#frankly if we're going to do this they should all be paying us

[lost-romantique]

"We aren't a family, sir!"

"We aren't a family, sir! You are the boss! We are the employees!"

"Who's that?"

"Oh, her? That's just Loona. What a nightmare. Serious attitude problems... She'll be out of our hair next month when she ages out. Good riddance, if you ask me. She'll never amount to anything much."

"Fuck, Blitzo! Why can't you stay out of my face for, like, five minutes?!"

"Because, I adopted you! And that should mean something!"

"Oh, what does it matter?! You're not my real dad! I was almost eighteen!"

"It still counts!"

"Well, it shouldn't! I didn't need you then, asshole! I don't, now!"

"I love you, dad."

"Okay, not much of a talker, are you? I'm Blitzo, the "o" is silent. I'm sure we're going to get along just fine. So, what's your deal? What'd you do? Who'd you diddle? You look like someone good with a gun. You look like someone who could shoot up an office-"

"I'm just worried about Millie. She'll be on her way by now, I'm sure!"

"Ugh, she'll be fine, Moxxie. It would take a roided-up hippo to take down that woman when she's upset."

"We've never dealt with the human government before! She's in danger!"

"Do you ever honestly shut up about Millie?! It's always "Oh, how's Millie?" "I can't tonight. I'm hangin' with Millie!" "I'm so worried about Millie!" And she's ALWAYS... FIVE FUCKIN' FEET away from you! It's pathetic!"

"Do you remember what you said to me after my first day with the company?"

"Not really..."

"I remember. You told me I did a good job and that you were proud to work with me. I feel like you wanted to say something more judgmental, but... you said that because I needed it... And it helped."

"Look, I'm hard on you, because I know what you're capable of, Mox. You care too much about what everyone thinks except for... me, because, y'know, my opinion is correct, but just... keep doing a good job. 'Kay? You shoot 'n kill good, you escape things easy... you can be strategic and cold-blooded when you need to, aaaand don't expect any more compliments; I'm maxed out."

"Thank you, sir."

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Someone with an eye for potential. Now you wanna keep working for peanuts, or do you want to shake things up?"

"I'm done. I don't wanna play ghost hunter with you, and I-"

"Uh, it's ghost-fuckers"

"I wasn't done! You know, I always love to have fun with you, and I ain't said boo to you moping around like a sad sack for weeks. But we have bills to pay... So look, you can go be pathetic and play sex ghosts, if that's what you need to do, but I gotta get this job done!"

"Fine! Who needs you anyway!? Bethany Ghost-Fucker works ALONE!"

"We're just Wrathians, Blitz. Muscle. It's all we're good for, all I'm good for. It's why you hired me. Any demon good at making a buck is welcome in Lust or Greed, but here? Demons like us ain't cut out for this."

"Uh... fuck you!"

"What?"

"Millie, I have spent too much of my time, energy, and holes into setting this up for us to entertain your bullshit. I brought you into this company for a reason, okay? You're tougher, smarter, and frankly more capable than anyone I've ever met in any ring..."

"Look. What I said earlier, you've just always been so unbothered by everything. Almost bulletproof and, I guess I never realized how much I depended on that. I didn't know how to react to you being reduced to…Bethany. But I should've respected you like you always do for me. I'm sorry."

"NO! Not them, Your Highness! It was me, it was all me, okay? Y-you can't expect to teach anyone a lesson by killing all of us!"

"You dare try to tell me how to PUNISH!?"

"Look, all that Hell is gonna see is you executing imps who are just trying to do their job! I'm the rogue here, not them!"

"Blitz, what are you doing?"

"Your Highness, please. Blitz just--"

"Moxxie, stop."

"Blitz, I can't let you-"

"This big red bitch never planned on hearing us out... Just... just take care of Loona for me."

"I love you, guys."

"Sir-sir, you're here!"

"Dad!"

"Don't you ever do that to me again, you fucking idiot!"

Moxxie was right, they are most definitely not a family. /sarcasm

[bloodyodyssey]

(Repost) Comms still up with 8 slots, 3 for busts, 3 for half body, and 2 for full body! Each listing also allows for up to one extra character to be added on at half price!

***If you don't want to commission me that's also fine i'd apreciate just a regular kofi dono or just sharing this around bc my finances are low, I've been averaging on $20 a month and struggling to pay hospital bills from earlier this year. i will also be considering opening a google doc or some other order form to allow payments via cashapp if there's any interest. Anyways heres a general breakdown of the pricing system and my will's/wont's under the cut:

So how do I (you, the buyer) choose what I want?

SO when you open up the request form it should look something like this!

We're using the bust order as our example here. At its base price, $15, it is set for the black and white option. If this is what you would like, then you don't have to worry about the add ons at all and you go straight to submitting your request! Now, if you're choosing add ons, it'll look something like these:

The first would be an example of an order of a flat color bust + an extra character bust with flat coloring as well. The color option adds the extra $10 (to match the listed price on the poster for $25), and the extra character with flat coloring adds half of that $25 to the order (well a little less bc i knocked off the .50 cents) which is why it comes out to $37.

The second would be an example of a black and white bust order with an added black and white bust character. This just adds an extra $7 to the price totaling $22.

What will you (the artist, me Brutus) draw?

If you want me to draw your oc or fanart of your favorite character I GOT U!!!

I'm also comfortable drawing blood and gore though I'll have to keep it on the lighter side (I enjoy blood if it isnt obvious by my url though so depending on what you want we might be able to go a little further with that).

I can do characters with armor as well, however I will require a reference of some sort from you, the client, as I'm frankly not going to attempt armor off the dome. I won't design armor myself either.

Pinups (not full nsfw due to how much of a struggle it is to navigate different site policies) and other suggestive works are also a-ok! a tity does not bother me if that wasn't made clear by my commission card 👍🏽

What will you (the artist, me Brutus) NOT draw?

Im not comfortable trying to draw real people as of right now sorry! I'm just not really a caricature or realistic portrait artist but this may change in the future.

I also won't do furry/anthro just because that isn't my forte as I haven't practiced drawing animalistic characters. There r plenty of talented furry artists for you to choose from and I could talk to someone to guide you to a few .

(I CAN do more humanoid fantasy characters however. like mermaids, satyrs, etc)

More extreme gore and body horror is also off the table. (so like spilling guts stuff like that)

I may love mecha but as it is like armor and a bit more extreme, I'm not drawing it sorry. And also as stated above I'm not drawing armor regardless without a good reference.

Certain fandoms are a no-go for me due to my own comfort. A quick list would be: mogeko games, omori, south park, hetalia, attack on titan, mcyt, hazbin hotel/helluva boss. if you're not sure just ask!

I reserve the right to decline any comission request for any reason. Getting paid is nice but my comfort is nicer yknow.

And that should cover everything! If you still need to ask me anything, my messages are open. Thank you so much for reading and a little extra thank you if you decide to commission me ❤️

[charminglyantiquated]

Nautilus update! I’ve written more in-depth about all of this on the gofundme page and our social media, so I won’t get into the nitty gritty detail here as well, but I wanted to share the news here, for anyone wondering how things are going! Under a cut because it’s long, but tl:dr is we're moving forward, and we'll be okay.

Good news first: The owner of another local sailing company had put one of their boats up for sale the same week as the accident, and after the surveyors told us to expect the worst, he got in touch. She’s now ours, and we’ll be sailing again next summer! We were lucky enough to work on her in the past, and her previous owner wanted has told us he’d initially meant to offer her to us at the end of this season. With a working boat, we can keep our company going, which in turn means we have a means of making money that still allows us the flexibility to work on repairs, and deal with matters in the shipyard as they arise. (The marina also had a multi-year wait for commercial boats, so we were worried about what would happen if we had to bow out for a few years!) We're extraordinarily lucky and so, so grateful - this literally would not have been possible without the fundraiser, and the safety net it gave us, and the way our whole community has supported us. Without exaggeration, it changed our lives. I will never be able to fully express how grateful I am.

Nautilus is written off as a loss, which we've been expecting. They offered us the chance to buy her as salvage, which we obviously accepted. So insurance wrote us a payout for what she’s insured for, plus reimbursement for getting her hauled and towed, less the value of her as salvage. Because she’s a loss, we have to pay off the loan that we took out this spring to buy her. After that's done, we'll have enough left over from the payout check to launch the new boat next spring (insurance/marina fees/haul and tow) which in turn leaves us free to use the proceeds of the fundraiser to make a start on repairs this winter! In the meantime our insurance is pursuing subrogation: essentially (as I understand it) after paying us out of their pocket, they are going after the other insurance for reimbursement. If we do see any lost income, it would be through this process, but we’ve been told several times it will take months - we don’t know if that means ‘december’ or ‘next august’, and don’t know how much, so we’re crossing our fingers but not making any plans around it. The crisis point was these last two months, and honestly the fundraiser got us through it - now we have our feet under us again, it would definitely be welcome but our stability and livelihood isn't hanging on it, so we can afford to wait.

Repairs - rough estimate from the survey is $83k, but half of that is labor costs. We can do much of the labor ourselves, which should lower it a bit. There are obviously areas where we'll need experts (welding!!), but we have the skills for a lot of what has to be done. Right now we’re getting the boats covered for cold weather, picking up some odd jobs around the shipyard, and clearing room in the woodshop to build a new main mast - that’s the project this winter! We are also going to start tearing up the teak deck to access the damaged fiberglass below, and figure out what, if anything, can be salvaged from the wreck of the mast/rigging (the jib furler sheared in half, but the sail itself made it out with only four small, easily patched punctures! Which is frankly a miracle, given how it was literally jammed through the mast). Anything that seems sound will be checked over by an expert, and a lot of it might still be too stressed to safely use, but after months of looking at the wreck of the thing, it’s honestly just a relief to be able to go through and start taking pieces apart.

Tl:dr is we’re going to be okay. Money is tight, we’re living with family and working 6 days a week, but we’ll be on the water sailing again in May, our company will survive, and we’re hoping to have Nautilus fixed in two or three years. Just wanted to share that with you all; I'm really glad to finally have some good news to offer. It's not easy but it's better, and we're going to get through it, pretty much 100% because of everyone who has been so kind to us both. Thank you all so, so much for every single kind word and share and donation. I am never going to be able to say how much it has meant to me, and what a difference it has made. I won’t be posting much more about it on here now that we're back on our feet, but if anyone wants to keep updated, detailed news about Nautilus repairs will go on the gofundme page, and our instagram will have lighter posts about both boats, repairs, and the 2025 season.

[cleverthylacine]

The TikTok Migration to RedNote

On TikTok, I lurk, and now I'm lurking on RedNote. (I'm not searchable yet. Will let those interested know when that changes. Still figuring out the settings.)

A bunch of people got mad about the TikTok ban and decided that they would take their cookies and leave and go to an ACTUALLY Chinese app. I'm not sure why they picked RedNote rather than DouYin, but I think it was a good choice. I'm following other lolitas there mostly, because I don't need any Mandarin to like people's outfits. I did have a semester of Mandarin and am wondering how hard it would be to pick up some more, though, especially since I'm seeing all kinds of Americans from every imaginable background type doing so.

All over YouTube there are videos now of TikTokers on RedNote crying because we have been welcomed onto the app and treated kindly.

There is a lot of very expected anger about people discovering that no, in other countries it's not normal to pay more than half your paycheck for rent and half of what's left for food. Chinese people are saying that they thought it was government propaganda when they were told that Americans are expected to pay for ambulances, and healthcare, and that a $200 grocery bill for the week is not unusual.

I'm glad to see people getting radicalised about the class system in this country, but that's not actually the main thing I'm talking about in this post, though.

There are people who are deadass shocked that they haven't been insulted, trolled in a mean way, or been exposed to explicit unsolicited come-ons (there's one guy who posted shirtless selfies who is a little @@;; that he has 16000 gay male Chinese followers, but he's not getting spammed with raunchy photos).

So I value freedom of speech on political matters very highly, but there are two things I think are going on.

The first one is that yeah, a lot of Chinese people probably are better socialised than Americans, BUT

The second one is that Americans put up with a lot of shit in the name of freedom of speech that we shouldn't and after the changes on Meta last week I will only be using IG to communicate with Japanese brands and Facebook not at all, because they're going the other direction.

I think that if some chode did send me a nasty DM on RedNote and I reported it, something would be done about it. It's not that I don't think people will be nice and kind if they're not forced to be.

It's that chodes and Nazis and frankly racist and misogynist people will run everyone else off a platform if they are allowed to, and this app has somehow stopped that from happening, probably by not letting people be completely predatory bullies and assholes to one another.

English-language social media probably needs to stop letting people do that. It is not a violation of your free speech rights to tell someone they can't use a platform to be abusive.

I saw a video of a person of mixed race and unclockable gender who was wearing loose, oversized clothes sobbing because nobody was insulting them horribly, everyone who had commented on their post had been genuinely nice. Their experience of every other social media platform has been unchecked bullying everywhere. I don't know whether they'd ever been here, but we all know bullying does happen here, too, even if we're loads better than any of Meta's products.

People should not EXPECT to be viciously harassed every time they join a new site. That's horrible. It's also something I never really questioned before.

And I still think (always will) that you should be able to post any content that you want on AO3 in the works, but it's not okay to bully people in the comments.

[astudyinimagination]

Why is BBC Sherloc fandom so horrible to its female characters?!

To be fair, not all of it is. Molly Hooper, Sally Donovan, and Mary Watson, especially, have fierce fans and defenders.

It's a thorny issue, Nonny. Some people will claim it's because of how the women are written. I call bullshit on that idea, because most people don't need a male character to be especially well-written to like him. Dr. Watson isn't particularly well-written in the ACD canon, and yet he is beloved! So... yeah, I believe that they believe that, but I call bullshit.

I've heard people say that Molly is pathetic, but they seem to have this idea of her that's locked on to season 1 and ignores all the character development she gets throughout the rest of the show. (It's also frankly mean to quiet girls who don't know how to stand up for themselves, and as a quiet girl who didn't used to know how to stand up for herself, I really hated that.)

Most hate for Sally Donovan is really just misogynoir, and I have zero problems calling it that. Sally's doing her job, and she's probably doing it better than Lestrade (a fandom darling) is.

Irene Adler... well, to be fair, that story is a mess. But also I at least haven't seen a lot of hate for her...

Janine, also not a lot of hate, but she is victimized by both her boss and Sherlock, so I think she gets a pass, lol.

Mary Watson... hoooo boy. Mary was hated before she ever got to the screen, because a lot of people wanted so badly for their boys to get together, and Mary threatened that. And then she showed up and she was a delight and she sort of won people over for about two weeks, lol. Then she shot Sherlock, and people hated her even more. And I kind of get it, but also... two of my favorite characters of all time are a father and son who cut off each other's hands. I'm okay with some serious angst and drama and even violence between characters if it's not brushed under the rug, and Mary's actions were not brushed under the rug and it was very clear that Sherlock loved Mary and she ended up loving him back. So... I get that Mary is complicated, and that the writers over-complicated her. But, Your Honor, I still love her.

Eurus... dunno, I think by that point, people were too worked up about other things, and Eurus is also handled extremely messily, lol.

Mrs. Hudson is universally beloved, as she should be.

It does seem, in general, that if you have a story or set of stories where the main characters are all male, the fans are going to be hyper-focused on the guys and not pay that much attention to the girls. I could be wrong about that, but I can think of one or two others where that's the case.

But also in general, female characters are held up to much more scrutiny and much higher standards than male characters are, and the BBC Sherlock fandom is no exception. John Watson flew under the radar for years with a characterization that I never especially enjoyed, and very few people seemed to notice until he was cheating on his wife. We all have certain ideas about what our favorite characters are like, but John really benefited from a very cinnamon roll perception the fandom at large had of him, that also had very little basis in reality.

And I know a lot of people would be very angry with me for saying this, but I also think it's the truth: I think that sometimes, female character hate is just misogyny. Especially as it comes from real women. And I'm tired of seeing people here on Tumblr clutch their pearls about that. You can be female or AFAB, you can be politically left, you can be LGBTQ+, you can be a staunch feminist, and absolutely none of that protects you from misogyny coloring your thoughts because we are all born into a world that really hates women. And whether our parents hammer misogynistic ideals into us from a young age or not, they're all around us as we're growing up. Girls are held to higher standards of behavior than boys are. Men can make all the mistakes in the world and you just have to keep giving them chances, but God forbid a woman steps one millimeter out of line.

So yeah, I think that there's a lot of misogyny that goes on in fandom spaces, even left-leaning spaces, and I think that a lot of it is coming from inside the house. And I'm not saying that those people are Bad People TM. I'm saying that none of us are perfect, and deprogramming yourself from a lot of bad shit is a lot of work, and it's hard, and sometimes the shit that you missed surfaces in your fandom life. Which sucks. Nobody is evil for that, though — just human.

I'm not saying, either, that all dislike for the women of Sherlock is misogyny. I am saying that I think quite a lot of it is.

[eldritch-spouse]

Just when you thought taking a day off from retail when you're sick would be paradise away from the retail hell boys when your door suddenly explodes and the retail hell boys enter your room when they heard you got sick. You can't win.

TW: Reader has a dark mindset, their suffering is not treated seriously.

It's kind of ridiculous that your only respite is sickness, isn't it?

Does it count as self-harm to deliberately let yourself get sick just so you can miss a day or two of work? Does... Does not caring about a twisted ankle that much because you know you won't have to work for a while count as mental illness? If only you could afford a psychologist right now.

What you do know, is that in spite of your physical pain, you haven't felt this at peace in a while. You can even ignore the fact that your pay is getting damaged from this, it's worth it. It's calm.

No weird coworkers, no pressure from a shitty boss, no creepy clients-

CRASH

There's no mistaking it. That was the front door of your rackety little apartment.

Fear has you flatten to the wall of your bedroom, ankle squealing with pain. Deep down, you've always dreaded this would happen since moving to Hell. That some nutjob would just break into your place and butcher you like a pig. Because they feel like it, because some demons are just like that, because humans are easy targets.

Humans are like gazelles to them. And amidst all those grazing bodies, a tired and beaten down one like you is the gazelle with the limp, the one that's getting picked first.

Fucking damn it, you should have bought the domestic defense bat that tall butch tried to sell you when you moved in. You wondered why she was pricing it so high until she revealed it was some kind of hellish beast, as opposed to a barbed wire bat.

As is, you can only grab the bedside lamp and hope, with every fiber of your being, that the thing you're up against has a skull soft enough to allow brain damage.

Hearing hushed voices, your plan is to turn the corner and possibly run outside before you have to hit anyone.

A plan easily thwarted when a meaty hand swipes the bedside lamp right out of your hands.

Alright. You didn't think that far ahead.

" YEAH, THAT'S IT SMALL FRY! " The meathead you've come to recognize as one of the creepy regulars beams. He smashes the bulb out of the lamp, and jams some kind of blade in the hollowed space, using fabric to tie it all together. Is that... Part of your curtains?

" Moz, you ruined the door, you oaf... Isn't that essential to keep the house safe? " The other one, the incubus, points out, feeling the dents left in your wall.

Said wrathful demon pauses to gouge the extent of the damage for several seconds, then waves. " Huh. I'LL DO YA ONE BETTER- WHO NEEDS DOORS?! By the time I'm done, no one will even think of trying to get in. "

Babesley turns around. " Well, she does- Oh! Oh there she is, our tasty workaholic. " The incubus gets a glimpse at your injured limb and gasps. " My sweet hardworking princess, what are you doing out of bed?! Come on, let's go lie down, I'll give you a wonderful massage and you can tell me all about the awful people you work with! "

The awful people being them both, mostly. On a good day.

Babesley has started pulling you along gently, and frankly, you know there's nothing you can do to get them out of your home now, so you might as well just bide your time and see what comes next.

He openly evaluates the state of your room before cautiously helping you lay down, starting to work on your back muscles with surprising competence. You didn't know he was a masseur! Out of spite, you don't allow the shock to show on your face, keeping noises to a minimum.

" Come now, it's no fun if I don't get to hear it. " He huffs. " You're being difficult when we're just trying to keep you safe! Tsk tsk, brats these days. "

" Get- Hnnh- " Oh he popped something ancient in there. The smug brow raise is his display of victory. " Get out of my home. "

" Mhm, not happening. I was thinking of getting a pizza from that cozy nook downtown. "

Pizza does sound good.

You ponder on it to the sounds of Moz breaking your house apart in a nightmare DIY session.

" ... I want the pepperoni one. " It was a moment of weakness. And most importantly, free food.

" Say please. " He sing-songs, clawtips flirting with the fat of your rump through your pajama shorts.

" Cunt. "

" Yes, I bet yours is heavenly. "

Before things can get any more awkward, the other demon bulldozes in with a cup, slapping your ass with a force so great it has you barking every curse under the sun.

" Spit on this, jizzbrains. " He angles the glass at Babes, who easily 'ptoo's in.

You think that one slap just undid all of the incubus' work on your accumulated tension. " What are you even doing? Ruining my house for the fuck of it?! "

" HAH. " Moz grunts. " I'm making it IMPENETRABLE. This here is for a booby trap. IMAGINE DYING WITH A BONER. "

You and Babesley look at him blankly.

" They walk in, right?! They STEP on the plate, they ACTIVATE THE TRAP, THEN BOOM- GET A SPRAY OF THIS NASTY SHIT AND THEN THE FUCKIN' LAMP COMES SWINGING DOWN JAMMING RIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES! Either that or the throat... Actually, I need a plan B for a shortstack. "

You decide you'll mourn your furniture later.

" What about the pizza guy? "

" WHAT PIZZA GUY?! "

Babesley waves Moz away, continuing his earlier work above you. " Think about it this way, if it works, we won't have to pay for it. "

You want to go back to work.

[imaginespazzi]

Are you watching UCLA vs Maryland rn??

Also, give me your postgame thoughts from yesterday Nivi 😩 I wanna talk hoops LMAO

I did watch UCLA and Maryland and it looks like Maryland used my "playbook" as in I've been saying that for most teams, the way to beat UCLA might be to let Lauren Betts beat them while trying to contain everyone else and boy oh boy did Lauren Betts beat them. Like 33 pts? 14/15 shooting? LIKE SHE'S INSANE YOUR HONOR.

Oh boy Creighton thoughts...

Thank god for Sarah Strong

LIKE THANK GOD FOR SARAH STRONG

Also thank god for Paige Bueckers remembering who the fuck she is

Probably would've remembered earlier if she was GIVEN THE FUCKING BALL

Anyways in all honesty, I was sort of expecting a wonky performance last night because, it's been a hot sec since were on the road and it's been a hot minute since we've played anyone decent and Creighton is absolutely a decent team. Like do not let anyone fool y'all, that a tournament team that I think definitely has the potential to pull off an upset to get to the second weekend.

That's not to say I wasn't disappointed, especially at Geno fucking Auriemma who apparently watched us use his "slashed offensive playbook" and play the best we have all season and decided "hmm ackshually I don't think I will do this again" until that plan backfired and we had to wait till the 2nd half to go back to what works: PG PAIGE

Azzi had a terrible offensive night. I've seen a lot of discourse and ultimately it comes down to both the fact that she, herself was not doing enough AND of course the team also didn't do enough. She started off the game aggressive enough but then I think, partly due to fouls, partly due to her shots just not falling and also partly due to her teammates making some insane choices instead of passing to her, she pretty much stopped moving on offense and then ended up passing some shots (hand offs, maybe a middy or two) that she should take and in most instances probably would make.

But for what it's worth, I'm not worried about Azzi. I am getting a little worried about the team not doing enough though because we're at back-to-back games of her not having a single three-point attempt in the first half and that's simply not gonna fly.

KC had an abysmal shooting night. And quite frankly it's unacceptable because she was missing wide open things. The Creighton coach even said postgame that they were purposely letting her get those easy shots and her barely making any of them is not good. Coaches will look at this game and do the same thing and she needs to make them pay. Her not making those shots is also a part of why Azzi had such a hard time getting open because Creighton took the gamble to put a lot more attention on Azzi and their defense deserved credit for that because it definitely paid off and a part of that is on KC.

Which (I fear this is turning into a rant despite my use of bullet points) is why I don't think this KC-Paige-Azzi backcourt is tha answer. Forcing all three of them to play in a way that doesn't suit their respective playstyle is a recipe for disaster and we keep seeing it. A lot of these Paige and Azzi clashing takes on twitter stem from the fact that they're both forced to play SG sometimes and they move so similar on offense (which is what makes them lethal when they play as a PG-SG duo) that it ultimately limits one of them.

Jana....layups babe please. Listen I am a big proponent of Geno needs to be giving Jana more minutes but at the same time, if you're blowing fucking bunnies every game, there is only so much I can say. Then again, the answer to that, to increase her development is that she needs time on the floor.

Lowkey thought Ice gave some really nice minutes? More of that please?

KK brining the energey as per usual but babygirl HOW MANY MORE TIMES ARE WE GOING TO SEE THAT SAME DRIVING INTO THE PAINT MOVE AND THEN GETTING BLOCKED/STUCK MOVE? It doesn't work. You are not 6'+. PLEASE STOP. I do not need a Sania Feagin/Chloe Kitts blocking you highlight on the SC page of February 16th thank you.

Ash great hustle on rebounds and it's why she should be starting at the 3!

So if Aubrey not playing yesterday was her decision, then I'm more than okay with that. However, we only have 10 games left and if it was a Geno decision then I definitely do question. I'm very confused with how he's managing her minutes. Not the amount, but the fact that she's playing in garbage time and not with starters. If we wants her to be useful in March, she needs to be playing in lineups that will actually be used in March/April.

CAROLINE PRACTICING!! Love to see it. Refusing to get my hopes too high but I just love seeing her out there <3

[genericpuff]

The Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Hiatus - Part 1

So Lore Olympus' return is right around the corner, and I realize I've never actually talked about the S3 midseason finale. I think I said I was going to, but then I just sorta didn't, probably because I was still reeling in the absolute absurdity of it for weeks afterwards. In hindsight, I should have written about it back when it was still fresh, but I feel like I can do it just as much - if not more - justice writing about them in hindsight, now that they've had time to sit and I've seen what Rachel and WT are clearly planning to do after the comic ends (whether or not they succeed... that's a different story).

CAUTION: THIS IS PART 1 OF A 3 PART SERIES IN WHICH I WILL BE SPOILING MUCH OF EPISODES 251-253. THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE INVOLVING STRANGULATION. THIS WILL BE A LONG POST. BRACE YOURSELF.

So one of the things that really motivated me to finally talk about this was a conversation that happened recently in the ULO Discord - the realization that there are many readers who still don't know what happened after the free to read finale cliffhanger.

Y'know, the one where Hades gets possessed by Kronos and attempts to choke Persephone-

Now, awful dark jokes aside about how Persephone frankly deserves to have her balloon head popped, this was a wild cliffhanger to leave on for free readers, but the strange thing this time around - unlike with the previous midseason hiatus - is that this is where the cliffhanger has stood for free readers for the past 3 months, and it will be 4 months by the time the series returns.

And frankly... this just highlights a huge problem with LO's writing, because this cliffhanger? Like all the others, it's literally resolved within the next episode. The one that's currently under the FP lock.

Man, isn't it a little fucked up that we only ever get trigger warnings when it's concerning Persephone? Where was the warning for when Minthe got turned into a plant? Where was the warning for the entire episode that depicted Hera's trauma from Kronos and how it's still affecting her in the present? It's always either the Persephone, Hades, or Apollo focused episodes that get the trigger warnings, they couldn't care less about the violence being done onto other people in the story.

Anyways. Episode 251 opens up by reminding us, oh yeah, Kassandra exists!

Remember back in Episode 227 when Psyche stole Apollo's USB drive (and by "stole", I mean she picked it up off the ground where Apollo had conveniently dropped it?) And they found a folder with a picture of Kassandra? Well, Episode 251 opens by reminding us of her... 24 episodes later. SEVEN MONTHS OF REAL LIFE TIME, LITERALLY THE LENGTH OF BOTH THE SEASON 2 AND SEASON 3 MIDSEASON HIATUSES COMBINED-

Anyways, I guess Rachel finally figured out what she was gonna do with Kassandra after all that time, and it's... really stupid.

But wait, don't worry about that yet, because only the comic's opening reminds us of Kassandra, we gotta establish the title first and get back to that cliffhanger from before, the one that free to read users have been waiting 4 months to see.

(pay attention to the episode titles here btw, it's probably one of Rachel's lamest 3 parter title sequences yet)

Turns out Kronos is still intent on getting his hands on Hera, even though we've literally already seen Kronos haunting Hera. Is he just a ghost? A hallucination of her traumatized mind? We don't know, it never really explains itself. So Kronos is still looking for Hera.

(kinda weird that we're getting all these redrawn fullbody angles of Hades-possessed-by-Kronos choking his noodle-bodied wife who is doing literally NOTHING to actually fight back besides yelling at him, but okay.)

Turns out Hades isn't really hyped about this choking game going on between his dad and his niece wife, so he goes full on "release the beast" Naruto mode on his ass.

And that's it. That's literally the conflict resolved. The cliffhanger that free to read users were left with over the 4 month hiatus is resolved literally within a handful of panels and Hades just "believing enough" to save his wife.

And then that's just it, it cuts away, and we get this sorta awkward conversation between Persephone and Hades (now himself again) over the fact that he just choked out his wife.

The scene transitions to Hades waking up in his bed (literally that last shot of him and Persephone was it, it transitions immediately). I'm trying not to use up Tumblr's 30 image posting limit so I'm not posting the 3 fucking copy pasted panels of this that just involves Hades waking up, use your imagination lmao

There's literally no actual conversation here, no amount of Hades asking "what happened", somehow despite his possessed state he remembers everything so succinctly that he jumps right to demanding Persephone to see her neck.

(literally removed the panel of Persephone saying "Hades..." because these types of "let me do the thing" "Hades :(((" "let me do the thing" exchanges are literally just Rachel trying to hit her panel limit, once you start seeing these '3 panel' exchanges that copy paste the same shit over and over again, you can't unsee them and you realize this is why so little happens in the comic as a whole, because it's just constant repetition of dialogue and reaction panels to pad out the episodes).

And then we get what I like to call "guy in a position of power manipulating his more vulnerable partner into pitying him without actually apologizing":

No for real, I didn't cut out a single thing from this exchange aside from a couple copy pasted reaction panels, this is the entire conversation. Hades doesn't apologize, he doesn't ask Persephone if she's okay, he just pulls the "you can leave if you want toooo :(((" baiting Persephone into further trapping herself with this jackass. SHE'S the one who's stuck with HIM.

Like, obviously Hades wasn't the one who choked her, that goes to Kronos, but he doesn't even ask her if she's okay. He just looks at her moldy ass bruises and immediately goes "YOU CAN LEAVE IF YOU WANT TO I'M A MONSTER OH GOD-" and then of course she's having to comfort him which is fine but where's the balance? It's always Persephone having to comfort him and listen to his trauma and we never get Hades doing the same for her - the times we do get Persephone talking about her trauma and struggles with him, he always finds a way to make it about him.

Hades proceeds to talk more about his childhood and more of the shit he's already talked about multiple times before, I don't even need to go over it at this point.

That said, Rachel does remember to bring his stutter back. When's the last time he stuttered? 200 episodes ago ?? (literally I don't remember, it's like when he used to twist his napkins, he doesn't have these character traits consistently anymore).

THERE we go, finally some semblance of an apology. It came after more trauma dumping, but at least it's something-

Oh for fuck's sakes.

This is literally such generic "you've come so far!" motivational jargon. And it's made even worse in LO because what has Hades overcome exactly? Just a reminder, here are the things we've seen in Hades' backstory since he was rescued by his brothers:

He started a business in the Underworld that he's been operating with slave labor and profiting off ever since as a tyrannical oligarch

He entered a multi-century-long affair with his brother's wife, his own sister in law

He cost Demeter - Persephone's own mother - the role of Queen of the Mortal Realm and Persephone still does not know this.

He abused and neglected his adopted son - who was literally abandoned on his doorstep - for hundreds of years and used his role as his adopted father to guilt trip his son for getting "special treatment".

He never took responsibility for the financially dependent relationship he created between himself and a lower class nymph and tried to bribe her out of his life as soon as he fell for a 19 year old intern

HE LITERALLY FELL FOR THE 19 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER OF A WOMAN WHO HE HAD SCREWED OVER AND PRETENDED LIKE THAT WOMAN WAS IN THE WRONG FOR NOT APPROACHING HIM DURING THE EVENTS OF THE ACT OF WRATH, AND THEN HE HAD THE GALL TO PROPOSE TO HER DAUGHTER RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER WHEN SHE BASICALLY HAD NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO SAY YES.

Everything he's legitimately had to overcome involving his trauma has gone completely ignored until pop in comes the pink cinnamon roll girl to solve all his problems and do for him what apparently even a therapist couldn't do (because haha he thinks his therapist is a hack.)

Persephone saying "look at all you've done" should be a reminder of all the crimes Hades has committed against people weaker than him, but instead it's used as a term of endearment, because Persephone literally got with him when she was 19 years old. And apparently the whole "eternally 19" thing applies to more than just her body, because even now, 10 years later, she's still lacking all the smarts and self-awareness and maturity to realize marrying this man was a mistake.

At this point Persephone isn't too naive or stupid to realize what she's gotten herself into, she's just a terrible person who's entirely complacent in Hades' bullshit and frankly, they deserve each other.

They literally keep talking about him for several more panels. Hades literally whines on and on about how much of a failure he is, how he feels like he failed the child who's trapped in Tartarus, and then of course Persephone tells him "no honey, you're the most important being in this process!" and she's LITERALLY STILL JUST TALKING ABOUT HIM, THIS WHOLE EPISODE IS PERSEPHONE TALKING ABOUT HOW WONDERFUL HADES IS, NOTHING ELSE HAPPENS. HAVE YOU NOTICED WE HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN KASSANDRA YET ?? HAVE YOU NOTICED THE COLD OPEN FOR THE EPISODE HASN'T BECOME RELEVANT YET ?? I'VE ALREADY HIT THE 30 IMAGE LIMIT AND I HAVE TO START CUTTING STUFF OUT-

Persephone and Hades talk about how they should name the interloper, but they don't come up with anything before transitioning to Leuce and Thetis.

And y'all, this has gotta be one of Rachel's worst cases of backpedaling in the entire series. You thought how she turned Leuce - Hades' first wife - into a homewrecker was bad? You thought it was absurd the plot tried to turn Leuce into Minthe 2.0?

Remember those text messages that Leuce and Hades sent between each other? The ones we never saw but kept getting alluded to? Well of course we couldn't have Hades actually text Leuce during Persephone's banishment, because then that would mean he isn't 100% loyal to his little pink cinnamon roll "qween", so what was the next best thing? Kronos possessing Hades and texting Leuce like so many people - even fans - assumed? No. It's worse.

The text messages... weren't real.

This literally makes no sense. First of all, it's once again Rachel creating drama out of "haha woman delusional!" much like she did with Minthe. But second, it literally doesn't make sense after what we've seen leading up to this.

Leuce didn't just talk about Hades texting her. She went to his office, intent on seducing him, with the knowledge of these text messages being real. She even TALKS ABOUT THESE MESSAGES WITH HADES.

But of course, they were interrupted before Hades got a chance to respond, so this was convenient enough for Rachel to try and pull off some 'twist' where she could easily absolve Hades of "cheating" on Persephone (again, the girl he only knew for like 1-2 months) but also not have to deal with the weird logic of Kronos possessing Hades just to text some random nymph.

This is absolutely one of the most absurd retcons Rachel has ever tried to pull to get herself out of the corners she writes herself into.

Now the episode is still going and FINALLY, it gets to Kassandra, after teasing her at the beginning of the episode and proceeding to do a whole lot of nothing throughout the entire thing.

This has to be one of the funniest panels in the entire comic, bar none. Rachel's gotten worse at drawing men despite making this comic for 5 years and having plenty of opportunity to improve, and he literally just looks like the fucking Amazing Bulk, haunting this poor mortal woman with his very presence.

So yeah, it turns out that the "curse" Kassandra suffers from in this "retelling" is, rather than having prophecies no one believes (or at least, if she does, we don't see that), she sees Apollo and no one believes her. Again, Rachel takes these weird liberties with the original myths that don't make a whole lot of sense all for the sake of seeming original, but whatever, Rachel hit her panel limit for the week, because that's essentially where the episode ends, with Apollo greeting Kassandra. As quickly as it was shown at the beginning of the episode, the one part of the episode actually featuring Kassandra is wrapped up in literally 7 panels.

THOUGHT VOMIT TIME

So with Episode 251 now summarized and out of the way, I really wanna talk about how this episode operates as the first FP episode after the midseason finale for free readers.

Despite the fact that it was a 4 month break and despite the fact that WT has always still released these episodes for free on schedule - with the idea that every reader will be up to date with the current content and can start fresh with a new set of FP episodes when it returns - this time around Episodes 251-253 have remained locked.

And I say Webtoons specifically because as far as I know, the creators typically don't have control over this type of decision. From what I've heard from other Originals creators, it's often WT who decides shit like coin costs, FP release dates, etc. This is why during hiatuses the numbers on the episode unlocks never actually align with their real return dates, sometimes they completely undershoot and reset, sometimes they overshoot and tell people LO is coming back in January despite the fact it's been confirmed it's coming back in November. This isn't Rachel's doing. It's clearly Webtoons trying to squeeze as much money out of this series as they can so they think the 4 month hiatus will motivate people to pay... but even the newest episode is still only sitting at 17.9k likes, which is just slightly above the average amount the FP episodes normally wind up sitting at by the time they're unlocked after 3 weeks, but this has been after four months. The hiatus of the comic and its communities absolutely put LO out of sight, out of mind.

That said, I don't know what this means for the series' return, if it'll have 6 FP episode unlocks going forward or if it'll just return with one new FP episode and Episode 251 unlocking for free readers, but holy shit, if that's the case, this is gonna be a shitty way to return from 4 months of nothing. The cliffhanger from 250 implies so much more than what it ends up being and it's, again, highlighting a fundamental issue within LO - it operates purely on a week to week basis, producing episodes on the fly, and concerning itself more with filling up its panel quota so that it can get readers from beginning to end when they can drop some new cliffhanger that likely won't lead to anything or will be completely resolved within three swipes of the next episode. Season 3 has been especially egregious with this and it's clear Rachel has run out of track to run on.

There is speculation that perhaps the reason the timing of this cliffhanger is so off is because Rachel didn't know the hiatus was going to happen and WT forced her on it. That said, it's not something anyone can really confirm besides Rachel. I wouldn't blame her for taking the time she did considering she was attending both NYCC and SDCC this past summer, and it's hard enough for her to keep up with any sort of buffer to begin with, so those conventions would have definitely resulted in episodes getting postponed anyways.

What I'm really interested in seeing is the reception when the comic returns. Hiatuses like this are brutal for traffic, it's incredibly difficult to get every single person who you started the hiatus with to return after it's done. It's not uncommon for comics to come back to only a fraction of their readerbase - and that's where the marketing comes in.

S3's return has been incredibly undermarketed. I've talked about it already but I'll mention it again here - they have done nothing to hype up LO's remaining audience for the ending of LO. Not only has the fact that the comic is even entering its final part been mentioned on either Rachel's or WT's social media pages, but the fan groups have been shut down for almost the entirety of this hiatus, shutting fans away from discussing the comic, making predictions, and just participating in their most active and direct part of the fandom. This was an absolutely absurd decision on Rachel's part, I don't know if this was her trying to shield herself from criticism or if she genuinely just doesn't give a shit about her fanbase anymore, but it's not a good thing if the only active groups to be found online during a comic's hiatus - it's final hiatus before the series ends - are the critical ones. Fans of the comic should not have to find out about its ending from me. I know I've got a way with words, but it's not fair to the long-term fans of this comic that they're being shut out by the comic's own creator, simply because she either doesn't care or is just so afraid of the critics that she'd rather hurt her relationship with her fanbase by shutting them out just to maybe shut out any critics who are nearby.

I don't know what the reasoning is and I don't know how it could have been beneficial. But that leads us to the other theory, one that I can see as plausible-

I don't think Lore Olympus was supposed to end here.

We've talked about this theory before, but to reiterate - it's been speculated for a while (prior to the news at NYCC that the comic would be ending) that S3 of LO wasn't going to be the final season as so many people had been assuming based on past info. There was no indication or marketing implying this was the final season - meanwhile webtoons like City of Blank were marketing their final seasons from day 1 of the premiere - and there were loads of new plot threads being established in S3 that we knew couldn't possibly be wrapped up by the end of the season. Case in point, it took Rachel seven months to get back to Kassandra, and while during that time she's rushed plotlines that shouldn't have been rushed (the wedding) other plotlines have proceeded to drag at a snail's pace or been dropped altogether. The speculation that S3 wasn't going to be the final season was plausible.

But now, suddenly, LO is coming to an end, likely within the next 20-30 episodes, and neither Rachel or Webtoons have said a word about it. No announcement post, no hype, no promotional art, no statement from the Webtoons VP of what to be excited for (which he's done before). It seems like they're either intentionally trying to bury it to keep people from panicking while Rachel retreats into the shadows to hide from the crimes she's committed, or they're intentionally keeping the ending of the comic unannounced so they can backpedal on it later to generate hype over it "deciding to stick around". Chances are, it'll be based on how the return of the series goes, and whether or not it's able to get the performance numbers back in the green.

I do not think it will. As I said already, hiatuses are already notorious for destroying built up traffic, especially on Webtoons where people (many of whom are teenagers and children) are conditioned to expect regular content on a schedule. But there's one other thing that's been bugging me - there hasn't been a shred of promotional art. We're currently less than a month away from the return of LO and not only are Rachel and WT being incredibly hush hush about it, but all the art Rachel has put out has been largely on her Blue Sky, where she has the smallest following, and none of it is exactly indicative of being "promotional art", rather just random sketches and doodles that she's doing on her downtime. Everything else has been promos for her books, SDCC/NYCC, of course, Rachel Smythe Presents, her next venture which she has been hyping up more than the actual return or ending of the comic that made her famous in the first place.

At this point, I'm not even fully convinced she's even started working on the next episode yet, let alone any sort of buffer. If anything, she knows that she's coming back to the series with 3 episodes still locked under FastPass, so all she'll need to technically have ready for launch is one new episode. Rachel has never been good at building buffers, not even in the beginning when she apparently started off with 2-3 episodes of buffer. Even when her comic is nearing its end, she's not learning any lessons, she's not setting herself up for success. And I'm not setting myself up for the hope that the series could possibly come back any better than it was when it left - if anything, I think we're about to see Rachel and the comic outdo itself once again on how bad it can possibly be.

And we still have two more episodes to talk about, which includes the cliffhanger for FP readers that we've been waiting four months on. Part 2 and 3 of these FP episode analyses will be going up as soon as I can get them done, ideally I'll have all three parts done before it returns so we can start off fresh with the newest episode.

Buckle up folks. Pour yourself a drink. We're gonna need it.

[the-fibre-stuff]

Hey beginner knitters:

I know I got a little flippant, but I wasn't thinking about implications, and I want you to know that I, and most people here on knitblr, are more than happy to help if you're having trouble with anything. There are, of course, limitations to how much help we can be in this medium, but frankly, that's often the limit to how much help you can get.

However, if you are looking for people to point out potential mistakes and areas of improvement when you post something, do make sure to indicate that. Just like with any other work that you post online, we're not going to say something unless we're 100% sure it's a mistake, and even then we'll think at least twice, because that's not what we're here for.

Speaking as someone who used to twist their purl stitches, saw that they looked different (I checked the ribs of my k2p2 rib and noticed that they looked different on the inside and the outside) and fixed the problem several projects in, you're much better off learning to get comfortable with needles and yarn and then trying to figure out how you're making your stitches. (And like @buttercupyarnart says, there's no need to knit your stitches untwisted, as long as you're comfortable with the fabric you make.)

Same for how you hold your needles and your yarn. I was taught to hold my needles with my hands underneath, in that pose that people always complain is drawn by people who aren't familiar with knitting, because no one knits like that. I learned a year or two in that that style of holding needles wasn't very popular anymore because it's more awkward, and taught myself to hold my hands on top. Much easier than learning to knit was, so there was no harm in learning that in two steps, because it's not as if I had to re-learn from scratch instead. (I wonder if this is why I have such a weird way of holding my yarn? It's part of why I generally don't teach, even if I'm doing a proper class and not a huge group of kids, how to hold the yarn. I demonstrate and explain that this is my way, there's lots of ways, and let the people who keep going figure out their own way to hold the yarn).

And even if you DO have a knitting teacher in the room with you, who can give you actual practical advice (and you're paying them, so they're going to correct you while you're there, even if it's not an ideal time to learn it), take what they say with a grain of salt. I ran across someone - and they were willing to tell this story themselves, it wasn't someone complaining about an awful teacher they'd had - who saw a student propping one knitting needle in their lap, kind of an awkwardly placed knitting sheath or knitting belt and scolded them, saying that they can't do that, they need to knit properly. I had student do this once, so I can tell you that it's a good way to knit, just kind of weird. I made sure that she knew that she should keep that style up, because it was efficient, and I showed her what I was doing, and as she was able to translate it to her knitting, it was all good.

[youcouldmakealife]

are there any unexpected challenges when moving between two such tonally different works as sait and cott at the same time?

Interestingly, it's sort of the opposite! I've learned that having a tonally serious series at the same time as a more lighthearted one is great because I can work on either depending on my mood and what headspace I'm willing and able to enter at the time.

The stories of the week and the month also help for that -- they're much easier to pop in and out of versus the series, which tend to involve longer writing sessions and a lot more 'editing as I go' than the stories of the week, which are done in short sessions or sometimes, if it's clicking well, in big chunks or even all at once (the dream).

But having two series that are so different kind of counters my excuses? 'Oh I'm not in a Holden headspace today, he's too up tempo and frenetic' can be countered, quite easily, with 'may I interest you in the saddest man in the world, then?'. It's actually nice with alternating POVs too, because, barring my not knowing what comes in the next part, the answer could also be 'how about some James, then?'.

So depending on how my writing's going, I could have just one upcoming part in the works or like, bits and pieces of five (especially toward the beginning or end of series; I probably have snippets from 5 or 6 upcoming parts of SAIT right now, because we've reached the final 15% or so), all because whatever my brain wants to write, that's what we're writing.

The result of that is that I'm now pretty consistently productive, when, if I force myself to focus on one thing, that could either go well, or it could mean I get fuck all done. (mostly the latter)

I've had some pretty major breakthroughs since I started doing this professionally, since 'don't feel like it' is all well and fine for your hobbies, which should be providing you joy, but not so much when it comes time to pay the bills. Part of it is treating it as work (not the 'ugh, work' part, though sometimes, unfortunately, that's true, even if it's your passion, but the 'I don't feel like doing <insert task>, but I've got to do it anyway to because it's my job' part of work.)

One of the biggest breakthroughs was ignoring 90% of writing advice (and productivity advice, and frankly, general advice) as not applicable to me, rather than thinking I'm a failure at following said advice (which so often is just people writing what works for them and acting like it's a universal tenet and not simply a process that works for them).

Knowing my brain is literally wired differently has been really helpful in accepting that, not blaming myself for it, and going to find the things that do work for me. And I've found a bunch! That I will get into later because I...have turned this into productive procrastination (one of my most commonly used strategies) and I should be writing at the moment.

But later! I'll post some things that work for me, and may or may not work for you, who knows, none of this is cut and dry, we're all making it up as we go, even (especially) the people who claim otherwise.

[wheelsnipecelebrini]

v interested by the media stuff surrounding bedard and celebrini this week. people are reeeeally mad about it!

i think biz's intermission analysis was fine and it's weird people took it so personally. the rant pk and messier went on like a week prior to that was actually what i found pretty stupid (and also pretty incoherent). connor's answer after the fact of, "yeah i'm playing the games...the broadcast isn't really my business" is kind of. like that's where it is, that's the healthy response. and tbh biz's analysis was p spot-on. not to wade into discourse more than i already am, but it's been particularly fascinating to me to see people rise up against biz in defense of bedard when some of those people are also very "i would never pay attention to a chicago hockey happening, due to [valid reasons]." idk man i personally feel you gotta pick one. if the chicago hockey team is one you'd prefer to ignore and eschew then probably taking personal affront to a dude doing his job breaking down a chicago hockey player's performance is maybe not your lane. he ain't abusing the kid, he's treating him like a pro, which he is. final note on that is that it's wild to see people try to use biz's career as proof he has no right to criticize bedard's play. he's an analyst and frankly a pretty decent one imho and the classique dynamic of guys being better at coaching/analyzing than they were at playing is classique for a reason. (teddy baseball's version of coaching was to just snarl, "it's not that fuckin hard" which is, i think we can all agree, a good bit less insightful than biz's typical tnt contributions.) you learn a lot by having to work really hard since your natural gifts won't cut the mustard. im gonna assume biz knows a skosh more than me personally.

and as far as the outrage aimed at sheng daring to request media with macklin...also wild to me. it's a request, and one that the team and player were able to turn down should they have wanted. obviously we're not, like, there, god alone knows how free celebrini actually felt or was, but i'm uh pretty weirded out by the infantilization that's going on here. answering questions after a loss is, for better or worse, actually just part of the job. you kind of can't be a mega-touted player without getting the unpleasant part of the spotlight, too, and that's not really a surprise to any player, and it shouldn't really be a surprise to fans, either.

i feel pretty similarly about the two situations, because both hinge pretty heavily on the player's age, which frankly should be a consideration but really should not be solely determinative. i don't think macklin should be out there after every single loss and i don't think every nationally broadcast intermission report should be devoted to ripping connor's play apart. but this is actually part of the gig. the gig fucking sucks in a lot of ways. unfortunately we are not able to get free-range ethically-sourced sustainable elite athletics. it's not really an option. probably we shouldn't have a world or a system where kids are functionally professionals from the time they're eight years old, but it's a little fork found in kitchen situation when we're being like now why is this eighteen year old phenom co-leading the team in points and holding down the highest average toi of all rostered forwards being asked to talk about why his team lost. like. well. i think we know why. again, it shouldn't be solely or even primarily determinative but i think it's worth recognizing that these guys don't really see themselves as victims, and the concern about the sharks and blackhawks pressuring their prized sacrificial lambs to grow up too quickly is like: that's very specifically the job, and i don't really think a line has been crossed in either situation.

none of this is any kind of argument against saying, "gdamn it's weird that we are patting this kid on the head for speedrunning grizzled maturity in the uncompromising panopticon of sports media" or anything like that, but "he should be in school" was true in both the funny "get REKT by a BABY" way and the "you should probably not be in this particular milieu, for the sake of all of your kinds of health, all things considered" way.

anyway i think it's both normal and good to be protective of your lil guys, one of the purest distillations of why sports are fun, and to be critical about what the sports industrial complex does to lil guys, yours and otherwise, but i also think that of the many basic dignities that by rights should be addressed, these particular events are, like, perfectly fine.

[hopelesslyromanticgay]

Lemonade — Vada Cavell

When I was seven years old, my friend , Vada and I started a lemonade stand.  Ever since then, she and I have been inseparable.

It was a hot summer week, and quite frankly, we had nothing to do. Her mom had just gotten back from the store and asked us to unpack the groceries. Neither of us wanted to, but like I said earlier, we had nothing else to do.

"Oh my goddd the weather is killing me!" I complained, putting the milk carton in the fridge. She nodded in agreement.

"Look!" she squealed, "lemons!" She takes out a huge bag of lemons.

"That's a lot of lemons, V," I laughed.

"Buy tuh-woo, get three free," she desperately tried to read the label.

"You mean buy two get three free?" I tried to raise an eyebrow.

"Whatever," she rolled her eyes, "we should make lemonade!"

I got out her mom's fancy pitcher and a knife, and miraculously didn't get cut while slicing the lemons. Less miraculously, the juicing of the lemons on multiple occasions stung our eyes.

"Okay, we gotta add lots of sugar," Vada told me, tasting the pure lemon juice. Her face puckered up in a way that even then I knew was not good.

"I love sugar!" I smiled, pouring an unhealthy portion of sugar in.

By the end of the afternoon, we made one dollar an seventeen cents with our one sale to the boy, Nick, down the street. 

"We should go buy candy!" Vada's eyes lit up.

"Ooh! M&M's! And jolly ranchers! And gummies!"

That was also the day we learned that there's not much you can but for $1.17.

It was a devastating day.

Twelve years later...

"Hi Vada," I exclaim, running up to the shorter brunette, giving her an obligatory head pat before enveloping her in a hug.

"Hi!" she smiles widely. I love her smile so much.

"What do you wanna do today?" I ask.

"What's there to do?" she replies. We end up lying down on her trampoline for at least an hour, scrolling through TikTok's together.

"What is it with the Lana Del Rey, will you serve me Lemonade trend?" Vada says, confused.

"No idea," I confess, "but it's fun to see celebrity glow ups showcased by it."

"No, totally," she laughs, "You've totally gotten a glow up."

"No, you're literally hotter than the sun, shut up Vada!" Vada's definitely the prettiest girl I know. Everything about her is so flawlessly beautiful. She could literally wear the silliest most random outfit she found at the bottom of her closet and pull it off perfectly.

"You shut up!" 

We sit in silence for a moment, then an idea pops into my head.

"Let's make lemonade!" I decide. Vada shoots up excitedly, "yes please! Anything other than TikTok's!"

"I agree."

We set off to work, making (much better) lemonade than we made last time.

"Okay, first of all, your mom has a lemon juicing thingy now, which feels over the top fancy, but we should probably use it," I tell her.

"It's literally a thingy you put lemons on and twists them, that's not fancy!"

"Whatever, let's use it!"

We slice up the lemons and begin to juice them.

"Damn, if this is what giving handjobs to guys is like, I do not want to date guys. Honestly, not really into that even before this. Like honestly, they're not doing it for me," she rambles. Her rambles are the cutest thing. If you don't interrupt her, she can go one for hours about conspiracy theories, shows, books, songs. It's one of the many things I love about her.

"Vada, you're literally gay, you don't have to worry about handjobs."

"No you're literally gay!" she points a finger at me. I pretend to take offense, slapping a hand over my heart. Joking around with her is the highlight of any day.

"We're both gay, now work on the water to sugar to lemon ratio," I decide.

"Why are you turning lemonade into mathhhhh," she complains.

"Just work on it!" I exclaim.

"Anything for you, my dear," she winks at me.

We finally finish the lemonade after fifteen minutes of bickering. I'm excited to try it, honestly. I haven't had good lemonade in years.

"Will you give me some?" she asks, noticing I've poured myself a glass.

"Pay Up!" I laugh.

"Is $1.17 enough?" she asks innocently.

"Why, you got that much?"

"The exact same coins," she confesses. I blush at the fact that she's kept coins from twelve years ago that we earned selling lemonade this whole time. I've never seen her as the sentimental type

"Damn, I must have meant a lot to you," I tease her.

"Not as much as you mean to me now," she takes a step closer to me, booping my nose.

"Oh yeah," I say, "and how much is that?"

She smirks, taking the lemonade out of my hand and setting it down on the counter.

"Enough to do this," she cups my cheeks and stands on the tips of her toes to brush her soft lips against mine. I hate to sound like a stereotype, but I swear I can feel fireworks go off in my stomach. My arms wrap themselves around her waist before finding their way to her hips and gently pulling her closer. She tastes like lemons and sugar(unsurprisingly considering we're making lemonade). Such a perfect taste for such a hot day. I could get used to this. It's hard not to crave more and more.

It's funny that just a few nights ago we were making fun of couples on TV who were like this, and yet now we're completely totally a cliche.

"Sorry if I read that wrong," Vada apologizes after pulling away.

"You're not reading it wrong, don't worry," I reassure her, kissing her lips again.

[angie-words]

I sometimes forget there are genuinely people out there who believe God is literally intervening in their life

Storytime: I ended up giving some hitch-hiking Romanian pilgrims a lift on New Year's Day because that's just my life I guess

CW for religious condescension and internalised misogyny

I was driving to see my sister and she lives 5 minutes away by car. Literally a minute into the drive from our house, me and my partner see two women standing at the side of the road trying to wave people down

I pull over and my partner winds down the window to check if everything is OK. Turns out they're trying to get to a nearby monastery but it's New Year's Day: there aren't any buses running and there's no local train station even remotely close to it

I ask if they've tried calling a taxi and they say they were being asked to pay a huge amount of money (I mean, it is NY Day and it sounded reasonable to me, but I'm also British so I'm more than used to paying a stupid amount of money for transport and that being the norm)

Ubers weren't turning up and she said we were the first people to stop. I did point out it's before noon on New Year's Day and it's frankly amazing anyone else was about (I know this was a bit passive aggressive in hindsight, but I am English so what can you do)

I looked at my partner and said "look, it's 15 minutes away, not too far out the way, they're not going to get there without us" and he agreed we should help

They get in and this is when I find out they have travelled all the way from Romania to the UK, just to visit this monastery and attend a service

As we drove, one of the women starts telling us all about her faith and tries to ask about mine (which I dodge). We're just politely asking questions, as you do when faced with someone who's extremely enthusiastic about their religion and now in the back of your car for 15 minutes

Anyway, at some point, she says she's so glad that she prayed to the Virgin Mary and that she sent us to rescue them, insisting we must have God in our heart. I really wanted to say "oh boy, I cannot begin to tell you how much your girl Mary did not reach out to me!" but I just thought, this woman is going to be out of my car and my life in a few minutes and nothing I say will convince her otherwise: just nod

My partner, unable to read my mind or contain his own thoughts, says "Well, ah, I'm actually an atheist sooo 😅"

My expression at that moment, realising he has opened up a can of worms:

Of course, this did not deter her. She then proceeded to laugh and say "Oh I love atheists because they aren't really! They have God in their heart!"

She said my partner can't be an atheist because he is a good person because he stopped whereas no one else did and I thought: OK, I was the one who stopped, not him soooo

There was absolutely no way to argue against it because it was all "you did good thing! Anyone who does good has God in their heart! Therefore you must believe in God!" 🙃

I did say "I mean, you don't have to believe in God to be a good person", which she kind of ignored

So far, so predictable. She believed that because she prayed to the Virgin Mary, that's why I turned up like some kind of Holy Uber service. However, then she started talking about saints, including one who argued for women's right for education

Me: oh well that sounds lovely!

Her: yes, and she didn't argue like some modern women, all aggressive... She did it in a feminine way!

Me, wearing piercings and tattoos and looking decidedly not the kind of feminine trad religious women mean, while wearing my black hoodie that says "Future Ghost": 🙄

Aaaanyway we got them to the monastery and they were very polite and said thank you and then tried to get us to come inside even though we have been super clear at this point that we were on my way to see my sister's family

They offered us money and I said not to worry, it wasn't that far after all. They then asked for our names and said they were going to pray for us and that God loved us and I wanted to say "no no, that's OK!" but hey, whatever makes them happy

One of the things that made me laugh about the whole situation was when she said "oh, but you're clearly good people because no one else stopped! I think those other people were just good only in their manners, not their heart!" and I answered "I mean, that's basically most English people, tbf"

I later told my sister all about it, who said "I'm sorry, that was a nice thing you did, but that's so fucking funny", and "lucky it was you who picked them up and not some dangerous weirdos"

Just picked up by some regular kind weirdos instead, I guess

[courtneysmovieblog]

"Wicked" Is What We Need Right Now

Jon M. Chu, we misjudged you.

From the very minute you announced that Wicked would be split into two parts, our expectations for the long-awaited adaptation of one of Broadway's biggest musicals began to fall. Casting pop star Ariana Grande as Glinda and those dark promo pics didn't make us feel any better.

But when the first part of Wicked was released, it defied gravity and soared above our misgivings. Even though some people have already gotten sick of the excessive advertising, theater kids will be happy to know that it is worth the hype after all. Wicked is one of the best musical movies of this decade.

I love the stage show as it is. However, I can't help being impressed how the film goes more all-out with choreography than any production I remember seeing. It's fantastical campy, and the casts' talents to the fullest.

Each performance deserves its own post, but here's an overview:

Cynthia Erivo is perfection. She embodies every bit of Elphaba's dry sarcasm, sadness and hopes while singing phenomenally. She really needs that Oscar to complete her EGOT, and while she probably won't get it from this film, she should.

Ariana Grande turned out to be the best Glinda we could hope for, hitting every high note that is thrown at her. It also helps that she's hilariously bubble headed that makes the audience love her, despite her shallow mean-girl moments.

Jonathan Bailey -- I don't want Bridgerton, but now I get why everyone is swooning over him. His Fiyero is part rogue, part slut, with something deeper under the surface. Good chemistry with Granda and Erivo, and hopefully that will pay off more in part 2.

Michelle Yeoh, in all her brilliance, refines Madame Morrible as quietly icy yet seemingly benign mentor to Elphaba, and she looks fabulous while doing it.

Jeff Goldblum does a unique take on the Wizard. Instead of the pathetic huckster from all the other versions, he is more slick and charismatic, and thus makes a more believable villain than before.

Last but not least, thank God Peter Dinklage was cast as Doctor Dillamond. He gives the talking goat gravitas without turning him into a joke.

Wicked may not be for everyone. Some people will always hate musicals. Some of the original Wizard of Oz dismiss it as villain apologia for the Witch of the West, who was perfectly fine the way she was before.

Nevertheless, maybe the real reason why audiences have fallen under Wicked's spell is that it's the show we need right. Many of us are still hurting over the election. We're angry, upset, and quite frankly scared. A story about a woman being maligned by a powerful conman just because she sticks up for marginalized people...well, gosh, that's pretty relevant right now.

In another life, seeing Elphaba take her climatic flight over Oz would have been the cherry on the cake after the country elected a Black woman as president. In the present, it's a more bittersweet: Elphaba forced to flee Oz and Glinda too afraid and too consumed with her own ambition to openly support her.

So in hindsight, maybe splitting Wicked in half wasn't a bad idea after all. Maybe we needed it to end on that final note of Elphaba vowing to fight another day, despite the odds being stacked against her. If she can do it, then so can we.

That being said, it's going to be a long wait for Part 2.

10 out of 10

[techmomma]

Various things I have learned while working at this mitigation company:

different insurance providers are more or less willing to cover more things. some companies are real lenient and will give you a lot of leeway. some will absolutely not and will find every means possible to not pay. we tend to keep an unofficial list (at least among employees) of which ones we love to work with (aka which ones will approve and pay for the most and be easiest to deal with) and which ones we hate working with (they will usually reject the claim meaning NO mitigation work is done at all because you think most regular people can afford $20K mitigation out of pocket?). you can ask us which ones we like working with.

if the overhead sprinkler system is activated, then even if nothing burned, you will still need so much mitigation. modern sprinkler systems aren't just full of water, they have various fire-fighting chemicals in them that should not come into contact with people for extended periods. and definitely not food.

not every business is willing to pay for fire sprinkler mitigation. sometimes they just decide to paint over it! one of the local grocery stores decided to do that! remember what I said about exposing those chemicals to food?

mold can start growing from a water leak within like 48 hours. faster if it's a sewage leak. if you had a leak and you waited a week to call anyone, you need a mold inspection too.

we get screwed over by churches so, so much.

all houses must be tested for asbestos before any mitigation can begin. it used to be that we only really needed to test on houses built before about 1990, but as asbestos was used in building materials LONG after that, they've finally cracked down and now all houses needed to be tested. my coworkers aren't as happy about this as I am.

if the building was built before 1978 though then we have to test for asbestos AND lead! I think we should test them all for lead frankly but the law says 1978.

asbestos and lead usually have to be removed by special companies. we use subcontractors for that since we don't have the equipment ourselves.

subcontractors! your mitigation company usually can't do everything themselves, so they'll enlist the aid of another company. so for example, when we have to test for asbestos and lead, we use a subcontractor who has the equipment to analyze samples.

generally, if you can see damage, whatever is inside the wall is so, so much worse.

there is so so much mold in like every building

even with industrial cleaners and professional equipment, mold is so hard to actually get rid of permanently. if it's gotten into an organic material like wood or cloth, you can count that as pretty much permanently affected. they will almost always be unsalvageable.

this counts for say, the wood beams of your house. we can clean them down and spray mold killer and seal them, but it'll ever be a 100% guarantee, ESPECIALLY IF YOU LIVE IN A WETTER CLIMATE. LIKE, IDK, WASHINGTON.

houses on the water are so full of mold

if you have a sudden Emergency, please make sure you decide if you're going to use a mitigation before you actually call us. especially for emergencies where there's water like actively flooding your house. please, for the love of god, don't call us and say "we have an emergency and need help cleaning this up" and then call a short while later saying "well, actually, can we be put on hold, we're not sure if we'll go with mitigation yet...". our technicians are almost always working on a job, we don't have anyone just sitting around the office we can send at any time. and sometimes those jobs can be like an hour away from our office

that means the tech has to pack up their equipment on the site (meaning making sure the site is secured especially if it's going to rain), get back to the office (remember the hour drive from before), get the right equipment for your emergency, and head out there. if they've been pulled from their previous job site they had to drive an hour for, we're not going to fucking send them back.

meaning if you cancel, that's like half of our day wasted and now that other job is going to be behind, too, because they're minus an extra five hours that could have been spent doing the work for that job

please. please don't do your own mitigation work. oh my god.at the very least because sometimes insurance companies get super super picky about that and might reject your claim for it.

if you can see water damage on the other side of a wall, it means the water has gone through the drywall. the longer it's wet and uncared for--I'm talking like, 2 days or more--the more likely things will need to be removed and/or demolished. certainly after 2 days the insulation will almost certainly need to be removed and new insulation installed. this will cost money.

the older the building, the more likely anything in that building will fail at any given time. sure maybe the piping lasted 100 years but that's because it took 100 years to eat away the piping until it finally gave out on the 101st year

meaning the older the building, the more likely it becomes that you'll experience pipe bursts, leaks, electrical mishaps, sewage leaks, etc. etc.

when it comes to water mitigation, there's two kinds: cleanwater and blackwater. cleanwater is what comes out of your tap. blackwater is poopy sewage. blackwater is, without fail, a gazillion times more expensive because it will, as a requirement, involve some form of demolition. it should. that's a health hazard man. you don't know what (else) is in poopy sewage water.

if you can't have the water turned off to do any mitigation, then you HAVE to get a specialist before we can do any restoration. if the pipe is still leaking, then mitigation work will kind of be for nothing.

if you're planning on filing any claims, do that FIRST before you call anybody. the insurance company will have a list of people to call and will tell you how to go about things so that your claim is solid. filing online is fine but it's usually a good idea to have an actual name and contact information for an adjuster (the person who'll be looking at the damage and seeing what needs to be done)

don't fret. sometimes even things I thought would be totally unsalvageable were salvageable! they have lots of tips and tricks, and the technicians and their managers are usually happy to talk about their trade with you

a lot of these technicians really do care, even if they're mostly in it for the work. so many of these guys would do this because this kind of work is pure enrichment for them, but they got families to take care of. it gets genuinely frustrating sometimes to know what work needs to be done and wanting to do so, but the insurance company won't pay out, so nothing can be done.

if your insurance company is giving you the reach-around and you think they're fucking you over, there's something called the insurance commissioner. they're who you can report insurance company fuckery to and the commissioner is usually pretty on top of it. I've seen customers be fucked over for months by their insurance company call the commissioner, and within a few hours the insurance company ~*~magically~*~ has a fire lit under their ass and just so so happy to help you out.

you get what you pay for. whether construction, mitigation, whatever. you pay for cheap mitigation work, you will get cheap results.

something you really don't want cheap results for: mitigation work

things landlords are absolutely fucking notorious for: wanting cheap mitigation work. don't listen to any stupid schpiel they give you about caring or whatever work they said they put in. sure they did pay $10k for restoration work--because it was a job worth about $20k, and they went with the rock-bottom contractor who put a half-assed half day's work in that will fall apart in a few years

fuck landlords and property managers. but you already knew that if you follow me.

Lastly, if you have time to spare and want to make a technician's day, ask them what their worst or most fun job was. they are so happy to tell you.

they have so. many. stories.

[footballfanficwriter]

Fights turns into nightmares

Summary:where Jude and the reader get into a fight

"Why do you always pester me Jude"

"I'm not, I'm just asking questions"

"Why do you not trust me, I promise you it was nothing"

"It didn't look like nothing y/n he had his hands all over you"

"Yeah but I stopped him from touching me"

"You looked like you enjoyed it"

"If I enjoyed it I wouldn't have stopped him"

" it still happened though and I'm not happy about it"

"Did you think I was happy when I saw that girl's hands all over you huh?"

"That was nothing"

"Exactly, just like this event that took place it was nothing"

"But it's different"

"How is it different"

" because he could easily take advantage of you"

"Yeah but he didn't"

"But he could've"

"Jude, you're overeating"

"I'm not overreacting"

"For goodness sake Jude stop, what is the matter huh?, it seems like you've got a problem with everything I do nowadays, if it's not me cooking then it's the fact that I forgot to fold the laundry, if it's not that then it's me not spending time with you, what do you want from me?"

"I want you too do the things you're suppose to do"

"Oh yeah and what is that exactly"

"I bring most of the income in this family, I pay a huge amount of money to sustain our way of living"

"Really is that what we're doing now, comparing our salaries?"

"Mine is higher than yours, so yeah"

"Ok, the reason why I forgot to fold the laundry, cook and spend time with you is because, I've had a shit ton of work that needed to be done, I get pressured and stressed by my boss then I come back home to a person whose upset with me, it's not fair Jude"

"I get stressed as well, you know"

"That, that right there is why I can't approach you anymore and am scared to Express my feelings ,you always turn the conversation back to you and make it about yourself"

"All I said was that I get stressed as well, what am i not allowed to be stressed?"

"That's not what I'm say"

"Then what are you saying"

"I'm saying that when you feel stressed or when you feel down, I always comfort and make sure you feel better about yourself, but when the shoe is on the other foot, you can't do the same"

"How am I suppose to comfort you, if I don't know you need comforting"

"Well maybe if you asked me how I am, you'd know, everytime I try and tell you about my feelings, you always shut me down"

"WELL, QUIET FRANKLY I DON'T CARE, I'M TIRED OF YOU, YOU AND YOUR FEELINGS"

There's a silence between us and I look at him with a hurt expression and he looks at me with a shocked one

"Babe I-I didn't mean it, that's not what I meant to sa-" he tries to step closer to me and I pull back

" yeah but you still said it"

"Babe I didn't mea-"

"I think we should get some space from eachother for a while"

"Y/-"

"I'll sleep in the guest room"

I walked to our room and grabbed my pajamas and all the things I might need for a few days and went to the guest room

As I open the door to leave I find Jude standing there

"I'm sorry" he says

" ok" I say and walk past him

"Does that mean you forgive me?" He asks as I walk away and slam the door

I go to the guest bedroom where I do my night routine

After doing that I make the bed so I can sleep and get comfortable

I get into the bed and try to fall asleep, but recent events keep replaying in my head, preventing me from sleeping

After a while I find myself unintentionally crying not knowing where the tears have come from all of a sudden

It's been 2 hours since I got into bed 30 minutes later I hear Jude screaming from the other room

I quickly get out out of the room and race to see what's happening in the room

When I enter I see Jude sweeting and him tossing and turning and mumbling words

.

I'm frozen for a second but quickly snap back to reality and attempt to wake him up

"Jude"

"Jude wake up"

"Jude come on"

After not being able to wake him up I make him sit up and shake his body, all that seems to do the trick because he wakes up with sweat on his forehead , wide red eyes and heavy breathing and panting, just like a dog would

"Y/n you're here?"

"Yeah I'm here, where would I be"

"I-I thought I had lost you, it was so real it all felt so real"

"Well it's not ok it wasn't real"

A-Are you crying" he says noticing my red eyes

"N-No, I'm not crying"

"Y/n stop, you don't have to pretend that you're not hurting" he says

"Jude, I'm perfectly fine"

"No, you're not, I've hurt you so much in our relationship,that you don't even feel comfortable coming to talk to me about your feelings, I'm so sorry I truly am, and I didn't mean what I said, when i said I don't care about your feelings"

"It's ok"

"I'll do better, for you, it's the least I can do considering everything you do for me"

"Are you ok?" I ask

"Yeah I'll be fine, I guess it was just a nightmare"

"About what?"

"I dreamt that we had an argument, that ended up with you dead because- because I had killed you, I just I don't want to be a monster, I don't want to you to end up being afraid of me"

"I'm not afraid of you Jude, I just want you to be there for me the way I'm there for you, I know you're stressed with everything that's going on right now, but I feel like you're neglecting me or that you don't want me anymore"

"Ofcourse I want to be with you babe, i just never thought you needed all of the attention, you seemed to be doing just fine with everything happening in our lived, I just didn't think you'd want my attention and affection"

"I do Jude, I really do"

"And I'll give it too you"

"Thank you"

I get of the bed and start walking towards the door

"Y/n"

"Yeah?"

"Please stay, babe, please stay with me"

"Ok I'll stay with you"

I walk to the bed and get into bed and snuggle up to him and he puts an arm around me and kisses my forehead

"Goodnight Babe"

"Night Jude"