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eriochromatic · 10 days ago

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What are your thoughts on what Silco was like before Vander tried to drown him? I'm seeing these takes on the Silco tag that he was always a bad person and not a real revolutionary, but I don't think that's true. The flashbacks suggest he was coming from a sincere place but became selfish, paranoid, and power hungry (controlling) post-fallout.

LOL I mean you're asking a Silco artist (who specifically likes drawing him in domestic settings) what they think about Silco. so like. no he's not a bad person to me haha.

Of course I'm in the camp that his actions were sincere, perhaps I'm a being a bit generous but I think his actions in s1 are still consistent with that sincerity of wanting undercity independence. We never know exactly what he was going to do once he got his nation of Zaun, so that can be left in the Schrodinger's box of interpretations, positive or negative. But he pretty much agreed to all of Jayce's non Jinx demands like stopping shimmer production and giving hextech back to Piltover. You could even argue that he didn't push back on the blockade that much because he knew he was close to getting independence and could temporarily stop shimmer trade. He specifically says "Jinx will deal with [the blockade]" which is a bit strange bc its not like Jinx is known for her diplomacy LOL. But I think it's because he knows Jinx is currently building a hextech weapon, and the blockade truly won't be an issue once they can just blast through it with Fishbones. Also, that entire scene was clearly there to indicate that unlike the other chem barons who can only see temporary solutions to fix their trade issues, Silco's underlying motivations are still Zaunite independence, not selfish capitalistic gains. Like, Finn clearly did not fucking understand how much power Zaun now has with the hex crystal, he was only focused on blockade hurting his own business.

Honestly calling Silco selfish is the weirdest take to me because the only selfishness we see him display is in relation to Jinx, and his possessiveness is more of a fear of abandonment than actually wanting to control her imo. I guess makes sense ppl might think of Silco that way since we see Silco most often in relation to Jinx, so that colors ppl's opinions. But if you take in account all the scenes that have nothing to do with Jinx… idk I find he's more lenient than the non-Silco fandom makes him out to be. Act 1 his ill will towards Vander was because of ideological and not personal reasons- he was willing to take Vander back if Vander supported Silco's ways. like. thats kind of insane to me. Silco already forgave Vander for ATTEMPTING TO MURDER HIM but was like "you know what's actually unforgivable? you becoming an enforcer bootlicker" idk how much more you can do to show that Silco isn't really motivated by personal selfish reasons (until Jinx came into his life) but revolutionary ones. And honestly I think he himself did not realize how much he loved Jinx until she nearly died, I don't believe for a second he was trying to manipulate her at any point in time. He's just a broken person trying to fix another broken person but like there's a reason why you gotta wear the oxygen mask first before helping your kid, I don't blame him for unintentionally pushing his trauma onto Jinx since it's not like there's therapy in Zaun

So yeah like. I see Silco in a very sympathetic light LOL, flawed and misguided perhaps but doing what he believes is necessary for success… you could argue that under Vander's leadership they would've just continued to be under Piltover's heel forever and Silco at least got something done idk. so I definitely see flashback Silco as someone who's even less culpable of whatever crimes he commits later on, he probably still has a bit of that youthful naivety and hope before the bridge incident fucked everything over lol. and I mean. as much as s2 was a mess, it unfortunately is canon. s2e7 Silco is clearly a well adjusted individual, if he really was a "bad person" I don't think the show would bother showing him in that AU.

Ultimately though I think people see what they want to see, if they already have a bad impression on him the flashback won't do him any favors, they'll just fit his actions into the box they've already given him.

Slight side tangent, there's a visual novel called Umineko (WHICH I THINK EVERYONE SHOULD READ, IT SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING), and a big theme in the story is "Without love, it cannot be seen," and that has really influenced the way I interact with characters in fictional narratives.

Obviously I love Silco as a character, I wouldn't be spending all this time drawing him if I didn't, and I've probably spent more time thinking about him than the average Arcane viewer. If a person watches Arcane and doesn't like Silco, I won't be surprised they come out of it with a surface level understanding of him without really diving deep into his motivations and actions. It's actually pretty funny because the friend that got me into Arcane was one of those Vi stans whose perception on him was on the more negative side but bc I yapped about him so much they've switched over to seeing the more positive side of him. And I mean same with me and Vi, I don't think I would like her as much as I do if it wasn't for that friend haha

#erio stuff #silco #sorry i love talking about him can u tell

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gravity-what · 1 year ago

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More art to go with story blurbs I may or may not actually write.

This piece is definitely one of my biggest as far as number of characters is concerned but I am actually pretty happy with how it came out! Shout out to @grasshopperdoingdogpaddle for being very kind and finding screenshots of the temple dinning room for me to reference!

Anyway: blurb under the cut that explains context!

“Okay thats it! I am tired of pretending everything is fine and okay with all of this and if Dashi isn’t going to do anything then maybe Guan will!” Rai yelled across the dining table, his hands pressed against the table and his breaths coming hard in anger. “Chase is going to turn Heylin and become an evil dragon monster!”

An awkward silence fell over the table only broken by Dashi himself as he let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like it was supposed to hide a laugh. The silence stretched until Dashi finally seemed to get ahold of himself and spoke up.

“Sorry kid,” he said with an air of nonchalance, “guess I should have told you when we were chatting earlier: you are about thirty years late on that information.” he said slowly, indicating to Chase who was looking away and drinking tea to try to hide a physical wince. “already happened.”

There was another long pause as Guan rolled his eyes and the Dragons in training looked at their time traveling guests in various expressions of shock. They all seemed to recover at once and a collective “IT WHAT!?” Filled the room, including Omi who was looking at Chase with something like shocked sadness. ‘Poor kid’ Dashi thought, chuckling under his breath ‘spent the whole day with the guy and had no idea’.

“I don’t see what is so funny about this situation.” Guan cut in with a glare, making it obvious that Dashi wasn’t doing as good a job as he thought in hiding his laughter, “we are wasting time continuing to stay here, and the longer we wait-”

“What? What’s going to happen?” Dashi asked, reclining back against some air, “Come on buddy, we are in the future! We can get back to the past at any point we want. Hell, we could even go back to before we left! Although that, uh…might complicate things…”

“I hate to agree with Guan, Dashi, but I am with him on this one.” Chase cut in. “As good as it has been to see Omi once more and to be…somewhat myself again, we really should not put off taking care of Hannibal longer than necessary. I do not wish to think about what could be happening in our absence.”

“Hey, hey hey!” Dashi said, waving his hand again at his two companions, as temporary as they might be, “look at it this way, both of you! We are in the future and it’s looking pretty bright to me so obviously we did something right! Right?”

“I’m sorry,” the future Dragon of Fire cut in, “can we uh…go back to the whole ‘Chase is already an evil monster’ thing?” She said, indicating a little frantically to said ‘evil monster’, “because he doesn’t exactly look like it right now.”

Chase sighed and looked away again, though really he had been avoiding eye contact this whole time, “The monstrous half of me, or, I suppose more accurately, the Yin side of me, has been trapped in the yin-yang world thanks to Dashi’s little toy.”

“Hold up!” Dashi argued, sitting back up again, “They aren’t toys! They are powerful magical devices!”

“It was a yo-yo.” Chase deadpanned.

“A Yo-yo that opened a portal to another dimension that we managed to trick you into and back out of!” he added in a teasing voice. The exasperated look that Chase sent Dashi was mirrored by Guan.

“So…this is your Yang self?” Omi asked, sounding a little bit too enthusiastic about the realization.

“Ah-ah kid! I can see those wheels turning,” Dashi waved a finger at him, “and, let me tell you, this isn’t a very good solution to the overall problem you are trying to fix. No one can go around as only half themselves forever. It just doesn’t work like that.”

“Even if Chases other half is a mindless beast.” Guan added in, sounding bitter.

“I am working on that!” Chase insisted with a hiss, obviously only meant for Guan to hear even though the room and table were really too small for them to talk just between themselves. “Do you think I enjoy having no control over myself and my actions?!”

“You certainly seemed to be enjoying ravaging that village before we tricked you into that portal-“

“Guys, Guys! No fighting it front of the kids alright?” Dashi quickly cut in. He was pretty sure those kinds of gory details weren’t kid-appropriate, even if these kids were the future Xiaolin Dragons. “besides, we’re here to relax, recuperate, and come up with a plan right? No fighting allowed.”

Both Guan and Chase let out a groan and an eye roll but did get back to their meals once more as Dashi reclined back on his gust of air. It really was nice to have the gang back together, even if it was going to no-doubt be short lived.

#xiaolin showdown #omi #chase young #guan #Dashi #raimundo pedrosa #kimiko tohomiko #clay bailey #master monk guan #grandmaster dashi

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quitealotofsodapop · 1 year ago

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Soooooo.... what if Wukong didn't always have stage fright? What if he ONLY started being afraid of large crowds watching him....

AFTER his rampage through Heaven and he was sentenced to death, trigrams furnace, lots of stabbing, and when nothing else worked 500 years under a mountain by a LARGE CROWD of angry gods.

Mac is more than a bit surprised to learn yhe boisterous, bold Monkey King was more than a little traumatized by the whole experience and maybe he needs some hugs....😈

Ooo thats a spicy idea >:3

My hc is that Wukong is good at bluffing and improvising - but the second there's a "script" to follow or something is expected of him, he just freezes. He can drunkenly retell his Havoc in Heaven to the Brotherhood with perfect comedic timing, but if he's asked to make a speech infront of his own army he stumbles. He'll def improv a troop raising call no problem, just don't expect him to keep any decorum.

And oh gosh, imagine that the modern stage reminds Wukong so much of the "trial" he endured in the Celestial Realm after the Havoc.

Hundreds of people he can barely see, many that want to hurt/kill him, reduced to his birthday suit (think the "you flicked too damn hard!" scene in Thor Love and Thunder), the location of his sworn siblings unknown, Mac's no where to be seen, and he just heard Lao Tzu say something about a furnace??

Wukong had the attention of All of Heaven on him. He never wants to endure that again.

At least with armies of angry soldiers, he can physically fight back and repel them. When his "audience" has him restrained or expected to remain calm, Wukong starts to panic. He feels like an chained animal. I'm surprised that he didn't have a more negative reaction during the talent show in Lantern City.

Macaque of course always knew Wukong was bad at scripted speeches, so he had been the one to whisper lines into his ears/hold up cue cards for him back in the day. Macque had always been the better actor. Just another way they were like Sun and Moon together.

But the first time he sees the great Sun Wukong get swarmed by paparazzi in the aftermath of a rough fight, and the king freezes and can't even speak? Mac jumps in and whisks him away via shadow portal.

Macaque: "You never used to lock-up like that... not even when I dragged you into my plays for the little monkeys." Wukong, slowly calming down: "I... it's just all the eyes on me... It reminds me of the trial... All those face just... watching me and talking about me like I'm some sort of animal..." Macaque, flooded with regret and remembering what Wukong said under the mountain: "Oh..." (a hug occurs) Macaque: "I'm... sorry I couldn't come to your rescue back then." Wukong, trying to deflect with humor: "Hey lets be fair - I doubt you could have taken on the entire Celestial justice system by yourself. A lot of what I said back then was cus my brain just got finished steaming." Macaque: "I could have tried." Wukong: "Then we would have shared that furnace. And we'd be two idiots chained beneath the mountain together." Macaque, small smile forming: "You speak as though that would be so terrible." Wukong, forgot how much natural rizz Mac has: "ah." (//∇//)

The two monkeys later find a simple solution to the problem. Lots of Wukong clones, all doing advertisments and public appearances. Small downside is now a few hair clones will hum advert jingles and get too ethusiastic at the mic.

Macaque: "...tell me, why were you using a cardboard Wukong if you could make temporary clones of yourself?" Wukong: "Sentimental value."

#sun wukong #scopophobia tw #lmk #lego monkie kid #lmk headcanons #lmk hcs #six eared macaque #liu er mihou #shadowpeach

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omeletcat · 1 year ago

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ALRIGHT IT TOOK ME A BIT TO GET MY HEAD STRAIGHT BUT I THINK I'VE FOUND A WAY TO FIX COMBAT IN MY GAME, MAKE IT MORE FUN, MAKE IT MORE ENGAGING, ANDDD MAKE IT MORE UNIQUE!!!! these are the 2 main characters in my game currently named sun and moon (caus i don't have good names yet) they play a big role in the story and until now i have only really been seeing sun as a bonus option for like extra damage in battle, BUT NOW I FOUND A PERFECT SOLUTION at the beginning of the game you start out alone as moon, with 2 main attacks and a dash, attack 1 is a floating hand you can slap and punch people with, the hand follows your mouse and can be used to pick stuff up and solve puzzles. attack 2 will be a bullet or a slash attack that shoots a slash in the air at the mouse. both of these attacks will have "variants" different changes based on certain environmental things like the distance of the mouse from the player when you use the attack, maybe even the movement of the mouse like drawing a circle before attacking. using these different variant sof the same attack will make boring fights less stale and way more engaging!!!! ALSO i got this insane idea: "combo's" what if i make it so using different attacks at the same time will make different effects? that will add even more creativity and intrigue into the game!! this whole revelation came from looking some more into magica 2 and smash, it made me realize the reasons why a single set of moves doesn't get very old very fast in those games, because there aer insane amounts of combo's and ways to use the attacks, that way it doesn't get stale!!!! moon (and sun) will of course get more attacks i already have 1 in mind but i already feel like i am spoiling so much on this blog lol. BUT THATS HTE MAIN PLAN BUT ALSO: SUN, before, i only thought of her as a supporting character, someone you can click on to use for an ultimate battle like (this is gonna be an insanely specific reference) this one inazuma eleven game (a football game imagine fifa but with more anime in it), if you shoot a ball when you are in a certain area and have certain requirements filled you can do a teamup attack that is extra strong. i though tof something like that, BUT THATS SO BORINGGGG, i don't want to make my secondairy character and one of my MAIN CHARACTERS A SECONDARY ACTION!!!! SOOO I LOOKED BACK AGAIN AT THOSE INAZUMA GAMES AND FOUND ANOTHER THING, IN THE FIFA GAMES AND IN INAZUMA YOU CAN SWICH CHARACTERS!!! you see waht i'm getting at??? you will be able to switch from Moon to sun to get a whole different attack pattern and options. sun will be more close combatty and have less distance then moon. soo when you're soulbar( kinda like a mana bar, every spell you cast/attack you use takes off a little bit of that meter, and it slowly fills itself up) is empty you can switch to sun and be forced to go close distance (a percentage of the mana is shared tho just to make it a real threat, or not idk? either i will make it so that mana is smth annoying you have to look after, or it will just be a meter saying " hey you haven't used this other character in a bit! go do that while your main attacks fill up again" but i'l figure that out some other time ANYWAY sun's moveset will look something like this a dash just like moon but instead of some kind of energy surge, sun blasts herself forward with fire or an explosion or smth. the first is a basic punch that blasts an explosion/fire in front of the punch for extra distance but only a little bit, just enough so its reachable, i imagine if you dash and then do this attack, it will make an extra big punch and blast the enemy away. the secondary attack will be a longer distance continuous fireblast that chips away your soulbar slowly, the dahs version may be a big long ass laser beam ish fireblast?

and then not rly an attack? but a thing she can do, she can make her raccoon flip suck up stuff and make a temporary shield against attacks. so all the bullets gets sucked up in his cute mouth ALSO in non battle scenario's both moon and sun have their own skills they use to progressin puzzle's and exploring levels, moon can huse their hand to do puzzle stuff and pick stuff up easy, and sun can smash big blocks of stone to open new area's (and more but i can't say anything caus that would be boringgg) so a bit of a summary this is what i will add to make the game less boring -attack variants -attack combo's -2 main characters with different movesets -a switch option between the characters -ingame puzzle adn exploration functions different to the 2 charactrs

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galionne-speeding · 1 year ago

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WWWIIWWWYYYYY I'll give you somethin' to get the ball rollin' mayhaps 🥺

We all know Zavok is the Leader(tm), but what would be your take if each of the others were leader instead? Whether they're fit for the position or not does not matter in this silly what-if 🤭 Gramps might be easiest to start with, since it's easy to assume he was likely the original Leader in the very beginning of the packs' creation (me thinks anyway, even for a short while)

A second version to this could beeeeeee like how any of the remaining four would handle being a temporary Leader in Zavok's absence for any reason (serious and non-serious reasons), and who you think would be the best option for that temporary time 🤔 (I say four and not five bc I think Zik would handle it best by default)

sorry if thats alot for a first ask coming back 😭

Ooooh this is a fun one!

Okay, okay, so I have a lot of little stories in my head that exist just for fun and not really to be shared ; and one of them is about each D6 getting two other Zetis (mostly OCs because it's fun) under their command and forming 6 mini-teams ; so I actually have a few thoughts on something like that already!

So, yeah, I think we can all agree that aside from Zavok, Master Zik would be the best candidate as Deadly Six leader- he was canonically the previous leader of the pack, after all. And he's the one who trained Zavok ; he's the one who passed all the leadership skills down to him. His leadership would probably be pretty smilar to Zavok's, with perhaps slightly more emphasis on manipulating the enemy rather than full-on fighting.

Zeena is definitely the kind of leader who would give a few orders and then sit back and watch. Do not question her leadership or authority, that's 'how to get kicked in the face 101'. I'd like to think she's a pretty good strategist, tho. So while she likes to sit back, her plans work well enough that the team allows her to do so and has moderate to great success.

Zazz... Zazz. If I say Zazz's solution to every single issue is violence, will you be surprised? The team is going to fight everything and anyone standing in their way- even when that's really not necessary. But one thing I'd like to think Zazz would be really good at as leader is getting the pack fired up. His bloodlust is contagious and he knows exactly what to say or do to get every single member of the group hyped up for the fight(s).

Zomom doesn't know how to strategize and he's not a great speaker. One thing he does know how to do, though, is take hits and protect others. He's less of a leader in the sense of someone telling orders what to do ; and more in the sense that he's not afraid to be at the front of the group in battle. He'll let others come up with the plan ; and make sure they're safe while it's being put in motion.

Zor is probably the most difficult to imagine as a leader. It just, really doesn't feel like a position he'd want. But if he really needs to lead, I'd imagine it would be quite similar to how Zeena does it. Find a plan, lay it out to the team, and sit back. His powers would obviously have to come into play ; perhaps as a tool to help the rest of the pack without having to put himself in harm's way.

So that's that for the first part!

As for how the rest of the pack would react to being temporary leaders ; I have another little story around that idea! Long story short, Zavok and Master Zik are captured by (some villain) and the remaining four have to rescue them.

In the end Zeena, Zazz, Zomom and Zor end up splitting leadership duties between the four of them. Zor gathers intel to help them make informed decisions. Zeena strategizes and crafts attack plans based on the intel. Zazz leads the charge and directs the pack into battle. Zomom keeps the group safe and ensures they all get out of the fight unharmed.

Stepping away from that little story ; I feel like neither Zomom nor Zor would want any kind of leadership position. If there's someone else to drop those duties onto they will gladly hand them the responsability. On the other hand, both Zeena and Zazz would do anything to be leader- and both strongly believe they'd do better than the other. They would probably just end up fighting each other for leadership until Zavok and Master Zik decide to do the work themselves, break free and make their way back on their own.

#zetiasking #headcanoning #grimsdeadb0nes #zavok #zazz #zeena #zomom #master zik #zor #zeti #sonic lost world

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lord-leclerc · 2 years ago

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The thing with the red team is that, the drivers aren't the problem there. So talking about ferrari sacking them in the future is quite futile imo, because they're doing their job properly. The main problem lies behind the scenes, the very work ethics and management is horrible. Especially when you had people rising up to team principal ranks from within the team as seen earlier. Vasseur is new and he brings new hope, I trust him but the changes he's making won't be evident before next year at the earliest. So unless the drivers themselves want to leave the team, I don't see any 'driver firing' now.

Plus talking about firing, thats where the problem in ferrari is. Compare the brawn todt era with the current one. The main difference is the management style. Someone messes up, they're fired. That was and is the problem. The employees at the base level, they're under constant threat of being sacked if they messed up. Todt did his best to 'shield' the base employees from higher management, so people had a sense of job security and yknow actually did their job. But now it's back to typical upper management breathing down the neck of employees style. I have to laugh whenever fans grab pitchforks and demand people to be fired because THAT is exactly where the problem lies. Firing people might a temporary solution but it won't fix anything.

exactly i totally get u, the problem is the car and the management because the drivers are doing their best. fred is new and i too trust him that what he'll do will be for the betterment of the team but u can't just expect him to fire all incompetent people at once. i mean, where would u get the new staff. even if they do get it, it will literally ruin the entire base of the management and the working and it'll be a long time before things fall into place so yes, it best to make changes little by little.

i mean yes, you're right about the firing part. you can't fire the lower level employees for one mistake or for something they are told to do but doesn't go the way the higher officials expected. i, however, do think that the highly incompetent staff needs to be fired otherwise no matter how much evolution the other employees make, it wouldn't work unless those few people are fired. what ferrari needs to do is get rid of those officials(high level or not) who are actually behind the devolution and not those around them. unless people have a sense of security, they wouldn't give their best because then they'll always be like "whats the point when all they're gonna do is dismiss us even after we do the best, either way we're gonna get yelled at or fired so might as well not put too much work into it and get this over with." yes the "firing" culture is going too far esp on twitter with xavi but i think something needs to be done with xavi. either give him strict orders and warnings to do better or fire him because he's made too many mistakes, too many to count. i don't see other race engineers doing such blunders. so yes, what needs to be done should be done but unnecessary firing is not one of those things.

#charles leclerc #ferrari #f1 #xavi #random:anon #f1blr

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the-smallest-star · 2 years ago

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You know, speaking of Hannah's friend James, do you have any plans on what to do about the situation, or are you just planning on waiting and hope it ends up solving itself (somehow).

"I'm trying to think, but its not easy."

"He's got a connection to the blue demon, who seems to love making Alexander mad. Hannah would be made a target for that purpose. Its safer to keep her away from them."

"But then thats only a temporary solution, and the kid isn't a bad kid. If an agreement could be made between the blue demon and one of ours that she'll stop pursuing Alexander then maybe... but she broke my leg so not even sure if she's the type to honor such agreements. And she'd have to be enticed with something else. She's too dangerous to approach, so even finding a way to get this potential arrangement in place would be difficult."

"Its... going to take time to figure out, and I'll be running it by Alexander and Cromwell before I even think about doing anything."

#xxlordalexanderxx #nottadog #ira-sturm #JamestheInventor

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toongirl007 · 2 years ago

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Hi, I was wondering if you could tell more about Oscuri's poison powers and such.

hello! I'm actually working on drawing how she uses her powers, thanks for showing interest in my formie oc! :D

Oscuri was born with venomous powers but instead of using them for evil she uses them for good. The purple highlights on her hair & on her palms aren't just there for show, she can excrete her venom from these spots for help with creating her pain killers, in battle they form these skull bubbles. She can channel them when using her sais as well.

The color of the Venom varies on what she is going to do; Deep Green color means she is going to paralyze usually it lasts about an hour, it feels sticky like bubble gum. If a formie or GPA accidently get this on them then they are pretty much stunned in place until Oscuri helps unstun them. She has to null the venom in a beaker & boil it to turn into a lighter green color, this is what she uses for her formie & GPA patients. Thats the color of when the painkiller is ready, it starts to work quickly as it will take the pain away in 2 secs but a formie most keep the tourniquet that was applied on for the entire day as her venom works in stitching back deep wounds to fully recover. Sadly for GPAs her only solution at the time she worked as a medical researcher was to strap on a large bandage for them to take away the pain in their receptors with her painkiller. She learned to repair GPAs from Dr. Armstrong after joining the Fark Force.

Purple color of her venom is very dangerous as she intends to harm/kill, its strong enough to melt through metal & flesh; feels like acid. When Oscuri is enraged she forms a toxic mist aura around her, it smells very sweet like pineapples and if it gets in a formie/GPAs eyes it will blind them temporary. She only gets enraged if you talk crap about Spark/Fark/Sfarx as they are her only friends that she has. This toxic mist doesn't effect the jesters due to their friendship with her. Sfarx has a calming/soothing mist that is golden & sparkles to cancel Oscuri's toxic mist and just holds her in a hug to calm her down.

Even before joining the Fark Force Oscuri had a hard time fitting in formie society, her looks are very intimating but she means well. She made her services very affordable which the doctors & nurses from the other hospitals & clinics didn't like at all, even tried burning her clinic down before. When she joined the Fark Force that made the other formies see her as a traitor because she was the only one that joined of free will, the others see Fark as a Tyrant. Even tho she protects the formies she feels very outcast & Fark comforts her saying that they are doing the right thing by stopping Clarity from spreading her influence all over Luna.

One day she sees Spark attacking the force, she stays hidden in the shadows & just watches, then has a moment where maybe that was the person that helped her when she got ambushed during the Freom Virus outbreak that she goes to Fark to talk about it. This whole time she thought Spark was wearing power/robot armor since it was advertised all over where she lived in an apartment in Technoria City; only saw the yellow & jester hat when Fark past by to save Dr. Armstrong. Fark explains to her that Spark is his friend & instructs Oscuri not to harm Spark which she didn't plan on anyways.

At that point she had only seen Fark in his Super & Buff forms never small but didn't question it at the time.

Later on Fark gets worried & takes Oscuri to a far off hidden capsule location pushing her in saying to her that everything will be alright, before he leaves he tells Oscuri to find him when she awakens from her sleep. Fark erases this from his core memory so that Clarity has no clue where Oscuri's location is. After awakening from her pod Oscuri goes to search for Fark, reuniting with him she finally is able to see & speak to Spark in person, catching him up to speed with her story. Spark feels pity for her but understands she tried helping in her own way. Later on the jesters show her their fusion, Sfarx, as something they can do whenever they want, she doesn't freak out sees them as normal since she used to Fark changing his forms but they explain to her that is them as one person. Together they have a new mission, find the missing survivors and help build a new free world.

#oscuri the formie #spark tej #sorry for dumping so much oc lore at ya at once ;w;#spark the electric jester

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definitelynotafox · 7 months ago

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article text below cut. btw if you disable javascript their paywall doesnt work. if you have ublock origin (you should) thats easy.

How many times has it happened? You’re on your computer, searching for a particular article, a hard-to-find fact, or a story you vaguely remember, and just when you seem to have discovered the exact right thing, a paywall descends. “$1 for Six Months.” “Save 40% on Year 1.” “Here’s Your Premium Digital Offer.” “Already a subscriber?” Hmm, no.

Now you’re faced with that old dilemma: to pay or not to pay. (Yes, you may face this very dilemma reading this story in The Atlantic.) And it’s not even that simple. It’s a monthly or yearly subscription—“Cancel at any time.” Is this article or story or fact important enough for you to pay?

Or do you tell yourself—as the overwhelming number of people do—that you’ll just keep searching and see if you can find it somewhere else for free?

According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, more than 75 percent of America’s leading newspapers, magazines, and journals are behind online paywalls. And how do American news consumers react to that? Almost 80 percent of Americans steer around those paywalls and seek out a free option.

Paywalls create a two-tiered system: credible, fact-based information for people who are willing to pay for it, and murkier, less-reliable information for everyone else. Simply put, paywalls get in the way of informing the public, which is the mission of journalism. And they get in the way of the public being informed, which is the foundation of democracy. It is a terrible time for the press to be failing at reaching people, during an election in which democracy is on the line. There’s a simple, temporary solution: Publications should suspend their paywalls for all 2024 election coverage and all information that is beneficial to voters. Democracy does not die in darkness—it dies behind paywalls.

The problem is not just that professionally produced news is behind a wall; the problem is that paywalls increase the proportion of free and easily available stories that are actually filled with misinformation and disinformation. Way back in 1995 (think America Online), the UCLA professor Eugene Volokh predicted that the rise of “cheap speech”—free internet content—would not only democratize mass media by allowing new voices, but also increase the proliferation of misinformation and conspiracy theories, which would then destabilize mass media.

Paul Barrett, the deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights and one of the premier scholars on mis- and disinformation, told me he knows of no research on the relationship between paywalls and misinformation. “But it stands to reason,” he said, “that if people seeking news are blocked by the paywalls that are increasingly common on serious professional journalism websites, many of those people are going to turn to less reliable sites where they’re more likely to encounter mis- and disinformation.”

In the pre-internet days, information wasn’t free—it just felt that way. Newsstands were everywhere, and you could buy a paper for a quarter. But that paper wasn’t just for you: After you read it at the coffee shop or on the train, you left it there for the next guy. The same was true for magazines. When I was the editor of Time, the publisher estimated that the “pass-along rate” of every issue was 10 to 15—that is, each magazine we sent out was read not only by the subscriber, but by 10 to 15 other people. In 1992, daily newspapers claimed a combined circulation of some 60 million; by 2022, while the nation had grown, that figure had fallen to 21 million. People want information to be free—and instantly available on their phone.

Barrett is aware that news organizations need revenue, and that almost a third of all U.S. newspapers have stopped publishing over the previous two decades. “It’s understandable that traditional news-gathering businesses are desperate for subscription revenue,” he told me, “but they may be inadvertently boosting the fortunes of fake news operations motivated by an appetite for clicks or an ideological agenda—or a combination of the two.”

Digital-news consumers can be divided into three categories: a small, elite group that pays hundreds to thousands of dollars a year for high-end subscriptions; a slightly larger group of people with one to three news subscriptions; and the roughly 80 percent of Americans who will not or cannot pay for information. Some significant percentage of this latter category are what scholars call “passive” news consumers—people who do not seek out information, but wait for it to come to them, whether from their social feeds, from friends, or from a TV in an airport. Putting reliable information behind paywalls increases the likelihood that passive news consumers will receive bad information.

In the short history of social media, the paywall was an early hurdle to getting good information; now there are newer and more perilous problems. The Wall Street Journal instituted a “hard paywall” in 1996. The Financial Times formally launched one in 2002. Other publications experimented with them, including The New York Times, which established its subscription plan and paywall in 2011. In 2000, I was the editor of Time.com, Time magazine’s website, when these experiments were going on. The axiom then was that “must have” publications like The Wall Street Journal could get away with charging for content, while “nice to have” publications like Time could not. Journalists were told that “information wants to be free.” But the truth was simpler: People wanted free information, and we gave it to them. And they got used to it.

Of course, publications need to cover their costs, and journalists need to be paid. Traditionally, publications had three lines of revenue: subscriptions, advertising, and newsstand sales. Newsstand sales have mostly disappeared. The internet should have been a virtual newsstand, but buying individual issues or articles is almost impossible. The failure to institute a frictionless mechanism for micropayments to purchase news was one of the greatest missteps in the early days of the web. Some publications would still be smart to try it.

I’d argue that paywalls are part of the reason Americans’ trust in media is at an all-time low. Less than a third of Americans in a recent Gallup poll say they have “a fair amount” or a “a great deal” of trust that the news is fair and accurate. A large percentage of these Americans see media as being biased. Well, part of the reason they think media are biased is that most fair, accurate, and unbiased news sits behind a wall. The free stuff needn’t be fair or accurate or unbiased. Disinformationists, conspiracy theorists, and Russian and Chinese troll farms don’t employ fact-checkers and libel lawyers and copy editors.

Part of the problem with the current, free news environment is that the platform companies, which are the largest distributors of free news, have deprioritized news. Meta has long had an uncomfortable relationship with news on Facebook. In the past year, according to CNN, Meta has changed its algorithm in a way that has cost some news outlets 30 to 40 percent of their traffic (and others more). Threads, Meta’s answer to X, is “not going to do anything to encourage” news and politics on the platform, says Adam Mosseri, the executive who oversees it. “My take is, from a platforms’ perspective, any incremental engagement or revenue [news] might drive is not at all worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks that come along with them.” The platform companies are not in the news business; they are in the engagement business. News is less engaging than, say, dance shorts or chocolate-chip-cookie recipes—or eye-catching conspiracy theories.

As the platforms have diminished news, they have also weakened their integrity and content-moderation teams, which enforce community standards or terms of service. No major platform permits false advertising, child pornography, hate speech, or speech that leads to violence; the integrity and moderation teams take down such content. A recent paper from Barrett’s team at the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights argues that the greatest tech-related threat in 2024 is not artificial intelligence or foreign election interference, but something more mundane: the retreat from content moderation and the hollowing-out of trust-and-safety units and election-integrity teams. The increase in bad information on the free web puts an even greater burden on fact-based news reporting.

Now AI-created clickbait is also a growing threat. Generative AI’s ability to model, scrape, and even plagiarize real news—and then tailor it to users—is extraordinary. AI clickbait mills, posing as legitimate journalistic organizations, are churning out content that rips off real news and reporting. These plagiarism mills are receiving funding because, well, they’re cheap and profitable. For now, Google’s rankings don’t appear to make a distinction between a news article written by a human being and one written by an AI chatbot. They can, and they should.

The best way to address these challenges is for newsrooms to remove or suspend their paywalls for stories related to the 2024 election. I am mindful of the irony of putting this plea behind The Atlantic’s own paywall, but that’s exactly where the argument should be made. If you’re reading this, you’ve probably paid to support journalism that you think matters in the world. Don’t you want it to be available to others, too, especially those who would not otherwise get to see it?

Emergencies and natural disasters have long prompted papers to suspend their paywalls. When Hurricane Irene hit the New York metropolitan area in 2011, The New York Times made all storm-related coverage freely available. “We are aware of our obligations to our audience and to the public at large when there is a big story that directly impacts such a large portion of people,” a New York Times editor said at the time. In some ways, this creates a philosophical inconsistency. The paywall says, This content is valuable and you have to pay for it. Suspending the paywall in a crisis says, This content is so valuable that you don’t have to pay for it. Similarly, when the coronavirus hit, The Atlantic made its COVID coverage—and its COVID Tracking Project—freely available to all.

During the pandemic, some publications found that suspending their paywall had an effect they had not anticipated: It increased subscriptions. The Seattle Times, the paper of record in a city that was an early epicenter of coronavirus, put all of its COVID-related content outside the paywall and then saw, according to its senior vice president of marketing, Kati Erwert, “a very significant increase in digital subscriptions”—two to three times its previous daily averages. The Philadelphia Inquirer put its COVID content outside its paywall in the spring of 2020 as a public service. And then, according to the paper’s director of special projects, Evan Benn, it saw a “higher than usual number of digital subscription sign-ups.”

The Tampa Bay Times, The Denver Post, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press, in Minnesota, all experienced similar increases, as did papers operated by the Tribune Publishing Company, including the Chicago Tribune and the Hartford Courant. The new subscribers were readers who appreciated the content and the reporting and wanted to support the paper’s efforts, and to make the coverage free for others to read, too.

Good journalism isn’t cheap, but outlets can find creative ways to pay for their reporting on the election. They can enlist foundations or other sponsors to underwrite their work. They can turn to readers who are willing to subscribe, renew their subscriptions, or make added donations to subsidize important coverage during a crucial election. And they can take advantage of the broader audience that unpaywalled stories can reach, using it to generate more advertising revenue—and even more civic-minded subscribers.

The reason papers suspend their paywall in times of crisis is because they understand that the basic and primary mission of the press is to inform and educate the public. This idea goes back to the country’s Founders. The press was protected by the First Amendment so it could provide the information that voters need in a democracy. “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “and that cannot be limited without being lost.” Every journalist understands this. There is no story with a larger impact than an election in which the survival of democracy is on the ballot.

I believe it was a mistake to give away journalism for free in the 1990s. Information is not and never has been free. I devoutly believe that news organizations need to survive and figure out a revenue model that allows them to do so. But the most important mission of a news organization is to provide the public with information that allows citizens to make the best decisions in a constitutional democracy. Our government derives its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, and that consent is arrived at through the free flow of information—reliable, fact-based information. To that end, news organizations should put their election content in front of their paywall. The Constitution protects the press so that the press can protect constitutional democracy. Now the press must fulfill its end of the bargain

I swear to God if you wrote something like this into a political satire like Spitting Image, it’d be called too on-the-nose.

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lonelyalien369 · 4 months ago

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im so scared my mom has cancer again. im so terrified of losing her. even if its not terminal, i dont want to see her go through all the treatments again. it sucks. it fucking SUCKS. my stupid fucking dad never got cancer. even though he fucking smokes and eats like shit and doesn't do anything to care for his body like my mom does. its so unfair that my mom has to be the one to go through this shit when my dad is the one who deserves to suffer. that fucking disgusting abuser asshole piece of useless fucking garbage. i fucking hate this stupid unfair world.

and although its a bit selfish, im FUCKED without my mom. i cannot support myself with my disability, but i can't prove it medically yet. and even IF i end up on disability benefits, which will probably take years and years of trying and litigation and hiring lawyers and all the bullshit, which i will definitely need her help with, i don't know if ill be making enough money to survive on my own anyway!! but im terrified of expressing this fear for seemingly selfish and trying to take attention away from my mom's suffering, which i absolutely don't want to do, the thought of that makes me sick, so that's why i keep my mouth shut. but i don't know what the fuck id do without her. all my siblings are married, im not moving in with them. thats a temporary solution at best; we'd be at each others throats before long. we don't live together well. our relationships are best if we live separately. i don't have any local friends. i don't really have any friends I'd be comfortable moving in with. shit, i really only have acquaintances. im not really close with anyone anymore. im not really interested in dating. im scared of throwing my eggs in one basket and finding out we dont work together and suddenly i dont have anywhere to live. im scared. just, in general. fuck. fucking hell.

#and now i feel like crying and i still have to drive home #i dont really cry anymore and for some reason that makes me even more depressed

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criminalmindswife · 1 year ago

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TW!! Suicide, implied SA

I look out onto the midnight breeze, watching cars pass by.

Repeat to myself over and over again it wasn’t my fault—was it?

In the end was it worth it? It’s only a permanent solution to a temporary problem.. right? I don’t know. I should know; im the one on the edge of a building right now. I should know.

Who would miss me? Would anyone realize im even gone? No to both. It wasn’t my fault in the end.. right?

I said no, which in result my mouth was covered. I could still taste his hand in my mouth, almost choking me. His hand wasn’t even in my mouth; it was on it.. I could still taste him. My body screamed and screamed for him to get off, to stop; but he didn’t. No one ever stops. Right?

I stand up to my full height, I feel invincible—like I could fly. So thats what I did, stepping closer as I lean forward till im floating. Then I sink, deeper, deeper, deeper.

Im alive, then im not.

Was it worth it in the end?

#sad #im sorry #dont cry #first post #tw sui implied #tw sui ideation #tw sa mention #tw sa implied #Spotify

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keefwho · 2 years ago

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July 21 - 2023 Friday

7:18 AM

Time to cover some embarrassing feelings since the weekend is approaching. They are leftovers of becoming too lost in my thoughts and current situation. The best thing I can do is admit them and work through them, I should not be ashamed. I’ve felt good knowing I always have bestie time in the evenings even if just for a little bit. I should know in my heart that there will always be a next time even if those times end up few and far between. The weekends throw that up in the air because how much she likes to do and socialize. I get worried that I won’t get the time I want. Even more embarrassing is I worry about how close she might get to someone else in case I get outperformed which seems easy.

Both of these feelings have to do with how detached I’ve gotten lately. I more or less fell into the thought that we’re a couple when we aren’t and was behaving unhealthy in a way that wasn’t fair to myself or the relationship. Even if only briefly, I was re-understanding the importance of being on my own more and letting things be what they are naturally. It is easy for me to fall back down though, especially this early into figuring things out. I gotta stay vigilant and catch what I can. All I can expect from myself is my best.

Step one is to realize I’m already setting myself up for failure by thinking I’m going to repeat the same cycles or that everything is going to work against me. I’m already inherently predicting failure and it would be helpful if I could keep catching thoughts that actively work against me.

8:35 AM

The big goal is not to hinge my entire existence on one person or group like I’ve done in the past.

5:51 PM

Oops, I’m thinking too hard again. It’s stuff I’ve heard before. I’m having thoughts like “What the point of trying, it won’t work out,” or “I must be a real lose, look at the state of my life.” Two very powerful thoughts that I know can make me go down a pretty wicked spiral. I think I just need to talk to someone about it, anyone I feel comfortable with. Someone who will listen. I’m also trying to defuse on my own first.

6:47 PM

At least I’m aware of the state my mind is in even if I’m finding it hard to defuse. It almost feels hopeless but I know thats just another thought. I really just need someone to talk to but I’m having trouble picking who.

9:49 PM

Too often I am not true to myself. I don’t let my desires be known and I fester. I try to placate everyone. It’s hard to remember I’m valid too.

I crave reassurance in different forms but I know better than to give into it unless I’m coming from a genuine place. Often times I want to hear certain things to make me feel better about myself but it’s a temporary solution, a mask. I know my issues run deep and have to be confronted no matter how hard or scary it might be.

10:48 PM

It might just be the intoxication but my entire being is screaming at me to tell my friend how much I want to discuss things. I always have something heavy to talk about, too much I feel. I know it can be an unstable thing to always be addressing struggles, especially when a lot of them are repeats caused completely by me. It’s hard to tell if my feelings should be taken seriously sometimes. Because they can also come from a place that only wants to cover up things I don’t like about myself. It takes a lot of restraint to keep things inside that might not be legitimate. Like an alcoholic avoiding a drink when it’s all he craves.

8:13 AM (The Next Day)

I forgot to do a journal entry which I think is important now that I’m trying to look at what I’m proud of doing and what I could have done better. I already don’t remember a lot about how I felt but I’ll summarize what I can.

Breakfast was half a totinos pizza and a granola bar while I watched Twitch until work time. I did my warmups slowly and had to stop doing the commission because I just didn’t have the brain power to do it justice for some reason. I couldn’t focus on anything or tell if I was doing a good job. Instead I worked on my VR bathroom world and finished the last of the animations. After stream I skipped my boxing workout on account of my still strained back but I did make the spontaneous decision to go out with mom to see a nearby wildfire. It was a very short trip but a trip nonetheless. I ended up cleaning the area around my toilet despite not feeling like cleaning. I took an extra thorough shower for no particular reason. I just wanted to give a little extra care to my body today. Lunch was a nice little chicken burger with some doritos. Despite my still suffering mental capacity, I worked on and finished an emote set for someone and almost finished the next one too. Then I worked a little bit more on the world. I started to emotionally slip in the afternoon and was saved by some Zelda time with the bestie. After she fell asleep I finished my drink while watching MoonMoon.

I can say I was proud of getting a lot of things done today despite the mental hurdle. I didn’t have to work on anything after putting off the commission. I also didn’t have to clean or work on those emotes or anything else but I did anyways. Thats one thing I’ve been getting good at, doing my best even though I know it might not be very good. The point is that I did anything at all. I’m also proud of recognizing that some of m strong feelings last night didn’t need to be broadcasted or entertained because I knew they weren’t genuine and I would calm down. Acting on some feelings will do more harm than good. It’s hard identifying which ones are like that though.

As for what I could have done better, I don’t know what could have prevented me from slipping in the evening. I was trying not to go too far. Maybe I could have picked something to do to occupy myself because I know I was sort of letting it happen by doing nothing. I want to make sure I’m not running from it though. Its hard to keep those feelings in awareness and also do something else in the meantime.

#journal #diary #feelings #stress

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