#but a lot of it is personal creative stuff

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

(genuine question sorry if it comes across as spam or trolling) is porn addiction not actually a thing? and how is it connected to terf stuff (again genuinely want to know so I don’t repeat the retoric)

No worries anon, I do not get enough asks for things to come across as spam or trolling.

But yeah no, porn addiction is not a thing. Over two decades of research has not proven a goddamn thing; rather, it's proven that it doesn't exist. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] *note, some of these are more accessible than others and some are more specific

While those who believe in it will present what seems to be a mountain of evidence for it, their evidence is often unscientific or unreliable or uses flawed measures or uses incredibly small sample sizes, including a sample of 1 in some cases.

The actual scientific consensus is that while excessive watching of porn can be a bad habit and can negatively impact your life, you can't become addicted to it the way that you can with things like alcohol. Things like alcohol addiction or tobacco addiction are related to a significant change in the neuronal transmission in your brain. Like certain drugs mimic certain neurotransmitters and impact the neuro-receptors on either side of a synapse.

Porn doesn't do that. Or moreso, porn is not unique in how it can change your brain chemistry. Someone who spends twelve hours a day seven days a week watching reality TV doesn't have a habit inherently different to someone who spends the same amount of time watching porn.

Often excessive watching of porn is a symptom of a larger issue such as depression. Many of those who self-report as porn addicts match the primary diagnosis of depression.

Also, within research, it is often found that those who self-report a porn addiction watch the same amount of or less of porn as someone who doesn't report it, mostly because a lot of it is related to shame and guilt and not addictive behaviour.

Porn addiction as an idea is most often rooted in religiosity and not science.

It can also be rooted in terfism. Because terfs hate porn.

Their arguments against porn boil down to the idea that women cannot and should not have sexual autonomy. They dress it up obviously, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a misogynist.

Almost any argument against porn they make can be easily countered by the fact that all their criticisms occur in every industry that exists currently, especially so in creative industries.

The porn industry is not uniquely exploitative. If people's labour is involved, it's probably being exploited or it has the potential to be exploited. Not knowing if the person on screen was treated well on set is not unique to porn, you know how many movies I can list that included actors being treated like shit? The porn industry does not have an issue with human trafficking that is unique to any other industry; it's a massive issue in industries with manual labour. etc.

Point is, it is not inherently evil. Terfs want you to think it is though because A) they hate women and B)

To them, porn equals predatory men (they include trans women in this) exploiting poor innocent women who cannot possibly consent.

The idea of women who actively partake in sex work and enjoy doing so is mind breaking for them; they often rationalise it as the women being mentally ill and being indoctrinated by porn. The idea of porn addiction suits them well because they believe porn is inherently evil like men are.

Terfs can't perceive any situation where women are not being actively victimised by men. They are always the victims and they always need protection from men who are inherently evil and inherently predatory.

They're misogynists and idiots (and very often very racist though that's not currently relevant).

I don't know how coherent this is. It is approaching the time I go to sleep so it might be very rambly. I hope it was helpful anyway. Feel free to ask for clarification that I'll reply to in the morning.

[pynkhues]

Anything particularly interesting said during the q&a?

Lots actually! It was a really good Q&A.

Michael (creator) talked quite a bit about the original premise for the show being about a lavender marriage between a nurse (Helen) and a reporter (Dale), and while their characterisations haven't changed tremendously, the show itself has, and putting Helen in the newsroom changed a lot of things.

He pitched the show to Jo Werner about 8 years ago, and Emma Freeman was immediately on board as director, so they really got to grow the show together as the creative team has been consistent since then. It means they're all really proud of it.

One of the major changes they made during development was about brining in the actual archive news footage and structuring it around those events, which was a big shift and a huge ask of their writers, but it's paid off.

Bringing in the cast though added another layer to creative collaboration, and especially in s3, all the cast, especially Anna and Sam got to do quite a bit of improvising.

Michelle Lim Davidson, who plays Noelene (and is s t u n n i n g in person, omg) was also brought into the writers room each season to help really root Noelene in her Korean-Australian heritage, and she said s3 feels like a culmination of that and will be an important part of the season. She got very emotional about it and said really beautiful things about what Noelene has meant to her and the pride she has in representing Korean-Australian women, and Asian-Australian women on TV. Also! Michael kept hyping her up as a playwright, and I googled when I got home and her writing debut is on at Griffin Theatre in June, so Sydney folks should get on that!

It seems to be a Noelene-and-Rob-figuring-stuff-out heavy season, and I am delighted by that, because I have a huge soft spot for them.

The scene where Noelene gives birth has made Jo cry every time she's seen it (which Michael estimates is about 40 times haha) and they're all really proud of it as a scene.

Stephen Peacocke had a very hilarious tangent here about Rob's arc, and talked a bit about Australian football and the VFL and stepping into that as a Sydney actor, but also enjoying playing a character who just stays out of the fray (and this season being about realising that he loves that his wife is in it and wants to support her).

Also a Helen-tackling-her-mental-health heavy season, and Anna and Michael literally went to therapy together with her in character to figure out how to start writing Helen in therapy (amazing).

There's a big confrontational scene between Helen and Dale late in the season that involves this, and the way they shot it meant Michael and Emma had to hide in a pantry together lmao. It also meant Anna and Sam got to do quite a bit of improv because none of them could see each other.

Sam said that when he started, both Michael and Emma told him the show doesn't work if Helen and Dale aren't in love with each other, even if it's a type of being in love that we're not used to, and that's basically the emotional root of their relationship and the show.

Michael reiterated a couple of times that the show is a tragedy (RIP us), which particularly came up with a question about Gerry. Emma had to convince Michael of the last shot of Gerry, but now he really loves it, because he wants to tear Dale down for betraying him, but sees him and realises Dale's a broken man.

They were asked a bit about what news stories they'd adapt if it was set in modern times, and the general consensus was that there were too many (Sam said he's not really a 'news' guy lmao), but Michael said COVID and Trump, and Sam said Dale would probably end up on Fox News which was the no. 1 most heartbreaking thing he could say, haha.

They were asked if they could play any other role on the show, who would they pick, and Stephen picked Dennis, and both Michelle and Sam picked Lindsay, which is hilarious.

(Emma interjected there with the fact that Lindsay is the character they get the most feedback on, mostly in the sense of omg, I've worked for a guy exactly like that).

Then they were asked if they took anything from set - Emma had taken Dale and Helen's business cards, and Sam didn't even realise they had business cards and seemed lowkey jealous about not getting them, haha, Stephen had a pair of trackies (sweat pants, for Americans), Michelle had nothing because Noelene loves knick-knacks and Michelle hates them, and Sam apparently has stolen or been gifted half the set - he was gifted Dale's 80s TV for his birthday, and he's kept Dale's computer, among other technology, apparently, haha, his wig, and a pair of high waisted blue jeans that were custom-made for him by the costume designer and feature in the finale, which I am now very much looking forward to seeing, haha.

That's all I can remember right now, I'm sure more will come to me in the morning!

[barbwritesstuff]

I love Thicker Than very much but my first love will always be Blood Moon and I decided to reread it today and I just. I genuinely wish that I could write like you sometimes because you are so, so good at it. Your imagery is so vivid, your worlds are immersive, your characters are real and flawed and kinda messed up but that's what makes them so loveable. And to top it all off, you're hilarious as well? How dare you actually. Very rude of you indeed.

Anyway all this to say: love your work, love you, hope you're well and I will uncover your (writer) secrets.

This ask genuinely made me tear up. Thank you so much.

These are my writer secrets (most of which I learned from other writers or from the internet but some are actually me):

It's better to write a book that 50% of people hate and 50% of people love than to write a book that everyone thinks is just fine.

Be toothy. Be weird. Be yourself.

Have characters do something while they're talking so they're not just standing there saying things at each other. This came from a tumblr post which said something like 'make them do the dishes' and it's genius. First draft of the first chapter of Blood Moon: Marco didn't have a cigarette or a coffee. I gave him those so he could have some character action during his monologue and it made it 100x better.

Personally: I dislike 'relatable' characters. I would much rather have a weirdo character than one that's relatable. That's my preference as a reader to, which, actually reminds me.

READ. You really need to read. If you don't read, you won't see what others are doing, you won't be aware of what books (interactive or otherwise) even can do. All good writers are readers.

I sucked at English at school, and people still sometimes say snide things about my inability to spell. I don't care. Good English student =/= good creative writer. Actually, I think a lot of people who achieved a lot in school give up really quickly at writing because it's not typically a quick or easy path to success. The amount of people who've said to me 'I did NaNoWriMo once but nothing came of it' is... a lot. That's one month. They wrote for one month and expected to be a blow up success. That's not the reality. Because...

Being a persistent wee bitch and loving what you do is way more important than 'talent'.

I'm in a weird mood. I'm sorry. I just want to talk about craft and stuff. I love writing so much.

[putschki1969]

The "rito" Situation

Following my post about Hitoshi Konno, I thought it would only be fitting, to round up some info on rito as well, especially after the most recent announcement. When the detailed lineup for YKL Vol#21 was released, many people were not only shocked by Keiko's absence, they were also wondering why rito was not included. I received as many questions about her as I did for Hitoshi Konno but I didn't really feel qualified to talk about her (I still don't really but now we have a bit more information to work with). There's not much to say here and also, her connection to Kalafina (and Keiko's situation) is peripheral at best so I will keep this short.

Today, on January 31 2025, rito announced her departue from Highway Star. Her contract will officially end on March 31 and it seems like no attempts have been made by either rito or the agency to extend said contract. It sounds like it was mostly rito's own decision to distance herself from her current situation so that would also explain why she's no longer participing in YK events as regular member. Judging from her personal comment and Yuki's tweets on the matter (she has nothing but kind things to say about her), this is most likely a standard case of moving on due to a lack of creative opportunities. Perhaps she didn't find what she was looking for or she simply exhausted all possible avenues at Highway Star or maybe she had hoped to gain more from her collaboration with Yuki, who knows. Obviously, these have been some valuable experiences for her but now she is seeking new paths.

Even to a casual onlooker like myself it does feel like she kinda fell along the wayside during these past few years and not much was invested in her. As far as I know, she did have a couple of solo releases and a dedicated song from Yuki on the PARADE album but other than that, nothing much to write home about. Her appearances at lives and events were a great bonus of course but despite frequently being referred to as "regular member", both her and Lino Leia didn't have a lot to do. Maybe that's changing now with all the restructering taking place but sadly, rito will mostly likely not benefit from that. Yuki did include her in one of her "top secret" recordings from last year so we'll see if that will lead to anything at least. It's a shame she wasn't used more, I like her voice a lot more than Lino's tbh and it fits better with Yuki's style of music if you ask me...but one has to admit that Lino is the more seasoned singer among them with what appears to be a lot more experience handling her own solo stuff so my best guess is that she's quite happy with the current arrangement since she can effectively juggle all of her activities. In contrast, rito seems to have been a newbie with no established solo career. Also not sure about their exact age but I'd assume that rito is probably a bit younger than a lot of Yuki's other vocalists (could be completely off on that though, I've honestly no idea how old any of them are but rito just comes across as quite young).

Circling back to Kalafina for a little bit here. Just the other day I was having some discussions in the reply section of one of my posts and among other things, I was talking about why Hikaru (and even Keiko) would have never considered signing up with Highway Star during all these years. After all, Keiko could have just as well joined Highway Star instead of Tristone back in 2020 when she made her solo debut. And Hikaru has been a struggling freelancer for quite some time now so a contract with a seemingly decent agency (with the added bonus of an official Yuki Kajiura affiliation) would have sounded like a good idea to me. We don't know of course if it was entirely their choice or if Highway Star (and Yuki) were not willing to negotiate something with them. Whatever the reason might have been, now I am thinking it was maybe for the best that they never joined. Their management of rito was certainly not great.

[stupidlittlespirit]

random thought.. but do you think Ford would be open to having a partner who isn't very book smart.. I think about this a lot because I'm not nearly as intelligent as he is,, (i'm sure most of us aren't but..)

..like I'm smart in some things but I never was an academic god yannow. I was in special classes all through out school because I learn slower than most people LOL, do NOT ask me to do long division. I STILL COUNT ON MY FINGERS AND TOES FOR SIMPLE EQUATIONS LMFAOOO

anyway

I think there should be more x reader fics about Ford and a not so smart reader (not saying you should be the one to write it obviously, i'm just throwing my opinion out to the world anonymously)

I feel like I see so many fics about the reader being his lab assistant with like 4 freaking PHDS or whatever, and I just feel so disconnected to the story when I read those because like, that's not me AT ALL.

(no shade to freaks of a feather btw, I LOVE THAT ONE ACTUALLY.)

idk. sorry. i'm just rambling to you now, I just mainly wanted to hear what you thought about my first question since ur like a ford pines pro or whateva. :-)

This is actually why I made the MTB AU.

I do appreciate the fics with Reader being attached to Ford in an academic setting but I am not that kind of person and I cannot see myself being smart in that way, personally. I like to learn etc but I'm not very academically inclined and I could NOT put up with the shit that man would run me through in that scenario. One smart word and I'm beating his ass.

So, I made MTB because I wanted Reader to be a bit more down to Earth (idk if that's the right phrasing?) and for them to be able to exist without competing with Ford. I felt like a lot of fics wanted the Reader to keep up with/out pace Ford intellectually and I'll die before I'm caught competing with a man, I'll tell you that much for free sfkjhsa

Absolutely NO shade to the fics in which this is the case, though, because there are still plenty of those ones that I enjoy!!!! It's just that when it comes to my own stuff, I'm more inclined to want to read as accurate to myself as possible and I don't have those kinds of talents. I'm not that kind of guy. Again, doesn't mean it's bad, I'm not saying that, I'm just saying I do not have the facilities for that LMAO

I love science and studies and all of that, but it can be fun to balance out Ford's intelligence with emotional stuff and make use of his personality beyond his academic capabilities. You don't need to compete with a partner, you make up their other half. So whatever he's bad at, you make up for and vice versa.

I don't think Ford would require a partner to be super 'intelligent'/book smart/theory smart. He'd be happy if you were, but he'd be equally as happy if you were just willing to listen to him yap about his smart stuff and cheer him on with it all. When he's older, he tells us himself that he's grown to value love and compassion and common sense equally with theory/book intelligence, and that he's a fool for ever thinking differently.

Sure, if you were unkind and rude and purposefully obtuse with no intention of learning and growing, he probably wouldn't like that very much, but he's not going to think less of someone he loves just because they're not hitting triple digits on the IQ chart. He loves his brother and Stan isn't up there in that regard, yknow?

Intelligence doesn't revolve around a singular type of definition. Intelligence exists in many forms. Just because you aren't 'book smart', it doesn't mean you're 'dumb' or anything, it just means your talent lies in something else. You could be very emotionally intelligent, or creative, or funny or kind or sweet or whatever example you want.

I think that's what matters to him in the end.

[thebestjjenthusiast]

carolina’s children

introducing:

the band

❛ ah yes, mike. the band’s lead singer, a raging narcissist- since he’s fully aware of his good appearance. his voice is average to good, but no one minds since our choice of songs are not too challenging. would really help if he decided to value mine and the band’s time and not think that the audience was there only to see him. ❜

❛ pope! our beloved bassist. a friend of mine that magically agreed to join my band idea. he’s really great on the bass, when we cover a song youll never catch him making a mistake. just like in our friend group, where he’s the brain of it, he’s the brain of the band. he knows when and where we need to perform, how to open the gig and all that stuff. he really is a variable of the band. ❜

❛ our talented drummer, chris. we couldn’t have done it without him, of course, but it feels like hes just not into this anymore. maybe he feels like his punk rock-edgy style isn’t compatible with ours, or maybe he thinks he’s wasting his potential on us. maybe his love for music has faded away, but that’s something i highly doubt. ❜

❛ and last but not least, me. the band’s founder and establisher, also known as the guitarist. my bandmates know better than to piss me off when it comes to band matters. i am always the one to suggest songs to play, encourage my bandmates to practice and come to practice and give a speech whenever we have to. ❜

❛ and that pretty much sums up each member of our little group. now, if you combine all four of us, what you get is pretty much a mess. but not in a bad way- mess is necessary. mess means creativity, mess means a lot of different ideas and personalities colliding with each other and forming in the end, something beautiful. mess is balance, and when the balance is uneven, then things start going south. ❜

the friends

a friendly shout out to our supporters, our family.

a shout out to our friend, John B, who encouraged me and pope to listen to that faint voice in our heads that was whispering to us to start a band, follow our dreams.

a shout out to our friend, Kiara, who was the one to teach me how to play the guitar when i was little, and stay up with pope to help him with the bass

a shout out to our friend, Sarah, who never misses a show and is very audible screaming whenever we perform. the one who always wants to listen to our demos and is always very honest with her opinions on them.

a shout out to our friend, JJ, who hates our singer, but loves the rest of us. the one who always drives us to chris’ house to practice and the one who whistles loudly whenever we perform

a shout out to our friend, Cleo, and Pope’s girlfriend who supports me as much as she supports him. she never once has complained about our loud instruments in pope’s house, that often make her lose sleep.

and lastly, a shout out to our friend, Rafe, who was the one to buy us our instruments. he never told us a proper reason to gift them to us, and also never gave us time to thank him.

im being very sincere when i say that we couldn’t have done that without our friends being here for us and love us this warmly.

masterlist | 01

taglist: @rafeysworldim19 , @amteratsu , @bee-43

[hauntedraggedyanne]

I’m not sure if this has already been done, but can you post “interesting weapon choices” for fantasy characters? I’m doing character concepts atm and would like some original weaponry aside from swords and bows & arrows!

I got you

Uncommon fantasy weapons and how tips to pick one on your own

—Hammers

the more comically oversized the better in my opinion

—Spears

technically not a sword

—Whips

add metal or spikes for extra flavor

—Halberds

just look them up they look very cool

—Crossbow

Can serve some similar functions to a bow and arrow, but they’re better at far range than a bow

—Poison darts

Pick your poison: quick death the moment the character shoots them or a slow agonizing lengthy death that makes the enemies so absorbed in their misery they don’t notice the protagonists sneaking past them. I have no idea what age demographic you’re going for so I gave two very different options

—Metal fists/brass knuckles

Yes it’s only useful in hand to hand combat but they DO have a use I promise

—Boomerang

They’re fun.

Making/finding your own weapons

—Lots of different cultures and time periods have numerous weapons. We all unite under a desire to find new ways to kill people. Whether you’re making your own fantasy race or basing it off of real world countries or locations, your best start is to zone in on any real world culture and trust me you will find whatever you’re looking for.

—There are plenty of random generators online as well! Some of them are AI, but trust me there’s plenty that aren’t. Check Perchance they tend to have lots of generators

—Take your characters personality into it as well. A quiet character might do great with daggers (I didn’t put them on this list because I see them a lot) while a loud, wild character can be easily paired with war hammers or any larger weapon. Think of the role the character plays and what you want their fighting style to represent about them.

—If you’re making your own (usually magic) weapons, give them one use and one use only. At first a book that summons vines might seem to only have one use, but you can do a lot more creative stuff with it than an ambiguous ‘wand that does everything’.

let me know what you end up going with! Hope this helped!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

With the end of season two comes a second redraw!

[Nov 2022] [June 2023] [June 2024]

[puppppppppy]

u know when youre bored of everything and it feels like theres a hole that youre trying to close but it just keeps sucking everything up

[judasisgayriot]

sometimes before it gets better, the darkness gets bigger, the person that you'd take a bullet for is behind the trigger

[barbwritesstuff]

Hello there, I'm so excited for Of Monsters and Mainframes!

I used to write novels and short stories but have been almost entirely focusing on games for about the last 10 years... and now I'm kind of curious about trying out linear writing again. Do you have any recommendations for novel-writing craft books or other resources? And what's it been like swapping between the two ways of writing?

And I'm really happy to see how Thicker Than is going!

I have been on the hunt for a good nuts-and-bolts creative writing craft book. I pulled apart a bookshelf at a poor lady's bookshop last weekend trying to find one. The problem I'm having is almost all creative writing books are aimed towards people who are just getting started, and while that's amazing, it's not very helpful for me.

I started writing when I was 9ish and have had a long and messy journey as a writer since. I was that teenager writing self insert fantasies. I wrote escapist fanfic while struggling through university. I entered short fiction contests and never quite placed. I sold a short film script I wrote for one dollar. I tried to write popular fiction when everyone said self publishing was the way to go and discovered that was 100% not for me.

In 2018 I wrote my debut novel which I've since pulled and in 2020 I started writing my debut interactive novel which was my first real success.

My writing career isn't one of those 'young creative gets catapulted to success' stories. I sucked for a very long time. I floundered. I fucked up.

But I'm a persistent wee bitch, and I think that counts for a lot in this industry. You just gotta keep trying, keep getting better, and keep picking yourself up.

Now I'm in a place where I've had some (I think) successful stories. Blood Moon. Thicker Than. Of Monsters and Mainframes. My short fiction. I'm hoping to keep that momentum going, to keep that ball rolling, and I'm looking for craft books for people like me and I'm not finding very much.

So, I think what I need to do is make friends with writers who are in similar situations I am.

So... hi.

Wanna be friends?

I know I talk about cannibalism a lot, but I'm actually a really normal and nice person.

Oh, and, to answer your question: 'What's it been like swapping between the two ways of writing?' It's weird. There's the nuts and bolts stuff. I write my interactive stories in second person present tense and the current story I'm writing is in first person past tense. But there's also a different energy to a linear story I can't really explain. Neither better nor worse, just different. That said, my interactive fiction has 100% informed my linear style and my linear style has also informed my interactive style. They bleed together a lot more than you might expect.

I hope that helps.

💙

[umemiyan]

perhaps interesting take during this fine holiday but… i really like when people write in first person for selfship stuff and things like that lol

[silusvesuius]

this tree from my new drawing looking goated afffffff 👑👑

[sableprince]

assorted NMS oc doodles backlog that i guess i forgot to post? i'm really bad at putting stuff in tags, like this comparatively more serious lore compilation post thing. haha. this trio is stupid.

slightly more serious teluya backstory WIP comic under the cut because it's less goofy

[friendlifyre]

jingrenheng modern au where the astral express is a coffee shop and the stellaron hunters are an up-and-coming band and jing yuan is an exchange professor. and they wind up co-existing in the same small city for a year or smth. is this anything

[stardustandash]

I'm making a new resume and trying to figure out why I have so much anxiety about it being perfect and sending it off to job applications and then it hit me that despite everyone in my life downplaying it, by sending it out i am officially trying to leave the industry i spent 6 years and two degrees of schooling to get into. And have only worked in for 6 years since breaking in.

and that's a big, scary thing.