#found ala’s art again on twitter and this happened

[ryekiree]

It’s over now.

It has been for a few minutes now, and Kakashi stands just near the edge of the cliff, looking over the remains of a battle. The ruptures of war. The collision of fates.

He hears the groans, he hears the waking sounds of the army he had commanded just hours before, the earliest tracks of victorious sighs.

Naruto and Sasuke aren’t in the area, but Kakashi can feel the mix of their chakra on the surface, waking up the living. He looks to the trees that have started to grow leaves. He looks to the birds getting ready for a flight with their flock. He looks over to the rivers, its waves caused by bodies colliding in rhapsodies and cheer.

It’s over now.

Yet, he hasn’t seen her.

He faces right where the sun is rising, hoping it hits her pink hair. Hoping he’d see it anywhere, catch its scent—jasmine and tea—the usual, and somehow enough to make his day.

He lets his arms fall—the weight on his shoulders taking its toll, his weariness covers him, as is his panic.

Until a familiar warmth comes along.

Thin, candlelike fingers thread into his. Even with his hands half-gloved, even with covers to stave of the cold, only hers can make them warm.

Kakashi closes his eyes and inhales, and there it is—there she is—home.

He interlaces his fingers with hers, not caring if the whole world sees.

Because as long as she’s there, he is safe.

She’s already looking at him when he glances at her, a tired smile painting her lips, a kind of gratitude that only he knows. The air between them always held unspoken words that only they can hear.

Thank you for staying alive.

Thank you for being safe.

The higher the sun rises, the tighter her fingers lace his.

And as they drink in the warmth of the sun’s rays, Kakashi decides he’ll never ever let go of Sakura.

***

Inspired by Ala’s art:

[tetrakys]

Very old tea - Beemoov's writers

Every day I wake up and find new drama in the fandom. I have to admit it is entertaining but fake news and misinformation really annoy me so here we go. What's the new tea? It's actually very old tea, but it needs to be put into context.

A few hours ago, someone rummaging through the New Gen website, ended up on the credit page, where they found this

This page isn't reachable from the website, there are no links, you need to type the full url to get there because it's only a placeholder. You can clearly see that those are Eldarya TO credits, and an old Priya illustration is used as background. Literally yesterday Chino mentioned in her Instagram stories that there are lots of placeholders on the website.

Despite this, news is now circulating that the same team that worked on Eldarya is now working on New Gen. I don't think people have been saying this maliciously, it's possible that they got confused with the placeholder, which didn't have the big red disclaimer I added in the screenshot above. However now they are freaking out for no reason and bringing back so much old drama, which is also partially wrong. So here I am trying to clarify, hoping that people will see this (but alas, tumblr isn't as popular as facebook and twitter so maybe I'm just shouting into the wind).

MCL and Eldarya writing team

Part 1. High School Life and the Sally Anne drama

Firstly, at the very very beginning of MCL, Chino was on her own, she was working on both the art and the writing. However, soon later the company looked for a writer, Chino pushed for her friend Sally Anne to be hired even if she had no prior professional experience, and the company agreed. Eventually they also became roommates and even closer friends.

Now, the people who have been around for ages like me know that there was huge drama at some point. Sally Anne had some health issues and pretty much disappeared for months in the middle of Nath's arc. Lots of things were said at the time, some true some very untrue. Sally Anne made a facebook post mentioning how Chino and the company were bullying her. One of the accusations that people like to bring back all the time is that the character of Aleja, who was based on Sally Anne, was used to bully her because she was written as a bit silly. Maybe people forget that all Eldarya self-inserts are very flawed. Jamon can barely use grammar when he speaks, Kero is a coward, Ykhar an anxious nervous train wreak. I don't see anyone say that Chinomiko bullied herself by making Miiko such a raging bitch.

Anyway I believe that Sally Anne herself realised that this and other bullying accusations were unfair since she later retracted it. Some people say that she was forced by Beemoov to do so (I don't know where they would get this information, it's a pretty strong accusation). Others say that all this is common behaviour for people who suffer from addiction. I'm just going to add some additional context that most people may not be aware of since I hardly see it mentioned.

When Sally Anne left the company she started her own personal project with some friends. They put together a kickstarted campaign for a BL game and earned around 58,000€. After that however, the project never came to light because of, again, Sally Anne's personal issues. Here you can see a post from the team describing the situation, which is proof that her health condition was not connected to Beemoov work environment at all, since the same thing happened again while working on her own personal project with other friends of hers. Additionally here is the final post written soon afterward, where the team explained that they would not be able to make the game. They also said that they had used up most of the kickstarter money already even though the game had not been produced. They gave people only one month to claim their kickstarter pledge back. Considering to this day there's still people who wonder what happened to their Eldarya account, I strongly believe not many people managed to see that post and claim their money with only a one month timeframe.

Anyway, this serves as a context to show that in a very small company, when the writer disappears for whatever reason, either the project is cancelled or they have to hire someone else. Lots of people believe that Beemoov is a huge company when it's not. At the time of these events there were around 50 employees, and those people had to earn a living. Sally Anne was the only writer, this whole situation led to MCL not being released for at least half a year, which compromised everyone's salaries. Players were complaining like crazy but, despite hearing only one side of the story, they were very happy to jump on the "Sally Anne was being bullied" train once new writers were hired and they could play the game again.

So, let's talk about the "new" writers.

Part 2. Second half of High School Life and Eldarya TO

Once it was clear that Sally Anne would not be able to come back to work, Beemoov hired two new writers. Hikaru who would end up being Eldarya TO's writer, and Cassandre who took over MCL and finished High School season. (These info you can find in the games credits).

Hikaru was the CM at the time, because the company was looking for a writer for this new game Eldarya they gave her a chance. Chino and Hikaru got along well and I think it's visible in TO's writing. Remember Chino is the creator, she decides the story and the events, the writer writes them, and Chino reads and corrects the script. I think it's clear from TO's writing that they had a good synergy. Hikaru left around the end of TO for personal reasons, she moved to another city and changed career, it was her choice to kill off her self-insert (Ykhar) before leaving, so no there was no big conspiracy around the self-inserts. To this day she and Chino are still friends. But no, she's not coming back to write New Gen as people who saw the placeholder seem to believe.

Cassandre, as I said, took over MCL HSL in the middle of Nath's arc. I think it's visible that the season feels a bit different with a different writer, but I still like it, I think she did a good job as a writer. However, once high school was over, in a move that I will never understand, Beemoov's management decided to assign Eldarya to her, not as a writer but as a project manager, effectively taking over Chino's role. So Chino had to leave from around episodes 20-22 and never went back. She only provided the main storyline of the worlds merging, but at some point she resumed working on the events only.

So from around episode 20-22 to episode 29 Hikaru and Cassandre worked together, with Hikaru as the writer and Cassandre as the one deciding the plot/scenes and supervising the writing.

Part 3. Eldarya ANE + MCL University, Love and Alternate Life

Once Hikaru left, Alexis took over. So from episode 30 of TO and throughout ANE he and Cassandre have worked on Eldarya alone. This is the dream team we owe the state of Eldarya to. None of them knew the first 22 episodes of the games in depth and hence why we have all the plot holes and different characters' personalities. Additionally, at that point Cassandre started working on Uncoven so it is my personal opinion that Alexis was mostly on his own during ANE because clearly you can see that the person who wrote that had no idea what Eldarya was really about.

What happened in MCL at the same time? Once Cassandre moved to Eldarya, Beemoov found another writer for MCL, Cara, who wrote University Life. My personal opinion is that she was a good writer, I like University Life, but there's very little romance. Less than HSL for sure. But there are many funny scenes and a young adults feel that I really liked. She and Chino worked on UL together as writer/creator and it's still one of my favourite seasons, however the lack of flirting scenes is visible.

Then, when Love Life started, another writer joined the team, Antoine, Chino was still the creator and Cara remained as proofreader and also worked on Uncoven with Cassandre. My personal opinion is that there are lots of issues in Love Life because of how some themes of feminism, sexual harassment etc. are treated. Additionally the romance was even less than in UL, and some characters' personalities took a slightly strange turn. However I did like the main storyline and the ending that went full circle.

By the time Alternate Life started, both Cassandre and Cara had left the company, Antoine was still around to write additional LL episodes such as wedding and honeymoon, and the events. Eldarya's writing was over and so Alternate's writing has been the product of Alexis and Chino alone.

Part 4. What about today? MCL New Gen

New Gen is being written by Alexis and Chino, same team and dynamic as Alternate, the two of them alone. So if you see people around saying that Hikaru is back or whatever else, it's not true.

You may not like Alexis' writing after what was done to Eldarya, which I totally understand. If I hadn't played all Alternate Life I would feel the same and think that the guy isn't able to think deeper than a teaspoon. But luckily I really like what he and Chino can do together so I have a good feeling for New Gen.

[kai-ni]

This is gonna be a hot ass take, but don't post art to Ao3. It's not what Ao3 is for, and it's scummy to writers who put their work out there.

And I'm not talking about fics with artwork embedded, that's fine. I'm not even talking about comics, because those involve writing and if they're ongoing I can see why they could work there. I'm talking about people that make a 'work' on Ao3 that's just an embedded image (or a collection of embedded fanart) and nothing else, 0 word count.

Ao3 is the ONLY platform FOR writers. You physically can't post longfic on twitter (I mean maybe in a bazillion tweets, but really?) buttt you can post art on twitter all you want. You can post writing on other sites like tumblr, etc (deviantart? does anyone use it anymore? you shouldn't. anyway) but that's not really what people are LOOKING for on those platforms, and writers will ALWAYS be overshadowed by artists on those platforms because art is easier to consume faster, and anyone scrolling the tags there can scroll past art, appreciate it, like/reblog it in a second rather than taking the commitment to read something (that may take hours to consume) and THEN coming back to like/reblog it/otherwise interact with it.

That's kinda just the nature of writing vs art, and it is what it is.

But people come to Ao3 SPECIFICALLY for writing. It's the ONE platform (I mean barring older stuff like ff.net that's pretty much defunct) where people go specifically looking for writing to consume.

'Okay I get it Kai, but one person putting art on Ao3 doesn't hurt anyone or take away from the writers on there, they're all... there.'

Alas, it does.

In a much smaller fandom I wrote in, one of my more successful fics was on the first page of search results for that fandom when sorted by hits (which is the most popular way to sort 'em and really the only way older fics are found), up until a popular fan artist posted a work on Ao3 that was just a collection of embedded fanart pieces (that they'd already posted on twitter and had been seen there and were very popular) and that very quickly knocked my work off the first page of hits. So, my work was seen less because that artist just decided to repost to a platform primarily for writers. Yea, you're gonna bet that upset me.

'Kai you're just jealous their art was better than your writing'

'Kay not gonna deny it probably was. But their art had already been seen/was really popular on another platform that I, as a writer, didn't even have access to. Doesn't feel great for them to come into the writer's space and also then overshadow. Because again, art is easier to consume. it's always gonna be, that's the POINT of having a site like Ao3 where writers can shine. Fine fine, call me cranky for being bumped, but I wouldn't have cared at all if it were by another fic.

'You can sort out works with 0 words you know'

Yea, sure. Does everyone just visiting Ao3 know how to do that? And again, that's not the default. If you just click on the fandom without doing anything, it doesn't.

Now imagine you're not on the first page, and still had a work in that fandom and your work was on page 10 or whatever for that fandom (again it was a small one). You're now on page 11. Very few people have the patience to search that far back, and now you aren't been seen at all because you got bumped by a popular artist. This isn't something that happens on twitter or other platforms - everyone's bound by the silly algorithm / time on twitter, and time on tumblr. it's a LEVEL playing field. it isn't really on Ao3. Yes, there's sort by 'most recent' and that's all fair, but by hits, kudos etc isn't.

So yes, when those sort functions are taken into consideration, artists posting on Ao3 really do hurt writers, and take space away from them, make smaller writers less seen, etc. It sucks.

There's plenty of other places to post your art. I know, there's fewer places to post NSFW works now and get feedback on them (unfortunately) but Ao3 doesn't even host the images anyway... you have to upload them somewhere else! there are other options. Don't take space from writers because sites like tumblr aren't good for NSFW anymore.

Again this is gonna be a super hot take, but that's how I feel and I lose respect for artists real quick when they do this. No shade, I'm not trying to call anyone out, this isn't specifically directed at anyone, just something that I've seen repeatedly and has been milling around in my head for years now. Disagree if you like, but I'm not looking to get into fights in the rbs so.

[youarenotthewalrus]

went through the inactive blogs i follow (i.e. hasn't posted in at least a year) and went from following 685 blogs to following 507. mostly just generic art/photo blogs (all of whom i wish well, even the ones who moved to instagram) but a few highlights:

macklives: probably my favorite blind homestuck liveblog, which makes it all the more unfortunate that she never even got through all the troll intros.

terrorterrorterror: unfinished webcomic with a great atmosphere. reminiscent of hotline miami, at least insofar as it is stylized, synthwave-y, set in the 80s, violent, has a prominent motif of animal-headed people, and is generally just kinda fucked up.

bugsinthemachine: cute little star trek tos fancomic about a bug. only chapter 1 was finished but it's a decent enough standalone piece.

thisisalsoyou: sketchy little journal comic, nothing special but i always found it charming.

woonyoung: wait what do you mean the artist who specialized in drawing women in cartoon witch hats hanging out with dinosaurs hasn't posted anything new since january of last year??? a travesty?

hotelconcierge: apparently i am (still) following this guy? been a while since anyone talked about what was one of the adjacency's leading homegrown fonts of insight porn in the 10s--even the last psychiatrist has been getting some discussion again since his book came out.

wretchedtooth: remember wretchedtooth? he wouldn't have banned the porn. but no, you assholes had to vote for mop, and we all paid the price.

parhelioncomic: unfinished webcomic by mutual @cryptovexillologist, featuring gay aliens, some neat worldbuilding ideas, and a really cool art style.

hyper-traditionalist: oh hey it's that parody far-right blog that wants to retvrn to the good old days before the big bang happened and ruined everything, i've been looking for this one.

pervocracy: despite tumblr reversing his unjust and outrageous ban, never really returned to active blogging here, alas. still active on twitter, though!

support: apparently hasn't posted in two years, which i find extremely funny.

[smiledog15578]

This man never gives up

This will probably be my last post since it’s getting boring but let the explaining ensue:

The age lying thing (imma put into bullet points):

I thought he and others in the discord was my age

I wanted to show ty my nsfw art cause I trusted him the most

I showed him, he liked it, and he drew art for it it was just a good time pretty much

Later on I realized he was not the same age so a huge oh fuck he’s gonna yell at me moment (probably not actually but I know adults can be very worried about that stuff which is understandable and right of them to do)

I don’t remember when I lied about my age exactly but I do remember I did it because I was worried I was going to be in big trouble and I didn’t wanna make him uncomfortable and ruin our friendship

I finally told him my age and I apologized sincerely. We calmly talked about it, he took away the more adult servers i could see (I never went in there after I found out and didn’t like going in there in the first place cause I’m not for nsfw stuff then you think), and then he put a “minor” tag on me so everyone knows. Tbh that was a huge relief and I’m glad he did that cause it was calmly resolved

I never sent nsfw art again unless it was in the cursed chat (which is harmless cause we all thought the stuff in that chat was well cursed so it was mostly shits and giggles)

However that being said I find it weird that he asked to see my nsfw art after I sent a shitpost edited version of it when he knew I was a minor and already told me that he was uncomfortable with what I did before hand

I do understand that it’s wrong. It was VERY wrong of me to do and I am sorry for what I did. I should of asked before hand but be being the dumbass teen I was I didn’t ask and I know my teen friends send nsfw all the time so yea I admit fault to that. Again I find it weird you asked me for nsfw when you knew I was a minor. Also I thought you told me you were in your 20s? That’s why I thought it was weird that an unknown source told me that you were 19 cause I remember you saying specifically “in my early 20s...” (this was after I told him my age btw)

The asexual thing:

When? You never told me you were asexual? The only thing I knew personally that you were transgender.You just outted yourself on that one LMAO. even if you are asexual it doesn’t make up for the fact that you sexualize Mark but critique others for sexualizing other characters or youtubers. And it’s fine to find him hot but that’s just a weird double standard. Don’t say you didn’t sexualize Mark cause I remember things that you said that ere sexual but won’t say it in public cause that’s personal info

Whatever is happening here:

I’m glad we were friends from the time being. When I left I was kinda having Stockholm syndrome since you were the only one at the time who actually let me talk about things without feeling weird for it. I am grateful that you gave me affection to a weird degree but still appreciated. The reason why I left so early was because I’ve had so many people that told me that you were bad news. I trusted my gut and finally left you and blocked you. I didn’t want to tell you because I knew you’d get like this so I didn’t tell anyone but one person you knew of because I was too scared to tell you. Low and behold I was right. You ARE exactly like this. Also this IS petty playground drama but ironically enough, you keep playing in this drama to prove that thousands of people that they’re wrong even though most of us remember clearly what happened. gaslight and manipulation much? I don’t usually like using those words since it’s used in every Twitter drama I’ve seen but this is actually the case☠️. The fetishizing white liberal thing idk who you’re talking about cause that could be anyone I’ve met but whoever that person is that wasn’t the only person who told me (not giving names cause again, privacy). Dude it’s one thing if it was just me and you fighting but this is SO many people telling me how bad you are. I’m guessing the grown white man is either jack or Ethan and sure they’re a grown white men but like- the stuff you bring up isn’t your business. I hate when you or others think you have the right to yell at strangers for the tiniest things when you don’t even know them personally. It’s overall rude and not in your place to do so. And I can get if it’s something big like say- that dream youtubers fan base doing dumb shit but when you bring up how jack was being a bit needy when his own father died? Or that you were saying jack was a bad cat owner that you don’t even know or own (it wasn’t anything like beating but the cat ate tinsel which is hurtful to cats but for fucks sake so many people I know have had pet accidents it’s not uncommon)? Or saying Ethan is milking unus annus when Mark does the same thing? Bruh you seriously need to reevaluate yourself.

Anywaysssss again I wanted to leave this in the past but alas ty still brings it up to this day and says he HATES me (which idc get over it you’re an adult) so that’s my explanation. If y’all have any further questions or complaints please send me an ask and we can sort it out! And I’m not a good person either I know I’m an asshole even though people say I’m not. When you attack my friends I’m going to get upset and tell the whole truth.

[r6shippingdelivery]

I saw someone on Twitter post about how they wanted to see jealous Glaz, and I was struck by inspiration 😄 This fic is mostly about Glaz's perception of his place in Rainbow after Kali joins, and the bit with Fuze can be read as friendship or budding romance, whatever your like better.

WARNING: While Glaz is an unreliable narrator here, and Kali is not outright demonized, I haven't been kind to her either. So if she's your favorite character, proceed with caution.

You can also read the story in AO3, as the latest chapter of the Discord Ficlets collection.

Hatred was a shallow emotion, one that lived at surface level and hid deeper and more complex feelings, ones that people found harder to confront or admit and thus resorted to hate.

Glaz experienced that during his stint in the South Ossetia War, when the hatred they all felt for the enemy was just a cover for their sense of helplessness at stopping so much unnecessary death. As always, art became a way to express and work out his emotions, and from what he saw it was far healthier than drowning his sorrows in alcohol like most of his fellow soldiers did.

Over the years, Glaz had acquired a reputation for being a pretty stable person, not letting his emotions rule him but not burying and ignoring them either. So it was a shock to realise he was letting his emotions rule his opinion of a certain person.

It would be unfair to say he hated Kali. The Nighthaven leader had done nothing directly unpleasant to him, in fact Glaz wasn’t even sure if they ever had a conversation. But fuck, seeing her smug face made his blood boil. Admitting he was jealous was a bitter pill to swallow.

Glaz felt sidelined since she arrived. At first it had been normal that Kali got so much action in training matches and different situations, Harry always did that to ensure new additions got properly integrated in the team. However, Kali stopped being the new one and she kept being requested more and more often. If someone devised a plan that required a sniper, it was always her that got the call, almost never Glaz.

Sure, she was an excellent shot, but so was he. So were the other operators who had marksman training. Yet the only requested sniper was Kali. Even for the strategies that relied heavily on stealth, which made no sense to Glaz since Kali’s rifle was extremely loud and she refused to use a silencer. She insisted it wasn’t compatible with her weapon, which was utter bullshit in Glaz’s opinion. Then there were the snippets of conversations he heard from her in the shooting range.

“Of course I don’t use a thermal scope, that’s a crutch, and those are for beginners, not professionals.”

“I don’t hide behind smoke curtains like a child clinging to their mother’s skirts.”

“I could give you some pointers, you’d benefit by learning from a real sniper, Dokka.”

The gall of that woman! Glaz had never wanted to wipe the floor with someone as much as he did then, but when he approached them to offer a friendly marksman competition, Dokkaebi happily accepted while Kali sniffed and declined. “I’m busy now, maybe another time.”

Glaz silently fumed for days. He didn’t give a damn about Kali’s opinions; he knew he was an excellent sniper and she could make as many snide comments as she wanted. Nothing would change the truth. However, Glaz also had the feeling she was trying to undermine him, and he didn’t like that. Most operators in Rainbow were competitive by nature, but except for a few rivalries, the trash talking had always remained upfront and somewhat respectful, never behind another operator’s back. Things remained as they were, somewhat tense but peaceful, for a long time. Until the Invitational rolled around.

When the teams were publicly announced, the Spetsnaz were collectively surprised some of them were chosen to participate, unlike the previous year. Glaz didn’t mind sitting among the public again, and privately he and Kapkan made a point of keeping an eye out during the event. The White Masks might have been mostly obliterated, but they weren’t the only terrorist group in the world, and a huge gathering like this would be a tempting objective for any group looking to make a name for themselves. So he was fine with not being selected, truly. However, what he wasn’t fine with was the way Harry said one particular thing:

“And to showcase Rainbow’s prowess in long distance combat, team Ash will have our resident sniper, Kali.”

Seriously? The resident sniper, as in the only one? Glaz grit his teeth so hard he was sure everyone in the room could hear it. He refused to say anything, though, he wouldn’t turn this briefing into a spectacle. However, that didn’t stop him from hoping Tachanka would teach her a lesson with his new fire grenades. That would certainly put a smile on Glaz’s face.

Alas, that was not meant to happen, even if it came pretty close to actually becoming a reality. In the end, Tachanka’s team was eliminated, same as Fuze’s, and the tournament went on. Glaz thought nothing else would happen, and aside from secretly hoping for team Mira to win, he largely lost interest in the competition. Yet the competition, or more accurately, Kali, didn’t lose interest in them.

When Fuze told them he’d been invited to train with Nighthaven, none of the Spetsnaz was particularly pleased, since they worked better as a team, but they didn’t voice any objections either. Glaz wanted to, he wanted to forbid Fuze from doing it, but he was a rational man and knew that was both unreasonable and a douchebag move. If Fuze wanted to train with others, he was free to do so, of course. Glaz kept repeating that to himself, even if deep down he was sure that Kali woman wanted to take everything that he had, from his position as a sniper to his friends.

Aware of how childish that sounded, Glaz grimaced at his own thoughts. He needed to calm his mind, and as always, he turned to art. Painting would surely grant him that state of inner peace he sorely needed while waiting for Fuze to come back from his session with Nighthaven. Losing himself in the process of creating something always helped Glaz exorcise his demons, and also lose track of the world around him. At least until Fuze came back.

Most people painted Fuze as unreadable, but he wasn’t to Glaz. The artist could see clear as day that Fuze was deep in thought. The curiosity and need to know was eating Glaz inside.

“How did it go?” He asked, aiming for a casual and carefree tone. He wasn’t sure he succeeded.

“Interesting.” As always, Fuze was succinct and straight to the point, going for the shortest message. However, Glaz knew that if one took the time to shut up and listen, Fuze would say more. “They’re an effective team, very competitive. It’s good to have them working with us and not against us, but I don’t think they feel part of Rainbow.”

It wasn’t the first time Glaz heard before some of those sentiments echoed around when it came to Nighthaven, but Fuze delivered with an admirable lack of judgement. The Uzbek relayed a blow by blow account of the training match, and Glaz wondered how Aruni felt at Kali’s call of her safety being expendable. It was just a game for now, but training built habits that one carried back to the battlefield. He was still pondering over what he heard when Fuze dropped a bombshell that shook him to the core.

“Kali offered me work in Nighthaven.”

Glaz saw red, and for a moment he couldn’t think. The looks in his eyes must have been a veritable maelstrom of repressed anger and jealousy, because Fuze looked taken aback. A burning sensation coiled in his chest, and Glaz clenched his fist hard to avoid unleashing a storm of swears, since Fuze wasn’t the target of his fury.

*crack*

The paint brush he’d been holding broke under the pressure of his clenched hand, but Glaz didn’t notice, and clenched his fist even tighter.

“Timur!”

It was Fuze calling out his name that finally brought Glaz down to earth, away from the dark spiral of what ifs where Fuze left the team, lured away by Kali. He opened his hands, revealing the brush he accidentally snapped in half, and how the jagged edge of the broken wood had sunk into his palm. Oh. He hadn’t even noticed that.

Glaz briefly mourned the loss of his favorite small brush, dropping the pieces aside and wiping the blood from his palm carelessly. “And? Did you accept?”

Fuze regarded him in silence for a few seconds, before shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe Glaz’s foolishness. “Of course not. I have my team. And I’m not going anywhere.” This assurance was a balm for Glaz’s turmoil, but then Fuze added with a smirk. “Besides, I know you always have my back and won’t put a bullet in me, not even a fake one.”

The laugh and lingering look they shared made Glaz feel that all was right in the world, at least for a little while. He knew he could always count on his team, on his friends, and having this belief reaffirmed soothed him like nothing else did. It had been foolish to think Fuze would leave him.

[kyluxtrashpit]

2020 Fic Recap

I really like writing these and 2020 has been a HELL of a year, so here we go lmao. It’s been a wild ride for sure

Total wordcount: 88 109 words (note: I’m subtracting the ‘sorry I didn’t finish this, here’s a summary of the remaining plot’ that I published for a fic in a previous fandom from this since it’s not relevant here). Overall I wrote less than last year, but given all that happened in terms of the world and personally and fandom-wise and all of it, I don’t feel too bad about it lmao. I also have a lot of WIP words of half-finished things and some planning and such so I feel okay with this

Favours, 4906 words, posted Jan 4

This was a weird one cause this is a two chapter reader insert fic, the same story but told with both Phasma and Hux. I originally wrote this for Phasma, but later decided it would be easy to tweak into a Hux story (which it was lmao) and figured people might like that, so I did both. I had fun doing it, even if this is kind of a very small niche ship and trope wise

Know Your Shadow, 5022 words, posted Feb 16

Ah yes, here we are, the first foray into renben, a ship I had NO idea would grab me so hard but here we are lmao. I’m not done with them either yet, don’t you worry. There’s something about the corruption angle I really like, also Ren is HOT, and it’s also interesting to think about Kylo truly getting to find himself and be who he wants to be. Canon didn’t really satisfy on this, but the concept still interests me and it’s what had me writing this fic. Also, Ben losing his virginity to an older man like Ren is just *chef’s kiss*

Public Indecency, 3719 words, posted Mar 1

And my second renben! This was partially inspired by art and partially by just the idea of not giving one single fuck, and how thrilling that must be for someone like Ben to experience. Ren and the KOR truly do not give a shit and it’s really beautiful in a way. Plus some hinting at found family with the KOR. Ngl, Ben/Kylo finding his place and acceptance with the KOR makes me so Soft and there’s so many words I could write about it. Plus public sex is very hot lmao

Beautiful, 3254 words, posted Mar 8

Back to kylux, and this one was an old WIP I started back when the prompt was first posted on KHK in like 2019 or something. I got stuck on it and then left it for a while. I was digging through my old WIPs, looking for something that might catch my interest and boom, this one did, so I finished it and then posted it. I quite like the fic and it’s a bit more in the ~classic~ style. It’s also always a good feeling to get an old WIP done lmao

Choose Your Destiny, 5077 words, posted Mar 20

More renben and this was my fix it fic for ROKR vol 4. I talked about this more on twitter at the time and why I found the story as it was unsatisfying, but ultimately it’s really just a case of rushed writing and playing into established bad writing (e.g. showing a fall from grace by having someone kill someone eviler than themselves). I also really liked Ren and I felt like Kylo didn’t really get to have enough agency in like... any of it. His motivations were weirdly absent as well, despite this being ostensibly about him. So I wrote this, which I think handled how the story should have gone a lot better and, plus, it’s got smut!

(Okay and the rest are behind a cut for length)

Show of Devotion, 2479 words, posted Mar 28

Renben once again and this time, I mean, it’s all inappropriate use of lightsabers lmao. I was looking at the Ren and was like ‘wow that is SO phallic’ and then the horny brain turned on and, well, here we are. I also wanted a side of found family with the KOR and I think got that with this. It’s horny. It’s fun. What more could one want?

Aural, 2729 words, posted May 12

Okay this one... I have absolutely no excuses for lmao. I’m not even sure where the inspiration came from, I just remember I was in an online work meeting that was boring and the entire sequence of events played itself out in my head. It was all I could do to focus on work for the rest of the day and not immediately write this cursed creation lmao. The worst part was I’d been totally blocked on writing since March and this, THIS, was what eventually broke out of me. In case you haven’t read this one, it’s ear sex. Hux’s dick, Kylo’s ear. No, I don’t know the logistics either. But hey, I had a blast with it, both in terms of writing it and the reactions lmao. Someday I gotta write a follow up involving a nose too

Missed Chances, 10 749 words, posted Jun 7

Ah yes, this is the point where my renben met my kylux and created this absolutely enormous peanut butter cup of a fic lmao. It really was supposed to be like half the length it was, but alas, it was not. Also cockblocking kylux was SO hard, they wanted to fuck SO bad, but I had to stop them, the story demanded it lmao (and people in the comments were MAD, which is always excellent). It’s also when my renben series really started to have like, an overarching plot (aside from the modern au fics which I’ll talk about later). I even still have more instalments planned

Free Use, 6971 words, posted Jun 23

Another one that turned out far longer than initially planned, and also my most popular fic this year! I’m both surprised and not cause like. It’s a complete smut fest + my heavy headcanoning of the personalities of the KOR. People like smut, but I also feel it’s kinda niche considering how deep I’m in for the KOR lmao. So idk, I guess the smut won out. I did have a lot of fun with this one and there’s a lot of characterization thought put into each KOR, so it was really nice to see people loving that as much as I did. Canon gave us crumbs, but I just used them to make meatballs

Eat You Up, 1573 words, posted Jul 5

There’s not a lot to this one, it’s really just renben rimming cause the sexual dynamic with renben is so fun. Kylo/Ben is inexperienced yet eager and depraved enough to impress Ren, which is something considering I think of Ren as Very Experienced lmao. I really do love this ship; it’s a lot of fun to play with

In the Vents, 2002 words, posted Aug 3

Ah and this was my first piece for the stuck inside event on twitter, which I had a lot of fun with. Stuck fetish is one I’ve always wanted to explore, but never had any concrete ideas for. This event led to me finally getting to have Kylo stuck in a wall (plus more as well), which was fun. Also I spent far too long thinking about Hux’s vent contraption set up cause I knew he would never let Millie go anywhere that might hurt her, so I had to come up with a way to make the vent safe and here we are lmao. Hux being an engineer and also the most extra cat owner in existence worked out very well indeed. This was also the start of my creativity boom near the middle-end of the year that uh kinda burned out in a not so great way, but I’ll talk about that later lmao

Distraction, 3658 words, posted Aug 6

Another for the stuck inside event and another kylux/renben sandwich! Also featuring the KOR this time! Listen... it’s a gangbang, it’s got renben, it’s got kylux, it’s got Kylo getting stuffed from all ends... this is the kind of fic that, to me, is pure indulgence lmao. I had a tremendous amount of fun with it

Entrapped, 3484 words, posted Aug 8

So this was also for the stuck inside event (yes, I wrote 3 fics in about a week lmao - I don’t know how I did it either) and it’s darker than the sort of things I usually write. I enjoyed exploring something like this though, something outside my usual purview. It didn’t perform super well, but tbh the dark ones rarely do so lmao

Pit Stop, 1505 words, posted Aug 31

Welp, this is just an excuse for watersports lmao. I like piss, what can I say? And I’ve done it to kylux, so I had to do it to renben, and the modern au ‘need to pee on a road trip’ seemed like the perfect opportunity for it. Not much to say for it really

The Deal, 2431 words, posted Sep 3

Ah and this one here was the first for the throwback event I ran on twitter! The event itself ended up kind of being tainted by drama from one singular person who kind of ruined it by being a jerk for literally no good reason, but I’m not going to talk too much about that. Even with that, I still greatly enjoyed it and this piece might be my favourite from it as a whole. Kylo Amidala, political scandals, neither of them being nice... ahhhh yes, it definitely brought me back lmao

Devotion, 1929 words, posted Sep 10

Another for the throwback event, this time with Emperor and Hound dynamics which, unf, yes, I will literally never get tired of it. I really had fun with every fic from this event and this one was great because I so rarely get to write real action scenes, even if they’re in a flashback here. That and the dynamic itself really made it fun

To Be Wanted, 10 473 words, posted Sep 16

Ah yes, and here is my KBB for the year! I did a minibang this time, as, well, everything was going horribly wrong around the time of sign ups and I thought a mini would be more realistic. I think I was right on that and I’m glad I did it, even if I was torn at the time. The idea itself is one I’d been thinking about for a while. I can’t remember if I thought of it after seeing the leaks for tros or after watching the movie itself, but it’s been with me for a while and while I dithered over whether or not to sign up this year, the idea came back and was just perfect for a minibang. Plus I got an absolutely amazing and wonderful partner, which is really what makes the experience of doing bangs so great. I love this fic, I LOVE the art for it, and the whole experience was definitely a highlight to 2020 as a whole, both overall and in terms of my fandom/writing experience this year

Floss Me, 2033 words, posted Sep 21

My third for the throwback event and also the dental fetish fic I’ve wanted to write for a while now lmao but could never figure out a scenario for. As some of you may remember, 2018-2019, I went through some pretty horrific dental stuff and ultimately I think it kinda gave me a fetish lmao. Also I feel like there may or may not have been a kinky flossing prompt on one of the prompt sites at some point, but I looked everywhere and couldn’t find it so. But anyway, it was a fun fic for a kink I think is quite underrated tbh

The Cost of Certainty, 2541 words, posted Sep 25

My fourth and final piece for the throwback event, and this one is also a contender for my favourite piece from that event. I have always loved the idea of Hux being a serial killer and this was a perfect excuse to write it. I’d also recently finished a rewatch of Hannibal and, well, you can see where this came from lmao. I love writing tension and it was just very fun all around. I almost wish I’d done something like this as a long fic but tbh I don’t think I would’ve enjoyed writing it as much

Huxloween Drawings, 676 words, posted Nov 1

So this isn’t a fic but rather the drawings I did for huxloween, but people wanted them on ao3, so posted they are. Now, I mentioned above that I had this massive creative boom in Aug-Sep, but that it burned out rather badly. This is when that happened. I got into this place where I just... felt like everything I made wasn’t wanted or needed in the fandom. That everything I like is so unpopular at this point that I should just give up and leave. That I’ve spent all this time and energy over the years trying so desperately to get people engaged and so few ever cared and I just... ugh. It was bad. It was really bad and definitely partly fuelled by the bullshit that someone brought up regarding the throwback event (and I still believe that they are the sole cause of it’s poor reception). I, uh, am doing better now and still working through it all but it was a really rough time. But I found myself still wanting to be creative so I decided to draw. I am not good at drawing. I am not an artist. But that’s what made it fun: I went into each drawing knowing it wasn’t gonna look great. That wasn’t the point. So I never got upset about it. I think it helped me a lot tbh and I did really enjoy it and I’m glad I did it

Unconventional, 7243 words (in progress), updated Dec 20, first posted Nov 18

So the next part of me trying to fix the bullshit in my brain creativity-wise was to post the first chapter to this fic. This is a piece I’ve been working on since 2016-2017 (I don’t remember exactly when, but it was pre-TLJ, and I’ve gotten a new computer since so I don’t have the original creation date of the document) but I could just... never get a plot together for it and ever since I abandoned a fic in my old fandom (and this year I finally posted the ‘sorry this isn’t getting finished, here’s a closure summary’ chapter), I’ve been hesitant to post WIPs before being at least 80% done. So I said fuck it, I’m gonna post this and not be scared. Is this fic complete? Nope, but the plan is starting to come together. Do I know exactly where it’s going? Nope, but I don’t need to. Is it self-indulgent as all hell? Absolutely. I love this fic and I love this story and I love the concepts within it. So I posted it and tbh, it really helped. And I think this, combined with my writing break where I drew for 31 days straight lmao were really my saving graces here

Test Run, 3661 words, posted Dec 31

And now my final fic of the year! Which is a ship I honestly wasn’t super into (I don’t hate it, it just generally doesn’t do much for me) but then I did that thing where I thought ‘hmm but could it be written in a way that I am into?’ which, in my experience, always leads to me writing exactly that. Which is what I did here lmao. I’m pretty happy with it though and despite it being very strange to write, as I really had to work to get these two to get where they were going lmao, I had fun with it. I honestly doubt I’ll write more of them, but I’m glad I wrote this one, and I think it’s a good experiment to close out the year with

What have I learned?

Honestly, this year was a clusterfuck lmao. 2019 wasn’t great for me either, but we all lived through this and it was certainly An Experience. I think what this year really helped me focus on was what made me happy. I ended up in some dark places and I don’t want to go there again. It feels repetitive to say that, once again, I have learned that writing what I want is key when I say that every damn year, but tbh I think 2020 underscored it even more so. Spite as a motivator, when used to much, smothers the spark of creativity and the joy of creation. The most important lesson I learned this year by far is to not let that take the driver’s seat. A dash here and there? That’s fine. But as your main motivator? That’s just not healthy. And I need to work to keep it from consuming me like it has been for too long

Goals for 2021?

So last year I didn’t set any hard goals and boy, is it a good thing I didn’t, cause I achieved none of them lmao. I didn’t write more words (though I did write more individual fics, and the word count gap between this year and last is about the size of the difference between a big bang fic and a mini bang fic so really, I think I did okay), I didn’t even write a single fic for BTHB, and, to be really honest, I did not manage to keep my love for writing alive the whole time. I was in a really dark place a few times this year, but that drop in Sep-Oct was the worst from a creative standpoint. I feel like I’m mostly out of it now, even if I still have some work to do maintaining it. I’m hopeful for the future in that regard. The only thing I really did accomplish was that I feel positively towards all the fics I wrote; I’m happy and proud of all of them

So what is my goal? Honestly, I feel like every year I have to relearn the lesson of ‘write what you want, have fun, be self-indulgent, fuck expectations, etc.’ and my goal this year is to not have to relearn that again, but to keep that energy and carry it with me for the whole year. I realize I may have to put some effort in there, but I’m okay with that. I don’t know what 2021 has in store, but if I can just keep my passion alive and not fall into that pit again, I’m calling it a win

[if-the-crown-fits-translate-it]

Duchy Conversation 4

[27/03, 4:29 AM GMT - 27/03, 6:13 AM GMT]

[The following transcript details the conversation is between one of the Crown ARG Discord members and Duke on Twitter]

Donti: “Hi! How was your day?

Its me again :)c

((If its late or youre sleeping dw about responding :p))”

Duke: “Forgive my tardiness, my embroidery was enchanting me so that my ears laid unaware!

How do you do, Donti? It is the Duke speaking. I must say, my sister has quite the opinion of you!”

Donti: “Oh its great to talk to you again Duke :D I hope I left a good impression! Is your embroidery going well?”

Duke: “It is going quite splendid! The Crown truly does spoil us, giving my sister and I such rich-coloured thread. Truly we are fortunate for his generosity and love.”

Donti: “Ohh! Good colors always make embroidery fun! What are you making?”

Duke: “I must ask though - as a sheep yourself why must you graze on such nimble hearts? Wolves are not supposed to concern themselves with the opinions and thoughts of prey such as yourselves but Prince is but a pup, why must you all be so cruel? I am quite interested in the answer, you see, because it is I who saw the tear tracks down faers face and I who heard the drums of despair in this household.”

Donti: “Oh..

Are you talking about blunt anon?

All of us are very angry at them, whoever they are.

I promise they do not reflect us as a whole.”

Duke: “To answer your previous question however, I am making a rose for Baroness. I do feel horribly for how I was unable to aid her with her spoiled dress so I do hope this gift soothes her and shows that there is no ill will from I to her.”

Donti: “Thats nice! Baroness loves flowers and nature! Thats super thoughtful of you. Im sure she'll love it :D

But back to Prince... Are fae ok? we're worried about faem.”

Duke: “"Blunt anon" is quite a peculiar name I must say. Indeed that is the scoundrel I speak of. It is wonderful to hear that you all are not that way - frankly, if I suspected you were the one to make Prince cry I would have simply neglected to respond, as is customary when one deals with enemies of one's family. Prince is currently recuperating, poor thing. A bleeding heart only leads to death and yet fae still has not learned that yet. I do wish you to send out a warning if you would be so kind - do let anyone know that if they ever treat Duchess in such a matter they will swiftly come to regret it. A gentleman does not revel in violence but she is my most dearest sister.

I thank you for your kind words however, I do indeed hope she enjoys my gift so - do not tell the others but she may be the only one in this family I can truly connect to on an intellectual setting, besides my sister of course.”

Donti: “Ill tell people not to be rude to Duchess. Not that they would.. Im pretty sure they like her :D”

Donti: “"Blunt anon" came when people would send... Rude asks to people. It was originally just blunt questions. But it escalated to... What happened to Prince :( We're trying to find them, but theres only so much we can do

Oh wait! have other people reached out to you all yet?”

Donti: “I know some of my good friends have talked to duchess.. But not to you yet!”

Duke: “Ah, indeed people have reached out and only Duchess was there to greet them. It pains me of course but I found myself with activities to do throughout the day. Schooling is still important to Duchess and I so that took up quite a bit of time - do not tell Crown but I was indeed spending time taking in the beauty of ballet instead of working purely on my Latin. Tea time too is an important affair, especially for I, and then it is always important to spend time with ones sister! So alas, you have been the only one I have graced with my thoughts and feelings out of your crowd of sheep.”

Donti: “Hm. I like the name sheep... Its a little kinder than "plebs"

You seems to like a lot of.. Elegant things! (I hope thats the right word) like embroidery and ballet! Where did you learn such refined taste :oc”

Duke: “Where did I learn such refined tastes? They have always been apart of me, you must understand. The Crown helped unlock those parts that I kept buried deep away and help nurture them. Oh such a brute I used to be! No care for the finer things in life, only one-upping my beloved sister. To think I used to slide in the dirt just for a measly point - bah! Truly I am in much debt to the Crown, for without him I still may have been a unruly fool.”

Donti: “... You played sports before you met Crown?”

Duke: “My sister and I both did, yes. It does not do well to dwell on such miserable times, Donti. This is why little one you are still a lamb.”

Donti: “Oh! If you don't want to talk about it, you dont have to! ^u^ Friends dont force their friends to talk about uncomfortable things!

Hm... But if the plebs are sheep... And I am a lamb... Who is the shepard...?”

Duke: “How sweet! Tell me, little lamb, who do you think the shepherd is? Or if there is one at all?

If you are a little lamb then I must ask, is there a Mary to be found alongside you as well?”

Donti: “Hm.... I think from our perspective the shepherd, (or shepherds in this case) would be our lovely mods :D

But from your point of view? Its most definitely Crown!

Andd.. Im assuming a Mary is a leader... Little lambs follow Mary after all... Hm. A lot of us have shown leadership at some point in time or another! It really depends on the scenario!”

Duke: “Intriguing.

It depends on the scenario you say?”

Donti: “Yep! People take charge depending on whats happening, and sometimes theres no leadership, just us discussing and working through it!

Why do you ask?”

Duke: “When the flocks have gone and left and all there is is the gentle bobbing of the water, who do you trust to save you from drowning? While you thrash and scream and feel yourself weaken who do you look towards for guidance? When the taste of salt kisses the interior of your esophagus whose name is on the tip of your dying tongue?

For I, it is the Crown, as he saved my sister and I from exactly that fate - but who is it for you?”

Donti: “Hm.. As a "flock" we all support one another.. That way, we can have multiple points of support! One person supporting that many people would be very stressful for that one person, you know”

Duke: “Of course.

Even then in a home all parts play along and join in the symphony but even with that, some are still load-bearing.

Who would be your load-bearing walls? All I ask is for some simple names, you understand. My curiosity is much like a cat, you see. Only satisfaction may truly bring me back.”

Donti: “Hm.. Are you asking for the names of my friends?

Well. There's Jack and Raeva, whom Duchess has spoken with, I think. Llyr, Ren, and Luna are also friends of mine. But I try not to burden them.

They are not so much load bearing pillars, but more of frail walls to shield me from the cold.”

Duke: “The drifting breezes that bring forth frost and tremors truly are such tiresome times. That you have shields is wonderful and it does ease my heart, but I do feel as though I must impart some wisdom else I'd be an unfavourable acquaintance - do try and build yourself a roaring inferno, little sheep.

Have so much fire around yourself that the winds cannot glance your way and even the Grand Archer Yi looks on with fear.”

Donti: “... And what if the fire burns me?

What then?”

Duke: “Do you think yourself unable to control the flames?”

Donti: “...Yes. Flames are temperamental, after all. When the inferno's dried up every last bit of water and eaten all of the wood, what will it turn to?”

Duke: “You want the answer to be yourself, I can see you reaching for it with an outstretched palm. Here is the truth: you can quell flames easily with just a few words. You can breathe in the ash and let the smoke dissipate. You do not have to be burned.

Ah, but these are just fun matters to think about. Do not dwell on my words too much. I would hate for you to overthink just simple pondering.”

Donti: “...Ill take your words to heart, friend. Even if it's just banter.

How do you know this?”

Duke: “Do not cause yourself concern with such a thing. In case I have caused you to distress then please do take this video as repentance. Isn't it so lovely how she spins?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqejv_BQ7Zg”

Donti: “Oh! that is a pretty video.. I wonder how long it took for her to make it so effortless..?

Do you dance?”

Duke: “Such an exquisite form of art. The mastery she has put forth would bring others to shame and ruin. A true professional since birth. I myself do not dance in this way - my sister and I are well versed in the waltz and ballroom dance as is customary for our statuses - but ballet alludes me. Alas, if only that was the direction I chose for my life to go but no matter - I have embroidery, poetry and oil painting to keep me truly green from envy.”

Donti: “Those are very enviable hobbies! I imagine you're skilled at them too! As for ballet... Ive heard that in order to dance that way, one has to go through great pain. I'd hate for you to experience that”

Duke: “A bit of suffering is always worth the pain if beauty and joy can be received in the end, do you not think?”

Donti: “As long as youre happy, I suppose!

I’m sorry to cut this short, but its getting late for me! And probably for you too ^^

I hope you rest well!”

Duke: “I hope you have humble dreams and a quiet rest. Goodnight, little lamb.”

[clickabletale]

Guess who’s back? Back again-

I thought I was done with this but alas I found out @wolfwarrior142 who apparently unhid her profile after mines came back and got some anon hate over this. 

I hadn’t touched her Tumblr after my reblog since I did mine’s publicly on my blog which I thought was enough to illustrate how bizarre her response was and after her posts disappeared, and I thought that was that so there was no need to talk about the matter. 

Until now where I checked her account from my reblog and saw it was up to see this new text post. The reblog feature was disabled so I will have to reenact it here. 

I only ask, whoever is sending her messages, please stop. That doesn’t solve anything and from how insane her posts and logic are, it’s not worth the issue and it isn’t your place to tangled with it. 

This will be (hopefully) my last message. I say hopefully since I don’t know what will happen after so I keep in mind what could change if something new comes out. 

The post went like this

Anonymous asked:

don’t you feel stupid now for attacking someone over their opinion publicly, now you’re gonna hide? hypocrisy, hypocrisy~

wolfwarrior: I’m assuming you’re the dumb bitch who made that post (or their friend). Just gonna say that you shouldn’t post your dumbass ship hate in the ship tag. For one, it wasn’t even valid hate. You made it sound like you never watched the fuckin show. Also, just to make things clear, I’m not mad that plance didn’t become canon. I was sad, but I figured, oh well. It ain’t my show, it’s not the end of the world, they’re just fictional characters, and there’s no point in getting worked up over it. And then this dumb bitch drops by, tags the goddamn ship tag (even tho its common knowledge for anyone with a brain to be a decent fucking person and not do that, regardless of whether or not they like the ship), and makes a dumbass post while whining that oh boo hoo, poor me, I’m gonna get attacked. Yes you will, you dumbass, because you’re being a moron and an asshole for no reason while literally begging to get shit on. I know you probably get your rocks off to people calling out the dumb shit that you do, but I still wanted to call you out for being antagonistic. Legit, tagging any tags for a ship and then shitting on the ship opens you up to being shit on for needlessly being a bitch, and we have all the right to for you coming into the tag and acting that way. And you or someone else said in another anon message that I’m being “toxic,” but nah, I’m not. I’m just calling you out for being an antagonistic asshole who has no regards for decent tagging, and then I left. I said what I wanted to say, and then I left. I could have picked apart your post, because you made piss-poor ��points,” but that was pointless because I knew you wouldn’t have cared if a plance fan had debated with you. I at least wanted to point out your poor decision to tag the goddamn ship names, you dumb fuck. Sorry that I didn’t roll over to you being an asshole and be nice. I’m not gonna do that, and I shouldn’t have to when you were being an antagonistic bitch while crying that “I’m afraid of getting attacked for this.” And I wasn’t attacking you, or at least not extremely. I’m just calling you out for making dumbass choices, and you didn’t like that. Oops, not fucking sorry. Also, I love how you say I’m being a hypocrite for “running.” I blocked you and that other fuck because I didn’t want anymore comments from you popping up in my notes. I said what I wanted to say and was done, because if I hadn’t I knew it was gonna further the argument. Also cuz I was about to go into class for 4 hours and didn’t want to be distracted by your dumbasses. But no matter what, at least I had the decency to actually say my opinions in public where my name was visible. I wasn’t afraid of doing that, cuz I meant what I said and wanted to be publicly honest. Apparently you can’t tho, and neither can the person who sent that other message if it wasn’t you, cuz both are anonymous. You’re too much of a little bitch to show your actual name or use an alternate account to send a message, so you send it anonymously instead. Its never looks good for you when you send anon hate. I try my best to never send anon messages unless it’s not antagonistic, because if I’m gonna say it, I need to make sure I’m confident enough to say it with my url showing. Otherwise, I’m just being immature by sending anonymous hate. But obviously you don’t care about being an immature little bitch who is too much of a wimp to send hate directly to someone with your name showing. That let’s me to know that I’m not the immature one here. Also, if you decide to continue to be immature and send anon hate, I’m not gonna respond further. This is the last response you’ll get from me, because antagonistic babies like you aren’t worth more of my time. Have fun hiding behind disguises and crying about being shit on even tho you 100% asked for it.

First off:  I’m assuming you’re the dumb bitch who made that post (or their friend). Just gonna say that you shouldn’t post your dumbass ship hate in the ship tag. For one, it wasn’t even valid hate. You made it sound like you never watched the fuckin show.

So just gonna say, I didn’t send these. When you went dark, I left it at my reblog. Simple as that. I also don’t know a “friend” you’re talking about. I talked about this to my mutuals but I didn’t see them involved in this at all after the topic went dead. The only one I know who was involved with the post was princessbuttershitz I think? (I can’t with the name, I’m sorry XD) I had not known this user until I saw they joined in and reblogged my post on some stuff I hadn’t talked about, but for transparency that is it. They don’t follow me from what I can see or talked to me further than that so it’s just whatever. 

And second, how was my post ship hate? Flat out tell me? Did I call Pidge a horrible person for Lance? No. Did I demonize the age gap? No. Where did you see hate in that post when all I talked about was doubting Plance being canon, talked about the “development” in comparison to Lance’s romance with Allura and rivalry to friendship with Keith? Please tell me with highlights, I’d like to know.

You also say you don’t care Plance wasn’t canon (good for you, I hope you still enjoy it regardless.) and that it wasn’t something to get worked up over. I completely agree, however, if you did believe that why did you bother to respond so hostile like you did? That doesn’t sound right, you said you shouldn’t get worked up over those things right? Especially my post was only a few sentences talking about doubting Plance was going to be endgame, not as the ship as a whole. (Catch me repeating that here.)

Also I have seen the show since 2017-2018. I got into it and it got me through a hard time, I was there for a lot of the seasons. You can see it on my archive. So a big statement you make there. 

Moving on-

“And then this dumb bitch drops by, tags the goddamn ship tag (even tho its common knowledge for anyone with a brain to be a decent fucking person and not do that, regardless of whether or not they like the ship), and makes a dumbass post while whining that oh boo hoo, poor me, I’m gonna get attacked. Yes you will, you dumbass, because you’re being a moron and an asshole for no reason while literally begging to get shit on. I know you probably get your rocks off to people calling out the dumb shit that you do, but I still wanted to call you out for being antagonistic.”

Guys. I implore you to read my first post. It is the lightest thing I have made. I made it to just be upfront about my opinions in a respectful manner in words than how many other fans would recycle argument to make the ship or characters look bad. 

Also with the parentheses, what if it was a Plance shipper who actively made content whether it be theories/fanfics/art/etc. and made my post, you would attack them the same? I sure fucking hope not. Jesus.

I didn’t want that to happen since I genuinely wanted to treat it like a discussion instead of another poorly made ship insult like people on Twitter did back then. I could’ve gone harder and made it pettier than I did but that would delegitimize my argument.

Once again, besides your tag claim, how was I antagonistic in my post? It’s on you to prove it since you’re making the claim. Shouldn’t be hard to prove if you insist it this much. 

My blog is open for people to see and the only person who has made this an issue is you, no one else in the notes. Only person who I can think of is Swindle94 but they were at least more mature than you.

Legit, tagging any tags for a ship and then shitting on the ship opens you up to being shit on for needlessly being a bitch, and we have all the right to for you coming into the tag and acting that way. And you or someone else said in another anon message that I’m being “toxic,” but nah, I’m not. I’m just calling you out for being an antagonistic asshole who has no regards for decent tagging, and then I left.

Once again focusing on the tags. Okay, upfront. So? If I was attacking Plancers with that tag on, that would be valid. All I did was say “hey plance being canon? i disagree, here’s why.”

I’m sorry but if a few sentence post gets you riled up like that, I don’t believe you don’t care. You obviously do. Especially when you replied publicly to this anon. That is your fault.

Also, yes, you are being toxic for responding like this. I had no insults to the Plance community or the ship in my first post. You charged head-on with no regard and decided to belittle me instead of either ignoring or talking it out like the others. Which is a toxic mindset, using insults to defend your fictional couple. So don’t try to have both, it’s not gonna work.

I could have picked apart your post, because you made piss-poor “points,” but that was pointless because I knew you wouldn’t have cared if a plance fan had debated with you.

Link to my replies to two others who reblogged my post: https://clickabletale.tumblr.com/post/190254499687/swindle94-thats-not-what-i-meant-i-shouldve

https://clickabletale.tumblr.com/post/190254645477/i-shouldve-used-another-word-for-it-while-they

Honestly, if you did pick apart my points instead that would be fine and I welcome it. Would’ve been better than your first response. I’m just gonna say you aren’t going to because you know you can’t.

I at least wanted to point out your poor decision to tag the goddamn ship names, you dumb fuck. Sorry that I didn’t roll over to you being an asshole and be nice. I’m not gonna do that, and I shouldn’t have to when you were being an antagonistic bitch while crying that “I’m afraid of getting attacked for this.” And I wasn’t attacking you, or at least not extremely. I’m just calling you out for making dumbass choices, and you didn’t like that. Oops, not fucking sorry. Also, I love how you say I’m being a hypocrite for “running.” I blocked you and that other fuck because I didn’t want anymore comments from you popping up in my notes. I said what I wanted to say and was done, because if I hadn’t I knew it was gonna further the argument.

Once again, to anyone who wants the original post it is here: https://clickabletale.tumblr.com/post/190247521977/i-remember-i-was-scared-to-say-this-back-when-the

If I’m being antagonizing in my words, let me know where please and thank you. 

And you only worded your post in an attacking manner (you did, throwing insults fast. Don’t tip toe around it, you fired at the most minial shit.)

Also not sure about the running comment? I don’t recall calling you a hypocrite on that, I don’t know what you mean by that.

Also cuz I was about to go into class for 4 hours and didn’t want to be distracted by your dumbasses. But no matter what, at least I had the decency to actually say my opinions in public where my name was visible. I wasn’t afraid of doing that, cuz I meant what I said and wanted to be publicly honest. Apparently you can’t tho, and neither can the person who sent that other message if it wasn’t you, cuz both are anonymous.

I did, my original post. I did so in a way that explained my thoughts in a non-insulting manner. 

You just came in unloaded and wrong, you should just step back to think before replying so people will actually listen and reason with you and no think you are insane.

At least your honest I guess? But that kind of backfired if you hid your profile after. My post is still up, with your words for anyone who wants to see it. Even linking right here. 

And once again, I don’t care to message you since you did block me and dipped. I left it at my reblog with responding to you and talked about the isssue on how dumb it was to get angry over since the only one who seems to be this angry over it, is you.

I don’t want anyone coming for you, and I will say again if anyone intends to: don’t. That doesn’t solve anything so don’t come to belittle her. 

You’re too much of a little bitch to show your actual name or use an alternate account to send a message, so you send it anonymously instead. Its never looks good for you when you send anon hate. I try my best to never send anon messages unless it’s not antagonistic, because if I’m gonna say it, I need to make sure I’m confident enough to say it with my url showing. Otherwise, I’m just being immature by sending anonymous hate. But obviously you don’t care about being an immature little bitch who is too much of a wimp to send hate directly to someone with your name showing. That let’s me to know that I’m not the immature one here. Also, if you decide to continue to be immature and send anon hate, I’m not gonna respond further. This is the last response you’ll get from me, because antagonistic babies like you aren’t worth more of my time. Have fun hiding behind disguises and crying about being shit on even tho you 100% asked for it.

Once again, wolfwarrior142. I don’t care to see you or send things like this. I don’t advocate those messages or hate to you, I want it to stop if it keeps happening but you don’t have a smoking gun in this. 

You obviously have some issues and you aren’t arguing them rationally, and you are advocating for attacks over the smallest shit being a tag about disagreeing two fictional characters were gonna bone. How do you justify something so ridiculous? 

So no matter how much you try to say you’re not a toxic fan if you go out to insult people over their opinion or the tags or whatever when it’s not inciting hate against the ship or you don’t bother to show how it’s hate or debate it.

That is toxic. You can’t spin it around. 

So that is it. I hope this is the last. I’m still in disbelief at how insanely she reacts and justifies her behavior. This is not okay, nothing about her response is okay. It’s a shitty thing to do and I hope you don’t do this to anyone else, that’s all I gotta say.

[lokaneiscanon]

Mighty Thor in Thor: Love and Thunder rant

Seeing Natalie Portman returning to reprise her role as Jane Foster, nevertheless wielding Mjolnir, finally getting the treatment this character deserves, was surreal to say the least. I had just started reading Lords of Midgard, the 8th issue of Mighty Thor (2015 - 2018), and had fallen in love already. But I didn't suspect at all that Taika Waititi would pull this card in Thor: Love and Thunder, considering Jane was barely mentioned in Ragnarok. The news about my favorite actress portraying one of my favorite characters coming out of the blue - you can imagine the excitement. Alas, I quickly remembered what the fandom thought of that comic (at least on tumblr) and imagined it now growing tenfold, cuz not everyone in the MCU fandom reads comics but pretty much everyone wants to watch another Thor movie. And yes, many fans weren't ready for this step, still recovering from Sam Wilson getting the shield in Endgame. Which is completely fine. We're not obligated to like everything Marvel throws in our faces, we're allowed to criticize and express our opinion on the internet or wherever. What is not okay is mindlessly hating, and even worse - using false facts to support said opinion.

I have seen some people using the argument that it is one of Marvel's worst selling comics. Which has already been proven wrong by multiple sites, including Comichron, just Google it, as I did myself. I read multiple posts, ones saying how good Jane is doing as Thor in sales, others disproving this, so I checked for myself the numbers at the site mentioned above month by month to be sure. The comic truly had its downfalls as the story progressed but in my opinion it's normal for the 1st issue to have more sales than the 21st. If we compare it to Unworthy Thor, which started running a bit later and followed the now unworthy Odinson, the data shows the latter had more sales. But then again, while Might Thor was at its 17th issue, Unworthy Thor was at its 2nd. Also, they later crossed paths, shared comic issues, it's fair to say they go hand in hand and Jason Aaron, the author, probably doesn't want us to compare them, as they complete and compliment each other's stories. Still I decided to check the comic that made Thor unworthy in the first place - Thor: God of Thunder (2012 - 2014), which seemed to me more "comparable" to Might Thor (2015 - 2018). *I keep putting the years it was being released so as to not be confused with previous Mighty Thor issues, whole Odinson was still Thor, please bear with me* So yes, the numbers were pretty close, but from what I saw, Mighty Thor had the upper hand if we compare first issue to first issue and so on. (In defense of Odinson, we have to take into account that this data is only from the US and does not include digital sales. Also, he's been around since the 50s. We could argue Jane was a breath of fresh air that some Marvel fans were indeed ready for. As a non-American, and also a person without a hint of knowledge in economics I cannot take into account inflation and whatever else has prevented or enabled Americans to get their hands on the comics or has affected prizes through the years. Bear that in mind.) Moreover, from what I saw on Comichron, both comics had much competition - God of thunder was released along with Avengers vs the X-men, the Uncanny X-men, pretty popular at the time, and the Goddess of Thunder faced Civil War 2 and DC Universe Rebirth (yes, DC is in the game too), also dominating with tremendous sales for the longest time. Yet I stick with my original statement - both Thors are valid and shouldn't be put against one another regardless of profit. Because at the end of the day what will matter the most is the story. And boy, what a story it is.

Now, I haven't read the Thor: God of Thunder, but as I was doing research I found one very well written summary and explanation of Thor's arc and his becoming unworthy and I will post a link below, because I honestly feel I wouldn't be doing this comic a favor by describing it without having read it. Which I plan to do in the future, tbh. It's a fantastic prelude to the Mighty Thor (2015 - 2018) that I've come to love. First, I'd like to ask you all to stop hating on the comic without having read it first. It doesn't make any sense and being petty for the sake of being petty won't benefit neither you, nor anyone, really. Now, about the comic itself - the art is magnificent. It's just gorgeous. Mighty Thor isn't , thank all the gods, sexualized, she is pretty buffed and generally looks like a warrior. As it is with the other characters, I dare say. The background truly captures the essence of every world Jane finds herself on. Action scenes are just the right amount and balanced with dialogue well. On a side note, it's pretty funny to read/listen to in your head the Shakespearean English cursive in which Jane talks as Thor. The plot line branches beyond this comic, starting from Thor: God of Thunder and leading to the War of Realms. And it is elaborately built in every issue. You don't know what to expect, yet it makes sense when it happens. Which leads me to the characterizations. My God, what a treat Loki is in this. Clearly, my opinion is kinda biased, since he's my favorite character, but you never know which side he's on. What his motivations are. And it just feels so... Loki. His writing is brilliant. Almost makes me forget what the MCU did to him. Also, he gets some daddy time with Laufey (not as kinky as I make it sound). Frigga/Freyja is just as awesome as in the MCU, even more, at least in the comics she calls Odin out on his shit, who btw is I guess an asshole in every version and universe. Malekith, the main villain, is unbearably despicable, I want to tear every page he is on. He really was mishandled in the Dark World, if you want some true action with the dark elves, you are welcome to enjoy. I saved the best for the end - Jane Foster/ Might Thor. Now, if you think Dr. Foster spends her time boasting about her worthiness and how Odinson is just called Thor, but she is Mighty Thor, you are horribly wrong. She just... does her job. Because the hammer chose her. Because there's no one else to do so. That's it. If you think there's some feminism involved, yes, there sure is, but it certainly isn't the reason Jane became Thor in the first place. It was not the creators going SJW because it's trendy, as such a mindset is honestly offensive to any descent creator with any self respect, but a well thought out story arc, which, I repeat, you have to read the comic to understand. Jane is not at all whiny about the hate she gets in-universe, not only from foes like Odin and who-not, but from Shield and generally people whose asses she's saving. Her having cancer is not something they pulled to provoke sympathy and make her look like a victim - on the contrary, she is a damn hero and a victor. I don't want to give out spoilers, but her being Thor is actually a giant sacrifice that no one really appreciates (both in-universe and in the fandom). She is not Thor to prove she can be, or just to prove "women can be heroes" - she doesn't have to. She is simply needed by the realms and so she does her job, even though she is called a thief, persecuted and generally hated. All that matters is that the hammer finds her worthy - the beauty and simplicity of that fact you will find out, for the last time, if you read the comic.

I'm not making you read the comic or watch Thor: Love and Thunder. I myself don't know what to make of this film yet because there's barely any information about it. I only know it will be based on the comic so that's a reason for my hopes to be up already. On the other hand, since I didn't like Loki's characterization in Ragnarok, I'm not sure what to expect from Taika. There are valid reasons to not like the idea of Jane returning to the MCU as Thor, which you are entitled to. However, reasons such as "why does everything have to be political these days" are not. Because if I had to make a list of everything politically related in the MCU, it would take forever. Steve Rogers kills nazis is the most blatant example. Make of it what you want. But I think we're far enough into the 21st century to realize art and real life are not that separable. It's undeniable that art affects people and that is to say, people everywhere. And they all have different opinions and aren't gonna like everything media is offering to them. And I wish I could simply tell you not to watch the movie but I'm a Marvel fan too and I understand that I can't just take away Thor from you because I want Mighty Thor as well. But none of us can stop Marvel from producing it. So, to quote an image I saw recently, I don't know how to explain to you that you should care about other people. Let the rest of the fandom enjoy what they want to enjoy. Yes, ik I can play around with the tags and avoid posts that unnerve me but, for example, I'm looking up Mighty Thor fanart, which obviously isn't anti-Mighty Thor, yet I get attacked in the comics for anticipating a movie that doesn't even have a full cast yet. Ik I'm not asking for too much when I wish to get the same internet experience (not only tumblr, but also insta, YouTube, Twitter, any site) as the Thor Odison fans, for example. I'm aware I cannot stop all the toxic fans and the trolls but I hope this post has inspired those of you who simply can't envision Jane as Thor, or don't like Natalie Portman in the role, or whatever eles personal preference that doesn't involve political issues and isn't harmful to the community, not to attack every post on your dash with hate. The movie is called LOVE and Thunder, for God's sake. (on a side note, is a franchise that is too afraid to show LGBT characters for more than 1 minute so as to not lose profit from China, THAT politically correct)

Anyway, that was a veeeery long rant, sorry to whoever reads this but, like, please, I put effort into this, hoping this time around I won't be the only positive reviewer of a movie, like I was with Solo: a Star Wars story (yes, I'm still bitter about this), which was boycotted for no apparent reason but was a decent film in reality, and I'm only bringing it up because it has a similar experience to Love and Thunder for getting hate before even being released. I'm not defending a billion dollar company that flopped in box office once, I'm defending the viewer's right to media they are interested in. If you don't like the character, remember - that's your opinion, not a fact that the character sucks. Kudos.

Not very easy to navigate, I advice you to do the research month by month individually for comics you'd like to compare. Also, if you happen to find more reliable data, pls say so in the comments.

Here you have the summary and explanation of the greatness of Thor: God of Thunder, Jesus, I'll go bankrupt if I buy this one too.

Yes, I want to end the sales dispute once and for all, I'm tired of seeing it on my dash. This guy probably explains it better than I did.

@awesomejenlawrence you said you'd like to read this and I delivered

[tumblunni]

I feel like I have too many friends...

I have trouble even dealing with just three or four close buddies cos I wanna spend ALL MY TIME with my friends but I can't do it with all of them simultaneously. So I just end up having really long in depth conversations with everyone and then they try and have even longer more awesome ones back to me but it means my inbox is full of four of them at once and by the time I finish reading and responding to one there's even more from the other person and then the first person replies to my replies and AAAA! Or I get paralyzed by worrying who to talk to first and trying to remember who I've talked to most often this week so I can balance it equally and show them all I appreciate them. And then I feel awful cos I'm online but I'm not talking to them,cos I'm being all stupid and anxious.and sometimes I talk to other more distant acquantences cos we might just say one or two sentences or something and it's easier to keep on top of those messages. And then I just feel awful cos the best friends can see that I'm online and see that I'm talking but I'm not talking to them and AAAAA it's hard to explain why...

And whenever I have a stressy day IRL it just compounds it all, I end up missing some prime talk time and then the conversations get even longer and I have even more to read thru before I can start replying...

Alas the curse of too many amazing perfect wonderful friends who all have so much stuff to say!!!

I think maybe I should follow less Tumblr blogs so I have more time for just the friend ones. It'd cut down on my 'mandatory chore time each day'. Cos I have the stupid compulsion to read EVERY post on my dashboard and I feel like I can't get my day started until I've read and responded to everything everyone posted since yesterday. I have a stupid tendancy to make everything into a chore in my head, or like..a thing where If i don't do it I'm a bad person even of it doesn't make any sense. So all the fun goes out of it and I'm only doing it because of my anxiety yet I just can't stop... I have a lot of blogs I follow not even because I like them but because I "have to" see all the things they do. same as how I have a backlog of 100 YouTube videos I haven't finished and I'm not "allowed" to watch new ones I actually like until I finish them, and I have like 200 steam games I got in various sales over the years and I haven't finished and I keep punishing myself for not finishing them which only makes it less fun and gives less reason to actually play them...

Basically I suck at dealing with big quantities of things no matter what it is. And four best friends feels like two much when I spent so long not even having one! Gahhhh

Nd then real life stuff has been so much more busy since I moved house and I need to also set aside time to remember to practise drawing and to buy groceries and wash all my clothes and just maybe this is actually an issue with me sucking at repeating things every day?? I seemt o have the opposite of routine, the more often I do something the harder it seems to be to remember it. I've gotta try and do it at different times or spice it up with different ways? It's so dumbbb why am I such a mess of executive dysfunction...and why does it keep happening with stuff I enjoy and I know I'll enjoy it but I just get so anxious about it that I don't enjoy it and I just sit here like a sad sack instead...

So umm yeah this is just an apology post for my stupidness,and I don't even know how to explain my stupidness, and umm yeah this is why I'm probably gonna be less active on Tumblr. Well, that and also a friend invited me to twitter and I've been trying to be more active there,and also trying to spend some time every day playing a videogame so I can cut down on the 200 game pile, and also spending some time a day cleaning and painting and furnituring so I can get the house sorted, and also trying to go out more often and explore the new neighbourhood and just GAH there's so much to do every day I just get all dumb and scared and end up doing nothing...

I guess it's just a side effect of making so much progress with my mental health this year, stuff has gone a bit too fast and I feel like I'm in over my head. I honestly kinda only used to have so much free time for blogging cos I was depressed AF and stayed indoors all day. Was too depressed to even do any of my indoor hobbies like gaming or drawing either. Not that blogging is a bad thing or anything, I think finding comfort in blogging helped me make my progress, because I found a lot of kind people here and different kinds of odd lil encouragement to try again at the stuff I was scared of. Like shit posting helped me start making art again???

Man it's just so complicated and I'm trying myself in knots trying to figure out the reason why I'm nervous about having so many friends and I guess it's just something I might never know. Anxiety isn't exactly rational, after all...

But umm yeah I guess I'm weird cos im less of a 'talk every day' person and more like 'talk once a week but when we do I talk SO MUCH and it takes seven hours', lol. I'm such a weird mix of introvert and extrovert where I both REALLY ENJOY talking but also am SUPER SCARED OF IT????? And I suck at making future plans cos i can never predict if my anxiety is gonna happen tomorrow. I'm always like HELL YEAH I WANNA DO THE THIBG TOMORROW and then oh no I am actually tomorrowing into a black hole of depression.i guess I should start being more "can we do it today" but then again that'd be rude aaaa...

God how do I manage to deal with my dumb head, I wanna stop being a rude friend.

I don't know why so many people want to be my friend in the first place aaaa!!!!

I love you all so much and I just get anxious I'm not doing everything perfectly right to show you I care,so I end up doing nothing and sending the opposite message...

[bountyofbeads]

What Happens When Ordinary People End Up in Trump’s Tweets https://nyti.ms/32bCiou

🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈

What Happens When Ordinary People End Up in Trump’s Tweets

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER | Published Nov. 2, 2019 | New York Times | Posted November 3, 2019 |

McCALLA, Ala. — The evening of April 29 passed like many others for Ben Rawls, a fire lieutenant in Tuscaloosa: settled in the rocking chair on his porch, amid empty beer cans and mosquito-fighting candles, tweeting to an audience of dozens until he got sleepy.

“Granted I am in Alabama,” Mr. Rawls, 45, wrote around 11 p.m., after a major firefighters’ union endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr. for president, “but most of the firefighters I talk to are voting @realDonaldTrump.”

The morning of May 1, some 36 hours later, was less typical.

Mr. Rawls showered and took his daughters to school. He ignored his phone, until it yapped so insistently that he had to look. An ashbin of Twitter comments greeted him: Racist. Moron. “‘Toothless’ — that was a good one,” he recalled.

The most curious posts disputed Mr. Rawls’s very existence. Strangers accused him of being a bot. He replied to one with a video he recorded in his pickup. “Here I am,” he said to the camera. “No faking here.”

All told, it took about 12 hours for him to solve the mystery. Back in his rocking chair, he stared at a fellow Twitter user’s note of congratulations: Mr. Rawls had been retweeted by the president of the United States.

Along with the Republican allies, Fox News hosts and conspiracy-mongering trolls whose messages President Trump pinballs across the political arena, he has also elevated regular people whose words he finds pleasing. Perhaps no group understands the praise-seeking cyclone that is @realDonaldTrump better than these arbitrary few who have lived inside it, briefly and usually unwittingly.

Their brushes with cybercelebrity are a portal into the Twitter feedback loop powered and experienced by Mr. Trump — dark, caustic, skimpy on nuance — where the ripples of a single presidential tweet can be hard to fathom unless measured against the relative anonymity to which these users were accustomed. Mr. Rawls got 2,700 retweets and 14,000 “likes” with the boost from Mr. Trump. The reach of his tweets before and since, he estimated, was approximately zero.

For many of the retweeted, the temporary platform stands as a testament to a style of politics they have never seen before — one that has bonded the president to his followers, virtual or otherwise.

“No other president has ever done stuff like this,” said Curtis Vincent, a 35-year old in Bowling Green, Ky., who operates one of the more than 215 unverified accounts Mr. Trump has retweeted since taking office. “They’ve been on a higher pedestal.”

Mr. Rawls, Mr. Vincent and several others were retweeted by Mr. Trump on May 1 after responding to a post by a Fox News personality, Dan Bongino, about the fire union’s endorsing Mr. Biden.

Joining them in temporary Twitter fame was Joelle Palombo, 46, a Southern California resident with 11 followers, who had largely used her account to cheer on her daughter’s soccer team. But after Mr. Bongino tweeted that “NONE of the firemen” he knew were with Mr. Biden, she replied with a note of support for Mr. Trump from one “fire family” out West.

The flood of reactions so spooked Ms. Palombo that she enlisted her teenage son to help block anyone she saw in her feed. The purge took three days, she said, and included the president, who she did not realize had retweeted her until a reporter told her months later.

“I went and looked at his account, and I blocked him,” Ms. Palombo said of Mr. Trump. “That’s how scared I was. I’m just one tiny hair on a dog. Are you kidding me?”

Although her affection for the president persists, Ms. Palombo questions the value of his favored medium. “How many hours of the day do people put in to do this?” she said. “I don’t need to have a voice on this. I’ll vote.”

Others have found more purpose in the practice. Mr. Rawls described himself as a reluctant Trump voter in 2016. He preferred Ted Cruz during the Republican primary, and he winces at some of the president’s choices, including insulting John McCain well after the senator’s death.

But as the 2020 election approaches, Mr. Rawls suggests, the president’s Twitter output is a more effective galvanizer than even the slickest campaign ad. “The tweeting doesn’t bother me so much anymore,” he said. “I don’t really feel like I wasted a vote.”

And the validation of the president’s retweet has encouraged his own more quarrelsome instincts. “Before all this happened, I would type something out and say, ‘People will think I’m crazy,’” he recalled, citing prospective tweets that he scrapped.

Since May, these second thoughts have been rarer. He has called Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House communications director, a “bitter jerk.” He has shared a doctored video of Speaker Nancy Pelosi appearing to slur her words. He has weaponized a gif of Judge Judy (“Either you are playing dumb, or it’s not an act”) to mock Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat promoting gun control.

“I’m a little bit less of a wallflower than I used to be,” Mr. Rawls said, crediting Mr. Trump’s retweet. “I guess you could say I was more emboldened.”

CATCHING HIS EYE

Capital letters help. Sentence structure can be disregarded. Mornings, East Coast time, are best.

Grabbing Mr. Trump’s attention on Twitter is more art than science — and, often, more fluke than art. But some who have been retweeted say there are certain flourishes that can improve the odds.

The surest path is echoing Mr. Trump’s voice. The user @fiiibuster, whose profile boasts that he has been retweeted twice by the president, has built a following of more than 38,000 accounts — and won the digital stamp of approval from a man with 66 million — through a steady offering of posts that resemble Mr. Trump’s own. Among the words in @fiiibuster’s retweeted messages: “security,” “prosperity,” “America first,” “Pathetic,” “bad reporter,” “shame!”

In other cases, Mr. Trump has gravitated toward those who share his taste in reading. A few weeks ago, he retweeted Cathy Buffaloe, 70, a retired librarian in Walton County, Ga., after she quoted a Wall Street Journal column criticizing Representative Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

When she told her husband what had happened, he asked if she had simply dreamed it. She took screenshots to show to friends and gained about 200 followers. “It isn’t often that ‘regular’ people have an opportunity to be heard concerning national issues,” Ms. Buffaloe said in an email.

J. T. Lewis, a 19-year-old Republican candidate for the Connecticut State Senate whose brother Jesse was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, was retweeted last year after writing a flattering message to Mr. Trump. When he traveled to Washington months later to meet with the president as part of a school safety event, Mr. Lewis brought a printout of the tweet.

“He smirked and signed it,” he said. “It’s in my room somewhere.”

Mr. Lewis said he hoped the president’s imprimatur would show that Mr. Trump was not in league with the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has spread bogus claims about the Sandy Hook shooting, including asserting that the victims’ families were actors and part of a plot to confiscate guns. (In 2015, Mr. Trump appeared on Mr. Jones’s “Infowars” program and praised him.)

But Mr. Lewis is skeptical that getting through to Mr. Trump owes to any elaborate strategy. “I don’t think things are planned out the way we think they are from the outside,” he said. “I think that was literally just: Guy in pajamas, ‘Oh, this is a nice tweet.’”

THE WRONG IVANKA

“The fingers aren’t as good as the brain,” the president once explained, discussing the typos he makes on Twitter.

And those fingers have at times conferred a spotlight on unsuspecting tweeters with low opinions of him.

In a tweet one night in January 2017, just before his inauguration, Mr. Trump shared a message calling his daughter Ivanka “a woman with real character and class” and tagging @ivanka.

That Twitter handle belongs to Ivanka Majic, 45, a technology researcher in Brighton, England, who shares a first name and little else with the president’s daughter. Ms. Majic woke up to media inquiries and a dilemma.

“There’s a decision to be made,” she said in an interview. “If you’re going to say something, what are you going to say?”

Ms. Majic recognized she would probably never be handed a megaphone like this again. “He was a bit unlucky, really, that it was my Twitter account,” she said.

She settled on this: “You’re a man with great responsibilities. May I suggest more care on Twitter and more time learning about #climatechange.”

Instantly, Ms. Majic became something of a local luminary as her progressive city strained to process Mr. Trump’s victory. Days later, at the London chapter of the global Women’s March, one attendee’s sign read, “@Ivanka, loving your work!”

In the years since, Ms. Majic has celebrated an annual “Trumpiversary” to mark the occasion. But one news clipping from the time still grates.

“There was one article that said, ‘Ivanka only has 2,700 followers,’” she remembered. “I was like, ‘That’s quite good for a normal person!’”

_______

Karen Yourish and Larry Buchanan contributed reporting. Kitty Bennett contributed research. Produced by Gray Beltran and Rumsey Taylor.

🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈🍂🍻🍁🏈

[mixseungwoo]

☯ — hello! ✗

hi! alas, i bear disappointing news: i’m actually not new. this is carly, and i also rp jeonggukxmi and jihoonmi here. i’m really busy these days, so this may be a terrible mistake, but what else do i do when i get steamrolled by a new muse, right? i’ve been plotting more for my other muses while i’ve had seungwoo knocking around in my head and had to resist plotting for him even though oftentimes i had more ideas for plots with him than my other two muses. i resisted because i wasn’t sure i would actually be able to bring him, but in the end, i could not resist for long. so here we are!! i’m really excited and also terrified because this muse is simultaneously big fun and a source of immense emotional distress for me, so we’ll see what happens asdfasdf

his about page is here, but currently lacking his timeline (because i’m scared; i will man up today.) the main thing for you to know is that he’s hydrus, a hitman and also does every job where he can take his clothes off (prostitute, stripper.) oh yeah, he’s also @wonwoomi​‘s older brother and wants him dead. that’s very important. please like this if you’d like to plot, and i’ll come to you, likely on jihoon’s account since that’s where i do all of my mi plotting. i’m terrible at plotting on twitter these days, but i’m also hyeongjunsang there if you want to hmu anyway. oh yes, another thing i should mention: despite the nature of this muse, i don’t actually write any explicit nsfw, so pls keep that in mind.

anyway!! more deets on this human disaster under the cut! ty for reading

( tw: child abuse, forced prostitution, drugs, murder, severe depression, suicidal thoughts )

his family was actually super supportive of him growing up; it was wonwoo that caught all of their abuse, including seungwoo’s. he only really did it because he idolized the ringleader, their oldest brother jeongwoo, and because he didn’t know better for a while. by the time he knew better, he didn’t care, so poor wonwoo

he never had any direction or goals in his life, so he just followed his brothers’ lead in everything, and did whatever his parents wanted. actually a very obedient kid

he wasn’t and still isn’t naturally very smart so he worked his ass off in school to keep up and keep his parents happy with him

he followed his older brother and hopeful star athelete hyunwoo’s footsteps and got involved in gymnastics pretty young. he kept it up all the way into high school where it was eventually clear he wouldn’t be making the olympics like his parents hoped, and they decided having a mediocre gymnast son wasn’t worth the hit to their image so they pulled him out

wonwoo started getting his revenge on the brothers, and he started with seungwoo, who crumbled and submitted to him first. seungwoo tried to warn his older brothers about how dangerous wonwoo was but his older brothers convinced him that wonwoo could never hurt them and he was like haha you’re right

wonwoo shattered hyunwoo’s knee, destroying his future athletic career, and seungwoo and hyungwoo both cowered behind jeongwoo who began crafting a plan to get their revenge on wonwoo

the further seungwoo got into high school the more he started worrying because he didn’t know what he wanted to do, and the stress of needing to get into a good uni (his parents wanted him to get into a sky university on the mainland if possible) drove him into friendships with bad crowds in pursuit of lowering his stress levels

alcohol, the start of his hoeism, other generally stupid shit, his friends were doing drugs but he did not bite there (yet) because he didn’t totally want to ruin his life or image

he ends up going to myeongcho uni to become a doctor per the urging of his parents but he’s too stupid for it, has to work his ass off again

wonwoo got to jeongwoo first, and killed him while torturing him

seungwoo was devastated, and since he basically followed jeongwoo to make all of his decisions. he was more aimless than ever before. he got more involved in Bad Shit TM

this time drugs were included!! and one of his friends was like “hey you’d make a great stripper” and seungwoo was like why not so he became one, very smart. he got a tattoo too, more stupid shit

his grades started going big downhill, barely passed his first year of uni and decided he wasn’t going through another one. his parents did not take that. not even that they didn’t take it well, they just didn’t take it, period

seungwoo was publicly under the influence enough for his parents to notice and be super disappointed and investigate and they found drugs in his room and there was a huge blowout in which seungwoo made a very dramatic exit from the family

he had a lot of guilt about not better convincing his brothers of how dangerous wonwoo was, and about not suffering more at wonwoo’s hand than hyunwoo and jeongwoo, and was so frustrated he was too weak to help protect him and that he didn’t have a mind of his own, so he was determined to Get Stronger and then kill wonwoo

he also wanted to get out of myeongcho asap but for that he needed more money so he kept being a gr8 stripper which led to him getting forced into prostitution, and he was so incredibly miserable

he decided he was going to yeet off to china as soon as he could so he started learning mandarin and then as soon as he was able he DID

part of his pursuit of strength involved chinese martial arts, and he met a retired monk who ended up training him in wushu. this also came with a lot of chinese spirituality and discipline he didn’t previously have which really did strengthen him

said monk mentor turned out to be a hitman and seungwoo convinced him to train him in this too

as per tradition, he found his mentor dead, then tracked down his killer and killed him

after that he was like “okay, guess i’m strong enough now, let’s continue my trend of revenge” and went back to myeongcho

he joined hydrus for more connections, support, and practice

he couldn’t really keep any normal jobs so he ended up going back to stripping and prostitution again, this time voluntarily, because he didn’t think he was good at anything else (shoutout 2 the grotto)

he couldn’t find wonwoo as quickly as he wanted to

he struggled with some depression throughout all of this, understandably, but it’s gotten really severe in recent times; suicidal thoughts are a daily occurrence and he feels utterly lacking of purpose and a future

all of this being said he’s really a clown, really outgoing, always making jokes and covering all of his problems with humor and doing anything to distract himself. he genuinely likes making people laugh, but he lacks much empathy and is still really stupid. no self-preservation, manners drilled into him by his parents pretty much discarded now, he will always get himself into trouble and is down 4 anything xoxo

[jlf23tumble]

One Direction holiday gift guide

I feel like the only person who’s willingly seen more useless 1D merch than me is Niall (egads, all the “future Mrs. Tomlinson” shirts!!), so naturally, @fullonlarrie figures I’m the best person to create a holiday gift guide (my money’s on Niall, but he has a million dollars for his holiday budget, and if twitter is to be believed, he’s currently fucking his luxurious couch, so it’s up to me, jeepers, the pressure!!)

Lauren’s original request was for a fan-made 1D calendar, but alas, she’s SOL unless she goes official. The options:

Give me cash money, and I’ll create a calendar from my infamous “undefined” folder; I still plan to make myself an X Factor highlights calendar when the shitshow is over (Louis munching on cheese-bugh-ahs so he doesn’t have to talk to Simon and can listen to his boyfriend’s go-to karaoke song in peace; Louis selling me pens; Louis mentoring while dead on his feet; Louis smiling and judging; Louis glaring; Louis sporting hickeys; Louis sharing snacks with Ayda; Louis hanging out with his pal--and mine!--Dermot; Dermot in general; you get the gist).

Encourage fandom artists to create their own calendar (this would be remarkably easy for them to do, and there are so many great artists out there…use your powers, Luke, I mean, Lauren).

Give Simon Cowell cash money and buy an official 2019 1D calendar to fund his next tit job, hoping someone botches it.

Buy an individual calendar (I found some GREAT Zayn, Louis, and Liam options; Harry’s are hit or hugeeee miss, depending on vendor, and Niall’s are just too “Au Bon Pain” for me, so no links for you).

(Lauren also wants a One Direction beer koozie [cozy? koozy?], but these don’t yet exist outside of the D’s notorious pool party pad...that said, they’re remarkably easy to create, so throw a fiver at a merch blank place and make one! I’m probably gonna throw a fiver at a snowglobe creator so I can make “the hug” extra poignant in my bathroom.)

Okay! So with these individual requests out of the way, let me take you on a deeper dive under the cut with pictures and links. There are literally THOUSANDS of choices for mugs, t-shirts, wall art, phone cases, stickers, notecards, etc., so I highly recommend that you visit redbubble, etsy, or society6 and search for your faves (or make your own), I promise you, you won’t regret it! Instagram’s a great place for pins, my two faves being Miri and Milly. Amazon’s another great resource, but god, there’s a lot of random shit, most of it terrible/good and cheapppp, as only the best form of camp/kitsch can be. My recs under the cut are for things that I would gift my own personal IRL friends.

Let’s start with the individual boys, and I forced myself to limit each one to less than five, but you have my solemn oath that you can easily find at least a dozen wonderful items in your price and cheese range on the sites I mentioned above.

Niall:

This one feels obvious, but you can’t think Flicker and not think candles, amirite? Bonus: you can find one of these for each of the boys: 

Similarly, you can find this set for each of the boys, but Niall Nails are the only ones I would ever buy anyone ever:

There are a million tragic lyrics on Flicker, but I think millypins captures this one nicely:

Do I really want to wake up to fetus Niall’s smug-ass outline lording it over me? Nope, but I’d probably stick him in our tacky useless front half-bathroom: 

Zayn:

I could be gross and say something about him being a real snacc, but I prefer thinking of Zayn as the band’s cupcake, hence, if I threw a cupcake party, this is what you’d see on top (or maybe Harry…maybe ZARRY, I’d take it next level, yo):

Speaking of Zarry, I love everything in this artist’s shop, but especially this pillow:

Someday soon, I’m doing a “my fave Zayn shirts” zodiac post, and you can bet your ass this one’s gonna be on there. That said, it makes a pretty rad tattoo/sticker, too: 

Not too many size options, but wow, these are something I’d actually wear and enjoy being sorta stealth about (until someone called my ass out in public):

What the WHAT is happening in the Amazon sports section? Compression cycling socks in a variety of sizes/styles, all with this iconic logo action:

Liam:

My car has really gone ~through it with me (skull gearshift knob, barefoot gas pedal, my burning desire to apply flames to the outside of it), but the Liam car chevron seems doable!  

Not gonna lie, this is REALLY cute, but don’t let it limit you because the Liam jewelry that’s currently out there is amazing:

Fuck Jesus, what WOULD Liam do???

(I still contend that you can make your own iconic Liam Payne/Mona Lisa sweatpants for about $20, but there’s no link…send me some cash, say, $30, and I’ll make ‘em for you.)

Louis:

I promise you, this’ll be full of LAFFs, some “facts” on Louis, circa 2012: 

Do you have a tiny dog? Do you have an appreciation for an iconic Louis shirt that you’d like to see on said dog? Here you go!

So many of Louis’s tattoos are art on their own…why not buy a print and stump your future house guests? These are two separate ones:

Speaking of house guests and parties, this is a sure-fire smash (and again, something that’s available for all the boys, but Louis’s version is especially pretty)…judge your own X Factor contest: 

I can’t find my fave rbb/sbb travel mug options, but there are quite a few, so do sbb proud and pick your fave!

Harry:

I actually own this, yet I’ve never taken it out of its wrapper, it’s THAT iconic:

Who can keep all your useless work account login information secrets better than Harry Styles? Answer, no one except for Liam (tbh, the previous version of this book is what stores all mine): 

I wish this existed in actual book form, but still, pretty damned cool, and you can print them out/frame them, if you’re really good: 

“Hip pack,” it’s a fanny pack, a bum bag, and I love it!! 

One Direction as a collective:

Oh, Jesus, okay, there is SO MUCH OUT THERE, and most of it is garbage, but it’s fun garbage, so here’s what I would give to a fellow fan, assuming they didn’t already own ALL of it.

These still exist, they still work, and don’t kid yourself, Niall brushes his very own teeth with one (according to my insider…the insider is my imagination): 

Would I buy a larrie friend this low-key larrie beach towel? You bet your fucking ass I would:

Wow, people want a lot for the One Direction Monopoly game, but Monopoly is so fucking boring, so just watch this video instead. 

I’m not gonna lie, this perfume is fucking VILE, but buy it for the Larry packaging…between us, I see you, sbb: 

I absolutely need this on a t shirt to match my fake-o Joy Division shirt:

Look, the only thing holding my remote control together right now is this duct tape (currently, the panel with Zayn’s face), but I’ve seen a TON of proof that you can make cute shoes, wallets, etc., with it):

It’s easy to lump this in with all the other merch everywhere else on Amazon, etc., but I lmaoooooo because it’s so ~serious, like, I’m a goth but I’m also into normcore because it’s the only true goth at this point, so fuck your glitter version, this is my truth:

If you find others, send ‘em to me! You know I love this garbage!

[bedlamgames]

Q&A #107

Today we have revisiting Rough Landing, a question I don’t need to answer in the best possible way, double bimbos, tumblr being tumblr, me possibly somewhat going off on one in regard to what NOT to do, and more.

[Anonymous said:] Had a Corruption rank up and one of the slaver options had both Depraved and Spiritual, which are supposed to be mutually exclusive I thought: Choice 4: Madeline Crakewyne - Human Wastelander Futanari - Competent Skybreaker - (Spi)(Fly)(Res)(Clu)(Cun)(Usc+)

- You’re right, those should be mutually exclusive. 

[Anonymous said:] There is an event where one of your slavers will slip into your tent at night and have their way with you. Can you explain some of the mechanics that govern this event?

- My absolute favourite kind of question. Mainly as there exists a resource in game already which I hope should be able to fully explain all the details. Please see under Help and Prefferences -> Forced Encounters. 

[Anonymous said:] Need to ask; any chance for standard dwarf female commission, or this one is considered up to date?

- There technically is one in Scout the Coast though I’d prefer to get another one for the examine. I’ve been trying to get one done for ages through the commission polls that would serve to be a fun NH take on Dorf Fortress. I’ve also got a set of portraits potentially coming as a bonus though there’s some health issues getting in the way of that.

So it’s not consided up to date, there is a chance, but maybe not for awhile. 

[Anonymous said:] Bug report: orc cum addict training on bimbo slave results in double bimbo.

- That’s hilarious, and far too appropriate. Alas, I must say that has been found and will be fixed for the update. 

[Anonymous said:] the links to pixiv have disappeared

- Oh tumblr... why must you be so well tumblr. Tried adding a link to the twitter which has a link to the pixiv and that’s not showing either as an active link. Thankfully if you go the tumblr directly (i.e not on the dashboard) there’s an embed of the twitter so you can access them that way.

[academiy-blog said:] Hey man, Love the work you do, please don't give up on this path, you're so talented and creative. I am in love with your game No Haven and want to make a game like it but don't know where to start or how to do it. I am a complete stranger to coding and game making but I want to create adventures that people can lose themselves in like you do. Can you please tell me where should I start learning and what skills would I need to make a game like No Haven? You're awesome, take care Your big fan, me

- First seriously appreciated!

But oh man do not like it like I did as it was the complete wrong ass-backwards way to do it :D

Starting with RAGS meant I learnt a rather terrible system like the back of my hand which I worked how to break horribly to do what I wanted it to do. Doing it that way meant I often learned the wrong lessons when it comes to coding more in general, and didn’t know that, cause it worked. 

Then moving onto Twine without the time to really take a break to learning coding properly meant I was having to pick up concepts on the go, and again made a bunch of mistakes. 

Personally if I could somehow start over I’d do a coding course of some kind, and then use that knowledge to make games rather than deciding to make games, and still at times be lacking vital knowledge about what I should be doing or indeed not doing. 

Saying that I’ve found freecodecamp (especially the emails with five things to read each week), and w3schools to be great resources so maybe you could try starting there?

[Anonymous said:]   If someone hates being spiritual leader, they won't leave role when asked. In fact slavers leave this role only if they dislike it. Is this a bug?

- I’m pretty sure that’s been fixed, but will double check. 

[From the Patreon:] Short question:How do i transform my Character or another Slaver into the opposite gender? Male -> Female or Female -> Male.Are there certain assignments?

- There's a couple of different ways. 

Biomancy and Corruption can both do it for Male>Female. So you can either work towards doing it on purpose using the encampment activities, or you can run assignment that can result in Corruption like Changing Places and it might well happen. 

There's assignments that can do it one way or the other like Keldan Alley or Into the Depths. 

Then there's the option of getting too deep in debt with the Ensnared Rose.

[From TFgames:] The game is very fun and enjoyable.How to actually win the game?I gained a lot of money, trained the slavers and slaves.What to do next?I got tired of repeating tasks.

- Hi, I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Currently there's a placeholder win condition of reaching 10k gold. Honnestly it's not very interesting as is and purely in there as a placeholder, and most players from what I've heard prefer to set their own goals like aquiring certain uniques and training them up. I know one player on my discord server always goes for the full collection of cheerleaders, along with making sure they have their own 'assistants'. 

There's also the golem scenario which has an alternate win condition which is more involved complete with patron submitted art for the final victory. 

I do have plans to address the win conditions by making them more interesting and varied. So that will be coming down the line. 

[From the Collective:] Some theoretical questions:a slaver promoted witch with Racial:Wyrdcraft is supposed to go away after some time. How does this combines with aspect Bimboborn ? Does she comes back after some time? Is there a way to keep her? What happens if a slave version of her is given as a slave to a dominant slaver with the appropriate aspect. What does she gives as traits to her master? any magic or Elementalist traits ? Can she go away?

- Bimboborn would not apply like if they were sold. She does not. There isn't but certain slave training and levelling her up can get her to stick around for longer. Witches can't be given with that aspect and there's a special scene to reflect that. 

[From the Collective:] My MC gained this Debauched Exaltation:  Caress of Bone -40 And the Mal Trait that goes with it.Does it make him immune to mind control events ?Apparently not if I look at the Mashlands Witches but there's other events I haven't tested.

- Call it Malevolence light so it mainly just works on assignments. Also those totally-not-witches have all sorts of tricks so who knows what they're actually fully capable of.

[From the Collective:] Negotiate entry of the Lord's gate: It doesn't trigger a level up if your slavers win enough xp to level up at the end of the mission. You need another mission to level up.

- Doesn't surprise me. It's a miracle that utter mess of an assignment hangs together at all so something minor like that is a small price to pay. Had to try to pull it apart recently for the Twine conversion and man it is so much yikes you would not believe. 

[From the Collective:] Not really a bug, per se, but still:I want to do the Mistress of torments mission (For the Normal Success result). When my slaver number is at maximum I can't do this even if I set the general orders to "Don't recruit anyone"I think it's the case for all missions with potential slavers. You should be able to do them with the "Don't recruit anyone" option on.

- I'd need to go back and do an alternate result where no recruitment is possible for that to happen. It's something I've been trying to do a lot more with the slave taking assignments recently especially, as I know it's also annoying when you're full up on slaves and are then locked out on too many assignments.

[From the Collective:] what's the requirement for crafting traits and Artisan/Artificier aspect? leaving a slaver on crafting assignment for months doesn't seem to trigger lvl ups.

- Currently impossible as Crafting xp isn't really a thing. Saying that the first Crafting assignment is currently walking the commission poll (along with the Insatiable fuck off fight) on the patreon so now it's just a matter of time for that to change. 

[From the Collective:] Imperial Muse I don't understand a part of the rewards Rewards Diplomacy rank up bonus: large wood elf shaft x4

- That's an amusing, if very annoying bug as I keep forgetting about it (happened with this update that's about to come out too though did get to hotfix it before the public release), if I don't add a new Diplomacy assignment to a certain condition.

[From the Collective:] at the moment no enchantement. As far as  I know there is only one enchanted item, from the ooze mission, maybe a proof of concept.the tinkerer encampment position is also in development.

- There's also the enchanted armours possible to find from corruption, there's a late game assignment in the city that can provide some, certain uniques start with one, and the next update will have an update which can also provide some. 

[From the Collective:] I have just realized that the bug that allowed to promote slaves even after you have reached 20 slavers had been fixed (sometimes I hate myself) Can you do something to expand the number of slavers - Do not count slavers and slaves in camp position - Do not count unique slaves and slavers (this way you will not be blocked with new missions of the update that have a story role), the 2 golems the witch queen, the fallen paladin and his demi angel friend, maybe also the cheerleaders, was unable to have more than one until slavers were 20) - Have a small number of places that can on be used by promoted slaves - a unique mission, perhaps  one for each region that allows additional camp size. - Some camp positions can be unlocked by missions. Taskmaster at Mountains, Alchemist at City, brewer at Coast, Cook at Forest, Emissary at Plains

- The current limits are in place due to RAGS (along with partially due to how I've set up the arrays, see previous answer about mistakes being made), so for now I'm not planning to change that or add ways to get round it in RAGS. However I do plan to change this I hope in the Twine conversion. There I can redo arrays on the fly which should make changing that more reasonable. 

[From the Discord:] Favorite Boardgame?   

- I’ve played much better, much designed games and certainly much more well regarded ones, but if I’m being honest for the best memories attached to it then absolutely Go. Not the one with the black and white tiles. The International Travel Game which came out in the early 60′s that my grandparents had a copy of. 

Thinking about it I suspect how willing it was to utterly screw with the players by diverting them on a flight to Paris to ending you up in some tropical island on the other side of the world you were trying to get to might have some influence on my approach to game design :D

[From the Discord:] What are the chances of a 10 Year Anniversary Remastered Edition of RL in 2024, complete with CHAPTER 3 (j/k... but I would play it)

- Honnestly, with what I’ve learned doing WR and NH I’m reasonably confident I could do a combined RL1 and 2 in Twine in a couple of months max if I dropped everything else. So not something I’m likely to do anytime soon with so many other priorities, but one I have thought about. 

[From the Discord:] What are the most recent major Scientific, Magical & Cultural innovations in the land of NH?

- I have an assignment chained to discuss that. 

[From the Discord:] Do marlsunes get fleas?

- Yes, occasionally if they let themselves go, but it’s treatable. 

[From the Discord:] With the existence of a Horned One camp... is there any credence to the rumoured couples only Horned Two camp?

- Given how well the double horned one idea is doing in the commissions recently, looks so. 

[From the Discord:] Specifically, how advanced is the art of glassmaking in the land of No Haven? Are glass panels a thing? Maybe even one-way mirrors made by the foremost guilds that employ E:Ea?

- See that’s a more tricky question than it sounds, and it’s all down to the Neko Protection League.

One thing I’ve found with commissions is it’s often a negotiation to get everything you want, and in that sacrifices end up being made, and/or details that were important in the original pitch get overlooked to focus on something else that is more urgent to be amended. In this case the glasses I wanted to look even more archaic didn’t get reflected as much as I’d have liked. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a bloody fantastic pair of pictures. Just a minor regret you know that I feel as is they don’t quite fit what I had in mind for the tech level of the setting.

[From the Discord:] Draki harpies - possible or UFO-like sightings?

As cool as a visual that suggests, which is tempting don’t get me wrong, draki are of elvish and human origins only. 

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

The Shape of Waiting: 7 Guillermo Del Toro Films Stuck In Development Hell

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The Shape of Waiting: 7 Guillermo Del Toro Films Stuck In Development Hell

The Shape of Water, which finally gets its worldwide release this weekend, has already stolen the hearts of many. With near unanimous praise from critics, Guillermo Del Toro’s gothic romance is prime for a busy awards season. The Shape of Water leads the Golden Globes with 7 nominations, which is the icing on the cake of a year dominated by genre film. Taking home some hardware would be a much deserved cherry atop Del Toro’s incredible career, who is widely regarded as one of the most imaginative filmmakers working in Hollywood today. In the wake of his new film, there have been many articles chronicling Del Toro’s career and ranking his filmography. Instead of contributing another, we’re venturing into a world of what could have been.

Though Del Toro has a decent sized filmography, the list of films he’s almost created is three times as long. The Mexican director has a relentless work ethic and more ideas than he knows what to do with. He’s infamous for being attached to many projects whether it be via writing, producing, or directing. I’m sure we all wish Del Toro had the time and resources to make every film his heart desired but alas, some projects will never come to be. In the spirit of the holidays, let’s visit some of the ghosts of movies’ past. Here are 6 films that Guillermo Del Toro almost brought to life!

1. Hellboy 3

I have to get this one out of the way first because it hurts the most. Del Toro was already well known in the film community for The Devil’s Backbone, but it was Hellboy that brought him into the mainstream spotlight. Hellboy was a unique, gothic superhero film released towards the beginning of the comic book movie boom.. It was our first taste of Del Toro’s insane world-building abilities, blending fantasy with the paranormal. This world was then expanded upon in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, elevating everything from the first. Del Toro imagined the franchise as a trilogy, but ran into trouble getting the third into production reportedly due to conflict over budget. But the franchise gained a strong fanbase, banding behind Del Toro and Ron Perlman. Back in January, GDT took to Twitter to see if the fans could help. Despite efforts from passionate fans, Del Toro later confirmed in February that film was 100% not going to happen. But, it didn’t take long for Lionsgate to announce a Hellboy reboot for 2019.

2. I Am Legend

We all know Guillermo Del Toro loves working with creatures and monsters, including his vampires of Blade 2 and The Strain. So to little surprise, Del Toro was approached to direct the zombie-vampire thriller I Am Legend by Will Smith himself. He expressed a lot of interest in the film, being a big fan of the Richard Matheson novel. Del Toro ultimately had to pass in favor of Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. There was a small silver lining though, GDT stated in an interview with TIME that his influence still made its way into the film:

Some of the notes about their biology actually came from me going to Warner Bros. to show them my ideas. I found it quite nice that visually the vampires in that movie had some passing similarity to those from my movie Blade II. The way they move, the fact that they all lose their hair and become these pale creatures.

3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

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It’s a little hard to imagine Guillermo Del Toro working within an established franchise despite the fact that the Harry Potter is practically a gothic fairy tale centered around a school of children. That said, one word makes it easy to see why GDT almost directed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: Werewolves. But let’s be real, it would have been DOPE to see a practical effects werewolf (performed by long time-collaborator Doug Jones, maybe?) on screen rather than the mediocre CGI lycan we were given. Del Toro passed on the project to direct Hellboy and Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity, 2013) went on to direct the well-received Harry Potter film. So everything worked out in the end I guess.

4. Justice League Dark

Of all the movies on this list, Justice League Dark was the closest film GDT came to actually making. The film is currently in development hell, as many other directors such as Joseph Kahn (Detention, Bodied) have also dropped from the project. Del Toro was attached all the way back in 2012, with a penned script that was completed in 2014. For those who aren’t comic book nerds, Justice League Dark is a team of superheroes/antiheroes who deal with the darker paranormal threats of the DC universe. The team is comprised of: a dead guy, a demon, an occultist detective, a magician, and a character literally named Swamp Thing. Everything about the team and premise begs for Guillermo Del Toro to bring it to the big screen. A comic book movie seen through a horror lens with a unique story and killer effects could have been a game-changer. Del Toro was incredibly passionate about the material and we’ve already seen what he could do with dark superhero franchise. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts with Pacific Rim 2 and the rise of the DCEU, Del Toro had to step away from the project.

5. Pinocchio

It’s been a grueling 10 years of development hell for Del Toro’s imagined stop-motion take on Pinocchio. And of course whats holding it back, as the case with a few other unrealized projects, is getting it financed. GDT is a true artist in the sense of the word, he won’t make something unless it’s exactly his vision. Del Toro’s dark take on the classic tale would would be a Frankenstein twist on the original fairy tale, utilizing a combination of stop-motion and live puppetry. Though ambitious, the heavily practical production would be expensive, with a proposed budget of aprox $32 million. All the pieces are in place from the script to the production team, we’ve seen promo art and even a short clip. All that’s missing is the money to make it happen. Hopefully The Shape of Water‘s box office performance makes the nice list this Christmas and we get one step closer to seeing the film brought to life.

6. The Wolverine

Fans really enjoyed James Mangold’s The Wolverine, but it’s hard not to think of what it would have looked like through Del Toro’s eyes. GDT has been connected to several superhero films over the years, including Thor and the above mentioned Justice League Dark, but this one fascinates me the most. In an interview with Collider, Del Toro revealed he actually sat down with Fox Executives and Hugh Jackman about directing the film. It would have been cool to see him take on a story set in Japan, as Del Toro often drenches his films in culture like Pan’s Labyrinth  or even Crimson Peak. Logan and Hellboy share a lot of similarities, so I could see why this was an attractive project to him. Two things I desperately wanted from The Wolverine was more body horror with Logan losing powers and a practical Silver Samurai. Had GDT taken on this project, perhaps I would have gotten my wish. Del Toro eventually passed the project along to Darren Arronofsky, who then passed it on to Mangold. How cool would it be too see each director’s different vision on the iconic character.

7. At the Mountains of Madness

Lastly is Guillermo Del Toro’s passion project, the classic H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness. The story is a connected anthology of sorts, a professor recounts stories during an Antarctic expedition. Del Toro has been trying to get this movie for over a decade, with the project being cancelled in 2004 by Dreamworks and then again in 2012 when he refused to make it PG-13. The second time around came pretty close: the script was complete, James Cameron was on board to produce, and Tom Cruise was in talks for the lead role. The film was denied once again over funding and the creative differences in tone, but as of 2013 Del Toro has stated he would try one more time. The film sounds like a terrifying thriller and the story would be treated with the highest respect, Lovecraft is a clear influence in Del Toro’s work. Hopefully with his relentless passion, the film will eventually get made and see the light of day.

  There are plenty more unrealized or up-in-the-air projects in Del Toro’s catalog including Godzilla, Beauty and the Beast, and The Haunted Mansion. At one point, he was even offered the entire Dark Universe! The talented director can only do so much, but with a mind like his can you blame the world for wanting as many Del Toro movies as possible? Today’s film landscape is so saturated with reboots and remakes, every Guillermo Del Toro project is a breath of fresh air. It’s unfortunate we can’t get more unique and imaginative films like Pacific Rim or Pan’s Labyrinth. To heck with the Dark Universe and the DCEU, I’m putting the GDTEU (Guillermo Del Toro Extended Universe, working title) on my Christmas List. One thing is for sure, at least The Shape of Water isn’t a project on this list. Go and support the film so we can get even more from Del Toro, perhaps At the Mountains of Madness if we’re lucky.

Which Guillermo Del Toro dream project do you most want to see on the big screen? Let us know in the comments below!