#cause how else would you explain this??

[spicypussywave]

am i ever gonna shut up about KangSailom role playing? no <3

[nadiajustbe]

I think the most beautiful thing about writing of Howl and Sophie's pair is that they are written as people before being written as a pair. Let me explain this very quick.

The thing about book Sophie and Howl is that they are not really fully fitting into any "classic" romantic trope. They are not exactly enemies to lovers, as their angry chats are definitely cannot be considered a life or death battle, they are not rivals to lovers because the only aspect of rivalry between them is the cleaningness of Howl's room. They are not friends to lovers, as their relationship just doesn't fit into "friendship" structure at the very start, nor they are roomates (yes, they live in the same house but that's not the core aspect of their relationships). Of course, you can go on and fit the name of the trope you found specifically for them, but that's the thing.

They simply cannot be processed through a pairings lenses only, in order to understand how they act in relationship you need to analyse them separately, as a characters first of all. Cause that's what the book itself does!

Sure, it doesn't have a whole lot of romance instead, but it gives us time to learn and observe the life of incredibly written, alive characters, understand them as personalities first of all, while slowly immersing the dynamic between two characters (in this case, Howl and Sophie) into work. They are written as personalities, both being fully separated and interviewing, changing eachother's point of view.

It's difficult to find a trope for them. They're are not a trope. They are Howl and Sophie, and that's probably the only way their dynamic can be properly described. Just as real people, they are not really fitting into the boxes of linial character progression, but go way deeper into being complex, filled with little differences and moments only people with their personality can have in romantic (or any different) kind of interaction. They're imperfect, and silly, and multidimensional and the reader knows them well enough to imagine them interacting way beyond of what the book says to them.

They are being people before being a ship, a pair of a trope — and that's why they work so perfectly charming in the end.

Howl and Sophie are unique in being themselves.

[thefirstknife]

New article with more details (from Jason Schreier who first broke the story). If you can't see it, I'll copy the whole text under read more.

About 100 employees were laid off in total (8%) and one of the main reasons listed is "underperformance," "sharp drop in popularity" and "poor reception of Lightfall."

So you know when for the last year and a half content creators have been shitting and pissing on the game as a full-time job and the amount of negativity and ragebait content became the only thing to make content about for them? Well they certainly won't take the blame, but I will let it be known. These people either don't understand the influence they have or they do and they're doing it on purpose, and I don't know which of these two options is worse, but I am 100% confident that their campaign of rage and hate contributed to this.

You don't base your entire community around constantly hating everything about the only game you play (despite clearly not enjoying it anymore) and somehow avoid galvanising thousands and thousands of people into perceiving the game negatively. Imagine being employees who have barely worked there for 2 years and the only community reception they've seen is 24/7 hate train for their work and then they get fired because of "poor reception" and "drop in popularity." How can they not take that personally? I am absolutely devastated for these people who delievered a banger product and who were met with an unrelenting barrage of toxic gamer children which ended up having more sway over their boss than them.

Which brings me to the next bit and that's FUCK THE CEO. He is now my mortal enemy #1. I am projecting psychic blasts directly into his brain. What an absolute spineless coward who is more willing to bow down to fucking gamers than to protect his own employees. This is absolutely rage inducing because this has happened before. From the article from 2021 about the toxic culture at Bungie:

Reading this shit from the new article absolutely fucking sent me into blind rage because I immediately remembered this. Another instance of employees suffering because of comments on reddit. And because of toxic players. And proof that leadership is not protecting employees and is instead siding with players.

Match made in heaven. Asshole gamer content creators and asshole CEOs, all of whom sit at home on piles of money made from someone else's labour. I hope they all explode. None of the people that worked on this game deserve this.

Another article with an infuriating comment from the CEO:

In an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday round of layoffs that impacted multiple departments, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly told remaining employees that the company had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.

"Kept the right people." Really. Veteran composers weren't the right people? Die!

Bloomberg article in full:

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2. Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting. Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall. The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product. In the meantime, Parsons told staff Bungie would be cutting costs, such as for travel, as well as implementing salary and hiring freezes, the people said. Everyone would have to work together to weather the storm, he said, leaving employees feeling determined to do whatever was needed to get revenue back up. But on Monday morning the news got worse: Dozens of staffers woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings that had been placed on their calendars, which they soon learned were part of a mass layoff. Bungie laid off around 8% of its employees, according to documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie didn’t respond to requests for comment. Employees who were let go will receive at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid COBRA health insurance, although other benefits, such as expense reimbursements, ended Monday, sending some staff racing to submit their receipts. Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month. The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office. TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a report Monday that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.” PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign. Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. Remaining Bungie staff were informed that some of those areas will be outsourced moving forward.

[puppppppppy]

Atla live action 😐

[freakinator]

If you don’t mind, I’m gonna yap for a second.. I think another problem with Kab is how sudden the turn around was. Like in the first convo where Kab was acting “evil”, Zam fought back with the argument that she’s wasn’t really evil at all and I think he did believe that at least a little. And if Kab slowly began to turn her path around then he would be a bit more trusting cause he would have SEEN her actual emotional growth but the turn around was so fast, it feels like there was no emotional growth at all and that Kab is still the same as before, cause she basically is. She still wants Mane dead no matter the cost and she’s still, intentionally or not, trying to manipulate Zam, but she wants to be treated as if she’s had that whole long term emotional growth

yeah ii think this is where her majority experience with short-term smps really bit her in the ass, i think there are two main directions that other ppl take it tho: 1. is as what you speculate in that some ppl think that she hasnt had genuine growth and hasnt changed at all and 2. that she genuinely changes too quickly and is therefore unreliable regardless of if shes being honest or not

i think the reason zam was so receptive to her in silent scream was cause this has been a recurrent plot point for a couple streams now, kab trespassing zams base to yap while zam tries to decipher her wants and motivations until eventually she just let it all out and in that instance i think he did genuinely believed that she changed even if it was slowly/just a little bit

....but then die for you happened lol

ssee the thing about kab is that shes shes all-or-nothing, going from one extreme to the next after just a little bit of change in character which can be jarring to some ppl to say the least (unless you thought she was lying and therefore any character development shouldnt be believed i suppose) but is something that was a great asset in shorter and arena-based smps where you had to get as much advantage against your opponent as possible without having to worry about the long-term consequences of these actions ie them not trusting you while still having to interact often in mundane ways even after messing with them. while she Can be swayed this only really works with things she was already unsure of which while a great motivator and trait to keep her on track with her goals (again another great trait for short-term smps), can be really jarring and distressing for other ppl if the things she was absolutely sure about goes against their own perspective like for example her thinking that derapchu killing her constitutes zam getting payback for her as the protector of the server (The protector, not A protector like zam insists, The protector of the server)

i think shes far too used to the fast-paced instant acceptance of changed personality in arena smps that is a natural consequence of them being short-term and having a revolving door of members and teams which is why she expects ppl to accept her growth and efforts so quickly even if realistically nobody would hand over their trust that easily esp after essentially being harassed in their own home multiple times, like even in normal smps where theres a baseline amount of trust ppl still wouldnt trust you after doing that, what more in a server like lifesteal where general trust is low basically all the time?

[syrenki]

post depressive episode clarity like what the fuck do you mean they'll never disappear, just fade.

[trans-estinien]

i love being autistic cause sometimes i get a glimpse into how regular people perceive things and its like. what the fuck. what the fuck is that? you live like this? and its normal?? i think YOURE the weird one actually. im fine. thanks though.

[not-poignant]

Why is it that only peak alphas can buy super expensive anal sex lube? Why is there a rule to show peak alpha's ID before buying? If alpha, omega and beta don't require special lube, then they have no need to buy super expensive unique lube?

Why is it that only peak alphas can buy super expensive anal sex lube?

Because it's difficult and costly to manufacture, it's a medical chemical and not a regular lubricant, and because it's extremely dangerous to use. It can only be handled with gloves, it has particular rules around its use and the timing around its use. It can cause organ failure and blindness when used incorrectly (something as simple as having some on your finger and then touching your eye means that's it, pretty much.)

It causes the cells to become lax, that's...not great! There's a reason any chemical/s that do this are highly regulated even in our world, and we don't actually have a lubricant that can do this, in the way that Stretch can.

It can't be trusted as something widely available to the public, and it was only made specifically for peak alphas. It was made specifically for peak alphas which is why only peak alphas can buy it.

Why is there a rule to show peak alpha's ID before buying?

See above. It was only made/developed for peak alphas. :D

[sskk-manifesto]

Atsushi's back in the game!!! ۶( ˆ o ˆ )

[anthromimicry]

sorry, halsey — hopeless fountain kingdom.

[avvocarlo]

holy shit I hate the rules and politics within the community services industry

[bee-ships]

Liking a popular character is hell on earth to me because it feels illegal to talk about me liking him or my ship

[system-of-a-feather]

I think the point of the post wasn't to say ToSD has the same validity as something like gravity or evolution, but to point out that theory in this context has a different meaning as the colloquial one.

But that post ALSO implies that "theory" in this context has the same meaning as it does with gravity and evolution which is also not true.

Yes it is different from the colloquial one, but it isn't any more similar to the way it is used for gravity and evolution.

I'd honestly argue it IS closer to the colloquial definition than it is to the ""scientific"" definition which was the whole point of my post.

[twilitfox]

I FINALLY BEAT TOTK!! After like 3 detours for other Zelda games lmao

And I did it in the Twilight Armor set. because I could 😌

It was alright! Honestly, I don't know if I liked it more than BoTW, I'd need to replay that one. It's been a bit. But that last fight was more Zorah Magdaros than I was expecting (iykyk) and not in a good way. Idk, I think people are focusing purely on the spectacle when they say it's amazing, which is fine! Dragons are cool and it's cool that you get to ride around on your girlfriend, but mechanically it's just Colgera again. And yeah, the ending felt like a big ass-pull, I'm sorry lmao. zelda just suddenly isn't a dragon anymore?? With no lasting effects of giving up her entire being? Which clearly wasn't true, but she doesn't even remember any of it?? Link doesn't get to keep the arm?? Or isn't at least down one?? Where even was Sonia before that last bit?? Could they have done that the entire time?? And Link didn't even hug her???!? Also did the ancient sages even have names???? Idk, suspension of disbelief and all that but the little things the devs don't address add up and take me out of it. It'd be easier to ignore if there wasn't so much, or if the rest of the game made up for it and it doesn't for me lol.

That is not to say I didn't have fun with it, honestly I spent more time running around on foot than I did in BoTW (mostly because I wanted to complete the map but still) but I only pushed myself to finish it so I could justify replaying Okami since I already took so many breaks and, well. I don't know how to put it better than that. Solid game, others are better, 7/10

[autopsytableromance]

Love telling a new doctor about my migraine frequency and severity the first time we meet bc they have one of two reactions (they either stop caring when I say that there is occasionally months in between very bad episodes of condensed migraine activity or they hear me say when it gets really bad it’s like 3 times a week or more stop typing and ask if I’ve ever seen a neurologist in a very specific tone) and I base whether I’m willing to go back on which one they give

[milfbro]

asdfghjkl im glad people are shit talking merlin

genocide collaborator ass