#but I'd rather have them on here than most other sites actually

[orionsangel86]

I watched X-Men 2000 tonight. Yup the Deadpool and Wolverine brain worms got me - at least for a little while - so I figured I'd rewatch the old movies that I havent seen in over a decade and have basically forgotten entirely at this point.

You know what really stunned me? Even more than the slow pace, serious tone, actual dedication to telling a coherent and interesting story with layers of meaning and social commentary attached to it, as well as a sincerity that's been missing from most superhero films since the MCU was born (thanks Josh Whedon).

Nope, what shocked me most was this:

This is a perfect specimen of a man. Look at him. He's gorgeous. But look at his chest? His arms? He's muscular, he's pretty well toned, he's hairy. He's definitely got a six pack - but it's nicely covered by a healthy layer of fat. His skin is plump, he has a bit of squish to him. He'd probably be great to hug (Jean Grey certainly gives him a good squeeze lol).

When he sits down he looks like his stomach will roll just nicely. Like a stomach should.

I know my point here is obvious. It's just that scrolling the Deadpool and Wolvering tag is basically 50% "oh they definitely fucked in the Honda Odyssey" (yes lol) and the other 50% is just horny posting over Wolverine's topless scene like the entire site suddenly adopted Deadpools horny brain.

I gotta give props to Hugh Jackman for his dedication to turn himself into an actual comic book character - because that's what this new movie does. It gives us a comic accurate Wolverine in practically every way (except for his height lol) the suit is amazing, the cowl was a joy to see brought into live action. The body too though was straight out of a comic book artists male power fantasy.

What I wanted to emphasise was that this:

Is extremely tough on the human body. What I wanna know is how long he starved and dehydrated himself for before filming this scene? How long before they shot this did he last drink some water? Because damn that must have been tough. The oil and the lighting probably help further emphasise the muscle, vein, and sinew definition. It's probably similar to how body builders prepare before a show.

Nothing about body building is healthy though. So in the coming weeks as the whole entertainment industry rides on the coat tales of this movies success, and everyone goes crazy over Hugh Jackmans physique, please don't feel pressured into thinking that his 2024 physique in the movie is remotely realistic - or realistically attractive. Like I get the fantasy sure, but come on. I'd personally rather lie on a cushioned bed than a concrete floor.

Deadpool may disagree with me, but he's a masochist lol.

Oh and whilst I stand by the shade I threw at the MCU above, I think Wolverine's different physiques in the movies is a good standard of comparison for how much superhero movies have changed. Because when superhero comics first started getting adapted I think a lot of the choices made were about how to bring them to live action realistically and believably and the attitude was to try not to make them look ridiculous. The first X-Men movies definitely do this.

It was about bringing the comics to life in a way that fit in our world. But over the years, as audiences got more and more used to comic book movies the movies became more and more like comic books and less like a realistic adaptation of a comic book. Does that make sense? So as the movies attempted to bring the comics to life in a way that was less realistic and more comic accurate, the demands on the actors to sculpt their physiques to meet the standards of comic book art became normalised.

I think Deadpool and Wolverine is the MOST comic book accurate of all superhero movies made in the past 2 decades. Half the time the images from the movie look like they could be literally pulled from the pages of the comic books. The story is convoluted and stupid, the plot is barely there and is full of gaping plot holes and elements that don't fit any past stories. The action is ridiculous, extremely fast paced, gratuitous, and violent to a hilarious level. But it's so entertaining, joyful, exciting, and laugh out loud hilarious throughout.

It reminded me a LOT of my attempts at reading through the Deadpool comics (I've read a lot of them but no where near all of them).

To sum up this rambling message with multiple points, I'll say that Deadpool and Wolverine is a really fun movie that I thoroughly enjoyed, but make no mistake there is nothing real in it at all. It is almost literally a comic on screen. Don't expect anything more than that and you'll enjoy the experience.

[toskarin]

Is Vgen safe to use? I'd never heard of it before you mentioned it but it looks cool

this answer's going to be a bit roundabout because I don't feel comfortable directly vouching for anyone who handles money besides myself. and I don't even vouch for myself

so, vgen is basically a non-japanese* (*: primarily western, but that's more of a demographic thing than a platform restriction) version of skima mixed with skeb, both of which are existing sites that japanese artists use to take sketchbook style requests

pixiv also does this now, along with a few other japanese sites, but it's generally been kind of limited to being an otaku thing, even outside of japan, and it's very often been limited to japanese artists actually taking these requests (even if anyone can send them) because of legal issues around international payment

for context, skeb's request-based style of commissioning gained a lot of popularity because it's, frankly, antisocial in a comfortable way for both clients and artists

[you can skip this section if you know what skeb is]

you can think of it as paying an artist to draw something with the understanding that you are paying for the literal act of them drawing it, rather than for a refined and specific finished product

in this format, the requester puts money on the table alongside a brief outline of what they want and any applicable references. there is usually an outline of how much you should pay at minimum, some examples of that artist's work, and (traditionally) a hard rule that neither party in this arrangement communicates with each other about it outside of the request-accept-send-tip procedure itself

traditionally, when the artist accepts the request, the platform takes the money and holds it in escrow. then, when the artist sends the finished work, the exchange is concluded with the requester receiving the work (possibly along with a written note by the artist) and the artist receiving their payment from the site. if the artist doesn't finish the work before an agreed-upon deadline, the money is refunded

in the original skeb format, if the requester especially enjoys the art, it's customary to tip the artist, which applies a golden border around the art and allows the requester to include a thank-you note, displayed alongside the artist's commentary and their original request

this is important to lay out because, as you might notice, there are no windows for revisions and no active direct lines of communication allowed. I've seen people get angry about this before, so that's one way in which the skeb style of commission can be considered "unsafe"

there's a lot of misconceptions around the differences in legal rights here, but the bottom line is that, when it comes to commissioned artwork, most people on the english-speaking internet are profoundly misinformed about the laws around things and operate largely on handshake agreements that wouldn't really hold up in any court, if push came to shove

[end skip]

so! let's get to vgen

vgen, being an adaptation of this format, actually mixes in a lot of different features that I would consider to be more traditional for western art commissions. it carries over the skima/skeb style storefronts, but adapts them more towards serving vtubers (a common use case for skeb and skima) with a slight tilt towards the client having additional protection

for example, to open an artist storefront on vgen, you have to either be invited in by someone or pass some variety of notability verification test (either an engagement baiting post including your art or winning a contest of some fashion)

to make requests, you just kind of make an account and send the money

skeb style commissions do exist on vgen, but the site is designed to allow additional stages of artist communication on certain requests. this means that you may get some extra securities as a client, or you may not, depending on the terms of the request

one notable rule of vgen which makes it distinct from similar sites is that you can't draw porn on there. this may come as a shock, because people aren't great about following that rule, but it is actually a pretty firm rule on account of the site being more beholden to major western-centred payment processors

so, as far as the site itself goes, if you keep yourself familiar with the rules and actually read the terms of your deals, you're safe there in the same way that you're safe when making a conscious decision to climb a tree

as far as financial matters and the site's management go, I don't know, and I can't know because I don't know the staff personally

I have made a personal decision to trust that they're acting in good faith. I've made a request through the site before to test it out, it went as expected, so my decision to use it is informed by my own sense of risk management

TL;DR: is vgen safe to use? I don't personally think it's uniquely risky as far as storefronts go, but it's an online storefront where people sell each other things, so treat it as one and walk about as carefully as you always do

[kingdionra]

hi I've been trying to beg on the fediverse for a while but it's not going very well so I thought I would try here as well >.<

putting the teal deer up front, long explanation & images-for-proof under the cut: two traumatised and disabled queers have successfully run away from abuse but now have no furniture or other household essentials, looking for another €4000* or so to get everything we need + get out of our overdraft

GOAL: €1865/4000

throne link

£ paypal: diontheblackdragon@gmail.com

cashapp: £KingDionRa

DM for roommate's € paypal or my UK bank deets to do a straight transfer <3

also if you want you can get an album for your moneys, i have it up for free download on both my site and on bandcamp :3

*this is higher than the original goal I set on fediverse because I'm including the ebike and winter clothes and getting out of our overdraft (which is costing us a bit in fees every month)...but also this still isn't including new computers which we both need lol but this already feels like so much to ask for!

LONG ASS STORY:

okay so over a year ago i ran away from the uk in its entirety to stay with my internet best friend of over a decade in germany, because i'd been in and out of homelessness there for most of my adult life and just kept ending up with abusers (because that's what happens when you jump at the first chance you get to get out of a homeless shelter by moving in with people you don't know), and then running away from them because they tend to get worse and worse and eventually you'd rather be homeless again than live with someone who continually messes you up and ignores your boundaries and lies to you and bullies you and fucks with your health. and yeah after long enough of that i had zero faith in the system to help me or in local queer groups to do so either, because they're the ones who kept finding me white middle class assholes to live with who turned out to be classist ableist racist shitfaces who talked the talk but failed to walk the walk

anyway, this was not an ideal situation because my best friend was living in a very tiny (25 square meters TOTAL) apartment surrounded by asshole neighbours after also only recently escaping homelessness, but we both found our mental health was VASTLY improved by living together (see it turns out we're NOT the problem!! it was the abusers all along!!!!) despite the very cramped living space (we literally couldn't both stand in the kitchen at the same time and it only had a minifridge and a stovetop) and having to share a room despite NOT being a couple and having no privacy

but eventually that situation got worse and worse due to a literal nazi living next door who engraved swastikas in our mailbox and threatened physical violence on us (pretty sure he thought we were a queer interracial couple and was very mad about that), and things came to a head when he repeatedly called the cops on us for being too noisy at night (we LAUGHED TOO LOUD at gone 10pm omg how dare we) and kept trying to get us in shit with the landlord by making up lies about us

SO, we asked the internet (fediverse) for money to move, and managed to get enough to hightail it the fuck out of there (we actually left the country because neither of us like germany it's, surprise surprise, full of nazis) to a very cheap place in very rural finland where we can each have our own room and that we can actually afford the rent on ourselves but, being poor and desperate, we only asked for literally the bare minimum to move, and left asap, and got here with no furniture, no beds, no household necessities, no nothing.

we've been here 2 months now and have managed to acquire one (1) bed that we're having to share (again we are NOT a couple and the lack of privacy is driving us both up the wall) but we still need:

-a second bed so i can actually USE my own room that i finally have again

-bedding (inc. warm things before winter sets in! and additional covers so we can actually put things in the wash)

-winter clothes before it gets too cold

-a washing machine

-desks and chairs so we can actually sit somewhere and work

-a cargo ebike so we can get to the nearest town (7km) and buy food, rather than relying entirely on non-perishables that we can order over the internet (it's been 2 months since we've had any fresh food and that sucks)

-a new phone for roommate cause theirs broke

-a laptop or desktop for roommate cause they have nothing atm

-a new desktop for me because i only have access to an old shitty kind of broken laptop at the minute (one of the hinges is fucked and i can't close or open it without worrying it will break for good and it doesn't charge right half the time and usually takes multiple attempts to boot up and i'm scared every time that this time will be the time that it just Won't), because when i tried to fundraise for a new one like a year ago i was offered this and didn't think i could say no, but i am very worried it will break any day now, and it is Not Good for recording music on or making art or games (you kind of need to run the games to make them....)

current overdraft:

our very empty living room:

my very empty bedroom:

please help us actually get sorted out and set up in our new place, so that we can actually RELAX for the first time in our lives (i'm 35 and my best friend is 38 >.<)

we both really want to actually do good work and help the world, and i have so much creative shit that i want to get on with but that has just been like, put on hold constantly, for *years*. i have so many stories and games and songs and so much art and a whole-ass comic i want to make and just haven't been able to do ANY of it for so long! (i'm keeping track of all my creative ideas in a huge google spreadsheet that links out to google docs full of properly fleshed out plans for things though, so that i can get to work asap!)

we just need a little bit more help to get started and then we will be giving back SO MUCH, i promise! all my content is and will forever be free! so you can consider this an investment in future works that you will definitely all get access to! <3

thank you so much for reading this far, and for sharing and boosting and donating if you can, you're incredible and awesome and very much appreciated <3

[5ummit]

Permanent Blacklists for AO3

Would you like to permanently remove fics with your squicks, triggers, and dislikes from all AO3 searches by default so that you never have to think about or encounter them again? Well now you can!

The ability to do this has actually been around for a little while but it relies on some new CSS functionality that wasn't supported on all major browsers until fairly recently (though you may still have to enable it manually on some). I'm not going to explain how this method works or how to code AO3 skins in general, as I've only dabbled in it a little and there are already some very good tutorials out there. If you want all of the details, check out these guides:

Skins and Archive Interface FAQ – The official skins guide created by AO3. Lots of good information but might be overwhelming and confusing for a beginner.

A Non-Extensive Guide on How to Start Creating a Skin for AO3 by ao3skin – Some good, fairly easy to understand, beginner info on CSS and specifically how it applies to AO3 skins.

Permablocking Specific Tags - Site Skin by Eli0t – Everything you need to know to create permablock lists. If your blacklist doesn't seem to be working as expected, check this for troubleshooting tips.

What I can offer though are some handy pre-made blacklists that you can use as-is or as a starting point to create your own so that you don't have to go to the trouble of figuring out how any of this works or hunting down relevant tags. Just copy the code, open AO3, go to My Preferences > Skins > Create Site Skin, paste it in the box, title it, and click Submit!

Note: The following lists are very specific to me and my own personal tastes. Absolutely no judgement if you love any of the things that I choose to blacklist. You do you. I just happen to like my fics fucked up and relatively canonical.

★ No Reader Fic – Hides all self-insert and reader fic.

★ No Alternate Universes – Hides anything tagged with the most common AU tags. There are so many incredibly specific AUs there's no way to list all of them and AU tagging is also extremely inconsistent from fic to fic so this blacklist may only catch 80% of AUs, but that's better than nothing. You could always exclude the entire alternate universe tag, rather than trying to list specific ones, but unfortunately canon divergence and other less extreme AUs would get caught in the crossfire, which is not worth it for me.

★ No Fluff – Hides anything tagged with the most common fluff and romance tags. I specifically left out "fluff and angst" though because sometimes that's used for things that are mostly angst with only a bit of fluff and I do love angst.

★ Bonus: No Dead Dove – This list is not mine (for obvious reasons) but I know some people may find it useful. Hides anything with the main archive warnings and many common problematic, taboo, or controversial tags. Some of these I wouldn't even classify as dead dove, they're literally just kinks, so I'd suggest reviewing the list carefully and removing any that don't apply to you.

Additional Notes:

This system doesn't work exactly the same as AO3's exclusion filters because you can't use top-level wrangled tags to block all subtags. It only blocks exact matches.

Once the blacklist is implemented you'll see no indication that anything was blocked (except for fewer fics listed on each search page); the entire blurb will be hidden. The tags and fic counts listed in the filter bar will remain unchanged. If you want more advanced features like whitelisting or adding something to indicate when a fic was removed, check out the permablocking guide by Eli0t.

Here's a link with info on which browsers currently support the new "has()" element, which this blacklist system relies on. As of right now Firefox for desktop still has to be manually enabled (for instructions see the section on flag enabling in the permablocking guide). Firefox for iOS isn't listed on this website but it seems to work fine for me.

There are other browser-specific extensions that let you permablock tags, such as this one and this one, that may be more a little more user friendly, but I've never tried them so I can't vouch for them and they may not work consistently between different devices. The good thing about doing blacklists via skins is that, after setting it up once, it should work automatically on pretty much any device (as long as you're logged in to your AO3 account).

[velvetvexations]

as we all know you are THE popular Tumblr transfems. all of the popular radical feminist transfems on the site are actually the underdogs and definitely don't have huge followings or any social power on this website. don't look at their four-digit follower counts or the way they subtly encourage dogpiling people because they know there's a crowd of people who will do it immediately that's irrelevant

TRFs think 1k and 15k are the same number because they both have a one in them.

Being so many levels deep in the feminism discourse makes daily life amusing sometimes. Like some of the shit I wanna joke about would probably comes off as misogynistic without the context of it being in response to radical feminism but it's so funny. Like saying shit like I love erasing women doesn't necessarily make sense to someone who doesn't know it's in response to terfs talking about gender neutral medical language etc. Or like having to hear constant feminism 101 basic bitch feminism stuff from people around me and just nod cause I know they don't wanna hear about The Nuance cause the average person isn't as interested in social and gender theory as I am. Like to the average level one feminist I can understand how more complex feminism can come off as misogynistic so I don't Get Into It with coworkers and the like but I am always sitting here brimming with Opinions anyway. That and people at work seem to read me as "guy who's kind of gender nonconforming" rather than trans so I don't get interpreted as being a voice of "authority" on anything about gender or misogyny (and I'd rather stick with that than be the Outspoken Tranny tm). It's a silent game of "I know more than you"

lmao you're hiding your power level

How the heck do I not take doing something bad as life ending. I fucked up today bc I lost track of time and missed doing something with my bf. He says he’s not mad but I can tell he feels bad in some way, and I don’t blame him, I unequivocally DID fuck up, and it’s hard not to want to just fall on the ground and rip my skin off ngl lol but I know at this point if I keep apologizing or asking him if I can fix it or offering him shit is just going to come across desperate and weird, and I have to take him at face value that he is not mad, and it’ll be okay tomorrow, but arghhhhhhhh I’m historically horrible at taking people who are clearly upset saying “I’m not mad at you” at face value

please let me know if you find out because that wrecks me too

Fascinated by how much transandrophobia in queer spaces is like, 'youre a Dude and therefore obviously you cannot experience this opression the way you think you do, people obviously view you as a Man and therefore you have male privilege, anyway heres the most wildly specific misogynistic trope youve never seen aimed at cis men aimed at trans dudes, this is not sus at all' Yes this is abt the 'trans dudes on t should go on mood stabilisers' before someone asks.

it's so blatant

i find it very fun(/s) that theres like, two separate groups of trfs where one is super open about hating transmascs n shit and the other is more "guys THEORY" and the second group constantly pretends the first group doesn't exist and actually you're lying literally no one has ever said that ever what are you talking about

Mask on, mask off.

started just instant blocking anyone I see putting trf bullshit on my dash. soon I will have peace.

true inner peace

[illicien]

What drew you to winterbaron as a ship? What kind of content do you read? Is it different from the kind of content you write? Would you like to rec a few winterbaron works? My friend is into the ship and I'm trying to see if it's something I might like but all the fics they've recked me are kind of the same in tone so I'm looking for others opinions for some variety.

Hmm! I've sort of answered some of this in the past so sorry to my moots getting this rehash.

A friend of mine dragged me into WinterBaron (kicking and screaming!!!) rather simply, actually, though what kept me here was the more grand implications of her simple origins. I'm kind of a sucker for a true power bottom, and fanart my friend kept sending me implied the fandom saw Zemo as such, and I was at least a little bit intrigued there. Enough to take a deeper look, at least.

The better discovery wasn't that the fandom had decided he was a power bottom, but that there was a strong push and pull of power in their dynamic. Bucky has all the physical power between them, it's a big thing, he's strong as hell. On the other hand, Zemo is just a guy, and yet despite that Bucky should logically have all the power between them, Zemo's intelligence and knowledge tend to leave him with an edge. That continues to be the fascinating concept about Zemo to me, but that's a different matter.

So for me, it's the manipulation, the push and pull of power, it's Bucky trying to break free of being the Winter Soldier and Zemo trying to decide if Bucky's just like every other super soldier. But it's also about understanding that Zemo knows Bucky in ways most people alive don't. He knows and understands Bucky's history as the Winter Soldier both through his research, and as a man who did horrific things on behalf of his country. And that thought can sometimes lead to softer moments of understanding, I think, that can be enjoyable in fic.

As for content I read vs write: I generally gravitate towards dark fic with these two, though there's plenty of really good stuff that isn't. There are some excellent explorations of kink in the fandom for them which is refreshing. I don't really write them as dark as I read them, since I enjoy writing the power dynamics more than the overt manipulation, but if you're looking for more tonal variety I'm sure I can make some recommendations! (Under the cut!)

** Please make sure you read all of the tags thoroughly. What I enjoy in fiction may not be to your taste, and I respect that, but the best I can do is to link to the site with the tags. 💜

Recs (under 20k words)

Just A Little More by @six-demon-bag epitomizes a lot of what I've said above, and if I didn't start out with it on the list here I'd be doing myself a disservice for how often I reread this.

Bucky goes into a painful rut and Zemo seizes the opportunity to sink newer, more subtle hooks into him.

Breathless by @zsparz is one I like to return to whenever I'm looking to feel sad but don't have a lot of time to read. I can't explain why this one hits me so hard but holy smokes does it make me weepy. Sparz is great at making me cry, though, so like - anyway.

The water kept rising. Bucky could hold his breath a long time underwater, and he remembered vividly how he’d acquired that knowledge. Sam might find him in time.

But Zemo would be long dead by then.

Past Indiscretions by @sagegarnish makes me laugh, genuinely. The whole idea of it brings me a lot of joy, and the execution is delightful.

Bucky and Zemo are trapped in 1941.

Unfortunately Bucky's past self is the only one who might know where the missing Pym Particles are that they need to get home.

When young!Bucky pulls Zemo into an alley, Bucky is forced to watch as a drunken forgotten night from his past becomes a lot clearer.

Recs (20k+ words)

That Which You Fear by @spintwinwb is a trilogy that starts off feeling like an AU and turns into something really fascinating imo. Lots of extra goodies here for comics fans, too.

Instead of freeing the people of Westview, Wanda pushed out across multiverses to get her brother back, and the entire world was caught in the crossfire. Cast in a new, peaceful life in upstate New York in a world with mutants, no Avengers, and no HYDRA, Bucky Barnes struggles to reconcile memories and dreams that no longer make sense with what he thinks he knows about himself.

One Two Many by @six-demon-bag is sweet and fun and complicated, and I really did try not to double-up on authors here but agh. What am I supposed to do??

Bucky and Zemo meet on an anonymous dating app and find a deep connection in each other. In the meantime, they grow closer in person without realizing they’re falling in love online too.

Too Good To Be True by AnadoraBlack is really one of those fics where the tropes are used so well, imo. A very enjoyable read.

Bucky wakes up with no recollection of where he is, how he found himself there, and what the heck is going on. There's also a ring on his finger, and time lost. What the living FUCK?!

The Original Sin by @zsparz because I might as well completely fail at the "only one per author" in spectacular fashion. This sits here because it sits on a very peculiar line between canon and AU and just... like I said. Sparz makes me cry. This isn't a departure from that fact.

Bucky and Zemo keep meeting over the course of several lifetimes. Zemo remembers everything. Bucky doesn’t, but there’s an eerie impression of familiarity he can’t shake — an old pain he can’t explain, with roots too deep for him to reach.

AU Recs

Removing Bucky and Zemo from the context of their complicated history in the MCU can highlight different aspects of their characters that are really interesting to explore, as someone who finds their unique characters quite interesting as well, though I also know it isn't for everyone. Neither of these recs are short so if you don't mind an AU, set some time aside for these ones.

It Started Out With a Curse by Thorny is a fun AU I never really expected to find in this fandom. I personally have a history of writing in fantasy settings so this one has a special place in my heart.

What happens when the King and Queen of a human kingdom slight a powerful fae Lord known only as "The Baron"?

Enter a world of FairyTale/Fantasy Shenanigans as Prince James navigates his deadly curse and his confusing feelings for one (seemingly) cold and untouchable fae Lord. Meanwhile, something sinister is afoot trying to gouge a rift between the feywilds and the human kingdoms...

A Gentleman and a Scholar by EternalBeta is a no powers exploration of their dynamic that's... Beautiful. It also tackles a lot of things about kink that it feels like most fic and stories generally seem to ignore. There's also an amazing sequel series.

(this series doesn't have an easy summary available so I uh... I'll give it a go here: college student Bucky has a thing for his professor, and a whole series of bad decisions behind him. The trouble is, Bucky is impatient, and Professor Zemo doesn't fuck students. So Bucky better hurry up and graduate.)

Many of the writers above have at least a few WinterBaron fics, and I do highly recommend checking out their collections. Sparz and Six-Demon in particular have some really widely varied concepts and stories they tackle, and if you're curious at all I'd also recommend checking out Sholio who has some excellent Sam/Bucky/Zemo fics! I didn't toss recs here because they weren't the heart of the ask, but I gobbled those up easily for some very sweet treaties.

[townslore]

if you're comfortable, i would love to know more about the akechi npd headcanon. i think it's a rlly interesting take on his character and i wanna learn more abt npd bc i have bpd and ig im interested in what people experience with the other cluster b personality disorders? i just kinda wanna know why you think he has it and also maybe some of the mental stuff he has to experience with it. doesn't have to be detailed or personal i dont wanna make u uncomfy! i just cant stop thinking abt this hc haha :)

im actually on a mental health break right now, but this ask intrigued me so im answering it anyway. first off thank you for staying kind throughout the whole thing :)

its kind of hard for me to really describe why i think a character has/is something, because things like personality disorders are still a wide spectrum and every person experiences things differently, and i dont wanna make it seem like theres a one-way to have npd, but im gonna try anyway!

there is a site which helped me immensely throughout my self-diagnosis, so if you want to read more about the topic than what im gonna say here, here u go:

lets start simple and the thing that makes it most obvious to me: the engine room dialogue.

people with npd can heavily rely on other people for their self-esteem, because narcissists usually have a very low one. thats why they take on many tasks ("i was extremely particular about my life, my grades, my public image—so someone would want me around!") and might overwork themselves for more praise and acknowledgement ("you wanted to be acknowledged, didn't you? to be loved?") because its what they need to not constantly crash. a crash is something that happens when you dont get enough supply—which can be words of affection, praise, acknowledgement, etc—and you internalize it, doubt yourself, feel disgusting and generally you get to a really low point. this is just speculation, but i can see goro having a ton of those, especially during the time the phantom thieves get popular and he becomes public enemy nr 1. thats also why i drew him thinking "i really need supply rn but i'd rather die than ask for attention" because vulnerability is also a big thing people with npd can struggle with. we dont want to be seen as weak—our narcissism is essentially a shield, so we're seen as tough, when in reality, our egos can be very fragile.

one thing that the engine room makes very clear and also other interactions goro has with akira, is that hes very envious of others who have had it better than him. especially someone like akira, who was thrown away by society just like he was, was able to move past it, found friends and is acknowledged by many people. goro is jealous of it all, and thats the thing; people with npd can feel like they're supposed to be special ( and to me, with goro explaining how he got his personas, and how he often calls others stupid, its clear that he does feel that way about himself to a certain degree ) and anyone who threatens that status, anyone who seems much more special than we are is seen as a legitimate threat. its an ugly feeling and it can make us hate even those we love for some time.

this attributes to dysregulation of our emotions too. people with npd often feel their emotions, especially negative ones, way more intense than they actually should be and have difficulty calming down due to that. negative emotions often linger for a long period of time and its hard to move on so we hold grudges. now this might come to no surprise to anyone that goro is a very angry and sad person. especially in the engine room its clear that even after the others extend their hands out to him, its difficult for him to comprehend and he still acts rather mean and calls them idiots for trying to "save" him. when someone with npd is experiencing a multitude of negative emotions, it may cause them to avoid other people or act aggressive towards them because they feel trapped. theres many explanations as to why goro is the way he is in the 3rd semester, and i dont think only one of them has to be correct, but i do think that with the knowledge of whats happening ( like: being under the control of someone else again, or having to work with people who are unpredictable and who have seen you at your lowest point ) makes him act out to keep all of them, especially akira, at bay.

in the duel against akira—im sorry i cant really quote it, i just have a general idea of it in my head rn—i read what he says in a way that makes it clear that he struggles with a superiority AND inferiority complex, which sounds stupid at first i know, but its fairly easy to explain. like i already said, a narcissist's self-esteem is usually pretty low and we rely on others to know how to feel about ourselves. theres two traits of npd that are necessary traits to have: being self-centered and feeling entitled to good treatment, and seeking admiration from others/liking to be the center of attention. so there is some kind of superiority complex going on, at least thats what i would call it in goro's ( and my ) case. we can feel on top of the world in one moment, but once we have a crash or experience intense negative emotions, its back to being the worst human being on earth. i dont think its ooc to say that goro hates himself, as some like to claim he only ever thinks hes better than everyone else. i think that just attributes to harmful stigma. with everything goro experiences in life, coping with narcissism to hide a fragile sense of being just makes sense to me.

theres more i could probably add here but this thing is long enough as is. please do keep in mind that many of my headcanons for goro are me projecting—but that doesnt mean theres no basis for it in canon as well, as i've tried to explain here. at first i actually thought he could have bpd, but i dont know enough about it to really judge that—so it could still very well be that, or both, i dont really know how it works! im rather new to this as well, and at first i was scared of doing any research because npd is so heavily stigmatized. i wish there were more people like you, anon.

if you have any more questions feel free to ask them :)

[enemywasp]

Hello, I am an anti but I'd like to share an opinion with you. Most other antis say that over exposure to problematic media makes others (minors) 'okay' with said media IRL. But they also expose themselves to said content as well while also usually being minors yet still carry their own moral beliefs. I find that hypocritical and it's a strange idea in general to believe that viewing labeled, warned, and hidden media as some kind of propaganda. I don't like proshippers but the anti community is mostly just pulling gut feelings to morally judge peoples right to live. Also most antis are around 14 and under. They should still be developing their own perspectives and beliefs rather than making everyone have theirs.

Minors inserting themselves in discussions about nsfw content and "problematic" media is probably the bigger issue here as whilst not all content is strictly 18+, a lot of these topics aren't designed or intended for 14 year olds who frankly don't know what they're talking about.

The idea that over exposure to this content causes normalisation and issues is mostly them parroting off what other antis have said. And unfortunately I imagine they have found any curiosity or taboo thought they've ever had as something evil and that much be squashed.

Kids in anti spaces are actually way more concerning to me as they're getting raised in spaces that encourage the policing of one's own thoughts and the idea that your imagination and thoughts (intrusive or not) are just as bad as committing actual crimes when really it is completely natural to think bad thoughts or be curious about immoral topics. It's better to explore these things through fiction and the mind then anywhere else! And it's important to note that if your thoughts are distressing you, you're not a monster and should talk to someone! Not bottle it up cause you think it makes you a bad person.

So yeah, I do think growing and developing your own opinions is so important before parroting off random stuff.

Over exposure can be an issue in any context. It's unhealthy to engage in anything too much, depending on whether it effects your ability to live normally or think clearly. But dark fiction itself should not warp anyones minds, and certainly not anyone old enough to be on social media sites.

Antis constantly feeling the need to police these things and get in debates and seek out this content just to hate?? Now that's unhealthy, trapping yourself in a negative atmosphere like that.

[bthump]

what do you think of the take that the amount of rape is justified because it’s realistic, as in real life sadly women and children do get raped and SAd a lot more especially during wars, and realistically, sadly it’s usually very hard for them to fight back against this and stop it from happening. (Let’s ignore the way it is depicted in the manga for sake of discussion btw, though I know it’s kind of hard to do that here lol). I’ve seen it argued that berserk is actually very feminist in this regard because it doesn’t shy away from showing how depraved and cruel men are to women and how rapey a lot of them would be if there was nothing holding them back from acting on their dark impulses.

lol well ignoring how Berserk does it, I think theoretically a work of fiction can be full of rape and successfully come across as realistic. It can indeed add to a dark, gritty tone. But I think it ought to do more than that to justify being included in a story. If a scene is only doing one thing for the story (such as adding to the realistic tone) then imo it tends to feel shallow. When that scene is rape, it's extra egregious because when a rape scene feels shallow and tacked on, it becomes potentially quite offensive. And whatever else it does should complement the first goal, rather than contradict it, so eg turning the audience on works at cross-purposes to establishing a realistic tone. If the rape said something about a character, or contributed to a theme, or the plot, or worldbuilding, etc then it can get points for adding to a realistic tone in addition, imo.

You can also reference rape as a danger in a certain dark, gritty setting without constantly depicting it as set-dressing, which also helps establish a realistic tone without risking crossing over into gratuitous, laughable porn territory.

Like, basically if a work is full of rape, I would expect that rape to be in the story because the story is about rape in some way. If it's solely to add realism, then it's going to feel exploitative and cheap, rather than realistic, imo.

Now, to be fair to Berserk lol, arguably it is about rape to some extent, like thematically. I actually got no beef with Berserk as a story having a lot of rape in it, again in theory. It also ticks another personal box of mine in terms of rape-as-realism, ie male characters get raped and/or sexually threatened as well. Not as often, granted, but it's more than most rape-fest stories manage. Realistically, in areas like war zones or other sites of conflict, men are statistically in much greater danger of rape, which is something a lot of 'rape is realistic!' arguments like to ignore.

(Relatedly, I once read and enjoyed this essay about the rape as realism argument. I'd recommend it.)

So like, Berserk is the kind of story that I think could get away with having a lot of rape in it. In terms of theme it's about trauma, abuse of power, exploitation, etc. Both our male protags have been raped, and in fact I quite like that for a chunk of the story Casca was the only one out of the three central characters who hadn't been raped, even if she does get threatened with it like fifty times.

Donovan telling Guts it happens all the time in armies is, imo, a good moment of dark realism. Casca's attempted assault while running from the 100 man fight, eg, also strikes me as largely realistic. Gennon's too much of a flat homophobic caricature to take seriously as a realistic predator imo, but the way he preys on Griffith's guilt complex and need for money feels realistic to me.

Buuut it eventually starts to get silly lol. A prolonged setpiece with a monster tearing off Casca's clothes and nearly raping her until Guts cuts off his dick complete with funny quipping doesn't do much to add realism to the story. Adon's overlong screeds about how he's going to turn Casca into a sex toy are practically used as comic relief during the Doldrey fight, rather than realism. And why is Casca the only one who gets raped by monsters during the Eclipse? Rape is about power, and when you have a whole host of powerful beings driven by their darkest urges during a ceremony called a 'festival' and a whole party of helpless victims for them, it defies belief to me that only the woman is subject to rape.

Also the way p much every dude Casca encounters post-Eclipse tries to rape her is unrealistic in the opposite way lol, I truly do not think men even in the middle ages were all uniformly rapists when given a convenient victim. Or the bandits who threaten Jill with rape - they're campy cartoon caricatures, it's hardly a realistic scene even ignoring the possessed tree.

etc etc

Realism is only a reason for including rape if the depiction is also realistic, and if the tone is striving for realism (which tbh Berserk often is not), and if the amount of rape actually does feel realistic rather than wildly exaggerated for the sake of drawing naked background women.

I think Miura also realized this considering how heavily he cut back on the rape at a certain point. Like, eg does the Millenium Falcon arc feel less realistic because Farnese hasn't been threatened with rape a bunch of times? Should one or both of the kids have a csa backstory for the sake of realism?

Also I don't think it's feminist to write men as if they're all rapists-in-waiting, I think that's actually pretty anti-feminist. It's one thing to acknowledge that men are statistically more likely to commit rape than women, and against women, but writing men like deep down they're all horndogs who just can't resist an easy victim, again like how 9/10 men Casca encounters in the Conviction arc try to rape her, shifts the blame from social and institutional power dynamics enabling abuses of that power (ie patriarchy) to biology, which is bs and counter to feminist goals (outside of some subsets of radical feminism.)

Anyway, yeah. Basically my take is that if you're adding rape to a story for the sake of realism, the depiction and the actual amount of rape you add should also be realistic (there is such a thing as too much), and there should still be a point to it beyond realism. If it doesn't serve the story, it doesn't matter how realistic it is imo. And Berserk does it well sometimes, but usually fails in evoking realism.

[dokidokitsuna]

...I just remembered I wanted to make my own statement on the AI thing. ^^;

So you've probably heard, but in case you haven't: Tumblr just sold out everyone's data to the AI trash compactors, they probably did it long before they gave us the option to opt out, and even if you do opt out they're probably still taking and using your work anyway (telling people to opt out instead of actually asking for their permission is already scummy business practice, but when it comes to AI it's functionally meaningless. :/ It's always "well, we're telling them not to use these people's data and we're hoping they'll be nice and go along with it" with no regulations or consequences if they decide to just steal everything indiscriminately...)

Despite that, I am not leaving Tumblr anytime soon. I'm looking into other sites*, but at this moment in time, I have nowhere else to go. ^^; Besides, I still like it here. When I left DeviantArt I was already getting sick of the place, having my art stolen regularly by "fans" and paradoxically getting less and less interest in my work over time. By the time the devs turned the website into eye-blinding slop with Eclipse, I was more than ready to move on.

But I still enjoy using Tumblr. I like writing long text posts that no one would bother to read anywhere else, I like answering asks, and I like the unique sense of humor and style among the users here. ^^ It would take a lot to force me out.

Also, I can take a little solace in the fact that AI-bros do not value "low-quality" art like mine. ^^; If messy cel-shaded sketches with visible pixels ever become popular, then I'll worry, but for now I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will want to wholesale regurgitate my art. If anything, I think prioritizing it in their datasets would only make them worse...and on that note, if you do have "high quality" detailed/painterly/semi-realistic art that would be targeted, I'd recommend 'poisoning' it with Nightshade/Glaze. Although I heard a rumor a while back that AI is "building immunity" to Nightshade and already learning to work around it, but I'm really hoping that was just a wishful lie from the trash compactors themselves. I haven't heard it repeated since then, so I think it's still worth a shot. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So anyway, like the post I reblogged said, I think the best thing we can do now is to make it clear that WE DON'T WANT AI ART. We don't care how easy it'll be to instantly generate thousands of hours of mindless 'content' to look at; we don't want it. Since regulation is lagging so far behind (wanna know why Disney's copyright hounds didn't shut this down on sight? Most likely, they're hoping to profit from it down the line) the only way to fight this right now is with individual litigation and consumer demand.

Don't support projects made with AI**; don't hate-watch them or spotlight them. Focus your energy on the millions of human artists who are still here, and need your support now more than ever.

*I've heard people mention moving to Twitter and/or Artstation: fam, you're jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. ^^;;; IIRC, Arstation was one of the FIRST art sites to start flirting with AI, and Twitter has been selling off its users' data for several months already. Go there if you must, but don't go under the impression that it's "safer".

**Please keep a cool head when discussing AI art, and keep in mind that it used to mean something other than "mass theft". Artists have and still do create AI tools that are built on limited data sets with permission/compensation, that are used to aid them in their work and encourage human artistry (Vocaloids and DAW's, for instance) rather than stamp it out. Until a specific word evolves into popular use for exploitative AI, we're kinda stuck with this confusion, so remember to get the facts before you speak out.

P.S. Praying every night that this is a dumb fad that will soon die and go to the same hell as NFTs. >_< Praying every morning that the influx of AI art into its own datasets will eventually corrupt itself and make it useless. >_< >_< Praying every afternoon for both at once! >_< >_< >_< Like to charge, reblog to cast, all that

[rosewaterconley]

I solved a mystery that only I care about lol

ok so I have no clue what I'm doing and social media terrifies me. I will probably never touch this account again. why did I have to follow 3 algorithm-selected accounts to get into this website? I can actually name 3 people I'd want to follow on here and it's none of the people your fucking robot told me to follow. but hey, I feel like I have to post it here rather than my blogspot since nobody in the world actually uses blogspot and I want people to see this!

so anyway, there's this band out of the city of Milwaukee called Hero of a Hundred Fights. they dropped a couple CDs in the early 2000s and seem to have broken up, though all their members have been in bands since. that'll be important a little later. for now, Hero of a Hundred Fights are important to me on 2 levels:

I'm a Wisconsinite who has a tiny bit of an obsession with local history and art and really fuck with their weird mathy little corner of the 2000s hardcore scene

I'm a Faction Paradox fan and their 2001 EP The Remote, The Cold contains numerous references to the series! if you've heard of this EP before, it was probably in the context of some "music that references Faction Paradox" list or another

about #2... see, everyone already knows that track 2 is called Faction Paradox and track 3 is called The Celestis. we've all long since put together that the title is a reference to Lawrence Miles' Interference. but what about the lyrics? unfortunately, we don't know. they're not online, and the vocals are good, mind, but rather incoherent.

well, we didn't know. until I ordered a CD copy for like $8 lol. that's all it took! so here you go, the lyrics booklet plus some of the other artwork featured on the CD. artist Nick Slough did a great job on this art and it's a shame only the cover is widely available online (though that's hardly a problem unique to the physical version of this one album). turns out, this is some kinda concept album based on the Miles novel Interference. cool! really love the lyrics on Rope especially. "I need your blood to get this vessel running" and "my life was in your hands, I cut them off and now they're mine" are both raw as hell.

the cover art is pretty interesting. this album was recorded in 2000, released in 2001. the entire creative process occurred before the first standalone Faction Paradox release, The Book of the War. this means the album is entirely Doctor Who-based, not based on the FP series itself. it also means, if we assume the humanoid characters on the art are supposed to be the Remote, that this is the first-ever professional art depicting them!

disclaimer: the booklet lyrics don't 100% match up with what's said in the songs! it's mostly accurate but unfortunately there are some sections missing, some repeated bits that are only written once et al. that's all par for the course but I figured I'd mention it - especially in the case anybody wants to use this to transcribe the lyrics on Genius or some other site like that.

and while we're here, Hero 100 member William Zientara has been in a billion different bands, and I think he's probably the most responsible for the Doctor Who theme on this album. See, he was also in a short-lived band called Managara - named after a Doctor Who tie-in novel so obscure even I, owner of a complete set of Virgin New Adventures who spends my work breaks combing through digital copies of old fanzines, have only ever heard it discussed a handful of times. one of their songs is called Happiness Patrol. more recently, in 2021, he was in the band Fuiguirnet, who have a song called What Grows From the Seeds of Doom! which means Zientara has been randomly tossing Doctor Who references into songs from at least three different bands for twenty years!

so uhh without any further rambling here's the lyrics and art:

[maklodes]

I saw some threads in which people were condemning use of agave syrup, on the grounds that agave cultivation has deleterious ecological consequences.

I haven't actually checked whether agave cultivation is more destructive than growing potatoes or carrots or anything else on a per calorie basis, and I don't know whether environmental damage per calorie is the best metric, but my curiosity took me in a different direction: how much agave goes to agave syrup, how much goes to tequila, and how much goes to mezcal?

I'd think agave farming associations would have this data -- that they'd be pouring over the data, trying to see if they could market agave-syrup baklavas, wondering whether they could somehow sell people on a double-tequila margarita for Taco Tuesday specials, etc. Maybe they do, but I can't find it.

For the amount of agave syrup, I found this site, ominously called Mordor Intelligence, claiming that the agave syrup market in 2024 was $187.24 million. How much agave is that, though? One Amazon source of bulk agave is $147.58 for 44 lbs. (There are other sources, but they don't differ radically.) This suggests that about 25,322 tonnes of agave syrup were sold in 2024. A USDA source claims that agave syrup is about 68% sugar by weight, the amount of sugar being sold in agave syrup is around 17,219 tonnes. (I have way more significant figures than is justified here, but I'm leaving them in mid-process.)

Mordor Intelligence claims the 2024 tequila market 457.96 million liters. Tequilas are, I've heard, often 80 proof, or 40% alcohol by volume. So a liter of tequila should, in principle, have 400 ml of alcohol, weighing 0.79 g/ml * 400 ml = 316 grams of alcohol. It's generally accepted that fermentation yields about 55% of the starting sugar mass as ethanol. I.e., 1 kg of sugar will give you about 550 grams of ethanol. So each liter of tequila started from 575 grams of agave-sourced sugar.

This suggests that the amount of agave-derived sugar going into tequila is about 263,119 tonnes. Except one thing: a lot of tequila is not pure fermented agave. Up to 49% of tequila can be some other neutral grain spirit. This could potentially cut sugar going into tequila to 134,191 tonnes.

So, back-of-the-envelop, it looks to me like 7-8 times as much agave goes to tequila as to agave syrup, although some tequilas are higher than 80 proof, and contain more than 51% agave sugar, so this is probably something of an underestimate. I also feel there's a lot of uncertainty in the agave syrup quantity estimate -- is the agave syrup market the market for selling agave from farm to processors, or is it final purchases by consumers? I think most consumer agave syrup is bought in smaller batches, at higher per-volume prices, than the four gallon Amazon agave jug, so perhaps total agave sugar in syrup is an overestimate.

What about Mezcal? I tried to figure that out, but I got exhausted, so I'm not sure. The North American market page puts market volume at 19.73 million liters. The global market page puts Mexican exports in 2020 at 4.8 million liters. So is ~15 million liters consumed within Mexico? I don't know if I trust this data. I don't know if I trust a lot of the previous data either. I think it's a significantly smaller market than tequila. if anyone has good data on Mezcal -- or better data than what I have on agave syrup and tequila -- I'd certainly welcome it.

(I'm not going to disingenuously pretend not to understand why some people on Tumblr get super mad about agave syrup rather than condemning Friday night margaritas, but that seems to me like a fairly obvious and uninteresting phenomenon, at least in my current state, so I focused on trying to reverse engineer the allocation of agave from scattered data on final agave products.)

[little-pup-pip]

Hey! I just wanted to let you know, while I think the moodboards you make are super cute and I do love them a lot, they're super disheartening to see.

All of them, are pretty much just stolen content? You don't bother crediting or sourcing anything on them, so they're basically all just photos/art that doesn't belong to you :(

The small artists who create the deco pacis, the plushies, the photography, deserve to be credited and not have their stuff stolen. Especially when they are products the artist is selling (deco pacis, crochet, handmade collars, etc.) they deserve that attention and credit.

/nm but I've just seen SO many people not caring to source their posts. I really encourage you to credit the posts you create.

Hello hello!! First off, I want to tell you that, for the most part, you're right! This is actually something I think about a lot, and I get where you're coming from. Most of the things I post are uncredited pictures, and I'm going to explain why in the best way I can. But ultimately, it's up to you whether this explanation satisfies you or not (if you have suggestions on how to fix it after reading this whole thing, let me know)!

For context, most of the stuff I post are pictures directly from Pinterest, a site that is notorious for being awful at crediting creators and making it difficult to find the original creators of things. I wish Pinterest was better at allowing people to trace the origins of images, and I would love it if I could find the original creators of every picture I use. Unfortunately, it is genuinely impossible to find the people who take most of the pictures on Pinterest a lot of the time (because Pinterest will show you the most recent saver of a picture rather than the poster, and if you do manage to find the poster, you never know if someone reposted a picture, so the person who you think is the creator actually is not). It's really not a matter of "I don't bother to"; it's that often I can't (this is why I try to avoid using art not made by companies because I'd drive myself crazy trying to find the artist)!

I also want to point out that none of the stuff I use is "stolen"! If you look at Pinterest's terms of service, every picture posted there is entirely free to use, sort of like a stock image, and I have to assume that the posters know that. (Legal talk and a simpler version pictured below)

Additionally, I do show products, but often not by small stores or creators. Most of them are literally product advertisements from large companies that will not take any financial hit from this at all. If you go onto Pinterest and look up something like "blanket," you'll find that it's almost completely large corporations! And that is almost entirely the selection of product pictures I use, especially for my petre boards, as I don't think I have any handmade collars in any of my boards, just commercially made ones!

The pictures that are from smaller creators, such as products, as you stated, can easily be traced back to the creators by downloading the picture and using the Pinterest or even google image search; sometimes, there's even a watermark to make things easier. And, if you ask me, I'll find the creator for you if it's possible!

As a small side note, I never take credit for pictures that aren't my own, and I don't make any money from this. I'm not receiving anything that the creators aren't, except maybe views. And, if people asked me to remove pictures they didn't want on other people's accounts shown on one of my moodboards, I would. I have never had that happen, however, and when people do recognize pictures that they made in one of my moodboards, they have only ever been happy to see them. Here are two examples (check the reblogs)!! Example 1 Example 2

Ultimately, this is a grey area for content, and Pinterest has no better alternative. This debate is also nothing new! People have been making moodboards long before my time and will continue to do so after I stop. And I'm not saying I'm perfect or that other moodboard creators take the same precautions as me, but I am doing my best to make moodboards in a conscionable manner! If you can't get behind it, that's okay!! I would also be happy to discuss this more with you if you want!

[moonlit-tulip]

Recently, for the first time in about two-and-a-half years, I've been playing around on this one gamified-fiction-writing site—4thewords—which I first discovered back in 2018. During the 2018-2021 era, it was the single most useful tool I'd found with which to get myself to Actually Write; but now, after I've done a bunch of hacking to find it easier to get myself to write via pure internal motivation without the need for extrinsic deadlines of the sort it uses... it's still the most useful tool I've found with which to get myself to Actually Write, and has accelerated my progress at writing my current short-story-in-progress from maybe a few hundred to a thousandish words a week up to a few hundred to a couple thousand a day. Because, apparently, even if I'm way ahead of where I was a few years ago internal-writing-motivation-wise, I'm still not so high up that external motivation can't serve as a very high-powered force-multiplier.

This is interesting, because the vast majority of the gamified-productivity platforms out there just sort of straightforwardly don't work for me.

After a bit of introspection, I realized that the big important differentiating factor is: 4thewords, unlike almost every gamified-productivity tool I've tried to use, has actually-vaguely-complex gameplay. It's not, like, actively good, as a game; it's not something I'd play if playing it didn't produce writing as a byproduct; but it has any depth as opposed to no depth. It has, like, monsters which can be fought (by writing a certain number of words within a certain time-limit) and will drop items when defeated, and quests to fight monsters and/or retrieve items, and equipment which increases the effectiveness with which one can engage in this process via multiple different stats and is attainable via a mix of buying-from-shops and crafting-from-materials and getting-from-quest-rewards, and so forth. Plus the more-standard stuff, a daily-streak system and an XP system and a character-portrait-onto-which-one-can-equip-cosmetic-gear and so forth; but none of those things did anything for me on Duolingo, so I don't think they're the active ingredient, more of a side-benefit. But overall: moderately-many interlocking systems, as well-made games tend to have.

And that got me thinking... 4thewords is really not much of an RPG. Its story-writing is unmemorable (to the point where I literally do not remember anything about the plot, after my two-and-a-half year break), its gameplay leans grindy, et cetera. And it's still miles ahead of the more-traditional gamified-productivity platforms—it's the only one that's ever worked for me—just on the basis of trying at all, not entirely phoning things in with a superficial dress of game-themed-ness over an utter lack of functioning gameplay-loop.

And that, in turn, has me thinking: if that's really the operative ingredient, then there's a huge market-niche sitting there just waiting to be taken advantage of. Other, less-specifically-writing-centric, gamified-productivity tools along similar lines, building real gameplay into their gamification rather than just "look, here's an XP meter and a daily streak system, isn't this motivating?".

Possibly there's some reason I'm missing why writing would be particularly amenable to this and extrapolating it to other sorts of productivity-which-people-might-want-to-gamify wouldn't work. Or possibly there are other gamified-productivity tools with real gameplay in this manner, even if I myself have failed to discover them. But, if not, this seems like a very good opportunity, one which I'm even almost tempted to try to pick up myself despite this being in fact probably unwise with how many other higher-priority todos I've got piled up.

[deedeeplayssims]

Beyond Sunset Valley---A Town Jump Story (cont. from Carl's Sims 3 story boards---Prologue through Chapter 426 are read only on his site now) Beyond Sunset Valley---A Town Jump Story

Chapter 427: More Life Events and Tragedy

Just as we rejoin the Frio family, the sun is dawning on a new day.

And Aeric and Katherine are sharing their first kiss!

With Peanut, Aeric's imaginary friend, awkwardly standing by the front doors.

The two of them spend a good part of the day chatting and flirting.

So, it's no surprise when he asks, "Would you be my date for Prom?"

Katherine smiles delightedly and says, "Yes! We're going to have so much fun together! I can't wait!"

In the backyard, Jaeger's chatting with none other than his boss, Super Villainess Alana Kahale!

For once, I'm glad Tabatha's at work.

"I have nothing against criminals, Boss, I just don't want to be one myself! I took the job on a dare as a teen and have regretted it ever since. I only continued in the field to help out my wife's family. Our former heir, Bella, has quite a strong personality and gets her way most of the time."

Alana Kahale nods, "I've no doubt about that. I've only spoken with her on the phone and she's crystal clear about her expectations. And what will happen if you don't meet them!"

She continues, "If it's the money, Jaeger, I can definitely increase your cut! Our China contact was pleased that you delivered the package so promptly after arriving in town. Your professionalism made a great impression."

"It has nothing to do with the money! My wife's family fortune surpasses the Landgraab's ten times over! No surprise really as their Founder, Claire Ursine, was actually the first family member to join the criminal career and start building their fortune."

Alana blanches a bit, "Claire the Bear!?! My father used to tell me stories of a Master Thief that was given that name…but that was long, long ago."

Jaeger says proudly, "Our children make Fourteen generations! But I wouldn't use that title. Founder Claire has a bit of a temper and doesn't much like being told she looks like a bear. She even insisted on taking the Frio name as she despised the reference!"

Alana looks around startled, "She's here!?!"

Jaeger explains, "Not at the moment. But her ghost shows up from time to time. All the family ghosts visit when they have the inclination."

But Jaeger's had enough chit chat.

"I don't want to fight about this, Boss. Or even discuss it any longer."

Raising both his hands and his voice, Jaeger yells, "I'm through being a criminal! I quit!"

"But…it's so much easier dealing with you…"

"There's nothing you can say that will make me change my mind, least of all that! I'm sorry I got you involved with Bella. But you were just as eager for that partnership as she was! You've made your bed, Kahale, and you're going to have to lie in it!"

"But she'll take over! She has the funds and connections to buy me out and she'll toss me out first thing! Please reconsider, Jaeger. This business may have only been in my family for three generations, but it's all I have!"

Seeing that Alana Kahale's not putting on an act for his benefit, but showing her true feelings, Jaeger reassures her.

"That doesn't have to happen, Mrs. Kahale. Bella's given me instructions to provide you with a choice."

Alana Kahale asks suspiciously, "A choice in my favor or hers?"

"One that would benefit you both, actually. Her offer is to allow things to remain as they are; a partnership with you still in charge. As you find it easier dealing with me, Bella finds it easier dealing with you, rather than Kimo Hale."

"Because I'm easier to control, no doubt!"

Jaeger shrugs, "Probably, since Hale is both Evil and Ambitious whereas you're just Ambitious and a Workaholic. I'd advise you to take the deal. If Hale manages to gain control, you know he won't be as generous. With Bella, at least you'll be able to keep your family business and continue as the head of The Lair."

Alana mulls that over, but then asks, "But for how long? I only have two daughters, while Hale as three sons!"

"And you don't consider females just as capable as males?"

"I wasn't referring to gender, just numbers! Kimo Hale has my sister-in-law's sister, Talei, popping out kids one after another. And she's totally controlled by Hale, so I'm sure there'll be more, a lot more!"

"I think you're looking too far into the future, Mrs. Kahale. Hale's oldest son is still in high school while your eldest daughter will soon be a young adult and I'm sure you've groomed her to take her rightful position as your heir. Take the deal and safeguard your family business, while you can. Like you said, Bella has funds and connections, as your partner, let her deal with Hale."

"Leilani has shown promise and is eager to join me, so that's not bad advice, Jaeger. But are you sure you won't reconsider and take your job back?"

"I not only missed my younger sons' birthdays, I spent last night in jail! I'm not reconsidering!"

On that very final note, Jaeger says goodbye and heads inside.

Because it's time for Fallon's birthday!

As usual, Juliette brings him to his cake, tickling him as they wait for others to arrive.

Once the cheering begins, Juliette helps him blow out his candle.

As Juliette places Fallon on the floor to pat her baby bump, the cheering gets even wilder.

I guess Jaeger, Lee, and Daeric are trying to make up for the lack of guests.

Tabatha had to work, and Leila had a game.

Cameron, Alana, and their twin daughters, Sarah and Gwen, moved out earlier today.

It'll be strange not having them here, but the family already feels easier to manage.

Two less young adults, and only three toddlers, soon to be two.

Sounds like heaven actually.

At the other end of the table, Aeric's blowing a party horn with Peanut by his side.

I was hoping it would be Katherine, but she finally decided she had things to do at home.

Then the birthday sparkles hit as Fallon does the typical spin.

And ages to child with those scary crossed eyes!

His eyes finally uncross, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

Until I roll for his trait.

Fallon is now Unstable!

That trait disqualified Torre's twin Karlie Jo when she rolled it as a young adult.

And now poor Fallon has received it as a child.

But then an even worse tragedy strikes!

Not for my Frio family, but for me.

I get multiple error 12's trying to save my game and end up having to quit without saving.

And I have a feeling my most recent save is before Cam, Alana, and their twins, moved out!

So, now for the re-play…

A lot of the same things happened but not exactly like the first time.

Instead of getting to spend most of the evening with Katherine, Aeric gets abducted by aliens as soon as I reload my game!

He's returned quickly enough, but not very happy with the alien that abducted him.

I'm just glad it wasn't one of the other men in the family, since any one of them could have been returned pregnant!

Which is the last thing I need.

This time, I give Katherine a makeover.

Switching out those vivid green sweats for a cute pair of denim short shorts.

And adding a touch of make-up.

I think she's a very cute teen and perfect for Aeric.

Aeric thinks so too and gets his first kiss! Again.

That's her swimwear by the way.

While Aeric was in the alien spaceship, she took a swim in the basement pool.

She aged up in the top, so I just matched the color of her shorts to the pink freezer bunny.

I love that salmon pink/coral color.

But with no prom announcement, he says, "I really like you a lot, Katherine. Do you want to be my steady girl?"

She agrees to this just as eagerly as she did his prom invitation.

I really like these two together.

Juliette still gets her baby bump but actually spins into a maternity outfit that's more appropriate for summer than the outfit she got the first time.

She's even wearing yellow sandals, so a win-win on the replay.

Fallon's birthday, take 2.

Since I still had five toddlers in the house, I threw his party earlier in the day.

Tabatha, Leila, and Cam are all at work, but Alana joins the party as no one has moved out yet.

They all cheer and blow party horns just as the sparkles hit.

Fallon grows up in the same hairstyle but different clothes.

But instead of being Unstable, he's now Eccentric.

Since I had to replay it all, I'm taking the 2nd trait as well! (Take that error 12!)

Jaeger invited his boss, Alana Kahale over, and chatted with her for quite a long time.

Pretty much the same conversations and he still quit his job!

Alana actually begged him to reconsider this time.

But he refused. Again.

He still missed his twin sons' birthdays but didn't get arrested this time around.

And he passed on Bella's offer; a partnership with Alana Kahale keeping her position, just like last time.

Both Sarah and Gwen got potty trained, so they learned all three of their toddler skills.

Cam completed one last athletic Op, to get as muscular as he possibly could.

Leila reached level 10 of the Athletic career and is now a Sports Legend.

Both Daeric and Aeric completed paintings they had in progress.

Alana completed another novel, it wasn't a best seller, but it was a hit.

Since she was still at the computer, she was the one that made the arrangements for their new place.

Then she and Cam went to the nursery and picked up their twin girls to take them out to the waiting car.

Leila, Daeric, and Aeric met them outside.

"Bye everyone. I'll be sure to stop by and family will definitely be visiting."

Amidst a chorus of, "Bye Watcher. See you around," they run to their cars and head off to their new home.

All seven of them will be living in the Sanctuary house!

The home they stayed in when they first came to Sunlit Tides, but it's been tweaked just for them.

I still have to add a few more personal touches, like an extra napping mat, and Aeric's martial arts equipment, but everything else is just perfect for them.

When I do that, I'll make sure and take photos of their renovated home.

I also took pity on the exhausted paparazzi and sent him home via NRaas.

The first play through was rather exciting, especially with Aeric pairing up with Katherine!

Thankfully that still happened on take two.

My game not saving wasn't fun at all, but it was my own fault for playing waaayyy too long.

I feel that Fallon benefited the most on the second play through, getting Eccentric for his child trait rather than being Unstable.

Now he shares all three of his traits, Excitable, Couch Potato, Eccentric, with his grandfather, Lee.

I love having genetics and traits pass down through the generations.

And now that my main household is paired down to four grown-ups, a child, two toddlers, and a nooboo on the way, it feels much more manageable.

Unless Juliette has triplets or quads!

That would just be my luck.

I actually like the idea of twins, especially getting one of each.

So, I'm with Juliette on that wish!

Finger's crossed and join me in Chapter 428: Manageable Households

Coming soon.

[kysoncat]

Eeveelution Squad Journeys (My ES AU)

Hello everyone. If you saw on my introduction post I mentioned having an ES AU called Eeveelution Squad Journeys and I'd like to talk about it here. Hope you guys enjoy my first ever post about it here on Tumblr since I've talked about it before on other sites like reddit and Discord.

History I feel like before I explain what my AU is I need explain how it came to be so here's the backstory!

Way back in 2021, I was first introduced to the Eeveelution Squad comic from the dub and then found the actual comic and began reading it myself for the first time. While I was reading it a lot of stuff bothered me like Speed being stupidly overpowered, complex lore that I could not process, shipping moments being shoved down my throat every 3 pages, and more. I kept up with the comic till it ended and I was sad as I saw the comic could've had potential specifically with the characters but it didn't do anything with most of them.

After the comic ended I began thinking how I would write ES while fixing a lot of the problems I had with it. I dug through EV's account and found that ES was originally supposed to be about the cast as a Rescue team instead of living together. Around this time I was watching the Pokemon anime and while watching it I thought what if Eeveelution Squad was like the Pokemon anime. What if they were an actual squad, an actual team that would actually bond with each other by going on adventures like in the anime. It was at that moment that my AU was born. After developing it for a bit and sharing this AU idea with some people in the ES Discord Server (Now known as Astral Treehouse) with it receiving positive feedback, I would continue developing it for myself as it was fun developing and for what ES could've been with its missed potential. I decided to name the AU "Eeveelution Squad Journeys" after a friend suggested in the name in the Discord Server.

Premise So this AU is basically what if the Eeveelution Squad were a competitive battling team in a humanless mainline Pokemon world where they would take on the regional leagues and go on adventures as they bond and strive to become the greatest team ever.

The AU takes the series in a more action/Shounen approach rather than the Slice of Life or whatever the hell the Vacation Arc was trying to be. It takes inspiration from some animes I've watched like Pokemon and Fairy Tail.

While making the AU I have these goals in mind for it:

Have the characters be used to their fullest potential. A lot of ES' characters either had very little or nothing at all and after scrounging through the comic and certain journals I knew they had so much potential and I want to use them to their fullest.

Make the main cast actually bond. To me, the main cast in the comic had no real bond, they didn't feel like a squad, or family, or roommates. Also the title does not fit the comic with its story or genre. I want the main cast for my AU to actually feel like a team and make the "Eeveelution Squad" in the title actually make sense.

Don't make the AU stupidly edgy or confusing. Pretty simple with this goal.

Don't prioritize romance. Characters with their development and building bonds comes first.

Don't let anyone influence my AU. I'll listen to feedback and criticisms but I will not listen to someone who tries to change my AU into something that's unrecognizable. Toxic fans and shippers can go away if my AU isn't for them.

AU Changes

The World ES Journeys takes place in a humanless mainline Pokemon world where competitive battling is the most popular sport in it. The world has the Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and Galar regions only so no Paldea as well as some anime locations like the Orange islands. Rescuers are still a thing in this AU but they're part of the police. Because this AU has a more modern setting, there's no such thing as Wild Pokemon. Technology in this world is not as stupidly advanced as the comic so no Iron Man suits or other junk like that (I hated ES' technology), only modern technology like computers and stuff we have today.

The Lore ES Journeys does not focus on the Timeline Lore or Berserker Virus Lore because they do not exist. These two things should not have been in the comic but did because one comment said ES was boring which made EV add them. 90% of people either do not understand it or don't care about it. The only lore in this AU is backstory on characters.

The Cast While ES Journeys does have all 9 main characters (10 counting Axel) they're not going to be together right at the beginning. The reason I made this decision is because giving focus to that many characters right at the start of the story would be difficult to pull off. I want each character to get focused on without another one hogging it up like how Speed, Flare, Lazuli, and Silvia did in the comic. With the cast starting off small, focus can be put on them and when the characters join the main cast over time, focus moves on to them. The cast starts off with just Speed, Crystal, Flare, and Sunshine but when the group are in a region where the other main characters are they join them like how Ash gets new traveling companions when he arrives at a new region. So... yeah. That's Eeveelution Squad Journeys with what is had and how it came to be. Does this sound interesting or is this a stupid AU idea? I might make posts on my AU about the characters or story in the future. If y'all have any questions about the AU, feel free to send me an ask and I'd be happy to answer. Well until the next post that's all I have to say so bye everyone!