy Aziraphale. It's literally as simple as that for me on a personal level. AND because I like the chemistry of the characters interacting, and I like how other authors interpret that dynamic.

Canon-speaking though, a lot of my ships do come about if I feel that, in-canon, it could be a very real possibility and if their chemistry feels right to me. I explained it a bit more in-depth in the description box of this art-piece here, but the long short of it is "they're stuck in space forever, as life partners, and you can see the growth of their relationship over 30 years." Binge Series 1 all the way through to 13 (The Promised Land), and you'll see a dramatic difference from Rimmer/Lister S1E1 and Rimmer/Lister S13 TPL. Maybe I'm looking too much into it, but the post-Ace era episodes are especially kind of... married couple-ish? I can't really explain. There's a few scenes where you'll see Rimmer and Lister walk off together, or share an inside joke at the expense of another character, or Lister will be so DONE with Rimmer but still put up with him anyway after Rimmer "apologizes" in his own way, LOL. Also:

They have a ship the size of a small city, and even when Rimmer came back in series 9, they still shared a room. I KNOW in sitcoms it's fiscally better to keep sets to a minimum, but they... I dunno could have shown Rimmer and Lister in separate rooms at any time.

In fact, the one SINGLE TIME they did split rooms pre-Starbug/Post-Starbug, in "ME SQUARED", when Rimmer got annoyed with himself... He went RIGHT back to share a room with Lister again, so the "minimal sets" thing get rendered moot... "Me Squared" is the last episode of the first season... when they would have known if their budget got slightly bigger and they could have made them in separate rooms. But nope. 11 seasons Sharing the same room?

PLUS The argument could then ALSO be made that The Cat could then share a set room too... but nope. OH and Kochanski as well... to be fair their time on Red Dwarf together was in prison, but I digress. So yeah, sharing a bunk room on a ship the size of a small city? Seems sus, LOL.

"STOKE ME A CLIPPER", it was Dave who encouraged Rimmer that he could be more, and kept Rimmer's secret when he left, not even confessing to Kochanski what happened to Rimmer.

In the episode "BLUE", Lister literally pines over Rimmer for the entire episode, to the point where Lister dreams about kissing Rimmer.

"FATHERS AND SUNS", Lister makes a true effort to take Rimmer's advice and to be a better father to himself. I know it's a stupid little thing, but it's evidence that Dave does take things Rimmer tells him to heart even when they bicker, and it ends terribly for them, but there you go LOL.

"ENTANGLED", it's explicitly stated that Rimmer literally cannot survive without Lister, since Holly is no longer running the ship. They're essentially tied together until Dave finally dies for real.

"M-CORP", I personally feel like it was Rimmer who was the most determined to get Lister back. Maybe I'm biased because Rimmer is my fave character, but I dunno, that's the vibe I got from it.

"THE PROMISED LAND" is the most telling for me, and conveniently the most recent episode... It was the "Sun and Moon" convo for me that renewed my love for their dynamic. Lister sincerely told Rimmer that he needed Rimmer in his life, and Rimmer took it to heart, AND they don't make a "no homo" joke about it later on. It was lovely to me.

There's a tonne more that I personally see probably because of shipper goggles, but what do I know, LOL. I will give that to you, that in earlier episodes it is harder to see, but I promise, binge the whole thing as one and you can see them already growing on each other by series 2.

If not a ship, I've ALWAYS seen them as each other's best friend since at least series two. Both know more about the other than any coworker/room-mate should, and thirty years on, especially after Rimmer returns, it just seems they've softened each other's edges and made themselves a family. At the very least it's a nice "found family" trope, given how fucked up Rimmer and Lister's past lives were.

ANYWAY, SORRY, I rarely get to talk about Red Dwarf, so thank you for the opportunity!

The TL;DR of this is: I ship them because I'm an old romantic sap who ships other old idiots because they make me happy and hopeful for my own future, AND because I love the chemistry my ships have with each other. Simple as that! <3

Hope that answers your question, and thank you for asking it :)

[liam-93-productions]

Liam’s full interview with Tings Magazine - Part 1

Note: the interview was recorded in may 2020.

Justin Campbell: What is the weirdest YouTube/Instagram trend hole that you’ve fallen into? Liam: One that always gets me is putting Mentos in Pepsi or Coke. We all know what happens, but we have to watch the ending. I’ve seen it about fifty times, and it doesn’t change. But it’s weird finding out what things are interesting when you’re stuck inside. It’s a crazy ride watching the world react to this. It’s almost like everybody’s become a street performer. You see these people on the street who have a special skill like magic and the internet is now the place for that and everybody does it. 

Do you feel pressured to participate? Is there currency in that? Does that keep you relevant? I think artists have had to change a lot to fit in. There used to be mystery where you didn’t know too much about their lives, whereas we are in my living room now for all the world to see. I think that’s the biggest change of these newer platforms. I think you have to join in if you want to stay relevant. If you look at someone like Jason Derulo, he has 19 million followers on TikTok and he just started. His old songs are re-charting because of the TikTok chart. So, you can’t just make music and expect it to go well anymore. There has to be a personality and a story. It’s not quite the same anymore. 

There’s so many differente avenues to keep up with. There’s Instagram, YouTube, TikTok. It used to be you did radio, tours and late-night television. Now there seem to be a dozen things to do.  It’s crazy, this last promo schedule for me, having to do it indoors. I had to learn how to do a bunch of different jobs for the people that couldn’t be here. We put up a green screen in my lounge. We moved all the sofas, me and the camera guy that is staying with me set up the green screen and then you have to film it as well. It’s just crazy the amount of different things that you have to get involved in right now to stay relevant. And that’s all it is. The majority of the stuff isn’t really doing anything, but it’s doing loads at the same time if that makes sense. It’s a difficult thing to get used. And also, things have gotten jovial. So, you have to learn to make fun of ourselves. You can’t be Mr. Serious pop-star anymore. People aren’t really attracted to that anymore. People like the fun side of you, your personality and your humor come through on these things. It’s crazy. I thought about when I joined TikTok the other week, there’s a pressure to film something fun. But then if you are not having fun filming it, you’re not going to film a fun video. And I didn’t want to live my life every day thinking I got to film a video or nobody is going to care. I spent an hour trying to think of stuff and I don’t want to live my life like this. I enjoy then. I like going on TikTok and getting lost in a little TikTok rabbit hole, we all do, but I don’t know if I’m that way inclined mentally. 

With the need to share more, to share a comedic side or a vulnerable side, where do you draw the line? When do you stop sharing? How much of it is constructed sharing and how much of it is authentic sharing? It’s difficult. I’m very prone to enjoy a moment rather than take my camera out and film it. I’m always one of those people who take a picture of a sunset and then never look at it and say why did I bother taking the picture. I’d rather enjoy the moment. We live in a day and age where the camera phone is people’s first thought for things. And I’m just not one of those people. Humorous stuff will happen and it will be off the cuff, but we didn’t film it. And it will be like “aw, should we recreate it?” But we don’t want to recreate it. It just feels stupid. It always feels forced in that sense. So for me, I definitely struggle with sharing moments.  And you have those people out there, who are literally willing to do anything. There’s a trend for people who are shaving their eyebrows off at the moment. I’m not going to shave my eyebrows off so people will care a little more. That just doesn’t register with me. You have Jake and Logan Paul, who do a lot of crazy, crazy things to get noticed. And it’s like where do you draw the line. 

These platforms make it challenging to carve out a private life. People expect more and more of celebrities’ lives to be shared. They feel they have ownership of every aspect of people’s lives. What are your thoughts on that? From the start of this lockdown, the first James Corden TV performance was filmed in the lounge and we went through my whole house. I can remember back in the day when a newspaper sent out the photos of my house. I don’t like people knowing where I sleep because it’s a security problem for me. I had a big complaint about that. Now fast forward 5-6 years and the world has changed to where nothing is really a private or intimate moment. It’s strange. As One Direction, we were in an era on the rise of Twitter. I think Twitter helped us a lot. It was the way we trended on Twitter that actually made us famous. But being on the cusp of that internet stardom, we didn’t really care about how many followers [we had].  Now, it’s become a currency. I just struggle to take those things seriously, that it is part of the job because it feels so foreign. When we had apps as kids, there was no way to becoming MSN famous. Now kids want to be an Instagrammer or a TikTokker. It’s crazy. We never had that. 

You said something about people chasing the currency of liked and follows. Kids are thinking about that validation when they are creating content. How much of that are you thinking about it when you create music or social media/video content? I think, for me, I don’t often pay attention to how many likes thing gets. As a pop star, you have to have an average amount per post. We have to have meetings now where people will go through posts, and tell you why this works. Which for me, it seems insane, but you have this persona that you have to keep up online. And definitely, when posting certain things, you are gauging whether it’s going to get a reaction or there’s no point in posting it. And that’s always been the problem for me. I’m hoping for a big reaction for stuff which limits the amount you post because you think there’s no point posting this.  Often the people who do the best in these scenarios are the people that didn’t mean for it to happen. Someone makes a little challenge like The Ice Bucket Challenge. Someone thought I’ll do this. It will be fun for us to film and because they are having fun, everyone is like we will get involved. If you think about it too much, it will overtake you. For the longest time, I didn’t post a lot. I got off of Twitter because of the backlash and the fact that you are always going to annoy someone with a post. I was like, I can’t deal with it. I might as well keep it to myself. There’s no disappointment. 

I think that’s part of the condition of being an artist. You crave a certain amount of validation.  When it’s work, you can take that some people won’t get it. But because everything has become so personal now like it’s about you. You sell your personality to people. It’s like if someone asks you “what five things do you want people to know about you”. And everyone goes, well, I’d like to be... You suddenly think, what we are doing every day online is trying to sell ourselves.  It’s a difficult balance. You have to have the right amount of humor and humility and the right amount of this. It’s so difficult to find that person. And you see people who become caricatures of themselves online. They overdo it. You don’t know what works any why it works. The internet is such an untested experiment. The public decides. It’s so crazy.

You just said that it can feel so personal, which I think is such an honest statement because when you are putting yourself out there, it is hard to celebrate the work and you. When people don’t like something, it can feel like they are personally attacking you.  It genuinely scares me sometimes. Even to post a selfie, because you just don’t know what the recipe is. I’m not trying to impress anyone. I’m just trying to stay around if that makes sense. I don’t know, it’s difficult. The fact that you just let it go and it’s gone and people either take it or leave it. It’s like jumping on stage every time you post, which scares me anyway. 

You’ve spoken pretty openly about dealing with depression and anxiety. How does this level of exposure impact your ability to manage your anxiety? Before all of this started, the first day of school would probably be when you are your most anxious. Or it’s your own clothes day and you don’t know what to wear. That feels like what everyone is going through every single day online. It’s like the teen generation has so many more questions to answer that we had. I know as a kid I was quite stressed. I can’t imagine how these kids feel these days.  The only way I can relate is by how I feel in this scenario. Obviously, being a little bit older, you are a little wiser with it. I thinks it’s a different kind of pressure these days. It’s a worldwide pressure. The fact that anyone can become a superstar overnight or also the most embarrassing thing in the world and the line is that thin. I can’t imagine what is like for kids growing up in that scenario. For me, it’s raised a lot of questions about my mental health and having to deal with these things. I’ve been running a pilot with someone for people in my position, people who struggle with fame, with the position that they get themselves. You don’t really realize the playbook you’re pressing. Once you’re in it, you’re in it.  I started from 14-16, were my two start years. And the only answer that people had for you was that you’ve got have thick skin. But I don’t think that’s really the point because once you are here, you have to find out if your skin is thick enough. You have to learn. For the longest time, if somebody wrote something about me in the press, I’d rise back up and bring back up. I didn’t realize they were trying to bait me out because they knew I’d do that. Then they’d write three more articles about the scenario that I didn’t want them to write about. You can only know that with years of experience. If something comes out now, I just leave it to die and go away and that’s it. I just think it’s difficult when people say the only answer is that you have to have thick skin to do this. 

That’s not really a solution. That’s just saying you asked for this. This is just part of it, which I don’t think is fair. Is fame something that you struggle with a lot? For me, there’s different periods, severe highs with different things and a lot of questions about stuff. I’ve been going at this now for ten years, which seems insane. I’m only 26 as well, which is quite a long time to be doing anything. And to be in this pressure cooker for that long is quite difficult, but I say I’ve learned to deal with it better now. Age and time are wonderful things. And we were buffered as teens. We had each other in the band. When I look at someone like Justin Bieber, I think no wonder he went completely mental at some point because there is no one in the world that knows what is like to be Justin Bieber, but Justin Bieber. He had no one to share it with. We had each other to share it with, to remember it with and be reminded how to behave, how to act. You shouldn’t do that. It was tough at some points, but for the most part it was helpful growing up in that team exercise rather than be let off on your own and you’re the most famous person in the world. It must have been pretty crazy for him. 

[darklightmiwxo]

MIW history

Hello I want to make a history and facts post of MIW. I been a fan for a few months so I may miss some stuff out. New fans can check this out to understand more of the band.

Motionless in white members:

[IMG=OAA]

Name: Chris motionless (cerulli)

Full name: Christopher Cerulli)

Age: 34

Birthday: October 17 1986

Zodiac: Libra

Birth place: Scranton Pennsylvania

Height: 6'1

Role: main singer

Relationship Status: single

Chris says he doesn't want to get married.

Fear: heights and flying

Personality: a really kind person who cares for his fans he's funny and has a dad humor. Everyone just see him as a dad to them.

Interest: Chris really loves dogs. He plays video games halo and call of duty he plays it all the time. His fave bands is slipknot,marlin manson,korn,HIM,and more rock bands.

[IMG=EOZ]

Name: Ricky Olson (horror)

Full name: Richard Alison Olson the third

Nick name: Rick

Age: 32

Birthday: September 1st 1988

Birth place: Seattle WA

Lives: Scranton Pennsylvania

Zodiac: Virgo

Height: 5'6

Uni: he studied film production in college but dropped out for the band.

Role: rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist

Relationship status: taken by Jamie L

Fear: dying alone,being hated,failing

Personality: he's a calm sweet person he's very smart and also really kind. He's a good caring friend. However he can be a troll sometimes and mess around with everyone because he loves doing it. He loves his fans so much. He's a shy boy.

Interest: he loves to write,draw,edit,take photos, record videos,run his YouTube channel,create a mini sketch video to post on his channel, being a director,he loves cats and reading books.

Ricky fave bands is: muse,HIM,afi,slipknot,BMTH,Ariana grande,Ellie goulding.

[IMG=NEP]

Name: Vinny Mauro

Full name: Vinchenzo Mauro

Nick name: vin,chenzo,sachetti

Nationality: Italian American

Age: 27

Birthday: Nov 22 1993

Birth place: jersey shore Pennsylvania

Zodiac: Sagittarius

(he's also a Sagittarius Scorpio cusp)

Height: 5'6

Uni: vinny study computer programming but he dropped out of college to join the band in 2014

Role: drummer

Bands: MIW,suffer club,trap demon

Relationship Status: single

Fear: being hated by people

Personality: in most of Ricky vlogs vinny seem extroverted he is loud around friends and has lots of fun being silly. But in reality there is a side to him that isn't easy to see you can see it in his twitch stream. He's actually really introverted he said this himself. He's calming and sweet he interact with fans a lot and making sure fans respect each other. He loves to be alone in his room for many days avoiding human contact. Vinny mention being too shy to go up to new people but he is fine if people go up to him. He doesn't feel comfortable talking to new people. He likes being alone.

Interest: creating rap beats,playing video games,making music,dogs and cats,playing drums.

Vinny fave artist are: Fall out boy,paramore,korn,panic! At the disco,HIM,my chemical romance,arch enemy,maroon 5,emeiem,Ariana grande,dua lipa,Mack millo,doji cat,bring me the horizon,pierce the veil,sleeping with sirens,all time low,black veil brides,Rihanna,linkin park,green day,evanescences.

[IMG=XHH]

Name: Ryan Sitkowski

Age: 30

Birthday: Jan 8,1991

Zodiac: Capricorn

Birth place: Pennsylvania

Height: 5'11?

Uni: he dropped out of college to join MIW

Role: lead guitarist

Relationship Status: taken

Fear: spiders

Personality: Ryan is a chill person he's shy and caring to fans. He's also a troll he loves to mess around with his friends.

Interest: guitar,video games,trading card games.

Bands: the same as the rest of miw probably.

[IMG=QFE]

Name: Justin morrow

Age: 32?

Birthday: May 11th

Birth place: Caledonia, New York

Zodiac: Taurus

Height: 6'1

Role: bassist

Relationship Status: married

Fear: ?

Personality: Justin is a kind chill person who cares for his fans and his friends. He left ice nine kills to right away help MIW on tour. Justin is also a troll he loves trolling his friends.

Interest: videos games but not a nerd like the others,bass,cosplaying,putting makeup on.

Bands: the same as MIW

Motionless in white history:

The band started in high school of 2005

Chris,Angelo,Frank p,Kyle white being the first members of the band. Later after college and the bands demo releases Josh joined the band. Frank moved to bass. Micheal and TJ join as guitarist. Later on micheal left the band and Chris met Ryan. Ryan then joined as guitarist of the band. Chris met Ricky in 2009. Frank left the band and Ricky was the new bassist for MIW.

MIW got more popular in 2009 when they tour around the state's in a van. Tj left the band a year later to join escape the fate (Ronnie radke of falling in reverse old band and bless the fall singer Craig band) Ricky then became the new rythmn guitarist of the band. Ghost (Devin) join as the bass player of the band. During the infamous album creation Angelo was feeling ill he couldn't play drums well anymore he gets tired easily and his drum skills wasn't good at all he was eating bad that it make him weak. He couldn't drum anymore so he left the band. The band had other drummers help record their albums. Brandon was the touring drummer for the band till the end of the reincarnated album. The band met vinny and he became the new drummer he was in the reincarnated music video playing drums but you can't see him much in the music video. Vinny then became a member of MIW not a tour drummer anymore but a actually member of MIW. Josh left the band around this time. In the graveyard shift era after the making of the album the whole band kicked ghost out of the band because the fans told the band what ghost did to fans which was very gross. The band kicked him out and Justin from ice nine kills join the band as bassist then he quit ice nine kills to be working full time for MIW. Disguise is the first album where the whole current members of the band created songs without other people doing it for them.

Chris history from high school to now:

Chris grew up in Pennsylvania. He met his friends who end up being the band members of the band he wanted to create he wasn't expecting to be the main singer. At a young age Chris started getting tattoos everywhere.

Chris cared about the band and just went for it.

Demos of the band was created. Chris is a perfectionist he wants the album to be perfect so he was judging everything in order to make a album he liked. Band members left but he didn't quit the band he try to find new band members and try to meet new bands. He worked hard for the band he carry the whole band and make sure the band was doing well. Chris thanks Ryan and Ricky for being the most loyal band members staying with him all these years and not leaving him. Chris had the fear of failing the band breaking up and Chris dreams crushing down but Chris didn't let that happen at all. And here we are today.

Ryan Sitkowski college to now:

Ryan dropped out of college to join MIW at age 17. He was new to the band and Josh didn't like him at all. Ryan was at a young age traveling all over the state with the band. Ryan haven't shared much of his life on the internet he kept it more private. Ryan got a girlfriend and then when the lockdown happen he started streaming on twitch to interact with fans and made a discord too.

Ricky Olson high school to now:

Ricky is the oldest of his siblings. When Ricky was young he was playing with his friends sports and something hit his tooth so half of Ricky teeth is fake. He mention he cry to his mom on the phone because of it. Ricky in middle school wanted to be in a band because his friends played instruments and he wanted to join them. Ricky in high school was a shy boy who had a few friends but they were mostly fake friends. Ricky Olson begin to play guitar and write stories because of the inspiration of Ville Valo from HIM. He became obsessed with HIM. Ricky was in a band in high school as the lead singer but was kicked out for sounding like Ville valo. One of Ricky dreams was to be in a band and also a film maker. In college he study film production. While also working in band merch booth selling band merch to people. But since Ricky was too shy he got yelled at for not speaking up and selling more. Ricky was in a bad time around 2008 and 2009. He share this in a blog years ago about this. He was in a lost place had a bad past and he was thinking of the past all the time and future worrying about failing the future he wanted to be in a band but he was so lost he had no idea what to do in his life. He would day dream about being in a band and then cry to sleep every night about his life. He had depression and gave up with everything in his life. He drank achoul every day. One day on his sister 16 birthday Ricky was drunk coming home from work to go to his parents house his sister was sleeping in her bed.

Tw// self harm and suicide attempt:

Ricky was laying in his sister's bed he cut his arm with a knife it was a lot Ricky was sobbing while watching the blood going down his arm to the floor his dad saw what happen and ask Ricky what happen. Ricky was sobbing and yelling he wanted to die many times. He passed out and went to the hospital he lost a lot of blood and the achoul level was really high he drank way too much. He almost died. He end up getting better and went to see a therapist. He went to see MIW with a friend. Ricky met Chris and the band thought Ricky was cool so he invited them to stay at his house. Chris text Ricky being like should join our band. Ricky would often say idk if I should he didn't know if he would be good enough for the band.

He later on join and quit college but Ricky mention still feeling depressed while in the band. Josh ballaz disliked Ricky when he joined too. 2 years later Ricky moved to rythmn guitarist but he wasn't used to playing guitar since he mostly did bass so he often made mistakes on guitar. He was still learning to play guitar. Things got better for Ricky. But his dream job was always filming he does some film stuff on tour and at home. Though he knew he probably won't be a film maker for movies like he dream of doing he makes whatever he can make. Ricky has stomach problems he often went to the doctor because of it.

Vinny Mauro childhood to now:

Vinny is one of the youngest children of his family. He has many siblings. Vinny mention on stream that he had a bad past. He mention that his dad would take achoul all the time and not give a fuck about vinny. Vinny mom would always go after Vinny. Vinny as a kid was a trouble maker he would disobey his parents and think it was funny. His mom would throw stuff at him and threaten him. His dad gave him a drum set so vinny end up learning to play drums he self taught himself to play drums. He listen to music and got into new types of music he likes all types of music. In middle school a girl that he liked asked him if he can play paramore on drums and vinny played it for her.

In high school vinny was a outcast and loner he made friends in his neighborhood but at school he had no friend. He didn't fit in with anyone. He mention in Ricky Olson podcast his high school life. Ricky ask him how he didn't find friends in high school. Vinny mention saying he didn't fit in with anyone he is also a shy person so he doesn't go up to new people. He was more a loner and was fine with it. Vinny went to uni to study computer programming but he didn't like it at all he was often bored he posted videos of him drumming on his YouTube channel. He knew a guy who knew MIW. MIW was looking for a drummer and they asked vinny to try out for drums in another country which was Australia. Vinny dropped out of college and told his parents what he was doing they weren't happy about that but he end up going over there trying out drums but he was very nervous. He met the band and then went to start drumming. Chris and Ricky were in the same room as vinny they were watching him play drums. Chris being very judgemental. He often scares Ricky when he's on guitar and Ricky fear to make a single mistake in front of Chris and vinny felt that fear. He even said I think I mess up a few times on drums. After he finish drumming. Ricky and Chris went to talk said not a single word and vinny was sweating so much thinking he made a mistake and he won't be part of the band. Later on Chris made vinny part of the band. Vinny became the tour member of the band then he became a member of MIW.

Years later vinny decided to interact more with fans since he had time to so he livestreams on twitch and has discord to interact with fans.

The lock down happen and vinny spend time interacting with fans. He lives with his friend in a house together. But something about vinny these few years mostly months to now that was starting to show. Vinny was suddenly showing signs of depression he often tweet depressing stuff but each year got worst for him. 2020 was the start of vinny's down fall. He had so much self hate he hated his hair,his body,his looks everything about himself he hate. He even tweeted saying I'm sad so I'm going to make a song. He release alone. Even he tweeted about something sad saying 2020 was a bad start for him and Ricky ask if he was ok and hoping vinny was just joking around. During December vinny had back pains because of a sneeze that hurt his nerves so vinny was in so much pain and he didn't see a doctor he thought he could fight it himself just taking pain meds to him. In Jan of 2021 the start of vinny down hill. He was in so much pain he couldn't leave his room or chair he couldn't even drum. He was very depressed. He hated life so much. A month later he got better and went back to streaming but still he was struggling there was some bad stuff happening anyway with him. The covid shot made him sick Saying he didnt eat anything for 4 days he felt like throwing up he even woke up in the middle of the night thinking he was going to do it and other stuff that made him depressed. Around April of this year small amount of fans notice something was going on with vinny he mention so much self hate about himself. In May he mention he was fine but a week later he said he was depressed and talking about what happen months ago and years ago. Sharing something about his family past and he stopped himself saying he doesn't want to get too into it. Vinny mention that he was eating food once a day because he felt like he is fat for over eating food all the time so he end up just eating dinner only everyday. He done it since the beginning of March and still is doing it. He wanted to loss weight. So he doesn't want breakfast and lunch but he eats dinner.

Around may vinny was in rock bottom he talk to no one at all even Ryan was 30 mins away from vinny and he ask him why he didn't go to see him and vinny said he didn't know why. Vinny mention saying he talked to no one for a week straight he also mention he isn't the kind of person to go up to people he said he's very introverted. he stopped streaming for weeks because he was doing bad. He said he felt burnt out and tired.

He took his break off social media for many weeks. Around this time many fans notice vinny was really not doing well.

Then he return to streaming around the 18th of June. Just to say hi he said he miss his fans but he plans to stream again a few weeks later. He mention that he have been avoiding all human contact and was staying in his room playing video games and drums all day still with the once a meal thing he does. Vinny said he's not depressed but people ask him about his depressing tweets and he said is it really depressing. Someone ask him why he is listening to sad music and he said am I not allowed to enjoy music. Now more fans are worried about him. Many more fans noticing that vinny isn't ok and he's hiding it.

That's basically all of MIW history I could give.

I will update and add more to the list later when something new happens. The vinny stuff is true I been watching his streams a lot and he mention those stuff so I just wanted to share what he said. I been a MIW fan for 8 months so I may not know Ryan and Justin as much as the others. Since they don't share much about themselves.

Hoping you enjoy this. Free feel to comment somethings I forgot to add.

Please don't argue about ghost ok. Ty

[carnegiemuseumnaturalhistory]

MESOZOIC MONTHLY: Volaticotherium

by Lindsay Kastroll

Once again, spring has sprung. Prepare to see the gorgeous forests of Pennsylvania launch back into action. I, for one, can’t wait to get outside and explore as the weather continues to improve. I was recently reminded of the fact that Pennsylvania is home to two species of flying squirrels, and I am definitely adding them to my list of things to see. But of course, this is Mesozoic Monthly, so flying squirrels can’t be the stars of this article. Instead, the superficially flying squirrel-like “ancient gliding beast” Volaticotherium antiquum is stealing the spotlight!

Although Volaticotherium was about the size of a modern flying squirrel at 5–6 inches (13–15 cm) long, it belonged to a group of early mammals called eutriconodonts that includes some of the largest mammals that lived alongside non-avian dinosaurs. “Eutriconodont” means “true three-coned tooth,” in reference to the three longitudinally aligned cusps on their molars. Although not all mammals today have three-cusped molars, the ancestors of modern mammals did. Does this mean that modern mammals evolved from a eutriconodont? The answer is no, though they did evolve from a mammal with eutriconodont-like teeth.

We can split modern mammals into two main groups: the monotremes, which are egg-laying mammals like the platypus, and the therians, which include both marsupial and placental mammals (like kangaroos or humans, respectively). The ancestors of monotremes diverged (meaning, formed their own ‘branch’ of the evolutionary tree) before eutriconodonts and therians evolved. Eutriconodonts and therians share a different, more recent, and as-yet unknown common ancestor. Monotremes, therians, and eutriconodonts actually lived alongside one another for over one hundred million years before eutriconodonts became extinct near the end of the Cretaceous Period (the third and final division in the Mesozoic Era, or ‘Age of Dinosaurs’).

This flowchart represents a simplified phylogeny (aka, evolutionary tree) of the relationships discussed in the previous paragraph. A lot of ‘branches’ and intermediate steps are missing from this phylogeny to make it easier to follow.

The canines and molars of eutriconodonts were pointy, suggesting that these mammals were carnivores or insectivores. Volaticotherium is no exception, which makes it particularly unique, as most other gliding mammals are herbivores! Because it was so small, Volaticotherium was probably an insectivore, but a larger cousin, Jugulator, could probably eat small vertebrates. As an arboreal glider, Volaticotherium could soar from tree to tree to catch insects in midair. Instead of wings, it had a patagium, a broad flap of skin that stretched between the fore- and hind limbs, creating enough surface area to achieve gliding descents. The various limb adaptations necessary to make Volaticotherium an efficient glider also made it poor at maneuvering on the ground. It can be hard to understand why an animal would evolve features that would hinder its terrestrial movement, and multiple hypotheses have been put forth to try to explain this. Most of these focus on the benefits of leaping out of trees to escape predators or to quickly traverse territory between arboreal food sources, scenarios based on herbivorous mammals. Because Volaticotherium was a gliding predator, perhaps gliding conferred other advantages to this eutriconodont.

Restoration of Volaticotherium in mid-glide by Jose Antonio Peñas, used with permission. Take note of those sharp canine teeth, useful for catching tasty insects! You can find more of Peñas’ art on their DeviantArt, ArtStation, or YouTube.

The fossilized remains of Volaticotherium were found in a layer of rock called the Daohugou Bed in China. This deposit consists of lakebed sediment and volcanic ash compacted into solid rock over millions of years as more heavy sediment was deposited on top of it. There is a debate about how old the Daohugou Bed is, but most estimates place it near the middle or end of the Jurassic Period (the middle period of the Mesozoic). Getting the timing right is important. Because Volaticotherium is among the oldest known gliding mammals, its discovery pushes the origin of mammalian gliding back as much as 70 million years earlier than previously thought!

A variety of factors have led geologists to struggle in determining the age of the Daohugou Bed. In an ideal geologic record, rock layers would be perfectly horizontal, creating a continuous stack with the oldest layers on the bottom and the newest layers on top. However, this is rarely the case. Sediment may be eroded before new layers are deposited, creating a gap of time without record in that sequence of rocks. This phenomenon, where two rock layers do not represent a continuous progression of time and have a gap of data missing between them, is called an unconformity. Other issues with dating rock layers involve the squeezing, stretching, folding, melting, and chemical alteration of rock layers when they’re subjected to geologic processes. These forces can result in old rock layers being placed on top of younger ones, making it hard to determine the actual sequential order of the rocks. Changes can also occur within the minerals that compose the rocks, making radiometric dating much more difficult.

The Daohugou Bed has an unconformity above and below it, and it has been folded, which makes attributing an exact age to it that much harder. When you go out hiking in the beautiful spring weather on the horizon, take a moment to look at the rock outcrops you pass and think about what those layers might have experienced on their journey to where they are today. And if you continue your hike after sunset, be sure to keep your eyes peeled. If you’re lucky, you might just catch a glimpse of a flying squirrel gliding through the forest!

Lindsay Kastroll is a volunteer and paleontology student working in the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum staff, volunteers, and interns are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.

[chorusnihili]

what is wd gasters past

"A rather broad and invasive question, I'd say, but I suppose I can give you the rundown."

"I was born on the surface while tensions were already high, enough that my parents, assuming that I had them, were gone before I had a chance to remember them. I was mostly raised by a mismatch village of monsters; well-cared for, not the only one that didn't have a specific home."

"I didn't miss living on the surface and never wished to return there, quite frankly. The only thing that made it worth living there is that in my final few years there, I did have something close to an adoptive parent. Who, unfortunately, chose death over leaving their home."

"A lot of monsters like to paint the underground as this hellish, soul-sucking fate worth than death. Personally I never found it that bad. I suppose I never was the type to feel wanderlust or anything of the sort. I was happy merely knowing we were safe and humanity likely had no interest in pursuing us."

"So I dedicated most of my life to making the Underground as good a place as possible. Anything that could make life more bearable. Try to cheer up those affected the worst by the change. During this time, a lot of monsters took up psychology; you can find a lot of studies on stress, despair, and trauma written during this time; techniques for coping and helping loved ones, many of which still hold up to this day."

"Unfortunately given the fact that communication has always been a hassle to me, it ultimately wasn't a field of study that suited me well, although I've been told I'm a good listener."

"So my attention broke from such studies to poking around the world about me. Much of the underground was new and needed to be explored and understood, and, what can I say, I was young and ready to believe that magic could do anything. Except, maybe, restore my eyesight. Heh."

"The migration through the underground was relatively linear. The forests of Home, the snowy landscapes of Snowdin, the rainy marsh of Waterfall, the deep caves of Hotland, and finally, the empty caves of New Home. But New Home was the end. The final stop. Assuming a vaguely dome-shaped barrier forming to the shape of the mountain, we had found it on all sides; the entrance at Home, the exit at New Home, the presumably small entries in Waterfall that human trash falls through, the tunnels in Hotland that the lava flows through. We reached the end; there was nowhere else to go."

"Monsters began to fan out, build permanent civilizations. Asgore and Toriel chose to build their castle and kingdom right on the cusp of the barrier; why, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps it was meaningful, to them. A sign of having conquered the humans, something to put them at ease. I never asked, it never seemed appropriate."

"Although many monsters seemed disappointed that there was nowhere else to go, I found a sense of satisfaction from it. We had discovered everything; there was nothing else that might creep out from the shadows. We had an understanding of the world we now lived in, a map from top to bottom, left to right. And now, all we had to do was reshape it into the world we wanted it to be."

"Much of my early life was uneventful. I spent a lot of time in theoretical research, interested in the topics of how and why magic worked, but specifically, the interaction of two magical forces. Why some attacks seemed to be so devastating and others seemed to do no damage at all.  A spent a fair amount of years analyzing magic, categorizing it, writing formulae for the so called Stats, for LOVE, EXP, HP, ATK, DEF, INV, et cetera, et cetera.  Frankly, the field is incomplete; close enough for most situations, I think, but not perfect.  I found it wasteful to continue efforts on it.  I believe that the main goal of science is to improve life; if the science cannot be applied to do so, then I do not see the point in continuing it.”

“My studies were broad and varied.  Sometimes I’d dip into the health sciences, sometimes I’d dip into architecture.  I’d do odd favors for people, look into anything that caught my interest, sometimes even take up tasks for the King himself; ones of minor interest that he didn’t want to bother the Royal Scientist with.”

“But, the focal point of my studies always came back to energy.  What could we do with it?  How can we harness it?  All monsters are made up of energy, of magic, it’s inherent to our souls, the way we express ourselves, even our body is made of magic, turns into magical dust due to a complicated chemical reaction when HP is depleted.”

“This, of course, lead to my most famous accomplishment.  The idea of using magic to power things had been around forever, before recorded history.  But there was always a mage or monster involved, directly or indirectly powering the thing in question.  I sought to cut out the intentional casting of a spell to induce power.  After all, this entire Underground was full of ambient magic; from previous spells, simply from Monsters existing; recycled, reused, breathed in and out, baked into food and released again:  Why couldn’t the world itself power things?” 

“It turned out to be more complicated than expected; failure after failure taught me that it simply wasn’t feasible to use magic without a soul casting it.  But, we found another way--and to be fair, it wasn’t exactly an idea so much as exploratory research, but research with very promising results.  Promising enough to earn me another scar on my face, heh.  Had one of the other scientists not pulled me out of the way, I might have been destroyed by the CORE before the CORE was even a thing.”

“Nonetheless I was far from discouraged.  I was actually very ecstatic.  Enough so that Asgore had a very hard time calming me down and getting me to explain what had happened and why I had a new crack down my face.”

“I started work on the CORE immediately.  Sketching out blueprints and gathering people to start building the skeletal structure of the building while I put together the intricacies of the mechanism that would create and convert pure energy that could be harnessed and used for whatever purposes we desired.  It took a very long time, but it’s no doubt one of my greatest creations.  Asgore asked me to take up the position of Royal Scientist not long after.  I accepted, of course, I wouldn’t think of declining, but it was a very strange thing to me.”

“It wasn’t long after that when the human child arrived.  I remember hearing about it, one of the other scientists telling me that Asriel had chosen to keep the child.  Keep the child, I had thought, like a pet, like a person would choose to keep a dog or a cat.  I thought it frankly ridiculous, but having the human child around brought a new era of hope to the kingdom and, I, ... couldn’t resist being pulled along.  I personally thought that the idea of peace between humans and monsters was ridiculous, but it was such a pleasant idea and the people were so happy...”

“Of course, it didn’t last.  In a single night, both the human child and Asriel had passed away.  The duo had broken through the barrier, only to seal their own deaths.  It was a travesty.  A whirlwind of horrors, one after another.  The devastation, the despair--it was unlike anything I had ever experienced, even when humanity had first sealed us underground.  At least then, we had the relief of peace.  Now, we had nothing.”

“The King declared war on humanity.”

“It was a dark time.”

“The peaceful life I had was replaced by one of fear and anxiety.  I knew what humans were capable of.  I lived through it, I wore the mark of their hostility on my skull--and Asgore wanted to willingly throw us back into that over revenge?  We wouldn’t survive.  There was no way we’d survive.  But if there was any chance of giving us any sort of fighting chance, I was going to find it.” 

“My research turned from finding ways to make the underground better to combat.  Once again, energy proved to be my friend.  I revisited old research about LOVE and EXP and ATK and DEF--and wrote up a hypothesis about another state.  ITK.  Intent to Kill.  Unlike LOVE and EXP, which are slowly, solely increasing values, ITK rapidly fluctuates and acts as a modifier on attack.  Even a soul with a LOVE of 1 can do an extreme amount of damage if they, in a particular moment, are filled with the desire to kill the one they are striking.”

“Monsters aren’t made for war.  In general, monsters aren’t made for hurting each other.   It’s one of the many reasons we were slaughtered so mercilessly.  So I created a ... weapon.  That could circumvent that weakness.  The ITK Blasters, as I called them, could take even the smallest ITK and multiply it to do horrific damage.”

“I did other research on the topic as well.  How to convert HP into a temporary boost of ATK.  With these two advancements...even a monster as relatively weak as I am could be incredibly strong.”

“I wanted to perfect the techniques before I tried teaching them to anyone.  But, such things never came to pass.  Asgore lost his will to continue seeking war.  He knew that he had only declared war in a fit of rage and to give his people hope.  So rather than continue killing, he wanted to find a different way to bring everyone hope.  He wanted to find a way to break the barrier without anymore bloodshed.  He asked me to research the human souls.”

“...”

“I wanted no parts of it.  We got into a ... rather nasty fight.  I said a lot of things I regret.  I called him a coward for bending to the will of his people instead of doing what was right.  I told him that any attempt to breach the barrier would result in the complete extinction of our species.  I told him that it was his job as king to protect us, not lead us to our death.”

“I was angry and afraid, and I took it out on the wrong monster.”

“It’s about at this point that you really cannot understand my history without a basic understanding of how time flows.  I’ll spare you the lecture of multiple timelines and parallel realities, but at the very least, you must understand that the flow of time is... well, it is inherently linear, but, consider it like a... I want to say a Turing Machine.  Or perhaps, a VHS Tape.  The same segments can be replayed again and again, can be overwritten, can change from iteration to iteration.”

“So the fact that Asgore died in this timeline...and is still alive in the current timeline...it may at first seem contradictory, but it is not, I assure you.”

“Asgore’s death hit the Underground hard.  Undyne took over as Queen, but the knowledge that the last remaining member of the Royal Family was gone still loomed over everyone’s heads.  Undyne was more determined than Asgore ever was to free the monsters and I felt like there was nothing I could do.”

“So...There was little I did.  I was overwhelmed with grief and hatred.  I kept at the research.  I honed the abilities, again and again and again.  I drove myself to exhaustion, I isolated myself.  I barely slept and ate.  I neglected my duties and while the others understood I was grieving, it eventually got to the point that Queen Undyne delivered the ultimatum that I had to either get my act together or surrender my position as Royal Scientist.  I resigned without any argument.”

“Much of the time is a blur.  Most of my studies and research done with poor practices and hardly documented.  The research that lead to me creating Sans falls into this. I wished to know if...  

“Of course, two monsters can create another soul.  This much is obvious, monsters reproduce on a regular basis, enough that in the modern day, there’s an ongoing population crisis for monsters that need certain environments.  But I wanted to know if ... a monster, could theoretically, singularly donate a portion of their soul and create another living monster out of it.”

“This is probably a piece of research that very much fits the criteria of not stopping to think whether or not I should try to do so.”

“It required extracting part of my soul.  Which, to do so without killing the monster, requires a massive power source...luckily, or unluckily, I had the entire CORE at my disposal.  So I constructed a machine that could, indeed, extract part of my soul.  What resulted was the most painful experience of my life and left me comatose for six months.  It’s also the cause of the circular scars in my palms.”

“I hadn’t intended to extract two pieces of my soul, but, it happened, whether through oversight or simply as a matter of how the procedure was carried out.  I used the smaller piece to create Sans; intending to keep the larger piece for further study.  I destroyed everything used in the experiment afterwards.  I felt it was something that no monster should have the power to do.”

“That’s not to say I regret creating them.  I don’t, and nothing will ever change that opinion, even knowing some of the terrible things they’ve done in other timelines.  But I do regret the methods that lead to their creation.”

“I don’t know why Sans is so weak.  And I resisted the urge to try to figure it out.  There’s a fine line between a healthy interest in your child’s health and treating them as a science experiment, and I ... wanted to stay as far away as possible from that line.  He’s fine the way he is.  He doesn’t need to be fixed.”

“That didn’t stop me from using the second piece of my soul to create Papyrus to look after him, though.  Or teaching him magic to the best of my ability, even teaching him how to use the Gaster Blasters.”

“Having them...helped.  A lot.  I won’t say whether I was very good at it, but I enjoyed being a father very much.  The grief was still heavy, but I was able to start returning to a somewhat normal life, and even start following what was going on in the Underground again.  I learned of Doctor Alphys’s research on the human souls, and though I personally disagreed with it... decided to look into it in Asgore’s honor.”

“My immediate thought was that her ideas about Determination could mesh well with my previous research about soul extraction, albeit with a few modifications--although I had destroyed the equipment I used for the process, I remembered it well enough.  So I got to work on a theoretical DT Extractor; but the further I got with it, the more horrified I became.”

“I simply couldn’t tolerate the idea of it.  Humans or not, already dead or not--the mere idea of extracting the literal lifeforce out of a soul...  No.  It was not a process I would condone.”

“I had just finalized my decision to destroy the blueprints when I fell.”

“It was... a laughably simple mistake, really.  The CORE is designed to rearrange itself to prevent the wear from the heat from causing too much damage in any one area.  The doors pneumatically seal themselves to prevent egress during this time but...  I was simply too distracted by the blueprints and I opened the door, and walked through anyways.”

“There were no further safeguards.  There was nothing I could do to save myself.  It was over before I had a chance.”

“...”

“I don’t regularly talk about my time in the void.  Not because doing so bothers me, but because it’s simply... indescribable.  When I awoke, I couldn’t breathe.  I couldn’t move.  I couldn’t speak.  There was no me, but my consciousness existed.  I could see and hear thousands of timelines at once, as if I was standing in an arena, with each and every seat filled with a television playing a different movie.  A jumbling mess of information.”

“I have no idea how long I was there for.  It was like learning to exist all over again.  Step by step.  Learning how to move closer to visions of interest.  Learning how to seep into those visions.  Learning how to block out the immense noise.  Learning how to speak without a body.  Learning how to see the void.  Learning how to construct a body out of it.  Learning how to hunt down my timeline.”

“In many ways, it was a rebirth, and with each and every step, I lost more of myself.  I lost myself to the aching hole of my soul being missing.  I lost my conscience, I lost my heart.  I dedicated everything to the endless goal of stitching myself back together again.”

“I learned so much about the reality I live in.  How malleable it and time is.  I evolved into something grotesque, something that shouldn’t be alive.  I gained power that no monster or human should have.  Things, and even souls, could be changed at my whim.  And yet the one thing I truly wanted seemed to be impossible.”

“I did a lot of terrible things while I was stuck like that.  Some were intentional, some less so.  Many were reset thanks to Flowey, others will never be fixed.”

“I have Sans to thank for finally helping me to achieve the goal, even if not fully.  He built a machine that gathered enough of my soul that... I’m able to manifest my original form and can think clearly once again.”

“Even so...  It didn’t change the fact that my soul is still shattered, somehow held together by the tug-of-war between Determination and Void, and that my fall into the Void reset the timeline into a state where I never existed.”

“And that leads us to now.  The Gaster you currently speak to exists in a timeline that has made it to the surface, though I’m not particularly fond of being up there and generally hide in my lab in the CORE.”

“Well, I certainly hope you didn’t expect even a rundown of over a thousand years to be short.”

“...Or, were you posing the question to someone other than myself...?”

[suf-lives-rent-free]

Fragments

Everything below is just my opinion; I am in no way trying to say that how I feel about this is the one correct take or whatever.

I know a lot of people like this episode and what happens in it, but I don’t.  I totally understand that some people just don’t want to see any negativity, period, but negativity is not inherently bad or wrong.

Negative opinions, even about something you enjoy, can be valid too - regardless of whether you happen to agree with them or not.

Also I get very salty near the end of this, and that might be entertaining to people who stan this episode?

I am aware that a lot of people – the majority, I’m pretty sure – think that the episode is a masterpiece. And on some level, I see where they’re coming from with that assessment.

The episode is boarded beautifully, the backgrounds – especially during the training montage – are stunning as always.  The music is fantastic, and the performances are great too.  In these respects, Fragments is a stand-out episode; I agree.

(Like look at this.  Gorgeous.)

However, something that’s bothered me since I saw the episode is the writers’ decision to write it into the story that Steven shatters Jasper.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: I just don’t get it.  I’m purposefully misinterpreting the story to say it’s bad.  Steven brings her back to life; and it’s not like he meant to do it in the first place.  I just don’t have the capacity to understand the sublime nature of the show’s storytelling.  I’m an SU crit and all I want to do is make the real fans feel about themselves for liking it.

Uhhhh... no.  Nah.  That ain’t it chief.

It’s true; I am not a writer.  I’m just a passive consumer of media.  However, I do not agree with the viewpoint that in order to properly understand or critique a thing you need to have the expertise and/or experience in order to make something similar.

For example, if I were to put something I drew when I was 10 years old next to something I drew yesterday, it shouldn’t take a person who has had an education in fine art to tell you that the latter drawing is better-looking than the former.

That’s how I approach media consumption and criticism; when I criticise a writing decision, I am doing so as a consumer.  I’m not saying I could write it better, or even that my opinion is objectively correct and the writer is wrong or bad.  I’m just saying that I didn’t like a thing.  Which, I would hope, is allowed?

Okay, defensive hedging over, back to the point; I don’t like that they had Steven shatter Jasper.

[I get markedly saltier from this point on, fyi]

Full admission of bias here: one of the things I really cherish about the original show is how they wrote Steven’s character; he’s a boy with interests that don’t rigidly conform to gender stereotypes.  He likes ‘boyish’ things and ‘girly’ things, and that’s okay; thats just him.  In cartoons when I was growing up, characters like Steven would be the butt of jokes about being ‘girly’ or thinly-veiled homophobia.  I find him very relatable, and I want to acknowledge that yes, that is probably a significant part of why I have such an issue with this episode’s twist.

I am not trying to say that he’s a perfect baby angel or whatever; Steven regularly gets frustrated and angry. He does some pretty manipulative and dickish things to people around him (stop trying to make Larsadie happen, Steven. It’s not going to happen).  He is a flawed character who fucks up sometimes. And he’s not 100% peaceful either; he acts violently when he defends himself against corrupted Gems and Homeworld Gems (and Crystal Gems on occasion *cough*Bismuth*cough*).  

However, he has a pacifistic temperament; whenever it’s possible, he prefers that problems be solved without needless violence or hurt.  And I like that; in most media, it’s rare to have a male protagonist who wants to solve their problems without jumping straight to punching things.

When he accidentally frees Centipeedle, he convinces the Gems to step off and allow him to try and rehabilitate her peacefully; he even notices that the Gems’ weapons are a trigger for her, and make them put them away.  He frees Lapis against the Gems’ wishes because he recognizes that keeping her prisoner is wrong, and when she steals the ocean, he talks it out and heals her so she can leave Earth peacefully.

He tries to aid Jasper when she starts corrupting, fixes Eyeball’s gemstone when she’s cracked and tries talking Bismuth down when she attacks him with the breaking point.  In all of these situations, his words and help are ignored or rejected; he’s forced to resort to violence.  And it traumatises him.  

We get an entire episode dedicated to the fact that he’s been struggling with processing these awful things that happened.

Even in Future, Steven shows hesitation about engaging in unncecessary violence; he gives into Jasper’s goading for a fight after what’s implied to be dozens of failed tries at making her come to Little Homeschool, and he spends an entire episode trying to keep Lapis from squashing the two rogue Lapis Lazulis. 

The only time he hops into a fight willingly is after Eyeball and Aquamarine hold Greg hostage, and even then they pose a clear threat to his and Greg’s safety and have made it clear that they want to hurt him emotionally and physically.  Even at that, he stops and switches tactics to talking them down as soon as they lose their focus and start bickering with each other.

(I mean, he fails.  But it’s the thought that counts.)

I personally find it really jarring that the writers found it appropriate to write it into the series that this same character – over the course of three (3) days – goes from disliking mindless violence for mindless violence’s sake to happily engaging in the destruction of plants and animals* and has done a total 180 on his willingness to spar with Jasper, to the point that he instigates their rematch.

*(You best believe plenty of small mammals and birds – y’know, like the nest Steven saved in the first episode – died as he and Jasper felled tree after tree, not to mention all of those displaced by the destruction of their habitats, and the potential loss of food sources from some of those trees.)

You’re telling me that it’s a reasonable character beat for this boy to gleefully laugh like an anime supervillain at his sudden new-found joy in fighting, then pin Jasper in place, taunt her for helping him get so strong, and hit her so hard that she breaks into pieces and dies?

You’re telling me that that’s an in-character thing for Steven Quartz Diamond Cutie-Pie DeMayo Universe do to another character?

(And yes I am purposefully dancing around talking about the mental health stuff because if I did that I’d have to go on a whole other tangent about Growing Pains and fuck I just don’t feel like it right now lmao)

Going back to Mindful Education, another big thing we see Steven struggle with is the idea that his mother shattered Pink Diamond.  This knowledge sits heavily with him; it makes him sympathetic to the Diamonds, even under the circumstances in which he sees them (escaping from the Human Zoo, and being on trial for said murder). 

He sees their grief, and he feels awful.  He questions who Rose Quartz even was.  He knows, based on what Garnet said, that Rose had to do it; there was no other way to free Earth.  But he still feels awful seeing the pain that Pink’s loss has caused Blue and Yellow Diamond.

In Steven Universe, shattering is clearly equated with execution/death multiple times.  When Pearl and Garnet fret over the crack in Amethyst’s gemstone worsening.  When Blue Diamond threatens to break Ruby.  When Bismuth introduces the breaking point, and Steven recoils at the sight of what it does.  If you want to take the fact that Gem shards are sentient and desperate to become whole again into account, you could even argue that it’s a fate worse than death. This particular act of violence is treated very, very seriously.

When we find out that Rose shattered Pink Diamond, there is a season and a half long arc unpacking the implications and consequences of this one action, and how this knowledge forever alters Steven’s mental image of his mother.  And she didn’t even kill anyone.  It was a lie!

In Steven Universe Future, Steven shatters Jasper 4 episodes before the end of the series.  And it’s only brought up twice; once for a big *gasp* moment during his breakdown in Everything’s Fine, and in I Am My Monster by Pearl, when she has to fill-in Bismuth, Lapis and Peridot.  Notably, it is never discussed around or by Jasper.  Y’know.  The person who actually died.

No indication of how (or even if) what Steven did is affecting his own self-image after his initial breakdown, how Jasper feels about what she went through beyond falling back into the Era 1 and 2 mindset.  No inkling of how the knowledge that Steven killed somebody has affected how anyone in his life thinks or feels about him; when Pearl brings it up in I Am My Monster, she seems to not even really believe it’s true.

If there are any consequences or talks about this incident, they’re skipped over between I Am My Monster and The Future, and we’re expected to assume that Steven and his therapist are dealing with it, I guess?

And yes.  It was an accident.  He did bring her back to life.  But it still happened.  If you hit someone over the head and they stop breathing, just because the paramedics are able to resusitate and stabilize them afterwards doesn’t mean you never hit them.

But here, it’s shoved aside because dwelling on it would take far too much time, and risks framing Steven in an unsympathetic way when he’s meant to be on the cusp of a breakdown.

It just feels like careless writing to me.  They really, really wanted their big action scene with Steven and Jasper, but didn’t think (or maybe weren’t interested in thinking) about the seriousness or consequences of what Steven shattering someone would entail.

In my opinion, Steven shattering Jasper is one of the cheapest, laziest things they could have ever done with his character (and hers, for that matter).  To me, the entire thing feels entirely out of character.  It’s pure shock value; nothing more.

So yeah.  That particular writing decision just does not work for me.  And if you disagree... well that’s fine?  It’s fine.  We can agree to disagree?  I’ve read a lot of defense/praise for this episode, and honestly even after processing all of those opinions and all the time my thoughts about this plotline have been stewing in my brain, I still feel the same way.

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 572: HOAX s/t

 I remember reading a Jello Biafra interview in Thrasher Magazine back around ‘91 where he mentioned that Dead Kennedys had sold more records the year prior than Journey. That made a big impact on my teenage brain. Obviously, Journey were a much bigger deal than Dead Kennedys, but we were on the cusp of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the subsequent death of ‘80s butt rock and hair metal. The wide-but-shallow fanbase of Journey moved on to something else, while the narrow-but-deep fanbase of punk kept bringing in new generations of kids. 

I became a dedicated member of the narrow-but-deep. I didn’t care about what was currently popular because it was gonna be out of vogue within a year or two, and why waste my allowance money on something that was gonna be uncool when I could apply it to something that was still cool even after five to ten years? I was gonna spend my money on old Black Flag records, not the new Bon Jovi. True art needed some sense of permanence. Timelessness.

Old habits die hard. I’m still a little skeptical of new popular music. I’m even a little skeptical of new unpopular music. I’m more likely to check out a new band or artist after the publicity hype has quieted down. My favorite record of any given year probably came out a year or two (or twenty or thirty) before. I’m more curious about the band that people are still talking about after all these years as opposed to the band that everyone is talking about right now. I’m not proud of that fact, and I make a deliberate effort keep my ear to the underground, even if the hype around a hot new act sometimes seems a little unjustified, if not outright manufactured.

I bought this HOAX album without knowing much about the band other than that they were a gnarly hardcore band that seemed to have a good organic buzz about them. I snagged the LP from Other Music in NYC, gave it a few cursory spins and, honestly, kinda forgot about it. This wasn’t because it was a bad record, but it just wasn’t what I was in the mood for at the time, and there always seemed to be something else luring me in when I was craving really nasty, primitive, driving hardcore. I think it also faded from my mind because HOAX slowly faded from view. They didn’t blow up in popularity, but they also didn’t meltdown in public. They put out an LP that people liked, did some low-profile DIY tours, and crept out the backdoor while no one was paying attention. I’ve never heard of them officially breaking up, but they haven’t done anything since 2016, as far as I can tell.  

I put this LP on a few days ago to see if I even wanted to write about it or if I should put it in a “to sell” pile. And you know what? This record fuckin’ rips. Holy shit... it’s fuckin’ mean and dirty and almost kinda scary in its sheer misanthropy. It's got a little of Venom’s Welcome to Hell-era lo-fi malice, Void’s grimy crossover approach, Negative Approach’s brutal simplicity, and a little dash of some extremely rudimentary cassette-only black metal band’s sketchy mystery vibes. There’s nothing flashy about it---no gimmicks, no frills, no hidden layers, no trickery. Just dark, angry punk music.

And that is a timeless sound that still sounds great to my ears seven years after its release date. File under: narrow-but-deep.

[arecomicsevengood]

AGING ALTERNATIVES

We live in a culture that worships the large-scale spectacle of the obvious. Partly because of this, the most affecting thing a person can do is something with a large amount of effort behind it, delivered to a small audience: An elaborate meal cooked for a loved one, a labored-over zine in an edition of ten. But of course, time has this great leveling effect, and attempting something large scale can easily crash and burn, and in so doing become something only for a limited audience.

There is an ongoing conversation being had about older comics but they are almost always superhero comics, with some weird eighties genre trash thrown in. This conversation includes a great many alternative cartoonists, but it is very rare for a forgotten art comic to slide its way into the discussion. There’s numerous reasons for this: The larger the print run, the larger the chance a work will find its way to a bargain bin. But also, artists are competitive, and largely inclined to promote themselves or their peers. Once an artist is no longer producing work, they are rarely championed.

Obviously, not everyone finds their way into “the canon,” but you would think that work intended to be somewhat personal would end up being valued enough by individual people that you’d hear about it now and again. The case for alternative comics is the same as it ever was: It’s an artistic medium that can do anything, and it’s released in the fairest most egalitarian way, via mass production, for it to find people who will support it. The art is immediately striking in a way that gives it an edge over the written word, but it’s distributed to shops across America rather than galleries, and so should have long life after its initial release. Of course, the vision falters due to the reality that most of what gets produced is pretty bad, and not really expressing anything particularly unique or individual, and this only goes unspoken at the time of a work’s release due to admiration for the amount of labor that nonetheless went into it.

But what ends up happening in retrospect is this thing where banal superhero work gets reevaluated, with certain aesthetic decisions dictated by the technology of the time (like the coloring) becoming romanticized and recognized as things of beauty, while tons of black and white comics made by people who were desperately trying to push the medium forward and make something that works as art or literature get tarred with a blanket dismissal, associated with either the indulgences of the highest-profile practitioners or simply casualties of their pitiful attempts at graphic design. Only the small handful of practitioners whose publishers have steadily championed them and kept their work in print get to escape this fate. But obviously, if you’re working at something risky, you might end up working with publishers who are not economically viable in the long term, or, if they are, it’s because they’re being subsidized by projects way more commercial than yours.

There’s plenty of stuff which had a large enough print run for copies to be found, but functionally exist at the level of visibility of a zine. But, while I might be interested in extending the same amount of charity I would to someone making work with no hope of commercial success, to engage with the work honestly means that the fact that it was attempting to find its place in the world of commerce must be taken into consideration when thinking about the goals it set out to fulfill. That so much fails to meet these commonly-held goals can make one feel pretty depressed about the medium, and maybe this is another reason for people to avert their eyes: When you’re talking about superhero comics of a certain vintage, while they might not have attempted to be art, at least the people making them got paid.

Obviously, The Comics Journal has been fighting this fight for decades. I am sure all of the books I am going to write about, they have already covered, and they probably came to the same conclusions, and depending on the writer, they might’ve been more entertaining to read than I will be. But I want to offer these reconsiderations in light of all the other reconsiderations being made, that are coming to the opposite conclusion of what The Comics Journal would’ve. It is easy to look back at the 1980s now and say, for instance, that Elektra Assassin is a better comic book than American Splendor.  There’s a discrepancy between what is the best work being produced at a given historical moment and what is the most exciting scene to be a part of. I like to think if I had been writing for the Comics Journal in the early nineties, I wouldn’t have gone all-in praising Palookaville, but I get that in the moment it would’ve felt important to do so. Now, of course, there is very little that feels exciting at all, in the context of real-world community, due to the global pandemic. This is an incredibly lonely moment, and nostalgia has a powerful allure.

But I’d like to ensure the nostalgia we feel compels us to fight for what’s human, rather than allow us to simply surrender our past to the colonizing forces of corporate interests. In the interest of the human, I will not make any grandiose claims for the works I’m writing about. I’m not describing anything as a masterpiece. These instead fulfill the humble virtues of being charming, cool, interesting. They didn’t upend my value system of what the comics medium could be. But, since it was all of the Picturebox releases that shifted my perspective on comics on its axis when I was in college that caused me to ignore some of this stuff, that its virtues can endure after such a flip is itself notable. Anyway, I have no reason to have written such a long preamble. I could’ve easily just made separate posts for each comic I wanted to talk about, but all this additional context seemed important to me to articulate. All of these are books I bought online over the past few months.

Shuck Unmasked, by Rick Smith and Tania Menesse

Feel like the main thing holding this comic back is a certain lack of joie de vivre to its line. There’s a certain cuteness to its designs that seems reminiscent of Jeff Smith or Goodbye Chunky Rice era Craig Thompson but it’s a little bit stiff in ways those cartoonists aren’t. The mask Shuck wears resembles the face Chester Brown draws himself having in Paying For It. I feel like this is maybe the only comic I’ve seen that frequently has dialogue that’s misspelled in an attempt to capture phonetic dialect and presents that through lettering that feels like a font. There’s a sense of being rounded instead of being scratchy, a lushness that feels hinted at, but also tamped down. There’s a literary flavor to it, an attention to the language, a deliberate and delicate sense of stately melancholy that’s present.

The Shuck of the title is a demon, living on Earth, tasked with making sure the dead don’t escape the afterlife and roam around. Despite his horned form, he’s able to wear the mask of an old man, and fit in with his neighbors, which include a little girl, with whom he develops a bond. There’s a gentle quality to it, but also a sense of darkness that prevents it from being cloying, an interest in the esoteric that suggests the profound. The premise could be a recipe for sitcom-ish stasis, but actually the status quo shifts quite a bit, over the course of these self-published comics, collected into a book by Top Shelf.  It feels like each individual chapter should be reread a few times before proceeding on; the chapters have a nice density to them. That’s the funny thing about a lack of velocity to the line, it suggests a studiousness with which to approach it, but doesn’t invite the eye to return to it. Two issues of a sequel were self-published afterwards, I would read those.

Tales Of Woodsman Pete, by Lilli Carré

I’ve heard a couple people call Lilli Carré the best cartoonist of her generation. The first time I heard it said, I had never read anything by her, but I was struck by the assertion because there’s so many heavy hitters in that cohort I’m not comfortable making such declarations about anyone. There’s a collection of Carré’s short stories I’ve checked out from the library, but I found that collection inconsistent, with notable highs that didn’t still didn’t quite bowl me over. This could be partly an issue of format - Few cartoonists of Carré’s generation have a short story collection of their work available, and it might not be the best way to examine the work and see its strengths.

(A sidenote irrelevant to the larger thrust of this conversation - I started keeping a google doc of what years cartoonists were born, and have a my own idea of “generations” of cartoonists in terms of whose work it makes sense to consider alongside one another. 1960-1967 is one cohort, then 1968-1975, then 1976-1982, then 1983-some point unclear to me at this point, there’s a generational divide for sure but I don’t yet know the rules of it. I lump Carré in with Eleanor Davis, Dash Shaw, and Michael Deforge, rather than the slightly older group which includes Kevin Huizenga, CF, and Sammy Harkham. That’s not to say the people championing Carre are making the same distinctions, these generational lines are weird and arbitrary and some people are “on the cusp” and everyone chooses their own peers to a certain extent. However, I do think these generations are important or useful to think about, in terms of who came up with access to alternative newspaper strip jobs vs. the Xeric Grant vs. Tumblr, and it’s just generally interesting to think about what was around to serve as an influence at a formative age. People born after 1967 have had very few opportunities or chances for institutional support, by my reckoning. Over time, more people became acclimated to making uncompromising art, and there also became way less economic opportunity for people making work intended for adults. I suspect the forthcoming generation will be more inclined towards making content for kids because they grew up with things targeted to children, and they can be part of the push to make that stuff more diverse. This coincides with all of the economic infrastructure except for libraries being obliterated.)

Tales Of Woodsman Pete is a smaller object, of digest proportions, that Top Shelf released, early in Carré’s career. It’s worth noting her style nowadays is far more experimental and minimal, although I suppose at the time her work might’ve been considered pared-down, closer to folk tales than novels. This comic follows a woodsman, who monologues to no one, speaking to the trophies he’s made of his kills, in a series of short strips. This is juxtaposed against bits involving Paul Bunyan and his ox Babe, who share a camaraderie between them that doesn’t truly abate Bunyan’s sense of loneliness. It is, like Shuck, a gentle thing, and is able to conjure up some emotion, but I wonder if the sense of tweeness present within it is something Carré feels she’s outgrown? That’s not to say I object to it, just that I recognize a shift away from that stuff. I believe Carré is a Calvino fan, this stuff might be closest to the early stories in Our Ancestors, but Calvino’s work became far more overtly experimental afterwards. I don’t know, I still don’t have a bead on who Carré is or where she’s going. And that’s great, why should I?

Hectic Planet: Checkered Past, by Evan Dorkin

In high school, I read a Hectic Planet comic called The Bummer Trilogy, and liked it a lot. That was a single issue collecting three short stories that were the last work Evan Dorkin would do with the characters. While in retrospect, high school is probably the ideal age to read this material, those strips still feel more mature, in a sense of being personal, than much of Dorkin’s work. He’s written some superhero comics for the big two that never did much for me, and he has some collaborative genre comics I’ve never read, but he’s most associated with his humor cartooning, which I have kept up with despite only finding them intermittently funny. There’s always a sense of Dorkin as a performer of his material, where the humor tends to feel angry, but his most self-consciously autobio material is about the fact that his psyche is a dumping ground for assorted pop culture detritus. What’s interesting about this material is that is, in fact, still kind of immature, but it’s moving away from the science fiction premise, to be present enough to make jokes and talk about feelings. It’s the falterings towards finding a voice and having confidence in it, a youthful move towards what might not be maturity, but is, at least, work. So chunks of this are about a dude who’s heartbroken because he caught his girlfriend cheating on him and so he’s annoying all of his friends by complaining all the time and he’s thrilled to meet girls who like the same bands as he does and he goes to the grocery store and only buys junk food and while this might sound dumb, in context, it’s the beginnings of a worldview that feels fairly true to life for someone who would’ve been that age, at that point in time.

So, considering the era, and the sense of a science fiction premise being abandoned, it might make sense to think of this comic as following in the footsteps of Love And Rockets, albeit from an East Coast Jewish male perspective, and nowhere near as good. It almost feels like if a low-budget eighties sci-fi movie had cast a stand-up comedian in it, and when the budget got cut, they let him fill out the runtime with his routines and riffs, in an attempt to make it a star vehicle in case he ever got cast on SNL. Slave Labor put out a lot of alternative comics, and they all kind of got looked down upon to one degree or another. Much of what they published is both really poorly drawn and nakedly chasing whatever youthful subculture audience they could. Dorkin is easily one of the better artists they had, but the desire to be cool according to the terms of the subculture of the times makes for comics that feel dated now. All the characters in this book are really into ska, the back of the book has all these images taken from ska compilations and 7-inches featuring the characters. But that’s also interesting, because sensing the book’s quest to find its readership lends such authenticity to the young adult milieu, of what it means to be on your own and trying to find your people. It’s from a moment in time when talking about young people put a work in dialogue with alternative culture and not major book publishers, who due to generational differences, would not have understood any of the things this comic is about.

(This piece is sort of a variation on what I talk about in my article in But Is It… Comic Aht 2, by the way. There, behind a beautiful Lilli Carre cover, you can see me talking up more explicitly “all-ages” comics Slave Labor published, like Zander Cannon’s Replacement God, and Scott Roberts’ Patty Cake. Halo And Sprocket was a little bit later than the time period the article focuses on, but I liked that as well. Maybe the most interesting thing I’ve read from Slave Labor that wasn’t all ages and was never collected into a book would’ve been Jon Lewis’ series Ghost Ship. I also like the issues I’ve read of Bernie Mireault’s The Jam, which ran at multiple publishers, and I would like to read more of.)

[art-saga-blog]

Sonehati

Bio Twins 

The truth is that I could write an entire dissertation on Sonehati. I know so much information on him that it has been somewhat difficult to discern what specific element of his work is the most important to me. In the end, I have chosen to discuss his most notable work, the Polygons Album, Sonehati CG Works 1999. This album is a large compilation of Sonehati’s work. Specifically, it contains his preliminary character design renders, stories, and completed compositions. There are even movies, and each of the images featured in the album are already pre-scanned on a CD. This album is likely to be considered his magnum opus, not merely based on the comprehensive and exhaustive curation of his work, but also because it greatly reflects his character design ethos and aesthetic during his prime.

Sonehati is a graphic designer and CG artist. He started to work as a designer in the early 90’s after having gotten a degree in oil painting from Tama Arts University. In 1995, he started up a studio titled “Polygons”, where he and his associates worked to create ��computer-generated cute girls” (Virtual Beauties 2020, 148). Some of these characters would go onto be apart of movies and some went onto become apart of games. Polygons is a reference to the fact that digital rendering software contains polygons from which the figure is formed. Sonehati’s specific software is NewTek Lightwave 3D, which I find is somewhat common among 3D artists in Asia. In places like the US, most 3D artists use Blender, Cinema 4D, Modo, or a combination of the three. The use of Adobe PhotoShop is also an almost inherent component of the digital rendering toolkit, and Sonehati does use that too.

Virtual Beauties 2020, pg 173

Beyond being the name for his studio, “Polygons” is also the same of a self-created race of beings emerging from the virtual world as cybernetic life. Sonehati believed that these virtual characters were more suited for the internet as opposed to mere illustrations or pre-rendered movies (148). From the internet their stories would begin. It’s fitting then, that these “Polygon people” are the focus of the Polygons Album.

There is a thorough cast of figures Sonehati has designed, more than I could ever hope to touch on in this entry. I have elected instead to focus on the characters that I personally find to be the most interesting and most appealing, and who happen to be more famous than the others. Something to keep in mind about these characters though, is that regardless of their differences in identity, they are all made out of polygon skin, are usually quite racially ambiguous (Japanese, Jewish, German, and potentially Italian to be specific), and are incredibly futuristic. I believe that Yukari of the Copyright Guild is the best first example of this.

Yukari: When she was making a scientific experiment, “The Thing” happened by chance. Her sensation has changed a lot since that happened. 

Scientist Yukari becomes a victim of a freak accident of her own making. “The Thing” is soon revealed by a riquid (render + liquid = riquid), which takes her name (Yukari Riquid), and that continues to make many forms of herself. 

Yukari Riquid, which makes riquid to develop her own copies. The riquid that is a little devilish attracts Yukari. Many kind of sizes of her own copies are developed, and they become riquid, then they are developed new sizes. It is repeated. 

Truthfully, Yukari has no control over the riquid and its constant replication of herself. But she makes the best of it, eventually forming the Copyright Guild (CRG). She, as the original, is the leader. Together they aim to save the world. “To the Man; to the Earth; to the Right...”

Ichijouji Yukari

Some of the Yukari, such as Hyper Yko., appear to do their own thing and become the most popular of the CRG. Hyper Yko. is so popular that the alternative title for this album is Yko Hyper Album. Some pages of her own notebook are spliced in. 

Hyper Yko Notebook

There are so many more characters that I would to discuss,  but I will end with the reference of BeamMan, Sonehati’s award-winning character. 

TDK Beam; 1997

I say that BeamMan is award-winning because he appeared on the package design that won Sonehati a prize in London in 1997. 

There is something about BeamMan that might draw people to him. On the surface, he seems to be the antagonist the other characters are hoping to defeat. 

88880087 (BeamMan)

But then he cries while looking up at the night sky. 

In the end, Sonehati’s work explores in great depth the refuge and freedom his characters desire. There are women scientists force to reckon with their sense of identity (Yukari), a teenage girl who doesn’t know her own power (Sayaka 17), and then another that is too afraid to tell her dad that she has claimed hers (Misato Yamaha and then Mega-Misato). They put on power suits and go to battle with an enigmatic force, which is ultimately the Devil Riquid who attaches itself to young girls and women with power. Nearly all of these characters are implanted with Sonehati’s own identity, whether it’s his attraction to women with larger breasts, his affinity for music, and finding his own sense of self on the cusp of the new millenia as a new designer. 

Like I said, there is so much more to this book that I could write a book of my own about it.  I am very lucky to have obtained the greatest book I have ever owned in my life, in such great condition. It came with the original CD with the scanned images, movies, and even files on how to create the characters yourself using the Lightwave software. This book turned 20 years old in January and I am 21 since February. I believe that the greatest depth to this book outside the self-discovery of young girls and women is that is a relic of its time. In that people my age and even younger were expected to inherit a new and better world at the turn of the century. Obviously this never happened. In seeing young girls and young women fighting the same late adolescent, early adulthood fight, but playing drums during it all or maybe building a better body to fly in, I wonder what would have happened for young people this day if this world wasn’t plunged into chaos in 2001. 

Hyper Yko broadcasting from Heisei-X is the most ghostly image of them all. In 1999, the incoming Heisei era was considered a good thing. Now it is known as the “Lost Era”, and Japan is just now getting out of it. Again, I wonder what would have happened for young people of now if the positive predictions of our futures came to fruition. 

I plan to write a total analysis of the Polygon Album one day very soon. Until then, as Sonehati would say, “Love and Pixels”. I had a great time writing on this blog and I learned a lot. Thank you! 

Works Cited

Sonehati. Polygons Album: Sonehati CG Works 1999. IDG Communications, 1999.

“Virtual Beauties 2020.” Virtual Beauties 2020, Agosto, 2002, pp. 148–173.